It's getting colder!!

Hello,

Just thought that we'd give you a quick update from NZ, not too much to say as still haven't bought a car, so haven't been able to venture out too far!

Jobs etc are still going well and gradually exploring all that Wellington has to offer. Still a bit weird to be earning, so having to investigate new restaurants / bars on a weekly basis!

A few weekends ago we went to Wellington's annual food show with our neighbours. Sounds a bit of an old, sensible thing to do, but with so many free wine tastings the 5 hours went pretty quickly! Got a bit desperate and needy as they were shutting up though...couldn't let them finish with any half bottles still open could we?!?

We hired a car for the Queen's Birthday Bank Holiday Weekend (yes we do get a day off for her b'day here, bloody colonies!). Sadly the weather did its best to put us off going anywhere, whilst we did sack off the idea of camping, we did manage three good days out.

Saturday wasn't too bad, so headed round the coast to the most southerly tip of the North Island, Cape Palliser. On the way had a walk around the Putangirua Pinnacles - a series of towers of river gravels (still geologists!) weathered out of the cliffs...very eerie and atmospheric, with boulders ready to fall out on you, but pretty cool (apparently it was used to film some scene for Lord of the Rings - but where isn't it seems!!)

Cape Palliser is pretty remote, with just a couple of holiday homes, a lighthouse (with the steepest steps (249!) ever to get up to it!) and a huge fur seal colony - so cool to watch them lazing about on the grass by the side of the road (shitty gravel track!). Were a bit scared to get too close as they are pretty vocal and argumentative it seems, oh yeah and they stink! Pretty cute though from the comfort and safety of the car.


The coast around there was really atmospheric because of the weather and the deserted black sand beaches...in comparison to the busier white sand beaches the other side of Wellington where we went on Sunday (white because of the sand and the HAIL STORMS that battered us!). Told you it was getting colder, even had snow flurries in Wellington, first time in 14 years apparently. You really get blown about here when a southerly storm comes through straight from the Antarctic!

Were told the weather was going to be nicer on Monday, so ventured up into the hills about an hour away for a good walk in the snow. Got off to a pretty bad start...seven river fords within the first half an hour...decided to be un-Kiwi and take our boots off - got a bit tedious and very cold with the water only just above freezing, but at least kept our boots a bit drier for the walk up.

No real views on the walk, but was really peaceful walking up through a snow covered beech forest. Unfortunately the clouds came down as we got to somewhere with a view, so made a hasty retreat...the hire car needed to be back...crossed the river seven more times...boots on this time...and got back just as the rain started!

Ok, so there we are for the time being, update you again soonish! The ski season has just started in the south, so getting ready for fun and frolics in the snow before long! It's the shortest day soon, so means more time to explore outside after then, so will have more to tell you next time!

Hope you're all well, email / skype us to update on any of your news...not that we're missing home!

The first installment from NZ

Hello, it's us again...

So, we've been in New Zealand now for just over two months, guess it's time for an update!

We escaped the bright lights of Auckland fairly swiftly and headed on down to Wellington, our new hometown, on the train...very scenic, if a bit slow! but what better way to travel than relaxing and looking at the scenery down the whole length of the North Island?!

Very good first impressions of Welly, as you can see from the photos, its beautiful here and there's always something going on... dragon boat racing, jet ski tournaments, free jazz concerts to name but a few of the ways we passed time in the sun. Also been exploring the coastline around the city, it's really accessible, but remarkably pretty, being quite rugged and home to fur seals...only one while we were there...have to go back in season to see the whole colony. Went to watch a bit of the NZ vs India Test Match a few weekends ago, another good excuse for a day sat around drinking in the sun! Been on a few good walks in the hills around the city and plenty more to keep us entertained until we can get our own transport and travel further afield.


Ben started his job not long after arriving here, going really well so far, poor Kerry had to sit around and wait a fair bit longer, but she's now been gainfully employed for the past two weeks (gets paid soon yey!) as a science geek...following in her Dad's footsteps with mass spectrometers. Seems the mass spec world is pretty small, he knew she had the job well before she told him, as she's working for his old colleague.

