TravelStream™ news feed for member vickz_2 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/vickz_2 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:52:35 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1240606800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1240606800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1240606800/tpod.html Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:52:35 -0400 It's not all about the bloody malaria

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Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand

ok so with very little money left to waste away on hot chocolate and blogging all the time, i'm hoping to complete the australia blog today, despite the fact that that banging house music is still pumping away in the internet cafe and despite the fact that there's a guy sat behind me talking over the internet! aarrgghh! anyway, here we go!

from sun, sea and sand to forests, falls and furry creatures...
so after being told that we probably shouldn't try and attempt going out to the town of 1770 for some snorkelling action, we decided to head just a little southerly to check out rainbow beach and the carlos sand blow, where supposedly the power of the wind has managed, over hundreds of years, to blow sand up from the beach, over the cliff's edge and back up over the fields and trees atop the cliff! quite amazing! anyway, so we arrive in the town of rainbow beach, which appears to have been built to cater for young backpackers and luxury holiday makers alone, with the numerous line-up of hostels, cafes, restaurants and sea-view apartments for romantic getaways. at the local information centre, we ask about low tides and come to find that we might just have missed the low tide, that would have enabled us to have walked down the stretch of the beach to see the best of what the rainbow beach area has on offer, but after making such a big detour out to the beach, we think we might as well go see as much as we can and so we head to the water's edge and take a quick meander down the beach, avoiding the ever present incoming tidal waters. anyway, it wasn't long before we were met by the most peculiar looking cliff edges, dropping down to meet the most bizarre patterns of sand, created by the black and gold sands present on the beach. ok, so to explain these bizzare looking cliff edges, which actually happened to be entirely black in colour, they seemed to have been eroded away in such a way that they appeared to have suffered the effects of an acne breakdown, in the form of poc mark type holes, filled with water collected from the dripping roots of the trees hanging on tight to the cliff top edge, and from the waves coming up onto the beach. anyway, they were pretty cool! as for the sands, we'd seen photos of the rainbow beach cliffs in local tourist guides and so were expecting to see every colour of the rainbow in the sands present on the beach and within the cliffs, however after looking at a local map and realising that the incoming high tide had probably blocked off the stretch of beach accessing these cliffs, we discovered that we may not get to see every colour of the rainbow. however, what we did get to see was still pretty impressive, with an array of black, grey and gold sands merging together to create some crazy, wiggly patterns in the sand, like you might get to see in those small sand containers that you can pick up in any tacky souvenir gift shop in any of the following seaside towns: blackpool, brighton, weymouth, isle of wight etc! anyway, after taking several shots of the crazy sand, we decided to head up to see the carlos sand blow and to see what all the fuss was about! well, when we reached the top of the forest walk and stepped out onto the wooden decking of the platform looking out over the cliff top sand dunes, we realised what all the fuss was about! there just looked like there had been just tonnes and tonnes and tonnes of sand blown up off the beach, over the cliff top edge, and it appeared as though all this sand had just flattened everything in it's path, from the fields, to felling trees, some of the trunks of which could still be seen almost desperately trying to reachup out of the sand, for air or light or help even?! just think quick sand and some poor soul trying to reach out for a hand! after leaving rainbow beach, it was time for us to change direction and head inland, away from the coast and into the forests. soon after leaving the beach, we were already being met by towering alpine forests either side of the main road, before reaching areas of land covered in more lush, green fields filled with grazing sheep and cows, and surrounded by alpine forests, picturesque hamlets reminiscient of those you might find in 'the waltons' or 'the little house on the prarie' or in north america, and great mountains. and although we'd been a little sad leaving the coast and not really getting the chance to really experience everything that it had to offer, it made a nice change to be driving through the forest. that night, we decided to stay at a working deer farm in borumba, where, apart from deer, there appeared to be several teeny, tiny frogs leaping around inside our powerpoint, an accumulation of insects flying overhead in the extremely rustic, tinshed of an outdoor unisex bathroom, and a giant lizard creature, similar to a komodo dragon, waddling about beside the creek at the bottom of the park. this the place where we had hoped to get rid of family mice, until we realised there might just be a few too many people hanging around who might tell on us or think we were just plain weird, if they were to see us setting down a tupperware container in the bush and sitting by staring at it until mummy mouse came out to discover where her family was! i say this was the plan as that day we'd discovered that the disappearing mice had actually not gone away like we'd first thought and were not in the roof space, but had instead been taken away to their new home underneath the matting under where sean put his feet to work the pedals! anyway, with dilemma in hand, we continue onwards and upwards with the hope that we might just be able to drop off the mice at any one of the next destinations we reach, having been told to drive the inland scenic route, via several waterfalls and lookout posts, by the rather friendly man working in the kenilworth information centre, who apparently went to the same school in stamford, in england, that sean used to go to! small world! first stop, the borumba dam. check it out, too many people to drop off family mice, take some pix. next stop, the mapleton falls. arrive in a rather jammed packed carpark, hide from the rain, tuna sandwich stop, take far too many pix again, realise here would definitely not be the best place to drop off family mice. next stop, kondalila falls. here, we are blown away by the number of japanese tourists plodding up and down the track through the semi-tropical rainforest to the falls. many, many pix are taken of this magnificient waterfall, which from the lookout appears to actually be pouring from a bud of a forest perching atop a steep peak. here, we learn the aboriginal word for rushing water or waterfall, which is kondalila. and seconds later, in acknowledgement of my love for the beautiful waterfall, i'm planning to add a middle name to my full name by depoll, as soon as i get home! now, i was going to write what my full name would therefore be, but, bearing in mind that during the course of this blog i might well have offended one or two people, i think it best that i don't go giving my name out to all and sundry! after checking out the falls and the rock pool at the top of the falls, which is surrounded by tourists aplenty taking photos of the pool or swimming in it, despite it not really looking all that welcoming and not a patch on the pools in karijini, we head off to check out the glass mountains. here, at the lookout for the peaks, which appear to reach out of the thick forest blanket into the misty sky above, we take some pix before i am asked to step in as a temporary wedding or hen do photographer! now, i'm not sure what role i was playing? i mean at first, upon witnessing all these women laughing and drinking and applauding each other, i thought i might have just stepped into a lesbian wedding, but, while taking photo after photo after photo and looking at each of these women, dressed up in the most ghastly coloured and designed wedding and ball gowns, i reckon they must have just been out for the bride-to-be's hen do! actually, the 'bride-to-be' sash around one of the women might have been a major giveaway! duh! after driving away from the women still laughing and clapping away and asking every tom, dick and harry to stop to take photos of the party, sean and i drove on through the forested mountain drive, through yet more quaint, hill-top communities filled with new age gift shops, swanky cafes and restaurants, galleries, and luxury holiday homes and b&bs, before reaching the town of landsborough, where we would stop for the night before hitting australia zoo! that night, while getting extremely excited about the next day, we also had to contend with the scurrying around of mother mouse making her presence known, as well as a bloody, great spider making his web atop our van! i was not amused! ok so i might be excited about seeing crocodiles and elephants and snakes and koalas and all the rest the next day, but i was not happy about seeing a spider tonight! no way!

