I've decided to post some journal entries from my travels in New Zealand for the benefit of those who won't get see the pictures or talk with me about it. Mind you, this is not a narrative meant to explain everything about New Zealand and my time there, only a reproduction of what I thought was worth putting into my own journal. Enjoy, post any questions as comments and I'll respond as soon as I can.
November 13th, the Blue Mountains
After being picked up at the hostal the tour bus picked up a few final passengers and went to our first stop in the Olympic Park. We didn't see much more than the 110,000 seat stadium. I found out there that our bus driver has been to Portland a few times while driving a bus for a band that toured up and down the west coast! After that we visited an aboriginal rock carving - turns out the aboriginals are treated probably as bad if some worse as the Native Americans were treated.
So the reason they are called the Blue Mountains is that the eucalyptus trees in the area create an excess amount of oil, and it evaporates of their leaves and hangs low in the atmosphere, creating a blue-ish haze. So nice sights to see in the mountains and on the ferry ride back in. Rode the steepest rail train in the world - 52 degrees! I'd compare it to northern Arizona for a similar landscape.
November 14th and 15th - Sydney
Made a nice end to my trip by meeting up with a couple of old architecture friends from the University of Idaho. This was their last stop on a 2 week tour of Oz. I hadn't seen K in years, since graduation! We met in hyde park and then I took them on a quick night tour of the harbor and the rocks. We found a cool Portuguese restaurant and had a nice dinner and some drinks. It was some of the tastiest food I've had this whole trip, but to be fair I hadn't tried any of the local Thai places yet.
We ended up grabbing a bottle of wine on the way back to their hostal and stayed up til like 3am catching up and talking about travels. I finally made the walk back to my place by 3:30 - a mere two hours before I was supposed to be woken up by my alarm.
Of course I slept through it.
And missed my flight.
So I booked one for the next morning (fortunately I had a spare day in my schedule so I wasn't going to miss my big flight back to LA) and decided to stick it out in the airport for the night for 2 reasons: first that I didn't want to miss my early flight again and secondly that it was raining really hard out - the first time I'd seen real rain on my entire vacation. I felt lucky to have fantastic weather all the times it mattered.
Staying in the airport also made it easy to use up all my Australian money, since nothing is cheap in the airport. Made some good conversation with a dutch girl after they locked up the airport. We talked about bicycling in particular, since her country is awesome for cycling and Portland is the best city for it in the states. (I've noticed that abroad it's always called "the states," and sometimes "America," but rarely ever "the U.S.) Dutch people have been a lot of fun to meet on this trip, by far my favorite nationality to meet here.
Spent the night sleeping (and it's a stretch to call it sleeping) and then following day (the 16th) flying back to Portland. I left sydney airport at 6:30am local time, and after a layover in Auckland, arrived in LAX at 6:30am the same day. I swear you have to take a time machine to travel down under.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
New Zealand Part 8
I've decided to post some journal entries from my travels in New Zealand for the benefit of those who won't get see the pictures or talk with me about it. Mind you, this is not a narrative meant to explain everything about New Zealand and my time there, only a reproduction of what I thought was worth putting into my own journal. Enjoy, post any questions as comments and I'll respond as soon as I can.
November 12th, Taronga Zoo
Slept very soundly last night, probably because I wore my ear plugs! The street noise and louder German roommates could definitely put a dent in my sleep. I might try it again tonight, but I'm worried I won't hear my alarm tomorrow morning if I do... tough call.
I made my trip to the zoo today. I couldn't believe the regular adult ticket is $43.00! I bought a zoo pass from the ferry terminal, saved myself $10.00 by getting it all in one.
Turns out today was an unusual day to visit , apparently every elementary school in Sydney decided this would be a great day for a field trip! It was a lot of work just to move around sometimes, I heard there were going to be 1500 students there that day.
