Sunday, April 24, 2005
Nabua Lodge, Nacula
Phill: 23/4 to 26/4, Nacula Fiji - 24/4 - So we took the Awesome Adventures boat to Nacula, on which we sat outside in sun on a beautiful hot day with fantasy desert islands for a backdrop. Little speedboats come out from each resort to collect their guests, and as we'd booked independently we were a little worried about boat not meeting us. It did though, and took us and a Scottish guy called Derek to Nabua Lodge ("The Lodge"). Ren was worried at first because of sligtly dirty glasses, but the meal served when we checked in was good homemade food. They then took us to our bure - which was a real one made of braches and leaves and although it was basic, it was really cute. The same could not be said of the awful toilets though - but we'd suffered worse.We took a walk along the beach before our hosts beat the drum to signify dinner, at which we met our fellow resort members, two Danes (both called Soren), two American students and Lea Lea and Bex. These last two were Sheffield lasses that reminded me of all the good things about Northerners. They made us feel welcome and included without ever trying, and kept us laughing for most of the days to come.
They "showed us around" which meant walking the 200 yards to go over to the other pub, where we met the people at the next resotr (not that many of them either) and played card games and some drinking games. Lots of Fiji bitter was downed before they switched off the generator and kicked us out. We went down to a hut on the beach and played "I have never..." which revealed that the oldest person there a white-haired guy called "Ruups" by the Northerners, had never been skinny dipping. Well, you know where that was all going to end up. It was a gorgeous night, with the moon full and bright, and it would have made a great picture when all the guys were walking out into the sea with their white bits showing! After an amusing shower in dark, we turned in to end a great day.
It was pouring rain the next day, so we played cards in a shelter outside, while Derek (who the girls now called "James") showed us how to make some coconut jewellery - well, when in Fiji. We knew that four people were arriving to replace the Danes and Americans, so we started a game of "Guess the Nationalities". This revealed some personality traits, in that Leelee wanted all the rules and everyone's guesses written down neatly. Bex wanted to win really badly, and Ren shared a little of both. We all went a bit cabin-crazy that day, and found ourseves laughing hysterically over silly things. I love that. You can imagine by the time the boat boat arrived, the girls were keen, to the point of being rabid, to interrogate the arivals. Apparently we all looked liked we'd been there for months without any outsiders - I can't think why!
We took some fun pictures, had afternoon tea, and chatted through the afternoon until it was beer time again. That night wasn't much calmer, although Ren found time to teach card-shuffling to just about everyone. The Girls (as we'll call them from now on) had some great turns of phrase that kept us laughing a lot, but amongst the most lingering was that they'd describe everything and everyone as "Beautiful... no matter what they say". We eventually stumbled home, we've no idea when.
The next day the weather was lovely, despite being hung over. We'd arranged a visit to the village on the island for which you have to be escorted. You also have to bring some "Cava* which your escort helpfully goes off to buy for you. There's a little cynic in both of us with memories of scams in South-East Asia that made us think that something was a bit suspect, but no matter. We met the chief, and wandered around the village. Apart from the selling of shell-jewellery though, the village really was a normal functioning community, which was strange to see on a tiny island like that.
We headed back to our lodging in the blazing heat, which didn't help Ren's hangover too much, as she had to vanish to the bathroom halfway through lunch, and spent the time until our boat arrived lying in bed. So after laughing at the Northern girls trying to clambour into a speedboat in skirts, we were off again.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Bula Fiji!
Phill: 21/4 to 23/4, Fiji - We'd booked a few nights in a hostel for our arrival in Fiji, as we weren't quite sure what we were going to do, but were aiming for a whole lot of nothing. Having come through SE-Asia, we were a bit unused to letting people take our bags for us, and it took a few days for us to realise that we weren't about to be robbed, carrying bags for guests is just the way of things in Fiji. A transfer bus was waiting to take us to our accommodation, which gave us an opportunity to meet a really nice English couple who had been to the airport to try and book their next 10 days of island hopping. They were amongst the first pepole we'd met that were heading around the world in the opposite direction - they had just come from the USA - and they were in a bit of culture shock at how small Nadi town was. We had dinner and drinks with them, which reminded me just how much we British drink and how long I'd been away. I hope they didn't feel too bad on their boat-trip the next morning!
