Australia in Eight Days

We flew to Sydney on Jan 11, 2010. It was a quick visit to Aussie so we stayed put in Sydney for five days hoping to avoid the feeling of being rushed. Besides, there's lots to do in Sydney!







We stayed at a vintage hotel in the area they call The Rocks. It's a cute area right next to the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. We did a few city walks and found the place big and loud. After all, it's Australia's largest city with well over 4 million people!


We were a little dissappointed in the lack of cleanliness at our hotel...from the reviews we read it sounded like it's hit and miss whether the place will be clean. On the other hand it was a really interesting heritage type place with a nice TV room where you felt like a ghost might be sitting on the old chair next to you! We only had crawly visitors (cockroaches) on the first night so can't complain too much! We're all getting used to bugs on this trip.




The Harbour Bridge is really big and you can pay to walk over the top and get a great view - and exercise!










The whole district was really alive especially at night along the harbour. There were always sounds of the local aboriginals playing a diggeridoo along with modern boom box music, selling CD's and taking donations.







There was also the odd sidewalk performance going on. We stopped to watch some 'fireman' putting on a pole-climbing, fire-juggling show. It was quite entertaining!



We even did a shopping day together and went to a really nice mall called the Queen Victoria Building. It was full of big clocks. The one in the picture was really interesting with lots of moving parts and included the date. There was a big door and as the hour approached all the people around us were aiming their cameras at it (including me). The clock chimed a few seconds early and we all stood there ready....and then.....and then.....nothing. We all walked away quietly. Wonder what's behind the door...Matthew's laugh for the day!





Rob and Matthew went on a pirate ship lunch cruise in the harbour. They came back stuffed and said it was really good. Especially the food!




Sarah and Diane went.....guess where? To the opera! Why not? It was the Sydney Opera House! We went to the opening night of a french love story called Manon. It was very nice!

Oh yes and we also went to Chinatown to the market and bought Sarah a sundress for $5 and some Croc look-alikes.






Then we took an overnight coastal train ride up to Brisbane. No, that's not it in the picture...it was a bit bigger than that.
We hung out near Gold Coast (south of Brisbane) until we borded our Asia Airline flight to Malaysia. Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise is a really busy beach place but we didn't explore much (just did laundry and ate pizza) so can't comment further!

Those are Australia the hightlights in a nutshell. We didn't go on any animal or bird tours but had fun anyway! We'll rely on others to tell us their Aussie touring stories okay?


Then....off to Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. Population: 3 million.

New Zealand South Island Nov 30 to Jan 11 -Part 3

Friday, December 18, 2009. Time crunch is on to get the the Cadbury Factory in Dunedin in time for the last tour of the week! (They do shortened tours on the weekend but we wanted the whole tour!)
Down the east coast from Christchurch we stopped briefly to admire some more of New Zealand's interesting rock formations. This time spherical boulders on the beach at Moeraki. We had lunch at the cafe in the car park there (that is NZ for parking lot) and don't recommend it to anyone. We've had a lot of great food in NZ but it wasn't there.

We weren't allowed pictures on the tour of the Dunedin Cadbury Factory tour but we did get SAMPLES! Yum. We were pretty interested in the chocolate making process....we've been following (a bit) the guy from the UK who bought a cocao farm in Venezuela and is trying to make the best chocolate in the world. His name is Willy - Willy's Wonky Chocolate Factory?

Cadbury does really well here and have different names for products...like Buttons (like Smarties) and Sarah's favorite bar is the Moro - just like a Mars bar. She now proudly wears her men's XL t-shirt to bed!












Sarah's new favorite hobby. Knitting. She has bought some New Zealand wool for a couple of projects. One is already started!

This is definitely the place to buy wool. I've gotten so used to seeing the sheep out in the rainy, green country-side that I feel like hugging them all!

Dunedin was a nice town to visit. A touristy, university, young people town. Lot's of Scottish heritage visible. The statue is Robbie Burns.

Otago Museum was great (we are now in Otago region which by the way is a big wine region). The museum favorite was Discovery World with lots and lots of butterflies! I missed this due to quick last minute Christmas shopping.....some things don't change!

Then, off to Stewart Island for Christmas. We had a nice time on Stewart Island and relaxed quite a bit since we got tired of hiking in the rain. We opted not to pay someone to take us walking at night to try and see kiwi birds but we know they were out there!

I'm going to apologize for less writing as we go...still catching up and there's so much to say! We will have lots to share when we get home.

This is Matthew half way to Stewart Island on the ferryboat....it was a rough sea day! I've decided to go easy on Rob and not show the picture of him. I thought he looked green but looking back at the picture notice he just has no color!

