Mel and Jay's World Tour

Hello again,

Sending two blogs at once. Getting a bit behind. This will probably be the last one b/c I don’t imagine I’ll get around to doing one for Europe. They’re a lot of work and take a lot of time. In Dubai again at the moment. Just finished a 15 day tour of Egypt and arrived back here today. We leave for London tomorrow to begin our final two months in Europe! Can’t believe how fast time has flown! We’ll be home before you know it!

We spent three nights in Dubai. It was HOT HOT HOT!!! Record temperatures for May. I think we got to 46 degrees Celsius one day!! We found we were either too hot or too cold in this city. They BLAST the AC here!! It can't be healthy! We found a great deal online for a hotel that was equipped with a kitchen and was in a great location!

Amazing new Emirates terminal at airport

We booked onto a city bus tour that took us to all the main sights of the city. We saw the highlights including the almost complete Burg Dubai tower, the tallest tower in the world (800m). The interior is being designed by Giorgio Armani. We also saw the famous Burg Al Arab hotel (the one that looks like a sail). Of course, we didn’t go in. You can pay $200USD to check it out though. A little too steep for budget travelers. The cheapest room is $3000 USD/ night and it is the only 7 star hotel in the world!! There are contractors currently in the works of building an underwater hotel and an office/apartment building that has rotating floors! This city is money crazy! We also drove onto Palm Island. Of course, you couldn’t tell you were on Palm Island, but it was still cool. A helicopter ride is quite expensive, so we’ve been trying to catch it from the airplane!

Burg Dubai Tower

Burg Al Arab Hotel

Burg Al Arab looks like a sail and the Jumeirah Beach hotel looks like a wave- this is from the Palm Islands

Are we in Egypt? Nope, this is another mall in Dubai

Can you believe it? It's another mall!

We spent some time in a couple of the malls to just basically walk around with our mouths open in awe and our necks craned to check everything out. Emirates mall had the indoor ski hill and this massive indoor aquarium. The Dubai mall has every designer you can think of, plus a skating rink, and a crazy fountain show with music after 6pm.

Outside of indoor ski hill

Indoor ski hill

Big fish tank

Really cool fountain

Skating rink

What the? Canada Dry Cola? Has anyone seen this around before?

Jay's new girlfriend

Jayson bit the budget bullet and took in a game of golf while I sat by the pool and worked out at the gym (for free). He had a great game and wasn’t as rusty as he thought he’d be.

Jay's rental clubs...pretty nice!

18th tee off. He crushed it (or so he says)

That evening we went on a city river cruise. We got to see the older parts of Dubai. After the boat ride we went on a night bus tour. Dubai is something else when it is all lit up at night! Unfortunately our camera takes crappy night shots, so we didn’t get too many good ones.

Old Dubai

Crap shot of Atlantis hotel on Palm Islands

The next day we were off to Cairo! Crazy, crazy, crazy town! 17 million people call this city home and 6 million people commute to Cairo each day making the day time population 23 million!!! Cairo is the largest city in Africa. The traffic is an attraction in itself! Obama was in the house while we were in Egypt, but we weren't in Cairo for the event. Decided that hanging out with the US president in the Middle East wasn't a great idea...

Plane from Dubai to Cairo...lots and lots of sand

We started a 15 day organized tour from here. We were the only Canadians amongst the Aussies, Kiwis, and 1 Columbian and 1 Englishman. It was a good group and we had some great times with them. Our tour guide’s name was Mido and he was awesome! He’s an Egyptologist (it’s an actual job title) and was so passionate about all the history of Egypt. Mido really liked Jayson because he asked lots of questions.

On the first day we went to the Great Pyramids of course! It was a sight to see! A little surreal! Checked out the sphinx next and then to the Cairo Museum where we saw the King Tut exhibit and some mummies!!!

One of the three Great Pyramids

Walk like Egyptians...we just had to do it!

the Sphnix

We took a night train to Aswan and chilled out by the pool for the rest of the day. That night we took in a Nubian dinner and entertainment. The Nubian people live in the southern part of Egypt. Jay and another guy from the trip had to do an interesting dance in front of the group. Ask to see the video when we get home.

On the train to Aswan

Aswan market: the blue stuff is bleach, right next to your spices

Nubian dinner

Nubian dancer...the guy spun around for probably 15 minutes straight!!

Nubian participants

Early, early, early the next morning we were up at 2:45am to board a bus to Abu Simbel at 3:40. The reason we left so early is because our bus had to join a convoy of other buses that are led to the site by armed guards. A while back there was a terrorist attack along this road, so now they take every precaution. No complaints from me! Abu Simbel is the location of the temples King Ramses II built to honour himself and his favourite wife (I think he had around 70 wives). It was well worth the journey and the early morning!!

Out in front of Ramses' II temple

That afternoon we departed on our felucca journey for 2 nights on the Nile River. It was awesome! We basically spent the days lazing around, swimming, eating, reading books…pretty easy. On the first night we visited a local’s home. We had a few shishas (flavoured tobacco) and a few people got henna tattoos. The kids there were really cute!

Felucca time!

Locals float by

Grub time! Made by our Nubian felucca crew!

This little girl loved stealing cameras!!

On the second night we had a massive bonfire and sang Nubian and western songs all night long! A little liquid courage was in everyone that night. Another highlight of the night was the toilet our boat crew built us: they dug a hole and put a seat with a hole in it over top. Of course a few of the boys (including Jayson) didn’t think the hole was wide or deep enough, so proceeded to take it apart and fill it in. Finally the British guy walked over to the boys and said, “Guys, these people built the pyramids. I’m pretty sure they can handle a toilet!” That stopped them in their tracks and they re-dug the hole the way it was before!!

