If someone asked me what I thought Australia would look like, I always imagined Australia being red and orange desert sand with huge rock formations (probably because we learnt about the Ayers Rock at Uluru in our geography lessons at school) and just vast open land with no people for miles and miles. You say "Australia" - and I immediately think of the Outback in Australia. Secondly, I imagined a colourful sea bed with dangerous marine life and dangerous snakes and spiders. I had heard a lot of this massive island from family and friends and always had it on my list to visit one day.
So I made it! We have rented a car and are on route all the way from Sydney up to Cairns. Basically, we will be covering 3100 km in 12 days. So far we have stopped in Tea Gardens near Myall Lakes, Coffs Harbour, Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise, Brisbane, Hervey Bay, Fraser Island, Airlie Beach and now on Magnetic Island, 20 min from Townsville. Tomorrow we drive to our last destination by car to Cairns, where we will stay a few days (before we fly to Darwin for our Kakadu National Park bush camp experience.) It is a lot of driving and we could have done with another 3-5 days. We have seen a lot already!
It is a proper road trip - we would have gone for a camper van but it was pricy, so we got a car - a silver grey Nissan Pulsar (with lots of scratches - I think it has been around a lot!). We try to stay only at backpackers hostels but sometimes they are fully booked and sometimes it is a lot cheaper staying in a motel or hotel. It does not make sense. Surely, a backpackers place should be cheaper. Well, we do spend a bit of time going from place to place to check out the rooms and get a good deal. Sometimes, it is nice to just have it all booked online - but everything takes time. We have still not stayed in a cabin in a caravan park - but maybe we will get the opportunity before we leave Australia. We tend to make our own breakfast, lunch or dinner. It all depends on the facilities that our hostels or hotels have. If we get a hostel with a kitchen - well, then we will be in there cooking. (It is amazing how much you can save by cooking yourself when you are on a budget). After returning our car in Cairns on the 31 May, we will spend a few days in Darwin (yeah it is too far to drive with our limited number of days, so we will fly).
Now that I am here - if you ask me what is it like, I would say it is a bit of everything. City life and the most remote life and then the in-betweens. Does that make sense? At first when I landed in Sydney, it was like being in Northern Europe (culturally - an English person would feel very at home - even the prices are the same!). It felt like being a London, just cleaner, and the water ways/ harbour prettier. (And the Indian food here tastes a lot more home made than in England. It is good.) I noticed the non-existence of old, historic buildings. In some areas, I could say "right now I am walking at Liverpool Street, and right now I am in Moorgate and in the Bank area." Then we started our road trip, and you realise that motor accidents are big over here. And it seems that most of these are caused my sleepy drivers. On various spots on the highways you see huge signs warning against tiredness. Some signs say "REST or R.I.P", "a tired driver is a dead driver", "stop revive survive", "survive this drive" etc etc. Each year about 6000 people get killed in road accidents over here, 1 person killed by a shark and 1 person being killed by a bee sting. So I am not so scared anymore of dangerous snakes and spiders - though you often get told that there are so many things that can kill you in Australia. Two songs that have been played to us on a bus tour say it all. One started "Come to Australia, you might accidentally get killed" and "We are all gonna die some day my lord". That is Australian humour for you - an yes we were laughing all the way on the bumpy roads on Fraser Island. ; )
Our road trip covered going into national parks with lakes, bush, rain forest, beaches, cliffs, and spotting wild life. Australia has a wild life you cannot find anywhere else in the world - the land of the kangaroos, wombats (looks like a giant guinea pig - bigger then a cat, is fat and has a face like a guinea pig), wallabys (looks like a kangaroo and jumps like one but are smaller - I did not know of these before), the super soft koala - a marsupiel that is nocturnal and very lazy), and the land with the most dangerous spiders and snakes in the world and the colourful, rich marine life. Australia has a lot to offer. It is even a place I would consider moving to, if it was not so far away from my family and the rest of the world (I actually think New Zealand is the perfect place - again if it was not so far from everything.) If Australia was on the cards, then Sydney would be the right place for a career, but to live, I would much prefer Queensland. It is so beautiful and scenic there. My favourite spots are really on the route from Brisbane to Cairns.
Like any other country, Australia do have its problems. Many don't know this, but the Aboriginals - the original inhabitants of the Australian land, were up until 1967 considered part of "Flora and Fauna", they were not considered humans. This is hugely difficult for me to understand. Up until 1976, a child who was half caucasian and half Aboriginal, was taken away from his/her Aboriginal parent to work in the cities. Our guide on the Kakadu bush camp (who is half Aboriginal and half caucasian, and grew up in Arnhem Land in an Aboriginal community) and an Australian girl who works in "reconciliation" between the Aboriginals and the Australians explained that there were integration problems and a huge lack of understanding and communication between both sides. It is very sad. I only know, what I have been told - I know very little about these issues.
With all my impressions, I have only been to a fraction of Australia (only the East Coast) and I am told that Western Australia and South Australia is completely different. So those places for another visit.
