Trekking, aka Tramping and Volcanos

Its been a busy week and a bit since we left Wellington last last Sunday (the 23rd) and headed north, for Ohakune, where you can do the Tongariro Alpine crossing. However, we soon found out that at this time of year you can only do the walk guided, so we opted out. Maybe later in the year as the weather warms up I'll go back and do it, but for now, we made do with a few walks around the base of the mountain.

From Ohakune we headed over to Taupo, with its magnificient lake and adrenaline packed activites like jet boating and skydiving! Our first day there was somewhat overcast and rainy so we opted for some whitewater jetboating action, since it didn't matter if it rained or not, we were going to get wet! Thankfully our second day brought blue skies, which meant skydiving was on! I'd done a skydive before, on my previous trip to New Zealand about 3 years ago, but that was only at 13,000ft... this time I jumped from 15,000ft, longer freefall and more time to panic! Was pretty amazing though, certainly a good way to make you feel alive!

After the adventures of Taupo we had a few calm days in Napier, a very art deco city with some fantastic buildings and then it was off for some more tramping (the NZ word for trekking or hiking) and amazing views at the Te Urewere National Park.

Gisborne was our next big port of call, a little town which to me was very reminiscent of Blenheim, perhaps it's because Gisborne is also another large wine region in NZ. It was nice to have a look around, wasn't really too much to do as it was too cold for any watersports, but when we come back later in the year hopefully there'll be a lot more happening!

We worked our way up the East Cape, through many a bay and little village to our current location of Whakatane (pronounced Fa-ka-ta-ne) where we've spent the last 3 nights. Incidently, we've now spent our most nights in a row in Charlie, last night was our 7th night, he's certainly been good in helping us save on accomodation costs!

Yesterday we did a tour to White Island, home to an active volcano! The boat ride there and back were a little bumpy, but worth it for the walk around the island to see the steam billowing up from vents in the ground, bubbling mud pools and looking over the crater edge to see a bright green steaming lake! Certainly not what I was expecting!

We have just under 2 more weeks of travelling around the North Island and then it'll be time to say goodbye to Holly, who's returning home. But for now, we still have her with us and there are plenty more adventures to be had.

Moving on to the North Island

Our arrival onto the North Island at Wellington was a bit of a shock to the system... cars everywhere, big tall buildings, an abundance of traffic lights! After the remoteness of the South Island at times, it was strange but at the same time really nice being back in a big city again.

After spending an hour or two driving around the Wellington area trying to find somewhere to park for the night we decided on a hostel instead, after spending the last 2 nights at the hostel in Blenheim, poor Charlie must think we're neglecting him!

Wellington was beautiful, we were lucky enough to have some great weather while we were there, sun shine and blue skies. The Cuba Street area of downtown Wellington had some great shopping - which of course we all indulged in. After just a day I found myself really liking Wellington and thinking it could be a place I could possibly live in!

The Te Papa Museum, New Zealand's National Museum was a great way to spend a morning, and we spent an afternoon over at Somes Island, doing a few walks around the island, oohing and ahhing over cute little lambs and just soaking up the sunshine!

The Glaciers and the West Coast

Charlie was fixed and ready to go the afternoon of my last post and we left Wanaka pretty much soon after he was done, heading towards the little village of Haast, where we spent our first night in our newly fixed van.

Haast doesn't really have much to report about, they've spilt the area into 3 sections; Haast Township/Village, Haast Junction and Haast Beach, in my opinion they should have put the 3 areas together and maybe have had a decent sized village out of it. But hey, thats just my opinion!

From Haast we headed north towards the glaciers. Fox glacier was first, which we got a really good view of. I had done a 1/2 day glacier walk on Fox glacier a couple of years back so we decided to do our own glacier walk on the Franz Josef glacier instead, which is where we headed to that same evening. The rain was still following us unfortunately but our 1/2 day glacier walk on Franz Josef the day after was absolutely wonderful, the weather cleared up for the second half of the walk and we got some stunning views of the glacier and the surrounding area.

We passed through the West coast of the South Island pretty quickly, it was still raining - pretty heavily at times and the towns of Greymouth and Westport didn't really have much to offer other than a petrol stop!

We took the Lewis pass across the South Island, stopping off at Hamner springs for a soak in their thermal hotpools before heading to Kaikoura, where we saw even more fur seals and saw a sperm whale and the most dolphins I've ever seen in my life when we did a whale watching tour. I'll try and get some pictures up of the dolphins/whale when I can.

