A little bit of everything

We have seen a lot in our first full week in Australia......little bits of the big city (Sydney), wine country (Hunter Valley), mountains (Blue Mountains) and beautiful beaches and scenery along the south-eastern coast......along with some mixed weather.

We figured a rainy day was a perfect time to visit some wineries in Hunter Valley, only 2 hours from Sydney. One of Australia's oldest wine regions, specializing in Semillon wines which appealed to me, we stopped at 6 of the 150 wineries in the area over our 2 days there, and enjoyed their tastings which are still provided at no charge. We had a fabulous lunch at Margan, and stocked the van with some of our favourites along the way.

The next day we hooked up with our Aussie friends Bill & Bobbie (Roberta) who drove down the coast from Yamba to join us at a campground just north of Sydney, near their infamous former 'mushroom' house in the Mona Vale area. We had not seen them since our trip to Greece 7 years ago, so it was good to catch up with them again........none of us looked any older (we all agreed). Having moved here from Canada 30 years ago, they are now our official tour guides on our way down the coast and around to Melbourne. We have encountered more rain along the way but we have used our time wisely, stopping for shoreline hikes and ocean swims in the nice weather, and driving or shopping in the foul weather. Some of the highlights have been the Grand Pacific Drive (along the coast), Jervis Bay (and a nice hike to Hyams Beach), Perpendicular Point (where we had to drive thru the Beecroft Weapons Range which is still in use by the army and navy, and told to stay on the trails to avoid unexploded devices) and a shore walk at low tide where Bill showed me how to use a foot wedge to disengage oysters from sea rocks and then crack them open for a fresh snack. Our overnight stays have been at both National Park campgrounds and Holiday Parks (more services). They almost all have community BBQ's and covered seating areas that have come in handy when it has been raining at night. We have also used B&B's slide-on camper (more space than ours) for some after-dinner drinks and games.

We are now in Eden, a former whale fishing town, and tomorrow we will spend time at their museum before heading further south towards the SE tip.

Hunter Valley

Re-union party

Sea Cliff Bridge along the Grand Pacific Drive

Not just in our campgrounds

But watch where you walk!

Our Spaceship Has Landed

We arrived in Sydney several days ago and have now re-oriented ourselves into our new home for the next 3 months. “Otis”.....apparently all the camper van spaceships here have names....is not as big as our Starship back home, but we are becoming accustomed to one another (easy to spot in a parking lot, sure glad I'm on the inside looking out most of the time). Our first full day was spent shopping, picking up groceries and minor accessories for the van that were not provided. With the weather forecast calling for several days of intermittent rain, we decided to postpone our downtown walkabouts until our return visit in May, and head out instead to the Blue Mountains (120 kms west of Sydney). The World Heritage region seemed unremarkable to us, other than around Katoomba where Echo Point provided wonderful canyon views, the Three Sisters rock formation and the Giant Staircase (900 steps carved into the mountain). Perhaps our expectations have been elevated following our tour around the majestic South Island of NZ. If the threatening rain, which never materialized until overnight, had not been a concern then we would have experienced several longer hikes which might have changed our opinion. Beyond Katoomba we encountered several large coal mining operations outside the National Park (and some local concerns about further expansion).

Today we are heading to the Hunter Valley wine region to taste some of their products since one more day of inclement weather is forecast (but at 20-25C it is certainly not snowing). After that we will head back towards Sydney where we are hooking up with some Aussie friends (Bill & Bobbie, formerly Toronto), who now live on the east coast between Brisbane and Sydney. They are coming in their camper to act as tour guides on our way to Melbourne together.

Now that we are staying in campgrounds (with the kangaroos), many of which do not have internet access, our updates will likely happen a little less frequently so don't be concerned if you are not receiving your daily updates!

 

Otis - bed, fridge, campstove, water pump & more, all under one roof

Olympic Park Boulevard

Echo Point - The Three Sisters

The Giant Staircase - 900 steps carved into the mountain

 

Can you put us up for the night?

