TravelStream™ news feed for member boatubia on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/boatubia en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:41:23 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1214650860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1214650860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1214650860/tpod.html Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:41:23 -0400 The Adventures of Ben and Kate on Planet Earth

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Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia

Sometimes we never know where we will be or what we will be doing.  Most often this is the case in traveling.  The whole thing about the journey and not the destination?  It's just simple truth. 

Which is how we found ourselves in Airlie Beach sailing the Whitsundays with a character named Reg.  We actually had "planned"on diving the Great Barrier Reef.  This was the original "destination" as we drove along the east coast of Queensland.  I had been psyching myself into the fact that it's not deadly jellyfish season.  And surely they would be off in search of other prey in warmer waters.  But after spending no more than $20 to $30 per dive in our travels it was tough to swallow a $250 per PERSON per DIVE price tag.  Too tough.  You have to be kidding me?  After pristine reefs and swimming with whale sharks and sharks in Honduras, neither Ben or I could do it. 

Enter Reg and his sailboat and a sunny day with 25 knot winds!  We sailed out to a small island had lunch, braved the killer jellies and snorkeled and sailed back.  It was my first time on a sailboat and it will not be my last. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1214200260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1214200260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1214200260/tpod.html Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:15:23 -0400 The Adventures of Ben and Kate on Planet Earth

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Townsville, Queensland, Australia

Several posts back we marveled at the quiet and ability to walk unfettered down a sidewalk without a constant stream of vendors hawking their cruddy knock-offs. Suddenly we had a longing for SE Asia again or at least the price tag. We are being fully prepared for life back in the west - that is for certain. Actually we both feel that after a month and a half in Australia both New Zealand and the U.S. will be a welcome relief. Australia is expensive. With the dollar nearly equal we have found that just about everything here is more expensive.

While it might be a pain in the butt that gas is $4 a gallon back at home. The U.S.A still has the cheapest price in the world to keep feeding our vehicle addiction. Gas in Australia is $6.5 - $7 a gallon. And that is a decent average for many of the places in the world we have been. Although now that we are buying gas for our large petrol-guzzling van our notice of such things has become amplified. Food? You've got to be kidding me. Will someone PLEASE explain why "brekkie" is so damn expensive in Australia. I can go into the supermarket and buy a dozen eggs for $3-4. So why is 2 eggs, toast and bacon with a cup of plain coffee $17. Everywhere? A plate of toast at a cafe is $5. Coffee is $4. So if you just get coffee and toast. $9. What is that craziness? It actually still burns me as I write this. Needless to say only one cafe on our journey through Oz stole our money for brekkie. It was our first morning in Darwin after arriving after midnight the night before. We were too tired to care, and too ignorant to know what a swindle the first meal of the day is. Oddly more appropriately priced lunch choices can be found. Like a $6 or $7 sandwich or wrap.

We were also blown away by the cost of things at the stores especially the supermarkets as we did most of our cooking and of public transportation. A liter of milk costs about $2.5 and that is for the generic brand. There are about 4 liters in a gallon. So milk is about expensive as wine and less expensive than beer ounce for ounce. Is a loaf of bread at home $4? Maybe it is now. It is here. A ride on the bus is about double what it is in the states for the same distance. You get used to it though...by the time we hit Melbourne our sticker shock had subsided. No doubt by the time we reach the west coast again we'll be immune to such inflation and won't be gasping every few minutes as we re-enter western society.

While we sat in Townsville and waited for them to change the battery that had died in our sweet campervan we fondly reminisced about our $2 noodle dishes in Asia... fresh not pak-Ramen. At least the battery was covered under the rental agreement.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1215668220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1215668220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1215668220/tpod.html Tue, 29 Jul 2008 01:42:03 -0400 The Adventures of Ben and Kate on Planet Earth

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Wilson's Promonatory National Park, Australia

Last night we were lying in the cooooold coooold van all snuggled in under layers of fleece, sleeping bags, and blankets. The wind was blowing and in the distance we could hear the angry sea pound the sand relentlessly. A storm was brewing! Lo and behold our van it shook, it rattled. And we flipped on the lights and thought maybe the great boogeyman of the Southern Hemisphere had finally tracked us down. We were under seige indeed. Wombats! They had jumped out of the trees and landed on our van a few on the ground and were letting us know who is boss in Wilson's Prominatory National Park at the very southern tip of mainland Australia. We laughed pretty hard. Once you lay eyes on these creatures - they are nothing more than fuzzy almost huggable grass eating little balls of fur. Though I still went out with a stick when I had to pee late in the evening. They could have been those that gave up their vegetarian ways and were hunting fresh human meat!!!!!

