I can’t put it straight onto here, but here is a link to facebook: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=381527651405

2) Hip jamming.
Wedging hips into small gaps so your hands and feet are free is a good way to have a rest. I managed it when at Black Ians. I wasn’t really resting, but it was a nice way to work out where my next move was going to be.

3) topping out is never dignified
Imagine a small child climbing out of a swimming pool, and then translate that into climbing over a ledge and you get a good idea of what I look like. ie, elbows over the top, a knee up and then roll away from the edge, or literally dragging myself over the edge.

4) Once at the top, having a rest is ok
Once you’ve made yourself safe at the top, a lie down due to total brain meltdown is fine. 10 minutes is usually enough time.  Any form of tim tams/natural confectionary sweets/food in general can help overcome this, hugs are also good.

5) Having a rest halfway up on a ledge is equally as good

6) Talking to yourself is how to do it
Along with other strange noises/screaming, talking to yourself is fine, as long as the person belaying knows that you’re ok. Complaining and wanting to die is also perfectly acceptable

7) Bruises are part of the package.
If you do not look like you have been attacked by the mosquito bruise monster, you obvs haven’t been climbing hard enough.

the day after damage.

8 ) Lunch and snacking are necessary parts of the day.
Although most climbing gets done before lunch, it is necessary to stop and eat, as it allows time for your brain to sort itself out.

9) Gear placement is essential to get right.
But really difficult to master, and guaranteed you will have  used the bit of gear you really want further down the climb.

10) Lollies, especially jelly snakes, fit well in pockets for a ‘I just made it to the top without dying’ reward.
Just make sure that the pocket is buttoned up, as snakes lost in combat is wasteful.

11) The downclimb is far scarier.
You aren’t attached to a rope, and the route isn’t as detailed in the guidebook as the ascent.

12) Falling is scary, and feels far worse than what actually happened.
In reality, I fell about half a metre, I thought I was a gonner.

13) Helmets are useful.
Especially for rock hugging and headbutting protection.

14) Confidence is easy to have on the ground.
Routes look easy when you’re looking up at them.

15) Anything is possible when it comes to moves.
It may not be the easiest or most obvious move, but it works! Even if your knee was level with your shoulder.

Uni has been mental, with lectures, exams, lit review and now lab project. Its nearing the Easter holidays now, and heaps has happened, I just haven’t had the drive to write about it. I’ve been playing polo, been kayaking and done a bit of canoe polo, as well as Network.

There are also some other posts that I wrote when in Oz, that I feel I should really post,considering I did write them.

We arrived in ChCh at about 5 in the afternoon, and were dropped off at our hostel. I went shopping for some food, followed by chilling out for a while before having diner and then going down to the bar with the others from the bus, where we spent the night before leaving at about midnight for an earlyish night, after all the late nights and no sleep of Queenstown.

I was woken up at about 7 the next morning by building work happening right outside our hostel, and I wasn’t impressed. So I got up, to find out that it was quite a nice day, so after some breakfast and a bit of internetting, and booking stuff for the trip home, I went for a walk around. I went to the botanical gardens, where I bought and wrote some postcards, sitting in the sun, and then I went to the Rutherford Den. Rutherford grew up in ChCh, the Den is where he conducted some of his earliest research into electricity and magnetism. I then wandered around a bit more, and enjoyed the last of the daylight I would be seeing forthcoming 36 hour flight. I went back to the hostel as it was getting dark, and met up with the girls from the bus for a chilled evening of packing and sorting for the very early start.

It was a 5am start on the Morning of the 1st September, going home day. I got up, grabbed the last of my stuff and the food I had made for the taxi ride the night before and got in the taxi to the airport. At the airport I found that my flight had been delayed for about 90 minutes, so I got to sit in the airport where nothing was open getting bored. I did have time to eat my breakfast and have a wash though, so that was ok. I also phoned the parents to let them know I was on my way home, but for them it wasn’t going to be for ages before they had to come and pick me up, so they found it rather strange that I was at the airport!

My flight departed from ChCh to Auckland at about 8am, and was another uneventful flight. As far as I can remember, I slept, but it was only about 90 minutes, so was over pretty quick. It was then quite a quick turn around at Auckland, and a change of terminals to the international one. My bags had been checked in at ChCh, so I didn’t have to worry about them. I then spent the last of my kiwi dollars on some kiwi chocolate, which is choccy with bits of kiwi in it, was yummy. The next flight to Sydney was equally uneventful, but I got talking to a kiwi who was off to visit friends in london, but wasn’t on my next flight.

At Sydney I had about a 3 hour wait, so I bought some lunch, and a glass of wine to use up my leftover dollars. It was horrible waiting at the airport, because I had to stay in the international terminal, as I couldn’t go through customs, so I had to look out of the window at the sunny spring weather! It was then onto the British airways flight to Bankok. I was sitting next to an English guy who was just finishing a year out travelling after graduating. We were sat right at the back of the plane, and had the 4 seats for the two of us, so we had a dedicated snacks/drinks tray in the middle, the extra leg room was also much appreciated due to the excessive snowboarding bruising making sitting down by this point rather uncomfortable! I watched a few films, and slept for a bit and ate some airline food before we landed in Bankok, and I had absolutely no idea what time of day it was, apart from that we had 45 minutes at the airport. I think it was night-time in Bankok, as the airport was relatively quiet. We walked along a massive concourse, and then turned around to go right back to the same plane, via the loo for a quick wash and teeth brush.

We got fed as soon as we got back on the plane, but I think by this point, I had almost lost the will to live, so ate the salad and the pudding, and had a glass of wine before going back to sleep. I then watched films and napped until about 2 hours away from london, where they woke us up for breakfast, or meal of random timing. I had lost my appetite by then, so stocked up on orange juice and fruit. We got to heathrow at about 6, just as the sun was rising, and I think we were the first flight in, as we had to do a few laps of the airport to waste time before we could land, as we were a bit quicker than planned in arriving.

Customs and all that stuff at the airport was pretty quick, and boring as always. I then walked out to meet dad and olie, who were picking me up, but they were just walking over, having had breakfast in weatherspoons!

It then the last and shortest leg of my journey, the car journey home, and back to reality.

Shandy and Fiona in the weird room

We played around in puzzleworld until lunch, where we drove for about half an hour to Wanaka, where it stopped raining so we bought lunch and sat outside to enjoy the bit of sun we had! We then headed towards Queenstown, the party capital of the south island, but stopped off at the bridge where the first commercial bungy jump was set up, to have a look, an stupidly sign up for a jump the next day!

We settled into the hostel, which was only 3 weeks old, so was still really clean and shiny before going shopping for some food for the next few days.  After dinner we headed to world bar, to start the Kiwi crawl, a bar crawl around some of the bars in Queenstown. The bar crawl started in world bar, where you get drinks in teapots, which was really cool.

teapots!

We then went around another 6 bars, with a bit on dancing on tables before heading back to world bar for some more teapots and dancing.

dancing on the tables

The next day we had a lie in, before having a chilled lunch and a wander around town before meeting the others for a sneaky pre-bungy glass of wine. We got to the bungy centre for 2, and were checked in and weighed, beofre having lots of stuff written on our hands so they knew who we were and that we were doing the correct jump. We left at 2:30 for the 40 minute drive to the nevis jump.

We got kitted up in waist and body harnesses, and then had to get into the cable car to get to the platform where we would jump from, which was suspended between two hills over a valley. The cable car was pretty small, and where it was windy, blew around quite a lot. The cable car stopped about 8m away from the platform, and we had to wait for the winds to drop before we could continue moving – we were all pretty scared by that point!

trying to hide the nerves

Eventually, it was my turn to jump. You ave to sit in what looks like a weird dentist chair while they kit you up. First I had cuffs put around my ankles, which is what the bungy rope would be clipped to, and then had my safety clipped into my body harness. There were a few more safety checks, and then I was ready to go. I had to shuffle right to the edge of this tiny bit of metal sticking out from the main platform, where I had to jump off, and with the wind blowing I thought I was going to fall. They then dropped the bungy rope so it hung under the platform, but I was being held by my harness at this point, so didnt quite fall.

It was then time for me to jump, and after quite a bit of psyching myself up, I finally managed to jump! I don’t actually remember the jumping bit, but I do remember falling and thinking, ‘woah, I’m actually falling’, the 8 second freefall felt like it went on forever, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t breathe until I had pulled the cord to un-attach my feet so that I was back up the right way and being pulled back up to the platform.

and jump!

