Saturday 10 December 2011
Saturday 3 December 2011
Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie
Fiji....hmmmmm.
Our stay on Fiji was short and sweet, our volunteer placement there just completely ignored our emails so, having to fly to Fiji, we paniced and booked a weeks island hopping adventure! (Don't ask us why?) This consisted of being ferried around beautiful golden sandy beached islands, stopping off for a few nights on each. We managed to explore 4 different Islands in the Yasawas, comparing the snorkeling and hammocks on each! We stayed in dorm rooms which were generally hot, dirty and bed bug ridden and on a number of occasions I had to tell groups of teenagers off for being too noisy after 10pm- what's happened to me?! Anyway, 6 days of reading, swimming, dozing and snorkeling later, we were ready for some action! We did manage to do some exciting things in Fiji though, I went scuba diving for the first time, we went snorkeling with sharks and on a trip to explore underwater caves, but in general we were bored out of our minds. Emma has come some way to getting over her fear of crabs and actually put her feet on the bottom of the sea a number of times. She didn't even have a panic attack when we went snorkeling with reef sharks! This was probably because they were SO SWEET! EB - We also encountered a sea snake, actually, two sea snakes, one of which was 8 ft long! There were a whole manner of terrifying things in the sea, which gradually I got used to, but perhaps the most terrifying thing of all was the man who burried himself in the sand under a turtle shell who jumped out at us in the pitch black! Ha ha! Mmmmm... Roo was about to call the RSPCA for disturbing nesting turtles until it became apparent it was to entertain the tourists. |
| Waya Lai Lai |
Apparently, you haven't arrived in Fiji unless you've drunk cava, not the deliciously sweet wine that's 1.99 a bottle from Asda, no, the drink that looks like dish water, with hallunicagenic properties. Cautious about such mind altering substances and concerned about Roo's sensetive tummy we decided not to try this. However, peer pressure and the influence of Sebastian (who spent a lot of time chatting to himself, which I thought was because he was practising his English, but Roo said it was nothing of the kind!) we agreed to acoompany him to the 'staff' shed on the Island of Waya Lai Lai where we sat on the ground cross legged with 15 figian blokes in skirts and flowery shirts who were all drinking cava and smoking their heads off. Within 20 minutes and after polite refusals became embarrassing, we clapped once, said Bula and drank the awfulness down wothout breathing in, then clapped three times. Sebastian was on his 8th cocunut shell cups worth by now. Thankfully, it had no effect at all and we left having managed to offend no-one with our faculties in tact. Sebastian on the other hand, arrived back at the dorm at 1.30 am, having polished off 15 half cocunut shells of cava and a whole bottle of vodka, not the best idea for someone who's already talking to himself!
RS- After 10 days in Fiji our bank balance decided for us that it was time to move on so we put our flights to Australia forward and jumped on a plane to Sydney. Unfortunately out volunteer placement is in Brisbane..... so we had to jump on another plane for another 2 hours. We did manage to see a bit of Sydney during our 10 hour transfer window- we got on an extortionately priced train and headed into the centre. We had a wander around Sydney Opera house, as one does! We saw Sydney Harbour Bridge and sat in the botanical gardens. We got to Brisbane just after 11pm local time, and being as poor as church mice (an Emmaism) we grabbed a few hours kip under an escalator in the baggage collection hall of Brisbane airport. Who says travelling isn't glamorous!
We had to get up at 5.30am to catch another gold plated, diamond encrusted train to Brisbane city centre where we got on the number 520 bus to Beaudesert, the pronunciation of which foxed us and the bus driver for a while. By 9am we had arrived at Beautiful Desert and sat in the sweltering heat until Amber and her 3 year old son Connor, picked us up and took us to our next Volunteering placement. They seem like lovely people- Connor who walks around naked constantly, Alara, his 4 year old sister has hair like Annie and thinks she's 30, two puppies, two dogs, two cats, a horse and 3 french volunteers and poor Irish Brian the husband make up this madhouse! We should be helping build a straw bale house for Lisa, a family friend and her 12 year old son Sam who's an avid Bolton Wanderers fan, but so far we've just dug a lot of holes in the garden for posts!
Anyway, this volunteer placement I'm sure will be interesting. The family live near Mt Barney and a national park and Emma's already seen Koala bears and Kangaroos so hopefully we'll be able to do a bit of exploring on our days off. EB - We've also encountered cane toads, which are the size of small cars and huntsman spiders that look like they could eat you whole and have room for pudding - it's a delight! the first night it took me half an hour to make my way back to the caravan for fear of treading on something nasty.Thankfully we missed the python that had been knocking about near here the day before. Yet another test of nerves for me, but Roo, as always, takes things in her considerable stride.
Will write more soon,
Roo and M x
Saturday 19 November 2011
20 Top Fav Things in NZ 2011- By Roo and Emma!
We have compiled a list of our favourite things to do in NZ,ranging from FREE to $$$- very expensive!
1. Milford Sound ($$$)- The 8th Wonder of the world is not really a 'sound' but a fjord as it was carved by a glacier as opposed to water, millions of years ago. 11m of rain falls here every year as unsuprisingly it rained whilst we were there but the thundering waterfalls made up for the lack of blue sky.
2. Whale Watching, Kaikoura ($$$)- After waiting for 3 days for perfect whale watching weather we were rewarded by seeing 10 sperm whales in 2 hours! Only 10% of their body is visible above the water but our boat was dwarfed by the size of their 45tonne bodies as they dove.
3. Baby seal waterfall, Ohai (FREE)- A chance encounter with a friendly Kiwi led us to a crystal clear waterfall where douzens of baby seals were left by their mothers to play whilst they went hunting for fish at sea. The babies were unafraid of humans and came up close to have a good look at us!
4. Killer Whale Kayaking, Cathedral Cove ($)- Marky Mark guided us through Catheral Cove where we were suprisingly greated by 4 huge Orkas that chased us and came up for a good view of our boats. The only time I've ever seen Roo terrified!
5. Boulders, DOC site (FREE)- The best campsite we stayed at! A drive that lasted for ever took us to a small site with a compost toilet and a river that NEEDED to be played in! Roo went for a river walk up to her armpits but I watched from the side!
6. Penguin Watching, Dunedin (FREE/$$)- We paid to watch little blue penguins swim ashore at Dunedin at night but it was really worth it! hundreds of tiny penguins (less than a foot tall) brave their way through the rocks and onto the beach every night during breading season. We were there when a seal decided to have a nap on their ramp up to the breeding grounds. After the penguins attempted to walk around and over the seal, the staff shooed him away with a mop! We also saw a handful of Yelloweyed penguins (the rarest in the world) after waiting patiently in the rain for a few hours!
7. Waiheke Island, Auckland ($$)- We spent our last day in NZ on Waiheke Island, a 35 min ferry trip from Auckland. We hired Mopeds and whizzed around the Island (Roo whizzed, I ambled) and had a gorg Spanish meal at a local vinyard! Perfect!
8. Kerosene Creek, Rotorua (Free)- We got a bit 'hot springed out' whilst in Rotorua. Everything was so expensive, hence the nickname we gave it, 'Rota-rip-off'. These cute little springs however were free and secluded, and despite the rain we spent an hour soaking our limbs in a foreset-fringed warm waterfall. It smelled a bit or turps but you cant have everything!
9. Fox Glacier, West Coast-South Island ($$$)- Again, it was raining when we decided to splash out on a touristy activity! The only way to walk on a glacier is to pay for a guilded tour. It was cold and wet but it was fun. Tranversing a massive river of ice, moving at half a meter a day is always going to worth the money!
10. Trip to Eden Park ($$$)- An expensive 80 minutes of our lives and whilst the game was pitiful, and we were surrounded by French, Eden park has a brill atmosphere and it was a fun day out. We dressed like fools, just a shame the score line wasn't different!
11. Great Coastal Walk- Able Tasman National Park (Free)- We almost walked our feet off during this 22km walk but it was worth it! A perfect day spent exploring deserted golden beaches, waterfalls, streams and rainforest. We met some seals, one of whom we went for a paddle with and we managed to do it in under the recomended time! Unlike us!
12. Te Paki Sand Dunes, Northland (FREE-ISH)- We hired boards and hurlded oursleves down 100ft sandunes, the only complaint was the walk back up and discovering sand in unspeakable places days afterwards!
13. Cathedral Caves, Karamea (FREE)- A drive all the way up the West Coast of the South Island was worth it to explore the deserted caves discoved in 1980 and marvel at the enormous stalegtites.
14. Devils Marbles, Dunedin (FREE)- Enourmous balls of limestone scatter the beach in an erie fashion! They look like they've been rolled there by some giant! Fun to climb on and rockpools to explore.
15. Te Anu Glowworm caves, Te Anu ($$)- Was that water dripping on our heads, or glowworm poo? We'll never know! Beautiful boat trip into the depths of a cave system where Glowworms illuminate the walls and cielings making the place look like the nights sky.
16. Queenstown Icebar ($)- After deciding that most things in Queenstown were either out of our price or age range, we opted for a little visit to the local bar- made entirely on ice. We enjoyed a cocktail or two from our ice carved glasses whilst trying not to get stuck to the ice seats!
17. Rowing to the lake within a lake, Wairoa ($)- A hilarious few hours, going in cicles messing about on the water. We could see the island but getting there was a different matter!
18. Watching NZ Vs France at a fanzone, Wairoa (FREE)- A brilliant atmosphere where we witnessed NZ trounce the French, we even started supporting France at one point we felt so sorry for them! We saw the local kids doing the Haka.
19. Incredible Pacific Views (FREE)- everywhere we went in Ol, we had spectacular scenery. There's nothing like spending every night for 3 months on a beach!
20.- Meeting people (FREE)- Kiwis are friendly and funny, the people we met really made the whole journey much more fun and their local knowledge helped us to get off the beaten track and see things most tourists can't be bothered to get to.
1. Milford Sound ($$$)- The 8th Wonder of the world is not really a 'sound' but a fjord as it was carved by a glacier as opposed to water, millions of years ago. 11m of rain falls here every year as unsuprisingly it rained whilst we were there but the thundering waterfalls made up for the lack of blue sky.
2. Whale Watching, Kaikoura ($$$)- After waiting for 3 days for perfect whale watching weather we were rewarded by seeing 10 sperm whales in 2 hours! Only 10% of their body is visible above the water but our boat was dwarfed by the size of their 45tonne bodies as they dove.
3. Baby seal waterfall, Ohai (FREE)- A chance encounter with a friendly Kiwi led us to a crystal clear waterfall where douzens of baby seals were left by their mothers to play whilst they went hunting for fish at sea. The babies were unafraid of humans and came up close to have a good look at us!
4. Killer Whale Kayaking, Cathedral Cove ($)- Marky Mark guided us through Catheral Cove where we were suprisingly greated by 4 huge Orkas that chased us and came up for a good view of our boats. The only time I've ever seen Roo terrified!
5. Boulders, DOC site (FREE)- The best campsite we stayed at! A drive that lasted for ever took us to a small site with a compost toilet and a river that NEEDED to be played in! Roo went for a river walk up to her armpits but I watched from the side!
6. Penguin Watching, Dunedin (FREE/$$)- We paid to watch little blue penguins swim ashore at Dunedin at night but it was really worth it! hundreds of tiny penguins (less than a foot tall) brave their way through the rocks and onto the beach every night during breading season. We were there when a seal decided to have a nap on their ramp up to the breeding grounds. After the penguins attempted to walk around and over the seal, the staff shooed him away with a mop! We also saw a handful of Yelloweyed penguins (the rarest in the world) after waiting patiently in the rain for a few hours!
7. Waiheke Island, Auckland ($$)- We spent our last day in NZ on Waiheke Island, a 35 min ferry trip from Auckland. We hired Mopeds and whizzed around the Island (Roo whizzed, I ambled) and had a gorg Spanish meal at a local vinyard! Perfect!
8. Kerosene Creek, Rotorua (Free)- We got a bit 'hot springed out' whilst in Rotorua. Everything was so expensive, hence the nickname we gave it, 'Rota-rip-off'. These cute little springs however were free and secluded, and despite the rain we spent an hour soaking our limbs in a foreset-fringed warm waterfall. It smelled a bit or turps but you cant have everything!
9. Fox Glacier, West Coast-South Island ($$$)- Again, it was raining when we decided to splash out on a touristy activity! The only way to walk on a glacier is to pay for a guilded tour. It was cold and wet but it was fun. Tranversing a massive river of ice, moving at half a meter a day is always going to worth the money!
10. Trip to Eden Park ($$$)- An expensive 80 minutes of our lives and whilst the game was pitiful, and we were surrounded by French, Eden park has a brill atmosphere and it was a fun day out. We dressed like fools, just a shame the score line wasn't different!
11. Great Coastal Walk- Able Tasman National Park (Free)- We almost walked our feet off during this 22km walk but it was worth it! A perfect day spent exploring deserted golden beaches, waterfalls, streams and rainforest. We met some seals, one of whom we went for a paddle with and we managed to do it in under the recomended time! Unlike us!
12. Te Paki Sand Dunes, Northland (FREE-ISH)- We hired boards and hurlded oursleves down 100ft sandunes, the only complaint was the walk back up and discovering sand in unspeakable places days afterwards!
13. Cathedral Caves, Karamea (FREE)- A drive all the way up the West Coast of the South Island was worth it to explore the deserted caves discoved in 1980 and marvel at the enormous stalegtites.
14. Devils Marbles, Dunedin (FREE)- Enourmous balls of limestone scatter the beach in an erie fashion! They look like they've been rolled there by some giant! Fun to climb on and rockpools to explore.
15. Te Anu Glowworm caves, Te Anu ($$)- Was that water dripping on our heads, or glowworm poo? We'll never know! Beautiful boat trip into the depths of a cave system where Glowworms illuminate the walls and cielings making the place look like the nights sky.
16. Queenstown Icebar ($)- After deciding that most things in Queenstown were either out of our price or age range, we opted for a little visit to the local bar- made entirely on ice. We enjoyed a cocktail or two from our ice carved glasses whilst trying not to get stuck to the ice seats!
17. Rowing to the lake within a lake, Wairoa ($)- A hilarious few hours, going in cicles messing about on the water. We could see the island but getting there was a different matter!
18. Watching NZ Vs France at a fanzone, Wairoa (FREE)- A brilliant atmosphere where we witnessed NZ trounce the French, we even started supporting France at one point we felt so sorry for them! We saw the local kids doing the Haka.
19. Incredible Pacific Views (FREE)- everywhere we went in Ol, we had spectacular scenery. There's nothing like spending every night for 3 months on a beach!
20.- Meeting people (FREE)- Kiwis are friendly and funny, the people we met really made the whole journey much more fun and their local knowledge helped us to get off the beaten track and see things most tourists can't be bothered to get to.
