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While motivation levels are still relatively high I thought I might as well write about my recent trip to Australia. The main reason for my visit was to celebrate a friends wedding. I met Paul while living in London and hadn't caught up with him, or any of our mutual friends, since. So it was a perfect opportunity to catch up with him and the whole London crew all at once. And while I was at it I decided to take a couple of weeks off to drink VB, watch the footy and yell "'straya, c**t!" at random passer-bys / take a look around. Credit goes to my friends that took more photos than I did at the wedding etc, which I later stole off Facebook.

The wedding was held in Perth. While the weather in NZ wasn't bad, visiting Perth was like switching summer back on. The wedding itself was beautiful; the ceremony held in a Macedonian Orthodox church, and the reception in a function centre in Kings Park overlooking the city. Amazing food, lots of alcohol, dancing, traditional Macedonian dancing, making fools of ourselves dancing, and bunch of awesome people. A good time was had by all. True to form; we were still sinking beers while the cleaning crew was trying mop up around us, finally kicking us out at some ridiculous hour.

Unfortunately I had got the flu a couple of days before the trip. But having such a short visit meant I wasn't going to waste any time feeling sorry for myself. The day after the wedding a few of the ex-London crew; Fi, Rach, Gareth and I, joined a brewery tour in the Swan Valley. It was an awesome day out with plenty of beer and beautiful scenery. Things got a bit pear-shaped toward the end of the day when we switched from beer to this disgusting and extremely strong herbal liqueur. The tour leader was a bit of a character, a "true-blue" kinda guy with an endless supply of inappropriate jokes. Check out Top Gun Tours if you're ever in Perth.

While in Perth I also caught up with Dave, a mate from Auckland, and we took a drive a couple of hours south to do our own unofficial brewery tour. Again, perfect weather, beautiful scenery, and no shortage of beer. I really liked the boutique style micro-brewery 'culture'. It seems a lot of people are into more craft beers, and the industry has a lot of support in Australia. Compared with NZ where everyone just buys mainstream/big brand/mass produced. Some of the beer was f'n amazing! I definitely found a few favourites.

It sounds as though I spent most of my time in Perth drinking... and that's probably quite accurate. But I did manage to check out a bit of the city. Bron - one of the Melbourne posse - gave me a bit of a tour. And although I thought I would hate it, Perth is actually pretty cool. There are lots of open spaces in the city to chill out, good food, and awesome little side streets and hidden areas. And while it is a bit... sterile, business orientated etc, it's a cool city. I didn't actually take any photos, mainly because I'm hopeless. But I did manage to take a few of Scarborough beach (above).

After five days in Perth I moved on to Melbourne. I spent a week in the city, mainly catching up with friends and again, drinking. I stayed with Sarah, a friend I met in London, and her partner Mitch, who were amazingly hospitable. I caught up with Jax and Nic, also friends from London. I actually ended up staying with Nic in her amazing apartment in Elwood - a beautiful part of the city. I also saw Rach, a friend from Auckland, and Amy, another London compadre.

There's not too much for a tourist to "do" in Melbourne. I did check out Hosier Lane (AWESOME!), St Paul's Cathedral, and the Flinder St area, as well as the Royal Botanic Gardens, St Kilda and Docklands. But to be honest, most of my time was spent hanging out with friends, checking out cool coffee shops and obscure bars. Melbourne has lots of awesome, more... "alternative"... areas and suburbs, I spent a lot of time just wandering around and checking the place out.


Oh, and I can't forget the Great Beer SpecTAPular - a beer festival I managed to sneak in while visiting the city.

And finally I spent a few days in Sydney catching up with my brother, Dan, and checking out the sites. I really liked Sydney, probably helped by the glorious weather! I spent a whole day at Bondi Beach just lapping up the sun. There is a really beautiful coastal walk which goes all the way down to Coogee Beach. I didn't walk the entire track, but the parts I did see were stunning.

I hit all the standard Sydney tourist hot-spots, including a climb up the bridge pillar, had a good wander around the waterfront/opera house, Hyde Park, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Manly Beach etc. I quickly came to the conclusion that Sydney is a very cool city. There's lots to see and do, and it's just so damn pretty!

I was lucky enough to catch the Vivid festival while I was visiting. It's basically a festival of lights, where images are projected onto the buildings around The Rocks and Darling Harbour. The displays are extremely impressive, but very hard to catch on camera. I got a few OK shots below and a quick video, but it really does not do it justice.
Dan, Ange and I caught a ferry out to Cockatoo Island (an old prison and ship building yard) to take a look around. To be honest it was rather boring and I wouldn't recommend it. There were all these tents set up, which I thought was weird. It looks like people go out there to camp. I couldn't imaging spending more than an hour or two there to be honest...

All in all it was an epic trip. I got to catch up with a bunch of awesome old friends, made a few new ones, drunk and ate way too much, got to play tourist again which was fun after a 12 month+ break. Unfortunately when I got home it had decided to get all cold and wintery. Not ideal.

In March of this year (yes, I know it's taken me six months to post this!) I joined a group of family and friends on a six day trip in the untouched and wild Fiordland.

The occasion? My brothers 40th birthday.
The location? the deep South West Coast of New Zealand.
One of the most remote and untouched places in the country.
The transport? A massive boat.
The crew? A randomly connected bunch of family and friends, all intent on having a good time.

We started our trip early one glorious day in Queenstown. All 18 of us piled in to two minivans and drove across to Te Anau to meet the a helicopter, which would drop us into Fiordland.

I'm not sure I've made it clear just how remote this part of NZ is. The first clue is we had to take a helicopter to get in there! It is some of the most wild country in New Zealand. Huge mountains surround insanely deep fiords, all covered dense native forest. Flat ground is extremely rare. It's uninhabitable nature has kept this piece of NZ pristine and untouched, resisting human influence.

I have also not made clear the size of the boat we were travelling on. There were 18 of us plus three crew, and while it was not spacious, I did not feel cramped. Just to give you an idea - the boat has a heli-pad, so the helicopter dropped us directly on to the deck of the boat. Bawlin'

Our voyage started in Deep Cove, located in one of the arms of Doubtful Sound. We spent the following six days taking in the breath-taking scenery, exploring the sounds, fishing, diving, relaxing, and eating more seafood than I have in my entire life!

I want to make a quick mention of the fishing/diving. As the area is so remote, the sea is full of life! With some of the largest crayfish I've ever seen. We ate all kinds of fish, mussels and paua. We saw wild seals, dolphins and albatross (huge seagulls). I did two dives - one on a 100m long ship wreck, the other collecting seafood.

The whole thing was spectacular! I think I'll let the photos do the talking from here on...

Having spent over ten months on the road, I thought I had better do a bit of a  recap. So for all of those lame-asses who haven't been reading my blog, this is your chance to catch up.

The idea was to travel from England to New Zealand without taking any flights. About 40,000 kms overland (or water). I had a very limited budget, and wanted to be as flexible as possible; basically travel with no plan. That meant no bookings, no travel agents, no stupid tour groups... Local transport, cheap hostels and Couch Surfing. I actually did a whole lot of Couch Surfing, so I really want to give a HUGE shout out to all of my hosts. You all rock! I hope I can return the favour one day.

Besides the CS hosts, I met some insanely amazing people on my journey. I don't really want to mention any names as (lets be honest) I'll probably leave someone out... but I will mention just one; Julia, my most awesome Swedish travel buddy of about five months! That even came back to New Zealand with me for a short trip around my home country.

So, what happened? I failed. I made it from London to Penang in Malaysia without flying. A total of 270 days, 44,620kms, 905 hours in transit, all overland.

Some of the highlights, lowlights, and funny stories...

• I was robbed! On the very first day. Within four hours of leaving London.
• The French Riveria, including Nice, Monaco, and Antibes. An unbelievably beautiful part of the world

Monaco is in a world of its own, I have never seen anything like it. There is so much money in such a small place. The houses, the cars, the BOATS! It all screams over-indulgence. While in Monaco I visited the Princes Palace, providing panoramic views over the whole city, and the famous Monte Carlo Casino. Just to get in the gambling area is €10! So no, I did not go in...

• My strangest Coush Surfing experience, and the most popular post on my blog! Learning to wrestle in Venice.

Having spoken to a few experienced couch surfers, it usually it takes quite a while before you have your first bad experience. Well, not me. I am currently lying on a pull out mattress in a crazy mans kitchen. Tomorrow I get to migrate to the hallway.

Cinque Terre, one of the most stunning strips of coast line I have ever seen.

Fun times on public transport in Italy

...I bought a ticket from an automated machine with a €20, and instead of giving me my change - it spat out a credit note for €14.80. With about 10 minutes until the train left I quickly went to the ticket counter. The guy asked for 20c, which I gave to him in 1 and 2c pieces. That was not good enough apparently, so he went away and took what seemed like forever. When he finally did return he gave me a €10, a 80c in coins and four €1 stacks of 2c pieces! WTF dude? What am I going to do with 200 2 cent pieces? I grabbed them anyway and ran for the train. So here I am on the train with a stack of 2c pieces. I actually just had an interesting run-in with one of the guards. He asked for my ticket, which I gave him, but apparently you have to validate the ones you buy at the station (I had been buying them online up until now). He said he was not going to give me the normal penalty (€50 or something crazy), and would only fine me €5. I was pretty pissed,tried to argue that he just needed to clip my ticket and I couldn't use it again. But he was sticking to his guns. So guess what I gave him? The 4 stacks of 2c pieces, the 80c the ticket guy gave me in change, and the 20c in 1c and 2c pieces. Karma.

• Florence; an amazing city filled with history and art

One cool thing about Florence that you don't see everywhere else in Europe is the artists on the street. There are these people who set up their little easel and paint the most amazing pieces. There are also artists that draw on the street using chalk. I have seen this in other cities, but nothing compares to the skill of those in Florence. It is unbelievable they can create something with just chalk right there on the pavement. And they come back every day and make a new one!

• Rome is my favourite city in the world without question. I could spend weeks in this place. The Sistine Chapel, Vatican, St. Pauls, the Colluseum... How can you go wrong?

• The ruins of Pompeii, Italy
• The ancient Acropolis in Athens, Greece

• Meeting friends and relaxing in the heavenly Greek Islands

• Pamukkale in Turkey, unbelievable.

• Ephesus, insane ancient ruins in Turkey.
• Cappadokia - the only thing I can compare this place to is Bedrock from the Flintstones.

• Spending ANZAC day at Galipoli

• Macedonia; truely beautiful and Kosovo; kinda scary!

...The only other alternative was to get on a bus heading for Istanbul, which stopped at the outskirts of Skopje. Me: How far outside of Skopje does the bus stop? Ticket man: Maybe 3 kilometers... not far Me: So I could walk it? Ticket man: Yeah, no problem Me: And how much is it? Ticket man: €10. Just pay on the bus And here is where I learned to never trust stupid travel agents. I got on the bus, we drove off, the ticket guy came around... I gave him €50, and he gave me €30 back. What the flip? No way man, the guy in the office said €10. We argued for about five minutes before he threw a €5 in my direction and turned and walked off. To put things in perspective - €10 is already a very expensive ticket in this part of the world. Part two of the lesson came when we stopped to let me off the bus. The bus driver pointed me in the right direction, I strapped on my backpack and I was off. In the distance I could see Skopje, and I thought it looked a little more than 3kms. I got out my GPS and sure enough it was ELEVEN! And that is a direct straight line from where I was, not following the road. GAH! I walked for a while before deciding there was just no way I was going to make it, at least not before dark. There were no taxi's or anything around, and just as I considered hitch-hiking I heard a beep from behind me. This is where my luck changed. One of those tiny Suzuki vans is hurling toward me. This old guy pulls up and with a big smile says 'Skopje?'. I jumped in! He could barely speak a word of English, but I managed to communicate that I wanted to get to the bus station. He was trying to tell me something, but I couldn't really understand what he meant. And then we turned off the main road to Skopje and started heading in the wrong direction. I was a little worried, and started sizing him up... I was pretty sure I could take him if I needed to. We pull up at a bus stop, he jumps out and goes to speak to the bus driver. He tells him where I want to go, then PAYS THE GUY! Shakes my hand quickly, then jumps back in his van and a second later is gone. So just as the world was turning me into a bitter, untrusting person, my faith in man-kind is restored! 

• Random taxis with locals crossing the border from Albania into Montenegro
• Montenegro; one of the most beautiful and under-rated countries in the world!

• Sailing in the beautiful islands of Croatia - the trip that you all helped me win!

• Plitvice in Croatia - stunning!

• Having my lip pierced by a guy who had no idea what he was doing in Sarajevo

I sat in the chair and the guy did his stuff. The first worrying sign was that he 'steralised' his equiptment by running it under hot water. He then proceeded to completely screw up the piercing - pushing the needle and piercing through, but not having the 'ball' ready to screw on the other side, so the piercing fell out. He spent the next couple of minutes trying to re-find the hole he had made, before he just forced the needle through and made a new one (at least it felt like that). It was pretty horrific. Sophia actually almost fainted. After some negotiation, and him refusing to give me any kind of discount... because apparently I was 'pushing my teeth forward' which caused the piercing to come out (wtf?), I gave him 75% of what he asked for and walked out the door.

• A random guy (Ivan) approaching me and offering me beer in Karlovac, Croatia

...I was sitting outside a block of apartments where I had found an unsecured wifi network (scouring the net for a hostel or couchsurf host) when a guy cycles up to me and asks if I would like a juice or cold beer. 'Hells yeah!'. So five minutes later I am sitting on a bench outside Ivans house sharing a beer and just chatting about life in general. I am not exactly sure why he came up to me, maybe he just saw my backpack and decided to show me some charity, or maybe he just liked chatting to a native English speaker. Either way I enjoyed both the company and the beer. Soon afterward I got a SMS from a couchsurf host in Karlovac - PERFECT! We organised to meet later that afternoon. In the meantime, Ivan invited me into his house to meet his two boys and to share lunch and a coffee. I have been to a few places in the world, and it is rare to experience such random charity. Nice work, Croatia.

• Draculas castle in Transylvania, Romania
• Random scary guys showing me their tattoos and gunshot wounds while trying to order food in Ukraine

...A Ukrainian guy latched on to me and started having a conversation. You would think after the first five or ten minutes he would catch on that I did not understand a word he was saying and leave me alone, but not this guy. His total English vocabulary was 'My name is Andrew'. After I ordered he came and sat at my table for a good 45 minutes while I ate and drank. He would not leave! He just kept talking in Ukrainian, then saying 'My name is Andrew' and showing me his tattoos and his gunshot wounds (not kidding). My side of the conversation consisted of smiling, nodding, and the occasional 'I have no idea what you are talking about'. The only way I could escape him was to get up and leave, and even then he followed me outside. How do I attract these people?

• A trip to Chernobyl in Ukraine

What was it like? Absolutely surreal. The town of Prypiat - about 3kms from the power station - is a ghost town. It feels like walking through a post-apocalyptic world... The town is now overgrown with huge trees, the streets are like forests, the buildings are all run down and broken, peoples possessions are scattered around, abandoned. The most creepy thing is that there was a fair in town when the accident happened, so all the rides are still all sitting there, rusting away, including a massive ferris wheel. The whole thing just did not seam real, I was having a hard time believing what I was seeing.

• Soviet style Minsk, in Belarus
• St Petersburg, one of the most beautiful cities in the world!

The final thing I will mention about my time in this amazing city is the 'white nights'. At this time of year the sun sets for only a few hours, and even then only just over the horizon, meaning the city is almost permanently lit. What is cool is that people really get out and make the most of it. It is not unusual for the parks to be full of people hanging out at 2am, or people wandering the streets, just going out for a stroll. It is kind of strange to step out of a pub after midnight, slightly intoxicated, and having the sun beating down on you... 

• Seeing Lenins embalmed body in Moscow

...A few more interesting observations for you... These are all about Russian men. 1. Russian guys like to take their shirts off. Sure, it's hot, but I really don't want to see your hairy man-boobs. 2. The next best thing is they wear those open-mesh t-shirts. I'm no fashion expert, but those things are just weird. 3. Russian guys have the strangest haircuts. It is like they are stuck in the 80's. Mullets, big fringes, flat tops... it's all in style in Russia. 4. They LOVE gold teeth. I couldn't imagine anything worse than two gold teeth right up front, but I have seen it five or six times. And almost every guy has at least some mouth-bling.

• Travelling arcoss Siberia in a cabin with a cat and baby

...I get on the train with no hassles, find my cabin and it is empty. I start to organise my things when a young couple enters... with a baby. Awesome. They start unpacking their things and I hear a strange noise... After a few minutes it gets louder and louder. It is the unmistakable meow from a cat, coming from somewhere inside their bags. 10 minutes later when everyone is settled in they open a bag and out pops a cat. So I am sharing my cabin with a baby and a cat. I know you are laughing right now, but it is NOT funny! Within half an hour I can smell shit. Baby or cat, I'm not sure... That evening just after we turned the light out, the cat went mental. It was running, head first, into the wall, I guess trying to break out. I'm not joking. I could hear little cat feet running, then BANG!, BANG!, BANG! So it seems Russian cats are crazy, too!

• Lake Baikal

There are a lot of facts and statistics thrown around about Lake Baikal. Something about it being the oldest (30 million years), deepest (1,600m) and one of the most clear in the world! It contains 20% of the world's unfrozen fresh water, about the same as all five of the North American Great Lakes... combined! But forget all that, numbers are boring. Baikal is simply one of the most beautiful places in the world. My trip to Ulan-Ude was "interesting". I had an 'unreserved seat' ticket (could sit anywhere). As soon as I got on the train an old woman took me to her cabin and started feeding me meat and bread. I shared my coffee and we had a nice English/Russian conversation. She was a little strange, though. She kept telling me what time the train arrived... over and over. "Ulan Ude... 2pm!". "Yeah, I know...". She would also randomly burst into laughter, for no apparent reason. Anyway, she was nice enough and kept me entertained for a few hours.

• The beautiful and unique Mongolian countryside, and the adventures travelling solo.

The mountains, forests, rivers and lake are truly spectacular. After a few hours we saw a ger and decided to try and ask if we were on the right track. Just as well we did too. The woman spoke very little English, but from what we could understand, we were half-way along a river (Khurkhree) that had branched off the main river (Terelj). It had branched to the right, so we could understand why we didn't really notice - we were walking on the right the entire time. Apparently we had gone 12 kilometers past the junction. Shit! She must have sensed our disappointment, as she invited us into their ger. The whole family were there, including a grandmother and three children. They served us up some fresh yoghurt (Tarig) and well as dried curd (Aaruul), with clotted cream/white butter (Urum). Most was really good (I wasn't a huge fan of the curd and butter). When we were leaving she also gave us some smoked pine cones; you crack them open and eat the seeds. A lot of work for a small pay off, but they were still pretty good.

Mongolians are extremely friendly and hospitable people. They always have time to sit down for a chat, even if they cannot speak English. They will just share a couple of moments in your company, then move on. They will also share whatever they have, even if they do not have a lot. They always seem to have a smile on their face, and sometimes all they want to do is stop and shake your hand.

I am learning that nothing in Mongolia happens quickly. If you want to travel independently, you better have some time up your sleeve. Getting from place to place can take not just hours, but days! Paved roads and spacious buses are few and far between. These are replaced with bumpy dirt tracks and crammed, unreliable mini-buses. One thing is for sure - I am getting a truly authentic Mongolian experience. 

...There was no space on the bus, so we had to take a mini-van. First of all it waited around for almost an hour for people to show up. We then drove around town making house-calls, picking up packages (the mini-vans also run as courier services) and people. There was one free seat in the van, and the driver kept telling us to squeeze up. We soon found out why. We pulled up to one house and they bought out this guy on a wooden stretcher. I couldn't help but laugh, where was that going to fit? They spent the next 15 minutes trying to fit this guy in on his stretcher, along with THREE more people. The van was seriously crammed, something like 17 people in total. Besides that, after about two hours the van broke down; it was overheating. From that point on we traveled at about 50km/h and stopped about every 30 minutes to fill the van up with water, which meant fully unloading the van, and waiting for it to cool. In total the trip took about 11 hours, and toward the end I was almost going insane.

• The traditional Nadaam Festival in Arviakheer, Mongolia
• Travelling across the Gobi desert with some local Mongolians

...It was an old Russian van with no seats, but it wasn't too bad. There were 7 of us in the back for the 15 hours trip across the Gobi Desert. Not a comfortable experience. The driver didn't help; the whole journey went something like "Ruuuuuuuuuuum, screeeech, BANG!" as he floored it, slammed on the brakes, then hit a huge pothole. To top it off I had some.interesting co-passengers. One woman just got her boobs out right in front of me and started using a breast pump. Not once but about three times over the journey. Another woman kept applying wet paper towels to her face in order to keep cool. She looked like a paper-mache monster...

• Crossing the Mongolia - China border

The crossing from Mongolia is like nothing I have ever seen. The main way to get across (other than train) is in an old Russian jeep. On the Mongolian side it is like bumper cars. The drivers are on a mission to get through as quickly as possible. They literally ram into one another as they jockey for position, with little regard for their vehicles. Our driver was mentally insane - he almost ran over one of the Mongolian police man that was signalling for him to stop, but he just kept on going (seriously, it was so close! The guy had to jump out of the way). Then the jeep in front of us wasn't moving so he just drives up behind it and floors it... sand flying out everywhere from under the tyres, and pushes the guy along. At one point he called one of the border guards over and gave him a bottle of Airag (fermented horse milk) as a bribe I guess. The guard promptly stuck it down his shirt. I think the reason was because jeep didn't have any plates? Driving up to the Mongolian border exit one of the woman lay down behind us and we had to kind of sit on her to hide her. I was wondering what the hell was going on! But it turns out you are only allowed 3 across the back and we had 4. We were found out, so they made her get out and walk the 100m or so to the border. After which she just jumped straight back in. While driving between the Mongolian and Chineese borders the woman stuffed about 20 new and boxed cell-phones into the jeeps roof lining. I would have thought cell-phones would be cheaper in China but evidently not...

• The Great wall, Tiananmen Square, the Summer Palace etc in Beijing

• Terracotta Warriors in Xian, China, and more interesting - the train journey there!

My next destination is Xi'an - most famous for the Teraccotta warriors. Apparently the best comfort vs cost train ticket to get is the hard sleeper. But when I went to buy one there was none left. Not even any seating tickets for the next week! But they do one thing in China I have never seen anywhere else; they sell standing tickets. For an overnight, 13 hour + journey? Crazy. I had no choice really, so I manned up and bought the ticket. The train itself was worse than I could have imagined. It was crowded! I had bought a little folding seat and managed to secure a little spot just out of the isle so I wouldn't be bumped all night, but the seat was extremely uncomfortable, so I ended up just sitting on the floor. Across the aisle was a screaming baby. They don't really use diapers here, so every time the baby wanted to pee, the mother just held it by the thighs in a sitting position and let it go for it... all over the floor right next to me. I learned one lesson from that trip - do NOT buy a standing ticket. But the way I see it - I have now experienced the worst. It can only get better, right? 

• Climbing Hua Shan Mountain in Northern China, apparently one of the most dangerous in the world!

...There may be stairs, but this is no cake walk. The climb is hard-core. Some of the stairs are insane! I stopped at one very steep point that stretched out below me for about 50m to take a photo. My bag rolled down a couple of steps, almost out of my grasp. It was then that I realised - shit, this is STEEP. If I slipped or fell I would not be getting up afterward. There is also shops selling drinks and little souvenirs every few hundred meters up the mountain. It felt more like a tourist attraction than a mountain hike. Especially as they have installed a cable car, so there are thousands of tourists who just want to see the top of the mountain without actually putting in any work. The crowds around these areas are crazy - which feels really strange for being on the top of a mountain. 

• Vegas of the East - Macau, China

• The amazing karst mountains in Yangshuo, China

• Hiking through Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan, China

• Yunnan province in China, a spectacular part of the world. This is right next to Tibet, so has a very Tibetan influence, as well as hundreds of other minority cultures. And monasteries like i have never seen!

• Yuan Yang rice terraces in Southern China

• Meeting Julia in the beach paradise that is Mui Ne, Vietnam
• Vietnam in general was awesome; amazing culture, perfect beaches, friendly people...

• Watching the NZ v France Rugby World Cup final with Simon in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
• Spending a night in the hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

The bus trip was one of the most horrible trips I have ever taken. The road was similar to what I described on the way to Koh Kong, and I just got more and more sick during the journey. There was no position in which I could sit without my body aching. I had a massive fever, but I felt so cold that I my body was shaking. I was having trouble breathing normally, and anything I did, even just standing up, completely exhausted me. After almost 6 agonizing hours we arrived in Phnom Phen. I went straight to a hospital where they decided to keep me overnight. Whether that was completely necessary, or they just saw a foreigner and thought cash!, I'm not sure... Julia found a guest house closer to the city, and I was stuck with about five different needles. The doctor was concerned that I might have malaria. Great! For the next 24 hours I was stressing balls waiting for the results. What is worse is that my insurance is three weeks out of date. I guess that happens when you keep extending your trip for months longer than initially planned. They put me in a very basic room with five small beds, ripped sheets, no blankets, a toilet without a toilet seat, soap or toilet paper, and a few cats running around and howling (I'm not joking). Then hooked me up to a couple of IV drips and left me to sleep. The following day they kind of just left me. I was feeling slightly better, but I just put that down to all the drugs they were pumping into me. I was asking when I would find out the results of my tests, but people could either not understand me and didn't know. It wasn't until around 2pm that a doctor finally came to see me. He told me that I did not have malaria, phew. But that my white blood cell count was abnormally high, indicating I had some kind of infection. I was pretty keen to get out of there. Even though I wasn't anywhere near 100%, I didn't think there was too much more they could do for me. And more importantly; I wasn't really sure how much this all was costing me, but I was sure it would be a lot! Foreigner tax. The doctor said I had to wait until 5pm when another doctor would come and release me. So we did that, the other doctor came, unhooked me, and I went down to pay the bill. US$70! Ouch. That is my budget for a week. Then another $20 in antibiotics and other medication (they gave me 4 boxes of pills, no idea what they all do?).

• South East Asia in general is a really great place to travel. Easier than China as there is better tourist infrastructure, and more people speak English, but still authentic. And when I saw authentic I mean cold showers, non-flushing toilets, and insanely bad roads full of potholes!

• The temples of Angkor in Cambodia. Mind blowing!

• The White Temple in Chiang Rai, Thailand

• TUBING! in Vang Vieng, Laos

• Getting scammed by tuk tuk drivers in Bangkok
• Half moon party, buckets on the beach.and fire skipping in Ko Phangan, Thailand

• Passing through dodgy areas of Thailand, and staying in the most dodgy hotel I've ever experienced

We finally arrived in Sungai Kolok at just after 10pm. We wandered around looking for a hotel, but many were full. We finally found one that was run down and still quite expensive, but we weren't really in the mood to argue. The room had such a thick smell of smoke that you could taste it. Everything seemed greasy and unclean. The furniture was run down and broken. Then I saw it; mirrors on the roof. Ahhh, so this is one of those hotels where they charge by the hour...

• Being robbed for the second time!
• Missing our train, then jumping in to the back of a random guys car and ending up getting a free guided tour of Taman Negara - a spectacular national park. But filled with blood sucking leeches.

Dragging our feet, we flung on our backpacks and made our way back toward the bus to KB. But just as we reached the end of the road a car pulls up, window open. There were two guys in there and they started asking about where we were heading. Back to town! We explained that we just missed our train, and the next one wasn't until tomorrow. That is when they said they were heading directly to Taman Negara (the national park, which was or planned destination) in about 15 minutes, and could take us along for free. OK... a little suspicious. What's the catch? It turns out that one of the guys was contracted by Tourism Malaysia to make a promotional video. The other guy was a guide he had hired. They were looking for foreigners to be in the video, but couldn't find any. You might think after all the lies we were spun in Thailand that we would be a little cynical and not trust this 'too good to be true' offer. But they seemed legit, the guide showing us his website etc. So it looked as though our luck was changing once again.

• Malaysia in general - awesome! Amazingly friendly people and beautiful nature. And Kuala Lumpur, the coolest capital city in the world (probably!)

• Climbing volcanoes in Berastagi, Indonesia

...The closer we got to the crater the more the landscape looked like the surface of the moon; a completely barren, rocky surface with steam rising from the ground. There were a couple of huge vents where steam was rushing out, as we got close the sound was overwhelming.The crater itself also looked like something from a far off planet; with steam and clouds swirling around the steep rocky walls, and the light green water that had collected in the basin.

• Lake Toba, Indonesia

I just spent 2 days hanging out on an island. Nothing special, right? WRONG! This island is in a lake which formed in the crater of an extinct VOLCANO! I picked up a brochure on the place, and it stated that Lake Toba is probably the highest lake in the world! Probably is good enough for me; I'll claim it. The lake is bright blue in colour and crystal clear. And the island is like a tropical paradise, complete with swaying palm trees. Did I mention it is in the crater a volcano? How cool is that?

• Indonesia itself is one of my favorite countries. Like Malaysia, incredibly friendly people and spectacularly beautiful. Plus it is full of volcanoes!
• Bromo... just read!

The Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park is a completely unique part of Indonesia. I'm struggling to think of words to describe it, so bear with me. Imagine a massive basin (10kms wide) surrounded on all sides by steep cliff faces. The bottom is a flat, desolate area of sand and volcanic rock. Rising from the basin are two huge, smoking volcano's sitting side by side. The volcanic rock and the way it has formed makes the whole area seem as though it is not from this world. In the distance is one more volcano, Semeru, which shows off by blowing out massive clouds of steam at regular intervals.

• Bali - The highs (awesome monkeys!) and lows (Kuta beach)

Everyone has heard of Bali, and it seems most people want to go there. Paradise on earth, apparently. Well, our experience shattered a few expectations; both good and bad. While I had never expected to find amazing temples and beautiful highland villages, we found just that. But the flipside; the beaches we visited were either not all that nice or full of rubbish and way over touristed. Kuta is over touristed like no other place I have ever visited. Kinda sad.

So that's about it! More photos can be found here: Part One, Part Two. And videos here

To wrap up, a few numbers from the trip as a whole -

Duration: 290 Days (9 months, 15 days)
Distance Travelled: 46,315km
Hours in Transit: 960 (5 weeks, 5 days)
Countries Visited: 29
Time Zones: 9
Transport Cost: €307.50 + £68 + TL 230 + LEV 46 + MKD 1205 + ALL 1700 + KUN 274 + KM 54 + CSD 100 + RON 174 + UAH 720 + BYR 54,000 + LTL 45 + LVL 10 + RUB 10,851.10 + TOG 116,200 + CNY 2,240 + HKD 190 + VND 1,700,000 + KHR 97,000 + THB 3,210 + LAK 244,000 + MYR 146.60 + IDR 560,000   FLIGHTS: MYR 130 + IDR 510,000 + USD 564.07
Accommodation Cost: €275.00 + TL 100 + KM 30 + RUB 1,100 + TOG 51,000 + CNY 235 + VND 1,123,000 + KHR 78,000 + THB 1715 + LAK 135,000 + MYR 87.5 + IDR 647,500

In my first post I mentioned that I had not really seen the Malaysian countryside, so could not comment on whether it was beautiful or not. Well I can confirm; this country is spectacular. The landscape is one colour; a thousand shades of green. With thick green forests filled with wild animals, countless kinds of vegetation, rivers and streams, all under massive towering trees. The forest just does not stop, as far as you can see, it conquers deep valleys and tall mountains. In my opinion; Malaysia rivals Laos for the most beautiful in South East Asia.

At the end of the last post Julia and I were jumping in to the back of some random guys car, with the hope of a free trip to Teman Negara. We had our fingers tightly crossed that we would not end up in small pieces in a box in the corner of a basement somewhere in Malaysia. But we were lucky enough to meet an awesome group of people and had a really good couple of days (minus the leeches. We'll get to that...).

Our group consisted of five freelance video- and photo-graphers, a small child (not sure who she belonged to exactly), our guide Zeck (who was awesome by the way, check him out here) and his partner. We set off from Khota Bharu mid-morning and arrived at the north side of the massive Teman Negara about four hours later.

Surrounding the national park are huge palm and rubber plantations. The plants stretch out for miles in every direction. But as soon as you enter the park everything changes. From palms to dark, thick, lush forest. The temperature comes down a couple of degrees instantly.

Teman Negara is basically a huge (4300 sq kms) forest in inland Malaysia. It is almost impenetrably thick with trees and vegetation. The north entrance is one of the least touristed, mainly just because transport in the area is non-existent. It is mainly used for research and Malaysian nature lovers. Meaning it is extremely well preserved and there are a lot of animals around. The park is home to all kinds of wildlife, including tigers and elephants. My hope was to watch a group of tigers bring down an elephant. I'll be honest, my chances weren't good, but how awesome would that be?

First up was the canopy walk; a series of rope bridges connected to massive trees, overlooking the forest. I think the highest point we reaches was about 30m, which might not sound high, but when you are held up by a bit of rope and a couple of planks of wood - it's high! It was amazing (read: kinda scary) to be up among the tree-tops, looking down over the jungle. The views were spectacular.

After a quick dinner we hiked out into the jungle. The sun had set and it was starting to get dark, so the going was pretty tough. Clambering over networks of interwoven tree roots, under branches and through a mass of thick leaves, all while treading over a trail thick with mud. There were casualties...

Now for the scary part; as soon as we got into the light we found our feet and lower legs were covered in leeches! Ahhhh! But they weren't the huge black leeches I pictured, they were small and brown and looked kinda like worms. They moved really quickly, and once they had decided you were dinner they were extremely hard to get off. They got right in our shoes (no idea how) and could stick to you even through thick socks. Needless to say there was plenty of screaming, jumping up and down and yelling "get it off! get it off!".

Anyway, so the reason for our after-dark jungle trek - we were going to stay in a hide. A hide is a small wooden hut sitting up above the jungle floor with viewing window and a couple of beds. There is a salt lick down below to attract animals, and the idea is that you camp out all night in the hope that you will see some hungry animals. I think we were a bit noisy, because we didn't see any at all. But the sound of the jungle is an experience in itself. The animal calls and insects are like a chaotic symphony, and it is SO loud! Actually I lie; we did see some action. In the morning Julia went to use the toilet and there were a couple of bats hanging upside down from the roof! Awesome!

The following morning we made the trek back out of the jungle, followed again by the 15 minutes of leech removal. We then made our way to an elephant sanctuary to take a look at the animals up close and go for a ride! We were the only ones there, so it was really cool to be able to get right up close and feed the elephants. I think I made a new friend.

Our final stop was a cave just outside Gua Musang (a small city about 40kms from Taman Negara). This place was insane, with HUGE stalactites with beautiful vegetation surrounding. We clambered up over the rocks and explored the cave, taking about 200 photos.

And that was the end of our adventure. I should note that the whole time we were visiting these attractions we were being filmed. The footage is going to be used to make a promotional video for Malaysia, so we are pretty much going to be famous. This often meant doing the same thing a few times over while they got the footage they needed, but on the whole it was really painless. And the team of people filming were seriously awesome. For a free trip, it was definitely worth it. I knew our bad luck had to change sometime...

Later that afternoon we managed to get a ticket down to Kuala Lumpar. It was bloody expensive, but I sit writing this reclining back in my huge, comfy seat on a 'business class' bus. I would have bought a cheaper ticket if I had the choice, but I might as well not complain and enjoy it.

Kuala Lumpur is one of the coolest capital cities I have ever visited. Friendly and relaxed, large green spaces, amazing archetecture... If you want to shop 'till your feet fall off, KL has everything from small street markets to massive malls. Get back to nature? KL is covered in greenery, and has a huge park not far from the center of town. After a bit of culture? You will find a fusion of religions, from Buddhist temples to Mosques to Churches. Want to be entertained? KL has a massive down-town entertainment district that has everything you could ever want. Seriously, KL is the shiz.

A quick run down of the spots we hit -
Chinatown. This area is the most 'touristy' and has a bit market selling your standard knock-off clothing for as much as the vendor can screw you for. There is also a couple of cool temples, Guan Di and Sri Maha Mariamman. There was some kind of Indian ceremony or celebration going on at the second one, so there were saree's everywhere!

Little India. A colourful area just north of China Town. Plenty of curry, bollywood films and bad music. But the market was cool and less touristy than the one in China Town.

The National Mosque. A huge white building with lots of trees, water and fountains surrounding. I was able to go inside the complex but not inside the mosque itself.

Merdeka Square. This is where Malaysia declared its independence. A large green field in the middle of the city with a huge flag at one end and a fountain at the other. The most interesting thing about this place is the beautiful buildings surrounding - the Sultan Abdul Samad Building and the Museum Tekstil.

The Lake Gardens. A massive park filled with plants and wildlife. The park is actually home to many museums, the planetarium, a butterfly park, deer park, amphitheatre, the largest aviary in the world! and a big lake. Unfortunately when we were there it was hosing down with rain, so we didn't stick around long, but it looked like a pleasant place to spend a day.

The National Monument. Right beside the Lake Gardens is the monument dedicated to the Malaysians that have lost their lives in conflict. A large statue surrounded by water; worth a look if you are heading to the gardens.

The Golden Triangle. The entertainment and shopping district in KL. The sky-scrapers in this area can be seen from all over the city, and it is home to some of the most exculsive hotels. The Golden Triangle is also home to the Petronas Towers (former worlds tallest building), the KL Tower and Times Square - the biggest mall I have ever seen! (It has a theme park inside...). We actually tried to go up the Petronas towers, which is free! But the viewing platform was being refurbished, so that was kinda sucky.

Sorry if this post reads a bit like a guide book, but I don't really have any funny stories to tell from KL. Well, we did witness two fights, one involving drunk old men. The other where a guy grabbed a big iron bar. I guess that was pretty funny. Oh, and I found a Kenny Rogers chicken joint! WTF? But other than that - nada. But it is an awesome city so you should check it out.

The Cameron Highlands are a unique part of Malaysia. Sitting at around... well, I cant find out how high, but it is pretty high... so the climate is much cooler than most of the country. This allows plants to grow here which otherwise would not, in particular tea and strawberries. In true Malaysian style, the area is thick with lush forest, but in between the hills are covered in rows of green and golden tea. Spectacular.

We arrived in to Tanah Rata, the main travelers hub of the highlands, in the early evening. The trip up was painfully slow - the huge bus trying to navigate the thin, windy mountain roads, but extremely beautiful. We caught our first glimpses of the tea plantations, as well as the untamed forest which stretched out over the valleys. By the time we got in it was too late to go out and explore, so we found ourselves a cheapish guest house for the night.

The following morning Julia and I rose early, determined to make the most of the day. While mornings here in Malaysia are generally sunny, the weather usually turns to torrential rain by mid-afternoon. We hitched our way up to the next village (Berin Chang) then set out on trail number one, a hike to the top of the highest peak in the area; Mount Berinchang.

