15:30 (GMT+12), 21st October, Kingsford Smith Airport, Auckland, North Island, New Zealand. I pass through customs with a 6 month tourist stamp added to my passport and no hold-up. Seeing my good mate Andy Hall sitting there playing on a PSP I walk over to greet him. He stands up and gives me a manly hug and a hand shake. We exchange informalities. It was great to see a familiar face again. We both had noticably longer hair and smaller guts than when we first met in Sydney 6 months earlier and both commented on how well the other looked! To the city we headed. We hopped on the bus outside of the airport and continuing our conversation on the airport shuttle bus we discovered we had both bought enough alcohol to sink a small cruise ship and we both fancied a drink. The scenery was green, the sun shining, but the temperature was lower than we had both anticipated as we entered Auckland. Andy had just flown in from tropical Fiji and I had arrived from tropical Broome via flights from Perth and Sydney and the weather took us both by surprise. Not ones to bother about the lesser important things like shelter and warmth, we thought we ought to get our priorities in order. The first place we looked for; a bar. We settled for one in the marina off the main street in Auckland city centre. We lugged our backpacks to the nearest table, dumped them and Andy headed in for a couple of pints. The first of many to come on our New Zealand tour.
Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category
New Zealand, The Land Down Under Down Under. (North Island)
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008ROADTRIP!!! 3rd August/Cairns/Uluru/Darwin/Broome/Perth
Friday, August 29th, 2008
30 Days 1 Brit 1 Canuk 1 Fin
Fraser Island & Whitsunday Adventures.
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008I had just left Jill & Dean’s place on my 6(?) hour bus journey to Hervey Bay with no pre-arranged plans for visiting Fraser Island. Where the Greyhound dropped us off was in a large retail park and there wasn’t really any access to transport other than for people who had pre-booked a Fraser Island visit. With this in mind I approached a Mauri guy standing beside a ”Koala” van and asked him if there were any available spaces at the hostel. He said ”I’m sure we can make room,” so it was decided I would be staying at the Koala hostel in Hervey Bay.
On arrival at Hervery Bay it seemed a very quiet Australian town, not very pretty and full of backpackers. The hostel was nicely laid out and it had it’s own swimming pool and bar as well as BBQ facilities. The way it was ran on the other hand was a bit of a let down. No sheets on beds, only a pillow and a mattress. Grumpy staff and cleaners. Lay on my bed in an empty, cold room I felt a little sad to have left Jill, Dean and the lads. I read for a while and headed for the bar. This was where I met Jack and Alex; we played a few games of pool and arranged to meet back up at Airlie Beach as they were heading to Fraser on the trip before me. We ate in the bar and had a few drinks; this is when I met Debbie for the first time.
It was overcast and grey when I woke up in the morning; I had booked on the tour to leave the day after as the other one was fully booked. In the evening everyone met in the bar and they arranged us all into groups of 9 and 11’s (I was in the group of 9) and briefed us on where we could and couldn’t go and what we could and couldn’t do in our 4WD’s. It seemed a little strict to be honest and everyone was wondering what we had got ourselves into. We broke the ice a little and chatted and got to know eachothers names and where everyone was from. We had Giorgio the only ‘foreigner’ in the group, from Italy. Scott and Charlie, Steven & the 3 Irish sisters and myself and Sarah the Scot. We were prepped and raring to go on what would turn out to be an awesome trip!
We got up early the next morning and started to pack our Toyota Landcruiser! We checked it over for scratches and marked them on a piece of paper and signed the vehicle’s papers saying we had checked it over. I was lead-driver on the trip and had to drive to and from the ferry at each side (this meant reversing onto the ferry into a very tight parking spot!). The indicator is on the wrong side of the steering wheel out here too. A bit annoying knocking the wipers on and off; but soon got used to this. Driving on the island was awesome. The most fun I have had driving; ever.
We had one scare in the car after about 40 minutes of driving on Fraser. There was felt under the dirt laid down by the Park Keepers – presumably in order to prevent erosion; however I – and my fellow backseat drivers misconstrued this felt for a tree root and I hit the brakes and pulled to the left to avoid the soft felt!! This put ‘the shits’ into a couple of those in the back (namely Sarah and Irish Girls! haha). The tree seemed to merge directly to the black felt and as we were to find out later on, there were places where trees roots protruded out of the banking alongside the road.
