SURPRISE! (And believe me, no one was more surprised than us…)

For those of you who don’t already know, we’re back!  I’m way behind on my blog though so I’m going to catch you up on our last few weeks in Australia and then I’ll fill you in on why we cut the trip short and what we’re up to these days.

Two AMAZING weeks in New Zealand – First Stop, South Island

We flew directly into Christchurch from Sydney and neither of us was ready for the devastation that still remained from the February 2011 earthquake.  The drive from the airport was filled with quaint cottages, all featuring pretty gardens and well manicured lawns, so, initially, we thought, ‘Oh wow, what a nice city’.  Then we got downtown, where it looked like a war zone. 

To back up a bit, in Sept 2010, Christchurch was hit with a 7.1 magnitude earthquake that rocked the city but didn’t do too much damage.  Then, in Feb the following year, another smaller but shallower, and therefore more destructive, earthquake hit, leaving almost all of downtown inhabitable.  You’d have thought, given that it’s been almost two years, that they’d at least have the condemned buildings torn down.  Well that’s what we thought anyway, but boy were we wrong.  According to the locals, politics and red tape from insurance companies has hampered progress, but regardless of who is at fault, the result is that downtown Christchurch still in shambles with much of it an off-limits red zone.  To be there was incredibly eerie; there were hardly any people around, buildings stood in shambles for block after deserted block and, in the red zone, the stop lights still blinked yellow despite the streets being empty.  We joked, only half-heartedly, that we had to be in before dark ‘cause that was when the zombies came out – it was seriously that spooky and I didn’t take any photos worth posting because it just looked deserted and was depressing. 

Christchurch is right on a fault line so more earthquakes are inevitable and most business abandoned the city post-earthquake to set up their operations in the suburbs, meaning downtown will probably never fully recover.  The first effort towards rebuilding the city is ReStart, an urban shopping centre built entirely from used shipping containers, at the edge of the red zone.  It was nice to see a pop of color, and people, in an otherwise bleak, deserted landscape.

Fortunately we only spent one night in Christchurch.  The next day we set off in our Hippie Camper (no I’m not joking, I'm going to be a changed woman after this trip!) for six days of exploring the South Island.  Much to Alex’s disappointment I failed to take a photo of our sad little camper, haha maybe sad isn’t the right word, it did have purple flowers and butterflies on it.  Luckily for him (and sadly for the poor humiliated guy driving the camper), while driving out of Melbourne a few weeks later, we saw the same camper and Alex sped up so I could take a photo of it to share with you all.

After Christchurch we were headed to the Franz Joseph Glacier on the other side of the island but to get there we first had to drive through Arthur’s Pass.  It was the most beautiful drive through the mountains; there were the brightest white snow capped peaks that I have ever seen and gorgeous scenery around every bend.  Here are just a few of our photos so you can see for yourself.

The Franz Joseph Glacier was cool but we couldn’t hike on it without going on a guided tour.  We didn’t really have time for that so we just walked around the national park, admiring the beauty. 

From there we visited the Fox Glacier, a short drive away, then continued driving south until we hit Haast Pass where we stopped at the Blue Pools.  The Blue Pools were amazing, the water was an incredible blue and so clear you could see to the bottom and the fish looked like they were suspended in mid-air.

Then we hit Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world (a well deserved title).  We walked into town from our holiday park and went to Bob’s Peak to check out the views of the city.  You can get to the top via a short five minute gondola ride, which I took one look at and said, ‘no way’ so Alex was a trooper and hiked with me the arduous hour up the mountainside.  The long walk was worth it once we got to the top, in addition to the gorgeous views, they had a huge luge that you could ride (which naturally we did more than once).  There was also hang gliding, bungee jumping and a variety of other bad ideas that Alex was just getting brave enough to want to try when I decided it was time to leave.  Since I’d foiled his other plans, Alex rented a bike to BMX down the mountain, RAD (his favorite bad 80s movie) style.  Here are a few snaps of him enjoying himself in Queensland.