australia zoo : )
snappy crocs, friendly elephants, playful tiggers, naughty otters, cheeky parrots, venomous snakes, sneaky tasman devils, sleepy koalas, hungry kangies... the list goes on! what an amazing day, just walking around the zoo, watching all the animals getting fed, being played with by the zoo keepers, catching 'croc-o-clock' in the crocoseum when the ranger got in with a croc to feed him a huge hunk of steak meat - a show that i'm sure would have been absolutely amazing to see with steve irwin as ring leader, but unfortunately he now r.i.p. however, despite this fact, his message to the world about understanding these animals and keeping them alive and preserving their natural habitats was never far away, in the huge plasma screen displays towering over the crocoseum, through the information boards, in the many gifts available, and in the form of his family and the remaining zoo keepers still working and playing with the animals at australia zoo. what a brilliant day, and definitely a highlight! the animals all looked happy, the japanese tourists all looked pleased with themselves and their flash cameras hanging around their necks! i even got my photo taken with the entire irwin family, including steve, via the memorial statue of the clan at the zoo's entrance!

brisbane and about...
after leaving the zoo, that same afternoon we decided to bypass all other holiday parks enroute in order to get into brisbane as soon as we could. oh yes, after weeks and weeks on the open road, it was time to pull our finger out, complete the east coast without bumping into too many tourists simply doing the smallest of tourist trails and thinking they've actually done australia, get to sydney and sell our bloody campervan with or without our family mice! it was time to do away with australia and cross the pond to new shores and new zealand! however, despite all good intentions, we would not arrive in brisbane as early as we first hoped as we were first got caught up in a traffic jam going into the city - shock horror after so many days and weeks on the road passing only a couple of other cars, vans, or roadtrains a day - and secondly could not, for the life of us, find the road our holiday park was supposedly on, being that it seems brisbane's roads are absolutely messed up, as several locals later told us! thanks for the warning! we must have spent a good hour, once in brisbane, looking for this one road! anyway, once we did find our caravan park, we soon made ourselves at home by going out for an extremely cheap all-you-can-eat buffet indian - maybe, just maybe sean-curry-monster's idea - and a few drinks, where we met a local, city boy and his mate, a guy who once lived right out in the sticks in winton, who told us all about australia and what they did and didn't like about the country and the government and the aboriginal community! they weren't racist, thank god! and it was an entertaining chat, mostly made by the fact that i think they'd both had a few drinks before we met them and so the garb coming out of their mouths was incredibly amusing! anyway, later, when we actually got the chance to literally run for a bus to take us into the city, we discovered it to be a massive metropolis with an extremely cosmopolitan community, filled with towering office blocks dwarfing much older, colonial style churches and buildings now used by universities and the council, and as contemporary art galleries, cafes, restaurants, bars and shops. here, we ran errands and treated ourselves to a drink in a belgian beer cafe, as i particularly like these places rather a lot! anyway, we sent post, we had photos developed and we ran into a rather nasty lady at the quantas office, who obviously hadn't pulled the stick out of her arse that morning and seemed to have the worst attitude with us and only seemed to be there to help us change our flight dates because it wasn't time for her tea break yet! just to say, changing the dates of a flight is a tough one! you don't want to move that date too far forward when you've got a campervan to sell and you don't want to have it kept too far back incase you do sell that campervan of yours on the first day and end up spending a fortune on expensive sydney hostels while you wait for that flight! so, we're a little undecided and yet she just wasn't suffering fools that day and was just plainly abrupt with us, and a big bitch to say the least! yes indeed, i'm afraid we've come across quite a few women who just don't seem to have the time for anyone and in that case really shouldn't be in the people business or working in holiday parks as the most recent ones have! we spent a couple of days in brisbane to recooperate before deciding to head back up into the mountains to visit the lamington and springbrook national parks. unfortunately however, my map reading skills failed us AGAIN and after leaving the freeway, we found ourselves driving parallel with a host of theme parks we didn't need before getting lost in the most obviously only money driven expanse of surburbia with absolutely no character, no road signs, no local shops, no natural landscape, nothing, absolute jack squat! it was the most depressing place in australia we'd ever seen! thankfully, after too long in depressville, we managed to find an escape route out - be it the longest, windyest route - and ended up, extremely high-up in the mountains, surrounded by forest, and making our very slow way into the lamington national park, where we decided to stay at the binna burra mountain lodge and campground. here, we had some of the most spectacular views down into the forest blanket stretching all the way out to the coast and the highly tourist trafficked gold coast, complete with towering office blocks and nightly light pollution! now don't get me wrong, i'm sure if i was only doing the sydney to cairns tour of australia and had all the money in the world to spend on sky-diving and binge drinking alone, rather than campervan repairs and actually seeing the real australia on the road, i'd probably be down there making my own quota of noise and light pollution too, but we didn't come to australia to sky-dive and binge drink, and thinking back to everything we'd experienced on the road, from snorkelling to bushwalking to breaking down and meeting racist mechanics to running into miserable grey nomads who thought they run the show, right then and there i was quite happy up in the mountains, looking down at the gold coast and being judgemental! anyway, while in lamington, we did a couple of rainforest walks, taking in the views, passing by ancient, thick moss covered trees, under black and green, twisty vines, and over moist muddy, leaf covered tracks. we took a few photos, ran into a couple of grey nomad camp settlements and tried to escape the noise of a couple of kids screaming down the place, all before driving back down through the mountain passes to duck into the springbrook national park quick to catch a glimpse of the famed natural bridge and waterfall. now, after seeing one or two natural bridges and waterfalls, they can become a little samey, but this one was pretty cool too! i mean there was the waterfall gushing down brilliantly through the hole behind the natural bridge rock formation, making one hell of a din as the water met the plunge pool below. there were the bats flying around the cave behind the natural bridge, and there were the rainbows being cast across the waterfall. it was brilliant and well worth too many photos all over again! after springbrook, we head into byron bay, where we only managed to spend an hour or so grabbing lunch,
but which seemed very chilled and a place that we both agreed we could
have quite easily spent a few days. byron bay reminded me of pai, in
thailand, in the sense of the clutter of new age shops, bars and
restaurants, and laid-back, dreadlocked wearing hippy types playing
their bongos and possibly twirling their ball socks - you know those
guys i mean! they hang out in camden, london! anyway, after a stroll
through the town, after watching the surf, after dropping a couple
of gold coins into the aboriginal busker's guitar case, and after getting lost again while trying to leave byron bay, it was time to hit the road in a big, big way and bypass all tourist traps along the coastal route for one night in the corindi beach campground, at a steal, before sydney!

