Car troubles, Kaikoura and the inevitable ferry crossing

North Canterbury, Kaikoura, Marlborough – Sunday 4th October 2009

Up at 8am, breakfasted, showered, beds stripped, dishes washed, recycling put away and we’re off in the car to drive to the Conical Hill lookout. Or not. I had accidently left the car lights on overnight and we weren’t going anywhere.

Pam went back inside the Lodge and asked at the reception if we could get a jump start and the owner obliged by producing a set of jumper cables. I turned the motor over and…nothing. So the guy went and got his father-in-law who had a truck and we tried again with the jumper leads. Still nothing. Next we rang the AA and were told that an AA mechanic would be there within the hour. So we waited and luck would have it, he arrived in 10 minutes. His super duper jumper cables got us started first time.

Ever so grateful to the AA man, and knowing that we needed to keep the engine running for at least 20 minutes to fully charge the battery, we decided against the drive to Conical Hill lookout. So off we went on our drive to Picton, down Highway 7A, then onto Highway 70 towards Kaikoura.

Luckily we had no further car trouble along the winding road, meeting up with State Highway 1 just south of Kaikoura. A family of California quail ran in front of the car which caused me to slow down, and then drove through two car tunnels along this main road.

At Kaikoura we searched in vain for the shop with the giant crayfish that we had seen in the publicity photos of this town, so we headed back to the Adelphi Restaurant for lunch. Because we were in a fishing town, Pam had the seafood basket, the kids had fish and chips, and I had…the vegetarian option (as always) of kumera and corn fritters with salad. Just what we needed.

Back on the road south of Kaikoura township on this bleak day. The tide was out and two seals were spotted lying on the rocks. A crowd of about 10 tourists surrounded them with more tourists on the way. Vastly outnumbered, the beasts put on a good show by not moving much and posing for the cameras. A couple of candid snaps in the cold wind and we were back on the road, through the town and heading north on State Highway 1.

That’s when we think we spotted it – a store at Waipapa Bay with a crayfish on top, but we weren’t expecting to see it on the roadside here and had driven past before we realised what it was, so no photo opportunity.

The coastal road dragged on for another hour then we were heading inland towards wine country and Blenheim. We had planned on visiting Aaron’s Dad, John, in Blenheim, but he had rung the night before to inform us that he wouldn’t be in Blenheim in the afternoon as he would be on the train to Christchurch. He was due to have tests as the hospital the following day. (In fact we passed his train near Kaikoura). So through the roundabout at Blenheim and we pressed on to Picton, 30 minutes away.

At Picton we quickly located the Apex Car Rental dropoff and as we had a bit of time to spare (and a little bit of petrol left in the tank), we drove through Picton to the yacht jetty. Too cold and windy to do much, we headed back t Apex, dropped off the car and walked the five minutes to the InterIslander ferry terminal to check in.

At the check-in, we were informed that the ferry was running 45 minutes late, and that the seas were very rough. It was a long wait at the ferry terminal and groups of school sports teams started arriving. Finally the ferry arrived and we were allowed to board.

We found a space at the front of the ferry with what we hoped would be a great view of the Marlbourough Sounds. We purchased some rather expensive food from the cafe and sat down to eat while waiting for the ferry to depart. There was an announcement advising those who suffered from motion sickness to go to the back of the ferry where the boat was supposed to be a bit more stable and that it was expected to be rough out in Cook Strait. Possibly not the best thing to be telling the passengers about rough conditions.

Finally we were off and the front curtains were pulled down because the light from inside interferred with the captain’s navigation. There goes our view of the Sounds! Probably just as well, as the waves were supposed to be about five metres high. Something we probably didn’t want to see.

As Pam doesn’t travel well on boats, she headed off topside to ride out the travelling outside. Aaron and Becks stayed with me, but both of them looked a little worse for wear – Becks even lying on the floor at one stage. I read my book and chatted with a woman sitting next to me. The ride was not as rough as I had expected from what the crew had said and really only for about 20 minutes. Once we turned into Wellington Harbour and saw the city lights, we knew the trip was almost over.

