Dec 28th & 29th & 30th - From Taupo to the South Island

28th December

Waking up after the Tongariro Crossing, we all felt a little stiff, but there was no stopping Matt and Jo who headed straight for a crazy high ropes course just north of Taupo. After a quick belaying lesson, they were off, negotiating some alarming looking challenges – walking along logs and high wires about 20m in the air. Thankfully I was on the ground as resident photographer capturing their achievements on film.

When they were feeling confident at their aerial abilities, Matt and Jo tried the trapeze jump which involved leaping from the top of a ridiculously tall log to reach a trapeze above them. Matt managed to cling on, but complained about aching arms for days afterwards. Jo did manage to grab it, but sensibly opted not to cling on thereby saving her upper arm muscles!! To top the morning off, they braved the high swing which was a plummet followed by a bungee style rope swing – a little too much whiplash inducing for my liking!

Following this rather adventurous morning, we drove into Taupo for a bite to eat before driving out to Huka Falls on the outskirts of town. The Huka Falls isn't in fact a waterfall, but is where a massive amount of water is forced from a wide river into a really narrow gorge – causing some incredibly strong currants and white water. We spent some time considering possible routes through it in a raft or kayak, before deciding that it was significantly safer on land! We also tried to play “Pooh sticks” but the water was just too strong for us to monitor our own sticks.

When we could drag ourselves away from the Falls we began our long drive down to Wellington ready for our ferry to the South Island the next morning. Whilst the drive was several hours long, it passed really quickly – both because of our spectacular in-car renditions of Les Miserables classic tunes and because of the beautiful scenery.

29th December

It was up early the next morning to travel the final few kilometres into Wellington to the ferry terminal. After a slight disagreement about whether we had booked a ticket for the car (quite easily sorted out) we loaded up onto the ferry and found out way out to the deck to admire the view. It was a beautiful morning – blue skies, sunny, warm for 7.30am and without a breath of wind (very surprising for windy Wellington). The ferry crossing was incredibly calm and the views, especially as we cruised through the Marlborough Sounds, were spectacular. The only disappointment was the quality of the coffee.

Once off the ferry in Picton we rapidly drove down to Blenheim in order to check in to our motel and prepare ourselves for the afternoon activity: Wine Tasting. We were picked up by a little minibus and whisked off to our first winery of the afternoon. On the way we picked up 3 fellow wine tasters – they had been at it since 11am, and were very talkative and merry. Through the afternoon we visited 4 wineries: Cloudy Bay, Nautilus, Forrest Hill and Villa Maria, tasting between 4 and 8 wines at each stop. Pamela and I were giggling by winery number 2, and I rapidly gave up drinking all the wine (Matt covered for me by drinking his sample and then mine). It was a fairly large quantity of wine overall, and most of it drunk very quickly. Pamela seemed to particularly enjoy a number of the fizzy wines, and spent some time looking organised and efficient finding out who the UK supplies were and what it would cost to export (there were mentions of wines for the wedding…). We came away with 1 bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, 1 of blubbly and 2 Pinot Noir, which I think is quite controlled considering the usual purchase-encouraging effects of alcohol. Of the full-day wine tasters 2 outdrank us all (they had the tolerance of elephants!) whilst the third started vomiting in the back of the minibus – very classy!

Back at the motel we were struck down by a severe case of the munchies, and an emergency supermarket shopping foray was rapidly undertaken by Pamela and me. We covered all the necessary food types – crisps, dips and chocolate – before retiring to the motel for a quiet evening and some sobering up.

30th December

The advantage of early afternoon drinking was clearly demonstrated by the complete absence of hang-over this morning. We made a leisurely exit from Blenheim and started the scenic drive down to Kaikoura (about 100km). On our way out of town we passed kilometre after kilometre of vines, some of which were obviously young – clearly the wine business in this area is still growing.

About half way down to Kaikoura (which means place to eat crayfish in Maouri: Kai = food, Koura = crayfish) we came out onto the coast, and the remainder of the trip was along a windy coastal road. The scenery was spectacular and there were multiple sightings of fur seals.

