Young, Free and now...BROKE!

Back to reality!! Typing this final entry on the computer at home and it feels like we’ve never been away: 9-5 in a mind-numbing office job and daily fights with Rich over the car – some people are just never happy…Whilst in Fiji we were wishing we were back home, now at home I think even Fiji is appealing, despite the fact it wasn't the holiday-brochure paradise we were expecting…

13/03/07
Returned the car and escaped an anticipated ‘chipped windscreen charge’ (I challenge anyone to drive around NZ without getting a stone thrown onto their windscreen – road works galore!) Checked baggage in, incredibly efficiently and hung around the airport for what seemed like eternity.

Arrived in Fiji where we were greeted by bright blue skies and glistening white sand? NOPE!! We got grey skies, a thunderstorm (accompanied by 1000% humidity), muddy brown seas and a clapped out old mini bus to take us to the hostel…so far so good?!?

The hostel was in an extremely isolated location so there was nowhere to go for dinner other than the in-house ‘restaurant’. We then returned to our room, but had to re-locate due to a leaking roof. Finally, we settled down to survey the island literature and realised that there was no way on Earth that we were going to be able to afford to go anywhere…we therefore reassessed our financial situation and decided to alter our return flights for 5 days time, pushing our budget back up to a reasonable allowance per day.

14/03/07 – HAPPY BIRHDAY GRANNY + MWAHH!!
The storms had continued all night and the morning offered no alternative…what do you do in Fiji when it’s raining?? Well, you pat yourselves on the back for deciding to get out of there and spend the morning on the phone to Qantas altering your flight plans. Eventually we managed to cut the trip back by 10 days, enabling us to spend 3 days on 2 of the surrounding Yasawas islands (which were meant to be more idyllic). Even then we could only afford ‘budget’ accommodation – but how bad could it be? We booked 2 nights on Nanuya Lai Lai and 1 night on Nacula, leaving the following day.

Having sorted that out we decided to head into Nadi town centre and caught the local bus (typical 3rd world variety, fully ventilated (i.e. no windows)) for 65cents. There was nothing there but tourist shops with 1000’s of Americans tourists in - obviously the arrangement works well. We were somehow dragged into a shop with a couple from Finland, who we’d been chatting to on the bus into town. The shop owners then coerced us into participating in a ‘welcoming ceremony’, where we had to watch them make kava (local drink, reminiscent of muddy pond water – in taste and appearance). You had to clap and chant something Fijian whenever anyone was given the drink. Finally we were allowed to browse around what we had thought was a market, but in fact was a family-owned shop the size of a walk-in wardrobe. We literally couldn’t get out of the shop until we’d bought something (obviously lost the skills we’d developed in Vietnam) and ended up with an extortionately over-priced wooden mask.

Having escaped the mad-house we found an internet shack and then waved goodbye to our Finnish friends (Is that what you call people form Finland??) By the time we got outside again the sun had made an appearance - hurrah!!! We therefore rushed to get back to laze by the pool, and in our haste got on the wrong bus. Fortunately we managed to jump off before being driven out of town and walked the rest of the way back to the hostel (40 mins) without getting lost.

That evening we went to a reasonably posh restaurant (‘Chef’) in town to celebrate my 23rd birthday. We had a really lovely evening; gorgeous meal served by our very own singing waitresses and a complimentary desert with ‘Happy Birthday Ema’ written on the plate in chocolate – ahhh.

15/03/07
A massive storm thundered throughout the night, damaging the electricity supplies, so when I rose at 5.30am I had to take a shower with only our battery powered lantern to assist my sight. After breakfast we were picked up by a coach and taken to the harbour, where we boarded a catamaran and spent the morning cruising through the Mamanuca islands (home to Monuriki – a.k.a Castaway Island, think Tom Hanks, and Bounty Island – a.k.a Celebrity Love Island).

We spent most of the day on the boat and arrived at Nanuya Lai Lai (a.k.a. Blue Lagoon) about 3.30pm. The owners of ‘Seaspray’ (our budget ‘resort’) collected us from the main ship in a ‘speed’ boat, along with another couple from Birmingham. Bearing in mind we’d compromised our remaining budget into these 3 days we were somewhat shocked when we arrived. The lady who’d booked the resort was right about experiencing the ‘real’ Fiji… claustrophobic/cramped, dirty bure, ‘eco-friendly/human-enemy’ toilets where leaves are used to ‘flush’ your excrements after you’ve battled with the flies and a bucket of rainwater complete with a margarine tub to wash….utter paradise!! Accepting our plight, we did enjoy the company – both tourists and residents. Queenie and Britney (the 2 gays in the village) provided meal time entertainment, whilst the owners little boy gave an added cute factor. Oh, and of course Wayne loved the 1000’s of stray dogs.

The meals consisted of 100% carb stodge, which we ate at the family table with 9 other guests after holding hands and saying ‘grace.’ We then carried out plastic seats outside and sat around a bonfire on the beach. Spoke to a really friendly Dutch lady who’d (along with her boyfriend) quit her job in advertising and decided to travel the world. They’d been to Antarctica –sounded amazing.

16/03/07
The family cockerels woke us up at 5:30am, so we got up and wondered around. After breakfast we went shark-feeding on the family boat (kitted out with masks and snorkels). It was a bit of a non-event… my mask kept leaking and they only found one reef shark. No money-back guarantee here though. We had booked to do a dive that afternoon, but the visibility was awful so we decided to cancel and wonder over to the Blue Lagoon on the other side of the island instead. No-one had warned us that the island is pretty steep and well forested (we assumed it was all sand), so we set-off on our little trek in bare feet (ouch!!) An hour later (our feet battered, bruised and covered in mud) we reached the Blue Lagoon. Our hired snorkelling gear leaked yet again, so we couldn’t see much underwater, but we did catch a glimpse at how Fiji should be – for those with a bit of cash. The luxury resort on this side of the island was so much better than ours…we purchased a drink and Wayne made use of a flushing toilet. A couple of hours later we plucked up the courage to go back, but bypassed our shack in favour of the beach tea shop, where we purchased a very, very weak tea and a slice of chocolate cake.

That evening we sat at the dinner table speaking to the remaining guests; the Dutch couple and 3 English lads, who’d had a similar opinion of Australia as us…i.e. they hate the British and glamorise their own country far too much, which led to an overall disappointment upon arrival. Similarly they couldn’t fault New Zealand. Great minds think alike.

17/03/07
Took the ‘speed’ boat and raced over to Nacula; the third largest island in the Yasawas. Although the facilities at this new ‘resort’ were slightly better: dripping pipe for a shower and a flushing loo, our bure was full of cockroaches, ants and centipedes – cringe!! Wayne had mild sun-stoke and slept most of the day, so I just spent mine reading my book on the beach. That afternoon we were dragged over to make palm leaf headdresses for the Fijian ‘lovo’ evening. I really wasn’t in the mood and just wanted to go to bed – I think the beginnings of our week long illness were setting in. We forced ourselves to attend and ate the ‘lovo’ food, which had been cooked underground and tasted like it had been shoved into a chimney breast all afternoon; smoked isn’t a strong enough adjective. After the kava ceremony (that we couldn’t participate in because we refused to pay to drink the muddy water) we sneaked away and went to bed feeling a bit grotty. We were definitely looking forward to heading home at this point.

