KL and Chinatown

We got our flight out of Oz (7 hour flight to Brunei, 2 hour stopover and then 2 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur) and landed in KL. On getting off the plane we both smiled at the heat that hit us! At last some warm and tropical weather! Nice!

We were booked in at the Swiss Inn which is right in the heart of KL's Chinatown. It was an entertaining couple of days! (We stayed for a couple of days in order to sort onward flighs to Borneo). After a very dodgy taxi ride to the hotel (we didnt think we would make it!) we checked in, had a beer and crashed out.

Chinatown is full of street food stalls as well as restaurants. It also has one of the most hustle and bustle markets going, with all sorts of goods (all snide of coure) ranging from "Chanel" handbags to "Cartier" watches.

All of the vendors giving it "Watches sir, cheap cheap, best price for you" etc, etc, and so on. Lots of haggling and lots of fun!


We opted for the greener tourist sites and decided to see the Orchid and Hibiscus Gardens which were stunning!



We spent the rest of the day visiting the very impressive bird park (the largest bird park in the world!).



It was a nice couple of days and we managed to get cheap flights out to Borneo.

As I write, we are sat in a hostel / hotel thingy in Kuching, which is still in Malaysia but forms an area within the island of Borneo. We are currently sussing out how to get to some remote beaches so we can be lazing in the sun for a bit and get on with some snorkeling and generally taking it easy! Wish us luck!

Rain Down Under!

We arrived in Sydney and into the worst weather they have had in some 30 odd years with floods and rain a plenty! Thank god for our hosts Ian, Jules and the kids (Charlie, Leo and Chloe). We were invited to stay at their gorgeous house with fantastic views over the harbour. After a confusing taxi ride we arrived to a very warm welcome from the kids (adults out to dinner) and after a few questions from Leo and a guided tour from all three, we were soon sat with some pasta and wine. Very nice too! Due to the weather being so terrible it was difficult to get out and do an awful lot to be honest, but when we could we got out and about; this is what we got up to........

We were very kindly taken out on Ian's boat. He really needed his arm twisting, not!


.....so that we could get the best views of the harbour!


The kids even put us to shame by jumping in! Although it must be said we did go out clubbing the night before, so we could be excused!


We managed to get along to the Zoo (It has won the tag of best zoo in the world in previous years and it has some proper rare sights, the rarest probably being the Snow Leopard). We walked around the botanical gardens, visited Bondi and Manly surf beaches, got up close to the Opera house, went to the Aquarium and generally had a smooch about the the city.

Without going into detail on each, here are a few snaps from our little outings.....

Snow Leopard.


Koala (of course!)


Needs no title me thinks


(wild?) Cockatoos in the botantical gardens


Surf dude riding huge wave at manly.


Huge sharks at the aquarium.


More aquarium action.


Bondi Beach.


We managed to get flights out of Australia, just! Due to school holidays we couldn't fly to a destination of our choice (i.e Bali and Borneo being the favourites), so we had to do it the long way around and get a flight to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia (where we can get flights to our choice destination) in order to get out of Oz! We didn't expect that to be honest, but thought it would still be great to have a couple of days in the up and coming Malaysian capital!

Big thanks to the Martin family, thank you so much for your hospitality! We had a great time with you guys.

I also managed to hook up with an old work colleague for a few beers by the pera house which was great! (Cheers Geraldine!)

Thank you NZ and goodbye to the Land of the Long White Cloud!

Well after our Rotavegas experience we headed off excitedly to familiar and homely territory in Tauranga, Joss and Mikes place (Anna's Mother and Step Father). We had a lovely evening of wine, food and good conversation (not necessarily in that order) and we really felt at home (again!). We then headed north to Auckland where we had arranged to stay with close friends and neighbours of Tony and Anna's (Jen and Ernie) for our final few days in NZ whilst we sorted our lives out, i.e. arranged where we were going next and sell the van (our little house!).

We spent a short while there and managed to sell the van really quickly. We only lost 150 bucks on the sale of the van and the money it cost us to do a few repairs and what have you. All in all it cost us about 3 quid a day to own (petrol not included), which we thought was pretty good! We were very sad to see her go, but also releived that it only took a day to sell her.
This is my favourite photo of her.....

We even missed her for a good while, she was a cracking little van!

Again, Tony had arranged for a car for us which was kindly lent to us by his parents (Bob and Sylvia) so we had our freedom for the remaining few days, which were spent back in Piha at Dan and Jessie's where it all began three months previous. We were so looking forward to going back there and seeing the family (Dipi was especially looking forward to getting her hands on little Jackson, no surprise there! Move away from the baby!).


It's difficult to summarise and do justice to New Zealand and the people we met. Without wanting to sound too much like an Oscar Winner, we would like to say a BIG, BIG THANK YOU to everyone mentioned above, all you guys made a huge impact on us and without you, your generosity, hospitality and advice we would have been just another couple of back packers. You have a wonderful country full of magic and beauty, which we enjoyed massively (or "fully" as Dan would say). We had a fantastic time and we have many wonderful memories........

Northern exposure

After arriving in Wellington (back in the north island), we decided to hug the west coast for a bit in order to try out some more fishing which was not very fruitful! The last bit of fishing we did do was in New Plymouth and we only managed to catch some manky rock cod which were infested with lice and no good to eat at all. The weather was ok though so that made up for it a little I guess.

After a couple of nights there we then headed inland to complete our journey north to Auckland and take in some sights on the way........

First on the agenda were the deep limestone glowworm caves of Waitomo. No pictures allowed so none to show but the experience was exceptional and truly magical! The Waitomo glowworm species is unique to New Zealand and to the naked eye they look like little stars dotted all over the cave ceilings and walls! We took a short serene boat trip through the cave where there were thousands and thousands of these tiny creatures around and above us! The luminescent light is radiated as a result of a chemical reaction in their body and is used to attract insects, brought into the cave in the rivers, which it then catches and eats. If the glowworm is hungry its' light shines a little brighter and is even more effective. When the female glowworm reaches the adult stage the light is used to attract males for mating. Pretty cool don't you think!

The caves themselves were formed over 30 million years ago and were a spectacular sight, full of interesting stalactite and stalagmite formations, streams and caverns. The largest cavern is known as 'The Cathedral' and is 'world-renowned for its superb acoustics, which are due to the enclosed shape and rough surface' and many famous singers and choirs have performed here! Another wonder of Waitomo is 'The Tomo' - a 16 metre dramatic vertical limestone shaft which marks the course of an ancient waterfall which today only flows during heavy rains. All in all a beautiful treat.

Next on the agenda was The Tongariro National Park, which encircles the volcanoes of Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu (the last one is famously known as Mount Doom from The Lord of The Rings). It was gifted to the nation by Maori chief Te Heuheu Tukino IV in 1887. Just over a hundred years later, the park was awarded World Heritage Site status. (New Zealand has quite a few World Heritage sites!)

We were contemplating a walk to see a lake held within one of the craters, but after finding out what would have been a four hour trek including some ski lift journeys had now become a 7 hour trek as the ski lifts were not running, we decided against it and left the lake to our imagination! Shame, but onwards we went......

Lake Taupo was next on the list.

Lake Taupo is Australasia's largest lake and was created by a gigantic volcanic eruption in 181AD ( the most violent volcanic eruption the world has seen in the past 5000 years).

The result was the 616 square kilometre lake which is as big as Singapore Island. The lake's attractive pumice sand beaches give it the appearance of an inland ocean and it is the world's premier trout fishery and beautiful to boot.

We took a few snaps of the less illusive lake inhabitants.

After what was a very chilly night by the lake (our first proper ground frost) we headed on through Taupo and up the thermal highway (called such due to the areas you pass through having high thermal activity) in order to reach a place called Rotarua which is very touristy and some people refer to it as "Rotavegas". More on that later. We had a few things we wanted to pop into in Taupo and on the way so we set off with our list.

On the way through the region we spotted a winery which we had to go to for obvious reasons (see photos)!

If only there was a Gander winery then we would have had the set, but it doesn't sound as posh as Wishart eh! The winery was actually closed, which was a shame, but we did manage to buy a bottle from the liquor store and it was, of course, delicious!

Huka River and Falls.

The Huka falls was more like a raging torrent of water where the mass of the river water is funnelled into a relatively thin channel and spews out the other side at great speed!

The water was so blue and pure looking, quite a sight and the rest of the river was just as impressive.

