If you haven't yet read Part 1, click to find out where in the world I was living and understand some of the Aussie slang that you may see in the following paragraphs.
So now that you are familiarized with the up-and-coming town of Marlborough, it's time to talk about all of the exciting events and insights into Aussie life that I picked up over my four months there. I arrived on the last day of May in 2013 and did not entirely intend to stay as long as I did (by not entirely I mean not at all). I didn't leave until the first week of October, and that was due in large part to all of the dollar bills piling up in my account each week.
Most of that time also happened to be Australian "winter," which basically means that we had hoodie weather. Since heating isn't really a thing though, our room felt about ten degrees colder than the outside, so Nyah and I were constantly wrapped in blankets and I was sleeping in that hoodie as well to keep warm. Summer started to arrive in the last couple months, and by then it felt surreal that I'd soon be on the road again. I may have lost my mind a little in the tiny town, but luckily over that time, I stumbled into some awesome friendships and really got a feel for life in Australia without the backpackers and beaches and organized tours.
Wildlife
Of course, living in a farmland area, there will be Australian wildlife. Some of it is what you'd expect. There were little lizards that lived in the walls. Sometimes you'd see them, but more often you'd just hear their chirping noises.
Speaking of animal sounds, my absolute favorite bird song in the world is the magpie's. I had never heard a magpie before coming to Oz, and I loved hearing their unique voices in the trees ever since I was in Sydney. I'd sit out on the porch in Marlborough and hear them every day, and it always made me happy.
I came out the back door of the hotel one night in the spring to see cane toads everywhere. They're the huge frogs that will put you on a serious trip if you lick them. (Not that I tried... while I'm all for new experiences, I draw a line at licking toads). I also came out of my room one day to find an adorable bright green frog on my chair. He let me get a good photo of him, so I just scooted to the other side and shared with him.
One day we found a baby huntsman spider in the hallway at the hotel. By baby, I mean it was about the size of my fist. Huntsman spiders are harmless but they are gigantic. Nyah and I quickly tracked down Bob to relocate it.
There were, of course, kangaroos outside of town along the roads. One night, Karl and David hit one with their truck and accidentally killed it. Karl said they just threw it into the back and took it home to feed the dogs. Aussies aren't a sentimental bunch.
The opposite of sentimental, in fact. I was pretty annoyed another day when Karl showed me photos of him with a dead pig after he and Max had gone out one night "pigging"- shooting the wild pigs that come near the property.
Nyah and I briefly had another roommate for awhile near the beginning of our stay at the hotel. His name was Stuart, and he made his presence known in the dead of night when we heard loud rustling in our room. It took a few times to catch him, but eventually if we were really quiet, he'd creep out from under the cupboard and get straight back into Nyah's box of treats from home.
We were actually quite fond of Stuart, but Bob was not a fan of him or his family members. Despite my protests, he put rat poison in all of the rooms and soon we no longer had a roommate.
My friends Will and Lisa found a baby flying fox bat one day and saved it from the fence it was caught in. They were keeping it in a bird cage while it was healing. It was extremely cute, so tiny with huge eyes, and Lisa fed it juice through a straw which was adorable.
One evening, I was working at the pub in the late afternoon when Annie or somebody called for us all to run out back because there was a group of emus all just wandering across the road. Wild emus! That was so cool to see.
Easily the most terrifying prospect to me though were the brown snakes. I'm not afraid of snakes, of course, considering I was briefly and inadvertently breeding my own back home, but I am afraid of death. Well, one night I was heading out the back door of the kitchen to visit my friends when Annie asked if I had a torch. I told her no, why would I need a flashlight to walk across the yard? That's when I was informed that it was high season for brown snakes, and it was too dangerous not to bring a light to watch the ground and make sure I wasn't stepping on anything. Soon after, I heard reports of three brown snake sightings (and subsequent killing of the snakes) around Marlborough already. One had been spotted across the street from the pub, and two others were at the school. Brown snakes will kill you. In fact, they are considered the second most venomous land snake! Fun! I was told that without medical treatment, the venom from a brown snake could kill you within an hour, and considering that the nearest hospital was an hour away, that put me on high alert. I was majorly on edge during my last few weeks in Oz and gone were my carefree walks around town after dark.
