http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/et/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from et en-us Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:42:43 +0000 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:42:43 +0000 The time has come and it is indeed a rare occasion for me to write a blog. I think the last time was in our fair city back in 2005. I remember hogging the one computer at a busy backpackers called Vagabonds.....Today I sit contented in our home office looking out of the window at the blue skies of Canterbury watching baby Monarch butterflies bouncing off one of our sunkissed swan plants besi http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Christchurch/blog-453762.html On our last day we got up early to pack and have a quick walk on the beach before driving down to the airport in Cairns. On the way we made a detour back to the zoo to buy that 100 giant stuffed wombat that we had seen the day before but in the end we bought the 50 one because of luggage space...We drove into Cairns exactly four years to the day that we last arrived in the city it wasn't pl http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cairns/blog-431934.html Another reason for coming to Port Douglas was because we are celebrating our 15th anniversary of meeting. Coincidentally we had been in the same part of the world Mission Beach in 2005 for our 11th anniversary you may remember it being the second time the weather prevented us from Skydiving...This year for obvious reasons we had planned a much more sedate day. We started by having sideb http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Port-Douglas/blog-422089.html On Monday we went out to the Great Barrier Reef on the 'Silversonic' a boat Tim chose because he liked the name. It took more than an hour to get to the outer reef and on the way we saw a humpback whale breaching on the horizon.We snorkelled three sites on Agincourt Reef. The weather was warm but a bit cloudy so the coral was not quite as brightly coloured as we had expected but we had great http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Great-Barrier-Reef/blog-431933.html On Sunday morning we went for a wander around the huge Port Douglas market before driving south towards Cairns and turning inland at Smithfield towards the mountain village of Kuranda. Kuranda was somewhere we had planned to visit in 2005 but then we only got as far north as Cairns before turning inland and spending 3 days crossing the outback to Alice Springs. In fact we saw most of this t http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Kuranda/blog-431931.html Now you may have to question the sanity of two people who go on a crocspotting tour one day and then set out the next to a famous swimming hole but that's what we did...We left the Daintree Rainforest on Saturday morning for the drive down to Port Douglas a gold rush and sugar port that rose and declined and then was tastefully revived in the last couple of decades as an upmarket tourist res http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Mossman/blog-431930.html On Friday morning we drove north up to Cooper Creek where we had arranged to join a boat in order to meet some of the local inhabitants the infamous saltwater crocodiles. We had been advised to drive to a certain spot on the road and then stay in the car until the boat arrived and the guy running the cruise came to get us. Standing by a creek while waiting to go on a croc spotting trip is not http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Daintree/blog-431929.html We headed north towards Cape Tribulation stopping at the 'Daintree Tea Plantation' which was cool as we've never seen or smelt tea growing. We then had a quick stop at Thornton Beach to grab a coffee which is a much superior drink.We had chosen to come to Far North Queensland in August as it is the end of winter and subsequently has the coolest temperatures and least rainfall. It was a ple http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cape-Tribulation/blog-431927.html On Wednesday morning we arose at 3am to catch the early morning flight out of Christchurch to Brisbane. While we were waiting to depart we had a quick middleofthenight breakfast a diet coke for Tim and a cheese scone for Emma it was a strange time of night to be eating We had a great flight 2940km and ate second breakfast a shared triple chocolate muffin and suitably bad airline http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Daintree/blog-422088.html We received a special request from Dr. Bob to see more trees and forests and so yesterday we took a drive up to the Rakaia Gorge for a walk along the river. It was the first proper winter shorts and tshirts day... http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Rakaia/blog-426544.html Yesterday still enamoured with the winter sun we drove up to Amberley and then headed inland towards Mount Grey and the Grey Forest and Grey River. We took a picnic and stopped at Lake Janet and then drove some more unsealed roads down the Grey river for an afternoon's tramp in the bush.Just an excuse to post some pictures and say a quick G'day http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Amberley/blog-424479.html Last Sunday glad that proper winter is here blue skies and warm days we drove out to the Otukaikino Reserve near Belfast for a picnic and a walk. This place is pretty special in that it is a sacred Maori area and also currently used as a local memorial walk.We were near to the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve and as we still have annual memberships we also went in there for a walk in the late aft http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Canterbury-Plains/blog-424475.html Last weekend we saw the first signs that winter was starting and autumn was on its way out. That is it stopped raining and the sun came out. We've had an unusually cold and wet autumn and are glad to be back to clear crisp and sunny daysTo celebrate we headed out to Banks Peninsula and after stopping for lunch in Akaroa we drove out to Le Bons Bay which we've been meaning to visit for ages. http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Le-Bons-Bay/blog-417224.html Despite Tim having a stinking cold we drove down to Dunedin for the long weekend Queen's Birthday and breaking with tradition we checked into a luxury apartment complete with double hydrotherapy spa bath. We had been planning this jaunt for a long while as we only have showers in our own apartment and going more than a year without a bath was proving to be irksome.The weather forecast for t http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Otago/Dunedin/blog-404409.html On Sunday we drove west out of and sunnybutcold Christchurch on SH73 through Darfield and Springfield towards the Southern Alps. We crossed the awesome Korowai Torlesse Tussocklands and arrived at the spectacular limestone rock formations of Kura Tawhiti in time for it to start raining.Kura Tawhiti is a place that we keep driving past but as it is usually on our way home from a 7 hour drive http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Canterbury-Plains/blog-401248.html On Wednesday morning in order to begin the long journey home we were up and on the road by 7am. We first drove over the Crown Range which is the highest tarsealed road in Australasia and stopped for a short while at the Cardrona Hotel made famous by Speight's beer ads. We made it through the mountains to Lake Wanaka in time for second breakfast.Most of the day was spent driving through the http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Haast-Pass/blog-389567.html Heading southOn Easter Saturday after a suitable mountain breakfast of chocolate porridge with peaches. we set off heading South towards Queenstown. In the restaurant the previous night we had been amused by some tourists asking the waitperson for directions from Tekapo to Queenstown. There is ONE road and it goes down and across a bit. There's a detour to Mount Cook you ignore the turn off http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Queenstown/blog-389566.html On Good Friday after a good breakfast of hot cross buns we headed west out of Christchurch and joined the Inland Scenic Route 72 just past Darfield. This is a much nicer drive into the Southern Alps than the more direct routes. We were retracing our route taken over four years ago Easter 2005 as chronicled in this very same blog. To that end after passing through Rakaia Gorge we detoured http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Lake-Tekapo/blog-389561.html Feeling like we hadn't travelled anywhere for a while we headed out one Saturday morning for a quick 1000km trip up to Nelson and back driving anticlockwise up the coast along the north coast of South Island and then back down through the mountains.After heading up SH1 with just a few quick stops of course that includes visiting the seals off the Kaikoura coast we drove along the Sounds a http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Kahurangi-National-Park/blog-384586.html We used the annual Waitangi Day public holiday as an excuse to head out on the open road for three days as if we need an excuse.We left work as early as we could get away on Thursday night left the big smoke and drove north up to Hanmer Springs where we stayed the night in a backpackers. The idea was to get an early start on friday morning crossing the Southern Alps via the Lewis Pass.We ar http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Hokitika/blog-374321.html