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Published: March 1st 2016
Paul and I went down to the National Park on Dec 11th with hopes of completing the Tongariro Crossing the following day. Well, the weather wasn't so nice here in NZ yet, so Saturday proved to be the same and it was cold, rainy, and windy. We stayed at a hotel there that offered transportation for drop off and pick up, but they cancelled the transportation because of the weather. Instead, on Saturday we drove to Taupo where we already had a hotel booked for that night and we did some sightseeing. It was rainy in Taupo as well, but Paul and I decided to go for a walk around town. In town, we saw the 1/2 Ironman event was going on so we figured we'd go and cheer on the competitors. Paul, having done some of the Ironman events, knows the day gets long and it's nice to have some cheerleaders so we went to the run finish. By the time we got there the winners had just passed us, but similar to the WI Ironman, the run is a two looper so we caught a lot of people making their turn for the second lap. That has just got
to be tough, out there having already swam and biked in the rain and then you're on to a 1/2 marathon and you see the finish in your sight, you see people going straight for the finish, but no, you have to turn Right and go do another lap. Yuck. I think we watched for awhile then went to get lunch and came back to cheer on the people at the end. After checking into the hotel dried off and the weather improved so we headed back out to go for a walk along the Waikato River. We learned the next day that the path extends all the way from the Thermal Park to the Aratiatai Rapids. A nice walk along the river, but long. Walking between the two would be around 3 hours one way. We ended the day with dinner at the Crafty Trout brewery. Crafty Trout is like a Bavarian bar so it had some (what sounded like German music) on in the background and good beer. We did a beer tasting flight that included ginger beer and a cider as well. The pizza was tasty as well.
The weather proved to be a little better
on Sunday so we spent the day seeing some of the Taupo sights, like the Spa Thermal Park, Huka Falls, the opening of the Dam on the Waikato River, and subsequently the water rushing through a narrowed area that forms the Aratiatia Rapids. It wasn't quite warm enough to enjoy any of the Lake activities, but we did take a dip in the Thermal Park which proves to be the perfect activity if it's not very warm out. NZ has proven to be a low crime area and I feel safe everywhere I go, but there were a couple signs warning about thieving at the thermal park. I suppose it's just a warning for people to not leave their valuables out in plain sight which is more of just a common sense thing. We had no problems, but we just left our money and phones in the car. Then we headed back home with plans to return in March to volunteer for the Full Ironman in Taupo.
The following weekend (Dec 19), Paul and I ventured into the Waitomo region. It's really only like 45 minutes from our place, but we've just traveled through or around it and never
stopped. The Waitomo region is popular for the caves, especially because they have glowworms. Glowworms are basically bioluminescent larvae of a flying insect, but they're supposed to look really neat. There are tours ranging from boat or kayak tours through the caves to tours that offer a mix of walking, rock climbing/rappelling, and tubing. Paul had heard about some other less popular caves in the region that were supposed to also have glowworms and be free so we took a day to go check them out. The roads to get there were very windy and it was past the other caves so it was like 1.5 hr drive and the caves turned out to be a bust. The Piripiri Cave we checked out was just a staircase down a small cave, but there was still too much light to see if there were any glowworms there. We've seen some caves before like Cave of the Mounds in WI and a cave in Mammoth Caves in KY, so this wasn't too impressive. We did see the Mangapohue Natural Bridge which was pretty, but not quite worth the drive. We plan to do one of the actual glowworms caves tours in the
future. To make the trip worth it, though, we stopped at Big Azz in Waitomo for fresh fruit ice cream, basically a mixture of soft serve and fresh fruit, I guess. Whatever it was, it tasted great. (I feel like I always talk about Paul and me eating pizza and ice cream and drinking beer. I swear we're not that unhealthy all the time!)
In New Zealand, schools basically run year round, but they have like a 2 month break in Summer, so from December to February. It's a mind-**** to think of Summer break being in December. I know it's Summer and I know it's December, but when I reference the break, I keep calling it Winter break out of habit. It's just weird to me. It's really nice that way to have the break for the nice Summer weather, but also to combine it to have off for Christmas and the New Year. My work shut down for about 2-3 weeks as well. I think quite a few companies shut down or just expect their employees to take extended breaks during that time as well. It's a popular time for people to just disappear to
Walk along Waikato River
Near Taupo on the way from Tongariro Crossingtheir bachs/cottages by the beach for a month. Anyway, Paul and I took advantage of the break by going to Australia. We figured if we weren't going to be able to spend Christmas and New Years with family/friends then we should go on a fun memorable trip instead!