The place were were staying was pretty nice, with a pool, bar, and restaurant where everything was priced fairly and reasonably good. The staff were all nice and friendly, albeit a little laid-back about helping you, in the way of most Fijians.
We headed into town the following day, which we thought was really quite big - funny how your perspective differs - and started researching how to do do the trip we wanted. In short, for the Yasawa group of islands, one company has the whole market stitched up tight - Awesome Adventures. So much so, that when we rang one accommodation in our guide-book, the number actually put us through to the Awesome office. Town wasn't much fun - we thought we were done with places that harass you simply because you're white. We got our chores done, and although I wasn't bothered, Ren was determined to put in the hard graft of booking our accommodation independently in an attempt to save money. She sorted out two places, which left us some free nights and flexibility, we bought a single boat trip to the furthest of the islands we were visiting, and our time in Nadi was done.
The place were were staying was pretty nice, with a pool, bar, and restaurant where everything was priced fairly and reasonably good. The staff were all nice and friendly, albeit a little laid-back about helping you, in the way of most Fijians.
We headed into town the following day, which we thought was really quite big - funny how your perspective differs - and started researching how to do do the trip we wanted. In short, for the Yasawa group of islands, one company has the whole market stitched up tight - Awesome Adventures. So much so, that when we rang one accommodation in our guide-book, the number actually put us through to the Awesome office. Town wasn't much fun - we thought we were done with places that harass you simply because you're white. We got our chores done, and although I wasn't bothered, Ren was determined to put in the hard graft of booking our accommodation independently in an attempt to save money. She sorted out two places, which left us some free nights and flexibility, we bought a single boat trip to the furthest of the islands we were visiting, and our time in Nadi was done.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
New Zealand Photos (2)
One of the reasons there's been a delay in recent posts is that there were huge numbers of photographs to sort, upload, edit and caption. That means that a majorly reduced numbers of pictures are now available for viewing (we took thousands!) from New Zealand:
New Zealand (2) - Mt Cook, Oamaru, Dunedin, Banks Peninsula, Caitlins Coast, Milford Sound, Queenstown, Greymouth, Arthur's Pass, Nelson, Wellington, New Plymouth, Bay of Islands, Auckland.
New Zealand (2) - Mt Cook, Oamaru, Dunedin, Banks Peninsula, Caitlins Coast, Milford Sound, Queenstown, Greymouth, Arthur's Pass, Nelson, Wellington, New Plymouth, Bay of Islands, Auckland.
Monday, April 18, 2005
Auckland, Take Two
Phill: Auckland, 18/4 to 21/4 - There was one bizarre stop on the way back to Auckland at some toilets. Not unusual you might think, until you consider that the Lonely Planet lists it as one of the local sights. It was built by an architect (Hundertwasser) that was well known and liked in the community of Kawakawa. They were interesting, with the windows and walls made out of (or decorated with) different coloured glass bottles. Not worth going out of your way for though.The motorway back held an unpleasant surprise for us - a stone flew up and chipped our brand new windscreen - we couldn't believe it! Neither of us has ever had a chipped windscreen before, now we've had three! Oh well. After much searching, we found a backpackers hostel in town that claimed they had parking over in Parnell. Sure enough, down a long narrow dead-end, there was parking - and it certainly was a "backpackers". Lots of people in the middle of the day, sitting around wearing nothing but a pair of linen "sailor pants" and smoking. Each to their own, eh? We quickly headed into the city, and as it was a nice day we took the trip up into the Sky Tower - the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. It was pretty cool, with great views of the bay and city, and we got to see someone do the controlled bungee off the top, which was cool.
