Blogs from Oceania - page 7096

Fact Number 1: Cattle Ranches are called Stations in Oz. Our second day was a Crocodile Dundee Marathon. We'd got some serious K's to cover and so sat back through all 3 of the legendry films: That's not a knife. This is a knife! Paul Hogan Rules, although Croc Dundee 3 (in LA), was obviously a pile of crap, and it must have been face-life-city in the principles' dressing room, as they all had that permanently surprised look to them. I should just mention the sunsets that you get out here in the bush are unbelievable: amber, umber, scarlet, blue, purple - crazy colours! Fact number 2: Didgeridoos are made from branches hollowed out by Piping Termites! While catching a few z's though the many, many kilometers, I'd wake occasionally when our coach swerved to dodge ... read more

Leaving Blenheim Team NZ, that's Markus, Georgina and myself headed down the road to Picton. Our first adventure was to be the Queen Charlotte Track. A 2 day walking track running through the Marlborough Sounds. It was late autumn, winter approaching and the track apparently was boggy so we decided just an overnight stay and days trek. Packed plenty of Ham & Cheese and took the mid-morning water taxi to Torea Bay. Our plush hostel for the night, The Portage was only a short walk from the Torea jetty. A glorious day and with an avo to kill we rented a boat and set out exploring the Marlborough Sounds. The boat was about 12ft with a 2 stroke engine, none of us had ever done this before and surprisingly we made it onto the Sounds without ... read more

Following a few more days of drunkeness and cultures in Wellington (my favourite NZ city so far) - where I meet up with a few guys from the orchard, and even the owners - I finally made it across the Cook Strait to the South Island. The crossing is well known as being highly dangerous, but also beautiful as you enter into the Marlborough Sounds. This means 'fijords' for those of you as uniformed as I. Alas on the day I ventured across its was very safe, calm, and hoggy as hell! You could literally see nothing and we were amused instead by the captain calling us on deck to see the dolphins, and realising that the island is not really south but in fact west of the north! Getting the ferry across did fell like ... read more

We arrived in Hervey Bay, fresh off the plane from Sydney and were conspicuous from the start, overdressed in our jeans, fleeces and trainers, whilst the locals wandered round in board shorts and flip slops. The temperature was about 15 degrees warmer than it had been in Sydney, the sun was hot in the sky and it seemed strange to think that it is autumn/winter here. The shuttle bus took us through dry, arid and very flat landscape, now and again dotted with a few settlements. Nearer Bundaberg the landscape changed to green fields as far as the eye could see, mainly sugar cane farms. We were dropped off at Cellblock, the place we would call home for the next week or so, and found our room to be in a converted cell. Quite appropriate considering ... read more

How many people do you know that has walked two glaciers in one day??? WEll, i suppose everyone who has holidayed in new zeland. We first went to fox glacier and then the franz josef, wont bore you with the details, you can just look at the photos. The sun in out shining, and we are going to have a walk on the beach to look for some gem stones. Enjoy... read more