We then headed back to Queenstown, where we had a celebratory group photo in our free tshirts that we were given,along with out certificates, of which mine is now stuck up on my wall!

After getting back to Queenstown, we went to the ski hire shop to pick up our stuff and pick up our lift passes before going back to cook dinner. We then headed to world bar for some celebratory bungy drinks before having a relatively early night, as we were all shattered from all the adrenaline!

I was up early on Thursday morning for a daytrip to Milford sound, which is a few hours away from Queenstown on the west coast. Technically, its not a sound, as that is a valley created by a glacier, but a fjord, but they only worked  that out recently. The first two hours we spent of the bus, where we stopped at To Anu for some breakfast. We then were off the main roads and into the mountains.

It had been snowing quite a lot, so we had to drive quite slowly, and saw a few avalanches, but the roads were quite clear. On the way down we went along the road that was used for the mazda advert, so we got to sing the ‘zoom zoom zoom’ song while we were driving along it.

zoom zoom zoom

We had a quick stop before we got to the harbour to see some Arctic parrots, which are the only parrots that can be found in cold places. They also sounded pretty weird, as well as not being particularly camouflaged.

parrot

We got to the harbour at 1, and had half an hour to walk around before getting on the boat. We got onto the boat and hit the buffet, which was actually really good, the only problem is that we were warned that the water might be a bit rough, so didn’t want to make full use of the buffet. Thankfully, the boat journey wasn’t too rough, but it was really windy!

We were on a boat with three levels, and there was our bus, and a big bus full of the most typical american tourists possible. After eating, we went up onto the top deck, and were braving the wind, and trying not be be blown off the boat. We were watching the waterfalls, which were flowing due to the rain, but weren’t actually reaching the water as they were being blown off to the side. But then the american tourists got a bit cocky, and got stuck out on deck and were too afraid to let go of the railings, so they had to rescue them, and then we weren’t allowed back out on the deck after that until the rain stopped.

trying not to be blown away...

As the boat turned back to go towards the harbour, the rain stopped, the wind started to drop and we saw a bit of blue sky! Sadly, we were off the boat far too soon and back on the bus on the way back to queenstown. The journey home was quite uneventful, but we did just make it through the tunnel to get back to the main roads before they closed it as it was predicted to snow overnight.

I got back to queenstown at about dinnertime, and met up with the others to go to furgburger for dinner. Furgburger sells almost every type of burger possible, and they were massive! We went back to the hostel to eat them, and chilled out for a bit before going to world bar and Winnies, which was another bar.

It was another early start for snowboarding on friday morning. We got on the bus to be told that there was a possibility that the resort may be closed due to there being too much snow, but I decided to risk it anyway, but the others decided that bed was a better option! I slept most of the way to Cardrona, which was about an hours drive away. It was open when we arrived, so I collected my boots and snowboard and went out for my lesson.

My first lesson was learning to get used to being on a snowboard, so we had one foot strapped in, and the other was puching us along, an then putting the foot on the board and going down a little hill. After a bit we went onto the learner slopes and practised going down in diagonals, but we couldn’t turn the corner, so had to stop, and then sit down and roll over before starting off going the other way.

After lunch I had another lesson were we started learning to turn corners, which is where it started to get painful, and I was very thankful for the many layers I was wearing, along with the wristguards! Turning corners looks really easy, but was soo difficult. I was ok turning from my heels to my toes, as I was looking downhill, but then slowing down to turn back onto my heels again was a lot more difficult, and I spent a lot of time falling over and getting back up again. The day ended at about 4, and I was aching! I slept the whole way back, and then had pizza for dinner before having an easy night playing cluedo before having an earlyish night for once!

the only photo of me on a snwboard

My final day in Queenstown was spent back on the slopes, but the weather was heaps better, and I was joined by Sonja, Briege and Shandy, along with Cameron and Sarah, who weren’t having lessons. Our lesson built on what we had learnt previously, so more practise turning, and heaps of falling over, which hurt even more considering all the bruises from the day before. We then had lunch and after went to try a green run, the easiest run on the mountain.

None of us had been on a ski lift before, so we knew it was going to be an experience! So we all got prepared with one foot strapped in and the other off the board, and then sat down on the chair, which was the easy bit. As we were preparing to get off, we shifted sideways slightly on our chairs, and prepared to push ourselves off the lift. I managed to stand up, but then crashed into a skier that was standing in the way, so another fall for me. Shandi, Sonja and Briege were on the chair behind us, and all fared slightly worse, falling over almost as soon as they got off the lift. Once we had time to strap our feet in and get away form the ski life, we set off on the run, which was heaps steeper than the nursery slopes! I edged down most of the slope as it was pretty icy, but did manage to make a few corners, and fell a few times. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the nursery slope, where I managed a few more corners without falling over too much!

It as then time to go back to Queenstown, where I had to return all my gear and pack as I was leaving early the next morning. We had pizza for dinner, and then went out for a final time around queenstown. We ended up in the world bar, with more teapots and dancing before bed.

more teapots

Thankfully, the journey wasn’t too bad, and we found a place to sit and have a nap before eating breakfast that we had taken with us. The weather also turned out to be quite sunny, so we went up onto the deck to see what the south island looked like.

the south island (and some boat)

The bat journey took about 3 hours in total, as although the distance is quite short, the boat has to go in and out of a lot of the small islands and sand banks around wellington and Picton, where we got off ont he south island.

We got off the ferry at about 11, and got on out new bus, which could seat about 40 people, although there were only ever about 20 of us on the bus at any one time. We were heading west to the national park, where we would be spending our next two nights. Before we got to where we were staying, Fiona and I were dropped off at a nearby airfield to do a bit of hang-gliding and microliting. Fiona went first for a flight in the microlite, which is a really small plane. It was then my turn to go hang-gliding.

I was with Barry, who could actually fly the hang-glider. Firstly I was given a big fleece to wear, along with gloves and a helmet. I was then put into a sleeping bag type thing, which is how I was attched to the glider. It was quite uncomfortable as the material was stiffened to stop me falling out! We were attached to the microlite, which towed us up to 1500 feet before we were released to float back down to the ground.

view from the hang-glider

Once the hang-glider was gliding, I got to have a go at steering. It was more difficult than I thought, as you have to shift your whole bodyweight to change the angle. It is also really difficult to go straight, as if you lean one way and then go back to the centre, you keep going the way you leant until you lean in the opposite direction and counteract the tilt. Once I had finally got the hang of it, we were nearing the ground, so it was back to Barry for the landing, which is surprisingly smooth and not scary considering how small the wheels were and how close we were to the ground!

After sorting ourselves out, we had a quick grocery stop before heading to Marahau, which is where we stayed for the next two nights. The hostel was an old converted tobacco drying shed, so it had really high ceilings. The bedroom that I was in was int he main part of the house, and had a gigantic bunkbed, which was 4 beds wide, separated by small screens. The bunks were really high off the ground, and had a 8ft ladder to get up to the top bunk, which is where I was for the nights. We cooked dinner in the evening before sitting around playing cards and chilling out, and getting to know the new people who joined us on the bus. There were some more english people, which was strange after spending so much time with so many irish!

The next morning we all had a lie in, as we had the day to do what we liked. Therefore, it was about 10 before any of us surfaced. We then had a lazy breakfast before getting the water taxi. We thought we were going to be picked up in a minibus and taken to the seafront where we would ge into the boat – but oh no. We were picked up in the boat that was also going to ferry us to the next bay along, which was being pulled by a tractor. We arrived at the seafront, and were given lifejackets before being towed into the water. We first went to see a few local landmarks including split apple rock, so named as it looks like the rock has been split in half. The story behind the rock is that the God of the water and the God of the land were fighting over who owned the rock, as depending on where the tide was meant that it was on both of their areas. In a fight one day, the God of the land threw his spear in anger at the rock, splitting it in two, and then they couldn’t fight over the rock anymore. We also saw some seals and a fairy penguin.

on the boat

We then sailed round to the cover where we were to be dropped off. There was no jetty, so we had to roll out trousers up and take our shoes off to get to the beach. I then didn’t bother to put my shoes on for about the next hour as we were mostly walking along the beach.

