wellington: we only knew you for a day and a half but we liked you

well we flew into wellington on tuesday morning and had a day and a half to get acquainted with the windy city before driving up north to rotorua. the house we stayed at in wellington was gorgeous and had the most amazing views of the harbour.

on tuesday evening we went to a really nice bar called 'the library' for a coupla drinks before going on to 'sweet mother's kitchen' for some southern american food for dinner. the next day we were up bright and early ready to explore the city with the only full day we had there. we went to the 'museum of new zealand te papa tongarewa' which was down by wellington's harbour. the museum is huge and brilliant. we weren't able to do it all but we did spend a good three hours there, spread over two floors, and we got to see the world's largest squid. i didn't take any photos of it but if you look it up you'll see. massive it is.

the cable car was next up for the day, an essential on any wellington visitor's itinerary. we got the cable car up with the plan to walk down through the botanical gardens but we did quickly check with the ticket office that we could get the car back down if we chickened out of it! this is a picture of the cable car going back down the hill sans these two passengers.

so we didn't chicken out of the steep walk, down to the city, through the botanical gardens thankfully and we saw some beautiful displays, visited the carter observatory and the treehouse.

after that we went to the film archive which stored what appeared to be every piece of tv and film that had ever been shot in new zealand and they allow them all to be viewed publicly for free. what a treat. we spent some time in there going through various tv commercials, short films and reading about/looking up films. it was really interesting and we definitely could have spent a lot longer in the archive.

some beers were required next and we went to a basement bar called hashigo zake's which specialises in craft beer. so it was only polite to sample some of the local ales before finishing our day in windy welly off with a film (short term 12) at the local independent cinema and an early bed as the next day we had a 6 hour drive to rotorua!

christchurch: from quaint village to quake city

after our early morning flight to christchurch, we were greeted at the airport by rob (jamie's first cousin once removed) and his son lewis who was holding up a rather impressive home-made sign to make sure we knew they hadn't forgotten about us!

after the drive back to their house in the remote village of little river - about 45 minutes south-east of christchurch on the banks peninsula - we met helen (rob's wife) and rosemary (helen's mum that was also visiting from england). we dumped our bags and planned the next couple of days over a nice barbecue with the whole family. in the evening, rob and helen took us to a local pub called the hilltop to experience a typical kiwi night of friendly faces, local wines and live music. the view from outside the pub - halfway between little river and the beautiful town of akaroa - was spectacular.

the view tempted us so much that the following day we decided to explore akaroa in full. we drove with rob, helen and lewis to the town, which was originally founded by the french and as such has beautiful little houses and shops, and a heap of faux-french attractions, such as 'le mini golf'.

around akaroa harbour, jam was running out of superlatives to describe the landscapes. it was his favourite place so far. after the promise of seeing new zealand's exclusive 'hector' dolphins (or a free ride the next day!), we decided a catamaran trip from akaroa harbour was a necessity. sure enough, during the 2 hour ride, we saw plenty of the hector dolphins, which are the smallest species in the world at only roughly 1m long, and lots of fur seals too!

on our final day in christchurch, we took a wander around christchurch itself. the city is still absolutely devastated from the earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 with, what seemed to be, barely any buildings over two storeys still standing. we saw the pallet pavillion (a temporary space for gigs and performance with wooden pallets for seating) which remains open due to crowd funding and local demand, the art gallery and art centre (both closed and undergoing repairs), the canterbury museum, botanical gardens, re-start mall, the transitional "cardboard" cathedral and new regent street. overall, it was quite a unusual, upsetting and humbling experience walking through 'quake city' as it has come to be known. however we were really impressed with the creative ways that had been found to provide pop-up and temporary shops, restaurants and cafes while the city gets rebuilt from the ground up. for example the picture below was taken at the re-start shopping mall which is made of shipping containers.

and this is a picture of the pallet pavilion i described earlier.

on our way out of christchurch we popped into the international antartic centre which is near the airport (where we were flying to wellington). we watched the penguins getting fed and learned about how to survive in extremely cold temperatures.

melbourne: final days and farewells!

our final few days in melbourne were spent seeing some things that we'd had recommended to us. naturally, our first priority was the cookie bar for frozen daiquiris.

