TravelStream™ news feed for member leeandcathy on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/leeandcathy en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:09:51 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1097687700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1097687700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1097687700/tpod.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:09:51 -0400 Baldwin to the Bay of Islands. The journey is the goal.

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Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia

Monday Sep 27th - Day 153It's a doddle travelling in Australia, the tourist industry is a well oiled, user friendly machine. The 3 1/2 bus ride to Byron Bay was comfortable and left bang on time. Having stopped to drop off and pick up in several places we arrived in Byron at lunchtime where we were met by Stuart, from Backpackers Holiday Village, where we had booked 2 nights accomodation. Along with a few others we were given a quick tour of Byron in the hostels minivan before we checked in.The accomodation here is shared apartments, so we had our own vedroom (just bigger than the double bed) and shared the bathroom, small kitchen and lounge area, with another befroo, housing 4 people, 2 english girls and 2 dutch girls. Here's hoping my naked sleepwalking doesn't return.Well Mr. Sherrard, sharing an apartment with 5 lovely ladies, heaven or hell?After a look round and a bite to eat we did what is compulsory in Byron and hit the beach. And what a beach. The main street in Byron leads directly onto Main Beach, which to the left is an endless slightly curving stretch of sand that disapears in a distant haze, and to the right the beach follows the tight curve formed by Cape Byron, Australias most easterly point.Row after row of white breaking waves pound the beach, and beyond the sea is deep blue. But its choppy, the onshore wind is about force six. With a million acres of sand its not difficult to find somewhere to sit. I coat Rene from head to toe in factor 30, she says it's too expensive to use on me and gets 8 ounces of beef dripping from her bag and covers me in it.Rene lies down to read her book and I trundle off to the sea looking like I'm going to swim the channel, and smelling like a zoo. At home the water numbs your feet and in Malaysia its like a warm bath, here its refreshing. In fact, it's nigh on perfect. If you're hot it cools you down, but staying in for hours on end causes nothing but wrinkled bits.It would be hard to find a more sense invigorating 2 hours than being pummelled by endless powerful waves, I couldn't have had more fun even with a board. I was a low quality human surf board. It was like being in a giant washing machine and I lost count of the number of times my shorts were ripped off. My only injury was slight chafing of the scrotum.The wind direction and strength meant the waves were poor for surfing, so there weren't many surfers in the water, but we did manage to see one of the surf schools in operation.The strengthening wind and resultant sand blasting eventually removed us from the beach and we strolled the 20 minutes back to the hostel.A trip to Woolworths (supermarket) means we have something to put in our section of the fridge, including a 4 litre box of white wine for A$10 which tasted as you'd imagine wine at 1 pound/litre would taste.Expenses (A$2.5/pound): Taxi 9.20, lunch 15, accom 63, supermarket 13.90, wine 9.95, internet 2.Tuesday Sep 28th - Day 154We made use of the hostels free bike hire and went off in search of cheaper accomodation which we eventually found.Twenty minutes of leisurely pedaling got us to Cape Byron where we wlaked part of the coastal path. The views from the clifftop path looking down on Watego beach towards the end of the cape, and out across the South Pacific were stunning and put me in mind of parts of the Cornish Coast.After a self prepared feast of a packed lunch (2 egg baps, 2 cheese and tomato baps) we spent the rest of the day on the beach, me in the sea, Rene reading her 800th book. If only I'd learnt to read.It was just as windy as yesterday but slightly warmer, still no surfers about, only a few speed freak windsurfers and a certifiable para sailor were braving the onshore gale.Later at the hostel it was BBQ night, $12 for all the food you can eat and all the wine you can drink. $9 for the veggy option. The food was good, with lots of pasta salad and bread, the wine wasn't, but what do you expect for $9. Anyway it flowed freely on what was a sophisticated cultural evening which culminated in the presentation of a T shirt for the first girl to stand o the central table and bare her breasts. Despite my desperate need for a new, clean T shirt, Rene couldn't be pursuaded from her seat and therefore didn't win, and because of an ill placed bush I couldn't see who did.Everyone headed across the road to Cheeky Monkeys Bar for their Tuesday night trivia quiz. We were teamed with a couple from Yorkshire, a girl from Motherwell and Roger from Utrecht. We didn't win the $100, but they were good company and we shared a few jugs of Toohey's together before retiring to bed and dreaming of perfect waves and no wind for tomorrows surf lesson.Expenses: Bfast/lunch 8.20, accom 63, BBQ 18, book 8.50, beer 8Wed Sep 29th - Day 155At the very end of the 8am sports bulletin on a Sydney radio station I learn the overnight Chamions League results. A player from Liverpool scored a hat trick, only he plays for Man United, Liverpool were apparently lucky to only lose 1-0 away to Olympiakos and quickly need to banish their away day blues.Up and out fairly early as we were changing hostels and it needed to be done by 10am in time for surf school.At the beach, Rene and I are totally different. Rene can lie all day reading, snoozing and taking the odd dip, whereas as I find it hard to lie still and spend most of my time in the sea. So with the opportunity of 3 hours peace and quiet beckoning Rene decided against having a surf lesson.With its worldwide reputation for excellent surf it's no surprise that Byron Bay has plenty of surf schools. I opted for the cleverly named Byron Bay Surf School. Having loaded the boards onto a trailer and put on our sleevless, ;eg;ess wetsuits, we left for the beach in a minivan driven by Marco, who was our instructor for th morning. My dream of good waves and little waves hadn't been realised and as walked towards the sea we were sandblasted by the onshore gale.It was a small group, containing 3 children and a woman who were all on their third lesson. They all went straight in the sea while I was given a quick 5 minute lesson on riptides and how to lie on the board.The training boards were hige, like a 7 foot dining table covered in foam insulation. On a calm day I'm sure they're great, but in the strong wind it was like moving a sheet of plywood round.To be honest it was a bit farcical and the lesson shouldn't really have gone ahead. There was no one else in the water because the waves were coming from all angles, it was more like white ater rafting conditions.I had 3 hours of battling out far enough to try and catch a wave and then more often than not being dumped to the seabed by one from the side. I did however catch a few half decent ones and even managed to stand up half a dozen times, so I was more than happy. Despite the conditions it was incredible exhausting fun and I was absolutely knackered walking back up the beach.It was a tough afternoon of reading and relaxing.At the Backpackers Inn hostel we've moved to the rates are cheaper because we're not in a so called apartment, but our room is much bigger. Every thing else is similar, with a small pool, good clean shared toilets and showers and a large well equipped communal kitchen. Oh, and loads of backpackers.Wednesday night is BBQ night at Backpackers Inn and never being able to shy away from an 'All you can eat for $5' sign we purchased a pair of tickets. We did though manage to resist the 'All the sangria you can drink for $5' sign. It was a sham, we were given a paper plate with 2 slices of bread, a potatoe pattie/burger and some lettuce. That was it, no more.Well, Rene was fuming. She'd had her starter but was now being denied the main course. I couldn't stop her as she ran over to the man in charge and punched him real hard in the kidneys, as he doubled over in pain she fireman lifted him onto her shoulder and dumped him in the pool.That may have happened in the movies, but we actually just went back to our room and drank cheap boxed wine out of mugs.Expenses: Accom 58, surf school 65, lunch 18, supermarket 24.20, BBQ 10, smoothie 4.90, internet 2Thursday Sep 30 - Day 156A lazy morning in Byron, floowed by a long walk along the beach in the afternoon. It's a struggle. We walked up the beach a good few miles. Past Belongil beach and Belongil creek where a large area is fenced off to protect the endangered Little Tern, who nests here each year. They're similar to terns at home but with a black tuffed skullcap.Apart from a naked swimmer (Belongil beach is clothing optional) we hardly met anyone. The beach is pristine with no litter dropped and absolutely nothing washed ashore,there's nothing for beachcombers here.The well equipped communal kitchen, appliances not working, which ment long queues to cook your meal. It was like ready steady cook on fast forward, at least it was in the other half of the kitchen. We got stuck behind two girls, who could have their own show called can't cook, shouldn't cook. They took bleedin hours with a frying pan cooking 1 red pepper, a small tine of sweetcorn and a tine of chopped tomatoes (yummy) and boiling some rice. The chef of the day trophy went to a skinny lad who looked about 14, who appeared with a white loaf and a jar of chocolate peanut sauce and set too with the toaster.It's certainly a younger age group in the hostels in Australia, the vast majority are either taking time out before or after Uni, so not the place to say for a bit of peace and quiet. It's thumping music until 11pm then the clubbers usually return at about 3am, drunk and disorderly. The walls are thin and there's no escaping the noise, but with no work in the morning it's no big deal and if we're up and about early we get our own back with plenty of door banging. Childish but satisfying.Expenses: Accom 58, supermarket 22.60, laundry 3, crisps 3.20Friday October 1st - Day 15730mm of apparently much needed rain last night and a morning of thundery heavy showers. We read and wrote and lolled about.It cleared up a bit in the afternoon and we managed a walk round Byron and a swim. As well as its beaches and surf Byron is famous for its hippies, who are still here in numbers. From the odd sight of about 15 alternative lifestylers (cult) sat near the beach, chanting in a Hari krishna stylee, while their leader sat at a table upfront serving veggy curry to anyone who made a donation, to the endless dreadlocked stripey legginged youths who tumble in and out of rainbow painted camper vans, hippyism is alive and well in Byron.The shops in Byron reflect this too, so alongside all the bars, restaurants, cafes and surf boutiques are shops selling anything from recycled wares, palm and astrology readings, blueprint healing, cranio sacral balancing, crystal singing bowls, life coaching, yoga, crystals, chocolate scented incense, sarongs, didgeridoos, locally crafted jewellrey, wheatgrass juice and veggie burgers. Byron is bustling and a pleasant place to walk around. It also has a very good supermarket where all the top backpacker chefs ome to clog up the discount aisle.Expenses: Accom 58, supermarket 15.45.Sat October 2nd - Day 158A beautiful clear morning, the wind has finally abaited and the surf is up. A barefoot run along the beach and a swim is a great way to start the day.Close to Byron the beach was already busy but out beyond Belongil it was once again deserted apart from nuddy swimmers. I can sort of see the appeal of skinny dipping here, with the sand, sun, surf and seclusion, but the thought of a barracuda biting your bits would be enough to keep the shorts on.On my way back past Belongil I saw in the near distance a man walking towards to me. He was about 60 with a grey beard, a baseball cap and a small backpack. Apart from that he was naked. It put me right off my mini banana and 2 tangerines I was going to have for my breakfast. If nudity is your thing, why wear a baseball cap?Our day was speant leisurely walking along the beaches and steeply undulating cliffside pathways of Cape Byron.At Wategos beach we were enticed into the sea by irresistable waves before we climbed up to the 1901 constructed Cape Byron lighhouse. We enjoyed our picnic linch at Captain Cook Lookout, with magnificent views over the cape and out across the South Pacific.Captain Cook named Australias most easterly point after the grandfather of George Gordon Lord Byron, who sailed round the world in the 1760's.Despite the quality waves, the days highlights consisted of wildlife viewing. We saw humpback whales, dolphns, turtles, bush turkeys, fish eagles, pelicans, cormorants, a large frill necked lizard and a small Jack Russell puppy.Back on main beach we had another swim, but the outgoing tide had flattened the waves making it slightly less fun.Later, we had no choice but to phone the fashion police when a man with a sculpted goatee beard appeared nearby, and proceeded to change, using the towel round the waist trick. He unveiled a pair of way too tight black trunks with the word SPANK emblazened across the backside. He then neatly folded his clothes and nonchalantly minced his way to the sea.The beach is pretty safe, but there are still lifeguards patrolling. All decked out in the red and yellow gear, the two men patrolling Byron must have been from te Dads Army Lifeguarders, both were well over 60.As we left the beach we caught a glimpse of Byrons famous Sandcastle man. He's renowned for creating incredible sand sculptures and was putting the fnishing touches to an amazing disneyesque castle, all he seemed to use were water, a putty knife and a small paint brush.With another BBQ in the offing back at the hostel, we decided to give it a miss and take a walk into town. The Great Northern Hotel is a cavernous, traditional, boisterous corner pub in the heart of Byron. It's a regular venue for live music and is full of locals atching horse racing and rugby league on the TV screens.A pint here is known as a schooner, so after a few schooners of Toohey;s we finished off another relentlessly enjoyable day with a bag of barramundi and chips.Expenses: Accom 58, suncream 42.90, fish and chips 14.50, drinks 18.10Sun Oct 03 - Day 159Up at 6am to pack our bags, on the bus and leaving Byron behind by 7am. Making our way to Hervey Bay was a long and smooth uneventful ride. The bus stopped at several places to pick up and drop off. Noosa appeared to be the nicest, with beautiful coast and awesome waves.There are so many beautiful places on the east coast it's impossible to visit the mall, so in a conscious effort to avoid packing bags every other day, we're picking out towns where we'll base ourselves for a number of days.It was 5.15pm when we reached Hervey Bay. Had we known how far it was to our prebooked accomodation we would never have walked the four miles, loaded up like a pair of packhorses. Not a bus or taxi in sight. Our basic map had no scale and it didn't seem that far to the Fraser Lodge Holiday PArk. But powered by swearing and whingeing we eventually made it.Mainly on the recommendation of Ange and Mike we've decided to try staying at a caravan site. We booked 3 nights in a standard cabin at a slightly cheaper rate per night than a room at a hostel.To be honest we weren't expecting much, a tatty old shed in a corner perhaps. What we got was, for us, a palace. A vast cabin with double bed, table, couch, en suite with toilet and shower, a kitchen area with hob, fridge, microwave, kettle and toaster and TV. Bargain. Plus there are 2 swimming pools, a free tennis court, a shop, outdoor gas BBQ's, laundry, internet and no hordes of grunge monkeys to compete with for use of toilets, showers and kitchen.A quick stock up at the nearby supermarket meant we just made it back in time to watch the Rugby League Grand Final. At half time Rene realised she was missing Australian Pop Idol on the other side. Shame.Expenses: Accom 62.10, BIG4 membership 30, water 1.40, food 7, juice 2, supermarket 15.50, booze 21.60, dinner 11.80
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1092092580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1092092580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1092092580/tpod.html Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:29:35 -0400 Baldwin to the Bay of Islands. The journey is the goal.