And now we're back in Blenheim, back at the hostel myself and Stacy stayed in when we were working here, just passing through for 2 nights to catch up with some friends who are still here, get some washing done and in Stacy's case, getting her fix of baking done before we head to Picton this afternoon for the ferry to Wellington. North Island here we come!

Milford Sound, Skiing in Queenstown and a sick Charlie...

Right, time to do some blog catch up and due to current circumstances (which I'll get to in a bit), seems like now is a good a time as ever! Be warned, this could be a long one...

So we got to Invercargill a little over 2 weeks ago and spent most of our time there chilling out and relaxing after exploring the Catlins. The rain we first encountered in Christchurch earlier in the month seems to have caught up with us here and we were quite happy sitting in cafes hiding out from the rain.

After 2 nights we left Invercargill for Te Anau, the wind and rain unfortunately following us and booked ourselves into the YHA there as Te Anau don't seem to like people camping out in their campervans overnight. We did a day trip over to Milford Sound from Te Anau, decided against driving there ourselves since the roads were pretty bad, I don't think Charlie would have made it up those mountain paths, especially with snow chains on!

Our Milford Sound cruise was pretty amazing, I'd been before and it was nothing like the first time I went, an evening/overnight cruise which meant that after the sun went down you really couldn't see anything! It was a bit misty which meant that the largeness of the sound was lost on us, but we did get to see fur seals, dolphins and albatross!

The weather wasn't about to let up and it seemed that during our last night in Te Anau, there was another minor earthquake (there had been one the night before apparantly), as well as more rain, which meant that the Glowworm Caves were definately off the cards. So onwards to Queenstown we drove, arriving early in the afternoon of the 1st August.

We stayed in Queenstown for a total of 9 nights and 5 of those days were spent skiing at the Remarkables and Coronet Peak which were amazing. The last time I'd been skiing was nearly 10 years ago when I was still in school so the lessons I had for the first 3 days were definitely needed and by the time we left last week I was just about to do parallel turns and blue runs without too much falling over and losing control!

The last time I was in New Zealand about 3 years ago I was too chicken to do a bungee jump, and I'm afraid to say, I still was this time around! Stacy did the Nevis Bungee, a 143m drop from the middle of a suspended platform, however that wasn't for myself or Holly. We did compromise and do the Nevis Arc though, the world's highest swing, which was amazing!

We left Queenstown 2 days ago for our current location of Wanaka with the plan of just staying for one night and then heading up to the glaciers - we still haven't decided whether we're doing the Fox or Franz Joseph Glacier. However our plan was foiled somewhat when Charlie died just as we arrived into Wanaka, seems like his gearbox has collasped...!!!! So for the last 2 nights we've been camped out at the garage thats fixing him and spending our days hiding out from the rain (its still following us) in cafes or as in the case of yesterday afternoon, puzzling world!! Hoping Charlie will be fit to go by this afternoon, or tomorrow at the latest and then we'll be good to hit the road again!

The wilderness of the Catlins

We left city life in Dunedin and swapped it for the wilderness of the Catlins Coast, the southeastern corner of the South Island thats still very remote and wildernessy, last last Saturday the 25th July. We found out how remote and wildernessy it actually was when we passed through villages of just a few houses and shops and when we realised our mobile phones were out of action for the entire 3 days it took us to travel though, though that wasn't really a big issue for me since I rarely get any text messages or phone calls these days *hint hint*!

Our 3 day tour of the Catlins Coast took us past some beautiful coastal scenery and we stopped along the way at many beaches and other places of interest. Tunnel Beach was one of our first stops and probably one of my favourites, a secluded beach that was accessed through a tunnel (a very apt, if not so imaginative name). We also stopped at Slope point, the most southerly point of the South Island and the Manuka Gorge Tunnel where we saw glow worms! Another one of my favourite stops was at the Petrified Forest by Curio Bay, where part of a forest was fossilised, certainly something you don't see everyday!

The Catlins Coast is known for its rare wildlife and we did get to see some more Yellow eyed Penguins (I'm beginning to think they're not as rare as people make out, we've now seen loads of them!) as well as a fair few Fur Seals. No Sea Lions though, much to our dismay, though we thought we saw one but it turned out to be a rather shapely rock. Maybe we'll get to see some on the North Island...

We made it to Invercargill last Monday and after 3 days of living in Charlie while we travelled through the Catlins, it was certainly good to get back to town life (can't quite call Invercargill a city), hot showers and warm beds!

Penguins, penguins and more penguins!

