Have an Aussie Christmas!

Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday Islands, Australia

We had heard that the best time to see Uluru was at sunrise, so we woke up at 4:30am (it was actually 3:30am, somewhere along the way we forgot to set our clocks back an hour, oops!) and drove an hour to the park. Even with the time lapse we weren't the first ones there. Uluru turned beautiful shades of orange and red as the sun rose, but we were surprised at the number of tour buses that spilled people out that early!

We did a short hike, saw some aboriginal cave paintings, and visited the cultural center to brush up on our history of the native people. A little bit disappointed with Uluru, we drive 40 km to Kata Tjuta, a cluster of enormous rocks, where we took an amazing 4.7 km hike through the Valley of the Winds.

The next day we drove to Alice Springs, with aboriginal art galleries galore, so we picked out a few small paintings that we liked, and will love to see in our home someday. We spent the night in Alice Springs, then spent the following two days driving over 2,000 km to Townsville, on the east coast again, with a stopover in Mt. Isa town. Along the way, we met a friendly local, John, who offered us some beers in exchange for some conversation (being in the Outback, we think we were the highlight of his day!). Once in Townsville, the plan had been to drive north to Cairns, but after a long, sleepless, humid, mozzie-infested night in our campervan, and hearing that Cairns would be worse, we decided to go south instead. Not only that, but you can't swim in the ocean up there because of the deadly stings of the irukandji and box jellyfish! So far this has been our first decision to not go somewhere we had planned. In Townsville, we saw how locals get to swim in the ocean - stinger net enclosures:

We made a short trip south, buying a bed-size mosquito net along the way, to Bowling Green Bay National Park and camped at Alligator Creek - no, no alligator sightings, just a great swimming hole and wallabies! We definitely liked this spot.

After we took the picture of this wallaby, a little one popped its head out of this mama's pouch and said hello!

Leaving, we scored a huge bag of local mangoes for just $5. We got to Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands, and stayed at the Flametree Holiday Park (here we met Paul the Possum and Betty the Bat). We found a last minute backpackers bargain that evening, and the next morning we were on a boat headed to Knuckle Reef, part of the Great Barrier Reef!

The pontoon that Cruise Whitsundays had set up near the reef was awesome! We took a 30-minute intro scuba dive lesson (we are definitely getting certified!), snorkeled, stuffed ourselves with their buffet lunch, cruised on their semi-submersible, and felt like kids again on the waterslide.

We had a day to recover and do errands, then it was back on the water on a sailboat to cruise the Whitsundays. Aboard the catamaran Camira, we snorkeled, lounged on beautiful Whitehaven Beach, and ate another great bbq lunch. Most of all, we just enjoyed being on the sailboat, sailing through some of the 74 Whitsunday Islands.

The next morning we headed toward Noosa, where we had decided to splurge for Christmas and book two nights in a self-contained hotel room. We spent Christmas Day taking a 6.9 km hike in Noosa National Park, and relaxing at Tea Tree Bay beach. The weather has been hot, the ocean water is warm, and it was an unusual way to spend our Christmas, but wonderful nonetheless. We leave here today, but we both wouldn't mind staying here another week.

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends back home!
We miss you and wish you a Happy New Year!

Camping with Koalas

After another enjoyable Air New Zealand flight, we arrived in the Land Down Under. We got to our hotel, Original Backpackers, settled in, then took a tour of the Kings Cross Neighborhood. We got our first glimpse of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge from the botanical gardens, where we also saw a ton of wild cockatoos:

We found a good Thai food place to eat, and planned our walking tour for the next day.

Our traipse through the city the next day brought us first to the fish market, the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere. Ryan had read about a local delicacy, Moreton Bay Bugs, so being the adventurous eaters we are, we tried them, and they tasted like a cross between lobster and crab, without the abundance of meat. We continued to explore Sydney, and ended up at the Opera House (didn't get to do a tour inside though).

Sydney is a big city, and while we were thrilled to actually see the famed sites, we were also ready to get our Jucy Campervan and head to the country.

Getting our campervan the next day turned out to be a headache. First we had to catch the train, then walk to the office, and finally listen to a half an hour lecture about getting all-inclusive insurance because of car robberies/burnings in Byron Bay (we're going there), and kangaroo collisions. We finally got into our brand-new Jucy (albeit 1999 vehicle) and headed south to Bateman's Bay along the coast.

The next day we saw our first kangaroos in Pembula, a coastal town, and free-camped outside of Rosedale. There are "rest areas" that may have toilets, bbq's, tables, and info stations, so Oz is full of places to stop and sleep for free, which is great.

