Monday 1 December 2014

Freedom Camping at Lake Taupo!



Next morning brought an early rise, and after a refreshing dip in the pools we were en route to Lake Taupo. 

A lovely drive of about an hour brought us to our next destination. HUKA FALLS. We stopped off for a few supplies at Countdown (the chain of supermarkets) and also went to Warehouse hunting for a disposable bbq – only to be disappointed. We grabbed an amazing juice at TANK and set off towards the beach. 

We were camping at Five Mile Bay Recreation Reserve – a freedom camping site located about 8km outside of Taupo. This site is for self-contained vehicles only though it does have a toilet a bit of a walk away. We pulled up right on the edge of the beach, flung the back doors open, whipped out our deckchairs and foldable table, poured a cider and basked in the glorious sunshine. We stayed here all afternoon, awaiting the much anticipated sunset. About 5:30pm though it went bitterly cold – so much so within the space of half an hour we went from sitting outside in a bikini top and shorts, to sitting inside with two pairs of pants, thick socks, a jumper and a coat. Then the sun started to set, a myriad of colours erupted and it was breath taking. The few clouds that were dotted around were glowing pink and the surrounding sky a burnt orange colour. We were one of only two campers at the site, so when the sun had set we closed most of the curtains apart from the ones facing the sea. It goes very dark VERY quickly. We attempted a bit of star gazing from our van but the jet lag quickly set on us and we were both fast asleep by 9:30pm. 

Another incredible day in New Zealand. 














Wednesday 19 November 2014

Top 10 Motivational Workout Tracks!

I love reading different posts about workout music as I'm always searching for new tunes to get me in the mood to workout! However, there are some 'fail safes' that NEVER fail to motivate me...

1. Bang Bang - Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj  (3LAU Remix)

2. Cry (Just a little) - Sense of Dance

3. Thumbs Up (for Rock N' Roll) - Kill the Noise

4. Talkin' to Myself - Eminem ft Kobe

5. Radioactive - Imagine Dragons

6. You Make Me - Avicii

7. Gold Dust - DJ Fresh

8. Booyah - Showtek

9. D.O.A - Foo Fighters

10. Jack - Breach

These are just feel good tracks with a great beat that you just can't help but bop your head to and want to get your body moving!

What do you think? Any suggestions?

What motivates you to work out?

Hobbiton, Rotorua and the Waikete Valley Thermal Springs



Around 9:30am we set off for Hobbiton for our pre-booked 11am tour. We, however, missed the turning [even with both a map and a sat nav] and only arrived at 11:05am. I went in rather sheepishly and asked if we could just hop onto the next tour, the next tour, however, was fully booked, as was the next. We finally got two places on the 12:15pm tour which gave us chance to make a coffee; buy, write and post some postcards and other little bits we wanted to do. 12:10pm came and we head to the main road at the front of the ticket office to be collected for our tour. It starts with a stunning 10 minute drive through 1250 acres of farmland; as we were there in September it was lambing season, and when they say there are more sheep than people they mean it. There are millions of little white fluffy clouds frolicking all over the fields.  

We had a rather chirpy guide called William who was great. Well informed and also brought a sense of comedy into the tour. We all disembarked at the ‘Welcome to Hobbiton’ sign and joined the queue to wait for the hordes of tourists to take their picture with said sign (we also did this so cannot moan). You start with an introduction from your guide to the first hobbit houses and spend a while taking in the view – we were very fortunate as the weather was glorious, not a cloud in sight and the green rolling hills were luscious. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about what you are shown as it will spoil the surprise! The price is quite steep, I must admit. BUT if you spend the time and drive to The Shire’s Rest (501 Buckland Road is the given address, however if you tune this into your sat nav it’s actually about 1km further on down the road) rather than starting the tour in Matamata you can save around $75. If you are not a diehard LOTR fan then you could probably give this a miss as it won’t mean much to you, but if, like me, you are pretty obsessed and can finish any quote and can instantly recognise a particular Hobbit’s house then it is a MUST. Also, quite handy to know, your ticket price includes a cheeky drink (ale/cider/beer/ginger beer) in the legendary ‘The Green Dragon’ to finish off your tour!

