New Year’s Eve

This was to be our second New Year’s Eve outside of the UK after our trip to Madrid two years ago. Today we left Auckland and the comfort of the Eden hostel, for Rotorua, place of the smelly eggs and our home for the next four evenings.

The journey was fairly uneventful for me (I fell asleep) although we did stop in a pretty town called Cambridge for lunch and a ‘chocolate slice’ (along with pies there are quite a few different ‘slices’ you can buy in New Zealand). We arrived early afternoon to our accommodation - Alpin motel. This Motel is the best place we have stayed in so far on the trip and possibly the best we have ever stayed. Despite it being a Motel we have a kitchen, lounge area, two tv’s and…wait for it…our own personal hot tub!! I can’t wait to try it out after one of my races. There is also a really nice swimming pool on site and a trampoline and swings for Chris.

So we were just thinking that things couldn’t get much better when it came up to run time. We all went out together in a big group today as it was only an easy run before the race tomorrow and with the help of one of the local runners who had come to join us, we ran the short distance to Redwood Forest. Chris and myself were amazed and excited when we reached the forest and found it is an ideal place for running. Smooth tracks with only small slopes, and underfoot it was almost bouncy. There were trees all around and over the top which sheltered you from the sun and wind and it felt like you were just springing along. One of the best places I have ever run.

Finally, it was time to see in the New Year. We went into Rotorua centre for a Kiwi run group meal at one of the thai restaurants, and then to the lake front to watch some bands that were playing. However, it was actually pretty cold and most of us were freezing, so after some of the boys had run around with a rugby ball for fifteen minutes, we headed back to the motel to thaw out. We were then entertained by the more musical members of the group with a guitar and singing until about 10:30pm by which time we were all exhausted and went to bed. No-one in the whole group made it until midnight!!


Steve strumming away...

So finally we have reached the last day of 2009. The end of a year which has had some big highs and big lows for us both. 2010 promises much and we have some exciting times ahead, not only on this trip but when we get back. Perhaps life is only just beginning?

Waiaturua circuit

Another jam packed day and probably one for the running geeks out there. The day started early. At 7am we headed to the old home of Arthur Lydiard’s. For those that didn’t see yesterdays blog post Lydiard was a legendary Kiwi running coach - who many argue has had a greater impact on distance running over the 20th century than any other person. During the 50’s, and 60’s he coached a great number of local runners to world records and Olympic titles, including Murray Halberg, Peter Snell, Barry Magee and Bill Baillie. Quite an achievement considering his athletes all lived within a few miles of his home!! Part of Lydiard’s training routine included sending his boys on a 22mile run around the Waiatarua circuit. This began at his home and headed on up into the Auckland hills (there is no flat around the city). The route is still run today and people come from all over the world to do it now. It is a savage course and definitely one for the hardcore. Only one of the group attempted to do the whole thing while the rest of us just did part of it. Most people in the group ran 17miles of it and took around 2hrs or so. It was a big effort and most people were pretty tired. It seems crazy to think that Lydiard’s boys used to do this a few times a week! No wonder they were so good.

Afterwards we were lucky enough to have a talk from two of the guys - Barry Magee and Bill Baillie. Barry had some of his medals including his bronze medal from the 1960 Rome Olympic Marathon. His stories and memories were really inspirational and left the group wanting to go back out and do another Waiatarua circuit (maybe not that inspired ;) ).


Barry Magee showing us the vest he ran the Rome Olympics in!

In the afternoon we drove out to Piha beach, which has its own TV show in New Zealand called ‘Piha search and rescue’. Despite the waves being a little dangerous the beach itself was really nice. We played some ball games and took some photos (of course).


Piha beach

In the evening we headed up the Sky Tower in Auckland. The peak is 300 meters or so high and we went up to the viewing platform which stands at a measly 220m. After my bout of vertigo we were able to enjoy the views and Andrea played around on the glass floors. I walked across them but I couldn’t look down!!


Brave Andrea!!

Tomorrow we are heading out of Auckland and down to Rotorua where we will be for the next four days. We will be seeing in the new year in traditional New Zealand style (bed at around 11pm I think) and then Andrea has her race on new years day. Exciting stuff.

Day 1 Kiwirun

The day started fairly early considering our 2:00am bedtime the previous night, however considering the amount of stuff on the itinery for the day this was no bad thing.

The first thing we had to do was meet our fellow Kiwi-runners. There are twelve of us from the UK, US and Canada aswell as a few kiwi’s. Everyone else had met at the Welcome dinner the night before whilst we were flying over the Tasman sea, so there were a few faces and names to remember. However, we already felt we were getting to know everyone upon hearing tales from the previous nights team challenges and we soon felt part of the group.

We took a short ferry ride from the city centre to Devenport so that we could see the harbour, before meeting the vans at the other side. I had a bit of a scare after almost missing the ‘stop’ (whilst in the toilet). I hadn’t known we were docking and was very surprised to find an empty boat when I appeared out of the bathroom. When I finally realised what had happened I had to fight my way out against the flow of people getting onto the boat to find the others. A few moments of panic for me but none of the others had even noticed I was missing!


Kiwirun tour 20009/10

A few people had been in New Zealand for a number of days already in order to beat the jet lag, however a couple of days easy running had been planned. The first run of the tour (since we had been there anyway) was an approximately 10km trail from point to point starting at Okara and following the ‘walkway‘, and we made our way up there from the ferry port. The van would pick us up at the other side. I was pleased as I had a session to do later on in the day and wanted an easy run. So we set off at an easy pace, and I let the faster guys runs ahead, for once not letting my competitive nature come through. It was easy…for about two minutes, before we started the climb. We were running on a woodland trail and there were some quite steep stepped sections which almost reduced you to walking pace for much of the run. However it was really great to get off road I found the surroundings really interesting….bashing the top of my leg on a sticking out branch was an unfortunate consequence of my enjoyment. The route also included a short beach section and because it was only accessible by following the walkway it was practically deserted. Really calming and relaxing!

