Down Under Done

Quite pleased to write we have completed the Aussie leg!  I may have been annoyed with the wind, hills and irritating flies a lot of the time but on the whole it was good times in Australia.  By far the best country to camp in I think as it was always fairly easy and the spots we found were good. 

We continued along the Princes Highway from Melbourne before detouring north along the Monaro Highway towards Kosciuszko National Park.  Very pleased we did this as Mount Kosciuszko has always been on my hit list for mountains to tag.  Depending on who you ask, it is deemed one of the 7 summits although if you ask me, I wouldn’t say so.  I side with the list that has Puncak Jaya in New Guinea which covers Oceania.  Anyway, as expected, lots of uphill getting there but it wasn’t so bad.  Although some of the gradients we had to climb were reminiscent of the hills in Laos.

From there we continued to the nation’s capital Canberra and then onward to Sydney via the Southern Highlands.  Some random facts I learned while cycling through the Southern Highlands include: Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have a home in Sutton Forest and the movie Babe was filmed in Robertson. 

The weather wasn’t always great as we got rained on a number of times and Trevor complained about being cold at times.  Typical Trevor.  I welcomed a bit of coldness after the constant heat throughout Australia.  Trevor also fretted a lot about the wet weather we will most likely see in New Zealand.  We spoke with a number of Aussies who said the weather will likely be wet and not in our favour.  Oh joy.         

We arrived in Sydney about 6 days ago and have explored the city on the bikes.  Trevor is not a fan.  I like it. 

Trevor’s rating of the Australian states we cycled through discounting Australian Capital Territory goes as follows from best to worst: Western Australia, Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales.  He really didn’t like New South Wales with the hills and weather.  His capital cities ratings go as follows: Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra, Sydney.  And his top 3 highlights in Australia were crossing the Nullarbor, seeing koalas and climbing up Mount Kosciuszko. 

My ratings of the Australian states were Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia.  My capital cities from best to worst: Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra.  I like big cities and have always wanted to see Sydney so unlike Trevor it gets my top spot.  Finally my top 3 highlights were seeing koalas, climbing Mount Kosciuszko and seeing the Opera House in Sydney. 

We are currently waiting at the airport in Sydney and will fly off to Christchurch tomorrow morning.  Bring on the unpredictable, wet weather in New Zealand!  

Trying to stay dry in Victoria with the wet weather.  We got drenched on a few occasions this being one of them.  Going off topic here I must say another good thing about Australia is their free BBQ’s.  We didn’t use them all the time but they did come in handy every now and then. 

The people of Australia are very generous.  For example, we had an offer from a stranger for us to stay on their farm and camp.  In this one particular town called Cann River many people stopped and chatted with us while we rested up.  One lady gave us $10!  Her daughter cycled from Cairns to Sydney a while back and she said many people were very nice to her daughter en route so she is returning the favour and helping us out.  Very kind of her indeed.

Going up Mount Kosciuszko we saw many kangaroos and wallabies.  At this one place we camped at they weren’t very fearful of humans as they usually are when they see us coming.  These roos got quite close. 

Me at the highest point in Australia where you can ride your bicycle.  Most of the way up the mountain was on paved road.  The last 8km from Charlotte’s Pass was on gravel road.  From Rawson’s Pass there was still 128m to climb so we scrambled up the rest.   

Mount Kosciuszko conquered!  Super windy but nice views.  

Spent a day in Canberra.  I checked out Parliament and a few other sights.  Not so big on Canberra as it is just another government city with lots of monuments and statues.  Gets dull rather quickly. 

The War Memorial in Canberra.  I did enjoy their war museum as it had lots of interesting photos from the wars Australians fought in back in the day. 

Fitzroy Falls.  The first of three waterfalls we checked out in the Southern Highlands.  Trevor was reluctant to do so but since we had more than enough time to get to Sydney we went out of our way to see them all.  They were okay but I think I was more impressed with some of the lookouts we saw with stellar views of the countryside. 

Getting to Belmore Falls we were met with a flooded path.  Trevor enjoyed this crossing more so than seeing the waterfall.  Actually he wasn’t even bothered to see the waterfall when we got there.  He had a peak at the Fitzroy Falls and that was enough for him.

The Sea Cliff Bridge along the coast heading for Sydney.  Some fine road engineering work.  Trevor though applauds China for the most impressive roadwork he has seen thus far.  Back on our first day in China when we were hit by a snow storm we cycled along a pretty impressive bridge that kept rising and had a tunnel.  Shame we couldn’t really see it very well in the snow. 

At Bondi Beach!  Trevor of course took a dip as did I.  Getting here we discovered that Sydney is quite hilly.  And the hills go straight up only to go straight down.

The end of the Aussie leg!  Finally I see the Sydney Opera House.  Quite impressive.  

After crossing the Harbour Bridge Trevor goes into one of his many rants about Sydney.  He did not like the flow of the city in that things are jumbled.  He also did not like the constant red lights and mental mosquitoes that attacked us every night at our camp spot near the airport.   

The Anzac Bridge from the Fish Market.  I was kind of disappointed with their fish market as I expected a lot of hustle and bustle much like I found it in Tokyo and London.  Maybe I was there on the wrong day or there at the wrong time but it wasn’t anything great in my view.  Although I guess all that hustle and bustle I was looking for happens early morning behind the scenes in which one has to pay to get on a tour to see.

Sydney Harbour.  A sight to see.

Someone is having a bad hair day.  I had a shower at the airport this morning and I have noticed every time I shower my hair becomes puffy and fro’s up big time.  Not sure why it does this.  Trevor’s hair doesn’t do that.  I refuse to cut it as I want to let it keep growing until this trip is over and continue to look like a bum.