Now we're off to buy some crackers

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We're back out at the coast in Oamaru, where there are penguins and a cheese factory. The penguins are cute, and the cheese is REALLY REALLY good!
Oamaru is a cute town. Due to some particularly good local limestone/sandstone (?) a lot of the older buildings have survived and there is a lovely pocket of town that is stuck in Victorian times! I bought 3 books from a secondhand book store and when I left they had been wrapped in brown paper and tied with string.
There are two penguin colony's. The Yellow Eyed Penguin, and the Blue Penguin. We set off to see the Yellow guys first, not because we prefer yellow, but because they hang out on the beach earlier than the Blue guys...
At about 7.30pm we squeezed ourselves into the hide, where we were hiding not only from penguins but also from the rain... The Yellow Eyed Penguins we're hanging out on the bluff, considering their options. They were pretty far away, and all I could make out were these little white bellies against the green and yellow of the cliffs!
At 8.30pm we made our way to the Blue Penguins... Much like the Fairy Penguins in Australia, these guys come ashore at dusk in gangs called rafts, then they make a run for their burrows, watched by a bunch of oooing and aaahing penguin toursits!
After the penguins we escaped the rain by climbing inside our tent.

It really is that blue

We left Methven and the comforts of Gary's place and headed straight along the 'Inland Scenic Route' to Mount Cook. The Southern Alps rise out of nowhere. One minute you're driving through rolling hills dotted with sheep and then bingo, there are the mountains. The lakes are beautiful blue, something to do with the minerals.....
We pulled into town, pitched the tent, and headed out on a walk to Kea lookout. The sky was blue and the mountain was impressive!
One thing that quickly becomes obvious here in New Zealand is the need for good weather forecasting. It's also the first topic of conversation every day, and the first thing that complete strangers will mention to you....
At Mount Cook we timed it perfectly - the day before was gray and rainy, the day of our visit was blue and beautiful, the morning we left was gray and rainy...

How we roll

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This is our accommodation for our NZ travels. Not quite as glamorous as traveling in Henry the Van, but it's home for the next few weeks.
Our old faithful tent, which I have been carting around in my backpack (Michael has the surfboards, so I get the tent) is finally being used on a regular basis. It's quick to put up, and even quicker to take down. As of today we've managed to avoid doing either in the rain, but I can guarantee that that won't last as we head through Southland and Fiordland - where the Roaring 40s make the weather about as changeable as is can be.

Our wheels

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Check it out, check it out... We've been in NZ for 24 hours and we already have a set of wheels - that's gotta be a record!
She's a '94 Subaru - the surfboards fit, and we can even sleep inside her if necessary!
Oh yeah, and that house in the photo, it's our digs here on the South Island for a few days. We're living it up all fancy here in NZ. (ok, ok it's a loaner from a family friend - Thanks Gary!)

We've crossed the Tasman Sea

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We finally got our stuff packed up and vacated Karen's spare room for the last time and headed to the airport to get on our flight to New Zealand. We'd collected so much extra crap during our Australian adventure that we were a little concerned about the excess baggage charges that a surfboard bag containing 4 surfboards could incur. We love Air New Zealand, they didn't charge us a cent!
I did check in a full 20kg (44lbs) backpack, which is pretty dang heavy, but I am carrying around a tent, 3 season sleeping bag, sleep mat and assorted other camping bits and pieces....
We landed at Christchurch Airport at 11.30pm, and made our way through immigration and onto customs. New Zealand has some strict laws regarding gear, and we had to declare all of our camping and hiking equipment including hiking boots. They are protecting the natural environment and want to keep foreign bugs out. Our tent was given the once over, including a vacuum and our hiking boots inspected for any nastys... Once given the all clear it was 1am so we picked our corner along with plenty of others and bedded down for the night. I got a pretty good sleep, once they dimmed the lights!

Australia. The best of

1. Kakadu National Park. Even the hellish mosquitoes couldn't distract us from the amazing aboriginal rock art, stunning wetlands and scary wildlife.


2. Uluru, Kata Juta and Watarrka. All bang smack in the middle, all worth the long drive, all unique. I especially loved dining at Uluru as the sun came up, we enjoyed it so much that we came back for lunch!


3. The Northern Territory. Driving from Darwin through the middle is one of my highlights of this trip. If you come to Australia, you MUST visit the Northern Territory.


4. Eating amazing seafood and tasting delicious wines in South Australia. Michael bought his own oyster shucking knife, and within minutes was a professional. The Adelaide market was our favorite for cheese, sausage and snacks!


5. Wilson's Promontory. We packed the tent and some sleeping bags and spent the night at Refuge Cove alone. Wilson's Promontory is the most Southerly point on mainland Australia.


6. Old Friends / New Friends. I wish I could post pictures of everyone.... A real highlight of the trip has been catching up with old friends, meeting new ones and having a blast. Special mentions go out to Brad, Linda, Amelie and Imogen (above) for putting us up on the Gold Coast. Toby in Sydney. Ildiko, Romain and Kalia at Bondi. Nicky for sharing a trip in the van. And the amazing Kazza who not only let us stay, but fed us too...


7. Henry the Van. I loved every minute of our van camping travels. What more can I say...


8. The wildlife. We saw: Crocodiles (scary), Koalas (cute), Penguins (funny), Kangaroos, Wallaby, Emus, Wombats, loads of beautiful birds and more. We were harassed by mosquitoes and flies. I will be happy to forget the flies.

Delicious

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These here oysters are the most amazing oysters I have ever tasted, and we've tasted a lot of oysters on this trip. There were the Coffin Bay oysters, the Streaky Bay oysters, the Sydney Rock oysters and many more... But these guys are the top of the pile when it comes to oysters.
They're the Cloudy Bay oyster. They come all the way from the Southernmost point of Tasmania, where nothing separates them from the pure waters of the antarctic.... All that clear antarctic water makes for an oyster so tasty, that you just want to have another, and another, and another....


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He's on a new journey...

Henry has a new family. We watched him drive off towards the beach at Bondi today on the begining of a new adventure.
I was sad.

So sad so sad

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We spent our last few nights in the van as we headed South towards Sydney and a comfy bed at Kazza's place.
This photo was taken at the Treachery camp in the Myall Lakes National Park. The beach is beautiful, and the whole place is special.
I'm really sad to be selling the van - which we start advertising on Monday. Henry's been a fantastic companion on our travels in Australia he's kept us dry in torrential rain, kept us safe from mammoth hail storms, kept the mosquitoes and other tropical nasties at bay and most importantly has kept on going for kilometres and kilometres. I'll check the odometer, but I think we've covered 13,000km - or 8080 miles.

Membership is booming

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We took our time as we headed North stopping off at assorted beaches and National Parks along the way. I loved Myall Lakes and Yuragir in particular.
Finally we crossed into Queensland where we headed straight to Brad & Linda's house on the Gold Coast. We spent a fantastic 10 days hanging out with them, and the girls - Amelie and Imogen, who are the two newest members of the Michael fan club. They join Margot who, at 4 is the oldest member of the club and still refers to Michael as the Monkey Face Man, because he taught her how to pull a monkey face.
Fortunately Michael didn't feel inclined to teach Amelie and Imogen the same tricks!