Been There, Done That

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

So that’s it then. We’re done. Eight months have passed in what seemed like the blink of an eye and as we write this we’re at 35,000 feet above the Atlantic aboard our nineteenth flight, our last flight, and in the final leg of our complete circumnavigation of the globe…the conclusion of our around-the-world adventure.

What a trip. It has been a truly memorable journey and an experience we will cherish forever.

We’ve seen some amazing places…

We’ve watched the sun rise over the ancient Temples of Angkor in Cambodia and watched it dip below the trees in the African bush. We’ve seen snow-topped mountains, verdant rolling hills, and white sandy beaches. We’ve been lost in the chaos that is Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City, we’ve chilled out on deserted beaches in Thailand. We’ve visited some of the most amazing historical sites in the world and seen more World Heritage Sites than you could shake a really, really old stick at.

We’ve done some pretty cool stuff too…

In New Zealand we held on for dear life in a white water raft on Grade 5 rapids and then jumped out of a plane. We camped with dingoes on the largest sand island in the world and then wiped out learning to surf in Australia. We dined on insects in Bangkok and went on an elephant trek in Northern Thailand. In Laos we jumped into a waterfall, went tubing into an underground cave, swung into a river, and fell off of a motorbike. We had our feet cleaned by fish in Cambodia. We motorcycled along the coast from Hue to Hoi An in Vietnam and partied all night with the locals in the tiny fishing village of Mui Ne. In South Africa we went wine tasting on bicycles, tracked the big five on safari, and watched our boys compete in the World Cup Finals.

And along the way we’ve met some wonderful people…

During our trip we’ve visited over 50 places in 11 different countries. Although we were only really passing through on many occasions, we were fortunate enough to meet some amazing people. Like Pop (P-O-P as he would say) the 8-year-old street bookseller from Cambodia who goes to school in the morning and then sells books in the afternoon to help make money for his family. He had the biggest smile you’ve ever seen, a great little personality, and he could teach you more about world geography in 5 minutes than you ever learned in school! And the Vietnamese woman who, after chatting with us briefly one day, invited us back to her home to meet her family over some tea and coffee. We met her mother and father and some extended family over a cup of strong Vietnamese coffee and she told us how she’s trying to help put her daughter through college in Danang by selling nuts and coconut treats that she makes in the streets everyday. And then there’s the 25,000 South Africans that we danced and sang the night away with in Rustenburg to celebrate the opening match of the first ever World Cup Finals in Africa. Black, white, rich, poor all came together to celebrate the World Cup and get behind the Bafana Bafana. Magical.

“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill

Of course, the trip wouldn’t have been the same without some of our fellow travelers that we met along the way, like the slow boat crew in Laos who helped make Lee’s 31st birthday one to remember, Chris, Sarah and Shop-run Gary who we chilled out with in Southern Thailand and who inspired Lee to get some new body art, the cyclists who cycled the length of Africa and then boozed their way around South Africa with us, Foxy/Moonhead/Taff/et al who made the football much more enjoyable even though our teams were terrible, and last but certainly not least are our favorite travelers – our partner’s in crime, our trip buddies, our travel companions, Kate and Lizzie, who we’ve had some brilliant times with over the last 8 months and we feel like we’ve known them forever (we mean that in a good way guys ☺)

It really has been the trip of a lifetime. We already feel incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to do this but it will be over the coming weeks and months, maybe even years, that it starts to sink in how enriching this experience has been for both of us.

“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang

Round-the-world in numbers: the story so far

Most of the counting we have been doing on this trip has been related to money - how much is this hostel room?  What is the exchange rate? Lee you've already spent this much on beer already, Courtney if we forgo using moisturizer we'll save this much money, etc, etc.

After just 2 days in New Zealand we realized that we were going to have a tough time keeping track of our daily expenditures, and therefore our budget, so we invested in a cheap calculator to help.  With the assistance of that same trusty little number crunching device, we decided to look at some other numbers related to this trip and the result is the following summary.  Our trip by the numbers...

5 number of continents visited
11 number of countries explored
144 number of days traveled
43 total number of places that we've stayed in
2 number of motorbikes rented

before the "incident"

50 percentage of rented motorbikes that were crashed
20 number of books read
18 number of flights taken
4 number of different cameras used (so far)
2,195 number of photos taken
10 different modes of transport used

One of the higher quality buses we rode on

35,317 number of miles traveled
24,901 distance in miles around the world at the equator
1 bag of insects eaten

Yum

15,000 height in feet from which we jumped out of a plane
15 number of beaches laid on
3 number of public rallies/riots/protests we have witnessed (civil unrest seems to be a theme on this trip)
9 number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites visited

Sydney Opera House - UNESCO World Heritage Site

190 cost in US dollars of one speeding ticket in Australia
26 number of bus journeys taken
23 percentage of bus journeys where we feared for our lives

This was a contender for worst bus trip

65 percentage of bus drivers in New Zealand named "Peter"
10 number of capital cities visited
8,500 approximate weight in pounds of the elephant we rode in northern Thailand

53 current age of former England captain and all-round footballing legend Bryan Robson, who we saw hanging out near our hotel in Bangkok
171* number of canadians met while traveling (*estimate.  actual number unknown but it felt like at least that many
27 number of new facebook friends
8 average cost in US dollars of a beer in Australia
0.45 average cost in US dollars of beer in Vietnam
15 number of dorm rooms stayed in
36 percentage of dorms that had smelly and/or noisy roomies
7.5 size of the flip flops Lee inherited after his were stolen from outside an internet cafe in Laos (they are a bit snug)

With only 3 days to go until the start of the World Cup, we'll likely have plenty more statistics to think about over the next 4 weeks.

Road Trip!

We are now officially flashpackers.  Gone are the days of 1am departures and 7 hour bus rides.  For the next 3 weeks we will be cruising the east coast of Australia in our own set of wheels!  We picked up our ride on Wednesday and with Kate at the wheel, shes from England so used to driving on the left side of the road, started traveling north up the east coast.

We had a long drive ahead of us as Coffs Harbour (our first destination) was 7 1/2 hours away. The road trip bonding session commenced - Courtney and Kate established they had been living parallel lives across the pond from each other! Lizzie and Lee established they both like Sparrows. We passed the time Roo and Koala spotting. Lot's of Roos were spotted (and a road kill) but no Koalas.


We decided to take a detour to Nelson Bay on the way. We found a great little beach to eat our lunch on, but it was not worth the 2hr detour (we did get slightly lost!).  Lee took over driving and quickly received a barrage of abuse for driving too slowly!  We arrived in Coffs Harbour quite late and decided to explore the following day. Coffs Harbour as it turns out is just that - a harbour. So we popped out for a coffee by the harbour before leaving for Byron Bay.

E noho ra New Zealand, G'day Australia!

Sadly, the first leg of our adventure came to an end last week as we said farewell to New Zealand and headed west to Australia.  3 weeks in NZ is not nearly enough time.  Although we covered a lot of ground and explored both the north and south islands we still weren't able to do it all.  Based on our experience and after comparing notes with other travelers we met on the road we've decided that 5 weeks is the minimum amount of time one needs to do NZ justice, so we'll be keeping that in mind for our next visit as we've already decided we have to go back!

As sad as we were to leave New Zealand, we were very excited about our next stop, Australia.  The luxurious flight we took to get there also softened the blow.  We had the pleasure of flying with Emirates Airlines on the new Airbus A380 which is a double-decker airplane.  Yes, that's right, a full double-decker airplane.  This thing was a behemoth.  It's baffling how something that big can actually move more than 10 miles an hour let alone get off the ground.

Regardless, we agreed that this was probably the best flight either of us have ever been on.  Huge seats, tons of legroom (we scored one of the seats with no seats in front of us so we could stretch our legs), our own generously proportioned flatscreens with about 100 movies and TV shows to choose from, and the best meal we've eaten since we left home.  Granted we've basically been surviving on pasta and rice for the last 3 weeks but this meal had a lamb appetizer!  Not to mention the wine and cheese.  Courtney even tried to sneak the roll and cheese off of the plane to eat later on but the Australian Quarantine forms we had to fill out sufficiently scared her into leaving them behind.  Suffice it to say, based on this experience, we would definitely recommend Emirates for anyone flying to Australia or any of their other destinations.

We arrived in Sydney at around 8:30pm and headed into the city to our hostel, Harbour City. Sounded pretty fancy on the internet, anything with "Harbour" in the name has to be decent, right?  Apparently not.  It wasn't even anywhere near a harbour for starters.  A more appropriate name would be "Harbour S______" (rhymes with city).  Still, it was cheap and gave us a place to crash for the night.