The kids did lot's of schoolwork since we had a nice table to work on!

And played of course!






And we did some Christmassy type things too!

Matthew's favorite bird to bug...the Oystercatcher.

We had four Kaka birds (parrots that look like the Kea) visit our back door almost everyday for peanuts until we ran out....then they knocked but we stopped answering. Then, they just went after shoes.

Matthew and Rob went fishing! We ate the fish for supper. Yum. Blue cod.

We went on hikes on roads and trails, through forests and beachs. Very remote place full of birds and trees.

After Stewart Island we drove as far southwest on the south island we could. We wish we'd spent more time looking for gemstones on Gemstone Beach where the sea brings in all types of stones.

Then, into Fiordland National Park and to Milford Sound. Beautiful place and big mountains!







Milford Sound.

We drove through Homer Tunnel. This was very cool. Straight through the mountain! Lot's of Kea's (parrots) looking for food but you are not allowed to feed them.

We panned for gold in Arrowtown. We didn't know we'd find some so weren't equipped with a little bottle of water where you are supposed to keep your findings so they reside on the end of my chapstick....hope I don't forget or I'll have glittery lips!

This is Arrow River...exciting place where people drive in the water, mountain bike, or horseback it to another ghost town upstream. Lot's of serious gold panners as well! The gold rush here in 1862 was one of the biggest. Cool place but so touristy everything cost at least twice as the other places we've been!

http://www.arrowtown.org.nz/history/

Matthew was very interested in bungy jumping.

We ended up going back a second time to Kawarau Bridge - the original bungy jumping bridge by the inventors of bungy! Yup, he jumped!

Off to Mount Cooke/Aoraki. We hike to Hooker Glacier and - wow - nice Alpine area. We visited the Sir Edmund Hilary Center and learned about his expedition up Mount Everest. Super cool. He was one of the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. He also travelled to the south pole! Quite an adventurer.

Mount Cooke was stunning!

Here is the glacier we hiked to...a minute later an iceberg floated past the point on the rocks where the two people are standing.

Well...sorry for lack of more stories but we leave New Zealand soon. We feel like we have seen a lot of the country and may even be using a little local lingo. No worries, we'll be even more confused after the next couple of stops!

Next chapter is Sydney and Brisbane, Australia.

Cheers for now!

New Zealand South Island Nov 30 to Jan 11 -Part 2

Wainui Bay was the last stop on our Abel Tasman tramp. We had tickets to get on a bus in the parking lot at 11:30am so the last day was about 5 km over a smallish mountain and waiting in a parking lot in the bush. There were others there waiting for the same bus which added comfort in the windy, cold, pouring rain!

Then, off to Collingwood, in the Golden Bay area to stay at Heron's Rest B&B for a couple nights! (Herons really do rest there!)

Collingwood was time off to relax after tramping. We discovered a Chocolate Shop that makes entirely organic chocolate and YUM...went back a couple times!

Maureen and Angus were kind and drove us around a bit so we could explore the area. We went on a smallish hike in a beautiful forest along the Kaituna River and had lunch at The Naked Possum! New Zealanders don't like possums (introduced by Australia for hunting) because they are killing off the kiwi birds and a tree called the Rata.

They keep an outdoor fire lit all day long!

New Zealand has many very interesting rock formations both on the coast and inland. Here is one Maureen took us to called "Devil's Boots." There are two of them side by side!

December 15 we headed to Nelson by bus again, collected our other belongings from the campsite that kept them for us and December 15 we took another bus to Picton and boarded a train to get back to Christchurch. It was about a 6 hour train ride along the coast.

In Christchurch, the nicest people looked after us and had us stay in their lovely home on the edge of town on 10 acres. Karen and Peter Henry and son Jack (Jackson). Their other son Sam was away while we were there. A coworker, Susan, was nice to hook us up and we are really glad she did!

The Henry's cooked supper on their "canadian" barbeque (beer can chicken!) and took us on a tour of Christchurch.

Here is the Henry's home in the country.

Here is Jack with Sarah and Matthew. They attempted to learn cricket with Jack while we were there but I think they were too shy! Sarah says cricket is easier and makes more sense than baseball!

I went on a mini shopping trip with Karen and was able to find some great school workbooks for the kids (their Christmas present?) Karen is a teacher and was a great help in finding the right stuff! The kids may have a few spelling differences when we get home but the math and english books cover the right topics for their grade levels.

Soon, we leave the Henry's home with lots of advice and head south in the rental car we will keep until we leave New Zealand.....to be continued.....chocolate tour coming soon.