The weather was really nice and sunny, so walking was really good fun. The walk took about four hours in total, and was a really nice walk, with amazing views over the coastline. It only got cold as the sun started to go down behind the hill where we were walking. We got to see some really good views of Abel Tasman national park, and feel like we were doing some exercise in the process!!

We got back to the hostel just as it was getting dark (it was winter in NZ, so it got dark at around 6ish) after about 4 hours of walking. At the hostel there were outdoor baths, so Fiona and I went to try them out. They took ages to fill up as they were massive stand alone roll-top porcelain baths, but were really nice once we had got in! We sat in the baths until they got cold before cooking spag bol for dinner, and we sat around for the rest of the evening playing scrabble, where we did use a few non-scrabble worthy words to bump up our scores!

the necessary 'field and trek pose'

We left the Abel tasman national park at 9 to start the journey to Greymouth. Skins was in a much better mood, having recovered from the flu, so general mood on the bus was much better, and we drew on the windows again. The West coast of the island mostly consists of some very windy roads, which generally aren’t ever more than one lane in each direction and mainly single lane bridges. We first made a stop at a seal colony, but the seals were quite difficult to see between the rocks, where they were catching the few rays of sun! There was also a sign pointing in the directions of all some of the major cities in the world, and we were a long way from home!We then drove further down the coast until we reached Punakaki, or pancake rocks as its more commonly known. The rocks have been eroded over  time, and due to the layers of sediment, formed layers, which look like pancakes.After looking at rocks that looked like pancakes, we had a bit of a pancake craving, but sadly, there weren’t any, so we settled for ice cream instead. We then continued driving to greymouth, where we arrived at about 5.

We checked into the hostel and then headed to Monteith’s a local brewery for a tour and tasting session. The tour was almost the same as walking around Hydes at home, but then afterwards we got to sample their beer and have a go at pulling our own pints. I even found a beer I liked, called Radler, which was basically lager with lime flavour and wasn’t that fizzy.

i look a bit excited here about pulling a pint...

After the tour we went to the local pub for dinner where we had a barbeque and some more free beer. We then partied the rest of the night away at the pub, and spent time laughing at a rugby team from christchurch who had gone out in fancy dress for the night.

We had to be up and out of our rooms for 10 the next morning, so we all packed our stuff and relocated to the living room before getting dressed and having breakfast, as more than a few of us were feeling a bit special. We had a lazy few hours sitting around reading and playing monopoly. Fiona was the best, being the worst out of all of us, and decided that the game of monopoly was a bit too much for her, so she had a nap instead. We left the hostel at about 1, and headed towards Franz Josef, a small town known for it to rain for about 300 days a year.

On the way we stopped to look for greenstone, which is similar to jade, I didn’t find any but one of the girls on the bus did. We also had a grocery stop before getting to Franz. We arrived at Franz in the evening, and chilled out before making a massive frittata for dinner, which was really good. We spent the evening in the bar at the hostel where there was a rock, paper, scissor competition where I made it through to the semi finals. The rest of the evening we spent watch the rugby, where the Wallabies were playing the All Blacks, which was quite a tight game with the All Blacks winning in the end, so everyone was happy. While watching the match a guy asked me if the chair next to me was free, which I said it was, which then followed with him asking me where I was from, as he recognised the accent. It turned out that Ryan was from Stanford, and his mum lived on third avenue. He also was in my year at school, but went to Gable hall so knew half the people I used to get the bus to college with. He didn’t go to palmers, but it turns out that he also had his leaving party in Jumpin jaks. He had been in NZ for two years having finished college, and was working as a tour guide on the glacier.

I left the pub at about midnight after the rugby had finished, ready for glacier climbing. We woke up early, as we had to be at the shop at 8:15 to go on the glacier walk, and it was raining. We got kitted out with waterproofs, hats, gloves and crampons before getting a bus to the glacier.

The Franz Josef glacier

The walk into the glacier took about half an hour, and I even managed to cross a river without falling in – which wouldn’t have been a good start to the day! When we got to the glacier we got to put our crampons on, which I had decided I would like for daily life, as I was just unable to slip over, it was amazing! The climb wasn’t too difficult as we had super grippy feet, and our guide cut out steps in the ice for us so we could climb between the many icy walls. As it didn’t stop raining, we didn’t really stop for lunch, just ate as we went along, as standing around for any length of time was chilly. We climbed up quite a bit of the glacier, and got some really good views, which were slightly hampered by the rain, so we didn’t really want to get our cameras out of our bags as it meant taking our gloves off! The ice was really blue, and just looked like we were walking in a giant ice cube, especially when we were in some of the crevices. We walked for about 5 hours in total, but were quite glad to be turning back, as we were starting to get cold, and as our tour guide put it ‘soaked down to the undies’.

Glacier tunnel

Once we got back onto the bus, we realised how we didn’t actually have any feeling in our hands or feet, so the hot chocolate on arriving back at the shop was much appreciated. We then ran back to the hostel, got changed and jumped straight into the outdoor hot tub. My feet actually loved me for being warm, and we stayed in there for ages, even though it was raining. Eventually we psyched ourselves up enough to get out and get showered and do some washing. We ate dinner in the pub, where we remained for the rest for the evening. We got free shots and jagerbombs form the bar, so even though we were ll shattered we stayed at the bar until about 1.

We were on the bus for 9 in the morning, and the majority of us sat down and went back to sleep fr a few hours, as it was still raining so we couldn’t see much out of the windows. We stopped off at some waterfalls on the way, and did a few short walks when the rain let off for a bit.

Waterfall.

We also stopped at the blue pools, which were looking slightly grey in the rain. The best bit about them were the bouncy suspension bridges, which we jumped all the way across, singing the tigger song.

We got to the hostel in Makaroa at about 5, and it was raining again, so we chilled out for a bit before having dinner and then sitting in the common room playing pool before having an early night.

I had booked myself onto the Stray bus, which is a hop on-hop off bus for backpackers in New Zealand, and got picked up at the unsocial hour of 8am! We drove to Mount Eden, which is an old volcano crater on the edge of the city, and got views of the city and natural harbour. Auckland kinda looks like Sydney, but with English weather!

view of the city

We then headed south east out of the city towards Hahei, our destination for the night. We had a quick lunch stop, and another stop for a bit of tree hugging, which was meant to bring good luck

good luck hug

On the drive to Hahei, we were given chalk pens and got to draw pictures of each other on the windows of the bus so that we could learn each others names. We made it to Hahei at about 3:30, where we checked into our hostel before going on a walk around cathedral cove, which was a really nice walk, but a bit on the windy side! The walk took us down onto the beach, and through some archways. We also did a bit of climbing on the rocks, as they were really nice to climb on.

our bus group

We then headed back to the hostel for a group barbeque, cooked by Skins, our bus driver. The dinner was massive, we had steaks, chicken, sausages, green lipped mussels, sweet potato chips and salad. We spent the rest of the evening playing cards, which reverted into drinking games involving cards, and then into some really silly drinking games, but they were really funny.

The next morning we were back on the bus at 8, with a few people feeling slightly worse for wear after the previous night. I was fine, and even had time for porridge before  getting on the bus. The weather was pretty horrible, so there wasn’t much to see out of the windows, so we all napped for a fair bit of the journey. The drive was quite long, but we stopped for a while at Bridal veil falls,

bridal veil falls

where the water cascading over the edge is meant to look like a veil. It then started raining so we got back ont he bus and stopped for a late lunch in a pub in Raglan, before heading to the hostel, which was on the coast (we had driven all the way across the country, and were now back on the east coast). It was still light when we got to the hostel, so we had some time to play on the aerial runway they had there, and on the assault course, but it was a bit slippy so we skipped a few bits out! It was then dinnertime, and we cooked a stir fry which was tasty. After dinner we went out looking for glow-worms which we found ont he side of the road underneath the overhanging rocks. The evening was quieter than the previous night, and we were in bed relatively early.

Day 3 on the Stray bus started with a 2 hour drive to Waitomo. Waitomo is famous for its caves, so obviously, we went caving! I did a trip called Haggas Honking holes. First we had to get kitted up in wetsuits and jackets, with wellies and helmets that were massive. We also had a practise using the belay racks before getting into the caves. Once we were in the cave system we did a 25m, 10m and 8m abseil down waterfalls, which is quite difficult when the rope is really heavy, and you have to feed the rope through to let yourself down! We also got lowered (rather quickly) down a 4m waterfall, where we then had to go under the waterfall into a small hole before swimming (well, pulling along the floor) out to a larger part of the cave, where we turned our torches off to look at the glow worms. We also got  a marshmallow thing and some orange squash before heading back up to the surface.

