Author Topic: Australia, New Zealand & Papa New Guinea  (Read 5687 times)

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craigollerton

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Australia, New Zealand & Papa New Guinea
« on: May 23, 2012, 09:01:50 am »
No photos yet, but next month I will be travelling across the globe to Australia for 3-days, New Zealand for 3-4 weeks, and Papa New Guinea (New Britain) for about a month. I have been to none of these places before and welcome any traveller experience/tips words of caution, and/or recommendations for my trip. I will be driving by car from the North of New Zealand to the South before flying back over to Cairns in Australia, and on to Papa New Guinea.

I will update the post on my return in August.

Offline suepp

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Re: Australia, New Zealand & Papa New Guinea
« Reply #1 on: May 23, 2012, 09:20:41 am »
wow - have a great time Craig!

My daughter went travelling last year and the main problem she had was that in Australia she could not get a balance on her bank account from any ATM. She took with her a "Caxton" card which is universal  that you can top up from your bank account before going and along the way, and we were able to top it up from our account  when she had the problem in Australia (she didn't want to risk going overdrawn)


Offline DaveR

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Re: Australia, New Zealand & Papa New Guinea
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2012, 09:22:46 am »
Should be a very interesting trip, I'll look forward to seeing your reports on it.  ££$

Offline hollins

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Re: Australia, New Zealand & Papa New Guinea
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2012, 02:07:25 pm »
I have been a couple of times to those places except Papua New Guinea.
Unfortunately my last trip was probably about 15 years ago so any info would be out of date.
I think that the tripadvisor forums are quite useful to read to find out the latest do's don'ts, likes and dislikes.
My best trip was the New Zealand one. I took my mother. We started off in Christchurch (pre-eartquake) and travelled around the south island. The highlights being a helicopter trip in gorgeous weather which landed on the glacier on Mount Cook. Another favourite was tasting wine at Rippon vineyard on Lake Wanaka. What a beautiful spot that was!
We dropped one car off at Picton and picked up another the other side (Wellington) North Island.
We didn't like Wellington much. It was cold and windy when we were there. Then we drove to the Bay of Islands via all the usual sights. We thought the Bay of Islands the nicest part of the North Island but preferred overall the South Island.
Anyway, enough of my reminiscing. I hope you have a fabulous time!

Offline Jack

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Re: Australia, New Zealand & Papa New Guinea
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2012, 05:30:13 pm »
Hi Craig, I went to NZ a couple of years ago for three months.  I flew into Auckland hired a car from rent-a-dent for 12 weeks which as the name suggests was a bit of a wreck but it was covered by breakdown cover and to be fair it was mechanically sound and never let me down.  I bought a tent and camping eqpt very cheap and set off.  I covered 11, 000 km and explored both North and South Island.  As you won't have as long as that I recommend that on North Island you should visit Bay of Islands as it is the birthplace of modern NZ and very pretty, Roturua with the thermal activity and fascinating geysers and mud, Auckland itself especially the botanic gardens, museums and suburb of Devonport.  Wellington is quite interesting but Hollins is right it tends always to be blowing a gale and wet and cold.  I took the hirecar on the ferry to South Island which was quite expensive.  South Island is fantastic, highlights are Abel Tasman National Park and the area around Nelson and Picton; the glacier country around Fox and Franz Josef; Milford Sound; while both Dunedin and the Otago peninsula and Christchurch are great.  Finally I went whale watching off Kaikoura which was fantastic.  I recommend the 'LonelyPlanet' guide if you haven't already got it.  New Zealand is the most beautiful and friendly country on earth, the only two downsides are probably going to be the rain at this time of the year and the roads are often pretty rough and unsealed (not tarmacced) and some hire car companies tell you not to go on unsealed roads.  Also local drivers are pretty uncompromising and tailgate dangerously, I found it best to pull over and let them go on their way.  I've travelled Australia widely too but you don't say where you are going in that vast land.  I'm guessing Sydney in which case you will probably have chance to see opera house, bridge, the rocks, botanic gardens, national museum and a ferry trip to Manly! 

craigollerton

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Re: Australia, New Zealand & Papa New Guinea
« Reply #5 on: August 01, 2014, 10:55:10 pm »
I forgot all about this post, never got round to updating sorry. I have been again for a second time since, Papua Guinea that is, not Australia & New Zealand, but did get to go via Singapore which was amazing.

Here's a few pics from the trip...


Traditional Village Dwelling, West New Britain


A local village store selling 'SP' beer!


Remote island where I went snorkelling.


Some volcanic vents and geysers.