Hopping off the tour bus we had a quick browse around the shop and bought a few souvenirs and pretty swiftly we were on our way to our next destination.

Rotorua

We didn’t actually venture into Rotorua town itself but we drove around it, and by god you can tell it is a thermal hot spot – it stinks. We took a longer scenic drive to our campsite and stopped off for a spot of lunch at a tavern on SH1, just after the turning for Waikite Valley Thermal Pools. This was our campsite for the night, it cost $30 for the night for a powered site and included free access to all six thermal pools ranging from 32’C – 42’C. The first pool is drained at 8:30pm and all are emptied by 9:15pm. This time, however, it is still open to the public – I suggest getting up early your next morning and braving the cold for an early morning soak. We went about 7am [it doesn’t open to the public until 10am] and it was great, we first tried the 32’C pool as we thought with the difference in temperature from the bitter wind we had best take it slow. This proved pointless as in the end we just went straight into the 39’-42’C and by god it was great, soaking away the aches and pains from another night sleeping in a chilly campervan. 

[Note: There is a café and restaurant available at this site, serving hot meals and alcohol too. We didn’t get there in time as it closes at 7pm but when we first walked past the food looked good, though the wine was a little expensive at $28 for a bottle, but it’s better than nothing!]

Next morning brought an early rise, and after a refreshing dip in the pools we were en route to Lake Taupo. 













Tuesday 18 November 2014

Auckland to Huntly

Day 1 – Auckland bound

SO after reading many many articles about how you shouldn’t take this and shouldn’t take that into New Zealand I decided (rather begrudgingly) that the coffee, hot chocolate and other essentials (at least essential to me) must stay put – I must admit I’m rather glad that I did!

After what can only be described as a ‘turbulent and bumpy’ journey, to say the least – which the Pilot assured us was highly unusual, approaching Auckland has to be one of the most breath taking descents I’ve ever witnessed. The sudden rush of emerald greenery and rolling hills is beautiful, and made me all the more excited to get in my campervan and start our 3 week journey!

On the plane you are required to fill in a declaration form, stating any particular ‘biohazardous’ products that you may have brought with you, I sat there smugly ticking ‘no’ until it came to ‘hiking boots and camping equipment’. Shit. I could just picture my muddy boots sat in my case and rather anxiously ticked yes. A speedy pass through passport control saw us at the declaration point, and after seeing that I’d ticked yes to camping equipment I was sent off to queue 1. Opening my case and removing my dry dirty boots he asked me where I had last used them – Wales I think, maybe climbing Snowdon? I honestly couldn’t remember, so off he took them to a ‘special cleaning lab’. My mum, on the other hand, her boots were gleaming, she smugly looked at me and packed hers into her case as I waited, cautious of the time as we had 100km to drive and it goes dark quite early in September. A mere 5 minutes later, he returned, shiny clean boots in a plastic bag – sent my case through Xray and off we went – I honestly cannot stress the importance of declaring anything you might have, it takes barely any time and otherwise you risk a hefty $400 on the spot fine (my Pukka cleanse tea, however, did survive).

So, baggage claimed we headed straight to Vodafone – I’m a bit of a social junkie, although the idea of three weeks with no facebook or instagram didn’t fill me with dread, the idea of not having a working phone at all, did. Vodafone has the best network coverage over New Zealand (there are only three networks available here). There is a Vodafone shop in Arrivals at Auckland, we purchased (for a mere $49, which although may seem steep, for three weeks I was more than happy to pay it) a sim card, with 2 GB data, 100 texts and 200 minutes of calls. 