Getting back up to the surface consisted of an easy climb up some rock before climbing up two rather rickety ladders. Eventually we made it back to the surface, but were confronted by a rather sleep looking hill back up to the hut where the changing rooms were – it felt like such a long way!

After getting changed, and getting the feeling back into our feet, we had some lunch and then headed to Maketu, our stop for the night. We were staying in a traditional Maori house, which consisted of a kitchen and dining room, and then a large meeting room. We had a traditional style hanghi meal, of fish which had been caught earlier that day, with sweet potato and vegies, followed by Pavlova and jelly (maybe not so traditional). After dinner we went into the main meeting room to watch a traditional ceremony that would have taken place between two neighbouring tribes, to assess if the tribes were friendly or not, and we were given the name Ngati Stray. We then did a traditional greeting of touching noses before watching some traditional dancing and singing.

Ngati Stray

We then got a chance to join in, with the girls learning poi and the boys learning the hakka. We learnt a dance routine to go with the poi, along with a song. The bit I found most difficult was remembering to swing the poi and my hips at the same time! We also learnt how to do ‘scary eyes’ which is meant to be off-putting, although we normally couldn’t do it without laughing! We then watched the boys do the hakka, which they got really into, but did end up with bruises on their thighs the next day from all the slapping of their legs!

'scary eyes'

We spent the evening playing cards and sitting around. We stayed in the main room on mattresses on the floor, but it was really nice as we got real duvets!

We had the luxury of a bit of a lie in the next day, but we were woken to the sound of Abba! After breakfast we headed off to go zorbing.

I was in a zorb with fiona, and they partially fill it with warm water before we jumped in and were zipped up before being pushed down the hill. We started off standing up to get ourselves going, but quickly fell over, and were just in a pile at the bottom of the zorb until we got to the finish.

Zorbing!

Getting out of the zorb was soo cold, so we had to make a quick dash to go and get changed before heading to Rotorua for lunch. Sadly, th weather took a turn for the worse, so we didn’t get to see much of the volcanic activity, as it was too wet to go to the bubbling mud pools. Instead, we went for lunch at a little cafe. We then started the drive south towards Taupo, our destination for the evening. On the way we stopped at Hakka falls, which is one of the largest volume waterfalls in NZ, with over 240 cubic metres of water going over the falls per second.

Hakka falls

We arrived in Taupo in the evening, and went shopping for supplies (mostly kiwi chocolate) before having dinner of chilli con carne back at the hostel. We chilled out in the hostel for the evening as it was still raining, and spent most of the time playing cards and drinking beer. I also got my uni results back, so had a celebratory drink for passing the exams.

Day 5 and we woke up to not hear the sound of rain! As it was raining the day before, we couldn’t skydive, so we had our fingers crossed that the conditions were going to be good enough to do the skydive. We arrived at Taupo airport, and although it was quite windy, we could go ahead with the skydive. I signed up for the full package, which included getting a dvd and a tshirt. We got kitted up into our jumpsuits, but I was in the second group, so had to wait for what felt like ages before I could do my jump. Before getting into th plane, I was given a lifebelt (we were lumping over lake taupo – so just in case) and met the guy who I was jumping with who was called Benny. He then gave me a safety briefing before getting my harness sorted.

Benny and I in the plane

Eventually, I was in the plane and there was no turning back! It took about 10 minutes to get to 15,000 feet, which felt like ages! Jumping out of the plane wasn’t that scary, as I just had to sit there, and let myself be pushed out. Free falling was really wierd, because as you fall out of the plane, you lose all sense of direction, and then it doesn’t really feel like falling as you’re moving so fast, so the only thing I could see was the cloud coming a bit closer. Once we had got through the cloud, at about 5,000 feet and after a minute of freefalling, the canopy was released and it was a nice descent back to the ground. I got a really good view over lake taupo, and National Park, where we were headed later.

skydiving

After getting over the excitement of skydiving, and watching our DVDs on the movie screen, we were back on the bus heading to National Park, which is the backdrop for some of the scenes in Lord of the Rings.

checking out the snow in august

Once in the park we went up to the top of the snowfields to have a look around before heading a bit further back down the mountain to do a 2 hour hike to a waterfall. The weather turned out to be quite warm, and the wind dropped heaps, so the walk was actually really nice. We stopped at the waterfall, and filled up our drinks bottles as the water is really clean.

behind the waterfall

After getting back from the walk, we had a quick snack on the bus, followed by another short walk down to where a scene had been filmed with Gollom in front of the waterfall with the ring. Sadly, the weather took a turn for the worse and it started raining again, so we went back to the bus.

The hostel we stayed in for the evening was amazing. It had massive open fires in the living room, and a hot tub in the middle of the courtyard where we sat and looked at the stars, as it turned out to be a really clear night in the end.

The final day on the north island was pretty much an express journey down to wellington. We stopped to look at a giant carrot on the way

giant carrot

Once we reached Wellington, we went to the Weta cave, which is the company that did all the special effects for the LOTR films. We watched a video of how the made the models and did some fo the special effects before looking at some of the models used in the films.

Gollum

We spent the evening walking around Welligton, where I bought myself a new hat. We had dominos for dinner, and then went to the bar under our hostel, where we played bingo and I ended up winning a $50 bar tab, so we all had a few more drinks before turning in for the night, and the boat journey in the morning.

The next day in Auckland I woke up mildly earlier than the previous day, had a lazy brekkie and then headed to the Auckland museum. The museum was quite interesting, as it had lots about the volcanoes that surround the country, and the history of its earthquakes. Random fact – they had an earthquake about 3 weeks before I arrived in the country and it moved the whole of the south island 30cm closer to Australia, throwing out all the GPS systems. I spent the afternoon internetting, and spoke to some of the Aussies still back in the RMIT village, which was really good. I went to see harry potter in the evening, which wasn’t that good before heading back to the hostel for dinner and an early night as I was still feeling a bit under the weather. The evening was quite uneventful until one of the guys staying in our room came back in, and was sick all over the room, causing us to have to change rooms at about 1 in the morning – not what I wanted when I had an early start planned!

I headed to noosa on the greyhound bus, which was pretty uneventful, but I did get to see the last half hour of the film cool runnings. I arrived in noosa at about 3:30, went to the hostel and checked in before checking in for my kayaking trip. I then went shopping for heaps of food for kayaking, and then I went back to the hostel for dinner before sitting sat the hostel bar with some of the girls from my room (not drinking goon though – couldn’t quite face it after fraser!)

I was up early the next morning, as my pick up was for 8am. I got on the bus to be told that people had dropped out, so there were only 3 people leaving on the trip that day, which was me and two german boys. We arrived at the storeroom, and picked up our barrels to put our clothes in, tents, burners and all the other gear that we had to take with us. We then drove to the beach where I had my final ice cream (its was about 9:30 in the morning, but I wasn’t going to have an ice cream for 3 whole days!!) before getting a boat over to the other side of the river, to the information centre.

At the information centre we had our briefing, and were given maps of our route, before being left on our own. We had a three person open canoe, and as a practise we paddled around the island next to the information centre, I was sitting at the back, and the seat was slightly higher than the other two seats the boys were on, which meant that every time they moved, I felt like I was about to fall out of the canoe, as we were sitting rather low in the water. After about half an hour, we arrived back at the information centre, which was quite quick considering we managed to get a bit stuck in some shallow water about halfway around the island, so had to get out and walk pulling the boat for some of it.

After arriving back at the info centre, we loaded up the boat, and it was packed!! We had no legroom, and the tents were balanced rather precariously on top of the barrels, so any sudden movements and they would have fallen off! At about 11:30 we set off for the campground. We had a paddle around, and paddled around some of the estuary before getting to fig tree point, which was our stop for lunch. We set up lunch on a picnic bench, and heard a rustling in the bushes, we waited to see what it was, and it was a rather large and ugly looking goana, who had obviously noticed that we were there, and was after our lunch. We  were sitting at the picnic bench, and the goana decided that it wanted to come over and try to smell my feet (not sure why…) so we all ended up sitting on the table, as they can get quite vicious if they feel threatened.

