Come to Australia

On Tuesday I will be embarking on my third trip to Australia and second trip to New Zealand. My original plan of only staying a month has been extended (surprise, surprise) to nearly two months. Thanks to many friends who are letting me crash with them, generous people on couch surfing, and the commune, as I call it, where I will be working on my residency I have an excuse to get a lot of research, personal, and business-work done. I’ll be looking at grad schools in Australia, exploring the cities and bush, and completing my portfolio for my grad school applications. It’s amazing to me that I will be gone for this length of time and I can’t wait to embark on this journey!
Obviously, since I’m now this close to leaving, I’ve got my schedule somewhat ironed out.

I’m still working on finding a couple of places to stay. I know I’ll work out things with the couch surfers, but it’s getting closer and closer to crunch time so I’m hoping that I’ll get the chance to meet and stay with some obviously wonderful new people.
So expect the obligatory per-departure posts. I’m not sure how I’m going to write this trip… I’m keeping a written journal so I can remember everything later on in life, but I don’t think I’ll be copying things down on a day-to-day basis. We’ll see how things go though I can promise a lot of photos!

Well, it’s official… I’ve purchased one of many tickets that will take me around the South Pacific this October. On 18 October I’ll be flying into Brisbane Australia… with a three hour layover in Nadi, Fiji I might add. Yeah, I’ll be in the airport and won’t have enough time to go outside and play on the beach before getting on another plane again… but still. Layover in Fiji.
I have a clue of where I’ll be going after my stay in Brisbane, but dates and exact destinations haven’t yet been determined. At least, all of them haven’t. I know without a doubt that I’ll be making it down to Melbourne again, to Hobart, and to Christchurch. I did apply for the residency at New Pacific Studio on the North Island of New Zealand and it should be just a matter of time before I hear from them. If I get accepted I’ll be living at the studio for two weeks working on a photo/writing project.
So… thinks shall progress and news shall be shared as it happens. For now, I’ll leave a photo from the first place I stayed at in Australia back in 2004, Tangalooma.

I’m starting to work on things for my trip in the fall. Obviously I’m going to visit grad schools and see some friends, but I got to thinking: artist residencies are an important part of one’s career, right? The fantastic thing about going back to Australia and New Zealand is that both countries are very environmentally conscious with major global problems effecting their delicate ecosystems. Why, it seems to me that this would be the perfect opportunity to work on my “environmentalism-wildlife-conversation photo project.” There are so many resources just sitting there in Australia that I can totally utilize. And, should I get accepted into a residency, it would be much much cheaper to stay in a furnished room with laundry, bathrooms, and food than hopping around more than I already am paying a nightly rate for staying at hostels.
So here are a couple places that I’m looking at. The two in Australia seem absolutely perfect – just the sort of people I can talk to, interview, learn from, and work with. The one in New Zealand, well, it’s gorgeous! Definitely a place where I can focus on the positives of what our environmental world can offer us.
ILIRI: This is deep in the outback a bit north of a town we stayed in (Broken Hill, NSW). This place isn’t just for artists, it’s also for researchers in many other fields.
Digger Street: The two words I’ve used to describe this place are “hippy” and “commune.” It’s way up north in Cairns, QLD which means lots of critters and plants that can eat and poison you to death! Wait… isn’t that the whole of Australia? But yeah, this artist home has a garden, is very eco-friendly, and uses much less energy than the average home. Cool, eh?
New Pacific Studio: Just looking at the pictures on the website makes you want to live here. The home is nestled in New Zealand countryside surrounded by green hills, mountains, and fields. I’d imagine this is the sort of place that people go to and never want to leave.
So yeah, plans are evolving and I’m looking forward to buying my ticket and sending out emails to all the universities I’m planning on visiting. If you know of/see/hear about any other residencies in these areas, please let me know. I’m thinking this is going to be something that I seriously consider on executing.

Who would’ve thunk it? Well, really… I would’ve. Turns out, after a chain events has come and gone, that I will be going back to Australia (AND New Zealand) in the fall. I’m thinking mid/late October through early/mid November. Yes, I want to spend a month there… again. And this time, it’s going to be even warmer than it was when I was last there!
This time around, I’ll be traveling alone meeting up with friends as well as meeting new people… a bit of a different experience than traveling with a group for education. I hope to hit up Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Melbourne, Mildura, Hobart, Christchurch, and Auckland this time ’round. I won’t be spending a ridiculous amount of time at each place, but that’s obviously okay with me. I get the chance to go over there again!
I’ll also be looking at a number of grad schools while I’m there, trying to figure out where I would like to go to continue my education in photography. Let’s face it, the whole world knows that I would love to move to Australia… it’s my home without really being my home… yet. Plus, grad schools over there (even if for some reason, I didn’t get good scholarships) are much more affordable than many over here.
So yes… this will be my autumnal (or spring, I suppose, in the southern hemisphere) adventure. Check back around October for further updates!

Had a bit of a slow and relaxing morning and afternoon today. Kirsty had to go to work today so I woke up a bit later to take a shower and whatever else. Kirsty’s mum, Heather, was the only one in the house and needed to get a few things done for work, so I just played with the pets and wrote while they got their stuff done.
Around 11 or 12, Heather and I went to Robina so she could meet another friend, Janelle (I think) and talk about some work stuff. They invited me to have lunch with them, which was super nice so I stayed until they were done. The place we ate at was called The Coffee Club – pretty decent cafe type food in the Robina mall with a really cool dining room wrapped in windows. I had a ham and pineapple open grill which was pretty tastey to say the least.
After lunch, Heather took me around the mall to show me her and Kirsty’s favorite stores. This mall is freakin’ HUGE! So finding different types of stores wasn’t very hard. In the end I got a long cardigan and a cute top from an awesome shop called Chica Booti.
After doing a couple of other things we got back home around 2:30 or 3. Wade and Grant were home from work and uni for the day so I chatted with Wade and Heather for a bit and tried to help Wade find some missing boxes for his room. Then, since Grant has been upstairs for a large chunk of the afternoon, I went up to see what he was watching. We ended up watching a pretty funny TV show then shared traveling and drinking stories. Before I knew it, he had to get ready for work and Kirsty had come home around 5.
Turns out that some of Oli’s friends just across the New South Wales border invited us to go over for dinner and a movie, so Oli picked us up not long after Kirsty got home.
I can’t remember for the life of me what these other guys’ names were. The couple’s house we went to were married and had three kids. There were a couple others who worked in America and/or Australia, but… yeah. Dinner was great and we ended up laughing a freakin’ lot. When that was over, five of the eight of us went out to get a movie to watch. Somehow we ended up with Sorority Row – slasher film. A quick stop for McFlurries ended our night time journey and we started watching the movie when we got back.

Oli, Kirsty, and I ended up leaving around 11pm or so and pretty much went straight back to Kirsty’s place. Kirsty and I talked for a while before finally getting to bed. So hopefully we didn’t wake anyone up in the house while we laughed and chatted. Kirsty’s cat Cotton also spent the night with us more or less as a fluffy white bed warmer.