EFE the campervan, 'scenic' mountain hikes and sunshine on the Banks Peninsula...

At last! Our two month nomadic journey around the land of the long White cloud was upon us. We have been waiting for this part with eagerness for a long time, maybe even as far back as when we left university, some six or seven years ago now. Although we have literally had the time of our lives so far on this trip I think it was this, the idea of full independence intertwined with the potential of a country as majestic and inspiring as it is possible to get that we have been looking forward to the most.

Anyway, after leaving our brother and sister, Teeny and Rowan, we headed down to Brisbane airport with one of Rowan's friends Blakey, another awesome chap who had kindly offered to take us on the hour or so journey south as he was off to see his mum in Brisbane.

After saying our goodbyes we got through immigration and onto flight number one to Sydney with Qantas. Although only an hour and a half the plane was huge and full of business men and women. What was also great and totally unexpected was that they were trialling giving all passengers brand new Ipads to use for the in flight entertainment, absolutely awesome! We whiled away the short distance watching An Idiot Abroad and thinking how much, even to the fucking idiots, travelling can do to the soul.

After initially being refused to check in for our connecting flight we were rushed through and soon enough we were on our second flight of the day, finally over to Christchurch, our first stop on our NZ roadtrip.

Now as you may have heard, Christchurch has been hit by several deadly earthquakes over the past eighteen months so we were expecting some lasting damage and continuing repairs. It would be completely astonishing then to find the vast majority of the city, especially the CBD, completely in ruin. The city actually suffered from five devastating earthquakes which caused the critical damage and loss of life but over 10,000 aftershocks have been felt in the last year alone. We booked a guide to take us out the following day, a big Old typical Kiwi called Al who took us out in his van to show us his city. Although obviously an attractive city it is an unfortunate reality that it's most unique sight is it's sheer destruction, a continuous story of what was there before. Al was a good man and showed us everything we needed to see both in and around the city, including Littleton, a town on the other side of the hill where the original frontier men founded the city and it's surrounding towns in 1840. Although Littleton and it's surroundings were stunning the depressing reality was that Christchurch was essentially a ghost town. We have never known a city be so devoid of, well, people. Only the sound of the demolition vehicles gave any hint of any sort if civilisation. In fact it is this last point which provides so much disdain for the local population. Due to finicky and overly bureaucratic insurance companies buildings aren't allowed to be demolished in the traditional sense but taken down piece by piece, taking care to save all of the furnishings. It's crazy that although the quakes happened over a year ago, to look at it could have been last Tuesday.

Anyway, after a couple of nights in the worlds most comfortable room (shell fell in love with the bed), we were off to pick up our baby. The campervan that we would be living and travelling with for the next 56 nights. Her name, beautifully, is EFE. we love her.

After being shown the ropes by the excellent guys at the rental company we were on our way, first stop to the supermarket to fill our EFE up with bounty. It's a sad reality that of all the things we were looking forward to, doing our first campervan shop was high on the list. What horrifically sad people we have become. After stocking up on beautiful NZ wine and something called food we were on our way, on the road for two months. It didn't take long for Shell to get used to things. After a tearful start, which was probably due to not eating anything till 2pm more than anything, shell was flying around the roads between Christchurch and the Banks Peninsula, our first stop.

We opted for a small and rural campsite in a place called okains Bay. It had nothing but pine filled, unpowered pitches but it was bliss. So silent except for the lapping ocean which we had to ourselves, right on our campervan doorstep. We set off for a walk around the desolate beach before heading back to our campervan to cook our first campervan meal and to well, soak up the surroundings. What has taken us so long to do this kind of thing???? We are in our absolute element.

The next day we were up early and full of energy and excitement so we put on our walking gear and headed around the coast on a half eroded old wharf path that used to be used by whalers at the turn of the century. Although not too long it made for some heart pumping moments! On the way back we found the small campsite had installed a huge flying fox, basically a huge zipwire, so like the big children that we are proceeded to spend the rest of the morning in a fun-filled haze.

That afternoon we drove up and over the huge hill and down into Akaroa, a stunningly beautiful natural harbour with a town of the same name as it's focal point. We decided to stay at the campsite on the hill looking down on the town and the harbour. Apparently it's one of the best places to stay on the south island and they did not lie! Of all the places to wake up in the morning we cant think of anywhere more striking or beautiful, especially lately as the weather since we arrived in NZ has been awesome.

Anyway, today would be the day that would test our relationship the most. Akaroa harbour, the place we are staying, lies at the bottom of a steep valley, formed by two huge volcanoes millions of years ago. Thing is, these peaks that surround it are indescribably beautiful and the views from the top were supposed to be even better. I tried my hardest to get Shell excited for the trip up the mountain but the look of sheer dread was just too hard to shift. In all fairness, I don't think I've ever walked up something so steep. With most steep hikes you are most likely going to start somewhere approaching a quarter of the way up, we started, naturally, from ground zero. It was a momentous ask really, even for the keen rambler. Amazingly, Shell battled through the pain and leg breaking, constant climb until we reached the summit. We were actually supposed to betaking a track across the tops to finish in a big circle but got lost, somehow, down a very long and overgrown sheep track. Turns out these sheep are the luckiest around as they get to potter around with one of the most beautiful backdrops behind them. Feeling sheep like ourselves, we plonked down and fell to sleep among the mountain top grass (it was like a soft mattress) and all in the beautifully warming sun.

