The following day we drove to Kakadu which is a huge National Park about 2 hours east of Darwin.  Originally, I had wanted to rent a 4wd since many of the roads are only accessible with a 4wd.  Then I learned that summer is wet season and those roads are closed anyway 4wd or not.  I was a bit disappointed since we would not be able to get to some of the main sites of the park.  Our first stop was the Mamukala Wetlands where we saw many different types of birds.  It was just very uncomfortable because we felt as if we were in a steam room and flies kept circling our heads and landing on our faces.  We would break off a twig with leaves and wave it in front of our faces which alleviated the problem of the flies though now we had leaves brushing against our faces but somehow it was less annoying than the flies.

Birds of Mamukala Wetlands

We also stopped by the visitors’ center which is a little museum as well.  There my dad was persuaded to take a scenic flight on an airplane since in the wet season it is the only way to see the famous waterfalls.  Then we checked into the Jabiru crocodile hotel.  There are very few hotels in Kakadu and this is the only one in Jabiru.  It’s a novelty since the hotel is shaped like a crocodile but that is mostly noticeable from the sky.  I went to the local supermarket to pick up some food for lunch since the only option was to eat at the restaurant which was very expensive.  Since we were going to eat there for dinner we didn’t want to eat there two times a day.  The store practically didn’t have any food and it was all so expensive.  I bought Jello fruit cups and that was it.  Surprisingly, the gas station had a bit more choice and it was going to be open on New Years so at least we wouldn’t starve.

Jabiru and the crocodile hotel (picture taken the following day from an airplane).

Hendrik and I decided to go see what was going to be happening for New Years Eve and we were told that there were two bars.  The first looked desolate and closed down and the second which was the “golf club” was getting ready for festivities.  The “club” was tiny and looked like an elementary school cafeteria and a few people, in desperate need of a shower, sporting mullets were putting up streamers.  We knew that we were not going to be celebrating there.

I had wanted to spend New Years in Sydney since there were a lot of things going on and it is famous for its celebrations.  My dad wanted to see more of AU than Sydney so he did not want to spend another 3 days there so we were in Kakadu instead, one of them most remote places on earth.  We had dinner in the Hotel which was nice, but they were not going to be open until midnight so we bought a bottle of champagne and just brought it to our room and watched the TV.  Darwin is ½ an hour behind Sydney so we watched the fireworks bursting from the harbour bridge over and over again and when we were sure they were going to announce New Years in Darwin the news ended.  There was no countdown or mention of Darwin welcoming in the New Year, so the night was a flop.

We went to Darwin to see the north of Australia.  It was a tiny town with absolutely nothing to do or see.  It was extremely humid, and there were a ton of mosquitoes in the evening when we went to the city, so much so that I went back to the hotel to get deet.  The minute I stepped out of the car I felt little painful nibbles.

Town Center of Darwin

When we walked through the small park in front of the Parliament House two birds would start squawking and swooped down like they wanted to attack and may have if we didn’t run away.  That was probably the most exciting part of Darwin.  At least we did not plan to spend too much time in Darwin and were off to Kakadu Park the next day.

Parliament House

Dec 24- 29

We went back to Sydney since my father visited us in AU for the holidays and since it was his first time in AU we had to do all the main sights and Sydney is definitely the place to go.  You could spend 10 days in Sydney and not be bored.  It was odd being in a very warm climate for Christmas and seeing pine trees (fake) all over the place.  We hopped on a bus our first day which looked like a gaudy Christmas wonderland with decorations in every place possible.  It had bows ton the seats, garland hanging from above head holders, and pictures of Christmassy things on every window.  Everyone who was on the bus was laughing and the driver greeted everyone with a “Merry Christmas.”

We had wanted to reserve Christmas dinner but lunch seemed to be more popular in AU and almost all nice places offered lunch but rarely dinner.  We had lunch on the Showboat for Christmas which was very nice, though there was no show for Christmas.  We got poppers, drinks were included, and we had a wonderful view.  Sydney definitely looks its best from the water in the Harbor.

View from the boat

After our cruise we were surprised that the Aquarium and Wildlife World were open so we went to them.  Both are well worth a visit, and I especially liked the butterfly exhibit where butterflies fly all around you and land on you as well, but they were way too hard to photograph.

Sea Dragon in the Aquarium

In the following days we were tour guides for my father since we had already done mostly everything in Sydney so we sent him to the highlights such as the opera house tour and The Rocks walking tour through historic Sydney.

We also went to the botanical garden which is gorgeous and allows for wonderful views of the bridge and opera house.  When we lived in Sydney we would often go there for picnics on the weekends.  It is a home to many birds and lots of bats which are spectacular at night because they start flying and the sheer volume of them make you feel as if you are in a horror movie

Darling Harbour is a must and there always seems to be something going on such as Chinese New Year, street artists or dragon boat racing.  The Sydney Tower is not so great since other buildings around it seem to be equally tall so the view which you’d like to see of the opera house is much obstructed.  Hendrik and I had been there because we had the Sydney card which is well worth it if you are going to be in the city for a week, not so much if you are only going to be there for a few days.  We told my dad that he had seen Sydney way better from the boat.

Sydney from the botanical garden

As for beaches, I recommend going to Manley beach instead of the famous Bondi.  Manley is much prettier since it is longer and behind it there are trees and a road with surf shops unlike in Manley where you have lots of busy roads and dull pavement.  Unless you are a good surfer, Bondi often seems too rough and is deep while you can stand in the water quite far from shore in Manley and there are usually smaller waves for not so good surfers like myself.  We tried surfing 3 times there and never got the hang of it.  If I every have the chance again I think I’ll take a lesson.  We took my dad to Manley beach instead of Bondi since we did not have time to do both.

Manley Beach

There are always day trips from Sydney, and Hendrik and I have done the Hunter valley tour which is the wine region near Sydney and the Blue Mountains.  We went with Tours-r-us with my dad.  This took us to the Olympic park, which is not that interesting especially if you are not interested in the Olympics.  It turned out to be more of a bathroom break than anything else.  Then we headed out into the Blue Mountains and did the scenic railway, flyway and Skyway which are all part of Scenic World.  These are so popular with the tourists but they are nothing special, but really if you don’t have all day to hike there is no other way to get to the boardwalk and the rail and flyway take you up and down.  The boardwalk is very nice and it is a peaceful walk.  Then we stopped at the famous three sisters, and Hendrik and I did a mad dash to them since we did not have too much time and it looked really cool to be able to go down to them, but really the view is much better from the lookout.

Blue mountains and the three sisters

Near the end of the day we visited Featherdale Wildlife Park which was nice since they let you pet most of the animals including wombats and koalas so there were many photo opportunities.  Unfortunately, the wombats were asleep, but nevertheless, this was a worthwhile stop.

My dad and I with a koala

It was amazingly sunny again, and Picton looked like nothing like when we had arrived with the ferry in the rain.  A van drove us down Charlotte Dr. where they dropped us off with a kayak.  It was very relaxing to paddle around the stunning Marlborough Sounds.

The sounds from Picton

We saw lots of various birds, sea stars, and lots and lots of blue mussels.  Unfortunately, it was one of those days where my camera decided not to work, and Hendrik didn’t take his kayaking for obvious reasons.  It was lovely, and afterwords we drove to Kaikoura.  It was the same drive we had done on our first day on the southern island and this time it was more gorgeous.

We saw fur seals along the way and once in Kaikoura we walked a bit on the Kaikoura Peninsula where there were pretty views.  It was our last night in New Zealand and the next day we drove to Christchurch airport.

Kaikoura Peninsula

The next day we set off to Nelson.  On the way we stopped by the Punakaiki’s Pancake Rocks which are pictured on too many postcards and in every guidebook.  When Hendrik tried his camera it wouldn’t turn on so he became very frustrated right away.  I then remembered that I had a camera too and should have taken that one on the glacier instead.  Unfortunately, it was very temperamental and randomly refused to work and right now was one of those times.  It only seemed to work when I didn’t need it so in a way it was good we had Hendrik’s on the glacier.  We walked on the short path around the pancake rocks, but unfortunately the mood had been ruined by the dead camera, and Hendrik didn’t care at all about the nicely stacked flat rocks and just wanted his camera to work.  He predicted that the rain had fried the inside of it.  Too bad we didn’t have a camera because it was more spectacular than I thought it would be.

Stock photo compliments of the NZ govt

We stopped briefly in Nelson and lo-and-behold the camera began to work again so all was right in the world, and Hendrik could enjoy the vacation again.  Nelson was a typical New Zealand town with a cute beach and a statue of Able Tasman.  Then we continued further to Marlborough Sounds and hoped for better weather than last time.  It was 100% better, and the sounds looked stunning in the sun.  We drove down the scenic route from Charlotte to Picton and even went on the side “scenic route” called Kenepara Road.  It was not worth it to go down the road since it was just windy and trees along the road blocked any view.

It was sunny when we arrived to Picton and it looked like the whole town had a facelift from when we were there before.  It is amazing what the sun can do for the scenery because suddenly Picton wasn’t this shabby ugly town we just wanted to leave but an adorable village surrounded by the most spectacular scenery.  Since it is the driest part on New Zealand we were actually pretty unlucky the first time around.  We booked a kayak tour for the next day, and then I finally got to play mini golf.

Picton (Christmas Tree)

Rain it did.  We woke up to pitter patter in the morning and we didn’t see sun for the next 24 hours.  We weren’t happy about the precipitation but Franz Josef Glacier Guides gave us socks, boots, pants, hat, gloves, raincoat, and we were off – off on a 1.5 hour steep difficult hike.  We were divided into three groups for fast athletic people, medium pace and slow.  Hendrik and I chose to go into the slow group but soon realized that we were the fastest group.  Since we were the last group to head out we had to cover the same ground as the rest of the groups in the same amount of time, so I pretty much had to jog to keep up with my short legs.  We hiked trough the woods all the while the rain pelted down.  At one point the terrain was so steep there were ropes tied to the trees so there was something we could grab on to.  The rain had made it a muddy slide so it was one thing going down but I feared going back up the rest of the day.  I was exhausted after the hike, and we had just made it to the base of the glacier.  I wish they would have forewarned us about the hike because I had no idea it was going to be so tough.

I was pretending to enjoy the hike

There we put on spikes called crampons onto our shoes and we were off hiking up the glacier.  The first part of the glacier wasn’t too nice since the ice is mixed with lots of mud and rocks so it hardly looks like a glacier.  The higher we hiked the prettier it got, even in the rain.  Some of the ice was so incredibly blue that I’ve never seen ice like that in real life only in pictures.  In some parts, it was pretty magnificent and stunning but I’m still not sure the effort was worth it.  I would definitely splurge on a helicopter if I had to do it again.  Being cold and wet while hiking strenuously was not my idea of a good time. They also offered a ½ day tour which is useless because you don’t even get to the pretty part of the glacier but just stay on the muddy part, and a ¾ day which we wanted to do but it wasn’t being offered this day.

We did not stop for lunch and had to eat while hiking.  Even though it was raining, I would have appreciated a break.  Our guide was very nice and cheery, and I had no idea how she managed to do this every single day.  She not only had to hike the route every day but carve paths out for us in the ice with a giant pick.  She didn’t even mind the rain and said that it rains two out of every three days so statistically we had a good chance of rain.  The guide found nooks and crevices for us to take pictures in which were extremely claustrophobic but also surreal, to be completely surrounded by huge walls of ice.  The whole time Hendrik was worried about his camera since he had a new EOS camera and it wasn’t waterproof.  We did our best to keep it covered, but there was only so much we could do in the pouring rain especially since we wanted to take pictures.  I told him that it survived acid rain so it should survive regular rain.

Posing with the pick

There were a few scary points along the way.  Occasionally there were holes in the ice and if you would fall in there would be no help.  It would be almost impossible to rescue someone because of the flowing water and shifting ice.  We saw how quickly something can disappear when the other guide who was being trained accidentally dropped his pick, which is really huge, into one of those holes.  It vanished instantly though he poked and scoped the hole for a while with no success.  This is why it was necessary to go with a guide because if you are not familiar with the glacier and its patterns it is very dangerous.  On the way back Hendrik and I were a bit behind the group, only about 20 paces, but since we didn’t know the path the group had taken we didn’t know how to catch up because to us there did not seem like there was a path.  I slipped and fell down a short wall.  At least there weren’t any holes at the bottom, and I wasn’t hurt, but it was just scary to feel so out of the element.  Our guide immediately came and helped us to the rest of the group, and I stayed at the front for the rest of the time.

Us in a crevice

That night, it was wonderful that our campsite had a spa since I was in pain.  Spas seemed to be really popular in New Zealand and almost every single campsite had a spa.  I debated which visit to the glacier I had enjoyed more and couldn’t decide but what I did know is that I was in less pain after tequila night.

View from the glacier

Our cave adventure began at 8 in the morning so it was another early rise.  We were going adventure caving on the Dragons Blackwater Cave Rafting trip in Greymouth. There were three others on our tour which was nice since it was a small intimate group.  We were supplied with an outfit consisting of a wetsuit, sweater, booties, two pairs of socks, helmet with a light, and galoshes.  Seeing the outfit I knew we wear preparing to be cold.

The hike to the cave was about 40 minutes which took us to the entrance where there were big orange-brown boulders with water rushing past them at the entrance.  It was hard to make my way through the cave being pushed by cold water and trying to find secure footing on slippery boulders.  As we went deeper into the cave natural light disappeared and the only light there left was the light on our helmets.

At one point we had to jump off a waterfall which was about 6 feet tall.  It was scary because when I fell into the water I had trouble resurfacing because of the falling water from the waterfall, but it was adventurous like the tour promised.

Near the end of the cave we were given inner-tubes to float to the end of the cave.  I turned off my light and relaxed on the cave’s lazy river.  All around me were little blue lights which lit up the cave’s ceiling and walls and it was all very tranquil.

rafting

These were glow worms and they made the cave spectacular.  When we were all at the end of the cave we were given hot chocolate and a chocolate bar and gazed at the “starry sky.”

Glow Worms

Then we had to make it back through the cave back to the exit.  Our guide sent us through another path at one point which was extremely claustrophobic, and I had to squeeze through cracks that I was sure I was too big for.  Somehow I squeezed though but I definitely prefer walls to be a bit further away from me.

Squeezing through a hole

Once we were out of the cave we were given the option to go on a “nature’s water slide.”  That was a small stream running down a rather smooth rock surface into a deep pool.  We were given mats to sit on and told to slide down.  We all hesitated because it looked scary and no one wanted to go first and even our guide said he wouldn’t slide so we were a bit skeptical since we didn’t want our holidays to end in a hospital.  Brave Hendrik went first and even though the rock face was smooth there were bumps and dips and Hendrik bounced around like pooping corn.  The rest of us were even more skeptical when we saw how Hendrik bounced, and I didn’t go because of my compressed fractured back and we all walked back down.  Back at the base we relaxed in the hot tub with a beer and muffin.