Melbourne was our next big city stop. We took the train from our tourist park into downtown, and walked along the Yarra River, people and site seeing. We soon realized that people love to dress up in Australia, all the time it seems. Kiwis are much more casual compared to the Ozzies! We took in the views from the 2nd tallest building in Melbourne, then ate dinner in the area known as Docklands. We were pleasantly surprised by a Cirque du Soleil-type performance put on free every night for the unveiling of a giant Christmas advent calendar. It was a lovely way to end our stay in Melbourne, and got us in the Christmas spirit.
Next, we started our way along the Great Ocean Road, which starts in Torquay, the surf capitol of Victoria. Although the surf wasn't great, we still checked out Bells Beach, and a ton of other breaks along the coast. Further westward, we spotted our first koalas, and lots of them at that. Right off the road, they sat in the trees, sleeping or eating. A fact we read in a book - Koala's brains are the size of walnuts, because scientists believe most of their energy goes to breaking down toxins in the gum leaves they eat, not to brain function. Cute, dumb critters though:

The free camp site we stayed in that night had koalas in the trees right above us, and to our surprise, they are quite noisy and make a sound like gorillas!

We free-camped again the next night, then drove to Adelaide. The Brownhill Holiday Park we stayed at was inside a reserve, with lots of good trails where we took a hike. What little of Adelaide we saw, we liked, as it had more of a small town feel. But it was time to put ourselves to the ultimate test, and drive the Australian Outback. Flies, heat, long hours in the car...oh, and it poured rain the entire first afternoon and night we were out. Evidently it hasn't rained like that in 15 years!

As we drove to Coober Pedy the next day, both sides of the road were like lakes. Coober Pedy, or "White Man's Hole in the Ground" in Aboriginal terms, is the opal mining capitol of the world, and home to underground living. Half the population lives in carved out homes in the earth, which keeps them cool in the summer and warm in the winter. So of course we had to stay 6.5 meters underground at Radeka's Downunder Dugout Motel.

We took a tour of an opal mine, and "noodled" for our own opals (not very successful). Finally, we added to our new experiences and tried kangaroo, camel, and emu for dinner. Kangaroo tasted like a cross between veal and venison, camel is a sweeter red meat, and emu tasted duck-like. Sad, but not surprisingly, the beef portion was the best.

Next it's off to sacred Uluru (Ayer's Rock), and more outback driving. As we write this, little bits of sandstone fall off our walls every now and then.

Didgeradoo!

Thanksgiving Kiwi Style

After landing safely from our skydiving experience, we headed back to the north island for our last week in New Zealand. We free camped in the town of Nelson, woke up and headed to Picton to catch the ferry. As soon as we were on the north island, we headed straight up the west coast to the Packakarikari Holiday Park for the night. Another night and morning of rain, so we decided to jump right back into our spaceship and head for New Zealand's surf highway that would take us to New Plymouth. Unfortunately the rain followed and the surf was non-existant. We crashed another rain soaked night at the Fitzroy Holiday Park, on the north side of New Plymouth.

Next it was off to Raglan, home to one of the longest left breaking waves in the world. Once in Raglan, we found an excellent spot for our spaceship at Solscape. The place had amazing views at a decent price and best of all, they are an eco resort. Ryan was able to surf Manu Bay that afternoon, although the storm still was leaving it's mark on the water and the waves weren't at their prime. The next morning was a different story; 4-7' peeling lefthanders made for a fun surf session:



After our two nights in Raglan, we drove back to Auckland to spend Thanksgiving and our last days in NZ with our good friends Danny and Jaime. We arrived to their house welcomed by the comforting holiday aromas of turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, glazed carrots and stuffing (Jaime was hard at work when we got there...thanks Jaime!) We were thankful to have a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner but especially to have good friends to celebrate with.


The next morning, with bellies still full of turkey, the four of us headed to Bayly's Beach on the northwest coast. We were hoping for some nice weather but instead ran into another rainstorm. We made the best of it by playing games in the house we rented and when the rain did finally stop, we took the car for a ride on the beach (this is one of the longest beaches you can actually drive your car on in NZ, and Danny had a lot of fun trying to get us all sick by doing donuts in the sand).


The next morning we headed over to the east coast to the beautiful Bay of Islands. We got a campsite right on the water at the Beachside Holiday Park in Paihia. The holiday park had a dinghy for rent and since Danny had brought some fishing gear along, renting it was a no-brainer. Next thing we knew, we were catching quite a bit of red snapper, not more than a few hundred meters from our campsite. We caught just enough of the size limit (and a bunch that we had to throw back) that fish tacos were in order for dinner.



