KiwiKiwiKiwiKiwi

29/4/10
Today took the Kiwi Experience free tour around Auckland – I though I might as well as I didn’t have much else planned today and was a good way of getting out of the city centre for free. We did a bit of walking and got to look back on the whole of the city with some great views. Stopped off at a little harbour town for lunch then had the option of getting dropped back at the hostel or Victoria Park Market which I spent a few hours looking around then headed back to the hostel where I am now :)

Nice relaxed day in Auckland but definitely ready to start the tour tomorrow! I get picked up at 7.40am and then for the next few weeks make my way around the North & South island and stop at: Rotorua, Taupo, Wellington – ferry across to the south island – then Nelson, Greymouth, Franz Josef (apparently the views from the Franz Josef glacier are spectacular), Queenstown (BUNGEEEE!), Dunedin, Tekapo, then Christchurch and will have to book myself an internal flight back up to Auckland. Sounds easy peaasy :) fingers crossed!!

what the Auck?!

28/4/10
Had a realllyyy good day today. Had a great nights sleep and after sorting myself out I headed down to the hostels travel desk where a nice chap helped me sort out my tour for the next few weeks. I booked it with Magic, a tour group I was recommended to in Aus, if offers a lot more flexibility than the rigid structure of Adventure Tours and allows me to stay wherever I want for however long I want and do whatever additional activities I want aswell. I also booked my bungeeee jump :D which I will be doing it in Queenstown in the south island. Its called the Nevis bungee and is Australasia’s highest bungee with a 134m (440foot) drop and 8.5 seconds of pure freefall to the ground :D how fabulous!! As I booked it here I get the DVD of me doing it for free and a t-shirt – worth it!! Then in the afternoon I walked to the Auckland Domain which is a big green park with rugby pitches and gardens etc in the centre of Auck.. and then walked around the museum for the best part of the day. I also paid to go and watch a Maori performance which was really good. Afterwards came back to my hostel and got suckered into the vintage and charity shops (god im a sucker for another persons unwanted clothes!!) and TRIED to restrain myself but ended up buying a brand new Fiorelli bag for $12 (£6) – how could I refuse?! Only problem is getting some of this stuff home........

New Zealand intro

27/4/10
I’m still alive!! After freaking myself out ever so slightly about the creepy guest house I was staying in, I had a pretty crap nights sleep! But anyway – caught my taxi to the airport at 5am and was in the air by 8am.. pretty good flight but was sad to say goodbye to Sydney as I had had such good times there. Flight only lasted 2 ½ hours so not too bad at all. Arrived into New Zealand with turbulence on landing (dad you would have hated it!) and got off the plane feeling distinctly nauseous! Weather was pretty overcast but it kind of comforted me in a strange way as it reminded me of home. Got my New Zealand dollars before I left the airport and asked a guy at a shuttle bus where I could get a shuttle to the city centre... after walking in the direction he had pointed me in he pulled up alongside me and said he was going that way anyway so I ended up getting a free ride to my hostel which has put me in a very good mood and saved a potential $30:D His name was Arcadia and apparently his bible told him that today he would be a blessing to someone... well bible or no bible, he certainly was my blessing today! Got to my hostel in torrential rain and remembered my poncho was buried deep inside my backpack after spending the last month in utter dryness in Australia. The exchange rate is much better here than Oz and I just have to basically half everything to get the GBP equivalent – which makes my life a lot easier! Currently in my hostel room at Base in the centre of Auckland and debating whether to search out my rain-mac and brave the weather to see if I can book myself on a tour and get some food. I think am definitely going to visit the Auckland museum tomorrow and learn a bit about NZ and the Maori people as I spent so much time organising Australia that im a bit ignorant of NZ in general. In the evening had a bit of a walk to the harbour which is like a mini - less impressive Sydney but with really beautiful skies then headed back to the hostel.

Syd - revisited!