jo, jam and i went to rickitt's point where jo and i went snorkelling. whilst under the water i saw eleven-armed starfish, zebra fish, sea urchin, anchovies and a five-armed pink starfish. what a shame i haven't got an underwater camera! unfortunately i scratched my knee on a rock but otherwise it was a very pleasurable experience!

on the way home we went to brighton where we saw the brightly coloured beach huts and had tea at the sea baths. the beach huts apparently cost silly money but jam pretended that he owned this one.

we went to the weekly night market at st kilda which was buzzing with stalls, food, tight-rope walking and various other forms of circus entertainment! the atmosphere was amazing.

jam fulfilled a month-long ambition by riding on the luna park rollercoaster, the oldest wooden-structured rollercoaster in the world. at 101 years old it still has to be hand-cranked by a woman standing up in the middle! jam describes it as one of the more bumpy experiences of his life.

we headed down to the end of the pier in the hope of seeing some of the local fairy penguins. they only come out at night and can only be seen when the volunteers are shining protective red lights onto them, as they're generally hidden amongst the rocks. we only saw five or six as most of them have now flown the nest but if we had gone a month earlier we would have apparently seen tens more.

on our last evening with jo and jurgen, we went to a local vietnamese restaurant called saigon sally for a bon voyage meal, as the next day we were to head to pastures new; new zealand, where the climate is much more jam friendly!

bye bye australia and bye bye to my lovely auntie and uncle! thanks for everything!

melbourne: our big day out and the mornington peninsula

on friday we had tickets to go to a music festival in melbourne called big day out. it is a one day festival that travels around australia and new zealand. jam was particularly excited as pearl jam were headlining and i was really looking forward to seeing arcade fire. in typical festival fashion on friday morning it was tipping it down so we made sure we were fully prepared with rain macs and good shoes but actually it had cleared up nicely by the time we got there. we saw tame impala, primus, the hives, beady eye, arcade fire and pearl jam.

guest review of pearl jam's set from jam:

"the pearl jam" (as davey at work insists on calling them) played a blinding 26-song, 135 minute set. and despite this being around an hour shorter than their typical gigs, they played to a festival crowd consisting of a surprising amount of die-hard fans. i saw many with pearl jam tattoos similar to my own, including one thrifty genius who had made his own pearl jam t-shirt by scribbling the band's name on the front of a plain t-shirt and ripping a large hole in the back to expose his tattoo. the grunge spirit obviously lives on, and a perfect circle of inescapable sunburn is surely but a small price to pay. as the sun set behind the band, it was a perfect gig in a perfect setting. jeremy, given to fly, and dissident were my personal highlights, but it was great to see a few from the new album live for the first time. unforgettable.

on saturday, jam, jo, jurgen and i packed up the house and made our way to their friends', herbie and alison's, beach house where we would be spending the next few days with them. it's a gorgeous house in rye, a popular beach resort on the mornington peninsula near melbourne, about an hour and a half away from the city itself. it was australia day - sorry, 'straya day! - long weekend, so absolutely packed around the beach. we obviously weren't the only people with the idea. however, up in the house - standing on stilts on a hill edge in the trees - there were no crowds to bother us, and we had a lovely, peaceful weekend in rye. when we first arrived, jam, jo and i headed off for a little walk. unfortunately i didn't take my camera, but we saw some huge eleven-legged starfish on the beach, much bigger than my hand. whilst admiring the starfish we were approached by a wannabe steve irwin, who grabbed it out of the sea for us and held it close enough for us to touch and examine, repeating his one known fact over and over to us: if a starfish loses a leg, then it just grows it back again.

we were greeted back at the beach house by a glass of lovely champagne with hibiscus flowers dropped it it and a beautiful pulled pork, cooked by alison.

we watched both the men's and women's finals of the australian open while we were at the beach house, as herbie is a big tennis fan. jam loved this.

on sunday morning, the six of us went on a beach walk with some amazing scenery. jam and i joked that the walk was like a mini ocean road trip because the scenery was so stunning. we even saw some little nipper lifeguards in training!

