So, we left Melbourne at 6am on a flight via Sydney to Ayers Rock Resort. Here, after Quantas decided to lose my roll mat and thermarest, we arrived baking hot at the hostel rendez-vous point ready to meet our group. At midday, Dom our tour guide appeared, sporting a Mexican style moustache for 'Mouvember', prostate cancer awareness month, and we got on our jeep bus with the rest of the group.
We had great European representation travelling around the aboriginal outback, 3 French, 4 Italian, 2 German, 2 Swedes, 4 Brits (including us) and 2 Aussies. All good, great mixture of translations going on the whole time, loved it. The first day we had lunch and then headed to Uluru or as it should properly be known The Rock. We spent an hour in the cultural centre reading about Arangu culture and the thoughts and history behind the Rock and then we did an hour and a half tour where Dom explained different spiritual sites around the base. We decided not to walk up it because a) it's offensive to their aboriginal culture, b) it was shut off because of the 38 degrees temperature and winds and c) 35 people have died doing it and the sheer sandstone rock face either side of it with a feeble looking chain didn't appeal.
We settled for the 9km walk around the base which was stunning and then we headed off for dinner and sunset over The Rock. Beautiful, it didn't glow in quite the right way because it was cloudy but it was great nonetheless especially with a cold beer. We then headed to camp, had some more beers and got in our swags to sleep under the stars.
The next day at 4.30am we got up to catch the sunrish over the Rock after a hot night and fear of scorpions, dingos and other such nasties getting in my Swag. After The Rock we headed off to Kata Tjuta or the Olgas, another set of red sandstone rocks and did a 3 hour walk up and around them, really beautiful and really hot, this lesser known (at least for me) natural beauty was really awesome. That afternoon we looked for witchety grubs, had lunch in the bush, got some fire wood and then hit the pool at the next campsite. Here one of our Italian members of the group decided to start up a water gymnastic routine for our entire group, we didn't look stupid really in front of all the other happy campers. Hilarious. That night we cooked up some food on a big open fire, Em and I were in charge of Rice, washing up and generally making everyone else laugh as we squealed at the heat of the open fire. We hit the sack 4 hours before we were due to get up again after some more beers and a bit of guitar playing and campfire singing. Beautiful Mate.
The next day we walked Kings Canyon, a little bit like I imagine the Grand Canyon to be but an aussie version and probably smaller but great nonetheless. We had a good swim in a natural pool in the valley tucked into the canyon getting out promptly when we saw some unidentified animal swimming about under the water...
After lunch we had a long drive to Alice Springs where I visited the opticians due to 1.5 inflamed puffy eyes because of some mossie allergic reaction, looked like I'd been punched and then we headed out for a buffet dinner, pub quiz and yes some more beers particularly after our team won the quiz, get in. Great end to a great tour. We didn't actually didn't actually drink all that much beer though it sounds like it!
The next day we departed on the plane to Cairns and arrived in the evening at Gilligans hostel (not to be recommended, big monolithic, badly managed unfriendly resort). Sorted our stuff out and got ready for our open water dive course the next day...
Tuesday 27 November 2007
Thursday 22 November 2007
That's When Good Neighbours Become Good Friends...
Day 1 in Melbourne consisted of arriving at Cooee Hostel and heading into the trendy wendy St Kilda for dinner and a couple of glasses of wine on the Esplanade, also scene of first neighbours celebrity spotting: Janae.
Day 2 we hit Fitzroy and Brunswick Street for some lunch, shopping and a needed haircut - been a while! We liked this part of town as it had lots of different boutiques and shops and lots of character which was great. It made me feel that Melbourne is a mix of London, Bristol, Brighton and maybe a US town like Chicago or San Francisco. It's a cool city anyway with a big buzz. That evening we ate in a veggie bar and then caught some live jazz in a bar nearby. Some very cool Sax, bass, keyboard and drums, Em and I were very happy, we've been missing hearing live music.
Day 3 was spent in the centre, visiting the Victoria market, shopping in the central Oxford Street style part and dinner in Chinatown. Typical city fare but we were loving it, it was our first big city since Santiago and we only got to spend a day there.
