James in Waitomo caves

( glow worm picture didn’t come out so well, so here’s another picture of our cheesy grins instead! )

James and Ruth in the Waitomo caves

The pictures inside the caves didn’t come out too well, so we improvised…

Ruth and friends....

After surviving the caves, we put wooden clips on our noses and headed to smelly Rotorua and it’s novel theme park – except with no rides for thrills, just thermal activity for fun.

Lady Knox's Geyser - she blows when washing powder is placed down her hole!

More thermal fun and spills ….

Painters palate

errr. steaming pool maybe??

On the way to Taupo we couldn't resist yet more thermal related excitement by stopping at a hydroelectric plant - woo hoo!

After Taupo, we stopped at Tongariro national park – home to mount doom from lord of the rings!!

Frodo's friend Rutho on the way to drop her ring in mount doom

After mount doom we headed West to the coast on Surfers highway before getting to Mount  Egmont…

Mnt Egmont in background, NZ's answer to Japan's Mt Fuji. We've also sneaked a totem pole into the pic for extra value!

On our way South we passed through a town called Bulls. There was a bit of a running theme to all the signs in the town…

Recycling in Bull - RESPONS-I-BULL

2 dollar shop - AFFORD-A-BULLS

The police - CONST-A-BULL

We could go on….

We ended our time on the North island with a stop to see James’ cousin Nicola and kids Joseph and Samantha. We had our first and only NZ BBQ and a fab time! The girls proved they were the best at Taboo, but the boys thrashed them at pool to make up for it!

Thanks for having us stay guys ) We had a great time seeing you, hope to catch up in the UK.

We then caught the ferry from Wellington to the South island, 3 hours with fantastic views coming into Picton on the S Island.

Ruth on the ferry

We then headed up to Abel Tasman park for some quality walking time! on the way we found our favourite NZ winery – had to stop for a pic of course.

Stoneleigh - these guys had a special offer on while we were there so we bought out their stocks in the supermarket.. sorry Henry ...

We did a 4 hour walk in 2 to try and catch an earlier water taxi… missed it regardless and ended up hitching a lift in another boat back! We saw seals and penguins … classic coast line action!

The split apple at Abel Tasman

On way South from Abel Tasman, we headed down the West coast and stopped to have a butchers at the world famous pancakes and blow holes at Punakhiki. Disappointingly, the blow hole was more of a spit hole while we were there and the pancakes were a bit crusty -

Ruth's lunch

We were shocked to find out that there were actual glaciers on the West coast that nearly meet the sea, so figured we’d have to check that out! As promised, the Franz Joseph glacier was dead impressive although we were sad when we found out that the quad biking wasn’t done over the top of it ( maybe not so much Ruth judging by the look of fear on her face riding on the back of the quad ).

Sunshine, grass, glacier, cheese, grin - can you tell the difference??

The good times on the quad bike....

...and the not so good times!

Next we headed to Wanaka and based on some local advice stopped at the so called ‘Blue Pools’ on the way …

Ruth after we decided the blue pools would better be called the 'non-descript greyish pools'

After an hour of walking, a passer by was kind enough to tell us that the blue pools were 45 mins back in the direction we had came from (

This could have been any night in the van.. We liked how they sell wine in milk cartons in NZ - very forward thinking, if only the milk man would deliver them also..

Wanaka was next and was amazing! Great seafood, great views, great jet boating – oh and there was a novelty maze too!

Jet boating on the river… got to get me one of these!

In puzzling world we did the big maze …

We did a lot of this!

but only did this once )

After Wanaka, we drove to Queenstown which everyone assured us was like Wanaka but a victim of its own success. Curious as to how a town can be a victim we stayed for a couple of nights and loved it! Not as nice as Wanaka, but there was an Irish pub so hey ho we’ll let it off. Oh, and the sunset was the best we had ever seen, honest check it out ..

Sunset in Queenstown

After a slight miscalculation on driving times, we realised that we’d have to fly to Milford Sounds to fit it in. When we saw the views from the plane, we were glad we did it though. Difficult to put it into words .. here’s my attempt.. “a bit fjordy but with seals, penguins, dolphins and waterfalls for extra value”. 2 of the dolphins followed our boat for 10 mins!

view from boat

waterfall and a bit of snow at the back

Milford sounds penguins

Dolphin!

our plane

Us on plane

On our last drive in NZ, we headed to Christchurch to drop the van off. It was a bit of a long drive, as you can tell by how excited we got at these road signs..

Twizel on the left

Geraldine, home of the world's largest jersey weighing a remarkable 5.5KG. Also home to a copy of the Bayeux tapestry made entirely from broken knitting machine parts. Random! )

We dropped off our van in Christchurch, and after Ruth had a little cry to say goodbye to it, headed to the airport for Hawaii.

The weather for the Blue Mountains tour was disappointing at first, when we arrived at the first ‘look out’ we couldn’t see anything but cloud!  Thankfully the weather cleared and we were blessed with some great views.  The afternoon was spent in the Bush where we saw wild kangaroos and a deadly Funnel Web Spider – the webus funnel plasticus species!  See pictures below. 

Hunter Valley was beautiful and the wine was great, we treated ourselves to a few bottles, but unfortunately they don’t ship to the UK, so were unable to send any home.  Iron Gates was our favourite – check it out Henry & Dan!  By the end of the day we were very merry and happy Thanks for a very suitable gift Helen.

We treated ourselves to a meal at the Sydney Tower, which was brilliant for the views, but not as good as the Toronto Tower restaurant.  All in all we had a super time and Ruth was trying to plan our emgration during our last night in Sydney!

We then flew to Alice Springs were we spent the night before starting a three day tour to Uluru and King’s Canyon.  Emma, our guide, was fantastic and we were lucky to be on a small tour with great people.  The ‘Rock’ was breath taking, especially when a storm came during our sunset BBQ and we saw it rain on the rock along with a rare rainbow ending directly on it!   We also got to see sunrise over Uluru with a cuppa tea and biscuit on our last (very early) morning.  On the second day we walked along King’s Canyon for three hours, which provided us with great views.  All in all it was a super trip!  On the way back to Alice Springs, Emma treated us to a visit to meet Dinky, the famous singing dingo.  Ruth ‘volunteered’ to accompany Dinky on the piano, while he sang along.  It was hilarious for everyone watching, Ruth was (very) scared!

We left Alice Springs on The Ghan train to Darwin.  It was an 24 hour train journey with a 4 hour stop in Katherine, where we went canoeing on the river.  The Ghan was an experience and we were happy to check into our hotel in Darwin and sleep in a comfortable bed!

We’ve spent a few days pottering around Darwin which has been good.  We went to the Deckchair Cinema last night and saw The Cove.  It was lovely to drink wine while watching a film under the stars.  Tonight we catch a plane back to Sydney and then fly on to Auckland.  We pick up our camper van on Tuesday and start the two week tour of New Zealand.

Our time in Australia has been brilliant, and it’s definitely been the Australians we’ve met that have helped make it such a fun couple of weeks.   

On the way to climb the Bridge

Charlotte ferry at the harbour (after bridge climb!)

Blue Mountains in the background.

webus funnel plasticus spider in natural environment

After we fell for the trick!

Three Sisters at Blue Mountains

On the steepest train in Australia at the Blue Mountains theme park

On a model of a horse at the Blue Mountains theme park - random.

Hunter Valley

Getting merry at the vineyards

A friend we met at Hunter Valley, we were drunk & fighting

James in fetching fly protection looking at aboriginal art on Uluru

Ruth also looking good while at Uluru

Rainbow at sunset

BBQ at sunset with our fab tour group

Wild camels on the road on the way to King's Canyon

At the start of the walk along King's Canyon

Waiting for the sun to rise.

After sunrise with a cuppa

Ruth afraid, very afraid, with Dinky!

James in the Todd River (rarely flows)

Getting on The Ghan

On the Katherine River

Frog hiding behind the taps, we thought it was plastic again, but this was real.

James at the Homestead in Katherine.

As per Rob's speech at the reception, all local toilet customs were followed to the letter. Including the one about not standing on the seat!

After reading the Rough Guide on the plane, Ruth was preparing to spend her time in Phnom Penh locked in the guest house!  In the taxi from the airport we were asked if we wanted to go and shoot some machine guns or throw a few hand grenades (apparently British tourists love it), which we kindly declined and Ruth panicked some more!  However, we didn’t encounter any problems at all and had three good days in Phnom Penh.  The food was fantastic (Friends, a charity restaurant, was some of the best food we’d had since the Cruise).  We did the National Museum and Palace one day and then had a very somber day visiting the Killing Fields and S21 Prison.  Put everything into perspective.

Then we travelled for 5 hours by bus to Siem Reap and had four amazing days cycling to and around Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat.  AMAZING!  There were wild monkeys on the road into Angkor Thom which you could feed bananas to, Ruth was in monkey heaven!  The ruins were breath taking and we had a great time cycling around discovering everything ourselves rather than in a tut tut like everyone else (although it was VERY hot).  Our last night in Cambodia was spent having a Happy Special pizza, which we can confirm lived up to its name!!

Royal Palace, Phnom Penh

Angkor Wat

Wild monkeys on the road to Angkor Thom

James at Angkor Wat (at a library we think)

After a long cycle we find Victory Gate, Angkor Thom!

Cambodian BBQ - we had snake, crocodile, kangaroo, and your normal stuff.

Tomb Raider was filmed here!

Tree and ruins become one

Happy Special Pizza (Ruth's giving a clue to the 'special happy')

James getting 'special happy'

10c cheaper than Chang and therefore our brew of choice, we'll miss that good 'ol Klang kick. 'Can't get enough of that wonderful Klang'

We then travelled by train to Sukhothai and stayed for a few nights.  We cycled around the old city which was great fun but very hot!  Our accomodation was a wooden shack, but it had air con, so we were happy.

Next was a six hour bus ride to Chiang Mai.  We had a brilliant time in Chiang Mai, it is a toned down version of Bangkok and we loved it.  Did lots of sight seeing, we hired bikes and went to the zoo and various different areas.  On the last day we went ATV driving and whitewater rafting, which was amazing!!  Ruth was supposed to drive her own ATV, but after a five minute practice down a hill aiming for the river and her crashing quite a lot, it was decided that it was best for James to drive and Ruth be a passenger!  It was over an hours adventure over varying degrees of terrain and very muddy.  The rafting was brilliant fun, we were in a boat with a couple of girls from Milton Keynes and we picked up an Aussie on the way who had fallen out of his boat!  We hope to go again in another country, but glad we got to do it in Thailand, lots of crazy fun!  After a day of activity, Ruth managed to persuade James to go to an Italian restaurant for dinner so she could have WINE!!  Oh it tasted good after all that Chang (Ruth wrote this bit!).

We left Chiang Mai last night and traveled by night train (first class private air con booth thanks to our senduspacking gift from Chris and Sarah, thanks guys!!!) and arrived in Bangkok this morning.  We’re here for one night, off to Cabbages and Condoms tonight (thanks Dan and Holly ) and then watching F1 in a sports bar.   We fly to Cambodia tomorrow afternoon.

We’ve loved Thailand and have some wonderful memories, but looking forward to the next part of our adventure in Cambodia.  We’ll probably not get online again now until we arrive in Oz (27 October we land) so will let you know how we are then.

Various pictures from Thailand below…

At a bar in Bangkok

At Royal Palace - very hot after a massive rain storm!

Lots of golden sparkling things at the Royal Palace!

Large monkey guard at the Royal Palace

Wat Phra Si Sanphet

On an elephant ride around the ruins!

Elephant asking for a tip! Wouldn't take no for an answer

Buddha head embedded in tree, Wat Phra Mahathat.

Wat Phra Mahathat, Ayuthaya

Wat Ratburana - James and a big Buddha

Wat Ratburana - We went down into the crypt of this one!

Enjoying a Chang by the river in Ayuthaya - (thanks for the senduspacking gift Ian, we chose beer over suncream in the end!!).

Wat Mahathat in Sukhothai Historical Park

Cycling around Sukhothai Historical Park

Chiang Mai Zoo - We cycled there hoping to cycle around the zoo, but you can only go around in something that pollutes - car, motorbike, tram...

Monkey!

Whitewater rafting - thank you for the senduspacking gift Matt and Oonagh, as you'll see from the pictures, we had a blast!

We didn't fall out once on the rapids!

Back on solid ground - note James now has the dorky sock!

PS – Andrew, we met a guy as well outside the museum who was insistent that we were going the wrong way but we ignored him and walked right to the entry rather than the shop he was pointing at… Think I remember you saying you had this as well? well, I guess there’s prob 100 of those guys doing 24/7 shifts outside there!

Us by the Great pyramid - off shot are our 20 friends trying to sell us authentic egyptian headresses "for free.. only 5$"

Grandfather pyramid on left, father in middle and son on right. Chopped from picture toothless guy in authentic Egyptian clothing who offerred to be included in picture for just $5

Ruthie under the Sphinx ( with dorky sock on for her twisted ankle ! )

Sphinx and great pyramid, off shot is trader selling authentic Egyptian plastic singing camel

Big statue of Rameses II in Memphis museum - look at how impressed Ruth is!

Honestly, we're not kidding it was huge!

Step pyramid - first ever pyramid in Egypt!! They hadn't quite got the hang of the edges yet though. Off shot scary short toothless man "I am Rameses the second picture only $1"

Our last bit of luxury.. the Marriot in Cairo ( our next hostel was about the same size as this foyer! ) Our psycho taxi driver for the airport is off to the right!!

Ruth during a lesson with Greg (the instructor) looking on.

Ruth and Greg on a tandem!! This was a gybing lesson.

Thanks to Greg for getting Ruth Gybing with style!!

James windsurfing

Bedouin night in the desert.

Wadi Walk up a mountain to watch the sunset over Moonbeach with a beer.

We’ll hopefully post some more pictures and news after we visit the pyramids before we leave for Bangkok.