Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula
Queenstown and the beautiful lake soon stay behind as I hit the road on my rented Toyota. It's my first time driving an automatic gear car. It's boring and frustrating at times.
The adrenaline levels lower down as soon as the landscape changes. I'm on my way to Dunedin on the east coast. It's amazing the effect Queenstown has on the most normal of the mortals. There's simply so much to do there! If I had the money I would have done a few more things (yes Magnus, sky diving would have been one of those). And if the ski season had started already I would be hitting the slopes.
Well, back to the normal tourism, what brings me to this students city? It's not the fun, but it might be funny anyway. I am going straight to the Otago Peninsula, where I hope i'll see the rare yellow eyed penguins, sea lions, blue penguins, seals and albatros. I first head towards the albatros refuge center. It's a controlled natural reserve, where we have to pay to see the place where the albatros gather and breed. I am happy just with a cup of coffee in their great cafe and with seeing them fly. I still go down to the beach nearby, where the blue penguins apparently spend the night, but a sign says they don't arrive before 6 if they happen to come. So I just decide to head on to Sandfly beach, where I know I will encounter sea lions and the chances of seeing the yellow eyed penguins is high.
Sandfly beach is a beautiful wild beach. It's a really steep downhill trail through loose sand from the car park to the beach. On the way some cheap that are feeding on the green wavy hills that surround the coast line, look at me surprised.
As soon as I reach the beach I head towards the closest ravine. I think I saw something moving. And I had! :) walking up the cliff there was a yellow eyed penguim. He hid on the bushes looking at me but I am still able to see it clearly and take some pictures. I then start walking to the other end of the beach. 50m from me I see a penguim rushing out of the water and going into the dunes. A stupid tourist runs after it probably just to get the perfect shot. What an idiot. I continue walking and suddenly I spot a huge brown thing moving around where the waves break. As I walk closer I spot a sea lion enjoying himself in the waves. He seemed like he was posing at us. First playing around in the water and then rolling in the sand. He was still doing it when I left the beach, almost an hour later. I spent at least 15 min looking at it. We don't have these kind of things back home, or to be more correct, we don't have them in the wild within easy access to everyone. I continue walking, pass by a couple of sea lions that sleeping. They look like they had a hard day. When I reach the other end of the beach i see two more penguins up in the hill. I try climbing a rock to see them better but loose my balance and make some noise. This scared a few sea lions that I hadn't noticed sleeping on the rocks. Fortunately they just complain and look at me, giving me time to take some pictures of them and the penguins and leave. On the way back to the car I see two more penguins rushing out from the sea and am surprised with an astonishing sunset.
I was planning on reaching Christchurch the same day, but I took some time leaving Dunedin so just stayed in a small town halfway.
Kaikoura
Remember this city. It's reallysmall but one of the most beautiful places i've ever been to. The huge mountains covered in snow crashing into the sea make this almost look unreal, like those pictures we sometimes sea in books and that make us think that such a place doesn't exist. Kaikoura is famous for whale watching (i skipped this although it wasn't that expensive) and the seal colony. As I park the car at the end of the small peninsula immediately spot a few seals, sleeping just next to the cars. I then go up the hill and follow the trail that leads gives access to the beach where the seals are. The smell isn't very appealing as I get close to them. But it's fantastic just being there watching dozens of seals swimming, resting in the sun, playing in the water. Some don't seem very pleased to see me and just dived and left. There's also a huge stone on the beach that with a little bit of imagination resembles a seal. Funny to find it there.
Back in town I start talking with an irish guy - John - and an Italian - Marco. John was on a fishing trip earlier in the day and brought lot of sea food that he says not to be able to finish. He offers me a huge cray fish. That was the best dinner since I arrived in NZ! Later that day we went for a few drinks in town. Just one final note about Kaikoura: never forget to turn off the lights of your car...
The North Island
I leave behind the beautiful southern island and take the ferry to Wellington. My plans for the North Island are, to visit the Te Papa museum in Wellington, do the Tongariru crossing (you may know this mountain as Mordor, from the Lord of The Rings) and check the volcanic activity around Rotorua, before arriving in Auckland where the road trip ends as well as the visit to NZ.
