Happy New Year!

We debated whether we wanted to brave the crowds for another famous NYE destination after our cold trip to NYC. I think we both initially decided against it, but here we are. Sydney, Australia for NYE 2013. Looks like we picked a good year to come as this is the first time in ten years they will set fireworks from the sails of the Opera House.

We arrived in Sydney yesterday and scoped out the best places to view the show from. Of course we had to pick the one spot that is said to fill by 11:30am and opens at 6 in the morning! Naturally, I have a lot of time to write, so I have decided to grace you with an hourly play by play of the day.

5am: Watching news and eating our muesli (granola) and yogurt to kick start the day. No news of NYE unfortunately, I was hoping to get some last minute tips. We left the hotel by 5:30am as planned and started our walk to the harbor.





6am: We arrived at our desired spot near the Opera House, but no security was set up yet to check bags. We found a square meter next to the railing and settled in among the tents and picnic blankets full of people who were already here (I think they camped overnight).





 


7am: Security arrived and made a quick run through in search of alcohol or glass bottles (both prohibited). We passed the inspection and continued the long wait.

8am: Already hungry again, so cracked into some grapes and fruit loops. Paul beat me at a game of iPad Scrabble.







9am: A steady stream of people are coming through the gate now. Hard to say where they're all going to fit, it's already pretty crowded.



10am: Napping on and off. The sun is getting intense. I'll have to find a way to block it.


11am: Went for a walk into the Opera House. Found Wifi and uploaded some photos. Thought about an ice cream, but decided it would melt before I could open it. (It's not actually that hot but with no cloud cover it seems intense.)

12pm: "Welcome to the Sydney Opera House, This area is at fulll capacity and has been closed. This area will not reopen for access." -12:15pm. So it's official, we're are now locked in ford good and no one else aside from opera goers and ticket holders will be able to get in. We still have our square meter on the rail.

1pm: Managed to make a makeshift sun blocker out of clothes, towels and the rail. Keeps the food shaded and gives a nice place for my head in the shade for those concrete naps. Aside from being on concrete, it's actually a nice place for a picnic and not a terrible way to spend the day.

2pm: Paul won at a game of Connect Four. Time for some sandwiches and a refill on water. I must say, it's very organized chaos- complete with well staffed port-a-potties and water bottle filling stations. What an event! I hope it's worth it. I just keep pretending I"m on a beach.

3pm: Reapplying sunscreen, again. Moving on to the next chapter in my new book I got for Christmas. They also seem to be warming up on the stages around the harbor, so we have some background entertainment.

4pm: I think this is when we started our wait in NYC. It's crazy what happens with summer weather and access to toilets (people arrive insanely early). At least we have space to lie down and stretch our legs. Reading a brochure on things to do in Sydney, "Not only is Sydney the first city to celebrate the New Year, it's also the most exciting." I guess they forgot about our little city Auckland, which celebrates New Year two hours before Sydney.

5pm: We've been here for 11 hours already?! On the bright side, only 7 to go. We're more than halfway. Opera goers start arriving in their dresses, as do those who purchased tickets for dinner and fireworks in the patio below us. Too bad they missed out on the true experience of anticipation and all day picnicking.

6pm: Time is going faster now. The planes just started doing air tricks overhead. Right now it's a bit boring... Now they're doing circles and dives in unison close to each other and the Opera House and Harbor Bridge! What will we see next?

7pm: The cocktail party below us has started so we have a whole new crew of people to watch. I'm admiring all the dresses. There's also a band playing on the stage next to us. It's starting to feel like a party!

8pm: The pilot is back and waaay cooler this time. He did spirals and flips and even had fireworks with his finale. We had a little rain recently, but nothing too bad. Hopefully it holds out for the New Year! Some people behind us were kind enough to offer us their blue plastic tarp for shelter.

