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Welcome to Elwyn's blog!
This contains a selection of my writing and photos from a number of trips I've made around the world. TasmaniaI spent a few days at my aunt's property which is near Cygnet in south-east Tasmania. I flew four hours from Auckland in New Zealand to Melbourne, then had a one hour flight down to Hobart. My aunt had broken her ankle a couple of months ago so I was expecting to be given a list of chores to help her with! My plane arrived about about 8pm and by the time we were on the road it was well after dark. Tasmania has plenty of wildlife due to its relatively cool climate compared to the rest of Australia. As we drove through the bush south of Hobart, a wallaby (a small kangaroo) suddenly appeared in front of the car. There was no time to swerve so we hit the wallaby. We stopped and quickly ran back to the animal to see if it was still alive. Unfortunately it had died so we pulled it off the road. It was a male so it wasn't carrying a joey (baby wallaby) in its pouch. So within a hour of landing in Tasmania I'd been involved with killing some local wildlife. We went for a morning swim at Woodbridge Hill Hideway. This is a relatively new development on top of a hill overlooking Bruny Island and the D'Entrecasteaux Channel. We hired the pool to ourselves and it was a nice sunny day. Perfect!
A small Echidna appeared beside the road on the way back. We stopped for a while to watch it attempt to eat some ants. They are strange-looking creatures, very unique to Australia. Fortunately we didn't run it over! Naturally there were a few chores on my aunt's property which included loading a trailer full of donkey poo and stacking two tonnes of firewood. The upside was well-earned dinner of organic vegetables freshly harvested from the property.
I had spent plenty of time in the Tasmanian wilderness on previous holidays, including hiking the Overland Track, the South Coast Track and rafted the Franklin River. It was great to be back to have a short taste of Tasmania and catch up with my aunt. I'm sure I'll be back there soon. I've uploaded some photos from Tasmania to my photo gallery. Sailing in the Bay of Islands
Our charter yacht was called "Boheme", a 40-foot Beneteau. We picked it up from Opua, spent a couple of hours loading it with provisions and headed out to explore the Bay of Islands. We were greeted by a large pod of dolphins as soon as we entered the bay. There was time to cruise past a few of the islands before we headed for our first anchorage at Opunga Cove, next to the ominously-named Assassination Cove. A group of about 20 ducks quickly came to visit us and were disappointed by our lack of food scraps so they continued to the other boats anchored in the bay.
Finally the weather lifted enough for us to venture back into the bay and we had a soggy sail back around to Opunga Cove. We could hear owls calling across the bay overnight. We sailed out past Motorua Island and round Motukiekie Island before we anchored in Otaio Bay on Urupukapuka Island. All these Maori names took some getting used to!
Urupukapuka Island is a large nature reserve with plenty of wildlife. We rowed the dinghy ashore and climbed up a nearby peak. It was still quite misty but we managed to see the surrounding islands. As the weather continued to improve, we motored out through Albert Channel. Some penguins greeted us as we continued to Cape Brett. The clearing mist offered spectacular views of Cape Brett and the natural archway through Piercy Island. The sea life was even more abundant here. A giant "bait ball" of fish surfaced near our yacht, probably stirred up by either sharks, tuna or some other large fish. Dozens of birds attempted to catch all the fish in the bait ball. We decided to stay clear of the bait ball in case there were whales nearby which could have easily tossed our yacht around.
We sailed around to Roberton Island, dropped anchor and rowed ashore. We passed lots of people snorkelling in a lagoon as we climbed up to a lookout. This lookout is the hill which Captain Cook climbed to survey the first landfall after sailing the Endeavour across the Pacific in 1770. The sunny weather allowed us to see right up to Cape Wiwiki and across the Bay of Islands. It was a short trip across to Hurangi Inlet where we anchored overnight. My attempts at fishing continued to fail as the fish happily ate any scraps we sent overboard but the smart fish refused to eat anything attached to a hook. The next day offered terrific sailing conditions. We managed to sail a single tack 10 miles across the bay to Motoroa Island. After a quick lunch stop, we sailed back across the shipping channel and were greeted by another large pod of dolphins. This was the most spectacular dolphin display of the trip. They were jumping in front of several tourist boats and a few swam alongside our boat. We were very lucky! Our sail continued back to Parorenui Bay. We enjoyed a sunny evening overlooking Te Rawhiti Inlet. The sky remained clear overnight and we had an amazing view of the stars since there was minimal light pollution. We could see the Milky Way, plenty of constellations and a few shooting stars. The rarely seen Magellanic Clouds were also visible. Our last day offered more sunny weather so we continued our cruise of the Bay of Islands and anchored for lunch in Motohawea Bay. The winds died out which was handy for cleaning the boat as we motored back into Opua to return our charter yacht. It was a very enjoyable week in the Bay of Islands. I've uploaded plenty of photos in the photo gallery.