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Jakarta, Indonesia

Tue 03 Aug - Day 93A very pleasant 26hrs sail, sees us entering the very busy port of Jakarta. Each time we speak to any Indonesians, who often come up to you to practice their English, they warn us to be very careful in Jakarta, very dangerous. Angus has also said that the port area can be bedlam, he offers to share a taxi with us as the area we will be staying in is on his route. Angus is also fluent in Bahasa Indonesian which is a huge bonus, he'd avoided a mugging because he understood what two blokes behind him were saying.The dock at Tanjung Priok is bedlam. With hundreds of people and their belongings streaming off the ship and hundreds more waiting to meet them, including porters, taxi drivers and hawkers.We follow Angus and his porter and eventually break through the melee. Metered Bluebird taxis are the only rip-off free ride.Angus has lived 10 years in Jakarta and is full of fascinating stories of riots and corruption. In the half hour ride to Jalan Jaksa he gives us plenty of tips and advice, he also refuses to take any money for the taxi. A gentleman and a scholar.Jalan Jaksa is a narrow one way road about 500m long that is home to most of the backpacker accomodation, and several bars and small restaurants. It's kind of central, although there is no real centre in the sprawling mass that is Jakarta.A non fish head sandwich helps with our room search. It's my turn to look and it doesn't take long as there are only 3 places with rooms available, 2 of those are overpriced. The Djody Hostel has a double room, which has a tiled floor, en-suite with cold shower and TV for 110,000 rupiah (6.75) per night, with breakfast included. On the downside there were a lot of mossies in the room.We dump our bags and take a walk, searching for a Pelni ticketing office, which we eventually find. It's not the mail Pelni office, and to be honest, weren't much help or that iterested. A long hike back through the heat and pollution means we've earnt a happy hour beer.We're both knackered, so have an early and delicious dinner at Pappa Kafe. By 7.30 we're back in our room (about 1min walk) with newspaper and duct tape blocking off the mosquito entry points, and then flip flopping the remaining ones.At 9pm, to my absolute horror, we realise I've left our bag at the restaurant. We run back but the bag, unsurprisingly, has gone. Numb nuts. No sign of it, and no one saw a thing.The irony is we only had the bag with us to put the camera in, which we didn't feel totally safe leaving in our room. All our money and passports is always on us in money belts. The bag contained Rene's leatherman knife and magellite torch, our Lonely Planet Indonesian guidebook and our Canon A80 camera and accessories. The only irreplaceables being the camera memory cards holding pictures from Melaka, Perhentian Islands and Singapore.The owner of Pappa Kafe isn't about, and it's too late and a little pointless to go to the Police Station tonight, so we trudge disconsolately back to our room.Expenses Rupiah 16,500 / pound: lunch 33,000, internet 10,000, paper and tape 12,500, accom 110,000, beer 40,000, dinner 67,500.Wed Aug 04 - Day 94After a restless night of self incrimination, we spend the day doing all the necessary stuff. We speak to the owner of the cafe and visit the police station to make a statement.By the time we've completed all we need to (nothing, except bags disappearing, happens quickly in Jakarta) we just make it by Ba-jai (two stroke, sputtering orange three wheelers) to the main Pelni office, where we pick up lots of information and a 2004 timetable.Later we visit Pappa Kafe again in the vain hope that our cameras been returned, but alas no.To add to our generally shit day, Rene received an email form work that changes are afoot, it upset her more than I thought it would. She enjoys her job and the people she works with, and now has her figers crossed that things work out as she'd like.A huge thank you to John Whitfield Moffitt for all your much appreciated help today. (Rene's dad).Expenses: Taxis to police statin 31,000, internet 5,000, drinks 8,000, Baijai taxi 20,000, fax 34,000, lunch 45,000, beer 16,000, dinner 57,000, internet 18500.Thursday Aug 05 - Day 95The next Pelni ferry from Jakarta to Pontianak in Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) doesn't depart until Aug 11. We are contemplating travelling across Java by train, island hopping as far as Flores and back, then boarding the Pelni ferry which leaves Surabaya (east Java) on Aug 23 headed for Nunukan in Kalimantan.today though, the whole day is taken up with shopping for replacement goods.Expenses: dinner 57,200, lunch 40,000, bus 15,000, juice 45,000, Doxycycline 57,500, internet 7,000, beer 16,000, book and pens 20,100, laundry 20,000, accom 110,000Insurance claim: Camera 3,900,000 case 90,000 128MB card 331,500 rechargeable batteries 172,000 leatherman 880,000 mag-lite 170,000 rucksack 219,000 lonely planet Indonesia (bible) 284,400.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1108497720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1108497720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1108497720/tpod.html Tue, 15 Feb 2005 15:46:40 -0500 Baldwin to the Bay of Islands. The journey is the goal.

