100km Taupo walk, tongariro, Auckland, Taranaki, Tauranga

I joined up with Sue and Tony in Levin on 7 April and on the 8th we went up to Whanganui for the night. Then next day we continued up to Turangi near the Tongariro national park where we stayed for the week.



That weekend (10th/11th April) was the Oxfam 100km trampwhich i was doing in a team of 4, my cousin Peter, Michelle, Nick and myself. We started at 0700 on Saturday april 10 and finished at 1000 on Sunday april 11, after walking for 27 hours. The first 45km we completed in 9hr 30mins, and was really good fun, the weather was beautiful, it was an interesting track, spirits were high and we made really good time overtaking loads of other teams. Unfortunately at the 45km one of our team had to retire due to a knee injury. The next leg was nightmare as it was 20km, it was the first night strech and towards the end another member of the team became very ill so it took a long time to finish. So in contrast to the first half, the last 45 km were more of a slog in the dark, one foot in front of the other, cold, no scenery etc. The sun rose again at the last checkpoint which gave a good boost to morale and so the final 13km were a bit more enjoyable. We finally crossed the line at 1000 sunday morning after being out for 27 hours.
It was a great event and i definately enjoyed it, one more great experience to add to my trip.

I spent the rest of the week in Turangi with Sue and Tony and got a few more tramps in with Sue, the Tongariro crossing was definately a highlight there.

Headed back up to Auckland on the Friday, on Sunday Chris took me on one of his customary adventures in the Waitakeres, which involved tramping, caving and swimming i the sea and the next day i explored the city and Devenport.

The rest of the week was broken up be a 2 day trip to levin for Josies funeral. The service was very good and the large number of people in attendence was a lovely tribute to Josie. It was also another opportunity to catch up with the family.

Last weekend ( 24th,25th) i went down to Mt taranaki with chris and a friend Phill for a 3 day, 2 night tramp up and around the mountain. We climbed to the summit on saturday, it was a tough climb - extremely steep with a long scree slope section as well as a bouldering/scrambling section exacerbated by heavy packs. 3/4's of the way up the cloud came in and the wind picked up obscuring the view and making the going more.... interesting. We wouldn't have made it to the top without the help of some crazy guy who in trying to break the record for the most climbs in a year was climbing it several times a week (4times that weekend), anyway he guided us to the top in minimal visibility, strong winds and a bit of rain. We had planned to go to a mountain hut the other side of the mountain but the weather forced us to lug all our gear back down the mountain and then around the mountain to another hut. The next day we checked out an impressive waterfall (and had a cold swim) and the backtracked to the summit path before heading further down the mountain to another hut very close to the car park, this meant the next day we had a quick walk out giving us time to visit new plymouth and drive back to Auckland. the tramp was fantastic and on the second day we got some superb views of the summit, it was my first experience of staying in the DOC huts and they were really nice as well.

I went back to Auckland for a few days and thanks to Peter got to go to a Vampire Weekend concert which was awesome.

I spent my last week and a half down in Tauranga, in the Bay of Plenty where i managed to land a job in a kiwi fruit packing house stacking the boxes of kiwi fruit. The work was OK but it was quite sociable and had perks including free kiwi fruit and a free 55 hour a week gym session (the boxes were quite heavy!!) Tauranga was a nice town and a had time to climb Mt. Manganui which gave great 360 degree views of the coast and the land. I spent my last night at Chris's house and Peter came over for dinner, it was the perfect way to wind down my time in NZ after 5 months!!

Abel Tasman onwards

On the 16th i got the bus from Christchurch up to Marahau to spend a week with Michael, Gillian and Katherine. The Abel Tasman is a very nice part of the world. The weather was perfect and i passed the time kayaking, swimming in the turquoise water as well as hiking along the coast, not to mention relaxing at the campsite.

I then headed back to Blenheim in the hope of finding a job. I arrived at a bad time for work but managed to find a job fairly quickly. The work was on a vineyard and unfortunately the contractor was pretty dodgy so i got ripped off. I did however get 2 weeks work with a more reputable contractor and had a much better time of it. However that finished, so i found a job down in Cromwell, Central Otago starting mid-feb and headed down via Michael and Gillian who had very conveniently moved down to Christchurch!!

