Australia-New Zealand-Bora Bora. Musings, pictures, stories

[Wakebrad]

4 people - 15 days - 14 flights - 6 hotels - 2 birthdays

The trip was amazing. I'll start off with some random musings then work into the story.

Quantas Airlines is awesome. They still have attractive attendants who are attentive and nice. The double decker plane we flew in had a great selection of movies/games/shows in the seat you could stop and pause. Combine free alcohol with a couple sleeping pills and it was the easiest 14 hour flight of my life.

Speech: Although we all speak English it's interesting the differences in speech. The most notable was during every flight when the video would ask you to "do up your seat-belt nice and tight." One thing I hadn't really noticed until I went there was Australians tend to end statements with inflection, where-as in America a statement always ends in deflection. Kiwis spoke with a very similar accent that was slightly different. Hard to point it out exactly. People who speak French are annoying.

Toilets: One of the first things I did when I got to the hotel in Cairns, Australia was try to flush the toilet to see the water go backwards. But the Australian toilets outsmarted me. Every toilet in Australia and New Zealand I used was this smart-ass toilet with a very cylindrical base that went straight down, instead of around in a circle. They also have half and full flushes. Over-all these designs conserve water about 10 times more efficiently than the average toilet here with no loss in functionality.

Beer: Australians don't seem to be too high on their own beer selection. The first 3 places I asked for a good "local beer" or "Australian beer" I was recommended to try Corona. Corona... I live in freaking Texas. Despite the affinity for Corona in Australia they have some great beers. Coopers was my favorite followed by Toohey's Extra. Speights is the favorite NZ beer.

Bars/Pubs: Spending most of our evenings checking out different pubs/bars it was interesting watching the young kids hang out at a location I associate with a more mature crowd. The drinking age being 18 there were a lot of kids who looked and acted very young. It reminded me of a high-school lunch table, insecurities apparent, with everyone in their new stylish clothes sizing each other up, trying to passive-aggressively impress the opposite sex in their group. This is opposed to the single bar scene here, where if you're in a bar, you're there to make a move, not play games.

French vs English: Starting off in Australia and New Zealand, both English colonies it was great speaking the same language and enjoying the different accents. But the driving was insane. In Sydney, coupling the major intersections with driving on the left and vast number of pedestrians - I couldn't imagine trying to drive there. Then we go to French Polynesia where you drive on the right side of the road, which is a relief, but have to deal with French people; with their snobby, eye-brow raised chuckle and bad grammar.

Over-all we had a great trip which was pretty much hiccup free.

Cairns, Australia: We spent 2 nights in Cairns, Australia – chilling in the city and Scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef. The fish weren’t as plentiful as I have seen in Cozumel or Belize but the corral was amazing. A reef shark circled us about 10 ft out while we were diving – which was cool.

Next stop – 3 nights in Sydney. First day we went to Manly beach and ate dinner on the wharf, which was a very cool area. Sydney is a lot like New York, except the people are nice. If I were going to move anywhere in the world it would be there. We absolutely loved the city. We went to the Taronga Zoo the first full day to get some pictures of Kangaroos, Koalas, and Tasmanian devils. The zoo there overlooks the Sydney harbor, Opera House, and Harbor Bridge; beautiful views. Then we went on an Opera House tour - one of my favorite architectures and has some interesting stories behind it. That evening we went on the Harbor Bridge Climb. Definitely the coolest thing we did in Australia. You climb to the peak of the bridge which over-looks the entire city; incredible views and an exciting climb at that height.

The second full day in Sydney we jogged through the botanical gardens which are located right next to the Opera House, then took the bus to Bondi beach. Being that it was a little rainy the beach wasn’t all that exciting. I tried out the boomerang I bought in Cairns with some major disappointment. The guy showed me how to throw it, but I think the one I got wasn’t carved perfectly. It would turn over but not come back – which is retarded. It’s like throwing a stick and then running to chase it.

Next stop – 4 nights in Queenstown, New Zealand. This was the highlight of our trip. After taking about 100 pictures over-looking the beautiful Wakatipu lake when we arrived we ate dinner out on the wharf. The people in New Zealand were great. Just as nice as Australians and more laid back, which was fun. We got joked around a lot for being Americans and being Texans.

Day 1 – NZ Action Started off with the Shotover Jet Boat – which was a lot crazier than I expected. I was expecting a glorified jet-ski doing 360s. And while we did do 360s, the sharp turns – inches from the canyon walls were what made it so exciting. We would head strait for a cliff wall and then turn about 45 degrees, missing the front of the boat by less than 6 inches. I would definitely recommend it. After the jetboating we took a helicopter through some of the mountains and did some crazy dives and turns which really got your stomach dropping. It was more exciting than the heli ride we took in Hawaii but not as long. The heli dropped us off at the top of the white-water-rafting spot. It was my first white-water-rafting experience and I had a great time. It’s not something I would take-up as a hobby but would like to do it every few years for adventure. We were all wearing 6mm wetsuits which were perfect. They said we should expect class 3 & 4 rapids. As soon as we dropped the boat into the water it started raining, and raining hard. The river filled up quickly and made things interesting. The enjoyable and tiring ride ends with a cave, dug by gold miners in the early 1900s, followed by the biggest rapids of the day. By the time we got to the last rapid it was an upper class 4 when we popped out of the cave. My wife has had ear problems and is afraid of getting her ears underwater so she was really nervous about it. As we rounded the corner out of the chute we hit the class 4 rapid at the wrong angle and the left side submerged, sending my wife and friend into the rapids. Although her biggest fear was realized my wife handled it well. A rafter grabbed her down river and tossed her into their boat – and we went over and picked her up. It capped off a great and exciting first day in New Zealand.

Day 2 – Milford Sound was a boat tour of Milford Sound and the beautiful fjords there. This reminded me a lot of Hawaii, but there was just something a more epic about it. It rained that day so there were thousands of waterfalls everywhere and just beautiful scenery.

Day 3 – Buny jumping We were planning on visiting some Lord of the Rings film locations all day, but while we were registering for rafting we were drawn to the AJ Hackett Bungy jumping center since we arrived. We signed up for it the day before. I wanted to do the original bungy jump location – the Kawarau Bridge. This is 43 meters and they can get the depth so perfect that you can actually dive into the river before you recoil back. I thought that would be amazing. But everyone else wanted to do the TALL one: 134 meters – 440 feet; the 3rd tallest in the world. So since it was 3 vs 1 we did the Nevis Highwire Bungy. The Bungy platform is suspended by cables stretching from canyon wall to canyon wall. We had watched videos in the info center so we knew exactly what it was going to look like. At 4am the night before I had a mini-panic attack thinking about it; picturing standing at the edge, accepting my death and jumping off.

The next morning we take the bus out there and get strapped in, stomach in knots. Little did I know, I was going to have to go second out of 20 people because they went in order of weight - descending. You take a little gondola cart out to the platform, swaying in the wind. When you walk to the chair where they strap you in there is no railing, no harness holding you on. I was gripping that chair for life until I was fully strapped in. The hop/walk to the edge was the hardest part. But they really get you through that quickly so you don’t have time to think about it. By the time you’re standing on the edge, hanging 10, you are ready to get the hell off that platform. 5-4-3-2-1 Bungy I scream until the frog hits my throat. The first 2 seconds were pure terror followed by 6.5 seconds of pure exhilaration for an 8.5 second freefall. It was seriously awesome. Then after bouncing about 150 ft back up, you reach the peak and feel like you're floating. I enjoyed every second of it after that; even the slow pull back up to the top of the platform. After that we decided to add on a ride on the tallest/largest swing in the world: 340 meters down and over 1000 feet diameter. My wife and I did this as a tandem and had a blast. After conquering our Bungy fears this was pretty tame, and we just had fun.

We did end up picking up our car rental and checking out some LOTR locations, but after Bungy everyone was a little too hyped up to get into it. Still saw some amazing landscape and some beautiful scenery though.

French Polynesia
That concluded our trip to New Zealand. The next day was my birthday – March 9th. We flew from Queenstown to Auckland, NZ then to Papeete, Tahiti. That flight we crossed the international date-line so when we woke up in Tahiti it was the 9th again – for my second birthday. We took the ferry across to Moorea and got checked into our bungalows there. The hotel was small, locally owned and had a great reef right outside on the beach. We jumped off the end of the peer with our snorkel gear on and spent over an hour snorkeling there. Some of the best snorkeling I’ve ever done. Saw some great fish and corral, an octopus and morae eel. It was my first time to see an octopus and eel in the water.

Bora BoraThe next day we flew to Bora Bora which is easily the nicest, and most expensive beach location we’ve ever been to. We stayed on the over-water bungalows with glass bottom so you can see the fish and corral. At night they turn the lights on and the fish swarm. There were even some spotted Eagle Rays the loved hanging out down there, doing circles around the supports. The Le Meridien had a great lagoon within the lagoon, with some amazing sea-life there. They raise sea-turtles there from birth which stay protected in their lagoon – which is connected to both the ocean and main lagoon within Bora Bora. Snorkeling around the lagoon I saw my first sea turtle, 2 octopuses, amazing fish, and another morae eel.

The highlight of Bora Bora is the interior beaches and calm blue water. I tried windsurfing for the first time with moderate success. I had it pretty much figured out although I struggled with the wind conditions at times.

The most exciting part of Bora Bora had to be when we decided to take the Kayak (my friend and girlfriend) and the Outrigger canoe (my wife and I) over to the interior island. It didn’t look that far and we thought we could handle it. We’re cutting a pretty good clip, even though the outrigger is difficult to steer, and made it over to the interior in about half an hour. On the way over we remembered that we wanted to get some groceries at the store on the interior. So we’re trying to find the grocery store, paddling along the marina when the wind picks up and starts hitting us with massive waves. My wife and I struggle to get the boat facing the waves so they would stop hitting us on the broad-side, filling up the boat. Our efforts weren’t enough as the canoe fills up with water and all of a sudden we’re floating along side the outrigger. My buddy jumps in and helps us swim it to shore and pull it onto land. The girls get in the hotel shuttle boat and they take the kayak back across. But they can’t fit the Outrigger in there, so my buddy and I have to paddle it back across.

We decided, while we were there we might as well run to the store and pick up those groceries. So we leave the outrigger by the dock and walk to the store, grabbing water, wine, vodka, and mixers. We load the groceries into the outrigger and start paddling back. Fortunately the winds have died down a little but we’re still taking waves into the boat. I don’t think the outrigger was made for guys our size (me 200 lbs, my buddy 175). We make it to the deep part of the bay while I am spending half my time paddling and half the time bailing water out of the boat. This is the part where the story would be great if we ended up sinking the outrigger again and losing all of our groceries, but we made it safely across with everything including a sunburn and ridiculously sore lats.

Last thing of note we saw Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell in LAX and Jeffery Tambor (George Bluth Sr. on Arrested Development) was on our flight from LAX to DFW. Tambor was sitting close to us and was joking around with everyone on the flight; a really nice guy.

Diving the great barrier reef. I was easy to recognize, the only one with boardshorts on over the stinger suit. Gotta represent for the wakeboarders

Hanging out with Nemo on the reeef. Look out for the shark!

Kagaroo at Taronga zoo: Boing.




Tasmanian Devil


Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb


Rooftop overlooking Wakatipu Lake in Queenstown, New Zealand


Incredible sunset at Wakatipu – Panoramic Merge


Leading the way to Mordor!

