Where On Earth Are Helen And Ian?

We spent a great weekend in Auckland with my friend Lilly who I used to work with at ADT Rail. On the Saturday night we met up with a few of her
friends and went winetasting. It was a really fun night and we all went out for drinks and some dancing at the Viaduct afterwards.

On the Sunday we went with Lilly's boyfriend Edward's friends and daughter to Auckland Zoo. We got to see the illusive Kiwi bird which we hadn't been able to see in the wild - a lot bigger than I thought they would be! Had a really nice afternoon there then went and got fish and chips for dinner and sat by and bay whilst the sun went down eating them out of the paper :-) Yum!

The next day we headed North towards the Bay of Islands back in our little camper van. We stopped and restocked at 'pack n save' (love budget supermarkets) on our way out of Auckland and stopped for lunch at Waipu right on the coast and made friends with a couple of dogs who came and
sat under our table waiting for scraps - we think they belonged to the small building site at a house a little further along round the bay.

We stopped for the night in a DOC (department of conservation) campsite right on the beach at Ureatiti. In the morning we woke up early and watched the sunrise on the beach which was chilly but very pretty before heading on towards The Bay of Islands. We stopped in Kerikeri at the Marden Estate Winery and tried the wine before sitting down to a very nice antipasta platter of cheese, meats and pestos which was fabulous. We visited Paihia in the afternoon and sat by the lake (until it started spitting). We actually managed to find some internet time there too which has been suprisingly hard to find in rural New Zealand. We stayed that night in a holiday park outside Kerikeri by a lovely gushing river.

The next morning we got up slowly and had a little walk down by the river where we met the campsites gardner who recomended the fish and chips at Mangonui in Doubtless Bay so we stopped here for lunch on the way up to Cape Reinga. I (having tried some of Ians fish the last time) decided to try ordering some fish for myself. I had Terahiki which was actually ok... still felt a bit strange to be eating fish though. That afternoon we reached Cape Reinga. Its the tip right at the end of the Northern peninsula where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet, it was pretty awsome to see it so clearly defined in the different colours and currents in the two massive bodies of water.

We left Cape Reinga and travelled back down the Penisula to the Rarawara DOC campsite and once again were the only ones camping there. Fortunately this time the car started ok and we made our way back the rest of the way out of the peninsula stopping at 90 Mile Beach on the way (which is actually 67 miles long not 90!) which is beautiful.

We drove down the opposite coastline on the way back to Auckland and across the Hokianga harbour via a small car ferry (our third of the trip) and we stayed in a cute little community campsite right on the beach front (only ones there) and we woke up to another very beautiful sunrise.

The next morning we drove back to Auckland, stopping for lunch on the way and arrived in time to go for dinner with Lilly and Edward before heading out for some drinks. We were introduced to Lilly's friends Erin and Mark who are soon to be moving to the UK for a year for Mark to do a course with the British Navy in Portsmouth. The plan for the weekend was to head up to Lilly's friends Bach (holiday house) so we invited them to come with us too. Later on Ian and I met up with a friend of mine Will who is my exflatmate Aimee's brother and it was really cool to see him.

The next morning Lilly and Ed picked us up, we picked up Mark and Erin (late) on the way and headed off to the Coromandel and the Bach at Whangamata. We stopped for lunch on the way befpre heading onto Cathedral Cove which is supposed to be beautiful but it started raining (after sun the whole journey) so we headed to the Bach and picked up groceries on the way.

We spent the evening playing Monopoly and Risk - I can honestly say that neither of us has laughed that hard for quite some time it was just hilarious, helped along by great company and loads of Eskimos (sweets), fizzy drinks and M&M's. Apart from Ians very ungentelmanly conduct during the Risk game it was a fantastic evening.

We got up in the morning and cooked breakfast and ate out on the deck in the sun before heading off to Cathedral Cove which was beautiful and well worth the second trip - we've taken lots of photos. Its a naturally formed rock arch between two coves and school geography lessons right infront of your eyes. stunning location and even had a waterfall on the otherside of the beach.

We left there and all had dinner together before they headed back to Auckland and we went to find our DOC campsite for the evening... at least that was the plan... We couldn't find it in the dark despite asking a couple of times for directions. It then started raining again so we found a picnic area just off the main highway with toilets and no 'no camping' signs and slept there. It was the worst nights sleep we've had in the vans due to the trucks going up and down the highway and the unfounded fears of getting moved on in the night.

