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Jo CarrollJo Carroll
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Wohnt in: Bonnells Bay, Australia Weiterlesen Bonnells Bay, Australia
  • ReisenderExploring Europe
    Tag 7

    Au naturel up in the clouds

    20. Dezember 2019 in England ⋅ 🌧 8 °C

    Wet… again…but we were still pumped for our second last day in London. It was a day for exploring some things involving a bit of nature, bit first, it was down to the local barista Over Under cafe for a delicious flat white. Oh and yeah, we did swing by good ol’ Paul’s patisserie too…

    We hit the pretty wet underground and zoomed through the tunnels toward Land Sky Garden. This was a like a huge modern sky scraper with a basically a fancy greenhouse on top. We hadn’t booked tickets and were planning on just showing up to see what we could do. Turns out if you don’t book tickets and you go at a certain time you actually get priority entry! We felt like kings and queens as we wished past the ticket checks and people waiting in-line with their tickets ready for security checks.
    We made it through security and up the 360m tower to London’s highest public garden. Up here we enjoyed the 360 degree views of London city, wandered through the greenery, and sipped coffee while we relaxed high above the city.
    We did however have to get moving cause we were slowly but surely running out of time in London. We had yet to hit up St Paul’s Cathedral, Kensington Palace, The Natural History Museum, & Harrod’s!

    We zoomed down the tower, jumped back not he underground and went our seperate ways from J,J, & H. St Paul’s Cathedral was absolutely enormous! Yet again another super impressive old building with so much history. We decided not to pay the $40 dollar each entry fee and just admired the spectacle from outside. We just can’t get over the incredible architecture involved in these old buildings. The cathedral just sort of popped up out of nowhere as we walked around the corner from the underground station. It’s huge domed center soars above the surrounding city and its massive entry-way is something else.

    We got our happy snaps, but we had other places to be. We zoomed back towards out apartment, heading for Kensington Palace. This palace was pretty nice. The home of Queen Victoria before she became queen, one of Jo’s favourites, and of course Princess Diana at one stage. This Palace was nice because it was on a much smaller scale to what we’d seen so far, particularly Queen Victoria’s residence. We found we could appreciate her childhood and life a lot more as we wandered through the rooms of the palace. It was also fascinating to see how Princess Diana impacted the world through her actions and even through her fashion!

    From Kensington we wandered through the edge of Hyde Park, the sun even came out for awhile which was delightful. From there our destination was the natural history museum. We waited for a bus which seemed to take forever in the freezing cold. We rolled up tot he natural history museum and our mouths hit the floor.
    This building was an architectural masterpiece! It was absolutely massive and so grand in design we were sure it must have been used as a cathedral or a palace. We asked on fo the guides and turns out this whole marvellous building was designed and built for the sole purpose of the natural history museum. Whaaaaat?
    The Natural History museum used to be a part of the British museum, but there was just tooo much stuff, so… they simply built an enormous new building for it. Why not?

    As we wandered through this incredible museum checking out the incredible wonders of the natural world it really made us appreciate the enormity and complexity of God’s creation. There was so much to see here we just couldn’t do it all. We spent about 1.5 hrs here before our feet just couldn’t go any further. We had great plans to go ice skating int he shadow of this incredible building, under the night sky, but as we excited the rain was coming down and we breathed a slight sigh of relief as our feet definitely wouldn’t have held up!

    So we set of in the rain for home where we relaxed with the rest of the team before Jo and headed out to our 3rd show for the week, Wicked. Yet again, another brilliant show, however we quietly reckon Australia did it better. I guess these guys do it every single night over here so they need to pace themselves. When shows come to Australia for a few months at a time they seem to go above an beyond a lot more.

    After the show we hung out on the London streets and face-timed the fam back home, before tip toeing back inside our apartment and falling into bed.

    One more day in London to go! We’re sad our time at this location is coming to an end but, we’re looking forward to our coming adventures!    Weiterlesen

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    Tag 6

    Museums & Castles

    19. Dezember 2019 in England ⋅ 🌧 11 °C

    Today was wet! Very wet. The perfect day for some inside exploring. We were off to the British Museum and Tower of London.