In the afternoon, it was then time for us to meet one of New Zealand’s running legends - Bill Baillie. Bill held numerous New Zealand and world records and competed at Olympic and commonwealth games. He is also one of Arthur Lydiard’s disciples (for those of you who haven’t heard of Lydiard he is a renowned coach who developed a popular theory for training based on quite simply doing lots of running!!)

Bill came to give us a bit of a tour of Auckland and we went up a small mountain (mainly in the van) to a great lookout of the city and then to a black sand beach. These places were really pretty and calm and peaceful, however what was probably better was listening to Bill’s endless stories about his experiences as an athlete on the mini bus as we travelled.

Unfortunately the afternoon passed really quickly and then it was session time. I had a track session to do so myself and one of the other girls went to the track whilst everyone else went for a run in the local park.

In the evening the team challenge was resumed. Chris and myself were split into opposing team - aptly named ‘white van’ and ‘red van’ after the two mini buses which have been ferrying us around. If I recall correctly my team’s New Zealand geography and Maori pronunciations were much better and White Van team hold the lead by a narrow margin. More challenges to follow!

The Grand Pacific Drive and the North Island

Our flight was at 6:45pm in the evening and being in Kiama we were around a 2h30m drive from Sydney (along the supposedly scenic route of the Grand Pacific Drive). We got going on the road at around 11am and headed north along the coastal road. This time the drive was a lot more interesting (you may remember me complaining a couple of days ago about not actually seeing the sea on the GPD). We drove past some nice beaches and along a new swanky road/bridge (which hugs the coastline for a few miles over the water crashing into the cliffs below - very cool).

The final part of the drive went through the ‘Royal National Park’ - the oldest national park in Australia. It is primarily made up of rainforest and has miles of trails for walkers to explore. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t the best for us and Andrea had a second run to do so we drove on through. We did get a few photos hanging out the side of the car though - it was parked up so don‘t worry ;).


Royal National Park

In the evening our flight went without hitch and we were picked up at Auckland Airport, on the North Island, by Steve Willis (KiwiRun organiser and brother of Nick Willis - silver medallist at Beijing Olympics 1500m) and Craig the trip physical therapist. It was late when we arrived at the hostel (around 2am) so we headed straight to bed. A day of fun awaits us tomorrow…

Big Little Lizards

Today was our last full day in Australia before our Kiwi Run trip and we decided to do the short drive out to the Mirramurra rainforest which sits in the Mountains, slightly inland from Kiama town. We didn’t really know what to expect from this rainforest, whether it would be very good, but had heard that there was a 2 hour walk from the visitor information centre there so thought that it would be a good day out even if the rainforest was disappointing.

We needn’t have had any worries though. The rainforest, surprisingly, was an actual rainforest and as soon as we arrived we could here the humming/buzzing/screeching of the animals in the trees. The type of noise they play at ‘Butterfly world’ in the UK, but obviously not a recording!


Beautiful rainforest

We began our walk immediately which started out on some slightly raised boardwalks. The vegetation and undergrowth was amazing and we spent quite some time walking with our heads down looking for lizards and other interesting creatures, before we realised that looking up is also pretty spectacular! Some of the trees were bizarre with roots almost above the ground, other trees looked like something out of Lord of the Rings and like they may move any minute or start talking to you!

Halfway round the walk we took the slightly longer path which then took you to the Minnamurra Falls. After almost four hours of running in the past 36 hours I was non too impressed to find that to get to the falls, you had to walk up the steepest path imaginable. It was only the sight of Children and large unfit people walking back down (and who must have made it up somehow as there were no helicopters in sight) that kept me going. The falls were pretty and definitely a welcome sight!!

The only disappointment was the lack of lizards on the path as we saw a grand total of one water dragon (impressive nonetheless) on a tree early on in the walk. To satisfy the desire to take more endless photographs of lizards (one of our favourite animals of Australia) we stopped off when we got back to Kiama, under a bridge, where Chris had spied lizards on his walk this morning. Here we saw maybe ten or fifteen lizards. We don’t know what type of lizards these are, they are little, but also big and fat at the same time. It was a pretty productive stop by the side of the road.


Water Dragon


Big Little Lizards

Finally, as you already know tomorrow we are catching a flight to Auckland from where we will be touring the North Island of New Zealand with a mini bus full of other runners.. We’re not sure how much opportunity we will get to seek out internet places so you may notice that our very regular blogging becomes less regular for a couple of weeks. We can promise you though that we will be writing one every day and will upload them (maybe in batches if necessary) as and when we can. Check back regularly!!

Boxing Day

We left Bateman’s bay at around 10am to head back up the New South Wales Coastline towards Kiama. Part of our journey today would be along the newly setup tourist drive - the Grand Pacific Drive (GPD). Sounds impressive don’t you think?? The GPD started around 50km before we reached Kiama. I don’t think the stretch that we did was particularly impressive, mainly because we could hardly see the sea - and certainly didn’t live up to the ‘grand’ title anyway. Perhaps things will improve as we head up towards Sydney as that is where the majority of the route is - plenty of time to redeem things.

The weather had restarted where it had left off yesterday - pretty miserable. We are enjoying the slight break from the intense heat - although it would be better without the rain. On arriving in Kiama at our cheapest accommodation so far (dearest to cheapest in one day), we headed out for a short walk around town. Just across the road from us is a blowhole, where the sea spurts water 30m into the air as the waves crash into the coast. It is surprisingly popular with the tourists considering it is just a water being squirted into the air. Cheers and clapping at each successive spurt was fairly amusing.

Otherwise we kept the activity to a minimum today as Saturdays are Andrea’s double session day. It started with a 12mile tempo run along the Bateman’s Bay coastal path and then a very short speed session on the grass in the afternoon. Both went well and it is now less than a week until Andrea’s first race since leaving the UK. Exciting stuff.


Andrea cruising on her tempo


Blow-hole

Tomorrow we are heading inland to walk a bit around a rainforest. We will also investigate a bit more of the coastline around here as there appear to be quite a few nice walks.

Do they know its Christmas time at all?

