North to the Grampians

Having decided at the end of the Great Ocean Road that it really was getting too cold and wet to continue trundling along the coast at the bottom end of Australia, we drove due north from Warrnambool for about 200km - our first real adventure away from the coast - to the Grampians National Park. At the tiny community of Halls Gap we camped for two nights in the middle of town - actually it seemed like the campsite IS the town, with the necessary shops and services arranged around it.

We soon found that we hadn't quite escaped the chill and drizzle of the coast, and were in bed in the back of the van by about 9:30pm! (it's better than sitting outside in those conditions...) The next morning we were again awoken by rain and feared the worst. But after a trip to the excellent local aboriginal cultural centre (a good wet weather activity - complete with roaring log fire!) the weather cheered up and we felt confident enough to bother ourselves with actually seeing some of the national park.

In the north of the park we visited a couple of aboriginal 'rock art' sites which were interesting enough, but probably more interesting were the unsealed roads that we had to drive down to reach them. We probably spent a couple of hours trundling along at less than 20km/h, trying to avoid the numerous potholes and practically shaking the van to pieces on the more corrugated stretches. Thankfully Tara the Tarago proved up to the challenge and we didn't need to call for help - good job, as my mobile wouldn't have worked out there anyway!

Driving around on that Saturday we were treated to loads of encounters with the local wildlife - lots of roos, some in herds grazing in the late afternoon, and even one that tried to stare us down before blithely hopping off. We even came across a herd (I have no idea if that is the proper collective noun) of emus. Hannah had also seen an echidna on the roadside on the drive up from the coast, so now apart from platypuses and crocs, we'd seen pretty much every big famous aussie wildlife species in the wild. Thankfully our snake count is still on zero, though.

On the way back to Halls Gap we stopped at a famous lookout point and looked out upon the strange scenery of the Grampians. They were named so by a Scotsman (predictably) who was reminded of home by the landscape. Strange, as I have been to Scotland several times, and don't recall seeing loads of scrub and gum trees, or lots of craggy orange rock outcrops. Or kangaroos. But I could be wrong.

Another chilly night lay ahead so we bought some firewood from the shop at Halls Gap and kept warm beside the fire all evening, totally entranced by the flames. We even cooked some jacket spuds on it and ate them with beans and cheese. Not quite bush camping yet but close enough...!

Robin

Great Ocean Road (where it got cold)

The Great Ocean Road, starting at Torquay about 100km southwest of Melbourne, and continuing about 200km west to Warrnambool, is justifiably famous as a scenic drive, built to rival California's road of a similar name (answers on a postcard...). Torquay is also pretty much the home of surfing in Australia, and there was another world-class surfing competition on around Easter at nearby Bells Beach. So, images of sun, sea, surf, and all-round fun in the sun in mind, we set off through the 'burbs of Melbourne (and through the 'burbs of Geelong) on Wednesday morning.

Unfortunately the weather had other ideas. It got cloudy. It got windy. It started to rain... At Torquay it was at least only drizzling (so reminding us of its namesake in Devon) but the cold was starting to bite. One lunch of hot pies (mmm... pie) later and we hot-footed it to Bells Beach to watch the surfers in action. It turned out that the world's best surfers are at least as big wusses as we are, and the action had stopped for the day. Nice view, though... what we saw of it anyway, as we lasted about three minutes before the weather drove us back into the van!

On to Lorne, which looked kinda pretty, except for the hotels, motels, holiday inn  (?!)(sorry, excuse the interruption by the Sugar Hill Gang) and the hordes of school children on Easter break.  We soon arrived, after driving through pastoral farmland and temperate rain forest, in Apollo Bay.  On the way we were lucky enough to see some furry friends dangling from the eucalyptus trees above the road - along with several others we pulled in to take pictures and film the real live and wild koalas, who were not in the least bothered by us!

Campsite secured for the night we wimped out of cooking (the camp kitchen was rather exposed to the chilly elements) and found an excellent 'fish and chippery' to warm up in (mmm, fish and chips...). We watched the sun go down (or rather the daylight fade behind the stormy clouds) at the work-a-day wharf then sheltered in the van until we were tired enough to sleep. Oh dear, those big caravans the Aussies so love suddenly seemed so appealing.

