The End

We certainly an awesome break, although now our thoughts turn to what comes next! Enjoyed a few luxury days in Dubai. It was certainly a shock to get on a plane in Dubai mid 30 degrees and land at Heathrow where it was 4 degrees! Shorts and T-Shirts felt very out of place suddenly. It will probably take us a couple of weeks to recover. Next steps are to find somewhere to live in Jersey! Thanks for reading the blog, and we are both looking forward to catching up with everyone in the near future!

Dubai - We are going to like it here!

It was an eight hour flight from Bangkok, because we were going via Mumbai. The flight was pleasant although not as good as the other business class flights. We arrived to a very warm 32 degrees (at 11pm!) which was very pleasant, although I guess it will be sweltering tomorrow in the daytime. Splashed out on these last couple of days in Dubai and booked a nice room in a nice hotel. Nice limousine transfer from the airport (which was very modern and tidy) to the hotel. Imagine us with jeans and T-shirts and small backpacks on with sandals tied to them! The other guests were wearing shirts and jackets and had "proper" luggage. We had a rather pompous couple looking down at us as we reached the check-in desk before them. That's when we had the last laugh when we were directed to the Executive check-in desk and they were all left queuing. Shame they couldn't see us sat down with our complimentary welcome drinks relaxing while being checked in!

All joking aside the room is great and there is lots of complimentary items: Fast internet (although our VOIP Skype is actually illegal in Dubai!?!?), Hermes toiletries, free breakfast in the "Club lounge", free afternoon tea, free canapes and evening drinks at happy hour, etc.

Well, we have to make the most of these last few days of our honeymoon, as it won't be long before we hit the ground at Heathrow with a bump!

Bangkok - Leaving so soon?

Ok, so actually we have just arrived in Dubai but felt a little guilty that we hadn't even mentioned Bangkok at all. Spent a pleasant three days there but mainly stayed in the hotel. The hotel was very nice but after the luxury of the resort in Phuket it was always going to feel like a bit of a letdown. We ate very well at the enormous buffets. We had a nice river view from the room, although the brown, muddy river is not much to look at. It is interesting seeing the amount of traffic using it though. Still amazed at how nice the new Bangkok airport is!

Phuket - Blue Pool

Typical just on the day before we leave we find another pool hiding on the resort. The blue pool was another enormous pool with a great swim-up bar under a waterfall, and an even wider selection of bar food!

Phuket - Last Day

Well we really did just spend five nights in one place, enjoying the lovely grounds, pools, facilities, restaurants, beach of one hotel resort in Phuket. It was great to just relax in idyllic surroundings after all the moving around of the trip. Left today and flex through a monster electrical storm to Bangkok, an ominious welcome! Landed safely at the gigantic, brand new Bangkok airport and had a straightforward transfer to our hotel on the banks of the Chao Phraya River with a great view from the sixteenth floor.

Phuket - Suprise visitor from the front

Phuket - Part of the pool

About one third of the main pool, it is enormous.

Phuket - Suprise Visitor

Its not every day you see a baby elephant climbing the steps into the hotel. Imagine us lying on our sunbeds suddenly looking up to see this! It turns 0ut it was expected and was there to give some of the young children a ride on the beach. Enjoyed a gorgeous breakfast in the hotel this morning. A buffet encompassing just about anything with a tenuous link to breakfasts somewhere in the world! Sat outside on the balcony and enjoyed the view of the Andaman Sea. The temperature is a lovely 32 degrees with some lovely swimming pools dotted around. Vicky was most impressed with the constant supply of water, cold towels and fruit brought to us while relaxing in the sun.

Thailand - Phuket safe and sound

Well after some great fun, lots of lovely food and good company we have left Tokyo. Our favourite moment probably in one of the restaurants with a grill on your table, Chris ordered a big selection of meats but initially all that came out was a gigantic plate of tongue!! After just about getting through it all, out came the "normal" meats. Chickened out a little getting to Narita airport, using a hotel shuttle bus rather than braving the indecipherable train ticket machines again.

