NZ and OZ
Fair amount to write, that. It's been 3 months since an update, so I'm not entirely sure if I should dump everything I've done, everything I thought was interesting, or just a few edited highlights that others may find interesting.
I'll go for the last option, and risk sliding into the second option if Frances takes too much longer on her PC.
New Zealand
Favourite place to repeat a visit is, so far, Central America. But favourite place to live now goes to New Zealand. It's a bit like visiting the England imagined by an ex-patriate who lived somewhere countrified in the south, left in the 1950's but is aware of modern things like Cinemas, Computers and the like. Oh, and it's covered in mountains, volcanoes, glaciers, Fjords and Sounds.
Some things are irritating - like the 2 hour drive to the nearest cinema in Northland, tourist central. And the fact that because there are so few cars on the roads, most of the drivers have no idea how to overtake (What's the two second rule?). But, the fact that there doesn't seem to be the same class-strife driven regional hatred that the UK has - you're not going to get beaten up in Christchurch just because you come from Aukland - and that just about everybody is amazingly friendly is enough to make me want to come back.
Price wise, it's cheaper than Australia and the US, but not as cheap as Central America. Hostels are the only places worth staying in, partly because they're so much cheaper than the hotels (unlike the states where Hotels were cheaper for a couple), but partly because the quality in the hostels was so very high that there seemed little point forking out the extra 60 dollars a night.
Felix was an impeccably gracious and generous host, sharing not only his home and friends with us, but copious quantities of food and wine, which he really can't afford or justify. Incidentally, Frances & I have picked up a taste for Chardonnay after the free wine tastings across the East coast. Damn that free wine. It's cost us a fortune in bottles we just had to buy.
We dived, both in the trendy places like The Rainbow Warrior wreck, and in the freezing meltwater of Milford Sound (not actually a sound, but a Fjord. With a real, melting glacier to provide real, cold water). We've seen yellow penguins, Weka, seals and dolphins, whales, albatrosses and more dolphins. Did I mention the frolicking dolphins?
Australia
Australia we have seen far less of, weirdly because it's bigger. We had two & a half months for the both of them, so rather than see an inadequate quantity of each, we've spent 50 days in NZ, with only 20 left for Australia. This way we only feel guilty once.
Sydney was noteworthy for two things. First was the absolutely dismal hostel we booked for the first three nights. We booked it because it had a free airport pickup. The only time we've ever booked more than 1 night in a place we hadn't seen first, and it justified our earlier policy.
Still, the japanese guys we were sharing a room with were fairly pleasant, although heavy smokers, and they did eventually switch the TV off when we insisted at 2am - apparently in Japan, a TV is a sort of night-light-cum-blanky. And the cigarette burn holes didn't make the beds uncomfortable, plus the state of the kitchens encouraged us to get out and eat the local fare more than we had in NZ.
Second, was the incredible quantity of alcohol we drank. Initial estimates are that Frances and I got through 20 litres of beer. Each. In one week. That may not be much for an alcoholic, but quite a lot for us, and when you bear in mind we drank more than a few bottles of wine also, well...
I think my medical insurance covers liver failure.
After the nightmare hostel, we stayed with Claire Molloy (nee Lunn) and her husband, who is an old Ex of mine, now a naturalised Aussy. And, despite my personal fear that this might be a Bad Plan (tm), it worked out very well. We drank. A lot. And everyone got on great, which was nice.
Last night there, we went out for drinks with Simon Hall, I guy I used to work with. We drank. A lot. About 5 1/2 litres of beer each, by my estimate (except Jags, Simon's wife, who stopped at about 3). I discovered that Simon also has several WASP albums, and managed to reach that state of drunkenness where the people you are with are the best friends you have ever, or will ever, have.
The next morning still very drunk, reeking of beer, we went to the airport, to discover our flight had been cancelled.
Why I Love Qantas
Something similar happened to us with American Airlines. They'd failed to contact us about a change to our flight schedule. They said this was our fault, and wouldn't let us board the plane, whose flight number was on our tickets, that was half empty, and was leaving to the destination we wanted, without paying them $200.
Qantas, on the other hand, put us on another flight the next day for free. Then, they drove us to a hotel, which they paid for. An expensive, airport 4 star hotel. With a bath in every room. And a big, comfy bed. And aircon. They even paid for our meals, including the $44 per head seafood buffet. This was most definitely my best hung-over day ever.
