My Xmas Present

If a cannibal comes near me, whale is on the menu...

So here a couple of the foods that helped me to waddle home...

The best prawns I have ever had, from north east coast. So fresh I could eat the tails AND legs too, with a little bit of coconut milk nom nom nom

Savoury crepe of some delicious description.

Goat cheese, apple and walnut crepe

Apple and salty caramel, Flambage=drenched in sweet spirit and lit on fire.

Almond, coconut and chocolate crepe.

Just your average slice of paradise

Matt and I visited Ile des Pins (Island of Pines). We rode around the island on dodgy push bikes. We clocked up 40km, which doesn't sound like much, but felt like a lot more in the tropical heat.

Matt feeling the sun.

It was well worth it to get to the beautiful 'Piscene de Naturelle d'Oro' a natural enclosed area full of tropical fish.

A garden growing some of the local root veges, :).

We also got to ride on one of the traditional sailing boats. Pretty cool!

Kind of sad that I did not learn anything about the boats or the people sailing them. :(. I will need to learn some French.

Tropical Boy Finally Takes Me Home

So after 8 months of hearing how great New Caledonia is, I  have finally got an opportunity to see the place Mat loves so much.

We have been treated to some amazing food from Mat's family including grandparents. Mudcrab, Tahitian fish salad and homemade spring rolls are soooo good! I am also amazed by the amount of food grown on the island. Everywhere has mango trees, lychee trees and coconut palms.

We have been on a road trip around the island. The wind has been very strong allowing Mat and his dad to spend many hours kitesurfing, and me to relax on the beach reading and sleeping. I have made a map of our roadtrip here: http://goo.gl/maps/Kr47m.

CLIMBING

At the most northern part of the island a new climbing area has been established in the middle of a rainforest. There are approximately 100 climbs within 10 mins walk from one side to the other. It is magnificent with each crag having its own character, style and a range of climbing difficulties.                         Unlike some of the Australian climbing, the only way you are going to die at this crag is from stupidity or some loose rock falling onto your belayer from the newly formed routes. Apparently the rock is granite, but on some of the crags large bands of sharp quartzite look like they would slice through the rope.

The bolting is very close together, so the chances of rope slicing feels less than if you had some more 'exciting' Aussie style bolting (aka. could only afford 1 bolt per 4 metre, harden up sport climbers). With a bit more foot traffic the rock will be as solid as Arapiles. Like Arapiles the walk in is very small, but the nearest known camping is a 20 minute drive nearby the sea. Here are some photos of the crags:

Beautiful rock!

 

 Left: Beginners boulder, perfect for teaching lead climbing. Right: 30 metre tall cave with 30 metre roots!

The Sanctuary Crag: A classic in the making! Overhung. Coquillage et crustaces (6a)

Left: How to feel like a hobbit! Right: Some stock standard challenging face climbing

Left: Lots of nooks and crannies to explore. Right: Secret passage to the coolest crag ever- the 'Hanging Gardens' crag.

  

  

 Photos cannot capture the beauty of  crag "The Hanging Garden". It is located within the mountain itself, where the rock has split into two! Discovered after someone climbed on the outside of the mountain (left) and peered into the crevice! Nice and shady, with the actual climbs free of greenery.

NATURE AND CULTURE

 When we travelled to the East coast, where it easily switched between bright blue one minute and rainy 'Jurassic park' the next. These photos where taken within one hour of one another.

 One of the highlights was the local prawns and the Melanesian dish 'Bougna'. The Bougna dish is prepared by cooking root vegetables (yam, sweet potato, taro) with a meat in banana leaves for hours. For ~$20 we got a self contained dish big enough to feed 4 people, including two whole huge crabs!

           

Left: Bougna comes with its own carry bag made of leaves! Middle: Rustic. Right: Get your hands into it!  Eaten from the back of 4WD at the beach, with fresh lychee and pineapple for dessert!

I loved the local villagers gardens! I hope I can grow some of the Bougna ingredients myself to have a go at making it at home!

Smells and sounds of home

So two main things I thought when I went overseas were how skinny the Europeans are and the lack of people visibly affected by drugs. Surprisingly I hadn't prepared myself for the reverse reaction when returning to Australia 6months later (overweight population and many people affected by drugs). This was my only really negative reaction with the appreciation of my hometown outweighing the negative. 

Things I love about my hometown:

# The smell of the bush. This smell was something that I missed when overseas. On the drive home from the airport I knew I was home just by the smell.

# Seeing the colours and the characters of wildlife on a day to day basis. From the rainbow lorikeets (shown above)  to the spiders you have to remove from your shoes in the morning. (Please exclude mosquitoes from this appreciation). Note that the above photograph was taken on my grandparents back deck/balcony.

# The sounds of 'the nature' (as the Germans might say). Kookaburras laughing, roosters crowing, crows crowing, lorikeets chirping, natives fighting introduced birds, magpies swooping, waves crashing, trees blowing and the roads. Photo of the Macadamia tree in my grandparent backyard with 3 kookaburras.

