Adelaide and back

After our beachside stay at Glenelg, just south of Adelaide, we headed south the next morning to catch the 45 minute ferry to Kangaroo Island. We had to leave our hire car behind as the hire companies won't insure people to drive there. So we had to hire a car on the other side at an hugely inflated price. It was worth it though.

Kangaroo Island is a haven for wildlife as there are no real predators. The place is covered in Kangaroos (obviously), wallabies, echidnas, possums, the odd koala bear and tonnes of birds (the number of which was reduced by one after our visit thanks to our bumper).

We stayed the night at Flinders Chase Farm in the middle of the Kanagaroo Island bush. And having had a close meeting with a venimous tiger snake earlier in the day the night time walk was more than a little tense.

Next morning we headed to the far south east point of the island and Flinders Chase National Park. The first attraction was remarkable rocks. A bundle of huge wind beaten granite stones sitting on a granite floor with all sorts of strange shapes carved from them by the elements.

We travelled on to Admirals Arch, a natural arch over looking the roaring southern ocean beaten shores and the new zealand fur seals basking on the shore.

We had to head quickly for the ferry and after a 15okm dash we made it.

We then started our journey back to Melbourne. After a good 3 hours on the unispiring and boredom inducing roads we made it to Camp Coorong. This place was surely the worst we've encountered so far. Centipedes all over the floor, walls and even ceiling. A spider living happily in the oven and numerous other spindly inhabitants. We watched the openeing game of the Aussie Rules Football season and tiptoed to bed hoping not to be eaten by the time we woke.

We lived.

The main reason for my visit to Kangaroo Island was to see the plaque placed in memory of a friend and former workmate of mine, Dougal Smart, who drowned at Remarkable Rocks saving the life of another tourist who had ignored instructions and gone down to the waters edge only to be swept into the sea. Dougal and his tour guide were both drowned and the area now has a huge abundance of signs warning of the dangers. He was a great guy and although he died a heroes death he is greatly missed.

Adelaide and back

After our beachside stay at Glenelg, just south of Adelaide, we headed south the next morning to catch the 45 minute ferry to Kangaroo Island. We had to leave our hire car behind as the hire companies won't insure people to drive there. So we had to hire a car on the other side at an hugely inflated price. It was worth it though.

Kangaroo Island is a haven for wildlife as there are no real predators. The place is covered in Kangaroos (obviously), wallabies, echidnas, possums, the odd koala bear and tonnes of birds (the number of which was reduced by one after our visit thanks to our bumper).

We stayed the night at Flinders Chase Farm in the middle of the Kanagaroo Island bush. And having had a close meeting with a venimous tiger snake earlier in the day the night time walk was more than a little tense.

Next morning we headed to the far south east point of the island and Flinders Chase National Park. The first attraction was remarkable rocks. A bundle of huge wind beaten granite stones sitting on a granite floor with all sorts of strange shapes carved from them by the elements.

We travelled on to Admirals Arch, a natural arch over looking the roaring southern ocean beaten shores and the new zealand fur seals basking on the shore.

We had to head quickly for the ferry and after a 15okm dash we made it.

We then started our journey back to Melbourne. After a good 3 hours on the unispiring and boredom inducing roads we made it to Camp Coorong. This place was surely the worst we've encountered so far. Centipedes all over the floor, walls and even ceiling. A spider living happily in the oven and numerous other spindly inhabitants. We watched the openeing game of the Aussie Rules Football season and tiptoed to bed hoping not to be eaten by the time we woke.

We lived.

The main reason for my visit to Kangaroo Island was to see the plaque placed in memory of a friend and former workmate of mine, Dougal Smart, who drowned at Remarkable Rocks saving the life of another tourist who had ignored instructions and gone down to the waters edge only to be swept into the sea. Dougal and his tour guide were both drowned and the area now has a huge abundance of signs warning of the dangers. He was a great guy and although he died a heroes death he is greatly missed.

Road Trip!

After a couple more days taking in the Melbourne fumes and experiencing the continuing buzz of commonwealth games fever we hired our car and hit the open road on Monday morning. After about 250kms we arrived at the YHA in Hall's Gap in the recently charred Grampians National Park. The vegetation is recovering well after the huge fires which recently swept through. The village of Hall's Gap survived unscathed and the hostel was nestled beside the road in a quiet little location.

We took advantage of the free shonky bikes on offer and took a nostalgic bike ride around the village as we used to do as school kids on the sunny Barra evenings after school. In Barra however we never came across hundreds of cockatoos, dozens of kangaroos and kookaburras sitting on the car park fence. Well not normally anyway.

We peddled our merry way around the village and surrounding roads until dark then sat with our dinner in the silent bush atmosphere. The evening's silence only briefly broken by a possum munching on the nearby trees.

Today we drove the remaining of the 450km of highway 8 to Adelaide stopping to discuss the continuing problem of speeding drivers with a friendly policeman as we went. I was only doing 113kmph for heaven sake! 'You're so right officer......thank you for pointing that out officer'.

Apart from that it was a straight road with nothing but the trees and grass for company.

Anyway we sunned ourselevs on the beach at Glenelg just outside Adelaide and two minutes walk from our rather ropey looking hostel. We're about to head to the big smoke and sample the Adelaide atmos. It's not got much of a reputation to maintain mind.

No worries mate.

Melbourne

This is Flinders Street Station in Melbourne City Centre. Cracking isn't it.

Well we've had a few days to get to know this city. It's buzzing at the moment and all the trams are crambed. Alot of locals have apparently taken the opportunity to get away so the city and all it's hotels are rammed with people from all over the commonwealth.

We went to see the athletics last night if only to find out if there were actually any other countries participating in the competition besides Australia. The TV coverage is quite incredible. It is all about Australia. Only races, games and competitions with an Australian in contention get shown. Other countries don't get a mention. The only way we can find out how Scotland are doing is to look on the net. It's the hot topic round here actually. Alot of the letters in the paper are from Australians ashamed at the way they have covered the games. To be honest it doesn't make you feel very welcome.

It was the same in the stadium last night. After Jana Pittman (Womens 400m winner) had been presented with her medal the stadium emptied. There was also the spectacle of the crowd cheering as the foreign discuss throwers failed to beat the Australian's throw. Respect doesn't seem to be something the Ausltralian sporting public has in much quantity.

Apart from that I've just been walking round the city soaking up the atmosphere, seeing the sights. The botanic gardens are amazing.

The temperature here is around 30C every day but I'm finding it very easy, it's not humid. The difficulty comes at night. You want to sleep with no sheets but then the mozzies get you.

Hopefully we'll get a thunderstorm soon though. Might head back up the Rialto Tower and get some more photos if that happens.

Anyway time for brekky.

Bigger City Life

G'day mate!

We've landed in sunny Oz. Melbourne to be a bit more precise. The city is buzzing with Commonwealth fever and with a population pretty much the same as the whole of New Zealand it's a bit of a culture shock.

We're booked in here at Nomads Backpackers in the city centre until next Monday morning. So plenty time to get out and about.

We met cousin Marion for lunch on arrival and then headed down to the St Kilda beachside area and watch the mental kite surfers in the bay and sit under the not too scorching sunshine.

A few cups of tea later we headed home for a while then back out for dinner. One or two BBC 'luminaries' joined us for a cracking chinese banquet and it was a bit strange sitting next to John Beattie talking about how difficult chopsticks are to use.

After a further sample of the Melbourne nightlife and having been awake for 22 hours it was time for bed.

We've got a whole week to explore this place. Ramsay Street is obviously the number one target though and we will certainly be getting out there at some point to relive old school day TV memories.

Before we left New Zealand we met up with an old work mate of mine, Stewart, on Thursday night in Auckland. He loves the place and is applying for residency. No plans to go back home whatsoever. We spent a good few hours discussing what a great place it is.

The next couple of nights we spent with some old friends of my mother's just south of Auckland. Hilda and Richard are real characters and they even dug out an old photograph of when my youthful looking parents paid them a suprise visit back in the early 70s. The photo was at Hunua Falls where, coincidently we had just returned from that day. Strange indeed.

Anyway we're ozzies now so time to get a bit arrogant about all these medals our athletes are winning and maybe go away and come up with some rubbish pop songs to try and fit in with the local culture.