It was more a climb than a hike, as the majority of the way we were clambering up and over huge tree roots, fallen trees, and skidding up muddy banks. It was seriously steep and did not relent for about two hours. And the flat parts were basically pits of mud. So when we were not climbing our time was spent balancing on tree branches, or tip-toeing around the edge of huge mud puddles. But once at the top we had a view out over miles of untouched forest. Worth the sore feet, aching muscles and mud covering our legs and feet? I'm not entirely sure. But it was nice.

At the top of the mountain there is a road which winds its way down to Berin Chang. The climb was a much more direct route, only about 5kms, where-as the road was 11! There was almost no traffic, so we were faced with a long walk down. Thankfully after about 4kms we entered the tea-plantation area and there were more people around. The plantations were really amazing, covering the hills as far as you could see. Even impossibly steep areas were covered with green and gold tea bushes.

A couple of kilometers down the road we were lucky enough to get a ride with a nice Malay family. They took us back to Berin Chang, then invited us to share some durian with them. Durian is this strange spiky fruit that smells really bad, but (apparently) tastes amazing. I had started hearing about it when I got to China and it has always been around through most of Asia. I had smelt it a few times which really put me off (it is banned in from most hotels, cinemas etc) but the Asian people in general go crazy for the stuff, so I thought I had better give it a go. It was... interesting. It kind of tasted like custard, and a couple of times I thought it was really nice... I think the wind must have been blowing though, as most of the time I could not get past the smell!

That evening we jumped on a bus for Penang. The idea was to spend a day or two looking around the island, then catch a ferry across to Indonesia.

The first thing we did after arriving in Penang was try to find information about the ferry across to Indonesia; times, prices etc. But the first guy we asked said that the ferry was no longer running. A quick check on the internet confirmed. The reason? Cheap flights had eaten up all their business. The closest port that had services to Indonesia was south of Kuala Lumpur! Not ideal.

So the options were to either get a bus down to Port Klang, then a ferry which would be expensive and very time consuming, or fly. Flying was relatively cheap and took only an hour. But this would be the first flight I had taken on this whole trip. Nine months and 43,000+ kms overland, I really did not want to fly if it was at all possible. But realistically, it wasn't; Julia and I wanted to visit places in the north of Indonesia, so to go overland (or water) would take days and cost a LOT. Plus I have already booked a flight from Bali to New Zealand just before Christmas, so I fail the overland goal anyway. I may as well fail it a couple of weeks early.

Once we had our onward transport sorted we could relax a little. We spent a huge day wandering around George Town - the capital of Penang. It is a really interesting place, with a chaos of cultures and religions all in one small place. We visited temples, mosques and churches all within a few hundred meters of each other.

My favorite was Kong Hock Keong Temple. An old, run down building that looks like it belongs in some small remote village rather than the center of George Town. The interior was almost as bad as the exterior, but it was filled with bright red lanterns hanging from the roof and locals lighting incense. The sunlight was streaming in and it seemed a little eerie, even in the middle of the day.

While I heard some of the beaches in Penang are quite nice, we were too lazy to get out of George Town. But we did decide to walk along to shore and maybe go for a swim. I will say two things about the beaches in George Town. One: they suck! Most of the shore is rocks, and when you do find some sand it is covered in rubbish. It was actually pretty disgusting. Two: there are awesome lizards! HUGE ones that come out on the rocks to soak up the sun. We saw two of them while just wandering around.

That's about all I got for Penang. Oh, except we did see one really cool old abandoned school building that was totally overgrown with tress. Today we catch our flight to the north of Indonesia - Medan. We plan to get out of the city, check out some volcanoes and maybe some wildlife. It should be good.

I just spent 2 days hanging out on an island. Nothing special, right? WRONG! This island is in a lake which formed in the crater of an extinct VOLCANO! I picked up a brochure on the place, and it stated that Lake Toba is probably the highest lake in the world! Probably is good enough for me; I'll claim it. The lake is bright blue in colour and crystal clear. And the island is like a tropical paradise, complete with swaying palm trees. Did I mention it is in the crater a volcano? How cool is that?

Let's back up a couple of days. Julia and I arrived to Medan in Indonesia after our short flight from Penang. The first sign we got that Indonesia is a fairly laid-back country was when the plane was pulling up to the terminal; we saw a guy asleep right on the tarmac, underneath a plane. I don't think they allow that sort of thing at Heathrow? Anyway. the visa-on-arrival process was quick and painless. In fact it was faster than most borders that do not require a visa. I think they are just after the cash.

We planned to get straight out of the city, which meant making our way to the long-distance bus station, a few kilometers out of town. We almost had to physically push the taxi and motorbike drivers away as they hurled offers at us, and made our way to the nearest bus stop. We almost walked past it as it looked like it had not been in use for years; rusted and covered in graffiti. The 'bus' showed up just as we were arriving... I use the term bus very loosely; it was a rusted out old van that had the seats ripped out and a couple of bench seats installed. We actually didn't have any small change so one nice guy paid for us! 1 point for Indonesia.

After about 30 minutes we arrived at the long-distance bus station, where we were immediately confronted by a man in uniform wanting to sell us tickets. A little hesitant, we agreed. Turns out he was so enthusiastic as he was taking a little commission for himself, but it amounted to less than $0.50, so we weren't too concerned. What did piss me off was that the luggage compartment was full, so he wanted to charge us an extra seat for our bags. We ended up putting one under our feet and the other in the aisle for everyone to walk over. Not ideal.

The bus ride was OK. It was interesting to ride with all the locals, being the only foreigners on the bus. There were plenty of smiles and people seemed quite curious. But the two guys behind us (along with quite a few others on the bus) were chain smoking. After five hours there was a thin haze through the bus and I had a killer headache. The guy directly behind us had his young daughter with him, right beside him on the seat as he smoked one after the other. We learned quickly that smoking is one of the two things that Indonesians LOVE to do.

We arrived in Parapat, a small town on the edge of lake Toba, at about 7pm. Unfortunately too late for the last ferry, so we found ourselves a guesthouse for the night. We thought we were getting a bargain after Malaysia - where we were paying at least US$10 a night. Here is was only about $7. It turns out that we were taken for a bit of a ride, as the accommodation here is CHEAP (last night we paid $3.50). Funny story - as we pulled in to Parapat one of the guys asked me "Tuk-tuk?". I thought he meant do we need a tuk-tuk, so I replied "Uhhh, no, I don't think so". But he was actually referring to the town Tuk-Tuk, which is the main tourist spot on Samosir Island... Hmmm, not that funny? Maybe you had to be there.

Early the following morning we took the ferry across to Tuk-Tuk. On the boat we were approached by a friendly enough guy working for one of the hotels. Not having anywhere to stay we agreed to take a look at his place. Only having the previous night for reference, I thought we were winning when I bargained him down to $7. Yeah, we weren't. But the room was nice enough and they did have wifi. The following day we changed to a traditional Batak house for half the price.

What is a Batak house? It is a house built in the style of the local Batak people, with two big points at each end. These people have lived in this region for hundreds of years, originally migrating from Burma and Thailand. They were a brutal, warlike people with some pretty barbaric customs. Today they are friendly and warm, their worst trait is sometimes trying to charge too much for souvenirs at the local market.

With spectacular views and not a whole lot to do, this regions is perfect for kicking back and relaxing with a good book. We don't have a good book between us, and both Julia and I are not much for laying around doing nothing. So our downtime was spent booking flights or planning where we want to go next.

We hired a scooter to get out and explore the island, driving the entire northern coast. The place is truly beautiful. And the Indonesian people are so friendly and just generally excited to see you. Passing by on the scooter all the children would yell out hello or hold their hands out for high-fives. And their English in general is surprisingly good. The only things we really 'did' that day was call in at some hot springs for a dip, and visit the local market.


On the way home instead of driving back around the coast, we decided to go up and over the island. It is practically a straight line versus driving ALL the way back around. It'll take half the time! What could go wrong? Short answer: almost everything. Driving the coast probably took 1.5 hours. Over the top took at least 2.5. Why? The roads were more like 4x4 trails. Huge rocks, potholes, massive puddles of mud. Parts of it looked like they were old horse trails that had not been used in years. Needless to say; the signage was very poor, and I think the locals kept directing us the wrong path - the one that brings down monster trucks - just for a laugh. I am really surprised we actually made it.

Completely exhausted, we returned the scooter an hour late! With a huge grin on her face, the lady just took a look at the scooter, literally coated in mud, and all she said was "Not broken?". Indonesians? Awesome!

We decided on Berastagi as our next stop. There is no direct public bus, and while it is possible to take a combination of buses between the two, it would have probably taken the whole day. So we decided to be lazy and take a tourist bus service for about $11 each. It actually ended up being just us two in the back of a relatively nice car. The only problem? The driver and his co-pilot were smoking like a train the whole time.

Random observations:
- I'll say it again, Indonesian people are awesome; really friendly and inviting people. We went for some dinner one night and got talking to the woman that ran the place. She was so nice; letting us know we were being ripped off at the place we were staying, making recommendations for others, giving us free drinks and huge meals.
- I mentioned that Indonesians love to do two things - the first is smoking. The second - singing. In the evening you can wander around Tuk-Tuk and there will be music and singing coming from every second place you pass.
- These is no Thai-style tuk-tuks here. Instead they have motorbikes with little sidecars. It is impressive to see how many people they can fit in one. It is like watching one of those clown cars.
- While we are on transport - the Indonesians like to use every available space in their vehicles. It is not unusual to see a bunch of people clinging to the roof of a van as it flys past.
- And one more thing, all the buses and vans are painted in bright, colourful patterns. It is pretty cool.

There is only one reason to visit the town of Berastagi in Northern Indonesia; the proximity of Mount Sibiyak; a pretty sizable volcano. There are actually two volcanoes in the area, but Sibayak is the closest and easiest to climb. That is not to say it is easy, many people have lost their lives on Sibayak. In fact there is a big list of all the people that have died in the information center, the idea is to encourage you to hire a guide. But guides are expensive, and we are highly experienced mountaineers. OK, that last bit was a lie, but we'll be fine!

The evening we arrived into Berastagi was one of the worst storms I have experienced. It was bucketing down, there were claps of thunder coming from every direction, and lightning was lighting up the sky. This concerned me for two reasons; our guest house leaked like a sieve, and that it would be too wet to go hiking the following day.

We woke to an overcast day which kept threatening to rain but never followed through. We walked about 30 minutes to the entrance gate, paid our $0.20 each to get in, then started climbing. Except we were still on a sealed road... and 30 minutes later we started going down. Turns out we hadn't even reached the base of the mountain yet. But walking through the jungle was quite nice, and we saw a big group of wild monkeys swinging through the trees. Unfortunately as soon as they saw us they took off, and I was too slow to get out my camera.

The sealed road continued on even after we did find the mountain, and continued on to within a kilometer of the summit. That is not to say it wasn't hard; that road was freakin' steep! And there was a massive landslide that came over the road to navigate. At the end of the road a small path lead up to the crater. As soon as we left the road the surroundings changed from lush, green forest to white, volcanic rock.

The closer we got to the crater the more the landscape looked like the surface of the moon; a completely barren, rocky surface with steam rising from the ground. There were a couple of huge vents where steam was rushing out, as we got close the sound was overwhelming.


     

The crater itself also looked like something from a far off planet; with steam and clouds swirling around the steep rocky walls, and the light green water that had collected in the basin.
           

We had a small picnic on one edge of the crater, then decided to make our way down. We opted for a small trail that lead down to some hot-springs rather than the main sealed road. We didn't realise quite how difficult it would be. The trail was very steep, with loose rocks and huge cliff faces. With the previous nights rain everything was extremely slippery. I started to understand how people might loose their lives up here.

But we made it down unscathed. As we got down from the open rock faces and into the jungle we started to hear the monkeys. Quiet at first, then slowly picking up with more and more monkeys joining in. It sounded as though they were coming right for us, but sadly I never saw any of them.

At the bottom of the trail was a steam plant. We approached from the back where there was a massive building that was half melted. Something pretty serious had happened there. I wanted to take a closer look, but when I leaned through the fence there was a guard standing right there. We made our way around to the front and as we were walking away a big rock came flying and landed just in-front of Julia. WTF? Had we seen something we shouldn't have?

We made it to the hot pools without being stoned to death. They were exactly what we needed to relax our aching muscles.

That night we walked just out of the town to a small hill to watch the sun set over one of the volcano's. It was pretty spectacular.

Next we are making our way to Bukit Lawang, a small village famous for its orangutan population. They actually have a rehabilitation center there where you can see the rangers feeding the monkeys. We opted for public transport because we are not really in a rush, and it is CHEAP. The comfort level is pretty low, but we can handle it.

One random observation - the public transport that runs around town are all vans. But they all have big wings on the back and massive body kits. It is kind of like a back-yard Fast and the Furious, or a gay Mad Max.

Bukit Lawang is famous for one thing - orangutan. It is a small town that is home to an orangutan rehabilitation center. Any sick animals are nursed back to health at the center, while displaced animals are released into the forest surrounding. Twice a day the rangers go into the forest and feed the semi-wild orangutan. As a tourist, you can go and watch the feeding, but there is no guarantee that the orangutan will show up. The rangers feed them a bland diet which encourages the animals to forage for themselves.

And it seems they were foraging pretty well. We went to watch two feedings, and both times no orangutans showed up. The only animals that came were a couple of cheeky monkeys. It was quite disappointing, even more so as they charge you once to get in, then again for your camera (and it is pretty expensive!). But we did experience one cool river crossing on this leaky boat.


The town itself is really nice. Set alongside a rocky river, with small bamboo huts and rickety bridges littering the banks. You can hire inner-tubes and float your way down stream, or just do as the locals do and jump from the rocks.

About the only other thing to do in Bukit Lawang is to go trekking. I hear it is pretty amazing, as there is a lot of wildlife in the area. A few guys I was talking to guaranteed we would see orangutan along with other monkeys and maybe even a tiger! But it was really expensive, too expensive for us...

We traveled both from Berastagi to Bukit Lawang, and from BL to Medan by public transport. It was really cheap, but very slow and sometimes frustrating (they seem to stop all the time and sit there for 30 minutes for no reason). From Medan we FLY to Jakarta. I know, flying AGAIN! But there wasn't a lot we wanted to see in the south of Sumatra, and busing would have literally taken days. With under two weeks left to make it to Bali for our flight to NZ, it really was the only option.

Jakarta is one of the most warm and friendly capital cities I have ever visited. For me, getting over the concrete sprawl and seeing the real city is easy; it is right there in the smiling faces of every person you see. While there is not many 'tourist attractions', I enjoyed every second in the city.

We arrived to the capital late, off our flight down from Medan. Even still we wandered the streets in search of cheap accommodation for about an hour. None was forthcoming, and we ended up paying $9 to stay in a room directly over an extremely noisy karaoke bar. But we were so exhausted from a huge day travelling we didn't even hear the bad Tina Turner renditions going on downstairs.

We only gave ourselves a day in the city, mainly because we booked our onward train tickets before we realised how cool of a place it was. But it was a blessing in disguise, as Jakarta is bloody expensive, and I think we would have run out of things to do fairly rapidly.

So our day was spent wandering around Kota, in between all the old colonial Dutch buildings. It is quite a cool area, but the hawkers and markets stalls have moved in, all vying for the tourist dollar. But they, along with everyone we had any contact with in Jakarta, were extremely friendly and helpful. There was one strange thing we witnessed; one street was lined with tattoo artists sitting on the ground behind big signs. They don't take you away to their sanitised studio to perform the tattoo, right there on the street is clean enough. We actually saw a few people getting work done; I couldn't believe it!

But the main tourist attraction in Jakarta? Julia and I. People were constantly calling out to us, saying hello, randomly giving us high-5's, or asking to take a photo with us. It was kind of crazy, and I wondered if they had ever seen tourists before. And while I am sure Indonesia does not get as many tourists as, say, Thailand, I am sure it gets its fair share. I think it is just in their culture to be amazingly friendly and welcoming. It is nice when people are genuinely interested in talking to you rather than just trying to sell sell you something.

Uhh, what else? We saw the largest mosque in SE Asia - Mesjid Istiqlal, a massive monument nicknamed (Soekarno's last erection), and a church that I don't know the name of. That's about it...

We departed Jakarta on an overnight train bound for Yogyakarta, in central Java. While the travel agents wanted to sell us second class seats for about $22 each, we went to the station and bought third class for $4. We could have got second class for $14 at the station, but that is still a big difference in price. And being seasoned travelers; third class wouldn't be a problem... We hoped! I was just praying that it would not be as hellish as the trains in China.

And it wasn't! And while it was not terrible, it was a long way from comfortable. The heat and humidity left us sitting in puddles of our own sweat, hard bench seats with vertical backs, people chain smoking and food vendors walking by every 30 seconds calling out what they had for sale. That was the bit I found most hard to believe; for the entire 11 hours, through the whole night, these people just walked backward and forward selling coffee or snacks or whatever. No exaggeration; one went past at least every 30 seconds.

To be continued...

Yogyakarta is a city full of squawking birds, intense heat and lazy cyclo drivers. An interesting mix; well worth a couple of days to check out.

Red eyed and sleep deprived, we departed our uncomfortable (to put it nicely) overnight train journey from Jakarta. The first thing we did in Yogyakarta was to find somewhere to stay. Everything was really expensive, but we did manage to find a very basic place for about $6. By basic I mean that the bed did not even have a blanket, and I was sure we were going to catch something after entering the bathroom. It was rank!


We spent the first half of the day catching up on sleep (we didn't get much on the train), and the second half exploring Malioboro street; the most lively area of town. The street is crammed with street stalls on both sides selling all kinds of things, from traditional batak clothing to rip-off sunglasses to cheap street food.

Yogyakarta is a very popular tourist stop, mainly because of its proximity to two major ancient religious sites. Borobudur; a massive Buddhist monument, and Prambanan; a huge Hindu complex. Both have hefty entrance fees, so we decided to only visit one. We settled on Prambanan mainly because it is much easier to get to. But also because within the Prambanan complex there is a huge Buddhist monument also.

While Prambanan is impressive, my standards are set a little high after seeing Angkor in Cambodia. And the fact that it was so expensive to get in meant I kept waiting to be blown away. But I did manage to push the 'this better be worth it' thought out of my brain for a while and appreciate the monuments. The main complex is surrounded by huge stone blocks laying in ruins, littering the area. Over the years parts of the walls and smaller temples have been shaken loose by earthquakes. Inside the perimeter of rocky debris stands five temples, the main one being the Shiva Temple. It is seriously tall, reaching close to 50m. Jagged spires point skyward, and all of the walls are decorated with intricate carvings. The fact that this complex was built over 1,100 years ago makes it all the more impressive.


The Sewu Temple is the second larges Buddhist Temple complex in all of Java. While the perimeter is also littered with huge stone blocks, the temples themselves are quite different to Prambanan. Surrounded by large, round stupas, the temples are topped by domes. The area is also full of statues and carvings of (unsurprisingly) Buddha.

While at the temple we were approached by two very friendly Indonesian girls, Mycelia and Lintang. They wandered around the temples with us and even invited us back to Mycelias house for tea. It was really cool to chat with them and find out a bit about the life of a young Indonesian. They walked us back to the bus stop, along the way showing us to a field full of surprisingly tame deer.

I think that the further south we have traveled; the friendlier the people have got. People are always going out of their way to say hello on the street. I was actually messaged by three Indonesian people on CouchSurfing, just randomly as they saw I was in the country. Julia and I met up with one guy; Steve, who hung out with us one day and showed us around a bit. He was a really nice guy, helping us buy our onward train tickets and driving us around on the back of his scooter. We spent an hour playing tennis (which was awesome, even though I was a little rusty), then went out for some traditional Indonesian food.

We also spent some time in Yogyakarta itself; discovering the old royal palace (Kraton), water castle and Dutch fortress (Benteng Vendenburg) The palace was a little disappointing, and is mainly now just a museum with old royal artifacts. But it did have an awesome light-puppet show complete with a large musical backing. Although some of the musicians were more interested in smoking cigarettes and having a yarn...


The water castle was quite cool and we managed to pick up an unofficial guide along the way (meaning he would not leave us alone even though I told him we weren't going to pay him. In the end he badgered us to go into a souvenir shop, but we refused to buy anything). It is where the sultan used to hang out and have a bath, and the local people could come to wash.


And finally; the Dutch fortress. It was being refurbished when we were there, so a lot of it was off limits. But there was one cool area that had small model recreations of important events in the Dutch colonization  and then the Indonesian independence. The models were very detailed and extremely well done... but other than that, the fort did not have a lot going for it.

That wraps up our time in Yogya. From here we have another loooong economy class journey to Probolingo, the main jump-off point for Mount Bromo. Bromo and the surrounding volcano's are said to be the most spectacular in all of Indonesia, so we could not pass right by and not check it out. From there we head to Bali, where in exactly nine days time we catch our flight to New Zealand. This will be the first time I have set foot in my home country for over three years, and the first time I have spent more than 10 days in it for over four. As you might expect, I'm kinda looking forward to being home.

The Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park is a completely unique part of Indonesia. I'm struggling to think of words to describe it, so bear with me. Imagine a massive basin (10kms wide) surrounded on all sides by steep cliff faces. The bottom is a flat, desolate area of sand and volcanic rock. Rising from the basin are two huge, smoking volcano's sitting side by side. The volcanic rock and the way it has formed makes the whole area seem as though it is not from this world. In the distance is one more volcano, Semeru, which shows off by blowing out massive clouds of steam at regular intervals.

We arrived to Probolinggo about 4:30pm and found a van going to the 'bus station'. Problem - they dropped us at tourist agency and told us to go in to the office. Uhhh, no, we wanted to go to the bus station! So that pissed me off, but not as much as the guys at the agency trying everything they could to take our money. Apparently all the local buses had finished for the day, but they could organise us a ride up to Cemoro Lawang (a small town overlooking the National Park) with some Indonesian tourists. But it was going to cost us IDR 50,000 each, double what the local bus costs, and probably double what the Indonesian guys were paying. Smelling a rat, I asked for directions to the local bus station and said we would find a hotel, stay the night, and catch the bus up the following day. Soon afterward they magically found some more people that wanted to go up, so now the price was only 35,000... funny that, because no one else actually joined us on the bus.

Once they had sold us the transport up to Cemoro Lawang they tried to keep a good thing going. Firstly pushing their sunrise jeep tour of Bromo, which would set us back 100,000 each. I'm a fan of getting to a destination and then working out what I want to do and how I'll go about doing it, so their offers were quickly refused. But they moved on to 'where are you going next?" We had a general plan to keep moving toward Bali, but no fixed itinerary. They were extremely keen to sell us an onward bus ticket, and when asked about public buses running to Bali he stated twice that there were none. I was quite sure, and later found out for certain, that he was a big fat liar.

And the final thing they did which made me really despise them - We had not eaten all day, so asked the guys in the tourist agency if they could direct us to somewhere we could eat. They called over a guy selling fried noodles in his street cart. I went over to pay the noodle man but one of the tourist guys intercepted me, asking for 20,000. What? It should be around 5,000 each. I walked around him and asked the noodle man how much. 12,000. This guy was trying everything he could to get my money. Asshole.

The bus was meant to show up in 20 minutes but took about an hour. It then stopped at another tourist agency, the gas station, the supermarket, a car parts place to get some oil... basically anywhere the driver could think to stop; he did. But we did eventually make it up the mountain at about 7:30pm that night.

Cemoro Lawang is a tiny village on the edge of Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park. Apart from its location, there is nothing to distinguish it from any other small village anywhere else in Indonesia. That is apart from the prices for accommodation. Most places didn't have a room for less than 400,000. That is about 8 times the MAXIMUM we have paid for any other room in the whole of Indonesia. The minivan driver, who was either trying to be very helpful or after some kind of commission tried to lead us to a few cheaper places, but ended up being plain irritating. We were shown a room in an old ladies house that had the smallest bed I have ever seen inside a minuscule room - and she wanted 170,000! We thought we were being ripped off when the guest-houses in other cities demanded 60.

We finally found a room for 75,000. The bed touched three of the walls and was about a foot from the fourth. And it was a small bed. It was TINY! We could hardly fit ourselves in, let-alone our bags. But we only needed it for a few hours (we planned to catch the sunrise the following day) and it was the cheapest we could find...

Next job was to find out what we would do in Cemoro Lawang and how we would go about doing it. I knew you could walk to the crater of Bromo which took about three hours each way, but had a hunch that the best viewing spots required transport. The Lonely Planet was of almost no help, and the local guest-houses and tourist offices were after one thing; our money! When we asked about walking to the view points and to the crater we were laughed at. A sunrise jeep tour to the main view point, then on to the crater of Bromo was 85,000 each. While we were wandering around a guy came up to us and offered the same tour on the back of a bike for 75,000 each. I bargained him down to 60,000 and agreed to meet him tomorrow at 4am.

After too few hours sleep we rose and met our drivers for the morning. The village was thick with fog, but five minutes drive up the hill we cleared the fog and were greeted by open skies. You could see all the way out over the valley which had a thick carpet of cloud, slowly spilling over the edge of the ridge. The ride was actually quite short, only taking about 15 minutes to the parking area. From there we had to climb. It was quite difficult in the dark but after about 30 minutes we made it to the highest viewing area. It was not really out of choice, just that the 'helpful' locals kept pointing us up the path even though there were two perfectly good viewing areas lower down.

While the sunrise was a little bit of an anti-climax, the view definitely wasn't. With three volcano's in view above a massive basin thick with cloud, it was pretty magical. We watched the sun rise up over the basin and slowly start to burn off the low cloud, all under perfectly blue skies.

We jumped back on the motorbikes and headed down into the basin. Passing through into the cloud was like a passing into a bubble; as soon as we crossed through the surroundings grew very dark, and the atmosphere very damp. We drove across the floor of the basin with a carpet of sand and volcanic rock. It was a really strange experience; driving through what seemed like a desert in the thick fog, watching the outlines of horses and people forming up ahead of us.

Bromo is short and stout with a massive crater. The sides fall steeply down toward the center, where there is a large hole and a deep vertical drop. At the bottom lies the small crater lake. There was not a lot of action; the most we saw was a small puff of steam, but it was still an amazing site. And it provided some pretty spectacular views out over the basin.

