New Zealand North Island - Dec. 5-6, 2013 - Auckland to Waitomo Caves

New Zealand is a fantastically beautiful country, so when the opportunity to go arises, take it!  Ryan and I weren't sure if we would go back again while we still lived in Australia since there are lots of other places to go, but as luck would have it we had probably our best trip to date.

This story starts months earlier when we discovered that two of our board gaming, rock hounding friends from Canada, Kat and Ryan R, also started eating Paleo like us.  Despite living so far apart we began chatting again and playing online board games together just to keep in touch.  Since they're also big travelers it wasn't long before we chatted about doing a group camping trip, and naturally I suggested New Zealand.  It was kind of a pipe dream, so we didn't talk about it for months after that though.  When Ryan and I decided to plan a trip home to Canada for Christmas, we were so excited to tell Kat and Ryan R.  We called them up and told them we had a surprise for them, but interestingly they also had a surprise for us.  Turns out that they were also planning a trip to come and see us around Christmas!  After some extensive planning and date juggling we settled on meeting in New Zealand for part of their trip, and after NZ we would head to Canada and they would finish their trip.  So after months of planning we were off on another epic trip around the world!

Ryan and I packed 3 giant bags, since not only did we have to bring all of our gear for summer camping and hiking in New Zealand, but we had to bring winter gear and presents for Christmas in Canada.  Needless to say we were a bit loaded down!  

Almost immediately we learned an important travel lesson: always check your flight status before you leave home.  When we got to the airport we found out there was a 6 hour flight delay!  Before checking in we got some cards and our computer power cables out of our checked luggage and hunkered down for our wait.  We could have left the airport, but we didn't want to bother.  We sent Kat and Ryan R a message, and just spent some time relaxing.  Then, before we knew it, we were on our way!

Consequently we didn't get to Auckland until 1am, and by the time we picked up our car we didn't get to the hotel until 2:30am.  A quick note on the car: it was the fanciest thing I've ever driven!  It was a Toyota Forester, 4 wheel drive, spacious, and it even had a built in GPS and reverse cam (even though it was useless it was still cool).  It took a good 10 minutes in the parking lot to figure out how to adjust my seat, but after that we were good to go.

Photo Credit: Ryan R

So we arrived at the hotel at 2:30am to find our friends looking like zombies.  They were of course jet lagged, sunburned from their few days in Fiji, and they had been throwing up all night.  Needless to say it was a rough start but it was probably good we weren't there 6 hours earlier!  We spent a few hours catching up, went to bed at 4:30am, and had to get up again by 8:30am to pack and check out of the hotel.  Ryan and I left a few bags behind at the hotel, but even still the car was completely full to the brim.

We of course still had to pick up some food, so first we went to a random store to buy a chilly bin (see previous NZ trip for story) and we bought a treasure chest instead of just a regular bin to keep all of our other food in.  It was an excellent decision, and kept a smile on our face the whole trip!  Of course since all of us eat Paleo we bought a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, and delicious NZ lamb (plus some yummy cheese, chocolate, and wine) so of course it cost over $300 and took up a ton of space.  Totally worth it though, since we ate like kings and queens.

To give you an idea of where we were, here's a map of our route.

Our plan for the day was to drive south, maybe check out some wineries, and end up at the Waitomo Caves for our tour the next day.  Not wasting any time we booked it down to the visitor centre in Papakura, and upon their advice we drove to the Misty Creek Winery just before they closed (at 3:30!)  The property was beautiful, and the chatty, pregnant owner was hilarious.  She didn't think much of Auckland or tourist stops, and warned us away from Hobbiton despite never having been there.  But her Pinot Gris was delicious so we bough a bottle and went on our way.

Next we followed some random signs promising an olive grove, so Ryan and I expected that they would do tastings like the groves in Australia do.  To our surprise it was actually a very fancy restaurant, so we walked around the property and had a picnic lunch in the parking lot (in our camping clothes).  All sorts of really dressed up people started arriving, and then, to top it all off, a helicopter landed on the heli pad near by!  Needless to say we were under-dressed for the occasion, so we continued on our way.

Photo Credit: Ryan R

Our final destination was the Waitomo Caves area where we checked out a few tour operators and booked in a tour for the next day.  But not just any tour - a glowworm water tubing tour!  More about that in the next post.

We settled on a campsite at the Juno Hostel right across the street from the tour office.  They had indoor accommodations, but we just pitched our tents outside on the lawn with a bunch of other people.  We had our first competition to see who could set their tent up fastest (we tied), and then headed over to the barbeque to cook some delicious lamb chops, asparagus, fried mushrooms and garlic, and some wine, with Kat only being able to stomach some soup. 

Needless to say we were all exhausted, so after lots of chatting we were snugly asleep by 9:30pm.

Welcoming the New Year in McLaren Vale Dec. 28, 2012 - Jan. 1, 2013

Ryan and I tried to book a trip to Fiji over our Christmas break, but that didn't work out so we decided to go back to our favourite spot in South Australia: McLaren Vale.  We rented a small cabin in a vineyard and had a perfect vacation.

We started by spending Friday night with our friends Janah and Luke playing board games, since they live near McLaren Vale (and we had been talking about doing a board game night forever!)  After a wonderful evening, and an amazing homemade breakfast, we headed off to the Willunga Markets to pick up some fresh produce for our weekend.  Then we checked in to our beautiful cabin at McLaren Ridge.  It was so peaceful we actually had breakfast on the porch every morning and spent a lot of time reading out there too. 

Since I've written about McLaren Vale so many times I'm just going to skip the repeat stuff and write about the new things that we did.  The idea behind the trip was that if we spent a few days in the region, we could both do some wine tasting.  Usually I end up driving, but this time we took turns.  We even took it a step further and rented bikes on one of the days.  I have to confess, I really don't like bike riding.  I have no idea why since I used to do it all of the time as a kid, but I just don't.  Ryan wanted to rent a tandem bike, but that was out of the question. 

We decided to go to the furthest winery first, just in case I wussed out, so we biked the 3.1km from the bike shop to d'Arenburg, which was pretty much all uphill.  Without all of the details, suffice it to say that we made it but we were very sweaty by the end of it.  The view was beautiful but the place was completely packed so we did our wine tasting and went on our way.

Since there were lots of wineries on the 3km road back to the cycle shop, we decided to just ride back down the hill and stop along the way.  That brought us to an awesome new place for us called Tapestry.  Their wine was delicious and their lunch platter was amazing!  We also did a bike photo shoot after lunch - I just had to have proof that I was riding a bike!

After that we decided we had had enough wine, so we stopped at an art gallery, the grocery store, and a little shop and restaurant in a train car called "The Almond Train".  Every time we go to McLaren Vale I want to go there, and finally Ryan agreed to check it out.  Free flavoured almond samples!  What more could you want?!

That evening, and pretty much every evening, we just played board games and drank wine.  It was exactly how we wanted to spend our vacation.

The next day we decided to check out the beach, and we randomly ran into our friend (and Ryan's old boss) Andy.  He lives in the area and he invited us to his family's New Year's Party.  We don't really know that many people, so it just goes to show you how small Adelaide is if even WE run into people we know!  Anyway, the beach was beautiful, as they always are in South Australia.

For our last full day in McLaren Vale we decided to have lunch at our favourite place (Leconfield) and then go on a hike.  We had a map from the visitor centre, but for the life of us we could not find the hike.  Even when we got to the right parking lot we still managed to walk down the wrong trail.  The funniest thing was, though, that we were just blaming it on poor signage, and Ryan insisted we were on the right track.  He kept pointing to where we were on our map and showing me all of these elevation patterns to prove it.  Turns out, though, we weren't even close to the right area.  Eventually we did find a really nice lookout and the correct trail, but it was the middle of the day in Australian summer and we were out of water, so we didn't ever actually do the hike we had planned.

That night we went to Andy's house to celebrate New Year's Eve.  His house is on a hill and he just build a new balcony that overlooks all of the suburbs and the ocean, so at midnight we could see all of the fireworks along the beach and all through the suburbs.  It was an awesome evening with great friends to end off our wonderful mini-vacation.

Visitors from Abroad

Only a few days after we got back to Australia my parents arrived in Adelaide.  That didn't give us long to settle into the new house, but at least it was for a good cause.  They had already been to Los Angeles, Fiji, New Zealand, and the North-East coast of Australia, so their jetlag was gone and they were ready for me to show them what I've been up to for the past year and a half.

I picked them up at the airport on Thursday October 18th, and their first surprise was that I met them at their gate.  In Australia you can get through security without a ticket (and you can get a ticket without ID sometimes) .  We had to rush home because I was late for work, but not unexpectedly they did yard work while I was gone!  When I got home I took them for a walk around the neighbourhood and to the grocery store where we picked up some local Yabbies (it's actually a type of crayfish, not whatever you were thinking!)  That afternoon my Mom helped me plant my herb garden and we feasted on yabbies and an Australian lamb roast while trying to find a wine in my extensive collection that my parents liked.

I had to work Friday afternoon, so we just stuck around town in the morning.  First  we went to one of my favourite places in Adelaide: the Botanic Gardens.  From the first time I went there I wanted my Mom to see the gardens, so it was amazing that it actually happened.  We joined the free guided tour at 10am, and the guide took us all over showing us the native Australian plants.  Then I took them to the Adelaide Central Markets which is always fun.  We only had a few things on our list, but as with any market I always leave with much more than I had anticipated.  When we got home we made up a platter of snacks for lunch, and then while I was at work my parents cooked and did more yard work.  Lucky me!

On Saturday we went to McLaren Vale, which is always the best part of any visit to Adelaide.  I wasn't sure what to expect since my parents have very specific wine preferences, but throughout the day they were both surprised to find multiple wines that they liked.  We did our usual tour, starting with Leconfield because they have the best platter lunches.  I think we would all agree that was the best part of the day!

Then we stopped at all of the usual places: Fox Creek, Dog Ridge, Vale Ale, Lloyd Brothers, and we tried to find the lookout and failed again.  The only new place we went to was Ekhidna Wines, and they specialize in beer and cider.  Their wine was terrible, but the cider was alright.  We didn't buy any though.

That night we had kangaroo steaks for dinner, but I think it was a little bit weird for my parents.  Roo has a really strong flavour and has to be cooked just right, and I probably haven't mastered that yet!  Overall we had an excellent day, and it was probably the highlight of the visit in my opinion.

My favourite thing to do on a Sunday morning is go to the Adelaide Showgrounds Farmers Market, so that's exactly what we did.  Unlike the Central Market, the Farmer's Market is actually all local produce.  There's no holding me back when we go there!  As usual, I bought so much it wouldn't fit in my fridge (which isn't saying much because our fridge is really small).  After the market I took my parents to Henley Beach (where we used to live) to show them our neighbourhood, but more importantly, the beautiful beach!  Much to my disappointment, though, it was super windy and really cold.  Not at all how I remember it from living there!  Sadly our beach walk didn't last very long, so I took them up my favourite local river walk instead.  It's usually where we spot some neat birds, so they enjoyed that as well.

That afternoon we feasted on oysters, mussels, and a Thai salad.  Mom and Dad were sceptical about the oysters, but I think they both figured if I liked them then they must be alright.  I've found some amazing recipes, so they were delicious!  We ate really early because that evening we had plans in the hills.

First we went to the lookout at the top of Mt. Lofty for a beautiful view just as the sun was setting.

Then we made our way to the Warrawong Sanctuary in the hills for a nocturnal tour.  I had never been there before, so it was new for all of us this time.  We started the tour by feeding the kangaroos, and protecting them from the ravenous ducks that tried to steal all of the food.  When we eventually did leave, the ducks took over and the roos all gave up trying to get any more food.

As it got dark we made our way to two ponds where the platypus live.  They say there is only a 30% chance of seeing one  on any given day, since they're very shy animals, and it was not our lucky day.  My parents had already seen one in Queensland, though, so at least they didn't really miss out.  The park was beautiful, but it rapidly became dark and we started to look out for more nocturnal animals.  There were a few wallabies out, but mostly we saw smaller marsupials like bettongs and possums.

Bettong

Brush-tail Possum

The tour was really fun, and it gave me a new perspective on Australia since I rarely go out at night (mostly because I don't like night, but also because of the spiders…)

Monday morning I went with my dad to pick up their rental car, and then my parents left for their road trip of the Great Ocean Road, ending in Melbourne.  It was so awesome to show my parents around Adelaide, and it's only a shame that Ryan wasn't here to join us.  But luckily he came with us to Sydney the next weekend, so stay tuned!

Tasmania - June 23, 2012

View of Launceston from our B&B.

The morning we woke up in Launceston, I "somehow" managed to set my alarm wrong (possibly had something to do with the drinking), so we rushed in to meet Justin and Kelsey for breakfast.  Our host was Fong, and he made a delicious breakfast of eggs, roasted tomatoes, and some fancy bacon spirals.  He also told us that there was a local market going on, so of course we decided to go there and stock up on lunch and dinner supplies.  The market was really awesome, and we got everything we were looking for (including an early morning wine tasting).

To continue our stroll around the block, we walked by the famous Boages brewery, and then to the local park to see the Japanese Macaque Monkey enclosure.  It was actually really cool!  Of course my "friends" threatened to leave me there "with my people" more than once after the cave incident from the day before, but somehow we all made it out together.

On the way back to our car we did some window shopping, and eagerly anticipated the French patisserie that the guide book raved about.  Yet again we were let down, and they only had 2 croissants that we could buy.  Good thing Fong fed us a big breakfast!  By 11am we were back on the road, driving west towards Cradle Mountain.

Along the very windy road through the mountains we passed many rainbows, which should have been a clue of the weather to come.

They also threatened to leave me on this bridge while I was taking the picture.  Maybe it's me?

We also made our second unauthorized dam stop, which the geologists loved.  I also managed to track a very colourful bird, so there was something for everyone!

This is Ryan and I "sneaking"/walking in slow motion...

Again, not at all staged.

As we approached Cradle Mountain, and the weather got worse and worse, our excitement mounted.  We had our fingers crossed that we would see some snow, and we were not disappointed!  It was hilarious to see kids running around in snow pants making snowmen and snowballs, but if we were dressed for it we probably would have too.  After much debate, we decided to do a 1.5 hour walk around Dove Lake.  It was snowing/raining pretty badly and it was only 2 degrees, but we drove a long way and we had to do something while we were there.  Unfortunately we didn't get much of a view of Cradle Mountain, but I think we were more excited about the snow anyway.

The best view we got of Cradle Mountain.

We were all in need of some food and a warm drink after the hike, so we decided to snoop in the Cradle Mountain Lodge for some lunch.  We looked into staying at the lodge, but it was way overpriced so we decided not to.  It was fun to go in and see it though.  Of course the geos found a map in there, so I warmed up by the fireplace while they investigated.

After our 4pm "lunch" we did our final hour of driving for the day to Kentisbury Country House, where we spent the night.  We had to be careful not to hit a Rex-a-Roo on the way though.

The house was way more awesome than we expected, except we really wanted it to have a fireplace and it didn't.  Instead there was a fire-like heater, which didn't really do the job.  Still, the property was beautiful and we had a really enjoyable evening.  We also rented the whole house, so it was very peaceful.

For dinner that night we cooked up a delicious fish, steak, and salad feast with all of our fresh produce from the market, then cozied up to some good old wine and conversation to end off a fantastically busy day.

Tasmania - June 21, 2012

Our latest adventure was to Tasmania with our Canadian geologist friends, Kelsey and Justin.  In my opinion it was our best trip so far, and I wouldn't change anything except my carsickness on the 1500 kilometres of  windy roads.

Our trip began when we woke up at 3:50am for our 6:10 am flight.  The four of us fly all of the time, but somehow we managed to cause all sorts of airport problems.  Kelsey and I both got selected for bomb screening, and Ryan somehow managed to smuggle a pocket knife disguised as a camera lens  through 2 security checks, but not the third.  Even after he unpacked his bag they didn't find the knife the first time, and he didn't know he had one.  Despite all of the attention we had on ourselves, I managed to get knitting needles through every security check.

We tried to sleep on the first flight to Melbourne, but gave up for the second flight to Hobart, so we were all pretty exhausted.  We arrived at 10:30 am and got a crazy taxi bus driver to the car rental place.   Then our trip could begin!  

We drove over this awesome bridge many times during the trip.

Our first stop was the harbour for a short walk on the docks and through the shops.

As soon as it opened, we went to Mures for lunch and ate delicious fresh, local fish overlooking the harbour. 

Of course the three geos wanted a geological map of Tasmania, so we found a map store before heading to the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA).  The MONA was surprisingly awesome because there weren't any plaques, so you could just enjoy the art for what it was.  Some highlights were the random white hands everywhere outside, the euthanasia machine (with a countdown on the computer until it said "you are dead"), and a really cool waterfall that wrote words.

Of course, I think the other three enjoyed the neat rock walls the most.  This is the first of many pictures like this.

A lot of the art was meant to be shocking, but I didn't think anything of it when a guide pointed us to the "art deco toilet".  The bathrooms were all really neat, with videos and audio playing in most of them.  Except for the special one that I used.  (Warning:  please forgive me if this is too much information.)  I sat down and noticed there were a pair of binoculars next to the toilet, so I used them to look around.  Sure enough, when I looked straight ahead, there was a mirror  on the wall that must have been connected to a bunch of other ones, because it was showing me peeing from the bottom of the toilet!  REALLY unexpected! Needless to say, many jokes were made at my expense for the rest of the trip because I was quite scarred from the experience.

The museum was also connected to  a cellar door, so we did a few wine tastings and bought some wine for dinner before heading to our hotel.  We stayed at the Somerset apartments in Salamanca, which is a pretty trendy area full of neat shops and restaurants. 

The view from our hotel was awesome, with the old buildings of Salamanca and the mountains in the background.

While wandering around the square and the alley ways of shops, randomly a lady was closing down her shop for the night and gave us free muffins.  Just what we needed to tide us over before dinner!

After picking up some groceries and treats, we went back to our apartment for some pre-dinner wine and snacks.  A short while later, the building fire alarm started going off.  We peeked out in the hall and saw that the people across from us were cooking and causing the alarm, so we didn't evacuate until the alarm got much more insistent.  Sure enough the fire trucks showed up, so we just went to dinner instead of waiting to get back in.

We settled on a place called "Barcelona" for dinner, and everything on the menu looked amazing.  Randomly they had an extra pizza, so we got a free pizza before we even ordered.  We were going to order that same one anyways, so it was an awesome score.  To end off the night, as we were walking back to our hotel some guys drove by us in a car and yelled "Go back to the mines!"  We were shocked that it was so obvious where we all came from!  

Full House in Adelaide - June 2-5, 2012

The next morning in Clare was ultra-relaxed, so we slept in, had breakfast, and packed the van for the last time.  After a nice daytime drive back to Adelaide we stopped for groceries and settled back in at home for a very enjoyable day.  I usually try not to talk too much about food on this blog, but this will be an exception for two reasons.  First, now that I don't have to cook for myself every day because of work, I absolutely love cooking when I'm home.  Second, we ate like kings, and you can too if you come to visit!

For lunch we had a delicious spread of gourmet meat, cheese, fruit, crackers, bread, quince paste, and other goodies.  Then I got straight into cooking dinner, which was cold spring rolls and green curry from scratch with cauliflower "rice".  I recruited everyone to roll the cold rolls and help with the other bits, so it was a group effort.

The next day was also all about food.  Ryan cooked a delicious breakfast of grilled eggplant with a hole cut in the centre for a fried egg.  So yummy!  The weather started to turn, so we went for a short walk by the river in the morning before the rain.  I promised everyone a variety of birds, and we saw almost all of the ones I was expecting.  I was sure we would see the shy Australian Grebe, but we didn't have any luck until right at the very end, so I kept my promise.

Everyone did their own thing for the afternoon, and I enjoyed making our delicious dinner:

Appetizer:

-shrimp cocktail

-prosciutto wrapped melon balls

Main:

-citrus, rosemary, and garlic roasted chicken

-orange roasted veggies (sweet potato, squash, carrots, oranges, rosemary)

-fennel and orange salad

-parsnip purée

Dessert:

-coconut cake (made by Ryan)

Leanna and Daniel also arrived in time for dinner, so it was a full house on our tiny table but so much fun.  Due to lack of space (and good luck), Leanna and Daniel spent the night in our guest house on wheels (we had the campervan for 7 days).  Maybe not something you should expect if you come to visit…

In the morning we had an amazing breakfast spread, and got organized and out of the house by 10am.  Leanna and Daniel had to return their rental car and pick up a campervan, I had to pick up the minivan, and the others returned our campervan.  As you can imagine, it was quite the coordination effort, but we managed to be on the road to McLaren Vale by 11:30am.

We spent awhile debating over doing a walking tour, a biking tour, or just the normal car tour, but the weather made the decision for us.  After a quick stop at the visitor centre, we drove to Lechonfield Wines.  It was one of the first wineries we had ever been to in Australia and it was where I first started liking wine, so it was a good starter place for Bryce and Leanna.  After tasting from their massive wine list, we had a scrumptious gourmet lunch.

Once everyone was a bit tipsy, we all agreed that it was a good thing we weren't on bikes!  Next we stopped at Fox Creek - another one of our absolute favourites.  We had been serving Fox Creek wine all week, so it was nice to show everyone where it came from. 

Dog Ridge was our third stop, and the only new place we went to all day.  It was really neat because it had some amazing bird art on display by Jen Wright (painted with red wine and squid ink, among other things), and they sat us down together at a nice table for tasting.

By this point we were getting short on time, so we quickly drove to Lloyd Brothers (wine, olives, and olive oil tasting) before they closed.  This is always one of my favourites, and it's nice to have something other than wine at the end of the day.

Despite the bad weather and the increasing darkness, after three attempts we found a lookout over the region.  We'll definitely go back on a nicer day to get the full effect. 

Finally, we stopped at Vale Ale for some beer tasting.  It added some nice variety to the day, but unfortunately on the way home Leanna realized she left her purse there.  Because of that the evening was a bit rough, but that story has a happy ending.

After a simple dinner of lamb, salad, and leftovers (and some wine for the designated driver), Leanna and Daniel returned to their campervan (I swear the neighbours think we're nuts) and everyone prepared for their respective departures the next day.

The entire visit was hectic, but I wouldn't change a thing.  We're so lucky to have such great family and friends to share our Australian adventures with.