DJ-RTW's Travel Blog

Crystal Cascades - Cairns, Australia

 This place was Great visited Mar 18, 2008

We chose to fly into Cairns as our first stop in Australia because of its proximity to the Great Barrier Reef. We also knew that the area, surrounded by a tropical rain forest as well as the ocean, would provide us with an exceptional look at wildlife. We only stayed a couple of days but were lucky to have our campground situated in the middle of a rain forest. We were amazed at the number of exotic birds spotted in a very short amount of time. We walked to the Crystal Cascades where the water was quite high due to all of the rain the area has received in the last month. It made for great photo opportunities and a very refreshing walk.

posted Mar 31, 2008 | Comments (0)

Another city..... - Auckland, New Zealand

 This place was Average visited Mar 15, 2008

The most important attraction for us in this big city was the Auckland Museum as it has a pretty good exhibit on Maori arts and crafts. It turned out to be less impressive than what we had seen in Wellington but, still, the carvings and fabrics where truly beautiful. The waterfront is quite disappointing with just a few shops and restaurants but not much easy access to the harbor or fish market…so we went out of town where city cannot compete with country. We visited a black volcanic sand beach, spoke with a public health guy collecting mussels to test them for toxicity and watched gannets flying over their bird colony high on a secluded rock outcrop.

posted Mar 31, 2008 | Comments (0)

Thermal pools & birds of all kinds - Rotorua, New Zealand

 This place was Average visited Mar 12, 2008

Rotorua is known for its thermal pools in and around the city and the smell of rotten eggs/sulphur greets you almost as soon as you arrive. We walked around a fairly large park where nothing can be built because of the over-ground and underground thermal activity. The Rotorua Museum is located in a beautiful, old bath house built in 1906 to offer well-to-do guests a luxurious place in which to take ‘the cure’. The Rainbow Springs Park provides the opportunity, through its Kiwi Encounter, to see the elusive, nocturnal birds during the day (in a especially-lit enclosure) or in the evening (in an outdoor enclosure). We visited the park three times: first to see many different species of birds and fish, the second to see the kiwis in the evening and the third to see the kiwis that had recently hatched in the nursery. We adopted a kiwi by the name of Blue Gum (named so because of a blue tinge to its egg) and are now doing our bit to try to save the iconic bird from extinction (85% of eggs laid in the wild are killed by predators, that’s why the Kiwi Encounter program intervenes and hatches the eggs and raises the birds until they are one year old). Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take photos of live Kiwis so the only ones we have were of the stuffed variety on display.

posted Mar 31, 2008 | Comments (0)

The Forgotten World Highway - Taranaki, New Zealand

 This place was Average visited Mar 11, 2008

Home of the HUKA Prawn Park! Well, we didn’t go but the brochure and the billboards just made mentioning it worthwhile (see photo). what is interesting about the prawns here is that their forearms (or whatever those things are called) are blue. They taste good too but are much cheaper bought at the local grocery store. The Forgotten World Highway honors the Lord of the Rings movies produced by New Zealander Peter Jackson, which we’ve yet to see. Apparently the movies’ successes at the box office have fueled a tourism boom with many travelers retracing the steps of the characters through mountains, valleys and forests all over the two islands. There were many other-wordly locations, so you can understand the attraction, and now we want to see the movies to see the scenery (rather than the normal, other way around).

posted Mar 31, 2008 | Comments (0)

Visiting a friend at culinary school - New Plymouth, New Zealand

 This place was Great visited Mar 10, 2008

Our original plans did not involve travelling to the west coast of North Island, but we wanted to see our friend Goonjan who is studying culinary arts there. New Plymouth is a really cute little town with many shops and restaurants on its main street, beautiful ocean-side beaches and parks, and a well-situated college on top of a hill overlooking the town with ocean views. Nearby, is a beautiful volcano surrounded by farms and ranchlands. The drive there was quite nice although we were surprised at how much more the North Island is developed than the South Island. All land appears to have been cleared for farming or ranching and what is left of the forests is dedicated to logging.

posted Mar 31, 2008 | Comments (0)