So after a much enjoyed festival experience in Brisbane, we set off for Airlie Beach on the monday, Mels home. We were due to stay there till the Friday 5th Aug- and then we headed of for New Zealand for a week.
Airlie Beach is awesome - set in the Whitsundays region, very warm, sunny and beatiful. It reminded me very much of St Francis bay, but a busier version of. A popular destination, or passing through point for travellers, the town is over run with backpackers, internet cafes and cool looking boozers. My type of place.
After a very boozy festival weekend we pretty much chilled, I even felt a bit fluey for a couple of days and tried to recover... the old girl is getting on. Spent the days, reading (wonderful book shantaram), lying in the sun, walking on the beach, and just chilling. Definite highlight was the daily event of getting in and out of Mel's car, none of the doors work so one has to climb in and out of the car through its fucking windows. A very undignified event. Please see images below.... A real way to make a classy entrance when going out for a meal, drink etc. Had a few stares from kids & parents when we went shopping ... grand.
Few days in Airlie beach went by pretty quickly, Mel lives in a lovely house and the surroundings very much reminded me of being back home. Nice to have some space, sun, sea and greenery. Unfortunately Mel had to work a bit, so I did spend time on my own - left to do some soul searching (still havent found anything I can report), and pondering on life in general. Decided I want to definitely live somewhere with nice weather. Profound things get discovered on these journeys of self discovery.
Anyhoo - so friday came and we set off for New Zealand - Mel, Kerry & I. Kerry is Mel's flatmate - she hails from New Zealand orginally.
We flew from Whitsundays to Brisbane, Brisbane to Christchurch. Arrived late friday night (midnight), got picked up by Kerries (slightly inebriated) cousin, and spent the night in Christchurch with Kerries aunty.
I am not going to bore anyone with the minute details of the trip, but going to give a brief summary.
Itinerary was: Night in christchurch, drive to small town Kerrie's from think, spend night there, pick up some wheels for our journey, then make our way down west coast region stopping for night somwhere until we got to Queenstown. Queenstown 2 nights and back up slightly different way, stopping off again in small village and last night in Christchurch again.
Highlights of the trip were:
- First night in Newport (I think thats what its called) Kerries home town - we got blind drink and had a rip roaring party. Good fun was had, and we set off on a first day feeling awful, worth it though.
- Very humorous trips in the car - bearing in mind we spent at least 5 or so hours a day some interesting conversations, sing alongs and general Tom Foolery was had!
- The very unfortunate yet hysterical event of bird flying into our windscreen at 120kms/hr - the poor dead thing got stuck in our windscreen wipers, we were all screaming, it wouldnt come off the shield, we had to use the wipers... it was traumatic. There was a lot of screaming and it was an intense 3 minutes.
- The breathtaking sights...snowy capped mountains, thick forests, winding mountain roads, desolate coastal stretches and just a natural beauty which is absolutely amazing.
- Hot pools - set in beautiful forests, was amazing!
- Queenstown - all the adventure sports and general holiday vibe in the town - lots of travellers. Furgburger - the delicious burger place which is packed from the moment it opens till it closes... nuts!
- Snowboarding..very painful yet fun experience - also stunning views from the slopes. Going on a holiday purely for snowboarding is definitely on the cards for the future.
- Going bungy jumping - was totally ready to go naked as rumour had it you got to go for free... but apparently too many poor travellers abused this, so fortunately for my loved ones my dignity (dont scoff) remains in tact. Did the worlds biggest suspended swing.... AWESOME!
- Little cheese and wine tasting stop... YUM YUM I love wine...
In general it was an action packed awesome little holiday. New Zealand is stunning and I would highely recommend it. It was very cold though, but this too is nice for instance when snuggling up against the fire in the pub or wrapping up nice and warm. One also doesnt worry to much about being a glutton when its cold! We had so little time, and we would have loved to have done more of the wine regions and more adventure stuff, but sadly both time and funds were against us!! Until next time NZ...
Some photos below
Fox Glacier in the backround above
Fergburger!!! yum
Fun mexican place in Queenstown..Tequila!
Getting ready to do a tandem jump, we enjoyed it so much we did it twice, first upside down then normal!
Scary as shit!!!
Looking sexy in the hotpools...
Mel creeping on a very terrified Kerrie
The wheels kindly lent to us by Kerries cousin
Lots of beautiful lakes!
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