New Zealand Road Trip

This is 6 months late, but...better late than never!

In August and September 2023, I spent time with my partner in New Zealand (also called more commonly there as Aotearea). In the first week, I worked with a client in Auckland, and we extended my trip by 11 days to explore the North and South Islands. We moved around for this trip - we were practically in a new town daily! Overall, we had a nice time on this trip! New Zealand is beautiful and full of lush rolling hills and rocky mountains that can be dramatic. But it wasn't our favorite trip to date, partly because we overcommitted ourselves and planned on driving a lot, and it wasn't as whimsical as our previous trips because we had a lot of distance to cover.

Overall Reflections

We had some impressions of things worth sharing before getting into some details.

• A Mix of Aussie and Brit: When experiencing the culture in New Zealand, we determined that the country was between the laid-back vibes of Australians and the pressure for proper systems of Brits. This is not surprising, as it is part of the Commonwealth and has a Pacific Island culture similar to that of Australian Aboriginals. What this also meant was that there were a lot of meal pies, slow speeds, and quiet places.
• Sparsely Populated: It seemed to us that the country was largely not populated even though some cities exist. There's just a lot of land and people living remotely in the country. Partly this was due to many farms with lambs and cattle, but there was also a lot of quiet land otherwise.
• Seasons Matter: We came in its off-season, which was a bit out of our control because I was there primarily for work, but it made our trip very cold, wet, and windy. We were either always cold or hot, which made us come down with some colds. We have agreed that we should come back sometime in the summer, which is also peak tourist season - we now understand why.
• Driving Wasn't Fun: We were also in the car a lot because New Zealand is larger than we expected, and the roads are much windier than anticipated! Much of our driving was for hours weaving around mountains and hilly terrain, making it not terribly relaxing to have a road trip across the country. It also meant we had to forgo places we were interested in seeing because we needed more time. For example, we wish we had seen more of the northeast of the South Island. Ultimately, we agree we should have planned to see less and probably focus on one island for our trip.
• Animals Everywhere: We saw a lot of animals on our travels, from keas harassing us for food on the South Island to other birds everywhere. New Zealand's native animals are all birds, many of which are flightless, like the little endangered kiwis. We also saw a lot of roadkill on our trip.
• Quirky Accommodations: On our drive, we stayed at many different kinds of lodging - all of them slightly quirky! From a trout lodge to a shipping container and a BnB in a Slavic-cum-American-cum-Kiwi household.
• Beautiful Public Toilets: The country seems to pride itself on having good, reliable access to public toilets. Even in less-populated areas, we can always find a clean, functioning, and nice-smelling toilet building. Many are decorated with whacky art and designs, which appeal to toilet nerds like me.

Travel Notes

Auckland

During the first five days in the country, I was bound to Auckland, facilitating workshops. I really liked it - the weather was pleasant there, and we enjoyed a quiet lake outside the city in Mount Wellington. We went into the city for a night and enjoyed a lovely meal at the pier. The pier in Auckland is peaceful and has a fun park that includes an installation of old silos that are now art. I was surprised to see a public swimming area in the heart of the city, as well.

Queenstown & Milford Sound

We then flew to Queenstown, marveling at the snowy mountains below us. We then drove down to the Milford Sound for a few nights. The drive showed us just how winding the roads are...and how dramatic the South Island's landscape really is. We enjoyed the Sound in the lodge there, though it was constantly raining while we were there. We took a treacherous boat tour of the sound's fjords - it was windy and rainy - and while the visibility wasn't all that great, we saw many waterfalls pummelling water down the fjord cliffs. We also saw a few penguins from far off, enjoying some rocky shelter. At the lodge, a baby kea kept coming over to us to look (and sound) pathetic and hungry, but we followed directions and didn't give the poor guy anything to eat.

On the day we were going to leave, the weather cleared up in the morning for a few hours so we could walk to the port and see the fjords in all their majesty. It didn't last long, though, and we had to leave early because they announced they were shutting down the area for a few days due to an incoming snowstorm. We drove out a few hours before the full closure started, and the snow started falling on us slightly. The idea of driving on snow on those winding roads terrified me.

We returned to Queenstown and stayed at an old dairy warehouse before continuing our drive north. We enjoyed hopping around the downtown area and strolling through its parks, even with the chilly breeze getting to my bones a bit. We also spent some time in the Kiwi Park to see some kiwis in person, but they shouted at our tour group when we entered the dark room. I could have spent more time there, though I'm not big on skiing or heights, including the other major tourist attraction - a funicular.

Lake Tekapo

We drove towards the central part of the South Island, and it was surprising how much the landscape changed from craggy mountains to a browner range of large hills covered in brush and distant mountains. We then paused at the badlands - Putangirua Pinnacles - and looked at the surreal structures. I felt a bit nervous, and my gut warned me of something I didn't like, so we bounced. We also saw beautiful blue reservoirs along our drive.

Once we got to Lake Tekapo, we were hit with a brutal cold wind that made us feel freezing! And the town looked half unmade. It was as if the town had been built a week before we arrived - our hotel was made of shipping containers. We had three restaurants to get into for dinner with a slew of confused-looking foreigners from tourist bus groups. Fortunately, we accomplished our goal of visiting the lake - we took a late-night stargazing tour and looked up at a really incredible starscape that almost seemed impossible. This area held many of the country's observatories because of its clear skies and limited light pollution.

Christchurch

We drove to Christchurch for our final visit to the South Island. It was an interesting city but not a place we felt like staying. It hasn't fully recovered from the 2011 earthquake, and the city felt silent and empty...and tired compared to the other areas we had visited. It almost felt like a Kiwi version of Cleveland. It was pleasant enough, though, and we saw some pretty waterways. The old university was rebuilt after the earthquake to become a town recreational area.

Wellington

The next day, we flew to Wellington, the bottom of the North Island. Our flight got delayed, and we learned it would be a bumpy hour. A Kiwi from the area told us to gear up to be jostled around like never before, and we all started talking about things. His name was Justin, and he invited us (after a windy landing) to lunch at his favorite spot near the airport. It was pretty tasty! He then gave us a quick tour of Wellington in our rental car before we dropped him off. We also dropped off our luggage at the hotel so we could start cleaning our laundry.

Our trip north changed slightly, as we found disappointing news that our big planned adventure—visiting Kapiti Island to have a night tour of kiwis in their natural habitat—had been canceled due to the weather. We're sad about this but made the best of it and toured Wellington more than planned. That town is really windy, and that's normal!

We walked around a lot, and saw some fun things like the lobster toilets that Lonely Planet made famous years ago. We also visited Te Papa, the national museum that shared the country's history and interactive areas about its nature that had Maori influence. It was lovely - probably one of the best museums I've visited - and we stayed warm there for a bit. After, I ate some delicious fish pie and pavlova at an old local restaurant, and we ate dinner with a colleague friend who lived in the area.