26/4/10
So had about 2 hours of unsettled sleep in my hostel in Darwin before my alarm went off at midnight waking me up for my shuttle bus to the airport for my 2.20am flight. Pretty good flight – flew with Jet Star, an internal Aussie airline and was lucky enough to have the next 3 seats next to me free so stretched out across them and slept for the whole 4 hours I was on the plane. Arrived in Sydney at 7am and caught a taxi to my guest house I am staying out tonight as I’m in Syd 24 hours before my flight over to New Zealand tomorrow morning. They only had a twin room with ensuite available but let me have it for a single price of $55 which is still a little outside my budget but its only for one night. Spent the majority of the day sitting in the guest house reading as im really out on the outskirts of the main city but can see the Sydney Tower in the distance- which was very weird to think I was right there in the centre of it all a month ago. Looking forward to flying out tomorrow – lady at front desk who I think may be the owner is a very sweet older woman and very eager to help and booked my taxi for me tomorrow at 5am – am also getting free breakfast here which softens the blow of the expensive nights sleep somewhat! The building itself seems years old and is called the ‘Old Rectory’...and sitting here in my room with my single lamp on im getting ever so slightly creeped out by the high ceilings and what looks like the original coving/flooring/doors etc! Looking forward to my flight tomorrow!

Darwin & flights

24/4/10
Feeling pretty happy today! I was so anxious about sorting out all my flights out just because as part of my STA flight ticket I have to travel to New Zealand from Sydney plus the whole debacle with the volcano ash. So last night stayed awake really late to ring the UK and sort my flights. So now am flying to Sydney on the 26th then 24 hours later flying over to Auckland in NZ – wouldn’t have minded staying a few night more in Darwin as the place is really lovely, the weather is utterly fabulous and the hostel and nightlife is pretty top-notch aswell! Treated myself today and went ‘Liane shopping’ in the Billabong store and bought a few indulgences :) I forgot how much I missed clothes shoppingggg!! Came back to the hostel and did all my laundry and sorted my backpack out – which I have learnt is actually a really mentally cleansing process to sort everything out and regroup for a few days after a long tour. Feeling really good this evening :) Booked my shuttle bus to take me at 1am tomorrow to the airport ...have a couple in my room from Ireland and UK who are really nice and chatted to them for a bit, then later meeting the Danish guys, Emil and Jacob from my tour in The Vic where we can all get a free meal. All in all very glad all my flights are and I am all organised and don’t have to worry anymore. Yay :)

Last day of tour!

23/4/10
OK – officially up to date with blog entries – hoorah :) After 2 days spent in Kakadu, we travelled to Litchfield National Park. Today was, in a nutshell, comprised of visiting 4 waterfalls and swimming in 2 of them. Each one absolutely beautiful... but not that interesting after your 5th waterfall of the whole trip!

Some really nice tropical rainforest we walked through though and in the evening we arrived back into Darwin where I had already previously booked myself a room back at the Cavenagh where I had stayed 3 nights previously and got myself the same room overlooking the pool :) Have just come back from going into the city to have a FREEEE meal with the group :) Was a v good night but soooo looking forward to a mosquito free night of sleep :) Tomorrow I need to sort out my flights so I can get things moving along!

rocks & fish

Day 2 22/4/10
Today we looked at some ancient Aboriginal rock art at Ubirr which could be dated back 20,000 years ago! It was really interesting and out of all the ancient rock art around the mountains the public was only allowed access to a very small percentage of these sites as in the past people with strong religious views have desecrated an tried to rub off all the rock paintings as the existence of human life all those years ago pretty much disproves any other theory other than the theory of evolution which I found very interesting! But the sites that we did see were really amazing to think they had been painted so so many years previously. In the afternoon we went to more waterfalls and natural pools where we spent a good few hours having a well deserved swim in amongst the rocks and fish!

THEN once we got to our campsite in the evening probably something I will never forget from my trip is a good old fashioned toad race!Yes - toad racing.

