We've Replaced Teapots With Sand Castle Buckets!

Since our last post, we spent our final night in Patong Beach which we can only describe right now as full on. We took a crazy taxi ride and then two hour ferry to get to Phi Phi Don Island. I'm sure we mentioned this before to some of you, but right now it is the rainy season. Although the weather is gorgeous (30 degrees) all the time when it rains it definitely pours. As we docked our boat in Phi Phi (pronounced pee pee)it was raining as hard as you can imagine. We had our backpacks covered in plastic and we began to make our way to the nearest information spot to find a spot to rest our weary heads. We ended up finding a spot for $9 Canadian per night. We're spending two nights here.

Some of the best parts about Phi Phi so far have been the scenery, the Cancun Beach Bar, the food and of course the people. Everyone is so unbelievably helpful and friendly. Nobody here has been hasseling us to buy anything and the vibe is so chill. There are no roads on this Island so everyone travels by foot or by bicycle. One can only imagine how this makes for people having to travel and transport heavy goods to all the resorts and new constructions. There are photos everywhere of the devestation from the Tsunami. It's so hard to believe that it really happened.

Last night we decided to have a few beverages on the beach after supper and headed to the Cancun Beach Bar to watch the fire show. We purchased two sand buckets (buy one get one free!) full of our choice liquor and took in the show from front row seats. As you can see Elliot participated in the fire limbo as I participated in the fire skipping rope. Elliot of course did this with ease while I managed to get a burnt ankle! Sorry no pics of me doing the fire skipping rope, Elliot decided to take a video instead which is short - I much prefer a picture, don't you?

Today we are going out on a boat to go snorkeling around Phi Phi Lay. This is the Island where The Beach was filmed and I can asure you it is gorgeous. We will end off the day with a sunset on our boat and then perhaps a quieter night tonight. We might be leaving the Island tomorrow, but then again we might stay another night - why not?

'Till next time,

Love, Amy & Elliot x

No Thank-You, We Don't Want a Tuk Tuk, Taxi or a Custom Suit!

It all began we arrived at the Christchurch Airport at 4:30 p.m. on the 24th August only to wait out the evening (with approx 30 others) and night for our early check-in at 3:30 a.m. and flight to Sydney at 6:30 a.m. After our three hour flight to Sydney we waited at the Airport for five hours only to get on another plane for our nine hour and twenty-seven minute flight before we arrived in Phuket. We were smart and booked a motel 100 meters away from the airport so we could crash for the evening. We don't even want to think about our accumulated 25 hour flight (three different planes) on our way home!

We woke to a beautiful day in Phuket and it wasn't long before we were both in shorts and planning our first destination - Patong Beach. It was a forty-five minute drive from Phuket and it wasn't long before we were being asked if we would like a hotel room from a lady standing outside the one we chose for 500 Baht - which works out to be $15 per night for the two of us. We've only been here for three days but we've quickly come to realize just how cheap it is to travel here. You can eat a delicious meal for $3 or have a mug of beer for $1.80. The only problem is we are constantly being hounded for a taxi ride, tuk tuk ride, t-shirt, sunglasses, tailored suit or just anything imaginable really. It's hard on the head but you have to realize that these people have close to nothing in their pockets and it's their only way of making a living. So yes, they are quite pushy but super friendly at the same time.

Tomorrow we plan to leave Patong Beach and traveling to a few beautiful islands that we were told were a must when you come to Thailand. One of which being the set for the movie "The Beach".

All in all things are great and we are enjoying ourselves immensely and trying to soak up as much culture - and sunshine - we can possibly get before returning home:)

'Till next time!

Love, Amy & Elliot x

PS We apologize for the lack of pictures. We are having trouble uploading them! We will upload more on the next post.

The Last of New Zealand

We are starting to realize what Shalyn and Ryan meant when they came to visit us when they said "4 weeks just isn't enough" because it isn't! Sometimes when we look back it seems as though all we did was drive, drive and drive a little more, but really we wanted to see as much as possible and when we look at the ground we've covered it's actually quite impressive. Looking over our pictures makes us so happy and we are going to have lots of fun going through them with our friends and family when we get home (less than 20 days!).

Since our last post we spent a day touring around Wellington and whilst on this exploration we decided to try out one of the top ten attractions in Wellington - the cable car(pictured). It began when a company took over a new suburb in Wellington in the late 1800s. Due to the fact that it was on a steep hill they needed a mode of transportation to get people down to the the city and to make it attractive for people to purchase land. In 1901 they began the construction of the cable car and after a year of work three tunnels were dug and the cable car was ready to go serving millions since.

