Almost around the world in 96 days: 2010

Friday, 31 December 2010

Happy New Year from Yamba, NSW, Australia

Fireworks from the Beach

A day in the car: The drive to Penola - 14th Dec

This was the first (of many) road-trip days in Australia. It turns out that the driving we had done to date in New Zealand was merely an entrée to the vast distances we would travel in the land of Oz.

We were driving from Hahndorf to Penula a cool 360km away, and we were taking the more direct Dukes and Riddoch Highway as opposed to the arguably more picturesque coastal Princes Highway that would clock up a further 40km and an hour to the journey.

We grabbed a coffee and a cake from the bakery in Hahndorf – as breakfast was not included at the motel despite costing AUD150 – and headed on our way. Very early on in the drive cruise control came into its own.

About 200km or just over 2 hours in we stopped for a while in our first Australian small town. 'Keith' had the huge water tanks and farm machinery sales centre that you would expect to see in any non- coastal small town on a highway and was very hot and humid.

The town itself had made an effort for Christmas with decorations along the streets. We stopped for the toilet and to grab a bite to eat, and did not see a single soul until we walked into a very pleasant café with air conditioning where everyone seemed to be hiding. We both had a pie and a cold drink – Emma had a cheese and onion one that upon biting into revealed itself to also include mince. Pies seem to be something of a delicacy in Australian cafés/ petrol stations/ general stores but I can not think why they are so popular given the heat of the place.

Refreshed we headed on our journey until about an hour or so later we arrived at the town of Naracoorte. You may know it as the tidiest town in Australia 1994.... It's biggest claim to fame however is the vast caves system that bares its name. These limestone caves have world heritage status, unfortunately however the recent freak rainfall that has hit a lot of Australia had also hit here and so parts of the visitor centre and caves were out of bounds. It did however serve as a nice interlude and break from driving.

The final 60km to Penola was a scenic drive through the winelands of the Coonawarra region. We arrived in Penola late afternoon and checked into our apartment and headed straight to the supermarket to grab some food to cook. We returned via the bottle shop having picked up a couple of beers and some local wine to try.

The apartment itself was lovely, big and cosy – a great place to relax just as the place's website had quoted was their aim. The only downside, as suggested a number of times in Tripadvisor, was the inadvertent non-relaxing tone of some of the hotel literature such as – 'check out is 10am, any later and there is a $10 charge per 15minutes'.

I cooked some lovely steak and we finished off the evening by talking on skype to some family and friends.

Just like at home

Adelaide to Hahndorf - 13th Dec

Today we were picking up a car to start the drive from Adelaide to Melbourne – first stop was Hahndorf – Australia's oldest German settlement and the most touristy destination in the Adelaide Hills. It was only 28km SE of Adelaide and so instead of heading straight to it we thought we'd take our time and visit some other places on route.

First we went to Glenelg, Adelaide's most popular beach 11km SW of the city. It was an okay place and easily accessible for people living in the city – particularly when Adelaide can reach 40 degrees. We spent an hour there and had a walk along the beach, pier and harbour. We also saw our first Aussie lifeguards on duty.

The beach at Glenelg

The harbour at Glenelg

Next stop was Penfolds vineyard – this was on route and is a favourite wine of ours so we just had to stop and pick up a bottle of red. The place seemed surprising small but we later discovered that there were more vineyards up in the Coonawarra wine region.

Up in the Adelaide Hills we went via Mount Lofty Summit the highest peak in the hills at 710m. The views were good, although a little hazy but the place itself was quite run down and a bit sorry for itself. Andy spotted our first sighting of a blue-headed wren whose head truly was aqua marine.

Our first Koala sign !!

Views of Adelaide

We decided to have lunch in Sterling and then take the more scenic route to Hahndorf rather than the main highway. Along the route we came across Warrong Sanctuary a conservation centre which was free admission so we decided to take a look. We wandered around the rather isolated sanctuary and were treated to seeing kangaroos close-up, lots of turtles, different types of birds and our first sighting of a koala and a koala baby climbing and eating the leaves off a tree. The park guides said we were really lucky to see the koalas as they're only active 4 hours a day and sleep the rest of the time intoxicated on eucalyptus.