Disembarked and at the taxi stand for the short trip home. Just in time for a nasty southerly to hit the country. But we had had a good time in the South Island over a long weekend. Back to work for me the next day, but a few more days off for the birthday girl.

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Lazing in the hot pools

Hanmer Springs – Saturday 3rd October 2009

We had a reasonable sleep-in on a cold and sunny morning. I watched a mother blackbird defend her nest against a predatory cat that did look a tad hungary. This drama unfolded outside our kitchen window.

The kids finally realised that they didn’t have any utensils for breakfast so turned up on our doorstep at 9.30am with their breakfast. But with TV, toaster and heater going, we managed to blow the fuse circuit and all our electrical appliances stopped working. A visit to the reception and the circuit breaker was fixed.

Finally all showered and wearing our togs under our clothes, Rebecca, Pam and I headed off to the hot pools. Aaron decided to stay home and watch DVDs.

Enjoying the hot pools at Hanmer Springs.

The pools opened at 10am and we arrived half an hour later. Not much of a queue but going by the number of cars parking up, it was going to be a very busy place poolside. We opted to pay the $18 day return ticket each (day ticket is $14 per adult) and we were off to find a spot in the many hot pools with varying temperatures. Ah, the warmth.

Two hours of lazing at the hot pools and a few spots of rain later it was almost 1pm and time to head off back to the Lodge for a quick shower to wash off the sulphur and then off to have lunch with Aaron.

Walking back to Kakapo Lodge.

Toasted sandwiches and chicken and chips at the local chippie shop (rather expensive $5 for a two filling toastie). Back to the Lodge we headed as the rain was settling in – no mini golf match played this time around. And no walking on the many short walks in the local vicinity, either.

We elected to drive the car to the lookout at Conical Hill, but were stymied by closed forest gates and rough roads. The rain was getting the better of us after a half hour drive in and around town, so we headed back to the Lodge for a rest.

Aaron and Pam watching the rugby.

By 5.15pm the rain had finally stopped and we headed back into town to watch the Wellington vs Manawatu rugby game on the screen at the Monteith’s Bar. This bar was very busy , the food reasonable, but over-priced. By 9pm we were ready to go home and the big boxing match (Tua vs Cameron which had been advertised as being at 7.30pm) hadn’t even started yet.

Back to the Lodge and and to bed, hoping that the rain would hold off for the trip home the following day.

Pam’s 50th Birthday – Trip to Hanmer Springs

Christchuch to Hanmer Springs – Friday 2nd October 2009

The taxi arrived on time at 8.15am, and after picking up the kids (Aaron and Rebecca), we were on our way to the airport for a quick flight to Christchurch. Fantastic view of Lake Ferry and Lake Wairarapa from the Air New Zealand plane before being plunged into cloud for a largely bumpy ride south.

Arriving early in Christchurch to sun and 19 degrees Celsius, we caught up with our friend Kathy who was on the same flight. Her for work, us for a long weekend away to celebrate Pam’s 50th birthday.

The Apex Rental Car courtesy van collected us from the airport carpark to take us on a five minute drive to the Apex depot. After completing all the paperwork, the five of us, Pam, Aaron, Rebecca, Kathy and I were heading off to the centre of Christchurch to see the Cathedral at the Square.

Apex were very cheap compared to the larger and better known car rental companies, just over $200 for 3-days hire and they allowed us to drop off the car at a different town at no extra cost. A four-door Toyota sedan, maybe a little older than the other companies cars, but it seemed perfectly okay and drivable (if a little gutless).

We parked close to the Square and walked the short distance to the Cathedral. We had brunch at the very nice and not too expensive Cathedral Cafe, adjacent to…the Cathedral. After brunch, we said our farewells to Kathy and walked the short distance to the Avon River for a few photos.

On the way back from the Avon, we witnessed a pink party bus side-swipe a little yellow car. The bus driver appeared to abuse the woman driver and then somehow managed to convince her to let him drive her car across the road so it wasn’t in the way of other traffic (and possibly to hide evidence!) Pam wasn’t having any of it so marched into the police station 100 metres up the road to report the incident. After describing the accident, a policewoman went to sort out the problem. All sorted from our perspective, we headed back to the car for the one hour 45 minute drive to Hanmer Springs.