Wanaka, New Zealand
We did a short walk around Diamond Lake offering a view across Lake Wanaka. The lake is about 300m deep, which actually makes it deeper than sea level. We then drove up the Matukituki River, mostly rugged farmland leading up to Mt Aspiring National Park. The valley is surrounded by some high mountains: Mount Aspiring, Shark's Tooth and Cascade Saddle which is a steep climb out of the Matukituki valley into the Dart River. It's main entry point for mountaineers to climb Mount Aspiring, which is the highest mountain in the region. The road to the north of Wanaka leads to the west coast of New Zealand. We drove up this road to the Wilkin River. This is the base for the Wilkin-Young Track, a challenging 3-4 day hike over Gillespie Pass near Mt Awful and Mt Dreadful. A jet boat ride took us up the Wilkin River and we spent the afternoon walking further along the Wilkin River. It was a civilised walk through classic New Zealand beech forest and was definitely the wilderness! It had a distinct "Lord of the Rings" feel to it but we didn't see any hobbits or Orcs. We didn't see anyone else all afternoon but there were plenty of sand flies to keep us company. The jet boat picked us up for a fast trip back to the main road.
Another day trip was up to Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand. I did a 10 day mountaineering course from Kelman Hut last time I was in New Zealand and climbed over Ball Pass. There was no time for that on this visit so we had a civilized walk up the Hooker Valley for lunch. Mt Sefton loomed over us and we enjoyed views across the valley. We were fortunate to see the summit of Mount Cook later in the afternoon. Its Maori name is Aoraki which means "cloud piercer" - quite appropriate! After an enjoyable week in Wanaka, we flew up to the North Island for our next adventure. I've uploaded photos from the Routeburn Track and Wanaka to my photo gallery. Enjoy!
Routeburn Track 
I'd last been to New Zealand about 10 years ago so I planned some time here as part of my sabbatical.
After an overnight stay in Queenstown, I caught an early morning bus to the start of the 3-day Routeburn Track. It's one of New Zealand's "Great Walks" so hut places need to be booked months in advance to secure a place. The Routeburn Track is also one of the wettest places in New Zealand so it's a gamble on the weather when it's booked so long in advance.
Fortunately blue sunny skies greeted us at the start of the walk. As with all walking ("tramping") in New Zealand, everyone must carry their own sleeping bag, clothes and food for the duration of a multi-day hike. There had been snow only a week before so we had to ensure we were prepared for any weather conditions.
The walk climbed up through a steep canyon on the Route Burn river. It was covered in beech trees and there was plenty of bird life. The track flattened out to a wide valley. A campsite had views up a side valley while the main track climbed up to Routeburn Falls Hut. It was a relatively short day to start but a good warm up as my pack weighed around 15kg.
The hut warden mentioned the stoats, which were introduced to New Zealand to eradicate another introduced species, rabbits. Unfortunately the stoats are now a threat to New Zealand's bird population. Stoat traps are now laid in an effort to control the stoats and therefore save the native birds of New Zealand. A New Zealand parrot, the kia, is also proving to be a pest. They are very smart, strong and can rip windscreen wipers off cars! The kia population has figured out that the stoat traps have tasty eggs as bait inside and they can rip the top off (which is nailed on!) to steal the bait and not get trapped. It's a constant battle between the national park rangers and the kias. We were warned not to leave anything outside overnight due to the danger of kias.
Mist filled the valley overnight so we delayed our start as the forecast was for the weather to improve during the day. The mist lifted slightly and we climbed up Harris Saddle. Unfortunately the mist lingered so we couldn't see the views across Lake Harris. We waited in the Harris Shelter until after lunch and finally the mist cleared. We climbed up Conical Hill and could see right across Fjordland and up the Hollyford River to the Tasman Sea. Apparently it's quite unusual to see that far so we were lucky!
The rest of the afternoon we walked through the alpine plants above the Hollyford River around to Lake Mackenzie. The next hut was there and it was warm enough to have a swim in the lake. The sun set across the Darren Mountains and we had hour-long talk from the hut warden who we think had been there a bit too long (20+ years) and had a few loose screws.
We were back in the beech forest the next morning and continued the walk towards Lake Howden. There were waterfalls coming off the high mountains and lots of birds along the track. A worthwhile side trip was up Key Summit. It was a steep climb again but worthwhile views in the continued good weather.