To end on a less creepy note, while not wildlife, our two pub dogs Bonnie and Badger were a fun pair to have around.
Bonbon
Badge
Capricorn Caves
I took one (literally, just one) day away field trip during those months, excluding my monthly errands in Rocky, and that was to the Capricorn Caves.
Nyah was dating an Aussie named James who came to visit every week or two, and he drove us down which took about 45 minutes. We did an hour long tour there. The caves were limestone and had lights running through them for the sake of the tours. One of my favorite spots was where a rope bridge is strung up in an outdoor section.
The main highlight was the cathedral inside the caves. It’s a high-ceilinged cavern where they’ve put in benches and candles with a center aisle and stairs for a choir. They hold weddings there. It also has amazing acoustics, so we sat on the benches while the tour guide put on “Music of the Night” from Phantom of the Opera and gave us a light show by illuminating different parts of the cave, lighting the candles, and putting it in complete darkness for bits.
Finally we saw the tiny tunnel in the rock where the adventure tours go, and I’m not even sure I could handle that (although who am I kidding, I'd probably try). Claustrophobia to the max. The last part of the caves we walked through was a very narrow zigzag path which was fun, then we came out over the rope bridge we’d seen earlier and the tour was over. Worth it because I love caves and it got us out of town for a little while.
Country Moments
I have so very many weird stories, some of which can't be publicized, but others that I feel really add up to give you a feel for the town and some of the rural areas of Oz in general (like the very negative side).
Domestics
Nyah and I encountered one of these moments after the first State of Origin game, literally within my first week in town, which I think of as our sort of intro to Marlborough. We were in our room after the pub had closed when all of a sudden we heard yelling from across the street. Being curious (nosy) people, we went to have a cigarette on the porch and watch the drama. Well, one of the girls at the pub earlier had gotten into it with Annie and been told to leave, and now she was across the street starting things with her on-again/off-again lover. (I'll leave out names.) She kept trying to get in his truck, he'd push her away, and she was falling on the ground drunk. Then she went at the mother of my friend Krystal who lived there, so Krystal punched her to prevent her from hitting her mom.
At this point, the girl came walking down the street towards us. Nyah and I had an "oh shit" moment as she pushed her way onto our porch, drenched in blood and covered in grass from falling on the ground. We happened to have guests in the hotel that night, and one lady heard the commotion and came outside. She insisted on calling the paramedic to take the girl to the hospital. Our local paramedic, Justin, and town cop, Neil, both came by, and the girl was almost incoherent. She couldn't remember what had happened ten minutes beforehand and just kept blaming her not-quite-boyfriend who had wandered over and was telling her that she was a lunatic when she drinks. Finally they carted her off to Rocky in the ambo, and Nyah and I were left staring at each other going, "Where have we come to live?"
The most memorable moment, however, concerning the exact same couple, came a few months later after camp draft. The guy involved had been absolutely wasted when I'd last seen him there. I had grabbed one of my friends out of the guy's ute where he was sleeping and told him to come back to the hotel with us because there was no way I was letting the guy drive him anywhere.
Later on, a bunch of us were sitting on our porch at the hotel when we saw the guy's truck go flying down the road past us. Awhile later, the town cop came over to sit and have a drink with us on the porch and told us that he had gone to the girl's house and waited for him there. When the guy got there, Neil had pulled him over and basically told him he had two choices: take a ride home with him right now, or keep going towards the girl's and be taken to jail instead, because Neil didn’t want a domestic violence call at 3 AM. The guy chose the ride home. Best cock block of all time.
