I was supposed to post this a couple of days ago and thought I did. Turns out I didn't. More updates from Ayres Rock and the outback to come!
Julie B
I wanted to hit a couple of different sites than the Nolans, so once we got to Sydney we split up at the airport. I went on a whim and bought a ticket for the very same day to Melbourne and headed south west for a couple of days. It was great there - so much more culture than Sydney. I chilled out there for a couple of days and met up with a fellow Newfie, with a Tilting connection! Thanks to my Aunt Shirley who got me in contact with Jenny whose Mom was a childhood friend of my dad, or something like that. I met up with her for a day and went to her apartment in the highest residential building in the world and the tallest tower in Melbourne! After spending a couple of days seeing the sights, meeting new people, relaxing in the heat, I joined a tour group, Groovy Grape on a 3 day trek to Adelaide, through the Great Ocean Road. If you ever see a car commercial where there's steep cliffs on one side and green ocean on the other, it was probably filmed on the Great Ocean Road. It was amazing!
We stopped at the 12 Apostles, a rock formation made of limestone that juts out into the sea:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Apostles_(Victoria)
Actually, there are only 8 apostles left standing. The rest of them fell down due to the constant crashing of waves. We went in helicopter around the coastline to see everything from a couple hundred feet up. The pictures are incredible! For most people, it was their first time in helicopter. I guess they didn't grow up on Fogo Island.. haha.
We stayed until sunset and watched the sun go down over the landmark. Very pretty!
The next day we spent around the coast looking at crazy rock formations like caves and grottos and gorges, etc and made our way to the Grampians, a mountain range between Adelaide and Melbourne and did a couple of 2 hour hikes around different parts. Again, the scenery was gorgeous and we saw lots of wildlife. Like Shanna and Julie, we saw some wild koalas, which were sleeping, like they do for 16 hrs a day.. we saw some emus and kangaroos (grey and white.. apparently theres about 70 different species of kangaroo.. who knew?) and cucaberras.
Adelaide was pretty too - not very big. There's about 1.1 million people in it, but it doesn't feel any bigger than St. John's. It was like the tour group continued, because we all became such good friends that we spend the next 3 days together! We went
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
"it's a one pub, three dog kinda town"
hello all, Another Julie Nolan update coming to you from a small rainy town on the coast of Ausrtalia.
me and shanna are spending our last day in port Macquarie rained into our hostel, but it actually gives us a chance to update the blog, write emails and drink tea, so really a day of rain is good. Since we got here on friday night it's been ht and sunny everyday and we've spent all day walking around town and exploring. the first day, saturday we went to the harbour and saw the breakwall, which is kinda cool its a rock breakwall right next to town beach thats an open peoples gallery, you can write postcards on the rocks or make your mark to let the whole world know you were there, every rock face was covered in pictures and names and flags! super cool. we spent most of the day wandering and making plans for the next part of our journey, we watched toy story one and two with everyone from our hostel and we saw a momma koala running downt he main street in town with a baby on its back... so we all followed it and it climbed up a tree, it was really cute and we were really close to it port Macquarie is known for its koala hospital and koala rehililition center. we got up sunday and went to the rainforest on the edge of town and walked along the shoreline and through the stretch of protected rainforest and saw bush turkeys and probably a million lizzards and baby lizzards. then we walked to the koala hospital and saw all the injured koalas which was kidna depressing. Monday was raining but we went out for the day anyway we both needed new books for our drive today and wanted to make some more plans.
