Anzac day

25th April Sydney
Happy Anzac day!
This is the national day in both Australia and NZ where they celbrate getting sloughtered at Galipoli in the first world war.
In the morning there were marches through the centre of town, mainly ex-service men from the second world war, the last of the Galipoli survivors have died off.
The streets were lined with people clapping in genuine appreciation.
This was the first year where they let the turkish march in their parade.

It is the one day in the year where playing "two up" is legal, this is gabling on heads or tails (with two coins). So there were some packed pubs with people cheering and throwing money at the toss of a coin.

I went to see their iconic harbour bridge and walked accross it.
You can see their iconic opera house from here.

26th April
I went for a bit of a walk about town today.
I found a cafe run by two ancient women that hasn't changed since the 50s or 60s.
There I met a paranoid guy who thought that the fox network were out to get him...
The weather isn't that great here at the moment. You know you are on a different continent though, because even the city wildlife is a bit weird. The park birds have big hooked beaks and at night the sky fills with huge bats.

Photos

I am finally getting around to adding more photos.

PHOTOS

PHOTOS 2

PHOTOS 3

STUARTS PHOTOS

Sydney first impresions

24th April Sydney
Flying in over Sydney yesterday was a good sight.
Surrounding the harbour and with the iconic bridge and opera house it's impresive.
I am staying in the Kings cross area which is an urban mix of backpacker pads, nightspots, food joints and seedier elements.

End of south island NZ

19th April Wanaka and Queenstown
Today we went for a hike up a deceptivly high mountain next to the Wanaka lake.
There were really great views of the lake getting better all the way up.
On the way to Queenstown we stopped at a town called arrowtown.
This was an ex-gold mining town.
The trees here a quite beutiful at the moment in their autum colours.
It is the first time that the brazilian has seen trees with autum colours.
Then we went for a short night out in queenstown.

20th April Queenstown
Queenstown is a quite lively tourism town, much livelier then anything on the west coast.
Again it is by a lake. We wandered the town for the morning. For the afternoon we drove out by the lake and had a nice walk

21st April Drive to Christchurch
Today I said goodbye to the brazilian and the quebec guys. Our trip together although frought at times allowed us to get to places that wouldn't have been possible on the bus without costing any more. Lukily a very nice Hungarian girl in the hostel wanted a lift to Christchurch and shared the petrol costs. She turned out to be a good travel buddy. We stopped at a historic bridge which had been turned into a buggey center. Too pricy and fast for me to jump. We also made a detour to mount Cook, the highest mountain in NZ but it was rainy and covered in fog so we continued.

22nd April Christchurch
Christchurch is another plesent NZ city, the second encountered. All the touristy sights can be visited in half a day so there was time to relax. It has a good vibe with a small city feel. It even has a fairly good nightlife.

23rd of April Fly to Sydney
Another flight now I'm in the land of Oz.

NZ South island

Friday Wellington 7th April
At last a good New Zealand city.
This place is compact and buzzing,
it even has night life with the streets full of people till all hours.

Saturday 8th April
The city is also quite pretty with the hills sweeping down to meet the sea and a few skyscrapers squashed in before it does.
I went to the national musium which in spite of NZ not having too many years of history manages to be quite interesting with well presented displays suitable for children.
I got the up hill cable car up to the botanic gardens which has great views over the city and walked back to town.
In the evening it was rainy so I didn`t even take advantage of the night life. NZ is more of an early to bed and early to rise kind of country to travel in anyway, with 10am check out time and plenty of scenery to see before the sun sets at around 6pm.

Sunday 9th April
I got the ferry to the south island today.
Lots of pretty scenery on both sides.
As you reach land on the south island the ferry continues to sail inland through flooded river vallies for about an hour more. This area is called the maralborough sounds and is really pretty with forested hills decending intertwined with the sea. The ferry reaches a little town called Picton. I got a hostel with vast dorms and a diving pool, so went for a swim in the evening.

Monday 10th April Picton
I went for a walk down one of the shorter peninsulas, really pretty.
A Brazilian girl that staying in the hostel is interested in sharing a car rental for a few days, so it looks like my hitching days are numbered. If shared renting a car in NZ is cheaper then getting the bus and alot more flexable.

