NZ South island – Canterbury

Two days of proper R&R in Hanmer Springs were just what the doctor ordered. A lot of sleeping, few nice dinners (very nice indeed!), some gentle walks and a really good quad bike excursion later we were reborn and ready to attack New Zealand in full swing! Started off with few wine tastings in Waipara wine region (what else?). To our surprise we discovered New Zealand red vine – Pinot Noir. We are no PN drinkers usually, but this one got us by surprise – we liked it. We also once again confirmed we love NZ Sauvignon Blanc (no real surprises there…).

Next stop – Akaroa, supposedly lovely little French influenced town on the Banks peninsula. Add Hector’s dolphins to the equation and we have a winner. Well, that was before we started looking for accommodation – not available again! What is it with NZ and rooms? So, we applied well tested solution from Australia – sleeping in a car. After a freeing night it looks like this will not be a solution. Akaroa is probably one of warmest places on Southern Island, but felt cold to us. Yep, we will need to get on top of this hotel/motel business. B&Bs we counted on are actually luxury accommodation that cost arm and leg – not really in our budget range this time.

Only French thing in town were street names and odd looking croissant in the local bakery. All the images of Provence and Loire valley we had in our heads were gone with the wind from the Pacific ocean. And this one was majestic. Open water till Antarctica and South America… Big, big blue. Full of life! On our bay cruise we saw Hector’s dolphins riding our wave; New Zealand fur seals welcomed us with big black eyes and lot of cuddly young pups; even caught the odd penguin by surprise. Pure enjoyment! We finished off the day with fresh fish bbq on the pier – what else can you want?

Then back to mountains and lake Tekapo. A vivid blue glacial lake close to Mt Cook (Highest mountain in NZ). Colours were amazing, landscape a total surprise. We expected lush green and a lot of rain and were welcomed with rugged, barren vistas. Best views were promised from the local hill – Mt John. Little did we expect the vistas we were going to get. Not just the lakes and mountains, but also the Southern skies. Yep, you guessed it – this is the most southern observatory in the world. We could not miss the tour, could we? Southern cross, Orion belt, Magellan clouds, beauty of the night sky was there. Topped off with some wonderful sights of rings of Saturn (our out of focus photo really does not do it justice!) and Moon. And then of the Sun the next day (part of the tour). This probably is one of the best things on this trip!

Mt Cook was also nice, but guess after the extra-terrestrial experience it would be almost impossible to be wowed so easily. We took the walk everyone recommends (2,5 hours of strait walking after about 5 years of doing no hill-walking at all!) Our feet (just getting accustomed to shoes again) did not look that good in the end. Verdict – walk was not really worth the trouble. And we still prefer the European Alps. We decided to cool off in the only hotel in the region and this was a treat. Cold beer on a terrace with best views of Mt Cook you could wish for (yep, very proud we schlepped around for 3 hours). But best thing was to come in the afternoon – drive on the glacial lake with view of the largest glacier in New Zealand – Tasman. We figured easy afternoon after all that walking was due. Wrong again! There is another hike to the lake and back to bus. Miraculously this time all went well, seems our bodies remembered the routine (beer possibly helped a bit?). Timing was perfect – few days earlier a large iceberg broke off the and it was still floating about (partly in chunks thou). And we ARE talking LARGE here – about 50m above the surface and estimated 200m below. For the first few minutes we thought that was the glacier and not the ice-berg floating in the lake (guess beer helped here as well…). Aqua blue ice on another glacial lake – a proper spectacle to see.

It was time to say good-bye to Canterbury for now (we’ll be back for Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers) and head off to Queenstown – world capital of adrenalin junkies (Dejan grinning, Nives moaning…).

Some pictures here.