18/03/07
Couldn’t sleep because the bed was so uncomfortable and my mosquito bites were unbearably itchy all night. Got up at 6am, showered and sat waiting for the boat to take us over to the returning catamaran – yes, we really were that fed up. Suddenly, about 8.30am we both started getting stomach pains and ran to the filthy toilets (luckily there were 2). I think we had contracted food poisoning from either the ‘lovo’ food or the previous resorts fly-ridden meals. Our 30 hour plus journey home suddenly didn’t seem so appealing – we crossed our fingers, hoping it would reside.

The five hours spent on the boat dragged, but was relatively uneventful – 1 toilet trip each. We got back to the hostel and asked the unhelpful lady on reception (who I now know retained my birthday cards!!!) if we could take a shower before catching a lift to the airport. She was so blasé about everything she just nodded us in the direction of the shower so we assumed this was ok. However, when we returned to reception she unapologetically informed us that the minibus had already gone to the airport and we would have to get a taxi!! AGHHHHHHH!!!! With no time to argue (well, no time to argue successfully) we caught a taxi to the airport and managed to check our bags in before running to the toilet yet again.

The 10 hour flight from Fiji to LA was at the time, how we imagined hell could be – I think Wayne spent most of the flight in the toilet rather than in his seat. I did however manage to catch up on a bit of sleep and the time passed relatively quickly. The 10 hours spent in LA airport made the Fiji to LA flight look like a breeze. At least we just had to sit there, and our only worry was reaching the toilet in time. At the airport we couldn’t do anything right. Firstly, I took a mouthful of abuse from an arrogant American passport control ‘officer’, whilst desperately wanting to run to the nearest WC. Secondly, we went to collect our baggage from a carousel (despite the fact we were a connecting flight), where surely the logic here is to let the baggage circulate around the belt so that passengers all have an opportunity to spot their bag and grab it – but no, in LA they employ someone to stand at the opening and throw the luggage off the belt into a massive pile on the floor. Us passengers just stood waiting for about 20 minutes before someone pointed out that all the bags were sitting around the other side. AGHHHHH!!!

We were then directed through to the check-in desks and had to queue to get through to departures – not good as my stomach had started to churn AGAIN. Very strange – Wayne suffered more whilst sitting still on the plane, where as nature kept calling when I was moving around in the airports. Anyway, we queued up at BA’s desk, only to be told that we needed Qantas to stick a little date-change label on our ticket….why?!? they had us booked onto the flight on the computer!!! So, we trundled along to the Qantas desk and waited an hour and a half for them to open up, got the damned sticky label and went back again to BA. Fortunately we didn’t have to queue for quite as long this time. We simply didn’t have the energy nor adequate control over our bowls to take a wonder around LA, so we sat at the gate for about 4 hours willing time to pass. Since we’d flown over the date line we were back where we’d started, and it was 9pm again on 18/03/07 – when to us it should have been about 2pm on 19/03/07.

19/03/07
Another 10 hour flight in similar degrees of agony and we finally touched down into London Heathrow – phew!!!! Only 1.5 hours from home…or so we thought. It actually took us a couple of hours to get through to arrivals (baggage collection at Heathrow doesn’t have the best reputation) and we spent a further hour sorting out our hire car to get home. We were told to go outside, choose our car and check it for any damage. Well…there was no way we could stand outside in the snow checking for damage when we were in flip-flops and all we wanted to do was roll into bed. So, we took the car and drove off, looking forward to surprising Mum and Rich, dropping the car off at Luton Airport and then going straight to bed. Even in England things didn’t go to plan. 8pm (landed at 2pm) we pulled up outside the house, no lights on, Wayne desperate for the loo and no cars outside….trouble. No-one answered the front door and I didn’t have a key. We drove down to the garage so that I could phone Mum and Wayne could use the toilet, but Mum’s phone was switched off and the garage didn’t have any toilets! I then suddenly remembered that it was Monday night and that Richard would be at work, so we rushed down to Sainsbury’s, Wayne ran straight to the toilets and I got a supervisor to call for Rich over the tannoy system. When he finally arrived at the customer service desk he said ‘hi’ as if I’d only seen him an hour ago and ‘what did I want?’ Then it suddenly registered that this was the sister he hadn’t seen for 6 months and he tried again…’OHHHH, HI!!!....what are you doing here???’ After a brief explanation he ran upstairs and gave me his car and house keys. We then dropped off the hire car at Luton airport, attempted to pick Rich up from work – although he’d started to walk home and by the time we got fed up waiting for him and drove back, he was just strolling up the road – some things never change! At 9.30pm we FINALLY got home. Mum was out with her school children at the Royal Albert Hall, so I had to wait up until midnight to say ‘Hi’.

This magical ‘appearing’ act continued for a couple of days – we sprung up in Rushden, then again in Harpenden and then finally in Luton. I think everyone was a bit put out by our early return – apparently no-one was ready for us quite yet.

After a week of being home we feel like we’ve never been away, so I will try and sift through these blog entries in a couple of weeks to remind myself of what this write up was all about ….

The End.

We’ve both really enjoyed our time in New Zealand – the North Island wasn’t quite as scenic as the South, but still provided us with a fantastic fortnight. I think we needed another month here to see everything on offer – unfortunately we’d need another few grand as well! Only negative: I’ve lost my tan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

28/02/07
Drove to Picton Port and then wondered around the town for a couple of hours. Boarded the ferry around lunchtime and arrived in Wellington 4 hours later. Navigated our way out of Wellington and into Plimmerton (seaside suburb, 20 mins north of the city). Staying in a ‘homely’ guesthouse, although owner is a little ‘full on’ and spent most of the afternoon trying to avoid him!

01/03/07
Hung around the guesthouse in the morning to get our laundry done. Unfortunately this innocent chore entailed a 40-minute ear bashing from the owner who tried to corner us into his 3-man dingy so that we could explore the nearby island – fair enough if we had time, but we wanted to go into the city and look around before moving north. We escaped, after he’d offered us a self-made itinerary of the city, complete with hand drawn map and spent the rest of the day (about 4 hours) looking around Te Papa; the national museum. It was excellent – very interactive and lively. The geology exhibition was the most impressive section because all of the plate tectonic case studies were local: volcanic eruptions, earthquakes (complete with a shaking house) etc. Since the weather was poor we decided to head back to the hostel, but sneaked in via the back entrance so as to avoid another ‘incident’ with the owner.

02/03/07
Back into Wellington…wondered down the waterfront, through the city and took a cable car up to the Botanical Gardens. Ate lunch in the gardens and then zigzagged down through the park and back into the city. Pretty place but surprisingly small for a capital city and nothing remarkably different about it. Bought a couple of tickets at a small independent art house cinema and watched the ‘Last King of Scotland’ that evening – excellent film.