By 7:30am we were back in Cemoro Lawang. And while the motorbike tour was quite cool, those budget conscious could easily walk the whole thing. It is what we would have done had we known it was possible. Oh, and one more word of advice; before the sun could burn off all the fog in the basin, the clouds rolled in. You couldn't see the sun at all by 9am. Apparently the weather follows this pattern every day at this time of year.

With grey skies and having seen what we came for, there was no real reason to stick around. I mean, other than another night in the tiny, cramped, overpriced room... We decided to move on and head back to Probolinggo. We weren't completely sure on a destination, but we would just see where the public buses went and then decide. I asked about the local bus going down the mountain and was told one left at 9:30am. So at 9:20 we were at the stop and ready to go. The bus FINALLY left after 12! Very frustrating.

So I'm not entirely sure where we will end up tonight, but we are generally heading toward Bali. The East Coast sounds quite nice, so maybe we will end up there.

Everyone has heard of Bali, and it seems most people want to go there. Paradise on earth, apparently. Well, our experience shattered a few expectations; both good and bad. While I had never expected to find amazing temples and beautiful highland villages, we found just that. But the flipside; the beaches we visited were either not all that nice or full of rubbish and way over touristed. Kuta is over touristed like no other place I have ever visited. Kinda sad.

Let's back up. In the last post Julia and I were just leaving the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park. Our bus down the mountain arrived to Probolinggo by early afternoon. At the bus station the sales guy assured us that the journey from Probolinggo to the port town of Ketapang would only take four hours, but in reality it took over six. In a hot, sweaty, cramped public bus (conditions that by now are par for the course). We jumped straight on the ferry for the short hop across to Bali. It was after 8pm by the time we arrived on the island, in the small harbour town of Gilimanuk. It seemed like a deserted place with not a lot going for it. We had spent most of the day travelling with another couple that were trying to head on to Lovina the same night, and as we didn't have any firm plans we decided to join. Unfortunately the public buses only left when they were full (14 people) and being quite late no one was around. We ended up bargaining hard and getting the guy to take us for about US$4 each.

Lovina is a small, sleepy coastal town with a nice beach and calm seas. There is quite a lot of interesting places you can discover around Lovina by hiring a scooter - temples, markets etc. But to be honest I just wanted to be lazy. I have been walking for hours or zooming around on scooters to see temples or points of interest for months. I decided it was time for a break. But Lovina didn't really do it for us. The beach wasn't all that nice as it was full of rocks, and the town was a little too sleepy. So we moved on after a day.

Next stop was Ubud; the cultural capital of Bali. I am really glad we made the effort to go, as we were thinking of skipping it (for the above reasons). It is overflowing with Hindu temples, Balinese dress, dance and traditions. Even the guest houses all seemed as though they were old temples or shrines, full of moss-covered stone carvings. And the carvings here are in a style I have never seen before; they kind of look like cartoon characters with very exaggerated facial features. This is all surrounded by wide rice terraces, swaying palms and deep green valleys.
We visited the monkey sanctuary while in Ubud, which had more monkeys than I have ever seen! It was really cool and we spent a couple of hours wandering around. There are some temples inside the complex as well as what looked like a stone carving school. The monkeys themselves were awesome; all with very different personalities. For some reason most of them seemed to really like me, clambering all over me or just sitting on my shoulder or camera bag. A couple going straight for the pockets. One actually stole a pack of tissues straight out of my pocket and proceeded to tear it apart.

We also had a quick walk out in among the rice terraces. We got to see people going about their daily lives in the fields, collecting coconuts and working in the rice. It was quite cool as walking five minutes out of town and you are surrounded by wilderness and feel miles away from civilization.


From Ubud we headed to Kuta, with a quick stop just outside Sanur - a place called Turtle Island. There is a turtle conservation center there that breeds and releases sea-turtles. I love turtles and have never seen the giant sea-turtles before, so really wanted to check it out. To be honest it was a little disappointing; there were just a series of small tiled pools which contained turtles, just sitting there looking bored as hell. It would have been nice to see them in a more natural environment, but it was still worth the visit.


How to describe Kuta? It feels like it was over-touristed 20 years ago and has just continued to deteriorate. Packed full of tourists whose IQ can't be above 20, loud clubs, expensive restaurants, about five million touts and taxi drivers trying to sell everything from magic mushrooms to fake Versace wallets. The only locals in Kuta are working behind the bar or trying to sell you a "cheap, cheap singlet, just for you". And so many Australians! Even the touts have adopted an Australian accent; "Bloody cheap, mate!". I knew it would be touristy, but I never expected this...

It was actually raining most of the time we were in Kuta. Which wasn't so bad actually as Julia and I both had a bit of a cold. But we did get in a couple of good sessions at the beach. We only got in the water a couple of times as it was really dirty and disgusting. The shoreline looked like a rubbish dump, and in the water we were surrounded by countless plastic wrappers.

One afternoon just as we were going to get some lunch we were approached by a guy with a kind of scratch and win thing; a promotion from a new hotel in Nusa Dua (about 30 minutes drive away). Julia won a free t-shirt, and I uncovered three stars. The guy immediately got hugely excited and started shaking my hand furiously. Apparently I had won either US$1000, a luxury holiday, $500 in vouchers or a digital camera. I was a little suspicious, but I was interested enough to stick around and see where it went...

So went through the terms and conditions. And that we didn't meet he just told us to lie about. He told us that he was due to get a big commission! We walked down to see his 'manager' who was very dismissive. So instead accompanying us to the hotel he gave us a voucher for a free taxi and said to maybe go tomorrow. I wasn't sure how legit this all was, so had pretty much dismissed it. A little later another guy tried to give us one of the promotional cards. We told him we had already won, showed him the ticket, and just like the last guy he got extremely excited. Shaking my hand and saying how amazing it was. He told us to not worry about the lunch as we would be given a free lunch at the hotel, all part of the service.

We were lead across to the office where a woman took my details. Anything that wasn't in accordance with the terms and conditions we were just coached to lie. So by the end of it Julia and I had been together for 3 years, living together in NZ for 2 years, holidaying for only three weeks, and I was permanently employed. They pulled a car around and we jumped in, headed for the hotel. The whole time the guy was coaching us on what to say so that we would get the prize and he would get his commission. If we told the hotel people the truth apparently he would be fined and fired. Hmmm...

There was horrific traffic so it took us about an hour to get there. We filled out the forms with all the lies they had coached us to give, then they gave us a bit of a grilling to make sure we were legit. Then a sales guy came around and gave us the schpeel. They were basically looking to sell time-share units, and needed A$10,000 before we left Bali. Yeah, not something I was interested in, and after he explained the scheme I told him so. Back at the front desk we finally got to find out what our big prize was! ... The $500 in vouchers. But these were discount vouchers. 10% off this expensive restaurant, 10% off this exclusive tour. It was basically just promotional material. There was literally nothing that we would have considered doing or going to. There was another couple who had also won, and strangely enough they also got the amazing voucher book. What a coincidence!

Well, at least we would get a free lunch, right? Wrong! Because we did not stay in the presentation for more than 60 minutes we were told we wouldn't get the lunch. So I asked if we had lied to the guy, wasted both his and our time for 60 minutes that we would have got the lunch. The woman was very apologetic and said it was not her call. Grrr... So we got scammed. Hard!

That about wraps up Bali. From here we fly to New Zealand for Christmas. So this is the last post for this trip. Which is sad, but I'm looking forward to going home and catching up with friends and family. I'll do a wrap up post in a few weeks when I can be bothered. Until then; I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Mount Cook is a fairly straight shot from Queenstown, so we decided we would save the gas and hitch-hike. Thankfully getting a ride was easy, and we were cruising north in style after only after a few minutes waiting.

The journey was pretty spectacular through the Lindis Pass, but as soon as we got near Mount Cook the weather turned to crap. Our ride dropped us at the turn-off to the national park, where we managed to get another ride to the camp ground. When we got there we could not see a thing! There was thick cloud all around and the wind was blowing something crazy. So we set up camp and read for the afternoon. That night the wind was so loud that we couldn't sleep. I was sure the tent was going to rip or blow away; it was insane! So I did not have high hopes for being able to see the mountain for the two days we planned to stay.

Surprisingly the following morning was perfectly clear so we set out to explore the area. First up was Hooker Lake, a couple of hours walk from the camp site. The walk itself was beautiful, following an aqua blue stream up a valley surrounded by massive mountains. The trail ends at Hooker Lake, which is at the foot of Mount Cook. The lake itself was filled with massive ice-bergs, which is (apparently) quite rare for the middle of summer. I felt blessed to have witnessed it - quite amazing really. As the sun slowly melted the ice they would crack and break away, falling in to the lake.

In the afternoon we walked out to Kea Point, which again had stunning views of Mount Cook and surroundings.

The Tasman Glacier is a 15 minute car ride away from the camp ground. Problem: we didn't have a vehicle. So we decided we would hitch-hike around. Which was actually really easy. We ended up getting a ride with a nice older Scottish couple that were staying at Mt Cook village. Which was great as they were able to give us a ride back too.

The glacier itself was a little un-impressive. I guess mainly because you can't get anywhere close to it. The viewing spot is a few hundred meters away from the face. That and it is covered in gravel, so you cannot really see the ice underneath. But the lake below it is quite impressive, being an odd off-green colour and having a couple of MASSIVE icebergs floating around. You can see the size of one of them in the photo below with the boat along-side.

The next day we hitch-hiked back out of the national park with a nice German couple, who dropped us at the turn-off to the 'clay cliffs'. We managed to hitch out to the cliffs themselves, which were about 10kms down the road. An older woman and her grandchild picked us up, and we ended up walking out to the cliffs with them. Really nice people :)

The clay cliffs are these weird limestone formations. I think the best way to describe it is like a massive ant-hill... Or something along those lines.  Worth a visit.

From the cliffs we headed back to Queenstown. We got a ride with a really interesting couple from the US. They both worked at Yosemite National Park in California, one as a ranger and the other as a detective! A profession I would have never expected to be working in the park. It turns out that around 30,000 people sleep in the park every night, so it is like a small city. And it comes with all the problems a small city has, including crime. And there are the opportunists - "Oh, my wife slipped and fell down that huge cliff face! Dammit! Lucky I actually hated her guts and took out a massive life insurance policy!". Anyway, they were really cool and even dropped us right back at Jamie and Marees place.

After Queenstown we headed to Auckland, where a few days later I had to say goodbye to Julia. It was really sad and there were a few tears, but I'm sure we will see each other again sometime in the future.

I've just put together a wrap-up post for our South Island adventure, so check it out. I've now settled back in my home town of Gisborne with a steady job and all that boring normal stuff. Anyone that wants to pay me to continue travelling, writing and taking photos - I want to hear from you!

After Milford we drove back to Queenstown, again to stay with Jamie and Maree. It was so handy having relatives living in Queenstown! It meant we could base ourselves there, then go off and do little side trips, but always have a comfy bed to come back to.

One short trip we did was to drive in to Skipper Canyon. The ride in is kinda scary; a narrow, winding dirt road. On one side a massive cliff face and on the other a huge drop off into the bottom of the valley. But the view is pretty stunning, and being the extremely skilled driver I am; it was not a problem. We drove past the Skippers Jebtboat again and watched it roar up and down the river. If it wasn't so expensive I would have been keen to give it a go.

Nearing the camp ground there is an old wooden bridge that crosses the canyon. It was only just wide enough for us to drive the truck across, and was making all kinds of creaking sounds as we did. I was sure it was going to fall down.

Skippers was once a small mining town, and some of the buildings in the area have been restored. It is quite interesting to wander around and look at the old photos. There are a few ruins of old buildings scattered around also. But most awesome? All the wild Raspberries! We had a field day picking and eating them. We camped on a small open field and watched the sun set over the hills. The only thing we could complain about was the sandflys! They were everywhere; a huge pain in the ass.

We made it back to Queenstown before the weather turned... and it really TURNED! The day after we got back there was a massive storm and huge snow dump. You couldn't see any of the mountains surrounding Queenstown. But when the cloud cleared the mountains were all coated in a thick blanket of snow. We took a drive up Coronet peak to have a play in the snow... not so much a novelty for Julia coming from Sweden, but it was still fun. We took a whole bunch of photos of Queenstown and the surroundings - Coronet peak provides a pretty spectacular view.

We also made a trip to Mount Cook, which I will cover in the next post, but when we returned to Queenstown we decided to go skydiving! Well, Julia wanted to go and decided it was going to be my birthday present. We jumped with Nzone from 12,000 feet. It was so freakin' cool. Jumping out over Lake Wanaka and the huge mountains was really amazing. I totally recommend.

Contrary to popular belief, the southern most point of New Zealand's South Island is not Bluff, but a place called 'Slope Point', which is a deserted stretch of beach. Other than being the southern most point, it really has nothing going for it. So instead we decided to check out the imposter that is Bluff.

Unfortunately Bluff doesn't have much more going for it. It was so windy that Julia and I were almost blown off the top of the hill, but at least it was clear enough to get a decent view of Stewart Island. At the bottom of the hill we had the standard photo underneath the road sign, a bit of a wander around, then decided to move on.

