New additions

Trying to get this thing up to date. Sydney stuff is news, the rest is old, but I hadn't written it down yet. Should be straightened out soon.

Sydney

With class and assignments finally over, I decided to head up to Sydney for a couple of days. I haven't seen anything but Canberra for months and needed to get away from the same old routine. The trip out was uneventful except for the part where I got news of my new job with Perpetual Water. The bus ride takes a little over 3 hours and goes straight to the central station at the south end of downtown. I walked across the road to Wake Up! youth hostel, which is meant to be one of the nicest ones around, then took a walk down George Street to see some sights before dark.


At the end of George Street is Circular Quay with the ferry terminal. It leads to the Opera House on one side and the Harbour bridge on the other. Both impressive sights. After taking a pile of pictures, I wandered out towards the bridge and The Rocks - one of the oldest areas in Sydeny, though much of it has changed over the years. Then it started to rain... I thought I might wait it out, but decided to make a run for the cover of storefronts along George Street.


The next morning I got up early to see what I could see. I walked out through the parks to the Royal Botanical Gardens and Mrs. Macquaries Chair - a carved sandstone bench with views of the harbour and more opportunities to take pictures of the bridge and opera house. I passed lots of the old sandstone bulidings along the way.


From there I walked around Circular Quay and under the bridge to the wharves, which are being redevelopped as exclusive condos. Seems like a nice enough place to live. I wanted to walk a cross the bride, but it looked like rain again so I decided to stay near cover. The observatory is at the top of a nearby hill and I went there to get a good view. My intention was to explore The Rocks next, but the rain started again.

Botanical Gardens & Black Mountain

To work the Guinness out of my system I decided to check out the botanical gardens and climb up to the Telstra Tower on Black Mountain. This isn't really the best time of year to see the gardens (since summer is coming to an end down here), but there were still some flowers and things to see.


The walk up to the tower wasn't too difficult once I found the right path and the views from the top of the hill were pretty good. I couldn't go up the tower, so I'll have to go back sometime.


The tower is used for telecommunications and signs everywhere say that the radio waves can disable your car. I wonder how good they are for your health.By the time I made it down again, the gardens had closed for the evening and I had to find my way around the outside to get ack to civilization.

St. Patrick's Day

St Paddy's Day seems to be about the same everywhere. Since I didn't have Friday class I decided to head out noonish to one of the faux-Irish places in Civic. PJ O'Reilly's was busy so I headed in and found a table to share with a pile of strangers. The local Irish dance group was there doing what they do:



Once other people were free we headed out to one of the local sports clubs. They're all over the place and have cheap beer for members (or if you have one to sign you in). We were there long enough to get a pile of free hats and then went to a barbie.

D & D Ball

The D&D Ball is an annual event held in all of the capital cities. My housemates have been in the past and said it was a good time, so I decided to give it a go.

D&D stands for drunk and dateless and the idea is simple: you pay $80 for the evening's food, drinks, and entertainment. To make things more interesting, you can apply to be matched with a blind date... or that's the idea. This year there were uneven numbers of guys and girls - big surprise, though I hear that's not as common as you might think. Anyways, on to the party.

Suits were required, so Matt and I went to the 2nd hand shop to find something disposable. We found a couple of $20 suits that came close to fitting and picked those up. Mine came with 2 pairs of pants and has Hugo Boss tags - what a deal! In Canberra, D&D takes place in the arena (not for hockey) at the Australian Institute of Sport.


The food was ok, though not suited to being eaten while walting around and the drinks were all pre-mixed cans. They weren't kidding about uneven numbers... a bit of a sausage party as they say, but our group managed to have an ok time anyway. The live music wasn't bad.

Skyfire 18

Skyfire, an event put on by a local radio station was going on yesterday, so I decided to go have a look. Nobody seemed interested in anything except the fireworks at the end, so I went down by myself to catch the other events. I guess people who have grown up here have seen all the other things before.

After following the crowds, I was able to find Regatta Point without much trouble. I knew that was where things were taking place, but hadn't bothered to find it on a map. The place was packed, but I was able to find a good seat on the wall along the shore to catch the first event - a firefighting demonstration. This was a helicopter that buzzed around before picking up and dumping water three times over various parts of the lake (I think our water bombers are more exciting).