For you who have not been here - a visit is recommended. If you have limited time, I would concentrate on Queensland. Next time I come to Australia (wonder when that would be!), I would definitely like to see Perth, Ayers Rock, Alice Springs and spend more time on some of the islands. If you plan to go to the Outback, driving from the West to the East - it will take you 4 weeks solid and you will be out in nowhere. We were tempted but its better being a larger group than 2.
Thursday, 29 May 2008
Sunday, 18 May 2008
AUSTRALIA (15 May - 7 June)
Sydney
(15 May) We took a 3,5 hours flight from Christchurch to Sydney and headed straight to Nina's (a friend and former colleague of mine) who has now settled into Sydney life. What a great location - smack bang in the middle in a gorgeous flat in Darling Harbour. We had a lovely dinner in China Town and a drink at the harbour.
(16 May) We spent most of the day researching car rental for our East Coast trip. It is not cheap and feels very expensive when you have just paid under ten pounds a day for a car in NZ.
Well, let's see what we will end up with.
Cooked Filipino dinner at Nina's.
(17 May) After Amit's physio appointment in the Olympic Village, we visited Heidi, Keith and Meg (my friends from my Peru trip in 2003) and finally met Heidi and Keith's gorgeous kids Annika and Mitchell. Five years since we last met. We had a huge, yummy roast lunch while catching up. Was really lovely seeing my Australian friends again.
We had arranged to go on an evening ferry cruise with Nina but the weather was not the best, so we decided to go for a Thai meal instead in Kings Cross and went on to Springfields (a new bar) and then to Slip Bar - the bar where the crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and his wife Mary met at the Olympics. It has a Danish flag right outside it. Funny. Of course I had to take a photo of the bar (which by the way, is just a normal looking bar, nothing special).
Rolled in at 2am.
(18 May 08) Met up with Karan (my cousin) and his wife Komal (they just got married in January) at Circle Quay. We took the ferry to Taronga Zoo and saw the Koala, kangaroos, wallaby, wombats etc. but no platypus. Where were they? A zoo that faces the sea and the city of Sydney with the Opera House and Harbour bridge in the background. We had a few hours to kill before dinner, so went to Star City. It has a casino, a theatre, bars and restaurants. Had dinner at Maya restaurant in Surrey Hills. Good fun today.
Tomorrow, we start our 14-19 days road trip up the East Coast.
Sydney to Myall Lakes
(19 May 08, Surfers Paradise) Yeah, you see there is this website called http://www.standbycars.com/ where you can suppossedly pick up a very cheap cars in Australia. We saw quotes of $1 a day plus a relocation fee. Basically, it is car hire companies who want their cars driven to a particular location. We needed one that could take us from Sydney to Cairns. On the site, it said that 6 cars were available. We waited for them to call us for 3 days after we showed an interest. Today, was our deadline and since they did not get back to us, we had to hire a standard rate car. The cheapest we could find was $30 per day. What other choices did we have? We could take the Greyhound or Oz experience bus which meant less flexibility and more time consuming. We took the car. (And guess what 2 days later we receive a call from Standby that they have a car available from Sydney to Cairns - a bit too late!)
It took us an hour just to get the paper work sorted and in the meantime cars were being returned and all three of them had been in an accident. Ok, a bit worrying. So we took out the extra insurance. Apparently, running into a kangaroo is quite "normal" and after dark you are not insured. So if you drive after 6pm and you are in an accident, well your insurance does not cover you. So, we had to look out for kangaroos and avoid driving after 6pm.
With the good intention of leaving early, we still only reached Myall National Park at dark. We drove through the park for ages and we could still not find the Myall Shores Ecopoint Resort. We could to a blind end and a lake and it said "closed after 6PM". Our accomodation was just across the lake. We called them up and were told we had to go all around the park through a different village and it would take us 1 hour and 15 min. It was late so we opted to stay in the nearby village called Tea Gardens just next to Myall River.
Coffs Harbour
(20 May) Early departure and drove straight to Coffs Harbour. Our plan of going straight to Byron bay were a bit unrealistic. It was off-peak season yet we had difficulty in finding accomodation. Ended up at the cheapest option at Hotel Formule F - cheaper than the backpacker hostels and they allowed us to use their kitchen so we could cook our own dinner.
Byron Bay and Surfers Paradise
(21 May) Drove to Byron Bay. A pretty beach town with long long stretches of beaches on different ends of the town. Went to the light house at Cape Byron with stunning views of the stretches of white sand beaches, rocks and bird life. Had burning sun and blue sky above us. Really liked it here.
Then headed to Surfers Paradise passed Burleigh Heads and Broadbeach.
Surfers Paradise - reminds me a bit of Miami just much cleaner. Yes, it is a party place - and there were lots of young people (18+) and a lot of them from the UK - so it felt a bit like being back in England. But the weather at night, cool but pleasant. Again long stretch a soft white sand. Must be really nice when it is hot enough to go into the water. That is why we are heading to Cairns as quick as we can, so we can get into the water.
