Bonjour-Mundo!

That’s the grand total folks for what it took to get me around the world and back. So I’ve been home for just about a month now, and I’m finally getting to writing this sum up blog…wow, talk about a slacker. Props to those of you who actually read this, you’re awesome.

 In any case, I figured to sum things up, I should make a list of sorts, a la let’s go picks. So, here we go.

 Best Place to get Orange Juice for under 40 cents: Marrakech, Morroco, and it’s the best stuff you’ve ever tasted.

Most comfortable train ride: Bangkok to Chang Mai, Thailand.

Favorite Country on the Whole: Thailand. (But Spain will always have a special place in my heart.)

Best Hot Dog: Prague, Czech Republic

Best places to buy a million things for under a buck: Sunday night market, Chang Mai, Thailand.

Best place to freak out Emily by making her ride on a motor bike: Thailand!

Most Impressive Landscapes: New Zealand

Best place to drink sangria by the gallon in a stein: Las Ramblas, Barcelona, Spain.

Best Sangria: Toledo, Spain, Bar La Boveda

Coldest place for my feet: Fox Glacier, New Zealand

Favorite small town charm: Cesky Kromlov, Czech Republic

Best place to get harassed by slimy men: El Jadida, Morocco

Most amazing sunrise: Merzuga Dunes, Morocco

My favorite view: On the bluffs overlooking Toledo, Spain 

Favorite Tourist Site: Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Bangkok, Thailand 

Best Food Market: Djema el Fna, Central Medina Foodstalls, Marrakech, Morocco

Best place to eat the most amazing shrimp with your feet in sand overlooking the ocean: Ndor (sp?) Island, Senegal 

Best Wine: Eger, Hungary

Best place to spot a mullet: Spain! It’s all about the fashion.

That’s all I can come up with for now. On a whole, this trip was the experience of a lifetime, and to date one of the most incredible things I’ve had the opportunity to do. I already feel like planning my next trip…on the list: Southeast Asia or South and Central America. And if I get my way, much more of Africa. Travel is something that has become a huge part of my heart and soul and has helped me figure out the person I am today. The people I have met and the incredible landscapes I have seen, from towering mountain tops and frozen glaciers to endless deserts and tropical beaches, never cease to inspire me. 

A special thanks to Em for her endless patience with my indecisiveness and for being the best travel buddy a girl could ask for. You will always be my travel B.F.F.!! And another thanks to Alex for joining our little journey, all my love, thank you for always making me smile.

 “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain

“Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken.” — Frank Herber

Persue your daydreams.

That’s right folks, good old southern hemisphere for you. Winter in June. And the Kiwi’s know how to have a blast in the snow…in fact they seem to love the cold as everytime we go into a backpackers we find the windows open, along with no heat. Crazy people.

Anyhow, Em and I spent the last few days in Queenstown and had a great time. The city seems to be like the Aspen of New Zealand. Ski town with lots of fancy places to stay, definitely it’s fair share of fine dining to go with them, but luckily for us, also a few good cheapies and affordable hostels. The city is nestled in the mountains a looks out upon Lake Wakitupo, just beautiful.

The first night we got in was their mardi gras celebration. The evening started off with a more family oriented version of a mardi gras parade with people in masks, big puppet type things, colorful characters on stilts and the like. Lots of kids carrying little hand made lanterns as well. Then everyone met up in the center square where there was a huge bandstand set up with free live music all evening. There was also tons of food and drink stalls set up down the street. Lots of cheap yummy food, everything from beef bomber sandwiches to pumpkin soup, to waffles to thai and indian food. They also had mulled wine by the truckload. Something I’d never had before but have taken a liking too. Hot red wine with some spices, tastes kind of like cider. Works wonders for keeping warm outdoors in a freezing cold winter night. Although I ended up dragging Emily in as I was shivering, we had a great night for the most part.

The next day had more festival stuff, including crazy races and relays, a slip and slide, a drag queen obstacle course race, and lots of races involving guys dressed up in snickers bar costumes. All super fun to watch. We also took a gondola up to the top of a mountain overlooking the town. Gorgeous views. We also LUGED! Really good time, not quite on ice like the olympics, but on a concrete track around the mountain on a kind of laid back sled on wheels kind of thing. It reminded me of those sit and skate orange scooter things from the 80’s, not sure if anyone else knows what I’m talking about. Anyhow, it was great fun.