The next morning we went for a nice hike around the bay and then it was off to do a little more fishing. This time we fished right from the rocks and caught a ton of little fish. Unfortunately, none of them were big enough to keep.


After we had our fishing fix, it was back to Auckland for the next few days until our flight to Sydney. We did get the chance to do some last minute wine tasting and visit the gannet colony at Muriwai Beach.



Now we cross the Tasman Sea to our next destination: The Great Down Under, Australia. We can't wait!

For more photos of New Zealand, click below to go to our Picasa page:

New Zealand

If You Feed a Kea Dinner, It Will Eat Your Car For Dessert

After our cancelled skydive in Queenstown, Milford Sound, in Fiordland National Park, was our next destination. We camped at Deer Flat campground outside of the Park, and drove into Milford Sound the next morning. During this drive, we had our first experience with the Kea bird. These are the only alpine parrots, and they are the nosiest birds we've ever seen - they like to rip the rubber lining off car windows, hence the title of the blog. This one is enjoying the view from the roof of our car:

When we arrived in the Sound, we realized that all the tours for the day were already on their way or done, so we booked a kayak tour for the next morning, and camped at the Milford Sound Lodge. At 7:30am, we were at the boat ramp, decked out in the most fashionable of dry gear, and ready to go. The trip was awesome. We were out earlier than any of the boat tours, so it was calm and quiet. We split into to 2 groups, and we had 10 people, 5 tandem kayaks. We saw our first penguin (a Fiordland Crested), and a few fur seals:

Our guide poured us tea made of the raro berry, and we saw some amazing waterfalls rushing down the cliffs of the Sound.

We were exhausted afterwards, but still drove a lot of the southern coast route, ending our day in Riverton. On our way to Dunedin the next day, we drove through Invercargill, and stopped at Nugget Point to walk to a lighthouse. We saw more fur seals and this time a Yellow Eyed Penguin!

In our quest for a free place to camp that night, we drove the entire length of the Otago Peninsula, then part way back and ended up camping on the oceanside of a big boulder. It's funny waking up in places like that, wondering if anyone will be around when you slide the van door open and stumble into the light. Oh well. We drove to the Dunedin Botanical Gardens to make breakfast (tea and cereal/oatmeal most mornings), then talked with some aviary birds, stared into a window at Jack Russell puppies, and made our way to the Dunedin Holiday Park. Here, Ryan finally got some surfing in, with some excellent 5-7' waves at St. Kilda beach:

The next morning was a beautiful Saturday, and we headed to St. Clair beach, apparently along with every family in Dunedin. It hadn't been sunny for a while, so this 80 degree F weather may have been their first beach day this season! The sun may have been a reason we loved Dunedin so much also; that and it has a big university, so there are more people our age. New Zealanders are serious about the sun here, being as close to the ozone hole as they are - every child is covered head to toe in sun clothing or wetsuits. Ryan surfed again, although the swell had backed down considerably.

That afternoon, we took a bus into the city for a Cadbury Chocolate Factory tour (although they didn't have the actual factory operating on a Saturday - bummer), and then a Speights Brewery Tour, these complete with free chocolate bars and all the beer you could drink in half an hour! Speights is the #1 brewery in NZ, and they told us you can buy their Summit Lager in Trader Joes, so check it out! Dinner at Thai Hanoi restaurant was great - thank you Laura and Chris for that recommendation!

The next morning, Leo, our van, barely made it up the steepest street in the world - Baldwin Street! Making our way up toward Christchurch, we stopped at the Moeraki Boulders Scenic Reserve, home of round boulders sitting on the beach:

We free camped on the edge of a river that night in Selwyn District, just south of Christchurch. The next day we drove to Christchurch, parked at their botanical gardens (every large town here has a botanical garden!), and toured the town. We free camped again about 30 km south of Kaikoura, then drove to Kaikoura, the seafood capitol of NZ, the next day, checked into a holiday park, and walked the town. We saw seal and sea bird colonies at a point just outside town, and decided we wanted seafood for dinner. We inquired into the prices of crayfish - our lobster in the states - and decided we liked Maine's prices better. We ate at The Strawberry Tree, where we finally tried whitebait, which locals call white gold as it is a delicacy, had mussels, and fish and chips. We met Benedikt and Sarah, a German couple who we might call up when we're in Munich!

