Farewell to Southeast Asia

Happy (early) new year to everyone! It's been an amazing couple of months here in Southeast Asia, but now it's time for us to head off to the next adventure- Africa! Steve and I are spending our last official day in Bangkok, getting a few last-minute errands run (e.g. sitting by the pool at the Sheraton catching up with some of the staff we've gotten to know since this is the 6th time we've stayed here), satisfying our craving one last time for watermelon fruit freezers, SkyTrain waffles (as in you buy them at a stand at the metro, and we just found out today they have a new flavor- cream- and they're awesome), and doing a little internet since we're not sure the next time we'll have a good connection will be.

We just arrived back into Bangkok this afternoon, after spending a week in southern Thailand on an island called Koh Libong. We stayed at the same place as Tom & Christina did in November, except our experience was a little different since it's the high season and overflowing with Swedes. Literally, at least 1 out of 2, probably 2 out of 3, tourists you meet in that area is from Sweden. We met a girl from Finland who now lives in Sweden, so I'm counting her, too.

We had an amazing time on Koh Libong- it was everything you could want out of a beach spot- cute little bungalows for very cheap considering the season (only $30/night for a bungalow that's only steps from the beach), delicious food at awesome prices, and perfect little hammocks to relax/read/nap in. They call themselves a resort, but that's a bit of a stretch considering it's so small.... but they did have $6 thai massages on the beach. If we had to be away from our families for the holidays, this was definitely a good place to do it!

It was definitely an adventure getting there- we declined the resort's offer to arrange transportation for us, considering it would've cost more than a night's stay, so we decided to try to figure it out on our own. What we didn't count on was the lack of information (and ATM's) at the tiny airport we flew into, or the fact that almost everyone on our flight had pre-arranged transportation. After much debate, we decided to skip the tuk-tuk to town to hunt down the right minibus and went for a shared private car with another couple going in our direction. Turns out the guy was American, living in Thailand for the last 4 years as a teacher, spoke OK Thai and was very helpful in helping us get to an ATM and the correct pier where we were to catch a boat to our island. His Thai girlfriend was completely unhelpful- maybe she's acted as translator for too many tourists, but our opinion of her was a little less glowing. So we got on the boat heading to our island (complete with a few locals and even a motorbike) and landed and our adventure wasn't quite over yet. We loaded ourselves and our huge backpacks onto two motorbike taxis, and drove over very bumpy dirt road for about 20 minutes. It might have been scary, except I was about a head taller than my driver so i could see where we were going and anticipate serious bumps ahead of time, and we were going pretty slow. By the time we arrived, we had ended up saving about $2 over what the resort quoted us. Ironic, I think yes...

So we spent Christmas on Koh Libong, and on Christmas Eve had a special buffet dinner at our restaurant (there was only one other resort near us, and their restaurant was tiny, so we ate almost every meal at our place.) The buffet included some amazing Thai curries- and one of my favorites papaya salad that was made fresh before your eyes, also nice because you could request the very unspicy version :-). After dinner, the Christmas carols playing in the background were turned down and Santa made an appearance (he was a very skinny Santa, and had a striking resemblance to one of the staff members) and he brought gifts for the children and bottles of Chang Beer for the adults. Steve and i spent Christmas day reading in the hammocks, swimming in the ocean, and generally laying around.

We passed the rest of the time on the island snorkelling, canoeing around another island and some other beaches, eating delicious food, Steve got a LOT of Lonely Planet Southern and East AFrica read, and I got some reading / napping of my own done. We also met some really nice folks (Swedes) at our resort and passed the time having dinner / chatting with them. On our way back to the mainland town of Trang we took the local minivan which we intended to take on the way out there. it was significantly cheaper, but took a LOT longer to get there and at one point in time we had 15 people crammed into a small minivan designed to comfortably hold about 7. At least we can say we travelled like the locals at one point.

I'm not sure when the next blog entry will be, but it will be from somewhere in Southern Africa. Now STeve and I have a marathon flight schedule to look forward to (connections in Moscow, Paris, and Amsterdam) to get to Cape town. Ah the joys of flying using points :-)

Happy 2008!!!!!!

Anna & Steve

Exploring more of Thailand, finally!

After coming and going from Bangkok many many times, we finally have accomplished our goal of seeing more of Thailand. Over the last week we met up with Rob and Yee to crash part of their honeymoon :-); explored more of Bangkok from a local's perspective (we met up with a friend of Yee's that's Thai); took an overnight train to Chiang Mai (northwest Thailand) where we learned to cook some awesome Thai food, visited an elephant conservation center and rode on the backs of elephants, and explored some amazing temples. Here's a bit more detail on what we've been up to:



After having a day to get over our jet lag, Rob and Yee flew into Bangkok and joined us at our schwanky hotel in Bangkok. The next day we met up with Yee's friend Joe, who helped us negotiate some great prices at the weekend market (including a pair of binoculars for the safaris we'll be doing in Africa and more of the splatty tomato toys that Steve is obsessed with.... if they weren't so heavy, everyone reading this blog would probably be receiving one for Christmas!) Joe also introduced us to some awesome Thai food- most of which was super spicy for our western palate- as well as different candies and desserts, not so much emphasis on chocolate as I would have liked but still good with creamy coconut milk. One of the most impressive things is their ability to use banana leaves to create all sorts of packages for the food- and the shape of the leaf wrapper (a little pyramid, a flat square packet, etc) tells you what's inside without having to unwrap it. Genius.


We then took an overnight train, about 14 hours total, to Chiang Mai in the northwestern part of Thailand. Chiang Mai is known for having some amazing cooking schools, and we definitely took advantage while there. The 4 of us took a full-day cooking class that included a trip to the local market, which featured some very funky ingredients that fortunately our teacher didn't make us sample (there was some kind of moth or other winged bug that you could purchase as a snack, we didn't get that adventurous.) The class was taught out on an organic farm- how perfect- and the 10 of us students learned how to cook all sorts of awesome dishes that used a lot of ingredients grown on the farm. One of the dishes we made was green curry with chicken, and the photo below shows what the curry looks like before it gets smashed into a paste. We also made Tom Yum Soup, Chicken & Basil Stirfry, Chicken & Cashew Stirfry, Spring Rolls, a Banana and Coconut Cream dessert, and even learned the art of making awesome sticky rice. We also learned a lot about Thai dinner culture and how to eat like the locals (it's all family style so you get to try lots of different dishes at one sitting.) One other outcome is that we are WAY bigger snobs about Thai food now- everything's been delicious at the restaurants we've eaten at but really pales in comparison to what we cooked. Now the trick is recreating that at home.






After cooking school, we spent the days exploring the city of Chiang Mai and some of the sites outside of the city. This included the temple below, which had a huge staircase featuring a beautiful glass mosaic snake railing. At the top of the temple was a great view of the city, although the pollution was so bad that it was impossible to take a picture because of the haze (this is a pretty common problem we're finding in this part of the world, lots of aautomobile pollution.)



We also explored a national park and saw some beautiful waterfalls- another highlight was using our Lonely Planet guide book to interpret a sign written in Thai that said "Danger Ahead" and helped us to find the correct (safer) path. The language chapter had proven completely useless up until that point, so glad it finally justified us carrying around the extra pages. :-) Here's a photo in front of one of those waterfalls (it's actually really tall, just the perspective in the photo makes it look a lot smaller- it's really impressive, i promise!)





