Thailand

We made the short flight from Phnom Penh to Bangkok in less than an hour, which turned out to be significantly less than the amount of time it took to get from Bangkok airport to the city centre. Arriving at our hostel we enjoyed a bit of time cooling off in the air-conditioned room after the heat of the bustling city. That afternoon we took a trip on the Chao Phraya river on one of the water taxis. These are pretty large boats crammed full of tourists and locals as they make their way about the city. It is a great way to see the life of the city from the river and much quicker than taking a trip on the streets. Inside the Wat Pho temple is one of the largest images of a reclining buddha in the world. It is 46m long and completely covered in gold with intricate mother-of-pearl designs on the soles of it's feet. The buddha and the surrounding temple were very impressive.

Fiona with two of the many stupas at Wat Pho

Giant reclining Buddha

After a day in Bangkok we caught a train to the town of Kanchanaburi. This railway is the famous Burma-Thailand Death Railway constructed by Australian & British POWs and Thai labourers during WW2. The train journey was very relaxing sitting by an open window watching the countryside pass by. Our hotel had a lovely pool which was essential for cooling off in the afternoon heat. The following day we caught a taxi from Kanchanaburi to Konyu cutting, which is beyond where the the line now terminates. During construction it was known as Hellfire Pass due to the horrific conditions under which the POWs were made to work and the way it looked when lit up by flaming torches at night. The Japanese forced them to work around the clock doing back-breaking labour with hardly any tools, minimal food and no clean water. Tens of thousands died from malaria, cholera, malnutrition and dysentery amongst other conditions. The Australian government has paid for a museum and memorial to be erected on the site which told the story through photos and an audio-tour narrated by survivors. It was very hard work just walking a couple of kilometers along the track in the intense heat and humidity, so we can't even imagine what those men endured. We recommend the recent book and film 'The Railway Man' which give a good account of what happened here. On the way back to our hotel our taxi dropped us off at the end of the line and we caught a train the rest of the way. This passes over an impressive viaduct and the famous 'Bridge on the River Kwai'. 

Hellfire Pass

On the bridge over the River Kwai

Next we headed back to Bangkok for another short stopover where we saw more of the sights and enjoyed dinner near Khao San road, the site of the huge night market. The last major journey of our trip before beginning to head home was on to catch the night train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. The train was brand new and very comfortable. We purchased tickets in the 2nd class sleeper carriage where we had two seats facing each other with a little table. The seats then folded out to make a bed and another bed folded out of the ceiling to make the upper bunk. We had dinner in the restaurant car before being rocked to sleep in our bunks by the motion of the train. 

In Chiang Mai we visited a few more buddhist temples with large statues and huge golden stupas (a dome shaped shrine). We also visited the night market here to do some souvenir shopping and enjoy the live music on offer. In nearby Doi Inthanon National Park is Thailand's highest mountain, which conveniently has a road all the way to the top. Unfortunately on the day we chose to do a tour to the park it rained heavily and the mountain was in such heavy cloud that we could only see a few metres in front of us. This meant the impressive King and Queen pagodas near the summit were all but invisible to us. This was very disappointing as it had been the whole purpose of the trip, but as a consolation we stopped at a village on the way down and purchased two beautiful hand-woven scarves.

Golden stupa in Chiang Mai

The highlight of our stay in Chiang Mai was day long cooking class at the Thai Kitchen Cookery Centre. We started the day at the market looking for ingredients and learning about the different spices and vegetables we'd be using. We made green and massaman curry paste then turned them into really tasty curries. We also made spring rolls, chicken satay, noodle salad, pad thai, fried bananas and black sticky rice pudding. The whole day was a lot of fun and we can't wait to put our new recipes and skills into practise back home.

Green curry...yum

Cooking with fire!

Finally after ten days in Thailand and ten months on the road we headed to the airport to catch a plane to Singapore and then home!

