Crispy Fingers

I have always been a little bit obsessive about sun protection (my mates would say more than a little bit). I got sun burnt on the crater in Hawaii, but apart from that I had been pretty consientouus. Kayaking around Abel Tasman was to give me the biggest sun burn ever - on the backs of my hands. Abel Tasman is a pretty new national park and as such is still really untouched. So we rented a two person kayak for a couple of days. We’re given a safety briefing and a recommended plan for 36 hrs and off we go on our way. We ignore the plan entirely.

Herons dive bomb their fish so expertly and effectively. You can only watch in wonder when it happens. There are also seals breeding all over the place. The biggest pod of dolphins i’ve ever seen, around 30.

But the best thing was the beachs. These beaches are truely undiscovered and tiny. Yu can only get to them on foot or by sea and they were magical. Our pack lunches and dinners were best on the beach and our camping was magnificent when all you can hear are the waves.

Eau de Feet and Deet

So the Kepler Track was our big expidition into the NZ unknown. Three days and 2 nights in the wilderness. It was great. Sleeping in alpine huts, eating pot noodles and bunking with snoring strangers. The views and ‘tramping’ through forests and mountain ridges was so physically challaning it took several days to recover. Obviously I was always going to take several pairs of shoes travelling, but it never became more pravelent that Mike only took 2 pairs travelling on the kepler track. His walking shoes/trainers/day shoes are now resigned to a carrier bag in the front f the van when we sleep.

1st night - luxmore hut

Stalactites in Luxmore Cave

Snowball fight on Mt Luxmore



Top of the Mountain - 1450m

 The first day was up up up through forest, the second was a magnificant ridge walk and summit climb, the third was ridge, forest, river and lake. The third day was about 22 miles and at the end of it all I wanted to do was take my shoes off. When I did I discovered that my veins in my feet were massive, I mean really prominent.



Toilet with a view

I would try to describe the scenery, but I think we’ve all seen Lord of the Rings.

You get complacent in NZ, because it’s persisently awesome, sometimes it’s easy to forget to apprectiate how wonderful the vista is. There are times when all you want to do is get to ‘point B’, so you don‘t stop at a massive waterfall, or a bright blue lake.



Its a perfectly good plane, so.......

why would you want to jump out of it?

For many tourists, NZ is treated as a giant adrenaline trip, and nowhere is this more true than Queenstown. There are so many ways of scary yourself witless here that no budget or stomach strength could do them all justice. The key therefore to my mind is to sample a couple and then run away with mind and body as close to being intact as possible.

The easiest first choice was a trip on a jet boat. The jet boat is apparently a NZ invention where a speedboat with a powerful V8 (Chevy) engine is fitted to a water jet, which fires out water from the back of the boat at rates of up to 700litres per second. The advantage of this over a normal propeller system is that the craft can travel in incredibly shallow water, at least when it is skimming along at high speed. The Kawarau jet I went on travelled through the lake around Queenstown, before negotiating barely credible sections of the Kawarau and Shotover rivers, all with regular 180 degree spins. I’ve never been on a boat before that actually went appreciably uphill, quite a hard concept to get your head around. The driver was amazing, to the point where I felt completely safe. It was a little shocking to read a local paper later to find that there had been several quite serious injuries on a competitors boat which had crashed a week earlier.

King of Cheesy grins......

Ignoring the obvious choice of Bungy jumping, I instead decided to jump out of a perfectly good aeroplane, at 12000 feet. This might seem a weird choice for someone whos not great with heights, but my reasoning was that attached to the instructor, I’d have less chance to “bottle it”. The plane took off with 9 people on board, (3 customers + attached instructors, and 3 photographers), which was incredibly uncomfortable as there were no seats, and everyone else had something to lean on. One of the selling points was the scenic view in the plane of the Ben Nevis mountain range (NZ has one too), but I hardly noticed, as I was too busy trying to avoid having my own private panic.

Nzone Jump Plane

Ben Nevis Range

Someone else coming in to land - i did jump - honest!