The last part of the walk was a gentle descent to the Divide shelter. We could hear the sound of traffic on the Milford Highway gradually come nearer and finally we were at the end of the track. There were lots of "normal" people there (ie. people who hadn't walked for the past few days and had a recent shower) who asked us all sorts of question about the Routeburn track.
It was a four hour bus trip back to Queenstown. We are staying in Wanaka for the next few days and will see plenty more of the South Island. Hopefully the good weather will continue!
Sydney
After a couple of days in LA, I had a long flight across the Pacific to Sydney. I was fortunate to receive an upgrade which made for a relatively comfortable 14 hour flight. It was a Qantas A380 so there was plenty of space and it was nice to be surrounded by Australian accents after being the only Australian while I travelled through the States. Australian immigration only took about two minutes. Handy with an Australian passport. I'd left LA on Sunday and arrived in Sydney on Tuesday morning so had lost Monday. That's probably the best day of the week to skip!
We hired an apartment in Darling Harbour which is just to the west of Sydney's city centre. It was a quiet day for me recovering from the long flight and jetlag before my parents arrived from Perth in the evening. I looked at the Maritime Museum for a while which included the Endeavour replica. The Endeavour is the boat Captain Cook discovered Australia in. The Maritime Museum also had a database of passengers who had migrated to Australia over the past two centuries so I searched for a few of my ancestors. It's proving difficult to find the right James Campbell who sailed across from Scotland in the 1850's as we have at least five people in our family named James Campbell, let alone all the non-family James Campbells! After giving up on the family tree search I headed to the local supermarket to stock up on some Australian essentials I'd missed: Vegemite, Weetbix and Milo.
We caught the ferry across Sydney Harbour to the famous Taronga Zoo. It's on the north side of the harbour and offers fantastic views back
across to the city, Opera House and Harbour Bridge. There were plenty of koalas, kangaroos, snakes and spiders along with lots of non-Australian animals. Our ferry ride back stopped at Circular Quay and the North Shore so we saw much more of the Opera House and went under the Harbour Bridge. We had dinner with one of my friends from uni that night.
Our second day in Sydney was spent with relatives in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. It was a super cheap two hour train trip there. We stocked up on some essential BBQ ingredients on the way back and enjoyed a sunny evening on our rooftop terrace overlooking the city.
A few photos of a Sydney are in the photo gallery.
I had a plane to Queenstown in New Zealand the next morning. It was only a 2.5 hour plane trip which was nothing compared to the long Pacific flight. I'd had enough time in Sydney to recover from jetlag and it's now time for the next adventure!
Los Angeles
We passed the Playboy Mansion on our way to the premier shopping strip of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Nothing in any of these shops (Gucci, Louis Vuitton, etc) displayed any price tags in a place where clearly money is no object. It didn't take long to spot any plastic people either. We managed to sneak into the luxury Beverly Wilshere hotel where Pretty Woman was filmed. We went up to the Griffith Observatory which offered great views across the city and the famous Hollywood sign. Then it was the weird world of Hollywood Boulevard with the Dolby Theatre and Chinese Theatre. The last part of the tour was past the Sunset Strip.
It was then time for the long flight to Sydney but I received an upgrade which helped :-) All the photos from my trip through LA are in my photo gallery.
Antigua Holiday
There was plenty of entertainment as some more Transatlantic rowers finished their crossings. The first morning of my stay in Antigua I leant my phone charger to a lady who was desperate to track her brother rowing across the Atlantic and had run out of batteries. Only in the Caribbean! I've finally managed to upload my photos with a decent internet connection. Check them out in my photo gallery. Sailing Antigua
In early 2013, I did the RYA Yachtmaster Theory course with the intention of completing the full practical course and test in the Solent during 2013. Unfortunately that didn't happen. As I was planning my sabbatical travel for early 2014, I had the idea of completing the Yachtmaster course in the Caribbean as January is the start of the main season. That would be much warmer than the Solent! A search through a number of RYA sailing schools lead me to one in Antigua that offered a Yachtmaster course that fitted in with my travel dates.
Antigua is part of the Leeward islands and has a very British history. That was evident landing at the airport as there was a BA plane next to ours and a slow immigration queue! I made my way to Falmouth Harbour and prepared to start the five day sailing course. Falmouth Harbour is next to English Harbour and now offers a large dock for superyachts. During the peak season, the number of people on board the superyachts far outweighs the town's population.
