TravelStream™ news feed for member patandsaoyuth on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/patandsaoyuth en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:59:11 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1167300180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1167300180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1167300180/tpod.html Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:59:11 -0400 A gap year to discover a little bit of the world.

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Chiang Mai, Thailand

Tres long trajet jusqu'au nord de la Thailande

La ville de Chiang Mai, renommee jusqu'au Cambodge aux dires des parents de Saoyuth, se trouve presque dans l'extreme nord de la Thailande, c'est pas de chance pour nous car Ko Lanta se trouve a l'extreme sud du pays. Qu'a cela ne tienne, bravant la distance (environ 1600km), nous voila dans le bateau, puis le bus, puis le train, soit pas loin de 26h de transport au total. Manque de bol, notre bus et notre train tomberont successivement en panne! Au final nous aurons 6h de retard sur notre trajet... Les parents de Saoyuth auront goute a toutes les joies du voyage facon routard!

Nous arrivons fatigues mais contents a minuit au lieu de 18h. Heureusement l'hotel a cote de la gare a des chambres libres. Le lendemain nous changeons pour nous rapprocher du centre ville. Nous sommes le 30 Decembre et tous les hotels abordables sont complets! En effet les Thailandais fetent egalement la nouvelle annee selon le calendrier gregorien, ils prennent trios jours de vacances et se deplacent en masse a Chiang Mai. Nous finissons tout de meme par trouver deux chambres au dessus de notre budget mais plus pres du centre.

La ville est parsemee de temples boudhistes et de marches artisanaux: une vraie aubaine pour Saoyuth et sa mere, pas pour Patrick (pas trop shopping ce gars la). Heureusement pour lui, les marches comptent aussi de nombreux stands ou l'on vend les specialties culinaires de la Thailande: patisseries aux jaunes d'oeuf et sucre, babanes frites, riz gluant au lait de coco cuit dans du bamboo, salade de papaye verte, un vrai regal!


Réveillon du nouvel an 2007 a Chiang Mai: Patrick mitraille

Le 31 Decembre nous faisons un tour a Sudoi Tep, une colline coiffe d'un joli temple a quelques kilometres de Chiang Mai. Nous ne sommes pas les seuls a avoir cette idée puisque des le matin la route qui mene a Sudoi Tep est congestionnee. Les Thais se rendent en masse au temple (un des plus sacres de du pays) pour prier. A quelques Km se trouve le palais d'ete du roi de Thailande repute pour son jardin et ses jets d'eau. Les fleurs du jardin sont principalement des fleurs de printemps de nos regions: roses, petunias, sauges etc.!
Les festivities du nouvel an sont en general importantes a Chiang Mai mais cette annee la soiree sera moins animee que de coutume car 6 bombes ont explose a Bangkok dans l'apres midi, forcant les organisateurs a annuler des animations. Cela n'empeche pas les habitants de se reunir sur la place centrale et de lancer des lanternes de papier dans le ciel, comme a Noel sur l'ile de Ko Lanta. Le ciel est illumine des nombreuses lanternes qui volent au gre du vent. L'une d'elle s'est prise dans les fils electriques et fait sauter les lumieres alentours. Cela provoque bien des Hoo!! Et des Haa!! mais n'empeche personne de continuer d'allumer sa lanterne. Nous aussi nous lancons notre petite lanterne qui va haut, haut dans le ciel. A minuit petante le feu d'artifice est lance, on en a plein les mirettes!


Ballade a dos d'éléphant et rafting

La balade a dos d'elephant est l'une des grandes attractions touristiques de Chiang Mai. Pas moins de 6 camps ont ete installes aux alentours de la ville. Pouvoir approcher des elephants (surtout des elephanteaux) de pres restera surement un de nos meilleurs souvenirs. Apres la toilette des elephants dans la riviere, nous assistons a un spectacle ou les elephants dansent, jouent au foot et peignent. C'est assez bien fait et plutot distrayant. La ballade a dos d'elephant est sympa aussi, elle sera suivi d'un tour en radeau de bambous, d'une ballade en charrue a boeuf et de la visite d'une serre a orchidees.

Pour conclure notre sejour et y ajouter un peu de piment, nous decidons de faire une demi journee de rafting. Activitee incongrue pour les parents de Saoyuth mais comme nous sommes en saison seche, l'eau est basse et la descente ne devrait pas presenter de difficultee majeure. La descente se passe effectivement bien meme si nous restons coinces sur un ou deux rochers, descendons la plupart des rapides a reculons et que le pere de Saoyuth tombe a l'eau! On s'est bien marre, les parents de Saoyuth devraient s'en souvenir pendant longtemps!

Le 5 Janvier, apres avoir duement envoye nos cartes postales, nous mettons les voiles pour le Cambodge. Pas moins de 12 heures de train et 4 heures de bus nous attendent!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1162049340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1162049340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1162049340/tpod.html Tue, 21 Aug 2007 12:27:05 -0400 A gap year to discover a little bit of the world.