Stroooooth!

Big City Life

Back in Auckland - some new photos up. Here's hot water beach......

Running out of time......

Coromandel Penninsula

We left smelly old Rotorua behind on Friday morning and headed up State Highway 36, which wasn't actually on the map, to Tauranga. Tauranga is a large city by New Zealand standards with a population of 100,000 but barely gets a mention when it comes to tourism. It's a lovely place though and across the bridge is the town of Mt Maunganui which has a cracking surf and swimming beach on the outside and harbour and marina on the inside which was accomodating the Diamond Princess cruise ship and her 2500 passengers for the day. The tip of the little penninsula has a little mountain after which the town is named. It makes a nice evening climb to watch the sun set and the lights come on across the city below.

The next day we headed for the Coromandel Penninsula. Travelling firstly to Waihi a town famous for it's huge open cast gold mine. The mine is pretty much exhausted now but it is a spectacular sight to see the road spiral off down into the earth below with the tiny machinery still at the bottom of the pit.

Further along the road towards Thames is the Karangahake Gorge. This amazing place was mined for gold ore in the late 19th and early 20th century and the maze of tunnels, mines and bridges make an incredibly interesting afternoon's adventure. The little railway that was used to ship the ore to the processing batteries further down the river are being re-assembled and there is talk of putting in a train to take people on what would be an awesome mystery tour through the past.

That evening was spent at Opoutere YHA. Which was an incredibly well equipped with free kayaks which we took for a paddle arounf the shallow estuary spying kingfishers, sea trout and mullet on the way. We could also have sworn Ailsa from Home and Away was staying there too.

Next morning we were off to Hot Water Beach. We checked in at Sea Breezes Tourist Park which happens to be 9km from the sea but lets not quibble. It was tipping down so we were n't to bothered about checking out hot water beach but the owner reckoned that would be a good thing as less people might be there.

So we headed off down to the sea with our spades and swimming shorts.

On arrival it was still tipping down and eventually we had to bite the bullet and head out. At the far end of the beach we could see people clustered around a rock. As we approached we could see them huddled around, some digging and some sitting in the pool which had been dug. The tide was still falling and we, along with some others, started to dig another pool below the existing one. After an immense battle with the waves, our work being washed away with ease time after time, we finally managed to build up a big enough wall to keep the sea out and the hot spring water in. The women folk were in there like a bullet having watched us men dig till we had blisters. We managed to squeeze in though and the deeper we dug the hotter the springs were. We must have managed 2030 minutes bathing before the pool was again breached and the tide had turned. The fun was over but what an extraordinary experience. 50 or 60 people lying in a rain soaked beach, steam rising, rain falling and waves crashing.

Later in the afternoon the sun returned and we made our way to the incredibly beautiful Cathedral Cove with it's limestone rock formations and archway. Not to mention the stingrays and interesting forest walk.

Today we headed further north round the penninsula to Coromandel Town, a sleepy little place on the eastern coast of the penninsula.

We took a ride on the Driving Creek Railway. This short guage railway was built over a period of 40 years by an exentric mainstream drop out to gather firewood and clay for his pottery. Evntually so many people were asking for rides he opened it up commercially and it goes from strength to strength.

We're off to the far north tip of the penninsula tomorrow then back down and off to the big smoke that is Auckland.

Bye for now

Zorbing

I bet you've always wanted to get into a huge inflated ball, chuck in some water and roll down a hill. That's what I had a go at yesterday. It's called Zorbing. The ball has an inner sphere which you climb into, a couple of buckets of water are added, the inner sphere zipped shut and you roll off down the hill bouncing and sliding all over the place. Great fun!

The fishing continues to be good. The fish are congregating in the cold streams which flow into Lake Rotorua which is too warm at the moment. You can see them in the day but you can't catch them, they're too warey. At night though they come out of their shells and you can nab a few, as we did. 5 each over the last three nights. Fish up to and over 4lb and all wild. Great fun.

The first cold breathes of autumn are appearing. The sun doesn't seem so warm and the nights are getting colder. So it's lucky really that we're going to Australia in just over a week.

Here's a geyser in Rotorua too.

