Joannah's travels

Photos: Cairns area, Australia

joannah_metz — Sun, 6 Jun 2010 06:23:00 GMT

Photos: Coloundra area, Australia

joannah_metz — Sun, 6 Jun 2010 05:25:00 GMT

Photos: New Zealand - S Isle 3

joannah_metz — Sun, 6 Jun 2010 04:05:00 GMT

South island part 3

Photos: New Zealand - S Isle 2

joannah_metz — Sun, 6 Jun 2010 02:21:00 GMT

South island

Photos: New Zealand S Island 1

joannah_metz — Sat, 5 Jun 2010 15:16:00 GMT

S Island part 1

Photos: New Zealand- N Isle

joannah_metz — Sat, 5 Jun 2010 14:23:00 GMT

north island

Sydney, Australia

joannah_metz — Mon, 24 May 2010 19:37:00 GMT

I flew from Christchurch, NZ to Sydney Australia and spent the last 4 days in Sydney. My first day here I did a walking tour of the city led by my hostel. We walked through Chinatown, Darling Harbour, Circular Quay, the Botanic Gardens, several parks, and parts of the Central Business District. We saw the Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House - the one main downside is that it poured down rain for much of the day. But I met some nice people from my hostel and ended up going out for great Thai food with some of them. The next day I went on a day trip to the Hunter Valley to go wine tasting. We stopped at a national park just outside Sydney and went for a walk. I saw a wallabee and the nest of a funnel web spider which is the most poisonous spider in the world. We then tasted at 3 wineries.

Yesterday I did a day trip to the Blue Mountains. We stopped first to do a 1.5 hour walk to Wentworth Falls and then ate lunch. After lunch we drove to a different part of the park and did a ~2 hr walk (including 1000 stairs down to the bottom of the valley) and saw the 3 sisters and Katoomba falls along the way. At the bottom I did the rainforest walk and then took the scenic railway back to the top (world's steepest railway- 52 degrees). I have to say it was a bit scary.

This morning I took the bus to Bondi Beach and did the coastal walk most of the way to Coogee. It was pretty. Then I came back into central Sydney and walked around the Rocks which is the originally settled part of Sydney with lots of historic buildings. I explored the Royal Botanic Gardens as well and saw lots of large bats and a big spider. The Gardens are really pretty. I then went up to the top of the Sydney Sky Tower which had nice views of the city. Then I took the ferry to Mosman Bay and I hoped to do it at sunset but was a little late so it mostly dark already. I did get nice views of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Tomorrow I fly to the Sunshine Coast.

S New Zealand-E Coast

joannah_metz — Mon, 24 May 2010 19:26:00 GMT

After leaving Queenstown, I headed south to Te Anau and then onto Milford Sound. I did a boat ride out in the fjord and it was a beautiful sunny day. Milford Sound was pretty - lots of perfect U-shaped valleys carved by glaciers. It looked kind of like Halong Bay in Vietnam. After Milford Sound, I headed down to Invercargill which is at the bottom of the south Island and then took the ferry to Stewart Island which is to the south of the South Island. It's at 47 deg S and is a bird sanctuary. I did a few walks and then headed to Dunedin on the east coast the next day. Dunedin is a Scottish-origin town and has a large university. I went to the world's steepest street here and took a tour of the Cadbury factory. Then I headed back to Queenstown where I did a winery tour of the central Otago region.

The last stop in New Zealand was Christchurch where I spent five days. Here I did a day tour to Mt. Sunday which served as Edoras in Lord of the Rings. It was incredibly beautiful and really did feel like middle earth. There was a rock outcrop in the middle of a valley surrounded by 360 deg of snowcapped mountains. The weather was gorgeous that day too. In Christchurch I went to the International Antarctic center and saw (at least the building) for the US Arctic program.

Photos: Sydney & area, Australia

joannah_metz — Mon, 24 May 2010 18:46:00 GMT

West coast S Island

joannah_metz — Mon, 10 May 2010 06:31:00 GMT

After leaving Abel Tasman, we headed south and went to Barrytown which is a tiny village with a hotel/pub. I made a bone carving there which was really fun. Then we drove to Franz Josef to see the glacier. I did a full day hike of the glacier but the weather was terrible. It was cold and pouring down rain the whole day. It was about an hour's hike to the toe of the glacier. We then strapped on crampons and spent about 6 hours hiking up the glacier, through crevasses and ice caves. The ice was a beautiful shade of turquoise blue with lots of waterfalls everwhere. It was hard to enjoy it since I was so wet and cold though and could barely look at the view because my face would get pelted with rain.

