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Beauties in the Middle of Nowhere

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After Grand Canyon we were heading north eastwards to Page, a small town near two famous sights called Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon. We used it as our base to do day trips and camped there at Walmart for the next two nights (we just didn’t see the point of spending 50usd a night for one of those cramped campgrounds offering facilities we don’t need. Though we met two funny Frenchies sleeping in their car and an American guy called Mat from the South of Arizona travelling in his self-made campervan for six weeks). Besides the two famous sights the manmade Lake Powell was also a sight worth seeing. It took the people a few years to build the dam, and 17 years for the water to fill at Glen Canyon Dam which forms the lake. On one hand a good thing to have clean energy, but one the other hand we also learnt that most of the water was used for agricultural purposes. To produce an egg, for example, needs shocking 140liters of water! We wonder how long the Earth’s resources can last (we are not good examples of course with our flying-around-the-world but at least aware of it trying to do our share by not washing our car weekly, showering longer than 5mins etc etc.).

As Antelope Canyon is only accessible with tours, we had to book a tour for the resized_IMG_6557following day, hoping that it is at a good time. Tours at noon with good lights shining through the canyon are more popular so they sell out faster (and are more expensive).  We had some trouble getting a tour at such short notice but luckily after an hour of calling we managed to book two seats. We went with a Native American owned company which also did a short dance performance before the tour. It is indeed one of the most beautiful places we have visited, but one of the worst tours we have had as well. It was crowded with 1’800 tourists visiting the place daily and the tour companies had a tight schedule to adhere resized_IMG_6562to so it was quite a rush. We were driven to the place was in an open 4WD truck, the ride over dirt road bumpy and very very dusty. We were not so lucky and got a really, really lousy tour guide. He was a middle aged Indian man who only knew exactly how to walk into your photos while you try to take photos without any person, or who shouted “come over here” a gazillion times throughout the 1.5hour tour. Despite the sad fact that this place is overly commercialized and overpriced, we still thought this place is insanely beautiful. Nature must be a good artist to be able to carve such patterns onto the rocks. See for yourself.

Another famous sight in the region is the horseshoe bend, which earned its name as the Colorado River carved a 180degrees turn around a big rock, looking like a horseshoe. It must be a truly huge horse to have that size of a horseshoe;) it is a nice place to visit if you are not afraid of heights, because there is no fence and you are basically standing at edge of cliffs. We survived it! Once again it was hot. Even the short 2miles hike at 5pm nearly grilled us. As we had sort of enough of this heat where not even the wind brings relief (the gusts are so hot and dry that it burns on your skin at resized_IMG_6762dries our eyes out) and the dusty air (Roman produced some nice allergic reactions to it) we planned to find some cool down in higher altitudes in the east: Monument Valley. We did, almost by coincidence, meet one of Romans study friends, Marco, for dinner. It was good fun and we were a bit envious about the agile muscle car he had for his trip.

As we faced the setting sun on our visit to the horseshoe bend the evening before we decided to go back there again before driving towards Monument Valley. The light was resized_IMG_6773much better and worth the extra move, which we definitely did not regret later as we sat in the car for a few hours later on. We expected to drive to Monument Valley to be a leisurely 1.5hrs ride. In the end it took us almost double the time. As we entered the valley shortly after Kayenta more and more towering rock formations opened up around us. The park itself lies within the Navajo State (a land area given to the local Indian tribes by contract) and was operated by their own people so unfortunately our National Park Pass was not valid and we had to pay entrance fee (not too bad we thought – support the locals). The first glance at the famous red rock piles standing emerald within the valley was breathtaking and instantly let you feel like in one of those epic western movies. The only RV campsite (a simple line up of parallel parking lots at the rim overlooking the valley with a table for each slot, nothing more) cost us another 45USD. It started to get suspicious. As we wanted to drive down the valley to discover the park resized_IMG_6826late afternoon we started to plan our itinerary. We got informed that RVs are not allowed to drive on the dirt road in the park but the park operates tours. Being told that 1.5hr guided drives to the valley on open 10-people trucks start at a bottom rate of 75USD per person we got a bit upset. It seemed like the Indians here wanted to make easy money out of their visitors without bothering much about what services they provide. It was the same for Antelope Canyon. We decided not to take any of these tours and to try our luck by stopping one of the cars (normal size cars are allowed to drive on the dirt road) entering the area and promptly got two friendly Dutch guys who took us with them. After driving around in the valley with Tom and Nik for almost tworesized_IMG_6864 hours it was time for sunset magic. We took our chairs and watched the rocks gluing and their shadows growing. Roman liked the place that much that he even set his alarm to 5:45 to go and watch the sunrise the other morning (which of course was a jaw dropper but sleeping Yin Ru said she finds it not very special according to the photos shown…whatever…).

The place of Monument Valley marked the eastern most point of our loop. As we were unsure whether places like Arches-, Canyonlands or Capitol Reef National Park were worth the extra few hundred miles detour to the north east and there were not many roads to shortcut or get back in this area we decided to drive back the same way to reach our next bold agenda point: Bryce Canyon. Yin Ru did her share of driving for more than 2hrs that day which means that she drove more hours on this motorhome than on any other vehicles together on our round the world trip. The day was also father’s day with many family’s spending some time at Lake Powell to have fun with their dads. We found it interesting that the only fresh water source for ten thousands of acres was open for hundreds of boresized_IMG_6875ats to play. We also saw a huge coal power plant hidden behind the dam. We were wondering how honest these stories about the green way of this country is sold at the Dam’s visitor center we heard a few days before and how people are going to compensate the emissions caused by their play boats which easily burn 200 liters of diesel in an hour…

Since Bryce Canyon is an incredibly popular spot this time of the year and we didn’t reserve a campsite, our strategy was the same as the one we had for Grand Canyon: Drive as close to the Park as possible, stay the night before at a nice spot outside the park, get up early and grab one of the first come first served spots in the park in the morning. So we had a long driving day and ended up camping just 10miles out of Bryce at a neat place within Red Canyon Forest Park grilling steaks, corn and veggies on wood fire. Our strategy worked out well once again and we got to choose one of the better spots the next morning on Sunset Campground in Bryce Canyon National Park for the next two nights.

We then did the scenic drive in the park in the afternoon. And wow, wow, wow was the first reaction whenever we stopped at a lookout point. Simply amazing. Hundreds of thousands of “hoodoos” (the rock formations), each one unique. Halfway during the self-drive we got our own self-drive guided tour by following tour buses and listen to resized_IMG_7053their guide. At sunset we had a short walk into the canyon which was like an appetizer for our hike the next day. The main hike the next day was one of the best hikes ever: though not as strenuous as we imagined, the view was beyond imagination. We basically hiked through wonderland. We did not find Alice but hundreds of thousands of Hoodoos. We were amazed by how fast landscape changed and how wonderful it felt to walk through all the pillars: from deep red hoodoos with white toppings to orange colored cliffs and brown sands. It is a different sensation than just looking at it from the top (which was nice too) as you walk around them. We had wood fire BBQ again because with sun setting at 9pm, you have plenty of time to grill and spend time outside. During our stay at Bryce Canyon we had a funny young couple as neighbors in camp. We were pretty entertained by them: first eresized_IMG_7056vening we wondered why they were not talking to each other at all, and the second evening their car keys were locked IN the car so rangers had to come and rescue the keys. So now we know how to unlock a car without keys, watch out everyone! We left Bryce Canyon after a lovely 2night stay with beautiful memories.

Our initial plan was to visit the Zion National Park after the Bryce. As we realized we might have more time than we needed, we thought why not do something different? So we decided to do the scenic By-Way 12 before going to Zion. We knew nothing about it resized_IMG_7336before, but now we would definitely recommend it to everyone. It was a beautiful drive through Canyons, bushland, riverwashes and in the end a 11’000ft high mountain (beautiful view, but not beautiful for our elephant motorhome to climb uphill). We camped at a small campsite with 5 capacity called Pleasant Creek at over 9’000ft elevation where deer shouted goodnight around 9pm. We grilled (again!) some beef for dinner, and ironically we saw cows walking just 10meters away from us (we did say thank you to the cows for the meat though). The scenic drive continues all the way to the Capitol Reef National Park, a less renowned National Park compared to its cousins aka Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion etc. We were happy that we came here not knowing what to expect. It was less crowded (but hotter) and one could do a resized_IMG_7526scenic drive in the park itself. We also noticed that honestly we have been looking at rocks/soil/land since we started the road trip: Grand Canyon was like a big crack in the land, Bryce the Rock formations were popping out of earth (actually made of cliffs) and Capitol Reef again spectacular cliffs. We are not geologists so those were just our impressions. After Capitol Reef National Park we drove in the direction of Zion National Park and stayed somewhere at a rest area on highway. We were uncertain if we should stay overnight there but a truck driver told us it is totally fine and later an elderly pair came to join us at rest area to sleep overnight. Yinru slept really well despite the highway noise but poor Roman not.

We got up early today so that we could get a campsite at Zion National Park. Being a RV Monster, we had to pay an extra 15 USD fee to be “escorted” through the tunnel in the Zion. As the tunnel was built in the 20s when large vehicles were less common, the tunnel was rather small and monster cars like ours need clearance to be able to go through. All the cars on the other side of traffic had to be stopped so that we could drive in the middle of the tunnel (two way traffic would not work). We put the blame on the RV that was in front of us anyways (we were ONLY 22ft and theirs was definitely like 35ft). resized_IMG_7533The drive into the park itself was already scenic enough. We went to both campgrounds only to our disappointment to be told that they were both fully booked. At 10am! We were like “but it is first come first served, and we are here at 10am when the other people are checking out!”. The ranger told us that people came here at 8am to get a spot…ok apparently we were not early enough. We have not encountered this problem in Grand Canyon or Bryce so it was a little bit surprising for us that Zion is so much more popular. We had to go to private campground nearby which charged 50 USD (!) for a night. We paid the 50bucks for the “parking” space (with water and electricity, but not more) because they were the only campground in the vicinity. Oh well….It was hot so it was our first time using our AC the whole afternoon! The AC was not even enough to cool us down so we went to cool ourselves down in the river. Oh gosh, we were thankful that we are not living here permanently or we would be grilled! Sun at 6pm still hurts your skin. Roman left his sandals outside of the motorhome for an hour and the edges MELTED. Melted sandals. Imagine that? We visited the park in the evening when it was less hot. We did realize why this park is popular: its breathtaking beauty. See for yourself.

Each National Park we have visited is unique so we would not say this is the best, but definitely one of the top 5 (we have only visited 5 to date anyways haha). The best way to explore the park was to hike it. We heard about the Angels Landing Hike a lot and decided to give it a try. This legendary yet scary hike is so difficult that only angels could land on it (some parts you need to hold onto the chain as there were cliffs on both side). We knew we were no angels and knowing our own limits being afraid of heights, we would be happy if we made it to the Scouts resized_IMG_7694landing, the lookout point before the scary cliff part. Due to the extreme heat during the day, the best time to do a hike would be early in the morning so we dragged ourselves out of bed at 630am. We started our hike at about 815am and there were already quite some people on the trail. As we hiked we realized that we have physically improved a bit and we were feeling fit even though it was going uphill all the time. The cool climate in the morning did help us a lot (worth it to get up so early). We made it to the overlook without much difficulties though we had to use the chain for the last 10minutes or so. The inner debate if we should attempt to hike to the top ended with a clear “No” after seeing the trail with our own eyes. Nope, we can’t be angels this time. There was so much traffic (human) as everyone holds on to the only chain making the two wayresized_IMG_7618 traffic a bit congested. And the sheer cliffs on both sides at 1400ft make your legs shake just by looking at it. So we enjoyed the view of the canyon (and the people climbing to the top) for some time before making our way down. Going downhill was easy as usual, we were also entertained by many different techniques people use to reduce impact on knees and toes: run, jog, and even backward walking. As we walked down at 1030am it was getting warm already and we saw many people hiking up. Some of them looked red already after the first 0.5mile (it is 5.4mile return) so we were glad that we got up early to hike. The Virgin River that shapes the Zion National Park is still working its magic in the park, and it also does wonder with cooling down. We bathed a bit in the cool 15 degrees river and felt alive again!

Welcome to American America

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Here we go, the last chapter of this amazing trip: 6 weeks road trip in South Western US mainland. It’s going to be summer, hot, packed with tourists but big fun with lots of camping, beautiful national parks and thousands of miles on the road to discover – this is what we expected before we started. Our intention was to pick up (and later drop off) a motor home in Los Angeles to discover some of the world’s most famous national parks in the south west by driving a huge (about 4’000miles long) loop and then hire a car for the last two weeks to get all the way from Los Angeles to San Francisco from where we will be heading back home in the end of July.

LA didn’t welcome us with open arms. After touching down at LAX we waited 50mins in the airplane taxing for our gate, another hour for the luggage delivery and in the end again an hour for our complimentary shuttle service to the hotel that never arrived (we took at taxi at our expenses in the end). It got pretty late that night so we had a short 4hrs sleep before (and this time the shuttle arrived) our rental company picked us up to get the motorhome. One of the few things we pre-booked more than six months ago was our recreational vehicle (or simply called RV) for the first 4 weeks. What appeared to be ridiculously distant when we booked it last winter is now standing in front of us: an 8meter long, 5.6 tons heavy motorhome powered by a huge V8 5.6l Ford engine (which consumes approx.. 30l per 100km – 3-4 times more than our car back home) with all the amenities one could imagine: shower and toilet, electricity generator, AC, a wifi-hotspot and, the coolest thing ever: an expendable living room that slides sideways resized_IMG_5963out of the vehicle. After camping with campervans in Australia and New Zealand this vehicle comes with all the trimmings and feels more like a hotel on wheels than a motorhome…and guess what: this was the smallest available RV for rent. Appears more like a house on wheels than the smallest available camper but yeah: if in American do as the Americans right? We were actually told by our rental company that Americans don’t like this kind of small RVs…of course…

After shopping all the necessities to camp for the next few weeks (which was kind of a headache since catering for two seems to be really difficult here. They mainly sell one kilo+ packages of meat or 8 packs of breads) we hit LA’s freeways. It was ridiculous. 6, 7 oh wait this one’s got 8 lanes in one direction. Their streets are just massive…and…still way too busy. The avalanche of cars, trucks and buses came to a stop every now and then. No wonder it took us more than 2hrs to cover the first 50miles westbound (and we were not even driving through the city center and it was Saturday morning. We really don’t want to know how bad their weekday’s rush hours are). We just wanted to get out there. We parked our car at a Walmart parking lot in a suburb at the western end of LA to sleep. Temperatures were comfortable…yet… Walmart seems to be a good place to park overnight actually, as opposed to what we initially thought. This Walmart is open 24/7, so that means there is security all the time and we could use their restroom all the time if we wanted to.

After sleeping in our own comfy bed for the first night, we got up feeling refreshed and ready for the big road trip. Our schedule today was to go to Joshua Tree National Park. It is a desert-ish park with various types of plants and animals that have adapted to the hot, dry weather in the presized_IMG_5982ark. It is amazing to think of how the plants and animals could survive under these hard conditions. We arrived there at around noon time which shouts: hot hot hot! It was so hot that you would practically seek for shades every 5 seconds you’re walking somewhere…but too bad we are in the desert where there are not that many shaded places. Obviously there was no way that we could hike or do anything outdoor for a longer time at that time unless you want to be grilled. Temperatures were well above the 100 degrees (40degrees Celsius) line. We visited a few spots that offered beautiful views of rocks, Joshua Trees and the desert. The heat was worst here at 2.30pm as informed by the park ranger, so we did not do resized_IMG_6036much in the late afternoon. Roman was brave and went out of the car sometimes for photo shooting. 5minutes later he would come back looking like a cooked shrimp. We stayed for a night at a camp site in the park called Jumbo Rock. As the name suggests, the campsite was surrounded by huge rocks, each one unique. At sunset, the heat became more bearable and we could even walk around the park and enjoyed the sunset. Lights reflecting on rocks made them looked orangey and pretty. Eventually some rabbits, birds and lizards started to show up. As the sky got darker an endless blanket of stars opened up above us. Just lying on outdoor picnic table we could see uncountable stars and occasionally shooting stars. Simply the beauty of nature that one could see here…

One of the most famous national parks in USA would probably be Yosemite and Grand Canyon, both of which we plan to visit. We were awaken as it started to get sauna-ish in the motorhome with sunlighresized_IMG_6090t (at 8am). After having breakfast in the shades outside of our motorhome we hit the road again in the direction of Grand Canyon. What seems close by on map can be deceiving, the distances between the parks are just huge. From Joshua Tree to Grand Canyon would take us at least 5-6hours. And as we were told there’s really nothing much that’s particularly worth seeing between this two places. Hence we ended up driving the whole day to get to Grand Canyon. As we drove, the landscape changed from desert (where it was 43 degrees and the wind hurt your skin and eyes) to savannah within the first two hours and then later dense needle tree forests at the higher altitude of the Colorado Plateau. Though driving can be tiring, driving on American highways was sort of entertaining too. We wonder where all the pick-ups are heading to as we saw them in the middle of the desert with their boats on the back trailers. Though passenger trains were not so common here, we did see many freight transportation trains. One of the trains that we saw was over 1.2miles long with four locomotives in front to pull it. Well even with that it did not move fast… one of the “sceneries” on the highway was how long certain vehicle (not trucks) can be: we saw a truck which was transporting three other trucks or a huge motorhome (length of a bus) towing another Jeep (which we assume is for day-tripping). We love the comfort of this spacious motorhome but driving such a vehicle also means that you become a more resized_IMG_6468and more welcomed investor at petrol stations. We got sort of a bad deal by refueling 2/3 of our gasoline for 160 USD shortly before crossing the California to Arizona state boarder. And then 15mins later, we realized that the gas price in Arizona was much cheaper, almost 50% lower (but yeah. We didn’t know about it and didn’t want to risk driving further in this almost abandoned area not knowing when the next service station is available). After having spent so much on gas, we decided that for this night we would not spend another 50 USD for a campsite in small touristy town of Williams. So we ended up camping for free in a forest about an hours’ drive away from Grand Canyon south rim. At an altitude of more than 2’000m it chilled fast in the evening (what a nice contrast to the sweat the last night).

Camping in America in this season is absolutely lovely, nice weather (though it can be real hot) almost guaranteed. And obviously we are not the only ones doing it, there are thousands of other tourists on the road at this time of the year visiting the famous Parks resized_IMG_6378and sights, which means: campsites might be booked out well in advance. We could not plan our stay at all the attractions months in advance to make campsite reservations as we have been “busy traveling” for more than 4 months. Grand Canyon is one of the spots that we were worried not getting any campsite for a night. So we set an alarm to get up early and started making phone calls to various campsites in the National Park itself: our worry was confirmed. None of the campsites in the park had vacancies. After an hour of effort, we finally found a reasonably priced campsite for the night, just outside of the town Tusayan in Kaibab National Forest. We got here at 10am and got our campsite for the night reserved. Yeay! In the afternoon, the big thing was up: Grand Canyon. The 80 USD annual National Park pass we purchased in Hawaii proved to be worthy as the entrance to Grand Canyon costs 30 USD. GRAND Canyon is indeed GRAND. 446km long, up to 29km wide, and 1.6km deep, this canyon was breathtakingly beautiful. After walking along the rim for some time we took a shuttle bus to enjoy the sunset a less touristy lookout. The shades of the setting sun playing with the rock formations was gorgeous.

As the campsite was so peaceful and convenient so we decided to extend another night here whilst we had the whole day to do some household and motorhome servicing. We have not had any campsite with full hook-ups (water, dump, electricity) since we received the car four days ago so it was time to get our motorhome cleaned up! It was our first time having a motorhome with a toilet so we were curios how it will be removing our own waste. Came prepared with rubber hand gloves, we disposed of the waste tanks at the National Park successfully. We realized that waste dumping was not as scary as we imagined. Luckily! Laundry, charging of laptop at McD, etc were also done. What an eventful day J Our day ended with a wonderful BBQ wood fire dinner (of course lighted the Swiss pathfinder style with only one newspaper and no chemicals) by sunset. Good company, food and wine, what more can one ask for in life!resized_IMG_6112

 

Volcanoes, Beaches and Jet-Set in Maui

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We arrived in Maui after a short 45 minute flight and picked up another Avis car again. We got a non-American car this time. Frist impression of Maui: Hot hot hot! Our plan for the next and last week in Hawaii was to spend the first two days in different locations to drive to far far away Hana (well, it is actually only about 80 miles but yeah, far for this tiny island) and then the following 5 days at one location for day tripping on shorter resized_IMG_4682distances again. We spent the first evening in a home stay more on the country side and only had to share the place with two other guest. One Indian guy who couldn’t even say “hi” and a very odd old lady with drug and alcohol addiction. She told us weird stories about her not being able to stay at her house anymore due to a court decision, supremacies about MH370 flight that “hijacked by ISIS and the plane being hidden somewhere to be used to attack America in the future…” we guess she was hallucinating. In the morning she called Yinru in panic while we were having breakfast and asked her to get ice cubes to take medication. We wonder what the government can do to help people like her, although it is none of our business actually.

We left the place early in the morning to drive all the way on the Road to Hana to theresized_IMG_4655 eastern tip of Maui. The scenic drive lead us through lush rainforests with uncountable one lane bridges, waterfalls and, of course, tons of tourists. We took breaks for a few hours to either hike not very spectacular rainforest trails, cool down by swimming in one of the rivers (which was wonderfully refreshing) or to have lunch at Bradda Hutts BBQ place (a local food truck serving classics from the grill accompanied by famous mac and cheese salads). Since we pre-booked our night at Joe’s place there was no hassle about finding a bed this night. We have to say Maui is horribly expensive comparatively to Oahu or Kauai. Our place was by far the cheapest for 50 USD a night. Prices for accommodation in Maui usually start at a rate of 200 USD per night for a decent hotel which is the reason why we booked an Airbnb for the next five nights (which was still 100 USD a night).

The next day we planned to drive all the way back to the center of Maui…so so impressed with what we hresized_IMG_4793ave seen (the road to Hana was beautiful but not as spectacular as we expected – ok, we might be spoilt from other islands but hey, in Samoa it looked like that everywhere) we went to visit another state park. Luckily we did! It was the most beautiful and special black sand beach we have ever seen. The lava formations and especially the truly black sand (which is, unsurprisingly, very very hot) where a true jaw dropper. We both had a refreshing bath in a small cave nearby before heading back to civilization and finding a proper seafood lunch at Pai’a. Half an hour drive to the south in Kihei was where we would stay for the rest of our time in Maui…if we would ever find it. After having some troubles and not being able to call anyone we found our host Garret. He and his Polish fiancé Ewa warmly welcomed us to their apartment. After a brief welcome we wanted to resized_IMG_4806attend a local Hula performance at sunset on the beach but unfortunately it has been rained out by bad weather and was cancelled. We ended up enjoying the sunset on another beach further north. What sounds weird is reality on those islands (it was the same for Oahu and Kauai): all these islands have very distinctive micro climates. So it is possible to have one place raining the entire day while a 30mins drive away there’s plenty of sunshine. This is one of the reasons why Hawaiis’ landscape is so amazing to drive through. One can literally see dessert, savannah and rainforest within one day here.

The next few days were spent discovering some of Maui’s uncountable beautiful beaches and it’s tempting turquoise waters. We spent hours snorkeling in various places observing thousands of colorful fish and swam with dozens of, sometimes huge, green sea turtles. Our stay with two locals also gave us the opportunity to gain some insights in how life’s like here in Maui. We expected the aloha-spirit to be a bit more relaxing than what we know from Singapore or Switzerland but not that laid back. Rush hour on the streets was usually around 4pm. Our hosts (well one of them was unemployed) left home for work around 9am and was back by 3pm. How laid back is that?

While beaching wouldn’t fully resized_IMG_5263entertain us every day (maybe we are just the type of hyper active travelers that cannot just settle for a week in an all-inclusive hotel) we added some contrast to our program. The visit and short hikes in Iao Valley, a place on west Maui where rainfall is abundant and lush rainforest dominates the scene was  rather unspectacular again. Our afternoon trip the Haleakala National Park and Mauis’ highest peak, the crater summit at an altitude of over 10’000 ft (3’055m) was a unique experience. As on all other island with high peaks moisture usually gets stuck on either side of the mountain creating clouds and lots of rainfall. Since the summit was higher than the inversion weather layer once weresized_IMG_5275 2 reached the very top we were indeed above the clouds. Temperatures plummeted well down to about 15 degrees and the winds were biting. Luckily we had some appropriate attire from New Zealand with us, but wow, we were wondering how all those ladies up there with their hotpants and goosebumps all over the body must have felt…brrr. We stayed at the summit for a while and witnessed a magical sun diving into a sea of clouds at sunset. Around 45mins later an endless sky of millions of clearly visible stars opened up on our way back home around 9pm.

Maui has beautiful beaches and landscape to offer, besides some really good food too. We had lots of seafood (is there anywhere better to get seafood?) throughout our trip. We tried Cajun fish at Paia fish market, coconut shrimp at Coconut restaurant etc. Even Poke (raw fish with marinade) from supermarket were really good. One highlight dish was hot and spicy shrimp from Geste food truck. It was just a very ordinary food truck parked at road side that serves extraordinary shrimps. As our travel guides suggests, it is “to die for”. Yinru also met her old friend, Judy whom she has not met since Taiwan in 2010. It was a good reunion and we would probably meet again in LA in July.

We have been asked numerous times which of the Hawaiian Islands we like most. Well we have to disappoint you and tell you that we can’t choose one because we like all of them (diplomatic but true). Every island has its own characteristic so it is really hard to pick our favorite island. Oahu has the city vibe, glamour and welcomed us for the very first time. Kauai is more laid back and family oriented scoring with untouched nature while Maui offered a mix of both with impressive sights of the remnants of the creators of all the islands: volcanoes. We left Hawaii with mixed feelings: sad having to leave, happy having created all the memories and knowing that there’s a huge road trip coming up in the west of mainland US for the next, and last chapter of this trip, six weeks. Luckily we made one big mistake while planning our trip to Hawaii: we didn’t visit Big Island – which means: We’ll have to come back one day J until then: Mahalo and Aloha Hawaii.resized_IMG_4823

Kauai, Hawaii’s garden island

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The flight to Kauai was looong: about 45minutes. The scheduled flight spent longer time taxing and boarding than actually flying in the air (20mins). We were not seated together so that we had some privacy (Hawaiian Airlines thought so apparently). Yinru spent some time playing candy crush and Roman was busy talking to a blondie sitting next to him. I bet he bribed Hawaiian Airlines to make such seat arrangement…

After arriving at Kauai Airport we were taken by car rental shuttle to collect our car for the following 7days. We had to queue up for one hour to get our car! We got a very American rental car Buick. (mumbles… who would buy that other then Americans? You rarely see it in Europe or Asia at least). As usual the car rental tried to sell us all insurances possible but we did not fall for it. We have Allianz Travel Insurance anyways (really a good product, and we are not saying that because Roman works for them).

Kauai is a little bit easier to explore than Oahu – it is smaller, more laid back and does not have so many streets. You basically have to know to go left or right and then you resized_IMG_4275are on the right track! We chose to stay at Kapa’a for our entire stay because it is sort of located in the middle of the one and only loop highway around the island which makes it strategic to explore the whole island. We arrived at our Hostel which is managed by the owners family who also lives on the same compound. The hostel was pretty much made up of a dated building from the 60s in classical American wooden and another house which is built after the hurricane in 1992. The houses look fragile but cozy and family style. Many of the houses in Kauai survived the major hurricanes in 1982 and 1992, but some did not. Kapa’a was a historic town itself as it has several old buildings which survived the hurricanes. The owner jokingly said the buildings built back then were more solid because they used more cement and materials than needed as they have just experienced hurricane prior to building the buildings. Well we don’t know if that is true, but one thing we know is that if hurricane hits during our visit, we should stay in this top solid 60s building!

Our first day trip in Kauai was to explore the north shore of Kauai. We stopped at a lookout point which overlookresized_IMG_4386ed the valley and the traditional taro plantations the Polynesians once brought to this islands. Then came an old hippie lady (in her 60s maybe) who asked us if we smoke weed. After rejecting her weed offer, she came to us 5minutes later to ask for a lift. As kind as we were, of course we did (hoping that she would offer some free weed and smoking it in the car). It is not difficult to understand why Kauai is called the garden island, along the way there was just beautiful garden island scenery with lots of hills, mountains and greens everywhere (although this is only true for one side of the island which enjoys rainfall – the south west is dry and almost deserts like. At the north shore we got to see how locals enjoy their weekend at the beach with bbq grill, floating plastic castles for the kids and heaps of food: pizzas, chips, ice cream, steaks… Oh boy one had a full box of different chips and Yinru was so jealous! As we were in the resized_IMG_4148neighborhood already we decided to do a detour to the Na Pali Coast even though the weather was bad. No wonder, being one of wettest places on earth with annual rainfall of 12m (10x the amount of where we live in Switzerland), Na Pali coast just has lots of rain. We wanted to check out the condition to hike. When we were there we saw many hikers who came back from their hike looking muddy and completely soaked from the rain. We were quite unsure if we should do it just in case if it rains during the hike it could be very dangerous as it becomes slippery and flash floods could occur. But we will see…

Having explored the northern part from Kapa’a seen, on Sunday we decided to do the resized_IMG_4177other direction, the southern part of the island. We gave some Canadian girls a lift to a beach and we were quite surprised by how “influent” their English is. In Quebec, Canada, French is spoken and English is rather a foreign language for them. After dropping the ladies off, we visited Lawai International Center. It offered some interesting insights into Japanese/Buddhist beliefs and the spiritual place. Some of the volunteers there were Christians or of other beliefs, but they all worked hard together to keep this placresized_IMG_4217e alive and even spent one whole year building a temple there. If only everyone in this world puts their differences aside and work for the better of the world, our planet would be a much lovelier place. We chilled out at Poi’pu beach afterwards. This place was so sunny whilst the other part of the island were just cloudy. We saw a turtle just at beach feeding and a monk seal drying on the shore.

Being a Swiss, Roman has a habit of checking the weather. Sometimes it is good that we can plan our activities accordingly but sometimes Yinru would like to be more spontaneous. In Kauai Roman’s habit has proved to be a good one once again. On resized_IMG_4306Monday when the weather was bad it was a day for laundry, some shopping and short visit to soso spectacular waterfalls. We decided to keep the exciting Na Pali Coast hike for Tuesday, when the weather was forecasted to be good. The wait for good weather was worth it. The weather conditions were perfect (though hot) to hike at Na Pali coast. We arrived at the park and had difficulties to find a free parking spot around 10am. There were so many people there to either hike or to visit the Ke’e beach! After finally parking our car at some odd but legal spot, we started to hike along this rugged and beautiful coastline. The target: a hike to waterfalls that is 8 Mile return (about 13km). That was one of the most challenging hike ever due to the trail setting that cuts through rough jungle with numerous stream crossings. For the last half a mile we literally had to half climb. The view at waterfalls was rewarding. We had a refreshing bath at these gigantic, over 100m tall falls. It was a resized_IMG_4383tough but worthy hike, especially when you are constantly entertained by good (butt) views as some teenies were hiking in underwear. Well, why not? The hike cost us our last energy on the way back in the evening sun. In total we spent more than 5hrs walking, crawling and climbing covering over 13km and 800m in height.

Our last two days on Kauai were well spent. We had a day trip to Waimea Canyon, which is also known as the Grand Canyon of pacific and a famous movie scene from Jurassic Parc. The Canyon offers stunning views in all colors. We had to stop multiresized_IMG_4416ple times on the way simply because it was so beautiful. However we were not so lucky with the view on Na Pali coast from this side of the island. The view at lookouts on 4’000ft coastal viewpoints were all covered in clouds. Well maybe next time we will come back again when the clouds are nicer to us. Our last day on Kauai was spent on beach on north shore. We had a snorkeling day at tunnels beach with one of the highlights of the trip: snorkeling with dozens of turtles! We felt like we won the lottery when we saw so many turtles while snorkeling! They were feeding on the planets between the rocks and were not shy when human swam a little closer.

After spending one week on Kauai, we are heading to the next island, Maui. The airport at Kauai was not worth mentioning at all other than their chaotic, inefficient check-in process… Kauai had been really nice to us. Let’s stay tuned and see what the next island, Maui has to offer!DCIM100GOPRO

Back to civilization: Aloha Hawai’i

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Our flight to Honolulu with Fiji Airways was delayed by 4hrs. Luckily we were informed by our travel agency about the late departure in advance so we didn’t have to linger around at Faleolo Airport (with its only-3-gates infrastructure, it reminds you more of a kiosk than a proper international airport. Just a comparison: Zurich Airport has 67 Gates). When we finally boarded, everyone seated and ready to take off, the captain announced a further delay. The ground staff had to unload some cargo before we could depart because the plane exceeded its maximum take-off weight (what’s going on here eh?). Anyway, we arrived Honolulu after a smooth flight at 5 c’clock in the morning instead of midnight but we didn’t worry too resized_IMG_3721much about that: We departed Samoa on Friday night, but since we have crossed the date line during our flight, when we arrived at Hawaii it was again Friday the 22nd of May 2015 early morning so we got the entire day back J. As we sat in the cab to get to our hostel in Waikiki dawn has broken and the sky started to brighten. We didn’t bother much about the two guys sleeping in our 4-share room and went for a short nap until 9am.

Tresized_IMG_3165he next day we got up and met our room mate. He introduced himself and Roman asked immediately “are you from Germany or Switzerland?” – his name was Hans, a more common name in German speaking region. Yeap, the other side of the world and the Swiss reunited J the next few days we basically spent time around Waikiki area. This place does live up to its reputation with long beaches, big waves for lots surfers and many Asian tourists, mainly Japanese. Inresized_IMG_3740 Waikiki or Honolulu you can get Japanese food everywhere, probably even more than burgers! A hike up to the Diamond Head which allows an overview of Waikiki and Honolulu is a must when you are in Oahu. Oh boy, was the view amazing! We also explored Honolulu downtown and Chinatown, which were not that spectacular. The food in Chinatown of course did not disappoint us, but you could tell that this place used to be much busier than it is now. The Foster botanic garden near Chinatown was a highlight though. Besides some of the plants being native to Hawaii and can’t be found elsewhere on earth, this garden also houses some special orchids.

The hostel that we were staying at is called Waikiki Beachside Hostel. It was exactly what we needed: quality accommodation at affordable price at the beachfront of Waikiki. We have a little more privacy and space because it is a semi-private room built in a resized_IMG_3824dorm. It means when you enter the room, you will first see two single beds, then kitchenette and bathroom. When you walk past these two beds you will come to another room with our beds inside. So we share the kitchen and toilet with 2 other people but have our own little room at the same time, paying only a few dollars more. We would highly recommend this hostel to anyone who want some budget-but-good accommodation with the possibility to get to know some other people without feeling too much like being in a big animal stall.

As said, one of the good things about staying in hostel is meeting other interesting people. An Indian living in San Francisco stayed with us for the first three nights. Sid’s (You might not want to know his full Indian name) a very funny guy. All four of us (we, Hans and Sid) once went to dine at a famous udon noodles place. Initially Sid said he just ate so he is only getting a beer. In the end he ended with the most food on his plate. We also went snorkeling with him on self-drive day tour to Hanauma Bay. He was taking selfies every 15 minutes (ok maybe not that often), being excited as it was his “virgin snorkel”. After Sid left, a Columbian who is in his 40s came to join us. South Americans are maybe very different from us, not better or worse, just different. Rico was very hospitable and also funny in a way. Yinru once bought him a coffee and Rico was so touched that he told Roman what a wonderful girl Yinru is (it is really just a coffee, but he kept repeating how good his day is because of it). He also invited us to visit him in Columbia and he will make us a good cup of coffee. But we weren’t the only ones Rico has invited to have coffee at his hometown: As we went to have dinner together once and there was a good looking Brazilian waitresresized_IMG_3840s. Rico invited her to visit Columbia when she goes back to Brazil and that he would make a coffee for her. He also asked her to dance with us after our dinner. So random. We also spent a lot of time with Hans, visiting Pearl Harbor and North Shore together. Pearl Harbor was a touching experience, and an amazing one too when we were lucky enough to witness a military aircraft carrier, Carl Vinson, docking and all the staff lining up on the top deck of the vessel. We rented a Mustang convertible to explore the North Shoreresized_IMG_3916 together with Hans. Despite all the hassle about insurances and finding a good car hire deal for we were most amazed about American law and their issues with liability when least expected: When hiring snorkeling gear. Hans hired a set of snorkel gear (We bought our own back in New Zealand so we don’t need to), the company listed a full page of liability exclusion which had to be signed and requested a credit card imprint if anything is lost, broken or not returned. So hiring snorkel gear is more troublesome than hiring a Mustang in the USA. North Shore offered one of the nicest spots to snorkel at a place called Sharks Cove. The sharks were shy that day so unfortunately we did not see any of them but many many beautiful unique fish as well as a turtle made up for that.

One week at Oahu felt so short! Soon our first week in Hawaii came to an end. We enjoyed our first Hawaiian Aloha experience a lot, for its perfect weather, beautiful beaches and waters, and its convenience of being able to talk to people, taking a bus to everywhere and find more than one choice of what to eat or where to go (different than in Samoa). Obviously one week was rather short for what Oahu has to offer but we are both convinced that this won’t be our last visit to Hawaii. Next stop: “Garden-Island” Kauai!