We leave here this afetrnoon and head to Coff's harbour and from there were going to rent a car to drive to the waterfall way and see the smaller towns in the dorrgio national park. theres lots of rainforest and fun species to see there so were going to take a day trip and hopefully go out on the water kayking or canoeing the next day. we plan to be around Byron bay within the next week to spend some quality time surfing and living our mcuh loved beach life style. were getting pretty good at it. haha
So since we left sydney what have we been up to you say? wellllll.... we got back t Bondi beach to spend a few days making plans repacking and went for one last surf on bondi with a few guys from teh hostel. it was fun the waves were bigger then shanna and i had surfed in before and our boards were smaller, making it harder to ballance but once we got into it it made for pretty good surfing and the water has finally warmed up enough so you didnt even need a etsuit and it was comfortable to stay out fr as long as you wanted. it was great and i have a few more battle scars from my surf board to prove im getting better. haha i think thats what it means? aha im getting used to faling off and getting tossed around for a minute before you can stand up again and now its kinda fun when you expect it to happen. We got up wednesday morning with the sun, a little sore from our surfing adventure, and coaught a seniors tour from downtown sydney out to hunter Valley the most well known wine region in australia. You know your on a seniors tour whennnn..... the bus driver addresses you as 'the young girls... you know who you are" and everyone automatically looks at you. haha the bus dropped us off in hunter valley and proceded to take 100 giddy seniors on a day of wine tasting. shanna and i checked into our hostel and grabbed bikes and spent the hot afternoon riding around from brewery-to-champainge house- to- winery - to chocolate factory tasting all that lushous valley ahs to offer. it was good fun and our biking skills were definatly tested and we actually had alot of fun doing our own tour of the valley by bike. we met up with another canadian girl form our hostel for lunch at a pub and spent the afternoon hanging out by the pool becasue it got to hot to bike around anymore. after supper we all played pictionary with a bottle of local wine and went to bed early. we spent the next day doing a real group wine tour of the valley. it was really fun to hear about the wines and be told what to taste and how. there were 6 of us ont he tour and we ahd lunch at a cafe in the botanic gardens and then we went for ice cream and to a cheese tasting... MMMMmmmm...Mmm..M.. our last day in hunter valley we decided to run from the hostel in and around town and get a see of everyhting before we ahd to leave. mostly we were just hungry and had run out of food and needed to go to the grocery store for food and it was either a 30 min walk or a ten minute run. haha much faster to run. haha we spent the afternoon eating ice cream and waiting for busses in the sun and got into Newcastle for a bus transfer with 4 hours to spare, we dropped our bags off at a local hostel for 3$ and went for dinner and to a live band on the pier for beers, a walk up the tower on the pier for a view of the sunset and abck to the bus station. we left new castle and i think we were both asleep within 10 minutes and almost slept through our stop 5 hours later so the bus driver drove us to our hostel and laughed at us, we put int he door sode nad went straight to bed as it was already 3 am. and you all know how we spent our days in Port Mac.
i actually wrote the second half from Coff's harbour casue the computer froze and published the other half on me. but we got here safe and sound and have been mostly hanging aorunf town all day today and last night, the girls in our room were awesome but they left early this morning, too bad. we rented a car fr tomorrow, its supposed to be a super nice sunny day and the hostel manager gave us a map and some pointers of where to stop on our way into waterfall way and the towns around the park adn what walks to do. were super excited!
it rained this morning so we went to target adn played dress up int he ugly 80's clothes.... it was wayyyy to much fun!
keepin it real, Love Jules!
Special thanks to the Australian geographic on a show about the outback of all outbacks for the blog title!
me and shanna are spending our last day in port Macquarie rained into our hostel, but it actually gives us a chance to update the blog, write emails and drink tea, so really a day of rain is good. Since we got here on friday night it's been ht and sunny everyday and we've spent all day walking around town and exploring. the first day, saturday we went to the harbour and saw the breakwall, which is kinda cool its a rock breakwall right next to town beach thats an open peoples gallery, you can write postcards on the rocks or make your mark to let the whole world know you were there, every rock face was covered in pictures and names and flags! super cool. we spent most of the day wandering and making plans for the next part of our journey, we watched toy story one and two with everyone from our hostel and we saw a momma koala running downt he main street in town with a baby on its back... so we all followed it and it climbed up a tree, it was really cute and we were really close to it port Macquarie is known for its koala hospital and koala rehililition center. we got up sunday and went to the rainforest on the edge of town and walked along the shoreline and through the stretch of protected rainforest and saw bush turkeys and probably a million lizzards and baby lizzards. then we walked to the koala hospital and saw all the injured koalas which was kidna depressing. Monday was raining but we went out for the day anyway we both needed new books for our drive today and wanted to make some more plans.
