Seatbelts and Jesus on the Naked Bus?

As the sunset was approaching I hopped on a bus headed North to a town called Taupo. I took a taxi to a McDonald's across town from my hostel and in front I was picked up by a cheap as hell bus called The Naked Bus (if you go online at the right time you can buy tickets to so many places for around $20- similar to Mega Bus in Canada)

I had to wonder, what was with the name? The Naked Bus? Was the driver going to be some greasy, middle-aged naked dude encouraging everyone to take it off? Was I hopping onto a bus of fornication? It wasn't exactly what I had imagined. Just in time to beat a gust of rain, I hopped onto the bus as a fully-clothed middle aged dude threw my bags into the cargo space, got behind the wheel, told everyone to put their seatbelts (?) on and said a prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. That was a first! Seatbelts and Jesus on The Naked Bus? Alright! Ill take it! Its better than some drunk guy crapping his pants behind me and a delinquent mother who cant be bothered to soothe her baby's shrill cries for the entire ride...like on every single Greyhound bus ride Ive ever taken back home!

As we departed Wellington and hit the highway I watched the rolling green mountains go by, and thought about how lovely it was that even the suburbs haven't completely taken over nature. Dont get me wrong, there is plenty of development in the area, but still compared to most cities Ive visited you can see that nature is still King. Instead of a sprawling suburbia dotted with a tree here and there, there was a refreshing blanket of green for as far as I could see, and stunning mountains and coastal views with neighborhoods scattered here and there- mixing in, not parasitically reigning like other places Id been recently. The more I traveled New Zealand the more I noticed this reoccurring theme- Nature First. Thanks New Zealand, one more reason to love ya!

I was a little regretful I couldn't spend more time in the quaint, inviting, artistic and colorful city of Wellington but nevertheless, one must push onward. I could feel a great adventure coming my way, and so I told myself "I'll be back" (and I did return). Trying to cheer myself up I turned my focus to the reason I came to New Zealand: The Tongariro Alpine Crossing, imagining it in all it's glory. At 3 a.m. those pesky fluorescent lights glared down on me. The Naked Bus had stopped.. Destination Taupo, check point!

Finding Work in Australia as a Backpacker

Since getting into Australia in August with a Working Holiday Visa (WHV), employment options were looking really scarce and my savings account was feeling it! I had always been told harvest work was abundant in Australia because no locals wanted to do it. But what I learned when I got here was much different than that. Even locals here have a hard time finding farm work!
I will tell you one thing, it is not a good country to travel without any income- true say. Things here are lucratively expensive! A coffee costs 4$, a sandwich 10$, a cinema ticket 20$, a hair cut is 40-80$. Some source of income is a must, otherwise it is easy to spend 1000$ a week.

Getting A 2nd Year Visa:
In order to be eligible to come back to Australia for a 2nd year on my WHV,
I would need to:
1) work in the agriculture sector
2) work within specified postal codes (excludes all major cities)
3) work for 88 days and have employers sign form 1263. 

In other words, I needed to find steady farm work- and fast! Scott and I teamed up, searched online classifieds, job boards and even calling The Harvest Trail on a regular basis. Nothing. In fact, the people at the Harvest Trail hotline were of very little help. We applied to several jobs directly everyday, sending resumes and cover letters. Still nothing! We were running out of options.
There is no good place to run out of money, especially Down Under. Things here are really expensive, jobs are hard to find, the country is massive- cities and towns are spread really far apart and transportation costs a lot. It is particularly hard to find decent farm work because there are so many foreigners in the country.  I quickly realized just how expensive transportation can be! I have easily spent 1000$ AUD. on transportation since I entered the country 3 months ago, including trains, buses, taxis, ferries etc.
 
Car Or No Car? 
 Having your own car is a definite plus in Australia, but again is another expense. You need to weigh the cost of the vehicle against how much money you expect to earn, the cost of the distances you need to travel and the length of time you will be in the country, PLUS, how much of your money you can get back after you sell the vehicle when departing Australia?  I decided 6 months was not long enough to be in the country to buy a camper van- so I have been finding work without. I am more limited for work opportunities without a car but it also saves me a lot of paperwork, hassle of finding/ selling a car, and wont tie me down. Any time I want to leave Australia I can, because I have no car or belongings to deal with- just me and My Roaming Backpack.

 Weather Kills Jobs
It pays to follow the weather as a backpacker before and while you are in Australia. It happens that apprently 2012 has been a bad year for crops, so job openings are fewer and further between. Some crops of grapes and strawberries have been completely destroyed in Victoria state and Queensland- meaning more competition for work from other backpackers. And trust me, there are shit tonne of them! Sometimes it seems there are more foreigners in Australia than Australians themselves.
  
