One Week in Oz

Saturday 29 September

We fly out on a very early flight arriving in Melbourne about 8 am. Our hotel is on Collins Street so pretty central but we’re too early to check in so they look after our cases while we have a wander, ending up in the lanes having lunch. We immediately realise it’s going to be an expensive holiday as things seem to be about the same price or more than they are in NZ but the Ozzie dollar’s a whole lot higher than ours. It’s also very cold compared to Auckland, and we need to get well wrapped up to do our stroll along the River Yarra: hats, scarves, gloves, the lot. That evening we go to Brunswick Street in the suburbs to eat and get the tram back. Melbourne is a city of trams and travel is fun, easy, and cheap once you know what you’re doing. I’m always keen to get to know the public transport wherever we are and it’s fun persuading Mike to catch buses etc.

The tram system was really good. This is one of the old circle line trams which give you a free ride round the centre

Walking along the River Yarra

 

Sunday 30 September

We walk to the Queen Vic Market and have the perfect breakfast, reading the papers and taking our time before launching into this enormous market. It’s selling the usual goods but also a load of Ozzie tourist stuff: boomerangs, kangaroo skins, and nasty opal jewellery. There’s a lovely covered market area which reminds us of Europe with cheeses and olives, real bread and great looking meat. We buy lunch then wander off and visit the Museum which is rather disappointing, especially as we had to pay to get in. Back to the hotel for lunch and siesta, and in the afternoon we walk down the river to the Botanical Gardens which are lovely. The sun’s shining but it’s very cold still. We see loads of parakeets, unusual sweet smelling plants, and we find the Magic Pudding statue. Walk to Chinatown in the evening and Mike eats crocodile.

One very strange tree in the Botanical Gardens

Monday 1 October

After packing and settling up at the hotel we get an early tram travelling through the lovely south Melbourne suburbs to St Kilda’s. The domestic architecture here is quite different from Auckland with far more brick buildings and tiled roofs as opposed to the weatherboard and corrugated roofs we have here, along with plenty of decorative iron work on verandah railings and balconies, and a lot of stained glass windows. Very pretty with flowering shrubs and climbers everywhere. 

Looking back towards the Melbourne CBD from St Kilda's Pier

Brilliant entrance to Luna Park at St Kilda's

It’s a lovely bright day and we stroll down St Kilda’s pier to the Pavilion for coffee. There’s a colony of little penguins here but of course they’re only to be seen at dusk and dawn so no sign of them for us. Fantastic views back to Melbourne CBD however. Back past Luna Park though the Botanic Gardens to Balaclava, from where we get another tram to Windsor and walk along to South Yarra. This area is great for retro and second hand shops, and I see the most stylish Sally Anne shop ever. After lunch we jump on another tram north to the National Gallery of Victoria only to discover that Australian artists’ work is kept somewhere else. Love the stained glass ceiling and water wall. To fill every last minute we manage to squeeze in a quick tram trip to the new Docklands area before grabbing our suitcases and catching the 19.30 sleeper train to Sydney.

Stained glass ceiling at the National Gallery

Tuesday 2 October

. . . and it’s quite an experience. We have our own tiny compartment with bunk beds that drop from the wall, and we share toilet and shower with an identical compartment next door. The toilet and wash hand basin have to be pulled from their vertical position to the horizontal. All very clever and space-saving though I’m not sure how you’d manage if you were a large person. The train is quite old and it shook and rattled and juddered slowly overland as we slept fitfully through the night, arriving in Sydney about 7.30. Sydney is much, much warmer and we see great big sulphur crested parakeets grazing just outside the station. It takes longer than it should to get the hire car and then we have to find our way to the airport to pick up a satnav.

We drive up out of Sydney for about 1.5 hours stopping at the Glenbrook i-site in the Blue Mountains. We’d already planned a walk but wanted maps of the area. The big guy who dealt with us was so positive about going to Wentworth Falls that we changed our plans. He also recommended Newnes for wildlife telling us we’d see loads of wallabies and wombats down there. Good man, he was right on both counts. We drove on to the Falls but struggled to find the right path with the decorative but impractical map. We’re used to free DOC maps in NZ so it came as a bit of a shock to have to pay for them here. We soon get the hang of it and are amazed when we get our first glimpse of the massive canyon that is the Jamieson Valley.