Today was Christmas Day, so we got up and marvelled at the size of our stockings, put the turkey on and opened presents and sat down to Christmas Lunch with all the trimmings at midday. In the afternoon we went for a stroll and then watched a couple of really good Christmas films whilst drinking wine.

Haha, not quite.

In fact when I first woke up it took a minute or so to realise it was Christmas day (probably the first time ever that has happened!). We had weetabix for breakfast whilst sitting on our terrace and then noticed a large black cloud looming ominously overhead so it was a bit of a mad dash to get into our swim wear and walk the 150m down to the beach before the rain started. After two ‘Baywatch style’ runs into the water (which despite the overcast weather was surprisingly cool rather than cold) we decided to call it a day before the rain started. We had in fact timed it to perfection as the heavens opened minutes after we arrived back into our hotel room.

The next thing on our list of things to do on our Aussie Christmas day was a barbecue, and despite the weather we were undettered. Luckily the barbecue was under a shelter so Chris was able to sizzle the burgers until his heart was content whilst staying dry. I sensibly waited indoors with the crisps and cheese. Despite our tight budget and practically everything on our menu being either in the reduced or ‘basics’ section (or both) at the supermarket, the barbecue was a great success and we agreed that the burgers were the best we’d had in a while. Our Tilba-bought cheese was also a great addition.


Chef Chris


Yum yum yum. A healthy alternative to turkey.

As it was still chucking it down we didn’t fancy going out so far to settled down in front of the tv, thinking that there must be a half decent film on. Even if we had seen it before. Channel after channel was hopped. Nothing. So we hopped again. Still nothing. British tv on Christmas Day may not be the best but it is a sight better than here. It was so good I can’t even remember what was on. I vaguely remember a santa climbing onto a sleigh and his trousers falling down, but the ‘off’ button was decidedly more appealing. So we just had a quiet afternoon chatting over a couple of glasses of wine. Lots of running talk and lots of ‘aims for 2010’ talk. Quite productive I feel!

Next up was our highlight of the day. Our planned phone calls home to the families. We were prepared with a 500minutes of international calls phone card and we thought we would be able to have a right good chat with our families now they had hauled themselves out of bed (fancy staying in bed the whole day…!!!). It didn’t quite go as planned…First off we were befriended by a dog on our way to the phone boxes. No owner, no collar, and it just followed us and followed us. Not sure what to do we lead it to the police station thinking that they would take him in until owner was found or whatever. What a silly idea. We were amazed that the police just said ’oh he’s been hanging around Mcdonald’s all day and the council should deal with him’. We asked what we should do and they told us to take him back outside!!! Crazy! He did eventually wander off back to McDonalds (which amazingly was bursting at the seams?!) to beg for fries so we had no choice but to let him be.

So we continued to the phone boxes and dialled away. Unfortunately what we hadn’t been told (despite us asking specifically in the shop) was that you still had to continuously put money in the phone box as well as use the card. We had been told it would only be 40c to dial the phone card number and then you could talk for 500minutes without putting any more money in. What a load of rubbish. It still charged you the same as making a call within Australia and as we had only a few coins between us we had to have super duper quick minute phone calls with each of our families.

It was very annoying and it dampened our spirit’s a little on an otherwise nice and relaxing albeit quiet day. Disappointed we headed back to our room and consoled ourselves with an ancient episode of ‘Top Gear’ the best programme that has been on all day before hitting bed quite early.

All in all, a nice day. Not the best Christmas we’ve had but certainly one we are likely to remember for years to come….

The night before Christmas

This morning we left the Ecotel in Narooma at around 10am. There is always a tinge of sadness whenever we leave somewhere we enjoyed staying. However, there are just so many places in the world that we want to go that even though we really liked the town the chances of us returning (especially as its on the other side of the world) are just very low. You never know though. This situation reminds us of some of the lyrics from that country song that I only know a few lines of:

On the road again,
Going places that I’ve never been.
Seeing places that I’ll never see again.
On the road again.

Today we headed about 65km north up the coast to another small town called ‘Bateman’s Bay’. The destination where we will be spending Christmas. Of all the places we have stayed so far it is the most expensive! This means it should be the best right?? Well it is certainly up there. It has a swimming pool, a large outdoor seating area, barbeques and best of all each room has its own outdoor seating area. Definitely a nice feature for the hot Australian summer evenings. We decided to christen it this evening with a couple of glasses of wine. Hehe.

We have a few things planned for Christmas day which you will hear about tomorrow, nothing like what we would have done if we had been back home, but it will be something to remember and look back on.

As its Christmas Eve we wish everyone a merry Christmas. Hopefully the weather in the UK hasn’t scuppered anybodies plans.


Our Christmas day terrace


The view from our Christmas room

More cheese Gromit??

Today we headed out of Narooma on a day trip to a village called ‘Tilba’. We didn’t have to drive too far as Tilba is situated only 17km from Narooma in a pleasant valley. We had decided to visit Tilba mainly due to the fact that I had spied a leaflet in the tourist information centre for the Tilba Cheese factory, and being the cheese lover I am, constant hint dropping to Chris that it may be interesting had finally worked it’s magic.

Tilba, is a tiny village of less than 80 residents and it constitutes mainly of one street. It is a street with a difference however. It is not like your typical village. In fact, I thought we had stepped back in time at Universal Studios as it actually looked and felt a bit like an old western town, with house fronts developed into shops, café‘s and a post office. There were quite a few people mooching about, but considering just about everyone was eating an ice cream or carrying a cheese factory carrier bag, I guess most of these were tourists like ourselves.

After a bit of wandering and looking around in some of the quaint shops, we finally arrived at the long anticipated cheese factory which was typically at the other end of the street to which we had parked (not that it was a long walk, just a longer wait before we got there). My initial disappointment that we did not actually get to look around the factory, and that it was simply a cheese shop (which sold other various stuff such as honey and ice cream) was soon forgotten as I noticed that we got to sample each of the cheeses for sale….for free.