Then came Day 4: the Neighbours Tour. We got on a bus to Erinsborough High with a somewhat late and hung over bus driver. Then we stopped off at the backlot of the studios and saw Grease Monkeys and Carpenter's cars set for those of you hardcore fans (i.e. most of my friends). At this point the piece de resistance was a surprise visit from Jackie Woodburne aka SUSAN KENNEDY. Now everyone knows she is the best character in the soap and the whole tour group were beyond excited, so much so that one guy said: 'I love Susan, she has been a big part of my life for a long time.' Jackie was speechless. After this comedy moment, we went off to Ramsay Street, took obligatory photos by the House of Trouser and Harold's house and left, pretty well darn chuffed.
Right that's far too long a paragraph soley based on Neighbours so I shall move onto the afternoon spent in the National Gallery to try to redeem ourselves and then some good old Ozzie beers with Nick, James, Ben, Renee and Trumaine, mates and more of Ted, the Ringcrofter Jenna's boyfriend. Great night thanks to Ted, so was all good. Saturday was spent hanging out in St Kilda with Joleah who we met in Christchurch and generally enjoying the sunshine with an icecream and a glass of white on the beach. Really it's a hard life.
On that sickening note, I leave you xxxx
Day 2 we hit Fitzroy and Brunswick Street for some lunch, shopping and a needed haircut - been a while! We liked this part of town as it had lots of different boutiques and shops and lots of character which was great. It made me feel that Melbourne is a mix of London, Bristol, Brighton and maybe a US town like Chicago or San Francisco. It's a cool city anyway with a big buzz. That evening we ate in a veggie bar and then caught some live jazz in a bar nearby. Some very cool Sax, bass, keyboard and drums, Em and I were very happy, we've been missing hearing live music.
Day 3 was spent in the centre, visiting the Victoria market, shopping in the central Oxford Street style part and dinner in Chinatown. Typical city fare but we were loving it, it was our first big city since Santiago and we only got to spend a day there.
Then came Day 4: the Neighbours Tour. We got on a bus to Erinsborough High with a somewhat late and hung over bus driver. Then we stopped off at the backlot of the studios and saw Grease Monkeys and Carpenter's cars set for those of you hardcore fans (i.e. most of my friends). At this point the piece de resistance was a surprise visit from Jackie Woodburne aka SUSAN KENNEDY. Now everyone knows she is the best character in the soap and the whole tour group were beyond excited, so much so that one guy said: 'I love Susan, she has been a big part of my life for a long time.' Jackie was speechless. After this comedy moment, we went off to Ramsay Street, took obligatory photos by the House of Trouser and Harold's house and left, pretty well darn chuffed.
Right that's far too long a paragraph soley based on Neighbours so I shall move onto the afternoon spent in the National Gallery to try to redeem ourselves and then some good old Ozzie beers with Nick, James, Ben, Renee and Trumaine, mates and more of Ted, the Ringcrofter Jenna's boyfriend. Great night thanks to Ted, so was all good. Saturday was spent hanging out in St Kilda with Joleah who we met in Christchurch and generally enjoying the sunshine with an icecream and a glass of white on the beach. Really it's a hard life.
On that sickening note, I leave you xxxx
Sunday 11 November 2007
Good on ya!
So after the dolphins we drove up to Nelson back in the North. Explored the dinky town of Nelson the next day: the art gallery, the shops, the local art and sculpture galleries in the countryside all around and ended up on Rabbit Island. This was a long golden beach practically deserted and so we relaxed in the late afternoon sun. The following day we hopped into some sea kayaks, guided by the able Isaac and were led around the coastline of Able Tasman National Park. After a half day kayaking through turquoise waters we had some lunch, bumped into some Swedish buddies we'd met in Wellington on one of the beaches and then headed off for a stroll around the coastline/park. After an olympic sprint into the cold water of one beautiful beach we got the water taxi/jet boat back to the entrance Marahau.
After a Halloween drink in a very English style pub and minimal trick or treaters walking past us, we chilled out before the drive down to Franz Joseph glacier on the west coast the next day. After a long 9hr drive via the Pancake rocks and the longest rope bridge in New Zealand we arrived in Franz Joseph. The next day we set off on a 6hr hike up the glacier to the cleaner bits where there are shining light blue crevasses to walk through and lots of fun to be had with your snow crampons.
Glaciered out and wet at the end of the day we went back to the YHA for a v hot shower.
