Headin' Home The Long Way

new zealand's gnarly north island

2008-01-25T23:30:00.015Z

As most or all of you know, we are back home now in wintery St. Louis. We want to finish telling you all about our trip though, so hopefully in the next few days we'll get too! And if it keeps snowing and sleeting like it is today, I just might get to send out some of our pictures as well! So, to continue on with the blog, I believe I left off with our arrival to the North island of New Zealand so that is where I will begin.

We left Wellington after a short stop-over to download pictures and do some research on Fiji and headed for National Park, a small town just outside of the Tongariro National Park. We planned to do the Tongariro Crossing the following day and so we did! The Tongariro Crossing is an 18.5 km/11.5 mile hike across volcanic terrain, past thermal vents pouring steam from below the ground, beautiful Emerald Lakes and out through a bit of rainforrest. It's quite challenging and takes about 8 hours to complete but boy was it worth it!

We started about 8am and our bus picked us up from the other end at 4pm, we just made it! We took an extra side trip to hike up Mt. Tongariro which gave us great views across the national park and to other volcanic mountains. One of the highlights was feeling the steam bellow out of the earth's crust and smelling the sulfur which indicated thermal activity. The hike came highly recommended to us and we would definitely recommend it as a must-do to anyone going to New Zealand.

From National Park, we spent one night in Lake Taupo and then headed up through Roturura and into the Coromandel Peninsula. The whole North island seems to be harbouring thermal activity just under the serface so there is a huge focus on thermal baths, steam vents and volcanic activity in general. It's also a great place to experienc some of the Maori culture which unfortunately we ran out of time for.

By the time we reached the Coromandel Peninsula, we were in need of a sun-tan top-up and some beach time again! Luckily we had the opportunity to hang out on Whangamata beach for most of the day and then made our way to Hot Water Beach in the afternoon. Hot Water Beach gets it's name b/c at low tide people come to dig holes for themselves to sit in and enjoy the thermal waters that bubble up under the sand. We were there at high tide so we didn't get to experience this but the beach was pretty and the waves were strong so it was a beautiful site nonetheless.

After Coromandel, we headed to Auckland where we returned the van (sad to see it go...), caught up on laundry and prepared to relax and adjust to "Fiji time", a term we were getting quite familiar with. We opted to fly to Fiji w/o a plan and see what sounded good once we got there. It ended up being a good way to enjoy the blissful Fijian life!

Love,

Renee & Chuck

Pictures from top to bottom: (Mt. Tongariro w/ kiwi sign, beginning of the Tongariro Crossing, Mt. Ngauruhoe, Emerald Lakes, steam vents behind us (and the next installment of Chuck's FFH), Whangamata Beach, sunset on Coromandel Penninsula, FFH in Auckland)

the magnificent south island of new zealand

2008-01-13T04:40:00.000Z

We arrived in New Zealand 2 weeks ago and it's been an amazing ride since then! We flew into Christchurch and arrived a day late due to a 5 hour delay leaving Melbourne. No bother to us though b/c Qantas had to pay for our meals and put us up in a nice hotel for the night in Auckland, which kept us spoiled for one more night after all of our nice stays with friends.

Our first impressions of Christchurch were excellent. It's a beautiful little town with lots of restaurants and shops, pubs and travel agents ready to book any adventure you can think of. New Zealand is all about adventure and we quickly realized that you could easily drop a ton of money on anything from white water rafting, sea kayaking, bungy jumping, helicoptor rides, glacier climbing, hiking tours, paragliding, sky diving, etc. You name it, they have it here, and the more dangerous and life-threatening, the better!

We spent 3 days in Christchurch and we were able to meet up with our new friends Michael and Helene who we met on our Fraser Island tour in Australia and are from the Netherlands. We had dinner together a couple of nights and found out we'd be following a similar path while touring around NZ so we hoped to meet up again later down the road. We did a bit of sightseeing around Christchurch including the Botanic Gardens which had a beautiful rose garden and the Christchurch Cathedral. We also went out to the suburb of Sumner which had a nice beach to visit for the day.

On the 6th we picked up our Escape campervan to begin our driving tour of the South and North Islands. We must have gotten one of the oldest vans in the Escape fleet but she's been good to us and we now have a soft spot in our hearts for her. Her name is Taniwha (pronounced Tan-ee-fa) which means good spirit in the Maori language. She's big and brown and therefore we've fondly given her the nickname, "The Big Poo". We think it's fitting, would you agree??

The first day we set off towards Mt. Cook, the tallest mountain in NZ standing at 3754 metres high. We stopped that night at beautiful Lake Tekapo and camped right on the shore of the lake. The water in Lake Tekapo and it's sister lake, Lake Pukaki is crystal clear blue because of microscopic rock particles that reflect the sun. They are gorgeous lakes and our first night of camping went off without a hitch. And what a beautiful sight we had waking up the next morning to a view of the Southern Alps over Lake Tekapo! From there we drove on up to Mt. Cook but unfortunately it was a bit rainy and overcast that day so we couldn't actually see the peak. It was a very pretty drive though and a good way to pass some time on our way to Queenstown.

Before I go any further in our journey, I should mention the in the spirit of being hippies and living out of a van for 2 weeks, Chuck has decided to express himself in a fairly unusual way. Well, normally it would be considered unusual but in Chuck's case, this is not the first time he has done it. As you may have noticed, he grew out a goatee before we left Dublin. The idea was to slowly dismantle it along the trip (mainly in NZ once we had the campervan) and so the dismantling has begun (see picture). Be on the lookout for Future Facial Hair (FFH) updates! :) (Oh yeah, and we thought the bandana was quite apropriate for this look.)

Our next major stop was Queenstown, home to every adventure activity imaginable, most prominent is bungy jumping. This is basically where commercial bungy jumping was invented and perfected by a guy named AJ Hackett and as our Rough Guide says, "Even visitors who never had any intention of parting with a huge wad of cash to dangle on the end of a thick strand of latex rubber find themselves bungy jumping in Queenstown". And so... we jumped! We jumped at the Kawarau, AJ Hackett's original jumping location with a 43 metre fall. Chuck was all go and I was a bit hesitant, not because of fear, bungy jumping has just never been an interest of mine. But I was talked into it and let me just say, it was awesome!!! More of a rush than sky diving and so thrilling! The Kawarau site is located on a bridge so you jump over a crystal clear blue river and you can even opt to dip your head in the water for a more refreshing experience. We both opted for the water option but didnt' get all too wet. Unfortunately we jumped right after each other so we didn't get any pictures of us jumping, we bought the DVD though so you all can join in on the fun when we get home. It was an awesome experience and one I would definitely do again. The only down side would be that our eyes felt like they were going to pop out and were even sore the next day, but no pain, no gain, right??? :)

Moving on from Queenstown, we headed for Te Anau for a guided tour out to the Milford Sound. This was our first real experience driving through the Southern Alps and seeing glaciers. It was a really good day out and our tour guide was full of interesting information about the area and scenery so we learned quite a bit too. One interesting fact is that Milford Sound was incorrectly named because it's actually a fjiord, not a sound. Also, the mountainous area you drive through to get to Milford is one of the most avalanche prone areas in the world and they have an average of 6 big avalanches a year during the winter season. Glad we are here in the summer! You can see the avalanche damage though which is quite interesting. It's hard to imagine the power and sound of a full force avalanche, it must be quite amazing! Our tour included a boat ride around the sound, including "encounter" experiences with nature and the wildlife. This basically meant that they stuck the nose of the boat into two waterfalls so we could "encounter" the wetness. Quite cool!

After Milford Sound, we made out way up to Franz Josef. We were lucky enough to coordinate with our friends Helene and Michael and we both booked to do the Franz Josef Glacier full day hike the following day. So, it was an early morning for us as we got kitted out with our glacier hiking gear. The company provided basically everything we needed from coats, mittens and hats, to hiking boots, wool socks and crampons. It was a pretty neat set-up. We hiked to the bottom or Terminal Base of the glacier before donning our crampons for the icy part of the hike. We spent a whole day doing this hike, with about 4 hours on the ice exploring cravases, wiggling through caves and using our ice axes to poke, chip and generally demolish anything we saw. It was a very memorable experience and one of the coolest things we've done on this trip. It's just such a different environment up there and so amazing to see.

From Franz Josef, we drove up the coast to Punakaiki and the Pancake Rocks. The Pancake Rocks are a strange rock formation where they look layerd, like pancakes. Over time they have formed these huge hollowed out areas and during high tide and with a strong southerly wind, waves crash up through them making massive blow holes. Unfortunately we got there too late in the day and it was past high tide so we missed out on seeing the blow holes. The rocks were still cool to see though.

We made out way up to Nelson after that and camped just outside the town that night. We spent some time in Nelson the following day and did an afternoon sea kayaking trip in Cable Bay. I'm glad it was only a half-day trip, my arms felt like they were about to fall off! Apparently I need to buff up a bit!! It was a fun experience and we were the only two on the tour so we were able to have one-on-one attention from our guide and it was a really cruisy trip. A great way to spend the afternoon.

Today is the 14th and we took the ferry from Picton on the South Island to Wellington (the capital) on the North Island. We've got about 5 days here before we have to return Taniwha and then fly on to Fiji. Still need to plan what we're doing in Fiji... hmmm, should get working on that soon! Then we'll be home in a short 2 1/2 weeks! We can hardly believe it's almost time for us to come home! The time has flown so fast and we've enjoyed every minute of this once-in-a-lifetime experience! We're looking forward to seeing everyone back home soon!

