The End...?

After 6 1/2 months, 201 days, 8 countries, 70,000 km, 11 flights, 7 languages, 6 Lonely Planets, 9 pairs of sunnies, 10 pairs of thongs/jandals/flip flops, 46 books, over 30 new beers, over 100GB of photos, many many different people, numerous types of transport, one Christmas, a happy new year and many new memories...
It's home time, end of honeymoon, back to the UK, back to work, completo and start of married life proper! It has been epic, but all good things must come to an end!

We are very lucky and we have many family members and friends to be very thankful for in helping to make the trip possible, not least because we had a lot of cool wedding presents to enjoy along the way.

We feel like we've barely scratched the surface in 6 1/2 months, but at the same time we've seen and shared things that will stay with us for the rest of our lives. We've been constantly reminded that its just as much about the journey as it is about the destination and in the true sense, whilst we've been dubbed 'flash packers' by some, we've loved the travelling experience. However, there are still many more countries to visit... who knows where we'll be going next!

Some Fiji time...

Bula Bula. So Fiji was supposed to be the luxury part of the honeymoon, having spent the last 6 months in some amazing places but with some questionable accommodation dotted along the way.

Well, it's been that and so much more. Despite our relentless pace over the last 6 months we've managed to slow down and relax. We've actually not done too many 'traveller' things, we've not done much at all to be honest, though we have still moved about a bit.

The Blue Lagoon in the most northern of the Yasawa Islands was our first major stop and the hotel was situated on the best beach that we've seen. Snorkelling in the reef that starts virtually on the beach was a highlight. We also managed to take in a Sunday service at the local village - though everything was in Fijian and the pastor got very vocal, the singing choir was moving to say the least.

Getting back on the 'Awesome Adventures' Yasawa Flyer and a water taxi later, we found ourselves on Malolo LaiLai at Musket Cove resort, and we pretty much did nothing there either! We did go snorkelling on a beautiful sand bar and felt like we were in a massive fish tank. And we did have a banging New Year buffet and party, where the host for the evening said there was still a minute to go when the resort across the water was already letting off their fireworks - they truly operate on a different timescale here.

Finally we made our way back to the mainland and on the drive along the coral coast we got a sliver of a taste of local life, much of which was quite a low standard unfortunately, and we're told it can be worse on the islands themselves.

Our final stop was the Pearl hotel in Pacific Harbour. We've enjoyed all this luxury hotel has to offer, including frog racing and several happy hours, and we're just about ready to leave it all behind.

There are a lot of parallels between being here and our experience of SE Asia, certainly more than its Pacific cousins, NZ and Oz. The clocks run slower here, the weather has been mostly excellent, always with a chance of meatballs, and everyone has been genuinely friendly, which is fitting. I was particularly pleased that it was Thai night in the restaurant for our last night.

Today we say goodbye to luxury (and sunshine apparently) and head on an epic journey back the UK, completing our round the world trip, knowing that we've missed half of the 2nd wettest year on record back home - that's justification enough for a 6 month holiday!

Happy New Year from Fiji

Merry Christmas from Waiheke!

About as North as we're going get in New Zealand

All good things must come to an end and it's with tears stinging in our eyes that we've got to tell you we are now without Gertie, our beloved campervan. But our last few days together has been a campingvanning adventure...

We set off from Rotorua in search of making the most of our time at peaceful, remote camp sites. So bedded down for the night beside a beautiful deserted beach and wetland reserve. Lovely.

The next day we zoomed up north to the Coromandel Penislia via Tauranga (where we stopped to climb a quick hill - Mount Maunganui). Eventually we arrived at Hahei. Another tramp and we found ourselves at stunning cathedral cove a rock formation on a beach that surprise surprise is shaped like a cathedral ceiling.

Next stop was hot water beach. This beach is bizarre you basically bring along a spade, dig yourself a nice hole and get in it. Then when it's low tide, hot thermal water begins to seep in, and voila, you've got your own private spa (well besides being surrounded by many others doing the same). The water is so hot in some places you can't even bear to put your feet in, its very strange.

After a bit of relaxation we drove all the way along and up the peninsula stopping in various towns for coffee and pies. Eventually, we stopped for the night after a long remote gravel drive to the very tip of the peninsula at Port Jackson. We picked up our first hitch hiker along the way (surprise surprise another German!) who seemed very grateful to have been brought to the middle of nowhere.

We stayed another night in a beach location on the West coast, basically making the most of our time with the van before saying our final goodbyes and dumping the heap of junk in Auckland.

So boom crash we are in Auckland sleeping within a building again. First stop, Auckland zoo, as we were keen to see a kiwi as we'd only heard the elusive birds so far. After seeing the cheetahs and hippos amongst other favourites, we stood for ages staring into the nocturnal kiwi house. The stupid kiwi could only be spotted when you looked very hard so even though we eventually saw it, it's shadow digging around wasn't much to shout about.

Auckland is a big city (for NZ) there's lots going on and an exciting vibe to the city. But as its Christmas time the streets seem relatively quiet. We explored the city on foot then once we were tired out we went to see the hobbit in 3D at the Imax. It was great to see the NZ scenery we'd just been exploring up on the big screen.

Tomorrow is Christmas eve, and we are taking a ferry to nearby Waiheke Island where we'll spend our first Christmas as a married couple. Ahhhhhh.

This week, we have mainly been adrenaline junkies

You'd think that with less than 3 weeks to go we'd be starting to slow down in preparation for the long journey home and starting work again. That's not quite what happened this last week.

