Christchurch

As soon as we landed in New Zealand we were impressed, everything just seemed to go smoothly. We had picked up our new campervan and were driving around within the hour. We spent the first evening just getting familiar with our van and the city. We decided to name our new van Elton as he stands out in a crowd; he also looks like a man yet has many girly qualities, such as the campest horn we have ever heard. Elton is not only a lot bigger than Shrek, he also has electric, room to stand, a bigger fridge and heating. All of which we now treat as luxuries as we sent the past 7 weeks getting dressed lying down. When we get home I don’t think we will ever take for granted the ability to put washing in the machine while making a cup of tea and sitting in fount of the TV without freezing our arses off or getting rained on. Anyway we LOVE Elton and had a good feeling we were also going to LOVE New Zealand.

On our first full day in Christchurch we went and saw what was left of the CBD after the earthquake. The devastation that the earthquake caused was far more devastating than we ever imagined. Even a year and a half on, the city is like a ghost town with the majority of streets “no go areas” due to being a safety hazard. Walking along the road it was like being on a film set seeing high rise building with windows blown out, shops left abandoned and a cathedral which had crumbled to rubble. 

During our travels in New Zealand we both knew that we wanted to watch a game of rugby, all be that probably for very different reasons. We wasted no time and on our 3^rd night in the country we got tickets to see The Crusaders Vs The Bulls at Christchurch temporary stadium the AMI. With the Crusaders playing a handful of the New Zealand world cup winning team it was a great game to watch and unsurprisingly the Crusaders won.

A few people had recommended a visit to a small French town called Akora which is about a 90 minute drive from Christchurch. We took them up on their advice and were blown away with the scenery. We drove through mountains to arrive at this quaint harbour town with its beautiful restaurants and rather gorgeous ice cream parlour. For our journey back to Christchruch we took the scenic route which included a drive on Summit Road. As we looked up at the mountains from the harbour we could see a very faint line running through the top of the mountains “That can’t be a road surely” we thought – o but it was. Before we knew it we were heading up a very steep mountain, this was a serious test for poor Elton who definitely struggled but he made it. When we got to the peak of the first mountain we faced a road which lead down to a bay, this peak was so high we were above the clouds. As we looked out we could see the sea then the clouds then the sky above, it was unlike anything either of us had seen before. The drive continue to amaze us with clouds pouring over the top of the peaks and views to the bays which turned Jonny’s tummy inside out.  

It is fair to say our first impressions of New Zealand were that is was incredible. We instantly loved the people and the scenery was just breath-taking. If the rest of our travels are half as beautiful as this we are in for a treat.

The Desert

One of the last parts of our trip in Australia was a drive through the outback to Uluru. Our journey started from Port Augusta, this is a little town in South Australia. We left the main high street of this town and started driving along Stuart Highway which is the main/ only road that links the south of Australia with the north. We had only been driving on Stuart Highway for 10 minutes and we had already lost phone signal, this was when we realised just how isolated we were going to be on this trip. 

The desert was far more beautiful than we ever expected, I think this was helped by the time of year that we travelled. We expected to see just a whole lot of red but instead there was a lot of greenery and we saw Kangaroo’s, Dingo, Wild Cattle, Eagles, Vulture’s and Emu. We had the shock of our lives when one giant kangaroo decide to bounce over the road right in front of our van.  When we say giant we mean giant, this kangaroo was huge, thankfully Jonny has seen it coming (it was so big it was hard to miss) and slowed the van in time. He was about 7 feet tall, bigger than our van and managed to jump a fence which was maybe 5 foot high. After this near miss one of us would always have an eye out for any suicidal wildlife that felt like crossing in front of us.

Our first and only stop on route to the centre of the desert was a town called Coober Pedy. This was a special little town known as the Opal mining capital of the world with a population of about 4,000 people of which 80% live under ground. Temperatures have been known to reach 60 degrees in the summer which is why people started to live underground as the temperature below always remains between 25 and 28 degrees. We went to see an underground home and were really surprised at how spacious it felt, we also visited a charming underground church. At the campsite where we stayed they offered underground camping and a tour of an Opal mine, we took part in the tour and loved it. It was fascinating to hear about the methods used and developed, Jonny had a go at using the copper sticks to locate where the Opal was within the cave.

