Last days NZ, First days OZ
G’day from OZ. We made it across the Tasman sea the other day and are now enjoying the warmer weather in Sydney.
Our final days in NZ may have just been some of the best few days yet. Steve successfully bungee’d off the Kawarua River which was very cool. They have a great facility there with huge live monitors and viewing platforms. Bungee jumping was actually much gentler that I thought it would be but all the spinning and bouncing was amazingly disorienting. Cross that off the list in any case.
We drove out late to the Milford Sound to catch an early cruise before all the tour buses arrive. There was nil for accommodations there but plenty of parking lot which we made use of. First thing, we hopped on a huge ship with only 5 other passengers and 6 crew. We had entire levels to ourselves and unlimited drip coffee which is quite hard to find as everyone drinks espresso, well ‘flat whites’ to be specific. The Milford Sound is actually a Fiord for those taking notes since it was created from glaciers. Though it hadn’t rained recently, there were still several spectacular waterfalls to see, one of which our captain (appropriately named “Fiord“) took us directly underneath the waterfall drenching us with water. It’s amazing the power of those waterfalls when your directly underneath it! The cruise was beautiful and set us in a great mood for tramping the final section of the Routeburn Trek. Two hours of hiking up from the Great Divide put us at the summit where we had panoramic views of glaciers and the Fiordland. Another hour in and we were at the last hut stop for trampers going the other directions. Though hyped tremendously, it was easy to understand while they call this one of the “Great Treks”.
We made a quick sprint through Queenstown to watch UCLA decimate LSU and then continued to Dunedin to see the rare Yellow-Eyed Penguin of which there are less than 4,000 left. A private conservationist created a safe haven for these cute guys and also built in a trench system to monitor them up close without bothering them. It was quite a cool little setup but Jenny was disappointed because our guide couldn’t answer most of her questions. From there, we drove up the coast back to Christchurch to return the Space Ship and watch UCLA lose. On our last day we hopped on a bus to Akaroa, a small picture-esq French village with Hector dolphins. It was nice to finally slow down a bit and roam the small town. Also took another marine life boat trip to see more dolphins, birds and penguins in the natural habitat.
Only a few days in Sydney and we’ve already roamed the Blue Mountains which actually are really quite blue. Supposedly this is because of the Eucalyptus oil that the trees emit. Also went to the Featherdale zoo to play with Kangaroos, Wallabies, Dingo’s, the top 10 most deadly snakes snakes, and a million types of crazy birds. Steve got Emu to eat of out of his hands! We stayed with Kenny’s cousins in a suburb called Penrith for 2 days which was quite nice. A few home cooked meals never tasted so good! They were excellent tour guides and we much enjoyed our time with them. Now we’re in Manly Beach trying to chill out. Had quite an awful sleeping experience in what has to be the dirtiest place either of us have ever stayed in. The hostel scene out here ain’t quite what it was in NZ. Nice day out there though, about 20C and tomorrow Jenny is especially excited about taking me to the ballet at the Opera House. Will report later how it goes.
Even though Sydney has far exceeded our expectations, we are excited about flying out to Indonesia on Wed. We will head straight out the Gili Islands, a remote group of three islands off the coast of Lompoc which have over 3500 species of stuff in the water. Compare that to the Great Barrier Reef which has only 1500 and the Red Sea with 600 and you’ll see why it’s worth the trek out there. A bit nervous about the travelling in Indo. but all should be well.Stay tuned for pics. It’s proven quite difficult to upload large numbers of photos from Internet cafe’s.
Wish everyone our best.
S & J
Tags: New Zealand, Travel
Steve
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