Goodbye OZ...hello NZ!

Well what can we say, what a beautiful country! Having arrived at an ungodly hour on a total of zero hours sleep we picked up our camper van, a.k.a Sir Ed (you'll see why from the photo), and made our way sharpish out of Christchurch. Unfortunately due to the earthquakes its a shell of a city now, and a tremor a day keeps Matt and Sam away!
Our 1st stop was Akaroa, a small town about an hour south of Christchurch on the coast, very picturesque. We only spent a day here but did a lovely walk taking us high above the town and harbour. Our 2nd destination was Tekapo, about three hours south west, and on arrival very wet and windy - our dinner of beans on toast was nearly cold beans on bread but a nice Polish couple offered us their kitchen (a much more advanced camper van than our budget one) to cook in! Luckily we woke up to clear blue sky and hot sun. Lake Tekapo is famous for its strikingly turquoise colour (see photo-it has not been photoshopped, this is what it really looks like!). We decided to hike up Mount John where Canterbury University have an observatory. Its apparently one of the best locations to view the night sky in New Zealand but unfortunately our evenings were cloud covered. At the observatory we got to look directly at the sun through a solar filtered telescope which was very cool!! Our evening was spent at the local Alpine Springs - 3 hot pools varying in temperature from 35-39 degrees with a view of the lake.
The following day we made our way to Queenstown, Otago a three hour drive South West where we met up with Mark and Jen who we'd met at the wedding in Melbourne last week! They showed us the town by night with more than a few drinks and some great pizza in a place with a roof that opens to views of the starry sky.
At the time it seemed a great idea to do a bungy the next morning, after all Queenstown is home to the original bungy by AJ Hacket - so jump from a 43m high suspension bridge we did... Another extreme activity ticked off our 'to do' list :) the adrenaline left us shaky and exhausted for the rest of the day (this may have something to do with the night before too!), so we ambled around a small town called Arrowtown, once a gold mining haven for the rest of the afternoon. We camped out a few km's north of Queenstown on the way to Glenorchy where we spent the next morning before heading back to pig out on the famous 'Fergburger' with Jen and Mark - it certainly lived up to expectations and we WILL be having another before we leave the area!

The state of Victoria - 'The place to be'

We arrived in Melbourne just after lunch and spent the rest of the day taking it easy, wandering around the botanical gardens and going for the recommended Tea and scones!
On the second day we took a wildlife tour to Phillip island, home of the Little Penguin (30cm tall when fully grown).
The tour was lead by an amusing Aussie guy (with massive eyebrows) who showed us the sights including a visit to a chocolate factory (see pic!!). The penguins arrive from the sea at nightfall in small groups and make their way up to the beach (very slowly) to their nesting grounds. They're the cutest little fluff balls, but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos to prove it as the flashes send them waddling back into the sea faster than they came out :( but we did get within a few cm's of them!
The next day was spent in Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsular, a beautiful coastal town with breathtaking views and a great beach with rock pools to bring back childhood memories. Unfortunately we underestimated our journey times so spent about 6 hours on public transport only getting about 2 and a half hours actually in Sorrento! But if nothing else, it was worth it for the gigantic ice cream we consumed when we arrived! The saying 'eyes too big for your belly' sprung to mind!!

The next day was the start of our Great Ocean Road whistle stop tour. Hours of the most amazing coastal driving! We hired the cheapest car possible, which struggled on the hills, but thankfully had air-con!
The first town you come to is Torquay - where the surfing brands Rip Curl and Quicksilver started out, and also home to Bells Beach where Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze filmed the showdown scene of Point Break apparently!
Next stop was Anglesey (seeing a British theme here?) with another fab beach! Further down the coast the road opens up to picture perfect postcard views of turquoise sea, bright blue skies, sandy beaches etc etc. After checking in to our hostel in Apollo Bay, we had a race against time to catch the sun setting on the famous sea stacks an hours drive down the coast; 12 Apostles, London Bridge, The Arch and The Grotto, All carved by the wind and waves over millions of years and utterly spectacular. We just made it in time to experience a not so spectacular (cloud obstructed) sunset! Our journey back to the hostel was VERY dark, slow and nearly ended up in tears when a Kangaroo forgot his green cross code by sitting in the middle of the road on a blind bend-Matts lightening reflexes saved all three of us! The following day we headed to the 2nd most southerly point in Oz - Cape Otway, however it wasn't the highlight of the trip, the most exiting thing about this little drive was the Koala lined road-no exaggeration there were 100's being their usual sleepy selves (they sleep up to 20 hours a day) high up in the gum trees, it became a bit of an obsession trying to see how close we could get to them!
Once we'd satisfied ourselves that we had some good photos we set off for Yarra Glen for the big wedding of our friends Gareth and Andrea. The drive was about 4 hours in total but this included a 20 minute stop off to harass an Echidna that Sam spotted at the side of the road for a photo (see pic!). Another wild animal ticked off our list!
The evening was spent catching up, eating and drinking with Gareth an his family and grooms men (bizarre seeing friends on the other side of the world).
We had some time to kill before the wedding the next day so thought it only right to visit some vineyards seeing as we were in wine country. We made it to two, one of which was Domaine Chandon (Moët Chandon). The wedding, also set at a vineyard 'The Stones of the Yarra Valley' was fabulous, the bride looking beautiful and the groom very handsome! The ring exchange brought back memories of ours... hot hands and a struggle to push the grooms ring on, but it got a few giggles! Then drinks were flowing for the rest of the evening and into the early hours, the speeches were great despite nerves, we think the brides topped them all though-very brave Andrea! Understandably the next day was a slow start but eventually we made it over to the brides family home (with a pool!) for our 1st real Aussie BBQ (I know, on our last day can you believe). Unfortunately that pretty much rounds off our time here in Oz! We're very sad to leave but exited by the next stage as we travel a little further round and down the globe to New Zealand ;)

Sydney - Round 2!!

Waking up on the first morning back in Sydney was a sad sight. Rain and dark skies over the city made our prospects of a nice day at the beach look grim. However, as optimistic as ever we push on and take the bus to Coogee, south east of the city. To our surprise and delight the sun had put his hat on had come out to play (inland was dark grey still). We took a 4 mile walk north along the coast past picturesque coves and bays until we hit Bondi Beach in full sun. Within minutes we were on the beach and in the surf, riding some pretty huge waves. After much fun and a snooze on the sand we took the bus back to the city and scrubbed up for a posh dinner at the Sydney Sky Tower, tallest building in the city. The circular deck of the tower rotates giving 360 views of the city, and as our booking was just before dusk, we got to see it all by day and night.
The next morning much to Matts delight (note sarcasm), Sam talked him into the Park Run of Sydney, as some on you will know this is a 5k run in a local park which started in the UK and has made it (just) to Oz, in fact it was just the 4th week of the Sydney run and starts at 8am due to the heat! Ouch! We both completed the run in respectable times (all things considered) and decided to walk the 3 miles back to prevent our (Matt's) muscles ceasing up!! The rest of the day was spent perusing the weekend markets at 'The Rocks' starting out hot and sunny, turning torrential and stormy, then back to some of the best sunshine yet. After lunch we wandered over to the Sydney Observatory for amazing views of Darling Harbour and the Harbour bridge. Incidentally this also seemed to be the place to go for wedding photos, we saw at least 6 different newly weds posing for the cameras-they may have us in the background (lucky them!). As the weather was so good we went back to the Opera House for a second round of photos, this time with blue sky backgrounds. Once back we'd clocked 16 miles of walking/running in one day!
For Our last day in Sydney we headed over for the Northern beach town of Manly, recommended by many friends who have been before. We got more than we bargained for, as it happened to be the Australian Open Surfing competition and a blistering hot day. We picked up tips from the pros (from the beach side), soaked up the sun and had a play about in the waves, but by 4pm a storm hit so we headed back to Sydney - exhausted!
In a nutshell thats Sydney ticked off the list, so now southwards to our final Aussie destination, Melbourne in the state of Victoria for city sights, the Great Ocean Road and of course our 1st wedding of the year :)

Sydney and the not so Blue Mountains...

Sadly our arrival in Sydney has marked the end of our good luck with the weather. Somehow we managed to dodge all the tropical storms up in Queensland and see nothing but blue skies. It's now a chilly 18 degrees in the Blue Mountains (but still 26 in Sydney).
We spent our first 2 days in Sydney exploring the city by foot, clocking up a respectable 20 miles. This of course resulted in 4 very sore feet, but allowed us to visit Darling Harbour and it's many attractions. First we took in the opera house, which from a distance looks spectacular, but becomes a little disappointing when you get up close to its roof which is tiled and surprisingly beige in colour. It wouldn't look out of place on Skem concourse or the London underground!!
We then visited the botanical gardens which are extremely impressive especially with the addition of the friendly cockatoos who landed on Matt for a cheeky feeding of white bread (don't tell, bit naughty of us!!) and the sleeping bats by day. We came back at dusk for the mass exodus of bats as they roused from their nocturnal sleep to squawk lots and feed! We opted out of the Harbour Bridge climb (due to extortionate cost) and settled with walking over it, the views we're still very impressive and even the sun put in an appearance for us!
Now we're in the Blue mountains, previously thought to named after the eucalyptus oils rising from the gum trees giving a blue haze seen from miles around (as far a Sydney - which is 65k east - on a clear day), however its actually due to a more boring scientific reason we won't go in to right now, besides we'd say they were more grey/white in colour at the moment :(
The most recognisable and visited feature of this area is the 3 sisters, three rock pinnacles which have Aboriginal spiritual significance, so we hiked over to have a look (and got temporarily side tracked in the most amazing chocolate shop for a much needed 'do it yourself' hot choc - see photo!!) and made it just in time before the mist descended and remained for the rest if the day but it didn't stop us from doing a bit of bush walking and working up an appetite!!
Today we got some good advise from our hostel about walks suitable for this weather (wet) and so headed for Wentworth Falls. We actually had great weather and were treated to epic views across the gum tree forests and saw some truly stunning waterfalls (4 in total).
Heading back to Sydney now and planning our next 3 days in and around the city.

Koalas, Sky-dives and Scuba dives...

So the last three days have been pretty WILD (to stay in keeping with the rest, naturally!!).
Starting with Australia Zoo, certainly the best zoo experience we've both had-right from getting through the entrance you realise how unique this zoo is (compared with British zoos anyway). There were lizards roaming freely about our feet (a few of them nearly got trodden on), and kookaburras and parrots in the trees. In the 'Crocoseum' they put on a Steve Irwin style show with snakes, birds and the infamous 'Salty' or saltwater crocodile. We hugged a Koala (naturally) fed kangaroos and fell in love with all the other bizarre Australian creatures!
Next stop Brisbane! On the first day we thought we'd throw ourselves out of a perfectly good aeroplane and skydive from 14,000 feet. Fortunately, as you will have deduced from the existence of this blog, we both landed safely! It was the biggest adrenaline rush we've ever had, ears, face, lips flapping in the wind-the photos are hilarious!!
Yesterday we set off early for North Stradbrook Island just south of Brisbane to try and scuba dive with manta rays. The weather was great but unfortunately there was a lot of swell at the dive sites and currents pulling us this way and that, so the mantas didn't come out to play. We did however see lots of sting rays, bull rays, carpet sharks, highly camouflaged and venomous stone fish and an excellent close encounter with a large leopard shark (vegetarian).
After a long day of travel, diving and travel we went for a night time stroll through the botanical gardens and were treated to nocturnal encounters with some very large and noisy bats, puffed up birds sleeping at arms reach in the trees and a very inquisitive possum who seemed to want to be fed.
Today is our last in Brisbane and we'll be taking it easy down at the lagoon (man made beach) with a book and a cold one. Tomorrow we fly to Sydney to explore the city and visit the Blue Mountains.