5th Honeymoon

Day-1: This is the 1st day of our honeymoon. Today we went to rent a van, so that we can bring all our belongings to travel, no need to stay in a hotel. The rental is $50 a day, about the same as staying in a backpacker hostel, but there is another $30 a day for insurance.

The van is very strange, there is no seat behind but it is not empty. There are bed, pillows, sleeping bags, stove, gas, esky, pans, pots, plates, knives, forks, spoons, water tank, sink and many other things. After putting in our luggage, the van becomes so cramped without any space. So I throw one of our baggage so that I have place to sleep.

Tonight we will be sleeping at the beach, hopefully it is safe.

Day-2: We woke up and noticed there were many dogs jogging at the beach, with their owners. Aha, the beach must be a dog heaven.

After having breakfast, we went to buy some super batteries for the camera, because I noticed that there is no electricity in the van, and a pair of sun glasses for driving. Then we went to visit a toy factory not far away from the city, with a famous huge rocking house.

When we were leaving, something unexpected happened. Our van was stuck in the soft ground. Luckily two strong and handsome guys helped us to pull the van out. Thank you very much.
 
The next destination was Barossa reservoir. I drove onto the wrong way for about 20 km, because there is no GPS in the van. Fortunately I have printed 40 pages of map from Google Map, and finally found our destination.

The place is also called Whispering Wall. It is a strange place. When you are whispering to the wall at one side of the dam, another person can hear it from another side a few hundred feet away because of acoustic effect.

Next, we went to a place that every tour guide will bring people to, a winery. There is an activity that angmo like to do very much, wine tasting. But since we do not know how to taste wine at all, we went to take picture at the vineyard instead.
 
Our next destination was a sculpture park. We found it from Google Map. This is a hilltop where you can have a fantastic view of the whole Barossa region, and the sunset.

Finally, on our way back to the caravan park we have booked earlier, I lost my way again, and drove some extra 20km.

Day-3: We woke up in a caravan park. It was a safe place, because we need to pay $30 for the parking. Today we spent 2 hours making breakfast and packing the stuffs, slightly faster than yesterday. We need to move out our luggage from the van to sleep in the van every night!

Our first destination is a chateau. There are many chateaus that are wineries here. We tasted a little bit of wine and don’t know how to taste more, because we got nothing to say about the wine!

Then we were on our journey. Today we are going to a place far far away, about 300km away. Bad-luckily, I drove onto the wrong way again, but fortunately, I noticed that after just less than a km and made a u-turn!

Then we had lunch beside a lake. Forgot to say, my wife is an expert in cooking. She can cook anywhere, anything, with any method. So, I don’t need to worry about food at all. After lunch, the same bad thing happened. I drove to the wrong way, made a u-turn, and we were on the Yorke Peninsula. lah lah lah!

Half way there, we found a huge piece of canola farm. The yellow flowers extended beyond the horizon and connected to the sky. My wife was so excited, because she never seen it. I am not so excited, because I know it is very common here. heh heh!

After driving for hours, it seemed like we were not making much progress. It was going to be sun set soon but it looked like we still have a few hundred km to go. Then I saw a beautiful sea, I went down to take a picture quickly and continued driving.

Something unexpected happened. We were running out of fuel! I noticed that there is a small town in the map, so we just hoped that we can find a petrol station there. Bad-luckily, we found two petrol stations in the town and both are closed, because it is Sunday!

I checked the map, there is a smaller town further. I felt hopeless, but still hoped that there is a still-open petrol station in that town, Warooka. You know what? We found one! And the station owner told us they are closing in half an hour!

We reached our destination, Innes National Park, after sunset. We found the self-registration kiosk, and it said we need to pay the entrance fee $15. Actually nobody knows if we pay it or not, but because we are not in Malaysia, we paid the fee obediently. From there till we reached the camping site, we saw no one human being at all!

Day-4: We woke up before the sunrise, and we could see that the new moon is still hanging on the sky. When the sunlight started peeping out from the east, we saw that the surrounding was full of mist. We found something strange, there were small numbers written with finger on our window. It was so strange! Something liked a serial number! We did not notice any human came by the whole night, not even a vehicle!

