There and back again...

Melissa Grace Ferrie

2007-12-07T11:38:00.000-08:00

Melissa Grace Ferrie

We're not sure if anyone has been checking our blog and we haven't updated it since we got back from our trip, but we felt that the arrival of little Melissa Grace Ferrie deserved a mention.

Melissa was born at 5:20am on Monday the 3rd of December, weighing 6lbs 4. Pamela and Melissa are doing really well and we're looking forward to our first Christmas together.

Melissa has been home for about five days now and we are all gradually getting into a routine! We would like to thank everyone who has given us gifts; we have received loads of beautiful presents and Melissa will be wearing a new outfit everyday, for months to come!

Vancouver, Seattle and LA

2007-06-13T23:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in getting the blog updated but because our camera and photos had gone walkabout we thought we might have to miss out the Vancouver and Seattle leg of the trip. After contacting the lost property at the stadium about ten times and checking with the local police station, we assumed the camera and a bunch of our photos were lost forever.

In a strange turn of events, we came home one night to discover a message on the answering machine from some bloke saying he had found a camera at the LA Galaxy game, with a ticket stub in the case! The ticket stub had Tim's name on it and our seat numbers. The guy tried to find us at our seats, but we had moved to better seats, so he had kept the camera and managed to find Tim's phone number online! We drove to the guy's work and got our camera back with all our photos. Yeah!

So, for your 'skiving from work' pleasure here are the photos and stories from Vancouver to LA-

Vancouver

We arrived in downtown Vancouver and found that our hostel was quite nice, but happened to be directly above a night club. From 10pm to 3am the music was so loud we could hear every lyric and the room shook in time with the bass. We didn't get much sleep and bought ear plugs the next day! We are officially old people.

Vancouver is apparently amongst the top three most livable cities in the world and we had five days of wandering around to find out why.

The city from Stanley Park

Most of the big cities we have visited have all had really nice parks and Vancouver's Stanley Park is one of the nicest we have seen. We stepped from the city into the park and were immediately surrounded by some amazing wildlife, including these little guys:

Some cheeky racoons

We spent some time in Gastown, which is a quaint area with cobblestone streets and some of the city's oldest buildings. The most famous landmark here is a steam powered clock:

Gastown steam clock

After the obligatory Starbucks in Gastown we spent an afternoon walking around the market stalls and shops on Granville Island-the Canadian version of the Barras(a market in Glasgow). It has a farmer's market and little arts and crafts stalls. It was a nice way to spend a few hours.

Granville Market

After a few days in Vancouver we decided to escape the multi-storey bass drum that was our hostel, and spend a day and night in Whistler. Whistler is a beautiful ski village about two hours north of Vancouver where you can get pretty decent snow as late as June. The hostel at Whistler has to win the prize for best location- set on the side of a lake with snow capped mountains all around. The scenery just about compensated for the ancient decor and dangerously close train tracks.

Apparently snow muffles train whistles

After walking over train tracks and successfully avoiding the oncoming train, we got to the hostel and admired the amazing view-

Not bad eh?

Whistler was really nice and we will definitely be back here on a snowboarding trip at some point. The village is full of great restaurants, bars and cool shops. We had some nice food here and we took a ride up the mountain on the gondola. We were really surprised by how many folk were skiing and snowboarding at this time of the year.

Pamela- chuffed to find HP on offer

After Whistler we headed back to Vancouver for a night and then got ready to head to Seattle the next day.

We took a greyhound bus over the border and into Seattle. We stayed at the only hostel in Seattle- The Green Tortoise. It was a really nice hostel, right next to Seattle’s Pike Place Market. This place is very famous and is featured in loads of films including Sleepless in Seattle.

The corner of Pike Place Market(from the hostel window)

The market entrance

It has cobblestone streets and loads of stalls selling fresh fish, fruit and veg, arts and crafts stuff and just about anything else you can imagine. The two most famous occupants of the market have to be the fish shop at the entrance where they throw fish around while singing and shouting and of course, the very first Starbucks.

Pike Place Fish

Where the Starbucks empire began

A hula hooping, guitar balancing, busker- writing a catchy chorus is no longer enough...

The market's lucky pig

The whole market is constantly packed and it has a great atmosphere. We spent a number of days wandering around the stalls just watching people!

One of the most striking things about Seattle is the sheer volume of homeless people. I think we were in a particularly bad spot for it, but you could not walk ten yards without being asked for change. We were impressed by one guy's sign that read:

‘My father was killed by Ninjas, need money for karate lessons.’

We reckon this guy will get way more than the folk who have signs about being a war veteran or just needing enough money for the bus home!

Seattle is famous for Microsoft, Starbucks and indie guitar bands. This makes the city the recipient of about 90% of my income. I can play Championship Manager while listening to Death Cab For Cutie with a Toffee Nut Latte in my hand, all thanks to Seattle.

The city’s landmarks are the market place, some nice museums, The Experience Music Project(EMP) and The Space Needle. The EMP is a shrine to rock ‘n’ roll, or a large storage room for a very rich guy’s stuff! It is owned by Bill Gates’ partner, the bloke known internationally as ‘the other Microsoft guy’.

The EMP has endless musical artifacts and loads of information about famous Seattle musicians including Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana. There is a very cool guitar room that has some of the first Gibsons and Fenders ever made.

Towering above the EMP is the Space Needle. We added it to the growing list of tall buildings and structures that we have visited on our trip.

Ye Olde Curiosity Shop in Seattle is home to loads of 'believe it or not' nonsense. Stuffed two headed dogs and shrunken human heads sit beside this guy who was found perfectly preserved, in the middle of the desert apparently:

Looks a bit like my old history teacher!

Due to Seattle’s rock ‘n’ roll heritage we thought it would be cool to try and go to a gig while we there. Upon checking Ticketmaster we discovered that Ben Gibbard, the front man from Death Cab For Cutie and The Postal Service(my current favourite bands) was doing a solo gig in his home town of Seattle! We asked at the hostel reception where the Showbox venue was and he said “ eh… if you go outside, take and left and go into the building next door, you’re there.” The gig was on our last night and we managed to get tickets from people outside the venue. The gig was great. No, it was better than great. It was easily one of my all time top three gigs!

When Pamela lived in France she went to church with folk who used to live in Seattle. We went along to their old church and to Pamela's surprise she met a guy who she thought now lived in London. Rain and his wife Grace invited us back for lunch and we had a lovely afternoon with them and their cute little boy Josiah.

Josiah

We loved Seattle but as usual our time drifted away and we eventually had to move on. The original plan was to drive from Seattle to LA and take in San Francisco and a few other places along the way, but we opted to catch a cheap flight from Seattle straight to LA instead. This saved us a lot of travel time and we were eager to get to LA in time for Anna’s birthday sleepover!

We’ve been in LA for nearly four weeks now and it has been great. We’ve had an amazing time hanging out with the Vermilions. We have done loads and it’s pretty difficult to condense it all into a few paragraphs.

Some of the highlights have been:

Going to see LA Galaxy v Glasgow Rangers. It was rather weird hearing loads of Scottish accents again and there was almost as many Celtic tops in the crowd as there were Rangers. Upon getting our camera back I should take this chance to apologise for earlier insinuating that a Rangers fan had stolen it. It was silly of me to assume that a Rangers fan could work a digital camera.

The Galaxy fans were hilarious with songs such as ‘You’re just a suburb of England’, ‘Why don’t you speak English’, ‘You’re always second to Celtic’, and chants such as ‘Ferguson, you suck!’ The songs sounded kind of strange in American accents but they made for a decent atmosphere considering the crowd was pretty small. This was all change as soon as Mr. Beckham and his wife arrive in town. The hotdogs and Coke didn’t quite match pie and Bovril but it was still cool to see soccer American style. There was no extra time multi-ball though!

We have been shopping a few times and Pamela is rather miffed that I have so far bought more clothes than her! I’m sure she will catch up in New York. We’ve been to the cinema a couple of times, eaten out loads and I’ve even managed to get some golf played. To even things up, Pamela and Angela went to the spa for a massage.

We have had a great time seeing Megan and Anna and we’ve been able to go along to see them at a graduation ceremony, a gymnastic display and a ballet class. Megan’s ballet skills are outstanding. We spent a day at Disneyland and it was really nice to see the girls getting all excited when the parade was coming along.

No comment needed!

We have been able to go along to church with Tim and Angela. They go to Calvary Chapel South Bay, which is as big as a small village! It has around 10,000 members and has more staff members than most Scottish congregations.

We’ve had a bunch of BBQs and it has been really nice to meet loads of friendly people out here,

I love you and I will miss you

to you from anna

(I left the room for a few minutes and Anna added the last section, I thought it would be rude to delete it!)

We went to a baseball game at Dodgers stadium. Before the real game, there was a Hollywood allstar match. Dawson from Dawson's creek, one of the blokes from CSI and loads of other TV actors were playing. The Dodgers v Bluejays game wasn't great (0-1) but the hotdogs and peanuts were awesome! The American experience was complete as we sang 'Take me out to the ball game' during the 7th inning stretch.

Let's go Dodgers, let's go!

We went to an amazing Japanese restaurant called Benihana's. The chef cooks your dinner for you on a grill at your table. Our chef was very funny. As soon as we arrived he turned to Ryan and said "Hi sir, it was nice to see you last week, how is Stephanie?" - Very good. He cooked and sang and juggled and threw shrimp around the restaurant. It was great.

G-Unit(legend)

We spent a day in Hollywood where we walked along looking at the stars names on the street. Had we been there an hour earlier we would have seen some stars in person as we had just missed George Cloonie, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon's hand print ceremony. We also had to leave about an hour before the stars arrived again for that evening's premiere of Ocean's 13. Bad timing indeed, but it was still cool to see all the lights and red carpet getting set up.

The Kodak Theatre

Mr Spielberg's star

We spent a day shopping in beautiful Santa Monica. We were in the Apple store checking our emails and noticed that a Swithcfoot video was playing on a big screen at the back of the store. We thought this was pretty cool and then on closer inspection we discovered a huge sign that anounced the free Switchfoot gig in-store that night! Good timing indeed. We went for some dinner and came back to enjoy a free gig that lasted for about 45 mins. Switchfoot were great and to see them for free with a tiny crowd in Santa Monica was very cool indeed.

Santa Monica Pier

The American Dream

Switchfoot in action

As we write we are getting packed to leave for New York. We can't wait to see Time Square and all the other sights, but our energy levels are running low. Maybe it's because we know we're heading home soon or maybe it's because we've been doing loads, but we are more than ready to return to the Shire.

We are sad to leave LA and the Vermilion family but, as Uncle Jonny and his mate Luke arrived last night, we know the girls will have plenty to keep them occupied. These last few pics are of Megan and Anna. They never ceased to make us smile...

A hobbit surprise...

2007-05-31T11:07:00.000-07:00

"Hobbits really are amazing creatures. You can learn all that there is to know about them in a month, and yet after a hundred years, they can still surprise you."

GANDALF, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

It is with great joy and some surprise that we announce: two hobbits left the shire and three will be returning. Pamela is pregnant! The baby's due at the end of November and we are delighted.