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Bang Tao, Thailand

Day 231 - Thursday 13th JanuaryAt the moment we're sharing a room with a really nice English couple, which is fine if a little awkward.Mike Cegielski set up the recovery project after escpaing the wave with his daughter by a mere 10 mintes. He's religious and from New York, a dangerous combination, but he seems to know what he's doing. The project is growing by the day, volunteers come and go, along with reporters, film crews and donators. Much of the initial money for tools and JCB hire is coming from friends of Mike in the US, and Rene is frantically putting proper procedures into place to deal with all incoming and outgoing funds.Alongside all the demolition, burning and cleaning up, volunteers with the help of interpreters, are doing case studies of all the local families and determinning what they've lost. Many of the homes lost were on land the families don't own, so its a complicated and protracted procedure. These people had little to begin with and that little was gleaned from tourism or fishing.I spent the morning fixing salvaged, wriggly tin (very thin corugated iron) sheets to Wandees chicken house. She didn't believe I'd put enough of a slope on the roof for the water to run off, and despite my assurances that it was fine she appeared with a big bowl of water for me to test it. On seeing that it was indeed fine, Wandee gave me slight nod of approval and shuffled back inside.The surge of water created a large hole behind our base camp which exposed and damaged the big concrete sewer drains so after lunch I shuttered round the drain so the hole could be back filled with rubble. There was a lot of holding of breath.Roman's Bar is on the main street, and is a small bar and restaurant run by a local Thai lady called Nuk. Roman is her Swiss boyfriend. Nuk cooks and Roman serves the drinks. That's what normally happens but the place has been severely damaged, so part of the recovery plan is to get Nuk up and running again in some form, as soon as possible. The other reconstruction project at the moment is to get the nearby Minimart cleaned out, re-glazed, re-stocked and re-oponed.While Wes (a 55 year old business man from Stockholm) and I clear out the last of Nuk's demolished walls, Roman tells us with tears in his eyes that the Great Western Hotel that they protested long and hard against being built, ultimately saved them. roman and Nuk ran for their lives. They lost all their possessions and 2 beloved cats.A German man called Peter lives in Bang Tao with his Thai wife and their young daughter Tina. He's 45 and been retired for 10 years on a full pension. He was a flight engineer who suffered from clinical depression. He talks extremely loudly and does so in a comic English accent. He divulges his personal history freely and openly. He also turns up daily and fillsd the cooler boxes with cans of coke and beer, so he's pretty popular.At about 5.30pm everyone makes their way back to base and sits dirty and sweaty sipping a beer or a coke. Some people go for a swim in the sea, but Rene and I feel a little uneasy about it at the moment and wait for a hot shower. A minibus and Peter's ute ferry us to the hotel at about 6.30pm for showers and food, then at about 9pm we're ferried back to Bang Tao. Peter's a talented man, and can drive his ute while drinking a can of beer and rolling a cigarette at the same time. It's always a race to the minibus.Day 232 - Friday 14th JanFirst thing every morning a gang of stray dogs appear at the base to scavenge through the rubbish for any scraps of food. Well that's what they did yesterday. Last night Rene and I bought a big bag of Pedigree Chum Complete, so from now on thay'll be properly fed and watered, and as long as boss dog gets his food first, there's no problems.It was a long hot day of block laying. Persistence from Wes and I in waving, smiling, and helloing finally paid off today when one of the female Burmese brick layers opposite, smiled back. To be honest they don't have much to smile about, theirs is a tough existence. THese imported workers live in a nearby compound where a curfew is enforced. Crammed in an old wagon, they're dropped off in the morning, do a tough days work and are then taken back to the compound. For this they are paid a pittance. The girls don't appear to feel the heat, dressed as they are in white wellies, long trousers, long sleeved shirts over T-shirts and big conical hats.Day 233 Sat 15th JanThree weeks ago the Tsunami wrecked KD's minimart, leaving Kodet and his family with no income, and therefore no money to repair and restock. His story must be typical of countless thousands at the moment. But donations to the recovery project has paid for new windows, doors and re-filling the shelves, and this along with volunteer labour meant KD's was able to re-open this afternoon. It's called a minimart, but is only the size of a corner shop . Everyone gets a big lift to see this vital part of the village up and running again.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1108329780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1108329780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1108329780/tpod.html Sun, 13 Feb 2005 17:36:41 -0500 Baldwin to the Bay of Islands. The journey is the goal.

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Bang Tao, Thailand

Day 230 Wed Jan 12Imagine this, it's Boxing Day morning at around 9.30am and you're walking along Laxey beach. It's a full moon high tide. Suddenly the tide starts going out fast, quickly becoming low tide. You've no idea whats going on. Then the tide starts to come back in, fast. Theres no giant wave, just a surge of water that keeps coming and continues pouring up onto the promenade and up the Glen road until it reaches a height of about 3.5metres. An incredibly powerful surge of water that would burst every door and window and fill every property up to ground floor ceiling height and flush out every possession inside. A rush of water so powerful that every car and boat would be hurtled up the Glen road until it was wedged or smashed against something. Eventually the water subsides leaving utter carnage. There was time to escape but you had to be quick.Thats what happened in Bang Tao, only unlike Laxey the buildings here aren't very well built, although to be honest if a car or boat ploughs into your house its going to do some serious damage however well its built.It's hard to know exactly why certain parts of this area of Thailand were hit worse than others, but it has to be down to the angle of the beach to the wave, the shape of the bay and its depth. Two beaches down from Bang Tao is Patong beach which was badly hit. Patong lies in a real horse shoe shaped bay which just compounded the surge of water.Walking around the village here its dotted with large longtail fishing boats and mangled vehicles. One boat ploughed through and destroyed two houses before coming to rest by a bridge. The Muslim fishing village here has suffered greatly, with all of its boats damaged in some way and all their nets lost. When not fishing they rely on tourists who they take out on their beautiful colourful boats, but not anymore.Our working day starts at around 7.30am when it's still relatively cool. Renes in the office with her swollen knee and I'm off down to the swamp. The swamp is an area close to a small Muslim community that when volunteers first arrived was a lake of fetid, stagnant water. Since then it's been filled in with a bulldozer and lorry loads of soil, but is still known as the swamp.Here I meet Wandee, an elderly Muslim lady who has lost her home and is living with her son. A few days earlier volunteers had to demolish the last remnants of her chicken house which was about to fall down anyway and she was distraught, so they promised that as soon as possible we'd build her another. Wandee and I discussed what she wanted ( a 10ft x 8ft shed ) and where she wanted it, in sign language, and I could tell she was still slightly wary and was going to keep a close eye on me. Happy that I was working on my own, I set off in search of suitable bits of wood.It was a slow process, disentangling wood , denailing it and dragging it back to Wandee's. An army of Burmese workers ( cheap labour ) are working on one of the big hotels, many of them girls laying blocks, I smile and say hello each time I pass, but they just turn away shyly.Once I start sawing and nailing Wandee decides the best way to keep an eye on me is to keep bringing me drinks. During the afternoon she appears five times with already open bottles of coke, which I normally don't drink, but she's been and bought these, so I do.Rene joined me later in the day to escape the office for an hour and we were also joined by a small boy who just played on his own in the half built chicken house. He didn't say a word despite our best efforts to interact. As we left, we reached about 100yds away and turned back to see him peering from behind a tree and waving.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1106949600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1106949600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1106949600/tpod.html Fri, 28 Jan 2005 05:28:27 -0500 Baldwin to the Bay of Islands. The journey is the goal.