Over Easter we hired a car and headed up to the Central North Island for a bit of walking (or tramping as it's called here). Had a beautiful weekend of weather, with the first snow of the season the day before we arrived, making it freezing at night in our new tent, but never mind, got used to that in Nepal!

Did a 2 day walk, the first up a ridgeline with views of active volcanoes across the valley (yes still geologists!) before dropping down into the head of a valley for some wild camping. The second day was walking down a river, literally! Did try to keep our boots dry at first by rock-hopping, but soon resorted to wading, apart from Kerry who tried swimming...accidently!



























So, its been good so far, living in a one-bed apartment in the centre of town, who'd have guessed we'd be doing that?! But working really well and enjoying every minute of it!

We'll update you again once we've done anything more exciting.

Bye for now x

Australia

Hi everyone,

apologies for the incredibly long wait for this installment, but here goes....

Flew into Brisbane from Malaysia, bit of a shock to suddenly be in the western world again having been in Borneo for the previous few weeks! And it makes everything (like beer....!) expensive again! Had a day and a half in Brisbane itself before picking up a hired campervan to travel down to Sydney in. Apparently we were really lucky to find one available at short notice - most of them, were stuck up in and around Cairns because of too much floodwater everywhere! Which did seem rather strange when we were basking in (thankfully not too humid!) sunshine further south!

We actually went north for a couple of days from Brisbane (the long way round to Sydney - plenty of people we spoke to did point out we were going in completely the wrong direction!), dipped our feet in the Pacific Ocean...trying to avoid the little jellyfish!















Had a bad start to day 2 of our campervanning experience though....dead battery when we tried to set off in the morning! Plenty of nice fellow campervanners around tried to help with leads and jumpstarting...but to no avail! So had to get the RAC out to replace it for us! Good job that was included in the rental....maybe they know it happens all the time!

But we finally got going a few hours later than planned....to see some waterfalls (though we were wishing some of the rain in Cairns had made it down here....not much more than a trickle!) and to climb an old volcanic plug (yes, we're geologists, we found it exciting!) in the Glasshouse Mountains, with some really good views from the top...if a little hot and sweaty on the way up! made our way to our camping site for the night to find monitor lizards in the trees, but sadly no playpuses that were meant to live in the river nearby...















Back on the way south again, we headed to Daisy Hill Koala Sanctuary just south of Brisbane....but having eventually found it - damn Lonely Planet maps putting it in the wrong place - it was closed! and the koalas weren't there at the moment....but they had some trails through the bush which we went exploring...and spotted a wild koala in a tree to make up for it! He even managed to wake up enough to turn his head towards us for a photo! They actually do look like cuddly toys!















Stopped at some more "waterfalls" (still with virtually no water in them!), but saw loads of noisy, bright red and blue parakeets and found a cheese factory that had to be sampled! It ripened up nicely in the campervan over the next few days! And had hundreds of fruit bats flying over our campsite at dusk and a possum to keep us entertained!

Getting into New South Wales, waterfalls suddenly got more water in them! Went to a cool one in Springbrook National Park which has cut a natural arch in the cliff, and then drove to another extinct volcano (Mount Warning) for a very hot and steep walk up it!



















Thought we'd over-done the geology a bit so then became proper tourists and headed to Byron Bay...managed an hour on the beach before we got too hot and had to jump in the sea! Only discovered afterwards how burnt we'd got - even with 3 applications of suncream on ! Damn the lack of ozone down here! The problem was you didn't cool down in the sea - it was like going for a bath - a bizarrely warm 26 degrees! Saw a school of dolphins playing in the surf around Cape Byron too.















Then we realsied we shouldn't have complained about the weather.....!! After 4 glorious hot and sunny days, it then proceeded to pour down for the next week! Not the Australian summer we were expecting! And not exactly great weather for camping!

Went through various National Parks in inland New South Wales, and tried our best to avoid the downpours and enjoy it despite the lack of views in a lot of places! Managed to time it right at Cathedral Rocks - didn't get wet, got good views from the top, and saw 33 kangaroos! (yes, we did count, it was exciting when you'd seen 4...then they just kept coming...!)















