Just to Whet Your Appetite

We just got back from our three day/two night cruise around the Whitsunday Islands in Queensland, Australia. We were much luckier with the weather than we thought we would be, though the diving was not so great. I do not have time to write out a long post right now because we need to get back on the road to make it down to Hervey Bay for our Fraser Island tour on Thursday (busy, busy, busy!). A longer post will follow soon, but here are some pictures to enjoy for now!

Jucing in Australia, Part II: Waterfalls and Wallabies

"I'm sorry about the weather," the travel agent said as soon as we walked into her office.  That wasn't what we wanted to hear.  Following the disappointment of the muddy Capricorn Coast, we pushed all the way up to Airlie Beach to get on a sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands.  We were over halfway to Cairns, and still hadn't seen as much as we had wanted, and now the sailing trip wasn't looking likely either.  Maybe we could go straight up to Cairns, go diving up there and come back to Airlie on the way back to Brisbane?  "The weather's just as bad in Cairns," warned the travel agent.  Dejected, Lorena, Magge and I took some brochures and ate lunch on a windy beach as we strategized.  Different plans were discussed, including a crazy one that would have us backtrack nine hours, and in the end we decided to continue north to Paluma National Park, and decide in a few days whether to go up to Cairns or back to Airlie Beach.  The plan sounded fine, but all three of us were still discouraged and we had to remind ourselves that we were traveling around Australia while everyone else we know is working.

Jucing in Australia

We haven't posted much about our time in Australia because we haven't really done much yet here.  We spent our first two nights with CouchSurfers Tereasa and Charles, a very friendly couple that helped us plan our time in Australia.  The rest of the week, we stayed with Lorena, a friend from college and New York, and her roommate, who have been living in Sydney since October.  During the day, we just walked around Sydney and took in the usual Sydney sites like the Opera House (including seeing the Sydney Symphony perform with the cheapest tickets we could find), the Harbor Bridge, and Bondi and Manly beaches.  No bungy jumping, jet boating or glacier hiking this week.

Our time in Sydney was lazy by design because we've been constantly on the move since leaving Santiago at the beginning of March, not staying in any one place longer than three nights during that span, and had a two week, 2,000 mile road trip planned from Brisbane to Cairns and back.  To add to the fun, we're bringing along Lorena as a third wheel, and all three of us are staying in a Jucy Choppa.  What's a Jucy Choppa?  A conspicuously painted camper van with a hip name (you know it's hip because it's spelled incorrectly) that likely belonged to a soccer mom (or rugby mom, or whatever the equivalent is down here) in its previous life.  If you're curious about the sleeping arrangement, the photograph below should explain everything.  Lorena is sleeping on the roof.

French Polynesia & New Zealand Wrap Up

Our stay in French Polynesia wasn't long enough to warrant its own wrap-up, so we are lumping it with New Zealand. New Zealand is technically within the Polynesian Triangle, so we feel justified in doing this.

Facts and Figures
Length of Stay:  Twenty-two days
Miles Traveled to Enter:  2,600 by plane
Miles Traveled:  2,050 by car + 2,500 by plane + 75 by ferry = 4,625 total (17,571 since landing in Quito)
Places Visited: Papeete, island of Moorea, Faa'a, Auckland, Rotorua, Waitomo, Wellington, Christchurch, Lake Tekapo, Hikotika, Fox Glacier, Lake Manapouri, Milford Sound, Queenstown
Intercity Buses Taken:  Just 1!
Ferries Taken:  3
Flights Taken:  1
Rides given to other travelers: 4

Rankings in the full post.

Tahiti: Part Deux

Though the visual beauty of Moorea was stunning, it was the beauty of the Tahitian spirit that really made Jeff and me fall in love with this area of the world. 

So Many Animals to Take Pictures Of!

Jeff loves talking about my obsession with taking pictures of animals. Australia is proving to be a wonderland of interesting animals to serve as photo subjects. This of course annoys Jeff greatly, which only adds to my pleasure of snapping picture after picture.

These birds are all over Sydney. Their population is clearly being monitored, as they all had tags around their legs. I still need to figure out what kind of bird they are though.

Another Universal Constant: kids love chasing birds

So many times I have wished I had a zoom lense! These bats were incredible. They are the biggest bats I have ever seen in my life and they were all over the place. They are also referred to as "flying foxes". Don't worry, they aren't carnivorous.

They also made terrible sounds. They damage the trees and so the government is taking measures to eradicate them in some areas.

Pretty scary spider, huh? Apparently Australia has more animals that can kill you than any other place in the world. I'm not sure if these are amongst the deadly ones. I would think not though since they're everywhere.

Kind of looks like they're floating in air

Again wishing I had a zoom lense (hint, hint, mom!). The colors of these birds were spectacular.

Shotover Jet

Let me start off by saying that I am in no way embarrassed or ashamed of the fact that I did not bungy jump.  It's simply not something I am interested in doing and I do not see the point in spending a lot of money to do something I don't want to do.  I rappelled 100m, I think I proved I can handle heights when necessary.

I do, however, enjoy a little adrenaline rush and wanted to partake in at least one of the many crazy activities that are abundant in Queenstown (you cannot walk down the street without seeing at least a few people paragliding overhead.)

Due to time constraints, rafting and river sledging really weren't options.  So I decided to go with Queenstown's original adrenaline rush: jetboating.  These types of boats were invented in New Zealand in the '50s to explore the shallow, braided rivers that are common here.  They can reach speeds of 80km/h in water only four inches deep, and can turn on a dime.  Watch the video to get a taste of what Jeff and I experienced during our thrilling ride on the Shotover River.  And yes, we did come as close to the rocks as it looks.

Photographs from New Zealand's Roadsides

Following the theme I started in the Life on the Road in New Zealand's South Island post, here are pictures taken from New Zealand's highways.  Most of them were taken off the shoulder or from lookout points, and the longest we walked to get any of these was fifteen minutes.

Drive from Fox Glacier to Lake Manapouri

Sorry, Mom, but I Had to Try It

More in the full post, including pictures

Pining for the Fjords

Throughout our time in New Zealand, we had repeatedly heard and read that the Fiordland (part of the enormous Te Wahipounamu UNESCO World Heritage Site) is the prettiest area of the country.  Given how stunning the rest of New Zealand is, we've been excited about getting to the Fiordland, but we still wanted to temper our expectations to avoid being let down.

Queenstown at Dusk

We should have a number of posts coming up over the next few days (including Magge's long awaited second post on Tahiti). In the meantime, here are pictures of Queenstown taken tonight from our hostel.  The mountains in this picture have the very cool name of "The Remarkables".

Hiking on Fox Glacier

We wanted to go on a guided hike on Grey Glacier in Torres del Paine in Chile, but the logistics of getting to the meeting point at 7am when we were a five hour hike away didn't allow us.  I promised Magge we would would do a glacier hike at some point, and the opportunity quickly presented itself in New Zealand.  Fox and Franz Josef, two of the many glaciers in this country, are among the most accessible in the world, with tours getting on the ice every day.  Only 20km from each other in Westland National Park, part of the Te Wahipounamu UNESCO World Heritage Site*, the glaciers are unique in that they descend into a rain forest only 300m above sea level and that they have actually been advancing for most of the last twenty-five years while most of the world's glaciers have been retreating.  I could go on and on about Fox and Franz Josef facts (the ice at the top of the glacier can move as much as 5m in one day, while the ice in the middle can move as much as 2m, about ten times more than the average glacier's speed), but you probably want to hear about the hike.

More on Hokitika Gorge

For the first time on this website, I'm posting a video.  We'll try to this more going forward if we get video of interesting things, but for this first time, I'm just trying to break the ice.  We took this video of the Hokitika Gorge because of the bird calls, which you can still hear, but don't sound as pretty as they did in person.

Life on the Road in New Zealand's South Island

We racked up more miles on buses in four months in South America than anyone should in a lifetime. Nevertheless, we were planning on tackling New Zealand in the same manner before being convinced by a number of travelers that getting our own car was the way to go. It’s the best decision we’ve made in this country. Just being freed from the Traveling Problem Child Corollary to Murphy’s Law validates the decision, let alone the added scheduling flexibility and ability to get to places the buses do not travel.  But our favorite feature is that we can pull over whenever we see something interesting.  New Zealand is incredibly beautiful, and much of that beauty is easily accessible from the road.  Aside from the picture from the ferry, every picture in this post was taken within an hour's walk from the road, and most were within much shorter walks than that.

Happy Birthday, Liam!

My youngest sibling turns nine today.  We weren't sure where we going to take the picture, but when you're driving around New Zealand, it doesn't take long to find an interesting location.  About halfway through our drive from Lake Tekapo to Hokitika, we saw huge, wavy boulders sitting on a hill, and thought it would be a good place to take pictures.  They turned out to be part of a national park called Kura Tawhiti, and we were able to climb on the boulders to get our picture with the sign instead of just standing in front of them.  The pictures of us on the boulders were taken too far away to see the sign clearly, but there's a closeup at the end.

Climbing...

Magge also did some climbing for her shot

Closeup of the sign

Too Little Time on New Zealand's North Island

We arrived in New Zealand more unprepared than we have been upon arrival in any other country so far.  We had bought guide books for Ecuador, Peru and Chile back in August of last year and had spent hours looking at each before entering the respective country.  In French Polynesia, we knew where we would be spending each night before we left Santiago.  All we knew about our plans in New Zealand was where we were staying the first two nights in Auckland, and that we are flying out of Queenstown on April 10.