The next day we drove to Fox Glacier, but we couldn't get close because the track was closed (maybe due to the heavy rains the day before?). It was pretty though. We drove to Lake Matheson (mirror lake) which should have beautiful views of snowcapped mountains reflected in the lake, but it was so foggy I couldn't see anything. Then we continued driving south to Makaroa. Spent the night there and then drove to Queenstown. The views along these drives have been amazingly beautiful. You could stop every 5 minutes to take pictures but it's hard to really capture the beauty. I took a gondola up to the top of a large hill in Queenstown which had great views of the Remarkables mountains (used in LotR). Today I'm going on a scenic 4WD tour which should be pretty.

bottom of North Islands and top of S

joannah_metz — Tue, 4 May 2010 16:14:00 GMT

After Waitomo, I went to a Maori cultural show where we learned that haka (ceremony used to greet guests). We even got to participate in the show and learn the girls' dance. We went to Rotorua which is a hydrothermal area with geysers and boiling mud pots (like Yellowstone).

We also went to Abel Tasman National Park which served as Mordor in the Lord of the Rings. The weather was too bad to do the Tongoriro crossing which is supposed to be one of the best day hikes in the world. But, I did a few smaller walks in the rain and it was beautiful. Next we headed south to Wellington. I went to the Te Pap museum which was fantastic (and free). They had a lot of exhibits on the culture and environment of New Zealand.

Then I took the ferry across to the south island and went wine tasting in the Marlborough region. Next stop was Abel Tasman National Park and I spent today sea kayaking around the park. It was a lot harder than I thought and my arms are really sore. It's also pretty cold here but I guess I just need to start getting used to that since it's moving into winter.

Coromandel-Waitomo

joannah_metz — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 11:32:00 GMT

April 27- Today I boarded the bus to the Coromandel Peninsula. Unfortunately, it was raining so I couldn't go kayaking. But, I did do a walk to Cathedral cove which was really pretty... there are bits of rock sticking up out of the ocean.

April 28-Drove to Raglan today which is a laid back surfing town on the west coast. I staid in a lodge in the middle of the jungle and did a bush walk. It was a beautiful setting.

April 29- Visited the glow worm caves in Waitomo. The worms' poo glows and it makes beautiful lights all over the cave walls and ceilings.

So, internet is really expensive in NZ so that's part of the reason for the short entries and why there haven't been photos posted yet. I'll try eventually though.

Auckland, New Zealand

joannah_metz — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:16:00 GMT

I began my round-the-trip in Auckland on April 24. I arrived very early in the morning and was pretty tired but headed out immediately into the city. I spent my first day wandering around Auckland. I walked through the city center, to the wharf, through several pretty parks and around Auckland University and also walked to the Domain, a large park that also contains the Auckland Museum. It had many great exhibits on the Pacific islands and lots of great Maori artifacts. Auckland is the most populous city in New Zealand but still seems pretty small. It is hilly and has several volcanic cones scattered throughout.

April 25 I visited Hobbiton which is near Matamata (about 2 hours from Auckland). It was really neat and many aspects looked just like the Lord of the Rings movies. Unfortunately I'm not supposed to talk about it since they made me sign a confidentiality agreement (they're starting to work on The Hobbit movie). I'm not allowed to share any of my photos here either :(

April 26: I took a ferry to Waiheke Island (45 min from Auckland) this morning and then took a bus tour of the island. The island is ~26 km long and is known for its great wineries and nice beaches. I went wine tasting and met a couple of nice locals who were retired. They suggested that I start saving after I begin working for Shell and buy property here in a few years. You can get a house for $400,000 NZ if it doesn't have an ocean view. They gave me a tour of the island and it seemed like a nice community. It was very hilly and pretty and had great views of Auckland from the hilltops.

I've enjoyed my time in Auckland although there wasn't really that much to do in the city. There's also a bit of a drought going on here and the locals have said it hasn't rained in 4 months so everything is a bit brown instead of the green I was expecting. I'm excited to head out of Auckland tomorrow toward the Coromandel Peninsula.

Photos: New Zealand-Auckland & area

joannah_metz — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 11:00:00 GMT

North Island