Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Bungy!


IMGP4689
Originally uploaded by
theslaad.

I jumped. It was cool! Got a bit wet though.

Everyone should bungy (Except Jen who doesn't have to).

Offical photos which we have copies of should be available here shortly. Just search on the 31st Jan.

White water rafting tomorrow.

Edit - The photos are available at that site, but I've put them on Flickr as well.


Tuesday, January 30, 2007

On to North Island


IMGP4654
Originally uploaded by theslaad.
We've done lots of little things since we went whale watching in Kaikoura.

We drove up to Nelson where we stayed at a really convenient in-town campsite. It's really a motel but the couple who run it bought a power lead and rent out a spot under a jacunda tree to someone every night, then let you use the motel unit in the morning. We had a look around the town which was nice enough and then went to the cinema to watch Blood Diamond. It was quite good once you got used to Leo's accent, but quite depressing also. The next morning we went to the Saturday market which was pretty cool as Nelson is a really arty area so there were lots of crafts to look at and locally grown produce.
After the market we visited the World of Wearable art museum. Lots of wacky outfits to look at plus they have joined up with a car museum so there are cool Cadilacs and engines!

From Nelson to Picton is a scenic drive through the hills and along the coast called the Queen Charlotte Drive. It takes you past the beautiful Sounds. We had a nice sunny day for a change and when we arrived in Picton we played a spot of crazy golf. Our reason for going to Picton was to catch the ferry but we were lucky enough for there to be a maritime festival on so there was music and fireworks to enjoy.

The next morning we caught he 8am ferry across the Cook Strait to Wellington. It was Sunday so when we arrived we were able to park near the centre of the city easily and cheaply. We were very peckish and spent a while walking around Wellington looking for a pizza restaurant; not something that existed very much in Wellington unfortunately, but eventually we found somewhere and satisfied our craving. We spent the afternoon in the Te Papa museum. It is the national museum and celebrates New Zealand. It has geological exhibits telling you about volcanoes and earthquakes, New Zealand history stuff, sheep, maori meeting houses and carvings and lots of other interesting things. It was really good.
We spent the night at a campsite around 20 minutes outside of Wellington and then drove back into the city the next morning.

Parking on a Monday was much trickier than on a Sunday and we drove around the city centre for a while, eventually parking near to the Botanical gardens. We had a walk around and a little picnic. It was nice but Wellington is so windy! We also visited the outsides of the parliament buildings. One of which is an oldfashioned looking marble building and the other is a beehive. Being slightly defeated by the parking situation we drove to a small suburb where we think Peter Jackson lived and looked around the shops there a bit before making our way further North.

We had a really pretty drive to a place called Woodsville. There were rolling hills, a metal guy, a full size modern stonehenge and Rivendell.

Today we drove to Napier which is famous for having lots of Art Deco buildings. It's quite pretty. We are on our way to Lake Taupo (which is the size of Singapore) to do our extreme stuff.

Chris is going to bungy...

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Buskers, Springs and Whales!


IMGP4574
Originally uploaded by theslaad.
Christchurch buskers festival kicked arse. We spent an evening watching a comedy show in a pub, then the next whole day watching comedians, jugglers and acrobats, then that evening we watched another comedy & acrobat show.

The Hanmer hot springs were very hot! Especially since we visited them on the first hot day we've experienced so far in New Zealand.

Whale watching was bloody amazing! Sperm whales are huge and when their tales go up in the air it's one of the coolest things you'll ever see.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Fox Glacier


IMGP4475
Originally uploaded by theslaad.
Yesterday we did something very cool. We walked on a glacier! There are only 3 places in the world where you can just walk from rainforest onto a glacier: Fox glacier, where we were, Franz Joseph, 20km up the road and Patagonia. So we considered ourselves quite priveleged to be able to do it.

