Swimming with dolphins at Kaikoura - pictures uploaded

I've uploaded some pictures of swimming with dolphins at Kaikoura, and other wildlife, to my picture gallery (linked to on the right hand side).  There is also a picture of my tent at the campsite 7km south of Kaikoura.

Cash blues, car blues and trip planning - Japan, and Wanaka

Today I reached a point in my travels where I kinda thought I needed to stop for a while so I did some research into flying out of Japan and moving my dates back from New Zealand, skipping the side trip to South Korea and China - it's hardly worth it for the time I'd have. I still wasn't discounting a trip to Vanuatu, but then I checked my bank account! Yes, that put me on a downward spiral for the rest of the day I think. Every flight out of Japan to Bangkok I can book from here is around £600 plus, except one special I need to book by Saturday. My flight is ok to move though, with several dates out of New Zealand to Tokyo at the mid to end of May. I can't seem to get access to any specials as I am not in Japan - sometimes I can't understand the travel industry - surely a price available to one should be available to all! My last ditch is an email to an agency in Tokyo, otherwise I'll be booking the special before I leave Christchurch I guess.
With this knowledge, I headed into town to get some extra pegs for my tent from R&R, check out car tyre prices, and pop into immigration to ask a few questions about their Skilled Migrant option. It wasn't too helpful to go in there as there were no clear answers, but I found out the timescale after initial expression of interest is around two months to be invited to apply. If I walked in there with a job offer and all the paperwork it could, in theory, be sorted in a day!!!!! One day!!!! Anyway, that was just some information I gathered.
I then headed to R&R and blagged some new tent pegs. My mistake was not walking past everything looking at the carpet and walking straight back out again. I had already been hit knowing that I had to spend $180 on three new car tyres tomorrow. Then I saw my ticket to happieness!! As I walked past them, they stretched their polyester and lycra material out to me and grabbed me by the balls....
'Try me on' the squealed.
And so it was, before I knew it I was buying a really cool pair of Earth, Sea, Sky travel trousers. But they are so cool - just the kind of things I love buying - trousers that you never see any other places, and you can't get back home, and comfy as 'wear for anything' trousers. Just they were $150 (but I got a discount from that...). The kind of trousers that just make you smile when you slip into them! And I bought them from a guy whose family runs it, and whose picture is in the brochure. What an outdoors gear sucker!
At the same time I got three day old voicemail messages from Tom, my mate who has my winter walking gear somewhere on the South Island. That explains the lack of contact - bloody Vodafone voicemail delays!!

Anyway, turns out Tom is in Wanaka, and gagging to get up the hills, so I'm going to stick around here until Saturday then drive over there, going heavily against my 'plans' made during bottle of wine#3 in the house last night, and maybe stop at Mount Cook village on the way. I'm just hoping my car doesn't star burning oil again ('Don't worry about it' the garage said).

Still, Richard helped me fix my windscreen washers that 'didn't work' this morning. After using his Japanese language skills and deciphering the lingo on the fuse box (seriously, he does know the language after spending the best part of three years there), trying the fuses, he watched me try the wipers one last time.

He then pissed himself laughing, and ripped the piss out of me.
Turns out that you don't pull the control stalk next to the steering wheel. If you push the end in, it squirts water. It worked all the time. Hey....how was I to know? Most of the marking on the stalks are worn out!!!! Oh how I laughed....

Anyway, it's been great stopping here for several days just chilling out and generally doing very little. We've joked that when I move in, one of his housemates is already supplying the plasma TV so the hot tub is my purchase. We're meeting another one of his housemates after her work tomorrow then I'm going to see what Christchurch nightlife has to offer before hitting the road on Saturday. I also got an email from another guy I met on the Anoconnda boat in the Whitsundays who is back home in Dunedin so that's someone else for me to look up if I do make it down there!

Buying a new tent in Christchurch

Like always, I entered the main outdoors shops in Christchurch like a kid in a candy store. As I discovered the tent given to me with the car was crap, and I couldn't put it up myself, there was only one thing to do....buy a new one, yes my third tent in total if you count the two at home.
Richard bought a backpack and got a hefty 'end of financial year' discount without asking at R&R. The sales guy turned to me and said 'So what can I do for you?'
'I need you to convince me to buy this cheap tent for $69 rather than this sexy looking Marmot number you have with 60% off at three times the price'
(mistake #1)
'Have you got kids?'
'No.'
'Are you married?'
'No.'
'So what the f*** are you doing looking at that piece of crap when you can have this quality tent for 60% off? Are you crazy? The floor even detaches. It's great! Easy to pitch, and that tent would just be embarrassing - I mean I'd have to buy the rest of the shop staff a beer if I sold you one of them!'
'Yeh, but if I spent $69 I can leave it in the car when I punt it, this one I'd have to keep. I already have two tents in Scotland '
'Exactly! You mean you are Scottish and you were STILL thinking of buying that piece of junk? Jeez man, get a grip of yourself. You don't need the money if you don't have a family, you know it makes sense'
'But...'
'Just imagine ski touring in Norway with this - pitch it, dig out a wee platform, seats up, having a brew, then just pick it up and move it and you can fall asleep'
'Yeh but I don't know if I'd ever...'
'That's no the point, you know it makes sense - you can have a ski touring tent too!'
'But....'
'Jesus, have you never washed that goretex jacket of yours? Do you not know how to look after your kit? Oh my....'
(then another shop assistant walked up the stairs)
'Hey - this guy is talking about buying this piece of sh!t - help me out!'
(then a girl walked up the stairs)
'Hey this Scottish guy is thinking of buying that tent - stop him now'
(Her : ) 'But it's a nice colour'
(Him : ) 'Oh my god, this one is like a mango colour - that one is pissy coloured yellow like a kids just peed on it. Thats the kind of tent you buy for your kids, and you don't have any!'
And so it went on.

I left the store with a new (but old ex demo) Marmot AT tent, heavily reduced, a pair of merino leggings (which I wanted anyway), a free gas canister, and a solo cooking pot incase I actually ever took the tent away from the car. I've never been so entertained by a shop assistant in my life.

Richard and I just thought we did well as we managed to avoid buying the $200 Jetboil he was avidly selling, AND a real coffee maker to insert into my pot.

My local beach's webcam...and no mobile coverage

Here's the webcam of my local beach for the next few days!

Taylors Surf - Homepage

Also, I have no mobile phone coverage when I'm 'at home' if you have my number.

My new home in Christchurch

I drove down from Hamner to Christchurch today and yet again have been a lucky bugger in the travel buddies, and accommodation stakes! This time, thanks to Richard whom I met in the Perhentian Islandsin October. He lives on the outskirts edges of Christchurch with a cracking view over a peninsula and beach. I'll be shacked up in the spare room next to the dog's kennel, sharing the house with a couple of housemates, including someone responsible for managing selling the tickets to all the snowsport club fields (those who know their wintersports in NZ will know it as the Chill Pass). I also joked they may be receiving a fourth rent in by the end of the week.... check the view out. I did hear of a working visa I can still get in NZ and Canada the other day.....and I even lowered myself to find a couple of IT jobs online in Christchurch today.

The Living room.













My wee room with my guardian pointer dog Megan.



To be honest, over the last while it's made me realise some of the things you really miss out on living in a city, and the silly money you need to live in a fantastic place back home - all a bit disappointing really!

Encounter Kaikoura - swimming with dolphins (loads of 'em!)

Yesterday I went swimming with the dolphins in Kaikoura which was absolutely amazing. I was in the water around five times, and they reckoned the pod had around 400 dusky dolphins in it. Yes, 400, and all around us. Apparently if you make noises through your snorkel it attracts them so there was one in particular that decided to play to the humming of The Flower of Scotland. It swam circles around me several times, tiring me out by the time it left. It was a bizarre experience. One minute I was looking into the deep blue, then the next there would be tens of dolphins swimming past me in all directions. The experience was right up there with the Manta Ray dives!














I then went and stayed 7km south of Kaikoura on the beach with a Swiss girl (with a family home in Wengen no less!) who was in the hostel the previous night. I had another small world story when talking to her in the pub last night... she had been travelling for two weeks with the author of the Working Nomad website I've been following for the last 12 months or so. Anyway, it was time to try the tent I got with the car on a campsite. It is sh!t. It's an old fashioned one with one pole at either end, and pretty impossible to put up on your own. Oh if there's a country that makes you want to have your own outdoors gear it's here!

(The view from Peketa Beach campground)

On the up side, there were a gazillion stars in the sky, a couple of shooting stars, and I saw the milky way, all accompanied by the noise of waves, wine and stinky garlic biscuits with cheese - all after a couple of Indian takeaway starters.
This morning I went for a swim in the baltic sea (not the Baltic sea, just that it was baltic - cold!), and almost swam out to a pod of dolphins that was playing at acrobatics in the bay. I reckoned I may have reached them, but would either be too tired, or die of hypothermia before I got back to the beach.



I'm now in Hamner Springs, having spent a couple of hours in the thermal pools today.
Tomorrow it's off to Christchurch to stay with Richard I met in the Perhentian Islands :)








What a crap tent!

Kaikoura

Had a chilled start to the day and then headed down the coastal drive to Kaikoura, taking in a fab stop at a cafe on the coast, and a stop at Ohau Point to watch the seals. There were loads of them and their wee ones chilling on the rocks just 20m from the layby on the main road.
Dolphin swimming tomorrow, and another fabulous day. I've broken the 1000km on the car, and it burns petrol and I haven't even been hoofing it. Maybe it's ok on the fuel I'm just not used to filling up cars!! More good tunes for the run down :-)

B*ggered - first day on the hills in Picton. Mount Richmond Forest Park and Mount Fell

Having booked the dolphins on Saturday, after explaining my trip in the South Island, I asked the girl at the hostel's reception how to kill a couple of days around Picton. After finding out I wasn't going to do the Queen Charlotte Track in Malborough Sounds she said 'Come running with me if you want, you'll get to a place you wouldn't normally.' I looked a the map.....'it might be quite steep'. Just what I need I though - a good blow out of the fitness cobwebs, knowing that I could revert to walking, and even turn back to the car and read a book.