Today we wandered around and went for a hike up in the hills. A lot of the hike was through super dense forest, kind creepy, I expected some sort of creature from lord of the rings to jump out at me. But it was fun, and although the clouds were to low to see much from the top, what we could see was cool. Only problem was the ice, a lot of the track was icy, and I managed to slip quite a few times, once majorly biting the dust for a nice muddy bum, shoot. So much for my one pair of clean pants. Opps.

Anyhow, I am headed to the states tomorrow! I’ll probably post one last blog once I’m back. I’ll have plenty of time on my million hours of planes to think of something clever I hope. But I’m excited to see you all soon! Have a wonderful day!

First off, edit…in the last post I mentioned that the south island was a world heritage site, I meant the west coast of the south island, not the whole south island. Just fyi.

So, I have officially decided that I want to move to Wanaka (rhymes with Monica) and be a ski bum. How much fun would that be? Em and I had a wonderful time in the little ski town and an even better time on the mountain. The first night we were in town we went to this old little movie theatre. Although the film we saw was extremely bizarre and didn’t make any sense, the movie theatre was great. You sit on old comfy couches and arm chairs, there was even an old vintage vw bug you could relax in. Then, they have an intermission with fresh baked still warm from the oven cookies and homemade ice cream! Yum! It was great.

The next day we hit the slopes. We went to a place called Cardrona, and it was fantastic. We were acutally on a mountain, none of this silly Minnesota hill stuff. Seriously, we were above the clouds, it was incredible. At the top of the run I felt like I practically had to pinch myself to realize I actually was in this awesome place, skiing in New Zealand. As you go down the mountain you look out on what I believe were the southern alps, if not, still just spectacular snow capped mountains, majestic as any I have ever seen. I was breathless everytime I saw them. The day was perfect for skiing as well. Blue skies and sunshine, mid thirties, not cold at all. It was wonderful. The only complaint I would have is that Cardrona doesn’t like to label their runs…you’d go over a ledge not really knowing whether it was a green, blue, or black dimond. Not exactly the best way to do things, but hey, it made for an adventure…or something like that.

At night we even found a bar that was playing Desperate Housewives! A little dose of home, only they shut it off when Grey’s Anatomy came on! Boo! Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

For now we are in Queenstown, a great little town surrounded again by beautiful mountains and Lake Wakitupu (sp?). Winterfest is on and we’re having a great time. Hard to believe we’ll be back in summer weather in just a few days!!

After our wine tour Em and I have made our way down the west coast of New Zealands south island.  Apparently the entire west coast of the south island has been declared a world heritage site by UNESCO, and for good reason. The scenary is beautiful. Towering, majestic mountains on one side, go around the corner, powerful surf crashing into the beaches. It was nothing short of incredible. I enjoyed the long bus ride just watching the landscapes pass us by.

On our way south we spent one night in the little crafts town of Hokitika. Nothing too exciting, pretty deserted hostel, but lots and lots of jade…most of it unfortunately out of our budget. Who knew a little sculpture of greenstone could retail for 5-11,000 dollars? There was a lovely beach to stroll down though, and a delicious fudge shop. Always room for chocolate. 🙂

After Hokitika, we made our way furth south along the coast to the little village of Fox. The township exists we are told, for one reason, the Fox Glacier, the reason we came. There are two main glaciers that tourists come to see in New Zealand, one is the Franz Joseph, and the other is Fox. Fox is the bigger of the two and by far cheaper to explore, so we went with that one.

We signed on for a full day walking tour with Alpine Guides and set out around 9:30 yesterday morning. The gave us boots, full crampons (metal spikes that you attatch to the bottom of your boots, and yes there are half crampons), and extra wool socks. Even with two pairs of wool socks, my feet still froze though, shoot. Anyhow, they drove us out about 15 minutes to the front of the glacier area. It starts way up in the mountains, but then curves a river of ice down into the valley below. The landscape is gorgeous. Snowcapped mountains falling into temperate rainforest below. A powder blue glacial river runs from the head of the glacier out into the valley.

