Flashpacking Oz, NZ, Rarotonga & USA – February 2004

Crikey its Feb!!!! Where is time going????

Woke up hot and bothered… sleeping in a small campervan with just a small fan for air flow is not easy day after day in 34 degree heat and 70% humidity. Even the Queenslanders are complaining, apparently its unaturally hot and humid. We have decided to try and fly to New Zealand sooner than thought. That decision made (over several cups of sweat making tea) we headed up to the northern end of the Atherton Tablelands for some cool mountian air.

Up another lovely windy steep mountain road we reached the town of Kuranda (well drove straight passed it initially) and looked about this tiny village thats so well written up about in the guide books…. it may have been the heat, but we couldn’t see what was so great. It was totally dedicated to tourists with tacky gift shops with Boomerangs and Croc’s heads etc. It was obviously once quite pretty…. but no longer. We sat and had some grub and a beer and tried to like the place, but nope, it didn’t work.

We then went to the Barren River Falls – once again, this is marvelled over by the guide books. We got there, saw a pathetic trickle over some rocks, turned round (nice walk through rainforest though) said sod this and went home. (passing a nice view down to cairns seafront)

As if our prayers were answerd it was a lovely cool night and morning enabling us to relax and enjoy our surroundings… we fed all our doves (now have a group of 5) and sipped tea and eat mango’s in the morning breeze. Lovely.

On the road again, up a pretty coast road north to Port Douglas – the home of the rich and famous (the likes of Russell Crowe and the Clintons) The main road into the village was lined with palm trees and exclusive resorts. The high street was very pretty, lined with flame trees and nice boutique shops and restaurants. We headed up to the lookout, which has a lovely view over the towns 4 mile beach. After a huge 2 hour lunch we went to the beach.

Back to the nearest nice campsite for the night. It was in the forest so we knew we were in trouble. Within about 30 seconds we were covered with Mozzies, then torrential rain poured down all evening (aaahhhh nice cool rain)… its great in the tropics!!!

Up and out in about 10 minutes to escape the attack of the Mozzies, we were on the road again to head to the most northern point in Oz (unless you have a meaty 4WD) – Cape Tribulation. The drive up there is through Daintree National Park, one of the oldest and biggest surviving areas of Virgin rainforests in the world. The drive took us through beautiful scenery, and a great little ferry that takes us over the Croc infested Daintree River.

We reached the furthest spot that we could and had a wander about in the rainforest. The “town” itself has no more then about 3 buildings all geared up for the rainforest trecker. We wandered through stinky wet mangrove forests, thick palm forests and twisty vine forests and came out onto the beach. Felt like something out of Robinson Crusoe, there wasn’t a soul in sight and it was great to see thick, ancient rainforest butt right up to a spotless beach. (Picture doesn’t do it justice)

Back down the road we stopped at a great little cafe for a long lunch looking out through the forest to the beach. Pulling ourselves away from this, we called in at Daintree rainforest centre that had wlakways and boadwalks running throughout the forest and a huge canopy tower that gave us a great view over this majestic forest. It was fun really as it was so informative, at every few steps it would give us a little explanation of the trees and the forest system that was all around us. Pedal to the metal, we were nicely back at our lovely Cains campsite drinking wine by 7.30 and hearing that Laura and Steve had reached the outback and were surrounded by dead cows and alien bugs!!! lovely!!

Couldn’t have a much lazier day….

Its raining…. oh my goodness is it raining. We sat and drank tea in our damp van all morning just looking at the thundering down rain….. The rest of the day we played tennis.

If thats possible its raining harder than yesterday. We had thunder and lightning and heavy rain all night (made for a great nights sleep!!!). Headed into Cairns city centre and found that loads of roads have closed due to flooding. The cars parked there are submerged in water well over the wheel arches. Thank goodness we are off to New Zealand on Tuedsday! – if the airport isn’t flooded!!

Watched the rain, drank tea, fed the birds, eat, drank, slept, and played lots of tennis (in between the downpours)

Same as yesterday

Same as yesterday…. 🙁 Found out today that its the wettest season in Cairns for years !!! nice one.. All the Ozzies say “oh the LOVELY rain” how weird is that!!! Apparently a cyclone is predicted in the next few days… we have images of us being whisked up in our van and being dropped in Oz killing a wicked witch… where’s Toto? Oh.. we are already in Oz ???? think the rain is getting to me…… Still very hot though….