At the moment we are staying with Pamela's sister's family- Tim, Angela, Anna and Megan in Torrance, California. It's been really nice to catch up with them and spend time with our ridiculously cute nieces. Between Anna's birthday sleepover and Megan's constant mischief, it's like attending an intense parenthood bootcamp! Help!

You will notice the absence of photos in this post due to our camera being stolen while Ryan and Tim went to watch the LA Galaxy v Rangers. We're not sure if it was a Rangers fan who lifted the camera from the hotdog stand but they also took our photos of Seattle and Whistler. We'll find some similiar photos on Flickr or Google images and write the Canada and Seattle post soon.

Hope everyone is doing good and we hope that everyone who was sitting exams got on well.

Take care. x

Aloha and mahalo...

2007-05-12T20:50:00.000-07:00

Transported through time and space our particles arrived safely in Honolulu about ten minutes after we left New Zealand! We had decided to split our time in Hawaii between Maui and O'ahu and had booked a cheap internal flight straight to Maui for a few hours after we landed in Honolulu. This saved us from doubling up the cost of transfers to and from the airport. We caught our flight to Maui and ended up sitting next to a very nice guy called Ron. Ron was from Hawaii and he gave us some great advice on where to go and what to see while we were in Hawaii. At the end of the flight Ron gave us his card and told us that he owned a restaurant on Maui and O'ahu and he insisted we go along and have dinner as his guests. More on this later...

We had done lots of reading on Australia and New Zealand and we knew all about the hostel set up there but we were a bit unsure about Hawaii and decided to book hotel accommodation just to be on the safe side. After spending five weeks sleeping in a van we fancied a bit of luxury so we decided to push the boat out and booked five nights at the Royal Lahaina resort on the west coast of Maui.

The Royal Lahaina, Maui

Lamps were lit as part of a Hawaiian ceremony every night

At the reception we decided to chance our luck and ask if there were any nicer rooms available than the basic room we had booked. The very friendly manager obviously fell for our cheeky hobbit charm and they moved us to a room in the newly renovated tower overlooking the ocean, the mountains and a golf course! We don't want Ming to feel bad but this room was so nice we spent ten minutes giggling, ten minutes jumping on the bed, ten minutes exchanging high fives and then we thanked the guy standing in the corner for bringing up our bags!

Ryan sports a dashing housecoat and admires the view

The view from the balcony was spectacular. We could see the other islands, the ridiculously blue ocean, the mountains and the golf course. Maui is a beautiful island and it easily exceeded our expectations of what Hawaii would look like. The beautiful room obviously helped but Maui may just have made it to the top of our 'let's come back' list.

Our view

The garden cottages and golf course

Maui, luxury hotel room, big flat screen TV, chimp in a sombrero. Does life get any better?

Real men drink cocktails

A Hawaiian dance is performed at sunset as we enjoy our dinner

We spent most of our time in Maui lazing by the pool or going for walks along the beautiful beach. There are other things to do on the island like snorkelling or cycling down a volcano but after Australia and New Zealand we were genuinely exhausted. Travelling is hard work! Maui was really the first time we spent more than a few days relaxing in the one place, so we didn't get up to much and loved every minute of it!

The beaches on the west coast were lovely and the water is the bluest we have seen on our trip so far

Ryan in the sea

One of the nice things about this hotel was that the pool was about 50ft from the sea, so you could go a for a dip in the sea if you fancied it or just lie by the pool. Other than lying around sunbathing we caught the bus one day into Lahaina where we walked along the front and wandered into the shops. We went to a traditional Hawaiian Luau held in the hotel grounds. It was good, the food was nice and the entertainment was impressive but they had really squeezed the punters in. There must have been about 300 people in a spot suitable for about 100- goodness knows how they would have dealt with a fire-not an unlikely event considering the shows finale!

The laua host

Kids on the stage singing. Adults in the audience waiting for dinner.

A Hawaiin tradition- bury a pig in an underground oven, let it slowly cook and then unearth it and eat it. The fact that burying livestock is usually a solution for Mad Cow Disease didn't hamper our willingness to dig in during the buffet.

The Laua involved lots of Hawaiin singing and dancing and the finale involved some bloke spinning torches while trying to avoid lighting his grass skirt.

More fire antics

After a relaxing week in Maui we spent our last night walking along the beach. Ryan went in the sea for a quick dip and then we sat on the beach and watched the sunset.

From Maui we went back to Honolulu, O'ahu. This time we made it out of the airport and made our way to our hotel. It's a bit of a shock going from Maui to Honolulu. Maui had a few hotels and miles of empty beaches, where as Hononlulu is probably best described as America's Majorca. Honolulu is a cool place and definitely worth a visit but not if you are looking for a quiet Hawaiian paradise.

Not quite the same view as Maui!

Honolulu is a big city to get around but the bus network is really good and we quickly found our way around. Our hotel was next to some really good malls and it was only a short bus ride away from the famous Waikiki Beach. Waikiki was so crowded you had to spend five minutes trying to find a spot to sit down.

We only spent one day on the beach in Honolulu and we spent the rest of the time walking around the shops or visiting some of the tourist attractions.

On the Sunday we went along to a service at a Calvary called Horizon Honolulu(www.horizonhonolulu.org) the service was nice and the people were extremely friendly. Ryan got chatting with Pastor Francis who kindly offered to take him golfing during the week. The course was www.koolaugolfclub.com and proudly claimed to be the hardest course in America. The views were amazing and they more than made up for the questionable golf! The course was really tough with tight fairways and jungle for rough! The mountains in the background are straight out of Lost and I was scared to look for balls incase 'the others' got me. It was a really nice day and the best part had to be when four mongoose climbed onto the cart while we were putting and stole the Pastor's lunch! Pamela also had a great day at the mall.

The modest club house

The par 4 18th

This was just the practice area!

Pastor Francis mid-swing

We spent a day visiting Pearl Harbour. There is an interesting museum and a short movie explaining the events that led to the attack on Pearl Harbour. The main feature is the memorial to the USS Arizona, a warship that sank during the attack losing over 1000 of its crew. The memorial is a kind of bridge that has been built over the remains of the ship that still holds the bodies of those killed in the attack. We also found out that survivors who have since passed away have been interred there also. Some of the stories around this event were really interesting and seeing the names of the victims on the memorial wall was a bit emotional. It was also a bit strange to see loads of Japanese tourists walking around taking photos.

The first Japanese plane was seen in the sky at roughly the top right hand corner of this photo

USS Arizona

The buoy marks the bow of the ship

The Arizona's anchor

This place was Bowfin!

Two nights before we were due to leave we took a walk along Waikiki Beach and we noticed the bloke from the plane's restauraunt. It was called LuLu's and it looked really nice, with a view from the front looking out over the ocean. We hadn't contacted Ron when we were in Maui but we thought we'd pop in to see what the place was like. It was really nice, we couldn't see Ron around but we were hungry so we ordered food anyway and it was pretty tasty. Before we left we spotted Ron and he insisted that we come back the next night and have a meal on him. Not ones to turn down such a generous offer, we went back the following night and were treated to some great service and an excellent meal all on the house! It clearly pays to be nice to people when you are on a plane and if you are ever in Honolulu go to LuLu's restaurant(across from the zoo) and order the coconut shrimp. It was a delicious meal and a great way to end our time in Hawaii.

Our view from LuLu's restaurant

Waikiki Beach

We had a really relaxing time in Hawaii and would definitely go back there. The people were really friendly and helpful and the islands were stunning. It's onto Vancouver and then down to Seattle next...

The North Island

2007-04-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

Wellington is a lovely city and we enjoyed spending a few days exploring New Zealand's capital- We went to Te Papa(Our Place) New Zealand's National Museum and then we walked around the city for a while. It was freezing so we decided to go into the parliament buildings and take their free tour just for a heat! The parliament buildings include a strange section known as the Beehive or the Turbine. The tour was very informative and even involved taking everyone down to the basement to show us the 'base isolators' which prevent the building collapsing in the event of an earthquake.

The Beehive

New Zealand Parliament

We managed to get along to a service at Wellington Calvary where after the service we were given some more travel tips as well as some tea and tasty cakes. On our way out of Wellington we stopped at Mt Victoria, the site of a few Lord of the Rings scenes and we drove by the Camperdown Studios(Weta Workshop) where Peter Jackson's creative team did most of the work for the movies. We weren't able to get very close, as it was a Sunday and it was all locked up, but we could still make out a giant Orc statue and some Gollum figurines in the reception area.

LOTRo

We had lunch at the very cool Chocolate Fish Cafe. The best seats in this cafe are actually across a road alongside the beach and the waiters wear reflective vests as they cross the road to bring you your meal!

Chocolate Fish Cafe

Our table across the road- and a waiter in his reflective vest

We headed north out of Wellington and went to visit another LOTR location and then stayed the night in Upper Hutt.

No prizes for this one

Two Hobbits in Rivendell

From here we travelled towards Napier and a little place called Havelock North. There wasn't much to do here and when we asked the women at the holiday park if there were any local attractions she said "the shop that sells honey is nice and the cheese factory is worth a visit!" We didn't make it to either of these undoubtedly fascinating attractions and headed pretty quickly to Lake Taupo.

Lake Taupo is a really nice little town on the edge of the lake and it has loads of things you can do nearby(no cheese factory though!). Many of these activities involve throwing yourself off of or out of something very high. Our family will be glad to hear we decided against any of these rather expensive pursuits and instead spent some time walking around town and visiting some free local attractions. One such attraction was the 'Craters of the Moon' thermal activity area.

The Craters of the Moon thermal area in Wairakei Tourist Park sprang up in the 1950s, when the nearby power station lowered underground water levels. The 30 minute walk visits bubbling craters, mud pools and steam vents. You can also see a lot of interesting plants that have adapted to thrive in the hot, steamy conditions. This was a strange place and it was rather smelly. This was also where America filmed the moon landing.

The Craters of the Moon

Bubbling mud

The largest and smelliest crater

Back in Taupo for the night we wandered down to the lakeside and Ryan had a go at the Great Lake Hole in One. A floating platform has three different sized golf holes with corresponding prizes. Needless to say it's virtually impossible and short of slam dunking the ball right in the hole, you aren't going to win the $5000 top prize. This crazy logic didn't get in the way of Ryan having a few goes!

I hit the platform twice!

From Taupo we drove to Tongariro National Park while discussing setting up a 'floating hole in one challenge' in Strathclyde Park when we get home. Tongariro National Park is one of the 24 World Heritage sites and is home to three active volcanoes. The scenery here was outstanding, and as you probably guessed, it was used for a number of Lord of the Rings locations.

The Chateau- where we had lunch

LOTRp

LOTRq

LOTRr- this Mountain isn't quite as scary with the golf course in the foreground!

From here it was onto the incredibly smelly town of Rotorua. Due to the geothermal activity, the Hydrogen Sulphide in the area makes the whole town smells like eggs. It's rough. Rotorua is well known for it's Mauri culture and it's hot springs but the smell was seriously that bad that we didn't hang around long. Before leaving we did have time to indulge in some Zorbing!

Ryan in a huge hamster ball...

Where am I?

Soaked and a bit dazed!

