Thursday was our last day on Waiheke chilling with Dave and Sue at the Crescent Valley Eco Lodge. The Island was a blast and gave us a great opportunity to interact with the locals. Dave and Sue invited us into their home and even made us Sunday dinners, which were great. We met their friends and had a great time chatting about just about everything under the sun. Below are a couple shots of the place we called home for two weeks on the island.
That night we made our way back to Auckland for The Get Up Kids show. The venue was an old Castle called Windsor Castle / Juice Bar. With only about 40 people at the show, Debra I were standing front row about 2 feet from the band. By far one of the coolest shows I have ever been too. At the end of the show one of the guys handed me the printed play list from the show, a proverbial greatest hits from all their albums. The next day, we caught the bus south to Rotorua for the weekend.
Tags: Ackland, Backpacking, Beyond The Trail, Round The World, RTW, The Get Up Kids, Travel Blog, Vagabond, Wanderlust
We survived our first weekend on Waiheke Island! Yesterday our hosts, Dave and Sue, invited us over for a Sunday roast with their friends Ben and Kim. It was a great afternoon playing cards with Zion and Kai (Dave and Sue’s kids), eating lots of good food, trying out mulled wine and Dave’s home brews (both of which are quite good), and chatting it up about everything from music to traveling to politics. And yes, Bobby even threw in a little singing and dancing to some punk music to show the Kiwis and Brits how we roll in the States. Definitely a night to remember. And so cool to receive such a warm welcome from Dave, Sue, Zion, Kai and their friends. Cheers!
Tags: Adventure, Backpack, Backpacking, Beyond, Beyond The Trail, Blogging, Explore, Food, Fun, Gap Year, Global, Home brew, Life Change, Mulled wine, New Zealand, Party, Round The World, RTW, Sunday roast, Trail, Waiheke, Waiheke Island, Wanderlust
Sorry everyone, We are just getting to a steady internet connection since we have been in New Zealand. Yup, we are in New Zealand now! Without getting into too many details of Melbourne, which is one of the coolest cities we have seen in Australia, I will attempt to outline the last couple days.
One suggestion for Melbourne was to look out for back alleys and if they look cool, jump in. That was the best advice we could have gotten. The city is chalked full of cool back alleys with awesome cafes, shops and bars. Cool atmosphere, chill people and even cooler specials. Melbourne is the city of low key / chilled out restaurants. Period. We’re a big a fan.
On Sunday we met with Garry and Ruth (Ernie’s sister’s family in Woodend, Australia). The family welcomed us with open arms and showed us around. It was great to see where Ernie grew up and the outer city area. We were also invited to Lloyd and Pat’s daughters birthday party. It was awesome to meet the family and talk with everyone.
Our first day in Auckland, New Zealand was Tuesday. The area around the city was much greener than Australia. As we took the bus form the airport to city, the hills and rural area was more “euro’esk”, with a warmer / cozier feel. The city itself is something to see in a day, no need for 2-3 days, unless you want to do the crazy adventure tours.
********************************Bobby is handing over to Debra to complete the entry**************************
We wandered around Auckland for a couple days exploring the city. We checked out a few good restaurants (and a few blah ones too), the harbor and the NZ Film Festival. We saw The Guard, which was hilarious…go Irish humor. It is a bit of a strange city in that it hasn’t decided if it is a big city or not (hence the nickname the big little city). There is a ton of construction as the place gets ready for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in October. Should be interesting to see how it ends up and whether it graduates into a little big city.
Today we took the ferry to Waiheke Island where we are volunteering at an eco-lodge for a few weeks. The island seems pretty chill with some great scenery. And there are yoga and zumba classes so I’m a happy girl!