I quite enjoyed the parachute part of the flight, and encouraged the instructor to do some spins on the way down. The landing was very easy - simply a short run to a halt, followed by a rapid change out of the kit and a much needed tea, most of which I spilt (glad I didnt have to drive back). I got to have a look at the video (couldnt keep it as I didnt want to pay the extra $170 NZ for the priviledge), and my head was facing down all the way, and I didnt even register the camera person at all.

Incommunicado

Not a quote from Phil Collins, but more a statement of the difficulty of getting a connection. We both love NZ, but the internet here......

One of the inevitable realities of travelling is that news is often hard to come by, especially when budgets dictate sleeping in non hotel accomodation. We arrived in New Zealand shortly after the Pikes River mine disaster, and despite being relatively close to the area involved, we didnt realise the scale of the tradegy, and the desperate search for the sadly deceased miners was something we only got occasional updates on via sporadic local radio reports.

The south island has also recently suffered a big earthquake. As a country with only a recent history, its especially sad that the majority of buildings affected are the oldest and most interesting, although the locals seem to be upbeat, and very positive and friendly, which seems to be a welcome national trait.

Christchurch Arts College with earthquake damage

After spending a day touring Christchurch, we picked up the campervan, a much nicer VW model than we expected, which is tall enough for me to stand up in (just). As this is home for the next month, the fridge and water with sink are very welcome.

Travelling the short distance to Akoroa, we camped for the first night nearby this beautiful village, which was first settled by French immagrants, and has place names to match, and a few patisseries available too. As with much of NZ, this area is an old volcano, with tall mountains and deep lakes in old calderas in evidence.

Akoroa at sunset

From Akoroa, we travelled south in the foothills of the southern alps. The scenery here is breathtaking, and seems to simulate areas of wales, then the pyrennees and then full on alpine mountains all in close proximity. Many of the lakes are a rich turqoise colour, with the water an icy temperature due to the mountains snow capped peaks melting in the NZ spring.

Rush Hour South Island Style

Stopping off en route south - just a taste of the scenery to come

We stopped at Lake Tekapo, and did a 2.5 hour walk to the Mount John observatory, which had a handy cafe at the top which served excellent coffee and cakes. The cafe is staffed by PHD students and researchers from various NZ universities, who study the skies at night (apparently in the cleanest air anywhere in the southern hemisphere - so the guidebook says) and then serve food and drinks to tourists during the day. Not sure how much time to themselves they get, but its all done with typical kiwi hospitality.

Lake Tekapo and the southern alps

Mt John Observatory

Dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, sleep, dive, eat, dive, eat, etc, etc,etc

As we are both lucky enough to be occasional (and qualified) divers, an organised trip to the Great Barrier Reef was almost a compulsary part of the trip to Queensland. We booked a 3 day, 2 night "live aboard" trip with Pro dive ltd from Cairns. The boat had space for 32 guests, and we had a small twin room with a window on the pacific. Leaving cairns very early, the boat ("ScubaPro") made its way to the outer reef, approx 50kms offshore.

Its difficult to do justice to the marine life on the reefs that visited. During the three days, we saw everything from Clownfish ("Nemo"), to numerous Turtles (Brian - the biggest was almost 2 metres long, and is believed to be at least 100 years old), and even white tipped sharks and grey Reef sharks. Needless to say the coral was fascinating as well, with most of the reef appearing to have virtunally no rock showing as it is all covered in coral. There is much discussion about the state of the reefs, but to my untrained eye they looked to be mostly in good shape, at least on the outer reefs we visited.

At this point I should point out that I took all these photos (apart from the one I'm in...) and that an experience underwater photographer with a less cranky (rented) camera would have got far better shots. The photos were all taken on just one of the eleven dives, which was probably the WORST visibility we experienced (hard to believe but true).

Ursh living the dream!