You get taken to the top of a hill, squeezed into a huge water-filled ball and then rolled down the hill! It feels a bit like being trapped in a giant washing machine. Despite landing on my neck at one point it was a strangely enjoyable experience.

From Rotorua we journeyed to the LOTR location that easily beat all the others. We arrived at Matamata also known as Hobbiton and booked in for the tour of Bagend and The Shire. The location is on private farm land and can't be accessed unless you take the official tour. The tour wasn't that expensive and as it was the last tour of the day it turned out that Pamela and I were the only ones on it! We were shown around the hobbit holes just before sunset and had the whole place to ourselves. It was very cool.

One seriously chuffed hobbit

The Shire- Bilbo's party took place next to the big tree

Standing in the party field

We'll take it... when's the closing date?

The view from Bilbo's house

"I wish I was at home in my nice hole by the fire with the kettle just beginning to sing!"- Bilbo

The tour of the hobbit holes was amazing and although New Line have removed loads of the original set it still really feels like you are in the shire. All we needed was a pipe and some fireworks and the day would have been perfect!

After the Shire it was off to the Coromandel Peninsula and the North of New Zealand's North Island. We visited the Coromandel township and took a little train trip into the hills.

Sitting behind Napoleon Dynamite!

The view from the top

Above another train on a scary bridge

We also managed to visit some of the lovely beaches in the Coromandel area.

After relaxing on the beach we parked the Spaceship at our campground for the night and realised that we couldn't find our diary in the van. After emptying the whole van out we still couldn't find it so we retraced our steps and discovered that the last time we had seen it was when we were calling our travel agent from Havelock North to confirm some flight and ticket details. At this point we also realised that our tickets and a number of other documents were equally misplaced. Havelock North, the home of the famous honey and cheese was five hours drive away. We called and someone had handed them in so we got up early the next morning and drove across the country in the wrong direction!

Thankfully we got our stuff and started heading back up towards Auckland. We had time to stop in again at Lake Taupo and have another go at the Hole in One Challenge!

Another popular location in the North Island is the Bay of Islands. We spent a night there and took the ferry across to visit Russell- an old village that was used as a whaling port for many years. The village has New Zealand's oldest church complete with gravestones from the 1800s and musket holes in the side of the building.

The Bay of Islands

New Zealand's oldest church

Real musket holes(or woodworm maybe)

We had lunch at the front in Russell and were joined by a couple of cheeky ducks

Our time with the spaceship was nearly over so we headed to Auckland to hand Ming back in.

Driving over Auckland Bridge

please don't leave me...

We had four days to explore Auckland on foot and we checked back into a hostel for the first time in five weeks. We loved the little van, but it was little, so it was nice to be back in a decent sized room with a real bed. We checked out some museums and galleries, we walked around the city and harbour and we went to cinema. Auckland is a nice city and although the skyline isn't as nice as Sydney, the views from the Skytower were still pretty impressive.

Auckland's harbour

This 'work of art' had a bloke inside it.

Beneath the Skytower

Someone jumping from the tower.

Scary glass floor

Auckland at night

As you will have worked out by the comments it was both of our birthdays in the last few days. Thanks to everyone for the comments, emails and texts, we really appreciate them. We miss everyone and it's great to hear from you all.

We will no longer be using the temporary NZ mobile number we had so if you were texting us then you can delete that and just use Pamela's UK number. We've heard that some folk are finding logging in and posting comments a bit tricky- if people have tried and failed you can always just post anonomously and put your name at the end of the message. Or like Uncle Daniel you can leave your name off and compliment yourself!

We are heading to Hawaii tomorrow and our trip will involve some time travel. We cross the date line and are officially on our way home. We leave Auckland in the evening on the 29th, stop over in Fiji on the 30th for a few hours and then arrive in Hawaii on the morning of the 29th. Confused? Us too. Instead of being 11 hours ahead of the UK we will be roughly 8 hours behind. We hope we don't learn too much about our future selves or there may be a rip in the space time continuum.

Half way home...

2007-03-31T21:23:00.000-07:00

We spent four great days in Wanaka. It's a small place but they have some cool shops, a really nice sushi restaurant and the cheapest and quickest internet cafe! We went for a number of walks around the lake and up into the surrounding hills where the views were brilliant.

Mt Iron

We played crazy golf at a local attraction called 'Have a shot'. At this place you can shoot guns, bows and arrows, sponge ball cannons, and you can play crazy golf or hit balls at the driving range. Only four golfers were killed on the day we went to visit!

One of the highlights of Wanaka and a must do for anyone passing through here had to be the night at the Cinema Paradiso. The cinema is a small building which shows relatively recent movies. The building is hard to miss as it usually has a huge display on it's roof, linked to one of the movies being shown. This month's display was a giant killer sheep- promoting a New Zealand comedy called 'Black Sheep'.

Cinema Paradiso

We went in early on the Saturday afternoon to buy our tickets for that evenings screening. The guy in charge has lived in NZ for over 20 years but his Scottish accent was still pretty apparent- he was born in Arran and he informed us that we could order a meal for before the movie or for during the intermission! It became clear that this was not a normal cinema. We went early and had a lovely meal and then made our way into the cinema to choose our seats.

We sat up the back on the right!

We opted for the large couch up the back of the hall and passed the armchairs and convertible car on the way! It was like watching a movie in someone's living room. Well, someone's living room that has a car in it.

The way cinemas should be

The living room feeling was further enhanced when the Scottish bloke came out and thanked everyone for coming, told a little story about the cinema and then said that he hoped everyone enjoyed the movie. At the intermission we bought ice cream and probably the nicest cookie ever made! It was still warm from the oven and must have been about an inch think.

Monster Cookie, Cookie Monster

If you are ever near Wanaka, go see a movie- http://www.paradiso.net.nz/, the steak sandwiches are pretty good too! We left Wanaka on Monday, after making Ming a little bit less Mingin', and made our way to Fox Glacier.

Not so Ming

We stopped briefly for lunch at a quiet little place called Haast Beach but after being devoured by ravenous killer midges we quickly worked out why the place was so quiet!

Haast Beach

Quickly moving on from Haast we headed to the glacier region- Fox Glacier and it's neighbour Franz Josef Glacier are large, almost permanent, rivers of ice that slowly move under their own weight. You can go on guided walks across the glaciers or you can walk on the public paths to the glacier's terminal edge(the melting edge closest to sea level).

Fox Glacier

Franz Josef

We decided just to walk to the terminal of both glaciers on our own. The guided walks onto the ice looked good but they were pretty expensive and you still got quite close just walking to the edge. It was raining and it was really cold standing close to them, so walking on them must have been freezing!

Plastic Ponchos- Everyone will be wearing them soon

Stopping for a photo at the 'no stopping' sign

The glaciers are an amazing sight and these ones are particularly unique as they run parallel with rainforests.

A waterfall on the way to Franz Josef

Some of the icy peaks on the Fox Glacier

The tunnel at the terminal edge of Fox Glacier

The towns of Fox and Franz Josef are very little and there's not much to do other than go see the glaciers. Franz Josef is slightly bigger- it has an indoor ice climbing wall and a couple of really nice restaurants. We spent a few days visiting the glaciers and then we headed further up the west coast to Hokitika.

The grey sand of Hokitika Beach

Like almost all of the towns up the west coast, Hokitika is quite small and it has a funny name. We struggled to remember this one and over the course of a few days it was called everything from WalkieTalkie to HonkyTonky. We managed to meet up for dinner with David and Adam from our Fraser Island trip.

The lads enjoy tasty desserts

They are travelling on the Kiwi Experience coach and they were staying nearby so we picked them up in Ming and went out for a nice meal. After dinner we we to see some glow worms in a little cave. As you do...

Some places charge you for guided walks to see glow worm caves but there is a little cave at the edge of Hokitika that you can see them for free. The glow worms weren't that interesting but the scary guy who shouted at us for having our torch on gave us a good laugh! We dropped the lads off at their hostel and hopefully we'll meet up again at some point in the future.

We have been sleeping in Ming at campsites all the way up the coast and most of them have pretty decent facilities. Some of them have a nice TV room and a few of them have some interesting residents...

A Weka

This little guy is called a Weka, and he lived in some trees just next to our camping spot in Hokitika. The Weka is a pretty rare bird only found in New Zealand. This one liked apples.

From here we headed to Westport and jetboating on the Buller River! A jetboat doesn't have a normal speedboat propeller, instead it has powerful jets that suck up water and then the jets spray it out to propel the boat. This allows the boats to travel very fast in very shallow water.

After the jetboating we made our way to see the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. These are weird rock formations that seem to have gathered in layers, a little bit like a pile of pancakes. They don't actually look that much like pancakes but they are still pretty cool.

At high tide the ocean pushes water up through the blowholes

The drive along the west coast was lovely and at times it reminded us of the Great Ocean Road in Australia. After the Pancake Rocks we stopped at a few small places and then arrived in Nelson in the north of the South Island. We went to Nelson City Church on Easter Sunday. It was a nice service and everyone was very friendly.

From Nelson we headed to Kaiteriteri. There was a nice little beach there and a lot of families enjoying their Easter holidays. Pamela was delighted when we managed to find a little place that was showing the Masters golf! We watched the final day of the tournament at 7.30am NZ time.

Kaiteriteri Beach

From here we drove to Farewell Spit at the north western tip of the South island. This charmingly named place is actually really pretty. We walked along the beach to the end of the peninsula where we struggled through some bushes and up onto the amazing undulating sand dunes.

The peninsula disappears into the distance

Pamela- are you sure you can get through here?

Ryan- there are footprints, you must be able to!

The dunes were amazing and although there were some footprints we were sure there was no one else around. You could see the wind gently move the sand around and our footprints were covered over very quickly. From the top of the dunes you could sea ocean on either side of the peninsula. This was an amazing place and the walk back along the beach with the sun setting was beautiful.

A (insert collective noun here) of ducks

We bid farewell to Farewell Spit(you can't buy this!) and then travelled along incredibly winding roads back towards Marahau, at the edge of the Abel Tasman National Park. The national park is a large section of forest that holds loads of protected wildlife and plantlife. You can hire your own kayak and paddle alongside the park for days or you can combine kayaking, walking and camping. We opted for a half day kayaking trip that included lunch and a lift back in a speedboat! We were in a two man kayak. The kayak had a little udder that was operated from the back and both of us had to paddle...let's just say they should introduce kayaking in pre-marriage councilling.

Are you paddelling back there?

Of course, darling!

The kayaking was a little sore on the arms but it wasn't that strenuous. We made our way gradually along the shore to a lovely little beach where we stopped for some lunch.

Watering Cove

After lunch the water taxi came to collect us and take us back to the car park. Pamela and I were the only two on the watertaxi as the rest of the group had opted to walk further into the park. The driver stopped the boat in the middle of the water and asked if we wanted to see him catch some fish. Without giving us much chance to answer he threw a hand line into the water and within maybe twenty seconds he was pulling in a large fish. He was only using a little silver lure and the fish practically jumped into the boat. He proceeded to grab the fish and chop it's head off, much to Pamela's disgust. He then did this another three or four times. He must have caught four fish in about five minutes. The last fish wasn't quite on the hook properly and it spun around and sprayed blood all over the guy and Ryan. Pamela managed to avoid this as she was too busy steering the boat as the guy had instructed!