Had dinner at the recommended Tandoori Palace (they serve Kangaroo curries here) and it was so tasty. (We did not try the Kangaroo.) Went to a couple of bars.
Surfers Paradise to Brisbane
(22 May) Took us about 1 hour to get to Brisbane. Checked into the popular Bunk Hostel. Great facilities. Has laundry, kitchen, spa pool, swimming pool, bar, night club, internet, tourist info. Very convenient (and you also pay for it! - not a cheap hostel). Went to Brisbane city centre, shopping and cooked our dinner at the hostel. Went dancing till 2am.
Brisbane - Koala Sanctuary - Hervey Bay
(23 May) The Chinese visa section - say no more. Lets get it in Katmandu.
After our city walk, we stopped at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary before driving to Hervey Bay. This Sanctuary is the first and largest in Australia and 130 koalas. They are so cute and cuddly and extremely lazy. They sleep between 16-20 hours a day! I held one and just wanted to hold on to it. So cuddly! Then we visited the kangaroos jumping around on the grass. One came straight at us and put his mouth to smell Amit's legs and hands, I think it was hoping we were bringing food. Unfortunately, we disappointed him and he jumped off. Amazing to see about 25 kangaroos jumping together. Also saw the wallaby, the fresh water crocodiles, the taipan snakes (the deadliest), emus, dingos and a bird eating a mouse. Yucky di yuck.
Had a long drive to Hervey Bay and got there by dark (we just don't seem to be able to make it in day time).
Fraser Island
(24 May - 26 May)
Definitely my favourite trip in Australia so far. We spent 3 days on Fraser Island (which has 100 fresh water lakes) with a small group. We went on 4Wheel drives on the seventy-five mile beach, which is also a highway, where we saw a sea snake and a dingo, swam in Lake McKenzie, Lake Wabby, where we attempted sand boarding and saw cat-fish, walked in desert-looking sand dunes, saw a carpet python digesting its food, walked in the tropical forest, where I had the pleasure of having a leech suck on my foot! Yuck! Trekked to the Indian head, went to the Champagne rock pools and saw sunrises over the island. Lovely!
(27 May) Drove from Hervey Bay to Mackay and Proserpine and had no luck with accomodation. Everything was fully booked and it was getting late and dark. We drove and drove and experienced a jumping kangaroo right in front of the car, Amit who was driving, shouted, "kangaroo, oh shit, kangaroo, oh shit, kangaroo". We managed to pass it when we thought it was jumping right at us. We ended up getting to Airlie Beach earlier than planned as there were no hostels on the way. Stayed in the Magnum hostel and just chilled by the Airlie Beach lagoon the next day.
Airlie Beach - Magnetic Island
(29 May)
Due to time constraints we decided against doing the Whitsunday sailing and drove to Townsville where we caught the ferry to Magnetic Island. Stayed in Bungalow Bay (4 minutes to Horseshoe Bay beach) - A-framed huts in the middle of jungle. Was great at night seeing possums trying to find food and hearing various screaming animals. The next morning was lovely and peaceful with the singing birds. Went on a trek to Radical Bay. A beautiful beach here. We were told that there might be stingers (jelly fish) but may be ok closer to the beach. We went for a swim before catching the ferry back to Townsville and for our 5 hours drive to Cairns.
Cairns
(31 May) Returned car and walked back to our hostel via the Esplanade. Lovely beach path with palm trees, BBQ areas and playgrounds along the very low water level. Just relaxed and hung out in Cairns city. Nice to have one of these days without any plans.
Green Island and the Great Barrier Reef
(1 June) 7.30am start to the Green Island, just 45 minutes on the boat from Cairns.
Passed Fitzroy Island (leased and being developed by Japanese companies with malls and hotels) and Yarrabah (owned and inhabited by the Aboriginals) .
Snorkelled at Pinnacle Reef. Saw giant clams (amazing!), huge sea cucumbers (feels weird to touch - their mouth and bottom is the same!), black-tipped shark, schools of massive rainbow-coloured fish, red bass, camouflage fish and multi-coloured live corals and reefs. Did a round-trip of the Green Island and spotting reefs at knee-length water.
Great day for snorkelling.
(15 May) We took a 3,5 hours flight from Christchurch to Sydney and headed straight to Nina's (a friend and former colleague of mine) who has now settled into Sydney life. What a great location - smack bang in the middle in a gorgeous flat in Darling Harbour. We had a lovely dinner in China Town and a drink at the harbour.
(16 May) We spent most of the day researching car rental for our East Coast trip. It is not cheap and feels very expensive when you have just paid under ten pounds a day for a car in NZ.
Well, let's see what we will end up with.
Cooked Filipino dinner at Nina's.
(17 May) After Amit's physio appointment in the Olympic Village, we visited Heidi, Keith and Meg (my friends from my Peru trip in 2003) and finally met Heidi and Keith's gorgeous kids Annika and Mitchell. Five years since we last met. We had a huge, yummy roast lunch while catching up. Was really lovely seeing my Australian friends again.