Sold our dodgy telly at 8.45am, legged it to the van drop off place at 8.46am ! Torrential rain… could hardly see out of the window. After lift off the plane took us right over the reef…. it was stunning, it looked like huge sparkling opals in the ocean. A lovely flight and several glassed of wine, Brandy, Rum later we were in Auckland. Straight to a motel for our first night in a proper bed for 2 months…. aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh BLISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs

Called around and eventually found a cheap car to rent. Drove straight into Auckland for a look about. Not really much to say about this city… its quite uninspiring. Its on 2 natural harbours and so has a nice Marina where we had lunch, but apart from that there was nothing nice to look at.

Drove out of town and up to the Coromandel Penninsula. This was stunning, full of beautiful coastal villages and rolling hill countryside. The feel to this country is so like England, we both felt instantly at home.

Coromandel town was a tiny pretty wooden building town… this is its police station! As if it was sent from heaven we found a pub with rooms and a gorgeous pub garden. Wonderful!!! We sat with our pint, breathing in the lovely fresh warm England smelling air, listening to song birds, watching bumblebees crash by. It was like a perfect English summer evening.

Woke to a gorgeous cool breeze in our lovely pub….No Bugs, no wet heat…. We felt great!

Headed off down the East coast of the North Island down to the Bay of Plenty, and various coastal towns. We giggled quite a bit when we reached Te Puke! the Kiwi growing capital of the world! Of course, it had a big Kiwi….. the rest of the town pretty much matched its name. Its a real shame that this is such a stunning country but the buildings and towns seem to have been just thrown up without any care for how nice it is to look at.

From there we headed inland to Rotorua. You can smell this town before you can see it. The sulphur emissions from volcanic activity are incredible. Rotten Eggs and Cabbage. YUM!!! Andy’s face was a picture and he kept saying “Eurgh… Eurgh” as we reached nearer the town. Drove round this very touristy and quite unpleasant town trying to find a nice pub again… no luck. This place is totally geared up to the traveller with only nasty motels and hotels to choose from. We ended up staying in a little cheesy motel, its only saving was its private spa bath… champagne and bubbles! YUM!

Phhooooooorrrrrr what a STINK!!! This place HONKS!

Off to see whats causing all this smell. First stop Hells Gate. Very aptly named it had loads of boiling stinky, steamy pools, and boiling mud everywhere. It was fab.

We then moved on to a Mauri institute as they used the thermal pools for cooking etc. Here is me standing next to some geezer…. ha ha ha. There were geysers spouting water everywhere.

Busy day this… we then lept into the car and headed to Matamata as they have kept a set from the filming of the Lord of The Rings… the only set to have survived from all three films. It was “The Shire” the home of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins… I couldn’t wait! For all those who have no idea what I am talking about, or indeed have no interest… move to tomorrow.

As we came to the town incredibly beautiful green rolling hills were all around us, no wonder they filmed The Shire here. A few minutes later we were on the tour to take us to the area. It still is private farm land and very well hidden as it was kept secret during all of the filming. A real shame though as most of the set had to be destroyed. They have only managed to keep a small part remaining after pestering the film company for years. They are trying now to get permission to restore it to its original glory… hope so. From the top of a nearby hill The Shire was below us with the party tree on the lake side. At the bottom of the hill and next to the lake we saw the Hobbit holes, with Bilbo’s house – Bag End at the top. Another view, this time of Sam’s House with the chimney. Don’t look anything like they did in the film, but it was still great. Up to Bag End to imagine Gandolf arriving to see Bilbo. Finally the stunning view Bilbo had from his front door – the Shire below him… As there was such natural beauty in this area they didn’t have to digitally enhance anything. We could see why. We can’t wait to see the films again!

Spent the night in a really nasty – but cheap motel in Hamilton, after a huge brekky we drove to Cambridge – HURRAH!! at last a pretty town! It had tree lined streets, a pretty village green and a lovely church.

We kinda got the message that this was sheep farming coutry when we drove into the village of Tirau !!!! Annoyingly we found a lovely pub with rooms….. POOH!!! On the road again to Lake Taupo

First stop Huka Falls. This was where the biggest river in NZ – the Waikato River pours from Lake Taupo. It was an awesome sight.

Driving over the hill our first sight of lake Taupo was lovely. Its HUGE and packed full of trout. We then drove into town and thought yuK!! back to cheesy motel land here… 🙁 We started our usual evenings job of looking around for somewhere half decent to stay – with no luck. I had spied a lovely English looking country pub (called the Ploughmans) and decided it was time for a pint. Chatting to the barmen and local they decided to call up a dozen places for us and eventaully booked us into the Spa Hotel. Worried that we were about to spend $200 for tonights bed, we headed off to find it. This was our first view….. crikey – whats all this about?! Our room was $40 and we loved it… although it did need a little … um… repair…???!!! Back to the pub for a lovely Valentines meal… 🙂

Morning tea in our lovely little shack then headed South to Napier. The road took us through thick pine forests and up wiggly mountain roads. We stopped for a cuppa in a tearoom as we were so cold. It looked as though it was straight out of some tacky seaside town with a smiley waitress with the most enormous boobs that were more outside of her dress than in. (we haven’t a picture of those!)

