Day 75: Venice Beach to Home!!
My last ever morning of this trip HAS to be good, and a good morning can't exist in my opinion without breakfast and, more specifically, coffee. So I headed off to LA's renowned superior coffee shop, Intelligentsia. They have a branch in North Venice so I took an Easter Monday stroll with Nina through the quieter, more sophisticated perhaps, area of Venice.
Now Intelligentsia knows it's superior, with its wooden and chrome decor, its row of future Mark Zuckerbergs all lined up with their Apple Macs at the back of the shop, and of course there's it's celebrity fans like Jake Gyllenhaal. BUT, they do make extraordinarily delicious coffee. I'm no coffee snob, but this was one of the best coffees I've had and the honey and raisin bran muffin went down a treat too.
We then diverted slightly so that we could find the few remaining Venitian canals, that were introduced in 1905 to fit inside with the seaside town's then name, 'Venice of America'. Most of the canals have been covered over now to make way for cars but some are left and they are so pretty! Hate to think the cost of real estate down there but I could definitely imagine getting out the old gondola for a paddle out the back of my little apartment on the canal then strolling down to the mile long beach and don some Lycra and roller blades... Maybe not the last bit...
Then I just sat on the beach for an hour, reminiscing over the last three months and writing cheesy signs in the sand and posing with them just for you.
Then I'm off to Lax to fly home. On my arrival into the airport the shuttle bus driver pointed out my winged ride... A huge plane painted completely in forest green with all the hobbit characters pasted onto the side... Very subtle, Air New Zealand.
Saw Rudimental getting on the plane which provided some last minute excitement but really nothing is more exciting than going home right now. Ahh. What a trip.
Day 74: Easter Sunday x2 - Fiji to Venice Beach, LA
I spent my last day in Fiji doing pretty much what I spent my last three days doing - not that much. It was super nice and felt even hotter today even though there was a tough breeze coming in from the pacific. I'm itching to get home now though, LA seems an unnecessary obstacle. I've been to La before and I can't say I'm a huge fan. It's fun for the celeb spotting and the tourist side but as a lifestyle it didn't really appeal. Venice beach was really the only place that I remember coming alive for me, like Camden only with hot pants and roller blades, and so that's where I'm headed.
Now in Venice Beach, and it's exactly as I remember it. Full of every kind of person thronging along the famous palm-lined broadwalk and huge beach, dancing, playing music, cycling, exercising, shopping, eating, all in a cloud of dope and happiness. Groups of people were grouped together for seemingly spontaneous paint parties on the beach. I befriended a chatty Swiss girl on the shuttle bus and she couldn't quite get her head around Venice's brand of 'cosmopolitan'.
"Everyone in the world is here," "if you don't want to grow up, this is where you come", the latter in reference to a bunch of 70+ year olds showing the younguns how to boogy to Akon and Rihanna in lycra and on wheels in the al fresco roller disco... Now I've seen it all. This guy above was my personal fav.
Having just time travelled and experienced Easter Sunday twice in the same year in completely different places, I got peckish and tired pretty quickly so opted for a slice of pizza on the beach followed by a butter pecan ice cream. As the sun set, Nina (the Swiss girl) and I watched the skaters in the beach skate park. It's a skateboarder's dream out here. And these guys are good... Even the barely 4 foot mini skaters and flipping and diving and god knows what all over the shop. I feel shamed. But in awe.
Having been told to stay away from the venice streets after dark, I allowed myself to be forced into my bed at 9pm. Exhausted but so glad I've had the extra day in LA to soak up some last minute fun and culture before heading home. *sob*
Days 72 to 73: Coral Coast, Fiji
So I went snorkelling. Huzzah! Love to tell you I've been super active these last three days but I'm afraid this is as adventurous it's got, my friends. There were so many fishies! Lots of little ones in different colours: blue, silver, black and white stripe, and one Dorey-like fish with a fluorescent yellow moustache that turned its head to me, caught my eye then charged for all of 0.5 seconds bubbling away, just long enough for me to freak out majorly and swallow a whole lot of water. Fail.
