The Last Post. Hong Kong!

Ok guys, I don't know if any of you are dedicated enough to still be checking the blog for this final post we promised even though we've now been back 3 weeks but if you are then good effort and apologies for the wait! So, to Hong Kong!

As mentioned at the start of the last New Zealand post we flew from Auckland to Hong Kong (via a changeover in Sydney) on the 15th Aug. After, waking at about 5am to check in we finally arrived about 17 hours later, at around 6pm Hong Kong time. It was a pretty uneventful days travelling which we spent watching as many recent-release films as possible and generally being bored and cramped. On entering Hong Kong the first things we noticed were the heat and the humidity which immediately started sapping what little energy we had left! Still we braved following a friends recommendation (thanks Ian) and took a stuffy bus (rather than the air conditioned train) from the airport on Chek Lap Kok Island across to Kowloon, the area of Hong Kong on the mainland in which we were staying. Through the bus windows we could see a beautiful sunset sky behind steep forested hills in the distance and reflected off the water and the shiny new buildings a the waters edge. We passed across impressively long bridges linking the small islands to the mainland and witnessed the enormous scale of the city and it's industrial bays. It was a lovely introduction to the city and although it took a little longer, was both cheaper and more relaxing than the MTR, mass transit railway, and left us feeling like we'd seen something already so could justify going straight to bed after dinner!

Lucky for us everything in central Hong Kong seems to be signed in both English and (Cantonese) Chinese and most shop assistants etc were bilingual so getting around as tourists was very easy. On our first full day we decided to get the ferry from the mainland across to Hong Kong island to have a look around and to get one of the old trams up Hong Kong Island's highest mountain to 'the peak' tower. From here there are spectacular views back across the island and Kowloon over the water. We went up the observation deck for some photos, had a wander around and grabbed some lunch to avoid a heavy shower but as the wind picked up decided we'd best start heading back before getting caught in a proper downpour. A notice at the tramway going back down informed us that Typhoon warning signal 3 was now hoisted which perturbed us slightly as we had no idea how high the scale went but people seemed to be continuing with life so we decided to make our way back to the ferry port on foot taking in the botanical gardens and making use of free aviary entry as we went. Unfortunately the walk was longer than it had looked on the map and we did get a little wet on our way but it was nice not to arrive back at the hotel too early!

Back at the hotel we discovered that signal 3 meant strong winds, from here it has the potential to jump to level 8 storm/gale force winds, 9 increasing storm/gale force winds and on to 10 Hurricane. We figured we were safe for now though a little concerned that if the low moving in continued and the signal increased our flight could be grounded.

We braved heavy rain to grab pizza for dinner and headed back to the dry hotel for the evening. Unfortunately we really weren't very adventurous with food whilst in Hong Kong, not for a lack of places selling it but due to not being entirely sure what was in it and not wanting to spend our whistle-stop tour or flight home feeling nauseous! As a result we guiltily ate more fast food than we'd done in the last few months over the course of 3 days!

Next morning we were relieved to find that the Typhoon signal still hadn't increased so went ahead with our plan to get the MTR out to Lantau island to get the Ngong Ping 360 cablecar over to the Po Lin Monastery and to see the 26m giant bronze buddha statue. We got as far as alighting at Tung Chung train station before discovering that due to the high winds the cablecar wasn't running, and it was raining. Momentarily abashed, we rallied ourselves and went on anyway joining plenty of other tourists in getting the local bus instead.
The cablecar definitely would have been awesome and we were disappointed not to do it but it was definitely still worth the much longer bus journey in order to see the temple and buddha. After enjoying ourselves there we decided to make the most of the improving weather and head on to Tai O, a traditional Chinese fishing village with features like old boats and stilt-houses. It was very quaint though actually very small and had an overpowering smell thanks to the presence of lots of little shops selling dried, salted fish. Despite me suggesting staying for a cold drink somewhere Mat was rather keen to get back on the odourless bus and so we started our journey back and had another evening walking the neon, bustling, streets of Kowloon looking for western food!

