Australia roadtrip in a nutshell
We spent 6 weeks driving from Darwin to Perth and internet connection was spotty at best. Thus this blog didn't see any action in a loong time.
Rainy days in Finland meant I could finally go through all of our video material, including too many minutes of us walking around and swimming in different waterfalls. To save you all from the rest of the footage I have put together 8 minutes that pretty much shows how it was.
And it was bloody awesome.
Night terrors at Fjordland
They say New Zealand has it all. And now I have started to understand this statement a little better. So far, we have seen mountain scenery you could experience in the European Alps, walked on empty beaches with waves ready to be surfed and driven through thick forests and Windows XP-green hills.
What else could this country have, isn’t this already enough for 4,7 million people?
Fjords. You know, those things that Norway is really proud of. Only to find out that someone is better at branding than them and calls their fjord “the Eight Wonder of the World”. Milford Sound is maybe the most famous fjord in the world so Norway you’d need to step up your game a bit. Or stop being so expensive, either would work.
The drive to Milford sound is beautiful and has those famous wheat-colored fields that make such a good “hey look at me walking casually in the middle of tickling crops while stepping into mud and god knows what”- Instagram moments. I had just tried to describe to Insta-clueless Richie the perfect field-photo he would need to take when we spotted the perfect field – with about 20 others trying to take that same photo.
Knee-high at its best...
The crops weren’t that high though – or I am just taller than an average travel blogger/Instagrammer? – so my photos don’t really convey the vision we had. Richie the Art Director told me to gallop, run and jump graciously and I tried with not-so-photogenic results. I guess you need to take 100 photos to get one good shot, right?
After the mandatory photo session, we found our camping spot and did a weekly cleaning. I say weekly but up until now that is the only time we have done it. While all the doors were open, a little friend flew in. I remembered the Kea warnings and was sure it was going to steal everything it possibly could and tried to make loud noises and gestures (that’s also how I speak sometimes) and a tiny black bird came out. It wasn’t afraid of us at all, hid under the car and tried to go back in at every opportunity it got. As it wasn’t the evil Kea, I didn’t care that much and we finished cleaning.
And the night came….
Camping spots are usually pitch-black dark unless you are in a holiday park. Here we were also the furthest away from any buildings or other cars.
We were watching our daily dose of Modern Family when I heard a weird sound. Like someone really small trying to knock on our car. Possibly nothing, continued watching the show. Until we heard that and weird digging-through-our-car noise. I was starting to freak out, sure of that the evil Keas had come and they had a master plan to destroy us.
Richie went for a look outside, didn’t see a thing nor any marks on the car.
But the noise continued, only stopped when we knocked the trunk door back. This went on until it was time to sleep and I opted for ear plugs since ignorance is bliss. I woke up couple of times during the night time hearing the same noises so this wasn’t the most relaxed night.
Surprisingly the next morning there were no signs of our night guests. No marks in the car, nothing. Explanation came when the friendly ranger told that the robins (the tiny friend who tried to sneak into our car) like to eat the insects off the car. What a relief!
Foggy morning drive to Milford Sound
Now that the night terror mystery was solved we could head off to our Milford Sound cruise in peace. The prices for the cruises are usually $80+ but thanks to bookme-site we got ours $40 each. Waterfalls, fog, more waterfalls and then to Richie’s great joy, closer look at sea lions! And after that, playful dolphins. Take that Norway, I bet you don’t have fjord dolphins?!
(By the way, the popular Live-stream of a Finnish freshwater seal, saimaannorppa, is coming back this May. Tune in here https://wwf.fi/en/norppalive/. In previous years we have watched a seal mostly sleep and turn, named it Pullervo ("tubby" could be the closest translation) and saw it finding a partner. People had their second screen at work tuned into Norppa-Live all day.)
As the weather wasn’t the best we skipped a longer Gertrude Saddle walk and chose Lake Marian track instead. 1,5 hours climbing in a muddy path in the forest and at the end you are rewarded with a beautiful mountain lake. This put our hiking shoes to a true test and we survived all the mud! Lululemon active wear pants didn’t though and this was the moment we started to plan the next item in our path-to-become-hikers- purchase list.