We were told to wear 3-4 layers of upper body clothing including a raincoat and they provided us with some sturdy boots.
We rode on an old fashioned bus to the viewpoint carpark. The company have been running tours for around the last 100 years and they like to use old style buses. They had some great old photos of people too, dressed quite differently to how we were all dressed!
We walked across the car park and were standing on some small rocks. Our guide asked what we were standing on. A few people named some rocks before the guide took his pick axe and chipped away - ice flew up. It was pretty weird to be standing on camoflagued ice.

We had around an hour and a halfs walk from the car park to be actually standing on the glacier. Our first glimpse of the glacier took our breath away. It was amazing to just see it sitting there filling up the valley. We could also see the part that feeds down into the part we were going to be on. The bottom part that we were on moves at around 20cm a day at the moment where as the feeder part moves at 9m a day. Apparently people have tried to climb up but no one has ever succeeded because it moves too fast.
Our walk took us over a few fast flowing streams and into the rainforest where we mostly climbed steps up to the top of the ice. One part was a little hairy with a steep drop to one side, so they give you a chain to hold onto. Once we were out of the forest and next to the ice it got a bit colder and we replaced the layers that we had shed whilst walking through the forest, we also strapped on our crampons so that we'd have grip on the ice. Usually at this poiont we would have gone for our walk on the glacier, but we had to wait for about 20 minutes because the other groups hadn't come down yet because the route that they take through a crevase had collapsed a bit. So our guide had to go and help carve some new steps at which point the groups came down very slowly one at a time.

Being on the glacier was incredible. Usually they're all covered in snow when you see them in the Alps, but this one had deep crevases and peaks, and was a deep blue colour under the dirt. We took lots of photos to prove how cool it was!

Today we made our way back to the east coast, where the sun shines, via Arthurs Pass. We are staying in Christchurch tonight and tommorow to watch the Buskers Festival and then will head up the coast a bit.
By the way, we found out why it's rained on us so much. It's because it was so hot in Alice Springs! All that hot wind comes across the Tasman sea sucking it up and then drops it all on the west coast of New Zealand when it hits the cooler mountains. So at least we know why we were constantly soggy. We should be ok now!

Friday, January 19, 2007

Milford Sound


IMGP4370
Originally uploaded by theslaad.
It's not a sound it's a fiord!

Today we drove 120km from Te Anau to Milford Sound for a boat trip. It was, as always, fairly cloudy but we enjoyed some pretty cool views as we drove along. There were temporary waterfalls along the mountain sides and some tops still had snow or ice on them. About two thirds of the way along the road there is a one way tunnel. Some clever Keas have made the waiting area their home, so we got to get quite a close look at New Zealand's alpine parrot. The tunnel doesn't seem to have had any work done to it recently and it was very dark inside.

We arrived at the visitor centre car park in the rain which didn't stop until we got back to Te Anau. We are officially cursed. Apparently only 1 in 6 people see Milford Sound on a clear day, but most of those must be in the summer.

We did have a pretty cool trip anyway. The low cloud made the whole area very atmospheric and dramatic looking, plus the waterfalls were very splishy. We managed to see all of the advertised wildlife - some seals, a pod of dolphins with a little baby one and a solitary fiordland crested penguin who was back early for the molting season. so we counted ourselves quite lucky in that respect.
We had chosen the nature cruise over the ordinary cruise so we had someone telling us interesting things about the formation of the fiord and about the area in general. The most famous landmark is Mitre Peak, but we didn't see it!
We had a good time but returned to our van quite chilly and quite soggy and very thankful that we packed fleeces and waterproof coats and shoes.

Glowworms

Glowworms are beautiful magical little fellas.

We went to quite a scary cave system where there is fast flowing water and low ceilings to see them, once we had walked through for around 250m we got in a little boat. It was completely dark and everyone was silent. All over the ceiling shone the tiny glowworm bums, it was a bright green light that shone brighter the hungrier the worm. It was extremely cool!