Nubian songs

Bonfire games

We arrived in Luxor, the capital of Egypt back in the day. It has a ton of temples right in the city! We checked out Luxor Temple in the evening. It was cool to see how the shadows make the temple look so different. The next day we went to Valley of the Kings. It’s the resting place of the majority of Egyptian kings. This is where King Tut was found. They have found about 65 tombs and believe they have 67 more to find! Couldn’t take photos inside the tombs though! Sorry! We also went to a temple that was built by the only female ruler of Egypt. She pretended to be a man though. I can't remember her name, but it sounds like Hot Chicken Soup.

Granite oblisque at Luxor Temple

Model view of Valley of the Kings

Gang at Valley of Kings: trying to stay out of the heat!

Mel & Vicky keep it real at Hot Chicken Soup's temple aka Al Deir Al-Bahara Temple

We find a local for this pic!

We headed back to Cairo and checked out the crazy market. The people there will do anything to get you to come into their shop and you have to be prepared to bargain hard! Luckily we were well practiced after Southeast Asia! We had another girl from the tour walk around with Jay and I and men kept calling out how lucky he was to have two wives. One man offered Jayson 50 million camels for me (the tour group record I might add) and the pick-up lines these guys throw out are hilarious. “Excuse me Miss you dropped something! It was my heart” Lame, but funny!

Belly dancing suits at Cairo market

Jay arm wrestles a local

Shisha time! Don't worry, it's just flavoured tobacco filtered through water!

Apple flavour!

We took a long journey to a resort town on the Red Sea called Dahab and spent the next 6 nights there. On the first night Jayson and I joined another tour group and climbed Mt. Sinai (the one where Moses received the commandments). On the way up we saw a camel fall off the side of a cliff!! It was kind of scary! We arrived at the top around 3:30am and slept on the roof of a monastery. We were up before 6am to catch the amazing sunrise and trek down the mountain. We saw St. Catherine’s Monastery and a few of the famous Moses spots: the water well where he moved the rock for the Jewish women to have a drink and the burning bush where he heard God speak to him.

Slept ontop of a monastery

Early morning views

The church built on top of the mountain for Moses

Camels!

The famous well

We went back to the hotel and slept all day! We were knackered (an Aussie term)! The next day was our first day of diving. We had been building for this! The Red Sea has some of the best dive sites in the world. The visibility was amazing, at least 30m! We saw a massive ray (2m wide) and lots of coral and fish. There were only 4 of us certified divers on the trip so we were a small group.

The Dive Gang

Dahab was full of relaxation, eating, and avoiding the heat. We had lots of fun with our tour group during this time! Yesterday we took an 8 hour bus ride back to Cairo and got on a plane to come back to Dubai today. I think I said this already at the beginning. Well I should end it then!

He's an animal!

Mojito time!

Hope all is well wherever you live!
Mel & Jay

Hey Everyone!

Hope things are starting to get warmer back home. Have heard that the warm weather has taken its time making an appearance. We're having the opposite problem at the moment. In the middle of the desert right now (Dubai) and we're hanging out indoors to escape the heat!

We spent 5 weeks in Southeast Asia. We hit up three countries: Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. When I refer to it as an overwhelming experience, it is in both good and bad ways. The good: FOOD WAS AMAZING!!!!, most people extremely nice, some stunning scenery, great cooking courses, low prices, and awesome markets! The bad: garbage everywhere (especially Cambodia), some very sad histories and current events, lots of poverty (especially Cambodia), and lots of horking and spitting (especially Vietnam), and many many attempts at ripping us white tourists off (especially taxi drivers in Bangkok).

Jay got a new car!

Bangkok

We start out in Thailand. First person we saw when we got through customs was JORDAN!!! (Jay's younger brother). It was awesome to see him! We spent a week together before he went to South Korea. We had a day in Bangkok taking in the sights, sounds, and smells. The next day we flew south to hit up some of the islands. We spent three nights at Bottle Neck Beach on Ko Phan Ngan ('ko' means island). You can only access this beach by boat or 4x4 truck, as we were "lucky" enough to experience both. Fortunately the amazing bamboo huts right on the beach waiting for us made the journey worth it! We spent two full days eating, getting massages, drinking, and laying on the beach. It was pretty nice!

Jay & Jord in back of sawngthawe on Ko Phan Ngan

View from our hut

Singha beer

Jay gets a massage

Mel gets one too, but a Thai massage

Next we took a ferry to Ko Tao. Ko Tao is famous for its scuba diving. On the ride over we met a girl named Heather from Vancouver. She wanted to get certified for diving and so did Jordan, so they took the course together. We ended up spending a lot of time with her and the rest of their dive group. We had our first banana pancakes on Ko Tao and some amazing Thai massages! Jay and I spent the first day and a half roaming around while Jord was taking his course. We spent the last day of his course with him on the dive boat doing some dives ourselves. We saw some great stuff: coral, a box fish...a bit different that the Great Barrier Reef. We did have a bad dive though. Conditions were too rough and Mel's BCD ('b' standing for buoyancy, so a fairly important piece of equipment) wasn't working and she pretty much had to be rescued by one of the dive instructors. It made us appreciate the power of the ocean a little more.

Diver Jord!

Brothers

Jord, Heather, Jayson: Ko Tao

Back to Bangkok via night ferry, bus, back of a truck, airplane, taxi. We checked out the Reclining Buddha at Wat Po ('wat' means temple). We had a nice Thai meal and then said good-bye to Jordan! It was great to have him join our little world for a while!

Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho

The next day we were up early to catch a flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Siem Reap is the sleeper town for those wanting to check out Angkor Wat. We hired a tuk-tuk driver to take us around for two days to as many wats as we could handle. Angkor Wat is a massive area of really really old temples that were built around the era when what is now Cambodia pretty much ruled all of SE Asia. Restoration started when the French colonized the country, so some of the temples are really well-kept. It's pretty amazing to see these massive elaborate structures that people built without the modern technologies we have.

From the back of a tuk-tuk

First morning: Angkor Wat

Tour guide Mel

Angkor Tom

Crazy tree overgrowth on one of the temples

Another tuk-tuk shot

Day 2 temples

Cool shot

Cambodia has a sad history and unfortunately their situation continues to be sad. Most of you have probably heard about the 2 million Cambodians who were killed between 1975 and 1979 when a group called the Khmer Rouge tried to make Cambodia a communist agrarian society. Basically they killed anyone who was educated or who posed a threat to the Khmer Rouge's goals. Even though the Khmer Rouge aren't running things now, the Cambodian government still remains the 4th most corrupt government in the world. People here are extremely poor and work themselves to the bone to get by. We found it interesting that even though these people virtually had nothing, they were always smiling and happy. If you smiled at someone, they would ALWAYS smile back.

Typical gas station

Lady selling crickets....to eat!!!

Landmines scatter many parts of Cambodia. These landmines are not only leftover from the Khmer Rouge, but also the previous government who allowed the United States to mine the borders between Cambodia and Vietnam. We went to a Landmine Musuem, which was sponsored by the Canadian government (good on us!). The guy running the place was a child soldier who used to lay the mines and now he dedicates his life to finding and disarming them. He also adopts children who have been affected by landmines and he has about 24 kids living with him and his wife. Pretty amazing! It's not uncommon to see landmine victims on the streets, many of them begging for money. We had a strange moment one night in Siem Reap: we were sitting on this street full of restaurants and pubs. Basically it was full of tourists and this street could have been in Edmonton or any western city. Out of no where comes this guy with a couple limbs missing asking people for money. It was so bizarre to be sitting there in what seemed like such a normal, everyday street and then to be hit with such a reality check.

Landmine Museum sponsored by Canadian government

Some of the landmines recovered

After Siem Reap, we bussed to Cambodia's capital Phnom Pehn. We didn't spend a ton of time there, but did go and check out the S21 prison. This former high school was turned into one of the main torture prisons used by the Khmer Rouge. Nothing was glossed over, it was very real. The images they displayed were disturbing. We continued our despressing history lesson and went to the Killing Fields, just outside of town. An estimated 20,000 men, women and children were killed here and dumped in mass graves. They continue to excavate graves today. The tour guide we hired had lost both his parents in these fields because they were doctors. Also, his sister and uncle died of starvation during this time. The walking paths around the fields were littered with human bones and teeth! They even had a 17-storey monument full of excavated skulls and bones. The guide would pick up a skull and be able to tell us how that person died (ie gunshot, pick-ax, hammer). We were pretty dizzy at the end of the day after all the depressing things we saw and learned about.

After Phnom Pehn, we took the bus over the Vietnam border to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). We really liked this city! It was exciting, had good markets, good places to eat, and just a good vibe. People are always trying to sell you something. Our favourite was when a guy would come into a restaurant with a stack of books and say, "Wanna buy a book?". We'd say no and his response would be, "How about some marijuana?" I think Jay's long locks gave people the wrong impression (haha).

Pho: our most loved Vietnamese meal, had it almost everyday

Russian Market

Not sure what is in these cups...

We spent some time learning about the Vietnam War at the War Remnant Musuem. Interesting to learn about the experience from the Vietnamese point of view. What we've decided is that when it comes to war there are no winners. Vietnamese people are still dealing with the effects of the chemicals the US dumped on them. Some of the exhibits were very gruesome.

U.S. plane captured by Vietnamese

Yikes!

After HCMC we flew to Hoi An. We spent 4 nights in this resort town and had a great time! We had tailored clothing made, spent some time laying on the beach, and took an amazing cooking course. The course was the best thing we'd done up to that point! It was just the two of us with our instructor Vena, who is probably the nicest and cutest little thing in the world! She nick-named us Tomato (Mel) and Obojime (Jay) and her famous sayings were: "You got it!" or "Same, same, but different and better". We made some delicious food and if you're lucky we might make it for you some day. Sucking up starts now!

Hoi An

Jay gets his suit altered

Final product

En Route to beach

At the market with Vena

Choppin'

Jay prepares the spring roll mix

Our favourite Vietnamese person!

Cheers! So sweaty.

From Hoi An we took the overnight bus to the capital, Hanoi. An interesting night of being on a possible drug run and listening to people hork and spit in their sleep all night. This was the last bus we took. First thing in Hanoi we booked a tour to Halong Bay, which was highly reccommend by travellers along the way. We spent one night and two days on an ultra-luxury junk (cruise ship). We ate like kings (lunch on the first day was a 7 course meal and dinner was a seafood buffet) and did some kayaking through bat caves and some trekking through limestone caves . The scenery was amazing and we really enjoyed the five-star treatment!

Sleeper bus to Hanoi

Our awesome shower on the cruise ship.

View of Halong Bay

Junks on the bay

Mel Kayak: Halong Bay

Jay Kayak: Halong Bay

5 star treatment!

Fishing for squid

Girls from the water villages selling stuff to tourists. Those girls can row!!

Cave Walk

Back in Hanoi we checked out the prison John McCain referred to as the 'Hanoi Hilton'. They really talked up how well the American prisoners were treated (even though McCain can't raise his arms above his head anymore). They say they have his pilot suit, but McCain claims he's never seen that suit in his life. Not too sure how factual things are there... Enjoyed doing some shopping, finding a descent cup of coffee (Vietnamese coffee is crap), and walking around the lake in the city centre.

