kwant's TravelStream™ — Recent TravelPod.com entries TravelStream™ news feed for member kwant on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/kwant en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 17 May 2007 11:55:03 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com Around the world in 111 days — London, United Kingdom http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1179339660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1179339660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1179339660/tpod.html Thu, 17 May 2007 11:55:03 -0400 The Adventures of Kwant and his amazing travelling Pants
London, United Kingdom

We returned safe and sound, after 2 10-hour flights, seamless interchange in LA and plenty of films, safe back onto British soil. Lauren back to the province and Josh off to see Carlisle and Glasgow for a week.

The trip has been an exceptional time and one that we will remember and treasure. The rough and the smooth as always compliment and enhance each other, and many of the things we've seen, heard, tasted, and smelt will remain and be relived as memories. Time with Ouma, New Zealand, Coffee plantations in Laos, Cambodia were up there as favourites, but perhaps many of the slightly forgotten or seemingly inocuous observations and experiences will return in the future to help us understand or deal with a situation. There was so much to experience on this trip it needs the time after, with photos and memories to continue to make sense of this fleeting view of the world. It's been a privilege to see a glimpse of the variety of people's lives, and appreciate how much we have and many don't.

We would like to thank everyone for their support and friendship- thanks for keeping in touch! Looking forward to seeing yall soon

love Lauren and Josh
]]> the diversity of this simple clothing accessory! — IN THE BUFF, Samoa http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1178707080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1178707080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1178707080/tpod.html Thu, 17 May 2007 07:23:55 -0400 The Adventures of Kwant and his amazing travelling Pants
IN THE BUFF, Samoa

Having purchased and lost a Buff from south africa to south east asia, its loss was so noticed that a new one was bought in New Zealand- what is a Buff i hear you cry?
Its a simple elasticated tube of cloth which can be used in a multitude of ways. its great for hot and cold weather, in the wind, as UV protected headgear or simply as a sweatband.
The pics give you a taste of its true wonder and diversity and will doubtless have you heading to the shops in seconds to get yourselves one!
]]> A week in the sun is more than enough fun! — Apia, Samoa http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1178731500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1178731500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1178731500/tpod.html Thu, 17 May 2007 06:35:04 -0400 The Adventures of Kwant and his amazing travelling Pants
Apia, Samoa

Drawing to the end of our travels, and sadly having to pull ourselves away from New Zealand, we arrived in Samoa in a torrential downpour! The plan from the outset was that we would arrive in Samoa, exhausted from travelling frenzy with 3 weeks to chill, sunbathe and snorkel getting home in idyllic calm. The actual outworking was that we arrived in Samoa, chilled and relaxed from our NZ experience and having to dig deep into the chill-out reserves, and even deeper into the cultural interest reserves for our time here. Having spent a couple of days in the messy, busyy and very stuffy/muggy town of Apia, we headed for the beautiful beach of Lalomanu.
Samoans are BIG, not just a wee bit chubby and not chubby alone, just BIG. The young guys are predominantly walking Adonis' (Adonii?) with rippling muscles and six packs, towering easily 6 foot in height and above. The women are also large but have the same large bones that no diet can hide! As a nation they seem to love life, they eat loads, nap in the afternoons and place family above all else except their faith. Its a christian country with a quite remarkable number of Churches, both Prot. and Cat. They love their sport and from 6:30 am (sunrise) on a saturday they have their volleyball and rugby matches before the heat gets too strong. The laid back attitudes of the locals rubs off on all, which can make travelling around the island difficult.
The buses are large diesel monstors with wooden benches. They're owned by the driver and he decides when he'll go and if he'll go. Might get to 2 in the afternoon and he just feels like an early afternoon- you find another way to get back home! We only had one bus journey but as it filled (while we waited 2 hours for it to go) the older people got priority seats whilst the younger had to pile up sitting on each others' (rather ample) laps or standing. Just when the bus interior was a single mass of flesh and bone, we departed only to stop 10 mins down the road where everyone got off to go and stockup on crisps, fizzy drinks and crazy green and yellow coloured ice cream (of chernobil fame!). We arrived at the beach 5 hours after first sitting on the bus (a 1 and a half hr journey) with a numb bum and thankfully no serious compartment syndrome of the quads!
Lalomanu beach was stunning (though there were a number of tourists there) with gorgeous white coral sands and a small lagoon with ace snorkelling. We had a couple of great sunsets, some good proper rain deluges and space and time to reflect. The onlt down side was that it was a little busy with fun-loving drinking tourist types (not good in groups!) but that didn't detract from our time there.
Beach accmomodation is in the form of a Fale- an open sided hut, on stilts with a palm-leaf roof and plastic sheets for blinds in the rain. They give you a break from the stifling heat (no aircon) keep you off the ground to frustrate the crabs and come with a mozzie net with only a handful of large-ish holes. The thin mattresses and pillows mean that the mornings are for stretching the sore neck and shoulders, but once used to the new sensation they really are very well suited to the climate. Its lovely to lie right on the beach front with the rain pounding outside your little fale, yet it still be 25 degrees at night and cozy. The food was ok- certainly very plentiful- but too much of it was deep fried with surprisingly little fruit, so the porr digestiions were complaining a little and keen for a change of scenery!
A week lazing on the beach- snorkelling, swimming, eating, reading, sleeping, swimming, sleeping, eating- was great for us. Yet at the end of the week we both had the same notion of strongly wanting to get back, to start getting on with the process of getting a job, to get away from the mozzies, get a good bed and warm shower, and so within 24 hours of making the decsion we were sitting in LA ready for our flight back to London. It was 2 weeks earlier than planned, but we are thoroughly satisfied and keen to get back to our family.
]]> Tree-ific — Northland, New Zealand http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1178568900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1178568900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1178568900/tpod.html Thu, 17 May 2007 06:14:53 -0400 The Adventures of Kwant and his amazing travelling Pants
Northland, New Zealand