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Bangtao, Thailand

Mon Jan 10th - Day 228The island of Phuket is similar in size to the Isle of Man. The western facing coast line was hit by the Tsunami, whereas the east coast was unaffected. Phuket Town where we are staying at the moment is on the east coast.At breakfast in the hotel, we were surrounded by tables filled with teams from different embassies, with matching polo shirts and laminated ID badges, all chatting and writing and generally looking official. At this point we had serious doubts as to whether there was going to be anything we could do to help.Our first stop was the nearby TAT office (Tourist info), who could only suggest we catch the bus to Khao Lak, probably the worst hit area, about 2 1/1 hours north on the mainland. Here, we were told, they needed people to clean and make identification notes on bodies before DNA samples are taken but we knew that only trained proffessionals were allowed to do this difficult but very vital work.Slightly disheartened but not deterred we found a small shop offering internet and set about surfing the interweb. Eventually on a website called Phuket-photos.com we found a small photo showing a sign which read "Bangtao village needs your help". We'd never heard of Bang Tao, but at the bottom was a phone number, so we rang it.An American girl called Liz answered the phone and explained that the 'Bang Tao Recovery Project' had been set up to directly particiapte in the recovery of the Bang Tao community which lies just north of PAtong and 10 miles south of Phuket airport. The village has approximately 100 local families and 50 small and medium sized businesses and while minimal people died from the tidal wave, homes were destroyed, shops and business facilities ruined and the primary business of tourism and fishing halted.It sounded like something we could help with and within an hour we were stood in Bang Tao talking to Liz.The projects base is in a small, central hotel called the Andaman Seaview Resort, where the ground floor open air, former bar and restaurant had been taken over and the upstairs rooms are housing volunteers who had arrived from all over the world. Some had already been here for over a week, and despite having cleared huge amounts of rubble and rubbish, the village still looks like a war zone.We were put straight to work demolishing an unsafe block wall with sledgehammers and crow bars along with a British couple, 2 Dutch lads and a German girl. All the rubble is put in a large pile to be removed later by a JCB. Everywhere the ground is bare and dusty and covered in rubbish. It looks like the Ayres tip. Its hot and dirty work.At lunchtime everyone returns to base where a nearby hotel provides a pack lunch. With a promise to return and move in tomorrow we made our way back to Phuket Town after lunch to sort a few things out.Tues 11 Jan - Day 229After a big help yourself breakfast we got a lift back to Bang Tao.We spent the morning clearing rubble from what was once someones house. Every now and then you find some peice of clothing or a toy amongst the debris and it makes you stop for a moment.The rubbiss all around, slowly is being collected up into piles and burnt, the whole village seems to be smoking. During the morning, grateful locals bring us water and pot noodles to keep us all going.At the moment most of the work is clearing and demolition, with different teams of volunteers in different parts of the village. More rubble clearing during the afternoon when we were joined by a 15 man workforce from a Phuket prison. In for amphetimine offences, they seemed pleased to be outside and worked really hard. Security was slack but the warder told us noone tried to escape becasue if thet did all the other men on the workkforce would be given an extra 10 years in prison and the escapee would be a deadman.The centre of Bang Tao is just a main street with a large hotel called the Best Western on the sea side of the road and our vase plus a row of shops on the other side. The Best WEsten took the brunt of the Tsunami, meaning all the properties directly behind weren't flatltened, though they were still smashed up. Either end of the central area are Muslim families living in very basic wooden houses, a number of which were destroyed. It's these people who really need help and after initially not really trusting the volunteers they're starting to be won round.Everyone works really hard and by the end of a full day in the 33C heat everybody is knackered. Each evening we're taken to a nearby posh but inland and empty hotel, where the boys are given a room to showerin and the girls another. There's only intermittent water and electricity in Bang Tao. The hotel then feeds us all (about 30 people).Rene twisted her knee today, and has now had to admit she's an accountant. She was greeted with much enthusiasm and has been ushered into the office where she has her hands full trying to put the project finances in order. Sher's not happy, but the girls who had been trying to do the job are, it's a vital job.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1106948280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1106948280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1106948280/tpod.html Fri, 28 Jan 2005 04:58:30 -0500 Baldwin to the Bay of Islands. The journey is the goal.

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Singapore, Singapore

Fri Jan 7th - Day 255Close to Auckland airport, in the middle of nowhere was a crazy golf course that only crazy, crazy golfers could dream up. A monstrous, fibreglass moulded landscaped wonderland. Even more bizarrely was the fact that at 10am in the morning there were several people playing.Fittingly for our time in NZ, an hour before take off heavy rain set in and hadn't relented as we took to the skies bound for Singapore.Leaving Auckland at 3.30pm, our 10 hour flight arrived in Singapore at 8.30pm, so somewhere over Australia and Indonesia time stood still for 5 hours.Singapore was a balmy 25C at 9pm.A taxi took us to Little India and our internet booked Asphodel Hotel. Posted hourly rates raised our suspicions as to the nature of the hotel and these were confirmed throughout the night. Our floor seemed to be the hub of activities, with continual loud voices and door slamming. The walls were paper thin and at one point it sounded like a girl was shrieking for help, so I jumped out of bed and quickly opened the door into the hallway for a clearer listen, she was shrieking, but not for help.At 4am phones in the rooms started ringing, not ours, and this seemed to indicate the end of a stiff nights work. Lots of chatter, more door banging, then the sound of high heels on the stone stairs and then silence. But with our body clocks at 9am we fought a losing battle to get back to sleep.Expenses: NZ$ Fuel 19 phone 0.60 book 27.50 chemist 21.50 gift 22.95 sweets 1.20 dep tax 50S$ (3/pound): Accom 87 taxi 17.20Sat Jan 8th - Day 226Light rain was falling as we left the Asphodel hotel and headed to the airport on the MRT (underground).We were hoping to be able to catch a flight to Phuket, but due to lack of numbers the cheap airline AirAsia had cancelled their flights, and the only direct flight was with Singapore Airlines at S$450 each, one way (150 pound).Disgruntled and hungry we put a change of clothes in our small rucksack, dumped our big rucksacks in left luggage and took the MRT back to Little India. We soon found the tiny open air Indian restaurant we'd visited last time, and enjoyed another great meal for 2 pound.Everything was familiar, from the bustling clutter of the streets full of genuinely freindly faces and beautiful old shop houses to the small cafes on every corner with locals finger eating mutton byriani off a banana leaf, and drinking a glass of teh tarik (sweet tea) to the brightly coloured aromatic markets. Little India brings the senses alive and it felt good to be back in Asia.A solution, if somewhat convoluted, was found on the internet. AirAsia fly to Bangkok and from Bangkok to Phuket, and two tickets from Singapore - Bangkok - Phuket would cost a total of 114 pound, so we booked flights for tomorrow.torrential rain curtailed our late afternoon walk along Arab Street and despite a small brolley we were drenched to the point of having to wring out our trousers.Sunday 9th Jan - Day 227An uneventful flight to Bangkok was followed by an equally uneventful flight to Phuket.At the airport we booked accommodation in Phuket Town then waited an hour for the minibus taxi to fill up, before we were driven the 33km on very busy roads.On arrival we realised the hotel we'd booked ourselves into was also the base for the Norwegian, Danish and Irish Embassies, all here to assist and document victim identification.We felt more than a little intrusive and after nipping out for the hottest Thai green curry ever, we retired to our room early.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1106945280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1106945280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1106945280/tpod.html Fri, 28 Jan 2005 04:35:46 -0500 Baldwin to the Bay of Islands. The journey is the goal.