Bags check. Simcard check. We hastily called ‘APOLLO CAMPERVAN RENTALS’ for our free transfer to their depot. You have to exit via Gate 11, (on the left as you come out of arrivals) and head to the right. Rather quickly, a silver van with – you guessed it- Apollo written in orange down the side, came and collected us, and a after a short detour (to pick up their boss who had been searching for an abandoned campervan) arrived at their office. And what a pleasant little office it was too. We happily dumped our suitcases and headed over to a desk to sort out the paperwork – this, however, did take a little longer than anticipated. But, all things filled in, we were showed around the Apollo Euro Tourer van (pointing out any marks you may see) and advised as to how the appliances (and many switches) worked. I HIGHLY advise watching the youtube links, my mum had watched them a few times so she was reasonably prepared as of what to expect as we’d never been in a campervan before. Check over complete, we were handed the keys and off we went! It felt so good to be on the road, fresh air and beautiful scenery – exactly what you want if you’ve made the long journey to New Zealand.

Car in tow we set off for the vast expanse that is New Zealand, though not without a stop off at Countdown, a supermarket located on the first left turn as you leave the Auckland Apollo depot. We topped up our essential groceries (coffee, tea, pasta, bread, beans, jacket potatoes…note we have no oven) and started our 80km journey towards Huntly. A rather smooth ride later we arrived at the Lake Hakanoa Campervan Park in Huntly (I had prebooked this via email on Jason’s website). It cost $15 per person for a powered site, and for your first night in a campervan I suggest that you pay it, the silence and darkness can be a bit intimidating at first. Carol was very friendly, I just called them on arrival, she told me where to park and everything was great! Dave even came over a little later and guided us to some free brochures and gave us a map and directions to our next morning destination of Hobbiton! After a nice glass(es) of red wine and some hotdogs with onions (we’d been travelling a LONG time and were very tired) we set up my laptop to watch a movie, yet both fell asleep before it started.

A 6:15am alarm soon startled me (I’m not one for early mornings, but the sunrise in New Zealand is not to be missed), we relaxed, had some coffee and bacon sandwiches on our camper outdoor furniture in the glorious sunshine. We didn’t really know what to expect of the site, having never done anything like this before! We landed from Sydney at around 1430pm and still only arrived at Huntly about 630pm. The showers were great, high pressure – amazingly hot and refreshing for the cold fresh morning; kitchen – fully equipped; but we did have these already supplied in our campervan. 






5 Places off the main tourist track in Thailand

1. Kanchanaburi
 
Home to the famous 'Bridge over the River Kuai', Kanchanaburi is a small town located in the west of Thailand. There is a pretty decent selection of western and Thai bars on the main 'River Kuai Road' (or River Kwai) but is a place not frequented by too many tourists.





2. Ayutthaya

Despite being not too far from Bangkok, Ayutthaya is surprisingly quiet on the tourist front. The temples here are absolutely beautiful, a similar architectural design as those in Siem Reap.





3. Hua Hin

Hua Hin is a small seaside town around 200km from Bangkok. From about 9km before you hit the centre there are a few hotel resorts, my personal favourite is the SPG Sheraton Hotel. Taking either a shuttle bus from your hotel or a taxi (though taxis here do not work with the meter, for this journey it'll cost around 200 baht). On the market street by the clock tower there is an abundance of restaurants offering fresh fish and seafood - else you could head down toward the beachside area where a few places cater to more western/expat tastes.


4. Sukothai

Although it took me an arduous 9 hour drive from Bangkok, next time I would definitely put in more research as of how to get there - the traffic in Bangkok is insane. Sukothai was the firstThai capital approximately 800 years ago and is home to some pretty spectacular ruins.



5. Prachuap Khiri Khan/Petchaburi 

Known as the 'City of Monkeys and Dolphins' - though I did not see any of the latter! This little sleepy city is half way between Bangkok and Hua Hin - though not somewhere I would stay for long due to the quietness (I need some business sometimes!) it's definately one of my places to visit - if not just for the views from the temple at the top of the hill! (Beware there are monkeys everywhere!)




 So there you have it, my top five picks that might not necessarily cross your mind when planning a trip to Thailand - all are within access of Bangkok and are on the mainland. If you would like any further information regarding places to visit or hotel recommendations give me a comment or  message!

I would love to hear what you think! Have you been anywhere that may not be well known?