We left Oamaru on Tuesday and headed down the coast towards Dunedin, stopping at Moeraki along the way to see the famous boulders in the sea (though I think it would have been more impressive at low tide...) and for a spot of lunch. We were soon discovering that shops and restaurants don't like to open on a Monday or a Tuesday... which meant that we didn't get to try out Fleur's place in Moeraki, a restaurant recommended in the guidebook that was good for fresh seafood. Ah well.

We reached Dunedin in the late afternoon of Tuesday and found ourselves a new home next to the waterfront (and public toilets), I'm getting quite used to the whole living in a campervan! Although dusk does pose a slight problem for us, a few hours every evening when we're at a loss for things to do. Most of the time we huddle together in the campervan cooking dinner and then maybe read, but our little lantern isn't so bright so that idea is usually our last resort. Lately we've taken to watching movies on my laptop while snuggled up in our sleeping bags, definately the way forward. As Holly put it, we need more options to 'kill dark time'.

Our first day in Dunedin was spent doing highly touristy things, such as visiting the Cadbury factory (chocolate galore, though I must say, NZ chocolate really doesn't taste as good as UK chocolate), walking up the world's steepest street - it really was quite steep and tasting our way through the Speight's brewery beer range.

Yesterday we took a little day trip out to the Otago Peninsular which is famous for its penguin and albatross sightings. Also found on the peninsular is NZ's only castle... if you can call it that! But it did have a turret, so I guess it qualifies. We didn't get to see any Royal Albatross when we went to the Royal Albatross Centre, but at Penguin place, we did get to see a few blue penguins in nesting boxes and were mega lucky enough to watch around 6-10 yellow eyed penguins come up from the sea, at one point we were only 3-4 meters away from one!

Back on the road...

After a day of searching around, we found our future campervan last Monday at the local car market in Christchurch, a 1985 converted Toyota HiAce van with an interesting if somewhat bright paintwork... suffice to say I don't think we'll ever lose our van in a carpark! It took a few days to get it ready for us to take - it needed a full service and a few other things doing to it, but by Wednesday of last week it was officially ours!

And we were good to go.

Our first port of call was Akaroa, a little French settlement, a 1.5 hours drive east of Christchurch. The windy mountain roads were a challenge for Charlie (we named our campervan...) but he managed it and got us there safely. We spent our first night in Charlie that night, parked up near some public toilets near the iSite - it was certainly cosy with the 3 of us in our campervan bed, but it meant we got to keep warm... perhaps sleeping in our van during the winter months wasn't the best of ideas!

After Akaroa we headed back to Christchurch for a few hours to sort out a few things and then it was off to Lake Tekapo, the drive was beautiful - snow capped mountains lead the way to the lake, which we arrived at just as the sun was setting. Our 3rd night in the van was absolutely freezing, so we decided that we'd opt for a hostel the next night on Mount Cook, a fantastic idea considering the fact that the 3 of us hadn't showered since we left Christchurch 3 days earlier and when we arrived at Mount Cook Village, there was a good foot of snow on the ground. Hot showers, a full kitchen to cook in, being able to spread out in bed... the luxuaries of hostel life were not lost on us.

After Mount Cook we headed back towards the coast, stopping at a few little villages along the way (little being an understatement, Twizel was a village that was meant for demolition in 1984 and Omarama has a population of 360) before arriving at our current location of Oamaru - a quaint little historical town with beautiful old buildings and is famous for its blue and yellow eyed penguin colonies. Earlier today we visited the Whitestone Cheese factory and of course had a sample of their produce. The Whisky factory was unfortunately closed today but we did get to see some penguins of the blue and yellow eye-ed variety, which more than made up for it.

Tomorrow we leave Oamaru and head further south in search of more penguins, chocolate and beer.

Back to being unemployed... and loving it!

So after much eating, drinking and being merry on Friday night, myself and Stacy left our home of the past month or two (just over 5 weeks for me, about 2 months for Stace) and all the friends we'd made while staying at Leeways Backpackers in Blenheim to head back down to Christchurch to meet up with Holly! It was sad leaving Leeways, we'd both had many a memorable moments there and we really didn't want to have to pack up all our stuff (and there was a lot of it!) but it was definitely good walking into our new dorm room to be greeted by a familiar smiling face!

This morning we began our hunt for a campervan, as yet we've not found anything but there is a potential in the pipeline... Fingers crossed!

The end is in sight...