View across and down into the Jamieson Valley

A lot of the walking is along ledges, looks hairy but feels pretty safe because of the railings

Looking back up the steps as we descend into the valley

The Blue Mountains are in fact a plateau with rivers and erosion cutting deep canyons into the surface over millennia. You are immediately reminded that Australia is an ancient continent in comparison to NZ. Katoomba, where we’re staying, and Wentworth Falls are on the surface of the plateau but the walks descend steeply down into valleys and run along under cliffs: sort of ridge walking in reverse, and the scenery is amazing and of course, completely new to us. A lot of the time we’re walking along narrow ledges with startling drops a few feet away, but it feels safe as there are metal rails beside us. Our walk this afternoon takes about 3 hours, down steep steps carved out of rock to the spectacular Wentworth Falls and then along the fabulous National Pass track running parallel under the over-hanging cliffs and through hanging swamps, then steeply up metal stairs at the far end to the Conservation Hut from where it was a short but exhausting walk back to the car.

Taking a rest in the shade

Looking up at the foot of the Wentworth Falls

We drive onto Katoomba and check into the lovely Carrington Hotel. It was built in 1895 and has retained most of its original features, so our room has a window seat and stained glass windows. Even the bathroom is original except the bath has been removed and a shower replaces it. I love it here, there’s a library and a billiard room: the perfect place for a murder mystery. We eat across the road at an Italian restaurant and get a good night’s sleep. 

The Carrington Hotel, Katoomba, my favourite place to stay

Lovely stained glass everywhere

Wednesday 3 October

Another beautiful clear blue sky and we’re walking down Katoomba St right to Echo Point at the far end. It’s a stopping point for coaches, there’s an i-site and a fantastic view from the top looking across and down into the valley. From here we descend the Giant’s Staircase beside the Three Sisters, down and down steep metal and stone steps into the valley below. Again we reach a level path and walk along towards Scenic World where we get on the steepest funicular railway in the world for a lift back to the top. This walk is less spectacular than yesterday’s but still stunning. 

The Three Sisters from Echo Point with valley and Blue Mountains beyond

Cllimbing down the Giant's Stairway, an almost vertical descent beside the Three Sisters

 We walk back to Echo Point stopping for tea on the way and see sulphur crested parakeets and crimson rosellas up close. Siesta back at the hotel after lunch and then in late afternoon we begin our drive out to Newnes where we’ve been told we’ll spot some wildlife. It’s a fairly remote spot further into the Blue Mountains and is an old mining town at the far end of a gravel road. It’s now more or less derelict except for an old ramshackle hotel and a wild camping site. Just driving along the road and I spot a bunch of wallabies looking startled in the late afternoon sunlight and they soon appear left, right and centre, though never very close. We’re soon walking along beside a river where a few families have set up great campsights, and we see large holes in the ground which we take to be wombat holes, then all of a sudden Mike spots a great big furry creature lumbering along not too far off . . . and of course it’s a real live wombat, just come out to sniff around in the evening light. Amazing wonderful creature and we’re chuffed to bits. 

The Newnes Hotel, more or less all that's left of the old mining town

Our first wombat sighting

Further along we spot a large animal just beside the road and stop to investigate. It’s wombat-sized but looks different and is very still, blinking its eyes but not moving much apart from that. Its hair is variable in colour, lighter, and very scruffy looking. In fact on closer inspection it doesn’t look too well at all. It’s so still, Mike thinks it may be a large koala fallen out of a tree. It certainly doesn’t look in the best of health, but doesn’t have the distinctive koala nose and ears and is just too big we think. It may be a very ancient wombat on its last legs poor thing. Much later, after a Google search we decide it must be a very sick hairy-nosed wombat. 

The poor sick looking animal we think may be a hairy nosed wombat

Driving back along the gravel road in the dusk we see loads more wallabies and a field full of grazing wombats . . . a wisdom of wombats as Mike’s chosen to call them, though they don’t look particularly wise it must be said. Suddenly a large kangaroo appears to our left and hops right across us, in front of the car, and another appears to our right running along beside us. So we’ve seen wallabies, wombats and kangaroos in the wild, all in one evening, and we’re excited and feeling very pleased with ourselves.

