Well, obviously we have left Cairns. We worked there for about four weeks. Trev slaved away on the watermelon farm while I worked real hard on my tan. I actually worked quite a bit as well. I ended up worling two jobs, both waitressing, but one during the day and the other at night - no partying for me again!
Cairns was a great experience, although I did have some items stolen from the hostel including my black work pants and 3 pairs of underwear!!!! Who does that?! Anyway, I got to go underwear shopping, so that was fun.
We left Cairns and headed Norht to the daintree rainforest at Cape Tribulation. We spent three nights there. Cape Tribulation is on the ocean, with the Great Barrier Reef on its doorstep, while on the other side of the beach is rainforest. It was so beautiful. We did a number of walks throught the rainforests. We saw lots of birds and such. One walk we did was the toughest walk we've done so far I think. It was a sweltering 35 degrees, plus we were walking in the humidity of the rainforest! The walk was 7km straight up a mountain, ugh! We were so exhausted when we got to the top - we didn't even realize we hadn't even made it to the end. That's right we walked 4.5 hrs to catch the wonderful views we had heard all about and didn't even see them - oops.
From there we stopped back in Cairns for a night to get our last paychecks and say goodbye to our friends. They talked up into doing this pubcrawl, it was actually lots of fun. We went to 5 different bars, met some new people, got some food, participated in a couple contests and I even won one. I won a day cruise out to the reef, but couldn't use it since we were leaving, so I gave it to someone else at the hostel.
We headed inland a bit from Cairns to see even more rainforests. On our drive we saw these amazing fig trees. They were enormous. One was a Cathedral fig - it towered over all the other trees. The ohter one was a Curtain fig - which fell in a long row (rather than a circle araound a tree) making a sort of curtain.
We also did a waterfall tour - stopping to see 4 waterfalls on our way back to the coast. Because of the time of year, the falls weren't too spectacular, but still nice.
From there we headed straight to Airlie Beach where we did a sailing tour of the Whitsunday Islands. Going with our luck with the weather this year, we weren't surprised that it was cold, windy, rainy and choppy while we were on the boat for 3 days. It was so choppy most everyone felt nauseous and a few people actually got sick. It didn't help that the 'sailboat' boat was really just a glorified fishing boat with a mast attached to it. Once we got into the safety of the bays of the islands, itwasn't so bad, but it was still cold. Trevor suffers from seasickness, so he was feeling under the weather for most of the trip, but we did manage to have a good time. When the skies did clear up a little, we could see the islands. They we beautiful. The area was crystal blue water, green islands with white sand beaches. We got to go to one beach - Whitehaven beach - one of the best beaches we've seen (even though it rained while we were there).
When we returned to land, we had a few hours to rest and recover before heading to the pub for dinner and drinks with the crew from the boat. I think one of my favourite parts of the trips is the partying afterwards. We just went out and danced and had a great time.
In the morning we packed up and headed inland again to yet another rainforest. This one was famous for its platypus though. We read that the best time to view them it at dusk or dawn, and since we are not so good in the mornings, we headed into the rainforest just before dusk. As we walked along the wet rainforest floor, this little leech things would grab onto our feet. I was freaking out, but they didn't even bite.
We walked for quite a ways and didn't catch sight of any platypus, so we decided to turn around. To our surprise, we actually saw one on our way back! They are much smaller than I thought. I had pictured a seal size animal, but they are basically a large squirrel that swims. Apparently they are quite viscious though, so we kept our distance and just watched it swim around - so cool! By this time, it was getting pretty dark, so we walked back quite quickly, spotting a few massive cane toads and some glowing bugs on the way.
After our little adventure in the rainforest at night, we drove down the coast some more. We stopped at a few little beach towns along the way, my favourite being Town of 1770. It was so quaint - a quiet little town. We stayed right on the beach, watched the sunset before bed and took a dip in the ocean in the morning before packing up. That's the life.
That night we stopped at a little town that has a beach where turtles come to every year to lay their eggs. Apparently a turtle will return to the place where it was hatched to lay its own eggs. Thousands of turtles migrate to this one beach each year and for the low price of $11 we got to see a turtle lay her eggs in the sand (along with 70 other tourists). It was actually quite neat to see, though it was crowded with so many people. Too bad we won't be around when the little guys hatch and scurry to the ocean.
Our next major stop was Hervey Bay, our departure point for Fraser Island. Fraser Island is a huge sand island with a number of natural fresh water lakes and rainforests (didn't know rainforests could grow in sand, but anyway). We took this tour that had 3 4WD trucks travelling together, 11 backpackers in each without any guides. It was one of the the best experiences. The trucks were equipped with all our camping gear, so we just toured around the island stopping at various lakes for a dip. Our first stop was Lake MacKenzie - Amazing! The water was so clean and fresh you could just drink it - which we did. We stopped there again on our way back to the mainland.
We ate like kings having BBQ'd steaks and baked potatoes for dinner, we slid down huge sand dunes, we floated down a fast flowing creek and we saw wild dingoes - the Australian equivalent to wolves. Just an amazing time.
And you guessed it, when we got back we had a few hours to rest and relax before heading to the pub for dinner and drinks. Another good night had by all.
After Fraser Island we didn't really do much but drive down the coast and stop at a few beaches. And of course, most of the trip was cold and rainy. We stayed in Noosa for 3 days and it rained the whole time. We figured since we were getting wet anyway, we might as well jump in the ocean and learn to surf. It was a lot harder than those pros make it look. I wanted to be the next star of "Blue Crush 2" - not even close. I did stand up though - there are photos to prove it. Trev did really well. He liked it so much he tried again the next day, but didn't really make it any further in his skills, though he had lots of fun. I think that's what it's all about,just having fun with the waves.
The weather was still crappy, but we didn't have the time to sit and wait it out any longer, so we headed towards the Glass House Mountains, near Brisbane. While we were headed up the centre, way back in August, we met this guy who told us to go to the Big Pineapple while we were on the East coast. So we searched all over and finally found this Big Pineapple, it really was quite large. Anyway, he told us to get this ice cream thing so we did. It was called the 'Big Yum' and yes it was BIG! It had like 13 scoops of ice cream on top of some fruit salad with whipped cream and chocolate sauce on top - mmmmmmm. It was so big we couldn't even eat it all and the fruit was frozen by the time we got through all the ice cream.
We drove into the Glass House Mountains, and of course we couldn't see anything because it was so cloudy. We spent the night there and in the morning amazingly enough it had cleared up so we drove back out to the lookout and actually saw the view - it was definitly worth it. We then went to the "Australia Zoo" - Steve Irwin's zoo ( the crocodile hunter). It was actually really good. We got to see them run around with tiger cubs, feed some crocodiles, saw more free-flight birds, saw a huge galapagous turtle - 172 years old - the egg was brought over by Charles Darwin! We got to pet an alligator and we even fed the elephants. We skipped all the kangaroos and koalas that we had seen before.
We spent one night in Brisbane just so we could get an oil change done on the car, then we went to Surfer's Paradise - though we didn't do anymore surfing. We met up with a friend from Cairns and hung out on the beach for the day. That is wear we took the Christmas photo.
After that we pretty much headed straight to Sydney. It took about 2 days to drive down - stopping in Byron Bay for a bit to play in the waves.
When we got to Sydney we met up with Benny and Patty from Adelaide - can't believe they're still together. Anyway, they were staying in this hotel apartment thing and let us use their washer and dryer and let us crash there as well. We went out for dinner and drinks and had a really good time catching up. It was good to see some familiar faces.
The next day we headed out early and took the van to the carmarket to sell it. We also sorted out our accomodation for out last 2 weeks in Australia. Since it is Christmas time,the hostel owners think backpackers all of a sudden have a ton more money and they jack up the prices. It cost us $800 for 2 weeks!!! Though we are pretty much right on the beach.
It only took us 3 days to sell the car. It was such a relief to get rid of it, but at the same time kinda sad to sell our home. Like I already said, we bought the van for $3300 back in Marcha nd sold it for $4950!! Can't believe we actually made a profit - helps cover some fuel costs though.
Since we have sold the van, we have pretty much done nothing. We spent a fews days on the beach, a day at the mall getting some things before we leave and just spent the last 2 days at Trev's friends Steve's place. We had BBQ'd steaks 2 nights in a row, had a few drinks, played some crazy video games and drove out to the Blue Mountains (in the morning - not after drinking). The Blue Mountains were preety cool. They are a mountain range crating this canyon sort of thing, but full of trees and stuff, not like the barren grand canyon. We took this walk that brought us down then up over 900 steps each way - ugh! It was exhausting.
For Christmas we were supposed to spend the day on the beach drinking and having a BBQ, well like I've been saying, it's just our luck that Christmas was cold cloudy and super windy. We ended up spening most of the day inside, but we did have the most amazing turkey dinner. We met a few Canadians and Americans, the 7 of us had Christmas dinner together. It was really nice, something traditional since nothing else felt the same. I think it was the best christmas meal, I don't know what they did to that turkey but it was amazing. After cleaning up, we all passed out and met up again later for a night of drinking and chilling out.
So I guess that's it. We still have New Years, but we haven't made any plans yet. Don't want the weather to interfere. But we've had an amazing time in Australia. Doesn't feel like 9 months, but we are certainly excited to move on to our next adventure - Europe. I just booked our first couple night accomodation in a hostel in Rome, if it's going to be that expensive all over the place, then we may be coming home a lot sooner than planned :(
I know this posting is long enough, but just to summarize Australia:
*We drove over 20,000km (I drove about 150km)
*We went from Sydney to Adelaide (via Canberra) up to Darwin, across to Cairns, and back down to Sydney
*We only hit one wild animal, a laurakeet (a pretty green bird)
*We saw wild camels, kangaroos, emus, koalas, horses, goannas, turkeys, all sorts of birds, platypus, crocodiles, lizards & geckos, snakes, dingoes, badicoot ......
*Did lots of walks - the highest being 1800m in the Flinders Ranges
*Favourite state was Northern Territory
*Favourite National Parks: Kakadu, Litchfield and Katherine Gorge
*Favourite beaches: Whitehaven Beach(Whitsundays), Broad Beach(Gold Coast)
*Favourite adventure: scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef
*Favourite beer(Trev's opinion): Coopers Pale Ale
*Favourite city: Cairns - great friends
I will let you know how New Years goes and how our first few days in Italy turn out. I hope it's not too cold when we get there - but knowing our luck ...
Peace out for now and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Hey Everyone. We made it back to Sydney in one piece!!! Just wanted to send out a MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all. We love you and miss you. Christmas won't be the same but we'll try to have a good time anyway, hahaha!
And for some really good news, we sold the van yesterday. We bought it for $3,300 back in March and just sold it for $4,950! How awesome is that! Merry Christmas to us.
We'll give you a full update on the last month or two later, it's far too nice outside to be stuck in here on a computer.
And for some really good news, we sold the van yesterday. We bought it for $3,300 back in March and just sold it for $4,950! How awesome is that! Merry Christmas to us.
We'll give you a full update on the last month or two later, it's far too nice outside to be stuck in here on a computer.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
&
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Hello Everyone! I had a little time on my hands today, so I thought I would update this now, so we don't end up with a massive post like the last one.
We spent another couple days in Townsville after returning from our dive trip. We went to this tourist attraction called Reeg HQ, and got to see and identify lots of the fish we saw while out on the reef. It was really cool. They had a large shark in the aquaium as well - glad I didn't see one of those while I was on the reef.
We are now in Cairns. Thought the car was going to blow up on us on our way here. It all of a sudden started making this clicking noise and we didn't know what was going on. We camped out on the side of the road for the night. In the morning, handy man Trev checked under the hood and discovered we had absolutely no oil in the car. Once we filled that up it was smooth sailing the rest of the way.
We got into Cairns early Friday afternoon - the 15th I think. We knew we wanted to work in Cairns, but we didn't know where to start. We just started walking around and found a recruitment agency that need waitress to work right away - so they put me to work Fri night! We also went to another agency looking for labourors to pick watermelons. Trev started first thing Sat. morning. We were amazed at how easy it was to find jobs. While Trev was out picking melons, I handed out a few more resumes (the recruitment agency was a little sketchy, so I wanted to see what else I could find), but got hired at the first place I went to. I had my trial shift Sat night and worked the next 3 nights.
It's been weird though. Trev and I went from being together 24/7, to hardly seeing each other. He goes to work at 6:30 am and doesn't get back till 6:30 pm, and I am already gone to work for 6:00 and then he is in bed by the time I get home from work. The only time we see each other is in the morning when I get up for breakfast with him.
Cairns has been pretty cool so far. Trev and I have both met some great people. Trev has been hanging out with some Irish guys that he works with who like to drink - a lot! I have been spending the beautiful sunny days working on my tan ( or should I say getting burnt!). We plan to stay here about 4 weeks, then we'll be on our way down the east coast to Sydney - sun and beaches all the way!
