Sep 2009

First of all, I have learnt an important lesson here in Australia; never let your relatives cut your hair, especially with a clipper brought for a "bargain". There's a reason why it cost under $30.

I had to bail out half way through the cut as my hair was being so badly mauled. I went to the hairdresser yesterday who commented "that's a bloody mess isn't it" and then thankfully sorted it out

We've been having a great time in Australia. When we first arrived we went to a few beaches, caught up with Rachel, Dave and Rich and checked out the local areas. We have been made to feel completely at home, it has been great having a sofa, internet, good company and cold beer!

After a few days in Sydney we set off on an adventure down to Melbourne to do the Great Ocean Walk, a 104km jaunt along the coastline of South Australia. As with the Salkantay Trek i'm going to write out what we did by day so I dont forget!

Day 1 - Sydney to Melbourne

The day started off well but rapidly went downhill. We were at the airport about to check in, as I was going to take my camera equipment as hand luggage I looked into my backpack to find it, it wasnt there. AGH! I'd left it back at Rachels when I was packing which was REALLY annoying, especially as it was my only real chance to get photos of Australian wildlife. Bummer. As we went through security checks they stopped Christy and told her she had a knife in her bag, she protested that there must be a mistake but they asked her to check, and in a small sidepocket which has rusted shut there was indeed a knife. Bin Christy, the new face of terrorism. We got onto the plane and it took off ok, which was great, all went to plan until the airhostess spilt milk all over my t-shirt making it smell gross. When we arrived in Geelong the hotel we had called and spoken to about a room said they didnt actually have any spare rooms. We eventually found somewhere and hoped that the walk would go smoother than things had panned out so far.......

Day 2 - Geelong to Apollo Bay (bus), Apollo bay to Elliot Ridge (walking)

We arrived at the bus station well in time and were informed that the bus we thought we were catching back the following Thursday wasnt actually running and that the only bus we could catch would be a day earlier! We took the bus to Apollo Bay, which was the start of the walk and set off with rain and strong winds against us, which was a shame as Christy only had a giant bright yellow condom to protect her from the elements. Our bags felt incredibly heavy and our shoulders were aching within minutes. We got lost within about 15 metres of the visitor centre and luckily a man directed us the right way! As we walked along the first path cockateels flew around our heads in noisy flocks and superb fairy wrens hopped around the bushes - even though the weather wasnt great at least we were seeing some good stuff.

We got lost again and ended up slipping and sliding over some rocks on the beach, as the rain pounded down on us. Thoughts of deserting came into our minds but we decided to keep on it in the hope things would get better. We found the right path and headed up into a forest filled with enormous eukalyptus trees which gave us some protection from the wind and rain. After a massive hill we finally arrived at the campsite, which was in the middle of the forest, miles away from civilisation. We were the only people at the campsite and the visitor book was last signed a month earlier - we didnt see another person doing the walk at any point of the trip, although not treated as real wilderness by Australians this was as remote as we'd been before and felt like a real adventure. As we settled into our sleeping bags we realised the importance of roll mats, which we had forgotten to bring. The floor was absolutely freezing and it penetrated straight through to us and into our bones. We spent an uncomfortable night shivering, whilst Christy freaked out at a potential axe murderer outside.

Day 3 - Elliot Ridge to Blanket Bay

We woke up like zombies, but arose to sunny weather which was a definite improvement. We put our heavy backpacks on our achy shoulders and set off through the forest again and bumped into several black wallabies. Most of the jumped away when we disturbed them, but one of them, the Fonz of wallabies, wasnt fazed at all by us and sat a couple of metres away ignoring us. Later on as we walked along Christy spotted our first wild koala, which was asleep in a tree, looking exactly like a teddy bear! As we continued on the forest changed and we were greeted by black cockatoos which swooped around us chattering noisily. We saw lots of brightly coloured birds which look almost out of place in the wild as i'm so used to seeing them in cages - it was a shame I didnt have my camera to get photos of them. We arrived at our campsite in Blanket Bay and settled down to another cold night. This time we used our backpacks as roll mats and curled up into a fetal position to try to fit onto them - comfy stuff!

