Scrambled Eggs in Swakopmund

Are here we are, one week into the safari and all is going well. We have done a ton of driving over the last 6 days, with people rotating around the truck to have their turn on the bumpy back seat. We are travelling around in a huge green beast, laden with windows throughout the top, and camping equipment and everyones bags underneath. One of my duties each night and morning is to unload/reload the bags so i’m well aware of how much this thing is carrying.

The first week was pretty cruisy, basically being on the move each day seeing the ever changing and sci-fi like terrain of Namibia. Massive plains surrounded by deserts and mountains of rocks which look like they have been piled up by another force. Along the way we have spotted a few herds of animals, and each night having a few drinks we everyone else on the trip and getting to know them all. We have ended up with a cool group of people, who only go through to Victoria Falls then 5 of us continue with a new group.

The real trip will begin this week as we visit Cheetah parks, Estona National Park, and end up in Muan, Botswana visiting Crocodile parks while some of the others do an excursion out into the Delta. Even though each day isn’t yet filled with massive amounts of highlights and endless adventure, i’m really enjoying it. This will be a pleasently long 6 weeks of camping, bus rides and getting to know a few more people around the world. The nothingness of Namibia is really cool to see. Endless hours of strange landscapes and minimal signs of life. It’s like nothing i’ve seen before. Away from all civilisation.

Yesterday was filled with a trip out to the dunes for some sandboarding. It was great fun being in the middle of the desert, strapping a snowboard to my feet and plumeting down the dunes. It’s a lot like snowboarding but you have to go fast to have control. At the bottom though, there is no lift – just a big hike up the dunes back to the top. Very eco-friendly.

Swakopmund is a nice little town, colonised by germans and still has a strange mix of African climite and appearance with lots of german culture. The highlight is getting a room for a few days to sleep in after many early starts and prepare for the busy week ahead.

Amber has survived her first 6 nights camping, ever. We have a routine down and can be packed up in a good 20 minutes. All the food is cooked by one of the crew and is truely amazing what he makes. Different things each night ranging from game steaks with chips to roast pork & potatoes with gravy, to chicken curry. Being in the middle of Africa with limited options it would be difficult to be vegetarian on this trip.

Tommorrow we are bush camping, should be fun.

Safari Time.

Our few days in Cape Town and been nice and rested, filling each day with one or two activities. Then returning home early to crash out hard for the night. Yesterday we went out to Robben Island for a tour, which was really good. A mix of everything has happened out on the island from colonial supplies, to leper colonies, military bases and of course maximum security prisons. Was interesting to be driven around the mini roads  all over the island, spotting a few penguins along the way, then led through the grim prison that still remains very in tact. Was a really good tour overall. We had plans to do some other tourist stuff, but the safari planning is taking over instead.

The time is here. After 5 days of jet lag after the long long flight from Sydney, we finally got a good nights sleep (helped a little by a few drinks) and are now in town just hours away from our pre-departure meeting back at the hostel. Our big safari truck is parked outside and the crew are loading lots of supplies into it ready for the morning. We are pretty sure we have bought everything we may need in the last few days, with a watch for me and pillows for comfort being the final few things. We are ready. If not, we will quickly find out and learn to adapt.

Six weeks will be a long long time, but there should be many cool sights along the way, and plenty of film used. Since we have traveled this far it’s best we take the time to make the most of it. Not sure how many potential future companies would ever give 6-8 weeks off to do this ever again.

I’m expecting the internet along the way to be slow and painful, but I’ll try and put any updates here when possible. Watch this space..

Jetlagged in Cape Town

After a cleverly placed break in Sydney, we got on the plane and after 16 hours of flying time, plus transits, waiting and taxi rides on top of that – here we are in Cape Town. What can I say, it’s a long long way to fly and is hard on the body. I’d personally like to thank Qantas and their brilliant In-Flight entertainment for making the trip a lot less painful than it could have been.