Singapore & Cambodia

Landing in Singapore, it was really nice to see a familiar face, in the form of Fiona's uncle Tom who put us up for the two nights we were there. Having spent time in quite a few big cities recently, we didn't feel a particular need to rush about and see everything, instead opting for a more laid back insight into Singaporean life. We made good use of Tom's pool (which no-one else in the complex seemed to ever use), meandered through the busy streets of little India, and explored the Marina area including the Gardens by the Bay. Tom had various work commitments, but in-between these he introduced us to the more sophisticated side of Singapore, with afternoon tea at Raffles hotel (think fancy afternoon tea, with some dim sum thrown in for an asian twist) and a drink at a rooftop bar with nighttime views over the marina. This was certainly not the lifestyle we had become accustomed to in the last few months - Ben had to dust off and iron his collared shirt from the bottom of his bag - and it was sure to be a huge contrast to the next day landing in Cambodia. 

Yes - there is a boat balanced on top of 3 skyscrapers!

Arriving at Siem Reap airport in northern Cambodia we first had to obtain visas on arrival. This is a very straightforward process and took no more than 5 minutes, but it is worth mentioning due to the sheer number of Cambodian officials involved in the process. Person 1 took our visa form and passport and we paid person 2. Person 1 then passed our documents to persons 3, 4 and 5 who didn't seem to do very much except glance briefly at them before returning to whatever was more interesting on their smartphones. Person 6 did nothing at all. Person 7 picked up the passport and handed them to person 8 who actually filled in the visa and stuck it in our passports. Person 9 then got very trigger happy with the rubber stamp and stamped the form, the visa and the passport a number of times at very high speed. At this point we were handed back our passports and proceeded to immigration as normal. In addition to these 9 people, there were several more in the background looking very busy doing not much at all. We were picked up from the airport by a tuk-tuk sent by our hotel. We enjoyed the short ride to the hotel; it was fun to be back in the heat, smells and slight chaos of Asia. Asia can also be very cheap - for less than the cost of 2 dormitory bunk beds in Australia or New Zealand we were able to stay in a double room with ensuite in a hotel with a pool and breakfast included. Luxury!

We spent 3 days in staying in Siem Reap visiting and exploring the vast number of Angkor temples. On the first day we visited some of the smaller outlying temples by tuk-tuk.  The detailed carvings at Prasat Kravan were just a taste of what was to come at the larger temples. Other stops included the temple of East Mebon which used to sit on a island in the middle of a huge reservoir and has detailed elephant statues, and the atmospheric Ta Som which has a huge fig tree growing over one of the entrance gates. The temperature and humidity were overpowering and we were dripping with sweat just wandering around the temples let alone had we needed to walk or cycle between them - we were very glad of our tuk-tuk.  After a traditional Khmer dish, Fish Amok, for lunch we spent an hour exploring the huge ruined university at Preah Khan. The rest of the afternoon was spent cooling off in the pool.

Fiona at Prasat Kravan

Ben at Ta Som

We had deliberately avoided the famous Angkor Wat itself until the second day as we wanted to build up to the most impressive temples. We woke up at 04.30am to get to the temple in the dark and watch the sunrise. It was amazing to see the towers of Angkor Wat silhouetted against the orange sky. This huge temple to the Hindu god Vishnu is widely believed to be the largest religious structure in the world. It is spread over 3 levels, has several towers and contains over 2000 square metres of intricate carved stone panels. The most interesting of these depicts the various levels of heaven and hell.

Sunrise over Angkor Wat

The Bayon temple isn't quite as big, but is equally impressive in our opinion. Various improvements and additions by successive kings have resulted in a maze of stairs and passages around a central building with 37 towers and 216 huge carved faces. Throughout the rest of the morning and early afternoon we visited several more temples including one currently undergoing restoration which was interesting to see. Our last stop was the temple of Ta Prohm, which is particularly special because it was left in the condition it was re-discovered in in the 19th century. There are huge fig trees growing all over the temple surrounding gate ways and destroying walls. In some cases huge stones are held in place by the roots which have grown through the wall and will surely fall once the trees eventually die.

The huge faces at Bayon

Fig tree taking over Ta Prohm

The night market and the imaginatively named 'pub street' provide a different side of Cambodian culture to the huge temples. Bright, multi-coloured flashing lights advertise every bar, shop and restaurant. Tuk-tuk drivers tout for business and countless food carts offer various delights, including deep fried cockroaches and scorpions! Yes, it is a bit tacky and aimed squarely at the tourists, but it's lively, noisy and an entertaining way to spend a few hours all the same.

We caught a bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, and arrived on the busy streets of the city in the middle of a rainstorm. Luckily all the motorcycle riders were prepared and quickly donned their ponchos. It is quite impressive what some people manage to balance onto the back of their bikes. We saw ones with whole families on, passengers carrying pushbikes while driving along, 3 dead pigs wrapped up and even a woman breastfeeding her baby! 

The main reason we came to Phnom Penh was to visit the killing fields and this was where we headed on our first full day there. The was an election going on that morning, so the roads were very busy, especially around the polling stations. Once you had voted, your left index finger was dipped in ink so you couldn't go round and vote again, our tuk-tuk driver very proudly showed us his finger when he picked us up saying that he had got up early especially so as to miss the crowds. Mr Lee expertly weaved his way through the hoards of cars and motorcycles, and we only feared for our lives a couple of times, which I put down as a success. 

There wasn't much to see in the way of buildings at the Choeung Ek Killing fields as most of them had been pulled down and destroyed at the end of the Khmer Rouge's reign, but there was a very good audio guide which explained how it used to be, and the atrocities which had taken place there. It was here where the Khmer Rouge brought their prisoners to be executed. Only in power for just under 4 years, from 1975 to 1979, they imposed strong ideological views on the country, forcing everyone into the countryside to work the land, and brutally murdering anyone who tried to oppose them. It is estimated that around a third of the population died during this time. There were several mass graves on the site, and during heavy rain fragments of bones and strips of cloth are still finding their way to the surface 40 years later. In the centre, there is a Memorial Stupa where the remains of some of the victims are preserved and displayed. There were layers and layers of skulls and bones, categorised by gender, age, and the damage giving evidence of the brutality which occurred here. 

From here, we went to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, also known as S21 which is where prisoners were held and tortured into giving 'confessions' before they were taken to the Killing Fields. Previously a high school, we walked along corridors containing old classrooms which now contained nothing more than metal bed frames and shackles. All of the prisoners who went through this prison were meticulously documented and photographed. As the prison officials had had to leave in a hurry, lots of these have survived and are displayed in the rooms. 

One of the buildings at S21

Whilst it was very harrowing to hear about the horrors humans have inflicted on each other, we were both glad that we made the visit. It is so important to learn about these times, and talk about them with as many people as possible to raise awareness and help to ensure that it never happens again. 

The rest of our time in Phnom Penh we spent walking around the streets getting a feel for the city, visiting temples, the Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda and National Museum. On our final evening we had a very nice drink and dinner at the Foreign Correspondents Club with views out over the river. 

Part of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh

Australia

When we left Auckland it was 25 degrees and glorious sunshine, but Melbourne was 10 degrees and raining! The state of Victoria in late autumn is cold and very much like home. We explored the city on a free walking tour and then wandering around by ourselves. Melbourne is a trendy, slightly quirky city with lots of alleyways between the main shopping and commercial streets filled with coffee shops, restaurants and interesting shops. 

Melbourne Street Art

We visited the Melbourne Museum to check out the 'wonders of the world' Lego exhibition, but spent another few hours in the great Aboriginal exhibit. It was interesting to learn about their culture and history but distressing to learn about how badly they have been treated since the British colonisers arrived in the 18th century. We learnt about the 'Stolen Generation' where young Aboriginal children were removed from their families and brought up by church missions and government agencies with the aim of wiping out the Aboriginal culture. Amazingly they were only legally recognised as citizens of Australia in 1967. 

Lego!

We also visited the Victoria State Library, which is a spectacular building and contains the infamous Ned Kelly's armour with which he survived being shot several times by the police. We treated ourselves and didn't cook at the hostel, eating out at a Chinese dumpling house, a Mexican restaurant and a very tasty vegetarian restaurant.

Ned Kelly's 'bullet proof' armour

Our friend Lizzy moved to Australia about a year ago and our next stop was to visit her in the city of Ballarat. It was great to see her again after such a long time and we had lots to catch up on. It was her birthday whilst we were visiting so she had taken the Monday off work and we went to the Grampian's Mountains for a long weekend. On the way there we stopped to have a traditional Aussie pie (or two) and at a vineyard. Fortunately for us Lizzy was driving so we sampled about 10 different wines including a sparkling red wine. We stayed in a cabin at a campsite surrounded by kangaroos, emus and cockatoos. The following day we hiked up the mountains, enjoyed spectacular views and got to see a wallaby up close as it sat on the path in front of us. Bizarrely one of the guys who ran the campsite owned a flight simulator in a large trailer and we had a go in it. It was great fun, but very odd landing a Boeing 737 at Leeds airport whilst sat in the middle of the Australian wilderness!

