Posts By Sam
Hawkes Bay
Some of you may have heard of Hawkes Bay; if not, keep an eye out as you walk past the Chardonnay in the supermarket aisle. Famous for its wines and beautiful views we decided to change our route south to come via wine country for a day or two, which eventually became 4 nights because we loved it so much.
We’ve also been very lucky with the weather; it was sunshine without rain for about 4 whole days straight, which was lovely, but did mean that Laura had us doing more exercise again; walking and cycling! I can cope with cycling when it’s from vineyard to vineyard though.
There are over 70 vineyards in this region, which made it quite easy for us to cobble together our own wine tasting tour. In the end we only went via 4 vineyards as each one would involve tasting 6 or so wines which quickly adds up when on 2 wheeled transport (although the 40km round trip certainly helped to clear the head). All the tastings were either free (yay!) or $5 (about 2 quid) which really wasn’t bad at all considering the volume of alcohol doled out.
Although Hawkes Bay is known for it’s Chardonnay (and Laura & I are known for our hatred of it) we were pleased to find the wineries also usually had a sauvvy B available, and always had a selection of really nice red wines. I’ve never been big into my reds but I’ve really been enjoying them around here.
We culminated our wine experiences on the final night with a trip to Craggy Range Winery for dinner. We went slightly over budget, but it’s the first time we’ve not cooked in 3 weeks and we had some of the best food and wine I’ve ever had; the steak here genuinely may be the best I’ve had. The thing that really put us over was the taxis; turns out they’re really expensive here and we ended up spending about 50 quid return!!
Too much wine to choose from!
It also wouldn’t be NZ if we didn’t talk about how flipping beautiful it is around here. On our last day Laura had us hiking up Te Mata peak, the highest hill in the area for stunning 360 panoramic views of the area. Although it was a fairly steep 2 hour loop, the views at the top were worth it and some amazing bits of nature along the pathway.
Sadly we had to leave yesterday as we’ve got our ferry to the south island on Sunday and we wanted to get some time in Wellington int. 4 and a half hours of Vanatar grunting his way up and down the hills we reached the only camper van site in Wellington (which is a glorified car park) to discover they were fully booked. As a result we’ve had to head out of town by about 15km to the nearest holiday park, but every cloud has a silver lining; we have fast wifi! So fast that in under 12 hours we’ve burnt through about 12GB of downloading software updates, offline maps and films. Unfortunately, iPlayer is having none of it so it looks like we still can’t watch GBBO.
On Vanatar and Campervanning
So Laura’s been nagging me for a while now to write a blog post dedicated to Vanatar, our campervan, and just generally driving around NZ.
The mighty Vanatar, fear all ye in his wake.
To catch everyone up; we had intended to buy a campervan but decided not to because:
a) We couldn’t find one online or in the car market
b) We know nothing about vans, and would likely buy a lemon
c) We liked the idea of having 24/7 roadside assistance, and someone we could call/email if something went wrong, on a van we knew had been roadchecked and used for similar purposes
As a result we decided to hire and ended up with Vanatar, our Avatar themed van (no, we didn’t get to choose the design although Laura loved it from the start and it’s grown on me.) Just to caveat, we didn’t come up with the name either: all the vans from escape have names (see here for other designs/names.) We also decided to get an automatic, because Laura has no clutch control, I can’t find 5th gear, and neither of us have driven a van before and we thought it would be easier this way.
Driving wise, Vanatar is exceptionally simple to drive. You just put your foot down! Sometimes he’s a bit slow to kick up through the gears, and he’s a bit of a fuel monster (particularly on hilly, winding roads.. which is almost all of NZ). The roads have really taken some getting used to. With the exception of a little bit coming out of Auckland, there’s been nothing close to resembling motorways like in the UK. Everything is 1 lane in each direction, with passing lanes every 5-10km. All of the roads seem to be winding, which would be great in a sports car, but less fun in a van. It’s been quite windy too which has been a challenge as it really shifts the van about on the road. And there are so many hills! Steep ups and steep downs. However, the routes are almost universally beautiful; forest and coast and fields as far as the eye can see. It’s some really great driving.
