Our new blog...

Since we returned home to the UK we now have a new weekly blog. You can find us at www.thisweekihavemainly.blogspot.com

There's No Place Like Home...Except New Zealand!

It's been 3 months since we landed back in the UK, so it's probably about time that I put the finishing touches on this blog and complete the account of our epic journey.

Coming home in time for Christmas was the best decision we could have made. Sure it would have been nice to have a BBQ on the beach in New Zealand to complete a really "off the wall" year, but there really is no place like home for Christmas. Family, friends, too much good food and of course the biting winter wind outdoors.

The journey home had been eventful, with a delayed flight from Bangkok nearly causing us to miss our final flight from Istanbul. But other than me clocking up over 50 hours without sleep there was no real harm done.

So what's new now that we are back home? Not a lot really. We are both still looking for work, and trying to keep ourselves busy by volunteering (mainly for local environmental charities). It's been great to catch up with our friends again and share all of our stories and experiences, and hear what they've been up to while we were gone.

For now I guess it's just a waiting game. Depending on where we find work will depend on where we live, and so we really don't know what the future has in store. Should be fun finding out though!

The Final Countdown

So here we are, it's the final countdown. No I'm not talking about the long standing television anagrams game made popular by the late Richard Whiteley's "loud" ties or Carol Vordoman's impressive derrière in a pair of leather trousers, I am of course talking about something as silly as a supermarket. In New Zealand Countdown is what all the Aussies would know as Woolworths and what the Brits would call Tesco. Confused yet?

What I'm trying to say in a roundabout way is that this is the final instalment of this blog (from abroad anyway) that has detailed our epic travels over the last 9 months. So make yourselves a cuppa, or crack open a beer if it's that time of day, sit back and enjoy the last 3 weeks of our adventure!

Making the opposite journey to the eventful one that started our time in New Zealand, we found ourselves back in Auckland. With a couple of days to spare before the arrival of our friend Siobhan and the beginning of our next camper van rental, we arranged to meet and stay with a couple of my parents friends who emigrated out to New Zealand around 6 years ago. Rob and Shelia used to live in Deal like ourselves, living on the road around the corner from my parents having worked with Dad down in the port at Dover.

We had a great couple of days getting to know Rob and Sheila, and got to see many of the local haunts around the Albany area where they now live. A well appreciated beer in Browns Bay was a great way to mark our first day there, with an amazingly good hot chocolate and a slice of cake doing a similar job on the second day. It is a great little area in which they live and we can easily see why they made the choice to live here permanently.

The following morning a bright and early start was required to go and meet our friend Siobhan from the airport where we would then pick up the camper van that would be home for the next 15 days. We met Siobhan while Vicky and her were both attending Surrey University and we have been good friends ever since. She even put in an appearance as a bridesmaid at our wedding.

With the paperwork completed we set off in our new camper van (a 3 berth one this time obviously so quite a lot larger than the previous one) and started to make our way south towards Waitomo where there are some quite well known glow worm caves. One of the sights there known as the “Mangapohue Nautral Bridge” was absolutely littered with the glow worms, and provoked an interesting decision; leave your head torch switched off so you could see them better or leave it switched on so you could actually see where you are going in the dark!

Making our way further down the island, New Plymouth would be our next destination. The popular coastline area is very pleasing on the eye and has a pinnacle that you are able to climb to get a better view out across the town and the ocean. The climb was slightly harder than we had imagined as we presumed the steps would take us all the way to the summit, but in fact a scramble over rocks was required to climb the last third. The views from the top were worth it even if getting back down was a little tricky!

Making our way down from the Pinnacle. You can even see our van in the car park quite some way below!

Much alike the south island there are numerous places to pull over at the side of the road for a "scenic lookout" and on most days it would be inevitable that we would stop and take photographs at at least a few of these. It is nice being able to get out of the car and go off exploring through the fields and bushes knowing that there isn't really anything in New Zealand that can kill you (I am of course talking about snakes and spiders that were commonplace in Australia. I am not trying to say that literally nothing can kill you, so I wouldn't advise walking out into the middle of State Highway 1 blindfolded while trying to juggle a handful of kiwi fruit!).

It was during one of these stops on the following day that our friend and travel buddy Walter Bear went missing in action. While journeying along the Forgotten World Highway we stopped at the crest of a hill and climbed over into some sheep fields to take some photos of the valleys below. However when I went to take his photo the following day at the Mt. Tongariro crossing he was tragically no longer in his pouch in my camera bag. We were all very sad to learn of his disappearance, but unfortunately we had driven just too far to warrant backtracking to try and find him. It is of small consolation that he will now be permanently residing in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. For the sake of him being a 5 inch tall teddy bear we will miss him dearly.

The view from the point where Walter went his own way

As I have already mentioned, we spent the following day hiking the Mt. Tongariro crossing. The volcano itself had actually erupted just less than 2 weeks before we arrived (mostly ash and gas rather than lava) and so the crossing was only open to the half way point by the Emerald Lake. We therefore decided to make a return journey to the point of the closure (normally you are able to walk the entire crossing and catch a shuttle back to the start to get back to your car). 

We set out fully laden with food drink and clothes for what would be between a 7 or 8 hour hike, knowing of course that the peak would be a similar hight to that of Ben Nevis which I climbed back in 2009. The track runs right past Mt. Ngauruhoe which is famously used as "Mount Doom" in the Lord of the Rings films. It's snow capped peak looked spectacular against the bright blue sky that the day had brought. As we neared the highest point of our journey, The Red Crater, the conditions became more difficult to navigate as we were encountering both loose ground as well as snow and ice. As we conquered the peak and gazed down on the Emerald Lake beneath us a small flurry of snow fell, although the ground would largely remain warm (we were stood on an active volcano after all!). To stand there and take it all in was truly incredible.

Mt Ngaurohoe or "Mt Doom" heading up into the clouds

Getting down off of the peak proved equally as difficult as getting up it, but after descending a reasonable distance you could feel the temperature getting warmer again and the terrain becoming friendlier to our tired legs. It's always important however to stay focussed until the very end of these things, as accidents are more common on the way down with people thinking that all of the hard work is already done. I saw this happen to 2 people on Ben Nevis who weren't concentrating enough on the way down, and one of them now bears a nice scar across her forehead.

The following day saw us travel to the town of Taupo which is situated at the top of the great lake bearing the same name. We made our way slightly north of the town to visit the Huka Falls, a waterfall sequence that has an impressive flow rate of 62,000 gallons per second! The falls were a lot flatter than we had imagined (the elevation wasn't very high at all) and they appeared like a section of extremely intense rapids. None of the photos that we took could really do the falls justice. I wouldn't say that they were the most spectacular falls I have ever seen, but I would say that they were the most fascinating to watch. There was something so intriguing about the power, depth and the noise of the water as well as observing the changes in the colour of the water as it mixed with the oxygen in the air.

Huka Falls. You really have to be there to appreciate them though

To cap off the day we managed to get ourselves tickets to see the new James Bond film Skyfall at the cinema in Taupo. 

Rotarua, an area known for is geysers and geothermal activity, would be our destination for the following day and it was for exactly those reasons that we decided to make the stop there. We began our morning by going to visit the Lady Knox Geyser, which is advertised as erupting at 10.15am daily. The way that the park guarantees this happening is by dropping an environmentally friendly soap substitute into the top of the geyser, which breaks the surface tension of a cool layer of water that until that point holds back the boiling water below. The geyser there can reach around 10 meters in height. The geyser was reported to have been found by some prison inmates that had been employed for scrub clearing in the area. They decided to use the geothermal pool that they found to wash their clothes (as the prison had only cold water), but when they mixed the soap powder in with their clothes.....WHOOOSH! their clothes were blasted into the air by the release of the geyser!

The rest of the geothermal park in Rotarua was really interesting to walk around, as long as you were able to overcome the overpowering stench of sulphur that hung in the air. The various pools that are available to view there have a range of minerals mixed in with them that cause them to become a range of interesting colours. We found out that the town had suffered 2 earthquakes in the previous week before we arrived, but they were not huge and the people here are just used to them in the way that a Brit is used to it raining.

In the geothermal park

That evening we had booked to go to a Maori cultural evening and learn a little more about what life is like in a traditional Maori village. We learnt about all of the rituals that a tribe will go through to welcome visitors to their land, before being treated to about an hours performance of local music and dance. Toward the end Vicky and Siobhan volunteered to go up on stage and learn how to swing a poy (soft ball on a long string that is used in many of their dances), before I jumped up on stage to learn how to perform the haka (the Maori war dance that you will see the All Blacks rugby team perform every time before they play). Think I will need a little more practice before anybody finds my haka intimidating!

Maori cultural evening

We finished our evening there by gathering in the food hall for a meal that was cooked in the traditional “hangi” way (a hole dug in the floor where the food is placed for it to be cooked by the temperature of the Earth, which in these geothermal areas is pretty hot!). After some amazing food we went back down to the most active area of the settlement which is home to the tallest geyser in the Southern Hemisphere, measuring around 20 meters at it's full height, and sat while the sun went down.

The next day we made our way up into the Corromandel area where we wanted to do a bit of walking, swimming and bathing, in a natural phenomenon known as “Hot Water Beach”. For 2 hours either side of the low tide you are able to dig holes in the sand on the beach that then fill from the bottom upwards with geothermally heated water to make a mini hot spa on the beach. Tide times dictated that we were unable to dig on the beach during the daytime, but with a low tide forecast for midnight we decided to head back down for a bit of stargazing from a hot pool. The water does get surprisingly hot, and so you do have to be careful where and how far you dig as 75C water (the maximum water temperature recorded there) would literally cook you to death. The stargazing would have also gone better if it were not for the copious amount of steam pouring out of the hot water pools and blocking our view!

We spent a further day or so driving around the coastline of the Corromandel with the intention of doing a hike across “The Pinnacles” mountain range. Vicky pulling a muscle in her leg put pay to that idea though and we decided instead to start making our way back around in the direction of Auckland to head on up to the Northlands. 

Me, Vicky and Siobhan at Stingray Bay, just around the coast from Hot Water Beach

Whangerei proved to be a very interesting and charming place to be, and after camping there one night we spent several hours the next day wandering around a local craft and farmers market trying not to spend all of the remaining money that we had left! Keri Keri in the Bay of Islands (where our friend Siobhan will be staying and working for a while) also looked to be well worth some time out of anybody's schedule.

Our main target in the Northlands was to reach Cape Reinga, the highest point of the North Island. Having already been to Bluff in the South Island we have now visited both extremes of the country. We had heard many stories about how beautiful the area was up there, and it is well known for being the point where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea meet (on some days there is a distinct line between the two). However on the day that we visited you were barely able to see your hand in front of your face for the fog that had rolled in. For the most part you were only able to hear the ocean rather than see it, which I would imaging was even more gutting for the coach loads of people who had paid for a tour to go and see it. We couldn't help but chuckle as we watched the coaches arriving just as we were making our way out (evil I know).

We've seen sunnier days!

So with our rental on the van coming towards it's end we slowly started our way back toward Auckland stopping off at Keri Keri to deposit Siobhan for her stay there.

We had 4 remaining nights before our flight when we arrived back in Auckland, and so we decided to book ourselves into a hostel for one last time. Unfortunately it won't be troubling any of our favourite hostels at the top of our imaginary leader board, but it didn't quite rank as the worst either. We took the time to do some of the things that we hadn't had time to do in Auckland previously; to go up the city's Sky Tower (the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere), visit the city museum, catch a boat to Rangitoto (the most recently formed island through a volcanic eruption that took place 600 years ago), see the Hobbit at the IMAX and also to do a bit of Christmas shopping. We had bought most people's presents by June this year (super organised I know!) but we hadn't yet bought anything for each other.

Our final evening we spent meeting with Zelda, one of Vicky's former colleagues from back home, who emigrated out to New Zealand in January. We sat and had a good chat and a laugh over dinner and a few drinks before we could put off the final packing no longer.

It seems strange that our journey has now reached it's end, but to be fair we are both definitely ready to head home. There is only so long we could go on living out of bags and being on the move all of the time, and Christmas seems a really appropriate time to call it a day. 

I'm sure there will be a final contribution to this blog from back in the UK, but as for our time abroad we hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventures and sharing in a little bit of our slightly strange day to day lives. We've been stunned by the number of people reading the blog from all over the world, and so the final thing me to do is to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

To infinity...and New Zealand!

"Good afternoon this is your captain speaking. Welcome aboard this Rocket ship journey from Christchurch which circles the south island of New Zealand, provided by Spaceship Campervans. This service will be making scheduled stops at Dunedin, Invercargill, Queenstown, Fox Glacier, Franz Joseph and Kaikura before returning to Christchurch. We will be cruising today at an average altitude of 4ft with speeds reaching up to 100km per hour. The outside air temperature is around 20C, and with the exception of a few clouds the weather should be mostly fine.

We may encounter a small amount of turbulence during our flight today and this is most likely to be caused by either rock fall or gravel roads. I therefore encourage you to remain seated with your seatbelt securely fastened for the duration of this journey. A small selection of drinks and snacks will be available throughout the journey, and these will be dependent on the stock levels of the nearest supermarket. Sleeper class is available at the rear of the vehicle, but we would like to remind customers that this is only available while the vehicle is stationary. 

A small range of fragrances will also be available to purchase during the course of our journey, with this weeks special being "haven't had a shower for a while"; the latest fragrance from Dior, of which a tester is available free of charge.
If you require a toilet break, please inform myself and I will try and find a safe place somewhere within the next 200km. So please sit back and enjoy your journey with Spaceship Campers."

So as you may have realised by now we have spent the majority of the last 2 weeks touring the South Island of New Zealand in a campervan, but this wasn't before an eventful start to our time in New Zealand.

With our campervan. You can see me clutching the small gold tin of travel sweets that no journey is complete without :)

Although we were due to explore the South Island of New Zealand first, our flight from Australia would actually take us into Auckland on the North Island and from there we would make our way down south by a series of buses and a ferry. However with our first bus running an hour late, we ended up missing the inter island ferry and this in turn meant that we ended up missing our bus to Christchurch. As we had missed our trip to Christchurch we ended up missing our hotel room that we had booked for the night. So as we weren't in Christchurch that night we ended up missing the first day of our campervan rental. Therefore we had to scrap one day of our planned itinerary in order to get back on track.

* A worthy note to any other travellers making a similar journey to us; although bus times will often make out that there is enough time between the bus and the ferry, you have to board the Interislander ferry 45 minutes before it sails. The buses often run late (despite there being very little traffic) and so it becomes very easy to miss a ferry that you thought would not be a problem to catch.

Once we were on the ferry (which was rescheduled free of charge by the bus company) we got our first real taste of what New Zealand landscape can be really like. The deep blue waters on which we were sailing were flanked on either side by rolling green hills edged with a dramatic rocky face, and a couple of small penguins followed alongside the ship until we made free of the land and got into open waters. Likewise, as we made our way through the Marlborough Sounds into Picton on the south island the scenery was of the quality to take your breath away. 

Taken from the ferry between Wellington and Picton

We stayed that night in Picton as the bus company had also rebooked our bus ticket to Wellington, but that was not until the following day. Unfortunately the bus company accept no liability for accommodation in circumstances such as this, and so we ended up paying for both the hotel room in Christchurch that we could not use as well as the hostel that we hurriedly booked on our arrival in Picton. The town there is a lot smaller than we thought it might be, and I think to an extent it suffers from people driving off the ferry and passing straight through it without stopping.

After our bus journey the following day we found ourselves in Christchurch, where we needed to book another extra hostel room as we were unable to pick up our camper until the morning after (the costs of one late bus soon add up!). I was really surprised to see how much damage remained from the earthquake that the city suffered back in February 2011, with the rebuilding process only just now getting under way  According to our bus driver this period of time has been left deliberately by the government to ensure that any aftershocks or further earthquakes have passed before the rebuilding begins. There is still a large "red zone" in the middle of the city where the worst of the damage has happened, and this area is out of bounds to pedestrians and most traffic. There is a bus however that is still permitted to run through the red zone which you are able to take to see the main damage, but it is a lot more expensive than any other bus in town. Strange that a natural phenomenon that killed many people has effectively become a tourist attraction.

The next morning we stood keys in hand in front of our transport and our home for the next 10 days. Our Spaceship campervan had it's name "SANDO" stickered on the side, although we think this is a rubbish name for a spaceship. It is essentially a Toyota people carrier that has had the interior refitted to have rotating rear seats and a double bed included. Simple, but it does the job. 

Doing a spot of cooking at a camp site

Fighting to make up the lost day in our schedule we made our way down to Dunedin, where we went in search of our new best friend; the library. Often with free wifi and a power source at hand the libraries of New Zealand have become invaluable to us to ensure we can keep "in the loop" with facebook and emails while making sure we have enough power in the evening to watch a film in the van.

The following day was one of our longer journeys as we made our way down and around the coast to Invercargil, dropping down to Bluff (the most southern part of the south island of New Zealand) before beginning our journey up the west coast as far as Monowai.

Our next major stop along the way was at Milford Sound. Milford has a great reputation with tourists, and in a sense that worried us a little. There is little worse than finding a wonderful, tranquil and serene area only to find it is packed with too many loud (and dare I say in some cases ignorant  tourists along with just as many people trying to sell them useless pieces of tat. As such we nearly opted for the notably quieter Doubtful Sound, although time and money would not allow for this. We were however overjoyed with our time at Milford. We booked ourselves on the first cruise of the day through the fijords, and we were pleasantly surprised that it was not as overcrowded and as touristy as we might have thought.

Milford Sound

The boat tour was incredible, and on our way back we were even treated to a dolphin swimming in the bow wave in front of the boat. The scenery was spectacular, and it s easy to see why it is considered one of the most beautiful places in New Zealand. The road journey there wasn't half bad either, although it is currently only open during daylight hours due to a rockfall which is waiting to happen.

A few more days later and we found ourselves at the famous Fox Glacier. The one thing that you notice about the country is how diverse it's landscape is. Beaches, rainforests, open plains, mountains, glaciers, they have the lot. 

We had booked ourselves on a half day trek on the glacier, and we arrived full of excitement about all of the wonderful ice formations that we were going to see. Unfortunately the glacier didn't quite live up to our expectations, and we realised to get to see all of the cool things that are pictured in the booklets and on websites you have to take a helicopter hike at the mere cost of $400 per person. Slightly out of our price range! Don't get me wrong it was still good to get out on the ice and learn more about their intriguing creation and movement, but we just felt it left a little bit to be desired for the price we paid.

Vicky and our guide (Dora) scaling the Fox Glacier

During our journey we were mostly making use of campsites provided by the New Zealand Department of Conservation, some of which are free and some of them require a small fee (usually around $6 per person). From some stories I have heard there have been problems before with campers leaving a lot of mess behind while "freedom camping", and so these sites act as a kind of fair deal for everybody. 

The main event for us in the south island though was still yet to come. We journied coast to coast to make our way from Graymouth to Kaikura where we booked ourselves on a tour to swim with wild dolphins. You may or may not know that New Zealands temperatures are very similar to that of the UK, and so needless to say the water was very cold. Equipped with full wetsuits as well as all of your standard snorkelling gear we made our way out into the Pacific Ocean in a small vessel until we found a pod of a couple of hundred  "dusky" dolphins. We slipped down off of the back of the boat and into the water and instantly the dolphins all came over to see what we were about. There were so many of them swimming around us as close as only an inch or two away, while others were putting on an acrobatic display of dives and flips right in front of our very eyes. 

Me swimming along with one of the dolphins

The way that these tours are operated are really positive. The do not feed or train the dolphins at all to encourage them to interact with the swimmers, and everything is all completely on the dolphins terms. They have in entire ocean to swim away from people if they don't want to be near them, and you get a real feeling of it being a privilege of being let into their world when they stay and play with you. 

The weirdest sensation for me was not being able to see the ocean floor. Normally when I have been snorkelling the water has been less than 10 metres deep, with the focus being on the corals and reef fish that are easily within eyesight. In this case however the ocean floor was some 135 metres down, and all that was apparent was a sense of being at the top of a giant blue chasm with no way to tell left from right or up from down. The dolphins soon distract you from that though!

So now returning our campervan to Christchurch we turn our attention to the journey back up to the north island. Will it run smoother than our journey down? I certainly hope so, but the only way to find out is to check back here for the next instalment.

"This is your captain speaking. We have now arrived at our destination in Christchurch. The local time is still the same as when you set off, and the weather is now raining. On behalf of the whole crew we would like to thank you for choosing Spaceship Campers and we hope to see you again soon."

Oz: Over and Out

We have spent the last 2 weeks in a rural area just outside of the town of Wauchope where we have been helping a family with various tasks around their property in exchange for food and accommodation.

Our objective was to find somewhere that we would be able to stay for 2 weeks and  at the same time to try and learn a bit more about environmentally friendly living, and Peter (our host) and his family were able to offer us just that. Living with Peter were his son's Lewis and Billy, as well as a lovable cat and dog; a black Labrador named Banjo and a ginger moggy called Monty.

Billy and Banjo on the floor in front of myself, Vicky, Peter and Lewis (holding Monty)

All of the water in their house comes from a rainwater collection system with 3 tanks around the house that can hold around 20,000 litres each. The water is heated for showers and washing up by a couple of solar panels that are installed on the garage roof. They have a compostable toilet that over time is able to create a fertiliser for the soil and is of course water free. 

The family were all really easy to get along with and we would often sit and discuss our favourite films and music, as well as comparing different stories from our respective parts of the world. 
While the work was relatively simple, it has given us inspiration for ideas that we can put into practice back home along with many of the other things that we have seen over the last 8 months.

The only nasty experience that I encountered during the 2 weeks was being bitten by a couple of bull ants while we were trying to clear their nest that we had found while scrub clearing. While raking the vegetation away from the giant mound that was their home (so that we were able to burn them out with petrol without the fire catching and taking the whole forest with it!) I failed to notice 2 bull ants that had scaled my legs and were then stinging me on my neck and chest. For those that are not aware a bull ant is around an inch long and has 2 very large mandibles on it's head. At it's rear end it has a stinger like a bee or a wasp, and it holds on to you tight with it's mandibles while delivering it's sting. They are very aggressive, and will come towards you to attack from up to 2 metres away.

Bull ant

Banjo is a crazy dog and was full of excitement 24 hours a day. Every times we would set foot out of our room in the morning he would be waiting and would come running with an enthusiasm that made it look like you had been gone for a week. He adores chasing a stick or a ball, and having a tennis racquet and a downhill slope made the game lighter work for us!

On the few days that we were not helping out on the property we would tend to go into Port Maquarie where we were able to visit a Koala hospital and enjoy a couple of hours walk on the coastal path from the lighthouse point at the end of Miner's Beach. The Koala hospital was very interesting to visit and it was amazing to see how well a number of the koalas have recovered from very distressing circumstances. They are often hurt in collisions with traffic, and are also frequently caught up in the forest fires that decimate the landscape on a regular basis.

Sleepy Koala at the hospital

During our walk along the coastal path we fortunate enough to see a whale and a pod of dolphins that were all visible from the shore. The path is well used by walkers in the area, and it finishes up in the town centre bay front area where a resident pelican likes to use his large beak as a way of making people surrender some of their fish and chips in his direction!

The bay's resident Pelican

We were very sad when our two weeks with the guys came to an end as we felt that we had settled in quite well with them, and we can only hope that our work was good enough to reward them for the very kind hospitality that they showed us. So back on the road (or rails in this case) again we would be as we made our way to Brisbane.

We arrived only yesterday in Brisbane, but we are already again on our way out again. A bus to Casino and a train to Sydney followed by a flight to Auckland in New Zealand is bringing our time in Oz to an end. Yesterday in Brisbane we took a river cruise to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary where you are able to visit and learn about Koalas as well as many other animals. There were so many different animals to see we struggled to fit them all in during our time there, but it was a really worthwhile experience on a gloriously sunny day.

Vicky feeding a small Roo at the Lone Pine Sanctuary

This morning, before departing for our 25 hour journey to New Zealand, we took a walk through the Roma Street Parkland which is home to many different types of Australian wildlife and plant life. It is strange to hear people mentioning Christmas while we are out and about as the days here are still getting longer and hotter!

So Australia down and just New Zealand to go. Bring it on! :)

Melbourne and Apollo Bay

Travelling overnight on the train to avoid paying for a nights accommodation didn't come without it's downsides. After a very "on - off" nights sleep we arrived in Melbourne Station to find ourselves a 40 minute walk away from our hostel at a time in the morning where the trams weren't even running. Refusing to pay the extortionate price for a taxi (they make the UK look cheap!) we set off on foot carrying all of our luggage and were delighted when the hostel's doors were finally in sight.

After our last experience of a hostel back in Sydney we were a little wary of what we might find awaiting us, but as we looked around the Melbourne Metro YHA we were pleasantly surprised to find a comfortable, clean and warm environment that didn't cost the earth to stay in. After a much needed hot chocolate in the hostel's cafe, we headed straight out to explore the city with the use of the free shuttle bus.

Unfortunately it was difficult to say that the weather we had in Melbourne was any good, so making use of the free bus (13 stops around the whole city) and the free tram (a loop around the Central Business District) frequently saved us from the cold and sometimes wet conditions while providing a great way of learning the layout of the city. 

Melbourne's free city circle tram

The second night of our stay in Melbourne we booked to go and see the famous Penguin Parade on Phillip Island. This is the official title given to the homeward journey each night of Little Penguins (that is their actual name and not a description) as they come back from their day at sea. As they grow to only a maximum of 30cm high the penguins are quite vulnerable to attack from larger birds during daylight hours, and so they leave and return to their burrows under the cover of darkness when the predators have gone back to their own nests. The phenomenon was first recorded back in the 19th Century, and it has now gone on to be a fully fledged tourist attraction with a visitor centre and seating areas from which to observe the penguins. Each night hundreds (sometimes even thousands) of penguins make their way out of the water, and the subtle lighting placed on the beach allows the spectators to watch them as they make their way up to 1km inland to find their burrows. It really is quite a sight, but unfortunately no photography is allowed as camera flashes have been proven to damage the penguin's eyesight.

Although we had planned to stay in Melbourne for 6 days, we actually decided to change our plans and head down to Apollo Bay where the YHA hostel was offering 3 nights for the price of 2. The main reason however for our visit was our desire to travel the Great Ocean Road. With private trips being expensive and short term car hire not being possible, we found that by booking a trip with V-Lines (bus and train travel) to Apollo Bay from Melbourne we could travel the Great Ocean Road for a couple of hours on the way to our destination. Not only that but it was far more economical.

Some of the coastal views over the rocky landscape are very impressive, and in places reminded us of Cornwall but with added sunshine! For it's low cost we were gobsmacked to see how good the YHA Apollo Bay Eco Hostel was. Not only that, but when we arrived we were upgraded from our dorm room to a private double room for no extra cost, despite the private rooms being 3 times as expensive! It actually ranked as one of the best we have stayed in on this whole journey so far, and with it's clean cut feel it was a great example of how less can feel like more. The hostel is 50% more energy efficient than other hostels of a comparable size, but the facilities were just as good if not better.

The shore line at Apollo Bay

On that first evening we went for a stroll down into the harbour and were shocked to see not only one but 2 stingray in the water that measured around 2 metres across. They were certainly bigger than any that Vicky and I have seen before! Only around 10 metres further round the harbour where the water was getting shallower, we found a pufferfish living among the rocks and plant life among many other smaller species of fish. It was certainly a surprise to see so much from dry land.

Pufferfish. Currently all out of puff!

The next day we set off to try out some of the Great Ocean Walk which was opened in 2006 (the reason for only  walking some of it being that it is 91km long). However due to the poor signposting of what is supposed to be the most impressive walk around led us to lose the path within half a kilometer, and we ended up walking around 7km by the side of the Great Ocean Road. After those 7km we managed to find a trail that linked our position back to the correct path and so we used that to make the return journey. Along the way we had a close encounter with a Tiger Snake (the 2nd most poisonous snake in that area) as well as bumping into a couple of Echidnas which are a lot larger than we thought they might be!

The first Echidna that we met. He's actually bigger than a size 5 football!

Before we knew it our final day in Apollo Bay was upon us and so we took the opportunity to go and gaze at the wonderful shoreline one more time, this time walking in the opposite direction to the way that we had previously gone. We checked in on the harbour on our way back to find our pufferfish still there and several more smaller stingray had also arrived.

