Kaitlyn Mah – Page 5 – Where to, Gumshoe?

Singapore (Day 97): 12 Hour Layover

June 5, 2016

Last night, we slept for most of our 7 hour red-eye flight from Melbourne to Singapore. They served two meals during the flight – a snack at 2am and a large breakfast two hours before we landed. We landed at Changi Airport just after 5am (Singapore is two hours behind Melbourne). Our connecting flight to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) would leave Singapore at 5:25pm, so we had around 12 hours for our last partial day in Singapore. With the way our flights worked out (Tim: i.e. how I planned and booked the flights) and since we wanted to fly Singapore Airlines, it was great we were able to spend ~35 hours in Singapore for “free”.

We took our time leaving the terminal since it was so early. We went to the washroom and both washed our faces and brushed our teeth. By the time we left the airport it was around 6:30am and we headed to the City Hall SMRT stop in the city. The train connecting Changi to the downtown core makes it really easy to explore the city on a layover. The train ride takes about 20-30 minutes.

We walked towards Collyer Quay to see the Merlion and views of Marina Bay Sands when it’s quiet. The city was so peaceful at 7am on a Sunday morning. There were a handful of people by the Merlion with their tripods trying to catch the sunrise, but unfortunately it was really cloudy so there wasn’t much to see. Given Singapore’s blistering heat, it was good the day was mostly overcast.

Our only plan for the day was to eat chili crab at Jumbo Seafood for lunch so our day was pretty relaxed. Since they didn’t open until noon and it was 7am, we went to look for a small breakfast at the La Pau Sat Hawker’s Market in the CBD. Online it says the market is open 24 hours, but I think it just means they don’t technically shut down the market. Vendors can open whenever they want. There were a few stalls open for breakfast and some that had some Chinese BBQ that didn’t want to serve it even though they were open.

We shared an iced coffee and a toasted breakfast sandwich (egg salad half and a Singaporean spicy tuna half). The coffee was good but the sandwich was pretty mediocre. I went to one of the Chinese BBQ stalls to order BBQ duck with noodles, but the vendor said “not yet” and there were no noodles for it. I couldn’t really understand what he was saying. My general consensus of the hawker’s market vendors are that they are fairly rude. I think this is just the way they are in general, but it’s very harsh and abrupt. For example, when I got to the stall, the guy says “what do yo want?” (in not a very nice tone).

Anyhow, we left La Pau Sat and walked towards Marina Bay Sands to check out the Gardens at the Bay. We didn’t get to walk on that side of the bay in May, so it was nice to be able to see it today. The Gardens at the Bay grounds are quite large. Most of the gardens are free to walk around but there are some parts that require admission like the Flower Dome, Cloud Forest ($28 SGD for both), and the walk between the Supertree Groves ($8 SGD). We didn’t end up going into any of them and just walked around the grounds. We heard that the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest are really cool but we didn’t think spending $56 SGD was worth it for us today. Maybe in the future when/if we come back.

After taking our time in the gardens, we walked towards Clark Quay for lunch. Jumbo Seafood is a famous Singaporean restaurant that specializes in chili crab. I didn’t know what to expect but just knew that it was something that we should probably eat. We didn’t get to have it in May and when we asked Marcus if we should eat it (Marcus is Singaporean) he said we have to eat it and order the fried bread (mantou) to use to dip in the chili sauce. So we did as the Singaporean said and ordered one chili crab and 8 pieces of mantou (we ordered 4 at first then wanted more).

There are actually two Jumbos around Clark Quay’s river walk and we went to both of them to see if they had a table. One of them said without a reservation there was no room so we went to the one we originally thought we would go to. The hostess said if we wanted a seat inside the restaurant as opposed to sitting outside in the heat, we had to share a table with others so we agreed. We were seated with four other people. Two girls and another couple. They brought out a dish of peanuts and filled our cups with tea. We later found out on our bill that the peanuts and tea were $1.20 SGD pp. I know Tim doesn’t like to eat crab (only due to the effort outweighing the reward) so I was happy he was willing to try it out. The crab came covered in a sweet and spicy chili sauce. It was really good. Are there any places in Vancouver who do chili crab? Marcus’ suggestion about the mantou made it even better. The mantou were super fresh and were cooked perfectly. We could’ve ordered more but we were both full so eating more mantou with the chili sauce would just be pure gluttony.