New Zealand - here we come

In our good tradition, we did not plan a lot in advance. So much so, that when we wanted to check in at the airport in Brisbane and were asked for outgoing ticket from New Zealand we had none.  Actually, at that point we were not sure where we wanted to go (this was supposed to be decided in New Zealand). We are sure only very professional training kept the astonishment from the face of the Virgin employee. So, we had 45 minutes to decide where and when we want to go after New Zealand. And the luck winner is New Caledonia in April 13^th (just don’t ask why…). Another minor detail – we arrived without any accommodation booked (that must sound familiar by now…). To be honest, landing in Christchurch on the south island was also a mere draw of the cheapest ticket (hey, they did have a special offer!) than careful planning. No surprise than that we (again) found ourselves  stranded on the airport on the first night (we really should start to plan these things in advance).

We knew New Zealand will be colder, but did not really register on the rational level. But, this time luck was on our side in every way possible (hope that wasn’t it for this leg of the journey)! First, flight from Australia was delayed for 4 hours and Christchurch airport didn’t close for the night – especially as we had NO warm weather clothing of any kind, having spent last 8 months in heat wave after heat wave locations. It felt like the coldest night we ever had (sure it was quite balm in the airport by any normal standard). Luckily, we did have a rent-a-car (another courtesy of 4 hour delay in Brisbane – we are getting there!). So, accommodation in Christchurch. Acclimatizing in nice, warm room for a few days sounded like music to our completely frozen ears. We even managed to move our toes! Until (sure you guessed what is coming next) we found out that 2 years after the devastating earthquake, which levelled city centre, there is little accommodation available. NONE vacant for the next week or so. And again we found refuge in the form of a rent a car and drove away to the closest accommodation available some 150km away. And this would be in the mountains (still can remember why we decided to go an even cooler place first).

Not all was bad luck on day One. As we were making our retreat out of the city we passed Kathmandu outdoors clothing outlet store with end of the season 70% discount sign. Yes, baby! We will be warm after all!. With smiles, we put on shoes (some tears there as well – our feet got used to flip-flops) and warm jackets for the first time since leaving Ireland.

Even after being in the country for a few hours we noticed good few things that we loved about it. People are sitting in cafes and restaurants and not running around or working out. Maybe because food and wine are significantly cheaper than in Australia, or its just because they enjoy life? We even managed to go to the toilet without seeing sign for help-line for depression (normal occurrence in Australia). Bush flies (none to be seen here!) almost made us use the phone number to think of it… People we met had smiles on their faces and were happy to chat. 

Yeah, think we are going to like it here! 

Australia Recap

So, our final feelings on Australia.

We LOVED the way they sort out the visa problem. It takes you 10 minutes to submit an application on-line and few minutes later you get the mail. This is by far the best process we have seen so far anywhere in the world. No checking for outgoing tickets or invitation letters or anything. Just pretty amazing.

We really did not like the rules & regulations abundance. Everything is regulated down under and even more disturbing everyone was following the rules. Pretty unusual and not what we are used to.

Indigenous people situation. We don’t have feeling this problem is really sorted. We did not get the feeling the rest of Australia is really eager to do a lot about it either. It is almost as there are two separate ways of existence:  traditional and modern one. On one hand indigenous people seem to prefer to live the same way their ancestors lived for 30 000 years before white people showed up and changed the scene: hunters and gatherers living off land and in harmony with it. The ‘new-comers’ want to live the way we do – modern existence. Ruining pretty much everything and anything but going ahead with technological progress. And they really don’t mix well. Living according to ancient philosophies and customs just does not fit into the 9 to 5 routine of the modern world. Who has it figured right? It’s everybody’s choice really.  

Food wise, Oz was great. We LOVED kangaroo meet (we know, we are horrible people!!!). BBQ was a very common and often occurrence… Along the way and many days in wine regions we learned a lot about Oz wine as well. Much more to it then we usually see in Europe.

Whole atmosphere. Well that was a bit 1984, as we already said. It is almost as if Australians are trying to create a new society where everything is regulated. A bit too much for us. We appreciated the cleanliness, but that did not the whole ‘perfect people’ thing. Not to mention the whole stay fit movement in Sidney that seems to be spreading to Melbourne.