We drove straight through Invercargil and on to Lake Monowai. This was actually quite a cool spot with a beautiful forest walk. The rivers flowing out of the lake were all dammed to create a power plant, and in the process the water level was raised about three meters. The lake rose up over the edge of the forest, so now you can look into the clear waters and see a drowned forest down below... kinda creepy.

We ended the day by driving up to Te Anu and camping at a DOC site. The following morning we drove on through to Milford. The drive was spectacular; driving through valleys between massive snow-capped mountains, thick forests and past beautiful crystal clear lakes.

The Milford Sound itself is breathtakingly beautiful. We took a boat cruise out onto the sound with a company called 'Mitre Peak'. Their boats go out the furthest, right to the mouth of the sound, and they also have one of the smallest boats so can get right in underneath the waterfalls (we got a little wet!). That also means less crowds. Thankfully the big tour buses have agreements with the larger companies, so we didn't have to deal with hundreds of old tourists. Mitre Peak are also one of the cheapest, and we saved ourselves a few bucks by hanging around for a couple of hours and taking a later boat. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the views; spectacular! I'm not going to try and attempt to describe the beauty, and my photos don't do it justice, so you are just going to have go to and see it yourself.

That night we drove back to Te Anu to camp. We found a beautiful spot right by the river and watched the birds working on the river and fishermen catching dinner.

"The Catlins is a major highlight of the Southern Scenic Route. Situated off the beaten track, the Catlins encompasses the area between Kaka Point and Fortrose. You will journey through rural heartland and podocarp forests, past rugged coastlines, hidden lakes and stunning waterfalls. The natural landscapes are enthralling and the wildlife is extraordinary"... so says the Official website of the Catlins. And their description is pretty spot on. The Catlins packs a real punch; a small but diverse and beautiful area of New Zealand, with some really amazing scenery.

A few of the main sights; the Cathedral Caves and the petrified forest, are only accessible at low tide. Unfortunately for us low was at 8am or something ridiculous, so by the time we got up and got moving we had missed it. But no major drama, we just decided to spend two days in the Catlins and enjoy things at a more leasurly pace. Just as well we did, though, as there is a lot to see!

Our first stop was Nugget Point; a rocky section of land which juts out into the ocean. On the very tip, along a winding path, lies a white lighthouse. And beyond that a fierce ocean dotted with large, protruding rocks. Pretty freakin' cool.

We then visited Surat Bay with the hope of seeing some Elephant Seals, but had no luck. I think maybe because of the stormy weather? I'm also blaming the weather as the reason we didn't see any Hectors Dolphins down the coast further at Curio Bay. That or maybe we were just unlucky. Either way this area is full of wildlife, and on a good day it is (apparently) quite amazing.

Having missed out on the low tide attractions, we decided to hit Jacks Blow-hole, obviously most blowee at high tide. There was a decent trek to get there, but it provided spectacular views out over the coast, so really worth it. The blow-hole itself was OK. If I told you that it was 200m from the shoreline, or that it is 55m deep, 144m long and 68m wide, you might be mislead into thinking it's AWESOME! But actually seeing it; it's kinda dull. Even though the sea was crazily rough, there was no blow coming from the blow-hole. False advertising.

There are plenty of walking tracks and waterfalls in the Catlins, and we visited lots of them. Here's a few photos for ya'all... Just FYI, my favorite was McLean Falls

At around 8pm that evening we made our way to Cathedral Cave. There are two MASSIVE holes in a vertical rock face, which you can walk in to for about 30 or 40 meters. There is not a lot in the back, but we had fun exploring. There were two drawbacks - the cheap buggers charge you $5 each just to drive up the road (or am I the cheap bugger for complaining?) and the walk down (and therefore back up) to the caves is very steep and very long.

That evening we camped at the DOC site in Papatowa, about 15kms back up the road from the caves. We got a relatively early night and rose early the following morning to catch the low tide.

At the southern end of the Catlins is Curio Bay, which would have been a beautiful spot had it not been for the horrendous weather. The wind was crazy, and the sea; just plain scary! But it did make for some cool photos. The main reason for stopping in Curio Bay was the petrified forest - basically the remains of a forest that was covered in volcanic ash and turned to stone. I don't really know why I thought rocky trees might be interesting? ...it wasn't. The area was kinda cool, with a rock shelf keeping the ocean at bay until the tide slowly crept in, and enormous (mutant!) seaweed washing around in the waves. There was one thing that totally redeemed the petrified forest... while wandering around we spotted a penguin making his way out into the ocean for the day. He must have slept in or something as the rest of his clan was long gone; they usually head out to go fishing just after sunrise. It was really cool to watch him make his way down the waters edge, especially jumping over the obstacles of the petrified forest. Julia got a little video, check it out.

So that wraps up the Catlins. From there we headed down to Invercargill and Bluff, but more on that later.

After a quick grocery stop, we jumped in Jamies truck and headed out for our week-long adventure around the Southern Scenic Route. This route runs from Queenstown to Dunedin, along the south coast of the Southern Island, passing some of the most amazing scenery in the country. We kind of did it backwards, heading first for the east coast; Oamaru, but s'all good.

The journey to the coast was fairly uninteresting, mostly driving through farm land. We passed by the Clyde Dam and Alexandra, before hitting the coast and heading for Moiraki. Moiraki is famous as there are a small collection of almost perfectly round boulders lying all over the beach, half buried in sand. Some are impressively large, others have cracked open showing a hollow center. The beach itself is really nice; wide open flat sands which stretch for miles around the bay. We had a bit of fun jumping all over the boulders, taking photos, but to be honest; it lost its appeal after about 10 minutes.

We headed further up the coast to the small town of Oamaru, which is full of old 19th century buildings. It is a cute place with a relaxed vibe, and is home to two penguin colonies! The blue penguin colony has a ridiculous $25 entrance fee, but the yellow penguin one is free. We went and checked it out, but only managed to see three or four penguins, all miles away.

That evening we camped at a DOC site not far from Moiraki, which was a really nice spot. Cheap too, only costing $6.

The following morning we rose early and planned to check out a place called Kaika, which Mum had recommended if we wanted to see penguins up close and personal. We drove out the gravel road to find a rocky point and small lighthouse. No one else was around, so we were wondering if we had come to the right spot. But after a quick walk down to the shore we spotted two yellow-eyed penguins, along with hundreds of seals, all basking on the rocks. It was a beautiful spot, and it was really amazing to see the penguins up close.

Down the coast a little further is the university city of Dunedin. We had a bit of a wander around the city center and discovered a few nice buildings, but that was about it. Both the Cadbury chocolate factory and Speights brewery run tours, but both were booked out for the day (and probably too expensive for us anyway!). We did drive up to a point overlooking the city which would have been really spectacular had it not been overcast. We also checked out the steepest street in the world! Which was about as interesting as it sounds...

We took a drive out on to the Otago Peninsula, which is a really nice spot; rugged coastline, golden sands and clear waters. Most of the beaches are completely deserted, so if you are after a bit of privacy, this is the spot. At the very tip there is an area famous for its Albatros population, but we weren't able to spot any, just a million annoying seagulls!


That evening we drove down to the Catlins and stayed at another DOC site.Stay tuned...

Queenstown is the adventure tourism capital of New Zealand, but it requires one thing we don't have a lot of; money. It seems literally everything in this small town bears extremely over-inflated prices. Lucky I have a super-awesome family that gives me a free bed, feeds me and even lets me borrow their vehicles to tiki-tour around in.

So we went out for a day to explore the area. First stop was Arrowtown, a small, old mining town that has been transformed with nice cafes and expensive shops. Nice, but not exactly our destination of choice.

Jamie had recommended we drive up Coronet Peak, which provides beautiful panoramic views out over the city and Lake Wakitipu. It was pretty spectacular up there, and we got to see a few para-gliders jump off the side of a cliff which was pretty cool.

Driving back we saw a small road leading off over the hill toward Skippers Canyon... we decided to check it out. It was a thin, windy, dirt road; on one side a near-vertical cliff, on the other a massive drop-off. Pretty scary stuff. But it was worth it, the scenery is pretty mind-blowing. We drove through for a good 20 minutes until we came upon the launching point for the Skippers Canyon jetboat. We sat on some rocks and watched the boats rip around the river for a while, then jumped back in the truck and drove back over to Queenstown.

On the way through we passed the Shotover Jet, similar to the Skippers Canyon one, but this one operates in a small stream with massive rock faces on either side. It is scary just watching it drive through crazily close to the rocks. It did look like fun, but at $120 for the 12 minute ride, it wasn't really in our budget.

One of the best view points over Queenstown is from the top of the gondola, but to take the lift up costs about $30 each! We had plenty of time, but money? not so much. So we found the walking track and hoofed it. Close to an hour later we arrived at the top, tired and sweating. But the view was worth it.

From Queenstown we plan to travel the South Scenic Route - a road that follows the coastline at the very bottom of the South Island. Jamie and Maree have been kind enough to let us take their truck away for the week, which is a lot more expensive than hitching, but allows us a lot more freedom. Plus it gives a dry place to sleep if the weather is bad. We decided it was worth the expense.

Another early start, and another day on the side of the road with our thumb out. Destination: the Franz-Joseph and Fox glaciers. There is one small spot to hitch from heading south out of Hokitika, and unfortunately we were beaten there by a guy heading in the same direction. Hitching etiquette dictated that he take the first ride, which took a good 30 minutes. After he was finally out of the way we managed to get a ride within about 10. Its kinda easy when you have a nice looking Swedish girl with you!

We were picked up by a cool American guy that produces music festivals all over the world. I would best describe him as an old hippy with a bit of cash; a really interesting dude. He was heading through to the Franz Joseph Glacier himself, so was able to take us right to the start of the walking track - perfect!

Having nowhere to store our bags, Julia and I hoisted them on our shoulders and set out. It was only a 40 minute track out to the face of the glacier, so not too far. The area leading up to the glacier is a massive valley that was carved out millions of years ago. At the bottom is a dry, rocky river bed. The glacier itself was spectacular, and we were blessed with our first fine day for about a week! Unfortunately I managed to loose my memory card, so lost all the photos I took for the week after we left Hokitika. Thankfully I was able to steal a few of Julias.



We hitched back to the small village of Franz Joseph (only about a five minute drive) then stuck our thumb out and attempted to get a ride the 30kms to Fox Glacier. After a couple of minutes we saw a familiar car... it was our American friend! He had gone to check in to his hotel, then decided to go out for a drive to check out Fox. So we climbed on in once more and we were off.

Fox is less touristed than Franz Joseph, but just as beautiful. We first visited a lookout point, then walked up to the face. Again, very cool. And well worth a visit.

Next up we visited Lake Matheson, a small, fairly unspectacular lake, but famous for its reflective views of Mount Cook and the Southern Alps. When we visited there was a bit of a wind, so the surface was too rippled for a decent reflection. No point waiting around hours for the wind to drop off,  so we parted ways with our new American friend, who headed back over the hill to his nice hotel in Franz Joseph village.

We did not have accommodation organised, but knew there was a paid campground nearish Fox village, and a free campground 25kms out past Lake Matheson. We attempted to hitch out there from the turn-off to Lake Matheson, but had no luck. It was about a 4km walk back into the village and the campground, but we knew it would cost us at least $30 just to pitch our tent! So we decided to scout around for a place we could just pitch our tent on the side of the road. The main problem is that NZ is really cracking down on freedom camping because of all the waste left by stupid, irresponsible people. If found, they can (and do) issue you a $200 on-the-spot fine. So if we were going to camp, we needed to be sneeky.

Problem: we were surrounded by wide open farm-land, with no good semi-hidden spots to pitch our tent. So we decided to wander back toward the lake and see if we could find any good spots. A few hours had passed and the wind had dropped off; making for perfect reflective conditions. The view was spectacular! Again, I have no photos (which I am GUTTED about) but managed to steal a few from Julia. I think she did a pretty good job of capturing the moment.

So we couldn't find anywhere decent to pitch the tent. But we did find a really nice, soft spot in some long grass that would be perfect for sleeping out under the starts. It was a little cold... actually, really cold. Being a  completely clear night, with no cloud cover at all, the temperature dropped drastically after the sun set. But it also made for one of the most beautiful sights; I have never in my life seen so many stars. The sky was absolutely FULL.

The morning was worst as the dew started to settle, so we rose pretty early and decided to get moving. We walked the 4kms back into Fox Village (along the way running into a few interesting farm animals), sorted ourselves out a bit, then hit the road.

That morning was our worst hitching experience of the trip. Well, you can't really call it a hitching experience when we just waited on the side of a road for a ride for four hours! I'm not sure why it took us so long that one time, there was a bit of traffic, but it seemed most cars were full, there were a lot of older people, and a lot of campervans (both of which generally don't pick you up). We finally managed to get a ride out to past the glacier turnoff, which we thought might increase our chances of getting picked up. It took another 30 minutes or so, but we finally got a ride with an older couple in a campervan. (The kind of people we least expected to pick us up!)