Tuesday 11th April
We shoped around for a car in the morning. We ran into a french canadian who was interested in sharing the cost of a lift in the direction that we were going so we picked him up in his hostel and headed off towards Nelson.
We stopped every couple of km to take another scenic photo. Well we were on the "scenic road".
Finally we reached Nelson where we stopped for for fish and chips, it`s the national dish don`t you know.
We continued on to a town called Motweca where we stayed the night in a hostel with free apples, always a different perk in these hostels.

Wednesday 12th April Able Tasmen park
Today we went for a walk in the Able Tasmen national park. This the smallest of NZs national parks would still take three days to walk accross. We limited ourselves to a one day walk with a boat ride back. The park is a beutiful mix of native bush and idilic beaches, it really looks tropical with all the ferns and palms, but the temperature is a bit autumnal. Still can`t complane about the weather, fine dry and sunny days.

Thursday 13th April
Today was a driving day.
We drove as far a Greymouth still stopping at many scenic locations on the way.
We stopped to see a seal coloney at cape foulwind near westport. Cute creatures on a stunning coastline.
We also stopped to see the "pancake rocks".
This is an interesting erroded area of coast with cool rock formations cliffs and blow holes.
Many other stops also at stunning coastal locations, scenic views and lookout points are conviniantly signpoasted here.
Everything is layed out to be easy to use for tourists.

Friday 14th April
We drove up to the Aurthur Pass today.
This is one of the few roads accross the mountains from the east to the west coasts of the south island.
The Brazilian girl had her first glimps of snow.
We stopped at the highest point for a day of walking and mountain climbing.
We reached the snow line and continued through the snow to the top.
Tough enough climbing and great fun sliding back down in the snow.
We drove back to the coast and stayed in a town called Hokitica, I am the official driver.

Saturday 15th April
We continue
d south along the coast to the Franz Joseph glacier.
We came close enough to running out of petrol as stations are few and far between and we came accross two closed ones in a row. It`s amazing how unpopulated it is here. What is marked on the map as a village is only and handfull of houses.
We walked to see the glacier, it`s cool, i`ve never seen a glacier before.

Sunday 16th April
We drove down the road to see the Fox glacier, also really cool both literally and metaphorically.
You can drive to within about a 45 minuite walk of the glaciers down the vally created by previous advances.
Then you can walk right up to the glacier face. Here you can see an ice cave where the glacier is melting with a river flowing out. Every so often a bit of ice or rock falls off. After a bit of walking you can even walk on the glacier itself. Really cool.

Monday 17th April
Another driving day today.
It`s remarkable how few people there are living on the west coast of the south island.
Since going south of Hokitica the only towns are the twins of Franz Joseph and Foxes glaciers which only exist to cater for tourists and have a shop and petrol station each.
We expected Hast to be a town but it turns out that it has a population of less than 500 living in three different locations, really it`s a chance to refuel. We passed a sign with "Sheedy" on it so I stopped and met two New Zealand Sheedys, Kevin and Roy, two batchelors in their sixties.
The scenery was amazing with loads of national park and trees.
We got as far as Wanaka passing through the Hast pass and two beutiful lakes.

Tuesday 18th April
Today we went to the Mt. Aspiring national park.
This is at the end of a 50km dead end road.
It was like walking in a moving landscape portrait, really amazing and remote.

Skydiving

6th April Taupo
I started the morning by jumping out of a airplane.
Taupo has the cheapest skydiving around and it's popular amoung passing tourists.
I got picked up in the morning, off to the airport doned the jump suit and into a plane quick as a flash.
You get strapped to a tandom instructer and crammed in with your other jumpees then start the climb to 12000 feet.
When the first guy jumps the plane lurches up with the reduced weight.
Then it's your turn, smile for the camera and whoohoo your heading for the ground.
The free fall lasts about 45 second and then the shoot opens and you glide down the rest of the way. The view is great with the lake and then a soft landing in the gravel, cool.

Then a bit of lunch by the lake to calm down.
We went back to the same waterfall as yesterday with my fellow jumpees, it is impresive.
Then to soak in some really great hot pool.
A little stream of hot spring water flowing into a river, where it mixes you can choose the temperature that you want. I was the best that I've been to because it was totally natural with the perfect temperature and place to sit without the need for a man made pool.