We hiked uphill through the rainforest area and then came onto the glacier a little past the front. There we stopped to attach our crampons, and onto the ice we went. The glacier itself is enormous. The people we could see walking around on it looked miniscule. There were steps carved into the ice for the most part, but in other places our guides hacked away with ice axes to make out a track. We had about 3 hours on the ice, and it was amazing. For sure an experience like none other. The glacier was beautiful, something you might not always expect I suppose from a big hunk of ice.  The curves of the crevasses and towering peaks were really magnificent. Lots of great pictures. We hiked up and down and around and through crevasses, some so narrow girly hips don’t exactly easily fit! Also, the ice is actually blue! Something I never expected. Apparently, according to our guide, the ice of the glacier is under so much pressure that it squeezes out all the air, the causes it to be super dense and actually refract the light differently turning it a shade of powder blue.

For now we have made our way to Wanaka, a cute little ski town. We’ll be hitting the slopes tomorrow, then it’s off to Queenstown where we apparently will be making it just in time for the annual winterfest mardi gras parade! This could be trouble….We’ll keep you posted!

I must say, I can’t think of a better way to explore the wine country of New Zealand. It was a blast, although a bit chilly in the wintertime. 

The little town of Blenheim is about a half hour from Picton. From here Em and I were picked up in a van and driven through the countryside to pick up our bikes, not to worry, helmets included. We had a great time. It’s all back country roads and vineyards as far as you can see, with towering snowcapped mountains in the background. Just beautiful.

We had our bikes for the afternoon and set off right away. Throughout the 4 hours we made it to about 6 vineyards, all pretty close to each other. You walk in and they pour you whichever wine you’d like to sample. All the people in the shops were incredibly friendly and loved to talk about their wine and their country.  I learned a lot about the wine, and there was no pressure to buy anything, and all the samples were free! Most of the wine grown in the area is white, due to the climate, something I never realized. Lots of sauvingon blanc and chardonnay, the only red we found was pinot noir and pinotage. We also tried some awesome dessert wines as well as some fresh olive oil, super tasty.

At the end of it all we were possibly a little wobbly on our bikes, but still peddling straight. Overall we had a fantastic time. It’s only too bad I couldn’t bring too much wine home…heavy bottles and backpacks just don’t go as well as I’d hope.

Well, so I lied, not really wild. But we were in the wilderness! Our trip to the south island was a sleepy one, Em and I both were passed out cold for most all the trip. But upon arriving in Picton, we found we’d stumbled upon some amazing scenary. The south island so far is incredibly beautiful.

Right away from Picton we got a boat into Marlborough Sounds. The Sounds are a collection of islands, bays, coves, and inlets at the top coast of the south island. Beautiful forested hills plunge into teal green waters. Serene and amazing. The area is filled with wildlife, in fact on the trip out to our hostel we saw seals and peguins! The seals were adorable. Apparently very smart as well. Our boat driver told us how it’s taken salmon farmers 10 years to figure out how to keep the seals out of their salmon. The peguins we only saw from a distance, but I can still say I saw them!

Our hostel was a wonderful little place tucked into Endeavor Inlet. We were the only ones there for most of the time, leading to a very quiet and relaxing few days. We also learned that heat is a real luxury in New Zealand. Apparently having heated rooms is a rarity on the south island. This is all well and good in the summer, but when there is snow in the forecast, not so good at all. We were FREEZING!!! We had two duvets on our beds, but ended up putting boiling water in our Nalgenes to snuggle with at night to keep warm. We kept a fire going in the living room which made things warmer the second day, but the nights were still very chilly. Going to make things interesting once we get to snow country. Luckily the second night the hostel brought us up some hot water bottles to keep in our beds.

Aside from relaxing in the hostel and attempting jigsaw puzzles, we also did some great hiking. Our backpacker (hostel in kiwi) was located right on the Queen Charlotte Track, as famous hiking trail. We went up one way one day and the other the next. A little mucky in places, but the views made it well worth it. The second day we could see a dusting of snow on the tops of the hills. Still an odd sight to see in mid June.

For now we are back in Picton for the night, our hostel has free apple crumble and ice cream, very excited for that. Tomorrow we are doing a wine tour by bike, should be a blast, we’ll see how many wineries we get to before walking the bikes might be necessary…:-)

So after our adventures in Rotorua, it was time to begin our venture south. In order to catch a ferry over to the south island, we had to make a stopover for a night in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. We arrived at the bright and early time of 7am after having spent the night on a bus…not the greatest as my seatmate decided that playing heavy metal at 4am so loud that I could hear his headphones over my headphones was a brillant idea. I did not agree.