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Southern Scenic Route (Dunedin - Invercargill)


IMGP4248
Originally uploaded by theslaad.
Tuesday was a bit of a bad day. We got up, and it was sunny and nice, and we drove around the Otago Peninsula. We had intended to go to Lanarch Castle and to the Albatross colony. Unfortunately both places charged far more money than we wanted to pay for entry. The drive on the other hand was really nice and scenic.

After a bit of lunch we set out on the "Southern Scenic Route". We had a map with all the interesting places on route marked on it. What wasn't on it were the roads that were sealed and the roads that were unsealed. Unsealed roads suck. The first site we tried to get to we drove for 20km on a gravel track at about 20-30kph before finding a sign saying that it was a further 12km to where we were going. We gave up on that and drove back another 20km further along unfinished roads back to the main route. We then missed the next stop completely somehow. By this point it had clouded over and after another "short" 10km off-road drive we reached Nugget Point, which was lovely, but extremely cold and windy, and it started to rain. We walked along the cliff to the lighthouse and saw a whole load of seals playing on the rocks below us.
We found a nice Christian campsite to stay in, but it was a slightly disappointing day.

Yesterday was much better (for the most part). We stopped off for short walks to 3 different waterfalls in the morning, the most impressive of which was the McLean falls. The sun came out in the afternoon and we only had 8km of unsealed road to drive all day!

We visited Curio Bay which is the site of a fossilised forest which died 180million years ago and is perfectly preserved on the rocks. "It looks like wood, but feels like rock!".

We also went to Waipapa Point which is the site of the worst shipping disaster in Kiwi history. We had heard that there might be rare New Zealand Sealions there, and there were. There were 3 just lying on the beach. The one on its own when we got there was being crept towards by a stupid girl who was choosing to ignore the warnings and advice not to get too close to them. It was only a female, not a 500kg male monster, but nevertheless it'd give a nasty nip. As it rose up and started to give chase, she legged it as fast as her little legs would carry her, and I got a few decent snaps.

So far so good. We were having a lovely day. Unfortunately, having arrived in Invercargill and having spoken to a lovely lady who pointed us to our campsite, we discovered that our cards wouldn't work to let us take out any money. Fearing the worst, we logged onto our online banking site to check out the account, to find that it had disappeared...

Oops.

Anyway, we spent the rest of then night talking to Natwest on the phone to see what had happened and what we could do about it. Seems that our cards may have been compromised due to someone stealing card numbers from a website that we'd both bought something from (dunno which). So Natwest decided to just stop the cards working. The situation is not quite resolved as yet, but it will be, probably. We're gonna get new cards sent somewhere we can get them, and then it should all be OK. It was pretty worrying for a while when we were sitting around waiting for Natwest to open though.

Off to the Glowworm Caves in a bit then Milford Sound tomorrow.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Penguins!


IMGP4112
Originally uploaded by theslaad.
On Sunday we saw 97 penguins and 2 bonus seals!

We waited in our van playing cards at the beach where the Yellow eyed penguins come to shore. We were going to just visit the hide along the beach to watch them but decided instead to pay the $13 and take a tour. There were just 6 of us with Denis the guide. We walked through some bush and then along a ridge before we stopped. Chris and I were a few people along so were quite surprised when we realised we stoppped really close to a Dad penguin and his 2 chicks. We stood for about half an hour taking their photos and watching along the beach to see if anymore were coming home after a hard days fishing. We spotted two more coming in but they were quite a long way away down on the beach so it was great to be with the guide right near to the ones that had stayed home to look after the chicks. Apparently they share the role 50/50 with one parent going to sea fishing one day and then staying home with the chicks the next day. As we were leaving someone from the group spotted a seal coming ashore down on the beach, buy one penguin tour and get one bonus seal - can't be bad.