We'd decided to drive the "waterfall way" before all the rain started, and at least it made the falls themselves pretty impressive! Just a shame that most of the lookouts were in the clouds! With no views whatsoever! So we headed back down to the coast at Coffs Harbour - at least we weren't in the clouds there, even if it was still raining! Ben was adamant he wanted to learn to surf despite the weather so had a lesson with an ex-pro one morning...and was surprisingly good at it! See the photo below for proof (it is Ben, honest!)!!















Kept heading south (apparently we were doing well with the weather....we found out that places we'd been a couple of days earlier were now under several feet of floodwater, and the horrific fires further south weren't affecting us), and went to a Koala Hospital where they help injured koalas recover....they were incredibly cute and you got to see them up close, but much preferred seeing wild, healthy one a few days before!















Found some beautiful beaches south of there, still a shame about the lack of sunshine, but at least it meant they were deserted! Found a use for the strangely hot sea - very good for warming cold legs up that are being battered by driving rain and gales!

Then headed back inland again to the Blue Mountains, and just happened to be passing through the Hunter Valley wine region....had to try a couple! Though since we were driving we were restrained and actually only went ot one of the 157 vineyards along the route! Shame on us! But was still raining, and were in the cloud by the time we arrived at the Blue Mountains....were getting rather fed up of trying to use a camping stove in the pouring rain, so since we were actually in civilisation, retreated to the local pub for pie, chips and beer!

Fortunately though, our main day across the Blue Mountains was slightly brighter than it had been, so we did actually get to see something! And again, the waterfalls were very impressive with all the water in them! And the clouds cleared to see the Three Sisters rock formation.

































So headed towards Sydney, had to give our (rather damp and dirty!) temporary home back! Went via the coast south of Sydney around Bondi Beach area - very pretty bit of coastline despite how developed it is then met some of the Thompson's old family friends who live in Sydney and were kind enough to put us up for a couple of nights. So this gave us chance to see Sydney itself, and the rain did clear through the day so we managed a walk around the sights....Opera House, Harbour Bridge etc....and hundreds of very noisy flying foxes (fruit bats) in the botanical gardens.




























Our last day in Australia we did the Manly Coastal Walk on the north side of Sydney Harbour, and the weather was finally nice to us and was beautiful! Very pretty coastline, little secluded coves (though we didn't really fancy a swim, there'd been 2 shark attacks in Sydney Harbour in the 2 days before we were there!), huge lizards....all in all a very nice end to our trip!

Malaysia

Hi again everyone! We hear it's cold and snowy back in the UK, not for us here though!

Good first impressions of Malaysia, clean, organised and easy to get around...but HOT! very hot! and humid! urgh! Spent a couple of days exploring Kuala Lumpur, spending a lot of time in Chinatown and Little India (cheapest areas with good food and lots of hustle and bustle!) as well as the obligatory trips to the expensive areas around the Petronas Towers - at least the trip up them is free!! Couldn't stay here too long though - too expensive! meaning we actally had to stay in a backpackers' hostel for the first time, rather than the surprisingly good cheap hotels we've been used to in Vietnam! Tried to do some shopping, but since neither us are any good at it, and since we weren't looking for Asian "fashion" (aka anything shiny), we didn't do too well!

Got our first taste of the rainforest just a few km outside KL, amazingly jungle-like considering how close we were to the city...though even more hot and humid! There was a cool canopy walkway suspended about 30m up in the trees allowing you to see the jungle from above, and also views back to the skyline of KL in the distance.

Managed to get a bit off the tourist trail by getting a random, unmarked, rickety local bus from a pretty much non-existent bus stop to a small town a couple of hours away on the coast. Stayed in a very basic A-frame "shed" in a forestry park surrounded by silvered-leaf monkeys, cheeky and tame, throwing things at the roof of our hut and trying to steal our food...and mosquitoes! The evening we arrived we went on a boat ride on the river to view some natural fairy lights...tree after tree full of tiny fireflies flashing about 3 times a second, all in time with each other...amazing, looked fake but when one flew into our boat we had to be convinced it wasn't a clever set-up! From our hut, was a series of trails through the rainforest and mangrove swamps...saw an amazing amount of wildlife in a relatively small area - loads of birdlife including egrets, herons, kingfishers, eagles and kites, 1.5m-long monitor lizards...(mating in the lake...seemed to be enjoying it - were oblivious to our presence!), loads of weird and wonderful crabs and mudskippers, a giant otter and an array of monkeys and macaques.

