Our heart felt Thank You's!

~Our much loved Family~
Pauline and Ronald Blair, Reed and Carol Melton, Rachel, Catherine and David Pickervance, Emily, Richie and Conely Bolusky, Paul Blair and Laura Pettigrew, Cousin John, Uncle Steven and whole extended family, belated Grandparents and beloved lost pets.

~ Our extended Family ~
Amy Chippendale, Anne Marso, Armand Briones aka Lovemondo, Bill Bonnefil, Bill Moore, Cindy Rogin, Damian Firth Clarkson and family, Graham Lydiatt, Helen Cookson, Jeff Hilton, Jeff McLaughlin, Jude Atkinson, Justin Jackson, Lisa Vanderkaay, Michelle and Jamie Halley/Oliver, Paige Nelson, Rebekah Waites and Laura Carty, Rob and Kris Tonkin, Scott Froschauer and Kymber, Sharon Bennison, Shari Canepa, Shawni Young, Vicky Craig

~Music sharing friends for Tracy’s travelling tunes ~
Bekah Waites and Laura Carty, Betty Lang, Gray Lydiatt, Helen Cookson, Jude Atkinson, Kevin Jones, Lisa VanderKaay, Lovemondo, Michelle Halley, Paul Blair, Rob Crooks

And special thanks to our traveling Family,

~ Indonesian ~
Ali Lufi - dread creator, Ancis Banderas great host, Anik, Barong - Rasta man, Mr and Mrs McCune (Clare Gardner) - drinking partners, Edwin, Danson (Dayak) – Guide, Darmin, Hari – Driver and friend, Hari 2 - little boy, Ibi - talented host, Jakof - uncle, Lenny-Rasta man, Maslian – boat captain, Mislin and Rama, Rob Charlton British teacher, Surya , Tom Fraser Oz - traveler, Usman – top dog, Yomie Kamle - reki master

~Australia ~
Brenan Cleary - good musician, Deren Ezgu peter Nixon wife, Gus - fun loving hippy lover Jk, Kevin Formica - jersey kid, Lucas – the knowing hitchhiker, Magdalena Lindofer - Austrian art historian beauty, Margaret Goodlew and Husband - Essential Oil queen, The Nixon Brothers – double trouble

~New Zealand ~

Bethany – fellow skydiver, Colin -Penguin man, Kathy Moore - healthy living, Richard - Folk boy, Rod Dougal (cool copper), Tom - Green man brewery

~Thailand ~

Aloisio Parente - Brazilian hunk, Ashley Sawhill - married bindi, David Tourrel - French sax dude, Dot Po – herbalist, Gacil, Hitesh - True British Northern lad, Jennifer Sullivan, Mark - New Zealander come Indian, Mary - Ty Biker friend, mint - Thai model, Nicolas villet – French sweetie, Om – yoga teacher, Randy Morrison – masseuse, Randy Ross - CA Cleanser, Suriyan – teacher, Tyra Williams – masseuse, Zahira - Zen mistress,

Without any one you this would not have been the same...thank you

Namaste, TnT

xXx

Bangkok (Dec 15 - 18)

We finished our trip off in style in Bangkok where we got lost in what seemed like the endless shopping malls. This was the last place we wanted to be shopping. We much preferred the laid back, no material way of living. It was a shock to our souls, but nicely done by Tyler. He had booked our last hotel saying that it was our honeymoon. We were presented with flowers, fruit and a very large tier chocolate fondue fountain – not the best for our bodies after all that good vegan food!

Completely chocolated out the following day we explored the city, in particular the King's Palace. After donning on a borrowed shirt with our cameras in hand, Tyler and I spent several fun moments mimicking the statues and taking photos. The architecture is very colourful and highly adorned. Each statue, flower and pillar was decorated with overlapping patterns.

Bangkok is very large, hot and exceeding busy. There is far more to see and do than our time permitted. A striking difference between rich and poor is seen everywhere and the majority of people smile freely. Nearly every street is lined with food stalls. World powers have made a considerable difference here whether good or bad as seen with the several pristine golf courses and massive hotel chains. A multi-cultural melting pot that far exceeds my previous limited expectations.

After a little gift shopping and hair pulling bag packing, we disappeared from southeast Asia, with a vow to one day come back. If we make it back before too long, we might be lucky enough to see those elusive mountain/forest creatures.