03/03/07
Headed out of Wellington and up to Turangi; a small town close to the Tongariro National Park. Planned to do the Tongariro Crossing (reputedly the best 1 day walk in NZ) as it would be a cheap and health benefiting day out. Only the latter was true…it cost us a humungous $70 to get to/ from the park (not a circular walk so couldn’t drive ourselves). Spent the rest of the day recovering from the shock…

04/03/07
Tongariro Crossing: The national park comprises of 3 mountains; Tongariro (1967m), Ngauruhoe (2287m) and Ruapehu (2797m, best know for its cameo as Mordor’s Mt Doom, in Lord of the Rings). The 7 hours hike was exhausting but very rewarding – we set off at 7.30am, along with what seemed to be the entire tourist population of NZ, and trekked up Mt Tongariro to its’ Red Crater (1900m, last erupted 1926, but still regarded as active). We then walked down/skied down (without the ski’s!) a slope of ash, past the Emerald Lakes to its central crater. Some parts were very demanding; Wayne landed face first in ash 4 or 5 times!! Haha. Emma moved at a snails pace so as to avoid such embarrassment. Unfortunately we couldn’t appreciate the views of the surrounding national park, hence how high we’d battled, as the weather didn’t serve us well - we were caught up in cloud for most of the day. On our decent we saw numerous hot springs gushing sulphur and spent the final 2 hours engulfed in lush native forest. We reached Ketetahi Car Park 6 hours and 15 minutes later – blisters galore! Spent the rest of the afternoon lying down recovering – ate dinner at 5.30pm and went to bed! I told you it was exhausting.

05/03/07
Drove from Turangi, past Lake Taupo to Rotorua (dubbed ‘Sulphur City’, due to its distinct rotten egg aroma – nice!) Wondered around the town centre, but there was nothing of any interest, unless you count the pungent steam rising from the drains! Since we were still aching we went back to the campsite.

06/03/07
Walked into town again, quick internet stop and then walked across town to the Rotorua Museum, which was originally an elegant spa retreat (medicinal/therapeutic bath house) in 1908. The museum gave an insight into the past: electric current treatments, mud baths and the ‘maintenance nightmare’; the complex pipe system that continually eroded away due to the rich mineral waters. Ate lunch in the government gardens watching bowls and then wondered up to Lake Rotorua (formed by an eruption and subsequent subsistence of the area) and around to Ohinemuta – tiny Maori village.

That evening we drove to Te Puia and spent the night immersed in Maori culture. First up was the Powhiri (a traditional welcome ceremony), where we were told NOT to laugh or smile, as this would be deemed offensive. This was a challenge in itself for me – how can you not laugh at people who stare at you eye to eye whilst sticking their tongues out!! By biting my lip I managed to pull it off – thankfully or that would have been a waste of money! Our self-volunteered tourist chief (an American chap) had to go and greet the Maori chief with a ‘double nose rub’ and then we were allowed to walk down into the intricately carved meeting house: men at the front, women ‘protected’ at the back. We ‘sang’ a greeting in Maori and then watched the Haka performances, which were excellent…wide eyes, tongues out, body slapping, foot stomping dance routines (even treated to the original ‘All Black’ haka). The women then performed a Poi – formation dancing with balls of woven flax, before escorting us to Pikirangi – a reconstructed Maori village. We’d booked without knowing that a meal was included in the price, but luckily re-read the literature before starting dinner that afternoon. The buffet meal was gorgeous: roast, stews, salads and even a kiwi pavlova. I was very aware of the fact that we were the only people sticking to the free jug of water on the tables!! Cheap skates! Haha. We sat next to a Dutch couple, who were very friendly but had slightly overpowering singing voices – my lip was well and truly mauled by the time we got back into the car! Fantastic night out.

07/03/07
Rose early because we were intending to visit the Waiotapu Thermal Reserve. The weather was really bad though and we didn’t want to spend money on something that we were going to rush around, so we changed our plans…visited the park next to the campsite: Kuirau Park and caught a glimpse of a volcanic area…some boiling mud and a steaming crater lake, for free!! We then went into town and purchased a cheap card game (yes, we were getting desperate for ideas) that kept us entertained for the rest of the afternoon.

08/03/07
Another uneventful day – drove for most of it…to the Bay of Islands – 7-hour journey. Booked into a hostel just up from the beach, between Paihia and Waitangi. Pondered over the idea of booking a dive, but decided we couldn’t afford it so opted for a boat trip around the islands instead.

09/03/07
Visited Waitangi National Reserve, where Wayne spent most of the morning toying over the idea of purchasing his very own piece of Maori weaponry – when I reminded him that the ‘stick’ (for want of a better word) he was about to purchase was 200 GBP he decided against it and we were FINALLY able to look around the grounds. Visited the colonial style Treaty House and gardens (built 1832 by Busby, an English officer), which was the setting of the ‘Treaty of Waitangi’ signing in 1840, and then walked around the Whare Runanga (Maori Meeting House – built in 1940 to celebrate the centenary of the Treaty). That afternoon we caught the ferry across to Russell – an early European settlement. Very pretty, but small and since it was raining (yet again!) we quickly moved on.

10/03/07 – Happy Birthday Andy!!
Up early, walked to Paihia dock and boarded a catamaran that took us on a 6-hour trip around the Bay of Islands. We sailed up to Cape Bret and the ‘Hole in the Rock’ Island and then back down past Black Rocks. The highlight of the trip was seeing 3 different pods of bottlenose dolphins in the wild!! Unfortunately we couldn’t swim with them because they had a few calves, but it was an amazing sight…they swam with the boat for about 30 minutes – kept up with the speeds of about 45kph.

11/03/07
Arrived in Auckland and the pre-booked cabin at the campsite wasn’t ready, so after hanging around for about an hour we finally got checked-in. The room was reminiscent of our Asian lodgings – indistinguishable smell (musty, damp, stale…rank!), carpeted walls and an MDF bed that Wayne couldn’t fit on! He went to complain and we were begrudgingly ‘upgraded’ to a larger, but equally ghastly room with a longer bed (at an extra cost – cheek!) – Wayne’s still too long but at least his feet can dangle off the bed – the previous bed had a wooden board at the end?!? Problem solved…except they didn’t have a room key?!? We were given the master key – great security – but the door didn’t lock so Wayne marched up to the office again to get them to sort it out. We needed to stay another night, but they claimed the room was fully booked the following day so were moving us to a smaller room the other side of the park the following morning–we know for a fact it hadn’t been occupied the previous night so they should have put us in there in the first place! It was SO infuriating!

Briefly visited the city centre later that day, but came back as we had no money to do anything – ahhhh. That night our room door mysteriously flew open, despite there being no wind…spooky!! I don’t like this place.

12/03/07
Drove into the city and got ripped off by a second hand book dealer with an annoyingly large grin…we needed to get rid of a few books as our bags have become too heavy and we got charged excess baggage weight by the last airline! The women bought 8 books off us for $9 (less than 4 GBP) – bargain! Spent the rest of the day on this internet sorting out flight problems and writing this blog.

So long New Zealand...hopefully I’ll get a bit of colour back whilst lazing on a few beaches in Fiji. I doubt I’ll have much to report next time, but I’ll try and give you one last update before we return! It’s all going too fast! See you all very soon, take care e xx

Absolutely love New Zealand, why did we only allocate 1 month to explore this beautiful country?!?