The seal show was quality, but brief. Maybe if you go to all 3 shows you see different tricks? The rest is pretty much standard zoo - a high standard - but nothing really worth writing much about. Animals I hadn't seen before: Siberian Tiger, Kangaroos, Wallabies, Koala, and Tasmanian Devil (awesome!).
Thoughts on Sydney: It was a bit revealing to find out Sydney has a lot of brothels. I had noticed many adult venues on Darlinghurst street, but the paper said there are over 270 in the Sydney area and that surprised most people, even those who are in the industry. Also, much like New Zealand, there isn't too much "culture" for tourists. At least not the culture I think of when I remember traveling Europe. But it does seem to be a big spot for drinking and partying! Most people at the hostal are here to do some drinking - I expect for scenery more people go to Cairns or Brisbane.
Which makes Sydney not the best city for me. It is tempting to go out to the bars, but it is way too expensive to drink here and I don't have an interest in getting drunk. The party scene and party people just don't really fit my values, I'd rather enjoy a evening with friends or take in some great hikes or art museums. It's almost a shame I came here for 4 days instead of heading up to the Great Barrier Reef, but I did want to see the architecture and say that I've been here. Maybe there will be a next time, and then I'll know I can probably just bypass Sydney.
November 12th, Taronga Zoo
Slept very soundly last night, probably because I wore my ear plugs! The street noise and louder German roommates could definitely put a dent in my sleep. I might try it again tonight, but I'm worried I won't hear my alarm tomorrow morning if I do... tough call.
I made my trip to the zoo today. I couldn't believe the regular adult ticket is $43.00! I bought a zoo pass from the ferry terminal, saved myself $10.00 by getting it all in one.
Turns out today was an unusual day to visit , apparently every elementary school in Sydney decided this would be a great day for a field trip! It was a lot of work just to move around sometimes, I heard there were going to be 1500 students there that day.
The seal show was quality, but brief. Maybe if you go to all 3 shows you see different tricks? The rest is pretty much standard zoo - a high standard - but nothing really worth writing much about. Animals I hadn't seen before: Siberian Tiger, Kangaroos, Wallabies, Koala, and Tasmanian Devil (awesome!).
Thoughts on Sydney: It was a bit revealing to find out Sydney has a lot of brothels. I had noticed many adult venues on Darlinghurst street, but the paper said there are over 270 in the Sydney area and that surprised most people, even those who are in the industry. Also, much like New Zealand, there isn't too much "culture" for tourists. At least not the culture I think of when I remember traveling Europe. But it does seem to be a big spot for drinking and partying! Most people at the hostal are here to do some drinking - I expect for scenery more people go to Cairns or Brisbane.
Which makes Sydney not the best city for me. It is tempting to go out to the bars, but it is way too expensive to drink here and I don't have an interest in getting drunk. The party scene and party people just don't really fit my values, I'd rather enjoy a evening with friends or take in some great hikes or art museums. It's almost a shame I came here for 4 days instead of heading up to the Great Barrier Reef, but I did want to see the architecture and say that I've been here. Maybe there will be a next time, and then I'll know I can probably just bypass Sydney.
Monday, December 13, 2010
New Zealand Part 7
I've decided to post some journal entries from my travels in New Zealand for the benefit of those who won't get see the pictures or talk with me about it. Mind you, this is not a narrative meant to explain everything about New Zealand and my time there, only a reproduction of what I thought was worth putting into my own journal. Enjoy, post any questions as comments and I'll respond as soon as I can.
November 10th, Christchurch and Sydney
The center of Christchurch is very small and walkable. That said, I didn't really do much. The Cantebury Museum was fantastic however! Donations for entry, and loads of good Maori and Antarctic exhibits, plus some good bits on local wild life. I didn't go into the Kiwi house though. It costs nz$18.00 just to see them in real life isn't worth it. I settled for the stuffed ones in the museum.
FYI- you have to purchase and Australia visa before you fly there! No purchase on arrival - very odd.
