Wanganui, New Zealand

Hello and welcome back. After a very early morning flight from Melbourne and some waiting around in Auckland for a second flight down to Palmerston North we finally made it to our next house sit. For both our flights to New Zealand (Jetstar) it cost us £308 for 2 people.

We were greeted at the airport by our house sitters, which was a little strange for us as they were just about to fly out for their holiday so we actually only met them for 30 minutes, but we had been in contact prior to our arrival and it just shows how trusting people can be. We got a ride back to Wanganui where they lived with their daughter and we began our 8 week house sit. Now i know what your thinking '8 weeks is a long time' and we did think this at the start of the sit, as the area was small with no close malls and of course it was coming into winter so a lot of attractions were closing down, but 8 weeks flew by, we don't know where the time went. The saying 'time fly's when your having fun' is really true, it does!

So Wanganui or as it is now spelt Whanganui, it a city on the west coast of the north island, it does have its own airport but flights from here were 3 times the price hence our flight into Palmerston North. Wanganui river which runs direct into the sea was a major European trading settlement, and grew into a military centre during the New Zealand wars. It now hosts Grand Prix motorcycle road race through the streets of downtown Wanganui, this is usually held on Boxing Day, and it is also one of the oldest rugby unions in New Zealand. As it was coming into winter there wasn't very many tourists in the area and the place itself was very quiet.

The house sit was very centralised to all supermarkets and the main street of shops in town. We had the pleasure of looking after Hudson, the miniature poodle who after a few days became inseparable to us and when ever we would leave the room he would follow and when we went out for the day he would cry until we left the house. It is amazing how dogs can adapt to new owners and when he realised we were no threat to him and we would play with him he was our best friend. We also looked after Bella, the cat who slept pretty much most of the day. She was our first cat we looked after and we knew cats slept a lot but didn't think this much, she was 13 I guess. She made the rare appearance if she was cold and came looking to snuggle into you for warmth. The friendship her and Hudson have is funny to watch, Love each other but hate each other at the same time. lol.

Attractions in Wanganui:

• Wellington: The drive to Wellington is long and boring, 3 hour drive with nothing to see along the way. The day we went Wellington definitely lived up to its name 'The windy city' as it was blowing a gale and when we left Wanganui it was a lovely day. Wellington is very easy to navigate round and I found the city to be more boutique shops, of course there were your brand shops there but majority of it was posh boutique shops. The streets were very clean and nice to window shop but as you may have guessed from reading my previous blogs we are not city people so this to us was not very exciting. There is a cable car your can take from the city up to the Botanic gardens but we did not do this due to the weather. Parking is expensive in Wellington and you only get 2 hours free, with car parks not very big. There are many museums dotted around the city we went into a few which we found all to be free. We would have liked to look around the Weta Caves which is a multi-award winning design studio and physical manufacturing facility which has worked on films like Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Amazing Spider-man etc but when we arrived they had sold out so you must book in advance if you want to go.

 

• Empire cinema:

The cinema in Wanganui is very old fashioned and downs need some updating but on a Tuesday you can get cheap tickets at $9 (today's exchange rate £5) each.

• Durie Hill: The look out town which can be found on the opposite side of the river from the city. It is very high and there are lots of steps so if your a little scared there is a smaller tower in front of this one. The views from up here are amazing and you can see for miles 360 degrees. You can follow the river down the the sea mouth and see the path the tradesman took years and years ago.

• Virginia Lake: A beautiful lake just on the outskirts of Wanganui, which is lovely to take a picnic too but be-careful of the duck and geese down steal your food. You can walk all the way around the lake with different paths to take and you can also walk through the wooded area. There are 2 flower gardens to look around an indoor one and an outdoor one. No pets are allowed at the lake though.

 

• Palmerston North: This is probably the closest city with a shopping mall and is only an 1hour drive. It is a small city with a huge grassed area in the middle with a river and large chest board to sit around. The is also plenty of street art to find as your walking through the many streets.

• River Cruises:

Obviously a main attraction in Wanganui is the river so you will find a number of river cruises along the river banks offering different things from 10 minutes to a full day, morning or evening and a night BBQ. Unfortunately for us they had closed for the winter but we did walk along the river as there are boardwalks so we saw what you would see on a cruise.

• Mail Bus Tour: This tour is as it sounds, you take a tour on the mail bus all the way up the Wanganui river to Pipirki. The tour takes about 5 hours as you stop off and deliver post to the locals, there are no shops along the route so you do need to take a packed lunch or purchase the lunch with the tour. In the summer there are many things you can do along the tour from the Flying Fox, kayaking, jet boats, biking but as it was winter there was nothing open. It takes you up the Jerusalem where an old convent was build in 1892 and still houses 2 nuns who used to work there. In my honest opinion this tour was a waste of money and my advice would be to drive it yourself. We paid $63 (today's exchange rate £34) each. I feel they should drop the price through the week as they are going there anyway, but you were in the van for 90% of the day, you didn't see anything you wouldn't see if you came on your own.We didn't feel it was value for money. 

So before we knew it our 8 weeks were up. We did not find another house sit after this one so we decided to head back to.... you guessed it Phuket. Join me next time when we talk about Kata Beach, Phuket. Thanks for reading.

Melbourne - Australia

After spending 7 weeks in the beautiful city of Hobart it was hard to leave but our adventure had not finished yet so we continued on to Melbourne arriving on the 1st Jan flying with JetStar from Hobart which cost us $305 (today's exchange rate £158 for 2 people and 25kg baggage) and took just under 1 hour. We stayed in the suburbs of Melbourne at a place called Glen Waverley where our 5th house sit began.

The house was situated right next to a national park and in high season for bush fires was a little concerning but the there were plenty of walks for the dogs and my main worry was SNAKES! Lisa, the owner of the home gave us the low down on snakes and to keep eyes on the ground at ALL times. I was thankful for the advice because we saw..... 0 snakes. lol.

We were shown round the home and introduced to the animals which were:

A horse called Missy, she was a ex breed mare never been ridden, a donkey called Dobby who was a little shy at first but very inquisitive.




 

2 miniature goats Daisy the white one who was shy but loved to be stroked and Bonnie the brown one, she loves all the attention and cry's out to you when she first sees you or when your walking away. These were a character and always made you laugh, they always found something to cause trouble with, i understand why baby goats are called kids because it was like having 2 kids, you couldn't take your eyes off them.

 



Then there were 4 chickens which we got 3 or 4  fresh eggs from each day and Molly the spoodle (springer and poodle) dog who has to be the cutest little doggy, very well behaved, hardly made a sound and always loving. On the second week of our stay we looked after a family members dog called Oscar. He too was a spoodle a white one but he was very timid and hated loud noises. Sometime naughty when you wanted him to come in he would just look at you through the window and then run off.

While at our house sit we went to the nearby shopping malls, both of which were the same just one was slightly bigger. We looked at Village cinema and Hoyts cinema here but decided against it when we saw it was $21 (today's exchange rate £10.29) for one movie. To us that is expensive as we were paying $12 (today's exchange rate £5.88) in Queensland.

We also went into Melbourne for the day on the train. We had to purchase a MyKi card to use the train but this and our fare for the day only cost $14 (today's exchange rate £6.86) for an hour journey there and back which we thought was good value.

Melbourne Attractions:

• Eureka Tower: This can be seen anywhere in Melbourne city with its 'gold crown'. It has  365 degree views across Melbourne and cost $19.95 each (today's exchange rate £9.77) but you did have to pay extra for the 'Edge' experience $12 (today's exchange rate £6.24) which is not worth the extra money as there is a small section which is outside the building you can go on without paying extra and this was good enough. Within the tower there is dining and The Walk Experience, which is a green screen set which gives you the illusion your walking a tightrope suspended high above the city, this is an additional $15 (today's exchange rate £7.80) .

• The Royal Botanic Gardens: I'm starting to think every city in Australia has Botanic gardens and yes they are very pretty and lovely to walk round but once you've seen one you've seen them all.

 

• St. Patrick's Cathedral: You can not miss this Cathedral and is in the heart of the city. Its architecture is amazing and so detailed, you can look at it for hours. I think this is what makes Melbourne different from the other cities in Australia are the buildings and architecture it has. Not all the buildings are the same. 

 

  

•  Walking Tours: (We just walked on our own as it is a very easy city to walk, one main street and all side streets are parallel.) We walked from Flinders Station straight up to the State Library and then went down side streets on the way back to the station. I guess a girl from the country doesn't see the attraction of a crowded city, we much prefer shopping online. But like i said it to us is the nicest city in Australia as it was so clean and had history. Also what were liked was there were WIFI spots around the city that you could us so you wouldn't get lost.

• Museums: Like every city there are museums and lots of them depending on your interests, from City Gallery which is an Art Museum to the Australian Center of the Moving Image and many more.

• Puffing Billy Steam Train: This was not in Melbourne City, it can be found in the suburbs but an honest opinion is don't go looking for it. The tour cost $51.50 each (today's exchange rate £25.24) and was a total waste of money so my advice is DON'T DO IT!! We traveled from Belgrave to Lakeside and the views from the train were obscured by trees on one side and the other was of run down homes. There was no commentary on the train telling you about its history so the journey was silent. The train stopped at 2 places to let people off and all that was there was a small tuck shop which sold 2 preheated pies and sweets. Moving on to Lakeside we thought it would be a village to look round and a nice pub to eat in, boy were we mistaken. All that was there was a tearoom which sold only preheated pies and crisps, a small souvenior shop, and a cafe which was more like a truck stop cafe with dried sandwiches in. There was a lake secluded behind trees but we were only given 20 mins to look round, not enough time to walk the lake and get back. Even though we arrived back on the train  after our 20 minutes were up we sat for another 40 mins not moving because there was a problem. The advert says leave up to 3 hours for the whole journey but it took us near 4. When we got back we asked for a refund we felt it was that back. 

• St Kilda Beach: There are many activities to do at St Kilda beach which is only 6km from the city. If your interests are bike riding or roller blades, kite boarding, sky diving, fishing or just swimming in the ocean all this can be found at St Kilda. There are many events and festivals held in this area, but unfortunately for us it wasn't the season for it but if your there in May keep a look out. 

After our 2 weeks were up we booked plane tickets to Christchurch, New Zealand for the 19th Jan with Jetstar and cost us $485 for both. (today's exchange rate £237) to start our 6th house sit. Join me next time in our adventure around Christchurch.