Heading straight past Auckland we drove on up to the north heading towards Whangerei (pronounced fangerei!). Following our camp site guide we thouyght it would be lovely and picturesque to stay at a campsite in a forest by the beach on a remote section of the north east coast however after driving for an hour on gravel tracks we got to this spooky empty campsite with no-one about guarded by a lone dog. WE decided to wait and see if anyone turned up so josh wandered down to the beach (a 25 min scramble through undergrowth and over sand dunes) leaving poor defenceless Lauren in the van. No sooner had he left than two 4x4s turned up and after approaching to find out the situation of the camp site, lauren was greeted by a man in combat fatigues covered in camouflage paint and with a big gun and son on the seat next to him! He and his pal were out hunting and explained that there was no running water in the camp. Lauren (with her keen scientific mind and spirit of exploration) had already ascertained this as she had floated a log only to find a distinct lack of flush! Embarrassed she ran down the track after me and carefully explained that we couldn't stay there tonight! THe beach was beatiful- white sand and desolate but the walk back through the woods was far too similar to Blairwitch for us so we high-tailed it back to the main road, finally settling at an overpriced camp ground with showers you had to pay for!
The next day was an ace day with Kirstin and Keith (studied at glasgow with kirstin) who took us to a lovely beach, just 20 mins from their gorgeous house (with slipway, bay views and lovely open plan living room), where we had a nice walk before a slap up pub lunch and beer. The weather was perfect and the day restful, and good craic with K+K.
With time running short we cruised up to Waitangi for a bit of history lesson before heading round to see some big trees. When white settlers first started coming to NZ they found it occupied with Maoris and in their usual style jsut assumed they could overpower them. However the Maoris were really rather a handful, eating any tourists who thought they would try and settle! After a few years, when it became clear that it wasn't going to be easy to settle there a frenchman decided to call himself the ruler of New Zealand and sent for big ships with guns to tame the locals. Realising their position from information by the British resident in NZ and with the considerable help of the mediating christian missionaries, a number of the chiefs of the maori tribes got together to form a sort of congress and declared their independence. Then, under the threat of attck they appealled to King William (the somethingth) of England who sent an emissiary to negotiate a treaty. Within that treaty was a declaration that the country would be under the rule of the British Empire (thus allowing british police to bring Law and order to both white and maori communities) but that the possession of the land itslef and the fishing and resident rights would remain with the Maori nation. That still continues today with Maori's owning all that comes from the ground- jade, ore etc. and under that treaty a country was born where both civilisations were recognised equally(some more equally than others) in contrast with australia dn pretty much everywhere else in the Commonwealth!- so endeth the lesson.
Saw the treaty and got educated then drove down the forests of north west coast seeing the most amazing Kouri trees- you can't get a scale of them from the pics other than to know that they were MASSIVE! Wandering through the forest when suddenly a tree is 13m wide and pretty tall. The width mroe than the height is impressive but the tree is totally in proportion making it look like some rick moranis film (honey, i blew up the kouri) in comparison with the trees around it.
Straight back to Auckland with a brief 12 hr LOTR marathon in our van on the little DVD player and then off to the island group of Samoa.
]]> Homeward bound — Los Angeles, California, United States http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1179253080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1179253080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1179253080/tpod.html Wed, 16 May 2007 14:21:07 -0400 The Adventures of Kwant and his amazing travelling Pants
Los Angeles, California, United States

