The exciting adventures of wonderbunny

The mothership landed

wonderbunny — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 11:44:00 GMT

I still can't believe she actually did it - but my mother actually voluntarily got on a plane and made the 24 hour trip down under to see Julia and I! It took a good couple of days not to be shocked when I saw her standing there, but once the shock wore off the mission was on to make sure she saw as much of Sydney and the surrounds as possible in the time she had here!

So...Goulburn to see the rellies, Harbour Bridge, the Opera House (of course), Botanical Gardens, Sydney CBD, Hyde Park, the Observatory, The Rocks, Surry Hills, Redfern, and all topped off with a mammoth of a hike around the blue mountains assured me that she had been suitably walked stiff before being allowed to pop over to Perth to see an old school friend.

Does this now mean that (after 64 years) she has FINALLY been bitten by the travel bug? I guess only time will tell...

Melbourne

wonderbunny — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 11:40:00 GMT

After a few weeks 'doing' Sydney I've popped down to Melbourne to see what Victoria has to offer. From first impressions, Melbourne is to Sydney what Brighton is to London (only without the huge gay scene). Luckily the weather here is beautiful, and the plan today is to head to the beach at St Kilda and work on the tan!

In Sydney I have managed to rent myself a room in an amazing house with lovely people for the rest of my stay. I've visited the opera house and harbour bridge a couple of hundred times (still not bored of looking at either of these yet), been out, stayed in, explored more of the outskirts of the city - even as far out as Maraylya, made more friends and now eagrely await the arrival of the mothership, who - despite an immense fear of flying - is boarding her 23 hour flight in less than two weeks to come and see Julia, me and the Sydney opera house. God knows THAT will be a REAL adventure!!

The beach is calling so gotta dash!

G'day mate

wonderbunny — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 16:51:00 GMT

Sunny Sydney! I finally made it - through gallons of goon, crazy capers and sand in places sand should never see.

After arriving in Rainbow beach I headed out to Fraser island - the largest sand island in the world - for three days of driving 4x4s along the sandy highway. The food was awesome (not just because I cooked it) and the scenery was amazing.

Moving on to Brisbane was such a culture shock. Having stopped at so many little towns on the way down the coast, and to suddenly be thrust into the middle of a big bustling city was crazy - especially when the vista was so similar to that of London and the Thames. I walked miles, and saw literally everything the city had to offer. Surfers paradise was a high rise surfer dude town (not quite surfers in suits, but not far off), and Byron Bay became the city on the coast that was the hardest to leave. I floated back from my day trip to Nimbin and partied hard with the best of them, got my souvenir piercing and waved a fond farewell to the seaside town before getting ready to hit my first wave.

Surf Camp was in arrawarra (translates as the middle of nowhere), and caught my first wave, and my second, third, fourth etc with style. With my final stop on the coast complete, it was on to Sydney - the lights, the bridge and the opera house!

Here the adventure continues....

Life down under

wonderbunny — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:38:00 GMT

Oh my gosh I can't believe I haven't added to this since I've been in Australia... I have no idea how I'm going to put everything I've done in one entry...

Well, as an English person, the first thing I should talk about should be the weather. So it's been hot, sunny, beautiful, amazing and my tan is coming on a treat thanks :)

In the 20 days I've been here I've travelled down (and up) the coast from cairns to where I am now in Rainbow beach, and have done so much it feels like I've been here for months.

I went up to Cape tribulation and spent a night with the creepy crawlies in the rainforest and came back via Port Douglas (which is proabbly where I'll retire to). Cairns was a scream, and I did a trip to the great barrier reef from there (there aren't enough words in any language to tell you how amazing that was). Mission beach was tranquil, magnetic island was hot and full of sleeping koalas and airlie beach was such a cute little down, and it was here that I took my trip out to the whitsunday islands. We visited bays, islands and the most beautiful beach in the whole world - white haven. We saw a shark and two stingrays just hanging out in the shallows and donned our sexy stinger suits to frolic in the crystal clear waters :) Yesterday was the Kroombit cattle station which saw me rounding up goats on horseback, learning to lassoo and crack a whip (clearly valuable life lessons if one is to keep a man in life :P). Right now I'm in Rainbow beach and tomorrow will pop over to Fraser island for a few days to rough it, camp and drive up and down the 123km of beaches in a 4x4 :D

By now I am a pro at finding things to do on a bus (especially after the 10 hour trip to the cattle station and the 8 hour trip to rainbow beach), and have finally tried goon, kangaroo and crocodile. Whilst in rome...

Am really enjoying all the experiences and places, and for the benefit of my mother (who I'm sure checks this religiously) am eating well, staying safe and looking after myself ;)

Leaving New Zealand

wonderbunny — Sun, 1 Aug 2010 06:24:00 GMT

So I've come to the end of the New Zealand adventure. Good god. It started out so tame, with bus trips and scenery. Then it seems the lower down the southern island I got the more drinking, dancing and crazy behaviour ensued. I'd like to blame it on friends, say they made me do it - but I'd be lying.

Queenstown - true to the rumours - is party town. I did find some time in my week there to go up the gondola, ride the luge and partake in some frisbee golf (I was terrible). The rest of the time I was either partying in one of the MANY bars (oh the choice), or being cosy on the sofas by the fire.

