http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Jonandjacky/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Jonandjacky en-us Sat, 28 Nov 2009 11:11:40 +0000 Sat, 28 Nov 2009 11:11:40 +0000 After a long journey we finally return home to a friendly dog and a pile of post. Although tired and jetlagged we have stories to tell and it'll be great to fill you in on all of those when we catch up with you all. Cheers for reading this hope you enjoyed it and we'll leave you with a final quote we picked up whilst we were away. I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/West-Midlands/Birmingham/blog-307897.html On the last leg of the trip now but are certainly going to make the most of the 4 days in San Fran Pretty much landed and hit the town straight away in a mood to shop shop shop and boy did we The streets are lively and the buildings are high there is only a population of around 800000 people only half of them seem to have a crazy imaginary friend that they shout at constantly. Theres won http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Francisco/blog-307756.html Come with us on a journey through time spaceWe have just realised that we are time travelersBasically the way our flight times work with our time differences we leave Auckland at 19.30 today and arrive at San Fran at 12.45 today.... so even though when we get on the plane and have time for evening meal 2 films a quick single malt complimentary to knock us out 1 sleep a breakfa http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/blog-304536.html We had around 4 days to spend in Auckland the first night being in the van and then we upgrade to a real bed A bit of a change being in the city with a mix of cultures it wasn't that different to a European city. We've walked the streets drank the coffee and ate the cake and Jacky discovered a nice little Belgium bar serving her a kilo of Mussels in curry sauce so she was happy. Museums and http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Auckland/blog-304228.html Only about a week left in the van but still a fair bit of NZ to cover. We're spending a few days in Rotorua as it seems like quite a central place to do stuff from. The plan is to visit an island with active volcano's on but it is weather dependent..... so we're not holding out too much hope. Headed for the tourist information and now have leaflets Kat C you would be impressed and tickets for t http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-302536.html Arriving in the small town of Waitomo it was already very wet but we figure that we were going caving so we were getting wet anyway. The selection of trips you can do here is amazing but we settled on one with the legendary black river rafting company. We got up nice and early and headed down to the caves to meet our guides and get kitted up. Most of the morning I spent reminding Jacky that this http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Waitomo-Caves/blog-302053.html It was Jackys influence that made us visit Napier but I have to admit that when I heard about the wine tours I was swayed myself obviously for the wine knowledge I would gain. Napier is a city but appears more like a small town from the 1930's. Having suffered a major earthquake followed by severe sweeping fires the place was replanned and rebuilt by 4 archetects with an interest in Art Deco. http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Napier/blog-301300.html Had a quick stop over on our way to catch the ferry to the north island at these limestone pancake formations. We've not seen anything like these before and thought they were pretty cool. Naturally formed through hard soft layering formations of limestone. The sea has worn away a lot of the soft layers creating the jagged structures as well as blow holes which look impressive when the sea lashes http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Punakaiki/blog-301295.html Having driven around 8 hours in the rain only to camp up in rain and then to hear that a lightening strike had hit the town we held out little hope of being able to do the helicopter trip onto Franz Josef Glacier that we had booked for the following day. But Mr Sunshine was truly on our side when we woke up in the morning. Having never been in a helicopter we were rather excited and it was not a d http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Franz-Josef/blog-301292.html Arrived in Queenstown and armed with a 3 day snowboard pass a credit card for anything that does not suffice Booked ourselves into a jetboat experience well if it was good enough for Peter Jackson then its good enough for us.... and it was.Whole hearted bloomin good fun only way I can explain it is like a watery waltzer lots of speed lots of giggles and a heated hand rail what more c http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Queenstown/blog-297408.html Made a swift exit from Mount Hutt as the weather turned windy and the slopes were closed. Decided to head south to Dunedin via the Moeraki boulder. Basically they are maltesers that have been left over from a giant giants party.... too much sea weed cider. No only joking actually they are naturally formed through erosion of mudstone cliffs literally as the sea hits the cliffs it erodes the so http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Dunedin/blog-295467.html Still loving the van gives that bit more freedom that traveling from hostel to hostel does not offer....but boy we've brought our bad weather luck with us remember Kath when we were in Mexico and it was their coldest winter ever well we've done it again snow showers and roads closed at the moment. Managed to get out snowboarding a few days ago at a place called Mount Hutt the weather was lo http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Methven/blog-295460.html Kiora NZ for hello. Took a slow but winding journey in the new van power steering is a wonderous invention Camping up at a fancy camp site for the first couple of nights electirc hook up...so heat in the van good job because it was 2C in the night showerslaundry and got ourselves booked in for a complimentary hot tub hopefully with views of the mountains surrounding in the next half ho http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Kaikoura/blog-293784.html Got into a chilly Christchurch but face it it is there winter so we expected nothing less Stayed in a youth hostel in a part of the city that looked like a cross between OxfordCambridgeNorthern Exposure The TV series. Very quite very wet but very pretty. We just straight away felt at home here and the people are lovely. We had two days to just wander around the city acclimatising ourselve http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Christchurch/blog-293776.html Across the continent now into Melbourne only a flying visit to drop in on Jon's cousin as you do. Only here for a few days but literally having got ourself from the airport to our hostel we took ourself out on a day trip to see fairy penguins miss walker you should have been there. The day tour took in a few of the touristy things starting the day with a wine tour lovely. We then went onto a http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/blog-292361.html Only a day and a half in Singapore boy did we misplan that one Yes yes we know its a built up City and so should be hectic chaotic and too tall and yes it kind of is..... but its so well designed. They call it fine city so you can't spit hold hands litter or eatdrink on the tube but for all that theres a level of respect yes based on fines and for many people reading this living in ou http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Singapore/Singapore-Zoo/blog-291946.html We arrived a few days ago in what our book described as a sleepy little fishing village called Semporna. The book was quite wrong and the place itself initially felt like it had a bit of an edge to it but it turned out to be ok in the end because Jacky found avocado smoothies. The main reason we were there was the diving on the world heritage site Due to the amount of wildlife down there Pulua http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-289453.html Our next stop was at the Kinabatangan river for a 3 days camp at a place called Uncle Tans. We started by going to yet another Orangutan sanctuary There are only 4 in the world so we've now been to half . Before heading downriver to the camp. It was basic accomodation a matress on the floor six people to a hut and river water to wash in But the food was good and we saw plenty of animals. Da http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Kinabatangan/blog-287563.html Having not done the Mulu Pinnacle walk we were really up No pun intended for this. This mountain does go up and up and up very relentless. To give you an idea of the scale here are the heights for Ben Nevis 1344m and Snowdon 1085m compared to Mt Kinabalu 4095m. We started early to begin our ascent and it was hot. The walk was 6km to the lodge that you overnight in and you are carrying a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Mount-Kinabalu/blog-287558.html We arrived in Mulu National Park by plane it was amazing flying over and seeing nothing but a continuous tree line for miles welcome to the jungle. We were staying in the National Park itself which was lovely. That night we took a bit of a wander to see one of the local caves one had the largest cave entrance in the world Part of the alure to this place is the bats that live in the naturally http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sarawak/Gunung-Mulu-National-Park/blog-285290.html