Tags: Adventure, Auckland, Aucland, Australia, Backpack, Backpacking, Beyond, Beyond The Trail, Blogging, Don Cheadle, Eadon, Ernie Eadon, Ex-pat, Expat, Experience, Flashpacker, Food, Fun, Gap Year, Garry and Ruth Eadon, Global, Life Change, Melbourne, New Zealand, New Zealand Film Festival, NZ, Packer, Path, Round The World, RTW, Second Career, Sight Seeing, Sun, The Guard, Trail, Travel, Travel Blog, Traveler, Tree Changer, Vagabond, Waiheke, Waiheke Island, Wanderlust, World
We said goodbye to the van (a.k.a. W.A.) yesterday. In the 35 days we had it, we put on 8,000 miles. Just to give some perspective, that is about the same as driving to Duluth from Minneapolis 51 times. Or as Debra likes to think of it, driving from Anchorage, Alaska to Mexico City, Mexico and still have a 1,000 miles to hang out. As we have been walking around Melbourne we have been catching ourselves look at all the gas stations to find the cheaper fuel, that habit will take some time to break. Cheers.
Tags: Adventure, Australia, Backpack, Beyond, Beyond The Trail, Blogging, Caravan, Ex-pat, Expat, Experience, Explore, Flashpacker, Gap Year, Life Change, Path, Round The World, RTW, RV, Second Career, Sight Seeing, Trail, Travel, Traveler, Tree Changer, Vagabond, Wanderlust, World
So we’ve been enjoying this beer in Australia brewed by Coopers. It’s their pale ale and is pretty good. Finding really hoppy beer in Australia is like finding a locksmith in Canada. It’s a thinker kids. Apparently Australians like light beers, whatever. Well we found out the Coopers is made in Adelaide and they have tours, well you can image what I said. Yippy skippy, or something like that.
At $22.00 a person, we were kind of weary, but then found out that ‘almost’ all of it goes to charity. I say almost as the brewery takes the money and you all know how much trickles out at the end. Well, let me allow negative Bobby to take over. The tour was one of the worst tours I have every been on, to date in life.
The guy picked to do the tour, Frank, spoke about the brewery / beer making processes as if he were the micro-machine commercial from the 80′s talking about the new tax code being implemented in 2012. He started the tour with this ground rule and I quote, “don’t ask me questions about the process before we get to that part of the tour. I don’t have time to answer things out of order”. Really? As if everyone on a brewery tour understands the brewing process to wait?
As he raced us through the factory, which more resembled a Miller beer lab, the co-workers watching us all seemed to have smiles on their faces. Not sure what that was about. After the tour he lined us up and we took a shot of each beer, I’m not kidding. There were 10 beers and we slammed a shot of each in a matter of 15 minutes. At this point Debra and I can’t hold our laugher in as he continues to refuse questions. My favorite was; “hey Frank, how many kegs vs. can / bottles does Coopers sell in a year?” Answer, “I don’t know, that’s not a question I care about, so why would I know that answer”. Yup, that about sums up Coopers. We have decided to boycott the brewery moving forward 
Cheers, Kids
Tags: Adelaide Brewery Tours, Adventure, Australia, Backpack, Backpacking, Beyond, Beyond The Trail, Blogging, Brewery Tour, Coopers, Coopers Beer, Coopers Brewery Tour, Ex-pat, Expat, Explore, Flashpacker, Gap Year, Global, Life Change, Path, Round The World, RTW, Tour, Trail, Travel, Travel Blog, Wanderlust, World
Monday we had another full day in Adelaide. We started with the Botanic Garden, which was a great way to kick off the first sunshine in four days. There is a waterlily pavilion which is a greenhouse with tons of Victoria amazonica waterlilies in the center of the park. It explains the biology of the waterlilies but beware if you bring your kids along – the description of pollination says it is a night club for the bees and gives a play-by-play in night club terms of how the mating and pollination work.
A local Adelaidean (James Metz) told us about Vego and Lovin It – a fantastic vegetarian restaurant tucked away on Rundle Street. There is only a small mosaic sign above an unmarked doorway telling the world this place exists. As we ventured up the narrow staircase we came to a small door and inside was packed. It was an apartment with 200 sq ft holding 25 people with real retro (not manufactured to look retro) posters and clippings covering every surface. Walking in, we knew the food had to be good. All they really serve is veggie burgers and they are by far the best burgers we have ever eaten. And that includes any of the Aussie beef burgers I’ve been eating lately (which are kind of gross but in a good way with ham, egg, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, beetroot and sweet chili sauce).