There was maybe 10 different types of cheeses to try which were all made on the premises and most were delicious. Interestingly they were all much better value that what we had seen in the supermarkets and we decided to buy one for our Christmas barbecue in two days time. The question was which. I wasn’t keen on Chris’s favourite - Olive  but we finally agreed on a peppercorn cheese after much umming and arrhing (and of course taste testing).

The other point to take from today was not to listen to a man when he says that ‘he can’t see any mosquitoes and you must be imagining it’. Well perhaps I just have delicious skin, but I now, thanks to my imagination have four gobstopper sized bites on my foot and ankle and one golf ball sized bite on my shin. Thought if I told everyone on here, I may actually get some sympathy rather than ‘oh yes’!


Central Tilba


Cheese factory

Christmas blues...

Three days until Christmas and everything is just wrong here. Santa shouldn’t wear sunglasses, Bermuda shorts or be carrying a surf-board. It shouldn’t be scorching hot and 30C+!! It should be cold and dreary with a possibility of snow. People should also have the traditional sit down Christmas meal with turkey and trimmings. BBQ’s just aren’t Christmassy. Both me and Andrea have to keep on reminding ourselves that it is actually Christmas in a few days. It doesn’t seem quite as big over here as it is in Europe. Probably because people have the summer to look forward to as well, whereas in Europe the festive period breaks the winter into two parts.

Having said all that though it sounds like Europe and the East coast of America are getting an absolute hammering with the weather at the moment. I’m not sure I’d enjoy that too much either…

Today we did a tour of Narooma and drove around some of the local villages and bays. Narooma itself is situated between two bays - Wagonga Inlet and Forsters Bay - to the east and west of the town. It is possible to walk along some of the spits and look across the bays towards the town. You can get some nice views and it is really pretty. Some of the beaches are very nice also, probably the best we have seen so far.

In the evening we had our first BBQ in Australia - getting some practice in before Christmas day you see. By the time it got round to 9pm we were both really tired. With all the early mornings to allow Andrea to train when it is cooler and the constant travelling and sightseeing it can be quite exhausting. We’ll try and do better tomorrow, maybe we’ll stay up until 9:30pm…


Andrea looking cool on her sess in the morning


North Narooma beach


Surfers beach Narooma


Andrea looking out for sharks

Ecotel

Today we moved about four hours drive south of Wollongong to a small coastal town called Narooma. The weather was really quite hot again today, bringing back memories of our outback driving, but we coped without the air-con, keeping our hopes of sticking to the budget alive.

We were both looking forward to seeing our accommodation for our three nights in Narooma. We had booked into a Motel with a difference. This motel was an environmentally friendly one- aptly named ‘Ecotel’. The Ecotel sits on the top of a hill overlooking the town and has some good views of the Bay beneath, and we immediately took a liking to the place.

The differences between the Ecotel and a standard Motel are subtle but obviously good for the environment. The showers are low flow and liquid dispensers of soap have been installed to reduce waste on soap and packaging. Some small wind turbines sit at the entrance to the Ecotel which provide low wattage security lighting and recycling is strongly encouraged at the premises. In addition to these, they are planning on installing solar panels and a water recycling system as soon as they can. Considering how large our carbon footprint will be by the time we finish our trip, it’s good to support a place like this even if it’s in a very small way.

Our first impressions of Narooma are positive. It seems a bit hilly so I’ll have to get my hill running muscles tuned up again, but there is a lovely quiet beach and three or four ‘board walks’ which we will have a look at over the next few days. There are also some national parks not too far away which might be worth visiting.


One of the Ecotels lodgers not paying any rent!

Tramping part deux

Having some mountaineering experience from our exploits in New Zealand (link: Avalanche Peak), we decided to do the trek up to the peak of Mount Keira, one of a few mountains that border Wollongong’s western side. We hoped that we would get some good views of the town and maybe enjoy an ice-cream (always an ulterior motive involving food!!). We donned our climbing gear, hiking boots, crampons and ice-axes, got in the car and drove to the summit. Overall the drive took around 25min, it was a bit dicey in places, but with our years of experience we managed fine ;) At the summit lookouts we got some decent views of the town but unfortunately no ice-cream.


Mt Keira!!


Wollongong city centre

The rest of our day was pretty quiet. In the morning Andrea did a long run and a hard core session so was pretty tired. We had a few jobs to do as well (including a big hand wash) which we got done by mid-afternoon. We were then able to enjoy a few glasses of wine in the hostel. Good times…

Wollongong Waffles

Today, our first full day in Wollongong, we decided to do what everyone does in December….go to the beach. The weather was nice…not incredibly hot but with a dangerous burning sun (as my neck discovered later), so with cheese and piccalilli sandwiches (standard) in bags and lathered to the eyeballs in sun lotion (minus neck), we flip-flopped all the way down to the sea front…about half a mile away.

The beach is pretty good although nothing to get majorly excited about. There is a nice lighthouse and the beaches are clean and sandy. We were surprised how quiet it was, with only a few sunbathers and surfers lolling about. Perhaps everyone is indoors putting Bermuda shorts on their Christmas reindeers or something. We really just relaxed on the beach and talked about what our ideal Christmas day would be - a common theme was food and drink and lots of it! We also planned what our Christmas day this year would look like and how we could nab the barbecue at our accommodation before any of the other guests. Chris then had a play on the swings and I tested out the electronic toilets (bizarre) before we started to make our way back.


Nice beach


Steel works on the beach!!

On our way back towards our hostel, we spotted a waffle bar called ‘Sugar Cube’ which was owned and run by a friendly man from Birmingham. We have a soft spot for waffles and ended up getting a banana split waffle each which we agreed was the best waffle we had ever tasted. Bonus points as it also contributed towards one of our five a day so completely guilt free!

Talking of five a day, we also had our biggest success in the kitchen so far later on when we cooked not one but FIVE different vegetables in our stew. No scurvy for us!

Wollongong

A cold front has hit the Sydney and the surrounding area, which gives us some respite from the scorching heat. Unfortunately the front also brought a load of fog and rain with it. It’s not so bad though as we are driving down to Wollongong, the third biggest city in New South Wales. It is around the same size as Canberra and sits on the coast 80km south of Sydney. It has the royal national park bordering it to the north and miles of beaches on its eastern side. We are staying in Keiraleigh Hostel, which on first impressions is one of the better hostels we have stayed in. The room is an excellent size and the hostel seems reasonably quiet. Little touches like free sweets in the dining area probably sway our decision considerably.

