http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/DaleandBella/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from DaleandBella en-us Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:29:48 +0000 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:29:48 +0000 Kaikoura is a good stop for tourists. It's all about the sea and what lives beneath it. We booked a whale watching tour the morning after we arrived and managed to get last minute places. The tour lasted 3 hours and although very expensive was well worth it as we got to see three sperm whales. The sperm whale is massive and can survive under water for around 2.5 hours before it has to come up http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Kaikoura/blog-314065.html We arrived at Dunedin early afternoon and had just about enough time to look around the town before everything closed. Dunedin is a relatively old Scottish settler town with lots of classic victorian architecture scattered around the 'Hexagon' city centre. Now it's a bustling tourist destination being at the start of the Otago Peninsula known for it's wildlife sightings of seals yelloweyed pen http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Banks-Peninsula/blog-314064.html We were pretty much dreading the 2 hour journey to Milford Sound because of the warnings of the roads being difficult to drive on in the winter and had been advised to take a guided tour there instead. Thing was we wanted to stay the night there and the tours pretty much take you their and back in the blink of an eye and also we wanted the freedom of stopping off anywhere we wanted to on the w http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Milford-Sound/blog-312349.html After our shakey drive down from the Cadrona ski slopes we didn't want to drive too far that evening to our next destination. The plan had been to drive on to Queenstown but after an hour of driving we decided to pull into a town called Franktown to find somewhere free to park the van.We did manage to find a nice little spot next to a massive lake which was tucked away from the town and there http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Queenstown/blog-312238.html A 3 hr scenic journey took us from Mount Cook to Wanaka past lakes and through mountain roads. The town of wanaka is surrounded by a beautiful boating lake Lake Wanaka and again reflects all the surrounding mountains. We pitched up at our holiday camp before dark the plan was to have one night out of every two at a powered campsite where we could get hot showers and cook some warm food.After c http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Wanaka/blog-311974.html On the drive to Mount Cook we had beautiful weather and fantastic scenery. Just 1 hour before the Mount Cook National Park is Lake Tekapo a beautiful still lake reflecting the mountainous scenery around it. We just went snap happy everywhere we looked was a view worth capturing. At the lake we met a group of lads making their way down to Queenstown from Christchurch a mamouth 10 hour journey http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Mount-Cook-National-Park/blog-310737.html WOW THIS COUNTRY IS AMAZINGOkay so first to Christchurch. We flew in over the snow capped mountains of New Zealand and then in the distance saw Christchurch. After a smooth landing and then a smooth transision into our campervan go Jucy Rentals we were on the road and didn't have far to go to our camping holiday park for the night.This is the first time throughout our travels that we http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Christchurch/blog-310712.html We had an early flight to Hervey Bay and once landed we picked up our hire car to make the 3 hour drive up to Agnes Water. Hervey Bay would be our base for the following two days but to start with we had booked a tour of Lady Musgrave Island further up the coast to see the Great Barrier Reef first hand.The drive to Agnes Water was scenic and the nice thing about Agnes Water and the accompanying t http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Fraser-Island/blog-309258.html We had two months to spend in Sydney and the fist place we stayed was the infamous 'Kings Cross' We didn't realise the reputation of this place until we arrived at the hostel on day one a dubious area with a 'lively' night scene and gigantic neon Coca Cola sign as a welcome. Our first night was spent in a tiny twin room with single bunks small and expensive but with the most fantastic views acr http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-309252.html So our journey to the Gold Coast began. We hired a car for two days and made the scenic drive up to Surfers Paradise. On the morning of the first day we spent a couple of hours in the Hunters Valley tasting wine cheese bread and olive oil oh and champagne. We loved this trip all the freebies we could manage a budget travellers dream. It would have been nice to spend longer there and perh http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Gold-Coast/blog-309248.html Australia Land of kangaroos boomerangs and sportsmad ozzys.We couldn't believe our luck when we arrived in Sydney to blazing hot sunshine after 3 weeks in chilly china this was just what we needed And to be greated by a familiar face at the airport and know that we didn't have the stress of haggling with taxis or figuring out the train routes to the nearest hostel was great too. Our first t http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Gosford/blog-283233.html Apologies for our very delayed blog for Shanghai....After leaving the Yangtze river cruise on a very rickety cliff top path by minibus we arrived in Yichang about 1 hr later to board a sleeper coach to Shanghai. We got off the minibus with our tour guide who was going to see us on to our sleeper coach safely only to realise we had left our treasure vietnamese painting behind which we had http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-282005.html The Yangtze river is the third largest river in the world and the Three Gorges between Chongqing and Yichang are one of the most visited sights in China. There are various cruise options for this route the cheapest being the Chinese tourist boat where hardly any English is spoken cabins are basic and food is notoriously bad. Being backpackers this is the one we had opted for.We had both read th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Hubei/Three-Gorges-Dam/blog-260266.html Chongqing surprised us both. We had read in the Lonely Planet that it is nothing more than 'concrete city' a stopoff on the way to a Yangtze Cruise so we didn't expect to see bright neon lights swanky restaurants and a Hong Kong style skyline across the river. But that was what we found. We had taken a bus from Chengdu to Chongqing. The journey was only around 4 hours and so we arrived early http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-260257.html The sleeper train in 'Hard' class from Beijing to Xi'an had been fine. We were expecting literally a plank of wood to sleep on judging by the name of the class but we had a mattress of sorts to sleep on and a plump pillow quilt and get this a tv. Okay so we had to share it between six of us it only had chinese channels but who cares it was a tv after all. We wondered what the first class http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-257000.html Unfortunately the day did not start off well. We got up ready to go and visit the Summer Palace about 10km away which is apparently a must see while in Beijing. We caught the correct bus which was a good start and kept an eye on the map to see where our stop was we had to get off and change buses half way through. As the bus journey went on I became increasingly anxious.Chinese buses are ju http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-256990.html This was the big one the day of The Great Wall As with the Taj Mahal one of the seven wonders of the world and probably a once in a lifetime opportunity.Long anticipated and expectations running high we set the alarm for 6.30 in order to get down to Tiananman Square to catch a tour bus over to the wall. There are several 'parts' of the wall you can visit on a tour from Beijing. We found it d http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-256691.html We had a pretty good nights sleep in our hostel in Beijing. They have heating here and actually use it which is a novelty. In north Vietnam it had been freezing and everytime we spoke to the reception staff they brought extra blankets rather than turning the heating onWe took a tube down to Tiananman Square and then walked a short distance to the Forbidden City. The Lonely Planet advises a full http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-256682.html We took connecting flights the night before from Saigon to Singapore and then Singapore to Beijing and eventually arrived here at midnight where we were picked up and taken to our hostel to sleep. It is cold in China Okay not as cold as we had heard it was in January and February for the fist time in years they had snow here and chaos broke out on the transport system but still it was coa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-256206.html We had booked a tour to the Mekong Delta and were really looking forward to it. We got up pretty early in the morning took a mini bus for about 1.5 hrs to a boat station in My Tho Mekong Delta. From here we took a tour boat across the Mekong to the first of the stops.On the first island we watched coconut candy being made and tried some which was lovely. It is like toffee and they add other in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Mekong-River-Delta/blog-256201.html