It's a Kanga !!

Koala with a baby on its back

Finally arriving in Hahndorf we went to book into The Manna, our “contemporary executive accommodation” which the Tourist Information in Adelaide had sold to us. This turned out to be quite disappointing as it was more like a glorified motel facing a car park (at least from our room's point of view). The first room we were shown faced the public toilets so we asked to move to a different one which was better but the outlook was certainly not “luxurious”.

No expenses spared soap dispenser

Maybe the hotel experience had set us off on a bad footing but neither of us found Hahndorf that appealing either. It was very very geared to the tourists with gift shops etc but the only real references to German settlers we could find were the “brockwursts” sold in the pub.....we opted for a curry at the Hahndorf curry house instead and then headed home to bed.

A Sunday in Adelaide - 12th Dec

We awoke at the YHA with the challenge of booking the next couple of days accommodation as well as seeing Adelaide. The 24 hour internet access we had paid AUD9.95 for was not working and due to it being a Sunday the guy on reception was being really non-committal on when he thought it was going to be fixed – the switching off and on of the server that I suggested did not seem to work!

Anyway, the fact that the internet was down meant we could not use it to try and understand where to stay over the next 48 hours – we knew we needed to start to make our way south towards the Great Ocean Road and we knew we wanted to visit Hahndorf, Australia's oldest German Settlement, but that was about it.

We decided to head to the Tourist Information with the hope that they would help. They did and within an hour we were to be the proud occupant of a superior room the following evening at The Manna in Hahndorf (suspiciously there was no concept of a standard room).

With that sorted we embarked on seeing Adelaide.

We passed through the main historical/ shopping precincts, surprisingly not that frantic given Christmas was looming, before heading to the South Australian Museum.

The museum had an eclectic mix of exhibitions, from the history of the Aboriginal cultures, to world animals, geological phenomena of Australia, Australian wildlife and Conservation, and of course the deep sea - with their massive squid (for the record not as big as Te Papa, Wellington NZ and no 3D presentation).

Probably the most interesting fact I learnt was that if all the gold suspended in the world's oceans was extracted, it would be enough to give each person in the world 4kg!

The museum had the added benefit of free wifi and we used this to book another nights accommodation, this time in Penola ~ 360km south of Hahndorf.

After this we wandered through the Botanical Gardens. There we saw a tonne of Australia King Parrots and our first Kookaburra.

We then walked along the Torrens river to the Adelaide Oval that had just a week or so ago hosted the second Ashes test. Followed by a walk/ tram ride through town via Victoria Square to the YHA.

In the evening we went to Chinatown and had a meal before heading back to digs to have a coffee in the lounge. It was amazing how many people were either on the internet or texting on the mobile - it makes you wonder how people managed to travel without the aid of such technology.

Tuesday, 28 December 2010

NZ done. On to Australia - 11th Dec

Despite the cost and the fact that the entrance resembled a nuclear bunker we liked our apartment in Queenstown. It was great to cook our own food, wash our clothes, and the view was not bad either. We were stopping in the Adelaide YHA tonight so this was positively a luxury.

We had the morning to wander around Queenstown before heading to the airport for our flight to Adelaide via Sydney. With the stopover in Sydney it was going to be a total of 8 hours travelling - 5 hours flying (3 hours to Sydney and another 2 to Adelaide).

Before heading to the airport we went for a walk around Queenstown Gardens, which as well as being very picturesque and well kept, afforded great views of the Lake and town waterfront.

We then grabbed something to eat, collected our bags and caught the shuttle bus to the airport. (I had another Fergburger, well I did not know when I would be back in Queenstown, but this time a Pork belly burger).

Even Heathrow Terminal 5 can not boast a cafe with views like this.

