The Great Ocean Road, Australia - Gorgeous beaches, funky towns

After Melbourne, we left on our next adventure up the Great Ocean Road (GOR from now on), one of Australia's (touristic) iconic sites. It is absolutely gorgeous, which is nature's way of making up for the fact that the drive is insanely long.

Our first stop was in Torquay, where there was nothing to see that really interested us, other than Bell's Beach, so we took the detour and saw the beautiful beach. Unfortunately, we did not see where the turnoff was, so we only saw it, but that's OK, we had plenty more to see and the rest was actually a lot nicer.
Torquay is apparently not officially on the GOR, but since we weren't sure, we decided to check anyway.

We drive through the various surf towns, such as Surf World Museum (not making this up) in the surf town of Anglesea, which is exactly what you would imagine a surf town would look like - loads of surfing stores and nothing much else, at least not on the main road.

This was the basic view most of the way, though we can't remember where this was

Just before leaving the hostel, we made friends with an American girl who lives in Sydney, and she had a really great booklet about the GOR that had excellent recommendations of what to do in each place along the way. It was really instrumental in helping us decide where to stop and where to drive through.

Our first real stop, therefore, was actually Aireys Inlet. While we had no intention of stopping there, largely due to the fact that we don't stop in cities whose names we can't pronounce, we saw one of the known GOR stops along the way, so we went to see it: The Split Point Lighthouse. While we still have no idea why it's called that, it was a nice lighthouse with a gorgeous view. Here, again, we were faced with Australians who decided that since it's late December (think late June on our sides of the world), they should wear shorts and a tank top, even though it's 20 (tops) and windy.

We then went to the TOTALLY awesome (NOT) Memorial Arch, specifically because in the booklet we have, it is listed as "should not be missed." We still have NO idea why this is a landmark, but it made us think that Israel really has it all wrong and should work better on its tourism. Just about every rock there can be turned into a "tourist attraction" where people can sell ice cream for $5 and a coke for $3.50.

The amazing, incredible, can't-be-missed Memorial Arch

Our next stop was Apollo Bay. We were actually supposed to spend our first night in Apollo Bay, but changed our plans the night before when we saw that our last day would have an entirely-too-long drive that would get us into Adelaide way too late - and this is on Christmas Eve.

Apollo Bay was cute, but since it was still cold in that area (about 20 degrees Celsius or even less), all of the beach towns, that are probably awesome during the summer, were a bit ghost-town-ish.

After a short break for lunch and browsing our way through a bookstore (we love bookstores), we continued our drive up to Cape Otway Lightstation, which was supposed to be awesome. We don't know how awesome it is, because it was 5:30 at this point and they were closed (grrrr - lots of these place close around 5 or 5:30), but it wasn't all a loss because along the way we saw a bunch of people looking up in the trees and taking pictures of... koalas!! We hadn't seen any yet, so this was totally exciting.

A mom and baby koala. They are SOOOO cute!!

We got out of the car and started taking a bazillion pics, they are so freakin' adorable, and even some video. We were probably there for half an hour. There were koalas on a few different trees, one had a baby koala, and another had a sleeping koala who was so perfect. And when the sleeping koala woke up, we found out it was actually a mom with her baby!! This alone made the entire trip worth it!

At this point, though we had wanted to make a few more stops along the way, we decided to haul a$$ to the Port Campbell area so that we would have a chance to see The 12 Apostles, the most famous attraction along the GOR. Before you think that we haven't seen much, the drive itself up the road is about 10 hours long, so we often had 1 or 2 hours of driving between stops.

We arrived at the 12 Apostles when the sun had already begun to set. Luckily for us, in Australia summer, it's still light outside at 9, so we could really take advantage of our days to see as much as possible.

I think we won the lottery - it was gorgeous at that time, probably much more than it would have been during the day. The sunset was just giving it a gorgeous color, much more than we can probably see in the pics. The 12 Apostles were, as everything else, created by the water eroding rocks, etc. There weren't actually 12 apostles, but as we learned by reading the signs there, more are being created all the time. Later that evening, the girl we were couchsurfing with told us that one of the apostles fell and now there are 8 instead of 9.

The 12 Apostles

This was going to be our last stop being arriving in Port Fairy (our host was only getting home at 10 that night, which was perfect for us since it gave us much more time for stops along the way), but right after the Apostles, we saw a couple more of the places that were recommended, the first being Lord Arch Gorge, which was gorgeous, and the London Bridge (the other one) which, apparently, is no longer called that since part of it collapsed in 1990 (bringing a whole new meaning to the song "London Bridge is falling down") and is now called the London Arch. Still being sunset, the view was, once again, gorgeous.

Rony saving the wildlife so it doesn't get run over

We decided that this was it, we weren't stopping anymore along the way since we had to be in Port Fairy by 10, but we made a short stop in Port Campbell when we took a wrong turn and saw how gorgeous the town is.

We arrived in Port Fairy a bit after 10, where we were met by a really sweet host (about our age) with a gorgeous house, and a tiny dog that loved Rony and bit Talia's ankles.

This post is very long already, so we will write about the next few days soon. For now, here are some pics from the GOR, and the days after, as well:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=588459&id=906005363&l=3dcccbe1fb

Melbourne - Back to the city

So we returned to Melbourne, after almost a week in Tasmania. Only this time we booked a hostel for the 3 days we planned to be in Melbourne. We wanted to take time off Couch Surfing, and have a bit of quality time together. And to rest a bit. And to plan the second half of our trip.

Couch Surfing sounds easy and free accommodations, but if that's why you're doing it, don't. Couch Surfing is actually a way of knowing people and sharing their lives for a few days. It might not be as living in the country, but it's as close as it gets.

So while you're at their places, you want to know them, talk to them, share experiences and opinions with them. It's very enriching. But as with friends, after going out with them every single night for 2 weeks, you want some time alone, for yourself, and with your girlfriend/boyfriend.

So we booked what appeared to be an awesome hostel, Clairemont Hotel, which is actually a guest house. It's in a great location, South Yarra, just outside Melbourne CBD, near St Kilda Road. There are many shops and restaurants around. The hostel is clean and quite and it was exactly what we needed. Talia went to sleep right away for 3 strait hours! A record for an afternoon nap for her.

Rony went online and started to plan the trip in Japan. We didn't do much that day, beside go to the movies. Apparently, Australian cinemas are made of gold because the tickets are so expensive: 18 Australian dollars for a ticket! It's 12 or 13 euros! And we thought tickets in Paris were expensive! It's twice the price we pay in Israel. At least we enjoyed our movie, "Fair Game," and Talia learned a few things about recent US history.

Sunday was supposed to be market day for Talia and more planning for Rony, but as usual, you probably know what we gonna say, it was raining. Pouring. We wish it would rain half the quantity we witnessed in Israel. It would solve the country's water problem till next year. So we ended up staying in our room and resting for the day.

Well, not quite.