We went to explore the sea front. When we arrived at the car park last night, we heard the frightening and furious roaring of wave and thought that it was a sea cliff. Finally with the sunlight, we were able to see its true appearance. It was a beautiful beach. We brought two folding chairs to the beach to watch the sun rise. See what we found at the beach? A urchin!

After a few days of experience, we were getting faster and faster with packing. After having breakfast and packing everything, we started heading to the most important destination in this trip, a beautiful lighthouse. On the way to the lighthouse, we saw a lovely kangaroo couple watching the sunrise on top of a hill. But we were too excited going to the lighthouse and forgot to take picture of them!

We were so happy when we saw the lighthouse. Actually I leap all the way from the parking place to the lighthouse. I felt like a child going travelling for the first time. The scene is so beautiful and I really do not know how to describe it. From the tourist information board, we learned that there were more than 10 shipwrecks at this part of coastline since the 19th century.

After seeing the first lighthouse, we went to see a second one. One is always not enough. The path to the second lighthouse was purposely built near to the edge of the cliff, to scare those faint-hearted. There is really plenty of room to build it more inland.

Next, we went to a surf break. The foot path to this place was closed, but we saw that two angmo guys came out from the place, so we just went in. There were millions of ants on the path and we had to jump all the way inside. What in front of us was something unexpected. It was a frightening cliff, where the powerful wave hit the cliff as high as a 10-storey building!

Later we visited a few beaches, the Dolphin beach, Shell beach, Browns beach, Gym beach, Ethel beach, Pondalowie Bay, etc … and most of the beaches are empty! There are more beaches than humans here!

In the afternoon, we headed to the next destination, a wind farm. It was also a place far far away. Today we drove many hundreds km. We planned to sleep at a lake tonight, but we are too late. So just stop here, a very very windy valley, a place you can see the sunset at one direction, and the sunrise at another direction. Tomorrow, with more sunlight, I will show you how beautiful is the place!

Day-5: We woke up before the sunrise, again, the new moon was hanging on the sky. We spent a terrifying night here, a valley where the wind never stops blowing for one second. We have been listening to a low humming sound the whole night, because we slept at a wind farm! We parked our van in front of the gate of a farm which looked like nobody will come in and out from there.

The night before, we have prepared what to say if somebody passes by. We would say we are just taking a rest there and will continue our journey afterward. But after dinner, we waited for a whole night, there was no 1 car passed by until the next morning. I was so surprised, this is a main road connecting a small town to the high way, you can see the map, Mundoora Road. There was no 1 vehicle passes by the whole night!

Forgot to say, we have been enjoying two surprisingly clear nights watching the stars. How clear was the sky? It was clearer than the clearest night I have seen in Malaysia for 30 years. Watching such a clear sky will make you feel dizzy! You can actually notice that the whole sky is rotating slowly, at the same direction as the sun! And you can also see the shape of the galaxy! And gazing the sky for more than 10 minutes, you will see something that you think you are dreaming! You will suddenly see a star that flies though the sky with speed a few thousand times faster than an aeroplane, in less than a second! So I say, it must be a meteor!

In the morning, after taking picture with the sun rise, we took some videos for making MTV, because the place is so beautiful. I lost guard of any person would pass by. While we were busy posing for photos and videos, a truck suddenly came by. We quickly put our stuff into the van so that we don’t look like camping there.

The truck stopped beside us and then came a huge man, more than 6 feet tall. He asked what we were doing there, because he saw our van from his house. Wow, can you see his house (a tiny dot) in the picture? It is more than 1 km away, but he could see our van from there.

I said we were taking pictures with the wind farm. He asked whether we went inside his farm, over the gate. We said no. He asked whether we slept here last night, he just wanted to make sure we did nothing illegal. I said no, we just arrived in the morning!

Then he asked where we came from, Korea? Japan? I said we came all the way from Malaysia just to see the beautiful wind farm! And I asked him how we can see the wind turbine nearer. He was so impressed by our enthusiasm, and he decided to bring us near to the turbine, on his truck, with his two dogs!