After some tasty chilli-con-carne and another game of cards in our van it was time to see the Blue Penguins at their colony in Oamaru Harbour. The Blue Penguins are a rare species of penguin and are quite unique becaue they come in just as it's getting dark, they also tend to come in in groups. We found a seat in the hide and sat for about three quarters of an hour waiting for the little guys to turn up (they only stand about 25cm tall). It was extremely chilly but worth the wait to see 6 penguins surf to shore, shake themselves off and start the climb up the rocky slope. This was quite a slow process with the penguins looking around nervously. One brave one took the lead and scouted ahead. They were almost at the top of the slope when a flock of noisy seagulls flew over and scared them. Four ran back down the slope and back to the water, but the brave scout and his friend carried on to run across the road and to the grassy area near to where they nest. The other four came back out and completed their journey too. As the night progressed we saw about 5 more groups come to shore of between around 5 and 20 penguins. They all went through the same slow process and all were ashore by 10:30. Quite a lot of people left before that point but we waited until they were all back. One little fella came in the opposite direction to the others and walked along the edge of the rocks near the hide, as we were leaving we saw him walking along the path back to the car park. We were really close to him but he didn't seem too bothered. Chris went and told one of the guides so that they could keep an eye on him, there's been some problems at the centre with people running the penguins over as they drive home.
Oh, and we also saw another bonus seal.
We camped at a free site that night in the middle of nowhere which we suspect may be frequented by axeweilding murderers.

Yesterday we drove on to Dunedin. Along the way there is a beach called Moeraki that is famous for having almost spherical boulders along the shore, so we stopped in for a look. They were pretty cool. One had broken open so you could see that it's formed around a core.
We spent the rest of the day looking around Dunedin and doing a bit of shopping. The staion is the most photographed building in the whole of New Zealand, it did look nice. The first church was a cool building too.
After booking in at our campsite we took a drive out across the penisula to a beach called Seal Point in the hope that we might see a few. We walked along the path and met a few people coming the other way who had seen sealions further along the beach and a few yellow eyed penguins coming ashore. We could see a brown splodge on the sand which we distinguished with our new binoculars as a seal, so we careered down the sand dunes to take a closer look. He was a nice fella but quite sleepy and covered in flies. He moved around a bit though to prove he was alive. We sat on top of a small dune and kept our eyes peeled for more wildlife. We were rewarded with a yellow eyed penguin coming ashore, we watched him dry off and reoil his feathers but unfortunately something or someone scared him and he went back out to sea. A few minutes later he came back but went almost straight back out to sea again so hopefully what ever was scaring him went away and he managed to get back to his nest. The sandy dunes were very steep trying to get back up to the van afterwards. We didn't see any sealions, but there's a place we're going to visit a bit further up the coast where there should be some.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Kiwiland


IMGP4075
Originally uploaded by theslaad.
We caught our flight from Melbourne and arrived in Christchurch on Thursday (11th). It was quite a short flight but we had to wait ages to get through customs. Because we had walking boots we had to go to a special area so they could see if we were bringing in any dirt with us. Some people were having to unpack their tents and stuff, quite annoying but if it helps keep New Zealand beautiful...
We checked ourselves into our cheap backpackers and then set about finding ourselves a campervan. Our Wicked van was good but quite cramped so we've upgraded a bit to an Ezy Cruisa. We can stand up in it and it has a fridge and indoor cooking area which is quite handy considering it's not quite sitting outside weather like we had in Oz. It's definite jeans weather!
Christchurch was quite pretty and fairly English. We had a bit of a look at the cathedral and the market and walked along the river before starting our road trip.

The first bit of our trip on Friday evening was to Ashburton and we didn't really see much. Yesterday we drove to Lake Tekapo and the scenery started! Beautiful hills and rivers, the colours are amazing with the hills being coloured by the hundreds of lupins growing around, and the rivers and lakes are an icy blue. We should have been able to see Mount Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand, but it was far too cloudy. The clouds did look cool hanging low over the hills though. We carried on past another huge lake to Twisel where we stayed the night.

