Australia: Part II of V

When: 26 December – 28 December

Where: Adelaide/Kangaroo Island

After a safe flight from Darwin to Adelaide, our only plan for our day in Adelaide was to see the zoo. We started off the day by taking a taxi into the city to explore the downtown area. My first priority in Adelaide was finding a place that could help repair a strap on my backpack*. We came across this shoe repair store that had a nice gentleman willing to help me out.

*I bought this backpack at the sketchy mall in Jakarta, Mangga Dua. I got it very cheap and thought I was getting a great deal. If you remember back to my second blog post about my week in Thailand, this was not the first durability issue I have had with this backpack. When you read Part IV of V of this blog, you will see that this was not the last one, either.

From there, we walked about 30 minutes to the Adelaide Zoo. Why was the zoo the one thing we had planned for the day, you ask?

PANDAS!!!!

We got to see giant pandas in person. Pretty cool. It turns out that pandas are kind of…well, I’m not sure I should say it…I might offend some people…oh to hell with it…bitches. Apparently the staff at the zoo has to prepare loads of different types of bamboo for the pandas so that they can eat the flavor of the day. The staff at the zoo said that pandas can be very picky about what kind of bamboo they have and will not eat it if it is not of their liking*.

*Nate told me that there is this group of wildlife lovers that despise pandas. I guess they claim that pandas receive way too much funding for being endangered compared to other animals that actually serve a legit purpose to nature.

The zoo was pretty cool and had a wide range of animals to observe.

We got to see a tiger feeding in the afternoon.

This involved a zoo worker putting a phat piece of raw meat on a rock, the tiger going up to it, licking it several times, and then taking it away so it could eat in peace. I wondered aloud to Nate if the tiger ever gets tired of being fed. I’m sure having a prime piece of meat just handed to you daily would be lovely, but don’t you think the tiger would miss hunting and killing? I don’t know. These are the weird things that pop up in my head. You all are lucky to get free insight into this extraordinary mind.

Saw some other cool animals. I like giraffes. They are pretty sweet.

Saw our first Tasmanian devil. Do you know what a Tasmanian devil looks like? Well, it is nothing like this:

It is actually looks like this:

Lame.

I wanna know what Robert McKimson (a Robert McKimson reference?! You could have gotten great odds that his name would never be dropped on this blog) was smoking when he drew that thing for Warner Bros. Is it a sweet cartoon character? Absolutely (maybe 2^nd to Daffy Duck – who will never be dethroned*). Does it even slightly resemble a Tasmanian devil? Hell, no.

*I don’t think many people on this planet have gotten to hear me go off on a rant about why Daffy Duck is the real hero of Looney Tunes. This is why you read the blog: for unprecedented access to the mind of Matty P. Here we go. Daffy Duck is the kind of hero that our youth should be looking up to. An unrelenting, passionate being. I don’t want my future child (if I’m fortunate enough to find a girl crazy enough to put up with me) looking up to Bugs Bunny. Do we want our children thinking that it is acceptable to pick on people with lesser intelligence/skills? No! We need more people like Daffy. Entertaining, pure-hearted people that persevere. He gets tricked, pummeled, and bullied. Does he give up? No. He brushes off his shoulders (or readjusts his neck) and goes at it again. Side note: it is also acceptable to view Elmer Fudd as the best Looney Tune if you are from Missouri, because, well, that’s a best-case scenario for your offspring.

After the zoo, we walked a few kilometers to a friend of a friend’s apartment. He, Vince, is life-long bros with one of the teachers we work with in Jakarta. They are both from California and Vince has made a career in Adelaide. Vince was an awesome dude. He hooked us up big-time by giving us some leftover Christmas food (ham, turkey, potatoes, etc.) from a gathering he attended on Christmas Day.

After dinner, we headed out to a bar called Austral to enjoy some brews and good conversation. Can’t stress enough what a great dude Vince is. He was a lot of fun.

We enjoyed some of South Australia’s finer beers that evening. I mainly remember two things Vince told us from that night. The first was that the minimum wage in Australia is stupid high. It is $18 for 18-year-olds and goes up to $21 for 21-year-olds and above. He said that this is a big reason why very few people tip in Australia – the people are already making a solid hourly wage. This helped explain why nearly everything was twice as expensive as it is in America. It was definitely a shock from the Indonesian prices I have become accustomed to.

The second was about friends from back home (America). I think that this paragraph could offend some people and if it does, I apologize. But it’s my blog and I’ll speak my mind. Vince talked about the resentment that will meet us when we go back and visit. I am doing something really freakin awesome by teaching abroad and traveling so much for these 2 years (maybe more, who knows). Most of my friends from home are more-or-less doing the same thing. I can’t tell you how many people came up to me after I took the job saying, “That’s so cool, man. I really thought about doing that.” Or, “Sweet. I always wanted to do something like that.” SO WHY DIDN’T YOU?! I get that I am in a smaller percentage that professionally, financially, and relationship-wise is able to do this, but how many times do you get to be in your mid-20s? Are you gonna have a chance in your 2^nd life to go travel/explore when you are young? 4^th life? I just don’t get it. I’ve got one life to live and I’m gonna make the most of it. Growing up, I never would have thought of myself as the kind of person to live abroad, but it is the best decision I have ever made. Sorry if that offended some of you, but it’s how I feel. And to my friends/family back home: you have no idea how much I miss all of you. June can’t get here quick enough.

****

We woke up the morning of the 27^th and headed to the Adelaide bus terminal to catch our bus to head down to Kangaroo Island. We booked a 2-day, 1-night tour of the island that turned out to be amazing.

It was about a 2-hour bus ride south of Adelaide to catch the 45-minute fairy to Kangaroo Island. The drive was really pretty.