We got the park at the Mount Richmond Forest Park just as a Dept. Of Conservation guy was closing it due to the fire hazard, and for a logging company that wasn't there yet. Luckily he said we 'must have turned up before (he) arrived'. Nice. We then left him to work out how to put CLOSED up on a sign that was never intended to change from OPEN.
We started up the Timms Creek track to Mount Fell, and I didn't end up turning back to the car. I kept going. When we got off the initial track, a brick wall of forest hit us, extremely limiting any chance to jog, never mind run. Let's just say it was frickin' steep! Hey, so what...last time I tried to run along the beach in Dunsborough I lasted ten minutes before taking in the scenery. Today I lasted about 85 minutes. We went to the oh bollocks I've forgotten the name of the park...but we went up to Mount Fell Hut, and it took ages to get there. We thought it would take 4hrs return, but we got there after 3hours. I then carried up towards the summit, despite feeling a bit pooped to say the least. My knees were starting to hurt.


We left to get back down (6 hours according to the notice - but not for us) knowing what lay ahead, and the pain my knees would go through. Needless to say there wasn't much running, and when I tried I either looked like I was sh!tting myself at the same time, or like the people in mile 25 of a marathon.
But I made it. There were amazing crystal clear blue pools in the river at the bottom, but I headed back to hit the hot tub at the chalet.....I was so glad I had a motivator to get me out, despite most of the walk/run/jog being on my own. I resorted to the MP3 player on the way down, and a magic tube of Mentos sweets - they did the trick in Borneo in times of need. Just that I finished the whole pack. I then blasted along the gravel track in a way I wouldn't have done in my car at home.

The day was so like Scottish scenery, just we never got a view until near the top as it is such dense forest here. After driving back through NZ wine country I decided tonight was to be spent in the hot tub after dinner, bottle of red, and cheese and biscuits. Pictures to follow when I get my laptop connected. Great day.
But my knees still hurt.

Long lie tomorrow, then a slow drive down along the east coast to Kaikoura.

Crossing the ditch

I crossed the ditch today (otherwise known as the Cook Strait) and landed in Picton. It was blowing a hoolie on the way across, but pretty straightforward and comfy crossing. I landed up at the Sequoia Backpackers here which is a really cool little hostel, although most folk end up in the tele room all evening (more space for the rest of us!). It's also got a hot tub! I've book the dolphin swim at Kairkoura on Saturday which I'm trying not to have high hopes for, but it should be good.
One of the girls working here pointed me to a nighttime walk so I could see some glowworms, so I headed up there after dinner. It was pitch black and I shit myself before even leaving the housing area as something russled around in the bushes. I should remember I'm not in Borneo anymore. I head up anyway, along the pitch black narrow path (Essons Valley if you are ever here) and all of a sudden there were a shit load of glowworms along the side of the path. By this point all my worries of being in the middle of nowhere in the dark had subsided and I checked them out for ooooh, a good five minutes. I decided not to go on any further after hearing random noises and got back to civilisation in half the time. It was amazing though - wouldn't mind heading back there again.

A day in Wellington

It was another lazy start today, the way it tends to be when I'm staying at someone's place. I was up at a decent time to get a car parking coupon, but spent quite a while looking up a few things online and trying to get some bearings on where things were in relation to each other. I never seemed to find time to have a look at the guidebooks properly though! I also transferred ownership of my turbo nutter Subaru Legacy and extended the registration.
Eventually I walked into town and was about to go the museum here which is meant to be great, but Jono finished up, and we went on a road trip around the back of Wellington bay, catching a few small beaches and a fantastic sandwich at the Chocolate fish Cafe in Scorching Bay. I guess this will sum up my time in New Zealand - I later found out that this cafe was where the deal was signed to film Lord of the Rings in New Zealand (see the link above). Having never seen any of the Lord of The Rings films, or read the books I have no fascination with the sights used, unless they are good for their own sake which I think is a good thing.

We ended up at Surfer's Beach which I thought was hilarious. Five minutes earlier we had perched on a rock and waved hello to the planes approaching the airport, then we were watching the surfers in the water, less than 150m from the Royal New Zealand plane that had just landed. We then went to the outdoors shop and I ended up buying several things in the Kathmandu 50% sale - all of which I have back home.....sleeping mats, walking poles that are heavy and suck, and a new waterproof bag. I wanted to buy a sleeping bag but resisted as I have two at home, and it would be cheaper to send one over (sorry mum, that text WAS serious!). Guess that's the problem with travelling to many destinations - you just can't hang onto everything, and it's very frustrating not having hands on everything you would back home. I have a great tent I'd love here, sleeping mat, poles, ice axes, climbing rack, and cooking stove. Arg! I need to have a bag and stove if I hike to some of the huts I hope to which is a bit of a nightmare.

