Poulu

In my notes i just have a list of words about the Gili Islands so i thought i'd share them with you rather than bore you anymore with over-wordy entries: Mushrooms Spaced out residents Tourists "Paradise" islands 3 metre waves on journey over No cars just poor horses schlepping you about If you are 20 years old you would really enjoy Fishermen entrepreneurs Sun Coral everywhere (sometimes in your feet - ow) Meeting lots of lovely people - Frank and Aurora from France, Graham from Sydney, Pete from Bristol living and mixing cocktails in Shanghai. Cock-anut Cottages - roosters woke us at our cottage at 5am. Sweatiest bike ride in world and the island can be walked in 1 1/2 hours! No fresh water - salty salty I think that about covers our 1 night on ... read more

Indonesia is busy.... properly busy.. there are people everywhere.... lovely lovely people everywhere.. and they like a motorbike, in fact i'd go so far as to say they love a motorbike.They perform amazing feats of balance every day by loading their beloved two-wheeled friends with, what looks to us like, unfeasibly large amounts of water bottles/ beer/ chickens (live) /vegetables/sarongs/children. I saw a 12 year old girl do her homework on the back of one whilst her 12 year old friend was driving... asbo? I don't think so! In Lovina , in the North of Bali, we had lunch in the "Swasticka" cafe, enjoying their "gordon blue" cuisine whilst listening to James Blunt's greatest hits. We came on this trip to get away from him! Squeamish men don't look now but girls will appreciate this... in ... read more

When we originally booked our trip with Trailfinders they recommended that we have a few days peace and quiet to recharge our batteries in Australia. Fortunately they could recommend somewhere (funny that!) - a place owned and managed by them (doubly funny that!!) - called Bloomfield. Despite not really knowing anything about it and really just relying on a knowing look from Nick at Trailfinders, for our whole trip Bloomfield has represented an "oasis" in an otherwise pretty frantic wizz around the Southern Hemisphere - thankfully it didn't disappoint... actually quite the opposite... Bloomfield is situated on Weary Bay just North of Cape Tribulation in far Northern Queensland literally at the spot where Captain Cook crashed and burned (or scraped anyway) on the Great Barrier Reef. Talk about a wingeing pomme - just look at the ... read more

We've stopped moaning about the weather now and just spend our time gawping and shaking our heads in wonderment at this beautiful place - probably the most beautiful place either of us have ever seen. The ferry to the South Island just hinted at what was to come, no-one even bothers telling you how lovely the journey itself is because there is just so much beauty to see.. We found that the South Island was the rugged, more in your face, striking, less-developed "forward" to the North Island's more groomed, pristine,, film star looking "back". In All Black terms North Island is more Dan Carter the South Island more Richard McCaw. Both sublimely brilliant, world-class players but quite different. By the way, they REALLY love Rugby here; think football and rugby rolled into one in the ... read more

Being the sporty pair that we are, we have tried to keep up our training, ok we've failed but we can still rate our experiences: Best Tennis Court: Winner: Sheraton, Santiago, Chile (surface - hard and bouncy) Runner up: Heritage hotel, Pokeno, NZ (setting - in a vineyard!) Best Swimming Pool: Winner: Termes Cachueta, Mendoza, Argentina (33m, no chlorine, naturally hot from all the thermal springs) Runner up: Club international, Arequipa, Peru (50m, 50p entry, empty) Best Spectator Sport: Winner: ATP Tennis tour ( a great companion to us on this trip) Runner up: NZ vs England (deciding not to spend the money to see England get trounced) Most sport obsessed place: Winner: NZ so far - sport is everything here - rugby, cricket, netball, sheep baiting. Runner up: Buenos Aires - because keeping fit ... read more