Liz & Chris Travel Blog

Fiji Time!

2009-07-20T08:32:00.024+01:00

We had made the big decision to finally leave New Zealand in search of some warmth and employment in Australia. We also thought it would be a perfect time for a little holiday in Fiji, what with it sort of being on the way to Australia! I was in desperate need of some sun, it had just got way too cold in New Zealand..I needed to lie on a beach again!

So, with Tom, we booked a 10 day trip to one of the Yasawa Islands off the main island. Our island was called Waya Island, and it was beautiful! We got on the big yellow Yasawa Flyer boat from Nadi, travelled for a couple of hours, admiring other stunning islands on the way, and wondering which one ours would be. We then got met by a small wooden long tail boat and taken to Waya Island. We were met by a warm welcome of Fijian singing and music from the resort workers on the beach, and then presented with traditional shell necklaces!

We stayed at the Waya Lailai Resort, which was 100% Fijian owned, everyone was so friendly..everywhere you go they shout Bula! at you..which means hello! We stayed in our own private bure...basically a little wooden shack, it was so cute! They´d laid out flowers on the bed and we had a private bathroom..we weren´t expecting anything so nice! The resort´s private beach was lovely too, with hammocks hung in trees and a volleyball net.

After unpacking and having a look around, it was time for lunch. All meal times were announced by a very loud drumming which can be heard from all over the resort. Lunch was yummy, and there was lots of it! We were pretty happy with our island!

We spent days on the island just chilling out on the beach, Chris found some friends to play football with, we hung around in hammocks, swam in the sea...just generally enjoying the warmth and the sun after our very cold experiences in New Zealand! Evenings were all about dinner which was served about 7ish, there was always lots of it (very important for Chris!) and it was very tasty indeed. There were meals of rice, fish, steak, sausages, chicken stir frys, one night we had an amazing curry with great popadoms! And always lots of lovely fruit too.

We also enjoyed evening entertainment from the villagers. One night they put on a show explaining the history of the island all in Fijian dress, very amusing! Another night was fire dancing which was so impressive! I think the funniest evening was when they put on some traditional Fijian dancing..and then got us to join them..there was no getting out of it either, we all had to get up and participate in the hilarious dance routine! It was all very embarrassing! Especially when as a couple Chris and I had to go to the middle of everyone and make up some dance routine!

Most evenings there was the traditional Kava Ceremony. Kava is the national drink of Fiji. Made from the root of a local plant, it is ground into a fine powder then mixed and strained with water. It is poured into a big bowl and it looks like muddy water. It tastes like muddy water too. It is disgusting, but we still managed for some reason to drink pints and pints of the stuff most nights! The process for drinking this unorthodox beverage is as follows;

1. Chief offers you a small bowl filled with Kava.
2. You clap your hands once to say you accept. (If you find yourself at a Kava ceremony, make sure you accept because you will offend the locals if you don't...I think this is why we drank so much of it..so as not to affend!)
3. You take the bowl and drink the Kava in one go.
4. Clap your hands three times.

The clapping of hands is a symbol of respect to the Kava. The Fijian people take it very seriously!!

You can see from my face just how wrong this drink is! It was just part of the Fiji Island life though..we made quite a few friends while drinking at these ceremonies! The bowl gets passed around the group and then the whole process is repeated. Before we reached Fiji, we had heard stories of Kava from other travellers. The roots has narcotic like effects. On my first bowl, my mouth went numb!

One of my favourite parts of the evening was when the Fijians would put the Kava down (not for long unfortunately! ) and get the guitar out and sing us some Fijian songs..one guy had the most amazing voice and we made him sing all the time!!

The resort would put on activities for us during the day which we enjoyed like snorkelling around the island, we also swam to another island which was pretty exhausting (and painful with all the sea lice biting us!!), we also went on a trip to another island, had lunch at Kuata Island and enjoyed the wonderful scenery from the boat trip.

We spotted loads of huge blue star fish and lots of colourful fish during our snorkel trip. On our trip to another island we met up with a lovely couple Will and Sarah who had previously stayed on Waya Isaland and had moved on..was great to see them again!

We also joined in on an arts and craft lesson where the ladies from the village teach you to make bracelets and other crafts, Chris, who wasn´t that keen to participate in the first place, was extremely talented at it and made me a lovely bracelet! After exploring the island we found some papaya trees which were so yummy!!

One of the highlights of our stay in Waya Island was the 40- minute hike to the summit of Vatuvula (one of the highest peaks of the island) from our resort. We started the walk around 5ish and had a very sweaty hike up a steep but well trodden track through forest and up through a narrow crag before opening out onto a rocky escarpment that leads to the summit.The view was stunning, you could see the whole of the island opposite, Kuata. We were up there at sunset and it was beautiful.

However, this did mean doing the steep trek down back to the resort in the dark..complete darkness by the time we reached the bottom. It was a nightmare!! We had no idea where we were going..our ´guide´kept saying nearly there..but it seemed to take forever! We eventually made it down..late for dinner which was most upsetting as we had cold bangers and mash..oh well, the view was worth it! The Kava session that evening made us forget all about it...

It was a great trip and we loved the Fijians, they made us feel so welcome. The islands are beautiful and I´d love to come again to visit a few more of them! We were sad to leave Waya Island, but excited about our new adventure in Australia...read Chris´entry to find out how nearly didn´t even leave Fiji!

Franz Joseph Glacier

2009-07-19T07:53:00.010+01:00

On our very long route back to Christchurch we stopped off in the Westland National Park - Glacier country! We had already driven through Fox and Franz Joseph towns in January while our parents were here. Chris and his folks spent a day on the Franz Joseph Glacier, while my parents and I took a trip to the Doubtful Sound. So I missed out on the glacier trip, and felt I couldn´t really leave New Zealand without climbing on some sort of glacier.

We decided, as our money was quickly running out, that only I would do the trip, and although he loved it the first time, Chris wasn´t overly keen to spend a day trekking over ice again. I was lucky..it was a perfect day-lovely and sunny with completely blue sky. I was so relieved it wasn't raining as I really didn´t fancy walking up a glacier in the cold and rain! Apparently this region gets about 6-8 metres of rain per year so it really was a miracle the sun was out.

I opted for the full day adventure and got kitted out with boots, big waterproof trousers and jacket, gloves and the very important crampons- I was ready to go! We got the bus to the entrance of the park and then walked for about 5 minutes before the impressive glacier was in view. It was big! 12 kms long to be precise!

We walked another 20 minutes to get to the start of the glacier. I got my crampons on and got on the ice. It was amazing how stable I felt walking on ice..the crampons were great. There was a great stairway built by ice axes for us to get onto the path ..and a few more along the way-very cool! Our guide was great, hacking away at the ice to make us steps and pathways all day.

It was a great day, we spent about 6 hours on the ice, we were sliding through ice caves and squeezing through very tight crevasses! It was pretty hairy at some points- the gaps we were getting through were tiny! It was all so impressive though..amazing to actually be walking on a glacier. I loved how blue the ice was too..the higher up we got the bluer the ice. The scenery all around us was incredible as well- we were surrounded by huge waterfalls and stunning forest. It was such an experience and I´m so happy I got to do it before we left New Zealand!

Queenstown- Lovely But Too Cold!

2009-07-03T10:02:00.023+01:00

We had big plans for Queenstown, we wanted to stay here for 5 months, get a job, then ski and snowboard to our hearts´ content. Unfortunately it was raining when we arrived. And it didn't stop for a week. It was cold and miserable. The plan was to get out of the van as soon as possible as it was just getting too cold to live in it anymore. But we had to get jobs first. This proved to be really difficult..we walked around for a week or so with our CV´s and nothing came up- we got really fed up and so so cold..it was -2 outside and we were living in a van!

Queenstown itself is a lovely place, set on a beautiful lake with some of the best scenery in New Zealand surrounding it. The town is really lively and great fun to be in. I bumped into 2 old school friends while we were there- they were trying to do the same as us-work and play in this amazing place! We had a couple of good nights out with them- the night-life in Queenstown is fun! We found some great spots to sleep with amazing views (as well as sleeping in a car park after a night out and getting woken up at 6am by a banging on the window to tell us we´re breaking the law..whoops!)

I think our highlight of our whole 3 week stay in Queenstown was Fergburger. We had heard great things about this burger joint and was recommended it by everyone! It certainly lived up to the hype..the burgers are simply amazing. Probably in our Top 3 burgers of all time. And the choice..there were so many to choose from it was so difficult to make a decsion! On our last trip Chris had the Big Al- this is a double serving of prime New Zealand beef (1/2 lb), lashings of bacon, a huge amount of cheese, 2 eggs (yes 2 eggs!), beetroot, lettuce, tomato and relish! It was a seriously BIG burger. He ate it all, and some fries and half of my burger too! It was hard to stay away from Fergburger, it was the busiest place in Queenstown..everyone loves it!

So after about a week we really got fed up with the lack of jobs and the freezing temperatures. However my Mum came to the rescue..she surprised us with a week in an apartment nearby! Amazing! We were so happy..Tom was with us too and we´d all got so miserable being so cold so this was so exciting- to be warm for a whole week! The apartment was great - Sky TV, heating and with a gorgeous view over the lake. Perfect. Unfortunately by this point we had pretty much run out of money and made the big decision to leave Queenstown to look for jobs elsewhere. In the meantime we had a fun week in the warmth and really enjoyed Queenstown without the stress of getting jobs.

We walked up the Queenstown Hill one day which was so good..the walk was quite steep but we were rewarded with stunning views across the lake and far beyond. We also took part in one of the many extreme activities on offer in Queenstown..I´ll leave that for Chris to write about!

It is such a lovely area- we were so sad that things didn´t work out and we weren´t going to be staying there all winter. It was a really hard decision to make as we´d dreamt of spending a whole season up the slopes but getting jobs was just so difficult- we had got there too early in the season and people just weren´t hiring at this time. There was also 1000 other people there trying to live the same dream as us- not great when jobs are sparse!

So we were sad to be leaving, but excited about the next chapter in our travels..wherever that may be! Overall, I think the hardest thing about leaving Queenstown was that we hadn´t eaten all the burgers on the menu at Fergburger. Disappointing.

Lake Tekapo and Salmon!

2009-06-22T10:36:00.008+01:00

After finally leaving Christchurch we drove south towards Lake Tekapo. The drive was a great one, we passed Mt Hutt, the nearest ski fields from Christchurch and of course those great big Southern Alps came into view again.. and what a view! We arrived at Lake Tekapo in the morning and was immediately amazed at the colour of the water..it was such a bright blue! We, along with herd and herds of Japanese tourists, visited the Church of the Good Shepherd which was built right by the lake and is one of the most picturesque little churches ever.. apparently very popular for weddings.. people come from all over the world to get married here! There is also a monument of a sheepdog in memory of all the sheep dogs that helped to maintain and build the beautiful Mackenzie Country.

We did a fantastic walk up Mt John where we were greeted with the best ever 360 view (I know I have said this before but this really was the best!) It was incredible, the bright blue lake below and then the Southern Alps behind us and fields and fields of …. It was such a good walk..I took an enormous amount of photos!

It suddenly occurred to me while we were up there that this is the reason people love the South Island so much...it really is stunning.

The next day we drove on with the intention of getting to Mt Cook and spending a few days there. We passed another beautiful lake called Lake Pukaki on the way, and reached the first view point of Mt Cook. We were very excited to catch a glimpse of the majestic Cloud Piercer mountain..the biggest in New Zealand. Unfortunately it was completely covered by clouds! We asked at the Isite nearby what the weather forecast was for the next few days and were told to not even bother going to Mt Cook as it will be raining and covered in cloud for 3 days! Oh well. We were disappointed and decided to cheer ourselves up by visiting a salmon farm! The Mt Cook Salmon Farm is the worlds highest commercial salmon farm at 790 metres. Now this was exciting!

We got to feed the salmon and watch them fight and jump out of the water for the food..they were massive! And of course we bought a huge amount of salmon to eat! We had the salmon as sashimi later that evening with some avocado and some sushi rice and it was the best and freshest salmon we have ever tasted! It certainly made up for missing Mt Cook.

Christchurch for Chris´ Birthday!

2009-06-22T09:26:00.012+01:00

For Chris´ 27th birthday we decided to rent an apartment in a lovely place called Lyttleton, about half an hour away from Christchurch. We´d been told the restaurants there were some of the best in New Zealand so we were quite excited!

The apartment was great, it had fab views over Lyttleton harbour and across to the mountains beyond. We had had a fun drive there from Christchurch, stopping at Sumner Beach for a walk and admiring the views across to the southern alps.

Once in Lyttelton, we had the difficult decision of where to have Chris´Birthday dinner at! There were so many amazing restaurants to choose from and we would have quite happily eaten at them all! In the end we chose a the very colourful Cafe Volcano. Our meals were so yummy..we made a great choice and had such a fun evening!

We spent about a week in Christchurch and loved it. We spent a day walking around the city which we loved, my favourite part was Sol Square where there are bikes on the walls, colourful graffiti rubbish bins, a Mini car on a wall and some cute little bars. We saw the old tram creeping through the streets and I loved the old colourful Spanish style balcony's on New Regent Street. We walked around the Botanical Gardens, which were a lovely Autumn colour.

We met up with Laura who we had worked with at Highfield, we had dinner with her and then to a great bar with interesting bar stools..as you can see in the photos we enjoyed these a lot!

We also spent time with Stuart, who was leaving for Australia and then home, and his mate Toby..his last night in New Zealand was a very drunken affair of bowling-great fun!

We also went to a rugby game..a must in New Zealand! We watched the Crusaders, the local Christchurch team, beat an Aussie team in the Super 14 competition- we managed to get free tickets after meeting one of the players at dinner one night! It was a great match..very cold though!

We were also taken in and fed up by the Moore family, friends from Sway which we are very grateful to for their kind hospitality!

On our final day we made the 2 hour trip from Christchurch to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula. The drive their was fantastic with spectacular views of rolling green hills and the gorgeous blue bays ahead of us. Akaroa was a sweet little place to spend a day but a bit too cold to go swimming with the dolphins!

Nelson Lakes National Park

2009-06-22T09:14:00.004+01:00

After a quick visit to Nelson Lakes on our way to Abel Tasman earlier in the year I really wanted to come back and see more. It was only an hour and a half drive from Blenheim so we were able to go on our days off. We stayed by Lake Rotoiti which was beautiful with snow capped mountain ranges behind and all around. It was absolutely freezing-it was the beginning of April and we had noticed how cold New Zealand was getting..mainly because we still lived in a van! It was especially cold at Nelson Lakes though..we had to wear a lot of clothing to sleep in and even got the sleeping bags out!

There were a few good tracks to walk around the national park and we chose the St Arnaud track, a moderately steep climb to about 1,700 metres. For about 2 hours the walk up was in forest so when we came out at the top of the tree line the views were amazing over the lake below and the mountains surrounding us! There was a huge amount of snow at the top and it was freezing! We walked another hour or so to get to the summit. The views at the top were some of the best views I have ever seen...I was not expecting it at all-it was simply stunning! We could see for miles each way and had the most beautiful 360 view!

The photos don´t do it justice..it was so good to be up there..we loved it! But it was far too cold up there to hang around sadly so we made our way back down to the lake. I´m so glad we returned to Nelson Lakes..the walk was one if the best day walks we´ve done!

Life in Blenheim

2009-06-22T08:18:00.007+01:00

We had made it 1 year and 2 weeks on our travels and unfortunately we ran out of money. We think it was a huge achievement to have made it this far without having to work..others think we are just lazy! Anyway, we realised if we wanted to travel anymore we had to get ourselves some jobs! How exciting. Or not.

We chose to work in Blenheim as this is where all the wine is made! I got a job as a waitress in a winery called Highfield, one we had visited on our wine tour here earlier this year. Chris got a job in the vineyards attending to the vines. His duties included wire lifting, undercutting the vines, pruning, netting and general maintenance with the vines. The money was awful but he enjoyed the outdoor labour. We decided to stay living in the van to cut out on rent costs and we found a lovely spot by the beach called Rarangi. This was home for about 3 months! It was a beautiful beach with amazing turquoise water. We witnessed some incredible sunsets that would turn the sky purple and orange. Due to our silly routine of getting up at 6.30am to go the gym and shower before work we got up with the sun every morning..the only good thing about this was the sunrises..they were magnificent!