We started out by flying to Melbourne on the Southern Coast of Australia on December 23rd. By the time we got our rental car and hit the road it was around 10:00 AM. I had looked for a new swimsuit in NZ, but couldn't find one I really liked so we started out the vacation with a trip to the Highpoint Shopping Centre. The mall was massive, in fact according to Wikipedia, it's the third largest in Australia. I would've thought it could've been the largest because it was so expansive. People in Melbourne must love to shop, because it also hosts the largest shopping mall in the Southern Hemisphere, Chadstone. We found a swimsuit, walked around to stretch our legs after the flight, had lunch, and picked up some snacks from the fruit and vegetable market in the mall. Then we hit the road for the first leg of the
Great Ocean Road drive. The Road really starts in Geelong, so it was about an hour drive just to get there. Driving through Australia in December was a stark difference from NZ where we left. NZ is very hilly and green and the first part of the drive showed a very flat, dry landscape. We drove past some farms and I felt bad for the cows, because the Melbourne area was experiencing a very hot dry spell and there were barely any trees to provide shade for them. Our first stop on the Great Ocean Road was at Bells Beach, a famous surf beach. We stopped and watched some surfers then continued onto another beach where we laid out to soak up some sun (after sunscreen application) and take a nap since it had been a long morning on little to no sleep. Typical for me, pack all night before a vacation then regret it because I'm so tired the first day. Maybe I'll learn someday... I have to say I was really impressed with the beaches in Australia. The sand was just so soft and not filled with seashells. They were also really clean and well cared for. The
next stop was at the Anglesea Golf Club to view some wild kangaroos. It is a spot that is known to have kangaroos and the tourist guides at the I-Site marked up a map with places we should stop. There was an option to get a closer look at the roos by paying $10 per person to go on a golf cart ride. We didn't do that, though. We just parked and saw two groups of kangaroos just lounging in the shade and hopping around eating grass. The areas were roped off, partially to prevent people from chasing the kangaroos, but also to prevent people from getting hit with golf balls because they were actually on the golf course. I don't think the kangaroos get hit, though, don't worry. It was weird to see the kangaroos in the wild and have it just be normal. For Australians, it'd be like us seeing a white-tailed deer in Wisconsin. The fact they were on a golf course reminded me of Alligators on golf courses in Florida. I think I'd rather be surprised by a kangaroo instead of an Alligator. This stop was only like 5-10 minutes, but it was neat. We then
continued onto our hotel, the Grand Pacific Hotel in Lorne. The hotel was built in 1875 and has been fully restored at some point since. It looks very charming and majestic and it has a great location as sits on a point and provides great views of the ocean. Unfortunately it is a little dated with creaky floors and seems a little more old than vintage, but it was still a really nice place. We walked across the street to a pier and saw a massive ray under the pier. The water was pretty clear that we could see it just gliding along the sandy bottom. It was really neat to see, but I was happy to be on land seeing it and not in the water! We finished the night relaxing on the veranda.
The next morning, Christmas Eve, we continued our drive along the Great Ocean Road. Our first stop of the day was at the Kennet River area. It's a spot that is known to have wild parrots and koalas. Again, the animals are in their natural habitat, it's just marked as an area where they're popular so people stop and look for them. The birds
Beach
Along Great Ocean Road
Melbourne, Australia were at the beginning of a walking trail and seemed used to seeing tourists. Further up the trail we saw some koalas sleeping in the trees. They were kind of far up so we couldn't get great photos, but it was still neat to see them knowing they're in their natural habitat just doing what koalas (and I) do-sleeping all day. We continued the drive, just taking in the gorgeous views of the ocean and the beautiful sunny day. We went to see the Cape Otway Lighthouse, Australia's oldest functioning lighthouse. I think lighthouses look neat, there is just something about them, but at the same time it doesn't take long to just look at it and move on. The really nice thing about this lighthouse, though, is that it's on a pretty far Southern point so the views of the Southern Ocean were great. Signs said it's a popular area to see whales in the Winter and Spring. That would've been neat to see, but we went in Summer so we didn't get that opportunity. The Southern coast of Australia in this area is also known for its multiple shipwrecks. We didn't do any diving, but that is an
option in some of the areas. There are options to drive more inland to see waterfalls at Erskine Falls and Otway Fly and Triplet Falls, but we already had quite a bit of driving to do so we stayed along the coast. The next stop was the Twelve Apostles which are towering limestone rocks that were created by the erosion of the limestone cliffs which make up the coastline. I don't think there are still 12 standing, but what's left is still amazing to see. The weather and clear skies provided an amazing photography opportunity so even though I just had my phone to take pictures and I'm no photographer despite taking a class on it in highschool, the pictures turned out really well. Basically the fact that my pictures turned out great just give credit to how awe-inspiring the views actually are in person. The Great Ocean Road is a popular tourist spot and we went during a popular vacationing time, so there were just busloads of tourists at a lot of the sights, but we still got to see everything. I think it would've been better had it not been as crowded, though, just to make it feel
