Oz

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After another flight and another night "sleeping" in the airport, we arrived in Melbourne, Australia. We had been warned that Australia was quite expensive, but we were still shocked to learn that the shuttle to the the CBD (centre of business and development), in other words the downtown area, was $19 per person!  Nonetheless, this was the most cost effective way to go, so we bit the bullet. As we were pretty tired from our airport over-nighter, we checked into the first hostel we saw, a YHA Hostel called Discovery.

 

The Opera House

The city was vibrant, busy, and reminded us very much of downtown Toronto. This made us both happy and sad, leaving us missing what we had left behind at home. We spent two days walking the streets, exploring both high and low end shops in search of a birthday present for Alice. We were finally successful in finding her a Fossil purse and a new set of headphones from the expansive, seven floor department store called Myers.

 

We spent quite a bit of time drinking coffee (we learnt Melbourne is the official coffee capital of Australia) and sitting outside, and watching the buskers on the street. When the days came to an end, we chose fresh veggies and meat from the loud and hectic Queen Victoria Market and cooked our dinners.

 

On April 23, we took an overnight bus to Sydney and checked into another YHA near the bus station. We spent $42.50 per person per night for 2 beds in a dorm room of 6 people. We most likely could have found another place that fit into our budget a little bit better, but it was voted the best hostel in the world last year, and it was the closest one in sight. It definitely lived up to the reputation, with a rooftop pool, friendly staff, and great kitchen facility.

 

On our first day in Sydney, we walked down George St. and made it up and across the Harbour Bridge where we got an impeccable view of the Opera House and the bay’s surroundings. We then made our way back down and walked around the water for a close up view of the Opera house.

 

On Wednesday April 24th, we took a local bus to Bondi Beach and did the famous coastal walk to Congee Beach, making several stops along the way to take in the extravagant views and to picnic on the rocks. We walked past several beaches with breathtaking rocky cliffs and enjoyed watching the surfers surf and joggers pass us along the way. By the end of our walk we were exhausted and ready to head to the grocery store to get started on our new found favorite Curry Coconut Chicken dinner.

 

 

The next day was "Anzac Day” the day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand. Most shops were closed for the morning allowing parades to litter the streets. We woke up early and sat in Hyde Park watching the parade go by before we met up with a fellow traveller named Peter who we'd met back in Fiji. Peter walked us through the entire park and to the Cathedral, Art Museum and gave us a mini tour of many of the other popular landmarks in the area.

 

 

 

 Another overnight bus brought us to Byron Bay, a tourist town along the east coast, the next morning. The place was full of young and vibrant people walking around and eating at the many outdoor patios on the main street. We checked into a villa that was a 10 minute walk from the main beach and we were lucky enough to get upgraded to a shared apartment in the back of the grounds. We were only planning  on staying in Byron for 3 days, but ended up extending for a total 8 days once we realized how relaxing the atmosphere was and even ended up with the apartment all to ourselves by the end. We spent our days relaxing at the beach or at the pool on site, with the exception of the day we walked up to check out the light house at the top of the hill.

 

On the way up to the light house, we were able to stand on the most easterly coastal point of Australia, look for dolphins, and watch the surfers ride the waves. The views were  beautiful no matter where we drew our eyes and that was what made us realize we weren’t ready move on to the next city yet.

 

Most of our evenings were spent cooking up delicious dinners in our almost private kitchen, and watching movies with tea and Tim Tams, which are the most amazing cookies that we discovered and highly recommend to everyone.

 

On our 8th day in Byron we sadly said goodbye to our new friends and got on a bus to Brisbane, our final Australian destination. Brisbane was another fairly large city that we didn’t take the time to explore all that much. We spent most of our time taking short walks to the park and across the main street to a strip of cute restaurants and night life and trying to relax at our hostel, despite the fact we had a with a very annoying and inconsiderate room mate.

 

All in all, Australia was wonderful and if we would have had more time there (and a bigger budget), there would have been heaps and heaps more to the see.

