We have an update from the feature which commenced in the last edition letting you know about friends of ours who have embarked on a journey of a lifetime in thier motorhome. Phil, Sharon, Jemma and Ben are travelling on a World Tour in aid of Devon Air Ambulance who they have been needed themselves in recent years.
Tennant Creek to the Great Barrier Reef....
We motored to Ilfracombe (near Longreach in outback Queensland) and pitched up at the caravan park. This campsite actually advertises that they hold happy hours most nights! This town is so called, as the architect came from Ilfracombe in Devon, UK. After a night at Brunswick Heads Terrace Reserve, we continued travelling down the East coast to Nambucca Heads. The weather was still rather wet along here, after having suffered terrible flooding a few weeks ago. One more extra long hit and we made it back to Sydney Tourist Park. We went to Cronulla and around the local area and we saw the place where Captain Cook first stepped foot on Australian soil. There was an information centre in the Botany Bay National Park. We returned Aussie to the Sydney Depot and were then kindly dropped off by them at the nearby railway station, with all our bags. This is where the trouble started as we had rather a lot of bags. We have accumulated a lot of extra baggage along our way. As we would have a change over train journey to get us to the airport we practised loading ourselves up. After we all had armfuls, back-full’s and pull along luggage attached to ourselves, we were not actually able to move very far at all. Which-ever way we tried - it was to no avail. We had to resort to a maxi-cab with a big enough boot for all our luggage! – woops! As our time in Australia has come to an end, we would like to record how much we have enjoyed this extreme and diverse country. Our highlights have been the wildlife, the views, the most amazing colours that we have ever seen, and many friendly people along the way - to name but a few! Many people have commented to us about the deceptive size of Australia and have said - ‘it is SO big – people don’t realise’ and YES – it is BIG! However, we have managed to cover enough miles in our 3 months to travel from Sydney to Perth and back again – twice! This doesn’t mean that we won’t be back to explore some more......Because we will!! During our travels we have been surprised by the number of fellow travellers who have either burnt all of their ties and bridges or kept some link to home – but have set out for a lifetime of timeless travel. At that point, we think that this becomes more than a journey and is eventually a way of life.............until next time – HOOROO!!
KIA ORA! Following a very fast two and a half hour flight with a tail wind all of the way – we landed into Wellington (South of the North Island, New Zealand), arriving from Sydney, Australia. We found out about Windy Wellington with that very landing, which was probably one of our most turbulent ever! We were very grateful to our pilot for his skilled landing but nobody applauded when we landed – is that another thing of the past? A short taxi ride in the middle of the night got us safely to a local hotel in New Zealand – the home of the Kiwi! We moved on to Lower Hutt, near Petone and stayed in a pine cabin on site until we could collect our next camper – which we have affectionately named KIWI! Our next ferry trip was about three and a half hours over the Cook Strait on the Interislander from Wellington to Picton, on the South Island! We have been in New Zealand for almost four weeks now and unfortunately our opinions of this amazingly scenic country have been seriously scarred by the overall percentage of wet and windy days – we estimate 98%! Next stop – Invercargill – the most southerly city in the world...........We hope the sun will shine......!
We were surprised to see and hear the very strong Scottish influence in Invercargill (and around the whole of New Zealand, as we have since discovered), and it was great to see a variety of ‘wee’ kilts being used in school uniforms. Baldwin Street was our next port of call and we had to take the challenge of the STEEPEST Street in the world- now didn’t we?! And we received a certificate for doing so! The street looks very deceptive but is actually at a gradient of 35% (19 degrees or 1:2:86!!) That is STEEP...... and its status is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records! The length of the street is little under 350 metres long but is SO steep that for every 2.86 metres travelled horizontally, the elevation rises by 1 metre! This street obviously attracts many tourists and also has annual events taking place there, including the Cadbury World Jaffa Race – when 10,000 spherical chocolate Jaffa’s are let loose to roll down the hill! Each Jaffa is sponsored and the proceeds all go to charity. Also the Baldwin Street Gut Buster takes place and this involves running up the street and then back down again and the event attracts over 1000 competitors! On the way to Timaru we stopped off at Moeraki and took a walk down to the infamous giant spherical boulders (Te Kaihinaki-ancient boulders). These were formed millions of years ago around lime crystals within the surrounding mudstone. Some of the boulders are up to four metres in circumference and are all strewn across the beach. The Mackenzie Basin, deep in the heart of the Mackenzie Country made a beautiful setting for our first dry day in a long time! We enjoyed visiting the ‘wee’ country towns to find out more about the adventures of James Mackenzie and to see memorials and statues. The Church of the Good Shepherd at Lake Tekapo offered an idyllic image, set right at the edge of the lake, with the stunning snow- capped mountains as our backdrop............. We’ll leave you with that image and look forward to catching up next time -as we head for Christchurch......
Until next time ........... Phil, Sharon, Jemma & Ben
Updated to 9th June 2009
Please remember that Phil & Sharon are embarking on this journey to try and raise money for the Devon Air Ambulance Service.
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