So tomorrow is my last day at work and I must admit, I'm a little bit sad that its all coming to an end, more so because it means we're leaving our hostel than finishing with work! This past week has probably been my best work wise, I'm a lot faster than I've ever been (I think that 3 day week I had last week did me wonders!), keeping up with most of the faster wrappers and I'm making pretty good money, probably averaging around NZ$150 a day this week, a far cry from my first week when I made just over $200! I did wonder whether I could make it to $200 a day if I continued, but I think my hands might give way before I got there, as it stands, I currently have no feeling in the tips of my fingers of my right hand... its probably a good thing we're not going to be working anymore and I'm certainly looking forward to not having to be around Mr. Supervisor everyday!

His most recent antics involved making me redo a row because I supposedly hadn't twisted the ties enough times, which came as a bit of a surprise to me since 1) he's never checked tie twist numbers before nor stressed the importance of twisting each tie 4 times and 2) the other supervisors had checked my work (inc tie twists) in the past and never had a problem with it, as well as cutting our working day short yesterday because he had a dentist appointment. Fair enough if it was work related, but going to the dentist it quite a personal issue and since we get paid per plant and not per hour, leaving early means less money can be made, suffice to say, we were not happy, especially since I could have made my $150 target if I'd had that extra hour. Anyhow... *breathe* One day left...

Tomorrow night the hostel will be having a mexican themed night as a joint leaving do for myself and Stacy and as a birthday dinner for one of the other guys in the hostel. The plan is lots of food and a drink.. or many! Then its time for myself and Stace to say our goodbyes and head to Christchurch to meet up with Holly (our friend who we used to work with back home, who'll hopefully have lots of chocolate goodies from England for us!) and buy ourselves a campervan. I think it might be too much to hope for that we'll be able to get a uber flash mobile home cheaply, but we're hoping to find something decent for a fair price. Fingers crossed!

Another weekend over

How is it already the weekend again? Infact, a better question to ask would be how is this weekend already nearly over?! Time seems to be speeding up over here, probably because life has become quite routine with working every day and chilling out in the evenings. 4 weeks working in the vineyards have now passed and I'm really looking forward to moving on at the end of next week, my poor hands could certainly do with a break from all the vineyard work!

This past week was a pretty slack week for me work wise as Monday was written off due to the rain and on Friday I took a self proclaimed day off...! It was certainly nice having a 3 day week though, especially since it meant that I didn't have to put up with listening to the rubbish my supervisior comes up with. An excerpt of the conversation we had on my second day at work, when he was talking to me about the wine industry in New Zealand went a little something like this (please note, this was after he'd trained me up for an hour or so the day before and knew I was from England and obviously fluent in English) :

Mr Supervisor: "Oh, your English is quite good."
Me: "You'd hope so, I was brought up in England."
Mr Supervisor: " Ah yes, thats right. Did you finish high school then?"
Me: "Erm... Yes... I graduated from uni a few years ago..."
Mr Supervisor: "Ah, no wonder you could understand the words I was using like 'niche'.."

ARGH!!! A lot of what he says is pedantic and patronising and its all I can do to bite my tongue and ignore whatever comes out of his mouth. I just have to keep telling myself that I have just one more week left... then I'm back to being a jobless bum again!

Oh, the bread I baked came out really well, I was most surprised and impressed that I even made a sundried tomato and olive bread yesterday. I don't think its quite my calling in life, but its certainly something I'll be doing on a regular basis from now on.

Rainy Monday

Usually, I hate rain. Having grown up in England, the land of rain, I'd rather there not be water falling from the sky. However, rainy days out here in vineyard world means no work, which is fine by me, I love 3 day weekends! Its a pity though that we actually had to turn up for work at 7am to then be told to go back home again...

So today I've actually got time to come to the library and tap into their free wifi and do a bit of catching up with the emails that I've been neglecting so badly for the past few weeks. Working 9-10 hours a day really doesn't leave you with much free time, so its been nice having this extra day off to do some things I've not had time to do lately.

This little town seems to be having a very strange effect on me, lately I've been doing things I never thought I would... like baking! Whoever knows me will know I'm not one for the kitchen, I'd rather do the washing up and cleaning than actually cook... but times are indeed changing! The past few weeks I've had a go at making scones (my first attempt turned out better than my second - so much for improvement with practice), cookies, a date loaf. Just sweet stuff for now, but its a start! With Stacy, I've made a few proper meals from scratch such as toad in the hole, cottage pie and I think later this week we'll be making pumpkin soup. Oh how my proud my mum will be of my new found kitchen skills! I think the hostel I'm staying in is partly to blame for this, a lot of people there like to bake and cook and its slowly being transfered to the likes of me! Its always fun to see what people are cooking and of course to have a little sample every so often!