From all the places we’ve seen in NZ so far I’d spend more time in Milford Sound and spend that time on multi-day hikes such as the Milford, Routeburn or Kepler track. Too bad you need to book these super-popular routes well in advance, the booking opens now for next summer..
But also, seeing all this makes you also appreciate what is close to home. Lapland and Northern Norway was the destination for our childhood trips and only know you come to realize how beautiful and unique those places are. Norway the Eight Wonder, Milford Sound the 9th ;)
All the roads are gravel
Driving around New Zealand does not always make sense. Our previous spot, the Mt. Cook village, was just on the other side of the mountain range and in the West you’d have the famous glaciers – Franz Josef and Fox Glacier - where we would be going later after a looong detour on the East coast.
The east coast in our dreams meant animal encounters – penguins, seals, maybe dolphins and even whales.. but of course all these are season dependent. As we have learned many times by now, it is not the penguin season. Apparently, no-one knows what penguins do or where they go after they have raised their babies at the shore. One sign said they sleep in the ocean. The theory of relativity was finalised 101 years ago but we still don’t know where the penguins go!
We didn’t spend a lot of time in Dunedin, just enough to drive through the city twice as I missed a well-hidden turn to a super cheap auto store and we had to go all around again. Now we don’t need to try to sneak into hostels to charge our electronics as we have a power inverter. Unfortunately this has meant that as the Mac is always charged, we can spend way too much time watching shows during dark nights at the camping grounds since there is nothing else to do.. (Read?! I think I had to read a lot this year. Next night then.)
Tunnel Beach near Dunedin was our first stop and since it was already 10am, it was more than appropriate time for ice cream! There are small shops selling real-fruit ice-cream scattered around NZ and it is delicious.
This day was meant to be one of those ones where you drive a bit and stop a lot. My planning notes said we could do everything from Tunnel Beach to Slope Point with multiple stops in between in a day but as we have learned, my planning can’t always be trusted.
Drive to Nugget Point Lighthouse takes up surprisingly lot of time as you need to drive there and back on a slow curly road. But it was worth it – we saw sea lions! About 300m away and they were mostly brown lumps that moved a bit… but still!
Someone is extremely happy after our first animal encounter!
Now the time was already past 2pm and it wasn’t long before dark. So we decided to skip both Purakaunui Falls and Cathedral Caves and drive straight to somewhere near Slope point to camp. Only to be tempted to drive 25km one-way on a gravel road for the possible promise of close-by sea lion encounters at Jackson Bay. We walked the whole beach, almost lost Richie in the fog, saw some monstrous sea weed trunks but no sea lions.
Now we were kind of in a rush and the gravel roads just continued. To add to this, destiny threw another obstacle on our route – bridge renovation and a detour. We were directed to drive through the middle of the thick Catlin forests and I don’t think any other backbacker has driven through that Fanghorn-type of silently threatening forest. The thickness of that jungle-like view was astounding and it would have been quite an adventure to go and wonder between the trees. Only problem is that I’m not sure if you could get in, the green walls surrounding us were so thick.
Catlins forest
After a very long time we finally got out and were approaching Slope Point camping area, now we just had to navigate based on the map as there we hadn’t had phone service in the past 3 hours. That was also awesome because I had no idea what there was at Slope Point because my plan notes did not say anything else than “Slope Point”. Luckily we found the camping spot and asked other smart people around who enlightened us that is the Southernmost part of New Zealand we could visit the next morning.
And so we did!
Climb Mt. Cook
After an unsuccessful penguin quest at Timaru, we headed back to the familiar backpacker route towards the majestic South Island mountain range.
We were pumped after enjoying our first breakfast with an actual table, drove quiet gravel roads with sheep everywhere and took only a couple of wrong turns before joining all the other touring people in buses to experience the tranquility of Lake Tekapo
Both Lake Tekapo and Punaki are quick stops unless you want to try to spend an hour to find a spot where it looks like you are there alone without fifty other people with their professional camera gear. I have started to feel serious camera envy or inadequateness with my precious LX100 but I guess I must learn to walk before I can run. And seriously, how do you carry that heavy gear and three-meter tripods to everywhere you go?!
Lake Tekapo , as you can see we are here alone without fifty other people...
When I was creating our New Zealand plans (and Tasmania and Western Australia), sometimes I have been very specific in my notes, sometimes less. After visiting these two famous lakes, I turned to consult my plan and next bullet point on the list was to “climb Mt. Cook”. Let’s go!
Those who know a bit more about New Zealand geography or famous mountains overall might have paused there and thought that climb might just be off-limits to mine and Richie’s mountaineering skills. After all, it is the highest mountain in New Zealand, covered in snow and ice all year around and is recommended only for the most experiences alpine goats such as Sir Edmund Hillary.
Thus I edited my plan to say “do hikes in Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park” and voila, that’s something we can do. We have become “hikey” people after all and our experience is just accumulating day after day. The Cradle Mountain Summit walk was done with runners, Lululemon active wear that’s more suitable for Bondi’s Saturday brunches, and a waterproof jacket from K-Mart (you guessed right, that belongs to Richie) but Aoraki saw the new us wearing real hiking boots! Richie buying shoes that cost over $100 can be classified as the eighth wonder of the world (sorry Milford Sound) and since we are so early in our journey I don’t know what to expect in a couple of weeks – maybe a real waterproof Gore-Tex jacket?
On our way to Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park
We had one night to spend at the village close to all hikes and we ran through the most popular and easiest of all walks, Hooker Valley. I’d recommend trying to do it as early in the morning as possible or go quite late as we did. It was still very busy but I can just imagine summer afternoon traffic jams on these paths..
There was no free camping around the Mt. Cook village so we opted in to stay at the only camping site that cost $13 per person for the night. Not bad for these views..
Dinner on the way before we run out of gas....
As we had run out of gas last night and couldn’t have proper brekkie or dinner, we couldn’t stay another night and do full day hikes (add another lesson to camping n00bs list – check how much gas you have left before you go to far-removed places). As a result we chose Kea point walk (very easy) and half of the Mueller Hut walk up to Sealy Tarn at 1,300 meters. Quite a steep climb but views were amazing. Coming down is a lot quicker and we were back at the car before 11 am..
Kea Point without Keas
Only thing left to do was to find a free shower. This is the fun part of living in your car trying to keep a low budget – where to find hot, preferably free, showers, especially after multi-hour hikes… Luckily at the Mt. Cook there are public showers but not the type we like – free. $2 for 4 minutes of hot water is not a problem for me, the efficient person I am, but it’s not enough to cover Richie’s hair routines and I find myself donating a minute of my time to make sure my partner’s weave looks good in photos
Three point summary a la Alex Stubb about our adventures:
- Don’t climb Mt. Cook unless you bear a resemblance to great mountaineers.
- We loved Aoraki/Mt.Cook – try to stay there at least two nights to do a variety of walks, even an overnight one on Mueller Hut.
- Remember to carry a lot of $2 dollar coins with you, there’s no such things as free showers in this cruel world..
Hello New Zealand!
Now we’re already in the second country on our to-do-list and I had a feeling it will be one of the best ones. Didn’t quite know what to expect – except hikes and sleeping in a car for five weeks – but none of those expectations were met or topped by having Christchurch on a Easter Sunday as our first day in this magnificent country.
Arriving at 5am, walking through a ghost city hungry and tired, not seeing almost a soul got us vary after a weekend in buzzing Hobart. Another lesson to add to our list of things to know – try not to arrive at a new place when it’s a public holiday and everything will be closed.
We found one place selling Weetabix and luckily had cash to pay for it as they didn’t take foreign cards. Ok. Lunch and dinner was a delightful Tuna Subway to top off our last night’s dinner at the Melbourne Airport international terminal’s Hungry Jacks. Eating healthy is not cheap and since cheap is what we’re after our bodies needed to stand this two-days-of-fast-food period.
Initially we were planning to rent a campervan for the 5 weeks we would be spending in NZ but after giving it a bit more thought we decided to look at this as an investment opportunity, possibly the only kind you can afford while traveling.
Buying a car!
Now we are owners of an awesome 2002 Toyota Estima that will be our home for the five weeks in New Zealand. It has a table, a bed, two-burner cooker so basically all we ever hoped for. It took us (Richie) 3 days and about 6 test drives to find this beauty. That was 3 days too much in Christchurch but at least I had a chance to update the blog and read (I have a lot of catching up to do..).
First stop after Christchurch was a penguin town Timaru but unfortunately, we didn’t see any here either. I can sense Richie’s disappointment of me promising all these amazing animal sightings and not seeing anything so the pressure is building to spot something and soon..
Timaru penguing expedition in photos:
The car did not disappoint on our first night, it was so warm and cosy compared to the tent in Tasmania and I was in heaven to cook our brekkie standing up soaking the awesome Hobbitton-like views surrounding us!
Last of Tasmania
Last stops of our Tasmania roadtrip including Bay of Fires, Wineglass Bay and of course Penguin!
Our Tasmania-leg of the journey was fairly short, only 12 days in total. At the same time, we got to see a lot during those 12 days – drove around the whole place almost. We got lucky weatherwise and didn’t have to spend more than two days waiting for a clear sky for the Cradle Mountain Summit walk.
Next stops following Cradle Mountain were brief each.
“Day off” – Penguin
While hoping for better weather for the hike we took off to the North coast of Tassie, final destination was a town called Penguin. I had promised to Richie that we’ll see some penguins on our travels but was too optimistic for out-of-the season penguin sightings. This little town was quite dead, the floods of tourists had just deserted the street(s) and friendly staff at the info center informed us that penguins are gone.
The only thing left to do was to take a photo with the only penguin in town and move forward.
Two Penguins at Penguin
Day after Cradle Mountain – Bay of Fires & Wineglass Bay
These are two must-see destinations in any list made of Tasmania and we obediently turned our car towards the East coast. Bay of Fires does boast impressive beaches that one didn’t expect to find in Tasmania but the appreciation of beaches really doesn’t kick in when it’s ten degrees, windy and cloudy. I was quite certain I would dig up my Finnish “sisu” (courage) from deep down where I have hidden it for the past three years living abroad and dive into the sea no matter the weather. Sisu did not appear, nor did I enjoy the crisp touch of ice-cold seawater. Maybe next time.
Wineglass Bay
From Bay of Fires we headed off to South, towards Wineglass Bay in Freycinet National Park. This is the place where we were going to learn a valuable lesson of checking you can drive to the camp site you have picked to stay in for the night. Only after a lot of googling, zooming in to the map and reading some comments did we discover that to get a nice night’s sleep without a $200 fine we would have to do a “quick” hike with our stuff up to the Wineglass lookout point and then down to the beach and enjoy a different type of Bondi-soft-sand-run in the dark with a 20kg backbag.
Our evening-walk route in blue, smiley face was our camping spot!
But I am glad we did. As I wrote earlier, we also survived a night without pillows – maybe we have potential for multi-day hikes after all!
Next morning a slower walk back to the lookout point for photos and run down for brekkie since we didn’t carry any food with us – it would’ve taken the room needed for the Target duvet and we couldn’t camp without it..
Walk back was a bit more relaxed
Original plan was to do the Mt. Amos hike where you get higher than the lookout point and less tourist crowds but these views were enough and our hiking eagerness was not enough to conquer this peak.
Port Arthur, Richmond, MONA
After this we had done the most must-sees and were left almost on a limbo –what to do now? Pick a random camping spot, go experience history at Port Arthur and Richmond.
To be honest, I was interested on Richmond more because of the chocolatiers it hosted. And the chocolate was good…
Now the only thing left for us to experience was more culture! Museum of New Art - MONA - was our destination on a Good Friday. Full of crowds and very strange art. I am not a museum person at all but I did enjoy this visit a lot – until to 3 hours later and you still have a full floor to go. I would maybe split the visit into two days to fully enjoy everything it has to offer as now we really experienced an art-overdose.
Last stop - Mt. Wellington in Hobart.
Tasmania was our first test of the budget-camping-roadtrip life that would face us for the next 14 months and as it’s only me grading my own homework I would pass us easily! Some way to go for an A+ but I can tell you we’re almost there now a week in in New Zealand. More to follow..
Camping n00bs learning many lessons
Camping in chill Tasmania during autumn time had its own surprises for us.
Tasmania was the first true test of our camping abilities and what a test it was. It's not like we haven't camped ever (I do know some of those people) but doing it in free camping spots, during autumn and basically almost without any proper gear outside of the tent and sleeping bags did set us up for an interesting journey.
In my previous life (and if you ask Richie, in my current life) I was one of those shoppers who'd look at the price of things as a sign of the best quality. And oh boy was I always after the best quality. When I set to spend two months in the Alps, the gear shopping list included only Black Diamond, Peak Performance etcetera quality (read: as expensive as possible) brands.
So naturally when we realised we need a lot of stuff beyond the tent and sleeping bags, the part of my brain that gets excited about expensive brands and functional gear shopping thought the prince has arrived with the kiss to wake it up from the 100 years of beauty sleep. Just to have its dreams crushed by the new, reasonable voice in my head that really thinks the $20 gas burner does the job for a 12-day trip as well as a super-extra-light $100 burner.
Where do you buy cheap stuff then? In Tasmania and Hobart, we headed to Anaconda Store. As listed earlier, we needed all the cooking gear and at the end got it quite cheaply. Little did we know that the comfort of camping cooking requires much more than a burner and a bowl...
Lesson 1: Get a table and chairs
A table would be nice. Maybe a chair as well. Oh well camping wasn't meant to be luxury so surely kneeling down to cook sausages for 40minutes is just how it is.
Suddenly all the other campers around us looked so comfortable, so professional with their camping tables and chairs, sipping their VB or something that resembled red wine when we stuffed our face as quickly as possible to avoid standing up any longer.
Master Chef, kneeling edition.
Lesson 2: Or better – use the public BBQ’s!
After getting tired of trying to scrape of grease and food from the pans with cold water and a fork we saw the light. Why use any of your own gear when Australia is full or public barbeques and tables, usually sheltered and with running water? After this realization, we have cooked with the pan once.
Lesson 3: If you think it will be cold, it will most likely be colder.
We kinda knew that it’ll be cold in Tassie but I was still expecting pleasant nights without feeling the White Walkers surrounding our tent. Our sleeping bags are not the -40 degrees’ Finnish quality and a $15 duvet from Target can only warm you up so much. Wearing layers, scarf, hat and one piece of Finnish quality – woolen socks (thanks Dad and Grandma!) – did get us through the nights without turning into Frozen-characters. And I was still warmer than in Yosemite in May 2010 so I’d call this a success!
Still alive!
Lesson 4: Do check that you can actually drive to that free camping spot you selected from WikiCamps.
This would again seem like an obvious one but not to us before trying to figure out how to get to the other end of Wineglass Bay beach. Only after a lot of googling we knew we would have a 1,5 hours’ hike (run) carrying our backbags to reach this secluded camping spot. The time showed 5.15pm when we set off, sun would start setting at 5.32pm and we had a long way up, down, across the beach in soft sand and finding the camping area in the woods.
We did make it down to the beach before it was pitch-black dark and the tent was up at 7pm. After all this I think the bigger challenge for my travel companion was to sleep without our beloved Target pillows as I had refused to carry those
– what would the professional hikers think of us! (Duvet was inside my backbag and only disassembled in the darkness and cover of the tent so no-one got to witness that).
Our route in blue
Made it to the beach before dark.. only 2o minutes on soft sand to go!
Breakfast views at Wineglass Bay
Lesson 5: Packing
I learned quickly that the contents of my bag were not optimized at all. It resembled an irrational feng-shui arrangement more than a convenient, quick-to-reach, most useful stuff at the surface – type of philosophy (I wonder if Marie Kondo could come up with a camping edition anytime soon?). After just two nights I shuffled everything around to “useful” and “not useful” editions and further to tops, bottoms, stuff that will be needed quickly. I’m sure it’s not anywhere close to whatever method Marie would come up with but I am less stressed when there’s no need to spend 10 minutes turning the car inside out trying to find my woolen socks.
I can also sense a lesson of not needing six bikinis for a trip around the world but I am not ready to admit this fully yet. Maybe in the next camping n00bs edition..
Any lessons you have learned and wanted to share with us? And to some of my friends, a lesson of “Do not camp, book a $200 night hotel and thank me later” won’t do now but thanks for the suggestion!
Tasmania - Bruny Island
Two days at Bruny Island, Tasmania eating oysters and berries, hiking and learning a lot about camping.
Tasmania is well known for the food and wine and all I had been able to think for a week was all the oysters I would eat in Bruny Island. I know - not exactly budget traveling but not something you could skip while being here.
Bruny Island is a short drive and a $33 return ferry ride away from Hobart. If you are in a rush remember to check the ferry schedules beforehand, we arrived just when there was a longer break and waited for 1,5 hours at the shore.
The first stop (did I say oysters already?) on our journey was just a short scenic drive away.
A $50 dollar shared oyster plate and a glass of white wine is not exactly a backpacker experience but I am just in the beginning of my transformation. The interesting part here was Richie the seafood hater trying oysters for the first time. If you deep fry, smoke and add bacon to the mix it didn't seem to be an issue at all to savour half of the plate. Great success! My favourites are still the natural ones and can't wait for the next oyster stop at Tribuanna before going to Maria Island.
The Neck Lookout
As we wouldn't have time for the main walk today, we visited the Neck Lookout quickly. Couple of stairs up, wait for the short time window when there's no-one else in sight and pose for photos. This is the place for fairy penguin spotting during dusk and dawn and since it was neither, no penguins at this time.
Searching for our first temporary home
I have been using WikiCamps Australia to search for free camping spots. Free usually means no facilities, often even no toilet whatsoever. According to the app there was only one free spot in whole of Bruny Island, at Cloudy Bay, South Island. It was fairly easy to find and had just one stop for a tent available. It's getting to a low season now and it was a Wednesday night so I can just imagine how busy the free spots must be during summer.
This was our first night camping, what a remarkable day!
- 8th of April we learned that it might be nice to have a table and chairs to cook and eat instead of kneeling down and enjoying a snug bread while standing.
- We also learned how cold exactly it is to sleep in a tent in autumn. Doable but not exactly enjoyable.
- Our day rhythm was reset, going to bed at 7.30pm and waking up at 5-6am is now how we roll.
Sunset at Cloudy Bay, Bruny Island
Controlled fires can be seen across Tasmania. Cloudy Bay, Bruny Island.
Day 2 at Bruny Island
After some "standing oats, weetabix and coffee" we packed our car again and took off to Adventure Bay and our first proper hike. The drive from Cloudy Bay to Adventure Bay went through the middle of the South Island climbing high in the middle of the forest and was definitely an enjoyable journey.
This track was said to take 2,5-3 hours, for us it took exactly two with a lot of photo stops and without a lunch break at the top. I'd definitely walk this counter-clockwise as the climb to the cape has awesome views and would be a bit more challenging coming down than the other way. We spotted plenty of wallabies on the way but did not see the famous white one!
After the hike we had earned our second food experience, fresh berries and pancakes.
This was Bruny Island for us! Next up would be a 2 hour drive to Mt. Field National park for our next lovely camping spot and another cold night..