We arrived in Kaikoura late morning and having been unable to book a Whale watching trip (they were all full for the day) we headed down to the beach (a 2 minute walk from the motel) for a picnic. Once again it was a glorious day – blue skies and lots and lots of sunshine. Kaikoura describes itself as the place where ‘the mountains reach the sea’ and the views were stunning. Whilst we were on the beach a pod of 10-15 dolphins swam by and Matt and I headed in to the water to take a closer look (it was only later that we read that it is a very dangerous beach with bad undertow and rip currents and swimming isn’t recommended – luckily we escaped without drowning). The dolphins found us very interesting and spent about 25mins swimming around us, getting close to check us out and then swimming away at speed. It was amazing, especially because we were the only people in the water, and there were only 2 other people on the beach beside Pamela. The dolphins were very small with rounded dorsal fins, we later identified them as the very rare Hectors dolphins. We were suddenly very glad we hadn’t been able to get on the Whale Watching trip.

Eventually we left the dolphins to it – they were obviously just spending the time cruising up and down the beach and weren’t in a hurry to go anywhere. We then headed out to the Kaikoura Peninsula for a look at the seal colony and a walk. The walk took us along the cliff top of the Peninsula with amazing views back towards the mountains and up and down the coast. Despite being after 4pm it was still very hot and sunny. For the return to the car park we cut down from the cliffs to sea level and came back along at sea level. We passed 2 bird colonies – hundred of red-eyed gulls on nest with plenty of fluffy chicks and brown-speckled young birds, and a seal colony as well as a gaggle of geese (!) and a few snorkellers out catching supper (mostly paua – a NZ shell fish, also called abalone - I think).

We decided that it was time for a nice dinner out and got a recommendation for a sea food restaurant just outside Kaikoura. After delicious prawns, chowder and venison (not sea food I know) for starters we then had the entertainment of watching Pamela tackle half a crayfish for a main course (with intermittent ‘I’m beginning to freak out’ and ‘somebody cover the eye’ and ‘look at all those legs’ comments). The food was delicious (ending up with a sumptuous backed cheese cake) and the wine very tasty – Kim Crawford Pinot Gris, a local Marlborough wine (Matt had generously volunteered to drive). All in all a fantastic day.

Jo

Dec 26th & 27th - Rotorua and Taupo

Dec 26th - Rotorua - White water rafting
(Jo's turn to join the blog and tell the true story of Pamela and Matt in NZ)

Boxing day in Rotorua meant White Water Rafting for us. Rotorua is surrounded by many rivers suitable for white water rafting and kayaking, and we picked a trip down the Rangitaiki - a 14km, 2½ hour trip down grade 3-4 rapids with some beautiful scenery. We were collected from our motel at the civilised time of 10.30am for an hour drive to Murupara, where we were kitted out in our flattering wetsuits, lifejackets and helmets. At the river we had a brief 'here's how to white water raft' tutorial and then we were off down the river. Unfortunately after just 5 minutes we had to do a 50m portage as there was a rapid too dangerous for us, but after that we loaded back into the boat and were off. Matt had been delegated to the back of the boat, with Pamela in the dry spot in front of him, and me directly behind the raft guide (one of the wettest spots!). One of the first rapids was the biggest of the day, a grade 4 rapid, and from the grin on Pamela's face she was clearly enjoying herself, despite some initial mild trepidation about her first rafting experience.

The journey down the river continued with plenty of rapids to be navigated. In the middle was a calmer section which allowed for a short swim/float. The water was a 'refreshing' temperature and also incredibly clear - it was possible to see some huge trout on the river bed. Then it was back into the boat and back to the business of getting through the rapids. It was great fun with the hardest thing being remembering whether I was on the right or the left when instructions were being shouted like 'back paddle right'.

It was all over too soon and we returned to Rotorua on the bus. We picked up the car and after a short stop in Rotorua (we saw a sea plane land on the lake) we headed south to Taupo. We checked into the seventies-decorated 'Chevron Motel' in central Taupo and carbohydrate loaded for the activities of the following day and packed bags ready for an early night.

