Iorana!

After a brief stopover in Santiago, Chile, and collecting a 30+ hour day from our flight from Auckland, we flew into Rapa Nui, (Easter Island).  We landed and went through the easiest airport process ever before being greeted by the friendly Marcel and being given the traditional welcome gift of a flower necklace!

On arrival we got chatting to another guest at the Inn where we were staying called Laura and at breakfast the next day she suggested that along with Roberto, another guest, we all hire a car and explore the island together.  It was an excellent idea - we saved loads of money, met two new friends and also had the use of Roberto's excellent Spanish (don't ever believe an Italian when they say that Spanish and Italian aren't similar!!) to get us around!

These photos were taken at one of my favourite places on the island, Rano Raraku, the volcano from where most of the island's Moais were created. A lot are still where they were left, some just half carved into the rock faces before being abandoned for reasons people still don't understand.

 I think Jon did a better impression than me - having a similar nose helps!!

This guy below was one only a small number of Rapa Nui natives.  He was excellent and very kindly modelled for a photo with me!

 After walking around the outside of the volcano we explored the crater inside, which was beautiful - complete with a lake and another Moai 'graveyard' .  We were the only four people in there for most of the time which gave us a bit of time to have some fun with photos!

From Ranu Rakaru, you get the first tantalising glance of that famous shot - all of the 'heads' lined up with the sea as the backdrop!! It was more impressive than I thought it would be - my particular favourite was the chap with the red headress/hair!!

Most of the Moai's face inland, which is thought to have been to protect villages. Ahu Akivi is unique in that it faces out to sea and after an interesting and bumpy drive to get there (there was a reason why a 4x4 was needed) they were one of our last stops of the day.

After covering most of the island by car in one day, we decided to make our way to Orongo, the site of a ceremonial village, and Rano Kau, another of the island's volcanoes the next day.  Some bright spark suggested that the walk would be good (not sure if it was you Laura, or me!!) and all started off well. However, by the time we made it to the volcano the heavens had opened and the wind was joining in with the show.  We made it to the village but unfortunately didn't see much.  The kind park rangers provided some rest bite from the downpour and even captured the moment on camera for us.  I have to say that this photo does not show the true extent to the soaking we received!! Roberto's wallet got soaked and he had to lay all of his notes out on his bed to dry and both Laura and Roberto's passports suffered as well!! None of us stopped laughing though - an excellent day!

After setting up the perfect shot, checking the lighting, and getting everyone into position, we settled back and waited for the timer to snap the camera into action. Meanwhile, Willie the dog was thinking of ways to be naughty, this is what he came up with!!

  Thanks WIlie... This is a shot of a refurbished Moai, with amazing colours and patterns.

 This chap was quite special because he had eyes unlike a lot of the other Moai on the island.

  The island was magical and our time was even better because we met Laura and Roberto.

(Lots of!!) Adrenaline, Burgers and Wine

Time for NZ part 2......

Here's one we missed out of the last blog, of us at the foot of the Franz Josef glacier.

Kindly taken by Julia!

Early the following morning, I got ready for yet another great experience. We arrived at the airfield just before 7am and the clouds that had prevented us from taking the Heli-Hike the day before had dissapeared and it was a glorious morning. We flew up to 16,000ft, dropping off other jumpers along the way. Afer watching people falling from the plane 1 by 1, I was the only one left and the quickest way down was through that tiny door!

I am not sure what my expectations were, but they were definitely all beaten when I fell like a stone and started my 60+ seconds of freefall, getting up to around 200Kmh!.....

And back on solid ground....

After meeting back up with the Magic bus, we travelled onward to the party capital of Queenstown, but along the way there was a chance to do one more activity...and not content with doing one hair-raising stunt in a day, I made a rash decision and decided to sign up for a bungy jump!

I was more than a little nervous about this one, as you can tell...

But apparently when I eventually got round to it, I made a pretty good jump!

After all of the adrenaline pumping action it was time for some grease! A group of us (including Kirsty and Jason, the other daring couple who also jumped) headed of to the legendary 'Fergberger'!!! Here is what Steph thought of it...

After a truely bizzare day throwing myself off or out of things, the next day, we had a nice relaxing trip to Milford Sound. It was an amazing place and as we floated along the water we were reminded a little of Halong Bay.

The Captain obviously thought that the rain was not enough for us, and he dipped the nose of the boat right into this waterfall!

That night we all headed into town to try out some of the notorious nightlife. We had heard before hand of a bar that serves its cocktails in teapots...COCKTAILS IN TEAPOTS...Steph was there!!

After leaving Queenstown we made our way to Lake Tekapo, a truely magical place. Our hostel had a view overlooking this amazing backdrop...

However...after watching (what I thought) some crazy people walking towards the freezing lake in their swimsuits, and proceeding to jump in, Clo, one of our newfound French friends, thought that it would be a great idea to do the same...

Apparently in winter the life expectancy in the lake is 15 minutes - no need to worry though because we lasted less than 30 seconds.  So short a time that Steph made us go back in again so she get a photo!!

One of our favourite memories of New Zealand will be of the wine tasting tour of Marlborough. Something that had been on our wish list from the beginning. We booked the tour through a small company called 'Bubbly Grape'. At 10am we were picked up from our hostel, and after collecting 2 other couples we were off...

We tried around 7 wines (sauvignon blanc, Pinot Gris, Reisling, Chardonnay, Gewurtzrimer, Pinot noir and a Dessert wine) at each vineyard (with 5 vineyards in total), but got to try 10 at Cloudy Bay (the home of our Christmas wine)!

This is a photo from our first mini wine tasting earlier in the trip - Steph wasn't too convinced about the Chardonnay although the Bubby Grape tour has now changed her mind!

We had lunch (with a glass of wine of course) at one of the vineyards restaurants Allan Scotts, and our guide Jonathan was great. A fantastic day in a beautiful setting!

One other treat for us was a chance to see some Glo-worms near Mt. Maunganui. As the sun set we drifted off in our kayaks to see these weird creatures pulsating in the dark, they were lit up like Christmas lights. Unfortunately no photos of us in the kayak, but we got a picture of the pre-show meal!

Thought you might want to see our home (well sort of) for our 3 weeks in NZ...

Sad news ..

Unfortunately we discovered last week that the company I jumped with for the skydive had a fatal accident the day before the earthquake in New Zealand. The plane crashed on takeoff and all those onboard died (1 pilot, 4 Tandem masters and 4 tourists). Could not really believe it as I had such a great time with them, and as a small company and community it must be devastating.

New Zealand Part 1 .... The Great Outdoors

We decided that to get the most from our short time in NZ, we would book onto a bus tour and attempt to see as much of both islands as possible. 

The tour company was called 'Magic Bus' and it picked us up and dropped us off at hostels throughout the country. We could also book onto activities for the various destinations on the bus and, in theory, jump on and off the route at any point.  

   

Our first stop after an overnight stay in Christchurch was Kaikoura, where we arrived in the early afternoon and booked onto a whale watching trip. We were lucky enough to see not one but three sperm whales on our first full day in NZ!

Next up were a couple of seal encounters. Our driver Scott had a soft spot for the critters so we made a few stops on the way to our next destination, firstly to see some rather sleepy looking adults, who had just returned from three weeks of eating at sea...

And then we saw the babies, playing under a waterfall....

The bus route took us anti-clockwise around the South Island, making many photo stops and 'morning tea' breaks a long the way.  

As we had arrived during the New Zealand winter, the weather was amazingly changeable.  One of our photo stops was at 'Pancake Rocks' on the West Coast.  We got absolutely soaked on our 15 minute walk to the rocks but the views were impressive.

The next few days were a little frustrating, due to the winter timetable. During the winter you can either stay for 1 night or 4 nights in each location, and due to our tight schedule, we couldn't afford to stay for the longer time. Therefore, we missed out on a few activities where you need at least one full day in the area. Our next opportunity to do any activities was at Franz Josef Glacier. We were hoping to do a 'Heli-Hike', where we would have taken a helicopter flight halfway up the Glacier, then hiked around before flying back down.