On our way up the east coast from Dunedin, we stopped to check out the Moeraki Boulders, 55 million year old, large spherical rocks that ended up on a beautiful beach. It was quite a sight to see at low tide when most of them were not underwater. After that we went to Oamuru and to see their 19^th century limestone commercial buildings down by the harbourfront, now used by galleries, antique shops and local artisans, making the historic area a nice place to walk around. Heading inland along the Waitaki River we passed several large dams, all making use of the natural surroundings to generate power for the South Island.

We settled for the night in Omarama, a little further south of Mount Cook than we had planned when we found everything else closer booked due to a cycling event (new trail opened) and some canal work bringing contract workers into the area. We found a cabin in a camping park that worked out great. The next day we drove to Mt. Cook, the highest mountain in Australasia at over 11,000 feet. Not interested in attempting a summit hike, where close to 50 people have lost their lives doing so (including one Calgarian), we settled for a 3 hour hike on the Hooker Valley Track. It followed the Hooker River, crossing 3 swing bridges, leading to a glacier terminal lake that had small icebergs floating in it (broken pieces from the glacier). With Mt. Cook looming above the lake it was a wonderful place to relax and admire the surrounding views. Along the trail we passed another glacier that was calving, creating a rumble followed by a surge of water and ice dropping from the steep mountain side. Back in the car we passed several ski areas, all closed for the summer. They were quite small compared to what we are used to, having only one or two lifts and 10 different runs, but probably large enough to support the small population in the region. We stopped at Lake Tekapo where we had hoped to spend the night (no rooms available), so we had to settle for beautiful views of a turquoise coloured lake surrounded by mountains before driving back to the east coast for the night.

We are now in Christchurch where we will complete our New Zealand adventure. Once again we had quite an adventure finding accommodation and the closest place we could find was 25 km's outside of the city. The 2010 and 2011 earthquakes seriously damaged much of the city, and room availability has been an ongoing problem since then (a small inconvenience for us in the overall picture). Today we toured around Christchurch, including a downtown walk and a visit to the Antarctic Centre where we could pretend to be back home in a storm room where they dropped the temperature to almost -20C....(I still can't believe I paid money to do that......it must have been a sympathy move for our friends and family back home). The Blue Penguins which are being rehabilitated back to good health were fun to watch. The centre provided an excellent picture of what life is like on the Antarctic continent......if we do make it there some day it will be a very brief encounter! During the downtown walk, the Avon River, parks and Botanic Gardens were all looking lovely but the ongoing pain felt by the city was also evident as we passed many areas still cordoned off due to the 2010-11 earthquakes with many older buildings still waiting to be torn down or rebuilt. There are still many years of work to be done to restore this city which is very beautiful but also earthquake-prone with small tremors happening regularly.

Tomorrow we are going to drive around the Banks Peninsula and spend some time in Akoroa, a quaint community by the sea that was originally settled by the French. There is also supposed to be an open water swimming race that will be interesting to watch. The following day we fly to Sydney to start our adventure in Australia. We have a camper van waiting for us in Oz so our recent issue finding a room to sleep in will disappear.......we will only need to find a place to park :-)

More pictures on their way.....

Moeraki Boulders

Oamuru - bales of wool ready to leave port

Mount Cook

Lake Tekapo

Antarctic Centre - Blue Penguin underwater view

Cathedral - one of minor re-build challenges

Re-Start Market - downtown container bin creation

More Scenic Splendour

We had a wonderful stay in The Catlins. With our 2nd floor guesthouse balcony and lounge area overlooking Porpoise Bay we had non-stop views of dolphins playing all day long, sometimes trying to body surf. We spent a day visiting nearby attractions. The first was Cathedral Caves, which we timed perfectly at low tide, allowing for a mostly 'dry' beach walk that would have disappeared an hour later with a higher tide. There were several caves, the largest providing a 100 metre walk-in with mussels on the walls from the normally-present sea. Other people, just departing as we finished our half hour walk back, would have had to deal with ocean water approaching their knees to get to the caves. We also did short walks to see several waterfalls.....McLean (the nicest), Purakaunui (multi-tiered) , Matui & Horseshoe (average, our standards have risen). We also stopped into Nugget Point to see fur seals and an 1870 lighthouse (still operational) on a very windy hillside spot.