Although we only had a bit of time in Wellington, I really enjoyed the city and what it had to offer. I would have loved to have a few more days to explore.  Wellington again, like most places in NZ is a seaside town. It has a great harbor area and lots of scenic hills overlooking the bay. We spent our day wandering Cuba Street, a really neat pedestrian avenue filled with artsy cafes, restaurants, and shops, and going to the Te Papa, the national museum of New Zealand.

I was very impressed with Te Papa. It was not only free (yay, backpacker bonus!) but really interesting and hands on. The musuem included everything having to do with New Zealand from weather and tectonic plates and earthquakes, to plants and animals, to Maori culture. There was an earthquake simulation house, lots of computer games to play, and overall just very interesting and interactive exhibits. There was a memorial to extinct animals and plant life…something I’ve never seen before, and maybe should see more of. I also was interested in how well the Maori were represented. All of the musuem displays and descriptions were in both English and Maori. New Zealand seems to be doing quite a good job of promoting their heritage. In fact, while we were in Waitomo, we passed a primary school that was taught on ly in Maori. Our guide said the school only used to have 17 students. Now it has 70, some drive over an hour from the coast to attend.

In any case, our time in Wellington was much to short, but now we are in the South Island, which although is chilly, is worth the trip.

So, upon deciding to come to New Zealand I knew I was going to have to go white water rafting. From previous experiences in Ecuador, I love rafting. However, it’s winter in NZ, this makes most rafting endevours rather difficult.

In Rotorua though, we did manage to find a river being run…it also happened to be the river with the worlds highest commercially rafted waterfall. Kaituna Cascades. All excited we called the rafting company right away, but we couldn’t go for a few days because the river was flooded.

 Finally, a few days later, they let us on the river. We were picked up, and then they suited us up in fleeces, wetsuits, booties, helmets, and life-jackets. Then we headed out. We knew beforehand that it was going to be short, but I guess I didn’t realize it would be this short. The actual rafting part was probably about 40 minutes or so. Going over the waterfalls was really a good time, definitely exhilerating, but somehow they actually weren’t as big as I thought they would be. There also weren’t many rapids at all if you didn’t count the falls, I was a little dissppointed by that. I expected a little more from New Zealand!

Also, just fyi, it’s really freaking cold when you raft in the winter. Our guides thought it would be super fun to do what they called “river surfing”. This involved putting someone in the front of the boat and then paddling towards a fall\rapid so the front of the boat would get pulled by the water and a big wave would fall over the boat. This, when it’s 80 degrees might be fun, however, mostly it just made me really crabby when the weather is so cold you can almost see your breath. I don’t mind getting wet going over rapids, but just getting wet for the sake of being wet, not my idea of fun.

However, the black water experience was MUCH cooler! Although we originally wanted to go black water rafting, due to budget constraints, we opted just for a normal tour. So, black water you say? Yep, well sort of. In an area called Waitomo, about 2 hours southwest of Rotorua, there are heaps and heaps of caves.  Lots of these caves involve glow worms, and that’s what we came to see.

We got on a bus from Rotorua early in the morning and they took us out to the little village. A quirky woman named Katie picked us up for our tour the “spellbound”. Good times. It was about a half hour drive through beautiful New Zealand countryside. We arrived at the first cave and it was all a walking tour. The cave is called “Cave of the Spirit” due to the cold winds that are known to blow through it. Not as exciting as the caves we saw in Hungary, but cool nonetheless. Then came the black water.

After some tea and biscuits (cookies for non-kiwis), we walked to the wet cave. We followed a bridge over a river into the cave and then walked down a bit to observe the glow-worms in the light. Basically, just like little tiny worms. The glow worms craft these elegant silk strings that waft down from the ceiling of the caves which they use to catch their food. After getting our fill of glow worms in the light, time to hit the lights.

We crowded onto a river rafting boat, and our guide flicked the switch to bring the cave to pitch black. Using a rope to guide our little craft she brought us down the river. What we saw above our heads was amazing. Thousands and thousands of glow worms, each with it’s own little blue-green light. It was as if another galaxy of stars was shining down from inside the cave. I have never seen anything like it. Although there were no rapids, it was a relaxing ride, I was left very impressed and amazed. Sometimes you don’t always need the adrenaline.

We have packed our days in Rotorua full of activities, and we were told the Maori Hangi was something that couldn’t be missed. Therefore last night we packed ourselves onto a touristy bus and went out to see what the fuss was all about.