This morning we drove to Oamaru (where Hannah lived for a bit?). It's quite a pretty little town with nice white stone buildings. We walked along a jetty to see if we could spot any seals, but no luck. Tonight we're going to go penguin spotting. Should see some nice yellow eyes a bit further along the coast and then we're coming back to see the blue penguins nest at a special site in the harbour. Should be cute!

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Adios Australia


IMGP3757
Originally uploaded by theslaad.
Hooray!
We have succesfully managed to survive our time in Australia. No sunburn despite the extreme UV rating, we went in the sea and didn't get eaten by sharks, stung by jellyfish ar left behind. We went to Queensland and didn't get eaten by crocs. No snake bites in the outback or redbacks or funnelwebs in any of the toilets we sat on and we have had a really rather marvellous time.

The things we liked best about Australia include Sydney & the Blue Mountians, the wildlife, learning to surf, Kings Canyon, the reef, the rainforest...er everything really except for the persistant flies and the blazing heat.

We're off to New Zealand tomorrow and are quite excited about that too. Anyone got any tips?

Melbourne


IMGP3999
Originally uploaded by theslaad.
Melbourne's chilly. Well 26degrees of so seems pretty chilly after Alice Springs. We like it.
We checked into our Hostel which is OK, except that the room hasn't got any windows, but then it's pretty cheap.

First morning in Melbourne we headed straight to Federation Square (about 150yds from the hostel) and had a look around the ACMI (Australian Centre of the Moving Image), which had lots of fun illusions and zoetropes and that sort of thing. They also had an exhibition of 1980's Australian computer games so we got to play "Horace goes skiing" and "Way of the exploding fist" for a bit.
We decided to sit on the steps of Federation Square and watch a street entertainer whilst having our packed lunch. Seemed like a good idea for a bit. He was pretty funny, did a bit of diabalo, bit of juggling etc. Unfortunately he then started picking on people in the audience and making them join in. That still might have been quite funny if he hadn't picked on me (Chris). I always get picked on. It's not fair. Bastards! Anyway, he made me and a couple of other people disco dance. Nuff said.
In the afternoon we strolled up to the melbourne museum. The building is only a couple of years old so it was extremely well laid out and very entertaining. More than your average amount of nudity for a museum though. Chinese food for dinner in Chinatown.

Yesterday we went for a stroll in the botannical gardens. Nice enough place. Then we went to the casino because Bill Bryson and Kim (from Mui Ne) said that we had to. The Casino is enormous. Housed within a shopping mall/hotel/nightclub complex there are several football pitch sized rooms full of every game you might want to play. We avoided the $50 minimum bet tables and headed to the 2c a go pokies. We stuck a dollar in each. Jen won 15c back and I won 10c. Not bad going really. We didn't have a clue what we were doing. It's not like the fruit machines at home. We headed back to our hostel for their free barbeque night. Couple of sausages and a fish finger each.
After the barbeque (and a couple of peices of toast) we went looking for a bar. Not as easy as you might think. The first three we tried were all closed, possibly permanently, possibly until they reopen as karaoke clubs. We found somewhere nice in the end and consequently are a little hung over today.

Just watched Borat and laughed a lot. Might have to get a burger in a moment.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

The Outback - Day Three


IMGP3969
Originally uploaded by theslaad.
Another 4am start for us so that we could do our King's Canyon rim walk in the relative cool of the early morning. We arrived at the canyon just as the sun was rising, it was beautiful. We realised the kinds of colours that we would have seen if the sun had been on Uluru while we were there!
The first part of the 3 1/2 hour walk was a quite steep climb but once at the top of the canyon it was pretty flat. The views were amazing.