9pm: If we were home in Auckland, we'd only have 1 hour to midnight. FIrst firework show should be here any minute.
~~~~
Well, that was a good show, but nothing revolutionary. It was cool to see the boats light up at the end. We're hoping that it was a good practice run to work out all the kinks and midnight will be spectacular. Back to the party, catch you soon.

12am: Cool as!! Never seen so many fireworks in one place. And with such a beautiful backdrop. One of the coolest parts was hearing everyone oooh and aaah. I really liked the waterfall (or rather firewall) from the Harbor Bridge.

 

What a great day!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

The Great Ocean Road

Twelve Apostles

Upon landing in Melbourne, we headed southwest to explore the stunning scenery of the Great Ocean Road. Due to our late (11am) start from Melbourne, we decided to take the more direct inland road to Port Campbell. Our first stop was to visit the 12 Apostles. Supposedly there were 12 of these magnificent columns jutting out from the sea at one point, but I could only count 9? maybe. No matter how many are left, they are still magnificent. Unfortunately, they are overrun with tourists. It was a bit like viewing them from a conveyor belt of tour groups- nearly impossible to move faster than the flow. I highly recommend getting here early to be able to enjoy the beauty in peace and quiet.

We managed to escape the crowds by heading just down the road to the Gibson Steps. It seems the rain had deterred most people from taking the steep journey down the cliff to the beach and we almost had the place to ourselves.

We truly got away from the crowds at the Loch Ard Gorge. This park area has lots of trails to explore along the coast. We took the thunder cave trail and stopped to listen as the waves crashed into the rocks. It reminded me of listening to the waves crash in the tunnel by the Cliff House in San Francisco. We continued on until we found a small river. We waded through to our own private beach! It was fun to watch the waves crash against the shore, but we didn't stay too long as the tide was coming in and we didn't want the river levels to get too high. 

After a nice respite from the tourists, we headed to the main site of the Loch Ard Gorge- the cove where the ship wrecked many years ago. Even though there were lots of people there, it was big enough we could wander around and not feel trapped.

A great start to our Great Ocean Rd road trip. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings, not to mention the drive back to Melbourne via the actual Great Ocean Rd!

Port Fairy and Tower Hill Reserve

The second day was a jam packed day with spectacular scenery and amazing animals. I think I'll let the pictures mostly speak for themselves on this one. 

London Bridge has fallen down

Port Fairy lighthouse

1st kangaroo sighting!! He ran in front of our car in the reserve

Volcanic crater lake hike

The emus were pretty friendly, I didn't dare to get too close though!

Return to London Bridge for sunset and...

... March of the Penguins (yes, there are five little penguins waddling in from the sea down there)

Driving the Great Ocean Rd back to Melbourne

The drive home was filled with more animals and a beautiful drive. It was a fun road to drive! Just a glimpse in photos below. 

Active koala scratching his head

Cockatoo

Koala... and baby!! highlight of my koala sightings

Cool As

I'm cool as!

So before I start this entry, I should explain that Kiwis have a common expression; "[INSERT ADJECTIVE HERE] as". I guess it's just quicker (and easier) than using the full analogy. The most common seems to be "sweet as" when something is really awesome, but you can say anything really "early as", "delicious as", "full as", or "cool as". 

During the last week of school before the summer holidays, I went to one of my schools to help run a Big Day Out road safety expo. It was a bit crazy as we had to cycle through about 15 groups of 50 kids each for only 15 minutes at a time! For our Travelwise station we decided to split the groups in two and I took half to do a scavenger hunt type activity while my coworker took the other half to do a relay. In both groups we wanted to convey the message of crossing at the 'zebra' crossing and walking to school. I split my half into groups of 2-5 kids and gave them a clue similar to the one above. They had to walk and find the picture that corresponds to the clue and come back and tell me the letter on that picture. I wrote the letter on their sheet and gave them a new clue. Once they had all five letters, they had to crack the code (it spelled 'zebra'). At the end, we discussed why I chose that word and what things you need to look out for when walking.

As one group was walking away, I overheard one of the students (about 5th grade) talking to his friend about my station; "that was cool as" he said. About MY station, that I had planned for this very day. It made me smile to think that I'm still considered cool and that my work might actually sink in and be appreciated by some. It doesn't happen every day, but I'd say today was a great day at work. In fact, I was so excited I think I've already told this story at least 4 or 5 times!

