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Australia

Campers of Chaos – Wicked to Invade America!

Mar 20th, 2009
by WanderingJustin.
4 comments

I’ve never rented a Wicked Camper. I’ve never even been inside one. Still, I absolutely love them for their skating-the-edge-of-good-taste humor.
And now Wicked is coming to America, bringing its crude and irreverently painted rental vans and distinct Aussie sense of humor starting in April 2009. They’ll open in Los Angeles and San Francisco to enrich our continent with cheap vans and even cheaper laughs. Soon, you’ll be seeing vans emblazoned with “If only men were as satisfying as chocolate …” or Black Sabbath logos in the United States.
My first encounter with a Wicked Camper was in Australia. I spotted an oddly painted, rough-around-the-edges van covered with a funny mural. I thought some crazed hippie had just taken some brushes to an old van and slapped a URL on there for a personal Web site or something.

From New Zealand Volume 1

Then, I started seeing them just about everywhere – all with different murals, jokes and off-color messages (and often an unshaven/unshowered German at the wheel). And I realized this was actually a rental company. According to its Web site, Wicked has artistic volunteers paint the vans – well, some are artistic!

From Australia

I was delighted to spot Wicked Campers in New Zealand … it was just a symbol that I was in a fun country, and it brought back great memories of Australia. It’s great to see a company that carves out an image that some will love, and others will hate – and embraces that. They even advertise that, if [...]

Tell me about it …

Dec 30th, 2008
by WanderingJustin.
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So I’m a bit curious about you, the readers! What is your favorite travel souvenir, aside from photos?
I go for jerseys/shirts from local sports teams. It started off as soccer, when I snagged a Deportivo Saprissa shirt down in Costa Rica. Then, I got skunked in Belize … couldn’t find any local soccer shirts there, though they have a league and a national team.
Down in Australia, I switched to rugby since that was their thing. In Canada, I wanted to find a Vancouver Whitecaps shirt, but no luck there … and I will never, ever where a Vancouver Canucks jersey unless it is the only clothing and I’m shivering naked on a glacier.
I’d say my uber-cool Wallabies shirts shown below is my all-time favorite. It says Qantas on it as a bonus, and it even looks cool when being worn while rockin’ out!

Some Blow-viation with Wandering Justin

Dec 19th, 2008
by WanderingJustin.
1 comment

Who wants to hear a little clip of my mimi didgeridoo? You, that’s who!
If you’re wondering, Sarah recorded this after we ripped all the carpet out of the downstairs to put in an acid-stained finish. It’s awesome … it’s gray here, but now it’s got a very cool stony-looking finish. Okay, let’s make with the didging!
Click here to see what the buzz is about!
I wish I could embed it, but WordPress is being vile. Anyone with tips should feel free to speak up!

Australia Post #11: Yunguburra to Cairns to Brizzy

Dec 4th, 2008
by WanderingJustin.
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Thursday, Aug. 30
The early bird gets to see a tree kangaroo, don’t you know? I was lazy this morning. But Sarah wasn’t, and she got rewarded: She went for a run and spotted a mama tree kangaroo cradling its baby.
Anyway, we grabbed a quick breakfast at the hostel (NOTE: The brown gooey stuff is Vegemite, not Nutella. Don’t believe otherwise for a second!) and drove off to see the curtain fig tree, which is just a slight detour from our route back to Cairns. It’s cool. Look at the pictures, and you can be the judge if it’s worth the trip.
From there, we dropped into a small park to hike down to one of the many crater lakes in the area. It’s not really a big lake, but it’s still really cool and worth seeing. But here’s the really exciting part: As we finished the hike (which was really too easy to really be a proper hike) and returned to the car, we saw the one critter that had been eluding us: a cassowary!
Now, these are big, mean, nasty birds. They’ll often chase joggers and rip up the roofs of convertible cars. They have nasty claws that can rip you up, and they’ll also peck the shit out of you.

But me? I had a Steve Irwin moment, and “crikey’d!” my way up to it and fired off a bunch of photos before we dove into the car and sped off. Cool!
So far, this was shaping up to be another one [...]

