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09/11/02 - 18/11/02
Melbourne, Australia
18/11/02 - 20/12/02
New Zealand
20/12/02 - 03/01/03
Sydney, Australia
03/01/03 - 22/01/03
Queesland, Australia
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friday, january 24
London, Northern Hemisphere
well it's all over for me now! I got back at Heathrow at ten to six this morning, 27 hours later and 31 degrees colder than when I left Cairns.
We spent the last few weeks on boats and rainforests, first cruising the Whitsundays and the Great Barrier Reef for three nights on a sweltering ketch, then diving the Great Barrier Reef and the wreck of the Yongala on a 3 night luxury liveaboard from Townsville. Diving was incredible, a big bull shark just metres away and a grouper the size of a VW beetle (named Vee Dub), and a smaller one that has taken chunks out of several divers and taken a diver's head into his mouth attempting to eat them. He's called Grumpy. Also huge turtles, manta rays, guitar fish, all sorts.
Stayed in a big iron bed on a platform in the tropical rainforest canopy surrounded only by mesh walls to keep out the giant grey huntsman spiders (up to 17cm across), with the full moon rising over the ocean down the mountain. 4WD access only and crocodile spotting on the river with fireflies too.
Work on Monday, Pip's back in a month or two...
20:01
tuesday, january 7
Hervey Bay, Sunshine Coast
Squashed a 6cm funnelweb spider in a service station yesterday. Learnt to surf today, burst my trunks.
21:36
monday, january 6
Brisbane, Gold Coast
Christmas in Syndey was great although we couldn't get the prawns and the barbie at the same place and time. Turkey dinner then drinking, dancing and trying to drown ourselves on Coogee Beach.
Boxing Day Sydney-Hobart yacht race in torrential rain.
Climbed to the top of Sydney Harbour Bridge in a natty grey polyester jumpsuit.
Boogieboarded on Bondi beach, the next day dived 300m off the same beach and clocked 4 big nurse sharks (from under 2m away), a numb ray (electric: cardiac arrest if you stand on it), a couple of big wobbegones (a bizarre green sharky thing) as well as weedy sea dragons etc.
Blue Mountains more blue than mountainous but very nice.
Had an IQ reunion in a pub in the Rocks.
New Year's Eve 9pm fireworks cancelled due to wind so we had to content ourselves with watching branches blow from trees onto the bar (it had nearly run out of beer anyway), then saw the famous midnight ones from Circulr Quay, just under the bridge. Luvverly as promised.
Now driving north in a big green car with Pip and Ros. Walking in a rinforest we came across a giant green python just off the path, walking at Byron Bay I had to detour off the path to avoid a sinister brown snake that seemed confident enough of its venom not to leave the track to the walkers.
Surfer's Paradise bizarre, 30km strip of ugly beachfront apartment towers that the Ozzies seem to love.
In Brisbane at the moment, earily quiet city, like a film. We drove right in to the centre without seeing a single car or person, and all the traffic lights were green. Carparks cost the same as our accomodation tonight.
Soon we're 4WDing around Fraser Island (giant sand dune thing), then sailing and diving our way round Whitsunday Islands, then diving all the way to Cairns if I get my way.
30 degrees, high humidity and cockroach infested cabins are making this feel like a proper trip, and soon we get to the deadly box jellyfish jone which means no swimming in the sea.
13:37
Sydney, Australia
I can't remember what we've done since Kaikoura (we saw 5 sperm whales and hundreds of dusky dolphins). Abel Tasman was sea kayaking and hiking with turquoise sea, rain forest spilling down the cliffs onto golden beaches and general tropical paradise type scenery. North Island NZ was more rushed, the Tongariro Crossing was a twin volcano climb to 2000m, with 80kph winds trying to push us off cinder cone ridges into volcanic electric blue lakes and snow drifts. Luckily thick cloud on the climb stopped us seeing how far we'd fall if we slipped but cloud cleared on descent. We drift-dived a river ustarting under a bungy jump, 2.1km in 20 minutes, surfaced at a thermal waterfall around 40 degrees, perfect for warming up and enjoying the view but home to meningitis bacteria. Rotorua was boiling mud, geysers, fumaroles, more volcanoes and general geothermality. Coromandel Peninsula was hot water springs on perfect beaches, more rainforest, motorhome killing hills. We followed a pod of orcas (killer whales) on the road back to Auckland, where we swapped our motorhome for less expensive 1994 Ford Laser. This broke down three times on the first day. We went north from Auckland to view giant (and they are giant) kauri trees, around 2000 years old. Incredible scenery, dramatic hills, forests, green pastures, no one around, fantastic. 90 mile beach is an 85km beach that also happens to be the road to Cape Reinga Lighthouse, where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific, and we cracked open the champagne for Pip's birthday. That night we stayed in an old hotel in a tiny town, everybody drank until they fell over (one guy fell off his stool so many times he knocked himself out) and then drove home. Dived the Rainbow Warrior and two days in the Poor Knights islands, fantastic. One ear is still shagged, as all the surge and the swim throughs shoot you from the bottom to the surface all the time. Now we're in Sydney, suffered from culture shock as well as jetlag, it's like arriving in 2003 from 1950. Got an 8th floor apartment with balcony and bed views of the Opera House and the harbour. Getting a BBQ tomorrow for our Christmas Day prawns (before we hit the beach). Cold (25 deg) today but back to 30+ tomorrow and cloudless after tomorrow. Jealous yet?