sydney...
ok so upon reaching sydney, we were again faced with the big city roads and trying to navigate our way to our prospective caravan park for the night. and again we get lost. so i'm there, walking into a rather posh restaurant, tired and looking a little hot and sweaty in the nooks and crannys, and asking this friendly manager guy if he knows the way to our destination. well, despite my appearance, he seemed very friendly and was much obliged to help out! thankfully, after finally reaching our caravan park, at quite an ungodly hour, the security guard at the park was nice to us too. and so, that night, with the big city lights shining over the harbour waters to the caravan park, we begin the big clean up to get our van in shape for the big sell. and what a mess! our clothes are everywhere! the plastic bags that some of them were once in now appear to have been shred into tiny bits by mother mouse! we have so much food left over that we already know we're going to have to give a whole load of it away to the next lot of people we come across at our last hostel! there's the occasional mouse dropping around the camper that we've never come across! there is just so much packing and cleaning and tidying up that we know we're going to have to ask for a late checkout the next day! luckily, upon first asking the lady behind reception, she seems quite amicable and understands and allows us an extra hour or so to get ourselves together. great! unfortunately, an hour later and we're still not finished and i go back up to see her to ask for another 15 minutes or so and she tells me off infront of a whole quece of grey nomads! clearly ageist this one! she says she thinks we're pushing it and that we've surely had enough time. anyway, i take the 15 minutes and to hell with her and every other women who works in every other caravan park in australia and new zealand! they are crazy, power hungry, control freaks! of what i've seen! anyway, soon enough we're done and entering sydney to try and find the king's cross car market, where we hope to securely park our camper overnight and try to get rid of during the day! sean says when he was in sydney seven years previous it did indeed exist, however, upon driving to it's original location and new locale, and after speaking to other backpackers and locals, it appears as if something might have happened to close down the original car market... and to top it all, the new locale isn't fully up and running and so we're on our own! now we must find a place to park our camper, we must stick up posters in all the hostels and create an award winning gumtree ad to pull in the punters! well, over the next few days, we park the camper in a 24-hour surveillanced carpark and, at great difficulty due to the very great lack of good or even available car parking spaces, on the road before our hostel in order to grab foot traffic, and we make a poster and stick it up everywhere and design an amazing gumtree ad! and everything looks good for us and our van as within a matter of minutes of our poster being up, we receive a call from a couple who turn out to be extremely interested in the camper! they look around, like the van, and later make an offer, but, unfortunately, for our first day's trade, we can't take that offer. sunday and we get absolutely no interest and so have the absolute worst day ever! we both feel down and cannot escape this massive weight on our shoulders to sell the van for a decent enough price and even have enough time to just get down to see the harbour bridge and the opera house. thankfully however, over the next few days, and sitting with our van out on the street, in the sunshine and in the rain, to pick up street traffic, and bringing down our price only slightly on the posters littered around town, we are met by many, many interested parties. some however can't afford our price and we can't accept their offers. some only want the van for a couple of months and so it seems like an extravangance to go with our van when they could buy a cheaper van or rent another. some don't like that it runs on autogas. anyway, days go by and we meet others selling their vans, people who have already sold up and are now relaxing including josh and elicia from canada who seem big into their campervans - perhaps we all become camper geeks after spending so long in one! you become institutionalised to the camper lifestyle! - and others who seem to be spending as much time looking for a suitable box on wheels as us trying to sell ours! finally though, and on day four, sean starts some very definite negotiations via text message and we've got a sale! he has to bring them around to agreeing to our $5000 price tag and them coming to us to pick up the van and them changing the front tyre if that's what they want, but finally at about midnight, they are ours! and the next day i don't even want to go into as both sean and i spent a good three hours with the threesome, who were actually only doing the very short sydney to cairns run, though you'd think from all the questions that they were planning a trip to timbuktu - going over the very detailed ins and outs of the van and trying not to lose the sale! anyway, the story concludes with us very definitely selling our heap of junk van and us being able to finally chill for a couple of days, see the harbour bridge, snap the opera house, check out the hookers in the very open doorways of king's cross, email, send more post, drink, watch out for more of the same hard-working hookers and pack, pack, pack, toss out our tv that sean broke on his last test drive, throw out everything that wouldn't pass through customs, and offer up all food to other fellow backpackers we just couldn't eat! ... and that was australia! i may come back to elaborate on sydney but my time is very much up for this session... i hope you enjoyed reading all about tuna pasta, rice and mice, and all about our bloody campervan, grace, overseen by our tiny aboriginal didgeridoo dude, derek! what will new zealand bring??? more later...! x.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1240515000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1240515000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1240515000/tpod.html Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:57:40 -0400 It's not all about the bloody malaria

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Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand

ok so before i begin, just to explain, i happen to be back on another epic blog session in order to give sean the chance to sleep some more after last night's epic drinking session, and to give me the chance to think of something other than my own hangover and this overwhelming urge i now have to become a sheep and join all the other thrill seekers in town, throwing themselves off of bridges via bungy cord (these i do not trust) or out of planes at 14,000 feet at exhortionate prices! i cannot afford to risk my life at $180 and the rest, however much i currently want to do so! anyway, back to dingo and these mice...

my little mouse story continued...
so here's sean rescuing these tiny mice via (sorry, this is my word for the moment) chopstick and spoon and placing them into a paper towel lined tupparware container, all while we're discussing whether to place the container outside the camper so mummy mouse can follow them out and so leaving us to leave them in dingo OR take them to the local vet, pet shop, australia zoo to look after and risk them laughing us out the door, because god knows why they'd want to take on a bunch of vermin! anyway, so after getting them all into this container and clearing out the under seat cupboard, where we discover this amazingly constructed nest of ripped up plastic bag shards and pieces of foam insulation from under the front driver and passenger seats, we decide to place the container back under the seat while we cook and eat dinner. best get our priorities straight! after which, we'd hoped to look back under the seat to discover them all still in the container, however when coming back to look under the seat, we discover that half of them have actually gone! yes, GONE! mummy mouse has obviously not abandoned her babies, like we'd first thought, and has been back to rescue them from our makeshift nest in an effort to take them elsewhere in the van, where they cannot be disturbed by us. this is when sean pipes up to say that he thinks that when i found them all scattered under the seat, she must have been halfway through taking them up into the inner depths of the van, inaccessible to us, and i must have disturbed her thus explaining why we could only find six of the seven mice when we first started rescuing them! anyway, so they have gone, but where, we don't know! so that night, all we can do is wonder, avoid the toads at the toilets, and sleep! the next morning and we're back on the road, still unsure where the mice have gone, whether they've left the van for good or whether they're all quite happy, up in the roof, eating their breakfasts and watching the morning news, we'll never know! next, we're heading to the coast and rockhampton, where we hope to get our van fixed for good and maybe see what the town has on offer!

