New Zealand– Christchurch, Akaroa, Kaihoura and Wine Country

We landed in New Zealand and set off to pick up our snazzy 24 foot Maui Camper Van and listen to one hour of instructions, which of course I immediately forgot. We headed out down the road and stopped for groceries and I managed to quadruple park the thing and only headed the wrong way down one laneway. It felt a little like a cross between the Griswald’s New Zealand vacation and that Robin Williams RV movie. Even more so a day or two later as I’m careening down hairpin turns, almost on two wheels, with no guard rail, 1000 feet down to the rocks below and Jude screaming “Slow down, can’t you see the speed limit is 15 km/hr” (but that’s getting ahead of myself)! Here’s a picture of Jude next to our little home away from home (the only thing missing was Frodo…oh and the girls too of course).


On our first day it was warm and sunny so we stopped at the Art Fair in Christchurch and had a glance at lots of unique Maori crafts and little booths where local artists displayed their wares. We were impressed by all talents and purchased some local handiwork.

We then drove out to a quaint little town on the coast called Akaroa across a smaller range of mountains, through green pastureland and down to the blue waters below.

Of course no scene in New Zealand is complete without tons of sheep in the foreground and the small coastal village hugging the coastline.

That same day we traveled north along the coast and stopped in the town of Kaikoura which is well known for whale watching and a seal colony. The whales were too far out to sea so we took a stroll along the shoreline where some divers were hunting for butterfish, ocean crayfish and mussels.

Along the same rocky shore we came upon the seal colony, basking in the sun on yet another beautiful morning. They were so lazy you could walk up close to them without disturbing them other than to keep an one eye open in case of danger.

The coastline here was spectacular with limestone cliffs, bright blue water and sparkling bays

The next day we headed further north to Marlborough wine country. As you probably already know (Garth I’m talking about you here) the Kiwis are serious about their wines and so we drove past winery after winery nestled between a few older mountain ranges.

Of course we couldn’t just drive by admiring the view without stopping and doing a little tasting of our own. There were so many to choose from but one of the first ones we stopped in was the Grove Mill winery where besides tasting the wine, which was great, they actually have vines set up so you can taste all the various grapes as well! We tried Merlot, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and even Gewürztraminer grapes and it was amazing how different they all looked and tasted.

A mile or two down the road we stopped at the Cloudy Bay winery, sampled their latest vintages and picked up a bottle or two. We will have to look for a few of the wines we tasted, especially the Te Koko which we both really liked, when we get back home.

So after leaving wine country, it was only another 120 kilometres along winding mountain roads, to our next stop, Nelson. We managed to get there without having to break out the divorce papers (thank god for the Garmin GPS!) and settled down for another night in the Camper Van. What a wonderful couple of days in paradise!

Blue Mountain Bush Fires

The 600 km drive between Wodonga and Sydney consisted of the longest stretch of brown grasslands, dried out creek beds and withered trees we had ever seen in our lives. You had to feel sorry for the poor cattle, sheep and alpacas most of which would huddle under the few trees providing shade with the odd one out hunting for whatever blades of grass they could find. One minor disapointment for us in Australia was that after driving more than 2000 kms we only saw three wild kangaroos (other than lots of dead ones) but I suppose that's because we drove mainly in the daytime and roos are nocturnal. We actually saw more wild emus, koalas and bats than roos.

After arriving back in Sydney, we spent the next day out in the Blue Mountains, so named due to the overall blue haze in the air caused by the oil being present in the atmosphere from all the eucalyptis trees. Here is a picture of the "Three Sisters" rock towers.

There are a number of trails around the town of Katoomba that lead to various viewpoints in the Blue Mountains. Here Jude and I have climbed down a number of steep steps and across a catwalk to one of the Three Sisters rocks.