After lunch we made our way back to the City Hall SMRT stop to get back to Changi Airport. We were starting to get tired so heading to the airport earlier sounded like a good idea. When we got to Changi we used our Priority Pass membership (4 free lounge visits courtesy of the BMO World Elite Mastercard) to get into the SATS Premier Lounge in Terminal 2. We had 2.5 hours to kill so sitting in the lounge and showering was good use of the pass.

The Stats Premier Lounge had Singaporean/Malaysian food, drinks (alcoholic and non), and sandwiches. Since we just had a sizeable lunch, we didn’t eat anything until we were about to leave. I tried a small bowl of laksa, which they make for you on the spot and Tim had spaghetti and meatballs.

We headed to the gate to board our flight to HCMC. The flight was only an hour and 45 minutes. They served us a meal and it was basically time to land. Our descent down into HCMC was a bit scary because when we were going through the clouds the plane was going up and down sporadically. I was squeezing Tim’s hands and some people were yelping every time the plane made a sudden movement. However, the 10 year old girl in front of us was having the time of her life. She was saying it was like a ride and how it was so much fun. At least someone enjoyed it.

We passed through customs without any issues as we got a 3 month multi-entry visa before we left home. Vietnam is the only country we’ve been to on this trip that didn’t require a form to be filled out upon arrival. I guess they don’t care about any details about your trip in the country. We got our bags and headed out to take a taxi to our hotel.

There were a lot of stands with taxi signs before you get outside. We didn’t stop to see how much they would’ve cost. But according to Lonely Planet, they are usually flat rates and would cost 300,000 VND ($17 CAD) for a trip into the city. We lined up at the taxi queue and didn’t recognize any of the taxi names. I was looking for the two legit taxi companies that were deemed as being “ok”. We thought since the taxi queue at the airport should only have legit taxi companies, we lined up. We told the taxi driver to turn on the meter, which he did.

When we got to our hotel, he said the ride was 400,000 VND plus the 10,000 airport fee (which was expected). I know this was a lot higher than what Lonely Planet and the airport website said a metered cab was supposed to be (average 180,000 VND). But since we had our luggage in the back, what are you supposed to do when you don’t agree with the price. (Tim: The meter actually said it was supposed to be around 150,000 VND plus the 10,000 airport fee, but he quoted the 400,000 price using the timer that ticked up instead of the actual fare meter… e.g. the car was idle for 4 minutes during our ride). Anyway, we learned our lesson. Only stick with Vinasun or Mai Linh Taxis. I thought seeing the legit taxi company cars would be more obvious, but there was a sign saying you can’t pick which cab you want (so what are you supposed to do?!).

We’re staying at the Platinum Hotel for 3 nights. It’s located in District 1, which is where the bulk of the touristy things are in HCMC. The staff was friendly when we arrived and gave us a welcome drink. The lady showed us to our room. It’s fairly small and clean enough. We’re only paying $35 CAD a night so I guess my expectations shouldn’t be super high.

We’re both really tired. Our June 5th has been a pretty long day. We were in 3 cities today, making our way back to the Northern Hemisphere – getting closer and closer to home. HCMC is 3 hours behind Melbourne.

Steps today: 26,000

Melbourne (Day 96): Last day in Australia

June 4, 2016

Today was our last day in Melbourne and Australia. Like yesterday, we basically had no plans for the day except to finish packing, plan SE Asia, and to watch the new(ish) X-Men movie. The past week in New Zealand was a lot of “go go go” so it felt really good to sleep in and not feel like we had to see something.

Marcus lives in a suburb of Melbourne called, Abbotsford (15 minutes from the CBD), and there’s a really good cafe in his apartment complex that we went to for brunch once. The cafe, Kitty Burns, is really busy on weekends so Tim and I went down around 10am to have brunch for the last time. We shared a chorizo burrata egg dish (same as what I had a month ago) and a jelly filled donut. The donut was actually the main reason we wanted to go there for breakfast. The last time we went, they only had cruffins but we wanted to try their jelly filled donuts – more for novelty sake. Brunch was delicious. I’m going to make the chorizo scramble when I get home.

