Bone Carving...

So bone carving is a must for everyone in NZ, much better than buying one from a shop! It took about two and a half hours of filing and sanding to get to the finished product - but how good do they look?! Rob and I were both very impressed with ourselves!


First you pick a design and it gets stuck onto a piece of bone. You have to file it flat as close to the edges as you can....


Then make the edges rounded on both sides....


Cut the middle bit out and spend about 30 minutes sanding it smooth...


Get it polished up on the machine by the dude and ta-da! Our very own bone carvings!

TranzAlpine...

So - in the end last weekend we decided to do the TranzAlpine trip - which is a train that goes from Christchurch over to Greymouth and back. Greymouth is on the West coast and therefore you have to go up/over/through the mountains to get there.

We were super lucky with the weather - it was PERFECT winter conditions, blue sunny skies and lovely white snow on the mountains. When we got to Arthurs Pass it was actually snowing a little bit - but by the time we were back at sea level in Greymouth it was sunny again!

The train left Christchurch and wound it's way through the Canterbury Plains, we saw lots of farms, cows and sheep, it then follows this really cool river (Waimakariri) - lots of gorges and viaducts and tunnels. Then after going through the mountains you pop out on the other side and it's totally different flora and fauna - almost rainforest like in places.


Canterbury Plains with Southern Alps in the background...



A very good day out and i can recommend it to anyone who is in this area - we might do it again in summer to see the difference but everyone has said how it's much better in the winter. Enjoy the photos, it was total torture getting them as you had to go out to the viewing carriage, which had no windows, to get good ones. This of course meant being outside and it was winter and we were going about 60mph at least. Windy, windy, windy - but worth it, and somehow very amusing!


Little bit of the Wairmakariri in the moutains...


Snow at Arthurs Pass...


River again on the way back to CC...

And i know everyone is dying to know what we are up to this weekend... well in about an hour we are off to go bone carving. Yes, bone carving. Sit on the edge of your seats and wait for that one!!

Still in Christchurch...

Wow - 30th June was the last time i update this. That's pretty bad! Well, in my defense not an awful lot has happened really. Within a month of landing in NZ we both had jobs and somewhere to live, which pretty much took up all of the month to get sorted. But now we have both started the jobs and we live somewhere proper (we even got broadband installed!!) we've been off doing a few things so i have some stuff to say to update!!

Where to start, where to start?! Well one of the first interesting things we did was get tickets for the NZ All Blacks vs. Australia. Very cool game, but not nearly as noisy as you would expect from a big game like that. Compared to the English both side's supporters were fairly quiet! Maybe it had something to do with the fact it was FREEZING COLD!!!!





The next thing we did was explore around Christchurch a bit more, this made much easier by the fact we bought a car (yes another one). So one of the most touristy things you can do in Christchurch after seeing the cathedral is the GONDOLA! Excellent fun. Christchurch is on the Canterbury plains, which generally means you can see all the really cool mountains with snow on them in the background because all around us is flat. Apart from the hills that are by where i work which separate Lyttleton harbor from the rest. You can walk up them or you can go up on the gondola like a pair of lazy tourists.




Christchurch & mountains in the far distance...


Lyttleton Habour..

From here we went back down (in the gondola) and drove through the tunnel under the hill we had just been on to get to Lyttleton and from Lyttleton we went round the hill we had just been on and through, to get to Sumner. Sumner is lovely; we even got a bit of beach time. In our coats and stuff. No, I’m lying a bit, Rob took his coat of and our friend Shiv actually had shorts on. Though he is a bit silly. No photos of that, i wouldn't want to frighten anyone. Haha.


Sumner Beach...

Last weekend we went to Hanmer Springs to visit the hot pools and see the lovely alpine village. Visit the hot springs we did and lovely the alpine village was! The drive there was also very cool as we actually go into some of the mountains that we had seen. We of course clocked more sheep than we could count and i saw a deer and a donkey (not doing anything dodgy, i saw them separately), there's all sorts of wildlife in New Zealand!









This weekend we aren’t up to much. We were going to go to Akaroa which is near here and really nice but the weather is super super cold and the people at work said we might get stuck there if it snows, so we've scrapped that. We might go to the mountains or we might go up the coast and see some seals or something. Roll on the summer. :)

New Zealand....

We are in Christchurch! (thanks Rod!)

So - it's actually not as cold as i was expecting. After the weather reports we saw in Sydney of the snow everywhere and people losing power etc i was expecting snow on the ground! But - thankfully - there isn't. I think it snowed on the second day we were here, but apart from that the weather has been really nice. Very English, but more english spring than english winter, plenty of blue skies and dry cold days.

What have we done? Not an awful lot really. We are both in the process of obtaining jobs, Rob actually starts on Tuesday and mine is going a little slower but should be all sorted by the end of next week at the latest.

