Queensland!

June 17 – Tweed Coast

Well it was back to oatmeal this morning as we finished off our eggs yesterday. I guess I've gone a few days with out it but man I didn't miss it. We got showered and battened down the hatches before hitting the road. We popped into a chemist on the way out of Byron Bay so we could get us more sunscreen, me some cough meds and Beau new soap. I still have chesty cough going on so I figured I should try to do something about it. We got back on the highway for a bit then off of it for another tourist drive. On our way through Hastings Point we stopped at a lookout which was quite spectacular. It's also a gorgeous sunny day so that helps. In the distance we could see huge splashes of water from whales jumping and breaching. Sadly they we much too far away for my little camera, but it was pretty cool to see. We drove up to Tweed Heads and made some tuna sandwiches at Rainbow Bay. We had a walk along the beach in the sunshine but since we hadn't put sunscreen on that morning I didn't want to be out in it too long. I think we'll have to start slathering up every morning again. We started down the road again but stopped when we saw a “Welcome to New South Wales” sign. We were confused until we realized that the state boarder runs through the middle of town! Strangely there was no “Welcome to Queensland” sign. After taking a picture with the boarder marker we set out again and headed up the Gold Coast. We drove through the towns along the beach like Surfers Paradise. The ocean looked amazing but there were tons of high rises everywhere. Beau was also getting quite frustrated with the traffic since every time we almost got up to speed we'd hit a red light. We got out of the Gold Coast snarl and back on the freeway into Brisbane. We found our caravan park with little trouble, only one U-turn needed because we missed the turn due to the itty bitty street signs. After checking in we left shortly after for Linda's place, Mom's cousin. We found Linda's street with little difficulty but had a touch of trouble finding the house. We parked and walked up the street but knew we had gone to far, then we found the teeny tiny numbers that denoted 93. We accidentally came around the back because we went in the wrong gate but we made it. We had a lovely evening with Linda, we told her all about our trip and she shared her plans and some pictures of her daughter and grandson. Dinner was amazing with roast chicken and potatoes as well as Pavlova for dessert. A proper Sunday dinner. We said our good byes and hope to see each other again some time. We had a little trouble getting back to the park since a coupe streets we couldn't turn right onto but we eventually made it onto the right road only to get caught in a random breathalyser check. We were both a little nervous since we had some wine at dinner but Beau blew a triple zero (or 0.000) so it didn't even detect his glass of wine. Phew. We made it back to the park without further incident and wrapped up our evening in the usual way

Hastings Point

Humpback Whale

Queensland-New South Wales Boarder

Dinner with Linda

June 18 – Brisbane

We awoke to a beautiful sunny day, perfect for exploring Brisbane. It was only four km into the city from our park so we decided to bike in. Our bike ride turned out to be a little more strenuous than we thought since we had to go up a few hills. We biked along the sidewalk till we found the bike path into the city. We reached the CBD and started off at the Queen Elizabeth Mall which was actually a pedestrian street. It also had the information center. We got the down low on sights to see and started out on a self guided walking tour. We quickly gave up on our walking tour since we kept missing the alleged sights it was also the arts and architecture tour. Brisbane is on a river and there a bunch of pedestrian bridges crossing it. We took a funky one across and started walking along a riverside boardwalk. We knew we wanted to take a ferry along the river but had to figure out which to take. We were in the area called South Bank and popped into another info place where we got the dl on the ferries and were recommended to walk along the river to next ferry terminal along. South Bank was very cool with some restaurants and shops as well as a pool with a man made beach. Seemed like the spot to be on a gorgeous day. We continued our way along the boardwalk past the Maritime Museum. We walked up to the top of the cliffs that run along the south bank and were rewarded with a great view of the city. Once we reached our ferry wharf we hopped on the City Ferry and were taken across the river where we had to change boats to a City Cat. The City Cats are the fast ferries and go up and down the river for some distance. We were headed down stream. There were soooo many massive houses along the water with huge boats out front. It was really enjoyable to see the city from the river. We went to almost the end of the ferry's route which took about 30min from where we started then headed back up stream and alighted outside of the Queen Elizabeth Mall. We were feeling a bit peaked after all our biking, walking and sun so decided to head back, we also didn't want to bike in the dark. We were side tracked by a spraypaint street artist who we watched work for a little bit and then picked up some fish and fococcia bread for dinner. We wanted naan but there wasn't any so we are substituting fococcia. We retrieved our bikes and set out for home. We arrived back at the park just before the sun finished setting. We made some delicious fish curry and the focaccia went surprisingly well with it.

