Abel Tasman

 This morning we took a water taxi from Marahau out to the Abel Tasman National Park and were dropped off in Bark Bay.  We then hiked 21 km back out along the Abel Tasman Coast Track to our car.  We took a short cut across Torrent Bay at low tide only to find out that there was still a river running through the bay, which Laura can be seen crossing in the picture.  It was a great hike.

Marlborough

 After skiing we drove up to the Northern end of the South Island.  We saw this fur seal along the way and we stopped in the Marlborough wine region to taste some wine.  This picture is from Cloudy Bay winery.  Try their Sauvignon Blanc or Te Koko Sauvignon which are both exported to the states.

Ice Skate NZ

 

Another day on the Mt Hutt ski fields, we were both a tad sore from yesterday.  It may have had something to do with not skiing for 15 months.  Or maybe it was the spills Laura and I took while skiing yesterday.  We awoke early to try and make the first chair in the morning.  We were close, they had only been running for one half an hour by the time we skied into the lift lines.  Our hope was that after grooming the snow would be a nice mix of the new snow from yesterday and some machine groomed granular (east coast slang for chopped up ice.)  It turned out that the winds had blown most of the snow away, but at least there was little wind in the morning and the skiing was pretty good if you picked your lines correctly. 

After lunch, things turned a bit nasty, the wind really picked up and this scored off the layer of snow leaving some icy patches.  Not to mention that the snow whipped up in the wind was painful on your face and cold.  We called it quits a bit after 3pm and headed back down the mountain towards the warm fire at the lodge and a hot cup of tea and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.  One cool thing about Mt Hutt is they have an electric pass system, which logs how many times you ride up each lift.  On their web site you can check the meters you have skied, we logged 15,288 meters over 2 days.

Ski New Zealand

We were living the dream today...my dream at least.  For a long while now I have wanted to go skiing in New Zealand, not exactly sure why, but it has always intrigued me.  We flew into Christchurch yesterday from Sydney and drove up to Methvan last night.  This morning we rented skies and boots from town, Laura lucked out and received brand new Volkl Tierras for her rentals, and headed for the mountain.  It was an 25K drive up from the Canterbury plains, once we hit the mountain road, we had to chain up because it was snowing.   They had a nice set up, you give them the rental fee and they put the chains on for you.  No fussing in the wet mud with cold chains.

To get to Mt Hutt we had to drive 14km up a steep and twisty road with shear drops on the edges and no guard rails.  We were happy to make the parking lot at the end.  I will let the pictures speak for the mountain and the skiing.  There were no crowds on the slopes and the morning snowfall provided a nice cover over the hard-pack underneath.  Mt Hutt is the highest ski slope in the Southern Alps and had decent coverage for this early in the season.  There is some really awesome expert terrain that needed some more snow and I will have to wait for next time to experience these chutes.

Sydney

On our way out of Australia and on to New Zealand, we spent the weekend with Laura's high school friend Scott and his fiancee Lyo.

We arrived on Friday afternoon having just returned from our diving trip, spending the night at our friend Paul's place and trying to hand off our car and pick up our deposit from our house. Needless to say, we still had a few errands to run by the time we arrived to Sydney. Once we were done we met up with Scott. We went to a cool little place for drinks and for dinner and he took us to a very authentic Korean restaurant. We weren't quite sure what we were ordering, but it was delicious. After wandering around the city a bit, we took the train out to their house.

They live in this really cool little town, Stanwell Park, right on the ocean 1 hour south of Sydney. So Saturday morning we had breakfast at a restaurant down the street. We took the scenic route back, walking along the ocean. Rough life. Matt and Lyo relaxed while Laura and Scott did the marketing for the night's dinner. Later in the day we went on a great hike along the cliffs. We had some snacks along the way to keep us fueled, but the real treat was dinner that night once we returned.

Scott grilled shrimp on the barbie, which tasted phenomenal. The main of the evening was lamb. Always a good choice. Sadly we had to get up early to catch our flight to New Zealand so it was a quick visit.

Lady Elliott Island: Snorkeling

We finally received a nice sunny day on the island today.  It was warm in the sunshine and we could revert back to shorts and t-shirts.  We donned our wetsuits and went for a snorkel on the West side of the island.  Our swim started at the lighthouse and we drifted along 2nd reef with the current to coral gardens.  I decided my favorite fish were the Parrot fish; they come in a variety of colors and are neat to watch as they chew on the reef.  Another favorite were schools of these little blue/green fish that changed colors depending on how the sun hit them.

After a brief rest and cup of tea we headed out to snorkel in the lagoon on the East side of the island.  You can only snorkel here for a couple hours on each side of high tide because it is so shallow.  The best way to define the area is it is like being in a fish tank.  You are so close to everything you can reach out and touch the fish.  We were lucky to come across a group of about 6 green sea turtles who were feasting on the diced jellyfish coming in across the reef on the tide (they get broken up by the wave action on the reef.)  We spent the rest of the afternoon reading on the beach, until it was time for our plane back to the mainland.  Our evening turned into quite an adventure as we drove back to Yeppoon and tried to find our friend Paul at whose apartment we were planning to stay the night.  He had had lost his phone and the intercom in his building was broken, we finally managed to get a hold of him by climbing up a wall next to his apt. and throwing wood chips at his windows.