We split our time between Kings Canyon and Ayres Rock at Uluru. Kings Canyon involved a crazy steep climb up to the top of the Canyon, it was so high and steep we didn’t stop to look down until we got to the top. The view at the top made the climb so worthwhile, we wondered around the rim of canyon seeing the most incredible sights all across the deserts. 

Ayres Rock was just as amazing; we first visited the centre which explained all the spiritual belief’s that the Aboriginals have. We learnt that they believe a lot of spirits live around Ayres rock and this is shown with large portions of the rock not being allowed to be photographed. Once we had finished at the centre we went for a walk around the base of the rock. The rocks base is a 10km walk, and gives you a good view of the rock form all sides. Aboriginals strongly believe that because the rock is so spiritual that it should not be walked on. This is clearly mentioned several times to all people visiting, yet we were shocked to see the large amount of people that felt the need to walk upon the rock. After walking around the rock all morning we went back to the campsite to get a few hours of shade before heading back into the national park to watch the sun set. Watching the sun set was an experience we will never forget. The rock really changes colour from a bright orange, to red, purple and brown. All night we had taken photos of the rock without any problems. On our way home we saw a lovely image of the rock and decided to pull over to take a photo. We were shocked to see that our photo we had taken was covered in orbs all over the rock. Spooky.

The following day we decided we would head to the other large rock formation in the national park, The Olgas. Now the Olgas are not that well known, but both of us feel that they are more impressive than Ayres Rock. They can only be described as the most gigantic (mountain size) boulders in the middle of nowhere. We wanted to do a walk all over them but sadly there was a fire in the local area that was out of control and sadly the path had been closed. In the evening we went to another sunset point which allows you to see the sun set behind the rock. This was good but not as good as the previous night.

On our final day we had to get up and leave early. We really wanted to see the sun rise over the rock so we were up super early to see this. We were expecting to see something magical but sadly the weather was not on our side and the rock just entered daylight without changing colour. It was a shame and nothing special but at least we can say we have done it.

Australia - Catch Up

Hi,

We are so sorry that we have got so far behind on our blog. We have been writing individual blogs for every place that we have been to, but with very limited internet to be able to put them on the blog. When we do manage to get the internet the speed is so slow that it take an age to put the blog online.

We have discovered that we now quite a few to put online, so to enable us to get the blog up to date with everything that we have been doing we have written this shortish blog with a summary of what we have been up to at each place. Please don’t worry though we will be able to tell you all about each place in more detail when we get home.

Noosa:

Noosa is a lovely up market seaside town on the Sunshine coast. We decided to make this one of our coastal stop overs as we work our way down the east coast. We arrived late on Monday afternoon. We were staying slightly outside of town so we decided to take a walk into the town to see what was on offer. We found the most beautiful bay and beach and a hell of a lot very posh restaurants. As the sun set we headed back to the van to cook a nice meal before heading to bed. In the morning we work to another beautiful sunny blue skied day. We had read about Noosa national park which is situated on the hill tops overlooking the coast line, so decided to give this a go. We walked up to the park and were told about all the wildlife that we could see including Koalas, Dolphin, Sharks, Whales as well as all sorts of Birds and Insects. I'm pleased to write that our curse of failing to see wildlife continued and we didn’t see a thing. Once we had finished the walk we went to get a hand made ice cream before heading back to the camp to have dinner and sleep. Unfortunately during the night I had the most horrendous cramps in my stomach, so bad that Amber had to play Ambulance driver and drive me to the hospital where I was diagnosed with Gastroenteritis. A fantastic way to finish Noosa.

Noosa Beach

Views from walk in National Park

Gold Coast:

Not a planned stop but after finding out that some friends from University were in the gold coast it seemed silly not to stop and have a beverage or two with them. It was great to see Charlotte and Liz again and a night of drinking and kebabs made it a night to remember.