Oh yeah and the weather was perfect all day, a great day all around.

7th April
A guy in the hostel, Bill, offered a lift to Wellington.
About a 6 hour drive and the weather wasn't that great so good timing.

Road to Taupo

5th April
This morning I went back to the lake and walked past more thermal activity, kind of cool, you see steam rising up all over the place and the odd whif of sulpherous compounds remind you that the earth is quite active around here.
Then in the afternoon I headed to Taupo.
I got picked up by a nice swiss couple who were stopping at a few sight on the way which suited me perfectly.
We stopped at park billed as a thermal wonderland and it didn't dissapoint.
There were cool giant wholes with bubling water and yellow deposits.
Cool steaming lakes and oddly coloured ones, really cool, the most impresive thermal stuff I've seen so far, though the 25 dolar entry fee felt a bit like tolling nature.
We stopped a cool waterfall where torrents of water squeeze through a narrow gap before the short drop.
The dropped me off in Taupo which is beside the huge lake Taupo.

Rotorua

4th April Rotorua
Rotorua is really cool.
The government garders have a great walk past load of thermal bubbling pools of water which are next to a beutiful lake.
There is also a park full of steaming lakes, and even little pools where you could soak your travel weary feet.
The town seems quite quiet and average with all the same shops as everytown NZ.

Mt Mauganui

2nd April Mt Mauganui
Today turned out to be a wash out, rain all day.
We went in one of the hostelers cars to Tauranga which is a bit of a bigger town.
Being Sunday many things were closed.
We had all you can eat Chinese food and a bit of a laugh in spite of there being nothing to do.

3rd April
The weather was great again, sunny and warm.
I walked to the top of the Mt Mauganui hill which had great views.
Then a swim in the sea, and snooze on the beach before heading back.
Then hitching again with three lift to get as far a Rotorua.
The first lift was a little harder to get because the Tauranga Mt Mauganui area is a bit of a suburban sprall but this still mean only about a 15 or 20 minuite wait.

Hitching

1st April
So today was my first experiment with hitch hiking.
I got dropped by some people I met in the hostel to the junction outside of town.
After waiting only about 2 minuites I got a lift to the next junction village called Paeroa. This guy advised me that Tauranga by the coast was nice so I decide to include this on my route.
The second lift brought me through a beutiful gourge to the village of Waihi.
This town had an open cast mine which was basicly an enourmous whole in the groud. Apparently a few houses fell into it recently, the mines info signs didn't mention this. Then I got a third lift to Tauranga and had a few pints with this guy who was a fisherman on the way to a 70th birthday party. It turned out that the beach area was a bit away at Mt Maunganui so I got a local bus out there to a hostel for the night.
I borrowed a bike from the hostel and cycled down to the beach which was impresively pituresque. There were little rocking islands and headland and I walked out to the end of one of them and laughed to think that to get there took 4 car rides a bus a bike and a walk.
I turns out that hitching is one of the most practical, conveniant and of course the lowest cost form of transport in New Zealand.

Thames

29th March Aukland
Yesterday was spent wandering in a daze, sleeping during the day and being awake during the night and of course trying to figure things out like the busses, where are the supermarkets etc. After five months of eating out cooking will be another thing to get used to.
Today I had a bit of a walk around.
The university is quite nice with a nice park next to it for lounging around in with the students.
Booked a bus for tommorrow, you have to book everthing in advance here.

30th March Thames
There are two busses a day to thames, the morning one was way too early to I got the afternoon one.
Thames is a little and historical town, which in New Zealand means it has many buildings from the 1800s. They used to have lots of mines. Even though it is small the buildings are quite spaced out. Many people rent cars to travel around here which if split between two people would work out less than the bus. If you are here a bit longer the best option would be to buy a car, or camper van. These can be a modified van, this could help you avoid dorms which aren't that great value, usually overcrowded and with a 10am check out time you feel on the wrong side of the suppy and demand theory.

31st March Thames
At 10am I tried to pay for another night to find that there was no more space, my bed having been booked by someone else so I had to move hostel to the other side of town.
I went for a lovely walk for the day on a trail that goes into the forested hill that rise up from the coast.
In the evening I even managed to find some nightlife.