Wild Birds
Kennett River
Melbourne, Australia more natural and less touristy. There was an option to take a like 10 minute helicopter ride to see the 12 Apostles from the sky, but we skipped on that. The lines were really long, though, so it is obviously a popular thing to do. We stopped for a late lunch in the Port Campbell area but seeing as how it was Christmas Eve and it's a popular time for locals and tourists to take holiday, there was only one restaurant open. Port Campbell had a nice beach on a little inlet and there were a lot of people out enjoying the beautiful day. We still had an hour or so of driving left and we were getting tired, so we just hit the road instead of getting some more beach time. There were two sights we stopped at, but only for a really quick stop because there were a lot of flies buzzing around everyone. The flies were just really annoying so we couldn't fully enjoy the views of the Loch Ard Gorge, the London Bridge, and a grotto. Three more examples of the effects of the strong ocean on the limestone cliffs. We ended our night by staying
Wild Koala
Kennett River
Melbourne, Australia at the Quality Suites Deep Blue. It was a nice hotel and it was the closest one to the ocean in Warrnambool, which is pretty much the end of the "Great Ocean Road." There are roads that continue along the Ocean, though, leading all the way to Adelaide. In Warrnambool there is a marine reserve where seals, dolphins, and penguins frequent in the Winter/Spring. There is actually this small island called, "Middle Island," that is a home to little penguins. Foxes were introduced to the island, though, and decimated the colony until a man thought up an idea to put sheepdogs on the island to protect the penguins, which was successful. There is actually a family movie about this coming out in theaters, Oddball. Looks like a cute one to rent someday. Paul and I walked down to the coast in the morning to see the water once more before we started our inland drive back to Melbourne. We returned to Melbourne in the early afternoon, checked into our hotel in St. Kilda, and went for a walk around the Botanical Gardens before dinner. Since it was Christmas Day, Paul and I splurged and booked a buffet dinner at the
Stingray
In the water by a pier by our hotel in Lorne
Melbourne, Australia Grand Hyatt Melbourne Collins kitchen. We figured there wouldn't be a lot of other dining options available and I'd really be missing family and Mom's amazing cooking and it turned out to be really good so I'm glad we did. The buffet lasted 2.5 hours and the food was delicious. Of course we still missed our families, though!
The next day, we saw the Shrine of Remembrance which is a museum dedicated to those who died during WWI, but also to other veterans. NZ and Australia have a lot of war memorials dedicated to the Anzacs/WWI soldiers who died, because the bodies weren't returned to the families, so the memorials provided a place for families to grieve and honor their lost loved ones. I would highly recommend seeing the Shrine. Then we headed into the downtown area and it was packed with people for the big Boxing Day Sales. I mean people were going crazy, carrying like 5 bags each and there were lines out the door for some stores. I'd say we just window shopped, but it was so busy we could barely see the windows of the stores! Melbourne had some Christmas decorations around town to put
us in the festive mood, but it was hard to feel like Christmas when it was in the 80s and we weren't with family. It was still nice. The decorations included a big lego Christmas tree scene and Myer Shopping Center had a multi-window display that told a short story about a dog. It was so crowded so it was hard to get a good view of them, but it was neat. Melbourne was a neat city, but I think my favorite part was the Great Ocean Road and it could've been a whole vacation on its own!
Next city on our tour of Australia was Brisbane. I have a friend, Laura, who used to live in Brisbane and she gave us some suggestions of what to do. I was so silly I never visited her when she lived here. I used to think Australia and New Zealand were so far away and expensive that it seemed outside of the realm of possibility. Funny how things work out. Well, I thought of Laura even if I couldn't see her here. We could see her previous office building from our hotel room. 😊 We stayed at a hotel that was
a mix of apartments and rentals, reminded me of the Astor Hotel in Milwaukee. We spent our first day in Brisbane by trapping ourselves in a small room and seeing if we could get out (Escape Hunt-Boggo Road Gaol). Well, not the whole day, just under an hour...yes, we did escape AND solve the crime. 😊 There was a screen that gave us some clues as we went on, but they weren't too obvious. It was fun, and Paul and I worked well together. He had previously done an Escape game in Vancouver with coworkers and he's super smart so he figured out a lot of the puzzles, but I spent some time reading the suspect profiles so I was helpful in solving the crime. Solving the crime wasn't part of the escaping, but getting it correct was a bonus. After that we went for a walk around the city along the river. We came across this awesome beach/pool complex right next to the path. It looked like it was a free park, but we didn't have our suits and we ran out of time to go check it out. It was busy, but looked really fun. That night, we
went to the Beach House Bar and Grill for dinner and drinks. It was a really neat open air atmosphere with live music.