The Maori are the native people of New Zealand, although their culture was once falling out of existence there has been a push lately to rejuvinate the heritage so it doesn’t disappear forever. Our tour driver on a previous day informed us that students have to take Maori language until they are 13 in school, and at least in Rotorua, although in a touristy manner, the culture seems to be alive and well.

So, onto the Hangi, or Maori feast. Our Hangi was put on by the Mitai family. We arrived at the place not quite sure what to expect. They gathered us in a large dining area and we were seated at numbered tables kind of like a wedding. Then a man came and spoke to us, had us elect a “cheif” to represent us and make a speech at the welcoming ceremony. Turns out only men can be cheifs in Maori culture. However their reasoning was interesting. They say that if they lose a man in battle, it is only one life, but if a female is lost, then they lose a whole family and all those generations to come.

So, after our cheif, an older gentleman from Austrailia, was elected, they took us out back to view our dinner. Hangi feasts are cooked below the ground in a big hole with steam from hot rocks and coal. It was all in a big heap more or less, but I must say it looked and smelled delicious. After seeing what would soon be in our bellies they took us out to see the evenings entertainment.

We walked through forested land to a stream, all the while men in full costume running through on paths above us with fire lit torches.  Then the men posing as Mauri warriors rowed up in a canoe and performed a dance along the stream. We were then led back to a stage sort of area where they had re-created a Maori village. Think sort of Native American almost. Huts and open fires and such. The men performed various dances, and they made a show of offering a piece of branch as a “peace offering” to our selected cheif. He accepted and then made a speech thanking the tribe for having us this evening. The man posing as the Maori chief then came forward. He spoke fluent English, as do all the Maori people these days, and beame the commentator of the evening.

Basically for the next hour or so the performed various dances, musical numbers, introduced us to all the traditional instruments and weapons of Maori culture, and basically just were out to entertain. It was cool to see and interesting as well. Even though it was touristy, it felt like we learned a little bit about the people and their culture. The costumes and the tatoos were probably the most interesting to those who have never seen it before. The men have their faces completely tatooed (although here it was just paint) and the women were a tatoo of an owl on their chin. The men’s costume is nothing more then a loin cloth basically, the women have sort of a wrap dress.

After the performance we were taken in for the feast. And wow, seriously, it was a feast. Almost like Thanksgiving. Heaps and heaps (to speak like a kiwi) of food. Potatoes, and kumara (native sweet potato, super good), chicken, lamb, more potato, salads, breads, chocolate logs, cakes, stuffing, it was awesome. Our bellies were very, very full.

After the dinner they took us out to see the grounds at night and view a few glowworms, nothing too impressive. Although we did see the closest thing to a snake in New Zealand, a freshwater eel, kinda spooky.

But overall, my belly was happy, the feast was a success.

Although we had originally planned to go both volcanic places in one day, the icky weather prevented us from going to the valley, the second part of our tour. Luckily our driver was nice enough that he ended up taking us to Waimugu (sorry, I know that’s spelled wrong) Volcanic Valley the following day free of charge. Much better as the following day was clear and we saw some blue sky, much better walking when it was pouring rain.

The Volcanic Valley was also very cool to see. Emily mentioned that it felt prehistoric and I’d have to agree. There times when peering at the mountain sides that I expected to see a dinosaur peering back at me or a tyranadon flying over head. (Alex I know that’s probably not a flying dinosaour, but I tried my best. 😉 ) Everything was full of huge ferns and smoking, steaming lakes. In fact, the hot spring at Waimugu is the largest in the world.

We followed a 3km track, mostly downhill, through all sorts of volcanic activity. Although the volcano hasn’t actually been active for some 100 years, things are still bubbling and steaming all over the place. The hot spring was beautiful set in a crater nestled in gorgeous green mountainsides. Walking further we ecountered more springs, that turn into a river of sorts. Then there is the inferno crater, a huge crater filled with the absolute brightest blue water (seriously it’s almost neon) I have ever seen. Apparently it’s about a 2.5 on the acid side of the ph scale, not something you’d want to take a swim in.

Further down there were more hot pools, and this one area that turned the rocks a shade of orange, I think involved mud again, and it had swallowed up some of the trees, it just looked straight out of middle earth lord of the rings. Not quite sure how to describe it…pictures when I get home in two weeks, I promise this time!

At the end of the hike, although a little rushed as Em and I almost missed the bus back, was a beautiful fresh water lake. Extremely picturesque. They offer boat cruises but the 75 dollar price tag was out of our budget.