 

Thanks for reading,

With love from Oz,

 

D’Alice

 

 

 

On the Edge Part 2

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April, 2013
Driving down the East Coast

Beach Front Campsite outside Otago Region

After listening to the waves crashing as we fell asleep, waking up on the beach was exactly as beautiful as we'd imagined it would be.  There were tall cliffs dropping off into the big wide ocean right at our feet. We started off the morning with a couple of coffees and a great big breakfast and then set out on the road again. Unfortunately, as one of the consequences of camping was not having a good charge on our electronics, we only got to take one picture, before our camera ran out of battery.  As we were cooking breakfast with the beautiful scenery in the background, some random guy walked by and asked us, "sleep well?".  We had.

Despite the fact that charging our camera was now our #1 priority, we wanted to stop by "Jack's Blowhole" before heading into the nearest town.  Jack's Blowhole was a natural 200ft hole that dropped into a cave filled with roaring water from the ocean a few hundred meters away. We managed to snap a few pictures with our seldom used Iphone, and were on our way. 

We stopped in the closest, and very small, town, where we stopped at a coffee shop to use their electricity.  We bought a few espressos, as such was necessary to use their power. There we saw the same random guy (now known as Mike from the Netherlands) who had asked us how our sleep was, and we became very friendly with him, comparing travel stories.  We then went to Nugget Point where we climbed up to a lighthouse on the bay overlooking the ocean and rocks that were home to hundreds of seals. The views where extraordinary.

Just an hour before dusk we arrived at our next campsite in Curio Bay, a peninsula surrounded by the ocean in the Catlins of New Zealand. When we first arrived, we had to check in and get an actual site assigned to us for the first time, as this was our first upscale campsite with power (and showers, teehee). Our previous sites were all government sites, based on an honor system where we had to fill out a form and place our money into a box. We were given a map of the grounds (which were pretty big) and began searching for our designated spot.

The ditch we got stuck in

We realized we had made a wrong turn and found ourselves on the edge of the peninsula in deep muddy, uphill track, suitable only for 4X4s. We decided to turn around (a little too late)... Dave popped the van into reverse and we started rolling down the hill and into a ditch and almost flipped the entire van over before we could stop it! When the van finally stopped rolling we were a half tire deep in the mud, only a few feet from the cliff, and utterly and completely stuck (and really scared)! We spent the next 20 minutes trying to roll back and forth and out of the ditch but it was no use, the van would budge a little and then get stuck all over again. Dave got out of the van and Alice jumped into the driver seat, in hopes that a little push or two would help. Still nothing. Just as we were about to give up and admit that we weren't going to make it out without a (very expensive) tow, Dave said "Lets give it just one last try" and put all his muscle into it... And sure enough the van came zooming out and we were saved! We exchanged high fives, hugs, and huge sighs of relief, jumped up and down, and then quickly got outta there!

When we finally found our designated spot, nestled in a U-shaped bush, the sun was going down. It was perfect timing to catch some penguins coming in from the ocean after a long day of swimming and fishing. We put on some warmer clothes and headed down the street to a designated penguin watching area. However on our way down we ran into an Aussie couple that was on their way back and said we missed the big event. Sadly we headed back to the van, still only having seen just one lonely penguin the day prior.


The next morning we did some dolphin watching before doing our usual morning routine of making breakfast, cleaning up, reorganizing the van and setting out for another day on the road. The roads became even curvier than they had been around the bottom part of the island as we drove through town after town. We eventually made it to the south east part of the island where we were able to see the Fjords in the distance as we drove down the 8km gravel road and into our next simple, and quiet, lakeside site. Unfortunately, as this site was also nestled deep in the forest, we got attacked pretty badly by mosquitos, but that's just the price we had to pay.  We had a nice dinner, lit, as always by tea-light candles, and had what had become a tradition; tea and movie time, before turning in.