# The juxtaposition of the industrial town against such a beautiful backdrop. For example riding my bicycle through dangerous traffic 30mins into town to lie on this beach with practically nobody on it.

# Sunshine with friends. Have been out climbing the last couple of weekends in coastal locations. Very nice!

6months of wisdom

People I'd like to thank:
# My family for the encouragement and contributions that meant that I could always take opportunities when they presented themselves.
# Everyone I have met on my travels and studies for being very giving with their time and sharing their life with me. I hope that many of you will come visit me in Aus so I can show you around!
# Boris for an amazing introduction to Moscow!
# Johannes for a beautiful weekend in München.
# My high school geography teacher Ms. D. for encouraging us to learn to draw world maps. Definitely came in handy when communicating with my Russian bunk buddy as to where we were from and where we were going.
# Andrei Lyamin for spending a long long time with me sorting out my credit agreement, :), negating any need to prolong studies.
# Anybody who has ever voted for a government or institution to support young people financially
# The Australian government for making our passports full of cool pictures and hence a good source of 'conversation' when language is a barrier.

It's nice to be back home in the sunshine... 

The goal for the next 2years is to become a good engineer. Hopefully my dreams of new adventures will not interfere too much! But places I would love to see: the Middle East, Africa and America (Anywhere/everywhere South of and including Mexico)

Mongolia Make Me Yours

Our Ger in a cute little valley (Photo by Taya G)

Mongolia was/is amazing. The capital city Ulaanbaatar looked very run down from the outside and had lots of  black particles in the air. The city attractions included an amazing multi-performance show with throat singers, traditional instruments, dance and a contortionist! 

In terms of cuisine I was very surprised that one of the restaurants we went to in Mongolia was very similar to the Mongolian restaurant in my home town. The main difference being much more flavoursome sauces.

  

Musicians and contortionist. (Photo by Jaime O)

Just like the rest of the journey, the cold winter seemed to have deterred other tourists from visiting. This was great as it acted like a filter and it was easy to see what your everyday local was doing. 

Getting out to the countryside was fantastic. We got to visit a local nomadic family. In general the 'roads' in Mongolia were sparse with Wiki saying that 'in 2007, only about 2600 km of Mongolia's road network were paved.' Surprisingly the mini-bus survived the journey, and only needed a few attempts to get up the inclines of ice when we went 'off road'. There are many rules and customs regarding the Mongolians houses called yurts. Being the retard that I am I practicably broke one on first arrival when trying to find a place to sit. Crossing between the two central poles is very bad and the guide managed to push me back through before I even realised my mistake...oops, :(. The food given to us was a dairy based and included dried milk curd and a salty milk tea. I personally liked the tea (unlike everyone else) but maybe I didn't get much salt in my scoop, or my body was in need of some salt! The yurt is set up so that the beds line the outside and the center has a fireplace which is fueled by dried dung (surprisingly odourless).

Awesome Mongolian grandmother who shared her home and some dairy products with us for an afternoon. (Photo by Taya G)

Snowplay!

New monument to Ghengis Khan, in the middle of nowhere. Soon to become a tourist village.

Back at our own camp there was plenty of activities to be had. Going to the outside drop toilet in -40degrees at night was definitely a highlight, and I'm considering putting it on my resume as an achievement. The most difficult thing is undoing 3-4 layers of clothing while not dropping your gloves down the hole. Two more words are needed to complete this picture. Stalagmites and steam.

Archery with 200m tall slope in the background which we walked up then tobogganed down (Photo by Taya G)

Snow crystals that look like butterflies. (Photo by Taya G)

Cooking classes. Mongolian noodles and dumplings. (Photo by Jaime O)

In Mongolia the fattier the meat the better quality it is considered. This lead to many dishes having large chunks of fat in them. Perfect for the cold weather!

We arrived in Beijing during the 4th day of the Spring festival. The Spring festival begins with the Chinese New Year. This was the last day in which firecrackers should be used up, and boy they had a lot to use!

Fireworks in Beijing (Photo by Taya G)

A trip out to The great Wall was fantastic, but also very tiring walking for hours when sick!

The Great Wall. Stunning, steep and tourist free. (Photo by Taya G)

My past tourist visit to China in 2010 was fantastic as I got to see the Shanghai World Expo. Some of the exhibitions took almost a full day of lining up to get into. And was somewhat surprised that out of the 100,000s of people I saw that day, 99.997% of them appeared to be Chinese. This experience made me not surprised that there were next to no foreign tourists at the Forbidden City. Even though there were enough tourists to spoil photos, relatively speaking it was a very quiet day according to our guide.

A garden in The Forbidden City.

A 'little' smoggy.... at The Forbidden City, Beijing (Photo by Jaime O)

Dumplings for breakfast! (Photo by Jaime O)

Map of Travels

Just a summary map of places I have traveled over my 6months http://g.co/maps/kwyzw