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]]> Off to samoa — Auckland, New Zealand http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1179002520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1179002520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1179002520/tpod.html Wed, 16 May 2007 14:18:50 -0400 The Adventures of Kwant and his amazing travelling Pants
Auckland, New Zealand

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]]> The Forbidden Pool and Mt Doom. — Rotorua, New Zealand http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1178260620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1178260620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1178260620/tpod.html Sat, 12 May 2007 16:15:22 -0400 The Adventures of Kwant and his amazing travelling Pants
Rotorua, New Zealand

Picked up a fantastic little Ezy Cruiza, toyota Hiace 3lt Deisel auto campervan from the airport, using a now working credit card and got cracking!Our Whistlestop tour started with an hour and half in a shop, return back to our rental place to get the promised DVD player and a purchase of the Lord of the rings in the wrong region- Still, we had our combi!
We trucked on down to Rotorua, the thermal centre of NZ with stacks of hot springs, a slightly pongy town odour and access to Taupo, the centre of volcanic activity in NZ. After an uninspiring overnighter at a littered picnic spot, and a hasty hasty advance to a toilet in the morning we rocked up at NZ's premier site for thermal activity Wai-o-Tapu (as you can see the tourist machine is really working in the North Island). The Thermal park consisted of various craters and pools with hot water and all manner of mineral deposits and gases spewing from the ground. It was class to wander around and see the bowels of the earth boiling forth in such wonderful colours, and lauren took some excellent pics. The afternoon consisted of a wee drive followed by a lovely dip in a hot stream (for free) and then rented a couple of DVDs before heading south to Taupo (Children of Men was average and Big White was pretty funny).
Taupo is situated on the largest lake in NZ in the most active volcanic area, where the two tectonic plates (indo-australian and pacific) meet resulting in frequent small earthquakes and volcanic activity. Its a very different landscape, fertile from the volcanic material and yet with large barren mountain tops expsed to the icy winds and draining quickly leaving them dry unable to support mosses and subsequent vegetation.We did a 7 hour hike (18.5 kms) across a mountain area called the Tongariru Crossing which took us past Mt Doom (LOTR) a volcano which was as volcano-looking as they come. it was a stunnig walk with pretty views and with some lovely terrain, finishing with lush forest. Seeing such variety reminded us of all the things that we've enjoyed about NZ, and doing the walk in 10-20 degrees is far more favourable than our 23 km hike in 35/40 degree southa frican heat.
We raced back from our hike and just made it in time for the superloos and a shower before trekking on to our overnighter near Tauranga on the East coast. On up the North Island.
]]> Heading on from Hoki — Auckland, New Zealand http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1178086740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1178086740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1178086740/tpod.html Sun, 06 May 2007 07:00:22 -0400 The Adventures of Kwant and his amazing travelling Pants
Auckland, New Zealand

We only had 4 days to spend in Hokitika with the Bro and Sis-in-Law, but we had a lot of fun and got to see the local area as well as spending quality time. The strange Pancake rocks of Punakaiki were different but their highlight was definitely that delcious pancakes with fruit and ice cream afterwards! We also did a lovely walk in the coastal areas with wetlands and bizarre trees then finished the day off with a wander up to some local hot springs just next to a local river. Unfortunately we forgot our mozzie repellent for the dastardly sandflies (little blood sucking flying varmint bugs) and got eating alive, poor lauren coming off worst with a lovely selection of about 25 bites on each leg!
The best things we did were to go to the local cinema and seeing their plot of land.
The local Cinema is basically just a large living room with a fairly massive screen, DVD player and 10 sofas complete with knitted rugs. we wrapped up warm as it was a little chilly inside and went to see a swedish film called "Saa som i Himmelen" (As it is in Heaven, Dir.Kay Pollack). It was fantastic- a bittersweet feel-good film with many of humanity's deepest sadnesses dealt with in new honest ways, exposing the heart of so many small minded communities and showing just how beautiful humanity can be. The actors were very convincing and conveyed the power of a well-scripted film. Its really really worth making the effort to get hold of this film ( a bit secular, a bit sad and a bit soppy- but great).
The other great thing was seeing My Bro's plot of land. He's got a few acres of land which is planned for a house sometime and it was fantastic to see so much space and potential- can't wait to go back and visit when its done. The negative side was that it reminded us just how hard it is to get land in the UK and to get planning- not to worry!
After a class few days with them we bussed up to Nelson, stayed briefly overnight then it was up to Auckland to pick up our rented Combi van for a whirlwind tour of the North Island.
]]> To mount cook and take a poo — Hokitika, New Zealand http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1177741980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1177741980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1177741980/tpod.html Sun, 06 May 2007 06:10:07 -0400 The Adventures of Kwant and his amazing travelling Pants
Hokitika, New Zealand

You can't imagine anything competing with the size a depth of Milford Sound (fjord actually) and indeed its a sight unlike any other, but leaving there and heading back to Queenstown we decided to avoid the coast and go up instead to mount cook and lake tekapo. As the road snaked up top the mountains we levelled out onto an area of plains, vast empty grassy plains (where they shot the big battle scenes from LOTR) with strange cliff formations.
Mount cook is the highest mountain in NZ at 3754m and is situated at the end of a long wide valley. yet again a totally new scenery to absorb with wide valley floor (glacial not riverine) and white starcehd pebbles. At the head of the valley the mountains roase into the clouds with huge glaciers running down the glacial valleys (over 3000 glaciers in NZ) ending with large lakes and floating icebergs. We hiked up the valley to a beautiful lake with views up to Aoraki (mt Cook) which was shrouded in a cloud hat, the steep scree walls descending into the icy water. We found out that in fact the ground (fully vegetated) on which we stood had in fact 25 m of ice still formed beneath it from the orginal glacier (now retreated to the head of the lake. The scenery was stunning and as we visited another glacier (the largest called the Tasman Glacier running down from nearby mt Tasman-3497m-) we were met by more icebergs, lakes and wide glacial plains. It was just like the scenes of Helms deep in LOTR-ace!
From there it was down to Lake tekapo (humorously renamed lake take-a-poo by ourselves) for an overnighter then a wee wander up by the observatory in the morning (interestingly the skies over tekapo are supposed to be of the clearest in the southern hemisphere- except when cloudy) before a mammoth drive across the flats of canterbury to arrive at a lovely campsite (complete with showers) where the rooms were made of railway carriages and the kitchen was the old station house- very cute.
The next day was up to hanmer springs: totally tourist. From the prefab hot springs with sanitised pools to the 150 campervans parked up and down the street, from the numerous campsites to the 5 crazy golf sites it just screamed 'i'm a tourist let me in there'! We had a lovely dip in the eggy-fart springs (hydrogen sulphide i'm reliably informed), which only got to a disappointing 41 degrees C, but lasted just 1.5hrs, then filled our exciting tour schedule with washing and coffee. From hanmer it was a rubbish drive back to Hokitika through heavy rain and awful twisting roads- really appreciated the hot log fire and warm bed at Dave+Heather's!
It really was the most amazing trip for us to take filled with arguably the worlds finest diverse scenery- you can't reaqlly put it all into words so you're probably best to just pay the money, get a combi, and see it for yourself!
]]> Magical Milford — Milford Sound, New Zealand http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1177308060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1177308060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwant/kwantsareoff/1177308060/tpod.html Mon, 23 Apr 2007 03:33:34 -0400 The Adventures of Kwant and his amazing travelling Pants
Milford Sound, New Zealand

Waking up to waves lapping on the shore of Lake Wakatipu isn't bad.
Neither is plunging into the glacier-fed waters for an early morning
bath followed by a nice cup of tea freshly brewed on the camping gas
stove. And spending the day driving down a breathtakingly beautiful
road that meanders through wineries and mountain peaks is really quite
an amazing experience.

We really love New Zealand. Its so clean and green and beautiful. Maybe
its after months of sweating and struggling through poor infrastructure
that makes this part of our trip such a welcome change. Its autumn and
the colours are flippin class. Every second car is a campervan and we
easily while away the driving hours by guessing which part of Lord of
the Rings was filmed in the places we're passing. You just wouldn't be
surprised if some elves or hobbits popped out to say g'day.

Today we ventured to Milford Sound- Wow! Sooo amazing. Slightly
overcast at 9 in the morning but we missed the tour buses. The pics
speak for themselves. The van was getting really foosty so we stopped
off on the way back to Queenstown to do our laundry. Slight
improvement. We also had our first NZ rain today - not bad for 7 days
of sunshine...
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