Byron Bay:

The true backpacker destination and one that we really wanted to visit while in Australia. Having missed all the whales during their ‘Great Migration’, we were told that we could see them if we went up to the Lighthouse on top of the cliff. We decided to take a drive up there and sure enough out at sea you could see the Whales as they travelled past Byron Bay. The following day we went to the beach and had a picnic. Sadly the weather was horrendous and this was quite short lived. We went to have a look around the town and could see instantly why this was a massive hit with backpackers. Very hippy with lots of VW Campers. Needless to say that I was in my element looking at all the vans. Our hostel was designed for the hippy, with a double decker bus in the back garden and massive TeePee for people to stay in.

Byron Light House

Part of Byron Bay

Armindale:

See Armindale Blog with Waterfall Way.

 Canberra:

The next major stop on our journey was the capital of Australia Canberra. This is fairly young capital, only celebrating its 100 birthday later this year. We arrived early in the morning and decided to head straight for the Australian Mint. It was incredible to see the process that goes into making all the money in Australia. Not only did this mint make the money for Australia but is also employed to make money for most of the South East Asia nations. They also made the Olympic medals for the Sydney 200o games. After the mint we went to see the National War Museum. This truly is a very moving  place to visit and learn about the conflict that Australia has been involved in. It was so good that two days latter we would return to do a full tour of the museum. In particular it was very interesting to hear about the ANZACS.

National War Museum

The following day we wanted to do the typical tourist attractions and paid a visit to the Australia House of Parliament. We were lucky enough to be visiting on a day when the house was actually sitting. We managed to get some tickets thanks to a old security guard who slipped us two tickets. It was fantastic to watch and hear all the banter that takes place. Overall Canberra is a nice city but because it is a purpose built it didn’t really have a city feel to it. Its nice but I don’t think we would return in a hurry.

New Parliment House

Melbourne:

We booked into a campsite for four nights and boy were we glad that we did. Melbourne is a very European city, represented by all types of cultures and architecture. There is so much to see and do in Melbourne that we really could have stayed here a week. On the day we arrived Amber was desperate to have her hair cut so this was the main priority. After her treatment we went o see Chinatown. This road is filled with Chinese restaurants, lanterns and smells delicious with all kind of characters trying to get you into their restaurants. We opted against a Chinese and instead went to the CBD and aimed for an Indian restaurant that had been recommended by the tour book.  Boy were they right, the curry as amazing.

Chinatown

Our second day saw us really trying to see the city. We got in early and our first stop was the Queen Victoria Market. This really is a market beyond all proportions. Anything that you can think of that can be sold, I’m pretty sure that you will be able to find it. Next stop was the Victoria Parliament building where we had a tour and was told about how state government works and how it is different to federal government which we found interesting after Canberra. After the Victoria Parliament, we jumped on the free tram that loops around the CBD. We opted to get off at the Docklands and had cake and coffee overlooking the harbour.

Victoria House of Parliment

Mr Speaker for the day

The third day saw us visit the set of Neighbours. Not only did we get to see ‘Ramsey Street’ but also got to visit the set of Lassiters. It really was more fun than we thought it would be and at least we can now say that we have been there. That was Amber's choice of activity and so to make things equal I decided to take her to Albert Park home to the Australian F1 track. Later in the evening we went to St Kilder where our bad luck with wildlife continued. We went to see the famous Blue ‘Little’ Penguins that live in the rocks / beach around the harbour. There are meant to be hundreds of them but on the night we went we only managed to see two. Still, better than none.

Ramsey Street (Neihbours)

Celebrating at Albert Park (Asutralia F1)

On our last day in Melbourne we went to go and see the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) and ended up on a tour of the stadium. As a cricket fan this is an incredible experience. I can only imagine the atmosphere when the Ashes are played there in front of 80,000 people. They also have a Sports Museum at the ground however this is predominantly about Australia’s sport history so we found this a little boring. Feeling hungry we went back to Chinatown where we found a lovely all you can eat (within an hour) and started to tuck in.