Wallaby

New friends

When Lizzy went back to work on the Tuesday, she leant us her car so we could drive The Great Ocean Road along part of Victoria's coast. It starts at Torquay and runs west for about 200km along spectacular coast line and endless beaches. At Bell's beach we watched some expert surfers riding some of the biggest waves around. It is no coincidence that both Ripcurl and Quiksilver were founded and have their head offices here. Further along the coast we found the lighthouse from the kids TV show ' Round the Twist'. One of the highlights of the drive was at Kennet river where we walked a short distance into the bush and saw a few koalas including one really close up. We ended our journey along the coast at The Twelve Apostles, a series of impressive sea stacks, although we couldn't find all 12 of them. That evening back in Ballarat we went to music bingo at pub with some of Lizzy's friends where our team won 3 out of 4 of the prizes.

Koala at Kennet River

We flew from from Melbourne up to Cairns. Flying for over three hours and landing in the same country was strange, as was the temperature change, meaning we had to quickly swap our down jackets for t-shirts and shorts again. Cairns is a small town, with a great fruit and vegetable market, where we bought 4 avocados for around £1 (the dream) and an amazing public lagoon, built as swimming is not allowed in the muddy swampy they call the sea. It is also however full of 18 year old gap year-ers, who made us feel old, so we opted to head north to the sleepier town of Port Douglas. It was here that we booked a tour out to the Great Barrier Reef.

Snorkelling through the coral and fishes was an incredible experience. We saw several Nemo's (relatively easy to find as they never stray much further than a meter away from their anemone), as well as countless other brightly coloured fish, starfish and giant clams. Although disappointingly, no Dory - apparently they are much more rare. As well as enjoying the beauty of it, we also noticed significant areas of 'bleached' coral. This has been damaged by extra sunshine due to less cloudy days and warmer sea temperatures, and whilst it is expected to recover in a few years, if climate trends continue in this way it could cause much more permanent damage in the not very distant future.

The Great Barrier Reef from above...

...and below

From Port Douglas we drove further north up the coast through the Daintree forest, going on crocodile boat trips where we saw many of them, including one which was only a few months old and staying in a rainforest lodge, where there were huge spiders (although luckily they weren't in our room).

Adult croc over 3m long!

Next up we flew down the Queensland coast to Brisbane. We spent a relaxing day exploring the Southbank area on one side of the river that runs through the city. This area is a legacy from the 1988 Expo and contains some quirky architecture, a Gallery of Modern Art, the Queensland Museum, a huge performing arts centre and lots of parkland with a manmade swimming lagoon and beach. As there is a huge river running through the city and not many bridges one of the key forms of public transport is the fast catamaran that zips up and down the river stopping on each side in several places. Going for a ride on it was a great way to see a lot of the city from the water.

Sunny Brisbane

We booked a hop-on-hop-off bus ticket to take us from Brisbane to Sydney and our first stop was Byron Bay. This is a town famous for it's laid back surfing culture, so we got stuck in and booked a surf lesson for our first day. We have both surfed a bit before (most recently in Chile), but thought it was sensible to have another lesson to improve our technique and consistency in being able to stand up. The company we chose was called Black Dog, supposedly because the owners dog can surf. We'd booked a group lesson, but no-one else turned up so we got a private lesson for no extra charge. Our instructor was very good and we had a great time. Ben managed to stand up and properly surf into the beach on most of the waves he caught. Fiona was little less successful, but still made good progress throughout the session.

Watching the experts do it

In Yamba, we stayed just one night as a stop to break up the journey south, but discovered that well over half the people staying at the YHA had been there months. They were keen to ridicule their neighbours in Byron Bay, claiming that Yamba was the true surf capital of New South Wales. The hostel staff even woke everyone up at 8am by announcing over the intercom system that it was time to go surfing. The town was pretty and we enjoyed a walk around the peninsula, but we didn't get sucked in and managed to catch our bus the next day. At Coffs Harbour we swam in a sea filled swimming pool, kayaked on the creek through mangroves and cycled in the pouring rain to the Big Banana. There are lots of banana plantations nearby and in the 1960s a giant banana sculpture was built to promote the industry. It quickly became a tourist attraction and there is now even a mini theme park. The owner of the hostel took us to a local headland to see lots of kangaroos. He was very knowledgable and we learnt lots of facts. We even saw a few joey's tails poking out of their mother's pouches.

Big Banana

Kangaroo near Coffs Harbour

We then caught our first night bus since South America (and it was probably the least comfortable) and travelled to Sydney. We arrived at 7am and got the first train, which turned out to be a bus replacement service, out to the Blue Mountains. We stayed in the Flying Fox hostel in Katoomba which had comfy beds, free Tim-Tams (Australian biscuits a bit like a Penguin) and enforced 'social time' between 6pm and 9pm where no electronic devices were allowed. Hostel guests actually talked to each other and played games- including Cluedo! The mountains themselves are spectacular and we did several walks up and down the rocky cliff faces, through the forest and to see huge waterfalls. After so long staying in beach towns it was good to be able to go hiking in the mountains again.

The 3 Sisters in the Blue Mountains

Finally we visited Sydney staying with another friend who had moved out to Australia in the last couple of years, Elizabeth and her husband Paul. We did the classic tourist activities of walking over the harbour bridge, visiting the opera house, walking along the coast to Bondi beach and getting the ferry to Manly. We also went to see an Aussie Rules football match. However, to the uninitiated it looks like there aren't any rules. 18 players per team play on a huge oval pitch in a cricket ground and kick, throw and bounce the ball towards the opponents goal and can be tackled just like in rugby. We soon picked up the basics and it was an exciting match with the Hawthorns narrowly beating the home team the Sydney Swans with a goal in the final minute. We were also fortunate in being in Sydney during the Vivid festival of lights. During a 3 week period many of the city's buildings are lit up at night in multi-colours with the highlight being a bizarre colourful display being projected onto the opera house.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sydney Opera House during Vivid

After 4 months in Australasia it was time to move on to Asia...

New Zealand Part IV - North Island

Our first stop was in Lower Hutt just outside Wellington to visit Fiona's distant relatives Debbie and Rob. We had a great time getting to know them, talking about tramping and going on a walk in the bush near their house.  Debbie also cooked us some very tasty meals. From their house we made a couple of day trips into Wellington to visit the botanical gardens, the parliament building and New Zealand's National Museum, Te Papa. This included interesting exhibits on Maori history and culture, earthquakes and a fun temporary exhibition about bugs. The highlight was the spectacular Gallipoli exhibit, which really brought the story of the tragic WWI campaign in Turkey to life with huge, larger than life human figures.

On a bush walk with Debbie and Rob

Before leaving Wellington we picked up Jake and another of our friends, Emily, from the airport and would spend the next week with them. That day we also went on a tour around Weta Studios which is a company that makes film props, models and special effects.They are most famous for their work in making all the props for Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, but have been involved in many more films including District 9 and the Narnia series. They were also responsible for the dioramas at the air museum we visited in Blenheim and the giant people in the Gallipoli exhibit. It was fascinating to get an insight into how everything is created.

The huge models at Te Papa

Heading north out of Wellington we made a quick stop at the rugby museum in Palmerston North to find out about everything All Black and then continued on to Tongariro National Park. The plan was to hike the famous Tongariro Crossing rated as the best day walk in the country across the spectacular volcanic terrain of Mount Tongariro and Mount Ngauruhoe. However at this point Cyclone Debbie decided to hit New Zealand and dump over a month's worth of rain on the island in just a few days. Visibility on the morning of the hike was less than 100m as we were totally enveloped in cloud and driving rain. We did put on our waterproofs and go for a low level walk to the Tama Lakes, but it was disappointing nonetheless. We would have a second chance to do the walk a week later, but it was particularly sad for Jake and Emily who were only in the country for a short period of time.