This place, already, has gripped us like a vice. No wonder people look at us with eyes of envy when we tell them we have two months here. Get in.

All for now, Shello and Tommo xxx

Welcome to paradise...

At last we have reached the promised land! Although we were stuck in Padangbai for three days in the end. After originally planning to leave for the Gili Islands on Tuesday it wasn't until Thursday that we were allowed to leave after extreme swells in the Strait of Lombok had caused even the health and safety unaware Balinese to cancel all travel. Apparantly the aforementioned Strait is one of the deepest stretches of water in the world and although it only measures around 25 miles across, it is actually the official dividing line between Asia and Australasia. Due to it's depth it can create some monstrous waves, on these particular days of about seven metres! On the Wednesday we even boarded the boat and powered on up around the south-east corner of Bali up until we saw around ten fastboats coming towards us. The captain switched off the engines then told us we would be going back to Padangbai 'to rest', we arrived back having been on the water for forty minutes and felt dishearted to be back yet again, in a place we didn't want to be. Shell even heard some Aussie surfer dudes talking about the swells lasting for three days. Things didn't look promising.
Back on dry land we made a decision to book another night in the room we had as although it was incredibly noisy it was, more importantly, clean and cheap (around 130,000 rupiah-9 pounds). We were told that if we stick around for a day there may be a chance that the boat would be leaving tomorrow, however small that chance may be. Although we decided that we woud wait we also checked out the slow ferry that leaves from the same port. An altogether different proposition by the standards of the fast boat we paid for (72,000, one way to South Lombok, rather than 1.2 million for both of us to go return on the fastboat! £85) it was a scruffier side to the port than we imagined. Lots of bleary eyed lorry drivers and a hell of a lot of noise and disorganisation. It would be a real challenge to get to the Gili islands this way if this is what we had to do tomorrow if the fast boats were cancelled again. The ferry itself takes six hours instead of one and goes to a port called Lembar, in south Lombok (the Gili's are in the north-east). You would then have to find a means of transport from Lembar to Sengiggi, the main coastal town and then again onto Bangsal, the main connecting port to the Gili's. After arrviving there we would have to wait for a boat that doesn't even think about leaving until every last seat has been filled. Bangsal itself is apparently a bit of a horrific place to be too. So...faced with the grim prospect of an epic if not interesting journey, we hoped and prayed that tomorrow would bring inclement conditions. It did.
Although at first we were adament that the same things would happen that had happened the previous day, the boat did in fact keep on going. Preparing ourselves for the worst though (in more ways than one!) we kept quiet and gripped on for dear life. At the halfway point the water stopped being choppy and started being extremely rough, pumelling the bow of the boat every few seconds, I hung on as if I were flying. But after a journey that seemed to get progressively worse the closer we got to the Gili's we managed to get there in one piece, even though the seas all around the islands looked, and sounded, like a hurricane had hit them. On dry land I left Shell with the bags once more and went in search of hotel that wouldn't break the bank but would be slightly better than some of our most recent rooms, as it was Shell's birthday the following day. After spending an hour and looking in so many rooms and bungalows that they all merged into one I decided that I would make the walk back to Shell and haggle with the owner of the bar we sat at to try and get one of their rooms as they looked really nice, really big and airy. In the end, after a tense round of negotiations managed to get him down from his starting price of 450,000 rupiah per night to a slightly more affordable 250,000, with air con and private outside shower area, beautiful. The only downside was the location right in the middle of 'party zone', a fact made even clearer that night when we got back shattered at half nine to be met by Dance Anthems 98 in all it's glory. You were even waiting for Judge Jules to break in and say 'Come on kids, you've gone Pete Tong!'. In the end we shoved our ear plugs in and went to sleep. Rock and roll.
So to Shell's birthday, we woke early and went for breakfast, free with the room, and munched on eggs and fruit. Once finished we headed to the beach, a beach so sublime that it wouldn't look out of place on any Bounty advert or indeed, Wish You Where Here, I have the theme tune in my head this morning. However, we were stupid in more sense than one today. Firstly, we had run out of suncream, and in place like this it cost at least ten pounds for a tiny bottle. Secondly, we had used the suncream that we had left, designed for faces, for the rest of our body. Thirdly, we stayed in the sun pretty much all day, forgetting in the process just how strong this equatorial sun can get. The result, unfortunately, was two people with horrific sunburn. In the end I went to buy said expensive suncream so due to our stupidity and fear of blowing budgets we ended up with two sunburnt carcasses and a small pot of, seemingly, liquid gold.
Despite this Shell had a great day. We ate some fantastic food, spent the day on the powdery white beach and frolicked in the warm sea. We also spoke about the previous night's sunset. Something so spectacular, I think we would struggle to find something equally beautiful anywhere else. As the sun set on the sea, out of nowhere Bali's tallest volcano, Mount Agung, appeared as the sun dipped behind it in almost perfect unison. What a beautiful place this can be. Much love, Tommo xx
p.s, we are having trouble finding anywhere fast enough to put the photos on at the moment but we will try and get them on before or during our stay in Hong Kong, only four days away!