Franz Josef to.. Makhetu

Saturday 30th January 2010:

We arrived in Franz Josef this afternoon and booked ourselves onto the hike for the following morning. We woke up the next day ready for our eight-hour glacier hike. Got all suited and booted and were on our way to the glacier. Matheus (our guide) led the way, and what a pretty thing he was to look at for eight hours. We got our crampons on and climbed on up. Despite being on a glacier it was surprisingly warm up there! And the most spectacular views: New Zealand has got to be one of the places with the most diverse weather conditions in the world; you move from beaches, to glaciers, to volcanoes. And the place isn't that big! Incredible. The walk was great, climbing up the glacier, manouvering round crevasses- it was fantastic! We stopped for a spot of lunch and set ourselves on the ice. A word of warning: sit on your bag otherwise it can get a bit too chilly! Was an amazing day and I would love to do it all over again!

Tuesday 2nd February 2010:

Stray bus to Wanaka. Beautiful Lake Wanaka, this place just gets prettier and prettier! Very relaxed part of New Zealand; we went on a walk to the Rippon vineyard and took in the most stunning views. It's a really popular place for weddings which is pretty handy! A couple of days relaxing in Wanaka, nice to be off the bus for a day or so- gets pretty tedious moving around so much! And then on to Queenstown! Notorious for being a party town, Queenstown certainly lives up to its expectations. It is also a stunning place with a great bustling vibe and lots to do! We stayed a good few days here, met a great group of people off the bus and enjoyed their company for a few days! We all chilled out by the riverside in the evenings and then headed out into town! What a brilliant routine. Oh and don't forget, enjoying the sunshine in the daytime! We were very lucky to get such good weather, as the people on the previous buses had nothing but rain when they were there! Really enjoyed Queenstown.

Tuesday 9th February 2010:

Making our way up to Wellington. Not a fan of all these bus journeys, but has to be done. A rather pleasant three hour ferry ride over to the north island; Isobel and I fell alseep on the deck. Not too bad at all! We spent the next day having a look round Wellington. Nice city. We visited the Te Papa museum, was great to see all the Maori history which has a bigger influence on the North Island than on the South. Will be nice to see more of the Maori culture when we go to the cutural show at Makhetu.

The next journey was a twelve-hour bus ride up to Auckland. Oh what a day. And to make things just a bit worse, Auckland was such a let-down, no atmosphere at all. Our dorm room was also situated above the hostel bar which played music until about 7am when we had to get up! So not a great deal of sleep and so we were a couple of grumpy ladies on the next bus. Do not stay at Nomads Fat Camel in Auckland.

Saturday 13th February:

We hopped back onto the Stray bus this morning and found ourselves back on Metro's bus! (Metro is our favourite Stray driver) So that was a great surprise! Next stop: Hahei. We spent the afternoon kayaking to Cathedral Cove: beautiful. And great fun! Good work-out for the old biceps too! Haha was a really good way to spend the afternoon, perfect weather for it. We made our way back to camp and had a big BBQ with the group on the bus. Great turnover rate on these buses, constantly meeting a new group of people- it's great! And the food was yummy.

Monday 15th February 2010:

Raglan Backpackers. Raglan is the surf place in New Zealand, well one of them. So Isobel and I were excited to get back into the surfing! We moved to Raglan Backpackers, the most laid-back hostel you will ever come across. I even asked if I could work there, but they had no more vacancies for the summer season. Gutted, would have been amazing working there a few hours a day and surfing for the rest of the afternoon! Oh well, you can't have it all. Isobel and I managed to bag ourselves a double bed each, no idea how. This is not the sort of thing one expects when travelling, so when it happens, it is amazing! We ended up extending our stay in Raglan, making the most of the surfing every day! And I am beginning to see a slight improvement in my 'technique.' Ha ha well it is bloody good fun anyway! I did spend a good portion of my time getting pounded by waves though! The people we met at the Backpackers were great, really friendly bunch. All far too laid-back for their own good, but a good laugh! We felt so at home in this place, can't believe I can't stay!

Saturday 20th February 2010:

Goodbye Raglan :(

And so the next stop is Waitomo. The place with all the caves. We did a caving trip called 'Tumu Tumu Toobing' which was a little caving adventure and black water rafting. I was expecting it to be really claustrophobic down in the caves, but only the intial climb down was a bit tight! The water down in the caves was absolutely freezing- very thankful for the thick wetsuits at this point. It was really good fun though. We turned our lights off and looked up to see glow worms covering the roof of the cave- beautiful! Absolutely love the glow worms.

That evening we landed in Makhetu for our cultural stop. The cultural show was a family-run performance and we all got involved in the dances and songs. I was really impressed. The lads in the group learned the Hakka and the ladies were taught the Poi. We had a good laugh learning the dances, nice to get everyone involved! An interesting sleeping arrangement that evening, with all thirty of us sleeping in a big hall on mattresses. Hmm. Was actually not too bad really. Won't be doing it every night though!

We were woken up at 7am the next morning to the sound of ABBA. That's right, I will not be staying here much longer. Ha.

Destination New Zealand

Saturday 23rd January 2010:

Isobel and I arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand. Checked into our hostel. I was surprised by the sheer number of Harley Davidson biker men that seem to reside here: a little unsettling. Looks like the hostels do it a bit differently here! Anyway, not a great deal to see in Christchurch, so we were glad to start our journey on the 'Stray' bus that would be taking us round New Zealand for the next five weeks!

Stop number one: Kaikoura. A quaint little place, cute little pebble beach, gorgeous scenery. We ended up falling asleep on the beach; oh dear Izzy, a little bit burnt are we? Hmm. Ooops.

Wednesday 27th January 2010:

We moved on to Abel Tasman National Park. The bus takes a lot of stops along the way, both to break up the journeys, but also because there is so much to see! Stunning mountain views, clear waters everywhere. Amazing. We made our way through the Marlborough region, many a vineyard in sight as this is New Zealand's wine capital. We arrived in Abel Tasman that afternoon, staying at Old MacDonald's Farm. Nice touch. And the great thing is, we got to stay within the National Park itself! So we were in the thick of it, the sound of cicadas was somewhat deafening, but you become quickly accustomed to it. The group got together in the evening, had a bit of a campfire going which was great. The good thing about the bus is that you meet a new group of people every time you hop on the next one! Or you can chose to stay on the bus the whole way round and stay with the same driver. Izzy and I have a few days to spare here and there, so we're staying in certain places a little bit longer than the 'necessary' stay time. Our driver- Metro is a good laugh. Going to be fun having him driving us round for the next few days!

We spent the next day doing a walk around the beaches of Abel Tasman; doing things on a budget is pretty easy in NZ, seeing as there is so much to see and you don't have to pay for it! Love NZ.

Friday 29th January 2010:

Next stop: Barrytown. So Stray basically stop off at a completely random spot called Barrytown; turns out it is an incredibly secluded beach and next to it is a pub/backpackers. And that was about it! Ha ha, we didn't know what to expect really. The beach was beautiful, and a little bit eerie simultaneously. You step out onto the beach and there's complete silence. It may sound completely cliched, but you really feel at ease; it it so peaceful and no matter what you are thinking at the time, this place completely clears your head, and you just appreciate everything as it is. Amazing. There is also a lot of Jade stone found on this beach; it is a precious stone to New Zealand and they make beautiful jewellery out of it, basing the designs on Maori culture and the meanings attributed to various shapes and symbols. Despite searching along the beach, none of us found any Jade. Hmm.

And for the evening section there is a traditional fancy dress party. Mostly because there is nothing else to do in Barrytown, but it was great fun, a good ice-breaker. What happens in Barrytown stays in Barrytown.

Saturday 30th January 2010:

Post-fancy dress, we got up nice and early to do some bone carving! Not only is Jade a Maori tradition, bone carving is also a really nice way to sample the culture and make your own souvenir! And so Isobel and I went off to the workshop with a few others off the bus and designed our own necklaces. I had to ask whose bones we were in fact carving. Turns out they are cow bones. Lovely. We spent the next few hours shaping the designs we had chosen, with a little aid from the experts. Having sanded until I could sand no more, we buffed up the bone and voila! We had our very own shiny necklaces!

Hello Bali

Monday 11th January 2010:

Isobel and I arrived in Denpasar, Bali. We made our way to the bustling backpacker area of Kuta- quite a lot to take in when you're tired and looking for somewhere to stay, but I got used to it in no time and loved it! We found ourselves some cheap acommodation to do us for the next ten days. Turns out our German friends were also in Bali; people we had met in Kuala Lumpur and then again in Singapore, were now in Kuta. So we met up with them for the evening, had a bit of catch up and then got ourselves some well-earned rest. Pretty sure I shared my next few 'restful' evenings with a cosy group of bedbugs, but it's all part of it. Ha.

Isobel and I soon got into the swing of things, making ourselves completely at home in Kuta, adopting a regular breakfast stop at a cafe across the street- the freshest fruit you will ever have for breakfast. I could get used to this, and so cheap! The plan to save money is certainly working. Well until I hit the markets that is. So it's currently the rainy season in Bali; you tend to get a bit of a downpour and then the sun shines for the rest of the day. We had a few rainy days to start with, but after that it cleared up and we had some beautiful weather! I do love Bali; it is such a fantastic place, a really 'easy' pace of life. By easy I probably mean lazy; everybody sinks into a sort of slumberous lethargy here, but in a good way. It's just a beach environment: surfers, bikins and board shorts. What's not to love! Isobel and I were determined to get our surf practice in, so we hit Kuta beach and hired ourselves a board each. We did barter for them, but apparantly we still got ripped off! Oh well, still pretty cheap! So it turns out the waves are much stronger and bigger out here- hence it being a great place for surfers, just maybe not so much for the beginners. So we ended up battling with the waves more often than riding them. But I will persevere with it! Got the bruises to prove the determination ha. It's a shame that Kuta beach is not very clean; a lot of rubbish finds it's way over when the tides shift, which makes it quite unpleasant to swim in the waters here. So we shall venture out to a neighbouring beach in the coming days..

Saturday 16th January 2010:

Isobel and I decided to hire a scooter today, so we could see some of the surrounding beaches. Everyone gets around by scooter over here, and in Southeast Asia more generally; seems a pretty good way to beat the congestion anyway! So Izzy drove, and I must admit I felt a bit uneasy because these bikes are more powerful than you expect them to be! After a close call with a van, we found ourselves on our way to 'Dreamland' beach. It was much prettier and cleaner than Kuta beach, which was nice. Turns out the waves were far too big that day, so no surfing for us! An 'interesting' turn of events ensued after our pleasant afternoon at the beach. I decided to have a go on the scooter, thought I'd drive us back. Anyway, I revved too hard on the damn thing, didn't realise it was quite so powerful, lost complete control and ended up falling off the bike and skinning my leg across the pavement! Lovely. I was gutted when I realised that I wouldn't be able to surf now. Was not worth the drama at all. Isobel got us back safely, and we made our way to the clinic to get my leg sorted out! I ended up on a course of antibiotics, with my leg bandaged for the remainder of our stay! Great conversation starter, but not so fun when you are on a beautiful island and you cannot enter the water! Don't even get me started on showers- awkward to say the least. A tad foolish on my part.

We met some great people in Bali, lots of surfers surprisingly enough! Turns out one of the lads we met was in our year at Sheffield uni with us! Love the coincidences. We spent an evening down at the beach watching the sunset, the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. I have never taken quite so many photos of a sunset either ha ha. Tourist. Also got completely hounded at the beach by women selling bracelets, and sarongs, and jewellery. And anything you can think of really! Extremely persistent people, to the point of annoyance actually. I understand that this is how they make a living, but what if I don't want any more bracelets?!



Friday 22nd January 2010:

Having spent a heavily relaxed ten days in Bali, and completely fallen in love with the place, we said our reluctant goodbyes. Definitely going back to Bali, may give the scooter ride a miss next time.