The next day after stopping off at Wanaka, also a pretty lakeside town for lunch and an ice cream, we arrived at Queenstown - my favourite place in New Zealand. The next day Giles and Emma hit the white water rafting and I decided to do a Lord of the Rings tour, film obssessive that I am and having already rafted in Peru. The scenery in this part of NZ is crazy beautiful and it was great to see where Isengard, Lothlorien and Ithilien were filmed to name but a few. That afternoon we mooched to the shops and gardens of the town and admired the lake which changes colour every time you look at it. Liking it so much we decided to stay for another day. Deciding to break the vegetable slop and pasta for dinner routine in this town may also have helped, thai food and a yummy pizza being far preferable. Spent the next day chilling out reading HP and enjoying the sun doing nothing for the first time in ages. This was mainly due to being woken up by Garry, an Irish dude, at 3am who forced me to get up and have a drink with him while his mate went to bed with a "lucky" lady he had met in our dorm. Hmmmm... Seeing that they wouldn't take no for an answer I surrendered and ended up being reluctantly kept awake and sadly not getting the beautiful, long anticipated lie in I'd been waiting for... poor dorm etiquette I must say. Ha.
Anyway, leaving Queenstown we headed across to Dunedin. Dunedin brought us such delights as the Speights Brewery for beer tasting and the Cadbury's Factory for copious chocolate tasting and finally the yellow eyed/headed penguin reserve for well, penguin watching...
After leaving the Hogwartz hostel (yes we did stay in a place with that name, tragic I know) we drove to Christchurch on Friday. After exploring the cathedral square and attending the famous evensong (mildly impressed with the singing!) we headed back to the hostel for yes, more vegetable slop. Saturday we ventured to an arts and crafts fair and the Antartica centre. A great place to teach you all about the Antartic gateway through Christchurch and the work that is done there. It also included a simulated snow storm and penguin feeding of little blue penguins who've had nasty things happen to them like fishhooks in eyes and being hit by boats etc...
Sunday, we hit the Christchurch art gallery which had some nice stuff in it and some other not so interesting stuff. Then had lunch in a big pub in the sun with all the other New Zealanders excited that summer is coming and then hit the botanical gardens before a fond farewell to Giles. Today has been spent returning the hire car and generally doing admin before we leave for Melbourne tomorrow and quite possibly a cheeky trip to the Neighbours set!!! I can hear the cries of G'day mate and put a shrimp on the barbie as I type...
After a Halloween drink in a very English style pub and minimal trick or treaters walking past us, we chilled out before the drive down to Franz Joseph glacier on the west coast the next day. After a long 9hr drive via the Pancake rocks and the longest rope bridge in New Zealand we arrived in Franz Joseph. The next day we set off on a 6hr hike up the glacier to the cleaner bits where there are shining light blue crevasses to walk through and lots of fun to be had with your snow crampons.
Glaciered out and wet at the end of the day we went back to the YHA for a v hot shower.
The next day after stopping off at Wanaka, also a pretty lakeside town for lunch and an ice cream, we arrived at Queenstown - my favourite place in New Zealand. The next day Giles and Emma hit the white water rafting and I decided to do a Lord of the Rings tour, film obssessive that I am and having already rafted in Peru. The scenery in this part of NZ is crazy beautiful and it was great to see where Isengard, Lothlorien and Ithilien were filmed to name but a few. That afternoon we mooched to the shops and gardens of the town and admired the lake which changes colour every time you look at it. Liking it so much we decided to stay for another day. Deciding to break the vegetable slop and pasta for dinner routine in this town may also have helped, thai food and a yummy pizza being far preferable. Spent the next day chilling out reading HP and enjoying the sun doing nothing for the first time in ages. This was mainly due to being woken up by Garry, an Irish dude, at 3am who forced me to get up and have a drink with him while his mate went to bed with a "lucky" lady he had met in our dorm. Hmmmm... Seeing that they wouldn't take no for an answer I surrendered and ended up being reluctantly kept awake and sadly not getting the beautiful, long anticipated lie in I'd been waiting for... poor dorm etiquette I must say. Ha.
Anyway, leaving Queenstown we headed across to Dunedin. Dunedin brought us such delights as the Speights Brewery for beer tasting and the Cadbury's Factory for copious chocolate tasting and finally the yellow eyed/headed penguin reserve for well, penguin watching...
