Laptop :(

Well for some reason I desided to patch my laptop while on the road. that was a bad idea! I lost access to my operating system!

I will not be able to post any pictures until I get it working somewhat!

Christchurch

 Springtime in New Zealand really is when the population jumps. I think there are probably about 5 million new lambs here,  bringing the total to 55 million that’s 15 lambs to every 1 human on the 3 islands.

Christchurch is the 2nd largest city in NZ with 400 000 people and has the 3rd largest inner city park in the world at 165 hectares! I wandered the streets looking at the old churches and then wandered the museum and botanical garden. They have quite a few flowers already blooming and a massive daffodil park with over 400 000 blooms. It would be quite the show when they are in bloom.

Today I took a Lord of the Rings tour to Edoras.  The site is up in the mountains and on private land; there is only one Tour Company that has the rights to take you up there.  It started out as a cold and rainy day but once we got up there the sun came out and the clouds went away. Standing on top of the knoll and just looking out at the snow covered mountains, the crystal clear rivers it just seems to be a truly magical place. 

One more day in New Zealand and then back to Auz. I don’t really want to leave as I really like it here and will defiantly be coming back!

Queenstown

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Originally uploaded by s webster
Ok so it’s colder the further south I go, it got down to -1 the first night. Anyway it’s been great down here; the town reminds me a lot of a very small Banff. The first day I went up the Gondola to have a look at the town they also have a luge that you can ride while you are up there. I thought it would be good fun but when I got to the top they closed it, as it was too windy. So I went for a short 1 hour hike and took some photos, there is a 5 hour walk that takes you to some old ghost towns though without any cold weather cloths I decided against it. I came back down to town it was around supper time so I headed back to the hostel to dump my bag, well I had some old Americans in my room that liked to talk, talk they did for 4 hours eventually I got away and headed to the burger shop called Fergburger. Everyone kept talking about this place. The burger was ok I didn’t think it was all that special I think my bun was even burnt!

The next day I relaxed and wandered the town. Saturday I was up with the birds as my tour to Milford Sound left at 7am. We stopped at a few places along the way to take some pictures of the fiord as we got higher up the mountains, you could see where the avalanches had covered the road. It has been closed 25 days this winter due to snow; normally it’s only about 10. At the highest point you go thru a tunnel that was carved out thru the mountain by hand and took several years to complete. We arrived at Milford around 1pm. At which point we boarded our ship for the cruse. The ship took us out into the fiord all the way to the ocean stopping at the 2 permanent waterfalls with the largest being over 50 stories tall even though it is dwarfed by the mountains. It is a really picturesque spot well worth the visit. We also got to see some New Zealand fur seals sunning themselves on the rocks; they are really small about the size of a standard dog. The After our cruse we hopped back on the bus for the long haul back to Queenstown (I slept most of the way). I went back to Fergberger and got me a Lamb burger it was actually really good much better than the one I had the other day. I did get fries with it I think there was about half a kg of them almost too much with the burger that is the size of a plate.

Sunday I got to spend the afternoon with Mike Langford, a world renowned landscape photographer. We drove up to Paradise, about an hour north of Queenstown and spent some time talking about exposure, framing and also taking pictures. The spot we went to was where they filmed numerous movies: Lord of the Rings, Wolverine: Origins, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian & numerous commercials. You can really see why they pick this spot over and over again. It was a great afternoon and my pictures now should have some of Mike’s touch in them.

Monday was a day of relaxing and then onto the bus for a 7 hour trip to Christchurch thru some great country.

Top of New Zealand

I finally got out of the hostel after another week of sitting around getting better. I hopped on a bus and headed north to Paihia. It’s a small little resort town 4 hours north of Auckland. Included in my bus ride was a ride on a high speed boat to the “Hole in the Rock”, sadly there was no wind and no waves so it was just a ride out to the island. After the ride I went in search of some supper and found some fish & chips. The fish was Dory; I was not all that impressed!

The next morning I went on a tour up to cape Reinga. We left at 7:10am from the hostel (I’m sure I was still asleep). The guide (spike) was a school teacher as well as the guide, he also likes to talk allot. The first stop of the morning was to see the Kauri trees. These tress are native to New Zealand and quite large, they also get very old (4000 years). We then stopped at a bakery for our morning tea. Then it was on to the sand dunes to do some sand boarding. We climbed up the steepest one we could find and launched ourselves down. It is allot like tobogganing but without the cold and clothes. It is much easier to climb up the dune without snow boots and ski pants, though you do wend up with sand everywhere! No one even got hurt; our driver did tell us how he managed to break 2 ribs 8 months ago on the same dune though.