We were thrilled! I thought this thing only happens on the TV travel programme. The farm owner would like to bring us to see the wind turbine!

My wife sat in the front seats with the farmer, and I hopped onto the back of the truck with the two dogs. We rode on a rocky path onto the hill. The view was spectacular. Can you see from the picture? Almost everything you can see belongs to the farmer. The dark green pieces are wheat, and the light green pieces are barley.

He explained to us how the government pays him for renting his land for building the wind farm. The government pays him by how much electricity is generated. It is about $26667 per year for one wind turbine! But I don’t know there are how many turbines are on his land! Now I can understand that his is happier on a windy day.

The generator height is 80 m, that is about the height of a 30-storey building. The cost for one wind turbine is $4.9 million! One generator is able to generate electricity of 11 GWh/year, for an average Australian household usage of 1000 kWh every month, a generator is able to supply about 1000 homes!

The farmer sent us back to our van. Can you see the tiny dot? That is how far we were from the van. We said goodbye to the farmer, packed everything, and left the place. We were too happy and forgot to record a video singing the song “The sun above the cloud”

Wu lun shi zhu zai, mei li de gao shan, huo shi tang wo zai, ying an de you gu …

Day-6: Today we joined a tour group to the Kangaroo Island. We decided to join a tour because it is tired to plan our itinerary every day. So, just joined a tour and relax. Another reason is that the ferry fare to take a van to the Kangaroo Island is very expensive, more expensive than joining a tour.

The tour is $349 for each person. Our tour group of 16 is made up of people from 8 countries. They are from Ireland, England, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Israel, 3 from Taiwan, and 4 from Malaysia (a newlywed couple and 2 aunties). This is a backpacker tour group, all of our meals are cooked by our tour guide herself, sometimes she will asked us to help to prepare the meals so that we could finish earlier.

Today is a cloudy day, so most of the pictures we took are not too beautiful. There were some interesting activities today, like sand boarding at Little Sahara, and seeing the protected seals. The places we visited today are:

- Penneshaw

- Prospect Hill

- Little Sahara

- Seal Bay

- Vivonne Bay

Tonight we will be sleeping in a 8-sharing dorm at a farm. Haha, it is so comfortable to sleep on a bed after spending a few days in a van.

Day-7: Today we woke up in a dorm and we ate the breakfast prepared by our tour guide. Today we visited some remarkable rocks which are truly remarkable. The most remarkable one looked like an elephant. They are discovered by Sir Matthew Flinders in 1802.

Then we went hiking to a lighthouse. This is the 3rd lighthouse we visited since the beginning of our honeymoon. Haha, but the other group members seemed like not very interested with the lighthouse, so only we two took a photo with the lighthouse. Is it too common for them?

 Then we went to see another type of seal, non protected one. The places we visited today are:

- Remarkable Rocks

- Cape du Couedic Lighthouse

- Admiral’s Arch

- New Zeland Fur Seals

- Flinders Chase National Park

- Hanson Bay Wildlife Park

- Honey Farm

Tonight we are leaving the island and heading back to the mainland and the city.

Day-8: Last night, I sent my wife to stay in a backpacker and I slept on the street, because I have no enough money!

I did some calculation last night, we have spend $1272 in the last 7 days. To finish our honeymoon, we need another $4000, but I only bring $2000 for our honeymoon, because I thought $2000 is very big!

In order to continue our honeymoon, we need some extreme methods, like playing music on the street to earn money. But I don’t know how to play music.

So, I tried to contact some farm owners. I told them I can do anything, I just need a sleeping place and food to eat. I can even eat the pig food. But many farm owners refused to let us stay, because I am over 30 years old and I can’t be on working holiday. They thought I am a prodigal son who wants to feed the pigs.

Finally we found a kind farmer, her name is Sarah, and she will pick us up today from the city, yeah!

Day-9: We are at a farm! We will be staying at a small separated house ourselves, just us! Unexpected! We are treated so well, I thought we will be staying with many people in a room!