We managed to get in 9 hours good sleep before being wide awake at 6am. Tonight will be the catchup sleep. Spending the day wandering the downtown streets, exploring and buying up some supplies for the safari ahead which starts on Sunday morning. Ever tried going pillow shopping in a foreign place? Where to start…

Looking forward to catching up with some old flatmates while we are here. It’s been a good 6 years since the Pennard Road days. Off to grab a smootie, then back to the room for a nana nap

Sunny Sydney

We decided rather than checking in at 3:30am and flying for 19 hours last friday, we would break it up a little and now have a little weekend for ourselves here in Sydney (again). It’s bright and sunny for once, since it usually rains when we are here. Been pretty good so far, just getting used to moving along again, taking in some more sights around the place, and catching up with friends who have decided to settle down here. Been great fun so far.

Tomorrow we have our biggest flight day – 14 hours to Jo’Burg, then onto Cape Town shortly after which will all lead up to the best complete exhaustion sleep I’m expecting for a long while. This time next week though we will be officially on Safari!

Zorbing!

Here is the video me me going for my zorb. Ignore the fact that it’s sideways, unless you view it as an artistic take

What’s going on?

Well, it’s been ages and ages since my last post but everything is sweet. It’s actually been great fun being back in NZ, driving around and catching up with everyone that I could. Seeing new houses, wedding photos and even a baby or two, it’s nice to know that everyone else’s life is cruising along as well and all seem to be having fun.

We made a trip up to Auckland for a great catchup weekend where everyone slotted into place, then out to Tauranga to catchup with other’s and celebrate a new engagement. The finale was down to Rotorua with Mum and Dad for some tourist stuff, heading out to a Maori village in the forest (re-enacted, they do not still live out there), and a spot of zorbing – which for those who don’t know is rolling down a hill in a giant ball with a bit of (warm) water added to help you slide around. Like being in a giant washing machine, and is great fun.

Our Irish friends from India stayed for the last 2 nights, so was good fun swapping stories once again. Now that they are gone, we are packing our bags, posting a few items to Canada, and doing some internet before our flight off to Sydney tommorrow afternoon. Spending the weekend there, then onto Capetown on monday to prepare for our 6 week safari. Gonna be a good one.

Our time in NZ has been wonderful, but we are ready to venture out into the wilderness

Home Sweet Hamilton

From Takaka, we explored the pretty little town of Nelson browsing shops in the rain for a day or two. The hostel here was awesome – freshly renovated, clean beds, and lots of little places to hide away for a rest from the other crowds. It wasn’t just the 18 year old english crowd at this place but quite a mix of people. Since the rain in Takaka, we have taken to games of Scrabble, which is usually found at each place we stay in the games cupboard. Good for some mental stimulation.

On the road to Picton, we treated ourselves to some Fish and Chips at Havelock and were warned when ordering about the fish being pre-processed when breadcrumbed. We didn’t click and ended up with a pre-shaped piece of fish. A bit disappointing, as fish n’ chips is all about an almost rustic meal sitting in a car somewhere (as it was raining). This one seemed like something from the oven. Where was the greasy goodness??

Travelling onwards we stopped in Picton for the night and after 11 weeks of travel we reached our limit as we were shuffled into a 10 bed dorm. We must be getting a lot older as we longed for a smaller 6 bed or a private room. Spending the night stuck in the geometric center of the room secretly shaking other bunks nearby to stop the sawmill sounds in the night was probably the end of the tolerance. Previous experience taught me to close all the curtains first, and open the windows to relieve the smell of wet towels. Was an ok night but now we are ready for a decent break in a bit of luxury (i.e. no bunk beds) before we end up in Africa for 6 weeks.

We ferried to Wellington and met up with Stu and Suki for a good few nights of catching up and retiring to a comfy room and private bathroom each night. From here we prolonged driving plans and stayed with another friend a little up the road on sunday then did a big 8 hour drive up to Hamilton on monday. It was perfect driving weather, and we clocked up 2234 km overall on the road trip. I loved every driving minute. Beautiful scenery and a sense of exploration.

