Life in New Zealand

Nathan and I have been living back in New Zealand for a little over two years now. Our first year we were living on the Kapiti Coast, and since January 2016 we have been living in Auckland. The first year back we did no travel as we were saving up for our wedding. We got married in January 2016 and have just celebrated our first wedding anniversary. We had such an amazing day on our wedding day and appreciated the efforts of friends and family to be there for it.

2016 saw some travel in our lives. It started with a long weekend in Sydney to attend my cousins wedding. It was the first wedding I had attended in a church so that was cool to have a new experience. My parents were also invited to the wedding so it was neat to have a weekend away with them. One day exploring Sydney by foot we walked a half marathon in distance!!

In the July school holidays I was lucky enough to be selected by my school to represent them on a teaching exchange to China. I went with a group of four other teachers. Whilst there I spent a week teaching a large group of students on a summer camp, and the second week teaching to a smaller group of students. In both weeks I had a dinner out with a family. The weather was so hot and humid. It was really weird having such hot weather but not being able to see the sun!  

Our honeymoon was our most epic travel adventure of 2016. It was so awesome to be back on the road again just Nath and I and doing our travel thing! Boy we missed it! We honeymooned in Indonesia. Starting in Semenyak, Bali. We then headed north to Ubud where we stayed in the most amazing resort ever. From here we left the Island Bali for the little Gili Islands off the coast of Lombok. We stayed on Gili Trawangan and Gili Air before finishing our honeymoon in a resort on Lombok. Whilst in Seemenyak I learnt to surf. In Ubud we did a cooking course and cycling trip through remote villages and rice paddy fields. In Gili T we cycled around the Island stopping to snorkel along the way, and took a day trip out on a boat to snorkel with turtles. As usual we visited local markets where we could and of course drank local beers most days. We had an absolute blast!

So this brings an end to my blog writing. I am hopeful there is someway that I can print this blog into a book, to be kept on our coffee table, as a reminder of the epic journey we have been on. 

Melbourne

The last stop on our journey home was Melbourne.  It was cheaper to fly via Melbourne rather than direct to Auckland, and as we had Nath's brother to stay with in Melbourne we thought why not!

We arrived after no sleep from Kuala Lumpur. The first stop on the way to Zane's was to the bottle shop where we bought some German and Belgium beers.  The rest of the day we spent doing washing and sleeping until the household returned from work. 

Day two Nath and I went into the city.  We met up with my cousin Aaron and walked around the lanes and had lunch there. From here we jumped on the free tram that goes around the city. It was pretty boring. I then met my school friend Emily for drinks on a cool rooftop bar. I bought one round of drinks for $47!!!! So expensive. I guess pimms at $13 a glass isn't the cheapest drinks to be buying.  

Day three Nath and I hung around Chelsea where Zane lives. There is a cycle path that runs the length of the coastline so we biked along part of it.  We had lunch in Mordialloc before cycling home. 

Later that afternoon we headed to the MCG to watch a twenty/20 match between Australia and South Africa. I was disappointed in my first MCG experience as there was no atmosphere at the stadium. Only 20,000 people there in a stadium that can hold 100,000. Also, the game was very one sided and did not create a close finish, the result was never in doubt.

Day four we headed into the city to the Queen Victoria markets.  We were surprised at the cheap meat prices and were hoping NZ might be similarly priced. Wishful thinking me thinks! We bought some lovely flat bread sandwiches which we ate in the sun before walking down to the river front.  Here I met another cousin for afternoon drinks and a long awaited catch up.  We returned to Zane's in time for BBQ dinner - first time we had had steaks in awhile! 

The last full day in Mellbourne was family day. We went with the kids to pick strawberries, but Nath and Zane did all the picking and the kids ate more than they collected.  After picking we were thirsty so went to a lovely winery called Montalto.  Here we drank Pinot Gris and ate pizzas.  They had a big grass area so the kids were able to run around and play which left us able to drink wine. The final stop was in Flinders - a playground for the kids and a coffee shop for the adults.

The next morning we packed our bags and had a twenty minute walk to the train station with our packs on! I'm glad it wasn't a hot day.  We met up with Emily for lunch in the lanes before we took a bus out to the airport to begin the final leg of our journey home.  

