We had a couple of days to chill out in Quito. We´d heard it was pretty unsafe but we took the usual precautions and didn´t have any problems. Thought it was a much nicer city than Lima, which was so smoggy you could barely make out the buildings on the other side of the street. On Friday morning we were flown to Baltra airport in the Galapagos Islands, and then bussed down to the sea and told to board an inflatable zodiac thing (while the other passengers got on board a ferry!) which took us out to our boat. We´d booked [View Full Entry]

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We had a few days to relax and acclimatise in Cusco before we were due to start the Inca Trail. Luckily we didn´t have any real problems with altitude sickness but noticed that we were quickly out of breath when walking up stairs. We explored the Sacsayhuaman ruins, from which there are great views looking over Cusco. Before we were scheduled to start the Inca Trail I was up half the night with a gastro bug. I felt terrible in the morning and was considering cancelling the trek, but Caleb drugged me up and persuaded me to get onto the bus [View Full Entry]

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The day after we managed to hit 4 different countries in 1 day on our way to Peru, we boarded another aeroplane and arrived in the hot humid Puerto Maldonado. We were staying at Sandoval Lake Lodge which is a little off the beaten track - so we got picked up from the airport, picked out some gumboots, bussed to the river, went on a motorised boat down the river for half an hour and then had to put on the gumboots for the 3km of walking along a muddy trail to reach the lake. Saw a sloth, some massive blue [View Full Entry]

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After Qantas had changed our flight times, we ended up in the unfortunate situation of flying into Alice Springs, picking up a rental car and, after having picked up a car load full of snacks, driving for 5 hours to get to Kings Canyon! It turned out that with a standard rental car, we weren't allowed to drive on the unsealed roads between Alice Springs and Kings Canyon so we had to take a longer detour. In hindsight, obviously it wasn't the best plan, but I guess we can add boring outback driving to our list of life experiences... and it [View Full Entry]

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After the wedding we went to Aitutaki and Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. We stayed in a little thatch roofed villa at a boutique resort called Etu Moana, which was great. We used the resort's bicycles to go to the shop on the island for regular chocolate supplies and to neighbouring hotels etc for our meals (since we could only get breakfast at our resort) including a couple of Island nights (which seem to happen every couple of days). There was neat snorkelling at the beach in front of our hotel (including a blue starfish) and it was nice and warm [View Full Entry]

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Caleb was bound for Tasmania for work and seeing as how I didn't have a job (at the time) I opted to tag along with big ideas of travelling around the whole island for the full 3 days we had and seeing masses of wildlife along the way (Tasmania has Tasmanian Devils, wombats, wallabies, kangaroos, quolls, pademelons platypus, penguins, seals as well as lots of birds). I was a little concerned about what I'd got myself in for when my TINY plane finally arrived at the not-much-bigger Devonport airport and I had to retrieve my suitcase not from a conveyor belt [View Full Entry]

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On a potential search for a wedding venue (and for a wee holiday) Caleb and I flew into Christchurch, rented a car, and started our journey. We visited Waipara and Akaroa, and then headed down to Lake Tekapo (where we saw the Church of the Good Shepherd and some amazing scenery) and Mount Cook. We went on a few walks at Mount Cook - up the mountain was the best... ok just kidding we didn't climb Mount Cook. We walked to see Hooker Lake and Hooker Glacier and the Tasman Glacier. Not as impressive after my climbing Mount Cook joke [View Full Entry]

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We took a trip back up to Himeji, this old castle in Japan. It is the most visited Japanese castle and the main tower dates back to 1601. Inside the tower required great concentration and co-ordination in order to climb the steep small staircases between floors without losing your slippers! We went for a day trip to Miyajima, an island famous for its floating shrine and floating torii (gate) out in the water. Like Nara, there were many deer wandering around the island. There were also apparently monkeys near the top of the cable car ropeway but the ropeway was out [View Full Entry]

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We went down to Fukuoka (on Kyushu, the bottom island) to catch up with Shino for the public holiday. She took us to the Tochoji Temple (with pictures of 12 different hells and a scary tunnel where you are supposed to rely on Buddha to guide you out), Hakata Michiya Folk Museum and Kushida Shrine. At a place by the museum you could see how the obi part of kimonos were made on these hard-out wooden machines and the people working them let us have a go. The Shrine still had the remnants of the Setsuban festival, and also a big [View Full Entry]

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We went to Kyoto and were staying at a Ryokan - a traditional Japanese guesthouse - called Heianbo. We were a bit freaked out that it might be a bit too traditional (squat toilet, small uncomfortable futon etc) but it turned out to be really nice. We found Kyoto a bit weird though - the public transport system revolved around buses and the places that we wanted to visit were quite far away. Also, when we tried to walk places we got lost in the massive railway station or the small little crooked streets etc. We did visit Toji Temple with [View Full Entry]

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