After lunch, we trip planned for the rest of the afternoon. We have a plan for the next month and a half but only have a couple of things booked. I think we’ll be booking hotels and what not as we go along. I can’t believe it’s almost the end of our trip. Time truly did fly by. We’ll be home in less than two months!

Tim really wanted to watch X-Men: Apocalypse when it first came out but Sydney’s IMAX (largest in the world) at Darling Harbour wasn’t playing it so we didn’t watch it there, as originally planned. There’s a movie theatre across the street from Marcus’ apartment, so we decided to watch it on our last day. Regular price for tickets were $21 AUD but Marcus could get them for $13.50 AUD through his insurance provider (I’m not sure how that works), so he got us movie vouchers that we needed to show at the box office to redeem for tickets.

We got to the movie theatre shortly before the movie started at 2:20pm. When we got there, there was no staff at the ticket counter and only two guys at the concession, so we just lined up with everyone else. It turned out that only two guys were working that day. They were doing both tickets and concession at the same time. Also, there was no one there to rip any tickets, so it would have been very easy to sneak into the movies that day since they were short staffed.

There were about 30 minutes of ads and trailers before they started the movie. We both liked the movie and found it entertaining. After the movie, we went downstairs to Coles to buy some wet wipes, kleenex and a couple of snacks for SE Asia.

We got back to the apartment and decided to go for Pho for our last dinner in Melbourne. I know, why would we go for Pho when we’re going to Vietnam in a day? Abbotsford is really close to the Vietnamese area of Melbourne, called Richmond, and we just wanted to have something quick before coming back and packing up. Plus, the weather today was super gloomy and rainy so noodle soup was perfect. We went to Marcus’ favourite pho place on Victoria St., called I <3 Pho.

After dinner we headed back to the apartment, washed up, and finished packing. Marcus was appalled that we didn’t buy anything for ourselves in Australia so he gave us an Aboriginal painting that he had. We told him we would hang it in our new home (that we’ll have eventually) and he needs to come visit us.

We both found that spending a month in one country has made us feel more attached to it. We were both pretty sad to leave Australia (and New Zealand). It’s so comfortable here and familiar, that going back to Asia, and South East Asia at that, will be quite a change. We saved the least developed/poorest countries for the end of our trip.

Marcus drove us to the airport and we said our goodbyes. It was so nice to spend time with him. He’s so hilarious and I love listening to his stories and commentary on things. Hopefully he’ll come visit us in Vancouver in the near future.

We’re flying Singapore Airlines again to Ho Chi Minh City via Singapore. We’ll have a 12 hour layover there to explore more of the city before heading to Vietnam. I really like Singapore. It’s an Asian city that I wouldn’t mind living in. I also really like flying Singaporean Airlines. They’re definitely the best airline I’ve flown with. The service is really good and after flying budget airlines throughout Australia, flying Singapore Airlines again feels like such a treat.

Back to Asia we go!

Steps today: 5,000

Melbourne (Day 95): Back to Australia

June 3, 2016

Our alarms went off at 4:15am this morning so we could catch our 6:45am flight. We basically rolled out of bed, got changed, and went out the door. Jess and Robin woke up with us to send us off. It was really great to be able to travel and spend time with them while we were here on this side of the world. It was an added bonus that we got to explore New Zealand with them. It’ll be nice when they eventually move back to Canada so they’re closer.

The airport was about a 30 minute drive from Jo’s house. I always get a bit stressed before heading to the airport, especially when we have to drive to the airport and aren’t familiar with the roads. Thank goodness we had a GPS or else navigating around Wellington would create a lot of issues. There weren’t many cars at all on the roads until we got closer to the airport area. We dropped the car off at Hertz before they were even open, and walked to the departures terminal.

Wellington Airport is a pretty small airport. The coolest thing they have are props from Lord of the Rings. There were a few flights headed for Australia so the airport was quite busy for 6am. The flight from Wellington to Melbourne was around 3 hours and 45 minutes, but we left a little later than scheduled so we didn’t land in Melbourne until 9am (Melbourne time). As we were approaching Melbourne, there was a huge blanket of fog covering the city. The pilot said planes were having a hard time landing but we would try or else have to circle around to try again. Luckily, we were able to land on our first try. When we landed in Melbourne, there were a lot of planes who couldn’t take off due to weather, so we were dropped off at the Domestic terminal and had to take a shuttle to the international terminal.

The customs line up was a gong show. We landed at the same time as several international flights. Since I don’t have the new Canadian “e-passport”, we couldn’t go to the fast track line and had to line up with all other passports. We waited in line for about an hour and when we got to baggage claim, our bags were taken off the carousel and sitting off to the side.

We took the Skybus to Southern Cross Station and got something to eat. We hadn’t eaten all morning and were pretty hungry. We went to Hungry Jack’s before walking to the tram to Marcus’ apartment. We finally got to Marcus’ apartment shortly after 12pm. It felt like an extremely long day already. We showered, did a load of laundry, and caught up on some stuff. We’ll be using today and most of tomorrow to try to plan Vietnam out. Right now we only have our flights in and out of Ho Chi Minh City.

Since it was our last full day in Melbourne, we were having dinner with Chloe, Alex, Marcus, and Max. Chloe made dinner reservations at Kaprica, a pizza place in Melbourne’s Carlton neighbourhood. We figured we won’t be having pizza for a while so it was perfect. Kaprica was packed when we got there, so it was good Chloe made reservations! We decided to share five different pizzas. They were all really delicious. We definitely won’t be eating pizzas like this until we get back to Vancouver.

After dinner we walked to a gelato shop that Max and Marcus really like. It was also in the Carlton, which is an Italian part of Melbourne. It was the third day of winter and there was a long line up outside of Pidapipo for gelato! I guess it was good gelato weather because it would’t melt as quickly in the winter. Max recommended adding the warm nutella (for $1 AUD) to your gelato, where they carve a little well and pour the nutella into the centre.

We walked back to the car and said goodbye to Chloe and Alex. It was nice to see them a few times while we were down here, especially considering they’ve been away from home for two years. I’m happy they also got to meet Marcus, it’s another friend for them in Melbourne.

It’s our last day in Australia tomorrow and it’s always a bit bittersweet when we leave a place after a month. I’m a bit more nervous about the next month and a half while we’re in SE Asia. I think it’ll be the most challenging part of our trip so far since the countries and areas we’ll be visiting aren’t nearly as developed as where we’ve visited so far. Also, it’ll be the first time during our trip that we won’t be seeing anyone we know. We’ve been lucky so far to be able to see so many friends and family in the past 95 days.

Steps today: 6,000

Wellington (Day 94): CBD, Waterfront, Mt Victoria

June 2, 2016

Today was our first and only full day in Wellington before heading back to Australia. We had a pretty early start to the day as we made our way towards Wellington’s CBD. Wellington is extremely hilly and it seemed like the majority of their houses were all built on the hills surrounding the CBD. All the hills and winding narrow roads made driving in Wellington pretty difficult and a bit stressful (even as a passenger). It seems like cars can park wherever they want so basically it’s only one lane going up and down the hills.

When we finally got to the CBD, it took a while for us to look for parking. We eventually found a metered spot ($4 NZD/hr), which is cheaper than parking in one of the lots we went into, which was triple the price (max day was $60 NZD!). We walked around the CBD for a couple of hours to get the feel of the city. Wellington is a small big city that seems like it would be a nice place to live (and not drive). The CBD is in a bay and surrounded by hills and water which makes it look really picturesque.

After our parking time was up, we drove along the water towards Mount Victoria. We found free parking along the beach, on “Oriental Parade” and had lunch at a restaurant close by called, Beach Babylon. The food was well prepared with good quality ingredients (for the price it should be good quality!) so we were all satisfied.

After lunch the sun came out and we walked along the seawall back towards the CBD and the Te Papa Museum of New Zealand. Admission to Te Papa is free and the museum is quite extensive. In the amount of time we had for the day, we only were able to go through one of the floors – wildlife and the WWI, ANZAC Memorial floor.

Te Papa has a dead deep sea colossal squid that was huge. There was a video playing which showed how the squid was accidentally caught by fishermen around Antarctica. When it was caught, it weighed over 400kg and the eyes were the size of soccer balls. Now that it’s been preserved, it has shrunken down a bit and isn’t as big as it was alive.

The ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) part of the museum was a very well done history lesson about WWI and the ANZAC’s attack in Turkey. We don’t learn much about Australia an New Zealand’s involvement in the World Wars in (Canadian) school so it was interesting to learn about it here. Basically, the ANZACs attacked Gallipoli in Turkey during WWI without a solid plan and were not prepared at all, so a lot of troops died during those attacks. Also an interesting note was that 1 in 4 New Zealand men fought in WWI.

After Te Papa, we walked back to the car and drove up to Mount Victoria for 360 views of Wellington. We didn’t mean to, but we were there just in time to see the sun set (Tim: perhaps it seemed like good fortune to Kait, but I planned for us to arrive around sunset time). It was a nice way to cap off our day in Wellington.

We stopped by a grocery store on the way back to the house to pick up ingredients for a New Zealand onion chip dip called, “The Original Kiwi Dip”. Along with the ingredients, we picked up some other Kiwi snacks and actual golden kiwis. I know we get them at home but it didn’t feel right not eating a kiwi in New Zealand. We learned that kiwis aren’t even native to New Zealand, but are from China (Tim: and mostly grown in Italy).

When we got home, Johanna started cooking us dinner. Tonight’s dinner was likely our last home cooked meal until we get back home in July! She braised some pork with pasta and roasted some vegetables for dinner. It felt nice to share our last meal with Jess and Robin in a warm home setting. Our flight the next morning was at 6:45am, so we tried to have a fairly early night.

Steps today: 18,000

Waitomo (Day 93): Ruakuri Cave and Glowworms

June 1, 2016

Today is officially the first day of Winter down here in the Southern Hemisphere. Since we’re slowly making our way south (on the North Island) to Wellington, we’re seeing temperatures drop drastically. The temperatures are beginning to feel like Sapporo weather when the sun goes down (below 5°C).

We slept well last night. The bed was quite comfortable and it was cool to stay in such a historic hotel. It felt more like it should be a B&B rather than a hotel from the style of the rooms. I opened the curtains and saw beautiful green hills, which we didn’t get to see when we came in at night.

We woke up earlier today to go to the information centre to book a Waitomo Caves tour, but they didn’t open until 9am (which we found out when we got there at 8:30am). We booked a combo tour to see the Ruakuri and the Glowworm Caves. The combo tour cost $87 NZD per person and included entrance to the Waitomo Museum ($5 NZD value). Our pick up time wasn’t until 10am so we had time to grab something quick for breakfast. There wasn’t much choice in Waitomo for restaurants since it was a very small town, so we went to the only nearby restaurant that was open – “Kiwi Paka”.

Kiwi Paka was a “cabin like” hotel and a restaurant that was only about 200m from our pick up point. Tim and I shared a big breakfast combo ($17 NZD) and a flat white ($4.50 NZD). It was a good breakfast to share since we wouldn’t be eating again until later in the afternoon.

We got picked up by the tour company from the information centre and taken to Ruakuri Cave. The tour lasted about 1.5 hours as we were taken deep into the limestone caves and were guided around. We saw some interesting formations and a few clusters of glowworms. The guide was only okay. She wasn’t as informative as I’d like and I felt like I didn’t learn too much from her.

After the Ruakuri Cave, we were dropped off at the Glowworm Cave, where we were lead into another cave in Waitomo. The guide for this portion of our tour was a lot better (in my opinion). She was Maori, and was a lot more knowledgeable about the caves and glowworms than our first guide (she was also pretty funny). We weren’t allowed to take any pictures in this cave though. The tour started off with us walking through a limestone cave, which wasn’t as neat as the Ruakuri Cave, and then we were lead to the river below to see the thousands of glowworms. They looked like clusters of stars and was amazing to see. Everything was pitch black and silent. The tour guide didn’t use a paddle to move the boat around but was just pulling on rope that was strung up inside the cave to move the boat. We were very impressed that she didn’t fall in. This tour lasted about 45 minutes. If we were to go back again, I would just go back to the Glowworm Cave, but I’m glad we did both this time around.

