Category: Uncategorized

Well, we are actually home now and have been for over a week. All in all it was a fantastic trip and I can’t really say I would have done many things differently, which I suppose is a good thing. I don’t think I will ever be a regular blogger as I have to nag myself to try to keep things up to date. I did really enjoy hearing all of the comments people sent though! So now I will make my final post to pacify my type-A soul and ensure things are completed.

The weather won out and we opted to try to reschedule the Tongariro crossing for another time. The “rangers” warning that the wind may blow you off of the ridge helped to solidify that decision. We headed for Auckland to pick up our rental car and to take in some indoor pursuits. Our car came from “Jucy” rentals, and I was half dreading/hoping what the slogan on the side of the car would say. Turned out to be nothing, but I will attach a photo of one of the camper vans at the rental place.

Auckland is quite lovely and we were able to walk to where we wanted to go from our hotel. The Auckland Museum has an excellent exhibit on Maori art and culture which I am sure Keiran will capture in the presentation he is required to give on “Cultures of the World” when he returns to school. On an odd note, Auckland, and NZ in general, have excellent public parks with great kids play structures. Even an old frau like me found them fun!

We headed up to Piha which is a surfing beach that is known for it’s black sand and a rocky projection that looks like a lion’s head. In spite of the rain, it was a beautiful spot and the beauty was enhanced by the lifesaving crew who were recertifying in surf rescue. The beach changes dramatically depending on if the tide is in or out and we had fun checking out the starfish and crabs at low tide.

The weather further south was looking promising and so we decided to split from the Clossons for a few days and headed back to the Tongariro crossing via Taupo. Lake Taupo is a volcanic lake that also has black sand beaches and the shore is littered with rounded pumice rocks or “volcanic glass” of all sizes. Keiran had an absolute gas skipping giant, rounded pumice rocks on the lake. I had a gas collecting a huge bag of pumice rocks. The good news was that the entire bag only weighed about 3 lbs. The bad news was that it was a giant bag. I am pleased to report that I did bring the entire bag home with me and it is now sitting a few feet away from me on the floor. Haven’t quite decided what I am going to do with them yet…………….

I had wanted to visit a winery while in NZ and there were a few near Taupo. We pulled up to the “Floating Rock” vineyard only to find out that they were closed. However, the very gracious owner invited us in for a glass of wine after discovering us trespassing on his property. He said they are only open for 6 weeks per year, around Christmas, which is when they do the majority of their business!

The next day we were able to hike the Tongariro crossing and actually had near perfect conditions. It is a great hike and was one of our highlights. It is probably best known as being the volcano known as “Mount Doom” from the “Lord of the Rings” films. Can’t say I knew it from that, but now I feel I should really watch Lord of the Rings. Damn! It is a 19 km hike and the landscape is quite varied, but very little vegetation for most of it. I guess that is what you get on top of a volcano!

The last stop on our journey was back to Mt. Manganui where we met up with the Clossons again and experienced another fab bach! I convinced Warren and Keiran that they really did want to go and tour a kiwi plantation and as it turns out, I was right! Although I did feel a tad touristy travelling around the plantation in a little tram where each car was shaped like a giant kiwi, it was really interesting. The guide knew anything and everything you could throw at him when it came to kiwis. They also talked about other fruit grown in NZ. It seems most anything grows there. Weird as limes are $28 per kg!

Spent our last afternoon on a gorgeous beach soaking up the sun and scenery. I am left with many great memories, photos, purchases, experiences, appreciation for the Closson family and their NZ friends, and a little bit of a dry, flaky tan.

Sample campers at Jucy rentals.

Keiran at Piha beach with starfish

Keiran whipping a piece of kelp overhead.  He didn’t learn from his last experience doing that where he whipped his own legs! Lion shaped rock in background at Piha.

Another black sand beach at Lake Taupo.

Warren and Keiran at Lake Taupo

Keiran making a pumice stone carving.

Keiran skipping round rocks.

Sandy with collection of pumice rocks all destined for Saskatoon.

Floating rock vineyard.

Warren and Keiran at the start of the Tongariro crossing.

Warren

Part of the red volcano known as “Mt. Doom” in Lord of the rings.

Keiran as Gollum

Sandy near summit which was stinky and warm to touch (geothermal) despite the wind at the top. (The ground/ not Sandy)

Sandy on the kiwi train!

Keiran in kiwi orchard.

Warren eating more than just kiwis.

Keiran getting beaked!

Last gorgeous day at the beach in Mt. Manganui.

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NEW ZEALAND!

We arrived in NZ on December 3 and were picked up by Kim at the Auckland airport. I now have an even greater appreciation of this as it was a 2 hour drive one way for him to come and get us. Traveling through NZ is beautiful, but not fast. The roads, even the main ones, are narrow and winding. Not good for those who are prone to motion sickness. We went thru Te Puke, pronounced, Te Pookie, but it seemed aptly named.

We have been traveling and staying with the Closson family since we arrived. Clossons are our friends from Saskatoon, for those of you who do not know them. They are on an ambitious one year round the world tour. Kim lived here when he was younger and so still has many friends and connections. Fortunately for all of us, many of Kim’s friends have been very generous and allowed squatters in their “bach”. A bach is typically a small holiday cottage, but our first “bach” was a luxury highrise at the beach with views of the ocean and harbor. Thanks Kim!! It has been great to see another side of NZ other than just as a tourist. I am loving a lot of their local expressions, and so far my favorite is “rattle your dags”.

So far we have been to several different beaches which are all a bit different. Some have been sandy and great for body surfing, and others more rocky and rugged. Cathedral cove is a gorgeous beach with limestone rocks and caves and the kids saw a big manta ray in the water while there. Another amazing beach is “Hotwater Beach” which has thermal hot spots that you can locate when the tide is out. You find your bubbler, and dig a hole and make your own hot tub on the beach. You have to pick your hot spot carefully as some are so hot, they will cook you like lobster. I can become a lobster quite well on my own without the assistance of a boiling pot.

We had the chance to do some of the “adrenaline” type sports around the Rotorua area. Rotorua is a geothermal area and sort of like a mini Yellowstone. It is also the location on the north island where the adrenaline stuff is. We opted to try Zorbing which is where you get into a giant hamster ball and get rolled down a hill. We did a ‘wet” Zorb so ours was filled with warm water. The other thing we decided to try was sledging which is where you go down a whitewater river on a sledge (boogie board type thing with handles). In the end, the chicken heart in me won out and I did the whitewater rafting trip while Warren and Keiran did the sledging. I ended up with a group of about 30 rafters who were on a Contiki tour and I was about probably the age of most of their mothers. My favorite of the lot was the “Adrenaline Forest” where you do an obstacle course of physical challenges while in a harness about 40-50 feet off of the ground up between the trees. I will put in some pictures to give you an idea. It was a gas, even for the chicken hearted as it is really safe with the harnessing system.

Today we are in National Park and were hoping to do the Tongariro crossing tomorrow, but it is looking like the weather has a different idea. So we are trying to figure out more “indoor” type of activities to do. Kind of ironic as NZ is famous for all of it’s scenery and outdoor activities. Maybe Keiran and I will have to resort to doing some of the daily “conditioning” that we had planned to do to keep in shape. Nah, can’t break a perfect record.

Til next time…..

Keiran after zorbing

Keiran and Warren sledging

Boogie boarding with Clossons

Sitting in our hot tub. The hot spot was about 2 feet from Keiran and was REALLY hot!

Keiran at Cathedral Cove.

Adrenalin Forest. Warren on swinging logs.

Kim tests out his newly refurbished hip.

Keiran loved this!

Tegan, Shay and Keiran with ostrich

Sandy

Yes, he did crawl out from under a rock…

Well we left Cambodia this morning and are enroute to NZ. Amazingly, Keiran and Warren seem to have made it thru Asia without having to use a squatter. Sandy enjoyed the real cultural experience as women’s toilets across the world seem to be always lined up and so you take what you can get.

Our time in Cambodia was quite brief and was spent around Siem Reap where most of the well known temples are. We had arranged for a guide ( who went by the name of Mr. Bean 🙂 and a driver to get around. The driver had the Cambodian equivalent of a tuk tuk called a remorque which is a tiny motor bike towing a 4 seater trailer. Mr. Bean was a rice farmer in addition to being a tour guide. He was saying that he only recently got electricity lines to his house. The flip side to this is he is also on Facebook (Poy Pines) and you can check out his contact info there if you are in need of a Cambodian tour guide. We visited 4 different temples which were truly amazing especially considering that they were largely constructed between 900 to 1200 AD as well as the history of warfare in the country. The amount of damage done by 4? successive wars is truly astounding. Mr. Bean pointed out places in the stone where you could see where bombs had exploded. I think we picked out the place at Angkor Wat from which the temple rubbings that Warrren’s family had up in their house, had been done. Our guide was very knowledgable about the religious history of the temples, but I found that I can only take in so much info (before my brain goes to jelly) so we talked to him a lot about his day to day life as well as that of the people. This was very eye opening for me in some cases. I think our favorite temple was Wat Ta Prohm where the jungle has taken over much of the temple and the least degree of restoration has been done. This is where ” Tomb Raider” was partially filmed and so now we will have to watch Angelina Jolie and see if we can pick out some of the locations.

Other sights included the Landmine museum (which was sobering) and driving thru the countryside where we got to see the rice being harvested. There were a lot of domesticated animals ( cows, buffalo, dogs, cats and even chickens) who had enough street smarts to stay clear of the traffic. We also did a boat trip thru a floating fishing village. This village is a community of people who live year round in houseboats. The poverty in this village was staggering with no electricity or running water. The people got their power from old car batteries which they keep recharging. I will include a photo of some little girls who supplement the family income by paddling around in metal washtubs with pythons wrapped around their necks while soliciting money from tourists for photo ops. I kept thinking about my Mom when I saw these kids as she absolutely hates snakes and this will be sure to make her gag.

The morning we were scheduled to leave, Siem Reap was hosting their half marathon. I can’t imagine running in that heat/humidity. This can of Crisco would turn into a big puddle!

Next is NZ where we will meet up with the Clossons. Should be awesome.

Warren ,Sandy and Keiran in front of Angkor Wat

Keiran and Mr. Bean in our remorque.

Wall at Angkor Wat where many temple rubbings were done.

Dancing girls or”apsalar” carvings at Angkor Wat where some temple rubbing seems to have occurred specifically in the boob area.

Signage at one of the temples. Can’t say I had considered any of these activities.

Temple with 54 towers each with 4 faces.

Sandy with local beer delivered by 5 year old who jumps from her boat to ours while moving.

Floating fishing village.

Little girls with python necklaces.

Keiran and snake.

Loved this temple!! Added it later.

Same temple.

KAYAKING IN THAILAND

Well we arrived in Thailand after a very long pair of flights on Kuwait Air from Rome to Kuwait City and then to Bangkok and then Phuket. Again the time adjustment was not too bad (having only slept about 6 hours in 2 days helps to fall asleep regardless of the time). I must say it is kind of nice to type on a keyboard rather than an ipad for this post. Especially as during the last post, I was assisted by a 5 year old ,who stood beside me on the flight and kept playing with all sorts of buttons on the ipad while I was typing.

The kayaking trip was great. We did a 3 day “tour” where all of your transportation, hotel, boats, guide and meals were organized. Each day we went out to a different island in a “long tail”. This is a teak boat with a motor on a stick out the back of the boat and the kayaks were carried on top. We went to a bunch of different islands from the island base of Koh Yao Noi where our bungalow was. We were in a rather primitive rattan and thatch hut with a cold water shower complete with wireless internet.

The islands we went out to were steep rocky jungles that popped up out of the sea without much beach. There are canyons with water cutting through these islands and caves or “hongs” to paddles through. One of my favorite days was kayaking through a mangrove forest. That day we came across about 20 longtail monkeys some of which are very used to people. So much so that they jump down 10 or 20 feet out of the trees onto your boat and will search it for food and then just hang out for awhile. I will try to include a photo of Warren and Keiran each with a topless primate date. That same day we stopped at a beach for Thai lunch and found there was also a monkey there. Our guide said we needed to feed him or he would keep trying to steal our lunch. That 10 lb glutton ate 3 ½ bananas! Other highlights were seeing a 4 foot monitor lizard, a mama and baby monkey, and a big stingray jump out of the water.

The Thai food has been fabulous! The bay where we were kayaking in is known for it’s prawns…..good for Sandy, not for Warren and Keiran.

On a rather weird note, anyone who knows me well, knows that I have gross crusty feet. Well, I think I have discovered the best pedicure ever. I will spare most of you the particulars, but ask me if you are interested.

I knew he had forgotten to pack everything!!!!

Warren looks adoringly at his new date.

Keiran looks on….clueless

Sandy feeds glutton

Kayaking in the mangrove forest.

Our longtail and kayaks.

BANGKOK

Well I started to stress out about the flooding after one of the people on our kayaking trip said her hotel had been closed and that she had never been notified officially. Our hotel was directly across the river from hers, but on arrival, everything was fine and in fact her hotel was business as usual. There is still a lot of evidence of the flooding and the river and most of the piers for the water taxis are still under a few inches of water. The Chao Phraya river is even more polluted than usual with tons of crap and plants washing through. The boat traffic on the river is never ending and we saw taxis, tugboats (6) pulling barges (4), private tour boats shaped like temples, a night time disco boat with dance floor etc, etc.

Our hotel was amazing and Keiran easily adjusted to a white fluffy robe and room service. The huts on Koh Yao Noi were fun and very laid back, and made you appreciate the hotel that much more.

The pier for the water taxi was only about 100m from the hotel, so we started out with a quick tour up and down to see the city. It seemed pretty common to see a luxury highrise, a temple and a corrugated iron shack standing adjacent on the riverfront. We saw a couple of the most famous Buddhist temples, Wat Arun and the Grand Palace. The emerald Buddha is in his winter jacket for the season. That reminds me that on the first morning in Bangkok, I said that Bangkok wasn’t as hot as I remembered. I now take that back as I feel like a can of Crisco in the sun.

There is a ‘weekend” market that we checked out and that was an experience! It is massive!!! We started in the tropical fish section and I started to think that the market must be fish only after walking through an area about half the size of Home Depot. As it turns out, all sorts of creatures and wares are represented. We picked up a few things and Keiran and Warren sneaked away and bought some of the ugliest shorts I have ever seen while I was looking at silk. It is funny how one feels all awkward about the bartering at first, and then pretty soon you are squawking back over 10 BHT. I am pretty sure we really suck at it, but on the other hand, who cares? We also saw the Patpong night market, and managed to shield our baby’s eyes from most of the raunchy stuff. The other side of the shopping experience was had at the Siam Paragon Mall where there was an indoor car dealership for cars like Lamborghini and Lotus. Didn’t buy anything there though 🙂

Next up, Cambodia………….

Keiran beside a Lotus. Dream on………………

Keiran climbing up Wat Arun (Buddhist temple)

Keiran and Warren in their modesty pants at the Grand Palace. I was issued a long skirt which helped to keep me toasty.

Sandy and Keiran on a water taxi on the Chao Phraya.

2011-11-18

We extended our stay in Rome by a day in usual form,……It has been awesome weather ( about 18 degrees and sunny) for walking all over the city. We have done many of the same attractions that we had done previously, but this time with Keiran including ,the coliseum, Roman forum, St Peter’s Basilica, the Pantheon, Trevi fountain, and catacombs. I find walking through this city with all the great architecture fantastic. I have also been window shopping and am in lust with several pairs of boots. The one bag thing has it’s limits here!

I am the first to admit that I am a dumb ass as far as world history goes. I would like to lay blame on having the most boring, apathetic high school history teacher that ever lived, but that excuse is now a bit old, like me. We did end up following 2 different guided tours in English through the coliseum and forum and then another “Rome by night” through small streets, churches less traveled. The guides were excellent, and very entertaining especially with some more off color info. (See pics)

Keiran has been having fun and really liked the blood thirsty history of the coliseum. Some things, like the coliseum and Pantheon are familiar to him from X Box games like Assassin’s Creed. Yes that was painful to admit………but I have to say his history is quite a bit better than mine.

Today there was a strike so none of the city’s buses were running. So we walked to the catacombs (about 1.5 hours) to find they closed for 2 hours right when we arrived. So we walked to a nearby ancient race track (Circ Maxemius) and the Tomb of Romulus and then through the catacombs (St Sebastian:s). This is one of 600 catacombs outside of Rome’s ancient city walls , it has 12 km of underground tunnels and is 3 “floors” deep. We then walked back to city center. I had planned to do some exercise while away, but so far, not so inspired……
There were apparently some protests regarding the newly appointed government,but I think all it really amounted to was people throwing fruit and eggs.

Tomorrow we are picking up a car and heading south. Warren will get the honor of driving! Today I found being a pedestrian stressful enough on our walk back from St. Sebastians. (Narrow cobblestone road with high walls and a white line drawn one foot away from the wall acted as a sidewalk to separate you from the truck!)

Will post a few pics and hopefully some text about what they are.

Ciao,

Keiran growing daily. Must be all that pasta!

Sandy on precursor to bidet

Keiran inside coliseum

Keiran squashing the dome at St. Peter’s (fools taking pictures)

Sandy and two fat babies

Warren and 2 Vatican guards

Keeping it all tucked in! (walking path to St. Sebastian ‘s)

2011-11-13

Warren says: Such is life. But it was excellent anyways!

Sandy says:

Well, here we are in Barcelona, and as usual I am wishing that I had “just one more day”. This is, however, typical of any trip that I have ever taken.

We spent the day on a double decker touist bus where you could hop on and off a what ever sites you wanted to. This was good, as it rained most of the day. Warren was feeling good about keeping his feet dry all day until we went around a corner and all of the water on the top deck ended up in his shoes. Sandy was slightly astonished that she seemed to have a slight (but annoying) wave in her generally poker straight hair.

We mostly explored Gaudi’s architecture at the Sagrada Familia, Parc Guille, and the Casa Batte. I read that may people think his designs are sort of tacky and over the top, but I loved the stuff. So much for taste. I would describe it a very Dr. Seuss like.

We are in a hotel (Cuatro Naciones)recommended by Bill and Joan who stayed here a few years ago. It is in a great walking location on La Ramblas which seems to be fully occupied day and night. We are feeling sort of time adjusted already, but that is maybe because we (especially Keiran who took full advantage of staying awake and watching movies all night while on the plane) barely slept coming here and were sort of screwed up already. I will let you know if I still feel that way at 4 this morning.

Anyway, I now know what else I would like to do here. Tomorrow we are off to Rome so will keep you posted.

We will pick a few photos to show you…

2011-11-06

Last night, the transmission on our Murano died. At least, I think it did. We need to wait until Monday when we can get it towed to the dealer. Will be interesting, since the dealer just did a $2200 service on it 3 weeks ago, and it has been leaking tranny fluid since then. We will see.

First real snow of the year also hit.  Now Sandy is driving a rental car in the slippery stuff and not liking it:  no AWD and wimpy tires.

BUT, on the brighter side, karma is trying to balance things out. I had already decided to give up on the GPS, because NZ maps were going to cost me $150!!! But then, i discovered some free, open source ones (NZ Open GPS Project). Easy to download and use with an SD card. Thrilled. I guess I should thank Garmin for allowing open source maps to work too…

Buoyed with my success, I searched for and found open source ones for Italy as well. Life is good. We have rented a car for our last few days in Saskatoon. Murano should be operational by the time we get back, will just be a matter of how much.