I spent a few days in Wellington staying with Rich, his girlfriend Sara and his flatmates. Rich showed me around Wellington, which included a drive up Mount Victoria, a visit to the Parliament Building and a visit to Te Papa (Museum of New Zealand), mainly to see their colossal squid, which was not so colossal. Apart from that I didn’t really do many touristy things – by now I had seen enough Australasian cities, so instead I saw a more personal side of Wellington. Rich showed me around his workshops in the University, and I got to know a few more of his friends – we also met up with Allison and Carolyn again. We went into the Physics department under the guise of being prospective PhDs students, and a helpful researcher kindly showed us his Raman scattering equipment.

We left Wellington and drove up to Rotorua, stopping in Taupo for lunch. We wanted to see some geysers and other cool volcanic/geothermal stuff (apologies for my ignorance if any of my geologist friends are reading this!), but all of the interesting areas have large fences around them and charge you a lot of money to go in. So instead we went for a walk by Lake Rotorua and made do with the sulphuric smell in the air. We then drove down to Tokoroa to see Rich’s friends Matt and Tracey (Matt and Tracey work at a paper mill which we went to see (from the outside) on our second evening there). We went to an Indian restaurant and were served by a very strange and slightly scary waiter. He practically ignored us for the first part of our meal, so much so that we almost had to go into the kitchen to give him our order as he had no interest in taking it. After we had finished he did the opposite and went a bit far with the ‘customer service’, moving around the table and asking us each individually how our meal was. Weird. Anyway, the food was good but he was so slow that we missed the pub quiz.

The next day we drove up to Tauranga and met another of Rich’s friends for lunch, then drove to the sea and went for a walk along a rocky outcrop. Before I continue, there’s a bit of background to the next part of the story. Rich does a lot of free diving and spear fishing, and I had really wanted to try it, so Rich brought all of the required kit (2 sets of everything – wetsuits, fins, masks, snorkels, weight-belts  - and a spear-gun) in his car all the way from Wellington to Christchurch, then back to Wellington and on to Tokoroa. So far we had not been anywhere with the right conditions, and as I only had one more day left with Rich I assumed it wouldn’t happen.

The sea by the outcrop was really clear, and there were several people fishing from the rocks. Rich commented on how nice it would be to go diving.

A logical response would have been: ”Yeah, but there’s no time left and it’s too cold anyway.”

But instead I said: “We could go tomorrow, there’s probably time before I get my bus.”

To which the logical response would have been: “No, I don’t think there’s time, and it’s too cold anyway.” (There really wasn’t enough time)

But instead Rich said: “Yeah, I guess if we left really early we might have time.”

So we both had this idea in our heads that somehow we could drive all the way from Tokoroa to Tauranga (without a map!), go for a swim then drive back to Taupo, with enough time to have lunch and get to the bus station at 3pm to catch my 3.30 bus. As we drove back to Tokoroa I thought it was merely a nice but very unrealistic idea. However, that evening at Matt and Tracey’s I discovered that, not only did they have exactly the same camera as me (this is the first time I have met someone who does), they also had an underwater case for it. It was obviously a sign.

So the next morning we got up and left at dawn to go diving, and I am so glad that we did. I was freezing, had to rush lunch and very nearly missed my bus, but it was so much fun and absolutely worth all of those things. Free diving is basically diving without breathing apparatus – you swim with a snorkel and mask, hold your breath and dive, then lie or swim around underwater watching fish. Or shooting them. I spent most of the time snorkelling on the surface, but did quite a few dives and I had a go with the speargun. We took some photos and videos, some of which are on my new flickr page.

Rich

Back in Taupo, we had lunch with Carolyn and Allison then Rich dropped me off at the bus station at 3:29, where we said our goodbyes. “You’re supposed to check in thirty minutes before departure, not one minute”, said the slightly irate bus driver. Oops. But it was worth it.

I arrived in Auckland where I spent my last weekend in New Zeland. On Sunday I went to watch a game in the U19 Basketball World Championships – I saw the 5th place play-off between Argentina and Puerto Ric0, an entertaining game which was comfortably won by Argentina. On Monday morning I met up with Allison and Carolyn (who else?) for a coffee, then we said our fifth round of goodbyes before I left to get my bus to the airport. A few rows in front of me on the plane were some tall, athletic looking gentlemen wearing matching Puerto Ric0 tracksuits.

