Queenstown and Te Anau

Ok, so first of all an apology, we’ve been slacking a little on the blog writing! I’m going to attempt to get you all up to date with what we’ve been doing! When we last wrote we were at mount cook, since then we’ve entered a new year and had so many adventures!

From mount cook we headed towards Queenstown in preparation for spending new year there. We drove past Queenstown towards Paradise(yes a real place and no we didn’t make it there!). The road towards Paradise was a stunning trip along side a lake! We stayed that night near Paradise in a beautiful campsite called Kinloch. Tiff even braved the lake and went for a dip, she’s a little insane if you ask me, it was freezing!! The next day we headed back into Queenstown, we saw the first bit of traffic since arriving in New Zealand!  Queenstown was obviously the place to be at New Year)of course everyone had heard we were going to be there!) We had a really chilled out day, partly due to a mix up at our campsite and the lack of a space for us, but that was sorted! We headed into town in the evening for a Ferg Burger for dinner(they are amazing famous burgers! Very yummy) then we met up with our Belgium friends that we spend Christmas with! We found a good spot on the beach and watched the fireworks to see in the New Year! It was great to spend the evening with old friends! New Years day was a beautiful day, clear blue skies and everything. So of course we took the opportunity for a bit of sunbathing! (don’t mean to make you all jealous!) Then headed out for dinner and onto Freedom Church.  The next day we had a chill out day (because we hadn’t done that enough??!) And went for cocktails in the evening, not just any cocktails though, ones they serve in teapots! Incredible! Me and Tiff have decided we could do it better though and now have a great plan for a new business adventure if therapies don’t work out! So after a little New Year holiday from travelling we went on a trip to Skippers Canyon. It was a very cool day, you get taken to Skippers Canyon which is down a very narrow steep windy gravel road, not for nervous people! Then once there we had a jet boat ride through the canyon! Very exciting- not for the faint hearted!

We drove to Te Anau that evening, which is in the Fiordlands. We booked ourselves on to lots of tours for the next few days! The next day we drove up the Milford road towards Milford sounds. On the way up we stopped at Key point, which was a 3 hour walk up a mountain! It was a pretty steep climb but the views from the top made it worth while. It was just incredible, we found ourselves surrounded by mountains and incredible views! And probably the most randomly placed toilet I’ve ever seen! We woke the next morning to heavy rain, and headed out on a cruise on Milford sound, despite the rain the sound(which is not a sound at all but a fiord) was spectacular! And possibly more so due to the rain. The rain had created amazing waterfalls everywhere, I can’t describe the beauty of it. Luckily that evening on returning to Te Anau it was a lovely day! The following day we treated ourselves to a long overdue haircut! So now we have gorgeous hair again! And in the afternoon headed to the glow worm caves. The caves were really quite beautiful with lovely waterfalls. And the glow worms are crazy, it’s so weird that it’s natural, it’s like someone has filled the cave with fairy lights! But I do have to say both of us were a little scared but sitting in a boat in the pitch black- I just realized I failed to mention that! Yes you have to sit in a boat in the pitch black to view the glow worms!

Our final day in Te Anau we went to doubtful sound, for a lovely contrast we had a beautiful day on doubtful sound. Doubtful sound is so remote you have to take a boat across a lake for an hour followed by a 20min bus journey to reach the sound. But this adds to it’s incredible beauty, it’s so quiet and untouched. We had an amazing day out of the sound, to be surrounded by such beauty is just amazing. We also had a trip down into an underground power station on the way which was very impressive! The whole thing was under rock, amazing how they managed to build it.

Let the adventures begin...

Firstly lets get the introductions over with... Everyone meet Jack,

Jack meet everyone...

This will be our home for the next 6 weeks! And so far we love it! I must say we didn't stop bouncing with excitement for a full 24hours! We've calmed down now... just about...