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Cochin, India

Patrick's sister Veronique wrote most of this chapter in French. For a summary in English, scroll down.

Carnet de voyage de l'Inde (suite)
Par Veronique

Départ pour Cochin. Cela a été le parcours du combattant. Premièrement se renseigner sur les trajets en train. Deuxièmement, trouver la billetterie. Ensuite faire la queue pour avoir un ticket de passage pour faire une autre queue, tout en ayant payé 10 roupies et rempli un formulaire avec un stylo emprunté à un aimable indien puisque le guichetier nous voulait pas nous prêter le sien, ouf ! Ensuite il faut comprendre les tables horaires qui sont à moitié en indien ainsi que les chiffres. Au final c'est les vacances de Di Wali et c'est complet jusqu'au premier novembre. Tout ça pour ça. On est obligé de se rabattre sur le bus jusqu'à Mangalore à 350 km. Cela sera un bus de nuit couchette : Avez vous déjà dormi sur une couchette en ayant le bruit d'un moteur dans les oreilles et la sensation d'être secoué comme un cocotier toute la nuit à cause du très mauvais état des routes qui ont été détériorées par les moissons ? Pour ma part, c'est fait !

Puis nous avons pris le train jusqu'à Cochin à 450 km, en seconde classe sans air conditionné sur des banquettes en bois et serré comme des sardines pendant une dizaine d'heures. Non j'en rajoute pas ! Bref les trajets sont longs et acheter un billet aussi. Mais cela fait parti du voyage ! On a quand même pu profiter du paysage fabuleux : les grosses fleurs de lotus, les cocoteraies, les bananeraies, la mer au loin, les camions de marchandises de la marque Tata peints en rose rouge ou bleu superposés de dessins naïfs (on dirait des camions en jouet). Les indiens sont encore une fois très accueillants et souriants. Ils sont toujours prêts à nous renseigner. Ils nous font souvent signe de la main pour nous dire bonjour. Ils nous réveillent même parfois pour nous dire au revoir quand ils sont arrivés à leur destination alors que nous avons parfois échanger que des sourires ! Nous sommes aussi souvent objets de curiosité pour les enfants qui n'ont pas souvent vu des peaux aussi blanches et des yeux aussi clairs !!! En tout cas cela valait le coup ! On est bien à Cochin.

Nous avons vu un spectacle Kathakali dont le nom signifie « histoire jouée ». C'est une forme de théâtre ancestral dérivée du Yoga. La représentation commence par le rituel du maquillage. Les acteurs se maquillent devant nous sur la scène jusqu'à ce qu'il n'y ait plus un brin de peau visible. Puis ils donnent une explication de l'histoire et de ce style de théâtre. Et enfin ils la mettent en scène par des mimes et des expressions du visage étonnantes, accompagnée d'un tambour, d'une percussion, de cymbales, et de chants. C'était vraiment intéressant.

Lundi 30, c'est notre jour de visite de Fort Cochin qui est une petite île ou l'on accède par le ferry. Le matin les filets de pêcheurs installés par les Chinois fonctionnent de manière traditionnelle. Plus loin sur les quais on peut acheter le poisson frais et des crevettes que l'on peut se faire cuisiner sur place. Tout est prévu pour le touriste.

Nous traversons le quartier juif en auto rickshaw avec Nachoos notre conducteur qui est arnaqueur comme les autres mais sympa comme tout. Il faut bien qu'il gagne sa vie !... Nous visitons la synagogue construite à la moitié du 15 ème siècle. Elle est petite mais de toute beauté. Tout est dans les tons de bleu. Le sol est fait de carreaux dont chacun est une pièce unique peinte à la main. Ils sont en porcelaine blanche et ont été offert par les chinois de Canton aux juifs pendant leur colonisation en guise de bonne entente. Le plafond est parsemé de chandeliers qui viennent d'Europe dont le central qui vient de Murano.
Derrière le rideau se trouvent les textes sacrés dont la Thora. Deux classes (une classe filles et une classe garcons) font la visite en meme temps que nous, les eleves sont tres curieux et ravi lorsqu'on leur parle. A la sortie, ils se font un plaisir de poser devant l'objectif de Patrick.

Nous allons au Dutch Palace. Les hollandais aussi ont colonisé Cochin ! C'est un musée sur la dynastie Hollandaise. Bof...

La région du Kerala et donc Cochin est réputée pour la culture des épices dont le poivre, la cardamome, la cannelle, la muscade... Nous avons voulu faire le marché aux épices pour en ramener un peu. Quelle déception ! Ceux ne sont que des boutiques hyper touristiques sans
aucun charme où tout est fait pour apater, presser et arnaquer le touriste. Cela reste quand même une bonne affaire comparé aux prix français. On se console comme on peut !