The weather stayed fine for the drive on good roads on State Highway 1 via Kaiapoi, Woodend, Waikuku, Leithfield, Amberley and Waipara. We were now in wine country but no time to stop for the enticing “free wine tasting”, signs of which were along here. At Waipara we turned left onto State Highway 7 and drove through Waikari and Culverden. Here we were getting closer to the snow topped mountains. And in no time we were at the turnoff to Hanmer Springs on Highway 7A, along with about 20 other cars!

We crossed over the one-lane Historic Ferry Bridge where Aaron had bungee-jumped 10 years previously, then into the town and our accommodation at Kakapo Lodge in Amuri Avenue, a two minute stroll away from the thermal pools.

Our rooms were fairly clean and well presented (a motel room inside the backpacker complex for us, and double en suite upstairs for the kids). The Lodge seemed bizarrely deserted compared to the volume of people in town and number cars on the streets. It was school holidays after all.

I had booked our accommodation via the website which didn’t offer the recommended discount for Youth Hostel members, but after a quick response to an email sent the week before, we were able to receive a $12 membership discount (for two) plus use the three $5 Youth Hostel vouchers, making our stay even more economical.

We left our bags in our rooms then headed off for a lazy walk to town. Alas, the rain finally caught up with us, but luckily the rain was coming straight down, not sideways with the wind like it usually does back in Wellington.

After a fairly quick look around town to find a half decent bar/restaurant that served reasonable meals and DB Draught (two places were located), we lunched a the local bakery and then headed off to the well-stocked 4-Square supermarket for a few supplies. Stocked up, we were back in the rain and on to the Lodge for a rest before venturing out later for a birthday dinner.

Our pub/restaurant of choice was The Village Inn on Jacks Pass Road. DB Draught was served here in quart bottles and the meals were huge. Good value for money. We watched the Hawkes Bay rugby game…no wait…channel being changed…the Canterbury game (we’re in the South Island after all and the two games were on at the same time).

We felt like playing a game of pool. Alas, no pool table in this pub. Pokies, but no pool. We asked the passing waiter where a pool table might be located – across the road at Saints Restaurant. So off we went to Saints but some kids seemed to have the table wrapped up, so we decided to call it a night.

We stopped off for ice cream on the way home on a full tummy for a relatively early night.

Home again

Australia – Saturday 18th July 2009

Finally we’re on the plane to Melbourne. Only one movie available to watch, “The Great Buck Howard”, which was tedious to say the least. I  had a meal of beef spaghetti and tried to get some sleep, thinking it was a five hour flight. Alas, the lights had only been out for half an hour before we were descending into Melbourne. Seems the trip was only three hours long – I forgot to add in the time difference, doh! So we landed in Melbourne earlier than I had expected, but on time, a little before 6am.

Plenty of time to shop at duty free and buy a couple of bottles of Aussie wines (Margan Verdelho and Mitchelton Viognier) but we were both incredibly drained by now. Pam tried to catch a few zzzzzz on the seats in the international section, but turned out this was very uncomfortable. I tried to concentrate on my journal notes, but suddenly started to feel very unwell.

Over the next hour I became very intimate with the Melbourne Airport toilets. Fearing that I had succumbed to the dreaded Swine ‘flu, I was almost at the point of postponing our flight back to Wellington. But at that stage, I didn’t know who to tell. There seemed to be others also in this predicament. Had they also been on the Perth-Melbourne flight? Was it the on flight meal of beef spaghetti that was really responsible?

Our plane was delayed another half hour so I grabbed a cup of hot water at the cafe and added a couple of teaspoons of salt to it. Tasted disgusting. Half an hour later and no further bathroom visits. Had it worked? Still very cautious, but the boarding call for our three and a half hour flight to Wellington had been called. It was decision time. To go or stay. So go we did.

