Australia

It took approximately 4 hours to fly from Auckland to Melbourne. What a surprise when we got there as it was cold, about 16 degrees and cloudy. This was  a  bit of a change as we were getting used to the nice temperatures in Auckland, which were around 26 degrees when we left. We were not planning on staying in Melbourne for long anyway as we are visiting Melbourne later, when the Australian Tennis Open is on at the end of January 2012. We stayed in a holiday camp 10 minutes taxi ride from the airport, it was ok for a one night stop over, but it was noticeably far more expensive than New Zealand, costing us $120 for one night .

The following day we flew to Cairns, which took three and a half hours from Melbourne. It was a little bit different when we walked off the plane; it was very humid and a very  hot temperature in the region of 33 degrees . (You know it is going to be hot when you here the crickets which are  very loud and high pitched.) We found a campsite called ‘Cool Waters’, which was in an idyllic tropical setting about 15 minutes bus ride from the main city.

Cool Waters holiday Park

We rented a cabin facing the pool, the campsite was really quiet, which meant we had the pool for ourselves most of the time. Our routine was good, swimming before breakfast every morning a great way to start the day. It took a few days to acclimatise as we just constantly perspired. We stayed there 5 days while we planned our trip in Australia. 

The pool at Cool waters

We bought a car, a little Hyundi Getz as the rental would have been very expensive if we hired a car or a campervan for three months.

Cairns which is in the Queensland district known as tropical North is famous for the Great Barrier Reef, which is listed as one of the Worlds Heritage sites, spectacular for coral islands and its marine life.
It is a very picturesque city and the main front was impressive, many tourists enjoying the sunshine on Cairns Esplanade, which has a man-made pool/lagoon in the middle of the city, lots of grass areas to sit, plus free barbeque areas.
There is loads to do in Cairns, scuba diving, snorkelling, white water rafting, you name it they do it. There is also a wide range of bars and restaurants. We managed to find a bar that cooked Sunday dinners, pumpkin being their main vegetable. It was the first sunday dinner we had  eaten  for about three months.  The bar had had a great atmosphere which reminded us  of being back in England,ie a normal pub culture. There were certainly a few Aussies enjoying the live band and a corona or two,  We never saw one person drunk in New Zealand in our time there!

Cairns Esplande

Cairns Esplande

Free barbecue areeas at Cairns

It took about 5 days to sort out the car, with all the legalities, however we were now ready to go touring again. Our first journey was to go a bit further up North to the Cape Tribulation, a part of the Daintree Rainforest, which is thought to be the planet’s oldest surviving tropical rainforest. On the way there we caught a small cruise to go along the Daintree River , this is a place  where the  crocodiles live  in the wild. We managed to find a couple of the baby crococdiles sleeping on the banks, not that we really wanted to face one which was known as 'Scar face' who was about 5-7 meters long.

The only way to get to the Daintree rainforest was by car/ tug boat, which was winched across the river on large cables, this took about 5-10 minutes  on a good day, 

Once we were transported back    over the water it was just pure rainforest right up to the beach.  The rainforest was spectacular and so were the beaches. . On the way to Cape Tribulation this was one of the views overlooking the Daintree River at Walu Wuggirriga

Walu Wuggirriga

Cape Tribulation Beach- Steve with two large coconuts

It  took about 45 minutes through the National Park to the end of the sealed road. We stopped regularly for cassowaries (a less known flightless bird of Australia) speed bumps, that is not the sort of thing we see back at home,.  These birds are quite impressive as they grow to about one and a half metres tall.

We understood that there were not a lot of places to stay in Cape Tribulation so we booked an Australian government campsite called ‘Noah’s’ in advance.  We drove in and drove straight back out again, there was no light, it was such a damp dense forest ‘defiantly mosquito land’. So we were taking  no risks as we have already plenty of  bites to contend with.  That is the last time we will be booking in advance, we normally like to check the places out first.

