Sydney - Melborne - Adelaide

Staying in Sydney was heavenly - I had the luxury of my own room and bathroom, and a flat to myself all day whilst my friends Colin & Keira were out working. I even had my own private, 25m swimming pool - well it was shared by all of the flats but no one ever used it. As I've been to Sydney before there was no pressure to see all of the sights, so I spent most of my time relaxing & swimming! The weather was pretty awful so I didn't feel too guilty doing nothing.

I spent my birthday here, in the day I met up with Rich & Dunc - two guys who I had met in NZ and who are now living in the city centre. Then in the evening I went out for a meal with C & K and another friend, Rob. It was great, as I haven't been to a proper posh restaurant for months, probably not since America, and it was a fun evening.

I did do a couple of things in Sydney - when I was here just over a year ago I had seen absolutely everything - but I returned to the aquarium which I find more interesting now since I've been diving. I also went to a digeridoo show and learnt some interesting facts, like how the word digeridoo is not an aboriginal word, and they are made naturally by termites, not humans (apart from the cheap ones made in China). I also went to see the Lord of the Rings exhibition which reminded me of NZ.

The three of us drove to Melborne, and had a great weekend. Colin being the 'flashpacker' that he is insisted on a hotel, but it worked out well and we got it fairly cheap by sneaking me in to the room. We had a great weekend, it was the Melborne comedy festival so we got tickets to see an English comedian, Ross Nobel. We also saw Kylie's gold hotpants in an exhibition of her clothes and walked round the beautiful parks. After the weekend Colin & Keira went back to Sydney, and I booked myself on a tour to Adelaide.

The tour took 3 days and went via the Great Ocean Road - lots of spectacular rock formations & beaches to mess about on. It was a really fun group, all backpackers who wanted a good time. We also visited the Grampians and went on walks in the mountains. We walked through a rainforest, and I even walked right through the middle of a tree! We saw loads of wildlife, including Koalas, Emus, Kangaroos, an Echidna and Kookaburras, all close up in the national parks. As it was a backpacker's tour lots of drinking was involved, but it was good fun and we continued the friendship after the tour had finished in Adelaide, spending an afternoon recovering together on the beach and lots of nights out on the town.

Out of the three cities - Sydney, Melborne & Adelaide, I think I like Adelaide best. Sydney is the better looking - its stunning harbour must be one of the best in the world - but Adelaide has a really nice feel to it, has lots of green parks and the locals are friendly. Our guide said it is the best because no convicts were ever posted here, therefore the gene pool is much better!

Tasmania

Tasmania was great, I spent 6 days here and wish I had longer, it is a lot bigger than you think (bigger than Denmark, as one local proudly told me) and I only got to see a small part. It feels like it has a lot of history, well everything is quite modern in European terms, but all of the buildings are in the colonial style and it feels like stepping back in time 100 years.

The bush-walking and wildlife were fantastic, I saw two snakes, loads of spiders, geckos, birds (including cockatoos and 'bluey-yellow' birds, not sure of name) and even a startled looking wallaby (or small kangaroo, I can't tell the difference yet). I paid to see the Tasmanian Devils, as apart from tons of roadkill, I didn't think I'd see one in the wild. I thought they were quite cute, not devilish at all.

Also spectacular are the coastlines - I avoided the beaches as there are plenty of them in the mainland - so I saw great rocks and cliffs and caves and tunnels. I drove to the most southernly point - Cockle Creek (population 4, according to its sign) and went on a lovely walk. I learnt a lot about the whaling industry which almost obliterated the whale population down here.

I drove down to Port Arthur, which is an old penitentiary - a prison for the worst offending convicts who were too nasty to be kept on the Australian mainland. It contains some magnificent buildings, unfortunately I forgot my camera so have no pics - only those in a book I bought. I took a 'bone-chilling ghost-tour' at night, we didn't see any ghosts but it was quite scary nevertheless, especially considering the penetentiary's turbulent history.

Hobart is very different to the rest of Tasmania - a bustling, lively city, although it did have lots of old buildings so you knew where you were. Its a nice place, I could live there, if it wasn't miles from anywhere. One thing I would say about Tasmania though is that the locals there are quite unfriendly, compared to what I'm used to. Maybe they are sick of all the jokes that the rest of Australia makes about them! They certainly act like it is a different country, you don't feel like it is part of Australia at all.

Back up to Auckland

I decided to go back to Auckland (where I was flying out from), via the east coast of the North Island. From Kaikoura I headed up to Picton to get the ferry across the Cook Straight. I though Picton would be an ugly maritime port, but it is actually in a beautiful spot with a Sound to rival the ones further south.

After a rough ferry crossing, I was in Wellington where I spent a couple of days seeing the sights, but it was actually really boring so I won't write about it. Then on to Palmerston North which was equally boring, and here I developed a really bad cold and cough, I'm sure I annoyed a lot of people in the dorms because I was sneezing and coughing all the time. I needed to find a nice hostel in which to get well again, and I found one in Napier. It was a very sociable hostel; full of fruit-pickers so everyone knew each other as they had been there a while. I decided to ignore my cold and went out with them 3 nights in a row, it was good fun.

Whilst I was in Napier, there was a international cricket test match at the local stadium. I decided to wander down to soak up the atmosphere, and met two guys outside the stadium whose friend hadn't turned up, so they sold me his ticket half price. It was in a really good spot, I could see the game perfectly and we had a really good day. It was a shame that Australia thrashed New Zealand, as most of the crowd wanted NZ to win, but the atmosphere was great and it was good fun.

