Feb 2007

Well I won't bore you with the few days before Mammy's flight arrived in Auckland, except to say that my grand plans to continue improving my new diving skills were thwarted somewhat ...

Pool, check, white plastic deckchairs, check, potted plant, check, water ... ah

Anyway, we were there at the airport ready for her when she arrived very late on Valentine's day, with a poxy little sheet of A4 paper that said 'Kia Ora Mammy' (to help her identify us as it has been a little while since we last saw each other). There were a group of Finns there at the same time, also waiting for family, with an over-the-top, totally ostentatious sign decorated with flags and kiwis and sheep - and Gareth and I were truly jealous of it. The sign didn't help them when their family arrived though, because they still looked daft when they rugby tackled their family to the floor as they came through the arrival doors. Luckily they had all gone by the time Mammy came through the doors like a contestant from 'Stars in their Eyes' and she seemed quite happy with our more restrained, and very British, effort.

No sign of jetlag yet

We know Mammy loves shopping so first stop was the supermarket around the corner for a few supplies (always good after a 24 hour flight) then back to the airport hotel, where, after a quick catch up we put her to bed as soon as possible in the hope of fending off the jetlag.

Eggs Benedict, yum

Next morning over breakfast we ran through the plan for the next three weeks - a whistlestop tour around North Island taking in as much as possible and (hopefully) giving Mammy the trip of a lifetime. There were no arguments from Mammy - who was busy getting into her first flat white coffee - so it was agreed and off we set...

We'd hired a car for our first fortnight (a sad little Nissan Sunny whose best days were definitely behind it, and even those days weren't that great) and first stop was Raglan, on the West Coast, known for its world-class surfing at Manu Bay - and yes, you've guessed it, flat as a pancake when we arrived. (Incidentally, now that we've left Queensland, Dai has confirmed that the surf is back.) Raglan was pretty enough, with a row of shops along one main street but with no surf, and the arrival of rain the mext morning, we decided to move on to the town of New Plymouth, in the Taranaki region.

"Sarah, your mum will be fine travelling in here"

It was an epic drive - despite New Zealand being tiny compared with Australia, the scenic, winding roads here take a lot longer to navigate than the easy, straight roads we'd got so bored of in Queensland. Driving to New Plymouth took nearly all day - but when we arrived there was some surf!

Catch it while you can

I was more impressed by the sight of beautiful Mt Taranaki, the volcano that gives the region its name, visible from the car park above the surf beach.

Pretty spectacular

Now for some facts about the volcano - I can give you lots. First of all, at 2518m high, it is the most-climbed mountain in New Zealand and was the stand-in for Mt Fuji in Tom Cruise's film The Last Samurai. More interesting is the Maori legend that explains that Taranaki once stood with the other volcanoes in the Tongariro National Park area, until Taranaki and Tongariro himself had a bit of a bust-up over a girl volcano, Pihanga (isn't it always over a girl?) and Taranaki fled west, tearing up a wide scar across the country where the Whanganui River now flows. Now Taranaki hides his face behind a cloud of tears. Sad, isn't it?

Mt Taranaki is one of the wettest places in New Zealand and there is a saying:

If you can see Mt Taranaki it's going to rain and if you can't see Mt Taranaki it's already raining.

I could see that was true because by the time we came up from the beach the mountain had completely vanished from view. I guessed it had started raining over there...

While we were in New Plymouth, Mammy decided it was time for more flat whites. These are a really nice coffee that you can get here in New Zealand and in Oz. They're quite addictive and Mammy had got the bug. We went into a cafe and Mammy ordered one each for us, getting into a bit of bother with the New Zealand accent, which is a bit clipped and flat. The conversation went a bit like this:

Mammy: Three flat whites please
Waiter: Three flit whuyts. Thut'll be tin dollars fufty cints
Mammy: I'm sorry? How much?
Waiter: Tin fufty
Mammy: How much?

At this point Gareth stepped in to translate, ten dollars fifty cents please. Here started the running joke of the trip and we found many, many ways to use it.

What time do we have to check out tomorrow? Tin o'clock

How long until our washing is finished? Tin minutes

What are you doing in the water? I'm putting my tin toes in the Tasman Sea

...and so on.

From New Plymouth we headed south towards Wellington, where we'd run into a bit of a problem with our laid-back attitude to booking accommodation. That evening the Wellington Hurricanes were playing the Auckland Blues in the Super 14 rugby and the night before, New Zealand had whooped the Aussies' butts in the cricket, so there were no rooms in Wellington and we had to stay just outside in a place called Porirua. There was nothing much there except a fish and chip shop where we got our supper. Now the only thing I put on my chips is salt, but Mammy and Gareth love vinegar and in New Zealand they don't seem to understand that chips without vinegar is WRONG. Mammy obviously planned for us to eat chips a few more times over the holiday because at the next opportunity she bought a huge bottle of vinegar, possibly the biggest I've ever seen - certainly more than big enough for a three week trip where only two of you like vinegar.

Product shown actual size

Next day we made up for lost time in Wellington - first stop was the red cable car - running since 1902, which took us up to Kelburn. From here there were beautiful views over the city and also the Skyline restaurant, where we had lunch before wandering over to the Botanical Gardens. The gardens were a bit wild but they did have a few weird and wonderful things to look at, including a sundial where you used your body to tell the time (it worked!).

Sarah's true vocation was as an Army Physical Training Instructor

Later on we found a few exhibits that were supposedly something to do with light and sound but we never really worked them out.

Gareth would never make the mistake of trying to take an unpeeled banana off an elephant again...

After getting the cable car back down to the city, we wandered across the waterfront to Te Papa, the national museum. I'd heard rave reviews about this place and they weren't wrong. For starters, it was free! By the time we arrived, it was about 4pm and with the museum spread across five floors we were never going to see everything - but in two hours we managed to visit the museum's own Marae (Maori meeting place), find out a bit about Maori culture, see some of New Zealand's wildlife, get coffee and cake, experience an earthquake and learn about volcanoes and do a virtual bungee jump! Phew!

Mammy had completely forgotten the universal diving sign for shark

After dinner that evening in an Italian restaurant, where Gareth met someone he knew through work in Cardiff (he had come travelling himself but reached New Zealand and never left - small world!) we had another important place to visit - Wellington's Welsh pub, owned by my Auntie Margaret's cousin Michael. The Welsh Dragon is apparently the only Welsh pub in the Southern Hemisphere - it was weird, walking into a pub decorated with Welsh flags and photos, listening to Welsh music, and being served by a barman from Abergele.

Iechyd Da!

Despite Michael not being there, we had a good time, which got even better when a skinny South American in flip flops walked in and started playing Lionel Richie on the battered old piano. As you can imagine, being Lionel Richie's Number One fan, I was in my element. So was Gareth, and it took a few hours, several beers and a Black Russian (this is a drink, not a person) before we managed to get him back to the hotel.

Next morning, to clear the cobwebs and Gareth's hangover we drove to the top of Mount Victoria for fantastic views of Wellington harbour, the city, and its surrounds, followed by a quick stop at Wellington Cathedral before we headed to Napier, another epic drive away, on the East coast.

Mammy was made to stay behind after class

Napier is known for its Art Deco architecture, the result of rebuilding following the 1931 earthquake that virtually destroyed the city. Well, they call it a city, I think that Llanelli could easily claim city status if it was here in NZ. We'd booked into a motel right on the front and it was early to bed because next morning we had big plans, starting at about 5am when our alarm went off and I called Andrew at Early Morning Balloons to confirm that our hot-air balloon trip was still on - and it was!

The website said that with Early Morning Balloons we would be up in the air in time to see the sunrise - at 6am we were still faffing about in the car park trying to decide where to go and by 7am we had finally found somewhere to 'launch' from - if that's what they say. Getting the balloon ready to go took ages although it was quite cool to watch - and the sun was well risen by the time were ready to go. Thankfully they don't use a foot pump for the balloon, as it was absolutely huge and took about twenty minutes to inflate with an industrial size fan. There were six passengers plus Andrew and it was a bit of a squeeze in the basket. One of the other passengers was an ex-pat, originally from Chester, who was quite possibly the most boring man ever, with lots of little anecdotes to tell (many about tinned fruit), none of which were even remotely connected to the conversation going on. Fortunately for him (and us) he was wedged up the other end of the basket as otherwise I fear that Gareth might have thrown him over the side before the end of the trip.

The balloon ride lasted about an hour and with hardly any wind at all, the main issue wasn't keeping it up in the air but making sure we went far enough to avoid all the orchards in Hawkes Bay. It was a very smooth landing, with no bumps, then we were served a 'Ballooning Breakfast' which was lovely although somewhere along the line I foolishly agreed to drive so I had to do without most of my glass of fizz!

Gareth now realised why Sarah and Cheryl had been so quiet

Back in Napier that afternoon we relaxed a bit with a few more flat whites and a wander around the shops and the beach.

Undercover flat white drinker

Best to take it easy with what we had planned for the next week ...

Hello everybody - sorry for being so slow to update the blog recently - normal service has now resumed. This blog is a bit of a combined monster effort, me first then Gareth. There is a lot to tell so get a cup of tea and a ginger biscuit and enjoy...

Off we all set to Caloundra, with Dai's car loaded up with stuff and a trailer behind us carrying surfboards, a fake Christmas tree, the laundry basket and an ironing board. After only a short while in the country, the new Australian residents and the two cling-on backpackers had managed to accummulate quite a lot of new stuff. Once we'd unpacked all our stuff we decided to celebrate by ordering a takeaway from the Chinese down the road - so Gareth and Dai set off and came back with a massive box of food - our hopes were high - but dashed when we tucked into the food, which was awful. I don't know whether it was the stress of the move, but we persuaded Dai to phone the takeaway to complain and then Di and I marched back down the street with the box, still full of food, to demand a refund. They gave us back about half the money after a lengthy discussion during which Di and I tried and failed to explain to the owners of the takeaway exactly why we didn't like their lemon chicken and chilli beef - so at least we went to bed with our wallets a bit fuller even if our bellies were still rumbling.

Next day we decided to split up for a bit of fun. Dai and Gareth headed off for nine holes of golf and Di and I booked a trek at a local horse-riding centre. As usual, there is a bit of a story behind this. At Christmas time, Dai and Gareth bought me and Di a lovely Christmas present each - a manicure and pedicure at a beauty salon in Tweed Heads called Splash (remember this name if you ever plan to visit Queensland). This was perfect, especially for me, who after a few months travelling, had forgotten how to put nail polish on. We were booked in for the day before we flew to Sydney for New Year's Eve - so we would be all poshed up in time for our big night out on the harbour. Sadly, things did not go to plan - my manicurist was a bit over-eager with the cuticle clippers and ended up drawing blood (and as I remember it, nearly severing my little finger from the rest of my hand) and it was Di's manicurist's first day at the salon - she had less beauty school experience than me - and Di had to ask her to take all the polish she'd done off and start again. Basically it was a terrible experience which has led Di to sign up to a beauty therapy course in Australia with plans to open her own beauty salon, since there is clearly a gaping hole in the market for beauty salons that actually know what they're doing.

Anyway, the other upshot of what should have been a lovely treat was that Dai managed to persuade the owner of Splash to refund a big chunk of the cost - mine and Di's Christmas money - and we were going to spend it all over again on our horse-riding trip. So we set off to the stables - ready for the hack which was due to set off at 2pm. Sadly, at 2pm the only life in the stables was me, Di, another couple booked in for the same trip and a selection of horses wandering around the yard, plus a dalmation dog that was hiding inside the little office building. Eventually, the stable owner turned up and over the course of the next hour, we got ourselves a riding hat and a horse each - mine was Cherokee and Di's was Dagfoot. What they didn't tell us was that Cherokee and Dagfoot were arch enemies - who we ended up having to keep apart for the whole ride. At one point during the trek, Cherokee, who had up until that point refused to think about trotting, decided to go for it and broke into a canter. I have so little riding experience I still can't work out how I managed to get him back under control - by rights I should still be clutching the reins and whizzing through the Australian bush on his back. At the end of the trek we got off our horses as soon as we could (good job too - Cherokee reared up on his hind legs moments after I got off) and ran off for the car, leaving behind a scene of total chaos, with horses, shetland ponies, a couple of donkeys and that scared little dalmation wandering around aimlessly. I think this is a clear sign that it's time for me and Di to take up caddying....and give up with the Christmas money.

Gareth continues....