Australia 2007 Post 9 – Cairns to Kuranda to Port Douglas

Nov 26th, 2008
by WanderingJustin.
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Monday, Aug. 27
On the Captain Cook highway,  I’m in the right seat and I feel like a 15-year-old learning to drive again – all that’s missing is my mother swatting me in the arm with a rolled-up newspaper while screeching “We’re only TWO MILES from the next stop sign! Slow down!”
Here’s what’s odd about driving in Australia, no matter what side of the road you’re on: Superhighways are rare, and people drive slower. The Captain Cook highway is four lanes at its widest.
We headed north and turn off toward Kuranda, a small town that’s tucked away in the mountains just west. The road is very narrow and twisty, and several times we get caught behind some old scrap heap laboring and wheezing its way up the road (which really is only about 3,000 feet in elevation change). But the Ozzy drivers are pretty nice people (so long as you’re not a pedestrian), and the pull to the left (wrap your mind around that…) to let faster cars pass.
Though it’s only about 22 miles, it took us a good 45 minutes with a slight construction delay. For us, the Venom Zoo was the highlight of Kuranda. Otherwise, it was all pretty much touristy shops. We took a nice walk to where the scenic railway from Cairns shows up into town. We logged a good five miles of walking through some of the tracks and through the countryside. The view toward the dam and Barron Gorge is pretty awesome.
But back to the [...]

Australia 2007 Post #8 – Darwin to Gove to Cairns

Nov 22nd, 2008
by WanderingJustin.
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A note from Wandering Justin: I had a little lapse in posting this week … lots of freelance work to finish! Also, the next entry or two won’t have many photos. I tend to take fewer photos in the cities.
Saturday, Aug. 25
The previous night, our foursome had decided to meet at the Parap Village Market. That’s about a mile-long walk from the center of Darwin. This market goes on every Saturday, and it’s a good way to dig into the Asian flavor of Darwin. There are booths with cooked food, pre-packaged stuff, fresh fruit, vegetables and ingredients you can make yourself. There’s a lot of the usual schlocky weekend market stuff, too…hemp clothing, jams, bad art and the like.
But I ate a bunch of stuff I’d never seen before, and it was all tasty. Couldn’t tell you the names now, that’s for sure. Except I do remember pawpaw salad. It’s pretty much raw, unripe shredded bits of papaya covered in a chili sauce and peanuts. Doesn’t sound like much, but it’s an explosion of flavor.
We were pretty lazy, so we spent most of our time at the market, walking back to town and just hanging about. Orla left for Sydney, but that evening we met Karen again for dinner. She brought some Italian guy, Michael, with her. He was a bit different from us, being about a decade older. And he was clearly looking for some female attention (What? An Italian chasing tail? Never!)!
But still, he was a pretty fun [...]

Australia 2007 – Last Day in the Kakadu

Nov 18th, 2008
by WanderingJustin.
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Friday, Aug. 24

At dawn, I found out what makes Sandy Billabong so cool: There is nothing like seeing a sunrise here. The water is cool enough to throw off curtains of mist, and the sunshine filters through them to create and incredible scene that your eyeballs won’t believe. It’s impossible to not get a great photo of it. I am still blown away by the sight. And these photos are very raw: There is absolutely no post-production digital manipulation. These are all JPEG files straight out of my Fuji Finepix S5200.  Enjoy!
English Dave with his bush-style hat cast a perfect silhouette for my photos. I got a few of a German who tagged along behind us. And yes, I kept her away from the billabong lest she become a morning morsel for a croc.

Our first stop was about four miles from Sandy Billabong: It’s called Culture Camp, and a cheerful Aborigine woman named Jenny talked to us about really funny stories, bush tucker (what the native people ate) and various traditions. My favorite was about the husband of an Aboriginal goddess who was so well-hung that following her everywhere made him tired. So he and his prodigious wang settled down while she wandered the continent.
We also learned how to throw spears with a device much like an Indian atlatl, and had more encounters with my friend, the didgeridoo. I must say that I could hang with anybody who worked at Culture Camp.
We still had more to see, so it was [...]