After picking up Jack (named by Debs- without her knowing it really... we'd like suggestions for the 2 pirates on the side...) we drove until we were well out of the earthquake zone.... no only joking we drove to lake tekapo, and camped beside lake mackenzie. What a beautiful place to fall asleep and wake up. And what a spectacular nights sky- this area is meant to be the best in the world for star gazing and it truely was magnificant. We had a lovely day looking at the lake and visiting the church of the good shepherd- located on the lakes edge. From here we drove the spectacular drive to Mt Cook national park. It was incredible, we were driving straight for snow capped mountains, beautiful lake in 25+ heat! Mt Cook is spectacular(see iggle piggle page to see what I'm talking about because words just aren't enough), our campsite was at the foot of several huge mountains! over the past few days we have done some gorgeous walks, with amazing views of mt cook, glaciers and floating icebergs! All the while we have been in shorts and T-shirts! crazy!

We also had a little excitement yesterday in the campsite, everyone was outside their campervans with binoculars and us being nosey had to find out why... so we asked a couple nearby and apparently there had just been an avalanche on the mountain overlooking the campsite...

Yesterday we decided to have a little treat in the mt cook village and have a little cake as reward for the 3hr walk we'd just done! and just wanted to say Thankyou to Craig for the butter he provided! What a great improvement to a muffin- wouldn't of thought of it before! Craig we are in your debt.

New Zealand!!!- Christchurch and Akaroa

Well part 1 is now over and we have moved on to New Zealand. Once we'd made it through the rather strict customs and imigrations we got to our hostel in Christchurch. On arrival Tiff was given a map of the city and the first thing the guy did was cross through the middle section- the CBD is a no go area. On walking through the city the destruction of the earthquake is evident. There are big fences around the whole of the CBD- one big building sight currently. We passed a few beautiful old buildings on our way to the supermarket, all half fallen down. It was really quiet shocking to see the destruction and to realise they have not even started to rebuild this once beautiful city. The next day we headed to Akaroa, a french settlement just over an  hour from Christchurch. We were staying on a farm in the middle of no where! it was gorgeous the views from the hostel over the harbour and the peace and quiet! we spent our time here relaxing in hammocks(well when Tiff wasn't falling out of them!) and kayaking with Dolphins! Tiff also went swimming with Dolphins and had an amazing time. The Dolphins here are Hector Dolphins and are the smallest in the world- it was very cool them swimming along side our kayaks! And then of course I can't fail to mention the shakey next few days! One afternoon when Tiff was in town and I was chilling in the hostel the first earthquake hit. This one a 5.9M pretty big! and really quiet unnerving! I joined everyone else in the hostel sitting outside being a little freaked out whilst the ground continued to shake with aftershocks fairly regularly. Tiff remained down in the town for the whole afternoon waiting for things to calm down. We then had the second big one hit just over an hour later, a 6M this time. And it would hit just as I was making a cupper, spilling my tea everywhere! That one did feel really quite violent and at that point the library where Tiff was decided to shut. The owner of the hostel stayed with us all afternoon and gave out fee icecream which was nice! The shakes continued on and off the rest of that day and continued into christmas eve (another 5.1M hit whilst in bed) and Christmas day also(at this point we were in Christchurch) but it didn't stop us having a good time! You weirdly get used to them- although it is not right the ground moving like that!
Enough of the earthquakes! Christmas Day! we were staying in Haka Lodge in Christchurch, a brand new hostel! We shared Christmas eve and Christmas day with 4 other British people! We went to a church in the morning which was quiet traditional but lovely all the same. Then back to the hostel for a lovely feast of choccies and biscuits from the hostel staff and our post! (Which the hostel staff had hidden from everyone as a xmas surprise!) We embraced the warm Christmas(I'd like to say hot but it was a bit overcast and windy) and had a BBQ along with everyone else in the hostel before settling in to watch some movies! Later on we had a lovely surprise as the girls from belgium that we'd met in melbourne turned up with their friend Stephen! Christmas day although sad because we were away from friends and family( really enjoyed all our skype chats too!) was really fun!

Melbourne... again...