The next day we went to the Lone Pine Sanctuary. Again, because of the tourists it was packed, but still a highly recommended thing to do. In fact, I don't think one should be able to visit Brisbane and NOT do it! We took a bus to get there because it's not right downtown, but still worth the time to get there and back. Lone Pine is like a zoo, but with more open space than cages and it's main focus was koalas. I don't know how many are there, but there's a ton! They're not exactly entertaining because they pretty much just eat and sleep all day, but they're super cute so that's all that matters. There was also a large open area with free roaming animals: emu, kangaroos, wallabies, and parrots(?). The roos/wallabies had an area that was cordoned off so they could go there to be seen and not touched. People can buy kangaroo food there and the first time we went in there, the animals were full and tired so people just
put the food in front of them and they slept through it. We returned later in the day and quite a few of them were out being social so we could get some good petting and pictures. I have to say Lone Pine was great, but if it was in America, there would be park rangers around making sure people aren't being stupid. In Australia, they just put up a sign that basically says you're responsible if you do something stupid and get hurt. Some kids were putting their faces in front of the kangaroos and getting really close, but the animals are obviously used to it all. I was more respectful/weary and pet them but kept a little distance. They were super friendly, though, and soft to the touch. In order to touch the koalas, though, you had to get in a line at specific koala interaction times. You could hold one for free, but you had to pay if you wanted a picture. The line was long despite there being like 5 staff members with koalas. At times, they determined the particular koala was overstimulated or over the attention, so then they'd switch them out for another one.
So it didn't seem too mean to the koalas. Paul was really kind and let me hold the koala, but he got to pet it. The holding it and getting a picture went so fast, though. It was over in like a minute. I wanted to keep holding it and take it with me, but I guess they don't allow that. Whatever. haha. That evening we planned to make dinner in our hotel room since it had a full kitchenette. We wanted to then take our dinner/drinks down to the hotel pool, but the water was unfortunately too cold when we made it down there. Our homemade dinner was a nice change from eating out at restaurants for our meals and that says a lot coming from me, who enjoys eating but NOT cooking. We spent our last day (Dec 29) touring around the city, walking to Roma Street Parkland, and took a boat taxi down to the Warehouse for appetizer and drinks. Roma Street was a nice park, but kind of hidden next to the Roma Street train station. I wouldn't say this is a must see, but it was a nice place to walk around and escape the
buildings for a bit. Brisbane has a river going through the middle of it and it's neat that there are boats that travel up and down it all day providing transportation, not tourist tour. We took the boat back to our hotel area for dinner and I enjoyed seeing the city lights from the boat at night. The boats were pretty affordable, too.
The next day we were off to our final city, Sydney. We arrived in the afternoon on Dec 30th. We checked into our hotel, the Intercontinental, that we were lucky enough to book using Paul's hotel points. Otherwise we would've had to stay on the outskirts of the city and take taxis into town every day. The location was perfect because we could easily walk down to the wharfs and Old Town. So we walked down to the Opera House which is pretty during the day, but really at night when it's lit up with spotlights. It's just a building, sure, but it is unique and just really pretty to see in person. The area was totally packed, though, with people setting up for the big NYE show the next night and with all the tourists.
Great Ocean Road
Melbourne, Australia There was an excited buzz about and it was really fun to walk around.
On Dec 31st, we walked around and did some sightseeing around The Rocks which is an old Town area and the Harbours. It's an older part of the city, but the buildings are renovated on the interior and it's quaint with some nice restaurants. We ate at an asian restaurant, Stir Crazy, for lunch one day which was fine. The atmosphere was nice and the service was excellent, constantly refilling our water glasses. This is something that I didn't realize is taken for granted, because in NZ restaurants, it's rare to have table service. Usually you order your meals and drinks at the bar and they give you a number and deliver your food. For water, there is usually a pitcher of water on the bar with glasses and you just get your refills like that. At nicer restaurants here, you'll get table service and water refills, but it's not as common as in the USA. Anyway, I'd recommend walking around The Rocks, especially at night when you can look across the harbor and see the Opera House. We also ate at a German restaurant
in The Rocks for dinner our last night in town. The food was good and there was live German music/entertainment including a hammering competition. Like at the Old German Beer Hall in Milwaukee, there is a piece of wood and nails, right? Anyway, it was German food and the long family style tables. It was fun. There was a restaurant on the water that had live music which looked nice. Darling Harbour is another place with a ton of restaurants and appeared to be a hot nightlife spot.