We leave here this afetrnoon and head to Coff's harbour and from there were going to rent a car to drive to the waterfall way and see the smaller towns in the dorrgio national park. theres lots of rainforest and fun species to see there so were going to take a day trip and hopefully go out on the water kayking or canoeing the next day. we plan to be around Byron bay within the next week to spend some quality time surfing and living our mcuh loved beach life style. were getting pretty good at it. haha
So since we left sydney what have we been up to you say? wellllll.... we got back t Bondi beach to spend a few days making plans repacking and went for one last surf on bondi with a few guys from teh hostel. it was fun the waves were bigger then shanna and i had surfed in before and our boards were smaller, making it harder to ballance but once we got into it it made for pretty good surfing and the water has finally warmed up enough so you didnt even need a etsuit and it was comfortable to stay out fr as long as you wanted. it was great and i have a few more battle scars from my surf board to prove im getting better. haha i think thats what it means? aha im getting used to faling off and getting tossed around for a minute before you can stand up again and now its kinda fun when you expect it to happen. We got up wednesday morning with the sun, a little sore from our surfing adventure, and coaught a seniors tour from downtown sydney out to hunter Valley the most well known wine region in australia. You know your on a seniors tour whennnn..... the bus driver addresses you as 'the young girls... you know who you are" and everyone automatically looks at you. haha the bus dropped us off in hunter valley and proceded to take 100 giddy seniors on a day of wine tasting. shanna and i checked into our hostel and grabbed bikes and spent the hot afternoon riding around from brewery-to-champainge house- to- winery - to chocolate factory tasting all that lushous valley ahs to offer. it was good fun and our biking skills were definatly tested and we actually had alot of fun doing our own tour of the valley by bike. we met up with another canadian girl form our hostel for lunch at a pub and spent the afternoon hanging out by the pool becasue it got to hot to bike around anymore. after supper we all played pictionary with a bottle of local wine and went to bed early. we spent the next day doing a real group wine tour of the valley. it was really fun to hear about the wines and be told what to taste and how. there were 6 of us ont he tour and we ahd lunch at a cafe in the botanic gardens and then we went for ice cream and to a cheese tasting... MMMMmmmm...Mmm..M.. our last day in hunter valley we decided to run from the hostel in and around town and get a see of everyhting before we ahd to leave. mostly we were just hungry and had run out of food and needed to go to the grocery store for food and it was either a 30 min walk or a ten minute run. haha much faster to run. haha we spent the afternoon eating ice cream and waiting for busses in the sun and got into Newcastle for a bus transfer with 4 hours to spare, we dropped our bags off at a local hostel for 3$ and went for dinner and to a live band on the pier for beers, a walk up the tower on the pier for a view of the sunset and abck to the bus station. we left new castle and i think we were both asleep within 10 minutes and almost slept through our stop 5 hours later so the bus driver drove us to our hostel and laughed at us, we put int he door sode nad went straight to bed as it was already 3 am. and you all know how we spent our days in Port Mac.
i actually wrote the second half from Coff's harbour casue the computer froze and published the other half on me. but we got here safe and sound and have been mostly hanging aorunf town all day today and last night, the girls in our room were awesome but they left early this morning, too bad. we rented a car fr tomorrow, its supposed to be a super nice sunny day and the hostel manager gave us a map and some pointers of where to stop on our way into waterfall way and the towns around the park adn what walks to do. were super excited!
it rained this morning so we went to target adn played dress up int he ugly 80's clothes.... it was wayyyy to much fun!
keepin it real, Love Jules!
Special thanks to the Australian geographic on a show about the outback of all outbacks for the blog title!
Monday, October 19, 2009
I wish this old train would just breeeak down
Well hello again, it's been years!
Well ok not years per se, but I do apologize for the stagnant blog for the last couple weeks. We've been very busy! Since the last update, the other girls went on a 3-day bike ride, and I peaced out and made my way to Queenstown (I don't do bikes) on a bus. I checked into a hostel called the black sheep, and it felt like home in about 5 minutes. Seriously, it was the most welcoming, friendly place I've ever been. Curtis arrived later the same day I did, and we met awesome people from all over the world. A group of us did the hike up the one mile track (about 800m elevation) to the top of the Queenstown gondola, where there is a nice cafe and a place where you can luge partway down the mountain. They are also currently building a series of ziplines, so that you will be able to hike up and zipline all the way down! Sadly, it was not done while we were there. But I bet it will be cool!! At the top you have a totally-worth-it view of all of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu, as well as Coronet Peak, The famous and stunning Remarkables mountain range, and Cecil and Walter Peaks. All very nice to look at! Then we rode the gondola back down for free (score!) and near the bottom, we passed a group of sheep grazing on the side of the mountain with 2 baby lambs! So naturally, we walked back up to visit. And we fed them and got pictures with the lambs! Sheep are surprisingly docile when it comes to annoying tourists going near their babies. Also they smell really, really bad and I hope they wash the wool before it becomes my sweater!
After 3 excellent days with Curtis and our new friends, the other 3 girls arrived and ruined all our fun. Kidding! We had another 3 days in Queenstown after that, and we went sailing!! I mean, real sailing on a former Americas Cup racing sailboat, and we got to be sailors! Everyone who wanted to got to learn how to grind (rotate the winches that reel in all the sails), steer and belay. It was a perfect day for it, plently of wind and perfectly clear skies. We were dissappointed in the morning because the kayak rental shop wouldn't rent out kayaks because of the high winds, and then the paraflights operator wasn't going up due to the wind. Then James and Curtis found sailing and the day was saved!
Another day we went to the Kiwi Birdlife Park, which was really exciting! They are an endangered species and also nocturnal, so it is pretty much unknown to see them in the wild. So it was pretty exciting that there was a breeding and conservation park where you can see them in the dark! We did an audio tour of the whole park, with lots of types of birds, and watched a kiwi feeding. It was one of the more interesting wildlife parks I've been to - the animals are not in captivity for show-and-tell, but are all either there to recover from injury or to have their babies in a protected environment. The guide told us that 95% of kiwi birds die before they mature, mostly because of paternal neglect to the eggs and non-native predators to the young(because they are vulnerable due to negligent daddies). Then when they are big and/or healthy enough, all the animals are re-released into their native habitat in protected forests. I liked it a lot! On the way to Milford Sound, we also saw Kea birds in the wild. Apparently they are the only parrots who live in alpine conditions. Even in the snow. And they are really, really aggressive! In Wanaka we watched a video of them tearing open cars, breaking glass, and killing live sheep, all with their beaks! So when we saw them in the Kiwi park, I was a bit uncomfortable with being next to them in the bird enclosure with nothing between that vicious beak and me.
We also went to a local burger joint called fergburger, which comes extremely highly recommended by all locals, travellers, and lonely planet. They weren't lying - the burgers are MASSIVE, and pretty spectacular. I think some travellers stay in Queenstown just for the Fergburgers.