Here's another waterfall- Steve is having fun exploring the many different settings on our digital camera:




One other adventure was going to the elephant conservation center outside of Chiang Mai. The photos will come later once we can get them loaded onto a computer. For about $2, our admission into the park included an elephant show featuring very smart elephants that could do some amazing things- paint pictures (apparently each elephant that knows how to paint has their own style, one paints elephants, another does flowers, another is more abstract), play the xylophone, walk across a log and turn around on the log (like a gymnast, except much much bigger.) The coolest part probably was that the elephants looked so happy- they seemed to be very well taken care of and enjoyed all the attention they got from their mahouts (trainers) and the hundreds of school kids that take field trips here every day. For just 30 cents, you could buy a stack of sugar cane or bananas and feed the elephants- we have LOTS of photos of this, too.

We also got to ride on an elephant and at one point the mahout got off our elephant and let us move from the basket on the elephant's back to its neck to steer it. Rob and Yee's elephant was bigger and a bit more sassy- he was more interested in the various vegetation in the jungle and the baby elephants roaming around- so their mahout didn't quite think it was a good idea to let them drive. Riding on an elephant is a lot like being on a horse, but you're a lot higher up obviously, and their skin is covered in really prickly hair. The day at the elephant conservation center was amazing, one of the highlights of our trip so far which is saying a lot!


We're now back in Bangkok, getting ready to head south tomorrow to Koh Libong, an island off the south west coast of Thailand (south of Phuket if you're familiar with Thai geography.) We'll be there for a week and will celebrate Christmas there. Although by celebrating Christmas I mean we'll probably sit on the beach, go snorkelling, and eat some Pad Thai, because Christmas isn't really a big holiday around here considering the country is 95% Buddhist. We do have a wonderful drawing of a Christmas tree from my niece Caitlin that we'll be hanging in our bungalow (thank you Caitlin!)

We hope you all have very wonderful holidays where ever you spend them, and look forward to seeing you in 2008!

Cheers,
Anna

A few photos of Asia

Just walking down the street outside of our hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, and yep- that's an elephant next to that phone booth!









Kayaking into the 200 meter long (and pitch black) tunnel in Halong Bay. The tunnel let out into an amazing secluded area of water where we saw brightly colored coral and giant sea urchins.







A view of the many limestone karsts (rock formations) and Chinese Junks (one of which we spent the night on) in Halong Bay, Vietnam










Just the daily rush hour in Hanoi, Vietnam (note that there are no traffic lights or crosswalks to assist in crossing the street, it's a bit like playing Frogger)










We'll just call this the "banana lady incident" in the old quarter Hanoi, Vietnam














Steve with a Thai boxer in Bangkok, Thailand

One of the Angkor Wat temples (this is where parts of Tomb Raider were filmed.)


















Watching the sunrise over Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

We're ba-aack!

In Thailand that is. Once we're done in Southeast Asia, it'll be 8 times that we've gone back and forth from the Bangkok airport. It's amazing the number of times we keep coming and going from their country, and they keep letting us back in! If you ever need tips on the comfy benches or best places to eat in the airport, just let me know- I've got loads of advice.

So we're back on the road after a truly wonderful three week break back in the States. During that time, we enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving in Atlanta, shared with many friends the unfortunate defeat of Tech by that other school from Georgia (and the subsequent hopefully good news that Tech is getting a new head coach), celebrated the marriage of Steve's brother Rob and his fiance Yee in Steve's home town of Stuart, Florida, and in general just had a great time catching up with people, relaxing, and getting some quality time at home. A special sidenote- many thanks to both our mom's for taking such great care of us, it felt like we were freshmen coming home from college for the first time, complete with laundry service, the works :-)

After leaving Atlanta on Saturday, we had a brief stopover to see Danny and Julie White in San Francisco. Highlights included the requisite trip to in-n-out burger- it's a strong competitor but I would still rank it second behind Chick-fil-a; going hiking in Muir Woods (the redwood forest where they filmed the Ewok scenes from Starwars)... and only finding out later that mountain lions are "a bit of a nuisance" there; and the biggest highlight probably when we went to a Christmas tree farm where we hand-selected the perfect tree and Danny demonstrated his inner lumberjack by cutting it down in a few swift moves then taking it back and decorating it- the true American Christmas experience.

After about 30 hours of travel and crossing 15 hours worth of time zones/the international dateline, we're now in Bangkok. We survived our midnight - 8am shift on the Bangkok airport benches this morning (we don't really deserve sympathy for that, it was simply so we didn't have to waste an extra night's worth of hotel points to get to sleep in a place for 5 hours.) See note above referencing the comfiest benches in the airport- we've tested out many of them.

Our plan now is to get over jet lag in the next couple of days, then meet up with the newlyweds Rob and Yee and then head north to Chiang Mai this weekend. While there hopefully we'll get to pick up some excellent Thai cooking skills, elephant riding skills (or just get to ride on an elephant), and see more of Thailand than what we've seen in our brief time in Bangkok and its airport!

Only hours from home

Greetings from Tokyo, Japan. Steve reminds me that we're not technically in Japan, since we haven't cleared customs and are just here for a layover to catch our flight to Dallas which will eventually lead us back to Atlanta. We're coming home for Steve's brother's wedding, and the timing worked out so that we'll also be home for Thanksgiving and the Ga Tech vs. Univ. of Georgia football game (Go Jackets!) We left Bangkok at 10PM local time, have been traveling for about 12 hours now (including the layover), and have another 18 hours or so of travel to go before we get to ATL- if this message is a little jumbled, blame it on lack of sleep.

So, what have we been up to the last week? Well, we went "trekking" in Sapa in northern Vietnam. We started out with a trip on the overnight train, which was relatively uneventful except our two cabin mates were a giggly Vietnamese couple who shared one bunk all night (an impressive fete in itself, considering how small the beds were.) Once in Sapa, we were amazed at the beautiful scenery- rice paddies that were terraced into mountainous hillsides, foggy mist that rolled in so quickly you could go from complete visibility of the surrounding mountain ranges to barely seeing 20 feet away in a matter of a few minutes. We did a couple of days of trekking (which was basically hiking during the day, carrying light day packs, and we slept in a hotel at night so not as hard core as it may sound) but we got to meet indigenous people from several of the local tribes, Black H'Mong, Red Dzao, and Black Dzao to name a few. We visited their villages, got to observe how they live, including how they harvest rice and other crops, weave their own clothing, etc. They were all extremely friendly people-we only met the women, actually, the men were a little hard to come by- our guide explained that most of them go to the towns during the day to act as impromptu motorcycle taxi drivers because they can make a better living that way. The women had the most beautiful happy smiling faces (sounds cheesy, but it's true)- some of them spoke English and would just walk up to you and start a conversation- this is how they learned the language and how they practice/improve their vocabulary, they don't learn any of it in school. There was another couple that were on our tour that we really enjoyed getting to know- Gill and Pat live in New Jersey, he's a pediatrician and she's a professor at NYU, and they had kids around our age, so we had a great time chatting about family, work, traveling in Vietnam.

Back in Hanoi, we treated ourselves for $4 foot massages (FYI- after extensive research I would recommend Thai foot massages over Vietnamese, if you happen to be in the market.) We explored the city, hitting the highlights including Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum- just from the outside as it was closed, and Ho Chi Minh's body is actually currently sent out for yearly "maintenance", the National Museum which ended up being very confusing because very little was written in English (go figure) and we didn't feel motivated at the time to splurge on a guided tour, and the displays were based on symbolism which just didn't quite translate to our Western minds. Honestly, it was less of what you'd think of as a museum and more just pro-Ho Chi Minh exhibits (trans. propaganda.) Glad we went, but even more glad it was really cheap to get in. We tried to act like locals and took a motorcycle taxi across town- our driver went pretty slow which was nice and avoided squeezing between too many buses at stoplights, maybe because he wasn't used to having a couple of tall westerners on his bike with their long legs dangling to the sides so he figured he couldn't fit!

