Dear All,
Hopped over here from Sydney 6 weeks ago and have been travelling around North and South Islands (Such original names - Captain Cook is probably to blame). There is also a West Island (according to some Kiwis) - which some people call Australia! (It's funny the first time but everyone tells the same joke and it wears off really quickly).
High Points
- the highest point reached was 12,000 feet(nearly 2.5 miles/4 km ) above ground. And then inexplicably I jumped out. Yes at last I got round to skydiving (tandem) above Lake Taupo which was an amazing experience travelling at 125mph / 200kph downwards and yet I hardly felt I was moving - and what a view. Recommended if you are mad with an excess of cash -although its a lot cheaper here than in UK).
- Glacier climbing on Franz Joseph Glacier. As if it wasn't cold enough already it started to rain ! It was amazing going through the ice tunnels and squeeaing through the narrow cracks in the glacier - and the ice was so blue - just like a Foxes Glacier Mint!
- Milford Sound - It's a Fiord not a Sound (i.e. carved by ice not water) with sides that go nearly vertically up over 1 mile (1670 metres). Absolutely spectacular ! After a while you get used to the scale and it starts to look smaller..............
- Tranz Alpine Railway between Christchurch and Greymouth - one of the top 6 railway journeys of the world - across the plain to the snow capped mountains, over some and through others....... and as a bonus there is a special wagon where you can stand out in the freezing cold to watch it all !
- Mount Cook (the highest Mountain in NZ) National Park. Had a snowball fight with fresh snow and met a Kea, the worlds only alpine parrot. It followed me around staying 5 metres behind me, just walking in the snow, for some reason it couldn't be bothered to fly. Trying to scare one of these away is not recommended as you have to get so close they will bit you - and
they have big sharp beaks. They often eat windsreen wiper blades and shoes........
- Wildlife - the Yellow eyed penguins are dead cute, the albatross are huge (wingspan is the largest of any bird at over 3 metres) and the Kiwi is fairly stupid (!) although I only saw them in captivity (in the dark and even that wasn't easy). NZ has 80 million possums (imported from Oz originally) and most of them are very flat and live next to the road - or so it seems.......
And there's the rarest duck in the world the Campbell Island Teal with only 50 left in the wild (it's not very exciting though!) I could go on about NZ birds..........but I won't.
Surprisingly the only mammels native to NZ are bats - everything else has been brought in - and as in OZ anything that is not native is hated by most of the population!
- Whale watching (again) This time Sperm Whales the biggest toothed whales. They don't jump out of the water though so actually it was pretty boring - roll on Humpback whales anytime.
- Boiling hot geysers and vigourously boiling pools of water in Rotorua - the whole places does smell of sulphur though!
- To make up for the heat I did my first cold water dive - I had the whole wetsuit with boots and hood and 12kg weights round my waist to make up for the buoyant effect of the suit. And it was still freezing!! (rated *** in freezer terms). The dive site (Poor Knights Islands - another daft Captain Cook name) was rated one of the top 10 in the world by that Cousteau fellah. Fish and plant life were really good though.
- The Maori culture is much more accessable than the Aboriginal people in Oz and the Maoris are much more integrated into society as a whole and there appears to be little racism. Hoorah for NZ and the positive attitude of the Moaris !
The Lows
- The Torrangiro Crossing - usually the best one day walk in NZ. But on the day we walked it the wind was howling over the ridge at around 60 kph trying to blow us off the ridge down the vertical drop, we were in cloud, in was wet, visability was ...er... low and it was bloody freezing (a **** freezer). Just to make it worse after we had come down from the ridge where supposedly the best views were it cleared and the sun came out - for about 5 mins anyway) - a real experience !!
- The NZ wine here is no cheaper than it is back in UK ! Why that is I have no idea.
- The free beer tap in Dunedin. Yes this should be a high.. BUT....... We were told of this free beer tap as we passed the Speights Brewery in a van ... free beer you must be joking ? There was the tap coming straight through the wall of the brewery - but if this tap was really dispensing free beer then surely there would be a queue of people with polypins ... and
there was ! So off we went (sod the wildlife there's free beer in that there wall ... er... I mean this is culture!) and when we got to the tap there is was .... free flowing .... nearly colourless (but then thats Speights beer for you !) ....... and just about tasteless as well (again that's Speights beer). Very very like water in fact (that's Speights!). Are you Seriously saying that all these people
queue up here with their polypins to get water out of this tap when they could just turn on the tap at home ? Er yes they do! NZ has never had a great reputation as a beer drinking nation .... and there is no way it's ever going to get one now. 'Just popping down the brewery for a few pints of water love' just dosen't wash !!!