Allison and Carolyn

I’ve already uploaded my New Zealand photos, so I’ve linked to some of them in this post. The links should open in new windows each time.

I arrived in Christchurch and stayed with Rich at his parents’ house. I’ve known Rich’s family for as long as I can remember (they used to live round the corner from me in Weymouth) and they are truly fabulous hosts. Also staying at Rich’s were his Uni friends Carolyn and Allison, two exchange students from Atlanta. We had a fun week in Christchurh, seeing some of the sights including Cathedral Square, the Arts Centre (where physicist Ernest Rutherford did some of his research) and the Botanical Gardens. We went to the Banks Peninsula and saw Akaroa Harbour and nearly got stuck in snow while trying to cross to the other side. Rich and I also went for walks at the striking Castle Hill, and along the beach and cliffs near Scarborough.

Allison, Rich and Carolyn

While in Christchurch I met lots of Rich’s friends, which was really great – it was a nice change to get to know some locals after all of the Europeans I met in Australia. Rich’s friend Rowan is an electrical engineering PhD student, so we visited his lab and saw some cool experiments involving BIG electrical sparks. We spent a few evenings out meeting up with Rich’s friends and seeing Christchurch by night. We also spent one very nice evening at Jenni and Hadleigh’s (Rich’s sister and her boyfriend) who cooked a lovely meal for us.

After leaving Christchurch we drove up the east coast and stayed for two nights on a farm owned by the parents of Rich’s friend Henry. We had a great day there, seeing some of the 3000 acres by quad bike and motorbike, and were served some delicious home cooked (and partly home grown) food. This was one of my highlights of New Zealand, and a totally unique experience.

Merino Sheep

We continued our journey north and arrived in Picton in the Marlborough Sounds. Carolyn and Allison boarded a Wellington-bound boat, and Rich and I continued to Rich’s family’s holiday home in nearby Waikawa, where we stayed for two nights. We went for a nice drive and walk around part of one of the sounds, and also went to see Lake Rotoiti.

I was looking forward to the ferry crossing of the Cook Strait: the Marlborough Sounds are beautiful, especially when viewed from the water, and arriving in Wellington could have also been nice. However, the sea was rough and covered in thick fog, so the journey turned out to be pretty cold and uncomfortable and there was nothing to look at. It was a big relief when we landed in Wellington.

I’ve used up my free limit on Flickr so I’ve opened a new account here, with photos of New Zealand. You can look at this map to see where the photos were taken.

(Links open in new windows)

I arrived in Los Angeles early in the morning, left my bag at the train station and spent the day doing some sightseeing. I had a short walk around the centre of LA , which turned out to be pretty generic and boring. I wanted to seeing something unique, so I went to Hollywood instead. Hollywood was everything I expected it to be: tacky, touristy and, to be honest, one of the most dreadful places I have ever been. I took the obligatory photo of the letters and went star-spotting along the Walk of Fame, then left to catch my train towards San Diego.

I stayed at Encinitas, just outisde San Diego, with my second cousins. Like my cousins in Brisbane, this was the first time I had met them, and I had a really nice couple of days there. I went to San Diego to see its sights, and much prefered it to LA. It’s smaller and more walkable (although hardly anyone does…) and I found it more interesting too. I had a look around the historic Old Town then went to the centre for lunch in a Mexican cafe. I walked along the sea front then took the bus across the spectacular bridge to Coronado Island (actually a peninsula), home of the Hotel del Coronado. I can’t upload photos at the moment so here’s a photo I’ve borrowed instead.

Hotel Del Coronado

I went back to LA and spent my last day in Santa Monica, which is, I think, officially a separate city but practically a suburb of LA. Anyway, it’s a resort with a very nice beach so I had a pleasantly relaxing day there.

Two things struck me about California, or at least the little bits of it that I saw. First, I was surprised at how Spanish it is. I already knew about the place names, but on public transport, notices and adverts it’s practially a second official language. Second, loads of people ride around on these electric scooter things, especially in San Diego. I had only ever seen them before on TV, and I didn’t think any normal person would actually buy one, but they are almost more popular than walking.

Another dive boat, but exactly the same as ours.

