A Typical Week in Australia

Well, I finally had a laid back week.  After four weekends of traveling, I actually got to hang out around Wollongong and do a bit of relaxing for a change.  Not to say that it was a dull week, it was just definitely more relaxed than the past month has been.  From here until the end of my trip, I'm traveling every other weekend, so it should be a nice mix between being crazy busy and being able to chill out a bit.  Strangely, this week also marked the halfway point of my trip.  I'm torn with how I feel about it, as I am excited to get home and see everyone, but at the same time, I'm sad that it means I'm halfway done with my stay in this incredible country.  I suppose that's still quite some time off, but in only 6 weeks my family will be here and that's really not all that far away.  

Back to this week, the main part of the week was spent exchanging spring (or 'fall' I guess) break stories with all international kids, trying to get back into the swing of classes, and attempting to catch up on sleep (which is harder than it sounds due to the fact that I think my roommate Katie and I are the only 2 people who aren't obnoxiously loud in our dorm every night).  I did laundry, went for some runs (one which was 80 minutes... my first time that long in quite some time!), watched a handful of movies, and enjoyed not constantly being on the go.  It is definitely turning to 'winter' here, as it was a very rainy week and in the low 60's the whole time.  I'm not going to lie, I'm semi sad that the weather is going to be turning wonderful at home and continuing to get cooler here.  However, I was happy to learn that it doesn't get much colder than this during the days, it's just the nights that cool off a bit.

Saturday was Anzac Day, which is a national holiday in Australia.  Most people spent the day partying and playing Two-Up, which is basically a coin game that you bet on that is ONLY legal on April 25th every year.  It's not all that interesting, as it consists of putting two coins on a paddle, betting money on heads or tails, flipping the paddle, and continuing to do that until either both heads or both tales show up.  The winner gets the money.  The reason that game is played on Anzac Day is that apparently the soldiers used to play it and since it's sort of a memorial holiday, it is in remembrance of them.  

My Anzac Day was spent doing a wine tour in the Hunter Valley, which is apparently the 4th most visited place in Australia (don't ask me what the top 3 are, I have no idea).  I went with Nadia, Nicole, and Connor, in a New Zealand-like reunion, and we had an awesome day!  It was an early morning since we had to be in Sydney by 8am, and we were then driven two hours to get to Hunter Valley.  We were lucky and had a beautiful and sunny day, as well as really friendly and nice guides.  I wasn't sure how I'd find the tour as I'm not a huge fan of wine, but it ended up being great.  We visited a total of 3 wineries, 1 brewery, and did some cheese tasting as well.  I learned a lot about wine that I never knew before, and I hope that I'll carry it over to the real world.  I also learned that I'm definitely more of a fan of white wine than red, and prefer fruity over dry wines.  

Each winery was really nice, but different, and the brewery was really neat because we got to sit outside in the gorgeous day, surrounded by tons of beautiful scenery, and listening to a guy play the guitar.  We had the option to do some beer tasting, and very uncharacteristic of me, I decided to do it basically on the premise of when else will I ever do it.  It didn't end up being the best decision as it confirmed that I'm not a fan of beer (and had 6 different kinds to taste), but I learned that I can drink beers that don't taste like beer (like a ginger beer that I tried).  The cheese tasting was definitely a success and quite delicious, and I was surprised to enjoy it so much because I'm not usually the type to seek out cheese and crackers.  The first bottle of alcohol I saw at the first winery was 'jungle juice' and I laughed because of what the drink is in the states... Apparently it's actually a legitimate beverage here.  The last winery that we went to had different kinds of schnapps to try, the last of which was called 'Dragon's Breath' that was super spicey and delicious.  They said it's great to use while making stir fries and such, so I decided to buy a bottle to test it out.  We had some nice meals, good laughs, and an overall perfect day.  It was definitely a successful day for 2/3 of Alpha Team Echo.  

Today (Sunday) I actually got to sleep in a bit (till 8:49, go me!) and relaxed and went for a run in the morning.  In the afternoon, I went with Katie, Kelly, and an Aussie guy, Andy (who thankfully has a car) to the Minnamurra Rainforest, which is about an hour away.  We had a great afternoon hiking through the rainforest and seeing amazing waterfalls.  To protect the environment as best as possible, the entirety of the hike was on raised boardwalks and it was really neat!  Afterwards, we drove another 15 minutes to get to the Illawarra Tree Top Walk, which has a really neat walk above the trees with a lookout that's 45 meters above it all.  It was awesome because from the top there were incredible views of all of the Illawarra area (which is basically a huge area all around Wollongong).  It was a really nice afternoon and made me feel so tiny in this huge country.

