Wellington

After Pete and Jess had left I spent one last day enjoying the sun and warm weather of Australia as due to me standard lack of planning I would be arriving at the start of the New Zealand winter. I had foolishly assumed travelling to New Zealand would be simple as it was one western country to another. It turns out the airline wouldn't let me board my flight without an onward ticket out of New Zealand. This led to me rushing around the airport to find a computer to buy a ticket on and then rushing around again to find a printer that would work. Eventually I got onto the flight and made it without any more problems to Wellington.

Since my accommodation in Palmerston North wasn't ready for me to move in for another day I spent a day looking around Wellington. However it seems that Easter (yes Easter I am that far behind) is a much bigger holiday over here than back in England. Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, was an utter ghost town with all the shops apart from McDonalds closed. Luckily there were some tourist attractions still open to occupy my day with.

First I took the famous red cable car from the city to the top of a hill overlooking the bay. At the top it turned out there was a plane-arium that was still open and since I had never been to one I decided to give it a go. As well as flying around space it also had a weird animated film about the space race that was incredibly disorientating to watch projected onto the ceiling.

Once I had taken the cable car back into the city I walked around a bit more embracing the cold weather before deciding to find an attraction with a roof and some heating. Luckily the Museum of New Zealand was nearby and free so I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around and learning what giant squid look like, how crappy earthquakes are and childishly giggling at certain exhibits. 

The next day I took a coach to Palmerston North the city (don't know who they are kidding it is a town) that would be my home for the next 3(ish) months. As a perfect welcome it was hammering down with rain when I arrived and when I got to the accommodation there was a sign on the door saying the reception was closed for Easter. Thankfully the sign wasn't completely true and there was a very bored man sitting there who gave me my key and neglected to tell me anything of use. It has to be said that I didn't quite get the sort of "extensive views of the city and surrounding areas" that I was expecting...

At this stage of the blog I was going to take a 3 month break but thanks to my brilliant timing (laziness) I can pretty much carry straight on as today is my last day at work, which is why I am using it to write this blog instead of working.

Hervey Bay and the end.

We spent much longer in Hervey Bay than we had planned. The town doesn't really have a lot going apart from being the town that most people leave on trips for Fraser Island from. Unfortunately neither Pete nor I had the funds for the trip and so we would have to spend a few days hanging around until Jess returned.

The best attraction of the town that we could find to visit was Vic Heslop's Shark Museum. Now don't be fooled by the name this was just a couple of small rooms filled with shark hating memorabilia. I know they aren't the most friendly creatures in the world but this guy really

 hated them and had killed hundreds. The crowning glory of the experience was a bunch of frozen sharks including a great white in a very low budget fake aquarium. 

There wasn't much else that happened during our stay apart from us spending some time fishing (feeding fish prawns) off a pier. And we had a meal time visited by another possum, this one much more forward and actually tried to get into the van.

Three nights later Jess had returned and it was time for me and Pete to finally part ways. After over 6 months of almost constant company it was an emotional farewell. I will take this opportunity to leave my soppy message of thanks to Pete; it was a brilliant journey and certainly wouldn't have been the same with anyone else so thank-you for letting me tag along on your trip.

Despite the misleading title this isn't quite the end yet. I will be working in New Zealand for 2 and a half months (now only another 2 weeks left thanks to my laziness at blog writing) before seeing a bit of the country. After that I have stupidly ambitious and terribly thought out plans for the end of the trip.

Campervan Leg 4 - Brisbane to Hervey Bay

Our route from Brisbane to Noosa took us down the Steve Irwin Highway, and past the glass house mountains, providing views very reminiscent of our journeys in parts of Laos and Vietnam (though luckily with better driving).

In Noosa we managed to stay in the car park of a hostel, entitling us to use of all of their facilities for only $20 a night. During our first day there we went for a walk along the sea front. The path showed more signs of destruction from the flooding in January. On the walk we spotted the front legs of some sort of tarantula in a hole in the ground. This led to us hunting them for about an hour, unfortunately not finding one to get a picture of. 

We stayed in Noosa for quite a bit longer than we had planned thanks to the price of the hostel parking being so much cheaper than everywhere else we had been. On our last night there we went out again and the next morning I was still feeling very drunk. Unfortunately I had also volunteered to drive us to Hervey Bay, this led to a driver that was finding life far too much fun and us flying over a mini round-a-bout that I swear appeared from nowhere.