So our second last night we did a pubcrawl with about 12 other people from our hostel, as well as a few from other hostels in the area. It was a lot of fun, and we all made a few new friends! Then we had to get up painfully early (ok 7am, painful when you went to bed at 3) to catch our Ecotours bus to Milford Sound. The drive was long (about 5 hours each way), but the boat tour of the Milford (technically it's a fiord, not a sound according to our driver) was well worth it. It was an overcast, RDF-type day with lots of low clouds, which made for some cool shots of the fiords and the waterfalls that were still rushing from the early mroning rain. Then there was a 5-hour drive back to Queenstown. If there is one thing I would recommend, it is do NOT do Milford Sound in a day trip. It is too far away from major centres, 10 hours of bus on one day is too much, and the area is far too spectacular to be properly appreciated in a 2-hour visit. Bad move on our part, I think we had no idea how far away it was. Glad we saw it for sure, but not for long enough!
We couldn't have stayed anyway though, because the next morning we left (minus Amy, who stayed in Q for an extra day of adventure sport) for Auckland for a big dose of rugby, kiwi-style!
First we saw a celebrity match which was organized by the local rugby community in aid of Samoan tsunami relief efforts. It was really cool to see old rugby 'has-beens' (retired all blacks players mostly) and other NZ celebrities (including a pro cricket player who had never played rugby befiore) play each other on the field. One guy's credentials in the program said he was on NZ's top model, someone else was a New World meat dept trainee. It was pretty obvious that some were very out of shape, and others were in great shape but had no idea what to do if the ball actually happened to fall into their hands. In all, an entertaining game! Then we saw an Air New Zealand Cup game between Auckland and Counties Manukau. Auckland won by a fair bit, but it was an intense game! I was pretty much the happiest kid ever to be watching my fave international rugby player, Joe Rokocoko of the All Blacks, playing in real life! Then after the game they did autographs and Jules and I waited patiently behind a mob of kids (big kids that we are) for autographs and a photo! BEST DAY EVER.
Now we are back in Bondi Beach, planning our next move. Wine country maybe? Surfers paradise? Who knows! Keep ya posted :o)
xoxoxo
love and superfluous sunshine from Australia,
Shanna
Well ok not years per se, but I do apologize for the stagnant blog for the last couple weeks. We've been very busy! Since the last update, the other girls went on a 3-day bike ride, and I peaced out and made my way to Queenstown (I don't do bikes) on a bus. I checked into a hostel called the black sheep, and it felt like home in about 5 minutes. Seriously, it was the most welcoming, friendly place I've ever been. Curtis arrived later the same day I did, and we met awesome people from all over the world. A group of us did the hike up the one mile track (about 800m elevation) to the top of the Queenstown gondola, where there is a nice cafe and a place where you can luge partway down the mountain. They are also currently building a series of ziplines, so that you will be able to hike up and zipline all the way down! Sadly, it was not done while we were there. But I bet it will be cool!! At the top you have a totally-worth-it view of all of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu, as well as Coronet Peak, The famous and stunning Remarkables mountain range, and Cecil and Walter Peaks. All very nice to look at! Then we rode the gondola back down for free (score!) and near the bottom, we passed a group of sheep grazing on the side of the mountain with 2 baby lambs! So naturally, we walked back up to visit. And we fed them and got pictures with the lambs! Sheep are surprisingly docile when it comes to annoying tourists going near their babies. Also they smell really, really bad and I hope they wash the wool before it becomes my sweater!
After 3 excellent days with Curtis and our new friends, the other 3 girls arrived and ruined all our fun. Kidding! We had another 3 days in Queenstown after that, and we went sailing!! I mean, real sailing on a former Americas Cup racing sailboat, and we got to be sailors! Everyone who wanted to got to learn how to grind (rotate the winches that reel in all the sails), steer and belay. It was a perfect day for it, plently of wind and perfectly clear skies. We were dissappointed in the morning because the kayak rental shop wouldn't rent out kayaks because of the high winds, and then the paraflights operator wasn't going up due to the wind. Then James and Curtis found sailing and the day was saved!