So, are we happy we went? Absolutely! Are we thinking of going back? No, not really. 

Sailing the Whitsundays

And now it was time for Dejan to enjoy Nives’ gift for his 40^th birthday – sailing trip in Australia. We opted to charter a sailing boat in Whitsunday islands. One of the guide books even said that if you don’t like it there you don’t have a pulse.

Well, we can confirm we have one. It really is beautiful. Green tropical islands with powder white beaches in the blue seas. Pretty much heaven on earth. Except for the water. This is the time of jelly fish in Australia and you cannot go in the water without the stinger suits. And those would be whole-body lycra suits. With hoodies. And gloves. Dresses all in black we decided to answer only to Ninja 1 and Ninja 2. No more Dejan and Nives… Is it annoying? Extremely!

But we did not let this minor detail ruin our holiday! 2 weeks of pure sailing were amazing. Our dame Zigzag got us safely around in no winds and tropical storms (we had up to 34 knots of wind!). We sailed narrow passages and turquoise waters of long sand beaches. Enjoyed the sun and stars. Peace and quiet and company of other sailing boats. Just beautiful…

And two weeks passed quickly and our time in Australia was up. Next step – New Zealand.

Some more pictures here.

Diving the barrier reef

Finally! Time for some serious fun. Or so we thought…

Although we did not win the lottery (although it is soooo expensive you feel you should have), we booked the premium Australia diving holiday: 4 day dive trip to the outer Coral sea. It is actually so far that you fly back to Cairns as they do not have time to drive you back (yes, baby!). Also, no diving on the inner Barrier reef (heaven for discover scuba and open water diver courses, for non-divers this means ruined coral and less fish), only outer (the real stuff).

Needless to say, we were pretty hyped up. By the time trip started we were so eager to go under we were practically seeing sharks walking the Cairns streets. But afraid Barrier reef did not live up to our expectations. Yeah, we know – two moaners again… Here it is why. Visibility was not what we were hoping for and fish life was far from what we believed it would be. By no means it is bad diving by any standard, but it is also not top world class (or even best in the world) as it is usually presented to be. And when you think of the price, it probably has really bad value in ‘what you get for the price’ box. And at one point it looked the whole thing will be a complete flop.

During out trip wind was blowing from the side it never blows from (our weather luck is really starting to annoy us!!!), so we could not do the usual shark feed (we could not approach the site due to high seas). This is the place they do it with all the security precautions in place. Everybody was really down. So, dive guides decided to drop the tuna head in the water within the lagoon eager to “tick the box” and stop the mutiny, but really not expecting anything. Safety speech was about 30 seconds long, guides didn’t even bother to go into the water – this did not sound like safety obsessed Australia. Nor did it look like shark feed safety bonanza we saw on previous tour video. To our amazement sharks did come and we could be really close to them during the feeding frenzy (very smart, right?). Fist row seats in the one of the best nature cinemas. One of the guys on the trip was a return guest and said this experience was far superior to the ‘regular’ one. Is our luck finally changing?

Diving time passed quickly (as it usually does) and we were already on a small plane back to Cairns. This was amazing! Flying so low and close to the reef you could see schools of dolphins and manta rays. Just beautiful! Definitely should do this again when we win the lottery for real.

We did not have a lot of time in Cairns – just to grab a rent a car and go quickly to the south. Yongala, here we come. For non-diving community this is one of the most famous wreck dives in the world, arguably the best one. Wreck is on the sandy bottom with nothing for miles around. Which will bring down the visibility just to a few meters close to bottom. As expected it has abundant fish and coral. Dare I even say it has one of the biggest fish density we ever saw. When we were about to jump in dive guides started rushing us as there was a sea-snake on the surface (To Nives’ horror). We were in quite a few minutes later when snake disappeared. This being Australia, all penetration is forbidden (5000AUD fine) – here we go with that safety again. Is it our favourite wreck dive? Definitely not. But still worth doing, we feel. Especially the fish side of it.