We quickly got into a routine, and started to feel at home at Rarangi. We met Stuart who was living in the van next door, he worked with Chris in the fields and we often shared a few bottles of the local Pinot Noir in the evenings. Unfortunately the vineyard work dried up a bit and with about 10 minutes notice Chris was told there was no work for 3 weeks! So he came and joined the waiting team at Highfield which was great..we both earned a lot in tips from the tourists. (unfortunately Kiwi's don't tip so we had to rely on the Brits and Americans!) It also worked better this way as we were able to have days off together- we had a few trips away from Blenheim to Kaikoura and Nelson Lakes National Park. We also went to the local Mussel Festival about half an hour from Blenheim in Havelock. It was a really fun day out and we enjoyed the mussels and wine! We also went to the Marlborough Wine Festival in Blenheim which was a very drunken day out!

We had a few issues with the van while we were in Blenheim..we were on our way to Kaikoura on our day off and he broke down! It was terrible, we got towed to Kaikoura where a mechanic had a good look and kept him overnight. Something to do with the carburettor?! Still not too sure but he told us he fixed him, only to break down again on our way back to Blenheim! It was so sad..we left the van in Kaikoura for a week and we had to stay in a hostel near the winery so we could cycle to work! It was actually quite fun staying in a room but we were so happy to have the van back all fixed and running like a dream!

I think my favourite part of our stay in Blenheim was all the wine! We tried so many and really got to know all the different flavours and tasted some really really good wine. The Highfield wine was superb and we got to drink a lot of it which was great! Its turned into a bit of a problem now as we are now “wine snobs” and only really like good wine..not good for the budget! The staff at Highfield were all lovely and good fun to be with, I organised a staff meal at the local Thai restaurant one night and we also had a yummy BBQ evening, as well as enjoying a few glasses after work every week. Another reason we loved going to work was to see Astro, the winery dog! He was amazing..we will miss him the most!

Tom arrived after about a month and started picking grapes in the vineyards so he was staying at Rarangi with us too living in his car! It was a great little set up and lovely to stay in one place for a while and really get to know it, and also being an hour or so drive away from so many amazing places..it was a good time and I will miss the wine!

Abel Tasman National Park

2009-06-22T06:50:00.035+01:00

The next day we made our way up the west coast (and eventually had my birthday dinner which was fantastic!) and onto Hokitikia where we met my parents again. Hokitika seemed lovely and we enjoyed the sea views (and a shower) from my parents hotel room! We then made our way up to Punakaike to see the Pancake Rocks. We arrived just before sunset so the place looked amazing in the light and I enjoyed taking pictures of the funny shaped rocks! There were blowholes in the rocks and we caught a few glimpses of huge amounts of water being blown up and into the air..a great sight!

The scenery along the northern west coast was stunning and we passed lots of golden sanded beaches. We turned inland and had another great drive through the Buller Gorge. That night we camped at Nelson Lakes National Park, just by Lake Rotorua. It was so lovely and we made plans to come back to this area and explore. Unfortunately we did get attacked by hundreds of sandflies though which made the morning washing up and brushing teeth duties quite unbearable.

We arrived in sunny Motueka on the beautiful north eastern coast, also the gateway to the magnificent Abel Tasman National Park. We met up with both sets of parents who were staying in the fantastic spa resort Kimi Ora in Kaiteriteri (who very kindly let us stay in their car park!) We enjoyed tasty vegetarian meals from the restaurant and lovely refreshing showers from our parents room!

We all discussed how and what we would do to explore the amazing Abel Tasman National Park. Chris and his parents decided they would walk the whole park, taking trips in the ferry each day where they finished the day before.

On day 1 they started at Marahau and walked about 4 hours to Torrent Bay where they met the ferry to take them back to Kaiteriteri. The next day they walked from Torrent Bay to Tonga and on Day 3 they went all the way up to Mutton Cove and walked down to Awaroa. They pretty much walked the whole park and did about 40k..great effort!

My parents and I had a great walk on our first day, we got the ferry to beautiful Torrent Bay and walked about 2 hours to Bark Bay. The walk was lovely, the views were great of beaches and sand bars in the distance, and there was a huge swing bridge to walk across too. Bark Bay is one of the most amazing beaches I have ever seen..it was perfect! In fact all of the beaches in the Abel Tasman National Park are spectacular..the sand is so white and the sea is a lovely bright blue, and the backdrop of green forest makes them so picturesque. But we really fell in love with Bark Bay, we had lunch there and waited for the ferry to take us back to Kaiteriteri.

Tom arrived from the North Island that evening, it was great to see him again and hear what he´d been up to! We had a lovely evening out by the beach and Chris cooked a huge Spaghetti Bolognase for everyone from the van. It was a great meal and definitely the most people we had ever cooked for in the van!

The next day we decided to do some kayaking around some of the lovely bays. Chris came with us this day, we set off from Kaiteriteri and kayaked around to the next few bays, passing islands and the Spilt Apple Rock..which looks a lot like a split apple!

The highlight of the day was yet to come though. While sat on the beach waiting for our kayaks, we spotted a very fun activity. It basically consisted of a very fast speed boat towing a rubber ´donut´ ring around the bay and a lot of screaming! We had to do it. And we did. And it was amazing!!

It was so so much fun -I can´t even describe how funny it all was. We just couldn´t stop laughing and screaming the whole time. Tom kept signalling the driver to go faster..and he did! We were going so fast that Tom and I fell out..twice!! I still have no idea how this happened, especially as I was in the middle and apparently the person in the middle never falls out..but of course I did! Chris was definitely the ultimate winner and stayed in the whole time! It was just absolutely hilarious and we wanted to do it again immediately!

The next day Dad, Mum, Tom and I hired a boat from a man called Dave and took it up to explore the park. This was another very funny moment. The boat was bright green and didn´t go faster than about 7 knots. It was a very slow motor boat. We had imagined sailing up the Abel Tasman National Park in style, Tom and I sunbathing on the deck, Mum making cocktails from the bar and Dad relaxing at the wheel. Mmmn, not quite..take a look at the boat..named Ahsleigh Stevens.

So we motored off in our bright green boat. Mum drove it most of the way and Dad directed. I sat and admired the scenery- which was of course amazing! Tom meanwhile, was asleep on the back of the boat. He´d been asleep for most of the morning and we thought nothing of it, he normally slept until about midday anyway. We visited Tonga Island where we saw lots of lovely fur seals lazing around and sunning themselves and then made our way to Bark Bay for some lunch.

Dad very carefully drove us into shore and Mum and I found a spot on the beautiful beach to have lunch. Tom was still asleep. Dad tried to wake him to get him to help with some carrying of bags and he reluctantly got up. For some reason he was so tired..a little bit too tired. We then realised that Mum had given him some sea sickness pills early on in the morning and these had knocked him out! Poor Tom, well at least he didn´t get sea sick!

We had a yummy picnic on the beach and relaxed on land for a bit. I wanted to use to toilets across the other side of the beach so started to walk over there. Unfortunately I walked right into a very angry oyster catcher bird..a jet black bird with a bright red beak. It would not let me pass! Each time I tried it would fly into me and attack me with its beak. I was terrified! Then another one appeared and they both flew at me and poked me with their sharp beaks! I gave up, walked back and told the others. Tom gave it a go and so did Mum but the birds would not let us pass! We figured out they had an egg and a nest and were protecting it (very well!). We wanted to see the egg so took it in turns to distract the bird and the other would run to see the nest! It was really scary but we all managed a quick peek at the lovely big speckled egg!

I was quite glad to get back on Ashleigh Stevens and away from those scary birds! We slowly motored back to Kaiteriteri past incredible yellow sandy beaches and forest backdrop. It was a very funny day- a silly green boat, Tom being drugged by his own mother and a bird attack! My favourite part about our funny boat was the toilet facility at the back- an open air loo!! Fantastic! The wonderful toilet is modelled by Tom in this hilarious photo!

We all loved Abel Tasman, it was definitely a highlight of the trip- Chris, Tom and I made plans to come and walk the whole trek in a few weeks and I couldn´t wait to get back there. Sadly though, it was time for our parents to fly back home. We travelled to Nelson where Ian and Aly were flying from and said our goodbyes. It was such an amazing holiday we´d had with them and it was sad it was over. My parents were getting the ferry back and we had one last night in Nelson..where we went for the best meal we have had so far in New Zealand at Hopgoods restaurant. Mmmmn we loved it!! The next day we said our sad goodbyes to my parents. The whole month with our parents had been amazing-what a holiday!

Wanaka- My Birthday!

2009-06-21T13:15:00.008+01:00

My parents and I left Te Anau after a very successful Doubtful Sound trip and drove across to Queenstown for lunch..it seemed a great little town and I looked forward to returning in the winter. We then had a fab drive through the Cardrona Valley onto Wanaka.

Cardrona has a special meaning for us as it was the name of my grandparents house, so we stopped at the old Cardrona Hotel for some cake. Cardrona pretty much consists of the Cardrona Hotel and a ski field nearby..and its a fantastic drive through to Wanaka from Queenstown. Wanaka was lovely too, the lake is beautiful and although it was summer there was snow at the top of the mountains behind it which made it even more stunning.

The 3 of us enjoyed a walk to the top of Mt Iron where we had amazing views of the lake, Mt Aspiring National Park and the Cardrona Valley.

After a few days apart with our parents, Chris and I were reunited on the eve of my birthday. We met about half way between Haast and Wanaka and found a lovely spot by the beautiful Lake Wanaka to stay and spend the next day lazing around.

It was the quietest birthday I have ever had! We had a great big birthday brunch of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs sat by the lake admiring the turquoise lake and the snow capped mountains surrounding us..the sand flies stayed away which was nice! I was then ordered to sit outside while Chris transformed the van with balloons, party poppers and birthday cake!

The rest of my birthday is a bit of a blur..as we watched the sun go down we started the celebrations with a bottle of Rose we picked up in Blenheim the week before..it went down VERY quickly..so we opened another..and then another. We had a huge dinner planned of roast lamb, mint sauce and creamy mashed potato but unfortunately the drinking kind of took over and it was midnight and 5 bottles of wine down before we knew it. Oh dear. We thought about starting the meal but we were both in such a state we decided it wise not to. It turns out this was a decision well made as I then ended my 26th birthday in style by throwing up most of the wine I had just demolished. It was not pretty. Thankfully I then passed out very quickly.

I thought it was all over but at about 5am I was a suddenly awoken by a horrible retching sound from outside the van..then a very high pitch scream and another more ´manly´scream after..what on earth was going on outside the van!?? My head was pounding and I felt so awful I didn´t even contemplate going out to see..then I realised Chris was out there..was he being attacked or something?! Suddenly the van door opens and Chris shouts ´A possum just stole my shoe!' WHAT?! I very much doubted a possum had just stolen Chris´shoe..how and why?! Chris explained he had been vomiting outside when a possum ran into his feet and past him, this possum was apparently being chased by another possum and also ran into his feet and took one of his flip flops. Right. Not what you need when you´re throwing up in the middle of the night! So we both went outside and started searching for this stupid possum who had nicked Chris´flip flop. We found the flip flop pretty soon and Chris later realised perhaps the possum had NOT stolen his flip flop but maybe it had just fallen off..he was in such a drunk state he´d really thought the possum had taken it! What a night! It was an absolutely hilarious birthday!

The Magnificent Doubtful Sound

2009-06-10T03:36:00.014+01:00

After Dunedin my parents had planned to visit the magnificent Doubtful Sound on the south west coast of the South Island. It was supposed to be one of the most beautiful sights of New Zealand so I decided to go with them! The 3 of us drove down to Te Anau in the pouring rain where we were based for the trip to Doubtful Sound. Unfortunately the west coast of the South Island has the highest rainfall in New Zealand so we were warned the trip could be rained off..and after arriving in horrendous rain..we were doubtful (hehe) about the trip.

We woke the next day to more rain. It was not as heavy as the day before so the trip was still on, we got dressed in our warmest and most waterproofed clothes and got on the bus. We got the bus to Lake Manapouri and boarded our first boat of the day. The rain had stopped but there were dark and miserable clouds covering the sky. I´d ruled out getting any good photos. However, the 50 minute boat trip across Lake Manapouri was spectacular! Even through the clouds the scenery was amazing. We braved the cold and wind and stood on the top deck and witnessed the first blue skies of the day..things were looking up!! By the end of the boat ride the sun was even out and only a few black clouds remained! How quickly the weather can change! We were so lucky..it was suddenly a beautiful day and no rain in sight!!

Once we arrived at the other side of the lake we boarded another bus that took us via the only road to Doubtful Sound. The road was only opened in 1959 and before that it was pretty impossible to get to the Sound. The bus journey was very scenic, passing huge waterfalls and dense forest. We reached Wilmots Pass, the highest point of the road with a spectacular view of the Sound.

We then boarded the second boat of the day..and the trip on the Doubtful Sound began. It was breathtaking. Every view out of the window was amazing, and despite the wind, we spent most of our time on the top deck taking pictures and taking in the views! It was so quiet and peaceful. We saw some bottle nose dolphins out in the distance and as we got close to the Tasman Sea we saw a colony of fur seals basking on the rocks. The boat trip was about 4 hours and was fantastic, we were so lucky the rain stayed away and got some amazing photos! Thank you Mum and Dad for a wonderful trip!

Penguins!!

2009-06-07T23:36:00.013+01:00

The next part of the trip around the South Island was probably the most exciting!! We were about to visit some penguins! The wonderful place that they live is called Oamaru, a tiny town on the east coast below Christchurch. It´s not a town you would visit if it wasn´t home to hundreds of Little Blue Penguins and Yellow Eyed Penguins. 2 types of penguins!! This place was heaven to us!!

We arrived just in time and made our way to Bushy Beach, following the penguin road signs (very exciting!!) to hopefully catch a glimpse of the Yellow Eyed Penguins come ashore from their day out at sea. We waited and waited.. and suddenly there was the first penguin shuffling itself along from the water onto the beach! It was amazing!! More followed..it was a great sight! Then we were told there was one very close to us hiding behind some plants. We all stayed very quiet and eventually the shy little penguin moved out into the evening sun from behind his hiding place and we all got an incredible view of the rare Yellow Eyed Penguin from a metre away!

I thought that evening could not get any better..but it did!! We rushed from Bushy Beach to the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony just down the road at 9.30pm. We sat in an outside viewing area and waited for the birds to return home from their days fishing, make their way onto the beach, up a stony ramp, and cross into the colony where their babies were waiting. This was so exciting! At about 10pm we were told the first group of penguins were swimming towards us! We looked out to sea and sure enough, there was a raft of little penguins gathering around 50 meters from shore. They waited there until all in the group were ready and then swam ashore riding the waves until they crashed down very ungracefully onto the beach! It was hilarious watching them try and get in from the water, some of them didn´t make it the first time- the waves pulled them back into the sea..but they all eventually made it ashore, shook down their wet feathers and prepared to waddle back to the colony. They waited again until all in the group were ready and then shuffled onwards towards their hungry babies..who already were waiting very impatiently outside their nests! It was such a great sight!

As soon as the adults got near their nests the babies charged out and jumped on them..they were so excited to see their parents again! Some babies were so impatient they jumped and knocked over any adult penguin that got near hoping it would be their mother...it was such a funny sight! It was very hard not to laugh out loud at these sights, but as we were only about 2 metres away from them we would have scared them! Some penguins got quite confused and even walked into the audience thinking that was the way to his nest! There was a total of about 350 Little Blue Penguins arriving back to the colony that night and it took them over an hour for all of them to return! They were just incredible and it is a sight I will never forget! (Unfortunately we we not allowed to take photos of the Little Blues so this picture above is courtesy of Google!)

Kaikoura

2009-06-07T23:35:00.015+01:00

The route to Kaikoura from Blenheim was a lovely drive through lots more vineyards and the Wither hills, which are amazing, and then the sea comes into view and its the most crazy turquoise blue colour! I must say though, my favourite part of the drive was spotting hundreds and hundreds of fur seals by the side of the road!!

We weren´t sure what they were at first so we went a bit closer..and sure enough there were lovely huge seals lazing about on the rocks and the beach! It was an incredible sight! I loved watching them..there was one in particular that we named the Molly seal as it reminded us of my Molly dog!! They are great animals, so big and so ungraceful as they move around! We watched some of the larger ones fight with others, snarling their teeth and really going for one another! It made us respect the stay back 20 metre rule. There were even some baby pups which were so cute to watch! I got some great photos with Dad´s amazing camera!

The next day we had an even closer encounter with the seals! Chris, Dad, Ian and I snorkelled with them! It was just amazing..we had great wetsuits on so we didn´t get too cold, and the buoyancy was just right so we just floated about. It was a bit scary to be that close to these magnificent creatures as you are warned to stay so far away form them on land..but apparently they are harmless in the water and are not really interested in you. So we waited for the lazy things to leave the rocks and come swimming with us..and they did!! Lots of them!! They were all around us, swimming under us and over us..I loved it!! It was one of the best experiences I´ve ever had.

Later that day we were to meet another amazing creature..the sperm whale! We ventured out on the Whale Watch boat about 20 minutes out from Kaikoura and were told there had been a couple of sperm whales spotted! We raced over to see them and sure enough, there were 2 enormous sperm whales swimming along next to us..we got so close! We waited and waited for them to show us their big impressive tails..but apparently they were sleeping!! So we left them to their nap and luckily found another couple a few miles away. We managed to see the tail in the distance which was fab! We also spotted a few huge albatrosses sitting on the water. These birds are so impressive..they are SO BIG!! We saw more sleeping whales and then returned to Kaikoura for some yummy seafood chowder! It was a great day.

To the South Island!

2009-06-07T23:33:00.007+01:00

So after 2 amazing months in the North Island we were on our way to the South Island...which according to others we were going to love even more than the North..I wasn´t so sure! I absolutely loved the North Island and was quite sad to leave. But also quite excited!

The 3 hour ferry crossing across the Cook Strait was spectacular! In the last hour we motored through the wonderful maze of Marlborough Sounds that lie in the north of the South Island. The scenery was made even more amazing by the beautiful pink and purple sunset we witnessed as we arrived in Picton, the gateway of the South!

Picton was surprisingly lovely, mainly because of the surrounding scenery but the town itself is nice with a sweet little beach by the water. We had a picnic overlooking the harbour and the Marlborough Sounds in the distance and then had a good short walk which offered amazing views of the Queen Charlotte Sound.

Wellington

2009-06-07T23:32:00.019+01:00

We reluctantly left the lovely luxurious Tongariro Château, got back in the van and travelled south to a town called Paraparaumu. One of the longest town names I have ever come across, it took us at least 3 days to actually pronounce it correctly! After finding a perfect beach to park up for the night, we met Ian and Aly who had taken the train down earlier that day. Our reason to stay in Paraparaumu was to take a trip over to Kapiti Island. Our first glimpse of the island was superb- we watched the sun set over it.

We had booked our trip to the island and found ourselves with a free day in between..so instead of spending the day in Paraparaumu (which didn´t sound too thrilling) we decided to take the train to nearby Wellington. After a mad dash for the 40 minute train ride, we had a great day exploring the capital city. The buildings were all fascinating- especially the Beehive, which looks exactly like its namesake, but is actually a very busy office!

The surrounding government buildings were all worth a look too! We also visited stunning old St Paul's cathedral which was completely Gothic- it had magnificent stained glass windows and it almost felt like we were in an old boat!

We stopped for a well deserved sushi break at lunch which was lovely..and then walked on to the gorgeous botanical gardens. There is actually a cable car to take you up to the gardens (most people get the cable car up and walk down) however we walked up and grabbed the cable car for the trip down! The gardens were beautiful and also had some very interesting sculptures! I also found my favourite pohutakawa tree which was blooming red!!

Next stop was the harbour which has proved to be the most memorable part of the day. So we were walking around the harbour admiring the water, the buildings behind and the boats..and we spot some baby ducks! There were a lovely little family of 5 ducklings and the mother bobbing around on the water. We watched as the ducklings tried to catch up with their mother who was on the other side of the harbour. Suddenly it was like we were in a nature programme, as danger appeared in the shape of a very large seagull. It swooped down to the baby ducks and grabbed one in its mouth! We were in complete shock and couldn´t quite believe what we were witnessing here. The baby struggled and managed to fall back into the water. Good. Oh no, but the seagull wasn't giving up..he snatched the baby again and this time flew off with the little one in his mouth. It was horrible, we were powerless and just had to watch nature take its course. I felt like David Attenborough! About 5 minutes after this horrific incident a much happier thing happened..we saw our first Little Blue Penguin!! He was swimming around in the harbour and popped up to say hello!! Amazing! We were actually in some kind of wildlife documentary I swear!

After all the excitement at the harbour, we made our way to the museum, Te Papa. It is a great museum showing New Zealand´s history and culture. And its free! And it had really comfy sofas! (where Chris and I may have had a little nap!)

New Year in Auckland

2009-01-13T07:34:00.018Z

We left Russell and made our way back down to Auckland for New Years Eve which is also my Dad´s birthday. Mum and Dad treated us to a night at the wonderful Sebal Suites- the most luxurious place I´ve ever stayed, with incredible views over the Auckland Harbour.

More New Years Eve excitement was that Chris´ parents were arriving in from the UK! After picking them up in the van from the airport, Chris spent the day with them in Auckland. For Dad´s birthday, himself, Mum, Tom and I spent the day together- in the morning we went up the Sky Tower and enjoyed the lovely views all over Auckland.

After hearing all about our trip a few weeks back to the Gannet colony at Muriwai Beach, Dad was really keen to go and see them, so in the afternoon we drove out to see them.

It was great to see them again and see how the babies had grown!! They were now huge and really fluffy and nearly walking around on their own!

In the evening we met up with Chris and his parents- it was fantastic to see them again and we all had such a good evening! We ate a restaurant on the harbour and had a 5 course meal with champagne! We had a brief break in the meal to watch the amazing fireworks over the Sky Tower at midnight! It was an incredible sight!

It was crazy that we were one of the first places to see in 2009! Hours before England! Happy New Year!!

Christmas in the Bay of Islands!

2009-01-13T03:33:00.017Z

After our great trip up to the far north we had a deadline to get to the Bay of Islands to meet my parents! It was all very exciting as we hadn´t seen them since Belize in July! They arrived in New Zealand, after a lovely long cruise from Greece over to Singapore, on the 19th Dec and we were to meet them up in Russell, our Christmas destination on the 22nd. So we travelled down from Cape Reinga, stopping at some lovely beaches around Doubtless Bay. We also met up with Tom the night before and caught up on our travel stories from the past week or so! We stayed at a bay called Matauri Bay with Tom and we witnessed the most amazing sky I have ever seen! The whole sky went a really dark pink and purple, it was almost like the night was on fire!

The next day we drove in convoy down to Paihia and got the car ferry over to tiny little Russell. Russell was actually the first village to be occupied by the Europeans in the early 19th century and also lays claim to New Zealand´s oldest church built in 1836! It is a sweet little town now with a fish and chip shop, a few waterside restaurants and a great beach about a kilometre away.

We met Mum and Dad and had an excitable reunion in Hananoi Lodge, where we were staying for the Christmas period. It was a gorgeous apartment and it was such a luxury to stay in a room with a TV and have a big kitchen and living area, slightly different to what we have been used to in the van!! It was lovely to see Mum and Dad too!

It was all very odd having Christmas away from home and in such a warm country, so so different to England! For weeks before, Chris and I had been trying to get in the Christmas spirit, we´d played Christmas carols in the van and decorated it with fairy lights..but it just didn´t work, we didn´t feel Christmassy at all. So I´d decided this week it was going to happen- it was going to feel like Christmas- my family were all here, we put a Christmas tree up and decorated it beautifully, we played Christmas carols literally 24/7, drank a large amount of wine, ate mince pies, Christmas cake, chocolates (we ate a lot that week..as you should at Christmas!) but it still didn´t really ever feel like Christmas! And to be honest it was quite a relief when Christmas Day was over and we could stop playing those damn carols and stop trying to feel Christmassy! The pressure was off at last!

Christmas Day was certainly different! The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day! Sophie, Matt, Olivia and Alice came over for drinks in the morning- it was so good to see them again, they were also spending Christmas in Russell! We then had a traditional Christmas fry up, spent about 4 hours recovering from that and then went out to a restaurant on the beach for Christmas dinner.

We watched an amazing sunset over the water from our table..it was great! Unfortunately they don´t really do the traditional turkey roast for Christmas, but to mine and Chris´delight they served up sushi as a starter!! Perfect! We ate a lot that night and finished off with a traditional Kiwi desert- pavlova! Mmmn!! I ate way too much and could hardly walk home.

On Boxing Day we had a great kiwi style BBQ on the beach with the Sticklands. Matt once again cooked an enormous amount of meat and Chris once again, ate most of it!

We played with the girls on the beach and a few brave ones, including Sophie and Matt ventured into the freezing sea!! I gave that one a miss!

The rest of the week we chilled out around Russell, the boys played a lot of football, we ate a lot of food and we took some kayaks out into the bay one afternoon which was fun.

One of the main sights and activities to do while in the Bay of Islands is a boat trip out to see the beautiful paradise islands in the lovely turquoise blue water and to also spot dolphins! So we decided on a day and booked a trip. Unfortunately we decided on the final day we were there..and this was unfortunate because it was raining all day. It was so miserable, we hadn´t seen weather like this the whole time we had been there..how unlucky!! However, we decided to brave the rain and go ahead with the boat trip anyway. We got on the boat and quickly realised this was going to be terrible and maybe we shouldn´t have bothered. It was horrible.

The day changed for the better though when the boat slowed down and the captain told us there were a school of dolphins just below! It was amazing, there were literally about 30 of them all circling the boat, jumping out of the water and generally just playing around! It was wonderful..and it made the trip so worthwhile!!

It was very sad to leave Russell, we all had such a great time there and completely fell in love with the town itself! My favourite thing about Russell were the beautiful sunsets every night- they were incredible. I have a feeling we´ll be back to Russell in the not so distant future..

The Beautiful Northland

2008-12-28T02:17:00.026Z

We continued to travel north from the Auckland region, visiting many lovely white sanded beaches along the way. We spent the next night at a regional park called Mahurangi which was absolutely gorgeous, yet another lovely sandy beach lined with red pohutakawa trees!

The next day we moved on north to do some snorkelling! We were very excited about this and had even purchased our own snorkel gear! Goat Island is a 547 hectare area established in 1978 as New Zealand's first marine reserve and apparently the place to go snorkelling. So we got our gear on and walked out from the beach into the water. It was FREEZING. Now, we had already discovered how cold the sea water in New Zealand is on various other beaches- Chris has succeeded in submerging himself in the water, but I however have failed miserably every time, only getting as far as my thighs!

We built up the courage to get fully in and underwater after about 5 minutes, but unfortunately I had huge problems with my mask...it was letting in quite a lot of water. We tried to sort that out for about 10 minutes while also trying to avoid huge waves crashing over us at the same time- difficult. We tried again for about 5 minutes and had a little swim around and we think we saw a snapper fish but we both decided it was just too cold to stay in! So after a grand total of 20 minutes we gave up completely and sunbathed on the beach trying to get warm!! Chris stayed freezing for about an hour after which was quite worrying! We also came to the conclusion that I need a child mask to snorkel as an adults is too big! Oh dear..it was all a bit of a disaster really!

After warming up in the van we then drove on to stunning Pakiri Beach, about 12k from Goat Island Reserve. The beach was another unspoilt expanse of white sand and huge surf. It was paradise.

The next day we moved on towards Whangerei, the main town of the north. The drive took us past more lovely beaches and wonderful views over islands in the Pacific. We passed through Whangerei, with a little stop off at The Warehouse (an amazing New Zealand shop that sells EVERYTHING) to grab a cheap Christmas tree and decorations! We stayed the night at Matapouri, a great beach on the Tutukaka coast, after the best New Zealand Fish and Chips we´ve had so far in sweet little village of Ngunguru.

The next day we went scuba diving! After failing to do so in South America we were determined to dive in New Zealand. The best dive site we had about was up here in the Northland, called Poor Knights Islands. The marine reserve was established in 1981 and is actually rated as one of the worlds top 10 dive sites. The islands out in the Pacific are bathed in a subtropical current from the Coral Sea, so lots of varieties of tropical and sub tropical fish can be seen here. We were pretty excited..and also terrified! We both completed our PADI course nearly 4 years ago and the last time we dived was 3 years ago in Thailand. Therefore we had absolutely no idea what we were doing. We made this clear to the instructors and they offered us a refresher course but us being the budget travellers that we are, we didn't really want to fork out the extra cash, so we decided to rely on our awful memory!

We arrived at the dive site and were told to get ready with all the equipment (some of which we couldn't even remember the name of!!). We eventually, after copying everyone else and a lot of help from the instructors, managed to get all the gear on! We got in the water- which again was VERY cold, but the big wetsuits helped a lot. Unfortunately I had mask troubles again and no adult masks fit, luckily they had junior mask for me which was perfect! So after a lot of faffing around we were finally ready to go under. One major thing I had completely forgotten about was the whole buoyancy thing! I was quickly reminded about it as soon as I tried to get down to the bottom..and also how awful I used to be at it! It took me a while but eventually, after ascending to the surface a few times, I made it down! And it was beautiful! The coral and the fish were stunning..and the water was so clear! I was quite apprehensive for half the first dive, getting used to the whole ´breathing underwater´ thing again! But towards the end of the dive I was relaxed and absolutely loved it!

The second dive was even better- we were much more relaxed about the whole thing and had kind of remembered what we were supposed to be doing! The fish again were great, we saw 2 huge sting rays too! One of the highlights was diving into a cave 7 metres below the surface! We all popped our heads up into the air pocket and chatted to each other..while underwater! It was amazing! The whole area above sea level was beautiful, there were great rock formations and a huge limestone cave that we went into in the boat- apparently the largest sea cave in the world!

The next day we travelled back into Whangerei to visit Abbey Caves, a network of three caverns full of glow-worms and limestone formations. Only one cave was open at the time and it was fantastic! We had to whole cave to ourselves to explore, we were walking in freezing cold water up to our waist at one point!

The glow-worms were amazing, there completely covered the walls and ceiling of the cave, it was such a beautiful sight! It reminded me of looking up at the stars on a really clear night! We also visited Whangerei waterfalls which is apparently the most photographed waterfall in New Zealand! As you can see it was quite photogenic!

Piha and Muriwai

2008-12-28T02:16:00.010Z

We travelled back up to Auckland, via Huntly to pick up Tom´s newly fixed car. He was very pleased to have it back, and we set off in convoy once again (not letting him out of our sight this time) up to the west of Auckland into the Waikakere Ranges Regional Park.

The park is 16,000 hectares of complete wilderness bordered by beautiful rugged black sanded beaches on the west. Our first stop was the lovely popular beach town of Piha which is famous for its surf breaks. The weather wasn´t great while we were there so we didn´t even get in the water, but we did climb up the 101m Lion Rock which is right in the middle of the beach to get great views of the surrounding bays.

We stayed in a camp-site right on the beach which had the added benefit of baby ducklings!!

We then visited Muriwai Beach, a bit further north of Piha, another rugged black sand surf beach stretching about 50km. Our reason to visit Muriwai was the large Takapu Gannet Colony that nest here from August to January.

Every August the big sea-birds return to this spot right off the beach on surrounding cliffs, to meet up with their mate and produce a cute little chick! And luckily the best time to see the little chicks is December..and we saw lots! It was fantastic! We walked to several look outs to see the birds and their babies, we watched them at sunset and it was a beautiful sight!

Bay of Plenty

2008-12-28T02:15:00.008Z

The lovely drive around the beautiful East Coast ended up in the Bay of Plenty. Captain Cook christened the Bay when he sailed into the harbour back in 1769, it stretches from Waihi Beach in the east, which we visited during our Coromandel trip, all the way west to Opotiki. We spent a great night at the long sandy Opotiki Beach watching the sunset and then travelled up the Bay to lovely Ohope Beach.

The eastern side of the Bay consists of beautiful long stretches of white sandy beaches with a gorgeous back drop of cliffs covered with the famous New Zealand Christmas Tree...the pohutakawa tree, which is now blooming red in the run up to Christmas. We stayed near Whakatane, which is a lovely little harbour town, and then made our way north to Tauranga.

We stopped off on the way at Maketu- a town made famous by Makatu Pies, baked fresh and daily here! And of course we had to try the local produce, or in Chris´s case- about 3 of the local produce! We also stopped off at Te Puke- the Kiwifruit Capital of the World! The kiwifruit earns New Zealand over a billion dollars every year and most of them are grown in the Bay of Plenty, so its quite a big deal around here! We visited Kiwi 360 which sits amongst orchards and orchards of pears, oranges, avocados and of course.. kiwifruits! We had a 30 minute kiwi cart ride around the kiwi orchards and we were told EVERYTHING you could possibly know and want to know about kiwifruits!

We then tasted the golden and the green kiwi, some kiwi liqueurs and kiwi jam. We were told how its a perfect place to grow the kiwis here due to the good balance in sunshine and rainfall.Unfortunately for the rest of our time in the Bay of Plenty we experienced quite a lot of that all important rainfall needed for the kiwifruits!

Napier and Hawkes Bay

2008-12-28T02:13:00.009Z

We had a long 5 hour drive over to the East Coast but it was worth it! The first couple of days were spent around Napier. On the drive there we found a massive waterfall and just past that a great big field by a lovely river in the middle of nowhere for our first night...it was fab! Very remote!

The city itself was great, we walked down to the beach which was beautiful, and we walked all around the strange town full of colourful Art Deco buildings!

There was an earthquake in 1931 that destroyed much of Napier, and frantic reconstruction between 1931 and 1833 caught architects in the Art Deco mania! Its a an odd old town but we enjoyed walking around and taking photos!

One of the reasons for our trip over this part of the country was to visit the famous Hawkes Bay wine region, which Napier falls right into. There are wineries everywhere you look- this area is most famous for the hundreds and hundreds of orchards, its the prime location to grow grapes as the weather is so perfect.

We were recommended a winery to visit, which was good as there are so many to chose from! It was called Craggy Range and was in the most beautiful setting- just beyond is the Te Mata Peak Park- to local Maori this is the sleeping giant Te Mata O Rongotaha and the view from the winery was fantastic! The wine was good too! We had a great tasting of 6 delicious wines and decided to splash out on a bottle at the end.

We then drove up to the 399m summit of Te Mata Peak and had even more spectacular views of the winery and its vineyards from above, as well as the whole of the Hawkes Bay area. It was a great day, and we topped it off by finding one of the most perfect beaches to watch an amazing sunset on, while drinking our lovely wine.

We spent the next day lazing around on the perfect Ocean Beach, and then made our way round the East Coast towards Gisbourne.

De-tour Back to Auckland!

2008-12-28T02:11:00.010Z

After the great walk in Tongariro National Park we headed west towards Mt Taranaki. On our route we drove on the Forgotten World Highway, the road between Taumarunui and Stratford. The drive winds through green hilly bush country and passes many historic and quirky sights. The strangest sight was passing through Whangamomona, New Zealand´s only republic- it became so after disagreements with local councils. We were welcomed back to New Zealand after driving through! We also stopped off at the highest waterfall in the North Island.

After about 4 hours we arrived at the base of the incredible Mt Taranaki- a 2,518m snow capped volcanic cone that dominates the landscape- it is amazing! We drove all around the mountain along the Surf Highway and had to stop every half an hour just to gaze up at the monstrosity! The Surf Highway had a lot of lovely beaches dotted along it which we stopped at, and then ended up in New Plymouth, the bustling city hub of the Taranaki region.

We spent a night and a day in New Plymouth, unfortunately in the rain, and then started to make our way back up to Auckland to pick up Tom who was arriving in from Thailand. We passed through the Sheep Shearing Capital of the World where there was a giant sheep shearer!

After a lovely evening with the Sticklands in Pukekohe, we met Tom at the airport- it was fantastic to see him!! We spent a few days around Auckland sorting him out with a car and other bits and bobs and then left to make our way to the west coast beach of Raglan, just west of Hamilton.

It was supposed to be a 2 hour drive from Auckland, but ended up taking us 7 hours. Chris and I were driving the van in front, Tom following and after about an hour or so we realised Tom wasn´t behind us any more...we had a feeling something was wrong so drove back and realised we´d driven about 10 minutes without him following ..whoops! It was a complete disaster- poor Tom´s new car broke down...the radiator burst and then caused the engine to pretty much die. It was such bad luck- he´d literally bought the car the day before and had a mechanical check all clear on it! So the car was towed to a local mechanic and stayed there to be mended for a week! Luckily we have 3 seats in the van, so Tom bought a tent and we made our way to Raglan, one car down!

Raglan was lovely- we stayed in our first camp-site (we have previously not paid for even one nights accommodation!!) which was just on the beach and the weather was great.

The boys enjoyed football on the beach, and we cooked some lovely dinners in the evenings! Next on the agenda was the Napier over on the East Coast...

The Tongariro Crossing

2008-12-28T02:08:00.010Z

After Taupo we made our way down to Turangi, the gateway to Tongariro national park and the best one day walk in New Zealand – the Tongariro crossing. We spent a leisurely day gearing ourselves up for the walk and visiting the nearby Trout farm, to view all those fish we failed to catch in Rotorua. They keep this farm in Turangi to restock the rivers in the North Island in case overfishing or natural disaster wipes them out.

Having stocked up on water, apples and cheese sandwiches we bedded in for the night, ready for our epic walk the next day.

As is the nature of these things, we had to rise heinously early the next day in the dark to catch our bus to the start of the trail. We were told that the day was going to have fantastic weather, but on the drive we noticed the mountains shrouded ominously in mist. As we neared our destination, the driver of our bus got on the intercom and told us that the walk would take a total of 8 hours, and we would be picked up at the end of the trail at 4.30pm (no later!). As it was already 8.30am at that time, we were not given much leeway. If we missed the bus, we were told, we'd have to make our own way back to Turangi. Since the end of the trail was in the middle of nowhere, at least 40km from the nearest house, it wasn't clear how we'd manage this ...

Therefore, we began the walk at breakneck pace, ascending the western side of the Tongariro mountain range. Unfortunately everyone else was rushing as well. Since there were around 10 bus loads of people all being dropped at the same time, the result was a couple of hundred people, all scrambling together on a very thin track, trying to go as fast as possible. It was a bit like rush hour on the Picadilly line. Why they don't stagger the bus drops is beyond me.

On the plus side, about half an hour in, the mist began to lift, and we were given our first view of Mt Ruapehu (aka Mt Doom out of Lord of the Rings) rising majestically from a boulder-strewn valley of dark volcanic rock.

After an hour the mad scramble began to stretch out, making it more like a procession than a scrum, and a lot less stressful. The sun made itself known, warming us up, clearing the remaining haze and giving us better and better views the higher we climbed. Shortly afterwards we reached the dreaded “Devil's Staircase” so called because of the long steep climb we had to endure. To be honest it wasn't that bad. A lot of people were finding it quite difficult however, so we were able to overtake and reached the top with blessedly few people.

At the top of the staircase we were greeted with a flat plateau between the peaks of Ruapehu and Tongariro, complete with great views of both. There was then a short climb up to something called the Red Crater which was along a ridge affording views of the scenery used for Mordor in Lord of the Rings.

After 3 hours of walking we had reached a point just shy of the Red Crater, which marks the end of the uphill section of the walk. It was literally all downhill from here. At this point however, we noticed there was a side trek to the top of Mt Tongariro available. The sign said it would take 1.5 hours return. We surmised that if the uphill section of the walk had only taken us 3 hours, then the downhill would take a similar amount of time at most. We could then do our side trek, and be at the pick up point 30 minutes early. We were pretty confident in our time assessment, but still decided to reach the summit of Mt Tongariro as quickly as possible.

The track to the top was certainly a different proposition to the normal route. Where the main track had been well marked, well maintained and graced with steps where necessary, this was an unmarked scramble over rough rocky ridges with steep drops to either side. The views were unbelievable however and, even better, we didn't have to share them with anyone. Hardly any of the few hundred walkers on the day had decided to do this side trek, probably because we were all warned that we'd miss the return bus if any of us tried.

As we gained altitude, we came across a hazard we had yet to run into – snow. As we were supposed only to do the main walk (and there was no snow on the main walk) we had not been warned of any possibility of snow. On the route to the summit of Mt Tongariro however, it was there in abundance. Our footwear, being asics trainers for me and converse trainers for Liz, were not ideal choices for snow trekking, given that they lost all grip and let cold water in from the first minute. In fact, each and every person of the few we met on this part of the walk commented on our unsuitable shoes.

The going was slippery, slow and very cautious, but finally we reached the top for some stunning 360 views of the Tongariro National Park. The sun was bright, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and we could even see all the way to Mt Taranaki, right on the western coast of New Zealand. Provided we could get back without sliding all the way down a snow covered ridge, and provided we didn't get frostbite on our toes – it would have been a worth while diversion.

After taking time to absorb the view, we needed to get going. Behind schedule because of the slow going in the snow, we were terrified of missing the bus. Since our shoes provided no traction, and any conventional method of descent would have taken too long, we opted for a new and as yet untried method. Liz sat down at the top of a slope in the snow, and grabbed hold of my coat. I then ran, jumped, slipped and slid down the mountain, pulling her sledge-like behind me. Possibly not the most sensible form of descent, but definitely one of the quickest. We returned to the Red Crater back on schedule.

We lingered a little on the Red Crater. Because this crater is actually the crater of an active volcano, there is molten lava quite close to the surface. The ground therefore steams a little and is literally warm to the touch. We heated our bums and feet for a little before cracking on down the eastern side of the mountain range.

The first part was a steep scree slope, perfect for trying out the jumping and sliding techniques we had picked up in the snow. This slope then led to the Emerald Lakes – a collection of strikingly coloured tarns. After marvelling over these and taking hundreds of pictures, we moved on across another plateau to the also impressively coloured Blue Lake. The track then led on to a viewpoint over the eastern part of the national park. The view was fantastic, and a good thing it was, as it was the only one we saw over the next couple of hours of descent.

Finally, pretty tired out, we reached the bottom, only to find we had to endure another hour of trekking through dense undulating forest to reach the pick up point. Already pretty drained from the previous six hours of hiking, this was not very welcome.

Anyway, at last we made it out, and into the car park – 30 minutes before the bus as predicted. Exhausted we caught the bus back to Turangi, and then made our way to some hot springs, for a long hot soak in mineral rich water. Whether it was dehydration, sunstroke or just general exhaustion, but the springs completely finished us off. We could hardly talk, let alone cook that evening, so we headed into town and got ourselves a drive through Burger King for dinner. We also purchased something called a Cookie Time – an large incredibly chocolatey chocolate chip cookie with a picture of the cookie monster on the front. What a perfect end to a great day ...

One of the highlights of NZ so far!

Taupo!

2008-12-28T01:55:00.006Z

Lake Taupo was next on the agenda, mainly for one reason- to jump out of a plane! Taupo has become the Skydiving Capital of the World where more people have jumped than anywhere else in the world. So we had to do it really! The setting is pretty spectacular too- you jump out right over the beautiful lake and also get incredible views of the Tongariro mountain range.

So we chose a company to go with and arrived there on the day full of nerves (well I was pretty nervous anyway, Chris still maintains he wasn´t!!) We had actually already done a 10,000ft skydive in Mexico a few years ago but this still didn´t stop me feeling terrified! We had planned to jump out at 12,000ft and were pretty happy with this option- mainly due to cost. However when we arrived we got chatting to the girl at the reception and were quickly persuaded to do the 15,000ft jump! This is the highest you can jump anywhere in the world and there is a whole minute of free-fall!! This change of plan did nothing to calm my nerves but I was very excited too!

We got kitted out with gloves, masks etc. and met our instructors who we would hopefully be attached to the whole time- mine was a Geordie from Newcastle and Chris´guy was a Kiwi. We all loaded into the tiny little plane and began the 15 minute flight up to 15,000ft! It was a very short 15 minutes and in no time at all I was shuffling up to the exit of the plane and looking down at the person before me fall into the air! The next bit went very quickly, I remember the feeling in my stomach as we jumped out of the plane, screaming my head off and then I remember the whole 1 minute free-fall which was just amazing! It actually seemed to go on forever just falling and falling!! My face was pushed back and I couldn't close my mouth at all! Mainly because I couldn't stop smiling and laughing- it was great!! I had a DVD made of me falling and it´s hilarious- the camera guy is shaking my hand and trying to get me to dance all mid air! Its great!

So after the minute was up my guy pulled the parachute and we slowed down..and we then began the incredible descent down to the land. The view was indeed spectacular, I could see the huge lake, the snow capped mountains and I also saw a perfect circular rainbow in the clouds! It was amazing!

We eventually landed quite smoothly about 7 minutes after jumping out of the plane and I wanted to go up again straight away!! I loved it! The buzz of it all afterwards lasted quite a long time- we were so hyper!

The rest of our stay in Taupo was lovely- we walked to Huka Falls- a lovely, turquoise waterfall and we did a jet boat ride which was great fun! We went to a great little Honey Bee Hive and spent an afternoon tasting all kinds of honey! We found a great place to stay just by the lake and had great views across to the mountains behind it.

Rotorua Day Five – Sheep, Blueberries and Some Very Colourful Water

2008-12-28T01:54:00.034Z

Our last full day in Rotorua began with the much anticipated trip to the sheep show at the Agrodome. We had no idea what to expect at such a show (other than sheep presumably), but surely it was going to be great … I mean … sheep … in a show … in a dome … what more could you ask for?

We were ushered into a large auditorium (the dome) and settled back to enjoy the entertainment. To begin with, we were introduced to each major type of sheep (there were around 20 altogether) and given that type's major characteristics, origins, etc. The best ones were the Merino, Drysdale and Dorset Horn – being the fluffiest, hairiest and the one with the craziest looking horns respectively.

There was then a demonstration of sheep shearing, followed by a “rounding up the ducks” on-stage dog show. This all took a fair few minutes, and some of the older sheep clearly found all the excitement a bit too much ...

The master of ceremonies soon had them back on their feet though with a “dogs jump on the backs of the sheep for no practical reason other than entertainment” demonstration.

After all the fun and games we were at liberty to take a huge number of photos with our favourite sheep, and then we all trooped outside to watch a proper sheep dog demo.

After this Liz and I spotted something called a “nursery” behind the auditorium and decided to check it out. We crept in, and to our delight were presented with a load of little lambs. One of the members of staff said we could get into the pen with them if we wanted, so we did and spent the next half hour or so taking pictures of ourselves manhandling the lambs …

The sheep show was all we had hoped for, and to sweeten the deal we made our way to a place called Manuka Blue – a blueberry farm we had scoped out on the way back from Te Puia the day before. This place provides free tastings of a whole host of jams, chutneys, sauces and various alcoholic beverages all made from the tiny super fruit. We stopped for an extensive tasting session, then had lunch in the attached blueberry themed restaurant. I had a venison and blueberry pie, whilst Liz went for a bagel with blueberry jam and cream cheese, followed by a blueberry crumble to share. It was blueberry-tastic.

For the afternoon we made our way to a place called Wai-O-Tapu – another geothermal type place on the outskirts of Rotorua. This place was definitely our favourite of the lot since, along with the quintessential bubbling mud, there lots of pools filled with brightly coloured water. The best was the “champagne pool” where a deep aquamarine pool was surrounded by a ring of tango coloured orange rock. The pool gets its name from the thousands and thousands of tiny bubbles constantly rising to the surface.

Our tour of the park ended with a few more coloured pools, including a wonderful green one, as well as some of the best examples of bubbling mud we had seen so far.

Rotorua Day Four – Geyser Geezers

2008-12-28T01:54:00.023Z

The day began abruptly for me with a possum related incident. In the very early morning (when it was still dark) I needed to visit the toilet. Since the ensuite bathroom facilities of our van have yet to be fully completed, I was forced to visit the public toilet located a short walk from our parking space in Kuirau Park. On the way, I elected to throw away some of the rubbish we had accumulated in one of the park's rubbish bins. The bag of rubbish we had was slightly bigger than the slot on the bin, so I had to force the rubbish in. After a bit of a struggle I managed to get some of it in, then began pushing the rubbish down into the bin. The rubbish pushed back.

Thinking there was some kind of blockage I gave it a big shove, at which point the rubbish shot back out of the slot into me, accompanied by a hellish small black furry thing that nearly sent me into cardiac arrest. It was a possum. Fortunately on contact with me it panicked and sprinted away across the park. It took several hours for me to regain my composure ...

After a sleepless morning filled with dreams of large demonic marsupials, we made our way to the outskirts of Rotorua to a place called Te Puia. This place has several attractions, including a full size replica of a Maori village, a Kiwi house where you can spy on the elusive nocturnal Kiwi bird, and an active spurting geyser. We checked out the Maori village first – viewing a traditional welcome dance, some impressive weapon demonstrations and marvelling at the marae (meeting house). There was also an information area, where you could learn all about Maori fighting techniques, and take silly (and potentially highly disrespectful) pictures like the one below (no - not the house - the other one):

The Kiwis were next, and to be fair they are incredibly cute. They are small furry flightless birds, with a long thin beak and no arms or wings to speak of. They basically resemble brown furry footballs with a couple of legs and a beak thrown on. They are nocturnal, so we had to go into a house where night and day are reversed in order to see them in their active state. They pretty much run around a lot looking for grubs and insects in the undergrowth, stopping occasionally to preen themselves. We watched them for a bit, but unfortunately could not take any photos as the flash would have disturbed them. So you don't miss out, here's a picture from Google. Everybody: Awwwwwww.

Finally we checked out the geyser. Called the Pohutu geyser it is supposed to erupt every hour or so, but when we got there, it seemed to be erupting pretty much constantly, throwing sulphurous steam up to 60 metres into the air. The minerals bubbling to the surface as the result of these eruptions had built up over the years, causing multicoloured terraces as you can see in the photos. Very impressive. Here are a couple of pictures to prove we were there:

And here's another picture of a kiwi ... just because ...

Rotorua Day Three – Hell's Gate and White Water Rafting

2008-12-28T01:54:00.017Z

On our third day, we decided to check out some more of that boiling mud that Rotorua is so famous for. Whilst we were at it, we also thought we'd throw ourselves down the highest commercial white water drop in the world in a small rubber raft. These things come in a two-for-one package, so we went with the boiling mud first.

Hell's Gate is about 10km outside of Rotorua and gets its name from George Bernard Shaw, who visited the place a while back and named it because he imagined it to be what “the gates of hell” would look like. There are numerous pools of mud around the park of varying degrees of temperature, from a mild 40 to a whopping 115 or so. In some of the cooler ones you can wade in a little way and feel the warm mud squelch around your feet – we did and it was warm and squelchy.

The highlights were, predictably, the hottest pools, where large amounts of foul smelling steam rises in between violent bubbling bursts of gas that throw molten mud dangerously close to the watching spectators. Other interesting pools included the “Cooking Pool” which local Maori used to boil their hangi rather than using the more traditional method (see previous post), and the “Priest's Pool” where in days of yore some local nutcase would wade into water approaching 60 degrees, have various visions, then leave apparently unscathed.

Once we'd had our daily fix of mud, we moved on to the adrenaline charged part of the day – which was conveniently situated next door. We were swiftly kitted out in wetsuit, life vest, helmet, paddle and some very un-manly footwear called “booties”. With that we were whisked into a bus and ferried to the beginning of the white water. There were three rafts going that day, and ours was to be skippered by a wild eyed Maori called Johnny who we were told (I think jokingly) had just been released from prison, and who's wife had (I think in all seriousness) just given birth to his fifth child. Whatever the reason Johnny was in a great mood, laughing and joking with us all the way down the river, making us laugh with classic lines such as “Don't fall out of the raft or you will die!” and “Better paddle hard or the raft might flip!” Hahaha Johnny.

Anyway, after a couple of small drops it was time for the big one – a waterfall with a 7m drop. I'll let the pictures tell this story:

Liz is the one at the back on the right – the one with her head down and her eyes shut in picture 2. I'm in front of her, and actually appear to be enjoying myself – that is until we are completely submerged under the water in picture 4.

I then find myself sitting on the floor in the middle of the raft in picture 6. In pictures 7 and 8, I slowly manage to recover myself and move back to my original position. However, Liz doesn't seem too happy - she looks like she's about to burst into tears!

After that terrifying ordeal, the rest of the day is a bit of a blur – apart from the “surfing” incident right at the end of the rafting. Here, because of a back eddy, it is possible to position the raft facing upriver, so that it “surfs” on one of the rapids and not down it. At this point, allegedly so as to balance the raft, Liz was instructed to kneel down at the front, and not paddle. After some 20 seconds of surfing, we inched closer and closer to the rapid until ...

Rotorua Day Two - Haka and a Hangi

2008-12-28T01:53:00.022Z

On our second day in Rotorua, we awoke to a seriously pungent bad egg smell, and hundreds upon thousands of flies buzzing around the van. It was time to find a new car park. After some aimless driving around, we found a place called Kuirau Park – an area of parkland boasting numerous geothermal sights, such as pools of bubbling mud, steaming lakes ... and ... er ... more pools of bubbling mud. The view from the car park wasn't quite as picturesque as the last one, but there were few flies and the smell was much better. The only downside was the small chance of a volcanic eruption coating the whole area in stinking boiling sulphuric mud. The last one was in 2003.

We left our van in the danger area, and spent the rest of the morning and afternoon checking out the sights in and around the city centre. Rotorua, because of it's geothermal activity, is a city of great significance to the Maori people. As such there are many traditional Maori buildings and objects of art around the place, including carvings, statues, meeting houses (called maraes) and even the odd totem pole.

Having explored the city during the day, we continued to pile on the culture, by signing up for the Mitai Maori Cultural Experience that evening. We were picked up and driven a few miles out of Rotorua, to the Mitai farm, where we were deposited at a table in large dining room. After about half an hour (during which time we were supposed to take ample advantage of the bar) an enormous Maori, looking like a cross between an sumo wrestler and an All Blacks rugby player, appeared and explained how we were to be entertained that evening. He seemed very pleasant, but we still decided to keep our distance in case he fancied eating us.

After the preamble, we were led into a forest behind the dining room, past an incredible clear water natural spring, and to the banks of a river, where we waited. Soon we heard strange chanting noises around us, and every so often we caught a glimpse of half naked Maoris creeping around in the bushes near us. The chanting then became louder as a Maori war canoe, or waka, chock full of more near-naked Maoris eased into view downriver. The canoe went through a number of manoeuvres, accompanied by more chants and shouts, while we watched from the bank. Then the canoe landed, and the crew disembarked – all save for the most-naked of the Maoris, who decided to wade up river carrying a torch. All very strange … entertaining, but strange.

Following this display, we were led to a sort of arena, where a covered seating area faced an open stage, decked out to look like a Maori village. We sat down, and shortly after were shown the traditional songs and dances of a meeting ritual, when one tribe comes to visit another. First there are exhibitions of weaponry from the tribe's best warriors – basically a lot of very impressive spear and club waving. Then the tribe chieftains exchange token gifts – in this case silver fern leaves were used, a very significant Maori symbol. The silver fern was used in navigation when Maori tribes conducted night raids, since the underside of the leaf shows up very well in the dark, and can be used to point in the required direction of travel or attack, without the need for speech. It is also utilised as the icon for the All Blacks rugby team.

After this there was a lot of singing and dancing, involving a variety of musical instruments and, naturally, some chanting. One of the most impressive parts of these displays were the poi dances. The poi are small balls of flax attached to string, which the Maori women swing around their heads and bodies in time to the song. The patterns they create are incredible, but they also hit various parts of their body with the poi in time to the song, so creating a percussive accompaniment.

To end the show, the tribe showed us how they train to use their weapons, as well as a few displays of one on one fighting. They then did the famous war cry, the haka, complete with bulging eyes, poked out tongue, and strange primal shouts. Great stuff.

Finally came the part we were all waiting for. Food! We were led back to the dining room, where a traditional hangi, awaited us. A hangi is a huge feast, prepared by burying sacks of raw food in a hole filled with very hot pre-heated stones. The food is left to slow cook over a number of hours, then served still piping hot to the ravenous hordes. Our meal consisted of some chicken, some salad, lots of kumara (New Zealand sweet potatoes), and huge amounts of delicious tender lamb served with mint sauce. It was awesome. We barely had room for the chocolate cake to finish ...

Rotorua Day One - Luxury Spa

2008-12-28T01:53:00.012Z

The morning before our drive from the Coromandel to Rotorua, we decided to go for a long run along the Karangahake Gorge – where we had parked up for the night. The Lonely Planet recommends a 9km walk along the gorge, that supposedly takes 3 hours. As we wanted to get to Rotorua early that day, we thought we'd run the thing and get it over with more quickly. So, dismissing signs that said “Gorge Walk: 2.5 hours one way” we set off in the scorching sun (it was particularly hot that day). The route had some really nice scenery, and it was definitely a worthwhile run, but it seemed to be taking a lot longer than expected ... is this route really just 9k?

Two hours later, very hot, very tired and very dehydrated, we staggered back to our van. After I'd jumped into the river and drunk over 2 litres of water, I consulted the map. It seems we had run around 16km over undulating countryside. Thanks Lonely Planet ...

After sufficient recuperation, we got into our trusty van again and headed off to Rotorua. The first thing that struck us when we got there was the overpowering smell. “Chris, have you been eating curried eggs again?” But no, for once it wasn't me. Rotorua is a very active thermal area, where magma from the earth's mantle lies unusually near the surface. This causes pockets of groundwater just below the surface to superheat, causing all sorts of phenomena – such us bubbling pools of mud, hot unusually coloured lakes, geysers, fumeroles (steam rising from the ground) and loads of other strange stuff. The main effect however (due to the high sulphur content in the rising steam) is that the whole place reeks of bad eggs. You get used to it after a couple of days ...

After we'd driven around a bit, and found a car park that we could call home for a night, we thought we'd check out this thermal malarkey first hand. Since our morning run, our muscles were crying out for a long soak in a warm bath. Behold Polynesian Spa, the first bit of real luxury we'd allowed ourselves since spending our first night in the van a week previously. The Spa was great – situated on the site of a thermal spring, it boasted multi-layered hot mineral pools of varying temperatures, all open air, with great views across lake Rotorua. We stayed for a couple of hours, relaxing in the various pools, then seeing how long we could hack lying in the 42 degree “cooking” pool. It was really, really hot ...

After that, we retired back to our luxury car park. I say luxury car park, as it afforded some great views over lake Rotorua, and the black swans that live on it. Yes – black swans. They're just like normal swans except for a different colour.

Our sleeping spot would have been perfect, except that it smelt to high heaven, and perhaps because of this, had an abundance of flying insects. This didn't bother us too much, since after our hot soak in mineral rich water, the only thing we wanted to do was pass out. So, we settled into bed and got some well deserved sleep ... only interrupted by a 1am eating binge where we demolished an entire pack of cereal plus some marmite sandwiches. Where did that come from? Apparently hot water makes you hungry ...

The Coromandel Peninsula

2008-12-28T01:47:00.004Z

We left the Auckland region and headed south east to the Coromandel Peninsula. Auckland´s Hauraki Gulf is separated form the Pacific by the long peninsula of the Coromandel. We decided to spend a relaxed week exploring the whole place, I remember reading about this region in the guide book about 2 years ago and had been looking forward to it ever since! So first stop was little coastal town Miranda where we stopped and had our first brunch in the van- smoked salmon and scrambled eggs..we like to live in style in our van!! We then drove on to the small former gold town of Thames which is actually the peninsula´s biggest town of 10,000 people.

We found a great little cheese farm nearby called Matoki Cheese and spent a good hour tasting all we could! We came away with a very tasty Gouda cheese! Our second night was spent in a lovely sandy bay north of Thames on the Pohutukawa coast.

The next day we made our way up the west coast past lots of tiny pretty bays with cliffs and steep hills dropping down to the road lined with hundreds of Pohutukawa trees that blaze up red at Christmas time. We stopped in Coromandel Town, about 60k north of Thames,for some highly recommended smoked mussels from the Coromandel Smoking Company. Apparently mussels are a speciality in the Coromandel so we intended to eat as many as we could! We kept driving north, past tiny little village Colvile- the last stop for food and petrol before heading far north. We stocked up at Colvile General Store where you could get anything and everything you wanted!

The 2 hour drive from there was stunning, we stopped for some spectacular views out over the beautiful beaches and bays we passed. The landscape became very rugged with green hills and endless beaches with the lovely turquoise water sparkling under the sun. We made it all the way up to the very tip of the Peninsula and the best beach of all, Fletcher Bay. The camp-site was right on the beach so we ate our yummy smoked mussels with a beautiful ocean view.

On Saturday we undertook the amazing 11k Coromandel Coastal Walk between Fletcher Bay and Stony Bay. The hike was fantastic with spectacular sea views.The walk followed lots of rolling green hills where we met a few sheep and cows along the way, we had incredible views over to the hauraki islands and out to the Pacific.

Our midway destination Stony Bay is a lovely little pebble beach. We decided to take the different way back and it turned out to be a never-ending up hill battle for about an hour! Very tiring and unexpected but great views at the top! The hike took a total of 6 hours..we had a lovely relaxing evening after in front of our first ´Chris made´ fire which cooked some delicious lamb steaks!

The next day we drove to Waikawau Bay on the west coast of the peninsula..one of best beaches we´ve ever seen!! We then, with a quick stop in Coromandel Town to stock up on those tasty smoked mussels, made our way down to more stunning beaches on the west coast. My favourite was Opito, a white sandy idyllic beach where we stayed the night.

We drove down to Whitianga the next day. The town isn´t of much interest but the surrounding areas are great. There is Cathedral Cove, a stunning geological formation of rocks, striking white cliffs and a long sandy beach with an impressive rock arch that looks a bit like the nave of a cathedral.

There is also the famous Hot Water Beach which we visited at low tide, there are hot water springs underneath the beach bubbling below the sand! We hired a spade and dug ourselves our own spa pool! It was sooo hot!!

Then there was stunning Cooks Beach where Captain Cook landed in 1769. Another lovely beach nearby is Hehei Beach- we stayed the night nearby with more amazing ocean views!

The next day we visited my favourite beach so far in New Zealand and my 4th favourite in the world...Opoutere beach.

We walked about 20mins through thick forest and suddenly arrived on this completely deserted picture perfect white sanded pristine 4km beach backed by a pine forest. It was such a lovely sunny day we sunbathed for first time in New Zealand!

We then drove on to lovely Whangamata for some great fish and chips and sat on the beach watching the surfers.

We drove south to Waihi and visited a huge gold mine in the middle of the strange town, then onto the Karangahake Gorge where we spent the night.

Auckland - Buying a Van

2008-12-28T01:45:00.006Z

The most important thing for us to sort out upon landing in Auckland, New Zealand, was to find a place we could live for the next year or so. In short, we needed a van. A camper van to be precise. One of these contraptions would save us having to get hostel beds wherever we went, and if we didn't total the thing over the next 12 months, we could probably sell it on for a similar price.

Our first port of call was the Backpackers Car Market. Here our dreams were shattered. You see, over the past few weeks, we had created this image in our minds of the perfect camper van. It was to have a double bed. It was to have a mini kitchen, complete with stove, oven, fridge, sink, toaster, microwave, blender, etc. There was to be a small dining area with table and chairs. There was to be a toilet and a hot water shower. It was to have electrical power sockets. It was to be spanking new and sparkly clean. We had 2000 GBP to spend, and we naively assumed that this would be enough to purchase our perfect van.

We arrived at the Car Market. There were 5 vans on display. All were just under the 2000 GBP asking price. All were complete heaps that wouldn't be seen dead in a scrap yard. We quickly dismissed 4 as being uninhabitable. Each barely had enough space for a bed, and were absolutely filthy inside and out. The last was a 1985 Toyota Hiace, said to be a very reliable brand of van, and just on the verge of acceptable. The tout at the market said that this was a popular choice and it would definitely go quick if we didn't book it in for a mechanical check. After much debate, we shelled out the $140 for the check, knowing this would take the van off the market for 24 hours, then we could back out if we found something better in that time.

We then searched hostels, the internet and local noticeboards, frantically trying to find an alternative to the one we'd just seen. One in particular caught our eye on the internet. It was a Hiace again, this time from 1987, but with a much nicer interior. No toilet, shower or electricity, but it did have big bed that converted into seats with storage space underneath – as well as a table and a double hob gas cooker. It even looked vaguely clean. What luxury ...

The previous owners were a French couple who had just finished what we planned to do - travelling round New Zealand for a year. They were actually very emotional about selling it on, and were having problems eating and sleeping because they had to part with it. I'm not sure whether our standards had dropped having looked at the other vans, but as soon as we saw it we knew it was perfect. We pretty much agreed to buy the thing then and there for the asking price of 1800 GBP (foolishly I didn't even haggle) subject to a mechanical check. It passed (well – close enough to a pass anyway) and I shelled out the biggest amount of money I have ever parted with – in cash. The van was ours!

We waited with trepidation for our first night in it ...

Hello New Zealand!

2008-11-19T05:20:00.024Z

We arrived on Saturday 25th October to our home for the next year- New Zealand. Unfortunately it was raining. But we were still excited! We were also very tired after our 13 hour flight from Chile..and a bit confused after losing a whole day while on the flight!! We quickly got orientated in Auckland, it´s a great city and not too big so quite easy to get to know quite quickly. The first thing we noticed about the city was the abundance in Sushi restaurants (YES!!)..and also how like England it was..there is a WH Smith equivalent and a Boots equivalent. It was all so civilised and familiar to us after spending 9 months in South America where nothing is like home!

