Blogs from Oceania - page 7051

Yes so as I last left you I was on my merry way to Oslo....said goodbye to sweet angel jackie....lined up in the cue for check in....it was surprisingly small...got to the counter and exchanged excited words with the lovely qantas woman and then.....it all went #!!!***??? This was the very sentence that made my smooth sailing travels somewhat DIFFERENT! " I am sorry dear it seems that your passport has expired." Tummy drops, the cold sweat runs across my brow....the sad thing....I had a intuitive feeling that was going to be the case. I had read the bloody expiry date backwards.... So I took a big breath...gathered my thoughts....and the AMAZING RACE ala Rayne Murray began. Somehow I had to try and get my passport sorted and then get on a later flight to Oslo. ... read more

From Franz Josef it was only a short hop inland through the towering Southern Alps to Wanaka, probably my favourite town in NZ. Although the craic is mighty in Queenstown, Wanaka is beautiful. The town, situated on the edge of lake Wanaka, our hostel The Purple Cow again probably my favourite in NZ. From the porch it was panoramic views of the icy blue Lake Wanaka surrounded by snow capped mountains. I was never in a rush to go anywhere. Wanaka really was a place for bumping into people, I met a friend from grape pruning we bumped into Laura from Nelson and Mandi, our friend from Uni. There where top Indian restaurants great scenery and even funky internet cafe's. What more could you ask, just a shame it was winter and trekking wasn't possible. But ... read more

The trip to Denham required a couple of transfers - first back to the main bus at Binnu, and then to a minibus at Overlander for the 1.5 hour drive to Denham. Elena, Daniel, and I were going to be staying at the same hostel - a YHA - and my first impressions weren't favourable. The dorms are arranged in sets - each set consists of 3 dorms together with a shared kitchen, common area, and bathroom. I'm in a miniscule 4-bed dorm with 2 girls and it's a tip, with their belongings strewn all over the place. The bathroom is ankle-deep in discarded bikinis, underwear, and what appears to be the entire Loreal hair products range. After dumping our stuff, the 3 of us decided that a cold beer would be an appropriate way to ... read more

With a blow on my Digeridoo - here we are at Ayres' rock - or Uluru in the local tongue. Apparently they don't use the Digeridoo in the North - but the rock is pretty amazing! It's a very weird (and a very Red) place. They got orgainised with tourism in 1984 - flattened the old hotels and built a new airport and resort outside the national park. As a result - it's nice, but expensive. They've got 4 or 5 different hotels catering to different bugets - but I think probably all run by the same central company - it's well laid out and there's a supermarket and a free shuttle bus around the resort... Any number of people will sell you a tour around either Uluru or Kata Juta which are both about 20/30 ... read more

A free day in Taupo meant that we had some time for a stroll around (and to buy Zoe a new winter coat!). We went for a walk through a Thermal Spa Park to a waterfall called the Huka Falls; it's more of a rapid than a waterfall, and the power of it is amazing. We then managed to get fish & chips, before an early night in order to get up @ 3am for the England game (though they tried their best to send us back to sleep) - bumped into some people that we'd met in Fiji, despite the fact that neither of us were staying at the hostel in which we were watching the match!! The Kiwi bus then took us up through part of the Tongariro National Park to River Valley Lodge. ... read more