And that was that for diving in Australia. As planned, we did not do a lot (way too expensive). It is safe to say we expected more, but in the end still pleased we did the lot.

Some more pictures here.

The Great Outback

We have been really looking forward to next leg of our journey. Our plan was to drive thru red hot centre via Uluru from South Australia to Queensland, which is thousands of kilometres of nothingness (4500km according to google maps). Unique experience to Australia. Weather forecast was promising 45c and we did a quick “don’t die air-con” dance. Looks like we outdid ourselves on planning again. No wonder summer is low season in these parts.

Well, Outback it definitely is, no doubt about that. But Great? Well, if it was meant as large, than great it is. Mile after mile after mile of nothing. Definitely not a place to have a flat tire. Hard to believe that there is anything living here. Not that there is much, make no mistake. Well, to be seen anyway. We were hoping for more kangaroos and it was fine to hardly see any snakes (as a road-kill is perfectly alright). Petrol stations every few hundred kilometres or so. With double the prices than elsewhere. But you can’t really negotiate, can you? Mining towns as well – not that they were anything we would have been sorry not to have ever seen. And all this in scorching heat that we actually enjoyed after Melbourne climate. Only gem on the road was Uluru and Kata Tjuta national park. But let’s start from the beginning.

We started in Port Lincoln after diving with The Sharks. First few hundred kilometres till Port Augusta passed quickly. We had our minds set on staying in a “…charming outback town” Coober Pedy. Well, according to the guidebook anyway. Don’t really know what we expected the outback town to be like, but not this. What do we think? We definitely want whatever the writer was on when he was there. To say it is a sh**hole is definitely an insult to all sh**holes we have ever been to. Desperation on level never seen yet. This place is just forgotten, even by God, Allah or Buda  themself. Only people on dusty sun bleached streets were drunk locals, mainly indigenous people, knocking on our car demanding money. We drove past hundred empty opal stores (all of them offering deals of a life time), dozens of derelict accommodation options and miniature surface mines (size of plot is limited, so no big corporations here). It almost felt like a tourist trap, but really not sure who gets there and actually stays there. Guess, no need to explain any further, we filled up our petrol tank and pressed on towards next town. Nothing can be as bad as this! Or so we thought…

Our accommodation for the night was Kulgera Roadhouse. You see, rest stops in Australian outback are called roadhouses. Usually a petrol station selling precious liquid at extortionate prices and a rusty old motel. Occasionally a small shop. And if you are really lucky a beer tap. This one was all that, but with loads of charm. It was a no brainer – place to kip. It even had a pool! And best pub in the outback according to the owner. And this time, we wholeheartedly agree. Actually, probably best pub in Oz. This being proper outback the bar was totally empty. Heaps of charm and character thou. So, we decided to hit the shower and then hit the beer. And this is when this lovely outback tale turns to horror movie. As you can guess, one of us had a pretty disturbing experience in the shower. After good inspection of the premises some relaxing time under the stream of warm water with closed eyes was just what the doctor ordered. Until the eyes were opened and screams echoed in the Great Outback. Spider the size of fist was slowly crawling up the right leg. Guess who it was? Well, only thing we can say is that she was properly shaken. Definitely time to hit the bar. Obviously, first question to the barmen was if there are any snakes around. With complete astonishment in his eyes (for this kind of question to be asked) he said not to many this year. This did not improve the fragile status of mind (Caroline, Ewart, remember Kruger again?). Short visit to the loo that boasted sign “No light, closed lid, no surprises” clenched the deal. Time to freak out. This is the reason you will not be seeing one of the best photos. This pub actually boasted with number of local snakes preserved in jars. With antidotes next to them!!! Dejan decided that in the best interest of everyone present it would be good idea to keep this find to himself until we were far away. Such a smart decision…