The job in Cromwell lasted 6 weeks and was on a vineyard again. The work was easy if tedious and Cromwell itself was a bit of a hole but i met some cool people and had a great time fending for myself.

After that job finished I decided that i'd exhausted the South Island and that i wanted to begin exploring the North Island so flew up to Wellington to stay with Prue, Allan, Rebecca and Callum for a week. I spent 2 days exploring the city, another on Sommes Island and on Easter Sunday we all went up to Levin to see Josie and Helen.

New Zealand

I've been in NZ over a month now but have done a phenomenal amount in the time.

I arrived in Auckland on the 20th december and spent a great week with Sue and Ant. The highlights were christmas eve and christmas day. On xmas eve my cousins chris and peter, myself and a friend of peters went canyoning - we spent a few hours walking down rivers, jumping of water falls, jumping off cliffs and jumping out of trees. It was pretty intense. After that we went to the beach for a bit of lazing in the sun and swimming in the sea. All in all awesome fun.

Christmas day we all went up to a house in Shakespear national park which was a superb location. We went down the beach early afternoon, had a superb christmas dinner cooked by my aunt Sue and then played sing star into the night. Great company, great food, great weather (hot and sunny)!!!

On the 27th the next stage began when me my cousin chris and his friend Michael flew down to Christchurch in the South Island to begin our 3 week odessy. We got a very early flight to CC where we picked up a rental car and after a brunch with Chris's aunt and uncle headed off into Authurs Pass. It was a pretty stunning introduction to the south Island with huge mountains and rivers. We stopped at a cave early on that you can walk through. You have to wade though icy water that sometimes reaches up to you waist though this amazing passage carved by the river. There was the odd waterfall you had to climb up as well. We stopped a few more times as we went for the odd walk and photo stop. Me and Chris went for a swim in one of the mountain streams as well but the water was so cold that it burnt. We finished off in Punakaiki on the West Coast. It was amazing to think that we'd started the day in Auckland and had finished on the West Coast after a full day of sight seeing.

The following day we went to see the pancake rocks, an interesting rock formation, and continued all the way down the west coast stopping to do some short walks, take in the views finishing at Fox Glacier. The next day we did a day walk on the glacier which involved donning crampons and pointed sticks and marching as far as we could up the ice and then down again. We saw loads of cool crevices and a few very small caves. In the early afternoon it became very overcast and started raining and became very cold. In the evening we did a glow worm walk which was stunning, hundreds of glow worms in the ferns and tree roots.

On the 30th of jan we left Fox Glacier and continued South to Wanaka. The first glimpse of the lake takes your breath away (so much of NZ does though) the vast deep blue lake surrounded by the mountains, it reminded me of the lake district. We met up with Jason, a friend of Chris's who took us to a gorge where there were a couple of really good cliff jumps into a mountain river - yes a bit chilly - his dad the took us on his boat which is a fantastic way to see the lake and the surrounding mountains. On the way down to Queenstown we had some food and a pint at the hotel Cadrona. The drive into Queenstown is spectacular with Lake Wakatipu and the mountains.

The 31st of January was a big day, obviously it was New Years Eve, but it was also the day me and Chris were doing the 134m Nevis Bungee jump and the equally impressive arc swing (the biggest in the world). It was a fair drive to where the bungee and arc swing were, in a valley outside of Queenstown. The bungee jump is done from a platform hanging from cables suspended across the valley. After getting harnessed up you take a cable car to the platform where you can watch the people in front of you jumping thanks to though the glass panels in the floor while listening to Kings of Leon and other good music pumping away. Then your name is called and you get strapped and bungeed up in full view of the drop, when your done your have to hop to the edge (your ankles are tied together) where you wait with the 150meter drop below you. Then the supervisor commences the countdown ...3.......2........1...... and then you jump (get pushed out). For a split second i though what am i doing then all you feels is freedom and the wind rushing past your ears and then then before you know it your slowing down and being pulled up. It was an awesome experience albeit far less intense than i thought it would be. I can barely remember jumping to be honest.

