Suzi's Travels

Wow, where to start!

2007-08-23T18:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a pretty long time since I last posted anything, I guess it's a little late to post anything in detail about my travels since February!

In a (rather large) nutshell, I finished up the tour, travelling through Cambodia Vietnam (which wasn't as good as Cambodia), although I did get to fire an AK47 Assault Rifle which was pretty cool. Vietnam beer not the greatest. Saw some pretty horrific images and learnt some pretty nasty stuff, particularly around Phnom Penh (the prison and the killing fields) and Saigon (War Remnants Museum). But the people we met were so nice and open and smiling, it was terrific.

From Hanoi in the north of Vietnam I flew back to Bangkok with a few mates off the tour, and I picked up my bridesmaid dress for my sister's wedding.

From there it was an overnight bus down to Koh Tao, an island off the east coast of southern Thailand. I was supposed to learn to scuba dive there but I ended up with a pretty bad chest infection so that was off the cards. It was also amazingly hot which didn't help. Next up was Koh Pha Ngan, home of the famous full moon parties. I stayed at an ok place with a few spiders but met some good people who I went partying with. We ended up on the beach for the Half Moon Afterparty where I dived through a ring of fire and got wrecked on a couple "buckets". Great night, yucky recovery.......

Next was Koh Samui where I just chilled, topping up the tan (which was I have to say, pretty awesome) for the last time before flying back to Singapore for a couple days and then flying home.

I headed up to Suffolk to stay with my friends Austen and Natalie for a couple nights over Easter - this was great, relaxing in the country and taking their dog for a walk. I then bussed it down to Bournemouth to stay with my sister and The Boy (husband to be) for a couple days before surprising mum and dad at Weymouth the day before I was supposed to arrive home. I don't think they were too pleased... but at least it saved dad from getting up at 4am in the morning to pick me up!

Still, at least all went well with the wedding, Tracey looked beautiful and everybody scrubbed up pretty good.

As for now, I'm back in New Zealand, back in Queenstown and loving it. It's actually way better than last year, there's a good crowd of us at work and I've got a couple of cool flatmates... well I did, until they fell out over a boy and now one is moving out and we're getting a new one! The snow is pretty good this year, I've been up skiing a few times and need to get in a lot more runs before the snow disappears! My car is f*****, the mechanics don't seem to know how to fix it but I'm looking out the window over the town and there's pretty much nowhere else I'd rather be right now. I miss home a lot but am gonna try and stay here for a while longer if they'll let me.

So that's my update. Will post more when I have more or more details/pics if anyone wants them.

Cambodia and Vietnam Tour - Week One

2007-02-18T03:21:00.000-08:00

Big update this one...

I spent the last two days of my time in Laos in Vientiane, the capital, basically just bar hopping and walking around the occasional temple, there's really not an awful lot to do there... then last Saturday I flew back to Bangkok with Lao Airlines... scary... propellor planes... brother says they're less high maintenance than other commerial aircraft but it just felt like it was gonna drop out of the sky at any given moment. Service and food was good though. I've stayed on the legendary Khao San Road for one night before moving about 5 minutes away to the hotel where I started my tour into Cambodia and Vietnam.

On Sunday evening I met my tour group. We've got a pretty cool bunch. I'm sharing a room with a girl called Roxy who is on a career break, then there's Rachel and Mike who are on a 6 month break from England, Gareth from Wales who works for the Times and is doing an article on a few people in the group (not me fortunately... I'm really not a good example to people planning a gap year or career break...) Amy who's on holiday from Brisbane, Nina and Mike and Claire and John all on holiday as separate couples from Melbourne, Frankie from Canada who wants to become a professional bum having travelled the world already but all work-related, and Sarah from the US who is on a long holiday too. We went out for dinner that night just off Khao San Road, then ended up on Rambuttri at a minibar on the street where we drank cocktails for a pound each. Mike has quickly proven himself to be the "I'll try anything" person of the group... having wandered off to look for pancakes, he returned with a couple deep-fried frogs, grasshoppers, cockroaches and maggots. Ewwwwwwww! But he tried each one and lived to tell the tale... Oh, and we did find pancakes... really nice banana ones with chocolate dribbled on top. yum.

On Monday it was up early to take a minibus to the Thai-Cambodia border. This took about 4 hours and I think most of us slept a good portion of it. Once we got to the border we had to walk over with our backpacks, through a no-mans-land area full of casinos - there is no local law so they thrive there. Then it took a while to get through passport control on the Cambodia side. Next up was a 5 hour bus ride along the "Boulevard of Broken Backsides"- it's pretty much an unsealed 4WD road which allegedly one of the airlines pays to keep this way so it can get people to fly instead of go by bus... I'm not sure I'd do that road again... having seen some of the potholes that we fell into or avoided together with the number of trucks parked along the road having their tyres changed... well I'm just glad we made it in one piece without having a puncture. I think the boys at the back of the bus hit the roof with their heads a couple of times after bouuncing into a pothole.

We got into Siem Reap at about 5.30 in the evening and our hotel was much nicer than I'd thought. The trip I'm on is run by Intrepid and is one of their "basix" packages - no frills. So to have a western toilet, toilet paper and hot water was a very pleasant surprise. We all went out for dinner to a local restaurant and had our first taste of Khmer food. I had a curry which was a bit bland - apparently they think westerners really don't like spicy food so deliberately don't put it in the food they serve to us.

The next day, Tuesday, we got up at 5am as we were heading out to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise.

We had hired a guide for the day, Yous Sa, who spoke amazing English considering he's never been there, and has the most wonderful cockney accent on top of it - we don't know how he acquired it, although I've heard a twinge of it in other people since then, but you see this Cambodian dude standing in front of you, and as soon as he opens his mouth you expect rhyming slang to come out of it. Terrific dude.

Angkor Wat was amazing. The pictures of this place just don't do it justice. It's one of those places that is really peaceful but really imposing and you pretty much walk around with your jaw on the floor. After watching the sunrise, we walked around to the other side and then up the 37 steps to heaven. I say steps, but you could practically call it a stone ladder it was so steep, you're crawling up on all fours... thank god they put a handrail on one of the sets of steps so we could get down without breaking anything... or dying, which apparently does happen.

We came out of Angkor Wat at about 9am ready for breakfast so all went over to a restaurant for a hearty meal of eggs, bacon, and fresh baguettes. I have to say, they do a mean breakfast out here! Next up was Ta Phrom, where some of the movie Tomb Raider was filmed. Yous Sa did a wicked impression of Angelina Jolie! This temple is really interesting, it hasn't been restored and there is a lot of rubble lying around it, and trees growing out of and on top of it! It's the strangest thing to see, I thought I'd wandered into a fairy tale when we went in.

After Ta Phrom, we visited Angkor Thom. This is a complex comprising many temples, including the Bayon which is the one with the faces on the columns. Again, this is a really mystical place and you can easily get lost in there.

After Angkor Thom we went for lunch. We sat at the edge of the restaurant, and local kids were constantly asking us to buy stuff. This is one of the most difficult aspects of travelling around here. You see all these little kids selling stuff, and they look so adorable, and you know they're really poor, and you really want to buy something from them but obviously you can't buy from all of them. So when you finally do buy something only for another little girl to offer you something and you say no and she says "why you no buy from me?", your heart breaks for her. Saying no is probably the equivalent of saying "I don't like you" in her mind. In practical terms, whether or not you buy something from one of these kids can mean whether or not they go to school the next day and it is really hard not to feel responsible. I guess you just have to harden yourself and know that if you do buy something you're helping someone if not everyone.

After lunch we went to a land mine museum. This was just horrible and I don't think anyone walked out without tears in their eyes. We were shown around the museum by a 19 year old whose right leg had been amputated below the knee. He had gone into the jungle as an 8 year old with his brother and sister, stepped on a mine and lost his leg, his brother and his sister. It was awful hearing him tell his story in such a matter of fact way, and none of us knew what to say to him. He showed us all the different types of mines that they are clearing and you just can't understand why anyone would invent such things. It's such a terrible legacy for the country, where 50% of the population is under the age of 18... but I haven't met a single kid who doesn't have a smile and a bright hope for the future.

That night we went out for pizza and then on to a club... where most people got rather wasted.

The next day I got up fairly early - around 8.45, as I wanted to get some laundry done and then some of us had talked about going to one of the posh hotels in Siem Reap to use their pool for a few hours. Only three of us made it to the Angkor Palace Spa Resort... everyone else was too hungover! For $18 we had the use of the pool, the gym, sauna, steam room and a three-course lunch. We only used the pool - and we only came out because we were hungry! It was a really lovely setting but I think we had the right idea - pay around $10-15 to stay where we did and then pay to use the pool rather than paying $150 a night to stay there!

When we got back to our hotel, people were just about feeling human again, and we all set off for Tonle Sap - this is a huge lake in the middle of Cambodia where there is a floating village complete with school, church, temple, football pitch and basketball court. We took a boat trip out around the village and stopped at one of the restaurants where they had a fish and crocodile farm. Any time you went near the edge of the floating restaurant all you could hear was "one dollar" - for bananas, for coke, for beer... after we left we convinced the captain to hang around to let us watch the sunset - and any time we came anywhere near anything, someone would row out to meet us as fast as they could to sell us more bananas or drinks!

We got back to the hotel later than planned, and our tour leader thought we had fallen in! We were dining with a local family that night so we felt a bit guilty for holding things up but it all worked out well. We ate loads of food, and danced with the kids.

On Thursday we took a public bus to Cambodia's 3rd largest town, Kompong Cham. We were a bit apprehensive about the bus but it was air-conditioned and quite comfy as long as you weren't 6 foot tall. We got into the town around lunchtime and after a nice burger we were off on our excursion. We were going out over a bamboo bridge to an island in the middle of the Mekong. Most people cycled but me, Nina and Roxy hopped on a moped and rode out pillion, which was a lot of fun. The bridge gets rebuilt each December as the monsoon destroys it each year. It felt a wee bit rickety going over it...

On the island is a small village, and as we rode through it the children were just getting out of school and kept running up to us saying "hello""hello"and holding out their hands for a high five... they were so cute and it was great fun high fiving them all.

On Friday we took another public bus into Phnom Penh, the capital, where we had lunch at a restaurant that does a lot of great work in the community. They reach almost 2,000 kids on a daily basis, helping them with problems such as drugs, homelessness and prostitution, and get them a place to stay, get them into school, and give them skills to get jobs and support themselves. The restaurant is staffed by Teachers and Students, all of whom are in the programme. And the food is great.

After lunch we got in a minibus to take us to Takeo where we were staying with a local family for the evening. We were told that the family was very poor and to expect really basic conditions. I figured after trekking in Chiang Mai and staying with the tribes there I would be pretty well prepared. But it was much nicer than we had been led to believe, and the family certainly wasn't that poor. It was the first night of the Chinese New Year so we bought some fireworks for the children... as soon as they saw them their eyes lit up... and they practically yanked them out of our hands... with almost disastrous consequences... it's not that they were kids and didn't know what they were doing, because they did - that was the scary part - they don't have nice health and safety laws and safety guidelines on the boxes out here so the kids see no harm in getting as close as they like to the fireworks while we look on and start screaming at them to get away!

Saturday we took the minibus down to Sihanoukville on the coast where after having a yummy lunch and a couple jugs of pimms (made by a barmaid who'd never made it before so it was rather alcoholic...) we hit the beach. We all dived straight in the water to cool off and it was heavenly. We had the great idea to build a human pyramid so some of the girls tried climbing up on the guys' shoulders - but couldn't get their balance with the waves. Then some local kids swam up and we invited them to get on our shoulders and have a fight. I think we all almost drowned there and were absolutely exhausted by the time we made it back to shore.

In the evening we went to a bar that was giving away free food and vodka shots and cheap drinks... we all had a go (or five) at the vodka shots - they had themselves an ice ramp with a gulley running down the middle so they just poured the vodka in and we waited at the bottom to receive the chilled vodka. We had a boat trip planned for the next day so I just got a bit merry and left before midnight, helping John get Claire home... but most of the others stayed on for a few hours and were still drunk when we got on the boat the next day!

Laos

2007-02-07T02:37:00.000-08:00

(There's a post below this which I drafted a couple days ago and have only just finished... unfortunately the blog goes by the date you start drafting it, not the date you publish it...)

I've been in Laos for a few days now and am loving it. I've already missed out on so much though so this is definitely somewhere I want to come back to!

I came over on Friday from Chiang Mai by minibus to a town called Chiang Khong and from there we took a boat across the Mekong to Houie Sai in Laos. I was basically on a package that loads of people had booked to get them down to Luang Prabang. So we spent the night in Houie Sai and got introduced to my new favourite thing: Beer Lao. This is great stuff... apparently the Germans wanted to hi-jack it but the Lao wouldn't give them the recipe. But it's definitely one of the best beers I've had. Am having... whatever.

On Saturday we all herded onto a couple long slow boats to get down to our half-way point, the town of Pak Beng. We were told horror stories beforehand, about how it would be a race up the hill once we got off the boat to find accommodation because there just wasn't enough of it... and that they only had electricity from 6pm - 7.30pm each day.

The boat journey was about 6 hours or so long (I managerd to snag a couple comfy seats), and we reached Pak Beng just before it started getting dark, and raced up the hill... but there were loads of people from guesthouses there asking if we needed a room. We pretty much took the first one we found and it cost less than 3GBP. A group of us all went out for dinner and Beer Lao. Then it was back for a good night's sleep cos we had another 6-9 hour boat journey the next day, depending on who you asked.

The journey the next day on to Luang Prabang was a little less comfortable... we didn't manage to get seats at all this time so sat on the floor up just behind the captain and played cards for most of the journey. A lot of Lao people were on this bus and kept looking in to see if they could figure out what we were playing and what the rules were... We were playing Cheat and Switch and just laughing hysterically for most of it.

Once we reached Luang Prabang we were once again in a race for accommodation. This time I found somewhere a little more luxurious, with a nice soft mattress, an ensuite, and electricity! That night we all went out for dinner and Beer Lao... and I ordered a Lao Sukiyama (or something, can't quite remember now), which one of the girls had recommended... so the waiters came over and removed the middle of the table and put a quasi-barbecue in the whole, then put a big ceramic bowl with water and onion on top of it. Next out came some vegetables and vermicelli. And then came the raw chicken with an egg on top. Well I was flummoxed... I was paying 1.75GBP for my meal, and they expected me to cook it myself! Nevertheless, it was great fun, and a really good tasty meal.

