Awed by the outback

Day 2 (Fri, 1 June 2012)

Today, we made a trip to Litchfield National Park. It's not as popular as Kakadu National Park but it's only an hour-and-a-half drive from Darwin city centre and we opted for the shorter journey.

This 1,500 square kilometre park was the original home of the Wagait Aboriginal people. Call me sua ku but when I hear park, I envision green and lush. It was only when we reached the park and I was surrounded by sand and bush that I remembered - we're in the outback and this is desert territory. Doh.

The first attraction we came to was the magnetic termite mounds which provide cool shelter for the termites. Nature never ceases to amaze me.

The cathedral mound is especially majestic. Standing at 5 metres tall, it is home to grass-eating termites. Up close, the mound is both creepy and awesome at the same time.

I will state upfront that I am not fond of insects. They, in fact, terrify me. So I went, "oh, that's amazing!" but stayed a safe distance from the creepy, amazing termites. By the way, I was surprised to discover that these termites are not white. And that they eat grass, not wood.

We then drove on to Florence Falls, one of the many waterfalls at Litchfield. Nestled in a monsoon forest, the falls cascades into a plunge pool where the locals love to swim. This is the picturesque scene from the viewing platform.

To get to the bottom of the falls, you either trek 1 km or climb 135 stairs. We chose stairs.

The pool really is gorgeous and clearly, we're not the only ones who think so as it was crowded. Kids were splashing about, families laid out picnics and couples were just hanging out by the rocks.

It would have been an idyllic scene if not for the abundance of flies. I didn't expect this since it's still winter but in Darwin, even the winters are warm. It was averaging about 30 degrees celcius in the day when we were there. Lesley-Anne was wildly flapping her camera about each time a strong breeze blew a swarm of hapless flies and mozzies in her face. Keke.

As we headed back to the car, I got in, looked down and saw a bug on my pants. A bug with a shimmery emerald green shell and big bug eyes. I screeched so loudly the Litchfield termites probably felt the vibrations, until Kenneth flung it out of the car.

There are other waterfalls and sights only available via four-wheel drive in Litchfield but we decided we'd seen enough of the park. We're truly city folk. Confirm, double confirm.

A quick lunch at Litchfield Tourist Park before we headed back to the city.

Back at the hotel, Kenneth and the kids decided to have a dip in the pool to cool off. The water is cold, even in the scorching heat. Nevertheless, the pool is great. A reviewer on Tripadvisor called it the "Flintstones pool" which I thought was pretty funny. It's admittedly a little kitsch but some outback humour never hurt anyone.

In the evening, we drove to the nearby East Point Reserve as we'd read somewhere that the wallaby colony comes out here at dusk. East Point seems like a high end real estate vicinity, with sprawling seaside homes along the beach. It's a lovely environment with joggers and families taking walks by the pond.

No sighting of wallabies, I'm sorry to say. We did, however, catch yet another breath-taking, sigh-inducing sunset. Glorious.

Down under to Darwin

Day 1 (Thu, 31 May 2012)

After our good experience with Jetstar to New Zealand last December, we picked the carrier again when we were deciding on a holiday. We wanted to get away for a while, just as a break from all the school exams but didn't really want to spend too much. Darwin, Australia was the destination that popped up.

It's only a four-and-a-half hour flight, very manageable, even though we landed in Darwin at the ungodly hour of 4.20am. With half asleep kids in tow, we went to collect our pre-booked rental car from Bargain Car Rentals. It's a pretty ingenious system - the company leaves the car at an airport parking lot, stows the key in a locked box hanging from the car window and then informs us of the car number and the combination to the box.

I guess in a town where flights routinely arrive in the middle of the night, it's the next best arrangement to a 24-hour service. We had a nice surprise too - we'd booked a Toyota Corolla but was given a free upgrade to a Camry.

We drove to our hotel, Travelodge Mirambeena Resort, which was relatively easy to find considering we were in a foreign city in the middle of the night. The hotel is conveniently located right in the city centre, just a 20-minute drive from the airport via the main highway, Stuart Highway.

Another pleasant surprise - we'd booked a standard room but was given a free upgrade to a two-storey townhouse, which came complete with a large kitchenette and dining area. The upper level alcove had a king-sized bed while the sofa downstairs converted into queen bed with an additional rollaway. Very comfy!

We didn't even bother with pajamas, just hopped into bed to catch our zzzz's. At the saner hour of 10.30am, we arose from our power nap and took a leisurely stroll to Mitchell Street, just two streets from Travelodge, where most of the cafes and restaurants are located. Brunched on typical Aussie fare - burgers and fish and chips - at a little cafe. Barramundi is the local fish here for most fish and chips.

This is called the "trigger happy syndrome".

The itinerary for that afternoon was Aquascene. This unusual attraction takes place during the few hours of high tide at Doctors Gully everyday, where hundreds of local wild fish swim to the shallow shoreline in search of food. Since the 1950s, locals have been hand feeding these fish with bread, so much so that the fish have become accustomed to it and are unafraid of humans.

The tide times change daily so you have to check the feeding times for your visit.

It's really a unique experience. I've never fed wild fish by hand - they're so used to humans they eat the bread right from your fingers. They even make a weird slurping sound like a Japanese drinking miso soup. And no, they don't bite your fingers.

It takes some getting used to, having them swim around your legs and their tails flick against you. A little squirmy and ticklish but in a good way. You can even stroke them from the top - I imagined they would feel soft but they're actually quite tough and scaley, yet slimy to the touch.

Most of the fish we fed were scaled mullet but on the side were also the larger and more aggressive milkfish that would leap for the bread. Those were fed by throwing bread into the water, not by hand. The guy in charge let Andre throw a basketful of bread into the water but he misjudged his aim and showered bread over the unfortunate nearby spectators. Heh.

We even saw stingrays, which was pretty cool. No, obviously we couldn't feed those!

Back to the hotel for a quick shower, then we headed off to Mindil Beach Sunset Market. Such a happening place - tourists and locals thronged the place in droves. They even set up picnic areas with their own chairs and tables.

There were all types of food stalls. Funnily enough, they were predominantly Asian, from Chinese to Thai and Vietnamese to Turkish. Honey chicken, kebabs and spring rolls seem to be popular fare. Of course, you also had the usual hotdogs and burgers.

The highlight though, has to be the sunset by the beach. From about 5.45pm, the beach began to be bathed in an ethereal, candlelit glow. People gathered by the sand to soak in the sight.

Right up to 6.30pm, we saw the golden egg yolk slowly descend into the horizon, setting the beach aflame. Magnificent.

Flight home and tips on travelling to NZ

Day 16 (Mon, 5 Dec 2011)

I know, theoretically this isn't a day cos we left NZ on the 6.20am flight. But considering we spent 13 looooong hours on the plane, it had to be included!

First, we took a domestic flight from Christchurch to Auckland, before taking an international flight back to Singapore.

Walking from the domestic to international terminal at Auckland Airport.

Can we ever be without Internet, even when we're in transit?

Funny sign at the airport. Why is the door alarmed? Is it afraid of the fire extinguisher?

You know, when you're on holiday, it's like stepping out of reality and into a time warp - one where you don't have work or social responsibilities. For 2 glorious weeks, we existed only for playing, eating and chilling, without the usual cares in our regular world. It was heavenly and very hard to come back to earth.

I cannot rave enough about NZ as a family holiday destination.

Before we left, we wondered if the kids, especially Andre, would get bored in a nature-centred country like NZ. As it turns out, he enjoyed it tremendously. He even wanted to migrate to Wanaka! Despite having no theme parks or many shopping opportunities, this holiday is by far, the best one we've had yet, as a family. We spent 2 weeks creating memories that all of us would remember for a lifetime.

Here are my thoughts on travelling to NZ:

Cost

In the past, one of the downsides of travelling to NZ was the cost of the air tickets. This is no longer an issue, since Jetstar started flying there. We paid only $2,400 for air tickets for the 4 of us, which is dirt cheap (especially considering we flew multi-city, ie arriving and departing from different cities). True, those were promotion tickets but even Jetstar's regular priced tickets to NZ are very affordable.

Accommodation is NZ is extremely good value for money. You can usually find a comfortable and well furnished motel unit in town, sleeping a family of 4 for under $200. Some even come with breakfast. If you want to be assured of your lodging beforehand, many motels offer online bookings. If not, you can always drive into town and look for accommodation.

