Day 19 - Road to Rotorua

Monday, May 4, 2009

After experience what the night life and driving was like of Auckland, we decided to get the hell out Dodge and go on a relaxing road trip down South. This road lead to many small towns and wonderful scenery that I would image New Zealand to be like.

Our main goal was going to Rotorua, but we made a little side trip to Hamilton. This is a fairly large farming and cattle area, but the reason why we made this side trip was to visit the LDS New Zealand Temple. If you are LDS you know the wonder of these buildings. If you are not LDS (common name is Mormon), that shouldn't stop you from viewing the beauty of the temples. The grounds were wonderful and the temple missionaries that serve there don't live to far from us. Actually, they used to be neighbors to a friend of mine. So to Kristin Barber, you're old neighbors the Hitchins say "Hi".

We then set back on the road to Rotorua where we'd have our Maori experience. Here we took a tour bus to a small village where we got to see and learn about the native Polynesian culture of the Maoris. We had an excellent tour guide, even though she made everyone from different countries to get up and sing a song in their language that is significant to their country. Unlucky us, we were the only Americans on the bus. BTW - we ended up singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and thank goodness many more joined in on the singing. We had so many different representative of countries on the bus... I loved it! We had British, Irish, Aussie, Dutch, Indian, Scottish, Canadians and of course some mainlanders from New Zealand. My only upset was that the British boys didn't sing a Beatles song.

Three hours later on a long drive, we're back to our hotel, but it was a great road trip. The Maori people are beyond remarkable! I highly suggest looking up their history and traditions or better yet make a trip down here to New Zealand to experience it yourself ;-)

Day 11 – Fraser Island

Sunday, April 26, 2009
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What a wonderful day again in this amazing land called Australia! We woke up extra early so we could head out to a full day trip over to Frazer Island, the largest sand island in the world. This place is remarkable how everything that grows here grows in sand. There’s no soil whatsoever, just sand. The island is 123km (76 miles) in length and is home to 8 different eco systems; rainforests, deserts, woodlands etc. It’s also the only place in the world where the freeway totally made of sand and is used by vehicle and airplanes together. Yeah, imagine to my surprise when we were in the bus and a plane was coming down on the highway right behind us. It was a great site!

The bus goes throughout the island and shows us these amazing sites, and what a bumpy ride it was. Not a ride for people with major back problems. Unfortunately, because of a major cyclone that came through the island last month, most of the major attractions were unreachable because of all the damage done to the shore and road, so the coach tour had made other plans for us. Our first stop was to the rainforest. Again, just an amazing site to see. The hard part was how humid and thick the air was. Being from Wyoming/Utah it made breathing very difficult, not to mention sweaty. Gross I know, sorry. We did get to see some odd plants and a huge iguana here. Others on the tour saw a snake attack a bird, but we missed that, which is probably good since my mother is deathly terrified of snakes and probably won’t go on the rest of the tour.

Next we went into the resort area to relax after our long bus ride and lengthy hike. Finally, some place to get some water! Then we headed out to the shore where we could see the extensive damage that the cyclone caused. 18 meters (approx. 40 feet) of shore washed away. Remember, this shore is always their highway. It was still a beautiful site as we learned about coffee rocks; they look black and hard but crumble in your hand and looks like ground coffee. The sand is very, very fine and you sink right into it, almost like quicksand. It was so relaxing I could have stayed hours down there. No swimming though as there are massive rip tides and sharks about.

Our journey then took us for another long bus ride up the mountain where we got to spend some time swimming here at Lake McKenzie. A gorgeous fresh water lake where the only water that gets in is from the rainfall, the only water that gets out is through evaporation and only one type of small fish live in it. Absolutely perfect for swimming! But the highlight of this spot came at the very end when everyone was packing up to leave. We had some wild visitors…dingoes! They did warn us about these wild dogs and that kids need to stay away from them. One came up so close to me I could have reached out and petted him (see video), but I decided to play it safe.

This island is filled with so many wonderful sites, I could write on and on about it and here alone I took over 200 photos. It’s a once in a lifetime adventure and I’m so glad I was able to experience it.

Day 10 – Road Trip!

Saturday, April 25, 2009
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The weekend is here and we got out Gladstone to go site seeing to the South. We first stopped off at Agnes Waters, which is a very quaint little town with great beaches. We didn’t spend too much time there, just enough to grab lunch and walk around to see the site. We also drove through a town called 1770. That’s correct; it’s a number not a name. Apparently it was named after the time when Australia was being settled.

We headed South some more headed towards Frazer Island. This was quite the interesting drive, since this was my time to try driving. I picked up most of it watching my dad drive around, but watching and doing are very different! I have to admit I did very well for myself, driving on the other side of the road on the wrong side of the vehicle. I think the worst part is trying to figure out the turn signals. Due to this confusion, our windshield never looked so clean. While driving, we did get to see some “Roos” in the wild, a big group on someone’s farm. It was a great site to see!

After a four hour drive we made it to Hervey Bay where we’ll set off tomorrow morning at 7am to go to Frazer Island. We have a great place to stay here. It’s a two bedroom apartment that looks to the ocean, beach and very long pier. We did get to walk the beach before the sun had set. Not much to do once the sun sets here. Most of the shops here in Australia close after 6pm and many are not opened on Sundays. I have to admit, that’s quite nice, that is as long as you’re not a tourist.

We’re still not too used to the time scheduled. We spent the last two hours forcing ourselves to stay up by playing card games, one of the family’s favorite past times. I’m sure I’ll be getting a lot of great photos tomorrow; I can’t wait to set sail on the reef!

Day 9 – Road to Rockhampton

Friday, April 24, 2009
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Another day mostly spent poolside. I mean, I have to make my back look like lobster-like my front right?!? Well, my dad did get off of work early, so we decided to take a road trip a bit up north to Rockhampton, which is cattle country. The trip there was quite a learning adventure. One of the main roads in this county is Hwy 1 and it was only two lanes, very small two lanes. No room for drifting off.

So after about an hour drive we made it to the town, where we had some local Blue Heeler steak and headed back to Gladstone. Nothing to exciting to report, but I’m sure we’ll have some good stuff ahead of us.