Better later than never...

I'm not sure if this will work or not, but here is a selection of my Australia photos (finally). I'm still working on the others!
Enjoy.

Master Chef eat your heart out

Having taken some time to get over our various ailments yesterday, we chose to embark on a Thai cooking course today. This involved choosing 6 dishes to prepare... and eating them all! I struggle to eat 3 meals in a day, it felt like Thailand's version of Super-size me! How do the locals stay so small and thin?

We started the day being picked up by our transport to the class. When we arrived, we joined the rest of our group. There were about 2-3 groups in total, but the class sizes are small so they taught us all separately. Our group consisted of 2 other Brits, 4 Aussies and 2 Danes.

We each picked what we would want to eat and they made up a shopping list from that. We then headed to a local market to purchase the ingredients. This in itself was an education as they taught us about all the different types of vegetables and fruits used in Thai cooking (some of which I suspect I may never see again in my life, some of which I did actually recognise). It was a good introduction to the market and we saw some interesting sights, such as bright pink eggs. Apparently these are fermented chemically and then the inside turns a brown colour. It's supposedly quite nice!

After the markets, we headed back with our bamboo baskets to the cooking class to begin our cooking. It began with a snack prepared for us, which was very interesting (many local fruits and nuts, including roast apple!). Then it was into the kitchens. We mingled with the other groups at this point as everyone was making different things. I made some lovely noodles - the session resembled an Allo Allo episode as the teacher started by saying "watch this, I'll show you only once!" And then boom, we were off to cook our own! It was really quick and easy, but how she did it without a recipe book in front of her I don't know! Practice I guess.

Then we ate said noodles. Dish 1. Onto Dish 2, which for me was Spring Rolls. These too are very easy to make, but I was both disappointed and relieved to learn they use pre-made pastry for the rolls. I was quite proud of my efforts, but was already feeling full so couldn't eat them all.

Dish 3. This is the one I wasn't so keen on, soup. I did my very best to keep it as mild as I could - I chose the biggest chillies, added everything they told me to to keep it mild, and yet somehow it still ended up being way too spicy! Even Chris thought it was a tad on the hot side.

We had a little break by this point (phew).

Onto Dish 6, Dessert, which we made before Dishes 4&5 for some reason. I chose deep fried banana. Really easy to make, not so easy to eat! These went off somewhere while we then moved onto Dishes 4&5. This was a curry paste, and a Thai Curry. I chose the Chiang Mai style noodles. The curry paste was pretty hot, but then we were able to control the temperature. I successfully managed to make a milder curry, but I'd eaten so much I still couldn't eat it all.

So when they brought out the bananas we'd previously prepared, there was no way I could eat everything I'd made. It was all really nice (except the soup), but I was full to the brim. No dinner needed for me tonight!

We came away with a recipe book detailing everything we'd learnt today which will come in really useful when I get home. Watch out folks, I could be inviting you to a Thai banquet on my return... if I can ever find any of the ingredients again!

Everyone's a tour guide

They say that when you come to Thailand, the locals have an encyclopedic knowledge of university towns. If you ever come to Thailand I can guarantee you will have a conversation along the following lines:

Local: "Hello!"
Us: (reluctantly, by now) "Hello"
Local: "Where you come from?"
Us: "UK"
Local: "Ah, England? Where in England?"
Us: (here we go again) "Southampton"
Local: "Oh, Southampton?"

At this point, the books suggest that the local will tell you they have a relative going to/who went to university here. Our experience has differed slightly as they seem to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the football...

Local (cont'd): "Ah, they used to be good, not so good now huh? Good players previously" etc.

After this little round of conversation, the next part will almost always be:

"You need a suit?"

or

"Where you going?"

or

"How long you in "

or

"You need tuk-tuk?"

or

"I recommend you go here..." this last one is followed by several itinerary suggestions, of which I remember about 1%!

Anyhow, yesterday, we actually spent a bit of time trying to get a bit cultural and recover from the illness we'd each been suffering so far. We wandered around the streets of Chiang Mai and entered our first temple, followed by a second and then a third for good measure!

The first one was very quiet, but it was a good introduction as neither of us had much of a clue about what to expect and how to behave. Thankfully some locals outside were able to give us a little idea, using a similar conversation to that mentioned above. When in Bangkok, anytime we stopped, we'd be approached by the locals suggesting places we want to go, followed by a cunning swift move to try and get you into a tuk-tuk, for high commission no doubt. In Chiang Mai, there isn't so much pressure, but people still have an opinion they want to share.

We removed our shoes, covered our shoulders and took off our hats before entering the Prayer hall in the temple. As we entered, we were faced with a small Buddha display, and lots of artwork around the walls detailing various historical points, but very few people. There was one Thai chap there who handed us little little fortune sticks, something I felt a little awkward about taking, but as a local offered it to me I didn't want to cause any offence by not accepting it. You closed your eyes and removed a stick with a number, and then you took a piece of paper that corresponded with your number. It seemed to hold little religious meaning, and looked more of a tourist gimmick, but who knows. The papers held little "fortunes", which, much like starsigns in my opinion, could be applied to anyone's situation I'm sure.

Again, the same kind of conversation ensued with this chap and we spent more time speaking to him - he was from down south and spending time up in Chiang Mai on a business trip. He makes a few trips it appears, as again, he had his suggested itinerary for us and made us get out our map so he could show us several ideas of temples we should see, places we could go and a tailor to boot! He gets all his suits made there apparently. High praise for someone who comes from down south (it's cheaper in Chiang Mai as they're closer to where the materials are made).

After leaving this temple, we headed off to the next one. This was a little larger in size and had a few more visitors, including some Buddhist monks wandering around. As a female I have to be very careful around them. Females are not allowed to communicate with the monks directly and certainly can't touch them. Something I had been previously unaware of before coming to Thailand. I only found out in Bangkok when some Buddhist monks were on the boat we used to get around, and someone else tapped us on the shoulder's to get us to move for the monks. I think they'd probably been standing waiting to get by for ages before that moment.

