Although my visa for Australia is good for 1 year, for some reason I have to leave every 3 months.   When I asked the immigration office if I had to leave for a specific length of time, they said no, just step out and back in.   Uh, that’s not really possible when there is no other country touching your border.   New Zealand here I come! I landed in Christchurch; deciding to tour South Island first.   I found a hostel near the city center (with private rooms) and enjoyed getting to know the other travelers as well as the super friendly staff.   Its listed at 19 Bristol Street on Airbnb and   stayed there each time I was in the city.   This was to be the case every single place I stayed.   I know hostels are a cheap way to travel, but at my age, I just can’t see sleeping on bunkbeds with a room full of people more than half my age.   That being said, in New Zealand, most hostels have the option of a private room with shared kitche...

My next stop was the Blue Mountains and the city of Katoomba.   Everyone kept telling me I had to see the Blue Mountains and they were right, it was stunning!   A bit like the Smokies, including the ever-present haze.   In this case, it had a blueish tint, said to be from droplets of Eucalypt oil.     There is a Hop On Hop Off Bus to takes you to all the sights and if you stay in Katoomba you can ride the bus the entire time of your stay.   I started out by going to Scenic World, a place where you can take a sky tram, cable car, or very steep rail car for spectacular panoramic views of the mountains.   It looked like it was an easy walk from my hotel and it would have been, except I took a short cut…     There are hiking trails all over Katoomba and the neighboring village of Leura.   I passed a trail head for Scenic World, Furber Steps, and a few more walks.   I decided it’s much nicer to walk through the woods and ...

After all the hard work on the farm, I decided a holiday was in order and what better place than Sydney.    I found a relatively cheap Airbnb, at least cheap for this very expensive city.   It was cheap for a reason; my first impression was ‘what a dump’!   It was a huge house, with a few apartments, and many bedrooms.   There was a communal kitchen and sitting room as well.   The problem was, there so much dust and clutter.   The location was great, about a 5-minute walk to the Birchgrove ferry (a pretty exclusive area right on the water) and an 8-minute walk to a bus stop.   I did give some serious thought to leaving right away, but I couldn’t find anything else within my budget and, at least my room and bathroom were clean, in spite of the junk they had stored under the bed and on top of the closet.   It ended up being OK; I got to know some of the other guests and we had a pretty good time.   We even had some excitement.   The...

Australia is turning out to be a pretty expensive country, as was Japan.   To try to reduce my costs I joined a site called Helpx.   https://www.helpx.net It’s a website where people provide you room and board in exchange for a few hours work each day.   There are farms, homestays, ranches, lodges, B&Bs, hostels and even sail boats; all doing a variety of jobs.   For my first helpx, I chose a combination housesit and farm work.   The family of 6 lived in a rural area, near Aubrey in Victoria.   The family was going away for about 10 days and needed someone to look after the house, animals, and farm.   There would also be a young German couple staying.   Right up my alley I thought.   I couldn’t have asked for a better first gig.   I arrived in the afternoon and the husband picked me up at the airport about 30 min away.   We had the nicest chat on the way home and I instantly liked him.   At one point we were ta...