The weather cheered up a little the next day as we drove on to 'the big tamale' (not literally) of the Great Ocean Road, namely the 'Twelve Apostles'. These are big stacks of limestone sat out in the surf - basically stubborn remnants of fast-eroding cliffs - and their image should be familiar to anyone who's ever seen a tourism advert for Australia. They were truly beautiful, and in fact equally beautiful scenery continued practically to the end of the Great Ocean Road. There were so many 'scenic lookouts' at cliff-tops, blowholes, and who-knows-what that by the time we got to the end we were thoroughly exhausted and treated ourselves to scones with jam and cream at a cheese museum. YEAH! We may be 30 but we still know how to have a rockin' good time on a Thursday afternoon...

At Warrnambool we had another chilly night, which helped us decide where to go next. Answer = somewhere warm, for pete's sake!

Robin and Hannah

Melbourne (or should that be Malbourne?)

Spending time in Melbourne was something of a major event as, apart from each other, we had barely spoken to anyone else that we knew for weeks on end. Within a few hours of arriving, we were reunited not only with friends, but with family too, having seen neither since we left London in November (it was now March 18th). This was quite important for our sanity, as anyone who has spent a lot of time in the company of either of us would surely attest!

Tuesday was another sunny hot day, and after a brief stop in St. Kilda, an area described by the book as 'hip' and with a 'thriving cafe culture'  (to us it seemed more like Camden Town by the sea), we  met up with Mal and went for some Thai food in South Yarra, where Mal and Sarah had been living for 4 weeks while settling in to their new city. 

We realised that the Healys'  hotel was very near by and thought we would see if they had checked in yet and possibly leave a message for them.  The receptionist suggested that they had all made themselves at home and that at least one of them could probably be found out the back having a fag! (No guessing which one...).  Indeed, after all this time it was with joy that we found Naomi zonked out on a patio chair, recovering from what sounded like a very long and delayed journey from Thailand. 

Wednesday started early for Robin - part of the deal with crashing at Mal's was that we help him and Sarah get moved in to their new flat in Elwood through lends of the van and general heave-ho-ing. Through a quirk understood probably only by Australians, the electricity supply at said flat had been cut off - and the supplier could only come round at some point between 7:30am and 6pm. After R drove down to the flat with Mal, he lasted until about 10am before buggering off. Mal had to wait in until 3pm - and all that was needed was a fuse plugging in - which took less than a minute apparently. Hmmm, guess utility firms are the same everywhere... The rest of the day was spent on the beach in St. Kilda. 

Thursday was 'wildlife day' as we drove to Phillip Island to see koalas, seals, little penguins - a much needed fix of fauna, as we had been in Oz for 3 weeks and hadn't seen a single marsupial  (you could be forgiven for thinking that koalas hang from every eucalypt tree and that 'roos hop across every highway if you believe all the road side signs!).  We met Naomi, Andrew, Winnie, Laurie and Maisie (phew) at the Koala Conservation Centre all feeling pretty chilly as the glorious sunny weather finally broke.  The koalas did not fail to please as they sleepily clung to the trees above our heads.  And as if to quell our cynicism of Australian wildlife we also saw a few wallabies and plenty of flaming gallahs (they really do exist after all).  After a detour to The Nobbies for some fine rugged coastal scenery and a few hundred seals we all went to freeze our pants off while waiting for the little or fairy penguins to come ashore at the aptly named 'Penguin Parade'.  We were  sat on bleachers and the penguins really did parade up the beach after popping out of the water. Understandably, with several hundred spectators, this task is more than a little formidable to the  cute mini fun-size penguins and many attempts were made by each entourage before they worked up the courage to waddle past us to their burrows in the sand dunes. The most amusing part of this spectacle was watching them fall over into the waves like dominoes before making their brave march home.