Cheers!
We spent another couple days in Townsville after returning from our dive trip. We went to this tourist attraction called Reeg HQ, and got to see and identify lots of the fish we saw while out on the reef. It was really cool. They had a large shark in the aquaium as well - glad I didn't see one of those while I was on the reef.
We are now in Cairns. Thought the car was going to blow up on us on our way here. It all of a sudden started making this clicking noise and we didn't know what was going on. We camped out on the side of the road for the night. In the morning, handy man Trev checked under the hood and discovered we had absolutely no oil in the car. Once we filled that up it was smooth sailing the rest of the way.
We got into Cairns early Friday afternoon - the 15th I think. We knew we wanted to work in Cairns, but we didn't know where to start. We just started walking around and found a recruitment agency that need waitress to work right away - so they put me to work Fri night! We also went to another agency looking for labourors to pick watermelons. Trev started first thing Sat. morning. We were amazed at how easy it was to find jobs. While Trev was out picking melons, I handed out a few more resumes (the recruitment agency was a little sketchy, so I wanted to see what else I could find), but got hired at the first place I went to. I had my trial shift Sat night and worked the next 3 nights.
It's been weird though. Trev and I went from being together 24/7, to hardly seeing each other. He goes to work at 6:30 am and doesn't get back till 6:30 pm, and I am already gone to work for 6:00 and then he is in bed by the time I get home from work. The only time we see each other is in the morning when I get up for breakfast with him.
Cairns has been pretty cool so far. Trev and I have both met some great people. Trev has been hanging out with some Irish guys that he works with who like to drink - a lot! I have been spending the beautiful sunny days working on my tan ( or should I say getting burnt!). We plan to stay here about 4 weeks, then we'll be on our way down the east coast to Sydney - sun and beaches all the way!
Cheers!
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Grab yourself a cuppa-joe and get comfortable because this is a long one :o)
In Darwin we actaully had a bit of a night life. Thursday night we went to the markets, which I already wrote about. Friday night we went to the casino. We had to change in the parking lot into appropriate attire. We vouched not to spend more than $40 - watch out big spender! We took about an hour to decide how we were going to blow our big $40, and finally decided on Black Jack. Minimum bets were $10 - so we were guaranteed at least 4 hands (only Trev played - I just watched). He did really well at first, we almost doubled our money, but then the cards turned and he kept losing and losing and then it was all gone - a total of about 15 minutes of fun :o) We were tempted to go to the cash machine and try again - but we knew that would be a bad idea.
Saturday night we went to the Speedway. That was good fun. There were about 5 different types of cars that raced, incl. dirt bikes, quad bikes, go-karts, cars with huge top spoilers and rally cars. Each race Trev and I would each pick our favourite car and cheer them on. At first Trev's choices were winning, but in the end I think I won.
Our last day in Darwin we went to the Territory Wildlife Park. We got there just in time for the Birds of Prey display. We got to see a barking owl (which actually sounds like a barking dog), and black breasted buzzard and a white-bellied sea eagle (Australia's 2nd largest bird of prey). After the show we also go to see the wedge-tailed eagle - Australia's largest bird of prey. They really are impressive birds with wing spans over 2 meters.
We walked around the park and saw lots of different types of birds and some more kangaroos. But the best exhibit was the aquarium. There is one section where you walk through a tunnel and the aquarium goes over your head. It was so cool. There were sharks, and sting rays and pig-nosed turtles swimming all around us. I even saw a ray eat a fish right above me! But the best part of all was the Saltwater crocodile. It was sunbathing right up against the glass and I even got to see it open it's eyes. It was kinda scary. Apparently they have two sets of eyelids, one acts like goggles under the water.
But that wasn't close enough to crocodiles for us - no! We had to go see them in the wild real close up. The day after the wildlife park, we did what they call a 'Jumping Croc Cruise'. There were about 16 of us in this little aluminium boat, not much bigger than a fishing boat. The guide took us down the river where he splashed his stick with meat on the end and made the crocs jump out of the water for it. We were so close we could have touched them - if we wanted to. It was really cool. The first croc we saw was a large female, which the guide named lucky. She was about 4m. The next couple of crocs were smaller males about 1.5-2m. My favourite croc was Surfer-Joe. Most crocs jump out of the water with their legs against their bodies, but not Surfer-Joe. He uses his front legs to propel himslef out of the water - like a surfer does to get on his board.
Not only did we see crocodiles, we saw a couple white-bellied sea eagles. OUr guide put some meat on a cooler lid and let it float out adn the birds swooped down to get the meat - it was guite amazing. Apparently the birds mate for life, but they don't share their dinner, so the guide had to put out 2 pieces of meat.
After the croc cruise we went to an interpretive display centre and learned a lot about the Australian wetlands. There were displays on the types of plants and animals that inhabit the area as well as a history on the area. The upper level of the centre had a great lookout, so we went back there for the sunset. This time of year the grass is really dry and subject to fire, and there were a few fires in the area so the skyline was quite hazy. The sunset behind the haze before it reached the horizon - can't say I've ever seent that before.
We spent the night at the worst caravan park so far. The pool was disgustingly dirty, the hot tub was cold and we had to shower in a barn!
The next day we drove into Kakadu National Park. A major highlight of our trip. It's a major attraction in the Northern Territory. The park is over 22000 square km, and there is a river entirely encompassed within the park. We stopped at some wetlands and did some birdwatching. We had picked up a cheap set of binoculars in Darwin, so we got to see quite a bit. We saw some Magpie geese, egrets, cormorants, darters, green pygmie geese, Jacana (also known as the Jesus bird b/c it looks like it walks on water) and many other birds. We saw these birds all throughout our stay at Kakadu.
We spent a total of 8 days in Kakadu. We spent 2 nights near Ubirr, a sacred rock art sight for the local Aboriginal people. The rock art was really neat. Some of the drawings were on the tops of rock caves, I have no idea how they would get up that high without ladders. Some of the art has been dated back 20,000 years.
Kakadu is world heritage listed for two reasons. One, being the cultural aspect with all the rock art and aboriginal influence. The aboriginals still live and feed off the land. The second reason it is listed, is the natural beauty of the area. We spent most of our time doing walks and exploring the park. The wildlife and plants were amazing.
One of the features of the park is the guided ranger walks and talks. We participated in a lot of those so we learned a fair bit as well. One activity we got to try our hand at weaving baskets, it was hard work and we didn't do very well. We also got to try some bushtucker: lily pad stalks, lily pad seeds, yams, fire cooked cat fish (she just threw the whole fish on the fire, no foil or anything), and the day before we tried green bum ants - they tasted like lemons. Not a 5 star meal, but it was fun to try the different foods that the aboriginals traditionally ate.
Our last day in Kakadu we took another boat cruise on the Yellow-Water billabong this time. The cruise left at 6:00am, it was so early, but the birdlife was incredible. We got to watch the sunrise and the birds come to life. There were still some night birds out, and the day birds were out looking for breakfast. The crocs were out as well. We saw a few crocs, but the largest was named pluto. As the story goes, a local fisherman took his dog, named pluto, out on the boat with him. The dog decided to go for a swim............and I'm guessing you can see where this story is going. So now, the croc is named after the dog in which it ate.
We were quite scared of swimming or even walking by water after Kakadu and all the horror stories of people being eaten by crocs.
After Kakadu we made our way back to Katherine (the highway doesn't go right across the top, we had to backtrack a bit). We stayed there for a couple of nights and got to take a swim in the hot springs there. Though the water is a cool 32 degrees, it actually did feel refreshing to swim in, since the air temperature was about 40 degrees.
From Katherine we headed straight for the East coast. The highway across was sooooooooo boring. There was nowhere worth stopping, so we just drove and drove, about 8hrs a day. There was one stretch of the highway where there was roadkill about every one hundred meters. The smell was just lovely. It's funny the number of different things that can be roadkill in Oz. There are signs for kangaroo, cattle, sheep, horses, wombats, koalas, emu, camel - plus you have to watch for frogs, snakes, turtles, lizards and even birds. We hit a bird! It scared the @#$% out of me. I wasn't paying attention, and then all of a sudden there was a big bang on the windshield. We even went back and got a feather for a souvenir :)
So, we are now on the East coast. We arrived in Townsville on Sat. the 2nd of Oct. We knew we wanted to go scuba diving and do our courses and get certified while in Oz, but we weren't sure where to do it. We started looking at all the options, and decided Townsville was the best place to go. We talked to the travel agent on Sun. and she suggested we do the course right away, so we booked to do the course Mon. morning. Talk about last minute.
We had to go get a medical done, get passport photos and pick up our course books that afternoon. Then we were told we had homework! We had to read 3 chapters before class at 8:00 am! I'm on holidays, I shouldn't be doing homework.
Anyway, we did all the class stuff and the pool stuff and learned the basics, then Tues night it was onto the boat for 3 days of scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef! We departed late Tues night and slept while the boat drove all night to our frist diving destination. We were awoken at 7:15 am, had breakfast and were diving at 8:00. Our first dive was on the Wheeler Reef. We went down for about 30 minutes and just got used to our equipment and the mechanics of diving. Trev and the rest of the group saw a reef shark in the distance but I missed it.
We had to do four dives in the ocean before we became certified. We did our first 3 on the Wheeler Reef. Our last dive of the day was kinda scary. There was a really strong current and you could really feel yourself being pushed away. But we were still with a guide, so we were okay. Our last course dive was the next day on Davies Reef. We got to go down to 18m and got to just swim around and make sure we were good to go. We got to do 2 more dives on the Davies reef, but we did those on our own. It was sooooo much fun. Trev and I even saw a reef shark on our first dive! We went around a corner and there it was swimming right at us. It was a little scary, but I think it was more scared of us, b/c it took off straighaway. Our 2 alone dives were by far my favourite dives. We just got to go off exploring on our own.
We saw so many different fish. And they were huge. There were so many different colours and shapes. Even the coral was really neat to look at. Oh, and we found Nemo!
The way the dive thing works, is now we are able to dive on our own up to 18m, during the day. We have to take 5 different adventure dives, to become an advanced diver. Then we can go night diving and dive to 30m. We got the option to do a night dive, which counts towards our certification to becoming an advanced diver.
The night dive was a totally different experience. I felt so lost. It was hard to see, and very easy to get disoriented. The colours looked different as well. We got to take flashlights down with us, so we could see what was going on, and if you hold the flashlight against your tummy and wave your hands around, it looks like sparks going off - pretty neat. The night dive was a good experience, but not my favourite, Trev really like it though.
The last day we went to the Yongala shipwreck. Apparently it's one of the best wreck sites in the world. We had the option of making these dives count towards our advanced certification as well. We did our deep dive and wreck dive. So we did two dives on the wreck, but the first one we just went down to about 28m and then basically straight up, we didn't see much of the boat itself because some of the group were quickly running out of air. The wreck dive however, was basically a tour of the boat. Our guide pointed out all the points of interest, including the toilets, the bathtub and a chair. There were tons of fish and some of them were huge... we even got to see a bunch of Trevally fish (that's its real name :o) and a huge sea turtle! It was a pretty good dive, but we didn't get to stay down very long, I wish we got another chance to take a look at it. Next time we're in Oz :)
We got back to Townsville last night. It was such a great trip. Our group in the diving course and the other divers on board got along really well and a bunch of us went out for dinner and drinks. It was good fun - our first drinking binge in quite awhile.
Not too sure what we are going to do next. The funds are running a bit low, so we hope to find some work either here or in Cairns.
Peace out!
In Darwin we actaully had a bit of a night life. Thursday night we went to the markets, which I already wrote about. Friday night we went to the casino. We had to change in the parking lot into appropriate attire. We vouched not to spend more than $40 - watch out big spender! We took about an hour to decide how we were going to blow our big $40, and finally decided on Black Jack. Minimum bets were $10 - so we were guaranteed at least 4 hands (only Trev played - I just watched). He did really well at first, we almost doubled our money, but then the cards turned and he kept losing and losing and then it was all gone - a total of about 15 minutes of fun :o) We were tempted to go to the cash machine and try again - but we knew that would be a bad idea.
Saturday night we went to the Speedway. That was good fun. There were about 5 different types of cars that raced, incl. dirt bikes, quad bikes, go-karts, cars with huge top spoilers and rally cars. Each race Trev and I would each pick our favourite car and cheer them on. At first Trev's choices were winning, but in the end I think I won.
Our last day in Darwin we went to the Territory Wildlife Park. We got there just in time for the Birds of Prey display. We got to see a barking owl (which actually sounds like a barking dog), and black breasted buzzard and a white-bellied sea eagle (Australia's 2nd largest bird of prey). After the show we also go to see the wedge-tailed eagle - Australia's largest bird of prey. They really are impressive birds with wing spans over 2 meters.