Our flight is getting ready to board, so I'll wrap this message up. On the afternoon we left Hanoi, it was a little bittersweet. We were excited to be going to Bangkok to have more time to explore there, but at the same time we'd come to really like the hustle bustle of Hanoi, and had learned how to deal with the many offers for motorcycle rides and ladies selling expensive bananas and photographs. We had some incredible food- literally every meal was like the best meal we'd had on the trip- delicious food, all at VERY reasonable prices. When we were getting into our taxi to go to the airport, one of the guys who'd offered us a motorcycle ride about 1,000 times over the last 11 days smiled from the sidewalk and said bye to us- in the end he was a really nice guy, just trying to make a living, so that was a nice way to end our time in Hanoi.

So we went back to Bangkok where we've been for the last 3 days, this time I was actually well enough to venture beyond our hotel room, and we did some sightseeing, went to the weekend market which is HUGE, and just took in all the love they have for their king displayed all around the city. It's his 80th birthday in a couple of weeks, and they're erecting all sorts of special displays around the city to commemorate. There is even a national sort of outfit that people wear to show their love for him- bright yellow polo shirt, embroidered with the king's emblem, some shirts even say "We love the king" or "Long live the king". We rode the subway on Monday and estimated that over 60% of the people were wearing yellow shirts to honor the king. It's pretty crazy. Hopefully we can get some photos loaded soon so you can understand the extent to which they really do love this guy.

OK, our flight really is boarding now. In just 14 hours we'll be back on US soil, we can't wait to see everyone when we get home!

Cheers,
Anna

Giving Vietnam Another Chance

OK, so maybe we got off on the wrong foot with Hanoi, Vietnam. Maybe it's the multiple scams we've run into, the most recent one being a woman carrying two baskets of bananas hanging from a wooden pole walks up to you, then very quickly puts the pole onto your shoulder, firmly "encourages" you to take a picture and then won't go away until you pay her for the photo. After being cornered by her and her other banana toting friends, we got away with 3 bananas and a photo for the equivalent of $3 USD. Considering a taxi ride across the city costs less than $2, that's not exactly a good deal..... or the fact that the air is so polluted that you can literally feel it every time you take a breath, or the constant beeping of horns at every hour of the day, or the fact that there are zero, count them zero, public trash cans and everyone throws their trash into the gutters where it eventually gets swept into little piles and then picked up hours later by the public works dept.

However, once you start to embrace all of this craziness, life gets a little bit easier. After a little while you learn how to cross the street while motorbikes whizz around you from all directions, and cleverly avoid the banana ladies that seem to appear out of nowhere, and politely turn down the many offers for cyclo rides, photocopied travel books, and the same t-shirt lady that seems to find us where ever we are in the city and ask us to buy her shirts.

There are 3.5 million people in the city of Hanoi, and 3 million motorbikes. There are wonderfully wide sidewalks on all of the streets, but they're actually used primarily for motorbike parking, their secondary use is for impromptu little cafes set up with squat stools and a can of hot coals where mysterious meat dishes are quickly cooked for all the people taking a break from riding their motorbikes. Mostly you just walk down the middle of the street, staring down the few cars and motorbikes that you're sharing the road with to avoid getting hit (although people drive really slow, because of all the crowds, so it wouldn't be catastrophic if you did get hit!)

We did just return from a trip to Halong Bay, which is a World Heritage Site known for its giant limestone karsts. We boarded a chinese junk along with 12 other people, where we spent the day cruising through brilliant green water and looking at all the different limestone formations- they basically look like hundreds of really tall/steep rocky islands with bright green vegetation. Vietnam is currently lobbying for this to be named one of the seven most beautiful areas in the world, and it really was amazing. Over the next couple of days we got to swim in the beautiful waters, eat amazing Vietnamese food that our crew prepared for us, and go kayaking. Kayaking was our favorite. At one point we had to paddle/walk our kayaks through a 200 meter long cave (only about 5-6 feet tall), which was pitch black except for our flashlights, and on the other side we arrived in this beautiful lagoon that had blue, purple, and green coral in the water as well as giant sea urchins and other marine life we hadn't seen before. We were trying to spot a langur- an endangered species of monkey that lives in the area, although we didn't have any luck the effort was still worth it. We made some great friends, and although they didn't speak English very well the Italians in our group (5 of them total) kept us laughing all day long with their laid-back no worries attitude.

So now we're back in Hanoi. Last night we had an AMAZING 3-course dinner at a restaurant operated by a school that trains street kids for the hospitality industry in hopes of helping them have a better life- the food was some of the best we've had on the trip, the waiters/students were very friendly and professional, and best of all the total bill was only $16 USD. Incredible. Tonight we're taking an overnight train to Sapa tonight, where we'll get to experience a local market where the indigenous tribes go to sell their various wares to other villagers and tourists (I think we could even buy a cow if we were feeling so motivated.) We'll also be trekking to some of the other villages to get an idea of what their lives are like on a day to day basis. It's a multi-night trip, and after that we'll return to Hanoi to do the sight-seeing we keep putting off, then we fly back to Bangkok for a couple of days.

Although we started off on the wrong foot, I think we're going to end up really loving the time we're spending in Vietnam.

Cheers,
Anna

Toto, we're not in Australia anymore!

Greetings from Hanoi, Vietnam. In about a week, we have more than doubled the number of countries we've visited since August. Here's what we've been up to: Last week we flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia, where we met up with Tom White and Christina Nguyen. We spent a couple of days touring Angkor Wat and the rest of the Angkor temple complex (there are over a thousand temples, we walked around about 8!) When we landed in Siem Reap, it really felt like we were in a foreign world. As we were riding in the taxi to our hotel, we passed tuk tuks (basically a motorcycle with a cart attached to the back to carry ~4 passengers, except some of them had about 8 or 9 people in them), motorcycles carrying entire families, and lots of large cows just lying along the sides of the (dirt) roads. It was mass chaos everywhere- it made coming into Australia feel like a walk in the park! Touring the temple complexes was amazing- some are over a thousand years old and the level of detail they put into the carvings in the sandstone walls is unbelievable. We did a sunrise tour at Angkor Wat, which was very cool, since it's the quintessential image when you think of tourism in Cambodia. Our guide for both days was a local Cambodian guy, around our age, and was one of about 1,000 licensed tour guides for the area. It took a little while for us to understand each other, but after a while I think we got a pretty good system for interpretation down and really enjoyed learning about the history of the temples- and he was great at pointing out photo opportunities. One of the temples we visited (the name is escaping me right now) is where parts of the movie Tomb Raider were filmed. We ate some great food- very similar to Thai, with a bit more emphasis on the sweet / sour flavors, and successfully navigated the crazy streets without getting run over by a tuk tuk! After a few days in Cambodia the 4 of us flew back to Bangkok, where we used points and lived the really good life for a few days at the Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit. Free (amazing) buffet breakfast, 5-star service, free happy hour, amazing pool which made it feel like you were at a resort in the middle of a bustling city. Unfortunately for me I was cooped up in the room getting over the flu almost the whole time, but honestly if I were to pick a place to get sick that's where it'd be! I did make out out into civilization for one day, where we took a tour of the Grand Royal Palace, saw Thailand's largest reclining buddha (which was huge, 15 meters tall I think and completely covered in gold leaf.) It's their king's 80th birthday in a month, which is a HUGE deal and they're erecting all sorts of special displays around the city to honor him. Steve, Tom, and Christina went to a Thai Boxing match one night and said it was really cool.....so that's my version of our 5 days in Bangkok. The good news is that we'll be back there a couple of times so more time to explore. That brings us to the present day- we flew yesterday from Bangkok to Hanoi, Vietnam- the country's capital, in the north. Steve, my hero, successfully navigated us through multiple scams, because I was still loopy on my flu medicine and wasn't much help. First, the taxi driver in Bangkok didn't want to start the meter and when we insisted he tried to kick us out of the taxi instead of taking us to the airport. Steve negotiated a better rate and we didn't have to switch taxis. Then, after landing in Vietnam, the minibus driver's helper said it would be 100000 dong (about $6) for both of us to ride, then after he leaves the driver comes in and tries to charge us 150000, after some unhappy Vietnamese he decides to drop it and charge us the original rate. Then the driver drops us off in front of a hotel called "Star Hotel" where the proprietor runs out and tries to pull us in saying "we have room for you, room for you"- fortunately Steve was aware enough to realize this wasn't the hotel we had a booking at, we wanted "Stars Hotel", and after some firm discussions and much pointing at the map they realize that we were onto their scam, let us back in the minibus, and dropped us off in front of Stars Hotel. Right...... so we found a place and had a nice dinner thanks to our Lonely Planet recommendation, spent the night, then realized some really loud and crazy new yorker person was staying downstairs, decided to switch hotels and now we're sitting in the lobby waiting for them to clean our room. The good news is that there's free internet. Now we just have to figure out how to make it around this city without getting scammed too much! The adventure continues.....

