Western Australia: Getting there

How do you prepare for a three-day train journey? I had no idea. I would be occupying an economy class chair, the type of which I'd already briefly encountered from Sydney to Melbourne, so I knew this could be a very, very long journey. With a stack of books, magazines and ear plugs I boarded the Indian Pacific. Quickly bored by the reading material, I soon checked out to see what the train had to offer, and was pleasantly surprised by how well-equipped it was; showers, a diner, bar and lounge area. I was tempted to sneak a look into the Gold Kangaroo carriage (first class), but this seemed to be strictly out-of-bounds for the likes of us, and I thought I may be beaten back by the rather abrupt guard. The reason I'd taken the train was to get a better appreciation of the scale of the country, and I certainly did. Leaving Adelaide we soon fell into the bush. Initially fairly tall trees, but as we got closer to the Nullabour Plain, the frequency and size of the vegetation decreased until we were left with rocks, and little else. Apparently there is an old guy living out in the Plain somewhere, and the train brings him food parcels as it travels past. Crazy! We made two scheduled stops along the way, Cook (about 18 hours in) and Kargoorlie (about 36 hours in). Kargoorlie was surprisingly large considering how remote it was from anything. The town is a fairly major gold-mining town. We had just enough time for a quick jar before moving on to Perth. The journey went surprisingly quickly, and as this was economy, there were a load of other backpackers to talk to. I'm glad I did it, but I think next time I'll fly!

My main reason for coming over to the west was to experience a different environment to the east. The west offers an interesting variety of landscapes, Perth (the remotest city in the world), a chance to escape the tourist traps in the east, and, of course, a great opportunity to sample of the finest wines in the world... Woohoo!

Australia: Melbourne to Adelaide

Traveling to Melbourne from Sydney by train wasn't quite the original plan, but due to my rubbish organisational skills in sorting out a hire car, was the only remaining option. Going in the sleeper cabins was probably the best decision of my life though, having seen the cruel reality of economy class.

Reaching Melbourne I checked into a hostel near the Southern Cross Station, and headed into town, looking forward to the cultural and culinary delights. The centre of Melbourne itself offers much in the way of shopping, but I was a little disappointed in the lack of cultural areas and bars. We did find a trendy bar down by the river, though, which had an outdoor BBQ. I headed down to the Moonlight Cinema one evening. an outdoor cinema down in the Botanic Gardens, where I watched 2001 A Space Odyssey. First time I'd seen the movie all the way through. I totally didn't get the ending, but I think that's mainly because I was too cold to think. The weather is totally erratic here. One evening can stay in the upper twenties all night, the next can drop about 15 degrees.

We took a trip over to Phillip Island to see the Little Penguins coming back from gathering fish after sunset. Just after 9pm, there were hundreds of penguins coming out from the sea and trawling up the beach and into their nesting areas up the beach.

The Great Ocean Road, which starts just after Geelong and runs along to Torquay, provides one of the best coastal roads in the country. We hired a car and over three days drove from Melbourne to Adelaide. The 12 Apostles was probably the most impressive, with a series of stacks just off the coast. I have to mention the YHA hostel we stayed at in Robe. This was the finest hostel so far. After this it was the long drive to Adelaide.

I stayed in Adelaide for a couple of days before visiting Kangaroo Island, just off the coast. With a island of that name, you would expect to see a raft of kangaroos, but I only got to see one. And it was dead. We did see the Remarkable Rocks though, naturally formed stone structures, which were very impressive.

The centre of Adelaide offered the same carbon-copy shops but little else, and it certainly isn't somewhere I could spend a long period of time. The next step is to prepare for the long train journey to Perth.

Australia: Sydney Rocks!

The time's almost up in Sydney and I have to say that this is one of the best places so far. Spent the first two days in a hostel in the centre of the city called "Railway Square" which was connected, rather strangely, to the main railway station. The hive of activity is centred around George Street and Pitt Street, which run in parallel down to the harbour. Along the way are cool little bars and eateries, which we have made great use of so far. The first night I took a stroll down George Street, heading towards the Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House. Seeing the iconic Opera House finally hit home how far I've traveled from home. It's such an amazing structure, with the lighting at night creating an even more impressive image. Having gazed at it for sometime, I went back down to the quay and had the best ice cream to date.

After two nights in the hostel in town, I moved out to the Sydney Beach House situated in remote Collaroy (an hour bus ride, or a ferry and bus marathon). Actually the ferry ride into the city, which past beaches and bays, really gives you the chance to see the surroundings, and how Sydney provides the best of both worlds; an amazing cultural and vibrant city, with golden sand beaches and great scenery only minutes away.