Up next was Milford Sound, or so we thought, and the first of several gut-wrenching disappointments New Zealand dished out.  We drove three hours south of Queenstown to Te Ano, where we stopped for the night so we could get up fresh the next day and be at Milford Sound early, but while checking in we noticed the sign informing us the road to Milford Sound was closed due to an avalanche.  The lady at the desk tried to make us feel better by letting us know that avalanches were ‘very unusual’ for this time of year (gee, thanks for that consolation) and that it might reopen in the next day or two.  The following morning we were up early and went to the visitor info center where the more informed lady told us the road was going to be closed for a week but that we should visit the ‘even better’ Doubtful Sound instead. 

Since we never went to Milford Sound I can’t say if Doubtful Sound was better or not, but it sure was impressive.  Much more remote than Milford, we had to take a 45 minute boat ride across Lake Manipouri then another hour bus ride across a mountain pass to Doubtful Sound.  But it was more than worth the trip, the Sound was massive (so big in fact that we passed by a Norwegian cruise about an hour into our trip) and absolutely pristine, another New Zealand natural wonder.  Besides the cruise ship we had Doubtful Sound mostly to ourselves, making it that much more awe-inspiring. 

In addition to the beautiful scenery, we also got to see the rare, elusive, fijordland crested penguins and a resident colony of seals that live on the rocky islands near the sea. 

 

Sorry, I have to share this random side story… we stayed in Manipouri the night before our Doubtful Sound cruise because it was closer than Te Anu and we had to be up early for the trip.  Manipouri only had two caravan parks and both looked seedy but we quickly realized after parking our campervan and paying our money that we’d picked the creepier of the two.  Upon our arrival, the owner ran down from a locked upstairs room into ‘reception’ wearing a pair of white coveralls that a painter (or murderer) would wear not to get his clothes dirty while working and awkwardly told us that his brother ‘collected things’.  I wasn’t sure what that meant until I went outside and saw the row of Morris Minor (old British cars) and old school VW Beatles, some of the windshields painted to look like eyes winking at you ‘cause these cars clearly weren’t in any condition to be on the road.  There were also several ‘cottages’, literally tiny one room houses scattered along the property, each with its own personality (one looked like a Swiss chalet, another like a house you’d see in suburban America back in the 50s) that shared the same common areas as the caravan parks.  The common area was worth noting too, there were Jaws posters and warnings about death from falling off cliffs, along with a board of family photos from the 70s-ish with the one brother always standing off on his own staring eerily into the camera, like the kinda kid that killed local neighborhood pets.  The ultimate creep factor though, came when we noticed the girl mannequin in the attic window with full make-up wearing a white nightie and a feather boa.  I seriously can’t believe we stayed there, or that we made it out alive, but we did and it’s a cautionary tale I will tell our kids one day when they want to travel!

Since I’m sharing random stories and observations, I want to mention that throughout the west coast of the South Island all the bridges were one lane give-way bridges.  It was crazy, they went to the trouble of building a bridge; why not just make it two lanes?!

 

Another South Island constant was Keas.  Large green birds that look like parrots, these little beggars are the pigeons of New Zealand and there are signs everywhere not to feed them.   But no one listened to the signs, as we witnessed on numerous occasions, so the Keas were out in full force everywhere we went and were happy to pose for photos, like these.

Ok, back to our trip.  After Manipouri we drove to Dunedin (prounounced Done-Eden), on the east coast expecting great things, but it was cold and rainy so we spent the entire day driving and made our way back north to Mount Cook.  In order to get to Mount Cook we had to drive 50kms along Lake Pukaki, which was another crystal clear, bluer than blue, natural wonder.  Neither Alex nor I had ever seen water so clear and blue in a lake, rather than the ocean. 

Mount Cook was awesome; it’s the highest peak on the South Island and is surrounded by National Park with miles and miles of gorgeous hiking trails.  We hiked all day, seeing glacial lakes framed by snow-capped peaks and rugged mountains slopes.  It was one of the best days in New Zeland and Alex and I both stopped to stare in awe as we took in the beauty all around us.

Heck, even our caravan park in Mount Cook had this stunning view.

New Zealand has no shortage of lakes and Lake Tekapo was next on our list.  It’s another pretty lake, seriously NZ is the most beautiful place I have ever been, but it is famous for its night sky.  The town has an observatory at the top of its largest hill and the entire surrounding area is a ‘black-out’ zone so no ambient light will ruin the stargazing.  We ventured out, into the freezing cold, around 10pm and went down to the lakefront to have a look and it was incredible.  I’m not into astronomy by any means but there were so many more stars than I could have ever imagined and you could even see the Milky Way!  We gaped as long as I could handle the cold (which truthfully wasn’t that long, a half hour maybe) and, sadly I couldn’t get my camera to capture any of it, but it will be a memory I never forget. 

