Blogs from Oceania - page 6567

Driving the South (Part 2 of the South Island)

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island January 8th 2007

Hello again, we tried to post this the other day, but the travelblog site was having a bit of trouble. After the long first NZ entry Joe was a bit tuckered out from typing for so long, so it will be me, Carolyn writing the second part of our South Island, New Zealand adventures. We figure from Jan 2 to Jan 7 we drove about 2500km. (Good on ya’ Scott!) And saw a lot of amazing things from the sea, to crystal clear rivers, to snow-capped mountains and glaciers. I hope we haven’t bored you too much with our marathon journals, and once again: Happy reading! On the road again Jan. 2: We sent out from Kaiteriteri around 9am as we had a lot of ground to cover in the next 2 days. We drove for ... read more

Melbourne City

Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Melbourne January 8th 2007

Nightjade

After 3 weeks of chilling out, relaxing etc the prospect of sight seeing in the Aussie heat wasn’t too appealing! Thus our proposed 3 days in Melbourne itself was narrowed down to 1 day! And we crammed it in! From the MCG, to the harbour, to the casino and beyond. We saw as much as we could and man is it a nice city! Almost wished I had given myself more time there, Jen, however, got sunstroke so I don’t think we would have been too productive anyway! The streets are wide, the landscaping and parks fantastic and all in all there was a very nice feel to the city.....but we were committed to leave and it was on to Sydney...which we had been told needed no more than 2 days, for the bridge and the ... read more

hello from down under

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » Coogee Beach January 8th 2007

arrival at sydney airport

down_under

hey everybody... well it has been a crazy week...tuesday we got to the airport and actually ended up on an earlyer flight out of seattle, we were all searched at security (they say it was because we had one way tickets) but oh well it didn't take long and we pretty much just walked onto the plane; we didn't wait at all. The flight to san fran was really turbulent somewhat like a roller coaster. The next flight wasn't as turbulant but it was sooo long, i figured i would be able to sleep for at least 8 hours on the plane...but no such luck, i slept like 2 hours. We finally got to sydney and it was raining and we were all soo tired; we cought a free backpackers shuttle bus to the hostel we ... read more

Bondi beach day

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » Bondi Beach January 8th 2007

mooney1979

It was overcast but we went there anyway. Met up with Tanya and after lunch the sun came out. I got a bit burnt on the face but it wasn't that bad. Had the most dreadful Chinese on Kings Cross. It was called Confucius Chinese restaurant I think. The service was bad and the food came out really slowly and the meat was cold - don't go there ever!... read more

30 Hours in Auckland

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland January 8th 2007

Auckland Sky Tower

RoachTravel

It takes a long time to get to Auckland!!! The 13 hour flight was really very good with excellent service from Air New Zealand. The plane was a Boeing 777 and I have always wanted to fly in one. The in-seat on-demand entertainment centers did a lot to help pass the time with a full selection of movies to choose from as well as interactive games and music. Nonetheless, the seats are pretty tight and the plane was full, so we were all happy when the flight landed at about 7:00 am. We cleared customs in no time and our pre arranged rental car person met us as planned. By 7:45 am we were whisking our way down the left side of the highway toward Auckland in our little Toyota Corolla hatchback (I know, it is ... read more

Kayaking

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Marlborough January 8th 2007

Sarss

Went on a kayaking tour round Malborough sounds. It was beautiful. Saw lots of different shags and other wildlife. Stopped for lunch then headed back, got quite hard as we were against the wind. We picked some mussels for our dinner. Got back and headed past Havelock and stopped over at a campsite, it was off the main road in a forest, very beautiful but loads of mosis! Cooked our mussels which were truly amazing! I thinks it was a combination of me loving mussels, knowing they would be sooo expensive at home, the fact we got them for free, we cooked them outside and they were LOVELY!!! Jined a couple of families who were having a fire and had some toasted marshmallows! Then we all went for a walk in the dark to the glow ... read more

10 days and counting...

Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Gippsland January 8th 2007

Sam and Priscilla

Countdown time. 10 days before we fly! Sam is in Gippsland. Orbost, to be exact. Working on the Snowy River Restoration Project. He seems to be enjoying himself immensely. Last I spoke to him he was off to find the plants he had to water.... I'm in Melbourne. Asha is great company and we're making headway on our plans for the trip. She's looking after house and home (trail dirt in from the yard, bark at suspicious looking people and dogs, invite birds to dig up the vegies, replace snout marks back onto the window, make sure I'm up well before the required time for our morning walk...) and I'm working hard (of course!) and writing lists of what we still have to do before we go. Lists and lists... Oh well, that's part of ... read more

Otago Peninsula & Stewart Island

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Otago » Dunedin January 8th 2007

The mighty Albatross

Pairopoms

Hello everyone! It's been a while since we updated our blog, and we've done a lot in the last few days so thought it was about time you all had an update! On arriving in Dunedin, which was about 4pm, we decided to head straight to the end of the Otago Peninsula while the weather was good. The scenery is lovely here, and we managed to book onto the 6pm Royal Albatross tour, located at the tip of the headland. This was brilliant - we'd never seen Albatross before but had always wanted to. See the picture attached. They average around 1m tall, and with a wing span of around 3m, so they're big birds! The Royal Albatross centre have an observatory to look out on the nesting birds and we were treated to a lot ... read more

Dec. 9th Stewart Island

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island January 8th 2007

Rancherita

So today I take a flight out of stewart island. Ill be making my way to Te Anau where on the 11th I will be meeting my group to do the 4 day hike trek across Milford Sound. Last night, I did not sleep in my tent, I cheated, and got a room here at the hostel....yep, tents are not that comfortable, esp. when it rains all night long. So slept comfortably on a bED, yum! Yesterday on my hike thru Raikura trek, I met a cool girl from the Netherlands, Sabine, funny gal who actually gets my humor! Thats hard to find! We had dinner together, then at around 9, we both went to the local pub and drank a Redall each, some starnge beer, but it was great, the pub overlooked the bay, just ... read more

Kola

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Port Macquarie January 8th 2007

Kola's

The plusser

Woke up this morning and headed down to the boat cruisesand booked for the 10am sailing which went out around the bay for 2.5 hrs. During the sail we saw plenty of different birds including plecians and dolphins, the dolphins were too quick to get photos but there were a family of 4, we then visited an oyster farm where we tried the oysters, they were very cheap to but at $7 for a dozen, I did not buy any as I did not like it. Following the boat cruise I went for a walk into a forest and took in a kola hospital where I there were a number of kola's in the wild as well as in the hospital.... read more

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