Most Recent Photos
Fox Glacier Photos:
http://s1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff385/workerbee30/New%20Zealand/Fox%20Glacier/
Queenstown Photos:
http://s1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff385/workerbee30/New%20Zealand/Queenstown/
Soth Island- West Coast Photos:
http://s1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff385/workerbee30/New%20Zealand/West%20Coast%20-%20South%20Island/
Waiheke Island Photos:
http://s1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff385/workerbee30/New%20Zealand/Auckland/Waiheke%20Island/
http://s1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff385/workerbee30/New%20Zealand/Fox%20Glacier/
Queenstown Photos:
http://s1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff385/workerbee30/New%20Zealand/Queenstown/
Soth Island- West Coast Photos:
http://s1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff385/workerbee30/New%20Zealand/West%20Coast%20-%20South%20Island/
Waiheke Island Photos:
http://s1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff385/workerbee30/New%20Zealand/Auckland/Waiheke%20Island/
Olive's adventures in Wonderland!
After travelling 11,000 kms we had to say a sad goodbye to Olive last week in Auckland.
For the most part, Olive has been the best car ever - no she really has. She's not just been our car, she's been our laundry, kitchen, bedroom, entertainment system, dining room, shelter from the storm, our lauder, fridge, storage system, in short, our first, our last, our everything. Without Olive we would have died ages ago, many times over, we owe her our LIFE!
She only ever let us down 3 or 4 times in 3 months. Once with her bottom, which refused to close. The second time we were discussing having to buy her a new pair of shoes as the other ones were getting pretty worn out, when she was forced to the limit of her tolerances on a gravel road and her shoe disintegrated there and then!
Roo and I had never changed a tyre before, but I have watched Chris Simpson change several of mine - (thanks Christopher!) so we decided to give it a bash. We discovered the spare whilst trying to find the place to put the oil - I know what you're thinking - but it's located in the bonnet and oil goes in under the driver’s seats, which involves dismantling the dashboard and removing all but one of the seats.
When we first discovered the flat tyre, we did sit there for a few minutes hoping that a nice young man might come to our rescue. Unfortunately only an elderly lady with a Scottie dog came to help, with suggestions of where to find a young man from. Manning up (I hate that expression!) we jacked Olive up, Roo jumped on the turney thing to loosen the bolty things, then we jacked her up a bit more, took the tyre off and shoved the other one on.
Half an hour passed quickly as did 6 cars filled with men who waved and gave a thumbs up, to which Roo responded in kind - we must have looked like we knew what we were doing. I have to say we were pretty good, within 35 minutes we were back on the road, but having little faith in our work I reduced my speed from 48 kmph to 35 kmp, infuriating the already road raged kiwi's further.
The only other time that Olive let us down (well she didn't really, it was our own fault) was when we flattened her battery whilst listening to the final of the rugby world cup on her radio. It was a tense game and as usual at times of stress Roo was asleep, otherwise we would have gone to the pub like the rest of New Zealand. Leaving the light on tipped Olive over edge and cost us any chance of starting her in the morning.
As I'm the communicative one and Roo is the organiser, I was assigned the task of finding a man with some jump leads. We had stayed the night by a canal, as a fortune had it, it was popular with the local fisherman so I set off, desperately in need of the loo but confident that we would find some in no time. Three quarters of an hour later and 2km away from the car, I still hadn't found anyone who had any. No longer caring about disturbing the fish and without a bridge for miles, I shouted across to a fisherman on the other side. Mercifully he had some. I had to explain where Olive was located as he was at the other side of the canal and off he jumped in his car to our rescue.
I tried running back to where Roo waited with Olive, with only flip flops to protect my feet from the stony ground. The fella arrived and loitered around the general area that Olive was, unnerving Roo. I knew all this would be happening, I could see it in my mind. Eventually he figured out and so did Roo that this was the help we'd sent out for and before you could say New Zealand 8 France 7 we were up and running!
We sold Olive at the Ellerslie Car Market to two Israeli boys called Tom and Omu. We had so much interest in Olive we managed to sell her for the asking price! She is Brill! They seem to fall in love with her just like we did and I'm sure they'll look after her, but it was still sad to have to say goodbye! :(
For the most part, Olive has been the best car ever - no she really has. She's not just been our car, she's been our laundry, kitchen, bedroom, entertainment system, dining room, shelter from the storm, our lauder, fridge, storage system, in short, our first, our last, our everything. Without Olive we would have died ages ago, many times over, we owe her our LIFE!
She only ever let us down 3 or 4 times in 3 months. Once with her bottom, which refused to close. The second time we were discussing having to buy her a new pair of shoes as the other ones were getting pretty worn out, when she was forced to the limit of her tolerances on a gravel road and her shoe disintegrated there and then!
Roo and I had never changed a tyre before, but I have watched Chris Simpson change several of mine - (thanks Christopher!) so we decided to give it a bash. We discovered the spare whilst trying to find the place to put the oil - I know what you're thinking - but it's located in the bonnet and oil goes in under the driver’s seats, which involves dismantling the dashboard and removing all but one of the seats.
When we first discovered the flat tyre, we did sit there for a few minutes hoping that a nice young man might come to our rescue. Unfortunately only an elderly lady with a Scottie dog came to help, with suggestions of where to find a young man from. Manning up (I hate that expression!) we jacked Olive up, Roo jumped on the turney thing to loosen the bolty things, then we jacked her up a bit more, took the tyre off and shoved the other one on.
Half an hour passed quickly as did 6 cars filled with men who waved and gave a thumbs up, to which Roo responded in kind - we must have looked like we knew what we were doing. I have to say we were pretty good, within 35 minutes we were back on the road, but having little faith in our work I reduced my speed from 48 kmph to 35 kmp, infuriating the already road raged kiwi's further.
The only other time that Olive let us down (well she didn't really, it was our own fault) was when we flattened her battery whilst listening to the final of the rugby world cup on her radio. It was a tense game and as usual at times of stress Roo was asleep, otherwise we would have gone to the pub like the rest of New Zealand. Leaving the light on tipped Olive over edge and cost us any chance of starting her in the morning.
As I'm the communicative one and Roo is the organiser, I was assigned the task of finding a man with some jump leads. We had stayed the night by a canal, as a fortune had it, it was popular with the local fisherman so I set off, desperately in need of the loo but confident that we would find some in no time. Three quarters of an hour later and 2km away from the car, I still hadn't found anyone who had any. No longer caring about disturbing the fish and without a bridge for miles, I shouted across to a fisherman on the other side. Mercifully he had some. I had to explain where Olive was located as he was at the other side of the canal and off he jumped in his car to our rescue.
I tried running back to where Roo waited with Olive, with only flip flops to protect my feet from the stony ground. The fella arrived and loitered around the general area that Olive was, unnerving Roo. I knew all this would be happening, I could see it in my mind. Eventually he figured out and so did Roo that this was the help we'd sent out for and before you could say New Zealand 8 France 7 we were up and running!
We sold Olive at the Ellerslie Car Market to two Israeli boys called Tom and Omu. We had so much interest in Olive we managed to sell her for the asking price! She is Brill! They seem to fall in love with her just like we did and I'm sure they'll look after her, but it was still sad to have to say goodbye! :(
Thursday 10 November 2011
Water, water everwhere!
Hi everyone,
I'm really sorry for not posting anything for such a long time! We have been on the move for so long and having to move so quickly that we haven’t really had time to stop and write anything! Now our NZ road trip is officially over and we are back at the original Olive's, trying to sell our Car Olive, we have time to update you on some of our adventures in the South! We have a few funny moments to tell you about, but putting them all in one ridiculously long post would be mind numbing for all involved. Instead, we'll take turns to tell you about some of our fav times over a few posts! This is a story that's not particularly exciting but you'll just have to put up with it!
In an attempt to get fit(ish) we have been doing a bit of swimming. This allows us to have a MUCH needed shower and pants washing session (unfortunately we didn't have anywhere to dry the pants so they remained hung in the window of Olive above my head as I slept and occasionally I got woken up by a cold, damp pair of pants falling on my face.) Anyway, as part of our 'get fit regime' we decided to go mountain biking in Hanmer Springs. Hanmer Springs is a little town in the central south island, noted only for its gigantic hot springs complex. We decided to venture there as we were waiting for prime whale watching weather, as it was pissing it down we thought a little soaking in mineral pools would pass some time.
We rented bikes and helmets from our campsite and sped along the road in the direction of the mountain bike tracks, aided by an extortionately priced map. Thinking that we'd opt for a 'medium to Expert' track we cycled to the beginning of the woods. Surprisingly after 10 minutes of cycling downhill on a tarmac road our legs were beginning to fail us. Ignoring our pain, putting it down to 'warming up', we pushed on, entering the woods via the 'easy rider' track. Scoffing at its simplicity, I sped ahead sending mud and debris flying behind me. Getting up to top speed, I crashed through puddles, mud and streams, trying to lose Emma. Feeling a bit out of breath, I stopped and waited for her, boastfully showing off my soaking wet bottom (which I later regretted as it soon started to chafe). Getting back on our bikes we started to feel the increase in gradient more intensely than anticipated. After approximately 10 more minutes of traversing small humps and corners and various grades of gravel we had to have a ‘water break’.
It was at this point when a family of 5 including a 3 year old child passed us effortlessly, as we panted and tried to increase oxygen flow to our limbs. Embarrassed, but determined to catch up with these new opponents, we continued on our journey. Thankfully the family had stopped a few hundred meters down the track to attach a tow rope to the toddler’s bike. 'Ah ha' I thought, 'It’s not just us finding this 'easy rider' track difficult'! Feeling reassured we decided to take on the challenge of the 'perseverance' route of the 'easy rider' track which consisted of far too many bumps for my liking! Emma, pointing out the danger of a number of protruding, skiddy roots, opted to get off and push as we had both experienced a few hairy moments. Unfortunately, it was here where our foes regained the lead. Being pulled along by her mother's bike and wearing a pink, starry helmet and Pepper Pig wellies, our nemesis could only stare and jeer at us as we panted along the remainder of the 'easy rider' track and got to the finish line. It was here where we should have started our journey on the 'medium-expert' track. As I was almost vomiting from fatigue and Emma subsequently discovered she had been riding the whole route with her brakes on, we decided to return home a mere 45 minutes after departing. We still blame the bikes for our appalling efforts, I’ve been MBing before and it DEFO wasn't that difficult!
Luckily we spent the next 2 hours soaking our limbs in the hot springs of Hanmer. Unfortunately I must mention the embarrassment of having to go on a water slide with the Brownster. Hanmer springs has 2 water slides, usually reserved for people under the age of 16. Emma, at 39, had never been on such a slide so forced me to go with her. We queued in the cold in our swimwear for 15 minutes whilst children stared at the old people wanting to crash their party. Eventually we got to the front and had to carry a double, inflatable ring up 16 flights of stairs to the top of the slide. Emma was at the front- this was a mistake. As we pushed off and descended into darkness, Emma's squeak escalated into a full blown screech. It was so embarrassing as it wasn’t a particularly fast slide and dozens of Under 5s had traversed the same journey without so much as a whimper. I felt myself needing to push her off but instead opted to clamp my hand around her mouth, muffling her screams and saving our dignity. We disembarked the slide as Emma tried to conquer her knocking knees, she almost fell backwards into the ring- and this from a woman who was seriously considering doing a bungy jump! HA! Anyway, I eventually managed to get back to the mineral pool from where I was dragged, but despite this our legs still ached the next morning.
We managed to go whale watching but Emma will tell you about that another time!
Love
Roo
I'm really sorry for not posting anything for such a long time! We have been on the move for so long and having to move so quickly that we haven’t really had time to stop and write anything! Now our NZ road trip is officially over and we are back at the original Olive's, trying to sell our Car Olive, we have time to update you on some of our adventures in the South! We have a few funny moments to tell you about, but putting them all in one ridiculously long post would be mind numbing for all involved. Instead, we'll take turns to tell you about some of our fav times over a few posts! This is a story that's not particularly exciting but you'll just have to put up with it!
In an attempt to get fit(ish) we have been doing a bit of swimming. This allows us to have a MUCH needed shower and pants washing session (unfortunately we didn't have anywhere to dry the pants so they remained hung in the window of Olive above my head as I slept and occasionally I got woken up by a cold, damp pair of pants falling on my face.) Anyway, as part of our 'get fit regime' we decided to go mountain biking in Hanmer Springs. Hanmer Springs is a little town in the central south island, noted only for its gigantic hot springs complex. We decided to venture there as we were waiting for prime whale watching weather, as it was pissing it down we thought a little soaking in mineral pools would pass some time.
We rented bikes and helmets from our campsite and sped along the road in the direction of the mountain bike tracks, aided by an extortionately priced map. Thinking that we'd opt for a 'medium to Expert' track we cycled to the beginning of the woods. Surprisingly after 10 minutes of cycling downhill on a tarmac road our legs were beginning to fail us. Ignoring our pain, putting it down to 'warming up', we pushed on, entering the woods via the 'easy rider' track. Scoffing at its simplicity, I sped ahead sending mud and debris flying behind me. Getting up to top speed, I crashed through puddles, mud and streams, trying to lose Emma. Feeling a bit out of breath, I stopped and waited for her, boastfully showing off my soaking wet bottom (which I later regretted as it soon started to chafe). Getting back on our bikes we started to feel the increase in gradient more intensely than anticipated. After approximately 10 more minutes of traversing small humps and corners and various grades of gravel we had to have a ‘water break’.
It was at this point when a family of 5 including a 3 year old child passed us effortlessly, as we panted and tried to increase oxygen flow to our limbs. Embarrassed, but determined to catch up with these new opponents, we continued on our journey. Thankfully the family had stopped a few hundred meters down the track to attach a tow rope to the toddler’s bike. 'Ah ha' I thought, 'It’s not just us finding this 'easy rider' track difficult'! Feeling reassured we decided to take on the challenge of the 'perseverance' route of the 'easy rider' track which consisted of far too many bumps for my liking! Emma, pointing out the danger of a number of protruding, skiddy roots, opted to get off and push as we had both experienced a few hairy moments. Unfortunately, it was here where our foes regained the lead. Being pulled along by her mother's bike and wearing a pink, starry helmet and Pepper Pig wellies, our nemesis could only stare and jeer at us as we panted along the remainder of the 'easy rider' track and got to the finish line. It was here where we should have started our journey on the 'medium-expert' track. As I was almost vomiting from fatigue and Emma subsequently discovered she had been riding the whole route with her brakes on, we decided to return home a mere 45 minutes after departing. We still blame the bikes for our appalling efforts, I’ve been MBing before and it DEFO wasn't that difficult!
Luckily we spent the next 2 hours soaking our limbs in the hot springs of Hanmer. Unfortunately I must mention the embarrassment of having to go on a water slide with the Brownster. Hanmer springs has 2 water slides, usually reserved for people under the age of 16. Emma, at 39, had never been on such a slide so forced me to go with her. We queued in the cold in our swimwear for 15 minutes whilst children stared at the old people wanting to crash their party. Eventually we got to the front and had to carry a double, inflatable ring up 16 flights of stairs to the top of the slide. Emma was at the front- this was a mistake. As we pushed off and descended into darkness, Emma's squeak escalated into a full blown screech. It was so embarrassing as it wasn’t a particularly fast slide and dozens of Under 5s had traversed the same journey without so much as a whimper. I felt myself needing to push her off but instead opted to clamp my hand around her mouth, muffling her screams and saving our dignity. We disembarked the slide as Emma tried to conquer her knocking knees, she almost fell backwards into the ring- and this from a woman who was seriously considering doing a bungy jump! HA! Anyway, I eventually managed to get back to the mineral pool from where I was dragged, but despite this our legs still ached the next morning.
We managed to go whale watching but Emma will tell you about that another time!
Love
Roo
Tuesday 1 November 2011
Tuesday 25 October 2011
Saturday 22 October 2011
Wednesday 19 October 2011
Monday 17 October 2011
Due SOUTH
Hello All!
I though I'd just write a quick post as I'm uploading new photos onto the blog on the slowest computer ever built!
We've had quite a busy few weeks. We are currently in the South Island. We arrived last week in the rainy dark after a pretty uneventful ferry trip. We rushed down to Wellington from Auckland in 2 days after watching the bitterly disappointing, pathetic attempt at a rugby match that was France Vs England. We managed to dress up like prats and have fun though, despite feeling a little foolish having to catch three trains and walk back to Olives dressed in red and white with smeary face paint, looking like clowns.
We had spent the week previously at Olive's house, having a little rest from traveling and helping with various tasks around the house; collecting and sorting firewood, paining and a bit of canvassing for the Tories. (I've been told this will disgust Emma's father, as it did us both). We tried to put every sign up wonky and sabotage the campaign from within.
The South Island is beautiful. We explored the Northern area last week, visited PuPu springs (the clearest freshwater in the world) and Able Tasman National Park where we went for a 22 km walk, which included an excursion to a seal colony where we spotted a mum seal guarding her three seal pups. A little further on, we spotted another seal swimming two feet from the sea shore on the deserted beach.
We are planning to head further south and visit Kaikoura on the east coast over the next few days and then head inland to Hamner Springs. Time is passing quickly and we're thinking already about moving on to Fiji. It'll be sad to leave NZ and Olive (our little home on wheels) in particular. NZ is the sort of place that you can't imagine anyone you know not liking it. The people are lovely, the climate is agreeable and even the traffic wardens let you park for as long as you want!
Ho hum - we'll sign off for now. Love to everyone, we do miss you all so much.
Loads of love,
Roobarb Crumble Lauren Pie n Emmalington Brownpants
I though I'd just write a quick post as I'm uploading new photos onto the blog on the slowest computer ever built!
We've had quite a busy few weeks. We are currently in the South Island. We arrived last week in the rainy dark after a pretty uneventful ferry trip. We rushed down to Wellington from Auckland in 2 days after watching the bitterly disappointing, pathetic attempt at a rugby match that was France Vs England. We managed to dress up like prats and have fun though, despite feeling a little foolish having to catch three trains and walk back to Olives dressed in red and white with smeary face paint, looking like clowns.
We had spent the week previously at Olive's house, having a little rest from traveling and helping with various tasks around the house; collecting and sorting firewood, paining and a bit of canvassing for the Tories. (I've been told this will disgust Emma's father, as it did us both). We tried to put every sign up wonky and sabotage the campaign from within.
The South Island is beautiful. We explored the Northern area last week, visited PuPu springs (the clearest freshwater in the world) and Able Tasman National Park where we went for a 22 km walk, which included an excursion to a seal colony where we spotted a mum seal guarding her three seal pups. A little further on, we spotted another seal swimming two feet from the sea shore on the deserted beach.
We are planning to head further south and visit Kaikoura on the east coast over the next few days and then head inland to Hamner Springs. Time is passing quickly and we're thinking already about moving on to Fiji. It'll be sad to leave NZ and Olive (our little home on wheels) in particular. NZ is the sort of place that you can't imagine anyone you know not liking it. The people are lovely, the climate is agreeable and even the traffic wardens let you park for as long as you want!
Ho hum - we'll sign off for now. Love to everyone, we do miss you all so much.
Loads of love,
Roobarb Crumble Lauren Pie n Emmalington Brownpants
Tuesday 27 September 2011
Its not all quilting fairs and sea kayaking.
We've been living in Olive now for 5 weeks and in that time we have travelled 4500km. During this time we have slept everywhere from the shores of the Pacific Ocean to the back of a police station. We have developed ways of remaining reletively sane during the many hours on the road including taking up new hobbies eg embroidary, ukele playing, playing 2 player card games (suggestions welcome). We also practice our accents, which do become slightly annoying after a while (we are currently cocknies).
Anyway, we spent one lovely day in Olive this week, doing such activities as it rained all day. We also went to watch the NZ Vs France game in a fanzone in Wairoa, where we both later admitted rather shamefully to each other, that we had switched allegiences half way through and were secretly and siliently willing the French on!
We spend a lot of time speculating on how exhausted we both feel, which is odd given that we spend most of our time inactive in Olive, except on days where we go swimming or rowing or walking (as long it's on the flat, for the benefit of little Roo's dear knee nors). We do eat like kings however, thanks to one of the many skills that Roo has. She has Pee to thank for her skill with veges and in turn, I am duly grateful.
You will know that Roo (even if you know her only a little bit), is FANTASTIC at pretty much anything! Which is really bladdy annoying if you're like me and a bit rubbish at most things! No serioulsy though, she is and it's not annoying at all - honest. We are on a perpetual economy drive (which will cheer my Dad to hear) and have discovered that going swimming is cheaper than staying the night in a campsite for a shower. So killing two birds with one stone, we get to keep fit and have a wash in one go! Needless to say, Roo is a fish when it comes to swimming and can even do those clever little turns that proper swimmers do, so having always wanted to be able to do that, I had a swimming lesson in Gisborne where I indeed got nowhere near mastering it, but floundered around enthusiastically as ususal. (Roo, encouraging as ever, says I was good).
She's also a BRILLIANT map reader, thankfully, as I get awfully confuse with the whole business and never fail to get us lost.
She's also MAGNIFICENT at rowing, kayaking, snorkling and is extremely brave and daring when it comes to such things. I on the other hand, am not and row in circles, (I really do) and am a little scared of sea animals in general.
She is also a WORLD CHAMPION at sleeping, something which comes very naturally to her, particulalry at times of stress.
ANyway, we did rescue a poor little hedgehog from certain death the other night. Roo, in her wisdom, decided to use my swimming costume to carry the little thing out of harms way! GREAT.
It's been great fun, but strangly tiring all this travelling and we'll bve glad to get to Auckland for a mid way rest back at the original Olive's place next week.
Love to all,
Emma.
Anyway, we spent one lovely day in Olive this week, doing such activities as it rained all day. We also went to watch the NZ Vs France game in a fanzone in Wairoa, where we both later admitted rather shamefully to each other, that we had switched allegiences half way through and were secretly and siliently willing the French on!
We spend a lot of time speculating on how exhausted we both feel, which is odd given that we spend most of our time inactive in Olive, except on days where we go swimming or rowing or walking (as long it's on the flat, for the benefit of little Roo's dear knee nors). We do eat like kings however, thanks to one of the many skills that Roo has. She has Pee to thank for her skill with veges and in turn, I am duly grateful.
You will know that Roo (even if you know her only a little bit), is FANTASTIC at pretty much anything! Which is really bladdy annoying if you're like me and a bit rubbish at most things! No serioulsy though, she is and it's not annoying at all - honest. We are on a perpetual economy drive (which will cheer my Dad to hear) and have discovered that going swimming is cheaper than staying the night in a campsite for a shower. So killing two birds with one stone, we get to keep fit and have a wash in one go! Needless to say, Roo is a fish when it comes to swimming and can even do those clever little turns that proper swimmers do, so having always wanted to be able to do that, I had a swimming lesson in Gisborne where I indeed got nowhere near mastering it, but floundered around enthusiastically as ususal. (Roo, encouraging as ever, says I was good).
She's also a BRILLIANT map reader, thankfully, as I get awfully confuse with the whole business and never fail to get us lost.
She's also MAGNIFICENT at rowing, kayaking, snorkling and is extremely brave and daring when it comes to such things. I on the other hand, am not and row in circles, (I really do) and am a little scared of sea animals in general.
She is also a WORLD CHAMPION at sleeping, something which comes very naturally to her, particulalry at times of stress.
ANyway, we did rescue a poor little hedgehog from certain death the other night. Roo, in her wisdom, decided to use my swimming costume to carry the little thing out of harms way! GREAT.
It's been great fun, but strangly tiring all this travelling and we'll bve glad to get to Auckland for a mid way rest back at the original Olive's place next week.
Love to all,
Emma.
Friday 16 September 2011
Monday 12 September 2011
Middle Earth and 'the top bit of NZ'
It's been ages again since we wrote on our blog - sorry for anyone whose life revolves around being updated about our adventures! Ha!
I wanted to fill you in on some of the characters in our blog for those of you who don't know each other. Think of it as a getting to know each other type of ice-breaker! Ok, first of all we have Hev. Hev is Roo's mum, she's probably our most ardent follower and a quick impersonation of Hev is never far from either of our lips. 'What Hev might say' is the bench mark of whether something is a good idea or not - eg, 'Roo, this place is a shit hole" Looking at Hev you wouldn't imagine she has the mouth of a mechanic, (no offence to mechanics) but she does! Pee is Roo's Dad and a favourite game whilst whiling away the zillions of hours spent travelling in Olive, is 'what Pee would say'. It's normally a comment about what Hev would say - think Basil and Sybil Fawlty and you're not far off. Then there's Mr. Bones, the lab/collie cross, currently staying with Grandma and Grandad (i.e. Hev and Pee). Joeface is Roo's brother - a hippie in denial, but I know the truth. We are hoping he'll join us somewhere along the way. Then there is my family, I like to think of as the more stable sane bunch - which of course they aren't. My sister Sara (and husband Nev, to whom we dedicate any tree related adventure) and her little brood, Finn and Freya. My brother Stephen and his offspring, Thomas and James and my other Christopher (happy Birthday to him and Hev and Joe too), not forgetting Gail (my sister in law) who is by far the most normal of them all! Then of course, my Dad, who I'm delighted to say has embraced the technological age as a silver surfer and emails me far more than he ever rang me! :)
Then there are the blog followers - to whom we are enormously grateful. You 13 people make this worthwhile, particular mention to Liz, Adam, Gary, Kay, Ange and other people one of whom we don't even know who apparently follow this inane drivel!
Anyway - we've driven 3000km in Olive and we're only half way down theNorth Island
Where have we been - well we can't really remember - Roo's off to get a map!
OK - We went from Auckland to Wangerie, then Russell and the Bay of Plenty and Keri Keri, Doubtless Bay, then to Cape Reniga, which the Kiwi's helpfully signpost as 'The top of NZ'. Then we went sandboarding which I felt far too old to be doing, but it was the biz! We both managed to stand up on a sandboard too. The east coast of theNorth Island is beautiful, filled with huge Kauri Trees (that's for Nev Auckland Thames , then headed to Cook's Beach (where Captain Cook landed and claimed NZ in the name of King George even though the Maorio's thought they really had claimed it 700 years previously - why do we do that? :/) and Whitianga (you say the Wh like a F, so Fitianga), you also have to punctuate every sentince with eh! For example, 'you like it here eh?'
It was in Cathedral Cove near Whitianga where our guide Markey Mark, took us sea kayaking. Unfortunately, the day before, the group had seen an Orca whale, but it had moved on up the coast, so he was just saying how VERY unlikely it would be that we would see any more, one appeared right next to his very tiny kayak and blew us a welcome through it's blow hole. I didn't realise why Roo was swearing like Hev until someone mentioned that an Orca whale was a killer whale. I had previously thought that Killer was a derivation of the work Kilo and related to their substantial girth, it was only then that it became clear that it was to do with their enormous teeth and preference for eating live things! I was quite calm, Roo, uncharacteristically was terrified. (In my defence I have watched many a documentary where big eatey things confuse Kayaks with Seals floating on the top of the water... and we had been unfortunate enough to flick past a programme on shark attacks the night before. Emma's calmness was attributed to her ignorance, nothing to do with courage!) I refute entirely. In the end we saw 4 Killer whales, one of which swam right beneath our Kayak. They were spectacular if a little un-nerving. Markey Mark (his real name) kept insisting that we chase them, we didn't want to look cowardly, but we did linger at the back, which made me more nervous because in films like Jurassic Park they always pick off the weedy one at the back, i.e Me and as I was sharing a kayak with Roo, she would have been fodder too.
However, this Kayaking trip was much more successful than our first. We decided for my first Kayaking experience to have a practice at a sheltered estuary and hired for the bargain price of $10 two kayaks. I managed to get in to the boat without falling in the water, and buoyed by this early success we set off down river towards the pacific ocean! We positively sprinted along the water, stopping at the mangroves to photograph the Shags (otherwise known as Cormorants, apparently they are called Shags because they have the fastest breeding cycle of any bird, I've no idea if that's true, maybe Pee can help there?) The tide was on it's way out and the sun was shinning as we cruised our way towards the sea. We had a little paddled round the sea/ocean and decided as the sky was darkening to go back. This I thought to myself is a piece of cake, at which moment, my boat ground to a halt - 'Roo' I said, 'why won't it go'? 'We've run aground Em, we'll have to get out and push'!' It was only then that I realised that we had been kayaking in 3 inches of water - the tide had gone out so far, we had become shipwrecked on a sandbank. So feeling rather foolish, Roo jumped out and pulled ehr boat out to safer water, I sat there hoping that by shuffling as bit I would reach deeper water - I'm terrified of crabs (amongst many other things, although I'm OK with killer whales!) and I didn't want to put my feet on the bottom. Almost crying I reluctantly got out and my feet immediately sunk 12 inches into a layer of sludge and crabs and stuff and I was scared! Finally we managed to get our boats back in sufficient water and had to paddle upstream in the rain and increasingly strong wind for 3 hours back to our start point. Exhausted, but relieved, we arrived back to our site with blisters and shoulders like a couple of props!
Roo really wanted to go snorkelling, so the day after our Killer Whale experience we hired wetsuits and flippers from Wendy (the dive shop lady) and head down to gemstone bay. I thought flippers would save me from my deep fear of putting my feet on the bottom of the sea but I was wrong. We squeezed into our wetsuits and with a bit of squealing and complaining about the cold we both managed to get our faces under. Scenes from Jaws kept playing in my mind and it didn’t help when Marky Mark told us about the sting rays and sharks that frequent that piece of coastline. (Next to Gemstone bay is Stingray bay, and were hoping that by staying on this side of the rocks, we would be safe and that the stingrays would respect the imaginary boundaries.) Roo, like the water baby she is, went exploring,. helpfully pointing out fish and crabs that she encountered. this however was too much for me and like a loony, with flippers on, I tried to exit the water as quickly as possible, shaking with terror. Roo was trying to reassure me with shouts of 'oh look a cute little fishy, hello little fishy' but it just didn’t work. Snorkelling isn’t for me, but I tried it at least!