Our plan for travelling around New Zealand is completely different to our South America jaunt. We decided we would buy a camper van to eat and sleep in, to allow us more freedom and to really go off the beaten track wherever we want. In South America it was all about long bus journey after long bus journey and it really got tiring- the 3 day bus journey we did should never be repeated! So our first mission in New Zealand was to find a van that we could call home!

We spent a few days around Auckland centre seeing a few sights like the magnificent Sky Tower, which at 328m the tallest structure in the Southern hemisphere. We went right to the top on a beautiful day and had amazing views across all Auckland- pretty impressive views! My favourite thing about New Zealand so far is the wonderful colour of the sea- it´s a lovely turquoise blue due to the volcanic minerals and looks stunning in the sun. So it was great to see the Auckland harbour with the sea sparkling below us from the top of the Sky Tower.

We visited all the different suburbs of Auckland- Newmarket has great shopping, Ponsonby is sweet with lots of little cafes and we had a morning exploring Devonport, climbing up two small mountains to see some lovely views. We had amazing Fish and Chips there too- we are very pleased to see that Fish and Chips is a bit of a New Zealand staple meal..as it is in the UK!! Brilliant- that's one meal you really cant get in South America!

Auckland has many great traits, one being that it is full of volcanoes- the city is actually built on 50 of them! And worryingly they are not all extinct! The last volcano to erupt was Rangitoto, which at 260m high is the largest and youngest of Auckland's volcanic cones. Rangitoto is an island within the beautiful Hauraki Gulf surrounding the Auckland region. The Hauraki Gulf stretches between the Coromandel Peninsula and Auckland and is dotted with islands- it is absolutely stunning! So we took a ferry out to Rangitoto Island one day and climbed to the summit of the volcano, luckily it was a lovely sunny day and the views were incredible back over to Auckland's city skyline and over to the other islands in the Gulf..really spectacular! We walked around the craters rim and we found some caves created by the lava all those years ago.

We stayed with the lovely Stickland's in Pukekohe, about 40mins outside central Auckland for a week which was so much fun and an absolute luxury too..it was lovely to have some home cooked meals and watch TV on the sofa! Sophie and Matt were absolutely amazing helping with the bits and pieces we needed for the van, and Sophie even made all the curtains for it- and they are the best curtains ever!! We also had lots of fun with their gorgeous little girls, Olivia and Alice! We all went to a great beach called Graham´s Beach an hour away and had our first BBQ on the beach!

Superbly cooked by Matt we ate sausages and chicken kebabs, and played bat and ball with the girls, it was a beautifully sunny day and Olivia even managed to get Chris in the water! Craziness- I was quite happy lying on the sand! It was great to have such a lovely base as we got ourselves sorted with the van before we set off on our 6 week adventure in the North Island, and it was actually really sad to leave Pukekohe- we'd had a lovely time thanks to our wonderful hosts!

It was very exciting leaving Pukekohe in our new 'home'! Our first stop was a lovely beach called Ahwitu, quite close to Grahams Beach so not too far from Sophie and Matts incase anything went wrong!

We had a lovely walk on the beach and then cooked dinner on our little gas stove in the van, put the bed out and had our first night in the van! And it was a great nights sleep..luckily we have a VERY comfy bed!

Last Stop- Colourful Valparaiso!

2008-11-19T03:44:00.013Z

So the last stop on our mammoth 9 month trip around South America was the little coastal city of Valparaiso, just 2 hours west of Santiago. We didn´t really know much about it, but lots of friends and other travellers had told us we must visit, so we followed the Lonely Planet´s advice and did a walking tour around the town. The place was fantastic!

The city is built upon dozens and dozens of steep hillsides overlooking the lovely blue Pacific Ocean. There is a labyrinth of streets and cobblestone alleyways and the most colourful painted buildings I have ever seen! There are thousands of murals and moziacs various designs and colours all over the place.

There were so many different coloured houses -it looked great! We walked for hours around in awe of all the artwork covering the city! I took the most amount of photos ever in one day- 289!!! I loved it- the photo opportunities were literally everywhere! Oh and I found a donkey!

We also visited nearby Vina del Mar, also known as The Garden City. We walked around admiring the coastal views and the gardens, but the highlight of this trip was visiting the Museum (normally not a highlight at all!). It had a display of shrunken heads! Actual human heads that had been shrunk years and years ago from the Amazon Basin! Crazy..and a bit scary!!

Outside the museum was a huge Easter Island head, a moai, which was pretty cool!

So that was it- 9 amazing months in South America and onto the new chapter- New Zealand! Stay tuned!!

Santiago- Wine and a Reunion!

2008-11-19T03:03:00.007Z

So we finally left Brazil and took our last flight within South America from Rio to Santiago in Chile. It was a miracle that we made it to Chile- we had a LOT of problems with our tickets and flights due to STA Travel in London being completely useless- but with a huge amount of help from our parents we finally made it on a plane! Santiago was pretty cold after Brazil´s scorching heat but it was quite a nice change- it was really nice to feel a fresh breeze. We had 10 days in Chile before catching our flight to New Zealand so we decided to spend about a week in Santiago and a few days in nearby town Valparaiso.

Santiago was great fun, we stayed in a really good hostel with great owners. We really enjoyed walking around the city- which was lovely and green and very clean. There were some great old buildings and strangely enough there was a castle in the middle of the city- we walked up to the top and had amazing views over the city and the gigantic towering snow capped Andes overlooking us.

The highlight of our time in Santiago was Greg and Elise coming to see us!! We had sadly parted company back in Panama after nearly a month together and we had tried to make plans to meet up again once they were in Argentina and we were in Chile. Unfortunately due to lack of time we couldn´t go back to Argentina to see them, so somehow we managed to persuade them to come over to Santiago for a few days. They arrived on the Wednesday and told us they could only stay 2 nights as they were running out of time to see Argentina and had to get on. It was so amazing to see them again!! We had such a good time with them and really wanted them to stay longer! Our first day together we had a picnic out in the sunny park and consumed a large amount of very cheap good red wine, and of course by about 5pm we were sat in a sushi bar eating a large amount of sushi! We then polished off a few more bottles of red and had a crazy Team Quad style night out which ended about 6am. The next day was spent mostly in bed...which the exception of a taxi ride to Burger King and the Sushi restaurant for supplies!

Chris and I noted that Elise and Greg had done nothing about sorting out a bus to Argentina for the next day as planned..so we kept quiet and hoped they´d stay longer! Hehe! And they did..the next day we had a great trip out to one of the many wineries in the area. It was called Undurraga and was in the most beautiful setting- the scenery around us was lovely and it was an amazing sunny day. We walked all around the vineyard and were shown the fermentation process, the cellars and then the best bit at the end- the tastings! After tasting as much as possible we bought a couple of bottles of our favourite- the Carmenere, a wine exclusive to Chile, and sat out in the gardens of the winery having a very civilised drink or three! I think we started drinking that day about 3pm and after another round of Sushi and another crazy night out we were still drinking at 5am..a long, fun day!! We decided we had to make the most of the lovely cheap South American wine before heading of to New Zealand...where they...also have lots of wine. Mmmn.

So Greg and Elise stayed ANOTHER day..and we had more Sushi and drank more wine..but after 5 days it had to come to an end the useless pair eventually got on a bus to Argentina! It was sad knowing we wont see them for such a long time, although I think after a bit of gentle persuasion they may turn up in New Zealand!! Fingers crossed!

Chris and I left Santiago and got on the 2 hour bus to Valparaiso for a few days of recovery after the momentous Team Quad reunion!

Rio Again!!!

2008-11-12T23:10:00.006Z

We couldn't wait to get back to Rio again, we'd spent an amazing 10 days there right at the beginning and fell in love with the city! So we managed to squeeze 5 days of Rio right at the end too! We stayed at a great hostel with a bar that served lovely proper UK style roast dinners and cheap capriroskas (vodka, lime and ice), it also had a PlayStation room which Chris managed to spend a whole day in!

Unfortunately the weather wasn't up to the normal sunny Rio standard and it rained for 3 out of the 5 days but I still managed a few runs down the Copacabana beach. However, one day was spent entirely in bed due to excessive alcohol the night before- coincidentally we bumped into a friend from home who was about to fly home after a 3 month South America jaunt so we had a crazy night out with him and his travel buddy. It was another surreal 'its such a small world' moment as Chris bumped into James in the kitchen of the hostel- and had been sitting up at breakfast (and had planned a PlayStation day) with Rich, his mate! Weird. Anyway, we had a great night out starting with a huge sushi meal (of course) and ending very drunkenly in some random Rio club about 4am and poor James and Rich having to be up at 6am for the bus to the airport!

Our last day in Rio the sun was shining and we spent our last ever day in Brazil lying on the Copacabana beach..it was lovely!! And in the evening we went to our favourite restaurant from the whole trip- Garota de Ipanema, a place recommended when we first arrived by my sister, Emily and her husband, Nick who had lived in Rio years ago. And it lived up to our memories..we enjoyed the best steak we have ever had!! It was so sad to be leaving Brazil and very weird as we knew the South America part of our travels was near an end. So it was goodbye Brazil until the next time and there WILL be a next time..we spent 3 months there and there is still so much more to see!! An incredible place.

Dune Buggying in Natal

2008-10-22T21:28:00.013+01:00

Fortaleza is a large Brazilian City of 3.2 million people, and our next port of call after chilled out little Jeri (population 1500). Indeed, there was culture shock. Particularly since our budget hostel in Fortaleza had neither air conditioning, nor a pool. Dear, oh dear ... we were really roughing it now.

We stayed just long enough to visit Beach Park, a beach-front aquatic wonderland, complete with numerous water slides, wave pools, and rides in rubber rings. The highlight was something called "Insano", a 120ft, near vertical slide, with speeds approaching 110km per hour. The best/worst bit, was the short slow section before the drop, allowing you to contemplate the sheer foolishness of what you are doing - before going over the edge. We did it twice.

Fortaleza does not hold much else of interest for the backpacker, so we got moving and bussed it down to the beach paradise of Natal. There were no budget hostels that we could find in Natal, so we were forced to stay in a lovely mid-range pousada (complete with air-con and pool of course). What a shame.

Our first day in Natal was supposed to be spent checking out the area, and having a look at the picturesque (if windy) city beach of Ponta Negra. Unfortunately, despite numerous emails, phone calls and assurances from them - STA (our Travel Agent in London) had failed to change the dates of a flight we were booked on as far back as September 5th. So, we spent most of the day trying to sort that out with a local travel agent (conclusion still pending). Anyone thinking of travelling with STA ... don't. They are rubbish.

Desperate for fun, on Day 2 we caught a bus south down the coast to a small town called Pirangi - home of the world's biggest cashew tree. The branches of this tree have spread to an area of over 500m2, and it is still growing! It's not quite as an impressive sight as it sounds, since due to their weight, the branches have grown more outwards rather than upwards giving the whole thing the appearance of a gigantic bush. It was still cool to get right into the middle of it however, and see all these huge branches spidering out. As well as the tree, Pirangi also happens to have a very nice beach next to it, so we spent the afternoon lounging around, watching some expert kite surfers practice flips and jumps in the surf in front of us.

On Day 3 it got serious. The coast north of Natal is supposed to have a concentration of great sand dune backed beaches stretching many many miles from the city. To visit these, you can either attempt to get a bus to each one individually (a confusing and logistically tricky task), or you can go on a full day beach buggy tour of the lot of 'em. We went with the buggy.

We were picked up early that morning, by an enormous Brazilian going by the name of "The Black Tyson". Before setting off, he asked if we wanted the journey "com o sem emocao" (with or without emotion). We decided on "with". The full consequences of this decision were not fully realised until we had picked up a further two passengers, and arrived on the edge of the first beach we were to visit. As soon as the buggy left tarmac and hit sand, Tyson jammed the wheel violently to the right, then the left, seemingly in an attempt to flip it over and kill us all. Somehow, the buggy managed to stay grounded, and we came to rest in a cloud of sand. “Yeeeeehaaaaa!!! Com emocao!!!” screamed Tyson, before slamming his foot down on the accelerator, and peeling out across the beach.

Over the next few minutes, we were subjected to 3 or 4 near fatal experiences, which after a while made me feel a touch light-headed, and semi-hysterical. It was a bit like going on one of those really old wooden roller-coasters, where the thrill of the ride is increased by the very real danger that the whole thing might collapse at any moment ...

After a while, Tyson calmed down a little, and we were able to take stock of the beauty of our surroundings. The beaches were wild, desolate and stunning. We drove along these beaches for a while, before heading inland towards a few large dunes. We stopped on one of these dunes just long enough for Liz to have her picture taken with a donkey.

It was then time for a bit more buggy russian roulette, before our next stop on the dunes of Genipabu beach. We grabbed a “coco verde” here, which is simply a ripe coconut with a straw stuck in it. Since neither Liz nor I particularly likes the taste of coconut, we had never bought one of these before, despite seeing them sold at nearly every road or beach-side stall for the past 4 months. Predictably, we loved them, and vowed to drink at least one every day we had remaining in South America.

A bit more buggy pinball later, we were on a dune overlooking a lake. Here, for a couple of quid, you could zipline over the lake on a seat, or put on a large plastic nappy and throw yourself down a long plastic shoot. Sensibly, I went with the zipline seat option which afforded wonderful views. It was quite actually serene until my bum made contact with the water at 20mph. Liz went for the nappy option, which was hilarious for me, and, judging by the loud, long scream, pretty fun for her as well.

It was then time for the main event – driving round at high speed around some very large “golden” dunes. If Tyson's manoeuvres were scary before, they were about to get downright terrifying. The highlights were “Vertical Descent” and “The Wall of Death”. The first is self explanatory. The second was similar, except approached at pace from around a blind corner, and involved a period of "air-time" when no part of the buggy was in contact with the ground. Our vehicle suffered a broken exhaust upon “landing”. Here's a picture of me with the wall in the background on the right. It doesn't look like much, but imagine going over the lip and high speed in a dune buggy ... you get the idea.

The rest of the day was pretty chilled by contrast. We got out of the buggy at one point, and had a walk down a secluded river running between two dunes. We then stopped for an enormous all-you-can-eat meat buffet, before relaxing on a beach for half an hour. It was here that we decided to put the camera on a wall, set it on timer, and get a picture of both of us with the beach in the background. So, I set up the shot, put the camera on timer, and bounded back to where Liz was standing. However, in my haste to get back in time, I stumbled a little on the sand. I was then off balance when I reached Liz, and instead of sliding seamlessly into position next to her, I ended up colliding with her and accidentally headbutting her on the nose. The camera of course was still on timer, and took the picture about a second later ... and here it is!

It took a while, but eventually Liz saw the funny side, and wasn't too badly injured to enjoy the return journey ... in typical Tyson style. For a bit of respite we stopped for a couple of coco verdes at the lake bar ... a bar that was actually situated in a lake. A great end to a wonderful day:

Pipa!

2008-10-14T16:44:00.008+01:00

On our route back down to Rio a very important stop was a little town about 2 hours away from Natal called Pipa. We´d been told by friends we absolutely had to go there and that it rivals Jeri in terms of beach and beauty..we were very excited- it had a lot to live up to! And we were not disappointed- Pipa was great! There were a few lovely beaches to choose from and our favourite was Praia dos Golfinhos. This beach was the 2nd best beach we have come across on this trip (after Ilha Grande in southern Brazil)- it was absolutely beautiful- white sanded pristine beach surrounded by limestone cliffs.

However our most favourite thing about this beach was that dolphins come and play in the bay everyday at low tide!! It was incredible- we turned up about midday everyday and swam out to see them. They would come right up to us- we were so close to them and could hear the funny dolphin noises they make!! We spent 4 days at Pipa and swam with the dolphins every day. So Pipa definitely wins on the beach and dolphin front, but Jeri is still my favourite place we have been!

Jeri- My Happy Place!

2008-10-02T14:36:00.028+01:00

We finally arrived in Jeri on the Friday after 3 days of travelling..to be fair we had seen some amazing sights in those 3 days so it wasn´t all bad...and as soon as we set eyes on Jeri we knew it was worth it! The village is set on the beach with 3 main streets (not really streets, more like sandy paths- there is sand EVERYWHERE!) leading up from it. The village is full with lovely little restaurants, cafes and fancy boutiques packed with tiny little Brazilian bikinis and beach wear. We wandered around on the first day and loved it, the atmosphere was so laid back, people saying hi and walking around with no shoes on-it was the most chilled out place we´ve been in a long time. Another reason we loved it was our hostel, it was lovely! There was a pretty little courtyard full with hammocks leading onto a huge sparkling blue swimming pool-and this is where we spent at least 3 hours of every day!

In fact we loved everything about Jeri, the more and more we explored the more and more we loved and found we didn´t ever want to leave this place! We found a DVD rental shop and gave a lot of business to the owner! The restaurants were fab, and of course we found a sushi bar that served excellent sushi- and 20% off on certain days-perfect! Jeri is surrounded by huge sand dunes, and there is one in particular quite close to our hostel called the Por do Sol (sunset) dune and everyone walks up at about 5.15pm everyday to watch the sunset over the sea- such a beautiful sight.

Every evening around 6pm there were impressive sunset performances of Capoeira to watch on the beach, the amazing martial arts dance. Around this time too the cocktail carts would be setting up- providing the most amount of alcohol concoctions ever- my favourite was a maracujaroska- freshly squeezed passion fruit and vodka...lovely!

The beaches were great too although Jeri´s best quality is said to be the wind- apparently the east-west aligned coast brings excellent breezes every day and it was fantastic to sit and watch the kite surfers and windsurfers from the beach.

However, I think our favourite part about our stay in Jeri was the Monday night. Chris and I were sat eating at a little cafe we had spotted during the day and thought looked quite nice. We had just finished our yummy fish stew and were discussing which DVD to rent for the night. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I notice someone running towards our table..it was Rich our friend from Trekforce!! We actually couldn´t believe it, and I still can´t quite believe it as I write this now, but Rich and Jo - our very good friends- were on a 3 week holiday in Jeri! There was a lot of screaming and so many shocked double takes at each other- we couldn´t believe they were in this tiny little place that took us 3 days to get to..in such a huge country as Brazil!! It was simply amazing!! It was so so good to see them! Unfortunately they only had one more night and were returning home to England the next day! But at least we had one night..thank goodness Rich had spotted us!! This was becoming a bit of a habit- the same thing had happened last summer when we were both on long weekends in Cornwall!

We had a crazy night out spent mainly sat by the cocktail carts drinking various mixtures and saying ´I can´t believe you are here´! We tried to make the night last as long as possible and finally retired around 4am- we were walking back to our hostels and suddenly realised that our hostels were next to one another- how had we not seen one another!! Chris and I noted that maybe we had spent too much time watching DVDs in our room and eating sushi..whoops. Anyway, at least we had seen them! We met the next morning too and sat by our pool mainly just saying ´I can´t believe you are here´! We waved them off when our time was up, absolutely gutted that they had to leave and incredibly hungover. We decided to get another DVD to cheer ourselves up!

It said in our guidebook that you will probably stay for longer than expected in Jeri. We planned to stay 4 days and ended up staying a week. After chilling out to the max by reading and sunbathing by the pool, watching as many DVD´s as possible and lots of eating and drinking we thought we should do something active and decided to walk to Pedra Furada- an arched rock formation about 3km east of Jeri. The walk was spectacular along the coast walking across dunes and rocks and spotting lots of donkeys along the way! We made it to the rock after an hour and rested for a bit.

The walk back was slightly more hairy than the walk there- the tide had come in and for some reason we had decided to try and make it by going across the rock pools rather than higher up on the dunes-and where the path was! It was quite fun to begin with- clambering in and out of rocks trying to dodge the water, but after a while it turned quite tiring and slightly dangerous as the rocks became very slippery and wet. After an hour or so we decided to find the path again- successfully thank god and just in time to watch the gorgeous sunset over the bay.

We reluctantly bought bus tickets onwards after a week, not because we wanted to- but we have a flight to catch from further down south in a couple of weeks and felt we wouldn´t make it unless we left then..I really think we´d still be in Jeri now otherwise! It was an amazing place with some amazing memories- definitely one of my favourite places in the whole world!

The Journey to Jeri

2008-10-02T01:16:00.012+01:00

Sao Luis was a cool place to spend the afternoon and evening, but we had bigger fish to fry. We were very excited about getting to our next destination: Parque National Dos Lencois Maranhenses (a national park with fantastic scenery) and then on to the unpronounceable backpacker mecca of Jericoacoara (hereafter "Jeri").

As we were short on time, we wanted to see all that the national park had to offer in one day, and then ideally get on the road to Jeri that evening. This meant getting the very painful 5am bus out of Sao Luis. Somehow we roused ourselves, caught the bus, and reached the gateway to the park - another unpronounceable town called Barreirinhas - at 9am, just in time to be shepherded onto a tour leaving for the park at 9.30.

We clambered aboard an enormous 4 wheel drive truck and set off. Before long we had left the tarmac and were slipping and sliding on a sandy track. This track soon gathered gradient, and we found ourselves racing up and down sand dunes, and fording the occasional 3ft deep river. This truck was amazing - nothing could stop it. A bumpy couple of hours later, we stopped on the side of a dune. We had arrived.

It was scorching hot, so we applied some sun cream, grabbed a bottle of water, and headed out over the dunes. Parque National Dos Lencois Maranhenses is so called because of its immense expanse of sand dunes that supposedly look like lencois (bed sheets) stretched across the landscape. We didn't see anything that remotely resembled bed sheets, but we did get to see a few turquoise lakes interspersed between vast white dunes. It was amazing. Just look at the photos!

We walked from great lake to great lake, jumping in each one to cool off, then taking hundreds of pictures. The scenery was just incredible.

After a few hours of wandering around with our mouths open in amazement, we clambered back into our van and headed back on the bouncy road to Barreirinhas. It was then that we needed to try and sort out passage to Jeri - and it was here that things got a little tricky. A bit of research in our guide book revealed that there was no direct bus to Jeri from Barreirinhas. Not only that - there were no real roads either.

Getting to Jeri from Barreirinhas is so complicated, that the Lonely Planet guide has dedicated more than one entire confusing page to the travel arrangements. You need to get a combination of 4WD trucks, large buses and even dune buggies on the following route: Barreirinhas - Paulino Neves - Tutóia - Parnaíba - Camocim - Jericoacoara. An absolute mission considering the distance is just 200 miles down the coast (a very short distance in Brazilian terms). None of these forms of transport have any kind of regular schedule either - they just go "whenever they feel like it".

From Barreirinhas we got lucky, as one of the guys at the tour company knew of a family who owned a 4WD truck, and were travelling the first leg of our journey that afternoon. He gave them a call and we were on our way - over sand dunes and through rivers once more. We reached the tiny village of Paulino Neves at dusk and were dropped off at the only guesthouse in town. The driver said he'd pick us up for the next stage of our epic journey at (oh please no not again) 5 the next morning.

We grabbed a quick very cheap meal at the only restaurant in the village, then managed a couple hours of sleep. Next thing we knew we were on the truck again, barrelling over dunes as the sun began to rise. The next transfer ran very smoothly, and at 8.30 in the morning we found ourselves rolling into Parnaíba - just two stops from our destination. Here we hit a stumbling block ... the next bus out of there was at 7.30pm. Cue an 11 hour wait in a small town bus depot. Apparently this happens to everyone trying to get to Jeri. Why they don't have another bus going at a sensible time is beyond me.

We caught the 7pm bus, and were forced to spend a night in Camocim at the cheapest (and contender for the worst) hotel in Brazil. Our room had just 3 walls. Where the other one should have been was a large gap facing backwards out of the hotel. As it happened - that night there was a big fiesta in the adjacent plaza ... with fireworks and a parade ... that did not stop until the wee hours.

Our luck changed the following morning after we'd lugged our luggage the 1k to the "Jeri Bus Stop" - actually a car park where various vehicles going in that direction pick up passengers for a price. After an hour of waiting we managed to hitch a ride on a dune buggy! The route to Jeri is literally across miles and miles of deserted beach, which we burned through on the buggy. It was great fun. At one point we reached a small river where we had to put the buggy on a "ferry" - more a collection of wooden planks lashed to some air drums - which was then punted across.

Finally, windswept and sand blasted, we rocked into Jeri. The whole journey from Sao Luis had taken the best part of three days. Some parts were wonderful, and we did see some great scenery. However, the many hours waiting, and the insistent jerking around on uneven terrain, made it an adventure we weren't keen to repeat in a hurry ...

Belem and Sao Luis

2008-10-01T04:48:00.009+01:00

So after a long 2 and a half days on board the Amazon Star we finally arrived in the bustling city of Belem. It was quite a relief, although it was fun to sleep in hammocks again I was looking forward to a bed! We found a good hostel and had a lovely per kilo meal which definitely beat the boat food! We spent the next day wandering around the city and found a great market where we found some yummy Brazil nuts-surprisingly the first time we have had them in Brazil!

There was also a huge variety of fruits, prawns, lots of typical Amazonian goods and whole alleyway full of live ducks, rabbits and chickens! Belem has some lovely old buildings including a few palaces, stunning old churches, a fort and theatre. The port was very colourful with lots of old multicoloured boats!

And the best part of the day was finding a per kilo sushi restaurant for lunch! Amazing!

We then travelled over night on a bus to the lovely cobblestone city of Sao Luis, about 14 hours away. We spent another day sightseeing all the old colonial beautiful buildings- we took so many photos! It really was an impressive looking city and a good stop off on our way to Parque National Dos Lencois Marranhenses. We also visited a crazy museum all about the folk festival , Bumba Meu Boi that happens just in Sao Luis every year. Unfortunately the tour was in Portuguese but we think what we were shown were a collection of ingenious fish traps, lots of textiles and some bizarre figures and we have no idea what they were used for! See picture below! Dinner was possibly the best pizza we have had in South America!

Moustache

2008-09-25T20:31:00.004+01:00

Terrible. Terrible. Terrible.

The Amazon River – Lots & Lots of Water

2008-09-25T20:30:00.010+01:00

300 million litres of water. First get an idea of how much water that really is. Say the average person drinks 2 litres of water per day, then it would take nearly 6000 people their entire lives to drink 300 million litres of water. That’s a lot of water. Now consider that 300 million litres is the amount of water that flows per second ... per second ... from the Amazon River into the Atlantic Ocean. What better way to experience all this water than by boat?

After a wonderful 4 days in Alter do Chao, it was time for us to get back on the water with another 2 day boat trip - this time from Santarem to Belem. This section is where the Amazon gets serious, having picked up most of its major tributaries, either before or during the route. At times the river got so wide it was like being in the middle of the English Channel – you can just about see land to one side, and land off to the other, but there seems like an insurmountable quantity of water in between. It’s a big river.

The boat trip itself was both worse and better than the previous one. Worse in that it was a much bigger boat, and thus there were many many more people crammed into the hammock areas. Worse in that there was a 7 hour delay before we even left Santarem port. Worse in that the hammock area was enclosed with very little ventilation, meaning it became stiflingly hot on occasion. Worse in that the toilets smelt really bad. But, also better. Better because of the scenery. I couldn’t count the number of times we said “Wow, this is such a big river”. There was also some great “Apocalypse Now” style jungle on the banks whenever we got near enough to see it.

According to our guide book there are supposed to be around 50 or so “undiscovered” tribes in the Amazon basin, which have had no contact with “civilisation” (by which they presumably mean guns, cars and mobile phones) for over a hundred years. We cannot claim to have seen any of these, but on Day 2 we passed by a number of tribal communities living in huts right on the banks of the Amazon.

As we passed, the boat veered over to be near the bank, which was the cue for all the children and the mums of the community to pile into their little wooden canoes and paddle out towards us. Once near, they would call, and make some very odd hand gestures towards us. We weren't sure if we were supposed to be offended by this, until a plastic bag full of clothes was flung by one of our fellow passengers at high speed out into the water right next to one of these canoes. Soon, everyone was throwing bags of clothing, food, textiles ... seemingly whatever they could get their hands on. The villagers weren't making obscene gestures at us, they were calling for charitable contributions to be thrown down! They would then dodge the incoming missiles as best they could, and set about scooping their treasure out of the water and into their boats. It was great to watch.

Whilst all this was going on, a couple of the canoeists began to paddle like mad trying to get alongside our boat. After a lot of effort, they managed it and grabbed on. Then, while one of the villagers secured the canoe to our boat, another leapt on-board with a basket full of freshly caught prawns, and began hawking them to the passengers. Unfortunately we didn’t buy any, as we assumed they were raw – though later we saw a number of passengers munching on them. Opportunity missed.

After this flurry of activity, life became slow and relaxed once more as we meandered along towards Belem. It actually got a little dull to be honest – I think four days of lazy river boat travel is enough, even if you are on the world’s biggest river. Finally, on Day 3 (a little later than expected because of our 7 hour delay) we glimpsed the skyscrapers of Belem in the distance, and our Amazon adventure was at an end.

The Amazon - Really Big Trees

2008-09-22T22:17:00.019+01:00

After a couple of days relaxing on beaches, eating good food, and enjoying our air conditioning, we suddenly realised that this wasn't exactly the authentic Amazon rainforest experience we were expecting. In many ways it was much much better than the experience we were expecting, but we thought we'd better go and check out some hardcore jungle at some point in any case ... at least for a couple of hours or so.

Originally we were considering spending a couple of nights with a traditional rubber tapper family in the heart of the Amazon. However the logistics of such a trip looked like a nightmare, especially as we only had 4 days in and around the area before we had to catch a boat on to Belem. So we settled for visiting a community for a few hours on a boat tour. Looking at the conditions we have been staying in, I think we made the right choice. Hey - we'd already lived in dense rainforest in Belize for two months - there was definitely no call to do it again.

We got on a boat early in the morning and eased on up the river for a few hours, marvelling at the banks of pristine beach backed by jungle that we passed en route. Finally we stopped outside a little village in the Floresta National do Tapajós, an area famous for its huge trees. Here our guide, going by the name of Mario, told us to disembark. We were in beach clothes and flip flops at this point, but we had our jungle gear with us in a rucksack. We asked Mario if we needed to change at this point. "No no," he said. "We will just be going for a little walk now." He then handed us a two litre bottle of water to carry, which we thought odd for just a little walk, but Mario himself was barefoot, so we assumed everything would be ok.

We got out and waited on the outskirts of the village, while Mario "found" the guide who was to show us around. The problem was, he didn't seem to be there. After half and hour, Mario came back saying that the guide had gone AWOL, but he'd found someone else who could take us. Our substitute guide took one look at us then shouted something in Portuguese. This was translated for us by a German girl in our party who happened to speak Portuguese. Apparently he said: "Why are these people not wearing proper clothing? They will be walking through the jungle for over 4 hours." When we questioned Mario about the so called “little walk”, he said it would be more like 3 hours not 4. I seemed to remember from a couple of years back, that a three hour trek through dense jungle in the scorching heat could never really be described as “little”. Also, for some reason I was slightly more inclined to believe our substitute guide rather than Mario. So, now that we knew the full extent of the walk, we asked Mario if we could return to the boat to change. Apparently we couldn’t – it had left. Mario gestured to the empty patch of river where the boat had been. It was not coming back until after our trek.

Eventually, despite being poorly attired, our substitute guide said he would take us and we set off into the rainforest. Mario himself held back a bit, saying he had to "do something" first. So we began without him, trekking through snake and spider infested jungle, in just our flip flops and shorts.

Speaking of spiders, about 10 minutes in we encountered our first specimen of Amazon wildlife. Naturally it was an enormous tarantula – an animal that Liz has a profound fear of. Around this point, Mario came bounding up to us, no longer unshod, but now sporting a pair of very professional looking jungle boots. Various theories were aired as to how he had come into possession of them – the most convincing being that he had returned to the boat. Mario just shrugged.

He became much more enthusiastic however when he learnt about Liz’s fear of spiders, and set about attempting to “cure” her of her fear then and there. His method involved picking up the recently shed skin of the tarantula (which of course Liz mistook for the real thing), then attempting to wave it about in her face whilst shouting “Nao peligroso! Nao peligroso!” [translation: “Not dangerous! Not dangerous!”] Somehow this failed to work, and Liz’s arachnophobia remained intact ... which was a shame because we then ran into another 3 tarantulas on our walk, and numerous other smaller spiders.

We continued on through the forest. Our walk took in both secondary and primary rainforest. We began with secondary forest, which actually looked identical to the Belizean jungle, just with the added mystique of being “The Amazon”. We according gazed at every tree and plant with an added sense of wonder. This sense of wonder was aided by our substitute guide who, in comparison to Mario, was brilliant. Every so often he would stop, jump off the trail into the forest, then bring back some flower, plant, vine or fruit, that was traditionally used for perfume, insect repellent, rubber production, snake bite antidote, used in cosmetics, could be eaten, etc, etc.