On arriving the weather was hideous so we only did a bit of food shopping and a walk around the town centre - which is a 5min walk from the hostel. After dinner we headed to the cinema for our second film of the trip - James Camerons epic return to the big screen, Avatar. The film was very beautiful with bright colours and incredible special effects. To attempt summing up the film: it is about an alien race of skilful warriors Na’avi who are twice the size of humans and inhabit the hostile planet of Pandora. The native people are under siege for the valuable stone ‘Unobtainium’ by Americans (who else?). The Americans have created ‘Avatars’ which allow some of their members to mentally bond with dummy Na’avi bodies (grown in labs - run with it!!) so that they may appear as Na’avi people. The first half of the film is a love story between one of the humans and a Na’avi princess while the second half errupts into some spectacular action scenes as the humans get impatient and decide to force the Na’avi people from their land to obatin the ‘Unobtainium’. Overall the story wasn’t the best but the film is still worth a look. The merging of computer effects and real-life seems to improve all the time and this film is another rung up the ladder to the inevitable situation of where we won’t be able to tell what is real and not real anymore.

Tomorrow Andrea has two sessions to do and we will have a look around the city a bit more. If it is nice we may even hit the beach to work on our tans...

Meet the Dugongs

Today we went back into Sydney to visit the Aquarium. We had decided to visit the aquarium on our first visit to the city six weeks ago and we were hoping to get up close to some of the tropical fish and sea mammals found in the surrounding Australian waters. In true Chris and Andrea style we had even managed to find a 20% off entrance fee discount voucher on the internet so were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves.

It turned out to be a great day to do an indoorsy type activity as the Australian summer seems to be hitting full swing. Air conditioning was a great invention. It was very hot today and the metro train on the way in was stifling. Maybe there is hope of getting a lovely tan after all?!?!

The Aquarium more than lived up to our expectations as we were there for a few hours and saw a huge variety of fish and sea creatures - from crocodiles and sharks to sea horses and Finding Nemo fish! One of our favourite species was the Dugongs, which are largish dolphiny-whale type creatures closely related to elephants who can eat up to 10% of their body weight in lettuce every day. A few of the tanks had underwater viewing decks, where there were tunnels running through the tanks enabling you to see the sharks and other fish swimming over you. At some points they were literally inches from you so I was thankful for the layer of glass in-between! The turtles and stingrays also proved popular favourites and Chris got plenty of opportunity to practice his photography skills - unfortunately our camera is not high tech enough to be able to cope with the lighting of the aquarium but he did manage to get a few good shots.




The same 'little penguins' we saw at Philip Island - What are they all looking at??


Dugongs!!

Back Again

Six weeks on from our first flight from London. We are again back in Australia. Back in the capital of Sydney. Actually we are back in the Olympic Park. In fact we are even back in the Formule 1 Hotel. Six weeks on and the only thing that is different is that we are in room 425 rather than 426. At least the view from the window shows us the stadium from a slightly different angle.

We didn’t make it to bed until around 11:30pm last night after our meal with the gang from 1 Bluebell Lane. This meant that when the alarm sounded at 3am (robbing us of at least 4 hours sleep) we were a little tired. Mustn’t grumble though as we are onto the next exciting stage of our trip. The flight was fairly uneventful apart from an annoying tax we had to pay at Christchurch airport so that we may access the departure lounge - who doesn’t need to access the departure lounge!!. The total sum amounted to about £25 for both of us, not much, but I wish flight companies would just include these charges in their initial prices. On the flight we did try to sleep but after our ankle swelling incident, on the way to Australia six weeks ago, I set my alarm to sound every 20 minutes to remind us to move our feet about.

We arrived in Sydney, picked up the rental car and then did a big shop for supplies. We arrived in the hotel had some lunch and then literally crashed for three hours. We had both felt pretty ropey up until this point and unsurprisingly felt a lot better after.

In the evening Andrea went out for an 80min steady run around the Olympic Park, while I went for a walk. I decided to have a bit of an explore and walked around some of the main venues while also managing to see some of the scenic bush land, which circles the stadium complex and is a nice change to some of the built up areas. Overall it works really well and I managed to see loads of wildlife and interesting landmarks along the way. Also being a massive athletics fan, staying in the Olympic Park is fantastic. It invokes some strong emotions in me. Seeing the Olympic village, where the athletes would have stayed and imagining competing in one of the greatest spectacles on the planet. It gets the hairs on my neck every time.

A test of our culinary skills

Today was our last day in Christchurch at Emily and Paul‘s, and we had offered to cook a final meal for everyone as a way of saying thank you for letting us stay. We had begun to think about what we may cook a number of days before as we felt we had a lot to live up to after some delicious meals over the last two weeks. Prior to coming to New Zealand, our standard diet over the duration of the trip has consisted of something like pasta with something like sausages and a token vegetable but we felt that we needed to raise our game for this meal.

After finally deciding on a menu, doing a training session and a seemingly endless list of jobs including packing, we headed down to the supermarket for ingredients which consisted of….yes you got it…pasta and sausages!

But wait, this was pasta and sausages with a difference - we included a few vegetables, splashed out on chorizo sausages and also did a pesto sauce which we tried for the first time in Mildura. Unfortunately we did not know how to make the sauce from scratch but perhaps this is something we can try when we get home. We also got the ingredients of a desert which we copied directly from Fran’s dinner party over the summer (thanks Fran!) and we made sure we had plenty of crisps and wine.

As expected I took charge of the cooking with Chris ensuring everyone had drinks and that the crisps were being eaten. Everything seemed to go to plan and despite my stressing that there wasn’t enough, it all came ok in the end. It didn’t match up to some of the meals Emily had cooked but I think it was an ok effort and the desert seemed a particular favourite. It was great to spend time with everyone all together before we go.



