Sunday, February 27, 2005
This is New Zealand?
Phill: 26/2 to 01/3, Auckland - Both Ren and I after our initial reunion were keen to get away from cities for a bit. We'd both come to New Zealand primarily for the scenery, and we weren't really "feeling it" in Auckland. After a couple of days buying maps, making bookings, watching movies, and just enjoying each other's company again, we decided to head out and do any Auckland things when we returned for our onward flight. I'd found a place that did cheap car-rentals, and I mean cheap! A2B Rentals gave us the car (a station wagon) for $30/day, including all insurance and waivers. We weren't expecting much, but we got a fairly nice 4WD Nissan, which was wonderfully dented and scratched. I said that's wonderful, because it means that we don't have to worry about it one little bit! Such a change from our Oz experiences. Right... so where now?
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Alone in Auckland
Phill: 22/2 to 26/2, Auckland, New Zealand - After a strange farewell to Renee (strange because of spending almost 24/7 together for 6 months) I flew to New Zealand with no hiccups all the way to my hotel. This "hotel" was a strange little place, with shared bathrooms, but only single rooms or dorms. It was pretty close to the centre of town though, and not as shabby as I was expecting, considering the price tag. I got talking immediately in reception to a guy (Richard) from Leeds (North England) who was travelling on his own, and before you knew it, we were trying the local ales in the hotel bar.My time alone in Auckland was a strange few days, because obviously I didn't want to do anything that Ren would want to do when she arrived (all the top attractions), and I've never been one for going into a pub alone. I did a lot of walking, and got to know the city centre pretty well. I did some shopping, some guide-book reading and planning, and found the best internet cafes. The evenings I spent some time eating and drinking with Richard, and other evenings at the movies. I took a ferry to Devonport and walked the two hills there, checked out the Art Gallery and the Museum, and decided to go and get some pub food and a pint whilst watching an evening's worth of rugby - Super 12's just started here, and they're pretty keen on it! The evening turned out to be pretty sociable, as I first went and sat with a bunch of Aussie guys on holidays, and then later had my table pleasantly invaded by a group of American Uni students on a semester-long exchange who were watching their first rugby game ever. Needless to say, much beer was drunk.
It wasn't terrible being alone for a bit - I can even see why/how people can travel that way - but for me I really missed having Ren there, so that I could say to her stupidly obvious things like "Look at that" or "Wow". Travelling is fun to enjoy, but I definitely prefer to share.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Australia Pics, Batch 2
Here's more pictures, covering us from Fraser Island to the first leg of our Outback journey:
Fraser Island - Whitsundays - Townsville - Port Douglas - Cairns - Queensland Outback
Fraser Island - Whitsundays - Townsville - Port Douglas - Cairns - Queensland Outback
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Say Hello, Wave Goodbye
Phill: 20/2 to 21/2, Sydney - After saying goodbye to Dave, we grabbed our gear from Dug and Linda's and had lunch around the corner form their house at he great little cafe there. As Chatswood has the best internet cafe we've found in the world (so far), we did a little more blog and photo chores there and then decided that as our next destination was so close to the airport, that we'd head out there and sort out out tickets. Ren had her NZ flight moved back to allow her more time to sell the car in Oz, while I had to leave before my electronic-visa was up. We also moved all our remaining flights to dates that are unlikely to change - which puts a kind of ominous deadline on things. Of course, the more you travel, the smaller the world becomes, so we bump into Crazy Dave in the airport on his way to Beijing, what could be more normal?
It seemed like ages in the planning, but we finally got to see Sal and Chris at their new place in Randwick (Sydney). They've settled in nicely to a lovely apartment within walking distance of their jobs, and in a handy suburb too. It was really nice catching up with them, Sal cooked a fantastic meal - and even satisfied my crumble-craving with an impromptu peach-crumble for dessert. A lovely evening chatting about just about everything, and then we got to see their photo's from Vietnam which were brilliant. It's funny how people take pictures of different things, and those guys have a great eye for taking shots of local people - something we rarely do. Seeing as those pics were so great, we then insisted on taking a peek through their albums from India, Nepal and Tibet which were equally stunning... even the shots they took on a point-and-click.