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Auckland, New Zealand

Sunday 2nd January - Day 250Sat in the car, about ot leave Wellington and we realised we had no clue as to where we were going. After 5 minutes looking at the road atlas, we decided on New Plymouth on the west coast, home to Mt Egmont and various surf beaches.At Wanganui, we changed our minds.Cloudy and windy with more rain forecast for the west coast over the following days, sufing wasn't appealing and Mt Egmont wouldn't be visible, so we turned inland towards NZ's largest lake, Taupo. And it is big. 606 square kms of lake, created by one of the greatest explosions of all time 26,500 years ago, producing 800 cubic kms of ash and pumice (how do they know that?). Luckily there was no one about back then, as it devastated the whole of the North Island and coated it in 100m deep hot poisonous ash.There were no signs of the devastation as we drove into a tourist packed Taupo and some welcome late afternoon sunshine.Taupo's obviously a very popular destination and I suppose we're lucky to get a small basic cabin, on an extremely busy caravan park, however we didn't feel very lucky. Basic, tired, dirty and whiffy and so was the room.Only one course of action when the accommodations rank, be in it as little as possible, so with that in mind we found a pub with a large outdoor deck catching the last of the sun and enjoyed a coulpe of long, slow pints and a mountain of a basket of chips.Expenses: Accom 48, fuel 30.95, phone 9.70, beer 22, food 21.45, wine 12.45Mon Jan 3rd - Day 251Too busy counting his cash, it seemed to have failed to enter the park owners head that 2 showers, 2 toilets and six sinks were woefully inadequate, so not prepared to wait till lunchtime for a shower we moved on. Boys aren't bothered about missing the odd shower (I haven't showered since October) but girls are.Just outside Taupo we were intrigued by the brown tourist sign bearing an arrow and the words 'Craters of the Moon', so we followed the arrows. It was an area of thermal activity, with boiling water lying just belowe the surface and escaping through various steam vents (Farmaroles), and a couple of large craters full of bubbling mud. A wooden boardwalk guides you round and the steam hangs like mist over the moss and fern surrounded craters. Add to this the pervading rotten egg smell of the hydrogen sulphide and the whole place has an other wordly feel.In a desperate bid for a wildlife fix, we (I) decided to visit the Tongarrio National Trout Centre. Rene wasn't best pleased, as we had to go back on ourselves a little, but you can't beat a morning brown trout, and the ten pounders we saw were absolute beauties. After a troutastic hour I eventually managed to drag Rene away from hte antique flyfishing rod and reel exhibition in the visitors centre and drive on.Napier on Hawkes Bay was our destination and by late afternoon we'd parked up on the esplanade and were in the visitors centre looking for anything wildlife related. There was a gannet colony to visit but the tides had to be right and they weren't, so we didn't, and I never said we did, so there.Despite the warm sunny afternoon in Napier, large numbers of people still felt the need to golf crazily. Maybe its a NZ thing.The usual standard of accommodation resumed in Napier at the Top Ten caravan park. Desperate people with their lives in tatters fill our small TV screen.Expenses:Accom 85.50 Groceries 32.70 Fuel 33 Inet 4 fruit 4.50Tues Jan 4th - Day 252Our morning disappeared driving the 215kms to Gisbourne, NZ's most easterly city, which nestles on the shores of Poverty Bay. Gisborne is the first city in the world to see the sunrise each day and luckily for us it was still clearly visible on arrival.An afternoon of sunshine, sea and sand was difficult ot resist after so much unbelievable bad weather, so we didn't.Waikanue beach was remarkable in that its dark sand was full of tiny pieces of wood. Sea blasted, smooth and rounded, they were all escapees from the nearby woodchip factory. If ever the wood whittlers world cup is held, Waikanue berach would be an ideal venue.After South Island, the sea was pleasantly warm, with no 6mm wetsuits needed here. But sat on the beach, with hundreds of others, looking out onto the Pacific Ocean, with behind us only endless flat land, we tried to imagine being faced with a tidal wave and having nowhere to run.Having booked into a motel we later returned to the beach in anticipation of a quality sunset and we weren't disappointed. It was a beauty, the kind of sunset to make an arsonist weak at the knees.Amidst the destruction and ever increasing death tolls that fill the news came an unbelievable report from Patong Beach in Phuket. Patong beach was badly hit by the Tsunami and clearly behind the reporter a full scale demolition, removal and clean up operation was taking place. In front of the reporter stood Robert Scully, a 55 year old holidaymaker from the land of George Dubbya Bush. Robert, who said he was enjoying his holiday, seemed completely oblivious to the fact that a week ago a tidal wave had killed many and destroyed most of the hotels and businesses on the beachfront, and he said "I've pretty much got the whole beach to myself. I can't believe how quit it is." How the reporter refrained from punching him in the nose, grabbing him by his testicles and dragging him off the beach to help out, we'll never know.Wed Jan 5th - Day 253Driving the East Cape coast road from Gisborne to Opitiki was meant to be spectacular, but our hearts just aren't in it anymore. for the last few days we'd both silently been thinking about heading back to Thailand, and last night Mr Scully made up our minds.It was a dull cloudy day, the highlight of which was delicious fish n chips in Opitiki, after that we just kept on driving.After eight ass numbing hours we arrived in Rotorua and booked into a tired looking motel. The plan is to leave for Auckland first thing in the mnorning and try to change the first leg of our flight home.rotorua smells, and fully lives up to its nickname of 'Sulphur City'.Thursday Jan 6th - Day 254From dawn to dusk the rain lashed down. We drove very carefully to Auckland, where Singapore Airlines couldn't have been more helpful. It only cost $90 (36 pound) to change our flights, so tomorrow we're off to Singapore.The plan then is to fly to Phuket where hopefully we can be of some help. We loved our time in Thailand back in June/July and the Thai people were so warm and friendly to us. Interent checks have revealed that the places we stayed such as Ao nang, Koh Lanta and even as far south as Penang in Malaysia were all affected but thankfully no great damage was done, so Phuket it is.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1106932800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1106932800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1106932800/tpod.html Fri, 28 Jan 2005 01:35:44 -0500 Baldwin to the Bay of Islands. The journey is the goal.