Unfortunately, the rain showed up and a huge storm made it impossible to do the Tongariru crossing and enjoy the other places as I could have.
Nevertheless, I wandered arround the great Te Papa museum in Auckland, where I learned a bit more about the story of this country and specially about the Maori people. Then I went North to the Tongariro National Park. I still managed to see the mountain but the day after when I woke up the storm had started. But it's a beautiful terrifying mountain, just like the image you have from the movie! After that I moved North, passing by the enormous lake Taupo and ending up in Rotorua, where the air smells to sulfur all the time. This is due to the intense volcanic activity present in the area. I visited some geisers, saw some mud pools and hot springs. It would have been great if the weather was good. Finally and continued my way to Auckland where the road trip ended.
Showing posts with label road trip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label road trip. Show all posts
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Road triping in Australia
Road Triping in Australia
Our plan was to drive along the Australian East Coast for around two weeks. We rented a campervan from Hippie Camper, which had these annoying flowers all around but inside it had everything we needed to survive on the road: sleeping bags, sheets, small cook, and most important, a fridge. For two weeks we slept whether in camping sites, by the beach, in natural parks or even in the city center of Brisbane. I prepared most of my meals in the van. Ate a lot of tunna and egg sandwiches, loads of fruit. It was quite handy to have the campervan, but spending 24h a day in the same place can become pretty exhausting!
The route
You can find it at the map on top of this page. Shortly it was as it follows:
Sydney - Blue Mountains - Hunter Valley - Pacific Palms - Port Macquarie Nambucca Heads - Coffs Harbour - Lennox Head - Byron Bay - Surfers Paradise - Brisbane - Glass House mountains - Noosa Heads - Hervey Bay - Fraser Island - Mon Repos National Park - Eungella National Park - Cape Hillsborough National Park - Airlie Beach - The Whitsunday Islands - Wallaman Falls - Mission Beach - Cairns
The highlights of the road trip
Jenolan Caves, in the Blue Mountains - this is a complex system of caves located several hundred meters above sea level. We only had time to go to one of the caves (only guided tours allowed and they're spread out during the day). Nonetheless, the Imperial Cave offered us some beautiful structures, that acquired beautiful colours with light. In the end we went down to the subterranean river. The water was so clear that it just felt like jumping in. It was well worth the $25.
Tyrrel's Winery - located in the more and more renowned Hunter Valley wine region this was a great stop. We arrived early in the day when there was hardly anyone around and just ended up staying longer than we expected. Our host was really nice, specially when he noticed that we were there really to taste the wines and not only to drink and go, like most people. We tasted about 5-6 red wines, 2-3 white wines, and a liquor wine (cheap imitation of Port Wine...). We had a great time with our host, he showed us around the production line (in the end we still took the guided tour) and discussed energetically the big issue in the wine industry right now: cork or screw cap. I can strongly recommend some of Tyrrel's red wines. I'm not a big fan of white wine and the ones I tried were not that good. And the best of all: wine tasting is free all around the Hunter Valley wineries.
Pacific Palms beach by sun rise - it was deserted. Just two people walking a dog far away and me. My first contact with the Pacific Ocean. A beautiful dunnar landscape that reminded me a lot of the great beaches back where I grew up in Portugal.
Nambucca Heads - beautiful place to spend the night with the ocean at our feet. It was great.
Byron Bay - I would have liked to have spent more time here but it was not possible. It's quite a poshy place, but there's a huge mixture of surfers, hippies and regular tourists. I don't know in which group we fit in... But i'm sure it's a great party place and great for surfing as well.
Noosa - beautiful, easy going place. I took a surf lesson here. It went ok... The natural park just outside the city has a few easy tracks that take you around different types of vegetation. We saw a kuala here, right in the parking lot. The only negative thing about Noosa was the lack of night activities.