Never drive in Bangkok!

We made it, whew! We successfully navigated the last 24 hours and ended up arriving in Bangkok in one piece, stayed in the country for approximately 8 hours, and are actually leaving for Cambodia this morning. We spent a wonderful night in the newly opened Marriott Courtyard Hotel (good use of points!)- actually, it was more like 4 hours to sleep / shower, the night staff were still there when we left at 5:30AM, kind of a weird experience.

The taxi ride from the airport last night at midnight was the most white-knuckle experience of our lives. Speed limit on major motorway: 80kph, speed limit of our taxi driver: 150 kph. We would have asked him to slow down, but he didn't speak much English and my Thai isn't quite useful. We have ALMOST mastered "thank you"- almost.

Now we fly out to Siem Reap, Cambodia for a few days, and then we'll be back to Bangkok after that. It took us 3 months to see two countries previously, now we'll see 2 countries in 2 days!

We are in an airport lounge (free to international passengers) and I have a couple of interesting things wrapped in banana leaves- haven't had the courage to open them up.... actually, i don't know how to eat them so am waiting for someone that looks like they know what they're doing to copy them. Good news is they serve good ol' filter coffee. Yay!

It's time to figure out the "breakfast" food- Steve just got back so hopefully he can help.... wish us luck!

Anna

Last night in Australia

The time has finally come to leave Australia, and we officially have about 8 minutes left of internet time (and since we're down to our last $10 Aussie dollars, this has to be quick!)

We are in Adelaide, and fly out tomorrow to head to Bangkok, where we'll eventually meet up with a couple of friends in Siem Reap, Cambodia.... got that?

We have REALLY enjoyed our time in this country, and the last week and a half have been no exception. We had the chance to meet more of Steve's extended family outside of Melbourne (thank you to Rob, Chris, Jess, and Andrew Erskine for being such amazing hosts, and to Nan for making homemade lamingtons for us, they were delicious!)

Fate worked in our favor and it turned out that concert tickets we had bought weeks ago to see Ben Lee was actually down the road from where the Erskines lived. It was an amazing concert- definitely recommend checking out Ben Lee if you have a chance.

After that, we had adventures getting into Melbourne and returning the rental campervan. We were sad to say goodbye to it, but after navigating Melbourne's crazy roads and toll system it was a ctually a relief to hand it in!

We flew to Adelaide a couple of days ago and have been hanging out in the city since then. We've been a bit lazy as far as doing touristy things go, spending most of our time in the library searching for flights in Southeast Asia.

We just finished a wine tour of the Barossa Valley (well-known for being home to Jacob's Creek, Penfolds, and other vineyards). It was a great day and we met some excellent people.

Time is running out, so will update more when we're in SOUTHEAST ASIA!!!!

Cheers,

Anna & Steve

Photos, take 2

Ok, let's try this again, a few photos from our time in Queensland, Australia:


Steve on the Jungle Surfing tour in Cape Tribulation (Daintree Rainforest).... we didn't do every zip line upside down, just the last one:

The koala and its (not so small) baby on the left that we spotted while hiking on Magnetic Island:

One of the amazing overlooks on Magnetic Island:

One of many beautiful sunsets we've seen, this one in Townsville.




On our way to snorkeling in the Whitsundays:

6:30AM on the beach in Cape Hillsborough National Park, making friends with the locals:
Steve "sand-surfing" on Great Keppel Island- this happened within minutes of getting off the ferry, when we're getting picked up to go to our hostel (which we loved).

In a perched lake on Fraser Island. Perched lakes are pretty rare, as they're fresh water with a sand bottom (no soil.) They're formed when leaves, organic matter, etc. decay and form a sort of barrier so that the sand can actually hold water in. This lake was completely clear, with amazing reflections:

The gi-normous 4-wheel-drive buses we took on the Fraser Island tour:

Some of the local fauna- a huge (non-deadly) jelly fish, or a blubber fish according to our guide:
Not for the faint of heart. Taken in Hervey Bay, after our wonderful day of whale watching, this was our very desperate attempt at blocking out the booming music (mostly Bon Jovi, lovely) from the hostel's bar downstairs. We had an extra bed in the room, so we used the Lonely Planet-recommended twine that we'd packed to hang the mattress in the window, and the bed frame to keep it from falling down. It worked decently well actually. Now THAT is putting a couple of engineering degrees to use!

Finally, some photos!

It's amazing how people have figured out how to put so many restrictions on computers- no downloading, no uploading, etc. I was hoping to get a lot of recent photos added here, but our tiny hostel in Foster, Australia (that's about an hour+ east of Melbourne) has locked the ability to upload photos from a camera, so I'll just have to settle with uploading some photos of our time in Queensland (that's northeast Australia, basically the area around Cairns south to Brisbane.) Disclaimer: I am on unlimited free internet right now, so this may be a long one!

Since leaving Newcastle, we spent a couple of days in the Hunter Valley Wine Region (we discovered verdehlo- a white varietal that's typically used in fortified wines but they actually bottle here.) The tour we did was a lot of fun and definitely recommend if you're in the area, because it's not as crowded as the more well-known wine regions of Australia. After that we headed to Sydney, where I saw the opera house for the first time (it really is as beautiful in person as in photos.) I was surprised to find out that the roof is actually covered in tiles (think bathroom sized tiles)- and they're all off-white and beige, I was relieved to find out that the color choice was intentional and not because they're faded- always the skeptic- the different shades help to reflect the curves of the roof even on really sunny days. We did a tour of the interior of the opera house, it's definitely not as impressive as the exterior, but they're in the process of remodeling so that may change soon. Outside the opera house we even happened upon a marriage proposal in process (she said yes) :-)

We had the pleasure of meeting up with the friends we met in New Zealand while snowed in at Mt. Hutt- thanks to Lauren and Jared for being such great tour guides of their home town. We also met up with a friend from school, Casey Taylor, who's there for a work project- lucky girl!

