TravelStream™ news feed for member leprefrog on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/leprefrog en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 17 Oct 2009 07:18:10 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leprefrog/1/1242889080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leprefrog/1/1242889080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leprefrog/1/1242889080/tpod.html Sat, 17 Oct 2009 07:18:10 -0400 On the Road With a Leprechaun and a Frog

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Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand

21.05.09: Gorgeous day to drive from Mt Cook towards the coast. we could mot help but stopping every few kilometers to take pictures of the mountains and the lakes. We also stopped to look at some Maori paintings on the rocks. Some looked a bit like the ones in saw in Australia. They were also painting men on horses, settlers' ships and tribal designs. We continued our trip towards the coast and stopped in the town of Omamaru, famous for its penguin colonies. We went to check the yellow eyed penguins on a particular beach. Normally, 30 are here but for the last few weeks only a third of theme arrive each night. Locals are getting worried. We managed to pot one!. We then went to Shag point, another viewing spot and were greeted by a huge sleeping seal!!  We finally reached Dunedin without any trouble (they had heavy snow a  few days ago) and checked in the hostel. We originally wanted to have an early night but had a great night with the other people staying here. 22.05.09: We could not get out of bed this morning after the heavy might. We made it for the afternoon though and headed to Otago peninsula. We visited the beautiful Larnach castle, which overlooks the whole peninsula. It is the only Victorian castle in the Southern hemisphere. It was really nice and reminded us of Ireland. The windy roads of the peninsula, too. We finished by looking at the Albatross centre, where the endangered animals are breeding.
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Mt. Cook Village, South Island, New Zealand

19.05.09: We got our new wheels this morning. We do not forget Marilyn obviously but we are happy with our new Toyota Corolla! Sean wants to call her Betsy...I think it is too boring! We drove in the suburbs of Christchurch, near Sumner and went up the hill to have a great view of the whole bay and the harbour (Y a d'la bobine P'pa!!) We continued our drive toward like Tekapo, a beautiful lake with amazing colours with the snowy mountains in the background. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day. When we arrived in Mt Cook at dusk, it was starting to snow!!!   20.05.09: Today, we put a few layers of clothes in order to brave the cold in the Mt Cook valley! We started by doing all the walks in the Tasman valley: the blue lakes (which are the same colours as lake Tekapo) and Tasman glacier. It was amazing to see the glaciers and the icebergs floating on the lake. It is sad though to see the damage of global warming and see that the glacier looses 0.5% of its volume each year. In the afternoon, we walked to Kea Point, where you have a great view of all the mountains, especially Mt Cook (3,700m).   The top was cloudy though. On our walk back, it started to snow so we were happy to have a warm tea at the end. While I am typing, the snow is getting heavier. We will need to be kept updated on the weather conditions (Jérome et Christine, Linder's path est bloqué par la neige. Route populaire mais pas sur votre itineraire dc merci pr le bon planning les amis!!!)
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Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand

17.05.09: Very last day in Oz!! We just chilled out in the YHA lounge before waiting for the plane...nothing much to tell except Sean got searched for explosives at the airport. We thought that the wild beard and the Irish passport had to do something with it!! Arrived very late in Christchurch...and it is cold!!!   18.05.09: We did not put the alarm on and we slept in..!! We strolled in Christchurch, lovely little town, with a nice Cathedral in the  city centre. Sean went to the hairdresser!! Was time for the wild hair to go but now he needs to wear his hat because he is freezing cold! In the evening, we went to a Maori show. We learned about the culture and traditions. To say hello, they press their nose and forehead (forehead for knowledge and nose for friendship as it means that you both breeze the same air). The tattoos on the faces have different meanings according to who your ancestors are, where you are from on the island and who your tribe is. The tattoos are only for important people in the tribe. Women wear them on their lips and chin and mean wear them on their whole face and body. We enjoyed some singing and dancing. The music sounds very much Polynesians (the origins of the Maori) and is very relaxing to listen to. The men in the audience were taught how to do the Hakka! As you have seen many times before the rugby games, the All Blacks make big eyes and stick out their tongues. For the Maori people, it is an impersonation of a specific NZ owl.  The women of the audience were taught some dancing with a ball attached to a string. Later on, we did a night walk in the wildlife park...and saw some kiwis!! The flightless birds are nearly blind so we could not take any picture with flash. Place was too dark so we could not manage to get any picture at all! The kiwi are in great danger of extinction. They reckon that in 25 years, they might not be any at all! The birds have been threatened by new animals brought by humans when the settlers first arrived: cats, dogs, rats, ferrets... and especially the possums from Australians. They have millions of possums of the country (20 per inhabitants...that's more than sheep!) and are the public enemies. So, between the lines, they told us that if we pass by one of the road, not to brake!!
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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

