Chilling out in Brisbane

In Brisbane we traded in Hank for a few nights in a hostel. It wasn't a tearful goodbye, as we were more than ready to ditch the van after another week of constantly being on the go. Australia is so much bigger than we'd imagined, and yes, perhaps we should have heeded the advice of our friends who'd done the trip before us and given ourselves more time to do the drive... But honestly after four or five coastal towns we were thrilled to be back in a bustling city!






We dropped off Hank in the morning and made our way slowly into the heart of Brisbane on foot. The walk was gorgeous, and we took our time getting to the hostel by stopping at the markets and checking out several live artistic performances along the way. On the plus side we found an Australian travel book for Ewan so he could learn more about that Aussie history we keep meaning to get into. On the minus- it was a Bill Bryson book, and he turned out to be very obsessed with all the critters, large and small, that could kill us in Australia. So now everywhere we go, ewan spouts out four or five facts about seemingly harmless animals that can kill us before I can say "damn you Bill Bryson!"- it's all kinds of fun.



Our hostel ended up being a surprising score- it was just a 10 minute walk from the city and the riverfront, and there was a separate guest house for the three double rooms with a shared kitchen and living area to ourselves! We met a lovely Irish couple that was in the same boat as us, traveling around before going back to work and the real world. We also met a young Danish couple who were using their government-issued 900 euros a month salary for being students, to travel during their break. What a life.


The hostel was also only a five minute walk to the local rugby stadium, and it just so happened that the Queensland Reds were playing the night we checked in! So the four of us set out to the game sporting any red we had. The Dutch didnt know a Thing about rugby, and ewan only knew a handful of rules, so we became the default experts for them. Not sure that was entirely healthy for anyone but we had a great time explaining the parts we knew and making up anything we didn't. Queensland slaughtered the South African opponents and I finally figured out what a scrum is- all in all a great night!



The next day we explored Brisbane's beautiful riverfront by bike. This time we were sure to get locks on the bikes, and made sure to stay close in case any queenstown thieves were about. We checked out the man made lagoon - beach street-and soaked up the sun while it lasted. That afternoon the weather took a cloudy turn, so being the cultured couple we are, we visited the musuem of modern art Queensland and pretended to understand the abstract sculpture displays on the guided tour. We lasted an entire two hours before ewan's restless leg syndrome kicked in and we had to leave.






That night we went for a drink with the Irish couple, John and Emma, and ran into Ewans old mate Pedro from UK Elite! I thought it was an incredibly random sighting, but ewan assured me that running into Pedro in a bar anywhere is anything but coincidence. The more we travel the smaller this big ole world seems!




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Byron Bay in the off season

From all our research (30 mins on google and the lonely planet) Byron was meant to be quite the party/hippie scene of the east coast. Which really doesn't mean much, since that's what we've experienced from most the towns along the way!



But Byron in the offseason didn't really live up to the people watching rep we'd heard about. Most the backpacker bars were sleepy, and the beach was the first ewan agreed was too cold to swim. So instead of getting our tans on and beach bumming like we'd planned, we went for a tramp to the Byron lighthouse. It was a gorgeous walk, packed with tourists. All kinds of tourists, too, from buses of Japanese groups to these guys sharing their passion for weed with the world. There's the Byron spirit we'd heard off!







Two days in Byron was more than enough for us, so we hit the road to Brisbane with a few extra days to spare. On the way we stopped off at mt. Warning to get our sweat on, and do some hiking through the rainforest.



The hike started off a bit weird. We'd heard it was a challenging trail, ending with a steep chain climb at the top, so we were expecting the warning signs and usual notices. But we didn't expect the sign at the beginning explaining the trail was a sacred Aboriginal Site, and the local tribes ask that no one climbs it. We weren't sure whether to keep going, or turn around... But other hikers assured us that the trail was fine to do, and not to be put off by the warnings. We decided this time to press on, but figured we should really do some more reading up on the issue.



We felt weird about doing it... But the hike was fantastic. Sure enough the last climb had us scrambling up the side of the rocky mountain on our hands and knees, using a metal chain to keep from slipping down. We passed an older hiker on the climb and stopped when ewan recognized the accent he was swearing in- we'd met another Geordie! This guy was a retired cop from Newcastle and relocated to Australia in the 1970s. We had to get a photo.




Just goes to show, you can find a Geordie everywhere!