Fin d'après midi, le moment tant attendu : le massage Ayurvedic ! C'est à tester, mais ce n'est pas si relaxant que ça. A poil, huilé comme un rôti, deux masseurs vous massent énergiquement dans le sens de certains méridiens du corps pour faire circuler les énergies. Il n'est pas question d'être pudique ! Ca requinque. En résumé, la philosophie et la medecine Ayurvedic est très ancienne. Elle vise à équilibrer nos trois Dhosas : le Vata (vent), le pitta (feu) et le Kapha (feu). Cette équilibre permettant d'être toujours en bonne santé.

Deux endroits sympas ont retenu notre attention à Fort Cochin. Le Tea Pot Café où la déco est très chouette, avec plein de styles de théières différentes apposées sur les étagères et un grand choix de Thé. Les copines me comprendront !!! Et le second endroit est Art's Café où
il y a de la musique jazzy, des tableaux à admirer dans un cadre de petit jardin. Les copains me comprendront !!! Certes un coin un peu occidental, mais ca fait du bien un petit break au milieu du voyage.

Adieu Cochin et départ pour les Backwaters dans la ville d'Allepey. La mousson n'étant pas tout à fait fini, nous partons sous les ondées éparses. Le paysage est plus mélancolique mais cela a aussi son charme.

Les backwaters sont des canaux le long desquels la vie des indiens est organisée. Ils nettoient leur linge, leur vaisselle, ils se lavent. Ils ont tous un petit canoé pour se déplacer d'un canal à l'autre. On aperçoit les enfants qui vont à l'école sur les chemins longeant les canaux. De plus grosses barques transportent des gros sacs de riz. On aperçoit les paysans dans les rizières. Le cadre est fabuleux ! Les gens semblent vivre modestement tout en étant très heureux.
Nous passons 48h sur une petite pagode afin de s'imprégner de l'endroit et de sa tranquillité.
Malheureusement,
le déplacement en bateau est très court et nous ne pouvons faire que les canaux principaux donc les moins authentiques. Dommage. Par contre, le cuisinier du bateau nous fait des repas indien à tomber par terre tellement c'est bon. C'était vraiment super.

L'inde du Sud, c'est fini. On prend le train pour remonter sur Agra. Il y a environ 2500 km à parcourir et 48h de train. Ca calme !!!

From Goa to Kerala state
By Patrick and Saoyuth

We leave Panjim (Goa state) by night bus for Mangalore. Not the best way to travel: it was like being in a blender powered by a loud diesel engine! All that we see from Mangalore are the 1,5km between the bus station and the train station. Second seating class is ok except for one's ass: 12 hours of wooden bench is more than we can take... now we know it! The travel takes one night and one day altogether...Finally we arrive in Ernakulam where a nice ferry ride take us to Fort Cochin, our destination. It's a nice and relax island and we like it here.

The rain season is finishing so we get a downpour from time to time. There are huge Chinese nets at the tip of the island, and we watch the locals using them: It's mainly small fish that you can catch with it, is it worth the 10 men necessary to operate them? The area is famous for its traditional Kathakali dance and ayurvedic treatments so we try both. We enjoyed a Kathakali show (indian folk dance), the skills of the performers are quite impressive as they use their eyes to communicate feelings (they have dozens of way of rolling their eyes). We conclude the night by a beer at a bar near by, and it funnily comes in a tea pot, with a mug as they don't have the licence to sell alchool! Looking around, we see many people having tea ;-). Believe it or not, Patrick's mug reads "Cornwall"...We also try a bit of ayurvedic massage which consists in lying naked in a room with two masseurs patting some oil on your body. Humm, strange experience...

A couple of breakfeast at the "art café" later and a bit of visit and shopping, and it's time to head south again, to Allepey for a house-boat ride on the backwaters of Kerala. If you go there, don't miss it. It's beautifull and very relaxing. We rent the boat from a tout... but the service we got is decent. Only a very temperamental engine and a very old and grumpy (with the other members of the crew) captain .
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1183753860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1183753860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1183753860/tpod.html Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:26:59 -0400 A gap year to discover a little bit of the world.

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Papeete, French Polynesia

Maeva Tahiti

We didn't know what to expect before arriving in French Polynesia. Of course we had images of vahine girls dancing with their bra made out of coconut shells, beautiful beaches and pristine clear water, but it could all be tourist propaganda. We thought of it as a place where there isn't much to be done except laze on the beach and bake in the sun... We were wrong.

French Polynesia is more than a couple of islands and a few beautiful beaches! It is a set of archipelagos (adding up to 168 islands) with names you have likely heard of before: "Iles Marquises", "les Tuamutus" or "les Iles de la Societe" with its main island, Tahiti. Once there, quickly you long to visit all of them, sample the cultural variations from archipelago to archipelago and anyway, don't get tired that easily from seeing and swimming in magnificent lagoons. The under water world is a bit of a paradise too. Visibility is amazing and reef fauna is not the only thing to see: it's a place where you can get close to the big stuff too! Stingrays, dolphins, sharks and whales.
As you can already tell, we liked it a lot...


Papeete

We landed at 9.00pm in a hot and humid climate, beautiful! After cold and rain in New Zealand we were delighted to be back in "summer". Cherry on the cake: Tahitians speak French with a beautiful Polynesian accent, rolling their « r » in a distinctive way and using the familiar « tu » even with strangers. A « truck » ride later (the name they give to their local buses) we were at « Chez Mirna », a family owned pension and one of the cheapest options in Papeete, Tahiti's capital city. It turned out that « Chez Mirna » already hosted 5 French people from the « Metropole » (mainland France) who were sleeping in dorms until they could find a place to live. It was nice to find some company... The next day we spent a merry evening with our comrades: the bottle of rum bought at Auckland airport made us instantly popular! We fell short of rum quickly, and the stash of Hinano beer, the local brew, didn't quite last long enough either. Franck, one of the French guys who had been living there for more than 2 years (accompanied by Patrick) went to get more "munitions" at the black market in the not so nice areas of Papeete, so the boozed-fuelled singing could go on until nobody could discern between our cover of "Wonderwall" (Franck-vocals, Patrick-guitar) and an Oasis record being played... At least that's what Patrick likes to think ;-)!

It felt good to be in Papeete even though it is far from beautiful or atmospheric. It's a city by the water with potential but it's plagued by traffic. It was nice though to find typical French shops like the « bureau de tabac », « maison de la presse », « supermarché Champion » etc.

Being a "territoire d'outre mer", French Polynesia is autonomous (they have their assembly, currency, etc.) and we could feel the strong Polynesian culture in the city. It was even more so as the Heiva festival was going on (as every year in July). This festival is all about celebrating and keeping alive Polynesian culture. Singing and dancing contests (we went to see one, and it was really good!), traditional craft markets, sea canoe competitions etc. It's a good thing, and French people living there, seem to enjoy it as much as the locals.
French Polynesia is also famous for its black pearls; Papeete is doted with boutiques selling those, indeed beautiful, but extremely expensive pieces of jewellery... God knows how, but Saoyuth resisted the appeal of buying some - as a souvenir of course!! ;-)


Attempt to swim with whales

When we realised that Tahiti was a mating place for whales and that they come en masse in July, we were pleased to have the chance to watch them. When welearnt that one could snorkel / free-dive with them, Patrick was positively excited about it! Yeehaa! Free diving besides those sea giants, doesn't it sound coooooooool???? What a disappointment when we phoned the few companies offering that kind of outing:
-"Yes that's right, whale season starts in July...But mid-July."
- "Damned!" We're leaving on the 12th!!!
- "There are just a few around now, not enough to guarantee you'll see one, so we won't start before 10 days from today."
- "Arrrrrrghhh!"
So we went for dolphins instead. Wild dolphins, very shy, but they enjoyed playing with the boat. We went for a dip to see if they would be curious enough to come around us. Apparently they were not so curious, so we ended up dragged by the boat, with dolphins swimming around us. Not bad either.


Camping in Moorea

A 30 minutes ferry ride from Tahiti lays the island of Moorea, which is said to be wilder and more peaceful than Tahiti. We had a tent lent to us by Nicolas from the "Chez Mirna" pension (thanks mate!) and knew about a good campsite on the other side of the island from the harbour.
At the Heiva dance festival we happened to be seated near Patrick (the first other Patrick we ever met on this trip), a retired police officer who had settled in Moorea a few month ago. He was taking the same ferry as us and offered to drop us at our campsite, which was lucky! He showed us around and gave us some interesting insight into the Polynesian culture and mentality. As soon as we finished pitting our tent, rain started to pour down, making our first day miserable. What else can you do on an island where the only enjoyment is the beach, when it's raining? Luckily we met at the campsite Guillemette and Olivier, two other French who were starting their second year around the world! They had initially planned to spend only one year touring South America and Asia. After spending more time than planned in South America (months of cycling in Patagonia didn't help), they decided they should still complete their trip and peddle their way from Singapore to China. This gave us endless sources of entertaining conversation in the common kitchen.

Apart from that first day, it was hot and sunny in Moorea, exactly as it should be. We spent our days riding a scooter, snorkelling and sun tanning on the beach, something we rarely do but at this stage of our trip, it felt like a holiday from our travel. Corals in the lagoons didn't look very healthy, however the marine life was still interesting. We found a spot where one could see stingrays and sharks up-close, especially the stingrays! In fact some people feed the stingrays to attract them so some of them crawl onto people's back to try to reach their food: surprising and creepy! Saoyuth was lucky enough to be around the feeders at the time so had one of those animals onto her back! Actually you don't need to feed them to see them, they are always at the same spot, along with the black tip sharks. The sharks always stayed at a safe distance from us (4-5m at the closest), I mean for them to flee away, as they were the scared ones! They were rather small, about 2 metres long, and only feed on small fish, as far as we know, so it seemed quite safe. We did our best to get a picture of us with the sharks in the background (we had just bought a disposable waterproof camera for the occasion) but didn't get very successful. Anyway, it was great fun!


Ticket drama

It had been a resting and delightful three days in Moorea and we would definitely return for another holiday in the future. It felt definitely too short a stay when we headed to the airport. Obviously, people at the Faaa airport did very much agree with us, to the point they declared that our tickets were not valid anymore and that we had to stay, or pay again for our Papeete-New York leg! Gloups! They got confused between the issue date and the start of validity date... but got confirmation from their hierarchy that our tickets were no longer valid! We had already been through the check in and security checks and were waiting to embark when they cancelled our seats and launched a baggage search... half an hour before the departure!
It took us stamina to convince them they were wrong, and that they needed to check with the airline that issued the tickets. The plane was preparing for take-off, but they were still looking for our bags! It gave us the extra 5 minutes necessary to talk to someone sensible enough who did a quick check before allowing us back in...Oufff! It was the first time we had such a problem. We thought of Guillemette and Olivier who had booked their round the world tickets via internet. For some unknown reason, they disappeared from the system, and nobody believed they had tickets! They even lost one of their flights before they could prove they had bought those tickets. Well, if you make a round the world trip, we advise you go through a travel agent and keep hold of paper tickets. It's the same price as the internet and you can prove you bought the tickets!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1183392000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1183392000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1183392000/tpod.html Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:21:52 -0400 A gap year to discover a little bit of the world.

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Rotorua, New Zealand

Thermal wonderland

Rotorua is probably the most touristy spot in the north island. It's like Queenstown, full of adrenaline bound activities but it has attractions of its own right: thermal pools and geisers, Maori shows, and zorbing. For those interested in kiwi culture ;-), zorbing is the name for rolling downhill in a giant rubber ball. Placed inside the ball, you are tumbled like in a washing machine. Fun to watch but absolutely silly! Yeah, a bit like bungy jumping but for sissies!!!



The area sourrounding Rotorua is renowned for its thermal activity, so it's common to see from the road, columns of steam coming out of the bushes. It was not only a feast for the eyes but also one for the nose: rotten egg smells everywhere, even into town! We visited one of the main sites for thermal pools : Wai-o-tapu. It's well worth seeing once in a lifetime those colourful hot pools, smelly pots of boiling muds and other steamy holes. The colours are created by pure minerals that have been pushed to the surface resulting in colourful oxidisation: phosphorescent yellow sulfur, purple manganese oxide, green ferrous salt, orange antimony etc. We missed out on the geizers unaware that it blows only once, at the same time everyday...


There were still plenty of things to enjoy in Rotorua including the coming "young farmer of the year" contest ;-), but our plane in Auckland was due in two days so we couldn't hang out any longer. A bit of white water rafting (disapointing) and some hot pools dipping and we were on the road again towards Auckland.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1181813940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1181813940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1181813940/tpod.html Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:15:03 -0400 A gap year to discover a little bit of the world.

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Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown is not for the faint hearted

Our next stop was Queenstown. It's a popular place which can be enjoyed in summer and winter alike because of the ski slopes. Here, temptation lures at every corner: three bungy jump sites, sky diving, white water rafting, rapid boatjetting, paragliding, skying, snowboarding and many more. It's also full of bars and restaurants to keep you entertained at night.

At the entrance of the town lies the birthplace of the bungy jumping: the Kawarau bridge, 43 metres high beetween the bridge and the river. Bungy jumping had always seemed pointless to us and we didn't foresee paying for it, watching however was free of charge! It's quite something to see people's face when they are on the brink of jumping in the void. You can see if they are nervous or not and most of all, feel nervous for them! Most people did dry jumps but others chose to do a water touch, i.e. to be dipped into the river (it sounds crazy especially in winter!). It was quite fun and exciting to see those people jump; all of them were rather young and came up with the same comment: it was awesome! Well, still, 3 seconds of sensation didn't seem worth the money for us.

Like many towns in NZ, Queenstown lies by a lake, sourrounded by beautiful mountains. The ski season was already open but we've been told that the snow was not good yet. To capture a nice view of the city, we climbed up a few hundred metres to the "gondola". The gondola concept exist in a few cities around NZ, it consists of a cable-car taking you up the mountains where you can enjoy the view; there are also a restaurant, souvenir shop, luge rides (actually, those luges are wheel karts on a concrete track) and a bungy jump from the gondola, called "the Ledge". In lack of exercise we walked up the mountain instead of taking the cable-car. The view from up there was very rewarding and a bit of luge didn't do any harm.

Down in Fjordland

Quuenstown is very close to Fjordland, on the south western part of the island, so we took a side trip to Milford Sound, the most famous and touristy fjord of all. Initially we wanted to walk the famous 4 days trek route that ends into the sound, but the weather forecast was "snow from 400m for the next 3 days"... so we changed our mind and drove all the way up (chains at hand), taking the risk to be snowbound there. The next day (still no snow) we did a cruise in this massive fjord. Everything is so huge that you don't realise the size of things unless there is another boat in the distance allowing you to have a visual reference. We saw some fur seals for the first time, and drank pure water collected straight from a waterfall by a member of the crew. Nice and fresh! The fjord was quite beautiful to watch but photographing it is another story: masses of dark mountains, huge areas of shades on a sunny background, that wasn't easy to capture on a moving boat.

Snow hadn't showed up yet so we went for a short walk up the hills before making it back to Queenstown, enjoying the beauty of the area, breathing the fresh air and making the most of the sun while it was still around...We took a section of the Routeburn trak, another famous "great walks" in NZ, which winds through lush forests and alpine crest. Since snow falls were due at any moment, we headed back to Queenstown at the end of the day.

Pat and Saoyuth make the big leap

While driving back, we had a debate on whether or not do a bungy jump. As days passed, the appeal was even greater just like Frodo and his ring...Well we concluded that since we were here, we might as well do it, and let's go for the highest one so we don't have regrets! We signed up for the Highwired Nevis bungy: at 134 metres high, it's the highest in NZ. The other main feature of this bungy is that the platform hangs from cables over the canyon above the Nevis river, hence the name. This bungy cannot be publicly watched as you have to cross a private land to reach it so we didn't know what to expect really. The jumping platform can only be reached by a cable unit, needless to say that if you are unconfortable with height, you will realise it straight away!

We were 18 people to jump that day (we were the oldest ones!), it was not the clearest day of all but we couldn't afford to stay too long in Queenstown either. It actually started to snow after the first person had jumped. Jumps were ordered by weight order so Saoyuth was last on the list. Some people were scared, others loved it, but in such situation, one's feelings cannot be shared. As for us, we had very different feelings, Patrick was mildly stressed whereas Saoyuth was stressless and rather excited.Then Patrick's turn came. He did a beautiful long leap: it looked smooth and fast. Let's hear what he has to say:

"I was not that excited by this bungy jump. I had no doubt whatsoever I would handle it fine, but since Saoyuth was keen on doing it, I had to go as well, otherwise everybody would have thought I chickened out...Once on the edge of the platform, the guy didn't let you much time to think: 1,2,3 here you go. So here I went! Strong jump, looking forward, so far so good. Then came the scary moment when I did really feel I was really in the air, really high...and really falling! A second later, as the speed started to build up came the exhilarating yeeeeeeha moment The one you are actually after... But it doesn't last, the bungy slows you down whithout the hint of a shock. It's so smooth that you hardly realise when you stop going down and start to bounce back."

Then Saoyuth's turn finally came. She jumped in a... singular way, let's hear from our crazy jumper:

"I didn't feel scared until I stood right on the edge. Oh boy, it's scary high! Despite a part of my brain telling me it's not dangerous, plenty of people have done it before, I couldn't possibly jump in the void! The instructor left me no time for more consideration before he started the coundown 3-2-1, jump! I was so f***ing scared but it was too late to back off:I did a miserable one. All ready to leap forward, strenght abandonned my legs at the crucial moment. Never mind, I made it down! It felt quite OK when I was sliding down, no exhilaration, just plain relief...All I could see were the snowflakes surrounding me. I will never forget this and till today I still talk to Patrick about this jump that scared the shit out of me!"

Snow fell as we were jumping. When the last jumper (Saoyuth) was done, the ground was covered by a thick layer so that we had to walk down the hill instead of boarding the bus and drive down the steep road, too risky. Driving back we could see the snow had created chaos on the roads! We were surprised how poorly the locals coped with this sudden snowfall, some had chains but many didn't. Living in the mountains, they surely get heaps of snow every year, but still, there were cars all over the place! They soon closed the road for 2 days and we got stuck in Queenstown. When the roads opened again, we lost no time hanging around, put our chains on and left for the north island. The road were cleared of snow except for some parts, one guy still managed to slide in the ditch while overpassing other cars. He had been stucked in Queenstown for 3 days and was rushing home... On the side, a few abandonned cars were lying here and there. The weather was sunny again and covered in white snow, the mountains looked very different. Our plan was to drive all the way north towards Picton, where we could take a ferry to the North island.

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Auckland, New Zealand

As soon as we arrived near Auckland, the biggest city in NZ, we witnessed a familiar sight: congested ring road. HORRIBLE! The only thing of interest that can immediately be seen in Auckland is its tower, from which you can also jump. It's not a bungy jump of such because you are strapped in a different way. But at 192 metres high, it must be a scary experience too!

The weather again was wet, but never mind, in two days we'll be in our shorts on the white beaches of Tahiti!!! We spent our last day in NZ hunting for snorkelling gears and bought a bottle of rhum at the airport as it seems that Tahiti is a tad expensive...
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Wellington, New Zealand

North island, here we come!

The north island is said to be less wild, more populated and more Maori influenced, this is all true. Place names on the north island are all Maori and we found it hard to remember them. Like in Japanese, it's always the same phonems that are used, they are doubled up and combined in different ways. "Taranaki, Urewera, Rangitoto, Waipukurau etc." No offence but it's impossible to memorise!

Wellington is a nice city, full of bars, cafes and restaurants and more importantly it is home to Te Papa, the national museum of NZ completed in 1998. The museum itself is a presentation of everything kiwi: the geological formation of the land, the human history, fauna and flora, Maori history and art, paintings and artefacts. It's a succesful mix between science, natural history and arts. Throw in a free concert at the end of the day and we ended spending nine hours in there!


But where are the volcanos?

The weather wasn't with us when we left Wellington for Mount Egmont, a cone shaped volcano that resembles Mount Fuji (that's were they shot "The last Samurai" with Tom Cruise). The overcast weather we had in Wellington quickly transformed into windy rain. It was so cloudy and misty that we couldn't see the mountains and those damn volcanos, though we were at their foot! Are they real??? We spent two days waiting for the weather to clear but without success. At least we were in a cosy backpacker called "The missing leg". It's probably one of the best places we stayed at during our entire trip: sofas, continous fire, well stached kitchen, laundry, TV, internet and telephones at hand, garden, it felt very much like being at home. So what? Well the owner just leave you free to use anything you like and rely on your honesty to put money in the kitty after you have done so, even paying for the rooms or camp site is done through a hole in the wall. There was even money and small jewelry from the owners lying around. They just came around to heat up the fire in the morning and make sure it was warm and cosy inside. Lovely!

Since it wasn't clearing up we thought we should head north to the volcanic Tongariro park where there are some nice walks to do. The weather remained exactly the same all the way up and so it was that we couldn't see any volcano at all. The forecast for the next few days was rain, more rain and more more rain! It was useless sticking around any longer where the only thing to enjoy is spoilt by the weather. We gave up the idea of spotting a single volcano and headed towards Rotorua.
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Picton, New Zealand

Last days in the South island

A couple of days later we were back on the East coast heading towards the ferry to the North island. The coastal route is equally beautiful with turquoise blue sea but the weather again started to play tricks on us: this time it was rain. In Kaikura we wanted to take a trip to see the whales but the sea was too rough and all boat trip had been cancelled. The forecast wasn't good either for the next two days and as much as we wanted to see those whales, we couldn't afford to wait. We went instead for a walk along the windy cliffs and saw some fur seals up close. It was wet, cold and miserable...we looked for a nice and warm place to rest in town but there is none to be found here. Surely they know that winter is cold and wet and miserable, but yet they prefer to wear hats inside! We kept bumping into a girl from Quebec who didn't enjoy the cold either: "People think that I am used to it, but not at all because in Quebec we put the heating on!"

New Zealand is also a wine producer

Heading north we reached the wine town of Bleinheim. You French readers may not know about this, but there are a few other countries around the world making decent wine;-) And New Zealand is one of them. That we truly didn't know! Bleinheim, in the north is the biggest white wine region in NZ. Clearly, it was our duty to sample their production, otherwise we couldn't honestly claim being responsible travellers anymore. Hummm,not bad!... We bought a few bottles for the cellar of our campa!

Crossing the Cook strait

We took a huge ferry to cross the Cook strait that separates the south and north islands. The weather was sunny but the sea rough, and even on such a big boat we could feel it! Three hours later we reached Wellington, the capital of NZ; it's very urban with roads and cars everywhere, the quietness of the south island was definitely behind us.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1181467680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1181467680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patandsaoyuth/aroundzeworld/1181467680/tpod.html Thu, 05 Jul 2007 08:03:00 -0400 A gap year to discover a little bit of the world.

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Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand

West coast wonders

The next morning we headed towards the opposite West coast where we could see the "pancake layered rocks" and the famous glaciers. The road again didn't disapoint with beautiful sceneries, but it took us longer than expected because although distances are short, with frequent curves, villages, one lane bridges and other photo stops, let alone the amazing 20km/h top speed of our van in steep uphills,
it's impossible to drive at a good constant speed. The landscape on the West coast is quite distinctive: silver ferns, flax (a native plant) and other coastal trees.
The so called pancake layered rocks stand on the sea cliffs, exposed to continous water erosion. It's nice to see if you are around but there is nothing to regret if you miss it.