After what felt like our second lie-in in 6 months, we drove to one prospective car-buyer, who said (after some fine bargaining by Ren) that he'd take it for just $200 short of what we paid for it. We agreed, and even though the RTA let us down (still no documents received from them), we were pretty pleased. To celebrate, once Cam & Leah arrived, we opened a bottle of strawberry champagne that we'd been keeping since Margaret River - yum, sweeeet. We went out for a nice Italian meal, followed by coffee and (inferior) crumble at a nearby cafe. Cam and Leah were bailing early, so we said our "final" goodbyes - which was a really, really strange feeling. I guess it's not that often in life that you get to meet people and spend a lot of time with them, only to then head back to the opposite side of the world. The times we'd had with all these guys were great, and although it's sad that we probabaly won't see them often, I'm sure that we will see them again.
It seemed like ages in the planning, but we finally got to see Sal and Chris at their new place in Randwick (Sydney). They've settled in nicely to a lovely apartment within walking distance of their jobs, and in a handy suburb too. It was really nice catching up with them, Sal cooked a fantastic meal - and even satisfied my crumble-craving with an impromptu peach-crumble for dessert. A lovely evening chatting about just about everything, and then we got to see their photo's from Vietnam which were brilliant. It's funny how people take pictures of different things, and those guys have a great eye for taking shots of local people - something we rarely do. Seeing as those pics were so great, we then insisted on taking a peek through their albums from India, Nepal and Tibet which were equally stunning... even the shots they took on a point-and-click.
After what felt like our second lie-in in 6 months, we drove to one prospective car-buyer, who said (after some fine bargaining by Ren) that he'd take it for just $200 short of what we paid for it. We agreed, and even though the RTA let us down (still no documents received from them), we were pretty pleased. To celebrate, once Cam & Leah arrived, we opened a bottle of strawberry champagne that we'd been keeping since Margaret River - yum, sweeeet. We went out for a nice Italian meal, followed by coffee and (inferior) crumble at a nearby cafe. Cam and Leah were bailing early, so we said our "final" goodbyes - which was a really, really strange feeling. I guess it's not that often in life that you get to meet people and spend a lot of time with them, only to then head back to the opposite side of the world. The times we'd had with all these guys were great, and although it's sad that we probabaly won't see them often, I'm sure that we will see them again.
Friday, February 18, 2005
Crazy Dave
Phill: 18/2 to 19/2, North of Sydney - Ren took me for a drive up to Pittwater Peninsula, through Mona Vale and for brunch at Avalon overlooking the beach from the headland. Later we went on to Palm Beach (where apparently Home & Away is filmed), but it wasn't really beach-weather... it doesn't take long in the gorgeous Oz sunshine for you to become like them - a little more choosy with your beach-time. Ren later berated me for not taking photo's - because the light wasn't great - so we turned back, got some pics, and headed off again. We'd found this excellent internet cafe in Chatswood, with the fastest connection I've ever seen, so we spent quite a bit of time there over our days in North Sydney, sorting photos and the blog and stuff. I grabbed a haircut, and had to sit and listen to this guys telling me how shameful it was of us to have missed the Blue Mountains - he didn't ask where we'd actually been in the last few weeks, that might've shut him up. So I sat and listened and just kept reminding myself that we'd saved the "easy to reach again" places for the next time we came here.
That evening, Dug and Linda had invited us over for a BBQ, so we imposed ourselves early as they'd kindly let us clean up the car at their house. Dinner seriously rocked. They're great hosts and obviously love entertaining - plus Linda's parents were so easy to get along with. Ren and I are a little concerned that we always think it's a good thing when someone's folks like a drink too, but what they heck, right? We shared some good wine and easy chatting, before Linda asked to see a slideshow of our pisc of Oz. Even though she insisted, she was asleep by Byron Bay - bless her! Ren & I realised how tired we were, and that even though Dug had had a 2nd wind, he'd been pretty tired when he got back from work so we said our goodnights and left.