Before we continued our journey north, we also visited the nature reserve - Zealandia - but had to cut it short because the sky opened up on us in the middle of our visit.

Turangi & Rotarua

We first drove to Turangi, which didn't have much there. It was a trout fishing mecca popular with octogenarians, and I ran into them while walking around town and past the river. And our lodge was covered in trout art. But the river was peaceful, and the quiet was a nice break.

The next day, we continued our drive north towards Rotorua. Our first stop was Wairitomo Glowworm Caves to see the glowworm caves. We really enjoyed this! The first part of the tour included a visit to the stalagmites that resembled a cathedral, and then the guides cornered us into the back, turned off the lights, and showed us all of the blue, glowing worms hanging in the back of the cavern! We then got into a boat and floated around the glowworm caves in darkness for a few minutes before heading back out - all very pleasing to the eyes.

In Rotarua, we stayed at an odd little BnB that was more like a guestroom in a heavily populated family house—not our favorite, but it was just for a night. At night, we agreed to go to Te Pa Tu, a Maori village that they transformed into a dining experience. There, we learned about Maori games, snacks, and old house setups. They performed songs before bringing us to dinner in a pretty dining hall.

The next day, we also visited Te Puia, where we saw active geysers in a park with Maori artists building big pieces of art before heading out again.

Driving to Auckland

We stopped at the Big Dog/Big Sheep buildings on our trip back to Auckland. I was so pleased to see that they were public toilets! These buildings on the side of the street were shaped with corrugated metal like a dog and sheep. They have since added another building that looks like a ram. This stop was right before we headed to a farming town for dinner.

Our dinner was at Hobbiton. I know, people complain about how over-commercialized it is there, but we were really pleasantly surprised!! We started with a slow walk through the Hobbit movie set area, with the tour guides sharing detailed and interesting stories. We ended up in the tavern, where they fitted the tables with a hobbit's food feast for all of us. Honestly? It was really delicious! Probably one of the best meals we had while in New Zealand.

They also apologized to us for some construction work they were doing and gave us free hobbit mugs, but honestly, I barely noticed it because they do such a good job keeping the magic there, even with the construction.

Afterward, we drove for a few hours, and we stayed in an apartment complex that perplexed me tremendously for about an hour before we found the entrance.

Beyond Auckland

For our last night in the country, we drove up from Auckland to Ruakaka for my sake. There are a lot of cool public toilets further north around there, and I was determined to see them. The first one was in a small town with beautiful, artistic toilets that looked like the hulls of fishing boats. The next stop was at Ruakaka, where we could see the Hundertwasser toilets. These toilets were some of the first famous public toilets in the country, and apparently, the government used them as inspiration to make other pretty toilets, like the others we saw along our road trip. The town had also put in a newer model of the toilets nearby to house a library, art center, and RV showers for the transitory guests they see regularly.

We stayed in a community halfway between there and Auckland, at a quiet couple's house that wasn't near much but had a lovely sunset view next to the water. Once we woke up, we returned to Auckland to grab some curry pies and visit the Botanic Gardens before our evening flight home.

Kenyan Xmas Adventures

If given the chance, giraffes will headbutt you.

I was so pleased when Mr. CT Lawyer agreed to visit me in East Africa for the Xmas holidays – this meant I would be able to avoid being cold over the holidays as well as introduce him to Africa (as an entire continent, of course), all while exploring some of the extremely beautiful places of the area I hadn’t yet seen.

We ended up having a fancy trip through East Africa, and it was magical and luxurious. We had an absolute blast together.

*We ended up spending time in Kenya and Tanzania. For the sake of organizing my thoughts, I have separated the countries in two blog posts.*

Our Kenya adventures revolved around animal safaris; so, once he arrived, we rented a giant SUV. I was anxious about him driving while here, as I’ve found driving around in Kenya to be frustrating and harrowing – and I’m just an Uber passenger! Drivers here appear to be a bit erratic in their following of road rules, in particular, the matatus (who may be suicidal, based on their crazy driving). What’s more, the roads are covered in potholes! Roads that aren’t riddled with holes probably have random speed bumps every hundred meters or so - roads and highways alike – and may or may not have street lights to illuminate where exactly the roads are at night. This means that there is a lot of swerving, near misses, knuckle-whitening, and ample swearing (from me the passenger). Luckily, though we encountered these things on our road trips, he is a great driver and the car (and humans) came out fine.

But I’m ahead of myself a bit.

Our first adventure included a four-hour drive north to a nature conservancy called Ol Pejeta, known for holding the last two Northern White Rhinos in the world. We fought off matatus and slow-going trucks up and down windy roads until we got there.

On our drive, we noticed that each roadside town seemed to each specializes in particular products that the community would sell at stalls to ongoing traffic. We started to name the towns based on their products: MangoTown, ChairTown, MaizeTown, BananaTown, PotatoTown, FlourTown…you get the point.

Once we registered our vehicle with the conservancy and got our accommodations sorted, we started meandering through the park….and almost immediately started running into animals while we drove around! About a few minutes into the conservancy we had to pause for a herd of zebras to cross the road, and an elephant was munching on a tree 150 meters away from us. It was magical – we didn’t need to look for animals at all; we only had to ride a few minutes past one animal before we approached another group of animals. We didn’t see leopards or cheetahs on our trip, but we saw most the other animals available in the conservancy: buffalo, antelope, gazelle, elephant, giraffe, zebra, bush pig, rhino, baboon, chimpanzee, warthog, and loads of cool birds. Ol Pejeta was quiet, too; we didn’t see many people, which was more than fine for us.

We met a lot of helmeted guineafowl on the park roads who would stupidly panic and stumble in front of our car on the road for a few minutes instead of getting out of our way, causing a lot of abrupt stops on our end. I, stupidly, couldn’t think of the appropriate bird type and started to call them bush turkeys, singing a bastardized version Roy Orbison’s famous song: “Bush turkey, walking down the street….”

We went on a Night Game Drive with the conservancy, where we ran into a bachelor group of lions lounging on our path, and a little way off a pride of female lions who resented their need to share the road. We also ran into some jackals, hyenas, and a herd of elephants with babies.

The next morning, we met the two last Northern White Rhinos one-on-one with a ranger, feeding them while safely stowed in the SUV. The first one (Najin) used our SUV as a scratching post for a few minutes, aggressively rocking the car (and us) back and forth; the second one (Fatu) happily took carrots out of our hands from the car windows.

We also drove around the outskirts of the conservancy and got quite lost (there are no street signs in nature). We eventually hightailed it back to the main area of the conservancy after escaping an angry elephant threatened to trample us if we didn’t leave her family alone.