Our plan for Australia is to rent some wheels and travel up the east coast with our travel buds Kate and Lizzie, the 2 English girls we met in New Zealand  They have a similar itinerary to us so we thought it would be fun to explore Oz together (and save all of us a few bucks in the process!)  They stayed in NZ a few more days than us so we decided to hang out in Sydney for a few days until they arrived.  We've been moving around a lot so far on the trip so we welcomed the chance to stay in n place for more than just a day or two.

On our first day in Sydney we took a walk through the Botanic Gardens which are beautiful and also offer great views of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.  They're also home to thousands of fruit bats.  It was pretty cool to see all of these huge bats hanging from trees and flying around in the middle of the day.  We stopped at the Opera House for the mandatory Opera House and Harbour Bridge pics before heading to the infamous Kings Cross section of the City to find a place to stay for the night. 

Like it namesake in London, Kings Cross is a bit of a mixed bag with trendy cafes and restaurants alongside strip clubs and seedy bars.  It also happens to be Sydney's main backpacker area with tons of cheap hostels to choose from so we thought it made sense to try and find a place there.  We found a little place called "The Pinkhouse."  Located in a old Victorian building tucked away from the main road in a quiet part of the neighborhood it seemed like a good spot to spend a few days relaxing while we explored Sydney.  We were WAY off.  This place was a dump.  It made Harbour Sh*tty look like a 5 Star hotel!  It was the hottest, dirtiest place we've ever seen.  And the icing on the cake was when we found at that 2 of the guests currently staying there were the lucky recipients of some pink eye.  Maybe that's how this place got it's name?  Urgh.

After that we promptly got ourselves over to Wake Up!, a trendy hostel right across from Sydney Central Station.  A few dollars more than the other places but well worth the money.  Clean, spacious, air conditioned and, most importantly, free from nasty eye infections.

Spent way too much time describing crappy hostels here so running out of time for full updates on all our activities but some highlights include a day trip to the Blue Mountains, very cool, and a visit to the Sydney Wildlife World where we got to see Koalas, Kangaroos, and a massive Crocodile called Rex.  We also enjoyed a few days on the beach out in famous Bondi Beach and got to hang out with Courtney's friend Kemi who has been living in Bondi since September (lucky girl) and took us to a great beach next to Bondi called Tamarama.  Thanks Kemi!

That pretty much brings us up to speed.  We pick up our car tomorrow morning and are hitting the road, first stop Coff's Harbour.

Super Bowl...Monday!

Courtney (and the 40 or so other Americans in the bar) got a taste of what Lee goes through living in the US - watching major sporting events at strange hours!  In this case, it was on a completely different day!  We found a bar called 'Pub on the Wharf" right on the lake, and a stone's throw from our hostel, to watch the Super Bowl (or "Superb Owl" as it was called by some Englishman when we asked where we could watch it).

The game started at noon on Monday and we decided it was a good excuse to treat ourselves to some good food and a few beers (Lee will use any excuse he can get).  The bar was packed and we ended sitting with a group of New Yorkers who treated us to some pizza after we told them our poor backpacker story, haha.

After the game and several beers later we retired to the park outside for a little nap in the late afternoon sun - not a bad way to watch the Super Bowl!

Nap time

Later on we met up with Kate and Lizzie, our travel pals that we met on the first few days of our trip, for a few more drinks and to discuss plans for Australia.  We have a pretty similar itinerary so we're planning to travel up the east coast in Australia together which should be fun.

All smiles after the Saints win

Fiordland and Milford Sound

After an overnight stop in Christchurch we carried on down to Queenstown, the self-proclaimed outdoor adventure capital of New Zealand.  Given that we'd already risked life and limb on a couple of occasions further north we decided to take it easy in Queenstown for a few days.

One of the places we have been really excited to see in NZ is Milford Sound.  There's only one (expensive) hotel in Milford so the only other option is to do a day trip from either Te Anau or Queenstown.

Now, some of our previous updates have mentioned the incredible scenery around the country, but Milford Sound and Fiordland take the cake.  It takes about 4.5 hours one-way to get to Milford from Queenstown so as you can imagine we weren't too thrilled about the prospect of sitting on a bus for that long.  However, the route down there is amazing, taking you past farmland, lakes, forest, waterfalls, and through some pretty spectacular mountains.