After our eventful night we set off for Rotorua which is a lake town in a very volcanic and thus 'thermal' area. We visited the Polynesian Spa which had 5 pools ranging in temperature from 36 to 42 degrees and was super relaxing! We spent a couple of hours there (until we got hungry) and left to have lunch by the Lake. After our lunch we took a walk round the lake for a bit and up to the architecturally impressive bath house and museum. We stopped and had hot chocolate before going back to the car and making our way back to Auckland.

We've had a pretty quiet day today in preparation for going with some friends to a pub quiz followed by karaoke tonight and our long flight to LA tomorrow.

We've had a fantastic time in NZ but in no way long enough to do it justice - just wish it was closer to the UK!

Next stop the US!

xxx

So, we arrive in Alice after a 50 minute flight (there was a schoolkid on board - sure beats the bus, I suppose) where we were still fed and then spend two hours waiting for the free hostel bus to leave...
Our hostel private twin turned out to be one of the caravans parked in their grounds, which was pretty cool (as in good AND cold).

We our had two days in Alice and their were far more things to fit in than we'd originally realised. Although all backpackers seem to use it as a place to set off from to visit Uluru, we walked around to see the Royal Flying Doctors Service information centre and museum, the Telegraph Station (the reason there even is an Alice Springs town, which was at one time an orphanage), the first 'hospital' in the Centre, a couple of art galleries, and a few smaller sights.

By far my favourite was the Telegraph Station. It was a reasonably long walk out from town, but we picnic'd in the grounds before entering the station itself and being taken on a short historic tour by a mixed-heritage man who had been one of the orphanage children and then a missionary child - part of the 'Stolen Generation'. It was eye-opening to hear his side of the story and how he thinks it was the best thing that could have happened to him. We managed to track down a published copy of his story in town (more of a pamphlet than a book).

While in one of the art galleries, we both agreed that it would be great to own a true piece of aboriginal art, but we'd heard about the explotative companies that run sweat-shops or just maltreat their artists, so we were a little unsure. However, the piece of art we both loved was luckily in a gallery owned by a council of aboriginals where the profits are poured in to community projects and job-finding resources; a long way from a gallery where we witnessed the owner insulting one of their artists.
We ended up buying the piece (cheap, but still the most expensive piece of art either of us have ever bought) and it's now at mum and dad's, waiting for us to frame it again.

As soon as we'd paid for the piece, we had to run back to the hostel to get the shuttle back to the airport for our flight to Sydney.
Landing in Sydney, we met Helen's Aunt (Elizabeth) at the gate with her Uncle (Keith) getting a sneaky coffee in Krispy Kremes for the free parking.

We spent the next week with them (and the rest of the family), visiting a few of the local towns and sights, including the Three Sisters.
We had a great time, with a party (Karl and Cara's housewarming - good timing for us), a dinner (that ended with us trying to catch an escaped cat), and helping Katherine move to her temporary flat while her and Matthew look for a new house.
Of course, I think Helen's favourite memories will be their dog, Patch

It was lovely to be in a house for a while and have a few days off of moving around, and a shower that doesn't require us to walk outside to get to. We weren't lazy, though; Helen and I cooked a Thai meal one evening, and I cooked a fry-up before we left.
Our final night in Australia was spent in an hotel near the airport as our flight to New Zealand left very early - almost seems rude to have to pay for the whole night when you leave at 4am!

Our last Qantas flight (to Christchurch) was fine, we even got to see a movie that had failed on the flight to Yulara (which pleased me); infact, it was probably the best in-flight meal so far: muesli breakfast!

So, then our New Zealand adventure began, with four weeks until we're back in the UK...

Well, we've finally found the time and a place to update our blog, after a month or so.

Continuing from Helen:

After returning the car we had one more night in Cairns before our early pickup for white water rafting - my early birthday present from Helen.
We were taken up to near the hydroelectric plant on the Tully River (where they'd fully opened the flow for the day, maknig the river as fast as possible) and geared up. Helen looking especially pale in her life-jacket and waterproofs.
Helen wasn't the only nervous one, though, as we had two other girls in our boat, three other guys, and our guide, Kendal (preferring the nickname K to Mint Cake).