13/02/07
Rose early (final time in the camper – hurrah!!!) to sort out our rental car for New Zealand...we thought we'd sorted it out before we left the UK, but Qantas had changed our flight times and we were unable to collect the car at our stated time. Since we've chosen a cheap rental company they fail to offer such luxuries as 24hour reception, so we had to arrange to collect the car from a hotel car park upon arrival. $15 later; after numerous phone calls and fax correspondence, we THOUGHT everything was OK: the rental company had phoned to confirm, so we checked out of the campsite and headed in search of the garage we had been instructed to return the camper van to. No easy task with an inadequate map, but we'd left plenty of time so the odd wrong turning or two didn't create too much tension. After a 30 minute argument over the phone with the Cairns rental company (what legit car rental company makes the customer wash the vehicle before returning it!!) we were on our way to Melbourne airport and arrived 5 hours early...I don't know how I ever earnt a reputation for being late??

Arrived in Christchurch around 11.30pm but didn't get through passport control until after 12.30am, primarily due to poor management: 5 officers allocated to 'Australian and Kiwi' stations, 1 officer for the rest of the world! The line moved unbearably slowly – there were a lot of angry tourists, mainly impatient Americans (as you can imagine: we didn't suffer in silence). Only benefit: luggage was out before the owners so no waiting around the carrousel's. We managed to find a pay phone in arrivals and rang the hotel so that they could come and collect us and take us to our car...only problem - they didn't have any keys to a rental car! AGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! We tried to ring the rental company to find out what they were playing at but no-one was in the office until the morning. Without a guarantee of reimbursement we reluctantly caught a taxi to our pre-booked campsite, where thankfully a key HAD been left for us in a safe and rolled into bed about 3am. Noticeably colder here – these rooms have heating instead of air con.

14/02/07
Forced ourselves out of bed at 7am and rang the rental company – no help, advised us to go back to the airport office. Caught yet another taxi and 'politely' explained our predicament to a guy on reception. They were extremely apologetic and realised that their Auckland office hadn't informed them of our new arrival time. We managed to get our taxi rides reimbursed, a day knocked off the rental price and a reduced ferry crossing fare from the South to the North island. Since they were so accommodating and apologetic we let the fax fees slide in exchange for a free road map – result!

Stocked up on grocerys before returning to the cabin and finally made it into Christchurch city centre by lunch time, where we ate our picnic lunch on the banks of the Avon River. Very pretty place (often described as the most English of NZ's cities) but by mid-afternoon our tiredness kicked in and we had to go back and catch up on sleep. Awoke about 7pm and spent the evening planning our NZ itinerary. Realised that we haven't got nearly as much time as we'd like here: we are going to have to move on every day so that we can fit in as many places as possible.

15/02/07 – CONGRATULATIONS ANG + ANDY ON THE BIRTH OF YOUR NEW BABY: KEIRAN ANDREW BUNKER – we can't wait to meet him.
Left Christchurch and headed down Arthurs Pass through glorious scenery to the West Coast. The landscape here is so majestic: snow-capped mountains, bright blue skies and lush green forests – I don't think you could ever get bored driving around. We planned to reach the glacier region by late afternoon so that we could take a guided hike on a glacier the following day. Although we did manage to book ourselves onto the 7.30am hike we couldn't find any accommodation for that night: all fully booked! Stopped off in Hokitika and found a tourist information centre to ask for their help. Here we learnt that you 'must' book your accommodation in advance, as NZ is a popular tourist destination, especially at this time of year. Whoops – this was a new revelation as we had simply been turning up at places in hope of a bed/spot of grass for the last 5 months. After a number of attempts the helpful tourist info lady managed to find us a motel room in the tiny hamlet of Hari Hari (1 hour north of the glaciers). It was perfect, stunning views and very quiet so we couldn't be taunted by people getting ready to go out (a 'no no' for us in the late stages of our trip: we are now trying to survive on 19GBP a day!) Since there was no phone reception at the motel we drove down the road and parked outside an independent garage for 2 hours, so that we could sort out accommodation for the following 2 weeks - no easy task as many places were fully booked. In fact we had phoned so many places our phone credit ran out. Bookings could only resume after we'd driven back to the local shop and purchased some more phone credit. After dinner we returned to our phone spot and rang Wayne's mum for a baby update...thinking surely Ang must have had had it by now?!? Our hunch was confirmed....'a little boy!!!' So once again, congratulations Ang and Andy (and Tia: now officially an older sister – tough job T but I'm sure you'll be up for the job – plenty of role models!) Don't let Keiran grow too much before we get back!

16/02/07
Up at 5am and drove into Westland Tai Poutini National Park at dawn – stunning 'Lord of the Rings' like scene: mist hovering over the water in front of a beautiful mountain backdrop...photographs just couldn't capture it. We arrived in Franz Josef village around 6.45am and waited around for 45 minutes before the office opened and were then kitted out in a gortex rain jacket, waterproof over trousers, woolen gloves/hat/socks, leather boots and attachable Ice Talonz for grip. We caught a bus to the Franz Josef Glacier car park, walked to the terminal face (about 45 mins), attached our ice talonz and were good to go. The Franz Josef glacier is the 3rd largest in NZ (11km long) but is the World's steepest and fastest flowing glacier (1-5m/day – 10 times faster than the average glacier!!)

The guide carved steps into the ice as we climbed and we soon got used to walking normally (initially I found it hard to put trust in the spikes of the talonz). It was an amazing day but felt very surreal: we were standing on a massive body of ice but could absorb fantastic views of forests and lush mountains! We spent 4 hours on the ice, but it only felt like an hour (at the time – later that day it felt like we'd spent 10 hours on the ice as our knees started to ache.) The dangers surrounding these natural formations were brought home towards the end of our trek...we'd heard a crack and ice crumble 10 minutes before reaching the terminal face but weren't sure what had happened/where the ice had fallen. It was only when we'd made it back down onto solid ground that we realised what had happened. The opening of a glacial cave on the face had collapsed and some idiot who hadn't bothered to fork out the money to go on a guided trip had decided to explore the glacier alone (despite rope barriers and numerous signs warning of the dangers). He'd been knocked over by some ice and thrown into the freezing melt water. A few guides who were about to take people up the glacier had seen him and fished him out (lucky guy), but his legs were badly injured and a helicopter ambulance had been called. By the time we got there he had been wrapped in foil blankets and the guides own fleeces. Another older man had also fallen onto the ice (due to the vibrations) and injured his head.

By the time we got back to the car we were exhausted and plans to walk up to the Fox Glacier (2nd largest in NZ) face were aborted. Instead we drove down a viewing road and walked 5 mins through some rainforest to a lookout point. We then drove 40km down he highway to another motel room in the middle of nowhere (no reception again – we were trying to ring to congratulate you Ang – promise!) Spent the evening talking to some guys from York – reminiscing about Asia and comparing our glacier trips...they'd spent 5 times the amount on a helihike, where they were flown to the middle of the glacier. Sounded excellent but they didn't have as much time on the ice.