This morning the winds did not abate. That storm that threatened woke us with a torrential downpour. We were hearty (or foolish) enough though to head up wind rain and all through the forests (of wombats) to the top of Mt. Oberon. (We believe in the old saying - there is no such thing as wrong weather, just the wrong clothes). Where when it's clear the views are supposedly majestic. All we saw was mist. Yet another picuture of us geared up in our ponchos surrounded by wind, rain, and clouds! We LOVE it!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1215773580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1215773580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1215773580/tpod.html Sun, 27 Jul 2008 06:59:59 -0400 The Adventures of Ben and Kate on Planet Earth

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Bells Beach, Australia

Victoria had been rainy and stormy just about up to the time we hit Bell's Beach. The water was cold and looked BIG. Ben and I sat around with our gloves and boots with a few others on the shore of Bell's Beach watching the hot dog surfers ride the waves.
It was here in Point Break where the Swayz gave the oscar performance to ride one last time into the 30 year storm. Ben and I re-lived the moment, dipped our feet into the cold waters, and tipped our hats to the late Patrick Swazye. RIP.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1217154180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1217154180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1217154180/tpod.html Sun, 27 Jul 2008 06:50:14 -0400 The Adventures of Ben and Kate on Planet Earth

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Franz Josef, South Island, New Zealand

Although a lot of great places are warm - 2 out of 2 travelers agree the best places on earth require layers. And sometimes even crampons.

The day was not warm - but it was as warm as it was going to be with the sun shining and a few light wisps of clouds giving us a natural SPF here in the Southern Hemisphere. The sun definitely comes up, however the light is strange. It feels like late afternoon starting at about 11am. The sun is setting all day. It never gets high enough and casts long shadows.

And it was under this morning setting sun Ben and I donned on a few layers, our gloves and hats setting off on another cold weather adventure. As we walked through the vacant streets of Franz Josef, little clouds of breath crystallized in front of us. We were reminded of Pucon Chile. Here we were half way around the world and a year and a half later and we were pulling on snowpants and crampons once again.

We hiked through the rainforest which brought us to the terminal moraine of this glacier. Like the Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina this glacier is advancing and is uniquely found in a temperate rainforest like environment. It was impressive. The great river of us before us seemed huge, the walls of ice could swallow us whole and yet we were looking at about 1/6 of the entire glacier.

About half way up our day on the ice if you stopped and looked around here is what you would see: in the distance you could just make out the ocean, the cold and calm Tasman Sea as it hit the western edge of New Zealand. Large craggy snowcapped peaks surrounded us on the other 3 sides and waterfalls cascaded to the ground far far below. The ice was a deep blue. We felt like we were walking through another world or a casle made of ice. The world around us looked like a blueberry icee. All we could hear was the waterfall, the wind, and the crunch of the ice as we stepped deliberately. Sitting there munching a peanut butter sandwich feeling so small amidst this large icefall - life never felt bigger.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1214988240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1214988240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1214988240/tpod.html Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:59:36 -0400 The Adventures of Ben and Kate on Planet Earth

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Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Sydney is a jewel! It's just as simple as that. It's like the the best of the U.S. west coast cities all wrapped up into one and yet with an vibe and attitude all it's own. I told Ben that it won my vote for the gold medal in the category of cities we have visited on the trip. We eased into this city as if we had been living here for awhile and it would have been even easier to just move right in permanently. The only real issue which especially grated on Ben was the draconian policing of traffic. There are cameras everywhere in New South Wales (and Victoria) and the police are relentless. To make matters worse the infrastructure is frustrating. The main freeways are not much better than old country highways constantly under surveillance by big Brother, construction, or meandering through small town after small town. 7km over the speedlimit (about 4 mi/hr) will score you a big fat fine or will realistically be enough for them to take away your license.

