Melaka

 

 

 

 

Ashort bus ride to the South west took us down onto the coast and the Unesco world heritage site of Melaka. A beautiful old traders town based around the river and the old port which once a hugely important and busy trading post for thi area of the world

 The streets were brightened up by many trishaws that had sound systems to envy any boy racer back in the UK, once again mainly pumping out that theme of the trip Gangnam style

 One of the main pulls of the place is the night market of Jonkers walk that happens over the three nights of the weekend, lots of lovely street food and dodgy knocked off bargains to be had

 As it was the run up to Chinese New Year we were able to see several lion dances that are used to bestow good wishes for the next year onto the businesses and restaurants througout the town..

 ..with each getting there own personal dance

 We spent an evening at a bar called Me and Mrs Jones who were very gracious hosts and we had a chat with this chap and his iguana who are local celebrities of the night market

So that was Melaka after just under a wek it was time to head out to some of the islands for a relax on the beach in the sun

Kuala Lumpur

After our short stop in Singapore it was time for a quick flight into Peninsular Malaysia to Kuala Lumpur. We decided again to stay for a couple of days before moving on. We found a hostel out of the Lonely Planet in China town which was an absolute shocker so we didn't spend very much time there apart fom sleeping. The first full day we headed downtown and visited some of the landmarks which included the KL Tower....

...and the Petronas twin towers, both of which were pretty spectacular 

 The rest of our time was spent wanering the back streets of China town sampling the many different varieties of street food and basically avoiding having to go back to our room

KL was like a less refined version of Singapore and a couple of days was enough for us, onwards to the next place!!

So we landed for a couple of days in Singapore, a place we weren't sure about as we had had mixed comments from people we spoke to about it. First thing was welcome to the humidity of Asia 30 degrees and 70-80% humidity. We took a train and a walk down to the botanical gardens where we were quite suprised to see a 1.5m monitor lizard basking by the waters edge  

 Singapore itself is quite a weird place with enormous skyscapers climbing their way up between open green spaces which led to some great framing oppurtunities

 We also had our first introduction to the mix of old and new that was to become indicative of Asian cities. Points if you can see the  futuristic bad robot coming to stomp on the heritage of old Singapore 

 We also headed down into Chinatown where the year of the snake is almost upon us.

 Chinatown was a crazy place with every fake fashion item you could think of for sale, it truly never stopped no matter whether you did or not. Great for people watching with a cold beer

Singapore was a crazy place and not what we expected the old and crowded streets of Chinatown which were our favourite and Little India where in sharp contrast to the sterile sky reaching central business district, rounded off by the piece and tranquility of the Botanic gardens made it a great place to visit.

New Zealand

Time for catch up no.2 the third leg of our journey over to New Zealand, landing in Auckland 2 weeks before Christmas we picked up another camper van and headed off around North Island first the obligatory head shot looking out over the edge of some land in this case Cape Ringa

 

 We then headed down to the Corramandel and on to Rotorua and Lake Taupo, the photo below shows the boiling spring header that fed the thermal spa we stayed in for a night

 We dropped the van off in Auckland and spent the Christmas period with Karl and Sharon old friends of ours, we also managed to squeeze in a trip to see my dads oldest friend Ray and his wife Kay who live just North near Warkworth

 Watching the fireworks from Devonport quay over to Auckland city at midnight on New Years eve

 In the New Year we picked up another van and headed down to the South island this is Lou jumping into possibly the coldest expanse of water that either of us has ever swam in, Dorothy Falls, west coast of south island

 We booked a trip to walk on Fox glacier which spelled the start of the bad weather, the trip was cancelled due to 200metre section of the path washing away so in the torrential rain we carried on down the island, this is the view from the bridge at Haast pass

 Just to show you how wild it was this is me at the same place two days later stood in a spot which would have seen me swept away two days previously

 The effects of the flood were felt all the way down as this pic from Te anua shows

 Finally we had some good weather and after a spectacular look at Milford Sound we were able to climb Key Summit in Fiordland for some amazing views and Lou's first mountain climbed

 As the weather settled down we were finally able to get up on to Fox glacier for the day, a truly amazing experience that i think will stay with us both for a long time

 Lou getting caught when she didn't think the camera was still on her

 That was a slightly concise look through the NZ leg but don't worry there are lots of more photos that we can bore you with when we get back.