Another day we went to the Kiwi Birdlife Park, which was really exciting! They are an endangered species and also nocturnal, so it is pretty much unknown to see them in the wild. So it was pretty exciting that there was a breeding and conservation park where you can see them in the dark! We did an audio tour of the whole park, with lots of types of birds, and watched a kiwi feeding. It was one of the more interesting wildlife parks I've been to - the animals are not in captivity for show-and-tell, but are all either there to recover from injury or to have their babies in a protected environment. The guide told us that 95% of kiwi birds die before they mature, mostly because of paternal neglect to the eggs and non-native predators to the young(because they are vulnerable due to negligent daddies). Then when they are big and/or healthy enough, all the animals are re-released into their native habitat in protected forests. I liked it a lot! On the way to Milford Sound, we also saw Kea birds in the wild. Apparently they are the only parrots who live in alpine conditions. Even in the snow. And they are really, really aggressive! In Wanaka we watched a video of them tearing open cars, breaking glass, and killing live sheep, all with their beaks! So when we saw them in the Kiwi park, I was a bit uncomfortable with being next to them in the bird enclosure with nothing between that vicious beak and me.
We also went to a local burger joint called fergburger, which comes extremely highly recommended by all locals, travellers, and lonely planet. They weren't lying - the burgers are MASSIVE, and pretty spectacular. I think some travellers stay in Queenstown just for the Fergburgers.
So our second last night we did a pubcrawl with about 12 other people from our hostel, as well as a few from other hostels in the area. It was a lot of fun, and we all made a few new friends! Then we had to get up painfully early (ok 7am, painful when you went to bed at 3) to catch our Ecotours bus to Milford Sound. The drive was long (about 5 hours each way), but the boat tour of the Milford (technically it's a fiord, not a sound according to our driver) was well worth it. It was an overcast, RDF-type day with lots of low clouds, which made for some cool shots of the fiords and the waterfalls that were still rushing from the early mroning rain. Then there was a 5-hour drive back to Queenstown. If there is one thing I would recommend, it is do NOT do Milford Sound in a day trip. It is too far away from major centres, 10 hours of bus on one day is too much, and the area is far too spectacular to be properly appreciated in a 2-hour visit. Bad move on our part, I think we had no idea how far away it was. Glad we saw it for sure, but not for long enough!
We couldn't have stayed anyway though, because the next morning we left (minus Amy, who stayed in Q for an extra day of adventure sport) for Auckland for a big dose of rugby, kiwi-style!
First we saw a celebrity match which was organized by the local rugby community in aid of Samoan tsunami relief efforts. It was really cool to see old rugby 'has-beens' (retired all blacks players mostly) and other NZ celebrities (including a pro cricket player who had never played rugby befiore) play each other on the field. One guy's credentials in the program said he was on NZ's top model, someone else was a New World meat dept trainee. It was pretty obvious that some were very out of shape, and others were in great shape but had no idea what to do if the ball actually happened to fall into their hands. In all, an entertaining game! Then we saw an Air New Zealand Cup game between Auckland and Counties Manukau. Auckland won by a fair bit, but it was an intense game! I was pretty much the happiest kid ever to be watching my fave international rugby player, Joe Rokocoko of the All Blacks, playing in real life! Then after the game they did autographs and Jules and I waited patiently behind a mob of kids (big kids that we are) for autographs and a photo! BEST DAY EVER.
Now we are back in Bondi Beach, planning our next move. Wine country maybe? Surfers paradise? Who knows! Keep ya posted :o)
xoxoxo
love and superfluous sunshine from Australia,
Shanna
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Everybody look at me cause I'm sailing on a boat
This is Julie B. And that's right, we went on a boat today! In Lake Wanaka. And it's 40 miles long! It's probably the most picturesque place we've been. And I know we said that before - it's like the entire country of New Zealand is filled with pretty places!
By Trevor's request, I've uploaded some pictures. These are the only ones available on my camera now, I had to change memory cards a couple of days ago. The first two were taken today from the lake. You can see the snow capped mountains in the background and us with our hats and heavy coats on. And all of Shanna's layering, of course.