Right, the rest of Oz
The flight to Ayers Rock finally took place the next day. Word to the wise, if you want to see Ayers Rock, but don't have much money, DO NOT FLY THERE. Not that the flight is expensive. Nor that it is difficult to get from the airport into town, as there is a free courtesy shuttlebus. It is that buses from the resort (the only place you can stay legally in the park) to the actual sights are extortionate, at $35 for the 80km round trip and higher. Car hire, the only real alternative, is absurd, at $75 plus mileage per day. Elsewhere, you can hire a car for $25 per day, including unlimited mileage.
I don't know what a car hire from Alice Springs (nearest airport) costs, but I suspect it'd be cheaper to fly from Ayers Rock to Alice Springs, hire a car there, drive it to Ayers Rock, then out to the various sights, drive back to Alice Springs and fly back to Ayers Rock than try to get the transport locally. We gave up on seeing Kings Canyon, aparently the jewel in the Uluru area crown, as it was $200 per person coachfare.
Cairns has been OK. We came to see the reef. We saw the reef, on a 1 night live-aboard boat trip, with 6 dives in 24 hours. Most of the tourists here seem to be British, and are here to get tans before going back to their year working-holiday in Sydney or Melbourne. They're all about 17 years old, like hanging out at the beach or swiming pool. They make me feel old, out of place, and at the same time, deeply glad of both.
We moved into a cheap flat at the edge of town. Next door were a fairly drunk gothy couple, called Jim & Mel. After about 2 hours of conversation, I discover Jim is in fact James, who went to Nottingham Trent University for 1 year (before being thrown out for doing no work), and played in my swordsmaster game along with Matt Grey. I phoned him when I first moved to Oxford, because he lived in Banbury. But as I was on the dole, and he had no transport or money either, we never managed to meet up. Until I get to Cairns.
Still haven't told Matt, who similarly got thrown off the same course with him. BT claim that the number I have for him has been disconnected.
So, that's Oz.
Today, I've been down the travel clinic being injected for Japanese B Encephalitis (sp?), which it seems I really should have been immunised from right from the get go in Blighty. Never trust your local doctor, at least that's what I now say. Next time, I'll go to a speciallist travel clinic for my advice & injections. Injection #2 on the 1st in Bangkok, and #3 some time after the 8th in Bangkok again. Expensive, but potentially will evade brain damage, so probably worth it.
I'll go for the last option, and risk sliding into the second option if Frances takes too much longer on her PC.
New Zealand
Favourite place to repeat a visit is, so far, Central America. But favourite place to live now goes to New Zealand. It's a bit like visiting the England imagined by an ex-patriate who lived somewhere countrified in the south, left in the 1950's but is aware of modern things like Cinemas, Computers and the like. Oh, and it's covered in mountains, volcanoes, glaciers, Fjords and Sounds.
Some things are irritating - like the 2 hour drive to the nearest cinema in Northland, tourist central. And the fact that because there are so few cars on the roads, most of the drivers have no idea how to overtake (What's the two second rule?). But, the fact that there doesn't seem to be the same class-strife driven regional hatred that the UK has - you're not going to get beaten up in Christchurch just because you come from Aukland - and that just about everybody is amazingly friendly is enough to make me want to come back.
Price wise, it's cheaper than Australia and the US, but not as cheap as Central America. Hostels are the only places worth staying in, partly because they're so much cheaper than the hotels (unlike the states where Hotels were cheaper for a couple), but partly because the quality in the hostels was so very high that there seemed little point forking out the extra 60 dollars a night.
Felix was an impeccably gracious and generous host, sharing not only his home and friends with us, but copious quantities of food and wine, which he really can't afford or justify. Incidentally, Frances & I have picked up a taste for Chardonnay after the free wine tastings across the East coast. Damn that free wine. It's cost us a fortune in bottles we just had to buy.
We dived, both in the trendy places like The Rainbow Warrior wreck, and in the freezing meltwater of Milford Sound (not actually a sound, but a Fjord. With a real, melting glacier to provide real, cold water). We've seen yellow penguins, Weka, seals and dolphins, whales, albatrosses and more dolphins. Did I mention the frolicking dolphins?
Australia
Australia we have seen far less of, weirdly because it's bigger. We had two & a half months for the both of them, so rather than see an inadequate quantity of each, we've spent 50 days in NZ, with only 20 left for Australia. This way we only feel guilty once.
