Queenstown is the Southern Hemisphere’s premier four season lake and alpine resort. Surrounded by majestic mountains and nestled on the shores of crystal clear Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown’s stunning scenery is inspiring and revitalizing. With such a huge range of activities in Queenstown, no two days will ever be the same.

– Destination Qeenstown

Queenstown is the place to go for all sorts of activities – skiing, kayaking, rafting, four wheeling, jet boating, paragliding, skydiving, and the list goes on and on. Arguably, it is most famous for its bungy (or bunjee) jumping history playing home to the original setup at the Kawarau bridge as well as the world’s third highest bungy setup (134 meters/440 feet) at Nevis canyon. I decided to give the later one a try and left Te Anau for a quick couple hour drive to Queenstown. In addition to Merle (one of German hitchhikers I picked up on the way to Te Anau), Andi and Fishy from Borneo joined us for the ride and after dropping them off at their hostels, I settled into Adventure Queenstown.

Nevis Bungy Jump

Next morning, I showed up at the AJ Hackett store half an hour before my departure time, got weighted and hung around until the mini bus picked us up. It took us about 40 minutes to reach the Nevis canyon and I wished I would of brought my headphones with me as there was no music on the bus to help kill the time. I was not sure if I could bring my daypack with me with some food and water since there was not much information about the actual jump site. As it turned out, they had another building set up there (with $1 lockers) in addition to the suspended platform from which we were to jump.

With our safety harness on, we got weighted again, and off we went to the platform with three other guys. I was the lucky first one to jump and kept expecting to get a briefing on what to do, but the only instructions we were given is how to pull the cord that would put us in a sitting position for the ride back up and to do a belly flop when we jump. That’s it… Still a bit confused, I was walked over to the edge of the platform and before I could thing of anything, they started counting down 3… 2… 1… and I figured it was too late to ask any questions anyway so off I went.

The free fall lasts about eight seconds so before my brain could really register what happened, I was already on the way up. So, unlike skydiving, I really do not have a conscious recollection of what happened or how I felt when I rushing towards the ground. The ride back up took a bit longer and only at that point did I really start feeling queazy looking down, but soon I was being pulled back onto the platform and it was all over. I guess I would have to try the highest bungy in Maccau at twice the height of Nevis…

Back at the shop, I got my photos and video DVD and was a bit surprised to see a pretty low quality and resolution video. With most other activities producing full 1080p material, $80 for this felt as a bit of a rip off. On the positive note, they had a few desktops available for use while waiting for the minibus ride back to town, so I was able to upload one of the pictures to Facebook before leaving.

Big Al @ Fergburger

Another staple of Queenstown is the Fergburger burger joint. The Big Al burger is the one to be had and it was definitely the most delicious burger of all I have had. It did come at a steep $17 price and an hour or so wait (for a burger!). While waiting for it, I strolled around town for a bit with my new dorm mates and it definitely had a tourist trap feeling to it, albeit a nice one (think Aspen, not WIsconsin Dells).

Big Al

Te Anau To Milford Sound

We decided to go for the first sailing at 9am to avoid the hordes of tourist buses that get there for 11am and 1pm cruises. Even though Milford Sound is just over 100km away from Te Anau, our drive took us two hours through the mountainous terrain. While on the way, the weather did not look promising with low overcast turning into dense fog up high, but we pressed on. We made a quick stop at the Mirror Lake (more of a pond) to snap a few pictures of mountainous reflections before the ducks distorted the surface.

Morning mountains reflected in the Mirror Lake

Real Journeys Cruise

Getting there about forty minutes before our departure left us a bit of time to wonder around the cruise terminal. There were about five different companies operating the cruises with Mitre Peak having the smallest boat and departing first. The Real Journeys boats are the biggest, theoretically fitting up to 416 people, but we had about 60 for our morning departure. With two decks of seating plus a deck below and an observation deck above, there was plenty of space. Coffee and tea were provided free of charge as well as some good commentary by the captain throughout the cruise. This is another benefit of the early cruise – the only commentary was in English while they have up to five different commentaries going in different languages during the day for all the tourist busses.

Milford Sound

The weather improved only a bit so we were still dealing with a pretty low overcast, which is actually the norm for the sound. A few curious facts mentioned by the captain:

• Milford Sound is 15 kilometers/9.5 miles long and up to 327 meters/1000 feet deep
• At the narrower passage, the winds may reach up to 180 kilometers per hour/111 miles per hour
• Twenty separate ice ages have carved out the Milford Sound

Going Home

On the way back, the weather improved quite a bit so we were able to stop at a few more look out spots, walk around at Chasm to see some cool rock carvings made by the river, and hike around to lake Gunn. Something to consider for the future is that there is absolutely no food, drinks, gas stations, or ATMs between Milford Sound and Te Anau so we were quite hungry and thirsty by the time we got back. We also stopped at the Mirror Lake again, but the reflections were not nearly as impressive as they were in the morning.

Very green forest on the way to Lake Gunn

Riding Penny-Farthing Bicycle

An article in JetStar Airways’ magazine caught my attention on the recent flight from Cairns to Sydney. It mentioned the historic east coast town of Oamaru and one of the activities that I have yet to do – riding the original (penny-farthing) bicycle. I have exchanged a few emails with Faye at the Oamaru Heritage Trust and she was kind enough to arrange the ride for me on the short notice. Wendy from Oamaru Cycle Works was patiently waiting for me and we lost no time giving it a go. She proceeded to explain the proper way of getting onto the bike, but being so tall, I was able to cheat out of that challenge. Riding the bike was an even bigger challenge thou, especially making turns. Since the front wheel is being turned directly by the attached pedals (no gears or anything), when it is turned using the handles, it amplifies the torque imbalance at slow speeds. Somehow, I managed to ride it around the parking lot without making too big of a fool out of myself before checking out the shop where they restore the bikes. Wendy also told me that they participate in yearly rides with other enthusiasts, covering more than 200 kilometers! Crazy…

Moeraki Boulders

I wandered around the historic downtown Oamaru for a bit before continuing further south to the next stop mentioned by the JetStar magazine’s article – Moeraki Boulders at a beach just north of the town of the same name. These are essentially round stone balls of various sizes scattered around the beach in that area with no apparent explanation of their origin. Luckily, I was there at the best time to see them during the low tide (early evening) so there were a bunch of them out of the water. There were clear signs off the highway 1 with a small gift shop and cafe setup at the top of the cliff, with a deposit box asking for $2 set up next to the staircase leading to the beach.

Speight’s Brewery Tour

Being the number one attraction in Dunedin, Speight’s Brewery tour requires advanced reservations, so it was my pacing item for this trip. I got to the Central Backpackers hostel in downtown Dunedin with just enough time to drop off my bags and walk over to the brewery. Interestingly, the brewery set up uses seven floors of the building and employs gravity, rather than any machinery, to move the brew through its various stages, starting with the raw ingredients at floor 7. Even more impressive is their dedication to employees, with a bar set up on each floor so they do not have go far for a fix. The tour itself started out with a lame promo movie improved upon by the brief history of beer. Starting with the Egyptian times, it ended with the recount of the first beer brewed in New Zealand in 1773 by none other than Captain Cook himself in to help prevent the development of scurvy among his crew. In the end, it turned out to be on of the best brewery tours I have been on, climaxed with essentially unlimited samples of six different brews. I did not really care for the ‘original’ Speight’s Golden Ale, but I was pleasantly surprised by the Distinction – their darker brew.

Otago Peninsula

Next morning, I drove out to the eastern most tip of Otago peninsula, mostly to check out the views of Macandrew Bay. At the end of the drive, there is the largest albatross colony in the world and, as with other wildlife colonies, it was not free to enter. Still, there were plenty of birds everywhere and I pretty happy to escape unpooped on. Driving back on the other side of peninsula, and mostly at higher altitude, I was treated to a much less crowded drive and some very astonishing views of the coastline at the Boulder Beach.

Steepest Street

Baldwin street in North Dunedin boasts the title of the steepest street in the world with its 1:2.86 grade at the steepest part (that is 20.5 degrees incline for the rest of us). Of course, I had to check it out and the round trip up and down the street turned out to be quite a workout for my legs, which were still recovering from the full day of driving the day before.

Brighton Beach

Leaving Dunedin for Te Anau, I followed the scenic route that took me to the Brighton beach. The views there were spectacular and I will leave it at that.

Mandeville Airport Museum

After having some late lunch, I realized that I would not be able to continue following the scenic drive along the coast to reach Te Anau in the evening, so I turned inland, passed Gore, and stopped just outside the town of Madeville to check out an aviation museum there. The airport turned out to be just a grass field with a cafe, a museum in one of the hangars, and a restoration shop. Even though I got there late, the lady at the cafe handed me the key to the hangar and wondered around for a bit checking out a bunch of Tiger Moths with a few other vintage craft. At the restoration shop, they were working on the original 1936 Staggerwing, already three years in the works, it should be ready for prime time by next winter. As it turned out, the field plays home to the annual fly that just happened to be this coming weekend so I plan on returning to check that out if the weather cooperates on Saturday.

Aoraki / Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand, reaching 3,754 metres (12,316 ft). It lies in the Southern Alps, the mountain range which runs the length of the South Island. A popular tourist destination, it is also a favourite challenge for mountain climbers.

– TravelWiki

After spending the night at Lake Wanaka, it was time to head out to Mt. Cook just an hour or so away. But first, I had to finish up the ‘touristy’ itinerary at Lake Wanaka by visiting the Church of Good Shepherd and the Collie dog statue. Together, these two are claimed to be the most photographed landmarks in all of New Zealand and the number of tour buses already there seemed to substantiate that claim. Next, I decided to drive up to the top of Mt. John nearby to check out the view from the observatory located there. The clouds that looked so awesome last night making their way over the mountains have already covered most of the valley around Mt. John, so there was not much to see from the top so I just hiked up to the lonely bench placed at one of the peaks.

Pondering things at the top of Mt. John

Alpine Salmon Farm

After tasting some of Rakaia salmon, I wanted to see if the alpine salmon would be any different so I got off the main road a detour to the local farm. As I got there, they just got a new batch of salmon in and were processing it so the lady told me I have about 15 minutes to walk around before I can come back to enjoy some fresh sashimi. I took that as the permission to go check out the farm’s set up, but soon after I entered, I got called back, rather harshly, by one of the workers because they were doing some maintenance there and did not want people to walk around. That tone ticked me off and I left without any salmon, instead enjoying a chicken sandwich I had with me while overlooking lake Pukaki.

Salmon farm

Sir Edmund Hillary Center and Tasman Glacier

An hour and a half later, I have finally arrived to Mount Cook Village near the base of Mt. Cook. There, none of the mountains surrounding the village were visible because of the low clouds and rain – it was not a good sign. Checking into the YHA hostel there, I met Juho, a Finish dorm mate of mine. We decided to try to make the best of the day by first checking out museum dedicated to Sir Edmund Hillary at the nearby Hermitage hotel. Hillary was knighted for leading the first expedition to reach the top of Everest, for which he trained at Mt. Cook. Finished with the museum, we headed out to see the Tasman glacier – the biggest in New Zealand. While it was cool to see some icebergs floating in the lake, the glacier did not look very impressive from afar and I felt glad that I did not end up taking one of the $140 boat tours of the lake as it would not have been worth that.

Hooker Valley Trail

Next, we decided to walk along the Hooker Valley Trail that goes to the Hooker Glacier lake, at the bottom of Mt. Cook. It is advertised as a day hike, lasting about four hours round trip. Instead, we did it in about two and a half hours, while getting completely drenched with rain and unsuccessfully trying to dodge some portions of the trail that were flooded. Once we finally made it to the end, we could see the glacier, but that was about it. Sadly, we could not even see the bottom of Mt. Cook. On the way back, with our hands frozen and water slushing in our shoes, all we could think about was the sauna that was waiting for us back at the hostel. It probably goes without saying, but the next morning weather improved quite a bit and was forecasted to clear up by the afternoon. Unfortunately, I had to press on with my journey to Otago peninsula without actually catching a glimpse of Mt. Cook.

Returning from the Hooker trail - weather getting better already

Rakaia – Salmon Capital of New Zealand

About an hour south of Christchurch is a small town of Rakaia known for its salmon industry and the longest bridge in New Zealand spanning 1.8 km/1.1 mi over Rakaia river. While it sounded impressive, the bridge itself was just a couple of meters above the ground and, with the river bed mostly dried up, it really was not as awesome as I thought it would be. On the other hand, the Salmon World did not disappoint. While I did not check out the exhibits (they even have a 4D movie theater), I did grab a salmon-cream cheese panini for lunch as well as some smoked salmon to pair up with some Byron Bay’s cheese and crackers later.

Can you spot the longest bridge?

RNZAF Museum At Ashburton

Just over half an hour south of Rakaia is a town of Ashburton, home to one of the Air Force training strips during World War II. The airport is still bustling with general aviation activity and there is a museum set up in couple of its hangars, which was where I was headed. While not free ($5) and not as impressive as the Wigram museum in Christchurch, it did have a nice collection featuring another Skyhawk and a Harrier, both well maintained with the potential of flying one day (all avionics have been removed). There were also a few funky agriculture spraying aircraft as well as DH 104 Devon which was designated as the spares aircraft by the RNZAF as soon as they received it so even though it is over 50 years old, it only has 17.5 hours on its Hobbs meter.

The Mighty Harrier

Lake Tekapo

Not far from Mt. Cook – New Zealand’s highest peak – Lake Tekapo makes for a nice overnight stop on the way from Christchurch to Queenstown. Leaving the Canterbury plains behind, I decided to head that way to check out the area before heading over to Mt. Cook. With my hostel located a short walk over the open lawn to the lake, the views were simply amazing. The lake by itself, surrounded by the mountains, was something, but with the clouds slowly rolling in and over the the mountains, pouring down the valleys, it was simply unreal. Unfortunately, there was just a bit too much of cloud cover so the lighting for the pictures was not the greatest. Oh well, the experience was worth it – visiting the Church of Good Shepherd, the Collie Memorial, and having a nice dinner of Byron’s Bay cheese and crackers, Rakaia smoked salmon, all paired with local wine and chocolate. Off to Mt. Cook tomorrow!

Lake Tekapo

This vibrant, picturesque city is surrounded by natural wonders – the sparkling Pacific Ocean, majestic Southern Alps and an ancient volcanic peninsula. Discover Canterbury’s lush vineyards, pristine glacial lakes, world-class natural wildlife experiences and Mount Cook National Park – all part of this region of remarkable contrasts.

– Christchurch & Canterbury Tourism

Christchurch is still very much in the disaster cleanup mode with the downtown hit by the quake being completely fenced off and many homes and businesses in surrounding areas vacated as well. Still, they are trying to get through it. One interesting area located near the downtown is now called Re:Start where a bunch of small shops and cafes have been setup using shipping containers. Besides being practical, it has a unique feel to it, not to mention, free (but pretty slow) WiFi.

Getting A Car

Since I had mixed feelings about my experience with Stray hop-on/hop-off tour of Laos, I decided to see if I can rent a car and do a tour of New Zealand on my own terms rather than paying for another tour with Stray. I ended up spending quite a bit of time walking from one local car rental place to another in the Wairakei Road and Sheffield Circle area, where most of them are located. Finally, I settled on a dated Nissan Bluebird from Bargain Rentals for $30 a day.

Air Force Museum

The first air force base was established right here in Christchurch during the World War I to train pilots for the Royal Air Force. Now, Wigram field is home to the Royal New Zealand Air Force museum so it was a must see in my book, especially considering the admission price – free! It was not a big place with one hall filled with exhibit items and a weird history timeline that ran right to left. The hangar beside it was filled with a bunch of airplanes, including a Skyhawk and a Mustang (not the Cessna kind). For being free, it was a very decent museum, so I grabbed some overpriced food at the cafeteria before deciding to head out to Akaroa.

Trip To Akaroa

Akaroa is the first and the only French settlement in New Zealand dating back to 1850. It seemed to be the place to visit judging by the number of brochures for the day trips from Christchurch. So, off I went to, stopping along the way at places praised in those brochures, first being the old Little River train station turned into craft station with some delicious Boysenberry ice cream. Next on the list was the Hilltop Viewpoint with a decent view of the sound, followed by a quick stop at Byron’s Bay cheese factory. By the time I got to Akaroa, I was craving some Napoleon – it was a French settlement after all. Strangely, I could not find one in town so I had settle down for some fish and chips.

I decided to take the ‘Tourist Route’ on the way back and was definitely a scenic (and a long) one alternating between the views of Akaroa Harbor and Pegasus Bay on the other side. There were a few pull over locations perfect for setting up a camper van for the night – maybe another time… Eventually, I made it back to the main road and made my final stop at Birdings Flat – a tiny town on the southern shore of peninsula with a beach entirely made up of flat stones and huge waves crashing onto it.

Chinese Lantern Festival

Even though the Chinese New Year came and went a few weeks ago, there was a celebration going on at the north side of Hagley park. Staying right next to the park at the YMCA, we went out there one night with my dorm mates to check it out. With a bunch of tents selling ‘authentic’ Chinese fares, it brought back the memories of food stalls in South East Asia, albeit at four times the cost and a quarter of the taste. There was also a stage set up with a band playing reggae while singing in Mandarin – an interesting combination to round up the night.

One of Australia’s most remarkable natural gifts, the Great Barrier Reef is blessed with the breathtaking beauty of the world’s largest coral reef. The reef contains an abundance of marine life and comprises of over 3000 individual reef systems and coral cays and literally hundreds of picturesque tropical islands with some of the worlds most beautiful sun-soaked, golden beaches.

– GreatBarrierReef.org

While it is up for the debate whether the Great Barrier Reef is the best diving place in the world, it is definitely the most famous one. Therefore, when I decided to come to Australia on this trip, diving at the Reef was a must do on my itinerary. Stephen, a couchsurfer I met in San Antonio last year while running one of my five half marathons there, recommended that I look into a three day/two night diving trip to the outer reef with Pro Divers in Cairns. After reading raving reviews, I went ahead and booked the trip with them. While it was not a cheap one at over $600, it included eleven dives, making for a very reasonable $60 per dive price plus meals and accommodation on the boat.

Pro Dive And ScubaPro III

The Pro Dive experience exceeded my expectations in all ways possible. The crew was great providing lots of information and being available anytime we needed something. Accomodations on the boat featured either double beds or bunk beds. My bunk was much bigger than I expected – I could almost lay down flat, save a couple inches and I had a large window with a beautiful view. Facilities were plentiful, clean and spacious. There was a strong culture of safety manifested in many ways throughout the trip (a refreshing experience after three months in Asia). Even the meals were large and plentiful with something served between every single dive. I did bring a few snacks with me just in case, but ended up barely touching them as it seemed that we were always full – also a stark contrast to some of my other ‘all inclusive’ experiences.

Day 1

Pro Dive folks picked everyone up at 6am on Day 1 and shuttled us to their dive shop where we checked in, left our bags, and grabbed our gear. Soon we were on the boat and on the way. It took us good three hours to reach our first dive site – the Wild Side on Milln reef. Our first couple of dives were there and the most exciting thing for me was diving without a dive master for the first time. Still, me and my dive buddies were able to navigate back to the boat, a feat on itself. We did see lots of fish and corals and our first turtle. We then moved the boat to Petaj site, where we dove once in the evening and then went for my first night dive. I actually loved it since it was a lot more relaxing with me and my buddy just taking it slow and exploring the little things. During the evening dive I saw my first reef shark and a few more turtles, while the highlight of the night dive was an octopus (or what we thought was an octopus).

Going down!

Day 2

I did not hear our dive supervisor banging on our door so I almost missed the first dive – I woke up, there was light outside my window, my roommate was gone and I could not hear any voices so I ran out of my room just to find everyone suiting up. I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that my dive buddy had his own underwater camera so we would not need to rent one at steep $35 per dive. We once again dove at Potaj trying to find some sharks, but the visibility was very poor after pretty windy conditions during the night so it was not that exciting. We stayed at Milln reef for the second morning dive at Pleasurville site before moving to Gordon’s Mooring at Flynn reef. Once again, we did the evening and the night dive there and being a shallow site, we were able to see lots of colorful corals and fish, some rays, turtles, and half a dozen reef sharks circling our boat at night.

Flying turtle

Day 3

As we needed to cram in three dives in half a day, we got up at ungodly 5:45am for our first dive briefing. Staying at Gordon’s Mooring, we explored the other part of the reef seeing another ray and a couple more reef sharks before moving to our last site – Boulders, still on Flynn reef. There we had our last two dives with a short cake break in-between. While we did not see anything big there, the site by itself was pretty exciting as there was a decent current underwater. After realizing that we were drifting pretty fast, I signal my buddy to turn around only after about twelve minutes down there and we saw lots of people passing us as we struggled to get back (it got easier as we moved to the shallower part). As it turned out, we were two out of six people that actually made it back to the boat – everyone else surfaced way back behind the boat and had to be picked up by our dingy.

The fishies and The Reef

Final Stats

After doing all eleven dives, I almost doubled the number in my logbook to 25. I spent a grand total of seven hours and five minutes ‘down there’, which averages out to about 38 minutes per dive. This is something I would love to improve on – I am still usually the first one to run out of air with my huge lung capacity (long distance running last year only made it worse as far as diving is concerned). On the positive side, I enjoyed the pace of most of our dives as we were able to slow down and really explore the reef rather than rushing through it. I think my dive times should go up, especially considering the fact that we were using less air than I am used to, starting out at, or a bit below, 200 HPA. But the most important thing is that I had a ton of fun – the dives, the crew, the live-aboard experience – everything seemed to be top notch. Big thanks to Stephen for Pro Dive recommendation!

Skybus Airport Shuttle to Tullamarine

Otherwise well planned Melbourne transportation system fails when it comes to getting to and from its airports. For no apparent reason there are no trains or trams going there so the only choice are the bus shuttles monopolized by Sita at Avalon and Skybus at Tullamarine. Both depart from the Southern Cross station, a major transportation hub in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD. While $20 charged by Sita for an hour ride to Avalon seems more or less reasonable, the $17 charged by Skybus for a 20 minute ride to Tullamarine is pretty outrageous. Also, while Sita uses coach-style buses to go to Avalon, Skybus uses a mix of essentially city busses with luggage racks installed and mini buses for off-peak times. Besides being expensive, the ride was uneventful and we did get to the airport in about 20 minutes.

Virgin Check-in and Tullamarine Airport

Skybus dropped us off at the arrival level of the airport and I found the layout to be a bit confusing with check-in desks located on the third floor, while the gates were on the second floor. The fact that there were no signage for check-in gates on the second floor contributed to my confusion so I went up, then back down, then up again, and then up once more to the third floor. Once again, I was not able to check-in for my flight online because I reserved an exit row seat (at additional cost of course, but I figured it would be worth it on a three hour flight). Unlike JetStar, I was not even able to check-in using the self-service kiosk at the airport so I had to wait in line for the counter. Otherwise, the security lane was empty and soon after I was at gate G2, taking advantage of the free WiFi from the nearby Beachculture store (official airport WiFi is not free).

The Flight

We boarded more or less on time with front half of the aircraft using the jet bridge and the folks seating in the back rows having to go down to the tarmac and then board via stairs at the back of the aircraft, similar to my experience with JetStar so it seems like getting a seat at the front is preferable when traveling in Australia. Inside, the 737-700 looked a bit dated with noticeably older seats and a bit extra more legroom in exit row as compared to JetStar’s A320. Each seat had a small TV built into it just above the tray table with multiple free channels available and a few offering prepaid movies.

Taxi was quick and with no line for takeoff, we were soon off the ground for a three hour flight. Being the LCC, Virgin offers a small menu of snack, sandwiches, and drinks for sale, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that water and coffee were still free. After flying through a few bumps on takeoff, the rest of the flight was smooth. My TV kept flickering so I turned it off while working on the blog and the only other annoying thing I found was the half-arm rest by the exit door.

Getting to Cairns

Surprisingly, there is no public transportation available at the airport per se. The airport is privately managed and only companies that have contracted with them are allowed on the access road so the city buses do not come here. Effectively, people are trapped into using expensive shuttle options or even more expensive taxis. Yey… I had to cough up $12 for a two mile / five minute ride to my hostel on Sun Palm Transport shuttle. As I found out later, a slightly cheaper option is to prebook a shuttle with FNQ Airport Shuttle which ‘only’ costs $10 for one person, $15 for two, and so on.

Lauded for its sense of style and elegance, Melbourne boasts glamorous festivals and events, Australia’s best shopping, a lively passion for eating and drinking, and a flourishing interest in the arts. Restored and preserved nineteenth-century architecture, built following the discovery of gold, provides a heady reminder of a prosperous age, while beautifully tended parks and gardens present a therapeutic respite from the pace of city life.

– Melbourne Tourism

I will go ahead and admit this from the start – I really did not do my homework in preparation for Melbourne visit so I literally got overwhelmed with the number of activities and things to see in the city. The visitor center at the Federation Square was not much help either (in a good sense) – it was stacked with tons of brochures on things to do around town catering to any kind of audience – the best visitor center by far. With little time on my hands and being unfamiliar with the city, I could not really figure out what to go for – should I book a day tour of the Great Ocean Road or stroll around downtown? Go to the beach or ride the public transit all around on a day ticket? Eat at Chinatown or Greek quarters or the little unnamed noodles place pointed out by one of my couchsurfing hosts?

Couchsurfing With David

I was late with setting up my lodging in Melbourne, so I sent a few last minute couchsurfing requests and David came through offering me a place to stay for a couple of nights. As I got in town late, without a phone, I struggled a bit to get to his place and, once there, found out that there will be three more surfers staying with him. Two girls ended up taking the spare bed, Philip took the couch, and I settled for the two back pillows from the couch laid on the floor with a sleeping mattress on top, which turned out to be more comfortable than it looked.

With so many people, the next morning was a wash (literally waiting for everyone to wash up). For breakfast, we checked out Melbourne’s funky side – a non-profit donation-based kitchen that serves all-you-can-eat meals in exchange for ‘whatever-you-think-it-is-worth’ donations. We also ended up coming here for dinner as the guys really seemed to dig the concept, while I was not very pleased with the food – essentially a carbs overload. There are right and wrong ways of going vegetarian, and this place seemed to be more of a later with dinner consisting of rice, lentils, beans, pasta, and rice pudding with a bit of mixed greens in a salad. After dinner, we headed out to a couchsurfing meet-up where I met a few folks that will be in New Zealand around the same time, so we may end up meeting up there as well.

Doing the signal bars picture. Yup, once again...

Couchsurfing With Greg

Since David’s profile lead me to believe he could only host for couple of nights, I made arrangements with Greg, also a pilot, to stay another two nights in the southern suburb of Glen Huntly. I encountered a string of bad luck that deserves a separate ‘lessons learned’ post and got out there a couple of hours later than I hopped. Emma, whom I met on my trip through Laos, was going to meet up with us for dinner, but since I was so late, I was very surprised to see her still patiently waiting for me at the train station (she is awesome, in case you could not tell). After dinner, Greg took me to nearby St. Kilda pier where we saw a few penguins which made the boardwalk their home. We decided to round up the night by going for a swim in Port Phillip Bay even though it felt really cold outside. The water turned out to be pretty warm (24 degrees from what I heard) and it was quite a nice finish to the day, until we got out and froze our butts off, but it was fun.

Melbourne CBD from southern Yarra bank

I spent my last day in Melbourne taking a stroll through Southbank along the Yarra river, walking through the botanical gardens, and eventually crossing the river to the Olympic village. The views of Melbourne’s CBD from the southern bank of Yarra were pretty awesome and it was hard to narrow it down to just a couple of pictures in the end. There were also lots and lots of people running and cycling, and with the weather being very nice that day, I caught myself thinking that I would love to run a half marathon here someday. Back at the Olympic village, they were still dismantling things after the Australian Open so I could not get in. Instead, I walked above it, through another park, and off to the old treasury building turned into a free museum. Later on, I met up with Greg back in Glen Huntly and we headed out for a little picnic at Brighton beach. Being the most expensive and prestigious bay front area in Melbourne, the beach is know for its Brighton Boxes – essentially a row of sheds used to store beach things, from chairs to kayaks, by people who can afford to pay the premium – these storage units are the most expensive real estate in Melbourne on $ per square foot basis.

Brighton's beach boxes - most expensive real estate in Melbourne

Melbourne vs Sydney

Yes, I am going there, mainly because I could not help but think about a few contrasting things as I strolled around Melbourne. The weather seemed to be a bit more extreme in Melbourne – one day I needed jeans and a hoodie while the next day I sweating in shorts and a t-shirt, but the sun was not as unforgiving as it was in Sydney. Sydney gave me the impression that it does not really have that many things to do, with the majority of attention being paid to the well-known landmarks such as the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge. On the other hand, Melbourne did not seem to have one or two things that represented the city, but rather a myriad of smaller landmarks, activities, and sight seeing excursions.

Melbourne’s public transit was much easier to figure out with fares based on well-defined zones rather than unknown number of kilometers between origin and destination. Oh, and it was cheaper too, although not by much. As a whole, Melbourne seemed to be just a bit cheaper than Sydney as well. So, which one did I like better? It is a tough call, but I think at this point I would have to go with Sydney since, by nature, I am more of a structured person and Melbourne just overwhelmed me with the amount of things going on. That said, I would still like to come back and explore the area around Melbourne, and particularly, drive down the Great Ocean Road someday.

Getting To Sydney Airport

After sorting out my Brazilian visa, I grabbed some lunch with a local rep of the company I used to work for and headed back to Rod’s place to pack up. I was already running short on time and caught a lucky break when the express bus to downtown pulled up. There, I jumped on a train for a quick (but expensive at $15) ride to the airport.

Terminal 2 And JetStar Check-in

Airport or a truck stop?

Once out of the train, it was a quick ride up the escalator to the T2/T3 junction and another ride up to the departure area. With no lines anywhere, I got my boarding pass and the check-in baggage tag, waited a bit in line to drop off my backpack and was pleasantly surprised when the agent offered to switch me to the exit row seat at no cost. Security screening was quick and efficient and I was off to my gate.

Unfortunately, none of the lounges at Sydney participate in PriorityPass so I was not able to check out those. The only hick-up I encountered was the flight status monitors showing my flight as ‘Final Call’ with over an hour left before the departure. Once I got to the gate, they were boarding the flight before mine so I am guessing someone did not press the right button somewhere.

The Flight

JetStar flies single class A320s on short to medium haul routes and A330s on the long haul legs. Our A320 seemed to be brand new – clean with nice leather seats and, strangely, a very nice looking combination of dark grey leather and orange accents throughout the aircraft. The only downsides were the fact that the sets were too plushy, leaving less legroom in the regular seats, nor did they have adjustable headrests. Snacks and drinks were for sale only with prices being 60% more to twice the airport prices.

It took us quite a bit to taxi out to the active runway in Sydney and then wait for our turn in a long line for takeoff. Once off the ground, the flight took a bit over an hour. The descent seemed to be very shallow and took us a while going through multiple layers of clouds, but once on the ground, it was a quick taxi to the terminal and my bag was already on the carousel by the time I got there. Good stuff!

JetStar A320

Airport Shuttle

Being far from the city, Avalon airport is being used exclusively by the low cost/value carriers JetStar and Tiger. From there, a shuttle coach takes about an hour to get to downtown Sydney (Southern Cross train station in CBD), costing $20. It left soon after we boarded and the ride reminded me driving through Iowa in the fall – flat interstate surrounded by empty fields everywhere. Once we got to the train station, it was a quick walk for me to reach David’s place right next to the Crown casino in Southbank. Not a bad location to be couchsurfing at!