We walked around the park and saw lots of different types of birds and some more kangaroos. But the best exhibit was the aquarium. There is one section where you walk through a tunnel and the aquarium goes over your head. It was so cool. There were sharks, and sting rays and pig-nosed turtles swimming all around us. I even saw a ray eat a fish right above me! But the best part of all was the Saltwater crocodile. It was sunbathing right up against the glass and I even got to see it open it's eyes. It was kinda scary. Apparently they have two sets of eyelids, one acts like goggles under the water.
But that wasn't close enough to crocodiles for us - no! We had to go see them in the wild real close up. The day after the wildlife park, we did what they call a 'Jumping Croc Cruise'. There were about 16 of us in this little aluminium boat, not much bigger than a fishing boat. The guide took us down the river where he splashed his stick with meat on the end and made the crocs jump out of the water for it. We were so close we could have touched them - if we wanted to. It was really cool. The first croc we saw was a large female, which the guide named lucky. She was about 4m. The next couple of crocs were smaller males about 1.5-2m. My favourite croc was Surfer-Joe. Most crocs jump out of the water with their legs against their bodies, but not Surfer-Joe. He uses his front legs to propel himslef out of the water - like a surfer does to get on his board.
Not only did we see crocodiles, we saw a couple white-bellied sea eagles. OUr guide put some meat on a cooler lid and let it float out adn the birds swooped down to get the meat - it was guite amazing. Apparently the birds mate for life, but they don't share their dinner, so the guide had to put out 2 pieces of meat.
After the croc cruise we went to an interpretive display centre and learned a lot about the Australian wetlands. There were displays on the types of plants and animals that inhabit the area as well as a history on the area. The upper level of the centre had a great lookout, so we went back there for the sunset. This time of year the grass is really dry and subject to fire, and there were a few fires in the area so the skyline was quite hazy. The sunset behind the haze before it reached the horizon - can't say I've ever seent that before.
We spent the night at the worst caravan park so far. The pool was disgustingly dirty, the hot tub was cold and we had to shower in a barn!
The next day we drove into Kakadu National Park. A major highlight of our trip. It's a major attraction in the Northern Territory. The park is over 22000 square km, and there is a river entirely encompassed within the park. We stopped at some wetlands and did some birdwatching. We had picked up a cheap set of binoculars in Darwin, so we got to see quite a bit. We saw some Magpie geese, egrets, cormorants, darters, green pygmie geese, Jacana (also known as the Jesus bird b/c it looks like it walks on water) and many other birds. We saw these birds all throughout our stay at Kakadu.
We spent a total of 8 days in Kakadu. We spent 2 nights near Ubirr, a sacred rock art sight for the local Aboriginal people. The rock art was really neat. Some of the drawings were on the tops of rock caves, I have no idea how they would get up that high without ladders. Some of the art has been dated back 20,000 years.
Kakadu is world heritage listed for two reasons. One, being the cultural aspect with all the rock art and aboriginal influence. The aboriginals still live and feed off the land. The second reason it is listed, is the natural beauty of the area. We spent most of our time doing walks and exploring the park. The wildlife and plants were amazing.
One of the features of the park is the guided ranger walks and talks. We participated in a lot of those so we learned a fair bit as well. One activity we got to try our hand at weaving baskets, it was hard work and we didn't do very well. We also got to try some bushtucker: lily pad stalks, lily pad seeds, yams, fire cooked cat fish (she just threw the whole fish on the fire, no foil or anything), and the day before we tried green bum ants - they tasted like lemons. Not a 5 star meal, but it was fun to try the different foods that the aboriginals traditionally ate.
Our last day in Kakadu we took another boat cruise on the Yellow-Water billabong this time. The cruise left at 6:00am, it was so early, but the birdlife was incredible. We got to watch the sunrise and the birds come to life. There were still some night birds out, and the day birds were out looking for breakfast. The crocs were out as well. We saw a few crocs, but the largest was named pluto. As the story goes, a local fisherman took his dog, named pluto, out on the boat with him. The dog decided to go for a swim............and I'm guessing you can see where this story is going. So now, the croc is named after the dog in which it ate.
We were quite scared of swimming or even walking by water after Kakadu and all the horror stories of people being eaten by crocs.
After Kakadu we made our way back to Katherine (the highway doesn't go right across the top, we had to backtrack a bit). We stayed there for a couple of nights and got to take a swim in the hot springs there. Though the water is a cool 32 degrees, it actually did feel refreshing to swim in, since the air temperature was about 40 degrees.
From Katherine we headed straight for the East coast. The highway across was sooooooooo boring. There was nowhere worth stopping, so we just drove and drove, about 8hrs a day. There was one stretch of the highway where there was roadkill about every one hundred meters. The smell was just lovely. It's funny the number of different things that can be roadkill in Oz. There are signs for kangaroo, cattle, sheep, horses, wombats, koalas, emu, camel - plus you have to watch for frogs, snakes, turtles, lizards and even birds. We hit a bird! It scared the @#$% out of me. I wasn't paying attention, and then all of a sudden there was a big bang on the windshield. We even went back and got a feather for a souvenir :)
So, we are now on the East coast. We arrived in Townsville on Sat. the 2nd of Oct. We knew we wanted to go scuba diving and do our courses and get certified while in Oz, but we weren't sure where to do it. We started looking at all the options, and decided Townsville was the best place to go. We talked to the travel agent on Sun. and she suggested we do the course right away, so we booked to do the course Mon. morning. Talk about last minute.
We had to go get a medical done, get passport photos and pick up our course books that afternoon. Then we were told we had homework! We had to read 3 chapters before class at 8:00 am! I'm on holidays, I shouldn't be doing homework.
Anyway, we did all the class stuff and the pool stuff and learned the basics, then Tues night it was onto the boat for 3 days of scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef! We departed late Tues night and slept while the boat drove all night to our frist diving destination. We were awoken at 7:15 am, had breakfast and were diving at 8:00. Our first dive was on the Wheeler Reef. We went down for about 30 minutes and just got used to our equipment and the mechanics of diving. Trev and the rest of the group saw a reef shark in the distance but I missed it.
We had to do four dives in the ocean before we became certified. We did our first 3 on the Wheeler Reef. Our last dive of the day was kinda scary. There was a really strong current and you could really feel yourself being pushed away. But we were still with a guide, so we were okay. Our last course dive was the next day on Davies Reef. We got to go down to 18m and got to just swim around and make sure we were good to go. We got to do 2 more dives on the Davies reef, but we did those on our own. It was sooooo much fun. Trev and I even saw a reef shark on our first dive! We went around a corner and there it was swimming right at us. It was a little scary, but I think it was more scared of us, b/c it took off straighaway. Our 2 alone dives were by far my favourite dives. We just got to go off exploring on our own.
We saw so many different fish. And they were huge. There were so many different colours and shapes. Even the coral was really neat to look at. Oh, and we found Nemo!
The way the dive thing works, is now we are able to dive on our own up to 18m, during the day. We have to take 5 different adventure dives, to become an advanced diver. Then we can go night diving and dive to 30m. We got the option to do a night dive, which counts towards our certification to becoming an advanced diver.
The night dive was a totally different experience. I felt so lost. It was hard to see, and very easy to get disoriented. The colours looked different as well. We got to take flashlights down with us, so we could see what was going on, and if you hold the flashlight against your tummy and wave your hands around, it looks like sparks going off - pretty neat. The night dive was a good experience, but not my favourite, Trev really like it though.
The last day we went to the Yongala shipwreck. Apparently it's one of the best wreck sites in the world. We had the option of making these dives count towards our advanced certification as well. We did our deep dive and wreck dive. So we did two dives on the wreck, but the first one we just went down to about 28m and then basically straight up, we didn't see much of the boat itself because some of the group were quickly running out of air. The wreck dive however, was basically a tour of the boat. Our guide pointed out all the points of interest, including the toilets, the bathtub and a chair. There were tons of fish and some of them were huge... we even got to see a bunch of Trevally fish (that's its real name :o) and a huge sea turtle! It was a pretty good dive, but we didn't get to stay down very long, I wish we got another chance to take a look at it. Next time we're in Oz :)
We got back to Townsville last night. It was such a great trip. Our group in the diving course and the other divers on board got along really well and a bunch of us went out for dinner and drinks. It was good fun - our first drinking binge in quite awhile.
Not too sure what we are going to do next. The funds are running a bit low, so we hope to find some work either here or in Cairns.
Peace out!
Friday, September 10, 2004
It's only been a couple of weeks, yet we've done so much. After my last posting, we went to a Dinner & Show presentation. For dinner we got to try some Kangaroo kebabs, not my favourite, but at least I tried it! The show was quite fascinating. During dinner an Aboriginal played an instrument known as the 'didgeridoo' - it's a hollowed out log that's makes a really low humming-gargling sound. After that, a group of Aboriginals presented some traditional dances. Trev got to try his hand at the didgeridoo, and I got to dance around pretending to pick fruit.
We spent a day touring the West MacDonnell Ranges, just outside of Alice Springs. In one day we saw Simpson's Gap, Standley Chasm and Ormiston Gorge, though I don't know the difference between a 'gap', a 'gorge' and a 'chasm' - they all were rivers that flow through the mountains.
We decided to splurge on another dinner. We went to the Overlander Steakhouse and tried their 'Blowout' menu. We started with tomato bacon soup and fresh damper (damper is just thick bread, like a biscuit). The next course was a sampling of Crocodile, Camel, Emu and Kangaroo. Suprisingly enough, they all tasted quite good - even the kangaroo. The camel was a bit tuff, but I think we decided we liked the emu the best. The next course was fish (Barramundi) or steak, I had steak and Trev had fish, but we ended up switching part way through. To top it all off,we had fresh apple pie servied with whipped cream and ice cream and a cup of tea - we didn't have to eat for days after that meal!
Another highlight of our stay in Alice Springs was our tour around the Desert Park. We walked around for over 4 hours looking at the natural wildlife, the birds and trees (not many in the desert) and we got to watch a birds-of-prey presentation and saw a couple of different birds. It had 4 different deserts and the different wildlife in each.
Oh, and I almost forgot! We went on a camel ride! That was my idea, but Trev really enjoyed it as well. We rode for about an hour while the sun was setting, it was quite beautiful. Riding a camel was much more comfortable than riding a horse, and you don't have to do anything - I could have read a book while the camel trotted along.
After Alice Springs, we went to the small town of GemTree, just outside of Alice. We went gem fossicking there. We got to sift through buckets of sand looking for the precious zircon. It looks like a diamond - just not quite as clear. We found one good sized one and 4 a bit smaller, but still good enough to make a ring or earrings out of. Maybe I'll get a ring someday:)
Our next stop was Mataranka. We had been told that the Hot Springs there were really good. To our disappointment, the whole area was overtaken by bats. There were thousands of them everywhere, and they smelled really bad. Trev even got pooped on while we walked to check our the hot springs. Needless to say, we didn't stay long. We moved right along to Elsey National Park. It was a small park, but right on the Roper River. We got to go swimming and even took a canoe out for a day to some small waterfalls.
We also went canoeing in Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park. The Katherine Gorge is a succession of 13 gorges - we were only able to canoe to the end of the third gorge in the one day we had the canoe. It was a lovely day though. The second gorge was by far the most impressive, the walls were massive towering over us. On our way back down the gorges we saw some sparrow nests, some turtles (at least the diameter of a basketball) and a freshwater crocodile! There are two types of crocodiles - the freshwater (freshie) and the saltwater (salty). The freshie is only small, it shies away from humans unless provoked, and then, it can only nip at you and maybe get a toe. The salties are the big ones - we haven't seen any of those yet, but there are warning signs all over the place letting you know where not to swim.
We wanted to do a day of Barramundi fishing on the Daly River, but when we got there the tours were booked out for the next week. The Barra is known around the world for its strong fights. We only stayed the one night, but the lady at the reception felt bad we couldn't go fishing, so she gave us some fish anyway. She gave us a large fillet of Barramundi, the most popular fish of the Northern Territory. It was delicious - we cooked over an open fire.
Instead of heading straight into Darwin, we stopped at Litchfield National Park. I think it is one of my favourites so far. We swam at the Buley rockpools, at Florence Falls and at Wangi Falls. It was so picturesque, swimming in the waterholes and the waterfalls cascade down infront of you.
