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