New Zealand South Island - Mt Cook

This is our first New Zealand Blog. Christchurch was interesting but the really good part of the South Island is the wild country and isolation. There is just so much eye popping scenery literally everywhere you turn. Here are a selection of images from our trip to Mt Cook, at 13,700 ft, NZ's highest peak ( Carrantouhill in Co Kerry is 3414 ft).

Mt Cook is snow covered all year round, and has glaciers on each side. This first shot is Lor on the Tasman glacier which sort of resembles the surface of the moon (well we haven't been there yet actually but you get the picture).

D in front of Mt Sefton. The glaciers on Sefton visible in the background look amazing in the evening light.

D in front of Mt Sefton (again!). Different T-shirt though for added excitement.

Rumour has it the moon landings in 1969 were faked and filmed here on the Tasman glacier. I can well believe this. Here is our mode of transport - an 8 wheel argo. In case you are wondering where all the ice is its under all of that grey stony surface. However if you look in the background over our shoulders you can see where the current above ground ice flow terminates on the upper valley.

The little bearded guy turned out to be a gifted mountaineer.

And so did Lor. Here she is getting over her fear of heights by standing on a large rock.

Mmm, what could this be - yes you guessed right. Its a glacier.

And this ??!!

This is the melt water lake at the end of the Tasman glacier. Look closely. See the white things floating in the water? They are actually icebergs !

No really. Look below.

See??

Ok, another day another glacier.

Well hell I'm just glaciered out. Would you like ICE in that G&T?

Here is a shot of the surrounding area - as you can see its pretty wild ( in the outdoory kinda sense)

Here is a picture of some interesting twigs.

And for a bit of variety a lake (in front of a glacier).
Ok, you probably had enough. We will leave you with one more picture of the summit of Mt Cook. Check here again soon for more riveting reports from the BIG TRIP.

Melbourne, Australia

This is Melbourne, Victoria, second city of Australia after Sydney with population of almost 4M.
One of the best views is from the 88th floor of the Melbourne tower, the skydeck.

View from a different angle - Melbourne is an interesting mix of modern and and older buildings.

The city is built around the banks of the Yarra river.

The day we were in town was an annual parade - a sort of festival that Melbourners celebrate their city on annually.

L in front of Flinders Street station, the major transport hub in town and a landmark building.

St Kilda is a seaside suburb with a good beach. This is the view back towards downtown.

D on the pier at St Kilda.

Melbourne is of course home of one the richest races in the world, at Flemington Racecourse.

When we heard that the races were on Saturday we could not miss this. A card of nine races with three Grade 1 events.

L arrived early enough to study the form and pick a few bets trackside. Though it may be hard to believe looking at the pictures the race meeting had to be abandoned after race 6 due to weather. When we arrived it was sunny and hot. However a few hours later, within a matter of minutes, a super storm cell changed all this. Just after the 6th race everyone ran for cover as the cyclone hit. The city was pounded with hail the size of golf balls - seriously. Cars were destroyed, roofs collapsed and 60 mm of rain came down within an hour. Anyone caught in the hail sustained cuts and bruises.

We have never seen anything like this - there were flash floods in downtown and everything ground to a halt. This made national news here and was a 1 in a 100 year event.

Luckily for us a very kind Australian gave us a lift back into town in a 4X4 as all public transport was off. Anyway, we did get 6 races and an astonishing experience weatherwise.

On to more sedate pass times - Wine tasting, Yarra valley. Mmmm, the merlot or the shiraz - at 10 AM in the morning it is hard to know. They all taste pretty good to me.

Hire a guy to drive you around the Yarra valley all day and you can get 5 wineries in!!

Of course it is well known that many people in Ireland have relatives who emmigrated to Australia in times gone by. Gnome is no different. There we were in a winery minding our own business and he spots one of his relatives flogging Shiraz!!

L in Yarra valley after we persuaded Gnome it was time to move on.

Vineyards in the Yarra valley - bushfires last year nearly wiped out many of the vines - the trees on the hill behind still show evidence of the fire. A number of townships were destroyed with heavy loss of life.