Our last morning at Ol Pejeta, on Xmas day, started early with a bushwalk. We drove to the starting place right when the sun was coming up. We drove slowly through thick fog and eventually saw a spectacular view of Mount Kenya painted with a rainbow of sorbet colors in the sunrise. Once we met the ranger, we walked through the boggy bush to see some animals up close. We had to silently (and quickly) retreat from our walk once we got too close to a lone buffalo and rhino.

While at Ol Pejeta, we stayed at their Stables. It was simple, friendly, and quiet accommodations for us, and we ended up staying in a roundhouse like a yurt with its own bathroom. The Stables had “lights out” at 11pm quite literally, as the generator shut off until the morning.

We nearly hit a lamb on the road just outside of the conservancy when we were returning to Nairobi. It baa’ed resentfully at us.

The next day we flew to Zanzibar to beach bum for a while, but that’s a different story.

When we returned to Nairobi on New Year’s Eve, at the end of his visit, we continued our animal adventures.

We visited the Sheldrick Trust, where a group rehabilitates baby elephant orphans and releases them back into the wild. They currently have 15 elephant orphans under 5 years old. We went in the morning to watch the little elephants flop around and feed on giant bottles full of baby formula. Unfortunately, it was a cramped spectacle full of tourists and screaming children, and I felt stressed out for the elephants. I proposed we leave early and surprised my Mr. CT Lawyer with his Xmas present – I adopted an elephant orphan for him, who he was to meet more personally in the evening.

We then visited the nearby Giraffe Center. Each visitor got a coconut shell of pellets to feed the goofy giraffes, who greedily stuck out their blue tongues for more food over and over again, headbutting clueless visitors not fast enough with their treats. We also got to feed a few baby giraffes – 3 months old! –timidly sticking out and wiggling their tongues for treats and wobbling their furry head cones between gulps. There were some curious baby warthogs behind the giraffes, as well – they didn’t get very close, but watched while the giraffes poked around tourists for pellets.

In the evening, we went back to the Sheldrick Trust for an hour to meet his adopted elephant, Nabulu. Though there were still quite a few people there who wanted to meet their adopted elephants, it was a much quieter and intimate experience than the morning visit. We got to watch the elephants run past to their pens with dinner waiting there. We also followed the elephants to their rooms to watch them chew on a few leafy tree branches. Nabulu used her trunk to get some water from her trough in front of us and blew bubbles into it before sucking up some water. The water sounded like a toilet flushing when it emptied out of her trunk and into her mouth.  We also met the other elephants there, petting a few and admiring the rest as they went through their evening rituals of eating, farting, and chilling.

We took it easy and spent the rest our Nairobi jaunts included fancy restaurants in the upscale suburb of Karen and malls in the nice eastern parts of the city. In my defense, I couldn’t think of city-specific adventures for us while he visited, and we were tired from the rest of the adventures. Some of the places we went to made us both feel more like we were in Europe than Africa, but we still had a lovely time. Some fast notes about those places (in case you need some ideas for future trips to Kenya).

• Dusit2 is an amazing and fancy 5-star hotel that will pamper you in the heart of Nairobi. But a heads up – it’s a resort, and it’s easy to feel like staying put there forever, with its food and pool and phenomenal service. Also, their PB&J Sundae is really addictive.
• Boho Eatery is an outdoor restaurant in Karen, and we had really tasty bowls of not-regional foods while the restaurant’s cat cuddled with us.
• We had our NYE dinner at Talisman in Karen. We had a really delicious meal with gluten-free bread and divine fish curry. He got a snapper bao bun that he is still talking about.
• We visited Cultiva Farms in Karen for a meal at some point. The ride getting there was wild and bumpy, but the food was really fresh and delightful to eat.

Iceland Road Trip

A little fairy house we saw on our drive.

After our delightful time in Denmark, the CT Lawyer and I jumped over to Iceland for the remainder of our holiday. Our Iceland adventure included us flying to the other side of the country and drive south on the Ring Road for a few days back to Reykjavik. It was quite a fun road trip!

Day 1: Blue Lagoon
We got on a bus from the airport that headed straight to the Blue Lagoon. It was my second visit to the spa, but it was even more relaxing and fun than the first time! There are always a large group of tourists revolving all day through this place, but they do a great job making it enjoyable even with lots of people. We waded through the water and soaked for a while with their silicon face masks before dinner at their Lava Restaurant.

During dinner, my face turned bright red and steaming hot - my super sensitive skin had a reaction to the face mask. The reaction made me unable to really enjoy the good food, sadly. Fortunately, the rash went away during the 45-minute bus ride to our hotel in Reykjavik.

Day 2: Reykjavik to Egilsstadir
The next day we woke up to a bright and shining Reykjavik. We took a fast walk around downtown, where I insisted on eating a hot dog at a famous stand. It was pretty darn good (and cheap), though definitely not gluten-free.

We had an afternoon flight to Egilsstadir, where our road trip would begin. The domestic airport is in the heart of Reykjavik, separately from the international one that is an hour out of the city. We arrived two hours early (as we do for US flights), but, upon reaching the airport and reflecting the small size of Iceland, we realized that we were painfully early. The airport is essentially a simple room with access to the tarmac - it reminded me of the domestic airports in Puerto Rico or Myanmar. Without enough time to go back out and explore, we waited patiently in the quiet airport for our flight.

We picked up our rental truck right after landing in Egilsstadir. Getting to the rental truck, our lungs exploded with fresh air and my ears buzzed with the quietness of the area. There are, after all, only about 2,500 people who live in the area and a light sprinkle of houses contrasted with lots of open space.

This was something we experienced for the first few days of our road trip; we found ourselves in very sparsely populated areas; we would see no one else for miles, and when we did see people there weren't that many. It was wonderful.

Once checked into our guest house, we drove out a ways to visit the coastal town Borgarfjörður Eystri; we wanted to see if the puffin hotspot was still buzzing or if the puffins had left for the season. We drove through lovely countryside dotted with farms until we reached the mountains lining the coast, which is when the road started to wind tightly and become treacherous. To make driving even scarier, a thick fog settled around us, forcing us to drive at a snail's pace so we wouldn't fly off the road suddenly.

When we finally got to our destination, the puffins were long gone. There was a whipping wind in the tiny town, so we got back in the car and drove (slowly again!) back to Egilsstadir. Once we had returned to town, we ate dinner at a small house and I enjoyed one of my first bowls of delicious lobster soup. There wasn't much else to do as the sun disappeared, so we napped a little bit before we went back outside later at night.

