Australia - The Last Blog - Bridge Climb

The last night that we were in Sydney, Rachel and I did the Sydney Bridge Climb. In addition to getting the opportunity to wear the snazzy jump suits (Rachel is modeling one here), we got a spectacular view of the city. Bridge Climb is a 3 hour guided tour. Groups of 10 climb the supports above the bridge, and above the car traffic. At the height of the climb, you are 134 meters above Sydney Harbor. This is about 450 feet (A LONG WAY). There are great views of the Opera House and of the city in the background. It was a wonderful way to end our stay.

The prep for the climb was quite a process. First, you sign a waiver (more lawyers in Australia than in New Zealand apparently). Then, you are given a breathalizer to insure that you are not trying to make the climb drunk. Next, you are fitted for your jump suit. You change and leave everything you own in a locker. Nothing is allowed to go on the climb, unless it can be tied off to your flight suit. They don't want anything to inadvertently or intentionally fall on traffic or pedestrians below. Glasses are allowed, but that is about it. Cameras must be left behind so they can charge exhorbitant amounts of money for pictures at the end (and of course we bought them). Asthma inhalers must be given to the guide so they can hold onto it. After changing into the jump suit, you pass through a metal detector to make sure you are not carrying anything. In the next stage, you receive your fall harness, which ties off to a line that spans the entire 3 hour walk. You are issued a raincoat, in case bad weather moves in, a head lamp for the twilight tour and eyeglass attachments if you need them. Finally, you practice hooking your zip line to the guidewire and climbing stairs with 3-point contact at all times. Then, it is off to the bridge.

Bondi Beach and Bronte Beach

Wednesday, Rachel and I headed to Bondi Beach to spend our last full day in Australia relaxing on the beach. Bondi Beach is where the famous go to play when visiting Sydney. We did not see anyone famous on this particular Wednesday, but there were many people out enjoying the sunshine.


After lounging on the beach for a while, we took the 2 mile hike from Bondi Beach to Bronti Beach. The walk was beautiful. We walked along the ocean cliffs, watching surfers and birds as we went along. Enjoy the pictures.

Great Barrier Reef

On the Monday of our last week in Australia, Rachel and I caught a Virgin Blue Airlines flight from Sydney to Cairns to visit the Great Barrier Reef.
We booked a tour to the Reef itself from Port Douglas on the Poseidon. It is the smaller of the two main tour companies but came highly recommended by Tim and Liz because they actually move their snorkeling areas based on where the views are the best. The other tour companies used fixed unloading platforms, so they unload in the same place every day regardless of conditions.


When we headed out to the reef, there were storms in the area, and the water was pretty rough. Several people on the boat were issued biodegradable vomit bags, which they used and hurled over the side repeatedly. It was about an hour ride out to the reef. Luckily, Rachel and I took Dramamine that morning and handled the choppy water just fine. In this picture, you can see the reef underneath us, as well as the water breaking where the reef is shallow further out.
We made three stops where we snorkeled for an hour each. The fish were absolutely beautiful, but it was difficult to swim at times due to the rough water. We saw a 6 foot long reef shark about 20 feet from us, but our guide assured us that he was not interested in bothering us. After a long day, we floated back into the dock area and unloaded.
We stayed at the Sheraton Resort in Port Douglas. It was really nice and had a very cool pool lagoon area. Unfortunately, the choppiness of the water on our cruise to the reef and the perennial cloudiness we experienced while we lounged by the pool were due to the fact that we decided to visit the Great Barrier Reef during the wet season. It is a rain forest after all. We couldn't justify visiting Australia and not going to the reef, but if you have the opportunity, visit in the dry season.
Port Douglas itself was a really cool little town. It had lots of cool shops and several restaurants that were pretty good. We enjoyed a couple of good nights in the town. There were lots of crimson rosellas in the area, so we were able to watch them play around while we ate dinner. Wednesday night, we left Port Douglas and headed back to Sydney for our final day with Tim and Liz.

Australia Elizabeth's Point and Blue Mountains

After returning from New Zealand on Saturday evening, Tim, Liz, Rachel and I woke up and went to Elizabeth's Point for breakfast.
Elizabeth's Point is a nice little neighborhood nestled along Sydney Harbor. We walked down to a little seating area along the water and ate breakfast from a coffee shop. Lots of people were up and running with their dogs on this Sunday morning. We relaxed, enjoyed the view, and ate our breakfast.




Following breakfast, we made the hour and a half drive to the Blue Mountains. Unfortunately, we quickly realized that New Zealand had spoiled us. We couldn't truly appreciate the beauty of these mountains after spending so much time at the lake-lined mountains of New Zealand.

The Blue Mountains get their name from the blue haze that sits over them. It is not pollution, but rather the evaporated oils from the eucalyptus forests that rest on the mountains.


After driving back to Sydney later that afternoon, we went out with Tim's and Liz's friends Enrique and Alex. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Sydney. The food was great, and it was nice to meet some of Tim's and Liz's friends. We had a great time. Enrique is shown with us in this picture.

Queenstown

So, this is the blog about Queenstown. We spent 4 nights here, while we jetboated, saw wild animals and flew to Millford Sound. It is an awesome little town. This picture is of the condo that Tim arranged for us. He got a very good introductory deal on it (ladies and gentelmen, this condo is why we always have Tim arrange our reservations).