The journey down river was hard work, but so much fun. We successfully tackled a couple of grade 4 rapids before lunch and manged to keep everyone in, only losing one person overboard on a calm bit when we bumped an unexpected rock. In fact, the only time anyone else fell out was on the "Guide's Revenge" rapid when K set us all up for a tremendous fall (we have that on video).
He did try to turn the boat over a couple of times, but we kept it right.

We were off the river at about 3pm and starving hungry, despite having had two burgers, a sausage, salad, and drinks for lunch. The bus stopped off at a hostel bar on the way back for us to preview the DVD and photos (of which we bought the lot) and have some recovery snacks.
We were back in Cairns early evening, in time for a few phonecalls home and to cook ourselves dinner.

We had one more day in Cairns, but there's not much really to see or do so we had ourselves a picnic by the lagoon and started to organise our New Zealand accomodation - a campervan.
However, the next day we were up at 5am(!) to catch the shuttle to the airport for our flight to Yulara (the town nearest Uluru). Because we were doing an internal flight to such a small airport (Yulara airport has two gates) we actually had to walk out on to Cairns airfield and to the plane - no bus.
Continuing our positive experience, the Qantas flight was excellent considering the size of the plane and the shortness of the journey (less than 3 hours). I can't think of a bad meal we've had with them.

Landing in Yulara was an experience, seeing the Rock (and Kata Tjuta, the Olgas) in the distance and getting larger. Since we were the only plane landing for a few hours, and there's only one luggage carousel, the bags almost beat us to the airport! It wasn't HOT out, but it was mostly a nice temperature in the sun.
We took the free bus to our hostel (the only one in the area) and then went to rent our car, having discuess with an information guy that this was the best way to see the Rock in such a short amount of time. Since Helen's still under 25 I'm technically the better driver (according to the insurance) so it was cheaper not to insure her as well, leaving me as the sole driver of our Toyota Camry... Sportivo! My (and Helen's) first experience with an automatic.

Since Ayers Rock was handed back to the original Aboriginal caretakers (Aṉangu - who reverted the name back to Uluru), a lot of work has gone in to a joint effort with "European" Australians to jointly look after both the Rock and the bush around it. The Cultural Centre nearby gave an excellent background on European arrival to the Rock, taking it from than Aṉangu, the treatment of it, the fight to get it back, and the new mixed council's work to preserve and heal the whole area.

We drove around the Rock, which is so much larger than any photos are able to impress upon you, and visited the different stopping spots in our own time, which was great. We even managed to avoid the busloads of people being dropped off at different spots.

We returned to the hostel and changed for our Sounds of Silence dinner experience, where we were between Uluru and Kata Tjuta as the sun set, eating kangaroo and crocodile.

The next day we drove to Uluru to see the spectacle of sunrise on its face before we had to go back to the airport for our flight to Alice Springs.

Ok so we finally arrived in New Zealand a week ago and it is beautiful... if slightly rainy at times!

We landed in Christchurch and the first thing we noticed on going for lunch was how great the food is here! Thats something that has continued throughout our visit so far, its just fab!! Anyway we met up with our friends Jennifer and Katherine who we met in Thailand and had a lovely meal with them before Jennifer took us out on the town to a great bar called Fat Eddies with a great funk band playing. The next day she took us on a tour of the local vineyards and we sampled lots of the local wines which were yummy! We headed back to Christchurch in the evening and cooked a big thai meal (I tried my hand at Pad Thai) with Katherines family too and it was really nice to spend time with them!

In the morning we picked up our little "spaceship" campervan (Luke) and headed off towards Mount Cook. The first night the campsite we were heading for was shut and it was getting dark so we camped by the side of a quiet road under a stunning canopy of stars. We only got beeped once by a driver about 7.30am so it wasn't too bad, the locals don't like 'free campers' apparently due to the rubbish they leave behind (needless to say we took all ours away with us). The next day was Ian's birthday so he called home and we had breakfast whilst he opened his cards (suprisingly crease free). We journed up to Mount Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand which was covered in snow and piled by the side of the roads. Again the campsite we were heading for was closed, this time by snow so we backtracked back down the road to another (actually nicer) campsite and watched the sun set over the mountains from the comfort of being inside! I cooked Ian a birthday dinner (due to the fact that we were miles from anywhere and no resturants) and we relaxed in the TV room before retiring to our van to try out the DVD player for the first time and watched Iron Man.