Friday was Good Friday and the start of the four-day weekend! Some wandering around town with Mal and Sarah on the Friday, punctuated with some hilarious shenanigans at a playground in the Melbourne docklands (honestly, we're all in our 30s now and should really know better), led nicely into Saturday, which for Hannah was spent at the zoo with Naomi and the kids, but which for me (R) was spent doing 'the most Melbourne thing possible': watching an Aussie Rules (AFL) match at the 'G' (Melbourne Cricket Ground, or MCG), accompanied by a mid-strength beer and a meat pie. Out of a group of eight of us, only one was Australian, and even he couldn't tell us how long each quarter should last (they each lasted about half an hour), but by the end of the game all us Brits had at least some idea of what had just happened. One of the local teams, Collingwood, had beaten Fremantle (from Western Australia), and so we had a lot of fun showing our respect for the 'Magpies' (Collingwood wear black and white stripes) by shouting 'go the pies!' and 'who loves the pies?'. (Surprisingly, the actual pies weren't that bad either).

Just thought I (H) should interrupt here to say that the zoo was really good too. We saw plenty more marsupials, including kangaroos. And a platypus. And an echidna. And some blue frogs. And lions that roared... (shall I stop now?!) 

On Easter Sunday we had a barbie on the beach at Elwood with the Healys, Mal and Sarah, and Mal's friend Scaife and his girlfriend Stella. Naomi and Andrew even managed to meet up with an old work friend (Barney) and his wife - must be a small world or something. One of the great things about Australia (as opposed to the UK) is that there are free (or cheap) public barbeques in parks and on beaches pretty much everywhere, and they are generally clean and looked after. All agreed that in the UK they would probably be vandalised (or at least 'tagged') within minutes. It's probably because they are so ubiquitous here that they don't become a target, or... or maybe we should stop the philosophy at this point! Anyway the 'snags' we bought just about managed to go around the assembled throng, as did the balls, frisbee, and easter eggs. Realising that this would be the last time we saw the Healys for a while, Hannah and Naomi made plans to hook up again at some point before we all leave Oz... to be continued!

And then after a chilled Easter Monday (more wanderings, including a trip up to the 'highest viewing platform in the southern hemisphere' - actually the second highest and not very high if we're honest!) and a busy Tuesday sorting out Hannah's Indian visa, amending flight dates once again, and other necessities, we set off on the Wednesday morning for the Great Ocean Road. We'd spent eight days in Melbourne and it had gone in a flash. Perhaps we'll be back...

Hannah & Robin

Down the Princes Highway to Melbourne

On Thursday 13th March we left Sydney and continued our journey south along the Princes Highway, which follows the coast of New South Wales and Victoria and leads to Melbourne and beyond. We'd heard that the southern coast of NSW was less touristed than the northern coast and so we were keen to see exactly how sleepy the coast towns down here would be (given the sleepiness of places further north, the answer is: extremely! The photo below of Tilba Tilba's Post Office / Petrol Station / Tourist Information Centre / Internet Cafe pretty much sums this up).

In keeping with our experience further north, we found the coastal towns to be all quite similar, with the coast itself and the beaches being pretty in an almost monotonous way. This might sound terrible, but one of the biggest problems we faced on the coast was deciding where to stop, when every town was as good/bad a place to stop as the next! However as we moved south and round into Victoria the sea was definitely becoming progressively cooler and rougher.

So I'll spare the roll call of places visited, but point out some highlights. One interesting incident occurred when we drove off from our campsite in Ulladulla with the rear side door of the van open. 50km down the road in Bateman's Bay we stopped for a coffee, when a friendly local informed us of said 'open-door' problem. After a few cross words between us (the understatement of the century) we worked out just about what had fallen out, and drove back towards Ulladulla. Fortunately the beach bag and Hannah's jeans had fallen out while we were still on the campsite, and had been retrieved - unfortunately I had lost a washing bag containing half my underpants, a T-shirt, and a shirt that I had bought in Buenos Aires. Amazingly, I did not even realise I'd lost the shirt and T-shirt until we reached Melbourne!

My 30th birthday came around on the 15th March (the timing of this trip was in no way coincidental) and we woke up that day on a campsite in Merimbula, a small beach town where we had an awesome brunch breakfast (with eggs benedict rivalling even the Camden Kitchen, no less) and moved on a short way round the coast to Eden. Eden proved to be less interesting than our guide book would have us believe, so we crossed the border with Victoria and drove to Mallacoota, where we camped up on the shore of a beautiful coastal inlet, and ate posh fish & chips for supper at the only restaurant in town.