In the evening, we went to see Mary Poppins, the musical. OMIGOODNESS it was so incredible! (That was Rony. Kidding.) Talia had seen the movie about a bazillion times as a kid, but the play was just something else. It was so funny and cute and awesome, and probably only 50% like the movie. There were quite a few times that Rony got to experience what it would be like to take a 6 year old to a play by looking at Talia's face and squeals of delight.

And after a supercalifragalisticexpialidocious time, we went straight to the hostel, partly because of the weather.

On Monday we picked up our rental car named Elsa (the license plate ends with "LZA") and, after visiting the International National Gallery of Victoria for a couple of hours (free entry), we got prepared for our trip to Phillip Island, where we were supposed to see young penguins in the wild coming to shore at sunset.

The drive there is 2.5 hours long, mainly because there is a lot of traffic to get out of Melbourne and because the speed limit is 80 most of the way. But we got there on time.

Well, we had a big surprise when we got there: The penguin parade was actually like a theme park where you have to pay 21 dollars (!!) to watch penguins. Why theme park? Well, you had it all: Restaurants, gift shops, a green screen where you could have your photo added to some penguins in the background...
This country is beautiful, but very expensive (more than Europe) and we should have probably check more about the penguins parade attraction before getting there (brochures don't mention any entry fee or side attractions but only beautiful penguins walking on the beach), but the ticket price is too high for us. We don't mind if they try to regulate the flow of tourists to the place and preserve the penguins' natural habitat. On the contrary. But it doesn't look anything like it.

The evening was not a total loss, though: we went to Cowes to have dinner. Since it was 8, most of the places were closed. By the way, in Australia, in December, there is still day light at 8. But since it's not the touristic season yet, most of the places close early.

So we ended up eating at this nice italian restaurant where one of the waitresses told us she learned a bit hebrew when she was young because one of her friend's mum teaches it. How random is that!

We arrived back to the hostel around midnight and we got ready for our next big step: Great Ocean Road.

Hobart, Tasmania - Kangaroos, wallabies, Tasmanian devils, and a whole lotta stuff!

After recovering from our hike up Cradle Mountain (well, Talia was recovering, Rony was doing great), we woke up early the next morning to go to Cataract Gorge, which is in Launceston and just a few minutes away. It's their Central Park, only wilder. Of course, as we do every place we go - we brought the rain. So we plopped ourselves at the free Wi-fi place, known to the rest of the world as McDonald's, and McSurfed for an hour and a half until it cleared up. We needed to get more stuff arranged for the rest of the trip, so this wasn't a complete McWaste of time.

By the way, the internet prices here are very expensive. If you don't intend on staying 6 months in Australia and buy a USB stick for the Internet, plan everything from home. Unless you want to spend hours in McDonald's, you won't find free Internet anywhere accessible - even paid wireless is hard to find. An hour on the internet is between 6 and 8 dollars, almost everywhere.

Cataract Gorge was exactly what we needed. Nature and some hiking, but not too much - about an hour or so. It's absolutely beautiful, and we saw all kinds of random animals like a gorgeous peacock (accidentally when we were escaping a really loud family), and another native animal whose name we can't remember.

We took the easy route one way and what is called Zig Zag Route on the way back, so called because you zig zag between life and death as you climb, at least I (Talia) did. Luckily for me, I have a very supportive man who kept cheering me on. The 30-min (10-min for normal people) climb had multiple conversations that sounded something like this:

Rony: Come on! You can do it!
Talia: I'm gonna DIE
Rony: You're doing great!
Talia: I'm gonna DIE
Rony: You're almost at the top! From there it gets easier!

Clearly, I made it, but just barely. Just kidding, it wasn't that bad, just my knees were still hurting a bit from the climb down the day before.

After Cataract Gorge, we drove back to Hobart and took the ocean road so that we could stop at Freycinet Park, which is supposed to be gorgeous. Gorgeous is was, but we didn't actually end up going in because it was - you guessed it! - RAINING. Well, we would've driven through the park itself, if it weren't so expensive! The visit wasn't a total loss, however, as we learned of the existence of a marvelous beverage, hitherto known as "Hot Chocolate in a Can."

We had to buy it (it comes in Latte too, but this is the one we wanted). You remove this sticker at the bottom, press in a button, and shake the can for 20 seconds until you feel it start getting warm. Then you wait for 3 minutes, open it up, and voila! Hot chocolate in a can. It actually tasted pretty good! It was like when you put too much water and not enough milk in your cocoa, but it was definitely tasty and we would definitely buy it if we were camping. And it's the same price as a hot chocolate at a cafe.

We were couchsurfing in Hobart as well. We arrived in the late evening, which was perfect timing for our host because she works at ABC (Australia's station) news station in Hobart. She actually lives about 30 minutes outside of Hobart, but wow, her place is amazing.

Brigitta has a farm with chickens and horses, including a foal, a baby horse that is 6 weeks old. They are absolutely stunning, and of course we had a great time with them, especially Rony. Her house is in the mountains on a hill. We arrived at night and it was very dark, so we were a bit unsecured, but this is Tasmania, so it was all good.

Rony giving the foal a massage

The moment we got to her (gorgeous and designed by her) house, she came downstairs and was just sweet as can be. After settling in at her place and having a cup of coffee, she found out we hadn't seen any wallabies yet (like kangaroos, but smaller), so she suggested we get into our car and drive around her area a bit (it was 10 pm already) because they are nocturnal animals.

So we went off on this awesome impromptu safari, and sure enough we saw all kinds of awesome animals - potaroos, possums, and we're pretty sure we also saw a wallaby.

We went to sleep and got up early the next morning. The sun rises at about 5 am, and as much as you close the curtains, you can't help but wake up early. Plus it was REALLY cold (according to Talia)(whatever, Rony was so way under the covers he didn't know it was cold).

After getting some great advice from Brigitta, we set off towards Port Arthur. We first made a small detour to Marion Bay, which is this gorgeous beach that apparently no one goes to and no one knows of. It is also a refuge for birds that come as far as Siberia! Had Brigitta not told us about it, we would have never stopped there. As it turned out, it was the highlight of our day.

At Marion Bay

There were only 4 other people there, a family, 2 sisters and their daughters (one of whom was named Talia!) with their dog. Other than that - no one. It was so peaceful and beautiful and the sea was a gorgeous color, so we just ended up walking up and down the beach a bit, until the dog came close to Rony, and then we stopped walking and Rony played catch with the dog. :-)

After about an hour at the beach, we returned to the route we were going to take and drove to the Blowhole, a really pretty, natural cave that had collapsed. Unexpectedly, there was a random van there that was selling fish and chips and other food, and as it was lunch time, we decided to try it out. What a great decision! It was absolutely delicious!!! (Or Doo-licious, according to the place's name) We then walked around the blowhole and went on to the next stop - Devil's Kitchen.

As we were driving there, we drove through a town called Doo Town. They have this thing where they each have some random saying on their homes that have the word Doo in it, like Doo Come In, and Just Doo It. By the time we caught on, we missed a few of the good signs, but we took pics of some of the others.

Devil's Kitchen and Tasman's Arch are also caves that were made a bazillion years ago, and they were also gorgeous. This area has a few landmarks, and it's one of those places where you meet people at one of the tourist attractions, and keep running into them throughout the day, so it's like you make friends, but you have no responsibility towards them. You do, however, have people to take your picture for you :-)

Devil's Kitchen

A few minutes drive from there, at Taranna, there is a conservation park for Tasmanian Devils. As it turns out, Tasmanian Devils are now an endangered species. 10 years ago, a mysterious contagious cancer started to spread among the devils, and it affects their mouth and neck. When it arrives to the point where their mouth and neck is so deformed that they can not eat, they die of starvation.

The only way to stop it is to isolate the healthy animals and try to breed them. And if possible, breed genetically resistant animals. That's what they try to do in this center. And, as much as possible, with devils from the east coast, since their DNA is different, and researchers think that the problem is partially from not having enough different DNA. The entry price is high, but we know that it will serve a good purpose.

So we saw the devil. Not so frightening after all. And doesn't look like the one in the cartoons :) They are quite cute actually. Other than Tasmanian devils, they also have wallabies and kangaroos there, and Talia had the chance to feed them. Reminded us of our stay in WFFT.

Cute little devil :-)

Talia feeding a kangaroo

When we were done seeing the local attractions, all of which were gorgeous, we proceeded to drive towards Port Arthur, an old convict colony. When we got there, however, it was - you guessed it! - raining, and we were really tired (it was a really long drive from Hobart). The price was insane - about $30 - so we decided to forego Port Arthur, as much as Talia wanted to see it, and head back to Hobart, which was about a 3 hour drive away.

We stopped in a town close to Hobart to use the free Wi-fi at McDonald's (do you see a McTheme here?) to get more of our stuff organized - we are already getting Japan arranged - and we called Brigitta for recommendations for a seafood restaurant since we were craving seafood. She gave us a couple, and at around 8 pm we looked online to see where they are located - and didn't bother going.

They closed at 9!! It's something completely odd in this country, everything is closed by 8 or 9! We were about a half hour drive away, so there was no use in going anymore. We were really tired anyway, so we just headed back home and called it a night.

The following morning we slept in - until 9! We'd been getting up around 6:30 or 7 almost every morning, except those mornings that we had to get up at 5 am, so we really needed to sleep. In real life - you have weekends. We haven't taken any in the month and a half that we've been traveling.

At Brigitta's (awesome) advice, we took the morning to drive up Mount Wellington, which gives you a spectacular view of Hobart and the surroundings. The drive itself was really nice (though long cause it's a high mountain), and again we started making friends along the way (there are several great lookouts). As we drove up the mountain, it got colder and colder, and every time we passed people riding their bicycles up the mountain (dude?!?!?!), we were in awe. Of course, once we started getting out of the car it started to - wait for it! - RAIN! Woo hoo!

Talia dying of the cold and Rony loving every moment of it

We made it to the top, where it was approximately 347583075 degrees below zero (you can pick Celcius, Fahrenheit, or Calvin), and whatever we were wearing wasn't enough. Especially Talia who didn't think to bring Rony's coat that he generously offered her to take (guess who's writing this line ;))

Talia: OMIGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH! It's FREEZING!!!!
Rony: WOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess it's true. Opposites DO attract.

The view was spectacular, but even though it wasn't incredibly cloudy, it was dark enough that the pictures didn't turn out the great, but our memories (before The Freeze shocked Talia's system) are beautiful. Of course, we once again exchanged picture-taking opportunities with the family that we had met below, and then we were off to meet Brigitta for lunch at the seafood restaurant we couldn't go to the night before cause they're weird.

After a nice lunch, we went with Brigitta to her news station so Talia could see what it's like there. It was Rony's first time in a TV station, so while we both got different experiences out of the visit, it was really cool for both of us. When we were leaving the restaurant, Brigitta told us how to get to the station, and told us to turn at the Baha'i center. Rony's ears IMMEDIATELY perked up - "Baha'i? In Hobart, Tasmania?" Talia didn't know, but apparently the center in Haifa is THE center of the religion.

After the visit at the station, we went to visit the Baha'i center. It's built with beautiful architecture, and we were only going to go for 10 minutes, but they ended up giving us a tour, which was great, but it wasn't the 10 minutes the lady promised, but more like 30 minutes.

After admiring the gorgeous building, and learning a bit about the faith, we headed back home. We stopped at the grocery store to pick up some groceries, and as a thanks we cooked Brigitta dinner. Talia dropped Rony at home to cook, and rushed back to the news station to watch the nightly newcast. It couldn't have been more different than where she worked. It was so quiet!

After the newscast, the girls got home and had the dinner Rony cooked (Talia helped with the salad...) Even though Brigitta loved the food (duh, Rony's a great cook!), we think we had more fun by cooking and having a homey meal. A few of our hosts had made us dinner, but this one was our type of food,

Rony made a Quiche LorRony, so named because it was technically a Quiche Lorraine, but Rony added some vegetables to it, and it was DELICIOUS. He also made schnitzel, and that way we had made a meal that was both French and Israeli. We topped it off with one of Rony's great salad's with feta cheese - overall, it was a great meal.

We turned in for the night, and the next morning we went with Brigitta to a - wait for it! - dog Christmas party. For real. The dogs were mostly adorable, and lots of them had ornaments or shirts on them - some even had reindeer ears! It was so funny. And of course we had to hear the poem dedicated to the event read by the party's host. That is not something we would have seen at home.

After the party, we said our farewell to Brigitta (and her two gorgeous Great Danes, who were as big as her foal), and went to the Salamanca market. It's basically just like every other market - arts and crafts and other stuff - but they had different things that the ones in Israel. But like the markets in Israel, Thailand, and probably everywhere else, after 10 minutes you keep seeing the same stuff again and again. To be honest, they had some really awesome things there that Talia probably would have bought had we been going home after Australia, but the thought of carrying it for 2 more months pretty much put an end to the need for retail therapy.

And that was Tasmania! We went straight to the airport to fly back to Melbourne on a flight that was surprisingly not delayed, and headed to our hostel. More about Melbourne in our next post!

Pics from Hobart and surroundings:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=585488&id=906005363&l=0917e188c7

Tasmania - Tiger Airways sucks big time, Cradle Mountain, and Launceston

So we woke up early to get on our Tiger Airways flight to Hobart, Tasmania. We arrived on time alright.

2 hours before check in started.

Actually Rony hadn't read the departure time correctly and instead of 12:00, the flight was at 14:00, so we just stayed at the airport listening to the complaints people had about Tiger Airways. Not only was our flight delayed by 2.5 hours, but we also got there 6 hours early! But almost all flight were delayed and one of them got canceled. A big mess! Tiger Airways in not reliable, guys!

