Blogs from Oceania - page 6520

The drive back to Perth from Kal was going to be long enough, but just to spice things up a bit we did a big fat detour (we’re talking about 400kms here) to visit a real unusual rock formation called Wave Rock. Its situated near to a place called Hyden in a mega rural area of Western Australia referred to as the ‘Wheat Belt’. You guessed it, they grown wheat. But enough about the wheat belt - I want to tell you about Wave Rock. It’s so called because its shaped like the crest of a wave just before it breaks. We’d seen some photos of it on the internet and in books and it looked pretty cool, so we decided it would be a worthwhile trip. We got there about 2pm and it was, funnily ... read more

We get up and have breakfast at our motel. We then walk into town to go to the DOC office to cancel our reservation to camp out on the Routeburn Track starting Sunday. We have decided that we cannot make another difficult hike just yet as we are still sore from the Milford Track. We get on the Internet to look at other options to do. There are several private walks where we can have a private bedroom and hot showers. We are considering these, along with some options where we stay in motels and do day walks. As much as we would like to be hotshot hikers, we are coming to terms with the fact that we do better with more creature comforts. We also go to the Information center to look at overnight cruises ... read more

We are now on the Otago Peninsula which is just outside Dunedin. We did stop in Dunedin on the way here but it was a bit grey as it was raining. Luckily it brightened up a bit when we got here so we were able to go out and explore. This place is a wildlife spotters dream. The first place went was Taiaroa Head which is at the north of the peninsula and the home to the only mainland breeding colony of albatross in the world. We stood waiting and watching for a while before we started to see some fly over. They are huge (they have a wingspan of up to 3m!) and are very graceful. There is also a colony of spotted shags at the head which were much easier to spot. Today we ... read more

Meredith Last weekend four of us went to the 15th Annual Meredith Music Festival. 10,000 tickets sold out in 10 days so it promised to be a good one. The venue was a farm just outside the little country of Meredith, which is half way along the road between Geelong and Ballarat. We left Melbourne at 6am on Saturday morning to beat the queues. We were third in line so not bad, although when we entered the campsite it was already pretty packed?! We were directed to The Top Paddock and here we found a place to park. It was pretty windy in The Top Paddock as was emphasised when our 'neighbours' informed us that their tent had collapsed on top of them the night before! We hoped we wouldn't be so unlucky. After setting up ... read more

Got up at 9ish. Caught the train and bus to Bondi Beach. Stopped at Westfield Shopping Centre to get towels and sun cream. Got to the beach about 11am and it was already 30oC and we could feel it. Swam and sunned watching the beautiful people passing by. The only down side was the wind was quite strong and sand get everywhere. (Was still finding it in the fat rolls in the evening!!) About 12.30 had to leave the beach because I was cooking, even with the suncream on at Factor 30+. You so easily forget the intensity of the sun. Went to the beachside café and had ham and cheese croissant. Eat that and then sat on the lawns above the beach. Once again got too hot and had to leave. Realised we didn’t have ... read more

Having landed in Perth Domestic airport following a 3 hour flight from Adelaide I couldnt seem to find any public transport to Fremantle where I had provisionally booked a room for tonight and Sunday. It would have cost me $25 for a shuttle bus and would have to wait 1.5 hrs for the next one so I decided to phone another hostel (The Billabong Backpackers resort) in Perrth and book 3 nights there (thius included free pick up from the airport). I then cancelled the hostel I'd booked in Fremantle and journeyed on with Warren from the Billabong after he came to get me. The Billabong is a large hostel with upto 250 guests, mostly foreign European (French, German, Spanish) as it is attached to an english language school where they all study during the summer ... read more