Posts By Laura
Photo of the Day: BIG Maori Carvings
Geothermal spas, lakes, Hobbits and yippee, some cycling!
NZ, you may well have taken the spot for our most favourite country….big statement but I feel it’s worth it. The longer we spend here, the more we seem to love it (don’t worry Mum, we WILL NOT be moving here. There’s too many sheep and the flight was horrible.) And we haven’t even gotten to the south island yet…..
We’ve travelled from the Bay of Islands (highly recommend) over to the Kauri Forests, which were amazing- there was practically noone there (tourists or locals) and loads of awesome windy roads for me to drive round (and for Sam to hold on tight- he seems to hate my driving for some reason. It could very well be something to do with the fact that I reversed straight into a picnic bench this week. Oops.) From there we travelled down past Auckland to Hamilton for lunch with one of Sam’s friends. The onwards to Rotarua, which is a geothermal hub. Apparently, they’re a big deal and we didn’t really realise until we got here. The rotten egg smell is everywhere but you get used to it after a while. We went to some hot springs and DID NOT want to leave (mainly due to the freezing temperatures outside) but they also had amazing showers.
There’s loads of geothermal ‘parks,’ we visited ‘Wai-O-Tapu’ which was fantastic. Check out this geyser, which spontaeously explodes with boiling hot water. AMAZING!
Also, there’s a really cool winery (Volcanic Hills.) Highly recommend for a boozy afternoon.
Showers are something I’m really struggling with, or more specifically, the cleanliness of showers. I have no problem with cold showers (unlike Sam) but I really really hate dirty showers. Every shower I go in, I feel like I need to wash it down first. Maybe I just need to lower my standards. Maybe. Maybe I’ll just continue washing them down,
This week we’ve fulfilled Sam’s one requirement for coming to NZ- visiting Hobbtion. Now, I’m not a LOTR geek at all (I didn’t even make it through most of the films) but it was pretty cool to see the set. Sam was in his element. There’s so many photos on our camera of him grinning insanely next to a hobbit hole. See below for one of many:
Apparently the tour record for photos is 3440. I think the American tourists with us might have taken more. I kept huffing and puffing and sighing to get past them, “ooh it’s a small bench, let’s take a photo,” “wow, a field. Selfie time,” “ The house where Peter Jackson stayed! Wow! Gotta get a snap.” MOVE ALONG, PEOPLE. The only issue I had is that we were herded around like sheep, which I get because it’s a huge tourist attraction, but it was still annoying. Kept wanting to punch anyone who got out their selfie stick and stopped right in front of me. There’s probably hundreds of selfie photos with me scowling in the background. Apologies to anyone who has a stick but seriously, WHY?? Sam bought me one once. I promptly gave it away.
Every day is busy busy, I think all Sam wants to do is chill outside with his kindle but I keep finding stuff for us to do. Take our time at Lake Taupo as an example. This is an extraordinarily beautiful spot, with the lake being the size of Singapore.
In the past 3 days we’ve been hiking, cycling (me excitedly, Sam reluctantly) and kayaking. It’s just that there’s so much to see and so many things to do, I think I have FOMO. We met a girl in the hot springs, who put it well: “You have 3 months. Slow down.”
Duly noted.Today we’re off to Hawkes Bay aka the start of wine country, YIPPEE!
Photo of the Day: Hokianga Harbour
Auckland- Bay of Islands
First things first. NZ really needs to up its game with wifi- we’ve been trying for about 3 days to upload ANY photos. It’s not going well..
Also, what’s up with the weather NZ? It’s really not on. Didn’t you get the memo? Rain is not part of the plan.
Our first week here has been spectacular though, despite some mini tantrums thrown by yours truly over the coldness of the van (Mum, Dad, I’m sure you’re utterly shocked by this.) Sam wants to talk in more detail about the force of nature that is Vanatar, but I have a summary right here:
1- He’s both cosy and spacious at the same time- depending on the time of day.
2- He is COLD.
3- Vanatar has zero insulation. None at all. See above.
4- If he was a person, Vanatar would be a hard ass. He takes no crap from anyone, including us. Condensation? No problem. Sandflies? He doesn’t care. 50% incline? He just powers on. We saw another Escape van earlier in the week and it looked like a pansy compared to Vanatar.
So, Auckland. We stayed with my lovely friend from school, Nicola. We had such a lovely time catching up with her and some friends from Vietnam, Avi and Rochelle. Auckland itself was lovely, so many open spaces and parks- we wished we could’ve stayed longer to see the surrounding islands (and hopefully we can when we return in December) but time was ticking on.
From Auckland we travelled north, heading for the Bay of Islands via a couple of places- Waipu (excellent caves with glowworms in them) and Uretitti Beach (beautiful but so many sandflies.) We stayed in Paihia for a couple of nights and did a fab walk to Haruru falls, as well as the Waitingi Treaty Grounds (where the original treaty was written and signed.) From there we’ve travelled to Kerikeri (saw a dog show, not a lot else) and then Russell.
To reach Russell we needed to take a vehicle ferry so that it actually feels like an island, even though it’s part of the mainland. Super cute little town with nice pubs and a gorgeous harbour. Tomorrow we’re going out on the water, hopefully to see dolphins and orcas in their natural habitat. I think Sam secretly hopes we’ll see some whales but it’s not looking promising.
Now it’s time to get back to doing what we seem to do best. Sitting and doing nothing- with this view, would you do anything else?
Lousy Laos transport
To be fair, it began even before we hit Laos.
Siem Reap (Cambodia)- Si Phan Don (southern Laos) Time advertised: 8 hours. Actual time taken: 11.5 hours.
This was just a really badly organised bus company. We went through Asia Van Transfer because they use the new road upto Laos, which is supposed to cut off a lot of the journey time. Fair enough, we paid about $7 more than a local bus, but it was supposed to cut off 4 hours from the route they take. And for a few hours, all was ok, even though it was at full capacity and Sam was sat on an ‘extra’ folding seat. We were then transferred onto a smaller mini bus, with more people on it. Still, all was fine, we were off to Laos, we were excited! We started to get a bit irritated about the state of the road but it was alright. Then came the border. Hilarious waste of an hour. Our Laos mini bus eventually rocked up and, surprise surprise, it was smaller still. Now everyone’s just pissed off and sitting 4/5 people to a 3 person seat. 11 hours after leaving SR, we rock up in Nakasang only to then be charged more to take a boat to an island. With a drunk boat driver. After waiting around for 30 mins whilst he finished his beer with his mates. Fab.
Si Phan Don- Pakse Time advertised: 3 hours. Actual time taken: 5 hours.
Here, we took a boat, which is meant to hold about 8 people, to Nakasang. But instead of 8 people, lets put 16 people plus all their luggage on the boat- GREAT IDEA. The front of the boat was sagging, but we all made it in one piece. At the bus station, we then bumped into a family we’d met in Cambodia and were having a chat with them, so missed the first mini bus. Ok, no problem- we’ll take the second. Oh but wait- we got on the second bus, we drove back down to where the boat pulled up and sat there for an hour, waiting for others, who were presumably on a boat coming to meet us? No, apparently not. We then drove back down to the other end of the village, sat at a junction for 30 mins, waiting. Where were these people? Even the bus drivers didn’t seem sure. Finally we went BACK TO THE BOAT ARRIVALS to wait some more. Eventually they turned up and we were on our way, arriving about 2 hours late.
Pakse- Vientiane Time advertised: 12 hours. Actual time taken: 14 hours.
This was so bad on so many levels. We’ve really enjoyed the sleeper trains we’ve done in Thailand and so were actually quite excited about taking a sleeper bus. We got to the bus after a wait of 90 mins, were the first on, along with another couple we’d met. We immediately headed straight to the front of the upper deck- the view was awesome, our mattresses were comfy and so much leg room. Ah. There’s seat numbers on our tickets. Hhm. Maybe it’ll be fine…….
No it was not fine. We realised that our seats were at the very back, as part of a 5 berth bed. Panic set in and some Japanese men came to point out that we were lying in their beds. I started making travel sickness noises and they were so lovely, they said they would swap with us. Phew. Disaster averted. Then came the ANGRY BUS DRIVER. He basically shouted at us to swap back and then shouted again for Sam to lie next to the window and me next to him because 3 local women were coning to sleep next us. BRILLIANT. 14 hours later, I’m pretty sure the woman next to me wished she’d had some sort of weapon. I know I did. She basically elbowed me all night and I was trying so hard to lie on my side so as not to take up too much space. After about 9 hours, I gave up caring and just started elbowing her out of the way. Fairly sure Sam slept through most of the journey- he didn’t dare complain to me about having no space, I was ready to do a double elbow manoeuvre on him if necessary.
