tour2

A slight cock-up in the hostel booking department today meant I booked the hostel after the one I meant to, and I didn't realise until I put the address into SatNav, oh well a 7 hour drive today. The scenery however was stunning as a drove up through the mountains where they filmed The Lord of the Rings. I stopped for lunch at Lake Waitaki (which is where I had initially planned to stop the night) which has a strange blue hue to it, surrounded by towering mountains. and is used for a hydro-electric plant. I stopped again on the outskirts of Christchurch for some tea and then had 1 hour left to drive to the 'hostel' I had booked. The hostel is actually a number of old railway guards cars that were salvaged when they were scrapped by New Zealand Railways and they have been turned into bunkrooms. I have a whole one to myself, complete with the original seating and fittings at one end and 4 bunks in what was the luggage compartment.

I had a leisurely start to the day, getting up in time for the free breakfast (toast, jam and cereal) and then did a spot of washing. That done Heather at the hostel booked me a place on the Shotover Jet for later in the day. I walked down through the town centre and into the Botanical Gardens which are well kept and have a Frisbee Golf course in them (Note to Middlewood; easy one for us to do!) You play 'golf' around a course, but using Frisbees instead of clubs and balls. The 'holes' are metal posts with baskets on them. As you had to go all the way back into town to buy/rent a Frisbee and get someone to play with you, I decided to see if there were any Geocaches in the area (You use a GPS to find a hidden 'treasure') and there was one listed on the website called Frisbee Golf, I loaded the coordinates into my PDA and searched out the hidden box which was located ... now that would be telling ... have a look at the link to see where it is. I did find it, and ...

Took my time and got up about 9 this morning and enjoyed the fact that I had had the 4 bed dorm to myself for the night. I cleared out of the room then went up to the 'house' to get my supplies from the kitchen and have a coffee before setting off. I drove out onto the road and drove for ages so much so that I was away that I was virtually heading back into Invercargil and I actually stopped at a rest area and double checked where I was with Google maps! I was on the right road, and then a little further on picked up Highway 6 towards Queenstown. Road signing is really basic here – it usually only tells you the direction to the next place and not always all the places in that direction so you have to know all the places enroute which is a bit of a pain Queenstown is a large town not too dissimilar to Bowness and Windermere in the English Lake District. I parked up in town and got on the Google maps to find the exact location of the hostel only to find it said 12metres; I was l...

Up at the crack of dawn! Showered and out by 7am I hit the road and drove up to Te Anua to get some fuel, the road to Milford Sound is one way in and out and is a round trip of about 240km (150miles) and with no petrol stations you don't want to get caught short, it's a long walk out! The drive was really good the road was quiet and I stopped on the way at 'The Mirror Lakes' which are small ponds at the side of the road which reflect the mountains across the valley, it would have been amazing but a SAGA coach turned up and 50 odd cackling British women got off making a right load of noise. A few quick pics and I left embarrassed by the their scant appreciation of the place. The road passed though a large wide flat grassed plateau an then continued up and over a pass and descended into a wooded valley before climbing up through thick cloud to the tunnel entrance. The road to Milford Sound was hewn through the mountain to enable direct access and is I think the only Fior...

Left Invercargil this morning after dropping a fellow backpacker at the local supermarket, he was heading to Dunedin so unfortunately the wrong way to me. He had given me some info on where to stay in Queenstown and advised me to book ahead – as it happened I had to book for 2 nights minimum and also I couldn't get in till the 22nd and 23rd so I also rang ahead and booked 2 nights at Te Anua where I was heading today. The drive out of town followed the Southern Scenic route and the drive was quiet, rolling hills and very windy. I stopped on the was at Colac Bay and watched a couple of kite surfers out on the water. The wind was really strong and having spoke to one of them they said it was constantly like this, again the beach was virtually deserted, mind you the fact that you had to lean into the wind at 45deg just to stay stood up was probably a good reason for this! Further along the coast I stopped again at Gemstone Beach, the beach here gets 'gemstones' thrown up onto...

