Sydney

It's been a busy and fun couple of weeks in Sydney. If NZ was a tepid shower, generally, Sydney has been like getting into a lovely warm bath. Though locals will apologise to you profusely about the rubbish weather. Usually it's much warmer here (late twenties/early thirties in c), but it's been more like 22c ish and a bit grey and drizzly at times. I learnt a new phrase this week- "La Niña". Somewhat embarrassingly, most people seem to know this already, but clearly I missed that geography lesson! For those in the dark (or rain) about this one, it's a weather pattern that goes in cycles. So perhaps one in every twenty years, there is a wet and cold (relatively) summer. I think (this hasn't been fact checked). But at the moment, this is the second year in a row where it's been cold and wet, and climate change is to blame. I'm going to write a long rambly post about how travelling has made me face up to the fact of climate change much more at some point. But I'll save you from the precociousness for now.

Anywho, after watching England lose to France at 6am in the hostel cinema room (the Frenchies outnumbered the English in the room!) I did a bit of sight seeing on day one, followed by the load of admin to be sorted out as I'll be working in Australia. So bank accounts, tax numbers, applying for casual jobs in Sydney and longer jobs in Melbourne etc etc. 

On Tuesday, I took a trip up to the Blue Mountains. This was of course to see the beautiful area, but mainly to visit my friend Katie's home town and family. Katie was a very dear friend of mine, who sadly died in August 2021. I had always said that I would visit the Blue Mountains when I was next in Australia; I had heard so much about them, the town Katie was from and her family. So absolutely still wanted to make the trip. Katie's parents and brother kindly hosted me and the views of the mountains were breathtaking. It was great to share stories, eat nice food and toast Katie. It was also so nice to be in a home rather than a hostel!

It was jam packed upon my return to Sydney the next day, going straight to the suburbs in north Sydney to meet up with my cousin Sarah, her partner Lochie and their kids Jude and Leo, who are over here visiting Lochie's family. We went for my first bush walk- sadly (or luckily) no snakes! And my first Aussie BBQ! It was so so nice to see them all and get a taste of true Aussie life.

That evening, I had a drink with a friend of my cousin Jo, who kindly was happy for me to chat about the marketing industry in Oz.

Socialising done, we headed to Bondi Beach the next day. Bondi was nice, but very windy and the current was soo strong. We did the Bondi to Coogee beach coastal walk, and there were some nice bays to stop at along the way. 

On Saturday, we had our first day of work at a restaurant called Ripples in Chowder Bay. Ripples is a posh restaurant chain in Sydney, and while Chowder Bay isn't the easiest place to get to, the views are nice and we can chill out on the beach before or after work! It was nice to finally be earning some money, after a few months of absolutely blitzing through my savings. 

That evening, we joined Lochie's brother Connor's leaving drinks and much fun was had!

The following day, I checked out the Museum of Australia. Really interesting, lots of stuff on all the creatures you find in Oz, plus climate change, history etc. I then accidentally found myself sitting through a carol service after sticking my head round the door of St. Mary's cathedral. It's been soo weird to be in the summer in December, and not really felt like Christmas at all, so it was nice to feel a bit Christmassy.

On Monday morning, I had a cuppa with my friend Lucy who's over from Bristol visiting family. I then wandered around the Opera house and Botanical gardens a bit, before hitting the National Maritime museum. It's kinda expensive to get in, but you get a lot for your money. In the 3 hours I was there, I managed to go round a couple of tall ships, a war submarine, a war ship, a lego exhibition on ship wrecks, a bit on the Navy, immigration, Old ship stuff, aboriginal boats and the international wildlife photography of the year exhibition. I was particularly excited about a section on WRANS (Women in the Navy) as my grandma worked as one in the English merchant navy and another bit on navigation tools- my grandpa had worked as a navigator on ships. And looking at the engines on the ships as, you've guessed it, my grandad worked on those too. I think they would've approved of my nerdy afternoon out!

Back to work on Tues, Weds and Thurs. But fun after work activities including watching Avatar 2, swimming in Chowder Bay, and a drink in the Opera House bar followed by a drone show in the Botanical gardens.

Friday was our last day, so we headed to Manly and Shelly beaches for a day in the sun. And generally more impressive beaches!

Next, onto Port Macquarie and Newcastle for Xmas!

Classic Sydney shots!

The Blue Mountains 

Bush walk!

View of Central station from hostel bedroom window 

Blurry but happy to be reunited!

Post work swim!

Sydney by night

Drone show

Lake Takepo, Christchurch and Kaikora

We hopped back onto the Kiwi Bus on Sunday morning, not really knowing anyone anymore!

Our bus driver asked us all if we wanted to make a detour to go for a walk near Mount Cook. Our answer was a big fat yes! Again, apparently at one point, they used to do this, so we were super lucky our driver decided to go against the grain and take us anyway.