After Sydney we travelled to the nation's capital in Canberra- we spent a full day being true tourists. We checked out Parliament House, and happened to be there right when the Governor General's Secretary was announcing that the Prime Minister John Howard had (finally) called elections so Parliament would be dissolved until elections would be held on Nov. 24. There were TV cameras, etc. set up for what we thought would be a very profound announcement, they had school children lined up all around to watch- it was actually about 20 seconds long, and no one asked questions or anything. A bit anti-climactic really. After Parliament we went to the National Museum- an excellent place to visit if you have trouble paying attention for extended periods of time.... or for more than 60 seconds really. All the displays were very interactive, lots of videos, bright and flashy things to look at- our tour guide totally fit the museum, in one hour he skipped around from exhibit to exhibit getting us thoroughly lost. By the end, Steve and I were begging for a map and 5 minutes just to figure out what- typical type A's, ha! We then made our way back through the museum in a very orderly way, left to right, reading all the signs before moving onto the next exhibit.

We then left Canberra in search of Melbourne, which we're still on our way there. We're currently parked in Foster, taking a bit of a breather from big cities and planning to do a couple of hikes tomorrow in Wilsons Promontory National Park- the southernmost area of Australia mainland.

Since our time in Australia is (very sadly) coming to an end in a week and a half, here are a couple of observations:

How to talk like an Australian: shorten words and add "ssy" or "y" to them, e.g. breakfast = brekky, Australian = Aussy, sunglasses = sunnies, mosquito = mossy, and the ssy is pronounced more like ZZY (that's an instant way to pick out a foreigner- they say Aussie instead of Auzzie, that's according to our Sydney friends that we met in New Zealand.)

Bikers (as in cyclists) are allowed on the motorway- so you're driving at 110kph (about 65mph?) and pass a cyclist- crazy people, honestly.

Outside of Sydney, they have built koala bridges across the interstate. They're these wire contraptions, about 30 feet above the roadway, that cross 4-6 lanes of traffic. Apparently, as we've heard, it was a developer's crackpot scheme to get around ordinances related to building a giant highway through koala territory. We haven't actually SEEN a koala on one of these. We have photos, I'll hopefully get one of those up soon to demonstrate.

We've been here long enough to start calling things by the "Aussie / non-US" name and not even think twice about it, e.g. cilantro = coriander, bell pepper = capsicum, cell phone = mobile, college = university.

Steve and I have uncovered what we think is either one of the greatest conspiracies or cover-ups of our time (ok, maybe that's a bit overly dramatic), but here goes. We walk into a store that is called "The Big W" and notice that everything bears a striking resemblance to Wal-Mart.... all the employees have the same nametags, the price signs are the same, even the same slogans. (Now remember we're two consultants here, so interested in these kinds of things the average consumer would probably have zero interest in.) We asked the checkout clerk if they were owned by Wal-Mart and she nervously answers, um no, we're owned by Woolworth's (basically one of the big grocers here.) So on a separate trip we ask another clerk and get the same type of response- so, either Big W/Woolworth's has completely ripped off Wal-Mart, or Wal-Mart has gotten sneaky in making its way into Australia. Perhaps you find that interesting, perhaps not..... ok, onto pictures now:


hmm... experiencing technical difficulties with blogspot.... will try to post photos in a couple of hours.

Cheers,
Anna

It's raining in Newcastle...

Which is actually a really good thing, because this is (literally) the first time we have seen any rain since we arrived in Australia a month ago. We're in Newcastle until tomorrow, as we continue to make our way south with plans to be in Sydney in a few days. It's been a while since the last major update, so here's what we've been up to:

Last week we had the absolute pleasure of staying with some of Steve's relatives (2nd cousin and his family) in Brisbane. We had so much fun meeting and getting to know another part of Steve's family. We enjoyed great food, a guided tour of Brisbane, Erskine family pictures, Air Conditioned bedroom - a first since leaving Atlanta- time relaxing, and most of all terrific company. It was really re-energizing to have a few days to relax in the same place and to not feel as much like we were living out of a suitcase. Thank you to the Erskine family for putting up with us for several days!

While in Brisbane, I got to hold a koala named David at a koala sanctuary. He was really cute but boy did he smell!- that photo will be posted soon, we visited the Australia Zoo (previously home to the Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, they still had images of him displayed everywhere which felt a little strange, but the park was great)- we saw giant crocodiles (don't worry Dad, we were safe behind a fence), wallabies, kangaroos, tigers, even a Tasmanian Devil. '

Also while in Brisbane we traded in our Toyota Camry for a camper van. It's no ordinary campervan, though, as it goes by the title "Hippie Camper"which is painted in bright colors on the side and complete with purple and yellow daisies and butterflies. It's kind of the antithesis of a true hippie campervan, as it's almost brand new, and the paint is still really shiny, but it's entertaining to drive and it's giving us a break from staying in hostels for a while which is nice.

So, what exactly were we up to in that big chunk of time between Cape Tribulation and Brisbane? Well, we got to see some of the most beautiful beaches, Australian fauna in their natural habitat, and meet some great people along the way.

Here are the highlights:

1) Magnetic Island- named by Captain Cook because his compass went crazy when they sailed passed it.... but to this day scientists can't find evidence of any sort of magnetic presence in the area and hence no explanation of what happened.... while here we went on a hike- the site of an old army fort- where we spotted koalas in their natural habitat. I found out I'm actually really good at spotting koalas in eucalyptus trees from over 10 meters away- they basically look like small gray bumps, and when you get closer you realize it's actually an animal. They really are the most lethargic animals ever- but very cute. We even saw a mom and a baby- that was the highlight.

2) Whitsunday Islands- taking a snorkeling day cruise that basically ended up being a private cruise (there were only 5 of us that day) and meeting 3 new fantastic people- Aussies Libby and Daniel, and Clive the Londoner- as well as our (ex-US Army) captain Josef. The 5 of us really hit it off and had a blast that day (despite the one uncomfortable moment when we thought Josef was going to get into a bit of a skirmish with another vessel that was illegally parked at Josef's mooring.) Anyhoo, -the snorkeling was amazing- the fish would swim right up to you and even run into your mask-one of the coolest things was that if you stuck your ears under water you could hear the parrot fish munching on the coral. The 5 of us ended up hanging out and grabbing dinner together after the cruise was over- we were sad that we were heading out of town the next day and didn't get to hang out more!

3) Cape Hillsborough National Park- waking up at 6AM to watch wild kangaroos get fed on the beach. One decided it really liked me, or thought I had food, and hopped right over to me and tried to jump up which caused me to totally overreact and scream my head off. Steve caught all this on video, luckily. After it happened, a little girl told me "-oh, that one likes to jump up on people"- right.... i picked up on that.

4) Great Keppel Island- spending a couple of nights on this beautiful island- one day we hiked over to a beach and went snorkeling in a small reef off the beach- only a couple of other folks were in the area. We saw a couple of small stingrays (we kept our distance) and a sea turtle- it was amazing to watch it swim through the water- a lot more graceful than it looks on land! We met a really nice American couple that have been living in Brisbane for the last 25 years- we're looking forward to their tips on hiking in Patagonia :-)

5) Fraser Island- taking a 4WD bus (as in a large motor coach) through one of the largest completely sand islands in the world. We saw a dingo on the beach (while we were safely in the bus- as the guides told us, they're getting more and more bold and vicious, and there are signs everywhere to supervise children at all times because they've had problems with dingo attacks- we tried not to quite the Seinfeld line "maybe the dingo ate your baby"too loud- didn't think they'd find it amusing.) By this tour we're a bit jaded at all the beautiful sites we've seen, so although this really was a beautiful island the tour was a bit anti-climactic after the whale watching the day before.

