"Australia - comes and goes" "Wanderings - by Kathrin Goldsworthy (currently NZ)

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From the Web 1.0 days I bring you The Forum. To preserve them for posterity as Geocities can no longer be found but also it's fun to re-read some of them.

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5 April, 2001

I'm starting to think these little rants of mine should be called "Lifestyles of the broke and indecisive." Several weeks ago I fled the vast shores of China for a new, glamorous and better-paid life in Australia. And where am I? Wellington. (That's in New Zealand.)

I had a great ole time in 'stralia, but managed to find myself somewhat directionless- oh and jobless. I arrived to a balmy - ok, hot- Sydney day…clean air, bright blue skies and sparkling waters. Oh how lovely it all was. Habour views, the Opera house, ferry rides into town and that very cool bridge of theirs. As I've never been to Australia before, so I popped off on a bus tour of South Australia through to Victoria and back to Syders. The trip down to Adelaide was trying, to put it mildly. Hours on the bus, with the only highlight being this huge sheep somewhere in nowhere Australia. (It's a sheep, it's big and there's a restaurant, which you enter through its butt. Right. However, it was upstaged somewhat later in my travels by Larry - the big lobster.) After that came the three-day trip to Melbourne, along the Great Ocean Road. The scenery was spectacular - so much blue, blue sky, red earth and a very noticeable lack of hills. The roads stretch for miles without deviation, or anything interesting to look at for that matter. But along the way there were plenty of beaches and coastline……what I had been longing for all that time in the downtown grime of Beijing. And pretty cool tiny Australian towns, all of the Flying Doctors era, with names such as Port Fairy. Love that one. Although I think my constant "Oh, if you think that's great, you MUST see New Zealand", and "Call that a mountain?" didn't help NZ-Aussie relations much.

Day three-point-five we rolled into Melbourne, all a little sick of the inside of the bus. Lovely Nick Conquest (isn't that SO a name deserving of a super hero?)provided the pick-up-and-roof-for-a-night-service…and promptly took me shopping. Gotta hand it Melbs, great shopping. This was the city I had intended to live for the next few weeks/months/years….but nyahhhh. Maybe the heady heights of Beijing have spoiled me, but I did find it all a little - small. So I altered me plans, and headed off to Sydney. For two weeks…until I changed my mind. Again.

I loved Sydney. But being there made me a tad homesick. I just feel it's easier being "away" in a foreign city. In Sydney things were a little "too" easy, no language barrier (although with all the stick I got for my New Zilind accent you wouldn't think so),and no strange things on sticks. And as I watched my pile of cash shrink daily, I figured it would be better to be broke at home, where I can live for free (Thanks Mel and Mike!) and everyone is thrilled I'm back, for however long. Although I am sure the novelty of me will wear off sooner or later, right now I'm having a grand old time being welcomed back into the fold.

So here I am, for a little bit, in Wellington - had my first earthquake this morning!! And with the southerly winds whipping my hair into knots and the foam off my latte, I'm nearing a decision about what/where/who to do next.

But for now, it's great to be back.

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