Before the shouting…..even here Sam is pissed off….but it was about to get so much worse
Vientiane- Luang Prabang Time advertised: 9 hours. Actual time taken: 13 hours.
In fairness, this was a relatively good trip. The bus was only half full and so we got a double seat each. We’d heard beforehand that this road was really dangerous, lots of narrow cliff sides, gangs etc. Before the bus set off, a man came around selling travel sickness tablets and the driver gave out sick bags. Trepidation set in.
Who are these wimps that made all of this up? That’s right folks, Lonely Planet strikes again! The scenery was stunning and the roads were no narrower than when we drove round the Cotswolds last summer. Yes, we seemed to stop every 20 mins for a break but it was ok. About 30 mins from LP, we saw a broken down bus up ahead. Now running 3 hours late, you could see all of the westerners on the bus praying that we weren’t going to stop and help. But our bus drivers were so lovely, we did. 20 minutes later, we realised we weren’t going anywhere quick and so we all got out to have a walk around. It was really beautiful and there were good photo ops. I thought I’d go and have a look at what all the drivers were doing and, I kid you not, drivers from both buses are standing around behind our bus, having a cheeky cig. They were not the kind, helpful drivers we thought they were. They just wanted yet another break.
Luang Prabang- Huay Xai Time advertised: 12-15 hours. Actual time taken: 12 hours.
This wasn’t too bad- double seat each, cosy blankets, bus actually got a move on and arrived ahead of schedule. Just one problem…… 12 hours of LOUD Laos pop. Sam likened it to the demo function on a keyboard with some terrible singing over the top.
Huay Xai (northern Laos)- Chiang Mai (Thailand) Time advertised: 4.5 hours. Actual time taken: 6 hours.
Hurray, finally a bus that I can rave about! Huge minibus, only 4 people on it, super speedy driver. LOVED IT. Oh yeah, and it started after the border crossing. The added 1.5 hours was on the Laos side with late pickups and faffing.
Hello Thailand. We’ve missed you.
If you only get to one place in Laos……
make it Luang Prabang.
Lonely Planet told us that this was an amazing place, so you can imagine our shock when it was actually right. After a love/hate relationship with our guide book, it’s finally redeemed itself. Originally, we planned to do 2 nights here, but we decided to extend to 3 and I’m so glad we did. As much as I don’t want to use superlatives when writing, this is going to be the one exception, because it is truly a wonderful, beautiful city. As a UNESCO world heritage site, we has an inkling it would be, and coming from Vientiane, it honestly feels like we’re in a different time, let alone country.
It’s actually quite a small city and we hired bikes (poor Sam, he’s given up arguing about it now) and spent a day cycling around. There are numerous cute coffee shops, boutique stores selling so many things I want but can’t justify buying, and lovely riverfront hotels. Alas, we were staying on the opposite side of town in a cheapy cheap hotel (for a tenner a night we really couldn’t complain.) However, we’d heard that the riverfront hotels did some great walk in rates and so we asked around. Finally, we found an awesome riverfront room with a balcony and king sized bed for half the cost advertised on agoda. RESULT. Yes, at 30 gbp it was way more than we’ve been paying, but knowing that we’ve got more night buses and jungles to come, we thought it was well worth the splurge.
Yesterday we found some other randoms to split transport costs and off we went in a shared tuk tuk to Kuang Si waterfall, about 32km out of the city. This photo says it all really.
We also got to visit a sun bear centre, where they rehabilitate/protect sun bears from poachers. There were so many bears and we were able to get really close to them. Super cute!
And the food. Oh, the food! From market baguettes and smoothies to incredible Laos feasts, we’ve eaten so well here. Again, no need to elaborate.
I don’t know if it’s because everything is a little pricey here than other places we’ve been in Laos, but there doesn’t seem to be that many groups of gap year students. Everyone seems a little older and there’s a definite family vibe. Also, for the first time in this whole trip, loads of British are here, esp middle-upper class who seem to be on an unlimited budget. As far as I know, LP is only accessible by air from Bangkok (internationally) so I’m assuming these Brits are mainly doing this? Otherwise, Laos is quite inaccessible unless you come in by bus, which is one of the reasons we’ve never been able to come before.
I do hope we come back.