Blogs from Oceania - page 7849

Down under at last!!! How does it feel to be on the other side of the world? Fantastic!! scary new different and exciting. One of the first things i noticed about being in Sydney was the upside down moon. It seems silly but it really made me feel that i was on the other side of the world. Seeing famous landmarks like the statue of liberty and big ben in london are always special moments for me but when i walked around the corner in Sydney on my first day unveiling the Opera House i was speechless. well i was'nt i actually said 'f*cking hell' but you know what i mean. It is a beautiful building in a gorgeous harbour, like everything else: seeing it on Tv so many times does not prepare you for the ... read more

2 March 2003 I left Portland at ten in the morning, turned my car to the northeast and headed along the Henty Highway, passing Heywood along the way. The countryside was mainly used for farming; sometimes rolling hills could be viewed. At Hamilton, the road becomes the Glenelg Highway that ends at Ballarat. I was to branch north at a small town called Glenthompson. It was along this stretch of road I got a good view of the southern Grampians. The peaks of Mt Sturgeon and Mt Abrupt took my interest and some “shots” were taken of them. At Ararat I followed the Pyrenees Highway. Most of the days driving were over new territory, which gave me the opportunity to use my red texta on the map, showing where I had travelled since working with Classic. ... read more

A 3 day outback camping tour in the Pilbara and Karijini National Park, then our stay at Cossack in 2003 The Pilbara is the heart of Western Australia's huge iron ore mining industry. On the drive across the country into the Karijini National Park the landscape is so varied with colours from daybreak to sunset changing as fast as the sun moves across the sky. The heat of the day changes accordingly and when you step down into the gorges the temperature drops but the water may be freezing so hypothermia can be a problem. We camped out under the stars and beside an Aussie icon, the windmill, in sleeping bags that kept us warm at night but had ice on them when we woke in the morning as temperatures drop low after sunset. Cossack is ... read more

I flew into Sydney - from Auckland on the 21st Jan 2003. For two days I stayed in a scummy hostel in Kings Cross, an area with a deserved reputation. I headed over to Bondi - found a superior hostel - Indy's Backpackers and hung out. Again the backpacker crowd had changed - this time lots more young English and Irish travellers - on years working visa, looking for work, and taking pretty much whatever came their way. I got on with them but didn't make any friends or meet people of a like mind. I met up with Matt, Tank and Hamish - Matt the guy I travelled most of the states with had come out to Sydney on a working visa, got a job in the city and lived in Bondi. The lifestyle he ... read more

Dunedin is New Zealand's Scottish city, Christchurch was founded by English Christians and Scottish Christians founded Dunedin. Today Dunedin is one of the most important university towns in New Zealand, home of some really nice architecture, and the site of New Zealand's largest chocolate factory. We stayed in the city centre Nomad backpackers, not as nice as the little hostels out in the small towns but a good location for going out and seeing the city. Laura and I drank a bottle of wine each and went out for a really great evening at the Raa Bar. The next day we had two activities first the chocolate factory tour - Cadbury's World then the Speight's Brewery tour. Cadbury's World Dunedin was pretty interesting, lots of detail on the history of chocolate, from Central America and Mexico ... read more