I had hoped to stay another night here but due to a football or rugby match today there wasn't a bed to be found anywhere and it was damn cold, wet and windy for my little summer tent! I had a drive around the town and parked up next to the Railway station which is of the classic Late Victorian Gothic stlye and took some pictures and called at the superstore for some food before setting off south again. I had a break at a couple of places on the way and then after calling for fuel at Balaclutha I turned off the main road and followed the Scenic Route down the towards the coast and The Catlins, this road was a lot quieter and I drove through some beautiful scenery along the way. Part way along I saw a brown road sign for Cannibal Bay, it sounded interesting and I turned off the road onto a smaller country lane which quickly became a gravel road and twisted and turned for another 8km until it dropped over a crest and down to a huge virtually deserted beach. The sea was rolling in and...

A Shower and a strong coffee got me up and going this morning and I decided to drive down to Dunedin with is much further down the East Coast of the South Island. The road was good for most of the way being a single road with passing sections every 5km or so. They also have little private cafes along the way and many of these offer free coffee to drivers – all you have to do is sign the log sheet on the counter. Eventually after about 5 hours (I didn't realise it was that far) I got into Dunedin and called about 6 different hostels before I found one that had vacancies, luckily it was just around the corner from where I had parked up. The Manor Backpackers was an old rambling big Victorian House well suited to a hostel. I took a walk down into the town as I had read there was a Brewery in town and not one to miss a good pint?!? I went in search... Speights is just on the edge of the town centre on a hill and is built in the classic mill style of northern British brewery. There was...

Early morning alarm call from my Mum and Dad – thanks, you got me up in time to checkout! I took the hotel bus back the 500yds to the airport, well it was free. Back in the terminal I found a Vodafone concession and picked up a SIM card for my phone, then went to the Avis desk to get my car, this time a Toyota Corolla, bags in the back I drove into Christchurch and looked in the Lonely Planet for a hostel to stay at. The weather is a little like a normal wet Tuesday in Manchester.... wet and cold! I found the Jailhouse Hostel in the guide and gave them a ring, they had accommodation available so I headed down there, it's just outside town and took me a time to find it as it's hidden off the main road. It's called the Jailhouse as it actually was a prison until 1999 when it was decommissioned and turned into a hostel. Yes you actually stay in the old cells some of them have been knocked through to make dorms and some have been left exactly as they were on the day the last pr...

Got up at about 7:30 and had a shower and coffee at Jo's house before setting off to the airport. I stopped on the way to fill the car for the last time and then dropped it off at the Airport and went to check in, Adelaide Airport is about the same size as Liverpool, but less portacabins. I went to check in at the automated checkin but it didn't work and referred me to the service desk, luckily it was only because I had an onward flight from Melbourne so Igot my bags checked through to Christchurch ( good job really as they were over 22kg and the Jetstar flight from Melbourne is 20kb max) So all I had to do was pick up my second boarding ticket at Melbourne when I got there. I got a call from Ian Loxton asking where I was and I told him at the airport, and he surprised me when he said he was just going through security and would see me there! Somewhat confused I met him on the other side of security and found out that you don't need a boarding ticket here to go through secu...

A slow start today as this not being a public site you don't need to be off before 10am (and end up paying for another night.) I had a bit of a sort of the car and it's contents as stuff had spread every where over the last 3 weeks. The I drove down to 'the old house' which is the Original house from the Site and has been converted to to a bunkhouse and function centre. The building sleeps 60 and also has beautiful rooms downstairs which is often booked out for weddings and apparently make a nice income for the Scouts (it's booked up almost 2 years in advance!) Dennis the warden came down ad showed me around inside and we swapped a couple of badges and Campsite type stories – its the same all over no staff!!!) Eventually he got a call and had to go and I asked him how much and where to pay my fees, he just waved and said 'no worries' and drove off. Thanks Dennis! I left the campsite and drove just down the road to Handorf which is the oldest German settled t...