The first night we turned up at the camp site and pitched our tents up; got the BBQ going and cooked our food. Drank lots of goon (also the last time I am to drink any goon ever again!). Me and George were sharing a tent, Charlie & Scott, Steve & Aileen and the McSorley sisters & Sarah. After going to bed at around 1am on a fully loaded stomach of goon and burgers I felt the urge to get up and be sick; George had the same urge to wake at exactly the same time and goto the toilet. Unfortunately for us I couldn’t get the zip for the tent!! George grabs my foot (thinking it was a hand in his drunkenness) and throws it away trying to get the zip for himself. By the time George had found the zip I was holding a mouthful of vomit in my throat. Luckily, he opened the zip and ran for the toilet while I had my head out of the tent door making sure not to vomit in the tent!!! Happy times…(!)
We woke at about 5am in order to make sure we were at the 75 mile beach by 6am. I was a write-off for driving today – so the other named drivers took over. Driving on the beach seemed good, but not as fun as driving off road. We got photos of the massive wreck on the beach and continued to explore. Lake McKenzie was very nice – a really large freshwater lake that was extremely clear. There were a lot of people there though which made it slightly less special but it was still impressive.
We visited lake Gobi which appeared green from whatever is in the water and it had steep dunes running right down into it. There was an eagle nested across the lake that everyone was watching when it chased a flock of cockatoo’s; he was probably after a good feed! (We don’t know if he caught one as he didn’t return while we were there!)
Fraser Island was one of the best parts of my trip so far and I would recommend it to anyone – especially the driving part. But maybe stay in the hostel on the island as it was bloody freezing during the night!
When we got back to Hervey Bay I had to catch the night bus to Airlie Beach which I had already booked. There were a couple of us from the trip doing the same thing. I arrived at Airlie the next morning and proceeded to meet back up with Giorgio at the YHA. They had no more room available so I went down the road to Beaches Hostel and booked a sailing trip and the hostel. Went back to the YHA to pick up my rucksack I had left with George and headed back to Beaches with a full pack. Checked in and headed for the room. The same day I would have to check in with the boat company ready for the day after to leave on Boomerang for the Whitsunday adventure! I had a good time with the crew and people who were on our boat but it was a bit of a let down after the sights and adventure of Fraser Island. I got off the boat and carried on bobbing around for a long time afterwards. We had a get together with everyone who was social enough in the bar at the Beaches hostel. It was a good night and everyone looked miles better for a shower/shave/bit of make-up!!! haha.
Will post later this year! 
… Enjoy for now!
Chris
Brisbane/Ipswich/Maroochydore /Long read ahead… sorry…
Thursday, July 3rd, 2008This one’s gonna be a long post all; so i’m going to pre-date the blog entry and create a new entry for Fraser Island.
During my time in Ipswich, I spent quite a few hours in The Settlers Pub (owned by Pam) [aka Old Mother Hubbard] with Tom and having a good laugh with him over a few pints. I was staying with Mick and Marty at Marty’s house as previously mentioned and had a good time with the lads. Ipswich Cup Day was great (let us forget those Jägerbombs eh Penny! *insert hangover here* *insert thanks to mick for picking me up [literally] at 3am*) not to mention being $40 in front!
It was Tom’s birthday during my stay in Ipswich and we celebrated it in the Settlers with a few bottles and a bit of food that Carla and the other staff had sorted out for the crowd that was in there. At the weekend (I think it was weekend it was that long ago!) we went out for Tom’s birthday to ‘Brothers’ – a large venue that serves food, drinks & pokies all night long. This night was the first time I would be meeting Jill & Dean and on first inspection they both seemed quite nice – they even bought me a present (*nudge* Elaine)! A little later in the evening a cake arrived for Tom and a smaller chocolate cake was brought out for me! (Thanks all!)
Gary, Deanna, Mick, Libby and I went to the Brisbane casino one night – had a very nice meal – Red Emperor I think and then proceeded to lose some cash there – good fun!
I met back up with Rens who I originally met in Melbourne and did The Great Ocean Road with; hung out with him for a day just chilling in Brisbane centre. Gary picked me up from the city and we went back to Deanna’s for a pork roast (mum: it was good but I’m missing that sunday dinner; the six-pack isn’t!).