Half way round the walk we went down into the 'Garden of Eden' where there is a water hole. Quite a lot of people went for a swim, and everyone used it as a place to cool off in the shade and reenergise with a biscuit or two.
Once we left the waterhole we walked up on to the rim where the sun blazed down on us. Our group was being quite slow so Chris and I went ahead a bit with a few others to avoid being in the sun for too long.
The top of the canyon was covered in domes which the Anangu people believe are the remains of hunters who found the abundently fertile valley and proceeded to eat all of the food. They became so fat that they couldn't move and the people who they were collecting food for died. So share your food or else!

Reaching the end of the walk at about 9:45am the temperature had risen to around 37 degrees and we were a bit hot. We returned to our camp for lunch and then spent the next 6 or so hours driving back to Alice Springs.

We enjoyed our trip a lot. Uluru is very cool, but we loved the King's Canyon, it was beautiful. We did get very hot though and the flies were extremely pesky! We are pleased that we survived being in the outback without being got by any critters, getting suburned, dehydrated, or lost.

Off to Melbourne tomorrow.

The Outback - Day Two


IMGP3961
Originally uploaded by theslaad.
We were woken by Steve at 4am so that we could have breakfast and be back at Uluru for sunrise. We were pleased to be able to be out of our tent in the slightly cooler air, but still rather snoozy. We had 3 options for what we could do, we could climb the Rock, do a 7km base walk or go to the sunrise area and then do a 5km base walk.

The Anangu people see Uluru as a very sacred place and it features heavily in their dreamtime stories. It is still used by them for initiation ceremonies and the only people allowed to climb the rock are the Anangu male elders. As such they prefer you not to do the climb. The Aboriginal culture is very much one of making your own choices and mistakes so there is the option to climb, but they refer to the people that do as ants. It's quite dangerous to climb it though, there's a chain at the begining and then nothing, it gets extremely hot and can be windy at the top so often the rangers close the walk anyway which is what happened on our visit. The forcast of rain meant that no-one could climb that day. Chris quite wanted to climb but had already made the decision not to, but quite a few people from our group were going to climb. A little way around from where the chain is are some plaques in memory of the people who have died doing the climb.

Chris and I decided to go to the sunrise viewing area even though it was cloudy. We thought it was worth seeing just in case there was a break in the clouds. There weren't any spectacular colours but the rock looked pretty cool anyway! Afterwards we took a 5km walk around the base. Uluru is very cool. It's as red as you think and has lots of interesting textures and shapes in it. As you walk around there are some parts that are particularly sacred to the Anangu people which you can't go near, but a lot of it you can get right up to and explore. It was very peaceful and not too hot at that time in the morning so we had a very enjoyable walk.
Steve then took us to the Yulara waterhole. The reason that Uluru is so important is because when it rains, water cascades off of it into the waterhole, which collects far more rain than if the hole was out in the open. Accoring to the Anangu dreamtime stories different parts of the rock were formed by different animal ancestors. Around the waterhole is the reamins of two snakes which had a big fight with the winner turning into the rainbow serpent. There are also some very old cave paintings in a part that used to be used as a school.
After our guided walk we visited the cultural centre to gain a bit more info and have a snack and then went back to our campsite to clear up and have lunch (at 10:30).

For most of the afternoon we travelled to our next campsite at Kings Creek Cattle Station. We were relieved to be in the bus for a while as the temperature was 32 degress at sunrise and rose to 42 by the time reached the Station. On our way to the campsite we slept quite a lot but had to wake up just before we got there so that we could gather firewood. A nice surprise for us! When someone asked if there would be snakes Steve replied that it was too hot for snakes. Everyone was quite indignant, but we quite quickly and efficiently collected enough firewood so that we could cook that night. It did seem very crazy to be building a fire in 40 deree heat.
Our dinner was scrummy though, chicken and veggies and homemade bread cooked in the coals of the fire all washed down with a couple of cold beers.
That night we decided to bring our beds outside to see if we'd sleep a bit better. There were far less clouds so it was a little cooler and there was a nice breeze so we slept pretty well. The moon was almost full so it was quite bright and we didn't see anything gribbly, just stars.