Melbourne take 2, this time we were meeted at the airport by the aussie Huttons, relatives of people at Tiff's church. They were kind enough to let us stay with them for our final few days in Oz. We had a day in the city, walking through the botanical gardens and having a picnic, we also jumped on a tram down to st Kilda- the beach district, but it was so hot and busy down there we didn't stay long! The next day Rach(Hutton) took us to the Dandenong mountains, we stopped at skyhigh for the beautiful views over Melbourne and surrounding areas and the onto the william Ricketts sculptures, a beautiful garden with aboriginals carved into clay. That evening we attended Carols by Candlelight in the local park. It was a massive event with a huge stage and a lot of people! Everyone came with their picnic blankets and picnics! was lovely! Tiff especially enjoyed the kids entertainment before it started- where we got to learn all about looking after the bush with ranger roo! It was a lovely evening of carols in the park! It was a slight shame that it was cut short due to a thunderstorm heading our way! But it did finished with an awesome fireworks display! On our final day we headed into Melbourne for a lovely lunch out as a little treat! And we said goodbye to Australia!

Melbourne and Tassie

On our first night in Melbourne it was the night markets at the Queen Victoria markets. The markets had a great vibe, it was a beautiful warm evening and everyone had come after work. There's live music, food and drink stalls and a great atmosphere as well as cool stalls. Day 2 we went on a tour of the city run by the tourist information. It was a great way of getting our bearings and seeing the city. On the tour we met a girl(Catherine) from Belgium who was over visiting her sister, we all went to the Queen Victoria markets to see them by day and in search of food! After eating A LOT of water melon! we found some delicious paninis! and did our fruit and veg shopping! That evening we met up with Catherine and her sister Evelyn to get in the Christmas spirit! we spent the evening viewing all of melbourne's christmas lights and decorations! Although it was nothing compared to London at christmas, it was a great evening, we especially enjoyed the displays projected onto the Cathedral and library.

It was then time to fly to Hobart,  we got to our bright green hostel, aptly named 'The Pickled Frog' and went straight to pick up our car, a Susuki Swift(thought about calling her Susie2 but that just didn't seem right!) - a small car at last! We drove down the peninsula to Port Arthur (the famous convict site) stopping en route at a blowhole, actually blowing water (we'd been puzzled up until now that they didn't seem to do much!) and a few other impressive lookouts over the rugged coastline.
Getting up early we got to Hobarts Saturday Salamanca market before it got too busy - great market, we'd be very poor if we lived nearby! Afterwards we drove up to Freycinet National Park on the east coast and walked up to a viewpoint over the beautiful Wineglass Bay - feeling very spoilt for natural beauty this trip, and that evening Tiff went for a gorgeous run along the nearby beach next to stunning blue waters and overlooed by rugged mountains!
Our first stop the next day was to a fantastic animal sanctuary which is leading the breeding program for Tasmanian devils whose numbers are dwindling due to a facial tumour - they are much cuter than I thought they'd be (in fact Tiff didin't realise they weren't mythical!) until they open their mouths and growl - it's a horrible sound!! The sanctuary had a huge open area with kangaroos free to hop around and who come towards you very quickly when they realise you have food for them! Driving on up the coast we stopped up the hills for some great savoury pancakes before reaching a brewery for some Tassie beer tasting, after we carried on up the coast to the Bay of fires - a beautiful unspoilt coastline. Carrying on, the rain started so, stopping only at a dairy farm for cheese tastings and to restock our lunch supplies we reached Bridport on the north coast to find we had the hostel all to ourselves, even vacant of the hostel owner until the late evening. The hostel was on the beach front and we had stunning views!
The next day we drove to Georgetown- not much here but there was a beautiful lookout just out of the town. From there we drove to low head- a beautiful scenic drive along the coast dotted with lighthouses. We drove through the beautiful Tamar valley to get to Lauceston(over the Batman Bridge!! on the way).  At Lauceston we went to the cataract gorge- which wasn't quite as we'd expected, but a great area filled with locals enjoying theirselves and a fairly dramatic view!
After spending a night in Lauceston we drove to cradle mountain via Elizabethtown!! and Redhills! not a lot to see in either of these places but we couldn't resist driving through. We also passed through Sheffield, a very lovely little town famous for the murials covering the buildings, and penguin! yes a place called penguin and yes they had a giant penguin! finally we made it to cradle mountain and had time for a walk around dove lake- it was spectacular! That night we stayed in Strahan, and went on a cruise the next day through McQuarie habour and the Gordon River. The cruise was lots of fun, the scenery gorgeous the whole way, mountains and rainforest lined the river and harbour. We had a couple of stops on the cruise, one being at sarah island which was used for the convicts originally and we had a very dramatic tour around the island! The second stop was for a walk through the rainforest. Our final full day in Tassie we drove back to Hobart. Along the way we stopped at some beautiful lakes and waterfalls, our favourite being Russell falls. On arriving in Hobart we drove to the top of mt Wellington, we had some great views on the way up, but unfortunately found ourselves in cloud at the top!

