TravelStream™ news feed for member fergalokeeffe on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/fergalokeeffe en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:35:49 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1224807540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1224807540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1224807540/tpod.html Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:35:49 -0400 My Year of Living Dangerously

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Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand

We were too late for the whales but two large seal colonies are enough reason to head north from Christchurch and stop in Kaikora. First though was the small matter of visiting the famous hot springs at Hamner Springs. We were all looking forward to getting a good soaking but by the time we arrived at Hamner Springs we got a soaking of a different kind. New Zealand was in Spring afterall and we got a bit of a downpour during our half day in Hamner. No worries though...after a quick change and a tip-toeing run across to the first pool we were warmed again. That is until we got used to the temperature and needed more. Time for the next pool - a few degrees higher. This continued for an hour or so - several minutes relaxing before a mad dash to the next hottest pool. Eventually we found a happy medium and we spent some quality time chilling. We did try the 42 degree pool before leaving but after being warned that we shouldn´t be in that one without a drink to rehydrate we called it a day and ran back to the changing rooms.After a beautiful drive up the coast we arrived quite late into Kaikora. It was our first night with the van and we were a little unsure of what we should be looking for in terms of somewhere to pull in for the night. We drove around the town like some night watchmen looking for a suitable spot and after sometime we found a carpark with a few other vans.With a succesful nights sleep in our new home we went the next day to visit the seal colony on Kaikora penninsula. The carpark used to be their breeding ground (a bit unfair) but now that it is tarmac it doesn´t stop them using it. You can get extremely close to the seals (some get too close and get what they deserve) and it is a great experience to see all the young ´uns. The whole penninsula is beautiful and we walked out to the headland and back before hitting the road again.Next we headed north again but just outside of Kaikora we had one more stop at Ohau stream. A local had told us to take the ten minute walk up the stream to the waterfall but didn´t tell us why. When we got there we saw why - there were two juvenile seals playing with each other in the waterfall and the pool below. They we mesmorising! I don´t know how they get there (it is about 50m or so above sea level - maybe they use the path) but it was a magical sight to see them there so unexpectedly. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1224721080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1224721080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1224721080/tpod.html Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:34:37 -0400 My Year of Living Dangerously

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Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand

I realised after saying goodbye to Oz and all the friends I made there that saying goodbye all the time was starting to get really tired and I was getting some solo-traveller depression. So a little late I got the idea to advertise for some travel buddies in NZ to share a campervan or car for a month or so. When I say I left it late I advertised when I got to Christchurch for departure 2 days later. But I am a lucky man and I managed to meet two other backpackers with the same rough plans and after a chat over a cup of coffee we agreed to rent a camper van for a month. They were Stephanie from France and Kate from England and I didn´t know at the time but we were gonna have a brilliant month together.Apart for some shopping for warm clothes (its cold in NZ) and a camper van I did manage to do a few things in Christchurch although none of them very exciting. Christchurch is known as the Oxford of New Zealand as much for the Englishness of the people as for the fact that you can go punting on the Avon (it really is called that). I visited Hagley park, the arts centre and the Christchurch museum all of which were very...nice. Christchurch is nice!In the end we found ourselves a cool van fully kitted out with a bed, sink, gas stove, solar shower, a funky paint job (the van was named Amdy Warhol) and a steering wheel of course. You can see it in some photos later. It was a great deal too working out at about 16 euros a day over the month...can´t get much cheaper than that. After a pit-stop in Pak n´Save to stock up on supplies we hit the road excited about our adventures ahead.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1224310080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1224310080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1224310080/tpod.html Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:06:19 -0400 My Year of Living Dangerously