In the morning we headed towards Queenstown through more of the stunning South Island scenery, we've taken lots of photos which (along with the rest) we'll bore people with when we get back, but none of them seem to convey just how beautiful this place is in all directions! The lakes are full of glacier water and so very clear and blue and the mountains are just stunning (even after Nepal). We had a picnic lunch in Queenstown which has a lovely lake but as a town is a little unremarkable - very touristy, before moving on (in the rain) to our nights stop just past Haast on the beach in a DOC (department of conservation site) again in the middle of nowhere. The rain stopped for long enough to cook dinner on our vans slide out gas cooker and wash up so we retired inside and watched a film.

In the morning it was still raining! Ian went off to look at the beach in the driving rain and I joined him when it had lulled for a bit. It was a deserted black sand beach and the waves were massive. Would be a great place to stay in the summer. We moved on up the West coast through the rain - its very frustrating to be in such a stunning location and not be able to see anything... this carried on until we left the South Island so we ended up driving a lot of Kms each day. Theres not much inside stuff to do in NZ, particularly in the South Island, its all either walking, watersports or extreme sports so we carried on our journey up the West Coast to Nelson and onto Picton where we got the Ferry across to Wellington on the North Island.

We arrived at Wellington about 10pm and in the rain so went straight to our campsite. The next morning we went to the Weta Caves which is part of the Weta Workshop that filmed The Lord of the Rings (very exciting!) and to the Te Papa museum (NZ national museum) before continuing on up to stay the night in Mangawhera - we were the only ones on this campsite... again, which was fine... until the morning! It was our coldest night so far at -4 degrees so we started the car in the morning and moved it into a better position to melt the thick ice on the windows... unfortunately the car didnt like this very much and refused to start eek!!! stranded in the middle of nowhere with a car that doesn't work, great! We managed to call the AA who we are covered with through the rental company and they sent someone out - suprisingly quickly due to the fact it was a Saturday morning and he started the car. Aparently it was the combination of a cold battery and a flooded engine. Next time when the engine starts in the cold I'm just leaving it running!! By the time we finally got off and said goodbye to the AA man the ground had become muddy from the rain and the melted frost so the slope we had come down the night before was very slipery! I tried twice to get up it before Ian had to get out and push!

After our eventful morning we visited some caves and went on a little boat trip through the dark and saw millions of glow worms on the ceiling which were beautiful! We made it to Auckland that afternoon.

Taking up from where Ian left off, we picked up the car (still swaying slightly from our time on the boat, which was awesome) and headed up north up the coast. We stopped at Yorkie's Knob on the way to our first nights stop at Port Douglas, where I stayed with Mum and Dad in 1996 when I was here before. It hadn't changed much (apart from more hotels have now been built) and even the marina where we had lunch was very recognisable from when we had dinner there the first time round.

We stopped at a few more beautiful beaches on the way up but eventually arrived at Port Douglas which we actually thought was nicer than Cairns and treated ourselves to great steaks (a change from the free meals at our place in Cairns :-). We stayed in a great hostel called Dougie's in a permanent tent which was very comfortable.

The next day we headed off early and over the Daintree river ferry on our way to Cape Trib which is the furthest you can go in Northern Queensland without a 4x4. We stayed at a lovely hostel just outside called Crocodylus, they assured us that there were no crocs around the site though! After checking in we carried on up to Cape Tribulation beach which is beautiful! Wide sandy beach surrounded by rain forrest with a stream running down to the sea, absolutely idyllic. We paddled in the sea which is so much warmer up further North but just at the last minute decided against a swim as we'd left the towels in the car. We carried on along the beach, walking a little way up the stream and running around in all the wide open space... It wasn't until we were on our way back through the car park back to the car when we saw the "beware crocodiles inhabit this area" signs... glad we didn't go for that swim!!