There were a number of signs posted in the area about a “Controlled Burn” planned the very day we were visiting. We watched the smoke, with fire trucks parked behind the flames, as the fire grew stronger and stronger

Then the fire appeared to jump the firebreak and was soon roaring down the escarpment. You should be able to make out the roof and chimney of a house just to the left of the 50 foot high flames.

I’m sure who ever owned that house was more than a little concerned and then the fire department called in two helicopters to help control the blaze. We watched them pick up water buckets and start ferrying water from the golf course pond and dumping on the edge of the fire. The fire went on for over an hour and then eventually burnt out.

One of the major activities we read about before we came to Sydney was the Harbour Bridge Climb so we signed up for it on our second last day in Australia. To start with you have to put on these very attractive…NOT… grey jumpsuits just so that you don’t distract the drivers on the highway going across the bridge. You also have to take a breathalyser test before they let you any further.
Then you put on a harness, safety cable with lanyard and get wired up with a radio and headset. The climb is not too strenuous but is a little unnerving at first, until you kind of get used to walking on a metal grating suspended 300 feet above the water and of course all Jude could think about was the sharks in the harbour.

The climbers look like ants in this view from the water, inching their way up to the top of the highest span. You actually learn quite a lot about the architect, the bridge and how it was constructed. It was built in 1932 and is still the largest single span steel bridge in the world.


Here is a group shot in our cute grey jumpers with the famous opera house below. It was a beautiful day and the view from up there was spectacular but for safety reasons you were not allowed to bring your own cameras.

What a great way to finish off our visit to Australia and Sydney – we must say we had an absolutely wonderful time, somewhere, sometime we definitely will come back to visit. Now as we prepare to enjoy a few weeks in New Zealand-so long Aussies and hello Kiwis!

Marvelous Melbourne, Great Ocean Road and a National Tragedy

There has always been a deep rivalry between "Marvelous Melbourne" and Sydney both of which claim to be the best city in Australia to live in. Sydney has its harbour and Melbourne has its waterfront and both have a lot of history and are great places to visit. While in the area, we visited Surfers Paradise (Torquay), toured the arts fair on the Esplanade and ran in some magnificent parks. Here is a picture of the downtown from across the Yarma river with the Australian Moving Pictures Center in the foreground.

One of the interesting things about Australia is that they readily admit they have a drinking problem with "Bottle Shops" on almost every corner (there were 26 in the small town of Port Douglas!) and beer and wine sold in grocery stores as well. On the highway you will pass a sign declaring "Police in this area are targeting Drink Driving" one minute and then go past a drive through bottle shop, like the Thirsty Camel store pictures below, the next minute.

The day we chose to take the "Great Ocean Road" we had perfect weather and stopped at a number of surf stores, scenic viewpoints and expansive beaches along the way. This picture is from Surf Beach and Danger Point, so named due to the number of shipwrecks that occurred along the coast here. Those little dots in the picture are surfers and people walking along the shore with the tide out. It's hard to imagine from this small picture the size and beauty of this stretch of beach but trust me it was amazing.

This is Bell's Beach where they have the Rip Curl Pro surfing championships next month. You can see some a number of spectator grandstands in the top right corner of the picture but again it's hard to grasp the scale of it from a small picture.

Other sites along the 5 hour 150 km winding drive include the Aireys point lighthouse.

At one point we stopped at a stand of Eucalyptus trees where a number of cars had stopped and people were pointing up into the trees. We counted 10 Koalas right in that one spot, hanging in the trees right above the highway. Here are two of the cute animals right next to each other.

Some of them were sleeping but some were moving around in the tree tops like this one, swaying and peering down at us from the end of a branch that looked hardly big enough to support him (I know it's a him due to the marking on his chest).

One of the most photographed and spectacular sites along the road is the 12 Apostles, which is a series of 6 limestone towers (there used to be 12 at one time) carved by the waves from the surrounding cliffs.