The hostel there was the best I've stayed in, and became kind of like home. Put that together with an amazing group of people and you've got a really difficult goodbye when everyone goes seperate ways...

It really is true however, that the south island far outshines the north in terms of scenery. No words will ever be adequate to describe how vistas like that look or how they make you feel - it really is something you have to just sit and take in. Even driving along on the bus my nose was against the glass, and the words wow and amazing (tho said a lot) never did any of the views justice.

So today the adventure continues! Off to Oz, and new land, a new adventure, and some new crazy friends to share it all with.

From North to South

wonderbunny — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:57:00 GMT

So here I am in Wellington at the bottom of the north island of NZ. So far I've got be honest I've been pretty amazed. Everyone is telling me the south is way better than the north tho, so maybe I have a hell of a treat waiting for me tomorrow when I get off the ferry...

Where to start? The millions of sheep? Throwing myself out of a plane? Launching myself down a hill in a zorb ball? Meeting so many CRAZY people? Who knows. So much happens on a daily basis that if it wasn't for my journal (which is getting very full very quickly) I'd have forgotten half of it by now.

I joined forces with three swedish girls for the majority of my north island trip, and was initiated into the swedish way of life; meatballs, hot tubs and bikinis with furry hats ;) I joke, but it has been super cool to have such an amazing group of ladies to adventure my way around with.

So, next stop south island. Lots more Lord of the Rings sites to visit, a ferg burger to look forward to, mountains to see and ski and some more crazy friends to meet and greet.

The Big Chill

wonderbunny — Mon, 5 Jul 2010 18:28:00 GMT

The arrival into 13 degrees from 30 was ever so slightly chilly, but having now put on ALL of my clothes, I'm toasty and acclimatising to winter in July (which seems so very wrong to someone from the northern hemisphere).

So far I've been at the north end of the north island and so the weather has been pretty mild, but as I go down I might have to dig out some thermals...

Today was the trip to 90 mile beach, Cape Reinga and round the bay of islands. It was tipping it down all day, but that didn't stop us all piling out of the bus to climb the steepest sand dune we could find and then throw ourselves down it head first on body boards. A-MAZING. Because the sand was wet we ended up going all the faster. I was soaked and had sand EVERYWHERE, but isn't that what it's all about?

Tomorrow I'm back off to Auckland and then on to my next destination. Wasn't wowed by the city when I arrived there a few days ago, maybe I was still partly in Fiji, or maybe I've missed some fundamental part of what makes it a great place? Watching the sun set from the sky tower was pretty cool tho...I seem to have a bit of a thing for sunsets I think...

Feeeeeejeeeeee

wonderbunny — Thu, 1 Jul 2010 18:17:00 GMT

Ah it was the tropical paradise depicted in every magazine/advert/tv show you've ever seen. Blue skies, hammocks swinging from the palm trees. Truly some breathtaking sights. But once you've seen one island, it's pretty much the same as the next, and the next and the one after (maybe with the slight exception of running water and electricity on one or two....).

I made some awesome friends whilst there, and for me they were what made the trip. Days laying on the beach, snorkelling, reading our books and eating, and evenings drinking, chatting, dancing, swinging from the hammocks by the moonlight and taking all manner of random photos.

I hope the rest of my trip is as easy going and as fun as this has been. Bring on the rest of the world!

Photos: USA

wonderbunny — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:36:00 GMT

A Star Spangled Summer

wonderbunny — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:43:00 GMT

I've been rather bad at keeping my adventure blog! Something I can only attribute to having far too much fun, seeing loads of places and doing many exciting things! Thought I'd better start it before I leave the US, so will get cracking.

It's going to be impossible to fit in the last two weeks into one blog in any detailed kind of fashion - so I'll be as brief as I can. The journey started in San Francisco, where the permafog didn't stop me biking the golden gate bridge and seeing Alcatraz (it tried). A quick trip up to Napa valley for wine tasting before heading down to Yosemite National Park. The scenery (as you can imagine) was breathtaking, and no photo or explanation could really do it justice. The adventure continued along the coast (precarious cliff top roads) through Monterey and on to LA. Think concrete jungle, and then spread it over so many miles you'll think it'll never end. The light pollution from this city was so bad you may as well have turned your car headlights off driving down the roads. Universal Studios (was SO much fun!), Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Malibu were full of their mansions and money, but nothing like you see on the TV.

Having escaped the neon lights it was on to Orange county and it's posh beaches. Having never watched "The OC" I can't compare, but it was full of rich golf players/surfer dudes. Waving good bye to the six packs it was off to San Diego, where - when I wasn't quoting Anchorman - I managed to get soaked in Seaworld, go on PANDA WATCH in San Diego zoo and share a hostel with not one, but TWO crazy guys. Put them together and it was better than anything they had on TV. No time to stop, it was back on the road and into the desert. I had never experienced 42 degrees centigrade before, but it is so hot, that when you get out of the air conditioned car, you feel like you've walked into a fan assisted oven - even the air is cooking you. When a outdoor swimming pool is boiling, you know it's best not to take that dip...

Finally here we are - Flagstaff Arizona. As much of the way as was possible was done on the old route 66 (including the 1930's 'the road has disintegrated' bits) just to keep in authentic, and having filled up on munch and settled into the latest Hostel, I'm rinsing the free Wifi so that you can hear my amazing trip so far!

Stay tuned for updates!