We then made our way to the very top of New Zealand – Cape Reinga. As we got there the clouds started to roll in so we got a little wet. After looking out to both the Tasman and Pacific oceans we headed down to 90 mile beach. The beach is a registered highway and used to be the only way up to the top of the island. While on the beach we stopped to pick pipi’s (shell fish). I’m not sure why but some people like to eat snot! After collecting a bucket full we headed back down the coast stopping at a store where they harvest ancient Kauri trees from the swamps and turn them into overpriced furniture and objects. They have a massive staircase which was carved out of the centre of one of these trees. We then got back into the bus and headed back to Paihia stopping to pickup our fish & chips. I don’t know what kind of fish but it was really good. Cheap too only $6.00 well worth it!

Today it’s been raining on and off. I went for a walk down the beach and around town. Tomorrow it’s back to Auckland then off to Queenstown. I wonder what I will find for supper tonight.

Auckland – It’s fricken cold

It was a bit warmer in the day time but still cold compared to where I came from. I wandered over to the museum to see the Maori exhibit. They did a short 20min show and explained why they do the different things that they did in the show they also did the “Haka” their warrior dance, which they performed before heading off into battle. After the show I wandered the 3 levels of the museum it is quite large with each level containing different aspects of New Zealand’s history. Once out of the museum I wandered the winter gardens in which they have two green houses full of flowers from all over the world. “Yes” I did take lots of pictures.

The next day I headed down to the Victoria Park Market. After being to a market in every single place I’ve been I guess I was spoilt as it was rather small and was just full of Asian shops selling cheep souvenirs. I got me an ice cream cone and then sat in the park for a while. I headed back to the hostel for lunch then of to Mt. Eden. Mt. Eden is an old volcano that you can climb to the top of and see the city which goes on and on. Auckland is spread out as far as the eye can see in all directions though they do have green space that you can see as well which ads nicely to the city.
I did not feel like cooking so I went in search of some food. I came across a burger shop called “Burger fuel”! Wow they have good burgers. I’ve been back 2 more times since I got the first one. The next day I did the Harbour cruse and then took a ferry across to a suburb called Devonport. They have a chocolate shop and supposedly some good fish & chips but both of the fish and chip shops were closed. I did not do to badly at the chocolate shop only spending $50.00.

They also have another bigger volcano island here called Rangitoto Island which erupted only 600 years ago. The locals used to come here for a holiday and had even built a pool beside the ocean that would fill with the tide. I walked to the top with another Winnipegger that I met on the ferry, I sat had some lunch then wandered down to the lava caves. The caves weren’t all that big though you could see the stone and feel the difference between it and normal stone.

After getting back to the hostel I went and had a Greed pizza from Hells’ pizza it was a double Hawaiian topped pizza that was really good. That night was not a great night though as I woke up with a fever and a sore throat. I took some Tylenol and the fever broke, so I did get some sleep, but I still have a sore throat, so I’ve been just hanging out in the Hostel hoping it will go away soon so I can at least go and see some more of the country before I need to get back to Auz.

Diving & Adventures in Travel

I got picked up at 8:00 by the bus and was taken to the boat. We left the docks at 9:00 and headed out to meet the bigger boat that stays out on the reef. After a short 2hour journey where a few people contributed food to the fishes, we docked with ‘Kangaroo Explorer’ this is where we would be living for the next 3 days. After our briefing with the captain we got assigned cabins and headed down to the galley for lunch. Then we grabbed our gear and got in the water for our first dive. We would only be going down to approx 10m. We got out and the boat took us to another spot on the reef where we would be spending the night. We also did our second dive of the day after the afternoon snack.

We had fish and chips for supper followed by a relaxing evening. The next morning we were up at 5:30 and in the water by 6am. Even being so early it was warm and the water temp was a nice 25°C, on this dive we went down with a camera man who filmed us. We also followed a turtle and saw a shark. We got out had breakfast and got back in the water at 9am.

After getting out it seemed like it was afternoon even though it was only 10. We all got to relax the afternoon away until our next dive at 4. Then after a supper of roast beef and Yorkshire puddings we got ready for our first night dive. Even though its dark there is still allot of light down there as you can see the moon as well as the spot lights on the boat. When shining your light you need to be careful that you don’t kill too many fish as you can direct the big ones right to the little fishies. After this dive we were all tired so we filled out our log books and went to bed as tomorrow morning we were going to do a deep dive at 30m.

Up again before the crack of dawn we got ready and into the water. Down to one of the deeper spots on the reef we went. At the bottom our instructor pulled out a tomato it was green/grey as red is gone at that depth. We cracked an egg and saw that the pressure kept the shape of it for a few seconds until the big fish got it as it has found it likes eggs. He also took an empty water bottle and half filled it with air when we got back up to the top the bottle was very cold and under lots of pressure.

We did one more dive that day before heading back to Cairns. It was a long weekend and everyone was very tired. That night we went out and partied.