After some sightseeing, we returned to our hotel to freshen up for our big evening out celebrating the New Year. We splurged again and got tickets aboard the James Craig tall ship to see the NYE fireworks display. We arrived around 4 and boarded the ship around 5. The James Craig is a tall ship that is used for harbor cruises and for NYE it's manned by volunteers with the Sydney Heritage Fleet. Proceeds of our tickets went to the Fleet to help with the preservation of the Fleet. Ship website: http://www.shf.org.au/explore-the-fleet/our-operational-vessels/james-craig-1874-tall-ship/
The tickets were well worth the money. It included live music which was excellent and it got people
out on the small area for dancing. It provided a good view of the fireworks, so we didn't have to wait in a park all day to try and see them and sit on the ground. It also included a dinner buffet and unlimited drinks from waiters/waitresses who were quick to refill a dwindling glass. They became our best friends that night, haha. This section deserves more description, but it's hard to do it justice. It was romantic and fun and the time flew by. There was a fireworks show at 9 PM for "the kids" which was cool. We videotaped it, and the link is below.
: video of NYE fireworks at 9 PM aka the "kids" fireworks. After the 9 PM fireworks, the ship turned on it's rope lights. All the boats/ships in the Harbor were decorated with lights and they cruised around the Harbor until midnight. The lights were pretty and they lit up the ship nicely with a soft glow. We watched the midnight fireworks instead of videotaping them so we could fully capture the moment, but I think Paul took a couple clips of them because they were fantastic to watch. Anyway, a
pricey but recommended activity if you're in Sydney for NYE.
We started out 2016 with a walk around the Botanic Gardens and took a picture from Mrs. Macquarie's chair, a chair built into a rockface on a peninsula into the Sydney Harbor. It's pretty much known for being the best spot to get a picture of the Opera House. Sydney also has ferries/water taxis to get around. On the 2nd, we took a ferry to Manly. We ate at a good healthy restaurant-Pure Wholefoods, which had great food. Then we went for a hike around the North Head Sanctuary. It was actually quite a walk around. It provided history about how the area was used during WWII and about Australia's involvement in multiple wars and in peacekeeping. It also provided a nice view out over the Tasman Sea. We made our way back to Manly Beach and relaxed, but didn't go swimming. Eventually, we took the ferry back to our hotel after a great day. After resting for a bit, we decided to go for a walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to check out the "Olympic Pool." I thought it was going to be a pool that was
used during the Olympics. I mean, isn't that what you'd think by the name and place? Well, it turns out it's just called the Olympic Pool and was in fact, not used for any Olympics. Perhaps, it's because it's a 50 m pool? Olympic distance? Anyway, it's a nice looking pool, and the location is cool because it's pretty much under the Sydney Bridge. It was too late to go swimming in it anyway and Paul and I enjoyed the walk across the Bridge at night, so it wasn't a total bust. On Jan 3rd we had tickets to go watch one day of a cricket match. We figured we're in an area where cricket is really popular, so if we're going to see a cricket game, this is the best place. It was more interesting to watch it live because I could get a better sense of how the game is played. On TV, it's easier to see how they actually hit the ball, but in person I could see how the field was set up and how the people are spaced and such. The atmosphere was interesting. Much like a baseball/football game back home. People eating and drinking
and kind of watching the game. haha. Everyone was carrying 4 cups of beer at a time in these holders, and constantly refilling among the groups. Game day ended early due to heavy rains that weren't going away anytime soon. Getting transportation out of there wasn't easy and we ended up walking out to the main road and getting an Uber with a mild upcharge due to the traffic and popularity. The driver was friendly, though, and we made it back to the hotel. The rainy day was our last day in Australia, but we lucked out with pretty good weather overall. Actually, we got really lucky along the Great Ocean Road. Not so much with the weather, per se, but there was a wildfire that crossed over the road the day after we passed by. I felt sad for the people affected by the fire, of course, but it was also in the area of the Kennett River by the Koalas and parrots! There were no news about the them, so I'm sure they're fine.
So, on January 5th, we finally made it back to NZ after a long but great vacation. A couple days later we booked
our flights for a 2 week vacation to Asia: Thailand (Bangkok and Phuket), Taipei, and Seoul. Guess we didn't get too sick of traveling with each other. haha.