After leaving the Hogwartz hostel (yes we did stay in a place with that name, tragic I know) we drove to Christchurch on Friday. After exploring the cathedral square and attending the famous evensong (mildly impressed with the singing!) we headed back to the hostel for yes, more vegetable slop. Saturday we ventured to an arts and crafts fair and the Antartica centre. A great place to teach you all about the Antartic gateway through Christchurch and the work that is done there. It also included a simulated snow storm and penguin feeding of little blue penguins who've had nasty things happen to them like fishhooks in eyes and being hit by boats etc...
Sunday, we hit the Christchurch art gallery which had some nice stuff in it and some other not so interesting stuff. Then had lunch in a big pub in the sun with all the other New Zealanders excited that summer is coming and then hit the botanical gardens before a fond farewell to Giles. Today has been spent returning the hire car and generally doing admin before we leave for Melbourne tomorrow and quite possibly a cheeky trip to the Neighbours set!!! I can hear the cries of G'day mate and put a shrimp on the barbie as I type...
Saturday 10 November 2007
Sweet As eh?
After sky diving and a poor performance in a backpacker's quiz where rather too much Tui beer was consumed (and far too many women got topless for a pint of beer) we hit the road again for Napier. Arriving in the Art Deco capital of the world, we wandered around and went to see the marvellous Atonement as we were too tired to do anything else. Stunning film for those who have not seen it, even with Keira Shitely hamster woman in it.
The next day we did an Art Deco walking tour of the city which was rebuilt entirely in 1931 over 2 years after a massive volcano eruption which meant the sea floor moved upwards adding loads of land to the city and destroying everything. In the afternoon we hastily jumped on the Grape Escape wine tour. On no lunch, 4 wineries with about 10 samples per winery, a cheese platter and extra samples of Viognier, Merlot and Port by a v welcoming vineyard owner called Dan, we arrived back to the hostel wasted and passed out before a well needed burger dinner. Thank goodness we didn't chose the 'bike and wine' option or I may not have been writing now.
The following day we left for Wellington also known as 'Windy Welly'. The buzzing capital had a lovely harbour and good nightlife explored by the core 3 and lovely Aussie Rohan who accompanied us. The next day we explored the city in the rain i.e. shopped and ate and had some dinner and a bottle that night before getting up at 5.30am to catch the interislander ferry to Picton.
Arrived to the South Island (after a seasick Virginia had slept all the way on the deck in the sun) through the beautiful Marlborough Sound. Drove off to Kaikoura along the east coast stopping off at a seal colony where the seals were chilling out on the rocks. Hung out in the sun and booked our dolphin swimming tour for the next morning. Wetsuited up the following day we jumped off our boat 4 times to catch some dolphins swimming around us, not quite Free Willy but awesome to see the pods all around us nonetheless.
The next day we did an Art Deco walking tour of the city which was rebuilt entirely in 1931 over 2 years after a massive volcano eruption which meant the sea floor moved upwards adding loads of land to the city and destroying everything. In the afternoon we hastily jumped on the Grape Escape wine tour. On no lunch, 4 wineries with about 10 samples per winery, a cheese platter and extra samples of Viognier, Merlot and Port by a v welcoming vineyard owner called Dan, we arrived back to the hostel wasted and passed out before a well needed burger dinner. Thank goodness we didn't chose the 'bike and wine' option or I may not have been writing now.
The following day we left for Wellington also known as 'Windy Welly'. The buzzing capital had a lovely harbour and good nightlife explored by the core 3 and lovely Aussie Rohan who accompanied us. The next day we explored the city in the rain i.e. shopped and ate and had some dinner and a bottle that night before getting up at 5.30am to catch the interislander ferry to Picton.
Arrived to the South Island (after a seasick Virginia had slept all the way on the deck in the sun) through the beautiful Marlborough Sound. Drove off to Kaikoura along the east coast stopping off at a seal colony where the seals were chilling out on the rocks. Hung out in the sun and booked our dolphin swimming tour for the next morning. Wetsuited up the following day we jumped off our boat 4 times to catch some dolphins swimming around us, not quite Free Willy but awesome to see the pods all around us nonetheless.
Thursday 8 November 2007
KIA ORA!