We ventured up the road and found a campsite called ‘Cape Tribulation’ which was situated within a clearing of the bush about 10 metres from a golden sandy beach.  There were lots of noises in the bush so after our barbecue we kept the fire going to keep the creepy crawlies away./ or whatever they were.  We played our Christmas CD , Bing Crosby and drank a wine or two for our pre-Christmas celebrations in 33 degrees tropical rainforest. Very pleasent.

Cape Tribulation camp site

Horse Riding at Cape Tribulation  Beach

We succeeded our plan and had gone as far North as we wanted, our next journey was to turn back south with an aim to reach Newcastle by Christmas Eve which was going to be  quite a journey

Our first destination was Etty beach, just off the Bruce Highway, which took about 5 hours, we also had to do a small detour of about 9km to get there. It was well worth it.  It was quite a secluded little resort, all that was there was one campsite shop with a café. The bay was small and pretty, there was a good atmosphere as families were either relaxing, or  playing on the beach until fairly late as it had floodlights.   It was pleasing to see they had  a stinger net so it was the first time we had seen anyone swimming in the sea since arriving in Australia. So far there had either been  signs up at the river, warning people about the crocodiles or on the beaches it was sharks or jelly fish.  We only  just stayed one night as we still had a fairly lengthy journey to do.

Our next stop was Bowen, we stayed at a Big 4 holiday park on the beach, we managed to get a cabin with an ocean few, the first cabin with a jacuzzi bath. What a treat!

Bowen was famous for being the most northerley resort of the 'Whitsunday' region , bays, large wall murals and the bigggest Mango in the world!We stopped two nights, Steve was able to fish straight outside the cabin, it was getting regular now living next to  the water The pool was also a decent size to swim in, something which was needed as the humidity was still quite high.  The beach was fascinating with lots of coral branches washed ashore.  Steve wanted us to put them in our ruck sack and take home. I had  put my foot down as I  was not forfeiting any more clothes for shells, pebbles or corals!! There were lots of  secluded beaches surrounding Bowen, Horse Shoe Bay, Rose bay, all within a nice residential setting. It was a lovely place for people to live

Our next detination was Airlee Beach which took about an hour from Bowen. Airlee Beach is European backpackers paradise, centre of the Whitsundays region, this only took about one hour from Bowen. I personally loved the place and the touristy element to it, nice gift shops, bars and restaurants.  It had a similar feel to Cairns but smaller.  The centre of the town also had a man-made pool/lagoon and barbecue areas on the water front which was full of young back packers. We stayed two nights there and we both were entertained nightly ,with possums ,large flying beetles and  moths and best of all Steve went to the toilet and came back out saying there was a large green frog in the toilet - it was massive !!

Our next destination was Armstrong beach, which was a three hour drive.  It had got a good write up in the brochure, but once we got there it was a bit of a dump, the annoying thing was it still cost the same as the usual holiday parks $30 for a tent with electric. We were both tired after the long drive so we decided just to stay, after all it was only for one night. I have never seen as many frogs or big beetles in such a small proximity..  There must have been about 8 frogs just outside the tent alone, going to the toilet was a challenge not to stand on one. To finish us off it rained all night, there was no kitchen or communal area like all of the other sites we have seen so far, so we had to sit in our two man tent from about 6-30pm when it was dark.  However I have to hand it to Steve with no resources he got out our little barbecue and cooked salmon, jacket potato and antipasto salad. It was one of the best meals I have had.

The culprits who woke us up at 5am

We then got woke up the next morning around 5am which was all we needed, 4 parrots squalling away they were so loud.  So you can imagine we decided to set off pretty early to get back on the road we are so glad we did as we saw our first kangaroo hopping at some speed across the road.  Our first skippy! (But it was too quick to get the photo !)

The next journey was quite a bit of a stretch approx. 4 hours from Armstrong Beach to Yappoon and quite tedious, the landscape was full of fields of sugar cane once you see one flat field  with  nothing in between you have seen them all, no town or civilisation. . However we have to hand it to the Australians they had set up a little scheme on the highway which was part of a drive safe campaign, run by volunteers where they offered you free coffee and biscuits. 