Early next morning we then went to Uluru and Kata Tjuta. And this is where the scenery turned to stunning. Red earth, blue skies, occasional tree. What we hoped for. Just inhospitable, dangerous and breathtakingly beautiful. And then Uluru itself. Big red rock in the middle of nothing. It is much bigger and more impressive then on the photos. Close to it is another rock formation Kata Tjuta. Possibly not as majestic, but at least as stunning. And we haven’t even mentioned The Imposter! Just before Uluru you will see first grand mountain and assume this is the real thing. But hold, it is not. This is actually Mount Conner. Very unlucky it is so close to the more famous spot as it deserves a lot of attention. Guess what we did: took dozens of pictures that we then had to delete afterwards of course… So, we did what the tourist do: visited the center, went for a ranger walk, and have I mentioned the sunrise and sunset? Sunrise was probably more special (when you wake up in the middle of the night it better well be!). Judgement could be influenced by lack of coffee and obvious brain inactivity at that time as well. But in our case we had a special view – a rainbow. Yes, we know what you are thinking – this is desert and for rainbow you need rain, they must be in the heat too much. Wrong, we had rain at Uluru! Obviously, our weather story continues…  We definitely learned more about the indigenous people here. They lived in the same way for thirty thousand years before white people came!

After Uluru it was time for a bit of R&R in Alice Springs. Nothing to write home about this town except the wonderful experience of feeding wallabies. Local rock wallabies descend from the local hill every evening and expect to be hand fed and caressed. Such a great experience!

Night in a hotel did the trick and we were on the road again. All the way to Townsville there was nothing to tell you about. We continued our usual 2 hours on 2 hours off driving routine. And passed one road train after another… If you are wondering what that is, it is a colossal truck with up to four trailers. A proper monster to pass in the dark!

And sun and hot air almost all the way to Townsville. Yes, we said almost. Close to the east coast started raining. And we mean raining heavily! Quick check with the locals and we found out we were catching a tail of a cyclone Oswald. This area had a massive rainfall – some were even saying biggest in the last one hundred years! Hmmmm… typhoon, heat wave, cyclone… it can’t be us, right?

Some more pictures here.

Face to Face with Great White

Well, not strictly speaking. There was a steal cage in-between. Minor details…

Yes, we decided to go for the cage dive again (previously done in Gansbaai in South Africa). Not a lot of places in the world where you can see great whites and every opportunity should be used to maximum. So we got on board the boat at 6:30 am and got ready for long drive to cage dive site –  that would mean taking anti sickness pills. We did this before and we knew better. Most people were heroic thou and said they were never sea-sick. That would be until the boat started it’s left to right little dance on the water. Soon enough, most of the people were hugging white plastic bags and retching their guts out. Above and under the water.  And we were so nice we did not say we told you so…

We were there at 10 am and in the water by 11 am. Yes, we were the first one to jump in, would you have really expected otherwise? But only thing we saw was blue ocean and occasional trevally. What a disappointment! And this would be in a freezing cold water. But then an hour or so later we were in the water again (a lot of people decided not to try yet). And then it came. Apex predator of the sea. We can verify it is as magnificent as it looks. And what an experience to see it emerge from the blue to slowly and menacingly circle the cage. No joking with this one, that is for sure. After three passes it went back into big blue. Exhilarating! Groups went in and out of the cage until everyone was able to say they saw the sharks. And then we got another go. This time not one but two sharks appeared. Didn’t go close to surface at all, just came from the deep circled the cage few times and went back. Experience not to be missed.

Capitan then took us on a drive around the seal island (on Dejan’s request actually). What a site! Seals lounging in the sun, swimming in shallows, pups playing. Absolutely cute! Hard to remember they are favourite food of the great whites. But that would be nature…

How do we compare this sightseeing to one in South Africa. Different. Here we saw sharks really well under the water (visibility was more than 20 m), but they did not breach out of the water at all. So, no teeth counting. Both experiences are amazing and should be done. And possibly repeated. You never know…

Some more pictures here.