I got a treat of visiting the supermarket and getting laughed at by Kirsty when I mentioned how many of the fruits I had never seen, never mind taste before! A quiet night in followed reminiscing about Whistler, me showing off Scotland in pictures (laughing back at Kirsty when I showed her Oldshoremore beach : 'Is that in Australia?'.... 'No, it's the far north west of Scotland'), and seeing some pics of Jono and Kirsty's recent boarding trip to Japan.
I did get round to booking a ferry for tomorrow afternoon so am off to the South Island with no set itinery, just hoping my mate comes off the Abel Tasman walk and calls me, otherwise I'll be heading to Kaikoura to swim with the dolphins and head towards Christchurch to see a mate, despite the temptation to have a walk around the Marlborough Sound.
I keep leaving stuff for the way back up north so I hope I get the motivation to do stuff on my own down South!
Our quiet BBQ night in. Kirsty, Jono and the wandering scotsman.















Check the runway in the background, surfers in the foreground!

My transport in New Zealand

Here's a few pics of my 'new' Subary Legacy GT All Wheel Drive Turbo nutter :















He he he he. :-)

Hamilton to Wellington

I had a pretty sharp start as it was a long day's road trip from Hamilton to Wellington, stopping briefly at Ta Awamutu to pick up some winter climbing gear from a mate's parents. It's just that after all that, I forgot to ask about snow stakes, guidebooks and walking poles, so I went away with some ice gear which in hindsight another mate could have taken over for me. Och well as they say!
From there I had another 7 hours in the car, passing classic places like the Tongariro National Park and the winter ski towns around it. I never way anything due to the clouds really, however I plan to stop there on the way back.
It's now one of my worries at this time of year that any walking or sights I hope to see will be covered in cloud. I'll be gutted if this is the case!
I stopped off for the odd snack, but pretty much kept on the road all day from 8.30am until 6pm. The only good thing was listening to loads of new tunes I've acquired like Emilio Torrini, The Beautiful Girls (I saw them 2 years ago in Adelaide), The Living End, The Knife and others, finishing up with the Cult's Greatest Hits coming into Wellington! Unfortunately I was a bit wary I got clocked for being ever so slightly over the speed limit so fingers crossed!! (However I never changed ownership until two days later!?)
Jono and I just like we were in Whistler!

It was great hooking up with Jono - I hadn't seen him since Whistler in 1999! Off we went for some fantastic food in a great Asian food restaurant called Chow in Wellington. Wellington looks a bit funkier than Auckland - I just hope I get more time to explore the shops and nightlife on the way back North!

Auckland to Hamilton - first road trip

My turbo nutter car made it easily in the two hour journey from Auckland to Hamilton.

I hadn't managed to get a hold of my mate's folks but decided to head down anyway. During the whole drive I could have been in Scotland - exactly like people had said to me, this place (well, buts of it anyway) are so much like home. I even started the journey next to a place (pub I think) called Edinburgh Rock, and there are so many place names and things associated. One of the toy shops was called Wee Willie Winkies.

I got a hold of my mate's folks after arriving, and stopped off at J's Backpackers in Hamilton for the night. It's a few kilometres from town but a really chilled out place with a nice pub ten minutes walk from it. There were quite a few people here who seemed to get 'stuck' in Hamilton, or decided to stop and work for a bit. I often wish I had that option in places as I could really do with stopping off in one place for a good while.

Wish me luck - Subaru Legacy Turbo AWD

I bought a car today. Wish me luck as kindof bought it on a whim as most backpackers probably do. It's just I bought a 1991 Subaru Legacy Turbo All wheel drive. All electrics, automatic....just that some of the bits don't work as they should - like only one speaker. It's got a decent history of paperwork though, and an invertor so I can use my laptop and charge things inside the car from the cigarette lighter. It's also got a tent but very little else - e.g. cooking stuff - none of.

So depending on my mate's folks availability I'll be hot footing it from Auckland later today and heading south to pick up some gear, then onto Wellington probably tomorrow to see another mate. May rough it in the car tonight - will see how I feel!

Oh I wish I had my own tent, thermarest etc etc now!

Fingers crossed......