Pamela avoiding the sound of fish decapitation

One of our last days in the South island was spent back over on the east coast where we went whale watching in Kaikoura. The weather took a turn for the worst and we were unsure if our boat trip to see the whales would be cancelled or cut short. Thankfully the forecasted strong winds didn't strike and the trip went ahead as scheduled. We travelled out to the rough location of the whales where we waited until one surfaced. The captain of the boat had a hydraphone that he used to listen to the whales and detect their likely location.

The captain and his hyrdaphone

Once they knew the whale was about to surface everyone was instructed to watch the horizon for the first sign of the whale's spray. Once we spotted the spray we moved closer to the whale where we watched the huge creature until it decided to dive back under to continue feeding.

We got to see three massive Sperm Whales, one of them apparently fell asleep and has been known to stay asleep and surfaced for up to four hours. We didn't hang around for this one to wake up. We moved on to see another whale and the sight of its huge tail coming out of the water was amazing.

Once we had left the whales we managed to see some dolphins. Around 400 dolphins actually! They were quite small and very playful. They swam around and did loads of flips out of the water. It looked like they were showing off for us.

From Kaikoura we travelled back up to Picton where we caught the ferry to the North island, arriving in the capital city, Wellington. As we write this post it is Saturday the 14th of April and we are officially half way through our trip. Three months down, three to go!

Middle Earth...

2007-03-26T00:05:00.000-07:00

We've been travelling and living in our orange spaceship for over a week now and we're loving it! The bed is pretty comfortable and you can't beat sleeping at the bottom of a mountain or beside a beautiful lake. The 'moonroof' is directly above where you sleep so you can lie and stare at the stars for hours. The night sky in New Zealand is truly awesome. We have never seen so many stars.

Watching a DVD inside the spaceship- it's not usually this tidy!

When we are not staring at the stars we've got a DVD player and dotted around the country are 'spacestations' where we can go and exchange our DVDs for free! If we see another spaceship on the road it is customary to wave and/or flag them down to exchange DVDs! All the spaceships have sci-fi/space related names. Ours is called Ming(Yup, Ming!)- the bad guy from Flash Gordon, and so far we have passed Dalek, Taybor, Galactica, Nasa, and Rimmer!

Cooking on the van is not as much hassle as we thought it would be. There's a two ring hob that spins round from the door and there are loads of compartments to store food and all our stuff. We have rustled up some pretty impressive meals and have considered setting up at the roadside selling rolls to tourists!

Cooking sausages down the woods with his dad has prepared Ryan for life on the road

Pamela smiles bravely while eating Ryan's cooking

We left Christchurch with our passenger (Diana from Uddingston!) and headed to Lake Tekapo for our first overnight in Ming. We Passed some unbelievable sceneryin the MacKenzie District before arrinving at the Church of the Good Shepherd, a tiny little church at the side of Lake Tekapo with an amazing view behind the pulpit.

Thsitles in the MacKenzie District- just like home!

Ryan at Lake Tekapo

Diana and Pamela

Ryanalf, the short grey wizard

A tribute to the sheepdogs of the region- stay boy, stay! Good dog.

The Church of the Good Shepherd

The view behind the pulpit- At least you would have something to look at if the sermons were a bit dull!

We dropped Diana off at her hostel and then set up for the night at our camping spot by the lake.

After dinner we want for a walk along the lakeside and then headed back to the spaceship for a night of star gazing and DVD watching. We woke up to some stunning views of the lake and then Ryan went swimming in it while Pamela made breakfast! It was very cold- the swimming, not the breakfast.

We picked up Diana and headed to Mt Cook. Mt Cook is the largest mountain in Australasia and Edmund Hilary used it to train for Mt Everest apparently. We went for a walk taking in the amazing scenery and taking a ridiculous amount of pictures.

Mt Cook from Lake Pukaki

Mt Sefton on the left, Mt Cook on the right (Mt Cook is actually the bigger of the two)

A suspension bridge

Pamela on the suspension bridge

Breakfast with Ming and a Mountain in the background

Since arriving in New Zealand we have taken more pics than we did our whole time in Australia! The entire country seems to be 'photographable' and we apologize in advance for over usage of the words amazing and awesome.

The camp that night was at a DOC- Dept of Conservation campsite. Pamela continues to refer to them as Dept of Conversation campsites. These sites are much cheaper but they don't have any facilities other than a toilet, maybe.

The next day took us through Lake Pukaki, Tarras, Twizel and eventually onto Wanaka. You will have noted already New Zealand's extensive collection of silly place names.

Ming at Lake Pukaki

The scenery along the way was amazing and we stopped at the roadside regularly to take pictures of snow capped mountains and rolling hills. We also visited our first Lord of the Rings location!

At this stage we(Pamela) would like to apologise for the unavoidable geek content that will no doubt bore most of you to tears. Pamela has patiently spent numerous hours being dragged around hillsides while I have tried to imagine a bunch of orcs standing on certain rocks or hills! The guide book takes you to the locations but it's still tricky trying to work out exactly where you are supposed to be looking!

The quest to find these locations and have them match up exactly with the pictures in the guide book has started to consume me and I have clutched the book tightly and referred to it as 'my precious' on a few occasions. Ticking off the locations is strangely addictive but many of the sites are along difficult dirt tracks where you can't really take a hire car- even if it is a spaceship. It became really frustrating after a while thinking that the spot you were looking for might be just around the next bend or just along the track. I have accepted that we aren't going to be able to see every single location unless we hire a helicopter. I'm still looking into prices for this.

LOTR Photo Game!
Rather than go into loads of detail about each LOTR pic we'll just put the odd pic up and call it LOTRa, LOTRb etc... For those who care you can have a guess at what scene was filmed there and post your answers as comments! For those who don't care then you can brush over the random photos of fields and trees!

LOTRa

LOTRb

LOTRc

LOTRd

LOTRe

LOTRf

Leaving the world of Middle Earth for a while we spent a night in Wanaka which is a lovely little town on the bank of Lake Wanaka. Here we stayed at a campsite with really nice facilities and Ryan and Diana did some crazy dives into the eel infested lake while Pamela took some wonderful action shots.

After Wanaka we headed to Queenstown and parted company with Diana. We had a great few days with her onboard the spaceship and hopefully we'll meet up again either on this continent or another.

Queenstown is a cool place. It has a reputation as a party town but we saw no sign of this. We are kind of in between the summer and the winter ski season so maybe things are a bit quiet at this time of the year. The town is surrounded by hills and vineyards and it sits on another huge lake- we can't remember the lakes name but it's a safe bet that if you shuffle around a 'W' a 'K' a 'P' and a bunch of vowels you'd come pretty close. There is a Gondola ride that takes you up into the surrounding hills and the town is filled with lovely restaurants and shops. A lot of the hostels and restaurants have large log fires and we have already decided that at some point in the future we must return on a snowboarding trip to Queenstown.

LOTRg

A bungy jumper near Queenstown

From Queenstown we spent the day at nearby Arrowtown. The site of a few LOTR locations as well as a lovely little town that dates back to New Zealand's gold mining era. Arrowtown is really quaint and the shops along the tiny main street wouldn't look out of place in a western movie.

Main St, Arrowtown

LOTRh

LOTRi

LOTRj

After Arrowtown we went to a place called Deer Park Heights. This is basically a big hill on which numerous groups of animals live. Many of these animals shouldn't really live together, or in New Zealand for that matter, but it makes for a strangely enjoyable few hours as you drive up the hill stopping to feed the miniature horses, alpacas, llamas, ducks, goats, highland cows, and deer!

A crazy donkey rolling around on the ground!

To add to the surreal nature of this hillside a number of LOTR scenes were filmed at the top and there's also an abandoned Korean prison, left over from an 80s movie set!

LOTRk

LOTRl

LOTRm

The hill on the left- LOTRn

A Korean prison from 1986 movie, The Rescue

After another night in Queenstown we got up early and tried to get to Paradise in our spaceship... this was much harder than you would imagine!

There's a little place called Paradise near Glenorchy, just north of Queenstown and this too was another LOTR location. The problem is- the road to paradise is hard to find and extremely treacherous at times. We crept slowly along a dirt track for ages, hoping not to damage our vehicle and just as we decided that we should turn and go back we approached a sign:

The sign says 'Film Crew'

We decided to continue for a little longer and eventually came to a large field filled with vans, tents, and cables. Across from this was a group of horsemen in costume with a young man in their midst. The young rider was dressed differently and clearly stood out as the star of the show. A large camera followed the riders as they rode across the field. We asked someone what was being filmed and they said it was a little New Zealand documenary. This was said with a smirk and it was clear from the costumes and size of production that this was no small documentary.

We cheekily took some photos and then drove on a bit looking for the LOTR site. We think we found the site but the road became extremely rough and eventually we came to a stream that blocked our way.

We headed back towards the filming and passed an old man who had the exciting job of stopping cars from getting into shot. He was happy to inform us that they were filming the new Narnia movie- Prince Caspian! The young horseman was clearly Caspian. The old man waved us through and we drove past while they were still filming. So when the movie comes out and you are watching a scene with Prince Caspian and maybe a dozen horsemen in a field, look out for a bright orange spaceship in the background!

It is clear to see why so many movies are made here as the scenery is breath taking and unlike most other countries, you can drive for miles without seeing any other people, buildings, pylons or any signs of life. New Zealand is Narnia and Middle Earth.

Glenorchy- it's just near Paradise!

Next on our list of must do's for the South Island was a visit to Milford Sound. We had to pass through the rather scary Homer Tunnel to get there.

Homer Tunnel

The view from through the tunnel

The view back to the mountain we just drove through!

Milford Sound is a fiord surrounded by spectacular mountains and in order to illustrate just how stunning the scenery was- we went on a two hour cruise and took 94 photos. The boat took us close enough to the mountains to feel the spray from waterfalls and it took us to a spot where seals lazed in the sunlight. The highlight of this cruise was undoubtedly the moment when a huge school/pod (pick one!) of dolphins appeared behind our boat. The dolphins swam with the boat and jumped out of the water as they played in the boats wake. It was awesome.

Pamela admires the view

Seals lying in the sun

Stirling Falls

The dolphins swam around the boat for ages and watching them was amazing. One of the dolphins was tiny and it was clearly a baby. At some points they were so close to the boat you could have touched them.

Sad to leave the dolphins behind, our cruise took us to an underwater observatory where we could view some of the wildlife that lives under the surface of the lake. This was cool but it didn't compare with the Sound or the dolphins.

We stayed the night at Milford Lodge- a nice hostel near the Sound. We enjoyed a quiet night sitting in their common room, where Pamela beat Ryan at Risk in a record breaking twenty minutes! She was clearly cheating and it's a stupid game for kids anyway.

We left Milford the next day and stopped to do a nature walk- recognised walks in New Zealand usually have names, signs, lookouts and sometimes wooden boardwalks to make them easier. We chose to do the Lake Marian walk which sounded nice and we didn't think it would be too hard. After two hours of struggling over rocks and tree roots we eventually got to the lake. It was hard work but it was worth it.

