Triphopopotamus

Back in Queenstown and left without a Stephen's family guide for the 2nd time since we left home we have to look around and figure things out for ourselves, try to meet people... but after one day that all seems too difficult so Ellie logs into Facebook to track down the phone number of her old friend Jessica who is from Punchestown and has been living in Queenstown for the past year.

We meet Jess at one of the many 'locals' for a drink, introductions are made and she and Ellie get reacquainted. A few jugs of beer and a game of pool later, some more of Jess's friends meet us at the bar, and we have a great night getting to know everyone and it's decided that tomorrow we will go to Wanaka for a little road trip.

Wanaka

From Ellie's pics of Wanaka

The next morning we meet Jess at her house and Ellie, Jess's friend Paul and I all set off in the car for Wanaka. Wanaka is a bit like Queenstown Jr. Smaller and with less of a resort feel to it but with a beautiful lake, mountains and adrenaline sports to boot. During the scenic drive it transpires Jess should probably wear glasses but chooses not to! We tighten our seatbelts around us and eventually all arrive in Wanaka in one piece! We pick up some picnic supplies at the local supermarket and head for a secluded little beach where we have a feast of sandwiches, crisps, fruit and chocolate while enjoying the lake view and only being disturbed by the odd excitable dog with a good nose for sandwiches. Then we practice trying to skim stones or just throw them with our left hand and see how uncoordinated we look. The word 'special' was bandied about- for all the wrong reasons!

From Ellie's pics of Wanaka

After a while the winter sun isn't quite enough to keep us warm and we pack up the car and head for home.But we couldn't go all the way to Wanaka and back without making a stop-off at the wonderfully (unintentionally) kitsch Puzzling World. which much to everyones dismay is a bit of a mouthful and we all agree plain ol 'Puzzle World' would be much easier to say!
We tackle some "mind bottling" wooden puzzles and jigsaws in the main reception area and then head for different areas of the world that is puzzling. Magic-eye pictures, sculpted faces of Einsteins and Winston Churchill's that follow you with their eyes, slanting rooms where water runs up the hill are amongst the many optical illusions and games that mess with our senses. The best illusion was a slanted room that makes you look huge when you stand on one side and tiny on the other. As with most of the attractions in this part of the world it likes to link itself to Lord Of The Rings in someway or another and this particular one informs us that this was one of the methods they used to make the hobbits look smaller than Gandalf. A camera takes a 30 second recording of you so you can mess about, run from one side of the room to the other and then go back outside and watch it on a TV screen, endless fun!

From Ellie's pics of Wanaka

From Ellie's pics of Wanaka

From Ellie's pics of Wanaka

After taking in as much of a brain-poking as our mildly hungover heads can take- and avoiding the Maze outside for the same reasons we head back towards Queenstown. On this trip we don't get to visit Wanaka's other quirky little attraction The Cinema Paradiso a tiny picture house where all the seats are couches, cushions or a half-car. We'll have to save the unique cinematic experience for our next trip this way.

On the drive home we give a quick crane of our necks as we pass by one of the famous bungy bridges to see if we can spot any thrill seekers testing the elastics, but even adrenaline junkies have to take a break sometimes I guess. We say goodbye, and go home with that satisfied feeling of a good day out and the fact that with minimum effort from myself and Ellie we seem to have acquired a new group of friends quite easily!

Run Run -self timer photo!

From Ellie's pics of Wanaka

PS. Pics courtesy of Ellie, my camera was MIA that day!

After one punctured tyre and a 6 hour car trip we arrive back to Christchurch we find it just as rainy and cold as we had left it 4 days previous. Ellie and I still hadn’t quite adapted to the weather and temperature change and make a beeline for the heater once we check into the hostel, and we don't stray too far from it until it's time to brave the outdoors again.
Museum- view from hostel

From Christchurch to Queenstown,early June

Christchurch is a pretty, British colonial looking city around the main streets and town square where a large Anglican cathedral forms the epicentre of the town. Street names, Gothic buildings, and statues of Queen Victoria give a nod to dear old England. You can stand on the bridge and watch tourists glide down the winding Avon river in little punting boats, while an old style tram rattles past and feel like you are in another era altogether. Once you venture a tad further however, the suburbs are a little flat and boring with boxy buildings. Despite the quaint prettiness of it's main centre, Christchurch in general, is actually a little flat and boring. There is a bit of a buzz about the place in the daytime hours; people playing games of giant chess in the square, kids skateboarding and shoppers shopping, but at 5pm all the shops close, the oversized chess pieces are packed away and the skater kids go home to the flat suburbs. Apart from sparsely populated bars the place becomes a bit of a ghost town once sunset rolls in.
Chess All-stars

From Christchurch to Queenstown,early June

Christchurch Cathedral

From Christchurch to Queenstown,early June

Inside Cathedral

From Christchurch to Queenstown,early June

On our last night out with Cathal and Paul we manage to find an area with a few bars. Apparently, over all there is a greater number of women than men in New Zealand, however Christchurch, at least on the evening in question appears to buck this trend quite successfully and Ellie and I sit back enjoy a midnight feast of eye candy in the shape of possible rugby stars, while Cathal and Paul grumble about the lack of ladies!