On the way to Milford

Once in Milford we hopped on the Milford Encounter Cruise (www.redboats.co.nz) which takes you out into the sound for a 2 hour cruise.  The cruise was awesome.  The setting is truly spectacular and we even saw a pod of 20-30 dolphins and some NZ Fur Seals.  

Fur seals having a sleep

Out on the Sound

Dunedin - Edinburgh of the South

From Kaikoura we went south to Dunedin.  Dunedin is Celtic for Edinburgh and that's why it's referred to as the Edinburgh of the south.  We stayed at the Stafford Gables YHA which is an old Victorian building on the edge of the downtown area.  It was a bit of a hike from the bus station but worth it as the building is very cool ( a former hotel I think) and it has a great rooftop deck that has great views of the city and the harbour.

Keith: Entertainer and Beer Expert.

We didn't have much time here (only stayed overnight) so we had to choose what we did carefully.  After a bit of research over a cup of tea we decided to head over to the Speight's Brewery for the brewery tour and tasting.  Speight's is a local NZ beer that has been brewed in Dunedin for well over 100 years.  The tour and tasting coast $20 ($18 for Court as she's a student.  Lee tried for the "Senior" discount but they weren't having it).  The tour was great.  Our guide Keith was very knowledgable and tons of fun - we would definitely recommend asking for him if you go on the tour.  Aside from his vast knowledge of Speight's beer, Keith is also apparently in the entertainment business and in his time has met all the greats including The Beatles, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and.....Max Bygraves! (our older readers may remember him ;-P).  He also let us pour our own beers for about an hour after the tour.  Cheers Keith!

Wine and Seals in Kaikoura

First stop in South Island was Kaikoura, a beautiful little beach town with an amazing mountainous backdrop.  We spent 2 days there in a place called the Adelphi Lodge.  We've been staying mainly in YHA hostels as the standard is generally better than other accomodations down in our lowly price range but the YHA was fully booked so we settled on the Adelphi.  Clean, well-appointed and modern are all words I would not use to describe this place however we scored a private room for only a couple of bucks more than a dorm so we were willing to deal with a bit of grime.

Kaikoura is home to a large seal colony where seals go to hang out, sleep, and have babies so we went to check it out.  We cycled out to Kean's Point on our Adelphi-supplied bikes (just as old and dusty as the lodge but free so we weren't complaining) and visited the seals.  It was pretty amazing.  When the tide is out you can walk right out onto the rocks and get within touching distance of hundreds of seals.  We were fortunate enough to see a few pups and one of them, a curious little fella, even came right over to us to check us out.  Very cool.

Kaikoura Winery Tour

In the afternoon we headed out to the Kaikoura Winery for a tour and tasting.  The winery was built on an old sheep farm and there are some incredible views of the ocean from the main building.  Our tour guide even gave us some binoculars so that we could look at the sperm whales that were swimming just off the coast.  The wines were pretty good, we liked the Sauvingon Blanc the most and decided to purchase a bottle to enjoy with dinner.

Kaikoura Beach.

"It's like a cruise!"

 To get to South Island you have to cross the Cook Strait.  It's about a 3 hour journey with some pretty amazing scenery along the way.  Courtney was surprised at the size of the ferry and remarked "ooh, it's like a cruise!"  I think she was expecting a wooden raft or something.

 

Sheep making the crossing to South Island...and probably someone's plate.

View from the ferry.

Windy Welly

It's been a few days since our last update (sorry!) but we've been on the move pretty much every day so it's been hard to find time (I know, wah wah such a hard life we lead, haha).

Anyway, here's what we've been up to over the last few days...

About halfway through our NZ stay we realized that 3 weeks is nowhere near enough time to see this place.  You could spend 3 weeks on just one of the islands and still not see it all.  We've agreed that when we come back (and we will be coming back!) that we'll need 5-6 weeks minimum to do it right.

1am bus rides are no fun

So, pressed for time with a lot of ground to still cover, we decided to get the 1am bus from Taupo and head south to Wellington.  By taking the overnight bus we saved a few bucks on accomodation for the night which was a bonus.  The downside was that the bus was packed and it was pretty tough to get any sleep.  Nonetheless we arrived in Wellington at around 8am in the morning not very bright-eyed but pretty bushy tailed and ready to see the sights.  Our plan was to spend just the day in Wellington before catching the 6:30pm ferry across to the South Island and staying the night in the little port town of Picton.