    British Museum was up first. This huge museum was a wonder. We could have spent he whole day there and still not seen everything. We only had a few hours though so we prioritised Ancient Egypt, Assyria and Greece. These were all things both of us had learnt about during our year 12 schooling so it was pretty amazing to see things in the flesh. The colossal statues of this powerful Pharaohs and lavish palaces of the Assyrian Kings. It was just so amazing to actual visualise these actual things that existed so many years ago. Even stories from the bible we learn’t as kids, seeing the actual palaces from those times really brings what it would have been like to life. I never really pictured much of the city of Nineveh but seeing the actual palace walls in real life depicting carvings of what life was like there really brought it to life.
    We dove into history for a few hours before time got away from us and we had to get across to the grand Tower of London. Not before a quick pit stop at the local bookshop though.

    We made it to the Tower of London, grabbed our audio guides and set off in the rain to explore this incredible castle and fortress. This was a real step back in time. All the way back to William the Conquerer. Originally it started out as a prison, then part of it became a royal palace, a store house for military weapons and now it’s a museum of war weapons and of course the home of The Crown Jewels.

    After exploring the history for a while we wandered in to see the Crown Jewels. Jo was very excited! We took the constantly moving travellator past quite a few times before we could move on. These jewels were very bedazzling, under all the lights they sparkled like crazy. Some of the jewels were incredible! We found out that this was home to the largest cut diamond in the world, the Cullinan diamond. Originally 3,106 carats and the size of a baseball it was cut down and forms different parts of the crown jewels. Unfortunately Queen Lizzy’s crown was in use so we couldn’t see the state crown. With the latest British election Boris Johnson had stolen it for the day.
    Must admit though, this huge display of wealth was all a bit much I think. Traditions or not you could see why the poorer class would have despised the royal family sometimes.
    We hung around the castle until sunset which was such stunning lighting with the tower bridge in the background.

    From there we were heading home. We were on babysitting duty tonight so James and Jess could enjoy dinner and a show. It was nice to have a night relaxing at home actually. We waved them off, got Hudsy to bed and put ourselves to bed not long after.

    A very historically informative day!

    Asher ☺️    Weiterlesen

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  • ReisenderExploring Europe
    Tag 5

    Guards, Bridges, & Markets. Mamma Mia!

    18. Dezember 2019 in England ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    It was once again a beautiful sunny day and the changing of the guard was a pretty lavish spectacle! We got there 15 minutes early but it was absolutely packed. You would have thought Queen Lizzy was addressing the nation! Jo managed to push her way somewhat to the front, playing the short person card, however, the view was still pretty rubbish. We found it best just to watch one of the thousands of phone screens being held up in the air trying to get the shot.
    It was pretty amazing though! To think that they close roads and put on this lavish show every few days is crazy! The marching band had to be the highlight. Being able to play so well while staying in formation was incredible.

    From there we beelined for London Bridge and more importantly, Borough Markets. Borough markets are a food lovers dream! Hundreds of food stalls selling delicious cheeses, meats, chocolates, fresh produce, hot food and of course mulled wine, sangria and warmed spiced cider.

    We wandered the many stores struggling to decide on something to eat for lunch before settling on pulled pork rolls, fried chicken burgers, falafel wraps, sangria & hot spiced cider. Oh and of course jam & chocolate filled donuts to cap it off! We’re going to be twice the size when we come back!
    We sat in the shadow of a very old and grand church to feast on our purchases before going our seperate ways. James & Jess were heading to St Paul’s cathedral, we were aiming for The Tower of London. We didn’t quite make it though as our walk there took us through awesome Christmas markets and across London Tower. With our daylight running out we decided to leave The Tower of London to tomorrow. Instead we opted for the Tower Bridge walk.

    A lift took us more than 40 meters up one of the towers where we could walk across the the glass bottomed walkways to the other side. It was somewhat dizzying stepping out onto the glass and looking down, but extremely cool. The views over London and the Thames were fantastic, and the history of the Tower Bridge was really fascinating. It was really an artistic and engineering wonder for London. We toured the engine room which house the huge old steam engines which drove the bascules, splitting the bridge in two to allow for ships to pass through. Back when it was built in 1894 it was raised 10,000 times a year and required a team of 12 guys to operate it. Today its all run by electricity and only opened maybe 1000 times a year at the push of a button. How times have changed. We spent some time soaking in the history before heading back to the apartment in the dark.