Lady Elliot Island: Diving Day 2

This morning we were greeted by a rainbow in the sky and sunshine.  The wind had died down a touch and it looked like we were going to have a nice day.  At the dive shop we geared up and loaded on the transport trailer to the beach.  We went out to the Severance wreck this morning.  It is a 10 meter sailboat that ran aground on the reef and was towed out to its present location to create an artificial reef.  There was a swift current out here and we had to hold tight to the mooring line as we descended to 22 meters to check out the wreck.  Once on the bottom, there still was a swift current and we carefully moved around the wreck.  Having had our fill of the Severance and the current we headed off along the bottom towards Three Pyramids.  We had used up a good amount of air by the time we got here because of the extra work swimming and the depth, so this would be a shorter dive.  There was a large Bull Ray guarding the Pyramids as well as a black tipped reef shark and we spotted a small colorful lobster hiding in the coral. 

After a quick shower to warm up, I snuck out to the east island lagoon for some snorkeling.  Others on the island were raving about the sea life out here so I had to see it for myself.  I will tell you all about it in tomorrow’s blog. 

For our afternoon dive we went out onto the reef at the Lighthouse Bommie and drifted North with the current on the Western reefs.  One of the divers in the group was having a little trouble getting equalized on the decent, so Laura and I became intimately acquainted with an anemone and its clown fish while we waited.   We saw more of the same fish and coral we had seen over the last few dives, but it still was amazing to look upon. 

Lady Elliott Island: Diving

This trip had been planned exclusively to get more diving in on the Great Barrier Reef here in Australia.  As Laura does not like being on a boat for very long, we chose Lady Elliot Island because, although you dive from a boat you gear up on land and are shuttled back to shore as soon as the dive is over.  If we had gone north to Townsville or Cains, we would have to been on an overnight boat trip to dive on the reef up there. 

We meet at the dive shop at 7:30 AM to get our gear picked out and put together.  It was still very windy, so we were headed to the leeward side of the island for calmer seas.  We were told that in the winter the ocean is often like glass on the leeward side.  Not so today, but that doesn’t matter once you are under the water.  Once in the water, I had a slight mishap of not having enough weight on me and I could not sink.  I added a weight to my BCD and we were off.  We dove today along second reef and swam along with the current along the reef.  Laura and I quickly remembered how to keep ourselves off the coral in neutral buoyancy and we were able to enjoy the sea life.  We both agreed the fish were more colorful here than we had seen off the Keppel islands.  Visibility was 15-20 meters and the highlights included a reef shark, huge sea cucumbers, a blue starfish and schools of tiny blue and purple shimmering fish.

Back on land we took hot showers to rinse off and warm up, and then we relaxed with our morning tea and books while waiting for the afternoon dive.

We headed out to Mauri Wrasse on the North-West side the island for our afternoon dive.  The current was heading south, so we drifted with it through arches down to second reef.  Laura and I both really enjoyed this dive; we were used to being underwater and could really concentrate on the sealife.  We saw a huge grouper tucked away inside an arch, lots of turtles (green and loggerhead) a few which allowed us to scratch their backs and numerous schools of colorful fish.

Lady Elliott Island

Today was a busy day that saw us packing up and leaving our home in Rockhampton and ending up on a secluded island on the Great Barrier Reef.  In the morning we put the final touches on moving out of the house.  We left a few things under the house for the Salvation Army to pick up and tried to get our checked bags as close to 23 kg as we could.  I may end up paying a weight penalty at the airport when we fly out on Friday.  We packed everything we had left into the car and stopped at a friend’s house to give him some of the useful stuff.  The rest was bound for the Salvo or a trash bin.  With the car emptied of all but the bags we were going to be taking home with us, we took off to Bundaberg.  Unfortunately the plane to Lady Elliot Island doesn’t fly out of Rocky. 

After a 3 hour drive we were at the airport with plenty of time to spare.  We checked in our small bags for the trip and relaxed in the airport.  The airport was very small no security checks and the pilot came to the gate to get us for our flight.  It was a small plane only 11 seats, every one had a great window view out both sides.  We saw a couple whales on the approach to the island and the pilot circled them once so we could watch them for a bit.  Things were very windy as we approached the grass runway, we had never been in a plane that approached the landing sideways, but the pilot knew his stuff and we had a relatively soft landing.

 The island hostess took us on a quick tour and then showed us to our Eco-tent, which although comfy was a loud place to sleep with the wind whipping all night long.   We signed up for diving the next day and played a lousy game of pool before grabbing dinner and hitting the hay.

45 Degrees

Early this morning I went out for my last Tuesday morning group ride with the cycling club here in Rockhampton. It was bloody cold this AM, 7.1 degrees Celsius, although this allowed me to wear some of the cold weather cycling clothes that I hauled all the way over here. Who would have know the tropics get this cold. We had a solid 60K ride and I was able to enjoy the sun coming up one last time. I will be packing up the bikes Thursday and they will begin their journey back to the states on Friday. I had a great time cycling in Rocky, the highlight was definitely the track riding and I will not soon forget the experience. My next scheduled race will be in Long beach in July, but maybe Laura and I will do a little riding while we are traveling in New Zealand.