We had arranged to go on an evening ferry cruise with Nina but the weather was not the best, so we decided to go for a Thai meal instead in Kings Cross and went on to Springfields (a new bar) and then to Slip Bar - the bar where the crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and his wife Mary met at the Olympics. It has a Danish flag right outside it. Funny. Of course I had to take a photo of the bar (which by the way, is just a normal looking bar, nothing special).
Rolled in at 2am.
(18 May 08) Met up with Karan (my cousin) and his wife Komal (they just got married in January) at Circle Quay. We took the ferry to Taronga Zoo and saw the Koala, kangaroos, wallaby, wombats etc. but no platypus. Where were they? A zoo that faces the sea and the city of Sydney with the Opera House and Harbour bridge in the background. We had a few hours to kill before dinner, so went to Star City. It has a casino, a theatre, bars and restaurants. Had dinner at Maya restaurant in Surrey Hills. Good fun today.
Tomorrow, we start our 14-19 days road trip up the East Coast.
Sydney to Myall Lakes
(19 May 08, Surfers Paradise) Yeah, you see there is this website called http://www.standbycars.com/ where you can suppossedly pick up a very cheap cars in Australia. We saw quotes of $1 a day plus a relocation fee. Basically, it is car hire companies who want their cars driven to a particular location. We needed one that could take us from Sydney to Cairns. On the site, it said that 6 cars were available. We waited for them to call us for 3 days after we showed an interest. Today, was our deadline and since they did not get back to us, we had to hire a standard rate car. The cheapest we could find was $30 per day. What other choices did we have? We could take the Greyhound or Oz experience bus which meant less flexibility and more time consuming. We took the car. (And guess what 2 days later we receive a call from Standby that they have a car available from Sydney to Cairns - a bit too late!)
It took us an hour just to get the paper work sorted and in the meantime cars were being returned and all three of them had been in an accident. Ok, a bit worrying. So we took out the extra insurance. Apparently, running into a kangaroo is quite "normal" and after dark you are not insured. So if you drive after 6pm and you are in an accident, well your insurance does not cover you. So, we had to look out for kangaroos and avoid driving after 6pm.
With the good intention of leaving early, we still only reached Myall National Park at dark. We drove through the park for ages and we could still not find the Myall Shores Ecopoint Resort. We could to a blind end and a lake and it said "closed after 6PM". Our accomodation was just across the lake. We called them up and were told we had to go all around the park through a different village and it would take us 1 hour and 15 min. It was late so we opted to stay in the nearby village called Tea Gardens just next to Myall River.
Coffs Harbour
(20 May) Early departure and drove straight to Coffs Harbour. Our plan of going straight to Byron bay were a bit unrealistic. It was off-peak season yet we had difficulty in finding accomodation. Ended up at the cheapest option at Hotel Formule F - cheaper than the backpacker hostels and they allowed us to use their kitchen so we could cook our own dinner.
Byron Bay and Surfers Paradise
(21 May) Drove to Byron Bay. A pretty beach town with long long stretches of beaches on different ends of the town. Went to the light house at Cape Byron with stunning views of the stretches of white sand beaches, rocks and bird life. Had burning sun and blue sky above us. Really liked it here.
Then headed to Surfers Paradise passed Burleigh Heads and Broadbeach.
Surfers Paradise - reminds me a bit of Miami just much cleaner. Yes, it is a party place - and there were lots of young people (18+) and a lot of them from the UK - so it felt a bit like being back in England. But the weather at night, cool but pleasant. Again long stretch a soft white sand. Must be really nice when it is hot enough to go into the water. That is why we are heading to Cairns as quick as we can, so we can get into the water.
Had dinner at the recommended Tandoori Palace (they serve Kangaroo curries here) and it was so tasty. (We did not try the Kangaroo.) Went to a couple of bars.
Surfers Paradise to Brisbane
(22 May) Took us about 1 hour to get to Brisbane. Checked into the popular Bunk Hostel. Great facilities. Has laundry, kitchen, spa pool, swimming pool, bar, night club, internet, tourist info. Very convenient (and you also pay for it! - not a cheap hostel). Went to Brisbane city centre, shopping and cooked our dinner at the hostel. Went dancing till 2am.
Brisbane - Koala Sanctuary - Hervey Bay
(23 May) The Chinese visa section - say no more. Lets get it in Katmandu.
After our city walk, we stopped at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary before driving to Hervey Bay. This Sanctuary is the first and largest in Australia and 130 koalas. They are so cute and cuddly and extremely lazy. They sleep between 16-20 hours a day! I held one and just wanted to hold on to it. So cuddly! Then we visited the kangaroos jumping around on the grass. One came straight at us and put his mouth to smell Amit's legs and hands, I think it was hoping we were bringing food. Unfortunately, we disappointed him and he jumped off. Amazing to see about 25 kangaroos jumping together. Also saw the wallaby, the fresh water crocodiles, the taipan snakes (the deadliest), emus, dingos and a bird eating a mouse. Yucky di yuck.
Had a long drive to Hervey Bay and got there by dark (we just don't seem to be able to make it in day time).