(Nate on the ferry)

The first stop on our tour, which had about 15 people on it, was at Rob’s farm. Rob is a sheep shearer. The stop started with Rob showing us how his well-trained dogs herd the sheep and bring them in when it is time for shearing. The sheep get sheared between once every 6 months and once every year. If they aren’t sheared, the wool becomes too heavy and they are put at risk of drowning if they are near water. It looks like brutal physical work and would be tough to do day after day. Rob says that an average work day for a shearer is shearing around 120 sheep.

We stopped for lunch at a place called Emu Ridge Eucalyptus. They sold a bunch of eucalyptus-based items like soaps, scents, etc. They also sold Kangaroo Island honey. The Italians brought with them a special type of bee that has since become extinct in Italy. It is now only found on Kangaroo Island and is supposed to be the purest honey you will ever get. Because of this, you are not allowed to bring bees or honey onto Kangaroo Island. I had the honey. It tasted good. I’m no honey expert, though.

The next two stops in the afternoon were awesome. The first was Seal Bay. There were a ton of Australian seals chillin on the beach. These seals go on a rotating basis of 3 days in the water looking for food followed by 3 days of sleazing on the beach. Most of the seals were passed out, but we got to see some activity.

The best part of Seal Bay was a baby seal coming up to our group. You are told to keep a safe buffer zone (20ish meters?) from the seals on the beach. But they are used to seeing humans and one baby got really close to our group to soak up the attention.

From Seal Bay, we headed to Little Sahara. Little Sahara is a huge sand dune where I attempted sand boarding. Anyone that knows my success with board-related or balance-required sports can imagine how this went. For those of you that need video evidence, enjoy.

We went to our accommodation after a quick stop at Vivonne Bay (pictured below).

(not often you get to be in water that flows from Antarctica !!)

We had about an hour and a half to kill before dinner, so I convinced Nate to go kayaking. I had never tried it before, so it was a good experience for me. I can see the appeal: very relaxing. The “backyard” of our accommodation had a bunch of kangaroos just chillin. We couldn’t get too close to them without them scurrying off, but it was the first time we were really close to kangaroos.

Kate, our tour guide, grilled steak, chicken, and sausage for dinner. It was great. While Kate was cooking, both Nate and I took showers in the central bathroom facilities. The path from our room to the bathroom led us past the grilling area. Nate finished his shower before me and went back to our room. I had no idea he said this, but as he walked past Kate he said, “Let’s throw a few shrimp on the barbee!” A few minutes later, I walk past Kate. What do you think I said? Of course I did. She had to be thinking, f****** Americans. She was really cool, though and was a terrific guide. Also, she wasn't afraid to give us a hard time/give us crap. We respect that.

During dinner, we ate with a guy from Gangnam, South Korea.

Nate and I continued our one-sided battle in ping-pong Down Under. I now have a winning record against Nate on both continents we have played on. He will never forgive me if I don’t toss him a bone here and tell you how the night’s matches went. I won the first 6 (per usual). Did he win the last 4? Yes. Did he make it a point to rub that in the rest of the trip? Yes. Does that fact that he had a losing record on the day and still treated it like he beat Randy Daytona tell you everything you need to know? Yes.

****

Our first stop the next morning was at Hanson Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. We went on a 45-minute walk through the gum trees (eucalyptus trees) there and saw a ton of koalas. Koalas are interesting. Most people know that they are super lazy, sleep a ton, and just eat eucalyptus leaves. One thing I didn’t know was that the reason they are so lazy is because their diet is so bad. They basically get no nutrients from the eucalyptus leaves so they have very little energy to expend in the first place. Also, koalas aren’t even born able to digest eucalyptus leaves. They have to eat their mother’s feces as an infant to get something that allows them to digest eucalyptus leaves. Trippy.

While people were shopping in the gift shop, I asked one of the employees what the Australian flag (pictured below) meant. Union Jack is in the upper left corner as a nod to their British ancestry. There are 6 stars on the flag representing the 6 states. The star on the left half of the flag has 7 points: 6 for the states and 1 for the territories. The five stars on the right of the flag form the Southern Cross that can be seen in the night sky.

Our next stop was Flinders Chase National Park. Inside the park was a site called the Remarkable Rocks. They were, well, remarkable.

(it was super windy)

From there, we headed to a place called Admirals Arch. This was a pretty cool spot where there were a bunch of New Zealand seals sleazin on the rocks by the shore.

Kate then whipped up one of our best meals in Australia for us. She cooked these fajitas that were fan-freakin-tastic.

In the afternoon, we walked through a rather tight squeeze of rocks to reach Stoke’s Bay.

We got back to the port where the ferry would leave about an hour before we had to board. We were fortunate enough to see a dolphin in the water off in the distance and to see a penguin on the rocks.

(bye, Kate)

The fairy and bus ride back to Vince’s place was pretty uneventful. One of the most generous things done for us on the trip was our driver stopping the bus we were on (with about 80 people) before the main bus station so we had a 5-minute walk to Vince’s place instead of a 40-minute walk. This was a little after 10:00pm so that was clutch. He was an extremely nice man and did us a big favor.

The Adelaide/Kangaroo Island section of Australia comes highly recommended from both Nate and I. Nate says that Adelaide was his favorite city we visited (I was partial to Hobart: Blog IV). Kangaroo Island, from our conversations with Aussies, isn't a very popular vacation spot. We were very surprised to hear this after visiting. It was an awesome, diverse island that had a ton of really cool natural wildlife.

That concludes the Adelaide/Kangaroo Island section of the Aussie excursion. Check back for Part III of V for Nate and I’s time in Melbourne.