Week 3, Ballarat

Last week i was working in an area of bush next to one of the old victoria gold rush towns, Ballarat. We were doing track work along the Great Dividing Trail. This is a 280km public bush walk trail that links the old gold rush towns at the heart of Victoria. This winter in Australia has been the wettest in about 12 year and had cause alot of flooding in the area that has damaged large areas of the trail. We were putting in new guide posts along the track and building new foot bridges where they were needed. The work was very hard this week as we had to carry alot of timber up to 2km into the bush where the 4x4 couldn't go. As well as all the carrying the lowest temperature that week was 27 degrees and got up to about 33 degrees, which made it even more tiring. Building the bridges involved digging foundations, cutting the timber, putting hand rails up where needed and constructing the actual bridge.

We saw a fair amount of wildlife that week, including Kangaroos, Wallabies, Lizards and a Brown snake (apparently they are quite venomous). One of the Kangaroos we saw was crossing one of the bridges we had made, its good to know our hard work was not in vain!



I spent the weekend in Melbourne with friends from college. They've got a house sorted, we'd planned to have a bbq and see some of the sights in Melbourne but it threw it down all weekend so all we managed to do was go to the christmas parade and a few pubs!
I also ate a kangaroo steak and some Kangaroo sausages the other day, i'd recomend the steak, it was beatiful.

Australia Week 2, Bendigo

Last weekend i went back to Melbourne to see a few friends from college. I picked a bad weekend though because it chucked it down the entire weekend. We just spent the night catching up and drinking goon (wine in a box), it was good to see people from home.

This week we were working about and hour out of Bendigo in the Macedon regional park, this is a 2,379 hectare park of protected forest lands. The work we were doing there was track repaire and maintinence on Mount Macedon. Most of the work consisted of clearing the tracks of falled trees and making tracks through the bush more visable, but on wednesday we constructed a track through an area of forest land that had been closed to the public for 15 year. I was dissapointed this week because we didn't see any Kangaroos or Koalas, only their poo, but we did almost run over a wallabie this morning and we think we saw an eagle. I've been assured that i will see some kangaroos next week, so i'm keeping my hopes up.

First few days of OZ!

Australia made a good first impression from the beginging, firstly there were no earthquakes, which is always a positive start, but the main reason for the good first impression was that i got upgraded on my flight over. I got upgraded to premium economy, it was no first class but i got some extra leg room, a free bar, tv and games so it was a fun 4 hour flight.

When i arrived in Melbourne, it was around 7pm but it was still 26 degrees (i could tell i was going to have a better summer than i had in the UK! I stayed in a hostel about 20mins from the centre by the beach which was really goood and had a great bar.

I only spent one night in Melbourne because i was shipped off to a town called Bendigo by the volunteers, its about 150km away from Melbourne. I spent the weekend there which was quite fun (it may not be as big as Melbourne but it had a good nightlife and the weather was always in the high 20's.

Just as i was settling in Bendigo, i was shipped off again to another town where i currently am, which i think is called shipton but i'm not quite sure. I go back to Bendigo for weekends and will spend every other week working there. Yesterday was my first day of work, we went to a primary school who had a lot of land, but not the man power tp manage it and helped them construct a garden that they could easily manage with a bit of effort. It was very different to working in New Zealand, mainly because the first thing we were told was to beware of spiders and snakes, when walking in long grass. That got me worried a bit, i've only seen a lizard so far. Today we were trying to restore some old forrest land and planted around 400 trees. Its extremely tiring working in 28 degree heat but i'm still having fun!

This weekend (halloween) i'm going back to Melbourne to stay with a few friends for the weekend, they will be the first people from back home that i've seen in a few months so it will be good.

Week Off Day 4 & 5, Franz Joseph

On the first of these two day we spent on a bus from queenstown, stopping at various places on the way. We got the our hostel (the rainforest retreat) which as you can imagen was in the middle of rainforest area. We arrived in the evening and there was nothing really for us to do, so we entered a rock, paper, scissors competition in the hostel pub. Unfortunatly i didn't win and felt a bit robbed.

Our second day was a bit more interesting though, we had booked a full day hike up the Franz Joseph Glacier. It's an awesome glacier and one of the only 3 in the world that goes from an alpine region and ends up in a rainforest area. Unforunatley for us though we were unable to get any pictures because it was either throwing it down or hailing for the entire day. When putting it like that it does not sound very good, but the ice was alot bluer as all the dirt had been washed off. But it was epecially good because the rain and hail caused avalanched. We saw 5 in total, one of which was especially big and heard another avolanch whilst we were climbing through a 30 metre deep cravas (that was a bit of a hairy moment). The hike consisted of climbing through many deep cravases, some of which were extremely tight to squeeze through and also a few ice caves. I wanted to get a helicopter to the top of the glacier but unfortunatly was dinied again due to the weather being too bad. To make up for this we went to the glacial hot pools, they was located in rainforest with 3 open air pools, one 36 degrees, one 38 degrees and another 40 degrees. It was very relaxing and we spent a long time there before heading to the bar.

Week Off Day 3, Queenstown

Today is our last day in Queenstown before heading off to Frans-Joseph and then making our way back to Christchurch to catch a plane to Melbourne. This morning we went jetboating on the shotover jetboat. The boat travels up to 85km an hour through a very narrow gorge, it could go through water 4inches deep. It was a bit hairy at time and i did thing we were going to crash into the cliff face at one point but the driver was very skilled and pulled a few 360 degree turns.

In the afternoon we went to the Kawarau bridge bungie jump which was the first Bungie jump attraction in the world. You jumped off the middle of the bridge above the river and had the option of dunking your head in the water during the jump. I did this and managed to take a mouthfull of water. Once you have finished bouncing you're lowered onto a raft to get you back onto dry land.



I've just been in Queenstown gardens for a cheeky game of frizbee golf (just like regular golf, except you have to get your frizbee into a basket in par. We're going to the bar now for our last few drinks in Queenstow; i'll definatley be coming back in the near future. There is so much more i need to do here but not enought time.

Week off Day 2, Milford Sound

Yesterday, we took a bus tour to Milford Sound and a cruise once we arrived. It was an amazing place and well worth the visit, the coach also had a glass roof so we got a good view of everything. The cruise was especially good and we saw some fur seals and blue penguins in one of the coves.

I wanted to get a helicopter flight back to queenstown which would have given me a completely different view and would have landed on one of the glaciers. I couldn't do it though as the flight was fully booked, i was a bit gutted but it means that i can spend the $600 i saved on other things :)

When we arrived back in queenstown we hit the town.

Week Off Day 1, Queenstown

This week i get a break from work to explore and do what i want before going to OZ. We got dropped off by the volunteers in Queenstown and spent the day wandering around in the 26 degree heat which was a change from the cold and rain. We went up the gondola were we go a awesome view over Queenstown, and also had a few rides on the ludge.

We've got a few activities book and the bank balance is decreasing dramatically, its all good though. The bars in Queenstown are also very good, we've tried quite a few out.