His party piece was taking a large coconut type fruit, splitting it with his machete to reveal a dozen or so smaller nuts, then splitting these smaller nuts in terrifying fashion – gripping one side of them tightly with his fingers, then chopping at the exposed part of the nut just millimetres from his fingertips. Once split, this nut would reveal a powdery substance that smelt like coco, and also a large maggot type grub that wriggled around on the palm of his hand. Apparently these are very tasty fried in butter! He also showed us some rubber trees, tapped by the local community, as well as a large strikingly coloured bug:

After a couple of hours we passed into primary rainforest – something we had not experienced much of before. There was a stark difference between the two; the primary forest had very little ground cover, and consequently you could see a lot further at ground level. Also, the canopy here was much denser, making it darker, cooler and more pleasant to walk through. The final difference was the clincher, and the main reason why we were on this walk in the first place ... the trees were huge! We spent ages taking pictures of them. Here's my favourite:

At this point we had completed half the walk. It had taken 3 hours. We were knackered ... though through careful avoidance of biting insects, and extensive application of repellent, our bare toes were still more or less intact. Our substitute guide suggested we quicken the pace, so as to be somewhat near his original estimate of 4 hours. The walk then became a bit of a slog. The terrain became a bit steeper. We became tired, hot and dehydrated. Our flip flops began to fail us. There was much cursing and stubbing of toes. Finally, after two hours (that felt like two days) we arrived back at the village. The boat was in a slightly different place than before, so a short canoe trip through flooded forest was required. Mercifully this was very relaxing, and before long we glimpsed our boat from between the trees. It was anchored just next to an idyllic sandbar.

What a great place to find yourself after 5 hours hiking through rainforest! We chilled out in the water for a bit, before tucking into a well deserved lunch of freshly prepared fish. It was then time to motor on home, and this was when Mario finally came into his own. Throughout the return journey he plied us all with caipirinhas – a cocktail consisting of cachaca rum, lime juice, sugar and ice - whilst the sun set in the background.

Then, truer to form, he rigged up a TV and amplifier and played a video of some truly awful Brazilian pop singer. However, even this assault on the senses couldn’t ruin our day. We had experienced the hardships of the Amazon rainforest, encountered “dangerous” wildlife on the way (well tarantulas look dangerous anyway), and had made it back in time for a good night sleep in our air conditioned room. Perfect.

Alter do Chao - Paradise on the Amazon

2008-09-22T21:13:00.006+01:00

We arrived in Santarem ridiculously early in the morning, at around 4am or something. Whilst everyone else was packing up their hammocks and gathering their things together, we decided to stay on the boat until they kicked us off. That occurred at 6, but at least by then the buses were running.

We grabbed a quick minibus into Santarem, then set about trying to get to Alter do Chao ... principally because that's what the Lonely Planet told us to do. To be fair, they weren't far wrong. Alter do Chao is stunning.

In our guide book it describes Alter do Chao as having white sand beaches on the Amazon river. When I read this I was not expecting too much. My idea of a "river beach" is a muddy slippery bank leading down to a small patch of sand, covered in bits of wood and the odd coke can. Nothing could be further from the truth, as you can see from these pictures.

The town itself is very small, and looks out on the picturesque, white sanded Ilha do Amor. It is also situated at the confluence of the Rio Amazonas (the famous Amazon) and two large tributeries - the Rio Tapejós and the Rio Arapiunes. All three of these rivers are enormous, looking more like lakes than rivers. In actual fact the very meeting of these great bodies of water has caused a real lake (Lago Verde) to be formed, also right next to Alter do Chao. The upshot is a lot of water, some lovely beaches, and a beautiful beautiful location.

We spent our first couple of days ooohing and aaahing at the scenery, lying on the beach and enjoying the best value for money room we've come across in Brazil ... it even had air con! We were happy people. Then, on the evening of the second day we thought we would experience the sun setting over the lake ... whilst on the lake. We rented a kayak for this purpose and headed out onto it.

The kayak however, turned out to be pretty unstable. Not only did it threaten to overturn us (complete with non-waterproof camera) at every stage, it also patently refused to go in the direction we paddled in. Even with both of us paddling on the left, the blasted thing would continue to veer over to the left, until we were going round and round in ever more ridiculous looking circles, much to the amusement of the locals watching from the shore. In the end I paddled while Liz steered, and we managed to get at least a little ways out into the lake. We then got tired and retired to a nearby beach ... which also gave fantastic views of the sun set fortunately.

After the sun set, rather than struggle back to the rental place in the dark, we beached the thing at the earliest opportunity and dragged it back. At least it was exercise! We then retired to a restaurant to try Pirarucu - the Amazon river's tasty resident fish.

Back to Brazil!!!

2008-09-18T20:23:00.005+01:00

So after the awful debacle that was Venezuela we eventually made it to Brazil. We literally cheered with happiness as we crossed the border we were so happy to be there! Back in Brazil..where it all started all those months ago. First stop, to break up the long bus journeys, was Boa Vista. Boa Vista was great. We decided as we´d had such an awful last week, to splash out on a lovely expensive hotel with air con. It was the best feeling to take off the clothes I´d been wearing for about 3 days and have a long shower..oh to be clean!! I then decided to treat myself to a much needed pedicure! It was a great day and we could´nt stop smiling! We ended the day with some yummy Brazillian food including a big bowl of Acai I´d been craving since we last left Brazil! Acai is a deep purple vitamin rish berry from the Amazon and is said the be quite addictive. My favourite way to have it is frozen like a sorbet in a bowl with fruit and granola...mmmn!

So after our day of R & R we got back on the bus for another 12 hours journey to Manaus. Unfortunately the only bus company that did the journey to Manaus was Eucatur! So despite vowing never to get on another Eucatur bus ever again, we said some prayers and got on. Luckily we arrived safely, with no crashes and no death, in Manaus late that evening.

Manaus is the Amazon's largest city, described as "an incongruous pocket of urbanity in the middle of the jungle". We planned to spend about 4 days in the city to chill out, plan our time in Brazil and eat lots of lovely food! It was really nice to spend more than 2 days somewhere and we stayed in a fab hostel with Wi-Fi in our room and a great big breakfast every morning! Oh we love Brazil! We spent a lot of or time updating the blog and uploading photos, but we also managed to get out and see some cool sights! We walked around the city and found some beautiful old buildings including the Teatro Amazonas opened in 1896, and nearby palaces. We spent a fun morning with lots of manatees at the Bosque Da Cienca, a 13 hectare plot of forest within the city. The highlight is the manatee pool with underwater glass windows. The reclusive creatures, known as peixeboi (cow fish) in Portuguese, are pretty much imposible to see in the wild in the Amazon river, so it was brilliant to watch them in their tank! We also saw a giant river otter, some turtles and a pretty toucan in the trees! Oh and I got stung by a bee and it really hurt.

Another massive highlight of Manaus was Churrascaria Buffalo. A churrascaria is basically an up-market all you can eat restaurant including lots of different types of dishes, a huge salad bar and men that bring you freshly grilled meat from skewers to your table. Amazing! We visited one of these Brazillian institutions before and left feeling so ill after eating just way too much...it was not pleasant. Basically you have a little wheel at the end of your table which you can turn to the green YES position or the red NO position. If the wheel is on YES the men with the meat will come to your table. Simple! It's quite difficult to say no though when the meat looks as good as it does! So you end up eating far too much! So this time we decided to be sensible and try to say "no" to some of the meat coming round. This time there was a special something else on the menu of all you can eat too....sushi!! So we decided to have a sushi course to begin with (ok we had maybe 2 sushi courses to begin with...actually Chris had 3 sushi courses to begin with!) it was fantastic, we hadn't had sushi for over a week and we were in desperate need of some!

So 23 salmon nigiri later, we decided to start on the meat course! We felt a bit wrong just having meat so we added some salad to our plates too. And the meat was good...really good! It was great to have some picanha again, our beef cut of choice from our month or so in Brazil at the beginning. We got through a lot of meat and decided to call it a day an hour or so later. But then they came around with dessert! And we can't say no to dessert..especially when it is fresh strawberries and cream! So we each had a bowl and it was delicious! Chris then decided to have one more bowl, which is quite unlike him...not being a massive fan of sweet things..but as it's all you can eat for a set price he thought why not?! So, full up to the brim we got the cheque and got ready to leave. It was then that we noticed it was a little more expensive than we had thought it would be. Oh dear. They charge for desserts..and Chris had 2!!! Hahaha! It was very funny! Well worth it too!

The main reason we were in Manaus (apart from the sushi and all you can eat meat) was to see the famous Amazon! Most people start or end their trip in the Amazon in Manaus and ours was just beginning. We decided against the normal jungle trip where you see some monkeys, pink dolphins, aligators and fish for piranhas as we had already done this type of trip twice, once in the Amazon basin in Bolivia and also in the Pantanal in Brazil. Both trips had been so successful and we'd seen so much wildlife that we decided to make our way down the Amazon river to a place called Santerem, where we could do a hike in the jungle and see some big trees and also visit a few beautiful beaches. The only way to get anywhere in the Amazon is by boat, so we booked ourselves onto a 2 day passenger boat to Santerem.

The boat trip was great! We got there about 5 hours early to secure a hammock spot and we got a good spot on the middle deck. As the 5 hours passed by before we set off, about a hundred other people set their hammocks up around us, below us and pretty much on top of us! It was a fab sight..so many colourful hammocks! And luckily not too uncomfortable with so many people around us!

We had a very relaxed 2 days aboard the boat making our way down the huge Amazon river, the views were beautiful and the sunsets around 5pm were spectacular.

Venezuela - oh dear ... (Part 2)

2008-09-18T19:29:00.007+01:00

CONTINUED FROM PART 1 ...

So we were on a night bus to Brazil, happy and relaxed. The bus was driving quite quickly and swinging round corners ... but no more than several other busses that we'd taken in our previous 8 months around the continent. We talked about what we were going to do (and what we were going to eat!) when we reached Brazil for a little while, then slowly drifted off to sleep ...

Then BANG! We were awake with a shot as the bus jolted, lurched to one side, and started to skid along the road. It was very frightening for half a second or so, but then we felt the driver regain control of the vehicle, bringing it to a controlled stop. We were very disorientated having just woken up. I glanced at my watch - midnight. After a few moments I composed myself and followed some of the other passengers off the bus to see what had happened.

The front right hand side of the bus had a large dent in it and the headlight had been smashed. Under the front right wheel of the bus was a twisted wreck of a motorbike, leaking some sort of liquid over the road. The bike had clearly been dragged along by the bus for some time, as there were parts of the it strewn along the road behind. Around 50 yards back there was crowd gathering around the body of a motionless youth.

I'd seen enough road accidents to not even consider going anywhere near the body, but I spoke to one of our fellow travellers who had just returned from the scene. She simply shook her head sadly and said "Muerto," drawing a finger across her throat just in case I didn't get the picture.

Speaking to a few of the locals in the aftermath, it turned out the youth was just 19 years old. It wasn't clear who's fault his death was, as nobody had witnessed the accident. The people in the bus couldn't see out of the front, as a screen seperates the driver's cabin from the rest of the bus. The bus driver himself had run away, whilst the second driver, a man called Jefe, was asleep and didn't see the incident.

The police arrived on the scene and asked some questions. After a couple of hours or so we were told to get back on the bus, which was then driven to a police outstation and impounded. They let us know we were welcome to go back to sleep on the bus - another one would be along in the morning to continue the journey. Despite the shock we managed to get back to sleep eventually.

A moment of levity came at around 4am when an enormous earpiercing noise shattered the peace and quiet of the bus. The noise seemed to come from a canvas bag dangling down from the armrest across the aisle from me. "What on earth was that?" I asked Liz. "I think it's a chicken," she replied half asleep. Sure enough, a few minutes later, the noise came again. It was a cockerel - his crowing almost impossibly loud in the tight confines of the bus. He continued to crow at 10 minute intervals for the rest of the morning.

At 6.30 we were "officially" woken up and told that a replacement bus would be along at any moment. We all waited with our luggage at the side of the road, and sure enough, another bus came along at 7. The problem was - it was from a bus company called Occidente, which was a different (and more expensive) company than Eucatur who we were travelling with. Jefe did his best, but Occidente wanted us to pay for our passage again, not accepting our Eucatur tickets as payment. Since we had spent nearly all the remainder of our cash on a ticket to Brazil, we didn't have any spare money with us. We couldn't get any more because we were stuck by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere with the nearest bank 30 miles away. This wouldn't have helped anyway because it was Sunday and would have been closed. ATMs of course, were no use (see previous post).

So, we were abandoned, on the side of the road with the 20 or so other travellers who couldn't afford a ticket. Jefe got on his mobile phone, as did a few of the other travellers, and ascertained that another replacement bus would be along at 9. This failed to show up. As we were waiting, we were forced to witness the most heartbreaking part of the whole ordeal. The poor young boy's family arrived at the police station to receive the news of his death. We all stood in numb silence by the side of the road whilst members of his family broke down in tears all around us. It was absolutely horrific.

After the 9 o'clock bus failed to show, and the family had left, one of our gang rang up Eucatur head office to complain. She was assured that another bus was being sent from a place called Santa Elena, reserved just for us, and it would be with us at 1pm. So we had another 4 hours to entertain ourselves. We assessed our surroundings ... a police station, a bus station, a few shacks, and a field ... with chickens in it. We went with the field. We layed our bags down under a tree and then used them as a makeshift bench. However, we weren't able to drop off to sleep, since at any moment a bus might pass that we could flag down.

The man who owned the cockerel - or 3 cockerels as it turned out (!) - decided to let them out of their canvas bags so they could have a free run around the field. He then amused himself, and anyone else who cared to watch, by pitting his own animals against those in the field. That's right - we were witness to a some illegal cock fighting, performed for a very select audience of bus refugees. Surreal just about covers it.

At 1 o'clock there was no sign of our special private bus. A quick phone call to Eucatur head office confirmed that we had been deceived. The bus coming from Santa Elena did not exist - it had never even left. At that point, a few of our number somehow arranged other means of transport, leaving a hardcore group of 12 of us still standing in a field by the side of the road.

Around 2pm a representative from Eucatur turned up ... and was set upon on all sides by the angry travellers. My Spanish isn't exactly fluent, but I could swear that what they were shouting at him didn't have much to do with a lack of busses ... it seemed to have more to do with a lack of ... chicken? Yes, indeed, our fellow travellers were hungry, and were incensed that Eucatur hadn't provided them with any food. So off the Eucatur representative went to get some fried chicken, without a word it seemed on when we might get rescued from our field.

An hour or so later, he returned, and we ate ... which admittedly was very welcome. In between bites of chicken, I turned to him and asked how we were going to get to Brazil. "No problem," he said. "A bus is coming at 5 to take you." I'd heard this before. "Are you sure?" I asked. He stared back at me unblinking, "Yes, of course."

We weren't so sure, and so in the intervening period I managed to source some cardboard from the police station, and we made ourselves a makeshift hikehiker's board, which can be seen at the beginning of this post (modelled beautifully by Liz). We went for "Santa Elena" (a town on the Venezuela - Brazil border) rather than "Brazil", since darkness was fast approaching and we didn't fancy spending the night in a field.

After a few hours of fruitless and rather depressing hitchhiking attempts, 5pm came around. We had a moment of elation when a bus trundled over the horizon, only for it to be quickly dashed, as the bus stopped and informed us it was going in a different direction. It was full to bursting in any case. At this point we pretty much gave up all hope.

Soon afterwards the Eucatur representative called head office and booked us some places on the next Eucatur bus passing through. That happened to be the same one we'd taken - just 24 hours later. So we had to wait another 7 hours until midnight. We were so used to waiting by then, it wasn't actually that bad. Even the cockerels settled down and stopped making their infernal noises.

Finally, after a whole day sitting in a field by the side of the road, our bus turned up. There was a nerve shattering few seconds when we thought their wouldn't be any spare seats for us, but fortunately, they were hiding at the back and we all got on. What a relief. The bus continued through the night and to Brazil without incident. Our Venezuelan nightmare was over. It was easy to forget in all of our happiness that we had witnessed a young man lose his life just a day previously. It was very sobering. We tried however to put all that behind us. Passing the border we made a pact ... we would never to get on a Eucatur bus ever again ...