Category: Simon

With a mere two hour wait for Mum’s campervan (I reckon they like building the tension, but maybe they’re just slow…), we were off on our journey, with three campervans in a line, holding back the traffic for miles – to be fair it’s only our van that is slow (diesel, automatic and full of water for the loo), but we were at the front.
The amazing thing with driving in New Zealand is that you get places quicker, only because the distances are so short in comparison to Australia. In a few hours, we’d done half of our travel for the next five days, and made it to Kaikoura, site of our fun for the next couple of days.

Today we’ve increased in numbers, not by one, but three! Cat joined us in the morning, and before long we were picking up her petite campervan/car. There was a bit of time convincing the rental guy that the tyre was flat, and that having a nail in it wasn’t a good idea, before it was replaced. With a few hours to spare the Antarctic centre beckoned. Christchurch is the launch point for many visitors to the coldest continent, and the centre gave us a taste of what it’s like down there, including a chamber where they drop the temperature to -18C, a summers day on Antarctic, but a bit nippy! They say it can get down to -93C, that’s a third of the way to absolute zero! The final bit of fun involved a rattling ride around in the Antarctic people mover, an enclosed buggy that zoomed up steep hills whilst we clung on for dear life in the back, the ride finished in a deep pool with the water rising up behind us – fortunately the thing floats!
With a Mum and Ian found at the airport, we all had enough time to punt down the Avon river in Christchurch, in gorgeous sunshine – so much for those thermal undies we bought yesterday!

You can tell Caroline and my priorities easily, our first day in Christchurch and our first around open shops for a while – she’s off to get her hair cut, and I’m off to find a phone.
We did also manage to visit some of the sights though, and ventured up the cathedral tower for a view over the city, watched the chess game and listened to the buskers in the square and then got all arty with a trip around the art gallery. We haven’t gone all upmarket in our touring, it’s just that the only map we had was in the Cultural Christchurch guide!

Not since we arrived in Sydney have we managed to get all of our possessions into a couple of bags, and despite a practice in the van, we were squashing down, chucking out and praying to the zipper god this morning. The walk to the train station had us making resolutions to not carry so much, and look enviously at the people with small easy to manage bags. Fortunately, some bright spark came up with left luggage, so with our load lightened, we walked around the city one last time before retreating to the airport hotel in preparation for our early flight to New Zealand.
It does feel like Australia has been home for the past seven months, and we’ve been lucky to squeeze so much in. But New Zealand beckons, and it wouldn’t be much of a World Tour if we stayed in one country!

With only one full day in Melbourne we should have been up and away early, but a comfy bed always wins. It being Saturday, there was more life than Good Friday, but there was still a sleepy feel to the city. We wandered around some of the sights, but skipped on Melbourne Gaol (I’m sure it’s nothing on Port Arthur), and noticed that Captain Cook’s cottage that was shipped across from the UK probably wasn’t put back together in the same way. What was more impressive were the grand buildings that are abundant in the city, holding their own at the foot of skyscrapers, and way more interesting with their gothic feel and yellow and burgundy facades. It’s amazing what a huge goldrush can fund!
Our wanders around the city parks kept us amused until dark when we headed back to the Comedy Festival (third largest in the world) and chuckled at a few British comedians before sampling some of Melbournes ales and music.

The coast of the Tasman peninsula is considered to be one of Australias finest, and what better way to see it than from a boat! Our vessel for the morning was essentially an oversized dingy, and if we’d known how rough the Southern Ocean can get (heard of the roaring forties?) we might have thought twice about it, or at least not sat right at the front. However, it was great fun bouncing up and down the massive waves, and a good job they gave us full length waterproofs and a seat belt as we caught some definite air during some of the drops and got mighty wet too.
I’ll not bore you with how the huge sea cliffs (tallest in southern hemisphere) were made, but I did come away with a new respect for Albatross and Muttonbirds. The Albatross don’t seem to need to flap their wings at all whilst flying, and effortlessly fly a few inches above the pounding waves. The Shy Albatross only nests in Tasmania, yet is found in all of the world’s oceans, that’s some serious mileage. They are also suffering from fish shortage, and it’s thought we may be the last generation to see them.
The Muttonbird is also quite amazing; all Muttonbirds mate on exactly the same day, meaning all eggs hatch at the same time. When it comes to leaving the nest, the chicks spread their wings for the first time, step off the sea cliff and fly. Not only that, they continue flying non stop for 18000km. Makes the 18+ years homo sapiens take to reach independence look quite pathetic!