Red Letter Rotorua

Well yesterday was a bit of a red letter day. Not only did it rain for the first time in ages but after 3 months Jamie decided to get a hair cut. He was beginning to make me look like James Bond compared to his tramp like appearance but now he's got the same cut as me. Maybe people will be more likely to realise we're related now. Strangely most people have been suprised to hear we're brothers. Quite the opposite to what we're used to.

Add to these occurrences we went fishing and I caught 4 up to 4lb and Jamie even managed a couple.

Rotorua is the perfect spot for someone with flatulance problems. There is funny smells round every corner and if you happen to drop one no-one suspects a thing.

The Maori call this place Rotovegas and you can see why. The streets are lit with neon signs and the tourist paths are paved with gold for those who happen to own a thermal reserve of any form.

On our way here we stopped in at Hell's Gate. An over-hyped and over-priced area of thermal activety. OK the bubbling craters and steam vents are interesting but they aren't exactly awe inspiring and to charge $25 (10GBP) is just a rip off. We went to the Craters of the Moon in Taupo which isn't quite as bubbly and boily but only asked for a donation.

AnotherThermal reserve is Te Puai. A maori owned area which has a Marae (sacred maori town hall thing) and more importnantly a few geysers. The biggest geyser is Pohutu (Big Splash in Maori) which shoots up to 25m in the air at various times in the day. We were lucky enough to see it in all it's glory. Quite a site. The most frighteming aspect of the area though was the throngs of tourists coming off their tour buses and being shown around on little electric trains. The train would stop and these hoards of people would come streaming towards you cameras flashing and bellies wabbling. It was an even more bizzare experience when the group were Japanese, like being rushed by a gang of dwarves.

Anyway it's still a bit on the cloudy side so we're going to leave our last hefty donation to the Rotorua economy till tomorrow when we go to see the Wai-o-tapu reserve which has another geyser and the colourful champagne pool.

Will keep you fully informed of course.

Map

Just to help you figure out where we've been and where we are I've put a map in with my photos. The blue line is where we've been and the red dots are where we've stayed. There are a couple of dots not on the road as we got there by boat or canoe or kayak or something. No doubt there's a couple of places I've forgotten but you get the idea.

White Island

This morning we got the call at 7:30am confirming that the boat to White Island was going today. We checked in at 9am and headed off on the 90 minute journey across the Bay of Plenty. The sun was shining and the sea relatively calm. Half way over we came across a pod of common dolphins and they followed us around putting on a display at the bow. We soon had to head off though as we had a tight schedule to keep to due to the difficulty possible if we got back to Whakatane harbour at low tide.

Soon enough we were closing in on White Island and after seeing my first ever flying fish gliding along beside the boat we set anchor and were ferried onto the island on an inflatable dinghy.

The island is only a few kilometers wide and pretty much circlular. The whole island is made of volcanic debri with a crater lake in the centre. The lake is only a relatively recent occurance and is actually formed by steam emerging below the lake condensing within it. So it fills up despite the lack of rain.

The lake is between 30 and 60C and has a PH of less than one. It is just a steaming opaque pond and looks more like liquid nitrogen than hot water.

The whole island smells of sulphur and every so often we had to call upon our gas masks to help us breath when the steam began to choke a bit.

In the early 20th century the sulphur was mined but never with much financial success. Indeed in 1914 the entire workforce of 10 men was wiped out by a lahar (landslide) when the crater lake wal collapsed sending rocks and mud down across the island and sweeping the houses and factory out to sea. No remains of any of the men was ever found.

The sulphur extraction began again, with the houses sensibly built outside the crater but again went bankrupt after only a few years. The poor men who had the pleasure of working there must have had a hell of a life. No vegetation at all, 50 km from shore and no fresh water but that delivered by the service boat when the weather allowed. One worker did infact throw himself into the crater at one point, all that was found of him was his boots at the craters edge.

All in another great experience. We're having a maori evening tonight including a traditional hangi meal. Should be interesting.

East Coast - Maori Country

We've now returned from the other world of the East Coast of the North Island. We left Turangi last Sunday and headed for Taupo. Taupo is at the North end of Lake Taupo and a bit of an adventure capital (not quite up there with Queenstown though). We wandered around to the powerful Huka Falls on the Wakato River and the Craters of the Moon, an area of volcanic steam vents bubbling away and gushing steam out through holes in the ground. Very strange.