(j/k sword photoshopped)

Shotover Jet boat.


Heli ride to rafting


Pit stop while rafting.


Amazing greens in New Zealand


Winds blowing the waterfalls back up the mountain – Milford Sound


Skies clear – NZ Landscape


Nevis Highwire Bungy Platform


“That’s a long way down.”


“BUNGY!!”


Wow


Nevis Arc - Worlds largest swing


Tahiti Hotel


Reef at Moorea Hotel


Moorea panoramic


Bora Bora from the plane. We were staying in one of those bungalows


Over-water Bungalow


Bora Bora Panoramic


Windsurfing


Outrigger


Seaturtle


Octopus


And that’s all folks.

[chavez]

Well that just made my time on perma-hold much more bearable.

Unbelievable trip Brad.

[MojoPin]

Really awesome! I'm not jealous at all..oh no..

[dbismyname]

your description of the bungy jumping made me feel sick to my stomach and there's nothing high anywhere near me. The pic of ya'll sitting in the swing made me tinkle on my office chair just a bit.

But awesome trip man. Did the same sort of thing on a canoe out on St. Joseph Penninsula Fla. You hit the black water and start to think about what is under you if you flip it.

[Canucked]

kinda disappointing about the toilets, would you still have gone if you'd known?


j/k awesome looking trip. My wife and I wanted to stay in those glass bottom huts (i think the ones we looked at were in Moorea) but they were dang expensive!

My cousin is getting hitched in NZ next year. We may do a very similar trip. Your pics make it even more tempting.

[E.J.]

EXCELLENT report and pictures Brad....

"Try a Corona".....

[Dragonlady8]

You should have filled a sink or tub to get the reverse drain.
Great pics and travel blog.
Did you get to try any of the beers from DB brewery while you were in NZ?
Steinlager in NZ is MUCH more carbonated in NZ than in the US..... from what I've been told.

[Oasis137]

Awesome trip man, definately going to have to do somthing similar if my future. You pretty much sold me on it.

[Craig-R]

i heard beers in australia are TERRIBLE

nice pics... moorea FTW

[Skwake]

so so much I need to write about this post lol. Just dont think I have the time.
Glad you had an awesome time down here! Too bad you only went to sydney n Cairns....

[itch]

WOW that has to be the best write up on wakeboarder EVER~~~
Made me feel like I was there nice Brad thanks for sharing.
ITCH

[Bambamski]

wow what an amazing adventure.

I so wanted to go to Bora Bora this time around. Maybe next year I guess

[Medina]

Its all soo epic beautiful!

[JeffreyCH]

Awesome write up and pics!!!!

[jt09]

that's just awesome man! i'm SUPER jealous!

thanks for putting the time and effort into the write up.

[Wakebrad]

Thanks guys. It was definitely a trip of a life-time. I appreciate all of the comments. After I posted it I had second thoughts, since you don't see too many people make posts with this much information.

We did end up finding a toilet that spun backwards, in Tahiti I think. Even took a video

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/zFrfRbXthUMcEoyoh0-q1Q?feat=directlink

We did drink some Steinlager but I've never tried it in the US so I couldn't compare. We liked Speights better I think although they tasted similar.

I forgot to add a few things as well:

We took over 3,000 pictures between the 4 of us. I took 1,500 on my camera.

Maybe the Arc was a little scarier than I remember


Glenorchy New Zealand


Bungy Panoramic


NZ Greens


Cool shot - I took this through my polarized sunglasses to get it to show up better. Looks like something out of LOTR


Diving off our Bungalow
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/1kN96uiY9R7kXd8MQYYw5w?feat=directlink

Flipping off our bungalow
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/T8pPlGprJjH8q6aH8QSQyw?feat=directlink

[Nauty]

Awesome post Brad. The pictures are amazing! I am very jealous of your jet-set lifestyle. However, I'm still not sure where I stand with board shorts over a wetsuit?