It was a nice drive down to Haast, with some beautiful coastline. We stopped a couple of times for photos and once for lunch, which the couple we were travelling with were nice enough to share. They drove us all the way through Haast Pass (more amazing views over mountains and lakes) to the Wanaka turnoff. We managed to get a ride with an American couple who took us 15 minutes down the road to a small town, where we only had to wait two minutes for another ride. This guy took us through to Cromwell, where we were again picked up after only a couple of minutes. Our final ride took us the final leg into Queenstown, where we met up with my brother Jamie, his wife Maree, and their son Saxon.

That evening we all had a good catch up, ate an amazing meal and had a couple of well deserved beers.

Up early, Julia and I said goodbye to Robbie and set out to find a good spot to hitch. We didn't have to wait long before being picked up by a guy in a Merc. Which was a little strange... you get to know the type of vehicles, therefore the type of people, that pick you up. And a Mercedes is not on that list. But we weren't going to complain, so we jumped on in.

The driver was, uhhh, weird. First he started telling us about how he used to hitch-hike, and how he wanted to 'blow away' all the people who drove past and pick him up. Then he told us how you couldn't trust anyone, and that he could just pull out a knife at any time and stab me in the chest! With hand movements and all. WTF, dude? Needless to say we were pretty happy when he was only able to take us ten minutes down the road.

The bad thing was we were now in the middle of nowhere, on the open road. People often don't pick you up on the open road as they are already up to 100kms and it is a bit of a mission to stop. We waited for about 30 minutes and weren't moving. Then we saw a small car come from the opposite direction, slow down on the opposite side of the road, then turn around and park just ahead of us. They had driven past and felt sorry for us, so turned around and come back to pick us up! What awesome people!

But it gets better; the people in the car were a couple we had met in Vang Vieng, Laos. Valerio; and Italian guy, and Monica; his Chilean girlfriend. They didn't know it was us until they had turned the car around. So we had a crazy reunion on the side of a random small highway on the West Coast of New Zealand, half a world away from where we first met.

We spent the rest of the day with Valerio and Monica. First up we visited Punakaiki, the pancake rocks. This is a coastal area with these strange rock formations (that kind of look like pancakes stacked on-top of each other). There are some really cool blowholes in the area, as well as a cool sea-cave. Definitely worth stopping for an hour to check out. This stretch of coastline is spectacular.


Next quick stop was in Greymouth for some lunch, before heading through Arthurs Pass. This is one of the few roads through the Southern Alps, from the West Coast to the East. We didn't actually want to travel to the east coast, but we had been told Arthurs Pass is a spectacular area and worth the drive in, even if you are just going to turn around and drive back the same way. So that is what we did.

Arthurs Pass lived up to its reputation, with huge mountains and massive valleys, full of lush forest and cascading waterfalls. Unfortunately the weather was really bad, but we could still appreciate the indescribable beauty of the area. At the center of the pass there is a look out area which gives beautiful views over the alps, as well as being home to several cheeky Kea. These are an indigenous parrot to New Zealand who seem almost fearless and have a habit of destroying cars with their extremely strong beak.

We drove through the pass to the eastern side of the alps and were greeted by a wide open platua surrounded by towering mountains. The weather suddenly cleared and for the first time in a few days we were able to bask in glorious sunshine! We drove on to 'Castle Hill', an barren area of strange rock formations, which has been used in the filming of movies like the Lord of the Rings and Narnia (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe).

The journey back to Greymouth was fairly uneventful, other than when we entered the mountains it suddenly started pouring with rain again. Not cool. We drove down to Hokitika where Julia and I parted ways with Valerio and Monica. It was really cool to see them again and I'm really thankful for their help driving us around all day. I hope to see them again some day.

In Hokitika we met up with our Couch Surfing host for the next two days, Jason. He was a super nice guy, the first night making a huge dinner for us (including two other French girls who were also surfing with Jason). The following day was raining again, but we decided to get out and have a bit of a look in Hokitika... to be honest there is not a lot to it. Like most small west coast towns there is a small town center, a couple of souvenir shops and an information center. The west coast is more about enjoying the surroundings rather than 'tourist attractions'. That afternoon Jason took us all out for a bit of a drive around the local area; we checked out Lake Kaniere and a few waterfalls, as well as the Hokitika gorge.

So that was Hokitika. Again, nothing major going on, but this area of New Zealand is just nice to be there. It has a slow pace of life, the people are friendly, and the scenery; spectacular. I'm sure it would be even better the weather is nice.

After almost a solid year of travelling across the world you might think the last thing I would want to do is pick up my backpack and hit the road again. But that is exactly what I did do; this time to discover my own country. I had told Julia how beautiful New Zealand was, now I just had to prove it.

After a wet Christmas and New Year in my home town of Gisborne, we set out for Rotorua to spend a couple of days staying with my Mum. We visited the standard attractions, starting with Wairakei Natural Thermal Valley for its bubbling mud and shooting steam. There is a thermal stream close by where you can bathe for free - a bit of a local secret, which was really cool. We also visited Taupo to check out the steam fields and Huka Falls. And I finally got my Burger Fuel fix after four years of being out of New Zealand!

As New Zealand is significantly more expensive than the Asian countries we have been living in for the last four months, it took some time to adjust. But we planned well; packing camping gear, using Couch Surfing, and decided to hitch-hike the majority of the journey. So early on the 6th January Julia and I found a good spot on the side of the road, stuck our thumbs out and hoped for the best.

We didn't have to wait long before we were picked up by a semi-crazy Jordanian dude who took us through to Taupo. And from there we were picked up by a van full of young Wellingtonians heading home after Rhythm and Vines. We arrived into Welly late afternoon and made our way to meet up with our Couch Surf host, Matt, a really friendly guy from Aussi.

We managed to catch up with Shaun (a good friend from back home) for a couple of beers that night, and the following day he took us out to the Weta Cave. Weta is the company responsible for movies like Tin Tin, The Lord of the Rings, Narnia etc. There are some amazing sculptures and props there, as well as a really cool film showing all the different films they have worked on.

Uhhh, what else? We checked out Te Papa, the massive museum on the waterfront. I really enjoyed it, especially the displays showing world events from a New Zealand perspective. There is a whole lot of cool stuff in there that I'm not going to bother explaining, but I really recommend checking it out if in the area.

The following day it was pouring with rain, but thankfully Shaun dropped us down at the ferry terminal. Destination: Picton that the northern tip of the South Island. The plan is to head down the west coast for the next couple of weeks.

So it's been a pretty good beginning to our New Zealand adventure. I really like Wellington. It's small, easy to get around, full of cool cafes and bars... and just has a cool vibe. But I can't wait to get down south and really start exploring!

Off the Cook Strait ferry into Picton, Julia and I didn't muck around; heading straight out toward Nelson. Wandering across a small park just outside the town center we got a ride without even trying! Someone saw our backpacks and guessed we might need a lift. If this continues, getting around New Zealand is going to be too easy.

Only problem was that they were only going a short distance, and soon we were out on the side of the road again. It took a while, but we managed to get through to the small town of Havelock. The weather had been bad all day, but as soon as we got into town it started p*ssing down! We tried waiting it out for an hour in a cafe, but the weather only got worse. We attempted to get a ride in the pouring rain but had no luck, no one wants a soaking wet person in their back seat. So we bit the bullet and found the local hostel. The place was pretty standard, and had decent facilities, but seemed to charge a lot. It cost $50 for the two of us. I have since learned that this is pretty average for New Zealand. I didn't expect it to be $5 a night like in Asia, but I didn't expect quite that much. Let's just say I'm glad we bought the tent.

The following morning we got a ride through to Nelson without too much trouble. We spent a few hours wandering around the city, checking out the cathedral and a few other local 'attractions'. One more interesting - the 'center of New Zealand', a small park with a lookout over the surrounding area. The only thing was that we were carrying our bags, so couldn't really be bothered lugging them all the way to the top of a hill. We then managed to get a ride to Stoke (only about 10 minutes away) to visit the Macs Brewery, but missed the tour by about 30 minutes. Doh!

From Stoke we managed to get a ride with an old woman coming out of a retirement home, who took us through to Richmond, and the main turnoff to Motueka. And from there we managed to get a ride to Mapau Beach, a long, sweeping expanse of sand which was completely deserted. About an hour later Erica - an old friend from Gisborne, came to pick us up. That night we had an awesome BBQ a few beers and good catch up.

The following morning Erica dropped Julia and I into the DOC office in Motueka. The plan: Abel Tasman National Park, one of New Zealands great walks. I had heard it was a little difficult to secure a camping site or bed in a hut, but we gave it a shot. The only camp sites with space were either a couple of kilometers into the Park, or 24kms in at Bark Bay. We didn't want to camp just one hour in; we would see hardly any of the track! But 24 kilometers with our backpacks seemed like a tall order. We thought about it for a minutes, then said what the hell, and booked the campground Bark Bay.

We hitched over the hill to Marahau and the start of the Abel Tasman track. Not surprisingly we spent the rest of the day walking. This area is truly spectacular! Like nowhere else I have seen in New Zealand. Crystal clear waters and golden sand beaches are surrounded by thick green forest. The weather was a little cloudy and we got a bit of rain, but on the whole it was pretty good. There are a couple of spots that are tide dependent; you can take a shortcut which cuts about 3kms off the walk at low tide. Unfortunately we were a little early on the way up, so decided on the long way around. It wasn't until we were half way around and finally got a view of the ocean that we saw that we could have easily made it across. Oh well, after 24 kilometers what's a few more?

We arrived to Bark Bay early evening, tired and starving! But glad we had made the long trek; Bark Bay is one of the most spectacular bays in the park. One of the most spectacular places in New Zealand! That night we relaxed our sore muscles around the fire and shared travel stories with other travelers.

The following morning we woke up to beautiful sunshine. We could have taken the easy option and jumped on one of the water-taxis back to Marahau, but that was about $50 per person. The other option was to continue on to the end of the track, but the north end of the track was badly damaged and there is no way out, meaning an even longer walk out or a more expensive ferry. We decided we had seen a big chunk of the park, and that we would toughen up and walk the 24kms out. Which was a mission and a half! We were already really freakin' sore from walking in the day before, now we had to do it all over again.

Late that afternoon we arrived back in Marahau. I don't think my muscles have ever been so sore. As soon as I stopped moving my leg muscles seized so bad that I could hardly walk! That night we stayed with Erica again. We relaxed over a beer and Erica made an amazing dinner, exactly what we needed.

The West Coast of New Zealand is famous for its rainfall, and while we were visiting it did not disappoint. We had four days of solid rain, and had it not been for our Couch Surfing hosts I think Julia and I would have gone a little loopy! No one likes camping in the rain.

From Motueka Julia and I were picked up by a German guy in his van. He asked us to share the cost of petrol, which didn't seem unreasonable, and since it was pouring with rain, we jumped in. We took us through to the small town of Murchison, where we had a quick look around town and a lunch-stop. We saw the entire town in about five minutes!

Our ride leaving Murchison was the weirdest hitch hiking experience we had on the entire trip. It was a woman with her young child, driving home to Christchurch. That sounded strange; we wanted to go to the west coast and Christchurch is on the east, but she was positive she knew exactly where she was taking us. So we jumped in... The first sign something was up was her constant talking, she would not stop. And the topics were completely random, and to be honest; kinda strange. That is when I started paying more attention; she seemed way over-cautious when driving, a little too 'wired' (looked kinda like her head was going to pop off) and her teeth looked like she had smoked way too much P.

After about 10 minutes we passed by a junction heading toward Westport (our destination). The woman told us that it was the long way around, and she knew a much shorter way. But after about 15 minutes I started to question this crazy womans knowledge of the area and checked the map. That road we missed was the correct way, and we were now driving through a gorge which stretched out for 100kms. After more than an hour we got to the first sign of civilization  Springs Junction. We couldn't get out of the car fast enough! To get back to where we wanted to be was about 120kms. She had literally driven us in the complete wrong direction for more than an hour.

At Springs Junction there was hardly any traffic heading north to Westport, maybe three cars in 20 minutes. But thankfully one of those cars picked us up. The drive was spectacular, and we finally got to Westport early evening. That night we were couch surfing with Robbie, a kiwi guy who has lived on the coast for most of his life. He was really friendly and hospitable, and provided us with an amazing bed to sleep in for the following two nights.

The weather forecast was heavy rain for the next four days, not ideal travelling weather. The following day we spent a bit of town wandering around the town, then planned to walk or hitch out to see a seal colony. The tourist map provided by the information center was a little deceiving; we thought it was quite close to town, but Robbie informed us it was actually about 20kms! And it was p*ssing down outside! But Robbie threw us his keys to his Ford XR8 turbo ute and told us to go for it.

The seal colony was quite disappointing; all the seals were miles away so we could hardly see them. But we did catch a glimpse of a couple of pups jumping all over the rocks which was quite cool. Besides that, we were almost blown off the edge of a cliff by the crazy wind! The wild weather meant the sea was extremely rough, massive waves rolling in and smashing on the rocks (quite awesome to watch).

So not a whole lot going on, the bad weather having a lot to do with it, but also the fact that Westport is not really a tourist hot-spot. Hopefully things clear up soon and we can enjoy the rest of the trip in some sunshine.