We are now in Darwin. Not too sure how long we are going to stay. Last night we got to experience the Mindil Sunset Markets - a must do in Darwin. It's not like a real market, there were all sorts on international food vendors and tons of buskers. There was one guy that was painting with spray paints - the paintings were quite elaborate with lots of detail. There were two guys - one playing the didgeridoo and another on drums - they were really good, we bought their CD. And another guy was cracking whips. He could crack them in a rythm you could almost dance to. We each got to try cracking the whip. Trev was really good, he was even able to pass it behind his back and crack it with his left hand. Me, on the other hand, took forever just to get it to crack once, I ended it there.
After Darwin, the plan is to go to Kakadu National Park to see the salties, then head out to the East coast.
Well, we are doing well. The van is actually serving us quite well, it's become our little home.
We've taken tons of photos, but again I don't know when we'll be able to get them on the website. We'll let you know. Hope everyone is doing well. We miss you all.
We spent a day touring the West MacDonnell Ranges, just outside of Alice Springs. In one day we saw Simpson's Gap, Standley Chasm and Ormiston Gorge, though I don't know the difference between a 'gap', a 'gorge' and a 'chasm' - they all were rivers that flow through the mountains.
We decided to splurge on another dinner. We went to the Overlander Steakhouse and tried their 'Blowout' menu. We started with tomato bacon soup and fresh damper (damper is just thick bread, like a biscuit). The next course was a sampling of Crocodile, Camel, Emu and Kangaroo. Suprisingly enough, they all tasted quite good - even the kangaroo. The camel was a bit tuff, but I think we decided we liked the emu the best. The next course was fish (Barramundi) or steak, I had steak and Trev had fish, but we ended up switching part way through. To top it all off,we had fresh apple pie servied with whipped cream and ice cream and a cup of tea - we didn't have to eat for days after that meal!
Another highlight of our stay in Alice Springs was our tour around the Desert Park. We walked around for over 4 hours looking at the natural wildlife, the birds and trees (not many in the desert) and we got to watch a birds-of-prey presentation and saw a couple of different birds. It had 4 different deserts and the different wildlife in each.
Oh, and I almost forgot! We went on a camel ride! That was my idea, but Trev really enjoyed it as well. We rode for about an hour while the sun was setting, it was quite beautiful. Riding a camel was much more comfortable than riding a horse, and you don't have to do anything - I could have read a book while the camel trotted along.
After Alice Springs, we went to the small town of GemTree, just outside of Alice. We went gem fossicking there. We got to sift through buckets of sand looking for the precious zircon. It looks like a diamond - just not quite as clear. We found one good sized one and 4 a bit smaller, but still good enough to make a ring or earrings out of. Maybe I'll get a ring someday:)
Our next stop was Mataranka. We had been told that the Hot Springs there were really good. To our disappointment, the whole area was overtaken by bats. There were thousands of them everywhere, and they smelled really bad. Trev even got pooped on while we walked to check our the hot springs. Needless to say, we didn't stay long. We moved right along to Elsey National Park. It was a small park, but right on the Roper River. We got to go swimming and even took a canoe out for a day to some small waterfalls.
We also went canoeing in Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park. The Katherine Gorge is a succession of 13 gorges - we were only able to canoe to the end of the third gorge in the one day we had the canoe. It was a lovely day though. The second gorge was by far the most impressive, the walls were massive towering over us. On our way back down the gorges we saw some sparrow nests, some turtles (at least the diameter of a basketball) and a freshwater crocodile! There are two types of crocodiles - the freshwater (freshie) and the saltwater (salty). The freshie is only small, it shies away from humans unless provoked, and then, it can only nip at you and maybe get a toe. The salties are the big ones - we haven't seen any of those yet, but there are warning signs all over the place letting you know where not to swim.
We wanted to do a day of Barramundi fishing on the Daly River, but when we got there the tours were booked out for the next week. The Barra is known around the world for its strong fights. We only stayed the one night, but the lady at the reception felt bad we couldn't go fishing, so she gave us some fish anyway. She gave us a large fillet of Barramundi, the most popular fish of the Northern Territory. It was delicious - we cooked over an open fire.
Instead of heading straight into Darwin, we stopped at Litchfield National Park. I think it is one of my favourites so far. We swam at the Buley rockpools, at Florence Falls and at Wangi Falls. It was so picturesque, swimming in the waterholes and the waterfalls cascade down infront of you.
We are now in Darwin. Not too sure how long we are going to stay. Last night we got to experience the Mindil Sunset Markets - a must do in Darwin. It's not like a real market, there were all sorts on international food vendors and tons of buskers. There was one guy that was painting with spray paints - the paintings were quite elaborate with lots of detail. There were two guys - one playing the didgeridoo and another on drums - they were really good, we bought their CD. And another guy was cracking whips. He could crack them in a rythm you could almost dance to. We each got to try cracking the whip. Trev was really good, he was even able to pass it behind his back and crack it with his left hand. Me, on the other hand, took forever just to get it to crack once, I ended it there.
After Darwin, the plan is to go to Kakadu National Park to see the salties, then head out to the East coast.
Well, we are doing well. The van is actually serving us quite well, it's become our little home.
We've taken tons of photos, but again I don't know when we'll be able to get them on the website. We'll let you know. Hope everyone is doing well. We miss you all.
Monday, August 23, 2004
Well, I know it has been a while since our last post, but nothing exciting has happened until the last couple of weeks.
I quit my job at the pizza place, I worked there for about 10 weeks, but it was time to move on.
We spent 10 glorious days in Bali, Indonesia. Trev's mom and her friend were doing a tour of Asia, so we met them in Bali. It was an incredible experience, nothing either Trev or I have done before. We spent a lot of time out in the sun working on our tans, since they faded while in Adelaide. We did a couple of cultural tours with Trev's mom. We went to some Hindu temples and saw the locals worshipping. We saw two different traditional dances - one was the story of the battle between good and evil, the other was their version of Romeo & Juliet. The female dancers wiggle their fingers and move their eyes back and forth, it's almost creepy. One night for dinner, we watched a dance and then they made us dance as well, Cheryl's (Trev's mom) boyfriend was a great dancer!
On one of the tours we got to see their largest mountain, Mt. Batur. We also got to do a bit of shopping on the tours. I got two really nice rings, they are hand made, we got to watch the girls at work. We also got to see some stone carving, wood carving and Batik art.
When Cheryl and Bob left, we still had a couple of days on our own. We spent most of our time relaxing by the pool or in town shopping. The Balinese people are very friendly, but also very pushy! We couldn't even watch the sunset on the beach without being bombarded by peddlars trying to sell us something - and they sold everything!
When we got back from Bali, we started to get things together to start travelling again. We got all pakced up and in the van and ready to go and the van wouldn't start. Just our Luck! The battery ended up being totally dead and the alternator was shot as well. So $300 later we were finally ready to go. We didn't end up leaving Adelaide until Sat morning. We decided to skip the West coast and head straight up the centre, before it gets too hot in the desert.
We drove about 500km to the Flinders Ranges. We didn't know what to expect, but what we saw was spectacular. We stayed in the area of Wilpena Pound, which is totally surrounded by mountain ranges. We did a few walks around the pound, one walk was over 21km and took us about 7hours. There was an older man who wanted to do the walk as well, but his wife wouldn't go with him, but also didn't want him to go by himself, so we invited him to come along with us. Dave, was his name, was a really nice guy. He is from Tasmania, he was an abundance of information on the different plant and animal life we saw, so we got to learn a bit as we walked.
We spent four days at Wilpena Pound and then moved on to Mt. Remarkable. We did another walk there through the Alligator Gorge - no alligators present - phew! It was a beautiful walk through the gorge, the walls of the gorge just towered over us.
The next few days weren't too exciting. We were headed to Coober Pedy - the Opal Mining capital of the world. We stopped one night on the side of the road, and there were a few other people there. We met one group that was travelling in a converted bus - complete with toilet and shower - and they called it camping! They were really nice. They fed us a BBQ dinner and some drinks around the fire afterwards - super nice people!
In Coober Pedy we did the usual touristy things. Because of the heat in the desert there, most of the locals build there homes underground. We did a tour of an old opal mine and there was also an underground house that we got to view. We went to this old guys house - known as Crocodile Harry's. He dug his house out of the ground and the walls and floors are completely covered in art and messages from travellers who have visited his place. The walls were so full, we only got to sign the guestbook.
On our way out of Coober Pedy we took a detour to see The Breakaways. They are a small range offering a spectacular view of the vast desert. We could see so far, and that's what we had to drive through for the next couple of days. The desert isn't quite what I imagined though, it's not just a bunch of sand forever, there's actually some small trees and bushes - though it is dusty! I guess they had some rain recently too, because the wild flowers are out in full bloom. It's really beautiful to see the field of flowers as we drive (or walk) around.
Our next destination was the 'Centre'. Ayers Rock/Uluru, the Australian icon - the big rock in the middle of the country in the middle of the desert. We spent 2 days there. The first day we visited the cultural centre and learned about the Aboriginal culture of the rock. We also ate some local bush tucker - honey ants and funny enough they taste like honey. Then we climbed the rock. It is so steep at the start that there are poles and a chain to hold on to as you go up and down. Once at the top, we continued along the rock for about 1.5km to the centre of it. The view was amazing. The way down was much easier than the climb up. However, it's about 5 days later and Trev's legs are still sore.
Some facts about Uluru - it is about 800km above sea level, 300km about the ground and 9.4 in circumfrance - it's one helluva rock!
That evening we watched the amazing colour display on the rock as the sun set. The rock turns an incredible shade of red before the shadows take over. We got up bright and early to watch the sunrise the next morning. The colour show was the same idea, but still spectacular.
In the morning we did the base walk around Uluru, the 9.4km walk. Then we went down the road to see the less popular Olgas/Kata-Tjuta. They are a bunch of clumps of rocks all together. Pretty cool. We did a couple of short walks there, then watched the sunset around them. It really is amazing how the rocks change colour.
Our next stop was King's Canyon. Also less popular, but I think most amazing. We did the 6km Rim walk around the top of the Canyon. It was just so incredible. The view into the gorge was just full of wild and indigenous plants. There was one part called the Garden of Eden, and aptly named. We walked through the plush plant life to a small waterhole.
We are now in Alice Springs, the main town in the Centre of Australia. We will be here for another couple of days, then we are off towards the nothern part of the country - Darwin.
Hope this satisfies your curiosity. We have been getting messages that people want to know what is going on. We have some pictures of Bali up on the website, but I don't know when we will be able to get more Australia pictures up.
Hope everyone is doing well. We miss you all - but not enough to come home any time soon :)
I quit my job at the pizza place, I worked there for about 10 weeks, but it was time to move on.
We spent 10 glorious days in Bali, Indonesia. Trev's mom and her friend were doing a tour of Asia, so we met them in Bali. It was an incredible experience, nothing either Trev or I have done before. We spent a lot of time out in the sun working on our tans, since they faded while in Adelaide. We did a couple of cultural tours with Trev's mom. We went to some Hindu temples and saw the locals worshipping. We saw two different traditional dances - one was the story of the battle between good and evil, the other was their version of Romeo & Juliet. The female dancers wiggle their fingers and move their eyes back and forth, it's almost creepy. One night for dinner, we watched a dance and then they made us dance as well, Cheryl's (Trev's mom) boyfriend was a great dancer!
On one of the tours we got to see their largest mountain, Mt. Batur. We also got to do a bit of shopping on the tours. I got two really nice rings, they are hand made, we got to watch the girls at work. We also got to see some stone carving, wood carving and Batik art.
When Cheryl and Bob left, we still had a couple of days on our own. We spent most of our time relaxing by the pool or in town shopping. The Balinese people are very friendly, but also very pushy! We couldn't even watch the sunset on the beach without being bombarded by peddlars trying to sell us something - and they sold everything!
When we got back from Bali, we started to get things together to start travelling again. We got all pakced up and in the van and ready to go and the van wouldn't start. Just our Luck! The battery ended up being totally dead and the alternator was shot as well. So $300 later we were finally ready to go. We didn't end up leaving Adelaide until Sat morning. We decided to skip the West coast and head straight up the centre, before it gets too hot in the desert.
We drove about 500km to the Flinders Ranges. We didn't know what to expect, but what we saw was spectacular. We stayed in the area of Wilpena Pound, which is totally surrounded by mountain ranges. We did a few walks around the pound, one walk was over 21km and took us about 7hours. There was an older man who wanted to do the walk as well, but his wife wouldn't go with him, but also didn't want him to go by himself, so we invited him to come along with us. Dave, was his name, was a really nice guy. He is from Tasmania, he was an abundance of information on the different plant and animal life we saw, so we got to learn a bit as we walked.
We spent four days at Wilpena Pound and then moved on to Mt. Remarkable. We did another walk there through the Alligator Gorge - no alligators present - phew! It was a beautiful walk through the gorge, the walls of the gorge just towered over us.