The next couple of days consisted of more torrential rain, sheltering inside in cafes, finding indoor activities and playing cards. The rain was so heavy at one point we resorted to eating our sandwiches in the car on top of a multi-storey carpark! Whilst we didn't get to do all the outdoor activities we had originally planned we still saw the Huka Falls, spent a couple of hours sat in geothermal hot pools at Taupo, and visited the geysers, bubbling mud pools and steam vents at Rotorua.  The whole area is a hotspot (pun intended) of geothermal activity; the whole town of Rotorua smells of sulphur, steam can be seen rising from cracks in the road and all the electricity is generated fossil fuel free in geothermal power stations.

Fiona, Jake and Emily at 'The Craters of the Moon' near Taupo

Te Puia Geyser in Rotorua

North of Rotorua on a farm outside the town of Matamata is the village of Hobbiton created for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films. It is now a very popular tourist attraction and a highly anticipated part of our visit to NZ. It was lots of fun to see the film set, pose for photos in front of Bilbo's house and have a drink the in Green Dragon pub.

Satisfying our inner nerd at Hobbiton

Our final activity before saying goodbye to Jake and Emily was to visit the caves at Waitomo. Fortunately it had now finally stopped raining and the water levels in the caves has subsided enough for us to enter and go black water rafting. This involved putting on wetsuits, climbing harness and helmets, then abseiling 27m down into a cave before wading upstream with our giant rubber rings. Deep into the cave we turned out our head-torches and gazed in wonder at the glow maggots (not worms). We then hopped into our rings and floated downstream in the dark. We also squeezed through tiny tunnels in the rock, enjoyed a cup of tea underground and climbed back out the way we came in. It was a great experience and so different to anything we'd done before.

Fiona in her rubber ring

The incredible glow maggots

We dropped off Jake and Emily in Hamilton to begin their journeys home and retraced our steps back to Rotorua, Taupo and Tongariro to attempt some of the activities we'd missed out on due to the rain. At Taupo we both did our first ever tandem skydive (fortunately strapped to professionals and not each other!), free falling from 12,000ft over the lake. We were both pretty nervous beforehand, but the staff at Taupo Tandem Skydive were great at giving us confidence and keeping us calm. One had done over 25,000 jumps in his career! It was odd sitting in a small plane facing backwards and it was pretty noisy not being a pressurised cabin. We were both relatively calm until the rear sliding door opened and Fiona screamed that she didn't want to do it anymore. She predicted this would happen beforehand and knew she would be fine once out the door. Fortunately being strapped to someone else means you don't have to actually make the jump as you fall out the door with them. Falling out a plane and seeing it fly away above you is quite a weird experience, but the rush of falling at 200km/h is amazing. After 45seconds of free fall our parachutes opened and we could enjoy the view over the lake and towards the mountains. It was all over too quickly and we were soon back on the ground. We both agreed that it was one of the best things we've done and would love to do it again.

Fiona about to 'jump'

The next day we completed the Tongariro Crossing at our second attempt and the weather was amazing. Clear blue skies allowed us to really appreciate the stunning, other worldly landscape of the volcanoes. On the way up we crossed fields of lava where it had flowed down the slopes of Mount Ngaurahoe and at the top of Mount Tongariro itself we had great views of the Red Crater and the Emerald Lakes. 

The Emerald Lakes on the Tongariro Crossing

Ben in front of Mount Ngaurahoe (aka Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings!)

Next we headed to Napier on the east coast. This is an interesting town in that it was almost entirely rebuilt after an earthquake in the 1920s and consequently is one of the best collections of Art Deco buildings in the world. Unfortunately our efforts at much sightseeing here were thwarted by torrential rain and 100+ km/hr winds of Cyclone Cook. Over the Easter weekend we stayed in Whitianga on the Coromandel peninsula enjoying great beaches.

Deserted beaches of the Coromandel

Northland was our next destination and a trip up the west coast to visit the kauri forests. Kauri are a native tree to New Zealand and are huge. Tane Mahuta, the largest, is 45m tall and 15m in circumference and is estimated to be 3000 years old. Ahipara is a small beachy town at the southern end of Ninety Mile Beach, and was the furthest north we ventured in New Zealand. We had a relaxing few days exploring the area, sand-boarding down huge dunes and doing some coastal walks. Our hostel here was one of the nicest ones we stayed in all trip - and even had a dishwasher!