Typical Street Market

Offline Hugo

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Re: Australia, New Zealand & Papa New Guinea
« Reply #6 on: July 27, 2020, 08:13:24 am »
I'm not sure where I should have posted this article  but it caught my attention on the BBC news yesterday.      I remember the £10.00 ticket to Australia about 50 plus years ago and I had considered going on it until I found out that local lads that were already there had been conscripted into the Army and were fighting in Vietnam
That put paid to any thought of me going there


https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/incredible-welshman-who-almost-died-18664521

Offline DownUnder

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Re: Australia, New Zealand & Papa New Guinea
« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2020, 12:40:07 pm »
I'm not sure where I should have posted this article  but it caught my attention on the BBC news yesterday.      I remember the £10.00 ticket to Australia about 50 plus years ago and I had considered going on it until I found out that local lads that were already there had been conscripted into the Army and were fighting in Vietnam
That put paid to any thought of me going there


https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/incredible-welshman-who-almost-died-18664521

Hi Hugo,

I was part of the "10 pound Pom" scheme in 1955 at the age of 5. The conscript for the Vietnam war consisted of scheduled 'draws' of birth dates for a given year where citizens matching that birth date were automatically included in the conscript. My eldest brother enlisted in the army as an aviation pilot eventually qualifying as a Bell helicopter pilot (the helicopters seen in the MASH series). He saw action in Vietnam, until he was scheduled to pick up a (slightly) wounded soldier on a main highway. After collecting this soldier, he took off but was shot by a VC sniper, the bullet entering below his right ear and exiting through his scalp rendering him immediately unconscious resulting in the helicopter crashing an cartwheeling up the highway. The medical officer who had assisted with the injured soldier being collected ran to the crash scene and found that my brother was not breathing. He performed a tracheotomy to get my brother breathing again and arranged a transfer of my brother to an American based hospital suffering from both cheek bones being broken and multiple fractures to his left leg. He ultimately returned to Australia, continued in the army assessing the veracity of new/repaired Bell helicopters.

Ultimately, he left the army and completed a degree in Psychology then worked with the Vietnam Veterans Affairs working with veterans suffering from a multitude of mental and physical health issues. I remember talking to him about how he dealt with his clients and being impressed with his methodology. Then I asked him how he coped with the emotional atmosphere given his own experiences in Vietnam. He broke down and sobbed unconsolably for about 15- 20 minutes. Having seen the effects on a Vietnam Vet - i.e. my brother who was not a 'grunt' at the forefront of battles, I was very sensitive to their collective angst. In addition, I read the novel "Chicken Little" describing an American chopper pilot  facing an almost "Catch 22" situation in Vietnam and on returning to 'civilization' being numbed when he was accused of killing babies and other atrocities. My brother said this was also his experience. These courageous men and women putting their lives at risk at their governments behest to 'defend' their country and fellow citizens.

I was included in the last stanchion of the conscript but fortunately for me, my birth date was not drawn. As an aside from all this, the conflicting laws where 18 year old's could be sent to kill or be killed but were not legally allowed to drink alcohol seemed absurd. There was a push in Australia in the late 80's and early 90's to recognize the sacrifice made by Vietnam Veterans (which was conspicuously  absent in the 1970's). I remember my Best Man taking me to a club to celebrate my 40th birthday and later complaining that he was sick to death of hearing about these "poor Vietnam vets".  Uncharacteristically.  I became incensed that an apparently intelligent individual could dismiss the sacrifice of our fellow citizens serving in Vietnam at the behest of our Government. I eventually calmed down realising that it seemed that only those who were directly involved in the armed forces in Vietnam or those related to these brave people had a fundamental insight into the real sacrifice of their military service both within the conflict environment and their repatriation back into 'normal' society.

At the end of the day, it was symptomatic of Australia's penchant for following the "LBJ All the way" mantra. I remember demonstrating against LBJ on his visit to Brisbane, only to be hit by tomatoes from fellow demonstrators who either had forgotten to bring their prescription glasses or who mistook me for the male who had wooed away their latest girlfriend or who were just completely incompetent at  delivering a payload to a specific destination ( i.e. just rubbish at throwing).

Offline SteveH

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Re: Australia, New Zealand & Papa New Guinea
« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2020, 01:15:42 pm »
Hope you are all safe and well,  thanks for sharing your story, very poignant, especially after watching a film last night, The Post     (When American military analyst, Daniel Ellsberg, realizes to his disgust the depths of the US government's deceptions about the futility of the Vietnam War, he takes action by copying top-secret documents that would become the Pentagon Papers)       it confirms what you said above, the waste and futility of war, my regards to your brother.

Offline Hugo

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Re: Australia, New Zealand & Papa New Guinea
« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2020, 03:26:56 pm »
That's quite a story Hugh and thanks for sharing it with us on the forum and as Steve has said the film " The Post" depicts the futility of the Vietnam War and also other wars for that matter.
Your brother has had a rough time during the war and also after it but I bet that he would say that he's one of the lucky ones
There were two lads fom Llandudno that sailed to Australia on that £10.00 two year ticket and both lads were conscripted into the Army and went to Vietnam.
One of the lads who I had previously played football with said that he could get me a job and I could also play semi pro football with the club he was playing for but I thought about it for a while but then the war started and I made the decision not to go to Australia.
Hope that you are keeping safe and well over there and that your CF is under control.    My wife who also had CF has improved a lot and hopefully that virus has gone from her now but it has taken a while to do it