We are now in Rotarua, after watching the firstEngland match in Hamilton England France vs England
However, unlike the above suggests our life isn't all glamour, its not all sea kayaking and quilt fairs! We do spend a lot of time cruising the streets searching for a public toilet to wash, this morning we had to pretend to be shopping in the supermarket just to use their facilities! Our shewee has seen more that its fair share of action and exposing ourselves to the locals whilst changing in parks or car parks has become worryingly commonplace. We spend most night sleeping in lay-bys and cooking our dinner on our gas stove, on the pavement, whilst pretending this is normal behaviour whilst being stared at. Olive is now decorated with variousEngland
Now we've bored you enough- We've put some photos on, so enjoy.
Miss you all, thanks for reading
Emma (and Roo)
I wanted to fill you in on some of the characters in our blog for those of you who don't know each other. Think of it as a getting to know each other type of ice-breaker! Ok, first of all we have Hev. Hev is Roo's mum, she's probably our most ardent follower and a quick impersonation of Hev is never far from either of our lips. 'What Hev might say' is the bench mark of whether something is a good idea or not - eg, 'Roo, this place is a shit hole" Looking at Hev you wouldn't imagine she has the mouth of a mechanic, (no offence to mechanics) but she does! Pee is Roo's Dad and a favourite game whilst whiling away the zillions of hours spent travelling in Olive, is 'what Pee would say'. It's normally a comment about what Hev would say - think Basil and Sybil Fawlty and you're not far off. Then there's Mr. Bones, the lab/collie cross, currently staying with Grandma and Grandad (i.e. Hev and Pee). Joeface is Roo's brother - a hippie in denial, but I know the truth. We are hoping he'll join us somewhere along the way. Then there is my family, I like to think of as the more stable sane bunch - which of course they aren't. My sister Sara (and husband Nev, to whom we dedicate any tree related adventure) and her little brood, Finn and Freya. My brother Stephen and his offspring, Thomas and James and my other Christopher (happy Birthday to him and Hev and Joe too), not forgetting Gail (my sister in law) who is by far the most normal of them all! Then of course, my Dad, who I'm delighted to say has embraced the technological age as a silver surfer and emails me far more than he ever rang me! :)
Then there are the blog followers - to whom we are enormously grateful. You 13 people make this worthwhile, particular mention to Liz, Adam, Gary, Kay, Ange and other people one of whom we don't even know who apparently follow this inane drivel!
Anyway - we've driven 3000km in Olive and we're only half way down the
Where have we been - well we can't really remember - Roo's off to get a map!
OK - We went from Auckland to Wangerie, then Russell and the Bay of Plenty and Keri Keri, Doubtless Bay, then to Cape Reniga, which the Kiwi's helpfully signpost as 'The top of NZ'. Then we went sandboarding which I felt far too old to be doing, but it was the biz! We both managed to stand up on a sandboard too. The east coast of the
It was in Cathedral Cove near Whitianga where our guide Markey Mark, took us sea kayaking. Unfortunately, the day before, the group had seen an Orca whale, but it had moved on up the coast, so he was just saying how VERY unlikely it would be that we would see any more, one appeared right next to his very tiny kayak and blew us a welcome through it's blow hole. I didn't realise why Roo was swearing like Hev until someone mentioned that an Orca whale was a killer whale. I had previously thought that Killer was a derivation of the work Kilo and related to their substantial girth, it was only then that it became clear that it was to do with their enormous teeth and preference for eating live things! I was quite calm, Roo, uncharacteristically was terrified. (In my defence I have watched many a documentary where big eatey things confuse Kayaks with Seals floating on the top of the water... and we had been unfortunate enough to flick past a programme on shark attacks the night before. Emma's calmness was attributed to her ignorance, nothing to do with courage!) I refute entirely. In the end we saw 4 Killer whales, one of which swam right beneath our Kayak. They were spectacular if a little un-nerving. Markey Mark (his real name) kept insisting that we chase them, we didn't want to look cowardly, but we did linger at the back, which made me more nervous because in films like Jurassic Park they always pick off the weedy one at the back, i.e Me and as I was sharing a kayak with Roo, she would have been fodder too.
However, this Kayaking trip was much more successful than our first. We decided for my first Kayaking experience to have a practice at a sheltered estuary and hired for the bargain price of $10 two kayaks. I managed to get in to the boat without falling in the water, and buoyed by this early success we set off down river towards the pacific ocean! We positively sprinted along the water, stopping at the mangroves to photograph the Shags (otherwise known as Cormorants, apparently they are called Shags because they have the fastest breeding cycle of any bird, I've no idea if that's true, maybe Pee can help there?) The tide was on it's way out and the sun was shinning as we cruised our way towards the sea. We had a little paddled round the sea/ocean and decided as the sky was darkening to go back. This I thought to myself is a piece of cake, at which moment, my boat ground to a halt - 'Roo' I said, 'why won't it go'? 'We've run aground Em, we'll have to get out and push'!' It was only then that I realised that we had been kayaking in 3 inches of water - the tide had gone out so far, we had become shipwrecked on a sandbank. So feeling rather foolish, Roo jumped out and pulled ehr boat out to safer water, I sat there hoping that by shuffling as bit I would reach deeper water - I'm terrified of crabs (amongst many other things, although I'm OK with killer whales!) and I didn't want to put my feet on the bottom. Almost crying I reluctantly got out and my feet immediately sunk 12 inches into a layer of sludge and crabs and stuff and I was scared! Finally we managed to get our boats back in sufficient water and had to paddle upstream in the rain and increasingly strong wind for 3 hours back to our start point. Exhausted, but relieved, we arrived back to our site with blisters and shoulders like a couple of props!
Roo really wanted to go snorkelling, so the day after our Killer Whale experience we hired wetsuits and flippers from Wendy (the dive shop lady) and head down to gemstone bay. I thought flippers would save me from my deep fear of putting my feet on the bottom of the sea but I was wrong. We squeezed into our wetsuits and with a bit of squealing and complaining about the cold we both managed to get our faces under. Scenes from Jaws kept playing in my mind and it didn’t help when Marky Mark told us about the sting rays and sharks that frequent that piece of coastline. (Next to Gemstone bay is Stingray bay, and were hoping that by staying on this side of the rocks, we would be safe and that the stingrays would respect the imaginary boundaries.) Roo, like the water baby she is, went exploring,. helpfully pointing out fish and crabs that she encountered. this however was too much for me and like a loony, with flippers on, I tried to exit the water as quickly as possible, shaking with terror. Roo was trying to reassure me with shouts of 'oh look a cute little fishy, hello little fishy' but it just didn’t work. Snorkelling isn’t for me, but I tried it at least!
We are now in Rotarua, after watching the first
However, unlike the above suggests our life isn't all glamour, its not all sea kayaking and quilt fairs! We do spend a lot of time cruising the streets searching for a public toilet to wash, this morning we had to pretend to be shopping in the supermarket just to use their facilities! Our shewee has seen more that its fair share of action and exposing ourselves to the locals whilst changing in parks or car parks has become worryingly commonplace. We spend most night sleeping in lay-bys and cooking our dinner on our gas stove, on the pavement, whilst pretending this is normal behaviour whilst being stared at. Olive is now decorated with various
Now we've bored you enough- We've put some photos on, so enjoy.
Miss you all, thanks for reading
Emma (and Roo)
Monday 29 August 2011
Sunday 21 August 2011
Minute of Rashness.....
We are acutely aware that the title of this blog is 'Roo and Emma's ADVENTURE' and that we have done nothing very adventurous since we arrived in New Zealand! We have spent the last two weeks drinking cups of tea and gorging ourselves on chocolate biscuits whilst doing the odd bit of plastering, much like real life builders do. Our biggest acheivement has been to put back on the weight we lost in South America over 3 months in 10 short days! Having warm water and a washing machine has become less exciting, and armed with full bellies and clean clothes we have decided it is time to get a bit adventurous! It has been lovely staying with Olive and Graeme and Stefan and Carman and we have been made to feel very at home here. Thank you to them all and hopefully we will be back to visit again before we leave for Fiji.
So, in a minute of rashness, we bought a campervan...... oops. Our new friend, affenctionately named Olive, has cost us 3000 NZD (about 1500 quid) and we are planning on living in her for the next 3 months and travel around the country. There's something called Freedom camping and DOC sites in NZ where grimey backpackers like us can camp for free (or very cheaply) somewhere with water and toilet facilities. The only hitch to our fullproof plan is that we have arrived during the coldest winter ever recorded in Auckland. We think that no matter how cold it is, it can't be as bad as sleeping in a cabin with holes in the roof at the foothills of the Andes. We have bought some books and are writing our top 10 things to see in NZ and planning our route between them. We have to be back in Auckland for the 5th Oct to watch the first semi final (England vs France) of the Rugby World Cup. So our volunteering in NZ has gone out of the window slightly but nevermind. We leave here on Thursday and need to have some kind of plan by then! I cant put any photos on yet but will keep trying.
Love Roo and M x
So, in a minute of rashness, we bought a campervan...... oops. Our new friend, affenctionately named Olive, has cost us 3000 NZD (about 1500 quid) and we are planning on living in her for the next 3 months and travel around the country. There's something called Freedom camping and DOC sites in NZ where grimey backpackers like us can camp for free (or very cheaply) somewhere with water and toilet facilities. The only hitch to our fullproof plan is that we have arrived during the coldest winter ever recorded in Auckland. We think that no matter how cold it is, it can't be as bad as sleeping in a cabin with holes in the roof at the foothills of the Andes. We have bought some books and are writing our top 10 things to see in NZ and planning our route between them. We have to be back in Auckland for the 5th Oct to watch the first semi final (England vs France) of the Rugby World Cup. So our volunteering in NZ has gone out of the window slightly but nevermind. We leave here on Thursday and need to have some kind of plan by then! I cant put any photos on yet but will keep trying.
Love Roo and M x
Saturday 13 August 2011
New Zealand at Last!
So we eventually arrived in Auckland on Tuesday at 4am. We had booked into a hostel Ponsonby for a few days to recover, and assuming we would be stuck in the airport trying to find our luggage for a few hours we booked in for Wednesday, not Tuesday night. Being used to South America where nothing works and everything is highly disorganised we were shocked when we walked through customs and picked up our luggage in under 20 minutes. Unfortunately we had to sit on the porch outside the hostel for a couple of hours until it opened but being hardened by the freezing Peruvian nights we were quite comfortable.
Ponsonby, as we later found out, is the 'Soho' of Auckland and here everything is around 50% more expensive than anywhere else in the country so we had a paniced few days trying to figure out how we were going to survive in the most expensive country in the world. However we found Olive's house quite easily, thanks to a few very helpful locals, and we soon discovered that outside the city centre things are more affordable! Thank Goodness! We spent a few days clothes shopping at charity shops as my trousers were litterally falling off me and Emma has no shoes after foolishly throwing her trainers away one by one!
Olive and Graeme live in Mangere East, which we were told by the manager of our hostel, Kevin, is the 'rough' part of Aukland. So, armed with our fiercest faces and most confident swaggers we got off the bus.( I must pause to discuss the buses in NZ. I realise we are used to South American buses where it is usual to be sat next to a goat or have bags of cocaine in the boot, bus the buses here seem to be from the future. They have TVs in them which show the local news, and navigation systems which show the passengers a map of the route they are taking. An automated voice tells you which stop we are at and the local facilities for example 'We are at the Sky Tower Stop. Disembark here for fish restaurants, the shopping centre and all changes to Mangere East'. WOW! In Stoke on Trent buses like these would have been stolen, defaced, burned out within a few hours of being comissioned!) Anyway, we got off at our stop in Mangere East and weren't faced with gang warfare but a lovely little park with rugby pitches with a cricket ground. There wasn't a piece of litter anywhere to be seen, no graffiti, bus stops weren't vadalised. People stopped in the street to welcome us to the village- teenagers, teenage girls spoke to us. Have you ever seen the 'Truman Show'? It was a bit like that. We're wondering if they put some kind of happy drug in the water here, becasue it's starting to rub off on us. I can't find anything to moan about which delights Emma but is worryingly unlike me.
So we're staying with Olive for 2 weeks, helping to do some building work on their massive house which has been a bit neglected over recent years due to Olive's bad health. She'ds getting better though, thank Goodness. It's very much like being at home with Hev and Pee. Today Olive gave me stewed Rhubarb for my cereal and complained that I hadn't cleaned the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. The house is rulled by Carmen the cat (not Holly the dog but close) who gets fed twice a day with cat food warmed for 21 seconds in the microwave! Graeme makes Monty Pythons jokes which I don't understand but laugh anyway. Stephan, a 20 year old German volunteer, lives in the poolhouse and gets up late! He's a bit poorly though so we'll forgive him!
We work 8 hour days to build up our hours to have days off to explore the North Island. We're considering buying a van which can double as accomodation to save us some money and let us explore the Island properly, but as neither of of knows anything about cars, we need to find a man to help us! We'll post some photos soon,
Roo and Emma
xxxx
Ponsonby, as we later found out, is the 'Soho' of Auckland and here everything is around 50% more expensive than anywhere else in the country so we had a paniced few days trying to figure out how we were going to survive in the most expensive country in the world. However we found Olive's house quite easily, thanks to a few very helpful locals, and we soon discovered that outside the city centre things are more affordable! Thank Goodness! We spent a few days clothes shopping at charity shops as my trousers were litterally falling off me and Emma has no shoes after foolishly throwing her trainers away one by one!
Olive and Graeme live in Mangere East, which we were told by the manager of our hostel, Kevin, is the 'rough' part of Aukland. So, armed with our fiercest faces and most confident swaggers we got off the bus.( I must pause to discuss the buses in NZ. I realise we are used to South American buses where it is usual to be sat next to a goat or have bags of cocaine in the boot, bus the buses here seem to be from the future. They have TVs in them which show the local news, and navigation systems which show the passengers a map of the route they are taking. An automated voice tells you which stop we are at and the local facilities for example 'We are at the Sky Tower Stop. Disembark here for fish restaurants, the shopping centre and all changes to Mangere East'. WOW! In Stoke on Trent buses like these would have been stolen, defaced, burned out within a few hours of being comissioned!) Anyway, we got off at our stop in Mangere East and weren't faced with gang warfare but a lovely little park with rugby pitches with a cricket ground. There wasn't a piece of litter anywhere to be seen, no graffiti, bus stops weren't vadalised. People stopped in the street to welcome us to the village- teenagers, teenage girls spoke to us. Have you ever seen the 'Truman Show'? It was a bit like that. We're wondering if they put some kind of happy drug in the water here, becasue it's starting to rub off on us. I can't find anything to moan about which delights Emma but is worryingly unlike me.
So we're staying with Olive for 2 weeks, helping to do some building work on their massive house which has been a bit neglected over recent years due to Olive's bad health. She'ds getting better though, thank Goodness. It's very much like being at home with Hev and Pee. Today Olive gave me stewed Rhubarb for my cereal and complained that I hadn't cleaned the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. The house is rulled by Carmen the cat (not Holly the dog but close) who gets fed twice a day with cat food warmed for 21 seconds in the microwave! Graeme makes Monty Pythons jokes which I don't understand but laugh anyway. Stephan, a 20 year old German volunteer, lives in the poolhouse and gets up late! He's a bit poorly though so we'll forgive him!