The two boys leave for Sydney the following day, we wave them off as they board the airport bus and so it's just the two of us once again. We spend the remainder of the day browsing and eating food from the stalls at a Sunday market in the grounds of the arts centre and the following day enjoy a quick stroll around the Botanic gardens which is full of autumnal colours but is no doubt more spectacular in spring and summer when the flowers are in bloom.

From Christchurch to Queenstown,early June

From Christchurch to Queenstown,early June

Gardens

From Christchurch to Queenstown,early June

From Christchurch to Queenstown,early June

From Christchurch to Queenstown,early June

On our trip back to Queenstown. Mr. Crowley (of the Crowley's from Cork, don't you know!) the bus driver man is funny and tells us local history and little facts as we pass through towns and spots of interest. E.g. Geraldine, where we stop for a toilet break. He informs us that about 60% of the population in Geraldine are retired folk who move here as it’s a couple of degrees warmer than other south island towns. As Ellie and I step off the bus all wrapped up in our winter woolies we have to laugh at the idea of one horse town Geraldine as the south islands answer to Florida. When he said “couple of degrees warmer” it mustn’t have been a figure of speech!!

An awful lot of the info we learn about the surrounding areas is often wool, sheep or farm related in some shape or form. For example Geraldine is not just a retirement hub for sun-seekers but also home to Giant Jersey, the worlds largest wooly jumper! We are just beginning to see how "small-town" New Zealand really is, and we have yet to discover the rumored toothbrush fence!

From Drop Box

The scenery on the way to Queenstown is amazing and we really get the full view of it this time around, like the snow capped peaks of New Zealand's tallest mountains Mt. Cook/Aoraki and Mt.Tasman and glacial lakes like Lake Tekapo that have this stunning blue-gray colour due to the way the glaciers grind against the rocks creating a fine dust (as we learn from the driver!). Hawks and harriers soar and swoop on the plains beside us. Once we spot one snatching up it's prey in the form of a little sparrow . Vineyards, rivers and rolling hills zip by and make my eyes dart back and forth. We make one or two more stops along the way and before we know it we are pulling up to the bus-stop in Queenstown.

From Christchurch to Queenstown,early June

fruit break!

From Christchurch to Queenstown,early June

From Christchurch to Queenstown,early June

From Christchurch to Queenstown,early June

From Christchurch to Queenstown,early June

So here we are…back in Queenstown, and now the search for jobs, houses, friends and fun begins!

So my avid readers (what? there might be a few!). Fear not, I haven't dropped off the face of the the Earth. I have in fact dropped right into Middle-Earth or "New Zealand" as it's known amongst non-Hobbit folk.

Saying farwell to the land of smiles was like that moment when you have to say goodbye to new friends you've shared an experience with , you've had a great time, you hope you'll see them again, but then you can't really make promises...but at least you'll always have the memories! So with glum faces we board our plane in balmy Bangkok. Alien garments like long sleeved tops, trousers and socks are at the ready in our hand luggage to brave the climate that awaits us. After a brief stopover in a cold and rainy Sydney we arrive into a similarly cold and rainy Christchurch, New Zealand, but even with our "warm" clothes on we weren’t quite prepared for the drop from 40 degrees to 8 degrees. Brrr!

Ellie's brother Cathal and his friend Paul met us at the airport so fortunately we didn’t have to stand around in the cold figuring out where to go next! They asked us did we want to Queenstown- and mentioned “by the way it’s a 6-7 hour drive”! Great, that’s just what you want after 17 hours of flying! Really we didn’t mind too much though, as long as we could attempt to catch some zzz’s in the back of the car. It’s pretty cloudy and rainy for most of the car trip down, a far cry from our lovely Thai sunshine, and yet there is something homely about the rolling green hills (and obviously the lashing rain). About half way to Queenstown it gets dark so we can't really appreciate the surroundings although we can tell by the towering jagged silhouettes that we are passing by some pretty spectacular scenery. We arrive in Queenstown and not really being too sure what to expect, we are suprised to find a bitesize little lakeside town that is the self professed adrenalin sports capital of the world. (Clearly they've never been on a Thai minibus)

From Queenstown- the first encounter

Town founder and his lovely wife:

From Queenstown- the first encounter

After checking into the hostel we head out and see what Queenstown has to offer in the way of nightlife. After drinking some shots from a teapot in World bar and doing some people watching of folk on the "Big night out" organised pub crawl and I start to hope that we are not too old for Queenstown! Cathal doesn't have this issue as his date of birth seems to change quite miraculously!

We spend 2 more nights in Queenstown exploring the pretty little streets,wearing every item of clothing in our possession and trying to adjust to the temperature. We invest in some wooly hats and gloves to help us along.

A trip up the gondola to the Skyline complex on Bob's peak gives us an incredible view over Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu and the imaginatively named “Remarkables” mountain range. We muse over the pioneers naming process :
"Wow look at those mountains-remarkable- what should we call them?!"

From Queenstown- the first encounter

From Queenstown- the first encounter

From Queenstown- the first encounter

From Queenstown- the first encounter

Despite it being a miserable day we still enjoy the views. We pop inside the visitor center to the bar and order some Irish coffees to warm up…Oh dear- it seems they needed us more in Queenstown than they know. They are pretty terrible. We potter around the giftshop and Ellie buys some giant fleecy socks which will also double up as her gloves for the day!! And we emerge from the giftshop to find the 2 boys squeezed into the seats of a car-racing arcade game, as some children look on- probably waiting for their turn. Later we make our back down the mountain and go to the- again imaginatively named- Irish bar Pog Mahones for some real irish coffees though we decide to skip the coffee part and just have a couple of hot ports and whiskeys!

From Queenstown- the first encounter

The next day we consider going on a wine tasting tour but a little deterred by the cold weather we instead find a wine shop that does tastings without even having to leave the town. Excellent. We each get a little card and will be charged at the end for the wines we drink. There are different sections for different wines and you just put your card in choose a wine and it comes out into your glass, similar to a soft drink machine.

From Queenstown- the first encounter

From Queenstown- the first encounter

Then you do your best attempt at looking fancy. Ellie teaches me all the important parts smell it, swirl it around, smell it again, say something terribly witty to the old chaps, take a swig, let some air into your mouth, try and taste the flavours, say “ooh fruity little number” and talk about the investment opportunities in the middle east as you puff on your cigar. Well... she told me to do some of those things, the rest I took for granted!

We taste some delicious wines, and the lads buy a cheese board to share. At least I hope they bought it to share because we all tuck in regardless. It looks delicious 4 different cheeses, crackers, chutney, little pieces of ciabatta bread, an oil dip and herbs. Mmm delicious! Paul has never eaten cheese with wine before and whether he is in taste heaven or is just a little tipsy from all the wine is unclear but he is on a journey of self discovery through the medium of cheese and can’t stop telling us all how amazing this is! Cathal buys a pot of jam/chutney that came with the cheese and later locks it in the safe for fear we wake up to find a guilty looking Paul with jam all over his face!!

From Queenstown- the first encounter

After 3 fun, relaxing days in Queenstown we head back to Christchurch to see a little of the city we landed in. Although at this point we have already decided that we will try our best to get work and stay in Queenstown,I make a mental list from bungy to snowboarding of all the adrenalin inducing activities I want to try when we get back.

From Queenstown- the first encounter

The drive back is in daylight this time and we see some stunning scenery. This is such a beautiful country. Its a bit like someone has taken Ireland and put it under a magnifying glass so everything is much bigger and then sprinkled a little icing sugar on top of the hills for presentation! Even though we are still missing the Asian heat, we're excited about the adventures that await us in our new home.

From Queenstown- the first encounter

From Queenstown- the first encounter

Ubud is a beautiful town about 2 hours north of Kuta and the perfect escape from the latter. Art galleries, art museums, pottery shops, cafes, temples and guesthouses take the place of neon signs, Pizza huts and Ripcurl shops. Where Kuta had an overwhelming busyness and was packed to the rafters with Australian holiday makers, Ubud is bustling with a mixture of locals, ex-pats and tourists from all over the world. Rice terraces cascade down to the edges of the town where almost every building has been made in a traditional Balinese style. The stone arches, wooden doors and statues at the entrances to these buildings are so perfectly carved and decorated it is actually difficult to tell the difference between the entrance to a guesthouse and the entrance to a temple.
Our brilliant guesthouse- Nuriani

From Ubud, Bali

Art Gallery

From Ubud, Bali

Ubud is a popular settling place for westerners who fancy themselves as artists or go to "find themselves". In fact I believe there is a Julia Roberts movie about Bali with that very theme, that is currently working it's way towards your local cinema! The ex-pat/hippyish influence is also noticeable in the town and there are nice do-gooder features such as doggie hospitals, recycling centres, ecological programs as well as more art galleries and museums than you could shake a stick at and that’s before you even count the fully homegrown attractions.