The South Island rocked and we could have spent a LOT more time there but time was a luxury that we didn’t have so we left Lake Tekapo and drove straight back to Christchurch to return the campervan and catch our flight to the North Island, where more beauty, and a few disappointments, awaited us! 

I'll leave you with two final photos of the gorgeous South Island scenery from our drive.

 

The Styches' Whirlwind Tour of Australia

Finally!  Here is my super belated post about our three fun-filled weeks with Alex’s parents.  We kept busy traversing the country, squeezing in as much as we could while they were here.  It was a wonderful adventure; we had a great time showing them around Australia and Alex & I even got to see a few new places along the way. 

The fun started in Melbourne where we were all fresh and eager to see the sights.  We wandered around downtown for several days visiting the Eureka Skydeck for its unrivaled views of the city, Victoria Markets for their amazing selection of products and produce, and the city laneways to experience the café culture for which Melbourne is famous.

 

From there we rented a car and set out on the Great Ocean Road.  Along the drive we hit Bells Beach to see surfers riding huge waves (in freezing water on a chilly day – seriously, these people were crazy, you couldn’t have paid me to get in that water), stopped at the famous Twelve Apostles rock formation, and enjoyed the brief moments of beautiful scenery when the, misleadingly named, Great Ocean Road actually ran along the ocean (the majority of the road was inland and ocean views were sporadic and not as plentiful as any of us had hoped). 

After the GOR, we continued driving west and caught the ferry to Kangaroo Island, an hour and a half south of Adelaide.  We were all excited for the Styche parents’ first taste of Australian wildlife so we set out on what the lady at the info center referred to as ‘the best walk in South Australia’.  It was perhaps a bit ambitious, and I will concede that the walk was more of a hike, but we had no idea of this when we started.  We all survived, but some of us, I won’t name names, fared better than others, and Mr & Mrs Styche would have you believe we tried to kill them off.  Here is a photo of the gorgeous beach at the end of the hike and one of Mrs Styche with Alex before the walk took a turn for the worse.

After our morning excursion, we headed towards the coast to see Admirals Arch and the Remarkable Rocks.  At the Arch, the fur seals and the flies were the more notable attractions.  The seals were so cute sunning themselves on the rocks and frolicking in a shallow pool and we spent the better part of an hour just checking them out. 

On our way back to the carpark the flies were horrendous, leading to this awesome photo.  Alex was trying to avoid them by closing his hoodie as far as he could and Mr. Styche was ninja swatting the flies out of the air.  The Styche craziness was just beginning (and little did I know, it was contagious!). 

The next day, after an awesome night at the most quaint, out of the way cottage that Mrs. Styche found, we set out to see sea lions at Seal Bay.  The sea lions that live on this beach can only be found on KI and are incredibly protected.  We were able to walk onto the beach, with our guide, and get very close to the hundreds of them that were sunning themselves that day.  We learned that they spend three straight days at sea diving repeatedly for food then come back to the beach for three days to feed their pups and save energy before setting out and doing it all over again.  During our hour on the beach, several mama sea lions came in from sea and were greeted by their pups.  And one little pup, who was adorable and reminded me of a puppy, kept going to the water’s edge every time a new sea lion came in only to be disappointed over and over again then decided to follow our group back up to the boardwalk.  It was an amazing experience, and one that we’ll get to do again with my Mom and cousin while they’re here!

We were all pretty busted from our Great Ocean Road drive and Kangaroo Island excursions by the time we reached Adelaide so we didn’t get up to too much the day and half we had there.  But we did take the Styche parents to the Rundle Street Mall, for a photo with the pig statues that I love, and the Botanic Garden for Mr. Styche to enjoy their beautiful rose garden, which was in full bloom.

Clare and Barossa Valleys were next up and we had a wonderful time in both.  In Clare we visited many of the same vineyards that Alex and I found on our first trip to town and Mrs. Styche booked us to stay at the Skillogalee winery, which was a treat as it had the most beautiful gardens and terrace. 