After lunch we had a lazy paddle of about 5km to the campground, which we made take about 2 and a half hours, as we floated for most of it. We also took a detour to see lake como, which looked like a big lake, but we did see some bushfires. We arrived at the campground at about 3:45ish, and unloaded the boat before setting up camp. I then had a sneaky nap for half hour, by which point the group that had left the previous day had got back (we camped at the same place for both nights) It was about 5pm by this point, so was starting to get dark, which meant it was dinnertime! I cooked myself some pasta and sauce with bacon and veggies, but I kinda overestimated the amount of pasta I needed, but ate it all anyway. I then had a caramel slice for pud, as they were on offer in woolies when I was shopping. We sat around for the rest of the evening, where it got quite chilly, especially as we weren’t allowed a fire as we were camping in a national park. We headed to bed at about 10pm, which felt like it was much later than it actually was.

We woke up at 7 the next morning, as the other group were packing up to leave. We had brekkie, I had porridge, which was much needed as it was rather chilly as the sun hadn’t come up and made everything warm yet. We left the campground at about 9ish to paddle upstream to campsite 3, which was 6km away. The paddle took us about an hour, where we had a quick snack break before starting the 6km walk up the hill to the cooloaba sandpatch. We then walked around the sandpatch for a while, before finding some shelter from the wind and having lunch. It was then a walk back across the sandpatch, and back down the hill to the river.

The paddle back felt like it took ages!! We were really tired, and so kept having rests, so the paddle probably took about twice as long as it did on the way there.  I was also sitting in the middle, which was heaps more work than sitting at the back, but was more stable. We made it back to the campground at about 4:30, and sat around for a but with the other group that had arrived before I cooked my dinner of chilli and rice. Bedtime was about 9:30, as it was even colder than the previous night.

Our final morning started at 7, with the aim of leaving at 8. We left almost on time for the 6km paddle back to the information centre. The paddle was pretty uneventful apart form the german boys deciding that they really didn’t like canoeing that much, and speaking to each other in german for most of the way. We got to the information centre at about 9:30, where we were picked up in the boat to take us back across the lake to the mainland. I got to drive the boat on the way back, which was pretty cool. It was then a matter of cleaning and drying our gear before getting dropped back at the hostel at 11:30.

I showered and sorted myself out before heading into noosa for the afternoon. I met up with alex m, who was up in queensland for his masters research. We spent the afternoon together sitting in the sun before going out for dinner, as we were both too lazy to cook! We then went to a bar afterwards that did oyster shots, ie a bloody mary shot with an oyster in it. I can’t say I liked it too much, but it was interesting. I was shattered, so it was an early night back at the hostel.

The next day I checked out of the hostel and drove down to Brisbane with alex. We stopped at a few beaches along the way, all of which were really nice. We also stopped at a really random pub on the side of the freeway – Oz seems to have heaps of them! That evening we didn’t really do much, and I was feeling ill, so it was another early night.

Sunday we went to dreamworld, which is a big theme park on the gold coast, which is about a 45 minute drive from Brisbane. The theme park was really quiet, as its considered winter – but i was still quite happy walking around in shorts and flipflops! The good thing was that there were hardly any queues – so we got to go on everything. The best ride was called wipeout, which is like an extreme version of ramases revenge at chessington, as it tilts sideways and was heaps of fun.

Monday 10th – the day I left oz.

We had a bit of a lie in and packed before going into town to close my aussie bank account, giving me enough money to buy some breakfast! We then drove towards Morton bay and Scarbourgh, where we wandered around the beaches and sat in the sun. We had an early dinner of Morton bay bugs with chips and salad. Morton bay bugs are like giant crayfish, but are mean to taste more like lobster. IT was then time to head o the airport, as Alex was heading back to melbs and I was off to Auckland. We arrived at the airport and for once there were no queues, so we sat in the bar for a bit, using up the last of my aussie dollars. It was then time to catch my plane, and I went in with heaps of time, but then was randomly given an explosives test, which took ages, so causing me to nearly miss the plane as everyone else was really early for the plane.

I arrived in Auckland at about 1am local time (3am aussie time) and had a far amount of queuing at the airport, followed by customs that wanted to check that I wasn’t bringing any mud into their country on the bottoms of my boots, so I had to get out every pair of shoes for them to look at. They also split open the seams on my juggling balls to check what was inside them – I wasn’t impressed, especially as the tried to stick the split back together with a little sticker!

Eventually I got to the hostel a about 2am local time, and collapsed into bed.

My second day in 1770 was pretty action packed. In the morning I had a surf lesson at the beach, and I was told that I had really good paddling skills – just needed to work on the surfing bit! However, I did manage to stand up quite a few times, none of which were captured on camera. At the end of the lesson, we all got a certificate for safe surfing level 1, and we were all very proud of ourselves!

surfing!

It was then back to the hostel for lunch before going on a kayaking tour around the beaches of 1770. IT was quite sunny, and the water looked sooo clear! We were in double sit-on kayaks, and I was sharing with our tour guide. Her dog also came along for the journey, and sat on the front of the boat like a little figurehead! We kayaking about 2km to the viewpoint, where we could see the landing place of Cook in 1770 (how the town got its name) On the kayak back we stopped to watch the sunset with wine and cake.

where captain cook landed in 1770

And then my camera met its end.

I then went back to the hostel for dinner before going to the one and only pub in 1770 with some of the girls in my room. It was a bit of an old man pub, but we met up with some of the others that were in our surfing lesson, and sat around for a bit, listening to the questionable people playing on open mike night. We headed back to the hostel at about midnight (where the hostel provided a courtesy bus service – which was thought was very nice of them so we didn’t have to walk for 10 minutes in the dark!)

It was an early start the next morning, as the bus came at 6:30 – and it was on time! I was sitting with about 5 other people I had met on my surf lesson, so after a nap, we sat around chatting for the 6 hour journey. We arrived in rainbow beach at about 12:30, where I checked into my hostel and had another nap.

At 4  I had the briefing before fraser island, where we were also put into our groups that we would be sharing a car with. There were 11 people to each 4×4. After the briefings, we went shopping for food for the 3 days, and managed to spend $220! But we did have heaps of food. After shopping we went back to their hostel for some dinner and getting to know each other. We ended up sitting about in the bar until about 10:30, where my feet got really cold, so I decided it was time for bed.

So, we all met up at 8:30 to start packing up the 4x4s for fraser island. We had to check that everything was there, and then load all the food into crates and eskies before putting everything up onto the roof of the car. The back was filled with 6 crates of beer, and about 7 boxes of goon under the seats! Eventually we set off at about 9:30 to go to the hire place to get further briefings. We collected our maps and itineraries, along with a few other bits a pieces and then were on our way to the barge to get to the island. We decided to travel as one big group with the two cars, so then had to wait for the others.

We drove to the beach with no problems, but as soon as we hit the beach it was rather soft sand, and the other 4×4 got bogged, and had to be rescued by a tour guide driving a bus, who drove it across the beach for them. We also decided that it would be best to get out and walk, so we ran behind the car onto the barge. We made it onto the island without any further issues, and then had about a 90 minute drive along some very bouncy roads to lake MacKenzie. We had lunch before getting our swimming stuff and heading to the lake. The lake was amazingly clear, and looked awesome! A few of us jumped straight in and went for a swim, and the water was soo clear, it looked like you could stand up, but in fact it was about 5m deep! We stayed at the lake until about 3, and then drove along some very bumpy tracks to get to our campground for the night. The journey was pretty funny, as every time we went over a bump the guys would start cheering at the girl melissa who was driving.

We got to the campground at about 4, and set about finding a place to camp, eventually we found a spot that was big enough for the 8 tents, and not too close to other people. Once we had got the cars unloaded and the tents up, it was just about dark, and time for dinner of spag bol. We had about 3kg of pasta between the 11 of us – and there was heaps left over, although we did manage to eat an awful lot of it!

We then spent the rest of the evening chilling out, sadly without a campfire, as there are big fire restrictions on the island. We went to bed at about 11:30, as it started to rain.

We woke up at about 7 the next morning to the sound of rain, so no-one really wanted to get up. Eventually the rain eased off a bit, although being in a rainforest meant that we still got dripped on every time the wind blew. We had breakfast and loaded up the cars before getting going at about 9ish. We headed back out to the beach, and drove along the beach for a while before heading inland to Lake Wabbi. The lake had a 2km walk in, so we took lunch with us. To get to the lake you walk across a massive sandblow, which is where the sand has been blown in from the beach creating massive sand dunes. We reached the lake, and were rather warm so jumped straight in , and the water was freezing! The lake was at the bottom of the sand dune, so was quite well shaded, espcially where there was a rainforest on the other side! There were also catfish living in the lake. After having a quick swim, it was time for lunch, where we started with normal sandwiches, and then reverted to crisp sandwiches when the cheese got a bit too sandy.