Anyway we flew Japan Airlines this time from Tokyo to Bangkok. The lounge in Tokyo was one of the best but although the flight was really nice it wasn't as good as Cathay Pacific or British Airways, probably on par with Qantas. Bangkok airport was completely new, really tidy, straightforward to get around with a great dining hall. We transferred to another plane, and flew to Phuket, back to economy for that one. It seemed the whole plane was a little apprehensive at every judder coming into land, with the recent plane crash here, but it was fine. What a lovely suprise when we got to the hotel though. It is absolutely stunning. Our first glimpse was a huge reception area lit by flaming torches after we got out of the hotel chaffeured Mercedes, complete with very aggressive aircon and some bottles of water and ice cold towels. We are going to love it here for the next five days before heading back to Bangkok. Hopefully we will get some great photos but right now, for the first time, it really feels like a honeymoon.

Tokyo - 5 months of marriage!

Tokyo - Temple

Japan - Tokyo

Arrived in Tokyo after a lovely flight on Cathay Pacific. Had written some brief notes on how to get to the hotel but we weren't expecting the sheer complexity of the railway station at the airport. Some signs were in English, most were Japanese which means you can't even have a guess at what it says. It also doesn't help that there were three rail companies all travelling different routes. The underground and overground rail system for Tokyo is immense and completely dwarfs the London Underground for number of lines and stations. We finally picked a company and managed to get a ticket to Shimagawa Station very close to the hotel where we are staying. The journey was quick and very punctual after we had worked out which numbers on the ticket were the carriage number and which were the seat numbers.

Anyway we arrived at the station and were pretty suprised at the number of people everywhere. It really seems to be constantly busy. We managed to find the hotel after a few false starts (including ending up on the fourth floor of the wrong hotel, unable to find a way out). We got offered an upgrade to one of the sister hotels across the road which was great, the room is fantastic and the hotel is really nice.

Next stop we met up with Chris (Lee's friend since junior school) and went out for a great JApanese meal. Chris having been here for two years was ordering in Japanese and translating the menu for us like a pro. The restaurant was great with very low tables with a hollow space underneath to put your legs, also you had to take your shoes off. The selection of food was great and Vicky found one dish really to her taste. She thought it was a really tasty beef but it turned out to be the horse steak!! It was gorgeous. Next day we visited the shopping districts, a temple to see some of the old fashioned Japan, and some more great Japanese restaurants. Yoko and Chris also kindly took us out on the night to a Karoke place in Roppongi, where we hired a room and had a really fun couple of hours singing (more like screaming or shouting in some cases). We finished off with a visit to an English style pub and watched England beat Australia (Oh why couldn't we still be in Australia or New Zealand for those rugby results!!)

Today, nursing some pretty significant hangovers, Chris took us to Kamakura where we visited more temples and went to the beach and watched the hundreds of surfers and windsurfers. The streets and trains were absolutely jammed with people, although everyone has been very friendly, everything is really clean and tidy, everyone seems to be very polite and it feels an extremely safe city, even late at night. Pictured are Chris and Yoko.

Hong Kong - Hot and sweaty

Taking a quick stopover in Hong Kong on our way from Auckland to Tokyo. We had a lovely flight on Cathay Pacific and landed in Hong Kong at around 9pm. The temperature was still a hot and humid 28 degrees! Certainly a bit warmer than the Winter weather we have been enjoying in New Zealand. We took the Airport Express train into Hong Kong City and walked to our hotel, sweltering even in the late evening. First impressions were great, the city looked exciting with skyscrapers everywhere all lit up at night. The people seemed friendly and all announcements and signs were in English and Chinese. Checked in to another great boutique 5 star in a lively district right in the middle of it all.

Enjoyed the harbour tour today, still staggering to see the number of skyscrapers everywhere! We also checked out some of the shopping. The IFC mall was gigantic and filled with all the expensive designer shops. Enjoyed our day in Hong Kong and would like to come back to check out more of the sights. Early start tomorrow as we head off to Tokyo.

Waitomo Cave - Caravan park last night of fun

Waitomo caves were fantastic, the highlight was a boat ride through a giant cavern in complete darkness, and all around were glow-worms (over 5000 of them) lighting up the cave roof as if they were stars. The spooky dripping and splashing in complete darkness certainly made it an atmospheric trip although we weren't allowed to take photos.