Up at about 8 to a lovely warm day, I showered and dropped the tent and then listend to the Amateur Radio News on the local repeater and called in at the end (just to keep the locals on their toes!) So off to find the Scout Camp; it was back up the Freeway we had used to drop into Adelaide the first day and I found the exit no problem at the top of the long climb out of Adelaide. At the first roundabout I saw a brown tourist sign for the Scenic Lookout at Mt. Lofty so I went to have a look. Mt. Lofty isn't really a mountain it's just compared to Adelaide which is all flat and almost at sea level it's a heck of a lot higher up. The view really is impressive though and you can see the whole of Adelaide spread out below you like a table cloth. The Central Business District (Town Center) stands out as it is the only part of the city which has high rise buildings and also it is surrounded on all sides by a large ring of parkland (which is fiercely protected by the cities residen...

I gave Ian a ring just to confirm details and left the campsite and drove up to the the North of Adelaide and managed to find Ian's house without too much difficulty, well I went around one block twice but that was because I got stuck in a left turn only lane. Ian and I have known each other from years back when the internet was still in it's infancy and we used a service called Compuserve which had forums for special interest groups. We were of course both in the Scouting Forum and Ian was already an Admin. Each October there is an international 'virtual' Jamboree called JOTI which originated on Amateur Radio and soon spread to the new fangled internet. We used a great new gadget that allowed the Scouts to be able to message each other directly on the Forum and we had Scouts at locations all over the world communicating. This was way before things like Instant Messenger or even the mass use of text messaging on mobile phones so it was a big thing then. At Middlewood w...

I was awoken early this morning but had a good nights sleep, the majority of the door were with a tour group and were up at 6 to leave at 7:30am. I let them all get up and run around before getting up and then went to shower in the strange washroom which was built in a huge converted watertank. Jeroen was up now and the owner made us both a coffee (but not from the grotty kitchen!) and then we walked around to the garage where his car was being stored. It did not look good the mechanic suspected the engine had seized but needed to check further so I left Jeroen with my number and went of to see the caves. The Narbrook caves were made thousands of years ago and are unique when water seeped into the limestone rocks and then formed channels underground, eventually holes appeared in the roofs of some of the chambers and animals fell in, these animals then died down in the caves and became preserved as fossils the sink-holes eventually sealed up with silt and detritus which also fell in r...

Got up this morning to a fine drizze. I called in a McDonalds for breakfact and to use the free Internet then drove on towards Adelaide. The road had now left the coast and I head inland a fair way. I stopped off at Mt Gambier to have a look at the Blue Lake. The lake is inside the crater of an extinct volcano and is now actually the towns water supply. The 'Mount' defies what is actually there as you don't seem to climb very high up to reach the rim of the crater, however looking down into it the water level of the lake is way down and a strange deep blue colour. It can't be a reflection from the sky either as it was actually chucking it down when I got there (what's new!) I sat and played radio for a bit chatting to a couple of radio amateurs on the local repeater, causing a little confusion as the guy I was speaking to couldn't understand my call sign. (My call is G7ELA and as I'm currently in 'VK5 land' I have to add that bit on the end so it be...

Feeling a lot better today, up and out early. The scenery is amazing and the road is a great driving road. I turned of the main road to take the side road down to Cape Otway Lighthouse. I thought it was only a short distance off the main road but it turned out to be 14 kilometres (which is really nothing here!) It claims to be the oldest continuously lit lighthouse in Australia and also the point where the first telegraph cable came ashore from Tasmaina. The Light house and the surrounding buildings is now a museum and the 'real lighthouse is a small 10ft post to the front of it (between it and the sea) with a small beacon light on it, this is due to modern shipping now using GPS to plot their passage through the straights to the South of the Lighthouse. Originally when the Lighthouse was in operation the beam could apparently be seen from 37km away at sea. The new one is visible to about 15! Before the lighthouse was built the straights were treacherous to shipping and many boat ...