17/02/07
Rose early and drove from the Fox Glacier to Arrowtown (30 mins north of Queenstown.). We stopped off in Wanaka enroute and ate lunch on the southern tip of Lake Wanaka: beautiful (sorry I think I have exhausted this word now). The entire journey was once again stunning: snaked along the Haast River and up into Mt Aspiring National Park. Arrived in Arrowtown, a picturesque ex-gold mining town, early afternoon. Wayne was determined to pan for gold so we spent 2 fruitless hours knee-deep in river water whilst an elderly Norfolk gentleman (on holiday with 3 other ladies – he kept dropping this into the conversation) demonstrated his gold panning skills. I had no time for this activity – kept trying to remind Wayne that it was an 'EX-gold mining town' but was kept entertained by Waynes' chum who professed his entire life story...and found the gold-digging ex-wife chapter quite ironic.

18/02/07
Drove from Arrowtown to Te Anau (Fiordland) via Queenstown (NZ's adrenaline activity capital – we surfed the web). Since there wasn't a lot to do there unless you had big bucks to spend we moved on to Te Anau; a very quiet town in a magnificent location. Wandered down to Lake Te Anau (53km long, 2nd largets in NZ) and watched the sun go down. Te Anau is the gateway to Milford Sound, an apparently stunning fjord (once described as the 8th natural wonder of the world) – we'll see and judge for ourselves tomorrow...

19/02/07
...Breathtaking!! Majestic mountains (including Mitre Peak 1700m) covered in thick forest despite the absence of soil, glacial striations, waterfalls and even a deep fault line was evident on the mountainsides surrounding the fjord lake. Our cruise boat pulled up near some young mail fur seals basking on rocks in the wind (to keep the sand flies at bay) and up to Stirling Falls (approximately 3 times the height of Niagara Falls – but obviously not nearly as wide!) where we were soaked by the spray. The ship just seemed dwarfed by the scale of the surrounding landscape. The trip around the fjord only lasted 2.5 hours but it was a constant photo opportunity and we had to endure a brutal editing session later that day. Beautiful part of the world. Our return trip was held up by a rouge tree that had fallen earlier that day and was subsequently blocking the highway. Tree surgeons were already at the scene (apparently – we were over a mile away so relied upon Chinese whispers!) so we only had to wait about an hour for the traffic to clear.

20/02/07
Drove to Dunedin; home to NZ's longest running university, the World's steepest street and NZ's Cadbury's World (none of which we had time to visit.) Instead we spent the afternoon in search of the cheapest frying pan and saucepan in town, as contrary to our original belief (and hopes) many campsites fail to provide cooking apparatus (we have been microwaving baked beans in non-microwavable bowls – not a very balanced diet!) Dunedin looked like a lovely town and if we'd had more time in NZ we would have probably stayed longer. Unfortunately time isn't on our side so we stopped here primarily to break up the journey from Te Anau to Mount Cook...

21/02/07
...woke up too early due to unbearably low room temperature (no linen provided so we only have our own sheet) and hit the highway in the direction of Mount Cook. Paused at a number of interesting sights along the way (mainly large rocks!):
1.Moeraki Boulders – bizarre spherical creations formed millions of years ago around lime crystals within the surrounding mudstone. Way too many tourists on the beach – 3 coach loads!
2.Elephant Rocks - surreal landscape: massive boulders (originally sand hardened to limestone) scattered around a grassed mountainside. Setting of Aslan's camp in the recent Chronicles of Narnia film (according to the Lonely Planet – I couldn't recall it??)
3.Lake Pukaki – just stopped very briefly to take some snaps of the unusual colour of the water: milky turquoise -gorgeous.
Eventually arrived at Mount Cook (Australiasia's highest mountain) but we couldn't find our pre-booked accommodation?? Gave them a ring and they politely informed us that they were on the East coast -close to Christchurch (we were sitting in the middle of NZ). WHOOPS!! My fault – in our hast to sort out the accommodation for the south island (2 hours outside the garage) I must have highlighted the wrong number. Unfortunately the entire village was fully booked, bar The Hermitage Hotel (NZ's most famous hotel) who had a room for $800/night, but were prepared to drop to $500 – Wayne was actually considering it!!! Mount Cook looked stunning covered in snow and was very inviting, but we decided (very quickly) that paying $500 to explore the area the next day wasn't worth it, and reluctantly moved on Lake Tekapo, knocking a '0' off our accommodation bill in the process.

22/02/07
Spent all day driving and ended up in a hostel in Hanmer Spring, which was probably the best place we've stayed: massive bedroom with French doors in an old house with a lounge, dining room and huge kitchen. So nice in fact that we spent the rest of the day there – reading in the garden.

23/02/07
Visited the outdoor Thermal and Sulphur Pools (35-42C!) in the town spa, but only spent about an hour there before the novelty wore off! Started to rain not long after we left so our plans to go for a long walk were aborted. Instead we spent the rest of the day back at the hostel, sorting out our North island accommodation. Glad we did this as I read a newspaper article the other day reporting a massive overseas visitor influx this year – hardly any rooms are available and rental cars are in short supply. In the glacier region up to 25 people a night have been caught sleeping in their cars and in this hostel there are a lot of senior citizens residing in dorm rooms! Tensions were rising the other day...battle of the ages. The older generation get up too early (although me and Wayne are always up with the best of them!) and open the dorm curtains!! haha. Whilst the younger generations have turned green with envy at the smell of the wholesome dinners they cook.

24/02/07 – 25/02/07
Drove to Nelson and wondered around the town centre: ghastly cathedral (art deco = breeze block extreior and interior!!) Did very little. The next day we visited Rabbit Island and spent much of the day lazing on the beach.

26/02/07
Got up early and drove further north to the Abel Tasman National Park. We'd seen so many tempting tourist leaflets: cruises, kayak tours and multiple night stays but decided to just experience a taster of the area on the cheap....we walked. It was an unbearably hot day, but we managed to walk 12km along the coastal track in 2.5 hours (from Marahau to Anchorage Bay). The actual track was very disappointing (not many views – too much growth) but Anchorage Bay was stunning and almost deserted. It reminded us of a Thai beach (but without the crowds), although the sea felt like it was -50C!! Both had a quick dip before frost bite had a chance to kick in and then bathed on the picture perfect sands. This country is fantastic: I doubt there are many places in the world where you can experience sizzling temperatures on tropical beaches and freezing temperatures on icy glaciers within the space of a week!

Wayne decided that he wasn't going to walk the 12km back (blisters- ahhhh...) and ' dragged' me into a water taxi speedboat....the first smile of the day appeared on his face! Suprise, suprise. When we reached land we were attached to a trailer and towed back through town by a tractor (whilst still wearing life jackets!!) The park is very pretty and if we ever had a chance to come back to New Zealand we'd try and visit with a bit of money and take a kayak trip further north for a few days.

27/02/07
Last day on the South Island - time has just flown.
Spent the day in Nelson city again, mostly on this computer. We are catching the ferry to the North island tomorrow morning so will update you in another 2 weeks. Not long left – a serious job hunt looms aghhhhhhh - well for me anyway, Wayne has sorted out his job. Hope everyones well? E

Final Oz entry and to be honest we’re glad to be moving on. Although there have been numerous highlights, the 2 months spent here haven’t been as enjoyable/memorable as our 3 months in Asia. What will New Zealand have to offer?? Watch this space…

01/02/07 – 913 km (not all in 1 day, but we forgot to break down the trip from Sydney – Canberra – Batemans Bay – Lakes Entrance)
Drove all day (7 hrs +) through southern New South Wales into Victoria and finally arrived at the Lakes Entrance late afternoon. Wondered around town, down the Esplanade and over a pedestrian bridge to the sand dunes leading onto Ninety Mile Beach. Watched a kids surf school in action and witnessed the cries of one little girl who couldn’t hack the 3-day course: “Wahhhhhh, I don’t want to do it anymore, I get scared of the waves!!!! wahhhhhhhh” Probably not the best extra-curricular activity to enrol that child in then.