The final temple we went to was more of a village and school, related to the temple we'd just been in. It had many monks in training there and even had a "Monk Chat" corner! This is where you can go and ask the monks anything you like about Buddhism, Thai culture or anything you like apparently. I didn't make use of it this time, but I'm sure it could be interesting to have a chat with them one day. We did notice the signs around suggesting to be careful of the locals - they may be trying to con the tourists. Put much more politely than that, of course.

On leaving the temple, we decided to head back to our hotel finally, and were again met by another local who is apparently not from these parts either. He also gets his suits made in Chiang Mai, and when we asked where that was, it was the same place our first 'non-local' had recommended. Hmmm, either this tailor is amazing or there's something going on here!

It was a good day of exploration for us and I felt like we were beginning to see some real Thailand at last.

Tranquil Thailand

Having been led to believe that all the trains were fully booked from Bangkok to Chiang Mai for nearly a week, we reluctantly booked a flight instead. Along with the flight, we booked accommodation. I was wary of how this had all come about - we went to the station to book, were bombarded by a tourist information rep who took us to a legitimate-looking window and when we couldn't get a train, he conveniently took us straight to a travel agent who could get us a price for a flight.
It all seemed pretty genuine, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought it was a little too convenient and started to wonder if we'd get a flight or if our tickets would be invalid. They were authorised by the appropriate Thailand authorities, so I was reasonably happy. I was just a little suspicious that someone was getting lots of commission.
I decided as long as we had a flight and somewhere to stay, I didn't care about the commission side of things. We paid our money and were grateful that it all seemed above board and genuine. We arrived in Chiang Mai last night, hopped on our airport transfer (our first taste of 'proper' Thailand road transport) along with 4 others who had been sold the same deal having been led there by the infamous tuk-tuk drivers. Still, we'd arrived, so they deserve the commission just for getting us here in my opinion!
Unfortunately, between writing my last blog post and boarding the flight, I was really ill again. Having checked out of our hotel room in Bangkok, this was not ideal. I was sick in a corridor and when I asked the cleaning staff if there was a toilet I could use, they just said I should continue to be sick in the corridor! So today we've had to take it easy again. We've had a little wander around the area and so far I am loving Chiang Mai. The people are much friendlier (and seemingly more genuine), the food has been good and the atmosphere is so much more relaxed than Bangkok.
I hope to have more tales of adventures once we have got over our initial 'Bangkok Belly' syndrome!
Take care
Hannah
xXx

Buzzing Bangkok

We arrived in Bangkok 4 days ago, a little nervous about what we would be about to experience. We'd been told to keep our wits about us, trust no 'friendly strangers', expect the taxi drivers to rip us off, and never set foot in a tuk-tuk (basically a motorised rickshaw) from a tourist hotspot.

We were pleasantly surprised when we got in the taxi at the airport and the meter was already running (we'd been told many drivers refuse to use these, and it can be a challenge to get them to do so). Our driver didn't speak much English and we speak even less Thai, so we had our first experience of bad communication. However, I think it worked in our favour as our journey was inexpensive (about £6 for an hour journey), although he was a lunatic on the road. We nearly knocked over one motorcycle and did an emergency stop for a bus. We had a very reasonable fayre and arrived at our destination in one piece (just).

Banglamphu

We chose to stay in the backpacker area of town called Banglamphu, very touristy. In fairness, it doesn't appear to be just backpackers, but Westerner's in general. It's been a great introduction to the culture as the area is full of tourists, and Thais wanting to take advantage of said tourists. As I say, we'd been advised not to trust friendly strangers, but it's difficult when they approach you so regularly. So on Day 1 we disobeyed the golden rule and took directions from two separate strangers to a 'tourist information' office, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, turned out to be a travel agency. We had a good chat with the staff though and it helped us to get an idea of what we might like to do in Thailand. I was sad to hear that the girl serving us lived in Bangkok as the pay is so much better, but she has a daughter back in her home town living with her mum. Nowhere is particularly quick to get to in Thailand - even trying to get from one end of Bangkok to the other can take over an hour. But because she needed to feed her family (another child's on the way), she had no choice but to live miles away from home and leave her daughter back home (I think it's about 3 hours away). Still, nice as she was, we didn't let that sway us into paying for anything until we were ready! We headed out of the travel agent and attempted to try and find our way back to the original road we'd been heading for (we'd only been trying to cross the road when we got cornered in the first place)!

We stayed local on day one. Thanks to all the westerner's there are many western influences in this part of town. Most places serve Thai cuisine, but I understand it's quite watered down. We vowed we would head somewhere more cultural the next day though, now that we'd been broken in and got our bearings a bit more.

Problem was, when the next day came, Chris and I didn't feel too crash hot. Poor Chris was sick and I felt quite nauseous all morning. I think we were probably just dehydrated, but we didn't leave Banglamphu for a second day. We'd got over the illness by the end of the evening and braved the Westernised streets again and I attempted my first Thai meal (a bit dry, but ok for a first attempt). Thankfully when we awoke this morning we felt much better. Just as well as we were off to meet the lovely Katrina who arrived yesterday.

Central Bangkok

Katrina is one very brave girl for starting her travels in Bangkok, especially in the area she's staying. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice area, but for a first time lone traveller, it's a bit daunting as every sign was in Thai with very few Roman spellings. Chris and I took a river boat to get to her (more on that later). Here we made our second 'mistake' of trusting a friendly stranger. This time it was in the form of a friendly French chap named Christian. He was going to the station and he would guide us there. I was sceptical, but we'd already agreed so I kept trying to remember every road we went down just in case. This proved difficult thanks to the lack of English writing and his amazing knowledge of every backroad. A few prayers later and we were at the station - Christian turned out to be a genuine bloke and we're very grateful to him. Should've known from the name I guess, hehe! I had no idea how we were going to manage later without him though.

We managed to find Katrina safely in her hotel and wondered where we could go to break her in gently. In the end, we decided to get her out of there and introduce her to our Banglamphu! It took us some time, and we didn't get to the stop we'd planned, but we eventually managed to find a boat to take us back up the river.

Now then, let me explain the boat situation as this was a very interesting experience for me. You'll have read my dislike for deep water, but this experience made it grow considerably - it was something else! The boats sit very low in the water and are very crowded (which may be why they sit so low). When I got on, I started to have a flashback to a news story I seem to recall where one of these sorts of boats had become so overcrowded that it had sunk. Thankfully, that didn't happen to us and we made it to Banglamphu

We eventually managed to get Katrina back to her hotel and it was an excellent lesson for all of us in navigating around Thailand. Katrina met up with her tour group safely in the evening, albeit a bit later than she'd hoped. Meanwhile, Chris and I took the boat back to Banglamphu one final time and went for dinner in a Thai restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet (and away from all the crowds we'd endured in the more touristy end). Worried at first as there were absolutely no other people in the restaurant, we then decided we must have started a trend as it was soon full with Westerner's and Thai's alike. Great choice and a great way to spend our last evening in Bangkok.

Today we are flying to Chiang Mai. We were hoping to get an overnight sleeper train but it was all fully booked for the next few days. No offence to Bangkok, but I didn't fancy staying here for too many more nights just to get the train. We will probably come back here on our way home though, and hopefully then we can get a train and we'll do the obligatory sight seeing, rather than just eating and drinking our way around the city!

Until next time, Lah gorn ka. (westernised spelling for the Thai Goodbye, I hope!).
xXx

Singapore Slums

Hello!
I am finally up to date with the blog and am writing this post in 'real time'! I'm sat in my hotel room in Singapore having been here 4 days now. We're heading to Thailand tonight, all being well.


Singapore has been an interesting experience for me. I'd heard how lovely and clean the place was and how amazing people were. Let me just correct a misconception for anyone arriving in Singapore. Singapore Airlines are the best airlines, agreed. Their service is 2nd to none, and they are a brilliant airline. However, their staff do not represent the people of Singapore at all! I hadn't realised until I arrived, but actually Singapore has quite a bad reputation when it comes to service, and I can see why.


Don't get me wrong, this place has grown on me, but the people are not as happy as they could be. Never the less, it has been a great experience. We have been staying in the red light district as it was the cheapest, and this unsettled me a bit at first. I've seen prostitutes on various street corners (and everywhere in between) and I've stayed in a hotel where the reviews express concern for everyone not to stay there, as it is actively used by said prostitutes. However, the same area is also home to Singapore's finest eateries, apparently. We've been too scared to try them at night and have been out during the day, but we're going to give it a go today!


I also think that staying here has given us an insight into a more 'real' Singapore. I came here expecting the streets to be spotless, and on the whole they were. But in Geylang, where we're staying, there is a very different feel about the place. Nasty smells crop up everywhere but there's something about the hustle and bustle of the place that makes it really appealing. So I'm glad we've stayed here, but I won't be coming back to this area to sleep after I leave today!!


When not stressing about our hotel and surrounding areas, we've been to various other places Singapore has to offer, such as the night Safari - a zoo which opens at night to allow you to see animals in their 'natural' habitat. I'm not sure how natural their Himalaya display was, but it's a nice idea! We've been to Sentosa, the pleasure island of Singapore and home to a new Universal Studios complex. We gave that a miss but took on another Luge, a gondola (across the river between the mainland and the island!), and a torrential downpour. It was interesting to see the beaches and then, just beyond, the power stations/oil refinery's and many container ships sitting in the docks. I wouldn't swim there - think of Lepe/Calshot and multiply it by about a thousand! There's oil in the sea but plenty of people were swimming and the water temperature was quite hot (30 degrees, apparently), so it can't have been all that bad.


So all in all I have really enjoyed Singapore, but it is not the biggest country and we've kind of exhausted the itineraries in our time here. So I am very ready for Thailand, which I am both nervous and excited about.


I expect the Internet access to be poor there, so apologies if this is the last post for a while again. Hope everyone is well and I'll see you all soon.


Take care
Hannah
xXx

The long and winding road...

(10th - 14th January)

We spent our last night back in Paihia in the campsite where we'd been the night before last. That was right next to a beach too, although it wasn't as nice as some of the ones we'd seen. The weather was better this time but I was still feeling a little peaky so we didn't do much, other than book some accommodation for Thailand.

On Tuesday, we gave our van back to Spaceships. I was a little sad actually. Relieved, but sad to lose our independence. We would spend the next few nights in a hostel in Auckland with nothing but shank's pony to get us around.

Thankfully it was a great hostel in a great location. We stayed in Mt Eden, which is basically a big volcano. I wasn't game enough to climb it but Chris was and says it was very nice. So much so that he decided he didn't want to go up the Sky Tower (the tallest building in the southern hemisphere - great views of the city) as he'd already seen great views of the city.

Annoyingly I left my phone in the Spaceship so we had to go back there to retrieve it. We searched the pubs of Mt Eden and Auckland city to find Chris's favourite Kiwi beer that he first (and last) discovered in Rotorua. No success.

So if you're a beer fan, and you ever come to NZ, try to find some 'Distinction', apparently it's really nice, but seems more difficult to find than the yellow-eyed penguins we'd been told were so rare at the beginning of our trip!

Well, as I write this we are sitting in the Melbourne Transfers Lounge waiting for our onward flight to Singapore, our next home for 4 days. Hopefully I'll actually get a chance to post this online before long, and maybe have some tails to tell of our time in Singapore too. I'm a bit apprehensive as we're staying in the worst part of Singapore, but hopefully because it is Singapore, that still won't be as bad as some places I've been before!

Until we next speak, enjoy yourselves and be good!
Han
xXx

Cape Reinga and beyond

9th January - 10th January

After our exciting boat trip, we headed up north for Cape Reinga. This is supposedly the most northern part of NZ, but it's actually not. It's just the most northern bit you can get to.

Last time I came here we did it in a day - that's one big day trip, especially from Whangarei. This time we planned to sleep overnight at a DOC campsite just down the road. What a great choice. The views were great, there was a lake, a beach and just a really nice feel about the time. Unfortunately I couldn't really enjoy any of it!

Thanks to the boat ride, the windy road leading to the campsite, the horrendously early start that morning, and I think a bug as well, I was really ill all night and some of the next day. I love DOC sites, but I don't recommend being sick at one - a drop loo and no sinks made for a bit of a rubbish evening for me. Thankfully we still had our washing up bowls from the clothes-treating.

The next day we headed up to Cape Reinga. The place has changed a little since last time we were here. There is still not a lot there, but they've tarmacked the road, and they've fixed the sign that they were working on last time (the only reason I made Sarah sit in the car so we could drive all the way here to get a photo, only to discover we couldn't). The morning had turned into a nice sunny day and we were able to see the currents changing where the two seas met (Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea).

It was a nice trip and it was good to have broken it up. I was sad that our time in NZ was coming to an end though. One more night in the van, and then we'll be giving it back.

Beautiful Bay of Islands

(7th - 9th January)

We spent an expensive day in Auckland, mainly because of the price of parking! We also got some stuff for Asia. Then we headed north again, just north of Whangarei. The rain poured down, it was actually quite scary driving in it. We'd gone from the quiet roads to the motorway of Auckland, and I could barely see the car in front for all the splash. When we eventually arrived at our DOC site though, it was a lovely spot. There was a beach right near, running water and even showers. No hot water here, but the area made up for it. The rain even stopped for a short while for us to enjoy a short stroll to the beach.

It soon started again though, so we weren't able to enjoy the location as much as we'd have liked. The next day we made our way to the Bay of Islands. Apparently these are some of the warmest waters NZ has to offer. We went to a place called Paihia to enquire about a boat trip to see dolphins. We needed to finish some mundane chores so we opted to go early the next morning. 8am to be precise. We found ourselves a local campsite for the night and then got ourselves an early night ready for one of our earliest starts yet (possibly THE earliest start).

I was rudely awoken in the morning first by some rain pattering quite hard on the roof, and then by a worried Chris reminding me we had left our clothes on the line and we really should get them in (they were covered in poison... aka pemethrian, which is hopefully going to keep all the mosquitoes from biting through our clothes as it'll kill them on impact). We didn't want them leaking bad stuff all over the ground. So at 5am I reluctantly got myself out of the van, went and rushed to take in the clothes, then got ready for our morning of dolphin viewing.

Chris was hoping to swim with the dolphins, I wasn't so keen. I've fed dolphins before and I actually didn't like the experience - they feel funny, and we already know my dislike of deep sea water. We got on board the boat (which guarantees you to see dolphins, or else they'll take out out on another trip for free) and headed out on the waters. Certain conditions have to be met before they allow you to swim with dolphins. 1. If they're with babies, you can't. 2. If they're travelling, you can't. 3. If the area forbids it, you can't. 4. If the seas are too rough, you can't.

The seas were too rough. We took a while to even find any dolphins, and the sea was very choppy. Nowhere near as bad as Kaikoura when we were there (the boats were allowed to sail, for one), but too dangerous for Chris & co to swim. So we just floated in the water, watching the dolphins swim around and do fancy jumps in the water. This was all very nice and great to see (last time I was here, a bunch of Orca were in the bay so all the dolphins were in hiding), but the rough seas were not at all helpful and I felt very sea sick.

During the boat trip we made a quick stop off on a small island, and then we headed back to Paihia. It was a great trip, I really enjoyed seeing the dolphins in their natural habitat. It's just a shame the weather hadn't been better.

Oh, there it is!

(6th - 7th January)

We headed off to Cathedral Cove early and it was very nice and all, but I didn't know if it was really worth the walk or not as you couldn't actually go through the 'cathedral' (hole in the rock). There was a nice beach which kind of reminded me of Australia's 12 Apostles, thanks to the pillars of Limestone out to sea. Thanks to all the rocks, it didn't seem like the perfect place to swim. Some people thought otherwise though.

As this beach got busier, we decided to head back to Hot Water Beach to beat the crowds of people who would no doubt be looking for their own hot water spa pool later. It was raining a little which I hoped would put people off, but no. Despite being there reasonably early, there were already crowds of people. Still, we weren't put off, we found some lovely warm patches in the sea. We decided to stick our spade in the hot sand so that when the tide eventually went out, we knew we'd hit a hot spa. We weren't wrong. After about an hour battling the tide, trying to guess the optimum time to dig our hole, we eventually joined the multitudes. However, we should have known from the bubbles coming up from under us that not only would the water be hot, it would be near boiling! Whereas previously we had cursed the sea for coming in and wrecking our protective walls, we were now positively grateful for any cooler water. We had probably hit the hottest part of the beach and possibly had the only hole that was actually uninhabitable thanks to the immense heat! Some cheeky so 'n' so's started to dig their hole in front of ours, ruthlessly knocking down our recently-repaired protective walls. I was almost smug when they burnt their feet in our water, but by this time my feet were so sore I had to run away into the sea to seek coolness!

Despite covering myself in suncream & the overcast skies, I managed to get sunburnt. To add insult to injury, thanks to the hot water I couldn't feel the soles of my feet and to top it all off, I'd lost my flip flops that morning (maybe I left them on the roof, so what!?). So no way of protecting my feet to make the painful walk back along the beach.

Still, we found natural hot water springs and that's all that matters 'eh!? After our beachy beachy fun, we decided to head to Auckland as we needed to do some practical stuff for the next leg of our adventure, and Auckland seemed the most logical choice.

HOT water beach? Where's the hot water?

(5th - 6th January)

I am finally up to date with my blog! Only just over a week to go before we leave NZ, and I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to actually put the posts online, but please believe that I have achieved this!!!

Today we have been to Hot Water Beach in the Coromandels. This is a tourist attraction and we ummed and urred whether to even go as we thought it would be heaving. We risked it though, and it was the right thing to do with the weather as warm as it is - we'd been craving a beach and we found it here.

Let me explain the concept for those who've not been here. Basically, for 2 hours either side of low-tide, you can find an area of the beach, dig a hole til you get water, and then hey presto, you have your own hot spa pool. There are natural hot water springs under the sea which are revealed at low tide.

Chris and I hired a spade and joined the multitudes to dig ourselves a hole. Either we weren't doing it right, or everyone else was faking it. We found no hot water by digging a hole. Having said that, the springs are real alright. We just had to paddle a few feet into the sea to be presented with patches of sand beneath us burning our feet. I actually think that if we'd been successful we may have burnt ourselves anyhow, so perhaps we did ok not succeeding.

After our stint at the beach, we headed to nearby Cathedral Cove. Timed perfectly - just as we were leaving the vicinity of Hot Water Beach, we saw a bus load of people turn up. The guidebook had warned that Cathedral Cove would also be busy. Strangely, it was even busier than Hot Water Beach. I've yet to discover what's so amazing about it as we literally just took a quick scenic tour before we booked some accommodation for the night. We have decided to stay in the area so we can try our luck at the beach again tomorrow (even if we don't get hot water, the beach itself is actually quite nice) and also get up early to beat the crowds to the mystery of Cathedral Cove.

Hopefully I'll keep on top of the blog now and you'll be able to read all about this next part of our adventure very soon.

Until then, goodnight & stay safe!
xXx

Rotorua's Rather Smelly

(3rd - 5th January)

When we arrived in Rotorua, we headed a bit north to a place called Hell's Gate. This was another thermal reserve. This one consisted mainly of boiling mud pools, and you could pay to have a mud bath (we declined). I have been to a thermal reserve before, and whilst this mud was probably the most active mud I have ever seen, after a while it just all looked like mud!

We spent the night at what we thought was a DOC site, but upon talking to the locals we discovered it was actually a council site. This was great for us as it meant it was the cheapest site yet, and it had drinking water (it was $6 - about £3 for the two of us). However, because it was new year, the bins hadn't been emptied for some time and the nearby ducks had been attacking all the overflowing bin bags. Still, we kept well away from them and had a very pleasant evening by a lake. Chris seems to have developed a new found love of ducks, and consequently we have finally found a use for our bread which keeps going off far too quickly in our hot campervan. I awoke the next morning to see Chris surrounded by a gaggle of ducks (what's the multiple for ducks/birds?), and then I spied the half-open bread packet!

After packing up, we headed to Wai-o-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. This is the thermal reserve I have been to before, and when compared with Hell's Gate, it is absolutely amazing. There is so much thermal activity around. There's even a geyser (pronounced Guy-zer by the locals) which 'goes off' at 10.15am promptly each morning. "How do they know when it'll go off?" I hear you cry. Well, that's easy. They stick some washing up liquid down it of course! Legend has it that the area used to be a prison and the prisoners were doing their washing when they accidentally dropped some soap powder and WHOOSH!, off went the geyser. I don't know how true the story is, but they do use some form of environmentally friendly powder to make the thing blow. I feel a bit cheated by this, but it does ensure we get to see a geyser, and it doesn't appear to do it any damage - it didn't look much different to when I saw it 5 years ago.

After the geyser, we went off around the super smelly thermal reserve. There's a lot of sulphur around and it stinks. It's a small sacrifice though - it really is much better & more colourful than the aforementioned Hell's Gate!

After Rotorua, we took a trip up the Coromandel as we've heard the beaches round there are amazing.

Wet 'n' Wild Waikite

(2nd - 3rd January)

With a renewed respect for the natures NZ has to offer, we headed from Taupo to some hot springs in Waikite, which were between Taupo and Rotorua. The hot springs were home to several natural thermal pools, with a campsite next door. We decided to stay at the campsite for the night as then we'd get free entry. We're so glad we did - the pools were great. Although it's summer, they weren't too crowded. However, because it is summer, the pools were hotter than they'd usually be and we couldn't stomach some of them for long.

They have a boiling stream running alongside the pools, and nearby is a hot spring which Chris and I took a walk to see. It was an awesome sight, all this naturally hot water just erupting from the ground. I can easily see how someone would do themselves an injury in it. They take this water and cool it down through various processes. Beforehand, the water is around 98 degrees (C), by the time it reaches the pools it's cooled to between 35-39 degrees. As it was such a sunny day, the pools were a couple of degrees warmer than they would usually be and we found ourselves seeking shade as much as we could.

It was a really relaxing way to spend an afternoon though, and the surrounding views were great. This is one of the highlights of my trip so far. Unfortunately we couldn't camp for a 2nd night as they were fully booked, so we headed off to Rotorua instead.

Terrific Taupo

(31st December - 2nd January)

New year's eve is upon us already! We chose to splash out again, but not so much this time. We chose to get out the van and into a bunk room, which is basically a room with bunk beds. The site we chose was in Taupo, a little way from the centre. We'd heard there would be a free concert in town, so that was our plan to see in the new year. That was, until I managed to get a migraine. So my new year consisted of going to bed about 8ish and not getting up til early the next day. I did try to set my alarm to go off shortly before midnight but I got the times all wrong and didn't even notice the fireworks. So my apologies for the lack of New Year messages to you all. Let me make up for it now:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

On New Year's day we went and watched the sun set over Lake Taupo, which was a lovely scene. Chris made some friends with the local ducks and he'd even been for a swim in the lake during the day (I'd tried, but the duck feathers and skank put me off). There is also a natural hot water spring in part of the lake which we investigated, and enjoyed up until some little kids came and got in the way again.

Before leaving Taupo we went to the local church which was a bit bigger than we'd been to previously, and therefore we didn't get any invites to lunch! :o( We did learn some sad news though (we've been much more out of touch with current affairs in NZ). Apparently in one of the hot springs in NZ, a child had very recently died. They had managed to climb through one of the barriers. His brother helped him out from the hot spring but the burns were too severe and he later died from them (I think this is the jist of the story - feel free to look it up). Very sad indeed. So whilst I sincerely wish you all a very happy new year, to those of you who faithfully pray, please could I ask you to pray for the family of that child? I can't imagine it will be a happy one for them or what it would be like to lose a child, especially under such extreme circumstances.

Original Otorohanga

(28th - 31st December)

Our route north took us first to Whanganui River, and then to a small town called Otorohanga. Whanganui River had lots of kids running around the campsite, but other than that there wasn't a lot in the area with the weather as it was, so we kept heading north-west to Otorohanga, via a dormant volcano, Mount Taranaki. The rain and wind had by now stopped, although the clouds were still quite low so we were unable to see the mountain in its full glory. Instead, we took a walk down to some falls nearby which were pretty amazing, but pretty steep. We also saw one of NZ's first hydro power stations - it was tiny!

We spent a couple of nights in Otorohanga with a view to go to the Gloworm caves in Waitomo in the middle. We queued up with all the other coachloads of people to enter the caves, and were quite relieved when the coaches were taken off on their own tour with the rest of us left to go on the next available one in a more manageable-sized group.

The caves looked great - you'll have to take my word for it as no photos were allowed. Although I came here last time, I'd forgotten what they looked like inside, and generally they were quite different to many of the other limestone caves I've seen.

Windiest Wellington

(27th - 28th December)

We bid farewell to the South Island ready to take our ferry across to the North Island. The weather was ok, but it had been very windy the day before and the crossing could've been smoother. We realised it could've been much rougher too though, so I'm grateful we went when we did as I felt ill enough with the 'smooth' crossing.

When we reached Wellington, we headed to a nearby campsite. Wellington is known as the Windy City. It was windy when Sarah and I visited in 2005, and it was windy when Chris and I arrived 5 years later. At times in the night I feared our little car was going to be blown over! It was so windy that the day after we arrived, when it was raining and the wind looked to have calmed down, I was knocked back (nearly literally) to discover it was actually very blowy and my umbrella bore the brunt of it.

It's had a short life, but my (cheap) umbrella had served me well. I have a new quest to find an umbrella, or perhaps a waterproof. Whichever is the cheapest I expect!

Whilst in Wellington, we headed to a museum that is touted as being one of NZ's finest, the Te Papa museum. I missed this out last time, and part of me wishes I had this time too. The only reason we went was because it was indoors and free. It's actually quite an interactive and interesting museum, I'm sure. However, having reached the north island we are now all too aware that we have hit peak school holiday time and the more populated of the islands so it was heaving with little brats and their accompanying families (No offence to Jack & Emily, who will always biasedly be excluded from the 'little brat' title)!

After our recent experience, we decided to try and get out of the wind and rain and headed north.

Christmas in Motueka

(23rd - 27th December)

After Pelorous Bridge, we headed to Motueka. This is a small town more towards the west, still at the top of the South Island. North West, if you will. We had splashed out as it was Christmas (and we were led to believe they were fully booked for sites, which they actually weren't). We were going to get out of the camper and into a proper room with a proper bed and even a little kitchen - this pleased me greatly.

It was amazing! We had started to get quite ratty with the van, and consequently with each other. So this was a nice break. The only thing our room lacked was a bathroom, but that wasn't a long walk.

Having been cooped up in the van, we were actually very lazy for our first few days here and just made the most of having some space to relax in (including a mini sofa!). We did some shopping for Christmas (where I found some more ROBINSON'S SPECIAL R APPLE & BLACKCURRANT!) and then relaxed lots.

On Christmas day, we exchanged stockings from Father Christmas. I received an abundant supply of Chocolate & biscuits, whilst Chris received a beer, beef jerky and some crisps (and also some chocolate). We opened the Christmas card from my parents, which had fared quite well in Chris' backpack this whole time, and then we did some more relaxing. It's a tough life this being unemployed, but someone's gotta do it!

That evening, we'd finally felt that perhaps we should go outside of the campground, so we headed out to look for a sunset. Motueka is described in the Lonely Planet as being quite unremarkable. Although it's a coastal town, and we loved our campsite, I would probably agree for once with their description. The beach wasn't amazing, so our search for a sunset soon turned into a general explore, which took us up into a mountain range slightly unexpectedly, and then along a short walk to a scenic lookout over Motueka and the surrounding towns. By this time it was pretty much dark and all we could see were lights and the cool outline of some rocks. They looked so strange that we decided we would come back the next day when there was some light to see by.

It was slightly scary coming back down the mountain range in the dark, but what with it being Christmas & all, there weren't a lot of other people on the roads so it was all good.

Ooh, nearly forgot to mention our amazing Christmas Dinner. Chris and I made our own (yes, from scratch!) Beef Olives. When I say, from scratch, we did buy just-add-water stuffing, but everything else was made by our own fair hand and I was very impressed with our efforts. Especially when the mother of a family complemented us - they were just having ravioli for their Christmas lunch. We made an effort and it paid off, hooray for us!

Before we said goodbye to Motueka we took a day trip back up the mountains, then on to Kaiteriteri which is another seaside town - obviously much more popular in the summer months. There is a sandy beach here (think of Highcliff's quality of sand, but without the cliffs), but to be honest it didn't seem that appealing. We took a short walk along it, and then headed to another seaside area in the Abel Tasman reserve before heading back to the campsite and having ourselves a soak in their 'spa' (basically a jacuzzi), which was a very nice end to a very nice & chilled Christmas.

Hope you all had lovely Christmases - seems so long ago now!

Protruding Pelerous Bridge

(22nd - 23rd December)

Much like the rest of the Sounds that we'd seen, Pelerous Bridge had suffered with a lot of rainfall in the last couple of days. We were told that usually the pelerous river is great for swimming, but because of the high rainfall it wasn't currently safe to do so.

When we parked up, we soon saw why. What is presumably a slow flowing river was a raging torrent of a rapid. There were loads of rocks around that we could climb on to see just how fast it was. If we'd have had access to sticks, we probably could have played poo sticks very happily but never known who the winner was due to them being taken too fast.

When we checked in though, we were told of lots of other trails and interesting objects nearby, so we decided we'd investigate some of these. Firstly, we headed off to the nearby swing bridge which crosses a different river which links up with Pelerous (Rai, I think). At this point I discovered how much I dislike swing-bridges when you can see raging rivers beneath. I managed to walk all the way across and back again, but it was quite scary.

Later in the evening we took a walk (apparently, a gentle walk, suitable for wheelchairs) up to some waterfalls. We were told that if you go at night you can see glowworms under the waterfall. We tried to go around dusk so it was still quite easy to see, thank goodness. This 'gentle' walk took us over protruding tree branches and up a few steep slopes. It wasn't the toughest walk, but neither was it suitable for wheelchairs - I think I misunderstood the lady telling us about the route! We even had to cross small rivers, which I expect were usually just little trickles of water. By the time we reached where the falls were, I was surprised to find a bigger stream that the lady had neglected to mention. It too was flowing fast and it wasn't the kind of size I could just step across. I bottled out, being a big scardey cat, whilst Chris, with his new-found courage (actually, he's always courageous about this kind of stuff, I'm just a wimp) leapt across to the other side and walked up to the falls, very kindly taking some pictures with my camera.