Love,

Renee & Chuck

(Photos from top to bottom: Christchurch Cathedral, us in the Rose Garden of the Botanic Gardens in Christchurch, Taniwha, sunset at Lake Tekapo, FFH Phase II, Kuwarau bungy jumping site, our view as we jumped, us at the Southern Alps on the drive to Milford Sound, Milford Sound, Chuck making his way through a cave on Franz Josef Glacier, us with Helene and Michael on Franz Josef Glacier)

playing catch-up

2008-01-10T06:04:00.000Z

We arrived in New Zealand a week ago and we're having a blast here! But... we were having so much fun in Melbourne that I just realized I haven't finished writing about our time in Australia. So, before I put up a post about our time in NZ, here's the rest on Oz...

We left Adelaide on Dec. 20th and drove along the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne. The drive was gorgeous despite the rain. We saw beautiful coastal scenery, the highlight probably being the 12 Apostles and wildlife throughout the drive. We even got to see koalas in the wild - one more Australian animal we can check off our list! They were all hiding out in one particular part of the woods as we drove by and we were fortunate enough to pull over and spot 7 of them, curled up in balls hiding from the rain. It was awesome to see them in the wild and we were even able to get within a few feet of one who was sitting pretty low in a tree.

We took our time doing the drive over 2 1/2 days and arrived in Melbourne on December 22nd. Our friends Dave and Teresa (friends we met in Ireland who have since moved to Melbourne) met us at the car rental place and we stayed with them for a couple of days. They had a bbq that night and it was like a mini reunion of our Irish friends!!! We also got to catch up with our friend Luke who we hadn't seen in about 3 years (also met him in Dublin) and he showed us a bit of Melbourne we hadn't seen so far. So awesome to see friends again!!!

On Christmas Eve the McLean's came to collect us and we spent the next 4 1/2 days with them celebrating Christmas and seeing Melbourne and the surrounding area. It was so great to finally meet Doug and April (parents of our friend Brad who is in Ireland but not much longer...) and spend Christmas with their family! They too were awesome hosts and showed us around Melbourne and made us feel like part of the family. We even got to see National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on Christmas evening - a tradition for us and one we thought we were going to have to miss out on this year. Luckily not!

April and Doug took us up to Healesville on the 26th to see the wildlife sanctuary up there and it was a gorgeous day out! The weather could not have been better and it was a bit warmer than it had been which we welcomed with open arms!!! We also got to try meat pies for the first time - what a treat! The 27th was spent with our friends Ross, Emma and their son Bailey, catching up and enjoying a lovely day out at some wineries near them, just south of Melbourne. Again, we could not have had better weather or a better time with the Smith's!

Next up was a visit with Carol and Phil (you guessed it... friends we met in Ireland that have moved to Melbourne... I'm seeing a trend here...) and their parents back down on the Great Ocean Road. April and Doug were incredibly generous and drove us down there via the ferry across the bay which showed us some of the beautiful coast south of Melbourne. Carol's parents were visiting from Ireland so the 6 of them had rented a house near Jan Juc Beach for the week after Christmas. They were so nice and invited us down for a couple of days and we were happy to join them and see them again. We really got to relax down there and enjoy some good beach time before heading back to Melbourne for New Year's Eve.

Dave and Teresa graciously loaned us their apartment over New Year's since they were away and we gladly accepted. Their apartment has gorgeous views over the city and it was an excellent base for us to explore more of the city on our own. We went to St. Kilda beach on the 30th and picked out a place to return to for New Year's Eve. On New Year's Eve day, we headed to Brighton Beach, which was really nice and pretty. It was boiling hot that day (42C/107F) so we were happy to be by the water. In fact, we couldn't even lay out properly b/c we felt like bacon frying in a pan!!! I had to lay on the waters edge just to stay cool enough.

That night we headed back down to St. Kilda beach to celebrate the new year. Melbourne does this cool thing where they provide free public transportation from 6pm on NYE to 4am the following morning. Very cool, except EVERYONE apparently wants to go to St. Kilda, including us! We had to wait for an hour for a tram b/c they all kept passing us up and not stopping. We finally got on one and there was no air/con so between it being 107F that day and the tram being completely overcrowded, the ride to the beach was miserable! And to make matters worse, the tram stopped shortly after we got on b/c there was a tram way ahead of us that broke down. It was very uncomforable and miserable to say the least! By 11:30 we finally made it to St. Kilda only to find out the place we wanted to go was entry-by-ticket only and they were all sold out. So, we went to the nearest bottle shop and got in line to buy beer to take down to the beach with us. We had to wait in line but finally made it out of there with 3 minutes to spare before midnight. We quickly headed for the beach, cracked open a couple of cold ones and counted down to midnight! We made it just in time!!! For starting off so rough, the night ended up good and we got to see 6 sets of fireworks going off all around the bay from our little spot on the beach. A pretty cool way to bring in the new year, if you ask me!