What is up with the traffic police in Australia?

Outside of this our few days in Sydney were like a mini-vacation within a vacation. Have I used this line before? :) We feasted on sushi, we saw the symphony at the infamous Sydney Opera House, and sat with a piping hot cup of (good) coffee on the ferry during our ride into Sydney Harbor. What a view. If a city can sparkle. Sydney does.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1216974360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1216974360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1216974360/tpod.html Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:41:57 -0400 The Adventures of Ben and Kate on Planet Earth

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Wanaka, South Island, New Zealand

It's real time...

We are just off the slopes! It is July and for you that means shorts, sandals, and long days of sunshine. In New Zealand it feels like it's getting on Christmas! We are back at our hostel in the cozy common room. Ben threw in a movie and the fire is stoked keeping us warm! We don't crave lemonades, fruit salads, or ice cream. Instead we are thinking about soup, hot chocolate, and an extra down comforter for our bed at night.

New Zealand is a small country, but rich in beauty. We landed in Christchurch on the 18th and spent a few days there...after that we picked up our lime green mini-van called the Jucy and have hit the open road. We've been to Mt. Cook (highest peak in Australia/New Zealand - though not very high at only about 10,000 feet.) We however did not climb it. Bummer! Something about being too dangerous in the winter. Those of you climbers or mountain junkies may know that Sir Edmund Hilary used this mountain to train for his assault of Everest. Apparently it does the trick then. It is a stunning area. We stayed the night in a hostel that was just like an old time wood lodge. We woke up to snow and huge flakes coming down in this winter wonderland!!! What a treat.

We left from there and headed through Queenstown (very fun ski town). Some call it a city - but COME ON! Seriously. New Zealand has a total population of only about 4 million so their "cities" are village-like. According to all the locals in the know - Queenstown is not the place to be to REALLY ski New Zealand. So we heeded the locals advice andpressed on further to the southwest to Fjordland National Park. We stayed the night in Te Anau and drove the next day to Milford sound. Wow! And then another Wow!

The Fjordland National Park is a place to be, to go. It's absolutely an inspirational place and crazy-beautiful. You know how when you eat a piece of really fine chocolate that just melts in your mouth you just want to sit and savor the flavor long after the chocolate has melted??? Well Fjordland N.P. is just like that. We camped in the park that night next to a stream with the mountains in the distance. it was a bit nippy indeed, especially when the mist came rolling on in. But we fired up the car a few times and watched a movie and were snug all night. We got up and took a hike the next day on the Routeburn track to Key Summit. The low hanging clouds threatened all morning with some nasty form of rain or snow but by the time we arrived near the top the clouds parted and we inhaled an air so clean and thick with a mossy-pine scent our lungs nearly burst. The view is why we have eyes, I am sure of it! Some people say that this park was carved by the hand of God himself. I would not doubt that.

We left the park with pink cheeks and drove on to Wanaka. Which is where we are now. Wanaka is fantastic. This is where we would live in N.Z. if we could. A fantastic and unspoiled ski town. We skied today at Treble Cone. The viz was a bummer but we had a blast. On a clear day with some fresh powder - this place would be insane!

New Zealand is beautiful but it is also sparce, a bit lonely in a way, and feels maybe like it could have been middle earth. A good choice for filming Lord of the Rings as we drive by many of the areas featured in the trilogy. Right now the country is still one big farm; there is little to no industry. It's an "old" place.

Oddly we have noticed they don't like trees. At least that is what one is lead to believe. There is an enormous amount of clear cutting and it appears that every chance they get, the kiwis get out those hacksaws and take down the forest! Make room for the sheep, down with the trees! We have an ongoing joke about it as we drive along.