A couple of days worth of travelling was now in front of us as we would make our way round to Wauchope on the East coast where we would be picked up to go to our work exchange project for 2 weeks. The return Great Ocean Road journey took us back to Melbourne where we had most of the day to wander the city again before we boarded the overnight train to Sydney. At Syndey we would have nearly 5 hours to waste before our connecting train to Wauchope that would last 7 hours. 

Next time's installment will feature the work exchange project in more detail, and that should be online in about 2 weeks time. See you then :) 

A New Chapter Begins

Beginning a new chapter of our journey on our own was both exciting and sad at the same time. While missing all of the people that we have travelled with for the last 7 months, we were glad to be in control of all of our decisions and movements to really make the time what we wanted it to be.

Our first decision however didn't quite turn out the way we had planned as we checked into the Elephant Backpackers Hostel in Sydney. Laura from our group had checked into the same hostel, and rather quickly all 3 of us had noted all sorts of strange behaviour (mostly alcohol or drug induced) that would disturb us during our stay there. None of us really got any decent sleep in the hostel that night.

Fortunately for us we stayed there only the one night as our friend Amber invited us to come and stay at her house in Bondi for a few nights. I met Amber 3 years ago while climbing Ben Nevis in Scotland and we have stayed in contact ever since. The last time we had seen her before now was at our wedding a year ago this month.

Vicky, Laura, Amber and myself enjoying a drink

During our first day in Sydney we took a walk around the Central Business District and took in some of the sights, as well as getting up close and personal with Sydney Opera House. While making our way to Amber's house the next day we stopped off at Bondi Beach to check out some of the surfers showing off their impressive skills.

That evening Amber took us down to Rose Bay which is on the opposite side of the headland from Bondi Beach, and we sat with a bottle of wine and watched an incredible sunset develop in front of our eyes. The sky went through every colour from a burning orange to a bright pink.

What an amazing sunset!

The following morning we saw some traditional British weather arrive in Sydney, just as we were beginning a nice long walk between Bondi and Coogee. As we walked along the cliffs admiring the exhibits in the "Sculptures by the Sea" exhibition we were being pelted by heavy rain, high wind and then hailstones. A couple of hours later we arrived in Coogee before catching a bus to the Central Business District to go and have a lunch date with some of the group who were still in Sydney. After lunch we went for a walk through the Botanical Gardens and found a cracking view across the water looking at the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.

It was the bridge that would become the focus of our attention later that evening as we took on the famous Sydney Bridge Climb. Zipped into jumpsuits with all of our accessories clipped to us to avoid anything falling off the bridge, we took on the 1390 steps that go from the base of the bridge to the peak of the arch which sits at 134 metres above sea level. Despite the fact that the weather was still bad and that we had to endure another hail storm while on the bridge, the view from the top was amazing as we looked out across the cityscape lit up against the night sky. It was certainly worth the experience and something that we won't forget for a long time. 

Sydney harbour bridge by night

The next morning we were due to have a surf lesson, but the poor weather put pay to that and so we had to entertain ourselves within the city once more. Once the weather had cleared up Vicky, Laura and myself stocked up on provisions and headed off to have a picnic in the park near Darling Harbour. Despite being hassled by gulls and ibis for our food we had a nice little spread that we enjoyed before heading back to our respective accommodation.

Fortunately for us the sea was much calmer the next morning and we were able to reschedule our surfing lesson that we had cancelled the day before. Vicky, Laura and myself all went along as beginners and spent 4 hours during the day finding inventive ways to part company with a surf board in the rushing waters. It was great fun but also very tiring as we repeatedly battled against the waves to get out far enough to try and surf back into the beach. All of us managed to stand up a few times, but more often than not a slap in the face from a wave was the only prize waiting for us as we toppled off of our boards. 

Surf's up!

In the evening Amber and Natalie (who we met in London while she was living with Amber) took the 3 of us out for chips by the sea and a couple of drinks as for the 3 of us it would be our final night in Sydney. Laura would be flying home the next day to the UK, while Vicky and I would catch an overnight train to Melbourne where our adventures will continue....

Couldn't leave you without a picture of this iconic building...The Sydney Opera House