Blog 5 - New Zealand

Queenstown - in a nutshell, a beautiful little town fit for Elizabeth. 

Throughout New Zealand there have been lakes, some small, some vast, some the main attraction, some acting as mirrors enhancing the mountainous scenery. Queenstown's lake was similar to the latter, it's most aesthetically pleasing surrounding being the mountains known as - The Remarkables. As we were making the drive towards the famous location, we were speechless letting the monstrous lake, snow capped and tree covered mountains do the talking. We were already excited! We located 'Bumbles Backpackers' (highly recommend!) who offered a good deal to sleep in the van but use all their facilities - we took it! We parked the van in the bay, ourselves in the lounge area and duly accepted an invitation to play cheat from a few friendly backpackers. A few games later we were aquatinted and all having a good laugh.

We had heard canyoning was good so we booked up and hopped on the bus to the canyon. Canyoning consists of abseiling, zip wiring, swimming, sliding and jumping your way down a river with rocks on either side. I (Bertie) purchased photos which are really good but since the incident in Christchurch rid me of a working computer the photos, which are on a USB, cannot be uploaded at the moment - something to look forward to!

Despite the really cold temperature of the water (it's glacial) we had a brilliant time and once we had dried off we headed back to the hostel for more cheat and a film.

The next morning we set off for Milford Sound. It was a 5 hour drive made perfectly bearable by more great scenery - the waterfalls near the end were particularly amazing.

After camping up for the night we booked ourselves onto the 0900 scenic cruise around the sound itself. With the 'early' morning and the cold temperature, (I had left my only hoodie at a previous campsite - schoolboy error!) we were slightly groggy wondering if the cruise was going to deliver anything special. It definitely did. After a spot of complimentary breakfast we made our way out on deck to witness the sound at its best. Milford sound is apparently the 2nd most rainy place in the world (2nd to Britain) however we were blessed with blue skies and a still sea meaning the whole experience was charming! One highlight was seeing a school of dolphins prancing around no more than 10 metres away from the boat, this again is apparently a rare occurrence, as they only pop into the sound for a couple weeks of the year, for some reason which my memory forbids me to explain. We also got to see a few seals, which aren't so rare. The sound has many a waterfall, the tallest waterfall that goes into sea water, and more importantly, the waterfall that Wolverine jumps off in X-men! We were in awe during every minute of the trip you can probably see why!

This waterfall here was particularly interesting as it is the same height as Niagra Falls and yet looked so small to us from the boat!

Wolverine's Waterfall

The base of Wolverine's Waterfall

After Milford we headed back to Queenstown for a few more days. 

Whilst in Queenstown many people had recommended Frisbee Golf, so we went to explore. It was brilliant! The premise is simple - throw your frisbee into, what can best be described, as empty metal fountains, in the fewest throws possible. Easier said than done. I found out quite quickly that this new kind of golf was equally frustrating as it's small ball counterpart. My throws had a military feel to them (left right left right) whilst JJ seemed to pick it up very quickly as has been the case with many skilled activities this holiday! We loved it so much we played the next day as well. Twice. It was on the first outing where the unbelievable occurred. We were on the 11th hole and we were close with JJ leading by a throw. It was his honour and he threw it right of the hole with some power - it looked to going a way off. I got excited - this could be my chance to level things up with some simply golf. Next thing I know it hits a tree flies left and straight into the hole sparking ecstatic yelps from the thrower and an open mouth from his opponent. Needless to say he won that round, and the next, making it 3-0 to JJ, at least it gives me an excuse to go back!

We stayed in QT for two days longer than we initially planned because we enjoyed it so much. We had met some great people there who we got along with well and the town had such a good feel to it. One thing that must be done whilst there is experiencing a Fergburger. We ate three during our short stay, all of them different, all of them delicious. 