Crusing Hanoi

War Prison

John McCain visits the prison in 2001 and again 1 month before we got there

Vietnam claims this is John McCain's uniform

A little boy named Bei who asked if he could practice his English with me. He lived in Australia for 2 years

Jay by the lake in Hanoi

From Hanoi we headed back into Thailand to a city in the north called Chiang Mai. We spent over a week here and loved all of it! The best thing about Chiang Mai was the guesthouse we stayed in. The girls who ran the place were AMAZING!! Free bikes, free internet, free printing (all things of value to backpackers). The head girl, Op, would reccommend restaurants and then write down what to order in Thai so all we had to do was hand a piece of paper to a waitress. They also would give us free rides on their motorbikes to restaurants and did all the tour bookings for us! It was such a great place to end our time in SE Asia!

Banilah girls

Banilah guesthouse

We got to Chiang Mai on a Sunday, which is a great day to get there because of the Sunday Market. Best market I've ever been to and I want to come back to Chiang Mai someday based solely on this market. On the Monday we went out of town to Doi Suthep, a temple that has amazing city views. My shorts were too short, so I had to wear a sarong. Oops, ignorant tourist strikes again!

1kg of prawns!

Walking around the temple in my sarong

View of Chiang Mai from the temple

On Tuesday we took another cooking course. This one was also such a great experience, but was totally different from the one in Vietnam. We were in a group with 4 other people and we each had our own little cooking station. We made 6 dishes and were SO FULL at the end of the day! The instructor has her own cookbook and everyone got a copy! Again, the grovelling begins for those who want to sample our Thai cooking skills.

Jay prepares his coconut green curry! Yum!

Mel at her station

Instructor took us to market and told us how to select different foods.

Mmmmm

Hot chilis!

Cooking up a storm

Spring rolls: check out that presentation!

Wednesday was just a catch up day and on Thursday we began a 3 day, 2 night trek through the jungle north of Chiang Mai. We spent both nights in hill tribe villages. Accommodation was mostly a mat and a mosquito net in a bamboo hut. On the second night, our hut had only 3 walls! Nice views of the river though! We got to ride elephants, white water raft, bamboo raft, and swim in waterfalls. We met a great couple from Isreal and played a ton of cards with them. Kaiser has been spread to Isreal! We picked up a few games from them too! We were very happy to get back to Chiang Mai and take a proper shower.

Jay wrestles an elephant

Elephant ride: actually not as exciting as you'd think

1st night accommodation at hill tribe village

A cool tree

Playing hide 'n seek with the locals

These guys loved posing for the camera!

Our crazy tour guides

Day 2: waterfall

Cooling off in the falls

2nd night accommodation with a view!

Mel, Jay, guide, Omer, Dana

On Sunday we went to the Elephant Nature Park north of the city. A woman named Lek has dedicated her life to saving abandoned and abused elephants. We got to feed elephants and wash them in the river. It's pretty amazing how comfortable you get with these massive creatures. It's also interesting to see the personalities of the elephants and the dynamics between the herds. We were extremely lucky to arrive 8 hours after a new baby elephant was born! The other elephants were going crazy trying to protect the little one. There were times when we had to run to get out of the way!

Lek with the month old baby elephant

New baby elephant born that morning!

Kiss, kiss

Feeding time!

Bathing time!

Cooling off in the river

Whaddya want?

The one month old finds a way to cool off

Lek cares for 33 elephants, continually tries to adopt more, reaches out to the hill tribe villages in the area to educate them on how to properly treat and care for them (they are very important for villages' way of life), and runs this massive land reserve that costs $250 000/ year without any government support! Whew, and I thought my life was stressful! She was super down-to-earth, even though she has written books and been on many TV shows and in tons of articles. She talked to everybody who came and answered all our questions. It was a great day!

Last day in Chiang Mai, we got ready to leave on the night train to Bangkok. Much better than night buses! Funny story: at the train station in Bangkok we ran into a co-worker of Jayson's from back home and her husband. They had just spent a year away from home and were on their way back to Canada! How random is that? We spent part of the day with them in Bangkok at our favourite shopping centre, MBK. It was great to swap travel stories!

Random meeting with fellow Saskatchewanians!

MBK: best mall ever!

Less than 3 months till we get home! We miss everyone!

Bye for now,
Mel & Jay

Hey all,

In Sydney at the moment. Got up this morning in Auckland at 3:30am to catch a flight here. Depart tonight at 6:45pm to Bangkok! We're on the home stretch! Will actually be in a different part of the world now! We can't believe it's less than 4 months till we get home! In Bangkok we're meeting Jordan (Jay's younger brother) and spending a week with him beaching it up in Southern Thailand.

New Zealand was great to us! We LOVED it! I knew going in that it was going to be great! Everyone who's ever gone to NZ loves it, so I knew my chances were good!

Largest gumboot in the world.... don't know this for a fact, but it's just got to be

Our journey did start out with a little airport drama in Sydney. A combination of oversized luggage, disorganization, running through customs, and lost luggage pretty much sums it up. Oh well, everything worked out in the end! Everyone needs at least one stressful airport story! We arrived in Christchuch (South Island) and began our search for our next camper van. Whoever we chose had big shoes to fill, Hanner was good to us. We found the best deal with a company called Jucy. It was also a Toyota Hiace, just a bit newer and a different set up.

Unfortunately we didn't do too much touristy stuff in Christchurch. We walked around the city a bit, but most of our time was spent in the library doing our taxes and working on our last blog. Oh well, sometimes you just need to get things done.