It was then time for the walk back to the cars, and another 20km drive along the beach to our campground for the night. We got to out campground a little bit before 2, as we weren’t allowed to drive on the beach after that time due to the tides. It was spitting slightly when we arrived, so we set the tents up as quickly as possible. Thankfully, the sun came out, and we went down the beach a bit to play some volleyball. We played 7 on 7 volleyball, with some questionable rules, although we did start rotating players when we remembered! We stopped playing when it started to get a bit chilly, and started on the goon.

We started cooking dinner at about 5, just as it was starting to get dark. We were told that there would be a barbecue, so we bought burgers, but there wasn’t one, so we had to fry them instead. We had about 60 burgers, and heaps of salad between the 22 of us, so we ate pretty well. By the time dinner had finished it was dark, and we sat around chatting and drinking. The irish lads built a fire so we spent the rest of the night around the fire, listening them singing irish songs. Being int he middle of the beach, there was no toilet block, so we had to dig a hole in the sand dunes. We were also told to go in groups, in case there were dingos around. So going to the toilet became a bit of an expedition, with about 5 of us going together, and finding a spot along the sand dunes.

We eventually headed to bed at about 11ish, as we were too lazy to collect more firewood.

We woke up at about 6:30 and it was clear and sunny. For breakfast we had heaps of scrambled eggs, bacon and sausages along with cereal. We were far more motivated to get moving as it was sunny, so were ready to get on the beach at 9. I got a chance at driving the car, and it was really fun. I drove for about half an hour along the beach. Driving was quite easy, apart form when driving through soft sand, where the wheels pretty much had a mind of their own! On the drive up the beach we stopped at the maheno shipwreck before continuing up to indian heads, the most northerly point we were allowed to drive to on the beach. We walked up to the top where there were some really nice views, and then it was back in the car for the 60km drive along the beach back to the town of Eurong.

The drive was ok, as it was along the beach, and apart from a close encounter with a plane that was going to take off as we were driving along, it was quite uneventful. W stopped in Eurong for lunch before going along the inland track back to the barge. We got on the barge at about 2:30 back to the mainland.

We then had to unload the cars and clean all the stuff before getting back to the hostel for a much needed shower! We then all met up for dinner before going back to the hostel bar for a drink. We all headed to bed at about 11, as we were all shattered!

Today I’m getting the bus to noosa, where I’m off kayaking int he everglades for a few days.

Phew – updates finished!!

My days in Cairns were spent mostly chilling out at the lagoon (the beach isn’t great for swimming in), and doing washing. I also got all my travels down the east coast booked – the most planned I’ve been on my trip so far!

I spent 2 days in Cairns and then got the greyhound bus to Townsville, to get the ferry to Magnetic island. I got to the island at about 3 in the afternoon, so got an hour of sitting on the beach in before it got too cold; when I then chilled out before dinner at the hostel.  I spent the evening at the bar with a guy I had met on the bus and a girl, also called Daniela from my room. We all headed to bed pretty early after a late night and an early morning.

The next day we got the bus to the north of the island where we did the forts walk, which took about 2 hours. The walk was pretty easy, and we saw a koala sleeping in a tree!

sleepy koala

The views were pretty nice, but the weather was hot, and we didn’t really want to be looking at the beaches!

We then headed back to the hostel which was right on the beach, and spent the afternoon lazing around on the beach. I then showered and had some food before catching the ferry back to the mainland. Sadly, the greyhound bus was running an hour late, so I was sat at the ferry terminal for about an hour and a half, which was pretty boring.

I eventually arrived in Airlie beach at about midnight, and checked into my hostel before going to bed.

It was another early start in the morning, I had to drop my bags off at the boats office before heading to Abel Point marina to catch the boat that was my home for the next 3 days. So after sorting out my stuff into the little bag I was given to take on to the boat, it was off to the marina. We got on the boat at about 8:30, and as we got out of the harbour, it got really windy, and mostly remained that way until we got back to the harbour! Our boat was called the Derwent Hunter, and it used to be used to ship stuff between Sydney and Hobart, and between Darwin and Indonesia before being turned into a tourist boat. There were 19 of us, and 3 staff. We sat up on deck as we got out of the harbour, and then as we got out into the ocean, we were shown to our rooms, and how to use the marine toilet! My bed was in the galley, along with two of the staff, called Abbey and Hewie. The beds were pretty small, but being rocked to bed at night was quite nice! As we got away from the harbour, we got to help hoisting the sails, so we set sail to whitsunday island.

the derwent hunter

The sail was really fun, but a bit on the splashy side due to the wind – and we all given some very attractive bright yellow raincoats to wear!

We did a short walk on the island, up to the viewpoint over one of the best beaches in the world, before going down to sit on the beach. We didn’t go swimming as it was a bit too chilly, but spent our time catching some rays, and sitting on the really fine sand (its 99% silica – so really pure sand) It was then back onto the boat to find a place to drop anchor for the night, and a bit out of the wind.

whitsunday island

One we had stopped for the night, we were shown where we had sailed, and then some of the fish we were likely to see whist snorkelling. We also got shown the fish we were having for dinner! Dinner was fish with rice and vegies. We then spent the evening sitting around, and we saw a dolphin swimming around out boat. We also got to poke some algae, which glowed in the dark when we mixed the water with the bargepole.

We woke at sunrise the next day, as the portholes in the deck let in the light. Also – once one person was up, everyone seemed to wake up! We had breakfast of toast, fruit and cereal (I was convinced to try toast with honey and vegemite – not going to have that again!) before heading out to our first snorkelling point. On our way, we saw a whale swimming alongside our boat, but I didn’t get a chance to take a picture, as it was only coming up for air.

The first snorkelling beach was called Pearl beach. We snorkelled straight off the beach, and saw heaps of coral and fish, especially when they started to get fed! It then got a bit chilly, even though we were in really thick stinger suits, so we headed back to the beach to warm up before getting back on the boat. We then had lunch before going to the next place for snorkelling, called Black Island. We got into the speedboat, but were too lazy to go all the way to the beach, so just jumped off the boat. While snorkelling we saw a turtle eating his lunch, along with some ugly looking eels.

jumping off the front of the beoat

When we got back to the boat, we got to jump off the side, including some frontflips, one of which I epically failed at, and landed on the top of my back. We also got to walk right out along the front of the boat and jump off the front. It was then time to put the sails up again, and head to a less windy point for the night. We watched the sunset from the boat before rugging up to attempt to escape the wind. We had lasagne and salad for dinner, but most of the salad blew over the side of the boat! We then sat around for a while and did a bit of starazing, as it was much clearer than the previous night. It remained really windy for most of the night, so we turned in early to escape the wind!

It was another 7am start, and after breakfast we headed to one foot island for some more snorkelling. We also walked up the island, which was the most exercise I had done in a few days! The island got its name from when the tide comes in, a small area of it becomes really thin, so you can only have one dry foot!

Once we were back on the boat, it was time for lunch and the sail back to the marina. So we hoisted the sails for the last time before sitting back and enjoying our last few hours sitting in the sunshine on our boat.

We arrived back in the marina at about 3:30, and headed straight to cold rock for some awesome ice cream. Once you pick an ice cream flavour, you pick some toppings and then it all gets mixed together – yummy! I had white chocolate ice cream with chocolate fudge pieces and raspberries. After icecream I picked up my bags and checked into my hostel for the night. I showered (my first one in 3 days!) and chilled out before meeting up with some of the others form the boat for dinner. However, it got to about 9pm, and we were all so tired we went to bed!

Th next day I got a bit of a lie in, I got to wake up at 9! I packed and had some brekkie before checking out of my hostel and then had th day to kill in Airlie beach before getting the overnight Greyhound bus to 1770. My day in Airlie was spent mostly lazing around the lagoon, and browsing the touristy shops. I spent the evening at the bar with some Dutch girls that were also getting my bus.