We left Queenstown with heavy hearts not just because we had enjoyed it so much but also as it signified having to turn backwards through the road atlas on all subsequent journeys! Spending the extra time in QT meant we had left ourselves four days to get back up to Auckland. A journey that consisted of 27 hours of driving and a ferry! On the way we had a quick look at the Franz Joseph Glacier which was very impressive and again marvelled at the scenery we were driving through.

We did in fact reach Auckland a day early so dropped off the campervan - a sad moment as even though our relationship was brief we had enjoyed and experienced much in it! We booked into a hostel and went out to see what the Auckland nightlife was like!

The following day consisted of packing but also planning the next steps on our journey. The previous night we has met a guy who worked in a travel and activities bureau and had told us what there was to do in Oz and that he could book it for us. We consequently booked ourselves into a number of activities and mapped our route - but you'll have to wait for that...

An early flight meant an early get up and though we slept through the alarm we got to the Airport in good time and were on the flight before we knew it.

New Zealand had be incredible. Both of us really want to go back out one day to relive some memories but also to experience more of what the great country has to offer.

We couldn't let the nostalgia linger long as we realised there were more films to be watched and, more importantly, another country to explore!

Upon reflection of New Zealand one thing particularly stands out. Driving cricket. 'Driving Cricket?' I here you ask, was an integral part to our journeys along with prize winning quality chat from The J-dogg, a deep variety of music and stunning views. The rules are not simple, they are as follows:

20 runs - an hour batting

10 runs - over taking a motorbike

6 runs - overtaking a big vehicle single lane 

4 runs - overtaking a small vehicle single lane

3 runs - overtaking whilst the lane is narrowing from 2-1

2 runs - overtaking big vehicle double lane

1 run   - overtaking small vehicle double lane

Wickets

Run Out - honk

Stumping - flash

Bowled - overtaken single lane

Hit Wicket - full beam/wiper error/indicator error (the background to this is that in the van the wiper stick and the indicator stick were on opposite sides to the usual, hence when trying to turn left and the wipers going off was hilarious and when the game was introduced saw many screams of howzat.)

Caught behind or slip - overtaken double lane under speed limit (not uphill) 

Caught - driver error 

LBW - driving on the bumpy road markings

Handling the Ball - not entering 50 at 50 or below and other speed limits below 50

Obstructing the field - dangerous driving

Banned for Ball Tampering - caught by the police 

Umpire = passenger

Batsmen = driver

Fielding side = other vehicles

A toss shall be made before the journey to decide who bats first

Innings starts when driver enters vehicle,

Each innings lasts 3 wickets, once innings had ended the switch around must be made at the earliest possible moment failure to do so is 5 penalty runs.

LBW and Handling the Ball are umpiring decisions and should be accepted as such.

The game was created after I overtook a golf gti, and two campervans and Bertie got rather excited giving running commentary, finishing with the somewhat prophetic words, 'phenomenal driving tekkers from Thomson' - prophesying not only a game that would control the driver behind the wheel, but also who the superior cricketer would be. 

The J-dogg won this battle of skill with ease showing exceptional flair, consistency and control behind the wheel - winning all 4 tests played comprehensively, scoring a total of 1,011 losing 15 wickets. Also scoring 2 century's, one being a double with a huge total of 218. Overall an  average of 67 runs. 

Unfortunately, Bertie didn't take to the game he created very well. Losing all 4 tests, and scoring in total 197 runs losing 24 wickets with an average of 8. However he still took great joy in commentating every run and wicket using the most ridiculous cricketing terminology. 

Much of this terminology will be reproduced in the land of the kangaroo since there is the small matter of Ashes to be held on to. However it also has much more to offer us, great beaches, more cruises and more people to meet - we look forward to sharing it with you as best we can!

Blog 4 - New Zealand

The last week and a bit we have been busy doing all sort if tourist activities and so we thought we'd update you all in one!

We set off from Auckland and headed down to a place called Matamata. We checked into a lodge which had electricity for our van, hot showers and a pool - 5 star stuff as far as we were concerned. After a quick swim in the morning we headed for Hobbiton. Now I (Bertie) haven't seen The Lord of the Rings films (don't shoot me) so I was slightly less excited than my hobbit counterpart and also didn't really know what was going on. 