Dec 27th - Taupo - The Tongariro Crossing
(still Jo!)

Alarm clocks went off at 5.15am today, to ensure we were outside our motel by 5.40am waiting for the bus to pick us up and take us to the start of the Tongariro Crossing - billed as the best one-day hike in New Zealand. The sun was just rising and we could see the snow-clad mountains in the distance - there had been an unexpected white Christmas in Tongariro National Park.

As the bus drove closer we caught glimpses of Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngarahoe (better know to the rest of the world as Mount Doom). Our 17km walk started at the Mangatepopo valley, the location of filming of the approach to Mordor, and after a gentle stroll up the valley floor we began to rapidly ascend (faster in Matt's case than Pamela or I) into the snow. The aptly named 'Devil's staircase', a 200m climb over volcanic boulders, was challenging to the knees, calves and thighs but was successfully completed. The side track summit route up Mt Ngarahoe was closed due to the snow, so we pressed on across the South Crater. The weather was stunning with vivid blue skies and only occasional clouds. We could see all the way to Mt Taranaki (on the West coast, approximately 150km away), which was first even for me, despite multiple trips to this part of the North Island.

The walk continued across the volcanic landscape. Our next climb was up to the highest point of the walk, the Red Crater, at 1886m. This gave us our first glimpse of the 3 emerald lakes - named for their colour, a result of minerals and acid from the mountain. The ground under our feet was warm to the touch, and from a variety of places steam was rising with the smell of rotten eggs. The scenery and colours were starkly contrasted against the white snow on all the surrounding rocky outcrops.

Many photos later we descended down the scree slope to the Central Crater for a tasty lunch break (it was only about 10.30am but we'd been up for hours and felt in need of sustenance). A final short climb brought us to the side of the Blue Lake (known as Te Wai-whakaiata-o-te-Ranihiroa in Maori!) and then the descent started down past Ketetahi Hut and the Ketatahi Hot Springs. The views now were to the north including the whole of Lake Taupo and the nearer Lake Rotoaira. After some initial irritation with endless switch-backs without any apparent loss of altitude or gain in distance towards the Hut, we made it back into scrubs and then verdant forest. Our final destination, the bus pick up point, was attained with time to spare for a quick snooze on the grass verge, then back to Taupo for take-away and an early night. An awesome day!

Jo

Dec 25th: Activities in Geothermal Rotorua

After a long drive on Christmas Eve, we arrived in Rotorua. As everyone who's been there before will testify, the two things you'll notice as you arrive in the town are: the steam rising from odd places everywhere, and then as you wind your window down to get a better look. the smell! This part of New Zealand is on a joint of two plates of the Earth's crust, so the landscape is formed from volcanic craters, and 300oC streams flow under the ground. Where the water springs and gas rise to the surface you'll see geysers, boiling mud pools, lakes of steam, colourful mineral deposits in the streams, and you'll smell the characteristic 'rotten eggs' smell of hydrogen sulphide.

We had 48 hours in the town, staying at the very comfortable 'Silver Fern Motel' on the road out to Taupo. On Christmas Eve we knocked ourselves up a spag bol (heaven for me as this was my first home-cooked meal for over three weeks!) and watched a New Zealand film: The World's Fastest Indian.

Waking up on Christmas Day when you're 12 hours or more ahead of everyone else you know is a bit strange. After wishing each other a Merry Christmas, we couldn't really complete the morning's routine of phoning the family and wishing them the same as they were probably all in the pub enjoying their Christmas Eve. Also, we'd given each other presents back in Auckland and left them there to reduce packing!

So instead we focused on our first activity of the day: visiting Wai-O-Tapu (Sacred Waters) Thermal Wonderland. Rotorua is New Zealand's top tourist destination due to its proximity to Auckland, and it gets over 1m visitors a year. So the entire town is geared up to catering for tourists, and it must be tough for the residents of the town having to share everything with visitors (the town centre seemed to filled with tourist bars, gift shops, outdoor shops, and the like, but not much for residents) and sacrifice their family time for visitors (including maintaining a wide range of activities even on Christmas Day). Conversely, as all the businesses seem small and local, tourism must also bring a lot of wealth into the town.

