Blogs from Oceania - page 7245

Day 56 - Thursday 30th March The Facts: Flight to Bora Bora Shark and ray feeding Grey sharks diving The longer version: An early start took us back to Papeete Airport where we had an Air Tahiti flight to Bora Bora via one of the smaller islands. The views were spectacular with all islands having some beautiful green multi- coloured lagoons around them. Bora Bora itself was just as spectacular as it is in all the brochures, although some cloud covered the highest peak. Straight to the Hotel Maitai Polynesia, where after several reminders, we were picked up for our activity of Ray and Shark Feeding. This is generally pretty harmless except for when your guide wears outfits such as ours did as the photos demonstrate. We spent time in the water with the reef ... read more

Nelson was the biggest town we had been to in some time but it soon turned out to be like all the other places in New Zealand - completely full of nothing much. This isn't a bad thing it’s just that big towns aren’t very big. We checked into our hostel, Paradiso, and then went for a walk round town. We spend that night in the hostel playing pool and talking to the other people staying there. The following morning we headed towards the Abel Tasman National Park. We left Nelson in a hurry to get to Abel Tasman for the good weather. We would return to Nelson for the weekend. ... read more

G'day all Arrived in Melbourne and set up camp at a Crystal Brooks Park, a very shaded and quiet park on the outskirts of the city. Next day was spent in the city centre, riding on a beautifully decorated Pakistani style decorated by Pakistani Bus decorators, to celebratethe Commonwealth Games. With the hypnotic Pakistani music playing we could almost imagine we were in Pakistan, even the conductor kept swaying to the music!!! We did the tourist bit wandering around Melbourne, and spent some time watching the very eventful start to the Australian Grand Prix on a large screen in Federation Square. Lots of people watching the race and the atmosphere was great. We visit another China Town and have a Chinese meal (cheap of course) before heading back to camp. Monday morning up bright and early ... read more

I mostly bypassed Queenstown. The schtick on Queenstown is that people either love it or hate it, as near as I can tell. It has the vibe and feel of Jackson Hole and is about the size. I headed on up to Glenorchy. Glenorchy is an even smaller town at the head of Lake Wakatipu and the base of Humboldt Mountains. It is also the place where a lot of the tourist activies from Queenstown head and is the starting point for all kinds of treks. But since I wasn't trekking, I decided to go horseback riding. I went on the Lord of the Rings Tour. And once again, it was an amazing time. We road for about 2 hours and this was the first time in the half dozen or so times that I have ... read more

We had to set of early to ensure we completed the 2 hour paddle back to the pickup point by 10. With our skills well honed over the last few days we achieved this no problem and were soon back in Noosa celebrating with a few (Ginger)Beers. Having got up to date with emails and the like I headed of the Maroochdore to (hopefully) get some diving in. ... read more

Made it into work still drunk!... read more