We took a bit of a detour on the tourist coast road and arrived at a place called Yapoon we weren’t actually planning on staying there as we were going to travel a bit further  straight to 1770, but whilst driving through Yappoon town, it looked like an ideal little holiday destination, with a surfing beach  and  campsite right on the beach. It was really hot so 5 hours was enough driving for the day.

Yapoon Promenade

Santas running along Yapoon Beach

The  next day we  then travelled to 1770 which is famous for another of Captain Cook's discoveries   when he claimed Queensland.  This was a fantastic resort, once again lovely beaches, small  and secluded, definitely a place to visit.  One of our main reasons for stopping off here was that it was a place where the 1770 cruises left to go to Lady Musgrave Island and a chance for us to visit the Great Barrier Reef,where there was the only isolated lagoon ,within the reef.  The trip was quite expensive, but offered something slightly different to the rest we had seen on our 1000 km travels south

1770 beach front.

Captain cooks monument at 1770

We had a fantastic day out, the variety of fish were unbelievable.  We did a bit of snorkelling and fishing.  The boat stopped at a pontoon which had an underwater observatory so for the people who did not want to go in the sea, it was ideal.  As part of the deal there was an option to go reef  fishing for a couple of hours which was an additional $20 dollars each which was a bargain compared to other boat trips .So I decided to go along with Steve. I caught four big fish and was on a roll the skipper was very impressed and gave me a verbal gold star, I knew it was beginners luck. I was so chuffed as I caught the fish of the day. Approx. 45cm long. It took some pulling out of the water as it was really heavy (Poor Steve only caught one fish, not that we are very competitive with each other) but he liked swimming with them.

The Atlantic man- Steve

This fish took some pulling out of the water-An Emperor !

Steve's fish
(He did have to spend all afternoon putting my bait on ,so didn't have much time to fish!!

A great finish to the day as we met some people on the boat Craig and Alanna who offered to clean the fish and invited us to join them for dinner on the evening so we could sample the fish we caught.  We met up at a barbecue area on the front of 1770. The fish was absolutely gorgeous, which went down really well with a couple of glasses of white wine.

My fish covered in foil cooking nicely on the barbacue which was only just big enough

We didn’t really want to leave this place we could have stayed for longer than two nights, the campsite was great and situated in the bush, once again we were woken up very early mornings 4am to the noice of the birds which was unbelievable and difficult to describe, but great.(Steve describes it as being like sleeping in the aviary at London Zoo!)

We still have a few miles to clock before reaching Newcastle on 23^rd December, today is 20^th December so we stopped off at a place called Hervey Bay, we are  staying  at campsite next to the harbour, Once again a very nice place to visit, especially if you are into yachts.

Hervey bay= Aussies getting into the Christmas spirit

Hervey Bay

We have now done 2000 kms by car since arriving in Australia, with approximately another 1300km to go before reaching Newcastle via the Sunshine Coast (Mooloolaba) in 3 days. It seems a bit of a rush, but we are coming back up the east coast to Brisbane and the coast after January as we need to head back to this area for our flight out of Australia and to sell our car in February.

We are looking forward to our first Christmas in Australia, but we are missing England being with our children, family and friends.

If you are reading this blog  Merry Christmas from Bailey's Tours down under!
Keep following we will post again in the New Year 2012

Last two weeks in New Zealand

We arrived back in Auckland a day before Ken and Francine were due to arrive, so that we could start planning for the two weeks ahead of our Bailey's Tour/ Gee trip.  As we were now fairly experienced with the I site centres in New Zealand.  We knew that we could provide a full selection of options and brochures of things to do and places to see.  We had already planned to spend some time in Auckland at the beginning and the end of the trip with a road trip in between  touring with a campervan. We can't beleive we haven't even taken a photograph of it 

On the first day we found the 'Cowboys' bar in the centre of Auckland similar to the one in Queenstown, we thought we would sample the beer again before taking Ken and Francine to their first New Zealand beer and wine tasting experience. It was such a nice sunny day we could not help but to  sit there until the sun went down. Any excuse!