The next day (Monday), I went to the museum in town and did a bit of organising... and shopping. This town is a nightmare. It was ok during the day cos you didn't have to go in any of the shops, but at night, all the little market stalls come out into the street and set up all the way down it! So needless to say I got sucked in and came out with about $30US worth of stuff which mum and dad should be receiving in a few weeks. Hope you enjoy it all!

Yesterday I got the bus down to a town called Vang Vieng. On the map, this town is halfway between Luang Prabang and Vientiane (the capital, where I fly out of on Saturday) but in practice, the road is through mountains so takes twice as long to get here. It's a beautiful, if rather hairraising drive. However bad the road up to the Remarkables was in Queenstown, I think this was worse!

But we made it safely and I'm staying in a nice guesthouse called Babylon.

Van Vieng, though, is a really quirky town. Set against the stunning backdrop of the Karst mountains, the town is full of restaurants that have these little booth-like things set up, which involve sitting on a raised floor on cushions around table and watching movies/friends episodes/cartoons/friends episodes... the Friends bars are the worst, they just play episode after episode after episode... but the movie bars are good fun.

And the pancakes are to die for. As I walked back to my guesthouse last night there were loads of street stalls selling pancakes... not quite like what dad does back home though! They start off with a ball of dough-type stuff and whack it down on the table and begin to flatten the heck out of it, much like you would a pizza base, until it was about 18 inches diameter. Then they chuck it into this huge flat wok and cook it with whatever you want on it... yummy!

Today I went tubing down the river... great fun... just sitting on a big rubber ring watching the world go by and hearing "beer lao beer lao beer lao" every hundred yards or so... we stopped off after about half an hour at this riverside bar for a few hours, soaking up the sun and watching people swing on the flying fox and wondering how many swings it would take for them to get up the guts to let go! After a few hours I headed on down the river... until it got to about 4.15pm and I'd had enough of paddling backwards and having my arse grinding on the rocks at the bottom... it's the dry season so the river was so shallow in places that you had to get up and walk across! So I cheated and got a tuk-tuk back into town - we think it must've been a good 1.5kms back to town from that point!

Tomorrow I head on to Vientiane, the capital, for two nights before flying back to Bangkok so I can begin my tour through Cambodia and Vietnam on Sunday. Can't wait!

Lots to cover...

2007-02-04T02:52:00.000-08:00

Phew, what an exhausting last few days! I've done quite a bit since I last posted so this might be a biggie.

First off I went on a day trip out of Bangkok last Sunday to Kanchanaburi to see the bridge over the River Kwai, take a trip on the Death Railway and to see some tigers up close and personal. The tigers were the absolute highlight. They are raised from birth by a group of monks, so they are billed as being "tame"... so you can get taken around about half a dozen tigers and stroke them, and if they're docile enough at the time, you can get really close to them. We got there about an hour before feeding time, and they definitely knew what time it was! So we had to approach from behind them each time.

Then on Monday evening, I took the overnight train from Bangkok up to Chiang Mai in the north of the country. This was a really long trip, and I didn't really sleep much on the train, but I met some people and the time passed quicker than I'd thought it would.

We arrived late into Chiang Mai, at about 9.30am and I was whisked away to the guesthouse to re-pack my gear to start a 3 day trek around the hill tribes of the area. I then met the people who would be on my trek. They were Carly and Becky, plus Chris who they'd met on the plane on the way over, Fantin and Guiseppe (a Thai/Italian couple) and a family from Denmark who were only doing a 2 day trek.

On the first day we drove a way out of Chiang Mai to a waterfall for lunch and then to the drop off point. We then walked for a couple of hours to the village where we were staying for the evening. I hadn't really read up very much on what to expect, so I thought the villages were going to be very primitive... no electricity and not much in the way of running water. Well they had electricity... and some people had televisions... but running water was a little harder to come by. We took a tour of the village, then our guide cooked us a yummy dinner and we sat around the fire for the evening being taught tricks by a couple of the villagers.

The next day we broke camp at around 9.30 and walked ... and walked... and walked... to be fair the walking was broken up by visiting some really pretty waterfalls. By the end of the day I had blisters on my feet so was extremely glad to see the village we were to stay at. This village was much more... civilised... than the first one. We all upgraded to our own little hut with an ensuite for the night, and I treated myself to a massage since it was my birthday. Again we had a lovely dinner (our guide was a great cook) and sat round the fire with a few beers to chill out before bed.

The next day we hiked out to another waterfall where a couple of mad people were jumping in from what looked like insane heights. Fromthere it was an hour's walk into town for lunch, and then a quick drive to go bamboo rafting. This isn't like white water rafting... it's literally a few bamboo poles tied together with a sort of seat across the middle, then a dude at the front punts it along, and someone stands at the back and helps out. I sat on the middle with Fantin while Guiseppe helped punt, and Carly Becky and Chris were on the front one. We were never gonna stay dry on that raft! I shouted ahead to Carly and Becky to see if they were soaked yet and they said they weren't... so our guide took that as a sign that they weren't getting into it enough... so he jumped onto their raft and tried to sink it! From that point on it was war between Chris and our dude...

Next up was elephant riding. Well. I got onto an elephant with Chris and the first thing it did was swing it's trunk over it's head asking for food. If we didn't give it bananas it would breathe all over us... yuk! I think we picked the hungriest, most contrary elephant there! At one point we had gone halfway up a slope and it decided it was mega hungry so started going over the side of the slope which was really steep. I thought we were gonna fall over it's head!

They took some good pictures of us on the rafts and elephants which I'll send home once I get back to Bangkok.

Bangkok or Bust

2007-01-25T06:16:00.000-08:00

I arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday and it's been quite an adventure. I can't make up my mind whether I love or hate this place.

I flew up here with Air Asia, the region's low cost carrier, and it was a good flight. I then got a taxi to Charlie House guesthouse where I'm staying, and so far it seems like the taxi driver who got me here from the airport is the only one in Bangkok who knows where the place is!

Yesterday I wandered around the Grand Palace, which was absolutely beautiful, everywhere you looked was a photo opportunity, although you couldn't take photos of the Emerald Buddha. From there I headed to Khao San Road, that legendary backpacker ghetto... which didn't look too much like a ghetto to me, but there was only about 2 places along the road that I would've stayed at! I had a nice pad thai for lunch and then walked over to the canal and got a boat down it and back up. Back at Khao San Road I had to get back to my hotel... and that was a bit of a nightmare really... Suffice to say I arrived back about an hour later than I should have and had seen more of Bangkok than I had originally intended...!

Today I headed out to the subway to try and find my own way round a bit more, and ended up at Khao San again. I ran into a dude from TAT (the tourist people out here) and it seems that the new government is really putting a big push on tourism out here in light of recent events. I ended up at their offices and before I knew it I was booked on the train up to Chiang Mai next Monday, then going trekking, elephant riding and bamboo rafting around the hill tribes for 3 days/2 nights... omg how scared am i at this... and then heading up into Laos at Hui Xuay (sp?), making my way down the Mekong to Vientiane the capital and flying back to Bangkok in time to start my tour into Cambodia and Vietnam. I also booked a learn to dive course on Ko Tao for an open date in March. This I'm really looking forward to... and gives me a clearer picture of what I'm doing on the way down to Singapore... not sure I'm gonna make it to the Perhentians, which I'm a bit disappointed about, but we'll see. (I think this is gonna be the bust part!)

This evening I got the sky train and MRT back to the hotel now that I knew my way, and stopped off at the night bazaar along the way... and went on this big ferris wheel and got some pretty cool views of Bangkok at night.

Tomorrow I'm moving digs to somewhere a bit cheaper and preparing for the trip up to Chiang Mai. You might say I'm bricking it, having to live without my kitchen sink for a few days...yikes! But I guess there's really no point in coming out this way if you're not gonna leave said sink behind for a while and the trekking is a "must-do". So I"m gonna do it.

For the next couple days I'm gonna see about taking some day tours around and out to the River Kwai and see some tigers and other things.

More Malaysia

2007-01-21T04:49:00.000-08:00

I stayed in Pangkor for a couple more days. On Tuesday I took a boat trip around the nearby islands, with an American couple I'd met at Taman Negara, plus a couple others. The water was pretty clear and there were loads of fish. We knew there was another beach on the other side of the island so decided to snorkel round to it (we knew it was a really small island). On the way, there was a monkey sitting on the rock. We stopped about 30 feet away, while another dude went right up to the rock, about 2 feet away to take pictures... and that monkey went right down to him and was hissing away. The dude was lucky the monkey didn't feel like swimming cos he was ready to bite a piece out of him. We just swam on round to the bay, keeping a decent distance!

On Thursday I headed back to the mainland and took a bus up to Butterworth to catch the ferry to Penang (cost under 2GBP). Penang was unbelieveably hot, the worst I've experienced so far. It's the kind of heat that makes you not want to leave the hotel building cos you're just gonna wilt. I did manage to make a trip on a non-a/c bus round the island to a butterfly farm, which was really neat, about 2,000 butterflies in this enclosure that you walk through, plus scorpions in a tank and other creepy crawlies...

There was other stuff I'd've liked to have done in Penang, but it just wasn't gonna happen. So yesterday I took the ferry upto Langkawi which is where I am now. It's a wee bit cooler than Penang - manageable - just! I went to a seafood restaurant (figuring I'm gonna be eating a lot of fish when I get into Cambodia and Vietnam, and thinking I should get used to it while the consequenes are manageable) and had some sting ray. Afterwards we went to the bar attached to the hostel (run by an english dude who is currently irate cos an irish couple came here a few days ago and wrote up on the booking website that if you're not english you're not welcome here... I think he sent quite a few emails back to them for it!) and watched the football on ESPN. Just as the Spurs-Fulham game came on, they changed the channel to the Newcastle match as a couple Geordies were in the bar... I had to bribe everyone with shots to get to watch about 15 mins of it at the end! So today I was hungover and I don't think the sting ray agreed with me particularly either :-(. It's really beautiful here but things are spaced out a bit and the beach has no shade so I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with the rest of my time here. I've booked a flight up to Bangkok on Tuesday evening so I've got a wee bit of time to play with for now.

Have realised finally that three months is nowhere near long enough to do everything I wanted to do here in South East Asia! I think I should be able to get to Laos for about a week or so, then I start my tour on the 11th Feb and finish on the 9th March, then have to get back down to Singapore within about 3-4 weeks - and I was planning on going back down Vietnam on the Reunification Express, then hanging out on a few Thai islands and learning to dive, plus pull in to the islands on the east coast of Malaysia on the way... We'll see I guess huh?

Enjoy the cold weather back home... I envy you!

Sx

Malaysia week one and a bit

2007-01-14T02:06:00.000-08:00

For some strange reason I haven't been able to log into the blog for the last week.

I finished up my time in Singapore just mooching around... I spent a day on Sentosa Island - went luging (v tame although the ski lift was a wee bit high!), watched a pink dolphin show, saw some sharks in the Underwater World - and went to the Bukit Timah nature reserve - scaled a 163m high mountain for fun.

Last Saturday I got on the bus up to Kuala Lumpur. That was quite an experience - they've got it down to a fine art. You get driven up to the causeway linking Singapore to Malaysia, at which point you go into the Departures bit, then straight back on the bus, over the causeway and into the Malaysi Arrivals terminal - where I swear they had more passport people available for three coachloads of people than any airport would have for three plane loads! Then it was straight through customs, back on the bus and up to KL, smooth as silk. I arrived in KL at about 3.30 in the afternoon and got a taxi to the place I had booked - "the Haven" - which was really nice and clean, although the walls were a bit thin! It was actually only a 5 minute walk away from the bus station but it was at the start of a really long road and I hadn't known beforehand just how far up it would be.

I spent Sunday chilling out mainly, then on Monday I took a tour around the city on the new hop on hop off bus which had only just started about a week before and they were still ironing out teething problems - like knowing when to cue the recorded commentary... But it was really good to give me a better idea of the layout of the city and where areas were. I stopped off at the Petronas Twin Towers - highest twin towers in the world now, around 88 floors. Unfortunately the bridge between the two towers was closed on Monday so I had to go back on Tuesday to get my ticket. I got there at around 10.45am and the earliest I could get on the bridge would be 3.15pm. They only let about 20 people on it at a time for 10 minutes. The bridge is around 45 floors, or 170m up from street level, and you get a pretty good view of the city. Unfortunately the PC I'm at wont let me hook up my camera so I can't show photos at this stage.

On Wednesday I took a trip outside KL, up to Taman Negara - Malaysia's premier national park. I stayed in a wee village called Kuala Tahan. This is a three and a half hour bus ride and a three hour boat ride from KL. The boat trip was pretty cool, the boats were sampans which meant I was sitting at the water level, and felt a bit precarious at times. The village itself is a bit primitive. For a kitchen sink girl like me, not having hot water was, while not unexpected, a bit of a pain - it wasn't quite warm enough to be able to wash my hair in the cold water!

On the Wednesday evening I went out on a 4wd jungle safari. The truck was a toyota with two benches on the back, but Billy, one of the guides, invited me to sit up on top of the cab with him. It was a bit daunting, but was definitely the way to go. Unfortunately, as it is a rainforest, it had been raining and the ground was pretty muddy. So muddy that the truck got stuck. They spent about half an hour trying to get it out, but it had slid backwards and sideways into a ditch and was at what felt, from the top of the cab, rather precarious! So I got down pretty quickly! It was clear that we weren't gonna get the truck out after half an hour of pushing so we took a wee vote and decided that the guides were gonna walk up to the road for help, and I decided to go with them - I would have gone mad sat in the truck waiting. As it turned out, the road was only about a 10 minute walk away and we flagged down a bike straight away and the other guide went back to the village with him for help. Billy also called his cousin. Billy and I sat and waited on a bench by the road, and watched for barn owls. About 20 mins later the cousin arrived and went down to try to help get the truck unstuck. About an hour after that, the other guide arrived with another 4wd truck and Billy and I climbed in and went back to the others. Turns out they had just got the truck unstuck. So we headed back to the village, stopping along the way for water as the engine was in danger of overheating, and arrived back at about 1.30am rather than the 11pm we had been told! By the way, I was well prepared for this scenario... I had decent shoes, water, a torch, a penknife and an umbrella and a cell phone. I will always carry the kitchen sink with me!

The next day, Thursday, I went for a walk into the jungle and walked along the canopy walkway, which is the longest tree top walkway in the world at around 500m. This was pretty cool, but really high up - it was even freaking me out!

For the afternoon, I just chilled out as I didn't want to tempt fate and have anything else go wrong... such as getting stuck upstream or having a boat go kaput on me!

On Friday, we got the boat back down the river, this time only taking 2 hours, and then the bus back to KL.

Saturday, I went back to the Twin Towers as I had to take something back to M&S there. I also went to Times Square (where there are around 10 floors of shops - ridiculous! and no good shoes!) and went to the indoor theme park there. It cost about 3.50GBP to get in, and some of the rides were a bit scary! Check out http://www.timessquarekl.com/themepark.html. The roller coaster wasn't in action, but I did go on the Spinning Orbit and the Space Attack - the latter really scary as you come out of your seat when you're upside down - you're left praying that the overhead securing thingy doesn't come unstuck cos that's all that's holding you there!

Today, Sunday, I took a bus up to Lumut, about halfway up the west coast of Malaysia, to get a ferry to Pulau Pangkor where I am now. I'm staying at a place called the Seagull Beach Resort which isn't on the beach, and I wouldn't call a resort, but I have my own room with a bathroom and air con for about 5.75GBP a night. It's still ridiculously humid here, sweat just drips off you. Tomorrow I'm thinking of going on a snorkelling trip to a couple of nearby islands, otherwise I'll just spend my time here on the beach as I need to get my legs tanned. The beach here is really lovely so it's no hardship.

I'm not sure how long I'm gonna stay here, it depends on whether I decided to go to Langkawi or not. I need to get up to Bangkok in about 10 days max and I can fly from either Penang (where I'm headed next) or Langkawi for about 15GBP one way!

Will keep you posted. Hope everyone's having fun wherever you are, and are enjoying the winter.

Sx

River Cruise and Night Safari

2007-01-02T18:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday (Tuesday) I headed out on a one minute walk to the Singapore River where I paid $12.60 to go for a cruise up and down the river on a bumboat. These are the old boats that they used to bring cargo in on back in the day, but thanks to technology are no longer needed. Now they serve as tourist boats.

This is the Merlion, which it is hoped will become as iconic as the Sydney Opera House. No, seriously.

In the evening I headed out to the Night Safari which is attached to the zoo here on the island. It took a while to get there - I needed to take a ride on the MRT and then a 40 minute bus ride to get there. But I got lucky as when I came out of the MRT station there was a dude offering a free ride out to the Night Safari! So I hopped on and got there in 20 minutes instead!

There are three main things to do at the Night Safari: there are walking trails, a tram ride and a Creatures of the Night show. If anyone comes out this way, check out the website www.nightsafari.com.sg for their suggested itineraries, and follow them (in fact, check it out anyway, as flash photography was not allowed, and whilst I finally discovered that I had a night function on my camera, you have to hold it incredibly still for about 10 seconds to take a picture, so needless to say, I didn't get that may decent photos)! I got a bit confused and elected to go on one of the walking trails first so I could go to the show at 8pm, but when I got to the gate at 8pm, it was full, and their advice was to arrive half an hour early to get in.

The walking trail (the Fishing Cat trail) was really good. There were really cute little Mousedeer, which are tiny little deer, the adults were probably only about knee high, and they have these tiny pencil-thin legs that literally look like little sticks propping them up. Next were the fishing cats. These are very cute, and pet sized (can I have one???). Next up were the otters, and these guys are really playful. As soon as anyone comes along, they all congregate in front of you and start screaming at you. It's a pretty awful sound. You can just about see them in this photo (it's one of the ones that didn't come out blurred) but you might have to click on it and enlarge it to see properly.

After that there were some Barking Deer (who didn't bark), some Flying Foxes, and soem Indian Gharial (fish eating crocodiles).

After heading back to try to get to the show (denied) I went on a tram ride around the park. This was very informative, and the animals are very good as they are always within view so were always there for us to see (apart from the zebra). My favourite was probably the tiger, although after going on the tram ride, I missed the next show and went on a walk instead, and saw another tiger from behind a glass screen, and the dude was just pacing round in circles which I didn't like to see.

After that, I *finally* got into the show, and it was definitely worth it (although I thought I was gonna melt when we were queueing to get in - it was so humid there, not necessarily as hot as during the day time, but definitely sweltering). The hostess was dead funny, and the show was very interactive, but the animals definitely knew it was their last show of the night and were playing up a bit. The best was the cat which can jump up to 15 feet into the air to catch birds.

The show ended at 10.30 and although the place stays open until midnight, the dude who had given us the free ride out from the MRT station had offered to take us back to our hotels for $4, which although is more than the combined bus and MRT ride would cost, would certainly save time, and judging by the queues for the bus, stress too.

So I got back to the hostel at about 11.10pm, had a quick shower (finally got hot water!) and hit the sack.

As a final note, I just have to post this picture, as I didn't think anybody (especially Nat and Austen) would believe that I had a cat on me. Poor little Tempest does look ready to jump, but it was his idea to climb on me, not mine!

First day in Singapore

2007-01-01T03:18:00.000-08:00

Well wouldn't ya know it, I had the New Year in New Zealand after all! My flight didn't take off until about 10 past midnight so we had a countdown on the plane.

I've finally made it to Singapore, and geez it's muggy here, I didn't realise how it would be. It's 30 degrees and it's raining.

They've given me a visa to stay here for 30 days, but I'm definitely not gonna need that long. After clearing immigration I got stopped by customs - I think because of my backpack - and my bag got x-rayed - I must've looked dodgy. From there I headed down into the MRT system - kinda like the London Underground, only nicer, and got the train out to chinatown where I'm staying at a hostel called the Summer Tavern. So far so good. And they didn't charge me for last night since I'm still saying for the number of days I said I would.

After that, I went down to the Harbour Centre and headed for the cable cars. I took a car up to Mount Faber and had an expensive beer and chicken satay. Then I had to queue for the cable car over to Sentosa Island. I think I queued for about 45 minutes (geez there were a lot of people) and finally twigged that if I paid a little bit extra for a glass bottomed cable car I could get straight on and not queue. Great idea. Except when you come out and you're up really high and you can see through the floor. And except when it stops halfway over the water! It was totally worth it to avoid the queue but was slightly disconcerting!

Anyways, I'm back at the hostel now and have been wearing these clothes for two days and I must reek so I'm off to have a shower and sleep. I'm shattered, as I predicted.

More soon.

Sue x

To Singapore or Not To Singapore

2006-12-30T22:29:00.000-08:00

I got up nice and early this morning to make it to the airport to check in for my flight to Brunei and on to Singapore. When I got there, there were people handing out letters before you checked in. My flight has been delayed by 11 hours and 25 minutes! So I'm blogging from the Hotel Grand Chancellor just off Auckland Airport (which isn't quite as grand as the name suggests) where they've put us up in the meantime and fed us adequately. Perhaps if I'd have thought about it a little more I would've brought my luggage along then I could've gone for a swim but I only had the foresight to bring a change of underwear and top with me.

So I should arrive in Brunei at abour 5.30am local time which I think is about 7 or 8 hours ahead of the UK, and then on to Singapore for around lunchtime. I've emailed the hostel I booked in Singapore begging them to keep my reservation but not charge me for tonight but I've had no reply so far. Fingers crossed. I guess this is what I get for buying such a cheap flight huh?

I've just thought of an up side: I get about 5 New Years in one. Erm... downside is the airline is alcohol free which means I'm gonna have to sneak something on board... Downside is that I'm also gonna be shattered. :-(

Wish me luck everyone... at this rate I might just about get home in time to be a bridesmaid...

Sx

Last two weeks in New Zealand... and onwards

2006-12-28T14:23:00.000-08:00

Since I last posted I've been up to the Bay of Islands, which was really beautiful. I stayed in Paihia for a few nights and took a couple of day trips around the area.

The first trip was up to Cape Reinga and 90 Mile Beach. Cape Reigna is [almost] the northernmost tip of New Zealand (beaten only by somewhere that you can only get to by hiking which is 2km more north). Cape Reinga is also the point at which the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea, and in the picture below you can see the two sets of waves clashing together. The signpost shows just how far away I've been all this time.

After Cape Reinga, we took a trip down 90-Mile Beach. To get there, the bus had to drive down a river that is actually quicksand... so we stopped off to take pictures and the bus sank! Nah, the bus driver was really strict about not stopping and apparently a few cars get consumed each year by idiots who stop off to take a picture of themselves on quicksand... and lose their car... Instead, we pulled off somewhere safe and climbed up this monster sand dune to board down it... which was wicked, except by the time I'd got to the top I couldn't breathe! Afterwards, the bus drove on down 90-Mile Beach, which is a pretty cool concept, racing along the sand.

The next day I took a boat trip out around the Bay of Islands, which was all pretty stunning, and culminated in a ride through the "Hole in the Rock" out at Cape Brett.

So that was it for my Magic travels, for the next day it was back down to Auckland to meet Paul and Kat who had kindly offered to put me up for a few days and to spend Christmas with them. They live in Papakura which is a suburb in the South of Auckland, and they have a really nice house. Paul has just built a huge garage in which he's going to build aeroplanes (real ones that are actually piloted), and a great upstairs deck for barbecues, which they take advantage of a lot! They also have a cat, Tempest, and his friend Jag (with the collar) who belongs to Paul's tenant, Gary. Here they are, asleep on Paul. They are absolutely adorable, and love playing together and getting into mischief.

Christmas Day was a pretty wicked affair. We arrived at Kat's parent's house at about 9.30 for a champagne and waffle breakfast, followed by present opening, followed by an all day cocktail party! Kats sister, Liz, had taken a bar course and was keen to show off her skills. I don't think we quite got through the whole cocktail menu, but it certainly wasn't for lack of trying! After the most humungous lunch of ham, pigs in blankets and roast veggies, we were all a bit knackered so vegged out in front of the TV to watch The World's Fastest Indian (as mentioned in my post from Invercargill/Catlins). After that, we felt we had recovered enough for a bit of dessert, for which Kat's granny had made a Christmas Pudding specially for the poms! We weren't sure we were ever gonna eat again after that!

On Boxing Day we headed to the Coromandel to Tairua to stay with some friends of Paul and Kat. And I *finally* got to the beach and into the sea properly! A couple of the others went boogie boarding, while the rest of us just messed around in the surf. That was a bit of an education for me, having to negotiate huge waves and decide whether to go over or under them! Luckily Kat was on hand to give me directions, although I did get dunked pretty badly at the start... It was a really wicked couple of days and I really enjoyed meeting Kat's family and hers and Paul's friends, who are all a wicked bunch.

Now, though, I've got to re-pack up my stuff so I can head back into the city tomorrow. Paul and Kat are going to a gig in the Coromandel tomorrow night so we worked out it was cheaper for me to spend a night in the City and get the bus to the airport on Sunday than for me to stay in their place and get a taxi to the airport. I've still got a few things to pick up, like travellers cheques, so it works out quite well. I tried to get travellers cheques in Papakura yesterday but they said they'd have to order them in! Never mind.

I'm almost prepared to head off to South East Asia... still a little bit scared about going so far out of my comfort zone, but I know I'm gonna have a wicked time. So this will probably be my last post from New Zealand, next stop Singapore!

Happy New Year to everyone, start it as you mean to go on and drink as much as you can!

Love Suzi xxx

Fear in Auckland

2006-12-18T21:15:00.000-08:00

Well it's 6 sleeps til Christmas as the radio keeps playing to me. I got in to Auckland last Tuesday and met a couple of crazy chicks who I hung out with for a few days - Andrea and Cassie.

We (Andrea and I) went on a free tour of the city ... which included a stop at the Sky Tower. It just so happened that I was in a bit of an adrenaline junkie mode and was seriously coming round to the idea of bungying or something similar. Our tour guide started building up the Sky Jump - a 192m controlled descent from the top of the Sky Tower... everyone else was a bit sheepish, and there was me, grinning and totally up for it. And the dude knew that. But he still put everyone's names in a hat and pulled out a name that wasn't "Sue". I was gutted.

We also had a couple of drinks in a bar in the Viaduct Harbour among all the posh working people...

We spent the rest of the time shopping... we found an outlet shopping centre which really didn't have any good deals, plus a few other places but managed to contain ourselves. We also spent an evening at the Sky City complex... a bit of time in the casino (came out evens - result!) and in a really nice bar there. This is the Sky Tower at night.

Then last Saturday I headed up to the Coromandel. I picked a really nice day to travel up there. Left is a picture from the top of the coast above a place called Cathedral Cove. Unfortunately the other two days that I stayed up there were rather disappointing. I went there primarily to get some beach time, and I did get about half an hour or so, but it was really cloudy and rained a wee bit. :-(

I came back to Auckland today and have been shopping for my trip to Asia, picking up a few necessities in preparation. And here we come to the fear factor as per the title. Now apparently this is practically an Auckland institution, it's been there in one place or another for about the last 25 years... but it's just plain scary... in a creepy "kids don't look at that" kind of way.

Yes, it's a three-storey high Santa, that winks and beckons you to him with a bandaged finger. (Apparently it fell off a couple years ago.) You just want to stop every little kid who walks by you and say "no, don't go to the dark side". It is just plain creepy!

That's about all for now, I'm off up to the Bay of Islands tomorrow... hopefully the weather will be better so I have a few plans which require good weather for while I'm up there.

White Island

2006-12-13T18:32:00.000-08:00

Monday December 11

I guess I haven't had enough of live volcanoes yet, as when I heard there was a live one just off the coast near Mount Maunganui, where I was staying, I just had to book myself a trip out there. This involved me renting a car (a manual one no less - aren't you all glad I'm on the other side of the world now???), driving to Whakatane, and getting on a boat out to White Island which is an active marine volcano.

White Island is a 150,000 to 200,000 year old volcano - a baby really. It was named White Island by Captain Cook, the first European to sight the island. This was in 1769 and as he noted in the Endeavour's log book,“We called it White for as such it always appeared to us”. Cook, however, did not come close enough to realise it was a volcano. In the early 1900's it was mined for sulphur and there are ruins of the factory still on the island. It's a bit inhospitable for people to stay there for a long time though, even the clothing would only last a couple of months at the most due to the amount of sulphur in the atmosphere. It last erupted in 2000, and currently gets about 6-8 earthquakes per day and it's landscape is constantly changing. The tour guide kept mentioning that sulphur vents were constantly appearing and disappearing in various places, temperatures and acidities of streams are changing from week to week.

White Island from the boat on approach

Me in front of a steam vent complete with hard hat and gas mask. This was at the beginning of the tour. The sulphur was quite intense as we got closer to the main crater and I was wearing the gas mask the whole time. The company has to provide hard hats and gas masks as part of it's permit to operate on the island.

The boat we went on, the "PeeJay V"

The main crater from a distance and close up - you can see how much steam was coming out from the crater lake which apparently has an acidity of -0.3 (was unaware the ph scale went below zero???)

This is the view from the crater out to see. It is thought that previous eruptions blasted gaps in the side of the crater, which is lucky as that provided safe places for boats to berth near the island and to allow us to get on and have a looksee.

All in all it was a very good, interesting trip and I picked a helluva day for it. I'd been in Mount Maunganui since Friday. Saturday and Sunday were nice days but not really beach days. Monday was definitely a beach day but I wasn't able to take advantage.

Just for Kat, here are the meerkats that welcomed us into the hostel in the Mount. I still haven't got that particular tattoo, but I think these would be a pretty good model, don't ya think??

Rotorua returned

2006-12-06T18:43:00.000-08:00

I've been travelling a wee bit since I last blogged.

I met up with Krazy Kat at the weekend at her dad's place in Motueka at the north of the South Island. Her dad's place is sweet. It's got a huge upper deck outside where they had a big going away party and barbecue for Kat on Saturday night plus a heated pool, which was great to wake up to and dive into on Sunday morning! On Sunday we went to the Motueka A&P show, which is kinda like the Bath & West show but on a much smaller scale. Then in the evening Kat and I went into Nelson for dinner with her friend Sally.

On Monday it was time to say goodbye to Kat, which was really sad, she was heading off home on Tuesday and I had to get to Picton to catch the ferry to the North Island and Wellington.

From Wellington I headed straight up to Napier and then got in to Rotorua yesterday afternoon.

Today I persuaded Susanna, an Irish chick, to go out to the Agrodome with me to go zorbing - well, she didn't take much persuasion! We both went down twice and it was way cool. Then, as we had a bit of time to kill before the bus was due, we wandered over to the place where they have the bungy and swoop. We both decided we weren't going to do a bungy (nope, still haven't talked myself into that one) but talked ourselves into the swoop. This is where you climb into a sleeping bag-type device, get hooked to a cable suspended between two posts and then pulled up into the sky by a crane. And then you let go. Thank god Susanna was with me, cos we didn't realise until we got there that you have to pull a pin out to release us - and one of us had to be the one to do it, we thought one of the dudes who set us up was gonna do that! So I volunteered Susanna to do that. As soon as the crane started pulling us up we started having second thoughts and really didn't want to do it - it was Rock & Ropes all over again, which had terrified me!

But as soon as Susanna pulled the pin out and we were flying, it was so cool!

So tomorrow it's onwards to Mount Maunganui where I plan to spend a few days on the beach. It's certainly looking like beach weather! Aw yip!

Sue xx

Kaikoura

2006-11-30T22:29:00.000-08:00

Well I got back on the Magic bus today and headed up to Kaikoura which is only about 2 hours up the coast from Christchurch. The reason they make us get up so early to make this trip is that lots of people want to go whale watching or swimming with dolphins here so we had to be here for 11.30am.

I passed on the whale watching, having seen so many of them in Hawaii and knowing that it's 90% waiting and only 10% watching. Turns out they only saw about three whales anyway so i don't feel mean not parting with another $117! I'm also figuring I'll go swimming with dolphins when I'm up in the North Island and when it's a wee bit warmer (and also slightly cheaper).

It's been raining all afternoon - I don't believe this, I'm all the way on the other side of the world and what do i get??? Rain, rain and more rain. And, this I do believe, snow has been following me around New Zealand. I've always said that it never snows where I am - and a couple weeks after I leave Queenstown, it's still snowing there, and then about five days after I leave Tekapo, they get 10cms of the stuff. Bugger.

The top item on the news all day today has been the prospective coup in Fiji where the military is threatening (once again) to overthrow the government. Except there was a rugby match between the military and the police so the top military dude went to see that instead of doing coup-things. Ah well.

So as you can tell, I don't really have any news at the moment. I'm off to Picton tomorrow and then on to Motueka to catch up with Krazy Kat. Will catch you all again soon.

Sue xx

More from Chch

2006-11-28T20:50:00.000-08:00

Apparently I didn't put enough pretty pictures in my last blog so here's a few more...

Here's the Catlins coastline from a lookout point somewhere along the way...

And here's Lake Tekapo (I think) with Mount Cook supposedly in the background, but we couldn't work out which one it's supposed to be... Yes, the water is really that blue, what, you think I know how to photoshop like that?????

Last Saturday I went out to the Antarctic Centre here in Christchurch. I went on a hagglund ride which is the all-terrain amphibious vehicle they use out in Antarctica... we went up and down some rather steep hills and then through a pool of water that was a few metres deep. Inside the Centre they have little blue penguins like the ones I saw at Oamaru (but wasn't allowed to take pictures of) earlier in the week, but much closer. These are rescued penguins and we could get much closer to them. The picture on the right is in the storm centre, where you can experience an Antarctic storm including wind chill. Luckily they give you nice warm coats as it was a pretty nice day that day so was in summer clothes ... they also give you rubber booties so they can keep the snow clean (not kidding).

Today I went on a bus rider out to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula. It was really nice out there. This is a picture of the Cathedral Caves which were quite impressive. We saw lots of Hectors dolphins - some of the smallest in the world and very rare, they are only found in New Zealand - they were really playful, dancing around the boat... we also saw a fur seal and some little white winged penguins (or something)... we almost ran a couple over in the boat on the way back but luckily just missed them. It turned into a pretty lovely day today thank goodness.

I've pretty much been just chilling in Christchurch since I got here. I made my way out to the Westfield Mall at Riccarton yesterday but managed not to buy anything - yey, I'm making progress! I also went to see the local professional theatre production of Guys and Dolls on Saturday, which was very good... the dude playing Sky Masterson was no Ewan MacGregor, but hey, given that the last thing I saw was a very amateur production of Rent (8 times), this looked really good to me. I really miss having the West End on my doorstep though.

What else? Well, not a lot really. I'm trying not to hemorrhage any more money... just need to get through December and I should be ok.

I'm in Chch for one more day before I head up to Kaikoura and then on to Picton on Saturday where hopefully I'll get another bus over to Motueka to see Kat for a wee catch up.

So that's pretty much it, more soon!

Around and up the coast...

2006-11-21T21:53:00.000-08:00

I had this drafted before and then the connection got lost and I'd forgotten to save my work... I know, I know, first rule is *save your work*. Watch out, this is a huge post...

Last Thursday I left Queenstown and headed on to Dunedin. I've found that I'm running into a slight problem. Having woken up every morning to beautiful views across lake Wakatipu and Cecil Peak and the Remarks, I've been somewhat spoiled. Most of the scenery I've experienced since leaving Queenstown just hasn't measured up.

The drive over to Dunedin was uneventful ... somehow it was better in the dark and covered with snow as it was when Sam and I went over to Christchurch back in June.

Dunedin

Anyways we got to Dunedin in the early afternoon. Dunedin is a pretty nice place and I could have spent more time there... I could also have spent more money so perhaps it's best that I've since moved on!

On Friday I went on a train journey with a girl called Lisa who I met on the bus, up to the Taieri Gorge. I suspect on a beautiful sunny day this would be quite nice but it was drizzling practically the whole journey and was one of those things that just didn't measure up. In the afternoon we went to the cinema to watch "Out of the Blue". This is a movie based on a true event that happened back in 1990 in a town near Dunedin called Aramoana where a dude called David Grey went psycho and murdered a load of his fellow townsfolk. It was really shocking and quite harrowing to watch.

On Saturday I realised I'd gotten up too early so the internet cafes weren't open yet (yes, I got up early on Saturday...) so I went window shopping instead. Strangely enough I actually didn't buy anything... mind you, I didn't pass any shoe shops so that may explain it.

In the afternoon I went to the Cadbury factory and went on a tour to see how they make the chocolate and how they make the bars and how they put the smarties inside the easter eggs. I'm not spilling their secrets and they wouldn't let us take any photos so I can't share them with you :-(

Invercargill

On Sunday I headed down to Invercargill. Invercargill is a small "city" which is probably most famous for Burt Munro - he held the world fastest land speed record on his Indian motorcycle - and was featured in the movie "The World's Fastest Indian" with Anthony Hopkins playing him (pretty good movie too). But it was Sunday and so it was really sleepy so I just headed to the movies and watched "A Good Year" - this is pretty funny but Russell Crowe is getting a little too used to the whole self-deprecating bloke thing - he'll be giving Hugh Grant and Colin Firth a run for their money before too long.

Stewart Island

Then it was Monday morning and time to head over to Stewart Island - the most southern point of New Zealand (and the world bar Argentina and Chile).

I'd thought that the boat ride from Maui to Lanai had been rough in Hawaii. Oh dear god. The captain calmly mentioned that we could expect swells of about 2-3 metres (I'd been told the ferry stopped altogether when they hit 9 metres). Crikey. Even I was reaching for the sick bag on this crossing - I've never been on a sea that rough. Luckily I hadn't eaten breakfast yet so there was very little for me to chuck up. Ewww. A lot of other people weren't so lucky and they were tossing their cookies for all they were worth, poor things, including a group of school kids.

Finally we made it to the other side and I headed out to find my accommodation. It was called "The View" and the name doesn't lie. It doesn't tell you that it's up the steepest hill I had ever seen. Strewth! But it was worth it once I got up there. It's the little tiny house you can just about make out just off centre (left and up a wee bit).

After a quick bite to eat (actually the best fish and chips I've had so far) I went back to the ferry terminal to go on a cruise around the Paterson Inlet.

This was really pretty, but the weather kinda let it down a bit. We looked at a few little bays on our way out of Halfmoon Bay, and then stopped at Ulva Island for an hour's walk. We saw loads of rare birds, including the saddleback (pictured left) and the Stewart Island Robin (pictured right). The Robin was a funny wee thing, seeming to have no fear of us. Our guide scratched the ground in front of her which apparently released loads of food that the robin likes, so soon enough one of them flew down to see us. It was literally about an arm's length away from us - the zoom on my camera is crap, but you can see it really close in the picture.

Afterwards I decided I'd like to see a little more of Stewart Island so I booked myself onto a tour around the village of Oban and the bays around the area. Here's me in the chain linked to the anchor that is, according to Maori legend, Stewart Island.

I figured I'd seen enough for the moment so settled into the pub for dinner before heading back up the hill to the hostel for the night.

The next morning it was up early again for the 8am ferry back to the South Island. This time it wasn't quite so rough, and the ferry wasn't nearly so full, but it was still rocking and rolling all over the shop. A couple of times the captain cut the engines as a precaution!

Catlins Coast

Back in Invercargill I met up with the bus that would take me back up to Dunedin. Unfortunately we had to wait for another bus that was bringing some girls down from Queenstown. Apparently they hadn't been given the right information so were on a different bus and were running late. We ended up waiting for them for a good hour and a half before their bus turned up and they had absolutely no idea that we had waited so long, the result of which was that we would have to cut a few things out of the day due to time constraints.

Our first stop was at Waipapa, the Southern most point of the South Island. We saw some Hooker Sea Lions lounging around on the beach there...

Who wants a kiss???

The next stop was at Curio Bay for some lunch, followed by a stroll onto a rocky beach where there is a fossilised forest. Yonks ago when the South Island was still volcanically active, an explosion buried the trees, and it is only now, with the coast being eroded that the trees are being uncovered. Not quite as spectacular as the Lava Tree Monument on the Big Island in Hawaii though.

From there we drove to a place called Mcleans Falls. This is a pretty cool waterfall which we had to walk through the rain forest to reach.

We stopped off at a couple other places, but the highlight was at Nugget Point. The Nuggets are formed not by coastal erosion, but instead are thrown up by the sea and turned 90 degrees. The formation of the rocks is similar to that found at Punakaiki (Pancake Rocks) - i.e. a layering effect. We also saw some sea lions here including a mum with two babies.

From there is was straight back up to Dunedin as it was getting late. As it was, we didn't reach Dunedin until 8.30pm. But it was a really good day and even though our time had been shortened, we didn't really feel like we'd missed out on anything.

Oamaru

The next day (Tuesday) I got back on the Magic Bus and headed to Oamaru, just up the coast. On the way we stopped to see the steepest street in New Zealand (or is it the world?), Baldwin Street, with a gradient in excess of 1:1. We also stopped off at a place called Moeraki, to see the Moeraki Boulders. These are formed by coastal erosion, and are pretty cool to look at.

Then it was onwards to Oamaru. I planned to stay here so I could see the blue penguins coming in to nest in the evening. I wasn't disappointed, but again, we weren't allowed to take pictures. I went on a behind the scenes tour of the place where I learnt loads about the penguins, and got to see a couple up close including a baby. They count the penguins coming in each evening and then in the daytime they go around all the nests (all artificial, buried into the landscape) and see who is in each one. They told us that they had one old couple, about 11 years old, who had a couple of babies, and one day the dad didn't come back to land after going out for food that day. The mum tried to make it on her own but couldn't keep up the dual job of feeding and keeping them warm. So she abandoned them. Then she disappeared. After a while the staff figured out that she had moved into a nest next door and taken up with a younger bloke, about 3 years old, and had had babies with him!

Then we watched them all try to make it out of the sea, up the rocky ramp and and on to their nests. They were soooo cute, coming up in groups of about 30-40 at a time. They are only about 30cms tall, and adorable. Just as I was about to leave we heard a crying sound - one of them had caught it's wee foot in the fence and was flapping its wings madly. Just as the keepers were about to go in to free it, one of the other penguins got there and it ran away from the fence. Then it just stood there for a good 10 minutes looking at the fence, wondering if it dare try to get through again or if the fence was gonna try and get it again! (The gaps in the fence are huge - not a problem for any penguin of this size to get through.) Eventually it made it's way slowly back to the fence and got through successfully - we breathed a sigh of relief!

Tekapo

The next day it was back on the Magic Bus once again, up to Lake Tekapo in the Mackenzie Country. We stayed at a place called the Lakefront Lodge and had a barbecue outside - cooked by the men from the bus who had lost a Battle of the Sexes quiz earlier on the bus. It soon became clear during the barbecue that we had the German equivalent of my Queenstown housemate Sam on the bus who provided great entertainment and flirting all round! He kissed another girl, Laura, on the cheek and proudly announced that she was now pregnant and as he had his socks on, it would be a boy!

Christchurch

Today I arrived in Christchurch after a fairly quiet drive over from Tekapo. I'm gonna stay here for a few days I think and explore around before heading up to Kaikoura and then up to Picton where hopefully I'll see Kat for a few days.

That's all for now folks, more in a few days...

Hope you're all well.

Suzi xxx

Onwards...

2006-11-14T15:32:00.000-08:00

I'm having a bit of a lazy day today. The last few have been totally manic as Sam and I have been sorting the house out, throwing stuff away and packing like maniacs... I'm down to my big rucksack plus my daypack plus my shoulder bag plus my food bag once again... and I'm gonna have to half it before I get to Asia... I tried to be ruthless but you know me, I had to get the kitchen sink in.

So Sam and I have now moved out. Sam is driving up to Wellington and then flying over to Brisbane to meet up with Kat over there for a couple weeks before heading home... Kat is heading home too... So it's the end of an era in Queenstown. I'm sad to leave cos I've met so many fantastic people here, but since I plan on coming back for the next ski season I don't feel so bad as I'm gonna see them again.

I've packed a big box and sent it home to mum and dad - should arrive there in about three weeks... containing a few bits and pieces - so, family, make sure you get in there and claim what's yours before M&D hog it all!

I'm leaving Queenstown tomorrow morning. I'm getting back on the Magic Bus and heading for Dunedin for a few days. From there I'll be heading south to Invercargill and on to Stewart Island before heading back to Dunedin.

All in all I've had a fab time here over the last 7 months, but it's definitely time to get moving again and see some more of the world which was my original plan.

Hope everyone back home is well, if you've got any tips on travelling through South East Asia, please share them with me, I'm planning on heading to Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Brunei.

Love to everyone, I should have some new pics fairly soon!

Suzi xxxx

The next stage of Suzi's Travels

2006-10-31T16:56:00.000-08:00

Just a quickie to say I've booked my flights and I'm off to Asia on New Year's Eve! I'm flying in to Singapore for a few days and returning in April. Not sure of the itinerary yet but will post more when I know more. I'm so excited!

Sue x

House Trip to Wanaka

2006-10-23T00:34:00.000-07:00

It dawned on us that we only had a short space of time while all three of us were still here in Queenstown so I took last Friday (20 October) off work to spend the day with Kat and Sam. After umming and aahing for a while we decided on Wanaka as our destination.

We left home at about 9 in the morning, heading out through the Crown Range and over to Wanaka. (Trivia: the Crown Range Road is the highest sealed road in Australasia.) The first thing we did when we got there was to get breakfast - there's a really nice bakery called the Doughbin on the lakefront. Kat and I had pies and pastries (yum - chicken satay) and Sam just had a pastry - claiming it was too early for pie. It's never too early for pie!

After pigging out on pies and pastries we took a few photos (Sam - the man who couldn't run fast enough after setting the timer!) and headed on to our first destination - Puzzling World. I'd been there before with Maggie back at Easter but we'd only done one section of it as we had to make our bus connection to Queenstown.

Sam holding up the Puzzling World sign.

Me and Sam taking a well-earned break after completing the challenging route through the maze. We found all four corners in a set order and then found our way out into the courtyard in the centre. Well almost, we were really tired and needed the loo so headed for the nearest emergency exit sign... I swear it was taking us longer to find the exit than it had to find the first corner!

Kat trying to stand up straight. This is in the wierd room that I couldn't go in last time. The wall that Kat is facing has one of those wierd geometric line thingys on it which made me feel sick. You can see the angle that the floor is on from the way Kat is standing... I made it through this time though, it's really cool!

Kat and Sam in the Lord of the Rings room. See, men are such short arses.

Trying to hold up the Leaning Tower of Wanaka...

Windy woo...

A nice group photo...

For lunch we went back into Wanaka and ate at a cafe along the lakefront.

Then in the afternoon we went to "Have A Shot" - a local shooting range-type place. We each paid $12 for 30 rounds in the air rifle target area. This is where me and dad shooting the rifle at the garage back home paid off. I scored 345, 350 and 400 - beating Kat and Sam who couldn't get above 300! Aftger that we had a round of mini-golf. After a pretty disastrous start we got into the swing of things and I managed to win the game. Sam was not too impressed! Mind you, he had been feeling ill for the last couple days - that's his excuse!

On the way home we stopped at the Cardrona Hotel for some light refreshment...

We did have plans to have a barbecue on the lakefront when we got back to Queenstown but it was after 6 and we figured we wouldn't get the thing going in time as we had plans to go to the Q-Lounge at 8 to meet some people we met while doing Rent a few weeks ago. So we by-passed the barbecue and went home and cooked.

A quick change later and we were in the Q-Lounge. This is a pool hall that we all like going to. Sam made up for his previous losses of the day by consistently winning here. Pete and Jane (from Rent) plus Jane's friend Alanna joined us and we all had a few games and drinks.

At about 11 we decided to move on and Kat and I decided that as we'd never been to the World Bar and had teapots of cocktails we shouldn't miss out and so headed in. Between Kat, Jane, Pete and myself we had 5 teapots.

Well, Kat, Jane and I drank 5 teapots, Pete slurped most of his up from the table - Jane had managed to spill a lot while pouring the drinks and, well, waste not want not, right Pete???

... Is there something Sam and Pete would like to tell us...?

And another nice group photo...

Well, that's it for that day I think... we had an absolute blast... more soon, promise.

Sue xx

Long Overdue Update

2006-10-04T00:41:00.000-07:00

Hmmm it appears it’s been two months since I updated this blog so I better get going huh?

Back in August one of the local theatre production companies was putting Cabaret on at the Memorial Hall and one of the people I work with was in charge of the front of house crew. I said to Kat and Sam “so, do you fancy helping out with front of house work for Cabaret?”. Sam and Kat said yes. I said “what days can you do?”. Sam said any nights and Kat said the second week – her family was coming down for the first week. Boy did Sam regret it cos I took him at his word. We ended up getting dressed up in 1930s gear for a week and a half, putting on quasi-german accents to show people to their seats and sell programmes and other stuff. And it was great fun! They converted the Memorial Hall into the Kit Kat Club complete with tables instead of rows of seats and they put on a hell of a show. And we had a blast.

Here’s Kat, Sam and me all dressed up– and that's Nikki between his legs – and then Kat, me and Kat (and Nikki's hands) with Alex (another guy I work with!) - we were trying to recreate one of the pieces from the show. The last pic is Phena (the head of the front of house crew, aka Fraulein Schist) and her fiancé Photographer Dan. Phena was very scary.

On the middle Sunday, Kat’s family came into town and we went bowling – and almost got thrashed by Kat’s 9 and 11 year old little brothers!

I was there for each night, apart from one when Sam’s brother David arrived in town. We took the night off – primarily so we could go night skiing, but the weather turned crappy so we went out for dinner instead. We went to Surreal which does a mean steak for just $15 – a bargain in Queenstown! We then headed on to Brazz for drinks and shots. Suffice to say a good night was had!

The next day, Saturday 19 August, was the final night of Cabaret (when the above photos were taken). Afterwards everyone headed to Sky City to celebrate (and lose money at the blackjack tables if your name is Sue)…

The next weekend (26 August), I took advantage of the great snow conditions up the Remarkables and headed up for a ski lesson. I had a one-on-one lesson with an instructor whose name I forget now but got me to try a few new things and gain some confidence. It was a really good day but pretty exhausting.

In the evening it was my firm’s mid-winter Christmas party. Yes, Christmas is technically in summer over here but I for one appreciated the sentiment. It actually felt quite Christmassy over the winter – they decorated the shopping centre with snow and pine trees – which I tend to associate with Christmas anyway to that was good.

My firm hired a small restaurant/bar for the night and plied us all with free alcohol and food… what a fantastic combination. They also themed it as Cowboys and Indians. The Thursday before, I headed out to Arrowtown with Ros and Clark from the office to the fancy dress shop to hire something awesome. I ended up as a saloon girl. I took Kat with me as my date (thank god) and we partied the night away in 19^th Restaurant on Steamer Wharf. We had a great night, I managed to dance the night away and generally had a fab time. Here’s a few pics… and yes, there’s that Alex again, partying away…

On Thursday 31 August I once again took the day off work and Kat, Sam and I headed up Cardrona once again. It was a little more difficult this time – the conditions were rather icy and windy on the Sue-friendly side of the mountain (on the left on the map below) so we took the plunge and headed over to the other side which was more sheltered. To get there, we had to ski along cat tracks which, given the strength of the wind, was slightly scary – I was paranoid I was going to get blown over the side – Kat almost did on her board. Sam had sold me on the other side saying “well, it’s a little bit steep here but then it opens up into a bowl and will be ok”. I guess I need to reconcile my definition of “steep” with Sam’s… OMG. I had to stop practically every other turn to check my way down. How I got down I have no idea but it scared the hell out of me! I did feel quite chuffed that I had managed it though. We all headed up the lift back to the top and I headed back to the other side of the mountain for a few runs – again along cat tracks! The only way back to the “nicer” bits was by going down blue or black runs (not gonna happen!) or by using the cat tracks. Anyways, I got my confidence back up and went back to join Kat and Sam for lunch on the steeper side. All the way down I had to keep telling myself “you’ve done this before, Sue, you can do it again…” and I got down in one piece. After lunch I headed back to the other side for a couple more runs before heading to the bar for a diet coke and a wild berry crumble which was yummy.

Unfortunately that was the last skiing I’ve done for this season. There just hasn’t been enough snow at weekends to make it worthwhile going up. Concrete Peak closed last weekend and the Remarks closes this weekend. Not fair!

Heading into September, we obviously hadn’t learned our lessons from Cabaret, and had put our names down to get involved with the local production of Rent. Sam got a sweet gig doing the sound for the production (he also turned out to be the sound man for Kat’s mate Simon’s band when they did gigs in town…) while Kat and I got involved in front of house work again. In the week beginning Monday 4^th September we all found ourselves in our worst clothes painting the interior of the Memorial Hall to look like a New York warehouse. Two weeks later we found ourselves ready to go on opening night, Kat dressed up like a hooker to sell programmes and me all in black to show people to their seats. The upside is that we once again got to see the show for free each night, the downside sometimes was that we got to see the show… This was truly an amateur production which didn’t really seem to hit it’s stride until the final night when we had a really great energetic audience which the cast seemed to play off of. After the show, they had an award ceremony followed by a skit put on by the crew. I haven’t laughed that hard in ages – I was in tears.

Here’s Kat and Sanna dressed as hookers selling programmes…

Rent ended on Sunday – and we’ve all been pretty exhausted since then. Although I did get up the energy to go to the White Tiger on Monday. I’ve wanted a tattoo for absolutely ages and I figured now was as good a time as any so I booked myself an appointment for a consultation to pick a design and colours. When I got there a dude was getting a tattoo of a spiders web on his elbow – which must’ve been bl**dy painful… I picked a butterfly shape and colours and handed over half the dosh - $50. I then went back yesterday and got it done. OMG it was painful. When he started doing the outline, it felt like I was being cut with a scalpel without anaesthetic… and well you know what I’m like with needles… after about 5 mins I felt really faint, and had to lie down. Another guy came into the shop with a question so that was good timing! Once I felt better, we started again but after about another 5 mins I felt faint again. This time the recovery was better though as he had finished doing the outline so we finished it off – this time he was filling in the colour which just felt like a momentary stab which was much better. I was only in there for about 50 minutes and now I have a beautiful butterfly on the back of my right shoulder!

I’ve just got to get used to it now. It’s freaking me out a little bit, especially now I can see the places where the needle went in! But I really love it. My original plan was to get a little tiger cub alongside it, batting his claws at it… I’m still considering it but need to get up the guts for it… the butterfly is about twice the size I originally thought it was gonna be, which means the tiger would have to be bigger too… we’ll see!

And here’s a few other random pics from the last couple months…

Well, that's about all for now, gotta go and have more adventures...

Love and hugs to everyone
Sue xxxxxxxx
Sweet as

More skiing pics!

2006-08-04T01:58:00.000-07:00

I took the day off work today to head up to Cardrona with Sam and Kat. They both work weekends so being in the minority I took the day off and we all drove up. Sam's regular car is at the garage with a myriad of things wrong with it, but because he works for a car rental company, he managed to get a cool car to replace it. It's a 4WD Ute and it's huge. Which is a good thing. We left at what seemed like the crack of dawn - 7.30am (and Sam is still complaining about that) and headed up over the Crown Range road to Cardrona. I felt a bit car sick by the time we got to the bottom of the road, the Crown Range road is really windy. The actual road up to the ski fields is about as bad as the Remarkables road.

We picked such a nice day for it. Check out this picture to the left...

The snow was pretty good up there, a wee bit icy in places but much better than the conditions at Coronet Peak. This is our new favourite place to ski.

Here's me making my way down a nice easy run. I made about 7 runs today from the top. Sam scoped out some other runs but I don't think I'm ready for them yet. I just need more confidence on the steeper bits and to gain more speed and turn more. I have a tendency to traverse right across the slope from side to side covering every possible inch of the surface, especially when it's steep.

