Pete's Blog 

Dunedin via the scenic route

Rural New Zealand is truely beautiful we have been having a great time on the road during the day and camping in the evening. Have covered nearly 800km in the campervan in the first week and have been inland to Lake Takepo and back out to the coast to Dunedin. Have camped in several campsites and also at the base of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. Have seen seals, penguins and Hectors dolphins, and we have barbecued fish by a freshwater lake for lunch.
In Dunedin at the moment, which is very Scottish with weather to match, and will stay here for a few days before heading across to Te Anau and Milford Sound.

Camping in Christchurch

Have just spent our first night in Christchurch (in Brighton, actually) in the Campervan - it is a Ford Transit Hi-Top (see here) which has most things we will need over the next 5 weeks.

Have just bought a stunt kite, which we intend to learn to fly over next few weeks. Spent a nice afternoon mooching around Chrustchurch, which is lovely. It has been a very pleasant day.

Going to head south tomorrow towards Akaora and will hopefully be in Dunedin by the middle of next week.

Christchurch on Thursday

Catching an Air NZ flight south before picking up a camper van on Friday for our month's clockwise tour of the south island and then back up to Auckland. Just chilling in Auckland until then - might go to the Rainbows End theme park today and then will hook up with Geoff tomorrow who has kindly offered to show us some of the sights in his car before we go out to drink loads of Guinness.

Red centre photos now here

Whitsundays photos now here here

Cook Islands and back

Just got back from Rarotonga and Aitutaki yesterday - which was absolutely gorgeous. Spent a nice week chilling in the sun and doing some diving in the Pacific. It was Mel's birthday on Tuesday which was great to spend in such a beautiful place.

Going to make this blog short as the Space bar keeps sticking and its drivingmenuts... bloody Internet cafes!

Unusual International Dining Combinations

Last night we managed to continue our theme of having interestiong food in unlikley places. Last night we had a very nice Turkish meal in Auckland, New Zealand to go with these other odd combinations in reverse order:

Nepalese in Brisbane, Australia.
Greek in Cairns, Australia.
Iraqi in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Israeli in Koh PhanGan, Thailand.

Kiwi land and Time travel...

Arrived in Auckland yesterday and its a tad colder than Oz but very crisp, very green, still quite sunny and currently a whacking 13 hours ahead of the UK (that is until the clocks go forward at home and simultaneously go back here in NZ making the difference 11 hours in a few weeks time) . Met up with Geoff 'Ginga Ninja' Poore from GLG this afternoon for a couple of beers in the Viaduct Harbour area and will hopefully hook up again on the 17th to celebrate St Paddy's day by drinking loads of Guinness.
Off to the Cook Islands for 4 days in Rarotonga and 3 days in Aitutaki tomorrow morning. We take off at 9am on Sunday morning (7th) and arrive at 1:30pm the previous Saturday (6th) due to crossing the international date line. Get back in Auckland on Sunday (14th) having taken off the on the Saturday (13th) and losing a day on the way back. Weird!
We're currently feeling a bit knackered from being non-stop on the move evey 2/3 days since we left Perth in mid February. Looking forward to just relaxing on a desert island and doing very little except maybe a couple of Scuba dives.

Aussie High's and Low's

Here's my summary of what I thought was good and bad about Aus over the last month and a bit...

+'s:
Perth - Proper Aussie city that brimmed with cool places and events.
Rottnest Island - Mountain biking paradise.
The Whitsundays - Gorgeous and peaceful. The gem of the east coast.
SS Yongala Wreck - Awesome historic dive site.
Fast Food - The quality of burgers, pies and kebabs in Oz is excellent, as you would expect from a country that lives for a barbie.

-'s:
Tour operators - too many of them, overpriced and deliver second rate experience most of the time. Left feeling fleeced a couple of times.
Restaurants - mostly poor even when you spend a decent amount of money the quality just isn't there. The national culture means more effort goes into fast food (see above).
Cook your own food or if you go out, have a burger.

Places I would go to in Australia next time:
Melbourne, Darwin, Sydney

Places I wouldn't visit again if I repeated this trip:
The Red Centre - Overpriced, overrated and full of flies.
Fraser Island - A bit dull really.

New foods tried:
Crocodile (spring roll), Kangaroo (steak) and Emu (sausages).

Favourite Aussie beer:
Carlton Cold

Worst Aussie Drink:
Jack Daniels and Coke on draft (yes!! - on draft!!, Australia is full of Spirit/Mixer combinations available in cans and on draft taps and they all taste sweet,horrid and nothing like the real thing).

Most annoying thing that happens:
Being asked by American tourists which part of Australia I'm from.

Aus tour nearly over

Arrived in Brisbane yesterday, and the weather is decidely British. Spent a couple of days previous on Fraser Island which was okay but not majorly exciting. Just chilling out for a couple of days before going to New Zealand on Friday and then the Cook Islands on Sunday. Spending 4 days at a resort in Rarotonga then 3 days at Aitutaki which is some remote South Pacific atol - nice. Looking forward to chilling out a bit as we've been on the move for some time - its nice to have a lie in and not have to be up at the crack of dawn to catch yet another McCafferty's bus. I think we must have clocked up at least 30 hours on buses in the last week and a half...

More Perth photos...

The Beach Boys Gig selection is here

The Perth 2 (including Cottesloe) is here

The DJ Norman Jay MBE gig photos are here - These have been stored under the petemagrath3 account so are seperate from the two albums above.

Diving Wrecks and Catching Dreams

Have just got back to land after spending 2-3 days / 2 nights on Dreamcatcher and having a great time with crew and fellow passengers. The weather was varied from brilliant sunshine to a brief storm last night (but that merely added to the fun and the excitement especially as our esky never seemed to run out of beer and wine). Tried my hand at maritime navigation and steering - no problems there and went snorkling and exploring around the beautiful uninhabited beaches of the Whitsundays. The food provided onboard the boat was top notch, the only complaint would be it did get a bit hot below deck at night (still 27-28 degress at night with high humidity, Mel ended up sleeping on deck both nights). I would recommend the experience to anyone - Click here for info.

Previous to our nautical adventures in the Whitsundays we went to Townsville and Magnetic island for a night each and squeezed in between a good couple of dives on the SS Yongala Wreck (see here for details). During the 2 dives Mel and I completed the Naturalist (that means we studied the sub-aqua ecosystem, not that we dived in the nude!!!) and Wreck divers components of the PADI Advanced qualification. We now need to do the Deep Dive, Navigation Dive and one more to apply for advanced diver status. I was told that Deep Dive apparently is only >20m and not >30m as I previously thought - this should be straightforward as we have already dived to 28m on several occasions. Although I believe >30m would be better in order to learn the correct decompression procedures needed below this depth.

Off to Fraser Island tomorrow evening (catching the overnight bus) for a 2 day/1 night tour of this strange and unusual island. Then onto Brissy, where will probably be my next blog. Still trying to arrange the trip to the Cook Islands from NZ, but due to lack of phone reception at sea and time-differences have yet to finialise this.

Out tonight to a bar down the road for loads of drinks with our new friends from the DreamCatcher. Have also lots of photos of Perth, Red Centre still to upload but may wait until New Zealand to sort this out as the schedule is so hectic at the moment - please be patient. TTFN.