It's been a VERY busy last few weeks, but we have had an amazing time and have loved being in Australia. Only a couple weeks left and we head to Southeast Asia to meet up with Tom and Christina :-)

Cheers,
Anna

Whale watching and other adventures

Greetings from Hervey Bay (pron. Harvey) Australia,

My morning dosage of Dramamine is still wearing off.... so hopefully all of this makes sense!

Steve and I just got done with a FANTASTIC day of whale watching. We hopped on a tour this morning that took us out to an area of the bay where humpback whales like to hang out and rest during their annual migration between the Antarctic and the warmer waters of the northeastern coast of Australia (around Cairns.) The tour guarantees you'll see a whale or you get another trip out for free, so we figured this would be a good day.

The ride out was pretty choppy (I was fine w/ the aid of my seasickness pills, Steve the lucky guy was fine with no assistance) but it was still a beautiful day. After about an hour's ride out, we stopped close to a smaller pod- just a mother and calf- and watched them swim around, use their blowholes to breathe (sidenote- as they exhale, water leaves the blowhole at a rate of about 450km), we even saw the calf breach a couple of times. This is where he jumps basically out of the water and does a sort of flip- very Discovery Channel. Once those two mellowed out we drove around looking at a few different pods of mothers/calves- all was really tame for a while, just whales swimming around and being pretty quiet.

The most exciting part of the tour was at the very end, when a mother and her calf and her male "escort" decided they were curious and came right up to our boat to check us out. Apparently if you cheer and wave the whales get curious and want to take a closer look, so there were two boats of us (about 80 people on each) just cheering away while these whales swam between the two boats. The male was HUGE- we never saw the whole thing, but it looked to be about the size of our boat. The mother was actually encouraging her calf to come closer to the boat to check us out, nudging it along. They came within 20 feet of us, so you could really see the bumps / details on the head and underside. The calf also treated us with some tail flapping (where it goes upside down and flaps its tail against hte surface of the water- the baby is in practice mode to learn all of the things that will be handy once it leaves its mom.)

It was an amazing day- we were so lucky to have that experience to take home with us. Since leaving Cairns a week+ ago, we have had some great times seeing the local fauna....which I will write about another day- my stomach's growling, it's dinner-time, and Steve and I have decided to give ourselves a break from cooking so we're going to eat out tonight.

Thanks for all the well-wishes we've gotten over the blog and e-mail, it's great to hear from folks and make the trip that much more meaningful for us!

Cheers,
Anna

Bit more on Cape Tribulation

In just a few days at Cape Tribulation, we saw more signs about "dangerous objects" than all of New Zealand. Just for peace of mind for you worriers- we were there during the dry season (so no concerns of our car being whisked off a bridge), before the deadly stingers (jellyfish) had moved from the small streams to the ocean, and outside of crocodile mating season (so we've yet to actually see a crocodile- people going on crocodile tours didn't even see them.) We did see a Cassowary- a large birdthat looks a bit like an ostrich, but with a bright blue head, black feathers, and a large bump on its head that looks like a helmet- that was wandering through the grounds at our hostel- apparently they can be quite vicious, but as long as you keep your distance and don't freak it out you should be OK- which we were (that's the 3rd picture- encouraging you to drive slow/mind the speed bumps as not to run over one of these birds.) If anyone can figure out exactly what the last sign means, we'd appreciate it. This was in front of a coconut tree, but all the coconuts had been cut down so is this a fear of spontaneously falling branches? Not sure....

We have done a few days of camping so far which have been a nice change of pace from busy hostels. The third night of camping we found a great spot that was about 20 ft from the beach (Wonga Beach to be exact), and Steve built a great fire on the beach using drift wood and dried coconuts (except for the match he used to light the fire, I felt like I was in the movie Castaway.)

We now head south, or end-destination being Brisbane by Oct. 2 to return the rental car and then switching to taking buses to make our way down the east coast towards Sydney. Coming up in our itinerary is Magnetic Island, where we'll spend tonight, then down to Fraser Island and Hervey Bay for whale watching.

Happy travels,

Anna

A few new adventures under our belt!

We have definitely made up for our slow pace of last week with a busy few days of adventures. After leaving Cairns, we drove north to Cape Tribulation (home of Mt. Sorrow and several other not-so-happily named places, courtesy of the mariner Captain Cook.) I'm on a slow internet connection right now, so to highlight what we've been up to:

1) Rode a cable ferry to get to Cape Tribulation (only about two minutes, but pretty cool that the only way to get there is via cable ferry. The river we went across had signs for crocodile warnings- but we didn't spot any from our car.)

2) Jungle surfing- basically an opportunity to see the rainforest from above- 20meter tall platforms that is. You're strapped into a harness then take zip lines to different platforms throughout the rainforest. There's an excellent photo of Steve ziplining upside down (on purpose) that I'll try to upload soon.

3) Snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef- unbelievable how many types of coral, fish, and general sealife there is in just a small area. There were about 20 people on our tour, spent an hour going out to sea, then did two different dives on the reef and had a great time (Steve's an excellent snorkeler- all that time in the Bahamas going spear fishing has really paid off!)

4) Exotic fruit tasting- this was actually really really cool. We got to taste 10 different fruits, most of which we'd never heard of- one that was called "chocolate pudding fruit"- it had the texture of an avocado, was completely black on the inside, and didn't quite taste like chocolate but was still good. We got a tour of the farm as well, which is run by a husband and wife who have spent hte last 18 years getting this farm going (they basically do all the picking on their own, with the help of a small staff.) Just realized I've written more about fruit tasting than snorkeling, on to the next activity:

5) Sea kayaking- a couple of hours paddling around Cape Tribulation- we saw a stingray and some beautiful scenery, unfortunatley still looking for sea turtles which we've yet to see.

We are catching our breath in Cairns for a day and then head south. Hope to get photos and more info posted soon.

We miss you all!
Anna

A few days in Cairns.

G'day from Cairns, Australia! Since arriving in Australia last Friday (it's now Wednesday morning) we have had one person say G'day to us.... maybe because he could tell we were tourists and would get a kick out of it..... still fun nonetheless.

So we've been a bit lazy the last few days, hence the lack of postings. We are in Cairns (pronounced cans) now, and have enjoyed being in the same place for more than a night. We've been staying at "Tropic Days"hostel- it's been great- they have lots of hammocks to relax in, which we've definitely taken advantage of.

To catch you up, since the posting last week we have been up to the following:
1) Finally went skiing on Mt. Hutt (after being closed for 2 days due to wind/snow, the conditions on the 3rd day were amazing- 29 cm of fresh REAL powder.) The visibility was pretty hit or miss- but the fact that the snow was so good made up for it! At one point, a cloud came over the slope and it felt like being in a blizzard- you couldn't see the horizon, let alone 20 feet in front of you (don't worry- we were on the beginner slope)- I actually got such bad vertigo that I fell- completely unprovoked- 3 times in about 20 feet, on a completely flat slope..... Steve managed to stop laughing long enough to help me up. It was ridiculous, but still fun!

2) Hopped a ride with our new friends from Sydney, AUS- Jared and Lauren- from Methven to Christchurch- much better than traveling on a bus! We spent the next day exploring Christchurch, and finally, FINALLY, saw two kiwi birds. We had to admit that they were much cooler than we expected- a lot bigger than we'd expected, and interesting to watch them run around. But still, we weren't allowed to talk at all when we were in the kiwi sanctuary (not evena whisper), and the kiwis basically hid in the darkest corner of the area (the whole room was really dark already), coming out for just a couple of minutes.

3) Flew from Christchurch to Sydney- where the APEC summit was going on, inc. Pres. Bush, but fortunately didn't run into many issues getting through security crowds, etc, then caught a connection the same day to Cairns, where we've been since Friday.

We haven't JUST lazed around in hammocks for the last few days- we actually looked at buying a car or campervan, then after looking at a VERY crappy station wagon (it made the Taurus look like a true luxury vehicle) and making several other calls only to find out the cars had been sold we decided it was too much of a stress to worry about, so instead we've decided to rent a car for the next couple of weeks to make our way south to Brisbane then do buses after that.

We're still working out our plans for Australia- how long it will take to drive south, what we want to do along the way, etc., but we do know that today we drive north to Cape Tribulation to spend a few days there to go snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef and do a trek through the rainforest, and maybe some camping too. I'm guessing the next post will have a lot more "tales of adventure" than this one.... so stay tuned!

G'day,
Anna

A whole lotta nothing in Methven

It's our second day in a small ski town called Methven, and we've yet to go skiing on Mt. Hutt.... or even get onto the mountain actually. Yesterday the lifts were closed because of high winds, and today they're closed because of snow (ironic- snow closing a place where you go skiing- but they're expecting 50 centimeters of snow to fall today alone, so needless to say the roads up to the lifts are closed because they can't clear them as fast as the snow is falling!) Should make for amazing conditions tomorrow, so we're probably going to stay an extra day here to take advantage of it. Where we're at in the valley, it was snowing this morning but now it's just a cold rain (good day for internet!)

We've made a couple of new friends at our hostel (actually, besides two folks that are here all summer- sorry, winter- they're the only other people in the hostel.) They're from Sydney, Australia, and have been a lot of fun to hang out with- we're getting all sorts of tips from them on places to check out since we leave New Zealand for Australia in a couple of days.

One of the topics of conversation we've had is about the kiwi bird, and the fact that it's pretty much the worst country mascot ever. Not only is it nocturnal, so you never get to see it out and about, but it's a bird that can't fly, and it's been almost completely wiped out by people's domesticated pets (dogs and cats.) Steve could go on and on for a long time about this topic, and how other country mascots are far superior- kiwi bird vs. bald eagle, kiwi bird vs. the australian kangaroo, etc. etc. We have yet to see a kiwi bird, but hope to do so at the Christchurch zoo in a couple of days. Actually, I don't think we can really justify flying out of this country before seeing this bird.

Another point of information that might be useful to you is the explanation of the traveling gnome. Steve realized you folks out there might have NO idea what the deal is with the random plastic figuring that keeps showing up in photos. Well, before we left the US, I thought it'd be a good idea to take along some sort of personal mascot that we could use in front of interesting landmarks because you're probably going to get really sick of seeing pictures of me, Steve, or the two of us together. The question of what that mascot should be was answered by Paul Dowdy- someone I had the pleasure of working with on my project in Virginia- who presented me with the traveling gnome (complete with gnome passport and all.) So, thanks to Paul, the traveling gnome gets to accompany us on our adventure around the world, check out some great sights, and get in quite a few pictures of his own.

Before my ramblings go on for too long, here are a few additional thoughts/observations to leave you with on this fabulous country:
1) If you're going to be driving in NZ, be aware that they love 1-lane bridges.... as in car coming from one direction has the right of way, and all opposing traffic has to wait for them to pass before driving over. This is not limited to backcountry roads- but major interstate roads as well (they only have a handful of real multi-lane motorways in this country.)
2) Never read a map/atlas in the dark. Doing so may cause you to mistake an RV dump station for a holiday park (NZ for campground), causing you to end up in a random park, under a bridge, in a sketchy part of town that looks like the perfect backdrop for a Law & Order episode. Why would you make the only difference between these two symbols their color (dark blue vs. black)? Fortunately that mistake only happened once.
3) Don't try to order "American Cheese" on your sandwich at Subway. They will only stare at you blankly, because they don't HAVE American Cheese....riiiigggghhhhttttt.....
4) If ordering deli meat, don't say you want "half a kilogram" of shaved ham. They will again stare at you blankly until someone else ordering at the counter says "I think she means 500 grams." I am guessing this lesson will apply in many other countries as well.
5) The Kea bird (world's only alpine parrot) should in fact be made the NZ mascot. They are one of the smartest animals in the world (up there with the dolphin, apes, etc), have figured out how to solve puzzles/ share, and in a more practical manner know how to remove hub cabs from cars parked at ski lodges. Pretty cool stuff. We have seen several Kea's out and about, and they are pretty neat- way cooler than this kiwi bird (will confirm once we actually see one of those!)

Cheers,
Anna

Our time on the Franz Josef Glacier...

One of our adventures on the South Island, climbing the Franz Josef Glacier- the staircase we're climbing on is actually made of ice.... that the guides carve out with a pick axe every day.


The ice gets a lot cleaner once we go further up, plus we get our very own pick axes to help with the journey (that's me in the bottom left).



I have not included one of the many pictures of us standing in crevasses waiting for our guide to figure out how to get us off the glacier (it grows/changes a meter a day, so no tour ever follows the exact same path and each tour is a new adventure!)

Saturday Night in Queenstown

Greetings everyone! The last week (or was it two???) have been filled with a lot of adventure. We finished skiing Whakapapa an afternoon early (terrible skiing conditions- rainy, low visibility) so we hightailed it down to Wellington where we walked around some of Steve's old study abroad haunts (FYI- The Fat Lady's Arms is now under a new name, same management) and made the most of what was a VERY windy city, turned in the beloved campervan and then hopped on the ferry from Wellington to Picton to start our adventures on the South Island.


On our way, with the traveling gnome, from Wellington to the South Island via the ferry "Arahupa."

Since on the South Island, we have climbed a glacier (literally), gone skiing on "The Rermarkables" and yes, the view really IS remarkable, and sailed our way around Milford Sound (one of the World Heritage Sites, which is actually not a Sound but a Fiord, but they're too proud/stubborn to rename it as such.)

We have spent the last few days in queenstown, the self-proclaimed adventure capital of the world- home of the world's first bungy jump. since Steve went bungy jumping the last time he was in NZ, and I did not feel the need to attach myself to a giant rubber band, we have gotten our adventures from skiing (or the bus ride up/down the mountain, which I spent the 45 minutes with my eyes glued shut- it was terrifying, seriously.) The South Island has been fantastic- we spent a day making our way over the Franz Josef glacier with our own pick axes. The glacier actually grows/changes about 1 meter a day, so our guide got a little bit lost on the way down and had to carve several sets of stairs out of the ice, which was unplanned, adding an extra hour to the adventure, but we all arrived back to the start with all our fingers and toes so it was all good fun.

We head out tomorrow morning to Methven, to go skiing on Mt. Hutt, then a few days in Christchurch and then we fly to Australia to continue the adventure in another country.