Anyway, back to Wai-O-Tapu. we arrived in plenty of time to watch the 10.15am eruption of the Lady Knox Geyser - a slightly bizarre experience where a Park Ranger pours soap into a geyser, causing it to shoot spray and bubbles 10 metres in the air. I have to confess to being confused and pensive on the way there as I tried to understand how a natural phenomenon like this could be synchronised exactly with our 24hr day and even compensating for Summer Time adjustments (could it be the Earth's magnetic field, tidal forces.?), so it was partly relief and partly anticlimax when I found out it was the grand equivalent of a pack of mentoes and a bottle of coke - but was impressive nevertheless, and apparently it can reach up to 20m on occasion. After that dramatic show, we followed the trails around the park to look at mud pools, crazy coloured lakes filled with minerals and steaming craters.

We got back to our apartment for a quick lunch before donning our helmets and heading up to Whakarewarewa Forest for some Christmas Day mountain biking. Unfortunately we got completely lost trying to find the forest (more difficult than it sounds), so spent quite a bit of time cycling around an industrial estate and a residential area.but eventually we made it to the start of the biking trails. The forest was set up for all levels of mountain biking, with lots of different marked trails of different grades. We headed up the hill to one of the easier grade tracks called 'The Dipper', which was 4km back and forth twists and turns. The track had been well built up so you could really attack the bends, and by not using the breaks you could pick up some real speed. At the end of the loop, I split from Pamela and Jo to try some harder, more technical tracks, although I think the higher rating was more an indicator of the steepness of the hills rather than the technicality of the descents!

It was a quick turn around as soon as we got back to the apartments, and we headed straight out to the Polynesian Spa, where Katharine had booked us spa treatments for a Christmas present. This was my first experience of a spa, so rather than just getting a massage, I had to choose what my body had to be coated with first. I opted for a honey and lavender scrub, whereas Pamela was treated to exfoliating mud pack, and Jo was soothed with a coconut massage - and each was preceded by soaking for an hour in their 40o outdoor thermal baths with a view looking out over Lake Rotorua. Thank you Katharine!

Once relaxed and exfoliated, we set our minds to preparing our Christmas supper. The Bed & Breakfast had an impressive gas BBQ for our use, so we grilled a less-than-traditional but very tasty meal of steaks, sausages, kumara (like sweet potato), corn, asparagus and peppers. Our efforts were hampered somewhat by the rain that had started, but Pamela and Jo stoically continued, singing Christmas Carols to the other motel residents, and protecting the food from washing away - not to mention the wine and beer from being diluted - with umbrellas. Back in the warmth of our room, we ate like kings whilst watching another NZ film - Whale Rider this time.

All in all, a total contrast from our usual Christmas Day, but packed full of sight-seeing, adrenaline, massage oil and plenty of laughs - and of course a good 15oC warmer, I think I could get used to this!

Matt

Dec 22nd & 23rd - Nautical Northland

Sorry we've not posted for a few days….we've been busy exploring the beautiful coast of Northland - the very North of the North Island of New Zealand (as the name implies!).

We started up in Paihia in the Bay of Islands on a dolphin watching day cruise. During the morning, the dolphins proved rather elusive, so we enjoyed a leisurely cruise around the many pretty little coves and islands that make up the Bay. We followed the coast out to Cape Brett where the boat crew proudly showed us the "world famous" hole in the rock - a natural tunnel through Piercy Island. The swell on the sea was too high to allow us to pass through the hole safely in our boat, but it did look pretty dramatic with the ocean crashing through it.