Tonight I think I might attempt my first ever loaf of bread... I'll let you know how it goes.

Weekend, why art thou nearly over...?

Weekends have become like gold-dust to me now that I'm working again. The past year on the road has been like one long weekend, forever going to new places and doing new things, its been like one big holiday. But now that I'm back to being employed, its back to relishing the weekends!

2 weekends ago we had a party at the hostel, a rave themed full moon party which we all got dressed up for, hired out a UV light, decked out the shed, our place for fun and games, with brightly coloured beach items and drank our drinks out of buckets. You could almost have imagined you were in Koh Phangan at a full moon party... though perhaps without the full moon!

Last night we had a one glove party, as tribute to Michael Jackson, where we all wore one glove and spent the night playing drinking games. My glove of choice was an oven glove, certainly kept it interesting trying to pick up my glass!

Next weekend, mine and Stacy's last full weekend here, I think we might be having a mexican themed night, which'll should be interesting! Certainly a good way to spend our last weekend here, we just have to get through another long week at work first!

My life as a vineyard worker

Its been a good 2 weeks since I last wrote, I seem to have settled into life quite quickly over here, waking up at 6am 5 days a week to the freezing cold and having permanenly sore hands are all part of every day life for me now. I've been working in the vineyards for 3 weeks and I'm slowly getting better, this last week being my best yet, I even broke the $150 a day mark yesterday! My first week was pretty appauling, it rained a lot so we ended up having a few half days and I was very very slow, so my first pay cheque wasn't much to sing and dance about.

However, I just received my second week's pay and I did much better, almost doubling my first pay cheque (to be honest, it wasn't very hard!) so fingers crossed it only gets better from now on!

That said, I'll be glad when me and Stacy leave in 2 weeks time, my hands and back will certainly appreciate the break from vineyard work. We'll be heading back to Christchurch to meet up with a friend of ours who'll be joining us for a few months and hopefully by then we'll either have ourselves a nice little campervan, or will soon be buying one! Definitely looking forward to having a little place to call our own, our little house on wheels!

I'll be sad to leave the hostel we're in though, my current home away from home in New Zealand. There's a great group of people staying at the moment and hopefully we'll meet up again sometime in the future, whether it be back in our own home countries or somewhere else in the world!

A little something about vineyards

Marlborough, the area at the north of the South Island where I'm staying at the moment, is New Zealands largest wine producing region and there really are an awful lot of vineyards around. Apparently the wine made from this region is quite distinctive and popular and a lot of the vineyards in the area make profits in the million dollar region, which makes me think that perhaps I should look into owning a vineyard instead of working on one!


An awful lot goes on throughout the year on a vineyard and at the moment I'm working just after the harvest season has ended to get the vineyard ready for next year's growth. After all the grapes are harvested, the vines have to be pruned, stripped, trimmed and then wrapped, ready for the next year. As I mentioned in an earlier post, pruning, stripping and trimming are usually done by guys and girls usually do the wrapping, mainly because pruning and stripping are a lot more physically demanding than wrapping.


The vines, which after the harvest will consist of many canes, will be pruned to leave just 4-6 canes, which will then be stripped and trimmed of any extra leaves, etc and after that, they'll be wrapped along the wire trellis and fastened with a wire tie. Its quite time consuming work, each vineyard needing a pruning, stripping/trimming and wrapping team to finish off the harvest season. Its tough work, but pays good money if you're fast and attracts many holidaying backpackers who need to earn a little extra money to fund their travels.


Anyhow, this wasn't a very detailed description of vineyard work, but hopefully it'll give you all a better idea of what it all entails.

Day 2 on the job

So this morning I awoke super early (6am!) for day 2 of working in the vineyards, though we were uncertain whether the weather would hold out for a full day. But a few hours is better than nothing I guess.

My introduction into wrapping yesterday was quite brief and so today I got to put all I had learnt into action... suffice to say I'm still not very good and very very slow. For the 5 or so hours I worked this morning before the rain got too heavy, I managed a total of 1.5 rows (at the moment, a row consists of 84 vines) which I thought was pretty good, until I found out that other people were doing more than double that!! Fingers crossed I can speed up, otherwise I just might become unemployed again...!

Leaving Christchurch and back to the rat race...