I reluctantly left the nice hostel in Napier and carried on to Gisborne & Whakatane. In Gisborne the one and only bus to Whakatane (pronouced Faka-tan-ee) was at a stupid time early in the morning, so I decided to hitch-hike there instead. I got picked up a couple of times by nice people who took me to the next major road junction, but then I got picked up by a guy called Geoff who was a lorry driver. The lorry was massive, I had to climb a ladder just to get into the cab. Geoff was cool, very chatty and played great music, but the best thing was that I had an amazing view and it was like sitting in a wobbly arm-chair (the chair moved on springs). He drove this big truck for a couple of hours through one of NZ's biggest gorges, on small windy roads. It was great fun, and far better than the bus.

In Whakatane, I wandered down to the tourist office and discovered a national backpacker's newspaper with a picture of me in it! It was taken with Rich & Dunc in National Park, we all have red faces from sunburn and very cheesy smiles. Its a good article and picture though.

In the afternoon I walked up to a Maori Pa site, up a hill. Half-way up I met a Maori man all dressed in white, who was meditating. At the top of the hill, he came over and we started talking, and he told me all about the Maori culture and his ancestors. He was a bit crazy, but he was fascinating to talk to, and I'd rather talk to a crazy guy like this than pay to see a tourist show. He told me about his plans for visiting every country in the world when he retired, and he kept going on about how the world is a beautiful place, which I agree with.

After Whakatane I spent a day in Tauranga, where I climbed Mt Manganui. It was more of a hill really, but it made me realise how unfit I've become since starting travelling! Then it was back to Auckland to fly to Sydney, and continue my travels in Australia.

Kaikoura and the Dolphins

After I left Keira, I spent a couple of days driving round the north coast. I stopped in Havelock, which is a sleepy little town with a cool secret; it has loads of glow-worms. The owner of the hostel took us to see them after it had got dark, and there were thousands of them; like fairy lights in the trees. If anyone wants to see the gloworms but doesn't want to pay to see them in Waitomo, you should go here, its just as good.

On the way back to Christchurch I stopped in Kaikoura, and decided to stay for a bit. Kaikoura is pretty special. I'm not sure why, to look at its not stunning like Wanaka or Queenstown, but there's something about the place. I stayed here for around 10 days, I needed a break from being on the road after rushing round with Keira. I found a hostel which gave me free accomodation in return for a couple of hours work, well I say work, it was more a tiny bit of cleaning (how easy is it to clean already clean rooms), and then sitting round gossiping with a cup of tea. I worked with 3 other people: Dave, Amy & Kath who all knew each other. Amy & Kath are from Huddersfield, and most nights we would sit outside chatting over a glass of wine. It was good in that I actually spent time getting to know them, not just meeting them for one or two days like everyone else.

Every afternoon I had free, so I would walk into town along the coast. The sea was a different colour every day, usually a stunning shade of blue. And then there is the wildlife, just walking along the coast to the beautiful limestone rock formations I saw lots of different types of birds, not just seagulls. On the rocks are huge fur seals which you can get pretty close to. The marine life in Kaikoura is world class, something to do with a massive ocean trench just off shore, and the resulting mix of cold and warm currents provide a perfect feeding ground for Sperm whales, pods of Hector and Dusky dolphins and the seals.

One of the most magical moments of my travels is when Steve (the guy I worked for) took 4 of us out in his motor boat in the evening. We watched the sun set behind the mountains, it was beautiful. The seals were lazing around in the water, and we saw one jump out like a dolphin. There were crazy suicidal fish, hundreds of them jumping out of the water, the sea birds were loving it. And then, a pod of cute little Hector dolphins surrounded us and started playing with the boat, racing us in the water. It was a great evening.

I went out on a boat 2 other times, well you just have to in Kaikoura. I did an Albatross sight-seeing trip, which was excellent, the albatross are massive birds, the largest seabird in fact, and we saw loads of different types including the Royal albatross & wandering albatross. We fed them shark's liver from the boat so they came up really close, and they look so magnificent soaring along.

Kaikoura is famous for dolphins, and one trip allows you to swim with them. It wasn't how I expected at all, I guess I thought it would be a bit magical and surreal. But when I was actually in the water with these huge creatures - the Dusky dolphins are about twice the size of the cute Hectors and bigger than me - I completely freaked out. I think the fact that it was also chuffing cold & visibility is about half of what I'm used to, I panicked, hyper-ventilating and swallowing loads of water through my snorkel.

When swimming with the dolphins, you get back on the boat 4 or 5 times to follow the duskies around, they can swim a lot faster than us! The 2nd time was just as bad as the first, I couldn't get used to snorkelling out in the ocean, even though I have done loads before, I was still panicking and longing for my BCD and regualtor (diving equipment) so I could just sink underwater.

The 3rd time in the water I got my head together and used the diving trick of staying still & breathing deeply to calm myself down. From my position, face down in the water, I could see several dolphins swimming past. They still looked massive, but I have to admit they are beautiful and intelligent creatures. I started to enjoy myself.

Back in the boat after the swimming sessions, we sailed over to where some Orcas (killer whales) had been sighted. Now I thought dolphins were big, these guys were enormous. They are the dolphins main natural predator and we were lucky to see them as they only pass by about once a month. We didn't see them get any dolphins, but I was glad I wasn't in the water then, they were about the same size as our boat!

After the Orcas, we went back to watch the dolphins. Although they are free to do what they like and aren't fed or encouraged or anything, they put on an amazing show for us. There were about 200 surrounding the boat, and they kept jumping out of the water and somersaulting! They looked like they were having so much fun.