Advertisement
We had rolled ourselves pretty far down the west coast of the South Island in our quest to see the Fiordlands so we had quite a task in getting to Christchurch for our flight to Australia. Our estimated drive time was about 9 hours, so we decided to split it up. The drive took us from Te Anau, back toward Queenstown and then on a northeastern diagonal ride toward Christchurch. We had decided on an approximate midpoint in a town called Twizel for our overnight stay. A bit outside of Queenstown we stopped at one of the "adventure sights" in the area, a bungy jump off the Kawarau Bridge into the gorge below. One gent even did a "wet jump" where he let his upper torso be submerged into the Cardrona River at the end of his descent. He looked cold. Theo, of course, was begging to take the 120m jump from the moment it came into view. He wasn't kidding. Fortunately, the age limit was 10 and over. Ivy went from "no way," to asking to do it as we were leaving. I really didn't want to watch one of my kids jump off a bridge, so her request was
denied. I didn't think she would have done it, but she kept talking about it even the next day. She continues to ask where a bungy jump might be.
About halfway into the journey the scenery turned brown and uninspiring through treeless hills. This lasted right in to Twizel which was a small town virtually devoid of activity waiting for the snow to hit the mountains about an hour drive to the northwest. Our hotel had a park across the street, so the kids did get a chance to burn off some energy before the cold night air ushered them into the A-framed cabin.
We packed up early and got back on the road. Mt. Cook, the tallest of New Zealand's peaks, showed itself in the clear morning sky. We had some particularly nice views across Lake Pukaki, not too far out of Twizel. We also stopped for some pictures of the Church of the Good Sheppard, a stone landmark on the banks of Lake Tekapo.
We got to Christchurch with little time to spare, but we did want to see some of the damage from the recent earthquakes so we snaked our way through downtown. Several
streets were closed and to make routes around them others were newly minted into one-way thoroughfares. Gertrude wasn't up to speed on the new changes and was asking us to turn on to closed streets and down the wrong way of the others. We finally got down to Cathedral Square and saw some of the other buildings and churches that were totally destroyed. The front sides of the buildings seemed to be most vulnerable and in many cases had just totally given way to the tremors.
We made it to the airport and boarded our flight to Auckland, where we were set to change planes to Cairns. Unfortunately, we were required to retrieve our bags and check in again in Auckland. Almost immediately after getting in line to check-in we were approached in line by an airline employee telling us that the captain had "cut off" the passenger load on our flight to 155, despite the airplane's capacity of 225. They were very vague about the whys and wherefores of this decision but made it clear that there was no way we were going to Australia today. Ultimately, it turned out that the pilot's decision was based on the
We're finally in Port Douglas
Geddy & Ivy didn't waste any time hitting one of the several salt water pools at the Sheraton Mirage Resort volcanic ash from an eruption in Chile a couple of weeks ago. This ash is still circulating through the earth's atmosphere and makes its way over the New Zealand and Australia airways every few days. Some travelers were previously stranded for up to a week. We were put up in a hotel near the airport and had to wake up at 3AM to catch a 6AM flight to the Gold Coast in Australia where we had to clear customs and catch a second flight to Cairns on the north end of the continent. Our airplane to Cairns had to be held to wait for us. We pretty much hit every delay possible through customs, including having our shoes checked for evidence of our farm tour. Ivy's shells that she had collected for herself and her friends were given a thorough review as well. When we got there, it was a surprisingly large plane. It was apparent that the waiting passengers on the full flight were told the reason for their delay. Besides sleep deprivation and some stares full of daggers (it wasn't our fault, mate!), we made it through this ordeal unscathed.
Upon landing in Cairns we could feel the warmth and humidity of the tropics. Even with a light drizzle, the new climate imposed a relaxed feel that was quite comforting. We commandeered a new vehicle, a sporty full sized one, and headed north from Cairns to Port Douglas to the Sheraton Mirage Resort. This drive took us along the coast with the Coral Sea to the east. We stopped at one scenic overview to take in the view. There was a hang glider that appeared to be taking off soon, but never did launch. As we waited for the scene to unfold, I messed with Gertrude to try and convince her that we were now in Australia. She seemed to think we were still somewhere in New Zealand. I got her fixed up, and we set out back on the road. To everyone's shock Gertrude's voice had changed into a higher-pitched Australian accent. After getting over the initial surprise, we contemplated a name change. This was shot down and we decided to just deal with the change and move on. The new road signs that we saw were amusing - "Stay Left Unless Overtaking," Yellow Kangaroo Crossing signs, "Don't Spread Electric Ants."
We drove past the entrance of our resort in favor of heading down to Port Douglas to check it out and get some food. The town was decidedly touristy although still small and quaint. The streets were dominated by Australian families as the schools are currently on holiday. Four of us settled on lunching at one restaurant. Geddy didn't see anything he liked on the menu (this pretty much means no pizza or pasta) so we turned him loose as we ate. After walking around the town a bit more, we headed to the Sheraton.
We had two regular hotel rooms in a pretty large resort property that sat on near the middle of Four Mile Beach. The entire beach is buffered by thick foliage that includes a large number of coconut trees. The resort is comprised of six buildings that have a series of salt water pools on the beach side. Some of these pools have a sandy entry. We got a chance to swim a bit before settling into the rooms for an early bedtime.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.078s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0438s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb