We decided to have a “sight-seeing” day, and luckily for us we were able to borrow Jason’s car so we took ourselves off to the highly recommended area of Margaret River. It was quite a drive to this region south of Perth, taking over 3 hours to reach our first port of call at Cape Naturaliste. We had higher expectations of this particular area looking out to sea, but it was disappointing. The walk around the Cape is okay but doesn’t really take in the views until much further round and we were constantly beating off flies! This was the worst part and perhaps the biggest memory of this area…the flies. Perhaps it is the season for them but we were covered and they wouldn’t leave us alone, we were glad to leave. One of the positives was that we were able to have our own pack-lunch inside the cafe area. The Lighthouse was closed for refurbishment.

Further down the road we found a spot of paradise in Yallingup Bay. We’d stopped to take a few photos of the ancient coral and rocks before looking over at the beautiful bathing spot and so we decided we would spend a few hours there, swimming, sunbathing and reading. The water is crystal clear in these parts (and for much of what we’ve seen in Australia) along with a gorgeous aqua colour it just tempts us every time. So in we were, it was much chillier than expected but a relief from the hot sun. In some parts of the bay the current is very strong and there is quite a bit of rock on the ground but there are some great spots for swimming and the surfers were there too lapping up the waves.

On our way out of the bay we stopped at a quirky grocery store offering anything from souvenirs to ice-creams, umbrellas and camping food and they had quite an extensive menu. The air was very back-packer in vibe and we couldn’t help but sit and enjoy our ice-creams at this pleasant place.

Moving on along our drive we took the road to Margaret River and stopped off at one of the many many vine-yards in the area. Margaret River is renowned for producing great wines and so it would have been rude not to. We chose to stop at the very grand Laurance Vineyard and were greeted by a slightly out of place statue of an angel in the air along with fountains in the lake at the front of the property. The cellar door is a restaurant and they offer wine tastings including 6 taster of choice for $9 or 3 tasters, olives and bread for $9. They charge because they can, the location is beautiful and the venue is very appealing with large wooden furniture, big swinging doors and the toilets are particularly nice! We went for a tasting of 6 between us with Dave’s favourite being the Chardonnay and Helen’s the Rose. All wines were very good though and even in our post-beach scruffiness we felt quite grand sitting in their luxurious surrounds.

Our next stop was at the River Mouth of Margaret River where huge sand-dunes build up around the beach and river area. Helen’s brother had talked of the sand-dunes and so we were hoping we would find the right place. The ocean here is perfect for surfers, wind–surfers and kite-surfers and we watched in awe taking in the speed of which they were travelling. Further round by the sand-dunes we enjoyed a windy walk taking in more dunes, grass and waves. It really is a beautiful area.

We ended our day at the fish and chips shop in Margaret River, perhaps the cheapest place to eat in what is a busy tourist town. We didn’t spend much time in the town itself but the region is beautiful and we could see why so many people had recommended us to visit there. The drive back to Perth was another 3 hours plus and so it was a long day indeed, but well worth it.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

It was quite a drive from Franz Josef to Wanaka so we broke up the journey with an overnight stop at the DOC campground located at the top of Lake Wanaka. We had a pretty slow start to the day with some photographs of the masses of drift wood that has collected on its shores. We took in the scenery that surrounded us and then made tracks to Wanaka town.

It was only a further hours journey from that point until we reached the town where there was a little craft market taking place on the fields opposite the lake. Not much for us to buy but it is a great market for gifts, jewellery and pottery amongst other things. We then nipped over to the I-Site to get some info on the area and to see where we would be camping for the next few nights. We were interested in a Lord of The Rings tour, but at over $150 it was far too much on our budget.

We took advantage of a discount offer for the Lake Outlet Camping Ground that we found in the I-Site, it was an offer of 12% per night so we snapped this up and drove out to the camp ground. Lake Outlet is 8km out of town on the south-west shores of the lake, they have a very Mediterranean feel about the place and we instantly liked it, for $23 it wasn’t badly priced either. We found our spot and decided to hire some bikes for the afternoon.

We took the lake trail back towards Wanaka and ended up at the Rippon Vineyards where Helen had previously enjoyed a wine tasting. This time though things had changed and the vineyard have built a big wine cellar building on the top of a hill overlooking the vineyards and lake. They are in a beautiful location and we enjoyed sampling their special Riesling and Pinot Noir. On our way back to the campground we bumped into Uta and Oliver and convinced them to stay at the same campground as us.

The bike hire cost us $15 each for 3 hours which we felt was a fair price. Back at camp we worked on the blog and enjoyed another tasty dinner with Uta and Oliver before sharing our Sky-dive video with them and still feeling nervous watching it again.

We didn’t do much the next day, and opted for a working day. Something that we hadn’t done for a while. So we continued to work on the blog at the camp ground and drove out to get some food and fuel later on before carrying on with work! A bit of a nothing day but Helen did manage to catch up with Lois which was just lovely!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

We struggled to find a place to camp the night before on our way over to the Nelson region from Blenheim, so we opted for a roadside freedom spot where another van was parked up. It’s tricky knowing what is possible on the freedom camping side of things but we definitely felt reassured by the fact that another van was already parked for the night.

The reason we were heading over this way was because we were due to skydive at 11am on the 3rd in Motueka with Skydive Abel Tasman. Unfortunately it was a thick, cloudy start to the day so we went straight to the Motueka airfield to have a chat with the skydive company. They wanted to push us back to 1.30pm, we were okay with this but the outlook wasn’t so good. We opted to work on the blog and editing at an internet/sushi cafe on the main street in Motueka and by noon we figured the weather wasn’t going to change and decided to postpone the skydive until Monday and go back to Nelson to take advantage of being in a town and some finer weather for Helen’s birthday night out!

We backtracked and drove to Nelson whilst stopping en-route for lunch at the Ruby coastal scenic drive where we found a handy little campsite that would become useful to us over the next few days. We were in Nelson by the afternoon and checked into the Nelson Holiday Park which at $36 would be our most expensive night camping in NZ yet. However on the plus side we could walk into town, there were free showers and a decent kitchen too.

On our way into central Nelson we passed by an eclectic vintage and antiques shop supplying everything from bone china teapots to retro posters, old picnic sets to mannequins, and clothes to furniture. We love these kind of places as they give us ideas for our future home! The owner was more than happy for us to take some photos as we explored her vast collection.

When we got into central Nelson we stopped by the Art Deco Cathedral before taking the steep path up to the centre of New Zealand. There is a monument marking the spot and great views across Nelson and the mountain ranges beyond. Back in Nelson we had some good pub grub and cider at Mac’s home brewing pub ‘The Vic’, there was a good atmosphere and we liked the way Mac’s is branded. It’s also really good to see so many local brews leading the way. We ended our evening at The Free House a converted church where some live Blues was taking place. We had intended to enjoy the live music but instead we opted for a bottle of a local Sauvignon Blanc whilst enjoying the ambience.

The following day was Helen’s birthday and first thing Dave baked a lemon drizzle poppyseed cake! Woooop! Happy birthday to me happy birthday to me….

For the rest of the day it rained and rained so we didn’t take many photos. We opted for the Nelson Museum, the Sutra Gallery and popped into Mountain Designs to have a quick catch up with Brian aka Two Backpackers who we know from twitter. Small world.

Later on we drove back to Motueka to watch a film at their local artsy cinema Gecko. We opted for Submarine which we both enjoyed immensely and vowed to own it in our DVD collection soon! We ended the day with fish and chips from the Happy Chippy on the main street, although we had bought food for dinner it was raining so heavily we couldn’t cook anywhere and nothing else was open!

That night we camped at the $6 a night campground that we’d stopped at the day before on the Ruby Coast. It was pretty flooded but we found a decent spot and the rain eventually calmed down.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

After a fairly lazy start to the day, we packed up the tent and all the gear as usual into the car, said goodbye to Don, (who kindly offered his phone number and details in-case we were back in the San Francisco area once he had returned from his very own road-trip, to stay at his ranch north of SF) and we were back onto the highway aiming for Healdsburg for wine tasting.

The Lonely Planet USA guide had some recommendations so we popped into the local information center for maps and a bit more info. We wanted to hire bikes to ride to the vineyards however upon closer inspection the bike hire was $10 per hour and it would be an all day ride; very expensive little town, but very nice. We decided to drive rather than cycle.

The first stop was Bella Vineyard which has wine tasting in a cave, not sure if this is natural or man made, but it made for some nice cool air and rather swanky surroundings, this would be a great place for a celebration. The wine tasting here was $10 per person for 6 samples but we actually ended up with 7 with the Chardonnay and Pino-noir our two favourites!

The next stop was Porter Creek vineyards. This was a small little hut next to the owners house and they had a massive dog in the doorway named Diego who was very friendly and welcoming. Here it was $5 per person, so we shared the samples to save some money and not get a DUI from the highway patrol! All in all Healdsburg is a lovely place to go wine tasting. There are loads of different places to go, with quite a few offering free samples. We would highly recommend the area, but it is on the pricey side.

We decided that it would be too expensive to stay in the Healdsburg area so we re-joined Highway 1 and made our way to the coast and camped at Stillwater cove. This was taking us north for a few miles but we didn’t mind. We only just got a pitch at the camp site as this seems to be where the locals from SF come for their weekend getaways! $28 for a camp spot, oh how we miss the days of Oregon and their subsidised camp grounds at $12.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Well we can’t all say that we’ve spent Christmas in Hong-Kong…but WE CAN!! He he! Although to be fair we could have been anywhere in the world and still made this a day to remember. It was a slow start to the day with our customary oats, yoghurt and fruit breakfast followed by some prancing around in our Christmas hats. Dave slept in a little longer and enjoyed the cosyness of the apartment. We got ourselves a little pack up so we could go to Victoria Park for a Christmas picnic. We were also downloading a Christmas film that we would watch later in the day; Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and strolled out with our Christmas hats still on.

The park is just around the corner from Causeway Bay and was packed full of the local overseas contingent mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines, we’re pretty sure they are mostly maids and restaurant workers and had read prior to going that it’s a very common sight to see them all to get together in public spaces, hanging out with each other on their days off. We assumed this was the case. We walked around and found the central open air swimming pool which is an Olympic-sized pool left empty in the park. Its really eerily located right at the foot of sky-rise apartments and office blocks and left us with a great photo-opportunity.

Moving on from this we continued to walk and found a nice quiet spot in the park where we would have our picnic. For Christmas brunch we opted for the much anticipated and longed for hummus and carrot, a good tomatoe relish, rivita crackers, posh crisps, dark chocolate and cider. Oh how we enjoyed this sipping cider with the local monks passing by and just simply enjoying our little moment.

After this satisfying and overpriced picnic we went back to the apartment via the shipping area, photographed more of the locals and went back to settle in for some Ferris Bueller action. This was Dave’s first time…Can you believe it?? It was enjoyed along with a bottle of white wine and dark chocolate…oh how the other half live!

After the film we got ready for our Christmas meal we had booked the previous day. Most restaurants offer a set menu from day to day and they tend to be good value for money. We had noticed a little pub underneath our guesthouse offering a Christmas menu that didn’t look to shabby at all and was at a relatively good price considering the cost of other things on offer. So we didn’t venture very far at all, we did get a few Christmas presents to enjoy with our meal of which you can see us modeling the best below! The meal started off okay, but it just went from bad to worse and by the end Helen felt like it was the toilet that was calling her rather than the local dessert. Hmmm! You can’t win them all!

So after a slightly disappointing meal (although the picnic did make up for this!!) and a good Skype call to the Roscoe’s we went off to Victoria Peak via the metro so we would take in the Hong-Kong skyline by night. It was a good little journey, packed with many other tourists waiting to go up to the Peak, and the tram ride up was fun. Once we were up there it was really cold, so it was a good job we’d put on some extra layers. We experimented with slow shutter work on the Leica which provided us with an alternative view take of the skyline. Helen’s dinner didn’t do her many favours so she was not a happy bunny but after a good hour or so we got the tram back down and made our way back to Causeway Bay.

You can walk down from the Peak and on a nice evening this would have been a good option and alternative to getting the tram. We didn’t buy tickets to the highest viewing platform and the main building contains a lot of shops which we more or less bypassed to get outside and photograph the views.

Back in Causeway Bay we walked around a little longer, took in some more neon and then went back to our little room to enjoy the rest of our Christmas evening together.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)