Casual Racism
In general around Oz, there are some serious racism issues, and some of the things that casually come out of people's mouths are unbelievable. Australia legitimately had to put out commercials (or an advert as they would say) telling people NOT to be racist. I remember one that involved people avoiding an Aboriginal man on a bus. Just so insane that those are needed at all.
Easily the thing that blew my mind most though was when I honestly heard someone use the c-word (not THAT c-word, the other c-word) during a regular conversation. What?! I had to do a double take to see if anyone else was as shocked as I was. They weren't. It was like being transported back to the 50s in the worst way. So- be prepared if you go to Aus, especially the country areas, to tell off a lot of racist assholes.
Car crash
Another weird night was this evening that an out-of-towner who was doing some work at the caravan park was in drinking. It had been an uneventful night, and he had been in there since early on. He was nice at first, but then just before closing, he got ridiculously drunk out of nowhere and couldn’t even stand. He fell over and knocked over the bar stools, I stopped serving him, and Greg, Annie, and Bob tried to tell him to go sleep it off in his truck, but he would not leave the bar. He even tried to punch Bob outside.
We finally thought he was gone until he came staggering back through the doorway five minutes later. Bob was like, “Nah, mate,” and shoved him back out. The guy then got in his truck, drove past the front yelling out obscenities, tried to run Greg over, slammed into our sign out front, and took off accelerating down the road. We had all run outside by this point. He made it to the turn and then didn’t stop and we saw his truck fly off the road. Greg and Bob ran down to check on him while Annie and I went inside to the call the ambulance. The dude actually was so lucky. He crashed into the wire fence which wrapped him up, prevented him from going straight into the railroad tracks and flipping his car, and probably saved his life. When Bob and Greg checked on him, he didn’t even seem to realize what had happened and told them to fuck off. Needless to say, once the ambo had arrived, we very quickly closed the pub and turned off the lights to avoid any police questioning and went to bed.
Age Differences
One final small thing that I remember thinking was so creepy was when this young couple staying at the caravan park came to drink with me and Nyah on our porch after closing time one night. We got to talking and were surprised to find out that the girl was only 19 and the guy was about 37 or 38... which isn't even the worst part. The part that creeped me out is that they had been together for around five years. Meaning that this dude had gone after a 14 year old girl when he was in his early 30s. Nope. That's not legal.
Local Events
Literally anything to break up the routine was more than welcome, and aside from the random Friday night parties, there wasn't a lot of that. However, there are a few events that stand out in my mind.
Camp Draft
Camp draft was built up to be a big deal. The show grounds were set up just past the train tracks on the path out of town, so it was only a short walk from the pub. Nyah and I went over to see what it was like on the first day. I knew it was basically a bunch of cattle competitions, but it was even more boring than I expected. The riders just take turns chasing around the cattle on their horses seeing who can get them around the course fast enough. I'm sure it's fun to be a competitor, but it's nothing to sit and watch.
The last night of camp draft, however, was meant to be a huge party. Some of the guys who came into the bar beforehand were even dressed up all nice. Everyone in town had gone to it, and I was stuck waiting for closing time at a completely deserted pub. Greg, Bob, and Nyah had left around 8, and we could easily have closed if not for a few obnoxiously oblivious campers who insisted on staying for ages despite me mentally willing them to go away. Annie and one of the other local women, Lorraine, did a few shots with me while waiting, and I finally finished around 9:15. I ran back to the room, broke out my bottle of Stone’s, and smoked out on the porch until Katie came to walk over with me. We headed up, and the big party night was not at all what I expected. I had fully anticipated this massive blow out, but there were only 30-40 people there. There was a stereo on, a fire pit, and people were just standing around the bar hanging out. This was not worth the buildup, but I did have a good time. I hung out with Nyah and Katie, talked to Greg and Bob and whoever else was around, and if nothing else, we were drinking outdoors instead of at the pub.
Bob and his bartenders.