The RYA course instructor was a local Antiguan who is a cousin of non other than the great Viv Richards. Our yacht for the week was a 39ft Dehler which we lived on for the duration of the course. Most of the week was spent on a combination of navigation, sailing skills and theory as we took turns as skipper. There was plenty of man overboard drills where we had to pick up a buoy under sail power only. The Caribbean is known to offer "barefoot sailing" and we hardly wore shoes all week. The temperatures were in the high 20s and winds steady at 15 - 20 knots, perfect for sailing!
We made our way around the west side of the island and had time in Jolly Harbour (can't think of where they named that from), St Johns and finally Parnham Harbour on the north side of Antigua. That was next to Long Island which has some exclusive resorts which are US$10,000 per night. Our yacht moored right next door for a much cheaper rate.
We called into St Johns on the way back to the south side of Antigua and tacked between two large cruise liners. The dock offered duty free shopping, English beer and Premier League football on TV. Very tacky. Yuck. Fortunately we didn't stay there long as we waited for the cruise liners to leave and then headed out for our night sail. Navigation was with a chart, compass and depth meter only, no GPS allowed. It was a challenge as we negotiated a narrow channel between a long reef and the mainland which had no navigation lights. We survived!
It was a very intensive week as we were overloaded with information that was hard work to digest. We were all a bit weary by the weekend which was even more intense as it as a two day practical exam as we had to demonstrate we had learned the skills sufficiently to demonstrate we were good enough to be qualified as Yachtmasters.
The exam was assessed by an independent RYA examiner. He was a contrast to our laid-back Antiguan instructor as he was English and very strict with the requirements required to pass the exam. One of the sailing school staff ominously said that he was very strict and wished us luck for the weekend.
The exam itself was much the same as during the week but obviously we received no help from the examiner. He gave us a number of sailing challenges both with skills and navigation and then took us aside individually to ask chart and theory questions. In my wisdom (or stupidity) I had booked the course and exam to finish on my birthday. I skippered the last part of the exam as the sun set across the Atlantic and we came back into Falmouth Harbour.
We had to all wait and see if we'd passed as the examiner spoke to us individually about our results and feedback. Fortunately I'd passed! Out of the four students assessed only two of us passed so I was very relieved. We all headed out to celebrate and commiserate with some obligatory rum. To make the evening even better the Australia vs England one day game was on TV where England managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory :-)
Costa Rica Traverse Dominical
I'd noticed a Costa Rica "Coast to Coast Traverse" a few years ago and liked the idea of a continental traverse using various forms of human-powered transport. Finally the dates of the World Expeditions trip fitted in with my travel plans in January 2014. We arrived in San Jose from various different parts of the world: seven Australians and one Norwegian.
The first day was spent driving west from San Jose to Dominical on the Pacific coast. We stayed in a jungle lodge in Dominical, which is a surfing town. We made the most of the nearby beach and went for a swim late in the afternoon. There was a huge tropical downpour which stranded us in a beach shack for over an hour. Eventually we decided to walk back in the pouring rain rather than get stranded for longer. Good decision as the rain continued for a while afterwards.
 Pacific OceanThe start of our traverse across Costa Rica from Dominical
The first day of our coast-to-coast crossing was on mountain bikes. Initially we rode along the coast highway then turned onto an off-road track following a river (Rio Savegre) up into the mountains. After a lunch break, we continued to climb some large hills which was a challenge in the heat and humidity. Eventually we arrived at our campsite in Esquipulas just before the afternoon rain arrived. There were no showers so we found a waterfall in a nearby river which offered a very good replacement.
We had an early start the following day and hiked further into the hills. Our support vehicle had to drive for several hours around to meet us on the other side as the path became impassable for vehicles. There were plenty of butterflies and birds. As we were climbing higher the vegetation had changed from coastal farmland into cloud rainforest. Part way along the walk, we came across a couple of young bulls on a narrow part of the track. I continued to walk through and one of them started to chase me. Not sure what to do I jumped off the side of a steep part of the track so the bull decided to stop chasing me. Phew! Our last part of the walk was down into Naranjillo to set up camp.
 WaterfallNo showers at our camp but this waterfall was handy.
Our walk the following day was up through coffee fields and across several rivers. We continued to gain altitude as we were heading east to the continental divide. It continued to be very hot and humid so we were grateful for any shade we could find. Our support vehicle met us a the top of a hill and we welcomed our bikes for a fast downhill run to lunch. After lunch we had a long climb into Santa Maria where we stayed in cabins for the night. After a couple of days camping we were happy to have decent showers to clean off all the sweat, sunscreen and insect repellent!