Fraser Island
(24 May - 26 May)
Definitely my favourite trip in Australia so far. We spent 3 days on Fraser Island (which has 100 fresh water lakes) with a small group. We went on 4Wheel drives on the seventy-five mile beach, which is also a highway, where we saw a sea snake and a dingo, swam in Lake McKenzie, Lake Wabby, where we attempted sand boarding and saw cat-fish, walked in desert-looking sand dunes, saw a carpet python digesting its food, walked in the tropical forest, where I had the pleasure of having a leech suck on my foot! Yuck! Trekked to the Indian head, went to the Champagne rock pools and saw sunrises over the island. Lovely!
(27 May) Drove from Hervey Bay to Mackay and Proserpine and had no luck with accomodation. Everything was fully booked and it was getting late and dark. We drove and drove and experienced a jumping kangaroo right in front of the car, Amit who was driving, shouted, "kangaroo, oh shit, kangaroo, oh shit, kangaroo". We managed to pass it when we thought it was jumping right at us. We ended up getting to Airlie Beach earlier than planned as there were no hostels on the way. Stayed in the Magnum hostel and just chilled by the Airlie Beach lagoon the next day.
Airlie Beach - Magnetic Island
(29 May)
Due to time constraints we decided against doing the Whitsunday sailing and drove to Townsville where we caught the ferry to Magnetic Island. Stayed in Bungalow Bay (4 minutes to Horseshoe Bay beach) - A-framed huts in the middle of jungle. Was great at night seeing possums trying to find food and hearing various screaming animals. The next morning was lovely and peaceful with the singing birds. Went on a trek to Radical Bay. A beautiful beach here. We were told that there might be stingers (jelly fish) but may be ok closer to the beach. We went for a swim before catching the ferry back to Townsville and for our 5 hours drive to Cairns.
Cairns
(31 May) Returned car and walked back to our hostel via the Esplanade. Lovely beach path with palm trees, BBQ areas and playgrounds along the very low water level. Just relaxed and hung out in Cairns city. Nice to have one of these days without any plans.
Green Island and the Great Barrier Reef
(1 June) 7.30am start to the Green Island, just 45 minutes on the boat from Cairns.
Passed Fitzroy Island (leased and being developed by Japanese companies with malls and hotels) and Yarrabah (owned and inhabited by the Aboriginals) .
Snorkelled at Pinnacle Reef. Saw giant clams (amazing!), huge sea cucumbers (feels weird to touch - their mouth and bottom is the same!), black-tipped shark, schools of massive rainbow-coloured fish, red bass, camouflage fish and multi-coloured live corals and reefs. Did a round-trip of the Green Island and spotting reefs at knee-length water.
Great day for snorkelling.
Skydiving in Cairns
(2 June) The day of overcoming my fear! I wanted to do it for years and this was my chance.
The skydive was AMAZING. I screamed all the way until the parachute opened. It felt like I was falling forever. What a strange feeling. Well, when I got up in the plane my instructor said "you know you booked a 9000 feet jump with a 30 seconds freefall, well now you are jumping from 11000 feet - as we need time for the bus to get to the landing point". I was like "oh no". Anyway, I was the first one to jump and when the plane door opened, I looked out at the clouds, looked down over Cairns and felt all the wind blowing my hair all over the place, and I said to myself "oh shit, I am scared, oh noopoo". I was so nervous! The instructor told me to stick my legs out of the plane, I did not feel ready, but before I knew it my legs were dangling out of the flight door and I heard the instructor shout "put the goggles on". Suddenly, we were jumping out of the plane. I screamed "ohhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrghhh" and it felt like I was just falling and falling. Then I shot up in the air a few metres when the parachute opened. My ears were hurting from the wind. Suddenly, we were flying peacefully over Cairns city and surrounding sugar cane fields. The instructor made a few turns in the air. The view was amazing. I loved it! Soon we were landing on the ground and I could see the bus driving towards us and Amit was there - he saw me in the sky. I had such fun and it is by far the scariest thing I have ever done. Now I think I should not have been that nervous. I really liked it. When we landed I was told that we actually jumped from 12000 feet with a 50 seconds freefall. Cool!
A great way to say goodbye to Cairns! Darwin - here we come.
6 June '08, Darwin
Darwin and Kakadu National Park
(2-5 June)
What an experience! It helped that we had a crazy guide, completely nuts who was knowledgable and adventurous. 3 days camping in Kakadu National park with camp fire food and sleeping under the stars. We walked a lot (day and night), drove a lot, swam in lakes and rock pools, saw a lot, made our own spheres, tried to catch prawns in the dark, saw Aboriginal rock art, went on a jumping crocodile cruise on Adelaide river, slept very little and had a fantastic time. Very eventful 3 days. To give you some idea of our guide, well, he was telling us a dream time story around the camp-fire, and half-way through he passed out and snored till the next morning (a bit too much to drink maybe). (See my photos on FaceBook.)