So if you're thinking of booking a Tiger Airways flight one day, think twice and ask yourselves these questions:
1) Am I on a tight schedule?
2) Do I have other possibilities?
3) Do I have somewhere to stay in case the flight is canceled?
4) Do I have Valium?

During that time, Talia managed to call their unreachable costumer support service and change our flight on the 31st of December to the 30th of December. Good! One victory! And it only took 3.5 months!

So our flight finally departed at 4:30 pm, arrived in Hobart one hour later, and we picked up our pink rental car and drove it to Lanceston, where we arrived around 9:30 pm. Exhausted from doing nothing. But we knew we would have days like this. And of course, it was raining when we got here (duh).

The second day was much better: We booked a tour to Crandle Mountain which departed at 8 AM. We were lucky this time: the weather was perfect, sunny and finally no rain. We booked 2 different tours, because we thought that one was easier than the other and Rony wanted to do the tough part. But once there, it appeared that both had the easy and hard part.

So Rony started the climb to Marion's lookout which has an great view over the hills and mountains around. There is a 300-meter climb and it takes 2 hours more or less. And it's not that hard: Talia, who was not into climbing till now, did it too! That was a big surprise for Rony to see Talia at the top of the lookout but she did it! Rony (I) was very proud of her :) Running into each other was really funny, so we have the one picture together. Rony made friends with the girls on his tour, who felt sorry for him that he didn't have a camera (Talia had it), so they took pictures of him and promised to email them to him later. :-)

We actually did two different tracks, though we ran into each other mid way (right after Rony had been to Marion's Lookout and Talia was on her way). Talia's way down was really hard and involved some rock climbing, leading to very painful knees later. Nevertheless, it was good to have a day apart and be separate, especially since Talia is a lot slower than Rony with these things.

The tours included a visit to the adorable town of Sheffield. What's special about this town? Well, it has a lot of mural paintings on the houses there and they even have an international contest going on for new murals. The town is so picturesque - it looks like those towns from the 50s in the movies. Talia's favorite part was the following sign:

On the way back from Cradle Mountain, both of our tours made a stop along the way: Rony's stopped at a honey farm, where they have many different types of honey and honey-flavored products (all with free samples), while Talia's tour stopped at an incredible cheese factory that also had many free samples. The most interesting was the Pepper Bush cheese! She would have bought some, but we didn't have where to store any of it, unfortunately.

All in all, it was a great day with a gorgeous hike, albeit pretty rough on Talia's knees. The people on our tours were awesome and tons of fun, and Talia's tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and explained everything about everything, so we learned a lot. For example, did you know the Tasmanian Devil is now an endangered species? Over the past decade, the population has gone down to just 10% of what it was before because of a contagious cancer that's spreading throughout the country. There are a few special centers now that are trying to breed them as much as possible to get the population up again. Neither of us have seen any Tasmanian devils yet, but we both saw wombats. They are SO adorable!!

Pics from the first few days in Tasmania:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=584799&id=906005363&l=4b96461aa1

Melbourne - Frozen Sunday (no chocolate on top)

In our efforts to equally bring rain to each country we visit, we stayed true to ourselves and brought rain and cold to Melbourne as well. We were told more than once that there has been a terrible drought in Oz for years, and now it won't stop raining. We just wanted to say, "You're welcome."

We got up early on our second full day (we are pretending the first night and morning didn't happen), only to get caught in terrible rain and cold weather, which prompted the following thought:

Dear Melbourne: It is summer, not winter. Please act appropriately. Love, Talia and Rony.

Talia was very depressed at this point: Not only did we miss out on a full half day in the city, where we planned on going to the Queen Victoria Market that we had heard so much about, but now it was raining on us without end.

We headed out to Nehalat Benyamin, I mean, St. Kilda's Esplanade, to check out the local artists crafts. A lot of it was similar to what we have back home, but some of the stuff was different and awesome, like this guy who made really funny mugs with funky expressions.

Every few minutes it would rain and then stop and then rain and then stop, so that was fun. We had originally planned on going to the botanical gardens in St. Kilda's as well, but it was raining too much to really be outside constantly, so we caught a tram to get all the way into the city (this was halfway between us and where we were staying).

As a side note, Melbourne has a nice tram and train system where you pay for public transportation in one card - that is, you can use the card for the tram, train, or bus. You can either buy a 2-hour card or a daily card, which is actually less than 2 rides, so if you know you're going roundtrip, it's definitely worth purchasing. This makes the decision-making process a lot nicer, seeing as you don't have to have transportation considerations, so you can change plans at any time if you need to.

We hopped on a tram and were going to go to the Queen Victoria Market, which we knew was only open until 4 on Sunday, but it was raining really hard, and Lonely Planet wrote that it's an open air market, so we saw no use in going. In retrospect, what they meant by "open air" was "no walls, but covered and dry."

We got off the tram at Flinders Street and broke out our Lonely Planet guide (which was actually Fay's Lonely Planet guide that she graciously lent us) to see what alternatives were in the area, like museums. Talia was entirely too depressed with the weather to go to an art museum, so we decided to go to the Aquarium instead.

Best decision EVER.

First of all, our suggestion to you whenever you're traveling, especially if you're on a budget, is to pick up every single free tourist guide you can find. They often come with coupons that can save you tons of money. In our case, we had a 20% off coupon for the aquarium, which saved each of us about $6.50 (Australian and USD are almost exactly the same now).

We started walking towards the aquarium, which is not far from Flinders Street Station, but it was raining so hard and we were getting so wet that we ended up taking a tram one stop to the Aquarium. Again, great thing to have that daily pass. (Otherwise, these little rides would really add up, each one being around $3.70 each).

We knew the Aquarium would have fish (duh) and sharks (ooh!), but as it turns out they also had PENGUINS! Real, live PENGUINS! That already made it worth it. There were incredibly awesome and incredibly gross sea creatures, and the visit was so much more fun than we thought it would be.

And also, we had previously wondered where all the Israelis were. We found them at the Aquarium.

We finished at the Aquarium around 3 pm, during which time the skies had cleared up and it was only drizzling a bit, so we decided to power-walk to Queen Victoria's Market and see if we could catch the end of the market day. We did, and it was pretty cool, but we would have liked to spend more time there. We may go back next Sunday, when we're back in Melbourne (we're spending the next few days in Tasmania), but if the weather is good enough, we are planning on going out of the city a bit to see more nature.

After the market, and eating a bit, we knew we couldn't go to the other gardens we planned on going to, so we just decided to walk up and down the streets of the city, since it's so gorgeous. At Fay's suggestion from the day before, we forewent the large streets and walked through the tiny, picturesque alleys that reminded Rony of Paris. Again.