We'd arranged to meet Lindsay Sweeney (a friend's Dad that we've been drinking with a few times in London) who lived nearby and had kindly invited us to dinner. It really was a huge splash of luxury for us - Lindsay and his wife Liz have an amazingly beautiful home, and while Lindsay plied us with wine, Liz cooked a fantastic casserole and followed it up with a delicios pavlova. Ahhhh... bliss. We chatted the evening away with them and Lindsay's business partner Ollie, before Lindsay showed us the loudest ski-suit we've ever seen. You've gotta feel so sorry for his teenage daughters! We've always had a great time whenever we've met up with the Sweeneys, and this was no exception.
We spent the next few days running around doing a lot of chores, like cleaning up the tent and car, re-packing everything and getting rid of items that it was more effort to take with us than it was to leave them behind. Renee had another hospital appointment, which finally revealed some progress in her eye's healing. We did a little shopping, returned the hire-car, and made the long trip by bus back to the campsite, including a little panicked last-minute taxi-booking for 5am. Whoops!
Our time in New Zealand was drawn out slightly by the airport check-in having to confirm first hand with the Fijians that Ren was ok with her 1-month-to-go-passport, and them making sure that I had appropriate onward flights to get me out of the USA in under 90 days. The aiport was coverd in posters with gorgeous New Zealnd locations on them, which was a lovely reminder of what we'd seen and done there. We missed out on a few of the tourist trap/adrenaline activities, but all in all we'd had a great time in the most beautiful countryside imaginable. If you haven't yet been, and you ever get the chance, go there!
Friday, April 15, 2005
Have you been to the Bay Of Islands yet?
Phill: New Plymouth, Hamilton, Bay of Islands, 15/4 to 17/4 - A short hop up to Hamilton had us driving around quite a lot to get some accommodation. Little did we know that there was a balloon festival on that weekend, which draws a lot of people - mostly, we deduced, comprised of old people and their grandchildren, which meant that campsites in particular were fully-booked. We'd intended to spend two nights and get a few things sorted, but fate only gave us the one - but luck let us manage to get a really nice guy to change our windscreen even though the place was mega-busy. He was a really nice guy, but let me say now that I was secretly pleased that his uniform included hilariously small "stubbie-shorts" which distracted you from his irritatingly chiseled, rugged good-looks... git! A walk/bus into town, and hour of internet and a bus back saw our car with a shiny new windscreen with the bill sent to the hire-company.We were soon to be back at Auckland, so I texted an old friend of mine that lives there, and we called Lindsay, the dad of one of the guys we used to work with and a great drinking partner whenever he's in London. After a while spent with him trying to bluff remembering who we were just from our names, we arranged to meet in a few days time. More sorting done! We headed into town for some cheap eating-out, before watching the not too bad "Assault on Precinct 13". That just left us to decide where to go for the next 2 days...
Every country it seems has a place that everyone talks about. In New Zealand, from our perspective, it's the Bay Of Islands. All of the time we were heading south, people would ask if we'd been and then look at us like we were breaking some unwritten rule by leaving it until later. Seriously, you'd swear that every guidebook had as a suggested itinerary of "Head out of Auckland for the amazing Bay of Islands, then head immediately for the South Island". The North Island really is harder done by than it should be, but I digress, the point is that we'd been lead to believe that some sort of sin would be committed if we didn't go. So despite me being quite sick of driving, we figured that we had 2 weeks of no driving in Fiji so what the heck. Five or six hours later, we were in Paihia, looking for the "centrally located" campsite that we'd booked. Little did we know that it was centrally located between two fo the towns in the BOI, meaning it was 11kms from both! Fate was with us for a change though, and the woman said that she'd only booked 1 night for us instead of 2 (and made up some story about leaving a message on my mobile!), which gave us the perfect excuse to say "no thanks!" and to find somewhere else. We ended up in a gorgeous studio apartment at a backpackers for a discount price, although it's a shame that other places in BOI feel the need to rip you off - $9/hour for 'net access, tsk!
We waited to check the next day's weather and let it decide our plans - once again the weather gods were kind, and blue skies awaited our cruise around the bay. The cruise was pretty good value, including some great dolphin-watching plus the famous part where the boat goes through the "hole in the rock" - a great limestone arch in one of the islands. All in all a good day, that was finished off by some reading and planning ahead, and slightly spoilt by Harry Bloomin' Potter and the Chamber of Secrets being on TV again. If I see that or Pirates of the Caribbean one more time, someone will pay.
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
A Wind What?
Phill: 9/4Phill: 13/4 to 14/4, New Plymouth - Back in my "oh so familiar" driving seat, we took the trip up the west coast to New Plymouth. There were some nice views along the way, but they turned into great views when the cloud cover cleared and Mt Taranaki came into view. This volcano is all the more impressive, because it's set in the middle of mostly flat land, so it sticks up in the classic cone shape and dominates the landscape. That snow-capped presence kept us company for most of the drive, and it adds a slight sense of menace to NP as you sit in its shadow, knowing that it's overdue for an eruption. Excellent stuff!NP itself is a funky, decent-sized place, with just about most things you'd want, except internet access for some reason. They have this enormous sculpture called the Wind Wand, which is a long metal rod with a light on top of it, which is designed to sway gently in the breeze. Very odd... but kind of cool.
The next day we had some phone calls to make as we tried to establish the cheapest way to replace the cracked windscreen in the car, and Ren tried to find out if Fiji would let her into the country with only a month left on her passport. We had some luck with both, finding that the insurance covered the former, and that Fijian Immigration didn't care too much about the latter. So, with our chores done, we set off to get some closer looks at the volcano. There are a couple of walks not far from Mt Taranki, one of which suited our day - an hour long stroll past a waterfall. As Ren would say, we totally "killed" the walk in about 40 minutes at a relaxed pace with photo stops, but it was still a nice track. As we couldn't get online, it was time for beers and TV... good job we still enjoy each other's company!
Saturday, April 09, 2005
Sunny Nelson
Phill: 9/4 to 10/4, Nelson - The sunniest place in NZ, so it is claimed. Well, it sure lived up to it for us with 2 days of blazing sunshine. The long drive from P&T's house was again full of brilliant views as we headed up through Lewis Pass, though we had little time to stop, arriving in Nelson the early evening. We saw the most gross episode of Fear Factor with them downing shots of blended stink beatles, maggots and rotten fish-eyes... while we happily ate our dinner. After a bit of a lie-in the next morning, we decided to get outside a little so I took Renee to Nelson's Japanese garden that I'd read about ages ago and thought she'd like. She did, although compared to what we've seen, it was a bit lacking. Pity really. Then we spotted a sign for "The Centre of New Zealand", so of course we had to go there and climb the hill and take the photo (and buy the t-shirt, almost). As we had no Nelson-specific plans it was a nice day out all in all.
Thursday, April 07, 2005
West Coast to East Coast (again!)
Phill: 7/4 to 8/4, Christchurch - We'd deliberately chosen to have Ren's next eye appointment at Christchurch Hospital so that we could double-up with a 2nd visit to Teresa, Pete & James. The drive down was pretty incredible, with the scenery through Arthur's Pass being amazing and also offset with some pretty impressive man-made sights, such as the Otira Viaduct. The Canterbury Plains beyond that are such a starky dull contrast that the last section of the journey seems to take forever, but soon we were back in interesting countryside, as we overshot Christchurch and drove into Lyttleton, this time in good weather. T&P were right, it really is a cute little palce, with lots of interesting houses, and the scenery around Godfrey Head was great. It's amazing in NZ how you can drive 5 minutes from a city, and feel like you're right out in the middle of nowhere.Back in the now-familiar city centre we got to doing some blogging while waiting for T to get off work. She'd arranged to meet us in a bar and kind of overlap some work-drinks she was having, but they'd closed the bar off for this private function so we went to a nearby deserted Irish bar for a few drinks. T soon joined us, and after one for the road, we went to Cafe Ironside Thai to pick up some take-away food before heading back. Poor Pete (who has a voracious appetite) was absolutely ravenous by this point, but the food was so good we all scoffed it with little conversation! We chilled out and watched some TV before we all turned in early-ish.
The next morning at the hospital was a bit upsetting - no improvement. The Doc increased the frequency of Ren's drops ot every half-hour and set another appointment, this time in Wellington Hospital. P&T had a baby-sitter that night, so we all went out to a great restaurant in Lyttleton (Volcano), which was reasonably priced with great food and service, but as unpretentious as you get. After that, we went ot this slightly strange pub called Wunderbar for a quick one before P kindly drove us home.