16.05.09:Time to go back to Melbourne, say goodbye to Marylin and finish our trip....in Oz!! We finished the Great Ocean Road, admired some of the landscapes (and the surfers one last time :-(( ). We went to see some waterfalls (seems that they got enough rain this time to get a proper waterfall!!). We went to Tommy's lookout (where you can get a picture similar to the one you get on all the brochures!!) and then went to see a lighthouse. Finally, after checking in the hostel, we went to give a bath to Marylin so that she will look all nice going back to her friends. The problem was we could not find the office. We found the depot so had to ring the helpline, which said we should have given the van back before twelve, but it was written on the contract three. All in all, we finally found the place, and she girl did not care what time we got it back, checked the van and that was done!! Bye Bye Marylin, we love you!!
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Lorne, Victoria, Australia

Before leaving Warrnambool, we had to stop at the whale watching spot. Although it is early in the season, one as been spotted the previous morning. Unfortunately, we were not that lucky... The weather has not improved. I am gutted because today we are driving the Great Ocean Rd, which I was really looking forward to. We stopped at a few places along the way to admire the amazing cliffs and the terrifying waves. Many of the cliffs are named after their shapes: we saw the London Bridge and the famous Twelve Apostles (Sean keep on making me repeat the word "apostle", because apparently it is funny when I say it!!). We followed the windy roads through the small town of Appollo Bay and stopped in Lorne for the night, one of the big surf towns of the South. We had a good night drinking in the YHA with a British girl and two Dutch guys. Yeah!!! tête de Buddha arrived!!
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Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia

Getting a real Irish weather visiting the town of Port Fairy, which is supposed to be strongly Irish influenced. Well, apart from Donegal Inn or Belfast pub and some cottages, it was nothing to write home about. The weather being bad and us being tired, we just decided to stop in Warrnambool and get ourselves a room with a TV and that's what we did all day... So as, this day is not productive, I will put the lyrics of a song we can't keep out of our head for the whole trip (no, not Kylie, although it would seem appropriate): DOWN UNDER (Men at Work) Traveling in a fried-out combie On a hippie trail, head full of zombie I met a strange lady, she made me nervous She took me in and gave me breakfast And she said, Do you come from a land down under? Where women glow and men plunder? Cant you hear, cant you hear the thunder? You better run, you better take cover. Buying bread from a man in brussels He was six foot four and full of muscles I said, do you speak-a my language? He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich And he said, I come from a land down under Where beer does flow and men chunder Cant you hear, cant you hear the thunder? You better run, you better take cover. Lying in a den in bombay With a slack jaw, and not much to say I said to the man, are you trying to tempt me Because I come from the land of plenty? And he said, Oh! do you come from a land down under? (oh yeah yeah) Where women glow and men plunder? Cant you hear, cant you hear the thunder? You better run, you better take cover.
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Halls Gap, Victoria, Australia

12.05.09:  After a nice warm shower, time to go tour last National Park...in Australia: the Grampians. It is not only known because of the beauty of the scenery but also because it is the home of 80% of Aboriginal art in Victoria. We found a great little hostel with only three rooms...and free Internet: a gem here! The owner, Tim, gave a us a good few tips on how to spend our time in the area. We started with Brambuk Cultura Centre, which depicted the long journey of the Aborigines: from thousand years ago until the arrival of the first European settlers who evicted them from their land. I love the stories they tell from generations to generations to explain many things such as the creation of the universe to the landscapes. We headed to the McKenzie falls, but the lack of water here made it look quite weak. It is a real issue in Australia. They don't seem to care about the environment too much, but the water! You need to save every drop of water. In the showers, they advice to spend only a 3 or 4 minutes, there are posters everywhere,etc. We then went to Lake Watok, where a few kangaroos were having a bit of lunch, and ended the day with two beautiful lookouts, Reed and Boroka. Later on in the evening, we had a game of Trivial Pursuit with another couple. Except the game was Australian and 10 yrs old. So for example, the Sports questions were quite hard: I have no idea who won the cricket championship in 1987!! 14.05.09: We are quite tired today and don't have much energy. But as usual when that happens, we end up doing the longest days. And today was no different. We did the Pinaccle walk through the Grand Canyon and that was amazing. A good steep walk as well, but as usual, very rewarding with a great view. We went to see two shelters: Billiimina and Manja, which are one of the few places where you can admire Aboriginal painting on rocks from thousands of years ago. What is appreciated is that the community do not try to market it at all. It is actually quite hard to get there. We were advised to go on some detour in order to minimise the amount of time on the dust roads (which we are not supposed to go on with Marilyn) for each of the rocks, you needed to go for more walking. We were pretty knackered by the end of the day! In Ballimina, you could see drawings of many people and stokes. In Manja, you could see drawings of kangaroos and emu prints as well as hands. They used ocher and mixed it with egg yolk or animal fat and spat it out on their hands to make different shapes. It strongly reminded us of the caves we saw in Mexico. We also saw, as expected, a lot of kangaroos and emus. We almost drove over one...in town!!
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Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