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Pit Stop in Port Macquarie

Two years ago Ewan was best man in our friends Al and Kat's wedding back in England, and while he was off performing his duties, one of Kat's bridesmaids used his hotel room for her son's nap time. Nicole lives in port macquarie, and so ewan wanted to make a quick stop to see how his little friend was getting on.(and Nicole, of course!)

We picked up our second camper van from Jucy, a company we'd made lots of fun of in new Zealand, but due to the Australian budget constraints we were under were forced to eat our words and rent one of their "penthouse" vehicles. If the britz was Howie jr., we decided the Jucy was the hick cousin no one talked about but whose presence was undeniable. You can see how inconspicuous "hank" was roaming the streets out of Sydney up the coast...




We stopped for a night at a backpacker campsite some friends recommended for the wildlife. Unfortunately the most abundant wildlife we encountered was of the mosquito variety, and we spent most the night squashing the lil buggers. We made up for it in the morning though when we got to meet Joanna, the owner's pet kangaroo!






A few hours drive and we were at Nicole's house in port Macquarie. Oliver was now 3, and had a little brother, Xavier, who immediately took a shining to us, and our shoes. We spent the night catching up, playing with the boys and figuring out the rest of our east coast trip.



We took off early the next morning, stopped at the local koala sanctuary to check out how more of ewans babies were recovering (he's now adopted baby fur seals, kangaroos and koalas ).



We then went for a spur of the moment dolphin viewing trip in the harbor. Both guidebooks and locals touted the area as the best spot in oz to see the dolphins, and once we heard the stats for sightings from the captain, we signed right up. The boat went out more than 600 times a year, and missed seeing the dolphins an average of 8 times. Ewan did however take a swim in the boats boom net much to the enjoyment of the rest of the boat who decided the water was too cold!



Unlucky for us, we were one of those eight boats. But we did get a great day for sailing, and saw tons of seagulls... Which is almost as good. Almost.





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The Manly Side of Sydney

After the whirlwind that was New Zealand, we decided against most of our fellow travelers' advice and chose to stay in Sydney longer than the token three day tour. And we were so glad we did!



The extended stay was all due to the hospitality of Ewan's friends Kathryn and Loz. These lovely Geordies put us up, fed us and directed us in all the right directions. We thoroughly took advantage of the free accomodation and wonderful company. Although Loz quickly latched onto ewans habit of pointing out every giant spider in the city, we somehow managed to become friends. This laid back Aussie attitude must be catching...



The Browns live in Manly Beach, which is a beautiful 25 min ferry ride away from the harbor and far enough away from the hustle and bustle of the city, but in a lively neighborhood of its own. Despite the masculine name, Manly Beach made much more of an impression on us for its feminine qualities... Mainly the 6' tanned modelesque women who overran the beaches. It only took us a day on the beach and a drink at the local pub that night to realize Sydney and Manly Beach could be in our near future. (80 degrees on a fall day? Yes, please!)



The next day we took in the tourist sights on the hop on/off sightseeing tour bus. Even though we knew how touristy we looked, we couldn't stop taking photos of the opera house.With the water glistening in the background on a sunny day, it's even more gorgeous than we expected.



We stopped off at the busy Chinatown district, and walked the rest of the way back to circular quay and the harbor to get our heads around the city's layout. Sydney's green spaces and public parks would put seattle to shame, and we spent most the afternoon wandering around and soaking up the sun.

That night we met up with Kathryn and Loz in town at British chef Jamie Olivers new restaurant in town and had the best meal out since leaving Seattle.




The next morning we hopped the tour bus again, this time to famous Bondi Beach. We did the tourist walk along the coast, and spent half our time checking out the natural scenery, and the other half gawking at the people on the beach. This guy taught his dog to head a soccer ball back to him... Which was how I lost ewan for a good 15 minutes!






Besides transport to bondi, the hop on bus gave us a few facts on the local history. Inbetween some horrendously corny jokes, We learned that this seaside pool had a very exclusive swim club membership. To become an "iceberg" you Have to swim there every sunday for four continuous years!


All in all we were pretty impressed with Sydney, and are seriously trying to remember the downfalls to an 80 degrees-in-fall climate. (i have to keep thinking of the spiders!) but London has all that... Right? :)





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Location:Sydney

Fergbergers and thieves part 2

After playing detectives and cursing Queenstown all day, we were excited to see our friends and go out for a few pints. (finally!) chris and Emma came in Friday night, and wouldnt you know it, they landed a camper spot right next to us.

We hit the town for dinner and ended up at queenstowns most famous restaurant- the home of the Fergburger. We'd all heard the hype, and ewan, being the burger lover that he is, wasn't expecting much. But the Ferg was amazing. It was bigger than our heads!