The 'pathway' to the lake!

Passing a stream along the way

Stopping for a much needed rest

Lake Marian- worth the effort!

We passed through Te Anau on the way back to Queenstown and then after another night there we travelled back to our current location- Wanaka. We really like Wanaka and will probably spend a few days here before setting our coordinates and zooming up the west coast in the spaceship.

We are nearing the midway stage of our trip and the time is flying by. Thanks again to everyone for their kind comments and good luck with the LOTR pics!

Christchurch, New Zealand

2007-03-20T00:43:00.000-07:00

We arrived in New Zealand safely to a chilly 8 degrees! A little different from the humidity of Cairns. Apparently it had been about 30 degrees a few days earlier but they were having some freak weather! Thankfully, it has warmed up again to a comfortable 20 degrees.

Our first day in Christchurch was really relaxed which was a good break from the madness of Australia. We took a walk to Cathedral Square and enjoyed a Starbucks while watching people play chess in the middle of the square. There is a chess set out everyday and people challenge total strangers.

Hobbits playing standard size chess!

Can't imagine the chess pieces still being around in Glasgow for that to work! The city centre is relatively quiet for being a city and everything is within walking distance.

The cathedral of Cathedral Sq and The Chalice, an arty statue thingy...

We took a city tram ride to find out about some of the history, wandered through the markets in the square and watched street performers including one guy who was very good and sounded just like Neil Young. We thought he was miming for a while!

Traditional Tram

Then we got a bus to go on the city gondola. There is a river flowing through Christchurch so we thought we'd be going to a boat but instead it was a chairlift. It takes you 1500 feet above sea level, on the crater rim of Christchurch's extinct volcano to get a 360 degree view of the city. It was amazing.

View from the gondola

The background looks fake but it isn't!

The evenings here are pretty quiet. We found a cheap chip shop which was selling fish and chips for $4! It's about $2.67 to the pound at the moment so we were looking forward to a tasty bargain but the shop closed at 5pm! So went back to the hostel to watch Lord of the Rings with lots of other fans staying at the hostel. We're staying at Charlie B's and this is by far the best hostel we have stayed in so far. Every time new people arrive they think it'd be a great idea to watch Lord of the Rings! It's almost on a constant loop!

We visited the Art Gallery where we saw Sam Neil from Jurassic Park. We also visited the Antartic Centre which was quite fun where we went for a bumpy ride in a real Hagglund then braved the storm where temperatures dropped to -25 degrees! It was baltic! We also saw some penguins which were a good laugh - there's a blind one called Elvis who kept swimming into the rocks! It was a bit if a shame but still quite funny!

Our hostels are getting smaller!

Pammy keeps warm in the recreated Antartic storm

Action shot of Ryan on an ice slide

A Hagglund- the vehicle used to drive over the Antartic.

On Sunday we went to Calvary Chirstchurch. It was really nice - a bit like Calvary Motherwell which was strange coming all this way around the world. The people were really friendly and we even got a dinner invite for the next evening. Then one of the ladies dropped us off at a backpackers car market so we could have a look and see what was available to buy. A lot of people buy a cheap vehicle and then sell it once they have travelled around NZ. There was nothing special at the car market so we headed back to the hostel for some lunch and TV watching with other lazy backpackers! It was great!

Monday was filled with trying to decide how we were going to get about New Zealand with no decisions being made - you know us, we can never make a decision! We went to Kieron and Ruth's house for dinner and enjoyed some great home cooking and a lovely cake too, made by their daughter Bethany. They have two other children Damian and Jessica. They gave us lots of good ideas and tips for travelling around New Zealand which was great. Unfortunately we forgot to take a photo of them for the blog - sorry guys but thanks for your great advice and hospitality. Next time you are in Scotland please get in touch!

On Tuesday we looked at a few cars and campervans but none seemed right or they were just too expensive. We nearly bought two but were pipped at the post by higher bidders. We trust that this was meant to be though. So, instead of spending another few days in Christchurch wondering what to do we just decided to hire a vehicle so we can set off on our travels.

We hired a spaceship! Yip, that's right - we'll be travelling around Middle Earth in a spaceship! It's pretty cool. It's a bit like a people carrier with lots of hidden compartments, a camp stove, fridge, dvd player and a bed- so it'll also be our accommodation for the next month too! It's costing about the same price as buses and hostels so it's not too bad.

The Spaceship

We've already recruited a fellow traveller to share fuel costs and we'll drop her off at the next town. The weird thing is her name is Dianna and she worked at British Gas the same time as Ryan and then also at HSBC around about the same time as him too! Bizarre.

We really looking forward to travelling around New Zealand and some of the scenery we've seen already has been amazing. We bought a Lord of The Rings location guide book, so we have already scheduled in stops at Hobbiton, Weathertop, and the spot where Frodo and Sam see Oliphants!

We've had quite a bit of free time in Christchurch while we sorted out our transport plans so it's given us time to get the blog up to date. Hope you are all enjoying the pics and hope everyone is well...

I'm a Backpacker... Get me out of here!

2007-03-17T00:34:00.000-07:00

After a day or two we managed to shake off the weird feeling that we were still on a boat and continued up the coast. We only had about a week to cram in Townsville, Magnetic Island, Mission Beach, Cairns and Cape Tribulation!

Townsville

Despite sounding like a fictional location from a soap opera, Townsville does exist. There isn't much to do here (and they don't show Celtic games in their bars) as most people arrive and head to Magnetic Island straight away. We spent one night here and arranged to meet up for a drink with Lesley, a fellow Scot who we met on the Uluru tour.

Our Hostel in Townsville was very much like an old fashioned motel. There was a little swimming pool on the roof that was quite nice and while we were swimming a tiny boy ran up and jumped in. As he slowly sunk to the bottom his mother wandered across and nonchalantly asked if someone could grab her son as he couldn't swim. Some bloke grabbed him and lifted him to the edge of the pool where he proceeded to laugh and repeat his dive again and again... 4 yr old Tim's sinking act entertained us for a good half hour!

Other than meeting Leslie, sinking Tim and another tasty Oz burger there isn't much else to tell about Townsville. The lovely people from the hostel allowed us to store our backpacks while we headed over to Magnetic island for an overnight...

Magnetic Island

Magnetic Island isn't Magnetic, but it is an island. Just not a very interesting one! Maybe we are becoming beach snobs but after three weeks of some of the nicest beaches in the world, we weren't that impressed by what Magnetic had to offer. The beaches were okay but you couldn't swim in the ocean because of the jellyfish. It's strange because the further up the coast you get, the more humid it becomes, the more you want to swim and the more dangerous the beaches become!

Marine Stingers are deadly and a bottle of vinegar sits next to most beaches to ease the pain! We thought it was maybe for your chips while you wait on the ambulance.

We walked through a forest to see some forts left over from World War II. The bus driver assured us we would see at least five koalas on the way. We saw none. After walking for ages in the crazy heat we reached the large concrete block that used to have a small fort standing on it. The views were nice but worth the walk, it was not.

At our hostel we met Adam(snr!) from our Fraser Island gang. We also met a Canadian called Steve who we had met previously in Hervey Bay. This seems to happen a lot when you travel in Australia. We met a girl the other day who we last saw in Adelaide! Now, that's like meeting someone in the south of Portugal and bumping into them again in the North of Germany!

We had dinner with Adam and Steve and then the lads entered a pool competition. Steve was beaten in the first round after a controversial rule change and Ryan proceeded to the Semi's, where he was easily beaten by an aboriginal girl called Pebbles. Oh well...

One day and night on Magnetic Island was just enough and we were quite happy to continue on to Mission Beach...

Mission Beach

Mission Beach is a tiny one street town with a few hostels scattered around. The Beach is on one side and the rain forest is on the other. Many people go skydiving or rafting from here but New Zealand is supposed to be better for stupid life threatening activities! We'll see how we feel when we're in Queenstown!

Our hostel was called the Treehouse and you will have correctly guessed that it was set in the middle of the rain forest. It had a lovely pool and there were creepy crawlies, frogs and lizards everywhere.

This daft bird accompanied us to our hostel

This guy was sitting outside on our balcony

Ryan's view from beside the pool

We had a nice time relaxing in the amazing surroundings and then had a wild evening playing scrabble and drinking tea...

Cairns and Cape Tribulation

A lot of hostels provide free bus transfers from airports and bus stations. We arrived in Cairns around 7pm but it took our hostel an hour and a half to collect us. When they finally got us to the hostel we were informed that the free evening meal we had been promised actually cost $8. This isn't much but it was still a cheeky wee fib on their brochure... this would prove to be one of many complaints we would have with Cairns Beach House!

Cairns

The rooms had no air conditioning and they weren't very clean either, but we were only here for a few nights so we just tried to make the best of it, plus the pubs in Cairns do show Celtic games!

On our first day we booked another snorkeling trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. This time we took an under water camera. The visibility wasn't as good as The Whitsundays and the camera quality isn't great but you can still see the amazing reef and and just how silly we look!

If you look closely you might make out the jellyfish. Help!

Pammy!

Ryan Costeau!

Green Island

A reef shark circling the boat!

Ryan being arty!

The boat was called Ocean Free and one of the crew was from Paisley! Now correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think there are many opportunities to sail or snorkel in Ferguslie Park! He knew what he was doing nonetheless and the trip was perfectly rounded off with fresh fruit and cheese and wine on the journey home.

The next day we headed to Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Rain forest. Apparently 'I'm a Celebrity...' is filmed near to where we were staying.

On our way there we did a river cruise to find Crocodiles. This guy was about 5 metres long.

We arrived deep in the heart of the rain forest and were pointed in the direction of our little hut! As we approached we noticed a large cage just across from our door. The cage had bananas piled in one corner and a sign that read 'Warning- feral pig trap'!

We were surprised to learn that there are around 23 million feral pigs in Australia and only about 21 million people! Not sure why they were trying to catch them just next to where we were sleeping though! We didn't have to worry about pigs because it turned out that the huge spider above our door would easily have eaten any pigs that came near us!

This spider was the size of a man's hand. The size of a man who had rather large spider sized hands! In case the pic doesn't do it justice, we're talking a three inch body with three inch legs!
We went back to reception to ask if it was deadly and they advised us that 'she' was always there and 'she's' quite harmless!

We've found this casual approach to deadly animals quite common in Australia... Despite the spider, our room was lovely.

Cape Tribulation was beautiful and we went a walk along a lovely beach to a lookout before heading to Mossman Gorge for a swim in freezing freshwater.

I like your sleeves!

A small snake. Probably deadly, who knows!

The bloke sitting like Gollum on the rock is actually Ryan

Mossman Gorge

We stopped off at Port Douglas which was lovely but we didn't have much time to hang around. We headed back to Cairns and went to a nice Mexican restaurant for dinner with some folk from the tour.