This is our last night in the playbus and we celebrated, looking forward to staying in a five star hotel in the centre of Auckland for the next couple of nights. Lee below enjoying the trampoline at the campsite.

Waitomo Caves - Scenery from National Park

Waitomo Caves - Waterfall by the side of the road

Waitomo Caves - Driving through National Park

More driving! Drove through a couple of National Parks to Waitomo Caves, we will actually go and visit the caves tomorrow. The drive up was certainly exciting with parts of the road completely washed away into the river down below and a new rough diversion made across fields. We drove through some gorgeous scenery (again!), in particular we drove past Mt Rupaheu and could see from a distance the mess that the eruption had left. Ski fields up there are back open although some pistes close to the summit are closed in case there is more activity in the next day or two.

Wanganui - Heading back to Auckland

Well we drove through the wine-making region of Marlborough back on our way to catch the ferry at Picton headed for the North Island. On arriving at the ferry terminal there was a big sign saying that the crossing was expected to be "Heavy". We laughed at it as we drove past and onto the bigger ferry this time. As last time we decided to go and watch a film in the cinema. In this ship the cinema was actually on Deck2 below the car and truck decks. So there we were in darkness watching an action movie when the boat started to really go up and down. This really was like being on a rollercoaster in the dark with a loud action movie on. Anyway a couple of people left to throw up but we managed to make it through, although we were both very relieved to get out the cinema at the end. So we climbed the steps to take us back to Deck10 with some really large movement and thats when we noticed people throwing up, people lying down in the corridors with blankets on, a sick bay with announcements for doctors and nurses on board, people braving the waves outside to get fresh air. We survived without getting sick although we both felt very glad to get off the ship when it finally docked after three hours.

Next we drove up from our campsite to stay in Wanganui about half way between Wellington and Waitomo Caves our next destination. On the front of the newspaper was Mt Rupaheu, the first active volcano that we went snowboarding on a couple of weeks ago. There had been a small eruption at night with some small injuries! Crazy to see the pictures of the crater with mud, ash and fresh craters around it. We shall be driving past it again on our way to Waitomo Caves so perhaps we'll get a photo. Up to 4100km now in the playbus.

Kaikoura - Campsite

Continuing to head North we reach Kaikoura and decided to spend a couple of nights in a campsite here right by the beach. Seemed a lovely location with nice facilities, it was only when we settled in that we realised about 20 feet directly behind our pitch on the other side of a wire fence is a railway track for goods trains, worse it seems to be just before a signal because the trains wait right behind us revving their engines for 15-30 minutes. Oh yes and when the trains aren't there you realise that just on the other side of the rail track a couple of hundred metres away is a helicopter landing sight with 3 helicopters. The van shakes when they are taking off and the noise makes you wonder if they are actually flying over the van or into it!

All part of the fun! At least they have some internet access!

Mt. Hutt - Snowboarding

Heading back North on the East side this time back up to Picton to catch our ferry back to the North Island. Stopped in a very small village called Glentunnel to spend a day snowboarding at Mt. Hutt one of the bigger resorts in the South Island. The village only had one shop, which was also a gas station, except it only had one pump, with only unleaded gasoline (no diesel or leaded). We watched someone trying to fill up a car with it, it took five minutes to put two or three dollars worth of petrol in, it would have been quicker sucking it up in a straw!

Back to Mt. Hutt, another hair-raising access road, not as outright scary as Treble Cone but 17km of it so around twice the length. Like all access roads here, it is just a dirt road, hanging right on the side of the mountain with a massive drop down, and no barriers or markings or anything distinguishing the edge of the road, except for a giant drop. You can see the road on one of the photos. For part of the road you are on the top of the ridge line exposed to the wind and a drop on either side of the road. They close the road for strong winds, the 70-80km/h gusts we had were almost strong enough to close it, which would have meant a night up the mounain. Fortunately the road was clear of snow although apparently the locals say the road is much smoother after snow!!!MAD. Gale force winds on top of the mountain but the pistes were great with lots of dry powder, uncrowded friendly slopes and some great jumps scattered about.