13:02
sunday, december 15
Pahia, Bay Of Islands, Northland, New Zealand
Swam out from a perfect beach today to a little island about a mile offshore. Got a lift back in a fishing boat along with a big shark.
15:44
monday, december 2
We picked up another hitch-hiker. He was cycling round the South Island so I think the lift we gave from the coast to Arthur's Pass at 1km altitude was cheating slightly, but never mind. I hoped he'd forget his bike.
08:05
Kaikoura, northern South Island, the land of the long white cloud
The big draw here is whale watching, but the sea fog this morning means the spotter choppers can't go out and find them for the boats so we're going this afternoon. This disrupts my planned shark cage dive with 3m makos and blue sharks but there might be another chance...
In Queenstown we went white water rafting (our raft flipped on the first rapid and we had to swim the whole rapid), jetboating which is mental, hang-gliding which is cool, had a helicopter ride (which is cosy if you're sitting next to 2 germans in wetsuits) and I did a 134 metre bungy jump from a cable car in the Nevis Canyon, which is terrifying but not to be missed under any circumstances. 8 seconds of falling before you bounce up at least 100 metres...
We left Queenstown before blowing the rest of the money on paragliding, fly by wiring, blah blah blah. There is a central compensation board here for accidents which means nobody sues abybody, which means all the dangerous and scary things which would be fenced off in Europe are fine here. For instance, yesterday Pip and I walked 365 metres up an underground river through a limestone cave. It took us an hour and a half as the water was chest deep and included climbing through or over several waterfalls, and we didn't have to take any gear apart from loads of torches. My shoes are still soaked although wearing them for 24 hours has dried them a little.
Hopefully a couple of days of sea kayaking and hiking the white beaches, turquoise seas and rainforests of Abel Tasman before we sample the North Island, which might not be the world centre of motorhoming that the south is.
08:04
tuesday, november 26
Stole a book from a Spanish hitchhiker we picked up today.
16:57
Queenstown, New Zealand
Half way round south island new zealand now. Drove to beautiful Milford Sound, including a 1200 metre unlined unlit tunnel that we did the first 100 metres of with just the left indicator because we couldn't find the lights. Did a little hiking. Spent a day sea kayaking in doubtful sound yesterday, they get 6 metres of rain a year but we got two dry sunny days which meant the photos and the tans are better but most of the waterfalls had disappeared. Spent the morning lying in bed and talking to parrots but now we're in Queenstown, "the adrenaline capital of the world". Acccordingly, 8am tomorrow we are jet boating on the Shotover river, then hang-gliding in the afternoon. 8am the next day we are helicoptering off to do some white water rafting in the morning, then I have the privilege of the world's highest bungy jump at 134 metres in the afternoon. Hmmm. Pip's already hitting the valium.
Slowing down a little after that because its New Zealand and we're on holiday...
16:57
tuesday, november 19
I forgot - we hiked onto a nudist beach today.
16:36
Auckland, New Zealand
More animals in Melbourne - thousands of flying foxes (and a rat) in the Botanical Gardens. Emus, more kangaroos, a spiny anteater thing, parrots, cockatoos, other funny exotic birds and stuff. Nearly stepped on a snake hiking (me, not it). Frantic one day trip down the Great Ocean Road to the Twelve Apostles, a stunning drive along the coast (and the actual beach) where surfing was invented and amazing coastal scenery. A day hiking on Wilson's Promontory, geologically Tasmania but geographically the southernmost point of the Australian mainland. Tropical white sand beaches, palm trees, boulders the size of houses clumped on the sand, rainforest, the lot.
Now we're in Auckland and Liz joined us this morning. Spent the day walking on Waiheke Island in the gulf of the harbour, more stunning beaches and lush countryside spilling off cliffs and rocky islands straight into the ocean. America's Cup qualifiers here at the moment mean unbelievable yachts everywhere and the girls are looking for millionaires.
16:06
friday, november 15
Still Melbourne
Got my 'Australia' photos covered anyway. Koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, possums, emus, a great white shark (in formaldehyde), a blue whale (skeleton), surfers in the bluff on Phillip Island. Hundreds of silly penguins waddling up a beach and up a hill every night to their burrows at dusk, besides hundreds of tourists.
Australia keeps strict hours - you can't get lunch after 2 or dinner after 9:30. And every restaurant is a BYO but bottle shops are pretty rare. But we're adapting, managed to get food and wine last night for first time.
10:29
wednesday, november 13
melbourne
waited at airport for a few hours, found Pip. Jetlag gives me longer days but spend them asleep under palm trees. They call this the windy city.
09:52
what time is it?
just a quick, err, Hoy from Australia.
only checked in half hour before check in was supposed to start, so BA had already run out of seats. stupid of me really. being first in line and on my own meant i got one of the few seats people already checked in sold back to ba. when I boarded i found out why, it being middle seat at the front of a section next to a dutch woman with a 1
year old son. middle seat front section means no leg room and the cot goes on your lap. i now have baby dribble all over my only jeans. i soon established a rapport with the baby which meant when i had to hold him he only woke up about 300 people, allowing probably a few first class people to sleep. managed to swap seats on the 2nd leg and sat next to a medical student who fell asleep reading a book on anaesthesia.
meeting pip at the airport this afternoon, cleverly managed not to write down what flight she is on or when it arrives (or which airport for that matter).
melbourne seems very nice by the way. and 30 degrees which is quite nice for november.
09:47
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