As a home, we currently have a bit of love/hate set up- we love him when it’s warm, and hate him when it’s wet. The above photo is Vanatar in his prime; table and chairs out with music from the jambox, clothes drying on the line and boot up for the view. When the weather is like this living in a van is awesome. After giving us 2 days grace, the weather has now caved in and has set into a regular rhythm of sunny mornings then torrential rains in the afternoon and evenings. This is not fun to live in. The van can feel quite cramped, particularly if it gets messy (which it does, because there’s so little space to put stuff). There’s nowhere inside/warm to put coats and clothes to dry so everything just feels damp. Then to top it off, Vanatar has almost no insulation it seems, so every morning the roof and sides are covered in condensation; this burns off quickly if there’s sun, and we’re wiping it down too, and we’ve now got a dehumidifier set up, but if it’s raining it can be pretty grim in here.
Griping aside, the weather will gradually shift to warmer times as we’re heading into summer and we should reap the awesome benefits of campervanning. We can go anywhere, which is both awesome and difficult. There is so much of NZ, and we’re now realising that despite having 3 months here we’re going to miss out huge chunks of it (we’ve already decided to miss out on 90 mile beach and Cape Reinga).
We were also hoping to mostly stay in the DOC (department of conservation) campsites, as they’re much cheaper than private, but we’ve found that there aren’t that many and we’ve ended up staying in private places like Top 10, which I’d roughly equate to something like Haven holidays in the UK (but with space to bring your own campervan.) I’m really pleased with this, as they have hot showers (and it’s far too cold to for a DOC cold shower!) but they’re about double the price which means we’re spending a bit more than we’d like; conversely, with only a (pretty crap) chill bin to use we’ve been eating vegetarian meals each night which has saved a bunch of money.
In summary, it’s taking some getting used to, but I think as the weather improves we’re going to love campervanning more and more.
Back on the road
Hello again!
We’ve been a bit quiet as we’ve been back in the UK for four weeks to attend a lovely wedding and to say hi and bye before the bulk of our trip. A huge thank you to everyone we saw and that put us up (particularly Mum and Dad and Julie and Dave!) We’ve now zipped over on a short 23 hour double flight to Auckland, New Zealand to begin the next leg of our journey: 3 months of campervanning around NZ.
It really is a mammoth flight. We stopped over for an hour in Kuala Lumpur which made the whole journey pretty hard work and we’re still very jetlagged a couple of days later. Definitely wouldn’t recommend Malaysian airlines; they only have powdered creamer for their tea. No milk! Outrageous. Service was crap too.
Auckland is wonderful. It reminds me a lot of the US, but much more relaxed. The city feels very quiet, limited traffic and nice wide roads. There’s a lot of parks and open spaces too. It seems a world away from somewhere like London, but there is still a lot here to see and do. The city is spread out over a huge area and we’ve only scratched the surface, but we’re flying out of here in a few months so we’re going to leave the bulk of our exploration until then as we’re keen to hit the road.
We had originally intended to buy a campervan when we got here, but having been scouring the forums for vans that meet our demands (automatic, has a table and kitchenette) we were found wanting. Dearlerships were really pricey, and we visited the backpacker market and again found nothing. Remembering we’d gotten a quote about 6 months ago I dug out the email and found it actually wasn’t as expensive as we’d thought. After a flurry of emails with various firms negotiating deals we eventually managed to settle with the company Laura had found and wanted to go with from the start, escape rentals. As well as being reasonably priced compared to buying, we’ve got full insurance AND 24/7 roadside coverage, which hopefully means we’ll be ok if something goes wrong- although apparently we have to change flat tyres on our own. That’s going to be fun.
Escape’s USP is that all the vans are custom decorated by their spray artists. The van you get is luck of the draw, but Laura is pleased with ours; introducing, Vanatar!
I’m not a big fan of the giant blue guy, but the other side has spaceships firing at each other and stuff. It’s pretty cool. We’re in the middle of pimping it out at the moment (throw rugs and cushions!) but we’ll upload some proper photos soon. Having never driven a van or an automatic it’s taking some getting used to, but so far so good (read: no crashes yet).
We’ve one more night in Auckland before we’re heading onwards to our next destination, Orewa, where we’ve booked into a “luxury” site to help us ease into the whole camping thing. More news soon!
Photo of the day: “On loan from Middle Earth”
This monster greeted us on our arrival at Auckland airport. Great job New Zealand!
Photo of the day: goodbye guidebook
Au Revoir to you, mighty Lonely Planet guidebook. You were right almost half the time. Maybe.
(Seriously though, don’t buy this book if you’re travelling SE Asia. It’s pretty terrible.)
Zippidy doo da
Firstly, I am ecstatic to report that I am writing this from Thailand. There’s real, actual fast internet. There is actual English Breakfast Tea. There are roads that are completely paved! As much as I’ve loved our journey, it’s really nice to get back to somewhere that’s really easy to travel through.
After our lovely time in Luang Prabang we made our way over to Huay Xai, the border town between Thailand and Laos. There almost nothing there. There’s about 2 bars, a bunch of guesthouses and nothing else. It’s also low season, which meant a bunch of stuff was shut or toned down; we were staying in a set of bungalows where the reviews espoused about the amazing restaurant (with wifi), and the lovely evening campfire and family atmosphere. We arrived to find the restaurant being used to dry laundry, no wifi, and no campfire in site.
There is however one good thing (and only one thing) to do: the Gibbon Experience. Set in deep jungle, participants spend 2 – 3 days hiking between 200-500 meter long zip lines over gorgeous forest scenery, including overnight stays in a real life treehouse. After googling “Gibbon Experience Death” came up with a blank, we decided to go for the express 2 day course. There’s less wildlife spotting in favour of more ziplining which suited me to a tee.
I admit I was a little nervous going in. The whole thing is very remote; a one hour drive followed by a 2 hour uphill hike, and then 9 zip lines to the tree house. If something goes wrong then it’s a long journey to the hospital! And although most of the trip advisor reviews are overwhelmingly positive, there were a few that had me worried- limited food options, guides who spoke no English, one guy whose brake failed and caused him to crash into a tree. Turns out I had nothing to worry about at all, as this place is really well run (and there’s no way the break could have failed; that guy clearly just didn’t follow the instructions.)
Zip lining is incredible. I really hope we get to do it again at some point soon. There’s basically a thick metal cable between two points, usually a couple of hundred meters up in the air. You’re in a harness that supports your legs and back, which has a safety line and your roller (which has a bit of tyre stuck to the top that you squeeze to brake). Clip both on and jump, simple! We had guides with us at all times, but on the three day version you’re allowed to go off zipping by yourself. Some lines are slow (which mean you need to lean back to get enough speed to get to the other end; we’re both suffering from sore abs today as a result) or fast (which meant you need to be handy with your brake, although there are crash pads on the other end so it’s not too bad if you don’t slow in time.) It’s a real adrenaline rush. You get up to some incredible speeds and have an unspoilt view of the forest.
On day one our group had 17 people in it, which was way too many and meant a lot of standing around for everyone to clear the lines. Fortunately we split into two groups on day 2 so we could move a lot faster. There’s a little bit of hiking in between each line, but overall it’s nicely spaced so you really appreciate each one.
As amazing as the ziplines are, the tree house has to be the main highlight. I’ve no idea how they managed to build it, but it’s awesome. To get into it you need to zipline (of course.) It’s built over 4 different levels, with unspoilt views of the forest; you really can’t see anyone or anything else, probably for the better as the shower and toilet are completely open to the elements. After a full day of zipping it’s one of the best showers I’ve ever had though.
Hot food is ziplined in for dinner and breakfast, and in the evening they came in to set up our beds and mosquito nets; again, everything is out and open to the elements. As a result I didn’t sleep very well, convinced a giant spider or rat was going to come into our little den, not helped when at 4AM the heavens opened. It was so loud we had to shout to talk, but it was an amazing experience.
I think for both of us this was one of the best highlights of the trip so far. It was worth all the bus journeys and a day in a dead town. We can’t recommend it enough!
Vientiane
I would first like to clarify some bits from Laura’s last post, as she said I didn’t like our trip to the 4000 islands. It’s a bit more complicated than that (although generally right, as she always is.)
The islands are genuinely nice. Exceptionally beautiful in a way which I don’t think we were able to capture in a photograph. The cute bars over the river selling gigantic beer for 1 quid and meals for not much more were a lovely way to enjoy the sunset. All good so far.
There were two main things that annoyed me; first, the roads were terrible having suffered from the rain. They were barely roads. They were more mud pits. I understand that we’re in the middle of nowhere and it’s wet season, but they’ve been left in such utter disrepair. Somewhere like Chi Phat which was much more remote managed to maintain their roads to a reasonable level. The roads on Don Khone were barely passable even for pedestrians and it kinda ruined any attempts to do anything. Having spoken to some friends who have just been to Vang Vieng (another town in Laos) they had the same problem.
The second, which I think now is more of a Laos thing, is just the general treatment of tourists. We’ve just come from Cambodia, where everyone was genuinely thankful for you visiting their country and understood that tourism is hugely important for the country for it’s recovery and growth. Everyone was friendly, service was excellent, and it was just a damn good place to travel around. My experience of Laos so far is the exact opposite of this. People really don’t give a crap about tourists. A quick look on TripAdvisor shows tons of reviews along the lines of “the staff couldn’t have been less interested if they tried”. I’ve seen this over and over and over again.
I also feel like we’re being constantly ripped off (or trying to be). Whether it be the tuk tuk driver who asked for more money when we arrived at our Vientiane hotel because it was further than he normally takes people (despite us showing him the destination before we got on), to the 2 sets of bribes at the border that have to be paid so you can then watch one guy do all the work and 4 others standing around doing nothing, or the tuk tuk drivers who stand in groups and won’t give a reasonable price. Everything here seems to be centred around fleecing the traveller for as much cash and as little service as possible.
Rant over. It’s not as bad as I’m making it sound in reality; Laos is a very nice country with some great scenery, some very nice food and lots of nice cafes. You can definitely feel the ex-French vibe here more than I think you can in Vietnam or Cambodia.
Vientiane has to be one of the worlds smallest capital cities. I can safely say it’s about the same size as somewhere like Darlington, and would be eclipsed by places like York or Leeds. Like most places, there are a lot of temples (although I think we’re fully templed out so haven’t really been going to see them anymore). The major monument is a replica of the Arc de Triumph, built out of concrete donated by the USA for a runway (suspect they were pissed about that). It was fairly underwhelming and very random.
View from the top
Laos is another country that the USA has done it’s best to destroy in the past. Also subject of mass bombings during the cold war, there are millions of unexploded objects still around the country. We visited the COPE centre exhibition which showed the great work that’s being done to help people who have lost limbs through “UXO”s (Unexploded objects.) There are some terrible stories of kids finding and picking them up to sell the scrap metal, or fisherman trying to use them to kill lots of fish, only for them to explode in the hand. There were scary photos of unexploded missiles and bomblets (“bombies”) in pharmacies and shops that people are selling as souvenirs. They’ve just become engrained in the culture. One guy even helped to build his own fake leg using metal from an exploded bomb!
Overall there wasn’t a huge amount to do though, so I’m glad we only had 2 nights. Yesterday we completed an epic 13 hour journey through some of the most beautiful mountain roads to get to where we are today: Luang Prabang. More on that next time.
Down time
Caveat: I wrote this about 4 days ago, but we’ve been without internet.
There isn’t a huge amount to update in this post to be honest! We’re still in Siem Reap and have been relaxing to the max.
Having maxed out on temples, we’ve been relaxing a bit. We enjoyed a few rounds of minigolf at “Angkor Wat Putt”, a temple themed mini golf course. As well as being very cool, they also gave a free beer or soft drink for every hole in one, which we both managed. I was victorious on the day, although admittedly not by much.
Sizing up Angkor Wat for a hole in one.
The day after we moved to our current digs at Sojourn Boutique hotel (still in Siem Reap.) It had been recommended to us by our friends (hello Lizzy and Swiss) and I’d booked it in as a treat for Laura’s birthday. It’s an incredible hotel; very quiet, lovely pool to cool down when the suns out, luxurious rooms (with bath robes: I love bath robes,) tastey food and cheap cocktails.
Laura’s birthday was yesterday and her friends had lined up a swathe of treats for us. A nice afternoon in the spa (thanks Shirley and Ryan) followed with some white chocolate and raspberry birthday cake (thanks again Shirley and Ryan,) before going for “destination dining” in the evening (thank you Lizzy and Swiss.) We had a private terrace, a private chef and waiter, even a guy playing some sort of Cambodian xylophone as we tucked into an incredible three course feast (topped off with some baileys.) It was a wonderful experience and we were truly very spoilt.
It’s now going to be a rough crash down to earth. Tomorrow we have an 8 hour bus journey to 4000 islands in Laos, which is somewhat unsuprisingly a huge bunch of islands in the Mekong. We have a basic homestay booked and look forward to a day of cycling, before going on a 15 hour or so bus journey up to the north of the country to the capital Vientiane. Spotify is fully loaded up, Kindles are charged, and we’re ready to get back on the backpacking trails.
