Family in Far Away Places

For the next leg of the journey I'm afraid I must wrench the blog out from under Dean's elegant touch and regale you instead with some stories in my own peasant style, as over the next 3 weeks we had the privilege of staying with some of my family, so it's only right that I should get to gush about them a bit at this point.

I think Dean left us touching down in Auckland. Well, to give a little background ... there was a time when I was quite young that various members of my mum's extensive family came from all over the world to stay with us, in between or en route to various exotic destinations. Aunts and cousins hailing from America and Australia stayed for different lengths of time, filling up the house and making it a pretty interesting place, especially for us kids.

Bronwen and Gwen are my cousins from Australia and they have both travelled quite a bit themselves. To my young eyes they were ultimately cool and bohemian, staying with us in the UK for a time before setting off on their next big adventure. I didn't know then if I would ever want to travel, but I did know that I wanted to be like them.

Well when we realised that the natural route for our round-the-world ticket would take us via New Zealand and/or Australia I jumped at the chance to try and squeeze in a visit to my now grown-up cousins. I've only seen them a couple of times in the last several years and only in the UK. Now I was happily presented with the opportunity to visit them in their own backyards.

First stop was to visit lovely Bronwen in Auckland where she lives with her husband Pete and their gorgeous kids: beautiful and brilliant Katya (5) and awesome flying-crocodile fan Toby (3). We were in Auckland for 2 weeks, minus the 4 days we took out to throw ourselves from a plane down in Queenstown (Dean blog to follow) and it was fantastic. Both Bronwen and later Gwen in Tasmania had gone to some effort preparing rooms, furnishings, ceilings for us and we were made to feel so welcome.

Our very first day in New Zealand is a bit of a blur for me. I vaguely remember arriving at Bron's at about 5am local time (but midday the next day for us on South America time), devouring ridiculous amounts of toast and tea, blearily greeting Pete and kids as they got up and went to school/work. I think I managed a shower and to put a wash on and then I crashed out. Dean bravely trooped on through the day, defying any feelings of jetlag. When I resurfaced that evening there were Bloody Marys, wine and yummy homemade dips, crackers, pasta... and then once more I crashed out. Dean is my time-zone travelling hero.

The next day was a Saturday and with our jetlagged sanity restored (almost), we all squeezed into the car and headed into town to indulge in some local food and wine. The Rugby World Cup had taken over in New Zealand and everywhere you went you saw flags flying and shirted/face-painted fans on their way to a game in pub/stadium/someone's front room. In Auckland they put on a variety of special events and occasions to welcome the foreign crowds to this part of the world and that Saturday we headed to a Taste of New Zealand feast. On entry you could buy a ticket for as many "tastes" as you wanted ... one taste = a canapé style portion of something delicious, accompanied by a slurp of a matching wine or beer. There were 4 themed sections, each with 4 tastes on offer - it all looked and smelt amazing. I couldn't see Dean for dust almost the minute we got in there as he first did a recce of all the stands before carefully making his choices. We sampled a range of things between us, from creamy clam chowder to succulent lamb cutlets, mini beef burgers and pies, cheese board samples and delicate little pavlovas (not eaten so delicately though). The wines weren't too bad either ... a great first introduction to New Zealand.

After this we went to the Auckland Art Gallery which has free entry on account of the Rugby. I followed Dean around as he is more of an art connoisseur than me. It was lovely to act cultured for an hour (see Dean's snaps for more info).

On Sunday we got up early (sort of), had breakfast and made sandwiches before setting off on the road to Rotorua, with Pete driving and Dean DJing - music was a real luxury after 3 months with only my small, unchanging iPod selection to entertain us. We enjoyed the likes of Pearl Jam, Beyonce and Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" along the way.

The scenery in New Zealand is spectacular. It's everything you hear its going to be and more - the greens are greener, the forests, hills and lakes are picture postcard perfect. The drive was quite long (thanks Pete for taking us!), but there was plenty to look at. Including, Dean reminds me, some of the landscape which was filmed as the backdrop of "Hobbiton", for all you LOTR buffs out there.

Almost immediately on arrival in Rotorua the sulphur smell of the local geo-thermal field, our reason for visiting, seeped into the car. It was either that or the boiled eggs we'd just eaten anyway. We headed straight for Hell's Gate and began the walk around the site. Hell's Gate is a stinking, simmering, delight of boiling mud, erupting geysers and steaming fumaroles. Just like the Eternal Bog of Stench in Labyrinth (awesome 80s fantasy film - David Bowie in tights and capes and a kingdom of gremlins, trolls and other weird creatures under his spell). It rained the whole time we did the walk but this only added to the other-worldliness of it all. We celebrated being back in the warm at home with yummy Fish And Chips - the holiday from our holiday was proving excellent on all fronts.