Had a nice shuttle ride to the airport with a very amiable driver. We talk about the difference between the north and south islands. He's originally from Auckland, and thinks that some of the people in Christchurch have it a bit easy. I mention it seems that Christchurch is a very good town for cycling. "Of course it's a great town for cycling," says my driver, "It's flat! Many people cycle here because it's easy, in Auckland though we have hills, real hills, and people still ride there. Auckland cyclists are real cyclists." Made me smile.
Emirates Airlines is a real cush way to travel. Great seats and in-flight entertainment and the food was very nice for in-flight stuff. Also interesting was the fact that the flight announcements were in both English and Arabic, and the staff on-board spoke a total of 8 different languages fluently!
Found my shuttle driver for my complimentary ride to my hostel in town, and then went to find some quick take-away food for dinner.
November 11th, Sydney
Started finding my way around the city today. Visited the Opera House, the Rocks, Harbor Bridge, Hyde Park and botanical gardens. I was going to climb the harbor bridge but it costs $200! I've spent enough on this trip already, I think I'd rather pay to see a performance at the opera house instead.
I walked into St. Mary's Cathedral and noticed they were filming a Christmas special that evening. I decided to go. It was pleasant, Christmas cheer this early brings a smile to my face. But they sing some of their hymns/carols the wrong! The tunes were very different, so even the songs that I knew I couldn't sing along with. But at least the call and response parts were easy. But the fun part is I'm going to be on ABC in Australia on Christmas eve at 7:00pm - maybe my big television break? :)
November 10th, Christchurch and Sydney
The center of Christchurch is very small and walkable. That said, I didn't really do much. The Cantebury Museum was fantastic however! Donations for entry, and loads of good Maori and Antarctic exhibits, plus some good bits on local wild life. I didn't go into the Kiwi house though. It costs nz$18.00 just to see them in real life isn't worth it. I settled for the stuffed ones in the museum.
FYI- you have to purchase and Australia visa before you fly there! No purchase on arrival - very odd.
Had a nice shuttle ride to the airport with a very amiable driver. We talk about the difference between the north and south islands. He's originally from Auckland, and thinks that some of the people in Christchurch have it a bit easy. I mention it seems that Christchurch is a very good town for cycling. "Of course it's a great town for cycling," says my driver, "It's flat! Many people cycle here because it's easy, in Auckland though we have hills, real hills, and people still ride there. Auckland cyclists are real cyclists." Made me smile.
Emirates Airlines is a real cush way to travel. Great seats and in-flight entertainment and the food was very nice for in-flight stuff. Also interesting was the fact that the flight announcements were in both English and Arabic, and the staff on-board spoke a total of 8 different languages fluently!
Found my shuttle driver for my complimentary ride to my hostel in town, and then went to find some quick take-away food for dinner.
November 11th, Sydney
Started finding my way around the city today. Visited the Opera House, the Rocks, Harbor Bridge, Hyde Park and botanical gardens. I was going to climb the harbor bridge but it costs $200! I've spent enough on this trip already, I think I'd rather pay to see a performance at the opera house instead.
I walked into St. Mary's Cathedral and noticed they were filming a Christmas special that evening. I decided to go. It was pleasant, Christmas cheer this early brings a smile to my face. But they sing some of their hymns/carols the wrong! The tunes were very different, so even the songs that I knew I couldn't sing along with. But at least the call and response parts were easy. But the fun part is I'm going to be on ABC in Australia on Christmas eve at 7:00pm - maybe my big television break? :)
Saturday, December 11, 2010
New Zealand Part 6
I've decided to post some journal entries from my travels in New Zealand for the benefit of those who won't get see the pictures or talk with me about it. Mind you, this is not a narrative meant to explain everything about New Zealand and my time there, only a reproduction of what I thought was worth putting into my own journal. Enjoy, post any questions as comments and I'll respond as soon as I can.