The next morning we had booked a horse ride on the beach but, although we had arrived at the correct place and heard the booking made we were not picked up. We had been put on the afternoon ride list instead of the morning one :-( we are now on the look out for another horse riding opportunity! As we needed to start making our way back down South we moved on straight away stopping at some boardwalks and doing some rain forest walks on the way which were really beautiful.

Ian drove back from Cape Trib and over the ferry which he was excited about (yes, he is a very good driver...but he did pay me to say that!). Actually we've done about half and half on the driving stakes so far. Anyway, we drove back across the Daintree River and into the Tablelands (more beautiful rainforest). We stayed that night in Atherton but not before seeing the marvelous Crystal Caves... they truly were the most magnificent polystyrene caves either of us have ever seen!!

The next day was a trip to Lake Eacham (which I'm pretty sure was the volcanic lake we visited in 96 but totally different after the 2006 cyclone) and swam in the clear cool (freezing cold actually) water of the lake which was really refreshing and had a picnic lunch. On the way here we had stopped at a town called Yungabara, booked that nights accommodation in Tolga and did the towns historic walk (it has buildings that are a whole 100 years old don't you know!) So on leaving Lake Eacham we headed on to Tolga for our nights stop. We again cooked for ourselves in the hostel and afterward we had a rare treat of having a TV room all to ourselves and to pick what show we wanted to watch! Such luxury!

The next morning we moved on to Undara lava tubes which are 3 hours into mainland Australia (in the bush!). We stopped on the way for supplies as we will be cooking for ourselves in the middle of nowhere in their camp kitchen (more of this later) and then we were on our way. I drove the 3 hour drive and it was fine until the road went down to one lane and there was a road train coming the other way - needless to say I pulled over on to the untarmaced hard shoulder and let him pass!! Other than that it was a very uneventful journey with the whole road looking pretty much the same.

We arrived at Undara and checked into our 2 man 'swag tent' which are all put up for you already :-) and put our food in the big communal fridge... it was at this point that we realised that our idea of a camp kitchen was very different from that of the 'Undara Experience'! A gas hotplate (the aussie bbq) a couple of gas rings and a fridge... not a cooking implement was in site! After some irritation we went to the little shop and managed to find paper plates and plastic knives (not forks though). We laid by the sites pool for a little while before going back to 'borrow' a couple of cups from the free tea and coffee bar and return to attempt our BBQ. So with only the aid of 2 pen knifes, paper plates and plastic knives we managed to cook our bbq of steak, chicken kebabs and corn! Thankfully the salad was ready chopped!... we met another lovely family that had made the same mistake as us and discussed our predicament of cooking the next nights proposed meal of pasta without a pot. They had the same issue with rice and we vowed to find someone to borrow one from.

The next day (day 90 of our trip!) we woke up to the regular sounds of a campsite along with laughing Kookaburras and got up to make our sausages, bacon and eggs...and no we had not found any other implements at this point! It worked surprisingly well, who knew you could scoop up scrambled egg made with a pen knife up off a hot plate with a paper plate?! The beans didn't work however as there was not enough heat to warm the metal enough to cook them.

We had booked onto a 1/2 day tour of the lava tubes in the afternoon so in the morning we went on the 'bush walk' a 1 1/2 hour trail into the bush and back from the camp site. Very hot but rewarding, the landscape was so quintessentially Australian it was hard not to love it, although we didn't find any wildlife to speak of apart from a couple of lizards. We went back to our site to have a quick swim and lunch before the tour. I was cutting cheese for lunch and turned to one side to pick up something else (not even leaving my seat at the picnic table) when we were dive bombed by a kookaburra who flew off with my cheese! cheeky!

We picked up our tour at 1pm and headed off for the half hour drive into the national park to the entrance of one of the tubes. The tour was really good and very informative about the formation of the tubes etc... and the caves themselves were spectacular to see with lots of patterns on the walls from the different oxides being released from the metals in the rock. The tour was finished with scones and jam on the surface.

We managed to find someone to borrow a pan from (hurrah) and cooked dinner before going to the communal campfire for an organised singsong around the fire, which was so bad it was actually quite good. We even sang 'Waltzing Matilda' and of course the Rolf Harris classic 'Tie me Kangaroo down sport' ha ha ha!

The next day we headed back to Cairns (stopping for another Lake Eacham picnic on the way) to drop the car off.