After that we checked out the South Australian Museum for a little culture. A very cool exhibit on Aboriginal culture that included a few honest discussions about the past, which was refreshing to see.
Then we caught a train to Glenelg (that is a palindrome for my grammar savvy friends) to check out a brew pub we had read about called Holdfast Hotel. But the place was out of its own beer – yup, I said a brewery out of its own beer. It would be like going to Rock Bottom and they had none of their beer so they served Summit instead. After that we quickly headed back to the city to meet James and his friends to see where the locals hang out. And they definitely did not lead us astray. We hit up the Colonist for a few beers and a little Chinese restaurant that we knew had to be good because they greeted Marty, one of our new friends, by name. Always go where the locals go and you won’t be disappointed!
Tags: Aboriginal art, Adelaide, Adelaide Botanic Garden, Adventure, Amazon waterlily, Australia, Backpack, Backpacking, Beer, Beyond, Beyond The Trail, Blogging, Caravan, Ex-pat, Expat, Experience, Explore, Flashpacker, Food, Fun, Gap Year, Glenelg, Global, Holdfast Hotel, Life Change, Locals, Packer, Park, Party, Path, Round The World, RTW, Rundle Street, Sight Seeing, South Australia, South Australia Museum, Sun, The Colonist, Trail, Travel, Travel Blog, Tree Changer, Vagabond, Vegetarian food, Vego and Lovin It, Wanderlust, World
Rob wanted me to post about Port Augusta where we visited the Australian Arid Lands Botanical Gardens, which were pretty cool with the birds and flowers. Other than that, this town is basically just a stopover on the road to Adelaide so that is more than enough said about it!
Now that we made it through the outback and back to the coast, we have rejoined civilization and are back to city life. We took a wine tour of the McLaren Vale with Bums on Seats today, which was a blast. Our tour guide Paul was a riot with all sorts of jokes that reminded me of things my Uncle Larry and Dad would crack together on a family trip. Our first stop was Hahndorf, which is an old German town with lots of historical buildings and character. The free tasting at the cheese shop was awesome. After that, we headed to the vineyards for a day of vino (not to be confused with goon) and some good food with our new friends on the tour. My favorite vineyard was Foggo where Herb, the wine-maker, taught us all about his good ol’ boy approach to wine-making. Rob liked Hugh Hamilton’s Black Sheep vineyard with its scenery and history. Definitely glad we listened to the silver foxes in Port Augusta that suggested McLaren Vale over the more commercial Barossa Valley!
Tags: Adelaide, Adventure, Arid Lands Botanical Gardens, Australia, Backpack, Backpacking, Beyond, Beyond The Trail, Black Sheep, Blogging, Bums on Seats, Camping, Caravan, Ex-pat, Expat, Experience, Explore, Flashpacker, Foggo Wines, Food, Fun, Gap Year, Global, Graham Stevens Wines, Hahndorf, Hugh Hamilton, Life Change, McLaren Vale, Outback, Packer, Park, Path, Port Augusta, Round The World, RTW, RV, S.A., Second Career, Sight Seeing, South Australia, Trail, Travel, Travel Blog, Traveler, Tree Changer, Vagabond, Vineyard, Wanderlust, wine tours, World
Today we hit up the oldest underground home in Cooper Pedy. For all the U.S. Kids ‘pedy’ is pronounced ‘peedy’. Rinnie will completely kick me in the leg for how I explained that, but the web page will not let me add characters above vowels to show that in the right way. Sorry Rinnie! Nonetheless, the home was cool, in a kind of creepy way. The older couple that runs the tour lives in the home and we arrived at 8:30am as they were having breakfast. The home is decorated in 1970 decor and well lets be honest, is a home underground. The story about Faye is very cool and well worth a look, but be ready for a bit of creepy.