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From extremely hospitable locals to corrupted ****

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As we did not get to do much the day before due to bad weather and that most places were closed, we planned to visit a waterfall before catching the ferry back to Upolu at 2pm. We drove all the way back to a waterfall. A distance that seemed short on the map took us quite long as we obeyed the speed limit (most of the time). However, we saw the police themselves driving much faster than we did multiple times, and no, they were not chasing bad guys. Before entering the waterfall we had to pay fees, 5Tala per person to the local village chief, the regular process here. There were young girls, resized_IMG_2398_edmaybe between 8 to 10 years old collecting fees this time. We wonder why they were there on a regular Monday and not in school instead, but they could not speak English so we did not find out. The waterfall was, how should we put it, cute. There was lots of water as it rained a lot. But it wasn’t spectacular so we did not spend a lot of time there. After killing some time we were back at the wharf. We met the Swiss family whom were our neighbors at Va-i-Moana Resort on the same ferry again. Small world it is! We drove on the southern highway after arriving at Upolu. The first hour we were on the road very leisurely, not even looking for a place to stay as we thought there must be more options later and the island is even small than Savai’I anyway. As we drove further, we got a bit nervous. One resort that we stopped and enquired was closed. The other was too expensive. The other was closed to look for new management…resized_IMG_2451_ed hmm… is our car big enough to sleep in? Due to the strong rain some parts of the main road were also flooded by rivers so one time we had to disembark and check depth by walking though the water etc. As we were at edge of giving up, we tried our luck at a local village again (there was a dated signboard on the main road). Hooray! We did not have to sleep in car! It was a family of 7 who was running the place. We were the only guests…probably for some time already. The whole family got so busy after we “checked in” – the mother and kids cleaned our fale, then the mom drove away to get us mozzie coils and buy food for dinner which she later cooked and her children served…they also let us try Samoan Koko (a caffeine intense cacao drink) which we did not really like. In the evening the whole family sat in their living room on the floor resized_IMG_2404_edwatching some shows in front of a tiny small tv. The Homestay Mom and kids had to leave for Apia early morning so they made us breakfast and put it in our room. When we got up we had the whole place to ourselves. Numerous dogs waited in front of our fale hardly letting us getting to the toilet and watching that we didn’t do anything wrong. Breakfast was Samoan pancakes and fruit platter. We did not enjoy the pancakes so much so the dogs got lucky.

The weather still did not clear up unfortunately. We continued our journey eastwards and skipped a few sights on the way due to the bad weather. One of the most visited places in Samoa has to be the To Sua Ocean Trench (A huge, 30m deep swimming hole where salt and river water meets). At first we thought it was not so spectacular that we did not even know if we should change into our bathing suits and swim. Luckily we resized_IMG_2519_eddid! It turned out to be an amazing experience. The currents were strong, one minute you are pulled and the next minute you are pushed back. If you just lay back and let yourself float, you will be swaying in the water. You could also clearly feel the warm ocean water and the cool fresh water coming together in this natural pool. Roman performed some of his most elegant jumps…

Lalomanu Beach is our next stop. Voted as one of the top 10 beach destinations, we just had to visit this place although a tsunami in 2009 destroyed quite a bit of this region and its coral reefs. We had a longer stop at one of the few local shops asking for food. resized_IMG_2549_edThe lady at the shop cooked lunch for us (she took about one hour) while we had long conversations about life with her husband. We got two huge portions that could feed a family for 10 tala (3 USD). Later we made it to Lalomanu. The beach was of very nice fine sand but rather short and small. Unfortunately it was still overcast and not sunny at all. We checked in at one of the beach fale resorts which was completely destroyed by the tsunami and entirely rebuilt (as we found out later were the former owners of this place together with the entire family killed during the disaster. What a sad story.) Our beach fale was directly on the beach of course, first row, resized_IMG_2557_edas the name suggests. So near to the ocean that you could hear the waves and winds all night long and during high tide the water reached the fale. Dinner was to be served at 7pm, but someone came knocking on the door at 6.40pm already. Everyone sat on a long table and shared the food. We met an Austrian couple at dinner and had a good long chat as they were in NZ too and were heading to Australia after Samoa. We also discussed about Swiss and Austrian big neighbor, Germany.

Spending time at Lalomanu Beach was great. It was, however, sad to hear how the reef was destroyed during the tsunami. We felt even more sorry for the villagers here who have lost many of their family members in the tsunami. We were told by a NZ lady who spends half a year in Samoa and half a year in NZ that when tsunami hit Samoa, the family running the Beach Fale got the foreign guests to safety first before their own family members. It was then too late for some of them. The reason why they built the Fales again was to provide jobs for the people (it must be devastating to lose your family members, home and a life’s work). The atmosphere at Taufua was really family-like with it’s beach being the best we have seen in Samoa so far. Too bad there is not enough time for us to stay longer, next time maybe!

As much as we admire the take-it-easy spirit in the South Pacific, we also realize that the people here are not so particular about certain things in life. We have seen a wardrobe that can’t be closed, toilet door with a big hole (maybe that the air stays resized_IMG_2572_edfresh?), curtains of different lengths, road suddenly narrowing because no one cuts the vegetation etc. But maybe it is exactly because of their “take it easy” that they are so happy. The Samoans are particularly friendly too. Driving on “highway” on Wednesday, we passed by a house that looked beautiful, with a well-maintained garden. We went to ask for permission to take photos. Besides allowing us to take photos, the house owners and his family also offered us “local products”. Emosi and his brother, Sesi (or sexy?) showed us his pineapple plant, plucked the pineapple, cut the pineapple and fed us. The friendliness did not stop there. He showed us his coconutresized_IMG_2573_ed tree, climbed the maybe twenty meter tall tree, peeled, cut and served the freshest coconut we have ever had. When we finished drinking the coconut water (we were really full at this point actually, having breakfast an hour ago), he opened the coconut and used a spoon to get the coconut flesh for us. YinRu showed the kids some photos on her camera (they have probably never seen something like that). The family was already starting to hint that we could have lunch together with them but we left them after some good time. The friendliness of the people is definitely one of the highlights in Samoa and this “family-introduction” one of the best things we have done.

The day continued to be pretty much a day experiencing friendliness of people and resized_IMG_2590_edvisiting of waterfall. The first waterfall we visited was about 50m in height and truly magnificent! The second waterfall was Falefa Waterfall about 25mins way from Apia. Roman bathed at this waterfall a bit and we had instant noodles at the store there. We checked in at a resort called Le Uaina after visiting the falls. We had a short snorkel in the afternoon. The water was very shallow but surprisingly there were many beautiful fishes! Lots of sea cucumbers, blue/red starfish, triggerfish, moray eels and lots more. There were only four of us checked in at the resort so it was very peaceful. We basically had the whole restaurant for ourselves to enjoy a candle light dinner. The breakfast next morning was also pretty good. After checking out we went to visit the Cave Pool which was exactly next to our resort so we even walked there. It was one of its kind: from the first appearance it did not look special at all, but as we swam further into the cave and looked back to where the sun was there were amazing blue underwater colors! The swim in the turquois water with many huge fish inside was quite refreshing. We had a good time chilling there before going to Apia.

Once you step into Apia you will realize that half the population of Samoa reside here (it feels like that). It is a lot busier than any other place in Samoa that we have been to. We had one whole day to explore Apia after putting up one night at Lynn’s Getaway. Ouresized_IMG_3160_edr first stop was the fish market. Where else could be a better place than that to get fresh fish? Some of the fish sold there are not the ones that we would ever eat, some species sold are even the kind of colorful reef fish we like to watch when diving or snorkeling. We also saw a small shark on display. Next to the fish market was the bus depot where you can see all colorfully painted buses which somehow reminds us of the buses in Cuba (not that we have been there, but you get the picture). It was such a lively place to experience Samoa: vendors selling all kinds of snack to bored customresized_IMG_3130_eders waiting for their bus, police standing/assisting traffic, motorcycles, cars honking, all at the same time with the traffic collapsing every now and then. We also went to the handicraft market and got ourselves some souvenirs. Slowly and steadily our souvenir collection from all around the world is growing. We just have to figure out how to transport them. Well, we will find a way.

Roman had been wanting to get a haircut in Samoa. When we saw one barber shop near the market, Mr. Adventurous decided it is time to get one. Some young Samoan resized_IMG_3143_edguys were sitting outside of the store and they became very excited when they saw Mr. Adventurous going to them. Without hesitating, they invited us to their store and Roman was seated. Using a sponge (to clean the hair away, don’t think about hygiene here) and a scissors/shaver, Mr. Big Samoa the Barber gave Roman a Samoan haircut confidently. Roman was pretty happy with the result, and he felt like a real Samoan instantly (the cutting though remains a bit weird in some places and was rather funny. Hopefully his hair will grow back again fast). We also had a stop at the Cultural Village at Apia and saw a foreigner getting a Samoan Tattoo done the tradition way with a blade and ink. We watched for 15minutes until it was even too painful for us to watch that we went away.

After spending a nice day at Apia, we returned the car to AA Rent A Car, and it was our worst experience ever. Upon returning the car, the staff checked the car and said we created a new crack on the front bumper (which we did not, and the damage made prior to our rent was even noted on the contract). Of course we did not accept this and told them they have even marked it on the contract. However they insisted it was our fault. They got a quotation from a garage (their own relative) which charges 805Tala to repair the crack. Thinking it is absurd, we went to the police station to get a report so that our insurance could pay us back. The police reckoned that the quote was too much but he could not do anything. He could also not write us an insurance report because there was no accident involved. You could imagine our frustration at this point, when realizing how corrupted and helpless you are in such a country when not even the police can protect you.

We went back to the car rental company thereafter and told them the quote is too high and that we do not accept the practice. Furthermore, we do not understand why there was no competitive quote allowed. We should have the right to choose a garage which charges a reasonable price. We wanted to ask the other garage for quotations, but the car rental company did not “allow” that. They said if the work of other garage is not “up to their standard” they will redo it again, and that of course, at our costs. When we said we do not accept their business practice, the manager began to threaten us by starting to call the immigration and stop us from leaving the country (he knew our flight was in a few hours) if we do not pay the bill immediately. Out of fear, we signed the bill of 805tala, 440tala of which is for labor of one person for one day (we asked the garage how much labour would be involved, and we know it is too much for Samoan standard). We left the place after that not wanting spend any extra minute there seeing the faces of these corrupted a**holes.