02/02/07
Walked down Ninety Mile Beach and completed a 6km circular route, walking back beside one of the lakes – surprisingly hard work in the sand…our legs were aching! We then drove to Metung to see Lake King, bit dull so no need to elaborate.

03/02/07 - 163km
Drove to and around Philip Island. Even duller than previous day so I won’t bother with any finer details.

04/02/07
Visited Churchill Island (tiny, tiny island 5 mins from Philip Island), which comprised mostly of a working heritage farm (first crops planted in Victoria were planted here), complete with its own cattle, shire horses, sheep and ‘chooks.’ The 1870s farmhouse was very pretty, as was Rogers Cottage (built by a Cornish immigrant) and the surrounding orchards.
Next stop: the Koala Conservation Centre, back on Philip Island. Not as good as the Koala hospital in Port Macquarie, but we spotted a few snoozing in the trees. Just off the southern tip of the island lies Seal Rocks, but surprise, surprise...we didn't catch a glimpse of a single seal. The views were fantastic though, and we did spot a tiny penguin in its burrow. We watched it peacefully for a few moments, before some Korean kids caught sight of us and started ranting and raving, scaring the poor thing back into the Earth.
At 18.30 we traipsed down to a beach, along with a few hundred others, and sat for a couple of hours, awaiting the ‘Penguin Parade’. We waited and waited and waited and finally, at around 21.30 (nose blue and fingers numb) the ‘smallest penguins in the world’ (according to the visitors centre) emerged from the ocean and waddled slowly up the beach in little groups, to their burrows. It was an awesome sight as there were literally hundreds, if not thousands of these tiny penguins waddling up to greet their young. The visitor’s centre has set up boardwalks and sensitive lighting networks, so you are only a few metres away from the penguins.
Appropriate at this point to note that the nights have become increasingly cooler the further south we’ve come, and recently we have been waking up in the middle of the night freezing cold (1 sheet and 1 blanket full of holes = bedding). Very strange considering we were hanging up the mosquito net in Cairns, so that we could get some air in by keeping the campervan door open.

05/02/07
Drove to Melbourne, grocery shop enroute created confusion and meant that we ended up driving through the city centre rather than around – whoops. Campsite = excellent, complete with a resort-like swimming pool, where we spent most of the afternoon as it was far too hot to venture into town. That evening we caught a tram (yep – case study comes to life Rich) into the city and although we are only 9km from the CBD it took an hour! Pretty place with a similar ‘city atmosphere’ to Sydney, but feels a bit smaller. Crossed the river and visited the gigantic Crown Casino Complex (hotel, showrooms, shops, cafes, restaurants, cinema etc. etc.) which is apparently the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. Most notable parts of the evening: I got asked for ID - which I was quite impressed about as I have been wondering whether or not all this sun has aged my skin! Wayne got tempted by his Cairns win and lost half of his chips – will he ever learn?

06/02/07
Weather turned cold and cloudy, but we attempted to explore Melbourne by day. Visited Federation Square (empty rail yards were revamped into a ‘riotous explosion of steel, glass and abstract geometry’, in other words, the architecture =horrid!) and then caught a tram (free tourist service) around the city centre, although we couldn’t see a lot because everyone else had the same idea. Jumped off at Carlton Gardens, walked past the Royal Exhibition Building and up into Melbourne Museum. We then spent the next 4 hours submerged in all things Australian...from Aussie flora and fauna to a genuine ‘Neighbours’ treasure; an interior set, complete with scripts!

07/02/07 – 387 km
Weather awful again so we decided to stay in the car and drove down the Great Ocean Road. Although the 12 Apostles, London Bridge (now an arch, as part of the limestone structure collapsed in 1990, leaving 2 tourists stranded on the arch!) and Loch Ard Gorge etc. are stunning natural sculptures, we are unsure as to whether the 6/7 hour drive was really worth it? They were great to see, but I think we would have appreciated them more if we’d stopped off en route to Adelaide, rather than spending all day driving just to take a few photos! Stayed the night in a town called Warrnabool, on the southern coast of Victoria.

08/02/07 – 344 km
Headed back towards Melbourne via the A1 (rather than the slower Ocean Road), but diverted to the centre of the Goldfields region; Ballarat, a stunning Victorian town with tree-lined streets and pretty architecture. Our main reason for stopping here was to visit Sovereign Hill (see tomorrow), a tourist attraction recommended by a Danish couple who’d lived in Melbourne for a few months. Since we’d arrived late in the afternoon we decided to stay the night and visit Sovereign Hill the following day.

09/02/07
Sovereign Hill (a working 1850s township) describes itself as a living museum representing Ballarat’s first golden decade, following the discovery of gold in 1851. (The second largest nugget ever found was found at Ballarat = 64kg!!) It is set in the open-air (we had a warm sunny day at last!) on 25 hectares of ex-mine sites. After browsing the entrance museum displays we unsuccessfully panned for gold in the creek and then took 2 separate tours in the underground gold mines (evidence that Cornish tin mining techniques were transferred into the gold mines by the independent miners). The differences in general working conditions and mining techniques, between the independent miners and the ‘company miners,’ were highlighted to us throughout the tours (i.e. from what I can remember: the unskilled workers (company workers) received a wage from the mining company and relied heavily on the company-owned steam-powered pump, so that they could use their explosives below the water table. The skilled immigrant miners (independents) carved out mines by hand in the shape of an arch and never ventured below the water table. They were therefore a lot safer – no explosives and little flood risk.)
We then went and watched a ‘gold pour’ demonstration, where liquid gold (heated to about 250C and previously purified by combining with various metals) was poured into a mould and then cooled in water. The result = a 3kg gold bar – amazing process to witness and brought chemistry to life: wish that Dr Smith or Mr Whitmore had offered us a similar practical lesson!! (Haha – Claire, we probably would have bodged that up as well!) Apparently I looked like an ‘honest person,’ so the man demonstrating asked if I wanted to hold the $84,000 gold bar. I gratefully accepted (but was handcuffed first! only kidding) and went up to the front to receive my prize (we are now residing in the Hilton.) The bar was still warm and surprisingly heavy for its mere size.
With the gold bar wedged into my pocket, we rushed out onto the street and tried to mingle into the crowds on Main Street. We visited various 1850 style shops: haberdasheries, grocery stores, jewellers, bakers, and Wayne’s favourite…the sweet shop. We then watched boiled sweets (butter drops) being made with traditional ingredients and equipment…delicious.
The highlight of the day was watching a class full of kids (on a 3-day long school trip, dressed in traditional attire) in the town school. An English schoolmaster was telling them off but they didn’t seem to be taking the ‘role play’ very seriously and were all cracking up. The whole set-up was excellent (street actors roaming around) and we had a fantastic day – definitely recommended trip for anyone in the Melbourne area.