Monday we set off early to Queenstown, the blogging of which is in Dean's hands. We arrived back in Auckland midday on Thursday, in time to catch a bus into the city and head for the Thai Embassy to enquire about visas. We were pouring over material online for weeks before our trip began, trying to decipher whether we needed a Thai visa. I suspect that Dean thought I was being a wuss making us get one in the end, but we were glad of it when the Jetstar lady in Melbourne gave us a hard time before eventually checking us onto our Bangkok-bound flight. Note to Jetstar Staff - if I have to spend hours studying the bloody visa rules then so should you before you patronise your customers for no good reason!!! Its alright though, I'm over it.

The second weekend we had in Auckland began with a real treat - a trip up to Sky Tower to watch the sunset before having dinner in the revolving restaurant. At 328m high Sky Tower is the tallest man-made structure in the city and the views from the top are spectacular. The motion of the restaurant took a bit of getting used to (you could never find the toilets when you needed them) but the food was fantastic - an amazing treat, especially following 3 months of travel and rivalled only by Bron's Roast a couple nights later. Any weight we'd lost in South America was more than regained during our stay in NZ and Taz!!

Saturday 24th was all about the epic rugby cup game which we had tickets for - New Zealand vs France, playing in Auckland. Now, I'm not exactly a Rugby gal but even I could have let out a little bit of pee in the excitement of the build-up to the game. The day flew by (with the added fun of giving Dean a long overdue haircut) and soon it was time to jump on the bus and hit the Fan Trail. The trail was a walkable route from the city centre out to the stadium - it passed pubs and bars, kebab houses (where we had The Best Kebab ever), off-licenses and portable loos, all part of a neat plan to get people to walk to the site rather than overwhelming local transport options. And it made for a very entertaining pre-game warm up.

I don't mind saying that after only 3 pint I was a little fuzzy - I think we were all in high spirits. The streets were crowded with New Zealanders decked out in All Blacks shirts, faces painted, but the French were also out in force. E n route we joked and heckled amiably - Bron kept shouting "Allez les Bleus" which Kiwi hubby Pete LOVed. Once inside the stadium we stocked up on neat little 4-packs of Heineken and headed for our seats. A detour to the toilet left us chuckling when a larger-than-life man dressed up as Obelix walked past, only stopping to have his photo taken with giggling women. Imagine our glee then, when five minutes after we sat in our seats, Obelix arrived in our stand and proceeded to take his seat directly in front of me. He could barely squeeze in between his companions and I could only just see over his head, but it was worth it, especially for the hip-swinging jig he performed each time the All Blacks scored (it turned out later he was from Brazil, watching the game with French friends, supporting New Zealand but dressed as a French cartoon character ... we're still a bit confused about that).

And the game was awesome. I've been to only one other live rugby event - one of Martin Johnsons's last games for his team Leicester and although the buzz of the crowd at Twickenham stadium was great I couldn't see much and missed having the TV close-ups and handy ref's mic to listen in on. This game however was incredible. I don't know if the stadium and lighting was particularly well-designed or whether we got lucky with our seats ... or maybe it was simply the fantastic emotion that bristled in the air, but I could see everything and even fancied that I knew what was going on following Pete's excellent dummy-friendly explanation of the basics earlier that week. It was a fantastic night, with a great win for NZ and a good time had by all (plus the rugby players were well fit). We were in the jungle for the final but were chuffed to hear New Zealand beat France - Go the All Blacks!!!!!

There were sore heads all round the next day. Dean cooked everyone a smashing fry-up and we set off in the car once more, in search of a little hair of the dog. Actually we were trying to be cultured and do a little wine-tasting, but we were none of us feeling our best!! We tried some lovely wines at 2 vineyards, Coopers Creek and Soljan and came away with a bottle of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and a port (this would usually be Dean's chance to give you some useful vino-type comments ... in his place I can safely say they all tasted nice, especially the port). Momentarily rejuvenated we headed home and indulged in some more wine and amazing burger and chips ... Pete had a "Greedy b******" whilst Dean went for a "Ringburner". As you can see Bron and Pete introduced us to only the classiest food Auckland has to offer...

Our last 2 days in Auckland were spent doing bits of reading, trip-planning, collecting Thai visas and general stuff - the highlights were the afore mentioned Bron's Roast and The School Run ... a lovely short walk through the bush to Katya's school where she amazed us with her monkey bar skills whilst Toby ran round dressed as Super Toby Dog, with a shoe for every paw. We were very flattered to find we featured in a story Katya wrote for school.

And that was it. Two weeks of paper crocodiles, dinosaur games, lovely food and brilliant company - I can't wait for the next opportunity.