We ended our Australian travels with a journey down the great Ocean road for two days. This is the coast of Victoria that runs West from Melbourne towards Adelaide. It is reputed to be Australias best coastal drive. You can see why.

Inland from the cliffs and ocean are vast Eucalyptus forests which are home to one of Australias most recognisable creatures - The Koala. During our fews days we came accross many sitting or more typically sleeping in the trees. They don't seem to mind being photographed as they are high above the ground and away from people.

SNOOOOOOZE..........

An so ends our trip around Australia. We arrived here on February 11th and now on March 11th it is time to leave. We leave Melbourne to travel on to New Zealand with the South Island our next stop.

G'day to all and au revoir to Australia!

Sydney

A birds eye view of the CBD in Sydney from its tallest structure, the Sydney tower. The harbour bridge is visible in the top of the photo.

The view from the top of the South Pylon on the harbour bridge is pretty good too - this was the first thing we did when we arrived on Saturday afternoon in the city.

A nice 30 minute ferry ride out from the city is Manly, a laid back seaside suburb with a nice beach and good surf.

A great way to spend an evening in Sydney - a trip to the opera. We took in A midsummer nights dream which was actually hilarious and quite risque, not something that you can say about most operas.

For wine buffs a trip out to the Hunter valley is a must. About two hours north west of Sydney this is the home of many great wineries and particularly famous for its Shiraz. Driving in Australia can be an experience. In rural areas roads are liable to go from tarmac to dirt with little warning - and you need to watch out for the Roos ...

D made friends with a really nice woman in the Lindemans winery who provided chocolate cake, cheese and crackers and lashings of the red stuff for free. We nearly stayed the night!

Eventually they ran out of cheese and we had to leave - but we did buy a bottle of excellent Shiraz for 10 dollars before heading back to our log cabin type accomodation to watch the Roos and have a glass or two.

Back in Sydney harbour again in front of the bridge!

A view of Circular Quay - this is one of the main hubs for ferries etc.

Strange looking building we spotted in the harbour...... actually while we were here 5000 posed naked in front of this building one morning. Yes, really, no kidding. We were treated to this while eating breakfast - we had a clear view. As this is a family friendly website and for fear of lawsuits we will refrain from posting any photos.

Who is this!!!

Me thinks we have seen this person somewhere before !!

And this guy too. Don't forget there are THREE OF US on this trip ......

Tune in soon again for more waffle.

BRISBANE, QUEENSLAND

This is Gnome our traveling companion. Gnome joined us at Christmas and so has already been to Egypt. Anyway, Gnome plans to be photographed in famous locations around the world. And before anyone thinks he is a leprechaun, he is actually French. Don't Ask !!! Anyone who has seen the French Film Amelie will know what this is about. If you haven't then it is good fun!!

Brisbane is quite a high city and the effect of so many tall buildings right on the river is quite spectacular. If you look closely you can see a small blue and white boat - this is the City Cat a ferry service that runs up and down the river and is a handy and fun way to get around.

This is the South Bank of the Brisbane river, with university, galleries and even a big wheel like the London eye. Loads of restaurants and bars in this area and guess what - yes, we stayed right here!

Brisbane's central business district is surrounded on two sides by water as it is on a tight bend in the river. They make great use of the water front with restaurants, bars, cafes etc. This is a view of the CBD from the City Cat.

Here we are in Sunny ( ok, sometimes sunny, not always) Brisbane.

Actually Queensland has had quite a lot of rain recently, flash flooding etc. But we were

lucky in Brissie as there were sunny breaks between the showers. Here is Lor in downtown Brissie holding up the traffic.

This is the north bank with the main road running right on the river front.

D on the quay in the central business district on a photo shoot.

Lor hanging out on the south bank! Looks very quiet in the background - few showers around that day so not too many sunbathers, just the Irish who are of course well accustomed to getting rained on.

So thats the update for now. We are currently in Sydney and will post again soon.

On a more serious note the tragic events in Chile may cause us to have to revise some of our travel plans. We are due in Santiago on 26th of this month. With the earthquake we don't know at this point whether it will be possible or indeed advisable to get into Chile. Santiago airport is still closed.

Will post again soon.

G'Day all.

D & L