The next day was a "sit in the library and charge electronics/check the internet" kinda day. We were in the town of "Te Anau", which was the launching point for the drive up to "Milford Sound", a must-do Kiwi experience. Once again we settled down at a lakeside campsite, close enough to Milford Sound that we could beat the early morning tourist traffic and catch an early cruise through the fjords. For those of you that don't know, a fjord is a U-shaped formation, carved through mountain tops by pre-historic glaciers. We were lucky enough to get a gorgeous day for our 2 hour cruise, as we learnt it was almost always raining in the Sounds. We were able to see the very tip of Mitre Peak, the highest point in the Sound, which was almost always blocked by cloud cover. We passed along side various towering waterfalls (even one that claimed to be as tall as Niagara Falls), and rock formations that began taking shape of animals like kissing turtles and lions over the years. Before the cruise boat turned around we made it out to the open Tasman Sea for another breathtaking view. By the time the tour was over we were more than happy about going over our daily budget before we even made it to 11am, and headed back towards the town of Te Anau for lunch.

In Te Anau we were able to contact a friend, Huw,  that we made along our travels who was studying medicine at the university in Queenstown. It was a long drive with more gorgeous views as we drove along the lake and made it just in time to meet Huw at his place for dinner. We had met Huw in Nicaragua and spent almost a week travelling together. It was so lovely to see a familiar face after so long. We spent the evening catching up over wine and an authentic Thai dinner that Huw easily threw together while filling us in on everything he'd done since the last time we had seen him.

The evening was lovely. It had been quite awhile since we had been invited into a home and been able to enjoy the relaxed atmosphere. When the hour was getting late, we were expecting to make our way to the next campsite, but Huw invited us to stay for the night and to make ourselves at home. We didn't decline as it was so warm and cozy where we were, and we slept on the floor right by the fireplace.

Driving up the West Coast:

The next day we woke up feeling well rested (and clean, for the first time in awhile) and ready for the next leg of our journey. We drove through a beautiful town called Watanaka and various other vineyard towns up the west coast before making our way to Lake Gunn. Were we settled down, at a quiet campsite by the lake for the night and prepared yet another delicious candle light dinner.

Glacier hopping was on our list the next morning. It was a beautiful, sunny, and warmer than usual day, and we couldn't have been more lucky. It took us a couple of hours to get to Fox Glacier, the first one of two on the list. We took a 30 minute hike up to the viewing point where we could see tiny moving objects miles away. People were doing a glacier hike and literally walking on the glacier! We contemplated sneaking out there and joining the group but then decided otherwise and made our way back down to the van.

It took us another hour or so to reach Franz Joseph Glacier, where we only had to walk about 15 minutes to see the beauty of it all. Both sites showed information with photos on how the glaciers looked years ago and how much bigger in size they had been. Because of global warming and the changes in the atmosphere both had reduced in size and spectacle with time. We have to admit, although stunning in their own way, we did expect more from these 'must see' kiwi sites, as we have been turned into glacier snobs after our honeymoon in Alaska. However, we enjoyed every minute of it nonetheless.

The next few days took us through Wataroa, where Dave played golf (and Alice played caddy girl), Hokotika, a city right on the west coast,and Aurthur's Pass, a very skinny road that passed through towered mountain top. After that we made our way back to our starting point in Christchurch. We did the circle around the island a little more quickly then anticipated and had a few days remaining before we needed to return the van. So, we did some campsite hopping in and around  the big city and used the days to relax and catch up on blogging and downloading at the various free internet sites around the city.

On our last day in Christchurch we were van-less so we did some exploring by foot and took a long walk to the mall.  As it was the day after Alice's big 30th birthday (once again we had a pizza party dinner the night before) we wanted to get looking for a birthday present.  Unfortunately, things were a little too costly in New Zealand, and we didn't find anything that she liked, so we'd just have to wait a bit longer.  We headed back to our hostel and then to the airport for our 9:40pm flight out of the magical and mystical NZ .


Thanx for keeping up with us,
with love from Kiwiland,

D'Alice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On The Edge Part 1

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Getting Started in New Zealand:

The moment we stepped onto Kiwi soil, before even leaving the airport, we fell in love with it. We landed in Auckland at 10pm on March 31 and had a whole night to spend at the airport before our next flight to cold and rainy Wellington. From Wellington, we took an over-budget ferry to the south island where we were to begin our 16 day driving excursion.

