That was quite a seven week excursion around Australia. Some people may call it a walkabout, but I'd like to call it the round about! Because of all of the u-turns we took! And thank god for round abouts because that makes getting lost or taking a wrong turn a bit easier. I wish we had more in the states. If you drive around oz, make note that the road signs are terrible, they are either not clear, or immediately before your turn or sometimes after the turn. I really got used to driving on the left side, I'm going to go home and be confused as of which side to drive on.
After the road trip we spent a week in Melbourne with Katie and Trina, Jessica's friends she met in New Zealand. We relaxed, watched movies, went to a Footie game, ate alot, walked their dog every day and went shopping. Then we spent a week in Daylesford, which is about an hour and a half outside of Melbourne. The May's have a holiday house out there and they offered for us to stay there. It's a very cute, small town. The cottage was just up the road from a small lake. Most of the tree's in Australia don't shed their leaves in autumn, they shed their bark, but Daylesford was filled with leaf shedding trees and they where changing at the time so it was beautiful! We both got a pretty bad cold at this time, but I can't think of a better place or time while traveling to be sick! We watched twenty eight movies.
We stayed at a hostel the last couple of days in Melbourne, and tied up lose ends before we left. It had free breakfast-woo hoo! Of course I stuffed myself to the max every morning and stuffed toast in my pockets. On the way to the airport, I saw three Kangaroo's- goodbye Australia. The flight to Christchurch, New Zealand was easy and quick, slept the whole time on the floor. The view from the plane flying over the mountains was beautiful. They had an announcement right before we landed that if you have been in North America in the past seven days you must see a doctor and possibly be quarantined. That flu sounds pretty serious. The weather in Christchurch when we landed was beautiful. Hot and sunny, but that must have been a freak hot day because since then its been pretty cold. We stayed at a hostel called Charlie B's in Christchurch for four days. We visited the art gallery, the art center and went down to the ocean and played in the caves. There was a movie room in the hostel and the first night there, what else was on but Lord of the Rings.
We found a posting for a ride share down to Queenstown with a Kiwi named Matt. After we met him and had coffee and made sure he wasn't a creep, Matt, a Canadian named Brendan and us headed down to Queenstown. A six hour ride turned into a very fun ten hour ride. We stopped and had a sit down lunch, stopped at a massive lock and damn waterfall, stopped to make cairns, which is a pretty big thing here. Cairns are just rocks piled on top of each other to make a tall balancing rock tower, kind of like Blair Witch . We stopped at a puzzle world and did puzzles for an hour, which was at the same place as the worlds largest sweater! Neat!
So we finally made it to Queens, it was a very beautiful ride, lots of mountains-got a bit carsick. We got a hostel - Southern Laughter. It was a nice small four bed dorm, with a TV, a bathroom and a kitchenette - luxurious. Bordering Queenstown are mountains called the Remarkables, which most people come to this town to ski or snowboard on it snowed on them several days after we got there and it was remarkable. This is my favorite town in New Zealand. It's also known for the Nevis bungee jump, the tallest in the southern hemisphere. We spent three days here, then drove down with Matt the Kiwi to Milford sound, which was his final destination, he is a kayak tour guide down there.
We spent the evening by the fire with the other tour guides. Sam wise the great-Matt the Kiwi's best mate, taught me how to loon call- image that, a Kiwi teaching me my own state bird call. I slept in a sleeping bag by the fire, it was awesome, until the fire went out, then I moved into an extra camper. The next morning we got to go sea kayaking for free with the group they where guiding. Later that day Sam wise the great drove us back up to Queens. We went back to that same hostel, where we met our new best friends, Geoff (Brooksie) and Bryan (Northie-that's what they called each other), we shared a four bed dorm. We spent the next four days just hanging out with them and having a blast with Brooksie and Northie. We also climbed a mountain, there is a gondola up this mountain you can take, but we climbed. It was like the Gross Grind in Vancouver. At the top there is a cafe, para sailing, lugging, and of course bungee jumping. There's alot of bungee jumping in Queens, and sky diving. I tried to sign up for the Nevis but it was all booked out, I was really looking forward to doing that. But instead I did the canyon swing, twice. The locals say the canyon swing is way more fun. You chose your option of how you want to get dropped or how you want to jump/fall. You go straight down 60 meters then swing across a canyon. My first one I jumped sideways off the ledge, and the second one I was hung upside down and dropped-it was crazy wicked. I almost shit my pants. Also in Queenstown, you have to go to Furgburger to get a burger, it's famous, also you have to go to Hells Pizza. Yummmmy.
No comments:
Post a Comment