The next morning, we were up typically early for campers, and had to go to D&L's to show someone the car - at least we were getting some interest at last! We stopped for a little while with those guys - it was nice to see Thomas again, and to let Dug show off a few more things from his home network/media system. We did some more chores, and then went over to Mosman to meet Crazy Dave. Poor Dave - he leads the way for one evening (as someone always should), and gets the moniker "Crazy" without his consent. Ah well, could be worse I guess. There was a huge storm over the harbour in Sydney, so we sat on his balcony watching that, and drinking beer. It was nice to catch up with Dave, and to find out that Andrew was suitably hungover in retribution for his dissappearing act in Port Douglas. We couldn't help but feel like we'd gotten everyone into trouble that night, you know? Dave took us to the Mosman Hotel, where they do $5 steaks - we were nervous, but it turned out they were pretty fair 300g (10.5 oz) porterhouses, and they were good. It was ridiculous value for money, as all you had to do was buy a beer to qualify. I think you might've been able to have a soft drink even, but beer was on the agenda, so we didn't mind as we headed off to the RSL club. RSL's are great, and bad at the same time. This one was no exception, commanding fantastic views of the city (spoiled by the rain, but we got the idea), cheap beer as per, and some sort of very ordinary "swing band" that we were forced to endure when the upstairs bar closed. We headed back at the perfect hour in the evening, had a large single-malt and hit the sack. Thanks Dave - another great night out!
That evening, Dug and Linda had invited us over for a BBQ, so we imposed ourselves early as they'd kindly let us clean up the car at their house. Dinner seriously rocked. They're great hosts and obviously love entertaining - plus Linda's parents were so easy to get along with. Ren and I are a little concerned that we always think it's a good thing when someone's folks like a drink too, but what they heck, right? We shared some good wine and easy chatting, before Linda asked to see a slideshow of our pisc of Oz. Even though she insisted, she was asleep by Byron Bay - bless her! Ren & I realised how tired we were, and that even though Dug had had a 2nd wind, he'd been pretty tired when he got back from work so we said our goodnights and left.
The next morning, we were up typically early for campers, and had to go to D&L's to show someone the car - at least we were getting some interest at last! We stopped for a little while with those guys - it was nice to see Thomas again, and to let Dug show off a few more things from his home network/media system. We did some more chores, and then went over to Mosman to meet Crazy Dave. Poor Dave - he leads the way for one evening (as someone always should), and gets the moniker "Crazy" without his consent. Ah well, could be worse I guess. There was a huge storm over the harbour in Sydney, so we sat on his balcony watching that, and drinking beer. It was nice to catch up with Dave, and to find out that Andrew was suitably hungover in retribution for his dissappearing act in Port Douglas. We couldn't help but feel like we'd gotten everyone into trouble that night, you know? Dave took us to the Mosman Hotel, where they do $5 steaks - we were nervous, but it turned out they were pretty fair 300g (10.5 oz) porterhouses, and they were good. It was ridiculous value for money, as all you had to do was buy a beer to qualify. I think you might've been able to have a soft drink even, but beer was on the agenda, so we didn't mind as we headed off to the RSL club. RSL's are great, and bad at the same time. This one was no exception, commanding fantastic views of the city (spoiled by the rain, but we got the idea), cheap beer as per, and some sort of very ordinary "swing band" that we were forced to endure when the upstairs bar closed. We headed back at the perfect hour in the evening, had a large single-malt and hit the sack. Thanks Dave - another great night out!
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Full Circle
Phill: 14/2 to 17/2, Kiama - A lot of people (including Ren & I) agree that one of the loveliest things is to be sent-off/greeted at the airport. With this in mind, we drove Leah to meet Cam at the airport, where (for once) a place was actually early! Cam's parent's had kindly agreed to have us stay, and we followed them from the airport down to their home in Kiama about 2 hours south of Sydney. Kiama is a really beautiful part of the world, and it was great to stay there in a lovely caravan in the garden. Cam was a real trooper against his jet-lag, and managed to stay up through a great meal at his Uncle and Aunt's house, where much food and wine was happily consumed.
Leah and Cam, and his brother Dunc, gave us great tours of the area, including the local beach, Budderoo National Park (where we saw Lyrebirds) and a great meal at the local fisherman's club. We watched some classic Monty Python, were pleasantly over-fed by Cam's parents, and even managed to catch up with Lynette again for a coffee in Wollongong. It's just a shame that the RTA were just as useless as ever, and when we re-registered the car in NSW to help it sell, the guys messed it up so that we had to receive the papers via post instead of in person. We just know that'll cause us problems later.