But our (or should I say "my") Family Reunion wasn't over. With a hop, skip and a jump more than I thought it would need journey-wise, we were in Tasmania to spend a week with Gwen, Mick and their 2yr old boy Kalyan. It was my first chance to meet Kalyan and as he steamed into the room that first night I was blown away - BIG blue eyes and "strong like a bull", he is seriously cute. Within 24hrs Dean was known as the "Old Lady" (hah!) and we were once again tucked in comfortably with my family.

Our week in Tas was action-packed thanks to Gwen's fantastic planning skills. Dean and I had been a bit lax making plans for this part of the trip, but with Gwen's help we got a great introduction to Tasmania. The very first day we visited Bonarong Wildlife Reserve and got to see Wombats, Tasmanian Devils, Kangaroos, Koalas and a Cockatoo that said "hello" to Dean. For some reason I hadn't thought about the fact we might get to see proper Australian animals and so I was rather excited (for a 29 year old). The park consists of animals which have been rescued following injuries which usually mean they can't be returned to their natural habitat. It was sad to hear about the threats which face these animals but they're very cute - even the unhappily ugly Tasmanian Devils, which look like giant rats. And the kangaroos were fantastic - its so strange to watch them move, when they're moving slowly they use their tail flat out on the ground behind them, almost like a third leg/lever to their forwards motion. You get to stand right inside the massive field which is their enclosure and hand-feed them pellets provided by the park. Kalyan was completely fearless - at one point he wandered right out to the middle of the field and was hanging out with a bunch of kangaroos who were too cool to come over to us adults for pellets. It was a great visit, right up until a kangaroo who'd necked a few too many pellets casually threw up, narrowly missing my outstretched hand. It was time to move on.

Our next stop was Puddleduck, a small, lovely winery in a very pretty setting next to a river. Here we indulged in a delicious picnic prepared by Gwen (the winery has a reverse BYOB policy, so they provide the wine tasting and you bring your own food), whilst sampling some bubbles, rose, pinot noir and other wines ... predictably we left with a bottle. Booze is the enemy of our budget.

On Friday we were given the keys to the car and set loose in Hobart. We'd been told that MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) was NOT to be missed so, with only a few wrong turns, we arrived at the gallery. This place is AMAZing. It is a fascinating building, set in lovely grounds including vineyards and a view out over the sea towards Hobart, owned by a professional gambler who set it up to share his personal collection with the public. Entrance is free and on arrival each visitor is handed an iPhone to use as a personal guide. The museum is set out over 3 underground floors (only the shop and cafe are on ground level). The place is kitted out with WiFi so as you stand in front of a work of art you tap at your iPhone and it picks up the signal to give you a list of the pieces in the immediate vicinity. You can then select the work which you are looking at and read the information about the piece - a handy little penis symbol at the bottom of the screen, when clicked on will give you the "art w***" ... opinions of critics, interviews with artists etc. The gallery contains an incredible range of art, from Damien Hirst to ancient Egyptian statues. You could happily lose many hours here - we were there for 3 hours and we managed to miss the Poo Machine (but not the wall of plaster-cast vaginas... ). On the way out you can opt to "email your tour" to yourself and the information of all the work you looked up on your iPhone will be emailed to you - it's simply brilliant.

Once we'd finished feeling dazed, both from amazement at the museum and from being underground for 3 hours, we got back in the car and went to meet Gwen from work, following which we drove into central Hobart. Here we spent a lovely evening, first being treated to a glass of champagne by Gwen, before a short walk round the harbour and into a pub where they offered whisky tastings. Once again Dean was in his element and tried a couple of whiskies which he loved. I tentatively sipped at some rum and Gwen tried some gin, before we all boarded a boat for a dinner cruise. The cruise was lovely, giving brilliant views of the harbour whilst the sun went down; we chatted and ate and drank wine, before heading home for more wine and to look at photos of our trip so far (thanks Gwen and Mick for indulging us!!)

On Saturday morning, ignoring our heavy wine-heads, we went back to Hobart to have a look around the weekly Salamanca Market. Hobart is really lovely, particularly the Salamanca area by the harbour. The market was very cool and got me and Dean thinking about the markets at home in East London. We ate a pie whilst watching a local bagpipe band perform and then it was back in the car and off to Tahune Air Walk, an elevated walkway through a wet Eucalypt forest, home to gigantic Huon Pines and "the world's tallest flowering plant". We walked through the forest, marvelling at the huge trees. The views were beautiful, especially from the cantilever bridge at the end of the walk, provided you could get used to the fact the bridge was swaying gently in the wind. We traipsed back through the forest, stopping only for Dean to abuse the "Miniature Effect" on the camera, (you may have noticed a lot of our photos lately have dramatic blurry edges and colours that "ping" - all thanks to the Miniature Effect), glad of the long walk after our recent indulgence.