Day 4 - Elliot ridge to Aire River, by Cape Otway

As our return bus times had changed we had to fit two days walking into one. We walked through woodlands again and then out into heathlands, spotting another koala and wallabies on the way. We stopped off at cape otway lighthouse, which should have been our campground, brought some more chocolate bars to keep our energy up, and then continued onto Aire river. We walked for what seemed like an eternity through rolling heathland, at the top of every hill all we could see was the winding path and more and more hills off into the distance. Finally and with VERY sore and achy feet and shoulders we arrived at Aire River. We put our tent up next to where another man was set up, he started talking to us and offered us some water. Christy instantly assuming he was a serial killer whispered to me to only fill one bottle with his water just in case it was poisoned. He was very friendly and lent us a couple of roll matts, which luckily werent poisoned and also gave us some baked beans for the morning breakfast - excellent. As I chatted to him I noticed he had a full sized crossbow in his car which made me wonder whether Christy was actually right and that he would hunt us down in our tent! We went to sleep early and slept much better because of the roll mats.

Day 5 - Aire River to Johanna Beach

We woke up relieved that we hadnt been shot through the face, or poisoned during the night. We hobbled out of the tent and had our beans, which were accompanied by some toast he cooked us too. As we were about to set off he came and offered us one of his roll mats to take with us, along with some more food, what a nice man he was! All axe murders should take lessons off him and the world would be a much nicer place. We set off and walked through yet more heathland which meandered down onto the beach, stopping off at a viewpoint near to the great ocean road where people spritely hopped from their cars and walked over without hobbling to look at the nice views. When we got down to the beach the wind was blowing full force in our faces, it took ages to walk along it, half way along we had to wade across a creek, and as I finally thought I was at the end my hat blew off and I had to take chase back down the beach in the wrong way. After the beach we entered farmland with beautiful rolling farmland, similar to what we had seen in NZ. We finally reached the campsite which once again was in a wood in the middle of nowhere and settled down for another nights rainy rest.

Day 6 - Johanna Beach to Ryans Den

As we packed our tent up 2 grey kangaroos came bouncing past our tent, without even seeming to notice us. The sun was shining again and we started the day by cooking our socks to try to try them off! When we set off we walked across fields and saw loads of kangaroos bouncing all around us, it was an amazing scene. We continued walking and it rained on and off, finally we started heading down towards the beach but the paths were slippy and I slid over and very elegantly landed on my butt and backpack, broken noodles were now on the menu for lunch. We reached the beach, with very muddy trousers, and had to decide whether to risk dashing along the shore with the tide coming in or whether to wait for another few hours until it was heading out again. In Indiana Jones style we decided to risk it and made a run for it along the 500 metres of shore. Christy slipped on the rocks and ended up with her bum in a rockpool and cut her knees up in the process. When we reached the other end we could see how quickly the tide was coming in, as where we has been was being smashed by waves, phew! We set off up a steep slope and then sat down for a moment on a grassy verge for a rest; everything was very peaceful, the sun was shining, and the mars bar tasted extra good. It was only then I noticed an army of leeches crawling over to suck our blood, we jumped up and noticed they were attached to our trouser legs, Christy screamed and asked me, The Leech professional, to remove them, instantly, I didnt really know how so I tried flicking them off but they held on tight as Christy danced around. We then realised that our bags were on the grass too, and saw there was leeches attached to them, so we were trying to remove the leeches on our trousers, whilst holding heavy bags in the air, whilst dancing and trying to avoid more leeches joining in the party. We finally got rid of them by grabbing them with paper and ripping them off. We ran away once all were removed, and checked ourselves many many more times to see there was no more hiding. After the leech attack we thankfully only had a couple of hours more walking until we reached our campste which was again in a forest, high above the sea. As we went to sleep again that night Christy heard some cracking noises, and again we thought an axe murderer had returned to finally finish us of, thankfully he couldnt find our tent in the dark so he gave up and went home for a cup of tea instead.

Day 7 - Ryans Den to Princetown

By this point of the walk it would be safe to say we smelt and looked very much like full time tramps. We set off early and walked through the forest, and onto tracks through dunes and heathland. Along the way we saw an Echidna, which is like a hedgehog mixed with a porcupine, we tricked him into thinking we had walked away and then papped him. We drew on our energy resourses and decided we could do another double day, in return for going a bit further to a town along the way where we could hire a bed in a hotel and go to a pub. We walked and walked and finally reached the town, where we spent the afternoon watching a DVD in a hostel, followed by an evening in the pub with beer and steak. Definitely a good reward for our hard work!