Our last night in Australia wasn't quite the best way to finish this leg of our trip. We settled into our roasting 8 bed dorm room and around 1am Ryan went to the toilet. A scratching noise in the corner alerted him to the fact that he was not alone. A huge rat then scurried across the floor. Ryan decided he would be able to survey this situation much better while standing on the toilet seat. Leaping from the seat to the door in one Indiana Jones-like leap, Ryan arrived next to Pammy's bed wheezing and looking a little shaken! We thought it best not to disturb the other people who were enjoying their sleep and made our way to reception where we asked to be put into a rat free room. The only room available had a luxury queen sized room and air con. No idea why a hostel had a room like this but thanks to Roland we had a lovely room for the rest of the night. Needless to say- avoid Cairns Beachhouse if you are ever in Cairns! Or alternatively, claim to have found a rat and get moved to a nice room for free!

Moving on...

Our flight to Christchurch NZ stopped over in Sydney for a few hours so we decided to have a wander around the airport shops. We decided it was best to buy a new camera from duty free and hopefully get something back from our insurance for the broken camera. After doing more damage to our credit card we headed to spend the last of our Australian dollars on some food. Some of our flights are with Jetstar, who don't provide food on their shorter flights, so we bought a subway to take on the plane! Then we discovered a Krispy Kremes! Krispy Kremes make the nicest doughnuts in the entire world. Original glazed... mmm...

We were at the till at Krispy Kremes when we noticed a sign that said you get a free doughnut if you do an Irish jig because St Patrick's Day was approaching. After considering the the potential embarrassment v tasty free doughnut situation, we proceeded to put down our bags and dance for some doughnuts! We love Krispy Kremes! The staff barely managed to stop laughing long enough to give us our free doughnuts and then we headed off to go through customs...

On the way we noticed a sign that said it was last call for our flight... while dancing for doughnuts in the middle of the airport we had neglected to change the time on our watch- Cairns is one hour ahead of Sydney. We had roughly fifteen minutes to get through customs and make our flight! We were able to skip the massive queue after explaining the situation to some official and then as we jogged along the corridor they made a call for us over the tanoy system...

"This is a final boarding call for passengers Ferrie and..."

We got to the gate in time and then boarded the plane. Everyone on board gave us funny looks as we made it to our seats clutching our subway and doughnuts!

Ryan and his hard earned doughnut!

After this minor excitement it was on to New Zealand and goodbye to Australia. We can't believe we've been away for over two months now, time is starting to pass really quickly. We loved Australia and we did some amazing things there- Uluru and Fraser Island were probably our favourite tours and we loved Sydney and Melbourne. We have very few complaints- the humidity is tough and not being able to swim in the ocean is annoying, but most of the people we met were very nice and on the whole Australia has been brilliant, but we are ready to move on to somewhere New...

Sydney from the plane- Goodbye Australia!

We are sailing...

2007-03-13T02:27:00.000-07:00

After the Fraser Island adventure we spent another night in Hervey Bay, spent the next day lazing at the pool, then we caught the overnight bus to Airlie Beach. The fact that while travelling up a section of the coast, we've had numerous three and four hour journeys and two overnight journeys lets you know just how ridiculously large this country is. We initially thought overnight buses would be a bad thing- uncomfortable and tedious, but we've actually enjoyed the journeys. The buses are quite nice, they usually show a movie or two, they stop at little service stations regularly and on an overnight bus you save money by not paying for accommodation! If you can put up with the crabbit (nice Scottish word) bus drivers, getting the Greyhound or Premier bus is a pretty good option for travelling up the coast.

After camping with dingoes (not dingi, Uncle Daniel!) our next adventure was a three day sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands.

The Whitsundays are a group of around 74 islands and home to Whitehaven Beach, one of the nicest beaches in the world, according to every travel agent and advert. Airlie Beach is the leaving point for most Whitsunday trips and we arrived in Airlie, had time to use the hostels showers, put or bags in storage and then it was straight to the wharf to discover what our boat would look like!

We had heard a few horror stories about some of the boats, so we were a little apprehensive but we arrived to the find the Habibi was quite a nice boat with a responsible looking crew to welcome us on board. There were around 25 passengers and 4 crew members- Captain Greg, Firstmate Shane and Jennifer and Smiley, who had a variety of jobs on board. After some basic safety advice the boat left the harbour and the Captain began to tell us what the next few days would involve. To our major disappointment he informed us that the weather was quite bad and we would be unable to make it to Whitehaven Beach. After this news we were shown down to our rooms. You'd be surprised how much room there was below deck. Hardly any actually! Below deck was cramped, crazy warm and well... smelly. We quickly dumped our stuff and headed back up!

Smiley!- not sure where the name comes from.

We were beginning to think that the trip wasn't going to be very good but once we settled in and started chatting to the rest of the people on board things started to improve. The sea was quite choppy so the plan for the first day was to sail for quite a while until we reached a sheltered area where we would spend the night.

The scenery was beautiful and we enjoyed a cold drink while we relaxed on board. We arrived at some cove (can't remember it's name) and had a lovely meal cooked by Shane.

After we had watched the sun go down we continued to chat with our fellow passengers. The truly international group included people from Israel, Germany, England, Holland, Korea and of course Scotland.

Ben and Scott- moved from England to Australia to play pro rugby!

That night the cards came out and after a couple of games of scabby queen, or chase the ace as people called it, we inflicted the Mafia game upon them! For those who don't know what Mafia is- it's a kind of bluffing game that we'll explain to you another time! We played the game and tried to put off going below deck for as long as we could.

The heat in the room made it very uncomfortable, so we didn't sleep very well. We got up early the next day and went snorkeling at two different reef locations. Wearing Lycra stinger suits to protect us from deadly jellyfish, goggles and flippers, we felt sure that sharks would be too busy laughing to actually get round to eating us.

Looking good

Ryan sends Pamela in first to check for sharks

If you just smile and wave no one will know you're doing a pee!

We were assured that there were no sharks around but it was difficult not to hear the Jaws theme tune just as you put your first foot into the water. Once we worked up the courage we both got in and started to look around. It was amazing. There were loads of stunning, multi-coloured fish swimming around the equally beautiful coral. We were swimming through huge shoals of fish and at some points there so many fish we couldn't see further than a few inches!

It was amazing and after you get used to the whole thing you start to get braver- eventually we were both touching fish and diving below the surface to get closer to the really big fish! There was one particularly large fish(a Wrasse) called Elvis, and he was huge. In the afternoon we snorkelled at the second location where the visibility was even better.

After a tiring day everyone on board had a lovely meal and watched the beautiful sunset while listening to luma's brilliant new e.p. (listen to tracks @ www.myspace.com/lumanation)

On the last day we did more snorkelling and then sailed back to Airlie Beach. The sea was extremely rough and a number of people came close to viewing their breakfast for a second time.

Missing Whitehaven beach was annoying but the trip was still good and the snorkelling was amazing. Once we got back we had dinner with all the folk from the boat and then we packed our stuff for the the next day's bus journey...

*****New Pics in the post below******

Fraser Island - dingo camp!

2007-03-05T22:19:00.000-08:00

What an amazing trip! We were introduced to the people we were travelling with at a hostel meeting, given a 4x4 Toyota Landcruiser, a box of food and camping equipment and sent on our way to Fraser Island.

Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and is a world heritage site. I know it sounds rather daft, but we just didn't expect there to be so much sand! There were no tarmac roads so the driving was fun! Ryan and 2 other guys, Adam and David were designated drivers and managed to successfully navigate through the beach and inland tracks.

Driving along the beach

Ryan and Andrew- clearly concentrating on driving!

Adam- the fourth McAlpine!

The barge took about 30 minutes and when we arrived on Fraser the first stop was Lake McKenzie, an idyllic fresh water lake surrounded by pure white sand and trees.

After swimming in the beautiful water we had some lunch and got to know the group a little better.

In order to avoid any salt water (a condition of our insurance) our itinerary depended upon the times of high tide. We had to set up camp on the first evening by 4.30pm so after lunch we headed straight to look for a spot to camp. We weren't booked into the official camp grounds, instead we were told to pull off the beach behind the sand dunes when we felt like it.
We were running a little late and didn't want to get caught by the high tide so we gave the driver (Welsh David) instructions to put his foot down a bit! He took this direction a little too seriously and approached what can only be described as a huge canyon at around 70km an hour. The 4X4 flew off the cliff, splashed into a river and then we managed to scale the opposite bank to safety. (This report may have been slightly exagerated for literary effect.) We sat in stunned silence for a few seconds, soaking wet from the water that poured in the open windows. Thankfully it was freshwater and our insurance was still valid.

Death Canyon- the scene of our off-road terror!

After we picked our camping spot, Pamela chatted with the 3 German girls- Yanna, Lucy and Monica while the guys played beach football. Ryan, Eric the German and Andrew the Canadian beat the English and Wales select, Adam I, Adam II and David, 10-7.

Once the boys had had their fun, the real work started in putting up our tents and setting up the gas burners to cook dinner.

Not a bad spot for the night!

Toilets were easily accessible at our camp - you had to pick up the shovel, find a private area and dig about 50cm into the sand! Any scraps of food and rubbish had to be disposed of similarly in order to protect the environment and prevent wild dingoes sniffing around the area, and you weren't allowed to go on your own because of the danger of dingoes.

d-i-n-g-o!

The Dingo Stance

A group of dingoes might attack someone on their own but if there is a group of you, we were told to stand still with your arms folded in front of you and they should leave you alone. This came in handy the following night...

After dinner we taught the group how to play Mafia and had a good laugh. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to burn a fire due to fire restrictions but a small lamp connected to the cars battery and a bright moon created a cosy atmosphere. Then it was off to bed and sand is not as comfortable to sleep on as we hoped! Pamela shared a tent with Lucy and Yanna and was awoken in the middle of the night for a toilet stop so she could check for the dingoes! As you can imagine, it was quite scary!

After showers and breakfast at a nearby campsite we headed to Indian Head, a beautful viewpoint over the deadly ocean where sharks, stingers and turtles swam beneath us.

This was a perfect photo opportunity and an equally perfect opportunity to slip and smash your digital camera off a rock! After Ryan had done that we were forced to take photos with no screen hoping that they were turning out alright.

Ryan- annoyed with himself after breaking the camera

From Indian Head a 40 minute walk took us to the Champagne Pools where we swam with fish in the only salt water you can safely swim in on the island. Then it was back to the car and more 4x4 crazy driving to the next camping spot. We were slightly later arriving than we should've been but managed to set up camp again quickly.

The boys decided to play more football while the girls chatted at the camp. The girls had to adopt the 'how to escape dingoes' position when four rather mean looking dingoes began to circle the tents. There were 4 dingoes so they could have had a girl each for dinner...the girls decided to abandon the position and just hide in the car. Thankfully the dingoes finally left of their own accord, and we were safe to begin cooking dinner.

After eating we played some more Mafia and Pamela showed off her rope trick. Adam struggled but congratulations to David for working it out almost immediatey!

The driving was lots of fun but scary too (especially for the people in the back seat who seemed to get the brunt of every bump!) As you can see from the photo above we got stuck in sand a few times so had to get out, clear sand from the wheels and push.

The last day started with a trip to Lake Wabby- surrounded by trees and a huge sand dune and filled with catfish.

Then we visited the Moheno shipwreck before heading back to the ferry port for some lunch before catching the ferry back to Hervey Bay. We arrived safely and after a quick check from the mechanic our vehicle was declared okay and we got our deposits back (not always guaranteed apparently).