Thursday 4 October

It’s our last day in the Blue Mountains and the sun’s shining with all its might, so we pack up after breakfast and set off with packed lunch to Wentworth Falls. Must say I’m very sad to be leaving this beautiful hotel and great walking area. This time we decide to walk the other way around on the Wentworth Pass track as opposed to the National Pass which we walked on our first day here, so we’re parking at Conservation Hut. The path is lower down into the canyon so we’re descending more stone and metal steps even further towards the valley bottom, then walking on a more or less level track through bush with the parakeets screeching overhead. 

There are endless waterfalls during the descent

Mike climbing the Slack Stairs

At the far end we climb up the steep, metal clad, Slack Stairs, to the foot of the Wentworth Falls where we stop for lunch. There are kids playing in the pools and Mike joins them to cool his feet. It’s a fabulous day but quite windy and the spray from the waterfall is blowing all over the place. Spectacular and rather pleasant as it cools us down. We continue the climb back up steps which were cut out of solid stone over 100 years ago when a Scotsman had taken on the job of creating a scenic route for Victorian tourists. We take tea at Conservation Hut then drive on to Sydney. Mike returns the car and I check into the Hyde Park Plaza, where we have a small apartment with kitchen and balcony.

Old stone steps leading back up to the top

There’s a big difference in temperature, must be 30 degrees this evening, which is lovely for us as we walk out to find a restaurant. Stanley St has been recommended to us and its close by. There must be about 10 little restaurants for us to choose from, all with tables out and open fronts, we go for Thai. 

On the level along the Under Cliff path to Conservation Hut

Friday 5 October

It’s really hot today, 34 degrees and turns out to be the hottest October day Sydney’s had in 4 years, not really what you want for sight-seeing but we do our best after breakfast setting off through Hyde Park. We see lots of Ibis’s digging through rubbish bins. They’re very common here and quite ugly close up, not at all scared of people. We walk past the Royal Botanic Gardens down to the Opera House where we watch the little green and yellow ferries dashing around the harbour. We then walk around Circular Quay to The Rocks where we get ripped off for coffee but find a good info centre. 

One of many ferries criss-crossing under Harbour Bridge

Close up it's not bright white but made up of off-white ceramic textured tiles

The heat’s really getting to me and I need to retire to my bed with paracetamol while Mike buys lunch. We then walk over to Darling Harbour, stopping to nose at the shops in the Queen Vic Building. The weather’s changing again, temperature must have dropped about 15 degrees. 

More stained glass in the Queen Vic Building

Saturday 6 October

Today we do the Spit to Manly walk. Much cooler and drizzling but not enough to put us off. We manage to find the right bus, so I force Mike on public transport again, and get off at The Spit. The path takes us around the coast, past beaches, through bush and some bits of National Park. There are loads of flowering bushes and trees, quite different to kiwi bush, and we pass some Aboriginal rock carvings along the way. We get to Manly for lunch then catch the famous ferry back to the CBD. There are hundreds of little sailing boats out in the harbour and great views of the Sydney Opera House through the drizzle. This evening we go to the nicest restaurant on Stanley St and eat Balmain Bug (after checking what it is with the waiter) and Barramundi. Delicious.

Over-looking Sydney Harbour on a drizzly day

On the Manly ferry going back to the CBD

Sunday 7 October

Get the train to the airport and back home to Auckland. ouse through the drizzle.thiiiiito the airport

Nelson w/e, 13-16 September

We arrive quite late on a cold wet Thursday night and Anne & Andy are waiting to collect us from the airport. We drive west from Nelson to Mapua, drop our stuff off and go to the local pub for a couple of drinks.

