TravelStream™ news feed for member univ0543 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/univ0543 en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:31:50 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1203467340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1203467340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1203467340/tpod.html Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:31:50 -0500 The potted travels of Abs, Andrew and Bob round bits of Asia, Aus, NZ and USA.

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New York City, New York, United States

This was both of our first times in NY and I've got to say we were pleasantly surprised by the place. First the weather was actually nice and warm - not the snow we were expecting. Secondly it feels relatively clean, at least from a smog point of view. And it's relatively easy to get around on the subway or taxi.

We hit all the big sights, including taking an open-top bus (actually it was freezing that day!!), the empire states building, 5th av, Macys and of course the Staten Island ferry past the Statue of Liberty.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202700240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202700240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202700240/tpod.html Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:27:51 -0500 The potted travels of Abs, Andrew and Bob round bits of Asia, Aus, NZ and USA.

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Los Angeles, California, United States

LA is as bustling and sprawling as ever, and still has a nice layer of smog sitting over it as you fly in. Still, this was Abs' first experience of the US, and we spent a lot of time driving round all the famous streets, from Rodeo Drive to Beverley Hills, Hollywood Bvd and Sunset Bvd.

Of course you can't visit LA with out seeing Disney or Universal - so we did both. Outside of school hols these places are so much easier, we didn't queue for more than 15 mins for anything! It was great meeting some of the characters too, like Buzz Lightyear, the Simpsons and, of course, Mickey!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202617020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202617020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202617020/tpod.html Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:22:22 -0500 The potted travels of Abs, Andrew and Bob round bits of Asia, Aus, NZ and USA.

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Wellington, New Zealand

Back in the north island, and pretty much our last stop in NZ. Andrew had decided we would go and see the first crickey one-day match betweeen Eng and NZ which was in Wellington the day before we left NZ and therefore meant a 700km drive the next day to make our flight.

Wellington is quite a pretty city, quite small with some nice bars and shops. The cricket was less attractive as Eng slumped to 130-odd all out. However, we were sitting in front of the commentary box which kept Abs happy, and at various times we saw Botham, Gower, Atherton, Hussain and David Lloyd. Abs even got an autograph from the umpire Billy Bowden, although she had no idea who we was(!)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202260920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202260920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202260920/tpod.html Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:17:38 -0500 The potted travels of Abs, Andrew and Bob round bits of Asia, Aus, NZ and USA.

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Motueka, New Zealand

North of the South Island is home to the Abel Tasman national park, a beautiful reserve where you can walk / cycle / kayak or take a sea taxi between spots on the otherwise inaccesible coast. It's incredibly beautiful, and we took a tour where we were dropped into the park by aqua taxi, hiked down the coast for a couple of hours, and then kayaked the rest of the way home. The aqua taxi is quite suprising - you get on the boat at the office, and then get towed down to the slip, before heading out to sea.

Whilst here we also headed north of Abel Tasman to the "farewell spit" which is a 20km long spit with some incredible wildlife, rare birds, and miles of rippling sand dunes. Highlights were seeing flocks of hundreds and thousands of black swans, and finally getting a picture of the very nervous pukekos.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202008620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202008620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202008620/tpod.html Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:53:12 -0500 The potted travels of Abs, Andrew and Bob round bits of Asia, Aus, NZ and USA.

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Dunedin, New Zealand

Dunedin really does feel Scottish, somehow - perhaps its the buidlings or the hills, or the parks, but parts could almost be Glasgow or Edinburgh. It's famous for the worlds steepest street (apparantly) gradient of 1 in 1.266, and it's pretty steep, not sure the old banger would make it up there.

It's also famous for the Speights Brewery, one of the largest beer brands in NZ. We took a really good tour here and found out some interesting facts, like it's one of the world's last gravity brewerys (brewing starts 5 floors up and works its way down), it's in the city centre (also rare), and they still use open wooden vats called gyles (very rare indeed).

A highlight was the boat trip out on the nearby Otago peninsula, where we saw some fantastic wildlife. Top of the bill was the enormous Royal Albatross with a 3m / 10ft wingspan which swooped down by the boat. Here is one of the only places they form mainland colonies in the world. We also saw several types of shags, a petrel, terns, as well as seals and seal pups. Back on dry land we even had a close encounter with a (very smelly) sea lion on the beach. Great!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202948100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202948100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202948100/tpod.html Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:52:16 -0500 The potted travels of Abs, Andrew and Bob round bits of Asia, Aus, NZ and USA.