on sunday night herbie showed jam and i the southern cross constellation in the sky (something that you can only see in the southern hemisphere) and how to use this to calculate the direction of south. i hope i'm never in a position where it's necessary to navigate late at night (without the use of a smart phone), although i did practice last night and i could still find it, so i'm prepared in case! we spent monday at the beach where we had a dip in the sea and walked along the beach.

we came back to melbourne on monday night and yesterday jam and i popped into the city where we had yum cha in chinatown and went to see wolf of wall street at the lovely, art-house cinema nova! now it's our last few days in australia before heading off to christchurch on saturday morning so we are starting to get ourselves ready for that - washing clothes, checking the itinerary and confirming bookings!

brisbane: if you can't stand the heat, get out of the brisbane

well we are back in melbourne now until the 1st feb when we leave for new zealand but in the meantime we have been busy bees a little further up the east coast in brisbane, noosa and visiting family friends near byron bay.

so after arriving in brisbane on saturday we spent sunday getting to know our new home for the next few days. we visited the art galleries in brisbane - the gallery of modern art and queensland art gallery - where we caught an excellent exhibition by a chinese artist, cai quo-quang, at the goma, called "falling back to earth" which was just breathtaking. we also saw the "california design" exhibition - focusing on design in california in the 50's - at the qag, which was very interesting too. as we walked to the art galleries we stumbled across a market which was slightly unusual as the majority of stalls were on the floor.

after that we took a ferry trip down the river to brisbane powerhouse where we attended their moonlight cinema to see american hustle (which was great!). the outdoor cinema was lovely (apart from the mosquito bites!) but it was strange watching a film with bats flying low across the screen! 

on monday we decided to take a trip north from brissy to visit noosa with a couple of stops. our first stop was bribie island - pelicans guiding us across the bridge to the island - where we stopped for refreshments in a bright cafe and had a stroll along the beautiful beach.

next up was an impromptu stop in the glass mountains to walk up the wild horse look out, it was only 700 meters but it was steep and oh boy was it hot. the views more than made up for the struggle though.

we got to noosa where we visited main beach and walked along hastings street. we discovered that they have wild bush turkeys there as we stumbled across them wandering around in the car park! the beach was packed but very pretty.

as we left noosa the sun was setting and i was really wowed by the little lakes we drove past on the way out.

while we were in brisbane we really got addicted to the local radio station ("triple m") which just seemed to play the best music during the day time and this kept us accompanied on our drives in the hire car. as it heated up on tuesday we were very excited as the djs promised to play their 'sweat song' if it reached 40 degrees, but only outside of the city boundary by 40km or more. we started to get very excited about this song and someone eventually called up to state that they had reached 40 degrees, and after much fact-checking and adjudication from the producers of the show, it was confirmed to be true, and we listened in anticipation for the sweat song. when it finally played we discovered that the song was 'gonna make you sweat (everybody dance now)'. it made us laugh anyway!

on tuesday (while listening to the sweat song) we made our way down to visit family friends, john and louise, further down the gold coast near to byron bay. we drove down via tamborine mountain which we thought might be cooler but it was just as baking hot. when we got back to the car the temperature gauge read at 41 degrees! we picked up some wine from the local tamborine mountain winery to take with us and had a look around some of the quaint shops, filled with handmade products.

we put our foot down and made it to john and louise's in reasonable time. we had a lovely dinner and the most delicious oysters i have ever tasted, they were beautiful and creamy.

on wednesday, with john and louise's excellent guiding and knowledge of the local area, we visited byron bay and on the way we made a stop in ballina for coffee at the surf club and visited cape byron lighthouse.

we went to wategos beach where jam and i borrowed john and louise's body boards and went body boarding (with some instructions from louise!). i must say jamie was better at it than me as i really struggled to catch a wave! and i really didn't like it when i went underwater and got a mouthful of salty water. this happened quite a few times. still, it was good fun though and i think jam rather looks the part here.

we had a lovely lunch at byron bay and a stroll around shops, bars and beaches. it certainly does seem to be a hive of activity! we finished the day off with a lovely meal in alstonville with john & louise. we had a really great time with them and were really grateful for their hospitality.