Over the space of the next 2 days me, Dean, Gwen and Kalyan embarked on a roadtrip which took in some fabulous scenic views of Tasmania and some great food. Our first stop came quite soon, in the charming, old-worldly town of Ross where we sat by the river and sampled a Tasmanian delicacy - Scallop Pie. The scallops were in a thick curried sauce - it was an interesting sort of pie, but very tasty and under the setting of the clear blue skies and with only the open road ahead of us, it was all very lovely. Back on the road we drove up, through countryside which was as beautiful as that in New Zealand and not quite what you'd expect from "Australia" (much lusher), to Launceston where we paid a visit to Platypus House. We did a neat little tour at this reserve which looks after platypuses and also echidnas - curious anteater-like creatures with very long thin tongues, spikes like a porcupine and an amusing waddle.

Back on the road (thanks Gwen for doing most of the driving!), we made our way to St Helen where we were very warmly welcomed by Gwen's childhood friend Sandi. We had a brilliant evening here, eating what Sandi modestly referred to as the "leftovers" from her birthday dinner the night before - being as she used to work in catering though the food was delicious, especially the range of chocolatey, creamy desserts - its safe to say we were in food heaven. There was also lots of beer, wine and rum consumed and brilliant company in the form of Sandi and her family - it was loud and honest and fun, reminding me of my own family a bit and we had a wonderful evening, only admitting defeat around 1am, leaving the hardcore Gwen and Sandi to catch up.

On Sunday I think everything was a bit too loud, a bit to bright and a bit too much for us adults, but it was time to get back in the car. Thankfully it was only a 10 minute drive to the absolutely stunning Binalong Bay, otherwise known as the Bay of Fires. These were the whitest sands and the clearest blue waters that I have ever seen in my life. Coupled with another fantastic day of blue skies and warm sun, the beach setting was simply gorgeous and I think it revitalised us all a bit, before we continued our journey.

We followed the coast road and a while later stopped at Bicheno Bay for much-needed Fish and Chips. Then it was on to Coles Bay and Freycinet National Park. This is a beautiful area of the East coast of Tasmania. We had a lovely walk up to a lighthouse and then later stopped at another beach called Honeymoon Bay. It was easy to see why they call it this, as it would make the perfect spot for a romantic getaway. We spent some time clambering over the rocks to the side of the beach. Once again Kalyan was wonderful and fearless, tottering around over the rocks, an explorer in the making.

Finally we set off slowly for home, passing through more lovely scenery and trying not to notice the road-kill, of which there is an obscene amount in Tasmania. It was a great short trip but I think we were all glad for our beds that night!

Monday was an exceptionally lazy day for Dean and me. We got up late and made our way into Hobart, where we bought much-needed, cheap trainers and spent some time over lunch talking about the next leg of our journey. That night we cooked a roast for Gwen and Mick to say thanks for having us. We did the same for Bron and Pete in NZ ... I'm not sure if they genuinely enjoyed it or whether on both occasions they were just so damned hungry that anything would do. It's been a while since either me or Dean has cooked and any sense of timing has deserted us. But on the plus side there was lots more wine, yay!

Tuesday was our last day in Tas and we enjoyed a visit to New Norfolk - a part of Tasmania that looks reassuringly like Norfolk in the UK, if a bit warmer and sunnier... We went to Mt Field National Park and set off on a lovely walk first to Russell Falls and then on through the forest. More Miniature Effect photos were taken and the woods were spookily quiet, with only Dean and I on the trail for most of it (Gwen and Kalyan had stayed behind to make the most of the swings). Cleverly, I got ahead of Dean on the trail (as he dawdled over fancy camera settings) and hid behind a tree ... much hilarity ensued when I jumped out at him. He pretended he wasn't scared ... but I know he was.

We made it back to the playground, where Dean and Kalyan had a "swing-off" before we all headed home for another lovely dinner cooked by Gwen ... well and truly spoilt.

On Wednesday morning we waved goodbye to Gwen as the bad weather arrived (sorry about that!) and set off with Mick to the airport. Ahead of us - one day of travel and a very different experience...

For me those 3 weeks were truly brilliant. I can't say thank you to Gwen or Bronwen enough for looking after us so well. Tasmania and New Zealand were beautiful and I hope we make it back there again. And I look forward to the day when Katya, Toby and Kalyan might fancy some travelling of their own - if they ever need a place to stay in London they will be very welcome. We look forward to showing them the best London has to offer and plenty of wine to wash it all down with!