Never did see any glow worms though. :o(

I realise this entry may give the impression I didn't like 'Perilous' Bridge (see what I did there??), but actually it's been one of my favourite sites. Watching the river was amazing, and the site even had flushing toilets, hot water and hot showers (a luxury for a DOC site)!

Waikawa Bay

(21st - 22nd December)

We'd been recommended to go to Marlborough Sounds (the area at the top of the South Island, between the South & North Islands). We set off from a DOC campsite with the best name (Puhi Puhi) to Picton, where the Marlborough Sounds kind of start. We were expecting scenery similar to that of the Milford Sound area. Milford Sound is actually Fjords (carved from Glaciers), Marlborough Sounds are actually sounds (caused by river erosion). If you need any further geological information, ask Chris' mum as that's the extent of my knowledge!

We were sadly a little disappointed by the scenery here. It was nice enough, and perhaps we'd got complacent, but I don't think the weather helped. The rain started to pour as we approached Picton, and whilst it calmed down for the evening, when we headed off from camp (in a place called Waikawa Bay), the rain kept spitting.

We had planned to go find a DOC site for the night in the heart of the sounds. There were loads to choose from. Our first minor concern though, was back at our campsite. A couple we met there had got flooded in the day before - they and several others had been in the Sounds and were heading back to Picton, but the road was too flooded to cross. They told of one couple who they met in a cafe, with various items hung up drying around them. No, not just their wet clothes, but their entire van contents, including flight itineraries and important documents. They had set up camp the night before in one of the DOC sites by the river. They were awoken in the early hours of the morning by fellow campers: the river had flooded so much that it had drowned the bottom of their van!

We thought of these stories, but a night had passed and we were going to a slightly different area, so we decided to risk driving now that the sun was shining again. As we turned off one of the more main roads (they're all pretty windy round there), we saw a 'washout' sign. From what I can tell, this is where a part of the road has been subject to heavy rain and bits of it fallen off. When we arrived at this section of the road, there were a few workmen and a big digger, flushing water across the road and off the other side. I asked if it was safe to pass, and in the typical Kiwi way, the workman responded 'ah, stick between the cones & you'll be alright'. So I did so, and it was quite scary as I could literally see half the road had disappeared right next to the cone.

Still, onwards we continued until we found a very nice DOC site. It was a very grassy site. We sat and ate our lunch, and then concern kicked in. What if it rained heavily again tonight? We need to be at our Christmas accommodation tomorrow, will we have enough supplies to survive? In the end, we decided that whilst pleasant, the DOC site wasn't as great as some places we'd been so we decided to move on.

Amazingly, when we returned, the part of the road that had been washed out was now very well restored. They say the Kiwi's are very resourceful and I think we saw that in the speed they worked to fix the road.

In the end we headed to another DOC site, Pelorus Bridge. Good decision!

Bouncing around Hanmer Springs

(19th - 21st December)

The next morning we got up, and were looking forward to driving through Arthur's Pass. Apparently this is one of the most scenic drives in NZ and links the East & West Coasts over a dramatic mountain range pass.

So what a surprise when it started raining, again! This was probably the worst precipitation we'd endured at this point - we could see nothing. We struggled enough to see the car in front. I even had to use foglights. At one point, I took a turn off the road to go see a 'lookout' and couldn't even see the road to the lookout, let alone any view at the other end.

What should've been an amazing drive, was actually one of the most stressful yet. We stopped off for a quick snack in a cafe, met Murray from Flight of the Conchords (it wasn't THE Murray, but it sounded just like him and he had similar mannerisms), and then decided we would go to Hanmer Springs. We were deciding between there and the coast beyond Christchurch that we'd originally missed. When the rain kept coming, we decided that some thermal pools may be just the ticket, and these are in supply at Hanmer Springs thankfully.

We headed straight off to the thermal pools the next day, after staying at another campsite where we didn't get the best vibe. The pools were amazing. We thought they'd be really expensive, judging from our trip to Bath's pools earlier in the year. However, we were pleasantly surprised that it was less than £15 for the two of us, and there were no time limits imposed. We lounged around in pools ranging from 35 degrees all the way to thermal pools at 42 degrees (too hot for me). We spent most of the day there and thankfully there weren't too many kids around yet. Eventually we decided we should probably leave before the smell of egg (sulphur) was permanently attached to our shrivelled up skins.

Would anyone like a mint?

(18th - 19th December)


We had seen the weather forecast and heard it was rubbish all over NZ, but particularly the West Coast. With this in mind, we decided that we would aim to move back to the east coast, via the famous Frans Josef and Fox glaciers. We opted for Fox Glacier (not a mint in sight), as you can get closer to this without needing to take a tour (which is quite expensive and timely). The rain had eventually subsided so we were finally going to be able to get out the car. We drove up to the car park and then it would be a short walk to the foot of the glacier. I was unable to see this properly last time as the weather was so appalling. I'm now thinking I may be a bad omen for these glaciers. We were able to see even less this time - the rain had made the river swell up so much that they had closed even the entrance to the glacier as being too dangerous to access without a guide. I did see one group get out their bus ready to embark on their guided trek up the glacier. I was promptly relieved that we hadn't paid for such a tour. In the time it took Chris and I to eat our lunch, go to the toilets, take a few pictures of the river and then see the signs saying we could go no further, the group were already on their way back from the glacier 'tour'. We're not particularly slow eaters, they'd probably had a good 20 minutes of exploring before the guide evidently thought it too dangerous to continue.

You could see why they'd struggled to get far and why they'd closed the base. We saw the river carrying what we though were rocks, but upon closer inspection they were huge blocks of ice (neither of which seem that safe). Apparently ice the size of a campervan can fall from the glaciers in these conditions.