This weekend the pace should pick back up a bit as I'm heading to Adelaide to visit Jaci on Friday morning!! I'm really excited for the weekend and it should be a lot of fun.  I hope everyone is doing well at home, I miss you guys!

A Lesson in Aussie Lingo:

1.  One of the most common Aussie phrases is 'sweet as'.  This basically is used when describing how something is sweet or awesome.  The 'as' at the end is there for no reason and can be applied to basically any other word... For example, you could say "It's cold as outside!" or "I'm hungry as!" etc etc.

2.  When referring to being drunk, they use the word 'pissed'

3.  Arriving somewhere is often described as 'rocked up'.  For example, if talking about how Tom came to the pub at 10, you would say "Tom rocked up at 10."

4.  Other common Aussie words used are 'keen' and 'I reckon'.  I'm trying to adopt all of the phrases but they're still not too natural for me

5.  Sweatshirts and hoodies are referred to as jumpers

New Zealand: the most beautiful place in the world

I got back from New Zealand and the best week of my life two days ago and I'm still on cloud nine.  New Zealand really is a magical place and is so unique not just because it's beautiful, but because it is so natural and untouched compared to most places in the world.  If half of the land in NZ was actually in the US, there would be houses and towns everywhere, but in reality, there is nothing and it is amazing.  I say that the 11 days in New Zealand were the best 11 day of my life not because I haven't had better days, but because I don't think I've had that many '10' days in a row of just being so happy, doing amazing things, going to breathtaking locations, not worrying about anything, and just enjoying life.  It definitely was a perfect vacation and the problem is that I will probably compare everything else I do from here on out to this trip.  Since I kept incredibly busy for the whole trip and this post is going to be ridiculously long, I think I'm going to try to bullet point different activities I enjoyed with a brief explanation just so I don't have you reading for 5 hours.

Here is much of what I loved about New Zealand:

• Running-  I came into the trip not expecting to do any physical activity besides walking around, and almost didn't end up bringing my running shoes (and only brought 1 sports bra.. oops), but thankfully I did.  I had a great group of active people that I hung out with and I got a lot of really good runs in on cool paths with awesome views of mountains and lakes.. It's amazing how much more of each area I was able to see by foot than most people got to!   I was able to see some sunrises, sunsets, and rainbows and boy were they great.

• Biking-  One free afternoon at Fox Glacier when most people were sleeping, me and 3 of my friends rented bikes and rode a few miles away to Lake Matheson, which is this awesome lake that is known for having really neat reflections of the mountains behind it.  It was a really fun afternoon.

• EXTREME theme- The trip I was on was an 'Extreme Adventures' tour consisting of all college kids, and the theme of the trip and everything having to do with it was EXTREME!!  I had an extreme-ly good time and met some really neat people along the way.  I was skeptical about doing a tour, but I'm so glad that I did because there's no way I would have gotten to see as many places or do as many activities had I not done it.  We had two tour guides, Tim and Wazza, who were amazing and did a great job of making everyone feel included.

• Fall-  Being on this trip made me realize how much I love fall.  It's currently fall in New Zealand and all of the trees are changing colors and leaves are falling off... it is so gorgeous there and though we spent hours driving from place to place on a bus, it never got boring because how amazing it is.  We also got lucky and the mountains were snow-capped, which apparently usually doesn't happen until later in the year. 

• Glacier Hike-  Our first actual activity was a glacier (pronounced glay-see-er by the Aussies) hike at Fox Glacier, one of only TWO growing glaciers in the world.  It was really neat and what was crazy is that we had to hike through rainforest to get to the glacier!  Apparently the glacier keeps getting tons of snow on top which is causing it to grow so much, and it moves at a quick speed of 1 meter/day, so the guide said that week to week the glacier looks completely different.  Along the walk we passed some waterfalls and creeks with amazing fresh spring water that we got to drink out of and fill our water bottles up with.. so cool!  Hiking on the glacier was really neat too and we were given picks to hold and blades on the bottom of our boots to help us walk on the glacier... What a wonderful experience it was!