The car is now returned and we are staying in comfort at my parents place for the next month. So nice to have laundry on demand, unlabeled food in a fridge, a dishwasher and free internet access. Driving around Hamilton, its still the same but just held the V8 Supercars the weekend before so half the roads are still a street racetrack. Good for pretending you are part of the races even if driving in a chunky 4×4.

The next few weeks will be spend catching up with people wherever I can. Will put up plenty of photos from any happenings where explanations would just bore you.

111 Emergency Call.

Another hostel, another fire alarm. The last one was back in 2004 standing in Sydney’s King’s Cross at 3am while we waited for it to stop. This one was a little different as no one was around.

We were had shifted to the “apartment” at our hostel in Takaka which is a room off the back of a garage. Cozy enough. After a few hours sleep we got woken by an ear splitting sound. Being in complete darkness, I felt along the wall in the direction of the sound, but found nothing. I was thinking smoke alarm at this point. We turned on the light, then continued the search to find a small fire alarm speaker behind the tv. Uh Oh.

Wandering outside to the house we could here the main fire alarm, and checked the wood fire in the lounge, all seemed fine but the siren was starting to hurt my ears. With it being so loud we wondered where everyone else was, and I suggested banging on the owners room, but Amber’s panic took over an she called 111. We didn’t know what caused the alarm and since no-one else was around we thought we were the only ones there. We heard the volunteer fire siren, then the engine came are a few minutes. They searched the premises and found the owners sleeping out the back, and a guy in the dorms (next to the alarm). Everyone had been drinking the night before and was asleep to the world. We stood in the rain once again for ages until the false alarm was called, and we headed back to bed.

The owners had just taken over the hostel so this was a pretty good test run for such thing, and something you can’t plan during the day. No idea where the fire was but they got it all checked out the next morning. It was surreal to think back as the place was deserted when we looked around and just kept thinking there is no way that everyone could hear that. But apparently there was.

State Highway 6

We have finally arrived back in New Zealand after 2 1/2 years away. We spent our first 2 nights with Sarina and her family, which was awesome to catchup again. Had been a long long while. Then we got a hire car, and hit the road. Cutting across the country to cruise up and down state highway 6 along the west coast. The towns aren’t exactly amazing but offer cozy stops, but the scenery along the way is awesome. Driving through mountain passes, beachside drives, through forests, farmlands and glaciers.

Our big achievement was climbing Fox Glacier, which Amber was done with the second we hit the ice (Canadians are hard to impress with ice and snow). We climbed through forest in the hills lining the glacier, then donned the crampons, and trekked across the ice looking up towards the mountains and back down through the valley. Then sideways at the massive cracks in the hills which sit on an active faultline. The ice was cool - lots of formations, and tints of brilliant blue when the sun hit it properly.

After being hassled by some loser teenagers in Westport, we drove again through some nice scenery over a massive hill to a place called Takaka, which is a little “Woodstock children” town at the top of the South Island. And it’s currently raining, and raining hard. Spent the day wandering the little town, then driving out to the next town for chocolate then back to a local pub for a bowl of fresh mussels. What else can you do when it’s raining.

Off to Nelson tommorrow for some more crafts, fine wines and back on the tourist trail. I love driving the NZ roads, they are fairly quiet at the moment, and each turn offers spectular scenery. One of the best places for a road trip in my opinion.

Canada, eh?

Last week while in Singapore we got news of a letter since to Canada regarding our partnership visa. It was in the final stages and just required my passport and some recent passport photos. Since it’s been processed in the Sydney office, we emailed the address given, and they actually responded mentioning that we could have it processed in person. In the UK there is no actual contact with your “case-worker” so we were excited at this.

So today we got up early, went in at 9am and got everything processed. I now have a permanent resident visa for Canada. Yay! All a bit of an anti-climax to just get a sticker in my passport after 6-8 months of endless organising and document collecting every week.

Now I just have to pass the induction test and i’m allowed into the country:

1) Ride a Moose.

2) Watch a live ice-hockey game.

3) Drive a comically oversized pick-up truck on the flat prairies.

4) Learn to say “Fries” not “chips”.

5) Own at least 1 checkered shirt.

6) Expect to drive at least 1,000km (each way) for a holiday.