It was an amazing couple of days and has to be one of our highlights so far. The group were great fun and despite the dingoes, the huge angry flies and the bumpy roads, it was a brilliant experience.

Sailing round the Whitsundays next...

The East Coast

2007-02-24T03:18:00.000-08:00

We decided the best way to travel up the east coast would be to buy a hop-on hop-off bus ticket that allowed us to hop-on and then hop-off, whenever we liked. We think this was a wise decision as it was cheaper than car hire and it saves us from driving. Due to the bus route, bus timetable and the amount of activities we want to get through, we have had to plan the next three weeks of our trip with intense military precision. This blog entry is currently being updated in the 0.27hrs of today's scheduled communications time.

The Big Prawn- One of many big things attached to cafes and petrol stations across Australia. We have also seen the Big Rockin Horse and the Big Lobster but not sure if we'll get to see the Big Banana, the Big Pineapple, etc...

Our first stop on the the east coast was Byron Bay. The little town and most of it's residents were extremely laid back. It was a welcome change of pace after Sydney and after spending a little while browsing the trendy surf shops and taking in the stunning beach, we quickly fell in love with the place.

We arrived in the morning and quickly made for the beach. While Pamela sunbathed I went off and played beach soccer with a group of guys from the hostel. I scored one goal, got sunburn on my forehead and almost collapsed from exhaustion. It was great.

The next morning we took a 5Km stroll to a lighthouse and view point called Captain Cook's Lookout. The walk was hard going, up hill and in the blistering heat, but it was well worth it as the view was spectacular.

Later that afternoon I met up with Blackdog Surf school for my first ever surf lesson!

Check out my sweet moves dude. Gnarly!

We really loved Byron and would have stayed longer if we had had more time. Next stop was Surfers Paradise for one night. We squeezed in some beach time, a little shopping and we discovered the delight that is an Aussie Burger! Think of a McDonald's quarter pounder with bacon, egg and beetroot! Ripper!

Relaxing at the hostel

From Surfers it was up to Brisbane. Brisbane was quite a surprise, as we had assumed it wouldn't be anywhere as nice as Sydney or Melbourne. Most people we spoke to hadn't been very complimentary about the place but we really liked it. The city is built on a river and kind of reminded us of Glasgow a little bit. That was until we found the gorgeous man made beach and lagoon! After swimming in the water with the skyscrapers in the background we enjoyed fish and chips in the South Bank Gardens. before we got to used to City life it was back to the bus!

After Brisbane we continued up the coast to a lovely place called Noosa- very green with amazing restauraunts and houses. Noosa is a lot classier than touristy Surfers. The beach was excellent and the water was perfect for swimming in- Pamela even caught her first wave on a body board.

We went kayaking on the river where Pamela as ever observed the twenty's plenty speed limit!

We had already bought tickets for Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin's zoo) and planned to go last Sunday but we failed to book a seat on the courtesy bus. Public transport on a Sunday would have involved about 6 hrs of bus and train journeys so we decided to hire a car instead. We managed to acquire three more passengers from the hostel and were able to split the cost.

The Zoo was great. They have a very hands on approach, encouraging you to touch animals and get up close to some amazing creatures. All the staff kept quoting Steve irwin saying "At Australia Zoo you get close to the animals, you grow to love them, then you want to help protect them." Not sure if we were moved to love any of the animals but Pamela was fond of the little Koalas.

Some of the people who shared a car with us

Seeing this tiger climb a tree reduced our possible tiger escape routes to zero!

A tasmanian devil

We left Noosa on Monday the 26th and arrived at Hervey Bay for a two night stop over. Hervey Bay is where most Fraser island tours leave from and we head out on Wednesday. The town isn't up to much and it has a lot of large industrial units dotted around, but we haven't checked out the beach yet which is supposed to be lovely. The Fraser Island trip is a self drive, 4x wheel sand safari camping trip and we find out tonight who we are travelling with. Here's hoping we get a friendly bunch!

Sydney

2007-02-16T17:04:00.000-08:00

We've been in Sydney for almost a week now. It's much bigger and busier than Melbourne and the scenery and landmarks are far more impressive. Not that that we didn't enjoy Melbourne! The Bridge and the Opera House are amazing and the atmosphere around the different quays at night is great. The hostel here has probably been the best so far, with it's own pool, sauna, some tasty make your own pizza nights and movie nights with free popcorn!

Palm Beach is about an hour north of Sydney and the lovely beach there may look familiar!

Yes! It's Summer Bay- where they film Home and Away. You might make out Alf Stewart's name on the bottom right of this sign! There were no stars on show though as they were all at Leah's wedding (or the actress who plays Leah!) in the city. Our invite was clearly lost in the post.

Ryan body boarding (drowning). Pamela stayed out of the water to avoid the blue bottle jellyfish that were everywhere! The crying jellyfish victim at the lifeguard tent confirmed her choice!

Summer Bay!

On Sunday we went to Hillsongs church, it was rather impressive. The service was really good and the whole building, inside and out, was amazing. The whole set up was very professional but it still had a very intimate atmosphere. One of the highlights had to be the bacon rolls after morning church and hotdogs after the evening celebration! Darlene Zschech led worship at the evening service- which was just like listening to one of the CD's.

Big screen advert for their next live album recording.

Sydney Aquarium- the blurry shape in the background is a giant turtle that jams it's shell between rocks so that it doesn't float around while asleep!

Scary teeth- look at the sharks too!

Snorkeling is becoming less appealing by the minute!

A platypus. Half mammal, half fish, half duck. That's an animal and a half!

We found Nemo!

Some Photos from our boat trip around the harbour:

A photo of our bridgeclimb photo! Cool suits eh?!

The Opera House just before sunset:

The view from inside the Opera House.

Inside the main theatre in the Opera House.

A bit blurry but still very pretty!

mmm.... doughnuts!

Bondi Beach.

Heading up the coast today... first stop Byron Bay.

Melbourne- Panning for Gold and meeting Harold!

2007-02-14T22:52:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Lesley and Will (and the animals!) for a lovely relaxing week in Gisborne.

Will and Dougal

Lesley and Bump (baby Douglas!)

While we were staying in Gisborne we spent the day at a local attraction called Sovereign Hill, in Ballarat.

Sovereign Hill is a recreated 1850s goldfields township with a couple of hundred residents (actors) who wear period costume and serve you in the saloon, help you pan for gold and show you how gold is mined and purified. It's a very cool place.

We took a stagecoach ride around town.

We panned for gold in the stream and actually found some little specks of gold. Not enough to cover the entrance fee though! We were also slightly suspicious that some bloke was putting the gold in at the top of the river!

We spent a few nights at a hostel in the city just around the corner from Federation Square, in the middle of Melbourne. Melbourne is a very busy city with loads of museums, galleries, parks, gardens, bars and restaurants and it has an amazing tram network that allows you to get around really easily.

Retro computer games in the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Those sad males in their mid twenties upwards may recognise The Hobbit and Way of the Exploding Fist, two classic games that appeared on the Spectrum and were made in Melbourne! Horace goes Skiing was also on display. For those youngsters who don't know what Horace goes Skiing is- it's very similar to Grand Theft Auto but with better graphics.

We found this photo in the immigration museum- Mrs Ferry who immigrated from Ireland to Australia during the potato famine. Wrong spelling but I can see a family resemblance!

Moonlight cinema- loads of people in the Botanic Gardens watching an inflatable screen! Nice hotdogs and very comfy bean beds- we plan to launch this in Strathy Park upon our return!

St Kilda Festival. St Kilda is a beach area just out of town and on Sunday it was home to about 400,000 people. There were street performers, bands, and loads of other activities.

These guys were wakeboarding (we think)- instead of a speed boat they were pulled by a winch along the pool!

Our last day in Melbourne was Neighbours Day! We took the Ramsay Street tour and at night we went to meet the stars at a Neighbours night in St Kilda.

Erinsborough High- This school is where they film the exterior shots but it's not actually called Erinsborough High. Erinsborough isn't actually the real name of the town- apparently it's an anagram of neighbours with a few extra letters!

Paul Robinson's house.

Susan Kennedy's.

Ramsay Street- it was a lot smaller than we'd imagined. The people who live there are handsomely compensated for the intrusion but they need to sign a contract to say they won't change their gardens! Sounds good to me!

Dr Karl Kennedy

Some new bloke called Fraser- we think he came into it just as we left. Thought we'd get his picture anyway!

The legendary Harold Bishop. (or is it Tam McAlpine?!)

Stef Scully/Hoyland

Dr Kennedy and his band Waiting Room! They were actually pretty good.

Melbourne was great and we really enjoyed our time here. Next stop Sydney...

Loads of Photos!

2007-02-06T15:48:00.000-08:00

Our last few nights in Adelaide were extremely comfortable thanks to Lindsay and Sandra (Rhona Swan's relatives) who were kind enough to feed us and put us up for a couple of nights. We hired a little car to travel from Adelaide to Melbourne and set off on Friday to explore the Limestone Coast and the Great Ocean Road. After this long but amazing drive we arrived at our friends house (Will and Lesley) in a little place called Gisborne, near Melbourne, to enjoy more home comforts!

The last few weeks have been amazing and we feel like we have done so much already. Only five months to go! Below are some more photos of the last few weeks from Alice Springs right through to our first few days in Melbourne:

Alice Springs

This cosy little van was our home for two nights in Alice Springs!

The plasma TV and jacuzzi are obviously just out of shot!

The Rock Tour

After an early pick up our first stop was at Stuart's Well for some camel riding.

Our first kangaroo.

A real dingo and a dead teddy bear.

Who's gonna ride these wild horses?

While stopping for some firewood we had a look for some wichiti grubs. We found this bad boy and to decide who would eat the little fellow we tossed a coin.

Irish Tom won (or lost!) and had to eat the grub. He informed us that it tasted like mild cheese. Lovely.

Our tour guide Ash cooked some tasty food while we watched the sunset.

Sunset at Uluru.

The bird in the foreground is in midflight- This will be getting entered into the next Blue Peter nature photograph competition.

Stories by the campfire.

The flies were out in force at sunrise- Paul's T-Shirt has been to Australia and he hasn't!

The view from Kata Tjuta- another sacred Aboriginal site.

Our friends from the good Korea are introduced to HP brown sauce. They like it.

Pamela with Keeva and Keithy with no Teethy!

Final night dinner with the whole group from the Rock Tour.

Adelaide and Glenelg Beach

Glenelg- a lovely little town with a nice beach and some cool shops.

Sunset at Glenelg Beach.

Starbucks and Nando's next door to each other!

Lindsay and Sandra with family (Rhona's Relatives)

Barossa Valley Wine Tour

While staying at Adelaide we went on a wine tour of the Barossa Valley- home of Jacob's Creek.

Pamela swirling and sniffing some red wine.

On the fork- our second Kangaroo!

The Great Ocean Road

London Arch- formally London bridge before it collapsed stranding a couple of tourists a few years ago!

Some cockatoos resting on the balcony at our hostel in Lorne.

We took this photo then later found out it was the lighthouse from the Australian kids TV show 'Round the Twist'.

We were stunned to find The King touring the Great Ocean Road! A seagull has just stolen his mic or maybe it was a huge cheeseburger!