Surprisingly (or not) there were still tickets to see Dr Karl and the Waiting Room, a band whose lead singer is an actor from an Australian soap, Neighbours, so we hesitantly took the oppurtunity to see such a day-time TV legend. Also surprisingly, it was actually pretty good, until he started talking about his character's encounters with women, at which point I self-combusted.

Christmas day was a little different to home. We headed into the city and spent the morning around the harbour with a surprising amount of other people, all homeless like ourselves I presume. I wish I could say the weather was fantastic, but there was little else but grey skies all day, which was rubbish! I'd made some rather unappealling looking turkey and cheese sandwiches (this was pretty much the limit of my local shop's supplies), but walking past a restaurant behind the harbour bridge proved far too enticing, so the sandwiches were quickly ditched to be replaced with tasty fish and chips. It was a fairly quiet affair, but was good all the same.

Having done little over the following few days, we sprung into action, and took the train out to the Blue Mountains, about two hours out of Sydney around Katoomba. As you look over the Blue Mountains there is a distinct blue haze, created from the eucalyptus trees below. Luckily for us it was a spectacularly clear day, and we were able to see about 70 kilometers to the horizon.

We intend to hire a car between Sydney and Adelaide, stopping off at Melbourne, Tasmania and Kangaroo Island along the way. Between Melbourne and Adelaide is the Great Ocean Road which should provide some really great scenery and some rally-style driving. I can't wait! ;)

New Zealand: Week Six

The end of my travels round New Zealand. In the most part, a very chilled out week, involving, amongst other exciting activities, trying to beat my record of how many cups of tea I can drink in a day. I lost count, but it was more than my record in England as the tea here is not the strongest. Had an interesting altercation with a street musician where he threatened to take our cameras from us if we didn't put a dollar in his silly little hat. He thought we were taking photos of him, but he didn't seem to realise (or perhaps had been there so long that he'd forgotten) he was standing in front of the Cathedral and was therefore bound to be in the photo. Later on we saw him being taunted by a group of local New Zealand neds so all was at peace with the world.

There aren't many people left from the Stray Bus in Christchurch now, they've either gone back home, or the majority have moved on to Sydney. Quite strange not having a load of people around. Really looking forward to meeting up with them in Sydney over Christmas and New Year. Still planning the route I'm going to take in Australia. Any suggestions will be most welcome! I fly into Sydney, and out of Cairns three months later, and would like to visit both coasts as well as Uluru. Thinking about taking a road trip from Sydney to Adelaide over about three weeks with some people from the Stray Bus, plus any other random people we pick up on the way.

On a side note, I don't know if anyone is reading this blog any more apart from my family, who are likely to reading more out of obligation, which I appreciate nonetheless! Without sounding overly desperate, it would be great to hear from you guys, even if it's to tell me you no longer wish to read it!

So, next stop Australia, home of the Drop Bears...

New Zealand: Week Five

We were up early to catch the bus taking us to Mt. Cook. Still feeling like a kiwi had crawled down my throat and had started redecorating, we reached Mt. Cook on another spectacularly clear day. Around Mt. Cook were several glaciers, though not as large as Franz Joseph or Fox on the opposite side of the south island. The adjacent Lake Tekapo captures the snowmelt from the mountains and mixes with the crushed rock, known as rock flour, to create an amazing turquoise colour. I had intended on treking the following morning, but as the kiwi had obviously not yet decided on the colour, I stayed around the Mt. Cook village and drank my body weight in coke.

In the evening we headed out to view the night sky. It was awash with stars, and we were able to make out the Milky Way, which I didn't realise was possible with the naked eye. We also saw Orion's belt (one of the few constellations I know), which was upside-down of course. I'm sure the budding astronomers out there were already aware of this.

This was my penultimate destination before reaching Christchurch where I fly to Sydney from. I can't believe my time here is already almost up. I have really enjoyed it here, met some wicked people, and had such a laugh (and not always involving drink either). I do feel like it's time to move on though. New Zealand is an amazing country, but sometimes a bit too quiet at times, which isn't always a bad thing I suppose. Christchurch itself, being the second largest city in New Zealand, does have more of a buzz about the place, and feels more like a city than most as it has older architecture, and seems better organised than others (Christchurch was one of the few cities to be planned from the start rather than growing naturally.)

So the next few days before heading off to Sydney will consist of chilling out in Christchurch, trying out the many cafes and pretty much doing nothing...