After Mallacoota we stopped once again for a couple of nights at a place called Lakes Entrance before driving on to Melbourne, where we would meet some people that we actually knew for the first time since leaving the UK on the 30th November - at last we would have someone else to talk to other than each other!

Robin

Sydney

On the way south down the northern coast of New South Wales, we stopped at the city of Newcastle for a dip at one of its excellent beaches. However the city itself, a very industrial place dominated by its massive port and rail freight sidings, did not tempt us to hang around, and so we drove onwards another 100km or so to Sydney, completing a long day's drive.

We set up camp shortly before dusk at a fantastic camp site within the Lane Cove River National Park - allowing us to stay in the van, within a half hour bus ride of the centre, with all the facilities you could shake a stick at, for $34 a night. Luxury indeed! Beers and supplies procured, we were all set.

We spent about 3 days in Sydney, which was enough for a quick taster, as we'll be back later. We managed the obligatory walks around the Opera House (with view of Harbour Bridge - two birds, one stone) and the CBD (which was less exciting but at least allowed Hannah to buy me a birthday present and allowed me to get the chest X-ray necessary for my working visa application). We also went to the suburb of Manly on the famous Manly Ferry, which has the atmosphere of a neat little town: it's blessed by having beaches facing both the harbour and the ocean, within 10 minutes walk of each other. We even managed to check out a comedy show at the Opera House (part of my parade of birthday presents).

While in Sydney I also managed to visit the Arup office and finally pin down my contacts there about when I might be able to start work and what I might be doing. It transpired that had Arup Sydney got the wheels rolling on the visa application back at the start of the year (i.e. when I started talking to them about opportunities), I could have started work immediately - the working visa will be valid for 4 years, and i'm only planning on staying 6 months! This was slightly frustrating as it has left Hannah and I slightly in limbo as to whether to wait out the 4-6 weeks expected until my visa is granted, or whether to complete our RTW trip via India and then for me to return to Oz.

However inertia is a powerful thing, and so is the attraction of touring Oz in our very own campervan. So we're staying here for the time being. This way, we might even make it into the Outback to Uluru... and beyond! Not sure at present. But stay tuned and you'll find out...

Robin

Southward bound on the Pacific highway

Gosh, it's been bloody ages since I wrote anything on here..... and we are sadly lacking in photos again. Oh dear, if only the internet places weren't charging 7 bucks an hour!

Anyway. Our first night in Tara Toyota Torago (Tara T. T. instead of Tara T.P.... Get it?!) was great - a comfy bed, some privacy (dorms are a pain in the arse), and the freedom to move on whenever and where ever we like. And each evening has been much the same, with our only worries being about whether or not the campsite is close enough to the beach and if the walk to the loo in the night is going to be so far that we might get freaked out by the wild bugs and beasties that are everywhere in Australia! Sweet!

At Coolangatta, near to the Benidorm-esque Gold Coast, was a typical surfy beach town overlooked by a mixture of high and low-rise holiday apartments. The beach was beautiful - wide and long, with picnic and barbeque areas for all to use. A scene that has been typical all down the coast. Coolangatta gets a particular mention because we spent some of the morning watching a real surf contest (dude!) with none other than Kelly Slater competing for a spot in the semi finals. The scene was full of 'gnarly' surf dudes and babes, all armed with photography equipment that could rival any paparazzi photographer's bag. Man.

We wended our way ever southward with a general aim for Sydney. We paused for 2 nights in Byron Bay, set on another stretch of amazing beaches but with a hippy feel about the place. In fact you couldn't move for small shops selling tie-dye and dream catchers among the other touristy stuff! The general laid back air of the place is largely credited to a nearby town called Nimbin, where the local police seem to overlook the quantites of dope that can be bought. There are even shuttle busses decked out with a few spray painted flowers dedicated to ferrying people to and from the town for this very purpose. We decided not to bother with the 50km detour, figuring that beer and wine of an evening is probably enough of a vice to indulge in!

We followed Byron with Yamba, Coffs Harbour, and Booti Booti National Park. All places worth a stop and all are very tranquil with lots of sun and sand in one form or another. Our body boarding and frisbee flinging skills have improved immensely.