12.05.09: One cold and foggy morning and we decided it was the end of our nights in campsites. It's getting way to cold to get a shower!! We headed to Ballarat, an ancient gold mining town. The town is lovely and the architecture Victorian. They recreated the old town, in a way of a theme park, called Sovereign Hill. As kitsch as it may sound, it was really interesting to see the way miners were living at the time of the gold rush (l'endroit fait un peu penser à Rodemack pour la ruée vers l'or!) We saw gold melting, sweet making, wheel making and we could go in the mines ... It was great because you could go in all the shops and all the houses!! We had a great time. Everyone was dressed in outfits from back in the day. We found a hostel and had a good night talking with the residents. A few were actually working in town and living there.
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Healesville, Victoria, Australia

10.05.09: Great day in our winery hopping tour of Healesville. The Yarra region is one of the famous wine areas in Australia, and also the enemy of the Hunter Valley, that we visited near Sydney! We visited a few spots. We started with Bertolo, which was not great, then headed to a cheese factory. Pure heaven for a girl in the land of cheddar: loads of goat cheeses and cow cheeses. we couldn't help but buying few for some nice aperitifs! We did a tour of the Chandon domain (from Moët and Chandon) and bought some sparkling white (hey! They are not allowed to call it Champagne!!), then bought another bottle of red in St Hubert, then white  in Coltream Hill and another white in Waggamate. We calculated the numbers of day we had before going to NZ to have one bottle a night! In Waggamate, you could admire the sunset with a great view and had a nice chat with the owner...who obviously had Irish roots. We finished the day with some good TV..but no wine..I guess we had enough!!
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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

08.05.09:&nbsp; We had&nbsp;a sleep in this morning. Not too much energy!! We knew we only had a short drive to Melbourne. When we got there, we settled in the YHA, which is lovely in a great neighbourhood in North Melbourne. We knew instantly we would like this city. We started visited the town with the tram, and headed to Melbourne Gaol. We had a fun tour of the jail where the guide would try to make you experience the life of a prisoner back then. Sean was supposed to be a thief and I was supposed to be a stalker (well, those Australian swimmers really are cute, so who can blame me??) It really looked like Kilmainham Jail in Dublin.&nbsp; We learned a lot about Ned Kelly, one of Australia's most famous outlaws. He was of Irish descent (for the non Irish- last century, some Irish convicts where sent to Australia as punishment). After this visit, we were starving and headed to a Greek restaurant and stuffed our faces with gorgeous meat. It was even too much for Sean! We finished the day with my bday present, a night out to see Ozzie rules, aka the footy. All the Irish probably know about this game, but I will explain for the non-paddies. Australian football looks like Gaelic football (for those who did not visit me in Dublin, too bad for you, I won't explain that one!!), with a rugby ball on a cricket pitch!!! They all wear really bad outfits,too! In Ireland you can watch compromised rules, which is, as you guessed, a comprise between Australian rules and Gaelic footballs. In Australia, the sport is professional and in Ireland it is amateur. Some Irish guys are going to Oz over the summer to train and happen to never come back to the Green Isle. I guess that beats being a butcher in Tullamore! The Testra stadium was full (attendance: 50,000) and Essendon won against Hawtorn. 09.05.09:&nbsp; Another lazy morning in our warm bed! Once we got up, we headed straight to Queen Victoria Market. It is packed on Saturday morning and is apparently a must do in Melbourne to eat a bratwurst. So we did, the whole lot with sauerkraut and onions for breakfast. (I hear some of you saying <i>yuk already!) The market is really nice and reminded me of the ones in London (où on avait pas arrêté de manger, Emily!!) We stayed there a good while, picking through different food and wine. Melbourne has a really different feel to Sydney. It looks more ancient, more cultural, more European. Even the fashion sense is different -real London Kate Moss ( sorry, I get carried away, I have been wearing the same clothes for the last 8 months!). We went to see the different shopping arcades. All the shops seem to have something interesting to see!! We walked to Flinders street station, one of Melbourne's main landmark. We found there a protest of the Tamil Tigers. Later on, we visited the immigration museum. Quite good, too. We finished the day by looking at the Crown, a big entertainment centre: video games and a massive casino full of old people and crazy Chinese hitting away the slot machines!
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