The next morning we were up for a 5am start to ride up a 700m climb to cross the continental divide at 2,300m. It was a relentless climb with plenty of twists and turns and it was hard to find were the top was! Fortunately we all made it up within a couple of hours and we celebrated with a huge breakfast to try and recoup some a calories. The vegetation was more open again. We had a long decent on some decent gravel tracks which offered terrific views across the other valleys. There were some very steep dirt tracks which require us to walk our bikes down in some parts. We had a quick lunch and continued into the Orosi Valley which offered plenty more good coffee. An early night for everyone after a long day, 47km on the bike in total.
 FlowerI don't know what kind of flower.
The next day was the toughest day of the trip. It was another full day on the bike where we had to cover 66km and finish with a steep climb. There were also steep climbs to start the day but we were fortunate that the weather had become drizzly which meant it was relatively cool for our exertions. The initial part of the day was on bitumen which allowed for relatively quick riding but then we turned onto dirt tracks which were very rough as we continued. The bikes were showing a few signs of wear and tear but with a bit of mechanical help and we were able to continue. There was another steep climb before lunch and we were relieved to have another big feed! The climb continued up a rocky road and we all resorted to pushing our bikes to the top of the hill. A quick decent and just one more hill before we finished. We stayed with local families in the village of Mollejones for the evening in an attempt to speak some Spanish. The locals even put on afternoon tea and a dance for us after they watched us push our bikes up their hill. As most of us were exhausted from the day's cycling we were all in bed by 9pm. MontjolleA nice sunrise after our home stay. The last morning of hiking as we walked down to the river.
A 6am start and we were on foot to descend to the Pacuare River, the best river for rafting in Costa Rica. We started on a dirt track which took us down to a bridge over the river. The track narrowed and we were soon walking through some thick mud. We had hired a local to help guide us along the valley as the track stopped and we needed to get through the thick vegetation and hilly terrain. He brought a machete and hacked out a path for us. We reached the road head and soon our support vehicle appeared along with some rafts.
We loaded up the rafts with enough provisions to last for a couple of days. One raft had all our food and clothes and two other rafts were for all of us. It took a couple of hours to reach our jungle camp at El Niño del Tigre. We negotiated some grade two and three rapids. The rafting included surfing a wave at the bottom of a rapid, something I hadn't done in a raft before!
 River crossing
Our jungle camp was awesome, tucked away in a quiet, steep valley. There was no power and we only used candles. There were outdoor showers and we had our own tents. There was heaps of wildlife around and we could see toucans in the distant trees along with lots of spiders. A tarantula lived in a tree right next to the kitchen so I gave it a wide berth. We had a rest day at the camp and had a short walk up to a nearby waterfall for a swim.
After a refreshing day off, we were back on the rafts for a full day on the Pacuare River. The rapids were at a higher grade and we managed to negotiate them without too many incidents. We jumped out of the rafts to float down a canyon before having lunch on the river bank. There were only a few more rapids before we crossed under a main road bridge which meant we had left the wilderness behind. We had another camp at Finca Pacuarito to enjoy before our last day of exertion.
 Rafting
We were back on the mountain bikes for the next day. The terrain had flattened out and we negotiated some rocky roads through large banana plantations. These weren't the quietest roads as there were large trucks full of bananas driving back to the main road. After only a couple of hours, we made it back to the river to pick up our kayaks for the last leg of the trip. They were sit-on kayaks so it was easy to pair up and paddle downriver with no rapids. We spotted more wildlife, including a sloth, monkeys and an alligator. Incentive not to fall in! We could hear the sound of waves which meant we were close to our goal of the Caribbean coast. Finally, we rounded a corner and could see the ocean! We celebrated on the beach with champagne and took plenty of celebratory photos.
Our kayaks were loaded on to motor boats and we enjoyed a boat trip through some canals back to the road. It as a strange feeling being driven somewhere after spending the past couple of weeks making our own way across the country. There was one more surprise on the way back: a moving sloth! We had searched for a non-sleeping sloth for most of the trip and our eagle-eyed guide spotted one swinging in the trees.
We left the power boat and got on the bus to drive back to San Jose. Not long after we started, there was a torrential downpour. Perfect timing as we were nice and dry inside the bus. We had been very lucky with the weather for the entire trip and our luck continued right until the last day.
 The finishAll eight of us finished the trip! With our guide, Maurice.
It was a very enjoyable trip. I've been to wilder places and climbed higher mountains but the combination of the friendly local people, the physical challenge, the wildlife and the excellent organisation made it a memorable expedition. Now I'm in Miami for a couple of days then on to Antigua.
Here's our statistics for the traverse:
More photos from the traverse are in my photo gallery. A video of our rafting is available on YouTube:
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