We work 8 hour days to build up our hours to have days off to explore the North Island. We're considering buying a van which can double as accomodation to save us some money and let us explore the Island properly, but as neither of of knows anything about cars, we need to find a man to help us! We'll post some photos soon,
Roo and Emma
xxxx
Saturday 6 August 2011
Topics of conversation during our time in SA.
1. What would Hev say/do?
eg ´This place is a shithole´or ´come here little doggie, let me give you a brush´.
2. Will eating this give us food poisoning?
There are many factors to take into consideration including how hungry we are, how tastey it looks, when we are likely to eat again, the proximity/ availability of the closest toilet, is a bus journey imminent, how long can we go without eating anything, are we in Bolivia?
3. How long will the water last?
Should we buy it when we have the chance but then have to carry it around? Should we brave it and hope we can find it cheaper? Should we just buy fizzy water? Shall we brave the water filter?...no.
4. What is the toilet roll/wet wipe situation?
Do we have enough for the day? Should we steal it from the hostel? Is one of us likely to get poisoned and need a whole lot more than usual?
5. What would Indie be doing now?
Mostly sleeping. But occasionally this conversation occurs at the time he would be going for his second walk of the day. Pilsdon Pen? Lamberts Castle, or Coneys???? Maybe the beach....
6. Roo- ´Can we adopt this animal´?
Emma- No
7. Why isn´t the camera working? I hate this camera, it never works, look its not even starting up, I´ve lost all the photos....
Emma- put new batteries in it Roo.
8. The consistency and regularity of one´s bowel movements.
´Maybe its the altitude´. ´You should eat some fruit´. ´You´re probably dehydrated´ etc.
9. Where are the passports/visas?
Where are the passports, we´ve lost the visas, we´ll have to live in Peru forever, we´re going to get arrested, I can´t find them, there´s no point looking, you´ve lost them, you lose everything....oh they´re here in my pocket!
10. How many layers of clothes should we sleep in?
Is it likely to get warmer during the night or colder? How chlostrophobic do I feel? Should I put on socks?
11. 'I need a wee'.
Do you need a wee? Should we go for a wee? How cold is it outside? How long till morning? I´ll go if you go.
12. How long can we go without a shower?
Is the water cold? Can I disguise my greasy hair with this hat? Can we smell other people´s clean washing?
13. Is there anywhere to put our boots?
I can smell them from here. Put them in the cupboard. Just sleep in them so we don´t have to smell them. Just don´t take off your socks.
eg ´This place is a shithole´or ´come here little doggie, let me give you a brush´.
2. Will eating this give us food poisoning?
There are many factors to take into consideration including how hungry we are, how tastey it looks, when we are likely to eat again, the proximity/ availability of the closest toilet, is a bus journey imminent, how long can we go without eating anything, are we in Bolivia?
3. How long will the water last?
Should we buy it when we have the chance but then have to carry it around? Should we brave it and hope we can find it cheaper? Should we just buy fizzy water? Shall we brave the water filter?...no.
4. What is the toilet roll/wet wipe situation?
Do we have enough for the day? Should we steal it from the hostel? Is one of us likely to get poisoned and need a whole lot more than usual?
5. What would Indie be doing now?
Mostly sleeping. But occasionally this conversation occurs at the time he would be going for his second walk of the day. Pilsdon Pen? Lamberts Castle, or Coneys???? Maybe the beach....
6. Roo- ´Can we adopt this animal´?
Emma- No
7. Why isn´t the camera working? I hate this camera, it never works, look its not even starting up, I´ve lost all the photos....
Emma- put new batteries in it Roo.
8. The consistency and regularity of one´s bowel movements.
´Maybe its the altitude´. ´You should eat some fruit´. ´You´re probably dehydrated´ etc.
9. Where are the passports/visas?
Where are the passports, we´ve lost the visas, we´ll have to live in Peru forever, we´re going to get arrested, I can´t find them, there´s no point looking, you´ve lost them, you lose everything....oh they´re here in my pocket!
10. How many layers of clothes should we sleep in?
Is it likely to get warmer during the night or colder? How chlostrophobic do I feel? Should I put on socks?
11. 'I need a wee'.
Do you need a wee? Should we go for a wee? How cold is it outside? How long till morning? I´ll go if you go.
12. How long can we go without a shower?
Is the water cold? Can I disguise my greasy hair with this hat? Can we smell other people´s clean washing?
13. Is there anywhere to put our boots?
I can smell them from here. Put them in the cupboard. Just sleep in them so we don´t have to smell them. Just don´t take off your socks.
The longest blog in the world, read only if you have time to spare.
Roo- ´What have we done since Huambutio?!´
We travelled back to Cusco and from there went to Arequipa for a few days. We stayed with Alexandro in Hostel Mi Casa which was lovely, warm and had hot running water! Bliss. From there we explored the Santa Catalina Monestry, the Cola Canyon (we saw condors and lots of Llamas) and went to a museum displaying frozen child sacrafices which to be honest disturbed us slightly. (Only slightly disturbing as I have worked for Stoke on Trent City Council Social Services Department, for Emma this was extremely disturbing). We were under the mis-apprehension that Inkas didn´t sacrafice anything except llamas, we were told this by Elvis our Macchu Piccu guide, who claimed to be decended from the Inkas but knows as much about them as he could recite from a guide book! Unfortunatley it was in Arequipa that Emma consumed a rogue Pineapple juice which proved to be upsetting for not only her stomach but also the Dutch couple who witnessed 6 hours of vomitting into various carrier bags on the way to Puno. Note: if one gets struck down with food poisoning the day of a long bus journey, stay at home, dont take Diarrhea medicine and hope for the best. Your body will get rid of the offending substance one way or another.
Emma- I´d just like to thank Roo, publically for being ´there´for me during the 6 long, interminable hours, on that fateful bus ride to Puno. She was indeed a ´brick´and if it had been the other way round, I would have joined her in needing carrier bags and would have been completely useless. She even disposed of the offending carrier bags whilst taking advantage of a short pit stop somewhere in Southern Peru. I´d like to apologise to the Dutch people and their familes for any trauma they experienced - they were green by the end of the journey.
When we arrived in Puno, we couldn´t have been more happy! It didn´t show on my face, as I was still contorted with stomach cramps and had to be helped to the pavement side by Roo and the cab driver, who looked concerned about taking the fare at all. We stayed at Inca´s Rest, and they looked after us so well. Coca tea, is the cure for everything in Peru and duly we drank some, as we were both now contending with severe altitude sickness too - the joy of travelling! We have made a note of various observations we believe relate to the effect of altitude on one´s body (look away now if you´re squeemish)
1. Heart palpitation, accompanied by difficulty breathing.
2. Change in consistency and frequency of bowel movements
3. Boggies - lots!
4. Wierdy dreams or annoyingly, insomnia
5. Malaise
6. Nausea
7. Lack of appetite
8. Inability to walk more that 5 steps without thinking how useful a wheelchair would be.
Whilst in Puno, we visited Uros. Fascinatingly, Uros is a series of floating Islands, constructed from reeds, found on the shores of Lake Titicaca (which makes Roo and Joe laugh hysterically everytime the word is mentioned, that´s what comes from a university eductaion!). The Aymara people of Uros constructed the floating Islands to avoid the Spanish, who we have become indoctrinated to dislike during our time in South America. The people of Uros have to add a top layer of reeds to their Island, every 10-15 days as they are continuously rotting from the bottom. The islands are all joined together by ropes and the series of islands are anchored to the bottom by rocks. Unfortuantely, the whole place is over- commercialised and you feel like you´re off to Disney land or something awful like that. As a consequence of the amount of tourists, the water is so polluted the islanders have to travel over 1km to collect fresh drinking water. The people there make a living by selling handycrafts to tourists and overcome with gringo guilt, we ended parting with 100 soles (25 quid) on a crosstitch! Yes, a crosstitch, Roo likes it however, so that`s OK.
Roo- We also visited Tequile which is an Island which takes 2 hours to visit by boat. Here the men wear funny nightcap type hats which indicate their current availability to the ladies.
Red hat = ´Im married, hands off´.
White hat with a red band = ´wink wink nudge nudge´.
The positioning of the hat is also important. Boys younger than 14 wear their white hats floppoing behind which means, ´I´m too young to be interested in girls´. Worn to the left means ´I´m avaiable and interested, how about it´. Worn to the right means ´Im dating but not married, so don´t rule me out´. We arrived during the festival of Saint James and semed to interupt some local dancing which involved skipping around in a circle for a few hours to a loud, manic combination of drumming and pan pipes. It was here where I ate trout from Lake Titicaca hehehe. Delicious and amazingly this didnt make me sick.
After Puno we travelled around Lake Titicaca (hehehe) crossing the border into Bolivia. We travelled for 2 hours to Copacabana (not THE Copacabana, thats in Brazil). The border crossing was the easiest Border crossing yet and involved handing a man in a hut my passport. Obviously Bolivians arent fussed about what you could smuggle into their country. I could have quite easily walked in with a large bag of cocaine and noone would have noticed, in fact they would have helped me carry it. Bolivians are friendly like that. We stayed in a hostel that cost 4 pounds a night which was actually over priced for what we got, again we stayed for 2 nights somewhere with no hot water. It was also freezing, so whilst we sound like we are moaning we have been cold and dirty for the best part of 3 months. This is no change for Emma but a dramatic change for me! From Copacabana we traveled to Isla del Sol, a lovely, less touristy Island on the Lake where the Inkas belived the Sun God, Indie, and his sister wife, were born (weird). The Inkas suffered from heamophilia caused by interbreading.... people of small Welsh villages beware. Anyway, it was lovely, we did some walking, saw some donkeys and some ruins. We walked up the Inka escalator which I was devastated to discover didn´t acctually move so I had to use my legs and walk up combating the effects of altitude, discussed above. Overcome with Gringo guilt once again we had to buy another handicraft from a local lady.
I must mention an American woman (lets call her Barbara) who thought it appropriate to sit in a families front garden and chant some ridiculuos song to the Inka Gods at the top of her voice right next to where a poor woman was trying to sell her wares. Barbara was about as Inkan as I am. I couldn´t stop giggling as children danced around her and their mother looked on awkwardly. Babs was sat behind me on the boat back to shore and I was in a constant state of anxiety incase she decided to blast out another rendition of chanting right in my ear. She didn´t thank God and we were brought closer by witnessing the second vommitting incident of the week. A small Dutch girl seized the opportunity to take revenge on Emma on behalf of her fellow countrymen and projectile vommitted right next to her. Fortunatley, due to our previous experiences, we were armed with toilet roll and holeless carrier bags and managed to contain the situation.
Emma - From Copocabana, we travelled to La Paz the capital of Bolivia. By now we were blaze about travelling in South America and duly pitched up at the central square ready to haggle with any bus driver brave enough to take us on. What we have noted is that we are either the ONLY gringos on the bus, or its a bus full ONLY with gringos. The former are cheaper and more exciting. When I say exciting I mean, things fall off them at speed and the armoa is more intense. There are also big unidentifiable bags of things, which may contain small children, or cocaine, who knows, loaded either on the top of the bus or underneath with the door flapping open, just by our rucksacks :/. When we arrived in La Paz, 8 hours later, we went to Rubens place who saddly had no room because there was a dutch party already booked in. What is with the dutch, has something happened whilst we have been here to cause this mass exodus from Holland to South America. Disspointed and exhausted we ended having to stay in Milenio (I´m not sure which Milenia the facilities were first installed in, but it was NOT this current one). Roo, bless her, was beginning to fade again. It all starts with ´my tummy feels funny´. This sends a bolt of electricity to my brain as I now know what that is code for. Another 18 hours of diarrhea followed. The poor, poor wee thing. I worked out whilst looking after her, that she has spent 10 days solidy on the toilet in 3 months. She derserves a medal. On this occassion, it is a mystery as to what caused it, she just seems to be allergic to Bolivia as a whole. I did wonder, out loud, to public ridule, if you could catch diarrhea through your feet as that was the only possible source of contamination, but apparently you cant. So here again, I was fine, Roo was dying, her tongue and poo turned black and stayed black for 3 days (we will explore this further later). We never intended to go to La Paz at all, and ended up staying for two nights, wise from our previous experiences to postpone our 8 hour bus journey to Arica.
Roo- I eventually recovered, well my bottom stopped falling out, and we were able to catch the bus to Arica at 6am. Frozen and literally starving we huddled under three blankets with hats, scarves and all the coats we could find. The 8 hours journey passed relatively quickly and the border crossing from Bolivia to Chile was without issue (luckily the guards didn´t discover the vast quantities of pure heroin Emma had stuffed up her jumper!). We arrived in Arica and by some stroke of luck managed to jump on a bus to Santiago that was pulling out of the terminal. It´s as if we were organised and planned the whole thing! We even managed to haggle the price down with the woman on the desk! Emma was all in a flap and was moaning that she needed time to prepare for the journey...moan moan moan. I think M´s particularly bad mood was due to the fact we hadn´t eaten anything properly for over a week, or slept for three weeks due to altitude induced Insomnia. We stopped randomely throughout the journey and had to follow the lead of the ´locals´who seemed to instinctively know if this was a driver swap over or a more elongated fag break. On one occassion, everyone got off with all their bags, we sat there for a while on an empty bus, until the attendent Jose shouted, ´vamos´, and so we did. We were faced for the fourth time in 3 months by a PDI Chile bag inspection. We hauled our rucksacks out of the luggage hold and stood in a line waiting for the half frozen PDI inspector to interogate the passengers thoroughly. We´d seen this in Chile before and unlike Bolivia where there is a certain expectation that you´ll smuggle something in or more likely out of the country, so what the heck, go for it, Chile is different. Or so we thought. Conscientiously, the PDI officer searched all the bags of all the locals and then arrived at us, I was already dragging every item of dirty clothes from my rucksack. He then said to me ´nationality´ Inglesa, I replied, trying not to look guilty. Ýou can go´ - just for being English. He got to Emma and asked, ´Do you have any drugs?´, ´no, just dirty pants´, as she laughed, alone nervously, and that was it. We escaped a false imprisonment in South America again!
28 hours later we pulled in Santiago. Not our fav place! The smog here is so bad it burns our throats, eyes and noses! We jumped into a taxi which dropped us off in the middle of downtown Santiago, where we were met by hoards of young people armed with pots and pans. We later discovered that these were students demonstating about cuts in the education budget... so we were less confused, we had thought that the people of Santiago were just extremely freindly and had arranged a gigantic welcome party for us. Unfortunately the first person to actually speak to us was a crazy homeless man who was frothing at the mouth, and shouted some sort of made up language at me. I promptly ran across the road which was a bad idea as I was very nearly run down by a number of taxis driving the wrong way down a one way street. So, we have been in Santiago for two nights and ventured out just to get food (egg, chips and sausages was the first meal we had eaten for days and was sooooo delicious!) Its cold here, and now raining. Emma wants to go on a walking tour of the city at 3pm but I´m not convinced due to the weather and the fact that the burning smog makes my eyes run like mad! My poo is still black (for those of you who are intergued) due to the Pepta Bismol I took for my stomach, not due to the altitude, which is what we have been blaming for most other ailments. This little known side effect should be noted on the packet as not to worry people unnecessarily- I shall write to the manufacturers.
Emma- So that´s all really. This is long and I won´t make it any longer. We´re off to NZ in 24ish hours time, where it´s currently snowing. Hoorray! Thanks for reading and keep in touch, we love to hear from you.
Love, Emma & Roo.
We travelled back to Cusco and from there went to Arequipa for a few days. We stayed with Alexandro in Hostel Mi Casa which was lovely, warm and had hot running water! Bliss. From there we explored the Santa Catalina Monestry, the Cola Canyon (we saw condors and lots of Llamas) and went to a museum displaying frozen child sacrafices which to be honest disturbed us slightly. (Only slightly disturbing as I have worked for Stoke on Trent City Council Social Services Department, for Emma this was extremely disturbing). We were under the mis-apprehension that Inkas didn´t sacrafice anything except llamas, we were told this by Elvis our Macchu Piccu guide, who claimed to be decended from the Inkas but knows as much about them as he could recite from a guide book! Unfortunatley it was in Arequipa that Emma consumed a rogue Pineapple juice which proved to be upsetting for not only her stomach but also the Dutch couple who witnessed 6 hours of vomitting into various carrier bags on the way to Puno. Note: if one gets struck down with food poisoning the day of a long bus journey, stay at home, dont take Diarrhea medicine and hope for the best. Your body will get rid of the offending substance one way or another.
Emma- I´d just like to thank Roo, publically for being ´there´for me during the 6 long, interminable hours, on that fateful bus ride to Puno. She was indeed a ´brick´and if it had been the other way round, I would have joined her in needing carrier bags and would have been completely useless. She even disposed of the offending carrier bags whilst taking advantage of a short pit stop somewhere in Southern Peru. I´d like to apologise to the Dutch people and their familes for any trauma they experienced - they were green by the end of the journey.
When we arrived in Puno, we couldn´t have been more happy! It didn´t show on my face, as I was still contorted with stomach cramps and had to be helped to the pavement side by Roo and the cab driver, who looked concerned about taking the fare at all. We stayed at Inca´s Rest, and they looked after us so well. Coca tea, is the cure for everything in Peru and duly we drank some, as we were both now contending with severe altitude sickness too - the joy of travelling! We have made a note of various observations we believe relate to the effect of altitude on one´s body (look away now if you´re squeemish)
1. Heart palpitation, accompanied by difficulty breathing.
2. Change in consistency and frequency of bowel movements
3. Boggies - lots!
4. Wierdy dreams or annoyingly, insomnia
5. Malaise
6. Nausea
7. Lack of appetite
8. Inability to walk more that 5 steps without thinking how useful a wheelchair would be.
Whilst in Puno, we visited Uros. Fascinatingly, Uros is a series of floating Islands, constructed from reeds, found on the shores of Lake Titicaca (which makes Roo and Joe laugh hysterically everytime the word is mentioned, that´s what comes from a university eductaion!). The Aymara people of Uros constructed the floating Islands to avoid the Spanish, who we have become indoctrinated to dislike during our time in South America. The people of Uros have to add a top layer of reeds to their Island, every 10-15 days as they are continuously rotting from the bottom. The islands are all joined together by ropes and the series of islands are anchored to the bottom by rocks. Unfortuantely, the whole place is over- commercialised and you feel like you´re off to Disney land or something awful like that. As a consequence of the amount of tourists, the water is so polluted the islanders have to travel over 1km to collect fresh drinking water. The people there make a living by selling handycrafts to tourists and overcome with gringo guilt, we ended parting with 100 soles (25 quid) on a crosstitch! Yes, a crosstitch, Roo likes it however, so that`s OK.
Roo- We also visited Tequile which is an Island which takes 2 hours to visit by boat. Here the men wear funny nightcap type hats which indicate their current availability to the ladies.
Red hat = ´Im married, hands off´.
White hat with a red band = ´wink wink nudge nudge´.
The positioning of the hat is also important. Boys younger than 14 wear their white hats floppoing behind which means, ´I´m too young to be interested in girls´. Worn to the left means ´I´m avaiable and interested, how about it´. Worn to the right means ´Im dating but not married, so don´t rule me out´. We arrived during the festival of Saint James and semed to interupt some local dancing which involved skipping around in a circle for a few hours to a loud, manic combination of drumming and pan pipes. It was here where I ate trout from Lake Titicaca hehehe. Delicious and amazingly this didnt make me sick.
After Puno we travelled around Lake Titicaca (hehehe) crossing the border into Bolivia. We travelled for 2 hours to Copacabana (not THE Copacabana, thats in Brazil). The border crossing was the easiest Border crossing yet and involved handing a man in a hut my passport. Obviously Bolivians arent fussed about what you could smuggle into their country. I could have quite easily walked in with a large bag of cocaine and noone would have noticed, in fact they would have helped me carry it. Bolivians are friendly like that. We stayed in a hostel that cost 4 pounds a night which was actually over priced for what we got, again we stayed for 2 nights somewhere with no hot water. It was also freezing, so whilst we sound like we are moaning we have been cold and dirty for the best part of 3 months. This is no change for Emma but a dramatic change for me! From Copacabana we traveled to Isla del Sol, a lovely, less touristy Island on the Lake where the Inkas belived the Sun God, Indie, and his sister wife, were born (weird). The Inkas suffered from heamophilia caused by interbreading.... people of small Welsh villages beware. Anyway, it was lovely, we did some walking, saw some donkeys and some ruins. We walked up the Inka escalator which I was devastated to discover didn´t acctually move so I had to use my legs and walk up combating the effects of altitude, discussed above. Overcome with Gringo guilt once again we had to buy another handicraft from a local lady.
I must mention an American woman (lets call her Barbara) who thought it appropriate to sit in a families front garden and chant some ridiculuos song to the Inka Gods at the top of her voice right next to where a poor woman was trying to sell her wares. Barbara was about as Inkan as I am. I couldn´t stop giggling as children danced around her and their mother looked on awkwardly. Babs was sat behind me on the boat back to shore and I was in a constant state of anxiety incase she decided to blast out another rendition of chanting right in my ear. She didn´t thank God and we were brought closer by witnessing the second vommitting incident of the week. A small Dutch girl seized the opportunity to take revenge on Emma on behalf of her fellow countrymen and projectile vommitted right next to her. Fortunatley, due to our previous experiences, we were armed with toilet roll and holeless carrier bags and managed to contain the situation.
Emma - From Copocabana, we travelled to La Paz the capital of Bolivia. By now we were blaze about travelling in South America and duly pitched up at the central square ready to haggle with any bus driver brave enough to take us on. What we have noted is that we are either the ONLY gringos on the bus, or its a bus full ONLY with gringos. The former are cheaper and more exciting. When I say exciting I mean, things fall off them at speed and the armoa is more intense. There are also big unidentifiable bags of things, which may contain small children, or cocaine, who knows, loaded either on the top of the bus or underneath with the door flapping open, just by our rucksacks :/. When we arrived in La Paz, 8 hours later, we went to Rubens place who saddly had no room because there was a dutch party already booked in. What is with the dutch, has something happened whilst we have been here to cause this mass exodus from Holland to South America. Disspointed and exhausted we ended having to stay in Milenio (I´m not sure which Milenia the facilities were first installed in, but it was NOT this current one). Roo, bless her, was beginning to fade again. It all starts with ´my tummy feels funny´. This sends a bolt of electricity to my brain as I now know what that is code for. Another 18 hours of diarrhea followed. The poor, poor wee thing. I worked out whilst looking after her, that she has spent 10 days solidy on the toilet in 3 months. She derserves a medal. On this occassion, it is a mystery as to what caused it, she just seems to be allergic to Bolivia as a whole. I did wonder, out loud, to public ridule, if you could catch diarrhea through your feet as that was the only possible source of contamination, but apparently you cant. So here again, I was fine, Roo was dying, her tongue and poo turned black and stayed black for 3 days (we will explore this further later). We never intended to go to La Paz at all, and ended up staying for two nights, wise from our previous experiences to postpone our 8 hour bus journey to Arica.
Roo- I eventually recovered, well my bottom stopped falling out, and we were able to catch the bus to Arica at 6am. Frozen and literally starving we huddled under three blankets with hats, scarves and all the coats we could find. The 8 hours journey passed relatively quickly and the border crossing from Bolivia to Chile was without issue (luckily the guards didn´t discover the vast quantities of pure heroin Emma had stuffed up her jumper!). We arrived in Arica and by some stroke of luck managed to jump on a bus to Santiago that was pulling out of the terminal. It´s as if we were organised and planned the whole thing! We even managed to haggle the price down with the woman on the desk! Emma was all in a flap and was moaning that she needed time to prepare for the journey...moan moan moan. I think M´s particularly bad mood was due to the fact we hadn´t eaten anything properly for over a week, or slept for three weeks due to altitude induced Insomnia. We stopped randomely throughout the journey and had to follow the lead of the ´locals´who seemed to instinctively know if this was a driver swap over or a more elongated fag break. On one occassion, everyone got off with all their bags, we sat there for a while on an empty bus, until the attendent Jose shouted, ´vamos´, and so we did. We were faced for the fourth time in 3 months by a PDI Chile bag inspection. We hauled our rucksacks out of the luggage hold and stood in a line waiting for the half frozen PDI inspector to interogate the passengers thoroughly. We´d seen this in Chile before and unlike Bolivia where there is a certain expectation that you´ll smuggle something in or more likely out of the country, so what the heck, go for it, Chile is different. Or so we thought. Conscientiously, the PDI officer searched all the bags of all the locals and then arrived at us, I was already dragging every item of dirty clothes from my rucksack. He then said to me ´nationality´ Inglesa, I replied, trying not to look guilty. Ýou can go´ - just for being English. He got to Emma and asked, ´Do you have any drugs?´, ´no, just dirty pants´, as she laughed, alone nervously, and that was it. We escaped a false imprisonment in South America again!
28 hours later we pulled in Santiago. Not our fav place! The smog here is so bad it burns our throats, eyes and noses! We jumped into a taxi which dropped us off in the middle of downtown Santiago, where we were met by hoards of young people armed with pots and pans. We later discovered that these were students demonstating about cuts in the education budget... so we were less confused, we had thought that the people of Santiago were just extremely freindly and had arranged a gigantic welcome party for us. Unfortunately the first person to actually speak to us was a crazy homeless man who was frothing at the mouth, and shouted some sort of made up language at me. I promptly ran across the road which was a bad idea as I was very nearly run down by a number of taxis driving the wrong way down a one way street. So, we have been in Santiago for two nights and ventured out just to get food (egg, chips and sausages was the first meal we had eaten for days and was sooooo delicious!) Its cold here, and now raining. Emma wants to go on a walking tour of the city at 3pm but I´m not convinced due to the weather and the fact that the burning smog makes my eyes run like mad! My poo is still black (for those of you who are intergued) due to the Pepta Bismol I took for my stomach, not due to the altitude, which is what we have been blaming for most other ailments. This little known side effect should be noted on the packet as not to worry people unnecessarily- I shall write to the manufacturers.
Emma- So that´s all really. This is long and I won´t make it any longer. We´re off to NZ in 24ish hours time, where it´s currently snowing. Hoorray! Thanks for reading and keep in touch, we love to hear from you.
Love, Emma & Roo.
Tuesday 26 July 2011
Saturday 23 July 2011
First donation
Hi everyone,
just a quick post to explain how we have spent some of your very generously donated money.
For the last 2 weeks we have been volunteering in a tiny little school about 30k out of Cusco. It has 16 students and 2 teachers.
I have explained a little about the school in a previous blog- it has limited funding so reuses everything. Composts food waste, makes curtains from old clothes and chairs from bottles. About 18 months ago the town below the school was totally flooded and its 200 inhabitants moved into the school. They totally wrecked the place, destroying the gardens, showers and tolets so for the past 6 months the students and teachers have been rebuilding it little by little with the help of volunteers like us!
It has taken 2 weeks to dig a veggie patch, mainly due to the blazing heat and altitude! We have donated 300 soles (about 75 quid) to buy veggies and tools to help the students grow their own food. I will post the photos asap- THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO DONATED MONEY!
Off to Arequipa now to do some sight-seeing.
xxxxxx
just a quick post to explain how we have spent some of your very generously donated money.
For the last 2 weeks we have been volunteering in a tiny little school about 30k out of Cusco. It has 16 students and 2 teachers.
Off to Arequipa now to do some sight-seeing.
xxxxxx
Sunday 17 July 2011
'Ive never been happier to navigate my way through a dark, delapidated brothel....' (Roo Stainton 2011)
We returned to Cusco from Macchu Picchu shattered and slept for two days. After our marathon rest we started out, refreshed and ready for another adventure, by finding the correct bus that would take us to Huambutio to our second Peruvian volunteering placement. We jumped in the back, threw our bags on the roof, and off we went. No more than two miles into our death-defying, buttock-clenching journey did something fly off the roof. To my dismay, I soon discovered it was my expensive coat, and not only has it fallen off the roof of the bus, some other bus had stopped in the middle of the road and a theiving Peruvian fleece stealer had nabbed it! We shouted something loudly, not in Spanish or English, maybe in French and the driver made a handbreak turn and that was it, we were off on a high speed, South American car chase! Everyone in our bus was ready, if neccasary to jump out and hang off the window wipers, wing mirrors, or any protruding part of the enemy bus to ensure the safe return of my coat. My quiet mutters of 'its Ok' and 'I could just buy a new one' fell on deaf ears and we quickly overtook the offending bus. We performed another handbreak turn and stopped head-on infront of the bus. The Peruvian fleece stealer, faced with a bus load of angry faces, wisely decided to return the stolen object and threw it on the bonnet of our bus, causing woops of delight from the passangers. Feeling slightly embarrassed to have caused such a to-do, we thanked the driver who looked extremely pleased with himself and we carried on with our journey.
Feeling slightly sick from the whole experience we were glad when the sign for Humbuatio came into view. ´Get off at the bridge before the town´ Enrique had emailed me, 'you´ll see a big white house, thats where we live´. As the bridge came into view we told the driver to stop. He didn´t stop. Over the bridge, past the big white house we went. The passangers shook their heads and pointed down the road. Almost 2 miles later the bus stopped, ´Huabutio´everyone said in unison. We got out, picked up our bags and started the long trudge down the dusty road, up a hill, blaming each other for not getting out earlier.
We arrived at the big white house, thirsty and dusty and introduced ourselves to Victor and Enrique, who has to be the tallest man in Peru at 6ft 7. I was quite relieved as I have been feeling like a giant. Everyone in Peru(except Enrique) is shorter than Emma, which is really quite short. We were shown around the house which has 10 bedrooms, a pool (empty), massive gardens and outhouses. We were told it used to be a hotel for gentlemen....... Enrique now rents it and runs it as a cultural centre and somewhere for local kids to come and ride bikes, draw, cook and play sports. He also throws the odd rave.
