Blogs from Oceania - page 6513

We arrived down under into Darwin at the very social hour of 4am in the morning. We were thrilled to finally be in Oz, however it took another 2.5 hours to persuade customs to let Claire bring her chocolate and wooden Christmas decorations into the country… talk about strict custom rules! The heat and humidity in Darwin were hard work, especially when trying to cook in a kitchen the size of a shoebox with no fans or aircon! However it was nice to be able to cook for ourselves again, as hardly any hostels in South East Asia had kitchens and it was always so cheap to eat out. It didn’t take long to explore Darwin as it is only a small town but its history is quite interesting, as it has survived a massive cyclone ... read more

Early morning, we went to Hot Water Beach. Here you can hire a shovel and dig a hole in the sand and if you are lucky, you might hit hot water below. We got there 3 hours before high tide so the timing wasn't right. We tried digging a hole but gave up and just sat in the sun for a couple of hours. Later we drove into Rotorua and checked into a motel for the night. The place stinks of rotten eggs as there is sulphur dioxide emitting from the lake.... read more

Its ages since we sent out a blog and we are way behind with doing all this now! This entry is from 2006 and marks the start of our journey inland from Townsville-las JULY! We headed on The Great Inland Way from Charters Towers towards the Gem Fields via the Belyando Crossing Most of the coast roads we have experienced are well maintained with plenty of places to stop and take a break. This journey was different: it was a hot, glorious day (BIG SKIES) and the road was extremely straight, only to be broken up with a few welcome undulations. We passed by endless hours of dry, barren, rural, uninhabited countryside. We wondered how far it must be to some of the homesteads, because we certainly couldn't see them along the long driveways that we ... read more

This place was great! The only downside was the bad weather on the first day. WHen it rains in NZ it fucking doesn't stop! My Austrian pal Matteas and I hired a kayak and went from Marahau to Bark Bay in about 5 hours. We had time to explore the little coves and although it was raining the mountaind attracted fog and gave the whole place a "Lost World" effect. We camped up for the night despite trying to get into one of the huts. No room and we tried to sneak in but the buggers caught us and escorted us to our tent in the rain. Quite a hard night when its pissing down and blowing a gale. The kayak got picked up by water taxi and than we had a 8 hr trek back ... read more

Man, this internet cnx is Slow! WEll, yesterday, I took a tour up to the Peninsula where I saw Royal Albatroses NESTING.....It was quit a sight. Only In NEW ZEALAND do the albatroses nest on the Main land, no where else does this occur, well, at least that's what we were told. But I do believe it bc this birds are deep ocean birds. As the parents lay on their eggs, the Juveniles sored around, taking advantage of the Strong winds.......delicately opening their massive wings, waiting for the winds to take them, flying higher and higher, all around us! Later on the day, we traveled to a private farmland where we got to see SEA LIONS up close, Yellow eyed Penguins with their hungry baby chicks, Fur Seals with their young, and Molly whocks (smaller albatroses).....It ... read more