A G&T in New Zealand, Japan & Asia

Photos from Japan

2009-12-10T15:12:00.000+00:00

All of the photos that were taken with the compact camera in Japan. The rest of the photos will be added to this set later on. If you wish you can view them at your own pace over on Flickr, there are over 500!

Photos From The South Island of New Zealand

2009-11-18T10:02:00.000+00:00

They haven't been titled or anything yet but these are the photos taken by Gemma while we were going around the South Island of New Zealand. If you don't want to watch the slideshow you can head on over to flickr and look at them at your leisure, there are over 500, so be warned!

I'll put the Japan ones up next probably the ones I took of NZ will have to wait...

Photos From The North Island of New Zealand.

2009-11-11T08:34:00.002+00:00

They haven't been titled or anything yet but these are the photos Gemma took while we were going around the North Island of New Zealand. If you don't want to watch the slideshow you can head on over to flickr and look at them at your leisure.
I'll put more up as soon as they have all been uploaded - South Island next.

Transit

2009-10-24T16:10:00.000+01:00

Today is/was a day spent travelling, by which I mean just gettting to somewhere else. Somehow I had managed to convince myself that we were arriving in Osaka on Saturday morning, dispite knowing that we were only leaving Christchurch at lunchtime on Saturday!
So as it is Saturday morning we checked out of our last resting place in New Zealand (a slightly cold but very central hostel) and headed to Christchurch airport. The flight was slightly delayed, not that it matters with our stop-over time, but very good. Gem loved it 'cos they served Singapore Slings!
We're now in Singapore airport waiting for the next flight to get us to Japan. That wait is a pretty long one, about 6 hours or so. Gem wanted to go into town for a couple of hours but I wasn't that up for it, prefering to just find somewhere to eat in the airport and save the effort of going in and out, and through customs again.... though it would have been another stamp.

So yeah, we will arrive in Japan on SUNDAY morning!! About half past eight. I was even so sure, or at least too sure to check that we booked a night in a hostel for Saturday so earlier this week I emailed them to get that day cancelled!
Going to spend the day hanging out with Ian, hopefully he'll show us around a bit, and we'll be awake enought to appreciate it all. I'm really excited about this leg of the trip, it is promising to be amazing!

ferries, snow drifts and gunmen

2009-10-08T21:05:00.003+01:00

So we left the smelly town of Rotorua, and not too soon, the stench was getting too much for both of us, and headed south to Tapuo. We were looking forward to going to this town as there seemed to be loads of walking type stuff to do, being locked up in the car makes you crave a long hike, and then a McDonald's.

On our way there we stopped of at what seemed like a farmers field but what was actually a thermal pool open for free to the public and well off the beaten track. That is one thing about being on such a budget here, as all of our dwindling money is going on petrol, you have to search hard for the free stuff to do to make up for the fact that you can't go to any tourist places as they charge and invariably you come across so real gems that you wouldn't have given the time of day to if you had more money in your pocket.

This thermal pool ( called Butchers pool) was just that, a guy, a long time ago called Mr Butcher bought 4000 acre of land and it turns out that a geothermal spring was in one of the fields. The Butcher family used the spring to bathe in and later in life the family bequeathed it to the NZ people. The pool was turned into a formal bath, as in it has four wooden sides and a small changing room. Other than that it is very natural with cows looking down on you.

Tim got in, me being prudish, and having a general hatred of being wet, i love the water, just hate the feeling when you get out of the pool and you are there, sopping, uncomfortable and cold. I think it stems from the out door pool at school, having to change in a breeze block changing room with holes for windows in the British summer. I can't bear the thought of it now so didn't get in. I savoured the heat drifting off the water mind. Lovely.

The pool was of an iron disposition not sulphur like in Rotorua so it didn't smell. There were a couple of others enjoying the heat but all locals. It sounds like tourists don't really go there but the locals all use it.

After Tim's dip we continued on into town and found a good spot to park overnight on the way. The town was touristy, had a huge lake, and is surrounded by active volcanoes. There was also a good paid for shower facility that we made great use of!. We planned that the next day we would go on a walk of the local waterfalls and to a place called craters of the moon which was an area full of geothermal activity.

The next morning we woke to heavy drops of rain and a very strong icy wind which put paid to all of our plans. We sat shivering in the van looking through our lonely planet for stuff that was inside to do, but this is an outdoorsy town so choices were limited to one. A place called the Beehive, free i might add which was imperative, it is a trumped up honey shop with a beehive inside but it sounded warm so off we went.

We managed to hang around in that honey shop for two hours, looking at a beehive and watching a video on beehives as well as sampling the free honey. It is amazing what you do when you are beginning to get truly desperate, especially when i hate honey. Always have, always will.