Walking on glaciers

Further south we reached the two most visited glaciers in New Zealand, Franz Joseph (named after the emperor by Haast, an austrian explorer) and Fox (named after the first minister who visited it). Both glaciers are fast advancing ones, something of a rarity apparently; and can be visited. On our first day there we simply took a walk towards Franz Joseph glacier admiring the rocky landscape on the way. On the second day we took a day walk on Fox glacier as it was the cheapest and we soon realised why: in winter the sun never hits the glacier! Not so good for taking pictures, but the good news is that the ice remains icy blue. As soon as the sun hits the ice, the air inside the ice expand and the ice turns to solid white.

We spent about three-four hours walking around with our crampons. The mountain guide company also sends some people to carve stairs on the ice to ease the access; because the ice is moving fast, they have to create new steps every couple of weeks. You will see on the pictures those stairs as well as the many cavities and texture of the glacier. It was our first time on a glacier and it was well worth the experience!
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Christchurch, New Zealand

First impressions

Well, this is it, we have reached the furthest destination of our trip: New Zealand, 11 hours ahead of London. However far it may be, New Zealand remains culturally close to England except that here, they eat less peas and produce far better ales (try the Montieth or the Mac's). In terms of landscape the country is an interesting cross breed between the French Alps, Scotland, Devon, Cornwall and Jurassic Park! It is blessed with geological wonders, combine this with a bit of kiwi entrepreneurship (they try all sorts of things like planting olive trees, growing lamas and deers, inventing crazy adrenaline boosters) and some Maori culture and you get a country worth visiting! The plan was for us to stay here for a month: 2/3 in the South island, 1/3 in the North island.

For our French readers who are not aware of it, the New Zealanders call themselves the kiwis, not after the fruit but after the native bird. A shy nocturnal creature with so tiny wings that it can't fly. It is a protected specie here and chances to spot one in the nature are meagre. As for the kiwi fruit, a local told us that is used to be called "Chinese gooseberry" at one point, they do produce a lot of them here and have even come up with a gold kiwi variety. By far the sweetest kiwi fruits we ever had!




Tight border control: alien apples out!

Since it was colonised, New Zealand has seen its land change with the introduction of foreign fauna and flora. To prevent undesired spreading, there is a severe border control here for anything that could bring in a disease or an unwanted organism. As soon as you land your bags are carefully searched for any food that may accidentally or not leave any descendance. Our apples were confiscated and our hiking boots soles closely inspected. Apparently harmless things like honey also get banned. We were surprised by such thouroughtness but it was done so courtously that it didn't bother us at all, yeah forget those hours of pure ingenuity trying to fit perfectly all our junk in the bags! Looking around us in Christchurch airport, things seemed uncomplicated and small enough to handle. A bus ride later we were downtown Christchurch at a backpacker hostel where we met a couple of French guys with whom we celebrated our arrival with a few beers down at Dux de Lux, a local pub /brewery. Both of them had come here on a one year working holiday visa. Aparently New Zealand is full of young foreigners filling up seasonal positions as fruit pickers and other unqualified jobs. In fact it's a much needed labour force in such a little populated country and visas are granted very easily.

Christchurch, the main city in the South Island is a relaxed town full of outdoor shops and asian restaurants (Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai..), we were quite surprised by so much variety but after all Asia is the closest neigbour so it is probably not a random thing.We were in winter and you could feel the chill. The advantage was that there were much less tourists than in summer or the shoulder seasons so we didn't have to book anything in advance. Even car rental prices drop in winter so we got a good deal for our little campervan. The only mistake we made was to rent in on paper, convinced that it would be the same layout as the one we rented in Australia. It wasn't. It looked good on paper but was quite unpractical on a daily basis. Oh, actually there was one feature of quality in it: the curtains! Never mind, after three aclimatisation days in Christchurch and a lot of retail therapy (we needed warm clothes, by 0°C it is a case of force majeure!), we took the road South to the former French settlement of Akaroa.

On the road again

As soon as we drove out of town there it was: the amazing landscape of rolling hills, grasing sheeps and green pastures. Best of all: few people on the roads, lovely! After 75 km of rural landscapes we finally reached Akaroa, a small village by the bay located on a peninsula which has been formed by two volcanic eruptions. We read in our guide book that the south island was very close to be French owned, but as usual, the brits outmanoeuvred us eventually. New Zealanders could have known how to properly roast their lamb ;-), too bad! Akaroa is "marketed" as a French influenced place but appart from shop signs it is as French as we are English.

The village was quite charming but it felt a bit dead in winter so we decided to leave it and explore the area a little bit. We took the summit road which winds through the surrounding hills, the view from the top was gorgeous and the road was more than quiet. We decided to spend our first night by the road in one of the many lookout and stop areas.
Appart from sheeps and cows and the ocasional car, there was nothing to disturb us, and the view in the morning light didn't disapoint! The only downside was that despite our duvet and clothes, we never had been so cold! Clearly, we had to invest in another duvet and stay every other night in a motor camp to get some heating (the van came with a portable heater), otherwise our holiday in NZ would be remembered as a long trip in an igloo on wheels!
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