Debra and I have begun a social experiment on the silver foxes of the caravan parks throughout Australia. As we meet people, as we have each night, we ask them if the area is ‘safe’. Three out of the last three have responded with…….wait for it……..“I’m not racist, but…”. Really? You should see Deb and my mouth as they continue with their sentence. One part of me wants to stop and the other wants to see how far these people will take it.
After the tour we drove the 560km drive to Port Augusta and I’ll keep our description for Debra later. Cheers
Tags: Adventure, Australia, Backpack, Backpacking, Beyond, Beyond The Trail, Blogging, Caravan, Cooper Pedy, Ex-pat, Expat, Experience, Explore, Faye's Underground Home, Flashpacker, Fun, Gap Year, Global, Life Change, Northern Territory, Packer, Path, Port Augusta, Racism, Racism in Australia, Round The World, RTW, RV, Second Career, Sight Seeing, Trail, Travel, Travel Blog, Traveler, Tree Changer, Vagabond, Wanderlust, World
Today we conquered Uluru to Coober Pedy, about 730km. Funny how we have traveled around Australia for the last 2 months and had to find a desert to experience rain. Over the past three days we have had rain for most of the day and during the night, but hey, it’s a desert they could probably use it. We’re hanging out in CP for the night and will be doing some tours during the morning and then inching our way to Adelaide.
Today we hit the 8,000km mark on the van (that’s about 5,000 miles for all the U.S. kids). We had originally targeted 8,400km for the whole trip, but we have a good 3k to 4k more given our plans. We’ll see where we end up, but let’s be certain we are both looking forward to when we can say goodbye to W.A. (a.k.a. the van). We met a very cool couple from Plymouth, MN (the Carlsons) at Uluru yesterday. Yup, the MN population really does congregate at world heritage sites around the world. As we left Uluru we grabbed some gas and had this bird chill out on the mirror of the car. I pumped the gas about 8 inches from this bird and it (he/she) could care less that I was there. I’m coining this little guy as ‘grease lightening’ – it’s a reach, but very cool indeed. Cheers from the now becoming cold southern hemisphere.
Tags: Adventure, Australia, Backpack, Backpacking, Beyond, Beyond The Trail, Blogging, Caravan, Coober Pedy, Ex-pat, Expat, Experience, Flashpacker, Gap Year, Global, Life Change, Northern Territory, Packer, Park, Path, Round The World, RTW, RV, Second Career, Sight Seeing, Trail, Travel, Travel Blog, Traveler, Tree Changer, Uluru, Vagabond, Wanderlust, World
Today we hung out at Uluru (Ayers Rock). As you approach the rock, it presents this sheer size / presents that is really hard to capture in a photo and even harder to describe. You drive through a relatively flat desert and out of nothing comes this huge rock. The walls of the rock have been weathered for so long the surface is nothing we have seen throughout Australia. Debra wanted to have an MN moment and did a little ‘Laverne and Shirley’ jump once we saw it. As we drove closer, the walls were littered with waterfalls and tree.
Given the colder weather and rain, we opted to drive around the rock instead of the 10km walk around it. Tomorrow morning we plan to walk if the weather clears up. We’re staying at a ‘resort’ that is something straight out of Mexico. There is an exclusive resort that anyone staying within 100km from the rock has to camp / stay at. One company owns a chain of hotels (that can accommodate 5,000 people), 4 bars, a grocery store, etc, etc. The prices are crazy high given you are 1,000km from any major city. For us to park the van in an unpowered parking lot it costs $30.00 a night, crazy. Nonetheless, well worth the trip. Uluru was a sight you just have to see. We have about 60 photos of the rock, so if you want to see more, e-mail us. Tomorrow, its on to Cooper Pedy. Cheers.
Tags: Adventure, Australia, Ayers Rock, Backpack, Backpacking, Beyond, Beyond The Trail, Blogging, Camping, Caravan, Ex-pat, Expat, Experience, Explore, Flashpacker, Fun, Gap Year, Global, Life Change, Packer, Park, Path, Rock, Round The World, RTW, Second Career, Sight Seeing, Trail, Travel, Traveler, Tree Changer, Uluru, Vagabond, Wanderlust, World
Debra
Rob