The next few days weren't too exciting. We were headed to Coober Pedy - the Opal Mining capital of the world. We stopped one night on the side of the road, and there were a few other people there. We met one group that was travelling in a converted bus - complete with toilet and shower - and they called it camping! They were really nice. They fed us a BBQ dinner and some drinks around the fire afterwards - super nice people!
In Coober Pedy we did the usual touristy things. Because of the heat in the desert there, most of the locals build there homes underground. We did a tour of an old opal mine and there was also an underground house that we got to view. We went to this old guys house - known as Crocodile Harry's. He dug his house out of the ground and the walls and floors are completely covered in art and messages from travellers who have visited his place. The walls were so full, we only got to sign the guestbook.
On our way out of Coober Pedy we took a detour to see The Breakaways. They are a small range offering a spectacular view of the vast desert. We could see so far, and that's what we had to drive through for the next couple of days. The desert isn't quite what I imagined though, it's not just a bunch of sand forever, there's actually some small trees and bushes - though it is dusty! I guess they had some rain recently too, because the wild flowers are out in full bloom. It's really beautiful to see the field of flowers as we drive (or walk) around.
Our next destination was the 'Centre'. Ayers Rock/Uluru, the Australian icon - the big rock in the middle of the country in the middle of the desert. We spent 2 days there. The first day we visited the cultural centre and learned about the Aboriginal culture of the rock. We also ate some local bush tucker - honey ants and funny enough they taste like honey. Then we climbed the rock. It is so steep at the start that there are poles and a chain to hold on to as you go up and down. Once at the top, we continued along the rock for about 1.5km to the centre of it. The view was amazing. The way down was much easier than the climb up. However, it's about 5 days later and Trev's legs are still sore.
Some facts about Uluru - it is about 800km above sea level, 300km about the ground and 9.4 in circumfrance - it's one helluva rock!
That evening we watched the amazing colour display on the rock as the sun set. The rock turns an incredible shade of red before the shadows take over. We got up bright and early to watch the sunrise the next morning. The colour show was the same idea, but still spectacular.
In the morning we did the base walk around Uluru, the 9.4km walk. Then we went down the road to see the less popular Olgas/Kata-Tjuta. They are a bunch of clumps of rocks all together. Pretty cool. We did a couple of short walks there, then watched the sunset around them. It really is amazing how the rocks change colour.
Our next stop was King's Canyon. Also less popular, but I think most amazing. We did the 6km Rim walk around the top of the Canyon. It was just so incredible. The view into the gorge was just full of wild and indigenous plants. There was one part called the Garden of Eden, and aptly named. We walked through the plush plant life to a small waterhole.
We are now in Alice Springs, the main town in the Centre of Australia. We will be here for another couple of days, then we are off towards the nothern part of the country - Darwin.
Hope this satisfies your curiosity. We have been getting messages that people want to know what is going on. We have some pictures of Bali up on the website, but I don't know when we will be able to get more Australia pictures up.
Hope everyone is doing well. We miss you all - but not enough to come home any time soon :)
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
I didn't realize it has been so long since we last updated our site. We are still in Adelaide and haven't really done any touristy stuff. Since our last post we celebrated our 6th anniversary together and Trev's 25th birthday.
A couple of weeks ago we took a weekend trip to Yorke's Penninsula. It was a beautiful drive and we stayed in Innes National Park. It's this huge park right on the ocean and there are a number of scenic routes and views. It was really quite incredible. We saw wild Kangaroos hopping around the campsites and wild emus roaming along side the road. One of the tourist attractions was an abandonded little town. Most of the houses and stores were still standing, but barely. You could even rent out one of the houses to stay in if you wanted, but we just stayed in our van.
For Trev's birthday we went go-karting. It was lots of fun, even though I wasn't very good. Trev (and everyone else) lapped me a couple of times, and I crashed twice. After, we went out to dinner and then to a drive-in movie. On the weekend we celebrated by each attempting to drink 25 drinks in honour of Trevor's 25 years. Dan made it to 25 before we even got to the bars, he had to head home early. Trev and our new friend Benny made it to 25 by the end of the night, and I wasn't even close. All in all it was a good night though, but the next day wasn't too productive.
About 3 weeks ago Trev and I went on a wine tour with one of the girls we met on our first sailing trip. It was organized by one of the University committees, so it was a bunch of 20somethings getting drunk for free. We were at the first winery before noon and we tasted about 7 or 8 different wines. We were well on our way to a good day. We tasted a lot of good wine that day and purchased a few bottles and made some new friends. We invited them back to Dan's house and had some more wine and pizza before heading out to go dancing.
So, that's pretty much what we have been doing in Adelaide - drinking! We've made some really good friends too. And, we have been working. Dan got Trev hooked up programming some sort of porgrame for the University making some good money. I finally got a job working at a pizza place. It's not my ideal job, but I get paid cash and I get quite a few hours. The only problem is, I have to work nights and weekends, so no more partying for me.
We plan to stay in Adelaide for another couple of weeks, maybe to the end of July then move on to Perth I think. Oddly enough, Dan likes having us around so we can stay there as long as we need to. We should be getting some new photos up on the website soon too, shots from Trev's party and after the wine tour.
A couple of weeks ago we took a weekend trip to Yorke's Penninsula. It was a beautiful drive and we stayed in Innes National Park. It's this huge park right on the ocean and there are a number of scenic routes and views. It was really quite incredible. We saw wild Kangaroos hopping around the campsites and wild emus roaming along side the road. One of the tourist attractions was an abandonded little town. Most of the houses and stores were still standing, but barely. You could even rent out one of the houses to stay in if you wanted, but we just stayed in our van.
For Trev's birthday we went go-karting. It was lots of fun, even though I wasn't very good. Trev (and everyone else) lapped me a couple of times, and I crashed twice. After, we went out to dinner and then to a drive-in movie. On the weekend we celebrated by each attempting to drink 25 drinks in honour of Trevor's 25 years. Dan made it to 25 before we even got to the bars, he had to head home early. Trev and our new friend Benny made it to 25 by the end of the night, and I wasn't even close. All in all it was a good night though, but the next day wasn't too productive.
About 3 weeks ago Trev and I went on a wine tour with one of the girls we met on our first sailing trip. It was organized by one of the University committees, so it was a bunch of 20somethings getting drunk for free. We were at the first winery before noon and we tasted about 7 or 8 different wines. We were well on our way to a good day. We tasted a lot of good wine that day and purchased a few bottles and made some new friends. We invited them back to Dan's house and had some more wine and pizza before heading out to go dancing.
So, that's pretty much what we have been doing in Adelaide - drinking! We've made some really good friends too. And, we have been working. Dan got Trev hooked up programming some sort of porgrame for the University making some good money. I finally got a job working at a pizza place. It's not my ideal job, but I get paid cash and I get quite a few hours. The only problem is, I have to work nights and weekends, so no more partying for me.
We plan to stay in Adelaide for another couple of weeks, maybe to the end of July then move on to Perth I think. Oddly enough, Dan likes having us around so we can stay there as long as we need to. We should be getting some new photos up on the website soon too, shots from Trev's party and after the wine tour.
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
In three weeks we have discovered that Kangaroos really are road kill, the weathermen here are just as bad as back home, the "dangerous" animals are rarely seen, possums don't actually sleep upside down and the toilets do actually flush the wrong way.
In Sydney we spent a day at the zoo and got to see all those dangerous animals, but from a safe distance and behind glass. The zoo is set up so you actually get to walk around and pet the kangaroos though and little lizards scurry across the path infront of you.
Glen's fiance, Julia set up a cruise of the harbour for us. We spent two gorgeous hours cruising around and looking at all the incredible houses. I still can't believe how much money some people have.
We spent a day at Bondi Beach, where it's acceptable for women to go topless. Trev had a great time. He even took a few photos - you have to zoom in to see them though.
we spent a coulple of days scouring the city for a car. We found this car market in a parking garage in town. It was such a wierd set up. But really well run. There were a bunch of backpackers and their cars lined up and they were all trying to sell their car to us. We ended up purchasing and 1988 Toyota Hiace (a van) with a bed in the back and everything. It came with all the camping gear we could need and even snorkeling equipment and a boogy board.
We took off right the day we got the car. We drove to Wollongong for the night and then went on our way to Canberra, the National Capitol. We spent a day in Canberra and checked out the museaums and the parliament buildings and stuff. They have a beautiful walk that goes around this little lake and takes in most of the sights.
We were then off to Adelaide - 1200 kms West. It took two days driving to get here. We stopped for the night at a free camp place on the side of the road. Sketchy!!! The toilets were just holes in the ground and covered in spiders. I refused to use them. We headed straight to the nearest toilets in the morning.
We made it to Adelaide late afternoon on Friday. We went to Trev's cousin Dan's place and got cleaned up and met him and his friends for a night on the town. Sat he took us out on a sailboat. There was about 9 of us on the boat, and the weather was perfect. We got some sun, swam in the middle of the ocean and I got to climb the mast (I actually wore a harness and was hoisted).
We took it easy on Sun and most of the week. We spent a day walking around Morialta park. There were supposed to be 3 waterfalls, but they were all dry. It was a nice walk though.
Another day, we went to Cleland Wildlife Park and saw some more Native animals. Lots of kangaroos. I even pet one. It was an albino with a baby in it's puch - so cool! trev tried to pet a big Red Kangaroo, but he didn't like him.
I also got to hold a Koala bear. They let you hold the koalas and they hug you like a baby. It was soooo cool. It dug it's claws into my back though.
We spent a day in Victor Harbour. We did an evening tour that takes you arounda small island and you get to see the penquins coming in off the ocean to their burrows. We saw about 60 penguins, 5 possums, one seal and one water rat. A really neat experience. The penquins just waddle around as if we aren't even there.
Sat we got to go sailing again. But this time, it was in a race. Trev got to help pull up and down the head sail and the spinacker. I was just in the way, but we didn't do too badly. I think we got fourth or something.
The last couple of days we just went to a couple of different beaches. We now need to look for some jobs. We hope to stay in Adelaide for a little bit longer. We'll see how long it is until Dan kicks us out. We plan to do some grape picking for a couple of days, but it's apparently really hard work and doesn't pay well - but hey, it's part of the backpacking experience. I think we will look into more promising jobs while we do that.
Anyway, if you haven't already checked it out - we have some pictures up on a website. Just click on the "more pictures" link and it will take you right there. The site isn't done yet though.
Hope all of you are doing well. Cheers from Downunder!!
In Sydney we spent a day at the zoo and got to see all those dangerous animals, but from a safe distance and behind glass. The zoo is set up so you actually get to walk around and pet the kangaroos though and little lizards scurry across the path infront of you.
Glen's fiance, Julia set up a cruise of the harbour for us. We spent two gorgeous hours cruising around and looking at all the incredible houses. I still can't believe how much money some people have.
We spent a day at Bondi Beach, where it's acceptable for women to go topless. Trev had a great time. He even took a few photos - you have to zoom in to see them though.
we spent a coulple of days scouring the city for a car. We found this car market in a parking garage in town. It was such a wierd set up. But really well run. There were a bunch of backpackers and their cars lined up and they were all trying to sell their car to us. We ended up purchasing and 1988 Toyota Hiace (a van) with a bed in the back and everything. It came with all the camping gear we could need and even snorkeling equipment and a boogy board.
We took off right the day we got the car. We drove to Wollongong for the night and then went on our way to Canberra, the National Capitol. We spent a day in Canberra and checked out the museaums and the parliament buildings and stuff. They have a beautiful walk that goes around this little lake and takes in most of the sights.
We were then off to Adelaide - 1200 kms West. It took two days driving to get here. We stopped for the night at a free camp place on the side of the road. Sketchy!!! The toilets were just holes in the ground and covered in spiders. I refused to use them. We headed straight to the nearest toilets in the morning.
We made it to Adelaide late afternoon on Friday. We went to Trev's cousin Dan's place and got cleaned up and met him and his friends for a night on the town. Sat he took us out on a sailboat. There was about 9 of us on the boat, and the weather was perfect. We got some sun, swam in the middle of the ocean and I got to climb the mast (I actually wore a harness and was hoisted).
We took it easy on Sun and most of the week. We spent a day walking around Morialta park. There were supposed to be 3 waterfalls, but they were all dry. It was a nice walk though.
Another day, we went to Cleland Wildlife Park and saw some more Native animals. Lots of kangaroos. I even pet one. It was an albino with a baby in it's puch - so cool! trev tried to pet a big Red Kangaroo, but he didn't like him.
I also got to hold a Koala bear. They let you hold the koalas and they hug you like a baby. It was soooo cool. It dug it's claws into my back though.