[Dpierce37]

Wakebrad, DAAAAANNNNNGGGG bro!!!! I can't even imagine how much planning and coordinating went into this. Did you have a travel agency set everything up for you or did ya'll plan it?

Maybe you can give me some inside info on that place you stayed at in Bora Bora....that would be my dream honeymoon place.

Pics are freaking amazing...I wish I had a better camera when I went to Bali...but oh well. Speechless right here.....

[Medina]

One of the pics looks actually like the Windows XP grassland background

[itch]

Brad no worries about the write up that is the way wakeborder.com people posted 10 years ago that is what made us all feel like a family. Things have changed but we all like to hear about each others stories and adventures.
I love the Glenorchy picture.
ItCh

[Wakebrad]

Nauty, man, no one wants to see the bulge...

Medina, that's what I was thinking when I took it. The odd thing is that green isn't grass. It's a thick spongy moss. It's what makes everything so bright, uniform and 100% green, rather than grass with weeds.

itch, very cool. Wish I would have been around during that time period. It still seems like this place is like a family - probably because of the vibe lingering from back then and mostly the same people.

Dpierce37, yeah, we went through a travel agency which was good and bad. Dealing with the time-changes, airport transfers, and language barriers would have been difficult without one - and they all went incredibly smooth. On our itinerary it was really confusing when we crossed the international date-line. Leaving on the 9th arriving on the 8th. That would have been tricky on our own. The bad part was our travel agent, while very knowledgeable, was terrible about getting back to us. We'd send her 5 emails and call her multiple times before we could get a hold of her - over the course of 2 weeks. Because of all of the delay we didn't get our travel documents until the day before we left even though we'd been planning since Oct. We priced it out online and it looked about the same prices.

The hotel in Bora Bora was Le Meridien. For the 2 days we spent there, it cost us a good portion of the total. I think it was something like $500 a night and meals were anywhere from $30-100 per person. And I mean $30 for a club sandwich and water. The exchange rate is really bad over there. We didn't really do any research on which Bora Bora hotel to stay at. My wife's co-worker had a bunch of pictures and stayed at the Le Meridien so we decided to stay there. What set it apart was the lagoon at the hotel and the sea-life there. IMO that would be hard to beat but I don't know what the others had to offer.

Interior lagoon at Le Meridien and the restaurant at the hotel


Daily turtle feeding - they do a great job raising these guys. The turtle guy there knew each one.




Best restaurant we ate at all trip. A must if you go to Bora Bora


Eagle rays swimming under the docks

[Dpierce37]

Wakebrad, wow...ummm...that would be a pretty pricey two weeks wouldn't it! HAHA Sounds like worth a couple days though..then head somewhere cheaper. Yea the time and date change is really weird. Sounds like your wallet was on fire! HA Worth every penny I am sure.

I think when we head back to Bali, I am going to do the whole Asian thing. Few days in Taiwan, few days in Thailand, few days on different Indo Islands....you got me excited now...time to sell the house to help pay for it! HAHAHA

[Wakebrad]

Dpierce37, for sure. Normally I couldn't stomach that much money spent in 2 weeks but we just kept telling ourselves it was a trip of a life-time, which then led to us spending more money

That sounds awesome. I've never been to Europe or Asia at all. So much of the world left to see..

[Dpierce37]

Wakebrad, it sure does put life into perspective of how much more there is to this world then our little suburb we call home. That's what I want to do when I grow up...travel the world.

[BrentC5Z]

Just WOW! That's crazy awesome.

[Okie Boarder]

Sweet! Looks like y'all took a great trip and it was really cool of you to take the pics and document it all so well for us. My wife and I have talked about taking a trip or two along those lines, but never have...yet. We're thinking we'll do a couple trips like that either when the kids are teens or grown and out of the house.

[stewart]

Amazing Trip. Thanks for sharing.