After spending some time with Mick and Marty it was time to leave and head further up the coast. I travelled with Tom from Ipswich to Maroochydore on the Greyhound bus and we met Jill, Ethan & Cooper at the petrol station next to the bus stop. When I met Ethan he was fairly quiet and he shook my hand in greeting me, Cooper was very shy too [ ...to start with!]. Tom was winding them both up as soon as we got there and it soon ended in tears with Tom & Ethan getting ”the shits” with eachother. A funny but equally serious situation to watch!
Jill and Dean’s house is very nice indeed; very spacious, clean, comfortable and modern. The outdoor pool is also great when the sun is shining – couldn’t keep me out of it – even when it was ‘cold’ (!).
The Island that they live on is full of kids and they all play outside at the communal park or right on the road (cul de sac’s mainly so its pretty safe). One of the lads Daniel liked playing football and played for a local team, so I was more than happy to kick a footy around with him ‘until the street lights came on’ or until his mum shouted him back home! Kept me occupied at least. One day I woke up (at 8am!) only to find him and another one of Ethan’s friends (Trent) knocking on the door to see if I wanted to play football – let me get another 2 hours sleep first!!!
Cooper picked up a sickness bug (in what was meant to be the last few days i was staying with Dean & Jill) and it managed to transfer from him to Jill to Ethan and Me. Cooper seemed to bounce straight back from any sickness; each time he vomited he would be running around the room again… not the case for me and Jill… it completely took us out for a day and took a good few days to fully recover.
I ended up staying a few more days before finally getting a Greyhound pass organised heading towards Cairns; first stop; Hervey Bay.
Thanks all for putting me up up with me.
Sydney – been and gone.
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008I had high hopes for Sydney, but to be honest the inner city is just like any other city; packed with cars and people (business types mainly). However, i managed to have a great time here and made some very good friends.
I stayed in the Blue Parrot Hostel (In Potts Point near Kings Cross) (i’m presently staying at my mums cousins sons shared house in Ipswich, Brisbane) during my time in Sydney and enjoyed it a lot. This has been by far the friendliest hostel i’ve stayed in up to now, but it definitely wasn’t the cleanest! The first week i stayed in the top bunk in a 6 bunk dorm, seemed fine, then i moved to the lower bunk for one night and managed to get bed bugs across my lower belly (not a nice experience i can tell you; the difference between these and other bites is that the bug bites in little dotted-near-perfect lines).
During the daytime i made friends with a few lads from back home; all good guys and I will definitely be keeping in touch with them. (Andy – Geordie, Jack – Yorkshire lad and Dan the Brummy) – we had some good laughs and went out every other night to The World Bar or Bourbon up in Kings Cross.
I haven’t posted for over 20 days on here, so i’ll quickly summarise what I did in Sydney…
Saw the Opera House, Harbour Bridge & Botanical Gardens, played football (with Swedish girls who could actually play footy!), went out at night to the local bars, watched United and Chelsea (@4:45am!), went to Bondi Beach, walked to Coogee Beach visited Hunter Valley (wineries & vineyards!) and chilled out.
I flew to Brisbane from Sydney for the cost of a monthly Stagecoach ‘Megarider’ ($82AUD) this morning and I didn’t miss my flight either this time. As i turned up early, the polite stewardess let me off with any excess baggage (25.1kg rucksack + 5kg hand luggage!) and she also gave me the window seat of the emergency exit seats with an extra 1m of legroom! (~winner~!). Best flight upto now!
I managed to get to the train platform just in time for a train straight to Brisbane Central Station and a connecting train to Ipswich. Michael (my mums cousins son) had arranged for Marty (his best mate) to meet me as he had agreed to work today prior to me telling him my flight plans. When i got to Ipswich station i walked straight by my Uncle Tom and started walking up the ramp ”Chris, Chris!?” i turned around and there he was, to my surprise! It was good seeing him after so long and he’s not changed one bit!
Here are the photos:
Healesville Animal Sanctuary/Mount Dandenong – Yarra Valley, Melbourne.
Monday, May 5th, 2008The guy who bought the spare Foo Fighters ticket from me is called Leigh; he had said he’d goto the AFL (Australian Football League) match with me this weekend to show me what it’s all about. The match was Hawks vs Essingdon and Essingdon were winning from the outset and continued to score ‘goals’ and ‘take marks’ and they went on to win the match (they ended up winning by about 60 points).