Day 8 - Princetown to 12 Apostles

We finished off with what the lady in the hostel said was a 3km trek to the 12 apostles. Whether she had never walked to the apostles, was very bad with distances or was mentally ill, we will never know, but it was much further. We had to rush as we had a bus to catch and did 6km in about an hour, not bad with heavy bags and weary feet! We arrived and briefly visited the 12 apostles before falling happily on the bus knowing we didnt have to walk again for a long time! We got to the nearest city and ate lots of non-noodle food and drank lots of wine, then fell asleep on a proper bed, with no fear of axe murderers!

Now we're back in Sydney it seems like it was a ages ago we were on the walk. It was a fantastic walk and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes hiking, apparently most people get a local company to transport their backpacks between campsites which would have made it alot easier!! This weekend we went down with Rachel, Dave and Rich to see the Blue Mountains which were very beautiful, even with gale force winds and freezing cold temperatures!

We have just 2 more days left now until we set off for Thailand, and SE Asia. Hope everyone is well Adios!

I have been very slack in writing up this blog, which is a shame because our New Zealand trip isn't as fresh in my mind any more now we have left. We were sponsored for this journey by the Christian society and in a gesture of appreciation we travelled around the island in the shape of the Christian fish symbol. Once again thanks for your funding, we spent it well on cider, fish and chips, crucifixes and death metal CD's.

When we arrived in New Zealand it felt like we were almost home again, everyone speaking English, looking the same as us, driving on the left on tarmacked roads (luxury!), fish and chips and extortionate prices . Once we had made our way into Christchurch we picked up our transport for our trip, a trusty campervan called Bernard.

Bernard was a fine van and had been decorated by a graffiti youth fiend, probably on community service for joyriding or arson. It looked great.

We escaped from the bustle of Christchurch and within no time were out in the country driving through beautiful rolling hills, dotted with frolicking hobbits and magicians.

A magicians house

We drove for a couple of hours and then realised we were shattered after flying and waiting at airports for the last 24 hours, so we pulled up at a small campsite right next to the beach and passed out for the night.

We woke up the next morning, surprised at how comfy sleeping in the campervan was, and got out only to be greeted by an excellent sunrise and NZ fur seals playing in the water just a few metres from us!

After watching them for a while, and after having a real life hot shower (a luxury, possibly the first decent one for me in 6 weeks), we set off to the nearby town of Kaikoura. We did a walk around the coast of Kaikoura; past a seal colony (nearly stepping on a seal we didnt notice), past a colony of birds and up and round some cliffs, stopping at the end for a pint of cider and fish and chips (ah bliss!). NZ was just getting better and better!

After Kaikoura we set off up North to near Picton and drove along empty roads through beautiful landscapes, we ended up camping at a DOC (Department of conservation) campsite which was pretty much just a mud path down to a small beach. We parked up and spent the afternoon alone on the beach having a BBQ, burning the food to death in traditional British style.

After a few nights we set off again and headed over West to Nelson where it rained, and rained, and rained some more. Being stuck in a campervan when it's pouring down isnt all that much fun, especially as whenever you have to go outside you seem to bring half the water back with you, along with a bucketload of mud. To pass the time we went to a wine tasting tour and were educated in the fine art of drinking, or maybe appreciated drinking. After lots of samples we wobbled out with a bottle in our hand.

Not to be deterred by the rain we drove even further West the next day, and reached Rotarua Lake, where not all that surprisingly, it was raining. We ventured out briefly to learn about the eels in the lake which dont even reach sexual maturity until 90 years old, did a short walk and then went and hid in the van. The next day we went to the local tourist information office who said that it would rain heavily on the West coast for at least the next 400 million years, so we decided that being deterred by the rain wouldnt be so bad and headed back over east again, where the sun shines and the seals play.

Weather back over the East side was good again and we pretty much stayed over that side for the rest of our trip. We travelled down the coast and ended up in Dunedin where I went on a tour and saw wild yellow eyed penguins, which are the rarest penguins in the world with under 4000 left. The penguins were used to the tours and we sat on the beach and watched them come ashore and waddle in right past us!