Adelaide to Melbourne

Arriving to a sunny Adelaide we got straight on the local bus to Glenelg, a small seaside town not far from Adelaide where we were staying. The wind meant a walk on the beach was off the cards but instead we spent the afternoon wandering around before meeting Megan (who Lizzy met in Europe) for some vino then going to her friends for a BBQ - nice to feel part of normal life!! The next day, as Lizzy didn't really want to go to Adelaide again having visited it last time she was here, I hopped on the tram into the city centre and spent the day wandering the impressive food market, the Christmas high street (Santa Claus in shorts singing carols was a little strange....as was the assortment of pig statues including one scavaging out the bin....weird!) and the pretty botanical gardens. The following day we picked up our car for the week, having ordered a small car we ended up with a Mitsubishi AXI (I think!)..whatever it was it was huge but by the end of the week 'Mitch' as he was fondly known was part of our little gang and we didn't want to say goodbye once we'd reached Melbourne. We started the day travelling down the coastal road to Mount Gambier (our first nights stop) stopping at a few pretty seaside towns on the way. That night we were staying in 'The Old Gaol', used up until 1995 we were actually staying in the cells, really friendly owners made it one of the nicest hostels so far. The following day, after i'd frequented the olympic pool right next door we drove up to see the 'Blue Lake' which you have to see to believe that it's really quite blue. The lake fills the crator of an extinct volcano (this area is renowned for them apparently and is all part of the Kanawinka Geopark) and turns blue in summer months (something to do with chemicals...i forget!). From here we went for a wander around a sinkhole (a collapsed cave) which was impressive, covered with lots of greenery and apparently home to lots of possums which you can feed if you come at dusk. After this we headed down the coast, through a few more pretty seaside towns to Cape Bridgewater which had a stunning coastline with turqoise waters if it had been a little warmer would have enticed us for a swim. That night we headed up into the Grampian Mountains to stay at Halls Gap - en route seeing many kangaroos lounging at the side of the road. Our hostel was opposite the national parks cultural centre which we went to the next day, it was really interesting although unsettling reading about the treatment of the indiginous people when Europeans came to inhabit Oz. The rest of the day we had fun driving the really winding roads around the mountains to lookouts over the rugged landscape and climbed lots of steps down to some impressive waterfalls before heading back to the coast to Port Fairy. Port Fairy was a twee little village with a nearby island, also a nature reserve which after having a windy run around when we first arrived we then walked around the next day, meeting lots of local wallabies on our way. Next stop, after some random waterfalls in the middle of nowhere, was Allansford, the start of the Great Ocean Road (although the coastline was equally as impressive before we got here!) and more importantly Cheeseworld!!! Now whilst the cheese was tasty, its also famous for it's milkshakes (spearmint flavour being my personal favourite!) which we happily sampled before starting our trip down the Ocean Road. Stopped at lots of scenic spots including Bay of Islands and London Bridge (which has fallen down..) before heading inland for some more cheese tasting/purchasing! The evening, staying in Port Campbell, we were able to borrow some binoculars from the local tourist info and headed back to London Bridge where we were the only ones to stay after sunset to watch the little penguins make their way onto the beach at dusk, surfing the waves before waddling up the beach.....very cute!!!! The following day we finished the Great Ocean Road, stopping at Loch Ard Gorge and the famous '12 Apostles' although i'm pretty sure there's only 7 or 8 now! We ventured off the road to go down to Cape Otway, we were told the lighthouse was worth a look, we disagreed.. however the road down was surrounded by koalas in the tree tops which made up for it!! As we headed further along we stopped at a few more seaside towns and Aireys Inlet where we wandered up to a lighthouse. From here, after avoiding a koala wandering by the side of the road, we headed to Torquay, our final nights stay at the end of the Great Ocean Road where we had to make use of our breakdown to come a change our rather flat tyre. The next day, after a short trip to the tyre repair place we headed into Melbourne, avoiding the trams with a strange right hand turn rule we got Mitch safely back to the hire place.

