A New Approach

I have a confession. As any of you who have followed my blog (and I use that phrase loosely since there hasn't exactly been anything to follow) will be able to attest to, I am a terrible blogger. At least for now. I have a tendency to over-commit to my travel writing.

It's probably hard to see that from your side, given the lack of content probably looks more like under-commitment, but basically what happens is the following.

When I travel I generally keep a written diary; you can't always rely on having internet access and sitting around writing in a journal leaves you much more open to interacting with others than being glued to a computer screen. So while I'm overseas, whenever I have some quiet time, I open up my diary to write about everything that's happened since the last entry. And I mean literally everything, from what I had for breakfast, to where I went, and every single conversation and every single thought that crosses my mind. It's a little problematic. One hour and six pages later I start to get a little bored. Day by day I fall behind in my writing, until one day I find myself trying to recall where we went for lunch that one time about a week ago. And then I give up.

In my Sri Lanka diary I started an entry writing about all the new foods I'd tried, this was after maybe three days in the country, and it took up more than one page. Travel is all about new experiences and I've started to realise that it's just not feasible to record every one. Nor is it necessary. I don't need to document every single piece of information. If the experience was significant enough to me at the time I'll remember it, if not, and if I one day decide that I really, desperately need to find out something like the name of that weird, little, spiky red fruit that kind of tasted like a lychee, I'm sure google will be able to help me out (I just tested it by searching for that description, and for the record the fruit I'm thinking of is a rambutan).

What I am trying to allow myself to accept is that I need to save my writing for the information I can't find anywhere else. Not the facts, but rather my own thoughts and experiences and feelings. Not only will this hopefully make it a lot easier for me to stick to writing my diary while traveling, but also lead to a much more interesting blog.

Blogs like Nomadic Matt's have definitely helped me shape that concept. Despite all the time I spend researching everywhere I want to go in a certain city, reading a blog from someone saying "Today we went to the Louvre and it's just like everyone says, it's so busy but definitely worth it! You just need to make sure you give yourself time because there is so much to see. Oh and you absolutely have to see such and such a painting, it's incredible." is just boring because I've already read it a hundred times, and, frankly, I'm jealous that I'm not there. That said, I'm sure I'll do the same because blogs are a great way to keep everyone, especially the family, up to date on where you are - so don't be surprised if you do see the odd post with a list of all the incredible, old buildings I just saw in Rome or how amazing that truffade was that I had for dinner in the Massif-Central in France. If it makes you jealous just consider it motivation to start saving for your own trip :)

Which leads me to the next idea. A new approach for my blog. In the past year, aside from my temporary home, Canberra, and my heart's home, Sydney, I have literally only been to one other place. I'm not exaggerating. On the way back home on New Year's Eve we stopped off for four hours at Wollongong. Four hours outside of my home cities. It's a little depressing! Consequently I've been finding myself reminiscing more and more about my past travel experiences and imagining my future travels. So for the next few months I will be taking a retrospective angle. Trying to pull the interesting bits from those diaries haha.

Oh, and also, I'm moving to Europe for a year. In January. Nothing too exciting :) :) :) So expect lots of updates on that too!

Sri Lanka Part 1: Colombo

I arrived in Sri Lanka a few days ago with my friend D and her family; having boarded the plane in freezing Sydney it was a bit of a shock stepping out of the airport in Colombo, where even in the middle of the night the humidity and heat were overwhelming. It's been a period of firsts: tuktuks, spices, fruits and also sights.

In the half hour drive between the airport and the house we're staying in in Colombo I became aware of a few things:
-road rules exist on paper, not in practice;
-street dogs and cows are common;
-signs of religion are visible everywhere.

Back to my list of firsts, despite my ever-present fear of roads and vehicles I really enjoyed the tuktuk experience (convenient really, since we have been using them a lot). The driving is a bit haphazard but thankfully the traffic means that no one can drive fast enough for it to be scary. Crossing the roads, on the other hand, feels like it could be the last thing you ever do...

There are lots of tropical fruits here that we don't get back home -

<< Dragon Fruit
-Papaya
-Rambutan
-Orange Coconut
-Little Bananas
-Supersweet Pineapple







More to come soon....

Sri Lanka: Packing List

I decided to bring my backpack because I'm always more comfortable that way - don't have to struggle pulling around a suitcase. Plus it makes me pack lighter. It was a little easier packing for this trip compared to New Zealand, being summer and all, but I had to consider dressing a bit more conservatively than I normally would for Australian summer. So, my packing list:
-3 maxis, one a bit more formal for dinners
-3 pairs of knee length shorts, 1 shorter for beach towns
-6 tops
-2 pairs of casual shoes, 1 pair of joggers
-swimmers
-sunnies
-2 handbags, 1 smaller for walking
-and the other half of my backpack is full of toiletries. I'm not joking. Important things: strong insect repellant, sunscreen and dry shampoo so I don't have to wash my hair everyday.

driving to milford

The drive to Milford Sound was fantastic. We were on the bus before 7am but the first 2 hours of the trip (before getting to Lake Te Anau) are pretty uneventful so we made the most of it and had a nap. After stopping for breakfast at Te Anau the sights were much more spectacular - the driver stopped as much as possible for photo opportunities, which despite being very touristy I was more than glad to do.

First stop:

Just a couple of minutes later we stopped here:

where it rains nearly every day of the year! The driver thought the sunshine was too good an opportunity to miss.

It was a little while until we got to the Mirror Lakes. The view is truly astounding (I'm running out of adjectives here...). The first part of the lake is so-so, you can see a reflection of the sky and vaguely the mountains but we were disappointed thinking that it was that image about which there was so much hype, however, following the path around the corner we saw this:

The bus was glass topped, so as we drove closer to the Sound we could see the peaks of mountains through the roof:

Obviously it's not great for photography but if you have the opportunity it would be great to experience it for yourself.

More scenes from the drive:

 

 

 

 

loooongest bus trip of my life

The title implies that I didn't enjoy this incredibly long trip, but, in all seriousness, I did.

I was hesitant about committing to the 9 hour ride from Christchurch to Queenstown but in retrospect am very glad that we did. The first few hours saw us driving with rocky snow capped peaks just off to the distance to the right, as we crossed many little streams with crystal clear, or slightly aqua coloured water weaving it's way through stony grey creek beds. Most of these streams had loads of colourful lupin flowers growing by them, I couldn't get a photo of this though because we only ever saw it from the bus. This pic is actually of the sea of lupins at Lake Tekapo:

They come in heaps of different colours and appear over much of the South Island.

Anyway, what really amazed me about the scenery from the bus was the incredible juxtaposition, especially between Geraldine and Queenstown. If I had any artistic talent I would move here. From the same window we could see:

this photo from Alpine Pacific Tourism (I couldn't get a good enough image from the bus)

 

if anyone knows what the (blurry) circle of boxes to the right of this photo is, PLEASE tell me!

 

 

Extreme Picnics on blogspot also has a fantastic photo at this link.

 Once we got close to Queenstown we were a little worried to see the lanscape looking like this:

but there was just something eerily magnificent about seeing these immense mountain ranges (The Remarkables) shrouded in cloud. It's as though this is how they are meant to be seen, so when it started raining right before we disembarked the bus we didn't even mind.

take off!!

Leaving behind our luxury hotel accommodation at 5:30 on Tuesday morning, it was hard to believe we were really about to leave the country. I think the early start has actually helped us adjust to the time difference, although Australia is only 2 hours behind. This was the first time that I didn't feel nervous at take off, perhaps that was because I was so tired haha. Though we left late, we arrived early - despite loads of turbulence coming over the beautiful, snowy mountain ranges along the middle of the South Island of New Zealand.

Getting out of the airport all happened quickly. We didn't really have queues at any stage, which was fantastic. They were filming for Border Security NZ when we came through customs, after which we were through the gates, out the front door and straight on to a bus - though we weren't exactly sure where we were meant to be going. I have all the maps of New Zealand loaded on to my phone - we haven't needed to use it much but it's comforting to know it's there.

When we got into Christchurch city centre we strolled around with a minimal idea of where we were headed - base Christchurch (we booked all of the trip in advance because it's the first time we've done it). The lady at the check-in desk reminded me of the the actress Emma Thompson, but John tells me I'm crazy. Having climbed the 3 flights of stairs up to our room we realised we had no idea which room we were in so I sent J to find out.

After a bit of a rest we went to explore the city and find lunch - ended up being terribly difficult just to find a bakery! That was nothing compared to the search for a supermarket though, throughout the city there are heaps of convenience stores but we had to ask a local where the reasonably priced places are - leading us to a "Pak'n'Save" which made me think of those giant supermarkets in American films. We also walked through the Botanic Gardens, which, although pretty, are nothing spectacular. Oh, except for some of the trees - they're enormous!

More photos from Christchurch:

 

 

We were pretty exhausted by the time we got back to the hostel and met our 2 roomies from Germany. They'd apparently been there 1 night and were already bored of the city! That was kind of understandable though, we walked around the streets in the evening to try and find a nice bar to sit with a glass of wine but it was a ghost town by 7pm. We'll be back there later in the week though so perhaps there's more going on over the weekend.

24 hours to go!

For the past week I've been living on a diet of jelly and ice-cream, walking round with a box of tissues and persistently taking cold and flu medication to try and rid me of this horrid cold before we leave (tomorrow, 8:50am!). Finally I'm starting to feel less like a giant germ and more like a normal human again :)

Surprisingly, I have had no trouble packing into just a backpack. Admittedly a rather large backpack, but none-the-less it weighs only (about) 12kg, which compared to my 23kg suitcase the last time I went overseas is a lovely relief. Packing list:
2x jeans
1x shorts
2x dresses
7x shirts
1x jumper
1x cardigan
1x jacket
8x underwear
1x pijamas
1x bedsheet and pillowcase
1x trainers
2x sandals
1x havaianas to wear to showers
1x swimmers
Then my ghd (couldn't help myself), iPod, phone with GPS :), video camera, still camera, tripod, a book (new moon in French), and toiletries.

Sounds like a lot when it's written down like that! Anyway, tonight we're staying in Sydney because we have to be at the airport so early tomorrow, and I managed to convince J to go to the ballet at the Opera House with me! We're flying in to Christchurch and staying overnight.
Day 2: 9 hour bus ride from Christchurch to Queenstown! I'm sure you're envious of this part, but really, I've heard the scenery is great.
Day 3: day trip to Milford Sound.
Day 4: exploring Queenstown.
Day 5: stopping for the night at Lake Tekapo.
Day 6: horse riding around Lake Tekapo before taking the bus back to Christchurch.
Day 7: bus-ing it up to Hanmer Springs to visit the thermal pools and relax overnight.
Day 8: back to Christchurch.
Day 9: flying home in the afternoon.

Looking forward to posting some more interesting articles once we're actually over there! Though I'm not too sure of the internet access we'll have, may have to wait until we're home.

Enjoy the hot weather Australia!