so rockhampton...
the so-called beef capital of australia, evident by the fibre glass cows dotted around town, and the first place we stop where we can really feel that tourist presence. you must remember that western australia is still relatively quiet in terms of the number of tourists travelling up and down it's tourist trail and so there weren't hoards of tourists around and there weren't hundreds of sleep options available, whereas over in the east and in queensland and new south wales, there are literally hundreds of thousands of tourists entering the country everyday, plodding up and down the trail meaning a lot more traffic, many, many more campervans all over the place, hundreds of sleep options etc etc, all of which came as a real surprise - to me especially as i'd never been to australia before - being that after western australia, we hadn't come into contact with many tourists, or for that matter many people, while driving for all those days right through the barren plains of south australia and the northern territories. anyway, here in rockhampton, we get our van fixed (we have done the same job as we had done before in perth) in just a matter of hours and at half the price quoted by our perth dodgy dealer all those months ago! and the town isn't all that - a cluster of colonial buildings surrounded by the modern and several streets of either derelict or industrial sized buildings - so we wander about while our camper is in the mechanics, hoping that he can get the work done today so that we don't have to opt to sleep in the camper in the forecourt of the garage as suggested by our friendly, biker-style mechanic! anyway, thankfully, after a few hours wandering and emailing and eating subway sandwiches, we arrive back at the mechanics to discover all is well and so we're able to drive away, check in at a local holiday park, and finish off the evening celebrating st paddies day at an irish pub, where the two rooms battle for sound quality control via a juke box playing an array of rnb and hiphop and the two-piece band on stage! and just a final note to self. our caravan park, which sat on the edge of the river running through the town and which apparently has seen the odd croc walk through it on the odd occasion, was discovered to actually be run by the same company that runs the margaret river caravan park we stayed in, where those bitches of eastwick live - remember? - and yet the guy who helped us out here was actually rather nice! strange! i'll explain more later, but from speaking to those women and more since, and this guy at the rockhampton park, i definitely think the women who run the caravan parks are not nice people! a major generalisation, you might think, but i'm sticking to it! we really have had some nasty run-ins with the women who run the caravan parks, of late, with their bad attitudes and meanness oozing from every pore! anyway...!

bundaberg...
after leaving rockhampton, hangovers in check, we head south for bundaberg. home of ginger beer and a rum guzzling polar bear! and i'm afraid i can't really remember the drive down, apart from the stretches of land just outside the town. here, where the farmers' fields meet the road, vast expanses of land covered in sugar cane plantations and ginger root - if that's the right terminology to use! an amazing sight, and it felt like being back in southeast asia again! anyway, again the town wasn't super, with only the main high street showing any promise, while all others were littered with industry sized takeaway houses and showrooms selling everything from cars to tiles to carpets to baby goods and pet food! anyway, while in town, and while the dark and gloomy weather showed no chance of improving to allow us to head over to bargara, where we'd heard you could go snorkelling from right off the shore (like in coral bay), we decided to visit 'the barrel', home of ginger beer, and the bundaberg rum distillery. so 'the barrel' was cool! it was like a mini, child-friendly, educational tour displaying the history of ginger beer making from the time when the first australians made the beer in their homes and sheds, through to today when more science and technology is applied to the process. the museum section of the tour was full of touch screen tvs and blind testings and buttons to press and handles to pump etc etc, and a 3D theatre show performed by a yeast particle and bee! that was interesting! really childish! actually the whole place was probably more for kids than adults, but we got our entry practically free due to a voucher so we thought 'why not?'! after exiting the tour, we were allowed a tester of all the products the factory makes, which was... tasty! afterwards we head across town to the rum distillery, where we took a walk through their extremely detailed museum, practically filled from floor to ceiling with displays telling you all about everything that has ever happened at the distillery, during the last 100 years! i'm telling you, on every wall there was something to read! i got quite bored to be honest and did think that maybe the more childish, hands on ginger beer tour was more for me! however, i shouldn't really bad mouth this part of the distillery tour because there were some fake vats, pumping through fake water and yeast and everything else that goes through to make rum, as well as displays of the impliments used to make one of the giant vats that stores the rum during the maturation period, as well as cases filled with the different style bottles, labels, boxes and posters used to contain and market the rum during the last century. after completing the museum tour, we were taken around the actual distillery, where we were first taken into a gigantic shed, filled to the brim with a mixture of water and molases, and which absolutely stunk! next, we were walked through a plant filled with metal tanks, where the next stage of rum making takes place, where all the crap is filtered away and the alcohol is played around with to make a better proof of rum. i wish i could say more about these processes and what we were told, however i can't really say too much just simply because distilling and fermentation and maturation has always confused me, however many times sean has tried to explain these techniques, in the context of wine making. last, we were shown the giant vats where they store the rum before bottling and told just how much the whole factory and rum making business was worth! anyway, the tour was very informative and very personal being that we were on the last one for the day so there only being a four of us tourists. finally, before hometime, we were taken into the distillery bar, where we were allowed a couple of drinks each. ah, so that's where all the money for the tour ticket goes! afterwards, after a stroll through the gift shop filled with pencils, stubby holders, hats, tops, flipflops, beach towels, gift boxes, badges, postcards, personalised bottles, pool cues etc etc etc, we realised that there was no hope of ever getting to go snorkelling and so we head south to maryborough, home of the creator of mary poppins!

maryborough...
a mary poppins statue photo op!

a major detour after a major cyclone threat stops play...
so after maryborough, we had hoped to be able to drive right down to the water's edge and the teeny, tiny township of 1770 for more sun, sea, sand, and smaller snorkelling opportunities - we now have no money to be able to afford the exhortionate piss-up parties aboard the great barrier reef tourist pontoons - however a visit to an information centre and a weather warning unfortunately means us having to change route once more, away and inland, where we may well get a little bored, but at least we won't get wiped out by a cyclone! anyway, after getting very upset at this major detour, we decide that actually all is not lost just yet, and that at least before the cyclone strikes there is still time for one last destination along the coast, and drive down to rainbow beach.

PS, MY APOLOGIES IF NONE OF THIS BLOG TODAY MAKES SENSE, BUT THE GALLONS OF ORANGE JUICE HAVE STILL NOT ERADICATED THIS HANGOVER OF MINE AND THERE IS A BACKDROP OF REALLY LOUD, BANGING MUSIC AND A LOUD LADY AT THE DESK NOW PREVENTING ME FROM CONCENTRATING! GROOVY! I HATE INTERNET CAFES! : (

and that's me done! i cannot do anymore in this crappy internet cafe! more later...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1240419600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1240419600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1240419600/tpod.html Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:30:21 -0400 It's not all about the bloody malaria

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Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand

hot choc with m&m (mike and madelene - the canadians we met in mckinlay) and disturbingly cheap drinks in the buffalo club courtesy of our hostel 2 for 1 key! no bungy jumping or thrill seeking for us i'm afraid!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1240333200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1240333200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1240333200/tpod.html Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:25:52 -0400 It's not all about the bloody malaria

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Te Anau, South Island, New Zealand

arrival in te anau 12.30ish
hostel run to find a bed for the night 12.30 - 12.50ish
crazy idea strikes to conquer milford sound in one day alone 12.55ish
run to info centre to learn about milford sound tours 1.00
speed to milford sound 1.20 - 2.57
arrive at boat terminal 2.58
miss boat 3.00
catch next boat 3.15
tour the sound, gaze up at mountains, waterfalls and out to the open seas... 3.15 - 4.45
arrive back at car 5.00
drive back to te anau behind a sunday driver 5.15 - 7.15
miss opportunity to bypass te anau to head straight to queenstown so check in 7.30...