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Wellington, New Zealand

Day 244 Mon Dec 27thWith only 3 dodgy channels to choose from NZ tv. is at best, poor, so even if its available we don't tend to watch it. Therefore, todays local morning paper delivered the first news of an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra. It appears that maybe a couple of thousand people have been killed by a Tsunami triggered by the massive quake. Rene and I are pretty shocked as reports show that parts of Thailand we visited in July may have been affected.At 12.15pm we were sat in the back of a yellow open top landrover, dressed in 6mm thick wetsuits and holding our snorkels, masks and fins. Off to hopefully swim with NZ fur seals.Having transferred from SealSwims yellow landrover to their yellow boat,we were motored out to, and dropped in the middle of the seal colony out off the headland.Feeding mainly at night on squid,octopus and barracuda, fur seals are pretty lazy during the day spending many hours sleeping and sunbathing, but they are naturally curious and if you bob about nearby they'll generally come and have a look. And they did. Slug like and awkward looking on land, seals transform into the most graceful of underwater swimmers. For an hour various seala either flashed by us like torpedo's, or played amongst us, performing acrobatic somersaults and barrel rolls before moving in close and eyeballing us with the biggest, saddest looking eyes. The young seals were naturally the most playful, while the big bull seals leave you slightly unnerved. It's breeding time and the males are large toothed and very territorial, swimming past to make sure your'e no threat, which struggling to look anything but ungainly in an incredibly buoyant wetsuit and wearing bright yellow fins, we clearly weren't.The NZ fur seal is only found in NZ and its subantartic islands, and off the south coast of Australia. Once widespread, it was hunted almost to extinction and today its numbers are only slowly beginning to recover. The biggest threats to the seals now are being caught in fishing nets, and swallowing plastic bags.Our time with the seals passed far too quickly, and in no time we were being hauled back into the boat.Our last afternoon in Kaikoura really dragged, sat as we were outside our apartment, glass of wine in hand , soaking up the glorious but all too shy sunshine, and absorbing the wonderful view.expenses:- accom 100 , seal trip 140 , parking 2 , groceries 16.45.Day 245 Tues Dec 28thAfter a great day yesterday, today was a real downer. A day of cloud, rain and driving. The car radio news is full of the dreadful Tsunami which seems to be much worse than first thought.Driving north and ultimately heading to Abel Tasman National Park we passed through Blenheim, which is in the heart of the Marlborough wine region. Flat and fairly featureless we didn't hang around, but instead drove on, passing by the towns of Picton and Nelson before eventually reaching the gateway to Abel Tasman NP, Matueka. Due to the rain , the visitors centre was packed with miserable looking tourists asking for weather forecasts.The coastal Abel Tasman NP is a hikers and kayakers paradise, full of rolling hills, small bays, and hundreds of inlets. We were hoping to have a day kayaking but the prognosis on the weather wasn't good. Rain and strong winds for the next couple of days. Despite the best efforts of an overly helpful lady in the visitors centre, there was no accommodation to be had in Motueka, so having bought a 2 man tent in Oz , there was nothing else for it. We jumped back in the car and drove back to Nelson where we found a grotty motel to stay in.expenses:- accom 85, fuel 31, bread 2.60.Day 246 Wed Dec 29thWe've kind of lost direction and focus, Kaikoura was the last on our Nz must do list, so we've decided to drive back to Picton today and catch the ferry to Wellington tomorrow.Arriving in Picton fairly early, we booked into another tired and grotty , small motel room. A cloudy morning but Picton was heaving with holidaymakers.Hoki and chips , and a pint of speight's for lunch.A walk to the waterfront took us past tourist desperadoes playing crazy golf and riding on the minature railway. We sat on a bench and watched the ferry leave, hoping its bow wave might capsize one of the kayakers who were struggling to make headway against the strong wind. But it didn't. Rain set in mid afternoon.The death toll of the Tsunami seems to be doubling daily, and the whole of the Bay of Bengal has been affected. The tv. news pictures of Banda Aceh, Sri Lanka and Thailand are horific.expenses:- accom 70, lunch 40, postcard 0.70, internet 7.Day 247 Thur Dec 30th150mm of rain fell overnight and it was still raining as we drove onto the ferry. Fiordland had an astonishing 360mm of rain yesterday.Queen Charlotte sound is reputedly a beautiful place, but low cloud and mist meant we were in no position to judge.Undoubted highlight of the crossing was the appearance of the " world famous" childrens magician "Lavango". He was low quality and all the funnier for it. Personnally I find it a little hard to believe that any world class entertainer would end up working the Picton to Wellington ferry, but that may be doing him a dis-service.Not just any old rain, but torrential rain greeted us in Wellington and continued all afternoon.An internet special offer means we're in a quality apartment right in the centre of Wellington, but the car had to be parked about 500m away and we got well and truly drenched.Satelite tv. in the room means up to the minute reports on the Tsunami. Some of the cam corder clips are unbelievable, and harrowing to watch.expenses:- accom 75, internet 4, groceries 52.95Day 248 Fri Dec 31st.Our morning was spent exploring part of ' Te Papa ', the museum of NZ.Dominating the waterfront the striking construction took five years to build and cost 317 million NZ dollars. 2 million visitors came through its doors in 1998, its inaugral year. Its a world class, state of the art museum.The other must do attraction in Wellington is to ride the red cable car. So we did. It struggled its way up the steep hill from Lambton Quay to Kelburn, where we alighted and strolled through the pleasant botanic gardens, before white knuckling back down at speeds approaching 5mph.New Years Eve celebrations were muted, we ventured out for a few drinks and a meal, before stopping by Civic Square where a band called " That 80's Band " were underperforming. With a yell of ' We love you Wellington ' they launched into a rendition of " We built this city on rock n roll " and we left.We both said " I do " five years ago today.expenses:- accom 75, internet 6, sunglasses 20, cablecar 7.2, wine 19.95, lunch 31,phone 10, dinner 45.15, groceries 39.60Day 249 Sat Jan 01Happy New Year.After a late start we revisited Te Papa and spent a leisurely afternoon touching, pulling and pushing in this inspired and fully interactive museum. Heavy, wind blown rain set in around lunchtime, so Te Papa was swarming with hyperactive children and their struggling to keep control parents. We only twisted the ears of the really obnoxious ones as lagging way behind Mums and Dads threats of " there'll be no sweets if you keep that up " or " we're not at home to Mr. Squealy " were having little or no effect.Having seemingly walked one hundred miles and discovered all that NZ had to offer historically, culturally, naturally and artistically, we had to face what it had to offer meteorogically; persistant heavy rain, and another serious soaking.150,000 people are now believed to have lost their lives on Boxing Day in a truly incomprehensible human tragedy.expenses:- accom 75, lunch 15
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1105393680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1105393680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1105393680/tpod.html Mon, 10 Jan 2005 06:52:09 -0500 Baldwin to the Bay of Islands. The journey is the goal.