Eventually we ended up in Bourke Street Mall again, but this time there were less people so we were able to peak at the Myer's display windows, and it was really awesome. This was after walking through all of the Myer's department store (three buildings and lots of floors!!). It's like going to Macy's, we think, in caliber.

Throughout the past 2 days, and especially while on this street, we reached several logical conclusions about Melbourne and its inhabitants:

1) The city of Melbourne did not get the memo that it is summer
2) The people of Melbourne did not get the memo that it is cold
3) The people of Melbourne have this odd way of standing in formations behind each other when waiting to enter or see something. We hear these are called "lines" or "queues"
4) Melbourne LOVES strip clubs and sex shops

While walking around the streets of Melbourne, we came across a few Max Brenner's. Since it's known as "our place" we decided to stop there for a quick cocoa before heading home. Just in case you wondered, it's even more expensive in Melbourne than Israel!

Since the sun sets late here in the summer, we realized it was late and we had to get back to our nice home... oh, wait! It's not our home. But it felt like it. And we had a nice last evening with our host and had to go to sleep to catch an early bus to the airport.

Bye bye Melbourne, see you in a week.
Tasmania, here we come!

Pics from Melbourne:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=582350&id=906005363&l=d2f2924314

Melbourne, Australia - freezing in the summer, but friendly as can be

We finally arrived in Melbourne, and made it just in time to give the car back to the rental company.
Just in time because Oprah was in town and welcomed us with a big traffic jam that almost prevented us from returning the car on time. Good thing Rony always tries to be a few hours early on everything, it makes Talia on time...

Maybe because Oprah was in town, a demonstration for WikilLeaks was there, too. Judging by the first 2 hours in Melbourne, it seemed like a lot was going on in this city...

The place we were supposed to couch surf in was a bit far from downtown, in a little suburb called Box Hill. It took us a while to get there, but we definitely didn't expect what we saw: The owners were very nice and warm, but the place was just a mess and dirty. Apparently they had a lot of guests that weekend, and they had only their garage for us to sleep in. And we had to share our "room" with some rabbits. Strange.

But the hardest part was the sleeping room condition: It was cold and very windy. And the garage was not exactly isolated. Far from it. Rony was freezing and had to sleep dressed up in his sleeping bag. Talia was a bit better and just slept dressed up. Anyway, we couldn't stay (or even go to the toilet) in a place like this, and we decided that no matter what, we had to find another place. Fortunately, Talia has a friend in Melbourne and when she heard of what happened to us, came to our rescue right away. Yey for Twitter! We heart @FayG29 !

She opened her house to us and even if it was such a short notice, welcomed us as we were her family.
She prepared us lunch, and after we calmed down and finally took a shower, we went to visit the city. We weren't disappointed. Melbourne is a very living city, with a great architecture, and while it's a big city, it is not overwhelming as big cities can be.

Federation Square

So we started where everybody starts in Melbourne: Federation Square. That's like an entry point to downtown Melbourne. There is nothing special to do there except plan our visit of the city (great tourist information center there) and apparently a great, free art gallery, but we didn't know it then.

In front of the square stands Flanders Street Station, which is like the central station of Melbourne, although there is a Melbourne central station elsewhere. A bit confusing maybe. Well, let's say it's the main entry point of the city.

From there, downtown is built like a grid and it's quite easy to navigate. So we decided to just walk around and stop wherever we'd like. After a few minutes walk, we arrived in front of the Regent Theatre where apparently the AFI (Australian Film Institute) award ceremony was taking place. And movie fans as us thought, "Well, that's so nice to prepare such an event for us!" So we saw a few famous Australian movie stars, or at least we guess since we didn't know them. Later we saw on the news that William Defoe was there too but we missed him.

After Oprah the day before and the Wikileaks demonstration, it looked like Melbourne is much more than what we expected. Melbourne is a great city to walk around in. So much to architecture to see there, many churches and even if it looks like an unordered mix of old and new buildings, it actually looks very harmonic. The Christmas decorations were a nice addition to the surrounding beauty.

We walked through Bourke Street Mall where there was a puppet display of the Nutcracker on the department store windows. Like in Printemps in Paris. Rony kept saying that this city reminded him a lot of Paris and he could definitely live in this city.

Now it's a good time for a little pause and tell about Melbourne people: I don't know if we were just lucky, but the people here are soooo nice! A few examples:

1. We opened a little map of the city to see where to head to, not because we were lost, and a second later someone came to us and asked us if we needed directions. Free of charge! Genuine kindness
2. We were on our tram to get to the city and the bus driver suddenly stopped the tram, went out and helped a couple to carry their baby stroller in, and even gave them tips about which doors are the best to come through.
3. We were in St Kilda's Esplanade and we saw a tram stop near us. The driver opened the doors and asked a couple who was just sitting in the station where they were heading. So the couple answered and he just said "I'm going there too, just get in." The couple didn't wave the driver, he just stopped.
4. Each time we asked for directions or information, the people there were so helpful and nice. It's hard to explain every situation, but we had a guy who just saw we asked for direction from the bus driver and suggested we see the bus route on his IPad and find the street we needed. And the driver, even if he didn't know the street we needed, paid attention to where he was going and stopped near the street we were looking for, even if there was no bus stop there.

So that also was part of the city charms.

End of pause.

As we were walking around town, we kept seeing signs for the musical Mary Poppins, which is apparently the big thing going on in Melbourne now. Well, that and the Bon Jovi concert from the night before, which had the entire city in Bon Jovi shirts, caps, and backpacks, singing Bon Jovi songs non-stop.

Eventually we came across the Queen's Theatre, where Mary Poppins is showing, and Rony suggested we go in and see if there are any tickets for shows while we're in town.  And wouldn't you know it? We got tickets for $30 each! We'll be going next Sunday when we get back from Tasmania. :-)

In the evening, after a long walk all around downtown, through Chinatown, and a small dinner, we headed back to Fay's home, happy and tired.









We will post pics on the next post. :-)

Australia, here we come (again)

After a great time in New Caledonia, where we saw so much in so little time, we couldn't slow down, and after a short flight back to Sydney, we picked up our rental car from the airport and started to drive toward Canberra.

Now just a short pause to explain that rental was not our original plan. We planed our trip in Australia around car relocations, the principal of which is to send back the car to its original port. For very cheap, like 5 dollars a day. Well, during Australian holidays it doesn't work much: Most of the relocations are actually rented back due to the high demand. So it appears that most of our trip in Australia will be through car rental. It's a bit heavy on our budget, but we have no choice. Buses are more expensive than car rental, and much less convenient.

As you know, Australians drive on the left side of the road. So that was our new experience of the day and we're used to it now. We ordered a manual car since it's cheaper in Australia but Talia is not used to it much and she was still in the learning process (see previous post). So Rony was suppose to drive till Talia would get used to manual shift.

We arrived at the car and after Rony entered the car, said, "Talia, what kind of car did you order? Manual or automatic?"
"Manual, of course. It's cheaper"
"Well we got automatic."