From Christchurch we headed north to Kaikora, home of a famous sperm whale pod. We booked our whale watching boat tour, saw a seal jumping around and that's it! No whales! We got 80% of our money back. Whenever we told a New Zealander that we went to Kaikora and didn't see a sperm whale, they couldn't believe it. Apparently it's quite rare. From Kaikora we went to Hamner Springs and took in a Sunday market and some hot pools. Love the hot pools!

Jay making us breakfast at an awesome campsite outside of Kaikora. That's the ocean in the background!

We headed back down south past Christchurch and did a very scenic hike around Mt. Hutt. We spent the night at Lake Tekapo. It is such a beautiful blue lake! I loved it! From there we drove to Mt. Cook and did the most gruelling hike of our hiking career up to Mueller Hut. I think we went up over 1000 vertical meters and it was steep, steep, steep! Our legs hurt for 3 days! There is an option to do the hike on an overnight trip and stay at the hut, but we just wanted to get 'er done. It was pretty funny to watch people do the climb with their massive overnight bags though!

Mt. Hutt...crazy blue water

Mel, the van, the church, Lake Tekapo...need I say more?

Mel lovin' Lake Tekapo

Mt. Cook: our climb. This was the easy part!

Jay at Mueller Hut after our hike up. We still have to hike down though!

We made it! Great views from up here!

Jay's beautiful shot of the mountains

We had an awesome sleep and got up the next morning and found a salmon farm! Bought some fresh stuff and had two delicious meal with it.

Salmon farm near Mt. Cook

We drove through a town called Omarama and Jayson decided he wanted to do an airplane glide. Basically Jay got into a glider plane with another pilot and another plane pulled them up and dragged them around for about 10 minutes. After that, he let them go. The pilot in Jay's plane even let him steer for a while. He had some great views from up there! The pilots turned out to be really great guys who have both spent time in Saskatchewan! One guy spent a bunch of time in Colonsay! Crazy! They gave us awesome travel advice for the region and basically planned the next two weeks of our trip!

Jay getting ready for take off

View from the plane

From here we took a scenic drive through some back roads (all according to the advice of the pilots). We stopped at the Meridian Energy Benmore Power Station, saw some Maori Rock Art, some limestone rocks at Elephant Rock (also one of the film locations for Narnia), and saw a random whale fossil in the middle of a farmer's land. We ended the day in Oamaru, a town with some of the oldest buildings in New Zealand. We also saw the rare yellow-eyed penguin and went to a Little Blue penguin show where you get to watch them come out of the water from their feeding at the end of the day into their 'apartments'.

Mel at Elephant Rock...super pumped about the Narnia connection!

Baaa!

Fuzzy picture of the endangered yellow-eyed penguin...couldn't use flash

Watch out for penguins!

The next day we hit up Dunedin for the Kathmandu sale (it's a store like MEC). We also took in a tour at the Cadbury Chocolate Factory. Lots of samples! Yum! Apparently they make 10 cream eggs per New Zealander per year for Easter and they are ALL sold one week after Easter is over. The tour guide asked if there were any New Zealanders in the group. One or two people raised their hands. He asked if they had 10 cream eggs last year. They said no....there must be some cream egg-loving Kiwis out there! We also checked out the train station in Dundedin...apparently the second most photographed building in the Southern Hemisphere. Take a guess at the other one (hint: look at our last blog).

Jay takes a sample

I got my bags of treats!!

Dunedin train station: second most photographed building in southern hemisphere

We drove through the Otago Peninsula (still on pilots' advice) and visited a Scottish castle with really pretty gardens. We also saved a Buddhist's horse from being caught in the fence and meant to go check out an Albatross colony, but it was too expensive. We also saw more seals! They're everywhere!

View of Scottish castle and gardens

Alice in Wonderland theme at gardens: Jay is the Queen of Hearts

We spent the next day driving the Southern Scenic Route and making our way to Invercargill where we sampled the famous bluff oysters! We decided that we wanted to do a Doubtful Sound cruise. We booked it for April 1 and then started our drive to Queenstown. My bungy jump was quickly approaching!

Southern Scenic Route

Queenstown is a cool place. It's kind of like Banff, really pretty scenery and lots of touristy things to do. We got there later in the evening and booked my bungy. I chose the same one Jayson & Jarod had done in previous years: the Nevis jump, 134m up off the ground. I attempted to get some sleep and managed about 3 hours. I kept having nightmares that I didn't do my first jump correctly and they were making me do it again! We got up early because I booked the earliest jump possible to get it over with. Jay paid to come up with me for moral support and to take pictures. At the bungy centre we met a guy named Matt from Ontario. It was his first bungy too. We drove 45 minutes to the Nevis River and got into our safety gear and out onto the platform. Unfortunately I was one of the only girls jumping and therefore one of the lightest. You jump in order of weight with the heaviest people going first. I had to watch 10 people jump before me. I was really nervous. Finally it was my turn. The guy had to countdown from 5 about four times. I kept looking down, which didn't help the situation. Finally I closed my eyes and just jumped! I was very relieved when the cord started to drag me back up! I was on this wicked high afterwards and couldn't calm down. Finally I laid down and didn't wake up for over two hours.

On our way out to bungy platform. Nerves are kicking in.

Ain't that the truth

Canadians: Jay, Matt, Mel after the bungy. Looks of relief...even for Jay

That night we met Matt for post-bungy beers and his travel buddy Luke, also from Ontario. We got along really well and decided to spend the next few days travelling together. Our last day in Queenstown was spent taking a ride up a gondola and checking out the spectacular views from above. The next day the four of us piled in the van and headed to Milford Sound. The two guys did a cruise and Jay and I did a hike. We made the trek to Te Anu stopping along the way for the many photo opportunities.

The three boys on their waterfall hike

Four Canadians in a van

Out for pizza in Te Anu

In Te Anu we watched a really cool documentary on the Fjordlands in NZ. We went out to a lookout point and made dinner and said goodbye to our new friends afterwards. We had some fun taking stupid photos.

Luke prepares the feast

Jay, Mel, Matt, Luke

A nice one of the four of us

The next day was the start of our overnight Doubtful Sound cruise. It was such an awesome experience!!! One of our favourite on the trip. The scenery was stunning! Apparently we had the best weather the crew had seen all season so we got to kayak on the fjord and even did a cold water plunge. We saw tons of wildlife: dolphins, seals, penguins and met some really cool Americans, Canadians, and English people.

Mel kayaking on the fjord

Classic kayak pose

After Doubtful we took a long road trip to the Abel Tasman National Park. We did a 19km costal walk that also had some stunning scenery. We even went for a VERY cold swim in the Cleopatra Pools. This is the last thing we did before we left the south island. From here we drove to Picton and took the ferry up to Wellington, the capital of NZ.

Jay's before hike shot. Pretty cool in the morning

Mel's before shot

Jay's after shot. Clothes have come off. It's hot!

Mel's after shot

In Wellington we caught up with my friend Lisa, another Europe pal. She kindly let us stay at her place. We got to meet her boyfriend Geoff and her 14 month old daughter Catherine. It was great to catch up. Jayson and I checked out a few sights around the capital. We went to Te Papu, the best free musuem we have ever been to. It gave the entire history of NZ, had art galleries, interactive science areas...it was cool! We also went to the Mac's brewery (a favourite NZ beer of ours) and had the sampler platter.

Mel, Lisa, Catherine

View of Wellington from the top of the museum

Chicken or the egg?

The Macs sampler

Outside the brewery

After Wellington we headed towards Napier. We checked out a winery and a cheese factory in the area.

Before shot of our anti-pasto platter at Te Mata Cheese Factory

10 minutes later

After Napier we drove to Tongariro National Park and did the Tongariro Crossing. Snow had fallen the night before, so we had a mini-winter for a few hours. The winds at the highest point of our walk were about 80km/hr. The scenery was awesome and it was a great walk.

Start of the Tongariro Crossing

We are pioneers.... few others have blazed this trail: )

Look at all that snow!

Our attempt at a snowman

From snow to this! The landscape and weather changed constantly on this walk

From the walk we headed towards Rotorura. We stayed with my pal Katy for the Easter weekend at her parents farm. We got to meet her boyfriend Bevan and her parents Colleen and Stewart. They were incredibly hospitable and made us feel so welcome. On the Saturday Katy and Bevan took us around the area to check out some thermal stuff (the area is ontop of a tectonic faultline). We saw bubbling mud pools and a geiser. It was Opening Day for the hunting season so we went and watched Katy's parents take part in the hunt. It was a neat experience!

The Graham homestead

Opening day for hunting season: Katy's dad is in the green jacket

Release the hounds!

We also checked out a Maori museum and saw a culture show there. On the Sunday we went to Papamoa Beach, laid in the sun for a bit, and then did some shore fishing. We only caught one fish with it, but luckily Katy's dad went out on the kayak and caught 10 more. We also dug in the sand for these shellfish (can't remember their proper name) and made fritatas with them the next morning.

Te Puia Musuem Wood Carving School

Bubbling mud

Maori culture show

Longest word ever

Katy and Colleen getting the fishing line ready

The men shuffling around for shellfish

Bevan bringing in the line

Mel bringing in the line

Stewart bleeding out our catch...our should I say his

On Monday we said good-bye to Katy and her family and drove to Taupo. We met up with my friend Janna (yet another Europe pal) and had brunch with her and her boyfriend Phil. That afternoon Jayson and I went white-water rafting. I didn't post pictures of the rafting because we want to see everyone's faces when we show the pics. Mention the 'white-water rafting' pictures when we get home and we'll be sure to have a few stories about that adventure. We went over the highest commercial waterfall in the world, about 7 m. It was pretty exciting. We met up with Janna and Phil for dinner and said goodbye to them in the morning. It was great to catch up!

Mel & Janna reunite

We did a day trip back to Wellington to pick up our passports, which were getting Vietnamese visas installed in them. Next, we headed up the Coromandel Peninsula. We checked out Hot Water Beach where you dig a hole in these thermal sands and have a make-shift spa until the tide comes in. We drove to Cathedral Cove and had a nice day on the beach.

Jay digs us our natural spa

The test run

Post-digging picture...the first time I touched the shovel

Walk to Cathedral Cove on Coromandel Peninsula

Cathedral Cove

On the Friday we headed into Auckland. We met our friends Susanne and Jelle, who we met on our dive trip in Cairns. We went to a Super 14 rugby game together and then headed out the next day north of Auckand. We checked out Goat Island Marine Reserve and Whangeri Waterfalls aka the Paris Hilton Falls (most photographed falls in NZ). The next day we took a dive trip around the Bay of Islands. We got to scuba dive on a ship wreck and checked out the different marine life. Lots of kelp, crayfish, and eels.

Auckland

Rugby match opening spectacles

Super 14 Rugby: Highlanders vs. The Blues

Fun fact: Cheerleading was invented in New Zealand! Who knew?

Out on the town after the rugby match

Goat Island Marine Reserve

The most photographed water falls in New Zealand

The most natural hot pools we've ever been in. The bottoms have just thermal sands that are extremely hot

I forget this name....largest tree in New Zealand

Canadians and Dutchies Unite! Mel, Susanne, Jelle, Jayson

We headed back to Auckland, said good bye to our Dutch pals and shacked up at Katy and Bevan's for the night. They cooked us an awesome meal and we even got to sleep in a real bed, something of a luxery for us after all those weeks in a campervan. Katy even drove us to the airport the next morning at 4am!!! I sure hope Bevan and Katy make a trip out to Canada someday so we can repay them for all their kindness!