While the girls went riding Dai and I met up with a friend of his from Carmarthen, Levi, for a round of golf. It was a fairly leisurely round on the nine hole par three course, with the only excitment coming from nearly hitting the group in front of us, who were the slowest golfers in the world. In the time it took the three of them to play one hole we were able to play one hole, walk to the bar to get a beer each and tee off on the next hole!!

We made a decision early on that any balls that went into the rough would not be searched for, as nobody wanted to risk a meeting with a snake, that would really have wrecked the scorecard!

We returned to the apartment to find that the girls weren't back yet from riding and it was a while before they arrived. They had apparently had a very poor trip and had not enjoyed themselves at all. (A week later we saw the owner of the stables in Coles supermarket and she looked like a fifty year old Vicky Pollard from Little Britain.) Anyway, Di and Sarah were left very unimpressed.

The next day we waved Dai off to work and then went off to pick up a (bright yellow) hire car so that we could get around for the week. We headed off to Maleny in the mountains above Caloundra (mountains is an exaggeration, hills would be more accurate), which is a nice little place where Dai and Di were considering moving to. It is quite nice there, but seems to have become a bit expensive recently, and it's full of hippies and new age shops.

On Tuesday we decided that we would head north a little to see what was inland from there, so first stop was a ginger factory. Unfortunately the gingerbread men we had there were the worst we had ever tasted, but fortunately there was a fudge shop on site, which more than made up for it. We then crossed the road to the Macadamia nut factory, with it's free factory viewing area, it was all so promising. Sadly, yet again we were disappointed, the factory only runs for about two months a year when the nuts are harvested and February is not one of those months! We did however see a man covering his nuts in chocolate.....

From there we went to Eumundi, where they have a weekly market. Thankfully for once we had arrived on the right day and the market was busy.....but mostly with people selling assorted useless tat....I think it was Diane who suggested that the world would be a better place if these people just got a proper job! By this (1pm) time we were getting hungry so we headed into the main street to a cafe. As we walked in through the door the owner told us that they were now closed!?! We were a little confused as everywhere else in the world one o'clock would be considered lunchtime, obviously not in Eumundi!

Next stop was Noosa, where the beautiful (ie. rich) people hang out, we decided to have a walk around to Tea Tree Bay and on the way spotted a koala. We had a bit of a paddle and then headed back through the forest where I turned into the 'The Koala Hunter' and spotted loads more. I can smell them out - they all smell of poo.

Not much going on around here

On the Friday we decided to head over to Pelican Waters, the massive new residential area in Caloundra to have a look at a few showhomes to give Di some ideas. There were some great houses, the first one we looked at was really plush, I asked how much it was and was told that it was $900,000. Not bad, I thought, for such a nice house, approximately 360,000 pounds for a 4 bedroom house with a jetty onto the canals for your boat and a pool. Then she said that the price was only for the build of the house and that the land it was built on was an extra $1 million!!

Dai and Di's new place was really plush

We had a look around a few others, which thankfully seemed to reduce in price as we went along, then the following day we took Dai back to have a look, before heading up to Bli Bli for a spot of wakeboarding.

This was wakeboarding with a difference though......there was no boat! What they have there is a lake with a set of cables attached to pylons all the way around and you do circuits of the lake. Easy you would think, but alas not so. Unlike with a boat, there is no smooth acceleration to lift you out of the water, instead you sit on the edge until the pulley comes around and then you brace yourself as it whips you away from the side. Dai managed to get up and going first time, but it took me quite a while to get it. What was most frustrating was that every time you fell off you had to go to the back of a twenty minute queue to have another go, which was a bit of a pain when you had only gone five yards. After a while I cracked it though and got a few laps in before the end of the day.

Knees bent, arms stretched, RA-RA-RA!

The girls were so impressed that they decided they would like to have a go too, so a couple of days later we all headed back there to have another go. Thankfully the queue was almost non-existent this time so we were able to get straight into it. Sarah nearly managed to stand at her first attempt, but looked so surprised by it that she fell off! After a few attempts Di managed to make it all the way down the lake before falling off, which was very good, unfortunately this meant crawling through all the weeds to get out of the water, then a long walk back!!

