They were used in the lord of the rings for a battle scene and aaron and i spent two whole days pic-nicking and running through all the tunnels and bridges, climbing the deformed rock faces and really just acting like children in some weird mix of alice in wonderland and some crazy Dr. Seuss book. even the trees were long and slender with large tufts at the top!We arrived in Australia on the 21st of jan. our flight left early in the morning so we were in the airport just in time to watch the live 6am broadcast of Obama's inauguration before boarding. Heather and her sister Kate picked us up from the airport and took us to a great "breaky" cafe for the best eggs Benedict!
That afternoon heather took us into town to explore and get a feel for the transport and the lay out of the city. its one of those cities that is so full of stuff that it feels huge but in fact is all walking distance.
Federation square is the main attraction a fairly new complex in the middle of down town. They have this greenhouse exhibit there right now which is a cafe made of entirely recyclable and renewable materials. the walls and roof are gardens to keep the heat out and to grow some of the food they serve inside. everything is served on recycled wood plates, or in old jars or beer bottles with the tops cut off and rounded. the seats were made of old crates and some out of street signs, the light fixtures were chicken wire and the insulation was hay bails. Really cool place.
Outside in the actual square there was a big screen airing all the Australian open tennis matches for those of us too poor or unlucky to get tickets.
Heather scheduled surfing lessons for all of us and we went to this beautiful beach, point addis, in Torquay. We surfed on huge foam boards but all four of us got up and kates boyfriend jay even got in the water to push us along and snicker at our wicked falls (he is a good surfer).
we had fish and chips for dinner - yum and then headed home to be exhausted the rest of the day.
A few days later after we had recovered we went on a wine tour. This was also the first of four days or so of 40 degree Celsius whether- say 104 F. The wine was great and our tour guide crazy! we had this great older British couple with us as well as a Taiwanese family of four that fell asleep at the lunch table after poking heathers food with their hands. They were so drunk after two tastings that they started walking behind the counters and stealing crackers and cheese! awesome entertainment.
At the end of the day Jay's sister Kim picked us up from innocent bystander winery and took us back to her place near by. we weren't there long before word got to us that Kate's cat died, and on top of being her support system Kim is also a vet and was able to take the Ruby to giver her a proper burial in the hills.
The next day could have been nothing but a beach day. we spent it at St. Kilda beach with the hundreds of other people that had the same idea.
The water was awesome and we couldnt be out of it for more than fifteen minutes without scorching from the 45 degree sun. we were so dehydrated after our bike ride home that we laid around the rest of the day.sometime around then was Australia day, not independence as they are not independent but an equally celebrated excuse for everyone to go out and get drunk all day with crazy flag painted faces and clothes etc. we celebrated by visiting a market downtown before drinking beer and dancing to a local band in this awesome Belgian beer garden. They had typical beer garden food and of course water dipped glasses and even pour your own beer just like you would expect from a European counterpart - only you'll pay the AU price of $7-12 a beer. oh well.
A few day into the trip we found ourselves at an engagement party for one of heathers work colleagues. it was beautiful and they had hand sewn pillows for all the guest to sit on in the sunken gardens of a park while eating delightfull aussie b-b-q and dips etc.
between the engagement party and the Laneway music festival the next day we had quite the introduction to aussie culture. The Laneway festival was one where streets were shut down in the middle of downtown Melbourne and stages were erected at the end for thousands of artsy and indie twenty-somethings to rock their hearts out while showing off their indie culture.
The shows were good - Architecture in Helsinki stealing the show of course - and the resulting dance parties were epic. the coolest thing for me though were the few bars we went to beforehand. There is this one particular building with several stories that has a bar/cafe called cookie on the first floor, an artsy awesome specialty bookstore and several indie cloths shops on the fourth and a rooftop bar that becomes a cinema on select summer nights on the roof. So cool.
Beyond those main events we spent most of our trip wondering around chapel street - the fashion capitol of the southern hemisphere, also where heather works - and the main city in Melbourne. The city has been wonderful and we have taken in everything from china town, indie/artsy parts of town and art galleries as much as possible. After visiting i have no doubt why heather wanted to move here.
tonight we head back to NZ getting in around eleven in the evening and hoping we find somewhere better than our car to sleep for the night.
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