(5 June) Got to Darwin before sunset and went for dinner at the night markets on Mindil beach, before clubbing with the bush camp group at the Wisdom and VIP (or something like that) till 3am.
(6 June) Chill-out day
7 June 08, Sydney
Had a not so fun journey from Darwin to Sydney. Delays due to fog. We left Darwin city at midnight and arrived in Sydney at 9.30am!
Spent our last day with Nina before heading to Singapore tomorrow.
Our journey in Australia has been fantastic! Favourite experiences: Kakadu Bush camp, Skydiving and Fraser Island.
Sunday, 11 May 2008
NEW ZEALAND (6-15 May)
15 May 08, Queenstown, New Zealand
Auckland-Christchurch-Kaikoura-Greymouth-Franz Joseph-Queenstown-Glenorchy-Milford Sound-Queenstown-Lake Tekapo
New Zealand - the country where there are more sheep than people. The country of the kiwi bird, the hobbits and adventure sports. NZ is made up of 3 islands although most people only hear about 2 - the North Island and the South Island. Over here the New Zealanders joke that they have 4 islands - the 4th being Australia.
We arrived on 6 May! A 13 hours flight from LA and yet we lost the 5th May. How surreal crossing the international date line.
Obviously jetlagged, we landed at 6.30am in Auckland on the North Island and checked in to our very basic hostel centrally located.
Alex, our Scottish friend whom we met in Ecuador, met us at our hostel and took us for a guided tour of Auckland. The tour started with a puncture of the car, which we quickly fixed and then we off to see the city, Mount Eden, Mission Bay, the sunset from Michael Joseph Savage Memorial, went to a funky basement bar called the Wine Cellar and had a Korean meal, before Amit and I had a drink at the Skytower. We saw a lot in one day - all thanks to Alex.
We flew to Christchurch the next day, where we rented our little mustard coloured car and headed straight to Kaikoura. It is poxy but it drives fine, convenient and is only costing us 9 UK pounds a day (petrol is expensive though). We debated between a campervan and a car and we decided we preferred to be warm at night - and it is now autumn in NZ - so the campervan was out of the question.
It took us 3 hours to Kaikoura - a small town on the beach side. It was dark when we arrived (gets dark here around 6PM) so we could not see much of the surrounding sceneries, but the next morning we were amazed to see snowcapped moutains surrounding the sea side. Absolutely beautiful sight. We joined a catamaran boat tour to see whales - and we saw two sperm whales - massive creatures! We only saw the upper body of the whales- and when they turned their tails to the sky when they went food hunting - so imagine how gigantic they are in size under the water. Closer to the shores we saw albatrosses, cape petrels (birds) and 70-80 dusky dolphins jumping around. So happy and playful - amazing to watch!It was a warm, sunny day with blue sky, so we enjoyed our packed lunch on the pebbled beach with its music like waves.
After our sea experience, we drove to Greymouth (8 May) - a long 5, 5 hours drive. Not much to do here - just a stopover for us. (Though, had some of the best Indian food in Priya restaurant.)
(9 May) After breakfast, drove to Franz Joseph - a very small town famous for its glacier.
Franz Joseph glacier originally called "The Tears of the Avalanche Maiden" by the Maories, is one of the 3153 glaciers in NZ. Fox glacier is the other famous one and the rest you barely hear of. Franz and Fox are famous because they are considered "warm" glaciers. Many people think a glacier is a frozen river, but it is actually compressed ice. The Franz Joseph glacier moves about 6 meters in a day. You can climb parts of the glacier and that is what we did. First a 1 hour walk on steep rocks and climbing of 4 ladders, then you get to the ice and we put our "crampons" on to our boots to keep us stabil when climbing the ice stairs and passing cravesses. The sun was shining, the sky blue and the reflection of the sun making the ice look so blue and pretty. Going down the cut ice stairs seemed harder than going up the stairs. A cool experience and a taster for when we venture to Patagonia one day.
After our glacier walk we drove to the adventure town - Queenstown.
Again, we arrived when it was dark and when we woke up the next morning we saw the beautiful autumn colours in the mountains of yellow, orange, red and brown, surrounding the lake. Queenstown is full of adrenaline-filled activities and I took part in two of them - river rafting and jetboating on Shotover River. Imagine being a passenger on a jetboat going up to 80km an hour on a river with sharp cliffs and rocks on the way and you go at such speed while the jetboat suddenly turns 360 degrees. You will get wet and cold but you will love it. The speed and thrill - just excellent.
After getting changed into a wet suit, I was put into a team of 6 and we were soon out on our raft on the Shotover River (the second richest gold river in the world - gold digging/mining is however banned for 50 years in NZ to leave the nature alone - our rafting guide found half an ounce of gold last year on this river - so you never know, this could be your lucky place). It was a grade 4 raft journey and we went over several rapids some of which are called "Toilet", "Flush", "Oh shit", "Mother" and "Cascade". The Cascade rapids come after you raft through a 180m long dark tunnel. It was FUN! I love rafting!
By the time I got back to our motel, my arm muscles were aching like anything.