After all the exertions of wakeboarding, Sarah and I decided that we would spend the next day relaxing by the pool. Or so I thought, in reality Sarah wanted to learn to dive into a pool properly. Since we went scuba diving in Thailand, Sarah has become a bit of a waterbaby and you can't get her out of it. The first few attempts were rather belly floppish, but after a while she got it sussed, below are before and after clips of Sarah's perfectly honed olympic technique!

Before....

...after

We hadn't really planned to go to Australia Zoo, but we found that we had time on our hands and thought we'd have a look. We had a good day there, saw the Wildlife Warriors show, including a pretty big croc and some very bored looking snakes. Sarah then had a flash of inspiration and decided that she wanted to have a picture taken with a snake. On my list of Top 5 things that I would least like to do, having a Burmese Python draped around my neck comes pretty high, but Sarah has a way of persuading me to do things that I don't want to do and once again she prevailed.

It wasn't as bad as I had expected, the snake (called Medusa) didn't try to strangle me, she must have already been fed, but she was very heavy. Thankfully the photographer was very speedy, because she started moving her head in my direction and I wasn't too keen on that!

Ssssssthcary

Australia Zoo appeared to be very well run, and the handlers seemed to genuinely love working with the animals, but I couldn't help thinking that they would be happier in the wild, especially when we saw a Tasmanian Devil running around his enclosure constantly, looking desperate to get out.

Not dead, just sleeping!

For our last weekend we decided to head up to Noosa again with Di and Dai. The weather was scorching again so we headed straight for the beach. As usual with our round the world trip, the surf was distinctly underwhelming, there was a fairly powerful wave breaking on the beach, but it was completely unsurfable, so instead we did a bit of bodysurfing. It was great fun, but we took a few heavy beatings from the waves and I was washing sand out of ears for days!!

Anyone for a swim?

That evening we went to a very nice restaurant overlooking the beach and had probably the best meal we had in all our time in Australia. It was fantastic and the service was excellent, although it was probably one of the nicer restaurants there it still worked out much cheaper than we would have paid for a similar meal at home.

The next day was our last full day in Australia, so we headed out to lovely Tea Tree Bay to have a look for some waves, as we rounded the headland we were shocked to find that there were some!!! Unfortunatley we were not alone, there were at least fifty other people in the water and because it is a point break, there is zero chance of getting a wave. Every wave already had at least three people already on it before it got to you, so in the end we gave up and headed back around to the main beach for some more bodysurfing.

Late that afternoon we headed back to Caloundra for the last time to pack our things up again and ready ourselves for moving on to New Zealand. But first we decided that we'd have a final dip in the pool. It all seemed to be going fine when Dai suddenly started racing to get out and shouting at me to do the same. What I soon discovered was that he had spotted that one of the electric lights was floating in the pool!! Thankfully, we managed to get out before being electrocuted, but it was a bit worrying really.

One minute they're there ... then they're gone

On Monday morning we said goodbye to Di at home and Dai drove us to the airport to get our flight. We said goodbye outside, the last time we'll see him and Di (except on MSN!) for a while. We had a great time both times we stayed with them and they really looked after us, we'll miss them both a lot.

So that was the end of our time in Australia, exactly three months, we'd used every last day that our visa had allowed and we had a great time. The people were very friendly, if a little cheeky about the cricket, although they did seem to quieten down a lot towards the end of the one day series!!

One of the main reasons why I was so keen to visit Australia was to get a chance to surf as many of the world famous surf breaks as possible. Unfortunately this never materialised, we must have been there for the worst couple of months for waves in years!

I'm sure we'll be back to visit anyway, I've got a brother to keep an eye on.......

For the second time in our trip, Dai and Di were there to pick us up from the airport when we arrived after our flight back from Cairns. It didn't take too long to settle back into life at Coolangatta - dinner at the Surf Club, our own bathroom and an endless supply of tea and coffee, plus a night of ten pin bowling. I do normally play best after a 24 hour flight from the UK so I wasn't surprised to come last.