We spent a day in Victor Harbour. We did an evening tour that takes you arounda small island and you get to see the penquins coming in off the ocean to their burrows. We saw about 60 penguins, 5 possums, one seal and one water rat. A really neat experience. The penquins just waddle around as if we aren't even there.
Sat we got to go sailing again. But this time, it was in a race. Trev got to help pull up and down the head sail and the spinacker. I was just in the way, but we didn't do too badly. I think we got fourth or something.
The last couple of days we just went to a couple of different beaches. We now need to look for some jobs. We hope to stay in Adelaide for a little bit longer. We'll see how long it is until Dan kicks us out. We plan to do some grape picking for a couple of days, but it's apparently really hard work and doesn't pay well - but hey, it's part of the backpacking experience. I think we will look into more promising jobs while we do that.
Anyway, if you haven't already checked it out - we have some pictures up on a website. Just click on the "more pictures" link and it will take you right there. The site isn't done yet though.
Hope all of you are doing well. Cheers from Downunder!!
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
We haven't really done anything too exiting since my last post. We spent a night in Hamitlon, another in Raglan - at the same hostel as before. Then we spent 3 nights in New Plymouth. That's were Mount Taranaki is. Trev wanted to do a 2 day hike around the mountain, but the weather wasn't so good. We just did a one day hike half way up the mountain. The wind was so strong - I swear it almost blew me over a couple of times.
We saw the film "Big Fish" while in New Plymouth. I thought it was great, Trev didn't like it so much. Anyway, on our way out of the theatre, we bumped into Jake House, who was just walking down the street. It was so random and wierd. We got to talking and ended up giving him a ride back to Auckland, since we were headed that way.
Friday night, March 5, we saw a Super 12 Rugby game in Auckland. It was a good game. It was a close score all the way through. Trev and I decided to place a bet and cheer for opposite teams. He was cheering for the Waikato Chiefs, and I was cheering for the Auckland Blues. The Chiefs ended up scoring during refs time, making the final score 27-20.
We were off back down the Island again in the morning. We took a long drive down to Napier so we could slowly make our way back up the east coast over the next week. In Napier, we discovered holiday parks. They are trailor parks, but you can get a cabin or a trailer for much cheaper than a bed in a hostel. The only thing, is they don't have equipped kitchens, but we were able to borrow dishes and such from the park.
Anyway, we didn't do much in Napier. Napier is the art deco capital, and there was a lot of really neat architecture. We decided to check out a cricket match where a Napier team played a South African team. We stayed for about an hour and got bored - it's even slower than on tv. Napier is also known for its wine, so we did some wine tasting. It felt wierd driving up to these people's places and asking for free wine, but they were more than happy to serve us. We only went to two places, but we tried about 12-13 different wines in total. We were feeling really good after that.
After Napier, we stayed in Gisborne for 2 nights. Our first night we found this great lookout point and watched the sunset. It was so beautiful. Gisborne is the first city in the world to see the sun everyday, so we planned to get up early the next morning to watch the sunrise, but we slept through our alarms. We just spent the day walking through town and relaxing on the beach. Our tans are coming along quite nicely.
We actually got up early enough to catch the sunrise the next morning. It was very peaceful. We drove to this remote beach, and laid in our blankets on the sand watching the sun come out of the ocean. There was no one esle around, it was very romantic.
We left Gisborne in the early afternoon, after picking up Trev's shorts. I don't know if I mentioned before that Trev sat is some tar. Well, we took the shorts to the drycleaners, and they got it all out. The shorsts are like new. We were so impressed.
So, anyway, we drove around the east coast to Opotiki where we stayed for 3 nights. We stayed at another holiday park, but this time in an actual trailer. It was lots of fun. The holiday park even had a pool, which we took advantage of. We spent most of our time relaxing around the pool working on our tans.
We still hadn't gone horseback riding. It was one thing that I reallly wanted to do. So, on Sat., our last day in NZ we went horeback riding. We took a 2 hour tour through farm fields and forests and through a river. The river was the best part, at one point we went through this little lagoon - it was beautiful.
We then drove as close to the airport as we could, without having to stay in Auckland. We stayed at a really dodgy holiday park, good thing for only one night. We had planned to go for dinner for our last night, but we were too late. All the restaurants close at 9, so we had to settle for some pizza and garlic bread. It was actually really good pizza.
In the morning we got up, got packed, returned the rental car and were off to the airport. Our flight was only 3.5 hrs. The movie was "Somethings Gotta Give" with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson, I really liked it. We did some more wine tasting on the plane, we were both feeling really good by the time it landed. The rest of the night is a little foggy.
We got in touch with Trev's brothers friend who directed us to where he would pick us up. We only got slightly lost making our way through the train station. Glen picked us up and took us to the harbour to see the city and the opera house at sunset. Then we went out for $5 steak dinner - that was a bargain. And then to bed. Australia is only 2 hours behind NZ, but it makes a big difference.
We didn't do much our first day in OZ. We walked around Glen's place getting oriented. We found a nice little beach and realized we were in one of the richest areas. The houses were gorgeous. Glen took us for a drive later too, to see other enormous houses. It's just incredible the amount of money around here.
We still don't know our plans for OZ yet. By our original time table, we have 4 months to travel and work. We don't know where we want to work, or how to best get around - by bus or by car. And there are all these strang rules for banking and working, which we need to get sorted out as well.
Well, wish us luck in this new chapter of our adventure. We will keep you posted. Please keep us updated on what is going on with you as well. It's nice to have that bit of contact with home.
We saw the film "Big Fish" while in New Plymouth. I thought it was great, Trev didn't like it so much. Anyway, on our way out of the theatre, we bumped into Jake House, who was just walking down the street. It was so random and wierd. We got to talking and ended up giving him a ride back to Auckland, since we were headed that way.
Friday night, March 5, we saw a Super 12 Rugby game in Auckland. It was a good game. It was a close score all the way through. Trev and I decided to place a bet and cheer for opposite teams. He was cheering for the Waikato Chiefs, and I was cheering for the Auckland Blues. The Chiefs ended up scoring during refs time, making the final score 27-20.
We were off back down the Island again in the morning. We took a long drive down to Napier so we could slowly make our way back up the east coast over the next week. In Napier, we discovered holiday parks. They are trailor parks, but you can get a cabin or a trailer for much cheaper than a bed in a hostel. The only thing, is they don't have equipped kitchens, but we were able to borrow dishes and such from the park.
Anyway, we didn't do much in Napier. Napier is the art deco capital, and there was a lot of really neat architecture. We decided to check out a cricket match where a Napier team played a South African team. We stayed for about an hour and got bored - it's even slower than on tv. Napier is also known for its wine, so we did some wine tasting. It felt wierd driving up to these people's places and asking for free wine, but they were more than happy to serve us. We only went to two places, but we tried about 12-13 different wines in total. We were feeling really good after that.
After Napier, we stayed in Gisborne for 2 nights. Our first night we found this great lookout point and watched the sunset. It was so beautiful. Gisborne is the first city in the world to see the sun everyday, so we planned to get up early the next morning to watch the sunrise, but we slept through our alarms. We just spent the day walking through town and relaxing on the beach. Our tans are coming along quite nicely.
We actually got up early enough to catch the sunrise the next morning. It was very peaceful. We drove to this remote beach, and laid in our blankets on the sand watching the sun come out of the ocean. There was no one esle around, it was very romantic.
We left Gisborne in the early afternoon, after picking up Trev's shorts. I don't know if I mentioned before that Trev sat is some tar. Well, we took the shorts to the drycleaners, and they got it all out. The shorsts are like new. We were so impressed.
So, anyway, we drove around the east coast to Opotiki where we stayed for 3 nights. We stayed at another holiday park, but this time in an actual trailer. It was lots of fun. The holiday park even had a pool, which we took advantage of. We spent most of our time relaxing around the pool working on our tans.
We still hadn't gone horseback riding. It was one thing that I reallly wanted to do. So, on Sat., our last day in NZ we went horeback riding. We took a 2 hour tour through farm fields and forests and through a river. The river was the best part, at one point we went through this little lagoon - it was beautiful.
We then drove as close to the airport as we could, without having to stay in Auckland. We stayed at a really dodgy holiday park, good thing for only one night. We had planned to go for dinner for our last night, but we were too late. All the restaurants close at 9, so we had to settle for some pizza and garlic bread. It was actually really good pizza.
In the morning we got up, got packed, returned the rental car and were off to the airport. Our flight was only 3.5 hrs. The movie was "Somethings Gotta Give" with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson, I really liked it. We did some more wine tasting on the plane, we were both feeling really good by the time it landed. The rest of the night is a little foggy.
We got in touch with Trev's brothers friend who directed us to where he would pick us up. We only got slightly lost making our way through the train station. Glen picked us up and took us to the harbour to see the city and the opera house at sunset. Then we went out for $5 steak dinner - that was a bargain. And then to bed. Australia is only 2 hours behind NZ, but it makes a big difference.
We didn't do much our first day in OZ. We walked around Glen's place getting oriented. We found a nice little beach and realized we were in one of the richest areas. The houses were gorgeous. Glen took us for a drive later too, to see other enormous houses. It's just incredible the amount of money around here.
We still don't know our plans for OZ yet. By our original time table, we have 4 months to travel and work. We don't know where we want to work, or how to best get around - by bus or by car. And there are all these strang rules for banking and working, which we need to get sorted out as well.
Well, wish us luck in this new chapter of our adventure. We will keep you posted. Please keep us updated on what is going on with you as well. It's nice to have that bit of contact with home.
Sunday, February 29, 2004
Sorry it's been so long since we've updated. We haven't even been that busy.
Since my last post, Trev survived 3 incredible bungy jumps. He jumped 43m from the Bridge, the very first bungy spot in the world. Then he jumped 134m off the "Nevis", one of the highest jumps in the world. He said it was the scariest thing he has ever done. Then he jumed the "Ledge", 47m. It was his last jump and he was feeling more comfortable so he ran and jumped and tried to do a couple of flips, tried being the operative word here.
While Trev was off bungy jumping, I got to do a Canyon swing. I had to jump off a ledge and freefall, but not heaad first, into a canyon and then I swung out across the canyon. It was amazing. The drop to the bottom was 109m! After that I went parasailing. I was pulled behind a boat and swept up by a huge yellow balloon with a red smiley face on it. One of the most amazing experiences ever. I felt like I was flying. A bird even flew under me.
After Queens Town we stayed in Te Anau. It was a tiny town, but a nice hostel. We took a day trip to Doubtful Sound with a couple of American guys that we met. It was gorgeous. It had been raining, so the waterfulls were everywhere.
On our way to Invercargill, we stopped at a farm to see some sheep shearing. So fun, got to see some real New Zealand.
We took an extra tour over to Stewart Island. The third Island making up New Zealand. It's tiny, and not shown on many maps. We wanted to see some kiwi birds, but found out when we got there that it would be a 2-3 day walk to the other side of the Island to see them. We decided against it. We took a tour to another tiny island instead and saw some other native birds.
Stewart Island was so small there were only 20km of roads on the whole island!
When we got back to Invercargill, we went for a walk and found a beautiful park. There was a rose garden and huge trees and a playground and there was a petting zoo too, but we didn't make it that far.
We spent Waitangi Day, there National Holiday, driving to the small town of Dunedin. We stayed there for 3 nights. We did a tour of the Cadbury factory and got lots of chocolate, mmmmm. Then we did a tour of the Speights brewery - Trev's choice. The most popular beer in New Zealand. It was actually a really good tour, and we (Trev) got lots of samples at the end. Trev also got some thong sandals, they are range and blue and look really funny on him - just imagine!
We had only planned to stay in Dunedin 2 nights, but the bus was too full and couldn't take us. The hostel felt bad and gave us our own room with a tv and fridge and en suite bathroom - ahh the luxury.
On our way out of Dunedin the next day, our driver took us to Balwin Street. It is the steepest street in the world - cars aren't aloud to drive on it. We tried to run up, but I only made it half way, Trev made it a bit farther.
We stopped at the Moeraki Boulders on our way to Christchurch. They are a phenomenon (sp) no one knows for sure how they were formed or how they got there.
Our tour with the tour bus ended in Christchurch. So we took a shuttle to the next town of Kaikoura. I had wanted to go swimming with dolphins there, but they were fully booked. We went swiming with seals instead, but the seals wouldn't come in a play with us. We did get to do some snorkeling though, and we saw some cool fish.
We went to Akaroa to do the swimming with dolhins instead. It was soooo cool. The water was feezing, but the dolphins were swimming all around us. The guides had given us some rocks to clap together, which attracted the dolphins so they were coming so close. They swam right under me and another one swam right between Trev and I, we weren't even a meter apart! It was the best.