Next on the agenda was a flyby put on by the Canberra Airport Authority. I was hoping for something better, but it was just a couple of business planes flying high overhead. I thought that was the end of the air show, but there was more to come... The Roulettes.

I hadn't remembered seeing them in the program, but probably because the name didn't mean anything to me. They're the aerobatic team from the Australian Air Force. They fly propeller planes (Pilatus PC-9/As) and put on a pretty good show, though I'm not sure it was as exciting as the Snowbirds.


Next there was a concert with Lee Harding. I know vaguely who he is, but I wasn't too interested. He has a pretty generic screaming rock sound, so I didn't hang around long. I made a quick run back down to campus to get rid of my bag and things before the fireworks.

I had noticed the firework barges in the lake during the day and figured it wouldn't be much of a show, but they sure pack the explosives tightly on the little rafts. I read later that there were some 35000 pyrotechnics - not bad for a radio station. I was near enough to the stage that I could hear the music a little (that new Madonna song anyway) and the display seemed to be in time.


After the show I gave Matt (who lives with me) a call. He was supposed to make his way down for the fireworks, but somehow managed to consume a bottle of vodka in the 2 hours since I'd left the house and was making his way to Mooseheads (a club). I met up with him and a few others there to party the night away - the bars don't close here until everyone leaves, so about 6 hours (and 15 playings of that Madonna song) later we left for home.

Tourist Thing, Part II

I had some free time this week and decided to check out the museum. It's just at the bottom of the university campus, so not too far for a walk. Public museums are free here, as they are in the UK and should be everywhere, so that's nice.


The place is crazy looking. I was told later that the main entrance is meant to be the empty space inside a Boolean Knot and the curly bit coming out is one end of a rope (used to tie the knot.) It's all meant to be symbolic, but there aren't enough interpretive signs to figure it all out.

The first stage is a rotating theater that describes - abstractly, big surprise - the themes of the museum: land, people and nation. The audio visuals are cool with lots of video screens moving around an bright colours and things. Didn't learn a lot, but it was artistically interesting. Then into the galleries

Begins with talk about native animals and then into introduced species. Lots of info. Then galleries about colonization (by europeans) and more modern things like sport and bushfires. Next are galleries about native peoples - Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders. I'd never heard of Torres Strait Islanders until I started to fill out Australian forms and having to check the box saying I'm not one. Actually quite interesting. They live on islands between Australia and Indonesia/PNG and are traditionally sea-traders. They developed accurate navigation and boats for open-ocean sailing.

Then it's into the 'Garden of Australian Dreams'. I'm glad I'm Canadian and don't dream like this... It's crazy. I was standing on top of a bulge looking lost when one of the volunteers offered to help make sense of it for me. The base layer is a map of Australia that is too big for the space, so it extends out under the walls. The map is overlaid with many other maps - political, topographical, vegetation and road - then things get really crazy. Crooked trees representing Australians with roots in other countries, a symbolic suburban house with lawn and pool, prospector poles and dingo fence, a tunnel (coal mine?), ...

Some interesting bits I found:
• Australia, copied from their money, but with an extra n and printed in reverse. I was told I'd be able to read it from a plane, but maybe she meant the mirror variety; I think it would still be backwards from the air.
• The walls of the building are clad in bumpy metal, which turns out to be braille messages of welcome, but I can't figure out how blind people are supposed to read braille bumps the size of basketballs that are hanging on the side of a building. I asked and they hadn't had that question before, but suggested maybe a ladder.

Doing the Tourist Thing

I thought I should see some of the tourist sights here in Canberra, so I headed out on Saturday to check things out. First on the agenda was the Australian War Memorial. I was warned that one could spend days in there and I can see why... it's huge. The road leading there from the parliament buildings is lined by the various memorials: Army, Navy, Air Force, Nursing, various conflicts etc. That took long enough at 37°C or whatever it was that day.


Inside, it's full of information. Divided (as you would expect) into Great War, WWII, and more recent conflicts. Dioramas play a large part in the displays. There are dozens of them and, in general, they are quite impressive. They did a good job with perspective and, according to the signs, they are quite realistic.

A recent addition is the ANZAC gallery where they house 'the big stuff'. A Lancaster bomber and a few Messerschmitts on one side with a video presentation. The Lancaster retuned from 90 missions (unheard of) and was retired before taking any major damage. It returned to Australia to fly around the well to do for £100 a seat - pretty expensive for wartime.

