Speaking Australian: Visiting the Blue Mountains

If English is your native tongue and it’s your first time traveling overseas, initially visiting an English-speaking country can help ease you into the idea of traveling abroad. The main point is you don’t have to worry about the language, although, you can get away with using English in most countries today which is a nice luxury.  Being an English-speaking country, Australia is recommended as a travel destination for this reason.  However, there are times you’d never know it.

Australians have their own version of English, which can take you off guard if you get sucked into the beautiful sound that is the Australian accent coupled with a string of words that leave your ears guessing at their meaning.

Nearing the end of my Australian adventures, I’ve learned some tips on how to speak and understand Australian, the overall theme being, keep it simple. 

Tip #1: Names of places or things are usually based on how you would describe them.   

For example, if you see a snake and it’s brown, it’s called a Brown Snake. If it’s huge, it’s a King Brown Snake.  (Stay away from those, by the way.  They’re the 3^rd most deadly snakes in the world.)  Similarly, if mountains look blue, they’re called the Blue Mountains.  You get the idea.

Tip #2: If a word can be shortened, make it even shorter.   

Perhaps coming from their laid back, “no worries” mentality, words are often shortened to 1-2 syllables if need be by chopping off the end of the word and adding an “a”,  “ie/i/y”, “o”, or “za” at the end.

This even pertains to people’s names by adding an “o” or “za”.

It looks something like this:

“a”

Cuppa = cup of tea or coffee

Maccas = McDonalds (pronounced “mackers”)

“ie/i/y”

Aussie = Australian (pronounced “Ozzie”)

Barbie = Barbeque

Bikkie = biscuit (cookie)

Brekkie = breakfast

Chewie = chewing gum

Chrissie = Christmas

Cozzie = swim suit

Exy = expensive

Prezzy = present, gift

Uni = University

Woolies = Woolworths (grocery store)

“o”

Arvo = afternoon

Avo = avocado

Bizzo = mind your own business

Bottle-o = liquor store

Johnno = John

Servo = gas station

Smoko = smoke break

“za”

Bazza = Barry

Wazza = Warren

Jezza = Jeremy

Shazza = Sharon

These tips can be helpful if you get caught in a fast-paced Aussie conversation of abbreviations like this:

Bazza and Shazza met Wazza for brekkie at Maccas before going to Woolies to buy chook (chicken) and avos for the Barbie at Johnno’s that arvo.

With furrowed brow I’d be thinking, “I know they’re trying to tell me something.  I wish I knew what it was!”  Thankfully I did not encounter such a conversation.  However, I have begun to pick up some of the more frequently heard abbreviations like “Aussie”, “brekkie”, and “bikkies” - “abbrevos” that are trying to make a home for themselves amongst my regular vocabulary.

When it comes to bikkies, there is one that stands on its own reputation, not merely known as a bikkie, biscuit, or cookie but by its name – TimTams.  An Aussie-made dessert consisting of two cookies hugging a cream filling all dipped in heavenly chocolate, eating a TimTam is an experience that transcends all other cookie experiences. 

Having a variety of flavors, it can easily lure one into following the Pringles motto, “Betch ya can’t eat just one.”  I’ve tried it…you can’t.  Having a bikkie and a cuppa in the arvo is one thing, but having TimTams and cuppa can make one’s day shine bright again.  The one disconcerting thing is calories are listed as “energy” so I don’t have a concept of how many calories one of these heavenly delights has but like in shopping, if you have to ask, it’s too much.  Well, with all the hiking through rainforests and walking about cities, I think a little “energy” is just what I needed, especially on a day like today where I went to explore the Blue Mountains.

On the outskirts of Sydney, the Blue Mountains are known as the “little Grand Canyon” with its eucalyptus tree-filled gorges and seasonal waterfalls making it one of the top 10 destinations to visit in Australia.  But for many, it’s the mystery of the blue hue that people look to uncover, to answer the nagging question of “What makes the Blue Mountains blue?”  I was on a mission to find out.

Kristi holding Cuddles the snake.

With a pick-up at the hotel, my travel companion and I joined our tour that would take us into the Blue Mountains.  Skirting across the Sydney Harbor Bridge, the bridge I would be climbing tomorrow, we headed to Featherdale Wildlife Park where we’d get yet another chance to experience Aussie animals.  Having already been to two parks such as these, I was ready to move on and get into the mountains, but adventures awaited me, which I had not foreseen.

A roo seeking refuge.