We were in Christchurch for Valentine's day. It was a beautiful morning. We went for a walk in the botanical gardens. There were tons of trees and paths going along the river and another rose garden and a bonzai tree area. We ate lunch at one of the cafes in the gardens. There was a mini remote control sailboat race going on in one of the lakes. Trev thought it was soo cool. He has decided that he will take that up as a hobby when we get back to Canada.
It started raining, so we walked to the mall. We picked up a few things, including some V-day chocolates.
For dinner Trev took me to a sports bar - how typical. But really it was a pretty cool place. It was four stories (plus a roof-top patio) with a two story tv screen that could be seen from any of the four floors. Plus there were other large tv screens spread around the place. The food was pretty good, Trev tried the lamb. We had a few drinks, Trev was a 3 Litre bottle of beer!!! He got to keep the bottle, but we ended up leaving it somewhere, it was too big to travel with.
We flew from Christchurch up to Auk on the 15th. We were supposed to fly to Sydney after that, but we had decided that we weren't done in NZ yet. We took a shuttle to the Coromandel region instead where we stayed for a week in a hostel right on the ocean. It was a nice little hostel. It was divided into little areas each with its own bathroom, kitchen and tv area. There were ten beds in our area, but 6 of us were there for the whole week.
The other 4 people were super nice. Chris and Gill are from Manchester and are engaged. They sold everything they owned and are traveling until they find somewhere to settle down. The other two, Dan and Victoria are just friends travelling together for a bit. It was really fun getting to know them. We played cards with them most nights. Chris and Gill took us with them one day on a nice drive and the next day we went to Coromandel town where we got to ride this little train. The track was built by the guy who owned the property. He is a potter, and there was some good clay on his land, but he needed a way of transporting it, so he built himself a track. It is now a tourist attraction, but it is still used for clay as well.
Our first few days in the Coromandel we took a walk to what they call Shakespeare cliff and to Lonely bay. It was a beautiful secluded beach that could only be reached by walking throught the bush for a bit or by water.
The next day we rented some bikes and took a 2 hour ride to Hahei beach, then an hour walk to Cathedral Cove. It was another beautiful beach, but lots more people. On our way back to our bikes, we stopped at Gemstone bay to do some snorkeling. The water was ice cold, and we didn't have wet suits this time. We swam around and it was like the fish were following us, it was so neat. On our way out of the water, we saw 2 Sting Rays!! The first one was huge, but it didn't move. The other one was much smaller, but it was swimming around and had it's stinger pointing up. We got right out of the water after that.
While in the Coromandel, we decided that we still hadn't had enough of NZ. So, we went back up to Auk and rented a car for 3 weeks. We drove to the Northern part of the North Island. We stayed a place called Kahoe farms for 4 nights. On my birthday, the 24th, we slept in and then went for a leisurley drive. We stopped and 3 different beaches and went body boarding at Cooper's beach. For dinner we has a gourmet pizza from the hostel and some cake and ice cream which we had purchased. Trev even put a candle in the cake for me. And everyone at the hostel sand Happy Birthday to me, it was fun.
The next day we took a walk around the hostel farm. The guy who owns the hostel, Stefano, named the places around the farm after the Lord of the Rings. We walked for most of the day and and stayed at the rock pools for a couple of hours. The rocks pools were large pools of water formed into rocks over a bunch of years that were good for swimming.
The next day we went drove up to Cape Reinga. Almost the most Northern tip of NZ. We went sandborading at Te Paki stream. That was so fun. We rented a boogey board and rode it down these massive sand dunes like a tobogan. How cool is that! Toboganning in shorts and a t-shirt! Trev wasn't very good at it though. He kept wiping out and he was just full of sand - so funny!
On our way back to the hostel, Trev wanted to stop at Houhora pub for a beer, since it was the most northern pub in NZ. We were just finishing up, when this local came over to talk to us. He bought us a few drinks and invited us backt o his place for the night. We stayed there and then he took us to 90-Mile beach in the morning. It's actually only 64miles or something, but it's a drivable beach. The guy, Ron, is a fisherman and showed Trev how to do some surfcasting. He caught a shark! right off the beach! It was like 30 pounds! Good thing it was crap weather and we didn't go swimming. Ron killed the shark and we got to pick it up and take pictures.
We headed back to the hostel to get our stuff and then took off to the other side of the island. We had planned to do all sorts of stuff on the west coast, but the weather was crappy. It has been raining for the past 3 days. We are back in Auckland and are making our way more south, hoping the weather will clear up.
Hope you are all doing well. Sorry about the huge post. We will try to update more often to avoid this. Please keep in touch by email.
Since my last post, Trev survived 3 incredible bungy jumps. He jumped 43m from the Bridge, the very first bungy spot in the world. Then he jumped 134m off the "Nevis", one of the highest jumps in the world. He said it was the scariest thing he has ever done. Then he jumed the "Ledge", 47m. It was his last jump and he was feeling more comfortable so he ran and jumped and tried to do a couple of flips, tried being the operative word here.
While Trev was off bungy jumping, I got to do a Canyon swing. I had to jump off a ledge and freefall, but not heaad first, into a canyon and then I swung out across the canyon. It was amazing. The drop to the bottom was 109m! After that I went parasailing. I was pulled behind a boat and swept up by a huge yellow balloon with a red smiley face on it. One of the most amazing experiences ever. I felt like I was flying. A bird even flew under me.
After Queens Town we stayed in Te Anau. It was a tiny town, but a nice hostel. We took a day trip to Doubtful Sound with a couple of American guys that we met. It was gorgeous. It had been raining, so the waterfulls were everywhere.
On our way to Invercargill, we stopped at a farm to see some sheep shearing. So fun, got to see some real New Zealand.
We took an extra tour over to Stewart Island. The third Island making up New Zealand. It's tiny, and not shown on many maps. We wanted to see some kiwi birds, but found out when we got there that it would be a 2-3 day walk to the other side of the Island to see them. We decided against it. We took a tour to another tiny island instead and saw some other native birds.
Stewart Island was so small there were only 20km of roads on the whole island!
When we got back to Invercargill, we went for a walk and found a beautiful park. There was a rose garden and huge trees and a playground and there was a petting zoo too, but we didn't make it that far.
We spent Waitangi Day, there National Holiday, driving to the small town of Dunedin. We stayed there for 3 nights. We did a tour of the Cadbury factory and got lots of chocolate, mmmmm. Then we did a tour of the Speights brewery - Trev's choice. The most popular beer in New Zealand. It was actually a really good tour, and we (Trev) got lots of samples at the end. Trev also got some thong sandals, they are range and blue and look really funny on him - just imagine!
We had only planned to stay in Dunedin 2 nights, but the bus was too full and couldn't take us. The hostel felt bad and gave us our own room with a tv and fridge and en suite bathroom - ahh the luxury.
On our way out of Dunedin the next day, our driver took us to Balwin Street. It is the steepest street in the world - cars aren't aloud to drive on it. We tried to run up, but I only made it half way, Trev made it a bit farther.
We stopped at the Moeraki Boulders on our way to Christchurch. They are a phenomenon (sp) no one knows for sure how they were formed or how they got there.
Our tour with the tour bus ended in Christchurch. So we took a shuttle to the next town of Kaikoura. I had wanted to go swimming with dolphins there, but they were fully booked. We went swiming with seals instead, but the seals wouldn't come in a play with us. We did get to do some snorkeling though, and we saw some cool fish.
We went to Akaroa to do the swimming with dolhins instead. It was soooo cool. The water was feezing, but the dolphins were swimming all around us. The guides had given us some rocks to clap together, which attracted the dolphins so they were coming so close. They swam right under me and another one swam right between Trev and I, we weren't even a meter apart! It was the best.
We were in Christchurch for Valentine's day. It was a beautiful morning. We went for a walk in the botanical gardens. There were tons of trees and paths going along the river and another rose garden and a bonzai tree area. We ate lunch at one of the cafes in the gardens. There was a mini remote control sailboat race going on in one of the lakes. Trev thought it was soo cool. He has decided that he will take that up as a hobby when we get back to Canada.
It started raining, so we walked to the mall. We picked up a few things, including some V-day chocolates.
For dinner Trev took me to a sports bar - how typical. But really it was a pretty cool place. It was four stories (plus a roof-top patio) with a two story tv screen that could be seen from any of the four floors. Plus there were other large tv screens spread around the place. The food was pretty good, Trev tried the lamb. We had a few drinks, Trev was a 3 Litre bottle of beer!!! He got to keep the bottle, but we ended up leaving it somewhere, it was too big to travel with.
We flew from Christchurch up to Auk on the 15th. We were supposed to fly to Sydney after that, but we had decided that we weren't done in NZ yet. We took a shuttle to the Coromandel region instead where we stayed for a week in a hostel right on the ocean. It was a nice little hostel. It was divided into little areas each with its own bathroom, kitchen and tv area. There were ten beds in our area, but 6 of us were there for the whole week.
The other 4 people were super nice. Chris and Gill are from Manchester and are engaged. They sold everything they owned and are traveling until they find somewhere to settle down. The other two, Dan and Victoria are just friends travelling together for a bit. It was really fun getting to know them. We played cards with them most nights. Chris and Gill took us with them one day on a nice drive and the next day we went to Coromandel town where we got to ride this little train. The track was built by the guy who owned the property. He is a potter, and there was some good clay on his land, but he needed a way of transporting it, so he built himself a track. It is now a tourist attraction, but it is still used for clay as well.
Our first few days in the Coromandel we took a walk to what they call Shakespeare cliff and to Lonely bay. It was a beautiful secluded beach that could only be reached by walking throught the bush for a bit or by water.
The next day we rented some bikes and took a 2 hour ride to Hahei beach, then an hour walk to Cathedral Cove. It was another beautiful beach, but lots more people. On our way back to our bikes, we stopped at Gemstone bay to do some snorkeling. The water was ice cold, and we didn't have wet suits this time. We swam around and it was like the fish were following us, it was so neat. On our way out of the water, we saw 2 Sting Rays!! The first one was huge, but it didn't move. The other one was much smaller, but it was swimming around and had it's stinger pointing up. We got right out of the water after that.
While in the Coromandel, we decided that we still hadn't had enough of NZ. So, we went back up to Auk and rented a car for 3 weeks. We drove to the Northern part of the North Island. We stayed a place called Kahoe farms for 4 nights. On my birthday, the 24th, we slept in and then went for a leisurley drive. We stopped and 3 different beaches and went body boarding at Cooper's beach. For dinner we has a gourmet pizza from the hostel and some cake and ice cream which we had purchased. Trev even put a candle in the cake for me. And everyone at the hostel sand Happy Birthday to me, it was fun.
The next day we took a walk around the hostel farm. The guy who owns the hostel, Stefano, named the places around the farm after the Lord of the Rings. We walked for most of the day and and stayed at the rock pools for a couple of hours. The rocks pools were large pools of water formed into rocks over a bunch of years that were good for swimming.
The next day we went drove up to Cape Reinga. Almost the most Northern tip of NZ. We went sandborading at Te Paki stream. That was so fun. We rented a boogey board and rode it down these massive sand dunes like a tobogan. How cool is that! Toboganning in shorts and a t-shirt! Trev wasn't very good at it though. He kept wiping out and he was just full of sand - so funny!
On our way back to the hostel, Trev wanted to stop at Houhora pub for a beer, since it was the most northern pub in NZ. We were just finishing up, when this local came over to talk to us. He bought us a few drinks and invited us backt o his place for the night. We stayed there and then he took us to 90-Mile beach in the morning. It's actually only 64miles or something, but it's a drivable beach. The guy, Ron, is a fisherman and showed Trev how to do some surfcasting. He caught a shark! right off the beach! It was like 30 pounds! Good thing it was crap weather and we didn't go swimming. Ron killed the shark and we got to pick it up and take pictures.
We headed back to the hostel to get our stuff and then took off to the other side of the island. We had planned to do all sorts of stuff on the west coast, but the weather was crappy. It has been raining for the past 3 days. We are back in Auckland and are making our way more south, hoping the weather will clear up.
Hope you are all doing well. Sorry about the huge post. We will try to update more often to avoid this. Please keep in touch by email.
Saturday, January 31, 2004
Well, we are in New Zealand now. We have been here for a little over 2 weeks now. It's been incredible. The scenery is amazing!!
We flew into Auckland at about 11:00 pm Tuesday NZ time. We hadn't booked any accomodations, but were lucky that our shuttle driver new of a place with openings. Little did we know that the biggest concert of the country was happening the week that we arrove, so all the hostels were fully booked.
We spent 3 nights in Auckland. Our first day we got organized and just walked around town. The next day we did a day trip to the Bay of Islands in the North. We took a boat cruise in the bay and got to see dolphins!!
The next day we started our trip around the Islands. We booked a tour bus that takes us to all the good places and we can jump on and off whenever we want.