more details of our great one day adventure later...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1240101000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1240101000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1240101000/tpod.html Mon, 20 Apr 2009 02:53:03 -0400 It's not all about the bloody malaria

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Invercargill, South Island, New Zealand

monday april 20...
so, after many, many days of doing absolutely everything in the east and south of the south island of new zealand, we now find ourselves with a couple of days in invercargill to do absolutely nothing. woohoo! now, where was i?

wycliffe well...
... was a one night stopover, half-way up the stewart highway, between alice springs and tennant creek. wycliffe well, described by the locals and the lonely planet as the 'ufo capital of australia', had certainly put in a great deal of effort into making sure no-one went away from the campground not believing that they took their claim to fame seriously. i'm telling you, it was the most highly decorated park we'd ever stayed in. i mean, before you even got into the holiday park itself, you were welcomed at the roadhouse petrol pumps by a family of fully sized, bright green alien statues and a wall mural of alien beings and spaceships and the entire galaxy! quite impressive! once passed the park gates, there were then dustbins that took the form of bright blue space monsters, and maliens and femaliens painted on the outside wall of the toilet block, and cowboy aliens fooling around with the local cowboy community painted on the fences, and a giant statue of elvis! and in the tv and games room, each of the four walls inside made up part of a surrounding day / nightscape of the northern territories, so depicting ayers rock, the olgas, kings canyon, alice springs and the devils marbles. it was absolutely amazing and must have taken forever, it was that detailed! there was also a holiday park train and a watering hole, emus and plenty of caged birds. oh, and before i forget, all we were able to get tuned in on the tv that night was an episode of doctor who! weird! anyway, that was wycliffe well! brilliantly decorated with alien beings all over the place, but unfortunately - or perhaps not so - we were not visited by any real aliens that night!

the devil's marbles...
the next morning, after a short drive north, we stopped off for a quick walk around the devil's marbles. a great collection of huge, circular rocks created after thousands, even millions, of years of weather beating at the softer, surrounding earth, so leaving behind the harder earth in the form of these gigantic pebbles. some balanced atop others somewhat precariously, some were split in half leaving room for us to walk through them, some had been left vandalised by the passing traffic, but all were huge and really looked like a bunch of the devil's marbles.

tennant creek and the threeways roadhouse...
after a couple of hours more driving through the barren wilderness, we arrived at the town of tennant creek, where, locals had told us previous, there had supposedly been riots and that it really wasn't a great idea for us to go staying in the town. however, upon reaching and pretty much driving through the town, which just seemed like yet another characterless backwater - unless you chose to stop there to explore their gold mining history - the whole place looked relatively peaceful. the most disturbing part about passing through was that we discovered that none of the bottle shops were open to be able to pick up a case of beer. now, this had been the case on the last morning in alice springs. we had thought that maybe it had been a case of licensing laws preventing the bottle shops from opening their doors too early, but we did wonder if it might be down to more sinister reasons than that, in the form of the aboriginal community?! now, i'm no racist, but it did cross our minds whether the bottle shops just remained close for longer to prevent any aboriginals coming into them too early, so starting drinking too early in the day, so causing trouble early? i don't know. i'm no australian, but listening to some of them talk about their fellow neighbours and how they spend their days drinking and shouting and burning out cars, perhaps keeping the bottle shops closed is just the australian community's way of stopping the aboriginals drinking too much, too early. it's a very delicate subject and i'm likely to have offended so many people already, so i'll stop now. after driving through tennants creek, our next planned stop was at the threeways roadhouse to have a tuna sandwich lunch and to check the camper over before making our way east into queensland. but, with the roadhouse only metres into the distance, we were signalled to stop and pull over by patrolling police so that they could give sean a breath test and routine check of the van for any damage or any sign that proved the van to be unroadworthy. i hate police! sorry my friend sarah! it's just that they've always made me feel guilty about something even when i know i haven't done anything wrong! i think it all stems back to that day at first school when my class was visited by a policeman and i remember sitting at his feet and looking up at this giant authoritarian cop. that day we were shown how to take finger prints, and to this day i've always believed they might just still have those test sheets sitting in a drawer somewhere, on tap to reveal to us if any one of us decides to rob a bank or kill someone or commit some terrible terrorist act?! as it happens, on that day at the threeways roadhouse, sean passed his test and the van was fine, apparently! all apart from the tinted lining stuck to the bottom of our front window, which they asked us to get removed by a garage. we managed to peel it off ourselves at no extra cost a few stops later. anyway, the police waved us on our way, and everything was top except for the fact that they'd left me with a massive great chip on my shoulder AGAIN relating to the belief that everyone is against you while you're travelling!

camooweal...
so, for the rest of that day, after heading east from the threeways roadhouse towards queensland, we continued our drive through barren scrubland until, somewhat unexpectedly, the red earth, scratchy grasses and spikey trees were replaced by huge fields of lush, green grass, wheat and herds of black and white cows! what a change! the weather changed too, with the sun making a swift departure leaving only a dense blanket of dark grey, miserable rain clouds, thunder and lightning and a singular rainbow of hope that everything was going to be ok and that this wasn't the end of the world as squads of suicide grasshoppers leapt up into the air, hitting the bottom of our engine with several almightly clonks; our windscreen wipers and bullbar; all leaving one hell of a modern art mess to be cleaned up later! anyway, onto camooweal... after the sun set and after arriving in queensland 'sunshine state' - despite the ever present threat of rain - we had to find a place to sleep for the night and that place was the post office hotel motel in camooweal, a nowhere, drive through town, with some of the most outright locals in the country! after plugging the van in, we decided after the endless day we'd had that it might be nice to step out for a cheap, homemade meal courtesy of our home for the night, and so that is what we did. after paying for our powered site, we ordered a couple of cheap beers from the hotel motel bar; what would turn out to the biggest plate of fish and chips, potato, swede, peas and tartar sauce in the world; and the kiev dinner for sean. after polishing off what we could of our meals, bearing in mind that the aussies can feed and they can eat, we decided to settle down for one or two more beers before bed. this is when we met the locals! the bar manager himself, the local, openly racist mechanic, and his eccentric, worldly wise, and slightly embarrassed friend, an ex-englander from farnborough. and i'm afraid if she did give us her name, i've certainly forgotten it, partly because this all happened some weeks ago now, and because we talked so much, that i'm not sure there's even space in my brain to remember it. anyway, several hours were spent that night talking about southampton and england and where we'd travelled and where she'd travelled; listening to the bar manager talk about the tax on beer and the aboriginal drinking habits and music; and listening to the racist mechanic slag off the aboriginals - at one stage, he even said something at the exact moment that an aboriginal girl walked out off the bar, which we think might have been on purpose - and get gradually more drunk and start staring at us like he wasn't too amused by us! oh yes, i'm sure there are many, many aussies (and kiwis, as it happens, after a chance encounter with one such pom-hater, the other night) - that hate the english! anyway, as for our night in camooweal, it wasn't all that bad and was rather pleasant actually, especially after eccentric lady got all excited about us coming across from hampshire and thus bought us a drink to welcome us to the country, even with racist guy shooting his mouth off about the thais and the vietnam war and the aboriginals and the bloody poms visiting their country, which you can make of it what you will! 'their' country indeed! note to self, must remember to send a postcard from southampton to eccentric!