Tourists like 2-year olds eager to touch and grab and photograph swarmed in and among the park.  This automatically made me along with the majority of the kangaroos and wallabies seek refuge.  One was not so lucky. Trying to stay a step ahead of the crowd, I got to see penguins and a shy porcupine-like Echidna before making my way back through the crowd to cuddle “Cuddles”, a small snake that had survived the mob and was now surrounded by silence in the protection of her human guardian.  I tried to feed the kangaroos our left over roo food from earlier in the trip but they thumbed their noses at it.  Disappointed, it found its way into the trash.

Interestingly enough, I learned the legend behind the meaning of the word “kangaroo.”  When a white explorer first came to Australia, most likely Captain James Cook or Captain Phillip King, they saw the strange animal and asked an aboriginal bloke what kind of animal it was.  The aboriginal bloke said, “Kangaroo” which in the aboriginal dialect means, “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand.”  While this is a myth with some truth, the word actually comes from the northeast aboriginal word “gangurru” which is a type of roo. The term “koala” however means “no drink” in the aboriginal dialect because koalas get their water from the Eucalyptus trees, not streams.

Grabbing a quick coffee and leaving the wildlife park, we headed to a location where we learned how to not just throw a boomerang, but also throw it so it returns to you.  It’s all in how you throw it.  There are right and left-handed boomerangs, depending on how the grooves are cut into the back of them.  Apparently the tour company previously allowed everyone to throw a boomerang but due to some inaccurate throws in the past, only one person from the group got to live the experience.  He did great!

Finally, we made it to the Blue Mountains, hiking down to Princes Rock Lookout where we got to enjoy Wentworth Falls.  It’s also where I spied 1000 steps down into the Jamison Valley, similar to the Furber steps I was looking to go down later today.  With a long, tired gaze, I decided I’ve hiked enough this trip and opted to take other, more exciting transportation down into the canyon floor.

Kristi with the Three Sisters.

Stopping at Echo Point, we got to view the tree-filled canyon and the Three Sisters rock formation in Katoomba.  According to an Aboriginal dreamtime story, these three huge rock formations were actually three sisters from the Katoomba tribe.  The three sisters fell in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, of which tribal law forbade such marriages.  Ignoring such laws, the three brothers tried to capture the three sisters, causing a tribal battle, which threatened the lives of the three sisters.  In order to protect them, a witchdoctor or their father in some versions, turned them into these rock formations, to be released from the mineral trappings when good marriable men came along.  Apparently there were two other rock formations along with these three, which eroded.  It doesn’t give me much hope for the futures of these three sisters as far as achieving marital bliss.

Cable car with remains of fire.

In order to get another perspective of the Three Sisters rock formations, we took a scenic cable car over the valley, past Bridalveil Falls and to the other side.  The vast rocky green beauty that thrived below illuminated by the blue hue in the distance was breathtaking.  I wanted to get down in it and explore.  We were about to do just that.

Forgoing the Furber Steps, I decided to take a train down into the Jamison Valley.  What once was used to haul coal out of the mines below was transformed into a tourist train.  With a 52-degree grade, this is the world’s steepest railway.  Plunging as if over a cliff we glided down the steep terrain of rainforest to the valley floor where what looked like tiny specs of green brush became giant-like jungle, engulfing any specs of sky and us along with it.  I was in love!

When I talk of rainforests, these are eucalyptus forests and it is in these trees the mystery of the blue hue resides.  When the sun’s rays hit the misty eucalyptus oils released from the trees, the mist refracts the light and gives off a bluish hue to the human eye.  This is why the Blue Mountains appear to be blue.

At the Olympic Park.

After a bit of exploring, we headed back up on the train to our lunch destination in the little quaint town of Leura where people-watching and passionfruit fudge captured my attention.  On our way back into civilization, we stopped off at the Sydney Olympic Park, which was massive but naked, and stark without the thousands of people it was built to house.  It is now used for various concerts and sporting events.

At the Olympic Park, we met our ferry, which took us down the river, under the Sydney Harbor Bridge and back to Circular Quay where our day began and ended.

Whether its abbreviations, TimTams, Blue Mountains, or tall tales, I’ve realized there’s more to speaking Australian than a fine accent.  It is the history, nature, innovations, and dreamtime stories giving off a whimsical and intriguing hue that is at the heart of not only speaking Australian, but being Aussie. G’day mate!

Scavenger Hunt Items Completed:

17. Find out why the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney look blue.

18. Ride the world’s steepest train.