We have left Australia today and flew to Auckland. Now there are several things to report on that adventure since it is a 4 ¾ hour flight and with the 2 hours before and 30 minutes of clearances in New Zealand, it was a full day. I had made arrangements the night before for a hotel room called the Airport Kiwi International Hotel. What attracted me to this place was the price, complimentary continental breakfast and complimentary airport pickup. I figured that the hotel cost $75, with a $25 dollar value for breakfast and a $30 value taxi ride from the airport it was a net cost of $20 for the room…not too bad really.
This is really a traveling day so there are no photos. As I reflect on our time in Australia I know that one of the questions we will be asked is “What did we like the best?” Well, just like Oprah, we enjoyed all of it. Australia is truly a beautiful place to visit even if many of the plants, animals, bugs, reptiles and birds are capable of killing you.
Ok for animal I was impressed with the Tasmanian Devil. For a bird it was the Cassowary. For reptiles it would have to the crocodiles (especially the salt water ones). And for fish it would have to be the big blue one I got to swim with on the reef. My highlight activity will be the scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef.
Highlights of places we visited would include the Blue Mountains, Byron Beach, Great Ocean Road and Kuranda. However as for cities that impressed us I think we enjoyed Sydney the most but Melbourne was close. Wes’ highlights include these plus Mt Wellington and Wine Glass Bay in Tasmania which were hikes. We can not forget the tablelands with all the waterfalls.
Wes and I have spent some time talking about a future visit and how it would be different that this one. We both agree this was really good for an overview, but it involved more driving than we liked (about 7500 km in total). Next time we will visit for a longer time and pick regional areas to explore. For example we did nothing in the outback and we would like to visit the north and west areas plus some of the interior highlights. But that will wait for another day and for now we really do have a good sense of what is involved with exploring and spending time in Australia.
Ok, back to the travel… we arrived at the airport in Cairns to get on the plane with our luggage with plenty of time but discovered a minor glitch. We were allowed to have 46 kg of luggage each and could check 2 bags each (with a maximum weight of 23 kg in each). What we had was 2 bags only but one of them had a weight of 23 kg and the other weighed in at 29 kg. SOOOOO we had to pull out one of the backpacks that was packed and move some things into it to bring that suitcase down to 23 kg. If we did not do this, we would have to pay a $60 overweight fee even though we were not overweight in total. We were permitted to use one of the scales not being used for check in to reorganize the bags. What was interesting to learn was that we had booked our flights and paid for them before May 1st otherwise we would have been restricted to only 1 bag each of a max weight of 23 kg rather than 2 bags each with 23 kg in each bag. We are learning each time we travel. We have already decided that we are cutting back when we travel to Europe. We are figuring out what is necessary and what is not. Give us time and we will be accomplished travelers and can give advise…..perhaps a new newspaper column?
We sat beside a nice couple who live in Cairns but heading to his parents place outside of Auckland for Christmas. It was very interesting to talk to them as they were looking forward to getting away from the heat and humidity of Cairns. We did discuss the differences in Christmas traditions. In particular we all enjoy the traditional Christmas dinner with turkey, stuffing, potatoes, yams etc. Here the tradition is a Barbie on the beach with shrimp and salads. (and beer). Auckland’s traditions are closer to ours but then the temperature is a bit cooler (definitely not cold but less humidity so feels cooler).
We got to Auckland and had to reset our clocks back 3 hours. This means that we are now 21 hours ahead of those at home. (In Cairns we were 18 hours ahead) This year’s Christmas will be a memory for us before many of you get up to look at your presents.
Speaking of presents today when we picked up the new van here we remembered that we had bought a few souvenirs for gifts and had tucked them away in a cubby in the dash….and forgot them there. I will send an email to Jucy vans and see if they were turned in but I suspect we lost them. Fortunately it was not all that many involved but still it is frustrating.
We stopped by to pick up the campervan which is from Spaceship. It is exactly the same vehicle as the Jucy van, but it is totally configured differently. This one has a ‘tent’ awning that snaps onto the read door when it is up and the bed slides out about 2 feet. This makes it like a tent and much cooler. The frig is TINY … and did I say TINY I do mean tiny. We will have to think about how we store things but we do have a lot more storage capacity. I will be uploading pictures soon. The downside of this is that with the tent awning in place we lose the ability to close up and lock the van after we set up. But we see this no different than tenting.
Today (the 17th) we got up to a drizzling rain and headed by taxi to pick up the van. We found out that there was a shopping mall close to the campervan depot so after sorting out all the paperwork we headed over to start to shop to setup the van. It is amazing how much stocking up you do with all the things you need just to survive. We got to the mall and checked out where to buy groceries. I had noted that we did not have a pot in the van with a lid so we wanted to see if we could find a cheap pot so we started to ask around for that. Also we needed to get a prepaid Mobile Connection USB stick so access the internet. Well we checked around and found that in New Zealand the best one is Vodafone and so for $79 NZ $ we purchased one that will meet our needs for the entire time we are in New Zealand.
Then we found a wonderful store called The Warehouse which has a huge selection of discounted items and got our pot for less than $7.00. Finally we went to the grocery store and stocked up. With the amount we spent we got a 4 cent a litre coupon for our next fill up. Since the price of gas here is close to $2 a litre we will need it. We are glad that New Zealand is a much smaller country and that we will be doing less driving.
All of this took until 2:30 and we still had not eaten lunch so we had a late lunch and decided to head northward. We really like the campgrounds that belong to the Family Campgrounds organization and since they give us a complimentary membership as internationals we get a 10% discount. We are parked at a campsite that is virtually empty tonight but apparently with the yesterday and today people are waiting to see if things improve before starting their holidays. This is also the last week of school here and as of Friday (tomorrow) all the summer holidays start for the kids. Then it should become busy. However this is a beautiful place and it is very quiet. Tomorrow we head off further north and start to explore some parts of New Zealand. We expect a maximum of 3 weeks on the north island and 3 on the south – but that may change as we travel.
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