A Very White Christmas in New Zealand

Once safely in Auckland we spent the next day doing some last minute Christmas shopping and enjoying the excellent restaurants of Parnell, a fancy suburb of Auckland, which having many similarities to Marylebone, made me feel very much at home.

Next day it was back to the airport to pick up my mum for the drive up to the Bay of Islands. After a quick detour back into Auckland to pick up Richie's jacket from the hotel, we had a pleasant drive up through the native bush of Northlands with tantalising glimpses of the coast. This was then ruined by a two hour manic dash around the supermarket, filling two trollies with food supplies for the five thousand. We caught up with the rest of the White party (Rich's mum, dad and brother) on the Russell car ferry.















Our rented house was utterly gorgeous, with floor to ceiling glass windows looking out over the bay and a large decking complete with spa pool. A perfect place to spend Christmas. We spent the next six days engaged in the normal festive actives of eating and drinking far to much, and arguing over the dining table. This was only interrupted by a visit to 90-mile beach, a picnic on the lovely Long Beach in Russell, a dolphin watching excursion and parasailing.















Ninety Mile Beach, as the name would suggest, is a 90 mile stretch of wind swept, desolate beach running almost straight up the west side of the extreme north peninsular. People drive the whole length in four-by-fours (it is advisable to check the tides), play around on sand yachts, or horse ride in the surf.














We picked up a dolphin pod soon into our dolphin watching trip. They played around the boat, even doing some jumps, unfortunately since they had a pup with them, we were forbidden from entering the water. Still the water was a bit nippy for free diving anyway.















After two fine days over Christmas and Boxing Day, the temperamental NZ weather turned for the worse, and we found ourselves parasailing in the pouring rain. Alas the huge canopy above you does not act like a big umbrella.














It was a massive wrench to leave the house. The burning question is; how can we live there and still get an income.

Bali - Part II

Safely installed in a hotel near Kota beach, it was high time we began the surfing lessons. After some practise standing up on the roof of the Mercure hotel, we headed into the surf with our big orange soft-top boards (these give you more grip, and hurt less when they hit you on the head). We both enjoyed a modicum of beginners luck, riding at least two waves in each.

















The constant hawking around the beach, does become tiring – people even try and flog you shit while you're crossing the road with a surfboard on the way to the sea. So after two nights in Kuta we took an overpriced taxi to Ubud; bali's arts and craft centre. There's very little green belt between Kuta, Denpasar (the capital) and Ubud, but you know you're getting close when the road becomes lined with large wood carvings and 2m high stone statues of Ganesha.















Apart from hotels, there are only three types of establishments in Ubud – shops selling arts and crafts, good restaurants and spas. The pace of life is slower, and people don't follow you down the street trying to sell you things (although you still hear 'taxi' wherever you go). We spent four nights there, filling lazy days with spa treatments, rafting, walking, and (for Kirsten as least) shopping.














I think Kirsten got more out of the spa than me – the massage was good, but frankly I could've left the manicure. Ubud has a monkey forest, a smallish wooded area where large numbers of macaques are fed. They also flog bananas at the entrance, for you to feed to the monkeys. The result is they are aggressive even for macaques, and will jump on your head if you stay still for too long.














We returned to Kuta for our last two days in Bali, keen to fit in some more surfing practise. Having rented a couple of boards on the beach, we were horrified to see the water. It's really not overstating the fact to say it was full of rubbish (apparently, at this time of year it can get washed over from Java). Kirsten only managed to get waist deep before declaring no way. I decided to grin and bear it – it was truly surfing in a landfill. After two hours of limited success, I emerged stinking of rotten fish. My shorts and tee-shirt still stunk of fish after hours soaking in the sink (they are currently double-bagged in my rucksack). The next day it had all changed, and the only rubbish in the water was my surfing.



















They wouldn't let me on the New Zealand flight in Bali. Apparently you need a return flight to enter NZ. The check-in bloke claimed that the Kiwis had deported a couple of Dutch guys back to Bali for not having a return flight. I carefully explained that New Zealand was a British colony, and we have the same Queen, so there was no way they'd deport me (I'd been drinking). After much arguing I was allowed to check in to the first leg to Sydney. We then had to dash to the Qantas desk and buy a flight out of NZ before being allowed to check in to Auckland. Of course immigration in NZ didn't ask for the flight details, but they seem to deal with it by putting harsh penalties on the airlines. Anyway we made it.