• Queenstown- My favorite place on the trip was definitely Queenstown, which is apparently the adventure capital of the southern hemisphere.  Though definitely a touristy town, it is completely outdoors themed (which I love) and is geared towards the intense, adrenaline-oriented traveler (which is me).  Not only are there tons of activities that you can do from Queenstown, it has a picturesque backdrop of a lake and mountains, and you could spend so much time there and never get bored, even if it was just spent walking around.

• Jet Boat Ride-  Our first extreme activity was a fast jet boat ride on the Shotover River, which goes through a gorgeous canyon.  Just looking at the boat you wouldn't expect anything spectacular, but this little boat goes up to speeds of 80 km/hr and goes within inches of rocks and is actually pretty scary.  The boat also does all sorts of crazy 360 degree spins and keeps you on edge at all times.

• Helicopter/White Water Rafting-  The helicopter ride is definitely one of the coolest things that I've ever done in my life.. I mean really, a helicopter ride???  Being up that high gave spectacular views of Queenstown and the surrounding area, and was just surreal.  We were dropped off at a higher point on the Shotover River, where we got into rafts and went white water rafting down the canyon!  Though fun, I was slightly disappointed with the rafting as the rapids were few and far between.  By the time we got to the bottom of the canyon, we were freezing and glad to get some hot tea.

• Bungy Jumping-  This is definitely the most adrenaline-filled activity that I've ever done, though for some reason I wasn't scared at all.  We went bungy jumping at the Nevis Bungy, which is about 45 minutes outside of Queenstown, is a 134 meter free fall, the second highest bungy in the world, and the highest in the southern hemisphere.  I think part of why I wasn't scared is because I was the last in my group to go since we went by weight, so I saw everyone in front of me have such a good time.  We were on this platform extended by wires across mountains with only a tiny river at the bottom.  So basically if you weren't secured to the ropes, you were a goner.  Free falling was an amazing feeling, and the wind rushing past me was such a unique experience.  It was much smoother than I expected and was incredibly enjoyable.. I definitely want to go again sometime.  

• Sky Swing/Luge Rides- The afternoon after bungy jumping we did a sky swing (that I thought was scarier than bungy jumping) that dropped you from about 40-50 meters and swung you past a bunch of trees.  I did it upside-down so it looked like I was going to hit the rocks and trees from my perspective.  That afternoon we also did some luge rides (which were basically go karts down hills.. much like my grass karting experience at the Blue Mountains, but this time with brakes).  They ended up being a lot of fun!!

• Canyoning-  This was probably my favorite activity of the whole trip.  Bungy jumping was amazing, yes, but I feel like it isn't a completely unique experience.  Canyoning, on the other hand, is.  Canyoning is basically making your way down this giant canyon/waterfall by abseiling (repelling), climbing, cliff jumping, going down natural water slides, and zip lining.  It was amazing.  Me and five others from our group went on our free day, and we were taken to Mt. Aspiring National Park, which is absolutely beautiful.  I don't think any of us really knew what to expect, and when we got to the canyon that we were about to go down, we joked about jumping off the bridge into it, which 20 minutes later is basically what we ended up doing.. yikes.  Lucky for us, we were suited up in some pretty hardcore wetsuits, as the water was only 5 degrees celsius (that's 41 degrees fahrenheit!! brrr!), and without them we definitely would not have survived.  Even so, our hands and faces were freezing by the end of the trip.  Going back to canyoning, it was such a cool experience.  It was really intense and we were instructed with how and where to land with each jump, and if you didn't do it correctly you risked landing on rocks.  It was such a fun afternoon and we got to see so much of this beautiful canyon that there is no way we would have ever seen otherwise.  One of my favorite parts of the day was walking to and from the canyon through mud.  It's funny how enjoyable it was knowing that I could just walk through it without having to worry about getting my shoes dirty :)