Tomorrow we are flying back to Sydney at 6:35am which unfortunately means a 3am start in order to get picked up by the ‘super shuttle’ to the airport. I guess going to bed after 11:30pm might not be best preparation but we have sweets this time anyway :).

Extreme Go-ape

Today we went to the Adrenalin-Forest, just north of Christchurch, the Kiwi version of Go-Ape. For those that don’t know Go-Ape is an assault course that takes place 5-20m high in the air. It is set up so that there are a series of platforms on tall trees with walkways between which require varying levels of skill (or nerve) to cross. We have done it twice in the UK. The first time in Wales we were terrified but managed to do everything we attempted (we had to leave early) and then the second time in Mansfield we managed to complete it entirely. At this point we felt like we had conquered, in a small way, both mine and Andrea’s fear of heights. Surely that meant we could handle anything that New Zealand would throw at us?? How wrong we were...

There were six different courses, starting at an easy level and ending at a so-called ‘extreme’ level. When we arrived we were quickly given a safety briefing on the course dangers and the gear you wear (brief being a good description as it lasted less than 2 minutes!). The idea is that you have two clips attached to you so that you are theoretically always strapped onto the designated safety lines. We started well, level 1 was fairly easy with a couple of tricky manoeuvres towards the end. As we progressed to levels 2 and 3 things became dramatically harder. I actually lost my footing and fell at one stage, but luckily I was holding on tight and had the safety harnesses were all attached. By the time we reached level 4 we had moved way past our comfort zone and it was now considerably trickier than anything we had encountered in the UK. We were some 15m high and attempting some crossings 20-30m in length (which meant there was a lot of movement on the wires). We finally wimped out at a flying fox crossing which required you to hold onto a zip wire with your hands only. We were lowered down by an assistant and slightly disappointed with ourselves that we hadn‘t made it further. Next time maybe...


One of the tamer sections of the 'extreme run', before peeps disappear into the treeline

Today was our last activity day in Christchurch as tomorrow night we are heading back to Sydney and we have a few admin style jobs to do during the day. Unfortunately it can’t be fun and games all the time! We are also attempting to repay Em and Paul and their excellent cooking whilst we have been here by cooking a meal for them and their accommodating kiwi housemates (Kim and Lindsay). I have been dropping some subtle hints so that I lower their expectations considerably. The culinary skills required to conjure up pasta and sausages isn’t particularly impressive.

A Sunday at Sumner

After the mammoth (by my standards anyway) bike-ride yesterday we were keen to have a more sedentary day today especially as on a Sunday I do my long run which always leaves me feeling tired and hungry for the rest of the day.

We decided to head to Sumner which sits on the outskirts of Christchurch - a seaside town which is known for its beaches, surfing and fish and chips. The weather was not hot but warm enough for this to be a happy option and despite not being optimistic enough to pack swimwear and towels we set off on the bus hopeful of a pleasant day.

The town itself was quite small but did have what you would expect of a seaside town - a promenade, café’s, ice cream parlours, fish and chips and also play areas and an outdoor swimming pool for kids. Chris is becoming quite taken with play areas and always insists on having a go on the slides or on the swings despite the signs saying ‘pre-school children only’. No-one has ever challenged him though so maybe he looks like he is having a great time! I hide at the side wearing dark glasses and pretending I know nothing and nobody….

Resisting the urge for fish and chips, we stayed mainly away from the delicious smells coming from many of the shops and generally just mooched about the town, watching the surfers and wandering the streets. We took a bit of a walk down the promenade which was pleasant and sat on the beach front reading our books. It was just the nice relaxing day we were in need of, and helped prepare us for a competitive game of ‘Uno’ when we returned to the house….


Rocks

Sore bums and strong wind

Today we drove out to a little place called ‘Little River’, where we would begin a 46km (27miles for the non-metric types) bike-ride along the ‘rail trail’ - called so because it winds along a disused railway. The route was flat and rounded the hills nicely (46k and steep climbs would have been asking too much for us novices). We strategically started with the wind in our faces so that hopefully we’d have a nice easy ride back with the wind pushing us along. Em and Paul lent us some mountain bikes and helmets for the day and we were away. The pace was comfortable - but fast enough with mother nature trying her best to blow us off our bikes.


Getting ready

We managed to do the first half of the trip in around 90min with our fuel stop at Motuaka Railway Station - the disused railway station associated with the line. We looked forward to a nice tailwind on the journey back, which unfortunately, due to a change in wind direction, only materialised in the last 5miles.


Paul can't handle Em's pace


Andrea all kitted out - even got the cycling shorts on ;)

In the end it was a tough cycle, but a cool way to see the scenery. The salt-lakes, coastline and beautiful hills lining our route were worth the effort and I tried my best to get some cool photos. Before heading back we rewarded ourselves in the best way possible - with an ice-cream.

Where's Port Levy??

Emily had a day off work today and we decided to head down the coast a little to an inlet on the map called Port Levy which looked promising. It was only a short distance away and as none of us had been there before it seemed a good plan. The weather was a bit chilly but optimistic as ever we packed bikini’s and the body board in hope that the promised 26 degree weather would materialise.

The drive to Port Levy was pretty scenic as we wound our way towards the inlet and we passed through a number of little places. We kept seeing signs for Port Levy and we expected to reach at least a small cluster of houses, a beach and maybe a shop at some point. Following the map exactly, we turned down the final road to Port Levy - a gravely track. An then the track ended. We were there.

Port Levy = one house. We wondered if we had gone the wrong way, but we hadn’t. It was definitely Port Levy. There was no beach or any sign of life other than a New Zealand post van. There wasn’t even anywhere to park the car other than in the road!


An arty shot - sort of

Disappointed we started to make our way back towards Christchurch, body board sitting forlornly in the boot of the car. We decided to stop off in Governors Bay for a bit of walk (tried and tested previously by Emily) which was nice and relaxing and Chris spent a good deal of time trying to photograph tiny crabs on the shore.


Tiny crabs!!!