We have to say we left Samoa with heavy hearts after this incident with the car rental company. We have met so many lovely people who tried to make our Samoan visit memorable. Lynn at Lynn’s Getaway, for example was a great host. Not only was Lynn’s Getaway a nice place to stay, they are also great host and even allowed us to shower and rest there before our flight. Lynn heard of our encounter with the car rental company and told us we could have called her when we were at the car rental company. We of course did not think of bothering her, in fact we panicked that we could not think of anything. We just cannot accept the attitude of AA Rent A Car that we wrote an email to the Samoan government right when we arrive at Hawaii (to which they have yet to reply). What they did with threatening us was a crime. Whenever we think of our Samoan trip in the future, we will unfortunately link our memories with this unhappy incident too. We have also learnt a lesson from this incident to take photos of the car’s conditions whenever we rent one. Well, shit happens. We are hoping to relax (and only rent car from big players eg Avis/Hertz) in civilization a bit for the next three weeks, enjoying good food, sun, wind and beach. Aloha, Hawaii!

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Only in Samoa

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Remember the cute little Fijian airport with outdoor walkway we mentioned? We were going back to the same airport to fly off! The cute airport works on Fiji Time, a term that is just widely used but difficult to describe what it exactly means. It can mean taking delays with cool, chill out, or even earlier than scheduled time, like what happened with our flight. Our flight time to Samoa was changed to depart 40mins earlier, without notice. Luckily we were on time. The aircraft was also changed as well so Yin Ru missed this unique opportunity to fly with a 50 seats turboprop (no a jet aircraft but one with propellers). The flight time would hence be shorter than with propellers aircraft. The flight itself was short, smooth and quite scenic with views over south pacific islands and coral reefs. Inflight we sat next to a man about whom we found out later that he is a VIP in Samoa. We were impressed when he said his kids went overseas to study and he flew to three different countries in the past week. Samoans are rich in comparison to Fijians who can’t afford to fly, one would think. This man, after some research, turned out to be the son of the former prime minister of Samoa, and used to be the chairman of the National Bank of Samoa, Minister for this and that, and runs a consultant company now etc…Definitely no ordinary regular citizen.

Of all the flights we have had, this was the only one that arrived earlier than scheduled. We were prepared to wait 1.5hrs at the airport for our rental car but surprisingly, the staff from the rental company was there waiting for us already! We took our car for the next 8 days, an all-wheel driveresized_IMG_1911_ed Subaru Forester, and drove to hotel near the Wharf to get a ferry to Savai’i (one of the two main islands in Samoa) the next day. After a short drive though impressive villages, all very neatly maintained with colorful gardens in front, open living buildings and, most important, a beautiful church in the center of every village we were quite amazed about this place. Only in Samoa: Pigs, horses or chicken families crossing the main road (there is only one road on the entire island)…Speed limit of 45kmp in cities and 55 anywhere else….Phone and car number plates with a maximum of 5 digits. The main road is also the major walkway for all human (and not just the animals), parking for resized_IMG_2630_edcustomers and vendor place as well as playground for children. There were even waves from the open ocean flushing into the street during high tide an rivers flooding the road. Luckily we suspected that and booked a more solid, all-wheel drive car! That is the funny first impression we have of Samoa. We had our first fale experience (a fale is a traditional small wooden house, usually round shaped and built with local materials such as wood or palm tree leaves for the roof and classically open missing any walls). On our first evening in Samoa we had a cruel battle with a huge cockroach of 5cm. Solution to the cockroach problem: a mighty fast knockdown spray that saved YinRu’s sleep that night. Next day we got up early at 7am to, supposedly, catch the 10am ferry. At the ferry terminal we were told there wasn’t any 10am ferry (funny, the hotel and rental car company told us there would be). We got stand by tickets for 12pm. So we got up so early and now we had no idea what to do. resized_IMG_1887_edGood thing was that we had a car! So we wandered around, there was one road anyways so no worry of getting lost. We went to a “supermarket” (small store at a petrol station), bought some fruits on the street and came back to ferry terminal to wait. It was hot and humid but: Yaaay we got a 12pm ticket in the end. It was amazing how they managed to get the cars loaded in the boat. We were still queuing up and there were a few cars lining up behind us when we thought that the ferry is more than full but yeah, somehow the squeezed in more and more cars. We have never seen a ferry so fully packed that one could hardly cross and walk around, resized_IMG_1928_edsome people even being unable to leave their vehicles and staying in there for the ride. We arrived in Savai’i an hour later. One could practically not get lost: there’s only one loop road on the entire island which is about 40 times 70km “big”. We had some local lunch and drove to our fale for next two nights with a short stop in a village destroyed by a volcano eruption and the lava flooding about 100years ago. We sweated like never before, even at dinner at the beachfront we were both sweating. Samoa was just too hot and humid for us and: we have probably never experienced such severe mosquito plague. There were literally everywhere and very aggressive.

The resort served us funny breakfast with white toast and no jam available. But well, at least there were fruits. Pineapple on white toast wasn’t so bad. We paid a visit to the district hospital, a famous sight in Samoa. Ok it is not a sight. We just needed some medication to stop Roman’s diarrhea and abdominal pain since it didn’t ease of after more than 5 days and we ran out of supplies. Certainly running to the toilet 12+ a day isn’t very supportive to travel either. At the district hospital nurses are doctors, pharmacists, caregivers and resized_IMG_1971_edcleaners; all-in-one. After the hospital visit we did a loop drive at western tip of Savai’i through probably the most rural area of the country. Most people here still live on a subsistence economy: they do not follow any regular work to earn money but plant crops and have animals or hunt/fish to survive. Fishing is usually done by spear fishing and apnea diving (no oxygen supply, just a deep breath and down you go). They own very basic houses and live a truly simple life. We did a tree top canopy walk which resized_IMG_1963_edbasically walking on self-made ladders. It was funny because in Australia where we did a tree top walk too we saw signs everywhere that one should be careful, no more than 8people and other precautions on the ladders at one time. And here no one really cared and the walk, about 30 meters above ground, was secured by self-made natural plant fiber ropes. On the way back there was a probably 80 year old man who did not speak English and asked us to fetch him back to his home. We passed by some local fishermen fishing with spear, children playing next to the street without wearing clothes and endless bushland. It was a very hot day so when we got back at resort we jumped into ocean to have a bath. We were traveling on the other side of the world and it was such a coincident to have Swiss as neighbors! Time to practice some German for YinRu and exchange about travel experiences…

After two nights at Va-i-Moana we were hitting the road again – this time the South Coast Road aka Highway 55kmp speed limit. Samoa is not meant to be explored at 100km/h, the road conditions, the pigs/piglets/chickens/dogs on the road and kids justresized_IMG_2035_ed don’t allow to do that. The whole drive from one end to the other on this road would probably take 1.5 to 2 hours. Since we took our time to drive leisurely, stopped every now and then to take photos of the villages and visited the famous Alofa aga Blowhole, it took us almost 4hours. The villages we passed by were generally small and simple, sometimes you wonder if the houses would not fall apart if a storm hits the place. People were very friendly, children waving at you whenever you pass by. Though in some countries it is taboo to take photos of their houses (especially if it is not a mansion), in Samoa we found out that people are pretty ok with it.

The blowholes (lava tubes at the shore which, when waves at high tide hit the coast, resized_IMG_2060_edforce water to explode into huge fountains high in the air) where spectacular and is also one of the highlights or most visited spots in Samoa. As YinRu liked the blowhole in New Zealand a lot, she was looking forward to this one. As we turned into the gravel road that would lead us to the blowhole, an old man came to us and asked us if we were going to the blowhole. Naturally we said yes. He then hopped on to our car. Hmm alright we thought. As we have also given a local a lift before, we thought this time is the same. The funny old man’s name was Tofa, which means goodbye in Samoan. He repeated the word “Alofaaga” a few times and laughed. He also explained the word “Alofaaga” means “ever and forever” (his exact words). Tofa got out of the car and collected coconuts on the way to the blowhole. We arrived at the blowhole after a 5minute drive. WOW. How impressive it was! The water shot up high into sky, at least reaching the height of three storey-building. Tofa threw the coconuts that he had collected into the blowhole with the right timing, and boom, the coconuts resized_IMG_1980_edwere blasted high into the sky dozens of meters high! Tofa studied the waves and when the waves were big enough, he repeated the coconut-stunt a few times. When the “show” was over, he asked us for 30Tala. Ah-haa, we knew it was weird that he “volunteered” to throw us the show. Anyways we paid him 25Tala (although it was a lot for Samoan standard) because he was a really funny man and he probably had a whole family to feed. We would love to stay longer there to admire the magnificent blowhole but the scorching sun did not allow us to do so so we left the spot. We even provided pick-up and drop-off service for Tofa.

Samoans are religious and Sunday is Church Day- which means “Tote Hose” – no shops were open and some sights closed etc. We managed to reach our hotel at 2pm to get some food. Our room was a small basic room built on water, where one could watch huge fish swim whilst sitting on the balcony. The setting of the fale on the jungle’s edge at the water front with no clear walkways or any infrastructure was indeed special, resized_IMG_2425_edhowever the room was very dated and dirty. Well yeah, maybe that is the way to experience Samoan life. We would actually the room more when the weather is nice and you could sit on balcony admiring the fish, but too bad when we were there it practically rained the whole day and night. The rain was strong that we were worried our coconut leaved roof would not withstand and might collapse. Luckily it did not happen. The walk to the toilet in complete darkness over roots and mud while rain was pouring down was another unique experience.

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Days in Paradise

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After spending some time on main island learning about their culture and philosophy, we are finally heading towards an island to enjoy some Fijian beautiful beaches! We have decided to splurge onresized_IMG_0438 a luxury resort for the next five days on Waya Island. After camping in Australia and New Zealand, we needed a “holiday during traveling” so this island stay is really to help us relax. Many other travelers prefer to do island hopping with this “Bula Pass” where you get to ride on the ferry as many times as you want and hop from island to island, but we have decided that it was not something for us. After a resized_IMG_9987transfer to a port near Lautoka and a 1.5hour speed boat ride, we arrived at Octopus Resort! Several staff and the resort manager were at beach to welcome us with a “Bula” song when we arrived. The beach and water in front of resort looked amazing, we were just excited as we arrived. We had our welcome drink on our balcony at our Bure (traditional houses), this must be paradise!