Our goal that night was to espy some aurora borealis, clouds permitting. Our host recommended a few vague locations for us to see the aurora well, including a 10-minute drive to some vague location on the top of a hill outside of town. We tried a walkable location first, which was a little too well-lit...which meant we got into the car and got lost for about 30 minutes until we finally figured out where the host's directions were leading us. It was worth it - before the clouds overcame the sky, we got to watch the slow movement of a green swirly band of light caress the stars.

Day 3: Egilsstadir to Hofn
In the morning we started our long drive south to a town called Hofn. The host told us to not trust Google and take a specific route that was safer and prettier than the older road Google indicated in our directions (the "new" Route 1). At first, we were hesitant (we'd be going on verbal directions for hours), but we followed his directions and enjoyed long views of the water and rolling mountains. We were surrounded by natural beauty and barely made any contact with other humans or towns along the way - there weren't even other cars on the road for a long time! The Google-recommended road intersected with ours halfway into the drive and we saw a line of rental cars (with Google-navigating tourists), all muddied and battered from old road gravel. We were so glad we listened.

We started to see the outlines of glaciers on the horizon. The closer we got, the bigger and more daunting (and otherworldly) they appeared. We were going directly to one of those glaciers, actually - we had bought tickets earlier for a kayak tour of a glacial lake.

We checked into the tour in the parking lot of a dairy farm next to the glacial lake, put on our heavy-duty ice-ready gear, and shuttled off to the kayaks. After a few fits and starts (and almost capsizing), CT Lawyer and I decided to kayak in separate kayaks and joined our small tour group (about 14 people...and no other humans in sight) as we waded around calm yet ever-moving icebergs floating in the water. It was stunning. Part of the kayak adventure also included hiking on top of some of the icebergs. We put on ice shoe chains and learned about the lives of glaciers while we walked on the giants. It was an extremely neat tour!

After kayaking, we drove into the town of Hofn for dinner plan - one of the locals had started a business offering traditional, local meals for tourists, and we went to her home to enjoy some fish casserole. Upon arrival, she presented to us a fascinating walk through the history of Icelandic food. We got to try fish leather and fermented shark (which kind of reminded me of very strong brie) and whey (do not recommend). The fish casserole was creamy and comforting in the chilly weather.

Day 4: Hofn to Vestmannaeyjar
We drove towards the Westman Islands, but we had a lot of time between how long it would take to drive to the ferry and when our ferry was scheduled, so we took our time and visited a number of places on the way. We started to see more people (especially tourists).

The first place we visited was the famous "James Bond Lake" - Jökulsárlón Glacial Lake. It was busy with tourists on inflatable rafts. After ogling the lake, we soon went back into the car and kept our drive going. We were trying to run away from a storm that was traveling in our direction.

As we kept speeding down the road, we happened upon a beautiful, picturesque glacial area (Hvannadalshnúkur) with wildflowers hiding at a swampy marsh. We stopped to admire the background...and then we kept going.

We also took a quick stop to hike up a mountain and peek at the Svartifoss waterfall (where, again, we saw more tourists), but neither of us was feeling particularly dazzled and we went back to the car. We took other pit stops at waterfalls like Ásólfsskáli and a few others I can't remember (there are many waterfalls all over the place). We finally had put a few hours between us and the storm.

We also stopped at an outside turf house site. There's a little museum for the special houses in Keldur, but it was closed for the winter. Fortunately, the gate was still open (not sure if that was intentional...) and we quietly walked through the small row of sweet turf houses and circled the adjacent small, steepled church. In the back was a small graveyard that overlooked a swiftly-traveling river. The panorama was breathtaking.

We still had an hour or two to kill before the ferry, so we drove to a museum we had seen advertised on a billboard - the Saga Center. Essentially, it is an indoor exhibit that retells the famous Icelandic story called Njal's Saga. We, apparently, were the only people who thought this was a good idea - no one else was around! We walked through the exhibit (which had background noise of people fighting with swords) and read the storyboards throughout summarized the tale. The exhibit ends in a restaurant that was modeled after an old Nordic longhouse. In there, we found two guys manning the bar (in metal shirts) who were very eager to sell some ribs. I'm not sure why ribs were on the menu, but we humored them and ordered some. They tasted fine, the guys asked us a lot of questions about their cooking tactics (I doubt they had been serving many people lately). It was a strange place but an entertaining experience.

Finally, we got to to the ferry that would take us to the Westman Island. We were visiting the island specifically because it has one of the largest puffin colonies in the world, and we were hoping for a little puffin viewing action before we left the country. So we got on a very large freight ferry with a bunch of local families and semi-trucks that were bringing merchandise to the community.

The wind was strong and the seas were very angry; while the travel time was only 45 minutes, it was a harrowing ride and the ferry tipped every which way. I saw the locals running to puke in the toilets during the ride. There was a TV room in the ship that played continuous episodes of Friends, which I made Mr. CT Lawyer watch while being sure we were going to die in the waves.

But we made it to the island alive!

And the island was super duper windy - I mean, windy doesn't even describe the severity of the wind...gale-ish is more like it. This was slightly problematic for us because we were staying in a barrle cabin at a campsite and the toilets were only accessible by walking outside. But that made it fun, right?! And kind of nerve-wracking.

Upon checking in, the campsite manager let us know that there were pufflings (BABY puffins) out and about the island still and the Islanders were running around at night with cardboard boxes to catch them! She lent us her puffling box and we ran out to the port to go puffling hunting.

Let me explain.

Adult puffins leave the island in late August, but they leave pufflings behind to learn how to fend for themselves. Think of it as the teenagers being kicked out of the nest to figure out life. The pufflings now struggle with the island's urbanization; they get confused and lost at night because of the streetlights, which makes them susceptible to moving cars and hunting cats.

So we, along with local children and parents, were running around the port with our cardboard boxes, trying to catch pufflings and turn them into the local aquarium for tagging and release the next morning. The atmosphere was a lot like Halloween because people ran around the streets with flashlights and containers.

We honestly didn't think we were going to actually find pufflings. But we did.

We stalked the harbor for places pufflings could hide. I thought of how our little pup likes to find comfort by huddling next to walls, so I looked around the corners of buildings. Pretty quickly I found a little puffling cuddling the wall of a generator building by the water, trying hard to look invisible. I slowly approached the little guy and he ran under a nearby car...where a cat was waiting. CT Lawyer joined me and shooed the cat away. We then spent the next 10 minutes coaxing a reluctant puffling from under a car. He wasn't happy about being captured (CT Lawyer was holding him) and he pecked away at CT Lawyer's gloved hands while I grabbed the cardboard box from the car. Meanwhile, a local man slowed his car with the lights shining on what looked like a tiny black ball (aka terrified puffling). He got out of his car and professionally snatched the puffling before it could run away, but he started to look around his car thinking, “Well, what am I going to do with this puffling now??” I ran up to him to offer to care for the puffling if he didn’t have time. He shrugged nonchalantly and handed the puffing over to me. And then there were two.