In Barossa we visited Seppeltsfield, Penfolds (Ron we were thinking of you!), Wolf Blass, Peter Lehmann and Rockford wineries.  All of them were interesting in their own way but Rockford was my favorite – it was housed in a gorgeous old stone building and they produce wine the way they would have back in the 1800s.  All hand-picked, hand pressed grapes and you could taste the care that was put into the wine.  It was amazing but they don’t distribute in the US yet so you guys are going to have to wait before you’ll get the chance to sample it (or travel over and visit us sometime before this trip is done). 

After Barossa we drove back to Adelaide to catch our flight to Brisbane.  Brisbane wasn’t to be our final stop that day though, we picked up a car at the airport and drove four hours to catch the ferry to Fraser Island (yeah, Mrs. Styche planned an awesome, but hectic, itinerary).  Fraser Island in the largest sand island in the world and you can only get around it in four wheel drive SUVs on craaaazzzyyy one lane sand roads.  Inland the speed limit is 30km/hr (though you rarely go that fast because you’re bouncing around hoping the car doesn’t fall apart) but on the beach you can go 80km/hr (it is more like a highway than a beach because no one swims off Fraser Island due to the rip currents, jellyfish and sharks that all pose serious risks – there were even planes taking off and landing on the beach). 

 

The first few kms of the ride were the roughest and had us wondering how badly we really wanted to explore the island…

But Alex was a rockstar behind the wheel and he chauffeured us to all the sites; Lake McKenzie, with its beautiful clear water, Eli Creek & the Mahenko wreck (where the Styche craziness rubbed off on me a bit).

Besides sand, the island is also famous for its dingoes.  They were everywhere and weren’t afraid of people.  One even followed our car from the lake 10kms before giving up on us losing any food from the car for it to scavenge. 

 

By the time we reached Brisbane, Alex & I needed a day to catch up on emails and outside life (though I totally failed to get any new post up on my blog after spending more than four hours responding to a backlog of emails) so we chilled at the hotel while Mama & Papa (M&P) Styche explored the city.  The next morning, on our way to Surfers Paradise, we went and visited Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary where the Styche parents both got to hold a koala and pet kangaroos.  It was really cool for them, and us, to be so up close and personal with Aussie ‘wild’life. 

 

 

Surfers Paradise was a brief, relaxing stop on our way to Sydney.  We didn’t do too much there besides enjoy the beach so a highlight was definitely when Mr. Styche met the Gold Coast Meter Maids.  The Meter Maids are famous in Surfers because they are city-sponsored girls who walk around and feed any empty parking meters so people don’t get tickets.  I would try and describe them to you but I think this photo is worth a thousand words ;)

Last, but certainly not least, was Sydney.  We had five days in the city and everybody made the most of it.  We walked around the Opera House and saw a live performance, M&P Styche went on a sunset harbor cruise, we explored Darling Harbour, The Rocks, Bondi Beach & the Botanic Gardens plus we ate a number of amazing meals (the last Alex & I will probably have for a while). 

Mr. & Mrs. Styche took great care of us and didn’t let us want for anything while they were here; we were well fed, given tons of hugs and spoiled with nice hotels.  So we figured the least we could do is provide them with one nice surprise during their visit, and it came in the form of dinner with the Blakes.  As you may recall, Mr. Styche & Mr. Blake were roommates back in London back in the waning days of their bachelorhood, and we met the Blakes while we were in Perth, where they live.  Unfortunately, the Styches’ didn’t have time to get all the way to Perth while they were in Australia so the Blakes flew to Sydney to join us an evening – which was incredibly awesome of them.  Despite being terrible with secrets, Alex & I both managed not to keep dinner with the Blakes under wraps until we ‘casually’ bumped into them outside of Starbucks in Darling Harbour.  I think Mr. & Mrs. Styche were genuinely surprised and had a wonderful time catching up with their old friends.  Here’s a photo of them at dinner in Darling Harbour.    

Like all good things, our fun with the Styches’ had to come to an end.  It is crazy how fast three weeks flew by but we had a great time and can only hope they had as much fun as we did (and that we didn’t scare them too much with our weirdness, remember we haven’t been around other people for like seven months!!).  …Mom & Becca, consider that your warning ;)