The arc swing was good fun, i did it with Chris, upside down. Once your in position your suspended, just hanging and waiting for the guy to press the button. Then woooosh a 70 m free fall then you swing for 400meters. Again it was good fun but over far to quickly. And as if that wasn't enough excitement for one day we went to a huge cliff jump just outside the town called 'little thailand'. I will point that thanks to a bitterly cold wind and inadequate clothing i was frozen to the bone, but that didn't stop me stripping down putting on my togs and running of a cliff to fall a long way (12 odd meters) into a nippy lake Wakatipu. It took me quite a while -and a hot tub session- to warm up again.

That evening we headed back into Queenstown for the New Years festivities. There were two stages by the lake, one with a really good live band and another with some good dance music so we spent the evening flicking between the two (raving was a very good way to warm up) There was a fire works display at midnight and we hit a bar after that. The next day we went north up to Glenorky to have an explore, amazing scenery as per usual but a very strong wind.

On the 2nd we drove down to Te Anu and on to Lake Manapourie where we camped. We planned to go on a kayaking adventure but couldn't because of the weather so we did a lot of tramping instead. We did a good chunk of the Kepler track as well as another.

A few days later me and Chris headed further into Fiordland with a rugged camp by lake Gunn (very cold very wet) and did a cruise on Milford Sound. I had been told by everyone that Milford Sound was spectacular and we weren't disappointed heavy rain the previous day, night and all that morning simply meant that there were even more water falls and they were all far bigger. We left very early so there were no other cars around and it was like the lost world driving though this valley in the cloud with sheer cliffs either side and thousands of waterfalls everywhere. The boat we were on to tour the sound wasn't too busy so it didn't feel too touristy and after 2 hours cruising around the only word i can use to describe it is stunning.

After another night in Manapourie we drove down to Invercargill which is definitely NOT my favorite place in NZ and i don't really have anything to say about it. It was however our jump off place to Stewart island.

The Stewart island trip stared of quite stressfully, we had originally planned to tramp across for Oban on the East side to Mason's bay on the West in order to see the Kiwi's. This would have been hard work given our limited time. Severe rain meant that the track was very muddy, waist deep in places according to the DOC wardens which would have made the going even tougher. So instead we decided to do the Rakiura track in 2 days and then spent another day on the Ulva island bird sanctuary. The Rakiura track was good, the weather was temperamental, it rained for the first few hours and then began a patten of rain, hail sun, rain, hail, sun until mid afternoon when the cloud disappeared and the sun came put for the rest of the day. We had the most amazing campsite, right by a perfect beach in a large bay where we had a swim. It was dry, warm and sunny........perfect. It was a very cold night and the following day was a muddy, wet, cold slog but i would be lying if i said i didn't enjoy it.

We returned to Invercargill for just one night before driving along the coast to Dunedin. We went to the most southern point in NZ and all the way though the Catlins but like the last 2 weeks it was cold wet and windy. We stopped at nugget point and got drenched walking to the light house but it was worth it to see the impossible rugged coast line. Dunedin itself was probably the nicest city in the South Island and the sun cam out while we were there which always cheers you up.

After Dunedin we continued up the East Coast to Timaru where we had a fantastic dinner with Chris's aunt and uncle, Lyn and Nigel. Before heading to their equally fantastic batch on the edge of Lake tekapo. It was the kind of place where i could easily have spent a week. Only one other house near by (no one there) lake Tekapo on the doorstep and mountains all around. We did some clay pigeon shooting and target shooting with rifles, we swam in the lake, ate a lot and just enjoyed the last few days of our trip. It was a superb location to end out 3 week odyssey around the South Island.

Chris and Michael (the other travel companion) then flew back to Auckland whilst i stayed in Christchurch and caught a bus the next day up to Nelson and then onto Marahau in the Abel Tasman where i camped with Michael and Gillian.