Kuala Lumpur

The last stop in our tourof Malaysia was the capital, Kuala Lumpur.  Luckily it was much warmer than the Cameron Highlands. By now we are pretty tired and are ready to be in one place for a while.  Therefore, we took a low key approach to KL.  We ate street food for most of our meals and in terms of sightseeing we didn't do a lot. We walked around the China Town and took the metro to the Petronas Towers.

Once there we discovered an amazing shopping mall so we spent some time looking through some very high end shops.  We then went to Merdeka square which is where the British were based when they occupied Malaysia.  

Later that night we had our overnight flight to Melbourne.  Our flight was with the budget airline Air Asia - 8 hours, no pillows, no blankets, no food or drinks! 

Cameron Highlands

We were in for a scenery and temperature change when we ventured to Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands.  We figured we had done enough beachy things that we should try something else. I instantly regretted this decision when we arrived to 15 degree weather.  I had to put on long pants and a jumper! I hadn't done this since living in London.  Right on cue the afternoon rains came just after we had checked into our guest house. This resulted in me nana napping until my hunger was greater than my need for sleep and we ventured out for lunch.  The rain had us rushing back to the safety of our room where we stayed until dinner time. We are such Nana's!

We set our alarm for 4am as we wanted to watch the All Blacks v USA. We got another hours sleep before we had to be up for our tour to the tea plantation and the mossy forest.  The tea plantation was BOH (best of highlands) and is owned by a Scottish family.  The granddaughter now runs the business.  The scenery was really beautiful. We were given a talk about how the leaves are cut and processed into tea leaves and tea bags.

From here we ventured into the mossy forest.  The forest is given its name due to the fact so much moss grows there as it is very damp as no sunlight penetrates through the trees. It reminded me of the NZ bush - very green, ferns everywhere, and moss! 

Our guide took us on a 50min walk pointing out cool plants as we went.  Our favourite was the insect killing plant.  It has a cone shape with sticky nectar that attracted insects, and once the insects were inside they couldn't get out.  The nectar is actually highly acidic and breaks down the insects. Very cool!!  

Unfortunately when we went up to the top of the Mountain (2000m above sea level) to lok out at the valley the clouds had rolled in and we couldn't see anything!!

 After our walk we went to the BOH tea factory where we watched workers in each stage of the tea making process.  At the end of it all we were rewarded with a cuppa and scones.  Yum.  This was the end of our adventure in the Highlands.  Today we were up early to catch a bus to Kuala Lumpur where I am hoping the weather will be warmer.

Sadly all good things must come to an end. We have two stops left on our world tour - Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne.

Pulau Langkawi

We had to back track a little as we changed our plans as we couldn't go to the Perhentian Islands.  If we had known earlier we would have gone from Koh Lanta to Koh Lippe and then onto Langkawi. As it turns out we went from Koh Lanta to Penang and then to Langkawi, and now we are back to Penang for a one night stop over before leaving for the Cameron Highlands tomorrow morning.

Langkawi was very chilled and we just couldn't be bothered doing much more than going to the beach. Our general pattern of the day was breakfast, change into togs, beach, too hot so retreat back to guest house with air con - getting lunch along the way, beach again late afternoon then watch the sunset at a beach bar. Repeat three times.  

On our last day it was raining so the beach was axed. A friend recommended a health & beauty spa so I looked them up and booked us in.  Nath wasn't so keen and apparently "I owe him" but at the end he decided "yeah it was good" so I'm thinking I don't owe him anymore. The spa was running a monthly special with a Malay massage, foot reflexology, coconut body scrub and yoghurt wrap taking two and a half hours for £30.  I thought that was pretty good value.

On the taxi ride back to our part of the Island we got dropped off at the night markets. Each night the market is set up in a different location around the Island.  Last night it was our towns turn to host it.  We went for our favourites first - chicken or beef sticks BBQ'd then apply ample amounts of satay sauce. Yummo!  We tried a host of other foods, including spring rolls with a sticky satay sauce and some fiery hot chicken and rice dish that resulted in us having to buy a drink and the guy cracking up at us! 

Today we had a 30min flight from Langkawi to Penang as the flight was cheaper than the ferry! Awesome. The fight itself was actually free, as in we didn't pay a seat price, but just had to pay fuel surcharge and airport taxes, resulting in both of us flying for £25.

We are very definitely coming to the end of our time travelling. After tonight we have two nights in the Cameron Highlands, one night in KL, one night in the sky, and then the rest of the time in Melbourne before landing in NZ very late on the 10th of November.