Travel blog - Trip to Sydney and New Zealand Sept 2011

[petrivanzyl]

Hi

So I've been thinking that I should create a thread to tell you about my trip to Sydney and New Zealand last year during the Rugby World Cup 2011. Maybe you guys can share similar stories / photos of other interesting places you have been to?

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Okay some background details:
Five (Six) of us went to NZ for three week to check out the rugby and the country. We decided it would be a good idea to check out Sydney on the way there for three days. It was myself and two of my work colleagues, one with a girlfriend one with a wife and 1 year old...

In NZ we traveled around the country in a camper van!

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We left OR Thambo on the 10th Sept and flew to Sydney with Qantas:

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Day 1: (Sydney)

We arrived in Sydney late afternoon on Sunday. We would be staying at Pensione hotel in Sydney for 3 nights...

So after clearing the Australian customs (Don't watch Border Patrol on Discovery) and having to explain to the taxi driver how to find our hotel:facepalm: we finally booked into our hotel.

SA was playing Wales in the first game that night so we immediately went out to find a place to eat something and watch the game. Now it just so happens that our hotel was in the Chinatown part of Sydney, but luckily there was a Irish Pub just across the street.

Scruffy Murphy's:

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SA won by 1 point (barely) but it was good enough. Scruffy Murphy's had a special on during the rugby Aus$7 for a jug of beer and Aus$7 for all meals. So we had each a chicken schnitzel and a few jugs...

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Afterwards we walked around a bit to see the city at night. Stefan and Marina had to put the little one to bed, so the rest of us had a few more drinks at the local chinatown bars...:fencelook:

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Day 2: (Sydney)

It was time to explore the city. Since we stayed close to Darling Harbour that is where we went on Monday morning:

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We got a 5 in 1 attractions ticket as well as a 24hour hop on hop off bus ticket about Aus$200 per person. So first we went to the Sydney Aquarium:

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The aquarium was fun, but nothing you've not seen before. He hopped on the bus and drove right through the city: past the Sydney harbor bridge (they like to call it the coat hanger - add appropriate auzzie accent) and the Opera house. We made it all the way to Bondi beach for a late lunch by the beach:

 

[bmwforlife]

:thumbs: MORE PLEASE

 

[petrivanzyl]

Day 2: (Sydney - continued)

On the way back from Bondi beach to the city (about 20min by bus), there was some lovely views of the coat hanger:

We then went up the Sydney tower to check out some views of the city during dusk. It was quiet :inlove:

View of Darling Harbor (West):

View towards Bondi beach (East):

View towards Sydney Football Stadium (SFS) and the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), you can see it if you look carefully:

We then wanted to have dinner at the restaurant in the tower, but they decided it was fancy dress and we were not fancy enough:thumbdo:

So walking back from the tower to our hotel we were looking for a place to have dinner - We needed to find one where a one year old would be allowed (His name is Waldo). Unfortunately no one did:nonono:

So we went back all the way to our Irish Pub:inlove:

So after a lekker dinner, a few more jugs and a few more drinks in Chinatown we went to bed:fencelook:

 

[Twinz]

Great pix and lovely story telling.

Was fortunate to travel through New zealand during the earthquake before the Rugby Worldcup started as a guest of the City of Christchurch. The island is stunning and each part of NZ is so unique and different. Its a rugby mad people. But it suffered major blows due to the two huge earthquakes and it will take the country's businesses many years to recover from the ashes.

I travelled Australia extensively, during 2009 and loved it. Mebourne was the most friendly part and the winelands and museums spectacular. Perth, sydney and the remote countrysides are to behold. Like NZ its a young and bold nation and South Africa can learn from them...how to take care of your citizens and an education system that is focussed on "cultivating" excellence.

Both countries have similar challenges to SA in terms of social pathologies of the past and a painful racial history but they coping well to overcome it. :thumbs:

 

[petrivanzyl]

Day 3: (Sydney)
So our last day in Sydney. We still had many attractions left to see but decide to walk instead of take the bus.

We had some breakfast at Cockle Wharf at Darling Harbour:

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We decided to go to the zoo to see some real Australian animals. Quite interesting seeing some kangaroos and kookaburas:

It was a lot of walking so some of us didn't take it so well:fencelook:

This is Danie, Marra, Marina and Waldo....Waldo is the little one.

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So we still had to go see the coat hanger and opera house up close and in the afternoon we split up: Danie and Marra went on a power boating cruise (you get all wet and apparently it drives close to a nudist beach:fencelook. Stefan, Marina, Waldo and I went on a quieter ferry ride....

The coat hanger:

Opera house:

Some pics of the city:

 

[Twinz]

Pragtig...:thumbs:...except for the middle finger :=):

 

[petrivanzyl]

Day 3: (Sydney - continued)

So for those of you that don't know superbru, its a sports prediction website. We have all been playing for a long time, including during the world cup. They had this thing going that you need to take a photo doing the superbru pose....

I decided this was the perfect spot to do the bru:

and I almost forgot the Koala:

After all this action on our way home we got thirsty, so we headed to......the same irish pub:fencelook: for some beers:

Think they call it XXXX (Four X), but for Aus$7 it is a bargain...