The next days were simply heavenly for us- most of the time weather was good, good food and friendly people. Our Bure was spacious, beautiful and even had an outdoor shower. We arrived on Friday, spent the first two days snorkeling at water in front of the resort. We took our snorkel equipment, walked to the beach, snorkel out, and swam into schools of fishes multiple times! The resort was one of the best that we have had (most expensive too) with a good selection of food for every meal, friendly staff, and even prepared different activities each day

 

for guests. On Sunday we joined the Sunday Service at the local village, where most staff come from. After a 15minute uphill-downhill climb we arrived at the local village. Though it was not that poor, it was nowhere near the standards we are used to. Mosquito net and two mattresses outside, there was their bedroom. Nonetheless, the villagers were still happy. The church service was in Fijian so we did not understand anything, but we did enjoy their lovely choir. When we were there it was school holiday so all the kids were at the viresized_IMG_0396llage. We learnt that the children in village have to go to boarding school since primary school as there is no school other than a kindergarten in their village. So the resort would pay for the kids’ education and their expenses as they board at another island nearby. Imagine going away from home at the age of 7 for five days a week- that must be hard!

On Monday we got up soo early at 6.45am as we were going on a hiking trip to the resized_IMG_0561summit on the island. The weather did not look so friendly and it started raining shortly  resized_IMG_0579after we started our hike. At first we were pretty happy with the cloudy weather as cloudy weather should be better for us than sunny weather as it could really “grill” us. Soon we realize neither sunny nor rainy weather do us good- try hiking up rocky trail on this rainy weather! It was slippery as a slide at some parts. The tour guide was a local who does this hike twice a week. He was really fast and Yinru was really pissed. After struggling to keep up with the pace, at halfway Yinru decided it was nothing for her and decided to wait whilst the others continue their hike. Roman, the gentleman, stayed back and accompanied Yinru and another lady. During the 1.5hour wait, the weather was just changing every few minutes, rainy and cloudy and sunny all at once. It rained for some time and we looked pathetic waiting for the other hikers. After some time the others finally came down, looking like they have just came out of a jungle. Some covered with mud and leaves on face, they said it was very slippery and they did not have a good view of the island because of the weather. Rain did make uphill climb challenging, it also made downhill climb “exciting”. Some parts were so slippery that you hear “oh are you alright” as some of us lost our grip and slipped. After some 3hours we were happy to be back at the resort again. The resized_IMG_0363weather remained bad the whole day, sea was so rough and waves so huge that nobody was allowed to swim or snorkel. It had something to do with full moon so we heard. But well, we relaxed at the pool anyways. Yeah, that was more the YinRu thing (apart food) and we were happy about it. We still burned some calories with the difficult one hour hike 😉

Cool thing about this resort is that you never get bored – there is always something you can do. Some activities are free such as weaving local jewelries with leaves, visiting church; some activities are charged such as the hike, or dive. Since we have not dived for a long time, we decided it was time to maybe try diving on this beautiful island. Hence on Tuesday diving was on our schedule. Cookie, a big macho man whose name did not fit so well, is dive master with 23years of dive experience. We felt like we were in

 

good hands to dive together with him. However, as easy going and relayed as Fijians are, they are also pretty relaxed when it comes to quality control. We were told not to worry about the dive equipment at all as they would take care of it. When we hit the water, Roman realized that his mouth piece was broken (read: NO good as you breathe under water with it). What did the Fijians do? Use the mouth piece of the (emergency). Anyways, we survived and are writing this blog so ya, everything sort of went well. We had some problems equalizing our ear pressure so going down to bottom took a pretty long time. We saw walls of corals (there was also a magician coral that changed its color from brown to white when it was touched), some beautiful fishes, but nothing spectacular. We both agreed that the dives at Sabah were much better, personal opinion though. This dive was pretty short, before you knew it you were breathing with your nose (and not mouth as in underwater) again. The same was applicable to our stay at Octopus, good times always end too soon. After a 5-night stay and burning a hole in the pocket, we were leaving this beautiful island and resort already.

After a luxurious 5Star resort stay,resized_IMG_0375 we were going back to Bamboo backpackers again! You must be able to tell how flexible we are – we do everything from camping to hostel/backpackers to all-inclusive resorts. We enjoyed all the different experiences that come together with it, the different people you meet etc etc. At Bamboo Backpackers, where we first stayed when we arrived at Fiji, we felt like we were a part of the family. The staff still remembered us when we came back from the island getaway after 5 days and all greeted us with a genuine smile. At Octopus sometimes we had the impression that the staff are a bit tired of resized_IMG_0545meeting tourists all the time, singing the same welcome song few times a day, asking same questions multiple times a day… Packing and getting ready to fly the next day was all we did at Bamboos, besides frequent toilet visits for Roman as poor boy was down with diarrhea at the moment. We hope that it would be alright to fly tomorrow!

All in all Fiji was a beautiful experience and a lesson for us – to learn to be contended with what we have, be happy, and live more consciously. It is good to have money (to afford a trip like this for example), but money can’t buy happiness. Next time when we are pissed when the train in Switzerland has a 2minutes delay, we will remind ourselves how blessed we are, and how the Fijians would take it with cool. Fiji Time – why hurry? Fiji was a good half-time rest for us during our traveling and we did feel more energetic to continue our travel. The next stamp on passport- Samoa, another island in the South Pacific. resized_IMG_0515

Bula (Hello) Fiji

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Fiji has always been somewhere really far away for us. It is geographically far, and culturally they are quite different too. We got quite excited as we were going to know more about this island country for the next ten days. We has an early start as our flight was at 8am in the morning with Fiji Airways. At check in counter the ground staff was checking every piece of hand luggage we had so we got quite surprised by how particular check in and approval of cabin luggage was (we thought these pacific islanders are so relaxed and worry-free?!). Though cabin crews and flight procedures are usually internationally standardized, our Fiji Airways flight was different. Instead of displaying the safety instructions on TV screen, the instructions were announced by cabin crew. Our captain was also different than any other boring captain we have flown with so far, as our outstanding easy-going captain gave some long funny speeches. As other captains do, our Fijian captain informed us about the forecasted weather conditions throughout the flight, adding that “of course, Mother Nature is powerful so you can never tell”. True enough, Mother Nature decided that it was time for some roller coaster fun and so we had some bad air turbulences for an hour. Upon landing our funny captains’ had his long speech to welcome us to Fiji, “Our brothers and sisters, the sons and daughters of the 360 Fijian islands welcome you to our home…The place where happiness finds you”. Is that not a funny welcome speech? Now we really want to find out if all Fijians are that welcoming and funny!

And so we disembarked, welcomed by a nice 30 degree warm wind in our face and understood from this very minute that things are different here: airport building is open! We literally walked from gate to terminal on a balcony. There were guys with colorful shirts and guitars singing in security zone. Even the Immigration Officials with all different color clothes. And Bula, Bula, Bula (Hello in Fijian) from everywhere.

One thing we learnt prior to this Fiji trip was the term “Fiji Time”- it was supposed to mean like “take your time” or “no hurry” we reckoned. Till the moment we waited 1.5hrs at airport for our pick-up, then we had a better understanding of what they meant with resized_IMG_9777the term “Fiji-Time”. The driver arrived with a tiny little car that could hardly fit our luggage. Our first encounter with Fijian local was some good chatters to Neal (driver) who is of Indian descendant (like almost 40% of the population here are). We then arrived in our Backpackers around 20min later. Then there was a lot of “bula bula bula” again until we checked in to our room. We fell in love with this place instantly: the place gave a cozy atmosphere with hammocks everywhere, friendly people having a shresized_IMG_9786ort chatter with you and finally some shorts/bikini weather. We spent the afternoon discovering the vicinity, had some lunch at the beach followed by some relaxation in the hammocks with reggae music in our ears. Fijians eat a lot of fish and we had our first local dish for dinner (Fish in coconut sauce with cassavas) and a cold Fiji Beer. This is Life!

We got up early and had so-so nice breakfast at beach. Like New Zealand and OZ, the backpackers serves toast bread and it is the only type of bread you could find here. The locals might eat cassavas for breakfast – who knows. We took the bus to Nadi town with George (one of the locals working at backpackers) and some other guys. The bus ride was an experience itself. Sitting in the bus, you feel like you are sitting in a hundred years old bus that is almost breaking apart, no windows (because it was open on both sides) and so shaky it felt like a massage for our muscles. The ride cost 1.15 Fiji Dollars (50 cents) and took about 30mins for maybe 10km (bus reversed at several places, resized_IMG_9974drove on the beach for some hundred metres and had to stop for random weirdness on the road several times). To signal the bus driver to stop, simply pull the rope on the side that would ring the bell in front of driver. Arriving at Nadi, it instantly felt warmer than on the beach because there was no breeze. George showed us the local fruit and vegetables markets, saw a small temple and then, that’s it. Nadi is really nothing for sightseeing, but, to watch people here is a sight for itself. As other guys who came with us had other agenda (some went to have hair cut which cost 2USD), we were the only two left with George so we asked George to have lunch with us. First he suggested a place, which we soon found out he had not been to before. We sat down and were given a way too overpriced menu (one curry for 14USD)resized_IMG_9957. No one dared to say something. Feeling confused by the ridiculous prices, we ordered and after the service lady was gone we all said “wow that’s expensive”. George suggested to leave and so we left. How weird is that? We got to another place he knew that was packed with locals and the food was nice and cheap (12 USD for the three of us incl. drinks). We had some good conversation about life and how it works in Fiji. George left us since he had to go back and w     ork (he already missed his bus and would probably be like 30mins to 1 hour late but yeah, its Fiji-time, isn’t it). We strolled around in town, bought some postcards and stamps, and went back with bus on our own late afternoon. It was then some chill time on hammock before shower; followed by a dinner resized_IMG_9802accompanied by Polynesian dance performances on sand with some beers. We booked a tour for the following day. It was hard to choose what to do as most of the mainland operated tours are either day tours to island or inland tours with minibuses. Since we were about to have our island-time for 5 days in a resort we crossed beach trips out. The other activities were somehow too touristy for us. We wanted to get in touch with locals and see how they live so we booked a private tour (A local driver showing us around according to our own wishes). Let’s hope it will turn out well!