New Zealand: Week Four

Partied out and starting to really believe that alcohol might be the answer to everything, we moved on to explore the south of the South Island. Our first stop took us to Milford Sound; a 10-mile fjord in from the Tasman Sea. It rains 2 days out of 3 here, but the weather continued to be spectacular, which was actually disappointing as the water effect on the mountains is supposed to be amazing. It's actually not rained on our journey for about 3 weeks now, which never happens in New Zealand. The cruise we took down the fjord still gave us great views though. The size of the mountains is so large it makes judging distances difficult; everything looks nearer than it actually is. On the shore, in a small sheltered cove, we spotted two yellow-eyed penguins, that didn't seem overly fussed that a 30-ton boat was idling up next to them.

On the way down to Invercargill we stopped at Tuatapere; a small town consisting of a bar, a farm and a welcoming committee of teenagers who greeted us by lighting fireworks out of their car. Heading out in the morning, surprisingly still alive, we boarded the bus to Invercargill where we took a rather turbulent boat ride over to Stewart Island, one of the few places where you can see kiwis in the wild. Stewart Island forms part of Maori legend in that it is anchor for the South Island, which was pulled out of the sea. That's one thing I haven't really touched on; how much of Maori mythology and culture is integrated with the European culture. It's really good to see both cultures, in the most part, co-existing with little conflict.

Having reached Stewart Island, we hired scooters and went to see what the island had to offer. The majority of the island (80% in fact) is part of the national park, so didn't leave us with much to go on. We pretty much covered the rest of the island in about two hours, stopping to view some pretty cool beaches. In the evening we went on a kiwi hunt, which was fruitless, apart from adding to my already large collection of sand fly bites.

After an even more turbulent boat ride back to the mainland, where I really thought I was going to see breakfast again, we boarded the bus and headed for Dunedin; the second largest city in the south island. It takes its name from the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, as there is a big Scottish settlement there. Not much happened here really apart from seeing Beowulf at the cinema, which was just plain weird, and getting a cold. An interesting place though, with architecture reminiscent of Edinburgh.

This was the end of our tour round the south part, so we headed back to Queenstown, for some rest and relaxation... well, as much as you can do in Queenstown anyway. We had the now obligatory Ferg Burger, of course, which was just as good as I remembered it.

New Zealand: Week Three

The weather for the Tongariro Crossing couldn't have been better. Clear blue skies allowed us to see Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom in LOTR) for the first time. Our trek would lead us to the side of the summit and down the otherside. The crossing was amazing, a real mixture of landscapes, ranging from bush to snowy tracks. Coming off the summit was an interesting experience as the path wasn't particularly wide, and was more of a death-slide than anything else. At times the path disappeared to be replaced by a partial ice flow. One false move and I would have held the record for the fastest descent. Past the summit brought Lake Taupo into view (which I'd sky-dived over the week before... did I mention that by the way!?). By the end of the trek, the cloud had started to cover the peak of the mountain creating a particularly atmospheric effect.

The following day we headed for Wellington. Although surprisingly small for the capital, there was enough to keep us entertained for a few days and it had a good atmosphere. I actually prefered it to Auckland as it was more compact. And it had an amazing tea shop. Enough said really. We stayed at Base Backpackers, and spent most evenings in the bar downstairs (where there was cheap beer). We went to the Botanical Gardens up the hill and had a good view over the city.

Leaving Wellington we took the Interisland Ferry over to Picton, the entrance to the South Island. The coast heading into Picton consisted of quiet small beaches and bays, in between lush green mountains. Picton itself was tiny considering it's the main port for the south island. We headed straight to Abel Tasman National Park. We spent a full day sea-kayaking which was good fun for the first 3 hours. After this, we managed to get lost, then lose the map in the sea. After 7 hours kayaking we finally made it back the start.

After Abel Tasman we headed to Barrytown, a really small town, which was our stopover before getting to Franz Joseph. We spent the night in the bar, and ended up in fancy dress and mixing with the rather bemused locals. A night I certainly won't remember for some time.

Nursing a sore head, we moved onto Franz Joseph, where we would walk up the glacier. I ended up doing the full-day hike which gave us about 6hours on the ice and at times quite a challenging trek. The ice formations where pretty spectacular. The guide essentially made up the route up the glacier as he went along as the ice formations change so rapidly. This meant some pretty small gaps to squeeze through and steep climbs.

The next day we were on our way to Queenstown, known for it's action, adventure and getting hammered oppurtunities. It certainly lives up to its reputation! But it actually offers more than this. It's situation is great for just chilling out by the lake and trying the best ice-cream so far. We went up the gondola and 10 of us raced round the lugeing track. Great fun! For anyone who comes to Queenstown you must try the Ferg Burger, definitely the finest burger I've ever had. It's hard to describe the experience, you just have to come here.

Next trip is to south of the South Island; Milford Sound, Stewart Island and Dunedin being the main highlights...