Oceania
smelly new year
This was truly a flying visit to New Zealand to see 2010 out. We had about a week for the North Island. So we spent a few days at the Bay of Islands before heading a little further south. It was a long drive from the Bay of Islands down to Rotorua. And as we passed the sign that welcomed us to Rotorua, a question was raised in the car, “Who farted?!” There was a quick succession of denials from the other three passengers. So it was true, the sulphur smell was potent, potent enough to seep through the air vents of the car. But before long, we had adjusted and could barely smell a thing – possibly the occasional boiled egg smell.
The hotel that we stayed at was right by the thermal village and we had views of the thermal activity from our rooms. The hotel hosted a Maori Culture Show and a Hangi buffet! The show was fantastic and there was also an opportunity to learn the Haka.
Having witnessed many Sydney Harbour New Year’s Eve celebration, we were going to welcome 2011 in a different city in a different country! The celebrations were much less crowded (thank goodness) by Lake Rotorua with a lovely sunset as the backdrop, musicians were on stage and the stalls were abuzz. Happy 2011 – to another year of travelling!!
Day one for the year and we visited Wai-o-tapu which was pretty amazing. It reminded us a lot of Yellowstone but warmer. Artist’s Palette was magnificent with all of it colours and Lady Knox geyser spat on demand… actually with a little help from some soap powder.
An unexpected highlight around the area was when we visited the Redwoods – trees so tall and thin.
Before heading home though, we paid a visit to the Waitomo Caves to see the glow worms. During the tour, our guide explained how he was underground during that devastating Christchurch earthquake and he heard the rumble like a subway. Very eerie and a little spooky but glow worms, stalagmites and stalagtites, awesome all the same!
Definitely will have to come back for the South Island – another to the bucket list!
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saw no kangaroos on this island
Initially we had planned to drive around Adelaide, jump on the ferry to Kangaroo Island and drive around Kangaroo Island. What we learnt though while booking is that the car hire insurance does not cover the ferry trip across. That was not a risk we were willing to take so we booked a 2-day tour instead which was pretty jam packed. The drive to Cape Jervis was painfully long, not “leisurely” at all as advertised. It was probably twice as painful on the way back!
Day 1 –
The tour began at the Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Distillery before moving onto the Seal Conservation Park which was a main reason we wanted to come to Kangaroo Island. It was pretty cool being able to see the seals on the sand, although from a distance of about 30 metres away. The photos in the brochures all show the spectators (would-be us) standing much closer than what you are actually allowed! Oh well, guess its for animal and human safety! There was also a visit to a sheep dairy farm, Pardana Wildlife Park and a Birds of Prey show.
Day 2 –
A busy day starting at Clifford’s Honey Farm where we tried a non-alcoholic honey drink and the homemade ice-cream. Yummmmm! We also visited the limestone formations of Kelly Hill Caves which was amazing! As we were walking through the caves, the tour guide switched off all the lights and showed us how dark the caves were. She was explaining how when they were originally explored by candlelight, so imagine what would have happened as the candle began to shrink in size! We’ve never had that experience before where our eyes don’t adjust to the darkness, well simply because it can’t! When there is absolutely no light, our eyes can’t adjust to the limited lighting so all we see is blackness. Spooky spooky spooky! Last stops for the day were the aptly named Remarkable Rocks and Admirals Arch. At the latter stop, we were fortunate to view New Zealand fur seals in their natural environment being very very playful!
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first time away for the new year
We have never seen in a New Year anywhere other than Sydney. So our first New Year’s Eve away was in Adelaide. It was nothing like what we were use to at all. It was quieter.
On our way to dinner, the roads were extraordinarily quiet. We assumed it was everyone preparing for the NYE celebrations! So we asked our cab driver where everyone was ringing in the new year and he didn’t seem to think it was unusual that there was hardly any traffic on the roads. Maybe we were just too used to Sydney’s crazy traffic ALL year round at all hours!
Today we spent a day in the Barossa and on the way back we saw Drover’s Run (from McLeod’s Daughters)! And who would’ve guess that South Australia houses the biggest rocking horse in the world! How about that?!
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you can farm anything
Tasmania seemed to have a farm for everything: there are potato farms, lettuce farms, poppy farms, honey farms, cheese farms, lavender farms. Let’s talk about some of the farms we visited.
We certainly did not go hungry in Tassie. There was delicious and fresh food everywhere. Driving around the state, there are numerous fruit farms you can visit. We visited three: Hillwood Strawberry Farm, Kate’s Berry Farm and Sorrell Fruit Farm. 
We had NO idea that there were so many types of berries. So for 10 days we indulged on cherries, strawberries, waffles and sundaes! The great thing about these farms is that you can pick your own fruit if you are that way inclined.
Fresh seafood is also not lacking here. There are salmon farms to visit where you can feed the fish and then there are places where you can eat fish (not necessarily the same fish you saw at the farms). While we were down on the east coast, we ate at an amazing Japanese place, Kabuki in Swansea. Lovers of seafood will NOT be disappointed in Tasmania.
But let’s not forget the final stop for us… the chocolate farm – well, its registered name would probably be the Cadbury Factory! That was quite an experience. We saw them making, wrapping, packing, stacking the chocolate. We got to eat lots of chocolate on the tour too. We walked through the the factory with our hair nets, white lab coats and shoe protectors… Willy Wonka eat your heart out! The one place we did not get to see was the FORBIDDEN FACTORY – actually, it wasn’t really called that. It’s the part of the factory where Flake and Twirl are made. The recipe and process is so top secret, Cadbury could not risk the secret getting out!
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