- And I might just mention that it is a pain travelling with people who can't get into a pub 'cos they are too young - 16 years old to be exact. And before you start thinking THAT - the answers NO!
Next up is Tahiti (where hopefully it will be a bit warmer and less rainy than the North Island of NZ) for 9 days then Easter Island for 4 days and then Lima in Peru to start some challenging travelling !!! I am trying to learn Spanish but it's slow going !
Bye for Now
Luv
Pete
Showing posts with label whales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label whales. Show all posts
Monday, 29 October 2001
Wednesday, 19 September 2001
Where 11 Sydney, Australia --OR-- Searching for Culture through the Bottom of a Beer Bottle (Stubbie)
Wherever you are in the world - chillin' out at a new age encampment between Brisbane for Sydney, for example (which I was), as far away from reality as I could get at that moment, there are things that happen that grab me by the balls and remind me that I am still part of that world that I am trying to get around, like these events in New York a week ago. With these events in mind it is difficult to get my little world in perspective. So for the purposes of this email I have decided to ignore perspective and the real world, and concentrate on the insignificant happenings of the past 6 weeks..... welcome to my world........
Since last time when I was in Bali I have flown to Darwin, toured round the national parks there, gone down to Alice Springs, tripped out to Uluru (Ayres Rock)and The Olgas. Then flown to Cairns at the north end of the east coast and travelled down the east coast stopping off at a variety of (mainly) interesting places en route. Finally I have reached Sydney.
Note : Written with due apologies to any Aussies who may be reading this.
Firstly I should say that Oz is a confusing place e.g.
- the Adelaide river is nowhere near Adelaide
- the Victoria highway does not go to Victoria
- Saltwater crocodiles live in freshwater (this is important when it comes to swimming in fresh water as the Salties may eat you! (or me!))
Up Top (The Good Bits)
- The main highlight of my time in Oz is obvious..... Stuffing Germany 5-1 in their own backyard. I met several Germans after that and mysteriously all claimed to have no interest in football. Odd that !!
- Kakadu National Park (NP) near Darwin - fantastic scenery and waterfalls - although the water was COLD (very).
- Uluru - the climb up was very steep and so windy that halfway up I wished they had closed it - I thought I was gonna be blown off but fortunately there was a heavyweight chain to hang on to (and I did - with both hands). An amazing place, great sunset and sunrise although it would have been better if we hadn't had to stand with a few hundred people sipping champagne to watch it (we had one warm beer between about 10 of us....) The Olgas are worth a mention - they are similar to Uluru but from certain angles they look like Homer Simpson lying down - Yes Really!
- Diving off Cairns with a rather large Green Turtle (although it was brown in colour). I swam along next to it for a few minutes. Amazing complany, it was very friendly waving it's flipper at me as we swam along together although, to be honest, it didn't say that much.
- Seeing kangaroos, dingos, koalas, camels and a duck billed platypus all in the wild (though not at the same time). The dbp was a bit tricky as we had to wait 1.5 hours for it and then only saw it for 5 seconds - but hey I saw one ! PS It was unimpressive ! The koala was better - got to within 2m of it as it munched it's way through loads of leaves ....... OK so that wasn't that exciting either...... my tiny travelling companions thought it was cute though !
- Humpback Whale watching in Hervey Bay - didn't see many of them but the ones we did see were on form as the enormous mammel jumped high out of the water just so we could take photos of them jumping high out of the water.....
- Whitsunday Islands - 3 days on a racing yacht (not that we raced) more of a cruise really, to the fantastic white sands of Whitehaven beach (reckoned to be one of the top 10 beaches in the world - and we didn't even take a bucket and spade; Damn !)
- Driving a 4x4 on the largest sand island in the world and getting stuck loads of times (everyone else had to push but I was OK - I was driving - nuff said).
- Surfing - Well you just have to ! After all this is Australia.
- Learning to play the didgeredoo - Well you just have to ! After all this is Australia.
- The 'occasional' Party nights with loadsa beer - Well you just have to ! After all this is Australia.
Down Under (The Bad Bits)
- 'Occasional' Hangovers every morning after the 'occasional' party nights out.
- The cost of it all - it may be cheaper than UK but it's about 4 times the price of SE Asia from whence I came so it seems really expensive.
- The aboriginals many of whom are displaced and apparently without hope or motivation. Most of the ones I saw just sat around all day doing nothing.
(Not to be mistaken for fellow travellers who may act in a simiar manner!)
- The whole country is culturally devoid (almost).
- The endless number of small and lifeless towns with near negative populations that are strewn about the country. I think some of them may have stopped breathing!
- There are no Australians here (cos they are all working in pubs in London). Everyone is English and surely half the point in getting away in the first place was to meet some different people. In some places 'a local' is an English person who has been in Australia for more than a month.
- The rest of the travellers on the east coast are teenage girls. OK OK ...... so there are some advantages in that ........ but I shall restrain myself and say no more ... not even ...Well you just have to ! After all this is Australia.
There is loads more i could say but you would get really bored and I would run out of internet time....
Tomorrow I'm off to New Zealand for about 6 weeks, and then to some south pacific islands - and they really will be the middle of nowhere...
Bye for now
Luv Pete
Since last time when I was in Bali I have flown to Darwin, toured round the national parks there, gone down to Alice Springs, tripped out to Uluru (Ayres Rock)and The Olgas. Then flown to Cairns at the north end of the east coast and travelled down the east coast stopping off at a variety of (mainly) interesting places en route. Finally I have reached Sydney.
Note : Written with due apologies to any Aussies who may be reading this.
Firstly I should say that Oz is a confusing place e.g.
- the Adelaide river is nowhere near Adelaide
- the Victoria highway does not go to Victoria
- Saltwater crocodiles live in freshwater (this is important when it comes to swimming in fresh water as the Salties may eat you! (or me!))
Up Top (The Good Bits)
- The main highlight of my time in Oz is obvious..... Stuffing Germany 5-1 in their own backyard. I met several Germans after that and mysteriously all claimed to have no interest in football. Odd that !!
- Kakadu National Park (NP) near Darwin - fantastic scenery and waterfalls - although the water was COLD (very).
- Uluru - the climb up was very steep and so windy that halfway up I wished they had closed it - I thought I was gonna be blown off but fortunately there was a heavyweight chain to hang on to (and I did - with both hands). An amazing place, great sunset and sunrise although it would have been better if we hadn't had to stand with a few hundred people sipping champagne to watch it (we had one warm beer between about 10 of us....) The Olgas are worth a mention - they are similar to Uluru but from certain angles they look like Homer Simpson lying down - Yes Really!
- Diving off Cairns with a rather large Green Turtle (although it was brown in colour). I swam along next to it for a few minutes. Amazing complany, it was very friendly waving it's flipper at me as we swam along together although, to be honest, it didn't say that much.
- Seeing kangaroos, dingos, koalas, camels and a duck billed platypus all in the wild (though not at the same time). The dbp was a bit tricky as we had to wait 1.5 hours for it and then only saw it for 5 seconds - but hey I saw one ! PS It was unimpressive ! The koala was better - got to within 2m of it as it munched it's way through loads of leaves ....... OK so that wasn't that exciting either...... my tiny travelling companions thought it was cute though !
- Humpback Whale watching in Hervey Bay - didn't see many of them but the ones we did see were on form as the enormous mammel jumped high out of the water just so we could take photos of them jumping high out of the water.....
- Whitsunday Islands - 3 days on a racing yacht (not that we raced) more of a cruise really, to the fantastic white sands of Whitehaven beach (reckoned to be one of the top 10 beaches in the world - and we didn't even take a bucket and spade; Damn !)
- Driving a 4x4 on the largest sand island in the world and getting stuck loads of times (everyone else had to push but I was OK - I was driving - nuff said).
- Surfing - Well you just have to ! After all this is Australia.
- Learning to play the didgeredoo - Well you just have to ! After all this is Australia.
- The 'occasional' Party nights with loadsa beer - Well you just have to ! After all this is Australia.
Down Under (The Bad Bits)
- 'Occasional' Hangovers every morning after the 'occasional' party nights out.
- The cost of it all - it may be cheaper than UK but it's about 4 times the price of SE Asia from whence I came so it seems really expensive.
- The aboriginals many of whom are displaced and apparently without hope or motivation. Most of the ones I saw just sat around all day doing nothing.
(Not to be mistaken for fellow travellers who may act in a simiar manner!)
- The whole country is culturally devoid (almost).
- The endless number of small and lifeless towns with near negative populations that are strewn about the country. I think some of them may have stopped breathing!
- There are no Australians here (cos they are all working in pubs in London). Everyone is English and surely half the point in getting away in the first place was to meet some different people. In some places 'a local' is an English person who has been in Australia for more than a month.
- The rest of the travellers on the east coast are teenage girls. OK OK ...... so there are some advantages in that ........ but I shall restrain myself and say no more ... not even ...Well you just have to ! After all this is Australia.
There is loads more i could say but you would get really bored and I would run out of internet time....
Tomorrow I'm off to New Zealand for about 6 weeks, and then to some south pacific islands - and they really will be the middle of nowhere...
Bye for now
Luv Pete
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