Up at 8 this morning to go back into Melbourne to meet up with Tess from the Vietnam Tour. I parked the car in the Retail Park nest to the Camp Site and took the bus back into town. On the way I noticed that there was a Regional Scout Office on the Retail Park and made a mental note to call in on the way out of Melbourne to find a Scout Camp. I met up with Tess at Federation Square in the centre of Melbourne and we made our way down a series of streets and then alleys to what looked like a dead end back street, at the end was a small doorway which led into a small corridor and then up some stair to a tiny funky little restaurant/bar. It was called Bella Sister (or Sister Bella?) and a strange place that seemed to have organically grown with odd paintings on the walls and obscure phrases written on them and the walls. The seating consisted of tight bench seats and tables like you would get in a caravan or low cushioned stools and tables. The bar was wedged into one corner of the floor a...

I got up at about 9 after a really bad nights sleep my neck felt terrible this morning. I cleared the site and after a quick shower called in at the Wardens office to find out where the nearest doctors was. Luckily it was only just down the hill on the shopping area in Anglesea itself and I gingerly drove down there trying not to turn my neck. The doc, who was called Dr Ho (not Who!) was actually a Malaysian who had trained in the UK but now works here, diagnosed me as having and abscess caused by an ingrowing hair. He suspected it was due to my neck getting too sweaty at night. (I put this down to my inflatable pillow) He gave me local anesthetic and cut it open to drain off some of the puss and then patched me up. He also prescribed me a course of strong antibiotics which means no booze for the next week – bugger! The treatment and doc's fees cost $85 but luckily I found out the UK NHS has a reciprocal agreement with the Australia's equivalent Medi-care. So I had to pay up a...

I got up in the morning to my phone ringing from home had had a chat to everyone enjoying a party in my house back home (I hope you cleaned up – you know how I like my house spick and span!) I headed into the town again and then took a tram out to St. Kilda Beach to meet up with Jenny from the Vietnam Tour. We met at the 'big mouth' entrance of Luna Park (a bit like a mini Blackpool Pleasure Beach) In fact St Kilda was a little like Blackpool with a beech front promenade and lots of little shops and cafes, we took a walk along one of the streets which according to Jenny has been home to specialist cake shops for years, you name it if its a cake or sweet or covered in chocolate you could buy it here. We had lunch at one of the restaurants here then walked up the promenade towards the other end of the town. along the front were lots of stalls which set up on a Sunday selling handmade arts and crafts of all descriptions, at the main part of the town we found out that it also happ...

In the morning the storm had cleared and I had thought of heading up into the Snowy Mountains before heading into Melbourne but the site owner said the storms and rain were still lingering up there so I decided to give it a miss. Back onto the highway for the 6hr drive down to Melbourne. The highway in most parts is dual carriageway but occasionally drops down to a two lane road as it passes through towns. One of these towns is called Hamilton and I had to double take as I got to the centre to find a full size submarine in the middle of the town. I had to stop and take a look. The story goes that the town was once called Germanton, which for obvious reasons didn't ring too well during the Wars, so the town decided to rename the town. To cut a long story short the decided on the name of a British Submarine Captain called Hamilton, and there the association with submarines began, so when HMAS Oxley was to be scrapped the town bought it and 'semi-submerged' it in the centre of...

I planned to spend a couple of days here in Melbourne so I took my time getting up and had breakfast then did some washing in the morning then took the local bus into Melbourne centre in the afternoon. It took about 30mins and dropped me right in the centre. I'd had a look through the Lonely Planet Guide the night before and found a self guided walking tour of the city centre in it so I intended to follow that. I had already been in contact with Jenny and Tess from my Vietnam tour who live in Melbourne and Jenny suggested I first wander down the South bank of the river and have a look in the Sydney Casino. It was huge and packed as it was Saturday Afternoon, I resisted the temptation to have a gamble but it was interesting to see the different games being played and the amounts being wagered – a taste of thing to come in Vegas I think. Back in the town it's self I followed the walking tour in the guide book down the wide streets and tiny little 'laneways'. I was really ...