A traveller had recommended a drive from Queenstown to Glenorchy. It took one hour one way and yes it is worth it. We stopped at the lake in Glenorchy and had a picnic lunch on a wooden bench just by the lakeside. We had snowcapped mountains in front of us and yellow brown mountains behind us. What a spot! SO beautiful.
And and ..I saw a hobbit or two. : )
Milford Sound (12 May) arrived at 8pm, and although it looks like a big place on the road map, it is not! We arrived thinking we would find a supermarket and several hostels. We got there and we could not find the town only to find out that we were in the town which consisted of one pub/bar and one lodge and a petrol station with no attendant. We were luckily to find room in the Milford Sound Lodge which was full of tour groups. Well, we could choose between a dorm bed or a chalet. We chose the lake facing chalet. Yes, the best accommodation we have stayed at in NZ. The next morning we went on a 2 hour boat cruise in the Fjordlands going into the Tasman Sea. Very pretty, though we would have seen a lot more had the weather been better. We saw several waterfalls. On the way back to Queenstown, we stopped at Mirror Lake and Te Anau downs and several other beauty spots with names I don't remember.
We perhaps made the mistake by staying at XBase - the popular backpacker hostel. The room was fine, but the hostel. There were 350 people staying that night and there was a masquerade party on. It felt like my 1st year back at University. A guy with a big backpack was attracting much attention, and we saw why, he had a person sitting inside his backpack. It was funny, yes. But everything was like being back in a Halls of Residence, really loud young people. (Makes me sound so old). We did not mind that, what I minded was that we had to get up early and we could hear people screaming and being drunk in the hallway until 3am.
Oh well, all part of the experience I guess.
(14 May) A drive from Queenstown to Lake Tekapo, passing gorgeous yellow- brown mountains and several wineries. Our NZ trip has already come to an end and tomorrow we fly to Sydney.
(15 May) It was stunning this morning. As I pulled the curtain to the side, the sunrise appeared. It was reaching over the lake and reflecting towards our room. Not bad.
I was preparing for our last few hours in NZ. We really liked it here in NZ- there is serenity and calm.
Overall impression:
NZ is beautiful, scenic, lots of adventure sports, good outdoor culture, clean, spacious, easy going, relaxing and great for family life. Very tourist friendly and easy to travel (you need a car of course). Yes, we could live here - but it is too far from the rest of the world and our families.
Auckland-Christchurch-Kaikoura-Greymouth-Franz Joseph-Queenstown-Glenorchy-Milford Sound-Queenstown-Lake Tekapo
New Zealand - the country where there are more sheep than people. The country of the kiwi bird, the hobbits and adventure sports. NZ is made up of 3 islands although most people only hear about 2 - the North Island and the South Island. Over here the New Zealanders joke that they have 4 islands - the 4th being Australia.
We arrived on 6 May! A 13 hours flight from LA and yet we lost the 5th May. How surreal crossing the international date line.
Obviously jetlagged, we landed at 6.30am in Auckland on the North Island and checked in to our very basic hostel centrally located.
Alex, our Scottish friend whom we met in Ecuador, met us at our hostel and took us for a guided tour of Auckland. The tour started with a puncture of the car, which we quickly fixed and then we off to see the city, Mount Eden, Mission Bay, the sunset from Michael Joseph Savage Memorial, went to a funky basement bar called the Wine Cellar and had a Korean meal, before Amit and I had a drink at the Skytower. We saw a lot in one day - all thanks to Alex.
We flew to Christchurch the next day, where we rented our little mustard coloured car and headed straight to Kaikoura. It is poxy but it drives fine, convenient and is only costing us 9 UK pounds a day (petrol is expensive though). We debated between a campervan and a car and we decided we preferred to be warm at night - and it is now autumn in NZ - so the campervan was out of the question.
It took us 3 hours to Kaikoura - a small town on the beach side. It was dark when we arrived (gets dark here around 6PM) so we could not see much of the surrounding sceneries, but the next morning we were amazed to see snowcapped moutains surrounding the sea side. Absolutely beautiful sight. We joined a catamaran boat tour to see whales - and we saw two sperm whales - massive creatures! We only saw the upper body of the whales- and when they turned their tails to the sky when they went food hunting - so imagine how gigantic they are in size under the water. Closer to the shores we saw albatrosses, cape petrels (birds) and 70-80 dusky dolphins jumping around. So happy and playful - amazing to watch!It was a warm, sunny day with blue sky, so we enjoyed our packed lunch on the pebbled beach with its music like waves.
After our sea experience, we drove to Greymouth (8 May) - a long 5, 5 hours drive. Not much to do here - just a stopover for us. (Though, had some of the best Indian food in Priya restaurant.)
(9 May) After breakfast, drove to Franz Joseph - a very small town famous for its glacier.