First good news of the day! Talia will be able to drive after all. But she wasn't psychologically ready for it yet, so Rony took the first shift to Canberra.

Driving on the left side is not that hard after all. First because we had to do it in Thailand on our motorbikes. And also, Australia's road signs are very clear: "Wrong way! Go back!" signs are displayed in the right side of every intersection on the highway, and "keep left" signs are displayed each time you wonder where you should drive. Plus signs to the cities on the highway so you won't get lost. It was a big change from New Caledonia where you can drive for hours and see no signs.

Anyway, we got to meet our first couch surfing host, Frank, in Canberra. It was quite an excitement, because we didn't know what to expect and we didn't really know how to behave.

Frank is a very nice guy, very friendly and helpful. First he met us at the information center of Canberra, because it was an easy place to find, and we followed him all the way to his home. He also drew us a map with the directions to his home so if we lost him on the road we could always find it.
After that he prepared dinner for us: a barbecue of the finest Australian meat: Lamb, chicken, and kangaroo meat! It was our first time and it tasted good. The taste is different of any meat we have eaten so far.

Frank's barbeque with kangaroo meat and other stuff

We were quite exhausted from our day (we woke up at 5:00 to catch our flight to Sydney) but we couldn't go to sleep because Frank was so interesting to talk to. He told us stories about Canberra, Australian history, and we talked about IT too, since he's in the field and we are as well. At some point we were too exhausted to continue and had to sleep.

We discovered that one day in Canberra was certainly not enough: There is so much to see in this town that you need at least 3 days. And one more day to go the the Natural Parks around. But we had only one day so we decided to start early and see as much as we could.

We started with Capital Hill and the buildings around: The Old Parliament, New Parliament, the gardens. We passed by the High Court of Justice building, National Gallery and National Library. The weather was rainy and cloudy, so we didn't want to spend much time outside and decided to focus on the big things.

The next big thing was the War Memorial Museum. One of the best museums we ever saw. We had only 2 and a half hours to visit it, but we could spend the day there without a problem. So interesting and full of details and interactive features. There was a light and sound show made by Peter Jackson on the WWII section, the presentation of each event was so realistic and made us feel as we were living it. The rest of the exposition was just as interesting: Real planes and submarines from the different wars, historic footage, short movies explaining each turning point of each war, amazing displays of battle fields. As Talia said, "Every history lesson should be like this museum and it would be much more popular among teenagers. Not to mention I would know some history!"

Memorial War Maquette

Memorial war airplane

But time was running short and we had to head to our next destination, Albury. Why Albury? Because it's a good place to stop between Sydney and Melbourne. After a 4-hour drive by Talia, who felt confident to drive on the left side, we made it to this small town. Albury is a very pastoral and lively town.

At first we didn't hear anything from our host all day, which was a bit scary, but she finally met us in town and we drove to her place. Shannen invited us in her house where she lives with her boyfriend Tim and another roommate. After a small dinner, we discussed about our plans for our trip and she gave us a few tips on what to see on the road to Melbourne.

Tim, her boyfriend, told us that he has visited Japan twice, and twice in the winter, which is exactly the time we will be there. So we had a lot of questions to ask him, especially about what is possible to see in the winter. And apparently you can see a lot! And his trip was a lot like the one we plan to do so it was great to meet someone who has done it and is interested in the same things. Plus they have the most amazing vegetable garden!

So again, we went to sleep very late, but we were lucky to have met such interesting people in 2 days and hoped it would stay that way. We were 2 for 2.

Shannon and Tim

We started our way to the final stop before Melbourne: Ballarat. In the previous 2 days, it had rained a lot in Australia and the previous week some parts of New South Wales were overflowed. So it was hard to drive with all this rain and sometimes heavy rains. So heavy that sometimes we couldn't see the road ahead.

The Ballarat area is where the gold mining rush occurred around 1850. So a lot of towns around this area look like a western movie, and Bendigo, one of our stops on the way to Ballarat, was no exception. We had the feeling were in some American town and Talia had a feeling she was back in Texas.

So once we got to Ballarat, 2 hours late because we missed the turn and got almost to Melbourne, we finally met our next host: Mark and Adrienn. A nice and young couple who lived in Melbourne before moving to Ballarat. Once again, it was hard to say good night to them too. They were so nice and so welcoming. They have a great Christmas tree in the bedroom we stayed in and stockings hanging on the fire place so we really felt the Christmas spirit around us :)

Chrismas tree in our room!

They had a cat which just gave birth to 3 kittens and it's probably the smallest kittens we ever saw: They were so small they looked like rats. But so cute!

So cute!

There are a few things to see in Ballarat, usually related to the gold mining. So we decided to see Sovereign Hill, a theme park on the gold rush period of Ballarat. The park is reviving the 1850s period of the gold rush and actually has interesting attractions and activities for children and adults as well. Australia has a good way to make history interesting and alive. You can really learn and have fun!

Sovereign Hill

We learned how to separate gold from mercury, we saw the discovery of the second biggest gold rock by going down into the mine itself and live the moment with the miners themselves. We saw the condition of the Chinese workers and learned how to prepare sweet candies. It's hard to explain everything but it was just amazing.

We also visited the Gold Museum, which is much smaller, but has some nice displays too.
Now we were ready to get to Melbourne and see the big city.

Pics from the Canberra, Albury and Ballarat: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=581142&id=906005363&l=c2492beb84

New Caledonia - Iles des Pins or Isle of Pines in English

So after our week in all the main island of New Caledonia, it was time to see another great place: Isle of Pines. It's a a small island in the south of New Caledonia, and even if it's small, there is plenty to see and do there: Amazing sand beaches, reefs to dive in, cycling, a sizable part of French history, caves to explore and fish at hand's reach.

So let's start from the beginning. We had just gotten back from our 4-day camping trip in the north of New Caledonia, exhausted and full of adventures. But we couldn't lay down. The next day we had to wake up at 5:00 to catch the ferry to this small island. Our friends in Noumea lent us theiy tent and diving goggles so we could enjoy the most of our weekend there. We also brought some food for most of the time there so we had a lot of luggage to take with us. We had to walk 30 minutes to the pier where a lot of people were already waiting.

The journey with the ferry was not all pleasant for us: They were showing a kids movie (The Golden Compass) with the sound as loud as in a cinema, and the end of the trip was very bumpy and some of the people there couldn't keep their breakfast in...

But once we arrived, it was all forgotten: The sea is beautiful, so clear, so blue.

After picking up our rental car at the pier, we headed to our camping site, called Nataiwatch, and after a quick lunch, we started our excursion of the island.