    From there the plans were to go and see the musical School of Rock. James jumped on board with Jo & I and we left Jess and Hudsy to hopefully a quiet night. Even after talking to the booking people, it wasn’t long before we discovered I had mad a big mistake. Turns out the musical wasn’t even playing tonight! Spewing!
    Lucky we hadn’t travelled too far and London has about 400,000 theatres scattered across the city. No, I exaggerate, but we were lucky in that Mamma Mia was playing jsut a street away and we had time to make it! So we went from School of Rock to Mamma Mia… not a bad compromise… in fact I think Mamamia probably turned out to be the better option anyway. By the end of it they had us on our feet singing along to Dancing Queen and all those ABBA classics. We felt horrible for poor Jess when we broke the news to her we were heading to Mamma Mia instead! We resolved to telling her it was terrible if she asked.

    All in all it was yet another great day in this incredible city!

    Asher ☺️    Weiterlesen

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  • ReisenderExploring Europe
    Tag 4

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY JO!

    17. Dezember 2019 in England ⋅ 🌧 6 °C

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY JO!!
    It was a relatively early start to the birthday celebrations. We had big plans which meant we needed to be on the Underground by 8am. We filled a big paper bag with delicious pastries and coffee from Paul’s patisserie (our local) before jumping on the train, destination, you guessed it, Harry Potter World at Warners Bros studios to celebrate the big 24th birthday!
    It was about an hour on a few trains before we made it to the Night Bus bus stop at Watford Junction. It was cold and rainy, the perfect day for exploring the world of Harry Potter.

    We rolled in on the bus, grabbed our audio guided tour kits and got in line for the entrance. We entered the entire studio through the great doors of the Hogwarts Great Hall. As it was her birthday, Jo had the honours of actually opening the doors for everyone! It’s true, I may have been more excited for her than she was.
    And then we were off into the world of witchcraft and wizardry!

    There was soooooo much to see in this place! From interesting facts about the making of, to thousands and thousands of genuine props used throughout the 8 Harry Potter Films. We couldn’t believe the amount of effort and detail that actually went into making these movies. The amazing special effects and the tiniest of detailed props that went into the sets was remarkable. It was pretty surreal for Jo to be able to look at the making of one of her favourite stories from childhood.
    As we wandered through this amazing world, we hit lunchtime and hadn’t even scratched the surface. We stopped for delicious butter beers and questionable hot dogs before continuing on.
    It was so so impressive to see how they put these films together and interesting how it was literally hundreds of people's entire lives for the 10 years of production. Once you enter the studio it was just another world.
    Highlights would have to have been the sheer scale of some of the sets like Gringott’s bank, the detail in the huge Hogwarts model castle they used for long shots, and of course the Hogwarts Express steam train. All in all it was an incredible experience!
    To be able to see behind the scenes of some of the greatest movies made was amazing.

    From there we headed back home before Jo and I headed out to dinner and a show to keep the birthday celebrations going. Dinner was an amazing rooftop Italian restaurant for pizza, pasta and delicious desserts before we heading off to the world's longest playing play, The Mousetrap, an Agatha Christie classic.
    The play was excellent, however both of us were so tired we did struggle through it. Jo actually fell asleep right before the killer was revealed and missed the most critical moment in the whole play. A brief overview was of course given on the train home.
    The lead actor swore us to secrecy in the tradition of Mousetrap and we made our way back home. Exhausted from a big day of celebrating we snuck back into the house trying not to wake the little Lynch family and crashed out.
    A pretty unique birthday well spent! 🎉

    Asher ☺️    Weiterlesen

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  • ReisenderExploring Europe
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    Tag 3