According to our Loney Planet guidebook, Wellington has a lively cafe scene which was handy as we were in dire need of some caffiene so we decided to look for a spot to grab a coffee and a bite to eat.  We found a great little place called Espresso Republic on Featherston Street that had an eggs, bacon and toast special for $6 (that's a steal in NZ!).  It wasn't the best day weather wise - Wellington is often referred to as "Windy Welly" due to the strong winds the city often gets - so we decided to skip the popular cable car ride and headed straight to the National Museum, Te Papa.  Admission to the museum is free so we didn't have to pull any funny business like we did in Auckland.  The exhibits in the museum were all great although pretty random.  They had everything from Maori history and culture to penguins, birds and whales.  The strangest thing though was a 20 minute "show" that featured what appeared to be random video clips of daily life in New Zealand through the years.  It was set in an old antique shop (or something similar) and in addition to the clips we were treated to lots of different objects moving around and making noises (think Disney's "It's a Small World" ride but on a much, much smaller and less creepy scale). 

After the museum we treated ourselves to a curry at Little India on Cuba Street.  Delicious and a nice change from the usual PB & J.  We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city and taking in the sights before heading to the harbour to catch the ferry.

 

Jeremy, look what we found in Wellington!

 

They like to diversify in Kaikoura

Mopeds and wooly sweaters

Quilts and eggs.  Why not?

I'm buying a power tool.  I also need....freshly dug potatoes.  One stop shopping.

When in Taupo

Taupo is centrally located in New Zealand's North Island and the gateway to Tongariro National Park, the backdrop for the Lord of the Rings movies.  We had planned to hike the Tongariro Crossing, one of the most popular day hikes in New Zealand that takes you across LOTR's Mount Doom and the Emerald Lakes.  As I said, we had planned to.  We woke up at some ridiculous hour in the morning (5am) so that we could get the early pick-up and get to the trail early to beat the crowds but the bus we were supposed to be on decided to leave us and two other behind.  So, no Frodo for us :-(

We had some free time on our hands so we decided to jump out of a plane at 15,000 feet.  We were in freefall for over 60 seconds.  It doesn't sound like much  but when you're plummeting to the ground at 120 miles an hour it feels like a lifetime!  Words can't really describe what an amazing experience it was so we'll just put up a few pics.  We have videos of the jumps that hopefully we'll be able to post soon (too slow in this internet cafe).

Smelly Man goes to Sulphur City (and we get to share a room with him)

With our adrenaline still pumping from playing on the swings in Waitomo, we made our way south to Rotorua a.k.a Sulphur City.  Rotorua is a hotbed (I had to) of thermal activity with lots of bubbly mud pools, hot springs, and geysers and as a result the place stinks of egg most of the time.  Amazingly this doesn't seem to have deterred tourists and backpackers from visiting as Rotorua is one of the most touristy and commercialized areas in New Zealand.

We chose to stay at Treks Rotorua, one of the 2 YHA (Youth Hostel Association) hostels in town.  When we arrived we were happy to find a very nice, newly constructed building with a spotlessly clean kitchen (a rarity at our price point).  We were also pleased to find that we were 'upgraded' from a 6 bed dorm to a 4 bed.  What a treat!  Looking forward to spending some time at this lovely facility we made our way to our room.  As we opened the door a wave of pungent stink wafted from the room and violated our nostrils.  This aroma was a thousand times worse than any of the eggy smells produced by Rotorua.  It was our roommate for the night, Smelly Man.  So much for the upgrade.  This guy was so ripe that we had to sleep with scarfs around our faces.  Luckily he checked out the next morning so we had the cleaners empty a can of air freshner in the room and strip his whole bed down to the bare mattress and replace everything.

Rotorua didn't totally stink though.  In fact, we had a lot of fun there.  In the morning we headed out to the Kaituna River and did some whitewater rafting with Kaituna Cascades Rafting Company.  We did the Grade 5 rapids (the biggest, scariest ones) which included several drops and the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world at 7 meters (21 feet).  Awesome!