There was a small challenge we hadn’t thought of; the pufflings were apt at escaping their box in the back of the car. We spent another 15 minutes digging around for two pissed off pufflings hiding in the nooks of the truck. At last, we got them in the box and kept them in the blustery campsite overnight until the aquarium opened up.

And our lives are now complete. We have unlocked all of our achievements and could go home right then and there. Well, we still had to bring the pufflings to the aquarium in the morning.

Day 5: Vestmannaeyjar to Kjarnholdt (aka middle of nowhere)

When we got to the aquarium, the floor was covered with boxes with live, mad pufflings. The aquarium was great with them, though – they measured the pufflings, weighed them despite being pecked, and asked if we’d like to release our two little guys off the cliffs. And we did, off the windy cliffs off Vestmanaeyjar, and boy did they fly! 

Also, there was an adorable adult puffin at the aquarium named Hetti who waddled around the exhibit (with an aquatic pitter-patter) and greeted the humans and pufflings upon entering.

Oh, and if you were wondering, puffins smell like fish.

Otherwise, Vestmanaeyjar was gorgeous but terribly windy, and we drove around the entire island in about 20 minutes. The other attraction there was a museum and buried outdoor village that memorialized a local volcanic eruption from a few decades ago, called the Pompeii of Iceland (it buried so much of the island, but I think only one or two people died in the eruption). The museum centered on an excavated home and was fun and engaging with games, videos, and music – if you’re ever on the island, you really should hit it up.

Before we ferried back to the main island, we stopped by a little fish shop for lunch. Everything was exceptionally fresh. I had a fish curry that almost made time stop for a few minutes for me.

After a less terrifying ferry ride, we drove west and headed more inland for a night, because why not?

We drove to the Gulfoss Waterfall and went to a camping restaurant to have some pizza (it,,,was not good). We eventually drove to our guesthouse that was so incredibly remote and off the main roads that we worried that we would be kidnapped and imprisoned in the guesthouse's basement.

But that’s not what happened; instead, we slept in a quiet ranch for a night.

Day 6: Kjarnholdt to Reykjavik

In the morning we drove to the Geysir for a hot bit and took a stroll through the Þingvellir National Park to see the tectonic rift under crystal clear water. There were hordes of tourists now wherever we drove, which was jarring and made us itch to escape the humans. In any case, we were in a rush – we had a scheduled event in Reykjavik.

The drive wasn’t very long, fortunately, and we had time to kill. We enjoyed the Perlan (which is a big, fancy Icelandic nature museum slash observatory). They had a simulated glacier walk in the basement (with real glacial ice) and a stellar view of the city.

The event we were running to was a four-hour class at elfschool. Yes, it was a class about elves - Icelanders have strong, fascinating mythology around elves still. It was fun…and mighty quirky (just how we like it). The elf expert was extremely knowledgeable about elf stories while keeping his class tongue-in-cheek. And he served us tea and pancakes, which was very nice.

After we earned our diplomas in elf studies, we went to our final dinner at an upscale restaurant, fishmrkt. I was tired of eating fished by then and ordered lamb (which is also popular in Iceland), and it was good despite their specialty in marine life.

Day 7: Reykjavik to Back Home

Our flight back home was later in the day, which means we had time to for one more walk around Reykjavik. We got another hotdog and visited the Icelandic Phallological Museum (aka penis museum), which is essentially a room filled with preserved penises from all kinds of animals, including humans.

A lot of the tourists, like ourselves, visited the museum for the novelty of it…but most didn’t get the full experience. We saw a lot of tourists walking around the room, chuckling and pointing at the jarred penises…but they didn’t experience the best part of the museum, which was the audio tour. The audio tour was so good because the guy who founded the museum was the orator…and he was a dry, academic older Icelandic man. He said things that were hilarious about his phallological studies without trying to be funny (favorite point of the audio tour: when the professor discussed how the penis collection used to be at his home until his wife ordered him to get rid of them). A perfect way to end our Nordic holiday.

Last Thoughts

Our trip was magical. There were some really great overarching things from our road trip I want to reflect on:

• Nature is the Best: While we were far east, we were completely immersed in nature, and it was magical. The landscapes were beautiful and humbling to see. It was a balm for our souls to be in nature the way we could, and it was really nice to slow down.
• Hot Dogs and Lobster Soup: There were two things in Iceland of which I ate a ton - hotdogs and lobster soup. The hotdogs were crunchy and delightful, and I would have injected the soup in my veins if I could have. Everyone made both dishes very well.
• Radio Stations are Great: The radio station we had listened to on our road trip (don’t ask me which one, I have no idea) was hilarious. The station played whatever records were available; one song would be some very modern rock song, the next one an Icelandic polka! We were confused and not at all sure what songs were on the queue while we drove, which made it more interesting for us.
• Tourists are Dumb: It's a shame how often we observed tourists being really stupid there. We saw many rental cars sinking in swamps or buried in the gravel on the side of the road. We saw tons of tourists stepping on the areas where signs explicitly requested them not to. And other things (see bullet below). There are 10 tourists per Icelander in the country now; the tourism boom has supported Iceland out of their recession, but the consequence has included making a tiny population of citizens clean up after a large group of strangers. We can be better than that, people.
• Outside Poo: Iceland suffers an unfortunate issue close to my heart because of the tourist boom – tourists poo out in the open in nature all of the time. There are apparently “No Pooping” signs all over the place. CT Lawyer was adamant to find a sign for me to enjoy, but when we asked locals where the signs were, instead they would just point to me where the tourists pooed. Often they included areas where locals traditionally foraged for wild berries.

Perth

I know I'm over a month behind on writing blog posts. I have been finishing my masters thesis...and consulting...and tying together the pieces before I leave for the US. Better late than never?

I should probably start from when I reentered Australia.

I came in through Western Australia, stopping in Perth for a few days. It so happens that stopping over in Perth from Southeast Asia before heading back to Brisbane saved me hundreds of dollars, and I have a friend in the area I was keen on visiting. Also, I had the rare opportunity to see one of my absolute favorite animals in the world, wild! It was a pretty good deal.

My friend met me at the airport. Upon seeing me at the gate, she handed me a sweater. After putting it on, she got me into her car so I could drop my heavy bags off at her house before adventuring around the area.

The weather in Perth compared to Phnom Penh was shockingly cold (I was shivering a bit). All of my heat rashes (I had quite a few on my limbs)from living in boiling Cambodia started to heal immediately after landing. I felt ill-equipped to deal with weather, though, as I had packed only tank tops and light shirts that breathe well while sweating. I was cold.

