Well, we appear to be back home now, so I don't expect anyone will be reading this apart from Mike or I. But just for the record, in the last 3 months we seem to have created a tiny carbon footprint consisting of approximately 42494km in the air, approx 6000km on the road in campervans and a further huge amount of km's from Singapore to Hong Kong - not sure how to start working that one out.
Oh dear...
Sunday, 27 December 2009
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Monday, 21 December 2009
Be warned...
... this is what can happen to you when you forget to buy a tram ticket in Melbourne.
Kidding of course.. we were on a tour of the old Gaol.. famous for being the execution place of Ned Kelly. Nowadays, they just lock you in a cell for a few minutes and let you take photos like this. Criminal in it's own way I know.
Monday, 14 December 2009
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Christmas hits the Camper or...
... camp hits Christmas?
Well, we know we wont win any awards with this, but we tried to bring a little festive cheer to the camper the other evening.
If anyone wants to follow our lead, first start with some cord that you find lying on the ground, throw in some fur cones and some pine twigs, hang across the rear window and hey presto, you have a festive camper, well, 3 actually.
Strangely, my hayfever seemed to return at the same time as the decorations, so 12th night came a little early.
P..p..p..pick up a penguin...
I managed to fulfil a long term desire the other day, to see penguins in their natural habitat. Whilst at Oamaru, I managed to delay bar opening time a little to take a drive to nearby Bushy Beach. A scenic spot in it's own right, but it's also a beach that the rare yellow eyed penguins use as their home. There's no guarantee that they'll appear and at the most, people had been spotting between 2-4 over a typical 2 hour period, so hopes weren't that high, but after about 10 minutes of waiting, 1 appeared from the bushes and slowly waddled to the water.. at the same time another was returning with his catch further down the beach. Then another from the same nest, initally very hesitant to waddle anywhere, eventually making it to the sea, was knocked over by a wave, then waddled back home! You might have to zoom in on this pic, but here's one of the stars of the show.
It's magic..
On our way up the coast from Dunedin, we stopped off at the rather peculier Moeraki boulders.
The boulders lie partially submerged in the sandy beach, but were originally part of the mudstone cliffs behind, created around a central core of carbonate of lime crystals that attracted minerals from their surroundings, a process that started 60 million years ago. Ok, I copied that right out of the guide book... between you and me, they are cool spherical rocks scattered over the beach. Apparently they also have magical powers.. which must be true, cos as you can see, I was able to levitate next to one of them.
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
And the winner of the most perfect campsite view is...
... this was a stopover on our way through the Catlins, on the Southern Scenic Route. It was at the end of a 6km gravel road, but that meant that only us and about 5 other campers were there.
Apart from that is these fellows... we were walking along the beach before the 'bar' opened and walked towards what I thought was a nice bit of drift wood... how wrong could I be... and how cute they were.
Question...
What's 18958 kilometres away from most of you reading this now?
Answer - me, taking this photo on the 7th Dec at Bluff, NZ's most southerly town. Cool.
More like a controlled crash...
...that's how Andrew, Mike's next pilot described his potential landing in the grass field.. surprisingly Mike still hopped into the front seat as you can see. To set the scene, we'd just arrived at Wayne and Pams house in Queenstown, (who we travelled with in India) when straight away came the offer of a Queenstown adrenaline experience not available in the guide books.
Their slightly eccentric friend, Andrew, needed to collect his handbuilt plane from Queenstown airport after it had been in the workshop for 5 years and there was a spare seat.
First stop though was the landing field to round up the sheep in the subaru, so the 'runway' could be seen. Then off to Queenstown Internation Airport.. take off preparations didn't take long... emergency exits were, well, pretty pointless without a parachute and there would be no trolley service. Wayne and I dashed back to the field to make sure it was still sheep free (it wasn't, so another quick spin around in the car) and moments later were witness to a pretty perfect looking landing and a just slightly shaken looking Mike. Only in NZ...
A special thanks to Wayne and Pam for their fantastic hospitality whilst we were in Queenstown.. we really appreciated it and hope we can do the same when you're in the UK next...
Not so tall afterall...
In the past Mike and I have sometimes been differentiated by our height.. Mike S being referred to as tall Mike, myself as short Mike. I normally just accept this, but at last we have photographic evidence that proves that I am in fact considerably taller. Apologies will be accepted. Thankyou.
The Milford Experience...
After a lot, and I mean A LOT of consideration, we decided to put our trust in a kiwi called Andy to get us to Milford Sound and back. This was our transport.. and Mike looking quite relaxed before take off. The flight was pretty smooth, just the odd air pocket, which felt like a drop of 50ft.. though it was probably more like 5. When all said and done, even though there is a lot of hype about Milford, it IS stunning.. and the flight was amazing... so much so that we have dedicated a whole picture album to the trip.. which you've probably already been bored with. Little did Mike know at the time, but this wouldn't be his only small plane experience of NZ... read on!
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