Bangkok - New Zealand

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Getting to Bangkok was a HORRIBLE journey: a smouldering boat journey with no spare seats and a hot hard floor followed by a 12 hour bus journey which was extremely uncomfortable and broke down on the edge of Bangkok so we had to get a taxi to Kao San Road, which ALSO broke down so we had to get another taxi, but eventually found a budget accomodation named Kawin's Place where an 'almost' lady boy checked us in, and we paid almost entirely in coins - he was not impressed.

We decided to celebrate our last night in Thailand by heading to the popular bar at the end of the road, slightly watching the world cup - Japan vs ... we can't remember, and having a celebratory 'Chang Tower' - a 4 litre, pour your own beer tube with a tap attached to it. We bumped into a cheerful Belgium dude and decided to spend the night on Kao San road, visited a club, ate some street vendor spring rolls and then suddenly a particular meal caught our eye. Some Thai guy was selling a mixture of insects, and with the tower inside of us we thought it was wise to have a celebratory now-or-never snack which ultimately was..... a scorpion each. It was crunchy and got in our teeth but oh well, an experience. They were kind enough to give us a few free maggots to munch afterwards as a reward of our manliness, which in fact tasted even worse. So we washed those down and had a late one before getting up and getting our minibus to the airport.

Stopped off in Sydney, then continued to New Zealand.

Got off in our shorts and flips flops and really, and we mean REALLY underestimated the temperature. A quick change into thicker clothes and we got our free bus to our campervan. Dubbed the 'Breezer' by the company, but 'The Mystery Machine' by us, it was homely to say the least. And by homely we really mean small, smelly, and freezing. But we hit the road.

We immediately drove north from Christchurch to Hanmer which was a small quiet town which is only really famous for Hanmer Springs, which we took a plunge into - little hot pools which at the hottest were 42 degrees, and basically because of the sulphur stunk of eggs.

We carried on North by Kaikoura where we spent the night illegally parked in a car park, this place is popular for whale watching. This however requires an expensive tour so we decided against and instead looked for the seal watching spots. We saw no seals. Hit the road once more towards Punakaiki on the west coast of the island. We stayed in a campervan site that night, $15 each! Had a much needed shower, cooked pasta with sauce and visited a very empty pub. Apparently campers get fined if they are caught 'free parking' argued the camp site owner. We ultimately decided to risk it and havn't used one since however. The next day we woke up and met a Kiwi. No not a guy from New Zealand, an ACTUAL Kiwi. They're suprisingly friendly, call them like a dog "Here Kiwi-Kiwi" and they come right up to you. We then visited the Pancake Rocks and blowholes which were quite nice, but then shot off down south.

Our next stop was the Franz Josef glacier. The walk took about an hour there and back, leading us to..well.... a huge block of ice. Got some great pictures, as always! As this is the only way you guys will appreciate it. Then we hit the road once more!

The journey after this was pretty long, our main plan was to stay in a place named Haft, but some kind Kiwi advised us to lock our doors there as there are some dangerous hillbillys, so we gave that a miss and drove full speed to Queenstown.

In Queenstown we continued our free parking escapades, which are now considerably colder to the point we wake up and the inside of the windows are layered with ice, our tap is frozen so we can't even use it, or see out of the windscreen in the mornings. Regardless two days without fail we woke up at 8 and drove to the mountains to snowboard at a place called Coronet. Like two James Bonds we became kings of the slopes, covering young children in snow, reaching speeds our camper van could only hope to reach, 'wooing' women and their daughters with our impressive techniques. But enough about that...

Two days after the snowboarding (the day between was a much needed rest day with a pinch of ice skating) we were on a bus up a tiny single laned mountainous road to our bungy jump. The Nevis Bungy jump is 134m and the highest in New Zealand, we think the only one bigger is in South Africa. This included a tiny cable cart taking us to the centre point of a cable where a handful of bearded blokes forced equipment onto us with drum n bass playing in the background. Will was up first, out of the entire group, and calmly let himself fall off the edge. After much waiting Tom's turn came, though a bit shakey Tom pulled off a majestic...hop before plummetting down. We filmed this all on our video camera (courtesy of Tom's Dad thank you very much!) instead of paying a huge $40 for a DVD. We're sure it'll be on facebook.

Basically we're alive, and if anyones worried about the bungy jump (Mrs Lawes!) we are far more likely to die in the freezing camper van conditions.

Will update soon, possibly in Sydney.

Lot's of love Will and Tom x

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Comments

[Lauren and Lizz]

Wow that sounds splendid! but i think you forgot to mention the best part of the trip so far - Befriending innocent Australian girls so that you could use their hostels' facilities! Hope your drive was ok, and you dont get caught camping on the street in Christchurch ! xo