Dai ended up with the nasty pair of shoes

With Dai back in work, we decided that along with Di, we would head into Brisbane City for a bit of a challenge - called 'For how long, and for how little money can you entertain yourselves in the capital of Queensland?'. Well I can tell you that you can certainly make a good start on this game by walking thirty minutes in the opposite direction to your first destination - which is exactly what we did while trying to find Parliament. Eventually we got there for a free tour, our guide not quite as amusing as the one in Victoria but very informative and the building was beautiful. After nearly wandering onto the set of a film called Fools Gold, which Kate Hudson is starring in (Di tried to get us parts as extras but they were having none of it) we had lunch in the Botanical Gardens. After that we crossed the Brisbane River to Southbank, to visit Brisbane Museum (also free!).

To save money we swam across rather than catching the ferry

The museum is huge on four floors with a mini cinema that was playing wildlife films (where Gareth and Di actually fell asleep). The highlight for me was the collection of dead and deadly critters, which included Redback Spiders, the Bluebottle Jellyfish and my personal favourite, the Coastal Taipan snake. We agreed that you can actually have quite a lot of fun in Brisbane for not much money, but a glass of champagne, a nice lunch and some money to go shopping would have made it even better!

My favourite view of a snake - bottled

Next day we had a day of relaxing before heading off to Conrad Jupiters Casino Complex at a place called Broadbeach, for Tempo Rouge. With money from Gareth's mum and dad we'd booked a show and dinner package - dinner was lovely - we ate it all before we had a chance to take any pictures and then it was down the the theatre for the show itself. Di had got us front row seats so it was a bit of a scary experience, you wanted to clap and enjoy yourselves but not make eye contact with any of the cast in case you ended up being dragged onto the stage. Luckily we avoided it - a man called Wayne who had the weirdest looking goatee beard got pulled up instead and I suppose that really is a lesson to him that if you have daft facial hair you are going to attract a bit of unwanted attention.

Next day was Australia Day - a public holiday in Australia which commemorates the anniversary of white settlement in Australia. At Kirra Beach, with a little help from Microsoft, the Surf Club had organised to be part of Look Up and Smile Day. Try as I might, I can't get the picture on here but you can view the 100 image if you type this address in your browser.

http://www.lookupandsmile.com.au/australia_day_above.aspx

We were part of the 1 in the 100 (with the lifesaver image). There are two photos that you should be able to see on the site.

The photo was all done and dusted by lunchtime so we decided to hire a speedboat and cruise down the Tweed River - well speedboat wasn't really an accurate description of this battered old boat that chugged its way breathlessly downstream.

Me and Di let the boys have a go - but they never quite got the hang of it

The water was crystal clear, so we stopped for a swim and a picnic before chugg chugging our way back home again.

Cherry bakewell anyone?

On the way back to the apartment we stopped quickly for a photo opportunity that we missed three years ago when on holiday and weren't going to miss this time around. Coolangatta and Tweed Heads are known as the twin towns - bang right next door to each other but Coolangatta is in Queensland and Tweed Heads is in New South Wales - meaning they are in different time zones.

Sarah was an hour late - again!

That night we were going out for another meal - this time courtesy of my mum and dad - so we had booked a lovely little Tapas place just around the corner. The girl at the till had looked a bit dopey when we made the booking a few days before but that's not unusual in Queensland so we didn't worry too much. We got ourselves dressed up and headed down there. Luckily we had the car because when we arrived the place was completely shut up and dark. Uh-oh. We got back in the car and drove to a place called the Ivory Hotel - where we managed to get ourselves a table and had a delicious meal, even better than the tapas would have been!

Disaster recovered!

Next day it was time to pack up everything to move on again - but this time we were all going together. While we'd been away up north, Dai and Di had decided to move to a new place in Caloundra (about an hour north of Brisbane and our first stop on the drive to Cairns).

We think they probably hoped to get away and leave no trace in Coolangatta before we got back - but we foiled them with our early return! So they had no choice but to let us tag along and put up with us for another few weeks ...

We couldn't let another blog entry go by without a special mention of Fi, who has been faithfully commenting on almost every blog entry we've made (and there have been a few).

We've detected a slight whiff of despair in her most recent comment:

Oh look - qu'elle surprise, it's me again! Doesn't anyone else leave comments?

So Fi, in recognition of your services to our blog, we would both like to present you with the Award for Most Dedicated Blog Commenter.

Sadly we can't be with you this evening to celebrate with you because we're on a world tour, but we hope you enjoy your win anyway.

Keep those comments coming - they always make us smile!

Love Sarah and Gareth xx