The first day we arrived here, we don’t need to do any work. Today work is just cleaning the small house. There is a sleeping room with a double bed, a living room with a table and a sofa chair, a nice old fireplace to burn firewood, a bathroom with Jacuzzi, but there is no toilet, just pee outside!

The farm owner highly recommend us to take a relax bath with the spa bathtub. He said: no need to feel guilty about using a lot of water, because he can use the waste water to water the plants!

In order to stay and eat for free, we need to do some work! Today our job is planting some cherry trees!

Day-10: Planting cherry trees

Day-11: Planting cherry trees also

Day-12: Clearing the weed to feed the pig

Day-13: Today our farm owner decided to bring us to sight-seeing! So good! So kind! We can stay, eat, and play for free. I was wondering where she would bring us to. Then it was a winery. Aiya, it was fun for the other angmo guys but it was boring for us!

Day-14: Moving the compose to the tree holes

Day-15: Moving the saw dust to the tree holes

Day-16: Making apple juice

Day-17: Today our farm owner was going to a church, and she asked us whether we would like to join her, and we said yes! So we went to a small beautiful catholic church on top of a windy hill. Haha, no need to work today!

Day-18: Today the farmer taught me how to use the chainsaw. When I cut the branches too slow, he said I was a coward. When I cut the branches too fast, he said I was reckless. When I let the chainsaw stuck in a branch, he said I was stupid. When I crouched down to add oil to the chainsaw, he said I am not a man. He said a real man never squat on the ground!

Day-19: Picking the branches

Day-20: Moving the old stumps

Day-21: Rolling the water pipes

Day-22: Pruning the peach trees

Day-23: Putting the tree guards

Day-24: This is our last day at the farm. Because we still got some money, we want to go for a tour to finish our money!

After knowing we are leaving, the farm owner decided to exploit us further, to ask us to cook a feast. But he did not know that this is something my wife loves to so very much!

So tonight, we have a big Malaysian feast, with a huge bonfire!

Day-25: Countdown to the last 7 days for our honeymoon!

Today we arrived at a big city, with 3 millions populations! The big city got all kinds of people, from all around the world. It doesn't look like it is in a western country.

Because we have no idea about the city, we hopped onto a free tram to circle around the city centre, to see how the city looks like. The tram took 1 hour to finish a circle, so slow.

Day-26: We got a free half-day tour today.

Today we went to the wet market again, to buy food.

Then we went to the chinatown to take videos for MTV.

Then we went back to the hostel to cook lunch.

Then we went to the cake shops at St Kilda Beach.

Then we went to see the colourful bathing boxes at Brighton Beach.

Then we went to the Shrine of Memorial beside the botanic garden.

Then we went round and round the city and the tour guide kept taking.

Then we went back to the hostel to cook dinner!

Day-27: Today we went to ride the Puffing Billy train !! Boo boo !!

Today our tour included a free breakfast tea. The tour guide showed us two favourite local foods. One is the lamington cake. Another one is biscuit with Vegemite. It tasted like Marmite.

Day-28: A Museum

Today we went to the wet market again, to buy food.

Then we went to the Carlton Garden.

Then we went to the museum.

Then we went back to the hostel to cook lunch.

Then we went to the art gallery.

Then we went back to the hostel to cook dinner!

Day-29: Today we went to the Great Ocean Road. The road is quite long, 300km. There are a few interesting places to visit at the Port Campbell National Park: Twelve Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, and Gibson Steps. But there are many people today, and I realized it is a weekend + school holidays + chinese national day! It is like people mountain people sea, not good!

Day-30: Today is a rainy day. So it is not good to take picture. Today we are going to a gold mine at Sovereign Hill, Ballarat.  The world 2nd largest gold, the “Welcome Nugget” was found here in 1858, it was 69 kg. Hopefully we can find some gold also!

Day-31: Last day. We have spent $2534 during our honeymoon. Over budget! Our budget is only $2000. So how do we pay for the extra? I have borrowed some money from an Ah Long here, so we have to work in a restaurant until we finish our debt. And then work some more days to buy the air tickets to go home! Goodbye!