The night dives were an amazing experience. Few people on the boat had done a dive before, and the wind ups about huge sharks, conger eels and so on did little to settle the nerves. We dived with the instructor on the first night, and saw amazing lobsters and countless other night time fish. All the time we were down, there were a pair of grey reef sharks constantly circling in the water away from us. There appearance was quite mezmerizing, and they were apparently about 2m ish long (completely harmless to people) but seemed much bigger with no sense of scale or distance available. Their eyes light up in torch light just like cats in a headlight, so they are easy to keep track of. We also saw Brian the turtle asleep before he got rudely woken by a torch in the face (not us - promise). He looked very dazed (they lower their heart rate at night time to conserve energy and air) and almost bumped into Ursh who was rapidly getting out of the way.

The second night dive we did on our own, and although we saw less, it was great to be in the pacific looking after ourselves and feeling confident enough to do it.

Huge Clam - at least 1.5m long

Although one of the cheaper boat trips available, we ate like kings for three days. The justification was partly that diving that much uses a lot of energy, but also that the food was simply there so regularly, with big breakfast, lunch and dinner the norm, supplemented by snacks of hand made cakes between dives. The crew were great as well, very experienced and friendly, and even though it is a bit of conveyor belt business, everyone felt welcome and made friends on the boat.

Didnt get a photo of Nemo, but this one looks similar!

As little planning as possible????

After spending 3 days exploring Sydney, the reality dawned that we had to travel from Sydney to Cairns in time to connect with our onward travel destinations. One of the obvious factors regarding OZ travel is that its big - very big (2700kms from Sydney to Cairns). The usual “traveller” transport options are limited to buses that hug the east coast on marathon journeys between drop off points. Maybe in my younger years I would have accepted this option, but sleeping on long distance buses is something I can do without. Ursh was surprisingly keen on the bus, so the cop out was all mine.....

Whilst waiting for the car, we visited Bondi Beach, the home of the OZ beach lifestyle. Sadly it was pouring down, so we hurried away from the beach to check out a local modern art exhibition.

Bondi Beach art

Hiring a one way car trip was straightforward, as we picked up our Ford Falcon, already complete with many not careful owners and 300 000 kms on the clock. The car came complete with rudimentary camping gear, a “deep water horizon” oil leak, occasionally working AC and a transmission whine that had me phoning the rental company for reassurance.

Needless to say we had to detour via the Sydney Harbour Bridge, surely the only way you can leave this city. We headed north for the Hunter Valley wine region, a mere 2 hours from Sydney, a journey which hardly registered on the map. We spent a couple of great hours sampling wine from various “open cellars” including one owned and managed by a expat from Ipswich who had received his citizenship just the week before. Much as the visit was fun, I have rarely felt so out of my comfort zone, so we ended up buying a ready selected box of six bottles (definitely from the budget end of the range...) which were intended purely to make the camping experience a little easier.

Travelling further up the coast, we stopped at Byrons Bay, another surf hangout, but a shortage of accomodation made us head off the next day, after sleeping in the back of the car in a ridiculously crowded campsite.

Next stop was the town of Noosa, where we stayed in a hostel for three nights. This place is in such a stunning location, with a wooded headland overlooking perfect surfing beaches.



Noosa beach from the headland





















The hostel we stayed at had rental surfboards and kayaks. I went out in the surf on one of the boards, and had a great time, mostly getting rinsed, but occasionally getting standing, but really for the surf and my lack of experience a begginer board with more stability and float would have been better. On the rare occasions I surf I'm always struck by how much effort is needed for such a short time on the board. Still good though, and the surfers (who are "in" the crowd) seem to have a good community. The next day we borrowed a two person kayak to travel round the bays and rivers, which was excellent fun, and free as well.

Heading further up the coast, we stopped off at a national park - the Blackdown tablelands. This was a stunning location, so we stayed two nights, sleeping in the back of the car.

 

Chez Ford Falcon



We also did some hiking in the area, including an excellent trip to a waterfall miles from anywhere. We saw lots of geckos, and there were a few kangeroos and wallabys, but they were very shy and impossible to get a photo of.

Gecko

Leaving on from the campsite, we had a couple of big days driving through deserted areas of outback australia, with the road often single track and what few vehicles there were being huge road trains (50m long) travelling at speed and definitely using the "might is right" principal to road usage!