New Zealand

I've made it to New Zealand! After all the years of talking about it, I'm finally here. Initial impressions? Well flying over it on the way into Auckland - as expected, it looked very similar to Bonnie Scotland.
I spent today gawping at wonderful outdoors shops (swooooon), oh how I missed them, it could be the killer on my wallet here, like the buzzing around Australia was. And yes, who was I kidding that I'd be able to resist the adrenaline flowing activities here. I'm sure it's possible to pick up about 96 brochures, books, leaflets and maps before you leave the airport. And every page I want to do everything.
I finally made it out of the outdoors shops today though, and went to the backpackers car mart. Several campers, and a Subarau Legacy All Wheel Drive. Dilemmas on which to buy. I've heard so much about the steep hairpin, and gravel roads that I'm in a dilemma. I've got great images about a camper van, but I know you can only hit a snails pace heading up the hills. Does it matter? Guess I won't know 'til I get there.
I also made the mistake of test driving (my fourth one today!) a Subaru Legacy Turbo 4WD which flew. It also probably burned gas.
I then had to work out a way to get a wad of cash so I could actually buy one of these things, as I want to head South as soon as possible and tour the North Island near the end of my time here.
So...I took $800 out the cash machine, the max allowed, then I hit the Bank of New Zealand and got a $3000 cash advance on my credit card. It just so happened that the bank was in the SkyCity casino building, so here's me walking around with $3800 in my shirt pocket, and the first thing I did was hit the casino.
I say hit, it really was just a walk around but I was tempted to try some poker.

So it's decision time tomorrow - car or camper.
As for Auckland....what can I say. As many Japanese and Korean people as Kiwis, full of complete pisscans, just like I saw on a Cops-style documentary in Sydney, and full of Japanese import cars. I haven't seen much of it though, but it's like comparing Sydney and the Outback to Auckland the 'real' New Zealand.

Good news is I've made contact with Jono in Wellington (another person not seen since Whistler '99) and Rich in Christchurch who I met in the Perhentian Islands in October. Of course the buggers are giving me conflicting advice on which mode of transport to purchase!

I can't wait to be pulling out of Auckland with my foot on the pedal, listening to tunes, and having my own freedom. That's as long as the wheels don't break down!
Watch this space!

Gallery update - Sydney and the aquarium

I've added more pictures of Sydney and the aquarium. The ones of the marina area are generally the bay I've been staying in (the ones with the boats and houses behind).

Goodbye Australia

Within 8 hours I'll be wakening up and on the ferry across the bay on the way to Sydney airport. Yes, it's my last few hours in Australia. I'm pleased to say that despite being reluctant to come to such a westernised place after Asia, it's been a ball. I've visited most states, done most of the things I hoped to do, discovered loads more I'd like to do in more remote areas, met at least a dozen mates, and some more from tours here, and spent the best part of, or slightly more than £3k in just over five weeks! Flights, buses, tours, beers, food and more. Yes, staying with mates doesn't mean you save money at all, it just means you go out to better places, and eat better food. Due to staying at mates and constantly being on the move I've never cooked and done the supermarket shopping thing. It's not a cheap place to cram things into.

I would like to say a huge thanks to all my mates, or their housesitters for making me so welcome. It's been great to see you all again, it just doesn't happen enough, and a special thanks to Paul in Sydney who put me up for six nights despite only meeting me on a Whitsundays trip I also have to say a huge thanks to one of his neighbours with the open wireless internet connection - thanks for all the downloads, I just hope I didn't put you over your monthly bandwidth allowance ;-> Raleigh crowd : great to catch up again. In the last five weeks I've almost felt like I have more mates scattered around Australia than I do at home.

It will be interesting how I cope with the weather when I move on as I've pretty much had an 8 month summer. I was sitting in Sydney the other night with my fleece on : 'Is that the same top you wore up Mount Kinabalu?' 'erm, yes, but I'm cold'. Apparently it was 25c but it didn't feel like it.


Next stop New Zealand. Country number 37 I think....

Sydney.....or Melbourne?

If you are an Aussie, or anyone else for that matter then you either have an allegiance to Sydney, or to Melbourne - both very different cities. So you may wand
er about my opinion, or more likely, you don't care.
It's a tough call. For me, Melbourne is way better. Cooler, funkier shops, easier to get out of that big city feeling as it's much smaller, great coffee, great bar scene and reminds me a bit of Edinburgh in terms of ease of escape from the city feeling.
However, Sydney is in a fantastic location with loads of beaches, inlets, city centre marinas and far better weather. However in Sydney there is a greater feeling of being in a major city - you pretty much need reminded that despite the low population and great size of Australia, Sydney is up there with New York, Paris, London and the rest o n the world cities. I may be biased as I feel I know Melbourne a bit more than Sydney, largely due to being there twice.

My solution? Well it's a bit late now, but if Sydney were to be bombed, and Melbourne dropped down on top of it, you have the perfect capital city!

Raleigh Case Study

I've had a case study performed on me..... nothing to worry about though, it was all performed by my lovely sidekick (erm, my PR mentor, the one who kept me on the straight and narrow in Borneo) Kate. My case study is on the Raleigh International website.  Note it may not be exactly word for word what I said....   (it probably reads better than what I said though)

Coogee to Bondi walk

The weather finally broke this morning, the clouds disappeared, the sun came out!  It was off to Coogee just down the coast for the coastal walk to Bondi beach.  My mate Karen and her pal joined me for the 90 minute walk along the coast.  This is a great thing to do here if you want a break from the city - wave battered cliff lined coastlined dotted with small to large surf beaches inbetween, and a few swimming areas or pools sectioned off from the open seas.

We woke up after the walk with a refreshing fight with the waves at Bondi for half an hour - our bodies constantly battered as we tried to bodysurf.

