We’ve come a long way…

I didn’t realize until I got home just how many faithful readers we had of the blog, and by that time I’d done such a poor job in maintaining a flow that I figured I may as well just give up. However, in an effort to summarize the remainder of our trip for the sake of completeness, I’ll take a moment to catch up.

We returned home on April 11 after 268 days on the road and, as it did after our previous trip, it took about 37 seconds for everyone to get used to us again and have the last 9 months of our lives forgotten except for those moments at home when we are so, so glad to have shared it all with each other. Unfortunately it takes a bit longer than 37 seconds for us to get back on our feet, but we’re extremely lucky to have a network of family and friends that are making that transition as smooth as possible- so thanks to all for that.

Anyway, going back…

On leaving the sacred ground of Byron Bay we worked our way further up the east coast of Australia with stops at Surfer’s Paradise (just to say we did), Bundaberg (just to drink the rum), Hervey Bay (to catch a ferry to the amazing sand dune in the sea known as Fraser Island), and finally Airlie Beach (to catch a pirate ship out to the infamous Whitsunday Islands and Great Barrier Reef). Despite consistently unfavourable weather we managed to enjoy some pretty spectacular moments on Australia’s east coast. A real highlight (other than the rum liqueur- Jim, you’d better be saving some for me…) was witnessing the hatching of a nest of loggerhead turtles and creating a lit pathway to the ocean for them. After the hatching, the scientists “excavate” the nest to study the success rate of the hatching (they have previously counted the number of eggs laid) and I was lucky enough to get to carry a straggler down to the shoreline by hand! We even were more lucky to witness a nesting event later in the evening- due to the seasonal cycle for the turtles its pretty rare to get to see both a laying and a hatching at the same time. It was a long night with quite a crowd and some pretty “holier than thou” scientists, but still an amazing experience that erased our frustration of striking out earlier on the west coast at Ningaloo.

Once we finally arrived in Airlie Beach we managed to secure our space on a 100+ year old wooden sailing ship named Solway Lass. She was a classic boat with all the pirate rigging and charm of a boat that has many stories to tell. Again, the weather fought us the whole time, but we still had a great time swinging on the Tarzan rope, celebrating Linda’s birthday, and ray hunting on the infamous Whitsunday beach. After disembarking the boat we spent our last night in Airlie Beach before our flight back to Sydney where we had 2 days to pack in a weeks worth of activities before closing the book on Australia. Little did we know, until about 3am that morning at least, that Jim had other things in store for us. Long story short- what had been about a week’s worth of stomach pain and indigestion for Jim manifested itself that night causing us to make our first stop in Sydney the Emergency Room at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. It was a shock for us all to learn that Jim wouldn’t be leaving that hospital for another 2 weeks, and a little lighter in the guts after having a substantial piece of bowel cancer removed. The diagnosis and treatment of the cancer took barely over 16 hours, and Jim’s recovery was amazingly fast allowing him to get back to Canada after about 10 days of healing in Sydney. The two Public Service Announcements that come from this are: have your colonoscopies regularly, and the health care and treatment at Sydney’s RPA Hospital is wonderful, fast, efficient, thorough, and caring in all ways.

Due to the unexpected turn of events in Sydney, Cam and I delayed our flight to New Zealand for a few days so that we could make sure both parents were taken care of as best we could, and settled comfortably in until they would be able to get back to Canada. We eventually flew to Auckland on March 3 where we rendezvoused with Adam, who had arrived a few days earlier and was spending his time with family north of Auckland in Redbeach. And by “spending time” I really mean “eating copious amounts of lamb”.

Not wanting to waste any time, we had a quick visit with the Smith’s (our family there), grabbed the Kombi and Adam, and headed out into the pouring rain. After a supply run to Pak ‘n Save we found a ridiculously overpriced campsite, visited like idiots until it was dark and pouring rain, and then headed out to set up Adam’s tent. Lesson learned that night- arrive before dark, and setup immediately when its not raining. It wasn’t the most inspiring start to a road trip, but we are a robust crew and persevered! Over the next three weeks we zigzagged across both islands trying to show Adam the best of what we’d seen on our previous visit, while also cramming in new experiences for us all.

On the North Island we tried our hand at digging our own hot water pool on the Coromandel Peninsula (unsuccessful, yet again), enjoyed a traditional Hangi feast and concert in Rotorua (meat and potatoes cooked underground- how can you go wrong?), sampled wines and art-deco architecture in Napier, toured the Tui Brewery (three free beers each at 10am…), and eventually made it to Wellington where Adam had a Weta tour and we spent a day trying to fit in the entirety of the amazing (and free) Te Papa museum. On that day the Japanese tsunami hit and New Zealanders were warned to stay off the beaches, especially on the northern tip of the South Island- just exactly the place we were headed to the next day. By ferry. Perfect :)

After arriving in Picton on the South Island we headed west toward Nelson to arrange our adventure into Abel Tasman National Park- a must do on all NZ itineraries. Deciding to save our kayaking trip for Fjordland, we instead booked a water taxi so that we could view the park from the coast, and then walk back through it on the Abel Tasman Coastal Track. To maximize efficiency, we booked that journey for a few days ahead, and pushed on with the van to the very northern tip of the island- a place we’d not managed to reach on our previous trip. The tip of the island is called Farewell Spit, and the nearby Wharariki Beach is easily one of the most beautiful places in the entire country. We felt really lucky to get all the way there this time and loved spending time taking in the stunning views in every direction, and in every weather condition. We returned south to Kaiteriteri to catch our water taxi and enjoyed the hike south through the park- it was nice to see the park from this vantage point, rather than just by water as we had done before. A wicked dinner of shark ‘n chips capped off a great day, despite being ravaged by sandflies the entire time. After departing Abel Tasman we headed up and over to the west coast of the island where we were forced to pull over regularly to capture the rugged beauty of New Zealand’s west (and, like home, wet) coast. Though the blowholes of Punakiki weren’t really blowing, its still a beautiful place and unique to anywhere else we’ve seen. We pressed on to Fox and Franz Josef glaciers where we “enjoyed” a 45 minute walk each way in the freezing sleet to get up close and personal with the ice. By the time we reached camp we were soaked to the bone, but fortunately the weather had broken and we managed to have a dry night, and an amazing meal cooked on the grill. The weather continued to be off and on as we headed south, finally making it to Wanaka where the sun started to shine over the lake and the mountains and scenery really reminded us just how amazingly beautiful a country New Zealand is. We spent a day hiking the Rob Roy Valley track which afforded us with stunning views of glaciers and mountains and, for even more sightseeing, Adam opted for a “fly yourself” tour over the local area. Too steep for our budget, we enjoyed watching him take off and land… We headed out of Wanaka and on to Queenstown, with a stop at Kawarau Bridge to watch the bungy jumpers, and another at Arrowtown to enjoy the quaint main street and candy store (where I finally found Walkers toffee after being disappointed in Nepal!). We made it to Queenstown where we camped on the shores of 12 Mile Delta and enjoyed the beauty of the Remarkables. Although we didn’t partake in any of Queenstown’s crazy (and expensive) adventure activities, we did partake in Fergburger- after finding it based on the following recommendation: “It’s the place where all the people are.” Turns out that’s all the direction you need! Not sure if the burgers are worth ALL the hype, but they were certainly plenty good, and large. Ask Adam for his personal review… We used the booking resources of Queenstown to arrange our next adventure- a kayaking trip in the hard to reach Doubtful Sound. The south-western side of New Zealand is known as Fjordland and is pretty inaccessible to even the most serious adventurer. The main exception to that is Milford Sound which is a stunning and beautiful fjord (a narrow, steep walled inlet in the ocean that was carved by a glacier) into which 99% of the tourists venture (including us on our last visit). This time, however, we opted for Doubtful Sound which is, so far, less busy but equally amazing. We arranged a one day kayaking trip where we were three of a group of eight, plus our guide Luke- whose MEC jacket and Haida designed wooden bear paddle reflected his recent job working off the coast of Vancouver Island. Although it can rain up to 11m per year in Doubtful Sound we had an absolutely gorgeous day and enjoyed an amazing paddling experience. Although they claim that the rainy days are “some of the best” (due to the millions of waterfalls that appear) we were pretty happy with our sun, with the dolphins that swam under our boat, and the small channels we got to explore. Even the sandflies were kept at bay for the most part by our wetsuits and safety gear. A night back at one of our favourite campsites and a viewing of Hot Tub Time Machine wrapped up one of our best days in New Zealand.
From Te Anau (the gateway town to Doubtful Sound, population 45 or so) we headed “cross country” and crossed the entire expanse of the country in a whopping 4 hours, arriving in Dunedin with hopes of connecting with Brian and Diane. Considering we gave them zero advanced notice of our arrival, we were happy to find them home and willing to accept us for the night. We had dinner together and once again enjoyed the magic that is connecting with family- no matter how distant. As our days were drawing rapidly to a close we had to head out the next morning and, in our haste, left our maps on Brian’s table where he had helped us plan our route. After about 15 minutes of driving we realized our mistake and pulled over to retrace our steps- and there was Brian who had been tailing us the whole way maps in hand! Good thing the Kombi is easy to spot, as we’d never have noticed him behind us.

Our destination for that day was Mt. Cook (Aoraki) and Brian figured we could reach it by 2:00pm. Well, factoring in a stop at the Moeraki Boulders and having two obsessive photogs in the car, we actually reached camp at 7pm- although the drive was well worth the slower pace as the weather and views were gorgeous the entire way. We found the camp overrun with young school children, but nestled the van into a spot in the trees that gave us by far the best campsite view we’ve ever had- looking down the valley at Mt. Cook- where we could enjoy it at both sunset and sunrise. We had a great meal of NZ meat pies (there’s meat in it!) and shared with two German girls who had been travelling the country for 6 months together after only meeting each other in Auckland. Considering they’d travelled pretty much every road in the country, we took their advice to visit the Clay Cliffs the following day- despite the fact that it was a 30 minute back track for us. However, before heading that way we drove right up to Mt. Cook and started part of the 4 hour hike up the Hooker Valley. Pressed for time, we weren’t able to complete the hike, but went far enough to round the bend and get the view of the valley and glacier anyway- which was certainly worth the effort. Retracing our steps, and then our roads, we back tracked to the Clay Cliffs which are a series hoodoo-like formations caused by clay cliffs being eroded by wind and rain over the years. The lighting was perfect, and the scene was desolate except for us, so it was a very cool experience. On our way out we left our $5 entrance fee in the yoghurt pot nailed to the post, in true NZ fashion. When you find $75 cash in a pot on a fence post in the middle of nowhere and realize that people continue to add, while nobody seems to be taking, you know you’re somewhere special.

With the clock ticking ever faster we had to push on as far as possible that day, taking a quick break for the oh-so-photogenic Church of the Good Shepherd at Lake Tekapo. We managed to get to Christchurch that night and, knowing that there wouldn’t be any sightseeing there due to the recent devastating earthquake, we caught a quick sleep and headed out early again to press on to our ferry the following day. We did manage to squeak in some seal spotting en route to the ferry- not a huge novelty for BC West Coasters, but fun nonetheless. After disembarking the ferry in Wellington at 5pm we continued the push north, hoping to cover as much ground as possible to make the final leg to Auckland short the following day. With a “quick” stop at Hell’s Pizza to introduce Adam to the NZ institution, we kept on driving, and driving, and driving. With the boys sharing the wheel, and some nightmare-ish weather to keep us on alert, we finally pulled into Taupo at about midnight in the pouring rain, with all intentions of finding a cheap hotel to spend the night. Well, it turns out that Taupo, though a bustling tourist town during daylight hours, is not full of budget-open-all-night hotels. Shocking… After trying a few places and learning that our lowest price was going to be $120 for about 8 hours of sleep, we opted to screw that and pulled into a rest stop just out of town. We squeezed Adam’s mattress onto the floor under our bed in the van where he slept in the fetal position for the night and, despite the irritating mosquitoes, we survived surprisingly well and with an extra $120 in our pockets. My favourite part of these late night road-side stops is waking up in the morning to find four other vehicles tucked in beside you that you hadn’t seen the night before. A stop at McDonalds for the bathroom and an Egg McMuffin refuel was all we needed to get us going for the final leg to Red Beach where we would spend our last two nights with Adam and the McCabe family, enjoying true NZ hospitality. Finally it was time to take Adam to the airport (at 4am no less) and we carried on back to our own family in Pukekohe where we had another 5 days to kill before our budget flight to Tahiti. Fortunately Steven was home for a couple of days before having to fly off to London, and then Helen took good care of us while we mostly just ate and slept- turns out 9 months of travelling is pretty exhausting! With stops at about 3 Icebreaker outlet stores under our belts it was time for us to head off on our final leg.

Cam has been dreaming about Tahiti ever since he was a kid, and this was the trip that was supposed to convert that dream to a reality. Realistically, there is no better time to visit Tahiti than on a flight between NZ and Vancouver. We managed to find flights that let us stop there for about $300 less than flying straight home so, despite the cost of actually being IN Tahiti, the stopover was a no-brainer. And, in case you didn’t know (as we didn’t), “Tahiti” is actually only the name of a single island in the series of islands that comprise the actual country of “French Polynesia”. There are several islands, not all of which are populated, but Tahiti is the largest and most populous and therefore has sort of become the namesake for the entire country. However, for tourists, Tahiti is not a place to stop for long. Although the Hollywood Stars all head directly to Bora Bora, the flight there and accommodation pricing once you arrive were far to steep for our backpacker budget, so we opted for the island of Moorea- accessible by a 30 minute ferry ride instead. Our flight arrived in Papeete (the main city on Tahiti) too late to catch a ferry, so we bunked in at the airport hotel and headed out to find dinner- which ended up to be a massive plate of steak and chips served from a roulette- essentially the back of a trailer parked on the side of the road. Classic Tahitian fare :) The following day we attempted to grocery shop prior to heading to the smaller island of Moorea where we figured groceries would sky rocket in price. However, being a Sunday, it was difficult to find anything open and we ended up buying our supplies at an amazingly well stocked Shell gas station- and we certainly weren’t the only people doing so! We caught our ferry, and then our shuttle to our beachside bungalow of Linareva, and settled in to our Tahitian holiday. Despite choosing “budget” accommodation, we were still paying a factor of 8-10x the price of anywhere else we‘d been, so we made our savings by eating in our well equipped kitchenette for three meals a day. Linareva offered free bicycles so we enjoyed peddling to the local store and filling our basket with supplies- although fresh food was pretty limited so we were trying to be creative with canned beans and pasta sauce…

Our time on Tahiti was intended to be a “relaxing” finale for us before heading home to the hustle and bustle of “real life”. Unfortunately for us we’re not terribly skilled at slowing down while travelling, so it took a day of lying guiltily in the hammock before we really grew comfortable with the concept. The next day of lying in the hammock was much better- practice really does make perfect! Despite the slowing down, we did manage to ride our single gear bicycles about 30km around much of the island, and took the kayaks out to the reef for some crystal clear snorkelling. On one day we rented a scooter so we could completely circumnavigate the island, including a trip up to the spectacular lookout, and were shocked and appalled to be paying about $60 for the privilege. For that price in India you can pretty much BUY the scooter!

Finally the days ran out and it was time to head home. Due to some miscommunication, we had about 20 minutes to convert from lounging lazily in our bungalow to being fully packed, paid, and in our taxi for the trip back to Papeete and then several hours to kill before our night flight to LA. With a stop at LAX where we had lunch at Burger King and remembered what a “large” pop looks like in North America, it was time for the final, final, final leg. Arriving early in YVR let us have time to get some Canadian cash from the ATM (who’s that lady on the $20?!) and buy ourselves a Tim Horton’s donut before Adam arrived to pick us up. Ah, to be home… About 2 hours after landing we were sitting in an ice rink, in our shorts and flip flops, watching Adam’s hockey game. We really are still Canadian :)

So, there you have it- our nine months in a few nutshells. Like anything you do in life, it was a time full of amazing experiences that cover the whole spectrum from good, to bad, to ugly. Will we do it again? Probably not. But we’ve said that before… Would we take it back? Not a second of it. These trips are what help define us, who we are, what we believe, and how we treat the world in which we live. They cannot be summarized in a few short sentences, no matter how much people would like us too. There are moments that we can’t even put to words- they are simply emotions in our bank to be drawn upon and remembered. Some people think we’ve been crazy to spend so much money on trips like these, and other people seem to regret not doing exactly the same thing. The truth is that now, as we hunt for a place to live, perhaps having that excess cash would be handy, but as we sift through the photos we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it was worth every penny.

Thanks for reading.
Kristin and Cam.