robandamy
robandamy Joined: October 8th 2006
Logged in: December 18th 2009
Logged in: December 18th 2009
Travel Blog Posts
Holding Arnie's hand!
We landed in LAX at 2pm on the 2nd May having left Fiji at 10pm on the 2nd May! It required all of my powers to convince Amy that it was just a regular plane rather than a fancy time travelling machine! Our hotel was in Downtown LA. It was called the Ritz, but unfortunately it was not the Ritz Carlton but the Ritz Milner. That said, the room was small but cosy and it had a TV and a hot shower! We only had 15 days in America and had sorted out a hire car for 10. We only spent 1 whole day in LA and we headed straight for Hollywood to see the Sign and the Walk of Fame. We bought a stack of phone cards and began to try calling home. 15 ... read more
Our bure!
Our last night in New Zealand was spent at Auckland airport. The flight to Fiji was early in the morning which meant check in was even earlier. Amy managed a few fitful hours sleep on a bench in the observation lounge which was far quieter than any where else. I failed to sleep and spent the time randomly wandering and reading a book. We landed in Nadi to be treated to some glorious sunshine and heat! This was hugely welcome as the last few weeks in New Zealand had been getting cooler and cooler as the seasons moved into autumn. We had arranged pick up to our hostel. On arrival at Nadi Downtown Backpackers we were pleasantly surprised with the room, despite the bed having springs which dug in all the wrong places. We settled ... read more
Rob on a rope
We are on our final day of 9 fabulous weeks in New Zealand, before we depart for our penultimate country! Not knowing what to expect from our 'Rap, Raft, and Rock' trip in Waitomo, we turned up at 3.00pm to start our adventure. The option for exploring the caves we had chosen involved a 27m abseil into the caves, then some time wandering through the caves looking at glow worms, a bit of black water rafting and final a climb back out. This was all accomplished in wet suits and welly boots!! The wellies were not the easiest footwear to climb a wet dark rock face, but we both made it to the top. The glowworms were fantastic, and with our torches off they covered the roof of the cave like twinkling stars. Our guide ... read more
Seal Flippers
Once again we have left it too long, and done far too much to make this a quick blog! On our second day in Kaikoura we went swimming with fur seals. These are territorial on land, but we were reassured that once we were in the water with them that they would happily swim around us without attacking! Unlike the dolphins, once in the water it was a matter of bobbing around waiting for the seals to come to us, and not chasing them. The seals were really inquisitive and would often make eye contact and swim right up to you, swerving away only at the last minute. They are really quite big so it was a bit scary! One came really close to my face, appeared to blow bubbles at my face and then ... read more
Between Queenstown and Wanaka
With Queenstown a bust with the weather conspiring, we departed after only one day and a fab meal at the local (barely budget busting if you chose a day where we haven’t filled up with petrol). We moved along to Wanaka and bagged ourselves a great pitch at the local dept of conservation site just past Albert Town. That was, until 4 of the biggest camper vans about decided that the whole field was just too big and that they need to be close to the spaceship. Close, sorry I mean in front of exactly where the view was. It was not like the view could not be seen from the other 4 acres of the empty site! The drive to Wanaka was breathtaking and the view of the lake and snow topped peaks as ... read more
Milford Sound
Ok, only a short time since we last blogged, but we are taking photos at a phenomenal rate, so we thought that we had better keep on top of them - and that it is hailing - yes, hailing, this afternoon, and the internet cafe is nice and warm! We moved from Invercargill, after having exchanged DVD's at the local spacestation, onto Clifden, stopping en route at 'Cozy Nook'. All along the road there are brown signs pointing out things of interest - you can't possibly stop at them all, but picked this one because of its name. This was a rocky coastal spot, with few people about. We enjoyed a sandwich in the sunshine, and then Rob proceeded to make his way around jumping from rock to rock, as he wasn't 'allowed' to touch the ... read more
Lunch spot
Well, we arrived safely in New Zealand, and having now received a sufficient amoubt of email abuse about the lack of blogs, we have finally been able to tear ourselves away from the fantastic scenery and write one! Unlike Australian customs, New Zealand was a doddle, and allowed us through, tent and all without a hitch. We grabbed a coffee and collected our thoughts and caught a bus into the centre of Christchurch. As mentioned in the previous blog, we were after a spaceship for our travels, and popped into the shop just before it closed, en route to finding some accommodation. We managed to secure ourselves a spaceship, but the woman calling around couldn't for love or money find us a room - it is peak tourist season here, which we hadn't really considered. It ... read more
Singapore Sling
We spent our final day in Singapore by having the obligatory Singapore Sling at the Raffles hotel. We, as just about every other tourist, grabbed a seat and the bored waitress took one look at us and said, ‘2 Singapore slings?’ to which we both nodded and agreed. During our time there we watched this process occur 3 or 4 times. This is then quickly followed by the tourists including us, requesting a picture taken with their drinks. We sipped and munched on the free monkey nuts whilst casually tossing the shells on to the floor. Amy was a little disturbed by the birds that were darting in and out of the room. With our drinks finished and the bill settled - enough to feed us for the whole day - we headed off to post ... read more
Ouch!
It has been a little while since we have done a blog, so we will get you up to speed with what we have been doing. The last couple of days in KL, involved more mooching around the shops, eating (what we do best), and buying bits in Chinatown. From there we got a bus to Malacca, for a change of scenary and to use up some more days before our flight. Malacca is small, and there is not a lot to do, that is if you don't include ten pin bowling and the cinema - both of which provide us some entertainment! There are more museums than anywhere else it felt, though we could only persuade ourselves to visit one (the maritime museum - this only got our vote as it is shaped like a ... read more
Towers
With our wet clothes packed, we made our way to KL on the local buses. We started the journey at 7.30am, on the first bus of the day to Jerantut. We were half an hour away from our first destination, when the bus gave out before having to climb the hill. I think we would have felt cheated if we had left Asia without one bus breaking down! A replacement came shortly, and we made it to Jerantut, where we got on bus number 3 of the day. This did not take us directly to KL, so there was one more bus. This was a plush bus, that cruised down the empty roads, making it a comfortable 2hrs to KL. The whole journey cost us less than 40RM for both of us, compared to the 55RM ... read more