One such attraction is the famous Balinese Kaceck dance. Ellie and I attend a performance of this in one of the local courtyards. It’s a story told through song and dance. A choir of men sits around and chant the kaceck song (sounds like checkidy checkidy check!) while actors act and dance out a story by fire light. I can't honestly say we followed the story completely but there were some good guys, a princess, a big fat baddy, an evil monkey and possibly a good monkey. From what I could make out the guy got the girl and the baddies got their comeuppance. After marveling at how petite and graceful the female dancers were we gasp as after the next part of the show two miniscule girls come out to start dancing. We think ‘wow I thought the last girls were petite but these ones are seriously tiny’! So...we didn't realise at first because of the heavy makeup, but in fact the reason they are so small is because they are about 12. We breathe a sigh of relief and feel a little less like giants.
Dancer

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

Kaceck singers

From Ubud, Bali

Tiny dancers

From Ubud, Bali

This dance is followed by a fire- trance dancer. And no that's not someone called Anto who got too close to a bonfire at a rave, but rather a man who's been put in a trance meaning he can dance on burning coconut embers...and kick them a bit too close for us for our comfort. By the end of it I wonder how effective his trance was because he’s sitting on the ground with his feet looking destroyed and he himself looking pretty unhappy!

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

I notice that people in Ubud have clearly been educated on what their selling point is and almost every Balinese person we meet is overly eager to point out that "this is the real Bali". However if I lived a short drive from Kuta I'd be defensive too. It’s a bit like telling people you’re not from Dublin all the time I suppose!!

We are in Ubud during a 10 day festival of the dead that comes around twice a year. Children parade the streets playing gamelan gongs and bells in perfect clanging harmonies and wearing traditional dress, 2 or 3 kids operate a lion costume swaying from side to side while a few others don scary masks. They go into courtyards of restaurants in a bid to make a few bob, and the masked ones try to scare younger kids- all the while warding off evil spirits of course!
Girl praying

From Ubud, Bali

Procession of kids

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

Simply walking around the town of Ubud is a feast for the senses in itself but one day we go a little outside the town and take a walk on a trail that goes through the rice terraces where people are out harvesting the rice. Along the path are mini art shops, stalls selling organic food and a sweet smell of vanilla pods and cinnamon drying in the sun. We also come across a huge black and yellow spider on our walk! Now, Irish people who run out of the bathroom screaming because they've seen a "massive" spider need to see this guy. Leg span included it was about the size of my hand and its body about the size of the spoony part of a teaspoon! So after trying to aggravate it for a while and poking it with our fingers we decide it is either lazy or doesn't like want to eat people so we leave it alone and wander onward down the path.

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

whats that Im pointing at?

From Ubud, Bali

GIANT SPIDER!!

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

Our guesthouse owner had told us it was impossible to stray from the trail, but this just sounded like a challenge to me, and sure enough we manage to get a lost! After a bit of hemming and hawing and some pleas for help from the locals we figure the way back to town. Ellie heads on home and I decide to check out the art museum and monkey forest. The art museum was full of local art- a lot of it based on traditional stories which are written out beside the painting or sculpture. Museum pieces with tags /explanations made a welcome difference from similar things in Thailand! Unfortunately no pictures were allowed inside the museum buildings, it didn’t stop a few cheeky tourists. I however, was in a rule abiding mood that day. (Ellie must be rubbing off on me!).
Museum

From Ubud, Bali

My excursion to the museum means that I arrived at monkey forest too late and the gates are closed. Damn cultural trip, I wanted to see some monkeys!

All too soon our Ubud experience must come to an end and we catch a bus back to Kuta- a little more ready for the madness. Whereas Kuta definitely doesn’t make my list of places to see again, Ubud and the rest of “the real” Bali are definitely on my re-visit list- maybe next time I'll even get to see some monkeys!
Daily offerings are placed along the pavements

From Ubud, Bali

Little girl from our guesthouse

From Ubud, Bali

(ka)Check out the rest of Ubud pics in Picasa!

Ubud, Bali