Kakadu Tour

Day 1 21/4/10
Although we had begun a new tour with new tour guides and a new tour vehicle (4 wheel drive this time due to the tour terrain) pretty much about 90% of the guys from my previous tour were on this one so it was a bus full of people we already knew which was cool... our first stop was in Kakadu National Park where we got the chance to speak so some Aboriginal people and learn about their way of life and culture. Their welcome ceremony included sipping water into their mouths and spitting it directly over our heads... it was so bizarre.

In the afternoon we went on a boat ride in one of the parks billabongs where we saw an array of different birds and some genuinely beautiful scenery and water plants. Managed to catch sight of a few eagles and a croc – although only a teeny tiny one! In all honestly this day is a bit of a blur as we mostly drove around Kakadu National Park which is mahooosive! Have been totally and utterly eaten alive by the mosquitos unfortunately though!!

wet wet wet

Day 3 20/4/10
Currently writing this on the 24th – soo much to catch up on! OK where to start.... It hard trying to wrack my brains as to what I got up to 4 days ago! This was the last day of a 3 day tour with Chris our tour guide – of whom I ended up sitting next to the wholleee drive to Darwin listening to his irritating high-pitched nasal singing voice :| Today the group was split into 2 – those of us who wanted to take a boat ride around Katherine Gorge and those of us who wanted to do the 45min hike to the waterfall where we could swim in the water. I was one of the 6 of us who chose the wetter option of the two! We finally got to the waterfall and it was the best thing ever to take a dip into the waterfall after walking in the heat of the Northern Territory sun. We were all swimming and jumping into the water from rocks and bathing in the sun. It was laaavely!

The rest of the day was mostly spent driving North up to Darwin. When we finally arrived all us girls were in a room together overlooking the hostel pool! For an average budget hostel it was pretty nice and I went for a swim in the pool to cool off before we headed into the city for a farewell dinner where we managed to wangle 8 free pizzas. Then I volunteered myself onto stage and won my table 2 jugs of beer (accomplishment of the holiday me thinks!)Ended up staying up raaaather late this night and helping drink the beer I had previously won!

Pub Crawl

After stopping of at a petrol station to hold a big snake... (?! – don’t ask me, it’s Australia?)today has mainly been a day of travelling around pubs! ...

The Stuart Highway that we have been travelling on is, on a whole, pretty remote and you get these random inhabitants and places with populations of 20 people or so! One of these was Australia’s oldest pub, Daly Waters. We drove into this really strange looking old hick town pretty apprehensively and then went into the pub which was again filled to the brim with photos and goodies from travellers passing through... then we went into the backyard where we were having a BBQ for lunch and it was like a little oasis! There was a gorgeous pool which was like a gift sent from heaven in the heat! So we had a swim to cool off and sat around eating burgers and ice cream. It turned out to be a really lovely place. 

We then travelling to Mataranka where we took another well needed swim in the natural thermal springs completely surrounded by trees.

Currently just sitting in my tent at our camp for the night – the first night since I have been here that I have had a place to sleep in completely on my own – although in the light of day the tent walls are COMPLETELY transparent. Plus its sooo humid here. Sometimes you get these moments out here that remind you that you are actually in Australia – for example, after attempting to go to the toilet in the campsite only to find a frog in there... no no no not IN the cubicle.. actually IN the toilet. It scared the bejeesuz out of me! I have also become accustomed to sharing my showers with a few friends from the insect world. Anywaysss off to sleep. We actually get a lie in tomorrow until 6.30!

Chris new tour

Day 1 - 18/4/10
Soo Alice Springs turned out to be not all that peachy.. unfortunately very tired + hungry + bored & homesick Liane does not equal a happy bunny so was feeling pretty down in Alice. So did not have very high expectations when the tour bus came to pick us up the next morning and was not expecting to enjoy myself – but had a pretty awesome day to be honest. It was mostly driving which I didn’t mind as I needed to catch up on some much needed sleep and enjoyed chilling out and being driven around :) Our first stop was the statue that marks where the Tropic of Capricorn lies and then we headed to Barrow Creek pub –basically a really old school Aussie pub that was literally filled from floor to ceiling with trinkets and notes from travellers.. there were walls and walls of signed notes of money, writing all over the walls from travellers and photos and signatures absolutely everywhere! It was so cool – I obviously had to make my contribution and sign my name on the wall!

