We flew from Cairns to Synday to Auckland yesterday and from Auckland to Queenstown today, so we’ve been on the move. We’re heading out early tomorrow for a three-day trek on the Routeburn Track. We rented packs and sleeping bags and other equipment in town today. Weather looks pretty good, but it’s unpredictable around here. We’ll take plenty of pics!
Great Barrier Reef
We sailed from Cairns to the Great Barrier Reef near Green Island. We snorkled and explored Green Island. And I was denied my scuba dive… Because I’ve used an inhaler for cat allergies in the last three years, I could develop a breathing issue while on the dive. What, from catfish?
If Leena’s the skipper…
Does that make me Gilligan?
We didn’t have an underwater camera, but some big fish came up near the boat.
Who wouldn’t want a food court near every national park?
Entertainment for the ride home included Alex donning a special snorkel. That’s not water going down the spout. Hey, it earned all on the boat a shout on the crew!
Ocean Road
We drove back from Melbourne to Adelaide via the Ocean Road on the 3rd. It’s a great road — a lot like Highway 1 in California, but the coastline is a bit more like Oregon.
After a few hours of twisty roads behind some, say, slower drivers, we realized this was going to take while. (We’d taken the more direct highway on the way to Melbourne — an easy 8 hours.) We checked in with our Melbourne accommodations; we had to check in by 22:00. It was 16:33, and we had 532 km to go.
OK, Leena would rather walk over hot coals than read this stuff, by my Dad and Dave will love it. And I was a math major. Skip if you like…
Posted speed limits on the highways are 100 in Victoria (Melbourne’s state) and 110 in South Australia (Adelaide). And the highways wind through towns that slow you down to 80, 70, 60, even 50. If we averaged 100, we’d make it with about 7 minutes to spare. Then Leena points out: 30 minute time change to Adelaide. An extra 30 minutes. Of course I make multiple announcements on our progress and the state of the “cushion”. It peaked at 48 minutes. High drama, I can assure you. We made it with 20 mintues to spare.
Lovely sunset along the way.
Melbourne Victory
We spent the 2nd walking downtown Melbourne. The building here has a cool design effect: the lines are actually horizontal. There’s a name for the effect, but I don’t remember…
We bought tickets for that night’s A-League soccer match between the Melbourne Victory and the Queensland Roar. I’d actually watched Melbourne’s match from a few days prior versus Sydney. They surrendered 2 goals in the first four minutes (ouch!), then fought all the way back for a 3-2 win, snapping a three-game losing skid. I feel you need to know this. Anyway, the big story for this game was the state of the pitch. The Telstra dome hosted a NYE party that pretty much trashed the field. Then it rained with the dome open and blah blah blah, they only decided to actually play an hour before kickoff.
After a scoreless first 45, Melbourne broke through for two goals by the midpoint of the second half. A late goal by Queensland wasn’t enough. 2-1 Melbourne.
New Year
To prove we didn’t overdo it on NYE, we started the new year with the 1000-step hike about 50km east of Melbourne.
We fended off fierce wildlife:
And fierce weather (unseasonably cold). You can see the Melboune skyline (barely) through the haze.
Last, a waterfall hike. I think 90% of the waterfall hikes in my life have been disappointing. Yes, it’s little more than a tumbling creek, despite the advertising… Ladies and gentlemen: Olinda Falls.
New Year’s Eve
Aussie wine is almost entirely screw cap — a fine thing in my opinion. Easy to open, and no chance of the cork failing and ruining the wine. Anyone who’s carefully cellared a bottle for 5+ years only to open it and have it spoiled by a bad cork knows why screw caps rule.
That said, bubbly deserves a cork. Sometimes they’re a bit tight. One man’s struggle…
The bottle was Black Shiraz bubbly. We then hopped the tram and headed to downtown Melbourne for the festivities. A bit like 4th of July in the States — fireworks and fun, only NYE.
That’s t-minus ~10 minutes. Then the camera battery died while taking video of the fireworks. But you can guess the rest.
Aussie kitsch
Who wouldn’t stop to see giant toy horses and koalas?
Barossa Valley
We visited the most famous of the Aussie wine valleys (at least to me) on the 29th. With too many wineries for a day (by just a bit!), Lonely Planet steered us to four great ones. Rockford was first up. Great wine, and the pioneer of sparkling Black Shiraz. Champagne-style wine done with the Shiraz varietal. Very cool, different, tasty. We also learned that shipping a case of wine to the US would be… AU $351! Even with the 30% currency exchange discount, and another 30% off for GST (tax), it still adds $200 to the case. Bummer, we have to drink pretty much everything we buy here… while here.
We also visited Bethany, Two Hands and Penny’s Hill.
The scenery is reminiscent of Napa and Sonoma.
Beach at Glenelg
Adelaide hills
View from Nepenthe Wines:
Adelaide from My Lofty:
A smile from my coffee is good, right?
Enjoying wine country:
Leena wishing we’d commuted in our heli:
