Bay of Island Cruise (10/7/09)

Paihia is located on the Eastern side of the North Island of New Zealand and from its location is some of the most beautiful seascape I have ever seen. The four of us took a cruise through 14 different islands just off in the coast of Paihia. Even though the day was not completely clear and there was some spitting rain, the view was still fantastic! At the beginning of our tour we happened to come across of a pod of 40-60 bottle-nosed dolphins. They were so close to us that they were actually jumping up out of the water from underneath the bow of the boat! It was insane how many dolphins there was. It easily beat out the dolphin cruise I took during orientation week here at Newcastle University!



From the pod of dolphins we moved on through the heaps of different islands. Finally, we made it to the infamous island that contains the “Hole in the Rock”. It really was quite a sight, but what beat just seeing it was going through it on the boat! I honestly did not think we would squeeze through but we did! I got some really good shots from it and I can’t wait to show everyone! Unfortunately from this point we had to head back to the wharf. On the way back though we passed the sail boat that was used the show “Survivor”. It was a really pretty sail boat that I guess you can pay to stay on for a few nights; I’d be up for that! Once we got back to the wharf we hopped into the car and made the long trek to Waitomo (6 ½ hours).

Cape Reinga (10/6/09)

Lindsay and I had done some planning the previous night and had decided that if grandpa didn’t mind that we would like to drive all the way to Cap Reinga (the northern most point of New Zealand) to see the light house. Grandpa didn’t mind making the drive so off we went. Along the way though we stopped and did the Waitongi Track to the Hururu Falls. The walk was really pretty. We walked through a little bit of forest as well as went over some coastal water walkway before arriving at the falls. After that we continued up the road to Cape Reinga. Here is where I get to mention the beautiful landscape of New Zealand. The countryside is just so incredibly green, rich with colors, filled with sheep and cows, and filled with hills. It seemed that we never really went straight on any portion of their roads minus when we were in the city, but thoughts how I preferred it.






About 3 hours later and after several picture taking stops we made it to the cape. The sight was just breath taking. It reminded me of the great ocean road in Melbourne. There was a little walkway that led down to the light house so Grandpa, Lindsay and I made the hike down. It was a cute little light house. Along the way though we were stopped by two men that told us that this lookout point is never clear and that we were absolutely blessed on how clear of day we had.

The view was fantastic from this point looking into the Pacific ocean and was well worth the drive. Unfortunately, it was starting to get late so we had to head back down to Paihia to our accommodation. The drive went a little faster on the way back since I did not make us stop to take any pictures and the trip was well worth the time in the car, or so at least I thought!

Auckland (10/5/09)

Well this morning we started a little late because we didn’t get to sleep till nearly 2am the night before, but that’s alright. It was raining in Auckland that day which shouldn’t have surprised me because after all it is spring over here. We decided to go ahead walk around the city and do some exploring in the rain. Auckland is much like any other city except for one thing. They have a tower that people can bungy jump off of! However I have to say that it did not look as exciting as my bungy in Costa Rica because they stopped the person probably 15 feet after jumping off then let the person fall again… so it was a broken up fall… lame! Any who we walked around the wharf, in the city, through a park, and then stopped at a café to eat. I had some of the best French toast ever at this café; it was so delicious! Around 2pm though we found the car rental place and picked up our vehicle for the week and headed North to Paihia (Bay of Islands). We arrived at our accommodation (Pipi Patch Lodge) around 5:30pm, picked up some groceries, took some pictures, and ate some dinner before calling it a night.

New Zealand

Well it took me a long while to figure out how to post this on my blog but I reckon I figured out the best way to do it. I just want to give you some insight into our time in New Zealand. We only visited the North Island of New Zealand, which was absolutely beautiful. The country side of New Zealand is super great and filled with sheep and cattle.
Also their highway system is really different from the U.S. Their highway is made up of just two lanes and there is only a few interstates total through the country so it takes a longer to travel from point to point than in the U.S. Overall though New Zealand is a beautiful country that I recommend to everyone if they get the opportunity to travel to!

Facing big fears in Cairns

Well from reading the previous post you were able to depict that we arrived in Cairns the night before and just kind of got settled in at our backpacker’s accommodation. On Friday, October 2, 2009, I, Natalie Rene Wetterauer, faced one of my biggest fears in my life, swimming alongside of heaps of fish! Yep that’s right I faced my fears in the Great Barrier Reef. Well all four of us signed up for a Reef Magic Tour. We hopped aboard a big cruiser that took us out to their reef platform. It took about an hour to cruise out to the reef, but the view was still really pretty, because Cairns is a very mountainous city with lots of rainforest.

Once we were out on the reef we checked out what the platform had to offer: glass bottom boat, underwater tunnel, snorkelling, sundeck, and for those that wanted to scuba diving. Then Lindsay and I got our mask and fins to go snorkelling. I was heaps scared, but I had been telling myself since probably May that I was going to snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef, because who doesn’t go to it and not get in?!?! So there was a ton of mental preparation beforehand, but it was not enough let me tell you!

Well I stripped down to just my swimmers, placed the mask and fins in my hands, and slowly made my way down the metal steps to the water platform. I was way too nervous to actually sit down in the water to put on my fins so instead I stood up and struggled a little bit to get all the gear on. While doing so though a little fish swam up through one of the holes in the grate platform and I screamed! The lifeguards and heaps of people were laughing at me, but I don’t care what other people think, fish are not my friends! After I calmed myself down some from the terrifying fish going after my foot, Lindsay and I got our picture taken and then had to sit in the water to take another picture. Let me tell you I was holding on to that platform for dear life! Then I had to let go into the blue water. It took me several long, long seconds before I would stick my face in the water because I just had a feeling that there would be heaps of fish. MY THINKING WAS CORRECT; THERE WERE FISH EVERYWHERE! I don’t think my breathing has ever been as hard before in my life! It was so scary, but after a little bit I got use to there being fish in the same water as me. Saying that though, I kept my distance! Lindsay and I swam out quite a good distance, passed over some coral, and then were heading in the direction of the raft again when I saw the biggest fish ever! I screamed probably the loudest anyone has ever been able to through a snorkel and I am not ashamed because seriously anyone in their right mind would have been scared of this fish as well!

We probably stayed out in the water for about 30 minutes then headed in. Then we hopped on the glass-bottom boat with my grandparents, which was pretty cool since we were able to see the deeper parts of the reef. After that we ate lunch and then Lindsay wanted to go back out and snorkel, so I figured I would give it another go. Well of course there had to be heaps of big fish this time just out a little ways from the platform and then my wonderful big friend kept swimming past so it took me about 5 minutes to let the big fish swim away before I hopped back in. This time I was holding onto the camera to take pictures so here I was trying to take a picture of this really pretty fish, but he/she started swimming for my hand, and I was heaps scared so I swam back to the platform and decided that I had did a good job facing my fears and that my heart couldn’t take any more in one day, even though I was only in the water for like at most 7 minutes! Oops! The rest of the day I caught some sun and watched the fish feeding happen. The Great Barrier Reef was amazing and I reckon I will have to try snorkeling again. (Dad we will see if I can get the courage up enough to do scuba.)














The next day, October 3, we took a tour called the Kuranda Sky Tour. We took an old train from the 1940s up into the mountains to this little town called Kuranda. The train ride took an hour and 15 minutes. We passed by one waterfall, went through 15 tunnels and 6 bridges. The views from the train were fantastic! Kuranda was this cute little town that was filled with heaps of shopping and had two different markets. Well of course we did shopping because that was about all there was to do in this town and my grandma hadn’t gotten to shop in a few days so she was up to the “challenge”. The best part of the day though was taking the Skyrail back down to the bus stop. On the Skyrail we passed over the tops of the rain forest canopy and the view was remarkable! I took heaps of pictures. After the tour we came back and walked around Cairns. Cairns has a really pretty swimming lagoon and a beautiful boardwalk around the bay. Then we went out to dinner at a restaurant on the boardwalk and got ice cream following. By this time it was dark enough for me to take some night pictures! So we walked around a little while longer and I went around snapping my lens till there was nothing left to take pictures of.

On Sunday, October 4th, we caught our morning flight to Sydney and then caught our connecting flight to Auckland and arrived around 11:50pm. Unfortunately we lost a whole day in travelling, but you have to do what you have to do.

The Outback

September 29th, we left Melbourne early in the morning to catch our Flight to Alice Springs. After collecting our bags and the rental car we hopped in the car to drive to Ayers Rock. The drive took 4 hours and 15 minutes. The drive was very exciting at first, but as a couple hours of passed and no sign of any wild life in the desert appeared except for the twenty some dead road killed kangaroos we passed it started to get a little boring. Finally, we arrived in Ayres Rock around 5:30pm. We caught the sunset from the Uluru look out point there at our resort. Upon the sun setting we decided that it was time to eat some Aussie food. We grilled a skewer of kangaroo and crocodile, had two beef and one emu sausages! I have to say kangaroo is really great tasting! I can do without eating crocodile because it just didn’t have that much flavour. The emu meet was also pretty tasty!








September 30th, Lindsay and I got up to watch the sunrise from the look out point. It was really pretty. Then we drove into the national park to see Uluru and Kata Tjuta. First we stopped at the Cultural Centre were we got to read up on some native background. Then we went to the base of Uluru and walked to the Mutitjulu Waterhole. Here is where I need to start mentioning some details. Well the pictures of Uluru may make it look small but it is actually enormous! Also there were heaps of flies that just kept landing on us, seriously if there wasn’t a really strong breeze blowing everyone had at least 2 flies landing on them. Well we could have bought some face net coverings but nah… we didn’t want to look too touristy! After the water hole treck we drove all the way around it to the other side to the Mala walk. I really wanted to climb to the top of Uluru, but unfortunately it was closed due to the strong winds. We did the Mala walk and then went a little farther to the Kantju Gorge, which was a completely dry water basin. It was still a pretty walk though.








From there we then headed the 45 km in the park to Kata Tjuta or better known as the Olgas. Personally I found the Olgas much prettier and more interesting to look at. There at the Olgas Grandpa, Lindsay and I did the Valley of the Winds hike. Let me tell you the name definitely did match the hike. It was so windy that it blew off my sunnies at one point! It was really cool hike though and it was interesting to see how the landscape changed within the pits of the rock formations. After the Olgas we just headed back to the resort for the evening and hung out together playing some cards after eating loaded hamburgers (meat, lettuce, tomato, slice of beetroot, pineapple, tomato sauce, cheese, and bacon). Mmmmm sooo good!








October 1st, Grandpa, Lindsay, and I got up and drove to a the Olgas lookout point for sunrise because it was something I really wanted to do. Well unfortunately it happened to be raining that morning. So there really was no sunrise to look at and my pictures weren’t the ones I imagined I would get, but that’s okay. Then it was surprisingly cold as well only about 17 degrees C! Heaps cold for the desert! Since the weather was so crappy we headed early to the airport to catch our flight to Cairns. Eventually around 7pm that night we arrived in Cairns and checked into our backpackers, Gilligan’s. Then we went and walked around town and got some groceries. Finally Lindsay and I also called home and talked to our parents and then I left her so she could talk to her fiancé.