We finished up in Melbourne on the 1st and flew out to New Zealand on the 2nd of January. Riding to the airport I suddenly realized I was quite sad to be leaving Australia. Our 5 weeks there were incredible and it was really starting to feel like home. I have a feeling we'll be back though - hopefully sooner than later!

updates and underwater pictures

2007-12-30T13:05:00.000Z

So we've had some requests for some stories of the unpleasant nature. I can only guess that those requests stem from the need for a laugh or sheer, honest jealousy. Either way, I thought I would oblidge. :) I do have to preface this with the fact that there haven't been too many unpleasant or bad situations on the trip (and I hope I don't jinx us by saying that) so there's really not too much to report. So, to better entertain you, I've included some of our underwater pictures from the rented digital camera we had at the Great Barrier Reef! Here we go...

Worst Accommodation... Has to be Backpackers By The Bay in Airlie Beach - DON'T STAY THERE! Aside from the rancid smell wafting out of the kitchen area and filling up the whole common area, the place was just not clean and there is obviously no one really in charge or else they don't care b/c the whole place needed work and major updating. On top of that, we had a roommate who didn't smell so good. I think his feet were the main problem - it makes my lip curl just thinking about it! Nice guy but WOW, those feet were something else!!! He also said (and I quote) "This is the best hostel I've stayed in!" Hmmm...

Insects... Flies are very abundant in parts of Australia, especially this time of year. We encountered numerous ones in the Blue Mountains (where they apparently nest and millions hatch around November each year!) and quite a few between Adelaide and Melbourne. Think swarming around your head, landing on your face and anywhere up to 20 or so riding on your back at any given time! Not fun! We also had lots of spider webs across our faces on our walks through the Daintree Rainforest. Eeew!

Bad Weather... I probably shouldn't even mention this b/c we've been blessed with so much sunshine on this trip, but our drive along the Great Ocean Road was accompanied by less-than-perfect weather. The drive is a very scenic one along the Victoria coast and instead of bright, sunny days like we expected, we were met with much cooler temperatures and rain. We really felt like we were back in Ireland!!!! Not the weather we expected or hoped for!

More Bad Accommodation... We had the opportunity to stay in a beautiful cottage in Apollo Bay along the Great Ocean Road but the price was about double what we had been paying so we opted for the more affordable option which was crashing in a room above a bar (w/ live band). Pretty dingy set-up but the bathrooms were surprisingly clean and the band stopped playing around midnight... I guess it looked worse than it actually was.

Worst Food... I apologize in advance to all of our Aussie friends but Vegemite has to be the one! I think you have to be Australian to have a true appreciation for it... or else sheer determination to like it!

Aside from the above, we've been quite lucky and have really been enjoying ourselves. We're in Melbourne now and I'll have to do another post to fill you in on our Christmas and New Year's activities - none of which will make the "worst" list!

I'll try to do a better job in the future of including these "bad" experiences in our posts. I'm sure it will make for more interesting reading!

Oh yeah, and one more suggestion from our good friend Rob in Bath was a favorite drinks list. So here goes...

Thailand - Chang Beer (minus the Chang-Over), Tiger Beer, Buckets and Coconut Milkshakes (recovery from the beer and buckets)
Australia - Coopers Ale, Cascade Premium Lager, Samuel's Gorge Shiraz and if you like a nice buttery Chardonnay give Golding Lenswood 2005 Chardonnay a try - pretty yummy!

More to come soon...

Hugs & Kisses,
Renee & Chuck

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

2007-12-24T05:59:00.000Z

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our friends and family! We're thinking of you all and hoping you're having a wonderful, safe and healthy holiday season!

Love,

Renee & Chuck

beaches, rainforests and wineries... oh my!

2007-12-16T08:32:00.000Z

Wow! I can't believe it's only 7 days until Christmas!!! I have to say the lead up to our first hot Christmas has been good! I'm not sure I could get used to it though, but fun to experience at least once.

Let's see, it's been awhile since we've been online so I have a lot of recalling to do. We did make it up to Port Douglas after Cairns and had a relaxing day and a half there. We just laid out and did some swimming in the netted area at the 4 mile long beach. Because of the stingers in the water, you can't swim unless there's an area netted off and guarded by lifeguards. Luckily there was such an area in Port Douglas b/c it was very hot and we just wanted to get in the water. The temperature of the water was so warm too! It was like bath water. I never thought the ocean could get that warm since it's so big, but apparently it does in Northern Queensland! Port Douglas is a very pretty town too with a nice selection of restaurants and a pretty marina. Mom and Dad - it would be a perfect place to retire on a boat... :) We saw lots of pretty ones in the marina, there were even a couple for sale!!!