Here's Kat on her backside. We all came down in a bit of pain today. Sam's knee and toes are hurting for him, Kat's ar$e for her, and me... well, that's a bit embarassing. I haven't quite mastered the art of getting off the ski lift yet. The first time it tried to take me on round and back down with it, the second and third time I nearly decapitated Kat with my poles, and the final time I managed to take out the other two guys who were on the lift with me. I ended up on my side laid across the skis of one of the dudes, and I now have a totally massive bruise on the side of my thigh together with a nice lump and a whole lot of pain. I melted the frozen peas on it when we got home.

So we're all pretty exhausted now, after a really wicked day. It's the weekend now and we haven't really got any plans but we should be going up Coronet Peak for night skiing tomorrow night (Saturday). We'll see. Well, we'll see if our various bruises and lumps and swollen knees and dislocating toes feel like going up at any rate.

Am having a fab time, enjoy the pics.

Hugs to everyone,
Love Sue xxx

Mid-winter update... stop nagging

2006-07-28T16:37:00.000-07:00

Hmmm so it appears I haven't written for nearly 2 months now and have been getting a bit of jip for not staying in touch.

So what's been happening since we moved in? Well, Kat's joined us so we're a happy family now. There's a couple photos here of inside our house - the woodburner that keeps us toasty plus our kitchen.

Oh, and here's Sam and Kat...

Back in June Sam and I went up to Wellington for a long weekend. I really wanted to see the Lord of the Rings exhibition at Te Papa (the museum in Wellington) and I had the opportunity to take a couple of days off work so we decided to head up. We booked flights from Christchurch up to Wellington - it cost double to fly from Queenstown and would've had to connect in Christchurch anyway.

However, the weekend we picked to go was also the week that the worst storm for about 30 years decided to hit the South Island. Not kidding. It mainly hit the eastern side of the island - with some people left without power for 2 weeks, and rendered the main pass through from Queenstown to the east coast unpassable. So we had to take a wee detour.

So we drove (well, Sam drove) over to Oamaru where we planned to spend the night in the YHA.

The drive was really pretty even though it was dark, and the moon was huge in the sky. (honest - the zoom on my camera is crap so this picture is quite good for me.)

We almost ran out of petrol on the way. We hit Palmerston on the east coast at about 9pm that night and tried to find a petrol station but there was none open whatsoever. At 9pm on a Thursday night, nothing was open, and we were almost out of fuel. But there was no choice, we had to keep going and really hope that we could find something a few miles up the road.

Thankfully we found an unmanned station a few miles out of Palmerston so we were good up to Oamaru. Oamaru turned out to be really nice - we didn't see much of it but there's plenty to do there and they've got penguin colonies which I really want to see. However we had to get moving at 9am the next day up to Christchurch to catch our flight.

We were really glad we decided to stop in Oamaru rather than Timaru - as far as Oamaru the roads had been fine. There was snow on the sides of the roads but the roads themselves were clear. But in Timaru, there was slush everywhere.

So we finally made it up to Christchurch, and checked in. We were booked in on the cheapest flights we could find - which for the outward trip was with Origin Pacific. We'd never heard of it but hey, the flights were cheap which was the main priority. Except when we got to the gate and saw this little prop plane out the window I nearly flipped. I'm a good flyer usually, but I wasn't particularly keen on getting in this one.

Sam wasn't particularly helpful either. We'd brought a pack of cards with us to pass the time and he tried to make me play 52 card pickup.

Thankfully it was only a half hour flight and we soon touched down in Wellington.

Friday

We took the obligatory trip up the cable car in the morning - and wouldn't you know, it was a nicer day and a better view than the other two times I went up there when I was staying in Wellington. Sam hadn't been up before so it was a new adventure for him.

Apart from that, we played tourist for the day... wandering around the city... no shopping allowed... and then in the evening we went to a basketball game - neither of us had ever been to a live one before so we thought we'd take one in and see what it was like. Having been brought up on football and rugby it was strange watching these big six foot plus guys who couldn't seem to run around for any longer than 2 minutes. But it was a good atmosphere and a good night. And the donuts were lovely too.

Saturday

We finally got to Te Papa in the afternoon of Saturday. We went on the guided tour of the Lord of the Rings exhibition. This was really cool... lots of technical stuff on how they got a six foot plus dude to play a 3 foot dwarf etc. And lots of Elf and Ranger photos and gear. I'm still a Ranger girl though. Unfortunately we couldn't take any photos in there, and the souveniers were rather expensive. I was tempted by a few bits but managed to restrain myself ...

In the evening we played a few games of pool (yep, sam kicked my arse again) and then had a really nice Italian dinner... yum.

Sunday

It was an early start on Sunday as had to be at the airport for an 8.30am flight. We decided to take a taxi to the airport cos we were both tired. Thankfully we were on a Qantas flight back down to Christchurch which was much nicer and had more room and was less full.

So we landed safely in Christchurch and claimed our bags. Then headed to the car. Sam checked his bag. The pocket he'd put his car keys in was open and empty. Oh shit. We'd put my nice pink swiss army knife in there too and that was gone as well. Back to baggage services. Sam reported it missing and the nice helpful people went about looking for it, calling the cargo people to check the cargo area of the plane. Then I started checking the other pockets on Sam's bag. "Ooh Sam, what's this... isn't this your yellow torch...?" "Oh, and aren't these your CAR KEYS attached to it?" Cue Sam to go bright red and offer the only possible apology he could make in the circumstances. "I'm a man." Well yes, there really wasn't anything else he could've said to get himself out of that one.

So it was back to the car and on with the 6hr drive back to Queenstown. This time the passes were open so we drove a different route, and it was absolutely stunning. I seem to be using that phrase a lot but it perfectly describes the scenery out here. Absolutely stunning.

A few weeks ago it was the winter festival here in Queenstown. It's basically an excuse to go out drinking, and if you're a tourist it's great cos there's lots of free stuff on in the daytime. Unfortunately if you work during the day you generally end up paying to do stuff in the evening. We went to a comedy debate, to an ice hockey game, to the mardi gras and the opening thingy and it was all pretty cool. Unfortunately on the final weekend I got sick with another bad cold and ended up missing some of the stuff I'd wanted to see.

Since then we've pretty much just been hanging out. The ski season opened a week late back in June but since then Sam has been a regular ski bunny and Kat is heading that way on her snowboard too.

I had my first snowboarding lesson a couple weeks ago up at the Remarkables. I sort of started to get the hang of it towards the end and was absolutely exhausted. Sam and Kat plus Kat's friend Simon decided to go night skiing at Coronet Peak. I could already feel my knees and hips were bruised (although strangely my ar$e got a break on this one) so I just went up with them and sat in the brasserie drinking mulled wine and falling asleep while they skiied and boarded.

Then on Friday the weather came in again. It snowed overnight. I looked out the window and went "f*** f*** f***". Kat thought I'd broken the hair dryer. Sam came out of his room looking completely disorientated saying "what's up?" and I told him to look outside. "Do you want a lift in to work" he said and boy did I accept. There was no way I was driving on that!

So Sam drove me in to work, dropped me off, and just as he got back up the hill to our house the police closed the roads. Sam just about got to the bottom of our drive, tried to drive up it and slid back down. Out came the chains, and just as he'd got them fitted on, the neighbours came out to see if he needed a hand - and were surprised that Sam had already got them fitted. So Sam parked his car and he and Kat settled in for the morning, while I sat at work and wondered if I was gonna be able to get home that night. The roads re-opened by lunchtime though, but both Coronet and the Remarks were closed that day and night skiing too.

Never mind, last Saturday was a beautiful day and there was loads of powder on the slopes at Coronet Peak, and Kat and I headed up around lunchtime. We took Sam's car as it's 4WD and has chains. We should've been ok to drive up with just the 4WD but we both thought the car was slipping a bit so stopped to put the chains on. And got half soaked in the process by some ignorant retards who drove by us too fast and too close and sprayed us with crap from the road. Nice. We were glad we'd put the chains on though - felt much more secure.

Anyways, the boarding was good and the powdery snow provided a nice cushion to fall on. I didn't t hurt half as much the next day as I did after the last session.

By 4.30 I was exhausted though so we drove down (and got mucky taking the darn chains off the car - more difficult than putting them on), picked Sam up from work and I took Kat's car home while they went back up for night skiing. Kat is getting on really well and Sam is practically a pro so I've got a lot of ground to make up. But it's rather expensive to ski/board here. Renting skis costs $20 a day and a board costs $30, then an afternoon's lift pass is $50 (a full day is nearer $80), which is really expensive, considering I'm on the same wage in dollars as I was in pounds back home. Take note folks, if you're over here on holiday with $3 to the £1 then you're getting a bargain, but living here is much more expensive than living back home, even by London standards. I thought Lauren was kidding when she said it was expensive out here, but she was dead right. Still, I'm just about managing to save a little and should be able to get at least 1 days' skiing or boarding in a week. I did feel after that session that I was getting the hang of it a bit more, and a bit more control, and was managing to turn from my toe edge onto my heel edge. Can't quite manage from heel to toe but we'll save that for another time.

Last night we went up to Coronet for night skiing again and this time I skiied. It all came back fairly well and I only fell over twice. Sam came down with me and he even skiied backwards to keep an eye on me. Bless.

We should be heading on up again tonight for more punishment...

So that's the story of the last couple of months. I'll try to update more regularly ...

Love to everyone,
Sue xxx

Settling in

2006-05-25T17:39:00.000-07:00

We moved into our new place to live last weekend. I've moved in with Sam (bloke) and soon Kat will be arriving. We're all English and all quite insane so it should be an interesting ride.

It's a nice cosy house/bungalow in Sunshine Bay, a suburb of Queenstown. It's all wood-cladded inside making it look slightly like a swedish spa straight out of Ikea but we've learnt to ignore it by now. It's got a wood-burner in the lounge area, which we haven't quite figured out yet. Sam is busy chopping wood every day, but we can't seem to get big chunks of logs lit, just the kindling. If anyone has any tips for us, please let us know! We've just about got the place warmed up - between the oil heater in each room plus the halogen heater and the wood burner in the lounge, sometimes it feels almost toasty. And it's still only the end of May and will get much colder. Mmmm can't wait for my ski jacket to arrive to keep me warm outside. I wake up each morning and look out of the kitchen window (no, I don't sleep in the kitchen, don't be stupid) and see Cecil and Walter Peak across the lake and the Remarkables off to the north east and it's just stunning. Well, it wasn't this morning as it was raining. But that meant I didn't have to spend 10 minutes scraping ice off my windshield with my credit card. Yes, I've finally found another use for them, they're really great multi-use things. And yes I'm driving and no I haven't crashed yet, I'm really a very good driver as I proved in Hawaii thank you very much. I own a nice automatic honda accord with a nice red interior. I would've preferred pink but that wasn't an option.

The ski season starts over here mid-June but we've already had sporadic snow. Some insane people hiked up to the top of Coronet Peak last week when we had snow so they could ski or board down, since the lifts aren't operational yet. I plan on heading out to Cardrona at some stage as that is the best place for beginners to ski. I won't be going up to the Remarkables, just the drive up alone would put me off - hairpin bends with sheer drops with snow on the road is a combination I don't fancy facing! But it does all make for incredible scenery.

I've been in my new job for just over two weeks now. We get paid every fortnight which is a nice surprise rather than having to wait until the end of each month to get back afloat. The job is going well, but I'd forgotten all the day to day transactional stuff I used to know when I worked as a secretary at SJB ... but it's gradually coming back and I'm finding my way around, and everyone is really nice.

I'll get those pictures from Milford and Doubtful Sound loaded up one of these days. We're getting broadband installed at the house this weekend so I'll be able to load them up from there.

Hope everyone's well, keep emailing me your news and gossip.

Hugs,
Suzi xxx

Pandas...

2006-05-11T17:58:00.000-07:00

Well I had written up my post with my pictures of me feeding the pandas and saved it as a draft to post another time, posted it up this morning and unfortunately it has retained the date I originally wrote it. So you'll have to scroll down to the bottom again to view them. But they're so darn cute that they're totally worth it!

Suz x

Piccies!

2006-05-04T18:37:00.000-07:00

Check out the several posts below for piccies - they go down a long way and you're probably better off starting at the bottom and working your way up. I've still got Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound to load up, will do that over the weekend. Enjoy everyone!

Queenstown

2006-05-04T17:02:00.000-07:00

Here's me and my mate Maggie at the Kawarau Jet, on the Wakatipu and Shotover rivers in the Queenstown area.

Luging

Here's me and Paul with our respective new friends in Minus 5, the ice bar in Queenstown.

Glaciers

2006-05-04T17:01:00.000-07:00

Me n Em at Franz Josef

Here are a couple pics from my heli hike near the top of the glacier at Franz Josef

The road less travelled...

Here's Shaun, our guide, pointing something out...

Skydive #2

Looking down onto the Fox Glacier...

Looking up to Mount Cook (left at just over 12,000 ft) and Mount Tasman (right at just under 12,000 ft). Nearly time to jump out now...

And here's me and Greg (the tandemmaster) on our way down.

Various

2006-05-04T17:00:00.001-07:00

This is the reason why I'm reluctant to do a bungy... this is the giant swing at Rock n Ropes - the 50 foot pole on the right with the cage at the top is what you jump off of and swing. Yes, it looks bloody high up from the ground when you're a short ar$e like me but it looks twice as high when you're actually up there. Strangely, the bungy locations are starting to look less high...

Mt Ruapehu aka Mount Doom

Get off the road!

A friend for Rodney...

Friends for certain people... you know who you are...

This is where I stayed in Greymouth...

... and as you can see I made myself right at home...

Lord of the Rings alert

2006-05-04T17:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Hobbiton.
Of all the LotR places I've visited, this was easily the most recognisable.

Here is me with the signboard, and the party tree in the background to the left.

Looking up Hobbiton, with Bag End at the top left. The tree at the top is not the oak tree above Bag End, that was imported in pieces and taken down when filming finished.

Me, in the entrance to Bag End. I could pass for Gandalf - look how small it is!

Looking out of Bag End...

Tamaki Hangi

2006-05-04T16:59:00.000-07:00

In Rotorua, I went to a traditional Maori Concert and Hangi. Here are the pics...

This is the entrance to the Hangi

... the Maori do their dance to intimidate their visitors...

...inside to the concert...

... the chiefs touch noses as they are welcomed into the hangi...

... this is the hangi in which our dinner was cooked...

Auckland

2006-05-04T16:34:00.000-07:00

On my first real day in Auckland (i.e. after Qantas gave me my backpack back) the first thing I did was head up the Sky Tower. This is my hostel from the Sky Tower viewing deck, about 180m up...

And here is the SKy Tower from Mount Eden, the highest point in Auckland...

Panda Feeding Frenzy

2006-05-04T16:20:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are the photos of me feeding the lovely pandas at Wellington Zoo. If you don't say "aaahhhhhhh" then you've got no heart.

The top two photos are Jay and his daughter Kali, and I can't remember the names of his other two kids in the third photo. Mum was outta sight as she had had a phantom pregnancy and was a little upset.

But aren't they just tooooooo cute?

2006-04-25T18:01:00.000-07:00

Well the weather has turned pretty crap here the last couple of days. So much so that the only sensible thing to really do is something based on the water like rafting or boarding since you're gonna get wet anyway... But when was I sensible huh?

Queenstown is looking like it's a cool place to be if you've got loads of money to burn on adrenaline-stoked stuff, like bungy jumping (possibly back on the cards), water-rafting or -boarding, or paragliding. Day to day it's looking a bit bleak.

The ski season is looking promising. The resorts don't open until about June 10 but I looked out of my dorm windown across the lake this morning and up to the mountains on the other side, and they are all topped with snow! Fingers crossed it keeps coming...

Suz xx

News from Queenstown

2006-04-21T16:52:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday Maggie and I went to the airshow "Warbirds over Wanaka" which was pretty cool. There was lots of aerial acrobatics and demonstrations, the best of which had to be the fuel dump by the F-111 plane - I got some great photos which I will post fairly soon as I've not got too much room left on my memory card. We went into Wanaka town in the evening and seemed to hop around every bar that was open! We started off in an Irish bar for dinner, then moved on to an ale house with views over the lake, then on to another Irish bar, and then back to the first Irish bar. There weren't too many places open on Easter Sunday - which Maggie and Ray thought was wierd as no-one had to go to work the next day so they figured people would be taking advantage. But no, the town was pretty dead. We did meet some cool people who were up from Dunedin for the weekend for the airshow and will definitely catch up with them when I head down that way.

On Monday we (Maggie and I) walked up to the Puzzling World. This is one of those places where pretty much all you say is "how did they do that?", but it did answer some of the questions I'd had in Lord of the Rings in respect of how they had a guy who was over 6 foot playing a dwarf smaller than a hobbit without too much digital trickery. There were also these wierd portraits where it was like someone had pressed their face into a sheet of plastic and let it mould to their features - so they were indented into the wall - but yet they looked like they were leaping out at you and they followed you all around the room. There was also a room where everything was at an angle and they had those wierd black and white line thingys on the wall so as soon as I walked in those line thingys started moving and I felt sick - so Maggie had to go through on her own. It completely freaked me out.

In the afternoon we caught the Magic bus on to Queenstown. So far it seems like there's lots to do here if you have the money to spend ...

So far we've been jetboating up the Kawarau river which was great fun - thank god Maggie persuaded me to wear a waterproof as I ended up sitting at the side of the jetboat and got pretty soaked on some of the 360 degree turns! We then went up the gondola to the luge - which is the same thing I did in Rotorua. We went down 5 times without coming off once - and one point the track looks pretty much vertical when you get to the top of the peak and is followed quickly by a 180 degree bend - so we were lucky to stay on the track cos we decided we liked going down that bit pretty fast... We also hit the casino to play blackjack and came off slightly better than we went in.

On Wednesday, Maggie and Ray headed out to Milford Sound. This part is already covered by my Magic bus pass and they were hiring a car to do it, so I've stayed on in Queenstown. I spent Wednesday and Thursday chilling out not really doing much, then on Friday I met a guy called Paul in the hostel who is from the UK but now has residency out here and restores old warbirds - and we went on a steamship tour down Lake Wakatipu which is the lake that Queenstown sits on. We also hit a local pool club where we came out pretty even, then ate fergburgers (yum - gourmet burgers - although (Nat and Austen) the burger we had at the Novotel in the Docklands is still the best), then played blackjack in the casino where I doubled my $20 which I used for my entry into the ice bar that was downstairs. It's a vodka bar where everything is made from ice, even the glasses you drink out of, and is set at a rather cool minus 5 degrees, hence the name "Minus 5".

Anyways, Paul left to return to Auckland this morning so I'm going to spend the rest of the weekend chilling out and trying to plan a few days out to Te Anau, Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound for maybe next weekend.

So that's pretty much what I've been doing for the last week. Will write more when I have more news...

Take care everyone, and a belated Happy Easter to you all.

Suz xx

Who guessed...?

2006-04-14T20:46:00.000-07:00

Update from Wanaka...

This is the second time I've created this post now so I hope I remember what I wrote before..

So my big plan for Thursday was to go skydiving. I'd originally planned to take a helicopter ride up Fox Glacier to see Mounts Tasman and Cook, but realised that for not too much more money I could jump out of a plane too. And it was amazing. Seeing the mountains up close was cool and I got some great pictures (I was allowed to take my camera along on this one rather than paying $x for the privilige). It was a 12,000 feet jump, the same as the one at Lake Taupo, but I was more aware of everything as I knew what to expect. Strangely I was a little more apprehensive for this one, but I still couldn't wait to do it. The company that did it was much more personal than the factory line at Taupo which just made it a better experience. The only downside was that the straps cut into my underarms a wee bit and I now have red marks there - and it's still a bit sore. And I had to adjust my own straps in mid air to make myself more comfortable, rather than the dude behind me loosening a few things and making me drop the longest inch of my life.

In the afternoon, one of the guys from the hostel, Chad, took a few of us out to Gillespie's Bay - while he searched for firewood we played with his dog and had a great time.

We ended up having to stay in Fox another night as we couldn't find any accommodation for Friday night in Wanaka. And it was kinda touch and go whether we could stay in Fox... luckily they had a cancellation, otherwise we would've had to head back to Franz Josef and spend the night there.

Today we've arrived in Wanaka. We plan to spend tomorrow at the airshow and get in lots of drinking time. I'm travelling with an Irish lass called Maggie at the moment so methinks we'll be hitting an Irish pub... It's all great stuff!

So it's all going well with me, how's it going at home? Write with your news, you know my email address.

Hugs,
Suzi xxx

Glaciers...

2006-04-11T23:57:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it out to the terminal face of the Franz Josef glacier on Monday - and it was quite impressive. It spurred us all on to make adventurous plans for Tuesday. My friend Em and her boyfriend Ben booked an ice climb - which looked far too strenuous for little old me - and I booked myself onto the Heli Hike. We all had a fab day and got some great pictures.

For the heli hike, we were lifted up the glacier to about I guess three quarters of the way up the glacier. The views were amazing. We then tied on our talons and hiked for about 2 and a bit hours over the ice and through various ice formations - through some simple crevasses and holes and - the highlight for me - sliding on my arse (yes, it's getting another workout here) down and through an ice cave/tunnel. That was an amazing experience - I so wish I'd dropped my camera through to our guide, Shaun, who was waiting at the other end to take some pictures. There were a few hairy moments, like where the guide had walked safely over some loose snow only for me to follow and for my boot to end up in freezing water up to my ankle - and those boots weren't as waterproof as I'd have liked - (one unfortunate woman ended up going in up to her waist) and when Shaun was happily hacking his way ahead only to find that he'd hit a dead end! He hit two dead ends in a row at which point all confidence we'd built up with the snow talons moving over the ice had almost evaporated and I started to get a bit worried. Thankfully on his third try he hit paydirt and led us through to the cave/tunnel, so we carried on and had a whale of a time.

By the time we came down I could already feel that my thighs were slightly sore so I headed straight for the hot tub at the hostel - heaven. A young girl from Christchurch on her school holidays came in and joined me, and then 4 guys from Belgium came in. Twas rather cramped in there I must say. I really hoped it was gonna do the trick and loosen up my muscles but no, today (Wednesday) I've been really sore and really don't like to go up and down stairs.

We drove here to Fox Glacier this morning. I said goodbye to Em and Ben and checked into my hostel - the Ivory Towers - a slightly grand name for an average place. Still, I tried to head out to the terminal face of the glacier but didn't quite make it. The landscape is more rugged than at Franz Josef and we had to cross a new river that was gushing a bit and then a crack in the ground which looked a bit beyond the capability of my legs at the moment. I did get some impressive views though. Fox isn't as big as Franz Josef but it's still pretty spectacular.

I've made my plans for tomorrow which I'll write about next time so will be staying here for another night. Then hopefully I'll be heading to Wanaka on Friday and maybe catch some of the "Warbirds over Wanaka" airshow that is on this weekend. But since they're expecting upwards of 80,000 people to visit over the three days I'd better go and book my hostel bed and make sure I can stay there - if not, it'll be on to Queenstown.

Gotta go, internet time running out.

Suz xxx

Snow!

2006-04-09T16:16:00.000-07:00

Well... I can see it at the top of the mountain at any rate...

I'm in Franz Josef at the moment. I travelled down from Nelson on Saturday to Greymouth ... which wasn't exactly the liveliest town on the planet... We went on a tour of the brewery there - Monteiths - and learned all about how beer is made, and then got to try all of the ones they make, followed by pulling our own pint of the one we liked the most. So that was two pints of beer before we left the brewery, plus inhaling the fumes inside. Then we went on to the Railway Hotel where we had a BBQ buffet and a free mega pint. All that plus the tour for only $20 - bargain. So we had a few drinks and played a few games of pool before realising that we would have to be up at 7 the next morning and that we were actually pretty knackered and drunk. And it was only 10pm. And there were only about 10 people in the bar - on a Saturday night. Apparently it would have been heaving if we'd stayed around, but we just couldn't quite believe it.

Yesterday (Sunday) we travelled down here to Franz Josef, via a jade workshop and a gold panning place. I decided not to do the gold panning given that I would have had to have about 50 goes to get enough for the tiniest pair of stud earrings.

We arrived in Franz Josef at around lunchtime yesterday, and the weather was not good. All the helicopter rides and kayak trip were cancelled because of it. Basically Franz Josef is a really small town at the foot of a glacier. So the scenery is stunning (when it's not absolutely tipping it down and the cloud is high), but it has a tendency to rain like you wouldn't believe. Which it did. After we'd decided to take a bus out to the foot of the glacier and go for a bit of a walk to see it a bit closer, since we didn't fancy doing an actual hike up the glacier that afternoon. Big mistake. Within 20 mins we were soaked to the skin (well my legs were anyway, I had a kagoul on top) and decided to turn back - but the bus wasn't due back for another hour and a half so we had to blag a ride with a bus that was taking some insane hikers back into town. Phew!

Today my friend is due into town so I'm gonna meet up with her and her boyfriend and see what we can do today. I'm hoping the weather holds so the helicopters are still working. I'll keep you posted.

Suz xx

Nelson Ahoy

2006-04-05T01:01:00.000-07:00

Just a quickie blog to let you all know what I've been up to.

I've spent the last two weeks in Wellington waiting for a tax number to come through so I could head on south and get some work for the winter. I had a great time in Wellington and met some lovely people, but staying there for two weeks was rather stretching things a bit.

I did pretty much all the tourist things there... I went to the top of Mount Victoria for a 360 degree view of the city, went up the cable car to the botanical gardens (... not that I actually made it into the botanical gardens... Wellington is the windy city and at the top of the cable car it was even more windy... so I made it as far as the restaurant for a beer...), went to the zoo... twice... the second time I went to feed the red pandas - they're sooooo cute and just crawled all over me to get their lunch... piccies soon I promise but I need to fill up my camera memory card a bit more first, met up with an old friend, went to the museum, to the cinema, to a few bars, to the rugby, and on a Lord of the Rings tour (brother - stuff coming your way from that one).

Anyways, my tax number came through on Monday so I said hasta la vista to Wellington and headed down to the south island on Tuesday. Given that the wind had been howling around and banging the window of my dorm room all night I really thought I was gonna toss my cookies on the ferry crossing, but it was so calm, and the views as it came into Picton were to die for.

So I'm now in Nelson which is a lovely little city with about 80,000 people.

Yesterday (Wednesday) I went up to Able Tasman National Park. We took a coach out to Kaiteri, and then a boat up to Torrent Bay, and walked about 12km back to Marahau. Bloody knackering. If that's an easy walk, I really am not ready to do the Tongariro Crossing...! Thank god there was a nice bar waiting for me at the end of it as for the entire last hour of the walk all I'd been seeing in front of me was a nice cold pint. You know in cartoons when people get really hungry they start seeing people as steaks or something? - I was like that but with beer. Heaven!

This morning (Thursday) I went on the skywire which is a wire suspended over a canyon, you sit in a cage-type thingy drop down about 150m across the canyon at about 100kph. See, I've not given up the adrenaline rush just yet.

I'll post more news when I have it. Hope everyone is well and taking care. Email me all your news!

Love Suz xx

All things Well and good

2006-03-21T14:27:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Wellington.

Lauren never told me it rained so much here. I knew it was known as the "Windy City" but I didn't twig on the rain part at all... Good thing I bought that Kagoul after the day up Rangitoto in Auckland huh?

I've just been chilling out for the last few days. I spend Saturday and Sunday at the cricket - New Zealand are playing the West Indies - it's quite different watching it at ground level than on TV, but it was a nice way to spend a couple of days sat under the clouds and watching NZ kick ass... Maybe I'll even catch a game of... horror of horrors... rugby while I'm here.

Hope everyone is well, email me all your news, or give me a bell some time.

Love and hugs,
Suz xx

From 12,000 ft to zero

2006-03-15T20:14:00.000-08:00

I did it! See, Austen, I told you I would...

I fell out of a plane at 12,000 feet with a man attached to my back and lived to tell the tale.

[I'm screaming with joy although it might look like I'm crying?]

We tumbled out of the airplane, did a somersault and then freefell for 7,000 feet for about 45 seconds and then pulled the parachute out for the last 5,000 and spun around and around and around... I actually felt a bit sick. The freefall wasn't a problem, I could have done that for longer, I think it was the spinning that did it.

After the guy pulled the cord for the chute he loosened the straps a bit to make it more comfortable, and I thought he was gonna drop me out of the straps completely - it was the bigges inch of my life ... but I hung on, spiralled around and around and hit the ground on my ar$e (as instructed, that wasn't an accident) - my ar$e is getting a real workout on this trip huh?

I want to go again... but I can't afford another one quite so soon.

I'm enjoying New Zealand a whole lot, there's just so much to do, I'm turning into a real adrenaline junkie...

Hope everyone's well,
Love and hugs
Suz xx

Zorbing is da bomb!

2006-03-14T17:54:00.000-08:00

I went zorbing as promised this morning... not just once, but three times! It was so cool, a total rush.

Unfortunately the photo files are too large to load up to this site so I had to create another one. Go to www.flickr.com/photos/suzistravels for photos of me rocking and rolling down the zig zag track and popping out sopping wet at the end. You need to view them from the bottom to the top as they loaded back to front.

Enjoy,
Suz xx

The end of Hawaii

2006-03-13T20:04:00.000-08:00

Well, that's it folks. If anyone wants to see more photos, I'll do my best to load them up for you, but it's taken me two hours to load up this last lot for Volcano Hilo and Maui. I'm sending the CDROM home for the family to have a look.

There's quite a bit underneath this blog - for Volcano, Hilo and Maui so please do check out the photos. I've had a blast taking them and experiencing half of what Hawaii has to offer, so I hope you enjoy looking at them.

Suz xx

Maui = Whales

2006-03-13T19:37:00.000-08:00

You just can't go to Maui and not go whalewatching. Whether you go on an organised tour like I did, or simply drive up the Lahaina coast, you will see them strutting their stuff... Here's a few of the best from whalewatching trip with the Pacific Whale Foundation (pls see the post from Maui for more details on this).

Banyan Tree Square, Lahaina

This one single tree takes up an entire block in Lahaina. When the banyan tree branches out, its vines drop to the ground and dig in to give it support. So what looks like two dozen trees when you get underneath, is actually just one. Pretty impressive.

Wood carving dude

This one's for the family - this is the dude who carved the statue I sent home - he's carving the figures name and the date on it in this photo.

Big Island continued - Hilo side

2006-03-13T19:25:00.000-08:00

This next set were taken after I left the volcano for the eastern side of the island for a couple of days.

Akaka Falls

This waterfall is the tallest on the Big Island, at 400 ft. There had been quite a bit of rain in the days before I went there, so the waterfall was roaring a bit. It's really dramatic - the viewing point is I guess about two thirds of the way up, so not for those with vertigo.

181- Lava tree monument

When lava flooded this area, it cooled down around the trees and solifidied - so when the lava subsided the solid structures remained. The trunks inside would be burned to charcoal and disintegrate - which you can see when you look at the ones which are lying down on the floor having been toppled over - they are hollow inside.

Kumakahi lighthouse

We nearly didn't make it there in one piece - we were barrelling down the highway at about 60mph when with about 20m to go, it signposted a crossroads and the end of the highway - obviously we weren't expecting this so I carried on across the intersection at a high speed and ended up on a gravel 4WD track! I had actually intended to go straight across this intersection, though perhaps not quite that fast to end up on a dirt track... And then we found out that the lighthouse we thought we were going to see had been pulled down some years ago, leaving just this steel structure! Oops...

Volcano

2006-03-09T20:40:00.000-08:00

Some of the pics I took at Volcano don't look like much. The landscape was really barren in place, so I'll try to be selective so it makes sense to people who weren't there...

Kilauea Caldera

This is the view across the caldera of Kilauea. It's an 11 mile drive around the caldera - so the picture doesn't really show the breadth of it, but it was pretty cool.

Halema'uma'u

This is the crater of Halema'uma'u. This crater used to be much deeper, but the floor has been rising for the last, what, couple of decades or so I guess. The lava is pretty close to the surface underneath - and sulphurour gasses are continually being released - so I couldn't stick around too long. For the first hundred years of it's life it was a lake of boiling lava. It last erupted in 1982, spewing out 1.3m cubic yards of lava. It is the home of the goddess Pele, and throughout the year people perform hulas are performed in her honour and people leave offerings such as flowers and alcohol to her.

South West Rift Zone

This is the southwest rift zone - a crack in the earth that runs from the caldera summit down to the coast and then under the ocean floor.

Thurston Lava Tube

This is a lava tube which if I'd been walking through about 500 years ago, I would have been boiled alive due to the lava that would have been coursing through it. [The tunnel is lit, that's not lava in the discance... just in case...]

Chain of Craters Road

Chain of Craters Road goes all the way from the Caldera down to sea level. It used to go quite a way along at sea level, but since the volcano has been erupting, it has flown down the mountainside to the sea and has cut the road off. This is the point at which lava crosses the road at what has become the end of Chain of Craters Road. It's a good foot high at this point - and is quite dramatic - you'd expect it to keep flowing and self-level but it doesn't.

The steam plume at night

I'm not sure if you can see anything in these two. The print outs I have show quite clearly but I'm not sure if they're coming out on here. This first photo is slightly out of focus, taken from the lava field past the end of Chain of Craters Road - it's about a half a mile walk over the lava just before sunset to the viewing poitn. You can just about make out the orange tinge to the steam plume. This is where the lava hits the ocean. It flows out of a vent called Pu'u O'o further up the mountain, through lava tubes underground (just like the one above) and makes its way to the ocean at which point gases are released and you see the plume of steam. You can only see the orange tinge at sunset and after dark because the cloud comes in and the lava lights up the steam plume then. The second photo is taken after sunset and I think shows the colours better.

Pu'u Loa Petroglyphs

The ancient Hawaiians carved petroglyphs into the hardened lava - the dimples served as receptacles for the umbilical stumps of babies. They hoped that carving these, then placing the umbilical stumps inside the dimples and covering them with stones, the gods would allow their children to live long lives.

Kilaeua mountainside

You can see by the different shading the various laval flows that have gone down the mountain over the years, the most recent being the darkest.

That's it for the volcano. I'll post the rest separately by location.

More photos

2006-03-09T19:41:00.000-08:00

I hope this all comes out ok - I'm in an internet gaming room as my hostel has no cd-rom facility for me to upload my photos...

This is Pu'uhonua O Honaunau - the place of refuge at Honaunau. It's a beautiful, serene spot down the Kona coast from Captain Cook - it's one of the places I snorkelled at the day before. Much of the structures they have there now are recreations but I think the one in the second photo is the original.

You can just see a turtle coming out of the water to nest in the sand. Over the last couple of years they've started using this place as a breeding ground - so we can't get within about 6 feet of them.

Photos at Last!

2006-03-05T19:30:00.000-08:00

Ok, I've got my photos downloaded at last.
Here goes with the first installment ...

This is Hanauma Bay, the first stop on the tour I took around O'ahu on Feb 12. It's a great spot for snorkelling and seeing turtles. I've had plans to head out that way but haven't got back there so far... maybe tomorrow huh?

Here's me standing on a beach made up of lava rocks, just along the south coast of o'ahu from Hanauma Bay.

This is a beautiful Japanese temple called Byodo-In, attached to a Hawaiian cemetary. It's a really peaceful place set on the western side of the island. The cemetary contains a grave plaque for someone who only wished to be remembered as "Wholecheese". We spent a while wondering who it could be...

Chinaman's hat island. So called cos it looks like one.

On the day I went snorkelling on the Big Island, I took some photos of some spinner dolphins who decided to swim alongside us. Unfortunately they didn't come out - they swim so fast and duck and dive out of the water so fast that my digital camera couldn't keep up. But my photos of the monument at the place where Captain Cook died came out fairly well.

I'll load up some more photos tomorrow - I need to go get some food right now. It's exhausting work, spending the day on the beach and then loading up lots of photos.

More soon,
Suz xxx

Onward from Maui

2006-03-02T20:07:00.000-08:00

Thursday 2 March 06

You'll be glad to know that my ar$e is recovering nicely. Ditto my shoulders, back, legs...

I took it easy yesterday. I did a little shopping in the morning, and then went whale watching in the afternoon. We saw so many whales I couldn't believe it, but apparently if you drained the water, you'd have 1,000 whales in your view at any one time. We saw two main pods, both of competition whales - i.e. a group of about 8 male whales competing for the love of one woman. Oh to be a whale...! They were butting heads, diving down, slapping their fins - it was really great and this time I got some really good pictures. I'm going to get all my pictures put onto disc when I get to Oahu (flying there tomorrow) so will be able to post a load then. Afterwards, I did a little more shopping before heading back for a thai takeaway. There's a thai restaurant just over the road from the hostel I'm staying at that does really good food. Pad Thai to die for.

Today I took a drive down the south west coast to see what was on down there. There were lots of nice beaches, and lots of posh hotels. I decided to drive back up to Lahaina and rent some snorkel gear and go snorkelling at Black Rocks. This is a small spot in Kaanapali at the Sheraton (the beach is public unfortunately for them) which has loads of fish, reef and the odd turtle who let me swim alongside him/her for a while before surfacing for air - they're really cute when they surface - just poking their heads out of the sea for a gulp of air. There are the few inevitable idiots who actually climb out on the black rocks and dive into the sea. I'm not sure what the accident rate is, but it must be pretty high because once the water gets say 5 feet deep, you can't see how deep it is and the rocks and reef are relatively shallow. I didn't stop to find out if they made it...

Tomorrow I fly back to Oahu to stay in Waikiki once again. I'd really like to stay in Hawaii for another 4 weeks but I don't think I could afford to change my flight to NZ at this stage...

Ah well, next time, as I said, I'll have pictures.

Suz xxx

Oh my ar$e

2006-02-28T19:01:00.000-08:00

Well, I wanted to see the top of the main volcano here on Maui, and I saw all the hairpin bends on the map and decided I didn't want to drive it, so I booked myself on a tour that drives you to the top and lets you bike down at your own pace. That's where I've been today. And now my ar$e is sooo sore! And I have a really big bruise on my leg where I fell off my bike about 5 seconds after I got on it! Well, everyone knows the closest I've been to a bike in the last 10 years is at the gym. Not quite the same thing.

It was worth it though, the view from the top (10,000 feet) was amazing, and as we got there, cloud settled in at about 5-7,000 feet, so when we biked down we went through the cloud - which was really cool.

Tomorrow is whale watching, much more relaxing I hope.

Sx

Snorkelling piccies

2006-02-27T19:13:00.000-08:00

I've attached some piccies from my snorkelling trips on the Big Island and here on Maui. The ones with the turtles in them are from the Big Island and the others are from Maui (I think).

I went on a snorkelling trip yesterday with a guy I met at the hostel I'm staying at. It was supposed to be to a tiny little crater island called Molokini and to Lanai (a nearby larger island) but the weather came in from the wrong direction and we went to Lanai (no pics from there) and a place called Coconut bay (I forget the Hawaiian name). The fish were great at both places, and we saw loads of whales along the way. I'm heading out on a whalewatching trip on Wednesday so should have some great pics from that soon.

I've been over to Hana on the eastern side of the island today. It's a 30-odd mile trip, but it's along a twisting winding road along the coast and took 2hrs plus each way. 15mph average speed! It's been a long day - driving seems to really take it out of me.

Tomorrow is my bike trip up Haleakala (10,000 ft) and I will put money down that it rains. The rain seems to be following me at the moment. It caught me big time on Kauai and has followed me here. It *will* hold off on Thursday so I can get some beach time!

Anyway, hope you enjoy the piccies,

Suz xxx

On to Maui

2006-02-23T16:25:00.000-08:00

Thursday 23 Feb

Well the problem of figuring out what to do yesterday was solved for me. I ended up hung over a toilet for most of the night and day, having eaten something that *really* didn't agree with me. Am still feeling pretty weak, but managed to get myself to Maui today which is *much* drier and sunnier and am just planning to rest up for the next little while as I feel absolutely shattered at the moment. So I ended up seeing the airport, plus the road to Waimea in Kauai and that was about it. I rained pretty much the entire time (except, wouldn't you know it, the day I was sick) - at times I could barely see in front of me and was driving at about half the speed limit. Scary.

So I don't have anything more to add for the moment but will post something much more interesting when I do...

Suz x

Kaua'i downpour and update

2006-02-21T13:12:00.000-08:00

Tuesday 21 Feb

Well I've been here in Hawaii for about 12 days now. I started on Oahu which was great but could have been any beach destination in Europe - there was nothing uniquely Hawaiian about it.

Then I spent the last week on the Big Island of Hawaii which was better. I went snorkelling at the Captain Cook monument and the Place of Refuge and hopefully got some great photos - I'll post those when I get them developed. Then I went on to the volcano, Kilauea, where I spent a couple of nights, driving and walking around the caldera, and also going down the Chain of Craters road to see the lava going into the sea - it looked great but I don't think my photos are going to come out very well - my flash just doesn't work over a mile and it was really difficult to pick up the orange glow. I then spent a couple of days in Hilo, another town on the east coast which was nice and quaint but completely dead - Volcano wasn't exactly the most happening place, but it had a good vibe to it - Hilo just felt so slow. If I went back to the Big Island (and I fully hope to do so sometime), Volcano would be the place I would go back to.

Yesterday I flew in to Kauai - where it has been raining non-stop since I got here. I was supposed to go out on a helicopter tour this morning but that was cancelled. This afternoon I'm going on a boat ride up the Na Pali Coast, which should be spectacular, except I really don't think it's going to stop raining...

The hostel I'm staying at on Kauai is pretty open air. One side of the room has no windows in the window spaces, and half my bedding is damp! Ah well, how often do I get to sleep like this? It's actually pretty cool though and the people are nice. Actually, I haven't met a horrible or rude person the entire time I've been out here.

I'm not actually sure what I'm going to do tomorrow if I can't get an alternative slot with a helicopter company... and it's raining so hard that it's difficult to see to drive sometimes...

Thursday I'm off to Maui which will hopefully be rather drier.

Suz xx