Redcliffe
My friend Karl and I decided to go on an overnight camping trip one Sunday. There was a mountain behind Marlborough Station called Redcliffe, so we packed up a tent and a couple bags, Max drove us to the start of the path, and we set off that morning. The hike up wasn’t bad at all. It was hot out though and I was in a t-shirt and jeans as well as in charge of carrying the five liter water cooler, so I did have to stop pretty regularly.
The path wasn’t too steep, but there were sections with loose rocks alongside ravines, so we were careful. About halfway up was an area Karl was referring to as the saddle, where we came out in the open and walked straight across a rocky area, and after that it wasn’t far to the top.
It only took about 45 minutes for us to finish the overall hike, and at the top there was a clearing where we tried to kick away as many rocks as possible to set up our tent. Everyone had warned us about snake season again, but the only wildlife we saw was a bush turkey.
Once we had the tent up and got our stuff packed away inside, we explored a bit. The views from up there were pretty awesome. We could see Max’s property and others far below, but mostly lots of open space and other trees and mountains. It was a nice day too, clear skies and warm weather.
We had brought a bottle of Jim Beam, so we drank that and had dinner later on. We were listening to music and having a good time, but then, tragically, we ran out of alcohol. It was only 7:00, and it was too late to walk back down since it was getting dark. So unfortunately, with nothing to drink and soon no music as the speakers died, we were basically sitting on a rocky mountain in the pitch dark with literally nothing to do. We ended up going to sleep at 9:30, and sleep was horrible. The ground was so uncomfortable, and the wind was intensely loud all night. I don’t think I slept half the night because no matter which way I turned my body would hurt within minutes. So yeah... camping out on a random mountain with gorgeous views in the country that probably very few people have ever climbed = awesome. Being totally unprepared without enough resources and entertainment = not so awesome.
Marlborough Exploration
One day during Nyah's last week, we decided to actually be tourists and visit that little museum in town. (Actually hard to believe that we never went before that considering how few options were actually available to us.) James had arrived the night before, so he came with us too. It was truly unexciting. There was a small indoor room with chrysoprase and some antiques, then a big shed out back with old carriages, furniture, and household and farm items. Riveting stuff.
Speaking of chrysoprase, it's a local green rock found in the area. I actually went to visit the mines one day and found some pieces in the dirt around there.
I also had a nice and unplanned night near the end after working my first ever day shift while Bob was in Brisbane one week. I came back to the pub when I finished to have drinks with my friends. My good friend Ally and I even did a new sexy photoshoot in our "emergency vehicles" line on the ambo.
This is not a good photo but probably the only one appropriate enough to post.
It was the sequel to our "sexy cop car" shoot from a few weeks before.
We played pool and put the jukebox on. Most of them left after that to go home and make dinner, so I just kept drinking with Krystal. She and her boyfriend David talked me into coming for a walk with them and David's sister, and we went across town to an empty house that David's mom owns. There were horses out in the yard, and David let me hop on one to circle around the lawn bareback. I hadn’t been on a horse in ages and it felt so good to ride again!
After that we continued to our original destination, an abandoned shed that is meant to be haunted. They all swear that usually you can feel the presence of a dead guy named George. It was dark, and we walked through all holding hands, but I didn’t really feel anything. David told me he didn’t think George was there that night. At any rate, I love ghost stories and supposedly haunted areas, so it was spooky and fun. Even the littlest things are nice to change up the routine in Marlborough.
Spring Creek
Over time, I became very good friends with some of the locals my age. Ally and Katie were sisters who lived on the road behind the pub, and Will and Lisa were a couple that hung out with us as well. Eventually they introduced me to a nearby creek in the woods where we would go swim, picnic, or lay out in the nice weather as spring came around.
My first time there was with Will and Lisa, and we brought a couple of kayaks and three dogs. We took turns out on the water. I was slightly apprehensive about the creek, where they told me there were PROBABLY not crocodiles in the water. That did not reassure me.
