day eleven - acclimatisation

14th February 2011 - 2:15pm


Acclimatisation or acclimation is the process of an individual organism adjusting to a gradual change in its environment, (such as a change in temperature, humidity, photoperiod, or pH) allowing it to maintain performance across a range of environmental conditions.


Well, I managed to drag myself through four days of relaxing at Kuta Beach (Bali) in an attempt to acclimatise to the hot weather. Needless to say, I think I did a pretty good job. Sleeping in, eating, drinking, shopping, and extreme sports. Until now, my idea of extreme sports was gently lowering myself into the water from a boat to go snorkeling. But apparently Ben thought I should challenge my limits, and suggested we go jet-skiing, banana-boating and para sailing. Although probably not the highlight of my life, I did have a ball, and we have some fantastic photos and videos to prove it.

After successfully completing my first level of acclimatisation, we arrived back in Darwin at 4:00am on Wednesday morning to begin my cultural acclimatisation. What an amazingly beautiful and totally under-rated city. It's wet season at the moment, so most afternoons are filled with pouring rain and thunderstorms. But on Thursday morning, I went for a 5km walk around the city. The beautiful harbour with immaculately manicured gardens (in fact, the only people there at 9:30am were the gardeners on ride-on mowers), the Esplanade with its wonderful ocean view. And the incredibly clean well set out, tree-lined streets. Friday I managed another 5km walk in the sweltering 30 plus degree heat, and walked to Cullen Bay (the Sandy Bay of Darwin) and the Botanical Gardens. On Friday I also went for a meeting at the University - another place with amazing gardens and open spaces.

 Darwin Harbour

Cullen Bay

And talk about success with public transport! If the system was as good in Hobart, I'm sure everyone would use it. The routes were easy to understand, buses turning up exactly on time, basically free for everyone (students, pensioners, any concession card holders) and only $2.00 for those adults that pay - for a 3 hour ticket. Friendly bus drivers, clean buses. Fabulous. And amazing scenery on the way to boot.

Although I did experience racism for the first time here on the bus. At one bus stop we pulled up at, there were around 10 aboriginal people waiting. Before we'd even reached the stop, almost everyone in the front half of the bus moved immediately to the back of the bus, and I was sure it wasn't being nice and letting everyone have a seat. Some of the people that got on the bus were rather loud, and some obviously drunk, but I thought the clear display of racism was disappointing, to say the least. I have had some more positive experiences though, especially when an aboriginal man was playing the clap sticks and singing as Ben and I had dinner on tables outside a restaurant on Saturday.

I can't wait to learn more about these people that seem to be so misunderstood.

day two

5th February 2011 - 10:00am

Ok. Well, I was ready for my flight to Darwin, but apparently my flight to Darwin wasn’t ready for me…

I managed to fill in the rest of the afternoon at Melbourne airport by having a bit of a walk around and finishing off my Marie Claire magazine that my work mates gave me. At around 6:30, half an hour before my scheduled departure, there was a last minute gate change. So I made my way to gate 8. Where the plane hadn’t arrived from the previous flight. Hmm. This was obviously going to be interesting, given I only had 35 minutes changeover time in Brisbane to get to my connecting flight.

Who knows what time the plane actually left because I wasn’t wearing a watch, but the new arrival time in Brisbane was 9:00pm, instead of 8:10pm. As those of you who worked with me at Menzies will know, I’m probably the best person in our lab at doing calculations. And with those amazing maths skills, I calculated that I would be 15 minutes late for the connecting flight to Darwin. But I wasn’t worried, because they’d made it quite clear when I cracked it at them when I had to change my Hobart-Melbourne flight, that because it was a connecting flight the plane would wait for us.

I’m not quite sure what Virgin Blue’s definition of wait is, but I guess maybe the plane did wait. As the plane I was on taxied into gate 40, our plane was leaving gate 41. So at least they waited so we could see our plane leaving without us. Knowing this was the last plane out of Brisbane to Darwin for the night, I was guessing that I would be having a sleepover in Brisbane.