    Early Bird Explorers

    16. Dezember 2019 in England ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    Wide awake at 1am is never fun, especially when your husband is snoring himself off the bed, quite literally! Asher actually almost fell right out of our small double bed last night. Save by fast acting wife reflexes and sleep depriving affects of jet lag.
    It was a bit of a rough morning, all of us extremely tired but still unable to sleep any longer. We were all out in the lounge room by 6am which is pretty much unheard of in our house. Outside it was still pitch black like it was midnight, sunrise wasn’t until 8am.
    We killed a bit of time taking it easy and dosing on the couch while we waiting for the sun to come up, checking out the morning news. Turns out there was an epic 50 million pound jewellery robbery right around the corner from us throughout the night.
    We showered and gathered our weary bodies and set off for the day. We hit up a few shops on High Kensington St, just near our place, walked past the scene of the previous night’s robbery, and then jumped on one of those big red buses London is famous for and headed towards those infamous squares. Piccadilly Circus was first, with a hustle and bustle of classy shops and one whopping big screen. We couldn’t resist checking out M&M world and of course LEGO world. Then it was Leicester square with it’s rows and rows of musical ticket booths. We checked out some pricing for shows we wanted to see and booked a few tickets.
    It wasn’t long before we made it down to Covent Garden, a beautiful part of town with many quaint alleyways and markets. We stopped for lunch on the beautiful street and explored some of the markets which included more mulled wine of course, and then continued on our way.
    Next up, Trafalgar Square. This enormous square was quite impressive. Named after the Battle of Trafalgar where the British navy defeated Napoleon’s French and Spanish fleets in 1805. The huge column dedicated to Lord Nelson is surrounded by 4 huge lions which were so much bigger than we thought they’d be. Very impressive!

    From there we moseyed on down to the river, stopping to check out the household calvary, the scaffold covered Big Ben (very disappointing), and of course Westminster Abbey. This place was spectacular! The sheer size, ornate architecture and simple beauty of this old building was stunning. Everywhere we go in this city we’re taken back by the incredible old buildings and architecture. It’s style has lasted through the ages and each building is so rich with history.

    We rested our weary legs overlooking the river Thames and with the sun gone by 3:30pm we decided to head back. We were all feeling pretty tired still, none of us had had much sleep and our beds were calling us once again.

    We hit up the local pub for dinner and the patisserie next door for a bit of dessert and hot chocolate before zonking out for the day. We needed a good nights sleep before the big birthday shenanigans tomorrow!

    Asher ☺️    Weiterlesen

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  • ReisenderExploring Europe
    211
    Tag 2

    Sleepwalking through London

    15. Dezember 2019 in England ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    We’d arrived! 26hrs later and 6am on the dot. London Baby!
    Gatwick airport was very quite on a brisk early Sunday morning. Our tired, red-eyed faces were graced with the fresh, brisk air of London’s winter as we downed our long desired coffees and set on off to navigate the intrinsic railway network of London.
    We managed to make the 40 minute express train ride into London Victoria station without any qualms. Passing all the quaint terraces homes and small towns outside London
    We purchases our unlimited underground railway passes for the week’s adventures and after taking several wrong turns with our massive winter packed suitcase in tow, we finally managed to find our way to the correct train, next stop; Earl’s Court, our home for the next 7 days.

    Earl’s Court is a stunning suburb just south of Kensington, full of incredible old terrace mansions, now operating as various hotels and bed & breakfasts. From the moment we walked out of the station we were taken in by this place. As we lugged our monster suitcases to a little luggage storage place near our Airbnb, we couldn’t wait to get out and explore this place. We had a few hours to kill before our little apartment was ready so with excited/quite exhausted spirits we set off on foot towards Hyde park.

    After dreading the prior weather forecast of rain, London really turned it on for us with sunshine and clear skies. We strolled through the surprisingly massive Hyde park, from one end to the other. What better way to stretch out the legs after more than 24 hours of travelling.
    We were taken away by the beauty of Hyde park. Even in Winter with it’s bare trees it was quite stunning. We managed the lengthy walk to the other side where we discovered London’s Winter Wonderland. This picturesque winter show was something to behold. Smells of delicious BBQ mixed with fresh cinnamon donuts assaulted our noses as we wandered the many stores serving up delicious food & drinks. We started off with a steaming hot cup of spiced mulled wine which warmed your entire body before moving on to shishkebabs, German sausages and hot Nutella crepes. We mossed on out of the wonderland going against the crowds and crowds of people heading in for their Sunday afternoon. With our Airbnb still not quite ready we set of to tick more major tourist hotspots. This one was a big one, Buckingham Palace.

    We weren’t really expecting to head here on day 1, tired and sleep walking, but we were in the area so why not?
    Buckingham palace is one of those places we thought we’d seen lot of after binging the entire 3rd season of The Crown, but it’s sheer size when you actually walk up to it’s front gate is pretty impressive. Jo was in her element! We snapped the essential photos, waved to Lizzy and kept moving, we were craving a bit of horizontal time.
    Our Airbnb still wasn’t quite ready so it was to the classic English pub down a cobble stone side ally while we waited. Rested and refreshed we picked up our massive bags and headed to our apartment for hot showers and a chillout.
    The time difference was catching up to us and with sunset at 4:00pm it wasn’t long before we started falling like flies for bed. We were all in bed by 6:30pm an that was it. A great sunny start to our London leg of the trip!

    Asher ☺️    Weiterlesen

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  • ReisenderExploring Europe
    1
    Tag 1

    Holiday time!

    14. Dezember 2019 in Australien ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    14th December 2019, departure day. It was the day we had been anxiously awaiting, the day where we set off on our biggest adventure yet. 4 weeks of exploring new countries, eating new foods, experiencing new cultures and 4 weeks to slow down and unwind. Bring it on.

    (Let me just note that I just finished my last day of teaching yesterday and have been fighting sickness all week and I woke up today with little energy, a terrible chest cough and congestion…what a great travelling buddy I will make. Poor Asher!)

    It all started when our alarms went off at 8am. We bounced out of bed to finishing packing and cleaning ready to leave at 11am. We pride ourselves on being speedy packers and we were all packed and ready to go by 9:30…then I was ready for a nap.

    We had time for some quick goodbyes to Mum and Dad 2, Shem, Jesse Abi and Dad then we were off in the car heading to the airport…it was all starting to feel quite real now! We made good time and arrived at the airport at 1:20pm, with Jess, James and Hudson hot on our tail. It was a quick goodbye to Jesse and a big thank you for taking us down. In we went to the international airport ready for the longest flight of our lives!

    We excitedly met James, Jess and Hudson at the luggage gate ready to check in our monster suitcases, a pram and a cot. Everything started to feel real as we checked our bags in, went through the security checks, ate a quick airport meal and rushed ourselves to the gate. 3:50pm and time to board our dreaded 15 hour flight to Dohar.

    Several movies, plenty of complimentary drinks for Asher and a lots of short naps later we made it safely to Doha. The 15 hours was over, we made it safe and tired in Dohar ready for our next leg. We only managed a brief stretch of the legs before it was time to board our next flight. We couldn’t believe it. 7 hours and we’d be in London!

    We’d attempted to do the sneaky on this flight and book seats with one in-between us, hoping that no-one would book it and then we could have a whole row to spread out. We may have celebrated too early as the last guy to board the flight just so happened to be the same guy who booked that seat! Not to worry though, we were very tired on this leg so we managed to sleep a lot of it away. With a bumpy decent and a screech of wheels, we touched down in London! Excitement is high!!! Ready to explore the city and stay awake as long as we can.

    Jo ♥️    Weiterlesen

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  • NZ Adventure
    1
    Tag 13

    Baked Beans & an Italian Stallion

    13. Juli 2018 in Neuseeland ⋅ 🌙 1 °C

    We spent the night on a comfy air mattress in Luke & Nay's cosy lounge room last night. We woke to the hustling and bustling of Lukey in the kitchen, whipping up his famous baked beans (famous?). I got up and started brewing a bit of coffee as slowly, one by one everyone else walked bleary eyed into he kitchen. Jo shocked us all by showing face in the kitchen quite early before we realised she was just passing through to get back to her bed from the bathroom! 😂

    But soon the smell of Luke's beans and the rest of his yummy breakfast lured her back in. We feasted on a delicious gourmet brekky before getting ready for the day. Firstly we had to sort out another set of wheels. We hired a rental car online before Luke dropped us to pick it up. We had a great chat to the car rental ladies before setting off to pick up the girls.

    We loaded the girls and Hudson into the cars and we were off on the road once again. We were aiming for the amazing Hanmer Springs. About 1.5 hours later we arrived in the beautiful old town at the base of the mountain ranges, just North-West of Christchurch. Luke and Nay were dying to take us on a a pretty big hike, but Luke, previously reading about the events which took place at the Fox Glacier, decided against it. It was in the best interest of us all. 😂

    We did however tackle a substantial hill climb when we arrived in Hanmer Springs. We set off up Conical Hill, an amazing track that wound up the mountain through incredible pine forests. Luke managed to steal the good camera off James to try re-ignite his old photography skills, much to James' dismay he had to go without taking a photo for some time while we climbed. We managed the trek with ease and the view at the top paid of. We could see all over Hanmer Springs and then back over toward the snow capped ranges behind us. We never grow tired of these incredible views here!

    After several attempts at a group photo it was back down to town to explore and find coffee. Unfortunately due to a bit of a late start to the day we were racing the sun and had to head back to Christchurch. We would have spent much more time in Hanmer Springs if we had the time but perhaps next time.

    We made it back to Christchurch and relaxing for a bit before heading out to dinner just down he road. Luke & Nay had booked a table at an amazing Italian restaurant just new there house. We walked in and instantly felt like we were in another country. The hustle and bustle of happy diners greeted us as well as a large Italian man who threw his hands in the air in greeting "Ciao Bella!" We were directed to our table and continued to be entertained but this character of a man. Hudson seemed to attract bit of attention from waiters and diners alike, making us the centre of attention int he restaurant.😂 We ordered some incredible authentic food and James & Jess reminisced to the days they visited Italy. Our Italian stallion friend was never faraway with a new cheeky comment about how the ladies loved his thick accent, much to the girls delight!

    We spent the night feasting on delicious food and wine, catching up, and enjoying the odd but hilarious interruptions from our larger than life friend. With full bellies and content hearts we walked back to the house to relax in front of the warm fire and sip on cups of tea before bed.

    Tomorrow our personal tour guides are taking us to some farmers markets and showing us around Akoroa, but for now it's time to sleep away this Italian food.

    Asher
    (More photos to come)    Weiterlesen

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  • NZ Adventure
    1
    Tag 12

    Bye Bye Wilderness & Comforts of Home

    12. Juli 2018 in Neuseeland ⋅ 🌙 3 °C

    Today we woke to sounds of a heavy freight train roaring past our van! Our final freedom campsite in Arthur’s Pass was unfortunately situated across the road from the main train line that wound through the mountains. But still, the amazing forest around us and gentle patter of rain on the roof was amazing! Could get used to waking up like this every day. But sadly our time in our home on wheels was coming to an end. Today was the day we had to hand back the keys.😩 But, we still had a few hours before we had to do that!

    We got up, did our usual morning routines and headed back up the mountains of Arthur’s Pass toward the incredible bridge of “Death’s Corner” stopping for coffee at the collage on our way. Deaths Corner road bridge spanned through the huge gorge at a very impressive angle. We got the classic shot of this bridge, James got attacked by a Kea bird, and we headed on back down the pass.

    Luke and Nay had given us a list of cool things to check out on our way back to Christchurch. This included the amazing Cave Stream, a long cave with a flowing river running through it. You could actually walk from one end to the other if you were keen enough to get wet. We, however, were not, so we pressed on!

    We were racing against the clock to get back to Christchurch with enough time to sort out the vans before dropping them back, so we had to admire Luke’s next suggestion of the Castle Hill Rocks from the car as we flew by at 100kmph. We did, however, pull over for one last stop before town... The Famous Sheffield Pie Shop... how could we not?!
    Pies on board (including some frozen ones for Luke & Nay) we made tracks for Christchurch.

    We arrived back at Luke & Nay’s and it was time to put our houses (on wheels) in order. We didn’t realise how much stuff we’d brought before we started stuffing it back into suitcases. It was a wild 20 minutes of packing and unloading before we headed back out to pump, dumped, and refuel one last time.
    It wasn’t long before we rolled our relatively tidy vans back into the Wilderness depot. It was sadly time to say goodbye to our beautiful vans! They did their final checks, we did our surveys and then they shouted us a taxi back to the house. Until next time Wilderness. 👌🏻

    We grabbed coffee at the local shops before settling in at the house. We commented on the spacious lounge room and how nice it was after a couple of weeks in the close quarters of the van. We stretched out and relaxed while we waiting for Luke & Nay to get home from work. It was great to see them again when they did get home. They whipped up some delicious wild venison and veggie burgers, coupled with a nice bottle of red, and followed by some amazing chocolate mousse. What a treat!
    Wasn’t long before we’d had our catch ups, drunk our late night cups of tea and all disappeared to bed.