• Alpha Team Echo-  I met a lot of people on the trip, but there was a group of six of us that were inseparable and became so close over the course of the 11 days together.  I came into the trip knowing Nicole a decent amount (she goes to Illinois and Wollongong, is one of the girls I flew to Australia with, and hand hung out with her a handful of times), Nadia not very much at all (also goes to Illinois and Wollongong, but we had never hung out besides eating a couple meals in the dorm together), and Connor a little (goes to Wollongong, is in my thermo class, and was on the Blue Mountains trip that I went on), but essentially I traveled by myself and didn't know who I would spend my time with.  The first night in Christchurch I was hanging out in my room when one of my roommates Austin, and his friend Justin walked in.  After a few minutes of talking, I figured out that Austin is from Orland Park and also goes to Illinois... What a small world!  The two of them go to Melbourne, and joined the four of us from Wollongong into becoming what one of the boys decided to name Alpha Team Echo when we were canyoning.  Basically I couldn't have asked for a better group of friends to travel with and we kept each other laughing and having fun the whole week.  They're all such nice people and I think I'll stay friends with them for a long time to come.  I can't believe I only spent 11 days with them, as it feels like I have known them for years.  I'm really excited to visit Austin and Justin in Melbourne in a month!

• Nightlife-  Though I'm much more lame than the majority of the people on the trip, I got to see some awesome parts of New Zealand nightlife.  Queenstown boasts tons of unique pubs and I got to enjoy a few of them.  The coolest place that we went was a bar called Minus 5, which is a bar made entirely out of ice.  Everything from the actual bar, the seats, sculptures, and cups are all made from ice and the room is set at -5 degrees celsius.  You're only allowed in for 30 minutes and are given a warm jacket, gloves, and boots.  It is one of the neatest places I've ever been to and was definitely worth the trip.  The admission included one free drink and I had the most delicious mango drink in the world (yes, I've tried all mango drinks in the world).  

• Max- One night we were wandering around and ran into this random old guy named Max on the pier who was playing from a wooden flute.  We stopped to listen to him and ended up spending a good 45 minutes with him, part of which we paired off and slow danced to 'My Heart Will Go On.'  At one point in time Nadia and Justin sang a duet with Max playing along, and we just spent a long time talking to and laughing with him.  He had to have been drunk because he rambled for a very long time about all sorts of stuff like his trip to Alaska and how Clion Dion is in love with him (Celine Dion, yes, but he chose to continuously pronounce her name differently).  Ridiculous, but it was one of the most enjoyable evenings I've ever had.

• Milford Sound-  We did a 2 hour cruise at Milford Sound, which is known to be one of the most beautiful places on earth.  Though it was a cloudy day, it was still stunning and we saw so many waterfalls.  Lucky for us, it had rained in the morning so there were a ton of little waterfalls as a result.  One of the falls that we passed on the drive there is the fastest in the world and has water moving at 500 cubic meters/second.. Crazy!  It was a relaxing (but windy) ride and we got to see a lot of the beauty of Milford Sound.  

• Hostels-  Lucky for us, we had a lot of really good hostels throughout the trip.  Me, Austin, Nadia, Nicole, Connor, and Justin were put in the same room all but one night so that made us extra happy.  My favorite hostel was our one in Queenstown called the Black Sheep that had a hot tub on the deck out back.. I don't think it can get much more amazing than sitting in a nice hot tub with beautiful mountains in the background.  One night a group of us bought a bunch of food from the grocery store and made an amazing feast... from now on I think I really need to cook more while at hostels.

• Glow Worm Cave-  Our second to last day on the tour was spent visiting a glow worm cave in Te Anau.  I hadn't expected a whole lot from it, but it was an incredible experience.  After getting into the actual cave and onto this tiny metal raft, we were brought deep in where it was silent and pitch black.  Slowly but surely we started seeing all more and more little blue dots before eventually they were everywhere.  It was a surreal experience and felt like I was in a completely different world or in outer space or something.  

• Sheep Farm-  The last day on the trip we went to a random sheep farm where we got to see a sheep shearing demonstration.  It was pretty interesting to see, and later we were shown how border collies round up the sheep.  Those dogs are definitely in control!  After the demonstrations, we were given a huge and amazing home cooked meal that included tons of meat, potatoes, and veggies, and was followed by ridiculously good fresh fruit and ice cream (called hokey pokey ice cream.... WOW is it delicious!), and then tea and biscuits.  It was funny watching us all scarf down the food, but I suppose it is legit as we haven't really had a home cooked meal in quite some time.  It was definitely a good way to end the trip.