A Little Travel-Planning Advice

Nov 16th, 2008
by WanderingJustin.
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This is a brief interruption from my usual recap of the Australia trip … but I think it’ll be really valuable for some of you out there planning a trip.
Sarah and I have been working on a trip to New Zealand. We read the book Kiwis Might Fly (which is a tremendously fun read), we saw a Kiwi politician quoted as saying “Whenever a New Zealander leaves for Australia, it improves the IQ of both countries,” and we saw the awesome scenery in Lord of the Rings. With all that going on, how can you not want to see New Zealand?
My first job was to sniff around for flights from Los Angeles. I searched all the airlines, and the prices were pretty grim. I was really hoping for a good Qantas deal since they fly there and we both have nice chunks of mileage there from our Australia trip. And Qantas is a oneworld Alliance member, so that can help with a lot of destinations. But I wasn’t seeing any good deals from any of the carriers headed for Auckland.
Since I was getting deal-desperate, I signed up for the Qantas Red Newsletter. A few days later, boom! A two-for-one special. We’ve booked the tickets.
You really should do the same for any airlines serving destinations that interest you. Wanna go to Germany? Check the Lufthansa Web site and see what’s up (and don’t forget to pack a Speedo). Tahiti? Hit Tahiti Nui and see if they have a newsletter. Interested in [...]

How to Talk to Aborigines

Nov 16th, 2008
by WanderingJustin.
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Thursday, Aug. 23

G’day, mates, and welcome to the inaugural episode of “How to Talk to Aborigines.” I’m your host, Wandering Justin!
Alright, now … lesson #1. Traditional Australian Aboriginees are quite polite. They don’t like to disagree with people. I’m hear live with Outback Amy. Amy, give us an example then, love!
“I was out in the bush with some aborigine buddies. I found some plant and said to one ‘Gus, I can eat this, right?’”
“Oh, yeah.”
“It’s good eating?”
“Yeah.”
“Will this kill me or make me sick?”
“Well, yeah.”
He didn’t want to disagree with his friend, so he didn’t. If you’re asking an aborigine a life-and-death sort of question, it’s best to be open-ended. For example: “Are there crocs in this billabong this time of year?” rather than “There’s no crocs in that billabong, right?”
You’ll remember this lesson if the need arises, right?
Ahem. I mean, remember this lesson if the need arises.
Okay: So I’m from the American Southwest. I know nasty desert roads. Hell, I survived the roads of rural Costa Rica. But little of that prepared me for the battering we’d take in the Possum today. We got rattled by ruts and beaten by bumps that would swallow lesser four-wheel-drive vehicles. Some rental car companies won’t even let their vehicles into certain parts of the Kakadu. This would be why. How rough were these roads? So rough that we stashed our trailer alongside a fairly civilized road. We’d get it on the way out of Twin Falls.
I’m not ever sure what time it [...]

Intro to Crocs and Billabongs

Nov 14th, 2008
by WanderingJustin.
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Wednesday, Aug. 22
Being German near water is the most dangerous thing you can do in Australia.
Starting today, I will start hearing a plethora of tales about German people being eaten by salt-water crocodiles. This theme will continue through the trip, to the point where I’m eyeballing the shower waiting for a swarm of mini-crocs to shoot out of the spigot to devour me. And I’m only half-German. If I were a Speedo-wearing, techno-loving Bayern Munich fan, I’d stay away from this continent altogether. Or at least not get within mortar-distance of a billabong.
But there are no crocs in Darwin, for now. Especially during the pre-dawn hours. My eyes are barely even open when an Arkana Safari II four-wheel-drive truck towing a wagon picked us up. At the wheel is Amy, our tour guide. She looked almost identical to a friend at home (Mary, that would be you!), so I can tell she’ll be a character.

Speaking of characters, we’re a tourist short. So far, we’ve got a 40-ish but sturdy English couple (Dave and Dominique), Orla from Ireland, Fiona from Canada and us. Apparently, Amy and the staff at a hostel have been trying to rouse our last member, English Anna. She was big-time hung over.
Eventually, someone pried her out of bed and tossed her and her gear into the Arkana, which is known as the Possum.
Once Anna is in the car, we’re bound for the bush! The sun was fully in the sky, and traffic cleared quickly as we neared [...]

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