So.. we arrived in Auckland and headed to the Base Backpackers hostel and bumped into a girl from Fiji in our dorm room, crazy coincidence. Next day early 7.45am we rose to watch England's victory over France, get in. Particularly as there were some Welsh girls sat next to us supporting France, bloody Welsh (Sorry Welshies). Then came the arrival of Giles, Em's boyfriend bearing replacements of my stolen goodies so most welcome. The next couple of days we explored Auckland, went up the sky tower and had a drink, went to the Auckland art gallery to check out some traditional maori portraits and hit the Auckland museum where we had the haka (All Black's psyche out dance) warrior dance performed for us.
Tuesday, we got into our hire car and hit the road for Paihia and the Bay of Islands. This was where the first settlers came to NZ from Europe and settled in Russell and the Waitangi Treaty was signed bringing unity to NZ at the instance of a British representative there. Explored Russell across the bay and its pretty beach and Waitangi National Park where the House of said treaty was and some waterfalls/big Maori meeting house and war canoe stuff! Thursday we did a big boat trip around the Bay of Islands which has some stunning beaches and some rather happy holiday home owners living there. Friday, we headed to the northern tip of the North Island to Northland, where Cape Reinga can be found and a 90km beach which we walked around the next day and helped a kiwi family get their car out of the sand after an ambitious off the road project.
After this we spent a long day driving down to Rotorua, all hostels were booked up and we ended up staying in a Young Christians Women's Association hostel, bit quiet and grim but hosted us well and meant we could watch England's hideous defeat on the Sunday morning before heading to Rotorua. Rotorua for those who don't know is a big sulphur smelling town where there are hot geysers shooting up steam and thermal baths, obviously we visited both. Also bumped into some guys from law school there in our hostel, surreal and had a good drinking session with them. This was where I got to see the kiwi bird for the first time, in a darkened enclosed area in the Rotorua maori cultural centre but a kiwi bird nonetheless.
When we could stomach the sulphur no longer we headed to Taupo and what was to be the site of the long anticipated and feared Burgess skydive. The day we arrived we headed over to SkyDive Taupo and all 3 of us were wetting ourselves. I went rather pale and quiet apparently but chirped up big time when I got the blue overalls on and was harness to a rather nice Kiwi and got in the plane. It hit home I was doing it then and I decided to give it my all. 15,000 ft, 60 seconds of free fall and a groin wrenching parachute fall later, I landed, relieved and hyperactive on the ground. Great rush, thought my heart would explode when I fell out of the plane!
Tuesday, we got into our hire car and hit the road for Paihia and the Bay of Islands. This was where the first settlers came to NZ from Europe and settled in Russell and the Waitangi Treaty was signed bringing unity to NZ at the instance of a British representative there. Explored Russell across the bay and its pretty beach and Waitangi National Park where the House of said treaty was and some waterfalls/big Maori meeting house and war canoe stuff! Thursday we did a big boat trip around the Bay of Islands which has some stunning beaches and some rather happy holiday home owners living there. Friday, we headed to the northern tip of the North Island to Northland, where Cape Reinga can be found and a 90km beach which we walked around the next day and helped a kiwi family get their car out of the sand after an ambitious off the road project.
After this we spent a long day driving down to Rotorua, all hostels were booked up and we ended up staying in a Young Christians Women's Association hostel, bit quiet and grim but hosted us well and meant we could watch England's hideous defeat on the Sunday morning before heading to Rotorua. Rotorua for those who don't know is a big sulphur smelling town where there are hot geysers shooting up steam and thermal baths, obviously we visited both. Also bumped into some guys from law school there in our hostel, surreal and had a good drinking session with them. This was where I got to see the kiwi bird for the first time, in a darkened enclosed area in the Rotorua maori cultural centre but a kiwi bird nonetheless.
When we could stomach the sulphur no longer we headed to Taupo and what was to be the site of the long anticipated and feared Burgess skydive. The day we arrived we headed over to SkyDive Taupo and all 3 of us were wetting ourselves. I went rather pale and quiet apparently but chirped up big time when I got the blue overalls on and was harness to a rather nice Kiwi and got in the plane. It hit home I was doing it then and I decided to give it my all. 15,000 ft, 60 seconds of free fall and a groin wrenching parachute fall later, I landed, relieved and hyperactive on the ground. Great rush, thought my heart would explode when I fell out of the plane!
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