The Outback - Day One


IMGP3933
Originally uploaded by theslaad.
We had to get up before sunrise to be picked up at 6am for the start of our adventure into the Australian outback. We saw a beautiful sunrise whilst waiting outside the hotel and then got into our slightly weird looking bus. It had a bus main section and more of a lorry style cab. Our guide was a guy called Steve who has lived in the area for 20 years doing different tourism style things, he told us heaps during the trip so appologies if during these blogs I go off on tangents!
After picking up 15 or so more people we started our long 500km drive to Ayers Rock.

Our first stop, after an hour, was a camel farm. When the first explorers came to the centre of Australia they mostly used horses, but a brighter explorer thought it would be wiser to use camels. This was how people travelled to the area until the railway line so now there are around 1 million wild camels in the area. It's a bit weird because you don't really realise they're a wild Australian animal until you get here. We saw a few at the farm and then after we left we saw a couple of wild ones wandering around. There's something like 350 different plant species in the desert and the camels eat 325 of them, so they're pretty well suited to the area.

The entire time we've been in Australia we've been surprised by how the country looks, until we got to the desert. This is how we pictured Australia - red sand (caused by the iron oxide), big open spaces and long straight roads.

We had a few stops along the way to restock on cold drinks and to keep Steve awake. One of which was at a lookout point from which you can see Mount Connor. It's a tabletop mountain, a little bigger than Uluru and often people mistake it for The Rock. We walked a bit of way up a sand dune to look at a salt lake and then quickly got back into our airconditioned bus.

After picking a few more people up form the airport (who knew you could fly directly to Ayers Rock?) we went to our campsite. It was quite nice with permanent tents with 2 beds. Plus a kitchen / eating area and a couple of barbeques.

We spent the afternoon at the Kata Tjuta National park where there are rock formations known as The Olgas. They are big dome shaped rocks which the Aboriginal people refer to as many heads (Kata Tjuta). It was quite cloudy but the temperature was around 40 degrees. The rangers close the longer walks if the temperature exceeds 36 degrees so we walked around 1km through the gorge and back. It was pretty cool. Up close the Olgas looked like bees nests.

Chris & I are going to make our fortune as bringers of rain. You would think if you're in a desert then it's probably not going to rain. But when we go to deserts it does rain. And so unfortunately it meant that there wasn't really a sunset to see over Uluru. But we did go for a short walk at the base and then to the sunset point anyway, just in case. There were a lot of buses there, some people had fancy champagne things going on, but there really wasn't much colour in the rock as we didn't know where the sun was!

Back at camp we had a good Aussie barbeque with steaks and sausages and then retired to our tents. We ddin't really sleep very well as the temerature didn't get much lower than 26 degrees and with the bit of rain it made it stickier. In our tent it was even hotter than outside, which is where some people chose to sleep but had to come in from the rain.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Happy New Year!


IMGP3716
Originally uploaded by theslaad.
We had a nice New Years Eve. We went to watch Eragon in the afternoon (don't bother, watch Lord of the Rings at home instead) and then cooked up some salmon for our tea before walking into town to watch some fireworks. There were lots of people sitting along the esplanade on blankets in the heat of the evening, it's pretty cool to be able to not freeze to death whilst you watch fireworks! Some were sitting along the edge of the esplanade, legs dangling over the edge just along from the signs warning you of crocs! Foolish Queenslanders, we think the sun affects their brains. We stood at a safe distance and oohed and aahed appropriately. Afterwards we took a bit of a walk to find a bar that didn't charge to get in and stayed there until midnight. They had some quite good music on and sold bottles of fizzy Hardy's wine for a fiver! Great!
It was fun to phone home and speak to a couple of people, a guy passing us told us to say "AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE" (so there you go).
We got up unfeasibly early for New Years Day as our van is like an oven in the Quensland heat but luckily we had a pool to cool off in. We bought some bacon and then took a drive into the Atherton tablelands - Cairns' highlands. We found a nice spot to cook our bacon sandwiches although we were a bit worried about the croc sign further down the road. It was ok though as we were high up from the river and away from the edge!
We had a nice morning exploring the area and looking at variuos waterfalls and rainforest. We ddin't see a cassowary despite signs saying we might, which is quite lucky as they're a bit feisty.
In the afternoon we went to Tjapukai, an aboriginal culture centre where we watched some dancing shows, a didjeridoo demo, spear throwing, boomerang throwing and watched a short history film about the tribe - the Tjapukai - who run the centre. Chris' boomerang came back, but apparently I didn't have enough snap in my wrist! There was also a good show about their creation stories, where the people interacted with holograms.
It's been quite hard to see Aboriginal people in Australia, up until we visited the Tjapukai centre we'd only really seen them on park benches, so it was cool to experience some of their culture. For such a modern country that seems to be pretty well run, the intergration of Aborignal people seems to be a big problem.