The winter feels good. Exhilarating. With the very short days, the desire to hang out by the fire in a little house in the hills with a piping hot stew listening to Frodo regale the tales of the glory days.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1213950000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1213950000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1213950000/tpod.html Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:24:45 -0400 The Adventures of Ben and Kate on Planet Earth

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Cairns, Queensland, Australia

Cairns was another surprise to Ben and I. Neither one of us expected such a lush and tropical laid-back town. It was warm and wonderfully sunny weather. Off the coast was the Great Barrier Reef and just to the west were tall tropical hills. With the exception of the deadly jellyfish that tend to frolic in the area it was nearly perfect.

The bats were a bit scary too. We were walking back from the store one evening and saw thousands of dark objects flying through the night sky. Sure enough - bats! Creepy!

We picked up the campervan and are off to explore the east coast of Australia!
Roadtrippin'!!!!

A tape player???? How old is this car?
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Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia

In the spirit of the coming Olympics our tour guides put together an Olympics for our tour group. Cheesy little competition which was designed to be an ice-breaker and time passer. And as cheesy as it was, it turned out to be fun in the end. The games were simple - tossing fruit on the bus as a timed event, name that tune off the iPod, bus bowling (yes it was moving), photos, and who could eat a wheetabix the fastest. there was talk of karaoke, but it never materialized.

Ben and I teamed up with a couple from Ireland and together we made a formidable foursome. We started off in the lead but through most of the competition hung back coolly ready to make our big move toward the gold!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1213500840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1213500840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/boatubia/world_tour/1213500840/tpod.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 18:55:06 -0400 The Adventures of Ben and Kate on Planet Earth

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Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Northern Territory, Australia

Here is a cliff clavin:
Ayers rock is not really a RED rock. It's a big fat ancient gray rock.

Sand from the desert has kicked onto it and made a film over time - but it's thin and once you get up close you can see it's real color in places. Well how about that??? Uluru (Aboriginal name) and the surrounding area are spectacular.

We hopped on a tour with about 14 other people - some Aussies, 1 other American, John and Laura from Ireland, and a group from Singapore and Japan. We've had some luck with such tours, and those that could have been improved. (Hey at least we weren't going to the post office).

It was awesome. The Rock Tour exceeded our expectations and came in a very close second to our group tour in the Galapagos gaining it the silver medal in group tour category for our trip.

Everyone was fun. The food was good. The guides were fantastic and really made our experience. We camped, we hiked, we laughed, we played games, we had an 8ft. bonfire. Awesome mate! And the outback and area around Ayers Rock were worth seeing. We started our tour driving from Alice Springs to King's Canyon. I think King's Canyon was Ben's favorite stop on the trip. And it was a great hike. We had definitely chosen this trip because it included 2 nights camping in swags under the stars in the bush. No tents, no toilets. Just the real deal. We had a big fat bonfire and put our sleeping swags around in a circle. Really, nothing much on earth gets better than just looking up at the stars as you are just about ready to fall asleep after a day spent hiking and a good hearty meal of camel.

My favorite spot on the journey came the next morning. We arrived at the Olgas just in time for the sunrise. There are 36 olgas - which are smaller rock formations (much like Uluru) several kilometers away. It was once a very sacred aboriginal site for the men. Women apparently were not a part of what went on at the Olgas. The colors of the desert in the sunrise took my breath away literally. We hiked around and through these rock formations stopping for about a million pictures and to paint our faces with ochre along the way. :)

Later that day we did the trek around the rock. Surpisingly it's about 10k. (I thought it was shorter). Climbing the rock is crap. The aborigine people don't want you to do it. It's highly disrespectful. They allow it because it sadly does bring the tourist dollar, Ben and I didn't need any bad juju. If someone gets injured or dies the aborigine people cut themselves in mourning. We circled it like most of the traditional people of the world and their mountains. It was an extremely interesting and up close look at this mammoth rock in the center of Australia. It's not uniform or roundish at all. It's filled with nooks and crannies and looks very different from every angle. This was probably the most brilliant look at the rock of the whole trip.

We ended our day with a supreme sunset view; the kind postcards are made from and another night under the clear starry skies with an 8 foot bonfire.
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