We had a lovely lazy morning the next day - which meant we got to see some of James before we left. It was great to catch the guys again, and P&T were lovely hosts - even offering their food for us to make sandwiches for our next longish drive...
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Greymouth
Phill: 5/4 to 6/4, Greymouth - Poor Greymouth is described as "living up to its name" and being rather grey and drab... it's not all that bad really though. Nearby are the "Pankcake Rocks and Blowholes" as all the road-signs lengthily proclaim. We headed up there early the following morning to catch the hide tide. At last! A blowhole that actually blows! The layered rocks are quite interesting, but the show put on by the waves crashing between them and shooting up out of various sized "chimneys" is spectacular. After a couple of hundred photos, we succumbed to advertising, and had a pancake at the local cafe before heading back to town.Our tour of the Monteith's brewery began fairly early in the morning, and we learned just about everything there was to know about beer-making. We were joined by some Americans from Maine, Sue and Karl - who are Nordic Skiiers (and resort managers) back home - and who were also pleased with the prospect of beer tasting before lunchtime. The beer was good, as was the company. We asked our guide where was good to eat, and after she told us, it turned out that S&K were heading there anyway, so we joined them for lunch at cafe 124. We finished the day with a quiet evening, sampling some recently purchased Monteith's (surprise surprise) - just a shame that all that was on TV were some awful chick-flicks (Hope Floats and Sweet Home Alabama).
Saturday, April 02, 2005
New Zealand Photos (pt 1)
The first batch of NZ photo's are ready to view. Sorry for so many at once, but you can always view them here at your leisure.
New Zealand (1): Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula, Rotorua & Taupo, Napier to Hutt City, South Island Arrival, Northern East Coast (South Island)
New Zealand (1): Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula, Rotorua & Taupo, Napier to Hutt City, South Island Arrival, Northern East Coast (South Island)
Friday, April 01, 2005
Jetting Through Queenstown
Phill: 1/4 to 2/4, Queenstown and Wanaka - Arriving back in Queenstown, Ren couldn't do anything without shades on, which made jet-boating an ideal choice. We booked onto the next trip, and went in search of another pair of sunglasses as we were now down to one pair that I'd found in the hire-car. I've found about 2 pairs of "lost" shades in my life, but lost about 15 pairs - where do they all go? Is there a big room somewhere just full of odd socks and my sunglasses? Anyway, finding anything without a designer label, and without a Queenstown-Price-Tag was out of the question, so I went without. Jet boating is pretty darn cool. You basically get in a boat with two 500+ hp engines, that can skim along in just 5cm of water at 50 knots (57mph, 94kph). The crazy drivers aim it as close to the rocks of the canyon as they can, swerving away at the last second, or shooting it through tiny gaps. Add to that the 360 spins that they can do, and you're in for a great ride.We finished the day with a few beers and planning out the next week of our trip to make sure we got to our next hospital appointment. We also, sadly, decided that we would have to leave a bungy-jump for another time. We're not likely to do it more than once (it's never really appealed to either of us), so we want to do it together sometime when Ren can see and fully appreciate the experience.
This all meant that we headed for Wanaka the next day, where we again "opted-out" out the Lord Of The Rings Tour - because franky, we couldn't justify $270 each on a trip to see where the film sets were. If we were on holiday, or on limited time, or even unlimited budget, it'd be great - but frankly the whole of New Zealand is so stunning, it looks like it's been used in some scene from the trilogy anyway. We looked around the town, had a huge $10 dinner at Scruffy Murphy's and risked camping for a night as it felt little warmer than it had been in Fiordland.
Back on the move again, we drove up to the West Coast via Haast. This is a great route that takes you between two lakes, and past numerous waterfalls and lookouts. We stopped 5 or 6 times for photos and just to admire the scenery, which seems to be the thing we do most in NZ - but what a wonderful place to do it! Next stop, Franz Josef Glacier... cool. (pun intended)
