Luxury Globetrotting on a Staycation Budget - The expert guide to traveling the world while still Growing Bolder

West Coast New Zealand South Island

March 4, 2018 By Ainslie Waldron 1 Comment

Kea, Llamas and Cowboys

NZ Alps

Kea Alpine Parrot

I just visited New Zealand. This time the bulk of my visit was to the west coast of the South Island. It certainly is an enchanting place. Unfortunately I arrived during a cyclone which meant leaving the 30 degree warmth of Macleay Island to a much chiller single figure temperature. It was a bit of a shock to the system. However it soon warmed up to temperatures in the early twenties.

It was exciting driving west from the city of Christchurch on the east coast, which is slowly but surely recovering from the devastating earthquakes of a few years ago. We drove through Arthurs Pass stopping en-route to visit the amazing Otira Stagecoach hotel www. http://otirahotel.co.nz I highly recommend that you stop there if you ever drive this road. It is full of amazing old fashioned bric a brac. The staff there are very friendly and welcoming too.

Stagecoach hotel

Otira Stagecoach Hotel

Otira

Inside the hotel

Continuing our journey we stopped to take in breath taking views of the NZ Alps and watched the cheeky large local Alpine parrots (Kea) trying to destroy parked cars. I found another road sign to add to my world-wide collection too.

Another pesky street sign

We enjoyed sumptuous fine dining in an outside twilight setting at the Stations Inn on the Blue Spur Road near Hokitika and Greymouth. Llamas ate in the nearby field as we dined. http://www.stationsinnhokitika.co.nz

On the return trip we lunched at the amazing Cowboy Paraise motel with views to die for and an abundance of cowboy wild west features. https://cowboyparadise.co.nz Another place definitely to put on the bucket list.

view from cowboy paradise

All too soon it was time to return to Oz. Back to relaxation and temperatures in the 30s.

Happy Australia Day!

January 25, 2018 By Ainslie Waldron Leave a Comment

https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/…/Macleay-Island:Australia:M…

There is now an accurate Trip Advisor post about Macleay Island. Macleay is

Our view on Macleay

a great place to be celebrating Australia Day here today. Been for an early morning swim and looking forward to our BBQ breakfast followed by a trip to the Golf Club for some thong throwing competitions! Thong as in flip flop not lingerie for my overseas friends. Happy Australia Day!!!

Birds on Macleay

January 18, 2018 By Ainslie Waldron Leave a Comment

rosella

A very quick post showing some of the many and varied birds I saw this morning on my early morning walk on the island. The bird life here is abundant, colourful, noisy and fascinating. This island is well worth a visit if you are a bird lover. As I write this a large flock of about a hundred cockatoos and galahs are flying overhead. I just love this island.

Below is a link to the bird list for Macleay:

Bird List

ibis

cockatoo

galah

cockatoo

galah and lorikeet

galahs

birds on a wire

kookaburra

curlew

magpie

wild geese

rainbow lorikeet

Festive Season 2017

December 30, 2017 By Ainslie Waldron Leave a Comment

Back on our beloved Macleay Island https://www.macleayisland.net/ for the festive season.

Cooling northerly winds keeping our temperatures more bearable than the heat of the city. Lots of action on the beach at the end of our garden. There are quite a few people in the ocean playing on their various canoes and floats. And plenty of local birdlife. We had a day trip to our neighbouring Russell Island www.russellisland.com.au/. We called it our Big Day Out! Ten-minute ride on the Fastcat.

Translink Fastcat

The Translink https://jp.translink.com.au/plan-your-journey/stops/macleay-island cats are free for inter-island trips. While there we had coffee at Aunty Alice’s Café.

Aunty Alice’s Cafe on Russell Island

Russell Island Ferry Terminal

We normally have coffee at the Blue Parrot Café on Macleay.

Blue Parrot Cafe on Macleay

We call it our home from home. We are now on the deck recovering from our trip and enjoying the beachside ambience.

Our view on Macleay

Merimbula

December 7, 2017 By Ainslie Waldron Leave a Comment

Our latest home exchange is on the south coast of New South Wales. A little seaside town called Merimbula. The house is very comfortable overlooking the lake which has an ocean outlet. There are many oyster beds on the lake and lots of local fresh seafood which we have been devouring. The local birdlife have enjoyed eating on our balcony.

rainbow lorikeets on the balcony

We have meandered through the local area including the nearby towns of Eden and Tathra as well as Bega which is famous in Australia for its large cheese making. There are many magnificent coastal views here and I have also enjoyed finding a few geocaches while relaxing in this quiet spot.

I’m geocaching again!