Down stream from the falls we decided to stop for a bit stop at the unique Huka Prawn Farm. This fresh water tropical prawn farm is unique in that it heats all the water in its pools by using the thermal activity of the surrounding area (i.e. NOT using any electricty, therefore it's a very green and eco friendly farm!). It's not as simple as digging pools and filling them with water which is heated by the mud, the water is pumped around the farm to each pool through a complex system of pipes and what have you (we could tell you more if we had gone on the "guided tour" but we were too interested in other things, and it would have probably been boring anyway!). Our main point of interest was the fact that you could actually go fishing for these prawns and have the kitchen cook them up for you!

So after a short walk around the farm and river (where we fed the wild rainbow trout) we checked in at the fishing cabin to get our canes and bait and off we went!

This sort of thing really brings out the kid and you, and half the entertainment was seeing all these people trying their best to catch one of these little blighters!! We must say it wasn't easy and there was a certain knack to it, but we managed to get four out (after a couple of hours of trying!). It was loads of fun!


They tasted great, especially when washed down with some lovely NZ Sav!

There are several thermal parks that we could have visited, but the one we wanted to go to was apparently the least touristed, as it was off the beaten track, and also the best thermal park in New Zealand. One of the finest in the world too.

Orakei Korako covers all the possible thermal features in one area, which includes silica terraces, bubbling mud pools, boiling water pools, mad algea formations, several geysers along with a magical, mystical cave which was all quite stunning! (I've always wanted to see bubbling mud for some strange reason!)

The silica terraces which form the base of Orakei Korako are noted as being the largest mass since the Pink and White Terraces on the edge of Lake Rotomahana beneath Mount Tarawera were destroyed in 1886...


The silica is often mistaken for a large lava flow down the side of the hill as this is what it resembles due to the large amounts of steam rising from it!

This was a magical place, and Googling the name is worth it to have a look at the history of the place.


Further up the road was a free thermal pool area, the only free place we came across to be honest. It actually turned out to be the coolest!
After getting a little lost, we found the area within some woods off the main road and headed off to find the pools. This is what we found......

It was a thermal river and the pool was a splash pool for a water fall! So we had our own thermal waterfall which was very cool indeed! Our own bit of paradise.

Then onto "Rotavegas". Now to be honest, we didn't like this area. We found in general that people were a bit rude by Kiwi standards and there is apparently a lot of crime. We stayed at a camp site that had a hangi (a traditional maori steam oven) which was constantly on due to it being thermally heated (as almost everything is in the area!). This place was recommended to us because of the hangi and that's the only reason we ended up staying. We stayed for one night, did the hangi thing (we decided on lamb shanks and a variety of root veg with rosemary and garlic which we put in a pot and steamed for hours, very nice) and headed off to Tauranga the very next morning!

Chocolate ice-cream, punch on the nose!

An interesting way of describing the action of your paddle whilst kayaking...

We hit the Abel Tasman National Park in the North of the South Island hoping to get some sea kayak action as we had been lead to believe that the Abel Tasman was THE place for kayaking. The weather was a bit touch and go so we hung around for a bit crossing our fingers and filling in the time by visitng Pupu springs and going on short walks (Matt is not a fan so I've got to find short ones if I want to go on any...) until the skies cleared and the sun came out, which it eventually did.

We located our company of choice which turned out to be the smallest operator in the area which pleased me as I like to support the small guys. Our instructor gave us a full safety briefing before testing us on our emergency skills (which were as complicated as pulling a bit of rope!) should we capsize (thank god we didn't, it was still pretty chilly!). We passed and he declared us fit and able to go on our own into the big ocean. It was 'flat as' so we weren't too worried and merrily paddled out into the first of many bays. Oh yeah, the rather confusing title of this post is the phrase used to remind us on how to paddle properly, the right side of the paddle was to move in and out of the water like scooping up chocolate ice cream whilst the left side was to be pushed forward like we were punching someone (preferably someone you disliked - we were probably thinking of each other at this point) on the nose - you had to be there and to do it to understand...

Matt with 'Split Apple Rock' behind him.


Me trying to look cool in my big life jacket.


After a few disagreements on speed and direction (I was map reader and wanted to get some exercise out of it) we managed to cover quite a lot of distance and had lunch on a little sandy island in the middle of the ocean.


Me being arty farty.

It was pretty hard going on the shoulders so we were sipping beers through a straw at the end of the day but not before stopping at a beach where there were tons of cockles so of course, unable to resist a free dinner we picked our daily allowance each (there are limits on numbers and minimum sizes).

Matt did a fine job of cooking them up for dinner! Much nicer than the stuff you get from stalls on Brighton seafront which are also TINY in comparison to the MONSTERS that we had!