Next stop Asia!
 

Catch up

As promised wi-fi in Asia is plentiful and free so these next couple of posts are just going to be a catch up from the end of Australia and our time in New Zealand over Christmas. So first off our last week in Aus which we spent in Cairns with Cheryl and Mark the host and hostess with mostess, we were spoilt rotten and managed to squeeze in an overnight stay on the outer reef which was spectacular

This first photo is the view from their balcony looking out passed there pool to the cane fields and mountains beyond, it was a lovely spot and many happy hours were wiled away supping xxxx gold and chatting with them and there family and friends

 

They had plenty of wildlife nearby including some rather noisy fruit bats who came to steal the mangoes that grew in abundance in their garden

 

Finally our view on the morning we stayed out on the reef like i said a truly beautiful place

 

So that was that after 5 weeks Australia done and dusted now onto NZ

Since the last post which was actually written nearly four weeks ago but not published until today we spent our time in the van fluctuating between inland rainforest/waterfalls/incredible mountainscapes and beach stays with glorious sunrises and time in the water.
This has meant we have come accross many different animals be it on foot or in the van including a fleeting glimpse of a wild cassowary which led to a hasty three point turn and me very nearly getting the van stuck on a greasy bank in my haste

A moody sky looking over Govetts leap in the Blue mountains

Our view of the solar eclipse from byron bay beach

A kangaroo and her almost too big joey at one of our campsites

A wallaby checking us out

An evening spent at Mon Repos beach watching the Loggerheads come and lay their eggs

A fortunate encounter with a duck billed platypus in the wild

Me jumping into a slightly cold mountain watering hole called the wheel of fire

A metre long lace monitor on one of the many bush walks we did

Two shots of Estuarine crocs that we were lucky enough to see on a boat trip along the Daintree river up in the tropical north

And finally the cassowary that nearly left us stuck

 

 

The last few days have found us at Cheryl and Marks house enjoying there incredible hospitality

I'll try and post again before we leave Oz if i can, due to go and stay out on the Great barrier reef for a couple of days tmw and then fly to NZ on thursday

Hope you're all well, speak to you soon

IT TOOK US 3 DAYS TO GET TO AUSTRALIA! And I have just realised that Andy has tricked me into camping!

Something very odd is going on with the weather, unprecedented rainfall in South Africa, as soon as we leave the sun comes out. We arrive in Sydney and I am starting to feel responsible for the hail storm and tornado that greeted us, are we ever going to see some sun?

As those of you that follow me on facebook will know, I spent some of the run up to this trip trying to convince Andy that we would have plenty of time to go from Sydney to Melbourne then up to Cairns. He argued that it would be a lot of extra miles and time to try to get to Melbourne, I argued and won, so off we set. It turns out he was right, Australia is bloody massive! After a day of heading towards Melbourne it became apparent that we would have time to do the above mentioned trip but we wouldn't be able to stop anywhere and we would have to come home after Christmas because we had spent all our money on fuel.

After a spectacular (although freezing) night in a forest in the mountains (campsite called Bummeroo, childish laughter particularly when we saw a worried looking kangaroo) a very expensive night in a caravan park (we saw a wombat, it took us far too long to try and figure out what it was, had to text Dan who accurately described it as a small bear or a very large hamster!) We finally figured out how to do this camper vanning thing and finally the sun came out. We spent the night at a fantastic beach last night and a secluded bay tonight. It is tricky getting your head around having very limited electricity, maybe once every 4 or 5 nights and needing to constantly fill our tiny tank with water. We completely underestimated how expensive daily living and fuel would be and to be honest we are completely outside our budget without any activities. Here's hoping Asia is dirt cheap otherwise you could be seeing us sooner than expected!

To everyone that has sent messages to me on facebook, I will write back as soon as I have electricity and wifi at the same time!

Miss you all

Lou feeling the cold at camp in the mountains

Sunset at bummaroo camp

Sunrise at our first beach stay, Shelley beach