After the penguins we saw some male sea lions on the beach fighting constantly and generally misbehaving.

After our time in Dunedin we travelled to another coastal town where another rare species of penguin, called Blue penguins can be found. We went down to the beach and sat for a few hours in the freezing cold waiting for them to come into land, which they didnt do. The best photo I got of them was this....

We also stopped at some big round boulders which were on the beach, various theories for how these got there have been proposed ranging from them being dinosaur eggs to being alien landing sites. All of course are complete rubbish, they're obviously fossilised giant testicles.

After a week or so of alcohol deprivation (apart from the wine, cider, and beer) we decided to give our livers what they had been begging for and put our new vineyard alcohol appreciation skills into practice. We drove to Queenstown, which is the adventure capital of NZ, and so it seems, also the English capital of NZ with more Brit than Kiwi accents to be heard. We met up with a friend of Christy's and went to his house armed with the ever sophisticated Scrumpy Jack, looking back this was probably a mistake, for a night of merriment and - vomiting on the next door neighbours drive - festivity.

We drove away with grinding headaches and headed towards Mount Cook where we spent a night under its shadow. After that we headed back to Christchurch, dropped off the ever reliable Bernard and said some teary goodbyes.

We spent the last night in Christchurch with Christy's friends, who were very nice but a little quirky, a quick summary of their beliefs was:
1. You can redirect your sperm via your back, forehead and down through your body.
2. Ejaculation of your sperm can be viewed as a negative thing, keep it in!
3. If you put cow poo in a horn and bury it for a lunar month it will fertilise at least a million acres of land, and create super vegetables (charged at super prices).
4. Milk, butter, bread and cheese are evil.
5. It's ok to rename yourself after a town in China which has literally vibrated itself into an alternate reality through meditation.
6. That dogs cant look up.
7. That dolphins are evil.

Ok, so I made points 6 & 7 up but the rest were said it all seriousness. I'm not sure what the correct answer is to someone who tells you that ejaculation is bad, or that they are named after a vibrating town, but I think "hmmmmmm ok sure" probably passed the test. Either way they were very hospitable and we had a good time discussing these mental propositions whilst trying to hold back any signs of mirth at their ideas. The next day we hastlily got onto the plane checking they hadnt implanted any weird objects such as cows skulls or sperm packages into our bags and flew to the land of Oz.

We didnt really have enough time to see all of NZ, but our couple of weeks gave us enough time to see a sample of the amazing offerings, I would like to come back one day when I have more money and can actually afford to do the tours and activities and spend a little more time. Of course, I couldn't finish any blog about NZ without at least a few sheep photos so here you are

Now for the top trumps of NZ!

NEW ZEALAND SOUTH ISLAND
Natural Beauty ----------- 9.0 (Lord of the rings landscapes, say no more!)
People --------------------- 8.5 (very friendly locals and sheep)
Sights/Activities ---------- 7 (loads of stuff to do, but not cheap, back into real world prices)
Food ----------------------- 7 (fish and chips!)
Cost ----------------------- 5 (approaching English prices for food and beer)
Shopping ------------------ 5 (once again too expensive for my lame budget)
Architecture -------------- 3 (No amazing architecture, but the landscapes make up for this)
Transport ----------------- 10 (Campervans rock!)
Price of beer ----------- c.£2.50

Overall Impression ------ 8

We've now left Peru so it's Top Trumps time:

PERU
Natural Beauty ----------- 8.5 (awesome rainforest, beautiful mountains and purty seasides)
People --------------------- 7.5 (friendly and helpful people)
Sights/Activities ---------- 9 (loads of stuff to do, and cheap too!)
Food ----------------------- 8 (good food, cheap and delicious)
Cost ----------------------- 9 (cheap cheap cheap!)
Shopping ------------------ 6 (loads of stuff on offer and once again fairly cheap)
Architecture -------------- 9 (Two words: Machu Picchu! Add that to nice Spanish architecture and you're onto a winner)
Transport ----------------- 7 (Good comfy buses at fairly cheap prices)
Price of beer ----------- c.90p

Overall Impression ------ 8.5

I'll write a blog for New Zealand soon!