We ended up with some food at the Bondi Icebergs.  From here is was back on a bus, train and ferry (far quicker and easier than it sounds) to get changed, and I'm off to meet Lynne I used to work with years ago for a quiet drink at the Opera bar.

Something fishy in Sydney

I got out the house today!  Well, around lunchtime....

I finally made it into the city centre then it rained just as I was about to explore the Botanic Gardens! Yes, it seems I brought the bad weather here too.  With that I headed into town and decided to overload myself even more and purchase my Japan guidebook and a couple of DVDs to back up my pictures (exciting blog this eh?).

I had promised myself I would see the aquarium while I was here to see if I liked them more now that I've done quite a bit of diving. It was amazing. If you are even slightly interested in the underwater world, definitely visit the aquarium at Darling Harbour during your trip.  There is everything from Yabbies to Crocs to Banana Peel Eels (!?) to coral fish to sharks and rays in many varieties.  I've been lucky enough to see quite a bit of the coral sealife during my trip but this place lets you get mesmerised by the motions of jellyfish while not having to worry about passing round them, yet you are still only half a foot away from them.  You can watch sharks, shrimps, turtles, rays and everything else swimming right past your face.  I could have stayed there for ages as I found it absolutely amazing being able to watch all these things without worrying about scaring them away, keeping your bouyancy and fighting currents and all that other stuff you may have to do when diving.

My only question was....if they advocate protecting coral environments etc....where did they get all the coral from?

After that it was off to meet Cath (and her mates) whom I met in Borneo volunteering.  It's the second person from there I've met in Aus and always great to hook up.  We had quite a laugh until the conversation inevitably turned towards what to do 'after'!  After my second pizza it was time get the ferry back - easy, 20 mins I'd be home.

Although......it turned out I must have been listening to my MP3 player too loudly (note, MP3 player (iAudio), not iPOD, they're shit!  Everyone's keeps breaking!)....  when the ferry went under the bridge it made me curious....hmm...must be an extra late night stop.  It kept going in that direction.  When it went back to the other side of the river I decided it was time to get off.  The ferry left on time, it must just be that MY one was the one behind or something.

No worries, there was Darling Harbour, a quick jog round that and I'll be back at Circular Quay.  I think I must have got off at Balmain East.  Little did I realise how big the proper area of Darling Harbour was.  I only realised this after running down some side streets, turning one corner and probably scaring the shit out of a local girl walking home, creating a longcut back to the main road I was already on. Inlet after inlet got in the way of me getting to the bars and clubs lit up 'just along the way'. I eventually got up to a main junction and found a taxi :

"If you're quick, to Circular Quay please, if you're slow to Mosman South"

In under ten minutes and twenty bucks he made it through the area we were in, across Anzac Bridge and along Darling Harbour to Circular Quay and I dashed through the gates with seconds to spare before the ferry left.  Still, seemed like a nice area I saw!  My twenty minute relaxing journey took an hour - not bad considering!

Lazy day in Sydney

It's not always sunny in Sydney! Botanical Gardens during a downpour

 I had an extremely lazy day in Sydney today.  I got up, got online, and never left the apartment until I went out to buy dinner for us around 7.30pm! I had great intentions to do a walk but it was really cloudy and windy so decided to hang loose and catch up on emails, music I've (ahem) acquired recently, downloading a few things, and looking at cars for sale and the Great Walks in New Zealand.

After spending the day watching the ferries go by  then getting some food I cooked dinner. The first meal I've cooked since June!! (except the odd trip one on project site in Borneo).  We then settled down to challenge each other at online poker over some wine and munchies...which amazingly appeared to fix my laptop speakers that stopped working some time ago.

A great day!  It made me realise how long it had been since I managed to sit down and not do much so it was well overdue!

Hello Sydney!

I'm now in Sydney arriving only a few hours after getting up in Melbourne this morning. Thanks to my new host Paul (who I met on my Whitsundays trip a couple of weeks ago) I made it through the city very quickly from the airport to the quay, then a couple of stops on the ferry to his place. For the third time in Australia (this trip and last) I walked into a friend's apartment with a hidden key, not having seen them yet.

And look at the view from the dining area :


Anyway, just a quick update as my other mate is coming to pick me up any minute now to go to a travel writing seminar this afternoon then a bbq tonight.

Bad planning for the Australian city visits

Considering I wasn't that bothered about Australia when I came over here it's pretty hard to leave (apart from the cost of it!) places as I have left so many things untouched and not been able to spend nearly as much time with people as I'd like to.

In every city I've met friends, often people I've not seen for years, and within a few nights I've moved on. I had a blast in Adelaide and wasn't ready to go. In Melbourne I've met five people in 3 days - friends and people I've met while travelling and it's awkward leaving everywhere so quickly. While travelling around you meet some really cool people that are a pleasure to spend time with, and you have great conversations about anything and everything - the only bad thing about it is you often find out more places to go to, and you miss the chats and catch ups when you have to move on quickly. Most of whom I would consider as like best mates in Australia have been people I met years ago in Canada while snowboarding for a couple of months.