Mount Cook - The Cloud Piercer

Took a day trip today to see Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand. It truly was magnificent, snow capped with glaciers below. We took one of the short walks from Mt Cook Village to get a closer look at the mountain and the glaciers. Next to the mountains was another of those bright blue lakes, blue from the rock that has been ground down and carried to the lake by the glacial water. It rivalled the blue lakes of Canada; Lake Louise and Moraine Lake.

Omarama - Different Scenery

Drove a fairly long drive from Te Anau back up North to Omarama near Mt. Cook. Actually on the other side of Mt. Cook to the glacier that we went exploring on earlier. The weather was lovely and warm and we stopped off in Cromwell for a pub lunch, sat outside in the sun, remember this is Winter and it was almost 20 degrees. Barely saw another car or van on the five hour journey and enjoyed the scenery. Off tomorrow to see Mt. Cook the highest mountain in New Zealand, hoping that we have another sunny day.

Te Anau - Te Anau Lake on an evening stroll

Te Anau

We have seen lambs just about everywhere, with 40 million sheep in New Zealand I guess that is not unexpected. Vicky finally got to play with them using bribery.

Milford Sound - under a waterfall

Milford Sound - Mitre Peak

The white tipped mountain in the background is the Mitre Peak named because it looks like a Bishop's Mitre (hat).

Milford Sound - One of the many waterfalls

The captain of the boat took us right under lots of the waterfalls where Vicky and I got soaked standing on the bow of the boat, with the sun and spray there were rainbows everywhere. One of the waterfalls we were under was about 2.5 times the height of Niagara Falls although a lot narrower or we would have been even more drenched.

Milford Sound

Milford Sound

The mountains popping out of the sea here should more correctly be called fjords because they were carved by glaciers rather than old flooded river valleys like Marlborough Sounds. Being carved by a glacier the sides of the moutains were extremely steep but still had trees clinging on and waterfalls popping out everywhere. The cliffs were gigantic, again scale is deceptive here, but some of the cliffs were twice the height of the Empire States Building.

Te Anau - Mirror Lake

Took a coach trip and cruise to Milford Sound today from our base in Te Anau. This is mirror lake and it is quite clear why it is called that. On the way to the Sound we saw plenty more snow-capped mountains with most of the windy road having warning signs about avalaunches. It is also compulsory to carry snow chains in the Winter. It turned out to be a gorgeous summer day. Milford Sound rains more than anywhere in New Zealand but we turn up on a sunny day! It meant we had a lovely cruise getting wet on deck from the spray from the waterfalls but drying quickly in the sun. It did mean we missed out on the spectacular waterfalls that appear on every cliff face after a good rainfall.

Queenstown - Views as we crossed mountains from Wanaka

Queenstown- Coronet Peak

We have spent a couple of days in Queenstown which has not been as big or touristy as we expected although maybe that is because it is Winter. Certainly every type of adrenalin sport seems to be on offer here with multiple variations on the bungee theme. We spent a great day snowboarding on Coronet Peak and hope to have a go at the Remarkables tomorrow. It is great getting to see lots of mountain scenery while snowboarding. After tomorrows snowboarding it will be back to sighseeing for a little while as we head further South to Te Anau.

Wanaka - Cardrona

The following day we tried out Cardrona, more of the same, great wide pistes with very few people and awesome powder. There was also a very large terrain park where Lee got a lesson to practice his jumping skills. Another lovely sunny day.

Wanaka - Treble Cone

First of a couple of days snowboarding, and what a place to start. Treble cone, which has a very scary, unsealed and very corrugated road leading up to the skiing area., was awesome. The views were magnificent with very steep slopes giving great views of the surrounding mountains and lakes. The slopes were pretty empty, the snow was great powder and we had a great day in the sun.

Wanaka - Treble Cone

Haast Pass - More scenery

Haast Pass - Lake Wanaka

Haast Pass - Great scenery

After a great day on the glacier we had a long drive South to Wanaka, only a couple of hundred kilometres but through some very windy mountain passes which took quite a while. Up to about 2500km now just in NZ in the playbus. The scenery was particularly pretty travelling on another sunny day through the mountains, with a couple of walks on the way to see more waterfalls. We travelled past the giant Lake Wanaka with great views of the snow capped mountains behind.