After spending 3 freezing days in Christchurch, I decided it was time to move on and get back to life with Stacy. So last Thursday began with a ridiculously early start as I packed up all my belongings (including a few newly purchased warm clothes) and took a coach up north to one of the wine regions of the South Island to be reunited with Stacy.

The little hostel where Stacy had been staying for the past 2-3 weeks before I arrived and where I'd now also be staying is a great homely place about a 20min walk from the town centre. Currently full to capacity with long term backpackers, nearly all of whom work in the local vineyards to earn some money to fund their travels, there is a great feeling of comradery between the backpackers who live and work together as well as with the managers who live on site. After a long day at work and at the weekends you know you'll always find someone cooking or baking in the kitchen to chat to, a film playing in the tv lounge or a lazy moment in the shed, its definitely a great place to be when you're so far away from home.

My first few days were spent catching up with Stacy, getting to know the other backpackers in the hostel and looking for work. After spending nearly a year on the road, my bank account is in dire need of replenishing! Most of the work that travellers such as myself go into out here in New Zealand is seasonal work and the main such work in the area is working the many vineyards. There are 3 main vineyard jobs; pruning, stripping and wrapping, the latter usually given to girls - for what reason I'm not too sure.

Anyhow, after a lazy weekend I began my job hunting in earnest early yesterday morning when I followed Stacy to her pick up point at 6.45am for her job in the vineyards. Not much happened other than giving my name and phone number to a few places in the hope that they were looking for people to work, but later yesterday evening I got a call a contractor asking if I could start work tomorrow.

And so now I have a job wrapping grape vines! It was my first day today (although after 2 hours we were taken back to the pick up point because it was raining) and the work is very repetitive and tiring - tying between 2-4 stems of the grapevine to the wire trellis - however thats nothing my ipod can't fix! I've been told I'll get faster as I get more experienced and since we get paid per each vine we wrap, I'll hopefully be earning some good money soon. Fingers crossed!

Jetlag is not my friend!

Its certainly not fun when you can't sleep and right now, that is my current state. Even though I've been travelling for the past year, all of it has been throughout Asia and the time difference between countries has been minimal to none. So my sleep patterns were never really affected by moving around... until now that is!

New Zealand is only 4 hours ahead of Malaysia, yet it is enough to make me sleepy during the day and awake in the middle of the night. Tonight is only night 3 so I'm hoping this will pass soon enough, that said, tonight is my worst night yet, as its now 2am New Zealand time (10pm Malaysian time) and I'm yet to feel sleepy. Lets hope that an early start tomorrow morning will bring sleep to me at a decent time tomorrow night. Fingers crossed!

Return to the Western World

I'm slowly adjusting to being out of Asia, part of the world where I've spent the past 2 years living and travelling. It's only been 3 days but I'm getting there slowly. The climate for one is taking some getting used to, but thats nothing a coat and some warm clothes won't fix.

Being surrounded by native English speakers has taken a little getting used to, as everywhere I go I can understand conversations that are happening all around me as well as being able to read and understand all the signboards and shop names. I had become so used to not understanding a lot of what I hear (or read) when I was travelling through Asia that I now find myself evesdropping on other people's conversations! Its certainly nice being back in a land where I can make myself understood easily.

Life out here in New Zealand though is certainly more expensive than Asia and that's going to take a lot of getting used to. Not being able to eat for £2 a meal and have my money stretch like it did will be a hard one, but thankfully the British Pound still goes a fair way out here. Time to be a little more stringent with my money perhaps.

Crossing roads is like a dream come true out here. After the manic experiences of China and Vietnam of fearing for your life everytime you even think about crossing the road, or in Malaysia where there are random holes and open drains everywhere, or even Cambodia and Laos where the pavement and road are merged into one, when drivers obey traffic lights and having cars stop to let me cross here in New Zealand makes me want to weep for joy.

The land of the Kiwi

I parted ways with Danny in Melbourne and headed to Christchurch by myself that same night, the Jetstar flight much more comfortable than the AirAsiaX flight.. At least the AirAsia flight was cheap, thats one thing it has going for it!

Arriving in Christchurch late on the 1st, I was met by my brother at the airport who I hadn't seen in over a year! It was so good seeing him again and we spent much of the night catching up on what we'd each been up to and marveling in the fact that we were together again.

The next morning we headed to the Honey Pot Cafe on the corner of Manchester St. and Lichfield St, a cute little cafe that had a good selection of food, with large servings at a decent price for a late breakfast before my brother headed up to Auckland, our reunion only fleeting! After he left I spent the day strolling around Christchuch and doing some much needed errands; opening a bank account, applying for a tax number and obtaining a New Zealand phone number - which were all surprisingly easy to do!