Tane Mahuta. Picture doesn't do justice to how big it really is!

At the Waitangi Treaty Grounds we found out more about the nation's founding document, and managed to find James Reddy Clendon's (one of Fiona' distant relatives) signature on it. The Treaty of Waitangi was a document signed by the British and Maori chiefs in 1841 effectively beginning formal British colonial rule. There is still a lot of controversy as the original documents in Maori and English say slightly different things with respect to land ownership. Several Maori tribes are still fighting to be recognised as the rightful owners of their traditional lands. We were also treated to a cultural performance by a local Maori group who sang, danced, played music and intimidated us with their very mobile tongues! Just outside Russell was the site of the first capital of New Zealand, on land which once belonged to James Reddy. Although there are no buildings there anymore we still visited to admire the view before walking into the town for tea and cake. A trip to Clendon house was the final thing to tick off the family history to do list, which was brought to life by a very enthusiastic curator. 

Nice tongue!

Finally we headed back to Auckland to catch our flight to Australia. We had an amazing time thoroughly exploring New Zealand and don't regret spending such a long portion of our trip in just one small country. We hope to be back one day. Kia Ora.

New Zealand Part III - More South Island

The day after dropping off the camper we picked up our new wheels from the airport. We had booked the cheapest car available and were surprised to find a brand new car with just 29km on the clock - no pressure on keeping it in pristine condition then! It was very comfortable and would serve us well for the rest of our time in New Zealand. Our first stop was the town of Oamaru where we stayed in our first hostel for a month. Shared kitchen, bathrooms and bunkbeds were back! The town has a quirky steampunk museum, a street of old warehouses converted into independent shops (including a great adventure bookshop with a replica of Shackleton's boat the James Caird!), but the highlight of the town is the Little Blue Penguin colony. At sunset we sat on the edge of the shore and watched as 143 penguins came ashore after a days fishing and returned to their nests.

Little Blue Penguins

Heading further south we visited the Moeraki Boulders, which are an unusual series of perfectly hemispherical rocks strewn across the beach. For those Star Wars fans out there, one looked just like the Death Star had crashed into the sand. Later that day we arrived in the university town of Dunedin and spent the evening at rugby game. The local team, The Highlanders, were playing The Crusaders from nearby Christchurch. It was the closest thing to a local derby and it made for a great atmosphere. A large portion of the settlers that founded the modern town of Dunedin were from Scotland, hence the team name, and they are proud of their heritage. The team were led out onto the pitch by a full pipe band in tartan. Despite leading 27-6 the Highlanders managed to concede 3 tries in the last 15minutes and lose the match in the dying moments of the game. An exciting game to watch even for non-rugby fans! Whilst in the town we visited the very interesting Otago Settlers Museum charting the history of the town and providing an insight into the reasons that people gave up their lives in the UK and set off to the other side of the world. The museum included a fascinating exhibit on the 'Dunedin Study', a 40 year longitudinal study into health and development, following the same 1000 children from birth in the early 1970's to present.

The Moeraki Boulders

Highlanders vs Crusaders

Before leaving home last August we had booked huts on one of the most popular Great Walks in New Zealand. The Milford Track, the most popular, had already sold out 8 months in advance, so we had booked the circular Kepler Track instead. This is a 63km route from Te Anau and includes a sample of most of the terrain to be found in Fiordland. The first day starts with a flat walk along the edge of Lake Te Anau before heading steeply uphill through the bush at Brod Bay. It was hard work in the heat with a heavy pack, but we were treated to amazing views across the lake once we'd cleared the tree line and reached the first hut. The following morning we awoke to find ourselves above the cloud that had settled over the lake during the night. Most of the walk that day was along the ridge line, including a small detour to the top of Mount Luxmore, again with incredible views all day.

Not a bad view to wake up to

Along the ridge from Luxmore towards Iris Burn

The final hour was a steep rocky descent through the bush to the second hut at Iris Burn. Here we were advised to hang our boots up from pegs rather than leaving them outside for the night as the local cheeky Kea (mountain parrots) had a habit of stealing boots and pecking holes in them. The third day was an easy 4hr walk through the beech forest to the edge of Lake Manapouri at the Motorau Hut. Here we were treated to an incredible sunset and had fun talking to the other hikers. The final day was a 16km walk along the flat through the beech forests back to where we started. We finished about lunch time and headed back into Te Anau for another tasty pie from the same shop as on our last visit a month before. 

Kea

 Sunset over Lake Manapouri

We finished the trek just in time, as we woke up the next morning and the beautiful sunshine had given way to greyness and showers. We packed up all of our stuff and headed off along the 'Southern Scenic Route'. We stopped at several coves and beaches along the way (although never for too long given the weather) until we reached the town of Invercargill. The visitors centre gave us more than just useful local information as they had some resident Tuatauras which we visited. These pre-historic creatures look very lizard like but are actually closer relatives of dinosaurs. They live to over 100 years old! We only stayed one night here - giving us enough time to see the town's ornate water tower and the nearby small town of Bluff - before continuing east along the coast. 

We spent the next few days exploring the Catlins, the south east corner of the South Island, known for it's rugged natural beauty and wildlife. It is a little bit off the main tourist route meaning that it's a bit quieter, and there are far fewer paved roads (turning our lovely blue car a rather dusty sandy colour). Staying on a farm during sheep shearing season meant we were woken up at 7am by loud music when a car full of local young people showed up to work their way through the fields of sheep. The highlights of these few days were visiting the most southerly point of mainland New Zealand (closer to the south pole than the equator) and seeing a pod of dolphins playing in the shallows of the shore at Porpoise bay. 

Nugget Point Lighthouse in the Catlins

Leaving the Catlins we spent a night in Milton - there's nothing really to see in the town, but it was a convenient stop over. The owner of the hostel was an eccentric guy whose first question on our arrival was what our Chinese zodiac sign was and he spent part of the evening trying to teach us to juggle. We then crossed Otago and spent a couple of days staying in Alexandra from where we cycled a section of the Otago Central Rail Trail. This cuts through some stunning scenery and partly due to the old railway equipment had the feel of the Wild West gold rush areas. As a disused railway there aren't any steep hills, but in order to cross the one big hill it does go uphill continuously for 20km. This made for a very easy and speedy return to town after lunch at the half way point.

At the start of the Otago Central Rail Trail

Our friend Jake had flown out to New Zealand for a 3 week holiday and we met up with him for a few days in and around Queenstown. Our first day clashed with a huge Harley Davidson rally in the town. Whilst it was fun to wander along the rows of parked bikes it did mean accommodation in the town was hard to come by and we stayed in nearby Arrowtown again for one night. We did a hike up the imaginatively named 'Big Hill' overlooking Arrowtown, which involved crossing a stream several times by taking off our boots and wading through. Jake took this opportunity to go for a 'swim' in the freezing cold water that turned into a 5 second dip before trying to warm himself up again. In Queenstown itself we took the gondola cable car to the top of the mountain above the town and spent an afternoon on the luge. This involves riding a sledge crossed with a go-kart down a paved race track down a short section of the mountain as fast as possible. Fiona decided not to get involved with the closely fought duels between Ben and Jake. We also queued for an hour to try the famous Fergburger. It is a very tasty burger and maybe ten years ago when launched it was pretty special, but when gourmet burger joints are now commonplace it doesn't have the same wow-factor we expected. We left Jake to explore Fiordland on his own (we'd meet up with him again on the North Island) and made our way once again through Haast Pass and up the west coast.

Mmmm... burger

We drove the 800km from Queenstown to Blenheim in two long days driving. Having already driven up the west coast once we were keen just to get the driving done and begin exploring the last part of the South Island. We stayed a few days in Blenheim in the Malborough wine region enjoying some of the best wines New Zealand has to offer and visiting the brilliant Omaka Heritage Aviation Centre. This contains a large collection of WWI and WWII fighter planes displayed in exciting dioramas created by Weta Workshops (more on them when we get to Wellington). A significant number of the planes belong to director Peter Jackson of Lord Of The Rings fame. The museum included a fascinating exhibit on the war in Russia in WWII, something which is often only briefly mentioned in a British history education.

German WWI fighter plane

Finally we headed to Picton to catch our ferry through the Queen Charlotte Sounds and across the Cook Strait to the North Island.

Ferry through the Queen Charlotte Sounds