We then headed to the East coast and Napier. The city famous for it's Art Deco architecture which emerged after the city was almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake and subsequent fire in 1931. Instead of building everything back straight away they waited and did things in an organised manor. The result was a town of Art Deco and Spanish Mission architecture. You can see some examples on the photos page.

Napier has a bit of a gang undertone and it felt a bit threatening at times to be honest. The hostel was a bit of a dump too and we weren't too disappointed to leave it behind on Tuesday morning and head North. After a couple of hours on the log lorry laiden road north and after witnessing a lorry having lost it's trailer half way up a hill we were less than enamoured to be presented with Gisborne at the other end. A city famed for nothing but the disasters which seem to befall it on a regular basis from earthquakes and tsunamis to fire and cyclones.

We headed through Gisborne and stayed at Wainui Beach, about 8km north. The hostel was very 'surfie' and the dorm cramped and out-dated. But the setting was awesome sitting as it was on the dunes of the surf beach infront.

Next morning we headed further north. Stopping at Tolaga Bay to see the old concrete wharf built on the beach to service the town and country before the roads were of a good standard. The wharf is the longest in the southern hemisphere but has fallen into disrepair since the roads were completed and the local population dwindled.

We also walked to nearby Cook's Cove where the great man came ashore to collect 'wood and water' as the nearby monument reminds us.

Further north was Tokomaru Bay. Home for the night was Brian's Place. A cracking wee hostel on the hill overlooking the beach and ocean. Our host, Liz was most welcoming and we chatted away all evening about the rights and wrongs of the world and what a great place we were in.

Tokomaru also has an old wharf built to take frozen meat from the freezing factory at the north end of the bay. This practice was also a result of the poor roads of the time and livestock would be taken from miles around to the factory, slaughtered and frozen and sent off on ships to the UK. The factory employed thousands of people but again the advent of the roads brought it and the wharf to a close and saw the population plummet.

Next day we were on our way north again to Hick's Bay. On our way we took the 40km detour out to East Cape Lighthouse, the most Easterly point of mainland NZ. The lighthouse used to be on East Island, another 2km further out to sea and had 3 keepers and their families. However the island was slowely eroding and when the lighthouse became endangered by landslides they took it away and set up a new light on the cape.

Anyway we stayed that night at Mel's Place. A little hostel on an old maori Pa (settlement) site and our hosts were both Maori of Scottich dissent, Mel and Joe McClutchie no less. They live like proper maori (as do most people on the east coast) living mainly off the land and sea, sharing food with the rest of the Iwi (tribe) and adhering to maori traditions like no shoes indoors, no sitting on tables or pillows and generally being respectful and hospitable to one another. They were extremely hospitable to us and it was a very relaxing experience despite the two rottwielers.

Next day we headed more west along the top of the east coast penninsula to maraehako retreat in Whanarua Bay. Another maori owned place right on the beach. A piece of paradise. The fishing boat up on the slip outside and free surf kayaks and a 45 minute walk to a lovely watefall in the bush which we took a frezing shower under.

We took advantage of the free surf kayaks and headed out with a couple of dutch girls and a belgian guy. Paddling around in the sizeable waves was interesting enough but the real fun started when we took to the surf. The waves were pretty big (up to 4m high) and when you got one you would go belting along towards the beach and more often than not end up upside down but screaming and laughing at the shear excileration of it. Eventually we were just to tired to keep paddling back out through the waves to catch the next one and headed back for a quiet evening on the decking overlooking the fire and chatting to the irish, belgian, dutch, maori, kiwi, ozzy people round the log fire outside in the courtyard. What a place and what a host.

This morning though, it was time to re-enter the real world and we're now in Whakatane (they actaully have the internet here). We're hoping to head to White Island tomorrow, New Zealand's most active volcano and 51km out into the currently coppy Bay of Plenty.

It's been a totally relaxing week among the Maori people in an as yet undiscovered part of the country. I'd recommend it to anyone coming here. Don't just go for the bungey and sky-dives the real New Zealand is out East.

One of these days I'll start wearing shoes again too.