Watch the video of Hendrik sliding

Then we had to decide what to do next.  We had wanted to visit Able Tasman but in one day we could hardly see any of it.  We needed several days to do some hikes and we didn’t have that.  Since we had an extra day we decided to go back to Franz Joseph Glacier and try to get on a tour again, of course we called ahead this time around and booked ourselves a full day tour.  We had to drive back to Franz Joseph since the tour started early in the morning.  On the way there we stopped at Hokitika, which was a very cute town, for dinner.  We found a nice looking diner and I couldn’t decide what to eat.  I saw “whitebait” sandwich on the menu and I asked the server, who was probably the owner as well, what that was.  To that question the friendly man grew excited and exclaimed, “Whitebait is a delicacy.  You can’t leave New Zealand without trying whitebait.  It costs 60-90 dollars a kilo and the fishing season just ended.”  A woman appeared from the back which appeared to be his wife came and showed me a whitebait patty which was an omelet with lots of tiny white fish in it.  I was put off since I have never liked to eat little fish because they usually tasted very fishy and their bones would crunch in my teeth making chills run up and down my back.  The couple assured me that the bones would not crunch and again told me that I HAD to try it.  So I did and was really surprised at how lovely whitebait was.  It was great, not fishy and I didn’t feel one bone.

We checked into the top 10 at Franz Joseph again and I was very disappointed to find a trampoline at the campsite since it would have been an awesome way to beak some bones during tequila night.  Then we bough food for tomorrow’s adventure and checked the forecast – rain.

The following day we had to say goodbye to Simon and Beata since we had planned for an extra week in New Zealand than they had. We drove them to the airport and then had to find ACE, our car rental company since we were trading our station wagon in for a smaller cheaper car. Though they claimed to be at Christchurch airport they are actually a bit away and after asking around I got directions to them. They are a pain in the ass company, but if you don’t breakdown they are the cheapest in NZ. We opted for no GPS this time since it was not only useless, but caused a lot of expensive agony and stress.

Giant Sand Fly

Then we were off through Arthur’s Pass again. The weather was clear this time from the beginning so we were able to see the gorgeous views that we had missed the first time. We spent the night in Greymouth, where we had planed on going adventure caving the following day.

In the morning we had a short drive to Christchurch and spent the rest of the day touring the city, which didn’t take very long and then spent the rest of the day souvenir shopping. Christchurch ended up being my favorite New Zealand city since it was pretty, charming, bigger than most other cities, had lots of restaurants and cafes, and it didn’t hurt that is was sunny and warm.

There was a schottish music competition and punting in the park

That evening we went to the Belgian Café since it was the Belgian holiday, Sinterklaas and to bid adieu to our two friends who were leaving us tomorrow. So we ate overpriced Belgian food and drank ridiculously expensive beer, which they could get at a fraction of the cost in two days.

The Belgians in front of the Belgian Café

We had high hopes for Dunedin since it is named after the adorable city of Edinburgh, but we were pretty disappointed. Besides a few nice buildings, such as the train station and a cute octagon shaped square there was noting to it.

People dress wierd in Dunedin

We thought there would be lots to do and had allocated a whole day to the town but were rather bored. We went to the art museum to fill time, which was nice, had lunch and then drove north. Before we left the town we had to go to the advertised “steepest road in the world” which is located in Dunedin. It is called Baldwin Street and the slope is 19° at it’s steepest. It definitely looks steep and daunting when you drive up. Only Simon, the avid hiker wanted to climb up and we drove, twice, since Hendrik thought it was so fun. It’s worth a drive up and down, which must annoy the residents, but the pictures don’t do it justice since it’s hard to take a picture of a slope.

Me driving down the steepest road in the world.

On the way we stopped at the famous tourist site of the Moeraki Boulders which are huge perfectly round rocks by the sea. There we encountered more tourists than at any other site along the southern route. The boulders were spectacular and we had fun climbing and jumping from them.

I had fun directing a photo shoot.

Later, we stopped in Oamara for coffee and the old part of town was adorable, much nicer than Dunedin. Further on our way we stopped in Timaru for dinner and had the hardest time finding a restaurant. We walked up and down the whole main street and only found three. One Indian, one Thai, and one really pricy one that claimed to be the best in town but it was out of our budget. We went to the Thai place which was jam-packed, and had to wait for an hour to get our food, but the food was good. Other than in the restaurant the town was a total ghost-town and it was a Friday night.

We frequently saw farms of this interesting animal but don't know what it was.