In the evening we decided to take a relaxing dip in one of the numerous thermal pools in the area.  We went to the Polynesian Spa which is located right on the lake and has some great views from the spa.  Aparrently the minerals in the water have healing powers and can help all sorts of ailments.  That may be but all we know for sure is that it definitely helps to remove dead skin as most of it was floating around in the water, urgh.  If you can stop thinking about the fact that you're sitting in other people's filth it's actually quite relaxing and enjoyable...and our skin feels great!

Off the beaten path in Waitomo

Above:  What we didn't do in Waitomo

Waitomo is best known for the Waitomo Caves, a sprawling underground cave system where one can do all manner of fun things such as spilunking (sp?), black water rafting (the underground equivalent of white water rafting), or checking out the millions of glow worms that live down there - all for a price of course.
Being the independent, free-thinking adventurers that we are, Court and I decided to go off the beaten path and see what other (cheaper) treasures bucolic Waitomo has to offer.

Not much it turns out.  We were dropped off in the tiny Waitomo Village which consists of a tourist info center (where you book your caving adventures), a seriously overpriced cafe, and a bar.  It was too early to start drinking so we headed over to the little park across the road from the tourist info center and had a few goes on the swings.  Great fun and, most importantly, FREE.  Highly recommended.  There's also a slide if you're so inclined.

 

 I'm sure there's tons more stuff to do but we didn't have a chance to find out as we were only there for about an hour and a half before the bus came back to get us with all the cavers on board who no doubt had a marvelous time.

Next stop, Rotorua.

Pahia Triathalon - Kayak, Bike, and Tan

Pahia is beautiful so we decided to extend our stay and have some much needed beach time.  We've only been traveling a week and already we're taking a rest?!  Give us a break, we're new at this!
So we stayed the extra day but we checked out of Pipi Patch and into a place called Bay Adventurer just up the road.  Bay Adventurer was cheaper AND offered FREE kayaks and bicycles (Pipi Patch just offered drunken teeny boppers and a swimming pool the size of a large puddle).  Another bonus was that we scored a double bed.  There were still 5 other beds in the room but it was a small win.

Double bed!

We spent morning zipping around the bay in a couple of sea kayaks and then grabbed a couple of bikes for a nice ride along the beach to the grocery store to pick up some essentials.  We also managed to squeeze a bit of tanning on the beach in.  All in all not a bad start to the week.

Grocery store run on the free bikes 

 Back to Auckland tomorrow before heading south into Hobbit territory.

The Far North

We visited the northern most tip of New Zealand yesterday, Cape Reinga and it was incredible. Beautiful countryside, great beaches and all around amazing scenery. Left Pahia on the Dune Rider at 7am and headed north with our leader for the day, Kozzie (he's a Kiwi that sounds like an Aussie hence the nickname). We were treated to a drive along 90 Mile Beach, a 64 mile stretch of beach on the western coast. Why would someone name a 64 mile beach "90 Mile Beach"? Because the boob that named it measured wrong and thought it was 90 miles long. Brilliant! ""64 Mile Beach"doesn't really have the same ring to it does it?

The drive on the beach took us to the main event for the day, sand boarding. I'm imagining a few gasps of terror among the Hunter clan as you picture us being subjected to some form of torture similar to water boarding, only much drier. Well you guys can relax as sand boarding (also known as dune surfing) is what people do for fun up on 90 Mile Beach, and boy is it fun! There are some humungous sand dunes at the end of the beach and people basically body surf (some use sleds but it looked pretty lame) down the slopes and across a little stream at the bottom. Great stuff although the walk back to the top was actually torture.

Riding some gnarly dunes on 90 Mile Beach

Bay of Islands

Up early for our bus ride up north to the bay of islands. Lee almost missed the bus waiting in line for an egg McMuffin (you know he loves his breakfast!) We took Stray bus company up there and our bus driver Sue was new to the job...and boy you could tell. Was a little annoying to hear her chatting the entire time but the views were amazing. And people are right about NZ, there are TONS of sheep!!

McKinney Tree

We stopped off first to see the Mckinney Tree which is one of the largest trees in the country. The myth is if you hug and kiss the tree you will bring good weather. Courtney had to give it a try because the weather has been quite rainy since we started our trip in LA. I think it worked because the weather has been great since that afternoon! We made our way to Goat Island where we took a free glass bottom boat tour (no snorkling...that was not free...someone lied). Courtney learned that all snappers are born female and then half the population turn male around three years of age!!! We were both extremely impressed with our tour guide Ian. Ask for him if you are ever thinking about doing the tour, he has been there for 13 years.