Well that's it for now. Hopefully will get a chance to do another one of these after Asia or Egypt. Hope all is well and good for everyone! Thanks for all the emails! It's great to hear how everyone is doing!

Take care,
Mel & Jay

ps. I started this thing in Sydney and here I sit in Bangkok... a week after getting here. Oh well!

Hey all,

Sorry it's been a while! When you're constantly on the go, it's hard to find a few hours to sit down and organize all of this! This one is going to be doozy, so if you don't want to read it and want to just look at the pictures, I totally understand. For all those who are going to read this (our parents), enjoy!

So we left off in Perth. From there we flew back to Melbourne. Of course good ol' Lyndal gave us a place to shack up for a couple of nights while we sorted out a few things and picked up the van. We went out for dinner with our Melbourne buds and it was great to catch up with all of them again!

The Melbourne Gang

From Melbourne we drove to Adelaide and stayed there about a week. My friend Adam (a Europe pal) lives there and kindly let us stay at his place. The Tour Down Under bike races were on and Lance Armstrong was in town. Unfortunately we didn't get the Lance sighting we so badly wanted to see! We had a mini-Europe reunion with a few others who just happened to be in town over the weekend. It was great to see everyone! Adam took us out to McLaren Vale wine region and I am in love! It was my favourite wine region we visited! Over the weekend, Jayson and I went just outside of Adelaide to Victor Harbour. We did some surfing and a walk around Granite Island. Back to Adelaide and celebrations were had....it was AUSTRALIA DAY!!! We hung out in a park with Adam and his girlfriend Tash and a bunch of their friends and listened to the Hot 100 songs of 2008 on Triple J radio station. We finished the day drinking wine at Adam's with another Europe friend Sarah (whose parents are owners of a winery I might add).

Topdeck Reunion

Shallot pancakes: Adelaide delicacy

McClaren Vale Wine Region

Adam and Jay enjoying the Fox Creek

The wine I've had shipped home

Bridge between Granite Island and mainland

Now before I get into our great van adventure, I would like to introduce you to the van and the everyday life we had with her. We rented a 1991 Toyota Hiace from a guy in Melbourne who was really great to us and gave us an awesome deal! We named the van Hanner, after a Canadian we met in Melbourne. It's kind of an inside joke...that's pretty lame. Anyway, below I've included some pictures of how we lived out of Hanner.

Jay, whatcha doing over there?

Jay cooking up a storm

Also a great towel rack

Morning routine

Interior

This outdoor shower was a great investment!

So from Adelaide, we started off into the outback of this massive country. Now let me remind you that it was the middle of summer here and we definitely underestimated how hot it gets here. Word of advice: don't visit the outback of Australia in the summer, go in the winter! It's a lovely place, but waaay too hot in the summer! We drove through and stayed at many interesting places (see Coober Pedey below), but our aim was to get to Uluru (Ayers Rock), the Olgas, and King's Canyon. King's Canyon was my personal favourite. It had a great 7km hike with amazing views! We usually had to get all activities we wanted to do finished by 10am because it got too hot after that, so we were up quite early most days. The outback is also full of billions of black flies, hence the weird looking nets we are wearing in most photos. We also went to Alice Springs, a city in the middle of the country and went to the Flying Doctors Museum.

Coober Pedey- Opal mining is the reason the town exists

Coober Pedey, SA- They filmed one of the Mad Max movies here and some of the movie set is leftover

Emu on the run

Roadhouse sign

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Welcome to the Northern Territory

Uluru (finally!)

Red Centre walk- Aboriginal art

Red Centre walk- Surf's up

Watching sunset, trying to enjoy grapes and wine (stupid flies!)

The Olgas

Early morning hike- beautiful scenery!

Kings Canyon

Kings Canyon hike- Jay works the calves

Kings Canyon hike- what a view!

Kings Canyon hike

Alice Springs Flying Doctor call-in centre

Remote areas in the outback have these medical chests instead of pharmacies. Over the phone doctors will prescribe medication and the person has to access the chest to get their drugs

Tropic of Capricorn

Geographical centre of Australia

Devil's Marbles- no one really knows how these rock formations came to exist

Jay decided to break one open

This is what was out our windows for about a week

Not your average Sunday drive

I didn't do well with the heat

Outback roadhouse- gotta draw in the tourists somehow

From Alice we started our journey east into Queensland, but were held up for a few days due to major flooding in the region. We had to re-work our travel plans a bit, but ended up doing everything we wanted to do. We also found out during this time of the tragic bushfires in Victoria. A few friends in Melbourne had family members that evacuated, but everyone we knew was safe and sound.

Welcome to Queensland!

Maryborough- Jay kissing Mary Poppins (hometown of the author). This continues my global quest of re-tracing the steps of Julie Andrews

Finally we got to the east coast! Our first adventure was Fraser Island, just off the coast of a town called Hervey Bay. It has the purest species of dingos in Australia and lots of sand. We rented a 4x4 Suzuki and tackled the sandy roads! The island is full of fresh water lakes, which was a nice break from the salt water.

Fraser Island- our transport

Fraser Island- Lake Wabby

Fraser Island- my favourite spot, the Champagne Pools

Fraser Island- the Mahino shipwreck

Next we headed to the Sunshine Coast. First stop: The Australia Zoo!! I don't care what people say about Steve Irwin, that zoo was fantastic! It rained all day, but it was great! We even got to feed elephants! From there, we stayed in a beach town called Colundra for a few days. Jay did some surfing. I sprained my ankle on a run (Bodnar-klutz strikes again), so didn't get to surf here.

Watch out Jay!