Next headed out to Borneo, oh my god - even hotter and more humid than KL! Convinced we were getting sunburnt even just on the 20 second walk from the plane to the terminal building! Made Kota Kinabalu (the capital of the Sabah region) our base for our visit, staying in a cool little hostel with very helpful staff. Another reason to keep returning here was to eat at the Filipino market - the day's catch barbecued fresh for you, smothered in chilli marinade and really cheap! Over the numerous visits have tried blue crab, prawns the size of lobsters, blue-spotted ray wing, whole baby squid and red snapper so fresh it still looked alive when he put it on the coals! All eaten in a sticky mess with your fingers (makes it even tastier!) on long tables on the seafront with the locals.

Spent a night on an island just off the coast of KK, it's a popular tourist spot during the day, but we hired a tent for the night and were the only people there, other than 19 locals who live at the other side of the island...and the wild bearded pigs and even bigger monitor lizards than on the peninsular! Fantastic to have a deserted beach to ourselves for the night with a bonfire and G&T! Woke up for sunrise (well, after having also woken up about 2am to move the tent cos it was raining too hard! heavy rain really is heavy here!) to enjoy the beach and some snorkelling with the pretty corals and fish before the crowds arrived.

Next went inland to Sepilok where there is an orang-utan rehabilitation centre. Tourists get to watch released orang-utans (and some of their wild-born offspring) return to an area near the centre for extra fruit and milk. Incredible to see them so close, they're so human-like, one of them has a 2month old baby who she plays with like human mothers would - apart from she could hold the baby's hands in her feet! Other young orang-utans were showing off their new-fond swinging skills to the visitors (and their parents!) and chasing away the wild macaques that come and try and steal the free food! And now Ben understands where his cousins come from...! Also visited a rainforest discovery centre near here where they have a botanical garden full of all sorts of plants endemic to Borneo, and with another canopy walkway from which we saw (and heard!) four enormous rhinoceros hornbill birds squabbling over the ladies!

From here we went further into the rainforest to the Kinbatangan River to try and find the wild version of the cuddly orange things! Sadly, we didn't spot any, but we did see a herd of rare pygmy elephants (not very pygmy - still about 8ft tall!), a crocodile, many different species of hornbills, loads of proboscis monkeys - weirdest looking animal ever - huge noses and beer bellies! All they need is a can of Stella and we understand how evolution made English football louts! Saw most of these from boats along the river, but also had jungle walks (day and night) where we saw some beautiful brightly-coloured birds (especially close at night when they were roosting, apparently not bothered by torchlight), a baby python (where was it's mother...?!), a tortoise and a scorpion - that our guide decided he should pick up and then put on Ben's arm - made him even sweatier than normal in the jungle! Thought the rain in KK came in severe downpours, but here is even worse! No chance of boat rides on a couple of occasions, and the jungle walks were mostly through mudbaths/under a foot of standing water! Sadly Kerry's camera died half way through the three day trip here, meant an exciting morning's camera shopping when we got back to KK.

Most recently have been to Mt Kinabalu National Park where happily, it's not so hot!!! Met another English couple on the bus, so shared the cost of climbing the mountain with them (one company has a monopoly on all things Kinabalu-related and charges you the earth....managed to do it cheaper than most but seems silly to have to pay so much to climb a mountain! Was definitely worth it though, was amazing and were very lucky with the weather. A pretty unrelentlessly steep climb up to a hut at 3300m from where you leave again at about 2.30am to be at the summit (4095m) for sunrise. Beautiful views over the lowlands and covering clouds made red by the sun. Was like looking out of the window of an aeroplane but with other subsidiary peaks around you. Thankfully had no problems with th altitude, or the bitterly cold winds at the top (who knew you'd want hat and gloves so close to the equator?!)...Nepal must have prepared us well! Didn't seem too bad when we got back down after a 2500m descent, so decided we'd explore some of the other trails in the park the next day - bad plan....made our legs 10 times worse!! And rained a lot too that day, have been getting used to walking with an umbrella - far too hot for waterproofs even though it's cool in comparison up there.

Now back in KK, flying out to Brisbane this evening, fingers crossed for less rain there...though have heard it may be rather hot...!