The night bus was delayed by an hour, so I didn’t leave Airlie until midnight. We eventually arrived after a rather chilly night on the bus at about 9am. I did some food shopping before spending most of the day vegging out on the beach. This evening I had dinner at the hostel, where they also did some really nice crepes wih chocolate, cream and banana; and just doing some internetting now before going to spend my evening sitting around the campfire.

I left Alice springs last tuesday, heading north to Darwin. I was on a tour with the company called Groovy Grape. We left Alice at lunchtime, and joined the Stuart highway (incidentally, its the only road we were on for the whole trip to Darwin! – no navigation required!) we drove 400km to the Devils marbles, where we arrived just before sunset.

devils marbles

We managed to get a bit of rock climbing and jumping photos in before watching the sunset.

jumping at devils marbles

We camped for the night in Warhope, which is the tiniest little roadhouse in the middle of nowhere. We had a bbq for dinner, and the rest of the evening was spent in the pub, playing pool.

I slept really well, but morning came far too quickly with the 6:30 wake up, and it was sooo cold when I got out of my swag! After a quick breakfast we were back on the Stuart highway, with a stop for Elliot for lunch, but apart from that, the  700km drive up to Mataranka hot springs was pretty uneventful, and I think all of us slept for a fair bit of it! On the way we stopped at the Daly Waters pub, which is a really random pub in the middle of nowehere, but its made its name by people leaving clothes/shoes/flags/money/other stuff which they display on the walls.

We arrived at the hot springs at about 4ish. The first pool we went to was concrete, so didn’t look that much like a hot spring, but there were heaps of massive spiders! The water was a nice 32°C, so wasn’t so fun to get out! We then went for a bit of an explore, and found a crocodile (only a freshie – so no need to worry) sitting near the side of the river.

freshie!

We could also go swimming in this river (not that near the croc, and they don’t attack anything bigger than fish anyway!) so obviously, I had to jump in and have a swim. The river was a lot colder than the hot springs, but there was a warm channel where the hot spring water met the river water.

swimming in the river

We then headed back to the minibus to head to another of the hotspring pools. This was more of a river, and was much less concrete. We swam downstream, and saw a kingfisher along with even more spiders. There were also heaps of bugs as we swum down the river, and I’m pretty certain I ate one! Swimming back against the current wasn’t so fun, as we didn’t realise quite how strong it was!

It was then back tot he campground, and curry and rice for dinner, followed by an early night!

We woke up before sunrise to have another swim in the hotsprings, which felt so much warmer in the cold of the morning! However, the run back to the minibus to get changed wasn’t so fun!

the hot springs at sunrise

We then drove for 45 minutes to the Cutta cutta caves, which were formed a very long time ago. Cutta means stars, and cutta cutta means lots of stars. The stalagtites in the caves are formed of calcite, which sparkles in the light, giving the illusion of stars.

We then drove for a few hours to get to Edith falls, where we had hambugers for lunch, followed by a swim at the waterfall, where we also climbed up the waterfall and explored the lakes and other smaller waterfalls at the top of the big one.

edith falls

There was also a cave that we could swim though, which was really cool. We left Edith at about 3 to continue our journey to Darwin. We stopped off in Adelaide river for a quick drink in the pub, which had the buffalo from crocodile dundee in it. We eventually arrived in Darwin at about 6:30, where I had a quick shower, dinner and then an early night.

I spent friday in Darwin, where I had a nice lie in, which was slightly hampered by the icelandic air con in the room! I then did some tour and flight booking, and sat around the pool for lunch.

I spent the afternoon walking around Darwin, which is another city with not that much to look at. It also doesn’t have beaches you can swim in, due to the crocodiles, so I went back to the pool for a swim and a relax. I spent the evening chilling around the pool with the girls in my room, and packed for my kakadu trip.

We all had to wake up early in my room, as all of us were on different tours. I had a highly healthy milkshake and orange for breakfast before getting on the bus to kakadu. Out tour guide’s name was Dan, and he looked like Russel brand after a shower and a haircut. First we drove to adelaide river, where we had a jumping crocs cruise, where they get the crocodiles to jump out of the water to get a bit of meat hanging from a pole.

jump crocodile - jump!

We saw some really big crocodiles, which look really impressive when they jump out of the water. We also got to hold a snake, and look at some other snakes. (they also gave us free breakfast before we got in the boat, which was a nice touch)

python!

After getting off the boat, we headed to a roadhouse to stock up on drink for the trip, and an icecream before driving to the national park. The road we drove down was pretty bumpy, but wasn’t too bad as we were in a massive 4×4 minibus. We stopped for lunch on the side of a river, and spent lunch getting to know each other, and watch people drive though the river. We stopped off to look at some rather gigantic termite mounds, which were rather big.

termite mound

It was then back on the bus, to collect  wood for the fire, and then we headed to the campground to put up the mozzie tents and drop the trailer off. We then stopped at the resorts pool for a quick swim to cool down and wash off the dust from the wood.

We then headed further into the park to see some aboriginal rock art, and we were told some stories that were used to educate the aboriginal people in how to behave, and the consequences of what would happen if they didn’t do what they were told, such as being beaten to death by a giant yam (ie a sweet potato, if girls went out into the bush on their own)

On the way back to the campground we stopped at a billabong that was used as a set in crocodile dundee (yet another reference!) and watched the sunset there.

i can't remember its name - but a billabong

We then headed back to the campground and cooked a dinner for kangaroo and buffalo sausages with vegies and mash on the fire. We spent the rest of the evening sitting around the fire, and attempting to play the didgeridoo, which is a lot more difficult than it looks, mostly cos it sounds awful and we all kept laughing! We also did a bit of stargazing, and found the emu that hides in the milky way.

We were woken up at about 5:30 to the sound of Dan making brekkie. We had toast that was cooked on the fire and cereal. We then headed down a really bumpy track to Twin falls, where we got a boat to the beach, where we then had to climb over a few rocks to reach the waterfall. Sadly, we couldn’t have a swim as there were crocodiles in the water. We stayed there for a while, and then got back on the boat and back in the van to take us to Jim Jim falls, which wasn’t actually running.

twin falls

The walk to Jim Jim falls was only 1km, but took quite a while as it involved jumping form rock to rock, and a bit of scrambling over rocks. We finally reached the beach and jumped in the really cold water, which was soo nice! We then swum round to the plunge pool, which was massive! It was about 100m long and the same wide. Obviously, we swum all the way to the base of the waterfall to check out the rock on the other side, before doing the long swim back again. I was lazy and swam back on backstroke, which was sooo much easier than the head-up frontcrawl I did on the way out!

We then scrambled back over the  rocks and got back to the bus for lunch. After lunch we went back to the pool to chill out for a few ours in the sun, before heading back to the campground and watching the sunset over the billabong next to our campground, complete with beer in hand!

Dinner was jacket spuds cooked in the fire, with lamb chops and vegies, we spent the rest of the evening sitting around before going to bed pretty early.

We got a bit of a lie in on the third morning – only to be woken up by the crows making heaps of noise, and the kites stealing the leftover bones from the plates we had left out from last nights dinner.

We took our time over breakfast and then headed to Barramundi gorge, which was amazing. The water was soo clear, and was really nice to swim in the sun. I borrowed Dan’s goggles, and we spent ages swimming though 3 different underwater caves. We then headed to the lower part of the gorge for some more swimming. It was then lunchtime, where we surveyed the damage of the previous nights mosquito biting, I think I had over 50 bites in total!

barramundi gorge

It was then time to head back to Darwin, where we got back to the city at about 6:30. I showered, managing to get most of the mud from the previous few days off my feet – the only problem was that my towel was so dirty, I didn’t really get that clean! I had a quick dinner before packing all my stuff and falling into bed at about 9:30.

Today was an insanely early start, with my alarm going off at 3:15, as I had to be at the airport for 4. I slept through most of the 3 hour flight to cairns. I checked into my hostel, and have spent most of the day chilling out, and booking my travels down the east coast.

Yesterday (I believe it was sunday) I spent chilling out, sitting with my feet in the very cold swimming pool and  reading my book. I also wandered around town for a bit and bought some food. I spent the evening in the bar with some of the people from my room.

Today the weather was substantially chillier than it has been the past few days (ie, I had to wear jeans and a jumper during the day!) but I’ve done a fair bit. This morning I walked to Anzac hill, which is on the north side of the town, and has some good views over Alice, although Alice isn’t really much to look at, but the mountain ranges surrounding it are pretty nice.

view form the top of anzac hill

There is also a monument at the top of the hill commemorating all the soldiers (known as diggers) who died in the world wars.