After Port Douglas we headed up to the Daintree Rainforest, the oldest living rainforest in the world. It was beautiful country up there and we stayed at the Crocodylus Village right in the middle of the rainforest. Everytime we set foot out of our cabin we encountered a different and new type of wildlife. It was amazing! We saw several Boyd's Rainforest Dragon (there was one that hung out on a tree next to our cabin for an entire day), some Pademelons (like small wallabies or very small kangaroos) eating next to our cabin and we saw a couple of Lace Monitors. We also went on a guided night walk and saw all sorts of cool bugs and spiders as well as a 5 foot Amethystine Python. It was very cool and a totally new environment for us!

From Daintree we headed south for the Whitsundays and made a stop on Magnetic Island for a night. It was a beautiful island and we were able to do a little snorkeling (after a very long hike!) with stinger suits on. That's one thing we've found frustrating about the Queensland coast in the summer - there are tons of stingers (some that are very small and deadly) and it's so hot that all you want to do is get in the water but you can't b/c of the stingers. You have to swim in pools or designated swimming areas which takes a bit of fun out of it. But, we've made the most of it and so far so good!

We drove on to Airlie Beach from Magnetic Island and did a day trip out to the outer Barrier Reef to do some snorkeling. That was a real highlight b/c we saw sea turtles and a couple of reef sharks! We were even able to touch the turtles shells and I touched ones foot. They are so graceful underwater and so beautiful! We wish we could have seen more sharks but even a quick sighting seemed to satisfy us. It was an excellent day out on a smaller boat with only 9 of us diving and snorkeling so it was just about perfect!

We moved on from there to Hervey Bay to join a 2 day, 1 night trip to Fraser Island. Fraser is such a unique and amazing place! (I'm trying to think of different descriptive words for all these places we've been b/c they are all so amazing, excellent, beautiful, etc!!!) For those of you that don't know, Fraser is the largest sand island in the world. It was formed by sand being deposited over millions of years and is now quite large. There are about 400 people that actually live on it today. Because the island is all sand, you are only allowed on it with 4WD transportation b/c literally EVERYTHING is sand, roads, beaches, roads on beaches, etc. Since we were on a tour, we rode around in a huge 4WD coach bus - it had 20 gears! It was still a very rough ride and quite the adventure. The landscape on Fraser is so unusal and unique. We walked through a rainforest, visited several freshwater lakes, drove along 75 mile beach (it's actually a national highway!), hiked across a sandblow (it's a sand dune w/o vegetation - think big open desert!), and swam a lot. It was an amazing side trip and I would highly recommend it to anyone who makes it to Australia! We also spent a few hours at the famous Lake McKenzie and it was like an afternoon at the spa - complete with a dingo (she just made a quick appearance on the beach, had a sniff around and a dip in the lake and then wandered off)! The sand at Lake McKenzie is all silica based and is so fine. It's like the exfoliating ingredient used in beauty products. So, at the suggestion of our tour guide, we all sat in the shallow bit of water and rubbed the sand all over us until we were nice and soft. And the water is quite acidic w/ a pH balance similar to the conditioner we all use in the shower. So, as we boarded the bus to go back to Hervey Bay, we were all nicely exfoliated with really soft hair! :)

After Fraser Island, we drove the rest of the way into Brisbane to catch our flight to Adelaide. We've been in Adelaide for the last 1 1/2 days and we've been staying with our friend Kristin (who we met in Dublin - she recently moved back home to Adelaide) and her parents Gayle and Trevor. What great hosts they all are - we feel quite spoiled!! We did a self-guided winery tour yesterday through the McLaren Vale and stopped at 4 wineries along the way for some wine tasting and a lovely lunch. It was an enjoyable day out and we discovered some new little gems we'll have to try to find once we're back home! Today we're going to head to one of the local beaches for some more sun and sand - can't get enough of either!!! - and then we'll start the drive to Melbourne tomorrow via the Great Ocean Road. It's supposed to be a beautiful drive and we're really looking forward to the coastal scenery along the way.

I will try my hardest to put up another post before Christmas but if I don't get around to it, Merry/Happy Christmas to everyone and we wish you a Happy and Healthy 2008 too! We send our love to everyone and for those of you counting the days until we get home, we are now officially past the halfway mark of our trip so we'll be seeing you before you know it!!! Talk to you all again soon!

Love to all!