The walk was along the very windy Hooker Valley at the base of the Mountain and provided amazing views. I definitely didn't come prepared enough for a 2.5 hour walk (I thought it was less than that!) and wore jeans and didn't save my water enough. Whoops.

We then arrived at the equally beautiful Lake Takepo. A bit too cold to swim but lovely stuff. The next morning all the English gathered to watch ENG vs SEN, we couldn't believe our luck that the hostel had sky sports. Sadly we had to leave during half time to go and visit a local church called The Church of the Good Shepherd. Which made me smile as it's the same name of the church my parents married at.

We arrived at our final Kiwi Bus destination, Christchurch, that afternoon. Christchurch is very much still a city under construction. In 2011 there was an earthquake that flattened much of the city centre. Much of it has since be rebuilt, but there are still huge gaps (now converted to car parks) everywhere and 2 remaining "holes" where the shells of buildings that had basement levels still remain.

Apart from moving hostels, we didn't do a whole bunch the following day apart from mooching round the shops. There's a trendy covered market with lots of delicious food places and, more importantly, free wine tasting, so we went to do that. I had been feeling a bit guilty having not visited a vineyard yet in NZ (hard to get to without a car!), so this made for a nice substitute and I promptly bought a bottle of the Pino Grigio.

The next day, we headed up the coast to a town called Kaikora. Again, the Kiwi buses do go there, but we couldn't get through to the head office to extend our ticket. Anyway, the main purpose of our trip was to go on a whale watching boat. Kaikora is famous for being a place (possibly one of the few in the world) where you can see whales, dolphins etc all year round. Annoyingly our trip was cancelled due to rough seas. The weather, despite being summer, was a bit minging still, so not a whole load to do instead. 

The following morning, I headed out to go on a dolphin swimming  cruise. Luckily this one hadn't been cancelled, but did come with a warning of severe sea sickness and for strong swimmers only. They asked me several times if I got sea sick, and I had bought a seasickness lolly just incase. I thought they were being a bit melodramatic, but lo and behold, at least 40% of passengers were holding buckets within 20mins. I was absolutely fine though, perhaps in part to inheriting good sea legs off my grandparents who worked in the merchant navy. It was an incredible experience! There were hundreds of dolphins at points, all swimming with you and wanting to play. They were having a whale (or dolphin in this case) of a time in the big waves. To attract the dolphins, we were advised to sing to them through our snorkels, and mirror their movements if they start circling you, wanting to play. It was quite funny hearing everyone sing when you stick your head above water. I'm not saying that the dolphins have any affiliation to a particular football team, but, when I did sing Arsenal songs to them, they seemed to like it. It was my highlight of my trip to NZ, and would definitely recommend to anyone with strong sea legs and good at swimming! Here's a link to a video.

We then returned back to Christchurch for our last couple of days. We went round the Museum of Canterbury, which was fairly forgettable, but did include a life-sized replica of "Shell Cottage" a once home turned tourist attraction which was covered from floor to ceiling in polished shells?! We visited the cardboard cathedral, erected in the wake of the earthquake. It's support beams are actually wooden, but pretty much everything else is made from reinforced cardboard which was cool. I also so went on the circular tram tour which was fun.

I went for the best brunch ever on the final morning and even caught the Argentina vs Netherlands penalty shoot out. Lovely stuff.

On to Australia!

Mount Cook

Lake Takepo

Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Takepo

Suited and flipper booted 

Cardboard Cathedral 

Tram!

A very good breakfast 

Wānaka

We had wanted to stop off in Wānaka, a small lakeside town an hour north of Queenstown, on our way down to QT. The bus used to stop there overnight pre covid, but sadly now just for half an hour. Again, we could've got off the bus, but we were told the one behind was full. Plus we would miss out on QT with our pals we had made so far. After the madness of QT it was quite nice to go to stay in a cosy hostel by the lake. The weather was finally on our side and it felt like being on holiday. Even though we are on holiday. A holiday from thie holiday.

The next day, we took on a mountain- Roy's Peak, which definitely wasn't a holiday. At 1,578 meters tall and a steep steep path it was pretty tough going. Myself and Kate (who is a sports coach back home and a seasond walker) hiked with Jack (UK, training for an Ultramarathon), Carolyn (USA, training to be a PT) and Tregan (USA, and suprisingly good fitness) who were all much fitter then me (who I would describe as reasonably fit!), but patient enough to wait while I huffed and puffed. 3 gruelling hours and about 20 near quits from me (inwardly considering anyway!) we reached the summit. Unsurprisingly, it was much colder up there, so I was glad I'd carried my snood around the world with me, it finally had it's use.

Coming down was much easier, but the last 20mins were agony on the legs.