A few observations about our time in Kiwi-land:
1) We have confirmed that spaghetti on toast IS in fact a NZ breakfast favorite (as is baked beans and toast.) We had the former for breakfast this morning- can't really recommend it on a daily basis.
2) NZ potato chips are AMAZING. With flavors such as prosciutto and brie, and blue cheese and caramelized onion, it is amazing what they have accomplished with a simple fried potato ( i can't necessarily recommend the roasted succulent lamb and mint- that was a bit overwhelming.)
3) running out of time on the internet, so further obesrvations will be added in a future post.

Cheers,
Anna

Between Ski Sessions in National Park

So we've been very active the last week or so (a lot more active than last week at least), we just got done with a day on the slopes. We're spending a few days skiing Mt Ruapeho in Tongariro National Park on the North Island. I would still categorise us as beginners, but we've been doing a pretty good job of picking up skiing (both of us had only been once before in North Carolina, so that doesn't really count.) The skiing here is great- well, we haven't actually been on much of the mountain, but it's still great to LOOK at. I think I have gotten enough courage from the time spent on the bunny slopes to tackle a real hill tomorrow.

Before skiing, we spent a few days in the Hawke's Bay Region, which is on the east coast and is known for being New Zealand's best winery area. We took a tour one day, visiting several different vineyards, and then the next day had a personal tour at a vineyard (thank you Sarah G. for that connection!) If you happen to be looking at New Zealand wines, we'd definitely recommend Matariki- they're excellent! The claim to fame of the town we stayed in, Napier, is that after a massive earthquake in 1931 the whole city was re-built in the art deco style (it felt a bit like being at Disney World, where all the buildings matched and had some sort of theme.)

We also have visited several geothermal areas (not all of them reek of sulfur), and seen many more along the side of the road- it's funny to be driving and see small pools all along the roadside that are steaming/bubbling. At one park we saw a geyser, advertised as erupting "every day at 10:15AM", and come to learn that the way it's so reliable is that someone working the park actually pours soap down the spout of the geyser to cause it to erupt (Steve and I felt that was a bit of false advertising, but fortunately the rest of the park was pretty cool so we got over the bit of false advertising with the geyser.)

A few observations that I have found funny/interesting over the last couple of weeks:

1) Water runs down the drain counter-clockwise here (can't remember if it's the other way around in the States?)

2) When New Zealanders try to impersonate American accents, they generally end up sounding like someone out of a John Wayne movie, with a very thick country accent

3) The El Camino has made a comeback in the form of the "Ford Falcon" (except the new version actually has a cover for the bed so it's much classier)

4) We haven't confirmed this is a trend across the country, but at breakfast this morning at our lodge a NZ family ate spaghetti on top of toast..... not exactly how I'd like to start my breakfast but may be very common. WE'll get back to you on that one!

Off to relax and rest tired legs now, hope to get a few more photos loaded soon!

Our friend, the traveling gnome, from Sky Tower in Auckland (the view is straight down.)

The beach at the Bay of Islands

Hello from Rotorua

Greetings everyone,

I'm writing this post from a very small internet cafe in Rotorua (on New Zealand's North Island, most well-known for their hot springs..... and that the entire town smells like sulfur!) It's pouring rain, so a nice time to sit down and write an update. We have been very busy the last week traveling around the North Island in a rented campervan (I have decided to put my "learning to drive a 5-speed" lessons on hold until we get to Australia where there are much straighter, flatter roads than here.) Steve has done a fantastic job of getting us around the island- remembering to stay on the left, and basically navigating what feels like a giant box on the curvy roads of the Northland. We have basically been doing a town or two a day, so here are some highlights of the last week:

-Driving along the eastern coast from Auckland to Keri Keri- seeing the beautiful Bay of Islands and basically every other beautiful scenery you can imagine (literally every hill you go around could be a post card, it's absolutely amazing)
-Stopping at the Hundterwasser Toilets (interesting piece of "functional" art in a small town- the same artist that's done buildings in Europe, especially Austria)- apparently he spent the latter half of his life in NZ and decided to contribute to the local area through an artistic project
-The Kauri Forest (the giant Kauri trees are amazing- some are over 50 meters tall, you basically drive through the middle of the forest with these trees towering around you)
-Sheepworld-yes, truly a stop for tourists, but all joking aside it was actually pretty fun/interesting. We were the only ones there (go figure it being a Wednesday afternoon in the middle of nowhere), so we got our own personal show featuring sheep dogs, sorting sheep (I got to volunteer to help sort about 20 sheep into different turnstiles- don't think I'd make it in that line of work), sheep shearing (the world record is held by a Kiwi- about 790 sheep sheared in 9 hours), and we both got to feed baby lambs.
-Yesterday was the coolest thing we've done to-date- we went blackwater rafting in the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves. This involved wearing a wet suit, repelling down a 35 meter hole (it's literally a hole in one spot) into limestone caves, then ziplining, tubing, swimming, floating, and climbing our way for the next 4 hours through these amazing caves that have glow worms living along the top (the actual explanation of these creatures is much less appealing, so we'll stick with the name "glow worms"). It was us, 4 UK girls, and two guides, and it was AMAZING! After weaving our way through the caves, the last adventure was rock climbing out of 3 water falls in the caves (Steve and I definitely agreed that they could never get away with something like that back in the States.)

OK, running out of $ in the internet machine, have to stop the post. We're still alive, and having fun!

Cheers,
Anna

We're in New Zealand!

Greetings from Auckland, New Zealand. There's a lot of pressure writing the first post of what's sure to be a lengthy blog (Steve keeps reminding me that it has to be funny, and short so people don't lose interest, so here goes...)

We flew out of Atlanta on Wednesday morning (actually ran into a Georgia Tech friend at the airport, so Dr. Gary May gets the award for being the official last person to see us before we left for our trip- sorry Mom(s)!) We sat next to a very nice lady on our Atlanta- Los Angeles flight- she was 80 years old with the face of a 20 year old (plastic surgery is an amazing thing.) The LA- New Zealand flight was remarkably uneventful considering it was 13 hours long. Steve and I both lucked out and got rows of seats to our own, so we were able to fit in some decent sleep.

Now that we're in Auckland, here are some highlights of the last few days:
1) Staying in the first 5-star hotel to open up in Auckland in 7 years (it's a Westin- we're staying on points.) When we rolled up at the check-in desk wearing our hiking boots and backpacks they didn't know what to make of us. This is officially the best accomodation experience we will have on this trip, which has helped us get over the 15 hour time difference (plus we have definitely taken advantage of the free food in the concierge lounge, free internet, etc.) It's basically downhill from here- we move on to hostels, camping, etc. but what a great way to start off!
2) Visiting SkyTower- the tallest free-standing structure in the southern hemisphere- equipped with its own glass floor so you can tell exactly how high off the ground you are. In true New Zealand fashion, you can even pay to jump off the top of the building.... excellent...
3) Ordering a meter-long sausage at a local eatery. Basically a giant hot dog- nothing terribly exotic, but still interesting.
4) Waking up without an alarm before 6AM two days in a row. I don't think I've ever done that in my lifetime. Sure it was actually 3PM EST in Atlanta- but still, I think we deserve some sort of credit for that.

Now that we're basically over jet lag, we will be doing more exciting stuff other than laundry in the hotel bath tub... a few highlights to look forward to in the upcoming week(s):
1) Us renting a campervan to drive across the North Island (they drive on the "wrong" side of the road here, you know) ;-)
2) Me learning to drive a 5-speed
3) Visiting such exciting locations as the Bay of Islands, including the northernmost point of New Zealand, going skiing on several different mountains, and other locations whose names are escaping me right now all in the above-mentioned campervan

I guess the first post wasn't so short, but hopefully funny enough :-)