• Plane Rides-  After my last few non-spectacular flights, I didn't have too high of expectations for these flights, but I was definitely wrong.  Apparently Emirates is a pretty classy airline, as upon walking on the plane I was given about 10 newspaper options, and after sitting down I was given a hot, wet towel to wipe my hands with.  I had my own TV on which I watched 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' and 'Yes Man' on, and had 5 course meals on both flights!  Definitely a pleasant surprise.. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

So it turns out my attempt to keep the post short didn't end up working out too well as there is just so much to tell!  Basically if you've made it this far and haven't gotten the point yet, I had an incredible trip to New Zealand and it is one that I will never forget.  I got to go to many amazing locations, made great friends, and tried lots of new things.  If you want to hear more let me know and I would be glad to talk for hours and hours about my trip!

Random Notes (these will be kept to a minimum since the rest is so long):

1. Fries are called fries in New Zealand unlike in Australia where they're called chips.

2. There are tons of Subways in both countries and they have Subway breakfasts that actually look quite delicious (and apparently they have veggie patties that are quite good too)

More Roadkill than Radio Stations

Hi everyone!   Another adventure has come and gone, this time to Tasmania (or Tassie as it is often called).  Tassie is often made fun of by Australians and people always say that everyone there is related and such, so I was interested to see what it was like.  I left early Friday morning after getting hardly any sleep, but had a very smooth trip to Hobart with my friend Jin (from North Carolina).  The flight was shorter than I expected and only took about 90 minutes.  Before I knew it, I was looking out the window to tons of trees and mountains and got really excited to be arriving in Tassie!  I was very disappointed because I bought a bunch of fruit for the trip before leaving Wollongong, but it was all confiscated at the airport.. Apparently you can't bring fruit into Tassie, South Australia, or Western Australia.  Annoying.  Eventually we made it into town and met up with Kelly and Jaci, and though we didn't have the best weather (rainy and in the 40's and 50's... which yes isn't bad, but keep in mind we're used to warmth now!), we made the most of it and had a really good trip.

Friday was a pretty low key day, and we went to the Cadbury Chocolate Factory, which is the main plant and where the magic started!  It was well worth the journey and we got plenty of free samples and learned  a bit about the company too.  It turns out that they actually use different milk and sugar in the chocolate that they make in Australia from the chocolate made in the US, so there is a difference in taste (not that I would ever be able to notice, but I suppose maybe some chocolate fanatics could).  I also learned that Americans don't even make the top 3 in amount of chocolate eaten per person in the world, but Australians do... apparently they spend 11 (or was it 10?) months of the year at the factory making chocolate eggs, all which are sold and eaten in 1 month SOLELY by Australians.. Ridiculous.  After the presentation, we were able to buy chocolate, and we saw this giant box of breakfast bars for only $12.  After some deliberation, Jaci decided to buy it.  We were trying to guess how many boxes were inside, but after leaving and opening it up, we found a gigantic bag filled of about 100 bars, 90% of which were unwrapped... We laughed about that for a bit.

The evening was spent wandering around Hobart.  I didn't really know what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised.  Though it is one of the two main cities in Tassie, it is actually pretty tiny and has no skyscrapers,  but has a nice feel to it.  There was a neat outdoor mall and lots of cool restaurants and shops along the pier.  I wish I would have had some extra time to spend just wandering around in Hobart.  We found this really cool place to eat at for dinner and got some really good pasta and pizza (my first in a very long time!!).  

Saturday morning we woke up early to go rent a car!!  After going to a few places the day before with expensive estimates, we found this kind of sketchy company called Selective Car Rentals that gave us a good price, so we decided to go with it.  We got a lovely, old Toyota Corolla (that Kelly named Blue Betty), that had some difficulty accelerating up hills and with brakes that needed extra effort to work.  Renting a car was an awesome decision and made for a great weekend.  We spent about 9 hours in the car on Saturday, but it was great because we got to see so much of Tassie as a result.  It was a really scenic drive, but it sometimes would turn into a dirt road for extended periods of time or would just go down to one lane for both directions.. scary!  

Eventually we made it to Cradle Mountain, which is probably Tassie's most iconic location.  It was very much worth the 5 hour drive there, as it was absolutely amazing!  I've been to plenty of beautiful places so far, but this was basically my first time (minus the Blue Mountains) seeing mountains instead of beaches, and it was great!  We did a two hour hike around Dove Lake and past Cradle Mountain and then two mini hikes that went by waterfalls nearby.  We were really happy because the weather looked like it was going to start pouring any minute, but held out for us.  We started heading back around 6pm and made it to this town called Sheffield in about an hour where we decided to stop for dinner.  Despite this town being one of the biggest ones on the map, it was so empty, and at 7pm on a Saturday night there were literally only 2 'restaurants' open in town.  The one that we ate at doesn't really even count as a restaurant as it basically served fast food.  We also learned that Sheffield has stores with really weird combinations of goods... This one store that we walked by sold the nice combination of flour, dvds, and clothes.  Very logical if you ask me.  I drove the rest of the way back, and though it was a few hour drive, it flew by and I enjoyed being able to drive again and driving on the left side of the road!