Australia

The next stage of my trip was Australia where i spent just 3 weeks. I wasn't so sure if Australia would be as good as Asia but it defintately was. Stepping off the plane in Perth the first thing i noticed was, 'hmmmmmm it's not horribly sticky and sweaty'. Although I had got used to the humidity it was amazing to leave it behind. I spent just under 10 days in Perth staying with my cousins and had a fantastic time, mostly just resting after 3 month of travelling. My first few days there involved sleeping, eating, swimming and errrrrr sleeping some more on Cottesloe beach (White Sand and clean water). On top of that i went to a Casino and doubled my holiday budget!!, watched a football (soccer) match, explored the city. I also visited Rotnest island which was a 30 minute ferry ride from Perth which was an a really good day trip. Because there are so few cars on the island everyone cycles and there are maybe a hundred or more pristene, yet deserted, beaches with crystal clear water and place to Snorkel all of which you can easily cycle to.

My next stop was Melbourne which was a really fun city with plenty to see and do. I stayed in Williamstown with Carol, Roger, William, Rebecca and Sarah who were very friendly and left me well placed to explore the city. I had a break from Melbourne to venture about 270km inland to the Grampian National Park and stayed in a place called Halls Gap from which I went bush walking, biked up mountains and saw lots of Kangeroos. While i was there the temperature was in the mid 30 degrees and was nearly 40 degrees when i left. (I was only 70km away from the Australian Horsham as well which was funny).

After returning to Melbourne i took the overnight bus to Sydney and spent the day walking arounf the city in the pouring rain. I stayed with Sue and Steve who, on the following day, very kindly took me on a tiki tour of the Coast line south of the city center and had a swim on Bondi Beach.

From Sydney i flew to New Zealand.

Malaysia, Singapore

I didn't have as much time as i would have liked to visit Malaysia so I decided to only do the West side. My first stop, Penang, was really nice. I only visited the main town, Georgetown, which was a really nice old colonial city with lots of old buildings and excellent food. The main difference i found between Malaysia and everywhere else i visited was that Malaysia was much more ethnically diverse - 90% of the population is Chinese, Indian or Malay. So i could have a nice curry in Little India and then wonder over to Chinatown for some noodles.
After Penang i went inland to the Cameron Highlands, it was considerably colder up there which was a nice relief. I spent 3 days there and spent half of each day trekking in the jungle and the other half watching films or reading which was pretty cool. I also found a lady who cooked the best curry dishes i've had. so i had indian food 3 breakfast lunch and dinner all 3 days.
I then headed off to the Capital of Malaysia, Kualar Lumpar - Basically a big Asian city. The most spectacular things there by a long way were the Petronas towers which were simply incredible. Next was Melaka which was like Penang just more touristy.

Overall i really enjoyed Malaysia (especially the food as always) but didn't have enough time to see it all. I then spent 3 days in Singapore exploring the city before heading off to Perth in Australia.

17/11 Bangkok, Koh Phangan

Well i have a lot to catch up on so i'm going to be brief with some bits.

After Siem Reap I returned to Bangkok for 2 days. This time however i ventured out of the backpacker area and spent a lot of time getting lost in several local markets, as well as china town, eating lots of different food and looking at all the weird and wonderful things for sale. I also ventured into the rich areas and took full advantage of the air-conditioning in the posh shopping malls. I took a ride on the sky train which was a great way to avoid all the traffic in Air Conditioned comfort.

I then headed down to Koh Phangan for the half-moon festival. It involved another disjointed journey with an unpleasant over night bus and then a boat to the island. I spent the first night in my own bungalow on a quiet private beach on the west of the island. It would have been perfect, the beach was beautiful the water warm however it was raining and beside from the beach there was nothing to do. Having rained the day we arrived, all night and the following morning me and a few others decided to go do Haad rin on the east of the island where we thought there would be stuff to do even in the wet weather. Haad Rin was not as nice by any streach of the imagination, a touristy built up resort with an average beach.