By the end of our first day we found ourselves in a small town on the north end of the south island called Picton, double over our budget and double over exhausted. We settled down at a cute villa (called "The Villa) near the ferry port, where we took advantage of the on site hot tub after having an early (52 cent instant soup) dinner and a much needed early sleep.

Backpackin' down the road in Picton

We managed to sleep for 12 hours straight and woke up just 10 minutes before we were expected to check out of our room. Our plan for the day was to rent a car or a campervan, which we heard was very popular and cost effective for travelling around the island. We used our free hour of internet to do some research on how to go about it. We learned that Picton was unfortunately not the place to make any plans of that sort as it wasn't a big enough city with the right resources. Therefore, we were going to have to make our way slightly more south to either Christchurch (on the east coast) or Nelson (west inland). All the buses were showing up full for the day, and the only other option that was recommended for us was to hitchhike to one of the two cities.

Hitching a ride with Mike

Hitchhiking was something that we had never had to do so far on our travels and we were a little bit apprehensive. However, it was apparently very popular and often done in New Zealand, so we went for it. We were given instructions to start walking towards the end of town (which was only 15 minutes away) towards the highway, walk past the gas station and to keep on walking until someone kindly stopped for us. As such, that's what we did. At the gas station we stopped and grabbed some meat pies (very popular and very delicious in NZ) for breakfast. Sure enough, before we were even half way into our pies or were able to put a thumb out, a big 12-seater van was pulling over and hailing us in!

Mike, our 'hitch-driver', was a retiree from Christchurch, who grew up in Kenya and now working picking up relocation vans as a hobby and drove us the entire way there. The 5 hour drive down was absolutely breathtaking. We passed vineyards and farmland before the road met up with the coast, and we drove right along side it for 2 hours. Along the way, Mike was nice enough to teach us about the vineyards, some history of the land, and about the recent earthquakes that shook Christchurch and completely destroyed parts of the city. He even stopped for us at a popular site outside a town called Kaikoura, where mother seals left their babies to play near a waterfall, while they went out fishing for the day. The seals were incredibly cute, some relaxing on rocks while others were doing flips in and out of pool underneath a waterfall.

After Kaikoura, we continued down the highway with views of the crystal blue ocean and spiky rock formations on our left and the expansive southern alps to our right. It was almost impossible for us to put our camera down for the entire ride.

Once we arrived in Christchurch, Mike dropped us off at the only hostel he knew about near the university and the botanical gardens, and wished us (along with the other smelly backpacker we'd picked up along the way) safe travels. Unfortunately, the accommodations were all booked up for the night. We made our way down the street to an information station which had just closed 10 minutes before we arrived as per the sign on the door. Luckily enough, the manager walked out just as we got there and began giving us directions toward another option, and before we knew it, he offered to give us a ride there. We were two-for-two on successful hitches for the day!

  

That night we were let in on a little secret about the free internet booths around the city (otherwise we would have to pay $5 an hour for a limit of 100MB of usage at the hostel). We spent almost 3 hours on the curb near a gas station so we could finally download a game for David's new, and until now unusable, PS Vita. Success!

The next day, we went back to the information station by the botanical gardens to get some help on hiring a camper. Another wonderful Kiwi woman was right at our service. She must have called 5 different companies for us, in the attempt to find us the best bang for our buck.

Before we picked up our van we made a few stops, by foot, to see some of the 'Red Zone' areas affected by the earthquakes. Most of the 'Red Zone' was blocked off and under construction for the rebuild, however we were able to get close enough to some of the buildings that were temporarily open for business or still standing as is. Many churches in the area got hit and were either completely demolished or damaged enough for a tear down and rebuild. One of the malls in the middle of town was completely demolished and was temporarily running through shipping containers, which they aptly named the 'Container Mall'.

