Australia Part Uno

We found an awesome, last minute, super cheap deal on a cruise around Australia. So, we got to see several different places. Here it goes:

Sydney

After a four hour delay from Auckland to Sydney, directions in spanish (from our inexpensive South American airline), and navigating through customs we arrived in Australia.

Aussie's are blunt. Here are all your duty free cigarette choices, but ya they will kill you.

We walked through downtown Sydney and over the Harbor Bridge. Some people walk on the outside of the bridge to the very top!

The Sydney Opera House from the Harbor Bridge.

We took a very interesting tour of the design process and building of the Opera House. Which should really be called the performing arts complex. There is a lot more that goes on here besides opera. The fancy architectural clams are only an outside shell. There is a whole different building on the inside where the amphitheaters are.

The Sydney Harbor Bridge

Burger King?

Our cruise ship "The Rhapsody of the Seas" has arrived.

The Sydney skyline as we are leaving the harbor.

Brisbane

We did our own self-guided walking tour of this city.

This picture is an old windmill, one of the oldest structures in Australia. When it wasn't windy enough for the mill to grind the grains, the criminals had to grind them with a treadmill like machine.

The Brisbane River

The tall tower in the photo below is the clock tower on the top of City Hall. They give free (yes free!) tours of the tower. We were lucky enough to be there at noon to hear the noon chimes. We have a video, but it was having a hard time loading. Maybe it will work in the next post.

Stay tuned for Australia Part Dos......

Coromandel Peninsula

We took a drive up the beautiful coast of the Coromandel Peninsula. We stayed the night in Coromandel. The next day we visited a local potter. He started constructing a railroad up the side of the mountain to get the clay and fire wood down to his studio. He expanded the railroad and it became a tourist attraction.

We continued around the east side of the coast and had a picnic at a beautiful spot along the Pacific Ocean. We ate fresh smoked mussels and scallops from a popular smokehouse in Coromandel.

On the east side of the Coromandel Peninsula, just south of a little town called Hahei there lies a thermal wonder. It's called Hot Water Beach. This is a beach with a thermal pocket underneath it. During low tide you can take your spade (shovel) out to the beach and dig a hot tub to sit in. We spent about a hour and a half enjoying our sandy hot tub until the ocean reclaimed our spot.

A few km north of Hahei is a beautiful hiking area. We took the trail along the coast and down to the ocean. Along the way we saw Gemstone Bay, had a picnic on the beach at Sting Ray Bay, and ended our hike at the ever so popular Cathedral Cove. This is an arch over the sand.

The next day we went for a hike at Wentworth Falls. Another beautiful waterfall. And Black Betty got a car wash on the way back:)

We are expanding our adventures over the "Big Ditch" (the Tasman Sea) to the biggest island in the world, Australia. For three weeks we will be exploring Australia where it will be warm and sunny! We will keep you posted as frequently as possible.

The Forgotten World Highway & The Dairy Farm

We left New Plymouth on Monday October 5 to begin the next part of our adventure. We started up The Forgotten World Highway (Highway 43), one of New Zealand's most secluded roads. Don't worry, we will filled up Black Betty before we left and we had 5 liters of extra petrol. You can read more about it at the following site:

http://www.aatravel.co.nz/101/MustDo_The-Forgotten-World-Highway.html

These photos are of the old single lane Moki tunnel we went through. It was surveyed in the 1890s and constructed in 1935-1936.

On our way to Turangi, near Lake Taupo we got to experience some southern hemisphere kiwi snow! Big wet flakes. This was a pretty big storm and many of the roads around us were closed. It made for a very chilly night of camping in Black Betty. Check out the road sign, "slippery when frosty."

From Turangi we headed north to Maramarua (East of Pukekohe on Highway 2). This was a very beautiful drive through the middle of the country. Rolling hills of green and lots of sheep. We are going to visit and stay with some good family friends (the Smith family). They live and work on a Dairy Farm. We spent the day visiting the calves, pigs, sheep, chickens, etc. John is helping feed the calves. This sheep had triplets! It's pretty unusual for them to have three lambs at once. They are only about a week old and so cute.

Later we got some fresh milk to put it in the fridge overnight so the cream and milk would separate. The next morning we used the cream for our coffee and the milk for our cereal. So tasty! A few hours later Angela made butter. It turned out great!

We had delicious fish and chips down by the Firth of Thames (pronounced Tims). This was a beautiful sunset.

Funny sign at the mall:)

Chaddy's Charters & Lone Star

The skies cleared this Saturday and we saw the sun again! We took a boat ride with Chaddy's Charters around the sugar loaf islands. These are islands that are extinct volcanos in the Tasman sea just off the coast. Chaddy let us both drive the boat.

Chaddy always brings his dog along for the ride. Sometimes he goes fishing while they are out and every now and again he catches something. Today he gave it a great attempt but he did not catch anything. He pulls on the line every once in a while to see if there is a fish on the end. It was pretty funny to watch.

A few days ago we were walking around the streets of New Plymouth and came across a delicious smell. It happened to be this Turkish Kebab place. So today we decided to give it a try. It was very tasty! This goes to show that a little hole in the wall can make a very great meal.

Sunday night Jilling and Janine took us out for a very nice dinner at Lone Star New Plymouth. This was a nice feel of "home" but the menu looked a bit different. They have sea food, mexican food, and of course steak. Since I have a mexican food shaped hole in my stomach I ordered one of the best burritos I've had in weeks! John got some tasty prawns.

Pizza, Rugby, Falls, and more

We had another adventurous pizza from a local kiwi place called "Hell". They have some very interesting choices for pizza toppings! We picked one called Damned, it had camembert, cashews, spinach, sundried tomatoes, avocado, mushrooms, onions, pineapple, black pepper, and we added pepperoni. It was quite tasty! And the pizza box has a cutout to fold into a coffin for your left overs. So convenient! Check out the website and see which pizza you might like to try. http://hellpizza.co.nz

Friday night we attended our first Rugby game! It was at Yarrow Stadium, which lucky for us is about 3 blocks away. Taranaki played against Waikato but lost in the last few minutes. We enjoyed beer in the can and some tasty little donuts with cinnamon and sugar. They were like mini donut shaped sopapillas. We also got our hands autographed in very permanent marker by the mascot, Ferdinand the Bull.

Saturday we took a drive around the east side of Mt. Taranaki to Stratford. From here we went into Egmont National Park, the Dawson Falls area. There we saw the oldest operating simple hydro-electric power station. It was built by General Electric Company, New York, no earlier than 1896. Originally used for power generation in Tasmania, it was sold to the New Zealand Army for use at the Trentham Military Camp near Wellington until the eventual arrival of mains power to the Wellington Region in 1922. The Dawson Falls power station has provided heating and lighting more or less continuously since 1935 by way of a pelton wheel, which turns 300 revolutions per minute, giving an output of 27 kilowatts of electricity. We then took a short but very wet, muddy, and chilly hike into Dawson Falls.

A little north of the falls is where the Manganui Ski Club (ski field) is located. The field is closed and has been for several weeks due to lack of snow. When people ski here they have to park in the lot then hike about 30 minutes to get to the base lodge. From there they have the choice of two lifts or one trail with a lift to bring you back to the lodge. This is the highest point on Mt. Taranaki you can drive.

In order to prepare us for our upcoming adventures with Black Betty we decided to add a little prep-table to the back. Jilling had the wood for us so we just had to track down the hinges, screws, and bolts. This from now on is our "kitchen".