There are also loads more things I'd like to do in Australia outside of the cities, especially if I had my own transport for a while - Kakadu, The Kimberleys, Ningaloo and umpteen 4x4 adventures.

Unfortunately I've also planned the trip really badly in terms of missing some of the best events in Australia - to hit these all would have required a load of planning up front but if I spent less time in WA (which I didn't really want to), I could have flown from Alice Springs and see all of these potentially :

Sydney - Mardi Gras

Melbourne - Grand Prix, and picked up a mates car and driven to Adelaide seeing Mt Gambier and the Grampians.

Adelaide - Fringe Festival, Adelaide Cup, Touring Cars

Unfortunately it's impossible to do and see everything but it's such a blow being so close to so many events.

I also hoped to do a dive from a helicopter around Sydney after seeing and article in Asian Diver, but when I called up they didn't have anything planned until the day after I arrived in New Zealand - typical!

Melbourne Rocks

Melbourne's a great city. I reckon Edinburgh would be like this if it had a bigger population to sustain some more quirky and unusual shops. There are just so many shops, bars and cafes here with such a good vibe. The city is also a great mix of old and new as you don't have to walk far from the CBD to find older shophouses, parks and gardens to explore.

Sydney - can you win me over next week?

Typical cafe alleyway in central Melbourne.

Older building in Melbourne.

Newer Melbourne!

Mad in Melbourne

I only arrived in Melbourne yesterday morning and it seems like I've been here for a while. I've dropped my bags in my mate's apartment but have yet to see his housesitter! I didn't do much during the day yesterday apart from wander around a few streets I didn't see the last time. The pad is really central so you can easily walk into town or take a tram. I'm was really going to attempt to take my time here to chill out.....at least that's what I thought.
The afternoon came around and I contacted Jane (met in Borneo) and arranged to hook up for a beer, and at the same time I got a text from a couple of Irish girls I met in Laos who I knew were working in Melbourne, so arranged to gatecrash leaving drinks for their mates and met everyone in a pub in St Kilda. As it ended up getting to that point where I had to decide to take a train or taxi back to town I ended up couchsurfing and stayed out a bit later.
As I was on the tram back I got a call from Sara who was on my road trip from Alice Springs to Adelaide, so then went to meet her and an Irish bloke for lunch in town. Tonight I was meant to meet me housemate-for-three-days but not sure if that'll happen or not. Tomorrow I'm meeting another mate I met in Whistler many moons ago.

I love travelling!!!

Adelaide to Melbourne

I flew from Adelaide to Melbourne today. It was hard leaving Adelaide as I had a great time there, largely helped by Scott having days off, and the festival preview happening while I was there.
I managed to have a few beers, go for dinner, drive around for a day (thanks for the car Scott) and go mountain biking, and generally have a few days in out makeshift batchelor pad - no plans, food, drink, late nights.
I'll write a better description of one of our nights out when I hook up my laptop.
Not planning on doing too much in Melbourne as I was hear less than two years ago and could do with a chill out, except from hooking up with mates probably every evening....
I've got 'settled in' to my mate's pad in central Melbourne, despite him working somewhere in middle Asia just now, so I've yet to meet his housesitter who happily left me a key and some cake in the fridge. Now I've just got much more music to try and ahem, 'acquire'.
Anyway, better dash, got loads of music to trial....(cheers Alan!)

Fresh Pussy + Ropes + Harness + Cocktails = An average Adelaide night out

So it was a quiet day in and around Adelaide when I drove around in Scott's car. A trip to Glenelg, the shark museum, the internet, NZ guidebook purchase, and that was about it.


On my way back to town I met Scott and his fellow Adelaide restauranteurs, a bit caned after a day tasting a tad too many wines in the Barossa Valley. There was no option but to head to the area of the Fringe preview again (think similar to the area around the Spiegeltent in Edinburgh last year if you are reading this from 'home'...just that Adelaide wasn't good enough for the tent this year ;-> ).




The night before it was kicking off after the touring car racing and one of Scott's mates had initiated a dance off competition to spice things up a bit, complete with 'caterpiller' moves. Tonight it was dead, so we had to create other things to do....so it was off to the restaurant.

After listening to lots of random conversations , interspersed with the odd wine appreciation conversation to make us sound intelligent ("yes, tones of berries in here, it'll go really well with the cheese" - it was white wine to me, but these guys did actually know what they were talking about - one had been asked to work at a vinyard earlier in the day)...there was only one thing to do....start writing puzzles on the paper tablecloths.





Afterwards it was back to the preview and we decided that since we were so full, and had a combination of rich food, wine and beer in our stomachs, it would be a good idea to take a go on the trampoline bungee to mix it all together (we were actually pretty sober at this point), so off we climbed into the harnesses, holding onto the bungee ropes doing back and front flips....not the wisest decision going by the 'I'm gonna throw' looks on some faces.