The Snowy Mountains Australia

December 1, 2017 By Ainslie Waldron Leave a Comment

November 28 2017

Hi everyone. Long gap between blogs, During 2017, as those of you who follow me on Facebook know. I have visited the magnificent Norwegian Fjords and the French Riviera to name but a few spots. Apologies for lack of blogs!
However, I have returned to blogging now, so back to adventureland in my blog spots. Today we landed in Jindabyne which is a small village nestled in the Snowy Mountain region of Australia. This is the region where you can actually ski in the Australian winter. However November is spring, nearly summer, in the southern hemisphere, and the ski resorts are full of tourists admiring the scenery in the warm weather. The area is in New South Wales and is located south west of the Australian capital, Canberra. The house we are swapping into is right on the edge of Lake Jindabyne with a great deck where I am sitting right now admiring the view and the bird life, including some colourful King Parrots.

Dec 2
Great Saturday morning. Watching and cheering the Letape Australia bicycle race. It’s a one day race organised by the Tour de France. There is a sprint, a King of the Mountain and a general race winner. We drove the race route yesterday and today walked up to the end of our road to join a little group of locals cheering the four thousand riders on. All of the locals in the area join in the spirit of the race and decorate the local towns. The Jindabyne area decorated the streets and businesses with yellow bicycles, the Berridale area with green bicycles and the Dalgety area with polka dot decorations. It was a lot of fun cheering the riders on.

Moreton Island

November 22, 2016 By Ainslie Waldron 3 Comments

view from my balcony

We just spent a few days on Moreton Island which is a 37km long sand island located in Moreton Bay, off the coast of Brisbane, Australia. The island covers an area of about 17700ha, and extends for 38 km from north to south. At its widest it is 8 km across. The Island lies only 35kms off Brisbane forming the eastern boundary of the Moreton Bay Marine Park. Moreton Island is 95% National Park.

My friend Flipper came for a feed

Moreton Island has a colourful history, with evidence of early aboriginal history, being the site of Queensland’s only whaling station from 1952 to 1962, and the Cape Moreton Lighthouse being the first to be built off the Queensland Coast.
There is also a private resort located on the Island at Tangalooma, where we stayed, originally established as a whaling station now famous for its wild dolphin feeding and marine education and conservation centre.

These are some of the many wild dolphins who swim in the waters of the Bay

The Island is made up entirely of sand with all vehicle access being along the beaches and the few sandy tracks across the Island and around the villages. A 4WD on Moreton is essential as there are no sealed roads. We saw The Tangalooma and Bulwer Wrecks, deliberately sunken ships sitting just off the beach. The Grave sites still standing after over 100 years from people passing through the bay.

It’s sunset. Will you throw me a fish please?

view from my balcony

Noosa in November

November 11, 2016 By Ainslie Waldron Leave a Comment

surfs up at Noosa

Just spent the week in Noosa which is probably Australia’s premier holiday town. It is on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland and has great beaches for surfing, boasts lovely warm weather, as well as being positioned on the edge of the rainforest and National Park.

Blue eyed honey eater on our balcony

Kookaburra with the morning wake up laugh

This trip we were lucky enough to see two koalas in the wild munching gum leaves high in the gum trees of the National Park. We also espied pods of dolphins frolicking in the surf as well as a few winged rays in the ocean.

rainbow lorikeet

Bird life abounds and we were visited by an abundance of local bird life including blue eyed honey eaters, kookaburras, rainbow lorikeets, noisy miners and butcher birds who have a delightful mid-afternoon song and dance.

sandcastle on the beach at Noosa

Remembrance Day was extra poignant in Australia this year with an amazing light show at the Sydney Opera House.

Remembrance Day at Sydney Opera House

New Zealand

October 28, 2016 By Ainslie Waldron 2 Comments

Poor Christchurch Cathedral – after the earthquake

Our latest home exchange is in the town of Ashburton on the South Island of New Zealand. Ashburton is about an hour’s drive south of Christchurch. The house is very comfortable with very large grounds which include a grass tennis court and a magnificent garden which is in full bloom this springtime. Ashburton had a beautiful domain park with gardens as well as a very interesting museum and heritage centre and air museum. We even visited an automated dairy farm where the cows almost milk themselves – an amazing use of technology. The south island has moved away from crops into dairy over the last ten years with farmers having herds of around 3000 cows – dairy on a grand scale.

Cherry is a great barman at Speights brewery in Dunedin

The worlds steepest street is in Dunedin

We have made trips south to the Scottish area of Dunedin where we visited the famous Speights brewery, as well as visiting many little towns on the road there and back. We particularly enjoyed the town of Oamaru, which had a lovely Victorian shopping area where not only were the shops Victorian, but the people dressed in Victorian costumes. We also visited the nearby boulders on the beach which are marble shaped.

on the road to lake Tekapo

Very windy at the Mt Hood observatory

Lake Tekapo was a day trip for us and the scenery was spectacular.
Nearby Christchurch suffered a tremendous earthquake in 2011 and the city is still rebuilding its heart. Tens of thousands of people lost their homes and 185 lives were lost. Driving through the red zone (where many houses have been totally demolished) was an eerie experience. The spirit in the town remains one of optimism for the future.
Driving north we attended a friends Oktoberfest party over a weekend and also drove further north to enjoy swimming in the warm waters of Hanmer Springs.