New Zealand is currently coming into their winter months and its absolutley freezing down here in Christchuch! Bit of a shock to the system after being in Malaysia where the average daily temperature was above 30 degrees C. Alas, it is only going to get colder so I think its about time I invested in a warm coat.. which can only mean one thing, its shopping time!

Back on the road

With my packing finally complete and the apartment tidy, it was time to leave KL. Having lived there on and off for the past 6 months I was really reluctant to leave, it had been great getting to know my relatives better and having a proper base where I wasn't living out of a backpack! However, it was time to move on to pastures new...

So I left KL last night on an AirAsia X flight to Melbourne, my second time on an AirAsiaX plane (Airbus) and I still stand by my view that they aren't very comfortable! The seats don't recline and they didn't even have a TV on this plane, at least on the last AirAsiaX flight I took (KL to Hangzhou, China) there were screens and the option of paying for a film to watch. However, despite the uncomfortable seats I did manage to sleep a little with the help of my new purchase - a travel pillow! My travel pillow wasn't my only purchase at the KL LCCT airport, I also managed to get my hands on a pair of those pinhole glasses I recently found out about! Will give them a go soon, lets see if I can actually improve my eyesight from wearing them.

Anyhow, I arrived at Melbourne International Airport this morning and I choose to leave my bags in storage and head downtown for the 6 hours I had before I checked in for my flight to Christchurch, seemed like a better option than sitting at the airport all day, especially since wireless internet connection isn't free - very cheeky!

It was my first time in Melbourne and even though I only had a few hours I absolutely loved it. I started off my mini excursion with a trip on the free city circle tram, after which I did a little exploring on foot. Its been very strange being out of the humidity and heat of Malaysia, I've been travelling in tropical climates for nearly a year now and the coolness of Melbourne has been very refreshing. I hear its a lot colder in Christchurch at the moment, not sure if I'll like that too much!

And so now I wait to board for my flight to Christchuch. It was just a fleeting visit in Melbourne today but I'll definitely be coming back again!

3 days and counting...

So less than 3 days now unti I leave KL and I'm beginning to panic that I'm not going to get everything done in time. Even though I've been away from home for so long now (nearly 2 years) I'm still useless at packing and always end up bringing a bunch of stuff I don't ever use. However, this time I'm determinded to only bring essentials and to have a half empty backpack (for future purchases!), but somehow that's easier said than done.

That said, I am doing good on my plan to meet up with some of my relatives before I leave, so thats a start. Earlier today I went over to see my grandma and uncles family in Klang, a town on the outskirts of KL and tomorrow I'm meeting up with my mum's youngest brother's family and also an aunt on my dad's side. Anyone else will just have to wait until I'm next back in Malaysia, which hopefully won't be too long a wait.

I don't think I'll be able to update my travelblog website too much more before I leave KL on Sunday, which is a shame because my aim was to get up to date - perhaps I was aiming too high! I've only added one new post in the past month or so and I'm still 9 (soon to be 10) countries behind...!!

Today, though, I did discover something new and very exciting! Well, I found it very exciting, not sure if anyone else would! While browsing a local drugstore, similar to that of Boots and Superdrug back home in England, Danny came across a pair of pinhole glasses that were for sale on the pharmacy counter. He said they were for helping to improve eyesight and I just laughed, thinking how could a pair of very stupid looking glasses (imagine black sunglasses with a loads of holes in the lens) help improve eyesight. That was until I took my own glasses off and put the pinhole ones on... and tada!! I could see!! Well, maybe not perfectly, but I could still see much better than without my glasses. Apparantly, with regular use they can actually help improve eyesight. I think I just might buy myself a pair if I see them again in the shops.

Diamonds really are a girl's best friend

Earlier today I treated myself to a facial, not something that I'm really into, but one of the beauty salons near where I'm staying in KL are currently doing an offer for a Diamond Peel Facial, RM88 instead of their usual price of RM288, so how could I refuse?!

So I booked myself an appointment and off I went. I wasn't really sure what to expect, all I had been told when I booked myself an appointment was that its a type of MicroDermabrasion facial and it'd take around 90-120 mins, which to me, the novice facial go-er, sounded like quite a long time!

