Sep 2008

New Zealand (Aotearoa) is magnificently beautiful. I've been traveling with a company called the Magic bus - a sort of backpacker tour company. Along the way, both in the north and south islands, I have seen so many amazing viewpoints that I feel too guilty to try and get some sleep. Staring out the window is just so worth it
New Zealander's are generally a pretty good, easy-going, down-to-earth bunch. Except during Tri-nations rugby! I had to watch the Wallabies go down on Saturday and see the All Blacks clinch the Tr-Nations trophy for the 4th consecutive year. They're killing the tournament... but Kiwi's don't care!

My visit started in Auckland. I was pretty suprised at the size of the city - its much smaller than I expected. In fact, that pretty much sums up NZ - large parts of the country almost feel deserted - there is often not a soul around, especially in the south island. Auckland's Sky Tower is impressive - the views of the Auckland area are something else. The city centre is pretty small - I saw most of it in under an hour. My backpacker's room was eventually ok; I decided to move to my own room after coming across two fly-infested dorms (some funky, ripe old food in some bags I think). I met up with old East London mate Brendon Sparg on the waterfront for some drinks. It was great catching up, and Brendon introduced me to a few great Kiwi brews.

Without going into detailed daily accounts, I'll give you some of my highlights from the last three weeks in New Zealand:

Rotorua and the Maori cultural show:
So a bus picks you up for a cultural show, and before you know it, some massive Maori guys are just about decapitating our selected 'chief' and sticking their tongues out at us, doing the whole eyeball thing, and generally making every tourist squirm, as we are challenged to enter their 'village.' Then you go into the village, have a fat chat with these guys who have just threatened us with our lives, and eat 'hangi' - a kind of stew cooked under the ground with hot rocks/coal. A good experience, but unavoidably touristy.
Rotorua is also something of a hot spring capital, with various areas throughout the town closed off to public access because of boiling mud and geysers. There was a field of geysers just outside our YHA backpackers. As it turned out, the YHA is run by the grumpiest staff in New Zealand, and upon enquiring as to why the bar and restaurant closed at 7pm ("If there's no one in the bar, we close!"), they directed Irishman Gary and myself to another eatery. We didn't know as we set out in the dark, but the owner had directed us straight through the geyser field. We barely escaped with our lives. She probably sends all complainants there. That's were all the missing backpackers in New Zealand can be found, I reckon...

The Magic Bus:
The Magic Bus (www.magicbus.co.nz) is full of characters. The most interesting are the bus drivers, mostly because they are partly crazy. Since they are tour guides, they fill us in with interesting facts, such as the story of the possums: apparently there are either 19 million, 25 million, or 80 million possums in New Zealand, they are destroying the forests and they came from Australia. I didn't know this. Other fascinating facts are that you cannot sue in New Zealand, a Japanese guy once fell into 200 degree boiling mud and died, NZ is the most dangerous country in the world, and other facts. Sarcasm aside, the bus guides are pretty good blokes and apart from the occasional questionable fact, give you some pretty interesting stories about New Zealand, which keeps the trip pretty well entertained. They also stop off at great lookouts for photo opportunities, which lets you see so many great spots as you journey through the countryside. There are interesting passengers on the bus - I've met loads of Irish, English and Australian travellers.

Tramping in New Zealand
NZ is great for terkking, or tramping, as they say here. So far I have done walks through Tongariro National Park (Mordor from Lord of the Rings), Abel Tasman National Park and a little trip out to the Franz Josef glacier. All have been spectacularly beautiful. I've also done a bit of cycling - hiring bikes at Rotorua to see the Blue and Green lakes just outside the town. Like I said, and as you can see, NZ is spectacularly beautful.
Summitting Mt Ngauruhoe (Tongariro Crossing) felt like quite an achievement, but unfortunately the weather had closed in for most of the day, and the spectacular views that it is famous for were completely blocked by mist and sleet, which was worsened by the bitter, cold wind. It was still pretty cool seeing the area where the Mordor scenes were filmed though.

Wine tour and rugby in Napier:
I visited my mates from Nepal, Jason and Philippa Readpath, in Napier. What a great town. Pip took me on a cycling wine tour (hmm....poor combination?) on her day off. We mountain-biked through farm backroads and ended up on a Pacific beach. It was pretty weird seeing an old concrete World War 2 bunker on a quiet, desolate beach near Napier - built for the expected Japanese invasion back in 1942. You kind of forget just how far-reaching the 'world wars' were sometimes.
Pips and I then headed off to the vineyards, where we sampled some great white wines, and added knowledgable comments such as 'clearly an autumn harvest,' and 'yes, 2004 - a great year' to taster conversations. The Mission is a great little winery.
On the way home, Jason called to announce that a rugby match would be on later that night. Hometeam Hawke's Bay v Taranaki, the big, superior rivals!! And, big suprise... the hometeam won! It was a great game, and the local provincial rugby scene reminded me a lot of the domestic rugby atmosphere back home in South Africa.
Overall, I really liked Napier - its a great town.