More mountains, more pine forest and more rain and we reached Napier, the heart of Hawke’s bay, the fruit-growing region of the island. Unfortunately and not helped by the rain this town was fantastically dull so we carried straight on deciding to make it all the way to Wellington tonight. The rain just wouldn’t let up and as we travelled south we were noticing flooding fields, rivers bursting their banks and water making the roads difficult to travel on. There were many accidents and Police in attendance so often on our road.

We made it to Wellington as it was getting dark, we were bored and tired. Not only was it pouring but true to its reputation the city had a vicious wind racing through the streets making it hard to stand up. The ferries to south island were all cancelled so the world and his wife were staying in the city for the night…… uh oh. We circled the city several times trying to find somewhere half decent to stay that wouldn’t break the bank. Ended up in a nasty and hideously expensive motel. Everywhere had finished food so we ended up with a huge glass of wine in the nearest pub and a tukidy fried!!!

The wind and rain were having a party last night and kept me awake for most of it (Andy was blissfully snoring). The morning saw no break in the driving rain so that put paid to our plans of spending a nice few days in this very pretty city. Annoyed, we drove around taking in as much as we could with the windscreen wipers on full blast. The buildings were so pretty as were all the hillside houses. We then left for the warmer and drier north again. Heading up the west coast we started to see signs that last nights storm was slightly more than the average. Trees were down and rivers were bursting everywhere. We were seeing huge landslides, blocked roads, houses underwater, trains on their sides and then came to our first impassable flooded road. Head into the map I led us to another route – that too was closed. Working our way back and round to route number three this was closed too. Number four – closed, the last road that would get us out of the area – CLOSED! We were stuck. Defeated but amazed by the sights of the worst floods this country has seen in over 100 years we found a nice pub with rooms in Palmerston North and settled for the night not knowing if we were to be here for one night 2, 3 or more.

Went straight to the information centre that said that there was just one tiny mountain road open that would eventually take us north. Passing massively flooded rivers, broken trees and worried looking people we headed north and to the sun once more. Returned to Hawkes Bay and Taupo, this time the sun made the lake area look spectacular. Stopped at the widdly village of Waitamo Caves for the night. The motels were disgusting and smelt of dead granny, so we opted for the expensive but sterile YHA.

For the first time in the trip we had to wear jumpers from the start today. We went to the famous glow-worm caves in the village. The caves themselves were lovely but the highlight was being placed into a boat and told to be totally silent, then drifting into a pitch-black cave beautifully lit like stars by thousands of glow-worms hanging from the ceiling. It was breathtaking.

Up the road to the Northlands passed Auckland we stopped for the night in the gorgeous little town of Warkworth situated on a lovely rich river. We found a pub with rooms right on the river and settled in for food and wine in the sunshine overlooking the ducks below (and the duck with us in the pub!)

Nice crisp sunny morning to head back to Aukland for our flight to paradise tomorrow. Had lunch in a beautiful winery amongst the vineyards then headed to an airport motel and eat a KFC.

In the airport by 10.30 – well early so sat and drank tea, had lunch then hit the bar. Arrived past midnight at Rarotonga airport yesterday (we passed the date line) in our SKANKY room in Rarotonga

Roosters crowing kept me awake all night, that and the scratching caused by god knows what in the bed got me up early and exploring. The room was filthy, ugly and the toilet stank of pee. It was cheap but my god, so we asked to change rooms to something slightly more wholesome. There wasn’t anything and the young smelly travellers looked at us with contempt and a look of “why are those old people staying here”. The location however was lovely. Right on a stunning lagoon beach with lapping water against the white sand and a coral reef. We hired a convertible jeep and had a whiz round the island with its one road. It poured with rain and back we went with soggy bums to exchange it. They gave us a little red soft-top Mazda which was lovely. We covered the whole island in just 40 minutes. A true tropical paradise. It has lovely high volcanic rainforest mountains in the middle and a beach that runs all the way round the island

It also smells fantastic… all lush, fresh, green and clean. We reluctantly returned to our stinky vile room and contemplated having a shower…. YUK! I don’t think even the worst shower in Thailand came close to the monstrous nastiness of the shower here.. We returned to our room with a face as long as the bed. We thought “why are we on a beautiful tropical island and living in rat hole….. we are not exactly going to leave here with a sense of pleasure”. So off we went in search of NICE. It was a stunning little resort. It had a beautiful deck on the beach facing the incredible sunsets. We sat and had a drink and relaxed watching the view. We had a lovely meal and there was no way on earth we wanted to go back to our horrid room. An hour later we had booked 4 nights at the resort with a beach front view, and of course Andy got all this for half price!!!!