It totally exceeded my expectations – I had the most fantastic three days. Once we arrived at the reef our activities basically consisted of diving, eating and sleeping. The diving was incredible, the food was fantastic – all freshly prepared by our on-board French chef – and the bedrooms weren’t bad either: a twin room is always a treat after 8 bed hostel dorms. While docked in Cairns we had breakfast together in the boat’s main communal room, then we went out to the reef for our first dive. We did two more dives in the afternoon between lunch and dinner, then went out again for our first night dive. Diving at night is pretty cool – we saw a few different fish to those in the day, but my favourite part was switching off my torch and enjoying what little I could see by moonlight. Swimming around, weightless, in the dark is one of the most surreal and magical experiences I can imagine.

My first dive on day two was the ‘deep’ dive of my advanced course. This was a little disappointing – there was nothing new once we got deeper than about 18 m, and everything that we could see was just darker and less colourful. However, it’s a necessity the course and it is pretty cool to think that there is almost 30 m of water between you and the surface. I then did my navigational training dive, which taught me many exciting things, such as how to use a compass and how to swim in a square underwater. We had two more recreational dives on day two, including another night dive, and then went to bed early to rest before another big day tomorrow.

On day three we were up before sunrise to do a dive at dawn. This was probably my favourite dive of the trip, as it had the best of day and night diving – there’s a a bit more life than in the day, but still enough light to see without a torch. I saw a turtle having breakfast, who didn’t seem to mind me kneeling right next to it on the sand to watch it. On the second dive of the day I saw a fairly big shark, who definitely didn’t like people trying to get too close. The dive site for the third dive of day three was really shallow (less than a metre in places) so I decided to go snorkelling and try some free diving instead. This was when I had my unfortunate encounter with a jellyfish – unfortunate in that it was pretty painful but didn’t leave a nice scar to show off, just a faint red mark that could only be seen in the right light.

After the dive trip I had a few spare days which I didn’t fancy spending in Cairns, so I did a trip up to Cape Tribulation, the home of the oldest rainforest in the world and the place where Cook almost sunk while he was exploring the coast in 1770. Cape Tribulation Beach is beautiful – the rainforest goes right down to the beach and the Great Barrier Reef almost touches the land, so it feels like a remote tropical island. I also saw an estuarine crocodile by a river. This is the bigger and more dangerous variety of Australian crocodile, but fortunately I saw it from the safety of a crocodile-spotting cruise. I still have my doubts about whether the croc was actually real, but I like to think it was.

Cape Tribulation Beach

Real Crocodile

From Cairns I flew back down to Brisbane and spent my last few days in Australia with my second-cousin-once-removed David and his family. My flight out of Australia was booked through BA/Qantas so I was expecting a comfortable flight, but instead I was put on a rubbish little JetStar plane, the kind where you have to pay to watch TV. But I didn’t mind, I was on my way to New Zealand.

Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island, and it’s one of the most diverse places I’ve ever been. We arrived on the west coast and boarded our four-wheel-drive bus (one of the joys of travelling out of season is sharing a 40-seater bus with 11 people) to drive along the rough and bumpy track through the rainforest to 75-Mile Beach on the east coast. After a short drive up the beach we went inland to walk across the golden sands of the Hammerstone Sandblow to go for a swim in Lake Wabby. After lunch we went for a walk through the forest along Wanggoolba Creek, then for a swim in the amazingly clear blue water of Lake McKenzie from its white sandy beaches. We stayed at a resort on the east coast, then in the morning we drove all the way up 75-Mile Beach to Indian Head, stopping to admire the Maheno shipwreck and the coloured sands of the Pinnacles on the way. We walked to the top of Indian Head to see the stunning views of the beaches and the rest of the island, then continued to the Champagne Pools to go for another swim. We then drove back down the beach to Eli Creek for yet more swimming, although the water was rather cold so I decided to just go for a paddle. On the way back to the resort we passed one of Fraser’s famous dingos.

Lake McKenzie, Fraser Island

Maheno Shipwreck, 75-Mile Beach, Fraser Island

Dingo on 75-Mile Beach, Fraser Island

Back on the mainland I made the 14 hour bus journey up to Airlie Beach. Airlie Beach is a bit more interesting than Hervey Bay, but it is still basically just an access point to the ocean, and in this case the Whitsunday Islands. I spent 2 days and 2 nights aboard the Samurai, a former racing yacht and participant in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. We did a bit of sailing around, stopping several times to go snorkelling and scuba diving. We stopped at the beautiful Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island for a few hours: the sand here is incredibly white and the sea is an unbelievable mixture of blues and turquoises. It’s a near-perfect beach, and almost as good as Wineglass Bay in Tasmania. The only thing lacking here was the solitude. The snorkelling and scuba diving from the boat were great as well. Back in Airlie Beach I went out for a few drinks with the other Samurai passengers, then got an early bus the next morning to Townsville.

Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday Island

Samurai shipmates

Once again, Townsville was, for me, merely an access point to the sea. In fact I only saw Townsville’s bus station and ferry terminal, which happen to be in the same building. After a short ferry trip to Magnetic Island, I went for a walk through the forests to go snorkelling in a couple of the island’s secluded bays. On my way I saw a koala with (I think) a joey in her pouch at the base of a tree, although she climbed up pretty quickly when she spotted me. I spent a night on Magnetic Island and did some more snorkelling and koala-spotting on the next day, then went back to the mainland to catch an overnight bus to Cairns. As I’ve already indicated, my excursion from Cairns was my most eagerly anticipated activity on my trip so far. I’m going to ramble on about it for some time, so I’ll put it in a new post.

Kookaburra on Magnetic Island

After my return to Sydney I went to Darling Harbour to watch a fun jetski firework display – some of the fireworks were actually launched from the jetskis! The rain was really heavy that evening, which was a shame, as I think only about 20 people were crazy enough to make the trek to the harbour to watch. I spent the next morning looking around Glebe and the nearby Sydney University, which is very pretty and very Oxford-esque. I am jealous of Sydney physics students, as the physics department is right next to some nice grass tennis courts, although a distraction like that would probably have had an adverse effect on my studies.

My idea of heaven: physics department on the left of the road, tennis courts on the right.

I spent my last weekend in Sydney staying with Lovina, a friend from Poole, who lives in the suburb of St Marys. On Saturday evening we went to a music and dance performance by some Pacific Islanders. This was a very enjoyable cultural experience, with some involuntary audience participation – thankfully I wasn’t chosen. On Sunday I went to the St Marys Hillsong Church with Vina and her housemates, then in the evening we went to the main Hillsong church, a massive building seating several thousand people. 

Pacific Islander Performance

I wanted to continue my journey up the coast to Byron Bay by bus, but my plans were scuppered by more of Australia’s extreme weather. There had been severe flooding on the east coast and parts of the road were closed. My only option with Greyhound was to go all the way on the inland road to Brisbane and then take the coastal road back down to Byron Bay. A very long and monotonous route and not one that I liked the sound of, so instead I booked a last minute flight from Sydney to Ballina, and spent a day there before resuming my bus journey to Byron Bay. I spent a couple of days there not doing very much other than relaxing on Byron’s huge and very pretty beach and in my hostel. 

Byron Bay

From Byron Bay I went further up the coast to Surfers Paradise. I quite like Surfers, as the locals call it. It has a really nice beach, but unfortunately I spent most of my time there sheltering from the rain in a shopping mall. I just spent the afternoon there then continued on to Brisbane.

In Brisbane I stayed with my dad’s cousin David and his family, who I had never actually met before - the last time David has seen me was at my Aunt’s wedding in (I think) 1994, just before he moved to Australia. I had a really nice weekend with them, eating delicious food and being really well looked after (I’m going back to stay with them soon so I have to say nice things about them in case they read it, but I mean it). On Saturday we went for a walk by the sea, then David and I cycled through the mangroves to the marina, the largest in the southern hemisphere. On Sunday we drove down to the Gold Coast Hinterland and went for a nice walk by a river and waterfall, then went to have lunch with some of their friends. 

Me on a rope swing in the back garden.

On my last day in Brisbane I went to the city centre to see the sights. Brisbane has nice art gallerys, museums and a river, but the thing that makes it unique is the Brisbane River’s South Bank, which has some really nice and varied sculptured gardens and a big swimming lagoon complete with an artificial beach.

Lagoon on the Brisbane River's South Bank.

I’ve now completed my marathon journey from Adelaide to Cairns. I should have time to write about the Brisbane-Cairns sector soon, and I promise to start uploading my Australia photos within the next week. I’ve just returned from my diving trip, which was an incredible experience - it was everything I hoped for and more, and I think it will turn out to be one of my most memorable experiences since I learnt to dive in the Red Sea.