Windy Wellington
I met up with my old Wimbledon housemate Gen Talbot in Wellington, and she took me all over the place - Wellington, although often cold and chilly, seems to have quite a trendy arts scene. Its headed up by the most amazing museam - Te Papa. Personally, I think its far better than any museum I've seen in London. I was really impressed. The city is spread out and runs along a large bay. Fortunately, the weather cleared and we managed to walk up to a great viewpoint on my last day in Eastbourne, Wellington to get some photos of the bay.

Snowboarding in Queenstown
Wow wow wow!! Well, what can I say - snowboarding is just awesome. I love the sport, and may well be addicted now. If you've done it before, you'll know how cool it is. I went to the Remarkables Ski Resort for two days. Queenstown is also unbelievably beautiful - the views from the hillside down to the town, and up to all the surrounding mountains are really incredible. I stayed at another YHA, along with the Irish and Aussie crowd from the Magic Bus. I'm kind of glad to be leaving tomorrow - this town sure can break the bank!

Til next time when I'm in Fiji, adios!

You've got to hand it to the Aussies - they know how to market their country! Every little town, village, or suburb has some 'attraction.' A good example are the billboards being displayed outside the small town of Bowen,on the coast in central Queensland. The soon-to-be released film Australia was filmed here last year, and long before you head into the town, their are a few big billboards stating that since Nic (Kidman) and Hugh (Jackman) liked it there so much, you should too! I really enjoyed Australia. The country has a lot going for it. Evidence of its desirability to foreigners is obvious, because the cities are so cosmopolitan - the streets are full of multitudes of different people. It has a couple of downsides too - every traveller seems to complain about the cost of touring Australia. And the winter was incredibly cold. I was quite suprised at just how cold it got in Sydney - my second night there the city temperature dropped to -2C, and it 'snowed' a few kilometers away. Not quite what most people expect of Australia! The weather actually reminded me of London.

My 5 week tour began in Sydney. I stayed with my uncle Jim - hadn't seen him in 11 years, and it was great catching up after so long. It was great hearing all his London and Sydney stories. I also appreciated having my own bedroom for a change, which, after months away from normalcy, means a lot to a backpacker!
Like all good Sydney tourists I headed straight to that little opera house and the Sydney Harbour bridge. Fortunately, the trip to Jim's place meant that I would have to pass right by both of these incredible structures everyday while in Sydney. For me, the bridge is more spectacular. Its truely magnificent. It's also called the Iron Lung, as it kept so many people employed during the depression of the 1930's.



Uncle Jim - Freshwater, Sydney

Sydney has a peculiar mix between sprawling, busy city and quiet suburbia. Its a nice city.

Roadtrip up the NSW coast and Brisbane

I decided the best way to see Australia was to hire a car and head west of Sydney via the Blue Mountains and then north to my mate Craig Rheeder in Brisbane, Queensland. The trip took 8 days. What a great way to see New South Wales.
On the way to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, I passed the Sydney Olympic Park. Its incredible. I'd hate to know how much nations spend on hosting this event. Basically, the equivalent of a medium-sized town is built to cater for it. The number of stadiums, grounds, stands, etc is ridiculous - they spread out for miles. Of course, there's plenty of extra's like big parks, fountains, a variety of sporting monuments, and all that, that must have been built to conform to the whole Olympic 'spirit' the IOC demands. It is beautiful though, and its still used today, as there were a number of conferences and sports events being held when I went there.

Sydney Olympic Park

Katoomba is a great little town - the famous Three Sisters are there, and a number of beautiful ridges that have spectacular viewpoints and drop-offs into a large gorge below. It was even colder here than in Sydney. In fact, I think I wore boardshorts only once or twice in my five weeks in Australia - total opposite of what you would expect from Australia. I headed north with Camilla (my Camry Altise - got a free upgrade from the little Yaris I was meant to get... ). Along the way, there were plenty of great viewpoints and I kept stopping to take pics. The Australian bush is really beautiful. I stayed at YHA's (youth hostels) the whole way up, spending only a night at Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, and Byron Bay. they were all pretty similar I thought, and a little boring actually. Byron Bay has a good party scene, but for a change I didn't get involved. My favourite spot was the Hunter's Valley YHA - the hostel organised a full day wine tour of the local wineries, and of course, I thought this needed investigation. The wineries had no problem plying the group with their wines, and I responded by getting a few bottles for later on the roadtrip. Some great red's I must say! There was also a micro-brewery next door, which was investigated as well, and received a fine quality check on all of its lovely brews.