What a difference a lovely room makes. Sat and had tea on our balcony looking out to the beach – wonderful . We looked up and saw a Microlight buzzing passed us. Cor I fancied a bit of that, so later in the afternoon I did. What a fab thing to do whizzing along in the sky on the back of a lawn mower!!! Saw fantastic views of the island and resort. The pilot did loads of massive dives which I loved. Gotta get me one of these…

Back for a dip in the beautifully warm sea and more beer at sunset time. It was traditional Polynesian food tonight and a show (uh oh Butlins here we come) The food was incredible but we had no idea what we were eating. The show was full of people hitting drums and wiggling their bums but it was nice until it did turn into Butlins when they dragged loads of people up on the stage to also wiggle their bums…. We made a hasty retreat..

Had an exhausting day of sitting in the sun and the sea drinking tea and beer… nightmare.

Did the same as yesterday – this is pure hell.

Taxi to airport at 8pm for a late flight. Airport of course was a shed so we chatted outside to a couple from Camberley who were paying $500 a night at their resort — thats what you get if you book a package holiday from home!!!! Har de har.

Stopped for 2 hours in Tahiti where we found a row of chairs and slept. By midday we had landed in LA knackered. God this city is just disgusting. Everywhere we have been without exception we have been greeted with smiles a chat and a genuine pleasure to be alive. Nothing but miserable, rude, unhealthy people here.

In our brand new hire car (which we got on Andy’s Cook Island driving licence) we drove as far as we could up the coast to get away from LA on freeway 101 passing through Santa Monica and Malibu in the pouring rain. We think we are cursed. Storms, floods and rain have followed us ever since Cairns! It got dark and we traipsed up and down Malibu looking for somewhere to stay – they were all disgusting and expensive, so we headed further up the coast to the next town – Ventura where we eventually found a budget hotel. The news said that there were load of road closures due to the floods!!!! Can we not escape this weather ???!!!!

Our first morning in California and we thought we must have a big breakfast in Denny’s. We ordered up all the meats, hash browns, grits, everything on the menu. Oh dear, it couldn’t be any more crammed full of sugar, fat and salt. It was disgusting. Feeling as though we have eaten enough fat for a month we drove off thoroughly disappointed up to Santa Barbara. What a lovely place, all cobbled streets, Mexican pretty architecture and fantastic shops full of stuff you will never need but great to have. We were absorbed for hours. We got chatting to some shop owners and finally found some friendly Americans – hurrah! Andy even bought a book!!!!! First time for that one.

Quick look at the lovely sea-front, then it got dark very quickly and so we decided to do the mountainous trek up to Monterey and Carmel. It was a bit creepy, very deserted roads with always one car in each of the turnouts… what’s that all about???? What are they doing? We reached Monterey by 10pm and had our usual nightmare of trying to find somewhere to stay… knackered

Up early and into Carmel village (once run by Clint Eastwood). How gorgeous. It was a beautiful sunny, crisp, cold day, and with the smell of pines and wood fires it smelt like the run up to Christmas. We were desperate to find a little pub with a fire and drink wine. We spent the morning strolling round these lovely little streets full of amazing shops and pretty architecture, it all looked very English country – lovely.

Northward to Santa Cruz where they have a nasty Blackpool type roller coaster park on the beachfront. As it was so wet it was totally deserted and felt like something out of a horror movie – so we left. Next stop the beautiful city of San Francisco with those fantastic hilly straight streets and old-fashioned trams. Drove around the city to take it all in, then after finding a motel headed to Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39 for a fish dinner, Andy spotted a bench and wanted to be Forest Gump for a while.

Clear skies, freezing and I am still in my only pair of shoes – flip-flops!!! My feet were blue. Explored around the lovely Fisherman’s Wharf area, with nice shops and tonnes of stalls selling fresh crab and seafood. YUM! Wild Sea Lions have taken residence in the boat quay due to its protection from the weather and the sharks. They look amazing and attract quite a lot of attention. Drove to downtown for more exploring where I found some shoes – aaahhh warm feet at last! Returned to the Wharf for an amazing dinner of Dungeness crab.