mount isa, conclurry, mckinlay...
the next day, we continued our drive east through lush green grasses and pastures new and rolling hills and cloudy ranges towards the coast. however, enroute there was a dripping inside the van, by our feet, and dangerously close to electrics meaning a stop-off in the extremely industrialised super huge town of mount isa, where a mechanic told us 'no worries' to our air-con probs and after flushing out a pipe or two for zilch money, we were back on our way before a quick stop at macdonalds - yes, i want to live a cheap existence now, but sometimes you just have to have a macdonalds - where sean and i got into a stupid fight about the macdonalds experience! here's how it went... i like to go in, keep back, think about what i want, and inevitably always head to the counter to order the same, cheeseburger, medium fries and a medium diet coke. well, considering our budget and him not being too hungry but thirsty, there was all sorts of bother at the counter about him maybe wanting some of my fries and perhaps the coke being made into a milkshake if i didn't even want a drink, and this was all going on while we were stood infront of this asian lady behind the counter, and it felt like we were back in southeast asia as she just looked at me bemused, and i probably made a fool of myself, and together we totally ruined the macdonalds experience! so, when i get home, i am so going for a macdonalds all on my own just to get back what i lost that day! anyway, afterwards, we head off in search of cheap autogas before setting off again towards the coast. however, detour no. two was to strike as the engine started making funny clicking noises - think about when you were a kid and you attached pieces of paper to the spokes on your bike wheels and the 'clacking' sound the paper made - meaning a stop-off in conclurry, another small drive-through town, where another mechanic checked out the engine and discovered that one of our mechanics in perth had done a job we'd paid to have done, but had failed to attach several screws back into place correctly, meaning parts of the engine had loosened so causing the flapping sound and erosion in the parts so meaning we would have to have the whole job done over! GREAT! I'M SO FRICKING HAPPY TO HEAR MORE GREAT CAMPERVAN NEWS! CAN ANYTHING ELSE GO WRONG? HOW MUCH IS THIS GONNA COST US? you can imagine! anyway, so mechanic man says he'll tighten the screws so nothing else can go wrong between now and getting the whole job redone, and only for the cost of a case of beer, which we have to go out and get for him. no money, just beer! you wouldn't get it back in england! so we do this, the flapping continues, but we're back on the road and back on our way towards the coast. until detour no. three happens in the form of a road sign highlighting the fact that the main highway that we want to take is back up and running but that road users must take care, meaning that there'd probably been a flood and the road wasn't perfect yet and that the weather still wasn't great, and so after a phonecall to townsville, where we hoped to stay next, we decided to 'flip the coin' so to speak and change direction and head further into queensland's outback. our detour would mean having to cut out one hell of a chunk of the coastline, but it would guarantee us a chance to perhaps stalk down one of sean's old friends in longreach and stop-off at the world famous walkabout hotel as featured in the croc dundee films! woohoo! so, mckinlay? the lonely planet reads that without the famous pub, mckinlay would have been 'no more' many years previous due to there being only a handful of people resident in the blip-of-a-hamlet. but, there continues to be the pub and a roadhouse and so there continues to be travellers and truckers passing through to take pix and pies! so anyway, apart from visiting and staying in a tiny gravelly campground behind the pub, with the hottest, most uncomfortable shower blocks ever, while here, and while being warned about a snake passing through the grasses, we met a couple who happened to work for the school of the air organisation, which, from a central base broadcasts live lessons out to pupils situated in the outback, who are unable to reach an actual school due to the sheer distances between towns and the sparseness of the population throughout australia. the couple told us that they'd applied for fieldwork positions meaning they got the opportunity to actually visit some of the pupils part of the scheme, and take to them worksheets and games to play, and create a similar classroom experience, if only small scale. after meeting the school of the air-ers, we met a couple of canadians, who, after being stranded in southeast asia due to cancelled flights, decided to do a short tour of australia and new zealand. that night, we gathered together for a few nights on the veranda of the walkabout pub, to talk about the aboriginals, the school of the air, the outback, the native americans, campervans, travelling around southeast asia, and tubing - still a major highlight of the trip for me, even after everything we've been through and done! if only we'd risked taking a camera down the river, in a dry bag, to capture the whole, wet and weird experience!

longreach...
the next morning following another long conversation with the canadians and a long convoy stalk to winton, where that dude - sorry, can't remember his name - once sang 'waltzing matilda', sean and i left the canadians to pass through a long stretch of lush, green outback, similar to the countryside between towns in southeast asia, to reach longreach, where we hoped to track down sean's old friend shannon, who he hadn't spoken to since last being in australia, seven years previous. longreach is a largish outback town filled with a mix of old and new buildings, an old train station that rarely sees any passenger traffic, a cluster of old pubs or hotels as the aussies call them, and an old water tower that dominates the longreach night skyline. upon arriving in longreach and checking in at the very same campground that sean stayed in during his time before, we wandered into the centre of town to stock up on dinner and begin our search for shannon, after sean thought he saw someone who looked like his old mate slide into the local butcher. that night, we wandered down to shannon's local in the hope that he might be in there, if he wasn't out working the local fields, hunting down kangaroos. unfortunately he wasn't there, but there were many a local who were intrigued to know just the hell we were, despite none - bar one - of them actually coming up to speak to us, in favour of adopting the tactic of simply staring at us in bewilderment! that wasn't great, and was bizarre to think perhaps they'd never seen an outsider, bearing in mind that, i think, all of the girls behind the bar were from wales and making the most of their working visas. anyway, the next day, we continued our hunt by visiting the road where shannon used to live with his parents, in the hope that sean might recognise the correct house and be able to post a note through the letterbox. unfortunately however, this particular house was nowhere to be seen and so it appeared as if sean might have to go back to the drawing board, until i suggested he up the ante and actually ask a neighbour or two about shannon's whereabouts. this didn't go down so well with sean as he believed people might be a little cagey with us, thinking us to be anyone, the police, the CIA, the FIB, as would be the case if you asked after someone in suspicious england! however, there did happen to be someone out gardening at the time and so sean took the opportunity, and amazingly it paid off! mr gardener himself didn't know anyone called shannon, but asked next door and his neighbour just happened to work for shannon and had his phone number, which he gave sean, who called shannon, and before we knew it, he was calling around the campground for a quick chat! for the next couple of hours, the three of us talked about australia and back home and the outback and shannon's kangaroo 'boning' - technical term used in the business - and family life. later, he would invite us around to his house for a sunday get-together, the next day. as it happens, we joined him and his wife shannon (not joking) - and their three crazy dogs - at their house for a few drinks, but the get-together was at their friend's house. oh, so that's why the two of them, and their housemate, each popped off to get washed and dressed. oops! luckily, the couple who were hosting the sunday roast didn't mind too much that shannon had invited us, or at least they didn't show it, and fed us well. now, i think shannon and shannon must have told them the plan as they had cooked up a lot of food. there were two huge chunks of roast pork and lamb served up, two different bakes, platefuls of veggies, jugs of steaming hot gravy, all followed by an oozing chocolate pudding and squirty cream and apple jaffles - like an apple turnover, waffle. YUM! and you can imagine! after so many nights on the tuna pasta and sausage rice, a roast really was the order of the day! after dropping us off, shannon asked us to stay around for a couple more days, and i know we would have loved to, to keep talking to them about australia, maybe go out on a kangaroo hunt, maybe go out fishing on the river or play around with their dogs - especially their beautifully, ugly pug dog - but unfortunately we had to keep on the move as there was sun, sea, sand and snorkelling on the horizon... or so we had hoped. i'm afraid rain was soon to stop play. muh!