Sydney was noteworthy for two things. First was the absolutely dismal hostel we booked for the first three nights. We booked it because it had a free airport pickup. The only time we've ever booked more than 1 night in a place we hadn't seen first, and it justified our earlier policy.
Still, the japanese guys we were sharing a room with were fairly pleasant, although heavy smokers, and they did eventually switch the TV off when we insisted at 2am - apparently in Japan, a TV is a sort of night-light-cum-blanky. And the cigarette burn holes didn't make the beds uncomfortable, plus the state of the kitchens encouraged us to get out and eat the local fare more than we had in NZ.
Second, was the incredible quantity of alcohol we drank. Initial estimates are that Frances and I got through 20 litres of beer. Each. In one week. That may not be much for an alcoholic, but quite a lot for us, and when you bear in mind we drank more than a few bottles of wine also, well...
I think my medical insurance covers liver failure.
After the nightmare hostel, we stayed with Claire Molloy (nee Lunn) and her husband, who is an old Ex of mine, now a naturalised Aussy. And, despite my personal fear that this might be a Bad Plan (tm), it worked out very well. We drank. A lot. And everyone got on great, which was nice.
Last night there, we went out for drinks with Simon Hall, I guy I used to work with. We drank. A lot. About 5 1/2 litres of beer each, by my estimate (except Jags, Simon's wife, who stopped at about 3). I discovered that Simon also has several WASP albums, and managed to reach that state of drunkenness where the people you are with are the best friends you have ever, or will ever, have.
The next morning still very drunk, reeking of beer, we went to the airport, to discover our flight had been cancelled.
Why I Love Qantas
Something similar happened to us with American Airlines. They'd failed to contact us about a change to our flight schedule. They said this was our fault, and wouldn't let us board the plane, whose flight number was on our tickets, that was half empty, and was leaving to the destination we wanted, without paying them $200.
Qantas, on the other hand, put us on another flight the next day for free. Then, they drove us to a hotel, which they paid for. An expensive, airport 4 star hotel. With a bath in every room. And a big, comfy bed. And aircon. They even paid for our meals, including the $44 per head seafood buffet. This was most definitely my best hung-over day ever.
Right, the rest of Oz
The flight to Ayers Rock finally took place the next day. Word to the wise, if you want to see Ayers Rock, but don't have much money, DO NOT FLY THERE. Not that the flight is expensive. Nor that it is difficult to get from the airport into town, as there is a free courtesy shuttlebus. It is that buses from the resort (the only place you can stay legally in the park) to the actual sights are extortionate, at $35 for the 80km round trip and higher. Car hire, the only real alternative, is absurd, at $75 plus mileage per day. Elsewhere, you can hire a car for $25 per day, including unlimited mileage.
I don't know what a car hire from Alice Springs (nearest airport) costs, but I suspect it'd be cheaper to fly from Ayers Rock to Alice Springs, hire a car there, drive it to Ayers Rock, then out to the various sights, drive back to Alice Springs and fly back to Ayers Rock than try to get the transport locally. We gave up on seeing Kings Canyon, aparently the jewel in the Uluru area crown, as it was $200 per person coachfare.
Cairns has been OK. We came to see the reef. We saw the reef, on a 1 night live-aboard boat trip, with 6 dives in 24 hours. Most of the tourists here seem to be British, and are here to get tans before going back to their year working-holiday in Sydney or Melbourne. They're all about 17 years old, like hanging out at the beach or swiming pool. They make me feel old, out of place, and at the same time, deeply glad of both.
We moved into a cheap flat at the edge of town. Next door were a fairly drunk gothy couple, called Jim & Mel. After about 2 hours of conversation, I discover Jim is in fact James, who went to Nottingham Trent University for 1 year (before being thrown out for doing no work), and played in my swordsmaster game along with Matt Grey. I phoned him when I first moved to Oxford, because he lived in Banbury. But as I was on the dole, and he had no transport or money either, we never managed to meet up. Until I get to Cairns.
Still haven't told Matt, who similarly got thrown off the same course with him. BT claim that the number I have for him has been disconnected.
So, that's Oz.
Today, I've been down the travel clinic being injected for Japanese B Encephalitis (sp?), which it seems I really should have been immunised from right from the get go in Blighty. Never trust your local doctor, at least that's what I now say. Next time, I'll go to a speciallist travel clinic for my advice & injections. Injection #2 on the 1st in Bangkok, and #3 some time after the 8th in Bangkok again. Expensive, but potentially will evade brain damage, so probably worth it.