After Durban we headed down the coast to Warner Beach. We never did manage to find how to get to the beach but the hosel was really nice and looked out over the ocean.
We were there to do some diving (yes more diving) at Aliwal Shoal just down the coast a little. We had an absolutely gorgeous day for it so the water wasn't too cold! On our first dive we saw 7/8 raggie sharks! They must have been almost 2 meters long and we got quite close up to them which was pretty cool. There was also a really big loggerhead turtle and plenty of the usual reff fish.
After a break for breakfast we were back in the water for our second dive. It was probably the best dive we've done on the whole trip. Saw another shark, a huge manta ray, then a pod of maybe 10+ dolphins swam past! Towards the end Kerrin signalled for me to go over to a sandy bit. I was a bit annoyed because I couldn't see what on earth he was wanting to show me. Once I got there he got down on one knee and signalled 'will you marry me'. So i said okay! Then we realised we were both getting low on air so made our way back up to the boat where I got my ring! Since he had to take it scuba diving it is a kids platic purple one with a big love heart. Looking forward to going ring shopping when we get to Cape Town.
We got down to Durban and are here just now. Its mental but a really nice place. There is a huge indian population here so the indian quarter was our first stop. It's just as you would imagine India would be, people buying and selling everything and people everywhere. We had someone trying to sell us a cat our of a beerbox within about 5 minutes of getting there.
Their speciality dish is the Bunny Chow. It is a half loaf of bread with the insides scoped out and filled up with curry. Amazing so we had that for lunch the past couple of days. The beaches here are meant to be the best in SA. Not got back on the surfboard yet, but mabye soon.
The huge new Durban stadium for the World Cup next year can be seen from all over the city so we went to see how it was gettin on. It looks like its gonna be really smart when its done. Then we went to the aquarium today. Lesley got chosen to take part in the dolphins show - had to go down and sit in a little boat at the side while a dolphin went past and did a belly flop beside her and got totally soaked. Then she got to feed one of them.
We are heading on tomorrow but we are not sure yet where to. It will either be Aliwal Shoal for more scuba if the prices arent too high or down to Port Elizabeth, will see how it looks.
After a great time with Ian and Lorna, it was a big shock when we got to Jo'Burg where we werent allowed to go about in the city centre because there was a chance we would get mugged! We got our taxi chased up the street on one of our first days so we stuck to getting lifts around the place.
After a couple of days we headed to Kruger for a 4 day safari which was awesome. On the way we saw some of the beauty spots of Mpumalanga province with amazing scenery and saw lots of 4 of the Big 5 in the park. Including a lion eating a freshy killed Giraffe and a pack of lions hunting. We had lions, buffalo, loads of elephants all crossing right in front of us. But we didnt see any leopards, determined we will see one on the trip though. Had a brilliant safari group.
We went back to Jo'Burg for a couple of days and visited the Apartheid museum and Gold Reef City theme park. They were both really good, although a tiny wee bit spoilt when I heard that United missed out on Europe.
I soon had other things to take my mind off it. We did some scuba diving at Sodwana bay (one of worlds top 10 sites), really good diving seen a few rays, turtles, lionfish and other cool stuff. They have whale sharks around there but there were none around.
In between times we had a night in Swaziland, whch was just a quick stopover, we didnt see much of it but had a great night at the bar.
We had a few days in St Lucia and seen lots of wild crocs and hippos in the water down by the estuary as well as seeing Zebra, buffalo, warthog and some of other things on our morning walks outside the park.
One night coming back from the shop there were 2 huge HIPPOs just grazing outside a holiday apartment, we sat and watched them for about half an hour and got pretty close. They were huge and it was so cool to see them out of the water. We had a day at the croc centre and got to hold a juvinille croc, so cute!! Then headed off down to Durban.
There are lots of new photos on our photo bucket site in the Australia Part 2 and New Zealand sections.
The last 2 weeks since coming back to Australia from New Zealand have passed so fast. We started off in Adelaide. It was really nice. Not loads to do: we visited another chocolate factory, a cricket museum at the oval, the Adelaide museum and art gallery, and just had a look around some of the shops and a walk down along by the river which was really nice.
We are now in Perth staying with some of Kerrin's family, Ian, Lorna, Catherine, Rachel & Nathan. Have had such a good time here & getitng to know them all, not to mention how well we've been fed!! We've had a couple of trips into Perth city where we went to another art gallery and museum, the Perth Mint where we saw a bar of gold being poured which was pretty cool & not something we've seen before, went up the bell tower, and spent most of another day having a walk around the Kings Park. We did a day trip out to Rottnest Island. Took the bikes and went for a cycle around - must have been about 25 km. Both pretty exhausted afterwards but it was good fun, got to stop at lots of nice little bays. We were going to snorkel but it was far too cold & didn't get in much above our knees! Over on the island there are these little animals called quakkas which were pretty cute, little rat/kangaroo type things. We also visited Freemantle and did a tour of the prison, the largest in the southern hemisphere which was built by the convicts. So that was pretty interesting. Last night we all went out for a really nice Italian and then to see Angels & Demons. Today we've been busy packing up and went for a dip in the pool!