Food was also not as expensive as we'd expected. In restaurants, main courses tend to cost between $20-$35 which doesn't sound cheap but remember, GST is included and they don't charge a service fee. Also, their portions tend to be huge so sharing is possible. In cafes, a burger usually costs about $12, sandwiches and pies are cheaper.

To me, the drinks are expensive. A cup of tea or cappuccino is usually priced at $4 or $4.50, even in modest cafes along the highway.

The only thing I found pricey in NZ is their activities and entry to attractions. I expect the setup costs tend to be high and they're big on safety, which is always a good thing. They're very family-friendly though and many attractions offer Family Passes which can save you a few dollars.

But while they may not be cheap, they're highly memorable and my philosophy is, we didn't go all the way there to shy away from experiences of a lifetime. So just bite the bullet and go for it!

Driving

We were a little apprehensive about the driving before we started as we had to cover such long distances but overall, it's been very manageable. In general, we've been very impressed by NZ's roads. Their highways are excellent and maintained regularly - getting to all the major tourist spots and towns are usually via highways.

There are some mountain passes which are more nerve-wrecking but for the most part, it's actually less stressful driving in NZ than on Singapore's congested roads next to inconsiderate Singaporean drivers.

A caveat though: we travelled during late Spring/early Summer, when there is lots of daylight and the road conditions are good. If you're driving in Winter, the roads may be slippery and you will need snow chains. Not advisable for drivers unfamiliar with such conditions.

When planning this trip, we considered taking up one of those self-drive packages offered by tour companies. But we quickly figured out that it was a lot more expensive. Those charge per person and when you go as a family, you'll know that the land tour is never a certain amount x 4. You pay a flat fee for a car, no matter how many passengers it carries, and for the motels, a unit that sleeps 4 is usually only marginally more expensive than one that sleeps 2. So my advice is, just do a little more homework and plan it yourself.

Route-wise, there are some basics that can't go wrong. We actually deviated slightly from the popular tourist route but as long as you keep to the main highways, you won't get into trouble. When you're driving, make a mental note of which towns are enroute (for toilet stops) but you don't have to be too anal about planning stops in advance. Most towns, even the little ones, have at least a cafe and all cafes have toilets. But I do advise that you stop whenever you get tired. Bad idea to drive if you're sleepy.

Go with a good car rental company (and get a GPS!) We chose Apex Cars and it was super. It's cheaper than the big names like Hertz or Budget, and it's very flexible - it allowed us to pick up the car in Auckland, drive right onto the Interislander Ferry, continue our journey and drop it off in Christchurch. Some companies require you to change cars between islands, which is pretty troublesome logistics-wise.

For petrol, we found that the larger towns, especially those with more than one station, offered better rates. The exception is popular tourist areas, eg. the glacier towns, Queenstown and Te Anau had some of the highest prices for petrol. If you're staying the night in a big town, top up the tank before you leave, so you don't have to worry about running out along the way.

Because of the long drives though, I don't think NZ is a suitable holiday destination for small kids. Sitting in the car for hours at a time may not be fun (both for the kids and parents!) But for those with teenagers, it's stupendous. The kids are old enough to appreciate the nature and activities, and can even help pack and carry luggage.

Environment

We were struck by how clean the country is. We were especially impressed by the toilets in NZ. You can tell how civilised a country is by the cleanliness of their toilets and the ones in NZ are excellent. Even public toilets in the middle of nowhere are usually clean and there are toilets in every cafe.

The people are extremely friendly and throughout our trip, we never saw a single person using a handphone (if you do, it's likely an Asian tourist!) It's a very relaxed and gracious country.

It's also a very safe country and that's partly what makes it a great family holiday destination. Once, we accidentally left our car window down all morning at an attraction, and another time, we didn't close our motel unit door properly and came back to find it wide open, with our belongings (laptop included) in full view. Both times, nothing was taken or touched. Of course, you'll still need to use common sense and take the normal precautions but I'm saying that you don't feel any sense of danger in this country, even in the remote areas.

This is simply heaven on earth. Everywhere you go, you see vast expanses of green or blue, with rainbow hues in between. It's like God took special care to create this country. If you're looking for a holiday to get away from it all and have all your worries melt away, this is the perfect place.