A&A’s place is too small to fit us in so they’ve rented a house nearby for 3 nights, and have already lit the wood burner stove so it’s nice and cosy for our arrival. There are large kowhai trees in the back garden and in the morning there are tuis swooping and playing around, drinking the nectar from the flowers. We have an early start in the morning as it’s the best walking day weather-wise and we want to do some of the Abel Tasman track. A&A pick us up and we have a quick coffee before shooting off to Maharau which is the start of the track. Here we’re booked onto a water taxi which takes us on a bit of a tour before dropping us off at Bark Bay. The sun’s shining for us and it’s a beautiful area, similar in many respects to the Queen Charlotte track on the Marlborough Sounds, but slightly less bush and more beach, certainly in the section we’ve chosen to walk.

View across the Tasman from the landing at Bark Bay to the hills of Marlborough Sound, the other side of Nelson

We wander along Bark Beach on lovely golden sand before setting off south on the track. There are a number of DOC huts along the way which is where we’d be sleeping if we were doing the whole 3-4 day trek. They have sleeping ledges and water supplies but no cooking facilities so you have to carry your own, as well as all your food of course.

Walking along Bark Bay with Anne & Andy in the distance

The path takes us up and over a few hills and drops down to the coast on a pleasant meandering well-kept track. Mostly kanuka overhead with great views down to the coast and what must be the western edge of the Marlborough Sounds in the far, far distance. We have to cross quite a long swing bridge over a river at one point and soon find ourselves descending into a village at Torrent Bay. The baches here are big and luxurious and cost a small fortune these days as no more building has been allowed since the area was designated a National Park. We come across a picnic table on the beach just in time for lunch.

This is about as high the path gets before dropping down to the beach again

There are quite a lot of these swing bridges on major walking tracks in NZ. This is quite a long one and was good and bouncy once you were in the middle

 From here the path splits into a coastal or inland route. As its low tide we naturally take the coastal route which leads us across the estuary. We’re following the orange posts as instructed but find ourselves having to cross streams and rivers. A&A take the quickest way over, just running straight through, and as the water’s a foot deep or more in places they get very wet feet. Mike and I take the more considered, elderly approach and remove our boots and socks before wading across. The water’s freezing but our socks stay dry. 

Typical stretch of path. Not much bush around but loads of kanuka

Looking down on Torrent Bay and the estuary we have to cross to get to Anchorage

 From here on it’s just one more hill to climb and we’re back down onto the beach at Anchorage. The near end of the beach has some wonderful weathered rocks many of which are covered in quite old graffiti and we found one dated 1740. We slowly make our way to the far end of the beach where we await the water taxi to take us back to Marahau. That evening we go out to eat at Jellies, the local restaurant, then home for a good sleep.

The beach at Torrent Bay, the most populated part of the Abel Tasman

Old graffitti on the rocks at Anchorage

 Next morning it’s raining heavily as predicted, so we have a leisurely start before going to Jesters for breakfast. It’s an interesting place not least because it has tame eels living in the stream below the cafe. So after breakfast we buy some raw chicken in a little pot and go down to feed the eels. We don’t have to hang about either. They’re ready and waiting for us, in all their black slimy squirminess. And they’re not small either: 3-4 foot long at least, and when you place food near  them they rear their ugly heads right up out of the water to grab it from the stick, gripping it hard with their teeth sometimes in their excitement. More eels kept on coming, we must have seen about 8 there altogether: quite a sight.

Andy and I bravely feed slippery eels at Jesters Cafe

We then moved on to the famous Nelson market and had a quick wander but rain drifted in and rather speeded us up, though we managed to grab some lunch before heading onto the Suter Art Gallery. There was a good exhibition of work from Northern Queensland in Australia, way up near the coast, which perhaps explains the  fact that the characters depicted had a more Indonesian than aboriginal look to them. There’s a good cafe there too and we stayed on to watch a rather lovely film, The Song of the Kauri, which was a documentary about creating sustainable native forests and a guy making guitars and violins with kauri wood. We eat pizza at the local pub and watch the rugby, All Blacks against South Africa.

Anne looking glamorous on the beach at Rabbit Island, posing in my sunglasses

Mist clearing on Rabbit Island

Our last day down south, so we have breakfast and take a drive around so A&A can show us the houses they’ve been looking to buy. Nothing’s been quite right yet but the area’s good being so close to Nelson and the Abel Tasman Track, with the mountains behind. The rain’s clearing and as the sun appears we make our way over to Rabbit Island for a walk along the beach, before being dropped off at the airport.

