Careful what you wish for. Having been driving for days and having not had a sniff of even a light beer, we hit the town running. Little did i know that Jos friend, Linda, has the drinking constitution of the larger half of the Irish Rugby Team, but that she also likes to drink at a feverish pace. The photos say it all. Its nice, granted, that there are some photos of Jo and i together, but i fear this is solely because Linda was the only one with the faculties or amount of patience required to operate a camera and actually have pictures of people, not her own fingers, as the end result. The second time we went out i think everyone except Lindas boyfriend (a very pleasant lawyer) was equally well sauced as on this occasion Linda ended up trying to carry the heaviest men in the bar on her back. Having announced that the heaviest she'd succeded in carrying was a massive 115kg bloke in the past, someone actually said yes to being lifted, despite weighing only a whopping 105kg. Quite the spectacle. I think the band were a little upset noone was paying htem the slightest bit of attention. We went for dinner to their house on another occasion, and that was much more civilised. Noone got smashed at all.
We left Adelaide behind us after some far too heavy drinking and set out on the leusurely part of our cross country drive. We were heading from Adelaide to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road, the famous stretch of cliff side tarmac that runs past the 12 Apostles (a large bunch of rocks in the water) and other various sights and seaside towns, all of which looked the same. Im not complaining, i think this is half the charm of seaside towns. You already know your way around before you even arrive. Beside the chip shop is an ice cream store, and on the other side is a place selling small buckets and spades. These three places are wedged between more cafes than there are town residents and its all located conveniently 30 feet from the beach.
The Apostels were impressive though. Jo and i got up super early to go and enjoy them at sunrise, as per recommendations from some other backpackers. As it turns out the sun rises on the wrong side of the world to be of any use at the Apostles so Jo and i enjoyed them in total darkness. I assume these people will be karmically crucified for such a cruel recommendation, but i suspect they wanted for us to go at sunset and were just too rubbish to know the word for it. We waited for a while and saw them eventually though, before getting back on the road and heading on our merry way to Melbourne. Jo, while sitting uncomfortably in the passenger seat, had the audacity to criticise my driving on the windy roads, so i made her drive the whole way. Who knew cars could even go at 20km an hour.
Melbourne succesfully navigated, we arrived at a massive hostel in the north and booked in to a dorm room with 8 other people. We did a bit of touristy poking about and then decided to start job hunting, this is where were going to spend our next 3 months working. I bought an outfit at great expence and was ready for interviews. We decided to go for jobs through the day so wed be free to have a social life in the evenings, so Jo went away to her first interview as a secretary. Then i had my first as some marketing whatnot , then another and another and so on and so on. Weve both been offered jobs now, but neither of us have accepted. Weve changed our minds.
Yesterday we booked 2 flights to New Zealand. The guys we met in Bali are gonna meet us in Queenstown and were all going to go Rafting, Parachute Jumping, Bungeeing and Skiing for a while. Should be a blast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well be back here in Oz on the 13th of June to start this job nonsense again, but until then were going to carry on like proper tourists. Today were gonna go up the highest building in the city and stand in a glass cube hundreds of stories off the ground. Tonight were going to meet up with a couple who worked with me in Biddy Mulligans, Malin and Peter. We met them a few days ago and they showed us the bar that Peter runs, where he kindly offered me a job, and showed us their apartment, in which they offered us a bed. People here are nice people. Over the next few days im going to put the car up for sale, a sad sad time, but we have $4000 tied up in it and if someone smashed into it we'd be buggered. I want to keep it and drive to Uluru, but that wont be for a few months and finding a place to park it free for 3 months will be tricky indeed!
The sun is shining outside, despite it being winter. Time to get out there.
Jo and i have Australian numbers. Mines 0488732046. Jo's is 0415830156.