Bali and Komodo

The plan was to head straight over to Komodo to do some diving (and see dragons), but as it seemed impossible to buy the plane tickets before arriving in Indonesia, we decided to spend a couple of days in Bali first, so we could sort out the travel arrangements and also have some much needed R&R. We decided to stay in Seminyak, as the Lonely Planet describes this as being more 'sophisticated' than the backpacker hangouts of Kuta and Legian (Kuta is where the 2002 bombings were). It turned out to be pleasant enough with plenty of swanky looking boutiques, restaurant and bars. However, the beach was a big disappointment. Whilst it is a good wide expanse of sand, it is also strewn with rubbish and rotting dead fish cast aside by the fishermen – hardly the idillic scene painted by the LP.















Having orientated ourselves, and had a fantastic dinner in a beach side restaurant, we decided to sample Bali nightlife. I think we headed out too early as most of the bars were deserted – most places don't get going until after 11. The only lively looking place on the street was Mix Well, a glitzy looking gay bar. We settled in for the evening with our Pina Coladas.

After another day recovering from our hangovers we boarded our flight for Labuan Bajo on Flores island which is the gateway to Komodo. We had arranged for three days diving with ReefSeekers and we headed out the next day. It takes a couple of hours to get to the dive sights, but the boat was well equipped and extremely well run with coffee and tea delivered to you at regular intervals so trip wasn't too painful. And as for the diving itself – well to be honest I would have been prepared to go twice as far for diving this quality. On the first day we had around 10 Manta Ray encounters and the second day we saw a group of three dolphins, including a pup – awesome. Other notable sightings included a beautiful eagle ray, bump head parrot fish, a giant shoal of fusiliers being chased by a giant trevally, a grey reef shark, several white tip and black tip shark, turtles, and mandarin fish. In addition to all this, the coral and abundance of small fish was incredible. Unfortunately, although we rented a camera, the light on that day was poor, and it fogged up so the manta ray is more of a shadow.














Obviously, a trip to Komodo would not be complete without visit the infamous dragons, so on the fourth day we charted a boat to Rinca beach which we had been told was the best place to guarantee finding them. It was only a short work from the rangers office, when accompanied by a guide with a large stick, we found our first dragon. We trekked for around 2 hours seeing around 6 dragon of varying sizes. They were actually not as large as we were expecting (about 3m nose to tail), but this could have been because they were mostly laying down sleeping in the sweltering heat. Apparently, if they kill a buffalo they will not need to hunt for another week so they can spend their time sleeping.














Other than the diving and dragons, Labuan Bajo doesn't have much to offer travellers. Luckily for us there was one very good restaurant and bar, Lounge, which as well as great food offered live music and even impromptu dance classes which obviously I couldn't resist much to the amusement of the locals.

Kuala Lumpur

One airport train, five stops on the monorail (plus the walk to the station), one long walk past the 24 hour McDonald's, and we were at our KL hostel above an Iraqi restaurant. The presences of in-room air-con, Kirsten's continuing cold and the early morning start, meant we didn't leave again for some time.




The hostel was in the Golden Triangle – a business district east of the colonial centre and south of the Petronas Towers, where a lot of the big hotels are. We spent the afternoon shuffling between air-conditioned malls and enjoying the plentiful free WiFi that is available throughout the city. In the evening we dined at Blue Boy vegetarian cafe – as there didn't seem to be anything resembling a menu, the cheerful owner took one look at us a decided what we should have and soon we were tucking into a tasty array of tofu-masquerading-as-meat dishes. We ended the evening by walking to the Petronas towers which look pretty spectacular after dark.















Petronas generously give away 1400 free tickets to the Skybridge between the towers on the 41/42nd floor. The guide books recommend getting there before 0830 to avoid disappointment. We dutifully queued and were allocated a 0945 slot, but when we returned from breakfast the queue had vanished and they were still giving away tickets for the afternoon slots. Before getting in the lift, there's the inevitable promotional video from Petronas, which among other things claims the Skybridge to be the highest 2-story bridge in the world (see what they've done here - there are of course much higher single-story sky-bridges). The view is frankly a bit of a let down – at only 170m high it's far from breathtaking, and obviously you can't see the towers themselves, which are the most impressive piece of the KL skyline.

We spent the afternoon wondering round the Colonial Centre and Little India stopping at the Coliseum Cafe (which felt like neither the décor nor the menu had changed since it's hay day in the 1920s) then down to the central market – now a kind of arts and craft fair. We ended the day's sightseeing with a short walk through the forest reserve to the KL tower. This has an observation deck at 276m and provides a great view of the city including an, albeit side on, view of the Petronas towers.

On a more bizarre note, someone nicked Kirsten's sandals from the entrance to the hostel (they had a shoes off at the door policy). They were Prada, but at 5 years old and size 3, it seemed somewhat of an odd crime.

Diving Video

As we've become complete scuba junkies (45 dives in two months), we've put together a short dive video. The footage was taken over three days in Palau and Sipadan. Enjoy.

The video is on YouTube here, unfortunately they've removed the audio track (Porpoise Song by the Monkees), but the small embedded video below still has it.