8 hours later we were in Adelaide. We caught the shuttle bus to the YHA and checked in. The YHA was a great place, the facilities were sufficient, the room clean and the YHA lounge had a nice atmosphere to it with youth and not so youthful people relaxing and chatting.

Had we accidentally checked in to Cell Block H?

For the whole of the 5 weeks or so that we are in Australia we only have the 2 days in Adelaide booked and so we headed to the lounge to search the internet for a plan for the next few days. We went to bed having booked a campervan for the Christmas period but not knowing where we would be stopping a day from now. That would be tomorrow's job.

Final day of the Routeburn Track and then back to Queenstown and Ferg's - 10th Dec

The final day of the Routeburn Track is a leisurely 10km wander down from the falls then along the flats towards the trail end at Routeburn Road.

We awoke to a cloudy day, but given it was the last day of the walk and we were heading down the valley it did not seem to matter too much.

The first 30 minutes or so was down a steep, rocky path before emerging at the Routeburn flats.

We stopped for a brief stop at Forge Flats before proceeding to follow the gorge that the Routeburn river had carved out of the land. It started to rain and for the first time in 3 days we had to put on our raincoats – which at least made it worth while carrying them all the way from the UK.

We crossed the river a number of times before emerging at the end of the trail at the Routeburn Road.

At the road we boarded a coach for Queenstown but stopped first in Glenorchy at a pub for some food and a presentation of completion certificates. The pub appeared to be decked out more like I would expect a classic Aussie pub than a NZ one.

We arrived back at Queenstown around 4pm and headed straight to the same apartments we had stayed in a couple of days ago, freshened up and then headed back into town for something to eat.

At the B&B in Omarama, the owner/ chef had advised that whilst in Queenstown we should definitely experience a Fergburger and so we headed there as a reward for finishing the walk.

The lamb burger we had was very tasty as well as being big enough to be a meal in itself.

If you go to Queenstown you have to go for a Fergburger! They have resisted the temptation to open up in other towns/ countries despite pressure from the likes of Facebook forums and restaurant reviewers (one of which hypothesised that if a certain chain denoted by golden arches were in fact Fergburger restaurants then there would be no wars in the world!).

We then headed back to the apartment to do some laundry and pack for our flights to Australia the next day.

Day 2 of the Routeburn Track - 9th Dec

Today was our longest day walking close to 10miles over 6 hours. We spent the first hour of the walk climbing out the hanging valley of Lake Mackenzie and up to Ocean Peak Corner. We were lucky to have such good weather as from this point we saw the Tasman Sea in the distance.

Whilst climbing we watched a helicopter delivering supplies to the lodge which took a pretty spectacular bit of flying.

Next we followed the side of the Hollyford Face which was a pretty exposed section of the track however again because the weather was beautiful this part of the walk was really enjoyable. This took us to the Harris Saddle Shelter where we had lunch. At this point we were 1,300m above the sea.

After lunch we both opted for the optional climb up Conical Hill. This was still a closed footpath because of avalanche risk but because we were part of a guided walk we were allowed to climb it. We still couldn't go right to the top because of snow but climbed high enough to get some spectacular views of the mountains.

Back down at the hut we retrieved our backpacks for the final section of the day. This included an initial climb around Lake Harris before dropping down into the upper Routeburn Valley and our next and final hut for the night, the Routeburn Falls Hut.

The roof of our hut is in the bottom centre of this picture

The Huts were again spectacular and we had our own room which was nice. After going for an icy dip in the river (Andy not me), and completing our washing chores we all had a beer followed by another 3 course meal. Andy had Steak and I had Salmon.

Even the Japanese ladies tucked into a beer

Dessert was fun – the guides all heated and then tossed pancakes for us to catch. Andy dropped his, he claims I pushed him however video evidence proves there was NO pushing involved and that he did indeed drop it.

It was lights out again at 10pm so we settled into bed with the trusty snowman torch Hayley and Richard gave us as a leaving present. We started with hats but it really wasn't cold enough to need them.