After our walk we stopped off at a chocolate shop which apparently sells New Zealand’s most sacred chocolate and where Chris had his first taste of chilli and chocolate hot chocolate. Feeling rather full and a little bit sick our day of roaming about was almost over and we headed back to Christchurch for me to train...

Emily's birthday

There were times when we thought it wouldn’t happen. A series of missed opportunities, cancellations and laziness. However, today after approximately five and a half weeks of travelling we finally got to have our first barbeque. It really is tough this travelling malarky ;).

Our fabulous host Emily was 27 today. Ouch, that is old. Having a December birthday means that when Em and Paul were in the UK she normally had her birthday in the cold months of Winter. However, today was going to be the first time she has ever celebrated her birthday with a BBQ. And New Zealands bad weather of late wasn’t going to stop that!!

Things kicked off at around 6pm. Paul was on man-duties and sorted out the meat, with other men soon coming out to check everything was in order. Being a bit of a girl, I stayed inside with the crisps and out of the cold. You see I’m not stupid!! As the party kicked in and Emily and Paul’s friends started to arrive, we soon realised that they have been really missing home. Since coming to New Zealand Em and Paul have made a special effort to become friends with all the Brits that have moved across here. I only met a couple of Kiwi’s all night!! There was a cool relaxed atmosphere all night and everyone was really nice.


One today!!

By around 10pm (lights out time in New Zealand!!) everyone had gone home, bellies full and slightly intoxicated. A good night had by all and hopefully the first of many BBQ‘s for us.

Walking Tour Number 3

Today we tackled our third Lonely Planet walking tour of the trip. After the success of the Melbourne and Canberra versions we were looking forward to seeing what Christchurch could offer.

The tour began in the City’s cathedral square which is a hive of activity. There is trams, market stalls and a giant chess board where passers by can watch your tactical skills. The tour then took us up a winding couple of streets, passing through a small park with a clock made of flowers (which worked too!) before as with the other walking tours, taking us to a lovely pedestrianised street with numerous café’s and little shops. The lonely planet never fails!

We didn’t linger too long as we had been a little late getting out today due to training and core sessions etc and it was already mid-afternoon. We were also looking forward to stopping at one of the pubs en route which according to the book sold raspberry flavoured beer. As much as we wanted to try one of these beers, it didn’t mask that our budget is constantly looming overhead, and upon seeing the prices of the infamous beer we left the place empty bellied as quickly as we had arrived. Gutting!

Disappointed we continued with the tour which took us quickly to the river banks where there was some nice monuments. We then faced a choice - continue with the last small part of the tour, or stop at a coffee shop to rest our aching legs. For no real reason we were feeling tired today, so a ‘Milky Way steamer’ at a local café won and we abandoned our tour.

There was less to see on this walking tour, but it was still a pleasant walk and a good way of seeing the city.

Hamner Springs

As usual we woke up to the sound of my watch alarm this morning - meaning it’s time to drag our sleepy bodies from the warmth of the bed. As today was one of Andrea‘s session days we have a bit of breakfast before getting going - it is hard to do some harder running on an empty stomach. We made the short walk to the hostel kitchen to eat our muesli and it was as we tucked in that we realised that it was still only 5:30am!! I‘d accidentally set my alarm for an hour early. Oops! After apologising to Andrea profusely, we finished up and went back to bed to snooze.

Despite the tiredness Andrea’s session went well. And even though we had gotten up terribly early and had no real packing up to do (most of our stuff is at Emily’s) we only managed to get out of the hostel with 9minutes to spare (not quite the stuff of films, but too close for comfort - some of these hostels can be dead funny about check-out times!!).

Today we headed slightly inland and half-way back towards Christchurch to a place called Hamner Springs. It is a small alpine village with supposedly a population of only 750. You wouldn’t believe it though as it seemed really busy and there were streets upon streets of houses (quite likely that they are all holiday homes though). The reason we came to Hamner Springs was quite literally for the springs, as in the village they have used the spring water to create a large outdoor spa!! We donned our swimming gear for the first time this trip, Andrea even wore a bikini (for the first time in donkeys years - sorry A hehe), and went in. There were 12 different pools in total, ranging from 29C to 42C. We didn’t go in all of them as there was a chilly wind and you cooled down really quickly when moving between the baths. Also we found that at times it smelt like some of the guests were breaking wind (probably because the natural spring water had sulphur in it), but if you could see past some of the dodgy smells the spas were really relaxing. I had my camera on hand and managed to get some photos of the pools - they don’t seem to have rules here about taking photos with semi-nude peeps about.


Semi-nude bathers at the spa

After a couple of hours in the spas we headed up to Conical Hill Peak (around a 20min walk) to look out over the town and some of the surrounding mountains. A short but steep walk which realised some nice views.


Hamner Springs slightly obscured by the treeline

The Whale Way Station

Today we headed North from Christchurch up to a small coastal town called Kaikoura. After much umming and arrhing we had decided to visit the town in order to do the infamous whale watching tour from the Town’s South Bay. It was fairly pricey, but as it is not something we have had to opportunity to do before, and are unlikely to again for some time, we decided to take the plunge and dip our hands into our increasingly deep pockets.

People come from all over to do the tours - which are available by boat, plane and helicopter. We chose the cheapest boat option which unlike the other two was advertised as being over 2.5 hours long, rather than 20-30 minutes. We hoped that it would be a good boat ride even if no whales were seen. Due to the popularity of the tours, we had to wait to the last tour of the day, at 3:30pm, before we headed down to the ‘Whale Way Station’ (no joke) to catch the bus for the short journey to the docks.

The boat was pretty fast and I had to really concentrate in the first few minutes to stop myself feeling both scared and queasy (what is it about me being scared recently?). However, soon I got used to the sideways motion of the boat and the up-and-down motion as we hit the waves, and I could peel my eyes ready for possible sightings. The boat people already had a pretty good idea where there was a resident sperm whale - as all the whale tours seem to work together so the plane and helicopter help guide the boat to the right place and vice versa. They use environmentally friendly methods of tracking the whales - eyes and a long tube thing which you dip in the water to hear the whale noises. Therefore no sonar and the like which is good. The boat’s skipper spied the whale first and it was quite amusing as we ‘chased’ the whale until we got close, but whilst obviously maintaining a safe distance. There were a few elbows flying when we got the go ahead to leave our seats and go out onto deck, but our cunning plan to sit near the door proved a winner.