So we eventually headed off to our DOC campsite for the evening, a place called Goldsborough. There used to be gold in the river, but we couldn't find any obvious signs. The sun had finally come out, so I attempted to hang up my sopping trousers in a tree, and then we set up a fire. We'd got loads of firewood but unfortunately, thanks to all the rain, we couldn't really get the campfire going, but parts of it looked impressive for a few seconds at a time!

It was a lovely surrounding, and I got to see many of NZ's bird's that I hadn't seen yet. Such as a Tui - a black bird with a white tuft under its neck. Also saw a Fantail - a small bird with a black & white tail (much like a fan, I suppose). And a Weka. I thought these were rare and shy - I saw one in Fjordland and almost mistook it for a kiwi until I looked up what it was in a bird book. It is a brown feathered, flightless bird, with a shorter beak than the kiwi. The one in Fjordland was very shy and timid. The one at this campsite, I soon discovered, was not one at all. There was a whole family, and they're bloomin' cheeky. Chris thought I'd gone into the car to get a drink. Nope - I was setting up the dinner table the other side, Chris was setting up the fire, and one of the Weka's was helping itself to the contents of our van, the diet coke to be precise... how rude!

The rain eased off and we were able to get a decent night's sleep before we headed off the next morning towards our next destination: the East Coast.

Heard of Haast/Small World Story 2

(17th - 18th December)

The rain continued pretty solidly as we headed back from Mt Cook, via Wanaka and then onto Haast. We had planned to go to Jackson Bay which is one of the most southern parts on the west coast. Haast was to be our base for the night. Thankfully they had a rather large TV room/kitchen/diner, as it didn't stop raining even after we arrived. My umbrella helped to keep me a little bit dry.

Haast isn't much to write home about, at least, not when it's raining. However, it does bring me to my Small World Story, No 2! And this is my smallest world story to date...

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As well as us, there were another couple in the TV area with their two kids. We got to chatting and they told us about all their O.E. trips they'd done (they put us to shame with their amount of travelling). They'd been to Africa, India, Europe and beyond. They spent some time in the UK, so naturally we asked where they'd been. They'd been all over, but they started to explain about a job they got in a little-known place called... Lymington. The job they mention, was at Elmer's Court Country Club - my first ever employer! We worked out that they were working there about a year before I started.

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The rain kept coming down so we decided to get an early night. It rained all night and it was one of those annoying nights where I needed to get up and go to the loo, in the rain. The next day, I got up early to get ready for our big trip (the rain had kept me awake nearly all night), and to my horror I discovered that my late night toilet trip had cost me dearly... I'd somehow knocked my trousers out of the car and onto the sopping wet floor outside. I tried to wash them by hand but the grit just would not shift. So that didn't start the day off well.

We then headed down to Jackson Bay. I thought there was little to say about Haast, it turns out there's even less to say about Jackson Bay. There was nothing there (we'd gone early, so not even a cafe or fishing boat). And the weather was still rubbish. However, we did have to drive through "Hannahs Clearing" to get there, so that was my highlight. For the grammar geeks out there, I know I've made some mistakes in recent entries, but the name of my clearing wasn't one - that's how they spelt it on the sign!

Before I put you off completely, we're told that there are some beautiful mountain ranges around this whole area too... it's just it was too cloudy for us to see them. So I guess my main advice is go when the weather is nicer.

Majestic Mt Cook

(16th - 17th December)

After Wanaka, we ventured to Mt Cook. I came here from Methven last time, which is a different direction. To be honest, I think that direction was the better way to go as it was sooo scenic and lovely. Although when Sarah and I eventually reached Mt Cook, we weren't too sure which peak it was and had to refer to a postcard to be sure.

This time, with that experience under my belt, I was able to see it quite some time before we reached it. There were glaciers and mountains all around, it was still great scenery. When we got closer, we still struggled to see Mt Cook as it's only visible from certain angles, which made me feel much better about our last trip. I thought we'd just been a bit dumb not being able to see a great big mountain! We wandered around the exhibitions there (Edmund Hilary, Everest climber, had an exhibition dedicated to his mountain climbing pursuits). I got the impression that Edmund Hilary was actually a bit of a glory seeker as it seems he wasn't the only one who climbed Everest. Sherpa Tenzing Norgay went with him, carried his stuff but only got secondary mentions in the exhibitions. Having said this, when I was trying to remember Norgay's name, I looked it up, and it appears that actually, Mr Hilary has since done loads for Sherpa's, so perhaps I should ease up on him.

Anyhow! After we headed to Mt Cook, we took a little drive to the local DOC site nearby, which gave us amazing views of the glaciers (actually the largest glacier in NZ, apparently). We decided that we would stay here the night as it was such a nice setting. It also had excellent facilities for a DOC site.

We watched the sun go down and took a little stroll to go see Mt Cook again and watched the sun set in the other direction. We then made an amazing commitment, something I did not expect myself to agree to. There was a lake about an hour or so away, and I thought it might look nice for sunrise as it was in the right direction. As we were walking back from our short stroll, we agreed to set the alarm for stupid o'clock in the morning, at which point we would get up and walk to the river to watch the sun rise.

I set my alarm for about 4.30am and then got an early night. We'd parked so we could see the glacier from the window, and I thought this might motivate me to get up in the morning. Turns out, I needed no motivation. A couple of hours after going to bed it tipped it down with rain and didn't stop. I promptly switched off the alarm and attempted to sleep instead.

So sadly, as we have no proper wet weather gear between us (I have an umbrella, Chris has a leaky coat), we didn't get to go see the lake or the sunrise. Nor did we get to see much on the way back as the rain kind of ruined the views, what with there being so much cloud and all. Oh well, the intention was there!

Wonderful Wanaka

(15th - 16th December)

We'd heard Wanaka was a bit cheaper and nicer than Queenstown for Adrenaline stuff. Thing is, we'd already had enough adrenaline for one week, and seen enough scenery at Fjordland, so we didn't really need to stay at Wanaka for long. It was more of a stopping off point to stock up on food and get decent internet access to book our Christmas accommodation.

I'm glad we went there though, if for no other reason than this: I FOUND ROBINSON'S SPECIAL R APPLE & BLACKCURRANT SQUASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This has literally made my trip.