From Coffs Harbour, we headed inland briefly (too much beach can be a bad thing you know!) to a pretty country town called Bellingen. The buildings here being older and more original than many we had seen so far, and therefore more attractive. Here we bought some supplies, including passion fruit butter, from the monthly foodie market. The market itself was smaller than we anticipated, but the free foot massage (for International Womens Day) was a treat, as was the insight into local Aussie culture given to us by the bohemian older woman who did the foot rubbing!

Hannah

Brisbane... and Tara

We arrived at Brisbane airport late on the 28th Feb, well actually we didn't think it was late - but by Oz standards it was late because the airport train had already stopped running (it was 8pm!) and there was no regular bus, so we had to get an 'airport shuttle' to the hostel that we'd booked. So we had to queue up to book that, then wait half an hour for it, so by the time we got to the hostel it was about 10pm.

We'd booked three nights at 'city backpackers' largely because the frenetic pace at which we'd been moving around the south island of NZ meant that we'd had barely any time to plan what to do once we arrived in Oz (it's tiring, always thinking about where to go next!). So we figured a couple of days to chill out and sort out our plans was exactly what we needed. Besides, in NZ we'd felt like we'd missed out on all sorts of good offers (on transport, for example) because we'd booked things like car hire in advance.

'City backpackers' is one of the biggest hostels in Brisbane and in some ways is very well equipped, with a pool, large kitchen, air conditioning, parking, etc. However it also has a large bar, which if we were younger (about 15 perhaps) we probably would have enjoyed more than we did - it was like going back to a school disco, full of pissed-up and verbally abusive (mainly english, disappointingly) idiots. So we didn't go back to the bar often, which in a way was a shame because the hostel's layout was clearly organised to induce you into the bar if you wanted in any way to be sociable. Clearly this was where their profits were coming from too!

So we spent our time in BrisVegas (really!) wandering around town, buying a SIM for my mobile, and wandering along by the river, which makes the city unexpectedly attractive. The local contemporary art museum even had a big Andy Warhol exhibition on (with a big entrance fee attached - Hannah felt that she'd already seen enough Warhol not to bother).

Then on the Saturday, we met Tara. Tara the Toyota Tarago, a 1984 minivan with the seats ripped out and an Ikea bed and mattress wedged in the back. A Dutch couple had parked it up outside our hostel, desperate to sell as they were leaving for Thailand the next day. We were thinking about buying a van anyway, but were slightly put off by our uncertainty about how long we would be staying in Oz. But Tara was a bargain, and seemed mechanically sound. The Dutch couple wanted $3300 originally, but for a quick sale would take $2000. When it transpired that there was no 'certificate of roadworthiness' (i.e. an MOT) certificate, which is a legal requirement to sell a car in Oz, we offered them $1800. To our great surprise they accepted!

So despite buying Tara on the Saturday we had to stay another night in Brisbane until Monday so that we could get it to a garage, in order to get the 'certificate of roadworthiness', and then transfer the 'rego' into Hannah's name (my lack of a driving license meaning i couldn't legally be the owner just yet). This took all of Monday, as Tara needed new front brake hoses and two new tyres, which cost a bit of money, but not as much as it could have been, considering her age. But, around 5pm, we were the legal owners of a legally roadworthy van, and we headed south! On that first evening we got as far as the border of NSW at Coolangatta, and spent the first of many nights asleep on the mattress in the back, with our stuff stowed underneath... no more camping on the hard, hard, ground for us!

Robin

Back to the east coast... and beyond!

So to cap off the account of our adventures in NZ...

Apart from going right up to the top of the south island (we didn't have enough days left!), we found that after we'd been through the glacier region, we'd probably seen the best of what the west coast had to offer. So after driving north a short way from Hokitika we turned back inland and headed to the east coast. The drive was pretty spectacular, rising up and over the Lewis Pass, then dropping down towards the east following a majestic river valley. The weather was pretty damn hot and so we felt that we'd earned the brief stop we made at Hanmer Springs to lark about in the geothermal pools. (I felt that it was very important to have some time relaxing in the medicinal waters before the drive ahead... H).

 
From Hanmer we took the scenic route across rolling farmland on a very winding road to Kaikoura, a 'must do' place, for all the abundance of sea life that comes so close to shore. Many people go swimming with dolphins, but as we'd tried that in the Bay of Islands we decided to give the seals some quality time. Man, it was freezing in the water, and that was with the full head to ankle wet suit and jacket. Effective, if not the biggest fashion statement either of us has ever made! The seals were a little lazy and the water was not the clearest, but it was quite fun to bob around in the sea so close to them for a bit. And the seals didn't seem to mind either.