Renee & Chuck

(Pictures from top to bottom: Hang Gliders on the way to Port Douglas, Beach at Port Douglas, Four Mile Beach, lookout on the drive to Daintree, Boyd's Rainforest Dragon, Pademelon, Amethystine Python, Moheno shipwreck on Fraser Island, Champagne Pools on Fraser Island, Lake McKenzie, Kangaroo Crossing sign)

our first taste of Oz

2007-12-07T07:56:00.000Z

So we left Thailand on the 28th of November and arrived in Sydney around 6:30am on the 29th. It was a long flight and I wasn't nearly as impressed with the food on our Qantas flight this time, but nonetheless, we made it! We had a crazy shuttle driver who took us to our hostel and I'm thankful we actually arrived alive!

We stayed in Sydney for 4 days and had a great time there! We made it out to Bondi Beach and Manly Beach, visited the zoo (where the highlight was being very close to a mama kangaroo and her 8 month old joey) and saw the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House and the Botanical Gardens. Sydney is a very cosmopolitan city and it was a big change for us after being in Thailand. It was a nice change although our traveller attire saw us denied entry to one or two places. It's always good to be able to flush toilet paper and count on there being flushing toilets and soap in bathrooms. :) We stayed in a hostel for the first time on our trip and after calling home last week, we now know that the idea of staying in a hostel and sharing a bedroom with "strangers" is a foreign concept to some of you. :) What can I say, this trip is a learning process for us all!

We headed to the Blue Mountains via train last Monday. The Blue Mountains are actually a series of canyons that are filled with eucalyptus trees which give off a blue hue in the air, and that's where they get their name. We only had about a day and a half there but we enjoyed every minute of the clean, fresh air and peaceful surroundings. We did lots of hiking (7 hours one day) and saw some beautiful waterfalls and wildlife including some black and white cockatoos.

On Wednesday morning, we made our way back to Sydney and flew up to Cairns. And WOW is it H-O-T up here!!!! It's amazing we're in the same country! Queensland is much more tropical than New South Wales and it's incredibly humid and in the 90's here. All we can force ourselves to do is seek water. And since you can't swim at the beaches of Cairns (due to a high jellyfish population and the presence of crocs), we found a pool yesterday and organized a dive trip for today. The Lagoon (the name of the pool) was cool, it had a sand "beach" on one side and the water was like bathwater - perfect for me, a little too warm for someone else! :)

We just got back from the dive trip after getting to dive 3 times at the Great Barrier Reef. This diving thing is so cool and I highly recommend it to anyone who gets the chance to do it! Even if it's just a fun dive to try it out and then you can get certified later if you like it that much. We saw lots of coral reefs and many, many fish, including Nemo!!! Unfortunately, we didn't see any sharks or turtles but the dives were still excellent. Someone in another group on our boat saw a Tiger Shark and a Reef Shark so we know they were near, but unfortunately we missed them. I guess we got spoiled in Thailand with seeing a Whale Shark on our third dive! Now we expect to see them all the time! We hired an underwater digital camera for the day and our pictures are being burned to a CD now so hopefully by the next post I can put some of those out here for you all to see.

We're thinking of renting a car and heading up to Port Douglas, the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation for the next few days but no plans made yet. We'll then be making our way down to Brisbane for our flight to Adelaide on the 17th of December. I've posted a few pictures and I'll try to send more via email soon.

Enjoy and you'll be hearing from us again soon!

Renee & Chuck

xoxoxo

(Pics from top to bottom: Bondi Beach, Sydney Opera House, kangaroo w/ joey at Taronga Zoo, us and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, me and the Three Sisters at the Blue Mountains, Chuck at Echo Point in the Blue Mountains, Blue Mountains lookout)

heading to Oz

2007-11-28T05:32:00.000Z

Our time in Thailand is nearly up as we head to Sydney this evening. We've had a great time here and really enjoyed our time on the islands. Bangkok is an experience and I'm glad we've seen it but it's just so busy here, you don't really want to spend much time here. We would love to come back to Thailand and see more of the islands one day.

After we completed our diving course on Koh Tao, we headed to Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party. The Full Moon Party is a monthly event held on Haad Rin beach and goes for about 3 days straight. It was mental!!! We got to the island on Friday the 23rd and had an hour long "taxi" ride out to our bungalow where we were staying. The roads were horrendous - probably the worst I've seen in my life. The erosion is horrible b/c of all the rain they got this year. The roads are dirt to begin with and then they are filled with potholes and huge crevasses where the water has washed away the dirt. It was a very bumpy and uncomfortable ride with 10 of us packed into the back of a pickup truck w/ all of our bags loaded on the roof.

We met up with some of our diving friends at the bungalow and had just enough time for a quick shower before heading back into town (via the same long drive) for a night of pre-Full Moon partying. Side note about the shower... Chuck thought you had to turn the handle really hard to get the water to turn on and ended up unscrewing the handle from the wall. Water was shooting out everywhere at very high pressure. It was a minor mishap in our plan to shower quickly that night. Luckily it was easily fixed and the problem was sorted by the time we got home the following morning.