Today we handed back our Wicked van and flew to Alice Springs. It's hot here, hotter than Queensland! It feels like when you stand too close to a fire. We're quite proud of ourselves that we didn't get sunburnt while we were in Cairns as most other people we saw were. The sun index is 14, which is classified as extreme. Hopefully we'll stay the right colour for our time here as well. It's forcast to be 42 in the shade for our trip to Uluru tomorrow!

Cairns & The Great Barrier Reef


IMGP3651
Originally uploaded by theslaad.
We drove up to Cairns on Friday the 29th. It was another long journey, about 600km, but there didn't seem like there was much to do in between Airlie Beach and Cairns so it was worth the long stint. The area around Cairns is called the Wet tropics. We found that name very apt as for most of journey it was pissing it down with rain!
We found ourselves a quite nice campsite within walking distance from the city centre and cooked up some grub and had a few cold ones.

For our trip to the Barrier Reef we decided to go with a company that visits reefs different to most other companies. We hoped that by spending the extra cash it would avoid there being a pontoon so the reef is less damaged and there would be more to see. It was good as when we were at the different parts of reef there was only one other boat and we didn't bump into anyone from there.

We were picked up from our campsite and taken to marina where it felt a bit airport like, checking everyone on to the various boats. We filled in a couple of disclaimers and then were on our way. Unfortunately the wind was quite high that day and the catamaran went pretty fast so a few people looked quite green by the time we got to our first site, Chris included.
After torrential rain all night, the clouds parted and we had a bright clear day. Looking forward to our once in a life time snork & dive off the Great Barrier Reef we got straight to it and had a look around. It was amazing! There's so many different types of coral, beautiful colours and shapes. Chris was lucky enough to see a couple of reef sharks (harmless nice fellas) and I got quite excited over some nice nemos with blue stripes. It was a bit crowded with divers as they all swam around a bommie and a few times I got a bit close to other snorks for my liking, but we definitely made the right choice to go to a reef that was further out than others. Whilst we were on the sun deck listening to a reef talk we saw a Green turlte coming up for air - very cool.
The second & third sites were also pretty cool with more fish and coral to be explored. Amongst all the cool stuff we saw, there were a few enormous parrot fish and I think I saw a Maori Wrasse, and Chris saw a black spotted puffer fish and played with a sea cucumber. It was a very well run boat with a slap up lunch and afternoon tea and quite proffessional staff reminding people that it's up to a $20,000 fine for taking anything from the reef.

I was officially a doofus on the trip though and am now not to be trusted (with anything). I took our nice waterproof camera snorkling and took some nice pics, but when the battery ran out and I changed it I forgot to lock the case, hence when I got out of the sea later on and a wave bashed me the door came open and water went in. Oops...
It still mostly works, except for the flash, which probably won't ever work again. We've bought a disposable camera as a backup just in case but it seems to be ok. Luckily I didn't get too told off.