Kaikoura itself was a nice enough place to hang around for a couple of nights, BBQing steak at the campsite, then sleeping in our tent on the hard, hard, ground. Ouch! Oh how envious we were of all those cosied up in their camper vans..... (more on that later).

On the drive back down to Christchurch, we hadn't even been driving for 10 minutes when on our left we saw a huge pod of dolphins out at sea, but obviously close enough to shore so that we could see them, and get some pictures! Must admit that we felt a bit smug to see so many dolphins and not have to fork out again for a 'dolphin cruise'. The dolphins were heading south, as were we, so we stopped at another few headlands as we drove to try and get a closer look.

 
And after a night in Christchurch, where I scrawled route maps of our kiwi odyssey on some free maps we had acquired and photographed them for posterity, we returned our rental car, and headed to the airport, ready for the next stage of our adventure!

Unfortunately that next part of the adventure came a bit later than expected as our flight to Brisbane was delayed by four hours, because of the lack of a crew. An interesting explanation, we thought... where on earth were our flight crew exactly?

And more on Brisbane will follow.... (over to Hannah)

Robin

Glaciers and around

Having ummed and ahhed for weeks on end while in Argentina about whether to go to the far south and visit the Perito Moreno glacier (we didn't), we were determined to see some real life glaciers up close in NZ. And at Fox glacier and nearby Franz Josef glacier we weren't disappointed.

We visited Fox glacier on the same day as our drive from the south, which meant that the weather wasn't great. Still, we managed an hour away from the warmth and comforts of the hostel and the car, which gave us plenty of time to walk up the approach track from the car park and back. Given the rain and grey skies, the glacier was moodily majestic, and we even heard a chunk of it fall off into its outflow river while we were there (although I only saw it out of the corner of my eye). In parts the path had been washed away by heavy rains and fresh rockfalls - this only served to remind us that this was a rapidly changing environment, and we paid due respect to the various safety ropes erected. Even with these we managed to get pretty close to the glacier 'terminal face' itself and got some good photos of the strange patterns visible in the ice.

The weather the next day was a good deal better and after wandering around a lake near Fox Glacier village, from where we could see Mt. Cook (NZ's highest peak), we visited Franz Josef glacier in bright sunshine.

As we drove up the approach road in the late morning, mist hung over the icy outflow river and chunks of ice (like big ice cubes) were visible in the grey silty water. Unfortunately for us we couldn't get as close to this glacier, because its river was changing course and had washed out the path to the 'terminal face' almost completely. However the views were still amazing - the photos speak for themselves!

We stayed the night in a cabin at a campsite in Hokitika, further up the coast. 'Hoki' was a strange place, kind of a frontier town that was briefly an important port - but not since a very long time ago (the gold rush to be precise). The wide avenues and civic buildings 'downtown' were clearly too grand for the town as it currently is, but it made for a pleasant place to kip for the night nonetheless. Hannah spent some time taking pictures of driftwood on the beach, and after dark we saw some glow-worms in a dank 'dell'. No pictures of these obviously!

 
Robin

Wild wet and windy west coast

To get to the west coast of the south island, there is only one road - State Highway 6. It runs from the bottom of the south island through Queenstown and Wanaka then dives over the Haast Pass (the lowest of the three road crossings of the Southern Alps). It then runs up the west coast to Greymouth, from where the rest of the island can be accessed via the other two mountain passes and the coast roads around the top of the south island.

 
The drive from Wanaka to Fox Glacier Village took about five hours but was spectacular, not least because of the huge amount of rain that started coming down about half an hour after starting out, and continuing for pretty much the rest of the day. The Haast Pass itself was uneventful - marked only by a layby and a sign at the summit, but the drive down to the coast at Haast Village from there really reminded us that we were in 'Lord of the Rings' country, with great views of super-clear rivers and waterfalls all around.