10/02/07
Back in Melbourne and decided to try and explore a bit more of the city…
· Queen Victoria Market: massive 130-year-old market with thousands of stalls selling everything and anything.
· Bourne Street Mall – just shops!
· State Library – free internet too busy so gave up.
· Chinatown – cheap internet access.
· Very old, but cheap cinema – watched Miss Potter, who came across as a bit Potty and the film was probably not worth the pennies!

11/02/07 – HAPPY 23rd BIRTHDAY BETH!!!! Hope you enjoyed Rome??
Caught the tram to St Kilda (a seaside suburb in the south) where there was a massive weekend-long festival in full flow: music events, BMX and crosser demonstrations and 100’s of market stalls. Lively and entertaining day out, but as A.A. Milne would say, it was a very ‘blustery day’ and a lot of events were cancelled. We managed to catch a tram back into the city, but the power lines were down on a huge section of our journey (north of the city), so we ended up having to walk for about 1.5 hours. We weren’t 100% sure of the way back to the campsite, but just followed the tramlines and hoped for the best! We made it and lived to tell the tale.

12/02/07
Final day in Oz, so we got our act together and after packing up the van’s contents into 1564 bags we headed towards the eastern suburbs of Melbourne in search of Pin Oak Court (a.k.a Ramsey Street). Well…what can I say…we were ALMOST star-struck (by a couple of houses.) Actually we felt like right plonkers taking pictures of peoples houses, but it was fun seeing the street that we so often catch a glimpse of on telly, at 5.35pm, on BBC1! The street is a lot smaller than it appears on TV, but the houses all look the same. Shame we didn’t see any of the fictitious residents.
Journey back from Ramsey Street was an absolute nightmare – we must have missed a turning and ended up in the middle of Sydney yet again. By the time we got back it was 3pm – what a wasted day!
We are now sitting in an internet café in Chinatown, and have just recently treated ourselves to the most expensive meal we’ve eaten in 5 months – 10GBP each.

Congratulations and thank you if you are still reading this sentence – I know this must have been one of the worst entries yet! We drove, drove and then drove again! Anyway, we’ll love you and leave you now and will write again in a couple of weeks once we’ve explored a bit of NZ…. Where’s this new baby Ang???? E and W xxxxx

21/1/07 – Scorching Day: 42 C!!
Rose late and then did a big grocery shop (to stock up on bread amongst other things!) Unbearably hot, couldn’t do anything so we lazed in the shade around the campsite pool and when bored ventured down to the bus stop. At 3.30pm Wayne’s watch temperature gauge read 42C (not even peak heat!). There was no shade and we had to stand in this heat for 30 minutes waiting for a bus – I thought I was going to pass out I felt so ill. Heading into town was a bit of a mistake as we couldn’t do anything in the heat. Ended up in an air-conditioned internet café, pondering whether to spend 1 month’s budget on a 3 day trip to Ayers Rock! Decided against it: at the end of the day it’s just a big rock!

Ate dinner and then wondered over to the harbour in the early evening to watch the sunset behind the bridge: beautiful! We sat in a waterfront bar and saw the sky change into a million shades of orange, red, purple and pink – excellent evening.

22/1/07
Caught the bus into the city again and took a tube to Kings Cross: backpacker hangout with very little there. Escaped, and returned to the Botanical Gardens again, venturing into the grounds of Government House (a stunning mansion built: 1837-1845). Bad timing meant that the house was closed, but the gardens were great to walk around.
Sat on the steps in front of the Opera House and ate lunch whilst watching tennis (the Australian Open) on the big screen. We then walked over to Central Quay and caught a ferry to Manly (‘jewel of the north shore’). Pretty coastal town, but far too busy : Australian teenagers crowd onto the beach during the school holidays. Too hot to complete the scenic walk so we just squeezed through the sea of people and found a spot on the beach to read.

23/1/07 – A bad day gets worse….
NB. 387km backlog: Newcastle – Sydney – Blue Mountains
Breakfast with the birds….about 6 rainbow lorikeets joined us for breakfast (obviously word had spread to friends and family that the guy in the camper feeds generously). One sat on our cereal box, another (to my horror) tried to feed off my plate (!!) and as the final straw one decided my head was a perfect landing spot!!
Decided to get out of the city for a few days and head to the Blue Mountains…left the campsite and briefly stopped off at a petrol station to fill up. As we were heading back down the highway we stopped at a set of traffic lights and then stalled – whilst the clutch was down?!? Wayne tried to get the van back into gear again but it was stuck…GREAT!! We were holding up the traffic on a busy highway, so Wayne jumped out and (with the help of a random passer-by) pushed whilst I steered. Once we were safely on the grass verge we phoned the hire company (as instructed) and told them that we had broken down. They then put us through to a recovery company in Brisbane!!! USELESS!!! We rang up again and explained yet again that we were in SYDNEY not Brisbane!! Second time round we got through to someone that could help and were told that someone would be with us within the hour. Since we had no ice in our Esky I walked back to the garage to save our chilled goods. As estimated, a recovery man arrived on the scene about 11am (an hour after our breakdown). He was useless and a complete ******! He could have easily towed us himself to a garage, but decided to bring yet another person into the equation. To make matters even more complicated we were meant to tell the towing company where to take us!! As if we had a clue?? We phoned the rental company again and they said they’d get back to us. By the time they did, our helpful recovery man had buggered off! AGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! Another 30 minutes passed until the tow turned up, where once again we went through the palaver of phone conversations with our rental company. Eventually it was decided to tow us to a garage in Epping (suburb of Sydney). The mechanics were on lunch by the time we arrived and so they said they’d look at it in an hour and told us to come back about 4pm, as the anticipated problem wasn’t too much of a job. We did as told and spent the day in a shopping centre (a 45min uphill walk from the garage!) Arrived back at 4pm and were told that the wrong part had been delivered! They were still waiting for a little hose before they could fix it. AGHHHHHH!! Couldn’t be bothered to trek back to the shopping centre so we waited at the garage for another 2 hours (listening to Aussie banter: mostly regarding cricket, fishing and drinking...zzzzz).

At 6.30pm (8.5 hours after setting off) we were finally back on the road. The mechanics had been really friendly and recommended a classic car event (“lots of pommy cars – you’ll like it”) that’s on every year in Hyde Park, on Australia Day – Wayne can’t wait!

Drove up to the mountains upon my insistence (since we hadn’t done anything all day I thought we should get to the mountains so that we could start looking around early the next day). Actual drive was stunning as we witnessed another sunset (pinks, oranges, purples). Arrived in Katoomba about 8pm and found that the campsite was shut! We considered parking in front of the office and using the facilities, but realised we needed a key to get into the kitchen and toilets – damn! Tensions were high (i.e. “Emma, I am FUMING so don’t even try and talk to me”) – I do take full responsibility for this mishap - and since there were no other campsites around (and parking up in a rest area was a ‘no no’ due to the possibility of getting arrested) we had to fork out $60 for a motel room (originally quoted $90 but I offered a sob story and my ‘natural charm’ (?!?!?) seemed to persuade the guy to drop the price – RESULT!) Although we’d obviously have preferred to stay on a campsite (due to our financial state) this motel room did brighten our moods: ensuite, kitchenette, tv: LUXURY!