And that's the Australian part of our trip over. Tonight we fly to South Africa which we are both SO EXCITED about! Will try and keep this up to date too while we are there.
Pretty much everyone we had spoke to was saying, "you will love it when you get down south, the scenery is amazing", its really nice but looks exactly the same as Scotland, loads of hills and mountains, lakes etc.
Our first stop in the South island was Marlborough a world famous wine region so needless to say we stopped in at a good few, I did most of the tastings with Les @ the wheel.
Further down the south island we did a hike on Franz Josef glacier, was amazing this huge lump of ice in the middle of nowhere, walking through loads of ice caves etc.
We had heard loads about Queenstown being amazing but just ha d a few hours there, nothing much to see or do unless you wanna do a skydive so got on the road to head to the Milford Sound.
Its a big fiord , really nice drive to get there and loads of nice wee walks etc on the way.
After there the next major place was Dunedin. Driving in we were starting to sense something familiar the main streets are Princes & George Sts with Castle St, Frederick and Hanover Sts across them. It was a scottsih settlement years ago called New Edinburgh, so all the streets are like Edinburgh ones, its the only place in NZ with a castle and loads of Burns stuff including a statue in their main square, really weird. Was good we managed to get a Haggis and real Scottish Irn Bru, got it was good!
We checked out the castle, climbed the worlds steepest street (bloody hell its steep!), see seen some wild seals and seen some of the Scottish settlement stuff.
Last place on our route was Christchurch, the English settlement, absolutely nothing there tho but a few good pubs so it wasnt too bad i suppose!
Hello,
Sorry for our lack of blogs we have been going round New Zealand in a camper van living a bit rough so not been on the net all that often. Anyway, started off in Auckland and checked out the Skytower, climbed the harbour bridge and enjoyed the place before picking up the Disco Van.
Our camper was sprayed in Disco colours as above, so as you can imagine we got plenty attention when driving about. It was pretty comfy for sleeping and even though it was an automatic, it wasnt as painful as I though it might be to drive it.
We took off up to Hot Water beach where you dig a hole in the sand and because of the volcanic activity from years ago you get hot water from the ground, so had our own litle hot tubs. We did a bit more exploring up the coast of little places including Kiwi 360 a place totally devoted to kiwi fruits, it was brilliant, before heading to Rotorua.
Its a town built on loads of hot springs so you can be walking down the street and theres boiling bubbling mud pools all over the place, really cool. We had a brilliant mud spa and did some Zorbing there, its going in a big inflatable ball, like a hamsters and getting rolled down a big hill, brilliant fun.
After a few days there we headed to Taupo, famous for its huge lake and being skydive capital of the world, so rude not to I did one jumping from 15,000 ft. Was bricking it the night before but cool on the day. It was awesome just a pity it costs so much otherwise would like to do a second, maybe in South Africa.
We had a few days in Featherston, a tiny wee place where Dad's mate Clint stays. Was brilliant to meet up him again and meet his wife Anna and their 3 wild ones, kept us busy for the 4 days, we slept in real beds AND washed every day!!! We were treated like kings, cheers guys.
They stay pretty close to Wellington so we had a day there, its a bit of a disappointment, apart from the Te Papa museum.
Hello, been busy buzzing round NZ in a camper so not had a chance to get blogs done, they are on their way!
In the mean time you can watch me jumping out of a plane at 15,000 feet in the link above, enjoy
We had always thought "there will be plently of time to do the touristy stuff in Melbourne, we are goin to be here for ages", then as soon as we say we are leaving, we get loads of hours at work, typical!
So the past week after a hard week of work has been pretty hectic.
We took in an Aussie Rules match at the MCG between the 2 big teams in the league, pretty good atmosphere, but didnt have a clue what was going on for about the first 20 mins, no chance I'll be swapping it for Tannadice anytime soon.
We had the Grand Prix last Sunday, which was pretty awesome, we got a decent bit to stand at so seen them at a corner then bombing down the straight. Really good then joined in the track invasion at the end of the race and seen Jenson and Co spraying the champagne and had a wander about the track, even spotting Richard Branson down there. Then the Who played after the race, was brilliant seeing them again, probably even better than they were at T in The Park a couple of years ago.
Since we had seen so mcuh of Rod Laver Arena during the Oz Open Tennis we couldnt resist a tour of it, seeing in the corporate boxes and all the backstage bits where the players go.
A couple of days ago we went and met my grandad's cousin Tom Oaks and his wife Eunice who we had heard so much about before we came out, so was really good to finally meet them. They took us on a drive up through the Dandenong mountains and seen some amazing views and cool little bits on the way, then headed to theirs for some late lunch even passing through a wee town called MONTROSE on the way back theirs, cheers guys we had a brilliant day with you.
Only a couple of days left before we head of to NZ first thing on Saturday morning, just realsing how much crap we had accumulated since we got here and having a good clear out.
to everyone for the birthday cards and parcels you sent me, was brilliant still having a load of birthday cards even when I'm on the other side of the planet. I had a brilliant birthday, started off by an amazing chocolate cake made by Les (Janet's secret recipe!!) and finished off with a really good night out in the Espy Pub. got some really good photos of the night and from Paddy's day and our house party that should be up on the photobucket site soon.
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