Although I had planned on not eating anything on this flight, I did manage to eat some salad and cheese, oh, and chocolate of course. Tired, but suffering none of the earlier symptoms, we arrived in Wellington on a gloriously sunny afternoon. The plane took us over the hills on the west coast where we were astonished to see so many windmills that make up the Makara Wind Farm – 62 turbines launched back in April, apparently. Through immigration, duty free and on to customs. We fessed up that we had been walking in the Aussie outback and showed the Customs Officer our now glistening clean shoes. A quick bag x-ray, and we were heading for a taxi and home for a much deserved rest.

Despite the long traveling distance from New Zealand, we had an awesome adventure and I highly recommend Broome and the Kimberley region to any traveller.

Last day in Broome

Western Australia – Friday 17th July 2009

We got up late after a nice long sleep-in but were now worried that the housekeeping staff would be banging at the door at 10am. Sure enough they were, but as we were checking out at 5pm and had paid for the room until the following morning, we told them not to bother making the bed or changing the towels.

We scrubbed the Kimberley dirt off our shoes in the guest laundry so as not to be a bio-hazard on our return to New Zealand, then made our way to the swimming pool for a last dip and relax in the sun. Several rather large lizards kept us company by the pool.

A swim, a sunbathe, then some last minute shopping for me while Pam had a lie down and watched TV. We had heaps of snack food (popcorn, chippies, peanuts), which we managed to give away to the the Aussie family we had met the day before.

Packed and checked out, we were off to the airport. Our bags were checked all the way through to Wellington so we only needed to be at the airport one hour before the flight.  We arrived at Broome International Airport at 5.30pm after a very brief taxi ride. Honestly, we could have walked the distance and we did see other travellers pulling their bags along the very short distance to the airport from town.

The taxi driver was rather entertaining in his very colourful verbal abuse of another driver who was trying to drive into the motel from diagonally across the street. The driver wasn’t indicating as he wasn’t turning. Makes sense to me. Aussies, eh.

All our pre-booked seats had changed, but for the better as now we were seated togther on the Broome-Perth leg of the trip. The plane was packed, mostly with people on school holiday returning to Perth, and we did have a slightly better seat with a view of the……ah, wing.

We arrived in Perth and had a three hour wait for our plane to Melbourne, which of course was delayed an extra 45 minutes. We played cards to while away the time and meet two Kiwi women and their son who had been in Africa for three weeks on safari in Tanzania followed by a week of lazing at the beach at Zanzibar. COOL! Turned out they were going on the same plane from Melbourne to Wellington as us AND only live down the road in Brooklyn from us! It truly is a small world.

Sun Pictures

Broome, Western Australia – Thursday 16th July 2009

Up early to return the 4WD to Broome Broome Care Rentals by 8.30am. We arrived at the office by the appointed time and suddenly remembered we hadn’t filled the petrol tank! Doh! Stuck in a queue at the Shell petrol station for 15 minutes before we were able to fill half a tank of diesel for AUS$80. We had luckily avoided having to use the sub petrol tank on our travels but did notice that many travelers were also filling spare petrol cans for outback travelling. The distances really are long between gas stations.

Finally back at the Broome Broome office, a quick inspection of the vehicle and we were back out into the sunshine for a walk around ChinaTown. We visited the Pearl Luggers and other shops, had and cake in the arcade, stopped off to purchase tickets for the evening movie at the Sun Pictures outdoors theatre, and visited the Old Broome Lockup and Boab Tree.

We wandered back to the Broome Motel for a swim in the pool. Pam befriended a young girl (who only had one arm) and her mum which meant both Pam and the girl had a playmate in the pool, allowing me to sunbathe and catch up on some reading.

After lounging in the sun for a few hours, we changed our clothes and walked the short distance to the Sun Pictures to watch “Ice Age 3″. The walk took us past the Male Oval and the sunset view was awesome, but then this coast of Australia is known for its amazing sunsets.

“Ice Age 3″ was an enjoyable movie, made even more enjoyable by it being shown at the oldest picture garden and open-air movie theatre in the world. We sat in deck chairs, watched the night sky, with birds flying overhead and the occasional airplane and helicopter  landed close by. Crickets and other night bugs kept us company on this beautiful night.

Once the movie had finished, we decided to try “The Aarli” restaurant for dinner. We shared tapas but we should have stuck with four choices not the five plates we chose. A glass of Western Australian wine, Vasse Felix Chardonnay for me and two coronas for Pam.

We waddled back to the motel and were confronted by small cockroaches crawling over the table next to the fridge. I managed to squash most (sorry bugs), and wondered if it was because we had left some food in our room. But with ants everywhere (but thankfully outside), we did wonder if putting up with insects in your room was just part of life in Broome.

Tired, we decided to have a bona fide sleep-in the next day.

China Wall and 24 hour stopping

The Kimberley, Western Australia – Wednesday 15th July 2009

All the other travellers had departed from the Best Western in Halls Creek by 8am. These early starts were taking a toll on us and we had another long drive ahead.

We had decided not to go to Wolfe Creek Crater as the drive was long (three hours return drive on rough road) and expensive to fly over (AUS$270 each with Northwest Regional Airlines out of Halls Creek). We’ll leave that for another trip.

With petrol tank filled, we made a quick stop at the Halls Creek Information Centre to buy souvenir magnets and took the obligatory photos of the statue of the local hero “Russian Jack”. We drove 6km out-of-town (3km on sealed road, 3 km of unsealed) to see the natural phenomenon, China Wall. An amazing rock formation that did indeed look like a small version of the more famous Chinese Wall.

There was lots of evidence (poos) that rock wallabies had been here, but we didn’t spot any. There was also evidence that humans had been to the toilet here as well, going by the amount of toilet paper flying around. Yuk!

We headed off in the direction of Old Halls Creek and Caroline Pool, but the going was very rough so we decided to turn around and head back to Halls Creek and on to Fitzroy Crossing, as it was now almost 11am.

Our 4WD had no radio reception except within 3km of a town as the radio aerial was broken. The adapter for the mp3 player had discharged and was out of juice. So, alas, no road trip music to see us on the way.

An hour later we arrived at Mary Pool, a 24-hour stopping area with about 20 caravans and campervans parked up. We used the toilet facilities (foot pump to flush, toilet paper but no hand washing water – thank goodness for hand sanitizer), and had a natter with one of the camp residents.

Here we spotted more native birds – budgies, rainbow bee-eaters, rainbow lorikeets, galahs, black-necked storks , brolga, Australian magpies, magpie larks, doves and pigeons (yes, I had taken a book on Australian wildlife with me which came in very useful).

Alas, no crocodiles in the dried out creek. We did see striped fish in the shallow pools, though. I was amazed that we had seen so much bird life at this little stop. The human noise from the campers, who were mostly sitting outside talking, was rather loud. Nothing like getting away to nature!

Continuing driving towards Fitzroy Crossing we spotted a man pulling a travel suitcase. He was heading in the opposite direction with about 90km to the next town and only a handkerchief to protect his head from the sun! We thought he was rather foolhardy and hope that someone picked him up before nightfall and gave him a lift.

Two and a half hours later we were in Fitzroy Crossing for a fuel stop and free coffee for the driver. We had wanted to stop at a picnic area that had a table for a break and something to eat. But not finding one in town, we continued on west for about 45 minutes to the next 24-hour stopping at Ellendale. This campsite had even more caravans and trailers. A brief stop and stretch, a change of driver and we set off again heading west.

Quite a bit of road works on this stretch of road made for slow going. Traffic had also picked up. We made it to Willare Bridge Roadhouse by sunset at 5.30pm, but the trip was made more difficult by driving into the setting sun. Bugs had made a mess of the windscreen even though it had been cleaned back at Fitzroy Crossing. Again we cleaned it in the dwindling light as driving had become hazardous with straying cattle appearing on the road to graze at the road’s edge. The light coloured Brahmans were particularly difficult to spot – a couple of times we had to put the brakes on, stop and wait for the cattle to move on. Skippys had now started jumping in front of us as well. I also spotted a small dark indistinguishable four-legged creature racing off the road into the scrub. Was it a dingo or a dog?

We arrived in Broome by 7.30pm after another exhausting days driving. Settled into our new digs at the Broome Motel, we were too tired to venture out for food so ate leftover pizza and chippies for tea, planning on relaxing in Broome the following day.

Bungle Bungles!

The Kimberley, Western Australia – Tuesday 14th July 2009

Up not as early as we would have liked as we had another long journey ahead of us. By 8am most of the fellow travellers at the Best Western in Halls Creek had departed for parts unknown. A couple of galahs and several noisy crows kept us company while we ate breakfast.

We headed off to fill the petrol tank at the gas station on the main street and ended up in a queue behind a three trailer “road train”. It cost over AUS$500 to fill one of only four tanks on that baby. We then were off to the Halls Creek Information Centre to get some local advise about driving to Purnululu National Park. The only advise was – “you’re leaving it a bit late – you won’t get to the visitors centre until 12.30pm!” Not to be put off, we headed off on our way. After all, we had come this far. Because of Pam’s bung knee I had only planned on doing the one hour Cathedral walk at Purnululu. The biggest concern would be the fading light on the return journey over the rough dirt track.

On the way, we passed a two-camel caravan on the side of the road – quite novel though somewhat foolhardy as the traffic was flowing at 110km on the road from Halls Creek to Kununurra. Hopefully the camels were used to the traffic.

After an hours drive we found the Purnululu National Park turn off (and loos) with a warning notice to “change to 4WD now”. We picked up a couple of young women who had waited an hour to hitch a ride to the Bungle Bungles as they did not have a 4WD vehicle. After a practice in the car park putting the Nissan Patrol into 4WD mode, we were off. Slowly, very slowly.

The track was very rough with corrugated dirt shaking us about. Other 4WDs zoomed past us – were we doing something wrong or just being over cautious?

The drive to the Purnululu Information Centre took two and a half hours – we had been advised that it could take 2-3 hours, so that wasn’t bad going. Just painfully slow. We drove through several shallow creeks and a rather scary sandbar. Thank goodness for automatics!

After paying our AUS$10 entry fee at the Information Centre we headed off for another 45 minutes of being jolted around in the 4WD. The road here wasn’t as bad with only one creek to cross and in no time we had reached the Cathedral Gorge carpark.

The woman at the Information Centre (who was from Tasmania) had advised us not to bother with the Dome walk but to proceed straight to the Cathedral Gorge. This proved to be good advice as the domes were all around us.

We took a pleasant 30-minute hike to the Gorge amidst these amazing rock formations – the striped beehives rising strikingly above the dry riverbeds. Not much wildlife to be seen here, but we did spot some rainbow bee-eaters, which are similar to kingfishers, in the few trees that were scattered around the dry river’s edge.

A tour bus had arrived around the same time as us . The tour leader found a spot in the gorge and sang “We are Australian”. The acoustics were incredible – the Cathedral Gorge is aptly named.

It was a hot 30-minute hike back to the carpark in temperatures around 35C. This is a very popular tourist spot – this carpark practically full of 4WD vehicles and tourist buses. I wonder how many vehicles were at the northern carpark and how many were at the overnight camp.

Helicopters flew overhead transporting people over the Bungle Bungles for the best view. People talking, laughing, talking – not really a place to go for peace and quiet this time of year.

We drove back to the Information Centre and purchased a few souvenirs. We had left the two young hitch-hikers to find a ride out, but a young Italian man virtually pleaded with us to give him a ride back to the sealed road, two and a half hours away.

He told us he had arrived at the Purnululu National Park entrance at 6am that morning and had waited six and a half hours for a ride into the park! That’s dedication, bad planning or probably just free spirited.

We had left the Information Centre at 4pm with one hour good light. We made it through the creeks and thankfully the sandbar by 5.30pm just on sunset, and with an hours driving on the rough track in darkness ahead. We were overtaken by a 4WD tour bus, but this stopped to let the tourists watch the sunset and have a cup of….tea? Experienced driver, we thought – good to have them behind us in case we get stuck. And of course, they caught up with us about 15 minutes before the park entrance.

We dropped off the young Italian who raced off in his station wagon. Finally we were back on the main road at 6.30pm for a slow hour and 25 minutes drive back to Halls Creek, dodging stray cattle along the way.

We arrived home safely and luckily just before the the restaurant kitchen closed. Another pizza ordered, washed down with a couple of drinks. In bed before 10pm for another early start the next day.

Road trip – 9 hours to Halls Creek

Western Australia – Monday 13th July 2009

Up before dawn to pack our bags and waiting to be picked up by the clerk from the Broome Broome Car Rental company at 8.30am. Finally all the paperwork completed, some provisions purchased including 4 litres of water in case we were stranded in the outback, we headed east out of Broome at 9.15am in our Toyota Landcrusier 4WD.

There was a lot of traffic – campervans, caravans being towed by 4WD vehicles and “road trains” (huge trucks with three trailer units), especially on the road as far as Fitzroy Crossing. Miles and miles of scrub land, only changing in the type of trees from boab trees to eucalyptus. Termite hills everywhere, both red and brown, roadside burn-offs, and long straight but somewhat uneven roads. A clear sky and very high temperatures.

Road kill spotted on the way – four kangaroos, two cows, one snake, one magpie, several crows and a bicycle. We kept a wary eye out for straying cattle and Skippy’s due to the largely unfenced road. A Skippy did jump in front of us just outside of Fitzroy Crossing – luckily we were only doing 60 km/h at the time!

There were many birds around, mostly birds of prey. Flocks of little corellas, magpie larks, willie wagtails, brolga and crows mostly.

After about four and a half hours we arrived in Fitzroy Crossing, a mostly Aboriginal outpost, but flushing toilets were available at the BP station, which was one of two of the last diesel fill-ups until Halls Creek.

The sunset behind us was amazing as we continued our journey to Halls Creek. We arrived around 6.30pm just in time as the motel (Best Western) was fully booked and the proprietor was going to give our room away if we hadn’t turned up within half an hour. Thankfully the motel had a restaurant, “Russian Jack’s”, named after a well known local character. We shared a pizza and had a drink from the bar.

At least the free in-house movies at this motel worked, so we dozed in front of the TV before drifting off to sleep, ready for the new day ahead.

Markets and cemetaries

Broome – Sunday 12th July 2009

A bit of a late start with some chores to do (washing) before heading off to Chinatown for the Sunday markets. A little cooler in the morning at 22 C and some cloud around, but with a much needed breeze. By the time we reached the market at 10.45am, the cloud had dissipated and the day was heating up nicely.

Not many stalls at this open air market, but we had a quick bite to eat then off to the Broome Information Centre (me) and cricket match at the Male Oval (Pam). We went for a meander around the shopping centre for a couple of hours, a few more groceries purchased, then home for a rest.

Interesting items spotted while shopping:

• kangaroo paws on sticks which were being sold as back scratchers. The shopkeeper told us that these items were used on the TV series “Skippy” when there was a close-up of Skippy holding on to something or doing something clever with his paws. Bizarre.
• kangaroo meat section at Coles supermarket
• airplanes line up with the main road when landing at Broome airport. Looks like the planes are trying to land in the town centre. Freaky.

After a rest we walked to the Japanese and Chinese cemeteries as they both have interesting historical value. The Japanese cemetery was very orderly and well looked after. Many headstones had been sourced from local rock and inscribed with Japanese writing – an impressive sight. Numerous pearl divers are buried here, afterall, it was pearls that put Broome on the map.

The Chinese cemetery was not so orderly, but obviously still in use. The main Broome cemetery was next to it and we were amazed at the number of people buried here who had died young. Broome is not good for your health and longevity? Many of the graves had chairs next to them so friends/relatives can visit and be seated. Unlike graves in New Zealand and the many lawn cemeteries, these graves were raised in red dirt mounds.

Outside the cemetery an ice cream van was set up to sell its wares to the tourists. Weird! Only in Australia.

Flocks of little corellas flew screeching overhead several times. A deafening noise. Crows seemed to like visiting here as well and gave the place an eerie tone. With sunset on the way we headed home for an early night ready for an early start and the road trip inland.

Before going to bed I noticed a cheeky lizard trying to get through our kitchen window, but a moment later, he was gone.