Saturday night was the "official" party but we managed to stay up until around 9am Friday and Saturday night making the most of it. It was definitely the craziest party we've both experienced!!! There were about 15,000 people at the party and the beach was absolutely trashed each morning with beer bottles and buckets.... oh the buckets! They served drinks in little buckets with a handful of straws so you could share your concoction with all your friends. It was an interesting experience and one we're glad we did but are now done with!!! We were so thankful to meet up with our diving buddies as that made the experience even more enjoyable.

We headed to another beach, Haad Yao, for our last night on Koh Phangan to relax and recover from all the partying. Our bungalow was right on the beach, literally about 50 feet from the edge of the water, and we could hear the waves crashing in all night. It was very relaxing and we wish we could have stayed another couple of days. But, it was time to head back to Bangkok so we can fly on to Australia. The trip back didn't seem nearly as long as the trip to Koh Tao. The sea was very rough though so there were some pretty seasick people on our ferry - not too pleasant. We were both okay - Chuck has pretty good sea legs, I took an anti-seasick pill otherwise I probably would have been hanging off the side with the others.

So, one last night in Bangkok and we decided to spoil ourselves with an air-con room (our first) and boy did it feel great! We slept like babies and now we're just hanging out waiting for our bus to the airport. We're having some issues with downloading our pictures so I apologize once again for not posting any pictures but we're hoping to get our problems sorted out in Sydney and then I'll post some, I promise!!!

We hope everyone at home (both homes - States and Ireland) is doing well and getting ready for the holidays. It doesn't seem like the holiday season to us at all - a bit weird to hear our families talking about buying Christmas trees... :) We miss you all and would love to hear from you either on the blog or by email (yes, we are still checking email).

Talk to you all again soon - from Oz! And be sure to check out the map, I've updated it so you can see where all we've been!

Renee & Chuck
xoxoxoxo

diving in koh tao

2007-11-23T06:42:00.000Z

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone at home!!! I had the best of intentions of posting something yesterday but it just didn't work out. I hope everyone had a wonderful day and ate lots of turkey for us!!! :) Our Thanksgiving dinner was a bit different... I had fried noodles with vegetables and Chuck had pineapple and chicken with rice. Not the traditional turkey dinner, but still good nonetheless.

After 6 very relaxing days in Koh Tao, I'm happy to report that we are both PADI certified Open Water Divers!!!! We thoroughly enjoyed our diving classes and the dives were amazing! It's so cool being under water with all the fish and seeing all the beautiful colors and coral. We had an awersome instructor, Camilo, who made us feel very comfortable in the water. We completed our 4 required dives (2 at 12 meters and 2 at 18 meters) and on the third, we were very fortunate to see a 3 meter Whaleshark! It was beautiful! It's the largest fish in the ocean and adults can get up to 18 meters long. They are known to be seen in waters around Koh Tao but the sightings can be few and far between. There are diving instructors who have been here for 7 years and still have never seen one. So, we were incredibly lucky and priveledged that the whaleshark made an appearance for us. The waters were very choppy yesterday but we toughed it out and the results paid off! We have a DVD of our last dive that we'll be happy to show off to you all once we get home. :)

We're catching a ferry to Koh Phangan in a few minutes so this post will be quick and w/o pictures but I promise to put more pictures up soon. If all goes to plan, we'll be in Koh Phangan until the 27th when we head back to Bangkok to fly to Sydney. There's a full moon party on Koh Phangan on the 24th that's really popular (supposed to be the 3rd biggest party in the world) so we've been talked into going there and we'll hopefully be meeting up with some of our fellow diver friends from Koh Tao. Should be good fun followed by lots of relaxing on the beach, snorkeling and maybe even an elephant trek through the jungle.

I'll post more soon! We love you all!!! Chuck & Renee

crazy, busy Bangkok

2007-11-15T18:04:00.000Z

We arrived safely in Bangkok after a day of sightseeing in London. We were incredibly tired but still in good spirits and we were very happy to have the time we did in London - wouldn't have done it any other way! And may I mention that our first Qantas experience was a very good one! I was very impressed with the food on the airplane, so much so that Chuck thought I was going to write to the airline company to congratulate them on their culinary skills. Maybe I still will... we'll see how the rest of the trip goes first! :)

First thing I have to say about Bangkok is WOW - It's H-O-T (and it's only winter here) and the people are SO friendly! It's truely the land of smiles! Definitely not used to the humidity anymore but we're hangin' in there and enjoying our time here. We've seen several Wat's (Buddhist temples) including the 45M gold Buddha and the Marble Temple which was beautiful! All the Wat's are being repainted or power-washed right now for the King's birthday next month. And a lot of people are wearing yellow or gold shirts in honor of his birthday.