We celebrated with a patagonia ice cream and I flopped around for a few hours. That evening I got a takeaway gf Dominos ($12!) and went to the local cinema to watch "The Menu"*. The cinema was pretty cool, it had sofas and an old fiat(?) with the windows taken out as seating options. They even had an interval where they've bake you cookies. For a ticket, popcorn and a cookie it was $23 (£11.50), so a bargain. The cinema experience deffo sealed the deal on being one of my fave NZ days so far, despite the pain!

The following day, Saturday, I was pretty tired and my legs were barley functioning, so just a short walk to the underwhelming "Wānaka tree" before heading back to QT ahead of getting on the next Kiwi bus. 

The first Saturday of December in NZ is "Crate Day" an unofficial holiday where you have a day to drink a crate of beer from your home town. I had intended on going to the pub, but still tired from the mountain hike, sat and watched Lord of the Rings instead, while also watching crate dsy drinkers in our hostel decend into chaos.

*The other option was Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever, which would've been great to make a Wānaka/Wakanda pun out of...

View from hostel living room (reminds me a little of my grandparents house on the Wirral)

Viewpoint from Roy's Peak 

Views from the top

Cinema!

Wānaka Tree

Queenstown

A bit of a delay on this one as Queenstown has been hectic!

Rolling into the eagerly awaited Queenstown with the sunshing finally was great. It's a bustling town surrounded by snow topped mountains and beautiful lakes. It reminded me of Kotor in Montenegro crossed with some of the northern Italian towns near the alps. It was definitely markedly colder here than the rest of NZ, despite being summer.

We went on an organised pub crawl that evening with the rest of our kiwi bus travellers. QT has loads of interesting bars and restaurants, which is great!

The following day was mainly mooching round the shops (I bought a new hoodie and Tshirt, wahoo!) and trying not to think about my bungy the next day. 

The next morning was a big one- England were playing USA and I was doing my jump! Someone in our hostel managed to hook up the projector in the cinema room so all the English crowded in the room in pj's and duvets as it was 8am. 

Then the moment arrived to go for my bungy. For some context, last time I was in NZ in 2014, someone in my hostel had shown me their bungy jump. It looked like the scariest thing ever, so I challenged myself to return and do it one day. Not one to break promises, I signed myself up as soon as I got on the Kiwi bus. Having spoken to lots of people about it, I opted for the Kawanakru Bridge Bungy which is the world's first commerce bungy jump site. The scenery seemed a bit nicer than the nearby "Nevis" jump, and at 43 meters it was considered a better jump for first timers. In comparison, the Nevis is 123m and off a gondola into a quarry. You also get winched back up  where as on mine, two people in a boat paddle out to you to collect you. Anyway, after a weigh in (the write your weight in kg on the back of your hand in massive letters haha!), a wait and a bus ride, I arrived. And within about 2mins, I was walking out acoss the bridge. I'd "prepped" a lot for the moment, reading up on what to do, visualising myself doing it etc. One thing I read was not to look down and jump as soon as they say to. Obviously all of this went out the window within about 2 seconds. There wasn't a queue when I got there "great" I thought. "I can just go and get it over and done with". They popped me in my harness and tied my feet and lower legs together in about a minute. They could sense I was scared, so coaxed me on to the platform to take some photos. I thought I might have a minute to gather my thoughts, but all too soon, they were counting down from 5. When they got to one, my whole body completely froze in fear! I wanted to jump, but my brain had taken over and was like "what are you doing? I'm not letting you do that". I'm totally fine with roller coasters, but the trouble is with  bungy's is that it's just your legs that are tied and your safety harness on your waist. So no lapbar or shoulder straps to hold on to. The instructors were great at this point and held my arms out gently. Apparently my hands had made half a move to grab onto something on the last countdown (natural instinct, duh!) so they were helping me to feel safe and also stopping me from clinging onto anything. They tried another countdown, but I still didn't feel ready. At this point, I wondered if I'd actually not be able to do it, which is not something I'd considered in the lead up. The instructors asked me to talk through what was in my mind- I explained that I wanted to hold on to something while I jumped. They suggested the front loop of my waist harness, I also tried my bra straps, which was suprisingly reasurring. They said that all I needed to do was close my eyes and lean forward. I wasn't particularly worried about the safety aspect, bungying is probably safer than crossing the road statistically. The thing that made me do it was the assurance that the moment my feet left the platform, it would be fun. So I did it! And they were right! It was fun! My arms went from clasped by waist to outstretched within seconds of the jump. And it was like being on a roller coaster. The first bounce feels strange, although you are going up, it feels a bit like you are falling still, then the moment you get used to it, it's time for a quick breath before you are back down a bit. There was a spectating deck with about 30 people on it to the side, and I could hear them clap as I  jumped and bounced which was really nice, as I wasn't allowed to bring support on the companies shuttle buses. Bouncing around was really fun and I was able to relax completely and flop around. My only regret is that I had my eyes shut for quite a bit of it- but that tends to be my natural instinct with stuff like this, so difficult to to override. But I saw enough and the main purpose of it (other than fun bouncing around) was to challenge myself to do something terrifying. I would've enjoyed swinging around upside down for a bit longer, but the boat people had arrived and wanted me to grab a pole to dangle me into the boat. 