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Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Sydney is a famous place and everyone knows at least about the two most famous landmarks...the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera house. But there is more too. After spending only 4 days there I can say that the best thing about the city is the fact that you are never far from a beach and probably many beaches. Beach life is synonimous with much of Australian life but nowhere more so than in Sydney. And that is for a city of almost 4 million people.I stayed quite near the downtown / Domain area in a area called Kingscross. They could also have named it bumtown and junkyville but it is popular with backpackers because of its location, the fact that it is cheap and the fact that there are lots of places to go out. I stayed in a great hostel though called the Pink House and with some Irish staff I managed to get some preferential treatment. The people here were great and there were some good nights had.So I spent one day around downtown, visiting the aforementioned harbour bridge and the Opera house...had to be done. You also notice how cosmopolitan Sydney is when you walk through the downtown area. Another day I took the ferry across Syndey harbour out to Manly, a nice beach suburb and took the Spit walk back to town. This is where you really see how many hidden beach are tucked into every corner of the harbour. I also headed out to Bondi beach and took the cliff walk too Coogee beach (where there happened to be an open air sculpture exhibition). There are a lot of hot properties out this way and no doubt it would be a great place to live. My final day was recovery day after another night out with the crowd from the Pink House so not much to report there.That brought me to the end of my time in Australia. If I was to sum it up I would say that it is a great place to visit and probably to stay and work for a while. Life is good here it seems. I also only got to see a small part of it overall. On the down side it isn´t the most exotic place you´ll ever visit and the treatment of Aboriginals is appalling. Anyway next up Kiwiland!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1223964960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1223964960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1223964960/tpod.html Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:45:25 -0400 My Year of Living Dangerously

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Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia

It was nice to arrive in Byron Bay after a few days in Brisbane city and I was looking forward to hitting the beach and doing some chilling out. I was recommended to stay in the Arts Factory while I was staying in the Asylum in Cairns and although it has the same kind of laid back atmosphere it is run a bit more professionally than the former. Byron Bay has had a colourful history and has not always been a desirable place to visit. It used to be dirty agricultural town with a port and by all accounts was a smelly place. When the factories were closed however it didn´t take long for the resourceful surfing community to discover the good breaks here and very quickly it developed as a tourist destination for the hippy alternative crowd. This kind of feel still remains (especially in places like the Arts Factory) even though the tourist appeal of the town has become more mainstream.I stayed here for 4 nights and really enjoyed myself. The Arts Factory is a pretty cool spot with a pool, a arthouse cinema, a health food cafe, a volleyball court, a outdoor performace stage and accomodation consists of amongst others a surf shack, a teepee, a double-decker bus and island huts. All this is within a compound on the edge of BB but it is not too far into town. It is easy to get stuck here and spend all day every day at the AF but I did manage to see bit of the town and the nearby coast. There is also a great social atmosphere and it is easy to meet people from all over the world. Needless to say we had a few good nights out here. Finally there are many daily activities organised many of which are free to join.Cape Byron is a beautiful reserve with views up and down the coast and I visited here a few days. One day I spent two hours sitting on the headland listening to music and watching whales in the bay nearby. One of my personal highlights from Oz just sitting there and taking it all in. This is also a popular spot for surfing and the sea everywhere is full of bobbing surfers waiting for a good wave. Its also easy to pass a few hours watching the better surfers out on the good breaks catching the big waves.I would have loved to stay longer here but I had already extended my flight date once while in Brisbane and I still wanted to spend a few days in Sydney. Ahh well thats the way it goes when you are a hobo...gotta keep on keeping on. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1223619480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1223619480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1223619480/tpod.html Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:53:09 -0500 My Year of Living Dangerously

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Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

After all the excitement of the Whitsundays and Fraser Island it was time to take it easy for a few days in Brisbane. Even though I was booked into a bit of a mad hostel I was a good boy and really just visited the city and had early nights.Brisbane is another pretty Aussie city with a fancy downtown skyline and some trendy districts. No major tourist sites to see here but I visited a few interesting museums and enjoyed walking around the city. Another city to reinforce the idea that Oz has a few nice cities to live in.But that´s it really...next stop Byron Bay.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1223430000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1223430000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1223430000/tpod.html Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:39:04 -0500 My Year of Living Dangerously

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Hervey Bay, Queensland, Australia