Camilla - my Camry Altise

Koala at a sanctuary in Port Macquarie

Byron Bay lookout

I headed into Brisbane and my old pal Craig picked me up in town. Criag and I have been mates since we were 3 or something, having met via our folks when they joined the King William's Town Round Table organisation back in the early eighties. It was awesome catching up, and I spent the days exploring the city and the nights heading out for drinks or dinner with Craig and his mates. Its another cool city, the south bank area was my favourite. The city sits on a river and well-developed and its easy to get around. I'd say that Brisbane was my favourite city in Oz, although I can't comment on Melbourne and Adelaide. Craig and housemate Lawson took me to Nussa Heads on the Saturday that I was there - which is basically a hangout for retired billionaire's. I saw a real live Wallaby there (most are roadkill I think). We also saw a naked guy taking a little stroll down the beach, which was disturbing.

Lawson, Craig and I at Nussaheads

Prosepine and Richmond

I've been really keen to see my aunt, uncle and cousins in Prosepine, Queensland since I left for my travels back in February. I caught a flight from Brisbane and my aunt Joy and uncle David met me at the airport. Joy is my dad's sister. It was awesome staying with the family. It was like being home away from home - no noisy backpacker going through multiple plastic packets in his bag at 5am, no security lockers and no rusty doublebunk beds. My cousins Pam, Linda and Myles all came in from various parts of Queensland to see me over the course of my stay. I hadn't seen the girls for years so it was great catching up. The family is traditonally into cattle farming, but got into cane farming a few years back. I asked David why he went into something so different... "Another drought would have killed me!" he said. I thought he was exaggerating until Joy and David took me to their cattle ranch 500 km inland.... proper outback territory. Without a doubt, you have to be pretty tough to succeed out there. The land is flat, hard grassland, that stretches for miles and miles. The cattle are supported by boredrains - the boreholes having been drilled more than 300m into the earth to reach water levels. The water comes out hot and runs for miles down the boredrains to various yellow pastures. There are no other sources of water for most of the year and there are few trees to stand under to get under some shade. A short stint in the sun left me sunburnt, and it is the height of winter there right now! Farms are many kilometers apart - a visit for tea, or preferably a cold beer, takes about 15-20 minutes to your nearest neighbour! It's tough out there!

Cane flowers.

The wattle tree - this is why Aussies wear green and yellow national sports gear.

Iron man.

Joy and David - on the way to Richmond.

A highway 'train' - note the three trailers.

A black-headed-python on Gracedale.

The old sheep sheering shed.

David shoeing a racehorse for his dad Bob on the way to Richmond.

Kronosaurus tooth inspection. Richmond has the best kronosaurus fossil in the world. (That's a big sea monster from long, long ago, for those who are wondering.)

A Kookaburra - this is the funniest bird you'll ever hear. Its ridiculous.

Myles laying out some "pots" in the Whitsundays islands. Mud crabs are absolutely massive crabs - loads of good meat!

Me on the famous Whitehaven beach. The smile soon changed to sheer horror though, as the wind had picked up heavily, and our voyage back to the mainland sufferred a few minor setbacks. I realised this when David mentioned it was perhaps time to put our lifejackets on halfway through the straight and at the bottom of a giant swell...

David and son.

Motor-cross at Prosepine.

Mud crab. These things are seriously nasty crabs. They could easily chop off a finger or two. Not this one though, it ended up in the hot pot mmmm

Inside a cane harvester. Everyone should have one of these bad-boys - they are awesome!

Yes, thats me in a small plane. Yes, those are harness straps over my shoulders. Yes, that is a man with a parachute attached to his back. Yes, I'm attached to him. No, I actually did jump. Yes, I was scared.

The chicken of death

Me and the cuzzies. We tricked Pam into rapping. Myles and I are her pimps.

The Townsville Amateurs

David's dad, Bob, got us some tickets to the Townsville Amateurs. What a cool event!! There was actually a horse called Slugger there, so I placed a bet on it. It came last, or second last, I couldn't tell. Damn thing.

Bob, Myles and I - dressed to the 9's.

Linda at the races, dressed to the 9's as well.

Myles pointing the way from Castle hill viewpoint in Townsville.

Back in Sydney, I had some time to see old friends and Jim once more before heading out to New Zealand for the next leg of the world tour. I managed to stay with my old primary school mate Ryan and his wife Kilmeny and once again do some big catch-ups. Life passes by so fast sometimes...
Ryan tried to tuck me in for bed the one night I was there, so I thought I should leave pronto as things were getting dodgy... Kilmeny - watch that husband of yours.

I managed to see another Dutch traveller from the Philippines - this time Astrid, who I met in dodgy Manila. She's in Sydney working in dentistry.

Then, last but not least, I saw Jim one last time before flying out. I hate goodbyes.

Australia has been great. It is an amazing country, and I can see why people want to live there - it has a lot going for it. Perhaps one day I'll return for a look-see...

But now, New Zealand, and this place is crazy!! What a fun place to travel to. Sabs Birch - sorry for the 6 week delay in getting this blog note out, I'll get the next one out much sooner than that!!!

See ya later, mate!
Sweet as...