Lake Wanaka from Liz and Johnny's boat; it's cold but really pretty :)
Wanaka from Mt Iron, if you look close, you might see Shania Twain's farm in the background... seriously! She lives here!
So, since Shanna's blog left off, we've spent a total of 6 days with Amy's amazing relatives, 3 in Christchurch and 3 in Wanaka.
Christchurch is on the east coast of the country, where a prevailing wind makes it really cold, that's what we were told at least. They were experiencing a cold snap while we were there and the weather got to 4 deg C! Julie, Shanna and I packed for Australia, complete with bikinis and sundresses, so some purchases of boots, coats and/or hats had to be made.
We went to Hanmer Springs with Amy's cousin Prue for a day. They had natural hot springs of sulphur that came out of the ground into heated pools of 35-41 deg C. The hottest pools smelled the worse, but in that cold weather, the heated pools were like heaven!
We've all been fattened up since we arrived in New Zealand. The food that's prepared for us is delicious! We've been spoiled by Amy's cousins- fresh towels, full meals, comfy beds, even heated blankets! I don't wanna go back to hostel living haha. I don't know if it's the part Newfie in their genes, but New Zealand hospitality could give the Newfies a run for their money! When we got in Christchurch at 6:00 the first evening, there was a native Lamb roast waiting for us... and it hasn't slacked off one bit! I'm loving it, so long as my jeans still fit. I only have one pair!
We arrived in Wanaka on Wednesday afternoon, to rain, fog and cold temperatures. But it was just what we needed. Amy's other cousin, Prue's sister and her husband, and everything ready for us. We curled up by the woodstove that afternoon with tea, a book and blankets, listening to the rain outside and playing with their dog, Susie, who I think Shanna wants to take home to play with Barkley. Either way, it was lovely to relax in a house again!
We chilled out in Wanaka for a couple of days, explored the quaint little town, bought some souvenirs, hiked Mt Iron on an unexpected expedition through the woods, rode in boat, and pretty much made ourself at home. Yesterday for supper, Liz and John trusted us enough to let us cook for them. And it turned out amazing! Chef Julie N cooked Pepper Sausage Penne Bake, and we had a garden salad and bread for the side, with brownies for dessert. Talk about a meal! Yum. They loved it, and us of course. We're thinking about staying here forever.
I've been talking about baking muffins for about 3 weeks now. Muffins around here are wayyy too disappointing. They're like cupcakes. And gross. So, today, I made 3 batches of Mom's Banana Chocolate Chip muffins. And it was like heaven. I'm revamped now until December. One of the batches were remolished during lunch. One we're taking on our great biking adventure tomorrow, and the other is for Liz and Johnny to freeze. So, we're not that big of pigs haha.
Tomorrow, we're going on an old railway for a 3 day biking trek. It's going through the backroads of New Zealand and through tunnels and up hills for about 150-175 kms! We're staying in little towns along the way, in hotels. So, muffins for breakfast!
The last picture was uploaded to compliment Shanna's last post. This is a picture from one of the many lookouts on the Abel Tasman trail. It was like a scene similar to this one was around every corner!
Well, it's 11:45 here and about 2 hours past my bedtime. The other girls are long gone to bed and our lameness is getting worse on our journey through NZ. It started by jet lag, and now by 9:00, we're dropping tired and in bed by 10, up by 7. I think we're getting old.
Night folks!
Julie B
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Do you think those girls can start a fire? They must, look how big their backpacks are!
The hike was amazing. Breathtaking views around every turn, and breathtaking (literally) hills to climb to get to the views. It was a pretty incredible and exhausting 3 days. We'll try to get a few pictures of it up soon!