We made it!

So I believe I've mentioned my favorite island, the one I can see from my running trail (though I've admittedly been a bit slack with my running lately). I like to joke that it's 'my' island. There are no ferries that go there and no one lives on it, so it is very remote for being so close to the city. Ever since I first spotted it, I've wanted to explore this little island, but the only way to get there is with your own boat or a really long swim.

This weekend I opened my eyes to a still and beautiful bay, and by some miracle decided to get out of bed early. We got the kayak prepped and packed a lunch and set out to explore 'my' island. After about an hour of steady kayaking, we reached shore of a beautiful, remote island, complete with beautiful views of the city. As with most places around it, it was formed from volcanic activity and you can still see the crater, now overgrown with lush green grass. The wonderful thing about New Zealand, is that we could blaze our way through and make our own trails without worrying about snakes or other dangerous animals. After exploring and climbing up to the top and back down, we got back in our kayak and made the slightly longer trip home. Thanks to my long last cousins for loaning us the kayak and giving us the ability to reach this little piece of paradise!
PS, it's real name is Browns Island.

Merry Christmas!

Sorry for the delay in posting this...

So we leave for our Christmas/summer holidays in just over a week. Busy wrapping things up at work and making sure everything is in order for the trip. We'll be gone for 3 weeks. Should be a good trip (hopefully!).

Tonight we went for a stroll down Franklin St, Auckland to see the Christmas lights. This is one of few places in Auckland where people actually decorate with Christmas lights, in fact it is a requirement of living there. Though it seemed like a few had conveniently left for vacation for the season.

It's not quite the same as the spirit of seeing many houses lit up with Christmas lights on the drive home from work, but I can't complain much that the sun is still out on my drive home! ;) The lights were nice to see though. Here's one that I believe is meant to be New Zealand's Christmas tree, the pohutakawa.

Merry Christmas everyone! We will be thinking of you all this season and even if we're not together in flesh we will be together in spirit.

Snorkeling Trial

So last weekend we bought some new snorkel gear so we could see some of the life underwater in this area and our travels. We drove the kayak up to Goat Island in the rain. When we arrived, the rain had cleared but the water was still murky. We took a spin in the kayak and when we got back to the mainland, the sun was shining. We had some lunch and then hopped in to test out the snorkel gear. Visibility was low due to the recent rain (which had been going on all week), but we still saw a few fish. Best of all, the snorkel gear worked great!

Smell-o-gram

I wish you could send smell-o-grams outside of Harry Potter, because this photo is only half the flower we just saw. Apparently it is one of the largest flowers of its kind. Officially called the Amorphophallus titanum, it is nicknamed the Corpse Flower due to its smell (I'll let you imagine what it smells like, but I liken it to walking along the beach and finding a dead animal). I do have to admit, I was hoping the smell would be a bit more pungent, but we reached this flower after about an hour of waiting in line and it was nearing its end. I guess it blooms once every 7 years and only for a day or two. Definitely a unique experience!

It's beginning to feel a bit like Christmas

So this year will be our first summer Christmas and we're both struggling to feel the Christmas spirit. It just doesn't seem right to have daylight until 9pm, sunny warm days and people swimming and sailing at the beach. The only thing that helps bring the Christmas spirit a bit are the decorations and songs. Just like back home, the shops here play Christmas carols incessantly. Also, the city and surrounding suburbs have all begun to have their Santa Parades, a bit reminiscent of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade but on a much smaller scale. We headed to the city to see their parade. It helped temporarily bring the Christmas feeling, but not for long.

On the bright side, perhaps this summer Christmas will help ease the homesickness I always get this time of year.

Merry Christmas to all!

Pohutakawa Tree: New Zealand's Christmas Tree

GruMaster takes on the Red Bull Trolley

So I'm finally getting caught up on some blog posts. For those of you who haven't seen it yet, above is the video of Paul's Red Bull Trolley build and race day. They did a great job and were a hit with the kids! It was a pretty big event, thousands of people showed up to watch. We're still drinking Red Bull's they gave the team when building- I guess we don't drink much Red Bull.