We spent the next two days taking long walks through the scenic parks, along the waterfront and just hung out. On Saturday we took the touristy Gondala ride and raced on the way down- Chris is even more afraid of height than ewan, and Emma's even more competitive than I am...which made for an interesting day!






It was amazing having some familiar faces around, even if we'd only met Chris and Emma a month ago! We were sad to leave them, but I'm sure we'll be seeing more of them when we're back in the U.K. This summer!

Next stop: Sydney!




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Ferbergers and thieves part 1

Well, it turns out all our guidebooks and friends finally agreed about something: Queenstown turned out to be more beautiful than all the hype. We drove in Thursday evening and saw more action in the downtown than all the south island cities combined...and it was (gasp!) after6pm! Usually the towns shut down somewhere between sunset and630, which we hear is a common occurrence and not just because we roll into town.



The next morning we woke up to clear, sunny skies and decided to tramp around the waterfront and get to know the area a bit. We'd made plans to meetup with some new friends of ours who we met in Fiji, so this would officially be our longest stop in NZ at four days. So we decided to leave the real touristy stuff until Chris and Emma arrived, and do other (cheap) things so we could afford a few nights out.



After the walk, we asked around in town for A relatively easy hike we could do in the afternoon. Someone recommended the Queenstown hill trek, and pointed us up the street towards the hills and we were off. Twenty minutes later we were huffing and puffing our way up one of the steepest "hill" climbs I'd ever done. We quickly realized how out of shape we were when a firefighter in full gear came sprinting up the trail behind us. Probably a good guy to have in a tough situation, but he was really showing us up! The trip was well worth the embarrassment though, check out the stunning views from the top!







The next day we decided to Follow the rest of the waterfront trail, but this time we'd go the easy route and bike it. It was another ridiculously gorgeous morning, and we set off towards the Hilton to get a coffee and see some sights. Everyone told us the newly built Hilton was the perfect spot to to stop along the way. At $400 a night rooms, we stuck out like sore thumbs amongst the other guests but the views were spectacular, and they had heated bathrooms! We could almost see how people would plunk down such a chunk of change to stay in such a nice spot, until we came out of the cafe and realized that While my bike helmet was still firmly attached to handlebars... They weren't my handlebars. Someone had jacked my bike while we were sipping our coffee and I'd taken the longest bathroom break in history to sit in the Hilton's posh and heated bathrooms. Whoops.



After several conversations with the hotel manager and staff, we found a group of guys eating breakfast who thought they'd seen someone pedaling off with it down the peninsula trail. So ewan jumped on his bike to see if he could track the culprit down while I called the police with the manager. Ewan ended up not finding any thieves (which in hindsight, we thought was a pretty good thing!) and so we were shuttled into town to the police station. Funny thing about kiwis and Queensland-- everyone we talked to was shocked a bike would be stolen, nd equally determined that it would somehow show up again. After living in seattle for the past several years, we were pretty positive that bike wasn't reappearing anytime soon. So after filling out a report at the station we stopped back at the bike shop. Our $20 rental was going to cost us more than $1400 to replace unless we could track it down.

In came the campervan detectives. We jumped into Howie Jr. And drove around the streets of Queenstown like Sherlock Holmes incarnate. Ewan suspected everyone on a bike whether they were 60 or 6 years old.
After a two hours of scouring the streets, we returned to the scene of the crime for one final search. And there it was- my muddy, custom Queenstown bike shop rental in almost the exact spot we'd left it. We couldn't agree on whether it was an entitled Hilton guest who mistook our bike for one they could take without asking just because they're rich (ewans theory) or an entitled local needing wheels fast to get to town and back (my version). Either way, after the roller coaster day we were thrilled to see that stupid bike and even more thrilled to get the $1400 credit back on our cards. Whew!




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Location:Queenstown

West coast whirlwind

With only a week left in New Zealand the picturesque west coast drive down the south island was a bit of a whirlwind. All our trusted guidebooks and untrusted friends claimed Queenstown would be the highlight of the trip for us, but having seen so many gorgeous beaches, mountains and everything inbetween, we started thinking what'd we'd already done would be impossible to top.



No matter what, we knew we had to make a pit stop at the glaciers, so we drove through the afternoon into the night to get halfway to Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers on the west coast.



The drive to Glacier country proved to be really interesting. There wasn't much in the way of big towns - as one of the cafe workers said to us at Franz Joseph, "I'm from about 20 kilometers away from here... And I never go back, not unless I have to help out on the farm.."