On the first night at Base Backpackers we headed to the bar to celebrate our arrival. Several beers later we both competed in a Rock-Paper-Scissors World cup, which wound up with me winning! Bonus. It was a bus ticket around the South Island with one of the tour companies, being a bit drunk and thinking it was worth about $200 (70 quid) we weren't that excited and left the bar (drunkenly) for a curry next door (excellent from what i vaguely remember!). But the next day i went in and got the ticket and it's actually worth $755 (250 quid), i NEVER win things, certainly not things actually worth something! A good start! Plus this gives us an excuse to go and get drunk every Tuesday night until we win Rob one! No luck this tuesday, we both made it to the quarter finals and then got knocked out. That was after i was part of a very strange juggling entertainer man's finale which involved the words "hold this mans legs and When i count to three, jump up - then wrap your legs backwards around my waist" - thankfully we didn't take the camera out with us. :)

Since Base we've moved to a smaller backpackers and have been here just over a week doing boring things like eating, sleeping, applying for work, drinking coffee and trying to stay warm. We walked up the cathedral tower (a large amount of small steps) and got a nice view of the city a few days ago - but some bastard stole my memory card and reader. On the card are the photos of that, plus some really nice photos of the sharks in Sydney Aquarium and the snowy mountains as we flew in (bastard, bastard - i'm not quite over this yet). Luckily there wasn't really anything on there that we won't be doing again so it could be worst. Grrrr.

Anyway - today we went for a walk about, ended up in the botanical gardens after walking along the river for a while. If any of you out there have been traveling for a while and miss England, you should definitely come here! It's England but a few years ago! See for yourselves....


River Avon


Look! Spring is on it's way! We found a few confused daffs flowering.


Haha. Rob and i are totally going to 'punt' the river. We are waiting until we purchase a gingham hamper basket to put the food in.






Reason it's called Cathedral Square

Over the next few days we are going to be apartment hunting. And researching all the cool stuff we are going to be doing once we've finished working! Hopefully I'll have some photos up of our new place soon!

Lennox to Coffs Harbour to Nambucca Heads to Port Macquarie to Newcastle to Sydney to Bris-Vagas

So we left Lennox and nipped up the coast to Queensland to get the car safety-ed, then drove down the coast to Coffs Harbour. Nice little coastal town with a brand new YHA that we stayed at, a good find so we treated ourselves to an Indian for dinner! In the morning we explored a bit and took some photos of the area and then headed off in search of Nambucca Heads.






















Another cute little coastal town, though we were starting to notice the cold by this point, we walked up and down and around and then got back in the car and headed to Port Macquarie for the night. We ended up staying in a cabin in a caravan park rather than a hostel as they are roughly the same price and you get a kitchen in your cabin and - more importantly - you get a bathroom. I think this is the first time in almost four months I haven't had to put all my clothes on in the middle of the night to go to the toilet. A luxury indeed!



Up the next morning and we explored some of the beaches (Port has LOADS!) and then walked up through the bushes to a hill thing / lookout. After some photos and a walk further around the headland I spotted something vaguely familiar out to sea. I called Rob over, and we stood watching the sea for a good five minutes before they came up again but we got to see some of the early season whales. They put on a little show, showing their flutes and blowing water etc. No photos as they were quite far away unfortunately. After this we continued down the coast, taking the odd tourist drive - one really good one being around the great lakes - until we got to Newcastle.







In Newcastle it was officially freezing. The coldest we have been since Japan! It was actually only about 12oC but still. Anyway, the hostel was doing a free BBQ at a local bar so we went down to that and drank too much. Of course! The next day we hung out there sorting emails and hiding from the weather, and then Saturday we made the trip down to Sydney.





We actually need to get to Coogee/Bondi so we ended up driving right through the city which was pretty cool. Rob's friend Ross was very kind to let us stay at his, and the first night we go there we headed down to Darling Harbour / Kings Street Warf where Ross runs a Latin American bar restaurant. We had a lovely meal and some drinks, and then some more drinks, and danced a bit and then had some drinks. Great night, and getting in after 3am makes it easy to lie in the next day! We also took the ferry over to Manly, only just missing the wine festival, but having a nice meal with everyone at an African restaurant and some drinks too. Enough drinks to miss the last ferry home (definitely the boys fault!).

(sorry about the lack of photos, i've been to Sydney before and have a load, so i kind of forgot to take some!)





We also made an effort to sell the car - which culminated in offering it to people for free and still not being able to get rid of it. It's total low season in Sydney and I think anyone who is there braving the weather is there to work, rather than to buy cars. We went to the car market in Kings Cross (for market, read dark car park), where they had a car that was considerable newer than ours, considerable more expensive than ours, and an estate, and they were practically giving it away because they were leaving the next day. This is what we had feared when purchasing a car and thought we had a back-up plan all sealed up. That fell through (never trust an aussie) which left us in a panic as what to do.

And here we are in Brisbane. Whoever says you can't drive from Sydney to Brisbane in one day is lying. You can totally do it and be here around 5pm in time to do some shopping and drink some well deserved beers! Daniel is very kindly taking control of big blue to try and flog it, and we are doing a relocation in a rental car back to Sydney (cheaper than flying). So it's Saturday, we leave tomorrow, hopefully get to Sydney Monday earlyish and get time to see the aquarium and the other stuff we missed when we were there last.