Fraser Island - I decided to spend two days at the island. I walked between 80-90 kms in those two days. It was extenuating but it was worth the effort. I saw a dingo, almost stepped on a 1,5 m snake, saw beautiful birds, heard the sounds of the forest, dived in the amazing lake Mckenzie and... Got lost! In the first day, I took a wrong turn in the last lake of my circuit and ended up some kms north from where I should. This made me kind of freack out for a while because it was getting dark, I was low on water, I had just seen a dingo and my legs couldn't move much more! I finally reached the place where I stayed (Dillie Village) at 7.30 pm, and just collapsed in my bed.
Eungella National Park - get at the observation platform at 6 am and you'll get the perfect setting for seeing platipus (ornitorrinco). The guide also says the walks that start there are worth, but I was still half asleep and so just decided to move on.
Cape Hillsborough National Park - well I didn't find the NP that special but the close encounter with wallabies (small canguroos) that apparently happens every morning at sun rise, was well worth it. Plus the camping site has great conditions and it's not that expensive.
Whitsunday Islands - maybe the expectations were too high, or the one day cruise we took was not the best, but I didn't come back from there fully satisfied. It's a beautiful group of islands, Whiteheaven beach is one of the most beautiful I've been to, but maybe I need to go back in there with more time to go to different islands and avoid these one day cruises that take you everywhere and don't allow you to see anything!
Wallaman Falls - they're just waterfalls, but they are magical in the full moon light and in the morning when the fog starts to disappear. We have a funny story here, there were two swedes sleeping under the stars in the viewpoint. During the evening there was a tropical storm which lasted 3 days. When we woke up the next morning their clothes were covering the campervan and they were not in the viewpoint any more... Wrong day to sleep under the stars :)
The end of the road trip
The road trip ended in Cairns. We got here under heavy rain storms that prevented us from doing much on the way here from the Wallaman Falls.
The only thing that was still worth doing, given the weather conditions, was snorkel in The Great Barrier Reef. Cairns has a lot to offer, but the weather and the budget didn't allow it.
But, nonetheless it was the right option to spend the day out in The reef. I went with Reef Daytripper in a beautiful katamaran, with only 14 people onboard. $89 was the price and for an extra $50 one could have an intro diving lesson. The crew was really nice and the reef, well it's simply astonishing. The variety, of colors, shapes, animals is impressive. I spent around 3h on the water and would have stayed longer if I hadn't been exhausted. It's one of those places that I strongly recommend everyone to go and put on their "To do" list. And I saw a reef shark and have a picture proving it :)
Our plan was to drive along the Australian East Coast for around two weeks. We rented a campervan from Hippie Camper, which had these annoying flowers all around but inside it had everything we needed to survive on the road: sleeping bags, sheets, small cook, and most important, a fridge. For two weeks we slept whether in camping sites, by the beach, in natural parks or even in the city center of Brisbane. I prepared most of my meals in the van. Ate a lot of tunna and egg sandwiches, loads of fruit. It was quite handy to have the campervan, but spending 24h a day in the same place can become pretty exhausting!
The route
You can find it at the map on top of this page. Shortly it was as it follows:
Sydney - Blue Mountains - Hunter Valley - Pacific Palms - Port Macquarie Nambucca Heads - Coffs Harbour - Lennox Head - Byron Bay - Surfers Paradise - Brisbane - Glass House mountains - Noosa Heads - Hervey Bay - Fraser Island - Mon Repos National Park - Eungella National Park - Cape Hillsborough National Park - Airlie Beach - The Whitsunday Islands - Wallaman Falls - Mission Beach - Cairns
The highlights of the road trip
Jenolan Caves, in the Blue Mountains - this is a complex system of caves located several hundred meters above sea level. We only had time to go to one of the caves (only guided tours allowed and they're spread out during the day). Nonetheless, the Imperial Cave offered us some beautiful structures, that acquired beautiful colours with light. In the end we went down to the subterranean river. The water was so clear that it just felt like jumping in. It was well worth the $25.