The road from Haast up to Fox Glacier Village ran close to the sea for most of the way, and in one place a bit too close - the weather had whipped up the Tasman Sea so much that debris in the form of gravel, rocks, and even bits of trees - were getting washed up onto the road as we drove through. A truck with an excavator bucket was doing its best to clear the worst of it but it was clearly an ongoing issue. We took that stretch of road pretty slowly!

 
Finally we arrived at Fox Glacier village and were glad that we had booked ahead for a night in one of the nicest hostels we've stayed in on this trip - especially as it was still chucking down with rain (not good weather for camping!), and pretty much everywhere in town was booked solid. We even got to watch one of our favourite films - Stripes starring Bill Murray - in the TV room.

Robin

Queenstown and Wanaka

After Fiordland we headed north-east to Queenstown, the self-proclaimed "adventure sports capital of New Zealand". Now, you might think that the enormous variety of adventure sports on offer would mean that competition between the various operators would result in keen pricing. But strangely there seemed to be a kind of cartel operating - pretty much every activity - be it bungy jumping, jetboating, river surfing, or 1001 other ways to scare yourself silly - started at about $150. The net result of this price pressure was that we decided we could think of much better ways to blow a minimum $300 for the pair of us. Not that we're being tight, but there is just SO MUCH to do and see in NZ that you really have to think carefully about the wisest way to spend your money and get the most bang for your buck (as it were). Besides, it was free to go and watch the bungy jumpers at the famous Kawerau Bridge - the world's first commercial bungy operation.

We camped again in Queenstown, at what was a ludicrously well equipped campsite - we managed to eat very well that night even though we were cooking for ourselves. Although Queenstown is beautifully situated on the shore of Lake Wakatipu with towering mountains all around (one is even called Ben Nevis, in the Remarkables Range), we only stayed a night before taking a short (by NZ standards) drive north to Wanaka. To be honest, given the amazing landscapes found all over NZ, we have found that one of the greatest pleasures is simply driving from place to place and admiring the views. The most direct road to Wanaka was a good example of this, as it rose to over 1100m above sea level shortly after leaving Queenstown via a series of hair pins, descending via a long and otherwise isolated river valley. Shortly before arriving in Wanaka the road offered spectacular views of the peaks and glaciers of Mount Aspiring National Park in the distance.

Wanaka was similar to Queenstown in that it could be used as a base for all sorts of adventure activities (not that we did any!) but was more laid back and smaller than Queenstown. On the shores of Lake Wanaka we ate some good take-away fush & chups and then camped within sight of the lake at a campsite that unfortunately resembled a siberian gulag. But it was comfy enough.

We only really stayed in Wanaka because it was the last decent stopping point between Queenstown and Fox Glacier Village on the west coast, a long drive along the lonely SH6 that we tackled the next day...

Robin

Fiordland

We left the catlins driving west along the coast and after a brief stop in Invercargill to check emails etc headed back inland to Manapouri, at the edge of Fiordland national park.

Manapouri is actually the closest settlement with anything vaguely resembling services to the far south west of the south island, even though it is more than 100km from the coast - as the name suggests, Fiordland's deep fiords and lakes coupled with craggy mountains and an extremely wet climate have limited the potential for settlement. The biggest hindrance though is probably the sandflies, who exist here in huge numbers and bite whenever they get the chance!

Manapouri is beautifully situated on the lake of the same name but this wasn't our reason for coming to Fiordland - the real reason was to go sea kayaking on the famously isolated Doubtful Sound - reachable only by sea, walking for several days, or by boat across Lake Manapouri followed by a 20km coach ride over the Wilmot Pass (a stretch of road totally unconnected to any other in NZ). We chose the latter.

 
We kayaked for about 5 hours in a small group of 5 double kayaks plus a guide. To our amazement we covered about 14km and saw only two boats. The 'sound of silence' lived up to its name and the scenery and feeling of isolation were breathtaking.

Update: finally got the photos developed and posted...!

 

In Manapouri we stayed in a funny little campsite but didn't camp because we feared the area's reputation for prodigious amounts of rain. instead we booked a funny little cabin complete with heater and kettle - paradise indeed! The owner had a huge collection of old bangers including a load of old morris minors - some even with british numberplates, bizarrely. however this was not as much fun as the trampolines also present - which we put to good use by bouncing around on like loonies. I think Hannah mentioned earlier that we are easily pleased...!

  
Robin