Our last few nights were spent crossing the ferry back to the South Island and spending a night right on the beach. Elliot woke up to take a walk on the beach only to find numerous amounts of Paua shells! For those who don't know what Paua shells are, they are found in every gift shop here in New Zealand and you can actually buy polished ones or jewelery. I was so unbelievable happy when Elliot found them and then helped me pick out the best four. We are just crossing our fingers that we are able to bring them back home!

Later that day we drove by a seal colony only to find them all sprawled out relaxing on the rocks and the rest of Saturday was a beautiful drive all along the coast back to Christchurch. We spent our last night at an awesome campground right here in the city and now our bags are packed and we are ready to wait out our time until very early tomorrow morning when we fly to Sydney before arriving in Phuket, Thailand!

'Till next time,

Love, Amy & Elliot x

TICKETS ARE BOOKED!

We will be arriving into the Charlottetown airport on September 9, 2008 at 11:30 p.m. See you then!

Love, Amy & Elliot x

Big Smells, Big Cities and Big Volcanoes!

No, we still haven't booked our flight home yet! I promise we will tomorrow or the next day or two and you will be the first to know :)

This past week has been filled with exploration and, well, a little relaxation! A very memorable spot on our trip here to New Zealand has been Rotorua. We had heard about this "Sulpher City" with its bubbling mud pools, gurgling hot springs, gushing geysers and the eggy smells and couldn't wait to check it out. It turns out that it has once again paid tremendously to talk to the locals and we found a natural hot spring that we spent the day in for free. It didn't smell as bad as I would have imagined (it was the mud pools that stank!) and it was such a relaxing day and such a different experience. We also found a spot called "Butcher's Pool" that was even warmer than that one and also free! Later that evening we checked into our hostel/campground and there was another hot pool at this place! It was an awesome day to say the very least.

The next day we drove to Auckland to check out New Zealand's biggest city. We spent the night at a pretty shady, dirty campground and the next day went for a walk around the city. It was a windy and rainy day but Elliot managed to snap some nice pictures. We made our way up to the top of Mt. Eden just in time to have lunch overlooking the City.

That night (after many hours of driving) we decided to look for a place to park our van and stay the night (for free) but we having trouble finding the perfect location. It was after dark and we decided to drive up one last road which had a "point of interest" on our map. We took the short road and then we couldn't turn around! When we got to the top there was a very friendly lady who explained to us that we had embarked upon the largest Marae in New Zealand. A Marae is a sacred place to the Maori people but is open to anyone of any religion or culture. After hearing that we were looking for a place to just park for the night they opened their gates and told us to make ourselves at home. The next day they were quick to offer us tea and hot showers and then gladly showed us around the grounds. They were such lovely hospitable people and we thank them for their generosity. It was also so nice to have a chance to get to know the background of the Maori culture a little better.

Today was a relaxing drive and we took the time to go and see Mt. Ruapeau (the largest mountain in the North Island) and also the grounds for the ski hill Whakapapa. All of which are active volcanoes! Tomorrow we will be making our way to Wellington and then taking the ferry to the South Island either Friday or Saturday because we fly to Thailand on Monday!!!

'Till next time,

Love, Amy & Elliot x

It's Raining in the Rainforest!

Honestly we wait to long to write these posts!

Last time I wrote we were going skiing at Treble Cone the following day. Comparing this to The Remarkables in Queenstown, we absolutely thought this mountain was better. The views, lifts, snow, difficult runs and prices were all a little greater! The one tough thing about getting to the ski mountains here is the nail biting ride up to the top. Elliot once again suprised me with his skiing excelence while I managed to not to fall once! All in all it was one terrific day.

We left Wanaka the very next day and although we had sore limbs and were very ready to take another day of rest we had the awesome drive along Haast Pass ahead of us. We stopped to look at a few waterfalls and take some beautiful scenic pictures before reaching Fox Glacier where we spent the night. After a night full of planning hikes and talks about going to get a viewing of the glaciers (Franz Josef included) we woke to rain and dark clouds so our hikes were put off and the only view of the glaciers we got were ones from our campervan. There are a few different ways to see these glaciers one being pricey helicopter ride and another being glacier walks. Both I've heard are pretty cool. Both Fox Glacier and Franz Josef are the only two glaciers in the world that descend into the rainforest (a little trivia for you).

Along the drive we passed some other very small towns like Hokitika which specializes in the sale of jade, bone and paua shell designs. You can buy an array of necklaces or other types of jewellery in the Maori designs or make your own in this town. It's quite interesting and again, quite expensive.

Yesterday our drive was again in the rain, but unbelivably beautiful the entire way. Neither of us can get enough of the rainforest. There is something about the fresh smell - we love it! It's also quite funny to see just how many other people are doing the same thing we're doing. You wouldn't even imagine how many other camper vans we see in a day and how many of them take the time to wave or give thumb's up! It's almost as though we are the only people on the road and we can also drive for quite long periods of time before seeing another vehicle. It's also quite crazy to see how many one-way bridges there are here in New Zealand. Someone always has the right-of-way, but at the same time it is a little scary at times when you are going around the corner and aren't quite sure about what you might find on the other side. A few scary moments for sure!

Yesterday we spent the night at Punakaiki and stopped to see the Pancake
Rocks (pictured) and the Blowholes. They were awesome but again it was raining so the pictures are a bit dark. We woke up to rain again this morning but is has cleared off and we are now spending the night in Picton and going to be traveling via ferry to the North Island tomorrow! Can you imagine a whole other Island to explore in less than two weeks!!!

'Till next time,

Love, Amy & Elliot x

Note: Beware When Pulling Onto Shoulders in New Zealand For Scenic Pictures!

So you're probably wondering where that title came from. Well, it all started when we left Queenstown on Wednesday. Actually, I will have to go back a bit farther than that.

We finally met up with Monica (see Surfers posts) and her boyfriend Cory on Tuesday. We painted Queenstown red by hitting up a number of bars and we even introduced them to the teapots at The World Bar! One of the coolest bars of the evening was Winnie's where the roof actually opens! I guess this doesn't happen very much but they open and closed it twice when we were there so it was cool to get that expereience. The next evening was spent at Cory and Mon's new flat just outside of Queenstown having drinks and playing games. It was so good to meet Cory and hang out with Mon again! See you two in Canada :)

Wednesday we grabbed our Fergberger and headed out of Queenstown. We didn't make it far out of town before we were both exhuased and ended up spending the night in Lumsden. This town was smaller than Waikerie and didn't have much so by this time we were really beginning to miss the hustle and bustle of Queenstown :(

The next day we were off to visit the most Southerly part of the South Island of New Zealand which is located at Slope Point. Although it was extremely windy, it wasn't too cold and we were able to get some gorgeous pictures. While leaving Slope Point, Elliot decided to pull over to take a few more scenic pictures which included sheep (did you know sheep outnumber people here in New Zealand 35 to 1?) so, he pulled over and was immediately stuck in the wet mud! It wasn't until a farmer and another local came along to help us out (not even five minutes later) that we were pulled to the safety of the road again. It literally caused a small town meeting where the once secluded road was filled with passers by wondering what all the commotion was about. And to think the pictures weren't even that great!

That night was spent in Owaka at a small campground overlooking the water. We woke up the next morning to hail and a bad weather forcast. We took our time traveling to Wanaka where we are currently staying for a few days. This place is gorgeous! It is a bit like Queenstown, but a bit smaller. It is surrounded by a lake (Lake Wanaka) and beautiful snow capped mountains. Seriously everwhere we look is unbelieably picturesque! We plan to take the day tomorrow and ski Treble Cone. Today we are just going to tour around...

'Till next time!
Love, Amy & Elliot x

Absolutely Remarkble!

Yesterday was absolutely a full day at the Remarkables. It began at dusk (the van picture) and was a bit scary on the 13.6 km drive up the switchback mountain, but we made it and were one of the first people on the hill. I, personally have not skied for 6 or 7 years so I was more than a little nervous going up the lift for the first time. After a few spills I was back at it! It really doesn't compare to anything I've ever skied before because the only mountain I've been on is Marble in NFLD. Elliot, however, has skied some of the geat mountains in Canada and found it to be somewhat comparable although he of course perfers Canada! He might change his mind after we ski Treble Cone...

There was the three types as usual: beginner, intermdediate and expert. I honestly thought that I would be skiing the expert hills by the end of the day. Turns out I did one of them and was so unbelievably nervous that it was just fine for me to to stick to the beginner and intermediate hills. The beginner hills were steep enough. Elliot is one terrific skier. He went down some spots that made me more than a little nervous but he did them with ease. Hence the time the time when we were skiing one of the intermediates together and he turned around to go down the side of the mountain and said "I'll see you at the bottom" and I replied "are you crazy?!" to which the woman standing beside her husband answered "that's exactly what I just said!". So you can imagine what this mountain looked like!

We had some awesome, high quality rentals from Green Toad which made the day even better. We decided not to do a second day here in Queenstown, but to go to Treble Cone after talking to some people who have skied here before. This one is supposed to be New Zealand's permiere ski destination. We should be there sometime this week.

Elliot and I decided to treat ourselves to apres ski drink so we headed to The World Bar and tried our luck at winning ourselves a free $15 teapot filled with liquor. The trick was to roll a dice and get 4,5 or 6 and it would be free. If you rolled 1, 2 or 3 you had to pay. Elliot rolled a 4 (seriously he has the best luck EVER) and we enjoyed our free teapot. Good times!

That's all of now!
'till next time
Love, Amy & Elliot x