November 7th, Queenstown - Te Anau
Had a lazy morning, only one thing left on our schedule: eating at Fergburger for lunch. We watched a little TV and I followed the Ducks game online (53-16 over the Huskies!) and did our final packing.
Anna ordered the "Little Bambi," burger - a venison burger - while I had the "Little Lambi." I'd never had mint jelly on a burger before, but it was sure tasty!
After lunch was time for Anna to head to the airport. And though one might easily imagine a long worded goodbye, her bus was already waiting when we got to the station so it was a quick hug and well wishes for a safe journey home.
And I was traveling solo once more.
My bus was only one hour later, and took me to the Lakefront Backpackers Hostel in Te Anau. The name says it all, it really is right on the lakefront and my room shares a massive common porch with a great view and soft couches.
Te Anau is a tiny town, really not much more than a stopover or staging point for treks into Milford or Doubtful Sounds.
November 8th, Milford Sound
Made a quick sausage & egg breakfast before being picked up by the tour bus at 7:30am. It was myself and 5 pensioners on holiday. Not my ideal group, but friendly. We made several stops along the way in and out of Milford for photos, nature walks, and rest stops.
The cruise was definitely the highlight, although the descent along Milford Road was spectacular as well. It started off as an overcast day with a very low cloud level obscuring all the peaks in the Milford Fjord. Technically it's a fjord and not a sound because a sound is carved by water, like Puget Sound, and fjords are carved by ice. But fjord had not yet been adopted into the English language when Milford Sound was named, and so the misnomer sticks.
The 2-hour scenic cruise was nice. (I think they avoid 3-hour tours for good luck) Saw some penguins, seals, and birds. On the return towards Milford the clouds finally broke and I saw what all the fuss was about. It is very dramatic scenery! Waterfalls and sheer cliffs abound.
I was surprised how small it was. I'm kicking myself a bit for not doing the kayaking trip here, but then again the weather was lousy and waves were a bit big for kayaks... oh well. I must have taken 100 photos or more, with many duplicates. There will be some cutting and editing to do when I get back.
Arrived back in Te Anau to see my room, which last night I had to myself, now had two new occupants. One I haven't met yet and the other is a girl from Seattle. The more you travel, the smaller the world gets.
November 9th, Te Anau - Christchurch
Rode two shuttle from TA to CC, and all said and done I got on the first at 9:30am and got off the last at 9:30pm. Long Day. But apparently atomic shuttles does have some really nice vans, this one was brilliant, not more than a year old at most. Guess they keep all the new ones on the east coast!
November 7th, Queenstown - Te Anau
Had a lazy morning, only one thing left on our schedule: eating at Fergburger for lunch. We watched a little TV and I followed the Ducks game online (53-16 over the Huskies!) and did our final packing.
Anna ordered the "Little Bambi," burger - a venison burger - while I had the "Little Lambi." I'd never had mint jelly on a burger before, but it was sure tasty!
After lunch was time for Anna to head to the airport. And though one might easily imagine a long worded goodbye, her bus was already waiting when we got to the station so it was a quick hug and well wishes for a safe journey home.
And I was traveling solo once more.
My bus was only one hour later, and took me to the Lakefront Backpackers Hostel in Te Anau. The name says it all, it really is right on the lakefront and my room shares a massive common porch with a great view and soft couches.
Te Anau is a tiny town, really not much more than a stopover or staging point for treks into Milford or Doubtful Sounds.
November 8th, Milford Sound
Made a quick sausage & egg breakfast before being picked up by the tour bus at 7:30am. It was myself and 5 pensioners on holiday. Not my ideal group, but friendly. We made several stops along the way in and out of Milford for photos, nature walks, and rest stops.
The cruise was definitely the highlight, although the descent along Milford Road was spectacular as well. It started off as an overcast day with a very low cloud level obscuring all the peaks in the Milford Fjord. Technically it's a fjord and not a sound because a sound is carved by water, like Puget Sound, and fjords are carved by ice. But fjord had not yet been adopted into the English language when Milford Sound was named, and so the misnomer sticks.