Enjoy the video!

Fireworks on sale! Four days only!

November 5 is known as Guy Fawkes here in New Zealand (and the UK as well). You can get a brief rundown of Guy Fawkes history if you'd like, but no one here seems to be real clear on that matter. All they know, is that Guy Fawkes is a night to set off fireworks.

The funny thing is, fireworks are illegal in New Zealand every other day of the year, except for the 4 days leading up to Guy Fawkes. Now, having spent much of my life not too far from the Wisconsin (fireworks are legal)-Illinois (fireworks are banned) border, I'm used to seeing signs for fireworks sales pop up along the highway as you approach the legal zone. However, I am not used to this with respect to time. Seemingly overnight, signs, commercials, newspaper and radio ads, and even storefronts (or just open faced shipping containers) popped up advertising the plethora of fireworks on sale during this short time. Right along with them, were also ads, posters and warnings about safety and firework ban areas.

One such ban area is the street in front of our place, but that didn't seem to stop some folks from pulling over and giving us a private fireworks show as they set some off on the beachfront right outside our window. It was nice to be able to see them as well as hear them.

Happy Guy Fawkes!

Kiwis, Kauris and Coves, Oh My!

We saw a kiwi this weekend! A real live kiwi bird in the wild! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

This weekend was Labour Weekend here in New Zealand, so we had a 3-day weekend to enjoy. We decided to take advantage of it and visit Northland, the northernmost part of the North Island, well of New Zealand as a whole really. New Zealand make seem like a small country, but it's very long. Even from Auckland (which I think of as being pretty far north already), it still would've taken us over 6 hours to get to the very tip of Northland! That's why we decided to break up the drive a bit.

------------------------------Waipu Caves------------------------------

We left at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning (literally, I was still in my PJs and Paul generously offered to drive so I could catch some more ZZZZs). Those of you who know me, know I'm a bit of a sleeping beauty and definitely not a morning person, so getting up this early was a big feat! But it was certainly worth it (especially with Paul driving- thanks!).






We arrived at Waipu Caves before 8am and had them to ourselves! There are many places in NZ known for their glow worms, many of which have been capitalized on by tourist companies, but the Waipu Caves are still free and untouched. Not only is the cave itself breathtaking- and fun to explore (I was wading through the stream to get back as far as I dared), but the glow worms lit the way like a starlit sky. It was nice to be alone in the caves and marvel at the wonders of nature. I felt a few drops on my head and stopped to think about how long it might take me to turn into a stalagmite and become part of this wonderful cave.

------------------------------Bay of Islands------------------------------

 After a quick snack of cheese and crackers, we got back on the road and headed for the coast. We took the scenic coastal route up the east coast, stopped briefly in Russell (a quaint little seaside town I want to return to and spend more time in), then hopped the car ferry across to Opua. It was there that we met a Couch Surfer for a motorized row boat tour of the Waikare Inlet- a nice way to see the sights and something we'd never have been able to do on our own. We took a tour of the yacht he plans to move into soon, but didn't have enough manpower to set sail in it.

By this time, it was nearly dinner time and we had a date with our Couch Surfing hosts in Honeymoon Valley. Unfortunately I can't post any pictures because I promised her I wouldn't, but her house was hand made with love and beautiful. Clay from Honeymoon Valley itself with bottles in the walls of the bathroom to let through the natural light, beautiful mosaics, an earthen fireplace/stove- all set in the backdrop of a peaceful valley with plenty of land, water and fresh air. Her dog Buddy was a joy as well (which is saying a lot because I don't typically like dogs).

------------------------------Kauri Kingdom------------------------------

Sunday morning we woke up to the rooster outside our window- as if he knew we had had an early morning the day before, the rooster didn't wake up with the sun. He waited and let us have a bit of a sleep in until 7am or so. We crawled out of our bamboo bed and went downstairs for some home made jam and toast (yes, the bread was home made too). What a beautiful place to stay!