The next day ,when Ken and Francine arrived, we did our meet and greet with  sparkiing wine and snacks, whilst presenting our tour packs; it was  a great start to our holiday.  We started the first night off in Cowboys beer tasting and finished off with Indian Cuisine.  As usual  we ordered enough food to feed another four people. Then the gin came out fom Ken's case; we will say no more !

The first day we visited the Sky tower, which was right next to the hotel which Ken had already organised.  The Chifley hotel.  A studio flat which certainely suited our needs and in the right location.  Walking sistance to everything.

The views were fantastic from the Sky tower, especially if opting for the sky dive.

Francine getting familar with Cowboys.

Sky Tower diving.  Viv Steve, Francine and Ken.

Above the photographs are from the Sky Tower- Auckland

It was good to see that New Zealand was getting ready for Christmas, but we think they are getting a bit carried away with the size of it, after all it will be matching their Santa Claus.

Rudolph getting delivered

The following day we experienced the Auckland Museam, which was well worth a visit, it gave you a good history of  New Zealand Mauri, wildlife, history of the war etc.  We then walked the coastal walk about 6km around Auckland harbour and ended up past Bastion Point in a lovely bay.  Found a pub for a drink or two and actually caught the bus back finally after about three drinks and three buses later. (Francine related this to a  Ross and Noel  experience, except they didn't catch the bus.)

After tthe first part of the Auckland experience we were ready for our road trip by campervan and headed off towards Rotarua.   What an experience Francine and I sat in the back and felt we were rattled around for three hours.  It was not really a good experience.   These coments were not because we were picking on Steve and Kens driving.  They did very well, it was  just an experience travelling in the back of campervan, that was noisy, full of rattles with uncomfortable seats coupled with high winds outside.

We knew that we were getting near to Rotarua, as we could smell the sulphur. It is famous for their thermal springs and  built over a geothermal hot spot! We spent two nights in Rotarua, one of the days we  did a great walk at Paukau and the other sampling the thermal springs.

Blue Lake Walk at Rotarua

The spring had more violent discharges of geothermal energy than the one at Tarangi. Quite an amazing experience and scary to see the natural water in the ground bubbling like that.  It is difficult to describe until you see it for yourself.

This hole was about 10 feet diamater

We decided to experience some more thermal springs at Waikite valley. This was perfect and really appreciated as it was quite cold and cloudy, bathing in 38 degrees seemed just right.

As we only had 7 days in the campervan we decided to head off  towards the Coromendel which was approximately  a 5 hours  drive so we decided we would do a few stop offs to break the journey up and not waste the day just travelling.

First we stopped Whangamata beach , which was  beautiful bay, nice sand and lots of different shells, We didn't stop long, as we still had a good journey a head of us.  The journey didnt seem so bad as we had two drivers.

Our next stop was a holiday park called 'Hot water beach' which was situated in a pretty area, the beach once again looked really quiet literally,  only us and  one man and his dog walking on it.  After some research by Steve we found out it was famous for hot water in certain parts of the beach, the camp site hired spades and said it was worth a visit when the tide was out.  The following day sure enough we got the spades and ready for our search for the hot water.  From seeing a secluded  beach the day before there was a massive crowd of people there with spades, all adults who had beat us to it. Not a child in site. We have never seen as many adults with spades on a beach.

 Even though it was very crowded nothing was  going to stop Steve and Ken, they were straight in with their spades.  The fight for the hot water was on, Mind out French and Germans here we come!

This was a great laugh once we got the hot water,which was amazingly hot, we could not get Ken out of the water, he was there to stay now that the great wall around the hole had been built and he had his territory.

We finally managed to get away  after many attemps.  It was difficult  getting the spade off him and getting  him cleaned up with a promise to go the pub.

On our travels again still to reach Coromandel town, we had a lovely stop off at Ha Hei Beach which was absolutley stunning, once again golden sands,  it wasn't far from the hotwater beach.