The next day we headed north toward Blenheim, and did a small winery tasting tour along the way. Some of the better wines we tried were Brancott and Stoneleigh, which can be bought in the States. We stopped in Havelock, the green mussel capitol of the world, and ate a tasty dish of mussels, then stopped at a very nice free camping spot maybe 30 minutes outside of Nelson, which is in the middle of the north coast. After some contemplating, we decided we should make time for the Abel Tasman National Park, so we drove to Kaiteriteri, a nice coastal resort-like town with a beautiful bay that our German friends recommended. It was here that we decided to re-book our next adventure - skydiving over Abel Tasman. So with that on our minds, we drove to the Matueka airport. It was getting cloudy, and we were afraid that this one would be cancelled as well, but nope...we jumped!

Sweet As!

[Answer to the quiz, as you may have guessed - Kiwi fruit. Weird, huh?]

October Showers Bring November Flowers

So we've been in New Zealand for 12 days and although the weather hasn't been the best, we've been having a great time. For the most part it's been cold, windy, and rainy, and we've even seen some hail.

We started out in Auckland, staying our first night in NZ with our friends Danny and Jaime, who have just moved to NZ for a 2 year stay. The next morning we picked up our Spaceship campervan, which we are calling home for a month, and headed south. A quick description of "Leo," our van: it's barely big enough for us to sleep in, it has a pull-out two-burner stove, plenty of food storage underneath the bed, and best of all a DVD player.




Ryan bought a surfboard in Hamilton, and we made our way to Rotorua, home of adventure sports and thermal hot springs. We went to the Wai-O-Topu Thermal Park and saw Lady Knox Geyser and crazy thermal pools.

Next, we were off to Gisborne, where Ryan was able to put his surfboard to use a few times, at Wainui Beach. A Saturday farmer's market in Gisborne replenished our supply of strawberries, kiwi fruit, bread, and wine (tough selection!).

Napier, in the Hawke's Bay wine region, was the next place to visit. Here we were able to taste some of New Zealands famed Sauvignon Blancs and Chardonnays. An added bonus is that most "cellar doors" offer complimentary tastings, which fits well with our budget! We also tried olive oils dipped in dukkah, which is a blend of nuts and spices, and is quite yummy.

We finally made our way down to Wellington, and found an interesting place to stay the night. Battle Hill Regional Park was deserted, rainy, and full of sheep and their lambs. A generous ranger, after collecting our fee, brought us a dozen fresh-from-the-hen's-nest eggs, still warm when we put them in our cooler. Those would make a good breakfast! We then took the Bluebridge Ferry across the strait to Picton on the South Island. A few nights later, after some more rainy and windy drives, we found ourselves face to face with the Franz Josef Glacier, which starts in the snowy mountains and ends near a rainforested area by the sea. We "tramped" (hiked) to the terminal face, which was amazing considering we were actually touching a glacier.

Yesterday we stopped quickly at the Fox Glacier, then drove to Lake Wanaka, where we scheduled a skydive for today. Unfortunately, this morning brought gray skies and very windy weather, and skydiving was cancelled. We decided not to stick around and wait for clear weather, and instead headed to Queenstown, the extreme sports capitol of the world. We entered the Central Otago wine region, so we stopped for some Sunday afternoon wine tastings, trying the Pinot Noirs, which don't compare to California's!

Milford Sound is our next destination, then back up the East Coast. One thing we've noticed here, the people are very friendly. Besides the ranger giving us the eggs, a lady at a petrol station handed us a coupon for a few dollars off our gas. We don't think that's ever happened to us in the States.

Quiz: This picture shows a:

a) grape vine

b) kiwi vine

The answer will be revealed in our next blog!

And finally, R.I.P. Cheech, our little hamster who died right after we left on this journey.

Until next time, cheers!

The Starting Line

Our adventure is on its way.

On October 20th, we landed on the beautiful island of Aitutaki, Cook Islands. Our hotel for our stay was Etu Moana, an 8 villa resort on the western side of the island. We considered these 4 nights our official honeymoon, finally, and Etu Moana was the perfect choice. We kayaked and snorkled around the lagoon, seeing pink and purple corals, giant clams, and tons of tropical fish. Had lunch on an outer island sitting in the water. Our mode of transportation was a scooter, the locals choice of vehicle, and a jaunt around the entire island took a mere 30 minutes.





Ryan found a new favorite dish, ika mata, "rawfish" in lime juice, with coconut milk and some other things. We experienced an Island Night, where we enjoyed sea grapes (salty grape-bunch looking things), and Ryan was invited, no, pulled up to dance the hula with the lovely hula girls.



Then it was back to the main island of Rarotonga where we stayed at the Rarotonga Backpackers hostel. You could say our round-the-world trip started with this island. We rented another scooter and spent the next few days driving around the island, stopping at various beaches to swim. Saturday morning was the Cultural Marketplace, where our brunch consisted of waffles with ice cream and fruit, a steak roll, and a coconut for a drink. We picked up some ika mata, a paw paw (papaya), and a piece of pineapple cake for our dinner and breakfast.