 

Byron Bay to Sydney

We arrived in Byron Bay to the start of schoolies fortnight when lots of 18 year olds descend on the coast. We'd driven past Surfers Paradise which was heaving with school leavers. Byron Bay was, thankfully, a bit quieter! Our first night we met up with a girl who we'd met on the west coast and who happened to live in Byron Bay so we went to a lovely cafe (and Tiff accidently insulted the waiter who, it transpired was taking part in the staffs movember challenge, just wasn't very successful..) The next day, we mosied around the cute boutique shops during the day and then did the hilly climb up to the lighthouse and Australias most easterly point in the evening before catching an overnight coach to a rainy Newcastle.
Our main reason for staying in Newcastle was to access the Hunter Valley wine region so, after our first day spent shopping, and an evening playing hostel bingo (we won free internet and Lizzy won a beer after a tense game of people heads and tails) we embraced the second day with our waterproofs and a tour to the vineyards. We'd convinced others from bingo to join us so turned into a fun day with lots of wine tasting, cheese tasting, chutney tasting, fudge tasting and even a visit to an 'English Lolly Shop' - although it really should be a 'Sweet shop' if it's going to claim to be English!! That evening we travelled to Woy Woy, an hour north of Sydney where we were staying with Lizzys old work colleague, Anita and her husband, Darren in Umina Beach - had a really wonderful few days exploring Sydney from this base and chilling with these guys in the evenings (even managed a trip to the cinema to see Breaking Dawn - a priority!). Our first couple of days in Sydney were overcast but still really enjoyed the city. After a visit to Darling Harbour (where there was a rubber duck race the day we were leaving which we had to miss :( ) we got on a ferry (Lizzy's idea) so that my first glimpse of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House was coming into the harbour...was very cool!!! Our next day we had tickets to a short ballet in the Opera House. The ballet was really good but there was a guy interupting every now and then to explain the ballet and he was just like Bruce Forsyth which was offputting!! Weather still wasn't great in the afternoon so we used the opportunity to wander the botanical gardens through to the citys large art gallery - one of our favourite pieces was a film of a guy wandering the streets of London with a drumstick in his hand dragging it along everything he passed - surprisingly musical! The next day was tipping it down but thankfully, by the time we reached Sydney the sun was out and the opera house was looking much whiter than it had been (and much more like the pictures!) as we passed in our ferry to Double Bay. It was here that we were meeting some of Lizzys relatives for what turned out to be a very tasty lunch at their home overlooking the harbour - great view! The following day, we heading up to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains (blue due to the euculyptus trees). Stayed in a really homely hostel where my stay was greatly enhanced by having my first mince pie of the year, courtesy of the hostel owners! That evening we walked to the famous 'Three sisters' just down the (very steep) road from the hostel. For our full day in the mountains we spent 2 1/2 hours doing a long walk down so many stairs our legs were shaking and then around the mountains, through the forest till we reached Katoomba falls and the (much appreciated) railway taking us back up to the top - was very steep! Once at the top, we did a trip across the valley on the skyway, a huge cable car with a glass floor - felt more safe than it looked! That evening we travelled back to for our final day in Sydney, spent having lunch in Chinatown, catching a windy ferry journey over to a blustery Manly (which I'm sure is much nicer on a sunny day) and then back for fish and chips with Anita and Daz, a tasty end to a great few days.