After the recent days of luxury, it was time to head back to Sydney. We dropped off Barb (Cam's Mum) and Leah in various places, and headed to Sydney's only tentsite in Lane Cove River. The closest we could get to our "official address" was the site next door, and as we had come back to where we started, it only seemed appropriate to go for another Mongolian BBQ. Coming full circle was really strange, and sadly created a weird feeling that none of the last 3 months had ever happened. Still, it's a nice campsite and it's in areas that we know pretty well - and we'd get to see Dug, Linda and Thomas again.
Leah and Cam, and his brother Dunc, gave us great tours of the area, including the local beach, Budderoo National Park (where we saw Lyrebirds) and a great meal at the local fisherman's club. We watched some classic Monty Python, were pleasantly over-fed by Cam's parents, and even managed to catch up with Lynette again for a coffee in Wollongong. It's just a shame that the RTA were just as useless as ever, and when we re-registered the car in NSW to help it sell, the guys messed it up so that we had to receive the papers via post instead of in person. We just know that'll cause us problems later.
After the recent days of luxury, it was time to head back to Sydney. We dropped off Barb (Cam's Mum) and Leah in various places, and headed to Sydney's only tentsite in Lane Cove River. The closest we could get to our "official address" was the site next door, and as we had come back to where we started, it only seemed appropriate to go for another Mongolian BBQ. Coming full circle was really strange, and sadly created a weird feeling that none of the last 3 months had ever happened. Still, it's a nice campsite and it's in areas that we know pretty well - and we'd get to see Dug, Linda and Thomas again.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Melbourne
Phill: 9/2 to 11/2, Melbourne - Melbourne didn't really get a fair crack of the whip with us. We were running out of time, and only there for 2 nights, and Ren started getting really ill with some sort of cough/cold and breathing difficulties - so we didn't get to do much. What we did was really nice however, as an old friend of Ren's called Tracey kindly let us stay with her. Again, like Ren's other Aussie friends, she was a kind and generous host and I'm getting some idea of how difficult she must find it sometimes having to leave behind such a nice bunch of people.
Apart from getting a parking ticket (my mistake - they have weird signs), and sorting out some of our camping gear, all we did in the city was take a look at Flinder's Street Station, a tour of the Immigration Museum and a bit of a walk around the city to get a general feel for it. The Museum had some interesting items, including the old "Dictation Test" that they used to give wannabe-immigrants which basically gave them carte blanche to refuse entry to anyone as they could issue it in any European language. One man fluent in 7 such tongues was failed because they made him sit it in Gaelic! Ren spent a fair amount of time recuperating, and I did a fair amount of internet things - hence the sudden influx of photos.
Ren picked herself up a bit for time with Tracey, and she showed us two reasons why Melbourne is known for its food. The first was at the night markets, built on the site of a old burial ground (cue Poltergeist quotes), but only haunted by vendors of good cheap food from just about any country in the world it seemed. All washed down later with cheese and wine... sometimes it's easy to forget we're poor backpackers! The second night, our hostess took us to this really funky Moroccan restaurant, which was really good, and pretty trendy. Melbourne really is as cosmopolitan as people say - you can see it in every face on every street, and it shows deliciously through the food - it must be a great place to live... even if the weather is pretty awful!
Apart from getting a parking ticket (my mistake - they have weird signs), and sorting out some of our camping gear, all we did in the city was take a look at Flinder's Street Station, a tour of the Immigration Museum and a bit of a walk around the city to get a general feel for it. The Museum had some interesting items, including the old "Dictation Test" that they used to give wannabe-immigrants which basically gave them carte blanche to refuse entry to anyone as they could issue it in any European language. One man fluent in 7 such tongues was failed because they made him sit it in Gaelic! Ren spent a fair amount of time recuperating, and I did a fair amount of internet things - hence the sudden influx of photos.
Ren picked herself up a bit for time with Tracey, and she showed us two reasons why Melbourne is known for its food. The first was at the night markets, built on the site of a old burial ground (cue Poltergeist quotes), but only haunted by vendors of good cheap food from just about any country in the world it seemed. All washed down later with cheese and wine... sometimes it's easy to forget we're poor backpackers! The second night, our hostess took us to this really funky Moroccan restaurant, which was really good, and pretty trendy. Melbourne really is as cosmopolitan as people say - you can see it in every face on every street, and it shows deliciously through the food - it must be a great place to live... even if the weather is pretty awful!