This is the view from our condo. Queenstown is situated on a lake. It is a ski town in the winter but does a good tourist business all year long due to all of the surrounding attractions. Up until 4 or 5 years ago, you could still buy property in Queenstown for a reasonable price. It would be somewhat inaccessible form the states, but once the U.S. dollar rights itself, you may want to think about buying a place in Queenstown (I may try to get this on Reed's list of investments for 2009).

The town itself is built around the tourist industry. There are many shops and restaurants along the water.



This is Rachel and I with a statue of a Kiwi. Unfortunately, we did not see any while in NZ, as they are now fairly rare. Most of the land birds in New Zealand have been killed off by foreign animals introduced for game purposes in the 1800's.

This is a shot of Liz and I along the water one morning. As is always the case when Tim and I travel together, we have Starbucks almost every morning. As you can see, I have my Starbucks in hand.

This is a beautiful shot of Tim and Liz along the water at sunset.















Reflections - TOP 3 THINGS STEVE DID IN NZ, THAT HIS MOM WOULD NOT APPROVE OF

Those who know me, know that I am a fairly conservative and risk-averse person. This is likely due to my upbringing and the fact that I work for a chemical company (trust me, you want people with low risk tolerance running chemical plants).

While in New Zealand, I took a bit of a "You only live once attitude". Though you have read about most of them already, here are the Top 3 things that Steve Did In NZ that his mom would not approve of:

1) Jet Boating with Brendon - Norma would have worried about me jet-boating, even if I were riding with a sensible driver. However, riding in Brendon's boat takes things to a whole new level. The warning to "Keep your arms inside the boat" is quite literal. If anyone would have allowed any appendages to venture out of the boat, they would have lost them. Brendon liked to show off his talent of bringing our boat, traveling at ~60 mph, within 6 inches of immovable obstacles. It was a blast!!!

2)Taking a 9-passenger plane over a mountain range and landing on a short strip surrounded by cliffs. To be honest, I question what I was thinking. As we cascaded over the final mountain range to land, we hit some turbulence, and I white-knuckled the seat in front of me to the point that I almost ripped the fabric. Luckily, the flight back was smoother, and the beautiful scenery made it all worth it.

1) Bungy jumping - I initially thought about doing it (AJ Hackett outside of Queenstown is the birthplace of bungy), but then was ready to let it rest because they couldn't fit me into their schedule the afternoon we went out to watch. However, my loving wife spouted off that if we ever made it back to New Zealand, I would be "too old" to do it. So, I booked immediately for the following morning before our flight back to Sydney. The video below is the documented proof. An Asian tour bus pulled up just before I jumped. You can hear several of them gasp when I jump.

Millford Sound

Sorry for the long hiatus. Work has been busy, and Rachel had me cleaning house at night in preparation of our first non-parent visitors. Laddy, Amy and Mark came up and spent the weekend with us. It was a blast. I'll blog on that visit later.

Back to New Zealand...



After visiting Deer Park Heights in the morning, Tim, Liz, Rachel and I flew to Millford Sound on a 9-passenger prop plane. The options were take a 45 minute flight on a plane the size of Rachel's Prelude, or drive 5 hours each way to see the sound. Many people, and we now agree, think that Millford Sound may be the most beautiful place they have ever seen.

Here is a shot that shows how small the inside of the plane is. The flight over was NOT smooth when we went over the last set of mountains. Tim had to pry my white knuckles from the seat in front of me once we landed. I WAS SCARED!!!






Takeoff... Notice that the engine sounds like we are flying in a 3-horsepower weedeater.


The scenery from the air.


This is the video of the landing at Millford Sound. The video cannot do it justice. We were surrounded by 8,000+ foot tall cliffs on 3 sides. We actually flew in at 12,000 feet and then circled inside the sound to drop altitude to allow this landing.


Once we landed, we took a cruise of the sound. This is a great shot of Tim on the back of the boat with a waterfall and the New Zealand flag in the background.

This is a shot of the girls from the back of the boat, with Millford Sound in the background. Millford Sound is actually not a "sound" but a "fiord". A "sound" is cut by a river, while a "fiord" is cut by a glacier. Millford Sound was actually cut by a glacier.






This is a video of a waterfall close up.


The boat captain told us he was going to get close to the waterfall. He was quite literal.


This is a video of one of the other waterfalls in the fiord.


The cruise took us all the way to where the fiord empties into the ocean. When we got within view of the ocean, a group of dolphins joined our boat. I was able to get a little footage of them.


Following the cruise, we took the 45 minute flight back to Queenstown. We actually landed on a grass runway. That was pretty cool. Luckily, the flight back was much smoother than the one over.



Below are several pictures from the flight and cruise. My favorite is the shot we got of the glacier lake on top of the mountain. It is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. You can click on the pictures to make them larger.

Also, there is a picture of several seals sunbathing on top of a large rock. I am interested in theories that any of you might have on how these seals got on top of the rock. Hint: It is not the tide, as the tide lines were evident on the rock and were much lower.









































Reflections - Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs



I'm not sure I can really add much commentary... the sign says it all.


I wonder if this sign could pass the truth in advertising requirements in the United States? It sure passed the "funny enough to be in a picture" test.
















Tim and Liz, this sign is for you.