Message for Daddy Down... Auuuuuggggghhhhhh!

You know we were saying on the phone yesterday that our camera was working okay, well we lied, or at least our camera did! Its playing silly beggars again. We were just wondering if you were sent the letter from Canon that they promised, or what the state of play was really. It seems that the camera will only accept a specific battery now which we may not be able to get hold of in south America. We will try to call again soon.
(To those of you that dont know our camera has been playing up muchly! Big hairy beast!!!!!)

New Zealand!
Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!
So we have been in New Zealand for 10 days now and every day has been fab.
We've bought a camper van. Unfortunately not a VW campervan as there are very few here, we had looked into shipping a good one back to the UK ready for our homeless adventures. Our van looks like an ex electritions van, a toyota hiace, its a 1986 model and is an exhire van. It even includes an emergency exit sign saying 'open door here' in black permanent marker ready for those times when we need to bail out quickly. We havent had any of those times yet but we still have a few weeks to go.
I know that this phrase may be similar to the rest of our blogspot but we could soooooooo live here! Jon and I have both said that if NZ was suddenly to float away and replace France we would definately emigrate here. Its so beautiful, and the people are so friendly, even more than the aussies.
For our first couple of days we stayed at a lovely backpackers which had been newly opened for a week, so we slept on mattress that had never been slept on before which was a real treat. This was in Christchurch, a hastle free city. John Cleese was in town for the week perfroming at the theatre, but at $78 each, concession, it was a bit steep for backpackers!

Vrooooom!
We bought our van after hunting the local backpacker noticeboards and the local backpackers car market. There were a couple of vans that had much nicer intereior but being the practical beans that we are, we bought the one that had a more reliable sounding engine. We then tool it on to oursleves to make the interior as nice as teh ones we'd seen. So we bought out the local warehouse shop with colour co-ordinated gadgets (blue and red, the van being white we thought very patriotic!) and went to a local sewing shop to buy material and hire out a sewing machine, only Jon and Nat!!!!!
I think we are possibly the only backpackers to have hired a sewing machine and sat in the bar of a hostel until midnight creating new curtains and matress covers, whilst everyone else drank pints. Now I say it as 'we' but all credit has to go to Jonny the sewing machine whizz! I just said encouraging things like 'well done' and 'Wow that was quick' in a teacher like voice!


Hit the road Jack and don't come back no more, no more, no more!
So we hit the road in our little home for 2 months, we stocked up with food, fuel for the engine and fuel for the driver aka speighits beer. We drove 5 minutes out of Christchurch and were stunned into silence at the scenary (me silent, has to be seen to be believed, but it was true!) It is a bit like the lake district but much more dramatic.
We have stayed in some beautiful camping grounds, last night was particularly gorgeous in a quite basic campsight looking out over the sea, falling asleep to the sound of pounding waves was amazing. As well as dramatic scenary we have seen dramatic wildlife, sealions, fur seals, yellow eyed penguines and dolphins. And of course sheep. There is a 15 to 1 sheep to human ratio here in NZ after all!


Hmmm... Puzzling???
Wow what a cool place. Puzzle world does what it says on the tin. It puzzles you. We did the maze the water that runs up-hill the weird room that stretches your height. Theres a great cafe where you can try out all these different wooden puzzles. One of them beat Jonny to a pulp. 2hours of struggling with it and only half done - so in his frustration he pushed over a building ...


The one thing that we have found slightly difficult here in NZ is the difficulty in contacting special firends and family, the phone card systems here are a bit unpredictable. I'm beginning to get used to a special telecom voice that cuts in to tell me that the phone call is finished only 5 minutes into the conversation when I thought I had 200 minutes! Anyway Jonny is on a computer next to me trying to research are best option. Also it is tricky to find places that have the internet, so please bare with us, if you email us we are not ignoring you!

Random picture of the scenery which there is so much of ...

Wine wine wine - thats all you ever do ... And Sydney
So we dropped down to Newcastle, an industrial city 3hours outside of Sydney. We were here to get off the backpacker beaten track and to get to the Hunter Valley.

We met some lovely locals at Mayfield Baptist Church including a guy called Cameron who kindly invited us round for a meal and to homegroup with him. Its was great to experience the Ozzie hospitality again and we had a fun time with the group.

The Hunter Valley is an area of land where wineries are plentiful. From the large commercial to the small boutiques there are hundreds of kilometers of green fields growing grapes. We took a day trip to experience this place as well as sample some of its wares. It was surprising how much wine we consumed through the day, sipping up to 6 or 7 wines in the 5 wineries we went to. There were many different reds and whites that we liked but were mostly impressed with the whites that we tried.