A City Cat on Brisbane River

Brisbane

A City Ferry

Story Book Bridge

Brisbane River

June 19 – Glasshouse Mountains

We awoke to another blindingly sunny day and enjoyed our oatmeal and coffee in it. We hit the road then hit up a grocery store and a gas station. Back on the road we start heading out of Brisbane but pulled into a McD's after not too long. Beau wanted to send his resume off to his buddy's boss at Bombardier but the internet was too slow to upload the file. We had some 30 cent ice cream cones than gave up on the uploading. We'll find a library tomorrow and do it then. Back on the road we drove for about 60km then turned off for the Glasshouse Mountains scenic drive. The Glasshouse Mountains were once a volcanic range surrounded by sandstone that eroded away over many 20 odd million years and left only the plugs of the volcanoes. We headed into one of the parks and made some lunch. Then went for a short hike to a lookout point. The look out was pretty good but the sun made photo's next to impossible. We drove up the road a short ways to another look out and got some great views of the surrounding mountains. I also got some pictures this time. After having our fill of the mountains we decided to check out a rest stop hoping it might be okay. Turns out it was back far enough from the main road that the noise wasn't substantial. Since we still had a bit of day light we set to work patching a small hole in the canvas was well as reattaching some velcro for the screens. With those jobs out of the way I did some crocheting while Beau played guitar. We made some sidekick like pasta with a bunch of vegetables thrown in. It turned out alright but there wasn't a lot of flavour to the sauce. We finished off our box of wine and did some more crocheting and reading. 

Mt Coonowrin

Mt Beerwah

Glasshouse Mountains

Us at the Glasshouse Mountains

Camper Van Travels!

I know it feels like I've been neglecting my blog but the problem has been finding free internet. None of the campsites have it free! It sucks but we've found a nice pub in Queenstown for lunch with free Wifi. I'm a little disgusted that we could get free wifi all over Asia and here they care $5 for an hour. Pfft not paying that thank you very much! Ahh well who would have thought we'd be less connected in a Western country.

The camper van has been going pretty well. We've been a little cooped up lately because the weather has been brutal. It's been rainy and cold. I'm a little upset thats I've had pants and polar fleece on. There was even snow in the mountains one day! We are going on a massive three day hike tomorrow so cross your fingers we have good weather :S

 

Jan 4 – The Beach

Today, after a very leisurely start to the day, we hoped on the bus and headed to an area called Sumner to go to the beach. It was lovely and sunny out but unfortunately windy as well. There are some houses built on cliffs above the beach but you can see where the cliff has fallen away due to the earthquakes and actually taken part of a house with it. We also saw some of the concrete pads overhanging the cliff too. At the bottom of the these cliffs there were big shipping containers, I think to hold back any falling rock and debris. We walked along the beach, the sand was very hot but the wind kept things quite cool. The water was pretty cold too. People were sun bathing and swimming despite the wind. I think our blood has thinned because it did not seem warm enough to go swimming. We had a nice walk along the beach and on the promenade. There was a beach side restaurant and Beau's and my eyes almost fell out of our heads at the prices and they weren't necessarily out of line. We just are used to $1 beer and $2 meals. We had a coffee and a mixed appy plate. After digesting we saw a sign with some walking trails near by so we headed off in that direction but the trail was fenced off most likely due to earthquake damage. We headed back into town and stopped in at a store called The Warehouse, it's like Zellers. We did some recon on soft sided coolers and portable BBQs for when Mom and Dad come down. The rest of our evening progressed the same as most nights with dinner, walking the dogs and watching whatever movie is on TV, tonight was the Green Mile.

At the Sumner Beach

Jan 6 – Hiking in Christchurch

Beau has been bugging me to go hiking so we finally figured out how to get to the mountains. The day started off not so nice but once the afternoon rolled around the skis cleared. We took the bus down to the Halswell Quarry to start our hike. We hiked the Quarry and then turned east towards the mountains and the ocean. We hiked through some sheep farms and cow pastures while also hiking upwards. It was quite a ways but we finally made it to the coast. It was beautiful and windy. There were clouds forming as they came up over the mountains and us. It was really cool. We hiked along the mountains towards where we were catching the bus. We hiked for a total of 4.5hrs and had about 1.5hrs transit time. It was really enjoyable but we've been so lazy lately that I felt out of shape.

The view from the top of our hike over a bay

Jan 8 – Mom and Dad Arrive

Today Mom, Dad, Elaine and Shane arrive this afternoon. Beau and I spent the morning organizing ourselves. Cleaning and getting things organized to get packed up. Everyone arrived around 1pm and were starving. They hadn't had a chance to eat anything between their flight and picking up the RV. We went out for lunch at a pub around the corner from the house. We then went grocery shopping and

picked up some things for camping. The rest of the day consisted of getting the camper organized. Beau and I made dinner and we watched some of Die Hard 3.