In between the sheep filled farms though there were several tiny towns leftover from the NZ gold rush. We only stopped in Greymouth, the largest of the old gold mining towns, long enough for ewan to refuel with a flat white (espresso with milk)... and for me to leave my purse in the cafe. Whoops.

Unfortunately I didn't realize I'd lost my purse until we stopped at Franz Joseph to do a day hike and I couldn't find my credit cards. Fortunately, as we'd only made one stop on the way, we knew right where my purse would be. After wasting the next few hours trying to find wifi, phone cards and post offices, we finally figured out how to have an empty package sent back to Greymouth and on to Christchurch At the campervuan rental... Fingers crossed it actually makes it there before our flight, with my i.d., cards and iPod in there! (oh yeah, and most importantly, three boxes of half eaten chewing gum. That's how we identified the purse...)

Finally we were off to trek on the glacier! Only, the trail to the glacier ended up being closed for the week due to flooding, so the we made the hike in record time (just waiting on the Tasha and ewan statue to be erected... Any time noemi sure) but didn't get to the glacier. I guess that's what Photoshops for eh? :)

Instead of waiting for the trail to clear we plowed on towards Queenstown. After one of the most amazing drives of The trip,we crept into Lake Wanaka late that night. We figured we would take off first thing in the morning, but once we saw what we were waking up to....




We quickly changed our minds and stayed. It was gorgeous weather, if a little chilly, so we did a hike in the morning and hung out at the lake all afternoon. It's hard to imagine Queenstown can beat this, but we'll find out tomorrow!




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Location:Fox Glacier, Lake Wanaka N-Zed

Kaikoura

After overindulging in boozy Blenheim, we set off down the east coast to soak in some sun in the beach town of Kaikoura. Because of our extreme underplanning for this trip, we only had a day to cram as much as we could out of the picture perfect coastal town.







We started with a three hour trek around the peninsula that took us up along the cliffs and overlooked several fur seal colonies. We were expecting to see them lazing about on the rocks below... And were more than a little surprised to find seals popping up all over the trail. On the pathway, in a bus shelter, on the docks and in the bushes.


(they weren't surprised to see us, but judging by the growls coming from this one I'd say he didn't like ewan trying to give him a cuddle!)



We finished the trek and were ready to jump into the van to head to the west coast, when someone told us about a colony of baby seals up the road. Being the practical one out of the two of us, (right) i pointed out that would take us at least an hour out of our way. But ewan really, really wanted to see "his babies" and we headed back north.



It turned out the detour was completely worth it, so I ate my words as we watched hundreds of baby seals playing in the waterfalls. It's too bad our photography skills couldn't match up to how amazingly cute they were,(they're a bit blurry, we know) but i think ewan was just too overcome with all the emotion...



On to the west coast!





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Location:South island, NZ

Marlborough wine tasting tour

In order to experience New Zealand's famous Marlborough region and give it the proper respect it deserved... We decided we had to ditch the camper van and find alternate means of transportation. You know... To better appreciate the picturesque scenery and soak in the atmosphere and all that.



We were also getting a little tired of the run of the mill holiday parks with concrete bathrooms and sterile kitchens full of fluorescent lighting and microwaves from the eighties. So we were thrilled when we stumbled upon a backpacker campground off the beaten track. The owners, Pat and Pam, were a lovely older Kiwi couple who had renovated their property into the hostel after their (8!) children had flown the coop. The house was heated with carpet, there were actual dishes and real knives to use in the kitchen, and Pam made us feel like we were part of the Family.







It was also incredibly convenient for wine tasting- they threw in bike rentals for the day and gave us a Pam-personalized map of all the best (read: free!) wineries to try. We headed off into the sun with our maps in hand and helmets firmly on. (Pam insisted...)



Within the first five wineries we'd sampled more than our fair share of free sauvignon blanc and Pinot Gris... But we were on a bike tour loop so had to finish it off! Ewan chatted up the guy at the last winery on our list so much he kept opening up new bottles...and We ended up drinking about five pints of wine. We'd also missed our bike return curfew! So with our stomachs full of vino we sped back along the highway and got back just in time for some drunken shark and chip takeaway. Oh, and a little of a disapproving look from Pat as we sheepishly turned our bikes back in after dark. Whoops!



(ewan winning over a one of the tasters with his "nose stuck in a champagne flute" party trick...how that keeps working for him I'll never know, but they loved it.)

All in all, it was a perfect day and the perfect birthday present ( again ).


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Location:South Island, NZ