A happy-go-lucky English rambler dude goes to New Zealand for a year. Here he interfaces with some of those he left behind and details his nefarious activities. Or summat.
Recently clicked on MP3s - 7th June 2005 The Lucksmiths - Warmer Corners
Jens Lekman - When i said i wanted to be your dog
The Trashcan Sinatras - Weightlifting
Teenage Fanclub - Man Made
Laura Veirs - Carbon Glacier
The Decemberists - Picaresque
The Eels - Blinking Lights
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Last Saturday morning I was sat on the sofa, aimlessly surfing the internet, much as I am now, when out of the blue came a phone call from my old Christchurch mate Kim, and what was going to be a pleasant, if run of the mill weekend, instantly became 10x more fun-er.
Kim is possibly the ultimate Australian - an expert surfer, fearless of snakes, mates with Steve Irwin (no really), laid back and positive at all times, he's about to purchase a Yute and is always up for a bit of a walkabout. So before I knew it, a road trip to the Mornington peninsula, south of Melbourne was organised, a rather swish Toyota Camry was hired at a bargain price, the ingredients for a barbecue were purchased and Kim, Ursula (His Mrs) and I were on the road, with Midnight Oil blaring on the stereo (Oh, ok it wasn't blaring, it was actually being played at moderate volume, for ease of conversation. But that doesn't sound quite as good does it?)
The first stop was for the lunchtime barbie, in one of the little coastal towns on the way south. Amazingly enough, it was only my second one on Australian soil, very slack of me, considering i've been here for four months now, and that free, electric, communal barbies like the one we used, are provided all over the place. Oddly, the Aussies don't seem to be purists about their barbies, with electric and gas ones more popular than the charcoal briquette style (according to my unextensive research on the subject) - I suppose they must subscribe to the Hank Hill, 'taste the meat - not the heat' school of thought.
Anyway, 2 chick pea burgers, 4 veggie sausages, 2 teriyaki chicken kebabs, an avocado and a bottle of ginger beer later, we were off again, on the way down through Rosebud, Sorrento and then Portsea, which sits right at the lip of Port Philip bay, an excellent spot to hike out to, and 'sit on the dock of the bay, watching all the ships coming in, and then going back out again'. Unsurprisingly, Parks Victoria, had already realised the potential of this spot, and hence charge a hefty fee to get in there, and hence we buggered off to the free and even nicer (i'm sure) beaches on the south coast of the peninsula.
The cool and blustery conditions made it seem more like a wander along a nice part of the Lincolnshire coast, than your average sun kissed Aussie beach, and our beach activities were similary English too. Rather than surfing and swimming, we went poking around in rock pools, played with sea weed and dug up some buried treasure (a golf ball and assorted bits of fishing tackle) that Kim buried there years earlier!
It's not the best area for swimming anyway, as Harold Holt, ex prime minister of Australia could testify, if he hadn't drowned there that is, whilst he was serving PM of Australia in 1967. (My friend Michael's local pool while growing up was (really) the Harold Holt memorial swimming pool - nice touch Australia! PS - That joke c/o Bill Bryson)
Barbeques, excellent company and relaxing wanders on gorgeous beaches would have been enough for the day, but the Mornington peninsula is packed full of little wineries, so a quick stop off to sample some regional booze was arranged. I presumed it would be a cheap way to get a quick slurp of several nice wines, and get pleasantly boozy for a snoozy sunset cruise-y back to town, in the back seat of a plush motor. Er, and it was, apart from the cheap part.
The tasting itself was a bargain at two dollars, with spitting buckets for connoseuirs / idiots, but the folk at Willow Creek winery know their stuff when it comes to wine, and most likely realise the fact that hapless fools with a few sniffs of booze in their heads, and a fifty dollars in their pockets can easily be persuaded to buy a bottle of the sumptuous 2002 Pinot Noir, not to mention the cheeky Muscat desert wine too. Which is predictably what happened to both Kim and myself. As they're the two most expensive wines i've ever purchased, i'm going to attempt to hang onto them for a while, but i suppose backpacking isn't the ideal time to start building up an extensive cellar of fine wines, so they could both end up getting battered the next time I have a bad day at work.
Speaking of which, I may well do tomorrow, if i don't get off to bed soon. So i'll leave you with some pics of beach based horseplay, and wish you well x
