Travel Blog | February 15, 2012 | 0 Comments
Waitangi We’re glad we made it to Waitangi and saved our ‘Maori cultural experience’ until the end. This post rounds off our New Zealand trip with our visit to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, a drive down the Western Northland coast (I liked writing that compass phrase, not sure why) and then a few days in […]
Travel Blog | February 11, 2012 | 2 Comments
Our time in New Zealand is fast coming to a close, but we had just enough time to spend a couple of days in Northland to view the Bay of Islands and discover the site of the Waitangi Treaty We found a lovely private owned campsite at Sandspit about an hours drive through Auckland, it […]
Coromandel, Oysters, Coves & Beaches
Travel Blog | February 10, 2012 | 1 Comments
After the heat of the geothermals we set off to cool down with a sea breeze as we headed north toward the Coromandel Peninsula, via the Bay of Plenty. After being inland among the forests and mountains it was good to be heading to the sea again. Both John and I feel more comfortable when […]
Taupo and Rotorua – Geothermal Gasping
Travel Blog | February 9, 2012 | 2 Comments
From Deco to Hot Thermal Springs From our deco digestions we moved on to things more warm, chemical and a whole lot more fiery. We were headed to the Great lakes of the North Island, Lake Taupo and Rotorua. We’d heard and read a great deal about these places so we were looking forward to […]
Flashpacking Travel | February 7, 2012 | 4 Comments
Art Deco Architecture – New Zealand Style! No trip to New Zealand North Island would be complete for us without a visit to Napier and The Hastings. Napier is world renowned for its art deco architecture, but we visited Hastings first, which also has some great examples of this style of buildings. Getting to Napier […]
Our Wellington ‘Waitangi Weekend’ Welcome
Flashpacking Travel | February 5, 2012 | 0 Comments
Kia Ora, and what a welcome we received from Wellington, after our ferry crossing from Picton to the North Island of New Zealand. We’re really behind with our travel blog updates, so this is going to be a very quick entry covering quite a few days. The main reason is we’ve both been really busy. […]
Fox Glacier – Helicopter Heaven
Travel Blog | February 5, 2012 | 3 Comments
Whilst exploring the Fiordland we decided to take in a few glaciers, the most memorable for me being via an unforgettable helicopter ride and more spectacular scenery from New Zealand, but this time with the added bonus of an aerial perspective. The Glacier Journey We arrived in the glaciers after our beautiful road trips ,but alas the weather was […]
Travel Blog | February 2, 2012 | 3 Comments
No trip to New Zealand would be complete without a trip to the Sounds, but which one should you do? Milford Sound is world famous, what is less well known is the trip to Doubtful Sound. We decided that we would try and squeeze in both. We’re glad we did as they’re both different experiences […]
NZ Driving – Milford Road and Crown Range
Travel Blog | January 31, 2012 | 1 Comments
Te Anau to Milford Our waiting on the weather seems to have paid off. We’ve enjoyed two glorious days on the road viewing the fiords. The road trips have been outstanding with some stunning views, challenging roads, a scary tunnel and a bit of strange wildlife. We needed to catch a day up, lost due […]
Travel Blog | January 28, 2012 | 4 Comments
Here Comes the Rain Again The journey to Te Anau from Invercargill should have been a beautiful introduction to the Fjordland National Park, sadly low cloud and near torrential rain kept most of the mountains hidden on our journey to Te Anau. It is as if New Zealand want to tease us with its beauty and only […]
India Car Rental and Driver Hire
How to Rent a Car and Driver in India We’d like to share our experience, and a few of the stories we learned about renting a car and driver from our two week tour of Rajasthan. Like arranging other things in India, it is not always as simple or easy as you may first imagine. […]
Photo Flashback – Kerala Kathakali Dance
We are not really ones for the cultural shows that you regularly find in travel destinations. Often they are a thin representation of the actual song or dance traditions of a community, overpriced and leave you feeling a little bit cheated. This was certainly the case in Waitangi doing the Haka with some actors. Sometimes […]
Goa Retirement, Revamps and a bit of Home Cooking
We hang about in Goa for our remaining time in India sampling foods from home and join the large expat community and retired folk enjoying what is on offer. We had decided in Udaipur that it was time to invest some time doing some work on the blog. Our traffic has been growing steadily over […]
Udaipur And A Break From Travel Blogging
For those arriving at this travel blog post hoping to find out detailed information about our experiences and things to do in Udaipur, leave now, as you’ll need to look elsewhere instead. The hectic schedule of our last two weeks on the road with our driver had wearied us a little. The thought of seeing […]
India Rajasthan and Golden Triangle Itinerary
Two Week Itinerary for Rajasthan and the Golden Triangle You can get to see some of the top sights in Rajasthan and the Golden Triangle in India in fourteen days or less, it will not be a restful experience, but you will gain a lifetime of memories and images from the magnificent Taj Mahal to […]
Jodhpur and the Road to Udaipur
Jodhpur – The Blue City It was a long drive to Jodhpur, our second to last destination in Rajasthan, before waving off our driver. The three restful days in Jaisalmer and our separation from each other had allowed driver and passenger relations to be restored to more friendly less tense mood levels. So we set off […]
In our last travel blog post I mentioned that I had done another diving course. I’ve included some underwater photographs and videos taken whilst I was on this course. We stayed in Bohol, longer than anywhere else in the Philippines, because of the excellent diving sites at very reasonable prices. Bohol is a magnet […]
A delay in this post has been caused by very slow internet connections throughout the last part of our travels in the Philippines. Apologies. However, it now means you have a fun packed bumper blog of travel frustrations, cute monkeys, the chocolate hills and a small slightly disappointing beach. Weather Retreat Given the weather we […]
Donsol, Whale Sharks and Legazpi
Reluctant as we were to leave the beauty of Saud beach we had a lot more Filipino treasures to explore. From the relaxing, serene shores of Saud beach, we headed south towards Donsol in search of some whale sharks. The weather proved challenging, but the wildlife made it all worthwhile. From Pagudpud we reversed […]
Ilocos Norte, Pagudpud and Saud Beach
The ‘Borocay of the North’ is the strapline trying to attach itself to this beautiful part of Ilocos Norte in the Philippines. While I cannot make the comparison yet, I believe Saud Beach in Pagudpud really is a little hidden gem that may eventually give its more famous southern cousin a run for its peso. We […]
Manila and the road to Pagudpud
We arrived in the Philippines on board another Jetstar flight at around 8pm on a Saturday. Having left Bali we had a brief layover in Singapore before our arrival in Manila. The immigration, customs and baggage pick up went like a dream and we were out of the airport within half an hour of touching down. This […]