Our next stop was Dunedin, the second largest city on the South Island, with a population of just over 50,000 people, many of them students in this university city. Unfortunately for us it was Uni-week, the start of the school year, and first year students had their parents in town ensuring that they would be "OK", meaning that accommodations were very limited. We had made an on-line booking for a double room the day before arriving at a well reviewed hostel in their only available room. It turned out to be a bunk bed (without a ladder) in a closet where the door would only open half way before hitting the bed.....no room for a table or any other furniture. We politefully declined (I'm sure they understood when they saw we weren't gymnasts) and found a room for 2 nights in a nice motel after a prolonged search. The rest of our time in Dunedin went well. We drove around this Victorian-styled city which had an octagon designed centre of the city and many hills surrounding the downtown area. Baldwin Street, the steepest residential street in the world according to the Guinness World Book of Records, was quite a sight to see. Our pictures make it look relatively flat but it rises 70 metres in a 300 metre stretch which is quite significant. Later this month they have an annual Gutbuster race where contestants run up and down the paved street. The record is just under 2 minutes.....they don't mention the number of casualties or extreme injuries that would occur if anyone fell on the steep pavement....we decided to not even drive our car up the street!

Today we drove around the Otaga Peninsula which is just east of Dunedin. It was a beautiful drive. We followed the shoreline road out to Tairoa Head (30 km's) and back inland on Highcliff Road for great views of the peninsula and Dunedin. We visited the well restored Larnach Castle (originally built in 1871) which sadly had a family history demonstrating once again that money does not buy happiness. At the tip of the peninsula there were sea lions, fur seals, albatross and penguins, which we also observed individually at several other stopover points that we walked to while on the Otaga Peninsula
.
Tomorrow we will drive north along the east coast and then duck inland where we plan to explore Mount Cook (highest mountain in NZ).......wrong time of the year for snowboarding activity :-(
After that we will move on to Christchurch where we will complete our month-long visit to New Zealand.

The Catlins - Cathedral Caves

Curio Bay - Yellow-Eyed Penguin

What happens to you when you spend too much time close to the ocean

Backyard pets

McLean Falls

Nugget Point Lighthouse (1870)

Otago Peninsula - sea lion

Dunedin - Railway Station

What a Party!

You won't believe what they did over here for my 60^th birthday. People were out on the streets last night, there were fireworks, and everyone was in a party mood. I never knew that I had so many Asian friends but I must have impressed them during our trip over there last winter. The only thing that bothered me a little was that I overheard several people talking about the year of the snake....I thought I had treated people fairly over the years but I suppose that is something I need to work on. Anyway, I tried to thank people for coming out to my party but most of them looked bewildered.....I suspect they might have had one drink too many. It was a night I will always remember.

Back when I was in my 50's, we had a stopover in Queenstown. The downtown and lakefront were easy to walk around, and we had lunch by the waterfront watching all the action. Adrenaline junkies were heading out in jetboats and parasailors filled the skies. When we stopped in a park later, paragliders were landing in the open spaces following their descent from Bob's Peak where the cable car provided easy access to a downtown jump. Others headed out of the city for canyon swings and bungy jumps.

The following day we drove over to Te Anau for a couple of cruises. We had heard so many positive remarks on the remote Doubtful Sound that we booked an overnight cruise and were glad we did. It was an adventure to get out there....a 45 minute catamaran trip across Lake Manapouri, then a 45 minute bus ride over the rugged Wilmot Pass to arrive in Deep Cove where we boarded our 70 person cruise ship for our journey through Doubtful Sound. It was a magical trip in Fiordland....less than a handful of other boats and breathtaking views all along the narrow 30 km “sound” (incorrectly named by the Brits of the 1800's who were not familiar with fiords), which went out to the Tasman Sea. Along the way we saw bottlenose dolphins, albatross and a fur seal colony, all surrounded by steep mountains and waterfalls. In the late afternoon Rhonda went kayaking while I continued taking pictures. The next morning we stopped into a secluded cove (Hall Arm) and experienced 5 minutes of perfect silence with outstanding views, birds chirping and no other noise. It was special.