After this we went up to the Yarra Valley and had a few drinks in the local pub/bistro. Tried my first ‘parma’ here and according to Leigh they serve one of the best he’s had – a bit biased maybe ‘cos his mate’s the cook there. I have to admit though it was pretty tasty. For those who don’t know what a Parma or Chicken Parmigiano is, it consists of a butterflied chicken breast, breadcrumbed and pan fried then it receives a large helping of napoli (tomato) sauce and some ham and some cheese – it’s then stuck under the grill. Served with chips and salad. Ed met us at the pub, when we returned from the pub we met a couple of his other mates and proceeded to light up a massive bonfire in his back garden (aka ‘the paddock’ – it was a pretty big garden). Beer and jacket potatoes the order of the night.
The morning after (Sunday 4th May) Ed left before anyone even got up – Leigh and Ben (Pie) and Leigh’s brother and I walked down to the horse race track which is just at the bottom of the garden where on the first Sunday of each month a large market goes on. We got a freshly squeezed still lemonade from the lemonade stand to buy from and I went and got the first proper egg and bacon muffin i’ve had while i’ve been over here (with loads of red sauce nonetheless!)!
We drove for a few km’s to the Healesville Animal Sanctuary and it exceeded everyone’s expectations! There was a bird of prey show and wallabies galore (see photo – actually stroking the wallaby!). Kangaroo’s and all the other native australian animals which you expect to see in a good animal sanctuary! (Prior to this the first roo i had seen was when we were driving at night to Leigh’s house, at night in the pitch black – so barely at all; i hadn’t seen one in the zoo in Adelaide!) Today the temperature in the valley was comfortable but not hot at all; can’t wait for some warmer weather now; today is the only day the sun has been out since i arrived back here; look at the forecasts!
Rainy Melbourne:
Sunny Manchester:
I took some photos from a spot on Mount Dandenong which only the locals know about (I put them in the same set as the animal sanctuary as it was all done on the same day); you can see Melbourne CBD from the spot which is about 40km away. We ate in the restaurant at the very top of the mountain and then went back for some night shots (almost falling off the mountain in the process – hahaha – jus kiddin gran!).
P.S the night shots are slightly blurred. If only i brought my tripod. I went to the post office today too. It’s going to cost me about $150 to send my unrequired stuff home!!! At least the pack is going to be 7kg lighter!!!!! haha.
Another day in Melbourne; The Botanic Gardens.
Monday, May 5th, 2008As much as i have enjoyed it in Melbourne thus far, i can’t wait now to go to Sydney. The flight is on Saturday and i’ll be there for a few weeks. Probably a few weeks would have been enough in Melbourne too as i’ve done pretty much all the touristy stuff that is to be done here. Some shots of the gardens are beneath. Not all that exciting but uploading all the photos would take forever!
The Ice Bar, Melbourne… very cool indeed (literally).
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008Went to the ice bar yesterday with Aidan before he had to shoot off to get ready for flight. It was an awesome experience. They dress you up in stupid boots and a jacket and gloves. Then you walk into the sub zero (like 25 below) temperature room and for the $30 (we got $10 off with some vouchers – meant to be $40) you get 30 minutes inside the ice bar and a cocktail and 1 shot. After 20 minutes you didn’t really want to stay in there much longer so as the gadget bleeped to tell us our 25mins was up we left. (See photos)
After this i made my way upto the IMAX cinema, which is near Melbourne Museum to watch U23D. It involves you sticking on some 3D specs and watching a U2 concert which had been filmed with this 3D method. It was an experience but not something i would recommend.
Foo Fighters – Saturday 26th April 2008 – Awesome!
Sunday, April 27th, 2008This was a quality gig. The second time i’ve been to the foo’s gig (Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace tour) and it was no let down. Dave was awesome, the Rod Laver Arena was packed and the Ozzy’s are mental. Blurred photos, but it all adds to the rock effect 
… Enjoy…
Selection of photos from Great Ocean Road.
Saturday, April 26th, 2008After starting in (St Kilda) Melbourne, 4 of us (Me, Rens, Gwen & Kerris) hired the car and drove up the Great Ocean Road; again too many photos to show so just uploaded a handful of the good ones. It was pretty overcast down there but still a good experience. (At the time of writing i am in the Flinders St Backpackers Hostel and waiting to go to the Foo Fighters gig tonight!!!!!!)
A couple of the included photos in the set were taken on the way to Adelaide/in Adelaide.