Rotarua was up next and after a scout round the town we saw some activities which looked like fun and the first of these was white water rafting down the Kaituna River. We were the only people who seemed interested in a trip that morning so were told we were gonna have a 'bros trip' with just us and two instructors. We started down a few little rapids doing some spins and fancy stuff before the serious rafting began. What had attracted us to rafting here and nowhere else is that on this stretch of the river there is the highest commercially raftable waterfall in the world at 7m high. Apparently because there was only two of us and the fact we were on a 'bros trip' meant that we could try and do more dangerous things. What they proposed to do down this waterfall was to put all the weight at the front of the raft so that we go quite far underwater at the bottom of the waterfall and then the buoyancy would fire us back out and flip the boat upside down. The first part went to plan - we were at the front and were fully submerged - but instead of firing us out and flipping the raft hadn't quite got far enough over so we shot out and landed the right way up instead!

Bertie understandably forgot to include details about us rafting down the first 'waterfall', it was less a river, more a stream. The instructors exact words were, 'don't worry, no ones fallen off at this one, I've never heard any girls scream here either'. Seconds after these words were uttered, Bertie was bottom up, feet in the air - entering the water as gracefully Eric the eel. 

We had heard about 60mph karts and thought it would be silly not to try them. The format was a ten minute practise/qualifying time followed by a ten minute race. I (Bertie) had never karted before but I've watched a lot of F1 and thought that it couldn't be that hard. I was wrong. I was also rubbish. The visions of me becoming the next Lewis Hamilton were shot to pieces after being lapped by JJ in the short practise time and also being told by the instructor that I was using the break too much and not utilising the throttle as much as I could - I thought I was going far too fast already. With some more tips we lined up for the race. I managed to stay with the pack until the 4th corner when trying my best to stick with them I obviously didn't use the break enough and flew off the track into the airbag off the side of the bend. With nothing but my pride hurting I set off again a way behind my fellow competitors and thought I might as well just enjoy the ride. I thought I'd almost got the hang of it by the chequered flag but I came in to find out that even at the end my lap times were still over 6 seconds slower than JJ's. He drove to our next destination.

This sort of driving domination was just a continuation from luging the previous day. 'Luging' from what could discern was cruising down a mountain in a plastic kart with no engine and what felt like no brakes. Like the karting I (Bertie) was a bit of a wimp and JJ beat me down the mountain all 5 times, despite him falling out the kart on one occasion.

We headed off down the road the Lake Taupo. On the way we stopped off at a natural phenomenon. Due to New Zealand's position right on the edge of the Oceanic plate (year 9 geography coming into play) there is lots of volcanic activity and part of that is the production of thermal pools - or something like that - we both dropped geography well before GCSE. Anyway these particular pools were fully of cool colours because of the different minerals in the ground - I'm sure someone who's good at chemistry can tell you which is which all we could remember was sulphur was yellow and potassium purple. Despite our lack of knowledge and the abhorrent smell generated by the pools we made our way around the site amazed at what nature could throw up.

We moved onto Lake Taupo next and after relaxing for a bit we decided that we would do a sky dive the next day so we went to the info centre to see how much it would cost etc. At this point the sky was clear and the sun was shining so when the woman behind the desk asked us if we would like to do it at that moment we went for it! We got to the airfield and decided on the highest jump possible - 15000 feet. We got kitted out in all the gear and climbed into the plane with our professional jumpers. Due to the rest of the plane choosing the lower height of 12000 feet to jump from we had to stop at that height and watch them plop out the side - it was very surreal. When we finally got up to height we were told just to sit on the edge of the open plane whilst sitting on the instructors lap. Without warning we were simultaneously ejected from the plane and started the free-fall. We hit the ground about 5 minutes later after free-falling for about a minute followed by a gentle parachute ride afterwards. There were great views all around us with the lake and the mountains in the distance, it's definitely something we won't forget. (Photos of the dive were extortionate but here is someone else's photo of what we saw!

After some great mountain views the drive down to Wellington was surprisingly uneventful and we reached Wellington in good time and went to book the ferry over the South Island for the following morning. Similarly with the sky dive, we were told there was one leaving at 2.30 in the morning which would mean that we got to Picton early in the morning so we could hit the road...early. We took it and went off into Wellington to find a beverage.

We disembarked at 6 and headed straight to a place called French Pass. The scenery we drove through was probably the most beautiful we had ever seen. You can judge for yourselves but we still don't think the pictures do it justice!

The cows are much more photogenic over here

We were told on many occasions that we should visit the Abel Tasman national park. We had found a campsite on the road atlas and headed for it. Unfortunately for us, the weather was rubbish so the magnificent views promised were just heavy rain and cloud. We reached the campsite safely though and set up for the evening. 

The morning saw much better weather and after one of our customary big breakfasts we headed back through the scenery we were unable to see the previous day - it didn't disappoint. 

After a drive and a rest we were set up to drive along a road called Arthur's Pass and it is supposed to be one of the best driving roads in the world in terms of the scenery. It was magnificent. 

We hit Christchurch later that day and discovered that there are actually no campsites anywhere near  so treated ourselves to a motel for the night.

After a well deserved lie in we decided to go and see what Christchurch had to offer. The first thing we saw was a 7s tournament at the local park so we parked up and went to watch some rugby.

When we returned JJ jokingly said that it looked like someone had tried to break into the van. It turned out they had. All that was taken was my small rucksack and JJ new headphones. As I was running through what was in my bag I realised that I thought the rucksack would be best place to keep my passport and computer. How wrong I was! After a visit to the police station we went back to watch the rugby - after having parked somewhere much more visible! I then got a phone call from the polices saying the bag had been handed in - but it was found in a river with all the original contents in! Praise The Lord! We celebrated by treating ourselves to a curry and another night in a motel.

We headed off to Church in the morning then we headed off to meet a family friend of mine (Bertie's) before heading down to Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki. We were blown by the scenery yet again especially the colour of Lake Pukaki - apparently it's caused by the glacier at the top crushing rocks into dust and the sun reflection off the dust making the incredible blue.

This week also saw us finish our journey through Philippians where we learnt to 'rejoice in The Lord always' as that was Paul's underlying message to those in Philippi because of the great news that is Jesus' life, death and resurrection. We thought it seemed very easy here in this magnificent country with no real troubles, but it's definitely something we'll need to keep in the back of our minds when harder times come.

We're are now heading off to Queenstown, the backpacking hub of New Zealand and all that it has in store, see you then!

Week 3 - Malaysia and New Zealand

Our last Tuesday in Malaysia was a Public Holiday so we got the day off. However after finishing the first season of 24 (what a programme) and watching a few other films we woke up much later than expected and eventually set off to the famous Batu Caves. 

At the Batu Caves after you've gazed at the substantial statue and captured your desired picture, there are a fair few stairs for you to climb before you reach the caves, which originally put this place on the map (the statue was only built 10 years ago). 

Along the stairs there are dozens of monkeys to point, look at and be amused by, until one of the jokers try's to snatch your drink (a precious item in such heat)! 

In the actual caves there are some small Hindu temples, which you can wonder around, whilst we were there an offering of some sort was being made in one of them. A completely new experience and interesting to see the logistics of it all, it looked pretty tricky and complex! 

The next day we joined Avean in going to one of the Refugee schools that St. Mary's supports. We got to know them through the customary game of splat, then they sat for an hour and a half while Avean explained the first chapter of Ephesians. This class were supposed to be the most troublesome of all the refugee schools and yet they sat still and answered questions for 90 minutes with only a short game break in the middle, something JJ struggled to do! Malaysian kids have a much longer attention span than us Brits, both of us were struggling to keep up with the lesson near the end, certainly more complex than a bog standard Sunday school lesson. 

We were told that one thing we should do is get our feet nibbled by fish in the Central Market in KL. Having seen from afar the size of the fish in England where such treatment is offered in shopping centres the experience certainly didn't look daunting, little did we know that these fish were not small in stature, and had mouths the size of sharks! Upon donning our chosen seats where we would submerge our tootsies in the pool, a black mass moved as one to both our chosen areas, leaving the man on the other side of the pool looking rather upset with the lack of fish eating him.

Now all we had to do was put our feet in the water, a simple task you might think. However these creatures left no space in the water free, as soon as you touched the water, there they would be, nibbling. However, we'd paid the money for 15 minutes of this, there could be no turning back.

Once we'd bitten the preverbial bullet we were sat there for about 5 minutes squirming and laughing as these odd fetished beings came and ate our feet and lower legs, it was only about halfway through when we could really enjoy the sensation.

KL Tower is the 4th highest tower in the world at 425m and it would have been rude not to have gone up it at some point while we were there. We got there at the prefect time so that we saw the city in daylight, dusk and dark - the views didn't disappoint!

Our third Thursday and our third and final Crèche! I (Bertie) had just about got to know the names of them all and we had another great couple of hours playing with them. 

With it being our last day we didn't want to leave any stone unturned so we headed back to Chinatown for the 4th time just to make sure we hadn't missed any more bargains, luckily there were so many 'special deal just for you sir' that we could fill our boots yet again.

The two of us then ventured to KLCC and the Petronas Towers, where we waited to watch a fountain display. Slow starting at the beginning, however once it got going it was certainly picturesque. The finish of the display was done to the titanic theme tune, and the key change brought out a rather feminine 'wow' from Bertie, as he was filming the event, it was all rather wet if you ask me! 

The Bible talks of going through hardship and persecution for Christ as you try and pursue, follow and honour him. This was the reassurance we gave ourselves every morning as we endured cold showers in Malaysia. How frustrating to find out on the penultimate night that all that suffering could have been avoided, had we realised there was a hot water switch!

Leaving KL and Saint Mary's was more than just leaving and saying goodbye to a country and a church, it was saying goodbye to a family in Christ as well! The staff team and congregation made us feel as welcome and as at home as was possible and we are certainly grateful. It was a time and a chance to develop a greater understanding to difficult theological questions and absorb knowledge from those who have had more time to think such things over! Certainly we hope it is not goodbye forever and that at some point a visit again would be possible! 

Malaysia - over, it was time to start the next chapter of our travels. New Zealand!

An early rise, ten hour flight later and four films later, we touched down in Auckland. Time difference meant that local time it was 12:30 pm. It looked like plain sailing: pick up bags, catch the 24 hour bus service for a short while to Auckland and check in to the nomad's youth hostel. Things did not run as planned, the fall came at the first hurdle, due to no fault of ours might I add. Malaysia Airlines decided it would be convenient to leave my (JJ) bag in Malaysia! Certainly not ideal! We did however manage to catch the bus, however, we'd forgotten to book ahead a place in the hostel which was fully booked. The time was now 3 in the morning, no bag, and no bed. Things looked pretty pear shaped. Someone by the name of, Beyoncé, jolly inconsiderately decided to be holding a gig in Auckland, meaning that the by the 3rd hostel we were preparing ourselves for a rough night! However The Lord had mercy on us, and there was a room that wasn't booked in the 4th hostel, so we had the luxury of a double bed!