We then moored up in a sheltered bay on Urupukapuka Island for lunch and a fun hour snorkelling in the FREEZING cold waters - we spotted a few fish and a lot of kelp - and not a lot else! But thankfully, whilst we were snorkelling, the boat got word of some dolphin pods moving into the Bay, so we all rushed back onto the boat and back out onto the Bay. It didn't take long before we found them - several pods of dolphins in a sheltered bay - maybe 30-40 in total. They played around the boats for what felt like an eternity - jumping in tandem, swimming under the boat, racing under the water so we could just see streaks of silver beneath the clear waves. Several of them dolphins had tiny babies with them, which meant we couldn't get in the water to swim with them, but it was such a treat to see the babies that we didn't mind that at all.

Still grinning about our dolphin experience, and all a little pink from the sun and wind on the boat, we drove down to Ngunguru for a delicious dinner of fish and chips (pronounced "fush and chups" by the Kiwis) and an early night before our next nautical adventure...

The next morning we were up early and at the Tutukaka dive shop being kitted up by the most professional diving outfit I have ever experienced by 8am. Our dive boat headed out to the Poor Knights Islands in the biggest seas I think I've seen! Managed not to get sea sick during the one hour crossing, but was very glad to arrive in the sheltered bays of the Islands! After a brilliant briefing by the skipper, we jumped into Cleaner Fish Cove for one of the best dives of my life. The water was clear and calm as we descended to about 20m and the marine life was fantastic. Early in the dive, we were lucky enough to sea a turtle swimming along in front of us (captured on film by Jo). We’d been told to expect to see lots of stingrays but we spent most of the dive enjoying moray eels, demoisels and plenty of schools of colour fish (and of course kelp). Just as we were turning around to head back towards the dive boat, we spotted a single ray gliding along the reef. As we looked down at the graceful creature, we realised that sandy bed was covered in 10 or more huge stingrays. It was spectacular - we kept seeing more and others came swimming in. What a treat for our first New Zealand dive.

For our second dive, we headed to a bay locally known as "Good sh!t reef" because it is apparently full of "Good sh!t" !! And indeed it was. We spotted another stingray, plenty of scorpion fish, more moray eels, leatherjacket fish, nudibranchs - but unfortunately not any seahorses which was a possibility - although Matt and Jo did try very hard to find some as they buried themselves head-first in the kelp!

Thankfully, the journey back to Tutukaka was a little calmer and after a nice warm drink at the dive shop (where we met a guy from the West of England who'd moved to New Zealand, but worked captaining a ship in Azerbaijan), we drove South to Whangarei. There we picked up the car we will be driving to the South Island on behalf of a doctor friend of Jo who's moving to Christchurch in the New Year. We drove in convoy back to Auckland to Jo's brother's place where we just about managed to stay awake long enough to eat some dinner and do a spot of laundry before we continue our journey. Tomorrow we head South….

Pamela

Dec 20th & 21st - New Zealand: a slightly wet start!

We are in New Zealand at last…I arrived on Thursday and had a lovely day catching up with Jo. Having not seen her for 18 months, we had a lot to chat about! The weather was stunning – clear skies and extremely hot. To get my bearings, we drove up to Mount Eden for a bird’s eye view of Auckland. Then, since Auckland is “the city of sails”, we headed out on the water on a scenic ferry ride to Devonport on the North Shore for a relaxing ice cream and walk along the waterfront. We had a lovely meal with Jo’s brother and sister-in-law, Nick & Den, but jet lag kicked in pretty early and I didn’t manage to stay up after 9pm

Matt finally made it from LA on Friday morning. Unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse so we drove out of Auckland heading North in a rain storm which lasted most of the day. We stopped off at a couple of beaches before arriving in Paihia in Northland in the early afternoon. We got completely soaked wandering around the town, but thankfully the weather brightened up so we could actually see the islands that fill the “Bay of Islands”.

We spent a bit of time booking our trips for the next few days – a cruise and dolphin swimming tomorrow and scuba diving on Sunday by the Poor Knights islands. We’ve already been struck at how friendly and helpful everyone seems to be here. Only one day in, and we’re having a great time. We’re currently sipping champagne on our deck overlooking the bay bopping to Mark Ronson on the iPod.