As you probably know, Australia was used as a penal colony, the punishment being that you were sent halfway around the world to a hot, dry, beautiful country (notice how we all pay lots to do that now?). So what happens if you get sent all this way and commit yet more crimes? Port Arthur happens, where prisoners were reformed, or broken in the process (they had to build a lunatic asylum to house those broken men). The worst form of punishment was to be sent to the Separate Prison, which gives solitary confinement a new meaning; the prisoners could not make any noise, nor hear any, even footsteps had to be muffled by grass mats. They were locked up 23 hours a day, and hooded when out of their cell. When we returned late at night for a ghost tour (fortunately no cheesy people dressed in bed sheets jumping out), it was the Separate Prison that was the eeriest, with tales of women being grabbed and pulled into cells as they walked out, a woman who felt a suffocating coldness over her head and shoulders, and women seeing convict ghosts chase them down the corridor. For some reason Caroline held on a little bit tighter as we walked out of there…

We almost missed Mount Field National park, so thanks to Pete for pointing it out, and I really should pay more attention to the little map of places to visit I spent so long plotting. Mount Field is home to some very tall trees, the tallest hardwood and tallest flowering plants in the world at up to 90 metres (giant redwoods from California are taller, but not hardwood). The trees are proportioned the same as the smaller ones, so from a distance they don’t look any different. It’s only when you get up close or see one that has fallen and taken out half the forest with it that you start feeling tiny in comparison.
Grandness on another scale greeted us at Hobart, with the towering Mount Wellington looming over the capital city. I say capital city in the loosest sense, as it’s got that small market town/fishing port feel to it, but we did visit on a Sunday and hung around the harbour so I may be mistaken. We took a drive up Mount Wellington, for impressive views over the city and even more amazement at the steepness of the mountain that the van actually managed to get up. To make up for all that effort it was time for fish and chips from the floating chippies in the harbour!

With an impressive 20% of Tasmania set aside as a World Heritage site, it took us a whole day of driving to get to the other side of the Gordon/Franklin River site we visited yesterday. The drive took us past Queenstown, “unashamedly a mining town” that has gorged out half of a mountain in their quest for copper. Rugged mountains and lakes lined the drive the rest of the way and so it’s easy to see why so many people list Tasmania as a favourite place. That’s not to say there weren’t a few walking stops, with Donaghys Hill lookout presenting a 360 degree view over alpine looking hills to green flood plains (school time geography was useful after all!).
We also squeezed in a walk at Lake St Clair, a glacial lake at the back of Cradle Mountain, and Australia’s deepest. It was also the end point of a 5+ day walk from the mountain, and there were plenty of walkers there to put us to shame as we set off on our 1 1/2 hour stroll. Our quest to spot a Platypus continued at the enticingly named Platypus Bay, but to no avail. The views over the lake were great though, so all was not lost.

With only a little stroll yesterday we were itching for more and so called into the Montezuma Falls, the tallest in Tasmania. I cycled and Caroline walked along the old railway track (read as nice, flat and easy) to the falls, passing through the mossy forest, and occasionally muddy track. I only had enough time to venture out on to the ricketty suspension bridge before Caroline arrived after nearly standing on a snake (got my heart racing and reminded me why you are not advised to walk on your own in Australia! – Caz).
The afternoon was a lot more civilized. Boarding a fast, slick ship we zoomed out of Strahan into the dark waters of Macquarie Harbour and through Hells Gate, named so by the prisoners on their way to Sarah Island (think the Alcatraz of Australia). The ship then motored to the Gordon River, a World Heritage site that satisfies 7 out of the possible 10 criteria required to become World Heritage listed, and joint top of the table with another site in China, so a pretty important place. It’s not so hard to see why, as we cruised up the beautiful mirror smooth waters of the river, passing trees that are up to 4000 years old, and aren’t found elsewhere. The area was also home to Aboriginies that were the most southerly humans and survived several ice ages (average temperature of -14), and not forgetting the unique flora and fauna that Tasmania has.