On our third and final day we were relieved to find that the Typhoon signals had been taken down so our flight that evening was all go. After checking out of the hotel and leaving our luggage in their care we took a wander up the main high street of Kowloon just trying to kill time knowing we had 10 hours before we needed to be at the airport. Finding most of the shops weren't open yet (we surmised that as they seem to be open late into the evening they don't bother with early mornings) we decided to go and check out a few of the local markets. It took a long time to walk up this street and it was well into the 30s so we were getting extremely hot and lethargic along the way, to avoid this we decided to just wander into the malls every now and then, not that we were even looking at the shops, just for the sake of the air-con! We also made a point of finding a coffee shop for a nice iced coffee. First we found the Goldfish Market, where I'd assumed this was just named after the street or something it turns out pretty much every shop down the road was an aquarium of sorts selling not only goldfish but all sorts of tropical fish too in little plastic bags of water like you get at fairgrounds. The shopfronts were adorned with these and tanks of miniature turtles in a way which would definitely be illegal here!
After our slightly unethical fascination at the fish we proceeded on to find the flower market. Here street after street there were shops selling live shrubs, trees, cacti, ferns, flowering plants and stall after stall selling flowers both cut and false by the bucketful. It was a beautiful place to walk around and mad me a little wistful that nothing was likely to survive a 13hour flight back to the UK or get past border control even if it did! From flowers we went to the ladies market, thankfully not named as literally as the previous two. Rather than ladies it actually sells everything from clothes, bags, umbrellas, to fake watches and sunglasses and things specifically for tourists though I'm not sure where the skimpy undies and nipple-tassles were meant to fit into all of that! I had a go at bartering, got scared off the first stall but made a slightly more successful attempt later on and bought a fan which was starting to feel like a necessity in the heat!

We got the MTR back towards the hotel and managed to kill a couple of hours in a starbucks before heading off to the airport. On the journey home we failed to sleep properly and had an unexpected detour via Novosibirsk in Russia for a couple of hours in order to get a sick passenger medical attention which meant we were late arriving home, but despite the lengthy flight the overriding feeling was one of being glad to be heading home. We both thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and would recommend it but after being away for over 9 months the fatigue and possibly a little home-sickness was starting to hit us and I think flying in towards London early in the morning of the 19th was probably the most fondness I'll ever feel towards it in my life!

So anyway, it's been an amazing trip, it's had it's ups and it's downs, and of course we missed all of you lovely people a lot of the time, but was certainly the adventure that we hoped it would be. Thank you for sharing in it with us and if we haven't seen you already we hope to soon :)

Over and Out,

Mat and Leah for The Fat Wombat xxx




P.s. Wombat says goodbye too...

The Lower South Island

Well here we go again! So Mat brought you up to Franz Josef and I'll take you up to Lake Tekapo from where we'll travel back to Christchurch again so we can fly to Auckland tomorrow (14th) to make our flight to Hong Kong the day after (15th). We then have 3nights there before the overnight flight home (18th-19th).

Franz Josef is glacier country, NZ actually has loads of glaciers and is one of the few places in the world where they're easily accessible, 3 run down right into the rainforest. We stayed in Franz for 3nights, the first day we took a walk from the hostel out past mountains and through the rainforest itself to the Franz Josef glacier face. It was very surreal terrain, it made me imagine a childs picture where they just throw together everything pretty that comes to mind: river, snow-capped mountains, lush rainforest, blue sky, fluffy clouds, rainbow, ice! It's odd enough that it's cool in a rainforest environment without all of that on top. The glacier viewing spot was actually a fair distance away still for safety's sake, there have been incidents of people straying too close becoming buried under several tonnes of ice which has broken off above them. The glacier is formed from the compression of continuous snow fall on the mountain top causing ice formation, as new ice is formed it causes the older ice to start a very gradual slide down the mountain as pressure on weak points causes them to break off and shift. This process was evident when on our second day we took a trip down the road to nearby Fox Glacier where we'd booked onto a half-day glacier-climb. For this we had to get kitted up with warm clothes, walking boots and crampons and a guide then led us out onto the top of the glacier itself. Path cutters had been ahead to create nice safe ice steps and find any interesting features for us to view; the ice is ever-changing. We got brilliant views of the ice and saw some 'moulins' where ice-melt running down ends up pooling and mills out a hole in the ice shelf below it creating interesting shapes, one of which was a tunnel we got to climb through!

After Franz we had another 8hour coach journey to reach Queenstown, a lovely lakeside town nestled in the midst of the mountains where we'd splashed out on a 4star hotel! We awoke the next morning to pristine sunshine and went for a wander to explore the area. There were absolutely gorgeous views any way we turned and despite being cold the sun made it a pleasant day for just meandering around the shops and lakefront and scoping out places for dinner.

 

For day two we'd booked a day tour to Milford Sound in Fjordland. The coach departed at 7:40 and didn't return until 8pm despite the fact that we only spent around 2 hours at the sound itself which gives an idea of the travel involved! The journey there was beautiful though as it passed through the mountains (literally, through the middle in underground tunnels in places) and we had quite a few stops for photo opportunities. A sound is an area where there used to be a glacier but it's now retreated and the sea has moved in (I can't remember how exactly it differs from a fjord). It's basically an area of outstanding natural beauty where extremely steep sided, forested mountains rise straight from the water. We took a boat cruise seeing fur seals and even a penguin and the pictures will tell the rest. That evening we tried the world-renowned Fergburger. This place is open 22hours a day 7days a week and had a huge crowd spilling onto the pavement every single time we passed so had to be tried. The burgers were large and held up to their reputation especially after a long day!

Day three we just wandered around again, it wasn't as clear as our first day but the mountains had had a few inches of snowfall overnight so were a gorgeous christmassy backdrop to the lakefront artisans market as we wandered around, we also skimmed stones on the water, bought a few souvenirs, got lunch and visited a recommended chocolatiers for a mug of cocoa and home-made ice cream all before heading back to the hotel to utilise one of the complimentary private spa pools!

From Queenstown we had a 4 hour journey up to Lake Tekapo where we decided to stay mainly to break up the journey back to Christchurch. It's a small town near Mount Cook (NZs largest mountain) which you're meant to be able to see reflected in the lake. However as everything has been cloud covered the entire time we've been here I'm afraid we can't confirm that. A consolation though is that it started snowing as soon as we arrived and just kept going well into the night so we awoke to a very pretty postcard type scene. Hong Kong's going to be a shock to the system that's all I can say!

So there we go, that was New Zealand. We probably won't be able to post about Hong Kong until we're actually already home so I guess for now we'll just say thanks for reading and we'll see you all in the weeks to come!

Lots of love, Leah and Mat xx

The Upper South Island

Hello again.

When we left you before we had just arrived in Kaikoura, which was our first stop on the South Island of New Zealand. We only had one day in the sleepy little town so that we could enjoy the activity Kaikoura is renowned for; whale watching. Whilst the oceanic geography around the town makes it a haven for the giant mammals (not far out to sea there is a wall in the ocean floor where the depth drops dramatically, this is a prime location for fish and therefore the whales which feed off them) and an encounter is 95% guaranteed, they are phenomenal creatures to see. We were very lucky to see three Sperm whales and the boat stayed with each of them for the entire time that they were at the surface so that we could see them dive. We also saw a number of seals, loads of albatross as well as a pod of Hector dolphins (round-nosed dolphins which are both the world's smallest and rarest!).

the inaccessible 'Red Zone' where
the most damage was done

Our next destination was the largest city on the South Island; Christchurch. Known as the garden of NZ, the city is meant to be the most 'British' of the country and you can see the influence as you wander around; lined with streets such as Worcester St. and Gloucester St. it even has its own river Avon on which you can punt! Unfortunately the city is still in a state of forced regeneration after an earthquake devastated much of the CBD in February 2011 (the earthquake reached 6.8 on the Richter scale!). In fact it is startling to see the level of destruction that must have occurred, the main precincts have largely been fenced off as the buildings have either collapsed or been structurally damaged so much that it will be easier to level them and start from the ground up rather than try to save them. It is particularly sad to see areas such as the arts precinct along Worcester St. where many of the old buildings didn't survive; this is particularly true of the Cathedral which was heralded as one of the prettiest in the world and is now in tatters. 

ReStart Precinct

Nevertheless, the people of Christchurch are trying to move on and nowhere is this more evident than the vibrant and innovative ReStart precinct. This unique shopping area has a very youthful and fun vibe about it where brightly coloured storage containers have been used to set up a shopping area which has become a tourist hotspot all of its own. We only had a day to explore the city and we spent a lot of it thinking what it would have been like before the quake; we found ourselves a little short of things to do and on a grey day like the one we experienced it meant that we sought refuge in a café (albeit one which roasts its own beans and produces its own blends, even better the unctuous brownie came complete with fruit and nuts inside - it was fair trade, organic and gluten free which I think makes it healthy...).

The next morning heralded an early start so that we could make the 8am Tranz-Alpine rail service. As the name suggests, this train runs across the breadth of the S. Island and through the Southern Alps. The journey started in the flat and open farm lands of Canterbury before the scenery changed dramatically as we wound our way through the mountains to our destination in Greymouth. We had a beautifully crisp and clear day for the journey and made full use of the open sided viewing carriage to take in the spectacular scenery. The best way for you to appreciate how stunning the views were is just to check out the pictures we've posted below.

From Greymouth we had one more bus connection which took us about two hours down the west coast to Franz Josef. We'll leave this post here and we'll pick up in Franz next time.

Lots of love,

Leah and Mat

Auckland to Wellington; the North Island

Kai-Ora, Hello from Kaikora!

We've been in New Zealand for about a week now after arriving in the early hours of last Thursday (26th). Our kiwi adventure began in Auckland; an attractive city surrounded by water who's only downside was how spread out it felt. Despite our sleep deprived states (our flight had set down at 5am local time, 3am Australian time and we had probably had about an hour or so's sleep) we managed to drag ourselves around many of the city centre's highlights before our first day was out. Firstly, we visited the museum of Auckland which was filled with many Maori treasures as well as a fantastic National Geographic photography exhibition. From there we walked into the CBD and towards the harbour. Auckland spills onto the water and the East coast is the point of origin for the city; where the older buildings are evident amongst the recent modernisation into a trendier marina filled with restaurants. This was also a great place to grab a night shot of the city scape later in the day. That evening we ate at one of the Belgian beer cafés where the local green-lipped muscles were cooked in your choice of sauce and served with chips and mayo. 

After a very long and satisfying sleep we spent the remains of the next morning walking to and up Mount Eden (The tallest of many volcanic cones in the Auckland area). Though only a tall hill really it offered great views of the city and made us both appreciate how beautiful the city is. That evening we picked up our rental car and due to Leah's elusive map reading skills managed to orientate ourselves only when we accidentally returned to Mt. Eden. Thankfully it wasn't far from there to the hostel - although it's never fun driving around unfamiliar cities in an unfamiliar car (I was expecting a manual and although automatic is no more difficult I found myself looking for the clutch on more than one occasion!).

The next morning we checked out from the hostel early and hit the road to Rotorua. The three hour journey was fairly easy-going as we passed through lots of quaint villages and towns, including Cambridge. We decided to break the journey there and stop for coffee in a converted church which Leah had spotted from the road. It was fairly typical of the churches we have seen in NZ in that it was wooden and looked like it 'belonged in a model railway village', I was more interested in the coffee which was brewed with care and the selection of cakes wasn't bad either. Before long we were back on the road and passing through the rolling hills of Waikaito (otherwise known as the Shire from the Lord of the Rings film trilogy - we didn't spot any hobbit holes though).

Rotorua is central North Island and has a very distinct feature. It stinks of rotten eggs! The city sits in the middle of one of the most active geothermal sites in the world and is surrounded by hot springs and bubbling mud pools all giving off the rather unpleasant sulphurous gas. Even the drains steam! It's also Maori heartland and we found ourselves wandering through one of the Maori suburbs within minutes of parking in the city. The Marae (meeting houses) are very intricate and have fantastic detail both inside and out and the size of the rowing boats that the Maoris used to get to NZ are hugely impressive too. Our hostel had it's own natural spa in the garden and we were tempted to go in but the air temperature put us off somewhat; we were suddenly feeling the cold in Roturua - especially on the wind (there's a stark difference between NZ in the winter and North Australia in the winter!!). The cold even prompted both of us to invest in winter coats, luckily it's currently off season in NZ and there are heavy sales in many of the shops.

Our next stop was Taupo, about an hour's travel along Highway 5 (otherwise known as the Geothermal Explorer highway). The township sits on the Northern bank of the great lake Taupo, the largest in NZ and has the Waikaito river running through it. This is the home of adrenaline sports in NZ and is the location of the country's first bungee jump. Skydives and white water rafting are also popular in the area as is the much more sedate sport of trout fishing. We didn't try our hands at any of that (mostly so that we could save money for the rest of our trip and partly because we had already planned what we'd do whilst there) but our first port of call was to a stream that runs from one of the hot pools into the river. The attraction of this stream is that it has lots of natural pools along it which act as natural hot baths and even jacuzzis where the current is strong enough. Even better though, the higher up the stream you go (closer to the source) the hotter the water, so you can pick the pool/bath which suits you the best. We chose one that was fairly hot and melted into the warmth. We didn't even have to be submerged; the amount of steam that was coming off the water was making the entire surrounding area really pleasant compared to the cold we'd felt the rest of the day.

Modelling our coats!

The next day we walked along the river to the nearby Huka falls. Huka means foam in Maori and although the falls weren't steep in any way the amount of white water that was generated by them made it clear how they got their name. The water looked like it was glowing as it tumbled through the falls; a really vibrant icy blue colour which stood out on the rather grey day that we were experiencing. Further down the river was Aratiatia Dam which is opened three times a day for the public. We actually managed to find ourselves in the wrong place to watch the opening and although our view of the rapids that followed was good it was a shame that we didn't actually manage to see the water crashing through the gates. Nonetheless we were glad we made the effort to get there. The geothermal activity in Taupo is being harnessed for power generation and our final stop of the day was one of the areas where the steam is being drilled. We were able to drive in amongst all of the piping and see the steam leaking out of the huge drilled holes in the earth. The whole place had a very futuristic feel about it, almost other worldly.

We left early the next day with a long journey ahead of us down to Wellington. The direct route is a five hour or so drive but we decided to take a slightly longer route around the Tongariro National Park on the advice of a Kiwi who was staying in our hostel. It was worth the detour to get a better view of the mountains in the park. These mountains should have been visible from Taupo but the weather was very overcast and often rainy which meant we didn't actually see them until we were fairly close. Although not as large as the mountains in the South, these were still rather impressive and were also stars of the Lord of the Rings films where the middle peak (Mt. Ngauruhoe - the most uniform and conical of the three) became Mount Doom itself. Although the drive was long it was a fantastic way to see the country. We felt that North Island NZ felt a little like the hills and valleys of Wales crossed with the forests and mountains of Canada. Of course, the scenery was dotted with the obligatory sheep which typically ran away when we tried to take their photos!

We made it to Wellington with about twenty minutes to spare before the car was due back but it turns out that the city is one of the more awkward to navigate as it is littered with one-way streets. Cue fifteen minutes of rush hour stress, inner city mania and panic of getting lost multiple times and we eventually arrived at the rental shop bang on five o'clock, just as we were due in!

Wellington itself felt much busier than Auckland and it certainly wasn't as pretty (that's not to say it was ugly, just that it felt a little bit more industrial) and we didn't get the impression that there was a great deal to see. If it had been better weather we may have climbed Mount Victoria on the western side of the city but as it was we had views that were almost as good from the botanical garden which was also atop a rather large hill. From here we took the cable car back to the city centre and ambled along the water front to the museum. We spent a little bit of time here but both felt fairly tired and before long we decided to head back to the hostel and take it easy for the rest of the day.

This takes us to today (2nd) which was also a very early start, this time so that we could make the early morning ferry across to the South Island. The journey took about three and a half hours and we arrived in Picton at nearly midday. There was just an hours wait at the ferry terminal before we connected with our coach down the East coast. We arrived in Kaikoura (about half way between Picton at the top of the South Island and Christchurch somewhere near the middle) just after three this afternoon and have been dodging the heavy rain ever since. We're hoping it clears up a little by tomorrow as we've got a whale watching trip booked. The area is renowned for its sperm whales and the company we're going out with has a 95% success rate of seeing the giants. It's also highly likely that we'll see dolphins, albatross and even seals so we have high hopes for the trip. From there we've got another coach booked and should be in Christchurch by about six o'clock tomorrow evening.

The view from the Interislander ferry

Anyway, that's more than enough from us. Hope everything's well at home,

Lots of love,

Leah and Mat

(Written 2nd August, posted when we get internet...again).  

'Tropical' North Queensland

Well hello again! It's unlike us to be posting again this soon we know but as we're leaving Australia and jetting off for Auckland later on today we figured we should probably let you know what we've been up to the last couple of weeks so we can try to stay vaguely up to date rather than posting retrospectively once we're back in England.

We know we gave you a brief itinerary of what we'd been doing so this is mainly to add a bit of detail and provide lots of pretty pictures!

Our first day out of Brisbane we went to Australia Zoo, (home of the late Steve Irwin) where we made sure we saw all the Aussie creatures we'd missed, including Echidnas, Kangaroos, Wombats etc. And we also saw a rather spectacular crocodile show, some extremely well trained tigers and even hand fed elephants!

Us at Lake Mackenzie

Next day we woke up bright and early for the trip to 'Rainbow' Beach (the guidebook mentioned 74 shades of sand but we only saw evidence of white black and grey). After staying the night we headed off to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world, complete with a 75 mile long beach which also happens to be an official state highway! We were booked onto a 2day 4WD coach trip (think bright pink coach crossed with a unimog) which took in the main sights such as famous Lake Mackenzie, rainforest walks, freshwater creeks, rockpools big enough to bathe in and nature spotting (we saw rays, a turtle, eagles and of course lots of dingoes). Unfortunately it was very wet and windy so our pictures aren't quite as picturesque as the brochures but we had a great time nonetheless.

Paddle Boarding!!