On the next day, we drove from Melbourne to Wodonga and passed through the King Lake area that was absolutely devastated by bush fires a few weeks ago which we all heard about on the news. Pictures do not really reflect the devastation and I really cannot describe in words what it was like to see the miles and miles of burnt trees, charred forests, burned out cars and leveled homes, knowing that many people died in the fires.

It was a perfect storm situation with 4 years of draught conditions, the halting of planned burning of the under brush due to "Greeny" protests, high winds and 46 deg C temperatures to boot. Here is a picture of a once stately home with a garage off to the side and only a few pieces of metal remaining.

Here is a picture of what's left of a brick house where the entire contents have been burned out so that very little remains. In some cases you would see a burned out house next to one perfectly intact, followed by another burned out shell. I suppose that chance decided which way the winds would blow and which houses would be destroyed and which ones would remain but regardless everyones life has been changed forever.

In some cases the owners were allowed and almost encouraged to stay based on government recommendations, which I am sure are being reviewed, but this fire storm had a life and ferocity of it's own like none that had ever been seen before. Even though more than a hundred people perished we heard many stories of bravery and sacrifice so that a number of people were saved that otherwise may have died. It's not a sight that we will soon forget or ever want to see again.

Visit to Perth to see Amanda and Nick

We had a great time on the cruise but we were really looking forward to spending some time with Amanda and Nick in the sunny city of Perth. One of the first things we did was head out to Rottnest island to go Scuba diving. The trip out on the 65 foot cruiser the Sea Lion was rockin' at times but everyone managed to hang on to their breakfast and even smile for the camera.

Rottnest got its name because the early settlers thought there were huge rats on the island and Ratsnest later became Rottnest or Rotto as the locals call it. They were in fact not rats but marsupials called Quakers that are only found on this island. Here is a picture I got from another blog.

Here is a short video of Amanda and Nick underwater.

The water was a little cool at 70 deg F and the surge, especially in the morning, kept you moving back and forth whether you wanted to or not. We saw a number of interesting stuff including a couple of spiny lobsters hiding under a rock shelf that I would have loved to bring back for supper but no fishing was allowed.

Since Amanda and Nick had to spend some time in class (at least that is what they told us... Maybe I should double check with the Admissions Office) Jude and I went on a road trip to an area called the Margaret River Wine region. On one side is the ocean, beaches and surfers and on the other is hundreds of wineries and breweries as well. It is a big tourist area and internationally known for fine wines. After a quick stop at the tourist info building we decided that the Watershed Winery would be a perfect place to stop for lunch and of course some wine tasting.

The view from the cafe terrace stretched across the tidy rows of vines to a small lake below. The sun was shining, the food was great and we toasted to another eventful day on our adventures. I tried some local beer with lunch and then we both enjoyed some great wine tasting afterwards.

On Sunday we decided to spend the day at the beach so we all headed off to Cottesloe to enjoy the sun, sand and surf. There is an annual event held there called "Sea Art" where a number of artists are encouraged to utilize their creative talents and place large sculptures on and around the beach. They range from recycled tire Emus, large scrabble tiles, a drain plug, kangaroo road kill, stairs to nowhere and a clear globe floating offshore with a gold ball inside it. Here are a couple of examples to show you what they looked like. The first one is called "Crab in the Works" and it looks like a giant wrist watch.

The next one is called "Life Savers" and of course it is located right next to the Aussie Lifeguard station.

It was a clear, sunny and hot day so we went snorkeling off the shore over a reef to cool off. Nick kept diving down and finding stuff caught in potholes in the reef including a ring, sunglasses, four leaf clover pendant and even a rusted usb drive.

We also spotted several giant sea slugs but I thought that I would spare you from seeing pictures of those (Li I can forward those to you personally for your collection)! One strange thing about the beaches in Perth is that while you are splashing around in the water, you can see these helicopters patrolling back and forth above the beach. When Jude found out that they were there to try and spot the big sharks before they try to move in for a snack she decided that staying high and dry on the beach would be just fine for her!