Take What You Can Get
My advice to backpackers looking for farm work in Oz is take what you can get when you can get it- dont be picky. One day there may be tonnes of work, the next day the crop may be finished, destroyed, or for some reason there is no work left. You can always work your way up from one job to a better one, but any job is better than no job. 
While I was just getting settled in and enjoying Byron Bay and Lennox Head, I got a call to work at a hydroponic herbs farm. It could possibly lead to me working 88 days, enough days work to get me my 2nd year working in Oz. The job was in Queensland about 3 hours away and they wanted me there in 3 days.  Id have to leave Byron Bay (so sad!) but I was focused on my savings account and that 2nd year visa (I like to keep my options open, just incase).  I packed my things and split ways with Scott. I traveled by bus and headed west just over the border of Queensland- The Sunshine State. Ironically when I crossed the border it was cold, grey and starting to rain! 

 From Stanthorpe I got hooked up with a ride from the employment agency that told me about the job. I got dropped off in a small town called Thulimbah, my new home for who knows how long?? It could be a month, it could be five?

Destination Byron Bay: 2 Days of Travel: Day 2

      Australias: Rain-forest to desert

After an over-night rest stop in a comfy bed, I woke up in Sydney refreshed and ready for Part 2! I met Scott in the lobby of the hostel and we raced down to Central Station, grabbing some Solo's on the way down (my new favorite drink in Australia).
 Oh, Central Station. It feels like I have been there a million times! Its probably more like 10, but as the Thai would say, "same same". During the next 12 hours we rode up the eastern coast experiencing all sorts of landscapes. There was a lot of what we have already seen so much of: dried up flat fields stretching for what seems like an eternity. And ofcourse theres the fields of green wheat and gold canola. 

Luck would have it that we happened to have been assigned seats in front of the most dysfunctional family in New South Wales, apparently. This single mother was a psycho and her and her 3 spawn children terrorized the entire train for 11hours and 59 minutes of a 12 hour train ride. By the end of the line, all of the passengers had changed seats to sit as far away from this family as possible. I spent most of the ride trying to block them out using my earplugs. Originally, I brought the plugs to block out snoring people at hostels, but they have turned out to be useful for all sorts of situations!

 I did manage to sneak in a few naps despite the chaos. The children, probably between ages 2 and 6, whined, screamed and kicked the back of my seat pretty much the entire ride. The mother screamed, swore and threatened to hit them or take away their I-pods. It was so annoying. I felt like turning to her and saying "FAIL." Im pretty sure she knew she was getting a lot of stink eye from the other passengers. Anyways, enough about that!
 
On the positive side there was falafels on the train, and tea bags containing coffee. Also a nice stretch of rainforest when we passed through the Blue Mountains! Some of these beautiful mountains met the Pacific Ocean. We met a really friendly Outback Jack who told us what gave the Blue Mountains their name. Apparently it is because of the blue haze that hangs above the eucalyptus trees during mid-day!

My favorite part of the trip was when we were getting really close to Byron Bay and there were valleys of banana trees everywhere! Banana trees as far as the eye can see. From a distance you could see bags hanging from all of the trees and it was like little cloud puffs suspended in rows in the air. Farmers hang the bags over the bundles of bananas and wait for them to ripen. Once they are ready, all harvesters have to do is chop the bags down because theyre already packaged. I never knew that! 

 Arriving in Casino we transferred to another bus which took us on a one hour bus ride into Byron. We finally showed up around 9:30 pm and found a hippie-van taxi to drive us to The Arts Factory, a really famous backpacker hostel built by hippies in the 70's. We would be spending the night in a teepee....New story and pics coming soon!

Destination Byron Bay: 2 Days of Travel, Day 1

After talking to one of my bestfriends from home, Jess, she convinced me to get to Byron Bay as soon as possible. It didnt take much for her to twist my arm, and actually I think her exact words were “I would have been there yesterday”. Jeanie, my friend Scott and I decided to go out for Chinese food and drinks to celebrate. We spent the night discussing religion, sex and politics over a few too many glasses of “celebratory” bubbly.

@ a Truck-stop in the middle of nowhere

I woke up to “Somebody that I used to know” pulsing from the alarm clock at 3:00 a.m. That was my cue to grab My Roaming Backpack and catch the 3:40 a.m. bus from Mildura, Victoria to Cootamundra, New South Wales, aka, the middle of nowhere. To top it all off I had one of the worst migraines Ive had in forever, and a ghastly 9 hour bus ride in my immediate future! Everything hurt; smells, light, sound. Really regretting those last few glasses of wine, I wished I could block the world out and go back to bed, but the train ticket was already paid for. "Buy the ticket, take the ride!"