Unfortunately, when we arrived we were told that because of the weather, they were not running the heli-hikes. We were disappointed but thought that instead we could join the rest of the bus party on the half-day glacier walk. What we hadn't bargained for, however, was one of the most unhelpful people in the world (we can say that now!!), and her obvious distaste for all things and people Magic. She told us that the Glacier walk was fully booked (even though there was plenty of equipment available) and when we asked how to get to the only other place that does Glacier walks, she just shrugged her shoulders. Customer service at its best!

We had spent the last few days on the bus, not being able to do any activites and it looked like one of the highlights of our trip was going to be ruined by someone who couldn't be bothered to help. But then, when all hope was nearly lost, we were helped out by a lady in a nearby information centre who went out of her way to make sure we would have a good lasting memory of Franz Joseph.

She managed to book us onto a great scenic flight above the glacier, here is what we thought of it...

Sydneysiders for a week!

Due to the imposed no fly zone (created by Stephs vacant gall bladder), we bypassed Melbourne and flew across the country to Sydney.

We rented an appartment for our week here, we thought it better than a cold hostel when Steph was still a bit tender. You can see what she thought of the choice...

We also had the unexpected pleasure of sharing our appartment with a large picture of this unknown grocer....slightly odd ...

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Based in Chinatown we could easily walk around the City. Darling Harbour was great and we managed to see Inception at the worlds biggest cinema screen (8 stories high!).

 

After getting ourselves aquainted with the city we headed over to Manly. It was a real chore having to sail across the water with a backdrop of the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House (one of the best ferry trips in the world)!

We decided to try the Manly walk to Spit, which was lovely. Although Steph's mum wasn't pleased when she found out that she had done a 10km walk.

Back in the city and of course, we visited the two main atrractions. We decided against the Bridge walk, but climbed one of the pylons to an observation platform, giving us a few nice views!!

Steph was happy that we managed to get some breakfast at one of Bill Grangers restaurants....

Our friend Rosie (who nearly killed the fish masseuses in Cambodia!) is living in Sydney and we met up and explored some of the bars and places to eat (Time out cheap eats was spot on!).

We all took a trip to Watsons Bay and despite passing by the nudist beach only moments earlier, we somehow still managed to enjoy our lunch whilst looking back towards the city.

For our final night in Oz, Rosie managed to give us a great send off. She got us tickets to the opening night of her latest project, 'A Comedy of Errors', at the Sydney Theatre Company. We were given a behind the scenes tour a few days before the show, and we got to see (and walk through) an amazing set. It was a great night, we had perfect seats, and to Steph's barely containable excitement, Cate Blanchet was only two rows in front, with only 200 people in the audience! After the show we had after show drinks and were hobnobbing with the actors / actresses! Unfortunately no photo of Cate to show you!!

    

Perth - In them there Hills!

We have time & internet! Sorry for the delay...

After our adventures in Fremantle we returned to Perth to let Steph get some rest. We couldnt fly for 10 days (doctors orders!!) so it gave us a chance to spend some time with Graham, Sue, Scott & Lucy in the Perth Hills.

We already had a day in Perth City, before our short trip to Freo. We visited Kings Park on a glorious winters day (they have it hard!!) and had a picnic overlooking the city.

The rest of our time was spent chopping wood for the fire (Jon), the occasional making of a lemon dish (Steph-lemonade, lemon tart and mini lemon drizzle cakes!!), relaxing, and trying to spot some of the wildlife.

Apparently the kangaroos had realised that there were newcomers in the household and decided to play hide and seek. It must have been my overripe shoes, as when I was out with Graham they descended on the garden. Luckily(?) Steph was doing an Ironside impression, re-enacting a scene from rear window, and was able to snap them!

I took a trip to Hovea falls, which was beautiful, although a bit slippery!! (hope the shoulder is okay now Graham!).

It literally was just what the doctor ordered, we were made to feel at home. Steph had time to recuperate and even managed to fit in some pampering!

She wasnt the only one though (sorry Graham!)... 

Many thanks you guys! Look forward to visiting you all in your new home!!