End of school year parade in Vao

We went to see the ruins of the old prison there, where political prisoners from France were held, and the cemetery of those same prisoners. Those prisoners were Communards (like Jimmy Summerville's band from the 80's) and were kept with their families on the island for life. The Communards' story is one of the most interesting parts of Parisian history, and for those who are interested, go read about it in Wikipedia :)

After seeing some history, which is usually Rony's passion, we went to see one of Talia's passions: Caves. We went to the Queen Hortense Caves in the center of the island that, according to legend, was the place the queen went to think and find peace while visiting all of the tribes.

One of the funny things is that there is an entrance fee of 250 francs, but there was no one to collect it.
Instead, a note was left saying that in case nobody was in the booth, we should leave the money in a plastic box that was left there. So we emptied the box and took all the money with us. Psych! We did what the note said, and paid every penny so they can keep this place nice and clean.

Sign at the caves asking people to pay up :-)

The cave is very peaceful indeed, especially since we were alone there. And the gardens at the entrance are very nice too.

The Queen's caves - some of it was pitch black!

We went all the way North to see Crabs Bay, but we saw no crabs. At this point we were quite tired after a week of travel, so we decided to call it a day and returned to the camp site, returned the car and we went to sleep at the incredible hour of 8:30PM. Well, Rony did. Amazingly, Talia was able to fall asleep around 9 as well and we actually woke up the following morning.

The next day we went to the main attraction on the island: A tour in pirogue (traditional fishing boat) in the Upi Bay, then a walk to the natural swimming pool. The day starts at 7:30 and ends at 15:00.

Rony and Talia on the pirogue in Upi Bay

The boat tour was very nice, with a lot of beautiful places where to take pictures. A bit long (2 hours) but very peaceful compared to what comes next: A 1-hour walk in the forest with a trail between rocks and tree roots. Now you may say "OK, what's the big deal?" Well, once you arrive with the pirogue at shore, you have to get in the water as deep as your knees and walk in a sinking sand for a few meters. So unless you have slippers you don't care about, you can only do that barefoot.

We didn't have slippers we don't care about, so we had to walk in the forest barefoot for about an hour. It was a bit hard and Talia had to put her shoes on at some point, with all the mud still on her feet.
But it was worth the trouble: The natural pool is beautiful, full of fish all around us, coming at us. We saw so much species and coral reef, literally at our feet. Not to mention quite a few crabes, but they were more afraid of us than we were of them.

That was the highlight of our weekend there.

Talia sunbathing in the natural pool

We spent one more night camping and decided to take the next day easy and just stay in Nataiwatch, which has a beautiful white sand beach and enjoy the view till our flight back to Noumea.

The airport is the smallest we've been in our whole lives, and so was the plane: It probably could contain 40 people in it but we were only 20 so everybody could see the view on the lagoons all the way back till Noumea.

lagoon view from the plane

lagoon view from the plane

We thought places like this did not exist in real life and were only a creation of Photoshop, but we saw it for real!

Now we were ready to celebrate Justine's birthday for our last day in New Caledonia.


Again, it was too short to enjoy everything and there are so much things to see there, we maybe saw half of it. But we keep great souvenirs from our hosts and people we met there, this beautiful island, and one day we'll come back to see everything else.

Isle of Pines pics:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=578294&id=906005363&l=9516f48761

North New Caledonia - La Foa, Bourail, Poindimie, Heinghene, and Kone - Part 2

So after visiting Teremba, the old prison, we went to Bourail, a small town a bit north from there. We decided to have lunch there on a parking lot, and Rony decided that it will be a good place to start to learn driving a stick shift. Talia was all "What!? Here?! Are you sure?!"

Rony: Yes! This is a great place, big parking lot!
Talia: Did I ever tell you how I fired my Mom when she taught me how to drive and swore I wouldn't drive until I was 56?

For someone who never drove a stick shift, it's a bit like learning to drive for the first time: You have to learn to use your left leg and your right hand, you feel all clumsy and it's very frustrating because you know you know how to drive, but you still feel like it's your first lesson...

Emotionally it was hard for Talia, especially that there were some kanaks (locals) watching us and some of them were laughing. The first step is always hard.

After a 30-minute lesson (no charge) Rony took back the wheel and we drove to the other side of the island, on the east coast. We passed beautiful scenery while we were driving up the hills and when we finally got to the coast it was wonderful.

We passed Houailou (pronounced Lulululu by Talia), a nice little town on the east coast, and went to our first night stop in Poindimie, a place called Chez Simone. We rented a bungalow there, in the back yard of the house. The place is in a tribe up the hills, in the tropical nature of that island. So we had a few "visitors" and "roommates" during the night: Spiders, bugs, mosquitoes, and some unknown animal that Rony thought was a squirrel, although apparently there are none in New Caledonia, and Talia thought was a rat. The mystery will remain forever...

After all the night adventures, we went on up north. We went to Hienghene (pronounced "hygiene" by Talia), where Nature offered us the beautiful view of "La poule de Hienghene" (the chicken of Hienghene) and the sphinx, 2 beautiful rocks on the coast.

La Poule de Hienghene

Then we went further north to see Tao waterfall. For that you have to pass with your car over a river on a ferry boat. It is called "bac" in French. The bac of Ouieme. It's quite fun and we had time to see the beautiful surroundings and take more pictures. :)

After that, it was a bit harder to find our goal, Tao waterfall. Apparently we passed it and arrived in another waterfall, Colnett (which we were going to see anyway). There we saw many local children jumping in the water from a big tree. It could be a commercial for New Caledonia, that wouldn't surprise us. Everything there seems like tit was taken from a travel agent commercial or Photoshop.

Tao waterfall

On our way to find Tao again, we took a local kanak that was hitchhiking to go home. He was a bit drunk, but he told us a few facts on the region: The small bridges on the road were built by the Americans during WWII, when New Caledonia was a base for American troops in the Pacific. And the river on which we took the ferry is "tabou", meaning that the place is sacred and no bridge should be built there. In New Caledonia, there are many sacred places ("tabou") that are important for the locals. So that was one of them.

Anyway, we drove him home but it was a bit late for Tao waterfall, so we took a couple of pictures from the road and when on to Kone. Rony decided that we should sleep in Kone because it's closer to the places we wanted to see at the end of our tour. And there was also a friend of Justine's who lives there, a french Canadian named Genevieve. We met her 2 days earlier at Justine's house and she was very nice and gave us her phone number in case we were around Kone.

The original plan was to pass through Kone and not stop there, but since she was there, we thought "why not have coffee or diner with Genevieve." Well, it went beyond our expectations: She invited us for dinner and champagne and beer, and to stay overnight and camp in her backyard. She lives with a roommate from work who is a great cook and she prepared us a fish tajine. It was the best meal we had in New Caledonia. It was delicious! So when we get back from our trip, we will ask her for the recipe and make it ourselves :) We had a lovely evening with them, and in the morning they left us their key so we could shower and they set the table for breakfast. Best B&B we were in :)

The next day we went all the way back to Bourail, where Talia could have her second driving lesson. In the same parking lot. But different people were watching. And they had nothing to laugh about. This time Talia nailed the stick shift driving. Level 1 passed.