    Looking forward to tomorrow’s adventures with our local tour guides but for now, it’s time to soak up the comforts of a warm, spacious, and stationary home 😊😴    Weiterlesen

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  • NZ Adventure
    Tag 11

    The Beginning of The End

    11. Juli 2018 in Neuseeland ⋅ 🌧 4 °C

    Today we woke with our cosy van situated on beautiful Lake Mapourika, 10 minutes north of Franz Josef Glacier township. We ate our Nutri Grain, drank coffee and mosied on down to the waters edge in the drizzling rain. We said good morning to some other campers who’d been fishing with what seemed like no luck, packed up our van and hit the road with James, Jess and Hudsy on our tail. We cruised the 10 minutes back into town for a nice coffee and a bit of wifi so we could upload our blog posts from the last couple of days.

    From there we once again hit the road going north, continuing up the west coast. We drove for a good hour before turning off down a little side road that supposedly led to some natural hot springs. But as the the road turned to dirt, then loose gravel, then simply just large pot holes filled with water, our hope of relaxing in some delightful hot pools quickly diminished. Soon the road came to a complete dead end save for a small walking trail teat led on. I jumped out of the van and went to investigate, only to be greeted by large rocks and a rushing river instead of the supposed soft sand and warm gentle stream. Clearly the last few days of rain have had a huge impact on New Zealand’s rivers. So with the hot springs crossed off our list but not achieved, we tracked back along the goat trail and back onto the main road. We pointed our noses at the small gold mining town of Ross.

    Ross was supposedly the largest gold mining town on the West Coast. We spent a little bit of time here, admiring the very well kept miners cottage and tiny old gaol. Something they do very well over he is maintain so much of their history. There were hundreds of old photographs, instruments and things of just day to day living from back then. It really takes you back to that time when you can walk into an entire cottage fitted out as it would have been back then Complete with an old stove, a dining room and even annelid piano. Quite amazing. We explored the history of the town a little before pressing on the a much larger town, Hokitika.

    Hokitika is one of the larger towns on the west coast. We stopped here for lunch and explored the many different shops on offer. IN particular they had a fantastic glass blowing shop where you could watch the glass benders creating their world of art. It was so mesmerising to watch the piping hot, glowing glass turn into something incredible in their hands. Jo confessed to frequently watching youtube clips on glass blowing, turns out she's got a hidden admiration for the art. We could have stood there and watched them all day, but we had to keep moving. We stopped in at a large jade shop where once again you could watch the masons carve the beautiful green stones into incredible works of art. We admired an incredible 1.5 tonne, $200,000 jade lounge before heading out of town, stopping to pump and dump as we went.

    From there we continue our journey north and then west toward Arthurs Pass. With Jo at the helm I was completely free to admire the amazing scenery as we started heading up into Arthur's Pass. As we drove the mountains seemed to close in on us as the valley got tighter. The road got steeper and the temperature got lower as we climbed ever higher up into the snow capped mountains. We drove along sheer cliffs with waterfalls going over our heads. The gorge below us roared with the recent rainfall converging as it found it's way down he mountain.

    We pulled into a small lookout that looked back down the gorge we'd just climbed. It was beautiful but here we also found the infamous Kea birds, the parrots of the mountain. These birds were pretty large parrot looking birds with sharp curved beaks. They are renowned for nibbling on the rubber tires of cars and sure enough as soon as we pulled up they were looking for their next fix of rubber. Our tires thankfully were not on the menu as one bird instead opted for the rubber seal on our van door before being chases away. We chatted to a friendly local for a while before heading on through Arthur's Pass. We arrived at our final freedom campsite 15 minutes later and set up camp as the rain set in. The weather forecast says fresh snow through the night so we're hoping we'll be waking to a winter wonderland tomorrow but we'll see what happens.

    It was burritos for our final dinner in the vans tonight followed by a quick trip back into reception to upload our blogs and catch up on the daily instagram feed ☺️

    We're sad to be saying goodbye to our Wilderness motorhomes tomorrow afternoon. It's been an incredible experience and the best way to see as much of the sights as possible. We highly recommend Wilderness to anyone planning a road trip around New Zealand, they've been a treat! We just wish we had longer! 😩

    Looking forward to catching up with Luke & Nay for the coming weekend though. I'm sure they've got lots more to show us.    Weiterlesen

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