rain forest – Steffi & Gerry: Trip around the World

Road to Hana

Every guidebook on Hawaii lists the Road to Hana as a must-do on Maui. Usually, they also warn you not to start driving late, so we set our alarms to 6 a.m. Still, we were not the first ones on Hwy 336, which makes things a bit… hectic. The road’s purpose was to connect smaller towns around the island and not to achieve a touristic target. This means: many one-way bridges, hardly stopping / parking possibilities at the points of interest and sometimes dangerous traffic situations. Also, some spots are difficult to catch, even with google maps app running, or they are on private property and are now closed for public.

Nevertheless, it was still a joyful ride to Hana and beyond. Waterfalls, rainforest, beaches, lava tubes and valley overlooks – it was worth the time, even though we didn’t even get out of the car in Hana as we gave up finding a convenient parking space.

How to park
Waterfalls
Black Sand Beach
Sea arch
Stay out!
Road to Hana
Lava stalactites
Waterfalls

Doors-off Heli Flight

Kauai is a beautiful island, but large part of it is de-facto inaccessible. For once we ignored the ecological conscience and booked a scenic flight with a helicopter. There are many companies, but Jack Harter adds a special thrill: doors-off flights with a Hughes 500.

We didn’t have cloudless sky (hardly ever occurs on Kauai) but still good flight conditions. First highlight was the flight over Manawaiopuna Falls, better known as “Jurassic Falls” (helicopter landing sequence in the first Jurassic Park movie). The pilot even played the movie theme – marvelous!

Jurassic Falls from above
Jurassic Falls

Soon, we reached the Waimea Canyon (see earlier blog entry), now from above and much closer to some great sceneries.

Waimea Canyon
Waipoo Falls

We again crossed one of the wettest places on earth (once more hidden in dark clouds), but soon the sky opened: we have reached the Napali coast. Postcard scenery again!

Napali Coast
Napali Coast

Fortunately, that was not yet the end, also the flight over the Hanalei Valley was breathtaking. And for once the clouds somehow fit into the scenery; dozens of waterfalls within a rainforest-like landscape, coming out of misty mountains… a perfect fit for any fantasy movie.

Indeed, the list of movie sequences shot on Kauai is long! Just to name a few:

Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Jurassic Park (1, 2, 3), Jurassic World
King Kong
Six Days Seven Nights
Tropic Thunder
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
The Descendants

Pancake Rocks

It was a rather long drive till today’s destination, but not at all boring. Rainforest almost reaching the sea, wild coasts and narrow streets, luckily by good weather.

The Pancake Rocks in Punakaiki are a must-see attraction. Layers of limestone, a massive blowhole and a great view on the wild coast. Oh, and our campground just a few hundred meters away.

Westcoast – Fox Glacier

We crossed the Southern Alps and drove along the west coast of New Zealand. Rainforests next to alpine mountains. Main goal for today was Fox Glacier. After a fatal accident and due to enormous retreats it is not possible anymore to access the glacier by foot. Only option would be a popular heli ride, but that’s over $450 and definitely not a very “green” option. The retreat of Fox Glacier is terrifying, not sure if our next generation will see anything at all from a glacier which once calved into the sea.

Before going to Franz Josef we did a nice walk around Lake Matheson.

Fraser Island round-trip

Fraser Island is actually a big sand dune (largest sand island in the world) with forests (only place on earth where tall rainforest grows in sand), sweet water lakes, resorts and long 4WD tracks. Today’s tour was with a 4WD bus and covered most of Fraser’s highlights: refreshing bath in Lake McKenzie, walk in the forests of Central Station, drive on the beach-highway (80 km/h) along the 75 Mile Beach till Maheno Shipwreck and the Pinnacles and finally a stop at Eli Creek.

Lake McKenzie – bluuue and clear sweet water lake – a perfect place to swim!

We skipped the optional scenic flight, but admired the fact that the 75 Mile Beach is a beach (obviously), fishing spot, national park, highway, campground and even a runway for aircrafts.

The dingo warnings made sense, we spotted one along the way. Dingoes were introduced around 4000 years ago in Australia and the ones on Fraser Island are considered “pure” and need to be distinguished from wild dogs.

I’ll remember our driver Martin (Bruce Willis’s doppelganger) and his sense of dry humor: once forcing a tourist car to drive back to a pass-by, commanding a 40-tons beast, he commented the scene with “Yeah, mine’s bigger than your’s… rarely got the chance to say this!”. Hilarious!

Atherton Tableland (2/2) – Rainforest

From our bed & breakfast we had to drive till Townsville. In between, we did:
• Walked around crater lake Lake Eacham and saw a turtle
• Did the waterfall drive (Millaa Millaa, Zillie and Ellinjaa)
• Wandered in and above(!) rain forest at Mamu Tropical Skywalk
• Did nothing at Mission Beach (“Oops, still 3 hours till Townsville?!?”)
• Watched a vehicle parade of old-timers and tuned cars in Townsville

Atherton Tableland (1/2) – Wallabies!

Short form of what we did today:
• Picked up our rental car (Kia Sportage)
• Took the curvy road till Kuranda
• Tried a few walks, but “River Walk” would have been literally walking in the river
• Admired the impressive Barron Falls
• Escaped the rain at Kuranda and enjoyed the green landscape of Atherton Tableland
• Nice lunch / coffee at “Coffee Works” in Mareeba
• Wine tasting (mango wine!) at de Brueys Boutique winery
• Spotted rock wallabies and turtles at Granite Gorge Nature Park (highly recommended!)
• Talked with a local from Atherton who was on exchange program in Zofingen (close to us)

River walk
Barron Falls
Dinosaur foot prints
Turtles
Wallaby
Wallaby
Steffi and wallabies

Rains in Cairns

Out of the desert into the rain forests. Stress on rain, as we got really wet that day. But it’s the rainy season, we knew it and we took it as it was.

With umbrella and rain coats we walked through Cairns, had a really good sea food dinner and watched cricket with a few beers at “Rattle N Hum” pub. A boxing day (December 26) which could be worse!