Fields of Cano

 Instead I blocked out as much as I could using earplugs and sunglasses. Then I popped a super-strong form of Aspirin, and asked Scott to work on my pressure points using a technique he learned in Thailand. All I could do was carry on and hope for the best. It was 5 hours until I was relieved on my agony, but I guess it could have been worse. I could have got stranded in Cootamundra! (Jokes, well, not really)

After reaching Cootamundra and waiting 2 hours for the next train into Sydney, I spent the next 6 hours on a train. It was all so boring its really not worth mentioning. It goes a little something like this: Nothingness, nothingness, canola fields, nothingness, more canola fields, old saloon town, dried up river bed, and so on. After a long day we reached Sydney once again, where we grabbed some greasy pizza and falafel wraps and took advantage of the dry sauna and pool at our hostel. I went to bed early and prepared myself for the next morning. In the cards?: a 12 hour train ride to Byron Bay at the crack of dawn.

New South Wales to Victoria, Australia

Having been in the Sydney & Manly area for about 2 weeks, I am finding myself anxious to get out of the city & into the country. Sydney is a beautiful city, with lots to do- but it is a metropolis after all, and an expensive one at that! One of the travel pamphlets I picked up recently stated it is the 15th most expensive city in the world & my bank account is starting to feel it!

The country lifestyle is in my heart & I just cant wait to pitch a tent, feel the ground beneath my feet & watch the moon evolve as the days pass. In the city, even one as beautiful as Sydney, it is hard to notice the nature around us- its the stuff that makes life so beautiful. Nature is calling me. 

Myself & my two travel companions have landed an Orange picking job 30 minutes south of Mildura, Victoria. In a small country town called Iraak, we will be living in tents on the farm for 3-5 weeks.

We left Sydney yesterday and took a train/bus combo with CountryLink, transferring in Cootamundra. The total cost was $91 AUD. We survived the 17 hour trip, a severe rainstorm & a double rainbow! The trip down here was quite beautiful.

We showed up in Mildura lastnight around midnight to find the bus stop had little shelter from the insanely heavy downpour that was upon us. Luckily- so luckily, we had a ride to pick us up, a very friendly fellow from the hostel, " Mildura Stop Over". We spent today walking around Mildura, picking up supplies for the weeks to come, another tent, some thick insulated work gloves, etc. etc.

The farmer, whose name is also Jamie is picking us up to go to Iraak in only an hour, so I best be on my way, follow-up and more pics to come! Kickin off..

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Touching Down in Sydney Town!

Flying Over Fiji

The Island of Fiji

For the average Canadian like myself, Fiji is not the typical travel destination. Most people choose something closer in proximity and more familiar, like Cuba or Jamaica. The closest most of us get to Fiji is when some pharmaceutical-paradise commercial interrupts our favourite show.
On my recent flight to Australia (which was extremely cheap) I had a 4-hour layover in Nadi, Fiji, and amazingly, in these 4 short hours the country left a real impression on me. I was disappointed that I was restricted to airport boundaries for my stay, but thought it was a much sweeter opportunity then flying direct to Oz. Whats one more trip through customs? I told myself "Who knows, maybe you will experience something cool."



We left L.A. On August 4^th and boarded a Pacific Air flight (soon to return to its original name, “Fiji Airways”). Even in the cabin of a 747, the“island feeling” was there. The flight attendants were all native Fijians. I caught myself staring in awe of their beautiful and distinct native features. We were greeted with "Bula" , hello, in Fijian, as island music played overhead. Wearing colorful island shirts of red and blue and adorned with Masiratu flowers in their hair (the official flower of Fiji). I could not stop my admiration of the native island beauty that is so foreign to me. Arriving at the Nadi airport, 3 Fijian men welcomed us with upbeat songs as they strummed on a guitar and ukuleles.

The customs x-ray area was no more then 10 feet long and the inspectors were laughing with passengers and smiling all the way. It was a nice feeling after leaving some of the largest North American airports. I can see that when one arrives you have this feeling like , "Ahhhh...Im back in Fiji now.." After being sent through to our departures terminal we went looking for some eats- morning was approaching and we were getting hungry! We were shocked and to see the cost of food among other basics. I have a hitch that outside of Nadi, the cost of living is much more reasonable, but prices for everything were ASTRONOMICAL, and to my surprise the Queen of England was on the face of each bill. Up until now I had little knowledge about Fiji at all, so it was a learning experience for me to realize that ,yes, Fiji was colonized by the British. Still, the currency is the Fijian Dollar.

Approaching the dining area in the airport, we glanced at an extremely expensive breakfast menu.Unwilling to pay $16.50 Fijian dollars for one omelette with toast, me and my travel companion decided to go splits on breakfast! We still had a few hours of time to waste afterwards, so we made our own fun and goofed around in the airport for awhile. Watching my travel friend try Vegemite for the first time was especially hilarious.

 For only spending 4 hours in Fiji I was actually sad to leave, and hope to one day visit again. It seems like a really interesting place with beautiful and very friendly people, lots of flavour and culture! Just be sure to bring enough cash!