There were also some rather unpleasant looking sea snakes... I'm told these ones aren't dangerous but I didn't get too close just in case...
More excitingly, I'm making my way through the most delicious of all oranges! Easily the nicest of all the fruit I bought the other day, they may be green but they are so juicy and delicious. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to enjoy an apple quite in the same way again after NZ or an orange orange after fiji.
On final night in Fiji, marking the last full day I'm spending in any country before heading home *sob*, I went for a short walk along the beach to catch the sunset. Followed that by treating myself to a delicious stir fry, a beer and apple pie with ice cream.
Day 71: The Coral Coast, Fiji
After a much needed 10 hour sleep I rolled out of bed and straight onto the beach. Thirty degrees, a nice breeze, clear turquoise water, yellow sand, palm trees. Everything I'd dreamt up in my head about these last few days of my holiday were finally a reality. I think the Brit in me was sceptical that the sun would actually come out but it has and ahhhh very happy.
I took a cab into the local town of Sigatoka in the afternoon. I was keen to drop in on the huge market in the middle of the town to get me some fruit. So ridiculously cheap! A whole bowl of paw paws or oranges for 1 Fijian dollar, which is about 30p.
In the evening The hotel were offering a special 'love' option. Lovo is essentially the Fijian version of Maori hangi, where they cook meat and veg in a brick oven under the ground to give it a really smokey taste.
4 courses included a delicious green soup from some local plant I can't spell or pronounce, some curried mussels with lime, the main Lovo dish of meat, potato, carrots etc with gravy, all finished off with a chunky custard cake. Also got the chance to try the Fijian bitter, which was just as good as they said it would be. Yum. The evening was made even nicer as a couple with a young child who I had met briefly this afternoon invited me to eat with them to stop me from sitting in silence through all 4 courses.
Days 69 to 70: Wellington to Auckland to Fiji
It's lovely to be back in Auckland to see Em for the lays time in most likely two years. What an emotional last couple of days! I found myself mocking back over photos of the last three months and with the right background music, I'm definitely fighting back some tears. Less than a week to go now!
For my final night we ate Mexican then headed out to a Macs bar in Kingsland decked out like an old library for ginger beer, a stunning view over the city and Eden park stadium and a discussion about the pros and cons of NZ vs UK. Oh and pulling out some last em and Claire selfies and a final rendition of Drunk In Love. Had to be done.
At the airport ready to fly out to Fiji I was lucky to bump into Georgina and Sonja from the NZ trip who were off to Australia and a final hilarious encounter with the silent German Ninja, as Matthias has come to be known...
Landing in Fiji, the first thing I feel is the heat and I know I'm going to have a great next couple of days (I tried to ignore the leaflet that basically told me I will get Dengue Fever...).
Day 68: Kaikoura to Wellington
Dressed in the oh so fashionable wetsuit, including hood, we all went out to sea. Here waves were huge and the sun wasn't yet up but in less than 20 minutes we have found a huge pod of over 100 dusky dolphins and are getting flippers up and jumping into the water. The first swim did not go too well for me... A combination of hitting the cold water, forgetting I couldn't breathe through my nose in a snorkel, the excitement of hundreds of dolphins swimming around me and the hilarity of watching a group of people looking and sounding completely ridiculous trying to engage the dolphins with flipper actions and loud bubbling screeches and singing ("remember you are entertaining the dolphins, not the other way round") meant I became semi paralysed and could do very little but frantically tread water.
First swim done, though, the next four were honestly some of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. All these dolphins swimming around you, then doing acrobats in the air just like you're told to expect do but never actually believe they do in real life. Even Matthias, who all along the trip has wholly objected to the excessive use of the word 'awesome', blurts out "now THIS is really really awethom".
After the swim, a lot of concerned faces are staring at me saying I've turned blue. Even with the hot chocolate (which I epically spilt all down myself) it took three hours to feel my toes again, but it was so so so worth it. Ahhhhhhh amazing.
Preform we knew it we were back on the bus and heading up through the Marlborough wine town of Blenheim and then Picton, still smelling of sea and hot chocolate, to the ferry to take us back to Wellington.
What was supposed to be 'party boat', quickly subsided into a sleep fest as we all nodded off. When we woke from our slumber we passed the time in a way that only very tired people do, by asking ridiculous 'would you rather' questions and trying to talk to each other without showing our teeth which set us all off into uncontrollable giggles... We weren't even drunk.
Back at the hostel, I'm no longer officially a G Adventurer - it felt so sad to be in a dorm without the gang. At dinner everyone was feeling a little emotional but I've got to say I was feeling all dandy until Sofia had to leave and she started crying, which then set me off!
We then cheered ourselves up with more beer, more dancing, and watching people play ridiculous group games all in the name of free shots. Feels like the last week of university!
Day 67: Kaikoura
Our shoreline in Christchurch was a converted jailhouse, which brought a bit of fun to the otherwise downbeat afternoon in the city. Needless to say that we were not going to refuse a dress up opportunity so at 7am in the morning we donned the appropriate prisoner attire ahead of our departure to Kaikoura.
Kaikoura is a small beachside town on The south islands North East coast. Driving in we stopped a healthy handful of times to coo at the seal pups that were swimming in the paddling pools amongst the rocks. So so cute, I wanted to eat them. As cute as they are, though, when we stopped to get up close to some adult seals, one particular seal told Mike to shove off. He's all "You're a lovely seal, aren't you gorgeous" only to be met with an abrupt roar as Mike got too close...
Plenty of activities to do in Kaikoura, from whale watching to stunt plane driving but I'm waiting for tomorrow morning...So with my empty afternoon, I'd like to say I filled it with an energetic hike around the peninsula but suddenly laziness succumbed me and I instead went for a spot of window shopping before setting myself down with a nice cuppa tea.
In the evening we headed out for dinner together in the town before making an emergency hot chocolate stop. Clearly not enough sugar though, so we proceeded to scout out some tim tams then gorged on them and milo while watching strange animal videos on YouTube. Perfect evening no?
Day 66: Christchurch
This morning we headed off early so that we could take a slight detour to fit in the Moeraki Boulders. "Boulder shaped rocks" one of my companions kindly pointed out. Sounds kind of boring but they really weren't. It was a pretty chilly morning, but the moody gloom of it all gave the scene something extra in my opinion. The sprawling chilli-pepper-like seaweed strewn amongst these confusingly round jet black rocks with grey waves crashing amongst them. I just don't understand how they got that round.
Sat in the cafe with the fire blazing and treating myself to a hot chocolate looking out at the water, once again I got that 'Scotland on crack' feeling. Not surprising there's a substantial Scottish community down here on the South Island.
Then we were off to Christchurch. Unsurprisingly, all I had heard of the city from people who'd been was how depressing it is since the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. Driving in through the outer suburbs and the small townships where the earthquake started, though, it didn't feel all that depressing... No noticeable rubble or any specific signs that there were anything wrong. Even as we got into the CBD, there were tower blocks, hospitals and homes - a normal city. Looking closer though, none of these buildings were occupied. Up in the hills huge mansions looked down but we were told they are all condemned, and it seemed much of the housing in the centre was the same.
On Cassell street, where the earthquakes did the most damage, we start to see rubble and building sites. The bridge of remembrance is blocked off with yellow tape, there's an eerie Starbucks and clothes shop left as it was when the quake struck. The buildings have papers taped to the outside to sepay they are fit for use but no one's there.
More positively, Cassell street is now home to a makeshift mall with shops and cafés made from brightly coloured containment boxes. There's a museum to learn more about the earthquakes and this is the first place I actually saw people that weren't tourists. Walking around we found a row of colonial-looking pastel houses with shops and tram lines, and on the buildings we keep coming across awesome artwork painted onto the bricks. Nicknamed the garden city, Christchurch is home to the largest park in the Southern Hemisphere amongst a number of others that have amazingly all been restored.
With only 4 million living in NZ, though, the income from taxes is just not big enough to properly rebuild this beautiful city. Instead they are starting from scratch and building a new city out in the suburbs - Lego town as auto calls it, all the houses new but exactly the same. A couple of streets north of Cassell street mall and the eeriness and sadness come flooding back at Cathedral Square. I remember watching the cathedral collapse on the news back home but seeing it up close, seeing the memorials around, the ground zero feeling is more overwhelming than I anticipated.
We then walked down to see the Cardboard Cathedral, a temporary prism-shaped building, not apparently made of cardboard... But moving to see a wedding going on inside. The memorial project where a chair for each of the victims of the earthquake, including baby chairs and wheelchairs, occupy a patch of grass behind the cathedral. What a fantastic way to get across the individuality of each person - I've never noticed the personalities in chairs before but this was very effectivd.
We only had an afternoon in Christchurch but even that was too much time to fill in this city that is, as horrible as it is to say, ghostly.
Day 65: Central Otago Rail Trail
Perfect weather for our activity today, cycling 35km of the Central Otago rail trail. As the name implies, the trail is the old railway route through gold mining and what NZ calls 'big sky' country. We rode through the tunnels and viaduct of the Poolburn Gorge, through Lauder, Ida Valley and Omakau and back down to Wedderburn. Along the way there were little red boxes marking all the old stations and you could get a stamp at each one. You know I love that kind of geeky extra.
A few of us decided to take the slower approach... fitness aside, though, there's no way I was cycling this stunning route without stopping to take in the scenery. The best way to describe it we agreed was Scotland on steroids with better weather...
Above is one of a few old railway bridges... What you can't see is how bumpy that bridge is... The only tell tale sign is the terror written all over my face. Terror or perhaps more lack of gratitude to auto taking photos from that angle...
Plenty of wildlife on the bike trek - spotted a hare on the way, stopped to let cattle traffic cross and saw a lot a lot of sheep - and then, at 22k, we all caught up with each other and stopped for a picnic lunch.
Starting off again, I was horrified what a little hummus could do... I was struggling big time but then a few friends caught up and reassured me that we were at the start of the incline. Looking back we were clearly going up but looking forward it looked flat, doing nothing for my morale...
What did do good things for my mood though was the final 5k downhill... The kid in us took over and we raced our way down to our lodge and tavern at Wedderburn. Here's the completion photo. Sweaty, but alive. Whoop!
After the best shower of the trip (sweet jesus it was good), a whole lot of tim tams and milo, we cooked ourselves up a huge meal of BBQ chicken, salad, couscous, Mike's bruschetta and Sofie's Spanish omelette... Needless to say we all ate well that night after our active day!
Day 64: Doubtful Sound
We got a chance to stop off at a beach to take a swim and get up close to the wildlife and generally just enjoy the scenery. Could have done with one hour shorter though... It was a real work out and three hours in and I was desperately trying to distract myself from my bruised back and general unfitness by singing any song I can remember all the lyrics to... for some reason, Wannabe was all that came to mind...
Afterwards we did reward ourselves with another NZ classic, tim tams and milo. Milo is basically hot chocolate and tim tams are, as I think I've said before, basically elite Penguin chocolate biscuits. The idea is that you nibble both ends then suck the hot milo through. The effect is that the tim tam turns from biscuit to a gooey brownie and it is DIVINE. Next time I'll try coffee... Mocha mmmm.
The rest of the day we spent on the road. Bus, boat, then bus again back through Queenstown and down south east further into Cental Otago. Stopping off to get food supplies (and stressfully last minute negotiate a house meal for the next evening...), we finally made it to Wedderburn, a village consisting of one large house, a couple of one room cabins and a tavern.
Tucking into roast lamb with mint sauce in this cosy countryside pub made us English members of the group feel like we were all back home.
Day 63: Queenstown to Doubtful Sound
A couple of fun facts for you. The national park through it's hydro power station supplies 14% of the country's power. Doubtful sound got its name when Captain Cook first arrived and was doubtful whether he would be able to get his ships in and out safely with the wind conditions. The road from the boat to Deep Cove, where we were staying, s the most expensive road per kilometre ever built.oh, and the sound is not actually a sound, it's a fjord.
We boarded a bus along this road to our lodge on the other side of the mountains, along with an elderly group from Christchurch who proceeded to engage us all in avid conversation, only it was our group who took the blame and were hushed like school kids the whole way...
In the afternoon our guides for the next 24 hours took us on a 2 hour walk up to Helena Falls, an impressive waterfall that we could climb right up to and swim in. The walk up over the slippery rocks was quite enough for me so I didn't take a dip myself and let others test it for me.
The evening consisted of spag bol, NZ's staple hokey pokey ice cream and quite a few rounds of picture art. We also got to watch a film capturing the changing seasons in the national park, which was impressive but the whole afternoon, film included, has felt a bit too much like a school trip to be honest. The place is stunning but the guides seem to think we are a bunch of rowdy kids... They even made us all wear matching and suspiciously prison-like outfits...
Day 62: Queenstown
Sofia and I took the cable car to the top of the mountain for the views but also our two activities for today. The first was a brisk (aka effing freezing) ride on the luge, basically go-carting but with the most epic view and more fun, in my opinion. We got five goes and each time tried to go that bit faster, oh and to perfect our pose for the cameras obviously. The one on the ski lift back to the top of the luge being the hardest to pose for as we felt icicles form on our face (not literally... But it felt close...)
Then we were off to zip trek, where we basically got strapped in to a harness and threw ourselves down wires through the trees. The actual zipping was pretty fun, you could turn yourself upside down if you're feeling brave and fall backwards without holding on etc etc but for about a minutes worth of zipping we were out there for an hour and a half and paid a good 60 quid to do it. A little disappointing after the luge but fun nevertheless.
In the afternoon we stocked up on food, took a walk around town and the park before heading to dinner at the famous burger joint, Fergburger. After much deliberation, I decided to go for a classic burger as that was the 'fergburger' itself. Mistake, the burger was perfectly nice and ginormous but average. The more exciting burgers appearing around me would have been a better choice but I can't say I didn't enjoy my burger :) know you were concerned about that.
Then a few of us played a few rounds of pool and watched 300. Sadly I fell asleep ten minutes in and got myself in bed at 10.30. Resultttt.
Day 61: Queenstown
There were no orcs on the two hour trek thankfully, but learning to trot felt exciting enough for me... Terrifying. Why would you want to go faster and lift your bum up as you do it?? The closer to the ground and the slower the speed i am, the better if you ask me... Especially when your horse starts getting fed up with his friend's head getting too close to his bum and tries to kick him back and try to buck... Marcia from our group got to canter up front on the glamourous princely horse aptly named Harry. He's also a film star from the remake of Prince Caspian, which the geek in me thought was simply awesome.
The whole walk was amazing, though. The views were just crazy. Mary said to me from her horse behind me that it was hard to believe we are actually here, experiencing this, and she's so right. I'm not sure I will ever quite be able to take it all in. I can assure you those lotr backdrops are real.
In the afternoon, Sofia and I invented our own extreme sport - ice cream eating. Aka we bought ourselves the flavours in the Magnum special edition 5 kisses range and Sofia, Mike and I quickly demolished 2 each. The conclusion was unanimous - the apple crumble was AMAZING. Feeling pretty proud of our risk taking.
My afternoon was completed with couple of rounds of pool, a stroll down Lake Wakatipu and a spontaneous sprint race against Mike (which I as good as won, dont let him tell you any different...). Did warm me up too, which was a bonus. I'm becoming one of those annoying people who has spent so much time being warm, 20 degrees feels too cold. I'm sorry, I promise I hate myself too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)