Franz Joseph glacier originally called "The Tears of the Avalanche Maiden" by the Maories, is one of the 3153 glaciers in NZ. Fox glacier is the other famous one and the rest you barely hear of. Franz and Fox are famous because they are considered "warm" glaciers. Many people think a glacier is a frozen river, but it is actually compressed ice. The Franz Joseph glacier moves about 6 meters in a day. You can climb parts of the glacier and that is what we did. First a 1 hour walk on steep rocks and climbing of 4 ladders, then you get to the ice and we put our "crampons" on to our boots to keep us stabil when climbing the ice stairs and passing cravesses. The sun was shining, the sky blue and the reflection of the sun making the ice look so blue and pretty. Going down the cut ice stairs seemed harder than going up the stairs. A cool experience and a taster for when we venture to Patagonia one day.
After our glacier walk we drove to the adventure town - Queenstown.
Again, we arrived when it was dark and when we woke up the next morning we saw the beautiful autumn colours in the mountains of yellow, orange, red and brown, surrounding the lake. Queenstown is full of adrenaline-filled activities and I took part in two of them - river rafting and jetboating on Shotover River. Imagine being a passenger on a jetboat going up to 80km an hour on a river with sharp cliffs and rocks on the way and you go at such speed while the jetboat suddenly turns 360 degrees. You will get wet and cold but you will love it. The speed and thrill - just excellent.
After getting changed into a wet suit, I was put into a team of 6 and we were soon out on our raft on the Shotover River (the second richest gold river in the world - gold digging/mining is however banned for 50 years in NZ to leave the nature alone - our rafting guide found half an ounce of gold last year on this river - so you never know, this could be your lucky place). It was a grade 4 raft journey and we went over several rapids some of which are called "Toilet", "Flush", "Oh shit", "Mother" and "Cascade". The Cascade rapids come after you raft through a 180m long dark tunnel. It was FUN! I love rafting!
By the time I got back to our motel, my arm muscles were aching like anything.
A traveller had recommended a drive from Queenstown to Glenorchy. It took one hour one way and yes it is worth it. We stopped at the lake in Glenorchy and had a picnic lunch on a wooden bench just by the lakeside. We had snowcapped mountains in front of us and yellow brown mountains behind us. What a spot! SO beautiful.
And and ..I saw a hobbit or two. : )
Milford Sound (12 May) arrived at 8pm, and although it looks like a big place on the road map, it is not! We arrived thinking we would find a supermarket and several hostels. We got there and we could not find the town only to find out that we were in the town which consisted of one pub/bar and one lodge and a petrol station with no attendant. We were luckily to find room in the Milford Sound Lodge which was full of tour groups. Well, we could choose between a dorm bed or a chalet. We chose the lake facing chalet. Yes, the best accommodation we have stayed at in NZ. The next morning we went on a 2 hour boat cruise in the Fjordlands going into the Tasman Sea. Very pretty, though we would have seen a lot more had the weather been better. We saw several waterfalls. On the way back to Queenstown, we stopped at Mirror Lake and Te Anau downs and several other beauty spots with names I don't remember.
We perhaps made the mistake by staying at XBase - the popular backpacker hostel. The room was fine, but the hostel. There were 350 people staying that night and there was a masquerade party on. It felt like my 1st year back at University. A guy with a big backpack was attracting much attention, and we saw why, he had a person sitting inside his backpack. It was funny, yes. But everything was like being back in a Halls of Residence, really loud young people. (Makes me sound so old). We did not mind that, what I minded was that we had to get up early and we could hear people screaming and being drunk in the hallway until 3am.
Oh well, all part of the experience I guess.
(14 May) A drive from Queenstown to Lake Tekapo, passing gorgeous yellow- brown mountains and several wineries. Our NZ trip has already come to an end and tomorrow we fly to Sydney.
(15 May) It was stunning this morning. As I pulled the curtain to the side, the sunrise appeared. It was reaching over the lake and reflecting towards our room. Not bad.
I was preparing for our last few hours in NZ. We really liked it here in NZ- there is serenity and calm.
Overall impression:
NZ is beautiful, scenic, lots of adventure sports, good outdoor culture, clean, spacious, easy going, relaxing and great for family life. Very tourist friendly and easy to travel (you need a car of course). Yes, we could live here - but it is too far from the rest of the world and our families.
LOS ANGELES, USA
4 May 08, Los Angeles
We arrived in LA on 1 May and have spent 3 nights with my uncle, aunt and cousins Rohan and Shivani. We have had a great time catching up, playing cards, eating lots of yummy Indian food, seeing Hollywood, Beverley Hills, Rodeo Drive, the walk of fame, the Chinese theatre, the malls etc. And oh yes the only celeb we saw was - Dominic Monaghan in the airport - the Lost and Lord of the Rings guy.
In a few hours we are flying to New Zealand.
We arrived in LA on 1 May and have spent 3 nights with my uncle, aunt and cousins Rohan and Shivani. We have had a great time catching up, playing cards, eating lots of yummy Indian food, seeing Hollywood, Beverley Hills, Rodeo Drive, the walk of fame, the Chinese theatre, the malls etc. And oh yes the only celeb we saw was - Dominic Monaghan in the airport - the Lost and Lord of the Rings guy.
In a few hours we are flying to New Zealand.
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