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Kaikoura, New Zealand

Tuesday 21st December - Day 238On our way to Kaikoura , we stopped at a large supermarket in Christchurch to buy a few bottles of NZ wine to see us through Christmas, no corwds, no queues and no mince pies or Brandy cream. What sort of country is this?The road to Kaikoura was busy and hugged the rocky coastline for the last 20kms. Kaikoura itself was also very busy, and we spent the rest of the day trying to sort out accomodation.In an island overflowing with views to die for, Kaikoura and its peninsula is right up there with the best. The meeting place of ocean and mountains, where deep sea trenches collide with a shallow rugged coastline, before rising to the clouds and forming the mightily impressive Seaward Kaikoura Mountains.If you're in the Isle of Man (if you're not unlucky) picture Langness and Derby Haven. Imagine being stood out on the tip of Langness on a clifftop about 250 feet up, theres no golfcourse, and you're looking back towards the airport. The houses in Derby Haven are in a similar position to the small tourist busy town of Kaikoura, and the curving beach is fairly steep and stoney. But instead of the airport there stands a range of snowcapped mountains 1600m high. Below you, on the rocks live a colony of NZ fur seals, and out to sea are sperm whales, dolphins and albatross. There's no McDonalds and no traffic lights. It's a special kind of place.As a Christmas treat we'd pre-booked 3 nights in a self contained unit with more than 2 foot around the bed. It promised a great view and on inspection it had a great view, of the car park, so we cancelled.The Panorama Motel had the only units with the view across the bay to the mountains, however, they had no units available until Christmas Day so we moved into a place called 'Sails' for four nights. A small but very nice self contained unit on the Esplenade, but with no view.Point Kean is the tip of the peninsula, there's a car park, a zigzag path to the cliff top and a NZ fur seal colony. The vast majority of the colony live on the various rocky outcrops around the headland, close enough to see, but made inaccessible by the tide. However, a number of large males choose to bask on the rocks right by the carpark, and as long as you abide by all the signs asking you not to get closer than 10m, they are completely unperturbed by the camera wielding tourists.Having parked up, the first thing that hit us on leaving the car was the smell. The seals secrete a waterproofing oil and it produces a particularly pungent aroma, its a special blend of the smells of wet fur and pedigree chum. It also indicates the nearby presence of a seal, and this particular bull couldn't have looked more comfortable, lying as he was, fully stretched out on his back, in an oblivious to anything, contented semi coma (it's the breeding season).Having watched for a while, we wandered up the clifftop for sunset. The panoramic views from this vantage point are breathtaking. Cloud had been building and darkening above the mountains since late afternoon and had now continued out into the bay where rain and thunderstorms were developing. Down the coast, though, the skies were still clear, and the sun was sinking unhindered.Sat alone on the clifftop we were treated to the most incredible natural light show. The cloud had formed into a black mass that was now a visible sheet of rain drifting acrosss the bay. This not only generated a vivd rainbow, but also ground shaking thunder and forked lightening, and just as we thought it couldnt get any more spectacular, the last rays of sun turned the menacing sky orange then pink.Large droplets of rain, escorted us back to the car in the gathering gloom, and we just escaped a serious wetting.Expenses: Food and drink 117.20 lunch 14 groceries 12.95 inet 2 accom 85Wed Dec 22nd - Day 239It's thought that somewhere between AD 1000 - 1200, the Polynesian ancestors of todays Maori first arrived in NZ and within a 100 years these setlers had spread far and wide, clinging to the warm coastal areas form the top of North Island to the bottom of South Island.They hunted Moa (a large flighless bird, twice the size of an Ostrich and weighing up to 240kg), other flightless birds and fur seals. All unaccustomed to humans and a doddle to catch.By 1400, the supply was unsurprisingly disappearing fast and the Maori turned to gardening and fishing. This required planning and teamwork, resulting in the formation and rise of Maori tribes.Dwindling resources meant an increase in the inter tribe conflict and led to increasingly sophisticated fortifications (Pa). Many examples still exist today.The first contact with Europeans occured at Golden Bay at the top of South Island. In 1642 2 Dutch ships sailing from Indonesia in search of the Great South Land and its treasures were involved in a misunderstanding with local Maori. Four of commander Abel Tasmans crew were killed, and he sailed away never to return, leaving only the Dutch name 'Nieuw Zeeland' or New Sealand.127 years passed before Europeans returned in 1769. James Cook and frenchman Jean de Surville both managed, despite some violence, to communicate with Maoris and this time NZ's link to the outside world proved permanent.Further French expeditions took place and Cooky revisited twice between 1773-77. Whalers and Sealers started visiting in the 1790's and the first of dozens of missionaries founded the Bay of Islands in 1814. Here the small town of Kororareka (now called Russell) was the New England whalers favourite stop off for R&R (drink and sex), much to the disgust of the missionaries who called it 'the hellhole of the PAcific'.In 1840 there were about 70,000 Maoris and 2,000 european settlers, by 1850 this had risen to 22,000 with the formation of six new settlements in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, New Plymouth and Nelson.Mass immigration up to 1880 coincided with a booming economy which was halted by NZ's Long Depression. In 1840 the 'Treaty of Waitange' was signed between Maori tribes who valued the profit and prestige Europeans bought, and the Europeans who thought the Maoris couldn't handle the increasing number of settlers.The English version promised Maoris full equality as British subjects in exchange for complete rights of governemnt. The Maori version promised that Maoris would retain their chieftainship and their local rights of government.These different understandings were only a small problem at first, with only 2000 settlers, but as their numbers grew so did the conflict, and its still a big issue today.The Maori tribes didn't go down without a fight and between 1843 and 1872 the NZ land wars raged. Infact Maori resistance was one of the most formidable waged against European expansion. They won several battles but were eventually ground down by numbers and resources.The Kaikoura peninsula is also rich in over 800 years of Maori history. Kaikoura means meal of crayfish. Maoris believe the demigod Maui braced his foot while hauling in an immense fish that became North Island.There are at least 15 Pa sites on the peninsula, where some fierce battles took place. Today, the Ngai Tahu people occupy the area.Ours was a quiet day in Kaikoura, walking the coast and watching seals, but the mad weather continues with reports of flooding in Cgristchurch, a small tornado in Auckland and an earthquake measuring 4.9 on the richter in Te Anau.Expenses: Accom 85 inet 6 groceries 30.75Thursday Dec 23rd - Day 2406.15am, and we were sat in the 'Whale Watch Kaikoura' video room watching a short film about sperm whales. We both thought that quiet little Kaikoura might have several small boat owners offering sporadic whale watching trips, how wrong we were. The town and its 3,483 residents is thriving on its booming tourism based around observing its unique marine wildlife. A staggering 1.4 million people visited Kaikoura last year. There is only one whale watch company, they are Maori owned and its a very well oiled machine with a smart new centre and carpark.Large, stable and fast catamarans offer trips throughout the day, weather permitting. By 7am, we'd been coached to South Bay on the other side of the peninsula and were heading out to sea. In a boat not a coach.The Kaikoura sea has an abundance and variety of marine life rarely seen in one place. This is due to the combining of warm water currents from the subtropics with colder, nutrient-rich waters from the south. Sperm whales can be found here year round and the reason for this became clear shortly into our trip.Sat inside the catamaran while being given the compulsory safety chat, we were told to watch the plasma screen showing our position in the bay, our speed and the depth. In the first 800m the depth had gone steadily from 20 to 100m, then suddenly as if it was broken it shot up and up and up until it hovered at around 1200m deep.We'd just floated over the cliff edge of a very deep underwater canyon system called the Hikrangi Trench. It comes unusually close to shore at Kaikoura where its known as the Kaikoura canyon.The sperm whales find their food in these deep trenches. They can dive to depths of a km for over an hour in pursuit of their prey, giant squids up to 12m long. These giant squid are amazing in that although seen washed up dead occassionaly, no ones ever seen or filmed one alive, they live so deep.Most of the Kaikoura sperm whales are young males (14-25). The females, calves and older males (bulls) form breeding groups, spending most of their time in sub-tropical waters north of NZ, this is where mating and calving occur.Despite little wind, there was a rolling swell, which madethings a little uncomfy for those prone to delivering an aqua pizza. This wasn't helped by having to sit inside every time we moved, which was often, then being herded outside again as soon as we stopped.We were lucky enough to see 3 sperm whales during our trip. They are diffcult to spot, having dived for usually around 40 minutes to feed, they return to the surface to breathe and rest for about 15 minutes. So its not much of a window.These magnificent creatures grow up to 20m long and weigh over 50 tons, but on the surface you only ever see a tenth of their size. As they dive, their body gently arches down followed briefly but spectularly by their 5m tail. Its the best photo opportunity of the day unless you're a gimp like me and forget the camera.On our way back to shore we spent 15 minutes travelling amongst a pod of 20 dusky dolphins. They were black and white and really small, like really big tuna. Most of them ignored us but a few were darting under the boat and leaping right out of the water into the bow waves.Kaikoura is also a salty twichers paradise, and today from the boat we saw once again, the king of seabirds, the Royal Albatross, as well as his cousin the Meandering Albatross, Australasian Gannets, Petrels, Shearwaters, Shags, Fulmars, Terns and Gulls.The things we could have seen but didn't include Orcas, Occassionaly Blue Whales, Pilot Whales, bottlenose dolphins and Hectors dolphins (smallest rarest dolphin).Luckily for me the visitors centre had a selection of photos of sperm whales and dusky dolphins and we didn't have to waste camera batteries deleting 99% of the ones I would have taken. Digital cameras are superb, we still meet the old SRL enthusiast who reckons its just not the same, and he's dead right. We're not big into photgraphy, but we work on the theory that if we take enough theres bound to be the odd good one. The digital allows us to take 150 and delete 145 no questions asked.Thankfully I did remeber to take the camera later in the day when we walked round to the seal colony. The tide was right in and just as we arrived in the busy carpark, a large bull male made his way in from the sea, up the steps into the carpark and then jumped up onto the 3ft high perimeter wall. A crowd of tourist Mums, dads and children quickly gathered with lots of oohs and aahs and clicking cameras as he lay on his back, then stretched out and then began squirming around as if he was scratching his back. Only he wasn't, this was a 200kg male in the middle of the breeding season, he was out of luck out on the rocks so he thought he'd peddle his wares in the tourist carpark, and after a couple of minutes of peddling, his wares were there for all to see. He couldn't have looked more pleased with himself if he'd just caught a 5kg Barracuda. The crowd quickly dispersed as children asking awkward questions were ushered away.Expenses: Accom 85 inet 11 fuel 42 book 9 pcard 2.50 whales 250Friday Dec 24th - Day 241Christmas Eve, but its not here. At home Christmas is big, something to look forward to in the middle of winter, a festival of over the top coloured lights, brightening up the dark days of December, presents under the tree, stuffed poultry in the overn, and all those things we only ever eat at Christmas, like mince pies, brussell sprouts, bread sauce and Christmas Pudding with brandy cream.Here though its summer (apparently) its light at 5.30am and doesn't get dark until 9.30pm so noone bothers with lights and walking through the main street theres no outward indication that its Christmas.At home on Christmas Eve the supermarket would be absolutely heaving. They're shut for a full 24 hours so its vital everyone gets a months supply of food and drink in. Here, the supermarket was very quiet, just the odd disgruntled shopper (Rene) in a fruitless search for a Terrys chocolate orange.An earthquake measuring 8.1 (the largest in the world this year) struck off Invercargill today, no damage was caused.A cloudy windy day matched our mood, until later in the day, Stan and Dearne knocked on the door spreading seasonal comfort and joy. Stan and Dearne own the unit we're in and we'd mentioned to Dearne in the morning how unChristmassy it felt becasue its summertime. They arrived carrying a small plastic tree with flashing lights and a present ot go under it. How kind is that? Touched we were, but I had to tie Rene up to stop her opening it.With pillow cases placed carefully at the bottom of the bed, we nervously tried to get to sleep, we've been emailing Santa with our new address but we know how busy he is, and I haven't been good all of the year.Expenses: Accom 85 lunch 8 groceries 86.80 inet 14.55Saturday December 25th - Day 242A very quiet day. The smell of burning woke us, late last night we'd sat our 12 pound turkey astride the turned up high, 2 ring portable hotplate. We were hoping for slow roast crispy skinned browness, but ended up with a big bird with a burnt bottom. Sp its prawns all round.Alcohol numbed the pain of a Christmas Day, roast potatoe no show. Imagine, no ROAST POTATOES.A change of accomodation took us to our room with the stunning view, but heavy cloud obscured the mountains all day.Expenses: Accom 100Day 243 - Sun Dec 26thRene woke me in the middle of the night to tell me she thought there'd been a slight earthquake, I told her not to be daft and we went back to sleep. Later in the day we heard there had indeed been small quakes in the region.Another quiet but sunny and hot day of wlaking the coast, reading and enjoying the view.Expenses: Acom 100 mobile 20 food 51.75 inet 5 laundry 8
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1104524400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1104524400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leeandcathy/trainspotting/1104524400/tpod.html Thu, 30 Dec 2004 22:12:27 -0500 Baldwin to the Bay of Islands. The journey is the goal.