24/1/07 – 150km
Pouring with rain: great day to explore the mountains! Our good fortune continues…views were ruined as the cloud cover below was too thick. Since the campsite was ‘cash only’ we decided not to bother and planned to explore the mountains in a day and head back to Lane Cove National Park in the evening. Despite weather we did manage to have a great day and fitted quite a lot in:
• Echo Point: viewed the ‘Three Sisters’ rock formations which roved to be a spectacular sight as they jutted up from the clouds. We walked down to the ‘Three Sisters’ through the Eucalyptus forests: the smell was overwhelming (probably because it had been raining), it felt like you were breathing in aromatherapy oils!
• Scenic World – a trip on the skyrail would have been a waste of money as all you would have seen was cloud cover, so we opted for a ride on the Worlds steepest (and possibly, although not advertised, Worlds SHORTEST) railway down to the old coal mining area. We then wondered around the mountain side for a couple of hours and saw a few interesting sites (including an old miners hut). We then caught a cable car back up the mountain.
• Katoomba Waterfall: short walk down to the waterfall, which Wayne decided to climb….bit unremarkable.
• Evans Point: meant to be a spectacular view but the cloud cover was too thick so we gave up and headed back to Sydney (this time we booked and luckily there was one spot left – phew!)
The Blue Mountains are beautiful and it’s amazing that they are only an hour’s drive from Sydney. It’s a shame the weather wasn’t better otherwise we would have stayed a few more days.

25/1/07
The bad weather continued (25C and we are in trousers and jumpers – we are going to get a shock when we get back to UK!) Caught a bus into the city and since we the weather was so poor all we could do was window shop and visit the cinema (for the thousandth time!) Saw ‘Blood Diamond’ – excellent movie.

Headed back to the campsite and went into the camp kitchen to make dinner. Unexpectedly bumped into Thanh and Blanche (the couple we’d met in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore and whom we were planning – via e-mail - to meet up with for a drink the following day – such a small world!) They had hired exactly the same campervan as ours (hadn’t seen another one like it on our entire trip down south), from the same back-alley rental company in Cairns (and got it at a cheaper rate!!) We spent a few hours catching up with them before they headed off to a friends house in the city and then got talking to another couple (Hailey and Simon, from Wales, who’d been in Melbourne for 2 months and were on a 10 month honeymoon!). Got on really well, so we invited them out for a drink with Thanh and Blanche the following evening (Australia Day).

26/1/07 – Australia Day
After breakfast with the Welsh couple we caught up with some laundry and then headed into the city a bit later in the day. The Harbour was heaving with boats and the quay was packed with people! Live music concerts were scattered around the city and overall there was a fantastic atmosphere in the city. The Aussies are very patriotic (especially with regard to their dress – see photos!)

Sat on the steps of the Opera House and had lunch, then strolled through the Botanical Gardens (yet again) and this time got to venture inside Government House. The interior was a little disappointing (not nearly as nice as a lot of our national heritage buildings) but there was a fantastic Concert Band playing in the grounds (took me back to music GCSE!), so we sat on the grass and were entertained for about 30 mins. Made our way up Macquarie Street to Hyde Park (where the citizenship presentations were taking place). The streets were lined with thousands of vintage cars, which kept Wayne entertained until I was begging to go back to the campsite. Fantastic day as the sunshine had returned and there was so much to keep us entertained.
After dinner we caught the bus (with Hailey and Simon) into town AGAIN! Darling Harbour was just a sea of people, so we couldn’t see the presentations going on next to the water, but we stood on the bridge and waited for the fireworks. They didn’t disappoint – millions must have been burnt that night. Just as the crowd was about to disperse a fighter jet with a humungous fireball shooting out of its behind roared through the night sky: awesome sight. We tried to find Thanh and Blacnhe at a bar on the waterfront, but Simon and Wayne weren’t allowed in anywhere because they were wearing ‘thongs’ (flip-flops to the English-English speaking world!) Since we’d been standing up for so long all we wanted to do was find somewhere to sit down and get a drink: impossible as the city was heaving. We slowing snaked our way out of the harbour, following a massive crowd until we found an Irish pub in the CBD. We were all pretty fed up by this time and said – “oh, lets just go in for ONE and then head back”….at 4am we staggered onto the street: ONE drink had turned into ONE TOO MANY! Need I say anymore… It was a great night out (I introduced a UK dance-off: Beth, Claire - you would have LOVED IT) – hahaha , but our bank balances have been obliterated! Since we couldn’t find our bus stop, (thinking about it now I doubt there would have been a bus anyway!) we had to catch a taxi back to the campsite. To add to the hilarity of the night, Simon tripped over a ‘sleeping policeman’ (speed bump to you and I) whilst running away from a caravan that Wayne had knocked on.

27/1/07 – HAPY 20th BIRTHDAY NATALIE!!!
Uuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh………………....NEVER EVER DRINKING AGAIN!!!!
Woke up at 9am: hot and extremely hung-over. Just about managed to have a shower before falling back into bed. Felt awful!!! Campsite = worst place to nurse a hangover: toilets too far away and too many screaming kids/birds. Slept until 1pm, and then managed to eat something. Lazed around for the rest of the afternoon and that evening, whilst Thanh and Blanche sipped their wine, we stuck to a nice cuppa. Played a card game: Backpackers until the lights in the camp kitchen went off.

28/1/07
Grocery shopping and then went to Bondi Beach (massive surfers paradise) with Simon and Hailey. The guys spent most of the time drowning in the humungous waves, you literally got washed off your feet – I was too concerned about loosing my bikini to venture in! That evening we sat outside Si and Hailey’s campervan and chatted: they’re so funny, so Welsh! We got on really well, so we swapped contact addresses and promised to meet up once we are all back in the UK. That evening we spotted a mother and baby possum, a pregnant possum and 2 other possums fighting in a tree!

29/1/07
We were both quite sad to leave Sydney; great city and great times there, but as we only have 2 weeks left in Australia we thought we better move on. Drove to Canberra (aka Crapberra), which can only be described as the dullest and most useless capital city on Earth! We deliberately diverted here to find an internet café so that we could catch up with this blog (as southern NSW is meant to be a bit less developed than the north). No internet cafes to be seen, the only place that had computer access was a photo shop! The campsite wasn’t much better. They stuck us (and charged us for) a powered campsite even though we insisted that we don’t need power. This site was about 50km from all the amenities – we actually had to drive to the kitchen!
Both thoroughly pissed off and wouldn’t recommend visiting this city to anyone!

30/01/07
A new day, a new perspective. Since we’re here we decided to try and see something of Canberra and picked the National Museum of Australia (primarily because admission is free!) The museum was surprisingly good…it documented Australia’s history (albeit short!), environment and culture. Drove over Lake Burley Griffin, past Anzac Parade and the citys’ war memorial, towards the highway…next stop Batemans Bay. The landscape we passed was incredibly dry – all the grass and trees were dead. Arrived at a campsite late afternoon (cheapest yet - $18/night) and lazed around the pool.

31/1/07
Weather has declined again, so our plans to visit the beach here have been abandoned. Although saying that I have been sitting here half the day, so we haven’t got much more time until it gets dark!

Until next time....E and W xxx