There were 12 of us that missed the flight, including the lovely couple that sat next to me during the flight from Melbourne to Brisbane, Sandy and Rick. They were heading to Darwin for five days, although it should’ve been a few weeks, but the company they were touring with went broke, and they lost their money. So as if it wasn’t bad enough that their trip was cut short anyway, now they missed another night in Darwin! But Virgin Blue were actually pretty good to us, putting us up for the night in the Hotel Grand Chancellor and giving us a $50 FOOD voucher for dinner (to use in the restaurant that was closed – although they did order us Dominoes pizza). I write food in capitals because it was made quite clear that we couldn’t spend the $50 on top shelf grog. Spewin. They also gave us transfers to and from the hotel, and since the next flight to Darwin wasn’t until Saturday afternoon with Virgin, they upgraded us to Qantas. Woohoo! More leg room, food, tea and coffee, nicer staff. And even better, on a basically empty plane! I could’ve had a whole row of seven seats to myself! We had to sit in our allocated seats to start with though, and I met a lovely lady from Darwin who I was having a chat to about my move to the middle of nowhere. She said I’ll have a great time.

So now I’m on the plane, about to get back to reading ‘Richo’, and only a few hours away from finally getting to see Ben again! And only four hours after that we’ll be heading to Bali for three nights. We’ll probably spend those four hours sitting at the bar enjoying some of the last few drinks I’ll be having for quite a while…

day one - the departure

4th February 2011 - 3:00pm

The journey begins.

Being the OCDC person I am (for those who don’t understand, that’s somewhere between obsessive compulsive disorder and ACDC – thanks Cathy Blizzard), I decided to set my alarm for 7:00am so we could leave by 8:00am, and arrive at the airport by 9:00am for a 10:00am departure. And everything went to plan.

On the way, I got to say goodbye to some of the places in Hobart that hold some incredible stories. My home in Blackmans Bay, my brother Andy and his partner Mandy, Mum’s pets Chino and Winnie (short for Winnie Blue 25s), BWS Kingston Town, Heart Attack Corner in Kingston, the Southern Outlet and it’s painful traffic jam at Cat’s Eye Corner, the Duke (home of Wednesday night trivia), the wharf, Menzies Research Institute and the Clinical School, Montgomery’s and its famous karaoke, the Hotel Grand Chancellor and it’s warmed red wine, the Tasman Bridge and my memories of Dad stopping every time we went over to make sure everything was ok at the radio tower, Eastlands Shopping Centre and its classy clientele, my little house in Mornington and Shiploads Cambridge Park.

I arrived at the airport with Mum and Hayley in tow, partly to say goodbye, and partly to help carry my large backpack with small one attached, my sports bag, my laptop, my handbag and my camera. The waiting was made a bit easier by Hayley’s excitement at the departing plane – first the stairs being taken away, then the ‘things turning around in circles’ and then the light coming on. And the highlight was that plane leaving at almost the same time my plane was arriving.

And until this point, apart from yesterday saying my goodbyes at work, I had managed to keep it together. Until I came back from the toilet to see the plane about to board, and Cathy and Stan had arrived to say goodbye. So then the ‘hayfever’ started. Knew I should’ve taken that anti-histamine. Had a bit of a teary at the airport, but I know it will all be fine, because Hayley said that she wont miss me, because she’ll be able to talk to me on the ‘puter’. Obviously my hayfever was still playing up a bit, because the air hostess asked if I was ok. Then I started reading the Marie Claire magazine my workmates gave me, and when I read about all of the issues everyone else in Australia seems to be having, I felt a hell of a lot better about things.

Dreading the eight hour wait in Melbourne Airport, I was excited to be greeted by Alice who had stayed in Melbourne Thursday night to hang out with me at the airport. Although we were just hoping there would be somewhere to sit in the airport for that long, luckily I had been talking to someone yesterday (I think it may have been Roger, although I thought it was John – yesterday is a bit of a blur) who suggested we hang out at the bar at the Hilton. Well, thankyou very much! A very enjoyable afternoon of bubbly starting at 11:50am (as the waitress said, it’s after 12pm somewhere in the world) and lunch, I think I’m just about prepared for my next flight to Darwin!