The last week has been a scream-inducing, adrenaline-fuelled, action-packed few days, in which we've been way above ground, way below it, on it and around it, on lots of different types of transport and in a wide variety of different types of sexy suits!

It started relatively slowly when we arrived in Wellington on the ferry. We thought we'd try to get educated about the New Zealand history at the Te Papa museum - as museums go, it's pretty awesome, definitely the best free museum we've ever been to. Before we knew it we'd spent 4 hours there, so we left and then hitched a ride on the cable car/tram to the Botanic gardens at the top of the hill, with an excellent view of this city on the water.

Wellington is NZ's capital. And being back in a city on the water reminded us of Honkers which got us thinking about our trip there some 5 months ago. The Christmas hype is definitely intensifying here, but walking down the street in t-shirt and shorts at this time of year just doesn't feel right, and we're still just not able to quite get in the spirit.

From Wellington we travelled to Napier on the east coast famed for its Art Deco buildings which are dotted around the town. On the way out of Napier, we stopped at NZ's other famous wine region, Hawkes Bay, and picked up our evening drink. That's pretty much where we put a pause on our cultural experiences for a few days.

We arrived in Taupo (a town next to NZ's biggest lake which is basically the top of an active volcano) on Friday and went straight to the tourist info centre and within 5 minutes of talking to Deni, one of the advisors there, we were back in Gertie heading to the airport. We'd planned to do a skydive at some point in Taupo, but we had also expected that we'd have at least a few hours to prepare for it. Deni's view - there's no time like the present and we couldn't think of an argument against it- trust me, we tried! Before we knew it we were suited up, taking off in a small pink plane, and jumping out of it once we'd reached 15,000ft with a man each (both bald men called Damian weirdly enough) strapped to our backs before you could say 'Does my face look big in this?!' Fiz hates flying so was actually relieved in a way to be jumping out of the tiny cabin of the plane, but both of us were obviously just hoping that the chutes opened, having heard the various horror stories just a couple of weeks earlier. After about a minute of screaming our heads off luckily the chutes opened (duh, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this!) and we got to appreciate the stunning scenery around the lake... at the same time as breathing again. We both got some 'great' photos for our troubles and I got to send myself and my instructor in to a few corkscrews under the canopy as I came down - Fiz's instructor wasn't keen on putting his life in her hands! It's an incredible feeling to jump and one we won't forget. There's not really anything you can do to prepare for it, it's unlike anything we've ever done, you just need to do it. Once you have, you feel like you can do pretty much anything. Which is probably why we did what we did over the next few days.

Being on the side of an active volcano means that as well as good views, you're not far from boiling mud, hot natural springs and steam holes. So in order to unwind that night we took a dip in the thermal spa pools at De Bretts holiday park where we were staying.

On Saturday morning, we'd clearly succumbed to the adrenaline monster, and so headed down to Taupo Bungy to take advantage. Within 10 minutes, we were strapped to each other on a swing above a canyon and then the pin was pulled! We fell about 10 metres at first, then swung the rest of the way over the canyon, dodging flying pigeons and again exercising our vocal chords. But Fiz wasn't finished and 10 minutes after that she conquered her demons (I'd paid already so she couldn't back out) and bungy jumped (fell really) 47 meters straight down in to the same canyon, with a rubber band round her ankles. I think the pigeons we'd been dodging previously will need hearing aids after the primal scream that roared from her lungs on the way down! All credit to Fiz though, she managed to stall the jump for a full 5 minutes before being ushered to the edge by the Chris Moyles look-alike.

Sadly they wouldn't let me jump (knee) which I was really really really disappointed about!

In the afternoon we took in the incredible Huka falls, strolled briskly through the Craters of the Moon (big aforementioned steam holes) and saw a big dam open it's gates, before leaving on our way to Waitomo.

The Waitomo caves are famous for their glow worms so not content with doing the normal tourist thing and walking the caves we went black water rafting - which is basically tubing in the dark - in Ruikura cave 60-odd meters underground. We later found out that it was an old burial cave. Jumping off 2m waterfalls backwards with a rubber ring on your ass might not be everyone's cup of tea, but doing it in a dark cave with rocks hovering over your head definitely adds another dimension to the rafting experience. The glow worms, (they're actually maggots but that doesn't have the same tourist appeal) were fantastic, thousands of them dotted along the ceiling of the cave like green glowing stars.

But still, we weren't finished, our appetite for adventure was not quelled, our adrenaline reserves were not yet empty and we hadn't died yet!

So upon arriving in stinky Rotorua on Monday (also on the side of a volcano, so the steam holes spurt Sulphur in the air - smells like rotten eggs) we booked ourselves on to some white water rafting this time, down the Kaituna river. Compete with helmets, more sexy suits, and with an international crew (2 Danish guys, a Korean, a Honker and a Kiwi) we transcended 2km of rapids, the highlight being a 7m fall to our deaths... well not quite!

By this time, I'd exhausted my vocal chords and Fiz had had enough water up her nose to fill a small swimming pool, so we had decided to put the adrenaline monster to bed. We finished the day at the Mitai (not a cocktail in site) Maori cultural evening, where we were treated to traditional Hangi (basically food cooked in the ground), traditional Maori cultural education and dance performances, including their Haka and plenty of shouting and screaming. Oh and Fiz couldn't stop staring at the bare bum of the Maori chief, which she claimed was a 'good bum'! It was a touristy experience, which I suppose it has to be because no-one lives like it anymore, but nonetheless it was a great evening to cap a superb few days.

It has been a huge week and I'm so proud of Fiz for giving everything a go and more. Our travels continue, and we only have a handful of nights left in the big flowery cow before Christmas.