Ao Nang, Krabi

 Well we were sad to leave one of our favorite spots Koh Lanta but knew we would have some fun things to do in Ao Nang, Railey, and the surrounding areas in Krabi.  The 2 hour boat ride turned into at least 4 by the time you arrive where you need to be.  The boats run at low speed, the tourist with huge roller luggage and the minimal directions for new comers to Thailand is the reason why this probably occurs.  We made it, they have a new pier here which is not near the main town, so we get carted of by bus for free to the main part of Ao Nang as we do not have a place to stay yet.
 We head down the main street and see a very significant change since our trip here in '07.  Starbucks, Burger King, Baskin Robbins, and 3 times the hotels and restaurants.  This place has become a very busy tourist area, but that is what it is known for.  One thing Ray and I have noticed  this time is that the main tourists are European and come with big families.  Last time we were here it was low season and mainly couples and backpackers.  We find a place to crash for one night, then spend the evening scooting around to  find a new place to stay for the remainder of time, we thought we would spend a bit extra for xmas and New Years.  A present to ourselves!
 All checked in the next day we start to explore. We do and old scooter trip we did last time and it was fun again.  Except the sore ass for like 24 hours after.  We find some good restaurants, Italian is big here, and Western food, but only some of it is good.  The Thai food is good but the Indian was just ok.  There are some really good places to eat and some really crappy places to eat so we choose wisely each night.
 We book our first climbing trip through Ao Nang Climbers, really nice people, met a nice couple of guys from Malaysia who were hanging out there, we hope to meet up again with along our travels.  We leave bright and early the next day, to Railey, at the 1 2 3 wall.  Which is very popular for all climbing companies.  It almost seems unsafe at times with so many people around who don't understand climbing etiquette.  We did the full day trip from 8 am to 6pm which in the end was too much for our first time in months climbing.  I have never been so tired as I was that night, xmas eve I was asleep by 8:30 pm.   The guides were funny and helpful, and met some nice people on our tour.
 Railey is beautiful but full of people, plus it costs more to stay there so we stay in Ao Nang.  We want to do more climbing but realized the next day we pushed it a bit and our arms and hands may not work quite yet.  So we relax a bit, did a yoga class, and some swimming at the beach.  Then Ray wants to go Deep water soloing, so we talk to our climber friends at Ao Nang Climbers and they set up a group with another company.  We head out later in the day as we need a high tide to do this, around 9am or 10am each day is different.   We board a bigger boat and head out to a small island off of the mainland.  As we make the corner around the back we see some people climbing with another company.  Looks like fun!  I did not pay for the climbing so I am a little jealous now but enjoy watching and taking pictures, I did swim and snorkel to pass time.  We have only ever seen it on you tube and videos so it's so cool to see it live.  One guy from Singapore in our group is a very good climber he does really well and climbs quite high.  Again the people from Singapore are so great, funny and really easy going.  Ray said the climbing is not too bad, but the ladder at the bottom is harder than the climbing.  He said it's weird swimming in climbing shoes, I bet!  The day is hot so being in the water is nice.  The first spot is easy, the second spot was a bit harder and only a few people try.  So all in all most people only climbed 4 times the whole 5 hours.  Ray said the mental ability is different when you have to jump down, seems way higher from up even 10 feet.  Hey Ray, did you see the big Jelly fish! AH!
 We decide to stay here till after the New Year, so we book our hotel longer.  It was definitely weird being here for xmas but a nice change from the craziness of it at home.  Missed the nieces and nephews at this time of year as they are fun to watch.  Now we are planning to move onto Ko Tao a top choice of ours since our last trip to Thailand.

Koh Lanta

On Koh Lanta we hit up our old favorite bungalow "Seapearl" and they were even better than we remembered. With a new owner they had added beach platforms for dining and a new restaurant, and menu. We stayed on the island 5 days and only ate at Thai cat (attached to sea pearl) food was awesome each and every time. We did alot of nothing on Lanta, relaxed and took some time to just chill in one place. We did do a scooter tour one day  and went to Old Lanta town, a place we missed on the '07 trip but we made time for it this time around, it was pretty cool old trade town we took a few snaps and had a coffee, before heading back to our bungalow.

 "A" had read about an Animal shelter who always needed volunteers so we stopped by one afternoon to check it out and see if we could give a hand, as you all know we are animal lovers. After a quick tour of the place, we each got hooked up with 2 dogs, "A" walked Punk and Sara, and I was walking Sorry and Chili. things started off with a bit of excitement, about 30 feet from the driveway we passed another lady who was on her way back from walking one of the other shelter dogs. well apparently Sorry didn't get along with this dog and went after him, she slipped her collar and there was fur and growling going in ever direction. Having some smarts I didn't want to use my travel insurance for a rabies shot just yet, I grabbed Sorry from the hind quarters and pulled her off the other dog, meanwhile poor chili was getting dragged along behind me as me and the other walker lady were trying to separate the two dogs. After a few minutes of excitement we manged to get the dogs apart and settled down, after a quick check for damage my flip flop was the only casualty.
With a new collar and no other dogs to get upset over the six of us (me, A, and 4 dogs) went off for our walk with no more excitement just a nice walk in the tropics with some really nice dogs who could use a good home.
We felt pretty good for helping out, it wasn't much but some fun, exercise and play time was had.

Malaysia

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur in the evening around 11 pm  and would not make the train or monorail times so we took a taxi from our Tune Hotel.  Pricey way to do it seeing as the airport is like an hour or so away with no traffic.  The hotel was kinda crap and would not use that chain again, but it was cheap so......
We were so tired the next day we slept in a bit and did some laundry while we tried to figure out where to go around the area.  We woke up the next day early  to go up in the Petronas Towers, which is a beautiful building and maybe the only nice one in the whole city.  We waited hours in line and to just walk on the bridge, seems like a waste of money really.  The area around the towers is actually nicer to visit in our mind.  Ray had seen an ad at the airport for a car show and we were sold when it said Bumblebee and The Batmobile were there.  We hopped on the monorail, I felt a little dizzy, maybe dehydrated or just tired so we sat in some big chairs for awhile while I drank an isotonic drink to feel better.  Then we made our way in to the show.
The music was thumping, the girls in cheesy skimpy outfits were present, and the asian men were everywhere.  It had  4 sections of a huge building and Ray was really enjoying the cars, I was just waiting for the good ones.  Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, and my favorite the Austin Martin like the bond car.  I had a good laugh at some of the outfits on the girls, I asked Ray what does a nurse have to do with cars?  He just laughed!  The expensive cars, or classy companies they wore suits and were very pretty.  Then I saw him, "16 ft. Bumblebee", how awesome is that?  My first thought was Mikey, he would have loved this.  Well after the car show we made our way back to the hotel.
If anyone knows us they know we love Malaysian cuisine, and we heard the food here was fantastic.  I searched and searched for a true authentic restaruant and all I came up with was Chinese, Indian, and more Indian restarurants.  This continues on all through Malaysia, but we did find some good food eventually.
We left after 4 days to Penang by luxury bus which is really only like &20 canadian so why not, why ride in some shit bus for 5 hours right!  The bus  was great, movies, big seats, aircon, and free coffee and tea ect....good ride.  We booked a hostel there called The Red Inn, on Love Lane, or as I would call it backpackers Lane.  It was in Georgetown, cute little place, with a huge Chinatown and Little India of course.  The architechture here is very colonial.  The hostel thing sucked once again, it's just not us anymore we decieded.  Kids up at 3 am chatting, watching movies and dirty bathrooms.  The room was clean and private but I hate using earplugs every night.  We decided after 4 nights, after getting our Visas for Thailand which you have to do before unless you only want 15 days on arrival, we decided to do it before and get 60 days.  We love Thailand so....
We found some really good, probably the best East Indian restarurant we have ever been to called " Woodlands", it ws a vegetarian restauarant and it was so amazing, the taste was so good.  We ate there twice it was that good.  I felt like we had become vegetarians in our quest for good food in Malaysia.  I realize soya milk in milkshakes is good and tofu chicken is not that bad.  After our time here we broke up the trip to Thailand, with a stop in Langkawi, a small island off Malaysia,there is nothing for us here, we did not like it and I think we were just kinda done with Malaysia now so we stayed 2 nights and a ferry out of  there to Satun Thailand where we made our way to Trang then onto the island of Koh Lanta, one of our favorites from last time we were here.
All in all Malaysia is suppose to be the new Thailand, a lot of people use it like a visa run stop. Like Thailand was before the tourist buzz. I still like Thailand better, and the beaches were not very hospitable in Malaysia, it had jellyfish and they were really hard to find.  Malay food is hard to find and the people were not as helpful as we have had in Thailand.
We are so happy to be in Thailand again, the beach beautiful, the food excellent, and the people are amazing again.  We are staying at the same place which has a new owner now and it is even better than befor.  We have a scooter and I have already spent a bunch of money on jewellery.  Ray has been like a little kid again, he is always smiling and so am I now.  He has a bit of a cold which is weird but all in all we are very glad to be here again....

$ingapore $ling, $hopping, and Bling.....

These things are pretty much what $ignapore is about, lots of people with money and spending money.  The $ingapore $ling was like $15 or $16 dollars so that didn't happen, I'll make one when I get home.
Arrival day was pretty good, we arrived in the afternoon for a change, not early am or late pm.  The airport is huge and terminal 3 or T3 called here is the new wing and it is gigantic.  Lots of space, new hotel, with shopping and movies on the depature area past immigration.  We asked information how to get to the hotel which she did and gave us lots of information on the area too with a smile.  As we walk we easily find our way to our last MRT stop, where our hotel " The Saff" short for Saffron( the spice) is.  We took about 10 minutes to leave the covered train station as it was downpouring and thundering/lightning pretty good. 2 blocks up and around the corner our cute orange hotel sits in the Chinatown area.  Little bit of India in Chinatown, made us laugh, but a very cute place.  We had no window which as we looked at hotels here many do not have them anyways, and this was no big deal since our room was quiet and new, and I better note we never slept better because it was so quiet and dark.
The first adventure out was to the local food market to eat dinner.   We had no idea what to eat, there was food stall after food stall, from chinese, Malay, indian to Thai and more....we chose some fruit drinks and some rice and basil chicken dish from a friendly looking Thai gentleman.  We are sometimes a little leary of vendor stalls but this was really good, cheep and no bad outcomes.  Back to the room to chill and get ready for some $ignapore exploring in the am.
We headed out on the MRT again to Sentosa Island, a huge tourist area but a must see here.  We took the Jewel Gondola across so we could get a good view of the city, it was a very nice view.  We got situated then headed to the Luge track for some fast fun (gravety go karts).  We bought the combo 3 turns pass, "once is never enough" is the slogan so......Ray like doubled my time for sure, I also saw the hugest rat I have ever seen, like a small cat eewwww....
It was very hot so we got some slushies and chilled in the shade for a bit, then continued on to the Aquarium for some A/C. It was so packed and it is not very big so kinda crazy, you can feed and pet manta rays, sharks and watch shows with seals and dolphins....which I cannot watch so we opted to leave at that point, wildlife in the wild is where everyone should really see them.  We took the free bus transport on the island to the Resort World area.  Big fancy hotels, artwork, restaruants, casino, sweets everywhere and Universal studios.  We ate, drank a way too expensive beer ($12), ate some samples of sweets, and did the look see only admission to Universal Studios, way too expensive of a day coming to an end.  And thank god, my body is hurting after all the walking and fun!
We went to Little India the next day after sleeping in too much, which was ok, felt a little like what we might think India might be.  Lots of people, dirty and stalls lining the streets, kinda not our thing, so we went to Orchard Road which did not alleviate that feeling at all..holy crowds...Saturday afternoon...befor Christmas...befor the big marathon on Sunday.  We did find some food and walked through the mall after mall after mall after mall after mall.  If you like high fashion you will find every designer here, I thought it was cool, Ray not so much.  After hours of walking wewent back to the hotel to rest up for more walking. From the Fullerton Hotel to the Harbour, saw the oldest bridge in Singapore, oldest hotel, the Sands Hotel ( looks like a  modern boat), let's just say there was lots of sites along the walk, it was a nice walk again very busy with tourists.  After that more mall down at the harbour then home. Ouch....my feet!
 Next day in the late afternoon out to Orchard Road to eat then off to the Night Zoo, which opens late in the day and you view nocturnal animals and see some shows with some local little guys.  We walked the zoo, saw the show and took the tram around the  ground then made the long trek back to the hotel as we leave the next day for Malaysia.
Noon checkout and the longest day ever we are landed saftley in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. Checked in at 1am.

sun, rain, surf, relax... Bali

Bali is hot, humid, and yes it is raining a bit, but it's fun too.  We have had a nice couple weeks of relaxing that was definetly what we needed.  The nice hot weather sometimes is unbearable for us Canadians but will take it over being cold any day.  When we arrived we ecountered the usual hackling out of the airport and did the best we could being tired and hot to shrug it all off.  We remembered once again what it's like to have a big dollar sign hanging above our heads.
We found a hotel and a taxi and headed out into Bali, the Sanur area was our first stop.  All in all the hotel was ok, nice pool, dirty beaches, cheap massages, and just ok food here except a great hotel restaurant down near the big hotels made great food.  We decided we needed something new, and our room was just ok, Ray was fine with it, but I thought the bathroom was disgusting and it smelled like really strong moth balls that burned my nose.
 We decided to try out the tourist area of Benoa, right next to Nusa Dua the ritzy walled in hotels watched by security at each gate.  The Ramada had a good deal online so we went there, wanting a bit more relaxing.  We arrived after a decent length drive, everything here moves slowly, traffic being a major one.  You never know if it's an accident, tree fell down on road, bad weather, who knows it's just plain busy, so much honking of horns and close calls with other vehicles.  The hotel is great, probably more than we needed but very comfortable for the much needed chill time.  The room is nice and looks out over the pool, staff is nice, good milkshakes at pool bar, great food, free breakfast and plenty of food choices down the road a bit.
We spent many days just hanging by the pool, tried out a beach called Greger near by, not the cleanest, it's runoff season so garbage is flowing into the ocean from the land.  Not a great garbage or any sort of recycling here that I have seen so far.  Kinda sad to let a beautiful place get so dirty and clog up the ocean.  We went to Kuta for an afternoon, was so hot, my face was on fire, we swam in the ocean there to cool off, water ok here, beach bit cleaner, but the amount of people haggling you is intense and gets a little annoying.  We booked it to the mall to cool down and get a drink, and then took a taxi back to the hotel..couldn't get outta there fast enough.
So after all that we are ready to see some countryside and explore.  We rent a car with driver for 10 hours thinking wow that's  a long time, but after you drive around for a day you realize most of the time on you trip out is driving as the roads are rough and slow going.  We saw Celuk, a silversmithing and goldsmithing area, jewellery shops all down one road.  Huge stores full of different silver and gold pieces, I could have looked forever if it had not been so hot.  The prices were pretty expensive still so only bought small earrings.
Bali is put together in areas by occupation sort of, wood carving in all one area, silver and gold smithing in another, art work in another, batik in another, statues in another etc..... this makes it kinda neat when you drive all of a sudden there is a street full of one type of thing just full to the rafters with different pieces or work.  We continued to a waterfall, and did not go down since the rainy season had made the waterfall dirty, so not much reason to walk all the way to it if you can't go in.  We left and made our way to Ubud the cultural art town of Bali, very cute, different types of stores and looks like a nice mountain town.  This is also home to the Monkey Forest Temple.  We pay our entrance fee, and do not buy any bananas for the monkeys,did not really want to get that close to one.  As soon as we start our adventure in we feel the humidity and smell the monkeys.  They are everywhere as soon as you enter, I advise you read the sign if you ever go here and understand what to do it they come at you or jump on you.  They definetly get close and jump on anyone with food, even if it's in your bag or pocket they will go get it.  Ray tried to get one to look at him and snapped and it got angry and showed his teeth at him and came at him.  I at this point I booked it, didn't want to be a part of that, it pulled at him and checked his pockets and eventually backed off as Ray pulled back slowly.  I couldn't believe he teased it, it said do not do that on the sign Ray!!!!
Well, after that adventure we moved on to Mt. Batur an old Volcano site, with a lake in the center of the crater.  Quick stop there, the air was great up there at least 10 degrees cooler than in town.  The driver said he was cold, we laughed it is like a Canadian summer up there, and he needed a sweater.  The drive was nice, lots of rice terraces and rainforest and we head back into the main area of Bali to see Dreamland beach.  Which I will make quick, it was no dream and had to pay again just to go to the beach.  We are beat, tired and ready to head back so we do.
Another couple days we plan our surfing lessons.  I am so scared and have been practicing my not plugging my nose under water with Ray for days.  He said I am a natural, learned pretty quick, I am a good swimmer just not great diver.  Ray a better diver and ok swimmer so we help each other.  I am more nervous about rip tides and sharks but I trust our teacher, he is older and wise so.....all should be good.  That day we get picked up and head toward Legian for our lesson and meet up with some other travellers.  We put our rashguards on and head to the beach to learn,  but before we do a little yoga to warm up, which is good for us oldies, it's Rays bday the next day so he better take it easy...lol...the instuctore gives me the hugest board ever, I think he thinks I will suck at this. Seems pretty easy we go out into the water after some instruction to boogie board first, to get a feel for the wave and board control.  So fun, carving through the wave, I laughed and smiled the whole time, my nerves are settled a bit.  Then we get back on land drink some water and learn how to get up on the board, this popping up 10 or so times on land gets hard and realize this is gonna hurt tomorrow.  I am not understanding this so well, but you just gotta try sometimes.  We head out again after a bit and he stays near me of course, no trust in my abilities yet.   I get out to him he gets me started,my wave comes and I am standing up first try, eat that all who don't  think I can learn fast, including me lol.....after that it got harder and harder and as you get tired it becomes a bit of work just to walk out.  Ray took a couple tries and he was up a few times, we did pretty well I thought for people who had never surfed before.  It was  alot of fun even though the waves seemed a bit big for us to start out on but the weather was bit bad that day.  We head back to the hotel and order room service.  Soooooo tired......but feel good too.  The morning wasn't too bad and Ray is now older by Bali time and tomorrow home time he will be older there.
We will see Tanah Lot, and the Royal Temple tonight, one more day tomorrow then we leave early morning for Singapore for four days then off to Malaysia.... excited to see something new again!

Bali update

Not much to say, we have been just hanging out at resorts, we have been in 2 different areas of bali and will be moving onto our third in a few days, we opted to skip the rest of Indonesia as we already have flights out and don't want the money to go to waste. We are hiring a driver for a day and will checkout some of the country side and locals as where we have been so far is very resortey. The beaches here are not the best, you spend half your time dodging garbage in the water, the other half dodging speed boats towing tourists around on bananas and para-shoots. Ray's b-day is coming up in a few days and I think we are planning to try out surfing :) We will let you know how that goes.

Goodbye OZ

       Well with the fast pace we put through Australia, we ended up leaving after just 20 days. Australia was not the amazing place everything we read or was told about. It is still a pretty cool place just very very very expensive (especially since the dollar is par) we found Oz really over commercialized in the tourist areas, most well known  areas we just blew through as it was just not our scene.  Everything felt either young party backpacker or rich posh yuppie. We had some pretty cool memory's, found some really cool places that are not on the tourist map, and were glad we went we just didn't need even close to our 6 weeks of original time allotment.

       Highlights include Australia Zoo, we got to pet a koala, feed a kangaroo, check out the awesome size and power of saltwater crocs, as-well as see some dingo's... no they don't feed them babys :( Other highlights, seeing Koalas in the wild, some craze winding road off the highway that was one car wide with awesome views and our first wild roo sighting. Endless beautiful beach after another although only really good if you surf as they were too rough for swimming.

       After finishing up in Cairns we dropped the car off and boarded the plane for Bali

Driving and more driving...

We have driven over 3000 ish' km now and are continuing on for another 1700 ish'.  We have driven through alot of things as we are now realizing alot of Australia is much the same as you drive along.  We have driven so much we decided to stay in Sydney for 4 days, well 1 was just arriving late and sleeping.  We figured we would find lots to do there, but it was just another huge city, and the traffic was crazy.  Well I blame the horrible drivers and small roads but...

We saw the Sydney Opera house, the Harbor Bridge, Biron Beach and checked out some cute areas.  The shopping looked amazing but Australia is already costing us enough just to eat and sleep.  We have left Sydney a couple days ago and have made our way to Brisbane with a short stop out to the Blue Mountains just West of Sydney.  We stopped a couple times in some cute small towns for the night then made our way to Byron Bay. It's a crazy backpacker town, lots of people and not really our style though we have heard how poplular it is, after lunch we move on to the Gold Coast.

As we hit the Gold Coast area we realize once again, it is a huge tourist area and drive it anyways to only conclude we are correct on that assumption.  It is busy and we decide we can make it to Brisbane or just past Brisbane.  We have stopped outside of Brisbane in a tiny town, which had 3 motels and 3 places to eat.  Surprisingly the motel is the nicest so far for the same price as many other crappy places we stayed and the 1 sit down restaruant was the best meal we have had in Australia by far.  So sometimes things can still surprise us!

We will be heading out to Steve Irwin's Australian Zoo tomorrow and keep trucking up to Cairns.  It's alot of driving but we will make it....

Great Ocean Road... more road than ocean or great...

Heading out of Adelaide we stopped at Mount Gambier for th night, which looked like a cute place to sleep and after a couple nights in the hostel, with the noise every night we were due for a nice hotel and good dinner.  We went to a great Thai restarurant which I fount in lonely planet and found out it was doing so well it moved to a larger location.  Once we found it we sat down waiting for ok Thai food and got amazing thai food. Bit pricy but delicious!  Great food, great sleep and we headed out in the morning to explore the cute town where we drove out to a lake, which was hard to see it was raining of course... then we went to the sinkhole which is much cooler looking than it sounds.  Beautiful gardens in it, and I guess I should tell this story since Ray would have if he wrote this.  I slipped on a rock, fell on my knee a little, but mostly on my hand which was holding the umbrella and the metal wire that sticks out stuck into my hand.  Of course I have to have the first tumble or scar of the trip.  Alright moving on....
After a good time other than my slipped we headed out towards the Great Ocean Road. As we drove we realized Australia is flat and looks about the same for hours.  We hit the beginning of the road and it got nicer to look at.  There is a turnoff every 5 minutes during the first section of the road, so we drove, got out, drove, got out, then it really started to rain and we drove more than got out.  It was pretty cool, big cliffs, big ocean, lots of tourists all of a sudden.  We thought we would stop for the night about half way down which was a small town, but very cute, after some inquiries we realized all of Melbourne and surrounding areas were on a long weekend because of The Melbourn Cup.  Did not know what this was all about but it is a huge deal, horse racing is big here except noone goes to teh race they just use the excuse to take time off work.  This made rooms really expensive and not readily available so we decided to keep drivning.  Not the best idea, got dark, rainy and the next town was even more touristy, not a room available in sight.  We actually had to sleep in the car.  After a restless, cold, sore cat nap, we made our way down the rest of the road and towards Melbourne in hopes of some sleep and a warm room.
We reached Melbourne and found a hotel just outside of Melbourne, far away from the race coming up and decided to stay in for the night, sleep, eat and rest since sleeping the night befor was pretty rough for us old folks.  We haved move on  towards Sydney now along the south coast and found the same problem on Phillip Isand with room availability so saw the Koala sanctuary and did a short drive, and walk and headed off the Island and moved on.  We are  in Sale now, resting up for another day of kangaroo scouting and driving.

safe in Oz

If your worried,care, or just following along, we landed safe and sound in Oz. It was a late arrival and we took a cab to the hostel we booked online. We stayed 2 nights at the Glenelg beachside hostel which in reality was about 3 blocks off the beach. We were lucky enuogh to have a 5 door room to ourselves both nights but we didn't sleep the best as the walls were paper thin and teh young backpackers were coming and going at all hours. We pretty much did all of Adelaide on the first day. We took the train downtown, walked around for 4 hours checking out a few sights and the cool shopping district. We then caught the train back to Glenelg where we walked around on the beach, swatting poo flies the whole time it was a short trip around the beach. After dinner and a better sleep than the first night (thanks earplugs) we caught the bus to the airport to pickup our car. We hit an outlet shopping area near the airport loaded up on a few snacks for the car, bought a 2007 road atlas of Oz on sale for $7 and headed out towards The Great Ocean Road.

New Zealand Last few days

We have had the privilege of spending our last days in NZ at our friends Ross and Alice's. They were kind enough to open up there home to us and even take some time out of there schedule to show us around a bit. We spent a few days touring around Christchurch and surrounding area. A and I went out and wandered around downtown a few days, took in some scenery, window shopped, and watched some street performers in the city center square. We rented a car few days to see out farther than walking distance.

After doing a bit of research we found out where we could rent a crash pad and headed out to the amazing Castle Hill, outdoor bouldering mecca. About 1 hour drive out of Christchurch we spent a good 5 hours out here hiking around, trying and mostly failing at these amazing bouldering problems, a lot different feel to the rock than what we are used to at around home.

Next few days feeling sore from climbing we did lots of hanging out, relaxing, and milling around not doing much, we checked out an art exhibit at the art center, we went to the biggest outdoor concert in New Zealand history for the earthquake relief fund raiser.

We have had a good time in NZ but we are ready to move on, Tomorrow afternoon we fly into Australia, we booked our first 2 nights in a hostel, and we booked a car for a few weeks to travel between Adelaide and Sydney via the great ocean road.

Next post from OZ

Omaru...land of the Penguins

We left Dunedin in the morning and we had to stop at the steepest street in the Guiness book of world records,  Baldwin Street.  Was good at first then it started to increase in grade and the walk got hard.  After the whole day of walking and sand dune climbing the day befor let me tell you this was not going to feel good.  Ray started, I watched........then I better do a bit of this at least.   Ray said write I went half way but I believe it was further than half.
We left and went onwards towards Moeraki, which is home to the Moreaki boulders.  We parked and walked along a nice hard sand beach 10min.'s or so then we stopped to check out these cool round boulders.  Different reasons why they may have formed and Ray and I will go with the scientific version, seems more plausable then the tall tale.  Went to the cafe for some drinks and snack and made our way back for some campervan lunch.
We drove onto Omaru which had one tourist trap but it's a good one, the yellow eyed penguin and the smallest penguin in the world "the blue penguin".   The buildings in this area are really neat, mostly made out of limestone and sort or eery I thought, very Victorian feeling architechture.  We booked our time in the evening to see the blue penguins and the yellow eyed penguins you can go see on your own for free.    So we booked in to our site relaxed, ate and got dressed warm for the evening outdoors viewing all the penguins.  We headed out late afternoon to see the yellow eyed penguin.
When we arrived there were alot of tourists lined up along the railing all trying to get a glimpse of the little guys.  We walked along the path, waited, then a nice gentleman was lending out binoculars to people to view them coming in and along the bushes.  When we looked through them we saw quite a few, most of the crowd had dispursed also so it was nice as the night was creeping upon us.  Ray gave me a wave from afar and I walked down the path to meet him and realized there was a penguin right below the rail in the bush.  Very cute and very cool to see one so close.  The nice gentleman with the binoculars informed us all the be quiet and respectful, to try not to disturb them.  Meanwhile some tourist thougth we were at the movies or something and started eating chips, stupid.  We took lots of pictures watched for a long while then made our way to the place to watch the blue penguins.
Again lots of tourists, this is a pretty popular thing to see here.  We checked in and made our way out to the bleachers in the windy cold air along the ocean.  The announcer went over some information about the penguins and to do's and not to do's.  Around 8:20 the first raft, which is about 25 to 40 penguins in one bunch shaped like a raft, came in.  The little cuties scrambled up onto the rock ramp slowly, fighting the waves, when they all collected together they all wobbled up to the shore into there  manmade habitat for breeding just by the rock cliff.  We watched a couple rafts come in and make there way home for the night then we called it a night it was pretty chilly out.  These penguins are very cute and fun to watch.
The next day we pack up again and make our way onwards, we weren't sure where at first then decided to make our way to Christchurch, which is our last stop in our adventure in New Zealand.

Dunedin pronounced "Din -e- din"

After our breathtaking adventure to Milford Sound we made our way towards Dunedin, know for surfing, shopping, bars/cafes, cadbury chocolate factory and Speight's Brewery.   The drive was not all that interesting, but we got there in good time, good enough time to at least fit in the chocolate factory tour.  I mean if you have to pick one to try first might as well be all about chocolate.  When we first drove near it you could smell the chocolate, smelt so good.
We started the tour and the lady gave us some sweet head wear and beard one for Ray since he had not shaved in a few days.   hahahahah!!! Lookin' good honey!  The tour took us through some of the workings of the factory but who really was listening when all you wanted was more chocolate.  If you answered her questions right she gave you free chocolate.  There was a chocolate shot and even for me it was hard to swallow, was very rich tasting.  The only really cool part was the chocolate waterfall, 1 tonne of liquid chocolate falling 3 stories in 30 seconds, loud but smelled good and it splattered the stairs with gooey goodness. After the tour we thought we had enough so did not buy anymore in the store, but later as we got back to the van quickly realized that the ones they give you are not the best by far.  So guess we will have to stop by store again on the way out for some more.
We needed some groceries so did that and headed to our campervan site for the night.  Met a nice older Australian couple that love to travel and have been it sounds like for some time.  Had fun chit chatting with them, got excited to go to Australia next.  We woke the next morning to a nice sunny day and drove to the beach near by and watched some surfers try a few waves.  Pretty cool, looks like alot of waiting for the right place and wave to come about, and cold too.
We decided to continue on down the peninsula and see Lanarche castle, kinda nice but expensive for what it is.  We will see better in Europe so....then we made our way to the beach where you can penguin watch, but first you must climb down a steep sand dune and walk the beach littered with giant sealions.  Uhhh....sounds ok until after we made it down I realized we have to go back up later.
A long nice walk on the beutiful sand beach trimed wiht rugged roacks and crashing waves, we walked all the way down the the end making sure to give the sea lions a wide berth. We got to the penguin hide stood around abit and quickly realised we times it way wrong, they come ashore near sundown and it was mid afternoon. Dodging the sea lions on the way back we got to the ever daunting sand dunes we had to climb out. 2 steps forward, slide down one... this is going to be along climb. After finaly cresting the top, sore legs and out of breath, we took one last look down to aknowledege our acompleshment... or stupidity... depending how you look at it :p
Back at the van we drove around a bit on the peninsula and made our way back into town, we hitup the Speight's brewery to sign up for a tour, we just missed one so we headed out on the town for a few hours to check it out, we walked through a public art gallery, walked around to a few shops, stoped at Mc Cafe to update the blog and check the emails, we just happend to be near the Cadbury chocolate factory so we stoped in to top up our supplies. Walked down the the train station which is apperently the second most photografed building in the world next to the Sydney opera house.  Making our way back to the brewery we hung out for a bit until it was time for the tour. The tour was pretty cool, had a nice guide and they place was setup really cool for tours, when we reached the pub, we se toff on the tasting. Unlike the Moteith's brewery we did on the other coast whose beer was good across the board, Speight's is not, there is one good beer one ok beer and the rest are not to our liking. After being a bit buzzed as they let you pour your own as much as you like in the short time you were allowed in the bar we headed down the street for a decent pub style meal to to fill our bellys, drove to our van site and settled in for the night.

Milford Sound

We left Queenstown on a rainy day once again and drove ourselves to Te Anua which is about a 2 hour drive to Milford Sound.   When we arrived it was Sunday and nothing seems to be open on Sundays anywhere, wish North America would adopt that back, but it does suck when you need things.  We did find a small tourist information centre and asked about taking a tour to Milford Sound.  After a hot chocolate, coffee and some debate we decieded on a smaller tour company with a smaller boat for a decent price since we have a coupon too.  We collected our lunch for the next day at the grocery store and headed to our site for the night to prepare for the next days adventure.
The forcast was suppose to be nice for the next 3 days, so we went to bed hoping for the best.   Upon waking up we were blessed with a gorgeous day, not a cloud in the sky but friggin' cold.  Since we had left Queenstown the temperature had slowly gotten colder and the trips to the bathrooms in the night or early morning were painfully chilly.  The first thing we did was get dressed in some layers as it was maybe only 2 or 4 degrees out and I think Ray and I put on all of the clothes we had.  Thank god for our HH base layers, just didn't want to have to use them so soon into our trip. We ate, cleaned up, finished packing the daypack and made our way to the road for our pickup.
A mini van pulled up and we hopped in, headed back into town to meet up with the tour bus taking us into Milford Sound. Our tour guid/bus driver "Allen" grew up in the area and gave us a nice comentary as we drove into the sound (which is apperently really a fiord). We stoped at a few places along the way for photos and a bit of background about the area. Crossing through Hommer tunnel, we headed on down towards the Beautiful Milford sound. Amazing views of the vally, we wound our way down to emerge from the trees into a pictureesc Milford Sound. Shortly after deboarding the bus, checking in at the counter and paying we were guided out onto the boat which would be our photo platform for the next few hours as we traveled the sound. Considerd the 8th wonder of the world by some and the most buitful place on earth by others your expectations are not let down, some of the most breathtaking scienery we have ever seen and our photos, as good as they are dont do it justice at capturing the true beauty of the area.
On our trip of the sound we encountered a yellow eyed penguin, just a single one hanging out on the rocks, the smaller boat we chose to go on (holds 75 people, had maybe 25 on it) got in close to the shore and all of the people on board took turns snaping some pictures of the well dresed bird. Heading out the mouth of the sound we passed a pod of Bottlenosed Dolfins. "A's" eyes, and face light up even more than they were already from seeing the penguin, the boat made a pass through the pod, turned around and passed through again, pretty cool the dolphins were a bit curious and played with the boat a bit. We headed out to the open ocean on the front of the sound and made our way in a big arc around back into and down the other side of the opening. On our way back in the Dolphins all of a sudden became really playful and surfed in the boats wake for a long time, we cought some relly cool pics hanging off the front of the boat. "A" was supper excited when she heard the dophins talking to each other and using there blowhols to shoot water up onto us taking pictures. It was really cool watching the dolphins turn sideways and make eye contact, you can really see the intelegince behind the eyes.
Having been all played out the dolphins turned off, and we made our way on back, we came accros a few fur seals bathing in the sun having a lazy afternoon nap. The boat pulled upto the highest permanent waterfall in the sound, A and I stayed out on the front deck and got soaked as the boat put the nose of the boat under the waterfall, we had a good laugh and headed inside untill we were clear of the fall. Meandering around the coast we made our way back to the dock and deborded the ship, everyone getting off the boat had a huge smile on there face. One of the guides on teh boat said it is very rare to see dolphins less than 8% of the time they go out and even more rare to see all three animals on one trip. We had a geoargus sunny day which is rare in Milford which is the wetest place on earth with an average rainfall of 27 feet a year. The busride back was fast and we were tired from all the fresh air, we had a good sleep and great memorys to take with us.

Wanaka....to Queenstown

4 new posts and a few more coming in the next few days




After we sleep in a bit and see that the weather is not the greatest we decide to move on to Queenstown..the adventure capital of New Zealand.  The weather did not improve along the way, but some beautiful lakes along the way.
We drove on and as we drove I thought of my dad because of the vineyard after vineyard, a wine drinkers dream in New Zealand and the road we took was littered with a million.   It is right near the area where all the wine tours run and the winery map if you wanted to follow them through the country.  We had a hard time deciding when and which one there were too many and Ray and I are not the best wine critics.  Then we saw it, Cheesery and Wine Cave Winery.  That caught our attention, we love cheese and wine without something to add to it is just not our way of drinking.  The place was beautiful and the winery and cheesery were two seperate building and owners, so we checked out the cheese first, they laid out samples everywhere of chutney, pestos, and cheese with crackers.  After a few tastes we were sold, I mean it was lunch time so we should eat anyways right?   We decided to walk over to the winery to sample some wines which were just ok, compared to the last place we tried which most of the wines were quite good.   So we trucked it back over to the Cheesery and purchased a platter of cheese,pesto,bread,crackers,jam and began our taste overload moment.   It was amazing the flavours we were in taste bud heaven.  After we left full bellies of cheese we drove onto Queenstown and knew we were close when we saw the bungy jumping over the gorge along the road.
Once we got to Queenstown we drove to the campervan site and walked down to the main town.  The weather starting to come in again and we just walked around, checked out the interenet and no one was on skype so we shopped a bit for souvenirs.  The town is very cute, but really busy too.  When we got back to the campervan site lowe and behold it started to piss down rain again and we ended up sitting around again.  It rained all night and part of the morning. So we decided to go indoor mini golfing.  They did a really good job of setting it up, and we had some fun, oh and I beat Ray finally at something thanks to my dad taking me golfing when I was younger. ahhahhaha!
We watched the weather and it was said to snow/rain in the afternoon so we treated ourselves to some massages and float  time capsle thing.  The float capsule was wierd, half an hour in there is suppose to be like 2 hours rem sleep but I didn't really notice.  We then set up for our massages, relaxed and got rubbed.  It felt good especially since we have been living out of a cramped van for the last 30ish days.

Glaciers and puzzles oh my

We headed on down and hit the Glacier area of New Zealand.  They have two the Franz Josef and the Fox Glaciers.  We got in sort of late so we decided to make the pitstop here.  We stayed at a really nice looking van site called the Rainforest Holiday Park.  They really made it look like a rainforest everywhere, great theme.  It had grown a bit chillier now that we have gone higher into the mountains so more clothing was essential to put on.  Once settled in we skyped a few family members and ate some dinner and just felt really tired from all the driving.
When we woke the sky was clear which it wasn't when we arrived the day befor so it was going to be a nice day for a hike.  We drove to the Franz Josef Glacier parking lot and made our way down a short path to Peter's pool which was a reflection pool of the moutain ahead of us.  After some pics we walked down another path to the Franz Josef Glacier walk which starts as a forest walk into a vast open area where the glacier was a long time ago, then a lake now just rock and stone.  We took the path across and walked to the edge of the glacier as close as we could without a guide.  Which we thought of doing but we have spent alot of money here and we can see a glacier up close at home.
We drove through to a small town and stopped for some coffee for Ray and a hot chocolate for me, sat next to a nice roaring fire and kept moving on.  We drove quite a bit this day, and ended up in Wanaka, another lake resort type area, known for skiing and mountain activities.  So much like Banff but not really.  It is really nice here, the lakes around here are gorgeous and there is alot to do.  The weather has been incredible here too, no rain, we even rented a kayak today for an hour.  Forgot how much work it is for a full hour of paddling.
Earlier in the day we went to Puzzling World. We spent about an hour in a huge maze 2 levels tall, good old rule of left, we made it through and found all the 4 color toweres you were supposed to find. Headed on into the store to check out the cool books, games, puzzles, and posters. Going into the illusion area they had a bunch of those 3D hologram pictures hung up , the ones they sell at Spencers and there is a store in West Ed that sells them. They also had a illusion room where it almost looked square but one door was full hight and the other was quite small, kinda lame. The last room we went in was built on an angle, the gravety felt about 10 times more than normal becouse of all the illusions, everything was built level in the room but the room was tilted, very cool but you got a headach if you hung out in there to long as it throws your equalibrium out of wack.

West Coast

West coast
First stop the Seal Colony just outside Westport.  We were the first to get there that morning, headed up the trail and what a view from there.  Wide vast ocean in front of us with a rough coastline and seals littering the rocks below.  What big eyes you have!!!!  We stayed for awhile and noticed it getting busier so we headed back, but very fun to watch the seals.
We headed on to Punakaiki rocks and blowholes.  A hip hoppin' tourist stop for sure, we followed the path of people and saw the pancake rock formations which was very cool and one blowhole gave us a bit of a show.  The designed pathway was nice and fun to walk.  We made our way to the small tourist shop across the road where we tried on some the current possum fashions,lol.......what the heck is with this possum fashions here.  Funny though!  The shop had some beautiful art and jewellery in it though.  We moved on and headed south to Greymouth which is our other stop that day and final stop for the evening.
Once in Greymouth we remember there is a brewery tour and decide to go to the 4pm tour.  We get settled at the van and then head down to drink some brews.  Monteith's Brewery is small but we found that every kind we tried which was 6 beers, and 1 cider were good all across the board.  Even the red and darks were tasty and not too much.  After the tasters they give you a glass of you choice which by this point, things are fuzzier than walking in especially since we do not really drink much.  We bought some of the apple cider which was delicious and finished those off that evening making steak and potatoes with a game of pool.  Nice and relaxing, fun day.
In the morning we head off to the next town which is big for Jade and different stones/shell jewellery.  Hoitika, was cute we saw so much jewellery I think Ray was going to pull his hair out, we didn't decide on any and decided to have a nice lunch not one in the van.  There was a small cafe/cheese shop so we decided to eat there.  Man we were ever glad we did the lunch was amazing.  Had a roasted veg/pesto pita and pumpkin ravioli with a blue cheese sauce.  What a nice surprise, it was very very tasty.  After deciding not to stay in town we drove on and on and on till we hit Franz Josef Glacier village and stopped to stay the night.

to the south

To the South Island...
We stayed in Wellington 2 days one as noted befor was pretty much rained out sitting in the van, rained for over 24 hours straight, ridiculous!
We showered the night before and must have been excited to see the South Island cause we both did not sleep very well at all.  We got up at 6:30, ate, got van ready and we were off to the Blueridge Ferry leaving Wellington at 8 am.  We waited in cue and rolled on to the big boat and off we went, tired and foggy headed.  The boat was ok, we decided to sit inside and Ray read while I tried to play some bejewled, but the tired and not good sleep, plus I had been feeling a headache all week led to some motion sickness.  So I suffered the chilly air and found a semi-warm bench and watched the horizon.  It warmed up a bit and soon we were in Picton, the inlets were beautiful, the water bright green and lots of pretty hills and rocks.
We drove out right away and headed to Nelson, what a cute town, and huge sandbar.  Reminded me of White Rock, BC with Sylvan Lake, AB facilities and feel.   The ocean there was nice you can tell this area is a resort, vacation spot for sure.  We tried another market in the morning downtown and hit another failed dirty gypsey garage sale dump.   So we left......and drove on South to Richmond and stopped at a winery/olive estate for some tasting.  This was Ray's very first wine tasting and I think he liked it, maybe the food more but it was good and neat to do.
We drove on and stopped at the suspension bridge, which was not what I expected from one's I have seen in Canada.  UHHH....little shoddy construction and very small.  Ray made a comment that he did not trust it which I was glad he told me after we had finsihed it since I am paranoid about these things.  We drove and drove, turn after turn... until we hit Westport and stopped we were tired and hungry by this point.  We left Westport right away, not a very fun looking town, and our van site felt more like a dirty gypsey site so we did not want to stay any longer.

Skype you should use it ;)

Hi all you loyal followers friends, family, randoms

Please turn your skype on and leave it on, you can change your status to away, or DND but then we can at least call you, and if no one picks up none is home just like the phone :P We don't always know when or if we will have reliable internet and it is hard for us to set a time as things change from day to day for us. We do try to get on around 5-7 Alberta time but no one is ever on skype and it costs us money to sit and wait for someone to log in.

A and Ray

Wellington the Kiwi capital

Waitomo to Wellington....
We drove as far as we could towards Wellington then got tired so we stopped in Levin for a nice rest (2.5 days drive from Waitomo).  Actually a really nice campground, just kinda rolled into it.  We woke up to rain, and it rained, and rained....oh wait did I tell you it rained.   It did not stop raining for like 2 days straight.  We sat in the van in Wellington the first day, the next day we went to the Te Papa museum because it was raining and guess what so did the rest of Wellington and tourists and did we mentioned it was school break.
Today we woke up, Friday, to sun finally, and took the cable car to the botanical gardens, which was nice but the cable car is a rip off since you could walk it up and down no problem, or just take it up and walk down.  We bought a pass for return so we walked dowen teh trails, then walked up so we could use our return pass down.  We have been walking around the wharf, lots of reaturants, libraries,  and shops teh town of Wellington is quite nice a good mix of modern and old. We are not sure if we want to cross the ferry to the south island on Saturday or Sunday. Not a lot to do in Wellington and its very expensive, $20 just for the bus into town from the campground and back. We drove down the first day in the rain and paid $20 for parking for a  1/2 day.
Sofar we have seen the museum (rain day), rode the cable car, walked the park, and walked around looking at stores. We have decided to leave tomorrow (Saturday) to start the south island.

Cavers

Leaving Lake Taupo we had a long drive, as sort distances take way longer in NZ then they do back home, I have seen 3 straight roads in all of NZ and they were 1-2Km at the longest.
We followed a secondary highway along ariver with some more of NZ beutiful picturesc  scenery. Stoped for luch in a shithole town ate in teh van and headed off for Waiotomo caves a few Km away. We arived and it was to late for any cave trips so we settled into a campsite and booked or tour for the following day.
After the morning routen we headed down the Waitomo Adventures, to check in for our day of Blackwater rafting (tubing in underground rivers) We had a group of 9 and 2 guides. Piled into a van and headed off to the staging area. We all got outfitted into some wetsutes, helmets, and gumboots. And set out on a short hike through a farmers sheep feild to the enterance to our caveing adventure.
"A" was feeling brave and headed down the hole first, after sqeezing through teh opening she was told to lead on in and wait at the water marker... "ok...." I was second and I had to lower myself down the ladder with my hands as the hole was to small for me to step my big feet down the rungs of the ladder. Afeer sliding through a tight squeese to get into the cavern the guide toald me to head on off after "A" and wait for everyone. After stumbling throught the uneven rock floor I found "A" smiling from ear to ear waiting for me.
Once everyone was gathered inside and after a bit of a does and dont's we started caving our way down towards the underwater river following one of the guides. A few minutes of squeesing, ducking, crawling, in and out of water we got to another meeting area. Stoped for a head count and I was asked to lead for a while :) I plunged of with a smile on my face all the time taking in the amazing formations above and below, aswell as to the sides.  A quick stop to put mud on our faces for "camuflage" from the cave monster and one of the other girls was volentold to lead on down to the next rest area where we turned off our lights and checked out the glow worms NZ caves are famous for. After a few minutes of in the dark we were told to leave or lights off, turn to the left and put our hands on the person infront of us shoulder. We made a conga line in the dark and "A" got her foot stuck, while I waited for her the conga line went on without us... We cought up and started crawling as the roof was getting lower and lower, as we started going through a small hole "A" freeked a bit and turned her light on ony to find out the guides had everyone going through a small crawlspace when there was a perfictly good wide open walkway going the same place, we took the walkway.
A Little farther down we pickedup our tubes and climbing up onto a rock we held our tubs over our ass's and fell on back to a nice freezing cold splash, a laugh and all waited for everyone to board there tubes. Hooking feet to the next persons arms lights out we headed on down the river laying our heads back to enjoy the glow worms on the celing in the dark river. Once at the end we disembarked from USS Tube in the dark "A" being the most gracefull sliding off for a big splash. Some more caving and we stoped for hot drink and a snack.
We continued on with warm bellys over some really cool parts where our rcokclimbing skills came in handy as there were big holes we had to shimmy over and some ledges to side climb over to avoid getting stuck. When we reached our second bit of tubing we ended up smimming it as the water was really high and we wouldof hit our heads the whole way. Right at the last of the swimming was the scarryest part, with barely enugh room for your face we had to go feet first through a tunnel, head layed back and a face full of water ti was a bit freeky.
One pinball ally later, fast moving water feet first and arms crossed we saw daylight. Our time as cavers was over, one last sqeeze and we crawled out into the forest, hiked our way upto the hut to peeled of the wetsuit and have a hot shower.
Grinning ear to ear we made our way upto The Shearing shed where they have Angora Rabbits, we arrived just in time to see a Rabbit get shaved. Was a funny sight how fluffy these critters are and how silly they look shaved.. or half shaved as in this case.
We were wet, tired, bruised and hungry so we head onward to New Plymouth for the evening, nice drive but man are we tired and too old for crawling through holes in the ground.....

Rotorua....mud and rotten eggs...

Well, sort of....you know you are close when you smell the rotten eggs.
We rolled in to Rotorua and it was quite apparent where all the tourists were, they were not up the tip top of the north all here in Rotorua.  The information place was sure easy to find, picked up some maps, things to do and where to stay.  Found a quaint little place and settled in as the night.  The driving was getting to us so we stayed here for a couple days.   After a decent shower, food and rest we woke to head off to town and look around at some of the shopping, then we had our next plans to enjoy some geothermal highlight of the area.
Hells Gate was our destination, for a short hike around a volcanic geothermal area, then to some sweet hot mud where Ray and I covered each other in boiling hot clay colored mud.  This mud was actually nice to put on as opposed teh the Fiji mud, felt like silk on your skin as apposed to mud. They cook you in the mud for 20 minutes which is suppose to help with medical conditions such as skin problems/disorders, arthritis, aches and pains and so on.  It did feel kinda neat, then you shower off the mud and head towards the sulphur mineral baths and relax.  All this while you smell the rotten egg smell all around you.  We rinsed off and headed back to our campsite.
We have been watching Lord of the Rings as we travel along too, just kinda felt like the movie series to watch as we are surrounded by alot the scenery.
In the morning we packed up and headed down to the Gypsy Fair, dirty gypsys, wierdos, and a piercing shop in a gypsy van that screem hepititis, so we booked it outta Rotorua and made our way down towards Lake Taupo, just a pit stop on our way to Waitaimo caves which looks interesting.   We went to another geothermal walk with a cool cave, and saw a waterfall on the way.  Wishing everyday the weather would clear but nothing we can do about that, it had been raining since we got here with small breaks of sun if we are lucky once in awhile.  Caught a bad system over NZ when we landed and have been waiting for it to pass since.

There and back again a hobits... wait... a Twowanders tale... of Matamata...

Yeah that's right Ray and I have been to the Shire.  After a drive back down Highway 1 we turned off towards Matamata to go see some hobbits.  Before we got there we did stop at a wierd and interesting sculpture park, which was a conservation project for the last 20 years, going on 21 now....use to be an old quarry.  They have done a great job at restoring the area and some of the art was cool. But the flora was better than the sculptures.  Made for some cool photos for sure.
Short detour now onto Matamata, we thought we would go look at the Shire and do it the next day since it was getting late but we arrived just in time for the last tour.   OOOOHHHHHH so excited, I have been talking about seeing this since I knew we were coming to NZ, now we are here.  We have signed a clause agreement that we are not allowed to post pictures or tell about what we saw since they may be making a movie there or not in near future, hush, hush...it's no secret but hey I understand if I spent billions on these series of movies and such I would sue people for ruining it too. You will all just have to wait untill we get home to see the shire upclose.
We started out greeted by some little friends who go BAHHHHH....so cute, watched some sheep shearing and got to feed the hungry little guys who will probably be someones Christmas dinner here soon enough.  Made me a little sad I helped fatten him up.  Then on to the tour.  They have  a magnificient piece of land around the film setting, rolling hills so green, littered with sheep and stunning views.  I think that is all I am allowed to really write about that, the rest is for you to see later possibly.  Pretty cool thing to see, if your a fan, and we are.
We made our way to Matamata town, or as the sign says "Hobbiton", awesome, we found some hot spring pools and campervan site and they were water logged on the grass, so we stayed in there parking lot for the night and got to use the pools so it was ok.
Another restless night and rain and we made our way our again, Ray's sore back and all.....luckily we didn't have to go far, off to Rotorua, the most poplular tourist destination in the north it claimed and it was....

Kauri Forest

Once we left our farm early in the morning we headed for the ferry crossing, again the wind was insane.  The ferry was smooth considering the weather and we arrived in one piece with some laughs.
We have just finished our first week in the van and we have quickly realized it is not the way to go.  All of the campervan sites have self contained units, full kitchen and bathroom facilitys and usually a TV/common living area. If we could choose again we would opt for a car and travel much more comfortably, and cheeper on gas. With that being said it is handy to have somewhere to lay down easly, and we have cooked in the van quite a few times.
We headed toward the Kauri Forest, to scope out some of these magnificient trees and forest.  The first one was breathtaking and beautiful, then we made our way up to the hike area to the forest walk.  We were greeted by a friendly security man who stays by the cars at all time because of car break in, which he explained does not really happen anymore since they have been there.  The hike was easy and very pretty, this is definetly a sight to be seen and not missed if you go to NZ.  After our hike, we headed to the Kauri Museum which once again was alot bigger than we imagined.  Museums have been a shock, interesting, big and well done.  Lots of cool history about the forest and the trees.  Ray really liked all the old machines in the museum, like a kid in a candy store.
We popped up the road for a place to camp, there was really only one place so that will do I guess....it was fine till early morning.  Then I swear the van was going to tip over and it was hailing and howling.   The door almost ripped of it's hinges as we tried to get in and out and I was getting pushed around by the wind as I tried to carry dishes and things from the common area.  Ray had a heck of a time trying to fill the water tank, he looked a little nervous the van might fall on him.
We finally headed off towards Auckland again to drive through and find our way to Matamata, and if none of you are familiar with this town you will be by the next post......hehehhehe!

around the tip... of the north

We headed on to Waipu cove where we got a campsite after driving around aimlessly with no plan that day.  We were tired and worn out from the day and ready to get going fresh the next mornning up north further.  We had plans to see the Bay of Islands but somehow missed the turnoff and hit Kerikeri isnstead and saw the oldest rock house, a park, waterfall area and walk.  Some of these small town are so quaint and adorable.  Kerikeri seemed like a surf town sort of by some of the shops and some guy I overheard had been out earlier that day, I cannot imagine the wind and trying to surf in that.
After Kerikeri we headed off and before we knew it we were at the deciding point to drive to the very northern tip of NZ or head back on down the East coast of the Nothern reagion. We drove on down andopted to save the gas and driving for making our way back south. We saw 90 mile beach but there was no way to possibly consider an ATV in the weather.
We were getting close to where we had to take a ferry across at a straight and it would have been closed down for the night. We found a farm where they had a cute area setup for campervans, basic and just a place to park off the road for $10.  Our own cows as our wake up call, and watchdogs around the farm, very cute.

into da van

Moving into the van


Heading out of Auckland for the first time was a bit of an adventure in its own, thrown into a van where we I am siting on the wrong side and everyone drives on teh wrong side of teh road here. I have to take my shoes off to drive as the drivers seat is even to small for "A" and I can use all the room I can get, there were some cargo shifting bars behind the seat which I quickly removed as to be able to recline the seat farthur back. We made it to our first stop not to bad but there has been crazy weather here, rain hail and 100+ MPH winds. The van feels like it is going to blow off the raod sometimes while driving.
First night in the van was not to bad, the wind shook us up a bit and woke us a few times but we made it through the night, 2Km after leaving our first camp driving up a big hill... 2nd gear, 3rd, downshift to up the rpms, go to shift into 3rd... blew the shift.. no wait shifting linkage jamed.. WTF... unable to shift to any gear I was forced to fire up the hazard lights I backed down the hill riding the brakes the whole way down, flaged a car past and settled into the shoulder at the bottom of the hill.. on the wrong side but hey It was a wide shoulder.
We walked on down to a cafe/diveshop "Seafriends" where a really nice lady made the phonecall for us to our campervan company and explained where we were and how to get here. We sat around for 30-40 minutes waiting for teh return phonecall to tell us what the scoop was. Since it was a Sunday they said they will tow out a new van and we would halve to wait around till they could get out to us.
The nice couple at Seafriends offered up there car for us so we coulk Tiki Tour around the area.  We were quite taken aback by this hospitality and took them up on the offer.  To our surprise we found some amazing sites which we would have blewn by if the van had not gone kaput.  Things always happen for a reason we said and just enjoyed the day.  We went down to a marine reserve just down the road where they snorkel and  scuba dive out, which seemed a little cold for our liking.  What a view though!!!
After that we drove to Pakiri Beach which was a big open ocean view with white sand dunes.  Gorgeous again but very windy so made quick work of stop there.  We returned to Seafriends, waited a bit and the van replacement arrived.  We switched our gear and supplies to the new van and headed onward.
We headed on to Waipu cove where we got a campsite after driving around aimlessly with no plan that day.  We were tired and worn out from the day and ready to get going fresh the next mornning up north further.  We had plans to see the Bay of Islands but somehow missed the turnoff and hit Kerikeri isnstead and saw the oldest rock house, a park, waterfall area and walk.  Some of these small town are so quaint and adorable.  Kerikeri seemed like a surf town sort of by some of the shops and some guy I overheard had been out earlier that day, I cannot imagine the wind and trying to surf in that.
After Kerikeri we headed off and before we knew it we were at teh deciding point to drive to the very northern tip of NZ or head back on down the East coast of the Nothern reagion. We drove on down andopted to save the gas and driving for making our way back south. We were getting cloase to where we had to take a ferry across a straight and it would have been closed down for the night we found a farm where they had a cute area setup for campervans, basic and just a place to park off the road for $10.

Kiwi country

Kiwi country

Well after hanging out on Fiji time for 11 days we decided to change our tickets and head for our next stop. Fiji was nice and relaxing but very  hard to get around and nothing to do there if you dont golf, dive or sunbath. We had a wonderful stay at Beachside Resort in Nadi where we spent the majority of a time. A lovely Kiwi couple Philip and Jane who ran a really nice place, had a friendly staff and made it feel like home away from home.

We landed in Auckland around noon yesterday (Sept 15 over here). Had a quick bit to eat and jumped on a Airbus(airport shuttle). Heading into downtown Auckland we were really excited as the place is immaculate kept, clean, rubbish free, and well maintained. The outlying areas are quite quaint and we could easily see ourselves living in one of those types of neighborhood. We got to the busy downtown metropolis of Auckland to be overrun with crowds of people walking around, there are a lot of cool side streets with neat shops and you cant go 10 feet without passing a cafe.
After checking into our hotel for 3 nights (we are going to see if we can move up the pickup on our camper van) We headed out on the town to walk around and get a feel for the place. We walked around a few hours and returned to the hotel to figure out a plan for the evening and the next day. I't was late in the evening and most things were closed for the night so we wandered down to the cinema a few blocks down and decided to check out a movie. Imax was $2 dollars more and we figured what the heck. We watched Inception, with about 10 other people in the theater. Movies are about 6-8 months behind us and the "coming soon to a theater near you" movies are out on bluray back home. Movie over we wandered around a bit looking for a bite to eat. Not wanting fast food we decided "Turkish Delight" sounded delightful... Popped back upto the hotel, tiniest room on the planet by the way and the bathroom is straight out of a space shuttle, ate our felafel's. watched some tele and attempted to sleep... the city is retardedly loud at night, it is way more quite during the day.
Today we are updating the blog because we have some decent Internet and heading out on the linkbus, to check out more than the few blocks we walked around in.

Island adventure!!!

Island adventure!!!

So the next adventure in Fiji is the Yawasawa chain of Islands.   We booked  a short stay only because we have horrible luck with arranged tours usually.  Just not our thing really....we were correct once again they really are not very good at all.  Everyone piles onto these tours out to the Islands, and one company really has the monopoly of it all.   Unless you have the money to have a private boat or plane, we do not.
We got on the boat fine, headed to the largest of the islands out there.  The water on the way there was clear and deep.  Now everyone supposedly goes out here for the swimming, snorkeling, etc.....the tide is out so far and the coral has been ruined by tourists and boats that just don't know any better.  From far away your island you get dropped at looks gorgeous then you get up close and BAM...whole other story.   We picked one called Korovou eco resort, which there was nothing eco about it and had not been fixed up the 20 or 30 years it has been there.  The only eco thing was the shower didn't work, so no water was wasted the whole time we stayed there.  I did see Nemo's dad though, pretty cool when we could snorkel.
Our problem is we don't sit and sunbathe all day, and that is what people do here, and drink, oh yeah we don't really do that either.  So not really the place for us to say the least.
Fiji is beautiful at times but we have seen better for a whole lot less money.  Tan is looking pretty good though, guess we will work on that while we are here.  Getting a little stir crazy, you can only relax too much, feel like we should help clean or something at the nice Kiwi owned hotel we are at.  They have been amazing to us, very helpful and accommodating.
Well....NZ maybe here we come early...lol.....

Fiji Time...

Fiji Time...

Well we are 9days into the Fiji experience... Sorry for the slow updates, internet  is not the best here 1 out of 5 times we tried to log into our blog it has failed to work. So to catch everyone up.
After landing and spending the first few days jet laged, we decided to go on a 1/2 day hike/mudbath.  The hike was beautiful, although it is in the dry season here and everything is quite brown. We sweated our asses off hiking though the non shaded paths they had cleared for the tourists. We finally got to a sad excuse for a waterfall, it was quite nice setting but hardly any water was running. We decided to head back to the village instead of continuing farther up the cleared paths to the "bigger" waterfall. At the village we walked into a smoke filled inferno, the field of sugar cane next to the village had caught fire and was burning out of control, the smoke was so thick we could hardly breath and could barely see, our eyes and lungs burned, muscles ached from the hike and all we wanted to do was head off t the mud bathes and get back to the hotel for a cool refreshing dip in the pool. The villages invited us into there traditional Bure, this is a sacred building, which they use for church, weddings and apparently showing off to tourists. 4 young men invited/forced us into taking part in a Kava  ceremony, which consisted of one of the young men washing his hands in some dirty water in the traditional Kava bowl thing, then they added the Kava  which is a pounded white powder made from the Kava plant root. After stirring the milky dirty water with his "clean hands" after all he did wash them in the bowl he was now mixing our drinks in... We were offered "high tide? or low tide?" . Having no Idea what they were talking about I picked high tide and they offered me up a full half of a coconut cup full or dirty root water. I politely took a sip, looked at A with sad eyes suggesting it tasted awesome >.> I offered the cup back but apparently I was to dink all of it... I regretfully slammed the whole cup of dirty root water and passed the cup back. Now it was A's turn, she had learned from my mistake and took the low tide, her cup was only half full and when she took the first sip I saw in her eyes what I was thinking when I first took a sip of dirty root water.
After our Kava ceremony we were forced to wait around for a few hours with eyes and lungs burning from the smoke waiting for our driver to return to pick us up. After what felt like an eternity we were of to the mudbaths.
We arrived a few miles down the road to a field full of children playing below a village, and a kind lady took us around the area and explained to us the culture and beliefs of the mud bathes and how some of the Fijian use it for sun protection as well as war paint, and homeopathic remedy. She took us over to a muddy pool of water and said jump in. A looked at me warily as I made her jump in first as to get a photo of he being covered in mud. A few of the kids jumped in to help Her apply the mud, and I jumped in soon after. After being covered form head to knee in a thick yellow/brown mud we climbed out so the children could plaster the rest of us with mud, and were asked to hang out and let the mud dry. By this time the sun was already starting to set and the mud was taking forever to dry, after what seemed like and eternity we were finally dry enough to jump back into the mud puddle and rinse the mud off, we were then herded over to the hot spring which felt like a million bucks after crawling out of a dirty mud pool. We soaked for only a few minutes and headed of to get pickup up by our driver who waited for us this time, back off to the hotel for a hot shower.. we had mud in more places we wish to mention.