Tyrrel's Winery - located in the more and more renowned Hunter Valley wine region this was a great stop. We arrived early in the day when there was hardly anyone around and just ended up staying longer than we expected. Our host was really nice, specially when he noticed that we were there really to taste the wines and not only to drink and go, like most people. We tasted about 5-6 red wines, 2-3 white wines, and a liquor wine (cheap imitation of Port Wine...). We had a great time with our host, he showed us around the production line (in the end we still took the guided tour) and discussed energetically the big issue in the wine industry right now: cork or screw cap. I can strongly recommend some of Tyrrel's red wines. I'm not a big fan of white wine and the ones I tried were not that good. And the best of all: wine tasting is free all around the Hunter Valley wineries.
Pacific Palms beach by sun rise - it was deserted. Just two people walking a dog far away and me. My first contact with the Pacific Ocean. A beautiful dunnar landscape that reminded me a lot of the great beaches back where I grew up in Portugal.
Nambucca Heads - beautiful place to spend the night with the ocean at our feet. It was great.
Byron Bay - I would have liked to have spent more time here but it was not possible. It's quite a poshy place, but there's a huge mixture of surfers, hippies and regular tourists. I don't know in which group we fit in... But i'm sure it's a great party place and great for surfing as well.
Noosa - beautiful, easy going place. I took a surf lesson here. It went ok... The natural park just outside the city has a few easy tracks that take you around different types of vegetation. We saw a kuala here, right in the parking lot. The only negative thing about Noosa was the lack of night activities.
Fraser Island - I decided to spend two days at the island. I walked between 80-90 kms in those two days. It was extenuating but it was worth the effort. I saw a dingo, almost stepped on a 1,5 m snake, saw beautiful birds, heard the sounds of the forest, dived in the amazing lake Mckenzie and... Got lost! In the first day, I took a wrong turn in the last lake of my circuit and ended up some kms north from where I should. This made me kind of freack out for a while because it was getting dark, I was low on water, I had just seen a dingo and my legs couldn't move much more! I finally reached the place where I stayed (Dillie Village) at 7.30 pm, and just collapsed in my bed.
Eungella National Park - get at the observation platform at 6 am and you'll get the perfect setting for seeing platipus (ornitorrinco). The guide also says the walks that start there are worth, but I was still half asleep and so just decided to move on.
Cape Hillsborough National Park - well I didn't find the NP that special but the close encounter with wallabies (small canguroos) that apparently happens every morning at sun rise, was well worth it. Plus the camping site has great conditions and it's not that expensive.
Whitsunday Islands - maybe the expectations were too high, or the one day cruise we took was not the best, but I didn't come back from there fully satisfied. It's a beautiful group of islands, Whiteheaven beach is one of the most beautiful I've been to, but maybe I need to go back in there with more time to go to different islands and avoid these one day cruises that take you everywhere and don't allow you to see anything!
Wallaman Falls - they're just waterfalls, but they are magical in the full moon light and in the morning when the fog starts to disappear. We have a funny story here, there were two swedes sleeping under the stars in the viewpoint. During the evening there was a tropical storm which lasted 3 days. When we woke up the next morning their clothes were covering the campervan and they were not in the viewpoint any more... Wrong day to sleep under the stars :)
The end of the road trip
The road trip ended in Cairns. We got here under heavy rain storms that prevented us from doing much on the way here from the Wallaman Falls.
The only thing that was still worth doing, given the weather conditions, was snorkel in The Great Barrier Reef. Cairns has a lot to offer, but the weather and the budget didn't allow it.
But, nonetheless it was the right option to spend the day out in The reef. I went with Reef Daytripper in a beautiful katamaran, with only 14 people onboard. $89 was the price and for an extra $50 one could have an intro diving lesson. The crew was really nice and the reef, well it's simply astonishing. The variety, of colors, shapes, animals is impressive. I spent around 3h on the water and would have stayed longer if I hadn't been exhausted. It's one of those places that I strongly recommend everyone to go and put on their "To do" list. And I saw a reef shark and have a picture proving it :)
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