The first day we "tramped" (as Amy continually reminds me, they don't call it hiking here!) for about 4 hours from Marahau to our hut at Anchorage. We stopped about a hundred times along the way to take pictures of the rainforest, the palm trees, the HUGE ducks, and the little forest waterfalls. It started to rain just before we got to our hut, and a downpour started literally the second we stepped under the roof. The huts were nice, basic but comfortable although not very warm. I am officially known as the 'weaker species' because I was cold at night while the others slept comfortably. Sad but true. I like being warm. Then the second day, we were supposed to get up at 6am, but we slept in till about 7:30, so we had to take the longer high-tide route to our next destination. We had a full 8-hour day of tramping, including a few peach passes and a couple points where we had to take our shoes off and walk through ankle-deep water at low tide. When we got to our hut in Arawoa (sp?) for the night, there was a family from Texas already set up, and the father was trying fruitlessly to start a fire in the woodstove. We heard his daughter ask him if he thought we could start the fire, and his reply was 'they must! Look how big their backpacks are!'. Then he asked us if we could, and of course all four of us, true Newfies that we are, nod and volunteer. Good ol' Bell Island (long story) Julie Burke got to work, and in minutes we had a nice, toasty cabin and four happy Texans.
The next day we had another beach crossing at low tide, and then were picked up by our water taxi for a very rough and very fun ride back to Marahau. The water was really rough, and the driver took it slow at first until he realized we were all sitting there with big grins on our wet faces, loving the ride. Then he took us to look for stingrays in some shallow water, and for seals lying on the rocks out in the water. It was great! Then we picked up a few tourists at the next stop, and the driver had to slow the ride down due to a few weaker stomachs.
Anyway, we made it back to Nelson that night, had some hot food and showers, and took off on a train to Christchurch in the morning. We've been here relaxing and having a great time with Amy's family here, who have all been wonderful to us! Now tomorrow we leave for Wanaka, then Queenstown and finally Auckland around the 17th. More details to come!
Hope all is well at home! Love you all,
Shanna
the 'weaker species'
The first day we "tramped" (as Amy continually reminds me, they don't call it hiking here!) for about 4 hours from Marahau to our hut at Anchorage. We stopped about a hundred times along the way to take pictures of the rainforest, the palm trees, the HUGE ducks, and the little forest waterfalls. It started to rain just before we got to our hut, and a downpour started literally the second we stepped under the roof. The huts were nice, basic but comfortable although not very warm. I am officially known as the 'weaker species' because I was cold at night while the others slept comfortably. Sad but true. I like being warm. Then the second day, we were supposed to get up at 6am, but we slept in till about 7:30, so we had to take the longer high-tide route to our next destination. We had a full 8-hour day of tramping, including a few peach passes and a couple points where we had to take our shoes off and walk through ankle-deep water at low tide. When we got to our hut in Arawoa (sp?) for the night, there was a family from Texas already set up, and the father was trying fruitlessly to start a fire in the woodstove. We heard his daughter ask him if he thought we could start the fire, and his reply was 'they must! Look how big their backpacks are!'. Then he asked us if we could, and of course all four of us, true Newfies that we are, nod and volunteer. Good ol' Bell Island (long story) Julie Burke got to work, and in minutes we had a nice, toasty cabin and four happy Texans.
The next day we had another beach crossing at low tide, and then were picked up by our water taxi for a very rough and very fun ride back to Marahau. The water was really rough, and the driver took it slow at first until he realized we were all sitting there with big grins on our wet faces, loving the ride. Then he took us to look for stingrays in some shallow water, and for seals lying on the rocks out in the water. It was great! Then we picked up a few tourists at the next stop, and the driver had to slow the ride down due to a few weaker stomachs.
Anyway, we made it back to Nelson that night, had some hot food and showers, and took off on a train to Christchurch in the morning. We've been here relaxing and having a great time with Amy's family here, who have all been wonderful to us! Now tomorrow we leave for Wanaka, then Queenstown and finally Auckland around the 17th. More details to come!
Hope all is well at home! Love you all,
Shanna
the 'weaker species'
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)