I do love kayaking though. The water by the bank we were on was most fun because there were trees and rocks to navigate, but the wide open water past that was very pretty too. My favorite part, however, might have been the dogs. Will's two small dogs, Rex and Shithead (affectionately named), rode on the kayak with me. (Lisa's dog Ella would only ride with her.)
Rex was my captain up front, happy just chilling and looking over the water (he liked to "fish" they said) while I rowed, but Shithead had been following Will and me from land all the way down the creek along the embankments as we went. Then at one point in the deeper water he just dove in and swam all the way over to my kayak to hitch a ride, so I helped him up and joined us on deck for the rest of the journey. I had one dog at each end on the way back. It was adorable.
The End of Days
Eventually what felt like the impossible happened, and the days actually started to wind down. Karl left, then Nyah left, and then it was my final week.
With Bob and Greg on Nyah's last night.
Nyah and I also had our last Soco and coke porch drinking night.
I had done amazingly on money and was set for the rest of my trip. By mid-July, I had saved $1500 and had already booked my skydive, reef dive, and Kiwi Experience bus around New Zealand on top of that. By the end of July, Nyah and I had booked an Ayers Rock tour together. By the end of the first week of August, I had flights booked to get from Rocky to Alice Springs, and at some point in all of this I had applied for and obtained (overnight) my working-holiday visa for New Zealand. I had also gotten a (pretty low) $200 from tax back and emptied my tip jar during the last week to count out $140.80 more. By the time I left, I had somewhere between $4000-$6000 and was fully confident that I would be able to do everything I still needed to do in Oz.
Once Nyah left and I was on my own in the room for the last week, it felt all the more like time to move on. Things began to wrap up. Two new girls had shown up and we had trained them. I went for a dinner and game night at Will's house. I worked my last shift and finally signed the wall on the pool table side of the bar which is covered in autographs from people who had been to the pub. I said goodbye to Ally's 2 year old daughter Emma who didn't seem to get that I was leaving forever and just kept going "Alright, see you next time, Maria."
On my last Friday, Ally and Katie threw me the sweetest going away party! Their mom Sue came for awhile, plus Will and Lisa.
They had hung up balloons and streamers all over the back porch, Ally had made dinner for everyone, plus they'd put together about 50-60 jello shots in varying strengths by flavor. It was so cute and meant a lot to me. We put on music, started drinking, Katie wouldn’t let me take a break for even a minute without making me take another jello shot with her, and after a few hours headed to the pub.
Ally put about $70 or more on the bar for us to drink. They were all so good to me. We put on the jukebox and started playing pool, and the night got pretty crazy for a Marlborough Friday. Greg and Bob got me a couple tequila slammers, I was running around dancing and singing (slash yelling) the songs, and we were taking pictures all night. It was perfect!
My head woke me up at 6 AM on my last day, so I took an ibuprofen, showered, finished packing, put all my stuff on the porch, and walked over to Ally and Katie’s. They looked in as miserable a state as I was. I passed out on Ally's bed while she made a great breakfast, then I immediately crashed back out again afterwards for another hour before I had to leave at noon. Will and Lisa had offered to drive me to Rocky, so while we loaded my bags in their car I ran back into the pub to print my flight tickets and say goodbye to Bob and Annie.
We made it to the Rocky airport around 1:15. They helped me carry my bags inside and I said goodbye to them, caught my flight to Brisbane which landed at 5:00, and caught my shuttle to my hotel that my mom had so kindly offered to pay for that night (I had been planning to sleep in the airport).
Sitting in that cozy hotel room all on my own that night in the middle of an actual city, everything felt surreal. There are times during your travels where you get so wrapped up in the life you're leading at the moment that it starts to feel like all you know, then out of nowhere it's all over, leaving you with the strangest feeling. It's disorienting and exciting and sometimes kind of sad. Those places are the ones that leave the biggest impact on you. Marlborough would be a difficult place to forget, not that I'd ever want to. Cheers to the real Aussie life and all the friendships I found there! I hope to visit them again one day.