The culture shock from SE Asia to Australia was subtle and easy. The cleanliness of the streets surprised me for a while, as I was now used to streets lined with dust and dirt and litter and other curious objects (eg, half sets of sandals). I had learned how to listen for oncoming traffic so that I could leap out of their way and avoid injury. Here, the streets had grass and trees to divide the pedestrians from the cars, and the only trash you see is safely contained in bins, ready for pick-up. Here, everything looks so shiny and polished compared to what I had gotten used to.

The other surprise I had was the lack of people on the streets. There were so many streets, but I wondered where all of the people were. In SE Asia, it was a rare moment to be alone and free of other people. Now, the place seemed empty while we drove.

And we drove around a lot. For those who don't know, I am easily carsick and don't personally enjoy being in cars for long periods of time. This has been the case in Brisbane all year, where everything is accessible by riding in buses through long stretches of suburbia. Perth seemed to be formatted like Brisbane, with lots of roads and highways to drive. Aside from the discomfort of long drives, driving around did help me get to see the area quickly; given I only had a few days to see everything, I was glad to see the country gliding by my window.

We explored Freemantle a bit. Freemantle is kind of like a cute, quiet area of Perth that grew legs and walked down the shore a few miles. It is an adorable area with cute shops and pleasant cafes down small streets. It also used to be where a big prison was located, which is now a museum and performance space. We didn't get to go to the prison because of my limited time, but we visited the harbor area with a few older stone buildings we could walk around before eating fish & chips for lunch at an open-air harbor joint called Kaili's. Oh yeah, I was also having culture shock (and still am) to the high prices of Australia. This place is not cheap!

The second day in Perth was the piece de resistance of my trip. We woke up early, got to the port, and hopped onto a ferry to Rottnest Island. This, my friends, is where the adorable, angelic, absolutely amazing QUOKKAS LIVE!!!!

To say I was beside myself with excitement would probably not do justice the giddiness I had all day. I mean, I have been loving quokkas from afar for years! Finally, I got to go to quokka paradise and pet them! I got to potentially love them and rally the quokkas to happiness and freedom, with me, forever!

Well, I didn't expect the quokkas to be little sugar junkies, though. There are bakeries and sandwich/candy shops dotted near the harbor, and the little quokkas by the shops have grown accustomed to tourists dropping tasty things on the ground for them to try. The quokkas near the shops rummaged around for little morsels of chocolate or sugar or other highly-addictive substances that could cause major damage to the health of these succulent-eating marsupials. It was heartbreaking to be turned down by quokkas while holding a succulent leaf in exchange for someone nearby who had sugar-coated hands and a piece of banana (other tourists were idiots and kept feeding quokkas things that are not good for them). One local guy came over and told me that some of these quokkas by the shops have been losing chunks of fur as a result of eating sugary sweets instead of succulents. I was devastated to hear this. Later on, I saw a little quokka huddled in the corner of a shop's alley with Snickers wrapper in its delicate little paws. I shouted and ran over to grab the wrapper from the poor little fluffball, and it gave me a confused and sad look as I threw away the wrapper saying in near-tears, "No, quokka, no!"

Outside of the shop area, the beaches on the island were gorgeous and wild, and less-addicted quokkas came over and investigated our squee-ing selves for a little while. We tried our best to master the quintessential quokka selfie without intimidating the meek little things. They were sweet and gentle, and I was in love so much I barely could get myself to leave them. We also went for a quokka tour to learn more about their lifestyles and stumbled across a heavily-quokka-ed area where we oggled and awwwed for a while, trying to lure them to love us (I wasn't alone in this endeavor!). It was a heavenly day, and I could not have felt more accomplished in life.

We also enjoyed some snacks and toured the island on a bus, finishing our adventures with lunch at the port - I got myself an unprecedented amount of chili mussels for consumption.

I got another surprise during my short visit to Perth - I had found out that an old friend from NYU I hadn't seen in a decade lived in the area! We ended up meeting in Freemantle and enjoyed drinks and dinner with each other as we caught up on life over a few hours. I was so pleased to hear how she's doing and what has changed for both of us since last time we met. Reconnecting with old friends might be one of my favorite things in life.

On my last day, we visited the CBD of Perth. The buildings in Perth are big and loom over the streets in silence, but the city overall is a pretty small and compact place. Most of the places we wanted to visit (like museums) were unfortunately closed for the day, but we wandered a bit and I took in the quietness of the small city before getting on another plane to get back to Brisbane.

Stopped in Singapore

I went to Singapore for a few days last week. People ask me why I went, and I could give a few answers…truly, it was merely a visa run. I would be lying, though, if I said I wasn’t also eager to explore another nearby country; I could have just as easily booked the visa run in Thailand, but I chose Singapore. And I wanted to meet up with an organization. And I wanted to see an old friend I knew while in Kigali (Singaporean Kiran – who let me crash her couch while there). Lots of reasons.

I arrived in the middle of the night and took a speedy car through the wide highways to Kiran’s home. I then quietly slipped into the couch covers for a brief night’s sleep, before my busy 3-day schedule.

To me, Singapore could fit very nicely as a big city in Australia, if only it was closer. I felt like the city that was a mix of Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. In fact, if Singapore called itself Australian, I don’t think it would have phase me. And yet, it was still very much Asian. It’s hard to adequately explain my feelings.

If I had to sum up Singapore in 3 words, they’d be comprehensive, clean, and baller.

Now, hear me out.

Firstly, Singapore is pretty comprehensive in the sense that it’s a tiny country, yet it packs a punch. One minute I was walking downtown between skyscrapers and the next minute I hopped off a bus and ended up at a bay with gardens. Thirty more minutes and I was in front of a massive reservoir where people were fishing in a densely forested area (only a few blocks away from apartment complexes and restaurants al fresco). Kiran lives in a very sweet suburb area with beautiful little houses and a bunch of charming shopfronts. I was impressed with how much stuff is in Singapore, and such diversity in a small plot of land.

Second, Singapore is clean. Very clean. I know it’s famous for its cleanliness, but I have to verify this truth. In some ways, I felt like in some areas it was the kind of cleanliness you would see at an anal retentive cleaner's area (bleach bottle and all). Some areas were not as immaculate as this, of course, but a lot of it was very well kept. The UNESCO-endorsed Botanic Gardens, as an example, was extremely well managed but not sterile. 

I must admit that it was hard for me to remember all of the rules in Singapore in order to maintain cleanliness, such as no food or drink in many public areas and absolutely no chewing gum. Still, it was a really nice place to walk around because it was so clean in many different ways – I could walk around freely without being worried about getting hit by debris or people (then again, it was a weekday period, not weekend).