Ha Hei Beach-  the perfect place to picnic.

Travelling in campervans is good, but it is all  about trying to break up the jouney to make it more fun, we left the campervan at Ha Hei beach and did a fantastic walk to Cathedral Cove.  The views were absolutley stunning once again.  The walk was quite touristy, in fact it was the most people we have seen on a walk since we have been in New Zealand.

Photographs above- Views at Cathedral Cove

On the way back from the walk, Hoff from 'Baywatch' turned up with his very favourite shorts on and his life saving equipment, the shorts  have been money well spent from Jamie's stag do in August.

Hoff with his life saving equipment.

We managed to fit in another stop on our way to our next destination which was Kauri Grove,famous for their large trees. it was nice that our friends experienced the size of these trees as well, this was not the largest in NZ, but big enough at over 120 feet tall.

Kauri Tree

We finally reached our destination at Whagateau, we just happend to find a site next to a Rugby Club,  so we had to introduce ourselves. It would have been rude not too!  We had a great night, very friendly atmosphere and the members were really pleased we had called in -what a great  game ! 

Whagateau Rugby club

Our last destination was to re-visit the Bay of Islands, as this was one of the places Ken and Francine wanted to visit.  We  certainley did not mind going back as we had to be dragged away from there  in early October.  We knew they would enjoy it as much as we had already and there was plenty more to do there. For example hire a boat.

We decided to do a sailing trip instead of  hiring the boat ourselves.  We booked ourselves  on a 37 ft yacht  for 11 people, a fantastic way of seeing the  Bay of Islands at its best. 

This was ann  excellent experience which involved volunteers  helping  with some of the chores on board. It was quite tense and challenging  at times especailly when the yacht tipped on its side when coming about  and you had to duck under the  boom.   We didn't get any photographs of that part we concentrated of keeping out of the water and not getting knocked on the head.

Steve Ken and Francine holding on
 The photo was taken with one hand - very brave 

We stopped for lunch on Moturua Island, once again stunning views and beautiful secluded beaches.

 Photographs above are on Moturua Island

The trip back on the sailing boat was very special as we managed to see many dolphins playing by the boat .Unfortunatley our camera had a problem and we only managed to catch a few shots, that were not really clear

Our journey in the campervan  was now officially over , and now we needed to get back to Auckland, which was  a three hour journey. 

The fun time was to get into the centre of the city, drop off the bags  and take back the campervan  There just happened to be a parade in the middle of the city centre  which was a Christmas celebration. The resulti s that we had to do shuttles with our luggage to get through lot and lots of people . We managed to get all our gear through  to settle into our new, Best Western Studio flat  once again ,situated  in the centre of Auckland near the Sky Tower.(A good destination when staying in the centre of Auckland)

The first day back in Auckland we visited Waiteke Island,  which was half an hour by ferry from Auckland harbour, this island is well known for it wine tasting  and walks. Once you get on the island,we made a choice to do a  walk for three hours to get to the vineyards. An  interesting wine tasting session,we were ready for it.

Wine tasting

Our final day we visited the Maritime museum  in central Auckland We were lucky and were offered

a free guided tour from an Englishman too! He was very informative  but most of us didin't want to know about every type of sailing boat class  , south sea canoe, or in  fact  speed boat engine  So by the end of the three hour tour me more than  the other  was certainely Ship wrecked (Pardon the pun)

The only answer was to return to ' Cowboys'  for a drink where we started at the beginning of our journey  before we pack our bags ready for the our next journey.  This was a very busy evening as we had to celebrate Christmas and New Year with Ken and Francine, before our depature. A great finish to our holiday together!.

We had to drink out of a straw as we could not even pick up our glasses!

Christmas all dressed up!

Leaving our hotel in Auckland

The next part of our journey is to travel to Australia and  we are really looking forward to the next stage , even though we have thoroughly enjoyed New Zealand and feel sad to leave it  after two months.  We would recomend any one who loves walks,  scenery, the out doors to make the journey if they get the chance.