now, we are grateful for someone else's hospitality as we have arrived back in melbourne at auntie jo & uncle jurgen's! we are off to big day out tomorrow, a one day music festival (with pearl jam & arcade fire playing), and to the beach this weekend so have plenty planned to fill our last week in australia.

sydney: beaches, film festivals & lots of walking!

it's sunday morning now and we've been in brisbane for around 14 hours. i haven't really got to grips with anything here yet so there's not much i can say except that it's warm and they are in a different time zone to sydney and melbourne. oh and we've hired a car so that's made a change! we've hired a car because we will be doing quite a bit of driving while we are here. but anyway, i want to blog about the rest of our time in sydney not our plans for the next few days up here...

last week in sydney we did lots of walking. we really saw the city by foot and it was lovely. then we saw the coast by foot too. which was also lovely. i did swim a bit too which was also lovely but got a bit burnt which wasn't very lovely. on thursday we walked through the huge botanical gardens and saw government house, mrs macquarie's chair and had a good look around the art gallery of new south wales. 

then we took a quick detour from our walking tour to add in some sydney festival fun to our day. our chosen festival show was a piece of interactive art called 'the very near future', which was a maze of rooms to walk around designed to portray a film noir in the making, which we eventually found ourselves becoming part of - pretty impressive! after that we made our way to hyde park barracks and for a quick look around the beautiful queen victoria building shopping centre. for a drink we went in search of the baxter inn, a secret prohibition era themed whisky bar, which we had to locate purely by street address and going round the side and back of a building and clambering down some stairs into a basement. at 5pm the candlelight bar was packed and in full swing. unfortunately it was a bit too dark to take a decent photo but if you search for images then you will see what i mean!

on friday the whole day was spent at bondi beach as we had tickets to flickerfest in the evening, a film festival happening over a number of weeks in sydney (and then touring australia i think). when we arrived at bondi the beach was pretty packed.

we walked along the coastal path to tamarama beach and onto bronte beach where we had a little dip and a lay in then sun. then we had lunch before heading back to bondi. the path was just beautiful with some truly stunning beaches and scenery.

that evening we went to flickerfest at the bondi pavilion, to see a selection of international drama and comedy shorts, where we snacked on beer and popcorn whilst enjoying the great variety of short films. it was a great evening and a really good ending to our time in sydney.

sydney: harbour walks, watson's bay & stunning views

well, it looks like we have left melbourne just at the right time as a quick glance at the weather tells me it's 43 degrees there. wowsers. now it's been a cool 31 here in sydney and that's about the highest i can go so lets hope it stays that way. we started our visit to sydney off in appropriate style with a trip down to the harbour and a look at the sydney harbour bridge and the opera house. we popped into the museum of contemporary arts for a look around the exhibitions and a cup of coffee in the cafe which had some rather good views of the harbour too.

we visited the rocks, the oldest part of sydney, and the rocks discovery centre which was really interesting. then we walked along to sydney observatory for some lovely views and an astronomy lesson.

as it happens while we are in sydney the sydney festival is on - i don't think we are going to see any shows but you never know! anyway, we made good use of the pretty spiegeltent in hyde park (i was like - they've got one too!) and had a cider while leafing through tasty festival brochures. we finished the day watching the sunset over the harbour bridge from the opera house which seemed rather appropriate! 

on wednesday (today) we hopped on a bus back down to circular quay where we watched a rather good street performer for longer than intended before buying a return ferry ticket for watson's bay and jetting off across the harbour. getting the ferry gave excellent views of the harbour and made it easy to see just how big it all is. once we'd got to watson's bay we set off straight to doyle's in search of a table for lunch. doyle's has got a reputation for seafood and had been recommended to me numerous times and i really wanted to go there. luckily for jamie they do steak as he is not a seafood fan although he did enjoy attempting to tell me the seafood diet joke about ten times during our meal. here's a picture of doyle's on the beachfront. 

after our lovely lunch we went onto the beach for a bit of a swim, paddle and sunbathing. 

to finish the day off we went to the 36th floor of the shangri la hotel in the city and treated ourselves to a cocktail overlooking the bridge and city.

oh yeah. and on the way home in paddington tonight we came across this quirky sculpture by a bus stop. i rather like it.