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 soft mud and the boulders are left sitting as they are on the tide line. They made for a great picture and a good opportunity to stop off and have [View Full Entry]

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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 lovely then (for snowboarding). You arrive & stay at the local town (Methven) & then get bussed up the mountain to board. As its so close to the sea [View Full Entry]

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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), showers/laundry and got ourselves booked in for a complimentary hot tub (hopefully with views of the mountains surrounding) in the next half hour - beats british camp sites so far for plushness. Jon got given some NZ dollars to spend from work as a please-stay-there present and with this money we decided [View Full Entry]

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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 Oxford/Cambridge/Northern 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 ourselves to New Zealand wine before we head out in our camper van (this was the main country we aimed our honeymoon around). We're only guessing but brace yourselves for [View Full Entry]

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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 small zoo where Jacky found another animal she did not even realise she had a fascination with....the wombat (wilma) as round as [View Full Entry]

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Only a day and a half in Singapore, boy did we mis-plan 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 eat/drink on the tube, but for all that theres a level of respect (yes based on fines) and for many people reading this living in our lovely country of Britain (getting the bus with all those chav's that blast their crap music out wtihout a [View Full Entry]

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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 Sipidan. It was all a bit nerve wracking having not really dived for over 4 yrs but we were really looking forward to [View Full Entry]

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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. Day and night cruises were all good and it's amazing what lives very close to camp (See photo's) we even stayed [View Full Entry]

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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 rucksack as well. The going was pretty tough and we made it to the lodge 2 minutes before the heavens opened ! The [View Full Entry]

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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 formed holes in the ceiling and at around 6pm the bat hour begins as they leave their home in search of food. They [View Full Entry]

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