Got up early this morning and drove back down the central area of Canberra and went to the National Museum of Australia. The museum is in a strikingly modern building on the edge of Lake Burley Griffin. The Main entrance gives little away as to what is in the museum and a long sloping corridor leads up to the exhibition halls, however to enter them you have to wait to enter a rotating cinema called Circa, As you sit down in a quadrant shaped theatre a large screen explodes into life with images of the development of Australia as a continent, other screens on the roof expand the images around you. After a couple of minutes the whole of the seating area starts to move around in a clockwise direction and stops at another set of screens, this time showing images from aboriginal beginnings, then the seating moves again to show the early days of colonial influences and other settlers to the land, finally it moves again to show the modern Australia. Ech different quadrant has a different layo...

In the morning I got up and made a sausage barm and coffee for breakfast then went out to try and see the sights of the area, The YHA was in Katoomba which is famous for the Three Sisters rock formation so I drove down the road to view point but it was total white out fog so I drove around to the 'Scenic View' Resort where you can go down the edge of the mountain on the worlds steepest railway walk around a 'rain' forest and then come back up on a glass bottomed gondola all for the price of about $28,on being told the cloud base was down to the rain forest I saw little point in paying that much, to get soaked, to see very little. So I looked around the overpriced gift shop and left. I drove around to the Tree Sisters again and this time I thought I'd best try and see at least something so I parked up and walked down to the viewing point. Luckily for me just as I got there the cloud opened up enough for me to get a quick couple of pictures before closing in again (an...

Sydney and Bondi and the wet Blue Mountains I cleared off the Sydney site this morning and headed back to the station to get the train down to Bondi Beach. The line I was on luckily went straight through to Bondi Junction and then I had to get a bus down to the beach. It all seemed a bit over-rated with not much 'surf' to speak of but I took a walk down on the beach and along it and managed to get stung by one of the many 'bluebottle' jellyfish that get swept ashore here. They don't hurt too much it's bit stronger than a stinging nettle. They look like a small translucent purse with a blue central part and a long tail of 'legs' and it's these that have the stinging barbs. Having 'done' the beach I took the bus back to Bondi Junction then the train back to the car and headed out to go and see the Blue Mountains, so called because the views over them are spectacular with a strange blue haze (which some say is because of oil from the Eucalyptus ...

The site I was on was a good way into the southern Suburbs of Sydney but there was a local train service close by so I took that into the city centre being able to park for free next to the station. Once in Sydney I walked down through the town to Darling Harbour which is has been developed to be a recreation area with bars and restaurants around it. I had a quick sandwich here and watched the world go by as short rain shower blew through then took the ferry boat out from the Harbour out into the river and under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which as soon as your are under it the Opera House comes into view. I had only paid for the singe trip so alighted at the next dock which is Circular Quay (which doesn't seem to be very circular!) I walked up through the centre of the town and found an internet cafe and checked my mail then coming out I took the Monorail which runs around the town to see the sights then finally decided to call it a a day and head back to the campsite.

I had been told the hunter valley was worth a visit, this is where a large chunk of Australian wine comes from and if your a wine buff (which I'm not is well worth a visit). However as usual as headed up the valley the rain came in hard. Visibility was down to about 100yds and there was only one camp site in the area, so I had a drive around first and came across a micro- brewery come pub/bistro/hotel. I went into the brewery part but there was already a tour on and the next was not till late in the afternoon so I looked in the pub area to buy some bottles of their beer; A black lager and an IPA but at $15 a bottle was a little steep. With the rain still coming down I decided to move on and drove on down to Sydney. On the way out of the Hunter Valley, I stopped at a roadside cafe/fuel station for a coffee. Round the back was a place called Kulnara Sculptures and the chap there showed me some of the things he had made – all from scrap, His current seller were 'Ned Kelly' ma...