After our tour of the ´brothel´as it will now be affectionately known, we we taken to the local primary school, a sweet litte school which prides itself with recycling everything it uses. The chairs and tables are made from plastic bottles taped together. They compost all their food waste, have a solar powered shower and their school books are made from recycled paper. This is a bit revolutionary in Peru as most people just chuck their rubbish in the street.The school has 16 kids in total, 11 board as they live too far to walk everyday. The school day ends at 1pm which is when their teacher leaves. The principle, a fantastic lady called Janet lives at the school, with the boaders as a volunteer all week. She devises after school activities for them, makes sure they take showers and looks after them like her own kids. She gets to go to her own home at the weekends. Without Janet volunteering in this way, these 11 kids wouldn´t be able to have an education. Anyway, we were thrown into the deep end on our first day and told to take an english class. The class consisted on 7 kids between the ages of 6 and 12- none of whom spoke any english, and we dont speak any spanish. As you can imagine it was a bit of a disaster, which ended up with Emma having her hair braided and nails painted. Luckily for me, my hair is too short to be appealing to small Peruvian girls so I escaped with just a few pink nails.
The next day we spent the morning at the secondary school, teaching pronunciation to 10-12 year olds. They were more terrified than us, which could have something to do with their teacher. Dragon doesnt come close! She forced them into a circle and made them say vegetable and animal names in English one at a time. Thnakfully she left us in charge of the group so we deviated from the lesson plan slightly and played a running, chasing type circle game which seemed much more exciting to me. In the afternoon we went back to the little school and helped with some gardening. The days passed happily like this for a while, going to school, coming back to the house where Victor would cook fantastic meals, make the odd cake...etc etc. Until Enrique had a great idea.....
´Lets go to a small, remote mountain village´ he said. ´We can start a recycling project there´. Brilliant we thought. The trip to the mountain village happened to coincide with the biggest festival this side of Lima, thrown every year in aid of some virgin or another. Thousands of people flooded the town for a weekend. After catching two buses in the blazing heat, carrying 4 bags the size of tables Emma, Victor, Pepe (Victors brother) and I arrived in Puecotambo sweaty and kanckered only to find Enrique chilling in the sun having ridden his motorbike up a few hours earlier. We carried the bags to the local campsite which consisted of a field and one broken toilet. Brilliant. We put up the tents, and to our dismay, discovered that we were to share with Victor and his 17 year old brother. This would have been fine, they are lovely boys, excpet for the smell of Pepe´s feet. In an attempt not to vomit, we opened the door of the tent all night, braving the freezing temperatures.
In the morning, Emma was a treat. Having forgotten all our money, having no sleep, being cold, not being able to wash and having no clean drinking water seemed to put her in some kind of angry trance. We ventured into town to find water, like two nomadic tribespeople, only to be engulfed by drunkem mob of dancers. We were thankfully pushed towards a samll shop where we bought water and waited for the rush to subside. By now Emma was beyond angry- steam was escaping from her ears, I dared not to ask for anything to eat as we trudged our way back to the campsite. The final straw was when Enrique suggested we move our tent, Pepe´s feet and all, onto the road, infront of the truck we were to catch a ride in at 4am the next morning. We promptly packed our bag and caught the next bus back to Huambutio. Nonoe was perticularly amused, but Emma meant buisness, and if you know Emma, she´s not to be messed with if tired, cold and hungry!
We arrived back at the house in the pitch dark. Struggling with the big bunch of keys, trying not to jump at all the strange noises that old houses make, we managed to find our way to bed to sleep in a war(ish) room on matresses and have a shower the following morning! Bliss!
Feeling slightly sick from the whole experience we were glad when the sign for Humbuatio came into view. ´Get off at the bridge before the town´ Enrique had emailed me, 'you´ll see a big white house, thats where we live´. As the bridge came into view we told the driver to stop. He didn´t stop. Over the bridge, past the big white house we went. The passangers shook their heads and pointed down the road. Almost 2 miles later the bus stopped, ´Huabutio´everyone said in unison. We got out, picked up our bags and started the long trudge down the dusty road, up a hill, blaming each other for not getting out earlier.
We arrived at the big white house, thirsty and dusty and introduced ourselves to Victor and Enrique, who has to be the tallest man in Peru at 6ft 7. I was quite relieved as I have been feeling like a giant. Everyone in Peru(except Enrique) is shorter than Emma, which is really quite short. We were shown around the house which has 10 bedrooms, a pool (empty), massive gardens and outhouses. We were told it used to be a hotel for gentlemen....... Enrique now rents it and runs it as a cultural centre and somewhere for local kids to come and ride bikes, draw, cook and play sports. He also throws the odd rave.
After our tour of the ´brothel´as it will now be affectionately known, we we taken to the local primary school, a sweet litte school which prides itself with recycling everything it uses. The chairs and tables are made from plastic bottles taped together. They compost all their food waste, have a solar powered shower and their school books are made from recycled paper. This is a bit revolutionary in Peru as most people just chuck their rubbish in the street.The school has 16 kids in total, 11 board as they live too far to walk everyday. The school day ends at 1pm which is when their teacher leaves. The principle, a fantastic lady called Janet lives at the school, with the boaders as a volunteer all week. She devises after school activities for them, makes sure they take showers and looks after them like her own kids. She gets to go to her own home at the weekends. Without Janet volunteering in this way, these 11 kids wouldn´t be able to have an education. Anyway, we were thrown into the deep end on our first day and told to take an english class. The class consisted on 7 kids between the ages of 6 and 12- none of whom spoke any english, and we dont speak any spanish. As you can imagine it was a bit of a disaster, which ended up with Emma having her hair braided and nails painted. Luckily for me, my hair is too short to be appealing to small Peruvian girls so I escaped with just a few pink nails.
The next day we spent the morning at the secondary school, teaching pronunciation to 10-12 year olds. They were more terrified than us, which could have something to do with their teacher. Dragon doesnt come close! She forced them into a circle and made them say vegetable and animal names in English one at a time. Thnakfully she left us in charge of the group so we deviated from the lesson plan slightly and played a running, chasing type circle game which seemed much more exciting to me. In the afternoon we went back to the little school and helped with some gardening. The days passed happily like this for a while, going to school, coming back to the house where Victor would cook fantastic meals, make the odd cake...etc etc. Until Enrique had a great idea.....
´Lets go to a small, remote mountain village´ he said. ´We can start a recycling project there´. Brilliant we thought. The trip to the mountain village happened to coincide with the biggest festival this side of Lima, thrown every year in aid of some virgin or another. Thousands of people flooded the town for a weekend. After catching two buses in the blazing heat, carrying 4 bags the size of tables Emma, Victor, Pepe (Victors brother) and I arrived in Puecotambo sweaty and kanckered only to find Enrique chilling in the sun having ridden his motorbike up a few hours earlier. We carried the bags to the local campsite which consisted of a field and one broken toilet. Brilliant. We put up the tents, and to our dismay, discovered that we were to share with Victor and his 17 year old brother. This would have been fine, they are lovely boys, excpet for the smell of Pepe´s feet. In an attempt not to vomit, we opened the door of the tent all night, braving the freezing temperatures.
In the morning, Emma was a treat. Having forgotten all our money, having no sleep, being cold, not being able to wash and having no clean drinking water seemed to put her in some kind of angry trance. We ventured into town to find water, like two nomadic tribespeople, only to be engulfed by drunkem mob of dancers. We were thankfully pushed towards a samll shop where we bought water and waited for the rush to subside. By now Emma was beyond angry- steam was escaping from her ears, I dared not to ask for anything to eat as we trudged our way back to the campsite. The final straw was when Enrique suggested we move our tent, Pepe´s feet and all, onto the road, infront of the truck we were to catch a ride in at 4am the next morning. We promptly packed our bag and caught the next bus back to Huambutio. Nonoe was perticularly amused, but Emma meant buisness, and if you know Emma, she´s not to be messed with if tired, cold and hungry!
We arrived back at the house in the pitch dark. Struggling with the big bunch of keys, trying not to jump at all the strange noises that old houses make, we managed to find our way to bed to sleep in a war(ish) room on matresses and have a shower the following morning! Bliss!
Sunday 10 July 2011
Macchu Picchu -. whose idea was it anyway?
Macchu Picchu - the best of times, the worst of times (actually it wasn´t that bad, but aiming for dramatic effect!)
Roo suggested we went on a 4 day trek to Macchu Picchu whilst still recovering from giardia. I said she was off her head mad and we should get the train, but she insisted and if you know Roo, persistence (not to be confused with stubborness) is a fine character trait of hers, along with patience (HA!)
We just got back from Macchu Picchu yesterday. It was increible. We started off at 4,000 meters in the snow and mountain biked into the jungle at 1200 meters on the first day. All the food and accomodation was included, but we had to carry water and all our clothes and given that we really did experience 4 seasons in one day, that was quite a lot! The accomodation - oh my days - basic doesn´t do it justice. The first night we shared with 3 computer programmers (all male), two from Holland and one from India, who had lived in LA since he was 19. All tremendously sweet people, except for their snoring, which was EPIC! No sleep at all. They remain sweet people, but I´d rather share a room with a herd of elephants!
The 2nd day started early, up at 6.30, to a breakfast of banana pancakes, which was delicious and off walking by 7.30. When Ebid (our guide) said we would be walking for 9 hours, I just assumed he was exaggerating, so in this mistaken belief, we all dorbed war paint from a plant used for dying alpaca wool (it´s just come off my face) and started enthusiastically up the track. We mananged to leave Ed a postman from England behind and had to go back for him: For Ed, the whole experience must have been a busman´s holiday as we walked and we walked, first through the jungle, then through the jungle up a moauntain, then down the mountain through the jungle and across a number of Indiana Jones style precarious bridges. Roo said she wanted to throw herself off the edge on a number of occassions as she was so tired, it would have a been easy to do, as health and safety regulations have yet to reach Peru, but thankfully she didn´t and we stuck together through it all.
Finally we reached the river and as the shadows lengthened and the end came mericfully in to view, we were taken literally (and metaphorically) for a ride across the river on a cable car, pulled by hand (uno sole por favor!), then on to the hot springs,changing behind and hut (losing our dignity for the 2nd time in a fortnight) - but it was worth it. Roo was in a really bad way - walking isn´t her thing. Hurting people on a rugby pitch is her thing - it doesn´t really transfer as a skill in this situation. We arrived in Santa Teresa and were delighted to find we had a room to ourselves and the door in the room, which I assuned to be a cupboard, was in fact a bathroom! Oh the JOY! The water, alas was cold, but we braved a shower anyway. Dinner was a subduded affair, which was enlivened when the two auusies, two scots, two Beligians all ordered Pisco Sours and went to the discotechque. Roo was still on anti-biotics, and as I get drunk on a rum truffle we decided to retire to our salubrious accomodation and we were in bed by 9pm. At 2am, we were awoken to a rendition of Oasis Wonderwall, followed by a romp through hits of the ´80´s and ´90´s by the kids returning from the club!
Day 3, another pancacke breakfast and a short taxi ride to the zip line station, zip lining down 6 cables along the canyon, which I´m gutted to say we didn´t do because Roo was poorly, but it looked amazing, with each cable being 2000 ft in the air. This was followed by another 3 hour trek along the river around Macchu Picchu mountain. Roo by this time had lost all feeling in her legs and feet, so marched on, shut off from the world by her ipod like a woman possessed. I couldn´t keep up with her. We arrived in Aguas Callientus at 3pm. The sole purpose of this town is to support the tourist trade of Macchu Picchu, every shop is geared to sell things for toursits, you even have to walk a secretious route through the covered market to get to the train station. They even have a special tax, just for tourists! The day we arrived was the 100th anniversary of Hiram Bingham ´discovering´ Macchu Picchu, even though there were indigenous families living there already! There was a huge celebration in the town and at Macchu Picchu and according to Ebid, Lady Gaga and Chakira where performing there. We never found out of this was true, but there was certainly a big party going down up there! The accomodation was the worst yet. It´s hard to express in words, except to say that the only saving grace was that there was a hot shower. We hung the wet towels out to dry overnight and in the morning, they were more wet than they had been. The whole room was damp beyond belief and by all accounts, we were really lucky with the room we were given. Some of our fellow travellers had a window, with no glass, which is actually just a hole in the wall and froze all night.
Day 4: up at 2.45 am to get the 5.30 bus to Macchu Picchu. Most of the group walked the 2000 steps to the top of Macchu Picchu mountain, and we take our collective hats off to them but by now, we were both so tired and Roo was stiill recovering from Gairdia that so we elected to take the bus. We arrived at Macchu Picchu at 6am, queued to get tickets to Wynapicchu, the mountain that overlooks Macchu Picchu, but the allocation of 400 had mercifully gone before we got to the front of the queue. We had a tour of the site until 9.15ish and fell asleep in the sun until 11.30 - BIG mistake! Dazed from sunstroke, we had a little more wandering left in our legs and negotiated the hundreds of steps over this incredible site. Exhausted, we got the bus back down the mountain, ready to catch the 6.15 train to Ollyatatambo, before finding Bus Pedro to get us back to Cusco for 11pm. It was the most brilliant and exhausting thing we´ve ever done and apart from the organisation and awful accomodation I wouldn´t change a thing (I´m not sure Roo would agree however!)
What we have learnt during our time in Peru
The spanish are disliked here, a abit like the English are disliked by the Scots ;). The Quechua are very bitter about the invasion 500 years ago, and haven´t got over it at all. Everyone claims to be a Quechuan which infers they are related to the lost incas (Kings of the inca culture), in a similar way that some people in England like to think they are a direct decendant of King Arthur!
Apparently there are 3 ways to get rich in Peru, become a drug dealer - coca plant is everywhere and farmers make a lot of more money selling it to the drug manufactures than the government. Number two, become a politician. The police and government are completely corrupt and if you´re in charge you can do anything. Everyone is open to a bribe and it´s part of the way things get done, or not as the case may be. And finally, find Inca gold. The museum here is full of enormous pots which were filled with gold, made as offerings to the gods by the incas. The pots are there, but the gold is gone. All the kids want to become archeologists or anthropolgists so they can excavate and take what they find. There are stories everywhere of porters and tour guides becoming wealthy having found Inca gold in the jungle and selling it on the black market. Who knows if any of this is true, but there were 32 candidates for the local mayor elections in Cuzco and coca plants are everywhere, and there isn´t a single piece of gold in the inca musem (I checked!)
Never the less, Peru has character, a bit like a wayward child has character. I like it here and would come back again definitely.
On to volunteer placement number 3!
Vamos Amigos!
Loads of love to all,
Emma and Roo xxx
Roo suggested we went on a 4 day trek to Macchu Picchu whilst still recovering from giardia. I said she was off her head mad and we should get the train, but she insisted and if you know Roo, persistence (not to be confused with stubborness) is a fine character trait of hers, along with patience (HA!)
We just got back from Macchu Picchu yesterday. It was increible. We started off at 4,000 meters in the snow and mountain biked into the jungle at 1200 meters on the first day. All the food and accomodation was included, but we had to carry water and all our clothes and given that we really did experience 4 seasons in one day, that was quite a lot! The accomodation - oh my days - basic doesn´t do it justice. The first night we shared with 3 computer programmers (all male), two from Holland and one from India, who had lived in LA since he was 19. All tremendously sweet people, except for their snoring, which was EPIC! No sleep at all. They remain sweet people, but I´d rather share a room with a herd of elephants!
The 2nd day started early, up at 6.30, to a breakfast of banana pancakes, which was delicious and off walking by 7.30. When Ebid (our guide) said we would be walking for 9 hours, I just assumed he was exaggerating, so in this mistaken belief, we all dorbed war paint from a plant used for dying alpaca wool (it´s just come off my face) and started enthusiastically up the track. We mananged to leave Ed a postman from England behind and had to go back for him: For Ed, the whole experience must have been a busman´s holiday as we walked and we walked, first through the jungle, then through the jungle up a moauntain, then down the mountain through the jungle and across a number of Indiana Jones style precarious bridges. Roo said she wanted to throw herself off the edge on a number of occassions as she was so tired, it would have a been easy to do, as health and safety regulations have yet to reach Peru, but thankfully she didn´t and we stuck together through it all.
Finally we reached the river and as the shadows lengthened and the end came mericfully in to view, we were taken literally (and metaphorically) for a ride across the river on a cable car, pulled by hand (uno sole por favor!), then on to the hot springs,changing behind and hut (losing our dignity for the 2nd time in a fortnight) - but it was worth it. Roo was in a really bad way - walking isn´t her thing. Hurting people on a rugby pitch is her thing - it doesn´t really transfer as a skill in this situation. We arrived in Santa Teresa and were delighted to find we had a room to ourselves and the door in the room, which I assuned to be a cupboard, was in fact a bathroom! Oh the JOY! The water, alas was cold, but we braved a shower anyway. Dinner was a subduded affair, which was enlivened when the two auusies, two scots, two Beligians all ordered Pisco Sours and went to the discotechque. Roo was still on anti-biotics, and as I get drunk on a rum truffle we decided to retire to our salubrious accomodation and we were in bed by 9pm. At 2am, we were awoken to a rendition of Oasis Wonderwall, followed by a romp through hits of the ´80´s and ´90´s by the kids returning from the club!
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| Maybe we should have trained for this! |
Day 3, another pancacke breakfast and a short taxi ride to the zip line station, zip lining down 6 cables along the canyon, which I´m gutted to say we didn´t do because Roo was poorly, but it looked amazing, with each cable being 2000 ft in the air. This was followed by another 3 hour trek along the river around Macchu Picchu mountain. Roo by this time had lost all feeling in her legs and feet, so marched on, shut off from the world by her ipod like a woman possessed. I couldn´t keep up with her. We arrived in Aguas Callientus at 3pm. The sole purpose of this town is to support the tourist trade of Macchu Picchu, every shop is geared to sell things for toursits, you even have to walk a secretious route through the covered market to get to the train station. They even have a special tax, just for tourists! The day we arrived was the 100th anniversary of Hiram Bingham ´discovering´ Macchu Picchu, even though there were indigenous families living there already! There was a huge celebration in the town and at Macchu Picchu and according to Ebid, Lady Gaga and Chakira where performing there. We never found out of this was true, but there was certainly a big party going down up there! The accomodation was the worst yet. It´s hard to express in words, except to say that the only saving grace was that there was a hot shower. We hung the wet towels out to dry overnight and in the morning, they were more wet than they had been. The whole room was damp beyond belief and by all accounts, we were really lucky with the room we were given. Some of our fellow travellers had a window, with no glass, which is actually just a hole in the wall and froze all night.
Day 4: up at 2.45 am to get the 5.30 bus to Macchu Picchu. Most of the group walked the 2000 steps to the top of Macchu Picchu mountain, and we take our collective hats off to them but by now, we were both so tired and Roo was stiill recovering from Gairdia that so we elected to take the bus. We arrived at Macchu Picchu at 6am, queued to get tickets to Wynapicchu, the mountain that overlooks Macchu Picchu, but the allocation of 400 had mercifully gone before we got to the front of the queue. We had a tour of the site until 9.15ish and fell asleep in the sun until 11.30 - BIG mistake! Dazed from sunstroke, we had a little more wandering left in our legs and negotiated the hundreds of steps over this incredible site. Exhausted, we got the bus back down the mountain, ready to catch the 6.15 train to Ollyatatambo, before finding Bus Pedro to get us back to Cusco for 11pm. It was the most brilliant and exhausting thing we´ve ever done and apart from the organisation and awful accomodation I wouldn´t change a thing (I´m not sure Roo would agree however!)
What we have learnt during our time in Peru
The spanish are disliked here, a abit like the English are disliked by the Scots ;). The Quechua are very bitter about the invasion 500 years ago, and haven´t got over it at all. Everyone claims to be a Quechuan which infers they are related to the lost incas (Kings of the inca culture), in a similar way that some people in England like to think they are a direct decendant of King Arthur!
Apparently there are 3 ways to get rich in Peru, become a drug dealer - coca plant is everywhere and farmers make a lot of more money selling it to the drug manufactures than the government. Number two, become a politician. The police and government are completely corrupt and if you´re in charge you can do anything. Everyone is open to a bribe and it´s part of the way things get done, or not as the case may be. And finally, find Inca gold. The museum here is full of enormous pots which were filled with gold, made as offerings to the gods by the incas. The pots are there, but the gold is gone. All the kids want to become archeologists or anthropolgists so they can excavate and take what they find. There are stories everywhere of porters and tour guides becoming wealthy having found Inca gold in the jungle and selling it on the black market. Who knows if any of this is true, but there were 32 candidates for the local mayor elections in Cuzco and coca plants are everywhere, and there isn´t a single piece of gold in the inca musem (I checked!)
Never the less, Peru has character, a bit like a wayward child has character. I like it here and would come back again definitely.
On to volunteer placement number 3!
Vamos Amigos!
Loads of love to all,
Emma and Roo xxx
Friday 1 July 2011
Thursday 30 June 2011
Peru and beyond.
Hola, we made it to Cusco and it is such a beautiful place. We were sad to leave Eco Truly in the end, the people there are very lovely and the animals that Roo adopted wouldn´t fit in her rucksack so we had to entrust them to Uncle Ben, Aunty Corla, Barbs and the others to take over feeding duties. I know they are in VERY safe hands.
The journey to Cusco was another marathan (22 hours, but at an average of 30km p/h to avoid falling off sheer cliff faces. It made ventures to the banos (loo) even more precarious than usual (will explain in a mo).The scenery was/is spectacular here, and for lots of the journey we were above the level of the clouds. Cusco is really high up, and altitude sickness is something we have to keep an eye out for, except I don´t know what to look for - better check! We are planning to stay here for a wee while and be tourists. Having not met any native English speakers for 6 weeks, we´re now surrounded by them and there is now a dearth of native Spanish speakers, so my limited spannish is slowing ebbing away to being non-existent again, I´m back to dropping casually into French at times of linguistic pressure, which was what I was doing when I first arrived, but it is quite nice to be able to have an idea of what´s going on.
Talking of banos - both Roo and I have been sick, we´have giardia - not nice. It´s a little parasite that camps out in your intestine and is really common in places with poor sanitation (I googled it, can you tell? :) ), we had to spend a small fortune to have it diagnoised which is done by offering a poo sample in an egg cup! Dignity gone. So now we are both on anti-biotics and will be good as nearly newish in a few days.
We are planning to trek to Macchu Picchu in a few days time and then we´ll start our volunteering at the community recycling project in Cusco. We´re have internet access here too, which is nice, so please say hello if you get chance because we can reply.
Adios from Peru.
Loads of love to all,
Emma and Roo xxx
PS. Roo said to tell you, that we can´t put the frigging photos on, but we will perservere!
The journey to Cusco was another marathan (22 hours, but at an average of 30km p/h to avoid falling off sheer cliff faces. It made ventures to the banos (loo) even more precarious than usual (will explain in a mo).The scenery was/is spectacular here, and for lots of the journey we were above the level of the clouds. Cusco is really high up, and altitude sickness is something we have to keep an eye out for, except I don´t know what to look for - better check! We are planning to stay here for a wee while and be tourists. Having not met any native English speakers for 6 weeks, we´re now surrounded by them and there is now a dearth of native Spanish speakers, so my limited spannish is slowing ebbing away to being non-existent again, I´m back to dropping casually into French at times of linguistic pressure, which was what I was doing when I first arrived, but it is quite nice to be able to have an idea of what´s going on.
Talking of banos - both Roo and I have been sick, we´have giardia - not nice. It´s a little parasite that camps out in your intestine and is really common in places with poor sanitation (I googled it, can you tell? :) ), we had to spend a small fortune to have it diagnoised which is done by offering a poo sample in an egg cup! Dignity gone. So now we are both on anti-biotics and will be good as nearly newish in a few days.
We are planning to trek to Macchu Picchu in a few days time and then we´ll start our volunteering at the community recycling project in Cusco. We´re have internet access here too, which is nice, so please say hello if you get chance because we can reply.
Adios from Peru.
Loads of love to all,
Emma and Roo xxx
PS. Roo said to tell you, that we can´t put the frigging photos on, but we will perservere!
Friday 24 June 2011
Eco Truly
We've been at Eco Truly for a week now and met some lovely people. We get up at 7am for a morning yoga class flollowed by breakfast which usually consists of veg soup! Then we work until lunch, weeding or chopping veg and then have a free afternoon to chill out or go into Chancay. The village is a Hare Krisna community and everyone wakes up at 4 am to go to temple, Emma has participated in this once, its not really my thing! We are back to pooing in a bucket and have to endure cold showers, but we're grateful that there are any showers at all! We'ew starting to get itchy feeta again and cant wait to get to Cusco and do some jungle trecking and exploring Inca ruins. We have met some lovely people here though, We're travelling to Cusco with Tracey from Oz and Jo from England. Luckily Jo speaks Spanish so at least we won't get on the worong bus.
Unfortunately we still cant find any computer able to download our photos but we will keep trying.
Unfortunately we still cant find any computer able to download our photos but we will keep trying.
Saturday 18 June 2011
Lima adventures!
Tonight is our last night in luxurious conditions. Tomorrow we travel to Eco Truly village to volunteer for 2 weeks. What we have seen of Lima has been amazing- emma is currently in bed, recovering from 2 delicious pisco sours! Today we spent a while in the national museum, we were not prepared for the exhibition about the terrorist attacks in peru- harrowing. It is amazing how little we both know about the history of latin America. We commiserated with dinner- sea food for me! Pisco sours all round, which are our new favourite beverage, especially mango flavour! We are looking forward to a bit more work as 3 days in the city is enough for both of us and we can't wait to get to Cusco and conquer Machu Pichu. Speak soon, Roo c
Sunday 12 June 2011
On our way to Lima
We made it! A month after arriving in Tunuyan we are staying in a hostel in Mendoza awaiting our bus ride to Lima tomorrow morning. We were sad to say goodbye to margot, facu, lucky, Vicky, Samu and Lucio not to mention Humo, all the rabbits, chickens, mango and her mum!
The Andes looked spectacular this morning, and for the first time since we arrived we didn't have to break the ice on the water bucket when we had a wash!
Everyone said that we would have an incredibly memorable experience and Tunuyan certainly proved that. This morning as we walked to the cabin to say goodbye to the facu and lucky, they were both doing their yoga routine in longjohns in the woods! Brave for all concerned.
The twins were as sweet as ever and we wish them and their parents all the luck in the world trying to sort out a place to live.
The bus ride to Mendoza was luxury and the first time we'd sat on a chair with a back for a while. Exhausted, I fell asleep. We also had a shower, another first in a month! before you all recoil in horror, we have had a few washes in 3 inches if water whilst in Tunuyan, but that's it. It was incredible to feel clean again, but we both had to change out clothes because all we can smell is smoke - which, strangely and worryingly were more or less oblivious too before! I guess other people who didn't live like the woodland creatures Roo and I had become would have noticed it more! We will sign off now and add photisonce we garrice in Lima until then buenos noches amigos. :)love emma and Roo x
The Andes looked spectacular this morning, and for the first time since we arrived we didn't have to break the ice on the water bucket when we had a wash!
Everyone said that we would have an incredibly memorable experience and Tunuyan certainly proved that. This morning as we walked to the cabin to say goodbye to the facu and lucky, they were both doing their yoga routine in longjohns in the woods! Brave for all concerned.
The twins were as sweet as ever and we wish them and their parents all the luck in the world trying to sort out a place to live.
The bus ride to Mendoza was luxury and the first time we'd sat on a chair with a back for a while. Exhausted, I fell asleep. We also had a shower, another first in a month! before you all recoil in horror, we have had a few washes in 3 inches if water whilst in Tunuyan, but that's it. It was incredible to feel clean again, but we both had to change out clothes because all we can smell is smoke - which, strangely and worryingly were more or less oblivious too before! I guess other people who didn't live like the woodland creatures Roo and I had become would have noticed it more! We will sign off now and add photisonce we garrice in Lima until then buenos noches amigos. :)love emma and Roo x
Saturday 21 May 2011
Tunuyan
We arrived in Mendoza after a 40 hour bus ride from Iguazu and unfortunately had to get another bus and a taxi to get to Tunuyan where we´ve been staying with Margot since the 18th May.
Iguazu falls were AMAZING. We spent two days there being driven by a speedboat into the waterfall and getting drenched, taking a eco boat trip where we saw aligators, catfish, toocans, kingfishers and trecking through the jungle where we came face to face with a massive tarantula! 2 days weren´t really enough to do everything we wanted.
Now we´re getting used to the freezing nights in Tunuyan, having to wear all the clothes we have to avoid getting frost bite! Margot is building a house for her and her daughter with help from volunteers and lives in a sustainable community with no running water, electricity or plumbing! We´ve been living in a cabin which is undergoing some repairs so unfortunately has a hole in the roof and gets quite draughty at night! Our jobs here include caring for the chickens and rabbits, baking, making a clay oven and a sheep pen. Its hard work and difficult to get used to pooing in a bucket but well worth it for the view of the Andes first thing in the morning! Hopefully we´ll learn a few things whilst we´re here we´ll get used to showering only once a week! Photos will follow shortly.
Miss you all
Love,
Roo and M
xxxx
Iguazu falls were AMAZING. We spent two days there being driven by a speedboat into the waterfall and getting drenched, taking a eco boat trip where we saw aligators, catfish, toocans, kingfishers and trecking through the jungle where we came face to face with a massive tarantula! 2 days weren´t really enough to do everything we wanted.
Now we´re getting used to the freezing nights in Tunuyan, having to wear all the clothes we have to avoid getting frost bite! Margot is building a house for her and her daughter with help from volunteers and lives in a sustainable community with no running water, electricity or plumbing! We´ve been living in a cabin which is undergoing some repairs so unfortunately has a hole in the roof and gets quite draughty at night! Our jobs here include caring for the chickens and rabbits, baking, making a clay oven and a sheep pen. Its hard work and difficult to get used to pooing in a bucket but well worth it for the view of the Andes first thing in the morning! Hopefully we´ll learn a few things whilst we´re here we´ll get used to showering only once a week! Photos will follow shortly.
Miss you all
Love,
Roo and M
xxxx
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