Finally, Singapore is baller. I know, this is an odd adjective to describe a city, but I kept thinking it when I was visiting. Singapore is baller because it’s got a lot of fancy things, and it’s super expensive. It’s, of course, the most expensive in the world today, and I choked back some tears when I went out for some meals and electronics shopping (A $35 burger?! really?!). 

But, it also has a lot of very nice things. Very, very nice things. The cars, for one, are fancy. And, the country is kind of like a massive, beautifully designed mall. Malls are omnipresent in Singapore, and a lot of the shops are luxurious. The less-expensive places I went into, even, were done out really glamorously – kind of like there’s a mindset of “go big or go home” to how business works here. 

It’s also baller because it’s clearly got so many model aspects to the country – the economy is a model for some countries like Rwanda, their wastewater treatment is world-renown as the best of the best, and even the gardens are created to be state-of-the-art and award winning. Kiran and I talked about this, and she explained with a sigh that the country is run like a business to the extreme; everything needs to be optimized, and everyone is on board. I could see what she means in the country’s overall aura of almost dogmatic efficiency, but I must say I’m still impressed.

But I did stuff. Let me share.

My first day was a work day. I went to the World Toilet Organization to network with the staff and chat about their role in and perceptions on the future of WASH. Afterward, I traveled to the incubator office called Impact Hub - I often work in the Phnom Penh office, and was able to arrange a desk for a day while in Singapore. The Phnom Penh office is intimate and a lovely space to connect with other entrepreneur spirits; the Singapore office was like being in a member’s only club! They had a nap room with beds and pillow-full couches, a kitchen with free ice-cream, several different areas for working, and a full-on café area where you could eat gourmet food while talking to people on sleek couches (this is also what I mean by baller). I got to network with a bunch of really interesting people doing very similar work to what I hope to do in the nearby future.

Also, I made sure to nap in the designated room after I finished up my working for the day.

I ate at a hawker stall for lunch, too. Hawker stalls are kind of like food court vendors run by small families, (cleanly) crammed into small spaces together. It was tasty and affordable, don’t worry.

A lot of my trip was around shopping for electronics. Part of this was intentional, since I was in need for a charger and some earphones that would last past my trip to Cambodia, and I got those things. I also had to get a new phone because early into my trip my phone decided it had had a good (albeit far too brief) life and pulled its power cord permanently. Many hours between Kiran and me were stuck in Samsung waiting to see if there was any hope of revival. When there wasn’t, we spent more hours hunting down people selling their unused phones on and in local marketplaces. We walked through the labyrinth of massive interconnected malls from one meet-up spot to another, searching for phone sellers. Fortunately, I got the same model as my own phone, but it wasn’t without some suffering (and sweating).

Oh yeah, Singapore was in a heat wave while I was there, so there was much sweating.

On my second day, I walked around the arcades of Burgis Street, roamed a bit of CBD, and walked through Little India for some sightseeing and eating. I also strolled up and down the shopping hub of Orchard Road while hunting for electronics.

I walked around the massive quay called Marina Bay Sands. It’s essentially another massive high-end hotel and mall – with a Venetian-inspired boating experience in the middle of it! – that hosts a lot of water-inspired art throughout the place. I admired the skyline, and ended up going to the Art Science Museum to escape the heat. 

Going to the museum might have been the best decision of the entire trip! The museum had an interactive exhibit full of bright colors and fun creative installations that allowed me to draw my own art and have it become part of the display for a little while. There were walls that changed shapes when touched, and brightly-lit balls that changed colors when rolled to hit each other. I cannot remember the last time I felt such childlike joy.

The museum was followed by a brief visit to the Gardens by the Bay. By this time I was getting tired of walking around and took a bus ride through the major center of the country before heading over to the Singapore Zoo for a tour of the Night Safari. This zoo area is specifically open at night only, where you board a tram that trucks you around the zoo to see the more nocturnal animals in dimly-lit open enclosures chilling out. It was a pretty neat idea, though unfortunately I had the luck of going the one day the zoo was having a children’s overnight party, and there were screaming/crying children surrounding me in this what-should-be-adults-only zoo area at 9:30PM.

A final note: would I live in Singapore? I’m not sure. I loved visiting the place, and I would love to visit again more to explore it in more depth. Living, there, however, would be a different story, I feel, and I’m not entirely sure I’d survive in such a pricey place. Also, I'm not sure my quirky lifestyle and crunchy needs would necessarily fly in such an economic masterpiece. But really, who knows?

Tasmania Mania

I just had my Spring Break 2015 trip with some friends!  

While many college-enrolled students would go somewhere they can relish in week-long debauchery, my friends and I had a different idea for our holiday - we went to Tasmania! No, not Tanzania. Tasmania, the little island off the southern coast of Australia, where the Tasmanian Devils originate. Tasmania is not known for its crazy nightlife – it’s known for its nature.

Five of us water ladies booked a six-day adventure through the island’s key natural destinations. We landed in Hobart, hopped into an intimately-sized car, and drove into the wilderness. I did not really keep track of the agenda for our trip, as I felt Colorado Meg and Malaysian Densie had already thought things through, so I essentially arrived at the airport on time, and followed them for much of the trip. I think Indian Pritha & Nepalese Niru may have had the same strategy as me on the trip.

I was a bit nervous about our trip. Five women together in a small car driving through the quiet hinterlands of Tassie sounded like it could very well become a chaos of tears and rage. Happily, we had a great time all around, and no one emerged maimed from the adventure.

My overall perception of Tasmania was one of pure, clean nature. The air was crisp and fresh and the temperature was brisk (though it did get cold with the Arctic winds blowing in). The landscape rolled with hills and mountains, and the greens that painted the earth was always incredible. Farms filled with sheep, cows, and Shetland Ponies guided us on each road. There was wildlife everywhere - sadly, that also means we met a lot of roadkill. The people were pleasant and helpful, as well as quiet like their island, as if the whole area was sitting in a constant Zen meditation while we journeyed around.

My biggest complaint about Tassie is not much of a complaint. While my friends were able to eat anything and feasted on decadent (at least I think) meals, my burden of gluten-free eating meant that all of my meals ended up being much healthier. For example, whenever they got fish and chips, my option was to get a salad with grilled fish on top. The downside is I did not get to enjoy some really rich food – the upside is that I did not feel gross by the end of the trip.

Okay, and the other complaint I have about Tassie is that the hole in the ozone layer lies just above the island. Which means I am currently a bright lobster red color all over my nose/chest/neck/ears. Reminder to self: never, ever!, leave the house without SPF on every inch of skin.