the long drive to dingo...
after leaving longreach, we faced the long drive east on the capricorn highway to dingo, through some tiny places, for example ilfracombe lined with old farming equipment; barcaldine filled with old tin roofed, wood veranda-ed pubs; alpha where i stubbed my big toe on a concrete bollard causing the world to go all black and white on me, meaning my almost fainting in the nowhere township; through such places as sapphire and emerald where gem mining goes on, and onwards through bluff and onto dingo, where vast amounts of coal mining appears to take place, and two such drive-through towns, which sean thought looked like they should be in the middle of america somewhere due to their wide streets, brightly lit neon takeout and coca cola signs! finally reaching dingo after sunset, we pitched up in a dark campground, sean went for a shower, and while gone i discovered mother mouse - you know from coral bay - had given birth to a family of six - later to become seven - baby mice! nice! all this meaning that once sean returned, discovered that the baby news meant mother mouse and not me, there was the task was rescuing them from a messy underseat cupboard, filled to the brim with dvds, jumpers, christmas lights, snorkels etc. so, with chopstick and spoon in hand, brave sean reached into the depths of the cupboard to pluck each scrawny, blind, kidney bean sized rodent out from where they lie, which happened to be in every corner of the cupboard. a couple were wriggling around on my pai santa hat, another was sleeping in the crease of a jumper, another was jammed between two dvds! you get the picture! poor lancelin! oh yeah, they had names, given to them after all the places we'd already visited through australia - cervantes, poor little lancelin, yardie, wycliffe, coober and alice! we never gave baby mouse no. seven a name as we didn't know about him at the time. he still doesn't have a name, unless the threesome who bought our campervan off us have discovered them and taken them under their wing! though i doubt it very much! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!

anyway, this story goes on for another couple of chapters so i'll leave you there and speak soon. me x.
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Kaka Point, South Island, New Zealand

the swedes have shower sex! what more can i say?! details later in an xxx-rated-not-for-my-parents'-eyes sealed section!
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Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand

here, we watched sealions cavort and penguins prance, and got thrown out by another holiday park madam, after she thought a midnight game of 'shithead' was inappropriate! again, not impressed with the women at these camps!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1239753600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1239753600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1239753600/tpod.html Sun, 19 Apr 2009 23:21:19 -0400 It's not all about the bloody malaria

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Twizel, South Island, New Zealand

so after an extremely long day bushwalking, all we were after was a nice, cheap, basic cabin with fully equipped communal kitchen, some plates and pots and pans. could the first lady help us? NO! would she allow us to use her phone so we could look for somewhere else to stay? NO! das bitch! it was late! i was not happy! more later... by the way, i am not slagging off the parklands place where we eventually stayed, no. the man who helped us out there with a bed for the night was the nicest man ever!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1239221700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1239221700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1239221700/tpod.html Mon, 13 Apr 2009 03:14:19 -0400 It's not all about the bloody malaria

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Akaroa, South Island, New Zealand

so in reality, we are now in akoroa, which feels like the coldest place on earth right now, thus explaining why i'm in an internet cafe rather than exploring the most french town in new zealand! while in 'blog land', we are currently in the ulura kata-jutu national park, which appeared to be the warmest place on earth at the time! anyway, i only have 20 minutes before my only sodding $2 coin runs out so i'd better get a move on! so, sean and i had decided on that day that we'd try and tackle the whole of the olgas site and the base walk of ayer's rock in just one day, which is about 17km in total, meaning we should have got up at the crack of dawn to start out before the midday sun got too high and thus too hot, but instead, being us and really quite lazy, we didn't leave the campground until at least after midday, meaning the whole experience was going to be one of sheer hell out in that sun! anyway, after a short drive from the campground, we were at the pay booth, where we were given information sheets and directions to the visitor's centre. so we'd met a couple in coober pedy who'd told us that we could easily spend a day in the centre, learning about the aboriginals, but really, after a short stroll around the centre, which was very informative and interesting, i have to say i don't know how anyone could spend a day in there, when surely you've paid to go see the real sites of the park - the olgas and ayer's rock. so after possibly wasting a little too much time in there, we head out for quite some time, through the scrub, to the olga's carpark, which was absolutely crammed to the rafters with all number of fellow campervanners, posh 4x4s, scores of cars, truck loads of western exposure types, and even more japanese tourists! great! i just love the tourist trail! we jump out of our battered camper to be beat down by the harsh sun's rays! it's maybe only about 1pm and already it's far too hot to do anything comfortably, and yet here we are caking ourselves in sun tan lotion and...

... my money must have run out!