A rock formation known as 'The Razorback'.

Penguin tracks on the beach. Yes, penguins!

The Twelve Apostles.

After watching about 500 Koreans do this Ryan thought he would join in.

Ryan in the buff.

Dinner at Port Fairy. Possibly the most scenic fish supper in history.

Melbourne

Old Melbourne Gaol- where the legendary Ned Kelly was executed.

Inside the Gaol. (For those taught by Ryan and a few others- Gaol is an old way of spelling jail!)

Although cramped and cold, the cells had a surprisingly sophisticated sound system!

Ryan Ferrie and Ned Kelly.

Historians are still unsure how Kelly survived in the Outback wearing flip flops.

Ryan decides that this cell is a vast improvement on some of the hostels we've had to stay in!

Dougal the Wonder Dog

Anyone who knows the terror which even the smallest of animal can inflict on Pamela will be stunned by the news that she has become firm friends with this small, Scrappy Doo look-a-like.

Join us soon for the next episode of Home and Away with the Ferries!

Swags, Grubs, Caravans and Keithy with no Teethy!

2007-01-28T21:17:00.000-08:00

What a week! We arrived safely in Darwin and checked into a lovely hostel with a roof top pool! We only had a one day stop over so we took a little stroll around town and down to Cullen Bay Marina.

We caught the Ghan train the next day and spent 24 hours travelling from Darwin to Alice Springs. The train journey was comfortable and the scenery was amazing. It has been a very wet summer so the Outback looked a lot greener than usual.

Alice Springs is a bizarre place! With a population of about 28,000 the town has a distinct 'redneck' feel to it! The town is full of hostels (and a few hostiles!) and is largely a base for people travelling to see Uluru and the other local landmarks.

Below is the Todd River that runs through Alice Springs. The water usually runs underneath the river bed and it is a rare sight to see water in the Todd. We also saw some Aboriginal kids playing in it!

We took a walk into the town centre to buy some lunch and shady hats and on the way we passed loads and loads of Aboriginal people sitting around on benches and street corners. Being honest, we initially found the large groups of men quite intimidating but after spending a few days learning about their culture and getting a chance to chat with 'Keithy with no Teethy' we have quickly grown to empathise with their situation. There are only 250,000 Aboriginals left in Australia and while the government seems to be working hard to make amends for past atrocities, the damage to their authentic way of life is beyond repair.

After our rock tour (pics and info to follow!) we had dinner with the tour guide who introduced us to one of his Aboriginal friends. The gumsy Keithy proudly called himself a 'first Australian' and he told some amazing tales of his own life and the difficulties he has faced. After dinner our group and Keithy went to a local bar however Keithy was refused entry because his jeans were ripped- Tom the German had no such problems with his ripped jeans. It would appear that in Alice, if not Australia, Keithy's genes continue to be a barrier to full integration.

We stayed at the Alice Lodge hostel on our first night and imagine our surprise when we were shown to one of the six 'cosy' caravans in the back garden! We also saw quite a few scary looking bugs but later discovered these were nothing compared to what we would be encountering on our 3 day rock tour!
We got picked up from our hostel at 6am and grabbed a few other people on the way. The group turned out to be really great with a couple of Irish nutters, some Germans, a couple from Korea, a Danish girl and a fellow Scot - all mixed in with an English tour guide. First stop was a camel farm at Stuarts Well where we got to ride a camel and see some kangaroos and a dingo. Then it was a stop for some tasty sandwiches before picking up another German at Ayres Rock airport. With the whole team on board we made our way to Uluru for a walk around the base in the soaring heat.The climb was closed due to temperatures being too hot! 37 degrees was far too warm for us so we didn't take too much time to stop and enjoy the view! Climbing on the sacred rock is frowned upon so this made the decision much easier although we probably would've died climbing as it's rather steep!

After walking round Uluru the guide spent some time telling us all about the Aborignal traditions and beliefs. Then we picked our spot to have dinner and watch the sunset!

After sunset we travelled to our camp site- had much needed showers then climbed into our swags(padded sleeping bags) to sleep under the stars! It may have been the heat or the fear of snakes, spiders and dingos but we didn't sleep that well and were up at 4.30am to catch the sunrise! We had breakfast and watched the sun appear behind Uluru.

The next stop was Kata Tjuta another sacred site for the Aboriginal people. Yet again the scenery was outstanding and because it was earlier in the day the walking was a lot more enjoyable. On the way to out next camping spot we stopped to collect fire wood and had a look for some bush tucker! The guide was very good and he knew his stuff but had actually never successfully found any grubs on tours that he had led. The trick was to find a group of bushes, clear away the ground from around the roots, break of the biggest looking root and snap it and look inside! Excitement and terror struck when the very first root produced a huge wriggling beasty! Irish Tom and Scottish Ryan! had said they would give it a go but both looked rather reluctant- a toss of a coin meant Tom was the 'lucky' one! The trick was to hold the head and bite the tail so that you didn't get the grubs teeth to crunch on! Yummy!

That night we camped out under the stars and ate a tasty dinner cooked on the camp fire! The trully international group were amazed by Pamela's knot trick! Thanks Josh!

Another 4am start the next day took us to King's Canyon with the best scenery so far. The walk was really nice and by this time everyone in the group was getting on really well. We stopped at an Aboriginal art gallery for lunch and then slept during the long drive back to Alice Springs. After two nights sleeping on the ground amongst lots of beasties we couldn't wait to get back to our little caravan! We had dinner with the group on Sunday night and exchanged lots of email addresses and travel tips for the rest of our time in Australia. If anyone is looking to do a tour of Uluru, 'The Rock Tour' comes highly recommended.

We caught our flight to Adelaide on Monday and arrived in the stunning Glenelg Beach that afternoon. Glenelg is a very cool little beach side town with a town square full of little cafes and shops. The highlight of this town has to be watching the sunset at the end of the pier with a Starbucks, after having eaten at Nando's!

We spent a little time in Adelaide city but actually prefer Glenelg Beach area. We have made contact with Rhona Swan's cousins and it looks like we'll be staying with them tonight!

Thanks to everyone who has been posting comments, it's great to hear from you all and we hope anyone sitting prelims recently has done well!

We have loads more photos of this leg that we will update soon!

Singamore...

2007-01-21T21:53:00.000-08:00

Here are the last of our adventures in Singapore! It's a cool place with lots to do but five days has been just about enough and we're now looking forward to getting to Australia.

Some of the highlights from the last few days not making it to film have been: The Night Safari! a moonlit safari where you slowly drive past lions, zebras, hippos, rhinos, tigers, tapirs and some weird animals that we can't spell! Being a night safari it was difficult to get good photos and the zoo didn't allow flash photography. This didn't stop a lot of annoying people still using their flashes! Unfortunately none of them were devoured by any startled lions.

We have also visited the 7/11 shop next door for Big Gulps and watched the Arsenal v Man Utd game in a bar. Pamela loved it!

Here's the pics:

The famous Raffles Hotel. Very 'British' and posh. We weren't allowed into one section because they were serving high tea! We did get into the Long Bar for cocktails though!

Singapore Sling! Actually very tasty! The last tiger to be shot in Singapore was shot near here! It wandered in of the street one day and had to be killed. A tiger walked into a bar...

Monkey Nuts! A Raffles tradition to throw your shells on the floor.

As we strolled through the Raffles courtyard this coconut fell from a tree narrowly missing Ryan. Pamela was very upset by this incident. "If that had hit you we'd have got a free night in the hotel!" she cried sympathetically.

Lunch at a hawker's centre. Roughly 1 pound each- worth every penny!

Little India. Full of little Indians.

The man made beach on the man made Sentosa Island! These Singaporeans are resourceful! It looks a bit couldy but it was crazy hot!

So hot we had lunch in the shade of the decking at Coastes restaurant!

I'll have some Mojitos!

The cable car ride from Sentosa Island.

The Magical Fountain Show on Sentosa.

Eating the incredibly smelly Durian fruit. It looks strangely like chicken and tastes like onion! It's very popular for some reason. We couldn't get rid of the taste for hours. These fruits are banned from trains because they are so smelly!

As we pack up and move onto Australia we would like to leave you with this invaluable piece of travel safety advice. By intertwining the toggles of your backpack, would-be intruders are delayed by about 4 secs. In backpacking circles this is known as 'The Dunky Knot'.

After Darwin we get the train down to Alice Springs and the Uluru camping trip! So we may not get a chance to post much until after we get to Adelaide. Feel free to order some of the books we are reading and help Amazon contribute to our trip fund!!

More from Singapore!

2007-01-20T20:59:00.000-08:00

Had a great few days in Singapore, which is an amazing place. For the most part it is a very clean and busy city. There are fines for everything, from eating on trains to carrying a very smelly fruit called the Durian! We took a bus and a boat tour around the sights and spent the day at a man made beach on the Island of Sentosa.

Our hostel is in Little India, which is like India. Only little. The streets are filled with traders and it smells strongly of spices. It's interesting!

We went along to Calvary Singapore on Sunday morning where the people were very welcoming. After the service we had juice and rice cakes with relish! We plan to head to Raffles hotel later today then take a picnic to The Botanic Gardens.

Photos:
We've posted some of our photos below but you can also check out the rest of our photos by clicking on our gallery on the right hand side of the page.

The Inn-Crowd, our hostel!

Little India

The Merlion is Singapore's emblem. It is my favourite animal after the Liger!

Downtown Singapore from the Bumboat tour (Yes, a Bumboat!)

Indulging in some local delicacy! Thanks to Beth and Al!

Lau Pa Sat Hawker Centre. Built from cast iron shipped to Singapore from Glasgow!

A hawker centre is filled with loads of vendors selling bizarre foods such as pigs brains and fish eyes! We had chicken fried rice!

Singapore!

2007-01-18T17:40:00.000-08:00

Singapore from the plane. A bit cloudy but very warm.

Ryan cooking his fried egg for breakfast!

The hostel is good. It's clean and the people are friendly. We even have a small ensuite! No beasties so far! Breakfast is free although you need to wash up after you! We couldn't find milk for our tea but a kind American offered us her chocolate milk! It was pretty good actually! Off on a bus tour of the city- lots of photos to take!

One more step...

2007-01-18T02:41:00.000-08:00

"If I take one more step, it'll be the furthest I've ever been from home."

Sam, Lord of the Rings

"We're really doing it this time, Harry!"

Lloyd, Dumb and Dumber

Welcome to the first ever post on Ryan and Pamela's travel blog! We arrived in Singapore safely after a long but enjoyable flight. The highlight of the flight may have been the tasty chicken dinner or the fact that Irene from Home and Away was sitting a few seats away from us! In the last year she has been involved in a hurricane, a flood, a murder investigation and two hostage situations. The flight however, passed without incident!

We are making our way to the Inn Crowd Hostel where we will be staying for four nights while we take in the sights. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped make this trip possible. Loads of people were extremely generous and we are very grateful. Thank you for helping us take "one more step."

Please check back often as we will soon add some photos. Keep in touch by clicking comment or send us an email! We are missing everyone already!

With love,

Ryan and Pamela

The road goes ever on and on...