Blogs from Oceania - page 7660

Had a really great evening at the top of Queenstown Gondola for the Kiwi Haka, although the food was a little crappy with no sign of the Maori dishes that were meant to be on offer. The experience was great - particularly as all and I mean ALL the men had to get up on stage and learn and perform the new All Blacks Haka!!! HAHAHAHAHA... read more

Hello from the sunny and rainy climates of Cairns! Arrived here on Wednesday from Alice Springs. First thing I saw as I stepped off the plane was mountains covered in rainforest and the sun setting behind them with a lovely red glow. Noticed while driving to the hostel that Cairns has a lot of bars, hostels, bars and hostels! The night life here is quite good but there's not much else to do. It's like Alice Springs people come here to stay the night before heading up North to Cape Tribulation or the Great Barrier Reef. But saying that it's a nice place to chill out which is what I've been doing. On the front is a place called the lagoon (a glorified swimming pool) which was built as there's no beaches in Cairns, a nice ... read more

We left Cairns early in the morning for our 2,067km journey to Alice Springs. First we joined the Kennedy Development Road and travelled for hours through the Atherton Tablelands, stopping for a walk to Millstream Falls in the Millstream National Park. Eventually the rich rainforest gave way to less dense Ironbark Eucalypt forests and we spotted Eastern Grey Kangaroos and Emus. This was to be the scenery for the rest of the day. Later in the afternoon we stopped for a walk to Porcupine Gorge before arriving, late afternoon, in the town of Hughenden for our overnight stay in a motel/hotel where Tim fleeced the locals in a Killer Pool contest ($26 prize!).... read more

I also attended a protest against a Conference of the world's top 300 CEO's, which was organized by Forbes. This was also quite disappointing. I didn't really get the feeling that the protest was a popular movement, but just a group of a few hundred students, anarchists and other disaffected groups of people. The group of people marched to the Opera House, where the conference was being held. However the Opera House had been completely fenced off, and surrounded with hundreds of cops (who probably out numbered the protesters). Some people started swinging on the fences, and eventually broke through, at which point the police charged in en-masse, including a number of police on horses! It was about then (with the adrenaline pumping from the excitement of it all) that I decided that I didn't want ... read more

Seems so long ago that I'm trying to catch up and it's only a couple of days!! If I remember what happened on the way to Wellington I'll add it later, but having arrived in Wellington we took a trip up the cable car to the botanical gardens overlooking the city. Then for the evening we started downstairs in the Base Backpackers bar, us girlies were lucky enough to receive vouchers for free bubbly!! Then took a tour round town and visted an expensive (grrr!) Irish Bar. Early start for Ferry tomorrow morning.... read more