Our last stop of the day was to the Bay of Islands where we spent our first night in the Pipi Patch Hostel which is more like Cancun Mexico during spring break. Again, a lot of 90 pop music, boys with their shirts off in the bar, and 1/2 naked dorm mates (i wont go into more detail). We made our way to the grocery store in town which was about a 1/2 hour walk along the water. Decided to buy some groceries so we can pack our lunches and make our own dinner. We decided to go simple for our first dinner (cup of noodles) but when we got into the kitchen people were making three course meals with breaded chicken and fresh veggies. I think there is some hope for us when we learn the ropes a bit more.

We were lucky our second evening we had a 8 person dorm to ourselves because the hostel emptied out after the weekend. We got some much needed sleep.

Free Sausage Fridays

We had a lovely look at Fiji through the airplane and airport windows. Looks like a beautiful place…maybe next trip.

Beautiful Fiji Airport

The rain seemed to follow us from LA to New Zealand. Unlike LA, the sun is out more than the rain clouds but by the locals standards we have had two unfortunate weather days. Ha, 76 degrees and partly cloudy. Perfect for a January day.

We have spent a lot of time exploring and walking around the city of
Auckland. We couldnt really relax in our room because there was always someone sleeping in the six person dorm at ACB Base Backpackers...no matter what time of the day! During our first day, we visited the habor and walked around aimlessly trying to find food under $10 NZD. After a long search, some more rain, and Courtney's cranky outbursts we made our first major mistake walking into a bar and having to order chicken wings and hummus because its all we could afford. Not only was that not what our systems needed after a day and 1/2 of travel but they gave us enough hummus for about two pita chips! Those of you that have seen the hummus eating ability of the two of us knows we were more than disappointed and needless to say still hungry (no mom...dont send money yet...things got better!)

Later in the evening we went to the hostel bar with two Brits we were sharing our room with, Louisa and Amy. Lousia is just rounding out her 7 month tour with three weeks to go. SHe had a lot of encouraging words and advice for us, which we struggled to hear over the throwback 90's pop music videos they were playing around the dark, basement bar. The bar was raising money for the red cross to assist the people of Haiti, raising over $3,000 NZD.

We booked our bus transportation for two trips we plan to do during our stay. The first is a guided tour to the Bay of Islands which minimum of 3 day tour north of Auckland where will visit beaches and do some free snorkeling. The second bus trip is like the grey hound system in the states and we will be traveling through the north island into the south. We weren't sure if we could handle the guided tour the whole time, so we decided to do the tour with a little more freedom.

Its been less than two days and we've discovered out budgeting is a little off...oops. That .65 cent dorm in Bangkok is starting to look a little more appealing.

After an early start, day two of Auckland exploration continued because we had another misstep by not confirming the bus we were hoping to catch out of town. We made the most of it and decided to check out the museum. Walking down the street to catch the Green Link bus in town, we found FREE SAUSAGES they were giving out at a bank as a promotion (see Lee enjoying said sausage on the right). Almost everyone in line were backpackers...pretty hard sell for the bank employees to get people to open an account.

After our free lunch, we finally made it to the museum. Auckland has very nice and cheap public transportation. The museum was amazing, has a little bit of everything. As you probably saw from the pictures, we stole admission stickers from the trash can outside to avoid paying the $10 admission donation. We would recommend this step to any backpackers on a tight budget. Oh, and please place the stickers back when you are finished so others can enjoy. For those of you not on a tight budget, the museum is well with the donation and we count on you to keep the museum what it is today.

Where you pick up your admission sticker

We decided to have a walk back to our hostel down Parnell Street which is full of little shops and fancy restaurants. Lee said it reminded him of main street in manayunk (for all you philly people) but also commented that it put manayunk to shame.

Basement noodles, yum!

On the way home, we found our best find of the whole city. This basement noodle bar on Durham Street off of Queen in downtown Auckland. We were the only tourists (non-Asians) in there, so you know its good. We had the Spicy Chicken and BBQ Pork...we recommend both dishes. They also blast American Rap music...so you will feel right at home.