Sunday was our day to head all the way up north- to Cape Reinga. Our first stop was at a little shop just at the entrance to Far North Rd- Kauri Kingdom. Now, we've seen Kauri trees before as you may recall from previous posts, but have yet to see the largest living kauris. Unfortunately, this stop still didn't quench our desire to see the largest living kauri, but we did get to see a woodworkers masterpiece- a functional staircase carved into the trunk of a kauri.  It is a truly beautiful wood when finished, but these trees are endangered so it's a shame to see them die.

------------------------------Cape Reinga------------------------------

We also bought ourselves a companion for the Far North Rd journey- Kohi the Kiwi bird. He kept us company for the rest of the weekend and gave us good luck in spotting that kiwi later, but I'll get to that. Right now, we're still working our way up Far North Rd, a beautiful gently winding road up to the tip of NZ. It was still early enough (and far enough away from anything) that we were often the only car in sight.

If you're still reading this, pat yourself on the back. You've just made it to the northernmost part of New Zealand! And what a beautiful spot it is. According to native Maori tradition, this meeting of the Pacific Ocean with the Tasman Sea is where the spirits go to find their final resting place. What a beautiful place it is.

 

------------------------------Te Paki Sand Dunes------------------------------

After exploring the tip of New Zealand, we turned around for the long journey back to Honeymoon Valley, where we had a neighbourhood barbeque awaiting us. But first, we took a detour to the Te Paki sand dunes. It was a challenging climb, but well worth it to get lost in the golden sandy coastal dunes. And we didn't have to climb back down- we had our sand board for that!

------------------------------KariKari Peninsula------------------------------

Monday morning we set off for the KariKari Peninsula and Ma Tai Bay. As this was out of our way and we had to get home, we were undecided whether it was worth the journey. It was DEFINITELY worth it!

 

After driving down a gravel road for a few kilometers, we happened upon a beach with a boat landing and some people and cars. A five minute climb later and we had our own private cove- such a beautiful way to spend the afternoon. I soaked up some sun while Paul continued climbing for spectacular views. 

------------------------------90 Mile Beach------------------------------

Again, we debated passing over this stop as we had already caught a small glimpse of 90-mile beach from the Te Paki sand dunes. I'm really glad we stopped though as it was exhilarating to chase the waves. They were a force to be reckoned with and quite a sight, sound and feel. 

The other impressive thing was to see how expansive the shoreline was. It isn't quite 90 miles (I think it's more like 89km according to a coworker).

------------------------------Kauri Giants------------------------------

Our last stop for the weekend was to visit some of the biggest trees in New Zealand. That's Paul above. He's pretty tall, but doesn't measure up to the kauri trees. First we stopped to see the largest kauri stump, which was very big indeed, but a bit overgrown with ferns. After walking across the ancient stump, we hopped back in the car to visit some living giants. We saw the biggest tree first. It was admittedly impressive. However, I was disappointed to see that the trees around it were somewhat average. I'm glad we had time to go exploring deeper into the forest. On the 25 minute walk to visit the 7th largest kauri, Yakas, the trees kept getting bigger and bigger. Until eventually, we arrived at a cathedral grove full of massive trees. Just around the corner was Yakas, and we could walk over and hug him! It was my favorite part of the kauri visit.

------------------------------Kiwi Spotting------------------------------

By the time we finished our kauri hike, the sun had already set and it was getting dark- perfect conditions for the nocturnal kiwi bird. We decided to add one more stop to the itinerary and try our luck at spotting a real New Zealand kiwi bird in the wild. We pulled into the Trounson Kauri Park and kiwi reserve, covered our flashlights with my purple scarf (not really a great substitute for red filtered light, but it did soften it a bit) and set out on an adventure. We walked along the boardwalk and through the pavilion, and not long after entering the forest we heard some rustling on the ground. We stopped and looked around and saw a opossum scamper up a tree with its baby on its back. But the rustling on the ground continued. I was just about ready to move on, but Paul brought up the valid point that since the rustling noise hadn't left or scurried up a tree, it was likely a flightless kiwi bird with no climbing skills (as all kiwi birds are). After a bit of poking around with the light, we spotted it- a real kiwi bird! He was just going about his business, digging for food in the soil. He didn't really seem to mind us much, and moved very slowly. It's no wonder he's going extinct- not great at avoiding predators.

It was a perfect end to what (to me anyway) was the perfect kiwi weekend, complete with all New Zealand's famous; kiwis, kauris and coves, oh my!