Following on from the craic of the Whitsunday Islands trip I was looking forward to my trip to Fraser Island. Fraser Island lies just off the coast of Queensland and is famous for the fact that it is a protect reserve island completely made of sand. There are a few ways to see it but best solution for backpackers and most afordable is to do a 4x4 self-drive tour. The basic setup is that a travel company give 10 of you a huge 4x4, tents, sleeping bags, spades, cooking gear and a itinerary (the island is 127kms long so you need a bit of a guide to help you get to the best bits) and send you off to Fraser for 3 days of...well you´ve guessed it...self-driving safari of the Island.  I signed up for one of these when I booked my trip in Airlie beach and after arriving in Hervey Bay (the nearest town to Fraser Island) I went to my hostel and met up with the guys from my jeep. And what do you know, out of the 26 of us in 3 jeeps there were 11 Irish.With the shopping list agreed and bought we headed off to the island ferry to begin our adventure. Only a few volunteers to drive the jeep first so a quick rock-paper-scissors sorted that out. Once off the ferry the adventure began with the jeep proving a tricky beast to handle on the sandy paths of the forrest. A few fellow travellers got stuck so after some dig-out delays we made it to our first stop at Lake Mackenzie. It a beautiful spot and great for a dip after some time in the 4x4. A few games of the old beach classic One-handed D.O.N.K.E.Y. and we were off again accross the Island heading for the coast.Once on the pacific coast we got to see the islands "highway" for the first time. In fact this is just a broad beach that runs for 80kms or so and acts as the main transport route up and down. Too bad it is the also the landing strip too  (take a look at the runway or road photo) where a plane can drop down in front of you at any time. We made our way north during the day stopping off every so often as took our fancy - the best thing about having you own transport and a ball. Unfortunately no swimming though as the sharks are king here.Our first night was spent at an Aboriginal camp where after a champion barbeque some of our hosts put a aboriginal performance. Some of the youngest participants showed little more aboriginal dance skills than I have but none the less won the crowd over. After that a singsong (perhaps a little drunken) which went on til the early hours and then time to hit the scratcher for another day ahead.Day 2 saw us visit Indian head. This is a famous viewpoint for spotting all sorts of marine life in the crystal clear waters. We didn´t spot any whales unfortunately but did see turtles, manta ray, sharks dolphins and huge shoals of "chump" fish. Next is was off up to the appropriately named (they are good at place-naming in OZ) champagne pools for a dip. The waves wash over the rocky wall of this natural lagoon and as it is free of unwanted fishies it is a good spot for a cooling off. Our second night was spent camping out by the beach. Another good feed and a few mor beers. We had a few dingoes for company but they never came too close. A perfect night sky topped off a great night.On our last day we visited a few more spots and then after another dip in Lake Mackenzie it was time to head back to the ferry and hand back "the beast". Definitely one of the highlights of the OZ trip so far was driving that 4x4 down the beach - but being a back-seat passanger is not for the faint hearted.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1222997880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1222997880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1222997880/tpod.html Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:19:18 -0500 My Year of Living Dangerously

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Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia

The ould Whitsunday Islands cruise is a regular on any backpackers intinerary down the East coast of Australia but that does not make it any less of an exciting prospect or enjoyable few days. Even better if cruising on a yacht is not something you do every Sunday. I arrived in Airlie Beach, the jump off point for most trips out on the Whitsunday Islands and quite a nice little spot in its own right, and checked myself into Magnums backpackers. That was a recommendation from the aforementioned Asylum and although not really the same vibe going on it did just fine for a few nights. After casing a number of tourist agencies and finding out that all their prices were pretty much the same when you take into account all the taxes I  chose one company based on pretty much nothing. So after two nights chillin in Magnums and having a few beers with the crowd there I made my way down to the dock and found my boat. Not too shabby either! She was a Maxi (which for all the uninitiated is a racing sailboat of at least 20 metres - I didnt have a bog either) and a fine one too. She was converted down below (please!) to fit a few extra berths and so she could handle a gang of 15 backpackers on top of the 3 crew. A wee bit tight (I had to do a running Fosbury flop to get into my bed) but managable when you spend most of the time on deck. The cruise itself was really excellent. Our job most of the day was to sunbath up top and enjoy a drink while we waited to arrive at whatever destination they had lined up for us. We visited the world famous Whitehaven beach which is absolutely stunning. It has reputedly the finest whitest sand in the world and repeatedly comes in the ranking for top 5 beaches in the world and I can see why. But the usually Queensland problem exists - for half the year you can' t swim in the sea for fear of the dreaded stingers. The sunsets each night were fantastic especially seeing as we were enjoying them from the deck of a sail boat. We also go another chance to do some more diving and snorkelling and saw lots more turtles (still one of my favourites to see). The gang I shared the boat with were great craic (especially coz there was a healthy sprinkling of Oirish) and we enjoyed ourselves each night on deck with a few tunes and some of our precious beers. Altogether a great couple of days and worth the splurge from the backpacker budget. Definitiely recommended for all.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1222565400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1222565400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1222565400/tpod.html Sun, 25 Jan 2009 11:35:51 -0500 My Year of Living Dangerously