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But we decided to meet up with an old friend of mine from primary school that lives in Sydney and just have some pizzas back at our hotel. Later we decided to check out Darling Harbour at night:

But all the walking there made us thirsty again:fencelook:

Over there the beer was expensive, like Aus$15 per beer:thumbdo:

We met a very helpful police officer when we had to lock my friend's bicycle. He enquired from the officer to where was a good sport to lock his bike and he politely offered to walk as all the way there....

We decided to skip going to Hardrock Cafe Sydney and went to bed...

 

[petrivanzyl]

Day 4: (Sydney->Christchurch)

So we had to catch a flight to Christchurch. We organised a taxi to take us to the airport. The taxi driver was the first black man that we saw in Sydney:fencelook:

He tuned us that he knew a short cut to the airport and that since it would take quicker, we would pay less. So we proceeded on a different route and went through a tunnel. We we arrived at the airport he wanted to charge us Aus$80. Apparently taking the tunnel had a toll fee:argh: Now we were ready to bliksem him - die skelm, but decided to chill out.

Our main priority at the airport was to buy enough alcohol at Duty Free:fencelook:

After about a three hour flight across the Tasman and a part of the Southern Alps of New Zealand we arrived in Christchurch. Its really not a big place. I think the airport control tower is the highest building in town:

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We made our way to collect our Camper Van - Home Sweet Motorhome for the next week....

Okay so a few things to know about NZ:
No #1 and most importantly its illegal to make a fire without a permit :facepalm:
No #2 there is 10x more sheep than people
No #3 they like their rugby

Yups that about all you need to know.:idea:

So we headed to the closet store to stock up on supplies (meat and beer) and arrived at our "Holiday park". So yes, NZ are pretty well prepared for Camper vans, there are lots of holiday parks were you part your van and then all of the necesarity facilities are availble to use: gas braais, ablution, kitchen, even dining and tv rooms.

It was already getting dark but we decided its time to braai. So it must have been at least 0 degrees or colder, but it was my turn to braai:

Okay, so the first try on a dirty gas braai in the dark without a proper light when its freezing outside didn't go so well. But hey we had fun, the chicken burnt a little:burnt: but we even had braai brooitjies:drool: and had some johny black....:drink:

 

[petrivanzyl]

Day 5: (Christchurch -> Glentanner @ Mount Cook)

Okay so now our journey in the camper van across the South Island started in earnest. We would be driving all day on our way to Mount Cook.

Stefan was the driver. Now he is not normally the most.....safest.....driver I know. But in NZ there is very strict speed limits and the camper van couldn't go to fast anyway...

Our first stop was in Ashburton at a lovely public garden:

From Ashburton we head to Lake Tekapo, so the closer we get to the Southern Alps (the biggest mountain range on the South Island - I think it is permanently covered in snow in many place) the more excited we got to see the snow. We kept on stopping to take pictures with snow way in the background:

and yes it was a bit cold

While Danie entertained Waldo with his juggling skills:

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We finally made it to Lake Tekapo. Wow, what a sight, it is only fed by melting snow and glaciers, so it is the brightest blue water you would ever see:

And we decided it is time for more Superbru shots and we also tested the multi-shot functions on our cameras:

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So then from Lake Tekapo to Lake Pukaki - Yes, in NZ they like to call things that it sounds like you have to visit the toilet too often.

Another perfect blue lake:

and more jumping:

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Finally we arrived at Glentanner, only 10km or so from Mount Cooke right next to the snow covered mountains:

We decided it was time to braai. Steak and eggs this time, at the least the braai facilities were much better:

While we were braaing we had a nice chat to some English people also visiting for the rugby....Afterwards we watched some rugby - USA vs Russia

 

[Twinz]

Wow...epic journey :joy::inlove:

 

[petrivanzyl]

Day 6: (Mount Cook -> Christchurch)

So this was the day to check out all the mountains and snow at Mount Cook before going back to Christchurch.

It was just snow and mountains wherever you look:

So we made our way into the Mount Cook National Park and checked out the Sir Edmund Hillary hotel and tourism centre:

Every time you saw water it just seemed so clear:

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Then we hit the road back to Christchurch but decide to take a different route past Mt Somers. Everything was just so green. They mostly farm with sheep and deer all over NZ:

And some beautiful gorges (Danie moenie spring nie...):

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When we reached Christchurch we also decide to drive around the city to see if we could see any earthquake damage, but it was not that evident expect for some collapsed roofs at a few places. We also had to collect our rugby tickets from a mall.