Climbing back up the hill was tough, I was completely out of breath! Then lot's of opportunities to take/look at my photos and a free tshirt. Here's a link if you wanted to watch the video: https://youtu.be/kuEgQl5YK3Q 

To celebrate, me, Kate and our friend Ed went to Ferg Burger for lunch. Ferg Burger has been voted the world's best burger and as a result, the queues are always down the street. It was a pretty good burger, but I rate Oowee in Bristol much higher. After lunch it was nap time and then ice cream time with some friends at Patagonia, an amazing chocolate/Gelato shop. The food in QT is an unexpected bonus, it's all soo good and reasonably priced. That evening was lots of beer and pool playing. It was the last night for some of our friends in QT who had been on the bus or two ahead. Most people are doing the trip in less time then us,  which is a shame!

The following day, we got up and got a gondola up the mountain to go luging eg. downhill go karting. It was great fun! We also moved hostels to a smaller, calmer one. It was nice to get a good night's sleep- our last hostel was above a nightclub. I also had the BEST pie I'd ever eaten in my life from Ferg's Bakery.

On Monday, I had a nice chilled morning, went for a run, did my washing etc. In the afternoon, I went on a bike ride with a friend, Amy. What started off as a nice gentle ride, slowly turned into some pretty knarly mountain biking around the lake and a very sore bum towards the end! More icecreams were had and second pie. 

The next day, we had booked onto the kiwi bus day trip to Milford Sounds. We had to be on the bus at 05:15, which was pretty horrendous, but worth it as it's about 4 hours driving each way. It was raining (of course!) but that meant extra waterfalls which was cool. Milford Sounds is considered the 8th wonder of the world (though I'm pretty sure loads of places claim that) and it's easy to see why. It's been the basis of numerous film locations- and you hop on a boat and travel through a spectacular green valley. We saw seals, penguins and dolphins. It was sooo wet (like maid of the mist at Niagra, but wetter!) but luckily I came prepped with flip flops and borrowed a fishermans jacket they provided so got off quite lightly.

The following day, we got up to watch the football in the hostel lounge. It was raining so just a shortish walk in the afternoon.

Then onto Wanaka!

Milford Sounds 

Milford Sounds 

View from QT hostel 

West Coast South Island

Not too much to say about this part of the trip, mainly because from the moment we got on the bus at Abel Tasman it tipped it down. This meant by coach group consensus, we had to skip some of the walks on the way to Westport. The surfing at Westport was cancelled too, so lots of group card games instead. I debated whether or not to set an alarm to watch the England game at 02:00, but thought instead to get a good night's sleep. Or so I thought. At 4am, an air raid style siren went off in the town, which was a bit confusing at first, then it dawned on us that there were signs all over NZ saying that if a siren goes off, it's a Tsunami warning. Needless to say, I was absolutely bricking it! The siren stopped, which led to more confusion in the dark, so myself and a friend went to scout out what was going on. The town was silent, so in the end, we just went to bed. In the morning, we asked and it turns out it was for the volunteer fire brigade- they don't have phone reception always in the town so use the siren to call the volunteers. So no Tsunami, but I definitely don't want to be woken up by an air raid siren again in a hurry. Apparently my bro Rich had the same thing a few years ago too when in Westport.

Next up, we went to Frans Josef- a rainforest and glacier a few hours south. We stopped off to see a wild seal colony and "pancake rocks" which were both pretty cool. It continued absolutely chucking it down all afternoon, very much putting the rain in rainforest. The next day, we had a small window of good weather to go to see the even smaller glacier. I hadn't quite realised that you couldn't get that close to it. Apparently there was a closer vantage point a few years ago until it the path got swept away in 2019. The glacier is also shrinking at an extrodinary rate, with global warming at play. If you do want to get closer, the only option is the expensive helicopter and hike. They weren't running when we were there anyway due to the bad weather, but I've heard it's worth it. Instead, we went for a very soggy walk, where I discovered my newish rain mac isn't that waterproof and we spent the rest of the afternoon hair dryering our wet shoes and clothes.

We were all quite happy to move on from FJ, and even happier to be treated to the sun on our way down to the absolute jewel of the south island, Queenstown.

Spot the seals (about 11!)

Pancake rocks

Spot the glacier 

Finally some sun on the way to Queenstown!