So that's it for Australia for now. Three months on the East Coast, so that means when we come back, it's three months on the west coast. We are hopefully going to time it so we can snorkel with the whale sharks and all that nonsense.

We fly out Tuesday to New Zealand.

To the snow.

SNOW!

Yes, I’ve bought a coat, my first in two and half years.

Tully to Innisfail to Mount Garnet to Townsville to Ayr to Capricorn Caves to Marybourgh to Lennox Head...

Well, a couple of weeks since I last did an update - we haven't been up to too much though...
Some pictures are definitely worth 1000 words. This is white water rafting on the Tully River.. Surely enough said?!?



So, we went from Tully further up North, but quickly decided once we got to Innisfail that we've been up far enough and time to go inland for a bit to see some mountains and waterfalls and stuff like that.

One of the first things we saw when we went inland was a cassowary!! Quite a rare sight, no good photos unfortunately because the car scared it and we were scared of it being close to the car and us.


Speeding cassowary!

The waterfall circuit was really good, about 6 in a day! Most of the walking tracks down to the lookouts were roped off because of damage from the recent cyclone. We went down them anyway, plenty of mud and fallen trees, and the constant rain throughout the day made it all the more interesting!

Ellinjaa Falls


Zillie Falls


Millaa Millaa Falls

We stayed a very cold night on Mount Garnet (inland and high up, brrr) and then drove down some of the 'Great Inland Way' back to Townsville. Now, you'd think that because this was pretty much the only road to get from inland to Townsville from the area it would be an ok road. Not true. Half of each lane was paved and then there was mud either side if you came across anyone else. The only problem was the people you came across were generally driving 50m long 'road-trains'. At 100kmp/h! Very scary, especially because our car isn't 4wd so coming off paved road to dirt at 100kmp/h isn't highly recommended! Anyway - this quickly got boring and 350km later we hit Townsville!

In Townsville we reunited with the girls from the Whitsundays trip (hi girls!) as Ali had taken the plunge and decided to return to England where M&M taste proper and you can buy monster munch in the corner shop. :) We had hoped for a boozy night out to celebrate her imminent departure, but we should have picked somewhere less... less.. Townsville. What we got was a great Thai meal and a few drinks in a few dodgy bars filled with dodgier people!
We were joined at the camp by a very brave rainbow lorikeet...



From Townsville we headed south to Ayr to do our last big 'thing', which was a trip to the Yongala wreck for a dive about. We got to Ayr and from there found Alva Beach and a great campsite and about 25 knots of wind. Far too windy to head out to sea on a little boat to jump into the sea. The forecast was for the wind to stay so we decided to stay too and took advantage of the weekly rate at the nice campsite.

And here's another photo that doesn't need too much explaining...

"Reason number one not to park your car under a coconut tree."

Anyway - we got there Thursday and the wind stayed about until Tuesday morning. With the wind came the kite boarders and two very nice English lads that helped us drink some wine, beer, Bundy and play some cards. They were also really kind and let us play with the kites they weren't using, lots of fun being pulled along the beach by big kites!

So we got out Wednesday diving. It was a nice dive but I think the whole thing had been hyped up a bit so it was a bit disappointing. And it was expensive. But, a nice dive all the same and probably the last time in the water for a while now.





Lots of fish and LOTS of sea snakes. The wreck has been down there for a long time and has bits of people inside apparently. Well bones really. I actually find it a little creepy diving on what is effectively a gravesite.

From Ayr we headed to Mackay to fix the coconut problem and then almost got to Rockhampton but it was dark and we were running out of petrol so we ended up heading to the Capricorn Caves as they had a camping site.

The next day we enquired about tours around the caves and found that there was a 'caving adventure' tour that was leaving in about 40 minutes, so we figured - why not, a little caving adventure sounded pretty cool.

This is probably one of the best things that we have done here so far! There was another couple that signed up too and we decided that instead of starting off easy we would jump right in and then "ramp it up" (in Barry’s words).

I was totally thinking that this would be some easy walk about in the caves with the occasional crawl on hands and knees and stuff. Totally, totally wrong. He takes us in this cave and then is like "ok, so to get through this you'll have to commando crawl all the way through, use your feet to move yourself forward". Never in my life would I have thought that it was possible to squeeze through the tiny holes we did. But as you can see from the photos there are big smiles so it was fun and scary, a great combination!













This is rob coming out of the "birthing canal", this one was totally determined by the size of your shoulders, you had to go hands first, and basically wiggle your way through. Pretty scary. Rob and I got through as did Ann of the other couple, but Raff and Barry the guide couldn't get through and had to go a different way.
Crazy fun.

From here we managed to get down as far as Maryborough and ended up going to the cinema to watch X-men 3 (very entertaining) and then down to Brisbane to quickly call in and say hi to Kelly and Mal (and Aaron) and then onto Lennox where we are now.

The car has been cleaned, polished and is ready for selling. Fingers crossed everyone, hopefully she will sell on our way down to Sydney or very quickly once we are there.