Our Home on the Road:

By Noon on April 3rd we had picked up our cute little campervan that we would be calling home for the next 16 days! Driving took a little getting used to at first as we had never driven on the left side of the road or the left side of the car before. We took a leisurely spin around the block to get used to the change for a half an hour before we hit the highway. It took us a few roundabouts and right hand turns (and turning on the windshield wipers instead of the signal various times) before we were all set and ready to go. We drove through a few towns and a lot of farmland until we reached a little town called Geraldine where we spent our first night. We stopped at the town grocery to buy some essentials, dinner, and snacks for the road and then headed down the long gravel road to our campsite. The site was out in the middle of farmland with not much scenery and no amenities besides a bathroom and a sink. As soon as parked we it started to pour so we set up the tarp and got our steak and potatoes dinner on the go.

The next day we drove back into Geraldine and stopped at the town library to recharge our laptop and send some emails home. When we hit the road again it was all hills and farmland with towering mountain ranges in the distance. As we got closer and closer to the mountains the more we had to struggle with the fuzziness on the radio, but the more beautiful the scenery became. The tallest mountains were capped with snow while the smaller ones were covered with lush greenery. At one point, the road completely opened up to Lake Tekapo, a sparkling turquoise blue lake where we stopped at a lookout to take some pictures.

 

We kept driving down highway 83, alongside Lake Pukaki, another sparkling turquoise lake, brighter than the sky. We had never seen a lake which was the color you would see around a tropical island, until now. It was later explained to us that the water became that colour due to a mixture of rock sediment, and crystal clear glacial waters. This lake led us straight to our next camping site in Aoraki,  Mt. Cook National Park. At 3754 meteres, Mt Cook is New Zealand's (and surrounding area's) highest peak and housed a stunning glacier that sat right in front of our site.

The next morning, we drove around through the mountain valley, and over to the "Tasman glacier".  It was about a half an hour hike to get up to the viewing point, but was well worth it when we arrived.  The glacier was more than 25 km long, and in the distance we saw boat tours that looked like little ants beside the huge icebergs.  After the downhill hike back, it was time to hit the road again.


We drove south to a town called Twizel, hit the grocery store, then chilled at a local café to recharge our computer (as we had had movie night in the campervan the night before).  We hadn't previously realized just how long it took to fully charge the laptop, until we were sitting there waiting for it.  Three and a half hours to be exact, but that was just the price we would have to pay for our nightly movies.  We drove further south past the towns of Omarama, Kurow, Duntroon, and Omaru, and stopped for the night in a campsite just outside of the town called Herbert.  This next campsite was nestled in the forest, and we fell asleep to the sounds of the forest critters (and our laptop).


As Dave was crying from cutting onions for breakfast, Alice was reading our road map and DOC (department of conservation) pamphlet and researching where our next destination was to be.  We realized that we were founding the island with unjust speed, and at that rate, we'd have done the whole loop in about 8 days, instead of the allotted 16.  As such, we decided not to drive too much that day.

We continued south, and stopped along the way at the Moreaki boulders (naturally spherical boulders that eerily hung out on the beach), and Dunedin.  Dunedin (or, Dune-a-deen, as Alice would say) was a larger city, where we took a long walk along "Allen Beach", which was just outside of town.  After speaking to some locals, we were informed Allen beach was one of two places that were popular for seeing penguins.  So we walked all the way to the end of the beach (the penguin spot), and saw one little guy waddling up the beach just as we approached.  We also managed to see two sea lions, who were taking siestas in the sand dunes. The penguin we saw was very shy, though, and ran back to the ocean as we approached.  We waited patiently for about an hour for other penguins, to no avail.  After we'd decided to leave, we looked back periodically to see if any penguins had come out, and of course one did after about 15 minutes of walking.  We were satisfied,  though, that we'd had the chance to see at least one penguin and could cross that off our list of things we wanted to see.



By the time we got back on the highway, the sun had set.  It was a little difficult navigating our way to the next campsite, in the South of the island, but managed to make it there around 9:00 that night.  We'd read in the book that the views here were supposed to be particularly spectacular, being that it was right on the ocean (which we could hear), but being that it was so dark, we'd have to wait until the morning to see.





Thanks again for reading,
and stay tuned for more adventures.
With love (from the Van)
D'Alice