Monday, February 07, 2005
Great Ocean Road
Phill: 7/2 to 9/2, Australian South-Coast - After all the driving we've done, the hop from Adelaide to Mt Gambier seemed tiny. We knew nothing about this place until we got there, as it was just a stopover on our return journey and we were pleasantly surprised. There's a few lakes nearby, but one in particular (Blue Lake) is visually amazing - it really is intensely blue and very beautiful. As was our campsite there which catered for campers better than any other with reading rooms games rooms and a great kitchen with heaters. The heaters were badly needed, as this part of Oz really doesn't match the blue-skied postcards you normally see, it was very cold and very wet. The check-in guy at the campsite was really friendly, and recommended somewhere to eat for my birthday that night, and soon we found ourselves at this out-of-the way hotel called the Bellum, I think. We had a few drinks before dinner, with a group of 3 old locals one of whom had drank there almost every day since he was 19! They were great fun, as were the staff that we also got talking to. The food was brilliant - really tasty, and gargantuan portions for not much money. Ren gave me part of my birthday present - some small prints from a fantastic photographer called Darren Jew that she met at the Brisbane markets with Marisa.
The next day we went to the surprisingly good shops (for a small town) before setting off along the Great Ocean Road which runs from here to Torquay near Melbourne. We didn't get far before Cheese World lured us in for lunch, but soon after it was onto the various rock formations that rise up out of the sea here. They're all pretty funky, and the most famous ones (called the Twelve Apostles) were great - although we have a photo of us huddling together for warmth with them in the background!
I wasn't feeling too good, from the changes in temperature, so we stayed in an apartment that night and had take-out Italian food in front of the TV before setting off for our second leg of this journey. The section from Apollo Bay to Bell's Beach is the "real" Ocean Road, as it winds along dramatic clifftops overlooking the sea. We went to the famous Bell's Beach and unintenionally got our feet wet in the high surf. We also took some good pics of the surfers out there in the Antarctic Ocean. I'm looking forward to the ever-nearing day that I can swim well enough to surf, as it looks like a lot of fun. All told, the Ocean Road has a lot more to offer if we'd had more time, but I was pretty happy just to see the amazing views en-route.
The next day we went to the surprisingly good shops (for a small town) before setting off along the Great Ocean Road which runs from here to Torquay near Melbourne. We didn't get far before Cheese World lured us in for lunch, but soon after it was onto the various rock formations that rise up out of the sea here. They're all pretty funky, and the most famous ones (called the Twelve Apostles) were great - although we have a photo of us huddling together for warmth with them in the background!
I wasn't feeling too good, from the changes in temperature, so we stayed in an apartment that night and had take-out Italian food in front of the TV before setting off for our second leg of this journey. The section from Apollo Bay to Bell's Beach is the "real" Ocean Road, as it winds along dramatic clifftops overlooking the sea. We went to the famous Bell's Beach and unintenionally got our feet wet in the high surf. We also took some good pics of the surfers out there in the Antarctic Ocean. I'm looking forward to the ever-nearing day that I can swim well enough to surf, as it looks like a lot of fun. All told, the Ocean Road has a lot more to offer if we'd had more time, but I was pretty happy just to see the amazing views en-route.
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Halfway
Well, we've made it this far - Feb 3rd was officially our halfway point. I guess it's somewhat arbitrary because of the irregularity of calendar months, but you get what I mean! It strangely feels like we've done more than half because we've gone through 8 out of 11 countries already. It's also weird, because in a funny way we're heading home now.
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Long time, no pictures
As sufficiently good internet access always seems just around the next corner in Oz, it's been a long time since I mailed any CDs home because I figured I'd be able to upload them from here myself. This was never quite the case - possibly because we take too many pics, and more often because of restrictions in the internet cafes. Thanks to Paul in the USA though, we've managed to get a huge batch uploaded, with more to come in the very near future. To make less work for us, I've also just linked to "Australia (1)" as most of you will have figured that you can just use the tree on the left hand side in the fototime window to navigated between sub-folders. Uploaded now are:
Laos (2) - the remainder of our time in Luang Prabang
N.Thailand - Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai
S.Thailand - Ao Nang, Rei Ley, Ko Phi Phi
Australia (1) - Sydney and East Coast to Maroochydore
Laos (2) - the remainder of our time in Luang Prabang
N.Thailand - Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai
S.Thailand - Ao Nang, Rei Ley, Ko Phi Phi
Australia (1) - Sydney and East Coast to Maroochydore