Pamela

Dec 19th: Los Angeles - better than I anticipated

So this post will be short - I only had about 4 or 5 hours to enjoy Los Angeles. But thankfully, my friend Dave is a regular there and gave me some tips for spending a fun chilled afternoon. But for a regular, I would have thought he'd have realised that it was 2am Pacific Time when he called and woke me up - thanks Dave!

Anyway, Dave recommended Manhattan Beach, only 20 minutes away from the LAX hotel that Avianca put me up in (when they eventually found my luggage!). First stop was Dave's regular hotel - the Shades - where, after name dropping him, I got top service and attention for a very nice lunch. They also gave me a free dessert, although it wasn't on the house - they'll just add it to Dave's next room bill! Dave, I have to say, the hotel rooms look gorgeous - does Tesco know how much luxury they're giving you?! Remember, every pound more they spend on your hotel, is a pound less they can spend on consultants - anyway, Gustavo and Clarence say Hi!

Just as an aside: I'm really enjoying telling strangers that I've been in Bogota today, when they ask where I've been. In one conversation with a guy running a surf shop in Manhattan Beach, I had the opportunity to rave about Colombia for a nearly 5 minutes - I feel like a one-man Colombian tourist board!

So after lunch, I wandered down to the beach with my camera, and took several photos of what's effectively the set of Baywatch. (Very few bikini-clad extras today though, its winter, overcast and just stopped raining!) I then took a walk from Manhattan Beach down to Hermosa beach, with my camera to hand taking pictures of the lifeguard paraphernalia in the sunset. There are a few bars in Hermosa beach, so I grabbed a beer sitting on the rooftop terrace watching the sun go down over the lifeguard HQ - which it took me a while to realise I'd seen before from Baywatch. Amusingly, there were lots of young kids outside the building in their sports kit uniform, as they were heading out on a group training run.

I know that Manhattan Beach is not representative of the whole of LA, in the same way that Miami Beach is not representative of Miami, but I was surprised to find I liked it there! I wasn't particularly looking forward to spending time there on our return stopover (I wanted to go to Hong Kong!) but I'm happy to find I've probably misjudged the place.

I'm now looking forward to my return - but only after spending the next 3 weeks in New Zealand with Pamela and Jo - not long now!

Matt

Dec 18th: Bogotá - still not started my holiday...

Well, I'm writing this on the flight from Bogota to Los Angeles, connecting for my flight to Auckland to start my holiday. The only problem is that my flight had a technical problem, left 3 hours late and I'll now have to stay 24 hours in LAX waiting for tomorrow's flight.

I'm not sure how we'll cope with one fewer day in New Zealand - the schedule is so packed, I'm not sure what we should give up! Hopefully it's not the scuba diving or dolphin swimming - I'm really looking forward to both of those in the next few days.

It's a bit of a sad end to an otherwise fantastic trip to Colombia. I'm very lucky to get sent there with work. This has been my second fortnight-long trip, but on the last one I was working too hard and ate too much room service. This time was a bit more relaxed and I made sure I had the opportunity to sample the wide range of restaurants and night-life out there.

Bogota is a fantastic city, and I'm really enjoying working out there. The client is great, and might even want me to spend another 2 weeks out there on my way back to the UK. I find Colombians extremely welcoming, and they're all keen to show you the best of their town. They're also keenly aware of, and frustrated by, their clichéd reputation for drugs and danger. I understand that things were different a decade ago, but I've not once felt threatened or in danger in my time here, and I walk from place-to-place regularly.

Having last weekend by myself (without my UK colleagues) a number of people from the team here made sure I couldn't get bored and kept me entertained for most of the weekend. On Friday, Nicolas from Deloitte Colombia took me to a swanky (free!) bar overlooking Park 93 (one of the night-spots in Bogota), and then on to a bar with live music (I thought it was Spanish R 'n' B, but I'm informed its called Rigaton).

