A deviation from simplicity: Australia and New Zealand

View from the roof deck of YHA Sydney

Restored galleon planning to circumnavigate the globe

Sydney Operahouse

Harbour Bridge

Darling Harbour

Time has passed me by so quickly i barely realised how long it has been since i last updated this blog, much has happened since i wrote from kuala lumpur on my last day in malaysia. From Kuala Lumpur airport i flew directly to Sydney starting my day at 5am only to arrive in Sydney at 6.30pm the time difference played havoc with my body clock so i spent the first day or so in a haze of fatigue. Sydney city itself is a very busy, modern, and clean city, i didn't like it at first, i suppose because i missed Asia. but over the week i began to warm to it. On my first day i just walked for hours, through the bustling city centre down to darling harbor, across the harbor bridge and took in the views and skyline of the city. The harbour area is very well developed with public parks and pedestrian areas providing a beautiful area to walk and take in the city without traffic or fumes tainting the views. Staying in the city was quite nice too as after my first night in a dive of a hostel i moved to the Sydney Central YHA (youth hostel association) The biggest hostel in Australia and a massive shock to me, having become accustomed to small friendly hostels, this place run by a large international association was more like a giant hotel, with a swimming pool on the roof and even a small cinema provided for the 8 floors of dormitories! there were nice people alright but the large scale made it hard to feel at home with so many people coming and going.

After arriving in the hostel i established contact with Trish O'Callaghan, Having gone to school in Rockwell back in the day it was good to meet up with someone familiar who was on the same route. The following day we booked into the Blue mountains tour and spent the day on a bus being driven by a rather loquacious tour guide. First stop was the Featherdale wildlife park. Here we found a great population of animals starting with 10-15 wallabies and kangaroos wandering freely around the koala enclosures. Birds of all varieties ranging from eagles, owls and hawks, to pelicans and even penguins. along with all kinds of marsupials, rodents, and even a Crocodile!

Tazmanian Devil

Roo!

Koala

I think this is a member of the kookaburra family?

From here we drove to the blue mountains Sceinic centre. Some amazing views and forest treks awaited so i immediately headed for the forest trail and wandered into the waterfall dotted landscape. the most famous landmark at the blue mountains are the Three sisters, three rock pillars which in Aboriginal legend were formed by a protective father defending his daughters from attacking rival tribesmen. although I myself think it was probably freeze thaw erosion. I spent a good few hours trekking around the mountainside and returned to the centre via the worlds steepest railway climbing the hill at a 52 degree incline!! After here we returned to Sydney city via some picturesque small towns and had a nice quiet evening in the hostel before venturing out the next day to investigate the Sydney operahouse.

Sunset over sydney harbor

Travelling up at 52 degrees

Forest Track

Waterfall

The Three Sisters

So after only a week in sydney i decided to hit the skies once more and head to the land of the Kiwi. Partially because Trish was continuing to new zealand, but also because i realised it may in fact be my last port of call before i settle down in australia for the forseeable future. So onto the internet i went and booked a cheap flight into christchurch. Upon arrival at 1am i realised how devastated the city really is, without even having to leave the airport. people were sleeping on the floor everywhere, all of the rental agencies i rang were closed or shut down, and the girl at the information desk gave me a map and told me to just cut the centre out of the map as it was "not there anymore" So off i walked to the far corner of the arrivals lobby and set my place on the floor along with most of the people from my flight, i befriended Ludwig from berlin who was on the same kind of journey as myself and we talked about our plans for new zealand and got a taxi into the city limits that morning. During the taxi trip we could really see the devastation with fallen or demolished buildings everywhere and almost every major brick or concrete structure had support struts holding up the fractured and warped walls. Thankfully we experienced no earthquakes and by 9am i had rented a good ol Toyota corolla manual and was on the road to Queenstown. The drive was amazing, with breathtaking scenery around every corner, friendly locals in the service stations and a feeling of home brought on by the eerie similarity of the landscape and farmlands to Ireland
at times i thought i was driving through the farms of tipperary, and then 50kms later i could have sworn i was driving through the ring of kerry with mountains surrounding me covered in sheep and gorse. However this soon changed as i arrived near lake Tepako which rivals lough derg in size but is Bright Blue! due to the glacial waters filling it. surrounding this are the alpine mountains that peak at mount Cook, NZ's tallest peak covered in snow and Glaciers.
From here i continued to Queenstown, picking up some interesting backpacking hitchikers on the way, Arriving in queenstown i deposited my travelling mates and found my hostel, the lakefront hostel YHA, possibly the most sceinic and serene place i have stayed since Lao Liang in Thailand.