In the centre they have a Japanese submarine with the centre section blown out. It turned up in Sydney harbour during WWII and, though trying to sink an important vessel, torpedoed a Sydney harbour ferry. They have what was left of the ferry too - just the wheelhouse.

Finally, the other side houses tanks, artillery and shells. Along with some other bits and pieces. I think there's a third movie here, but I didn't hang around to see it.

The basement had an exhibit of modern art by local artists and a small exhibit about Australian participation in conflicts as a British colony.

Behind the museum is a hike to the top of Mount Ainslie. The peak provides excellent views of the city and is ideally situated at the end of the 'land axis' linking the War Memorial and both the Old and New Parliament Houses. The clear day meant that the view was spectacular, but so was the heat. The scrubby bush doesn't provide much protection from the heat.

Signs of brushfires are everywhere. Lots of eucalyptus trees that are only alive on one side and charcoal on the other. I saw a little wildlife, but mostly the same black and white raven and crow looking birds. I should find out what these are called. There was a lizard on the trail and I got it's picture. There are also Cockatoos, but they seem to prefer the leafier trees in the city.

Along the trail are plaques commemorating the australian defense of Port Moresby and the Kokoda Trail in WWII. They're sort of confusing because they make it sound like you're following the Kokoda trail (which is 96Km long and in Papua New Guinea). Very strange.


After my hike I was tired and decided to head home via the multicultural festival where I caught some of the parade. Back home people were getting ready to hit the clubs in Civic, so I decided to join. It was the last night of the festival, so there was a big party in the city centre - conveniently near all the bars. Checked out a few of those and caught the end of the US-Sweden hockey. Yay Sweden.

Canberra, Week 1

I'm pretty much settled in Canberra now. Found a house to live in (pictured above). It's the one I mentioned before, so I'm looking for a bicycle to make the commute. In the meantime, I've picked up a bus pass to get around this confusing city. Everything is very spread out and is designed as a pile of interlinked suburb areas. They all look the same and many have aboriginal names making them impossible to keep track of. I'm getting a handle on things now though and I think I can get wherever I need to.

The area I live in is quite new and much of it is under construction, so there aren't any good maps. The best I've found is the rout map for the city busses. I live under the big H in Ngunnawal. The city centre (Civic) is south of here and to the southwest is Belconnen - probably the second biggest urban centre after Civic. The speed of construction here is amazing. They're 4-laning the road from here to the Federal Highway and it looks like they'll be finished in weeks, not years like it takes in Canada. They don't have any blasting to do and the lack of frost means they just flatten out the farmland and pave over the dirt as far as I can tell. The nearest of the urban areas to here, Gungahlin, didn't exist 6 months ago and now there's a shopping centre, lots of little businesses and a huge suburban area around it.

Everything does sort of look like this though. Not very exciting. I managed to register for my courses after a struggle with the system. The package they sent me seemed to say that I could get most things done on Monday - not true. The office they told me to visit didn't even exist. I was able to pick up one form and have my visa checked. On Wednesday there was an information session put on by the faculty, and that was good (we even got lunch), but then it was time to register online. One course didn't exist online, but they neglected to warn us or explain how to add it manually meaning that after queuing for an hour I had to walk back to the faculty office and have courses added manually before I could line up again and wait for a student card.

Anyway, that's done and I have a cheap bus pass. Now I just have to open a bank account and find a bicycle and I should be set for the year.

Odds & Ends

I'm in Canberra now and still without a house. I'm off to see at least one tomorrow, but it's a little far from the school. Probably 30-45 minute bike commute, which will be ok if I get a bike...

I've found WiFi now. Best Western has a hotel next to my hostel and they sold me a 24h access card for $5 - about what it costs per hour everywhere else. I added a lot of pictures to the posts below, so you should check them out. I have no new pics because my camera is charging. I managed to end up with totally flat batteries after staying in a hostel with no outlets (Christchurch) and one where I was almost afraid to sleep, let alone reveal the fact that I was carrying valuables (Sydney.)

Here are some loose ends to keep any avid readers entertained:


Kidney ferns are found elsewhere. I saw tons of them in the forest bit near the end of the Tongariro Crossing and took a photo to prove it. So I didn't need to take a side trip after the long hike up Rangitoto.



This is the woman who hates rocks, but decided to climb a volcano. Somehow I managed to take a picture of her and just noticed it now.