Yikes! Mama and baby croc!

They sure do Steve, the sure do

The elephants we got to feed

Koalas!

Lazy kangaroos

Most venemous snake in the world

This is for you Martie & Gen

Jay and I attempt the jump together

From Colundra to Brisbane where we checked out the Martime Musuem. Then to the Gold Coast. We went to Surfer's Paradise, sat on the beach for a while, then decided there were too many people. We moved 11.5km down the coast to Burleigh Heads and liked it so much we stayed for 3 nights. It was a great beach with great surfing too!

Maritime Museum

Surfer's Paradise (everyone who visits Australia has this picture)

Jay heading out to catch a wave or two

Ah, this is the life

Next we went to Byron Bay and stayed for 5 nights. We had a great time here! I took another surfing lesson and actually caught a real wave (previous to this I was catching white wash)! I was really excited! We spent a lot of time surfing and laying on the beach and on our last day we took in a spa afternoon (something the region is famous for). There were wood-fire saunas and hot and cold tubs. Jayson went for a massage and I got a reflexology treatment! We were very relaxed at the end of the day!

Byron Bay lighthouse

The view from the lighthouse. It was our morning run to run up to the lighthouse. It wasn't easy

Most eastern point of Australia

Jay's out there somewhere

Spa Day!

We left the van in Brisbane and flew to Cairns! This was the best week of the trip! On the first day we took a sky train up to a town called Kalundra. It's an Aboriginal town in the middle of the rainforest. We got to take in some great scenery and hikes while we were up there. We took a train down at the end of the day.

Karunda sky rail

Rainforest

Take a hike!

Barron River falls

Jay and the train

The train ride down

The next day I started to take my certification for scuba diving (Jayson had done his certification when he was there 3 years ago). I had to spend my first two days in the classroom and the swimming pool testing out all the equipment and learning the skills. I was in a group with about 8 people and my instructor's name was Dave. Dave is awesome, he was my Yoda. He's done over 4000 dives all over the world! For the last 3 days of my course, we headed out to sea to live and dive off a boat for 2 nights at the Great Barrier Reef. Jayson decided to upgrade to his Advanced Diver certification, so he was on the same boat as my group. The reef was amazing and we saw so many cool creatures! Seriously, it was like being in Finding Nemo. All the characters were there! There were even sharks, but not mean or scary ones like in the movie. These ones were small and not interested in us. The last night in Cairns we went out on the town with our dive boat friends. Cairns was a blast!! By the way, I look like I got in a fight in some of these photos because I got a mask squeeze (I'll explain what this is another time) on one of my dives.

Just in case

Our living quarters on the boat

My eyes after the mask squeeze

Lounging around the boat in between dives

Jay getting ready for the night dive

Buddy Check!

Jen and I on night dive (by the way, they are playing Jaws music in the background)

Jay and I: buddies at last!

Going down the rope

Group on last dive

Underwater with my sexy eyes!

Fish! (with underwater camera)

Giant clam (my instructor tickled one of these and made it snap shut!)

Sea turtle- my fave

Eel- I was inches from its face, I didn't realize until after that it probably wasn't the safest situation to be in

Dive Master Dave and his humble student

Jay & Mindy

Some of the PADI dive gang

Back to Brisbane and we started the final leg of our journey to Sydney. On the way, we stopped in New Castle for the day. A nice, quiet city that has great surfing beaches....the water is full of sharks though!

New Castle

We arrived in Sydney and found our way to my friend Sandi's place! Sandi and her family were kind enough to let us stay at their place for a few days! They were awesome hosts and gave us a ton of advice on what to do in Sydney! On the first day, Sandi took us on a 10km walk that had us going from the Spit Bridge to Manly. It was a lovely walk, with great views of the harbours and beaches! The next day, Jay and I took the Manly ferry into the city and went on an Opera House tour and walked around the city for the day. We even took in the Sydney Symphony that evening who was performing with the St. Thomas boys choir from Leipzig. It was a really cool experience. On Day 3, Sandi took us around to the pretty parts of Sydney along the water. We had fish 'n chips at Watson's Bay and ended the journey and Bondi Beach. That night we met up with old Europe friends and had a great time catching up and reminicing!

Spit bridge to Manly walk- Sandi and I

Coolest swimming pool ever

Shark nets (like that would stop them)

The Opera House!

Sydney views

Illegal photo of the symphony

Driving across the Harbour Bridge

Darling Harbour

Topdeck reunion! These are some of the first people Gen and I met in Europe

Bondi Beach

The Pulvers: Ella, Sandi, Neville

In front of Hanner at Sandi's

On the Friday, a few friends from Melbourne flew into Sydney! It was great to see them one last time before we left! We took in the Sound Relief concert on the Saturday. There were two concerts playing simultaneously in Melbourne and Sydney that were raising money for the Bush Fire relief. The concert was amazing! A lot of artists came out of retirement to perform at it. Highlights: Coldplay (who did an awesome duet with John Farnham), The Presets, Barry Gibb, Olivia Newton John.

Sound Relief concert: Coldplay

Sound Relief: Katie, Wei-Ai, me

Massive beer cup chains. What people can do when they work together. They kept going all day even though security kept coming and breaking them up.

The girls from Melbourne: Wei-Ai, Thomo, me, Nat, Katie

On Sunday, Jay drove the van back to Melbourne and I stayed in Sydney. We flew out together on Monday to Christchuch, NZ and that's where we are now. The airline has lost Jay's bag, so we're waiting on that for now. We'll be in this country for 5 weeks, so I'll update you on it closer to the end!

Hope the weather is getting better everyone back home! We hope all our new and old Australian friends come visit us in Canada some day too! Thanks for an amazing time everyone!

Take care,
Mel & Jay