Feel bad I've been neglecting this blog. Sorry, been too busy having fun. Only get online if a host offers it. Am too cheap to go and pay for it (heh heh...). But I do want to jot down my memories though, not really for you, just for myself.
Melbourne was just too swell. New Zealand may not be able to top it. That's really unfair though. In Melb it was like a real holiday because I knew I couldn't work. Now I'm in NZ I'm thinking of how to trade my hours for dollars, as usual. Same old same old. Here it's a bit of a relief though because I'm not looking at all the prices and multiplying it by 3 and a bit. Damn the strong Australian economy now. In NZ now I times it by 2 and a bit. Lapang sikit rasa dada.
After Warburton I made it to Melbourne and met up with my girl bestie from Malaysia who was in town for 3 days. I was excited to take her on her virgin Couchsurfing experience. And prove to her that I am not crazy and this Couchsurfing business is pretty nice. We surfed with the couchsurfer guy who spoke malay in Huntingdale. I had met him at the Couchsurfer meetup in St Kilda (useful right these meetups?). Seems his house was a historical one. It's the house of Prof Don Huttton of Monash Uni. Apparently he has a walking trail in Melbourne named after him. Sadly the Prof passed away of cancer about a year ago. The Prof was an astrophysicist and was interested in sustainability. So he used that house of his as his living lab. In fact I read his Masters thesis (which was on the shelf in the living room - his family had LOTS of books) and in it he had used his as a study site. Prof Don figured it out that in winter there is hot air trapped in the roof and he tried shifting that warm air to the living area. Dan's family is also very green and were close to the prof and his family. Dan's dad started LandCare, a very famous environmental group in Oz.
I stayed in Mentone then with another couchsurfer. This was a really nice place because his place was a 4 min walk to the beach, Coles supermarket and the Mentone train station. SO convenient. And the Mentone beach is really nice, better than St Kilda's or Elwood's (which my earlier host had taken me and my bestie to see). My Mentone host had a prior engagement so he left me on the pier down the road from the house so I could catch the sunset and walk home. It was a beautiful watercolour sunset. Very nice really. People were fishing, playing, barbecuing... It was lovely. I took pics of seaweed again. Saw jellies (jellyfish) in the water and on the beach too.
My Mentone host drove me all the way to Phillip Island. Actually I missed my AUD11 bus and we chased the bus to Koo-wee-rup. Again we missed it and my host said thats it, we're so near he might as well drive me all the way there. Bless him. Koo-wee-rup is famous for (once upon a time at least) being proclaimed as home to the best asparagus in the world.
My host in Cowes, was such a nice lady. Too nice. I had the use of her spare bedroom which had an attached bathroom (gosh, luxury I tell you). She drove me around EVERYWHERE and took me to see all the free sights on the island like Swan Lake. I saw quite a few wallabies up close. I thought they were kangaroos! Phillip Island is pretty big you know. You look to one side and its the sea. You turn the other way and its acres and acres of farmland. Its really funny. I thought it would have a more marine or fishery-based lifestyle and industries. But they don't. Thank god my host drove me everywhere, the island is huge. I thought I would be clever and ride her bike to where I wanted to go. I would have been so exhausted. I am stumped at why there is not a public bus which will stop you at all the major tourist attractions on Phillip Island. I know I'm not the only one who thinks so, I overheard my Phillip Island - Southern Cross lady bus driver lamenting on the very same thing. Oh, I went to the Panny's Phillip Island Chocolate Factory. I had delicious frozen banana dipped in melted chocolate (I want to try make this when I get home). And guess what? Panny is a Malaysian Indian from Klang! Funny also, I found two streets in Cowes with Malaysian names: one is Malay Street the other is Perlis Avenue. They are just next to each other which makes me think that Malaysians have been doing a considerable amount of moving and shaking on Phillip Island.
My next hosts on Phillip Island on Cape Woolamai were this lady and her kids, a boy and a girl. They were so very nice too. A bit unfortunate that the daughter had turned vegetarian the week before I arrived. So she couldn't eat the apricot lamb stew I made. She did have my apple crumble although she refused to have ice-cream on top.