I got up early and left at 10am after sausage barms and coffee for breakfast. I also had to reset my watch as I was now in New South Wales which has summer time and so was a hour different to Brisbane ( I hadn't realised that) After Driving for a couple of hours I stopped at a small town called Macksville and had a coffee in a local Milk Bar. The owner came over with the coffee and noticing I was browsing the road atlas gave me a couple of pointers for the drive ahead. The Highway had started off as a 3 lane motorway in Brisbane and had dropped down to a 2 lane dual-carriageway and was now just a single road with just two lanes, So traveling was going to take longer. As the coffee man had suggested (and others) I came off the Highway and headed into Port Macquarie. I stopped at a pub for lunch of a huge steak and salad then drove down to the 'front'. As it was weekend most of the local kids were down there and were jumping off the jetty into the deep channel that passed c...

In the morning the rains had stopped and I left the site around 10am and went back into the Town Byron Bay is a mall town of little shops and fairly eclectic in that it has a hippy feel to it. The council here have strived to keep it this way and kept out most of the big stores and concerns. I drove through the town and parked up at the base of the Headland walking round to the most Easterly point of Australia then up to the Lighthouse, A short rain squall came in again but it was still hot and humid and I was dripping more with sweat than rain when I got to the top. I walked back down to car and went back to the car and called back in the town for an iced coffee before setting off back on the Highway. After a couple of hours I got to Coff's Harbour which was not at all what I had expected. This is a large sprawling town which sits back from the sea. The is a large harbour down at the coast but I was fairly tired by now and just wanted to chill so I checked into a campsite and cal...

I left Mark and Caroline's the next day at around 9ish and first drove to the local shopping mall which had not only a food store but also a camping store so I was able to get a tent and coolbox etc for the trip down south. A night on a campsite here costs about the same as a bed in a dorm in a cheap backpacker's hostel and most of them have a camp kitchen where you can cook up a meal or use the freezers overnight. I headed South out of Brisbane and the roads were good although the advanced signing is not as good as the UK and you have to really know the road numbers and names of all the roads you need to get through a major area. Once on the Pacific Highway there was no problems and I soon came to the turn off for Surfers Paradise which is essentially Benidorm without the Spanish! (It's funny how these places replicate themselves around the world!) I walked down onto the beech area and took a couple of pictures then rejoined the highway South down to Byron Bay. I arrived ...

I woke early, well earlier than I intended at around 7am and as it was already warm got up and had a breakfast of cereal and coffee and walked down to the train station with Caroline as she was walking their two children Annalee & Archie to their nursery which is on the way. I couldn't believe how hot it was; 8:30am and it was already hitting 30. I was soaked with sweat by the time I got to the station. A short train ride and I was in central Brisbane. The first place I came across was a Telstra shop so I dived in to get a local mobile SIM card then into the main shopping area I found a discount book shop and picked up a good Road Atlas and a copy of the Lonely Planet Guide. I walked on through to the Botanic Garden which sits on a bend of the river and was very quiet at this time of the day but still not much of a respite from the heat. I did as Mark had suggested and took a river ferry down the river and got off on the South Bank then followed the path back up to the central...

I got the usual grilling at customs again but this was to be expected, Australia has very tight rules on goods brought in to the country, especially anything organic. So I declared everything including my wet-shoes ('cos I'd walked on Vietnamese soil in them. Everything got through ok and they didn't take anything off me, The shoes got spayed with methylated spirits and my Fisherman's Friend's were deemed safe! I went to the Avis desk to get the car and was told unfortunately they didn't have the car I'd booked but would I mind a free upgrade to a higher grade car as it needed to be taken back down South anyway; a Vauxhall Omega (But badged Holden) I got some cash from the ATM and gave Mark a ring, Mark is Jane Lomas' brother and he lives out in Brisbane, Jane had already rung ahead and asked Mark if Icould stay with him and his family for a day or two and it was no problem. Mark gave me directions to his house and armed with a copy of the Brisbane ...