Day 1

We drove for a few hours on arrival and spent our first night in the Freycinet National Park so we could see Wineglass Bay in the morning. Freycinet is on the east coast and takes a bit of a drive through nowhere to get there. Not having expected just how remote our drive would be, we did not pick up anything to eat before getting in the car at lunch time, which means we had five rather hangry women hunting for food options on our scenic drive through the hilly lands. We grabbed fish and chips by a beach.

Once we arrived at our tree-laden cabin grounds, we realized our evening would be us keeping each other company and have a ladies’ night of wine and conversation….if only we could find a place to buy food and wine! Fortunately, the cabin area had a little country store, where we stocked up on cheese, wine, and crackers for our evening chatter.

Day 2

We woke up early in the morning to frosted windowpanes and got ready to hike Wineglass Bay. We arrived at the parking lot and got greeted by some very precocious wallabies (even one had a baby in her pouch!!), and we spent a good half-hour capturing their fluffy goodness as much as possible.

Then we hiked. Meg and Denise had been prepared for an intense and steep hike – the other three of us (Pritha – Niru – me) were thinking it would be a pleasant hike up and down a gentle hill to see the beach. We were wrong. We heaved and hyperventilated as we hauled ourselves over the rocky terrain and steep levels for a while before making it to a lookout. My fear of heights were probably the hardest part for me, as it slows me down significantly. I am glad that the others were sympathetic to my irrational whines.

I was thrilled to see that Wineglass Bay is just as beautiful in reality as it is in photographs. The white beach with the vibrant blues of the water, hugged with some elegant hills on three sides, was simply gorgeous. We decided to go down to the beach and frolic; this meant, for “us slow ones”, that we would have to struggle down the stairs for a while longer (and then back up). Once we got down to the beach, we enjoyed the freezing waters and wandered around the sand barefoot for a while before we braved the steep slope once more.

After our successful morning with wallabies and wineglasses, we drove to Hobart for an evening rest.

I really loved Hobart. We were not there nearly long enough to enjoy it, but the atmosphere of the town and the design of the older buildings charmed me completely. It is a town that revolves around the harbor, and the social scene circles the pier’s old landmarks with lots of hip bars and restaurants that stay awake into the late evening. It reminded me a lot of Newburyport in Massachusetts, only with more people – or Reykjavik or Oslo, in its character and layout. Its thick river weaves through the city, while hills full of houses lurk on both sides of the beds. I was so charmed. It was the kind of town I could see myself living in happily when my hair is grey and I need to have a quieter existence for a while.

We walked around the pier for a few hours, ate some dinner, and got some pretty flawless desserts at the aptly-named Honey Badger Dessert Café. We went back to our adorable hostel, Montecute, and hung out with the hostel’s enthusiastic puppy while we figured out what to do in the city the following day.

Day 3

The hostel owner strongly encouraged us to go to the MONA – The Museum of Old and New Art. It’s one of the linchpins to Tasmania’s economy, and is run by some filthy rich gambling dude who likes to collect art about sex and death. The museum is situated on a beautiful vineyard just outside of the city that gives great scenic views. The artwork inside is stuff that I like (odd – esoteric – abstract), but I know that it was a bit too much for some of the other people there. My favorite exhibit was the Digestion Machine (I called it the Poo Machine), which imitated the entire digestion tract with real food so you could see what your insides look like. It was so neat!!!

I also liked these two exhibits that were showing:

• Mathieu Briand's "Et In Libertalia Ego"
• Candice Breitz's "QUEEN (A Portrait of Madonna)"

After a successful wander through the museum, we packed ourselves back into the car and drove five hours to Cradle Mountain National Park. We got another cabin in the woods and bought some food to make dinner and hide from the freezing cold outside in the alpine area with some television.

Day 4

In the morning we hiked Cradle Mountain – well, Meg and Denise woke up earlier to hike the whole mountain for eight hours, while the rest of us decided to have a much less intense three-hour hike. Even so, the hike was not one for wheelchairs; we panted and crawled up some pretty precarious areas for a good amount of our hike. Truthfully, I’m not even really sure how some of the hike could be considered legitimate trails because they seemed so difficult to find and manage. However, it was a more forgiving trail than the one at Wineglass Bay. We got to run into some wild wombats and wallabies on the way up (to which I exclaimed I could be smote by lightening on the spot and be happy). We saw some beautiful backdrops of lakes and forested hills, and got to rest by a waterfall on the way up. We met some pretty nice people while hiking, as well.

Cradle Mountain, I think, would have been just as good for me if I didn’t hike up it because the view of the mountain peaks from the lower-level lakes were my favorite part. Maybe I am too much of a city girl, in that sense...but I think my favorite part about mountains is looking up at them, not looking down from them.

After we all finished the hike and met back up, we went to Devils @ Cradle for a night feeding tour of the Tasmanian Devils. There, we got to learn about these strange-looking animals and listen to them as they screeched and howled at each other. We enjoyed attempting their noises, and I personally found them to be more endearing once I learned more about them than before – they are cute because they’re kind of ugly, like pugs. And they have some horrible social skills, which make them endearing.

Day 5

We drove off to Launceston for our final night in Tassie before our flight out there. First we stopped off at Devonport to see if there was anything there to admire (there was a lighthouse, but that was about it). When we arrived at Launceston, I was startled by the stake difference between this town and Hobart – Hobart charmed the pants off of me, while Launceston felt like a more quiet, less charming town. It was a nice town, and I liked it fine…I just much preferred Hobart.

We went to the very pretty City Park and studied some Japanese Macaque Monkeys that lived there in an enclosure surrounded by flowers, which admittedly confused me a lot (why where there macaques in Tassie?!). We got some dinner, but the city on a Saturday night was all but completely shut down and deserted for a footy game. We luckily found an indoor crazy golf center and spent our final night teaching each other put-put skills and chuckling over the strange outcome of our last night.

Day 6

Our flight was in the early evening, so we had a lot of time to kill before leaving. The town is pretty small, though, and we had scaled the CBD area pretty thoroughly the day before. We decided to visit the Cataract Gorge just on the skirts of the town. The gorge has been made into a lovely reserve park with bridges and restaurants to entertain locals. We walked for a while around the gorge and ended up going on a surprise hike that took us up a steep hill so mystery and back to the gorge in a strange circle. The gorge had a nice basin, though, full of interesting rock formations covered in trees.

We were distracted by a lot of our walk/hike around the gorge by the sound of a wailing bird. Pritha remarked that it sounded like a peacock, and we ended up at a café that was indeed swarming (infested?) with peacocks howling and crowing at each other. This also confused me a lot, as I’m pretty sure peacocks are not native to Australia/Tasmania, but the effect was still beautiful.

After eating a large meal of fish and chips (or, for me, fish and salad), we walked around the riverfront of Launceston and slowly made our way back to the airport, where we celebrated a very lovely, successful, relaxing holiday together.

I’m so glad I went.