Ko Phangan umm honestly can you be just too old? (Dec 10 - 13)

So we arrived at Ko Phangan, which is known as a party island. We found it's reputation fitting. There were tons of misfits and well, we felt too old for that, so we headed up the coastline to the absolute opposite, or so we thought. The only way to get there was by boat. This time a small fishing boat that had side rails for seats and a loud, smoky petrol engine. I happily splashed through the water and jumped on board noting to myself that I could indeed swim out of this one… I hoped. We hugged the coastline as we went north to the third bay where we intended upon staying for our final travelling days. After a hot walk in what felt like a palm tree plantation, we found our place and checked in. This place was owned by travellers, English no less.

Picture this a single bay surrounded by large boulders and rocks, a curved sandy beach and a palm tree plantation (I prefer native trees, oh well paradise ain't prefect). The main building was inviting and had an open veranda to the sea. There was a no shoe policy, and we were served a dizzying array of crazy vegan food whilst reclining upon the cushioned floor. There were message boards everywhere that caught one's eye with words like Meditation, Yoga and Creative Writing. There was even a bloody spa. Oh my was I in Heaven!!
We took in the beauty with a strange juice and reviewed the menu. It was for cleansers. A truly well researched menu that showed which days you should eat what and why. Tyler, didn't think so and soon gets busy asking people where do people go to eat real food around here! Ha. We climbed the winding staircase though the forest to our own little bungalow. It had a separate toilet/shower area but still this room had a balcony with 2 chairs and a hammock over looking the bay and surrounding forest.

We settled in then wandered around for awhile enjoying the general tranquility of the place compared to the craziness of the Thai cities we had visited. We found the library and met the crazy cleansers. They weren't that crazy though. In fact, they were quite nice. We struck up a conversation with a Brazilian man, called Aloisio living in Singapore. This was his second visit, and he looked exceeding well for it. I figured there must be something to it. I’m was already down for this natural healing, but some of you may need an extra push. We later shared several activities with our Brazilian friend, but I never quite manged to join him for that morning vinyasa flow, maybe next time!

Tyler wanted to check a local restaurant and the only way to get there was to walk, and walk we did. An exciting walk it was up carved steps, over the top of the hill, through little villages, passing gyms with muy Thai boxers, even along a logged jetty precariously attached to large stone rocks with water crashing below. This is where we came across the Stone Bar, a place we would return to later. We moved onto the next place, a restaurant high up on top of the stone covered hilltop. We shared some food and listened to an annoying, loud American that drove us back to our little bay.

By this time, it was dark, but we had brought lights thankfully – travellers are nearly always prepared. As we walked, we became aware of a distant noise which seemed to be getting louder and louder with each step. It was a Friday night, and a huge party was going of near our camp. I must say that it did not sound all that good, especially through my ear plugs and pillow placed over my head at 5am. This was a weekly party.

We managed to pass the days away very happily, doing morning yoga, afternoon chillin and evening meditation. We even had time for a little swimming in the sea. On one occasion, we rose at the beach for sunrise, where we met a fellow Californian called Randy – nice chappy!

From our friend Aloisio, we heard about a wooden structure that extruded out of the stone wall overlooking the neighboring bay we hadn't explored yet. We just had to check it out. It was a short enough little walk, and we were able to get the platform all to ourselves for hours. We lost hours playing follow my leader with different yoga poses, mediation and such. Total relaxation!
During a sneaky visit to the steam room at dusk (no light in there and the only sound you could hear was the bugs scuttling), I joined forces with a fellow Brit called Hitesh, who despite being from an Indian family was a complete northern lad, and a Kiwi who had more in common with India that his home country. Very strange and very wonderful! We created the awesome foursome of trouble, not really. Lined up on mattress all four of us enjoyed a traditional Thai massage from a family of Thai woman. May have been the best one yet. Her touch was partially electrifying. I thoroughly enjoyed it as did everyone else. The Kiwi Mark, cracked me up by stating that quite frankly that his massage was better that 80% of his sexual experiences. Our British friend felt like someone had battered him black and blue and swore he would not do it again. With respect, he had jammed toe and the lady worked on it. Granted it was still swollen the following day, but he could walk on it without pain! We enjoyed hours of conversation with our new friends, and somewhere along the line, we decided that maybe we weren't that old after all and we should see for ourselves what the full moon party was all about. So, three of us did.

A very choppy boat ride later, we found a magic castle where we enjoyed a drink. Before we had even left, the trouble had started. Tyler's flip flops where missing, and we did not hear the end of this. I guess it was understandable as the sand was wet even though the sea was going out??? We decided to head into town for flippers, not the best choice as it was heaving with touters and tourists. There were rows and rows of mini buckets with half a litre of straight liquor and red bull cans. This was not my kind of place. We were soon pushed back on to the beach. We located a spot to sit down on and people watch. I came to the conclusion that these people were crazy and I was too old to be patience with them! Along the beach, there were many establishments blaring out awful music trying to see which could be the loudest. I could not tell one beat from another beat as it all blended into such a din that it drove me potty. We were caught with nowhere to turn and stuck on a little piece of sand with a tacky fun fair behind us. Fortunately, I was in good company, and I enjoyed a giggle. Like all good things, it had to come to an end though, and we had to be patient to leave as the boat captain wanted a full boat before setting off. In the interim, we learnt why the sand was wet. Oh boys.

Back in our bay, we intended to meet up with our two friends, but somehow we lost each other. Tyler and I figured that they were heading to the source of the noise, so we wandered to find the party, but instead we bumped into a wandering drunk old enough to be my dad. He was lost and needed to get back to his place. After helping him up the stairs in the dark, we continued on only to bump into another drunk old man. He had fallen and blood was dripping down his face, but somehow managed to come off as quite proper still. This was the second lost old drunk wandering around the bay. We knew that we where in the older crew, but surely this is not the norm. This guy thought that I was his lover or something and started talking about old memories until Tyler put him straight and said that I am with him. How very sad he acted like an English gentleman come boat captain. We helped him out, and then later found the place of the party. By this time, we were too tired and shocked to go inside, our ears were ringing and the music did not sound inviting. Plus this was where the other two drunks had come from, so we turned on our heels and disappeared back to our bungalow. Best choice we thought.

The next morning our time had come to pack and disappear, so reluctantly we moved on once again.

Ko Tao, Getting There is Half the Battle (Dec 6 - 10)

Since we had travelled via train on the way up to Chiang Mai, we decided to fly on our trip south to save time. So we flew from Chaing Mia to Ko Samui and then hopped over to Ko Tao via a high speed catamaran. The flight was nondescript except for the fact they actually fed us on such a short flight, whereas the boat ride was from hell! Let me explain.

At the airport, we arranged for travel to Ko Tao and have stickers slapped on us like we were being branded. Next, we were directed to follow the procession of people through the airport, which by the way was the most beautiful airport I have ever seen, to the awaiting shuttles. We wait, wait a little longer and then once everyone is in the shuttle van, our smiling driver and all of us very quiet tourists start off to gosh only knows where. When we got to our stop, only Tyler and I got out, and we soon realized where we were to go. So we cross the road and join the other large group of tourists waiting a boat.

After waiting a while, I decided to wander to go get drink, but I was too late. The procession had begun single file along the perfectly rickety jetty towards the large boat. There where only a few locals sat in the enclosed part of the boat so I thought it best to stay they where, they being locals and all. I soon realized that they may not have been locals or at least they were locals that had never been on a boat before. One lady started moaning and then crying almost immediately after setting off. Within seconds the crew started patrolling the aisles with plastic bags and the largest toilet rolls I have ever seen. What on earth? I heard more moans, and as I started to look around, I saw there were several people holding their hands to there mouths and crew members were passing plastic bags to them only 5 minutes into the journey. The TV was on as a distraction, and drunken tourist were filing out the back of the boat to the toilets. I tried to stand up and noticed that I felt a weird pressure over my entire body, somewhat of a light-headedness, then I nearly came crashing down and lost my bearings. We had been up since 4am and it was noon time with almost nothing in my belly, so I decided to share some crisps with Tyler. A mistake I later came to regret.

I settled back down into my seat on the now wildly rocking boat and watched the water line rise and fall above and below the windows. This was not at all comforting! I turned my attention to Tyler whom was busy reading and not wanting to be disturbed, so I left him alone and people watched. A huge mistake as all the interesting ones where turning green in the gills! We were only 20 minutes into our journey and people were beginning to throw up around the boat. It was not a pretty sound or a pleasant smell. I tried to turn my attention to the TV, which a crappy, aggressive movie was being shown on, but it couldn't hold my attention.

The captain spoke on the radio, we where soon to arrive in Ko Phangan, but this was not our stop. I cannot begin to express the panic I felt inside as I watched the equally panicked tourists whose stop it actually was run off the boat. I kept coming back to my breath and trying to concentrate on that. All was ok I said. Tyler then decided to say that this was the short journey, the one to Ko Toa was almost twice as long. I freaked out and decided I needed fresh air, so I went outside to the toilets. Working with the swells and holding onto chairbacks, I crawled out the back. The heat and vapors from the engine knocked the wind out of me as I stood pressed against the corridor by sheer force. I found a young drunken boy clinging on to the back railing hurling his guts out. I could not stay there; I had to get to the bathroom. Oh my, I have never been so violently tossed around before; it was terrifying. I was thankful to have a metal door to hang onto even if it nearly chopped my foot of as it swung back.

I eventually made my way back to be greeted by Tyler. I had been gone too long and he had come looking for me. I was so glad to see him, I had gone less than 50ft from our seats but I could barely stand. The back of the boat is the worst place to be if you ask me, just bloody awful. Granted I was hot and flustered and my temperament a little sketchy. I had made it back to the main cabin, a moaning, groaning and smelly pit of despair. The crew had their work cut out for them as about half of the people were sick and crying...including me. I just could not take another minute on the boat. I was trapped, and I needed solid ground. I felt helpless and very very ill. I kept telling Tyler I wanted to get off while he stroked my hair and told me it would only be a little longer. Thankfully he was a rock and did his best to look after me the rest of the way. This was a boat ride like no other, but being sick helped. What a waste of all those crisps though!

Still shaking, we arrived and ate at the dockside before figuring out where we wanted to live. We took a car taxi to the other side, and I decided to hang at the waters edge with our luggage whilst Tyler wandered the island looking for somewhere to lay our heads. It was still bright out, and I had found a closed bar with a jetting over looking a beautiful bay. There I met a few people, when the bar opened, from all over the world that were now living in Ko Tao teaching diving. A hard sell was on as it seems we had landed in diving heaven. Well it might have been a diving heaven if it wasn't monsoon season, meaning the visibility was only a few feet all around the island. I'm also convince that rain on the deforested land had made the situation that much worse. I was told that Ko Tao had once been known as the island of turtles, but that they were not seen much anymore. I decided to listen their stories and their sales pitches. I even passed it on to Tyler, but we knew better than to hand our money over. It was hard to pass on though as diving is always fun.

Tyler eventually came back with a Rasta man in a truck. We piled our bags into it and headed up the hill to our abode away from the hub of town. We were still walking distance though up a very large hill – good for the lungs. Tyler had found a little sanctuary for us. We stayed in monkey heaven. I had trees all around and a view of the sea. Our bathroom was practically outside and our bedroom had two walls of French doors opening to our balcony. It was perfect! We even had stones as our nightstand and a mozzy net (needed) over the bed. Tyler had done well.

Good job really as I spent the majority of time there. I was ill, tired and in not any mood to be faffed with. I spent a day or so hanging in my breezy open tree top drinking tea and juice. Shame to be stuck indoors ;-) Possibly the best place I have had to stay in due to sickness. I even had a protector in a stray dog who came and looked after me whilst Tyler was away – very strange but much appreciated. The dogs are not treated as pets in Thailand and have to fend for themselves as do the cats. To find an affectionate dog that is not starving is quite a miracle. Not quite sure if anything else lived on the island since human intervention. I can guess a lot has been forever lost.

Tyler enjoyed himself by chatting with the locals and tourist at Easy Bar, which was ran by a crew of young Burmese men who Tyler made friends with. We spent the next few days living life slowly and exploring our little part of the island. We found the food to not quite up to our Chiang Mai standards, but we guessed that was to be expected on a little island as fresh ingredients were tougher to come by than up north. We wanted to stay but we realized that time was beginning to pass quickly for us and if we weren't careful the rest of our time in Thailand would slip away in Ko Tao. So sea legs akimbo, we packed our bags and jumped on a boat back to Ko Phangan.

Chiang Mai (Nov 20 - Dec 6)

After a couple of flights with a short stop in Sydney, we arrived in Bangkok, and were immediately greeted a hosted of new sights and smells. After making it through customs, getting some local currency (~34 Thai Bhat to 1 USD), we took a taxi to Khao San road, which is known as a backpacker's haven in Bangkok and is loaded with hostels. The small amount of sleep we got over the previous couple of days left us drained, so we didn't get to exploring much until the next morning when we scoped out the area looking for breakfast. The meal we were treated to confirmed for our happy stomachs that we were indeed in Thailand (Yummy green curry and mango with sticky rice).

We opted to head straight for Chiang Mai, so we made our way to the train station but some how ended up a travel agent across the street who tried to sell us on a bunch of different tours. In the end, we only got our train tickets and arranged for our first night's stay in Chaing Mai. Since the train wasn't leaving until later that evening we found ourselves with time, and explored the near by area finding a variety of wats and interesting shops before the road pollution drove us back into the train station. We eventually hopped on the train and had a restless night's sleep as we were able to get sleeper seats as they were sold out (peak tourist season). The smell emanating from a nearby backpacker didn't help either.

We arrived in Chiang Mai early in the morning, and after dropping our bags in our bleak little room, we spent most of that day, and the following one as well, exploring the city and figuring out which classes we wanted to sign up for. In the end, Tracy opted to take a ten day Thai massage class at Sunshine Massage School, while I took a five day Thai cooking class at the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School. Classes started on the following Monday, so we used the weekend to start exploring the various markets, wats and food stalls.

Once our classes started, we fell into a little bit of a routine. We would get up and head to yoga class from 7 to 8 am at Tracy's massage school, enjoy a coffee together usually with some tasty fried bananas, and then separate for the day. I would head back to the hotel or b&b we were staying in and catch up on a few things until my ride arrived. My daily class routine consisted of morning instruction on things like vegetable carving or Thai ingredients followed by the cooking and eating of six different Thai dishes each day. I, of course, brought Tracy doggy bags to test my food. I even made it to the gym after class, most days. The second week when Tracy was still in class my days were a little slower for the most part. After my morning yoga, I wondered around town trying new foods and occasionally hit the nearby gym to work off the gallons of coconut milk and cream I was consuming. I added a little adventure one day by signing up for a mountain biking trip from the top of the near by mountain back down to town. It was actually a thrilling day and more challenging than I ever imagined (I and my fellow rider both took a spill or two).

Tracy's School Experience by Tracy

Where was I? I was having fun at the Sunshine School of Thai Massage; that's where I was. Lost listening to all the natural sounds of trees in the breeze and dogs barking in the foreground with the constant hum of traffic from the not so far main road. My favourite sound was the the mocking bird which had been taught to sound like a crying cat. This came though our breezy class room where we were being bent into shape and returning the favour. Would you believe my classmates where French or America? Obviously I've not got enough of of them back in LA...joking.

There was a class of 9: Mint being the Thai playdough model; the Americans -Randy (a conscious Nero-muscular massage therapist), Tyra (a fun Mormon masseur), Jen (a pretty girl who was a well balanced soul searcher), Rio and Ashley (Bindi newly weds moving to NZ); And the french speaking Swede Nicolas (new love affair with Mint), French Pyrus and happy travelling David la de vou la saxophonist, a very good one too.

I had a wonderful time learning the different postures given in a basic and clothed Thai massage from a Handsome Thai call Suriyan (no happy endings here Jem! lol). Yan kept us all in check but Fridays and Mondays where sometimes lost. Yan wants to further his career as a healer so he creates clothing with his own drawings and sells them to pay for his school in Bangkok. Yan had a secret liking for Ty which came out over Korean BBQ...so sweet hehe. I loved learning so much, that I sign up for a herbal class too where Randy and I learned about plants... interesting 5 finger leafs to single blades called betel or pandanus. A fun day of potions indeed, with thee most sweet lady called Dot Po whom lived up to her name. Sunshine little Herbal Goddess aka witch ha - I wanted to package here up and bring here back! She shared knowledge about here surroundings with Randy and I, in her sweet lullaby accent.

Om (too perfect of a name), our friend who kindly shared her yoga experience with us every morning, glowed with happiness. A fellow Sunshine teacher of Thai massage, she gave advice on several things including a massage from a blind healer. Tyler and I managed to find the place even though it looked more like a pharmacy/doctor's office than a massage place. Upstairs we went shoeless to our blind healers who gave us a very memorable, if not a little painful, Thai massage. If only they could combine Thai massage with chiropractic, it would be the perfect combo. Days flew past at a shocking speed and now I am wishing for the brakes! Not back yet :-) soon though.

When we weren't in classes, we either found ourselves perusing the night markets or checking out a new restaurant. Our favorite place to eat turned out to be the Anusarn market because it had a bunch of incredible Thai seafood restaurants. The Khantoke dinner (a traditional northern Thai dinner accompanied with a variety of traditional Thai dancing performances) was also very good. We also found time for a few Thai massages and spa treatments that were all very good, but the best was probably the massages we received from the couple blind men Tracy mentioned.

During this time, we kept conversing with various travellers who were stuck in Thailand due to the airport demonstration. Everyone was trying to get the latest news on the situation. By far the worst story we heard was about an Aussie who was on his way to London for a week vacation, but got caught in the airport during his two our layover. Bye, bye vacation!

Our last night in Chiang Mai, we were invited by her instructor along with all of Tracy's classmates to a Korean barbeque. When we arrived, we found ourselves under a large open air structure with about 1000 Thais boring through buffet lines. We spent the night enjoying a bunch of new foods and chatting with Tracy's classmates. After stuffing our bellies, we said our goodbyes and made our way back to our hotel (not before checking out one more market) to pack our bags.

Chiang Mai was a blast, but Ko Tao was calling so we headed to the airport for a short flight to the south...

Waitomo Caves and Auckland (Nov 14 - 19)

For our next adventure, we decided on exploring the Waitomo Caves. We showed up early for our tour, and shortly thereafter found ourselves putting on very stinky wetsuits, pants and helmets. After a little introduction to the basics of abseiling, I was the first of our group to descend into the cave. It was almost a 100 foot drop, but a very beautiful place to enter with a small stream running through it. Tracy fearless of heights by this time also enjoyed her descent.

Once the entire group made it to the bottom, we walked with our guide upstream in the cave and shut off lights to see awesome glow worm display. These little guys make small glowing blue dots on the cave ceiling. Actually, they are maggots, and it is their excrement that glows, but "Hey! Come check out the amazing glowing maggot poo!" just doesn't bring in the tourists. We then tubed back down through cave with lights off and bumping off walls (lots of fun). Once we had gone as far as we could on the tubes, we hiked a little further in the cave and squeezed and out of narrow passages while our guide, a young Scot, took pictures. Finally, we each in turn climbed back up out of the 100 foot cave while roped in for safety. All in all it was very fun experience!

We made our way to Auckland later in day, and while eating lunch at stop on the side of the road made friends with this rooster that was hanging around begging for food. We had a very interesting conversation with this man about roosters and how to eat them. A little weirded out, we continued to Auckland where we checked into a holiday park for the last time and gave all remaining goods away. I cooked soup for the last time, and while it was very good, we found ourselves looking forward to Thai cuisine.

The next morning we said goodbye to our camper and checked into our hotel. Much to our delight, the hotel had very nice fitness and spa facilities, which we took full advantage of over the next few days. Over the next few days, we explored Auckland as we also prepared to head to Thailand. Auckland is a beautiful city with many nice restaurants. We would write more about the tourist attractions, but ended up spending most of our time outside of our hotel either shopping or having slow meals in the restaurants and coffee houses around the city. Oh well, Thailand here we come!

Wine, Naked men and flies ...The North Island. (Nov 10 - 13)

We totally lucked out on the ferry ride over to Wellington and were able to jump on an earlier one even though we paid for the cheap night fare. After picking up pies from the local bakery, we queued up to board the ferry. There were several queues based on vehicle size, and a kind eyed gentleman came around questioning us on where we had been and where we were going to see if we might be transporting a nasty, invasive alga, DIDYMO (also known as "rock snot"), that lives in the water ways. Since we had played in some estuaries and bays, we gave up our shoes for a cleansing as we did not want to be responsible for spreading the little bug...even though we didn't know what he was going on about. Tyler's need to be on time and my somewhat slower nature resulted in a funny moment waiting for the kettle to boil. I just managed to make tea just before we had to close the gas tank and set off to board the ship for our three hour journey to Wellington, and a much needed cuppa it was.

Once on the ship, we had to leave our camper and walk up several flights of stairs to the passenger decks filled with multitudes of cafes and bars. We sat down and enjoyed our tea with a carrot cake. Yum! Free is our favourite word at the moment, and we are trying to bring this word into everything we do! To that end, we enjoyed looking out at Marlborough Sounds (usually only available by tour boat) on the deck of the ship while listening to our iPods.

Upon arriving in Wellington (Capital of New Zealand) late the afternoon, we managed to swing by the Museum Te Papa Tongarewa, which was also free of charge. We stayed until it closed and enjoyed several interactive exhibits along with 'Blood, Earth and Fire', which told of the story about how 80% of the land has been deforested (burned or chopped down) in less that 100 years to make way for livestock. Pretty ugly stuff. A majority of the birds also became extinct (Ever heard of a Moa?) and with each new arriving group, new things were introduced to remind the settlers of home (i.e, plants, bugs, and mammals). New Zealand is inundated with so many foreign invaders that every Kiwi we met seemed to have concern for native species on the tips of their tongues. My personsal opinion after seeing this exhibit is that land loss is the main problem and that the 60 million sheep and half as many cows that now call New Zealand home are just as much to blame as the invasive species. I digress. We headed north at sunset for Napier, which sits in a well known Hawkes Bay wine region.

After a few frustrating hours searching for what seemed like a non existant shop to rent bikes from, we found a tin home where at the very back a lady runs a business renting bikes and helmets out to unsuspecting tourist. She handed us a map, patted us on the back and said, "it is pretty much all flat expect for this one road which has a little incline".

Off we went, water bottles in hand and safety helmets on as we peddled to our first winery, Brooksfield, a lovely family owned business which is apparently rare as most of the vineyards have been bought by large corporations. A lovely conversation with a equally lovely lady named Sharon warmed our hearts and our taste buds. We promised to come back, and then we set off for a second and larger winery. We even enjoyed a chocolate factory and some wooden sculptures cut from tree stumps. We headed along a very, very long road, pretty tired at this point to find our next destination was closed. Without further ado, we set off up the small incline... she lied. We/I died, my legs burned and my heart nearly popped out my chest from beating so hard. We made it and the descent down was a very long one. Happy that we did not go up that way we eventually made our way back to our car as everything had shut for the day.

On our way to Rotarua, we stopped at a place known to the locals as "Secret Cove" or "Hot and Cold". We had a lovely time soaking in this natural hot spring where a cool stream met a warm stream at the entrance of the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. What was especially nice was the fact that it was free. Free of charge and free spirited as Tyler and I found enjoyable conversation with the locals and other tourist, one or two of whom were completely nude! We were a little on edge due to the really large sign stating "Danger! Do not put head in water - amoebic meningitis is fatal and caused by water entering the nasal passages". Not knowing what the hell the sign was going on about, we looked at the people already enjoying the waters and gingerly stepped in wondering what amoebic meningitis was or indeed how would one know if you had contracted it. Panic over took me as I watched the older naked man splash water all over his face and continue to do so. Well I just couldn't keep my mouth shut, so I asked why he wasn't concerned about what the sign said. Everyone in the pool went quiet and discreetly listened, without actually looking at the naked man. He replied"nar nobody's got it, been coming ere since '74, just remember to blow out your nose if you do. The sign's only ter cause of OSHA." Sighs of relief were heard all around over the rushing water, but I'm made a mental note to look up what hell amoebic meningitis was...just in case.

We made it to Rotaru later that day, and went for a run along the lake front as suggested by the host at our holiday park. We quickly realized that woman had no business giving advice out on where to run as we found ourselves sprinting through massive swarms of sandflies over and over again. After a good night's sleep, it was time to move on with our journey, but not before stopping to check out the local redwood forest. That's right actual redwoods imported from northern california.

A side note on these wonderful characters we've met: The French Canadian man Lucas seem very adapted to a life on foot with a very organised and large backpack. Whereas the lady from Alaska had nothing but the smallest of backpacks (almost a daypack really) and seemed most a home WWOOFing. Richard, a fellow traveling Brit, on the other hand, carried the largest of bags filled with just a few clothes and a bunch rock climbing gear! It was the size of a kiddies car! He also carrying his treasured mandolin separately, which he even broke out and played a few tunes for me with. Very Good! Richard's passion was for folk music, which is something I have not explored myself personally, but it seems very familiar to me...even the young Alaskan lady had a hing for folk and bluegrass music. All under 25! Certainly a change.