The first thing we did after checking in was buy a New Zealand guidebook so we could start planning our three weeks here (we originally had four weeks, but the earthquake in Santiago and subsequent plane flight changes cut nearly a whole week out).  Following the advice of a number of travelers we met in South America, we decided to spend only a week on the North Island and the remaining time on the South Island.  I left Magge to find us a rental car while I did our taxes, which will be much easier next year when neither of us has income to declare.  By the end of the day, we had our car and picked out and the two spots we'd see on the North Island: Rotorua and Waitomo.

The Honeymoon Portion of the Honeymoon

Ever since Jeff and I first decided we would be doing our trip, people seemed to be confused that a year of backpacking was going to be our honeymoon. I was amazed at how many people asked me if we would be going on a separate honeymoon prior to our departure. Jeff and my mother keep insisting money does not grow on trees (I'm still not entirely sure I believe them), so a separate honeymoon before the honeymoon was not really a financial possibility. Unfortunately, in order to make our trip from Easter Island to New Zealand with our Around the World Ticket, we had to stop in Tahiti (life is so unfair). In an attempt to appease me for not having a traditional honeymoon, Jeff said Tahiti could be our honeymoon portion of the trip. Not overly disgruntled by the prospect of spending a year backpacking around the world to begin with, I happily accepted the offer.

McDonald's in French Polynesia

Beautiful Tahiti is home to tropical mountains, waterfalls, black sand beaches, light blue lagoons and three McDonald's. In continuing our quest to check out one McDonald's in each country we visit (except for Vietnam, which still doesn't have one... yet), we ate lunch at the location in central Papeete.

Chile Wrap-Up

Facts and Figures
Length of Stay:  Forty-two days
Miles Traveled:  3,555 by bus + 3,926 by plane = 7,481 total (10,346 since landing in Quito)
Cities and Towns Visited: Arica, Iquique, San Pedro de Atacama, Viña del Mar, Pucón, Valdivia, Castro, Puerto Montt, Puerto Natales, Punta Arenas, Santiago, Valparaiso, Hanga Roa
Intercity Buses Taken:  17
Flights Taken:  3
Disgusting Blisters Magge Developed:  4, at least
Natural Disasters Experienced:  1

Rankings in the full post.

Easter Island: Worth the Wait

When Magge and I realized that we could visit Easter Island (known as Rapa Nui in the native language) on our around-the-world-ticket at no extra cost, we knew we had to make the stop. 2,300 miles from Chile and 2,500 miles from Tahiti, it is one of the most, if not the most, remote inhabited places on earth, and we didn't know when we'd have another opportunity to see it. It was therefore heartbreaking when our flight was canceled after the earthquake and we thought we'd have to skip it. However, we were able to move the flights around, and even though it meant only being there for three days instead of six, we made it to the island. After all the waiting and uncertainty, it did not disappoint.

When Nature Throws You an Earthquake . . .

Due to our inconsistent internet access over the last couple weeks (and the exorbitant prices when it was available!), we are quite behind on our posts.  It also looks as though New Zealand will be offering a great deal of writing material, and Jeff (surprise, surprise) is fretting about us getting too far behind on our posts.  Since one of the major objectives of this blog is to create a magnus opus that we may look back on in years to come, we do not wish to leave out anything.  Consequently, my next few posts will not be nearly as detailed as usual and will rely heavily on pictures.

As would be expected with my mother, no earthquake was going to get in the way of us having an activity-filled vacation.  Yes, our Easter Island plans did not work out as hoped; however, we still managed to have a wonderful time together for our extended stay in Santiago.

Hostel Honeymoon on Spring Break

After six extra days in Santiago, we are headed to Easter Island for three days, followed by eight in Tahiti and Moorea. From what I understand, internet in both locations is slow and expensive, so we are unlikely to update the website until we get to Auckland on March 18. However, we will try to post short updates on Twitter, so you can either check the front page here or follow us directly.

Traveling Problem Child Corollary to Murphy's Law

There is always at least one crying or bratty child on your plane/bus/boat/train ride, and their distance to your seat is inversely proportional to the length of your trip.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

An earthquake isn't going to stop Magge's birthday signs.  We were supposed to be on Easter Island today, and the plan was to take this picture with one of the many moai (or as Magge says, "Easter Island head") on the island.  Since we couldn't be there, we hunted down this replica in Santiago.

We couldn't find out how to say happy birthday in Easter Island's native language, so this sign says it in Maori, which is supposed to be a closely related Polynesian language.

Earthquake Damage in Santiago

I obviously haven't seen the American news coverage of the earthquake in Chile, but in speaking to friends and family from home, it seems as though the message conveyed is that much of Chile, including the capital Santiago, has been devastated.  While that certainly has been the case in the city of Concepción and the surrounding areas, Santiago has largely been spared.  Buildings and infrastructure took some hits, but overall we have been extremely fortunate that it was not worse.  Over the last four days, we have spent time walking and driving around various neighborhoods in central Santiago, and we have only seen two instances of heavy destruction.