Breakfast again was not so worth mentioning… There was this old man whom we have met yesterday trying to sell coconuts. (We said he climbed the tree but other lresized_IMG_9822ocals meant that that’s really what HE says…and no one has ever seen him climbing a tree before so God knows). We were supposed to be picked-up at 9am. By 9:15 no one was there so the receptionist made a few calls. Wonder if, and if who will show up in the end. Finally our driver arrived and we left by 9:50am. Timani was our driver, tour guide and our new brother. He was really pleasant from the beginning. He is actually from a highland village which did not even have electricity until a few years ago. In his village in order to go to communal school, children would either walk or ride horse to school! Horses will be tied up in jungle whilst the children attend classes. After 5mins drive from our backpacker we stopped at gas station because Timani has to meet a friend who is a Fijian residing in Canada. He waresized_IMG_9984s exceptionally happy (and people are already very happy here anyway) since his brother (actually it was just a friend but all people are brothers and sisters here) bought a car which he left for him to use while he’s not around. Having a car apparently means a lot and one of the cheapest models would cost more than a full year’s salary. We drove to the Garden of the Sleeping Giant, a beautiful garden at the slope of the hillside with an incredible resized_IMG_9939selection of orchids and other plants. After that it was a visit to Viseisei Village, village where first settlers arrived. We had a short tour around in village and shopped some souvenirs. One of the villages’ ladies joined us to drive to next town. In the car Timani and this lady told us their experience flying to Australia years ago. In Fiji, it is a “dream come true” if you could once sit in an airplane and fly somewhere. Timani was tearing in airplane when he had this opportunity to visit Australia, so touched by the fact that he was flying! If someone does fly, it is a whole-village-event. People from village would throw you a farewell party, send you to airport and pray for a safe flight for you. It did remind us of how blessed we are to be flying around (though we both don’t fancy flying so much).

Timani then drove us to the second largest town in Fiji, Lautoka, which was not touristy at all. In Lautoka, Timani had to stop every 50 to 100m to greet someone or shake hands with all his “brothers and sisters”. So eventually our visit to town took quite some resized_IMG_9951time, we felt like we weer walking with superstar. We had a stroll around town and in central market buying some stuff and discovering (of course Timani also knew almost everyone there). People smile at you and you smile back here. We have probably not smiled as much this year as in the past two days… People want you to take their photo and spread to the world whereas some cultures it is disliked and prohibited. We asked Timani to bring us to place where real local lunch is served and enjoyed some new food discoveries. At the end of the tour, we have to say we learnt a lot from Timani. Money is not everything here people are genuinely happy. If people don’t work here or have no business to do they just plant something in their garden. Sharing is common so if you don’t have food someone else will have. Even if you don’t have a lot, you still share with others. It was a pretty impressive way of thinking.

We spent the evening chilling in our beach front bar underneath straw huts again. Every now and then a “Bula, how are you bro?” mixing with the reggae music playing, some locals riding horses along the beach, paddlers on longboards in the background and from time to time a loud watertaxi (water plane) starting or lading in the bay. Weather was never really good past two days. Overcast and sometimes a shower. But nice and warm.

Our first Fijian encounters have helped us to earn many good insights. Through open conversations about Fijian life and way of living we realize we have a lot to learn from them.

From the Bay of Plenty to Auckland

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And…obviously we did not pray hard enough. The rain has not really stopped for one day one night now. It was pretty difficult to do anything in the rain with the strong wind (imagine going to toilet in the rain?). The sky was grey, weather unpredictable. We were happy when the rain stopped, but it might only last for few minutes until the next rain resized_IMG_9424starts again. That, however, did not stop the New Zealanders from surfing. After admiring the surfers (in our car of course) we went to the local legendary fresh fish market which serves reputedly best Fish n Chips. And yes, they were indeed the best fish n chips we had (mind you, we have been having quite some fish n chips across Australia and New Zealand. Though we would not call ourselves fish n chips professionals, but well, we have had quite some experience u know. Hehe!

The weather for the next few days can be summarize into either one of the following words: fast-changing, depressing-for-tourists, rainy, sh*tty, rainy-for-ten-minutes-sunny-foresized_IMG_9447r-two, etc etc. We could just summarize the next few days activities into one paragraph simply because we could not do much for the following few days due to the weather. Apart from driving from Mt Maunganui to Auckland suburb via Karangahake Gorge, we managed to visit the Victoria Battery, Owharoa Falls, Kaiaua in 2/3 days. The Victoria Battery was once the biggest battery producing gold in Australasia until it was closed down in the 50s. We were lucky for visiting there on a Wednesday! Some volunteers manage the place now and show people around that place on Wednesday and Saturdays for few hours. We paid 10nzd per person and had a tour in the tunnel. What seems to be an abandoned place now used to engage some 6/700 workers daily when it was still functionresized_IMG_9481ing. After visiting the battery we had a short drive to have a look at the Owharoa Falls. The lady at the Visitor Center told us the Victoria Battery and the Owharoa Falls are near to each other so we thought, well, why not? We did not have high expectation but the Owharoa Falls turned out to be pretty stunning. The Karangahake Gorge was beautiful despite the grey sky. We had a hike around with a torch as some parts of the hike was in completely dark tunnels. After spending a night at Kaiaua, we continued our journey resized_IMG_9441in Auckland direction. As we approach Auckland suburbs, the weather began to clear up! Clear blue sky, how have we missed you! There was only two days left until we part with our campervan which has served us pretty well (apart from the jump starting incidents and it being quite old and used).

Friendly and helpful in daily life, New Zealanders are not quite friendly and helpful on the roads. We concluded that New Zealanders to be one of the most aggressive drivers we have encountered. That being said, driving around with a campervan is no fun in a big city like Auckland, which was why we decided to spend the last two days driving around in suburbs instead of in the city. We went to One Tree Hill, history of which we don’t quite remember, but you can definitely find it on google. We hiked to its summit and had a good view of the city. After resized_IMG_9554having lunch at Barilla Dumplings (not Italian but Asian actually) we drove to Mt Eden, the top of Auckland’s highest volcanic cone and highest natural point in Auckland. Auckland is built on some 50 volcanoes which makes it a very hot place. Ok just a joke. Though not all of them are extinct, the last eruption was 600years ago so we were not so afraid to spend time in this beautiful city. We spent the last two nights in our campervan at Ambury Campground (it had hot showers!). Cleaning up all our stuff, we had some items that we did not need anymore and were just thinking to give away instead of throwing them. A lucky German who just arrived after 28hour flight “inherited” all our goods. It was a win-win situation for both parties, he saved at least 3/40bucks and we did not have to throw things away. The Wendekreisen Campervan somehow looked sad in the sunset, as if it was saying goodbye to us.

We dropped off and bid goodbye to our campervan on 2 May 2015. We have had 5 weeks of good times with it and it is time to move on! Roman is happy that he does not have to drive at least for the next two weeks. We drove 4000km across New Zealand in 5 weeks (poor Roman drove 3800 and Yinru 200km). We entered our last spot for NZ, Auckland, with all our luggage and checked into Jucy Hotel. This is a hotel owned by a car rental company. It has the ugliest company color ever. Bright green and purple combination, you can see it from faaaar if someone is driving on their rental cars. Well, at least it is easy for them to find their car in a carpark! The next two days is filled with multicultural menu: Japanese, Dim Sum, Thai, etc. We decided to pamper ourselves after having Yinru’s delicious-resized_IMG_9761yet-boring-after-five-weeks-camping-food. We sent some time wandering around in the city, admiring the Sky Tower (Southern Hemisphere tallest building), visiting Viaduct Harbour and Auckaland Fish Market, soaking up some sun at the Wynyard Quarter etc.

Auckland was a nice place to wrap up our 5 week journey in New Zealand. All in all, New Zealand is a lovely country with landscapes so beautiful and spectacular that words can’t really describe (we can’t really, at least). Where else on earth can you have volcanoes, glaciers, rainforests and the ocean all within 1 or 2 hours’ drive? The scenery is very versatile, contrasting and full of surprises. We will for sure remember the beauty of New Zealand for a long long time. It is pretty far from home, so the chances that we will visiting it’s islands again in the near future are pretty slim. And well, it is a relatively expensive place to visit too. Even though we have been cutting down our costs by doing a lot of self-cooking (a meal with some meat, veggies and side would cost in average max. 10 NZD) or freedom camping (free camping on designated areas) we still got a shock when we calculated our spending during our stay. We calculated an average cost of around 150 USD for the two of us per day (flights excluded) and spent more than 1’000 USD on petrol on our 3’950km self-drive journey only. So maybe we will need some years anyway to save up some money before we can visit NZ again.

The last day of NZ trip marks the 93rd day of our Round the World Trip and we have had slightly more than half of our trip already. Thank God for the 6 safe flights we have had, 7th coming up and few more to go. We enjoy ourselves a lot and are grateful each day knowing how blessed we are to be given this opportunity to see the world a bit. We are now looking forward to some warm weather, stunning beaches and the unique charm of the pacific islands. Next stop: Fiji!