The 2-hour scenic cruise was nice. (I think they avoid 3-hour tours for good luck) Saw some penguins, seals, and birds. On the return towards Milford the clouds finally broke and I saw what all the fuss was about. It is very dramatic scenery! Waterfalls and sheer cliffs abound.
I was surprised how small it was. I'm kicking myself a bit for not doing the kayaking trip here, but then again the weather was lousy and waves were a bit big for kayaks... oh well. I must have taken 100 photos or more, with many duplicates. There will be some cutting and editing to do when I get back.
Arrived back in Te Anau to see my room, which last night I had to myself, now had two new occupants. One I haven't met yet and the other is a girl from Seattle. The more you travel, the smaller the world gets.
November 9th, Te Anau - Christchurch
Rode two shuttle from TA to CC, and all said and done I got on the first at 9:30am and got off the last at 9:30pm. Long Day. But apparently atomic shuttles does have some really nice vans, this one was brilliant, not more than a year old at most. Guess they keep all the new ones on the east coast!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
New Zealand Part 5
I've decided to post some journal entries from my travels in New Zealand for the benefit of those who won't get see the pictures or talk with me about it. Mind you, this is not a narrative meant to explain everything about New Zealand and my time there, only a reproduction of what I thought was worth putting into my own journal. Enjoy, post any questions as comments and I'll respond as soon as I can.
November 4th, Queenstown
I love that it still light out here past 8pm... I will miss that when I return to the states.
Started today out by hitting up the I-site and getting a couple things booked. Tomorrow we'll go kayaking and skydiving will happen on Saturday! Afterwards we went to the Queenstown Gardens. They are great, with some nice flowers and tall trees, duck pond, a stereotypical gazebo, all very scenic. It is also the site of New Zealand's first disc-golf course! Anna and I played our way through the gardens, a fun way to tour through it. It's also a bit of an arboretum, with plants from all over the world including an Oregon Doug Fir!
We stopped in at the underwater observatory on the way back. NZ$5.00 seemed a bit over the top for an admission price at first. One one room, 4 windows peering straight into the lake. But when the enormous trout started swarming for the food and the ducks were diving and the eels creeping out Anna it was pretty cool. Mostly rainbow and brown trout in the lake.
After lunch we went for a hike up Queenstown hill. It's a very vertical hike, but the view from the top is fantastic! The is definitely Lord of the Rings country. The hike up definitely got the heart pumping and the last bit to the summit is essential!
Had a takeaway pizza for dinner. Not too good really, the sauce was tasty but needed about 5x more of it to really work. It's always tough to find good pizza abroad, except perhaps in Italy.
November 5th, Queenstown
Did a kayak trip with Rippled Earth out in Glenorchy today. Our guide, Sam, started this touring company three years ago and it's going strong. He was full of great info about all the birds and beasts. There are a couple of islands we saw, Pig and Pigeon islands. We took a hike on pigeon after kayaking across lake Wakatipu to get to it. Sam made us homemade tea and cakes, which was very tasty and impressed Anna a lot. There is a free cabin on the island that is first-come/first-served, they just ask that you leave firewood for the next people to use it! Would love to rent some kayaks and stay in the cabin for a couple nights next time!
Like yesterday we made an afternoon hike, this time along the lakefront to Frankton. Took about an hour and it was very pleasant. A multi-use path runs between the two town, which seems to be heavily used by people living in Frankton and working in Queenstown. I would definitely do that if I lived here.
Fish and Chips from PJ's for dinner - yum!
November 6th, Queenstown
SKYDIVING IS AWESOME!!!
Anna and I jumped from 12,000ft today with N-Zone skydiving. We could have gone from 15,000ft but it was too much money.
It was such a thrill though! Chris (my tandem "jump master" - michael jordan might be offended) made us do a backflip coming out the door, then lead me through a couple spins as we plummeted earthwards. Seeing the Remarkables mountains from above is quite a treat!