The next destination was the Undara lava tubes in northern Queensland, near to Mount Surprise (we checked, the surprise is that isnt any....)

The lava tubes were formed by molten lava creating tubes underground on their way downhill, and are regurlarly home to bats and snakes.



Undara Lava tubes



The lava tubes were very interesting, with an excellent guided tour, but for me the best part of thr trip was the guided nightime wildlife tour (or maybe getting to sleep on a comfy matress in a prefab tent)

Prefab tent thingy



Nightime scorpion, about 10cm long



Noisy Beetle!

During the daytime, the beetles made this incredible clicking noise, much like that of a cricket, but apparently close up they can reach 120dB. With lots of them the noise became like almost overwhelming tinutis, but fortunately they were silent at nightime. The beetles apparently live underground as lavae, and then climb out on the nearest tree trunk, leaving their hard shell which they emerge from still attached.

Beetles shells on singed tree trunk

The area is also home to many kangeroos and "pretty faced" wallabies, who are so used to people that they are easy to photo.

Kangeroo with Joey



Pretty Faced Wallaby with Joey -
just missed the Joey in the pouch with its head showing....

During the nightime tour, we witnessed at first hand the locals (shown by the guide Chris) attitude to the local cane toads. These are a pest that was intentionally, but inadvisably introduced to OZ in the 50's, and they are toxic, resulting in the deaths of many native predators. They are also so numerous that they are incredibly easy to find, and now cover most of Queensland. Chris first asked us if we minded him killing the pests, and I said no, but wasnt quite prepared. Shortly after finding one, Chris stepped on its backside to stop it hopping away, and then proceeded to stick his swiss army knife through it (quite an operation as the toad was much bigger than his knife...) He did this a couple of times, which had a slightly car crash effect on the tour. I found a toad myself, and whilst trying to decide what fate I should choose for it, the German guy next to me instantly alerted Chris suggesting he should kill it asap. Fortunately Chris had had his fill by then, but did offer to the penknife to anyone who wanted it.....

Leaving on from Undara, we headed to Cairns via the beatiful Atherton table lands, which were part tropical rainforest (complete with blood sucking leeches - last time ursula wears Sandals on this trip?) and green lush farmland.

Cairns is the party capital of the area, but quite forgettable otherwise, appart from the small matter of the Great Barrier Reef.....

Twenty Questions - Or Five!

So Mike keeps telling me that I should put more on the blog (90% of the entries so far have been his literarly genius), so after a few beers we have agreed that I will answer any question that he asks:

1. From all the people we have met who will you remember the most and why?
Whilst we've met a lot of people there hasn't been anyone too memorable, apart from you (darling), Nick and Nic. The Hawaiian, Cory, will not be someone I'll forget in a while. He was about 25, and sooooo emotional. Crying too much, but so friiendly. He let me impart my wisdon and seemingly got something from it. I may also remember Ben from the windsurfing shop, but that's for reasons I choose to discuss with my female mates!

From L to R: Mike, Ursh, Nick and Nic

2. With hindsight, what would you do differently?
Not much apart from google all the music that I love, then we would have tickets to Bon Jovi in NZ. I still think we should rock up and chat up touts or at least hang out at the stage door!

3. Do you think it's socially ok for 30 somethings to go travellng?
Errrrr... yes. I think you want me to talk about the hostel in Sydney. I love it here. Noise and emotional traumas from Scarborough 18 yr olds included! It is totally acceptable to leave your job and get some life experience - if you are able to do so. We are very lucky.

4. Would any experiences you have had warrant you friends and family being concerned about your welfare?
I have a bruise on my knee caused by a few too many beers - sorry mommy. But the salvation army popcorn helped!

5. Favurite food or drink?
Ummmm, I suppose when you're in the place that invented the mai tai, blue hawaiian and other cocktails it would have to be the pina colada we had on the beach in Waikiki - took me right back to the Boycott!

Good questions, but now I get to ask you some. I will wait and mine will be deeper!