My Trusty ol Corrolla

Queenstown

Middle of nowhere

Lake Tepako

Queenstown is a beautiful place and the people are all very friendly and accomodating
I chilled out here for a few days and even splashed out on getting a shave and a haircut! I met up with trish once more and we planned our route further south,
Departing queenstown i followed trish and her roomate george in their car down to Te-anau, a tiny town on the southwest coast famed for being the gateway to Doubtful sound and the glacial Fjords. We stayed the night in Possum lodge motel which basically consisted of some small timber huts with bunk beds and a separate kitchen shack, the next morning Trish departed on her cruise to the doubtful sound while i rented a small rowing boat with two french girls from our dorm and the 3 of us rowed up the river to a trek point on the far bank. From here we trekked for over 4 hours up to the famed viewpoint through eerie fog filled forest, beautiful and silent forests remeniscent of the scenery from lord of the rings.

An amazing deer skull plus antlers we found on the track

Sitting at the peak where the forest is literally hanging off the cliff

The track through the forest

Our rowboat to the track

Fishing boat going up the channel

After our day in Te-Anau we travelled the famous southern scienic route along the south coast stopping in a quiet town called Invercargill for one night then continuing the next day, stopping in Bluff however for a photo with the signpost at the end of the world. From here we continued through the forests and coastal towns to the southern capitol of Dunedin which is actually the scottish for Edinborough.
here we booked into a really nice homely hostel called penny's and stayed the night here, the next day we began with a tour of the Cadbury factory which sadly was a bit of a let down considering it was a saturday there was no production going on so we were not allowed into the manufacturing sector. we did however see a tonne of liquid chocolate fall through a waterfall and some other interesting attractions. After this we headed out to the Otago peninsula where we visited New Zealands only castle Larnach castle, although being built in 1872 it seems like more of a stately home. Every so often i saw odd comparisons with the house at home Raheen. Matching black and white fireplaces, or floortiles in the same pattern as hallways at home, even furniture brought from england that is similar to many things at home. All the same it was nice to see and is very well maintained. From here we continued to the apex of the peninsula where we found the royal Alabatross reserve, the worlds only albatross nesting site on mainland populated by humans. sadly we didnt see any albatross in flight but i was expecting this as they are famously elusive and rare.
That evening we hit the road once more and made it as far as Oamaru, a small one street town where we settled into the red kettle hostel and had a well deserved rest
The next day was a cross country drive to Mount Cook (Aoraki) the tallest peak in new zealand and that is where i currently reside relaxing beside the fire with a full moon outside and snow capped mountains draped in glaciers surrounding this small settlement made of little more than a few houses, the Heritage hotel and the Edmond Hillary alpine centre which is a museum dedicated to Hillary and the mountain climbers who have lived and trained here for expeditions to the antartic and everest.
Tomorrow i am going kayaking on a glacial lake at the base of the tasman glacier famed for being dotted with icebergs and stunning views, I will update with photographs once i return tomorrow evening. As always i will leave you with a selection of photographs from the last few days of hectic travel, and from here on i think i will be taking a more relaxed approach to things. that is until i book my skydiving adventure...

Talk Cha!!

180 million year old fossilised trees