Blogs from Oceania - page 7802

Well what can I say.. a great trip comes to an end... New Zealand's South Island is one of superior beauty. We flew into Christchurch on the 24/7. After a few troubles at airport security (surprise surprise) we went to the car hire section. As it turns out they had stuffed up our booking. They had given us 2 cars that had not been skiierised, even though they knew we were driving to Queenstown to ski. So after reorganising, that took us just as long as it did to fly form Sydney to Christchurch, we were under way with our 6 hour drive at 7pm. We drove in complete darkness the whole way, which we would later find out was a tremendous shame. We arrived at Queenstown and checked into our hotel. Rohan, Az and I ... read more

It was an 8am start on the ski shuttle to the 'Remarkables' ski area - apparently in the summer months they filmed some scenes for LOTR here. This mountain range is one of the few that runs North-South. It was a little cloudy but the journey up the hill gave me a perfect view of Queenstown and the surrounding area. The Remarkables ski area is the highest in altitude in the region and after 13,5km of winding twisting steep and at times very scary paths in the big bus I was glad to get my feet on steady ground / snow. But almost immediately I was carried in wave of people onto a less stable surface!As a novice skier and a snow virgin I am not accustomed too the ski/board jargon - what the heck is ... read more

Tuesday, 27 July 2004 I spent the first two days of this week working in Scoresby. It was a Day Care Centre. Three rooms with as you can guess, lots of children. On both days I had to swap from room to room to photograph children as they became available. Ten spools of exposed film went back to the studio on both days. When todays session was finished I drove to Glenrowan. Ned Kelly was a bushranger who roamed the local hills in the 1800's. His career ended in a dramatic shoot out, unfortunately in an effort to end the stand-off the Jones's Glenrowan Inn was burnt to the ground by the troopers. Only a sign indicating the historical event can now be viewed. It was mid afternoon when I arrived and after booking into the ... read more

Perth, Western Australia 26th July 2004 - 5th August 2004 My first encounter in a western country occurred some 5 years back. S and I had just completed our Year 2 in the University and decided it was time to reward ourselves with a trip to Australia. I still remembered vividly that in order to cut costs, we took a Malaysia Airline flight to Kuala Lumpur before flying south to Perth. At $692, the price of the air ticket was not cheap in today’s standards considering that Tiger Airways and Jetstar are now offering direct flights to the same destination @ rock bottom prices. However, in those days when the Sin-Perth route were dominated by Qantas and Singapore Airlines, $692 was already a bargain. The advent of budget carriers had certainly made traveling much more affordable ... read more

Well I have spent 2weeks exploring the north island and have had an excellent time - in some ways I don't want to leave here - met loads of cool people, been to loads of exciting places and have taken part in great activities, been ferried around by a fab driver, Royal and generally had a good time. In the south Island I have got cold weather, sand flies and a 3hr ferry ride amongst other things to look forward to. Anyway it has to be done - sure I will have a good time in the South aswell, I can wrap up warm, wear insect repellant and take take a few sea-legs pills and hope for the best on the ferry-ride..... I have heard quite bad reports about the Wellington to Picton ferry. Between the ... read more