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Te Anau, New Zealand

Friday December 17th - Day 234A cloudy, showery day spent driving the southern scenic route to Invercargill. It's a wild, rugged, exposed, wave lashed coastline.We had a walk and our sandwiches at beautiful Nuggett Point, a lighthouse topped promontory that overlooks the only place on mainland NZ where fur seals, sea lions and elephant seals coexist.An unsealed road then led us to Cannibal Beach, home to a breeding colony of the Hookers Sea Lion, and sat right in the middle of the beach was a 400kg male monster and his sleeping girlfriend. They're deceptively fast and have quite a bite, so we viewed from afar, with binoculars.Back on the road we stayed on the southern scenic route all the way to Invercargill, where we found a dodgy looking motel to stay at.Expenses - to followSaturday December 18th - Day 235With a day of heavy wintry showers forecast (snow down to 600m) we decided to continue on to Te-Anau, the lakeside access town for Milford Sound.It was another long drive as we followed the longer scenic route. Low cloud and snow covered the Takitimu Mountains before we brushed the edge of Lake Manapouri. We arrived in Te-Anau late afternoon, it was cold and raining with the mountains surrounding Te Anau shrouded in cloud.At the visitors centre we learnt its best to just turn up at Milford and book a trip on the sound from there, and also that the weather forecast wasn't brilliant.Expenses - to followSunday December 19th - Day 236The boats at Milford Sound run tours throughout the day from 9am to 4.30pm. It's a 2 hour drive to Milford and at last nights team meeting, it was decided that we should leave early, arriving in time to take the first boat if the weather was good, if not we were there in position to take advantage of any breaks.The chances of having a clear day at Milford Sound are fairly remote as it recieves a staggering 6-7 metres of rainfall each year. Our travel alarm jumped into life at 5.30am, we were allowing ourselves an extra half an hour because snow had been forecast for the Milford road last night.I checked the weather outside, the mountains were still covered in cloud and it was windy, it wasn't looking too hopeful. Rene Van Winkle was refusing to budge, its tough at the best of times to extricate the human koala from her bed, but at 5.30am, with a cold room and Rene lying over an 'on low all night' electric blanket (dangerous but nice), my chances were slim.Blatant lies about the outside weather did it in the end and by 6.15 we were on our way. The Milford road travels deep into the heart of Fiordland National Park, part of South West New Zealands 2.6 million hectare World Heritage Area and one of the great wilderness regions of the SOuthern Hemisphere. So we had a hunch it might be scenic.The road runs along the edge of the once glacier filled Lake Te Anau, passing undulating farmland, mountain beech forest and Te Anau Downs, before entering Fiordland National PArk and the Eglinton Valley.This beautiful valley has the Earl Mountains on one side and the Livingstone Mountains on the other, red beech is the dominant tree and native grasslands and wetlands fill the vally floor. Lake Gunn marked the end of Eglinton valley and the road turns and climbs towards the coast, following the Hollyford River between Mt.Christina and Mt. Charlton.This is where things changed, having turned to the west the cloud dispersed and suddenly we were driving under blue skies, and hard though it is to imagine the scenery became even more dramatic and spectacular.It's 7am and there's not a soul about and through narrow U shaped valleys, with incredibly steep and bare sides, rising to a snow covered 2000m, it feels as though the glaciers that ground their way through here have only just left. The scale is mind blowing and however far you lean forward with your face against the windscreen, looking up, you can't see the peaks. So we got out for a look.Stunted silver beech, mountain ribbonwood, hebe and fuschia grow in this harsh climate on ground laid bare by frequent snow avalanches.The road then rises towards the Homer tunnel which is preceeded by a staggeringly colossal natural amphitheatre formed by Mt.Talbot and Mt.Belle. The tunnel is named after Harry Homer who discovered the Homer Saddle in 1889. It's a rough hewn 1200m long, steep gradient, dripping black hole of a tunnel and more than a little claustrophobic.On the Milford side we emerged back into the sunshine and the spectacular Cleddan Canyon. More mountain magnificence in every direction as the road descended into Milford Sound where silver beech, tree ferns, mosses and other ferns thrive in the wet conditions.There's little accomodation at Milford Sound, a couple of backpacker lodges, one of which is solely for the use of trampers completing the four day Milford Track. There's also a small cafe/shop and the vast wharf visitors centre, where tours on the Sound are booked.With the weather nigh on perfect, a breeze was rippling the water so the postcard scenes of a mirror like sound were out, we boarded the first boat out (there were at least half a dozen others) at 8.55am.The Maori name for milford Sound is Piopiotahi, after the native thrush Piopio which is now thought to be extinct. Maori and their ancestors collected pounami (greenstone) from Anita Bay in the sound, but it was a sheltering from a storm Welsh sea captain, John Grono, who named the sound after his birth place, milford Haven. This is one of NZ's biggest tourist attractions and frankly it would be rude if it wasn't.16km of fiord (in geographical terms its not a sound) leading out to the Tasman Sea and in places 265m deep. In all places though, its dominated by the towering, sheer, glacier scarified, weather worn peaks and cliffs that surround it ,in particular the 1692m high, Milford Sound icon that is stunning Mitre Peak.On the lower slopes of many of the peaks, red, silver and mountain beech cling precariously to the rock, only keeping a grip by intertwining root systems. Tree avalanches are common after heavy rain, leaving great vertical scars on the landscape.The deluge of rain that cascades into the sound creates an amazing natural phenomenon, with the freshwater forming a permanent layer on the sea surface. Because of the washed down material and nutruents in the fresh water, its kind of tea coloured and acts as a sunblock, replicating deep ocean conditions and allowing deep ocean species to thrive only metres below the surface.Towards the mouth of the sound it turns direction and narrows, and once out in the Tasman Sea its hard to tell theres any entrance. Captain Cook missed it twice.A stiff and cold headwind escorted us back through the sound, as did at one point a couple of dolphins, surfing through the bow wave. We also passed close sun basking seals and 100m high water falls.Once again though, its the landscape that stays with you after you've left Milford Sound. Seismic shifted, glacier hewn, geographic wonderments as far as the eye can see, and today looking their absolute best.Chilled to the bone, it took about an hour in the car to thaw, and it was mid afternoon by the time we arrived back in cloudy Te Anau.Expenses to follow.Monday December 20th - Day 237Having decided to spend Christmas in Kaikoura, we thought it best to start driving in that general direction. So we did.More snow had fallen on the peaks overnight and the Eyre Mountain Range looked magnificent as we scooted around them on our way to Queenstown. The last 45km of this road follows the edge of lovely Lake Wakatipu from kingston to Queenstown, with James Peak on one side and Mt Dick on the other.Roads already travelled took us through Cromwell and on to Omarama. before turning off toward tiny Twizel.At Lake Pukaki, we stopped briefly to photgraph a slightly hazy and distant Mt Cook.This area of expansive high ground is known as Mackenzie Country after the legendary (in these parts) James 'Jack' Mackenzie who stole sheep and wandered them round up here. Back in 1843 the region was uninhabited, but after he was eventually caught other settlers eralised its potential and followed in his rustling footsteps.Passing through the small, sleepy towns of Fairlie and Geraldine we weer soon crossing the vast Cantebury Plain heading for Christchurch.Afte the almost deserted roads we'd been experiencing, it was quite a shock when we joined Highway 1, and we realised why there had been 40 car crash deaths so far in December.Single lane roads, with the odd double lane overtaking stretch, and impatient people driving right up the arse of the car in front is a recipe for a pile up and as the death toll show there's plenty of them.Every day, the news on the radio has reports of an horrific accident, although the headlines for the last couple of days are all about the shark attacks in Australia. A man was taken by a shark on the Great Barrier Reef, a week or so ago and now an 18 year old, who was on a surfboard being towed by a speedbaot was attacked and ripped apart by two Great Whites off the coast of Adelaide. An horrific story, and as in the film 'Jaws', there is now a flotilla of vessels out trying to catch the sharks, despite a heart wrenching plea from the boys parents to leave them be.Before we reached Christchurch we turned off Highway 1, back on to a quiet twisty scenic road that took us to pretty Akaroa, sat on the dep inlet that is Akaroa Harbour amidst the undulating, volcanic eruption formed, green hills of the Banks Peninsual.As the weather has been unseasonaly cold we've kept moving in South Island like a pair of Texans doing Europe and including todays 8.5 hour drive we've clocked up 3,338km in 10 days.Expenses to follow.
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