Last night we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the Windjammer Restaurant, our last on the Cook Islands. FYI, Air New Zealand is wonderful. Not only do you still get a full hot meal on most flights (our flight to the Cooks included dinner and breakfast), they come with beer, wine, or champagne, for free! Now we're in New Zealand for a month, and taking advantage of Danny and Jaime's internet. For those of you in the states, we are now a full day ahead of you. We get our campervan tomorrow morning and start the tour!

More pics here:

Aitutaki

Oh, and in case you're wondering how we packed for a year-long journey around the world, here is our list and a picture: (list is what each person is carrying)

Eagle Creek Voyage 60L travel pack (with detachable daypack)

Clothes
1 pair of trail-type shoes
1 pair of sandals
1 pair of flip flops
2 pairs pants - one convertible, one nicer
Marmot rain jacket
fleece jacket
1 button down sun shirt
2 short sleeve quick dry shirts
2 tank tops (Anna)
1 skirt (Anna)
1 pair boardshorts/swimsuit
bandana w/insect repellent
3-4 pairs socks
3 pairs undies
wetsuit & rashguard (Ryan)
sun hat
beanie

Electronics
Digital camera - Panasonic DMC-TZ5
Monkeypod tripod
Passport Elite hard drive
iPod + charger
watch

Other Stuff
Toiletries in bag
3 ditty bags
silk travel sleepsack (for hostels)
money belt
travel books (NZ, SE Asia)
first aid kit in tupperware with first aid guide
PacSafe pack locks
combination pack lock
quick dry towels - 2 big, 1 small
harmonica, cards, magnetic travel game
sink plug, clothesline, Dr. Bronner's all-in-one soap
earplugs, eye mask, inflatable neck pillow
headlamp
sunglasses + cleaner
sewing kit
waterproof pack covers


Our big bags are small enough to carry on, so we shouldn't have any problems with lost luggage.

P.S. HAPPY 29TH BIRTHDAY TO RYAN, which was the day after we arrived on Aituaki. Not a bad place to spend your last twenty-something birthday!

Post-Wedding, Pre-RTW Trip Update

Although we haven't left for our Round-The-World (RTW) trip quite yet, we've been fairly busy since our wedding on September 12th. So here's a review of what's been up in our now-married lives.

1. Our wedding! September 12, 2008. We had an amazing time! It was everything we could've asked for. If you want to see our photographer's photos, go to www.karikochar.com, and click on "Client Access" under "Info." Our wedding should be one of the first things on there. Password is AnnaRyanWedding. Here's a few of our faves (don't mind the copyright writing, sorry):

2. As soon as our wedding weekend was done, the process of prepping for upcoming RTW trip started. This included selling Ryan's truck, selling as much as our stuff as we could at a garage sale, and moving out of our apartment. Shocker: it's utterly amazing how much "stuff" people can accumulate. We had so much to get rid of, and in the end, it's a great feeling to rid of all that baggage. We ended up donating all the stuff we didn't sell. No photos, as we were much too busy to take pictures. It was two weeks before we got to #3 on our list, and a hellish two weeks at that.

3. A week after our wedding, we headed up to Paso Robles, CA for Zac and Anna's wedding at Meridian Vineyards. It was beautiful setting for a beautiful couple!

4. A pre-RTW trip trip. First it was off to Austin, Texas to visit Ryan's sister Jaime, who just moved out there from San Diego in January. Austin was awesome - lots of trees, nightlife, and a big rock! Here's Austin:

This photo is from Freddie's, a cool place that has live outdoor music, and that game washers, which is like horseshoes, but you try to toss a round washer into a golf-hole like hole.

Here is the top of the "big rock," otherwise known as Enchanted Rock, a few cities NW of Austin. It's a big dome-like granite rock, with a rise of 425 ft. in 0.6 miles. We're at the top.

A day after we got into Austin, we drove 3 hours north for Allan and Megan's wedding in Malakoff, TX. A gorgeous wedding right on the shores of a lake!

4. Presently we're in Boston, Massachusetts, to see Anna's brother Peter, who is in his junior year at Babson College just outside of Boston. The leaves are starting to change here, and we are going to drive to Vermont to go "leaf-peeping" as they call it. We haven't been to downtown Boston yet, but so far it's been gorgeous. Photos to follow!

So that's been our life basically since our last post. Wedding, moving out, Austin-Boston trip. It's been a crazy period in our lives, but a fantastic one nonetheless!