This whale was called Manu and he returns to the waters around Kaikoura every year. Manu means bird and apparently his tail is the shape of a bird - hmmm. Chris managed to a few good snaps, although the best is possibly this one, just as Manu was diving down for another 45min meal. Everyone on the boat was mesmerised.



As Manu was unlikely to surface for some time, we then headed off in search of other creatures. It wasn’t so long before I heard one of the staff muttering something about ‘it being under the boat’. My first reaction was to be scared (surprise surprise) and I had visions from ‘jaws’ but instead my horror turned into amazement as it turned out to be a right good group of dusky dolphins! They were swimming alongside the boat, popping in and out of the water and then they started to play with the boat - going underneath it, popping out and then back again - even too quick for super-snapper Chris. Dolphins are my new favourite animal!


Dusky Dolphin

It wasn’t too long before we then sped off again for another sighting of Manu - who had run out of oxygen after only about 40mins (no stamina!). He was just chilling out on the surface blowing a bit of air and water and hitting unsuspecting seagulls. Whilst we were there an albatross flew over and we didn’t know which way to look! They are pretty big - I wouldn’t get into an argument with them over my fish and chips if I ever met one!

Finally just as we were heading into shore, we stopped off at Barney’s rock and looked at some big fat seals lolling about, sunbathing. They were pretty smelly but also quite funny with some of the lazy positions they get themselves into.

Big Fat Seals

All in the space of just under 3 hours! I think we both liked the dolphins the most as we saw most of them. Manu was great but we were just able to get so much closer to the dolphins. Definitely worth the money we spent - unforgettable!

Moviestars

We all stayed in the YHA Hostel in Arthurs Pass after our epic trek up ‘Avalanche Peak’. Today we would do the drive back to Christchurch via Sheffield and Castle Hill, one of the sites used for filming scenes in ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’. Finally our chance to be famous!!

Castle Hill is a sacred Maori site, half-way between Christchurch and Arthur’s Pass - which fascinated the ancient people of the lands because of the huge limestone outcrops protruding the skyline. It is now a site frequented by tourists, locals and boulderers alike (climbers without ropes). We were able to get some cool photos, probably not doing the site any sort of justice, which are below.


Happy faces at the castle rock




My version of bouldering


Andrea queen of Castle Rocks


Cheeky Kea outside the hostel in Arthur's Pass

On our way back we stopped for some ‘award-winning’ pies in Sheffield (not Yorkshire - obviously). They didn’t disappoint. Back in Christchurch we did some clothes shopping and bought some food supplies for our overnight trip tomorrow up the coast to KaiKoura. All will become clear in tomorrows blog!

Chris the burglar!

This morning the four of us made the 3 hour journey up to a small village called Arthur’s Pass. This village is tiny with maybe only 100 residents, and there is not much more than a handful of similar sized villages on the road from Christchurch. What makes this village so special is the mountains which surround it.

As you drive on the road from Christchurch you can see the mountains looming ahead. They look totally different from anything we saw in Australia and despite the fine weather, you can just make out the snow tops through the clouds and mist. They are really spectacular.

Emily and Paul had planned for us to ascend one of the mountains - ‘Avalanche Peak’ which is one of the first mountains they had climbed when they arrived in New Zealand nearly two years ago. We were really looking forward to a good walk, especially seeing as how we thought we had become seasoned walkers after some of our exploits in Australia over the last month. The climb started almost immediately after leaving the visitor centre and before too long we were scrambling up rocks - often (certainly in my case anyway) on all fours. However it was great fun and we moved up above the ‘bush line’ really quickly.

It was when we got above the bush line that we (Chris and I) realised we were perhaps not the great hikers we thought we were as first Chris and then me became really scared on the narrow paths. Without meaning to scare any parents amongst the readers, at times we were less than a metre at times away from the edge of the path, at both sides, with a sheer cliff face the only destination at either side. Emily and Paul who are experienced hikers (and much braver than us!) may well have been taking a leisurely stroll in a park, but myself and Chris were scared out of our wits. Chris couldn’t even take any photo’s!

To make matters worse, as we neared the top, it became apparent that we were going to have to scale a short ‘snow’ section. Equipped only with my trainers I felt nervous to say the least and re-tracing my steps, all the way back down was looking increasingly appealing. Needless to say, I took the plunge and after a bit of swearing and hanging on for dear life with both hands, I managed to scale what felt like a cliff face covered in snow. In reality, it was probably not much more than a slope covered in snow, but I couldn’t look anywhere other than at my hands whilst we were climbing. The one time, I did dare to look back I could just see myself slipping down the slope to my death.


On the snow climb


Just ascended the snow

After the snow section, there was only a another few metres to climb, but this was where the narrowest and scariest drops so far were. After overcoming the snow I was ok, but Chris really struggled. Infact he had to crawl along the ridge behind Emily and myself, almost like some sort of pantomine burglar! We did finally reach the top, and the views were incredible. We were still a little too nervous to fully appreciate the views, but Emily got some great photos for us.


Nearly there


The final walk to the top


The "Avalanche Peak" summit!!


The view


Me overlooking edge on the way down from the summit

We also saw some Kea’s on the summit which are mountain parrot’s and actually quite pretty - they are green all over but then when they fly you can see that they are bright orange under their wings. They are also very tame and cheeky and come up really close - especially when there is a chance of a bit of banana!


Cheeky Kea


Kea straining for some banana peal

We then had to descend the mountain, going an alternative and slightly easier route. After a bit of descending our fear began to diminish as the path became wider. The only problems we encountered on the way down were some very sore quads. It was quite an experience, and whilst it was not until a few glasses of wine in the evening that we began to get over our ordeal we are now feeling quite proud of what we did. We will never be mountain explorers, but it was incredible and is an experience we are unlikely to forget.