We spent a few more hours holed up shivering in the van under the duvet reading and then drove into town and sat in the backpackers lodge's bar for a drink and for the heat. A rugby match was on that night so we sat and watched the first half, nursing our one drink of the evening trying to ignore each draft that blew our way.

When it was time to go we hopped back into the van and flicked on the radio. The news came on just as we parked up for the night and the main headline was that the road between Napier and Tapuo was closed due to the worst snow storm that NZ has seen in 25 years. Great we thought, that is where we wanted to go next. The rain still bashing the van we went to sleep.

The next morning the rain had finally stopped but it was bloody freezing. We put on the radio to find that the Napier road was still firmly shut with people trapped over night in their cars. The woman in the honey shop mentioned snow to me the previous day and i didn't pay much attention, too distracted by the packets of fudge between us, i wish i had now.

Also the next item on the news popped up that a gunman was on the loose. Oh yes a gunman. They found a body in his car and he had gone on a rampage through the countryside. Lovely. So off we went to the tourist info place, like everyone else, to see what was up. Turns out that during the night we were all trapped in Tapuo due to the weather. All the roads were closed. Now just the Napier road was shut, great. Oh yeah, and the road to Wellington was shut too, because of the mad gunman. We were stuck.

We went to the waterfalls, but didn't do the walk as the temperatures were so low you'd get hyperthermic quite fast, and then we did a blistering hour at the craters of the moon looking at the bubbling mud and steam craters which was hardcore but worth it. After that we though sod this we are getting out of here and attempted to get out of town...

Anyone for eggs?!

2009-10-02T02:53:00.002+01:00

After leaving Auckland we drove up to the Bay of Islands. Everyone we know that has spent time in NZ raves about this place but we failed to see its charm. It may have been because of the weather (it poured) and that we are on such a tight budget thanks to petrol consumption, another pot noodle anyone?! So we continued up to the top of the North island to cape Regina or however it is spelled (i don't have the Lonely Planet to hand for useful spelling tips).

This cape is where the Pacific and the Tasman sea meet. There is a dinky lighthouse at the end of the cliffs that you can stand next to and take the obligatory photos from. The place was pretty lovely and worth the drive, there were amazing views and sand dunes the size of mountains. After that we drove back to the bay of islands, it was a mammoth drive that day but worth it.

We ended up driving back to Auckland and hanging out in the suburbs across the bay once we left the Bay, mainly a place called Devonport were we had some posh nosh at a restaurant called The Engine Room. The food was great, and because we were out of towners (to put it mildly) they gave us these extra tasty salt cod balls as a taster before we began our meal. Really nice of them! Yum!

Devonport itself was cute, a little seaside town looking out onto the CBD of Auckland, all the houses were pretty, all wooden, multicoloured, and New England looking. The high street was quaint and for the night we found a nice cul-de-sac that happened to be on a quiet beach to sleep for the night. It was cool to wake up to sunrise on the beach. We watched a lunatic elderly man do his stretches in the morning and take a dip. After you mate.

Yesterday we visited another couple of Auckland suburbs before hitting the road again. Firstly Ponsenbury, where we mooched around the high street and the local park which had some cool sculptures of old houses that used to exist around Auckland, they were turned on their side and looked as if they had sunk into the ground so only a corner was poking through the grass. Tim particularly liked these!

We grabbed a hot chocolate each, Starbucks does a mean white hot chocolate out here that is worth emigrating for, then popped along the road to a town called One Tree Hill. It is what is says, a massive hill, but the tree got hacked down. We drove to the top, looked out, i nearly got blown off the top as it was really really windy, scared me half to death so i took my ball and got back into the car.

We are now in an eggy smelling place called Rotorua. This is the town of geothermal activity. A tourist town with rip of tours everywhere, my pet hate of travelling. But we have managed to find bubbling pools of sulphur and mud for free today so i feel much happier than when we first drove through town last night to be greeted with motel after motel and tacky souvenir shops alongside tourist trap geysers and Maori village experiences. We found a good site to sleep in last night too, a little wooded area off the main road away from the sulphuric eggy smells of town, nice and quiet, with only one other little van like ours for company.

I have a feeling we will just kip there again before hitting the road in the morning to the next place on our list called Tapou, a national park which has some walks and a volcano if i remember correctly.

Flashpacking in Auckland

2009-09-27T20:09:00.004+01:00

Yes i am a flashpacker and proud of it. Well, says the Lonely Planet anyway. This is so because of the posh car/van we are going to move into today, apparently we aren't ruffing it like normal backpackers. I would like to see a Lonely Planet writer dare to call me a flashpacker when it is 5 in the morning, dark, and i am in my PJ's having a wee at the side of a road.