continued in lake tekapo, easter monday
... donning the stupid hats, and loading ourselves up with water bottles and crisps and apples galore, to get us round! we should have been up hours ago to be able to do this walk at a comfortable time of the day, but we are lazy, lazy, lazy! anyway, so we're about to tackle this walk in the blazing heat, and only a few degrees cooler than the olga's 'shut down' temperature, when it's just too hot for anyone to walk around the site! so the olgas 'valley of the winds' walk takes you around the base of the olgas, which are a massive collection of gigantic rocky peaks, rising out of the ground, creating green valleys and red and orange gorges and slopes amidst them, to walk between and clamber over and get totally lost in! well, you'd like to, but there seems to be a very definite pathway through them and, in that heat, it really wouldn't be a great idea to get lost and go for a bushwalk away from the path! anyway, so the walk starts at a boardwalk, most probably put in place to create that false sense of security so to encourage tourists to walk on, despite the reality being that, very soon, the boardwalk will disappear leaving only a rocky climb up a steep slope to some magnificient views over the valleys, and a drop down to the base of a couple of olga 'heads', which actually resemble a horizontal pair of breasts, sticking up into the air! after the breasts, the track took us deep within the towering olgas and behind several, to the only shady spot on the walk, which seemed inundated with other european, japanese and grey tourists, desperate to escape the heat, while still being able to stop a while to take many a photo of the olgas dwarfing us, and the green valleys, stretching ahead of us. after a brief stop, we head forward once more, this time away from this particular set of olgas, which had given us so much protection from the sun up until now, into what seemed like the longest track of bushland, heading far, far, beyond the olgas before skirting back inward to our starting off point. during this torturous walk, there were many stops for breath and warm water, and to take photos of the scrubland and other olga peaks, another of which resembled an ice bun. actually, at this stage, let me say that ayer's rock surprised me immensely, when i came to discover that it does not resemble a very large ice bun! anyway, finally, after what seemed like an eternity, we arrived back at the breast peaks and a water bottle filling station, providing the coolest water we'd had all day, bearing in mind that our warm water bottle could have made a luke warm cup of tea by this stage in the day! after climbing back up the rocky hill and passed packs of japanese and american tourists on guided tours, we arrived back at the van, just in time to have a tuna sandwich before we had just enough time for a stop off at the 'sunset carpark' for that photo, which everyone takes of themselves standing next to the rock to prove that they've been there and they've done that, before making our way to the base of ayer's rock to start our second walk of the day. by this time, it must have been about 4pm and the last of the walkers / tour groups were just about starting their walks around the base of the rock, or climbing up ayer's rock despite everything said via the many leaflets, guidebooks and signposts acknowledging the aboriginals want for no-one to climb the rock out of respect for them and their rock! ah well, i guess they must have missed that sign at the base! and i suppose it goes without saying that we did not climb! and in an attempt to get away from the crowds, we walked in the opposite direction to everyone else, around the base, missing out plenty of people until we reached a natural watering hole in a crevice at the base and 'teaching area' covered in aboriginal markings, where hundreds of japanese tourists just happened to have landed to crowd in to learn more. actually, while i am talking about crevices in the rock's base, i guess it should be at this stage that i go onto explain how ayer's rock does not resemble a giant ice bun! i guess the shape of the rock, at least seen from the sky, looks more like a large animal dropping than an ice bun, certainly long and oval, but without the perfectly smooth sides of an ice bun and rather jagged like a dropping! anyway, also, walking around the rock, you do not follow a perfect oval track, but rather at times head into crevices in the rock, while at other times it feels like you are walking around the south side, for example, for a much longer time that you did for the north side, suggesting a fatter end to the rock at that end... if that makes any sense?! anyway, after our run in with the japanese tourist packs, we head further on and away from everyone, and after seeing the time, realised that perhaps we'd timed our walk around the base a little incorrectly, therefore explaining why the base walk now happened to be so quiet, because at any time the sun might just be about to set and so everyone's actually at the 'sunset carpark' waiting for the sun to set and for the changing of the colours of the rock, rather than still plodding on as we were now doing! anyway, so despite a little running towards the end of the walk, passing several spiritually significant points in the rock - one resembling a pair of lungs - we never did reach the carpark to see the sunset, but what we did get to see might just have been as magnificient. so, we're still walking around the base of ayer's rock, the sun has now set, the moon is now up, and i am now thinking that soon we won't be able to see any of the rock, but instead it appears to give off an even richer red shade. no-one is around. everything is silent. the wolf creek killer could jump out of a bush at any minute, but the atmosphere is too good to worry about such trivial matters! instead, with absolute quiet, no stupid tourist groups around, we were able to walk around the last section of the walk, looking up at the now intensely burnt red rock, in total peace! we are sure that very few bother to stick around after sunset to get to see ayer's rock as it then stood and so felt very privileged indeed! it did indeed rock! god, sorry, that is so cheesy! and that was our day at ayer's rock!!! that night, we decided to celebrate our anniversary and completing the national park in just one day with a few cheap pints at one of the resort bars, but it turned out that even one or two pints would later hit us hard! indeed, after walking maybe 17kms in one day, now slightly dehydrated and with aching legs, our celebratory pints really did seem to hit us for six and we must have slept soundly that night! after leaving the ayer's rock resort the next day, we had to make our way back up north to alice springs, once more, meaning yet another drive up from the erldunda roadhouse, passed the camel farm again, and onto alice, but at least this would finally be our last drive up! we stayed once again at the heavitree gap caravan park, and during our stay we took in just the tiniest section of the east macdonnel ranges by visiting emily's gap, home of several aboriginal markings telling the story of how a giant caterpillar once emerged from the land and crawled across the earth so creating the ranges! after alice springs, we head north, not sure how much land we would be able to cover that day or where we would be staying for the night. that day, we crossed burt's creek, and stopped at the aileron roadhouse, home to a giant sculpture of an aboriginal warrior. here, at the roadhouse, were swarms of aboriginal men, women and children huddled under trees. i didn't think much of the scenario at the time, but a little further down the road, we passed signs at the entrances of several aboriginal communities, acknowledging the prohibition of alcohol and pornography. sean understood that perhaps all these aboriginal folk were hanging around the roadhouse, just drinking, because they aren't allowed alcohol back at their homes. anyway, much further on from the roadhouse, across yet more barren red earth and patchy scrubland, we stopped at the barrow creek tavern, close to where, we'd been told by the kulgera guys, the wolf creek killer based murderer had struck! not true however, as we were soon to learn courtesy of the friendly guy behind the bar! yes, upon entering the tavern, adorned with international tees, passport photos and messages from tourists from all over the world, said friendly man behind the bar asked if we'd heard of the wolf creek killer! 'of course', i said! he's my hero! yeah right! i'd feared another break down on the drive up north ever since we'd left alice springs earlier that day! anyway, he told us that the wolf creek killer didn't even exist, in the way that we'd been made aware via the film, in the form of some crazy living outback near the wolf creek meteor site, and infact that story and the character had actually been based on events and people across the country. the kulgera guys had been correct in mentioning barrow creek however, in the fact that the barrow creek tavern had been the place where rebecca lees had been brought after being discovered cowering behind a bush beside the road. as everyone who watches the news knows, her story goes that some psycho killed her boyfriend peter, but that she was able to escape his clutches, before being brought to the barrow creek tavern where she was looked after. now, said friendly man says he wasn't there when lees was brought in but that his boss was, and that he took great care of her, while her book says nothing about the kindness and generosity of the tavern, and now they are very upset that she supposedly went through all this hell, didn't say thanks to them, and is now perhaps a millionaire while they aren't really cashing in on the whole story at all. actually, he did say that they had spoken about dragging a ute out of a ditch and parking it up by the side of the road and charging people to have their photo taken with the killer's car, but that nothing had deteriorated as of yet, but i'm thinking they should definitely do it! if not that then they could try survival postcards or t-shirts, saying something like 'my sister survived the wolf creek killer and all she got me was this lousy tee'! i dunno! anyway, after taking a few photos of all these tourist escapees, and of their messages on the walls, and after saying thanks to friendly man for his story and surviving barrow creek, we finally head north to what would turn out to be our final destination for the night, wycliffe well, ufo capital of australia! oh yeah, the territories aren't weird at all...
... and my money is about to run out so i'd best disappear for a while and let someone else have a go! more later!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1239496200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1239496200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vickz_2/1/1239496200/tpod.html Mon, 13 Apr 2009 02:54:02 -0400 It's not all about the bloody malaria

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Geraldine, South Island, New Zealand

grey nomads galore, walks in the wood, craft fairs, farmers' markets, pints at the village inn, drunk, racist pom-hating kiwis, warming stews and cheap fish 'n' chips!
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