Maungatautari Reserve & Kawhia, 26-27 August

It was a race against time to get down to the Maungatautari Reserve for 7.30 pm where we were booked for an interview with Sirocco the famous kakapo. Mike left work early but there’s a heavy exodus from Auckland on a Friday evening so traffic was bad and we only just make it on time. There are about 20 people booked into the same slot and we’re shown a short film about the rarity of Kakapo and conservationists’ efforts to increase their numbers, before being taken to meet him.

Sirocco, star of the show

Kakapos are the largest parrots in the world. They are flightless and nocturnal. There are only 125 left in existence, all now protected and in reserves. Their survival is miraculous really because they are such ridiculous creatures. Their favourite food is the fruit of the rimu. This is a very tall tree, up to 30m, so they climb laboriously up the trunk, eat their fill, then throw themselves down to the ground again, mostly managing to survive.  During the mating season, the male clears a runway of twigs and debris, then digs a bowl into which he places himself, making a booming noise with his breast for 8 hours a night for about 3 months, hoping to attract the female.

Poor Sirocco was ill as a chick so had to be raised by humans, the end result being that he can’t (or won’t) mate with other kakapo. On his little reserve island he made his runway and bowl in between his keepers hut and the outside toilet hoping to trap an unsuspecting human on their way to the loo in the night.

The viewing tower within the Maungatautari Reserve

It’s this unusual behaviour that made Sirocco world famous in the following video clip taken from a Stephen Fry TV program:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T1vfsHYiKY . Since then the NZ Prime Minister has made Sirocco a conservation Ambassador, and he now spends his time travelling around NZ raising funds for the cause. 

After our interview with the famous parrot we make our way to Out in the Styx where we’re booked for the night. There’s an all-in-one price for bed, breakfast and evening meal, and the menu is simply: ‘Take it or Leave it’. We love it: good home-made food with a choice of dishes. The owner is friendly and helpful and his wife is obviously a great cook. There’s a large group of dairy farmers just finishing off with speeches as we arrive and we soon have the place to ourselves, relaxing beside the wood fire.

Back garden of Out in the Styx with Maungatautari on the skyline

Next morning we have a terrific breakfast, then go off to see the reserve in bright sunshine. The entrance is manned by a lovely old couple who give us a bit of its history and send us off in the right direction. Such a contrast between this clear bright day and the cool green half- light of the bush. The reserve is essentially a mountain, a large part of which has been fenced off and made pest free. There are many very large old trees so the canopy is very high above you, even the tree ferns and nikau palms are tall. The bush is still and quiet but for the trickle of streams and the birdsong which breaks out intermittently close by. The birds here seem even more relaxed about human beings than usual in NZ, and many of them come very close indeed, as if they’re attracted by our soft low speech. We see kakas, many beautiful stitch birds, NZ robins, tomtits, and bellbirds. There’s a rather lovely wooden viewing tower but it doesn’t take you quite high enough to be able to see over the tree tops.

View across to Kawhia Harbour in the far distance from the hills we had to cross to get there

We drove on westwards through Te Awamutu, and over the mountains to get to Kawhia. It’s a small sleepy town on the edge of a large inland harbour and we’re booked into a bach for the night. A lovely drive through bush covered mountains, and at one point we stop high up and look down at the harbour sparkling in the distance. We have lunch in one of the two cafes, then find our bach. It’s basic and quite cold but clean and there’s a large telly with good reception which in itself is a bit of a luxury for us. We meet Rowena, our Maori landlady, who’s a bit of a character, and lives next door at the w/e’s. We plan to watch the sunset at Ocean Beach and return the next day to dig for hot pools at low tide.

Kawhia wharf and harbour on a beautiful still afternoon

Meanwhile we take a walk around the town and harbour’s edge, and suss out the best place to eat (not that there’s a lot of choice). We pop into the local store to buy breakfast for tomorrow as neither of the cafes open till late. The shop is in a sad state and has the most miserable shop keeper imaginable, what a difference a decent store would make to the place, and a smile come to that. At 6.30 we’re heading to Ocean Beach. We walk up high over a giant sand dune and down onto the black sand beach. We find a sheltered hollow and watch the show with our backs to the dunes. There are a couple of other people around; a Maori Mum sat up on top of the dunes with 2 girls who are wave- jumping way down at the shoreline, and a loner sat above us, the unmistakable smell of dope drifting down around us.