Jan 9 – Drive to Abel Tasmin

After a hearty breakfast we finished cleaning and packing we were ready to go. We left the house around 10am, we had been aiming for 9. We headed north through Christchurch towards the north coast. It was a very pretty albeit windy drive. Two of the seats in the camper face backwards so are condusive to car sickness. I had no problems with all those windy bus rides in Asia but this one made me a little green around the gills. We stopped in Kaikoura for lunch and to check out a supposed seal colony there. There weren't too many seals but we saw a few and the view was super nice. We continued on our way with more twists and turns. We stopped in a town called Havelock and had some amazing steamed green lipped muscle from the Muscle Pot. It was really good. We ended up in Marahau. We arrived at our campsite and just had some salad for a late dinner. The campsite had a nice location near the beach but was very full.

A seal in Kaikoura

Family Photo

Jan 10 – Kayaking in Tasman Bay

Today we are going kayaking in Tasman Bay. We were up pretty early and had cereal for breakfast. We were supposed to be at the kayaking place for 8:30 but as usual we were running late. We had tried to contact the company the day before but for some reason the call wasn't going through. They had started the safety demonstration without us but fortunately we have all kayaked before although never with skirts. We had to demonstrate that we knew how to recover from a capsized kayak. We got through the safety course and were fortunately on schedule. We loaded the kayaks onto a trailer and hopped in a van to be taken the short distance to the beach. We got out in the kayaks and had a little more instructions from the guide and then we were on our way. We kayaked along the coast and then headed towards Stuart Island. We were hoping to see some seals, penguins or other marine lift. We didn't see much around this island but it was pretty none the less. We went around the island and north towards Adele Island. We pulled up on a little bit of sand and eat our sandwiches standing. It was high tide so there wasn't any beach to speak of. It was also quite windy. We got back on the water and went around the top of Adele Island. We saw some seals and seal pups! They were very cute but we still didn't see any penguins. We headed back towards the mainland and took a little break on a beach there. We then followed the coastline back towards our kayak pick up spot. The pick up point was tricky since the tide goes out very far so essentially the area is a big sandbar. We ran ground and had to pull the kayak in part of the way. We kayaked for about 5hrs and were very sore in the shoulders by the end of it. We got the kayaks back and got showered and warm. Then we tackled the task of trying to cook dinner on our little BBQ. The charcoal briquettes were slow to get going and never really got going well. Dinner cooked up okay with the help of the microwave. Beau made marshmallows over the tail end of the coals. We enjoyed some nice coffee and Baileys before bed.

Elaine and Shane in their Kayak

Mom and Dad in their Kayak

Kayaking in Tasman Bay

Jan 11 – Drive to Greymouth and wine tasting

It looked like it would be a lovely day when we woke up this morning. We had breakfast then left the camp ground. We stopped to buy a few groceries and got some directions for wine tasting. We went to three very nice wineries. The first was Neudorf Vineyards which was a very nice old looking wooden building. They had some lovely grounds and tasty wines. Our next stop was Kahurangi Estate, they had a lovely Merlot which is actually made from grapes from the North Island. Apparently merlot grapes don't grow well down here. Our last winery Woollaston Estates, it was a very snazzy winery. There was a little art gallery and some interesting sculptures outside. They too had some very nice wines and we splurged and bought a more expensive Pinot Noir. We finished with wine tasting and headed towards Greymouth. It was a relatively uninteresting drive. The scenery was nice enough and fortunately it was too twisty turny. We arrived in Greymouth and found a motor park to stay at. Beau and I made skewers for dinner and mashed potatoes. Our motor park was right by the beach so we had a little walk along there before jumping in the hot tub. It was nice on our sore kayaking muscles. It had started to rain when we went to bed. Some very loud thunder woke us up in the middle of the night too.

Jan 12 – Franz Josef Glacier

The rain didn't stop from last night, it was pouring when we woke up. We had breakfast then packed up again to hit the road. We had to do a big grocery shop again, 6 people go through food very quickly. After groceries we were headed towards the Franz Josef Glacier. We arrived at the glacier and had some lunch in the RV. Then we set off to do the glacier walk. It was pretty nice out at this time, but we made sure to pack sweaters and rain coats. As we walked towards the glacier, the view was quite nice but there were some clouds closing in on the top. Pretty soon the glacier was obscured and it was pouring rain. We got soaked. Mom headed back to the RV but the rest of us ducked under the rope and continued closer to the glacier for a better view, we were also hopeful the rain would let up. It did stop a bit and we were able to get some good pictures although the clouds never fully lifted from the top of the glacier. We headed back to the RV and were almost dried out when it started to pour again. We were only 5 minutes from the RV but we were absolutely drenched. Once back in the RV we got into some drier clothes and struggled to find space to hang all of our wet things up. We headed into the Franz Josef Village and checked into a motor camp. It was Elaine and Shane's turn to cook and Beau and mine to do dishes. After dinner and dishes we went out to a pub for a little bit to us the internet. The internet was free but the drinks were kind of expensive. It had stopped raining for a little while but it started up again when we went to bed.

The Franz Josef Glacier

Elaine!

The top of the glacier