At Hervey Bay where the Fraser tour ended we spent the night before continuing up the Queensland coastline on a 12 hour overnight coach to Airlie Beach (despite all there is to see, the downside to the size of Australia is how long it takes to get anywhere). Airlie is where all the Whitsunday Island sailing tours depart from, we arrived at 9am had to check in by 10am then had most of the day to wander around before setting sail at 4pm for a 2 night trip onboard a 12 berth, 14 foot, catamaran. Thankfully we'd actually managed to get some sleep on the coach so weren't too zombie like, unfortunately though the weather caught up with us making for a choppy sail from the mainland out to the islands and I (leah) discovered I'm somewhat more prone to seasickness than I'd anticipated! Still, after the 2hour trip out we moored in a calm bay had dinner, got some sleep and woke bright and early for our first snorkel which actually made it all worth it. The clarity of the water and colours and diversity of both fish and coral were spectacular, it was Mat's first time snorkelling but he got right into it! Later in the day we visited iconic Whitehaven Beach and were 2 of only 3 brave enough to put a damp wetsuit back on in order to try paddle boarding. We then went sailing again moving to Hayman Island where we moored. Another snorkelling session in the morning was well rewarded by some sunshine and the presence of Manta Rays on top of all the other amazing fish. In case you don't know I can tell you first hand that they're absolutely huge! They're harmless but it got the adrenaline going when a couple were swimming straight at you all the same! Later in the day we went for another snorkel somewhere turtles had been sighted, Mat momentarily came face to face but I didn't (yet). After a couple of very action packed days we sailed back to shore for a nights sleep on land before our next leg.

From Airlie we caught a coach up to Townsville (the delayed service we wrote the last blog on!) from where we got the ferry over to picturesque magnetic island. There's not an awful lot on magnetic island but that was kind of the point, it was somewhere to chill for a day or two before heading on. We stayed in a cute little cabin at the YHA and spent our time wandering along the beach and through the bushland along the coastline to a gorgeous sunny bay where we intended to snorkel. Unfortunately though geniuses that we are we completely forgot about the tides and by the time we got into the water the reef was only covered by a few inches of water so we just went back to reading and sunbathing in the end and enjoyed the sunset on the walk home! Next day we just got ice cream and wrote postcards at the beach before getting the ferry back to the mainland and boarding our last Greyhound service up to Cairns.

Through a glass bottomed boat

Cairns exceeded our expectations. We'd heard it was a very small city and there wasn't much there except for the reef trips but we've found that it has a friendly, relaxed vibe and plenty of places along the esplanade to grab a drink or bite to eat. The hostel's nice too and we had an awesome experience on our boat trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. We were on a smallish boat (only 26 people) which ploughed out to Arlington reef where we were the only boat, initially the weather was a bit dull but cleared up as the day went on and once you're underwater the clarity makes a bigger difference than the weather anyway! We were in the first group to go on a dive, with another couple and an instructor, for Mat (and the other guy) it was his first experience scuba diving so we had a basic briefing and the instructor promised to hold onto and guide the beginners then we got suited up and straight into the water alongside the boat to get used to the equipment and hand signals. It was very choppy at the surface which made it very hard to hold yourself still and was a bit scary initially but once we were a few metres under it improved a lot and all agreed it was amazing. We did take an underwater camera but haven't had a chance to get it developed yet so no pretty pictures I'm afraid but take it from us that the reef's reputation is well deserved and it really was every bit as spectacular as the postcards. Bright and varied fish and corals and it all looked close enough to touch because of the underwater perspective. We saw plenty of nemos, 3 turtles (finally I can check the box!), and even a nurse shark resting on the bottom and it was so exciting! Mat agrees that even though diving isn't as relaxing as snorkelling (being an unnatural environment you feel somewhat out of control!) it was well worth it for what you see as there's no other way to get the same viewpoint.

The next day we rented a car and Mat drove us from Cairns up into the Daintree rainforest where we got a wildlife spotting river cruise. We saw Herons, Birds of prey such as owls, Kites and a Jailbird, lots of snakes and of course saltwater crocs, the biggest of which was easily over 2metres! We then spent the evening relaxing in Port Douglas, a famous winter holiday destination amongst Aussies- it's 25° and sunny here whilst it's 14° and rainy in the south. Most of the next day was devoted to the beach and more postcard writing before heading back to Cairns to get ourselves sorted for the flight to Aukland this evening!

The view on the return journey to cairns

We'll try to send some sunshine your way and will keep you updated on our travels through New Zealand.

Aussie love,

Leah and Mat :)