MCG

Top two Bowlers and Batters at MCG

Great Ocean Road:

Leaving Melbourne was hard as there was still so much we wanted to do. However what laid ahead was just as special. We decided to drive along the Great Ocean Road, which every year is voted in the top 10 drives in the world. The road really is incredible and not only does it drive along the very rough coast line in the cliffs, but also goes slightly inland and see’s some of the Rainforest. One of the highlights was stopping to see the  Twelve Apostles which are giant pointy rocks that have been carved out of the land by the ocean.



The Twele Apostles

 Adelaide:

Arriving in Adelaide we were shocked to find that where we had booked to stay in our campervan was literally a small run down car park located just off a street in the centre of the city. We were only staying for three nights as we were using this as a stopover before beginning to venture into the Desert. Adelaide, compared to other cities in Australia is very small. Quite modern, with lots of shopping centres. We decided to pay a visit to the food market in the centre of town before heading to the Hays Chocolate factory and having a tour. Once we finished in the city we went to the Barossa Valley where we had a tour around the Jacobs creek Vineyard and Amber managed to do some wine tasting. I personally tried a little but I was driving after Amber had been so kind and let me drink when we were on the rum tour a few weeks earlier.

At Jacobs Creek

Since Adelaide we have been to the centre of the desert to visit Uluru and Kings Canyon. This however can not be summarised in a paragraph so we will write a blog about that which will soon be up.

Our trip to Armidale

After leaving Byron Bay it was time for us to start heading south, this meant things were about to get a lot colder. For two English people the cold is not normally an issue but for two English backpackers who had spent 6 months in the tropics of Queensland Australia, 3 months enjoying the heat of south east Asia and a British summer before leaving, it’s fair to say we were going to feel the chill. We had over 16 months of enjoying temperatures which rarely dropped below 20 degrees; our blood had thinned a lot.

We had planned our route through New South Wales with the help of Graham while we were staying with them in Queensland. He recommended we take the Waterfall highway and Putty Road to get to Canberra and to avoid Sydney. We were so pleased we took his advice as the drive was just stunning. We stopped for lunch in the picture-perfect Bellingen by a creek we were able to sit and enjoy a bit of sunshine. We then continued the drive to Dorrigo where we stopped and took some photos of Dangar falls.

The drive after Dorrigo was sensational, we drove through mountain roads which twisted and turned. Then out of nowhere down the side of a cliff would be a beautiful waterfall rushing under the road. We had waterfalls to look at on one side and on the other side were views over the magnificent country side, it was very special.

Our next stop was to see Ebor falls which was another beautiful waterfall, there was a walking track to the bottom of this waterfall but unfortunately we had begun to feel the cold and opted to just view it from the lookout at the top.

The final waterfall which we wanted to see was to be the most spectacular however it took a bit of finding. It was a waterfall which our lonely planet guide recommended so we did not want to miss it. We took a few wrong turns and were thinking of giving up when we kept driving and eventually saw a signpost for it. It was the most amazing waterfall I had ever seen, despite the fact we were seeing it at a time when the rivers were low due to little rainfall; it was still incredible. This was a waterfall which wasn’t very kind to Jonny’s vertigo as it fell into a 260m drop. It felt like something had put a huge hole in the earth and from a crack in the side came the waterfall. The photos do not do this one justice. 

Our stop for the night was in a town called Armidale. We were expecting a small village as we were a long way from anything and had driven almost 3 hours without seeing another real town. We were shocked when we could see the lights in the distance as we came over a hill; this big town had come from nowhere. We imagine it is similar but on a smaller scale to going through the desert in America and then seeing the lights off Las Vegas appearing.

When we arrived at the campsite we were told that the temperature was due to hit a chilly minus 6 during the night. It was a rather rude wake up call for us. I wore 2 pairs of socks and pyjamas while Jonny decided to “be a man” and wear just shorts. The next morning he was still “being British” and insisted on wearing his shorts with no top and flip-flops on the frosty grass, anyone who saw him felt cold for looking. We tried to wash up our breakfast things in the campsites outside kitchen but the water that had been left in the kettle had turned to ice inside. We tried to fill it up with water from the outside tap but this to have frozen up so no water was available. My fingers and toes had literally turned to ice by the time we packed up the campavan. Jonny had finally given in and decided a coffee was in order.