I then headed back to the hostel for lunch, via the shops to buy myself a hat, so now I can rival Olie in how cool my hat is!

After lunch I went back into town and went to the Alice Springs gaol, which has been converted into the national pioneer womens hall of fame. It recognises the first white women who lived and worked in the outback, and the life they lead. It also had a display on other Australian women pioneers in field such as sport, aviation and law amongst others.

Afterwards I went to the reptile house, where I saw heaps of Australian reptiles, along with Terry the saltwater crocodile, who was alseep. There was also a show where they got some of the snakes and lizards out, but it was really busy where it was the school holidays. After the reptiles I went to the flying doctors cafe for hot chocolate and cake before heading back to the hostel.

Tomorrow I’m heading up to Darwin on a tour, which will last 2 nights and 3 days.

I’ve also managed to get photos from the last week up on facebook.

I spent the Saturday walking around Perth, which is just another city really. The weather was quite nice, so walking around was ok, but there isn’t really that much to see in Perth. In the evening I chilled out before dinner, and after dinner I met up with some of the girls in my room and some English guys who were working in Perth and went out to a local pub before heading out to a club. Everywhere was pretty busy as an American aircraft carrier was anchored in Perth, so there were 5000 american sailors out and about. After the pub we went onto a club, and I was the most underdressed person there, as I didn’t really plan to go out clubbing. Clubbing was ok, just like going to bas vegas really. I think we eventually got back to the hostel at about 4.

I woke up pretty late on Sunday, so had a lazy brekkie watching the footy. In the afternoon, I went to Freemantle (known locally as Freeo) with Daniel the kiwi, who was in Perth on a break from working in the mines. We walked around the markets for a bit, and then went to see the old tower, which used to be a prison. We then headed to Little Creatures Brewery, where we sat drinking for most of the afternoon, sitting on the terrace that looked out onto the beach. We stopped off for fish and chips on our way home, and then it was the half hour train journey back to the hostel, where we were accompanied with a few rather downhearted Freemantle footy supporters, who had just lost. Getting back to the hostel, I skyped home for a bit before checking emails and stuff. We then spent most of the remainder of the evening watching the tennis, so didn’t go out.

I woke up on Monday morning to the sound of rain. But after breakfast, the rain seemed to be letting off a bit, so I decided to go to Rottnest island for the afternoon. I got the train down to Freeo, wishing that I had remembered to take some travel sickness tablets. I got the boat at 11:30, and just as I got on the boat, the rain started again, and the wind picked up. Crossing the harbour wasn’t too bad, but once we got out into the channel to the island, it got really choppy, and our little catamaran was rocking and rolling everywhere. To take my mind off the people being ill around me, I phoned Alex to wish him happy birthday, and then spent the rest of the journey talking to him and looking out the window, trying to keep my breakfast down! Thankfully, as we were approaching the island about half an hour later, the rain had stopped, and the sun was breaking through the clouds. As I got off the boat, feeling very proud of myself for not being sick, the sun came out, and it was warming up. I first walked up the east side of the island, which was quite pretty.

One of the beaches on the island

I then walked inland past some lakes to get back to the main shopping area, where I got some lunch, and was joined by a quokka. They’re small marsupials that are small fat kangaroos.

a quokka

After lunch I walked south along the beach, before going back to the boat, where thankfully, the journey was much smoother, so much so that I had a little nap before getting the train back to Perth. I then got back to the hostel, and had to pack before leaving for Alice Springs.

Rottnest island

I got up early to catch the shuttle bus to the airport, and arrived really early for my flight, as the shuttle bus had no-one else to pick up! The plane journey was ok, it was with qantas, so I got a pasta salad for lunch, along with cheese and biscuits!

I got picked up by the hostel from the airport, and arrived at the hostel at about 5ish. I found out that there were spaces on the tour for the next day, so decided it sounded like a good idea, and that way I would be back for the weekend. I had dinner in the hostel bar with two of the girls in my room who were also going on tours. After dinner we went back to our rooms and packed, ready for the early start.

I was up at 5:30 to have a quick breakfast and get ready to leave for the tour at 6. It was really cold, so we were all sitting around with heaps of jumpers on! We left the hostel at 6:15, and headed south along the Stuart highway. After about an hour we stopped at a camel farm for a quick break before getting back on the bus and heading west towards kings canyon. We had a quick lunch stop on the way, and arrived at kings canyon at about 12ish.

Kings canyon was really pretty, it started with a steep walk to the top of the canyon, and then we walked along the top of the canyon, before walking down into the garden of Eden, and then back onto the canyon and then back to the bus for some much needed cake and oranges. The whole walk was about 6km in length, but took us about 4 hours as we took heaps of photos – including many jumping photos!

Kings canyon

We were then back on the bus to head to our campsite, with a quick stop for firewood and drinks for the evening. We then had our final toilet stop for the night before heading out into the bush and our campground for the night. We arrived at our campground, and made a fire while our driver mark made dinner. We got our swags out, and sat on them while eating our dinner of chili and rice. We sat around the fire for a while before setting out our swags, which are big canvas bivvy bags. I was really warm, as I had my sleeping bag and one I hired, so after about half an hour I had to sort myself out, and take off my thermals and put my pjs on. I sat and looked at the stars for a while, before falling asleep, and I then slept really well for the rest of the night.

We were woken up at 7, just as it was getting light, and I was still toasty, so really didn’t want to get out of my swag. Eventually I got up and dressed, and had some breakfast before getting back on the bus. Our first stop was the toilets, for teeth brushing and putting lenses in. We then drove to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta national park. We headed to Kata Tjuta, which used to be known as the Olgas, where we did the Valley of the Winds walk.

kata tjuta

The walk was easier than Kings Canyon, but about the same length. Kata Tjuta was really pretty, and is different from Uluru, as its many different rocks, making up the formation. Halfway round we had cake, and when we finished we stopped for lunch, where we had heaps of food.

After kunch we did a part of the basewalk around Uluru, and Mark told us some stories about the Aboriginal people and the history of Uluru. We then headed to the viewpoint to watch the sunset, and the rock changing colour as the sun went down.

sunset at uluru

After the sunset we headed to the yulara resort, which is the main campsite for the national park. We collected wood for the fire, and then showered before dinner of thai green curry. We spent the evening sitting around the campfire, before setting up our sways and bedding down for the night.

We were woken just after 6, and after getting washed and dressed and headed to back into the national park to watch the sunrise over uluru. After the sun had risen, we had breakfast of sausages and beans before doing the basewalk around Uluru.

michelle and I wrapped up to watch the sunrise

The basewalk was 10km long, but only took about 2 hours. It was kinda boring, as its just walking around the rock. There were some stories along the way, which were aboriginal myths, which were quite interesting. We also saw some rock paintings, and a few other interesting things.

It was then back on the bus, and on our way back to alice springs. We drove for about 2 hours, and stopped at a viewpoint to see Mt Corror (which is called fool-a-ru as some people mistake it for Uluru) which is a massive composite rock, and lake Amadeus, which is a huge salt lake near Mt Connor.

mt connor

We drove a little further, and then stopped and had lunch of pasta, and any leftover food that there was. On the way back, we saw heaps of road trains, which are massive lorries with 3 trailers, and can be up to about 50m in length, and don’t stop for anything! We then drove back to Alice, arriving back at the hostel at about 5:30.

I then unpacked and showered before doing some washing. I the sat in my room and chatted to some of them who were leaving for the tour today. It was then time for dinner, where the whole tour group had dinner together downstairs in the bar. We sat around in the bar, and the food was cheaper than usual, but we all went to bed really early because we were so tired!

Today I was woken up at 8, and was told that I needed to move rooms – I wasn’t impressed at the earlyness! So I packed up my stuff and moved rooms, before meeting up with some of the others from my tour and heading to the camel cup! The camel races were really funny, as the camels kinda do what they want, in the first race a rider fell off his camel, and in a later race the camel didn’t want to run, so started eating the tree next to the track! There were also silly races between the camel races, including hobby camel races for kids, and chariot races for teams of adults. We sat around eating ice creams, and Andy and I tried camel steaks, which taste pretty much like beef, but a bit chewier.

camel racing!

We left the races at about 3, after the main races. It was also really hot, so we needed to get out of the sun for a bit!

I’m now planning the next bit of my travels, and photo uploading.