Monday morning I left for Port Douglas. Port Douglas is a little town approx 1.5 hours north of Cairns. It has a nice beach as well as restraints. Here I relaxed for the next week going to the beach every day and having an ice cream cone. I had to try all the flavours.
Now on Wednesday I had to head back into Cairns as I had decided to head across to New Zealand. Since I had nothing to do I decided it would be a good idea to rent a scooter and take a little local tour of cairns. Was I wrong!

I got the scooter and headed out first stop the Crystal Cascades. It’s a nice waterfall flowing into separate pools where everyone goes for a swim. It was a little cool especially after swimming in the ocean for over a week. After I dried off I headed out to the Hydro Dam I was the only one there and got some nice pictures of the sun heading out between the hills. As I left I noticed something was not quite right when I took the corners. It seemed to want to wander stopping I felt the back tire. Dam! It was losing air and I was nowhere near anyone. (Strike 1) Off I got and managed to push it up the hill and then down back to the suburb of Lake Placid. I went to a few houses and found someone with a compressor to get some air in it. Well as soon as there was air in you could hear it leaking out. Great! Well I guess I’m walking back into the city. After about 30min or so a guy stops to see if I need any help I tell him that I’m walking back downtown as I have a flat. He says that I might not want to do that as it is a 20min drive and it’s already getting dark it would probably take me 2-3 hours to walk it. He lives just around the corner and suggests I leave it there and get the company to come get it. So I head back to his house and we look up the phone # for the company as I didn’t have it with me nor was it on the bike or any info I got. The Owner answers and sends out a tow truck for me since I was to have the scooter till the next morning he gives me another one. So I run about the town to get some supper it was 8pm by this time. I was going to head back out and see the last look out I didn’t make it to in the morning but it was raining so I read my book returned the scooter. I get charged for the flat as well as the towing fee (strike 2) tho he does cut it in half so my 3 hour ride cost me $145.00

Well we get on the plane and sit there waiting for some paper work we wait and wait. It was getting hotter in the cabin. Finally the engines start up and we get a bit of air. Then the captain comes on and says there is a fault and we will have to wait a bit till it is fixed. We wait and wait about an hour now. Up the engines start and nope something still not right so we all get off the plane. After a while we get the ok to board again we get on and push off nope something still wrong so we go back to the gate and get out. Ok they think it’s fixed so we all board again. By now it is approx 35°C in the cabin. We get told that there is only one aircon running and once we get up to cruising altitude it should start to cool off. Ok so we push off again and start to taxi. Back on comes the captain and says nope the problem is back we have to head back to the gate. So off we get for the 3rd time. (Strike 3) After a few minutes there’s an announcement that we can come and get a free meal voucher. A whole $6.00 which won’t even cover a meal! So we hang around for a bit and then we are told we need to go and claim our luggage as they are pulling that plane. So we go and get our luggage and head to check in again.

I’m not worried as there’s still lots of time to catch my connecting flight to Auckland I just don’t get to sit around the Brisbane airport for 4 hours. I meet some other folks that are traveling to Auckland and we all head to the check in together. As we are waiting in line there is a call for everyone heading to Auckland to come up to the service desk. She tells us we are going on the next flight and will make it to our connecting flight. 5 min into getting us booked in we are told nope we are now going to head to Melbourne for the night and head over on the flight in the morning as we will not make it in time. (Strike 4) so we get checked in a run off around to get on the plane as they are waiting for us to get on. We get to Brisbane sit for 20 min and then catch the Melbourne flight. In Melbourne we are told we get to stay in the Hilton across the street. My first room to myself in over 7 months! Whoooooo!!!! (Though I did lose my room in Auckland as I had already booked it and could not cancel it) it was nice to have my own TV and king size bed. Having to walk to the hotel was not nice it was only 10°C out! Even though I only got to have 5 hours sleep! In the morning we caught the flight it actually left and we arrived in New Zealand at 5pm I caught the shuttle bus to downtown and walked to the hostel it’s a little cool out but not too bad. I find out that they had candled my room and the beds in the dorm were full (strike 5) lucky they had a 2 share available so I did have a place to stay.

Cairns

After spending the night in the airport, I arrived in Cairns at 8:00am. Since check in was not until 1:30 I wandered down to the dive shop to see when I could go. They actually go out every day of the year so I got myself booked in for Friday. I will be doing a 3 day/2 night trip staying on the boat at night.

After getting booked in I wandered downtown Cairns. Wow there really isn’t anything to this place! People come here just to dive or take a trip to the rain forest up north.

Since I didn't feel like cooking I went out and got me a lamb Gyro from a nice little Greek restaurant. Ended up sitting there for 2 hours they just wouldn't let me leave it felt really weird since every place at home is get you in and out as fast as possible.

I’ll let you know how the diving went when I get back.

I have found a nice little gelateria that makes their own. I had Caramel mud and Macadamia nut.