What struck me most were two things:
1) I had no fear or nervousness as we jumped. I was just amped up and eager to go, which excited my jump master.
2) After the parachute opens it is so quite up there! No rushing wind, no street noise, no people talking or music playing or anything, just pure quiet attending to you and the amazing scenery.
As soon as we landed I immediately wanted to go up again. Maybe I should learn how to be a tandem jumper? Apparently on a busy day the jump masters here will do as many as 10 jumps!
That night we had a brilliant dinner on the waterfront at a restaurant at Pier 19. I had the hereford beef, and Anna the venison, and we split a bottle of local pinot noir. Might have been the finest meal I've ever had.
November 4th, Queenstown
I love that it still light out here past 8pm... I will miss that when I return to the states.
Started today out by hitting up the I-site and getting a couple things booked. Tomorrow we'll go kayaking and skydiving will happen on Saturday! Afterwards we went to the Queenstown Gardens. They are great, with some nice flowers and tall trees, duck pond, a stereotypical gazebo, all very scenic. It is also the site of New Zealand's first disc-golf course! Anna and I played our way through the gardens, a fun way to tour through it. It's also a bit of an arboretum, with plants from all over the world including an Oregon Doug Fir!
We stopped in at the underwater observatory on the way back. NZ$5.00 seemed a bit over the top for an admission price at first. One one room, 4 windows peering straight into the lake. But when the enormous trout started swarming for the food and the ducks were diving and the eels creeping out Anna it was pretty cool. Mostly rainbow and brown trout in the lake.
After lunch we went for a hike up Queenstown hill. It's a very vertical hike, but the view from the top is fantastic! The is definitely Lord of the Rings country. The hike up definitely got the heart pumping and the last bit to the summit is essential!
Had a takeaway pizza for dinner. Not too good really, the sauce was tasty but needed about 5x more of it to really work. It's always tough to find good pizza abroad, except perhaps in Italy.
November 5th, Queenstown
Did a kayak trip with Rippled Earth out in Glenorchy today. Our guide, Sam, started this touring company three years ago and it's going strong. He was full of great info about all the birds and beasts. There are a couple of islands we saw, Pig and Pigeon islands. We took a hike on pigeon after kayaking across lake Wakatipu to get to it. Sam made us homemade tea and cakes, which was very tasty and impressed Anna a lot. There is a free cabin on the island that is first-come/first-served, they just ask that you leave firewood for the next people to use it! Would love to rent some kayaks and stay in the cabin for a couple nights next time!
Like yesterday we made an afternoon hike, this time along the lakefront to Frankton. Took about an hour and it was very pleasant. A multi-use path runs between the two town, which seems to be heavily used by people living in Frankton and working in Queenstown. I would definitely do that if I lived here.
Fish and Chips from PJ's for dinner - yum!
November 6th, Queenstown
SKYDIVING IS AWESOME!!!
Anna and I jumped from 12,000ft today with N-Zone skydiving. We could have gone from 15,000ft but it was too much money.
It was such a thrill though! Chris (my tandem "jump master" - michael jordan might be offended) made us do a backflip coming out the door, then lead me through a couple spins as we plummeted earthwards. Seeing the Remarkables mountains from above is quite a treat!
What struck me most were two things:
1) I had no fear or nervousness as we jumped. I was just amped up and eager to go, which excited my jump master.
2) After the parachute opens it is so quite up there! No rushing wind, no street noise, no people talking or music playing or anything, just pure quiet attending to you and the amazing scenery.
As soon as we landed I immediately wanted to go up again. Maybe I should learn how to be a tandem jumper? Apparently on a busy day the jump masters here will do as many as 10 jumps!
That night we had a brilliant dinner on the waterfront at a restaurant at Pier 19. I had the hereford beef, and Anna the venison, and we split a bottle of local pinot noir. Might have been the finest meal I've ever had.
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