Four Go RTW

Finally we’re here!! I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve said ‘When we get to New Zealand…’ We have so many people and places to see here that it’s great to be back after so long. After Australia it's like someone has adjusted the colour on the TV set - greenery, fall colours, rainbows, thunderstorms, seascapes - it's all so vibrant.

We had a very soft landing too – although it was pouring with rain, Chris’ cousin Ben and his girlfriend Ren picked us up at the airport and whisked us into town to the hotel I’d booked, only about 30 seconds walk from their tiny flat, and walking distance to downtown Auckland. The girls were so exhausted from watching movies on the seat-back TV’s (!) they barely noticed the 2 hour time difference and both fell asleep at a reasonable hour. The next morning we were reminded of how similar New Zealand’s climate is to the UK – if you don’t like the weather just wait half an hour!! With this in mind we hung around Queen St, surreptitiously window shopping and stopping for a coffee so that as soon as the weather cleared we could race up the Skytower and catch some sights from up high. We weren’t disappointed, the cloud lifted and we got stunning views across the old volcanoes of Auckland Bay and the bridge leading across to the North Shore. We walked back to the hotel to give the kids a chance to rest before going out for supper, but in reality it was only Ben who had a nap, before proceeding to eat his own body weight in lamb shanks that evening!

The following day was VERY exciting – we headed off to pick up our campervan. As its ultra-low season they are very cheap this time of year so we’ve gone for a big 6 berth version, as we won’t be able to use the outside space so much in the middle of winter. It’s costing us approximately GBP£35 a day for the month – if we hired it in summer, say between December and February it would be a whopping GBP£120 a day, WAY over budget. So every time the girls moan about the weather, beach/sea too cold etc we say ‘Well, if we could’ve come here in summer we would be in the tent, or we could come here in winter and be in the camper, what do you think?’ Guess what; the camper wins! (We didn’t even need to say that the weather wouldn’t necessarily be much better!!). Ben came with us to pick it up and I’m sure thought we were really very sad, but we think she’s gorgeous, despite the nickname that Ben and the girls came up with;

The ‘Big White Turd’ camped at Hahei Beach:

We rented the van from Pacific Horizons who have so far proved to be very good. They organised a courtesy shuttle for 5 out to the depot and all the checks and paperwork were taken care of very quickly. We specifically chose this model as it has a gas heater on board, and this company offer to reimburse for LPG top-ups which means we can stay as toasty as we want. After some careful manoeuvring and despite Ben’s navigation we managed to find our way back into town and took the girls to Kelly Tarltons for the afternoon. It’s a cool aquarium place with an amazing stingray exhibit and a great Antarctica exhibit (we won’t have time to go to the one in Christchurch again) – coming from the northern hemisphere you forget that NZ is only 1000kms from Scott’s base camp and the girls loved the cute penguins! From the front of Kelly Tarlton’s we were treated to a fantastic view of Auckland’s skyline too:

The Poor Knights Islands are just off the coast of Northland – about 150kms north of Auckland - and are consistently in ‘World’s Top Ten Dive Sites’ lists. Predictably Chris was desperate to try and dive them – this was his third attempt as cyclones and airplanes had thwarted him when we were here before. So we headed to Tutukaka where the boats go from, passing through Whangarei (where Auntie Cayti lived) on the way which was very strange. It’s SO weird being here without her, we almost wanted to go and check she wasn’t there. He was nearly beaten by the weather again, the sea was up to a 3m swell but the diving was apparently fantastic although VERY cold – 16 DEGREES in the water – even Chris got cold, which is unheard of! Tutukaka was a cool tiny hamlet and the campground had a trampoline, so the girls pretty much just bounced for a couple of days and we did laundry, went to the shop for ice-creams etc (they don’t melt so fast here!!!)

Having seen the best bits of Northland with the best guide previously we didn’t want to go further north on this trip and so went south again, via Auckland and Ben and Ren, before turning left onto the Coromandel peninsula. It is stunning – just a long big ridge of mountains covered in tree ferns, Kauri trees, and other lush vegetation, with a road precariously carved out of the cliffs all the way around. We drove through Thames and around the top to Whitianga, where Captain Cook sought sanctuary in 1759, although the kids were more interested in the great playground on the Esplanade and a top pizza place down the road. Next stop was Hahei and Cathedral Cove, with a 2 hour bush walk to get down to the beach – we tramped through the rain to be rewarded with a sun-bathed empty beach at the bottom, just gorgeous.

Playing on the beach at Cathedral Cove (featured in the new 'Narnia' movie):

The path back up the cliff:

Later that day we headed to Hot Water Beach, where at low tide you can dig a hole in the sand and access the thermal spring water flowing underneath. It’s a very weird sensation when the top half of you is freezing and your feet are so hot you have to keep moving around or it burns you!! We were glad of the hot shower in the camper as we ran barefoot across the 100m of icy wet sand back to the car park! The picture of the camper above is taken at Hahei Beach where we camped that night – stunning site right by the beach.

The next day we drove a couple of hours to Waihi Beach, a popular little summer beach town that just survives with a few hardy visitors in the winter. The beach is again a gorgeous wide strip of sand and we stayed at an amazing campground – fab showers, playground, TV room with flat screen, kitchen with ovens, playroom, hot tub….in summer it’s no doubt packed, but we shared it with 2 other people! It was cool being able to park the van and walk along the beach to the shops and cafes; the only downside of campsites is they tend to be a bit out of town (being really picky now!!)

Walking on Waihi Beach:

That’s the last we’ll see of the beach for a while – we head inland next – but it’s been a beautiful start to the trip.

See ya

All love CRFS xxxx

Turns out a Bank Holiday Monday is the same the world over - this was the scene as we drove into Queensland on the Queen's Birthday Weekend (er, hello, WE don't celebrate the Queen's birthday - what happened to that day off??!)
Bank Holiday Weather:

Two of Australia’s most prolific industries are mining and farming, so we thought we’d better take the girls to a farmstay to balance out the massive machines we’d seem out west. They’re too young for a Jillaroo-type experience so we went to a little place in the hills behind Brisbane which was perfect for them – up at 8am feeding all the animals, collecting eggs, milking cows and then riding horses and quad bikes around the place too.

Farm chores:

We had a great cabin with a wood burning stove to light beating the evening chill and an oven for pizza and lasagne! Interrupting the distant views of the Brisbane skyline and the Sunshine Coast, the horses would wander past the door of our cabin looking for the carrots the owners had thoughtfully placed in the fridge and there was the most adorable Jersey cow pottering about with her 3 day old calf:

From there we were pretty close to Australia Zoo – home of The Crocodile Hunter, the late Steve Irwin. From the age of 2 our beautiful baby girl, she of the blue eyes and blond bubble curls sat mesmerised by ‘Stevie’ during his escapades on Sunday afternoon TV and has been a reptile crusader ever since. One of her favourite games is ‘croc capture’ where she pounces on you unawares, flattens you to the floor and shouts ‘TOP JAW ROPE ON, BLINDFOLD ON!’ So it was with trepidation that we took her to Australia Zoo – would it live up to expectations?? No worries (as they are fond of saying here) she thought it was fab, LOVED the demos in the Crocoseum and carefully studied all the snakes to check if they were venomous or not. It’s a cool place and there’s a lot of Stevie memorabilia there too which is an amazing tribute.

Feeding time in the Crocoseum, Australia Zoo:

From the Sunshine Coast we stopped in Brisbane for the day to wander around down by the waterfront and through the Botanic Gardens for a play, before heading back to the Gold Coast to see a pommie friend of ours who moved to Oz 12 years ago and hasn’t looked back since! Dani and her Aussie partner, James, live in Southport on the northern end of the Gold Coast in a great split level house and have two dogs and a cat which the girls instantly fell in love with, insisting they be involved in all feeding, walking etc. It was great being in someone’s home again and although we haven’t seen Dan since 1996 it didn’t seem like it as she hasn’t changed a bit! The first day we were there we just hung out, did some laundry and then headed down to Surfers Paradise for lunch and a dig on the beach.

Although it is hardly publicised outside the local area, this is whale watch time on the Gold Coast – most humpback whale watchers on the East Aussie Coast head to Hervey Bay and Fraser Island further north where they turn up in July, but the gentle giants actually come close to the coast all the way from Sydney to Cairns hanging out in the warmer waters off Australia to mate and calve – so the following day we got on a boat! Dani found a coupon on the back of her till receipt which made it a great bargain, and it was sooo cool – we saw lots of different whales but mostly hung out with a very active pair who were breaching, tail slapping, fin slapping and watching us right in front of the boat! One of the things on Fin’s RTW list was whale watching, we thought it would be in cold wet Kaikoura, New Zealand, but sunny and warm in Oz sure sounds better! Also the whales in Kaikoura are mostly sperm whales, fascinating to learn about, but not nearly as playful as the beautiful humpbacks:

Plus we got to see the Surfers Paradise skyline from the water:

The Gold Coast is ‘theme park city’ and James works for the Warner Village group and was very kind to get us some amazing discounts on tickets to SeaWorld, so the six of us went which made it a great day out for us too, having adults to hang out with! We pulled up all the details of the various parks for the girls to choose which one they wanted to go to, thinking they would prefer one with rides etc, but they looked at the SeaWorld one and said ‘wow, they’ve got dolphins and dugongs and sharks – COOL.’ Excuse me, but didn’t you see them just a month ago in the wild??? We all had a fab time although Chris and James nearly required medical treatment while riding around on the cable car.

Chris and James: (Hands off ladies, that 80's throwback is my husband! Dani said ‘Did Chris have those glasses 12 years ago too?)

So our last day we just hung out with the guys, went out for lunch, did some packing and the girls played endlessly with the dogs (delighted) and Socks the cat (less delighted) - thank you so much Dani and James for giving up your precious time off – we loved staying with you.

Brooke and Morgan – blog stars!!

The following day we were out the door at 8.30am heading for the airport and our flight to Auckland and were seen out of Oz by an amazingly friendly immigration officer who ‘tattooed’ the girls’ hands as well as their passports!

See ya
All love CRFS xxxx

Three weeks to get from Sydney to Brisbane sounds like a long time, and even by Australian standards this should be plenty as it’s only about 900kms directly from A to B, but we still wanted to make the most of the days. Scanning the weather reports in Canberra it was as we feared – NSW was going to be cold and wet :-( We had decided anyway that we probably wouldn’t spend too much time at the coast as we are trying to shed the ‘english-person-with-gritted-teeth-on-the-beach-in-all-weathers’ image, plus we were quite intrigued by tales of a large gold coloured guitar on the inland track…

So we headed north towards a place called Dubbo, which was about 4 hours drive away. We stopped at the Wellington Caves about 30kms before Dubbo as it seemed a good winter activity. It was pretty stunning with the massive Cathedral Cave (concert venue) and very interesting (well I thought so, but maybe I was the only one) with lots of little fossilised shells and critters and a near perfect example of rock folding – oh and of course the usual stalagmites, tites etc etc. Cave diving also goes on here in the subterranean waters, but thankfully our man hasn’t done that scary spec yet.

Wellington Caves:

In Dubbo itself we found a cabin at last – the usual ‘Dubbo’s a big place, there’ll be plenty of places to stay’, only to be confronted with a whole street of ‘No Vacancy’ signs as you arrive in the dark! We have found in most places there’s a critical ‘fill-up’ time around 4pm – you need to be in a room by then! So with a roof over our heads I did a quick pasta run to the shops and we settled in. Reading through the masses of tourist info (we had forgotten how much Australia still relies on leaflets and info-zines to advertise until we got here again) we decided to go to Jedda Boomerang where you can design your own bendy stick, so the girls got busy practising with the finger-damaging glowing red elements and scorched all sorts of dolphins, suns and swirls into a blank.

Caution – Sadie at work:

They also gave us a demo of how to throw them but it was too windy for any of us to try and risk serious injury from a small piece of wood. It’s just a small place but they were really helpful and great with the kids. Dubbo’s most visited attraction is the Western Plains Zoo – with the accent on African animals - but as we live down the from Longleat Safari Park we decided to give it a miss, although we wondered if that was so wise when everyone we met in town looked wonderingly when we said we weren’t going! Instead as the first spits of rain fell we headed to an indoor play area which had a great coffee machine and predictably few children there 2pm, so that finished off our day!

Yeeeehah - next day we headed to Tamworth, home of country music and the aforementioned Golden Guitar!
The Big Golden Guitar:

The guitar is pretty cool, but the wax museum of country music stars looked a bit cheesy (plus we only knew who Keith Urban was – did he change his name especially to sing country??) so we moved on…Having learned from our mistake we had booked ahead this time and had a great unit with a separate bedroom for the girls which meant we all got some space and a good nights’ sleep.

From Tamworth we headed out east along the Waterfall Way. This road runs close to no fewer than 5 national parks and the water levels can change from a trickle to a torrent and although we had managed to stay pretty much dry by travelling inland, there had been a lot of rain nearer the coast and the waterfalls were full to bursting! We were amazed by the scenery as we wound through the hills, so lush and green, a complete contrast to the flat red of WA, the bare layered rock gorges of Karijini and the parched brown farmlands around Canberra. Northern New South Wales is temperate, the mountains catch the rainfall and its far north enough to escape frosts in winter.

Ebor Falls:

On the other side of the hills we drove up to Ballina on the coast for a few days beach time and the weather obliged! Compared to the hinterland the temperature change was amazing – back to high 20’s in the days and dropping only to 14 degrees or so at night, so lovely. We found a ‘holiday park’ and a cabin with a separate ‘cupboard’ with bunks in for the girls, a heated pool with water park bit and a kids playground with a huge jumping pillow thing, so for the first day we didn’t leave the site! We headed off to local Shelley’s Beach for a bit of rock-pooling and also headed up to Byron Bay for a picnic and a poke around the funky shops up there and the main beach was very sheltered which made it great for digging but awful for surfing! Chris and I stayed in Byron Bay 10 years ago and now it’s all trendy café’s. Must remember the mantra ‘never go back, never go back’.

Byron Bay main beach:

After a great few days relaxing we realised we had to fly in a week – ONWARDS!!
See ya

We arrived into Sydney on the Virgin Blue flight at around 10.30pm (is it our imagination or are the seats REALLY uncomfortable on that plane?), which sounds late, but of course was only 8.30pm to our body clocks which were reset to Asia/WA time way back in November! We picked up the car without incident and rather than doing the 30 mins into town and try and navigate a busy city in the dark, we headed to the airport ‘Formule 1’ to rest our heads. Here on the East Coast we are going one-way, in a roundabout sort of fashion, so we will drop the car off in Brisbane right before our flight to Auckland. But anyway, back to Sydney…

Next morning we were up late – our 7.30 has turned into 9.30 =:-o!! Not wishing to partake of the Krispy Kreme breakfast option next door to the hotel we decided to head to Sydney’s most famous brekkie joint - Bondi Beach. It was gorgeous, the sun was shining, good food and people watching, followed by a run on the winter weekday sand.

Bondi Beach:

Yes, of course it’s winter here, although sunny and 21 celsius seems like a pretty good ‘low’ season to me! If only November temps were like that at home. We headed into town to our hotel on William St – bang in the middle of town. We have taken to tracking recently refurbished hotels as they often slash their rates – this one is a quarter of the rack rates thanks to winter specials and a refit. That afternoon we walked over the very high Sydney Tower and zoomed to the top for amazing views over the city and harbour:

Also included in the price was a funky 3D movie thing all about OZ which was really good reef/beach and outback revision for the girls. For our second day we did the traditional tourist ‘hop on – hop off’ open top bus and stopped to tick the Opera House, Bridge and Darling Harbour off the list. It was another lovely sunny day so we didn’t freeze in our flip flops as we wandered through the wonderful Botanical Gardens too.

Classic Sydney Postcard Pic:

Chris gets arty at the Opera House:

The next day we checked out and drove the 3.5 hours to Canberra to see Miss Smith (her name is actually Sarah!) – Fin’s Year 2 teacher from school last year. Sarah’s partner Jon secured a job in the nation’s capital from the UK and so they have relocated for a year and it was great to see some familiar faces! The nights suddenly got a LOT colder (down to freezing) and we had to change rooms when we realised the heating didn’t work in the first one! Amazingly the sun still shone pulling the temps up to 20 degrees in the day and we saw lots of the sights of Canberra over the 3 days we were there:

Parliament House (which was cool – amazing that you could walk right into the public gallery over the chamber) – with the symbol of Australia gleaming like a spider web on top:

The War Memorial - encyclopaedic knowledge of Australian war involvement and more tears by the wall of names:

Lanyon Homestead - so interesting and beautifully restored to reflect station life in the 1850-1900’s:

The National Museum of Australia (microscopically charting Aussie history from the indigenous tribes right through recent history) – showcasing this special exhibition of an incredible aboriginal ‘land claim’ map:

We saw lots of Sarah and Jon and talked a lot about living overseas and the pros and cons, and had dinner with some of Sarah’s very extended family who live in Canberra and have small children, which was a great evening for the girls.

So despite the derogatory remarks of Bill Bryson and others we enjoyed our time in Canberra – there is certainly plenty to do, but it does lack something compared to other Aussie cities. Settled when it was it’s a real shame that it wasn’t developed in an art deco style (such as Napier in New Zealand) or similar classic style of the time – it would give the city more of a focus and place in time, it was actually settled in 1913 but most of it looks as though it was finished last week. Chris and I have visited Perth, Darwin, Cairns, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and now Canberra on our travels and remain convinced that Aussie cities have never really evolved past the administration centres they started out as. They are too glossy, too many trendy conversions and lack a lot of wonderful Edwardian and Victorian buildings that would have been built – the best examples we saw were in Kalgoorlie, where all energies have gone into getting gold out of the ground – it’s too remote to try and attract huge tourist numbers. City life is absolutely NOT what Australia is about, and Sydney has always been our least favourite – it just tries too hard. This trip we liked it better, but not as much as Perth, and certainly nowhere near as much as Hanoi, Bangkok and the other Asian centres which still maybe have a sense of worrying too much about sustaining life and health and much less about image.

(However, when all's said and done, as Bill Bryson said, Canberra is still the Gateway to Everywhere Else! - Ed)

See ya
All love CRFS xxxx

All too soon it was time to bring our road trip to an end and head back to Perth, although we wanted to make one more stop on the way. Approximately half way along the Great Eastern Highway we turned south to get to Hyden, the main town near to Wave Rock. It’s a pretty cool lump of rock which has been sculpted by the wind and rain to form a near perfect wave shape. We stayed the night there in a National Park cabin, seeing again the amazing night sky with minimal man-made interruptions.

Wave Rock:

The next day we covered the last 330kms or so back to Perth, where we stopped in the city centre at a swanky suite as we had as very special day ahead of us – Fin’s 8th birthday and our 10th wedding anniversary. It was lovely to have so much space and we also had a kitchen, a laundry and best of all – a dishwasher!! After 8 months of washing dishes it was luxury! (Sad, I know!) After opening lots and lots of presents Fin requested some aussie animal interaction for her special day, so we headed off to Cohunu Wildlife Park to visit lots of kangas (with joeys in pouches, sometimes upside-down with their legs sticking out rather than heads), wallabies, wombats, emus, black swans and very cute snoozy koalas, all free to roam around the park with you and really a bit too friendly in some cases! We managed to have yet another WA attraction to ourselves – Chris said ‘How wonderful of you to arrange another private visit!’

Mummy and (very large) baby:

Koala cuddles:

Returning home to the balloon covered apartment we had more pressies (including a wonderful box of chocs delivered from my mum), a birthday tea party with ‘Vienetta’ cake, received calls from well wishers and watched a movie until bedtime, so hopefully it was a good birthday. Chris and I mumbled ‘Happy anniversary darling, can you believe it’s been 10 years?’ before promptly falling asleep on the sofa, which we have come to learn is the legacy of getting married and having a baby on the same date!

We celebrated the following evening however, as we stayed at Jan’s and she very kindly offered to babysit so we could go to the cinema and see the new Indiana Jones movie – WOW do we feel up to date!! We had a lovely lunch with her, Kathy, Jenny and assorted grandchildren and managed to see Richard before we left too, so it was great to be able to say goodbye to everyone.

All that remained was to wash a month’s worth of red dust and flies of the car and hand it back before heading to the airport and our flight to Sydney - we realised we had done almost 6000kms in a month. We felt so sad leaving Western Australia – yet another place we have felt so at home in, mostly due to the Pengelley hospitality as always, and the welcoming friendly attitude we encountered everywhere. Sadly I can’t recommend it at all, as I hope it stays just as we have left it!!

See ya
All love CRFS xxxx