The first night there we went to a pool party at one of the resorts which was fun. The following day was gorgeous so we went for a short walk to a beach a little way from Haad rin with a white sandy beach and warm clear water where we spent the rest of the day. That evening was the main event however, the half-moon festival, a big party in the jungle with loads of D+B and Trance. It was awesome although being the monsoon month not so many people, stayed there until sunrise.

Having caught up on some sleep i decided to walk to the next cove to see if it would be a nice place to stay. My Lonely Planet described it as a 1 hr rough walk. 1hr 45 minuted into the walk i was a little lost and had realised that flip flops were not a great idea for what turned out to be quite the Jungle Trek. Fortunately, a guy in a pick up drove past and i jumped in and got a 4x4 adventure up and down 15% - 25% dirt pot hold slopes on one of the worst roads ever. Having got to the beach i decided to try and climb round the coast back to Haad Rin, that turned into some serious bouldering (still in flip flops) and ended up in me giving up returning to the beach wet, with broken flip flops, watch and me very cut up. I then had to wait for 2 hours in the dark for a taxi boat to come so i could get back. All in all a pretty stupid afternoon. I did however discover a little peace of paradise where i would later go.

The next day me and a German guy rented a motobike to go around the island. The road to Haadrin however is more of a roller coaster with numerous 10%, 15% and 20+% inclines (fortunately they were well tarmaced) so it was a little hairy. We also went a wrong way and ended up having an accident on a steep down hill slope when the bike slipped from under us. I was thrown down a hill but stayed on my feet and we wer both unharmed. The bike had a few scrateches that we had to pay dearly for when we returned the bike. We did however find some beautiful quiet beaches on the north of the island and i had a nice afternoon nap in a hammock right on the beach.

We then went off to the beach i had previously explored, and ended up at a spa/resort called the Sanctuary which offered lot's of yoga, meditation, chakra readings and things involving healing, and energy and other abstract things. It was also full of people in colourful, baggy clothing. Basically a bit of a hippy commune which was fun . It also had a beautiful beach with clear clean water and a fair bit of coral you could easily swim to from the shore. This was my 'holiday away from holiday' so i just dozed, swam, ate and chilled out. Basically it was a little peace of paradise and was very difficult to leave stupid Visa.

I'm now in Penang in Malasia which is a beautiful mix of cultures but have only 2 weeks left in asia..

Siem Reap - Ankor Wat

I've already done two days of Angkor Wat and i can safely say the temples are awesome. On the first day i woke up at 6.15 and rented bikes with a French guy and spent about 9 hours at the temples. We did the 'mini tour' which involved all the main ones, Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon as well as a number of smaller but just as interesting ones. Angkor Wat was certainly the most spectacular in terms of scale but became less amazing as you got closer and you couldn't do as much up close compared to other temples. Next was Bayon which i enjoyed more as there was more to explore and better carvings. We did loads of other temples as well but the best ones were hidden away in the jungle away from the main drag and less touristy. At all the big temples there were bus loads of tour groups constantly arriving and leaving meanwhile the more remote ones were far more peaceful. It was hard work though, the sun was scorching and it was so hot making cycling and walking around the temples hard work. To add to that is the endless line of children and adults trying to sell you trinkets and books and clothes although i've figured out how to deal with them after 2 months in Asia. It's still annoying being constantly mobbed, stalked and shouted at by Cambodians. The other issue is the people selling cold drinks and food, as soon as you acome within 70 meters of them they scream "Miiseter, Misster you wan cold drink'' , "no ok when you come back you buy''. One way of avoiding them is by hiding behind far wealthier and older looking tourists. It kind of disturbs the peace of the temples.

The next day i did the same shift but did the 'grand tour'. I enjoyed this route more as there were fewer tourists, and the temples were just as impressive and more fun to explore as there were more rooms and passages, and the jungle had encroached into many of them so you can woander into the jungle to find more ruins hidden there. I did it all on a bike again and because of the size of the grand route and the detours i made i probably cycled for 40 km and when i got back to the guest house i was destroyed. So today i'm giving myself a day off to recover before doing my last day at the temples tomorrow. To be honest 3 days isn't enough as there's still a lot to see.