That's all Folks

We flew back to Australia today, so our 'Big Trip' has officially come to and end.

I'm sad and don't want it to end...

South Island road trip

Where we stayed:
Akaroa - Chez la Mer Backpackers

Queenstown - Mercure Queenstown
Franz Josef - Rainforest Retreat

Christchurch - Chirstchurch Ibis

After a few days in Hamilton settling the kids in at my Mums place, Alain and I flew down south to Christchurch to embarked on an awesome 10 day road trip. After 9 months of having the kids with us 24/7 we were relishing the idea of some 'kid free' time and getting to do what we wanted, when we wanted.

Our first port of call was to Akaroa, the quaint little French influenced village situated on Banks Peninsula. It's a beautiful wee town and you can understand why French settlers chose to stay here, the bay is breathtaking, especially when the sun dances upon the water as it sets.

We were extremely lucky to also spot a couple of Hector dolphins frolicking in the water not too far from the shore, whilst we enjoyed our dinner at one of the many wonderful cafes in Akaroa. We had a wonderful 2 days here and we'd go back in a heartbeat given the chance.

From Akaroa we made out way down to Lake Tekapo (via a brief stop in Ashburton to pick up some thermals, lol). Nothing really prepares you for your first glimpse of the lake. You drive around a corner and then suddenly, wham... there is is. The most amazing body of water I think I've ever seen, the colour is kind of difficult to describe, it's just awesome! We spent about a hour or so at the lake taking pictures of the church and beautiful surrounding landscape, skimming stones and being goofballs before continuing on to Twizel.

We originally planned on staying in Twizel for the night, but upon our arrive we saw that there isn't a hell of a lot to do there and since we still had so many hours of daylight left, we decided to push on to Queenstown (a decision we are very pleased we made).


We both instantly fell in love with Queenstown. It is a beautiful wee town nestled in between some awesome mountains which reflect off the splendid lake which the town is built around. Yes, Queenstown is touristy, but it is still charming nonetheless. It is has great shopping and lots of wonderful restaurants and bars (which we frequented regularly, of course).

We filled our days in Queenstown with touristy stuff, like going up the skyline gondola and zooming back down the hill on the luge. We went for nature walks (up very very steep hills) and were rewarded with splendid views and we enjoyed leisurely lunches which included a few bevvies (think Montheiths, Speights & Macs and you get the idea of the type of lunches these were). We did a day trip out to Arrowtown and enjoyed wandering around the beautifully manicured town, and we even stopped in a a winery on the return trip to pick up some wine.


We also booked ourselves onto one of the many bus tours which take you down to Milford Sound. Luckily for us, we chose a really good company and we had an excellent tour. Our leader Bruce was a classic Kiwi bloke, full of great information and a few tall tales to boot. I'm glad we didn't drive ourselves down like we originally planned, as we (or should I say Alain) would have missed so much of the beautiful scenery. It's breathtaking and well worth the long journey.

From Queenstown we headed up to Fox and Franz Josef glaciers (via Wanaka and Haast Pass). This leg of our trip was definitely a highlight for us, the scenery is amazing... We were lucky enough to have a break in the weather, so we quickly paid a visit to Fox Glacier. Alain and I were the only ones there walking around in shorts and jandals (we did have jerseys on though, so it wasn't that bad) and I'm sure all the other tourist thought we were nuts. Seriously, who visits a glacier in jandals???

From Fox Glacier we quickly went and walked around Lake Matteson, unfortunately though, it had started to drizzle and was really overcast, so we were unable to get any good reflection photographs... Oh well, thems the breaks.

From Franz Josef, we headed to Greymouth, with the intention of visiting the Monteith's brewery. Unfortunately, the buggers wouldn't let us in, so we thought bugger it, lets got to Christchurch... We made the wonderful journey across Arthurs Pass, and stopped for a good old fashion pie in the township. We watched some of the local kea's attacking a few cars and counted ourselves lucky that they didn't go near our beast...

We didn't do a hell of a lot in Christchurch, truth be told. We went to the Saturday market at the racecourse, and we also spend a day at the beach in Sumner and that's about the extent of the excitement... We did however find a lovely little French restaurant called Le Croix Blanc down one of the alleyways, and we enjoyed a rather boozy and very expensive lunch there (is it still called lunch if you arrive a 1.00pm and don't leave until 5.00pm?).

We had an awesome 10 days down south, and I highly recommend a road trip down there to everyone. It was fab and it made me remember why I love my country so much. New Zealand... You rock!

Homeward bound

We decided a few weeks ago that we would cut our big trip slightly short and head back to Australia early, seeing as we now were going back to New Zealand for Christmas (thanks to some cheap airline tickets). So from Kuala Lumpur we caught another VIP bus which took us down to Singapore, just in time to catch our return flight to Australia. We didn't want to linger in Singapore as we've been here before and already done most of the sights already.

After a rather uneventful flight we were finally back on Australian soil. It was lovely being back at home. Dad and Lyn were there to greet us and it was wonderful to finally see some people that we knew after so long on the road. The kids were so excited to see their cousins too, it was wonderful.

After 10 days back in Australia just relaxing, recovering and a wee bit of travelling (we went up to Mooloolaba for a night), we jumped on board yet another plane and headed to New Zealand... To Nana.

Kuala Lumpur

Where we stayed - Impiana Hotel & Spa

From Penang we caught a 'Super VIP' bus down to Kuala Lumpur. It was less that $40 for the four of us to travel in absolute luxury, and boy, it was awesome! The chairs were electronic and you could adjust them to your liking, you could even enjoy a gentle massage if you so desired. We each had individual tv screens with numerous channels and also nintendo games (much to the kids delight)... If ever you get the chance to go on a Super VIP bus, you soooo have to do it!!

We decided that since we were coming to the end of our trip we'd splash out and stay at a really nice hotel. Luckily for us, we got a superb rate at Impiana. It was so good infact, that instead of staying 3 days like we originally planned, we ended up staying 10 days! The King of Malaysia even graced our hotel with his presence. It was quite surreal seeing the police and bodyguards crawling all over the place, and as for the red carpet, well you can only imagine how impressed Mia was with that!

We really didn't do too much in KL. We spend our days splashing in the pool, playing in the awesome park at KLCC and wandering around in the blissfully air conditioned shopping centres. We ventured up to the viewing deck of the Petronas towers and enjoyed the stunning views of the city, but the most enjoyable thing we did was spend time in the awesome food courts!

Batu Ferringgi

Where we stayed - Some right old shit hole!

What a disappointment Batu Ferringgi was! We'd heard that this place had Penangs best beaches, so we thought we'd head there for a few days of relaxing. WRONG! This place is a right old dump.

The township basically consist of one main road which has 4-5 star hotels which we couldn't afford lining the waterfront side of the road and crappy old dilapidated buildings which we didn't want to stay in lining the other. The beach is nothing to brag about, it is full of people trying to get you onto dodgy looking jet-ski's or horses and there are idiots zooming up and down the beach on quad bikes like it's a main highway...

If you are after a nice beach holiday, don't come here. Go anywhere, but here... We lasted less than 24 hours in this town, and even then it was a total waste of our time. The only redeeming factor of this place is that we found an Indian restaurant which served the best Indian we've had outside of India, oh, and the troop of monkeys we saw walking along the power lines whilst we waited for our early morning bus out of Batu Ferringgi.

*** Sorry there are no photos, it was just too crap to justify using up important space on our memory card ***

George Town

Where we stayed - Sunway Georgetown

From Ao Nang, we booked ourselves onto a rather full and rather cramped minivan which would take us all the way over the Thai/Malay border to Penang. It was a long, boring trip and nothing exciting happened. The kids coped amazingly well, despite the 10 hours of travel. They're such good little travellers, we are so lucky!

Georgetown is alright, I suppose. It's nothing like what I thought it would be though, it's more Chinese that what I had imagined. We visited numerous temples, all of which are elaborately designed and decorated and all had the hugest incents burning I've ever seen. We also wandered around a museum dedicated to Penangs first settlers (the name of which escapes me at the moment).

Malaysia has quite the melting pot of ethnicity's. If you sit and watch the people on the streets, it isn't long before you'll spot a Muslim women in full burka walk along side ladies of Chinese decent who are wearing skirts which can be mistaken for belts. Yet, on the surface, they all seem to live in relative harmony.

Since Penang is well know for it's street food, it comes as no surprise that our evening meals always came from the vendors lining our street. We sent Alain out into the torrential rain to get our supper and he always returned with mountains of freshly prepared delicacy's, much to our delight.

Ao Nang

Where we stayed - La Venice

Ao Nang is a nice enough little town, it's main road is lined with tourist shops, travel agencies and restaurants galore. There's not really all that much to do there though and the beach is pretty yuck, but it is the jumping off point to the beautiful islands that surround Krabi.

We chose to do the '4 Islands' half day tour by speedboat, which included a spot of snorkeling and an awesome picnic lunch (which consisted of thai style chicken/chili stir-fry and rice, a tasty fresh fruit platter and cake). Unsurprisingly, we visited 4 islands, all of which were absolutely amazing. They all had the clear sea green waters, glowing white sand and swaying palm trees which we are now accustomed too. Thailand's beaches are just the best... *sigh*

If you look closely in this photo, you can see the huge school of fish swarming around Alain, as he is so SEXY !!!