Our first day took us to Raglan, the big surfer region. We didn't try surfing though, we just played in the ocean - how cool is that!!
Then we were off to the other side of the Island to Hahei, another beach hostel. We went to the hot water beach that night. It was so neat. You just dig a hole in the sand and hot water flows in making a hot water pool. The sky was clear too, so we sat there on the beach looking at the stars - amazing! We were taking a liesurely (sp?) walk on the beach in the moring and were attacked by a crazy sea gull, it almost pooped on Trevor.
Our next stop was one of the most interesting so far. The Maori's are the natives to NZ and we got to stay at a Maori's house and they fed us a traditional Maori meal and put on this incredible show for us. We even got to learn some of the dances. Trev got to do the "Haka" like the All Blacks rugby players do before a game.
We jumped off the bus in Rotorua to stay an extra night. Crappy for us it rained all night though. We went river rafting in the morning though. So much fun - we went over a 7m waterfall!! The trip only lasted 50 mins though, but well worth it.
We spent three nights in Taupo. Trev went fishing one day with 3 other guys. They got 3 fish, really tasty. We had smoked trout for dinner. Plus, we went Sky diving!!! How crazy is that?! We paid to jump out of a perfectly good plane!?! Soo cool though. We have videos of it all too. Can't wait to show it to everyone.
We did this amazing walk over the Tongariro crossing. It took us 7 hours to walk it and we walked up over volcanoes and in the craters. There were 4 small lakes up in the crater too, so weird. It was so beautiful. That's actually the area they used as Mordor in The Lord of The Rings. I was sooo sore after walking for that long, so luckily there was a spa at our hostel that night.
We made it to Wellington on the 24th, the most southern part of the North Island. Our driver took a few of us to the motorway that night. It was soo neat. I had never been to anything like it before. The race actually got pretty intense.
The next day we crossed over to the South Island. We stayed at the Abel Tasman National Park for two nights and had to sleep in tents. We went sea kayaking for half a day. It was pretty cool. The waves were huge and I got pretty wet since I was in the front. We had wanted to spend an extra day there, but it was raining when we got up, so we just jumped back on the bus.
In Barrytown the whole group on the bus went to the pub at the hostel. Except, it was a themed party. It was a cross-dressing party. Let me tell you, Trev makes a beautiful woman. Don't worry, got lots of pictures. I dressed in Trev's clothes and looked a lot like Riv.
In Franz Joseph there is a natural glacier, one of only 3 in the world in such warm climates. We got to walk on the glacier. We took another 7 hour tour over the glacier. It was the most scary thing I've done so far. Trev wasn't scared at all though. It was awesome though. The ice was so blue and we got to walk through crevasses and everything. It started raining on our way back down the galcier though, so we were pretty wet and our bus driver wouldn't let us get our bags out since they were packed way at the back, so we had to sit on the bus for 3 hours in wet clothes. Then, when we got to our hostel and wanted to change into dry clothes, I found that the beer that Trev asked me to put in my pack had exlpoded all over everything. Not a good day. However, Trev did do my laundry ( a first) and made me dinner.
Yesterday we sropped for a bit in Wanaka and did this maze thing. It was neat, but I was so lost. Trev had to help me find my way out. We are now in Queenstown, the adrenaline capital of the world. There is so much to do here, but you will go broke doing it all. Trev is in the process of doing 3 different bungy jumps at the moment. I chickened out, I was going to go. I am booked for para-sailing this afternoon.
It's been so much fun though. We have met some incredible people. We are just having a blast. Can't believe we are still just in the beginning of the trip though. We still have so much to see and do.
We flew into Auckland at about 11:00 pm Tuesday NZ time. We hadn't booked any accomodations, but were lucky that our shuttle driver new of a place with openings. Little did we know that the biggest concert of the country was happening the week that we arrove, so all the hostels were fully booked.
We spent 3 nights in Auckland. Our first day we got organized and just walked around town. The next day we did a day trip to the Bay of Islands in the North. We took a boat cruise in the bay and got to see dolphins!!
The next day we started our trip around the Islands. We booked a tour bus that takes us to all the good places and we can jump on and off whenever we want.
Our first day took us to Raglan, the big surfer region. We didn't try surfing though, we just played in the ocean - how cool is that!!
Then we were off to the other side of the Island to Hahei, another beach hostel. We went to the hot water beach that night. It was so neat. You just dig a hole in the sand and hot water flows in making a hot water pool. The sky was clear too, so we sat there on the beach looking at the stars - amazing! We were taking a liesurely (sp?) walk on the beach in the moring and were attacked by a crazy sea gull, it almost pooped on Trevor.
Our next stop was one of the most interesting so far. The Maori's are the natives to NZ and we got to stay at a Maori's house and they fed us a traditional Maori meal and put on this incredible show for us. We even got to learn some of the dances. Trev got to do the "Haka" like the All Blacks rugby players do before a game.
We jumped off the bus in Rotorua to stay an extra night. Crappy for us it rained all night though. We went river rafting in the morning though. So much fun - we went over a 7m waterfall!! The trip only lasted 50 mins though, but well worth it.
We spent three nights in Taupo. Trev went fishing one day with 3 other guys. They got 3 fish, really tasty. We had smoked trout for dinner. Plus, we went Sky diving!!! How crazy is that?! We paid to jump out of a perfectly good plane!?! Soo cool though. We have videos of it all too. Can't wait to show it to everyone.
We did this amazing walk over the Tongariro crossing. It took us 7 hours to walk it and we walked up over volcanoes and in the craters. There were 4 small lakes up in the crater too, so weird. It was so beautiful. That's actually the area they used as Mordor in The Lord of The Rings. I was sooo sore after walking for that long, so luckily there was a spa at our hostel that night.
We made it to Wellington on the 24th, the most southern part of the North Island. Our driver took a few of us to the motorway that night. It was soo neat. I had never been to anything like it before. The race actually got pretty intense.
The next day we crossed over to the South Island. We stayed at the Abel Tasman National Park for two nights and had to sleep in tents. We went sea kayaking for half a day. It was pretty cool. The waves were huge and I got pretty wet since I was in the front. We had wanted to spend an extra day there, but it was raining when we got up, so we just jumped back on the bus.
In Barrytown the whole group on the bus went to the pub at the hostel. Except, it was a themed party. It was a cross-dressing party. Let me tell you, Trev makes a beautiful woman. Don't worry, got lots of pictures. I dressed in Trev's clothes and looked a lot like Riv.
In Franz Joseph there is a natural glacier, one of only 3 in the world in such warm climates. We got to walk on the glacier. We took another 7 hour tour over the glacier. It was the most scary thing I've done so far. Trev wasn't scared at all though. It was awesome though. The ice was so blue and we got to walk through crevasses and everything. It started raining on our way back down the galcier though, so we were pretty wet and our bus driver wouldn't let us get our bags out since they were packed way at the back, so we had to sit on the bus for 3 hours in wet clothes. Then, when we got to our hostel and wanted to change into dry clothes, I found that the beer that Trev asked me to put in my pack had exlpoded all over everything. Not a good day. However, Trev did do my laundry ( a first) and made me dinner.
Yesterday we sropped for a bit in Wanaka and did this maze thing. It was neat, but I was so lost. Trev had to help me find my way out. We are now in Queenstown, the adrenaline capital of the world. There is so much to do here, but you will go broke doing it all. Trev is in the process of doing 3 different bungy jumps at the moment. I chickened out, I was going to go. I am booked for para-sailing this afternoon.
It's been so much fun though. We have met some incredible people. We are just having a blast. Can't believe we are still just in the beginning of the trip though. We still have so much to see and do.
Monday, January 12, 2004
First week..........
What a great first week, we can't believe it's already over!
Summary......
Monday
We arrived in San Francisco, 2 hours late because of security delays. First thing we did was rent a car - a red Dodge Stratus (supposed to be a Geo Metro but we got a free upgrade). We met up with Andy and George for dinner and then just chilled for the night.
Tuesday
We drove out to Muir Woods. It's a big forest of huge red wood trees. We got to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge to get there and then we drove up a really windy road through the mountains. Just the drive there was awesome. We did a tour through the woods and almost got lost. But we made it back before dark. When we got back to Andy's, they took us out to a little bar named Boswells for some Karoake.
Wednesday
We spent the day in "the City". We drove to downtaown and parked the car. We got to take the historic trolly down to the wharf where we did a tour of Alcatraz. It was really neat. We got to cross the Bay on a ferry over to the island. The tour through the prison was quite interesting. We learned about the history of the island and the prison and who was held there. We then just toured around Peir 39 and Fisherman's Wharf. They are the touristy areas. Peir 39 is like a miniature fair, there was even a Merry-go-round. We had the staple Clam Chowder in a bread bowl, Alison even liked it. We walked back to the car and walked through China town.
Thursday
We got up early and went for a 12 hour drive. We drove down Highway 1. It's the highway that runs along the Pacific coast. We stopped in the little town of Santa Cruz and ate our lunch on the Pier. We continued driving down the coast for the rest of the afternoon. We took some really nice pictures. We didn't get back until late, so we just stayed in while Andy and George went out.
Friday
We wanted to go to Napa for some wine tours, but we decided that was a little out of our budget, since most of the tours were done by limousine. So, instead we went to San Jose to the Winchester Mystery House. This crazy lady thought spirits were trying to get her and her psychic told her that to keep ther spirits away, she needed to continue building and never be done until she dies. So, she bought some property and started the building. The thing is, she lived for another 38 years, and had to keep building. So she would just build around what was already there, thus blocking windows, making doors open to walls. There was a door that opened to nowhere and a flight of stairs that led the ceiling. It was an impressive house which cost her $5.5 million to build.
For dinner, Andy wanted to take us out for sushi. So, we tried it. Trev ate raw fish!! Alison just tried the vegetarian stuff.
Saturday
We took it easy during the day, because we were going to party that night for George's birthday. George wanted to drink 25 drinks for his 25th birthday, but he passed out at 24 drinks, so close!
Sunday
Another easy day recovering from the night before. We just got our stuff together and ready for leaving tomorrow.
WOW!! I can't believe it. This is where the real excitement begins, we are crossing an ocean tomorrow!! (but it is a 15 hour flight)
What a great first week, we can't believe it's already over!
Summary......
Monday
We arrived in San Francisco, 2 hours late because of security delays. First thing we did was rent a car - a red Dodge Stratus (supposed to be a Geo Metro but we got a free upgrade). We met up with Andy and George for dinner and then just chilled for the night.
Tuesday
We drove out to Muir Woods. It's a big forest of huge red wood trees. We got to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge to get there and then we drove up a really windy road through the mountains. Just the drive there was awesome. We did a tour through the woods and almost got lost. But we made it back before dark. When we got back to Andy's, they took us out to a little bar named Boswells for some Karoake.
Wednesday
We spent the day in "the City". We drove to downtaown and parked the car. We got to take the historic trolly down to the wharf where we did a tour of Alcatraz. It was really neat. We got to cross the Bay on a ferry over to the island. The tour through the prison was quite interesting. We learned about the history of the island and the prison and who was held there. We then just toured around Peir 39 and Fisherman's Wharf. They are the touristy areas. Peir 39 is like a miniature fair, there was even a Merry-go-round. We had the staple Clam Chowder in a bread bowl, Alison even liked it. We walked back to the car and walked through China town.
Thursday
We got up early and went for a 12 hour drive. We drove down Highway 1. It's the highway that runs along the Pacific coast. We stopped in the little town of Santa Cruz and ate our lunch on the Pier. We continued driving down the coast for the rest of the afternoon. We took some really nice pictures. We didn't get back until late, so we just stayed in while Andy and George went out.
Friday
We wanted to go to Napa for some wine tours, but we decided that was a little out of our budget, since most of the tours were done by limousine. So, instead we went to San Jose to the Winchester Mystery House. This crazy lady thought spirits were trying to get her and her psychic told her that to keep ther spirits away, she needed to continue building and never be done until she dies. So, she bought some property and started the building. The thing is, she lived for another 38 years, and had to keep building. So she would just build around what was already there, thus blocking windows, making doors open to walls. There was a door that opened to nowhere and a flight of stairs that led the ceiling. It was an impressive house which cost her $5.5 million to build.
For dinner, Andy wanted to take us out for sushi. So, we tried it. Trev ate raw fish!! Alison just tried the vegetarian stuff.
Saturday
We took it easy during the day, because we were going to party that night for George's birthday. George wanted to drink 25 drinks for his 25th birthday, but he passed out at 24 drinks, so close!
Sunday
Another easy day recovering from the night before. We just got our stuff together and ready for leaving tomorrow.
WOW!! I can't believe it. This is where the real excitement begins, we are crossing an ocean tomorrow!! (but it is a 15 hour flight)
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