The actual diamond peel procedure was over pretty quickly, after cleansing my face with 2 different types of cleanser, a wand tipped with diamond particles (although who knows if it actually was since I didn't get to see it!) that was attached to what I can only imagine was a vacuume machine was passed lightly over the skin of my face. It felt like very fine sandpaper but didn't hurt and wasn't unpleasant. After the beautician did half of my face she handed me a mirror and asked if I could see the difference between the side that had been done and the one that hadn't. I hate to admit, I couldn't really see a striking difference, but the side that had been done felt a lot softer, so that was a start! The rest of the time was taken up by more cleansing, an eyebrow clean up (that was not included in the package), a relaxing massage followed by a tingly facemask and a bit of a tone and moisturise.

Based on the fact that I couldn't see much of a difference when she handed me the mirror earlier in the procedure I didn't have high hopes for the results of the facial. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find my skin much clearer, brighter and just looking a lot healthier! Definately RM88 well spent (by the way, RM88 is around £15).

So while I was on a roll, I decided to get my hair cut! And now not only do I have a radiant looking face, I'm also sporting a shorter more conditioned hairdo. Not bad for a days work.

Hot Hot Heat!!

Kuala Lumpur is currently in the middle of a heat wave. Yes, I know that sounds somewhat ironic; Malaysia, a country on the equator with a tropical humid climate has heat waves? But it's true and one is happening right now. Its been averaging around 35 degrees C for over the past week, crazy humidity thats not doing my hair any favours and lightening storms nearly every day... but no rain. Where is the rain?! Never thought I'd hear myself ask that question!

Even the locals are wondering whats going on with the recent weather we've been having out here. If they find it hot, can you imagine how I'm coping?! Aircon on full blast while sitting in skimpy shorts and vest tops, sipping ice cold drinks isn't always enough to stave off the heat. Though saying that, I know that when I get to New Zealand in a little over a week I'll be complaining non stop about how cold it is and how I wish I was in hot Malaysia sweating away. Some people are never happy.

Hawker centres and Ice wine

After spending almost 6 months on and off in Kuala Lumpur, the time has finally come to leave and even though I'm looking forward to moving on to pastures new, I'm also very sad to be leaving what I've been calling home my second home. It's been fantastic living here in my family apartment, experiencing Malaysian life as a local and getting to know the relatives I only saw for a few weeks every couple of years when I was growing up.

With just less than a week to go before I leave, my lazy days of hiding from the relentless heat are over and have been replaced with lists of things to do in order to get myself organised for the next leg of my travels, heading to New Zealand to meet up with Stacy, my travel buddy since last June who is already over there. I've still got a fair few things to do and relatives I need to say goodbye to but its all coming together nicely and I know I'll get most, if not all of it done.

The first of my farewells occured last night when myself and Danny went to dinner with my surrogate parents out here, aka my Aunty Kuan and Uncle Min as well as my cousins to a local hawker centre, Asia Cafe, one of my favourite places to dine in the area. And with such a large choice of local food there, who could blame me?! After feasting on dim sum and wonton noodles we all headed to another food centre for some roti tisu, a new dish I only discovered a few months ago and has fast become one of my favourite desserts. I'm glad I started going to the gym recently because all this food hasn't been good for my waistline!

Back in the apartment after dinner I tasted my first ever sip of Ice Wine, a very yellow sweet dessert wine while we watched Man on Wire, a documentary about Philippe Petit's amazing tight rope walk betwen the Twin Towers in 1974. Saying goodbye, especially to my cousins as I probably won't see them again before I leave, is always hard but after the past year or so of travelling I'm slowly getting used to it and I know we'll all be seeing each other again soon.

Welcome to my alternative blog, the one I hope to keep up to date with...

Yesterday, to my great delight I discovered that Wikipedia has an entry on 'Chindians', individuals of mixed Chinese and Indian heritage. And there was me thinking myself and my brother were the only ones of our kind in the world! Actually, I did know better. Infact, I've come across one or two in my time, though its always exciting to know that there are more of us out there, we're still quite a minority group in the real world.

Anyhow, I digress. Discovering that Wikipedia article helped me to finally come up with a name for this blog, something I'd been pondering for a while but couldn't quite make up my mind about. I've been quite lax with the current travel blog that I have up and running, 9 months and as many countries behind, I've come to realise it might just take me a while to catch up, so while I'm doing so, I thought I'd have a bash at a new blog. Why start a new blog if I can't even keep up with my other one I hear you ask?! Good question, one that I don't really have a proper answer to other than the fact that I wanted one!

New changes are ahead and what better way to document this than with a new blog?!