Luckily we made it to Hervey Bay without further incident (or if there were further incidents I was too drunk to remember them). Whilst there me and Pete also discovered what is possibly the greatest board game ever created. Unfortunately as it is in Australia it costs a stupid amount and so had to stay in the shop (we did find Jess a diablo though, something I expect she is amazing at by now...).

Campervan Leg 3 - Byron Bay to Brisbane

Next stop after the blur of Byron Bay was Surfers Paradise, just up the coast. The drive there was largely uneventful with the only noteworthy thing being me finally getting a picture of our favourite Aussie road sign (albeit a terribly blurry photo). Instead of no entry signs most one way streets seem to have these "wrong way go back" signs.

Once we had found a campsite in Surfers we headed into the city to have a look around. It is quite a strange place with miles of beautiful white sand beach fringed by miles of high rise accommodation. On our way back to the van we were suckered into getting tickets for a club crawl for the next night. This meant I would have to buy some new jeans as I had been wearing a pair ripped right across both ass cheeks since Sydney. 

The club crawl wasn't as great as the sales women had made out. We had to be out in town far too early meaning there wasn't time for pre-drinking and the first few places we went to were completely dead. The clubs were all ridiculously expensive for drinks so in the end we gave up and called it a night. Our arrival in Brisbane didn't go all that smoothly as the nearest campsite to the centre was on the far side of the city somewhere out in the suburbs. Obviously this meant that we got lost on our way there. Eventually we figured it out and relaxed for the rest of the day. The next morning our trick of avoiding the extra person fee was nearly foiled when a worker came to the van to check if we were planning to stay another night, luckily I was holed up in the roof of the van and managed to hide from him!

We didn't feel too bad for the deception at this park as the owner had recommended that we visit the south bank of Brisbane to go swimming in an artificial lagoon. Whilst there was a free museum that we had fun looking around the lagoon was a pretty big let down. The whole South bank was being renovated after the flooding earlier in the year (the only signs of the flooding that we witnessed). This meant there was only a tiny area open and this was filled with young children and so most likely young children's urine. We went for a swim anyway and then headed back to our van, ready to head onwards to Noosa the next day.

Campervan Leg 2 - Nelson Bay to Byron Bay

After Nelson Bay we carried on towards Port Maquarie. Due to mistiming the drive we ended up arriving in the rain and after dark; not great when you discover that if you try to switch to high beams the headlights went off instead. The dark did, however, help us with the new tradition of one of us hiding in the roof of the van when entering campsites to avoid the extra person charge.

The next day it had thankfully stopped raining so we went down to the beach, which ended up being a massive walk from the campsite. In the afternoon we went over to a Koala sanctuary to see a bunch of sick Koalas being fed. The extremely boring woman at the sanctuary told us all about the many ways that Koalas can get ill. Did you know they get Chlamydia...

After Port Maquarie we carried on to Byron Bay. Thanks to a combination of drinking far too much wine and not charging my camera I only have one picture and that is of the sign for our campsite there. This came in useful as on one night out I managed to get myself very lost for hours and lost another pair of flip flops (that is 5 pairs for the trip).

Campervan Leg 1 - Sydney to Nelson Bay

Before our first day driving we slept in the van as it was more comfortable than the floor or sofa in Jess' place. The first day driving in the van started with lies and deceit. Pete was tired having been up most of the night to watch Spurs in the city centre and so was reluctant to move from the bed in the back. Not knowing the laws on driving with unbelted passengers in the back of a van me and Jess said we would go to check. The internet place we planned to check at was closed so instead of telling him this we made up a story of a $500 fine and a loss of licence for the driver. That combined with telling him it was after 10 (when it was before 9) got us straight onto the road. Needless to say he wasn’t impressed upon discovering the truth…

We had a quick stop off in Newcastle for a walk around in the drizzle and fish and chips for lunch. We spent most of the time bitching about the weather and how it made the place feel like it could be any English seaside town. For the night we had to carry on up the coast to a place called Stockton as this was the nearest camp site. It was here that we first discovered that camp site prices are for 2 people only and you have to pay at least another $10 for an extra person!

The next day we carried on up the coast to a town called Nelson Bay. Pete wasn't happy about this as the only reason me and Jess had for visiting was that we shared the name. We think he was just bitter that there are no towns called Philippou in Australia, or anywhere. It turned out that his bitterness was misplaced as we managed to find a dolphin viewing boat trip. As amazing as it was to ride on a boat with dolphins swimming along with it, it seems it doesn't make it easy to take photos of them.