Sadly Kelly had to leave us Sunday morning, but Jaci, Jin, and I continued our journey, this time to Bruny Island which is pretty close to Hobart.  We took a ferry over with the car, and then went to explore the island.  Unfortunately it was pretty cold and rainy for most of the day, so there were tons of hikes that looked awesome that we didn't do just because we didn't want to get stuck freezing in the forest.  We did get to see the majority of the island and stopped at many awesome look outs along the way.  My favorite spot was 'the neck' that separated the north and south islands.  It was really cool because you could see the two beautiful, but different beaches on both sides.  Also, there are a ton of penguins there, but since it was during the day, we only saw one (but were very excited about that one).  After a few hours we decided that we saw everything that we could by car, and decided to go back.  We stopped at a cheese factory on the island on the way out and got to try some samples which were pretty delicious  (though I'm not the biggest fan of goat cheese I learned).

That evening we went to search for some place for dinner and ended up at a restaurant called Bay Leaf Bistro.  We settled on it because it looked decent and we had barely any options, but were pleasantly surprised.  The service was by far the best that I've had since being in Australia (often waitresses don't care because they don't get tipped), and we got complimentary rolls (also never happens), delicious food, a chocolate ball for free (also NEVER happens), and split checks (I've only been to one place so far that has done this)!!!  We were amazed, especially at the fact that these little things could make us so ridiculously happy.  Later that evening we did a ghost tour through some old penitentiary in Hobart.  As a whole it was kind of dumb, but it was a cool thing to see, and we got to see where prisoners used to stay and were hanged, and our crazy guide looked just like this old convict.  However the closest we got to creepiness was how loud one guy on the tour was breathing the entire time.    

As a whole, Tassie was an awesome time and I wish I would have been able to stay longer because there is SO much to do there..  I've already begun to plan my next trip to Australia (I know, I'm strange), so perhaps I'll have to add Tassie to the list.   Last night I went to see a play at the Opera House which is another thing that was at the top of my list to do.  I went with Katie and her mom, and we saw The Alchemist, which was very good and hilarious.  We ate dinner at Circular Quay with an awesome view of the bridge and city lit up beforehand, and then went to the play which was such a great experience.  Tomorrow, I leave for New Zealand for 11 days, and I couldn't be more excited!  Expect the next post to be ridiculously long because there is going to be tons to talk about.  Anyways, talk to you all soon!  

Random things we learned in Tassie:

1. Don't listen to crazy 1 tooth airport shuttle guys on where to stay... we were almost scared away from our hostel when our driver told us that staying there was a terrible decision, but it ended up being awesome!

2.  There are more sheep than people 

3.  The windshield wiper will not operate the turn signal... we kept forgetting that this was flip-flopped in the car as well

4.  There is more roadkill than radio stations.. we saw tons of wallabies, kangaroos, tasmania devils, and wombats... but most were dead on the road :(

5.  If you get a box of breakfast bars, don't be surprised if 90% are unwrapped

6.  You're allowed to drive in the middle of the road

7.  It's probably not the best idea to eat 3 chocolate eggs in one sitting.. you will probably get a stomach ache of some sort

8.  If you go to Cadbury and the sample bin is empty, make sure to look in the cabinet below

9.  The roads can randomly go down to one lane for both directions to share

10.  Don't be alarmed if the car you rent comes with a casette player and has spider webs on the mirror

11.  You may drive on gravel roads for extended periods of time

12.  There are still places where people will pump your gas for you

13.  You can go to Perth, Brisbane, and New Zealand all within Tasmania 

14.  Don't be surprised if your headlights don't work and then find out the next evening that you just weren't turning them on the right way

15.  Most places will be closed at 7pm on a Saturday night

16.  It is more hillbilly-ish than the rest of Australia and there are radio hosts with ridiculous lisps

17.  Don't be surprised if a museum you stop at is the size of a bedroom and they expect you to pay $4 to enter