That's one thing I find most frustrating here... Outside of the business world and hotel receptions, there seems to be very little English spoken. This annoys Carlos, another Deloitte Colombia colleague, because he believes its important to help attract more tourism to the country, but I'm frustrated because I've not managed to learn enough Spanish to be understood. (The other thing it helps to learn before you get here is Salsa dancing - certainly if you like your nightlife, you'll get plenty of opportunity to use it.)

On Saturday - after nursing a hang-over caused by the local variant on Greek Ouzo - the senior client took me to an exhibition centre where there were artisan crafts from all around Colombia on sale. In fact there were enough crafts to fill eight buildings and to keep shoppers busy until 8pm. He also topped the evening off by taking me to 'the best Peruvian restaurant in Colombia' where I ate very very well, including beautifully cooked octopus meat.

On Sunday, Carlos dragged me away from my good work intentions, and showed me some new parts of the city. To start with, we went to a small district further North of Bogota called Usaquén, where there was a small flea market. The items were nothing like the quality of those at the special exhibition, but that didn't make it any less fun to wander around in the sunshine. Next we went up the funicular to the monastery, Monserrate, which sits on one of the mountains overlooking the central city. With such a Catholic country, and so close to Christmas, the place was packed with Colombians, but the views out over downtown Bogota and over the flat plain were great. Bogota is similar in population to London (around 7 million) but whilst you can go to the top of Parliament Hill in central London and see the different towns, but interspersed with parks and blocked by hills that have been subsumed into the city in a haphazard way, from the top of Monserrate, you can see the houses and houses just stretch away from the edge of the city out across the plain in an unbroken pattern as far as the eye can see.

For a slightly different perspective we drove downtime (just as another of Bogota's torrential 5-minute downpour hit - it is the rainy season after all) and parked to head up the Corpatric Tower - at 48 floors, the tallest skyscraper in Bogota - and presumably pretty close in height to Canary Wharf. To be honest, the view over the plain is pretty similar to from nearby Monserrate, but you get to see a unique view of downtown, and some good sight-lines along some of the major roads through the city.

Lastly, we headed back to Usaquén where we started far in the North, where we went for dinner at a very good Italian restaurant. In this small area, there are about 5 or 6 gourmet restaurants - think something like Dulwich! Sorry to keep banging on about the food, but it keeps on surprising me just how much good food you can get here - and of course how cheap it is! You get the feeling that if you threw an empanada (from many a street corner) you'd have a very high chance of hitting an excellent restaurant

Well, hopefully I'll get the opportunity to come back here in January. I've already done a bit of sight-seeing last weekend, but there's still some more places I want to go - like the gold museum! It's pretty unlikely I'll be there long enough to fly off to the beaches of the Pacific or the Caribbean though, but they're supposed to be the highlight of Colombia. Places like Cartagena are apparently bigger salsa and party towns than Bogota, and would be great places for Pamela and I to spend the weekend, if the opportunity arises.

Right, that's probably enough banging on about Colombia - well done for reading this far. And I hope I haven't set unrealistic expectations - I'm not sure I can sustain this length for every post!

Matt

24 hours in Hong Kong...

Hooray! The holiday has started at last! Right now I'm sitting waiting for my flight to New Zealand at Hong Kong airport after an excellent stopover in the city. Am writing this on my blackberry - so sorry for typos!

Had a great flight over with Air New Zealand - their in-flight entertainment system was packed full of All Blacks rugby games, documentaries about New Zealand, and, of course, the Lord of the Rings trilogy - so I was more than occupied for 12 hours. Even managed to get some sleep which was a bit of a record for me.

All in all, I felt great when I arrived in Hong Kong. Which was good as I'd booked the smartest hotel I've ever stayed in - so didn't want to waste my time there sleeping :-)

When I arrived at the hotel, I looked quite different from the rest of the clientele - don't suppose they get many guests in hiking boots and carring massive rucksacs! But they certainly didn't look down their noses at me - got whisked to my stunning harbour view room where I speedily changed into my swimming gear, donned the complimentary gown and slippers and headed to the spa!