We went to Chinatown and Siam Square yesterday/last night and realized just how busy and big this city is! We got a glimpse into the huge sex industry in Bangkok. It's very interesting to say the least and kind of sad to see such young girls putting themselves out there. We've also tried our hand at haggling with the Tuk-Tuk's and have have some favorable outcomes. It's fun riding around in those little cars, aside from all the exhaust and smog blown in your face!

We've had great food so far and have done a bit of shopping (as can be expected when things are so cheap). Our average meal cost is the equivalent of EUR 8 including drinks and tip. Can't beat that! Don't worry, we made up for it a bit at the night markets tonight...had to be done! We have also been pleased to find that the toilet situation has been much better than expected. I guess we were expecting China (holes in the ground), but we've had real toilets all around so far. Very nice and clean too!

Tomorrow we're going to see the Grand Palace, which we're very excited to see. It was closed on Wednesday because of some holiday and then we slept in too late today to see it (still getting used to the 7 hour time difference from Dublin) so tomorrow it is the #1 spot on our list before we head out of Bangkok for the islands. And for those of you wondering... we're 13 hours ahead of CST time.

We leave at 5:30 tonight (Friday) for Koh Tao and the beach life for a week. We've booked bus and boat transfer(12 hour over-night bus ride followed by 2 hour ferry), accommodation and the PADI Open Dive 4-day course (which we hope we didn't get ripped off for... but that's always a question in the back of your mind in Thailand) and will be in Koh Tao (the diving mecca of Southeast Asia) for the next week. We will decide where to go next while we're there.

We're definitely looking forward to some beach time because this type of weather can only be thoroughly enjoyed on the beach. I do have to say that the Thai people are THE friendliest people I've met so far and the heat doesn't seem to effect their friendliness or helpfulness.

Enjoy the couple of pics I've posted and hopefully we'll be talking to you again from Koh Tao with an update on our scuba lessons. Fingers crossed we (I) can handle the diving bit...

Love to all - we miss you! R&C

the end of a good 3 years

2007-11-11T14:27:00.000Z

Well, here it is... our last day in Dublin and as if we had forgotten what rain was like (because of the nice weather we've had lately), it's decided to rain today. Not much but just enough to remind us where we are!

We're headed out tomorrow morning at the ungodly hour of 4:30am. We'll be sightseeing in London for the day before we catch our connecting flight to Bangkok tomorrow night. We could very well be zombies by then!

We enjoyed our time in Prague earlier this week. It was cold and a bit rainy but we made do and had a great time nonetheless. I've managed to post a few pictures from our time there. No massive photo albums while we're traveling, you'll all get a barrage of photos when we get home. :)

Our leaving drinks were Friday night and it was great to see so many of our friends one last time. We're already looking forward to the day we get to see them again!

I suppose that's it for this post, time to wrap things up before tomorrow morning. The next time you hear from us, we'll be working on our tans in Thailand and hopefully learning how to scuba dive too!

(Pictures from top to bottom: view of Prague and the Charles Bridge from Prague Castle, me and Chuck in front of the Astronomical Clock, view of Prague Castle from the Charles Bridge)

10 days and counting

2007-11-01T16:04:00.000Z

It has been pointed out to me that I've been neglecting our blog. I guess I didn't really think about updating it again until we were actually gone but I suppose it doesn't hurt to let you all know what we're up to during our last remaining days in Dublin.

The movers are coming on Monday (if all goes to plan) so we're busy preparing for them to come and leave us with an empty, computer-less apartment. The thought of not having our computer readily available is a little frightening to say the least. But I guess it also means we're one step closer to getting on that plane!

We got out our rucksacks last weekend to see just how much we could cram in them. (Check out the "his and hers" picture.) I think I have everything packed on my "necessity" list and I'm up to 30 lbs. in mine. It doesn't sound like much but trust me, it's heavy when it's hanging off your back! I think it's manageable though and it was exciting to try it on with my stuff actually in it. It's hard to imagine carrying your stuff when you're trying on an empty backpack in the store. So, as long as we can keep the rucksacks out of the movers hands on Monday, we'll be golden!

In the meantime, we've been checking the wether in Thailand off and on. Bangkok looks like upper 80's (I could use some of that!) and the islands are a bit rainy. It's the end of the rainy season though so fingers crossed, within a couple of weeks time all will be sunny again!

until next time...

first time blogger...

2007-09-26T15:43:00.000+01:00

So I just set this thing up and I hope it's user friendly!

We're busy getting the final details of our trip together... including setting up a travel blog to keep in touch with family and friends as we go along. Hopefully this will prove to be a convenient way for us to keep in touch and share with you the progress and experiences of our long journey home.

Wish me luck with this blog... maybe I'll even get Chuck to post a comment or two along the way!

~Renee