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Milford Sound, New Zealand

Milford Sound is one of those rare places which looks better than the postcards and pictures show you. It's part of a world heritage site, and part of the Fiordland on the SW coast of NZ - the Sound is in fact a fiord, since it was formed by a glacier not a river.

We're staying in Te Anau, which is one of the nearest large towns, about 120km away. This is famous for, amongst other things, being the place where the Takahe bird was rediscovered after being thought to be extinct.

The drive from Te Anau to Milfor is beautiful, the early morning clouds and mists cloaking the hills. And when you arrive you are greeted by stunning sight of huge hills and mountains rising steeply from millpond-flat waters. Some are amongst the largest mountains in the world, continuing almost a mile beneath the surface of the water.

There are lots of sandflies here, biting flies that give a little nip and a longlasting bump. But these do little to detract from the awesome scenery. We took a boat trip out on the sound, seeing seals, waterfalls on the way, and stopping off at Milford Deep, an underwater observatory on the way back to see some rare black coral, and huge Horse Mussels in their own environment.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202282400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202282400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202282400/tpod.html Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:30:33 -0500 The potted travels of Abs, Andrew and Bob round bits of Asia, Aus, NZ and USA.

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Hanmer Springs, New Zealand

Maybe just to pin point??
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202084340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202084340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1202084340/tpod.html Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:28:55 -0500 The potted travels of Abs, Andrew and Bob round bits of Asia, Aus, NZ and USA.

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Timaru, New Zealand

After Dunedin, it was time to start to head back up north, but that wasn't the end of the sightseeing or the wildlife.

Our first stopover was a small coastal town called Timaru, and on the way we stopped at a beach where the rarest penguins in the world live - the Yellow Eyed penguin. There are very few of these birds around, and they normally come ashore at dusk, so we didn't harbour any hopes of seeing one as we dropped by at lunchtime. But some great spotting by Abs picked out a Penguin in the surf returning to the beach early - what a sight!

On the way to Timaru we aslo stopped to see the Moeraki boulders, some near-sperical mudstone balls which form an impressive sight on the beach.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1201486620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1201486620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1201486620/tpod.html Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:02:19 -0500 The potted travels of Abs, Andrew and Bob round bits of Asia, Aus, NZ and USA.

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Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown is arguably the adventure capital of the South Island, possibly of the world. This is the place that invented the bungy jump and you can do pretty much anything here from skydiving to canyoning (althougn not zorbing...?).

We spent our first morning here on the river, up for an 8am blast down the top of the Shotover River on a Jetboat. These things are awesome, go upto 85 km/h inches from the rocks in the canyon, with the only thing punctuating the ride are the 360' spins that wrench you out of your seat.

After that we white-water-rafted down the next 16 km of river. Actually most of it was quite relaxed a bit like a huge lazy river, just colder. There are 1/2 dozen big rapids though that threaten to flip the boat, but somehow we survived them intact. And relatively warm in our wetsuits too which was nice.

Best bargain however was the gondola and luge! The Gondola is a cable car that takes you to the top of the hill by Queenstown, and quickly too. At the top there is a fantastic luge ride, the motto is "once is never enough" and it's too true. It looks tame, but certainly isn't! And once you've got your breath back from that, there are the awesome views over the 'Town and lake Wakatipu. Great place.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1201487401/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1201487401/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/univ0543/abs_and_07-08/1201487401/tpod.html Sun, 03 Feb 2008 21:52:55 -0500 The potted travels of Abs, Andrew and Bob round bits of Asia, Aus, NZ and USA.

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Picton, New Zealand

We were hoping to have spent our first day on South Island checking out the wineries and vineyards, but as we crossed the Cook Strait in our ferry, the heavens opened and stayed open till we got to our holiday park. Even then they didn't close, and the torrential rain was so heavy we got soaked getting from the car into the cabin.

So there was only one thing for it - and that was to unpack the car in the nud (well, almost... Andrew kept a pair of shorts on to avoid upsetting the locals). Eventually the clouds cleared, and we were able to explore the farm we were staying in. Aside from some very friendly goats and cows, we also trekked up the hill nearby to a beautiful waterfall. Andrew wanted to wait till it got dark to see the glow worms but Abs kicked some sense into him and we headed back down.
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