Sydney
And so we took the last 3hour leg of the Greyhound journey down to Sydney.
We stayed in a small backpackers that wasn't up to the usual YHA standard that we had become accustomed. It was Ok but had quite a different feel to other hostels as most of the backpackers were long-termers who were working.

Our first day took us on a trip out to the Blue Mountains. During the 2hour train journey we chatted to a guy who told us about the Wentworth falls, a couple of stops before Katoomba. Supposedly 20mins each way, he thought we could do the falls in the hour and a bit that we had between trains. We set off at a cracking pace and stormed down to the falls. Even at our blistering pace it took a good 45mins so we slowed down realising that we wern't going to catch the next train. The falls were beautiful and the scenery from the cliff edge looking out over the forest was astounding. Arriving in Katoomba we didn't have much time and set about 'bagging' the 3-sisters rocks and various other dramatic views. It was quite a scream tearing around the sights but we made it.



We had a few funny looks and giggles on the train on the way back as we discovered that the seat backs could be moved to afford a rear or front facing view. Forward and back ... Forward and back ... He he ...


Back in Sydney Jon did the Harbour Bridge climb and Nat took a trip to the pylon from which you also get a fantastic view. We went for a jaunt round the harbour on a boat, took a walk through the city (including the beautiful, tree lined, Hyde Park) and took a trip out to Bondi Beach. Sydney is a really beautiful city and blends the practicality of the skyscrapers with the natural tree-lined parks and the beautiful harbour.


Tomorrows our last day in Sydney and we plan to make it to the guided tour of St Mary's Cathedral and to Church somewhere. Its also our last Day in Oz as we fly out to New Zealand on Monday. Whilst we are very excited at moving on, we realise that there is so much more you could do here!

New Zealand here we come ...

We've added a few more Photos. Woo woo woo!
Also there is a Perhentian late update - refer back down page ...

A long trip!
Jon and I used to think that a 3 hour drive to cornwall was quite a journey, we would prepare the provisions, select some good tunes, check that the car was in prime condition and broom away. We have now realised that a 3 hour journey isnt really a very long one! Our longest journey to date is an over night bus to Noosa, a lovely, not-so-backpackery town. It took us 16 hours woo woo woo! Jon and I got on the bus to discover that the Ozzies or well practiced backpackers come well prepared. A bit like Jon and I's organisation for a 3 hour to Cornwall. However as we have become chilled out travellers we hadnt really thought ahead to the nights sleep on a coach! No pillows and only shorts and t-shirts on, on a fully air-con bus.
Noosa was definately worth the trip (we did get some sleep, I particulalry excelled when I had purchased a neck pillow at 3 in the morning at a handy petrol station stop!) It was beautiful! We stayed at a really loevly YHA with wonderfully helpful staff and free surf boards!
Jonny took advantage of this. He was the only surfer out on the slightly non existant waves. He successfully stood up - much practice at home in cornwall with no waves, I think.
From Nossa we took a trip to the Australia Zoo which is run by the mad Steve Irwin, of crocodile hunter fame...
Crikey!

We really enjoyed our day there. There was a lot to see, although Steve wasn't there unfortunatly. We didnt realise what a big celebrity he is, you could even get actionman 'Steves' that said crikey and others of his popular phrases.












Brisbane
After a short 3 hour hop on the Greyhound we arrived in Brisbane and settled into the YHA.
During the three day stay we went to the XXXX brewery, a Kylie Minogue exhibition and an art gallery. The XXXX brewery tour was great, particulary watching the bottles being filled and packed by these monstrously large conveyer belt machines. Jons highlight of the tour was sampling four of the different beers - very yummy!
Cheers ma' dears!!

Byron Bay
We came, we saw, we left ...
Yummy food at a Moroccan restaurant and a great walk round the headland in an otherwise grubby little town! Apparently quite a few celebrities live here but we couldn't see the appeal.

Lennox Head
We decided to be daring and travel where the normal backpacker doesn't go. We went on a local bus to Lenox head. This was our favourite place on our Oz travels so far. It was very unspoilt. We camped looking over a lake full of tea tree oil, very near to the beach. We hired a surf board and caught some awesome waves. Unfortunately our camera takes so long to take photos that by the time the shutter had taken the picture it looked like I couldn't stand on the board! I couldn't!!! Jonny could though, the waves and current were a little to powerful for me!
We saw some whales whilst walking along the beach, I think migrating South for the summer months. They were amazing!