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Cairns, Queensland, Australia

After a quiet week on the west coast, I arrived in Cairns looking forward to some activity and a bit more action. I came to the right place for it as Cairns is a great spot for lots things to do and is also quite a party town. After a few hours sleep in the arrival hall (damn short overnight flights) I chose a hostel pretty much at random from the airport accommodation board and they came a picked me up. The name was The Asylum...enough said.It was probably the dirtiest hostel I have stayed in on my trip but to be honest by the end of a week I was sad to leave. The place is so laid back that it attracts a certain brand of backpacker and thet meant that everyday there was good fun to be had. Whether it was the Mad Moday pub crawl, game of goon pong, trapsing round town for backpacker freebies or simply chilling out and watching a movie it was easy to feel at home there.Other than hostel life, I made a few trips out of cairns. The first was an organised tour to Cape Tribulation where I spent one night. This included stops at a few pretty spots along the way, a few swims and some wildlife...no crocs however. The second trip was to the Atherton Tablelands to do the waterfall route...lots of waterfalls in one day but great for a few dips on a hot day. Another day I went diving on the barrier reef. Apart from a rough ride out (I was very very close to barfng) it was a great day with some fabulous dives.After 6 days there I found it hard to leave some new friends at the Asylum and I can see why people get stuck in Cairns...but once again it was time to move on.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1221874080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1221874080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1221874080/tpod.html Sun, 25 Jan 2009 10:17:12 -0500 My Year of Living Dangerously

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Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia

Freemantlers like to think of them as set apart from Perth (for some historical reasons) but I reality it is now another suburb. I took the city train out for the 25km journey to the coast and checked in at the Old Firestation Hostel. Nice hostel and a good crowd...and now that I was mostly recovered I was a bit more sociable too. O really like Freemantle. There is a great vibe around the town (kind of an booky arty cafe culture) and there is some good night life too.Freo as it is known to locals has a rich maritime history and a huge modern maritime museum. I visited that museum along with a tour of a old decommissioned submarine which was pretty cool. I also did the well known night tour of Freemantle historical museum - good family fun but its a pity they don´t crank up the fright factor for the last tour of the night.A couple of nights out with some people from the hostel and it capped off a good end to my week on the west coast.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1221528360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1221528360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fergalokeeffe/1/1221528360/tpod.html Sun, 25 Jan 2009 10:03:11 -0500 My Year of Living Dangerously

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Perth, Western Australia, Australia

I had high plans for my visit to the west coast of Australia. But I didn´t get to see all 4000kms in 6 days. This was because I got a bad flu pretty much as soon as I landed off the plane and also becasue covering 4000km of coastline in 6 days needs some expensive private transport. So after losing pretty much two days in bed with flu (no fun when in a party hostel) I decided to just check out Perth city and nearby Freemantle.Not really much to tell as my few days in Perth were a bit quiet. Its pretty, well laid-out city with a nice atmosphere. There is also a nice rejuvated quarter with cultural centre, cinemas, theatres and cafe bars. I did a few walking tours. I didn´t go out once. I went to some museums and saw a few arthouse flicks. And that was pretty much that.I liked Perth but I think I need to go back and see it again.PS: apologies for such a boring entry.
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