Towards the end of the day we drove over to Scarborough beach to find a place to have dinner and a few drinks. As we came up to the beach we could see a huge line of cars heading the other way and banners and grandstands set up all along the waterfront. The Aussie lifesaving championships are held in March on Scarborough beach and they had just finished the competitions for the day. All these beaches face west so they have the most gorgeous sunsets you can imagine, almost every day.

We settled down for some pub food (fish and chips) and a couple of pints in Peter's by the Sea and watched the sun set behind the Cook's pines. On the way home we ran right into the beach patrol ride program. In Australia you can get charged with "Drink Driving" (note it's not Drunk Driving) with only 0.05 and the roadside breathalyser is mandatory. After blowing into the machine there was a delay during which I was really starting to worry but then he said I was only at 1/3 of the limit and was ok to drive. What a relief, I don't know what we would have done if things had turned out differently.
Now it's time to say goodbye to the kids and head off to Melbourne. Although Australia seems like a perfect fit, Jude threatened that she will come back and make their lives miserable if they don't return so we should see them home in June.

Riding off into the Sunset

Our last two ports of call in Northern Australia were Broome and Exmouth. The approach into Broome harbour was delayed several hours to wait for the tides to rise and for the winds to die down, but this highlighted even more all the different torquoise colours of the water, the blueness of the sky and the red earth of the cliffs. The sun beat mercilessly down and the mercury topped out at about 38 deg C as we toured the pearl shops the port is famous for.

During the late afternoon we headed off for an adventure we had been anticipating for several days, a sunset camel ride on Cable beach! What an adventure as we go from sharks to crocs to snakes to koalas and now camels...what's next? Here is Jude petting and talking nicely to our trusty Horace hoping that it wouldn't spit at her.

When they are crouched down it's actually not too hard to climb aboard, you just have to watch out when they stand up. The back end goes up first so if you are not holding on you can get tossed off right over their head. Horace was the lead camel and a bit of an attention seeker, just look at him smiling for the camera!

Horace was a gentle beast, he didn't spit, hiss, complain or do any other nasty things everyone had warned us that camels do. Most of the camels in the train of 15 animals were captured in the wild but he was the exception being raised in captivity and also the oldest at 25 years old. As the sun set, the shadows grew longer, the moon rose up behind us and we enjoyed our ride more and more. What a great way to spend an afternoon on a stunning beach with a gorgeous view of the sunset and doing something you may never get another chance to do!

After another two days at sea to relax and eat even more food, we stopped in the small town of Exmouth, population 2000, until we showed up and it doubled! This town is really in the start of the outback which we knew as soon as we drove into town and had to stop to let wild Emus cross the highway.

Even though it was just at the end of "The Wet" as they call the rainy season, the air was dry and the ground was parched. Most of the Roos were hiding in the shade but we scared a couple off and I managed to get this parting shot as they hopped and bounded away.

One of the most famous attractions of the area is the Ningaloo reef which is the best place in the world to swim with the huge but harmless whale sharks. Unfortunately they were just starting to return to the area but we did go out to Turquoise Bay to snorkel, float effortlessly in the 32 deg C Indian Ocean water and soak up some rays on the pure white sand beaches. It really was paradise as we almost had the entire beach to ourselves!

Besides wild camels in the area, the outback here also has herds of wild horses roaming around. These two were just standing off the highway, which is the only paved road in this whole area, munching on grass and keeping a close eye on us. There are supposed to be hundreds of thousands of camels and horses that have bred from those that escaped or were released into the wild after the job they brought them here for, like mining or construction, was done.

After another day at sea we had to say goodbye to all the new friends we met on the ship and enjoyed time with. We had some great dinner conversations and tried out various pubs with Keith and Sammy and Bob and Kymm and enjoyed a number of shore excursions together as well. They were all continuing on the cruise as it made its way to Tasmania and New Zealand but we were excited to disembark the Rhapsody of the Seas in Perth so that we could spend time with Amanda and learn more about Western Australia.