Sunset on Ocean Beach, west of Kawhia

Mike builds us a fire to keep warm back at the bach and we go out to the Blue Chook for dinner. The food turns out to be exceptional: delicious fresh John Dory with chips and salad. Very friendly atmosphere and great service, as we sit eating dinner and watching the All Blacks beat Australia.

A gentle grey morning on Ocean Beach with Mount Karoi in the distance, which we climbed while staying in Raglan,

Next morning we walk for miles on Ocean Beach and though we keep digging our toes into the sand at the water’s edge, we don’t manage to find the renowned hot pools of Te Paua. Far away to the north we can see Mount Karoi which Mike and I had climbed, when we were staying at Raglan months ago. We go back to Kawhia for coffee, then begin the long drive home. I don’t suppose we’ll ever be back, as Kawhia’s a dead end, not on the road to anywhere else, but it made for a good stop over and was a memorable sunset.

South Head, Kaipara Harbour, 19 August

We set off 8.15 and it takes nearly 2 hours to get to Lake Otoroa, though that doesinclude the obligatory coffee & cake stop at Helensville. This is the largest lake on South Head and has recently been taken over by DOC (Dept. of Conservation). It’s immediately obvious that it’s a recent acquisition as there’s little info and the footpath seems to disappear almost before it’s started. So we’re following a tangled path over and under fallen tree trunks and struggling to find a way over treacherous terrain around the perimeter of the lake which is more or less visible through the kanuka trunks.



Lake Otoroa, through the kanuka trees
 

These arum lilies are growing all around Auckland, they're a native of South Africa

The internet info had mentioned gullies full of lilies and sure enough we found them in huge clumps, flower heads full of bees. They’re arum lilies, a creamy white glowing in the sunshine. However we decide to retreat, when the path becomes more trouble than it’s worth, and move on to the next destination: Mosquito Bay. We’d seen this bay from a boat trip on Kaipara Harbour that we did back in the Summer, and thought it would be worth a visit. However we hadn’t taken account of the tides and walked down a very steep track only to find it was high tide and we couldn’t really explore at all. We meet another English couple also out exploring for the w/e. No mosquitoes I’m happy to report. Kaipara Harbour is the largest natural harbour in North Island and at the beginning of the twentieth century would have been full of kauri logs, cut down from the forests and floated down rivers into the harbour ready for export.

Mosquito Bay and Kaipara Harbour with the tide in. Not much exploring to be done

 

A long walk back up the hill and we move onto the Waionui Lagoon, driving through a section of MOD land. It’s a long drive through pine forest and we’re right at the top of South Head. The lagoon is really an inlet with a long spit of sand on its far side, and as the tide’s going we can stroll along the water’s edge towards the harbour itself. Pine forest descends into dune then mangrove swamp but we manage to get quite a long way round until we come across a river. So the clump of pines we’d been aiming for turns out to be on an island and the river separating us is deep and fast moving so there’s no way we’re getting over there.


This is the clump of pines we're heading for which turns out to be an island

Here we find a man with his daughter cooking sausages for lunch. No other people for miles around, but they’re having a lovely time. He used to live round here as a boy. We continue our walk and head for a line of trees reckoning there’s probably a path back alongside it. Starts off OK but is getting a bit swampy, and before we know it we’re pretty much stuck in the middle of an enormous mangrove swamp. No path, just reeds underfoot between the mangrove bushes which are more or less water-logged.



Finally we get out of the swamp and back to the shore of the lagoon

Mike’s wearing shorts and getting scratched legs, and I’m worried about getting covered in mud, but the boots stay on and hold out and we eventually make it back to the water’s edge. There’s a lonely woman wandering in search of her lost dog, but we’ve not seen it in our travels: it’s probably stuck in the mangroves like we were. Finally back to the car and on our way home.