It was strange since every time we were walking around in our Springbok jackets everyone would ask us whether we are rugby players - I mean we were in good shape, but not that good:thumbs:

We arrived back at the same holiday park we stayed the first night in NZ and decided we were not going to braai in the dark on the dirty gas braai again so me made some nice spaghetti bolognaise:drool: and tried a few local brews:

 

[Zack]

That looks like a fantastic holiday! Would love to see Sydney one day. :thumbs:

 

[petrivanzyl]

Day 7: (Christchurch -> Wellington)

So the day of our first rugby game arrived. But it was a long way to travel from Christchurch on the South Island to Wellington on the North Island. We had to get up at 04:00am to travel about 300km north to Picton to catch a ferry to Wellington. Most of the drive up the Kaikoura coast was in the dark. But it was a very pretty road right next to the east coast of the South Island.
We had to put in some fuel in Kaikoura - that was my job, since there are no petrol joggies:fencelook:
From Kaikoura we headed north to Blenheim, which is apparently NZ wine country:

We finally reached Picton where we were going to leave our camper van in the parking lot for one night and got on the ferry to Wellington. Picton is just a small harbour town:

The ferry ride was about a 2:30 hour trip accross the Cook Strait to the North Island - apparently on of the most dangerous ferry rides in the world. We had some breakfast and then went outside to enjoy the views:

We also enjoyed some more local brew but this one was not so nice:

We finally reached Wellington:

We reached Wellington at about lunch time so there was a lot of time to kill before the game started at 21:00, so we had a walk into town and checked out some local pubs. Let me tell you some of the bartenders there (mostly seems like high school girls) are not too bright - when I asked for some Steinies (Steinlager) she thought I was asking for wine:facepalm: We tried some other beer, but I'm not a fan of the darker beers:yuck: And since we got up so early we were getting tired, so we had some McFlurries from McDonalds to keep as awake and then we headed to the stadium - the Cake Tin - for SA v Fiji:

South Africa managed to win the game 49-3. And after a long day we headed to our motel in Lower Hutt taking the train. It was lekker to sleep in a real bed for a change...Zzzz

 

[abmi0000]

Pragtig...:thumbs:...except for the middle finger :=):

Also seen that :biglol:

 

[Zack]

Awesome! :thumbs:

 

[Sabretooth tiger]

great pics, and looks and sounds like great fun.

 

[Kobus328i]

Very nice indeed Petri. Very well told and very nice pictures. You can almost go and work for the Travel Magazine :thumbs:

 

[XMAX]

great pics.

Those memories will last forever.


Thanks for sharing with us.

 

[petrivanzyl]

Day 8: (Wellington->Greymouth)

Time for some more....So it was time to head back all the way from Wellington to the South Island where we left out camper van. So we got up early to catch the ferry back. Since it was early and we had a long day the previous day, we mostly slept on the ferry, but we had a lekker breakfast. We finally made it back to Picton:

Luckily our camper van was still safe where we left it. We were planning to visit Nelson, but due to time constraints and the long way still to go to Greymouth we decided to skip it. So Greymouth is on the western coast of NZ. The west coast is know for it ruggedness, no beaches...

There was lots of nice scenery to see on the way there. By the way NZ love to tell you around each any every corner how fast you are supposed to go. Mostly the speed limit is 80km/h or 100km/h, but some corners are as slow as 40km/h:

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We reached the small town of Murchison and decided it was time for a Sunday lunch, we found this nice little place and had the greatest food:
Some of us had lamb-shank pie with sweet potatoes on top, while I had lasagna:drool: And as always some local brew - It seems like most NZ town has its own small brewery and as long as you ask for a "blond" lager you would be fine, just no red/dark stuff:

You can see little Waldo is this photo. Still after a week of this he was very well behaved.

After lunch we continued on and finally reached the west coast and Westport and then continued south along the coast. He saw some beautiful scenery and also some roadkill:

dead possum:

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Continuing on it was starting to get dark but we had to stop at the Punakaiki pancake rocks / blowholes. The rocks are supposed to look like pancakes and there are huge blowholes where the waves crashes up:

[imghttps://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/315709_10150410144096354_1149532103_n.jpg[/img]

Sorry, maybe too much photos?:dunno:

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We finally got to Greymouth, it was a bit late to we had to settle for KFC. We decide to watch some rugby at the tv room. There we met some other people from South Africa - Four students from Stellenbosch; one of them studying to be a rocket scientist! And it just so happens that Danie went to school with his brother in V-Town! Okay I have to tell you we bought some Jagermeister in Australia. We had a few so far, but for some reason it tasted a bit different. Our new buddies told us they also had some Jagermeister, so we decided to taste the difference between ours and theirs. After a few shots which didn't taste any different we asked them where they bought it. They told us they bought it in Australia too:facepalm:

Dawie (the rocket scientist) was telling us how small his...........was.:fencelook: We also had some more beers - Tui blond lager which was quite good. We decided to talk some rugby. Danie still has the epic video of me explaining to everyone how Earl Rose is the best rugby player in the world.:fishwack:

 

[petrivanzyl]

Day 9: (Greymouth->Fox Glacier)

Finally a day with not too much travel and this was a good thing, because we were a bit tired of the previous night.

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We were heading further south down the coast to check out some of the world famous glaciers on the way there it was green:

On our way we got a bit tired so we decided to take a nap:Zzz:....good thing we had a camper van. But after the power nap it was off to Franz Josef Glacier. It was a least a 2-3km walk to get close to the glacier:

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Next we went to Fox Glacier, there was less walking this time:thumbs:

And the cliffs on the side were huge, look how small Marra seems:

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That was enough for the day, we spend the night in the town of Fox Glacier and decided to braai some more steak and eggs: