Gardena, CA
March 2, 2002

We are doing final preparation and packing. We leave tomorrow! Now to make the final decisions
about what things will come with us and what will be left behind. Time to decide between the two travel
mantras: 1) Be prepared! and 2) Travel light!

Auckland, New Zealand
March 5-6, 2002

We've arrived in New Zealand. The flight out from LAX was completely full (mostly with a huge tour group from Minnesotta), but otherwise uneventful enough.

New Zealand so far is fantastic. It's known as "The Land of the Long White Cloud". From the time we arrived we sort of felt like we were riding that cloud - customs and arrivals was super fast and easy (except they did inspect and decide to sanitize my hiking boots in customs - they're super concerned about non-native species introductions here), rows of taxis and shuttles greated us outside the airport, and within half an hour we were reclining in our room in the Carlton hotel. We opted for a nice (5-star) place our first night here after the long flight (nothing is too good for Dina!), but our accomodations have become a bit more rugged since then.

Auckland is a great city, very cosmopoliton, yet very clean and efficient. We spent the day at something called Kelly Tarlton's Antartic and Underwater adventure watching penguins playing and sharks swimming around us. After that it was just strolling around some of the city's many parks. Tomorrow we'll be getting our rental car and heading out into the New Zealand countryside. We're looking forward to it!

North Island, New Zealand
Wednesday March 6th

We pick up our rental car in Auckland and begin heading South. Our plan is to spend 3 days on the North Island, and then 5 days on the South Island. The two islands are connected by a ferry crossing (from Wellington on North Island to Picton on South Island), and we've booked a ferry crossing for Saturday the 9th.

Our first stop on our journey South is Rotorua, a town about 3 hours from Auckland. It's a big geo-thermal area and one of the big tourist destinations in New Zealand. It's also one of the centers of Maori culture. The Maori are people of Polynesian background who are the original inhabitants of New Zealand before the Europeans began colonizing in the 18th century.

The drive down is pleasant enough. New Zealanders drive on the left side of the road, with the steering wheel on the right, so that takes some getting used to. I develop a bad habit of accidently flicking on the windshield wipers every time I try to signal a lane change or turn. Otherwise the trip is uneventful, mostly through green fields, farms and rolling hills. One other nice thing about driving in New Zealand is that all the intersections are round-abouts - circular intersections that you loop through until you find the road you want to take. For people like us then we can just keep driving around the circle until we finally figure which road we want.

Rotura is basically a big tourist town with one big street featuring an endless line of motels and craft shops. The geo-thermals and geisers are interesting but not spectactular. One benefit though is that some of the motels, including ours - the Capri Court - feature thermal spas right in the rooms. Very luxurious.

We round out the day with a nice hike in one of the nearby forest parks. We do a hike to the Green Lake, which is still sacred to the Maori so all boating/fishing/swimming is banned. It's a stunning trail through a huge fern forest down to the amazingly peaceful and beautiful lake. After that, it's back to the motel and a spa bath to finish off the day.

Mount Tangario National Park, New Zealand
Thursday, March 7th

Our next destination is Mount Tangario National Park, right in the middle of the North Island. It was New Zealand's first National Park and features impressive mountains as well as a still active volcano.

We stay at the Skotel (New Zealand's highest motel) up in Whakapapa village in the heart of the park. Our room is a small double in the backpackers quarters of the lodge. The room is a bargin (as are most things in New Zealand) at about 23 US dollars. Lodging has proved to be fairly cheap, ranging from 30 US dollars for the standard motel up to 65 for luxury hotels in the major cities.

New Zealand also has an excellent infastructure for backpackers. In Europe the term backpackers mostly means young budget travellers. Here it is people who are truly out to hike some of New Zealand's many trails, and is people of all ages. The accomodations are great, often in the best locations in the National Parks. Some of New Zealand's finest lodges are actually only accessible by hiking on trails.

We do a hike that day through and alpine area to a waterfall then back to our lodge. The place is full that night but it seems as if we're the only people there, as we have the full run of the lodge to ourselves (including the spa and pool table).

Cook Strait area, New Zealand
March 8 and 9, 2002

We headed South to the bottom of the North Island to prepare to cross over to the South Island. On the way down we passed Lake Taupo - a truly amazing huge lake of volcanic (collapsed crater) origins. After that it was pleasant drive through green hills and valleys and many waterfalls down to Wellington. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and it's second largest city (after Auckland).

Wellington was also the site of a month long Festival of the Arts it turns out. When we arrived in the evening, it seemed the entire city was headed off to some big event. We followed the huge throngs along for fun and found out the destination - a big concert in the main city stadium that seems to have drawn half the country.

The next morning we hopped on the ferry across the Cook Strait to Picton. It's a beautiful ride, about 3 hours total, with the last hour through the narrow Queen Charlotte Sound. The ferry itself is huge - this crossing gets a lot of traffic.

When we arrived we took the scenic Queen Charlotte Drive East from Picton along the coast. It was super twisty and long but had beautiful views of the sound and the many islands and coves along it.

We stopped for the night in a town called Havelock (pop. 500) in yet another great deal motel (US $35 for a two story room complete with kitchenette). Havelock is located right along the edge of the Marlborough Sounds Maritime Park which features an abundance of great hiking trails which we were eager to try out.

Marlborough Sounds and Abel Tasman National Park, New Zealand
March 10-12, 2002

We've spent the last few days hiking around on the northern coast of the South Island of New Zealand. The scenery here is amazing - stunning coastlines of mountains and rainforests descending into channels and sounds with endless hidden coves and beaches. In a word, it's beautiful.

We've hiked two trails mainly, the Nydia Track in Marlborough Sounds and the Abel Tasman Track in Abel Tasman National Park. Both were similar - winding trails through huge rain forests along the rocky coasts with occaisional drops down to hidden little beaches. The Abel Tasman trail is one of the most popular in New Zealand and was duly fairly crowded. The Nydia track is relatively unknown - we saw two people on the trail all day (8 hours of hiking).

Both trails were long also - we did about 11 miles on the Nydia Track and another 13 on Abel Tasman. Even with the 13 we still finished less than half the total trail. Like many of New Zealands other Great Walks, the total trail is designed to be a multiple day experience with great campgrounds and shelter lodging along the trail. Its continually impressive how well maintained the hiking trails and infastructure are here.

Between the trails we managed to squeeze in a round of mini-golf (where Dina soundly whooped Brian) and recuperate from the hikes in a beautiful ocean view chalet. We can only wish we had longer to stay.

Hanmer Springs and Christchurch, New Zealand
March 13-14, 2002

Unfortunately our time in New Zealand is starting to draw to an end. We have one last day to work our way down to Christchurch for our flight. We select what looks to be a nice scenic route through lots of parks and forests down to a place called Hanmer Springs about 2 hours outside of Christchurch.

The road turns out to be very scenic - too scenic in fact. As we are way out in the middle of some long canyon, we start to realize we're running out of gas. Fortunately theres a few small towns on the road, surely one will have gas. We keep driving and the needle approaches Empty. Finally we see an elderly man working on the side of the road. He tells us that weve already passed the town we thought we were heading for. Ut oh. Also he tells us theres no gas in any of the other small towns. Double ut oh. We dont have enough to make it to the next station, and its too far to go back now. He suggests we try one of the nearby farm houses to see if they have any.

So, we pull into a little farmhouse on the road. Were in luck, theyve just gotten their weekly petrol fill up. So, we pull the car around back and the farmer grabs an old can starts to fill up a few litres for us.

Next comes a very humorous scene (to the farmer and his wife at least) as we get out of the car to help them. The place is swarming with bees and sand flies, which they seem to be immune to. Dina spends the next 5 minutes running around the car being chased by bees while I slap away at the flies. They just sort of chuckle at us. After a few minutes and many thanks we make our way back onto the road, with many bites, a car full of flies and most importantly 4 litres of gas. Whew.

The rest of the trip to Hanmer Springs is fortunately uneventful. Its a nice mountain resort town with a thermal spring (good for soothing bug bites) and we spend the evening relaxing in the hot pools.

The next day is up early and off to Christchurch. We poke around the the town center for a couple of hours, mail a box of stuff home (New Zealand guide books and a few other things we packed that we no longer need) and then head to the airport. Goodbye New Zealand, here comes Australia.

Sydney, Australia
March 14-17, 2002

Our first stop in Australia was Sydney. We were looking forward to Sydney for a number of reasons. First, we were eager to get back to a big city with the variety of restaraunts, etc. Second, we would be staying there for 3 days, only the second time in the trip we would be staying in the same place for more than one night. And most important, we were meeting our friend Mark Schaefer there. He is going to be traveling with us for our first week in Australia.

In the airport in Christchurch we got an email from Mark confirming that he had arrived. Also, an email from none other than fellow travel companion Dave Thau that by coincidence he would be in Sydney also! He was in town for a conference on bio-diversity and it turns out he was staying at a hotel right across the street from ours.

We arrived in Sydney and headed to our hotel where we met Mark (who didn't know about Dave Thau yet). Next we headed out for dinner, and right on cue, Dave Thau strolled out of his hotel much to Mark's shock. So, it was the four of us now together in Sydney.

We walked all over Sydney looking for a restaurant and finally settled on some Chinese noodle soup. Yum!

The next day we walked ALL over Sydney. We started out at the Royal Botanic Gardens, and then headed toward Sydney Harbour. The harbour over looked the famous Sydney Opera House. We walked over to the Opera House but didn't take the tour inside. We thought we'd save that for next time. We then took a ferry over to Manly Beach, a beautiful white sandy beach with warm blue water. It was a popular spot amongt the locals and tourists. After arriving back from Manly Beach, Brian and Mark took off and walked across the Harbour Bridge while Dina shopped in a popular area known as the Rocks.

That night we walked over to Darling Harbour and went to the Aquarium. It was very cool, it was a glimpse of what we were going to see in the Great Barrier Reef. We walked through a huge plastic tube surrounded by sharks, rays and turtles.

The next day we took a long 2-hour train ride to the Blue Mountains. It was a magnificient rock formation shaped like three towers. We then wanted to go down the mountain to take a gondola ride back. To do so, we had to walk down 900 steep steps down the face of the mountain. (Dina's legs ached for two days after that!) We then walked 1.5 miles through the forest to the gondola ride back. Then we walked back to the train station and endured the train ride back with "Billy the Annoying Kid" who played with his electronic game and banged his toy for two whole hours.

The next morning we met Dave in the Botanic Gardens because he mentioned humongous bats resting in large trees at the Gardens. So we got up early and indeed, we saw hundreds of Black-fox bats hanging upside down in a few large trees. They were very noisy fighting amongst each other for space on the branches.

We then headed for the airport to take a plane to Cairns!

Great Barrier Reef
March 17-19, 2002

We arrived in Cairns, home of the Great Barrier Reef! We walked into town and had lunch then checked out the information center. There we booked the next days' adventures at Kuranda and at the Great Barrier Reef. We walked around town and it's definitely the largest tourist town we've ever seen or been to. There's at least a one-mile radius of souvenir shops and tour booking offices. We were told that Cairns has grown from a small fishing town of 30,000 to over 150,000 in 20 years. We went to the Marlin Jetty and to the adjacent air conditioned mall.

On Monday, we got up early and had a full breakfast in our hotel - the Tuna Towers. After that we headed to the train station for the Kuranda Scenic Railway trip. It's an old train renovated for tourists and was quite the scenic ride. It went alongside the mountain and into the rainforest.

The village of Kuranda is definitely a tourist town with plenty of shops. We ate lunch while watching some Aboriginal dancers. We then headed for a relaxing walk along the rivers edge. However, everyone was on edge because of potential crocs along the riverbanks. But lucky us, we didn't see any!

We took the skycar down the mountain which was very cool. It coasts over the top of the trees offering great views we skipped on the train ride. We stopped at both places on the way down to explore the little rainforest walks.

At the bottom we took a taxi back to Cairns. Dinner was at an "early bird" special Italian place which was incredibly slow (over 1 hour to get our food). And to top it off, we had a horrible waiter (Dina had to be restrained from making a stink). After that some shopping in the night markets, some rummy tiles then off to bed early.

On Tuesday, our trip to the Great Barrier Reef! We're soooooo excited and it finally hit Dina that we were not just on vacation, but on an Adventure of a Lifetime! We got to the Marlin Jetty at 8 a.m. for our 8:30 a.m. departure. The boat was nice, and soon we had our snorkeling gear and speech by the crew (who were pretty funny). During the speech, the seas started to get rough. Not just rough, but darn choppy. Afterwards, a bunch of people who were feeling queasy (including Mark and Brian) headed for the outside back of the boat. Dina was fine and dandy at the top of the boat. We took some natural ginger tablets that seemed to help. Fortunately neither Mark nor Brian got sick, but many others did! It was a very unpleasant site.

After about a 2 hour boat ride, we finally got to the reef! We put on our wetsuits (recommended, not because the water's cold, but to prevent sunburn) and snorkels and headed out. The reef was amazing, the best snorkeling ever! We saw manta rays, lobsters, giant clams, giant sea cucumbers, fluorescent coral and thousands of fish of all colors!

Lunch was served on the boat and it wasn't the best type of food for people who were still feeling queasy (like Brian). They had served fried sausages and fish.

After lunch we headed to another part of the reef. There was a sheer cliff which was home to even more amazing sea life.

The boat returned around 5 p.m. and we went back to the hotel and out for dinner. It was a rough night trying to go to sleep, for we were all feeling like we were still rocking on the boat.

Daintree National Park, Australia
March 20-21, 2002

Leeches, huge spiders, biting ants and mosquitos! And that's just inside the car! Yep, we were in the rainforest!

We took a couple of day trip north from Cairns up to the Daintree Rainforest. It's pristine rainforest along the coast, full of all sorts of life. Our first stop north was Mossman Gorge Park where a beautiful trail loops through he forest. Unfortunately it was raining, so the leeches were out. Brian got one wedged between his toes (eewww), so we decided to put off this trail until the way back.

That night we spent in a small cabin deep in the heart of the rainforest at a self-sustaining lodge called Heritage Lodge. It was beautiful. The nearby rainforest was full of life...big spiders, kangaroo rats, geckos, etc. Fortunately they all stayed outside our room.

The next day we took several boardwalk trails down in the forest and the mangrove swamps. More wildlife of course. We saw freshwater eels, turtles, too many ants and spiders to count, crabs, about a million birds and even a feral pig! No crocs though, despite all sorts of warning signs about them.

Other highlights of the trip back included a fresh made ice cream stand (they grow the fruit in an orchard out back) the beautiful Mossman Gorge trail (no leeches this time) and beautiful coastal views.

We returned to Cairns for one last night at our home away from home the Tuna Towers and prepared for our trip to Alice Springs and the Outback the next day. Also, it was unfortunately time for Mark to fly back home the next day. Goodbye rainforest, hello desert!

Alice Springs and Ayers Rock, Australia
March 22-23, 2002

We arrived in the Red Center of Australia in the afternoon. Even from the airplane you can see how red the earth is, making the area look like almost like the surface of Mars. Our first stop was over to pick up our rental campervan. This would be our home for the next 10 days or so. The van was nice, very functional and well thought out. It had a refrigerator, stove, cooking equipment and the back seat converted to a fairly comfortable bed. Everything we would need (we thought) for the coming trip.

We loaded up on groceries in Alice Springs and then hit the highway. One thing we noticed right away was how green everything was. We had been expecting a barren desert. Instead it seems they had record rains the last few months in the area so everything was very lush. Another interesting feature to note was the large number of Aboriginal people around. We thought we'd only see them out in the bush, instead there were many lounging around the various parks and clear spaces of Alice Springs.

Our first night was in one of the little caravan park/road house/gas stations that dot the long empty highways in the Outback. Little outposts of basic needs every couple of hundred kilometers along the highway.

The next morning we reached Ayers Rock (Uluru in the Aboriginal language). It was awesome, a huge stone monolith rising out of the desert. One of the more striking things I think I'll ever see. There are a few other huge rock formations (the Olgas or Kata Tutja) nearby (at least nearby in outback terms - about 60 miles away).

We did some hiking around the Olgas and then headed back to watch Ayers Rock at Sunset. Everybody comes to watch it then as it changes color from a burgandy red to a dark blue as darkness falls. After that it was back to our campground just outside the park. The park is now jointly managed by the Aboriginies and the Australian governmet and there is no camping inside the park.

Or campervan was proving to be reasonably comfortable, although it did stay very hot and stuffy in the night, particulary after having to cook inside with the doors closed (as there were quite a few mosquitos and other bugs around...but much more about that later).

We got up early the next morning to watch the sun rise, and then began our long journey north to Darwin and the northern coast of Australia, close to 2000 kilometres away.

The Outback, Australia
March 24-26, 2002

The scenery on the drive north was fantastic. Endless desert in every direction. Once we got clear of Alice Springs again the roads were mostly empty. We could go an hour or so without seeing a car in our lane, and only occaisionally one going the other way. The main vehicles on the road were little flat bed pickup trucks driving around barrells of who knows what, the occaisional tourist in a rental van like us, aboriginies driving around in old station wagons, and of course the king of the Australian highway, the Road Trains. These are basically trucks with multiple cargo attatchments (3 typically) so they wind up being about 200 or so feet long. You need about a kilometer of clear road to pass one, which fortunately isn't hard to come by.

Some of the highlights on the drive included the Devils Marbles (strange boulder rock formations formed by erosion), huge termite hills (10 feet tall or so), and just the endless red soil desert. Sunsets were especially impressive.

In terms of wildlife, we didn't see too much. The occaisional wallabie in the campgrounds, maybe a lizard or two by the side of the road, grazing cattle and some horses occaisionally. Birds were definitely in large supply, and loved to swoop down across the road. The one thing that was most plentiful was the insect life, quite a collection of which accumulated on the grill in the front of the van. Huge butterflies, grass hoppers, wasps, dragon flies...I'm convinced Australia must mean "Land of the really big wierd bugs" in some language.

Tips for Camping in Australia
March 20-28, 2002

Some Australian camping tips we have learned from the trip.

1) If you plan to sleep or cook in your vehicle, you need to make sure your vehicle is absolutely insect proof. The only sure way to do this is to completely submerge your vehicle in water - if any water gets inside, then some bugs will also.

2) The birds will be extremely noisy in the morning. They like to come and sit on your vehicle or tent. Throwing rocks at them will only make them louder. You should instead just put another pillow over your head and try and go back to sleep.

3) Those small black pellets you will find in your campsite are kangaroo or wallabie droppings, not charcoal. They should not be burned.

4) The bats nesting in the trees will be extremely noisy during the day and morning, as well as very smelly. Shaking the trees vigorously or throwing stones at them is not advised as it will cause the bats to swarm, resulting in extreme concern from the other campers and/or your spouse.

5) Be sure to stow all food or food like items (including hoses, power cords, paper and chairs) safely at night. Anything left out will be eaten or gnawed on by the wallabies which roam the campsites at night.

6) When showering, it is important to select a shower with the minimum amount of wildlife. Remember also that all wildlife is not equal. Some animals (frogs, lizards and geckos) will help to reduce the quantities of other animals (such as insects). Also IT IS ESSENTIAL to shake out the shower curtain vigorously before selecting a shower as this can dramatically affect the wildlife count.

Katherine Gorge
March 26-27, 2002

We finally arrived in Katherine Gorge (Nitmiluk) and went to the Visitor's Center. We got our camp site and found out there were no mozzies!!! But the guy forgot to mention the camp had other interesting animals... We got settled in and went for a look around the camp, and to Dina's chagrine, there were humongous bats in all the trees near the restrooms. But fortunately they didn't harm people, they only made a lot of noise and were really stinky.