We spent two nights in Te Anau, the anchor spot for many great hikes and the Sound cruises. Unable to reserve a spot on the Milford Track (which I initially tried to do 6 months ago on this popular 4 day trail) we settled for a 2 hour cruise of Milford Sound (another fiord), several short hikes along the scenic route between Te Anau and Milford, including a 3 hour hike (the start of the Routeburn Track) that provided great views of 3 large valleys once we reached the top of Key Summit. The cruise itself was wonderful. The cloudy start provided a mystical view that soon gave way to blue skies uncovering the tops of the steep fiord walls. Our small boat took us metres away from the shore walls to view another fur seal colony and get sprayed by a 150 metre waterfall. The Fiordland area receives between 5-7 METRES of rain every year over 200 very wet days so were fortunate to experience only several hours of mist over our 3 days in the area and blue skies most of the time.....good fortune continues to favour us.

Today we drove to the south end of the island where we will spend two nights in The Catlins, known for it's rainforests and sealife. We went to Slope Point (the closest NZ shore to Antartica) and nearby Curio Bay which has a 160 million year old petrified forests and yellow-eyed penguins which we watched for an hour on the shore. Hector's dolphins are busy playing in Porpoise Bay which we have been watching from our balcony.

Queenstown - Cable Car to Bob's Peak

Doubtful Sound - view from Wilmot Pass

Canadian Kayak Champion

Doubtful Sound - Hall Arm

Milford Sound - Fur Seal colony

Milford Sound - Mitre Peak

Albertans Travelling to Another Continent to See Glaciers??

Beyond the glaciers (more on that later) we have seen some magnificent scenery on the South Island. After leaving Nelson, which we thought would be a wonderful place to live, we drove to Greymouth on the west coast via the Buller River Gorge. It was a very scenic drive. We stopped to cross New Zealand's longest Swing (Suspension) Bridge and did a short bush walk. Our next stop was at Tauranga Bay to see a seal colony but most of them must have been out fishing since we only saw about 10 of them on the rocks and in the water. It was nothing like we previously experienced on the California coast when we saw thousands of sea lions on one beach. Then we checked out the layer-weathered Pancake Rocks in Punakaiki which were interesting to see before spending the night in sleepy Greymouth.
The following day we continued driving down the west coast to Franz Josef, famous for it's glacier. With the forecasters calling for rain AND a Superbowl the next day we decided to get our glacier hikes in while the sun was shining and it was a good decision. Neither the Franz Josef or the Fox glaciers seemed as massive as ours but due to the warmer weather there was some calving activity and lots of melting ice creating waterfalls and fast rushing rivers. It was also nice to be able to walk up close to the glaciers wearing shorts and a t-shirt. We woke up the next morning to a heavy and steady rainfall that continued all day, our first encounter with poor weather on this trip. But as they also predicted, there was a Superbowl game starting at noon so the day was not lost (for sports fans). The pub right around the corner from our hostel was hosting a Superbowl party and with two large screens and many other TV's, and a rainy day, the place was packed turning it into a fun and noisy atmosphere to enjoy the game.
Yesterday we had a beautiful drive (in the sun again) further down the coast to Haast and then inland through the Haast Pass with it's incredible mountain and waterfall views. We stopped 4 different times to do short walks to Roaring Billy Falls, Thunder Creek Falls, Fantail Falls and the Blue Pools, accessed by another swing bridge. Our resting place was Wanaka, a lovely town on the shore of a Lake Wanaka. Today we did a fabulous hike (10 km) up to the Rob Roy glacier. It was an hour drive along a mostly gravel road to get there but it was worth the effort. The roaring Rob Roy Creek, numerous waterfalls and another swing bridge made for an exciting trip. The views at the top of the trail were spectacular, with too many waterfalls to count emerging from the rock face below the wide glacier. One of them had a 200 metre drop.
Tomorrow we will make the short drive from Wanaka to Queenstown, the self-proclaimed adventure capital of the world. We plan to be spectators rather than participants, saving our money instead for cruises in Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound after we leave party central.

Punakaiki - Pancake Rocks

Fox Glacier ice walk

Haast Pass - Mount Aspiring

Rob Roy Peak - Cattle & Sheep share the land

Rob Roy Glacier - right side only