Arising from my slumber, I (JJ) felt an awkward tingling sensation on my left ear, understandably presuming that ones sleep is heavier down under, I thought nothing of it. Once I'd pulled myself out of bed and into the bathroom, I realised that my left ear had indeed become even more protruding than usual, and that it had also become fat. As one does I jumped to the hideous conclusion that I had cauliflower ear and I would be subject to this hideousness for the rest of my life. I started to loath my fake Dre Beats headphones that I had become so fond of and decided they were crafted by horrible dwarfs who wanted to ruin my life by making me look like Brian Moore. 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and so are mothers, as mine lovingly pointed out that it had only happened to one ear, so there probably weren't evil dwarfs out to get me, I'd probably just worn them wrong on one side - how wise! 

Whilst I was still believing that my left ear would be larger than life, for life, I started to think, (as one does whilst travelling as there is a fair bit of time to mull over things) I started to think about vanity, some may be aware that whilst I have hair on my face but not on my head and resemble a gremlin, I can be known to be fond of my image. As I looked at my reflection and was not appealed, I realised the fleeting insecurity of vanity. Rather a deep thought to be thinking and perhaps not a topic for a blog, food for thought however. 

JJ's ugly face wasn't going to stop us enjoying what Auckland had to offer. We went for a wonder and found a delightful place to perch and gaze around Auckland's Bay, the sun was shining and the scenery was bliss, we found ourselves residing there for the next few hours. After that it was more than necessary to find ourselves a sports bar, we arrived early to make sure we had suitable seats to watch NZ play Auz - we weren't disappointed with the display rugger and the choice of beer! 41-33 to NZ! 

Sunday saw us pay a visit to an excellent church under the name of Saint Paul's. It also saw the arrival of my bag and the collection of the campervan. A most successful day! 

Everything was planned, drive north a few hours, check in at Uretiti campsite (it made us laugh too) have some sleep and move on. 

After the 3 hour drive we arrived at Uretiti to find the gate closed with no way in. Due to the fact that 2 years ago NZ revoked their 'you can camp anywhere' law (technical term) we had to try and find another campsite of which there were none on our map. We thought we should get off the main road and try and find somewhere off the beaten track and camp rough and move on early in the evening. After another hour of driving a kind native drew up along side us and told us a spot which we gratefully found. We set up camp not really knowing where we were or what the surroundings were like - it was 1am by this point. The fun wasn't over for the night though...

After successfully putting up our bed for the first time and an hours sleep, I (Bertie) woke up to JJ trying to get out the door quite sharpish. I'll spare you the details but JJ was consequently quite ill by what I could hear. Luckily we were right by a toilet so he camped there for the night, while I tried to block out the noises.

I woke up and found we had turned up right next to a beach, and a stunning sunrise followed.

JJ slurped up some vitamins and we set off for our first campsite - Otamure. When we arrived we were greeted with a stunning beach framed by some amazing pohutukawa trees. We spent two days there exploring the beaches and rocks and lapping up the gorgeous NZ sunshine.

This was also the place of 'The Haircuts' you can judge for yourselves...

Having thought it could not get any better than Otamure we moved on to our next stop - Matai Bay. After 2km of dusty gravelly road we arrived to this:

The sand was soft, the sea was still and the sun was shining, it could not have got any better. We stayed out in our camping chairs until darkness and we witnessed the best night sky we had ever seen. Shooting stars were flying around and some large planet (we don't know which) was lighting up one half of the sky. It was spectacular!

In the morning, after consuming our breakfast of bacon, beans and our patented scrambled/fried eggs:

We moved on up to the north coast to a place called Cape Reinga. On the way we stopped off at the giant sand dunes where we experienced sand duning. It's the desert equivalent of tobogganing and just as much fun.

Right at the top there were some great views encompassing sand, forest and flatland and JJ the more daring of the two of us tried to put himself in the most dangerous position possible. I think he succeeded as off this little rock he is sitting on is a straight drop to the sea. I'm still not sure what he's pointing at...

We were again greeting to another awesome sunset and stellar performance before we got up at the crack of dawn - literally - for the drive back down to Auckland.

This time next week we will be in the South Island called by the locals, 'Nature's Playground' so we look forward to sharing that with you all! Thanks for all your continued prayers, we really appreciate them. Onwards!