kez & hay travels 06

Check out our underwater photos in Malaysia/Singapore Album and our skydiving ones in New Zealand Album.

Akaroa, on the Banks Peninsula, narrowly missed being colonised by the French by 2 days, as the Brits got wind of France's plans and rushed to the defense.  This hasn't stopped this beautiful seaside town having a very "a la France" atmosphere, with boulangeries and brasseries galore.  So we felt very much at home here.

Next stop, Hanmer Springs, where the thermal pools are, was just what the doctor ordered.  We spent several hours wandering from one thermal pool to the next sulphur pool.  At first it seemed ridiculous to be back in our bikinis in 2 degree weather, but the pools soon warmed us up.  Apparently the sulphur pools are supposed to be really good for the skin, but how can anything that smells that bad be good for you! 

At last we had made our way around to Kaikoura, where we both hoped to spot some whales.  In fact we were extremely lucky as we ended up seeing 7 whales at very close range, plus over 100 dolphins.  It was really "awesome" to see these amazing creatures so close up, Hayley got plenty of photo opportunities.  After such a successful whale watch trip we decided to sign up for dolphin swimming the next day.  However it was Sunday and we think the dolphins were having a lie-in as we didn't see any.  Can't say we were that disappointed as swimming in the freezing sea at 8.00 am had lost its appeal by the time we were in the boat!

With only a few days left in the south island we headed up to the Malborough region, famous for its vineyards.  We hired some bikes and did a grand old tour of these wineries, sampling wine after wine in full "Absolutely Fabulous" mode.  Oh its a hard life isn't it?

Last stop in the south island was the pretty sea-side town of Picton, where we said goodbye to our faithful car and got used to lugging "Me shell" on our backs again.  And then it was a very early start for the ferry crossing to Wellington.

Goodness gracious its cold here! Going from 40 degree Singapore to 4 degree Christchurch was a bit of a wake up call! And it seemed the hostel wasn't that prepared for the cold either. Spent a few days visiting this small quaint town, eating gorgeous food (bangers'n'mash being a top favourite) and helping the Kiwi's celebrate their victory against the Wallabies in the rugby. We rented a car for the majority of our time in the south island, and our next destination was the west coast via the very scenic Arthur's Pass. After a couple of days we arrived at Franz Josef village, home of the very famous glacier. With cascades of ice tumbling down the valley into the village, it seemed like a huge gush of water had been frozen in time.  We spent a day walking on, in and through the glacier - again another example of Hayley and Kerry realising they are just not made for such energetic activities. Nursing our bruised muscles, we headed down to the small lakeside town of Wanaka.  Here we had the most exhilirating experience of our lives -skydiving 9,000 ft, including 30 seconds of free fall. Never have we spent so much money for such a quick effect (the jump lasted 4 minutes), but it was worth every penny. Absolutely amazing.

Queenstown lies about 2 hours south and is the adrenalin capital of NZ. However, after spending the equivalent of our weekly budget in SE asia on a 4 minute jump-thrill, we decided to play it low for a while.  Hayley didn't last long at this as she sped off on a jet boat, being flung around the boat as it did 360 degree spins.  We went to Deer Park Heights to see some of the places where Lord of the Rings was filmed (it had to be done!)  Kerry also got very nearly eaten alive by resident goats, whom she was trying to feed.

At this point of our trip we turned back north, heading for Lake Tekapo (which is a blazing turquoise colour due to its rock sediment). This was a memorable journey simply because we were driving on a practically empty tank for what seemed like hours - "so they don't have petrol stations in the mountains then!" We happily rolled into the nearest town after a 2 hour tense drive. We arrived at Lake Tekapo to 5 inches of snow and so we spent the whole evening huddled around the hostel's log fire. Luckily the next day the snowy weather had calmed down so we went back to the east coast to the french influenced town of Akaroa.

We arrived in the "Little India" area which was pumping with people, music and colour, and checked into a great little hostel.  It was hot, hot, hot but hey we were not about to complain, knowing that in 3 days time we would be shivering in snowy New Zealand.  Shopaholic Singapore is super, with a really pretty city centre.  We spent our days shopping (well window shopping at least!), eating and walking...oh and a trip to the Singapore zoo.  The zoo doesn't "believe" in caging the animals, favouring large ditches to keep the animals safe from us and us from them.  All very well until you find yourself opposite a Lion with nothing but a stream and a ditch between yourselves.  The fact that the Lions immediate neighbours were both Zebras and Giraffes seemed like a cruel joke on the zoo's behalf.

Our last night in Singapore was to be our last night in SE Asia so we painted the town!  After finding a cheap and cheerful restaurant serving a traditional local dish of...fajitas(!) we moved on to a bar called "Eskibar" and the place did not get warmer than 4 degrees - all drinks were served ice cold and everyone was given a coat to wear!!  The night became hazier and hazier and at 04.30 Hayley was being taught pool tactics by a professional pool player and Kerry was playing poker (not strip I hasten to add) with the locals.  All in all a great farewell to SE Asia.

Now have we got a bit behind on updating the blog!?! Must mean we've been having too much fun!!!

KL is big and bustling, with great market streets and yummy curries.  The multi-racial population of Malays, Chinese and Indians gives this city a great vibrancy.  We visited the Petronas twin towers...eventually, after being turned down the first day as they had had their day's quota of 800 visitors by 09.30!!!  This was a popular place!  We also spent many hours looking around the biggest shopping centre ever - Bluewater eat your heart out!  We visited the Discovery centre where Kerry learnt lots of interesting facts about the planet's origins and Hayley beat the fastest record for a karate chop!

We journeyed on to Malacca, the birthplace of the Malaysian heritage, before it became part of a colonial empire, passing from Portuguese, to Dutch and finally to British hands.  Although the majority of the colonial architecture has wasted away, the town's centre still retains part of the Portuguese fortress wall, and the Church, (which changed names as often as Malacca changed colonial power), at the top of the hill is still intact.  The Portuguese culture is also still practised by a few descendant communities today.

It was then time to say farewell to Malaysia and hello to Singapore.