Anyway, we landed in Auckland on Saturday bright and early. The flights were fine, the BA staff were scarily nice to us, it was like something out of the pod people, any moment i expected one of them to turn into a hideous monster so i pussyfooted around them the whole time, it was all awfully polite. We were also upgraded. Yes, it still happens! We turned left. Ha to all you minions i thought as i sauntered onto the plane. We even had a celeb! Oh yes, Lionel Richie, apparently he walked passed us but no one noticed him. The flight took 11hours to LAX with a 5 hour stop over and then another 11 hours to Auckland. We didn't sleep on the first flight but basically passed out on the second leg.

Auckland was pretty rainy when we arrived, we had a good 5 hours to kill when we arrived until we could check in so wandered around the streets with our backpacks looking ever so backpakery. It is a pretty hilly city, so i was rather knackered by the time we hiked the mountain up to our hostel but it was worth it as once again we were...upgraded! Oh yes, we are flashpackers.

The lock on our basic room was broken so they had to give us a nice room with ensuite as all the other cheapo rooms were booked! Yay.

We spent the rest of our first day asleep to be honest. Rather tiring flying to the other end of the world you know.

Yesterday (Sunday) we went on the Lonely Planet walk around the city and spent a good 3 hours in the Auckland art gallery looking at an exhibition of a famous NZ artist. It was alright, I'm not one for galleries unless i like the artist, but Tim enjoyed it. The city is the biggest in NZ, but it is like a ghost town to be honest, i have never been in such a quiet city, it livened up at lunch time on Sunday when all of a sudden it felt like the whole city came out for their Sunday lunch, then they all vanished again once they finished dessert.

Today at lunch time we pick up our little car/van, we are getting more and more nervous at the prospect of living in this thing but i am sure it will be an adventure. We bought a road map of the country and have decided to firstly drive up north to the Bay of Islands. Not sure what is there but the book tells us to go so we shall. There is possibly whale watching, and Tim says general prettiness to be seen there. After that we may keep going all the way to the top just coz we can and then make our way all the way back down to Auckland again.

Well we are going to check out of our hostel now and wander around the streets, and probably another art gallery like hobos for a couple of hours before we can drive off into the sunset like Sonny and Cher or something like that. Don't know how often we will be able to log our little hobo like adventures as we aren't flashpackery enough to have a laptop and wireless with us but you never know we might find a quaint dial up connection somewhere along the way...

The Missing Day...

2009-09-25T00:01:00.015+01:00

So around 15 minutes ago we would have taken off from Los Angeles, at a quarter to midnight on the 24th. However we don't arrive in Auckland until 7:30am on the 26th having essentially "lost" an all of today (the 25th) while flying for a little over 12 and a half hours, and covering a distance of 6508 miles (or 10474 km) fact fans!

I can't help feeling that somehow means that I'll be a day younger than people think come the day of my demise... even though I know it doesn't really work like that. To add insult to injury as we only ever fly East we won't get the time back on our return leg!

On the up-side though when we finally do land we will have the whole of New Zealand to drive around in our new-found youth.

We Have Wheels!

2009-09-13T17:19:00.003+01:00

Little by little the pieces are coming together. After all the flights were sorted out one of the next things to sort out was transport for New Zealand. We have always liked the idea of the campervan, and of course always had the image of me, with a tan and a surfboard in an old VW Camper.

Well that isn't quite how it will be, and not only 'cos my tan has faded. We will be the proud occupants of a Toyota Previa - or as they like to call it a "Juicy Crib" it has a sink, a cool box and some method of cooking so we should be all set. Oh and a bed come seat arrangement.

This week I'll be looking into getting a rail pass for Japan, which covers the bullet train - I'm pretty excited to ride that. A friend out there, Ian, is going to sort us out with a local hotel for the first couple of nights in Osaka and show us around his home-town before we make full use of the pass to see some more of the country.

Photo Credit : juicy.co.nz

Inital Plans

2009-09-10T17:23:00.000+01:00

Well part of the aim of this trip is to get away and not have a plan - just go where the mood takes us. That's harder than it sounds so we have settled for having chosen some dates for flights and main hubs or destinations for those flights, the rest we will plan while on our way. Obviously if we really want we can change the flights as we go.

So far we are on flights between:

England » New Zealand » Japan » Bangkok » England

We are leaving the UK 2 weeks today!! Our flight home is currently booked for 8th December, so we will be back in time for an English Christmas as we missed out on one last year.

Another Blog About Our Travels

2009-09-09T16:44:00.000+01:00

At the end of September Gem and I are setting off on our trip. We have been though loads of ideas but settled on heading out to New Zealand first before heading over to Japan and some of the countries we didn't get to go to while in Bangkok. Of course using some of our time in Thailand to catch up with friends and go to a nice sunny beach!

You can keep up-to-date with what we are doing by reading the site or you could subscribe and get them sent to you by email. Simply follow this link and then put in your email address work out the obscured word and then you are all good to go!

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