After dinner, we got a little surprise too. After nightfall, wallabees come out to feed on the grass in the campsite. Some even go to each camper to beg for food, but they're very cautious. Of course, we didn't feed them although Dina wanted to.

The next morning we woke up early to do a 5-mile hike which lead to spectacular views of the Katherine Gorge. It was already unbelievable hot when we started the hike. The trail also led down to a clear blue water hole that the locals swear you can drink the water from. No thanks, there were fish and humans swimming in it.

On the way back, Dina almost didn't make it. It was soooo hot that we didn't do anything the rest of the day.

The next day we headed out for Kakadu National Park. We stopped in Katherine for some grocery shopping and a little e-mail catch up. We got to Kakadu and didn't do too much. Found a spot for our van and had a nice dinner in the restaurant. But it all went downhill from there.

Kakadu National Park
March 28-29, 2002

The next morning we woke up to literally a hundred mosquitos on our screen windows trying to get in. Getting ride of them almost made us miss our boat ride on the Yellow River.

We had to meet the bus to take us to the boat at 8:10 a.m. and we arrived four minutes late. We saw the bus take off, so we took off after it. However, we lost it and didn't know which way it went. So we headed back, and realized there was more than just one bus. Luckily, we made it to our boat with time to spare.

The river cruise was great. We saw all kinds of wildlife, mostly birds including jabirus (storks), sea eagles, egrets and a hundred other birds we can't remember the names of. Just our luck, we spotted two saltwater crocodiles just minutes before our boat returned. They were almost impossible to see. They were resting on mud banks covered by trees and shrubbery. If it wasn't for the spikes on their tales, you'd probably miss them.

Because we were at the end of the wet season, there really wasn't much else to do. You could take a helicopter flight out to see some sights, but it wasn't our thing. Everything was still underwater. We had enough mozzies and humid weather, it was time to treat ourselves to some civilized luxuries.

So we headed for the Gagadju Hotel, shaped like a crocodile. The shape of the hotel was approved by the Aborigines as one of their local "Dreamtime" stories. We didn't do much the rest of the day, just hang out, a little swim in the pool, a movie on t.v., and a nap. Aaah, what a life we lead.

Darwin, Australia
March 29-April 1, 2002

We had one more stop on the way into Darwin - the Territory Wildlife Park about 30 miles south of the city. The park was great. You walk through a 6 km path around the park, seeing all sorts of animals in the natural settings. Some of the exhibits are open (like the kangaroos) meaning there are fences between you and the animals. Other exhibits (like the crocodiles and venonmous snakes) had fences thankfully.

After that, we finally arrived in Darwin. The total mileage on the rental van was 2999 kilometers. Whew! Darwin turned out to be quite a peaceful city at least when we were there. We arrived over Easter weekend, which it turns out is a big four day holiday in Australia. In Darwin in particular, it means everybody heads out to go camping or fishing in the bush. That left the city basically empty, almost a ghost town as we walked around.

We stayed in a nice apartment on the edge of the botanical gardens just north of town. We spent the weekend just relaxing, walking around the cliffs on the edge of the city, looking at old WW II monuments (of which there are many) and strolling through the botanical gardens. We even had time to take in a movie (Gosford Park) with some of the few Darwinians who hadn't vacated the city for the weekend. One other highlights was Crocodylus Park - a crocodile research and breeding farm open to the public. It featured big lagoons full of crocodiles which got fed as people watched. The crocodiles were huge - up to 15 ft long, and can jump half their length out of the water to catch prey (in this case raw chicken).

The day after Easter then we packed up and headed off to the airport and Singapore. We've been travelling for 4 weeks now and still going good. No health problems (except for sand fly and mosquito bites) and the weather had been great the entire trip (no rain) except for the heat and humidity in Northern Australia. It was time to say goodbye to Australia and hello to Asia.