A couple of hours later, after an incredible aromatherapy massage and spell in the sauna, all the stress and exhaustion of 2007 had melted away :-)

After a pretty restless night's sleep (most of which was spent texting and calling matt trying to sort our his flights - more on that later...) I headed out into the city on a 5 hour tour of the highlights.

A completely loopy guide called Crystal introduced a small group of us to Hong Kong post separation from Britain. Its an incredible place - on the one hand, its so forward looking with enormous high rises, neon lights, blatant technology and a very fast pace, but dotted around the place are tiny temples with lots of superstition, subsistence fishermen living on boats, and old trams in the streets.

Our first stop was "Man Mo" temple where local people pray and send wishes in burning incense to the Gods of literature (Man) and war (Mo). It was a beautiful temple, and quite overwhelming as the burning of so many sandlewood incense sticks almost choked you! There were very old local people who pray in there for hours every single day.

To get some fresh air, we headed in the unbelievably steep cable car to The Peak - the highest point on Hong Kong island. It was a pretty amusing trip as the cloud cover and pollution smog was so bad, you literally couldn't see anything from the top! On a good day, you can see almost as far as mainland China! Oh well, it looked great on the postcards.

Next stop was Aberdeen harbour - a typhoon shelter bay where people stil live on houseboats. We took a tiny boat around the moored boats, driven by a very tiny old lady! The boat driver was almost as crazy as the local taxi drivers, so I'm still a little shocked that we managed not to fall out of the tiny unstable boat.

After looking at a small jewellery factory (no I didn't buy any more diamonds, Matt), we moved on to our last location - Stanley Market. Its an incredibly tacky, tourish focussed market where you can buy plenty of fake Gucci, Prada and Rolex! Managed to while away an hour looking at tat, before heading back to the hotel for a poolside lunch.

Now I'm back at the airport waiting for the Auckland flight - very excited about finally getting to New Zealand and can't wait to see Jo again. Bit of a nightmare with Matt though - his plane out of Bogota had a technical problem which delayed him by a few hours. So he missed the connection to Auckland from LA. There's only 1 flight a day, so he's hanging around LA for 24 hours and getting to Auckland the day after me.

Oh well - I've waited 3 weeks to see him, sure I can survive one more day! Plus, Jo and I can have a nice girly catch up before he arrives :-)

More from me soon - and I'll try and post some pictures from Hong Kong when I get to Auckland....

Pamela

Packed and ready to go!

At last its nearly my turn to leave these shores. Matt's been in Colombia for the past two weeks and I've been freezing cold in London (picture is my icy street the other morning). But finally, I've packed up my rucksac with summer clothes, dug out my passport and am pretty much ready to fly to Hong Kong tomorrow night.

I'm very excited about Hong Kong - after getting over the disappointment of Matt not being able to join me for the stop over there, I've begun to see the benefits to going to a gorgeous hotel alone. So I've already booked a lovely long massage for when I arrive and plan to spend quite a bit of time in the hotel spa recovering from hectic 2007 - heaven

I have of course also booked a tour of the city so I will see a little bit of Hong Kong - so expect a post from me there (once I've managed to get up off the sun bed!).

Really looking forward to meeting up with Matt and Jo in Auckland on Thursday for the start of our NZ adventure. Matt's got a few more days left in Bogota before he flies via Los Angeles to meet me.

Anyways - better get back to clearing out my inbox so I really am ready to go tomorrow!

More from me soon...

Pamela

Two weeks to go!

Well...its just over two weeks to go and I'm already packed! I'm flying off to Colombia tomorrow for a work project and head straight from there to Auckland on 20th December, meeting Pamela who's going via Hong Kong, there. New Zealand suddenly felt very soon as I searched for my diving mask, hiking shoes and camel back.

Have so much luggage to take out with me - its a bit of a pain to have to take my work suit and lap top to New Zealand, but I'll be leaving them both in Auckland for the entire trip (much to Pamela's relief!).

We're so excited about seeing Jo soon, and following the packed itinary she has prepared for us - not sure we're going to get much of a chance to relax, but we're certainly going to see a lot of New Zealand!

Matt