We also saw the wonders around: Turtles Bay, La Roche Persee (Pierced Rock), and Le Bonhomme.

Bourail: La roche persee and Le Bonhomme

Now we could go on and see the wonders around La Foa, Sarramea and the surroundings. We camped one more time in a farm near La Foa and when to the Parc des Grandes Fougeres so see a bit of nature and hike. There we saw a cagou, the national symbol of New Caledonia. It's a bird that can not fly and exists only on this island.

Wild Cagou

After that we went back to Justine's, where we just crashed on the couch and got prepared for our next trip: Iles des Pins (Isle of Pines.

Pics (same album as the last post):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=576716&id=906005363&l=70fc839448

North New Caledonia - La Foa, Bourail, Poindimie, Heinghene, and Kone - Part 1

After our first few days, we went up north for a 4-day camping trip. Yes, I said camping. The wonderful thing about this country is that everyone leaves their homes on the weekends and goes camping somewhere, so everyone owns a tent and sleeping bags.

Our hosts (other than Justine and her partner, there are 3 other roommates), lent us their equipment, and off we went. Before we continue, I need to make a small point. The cars here are manual. Rony had always driven a stick shift, that is until we started dating (my car is an automatic), so after an hour or so he was driving like a pro. I, on the other hand, have never driven a stick shift.

Me: I can't drive a stick shift
Rony: I will teach you
Me: Pshaaaa.

(The preceding conversation is, in fact, verbatim).

Before we left, Justine and Rony sat down and planned our itinerary, though to be fair, Justine basically planned it for us before we arrived. In our effort to be nice guests, we washed the dishes before we left. Unfortunately, a glass cup broke in my hand while I washing it and I got a huge cut on my pinky, with blood flowing everywhere.

Normal person's reaction: Ahh!! Ahh!! OWW!! Ouch!!! Blood! Eww!! Ouch!!!!!!!
Talia's reaction: See? I told you I was allergic to cleaning!

Anyway, we bought some food for those few days and off we went. Our first stop was La Foa, a town that, as it turned out, had a lot to offer. After a stop at the local tourist information office, we promptly went to visit the local (not in use) prison.

A bit of background about New Caledonia: It was actually an island where convicted French felons were shipped off to serve their sentence. While they were there, they actually built the prisons and towns themselves.

The view from the tower at the prison

The prison has a beautiful view, like the rest of the country, and it has been almost completely restored. The old prison cells now hold life-like statues of "prisoners" showing visitors what it used to be like. The following is an exchange between Rony and me when I first spotted the "prisoners:"

Me: Ahhh!!!!!!
Rony: Hahahahaha!!!!

Yes, Rony found immense pleasure in my sudden discovery and subsequent squeals of fright, but that's OK. :-) Anyway, the prison was pretty cool, especially the tower where we could see the scenery all around us, with the bay and old bakery.

One of the first "prisoners" who scared the living daylights out of me

We then started our drive up north towards Poindemie, which is where we spent the night in local tribe accommodations. The place itself was really nice and in the mountains, and the people hosting us were really nice, even though it scared me a bit at times and felt a bit Criminal Minds-ish :-)

One of things that we found very impressive and cool about the country is that people have stands in front of their homes and essentially have a trust-based "shop" where they were selling fruits and other goods. They would lay out whatever they're selling (bananas, pineapples, flowers, etc.) and have prices on them and a small box for people to pay for whatever they take - and we saw people taking and paying!

One of the "trust shops" along the way

Even more impressive, one of the places we visited, that had a small minimal entrance fee, didn't have anyone selling the tickets. Instead, they had a note that asked that people leave the money in a box - and they did! I'm not sure what's more impressive: People actually paying when they could get away with not paying, or seeing a box full of money and not taking the money. Either way, we found this very cool.

We'll post part 2 of northern New Caledonia soon, but for now we're going to bed and get some sleep :-)

Pics from all of north New Caledonia (not just this blog post):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=576716&id=906005363&l=70fc839448

 

Bonjour from Nouvelle Caledonie (New Caledonia) - Noumea and south New Caledonia

Where? New Caledonia! It's a French island northeast of Australia - it was about a 2.5-hour flight from Sydney. Rony's friend, Justine, lives here, and she invited us to visit. So we did. :-)

Rony and me in Noumea, New Caledonia

This group of islands is actually the basis for our entire trip. Flights to N.C. come from Australia, so Australia seemed like a great destination for us to explore, and the flight to Sydney is through Bangkok, so Thailand seemed like a great addition... you get the picture.

Anyway, after 3 fun-filled days in Australia, we took our flight to N.C. and arrived around 1 am. Luckily for us, Justine picked us up from the airport, and of course we just fainted on the couch of exhaustion (the drive is almost an hour long).

While our trip had already been planned for a while, a few weeks before we left Israel, Justine told Rony that while we would be here, she and her partner would be having a wedding party. A fairy-themed wedding party at that! So our first couple of days were spent helping her and her partner get ready for their big day, shopping for clothes for the wedding ("fairy-chic" is not my clothing style), and making all of the decorations.


As I previously noted, this is a French island. Which means they speak French. You know what happens when someone comes to you, kisses you on both cheeks, says their name, and you say "I don't speak French?" They giggle. That must be the local custom.

So my first day was awkward, but this house is just full of people at all times, and all of their friends and roommates are really fun, so I quickly felt very comfortable. We met tons of really nice people, one of whom invited us to call her when we traveled up north, but more about that on a later post (about north New Caledonia).

Just one of the gorgeous views in the Noumea region. Doesn't it look like a postcard?

This island is seriously a tropical paradise. The emphasis for our first few days here, though, is on tropical - it rained. That was just sad, although we had a great time anyway, as you can see from the pics. After all the wedding celebrations were over, we rented a car and went on our first adventure to the south of the main island.

We started with a trip to the Blue River and the artificial lake. The south is just a mix of red from the earth which is full of iron, green from the vegetation that is all around us, and blue from the sea and the sky.

So the lake was beautiful, even if it's actually made for the hydrological dam that provides electricity to the region. We could see dead trees in the water where a forest was before. Beautiful and sad at the same time.

The trees that were cut down to build the dam

We could also see true wonders of nature: waterfalls, beautiful scenery that can not be described, the sea at our feet, literally - the side of the road ends on the shore. Everything was beautiful even if it rained a lot.

We had only 2 small setbacks: Because of the (very heavy) rain, we could not see Prony, a miners' ghost town, and the road back was so insane and poorly built, that we were seriously driving at like 20 kilometers per hour, if that, for a large portion of the way.

The streets and why we had to drive so slowly

All in all, it was a great day, even if it was long and mostly gray. The next day we went on a 4-day camping adventure up north, but more about that in our next post.

Until then, au revoir!

Pics from Noumea and southern New Caledonia - direct link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=573973&id=906005363&l=4b7776c170