Pictures

Since I've done such a poor job writing, here are some pictures instead.

Akaroa Harbor, South Island

Hedgehog, Akaroa, South Island

Dusky Dolphin, Kaikoura, South Island

Sperm Whale Tail, Kaikoura, South Island

Reflection, South Island

Moeraki Boulders, South Island

Yellow-eyed Penguin, All Day Bay, South Island

Ummmm...

Posting has been suffering from lack of spare time, so here's a map to show where we've been so far:



Click on the map to view it larger and follow the red line, starting in Christchurch. Each of the numbered dots is where we camped for the night.

Some of the highlights have been seeing sperm whales in Kaikoura, penguins along the southeastern coast and hiking in the Milford Sound. It's like another, very primeval world in there and it feels like you've just come back from another planet when you come out.

We're in Queenstown now, about to move up the West Coast. Pictures next time!

First stop, Sydney

No trip would be complete without at least one frantic dash to the airport, so that's how we started, arriving at the gate just in time to board our flight to Los Angeles. After all that rush, we had a four-hour layover in LA before leaving on a 14 and a half hour flight to Sydney, which is longer than any person should be asked to sit in a cramped space.

We arrived in Sydney at 7:30 a.m. with plans to couchsurf while we were there. The person we had arranged to stay with didn't get off work until the afternoon, so we immediately started looking around for ways to entertain ourselves that didn't involve carrying our backpacks.

The answer came in the form of the SydneyPass, which I will go on record as recommending as A Good Thing. For $110 AUD you can get on all the trains, buses and ferries in the city, including sightseeing harbor cruises, for three days. The pass also includes transfer to and from the airport and eliminates the need to spend half your vacation standing in line to buy tickets.

From the airport we went directly downtown, got on a harbor cruise and dumped our packs for awhile.

Downtown Sydney from Ferry

After a rest in the Royal Botanical Gardens, we got on the longer afternoon cruise and spent two and a half hours relaxing onboard. Sydney is a beautiful city, which we were asked by a resident not to tell anyone, and the cruises are a great way to see the inner harbor area and outlying communities and beaches. If you're lucky, it'll be a nice day and the nude sun bathers will be out enjoying themselves, although hopefully not as much as the one who had not counted on a passing ferry when he wandered off to enjoy himself a little more than strictly necessary in public.

We finally caught a bus to make our way out to Clovelly, the area where our couchsurfing host lives. It turned out to be in a quiet neighborhood a few blocks from the beach. Much nicer than the area we would have been in if staying in a hostel. Our host, John, met us and took us to his apartment where we gratefully dropped our packs before going out for dinner at a little Indian cafe.

Gondola to Zoo Entrance

On Saturday we decided to visit Taronga Zoo, which turned out to be a six-hour trek up, down and around as the zoo was built on a hillside overlooking the city. There was a moment of excitement when we almost walked into the web this spider had made across one of the paths.



The rest of the visit was tame by comparison and we finally dragged our exhausted bodies back to the gondola for the return trip down the hill to the ferry stop.

We got to the botanical gardens at dusk and were just in time to see the fruit bats, also called flying foxes, start circling the sky. There were thousands of them swooping overhead and jostling for position in the trees.

In a different section of the park the cockatoos were flying from tree to tree in large flocks, screeching and squawking at the tops of their lungs. They would occasionally land on the ground and run through the grass with an undignified waddle before sweeping past, wingtips nearly touching our faces.

Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge

The botanic gardens closed shortly after dark and we were the last people out before they shut the gates. After a brief wander along the waterfront, we went in search of the bus out to Clovelly. Poor interpretation of the bus map led us in an 45 minute detour around the city before finally giving up and going back to the train station. We arrived in Clovelly at 11 p.m., hoping John was a night owl and that we wouldn't have to wake him up to get in the house. Happily he was, and we were all up until 1 a.m.

On Sunday, John spent the day driving us around, showing us more of the area. It left us sure that we would be back to spend more time in Australia and a little sorry that we were only spending three days this time.

Next stop, Auckland, New Zealand

On Our Way

Welcome to our trip through New Zealand, starting off in Sydney, Australia. No, I'm not completely geographically challenged, it's just a 3-day layover, to take advantage of our free stop.

I'm sure I'll have more to say about after we get on our way. Right now, we're just in the final stages of packing madness.

See you around!