We then went to have a look and a climb around Devils Marbles – rock formations eroded away over years & years into spheres that look as though they’re balancing extremely precariously against each other.

The final highlight of the day was taking a swim in one of the lakes we stopped off at. As we get further up North it is getting increasingly hot & humid so we all swam out to the pontoon in the middle of the lake and sunbathed and jumped into the water for a few hours. AND I conquered my fear of swimming in murky water.

We then arrived at our camp for the evening and sat out on the veranda where our backyard was a paddock type grassland thing with kangaroos & parrots kept in and watched the sunset in front of us – such a massive improvement from the previous day!

Kings Canyon & Alice Springs

15/04/10
In the morning drove to Kings Canyon and did a 6km walk around. It was a really impressive place with some really bizarre rock formations. It took a few hours to get around there... honestly you should see my calf muscles – they’re immense! I keep getting such bad cramp though from all the hiking. In afternoon had another long drive as we travelled to Alice Springs, this was our last day on tour together on this particular bus so in the evening after getting sorted at the hostel we all headed to the pub for some food and drinks together. Currently it is the 16th and sitting in my hostel in Alice. I have two free days to do with what I like then the next tour bus is picking me up on Sunday. Time to check on the internet and get some more laundry done me thinks! I then have a further 6 days left on tour in Australia then will be hopping on a plane to New Zealand and probably organising myself another 3 week tour over there. Will update when I next get a decent amount of access to the internet :) X

mossies

14/04/10
5 pm start this morning to watch the sun RISE over Ayres rock... again really impressive. Walked around the whole base of the rock which took about 2 hours ish.. afterwards visited Kata Tjuta and had another hefty drive to Kings Canyon where we camped again for the night. Had another really nice evening around the campfire and decided the tent was the best option tonight as the mosquitoes have taken an extreme liking to me up here! The tent was awesome thought and had a netted bit next to my bed where I could look out and see the stars.

Ayres Rock

13/04/10
Had a horrrrible 4am wake up call and apart from the odd petrol / lunch stop along the road, we drove up North into the Red Centre for the best part of the day. Finally finished driving at 3.30pm ish. I had been looking forward to this part of the tour the most – seeing Ayres Rock/Uluru and sleeping out under the stars in our swags. In the evening went to Ayres rock and had a walk around it then drove to the sunset point and had sparkling wine and watched the sun set over the rock. It was pretty immense. Afterwards went back to the camp and made a massive BBQ for everyone and had marshmallows on sticks around the fire ...then set up our swags and sleeping bags around the campfire and slept under the stars.. I had a surprisingly excellent nights sleep actually! The bugs are MASSIVE here!!

LOVE ISN'T HEART SHAPED, IT'S KANGAROO SHAPED

12/04/10
The-best-day so far! This mornnninggg.. woke up really early and left Quorn and drove...stopping to refuel.. the drove some more... arrived at the Salt Lake and took some really good photos..got back in the bus and drove...had a little snooze..listened to my iPod...and drove some more. FINALLY arrived in Coober Pedy in the afternoon. Really strange place! Its an opal mining town so 70% of the town actually lives underground in old mining caves. Its so strange. We went on an ex- opal mine tour and had a look around the shop. Then went to our accommodation which was also underground in caves. THENNN.. the total highlight of the day was going to a kangaroo orphanage :D It was totally amazing and we got told about the stories behind the kangaroos and why and how they came to the orphanage.. then they brought out two baby orphaned kangaroos called Muffin & Felix and THEN brought out an even smaller one :D we watched them feed then got to hold them. I had Felix and completely fell in love! After leaving we went and had PIZZAAAA and went to the underground pub next to our accommodation. All in all – very good day :)