So that was that....we had to find a bar, and off we went to Distill on Rundle Street. The bowl of limes were intriguing us, so we decided to put a wager on - $5 each - to guess how many were in the bowl - winner takes all! There were 6 of us so we invited the whole bar to join in.....and I 'scooped' $48.50 - yes some swinebag gave $1.50 short! After a quick negotiation to make it look like it wasn't a fix we got the barmen to give everyone in the bar some Fresh Pussy for $25. Now, now, it's a shooter (Cranberry Juice and Peach Schnapps if interested).


After this is was back to Scott's for some home made cocktails, almost running over a wild koala outside his house in Adelaide Hills. Being that two of the 'restauranteurs' were blonde 19 yr olds I wandered if cocktails meant the same over here as back home to my mates, or if it was just some other Aussie slang. Anyway, I was amazed at the concoctions made out of nothing (although there did happen to be fresh mint growing in the garden and frozen berries in the freezer). When the berries ran out we tried some cranberry jam. Sound disgusting but it rocked.

When squaffing the cocktails, the intellectual food critics (the 4 others who worked in some of the top restaurants in or around Adelaide) started talking menus, wine and food in general. Now, my food of choice (except Thai) is my local delicacy of an Aberdeen rowie, so like the wine chat, some of it was lost on me, but I can remember that one of the best fish and chip shop's secrets around Adelaide is to ensure that the batter is 'crispy and thin, not thick 'n' shit'.

Anyway, that was about the night...well morning - we finished at 5am. It was a great laugh in the morning with three of us giving out loads of banter and laughing at the state of the place in the morning.

Amazingly, Scott and I managed to go mountain biking in the afternoon. We finally made out about 4.30pm after me buying a 3 litre Camelbak that was in fact a 2 litre one, rendered useless for the trip as it had no straps - I should have know as it is identical to the one at home that I never got sent over in my package to NZ!







Needless to say our following evening was a pretty chilled on - me repacking, acquiring more music, while watching lovely home made pizzas being made. The night was rounded off with a quality snowboard move (After Lame) which just made me want to hit the snow. We were so knackered we couldn't even be bothered to change from a pathetically bad 'quiz' show to a DVD (it didn't help that the didn't put us through when we called up to tell them the name of a famous John to win $1150!).










There are more pictures of my time in Adelaide in my gallery.

Who watches this shit? (the quiz show we didn't end up switching off)

Uluru, Kings Canyon and Alice Springs road trip pics online

I've updated my gallery - see link on right hand side.  I'd write more about the last few days but as usual I've been online for a while, achieving not very much!

I arrived in Adelaide yesterday and was greet with a mere 18c temperature!  I thought I was ready for some cooler weather, but not really!  Gladly today has picked up.

I went out yesterday to sample the warm up for the Adelaide Fringe Festival.  We met some of Scott's mates, got into a puppet show for free, then walked out after we had finished our food we had just purchased!  A few beers were consumed never the less, sitting outside, getting cold!

Today Scott had to go to a work's thing, so I was allowed to borrow his car (yaaa!) and headed down to Glenelg to visit the shark museum there (run by the guy who helped out with the production of the Jaws film).  Although not as bad as the media makes out, its a pretty 'bad' area for sharks around here, and they do helicopter patrols throughout the year to watch for them from the sky!!!

Anyway, been sitting in here too long achieving not very much so am about to head back into the centre of Adelaide to collect Scott, and maybe purchase my NZ guidebook.  I think we're going to try and get mountain biking in the Adelaide Hills tomorrow, from Scott's doorstep (he lives about 20 mins from the city centre, overlooking it all).....but only if I can get a bike from somewhere.

I now have flights to Melbourne booked on Wednesday morning (only $25 AUD more than the bus), then to Sydney on Saturday morning.

Kings Canyon and Alice Springs night out

We visited Kings Canyon on the last day of our three day tour.  It was great to get the hiking boots on again and have a good walk around the canyon rim.  When we started it was 28c, and a couple of hours later it was 36c, and it was still only 10am.  The temperatures out in the open rose to around 46c during out tour - quite a bit hotter than I experienced in Asia!

The Canyon was impressive, with pretty amazing formations due to an old sea that used to cover the land.  There was a nice billabong (water hole) in the middle that allowed us to cool off for a bit mid walk.  It was nothing like the scale of the Grand Canyon though, but you can see the resemblances in appearance with huge gorges formed in the area.  The stories from the Aboriginal people make it even more interesting, with each mound of rock thought to be the remains of old explorers.

I arrived at Alice Springs quite tired after the 0430 start, sleeping outside in swags, the walk around Kings Canyon, and the drive back from there.  We had a new driver taking us back, and I had a fantastic travel related conversation with him, getting tips for New Zealand, and hearing of other exciting adventures he had done in the past.  We also got an explanation of the 'twisters' that form on the plain between Alice Springs and Kings Canyon....they look like twisters but are formed the reverse way with heat from hotter and colder areas on the ground forcing