We headed back into town where we left the car but took one of the trails back instead of the main road. We took the Waitomo view point trail which lead us through a forested area and then up a hill with a view of Waitomo and the surrounding rolling green hills. My favourite part of New Zealand has been all the scenery. I can’t get enough of all the rolling green hills. They go on for miles and are so beautiful!

Once we got back into Waitomo Village, we went to the museum since we had free admission. We walked around the small museum, which is located at the back of the information centre, and watched one of the short documentaries they had available for viewing. We had the whole theatre to ourselves and I fell asleep (which normally happens to me in dark theatres). Everyone else seemed to enjoy the documentary about a group of New Zealand cavers who tried to find a connection between two caves but failed (Tim: Anticlimactic ending).

Feeling well rested, we got into the car and made our way towards Wellington. The drive down was about 5 hours south. On our drive we saw some amazing scenery. We saw two volcanic looking mountains that were covered in snow. Snow covered mountains aren’t things we usually get excited about but with New Zealand’s very green landscape, the solo snow covered volcanic mountains looked amazing.

We stopped in a small town called, Ohuke, for dinner. Since it was such a small town, we didn’t have much choice. We ended up going to a family run restaurant called Captain Kune’s. They served any fried food you can think of, burgers, and pizzas. The owners were friendly and you could tell it was a family run joint and everyone in town seemed to know each other.

After eating dinner and getting gas, we were on our final leg to Wellington with three more hours to go. Since the sun sets so early, it felt like it was very late in the evening. As we were driving to Johanna’s house (Johanna went to med school with Jess and Robin), my initial impression of Wellington was that it reminded me of San Francisco because of all the hills and the way houses looked and were spaced. We’ll see what it looks like in the day light. Maybe I’m totally wrong. Johanna lives pretty far up on the side of a hill, which most houses in Wellington seem to be situated, in an area with newer houses. She welcomed us with open arms and showed us our rooms for our time here. She has a really nice home and is very kind to let us (Tim and I) stay with her. We settled in and she made us some tea before we all washed up for bed.

Wellington seems like a really nice place. We’re looking forward to seeing it tomorrow in the day light!

Steps today: 8,000

Rotorua (Day 92): Lady Knox Geyser, Lake, and Polynesian Spa

May 31, 2016

We set an alarm to wake up in time to watch the Lady Knox Geyser erupt at 10:15am. Robin read about it the night before and was interested in checking it out. By the time we got ready and checked out, we had 20 minutes before the eruption and it took about 25 minutes to actually drive there. When we pulled up to the parking lot, we ran to the geyser and saw the presenter still talking about New Zealand’s geysers, so it was perfect timing!

As soon as the presenter stopped talking, the geyser began erupting, like clockwork. The geyser could erupt for up to an hour (unusually long). After about 5 minutes, everyone left after taking their photos. We stayed around to see the eruption end, but after about 20 minutes, we gave up and left, as did the other people who were waiting around. Tim felt sad for the geyser because it was still erupting with no one watching. People’s attention spans are so short, and I guess it was also starting to rain.

When we first arrived, there was a sign that said to be ready to show your tickets. We didn’t realize it cost money see the geyser because Robin read it was free. It worked out perfectly that we were slightly late because there was no one checking tickets when we rushed in. We ended up seeing the geyser and other sights around the Waiotapu area for free. I looked online tonight and apparently the sights were $32.60 NZD per person!

On our way out of the Waitapu area, we saw signs for a mud bath so we decided to check it out. The mud bath was another hot spring which made mud bubble up. Rotorua is a lot like the onsen town of Beppu in Japan, where we went around to all the different “hell” hot springs. It ended up being a similar day since we planned on going to a hot spring spa too.

We made our way back into Rotorua’s CBD for lunch. Jess read about a brunch restaurant in Lonely Planet called, Third Place Cafe, so we decided to go there. It was a casual cafe where you order at the counter and they bring the food out to you. The breakfast and lunch menu looked really good so I was excited to try it out. I ordered a “Roasted Kumara Mumble Jumble” breakfast and Tim ordered the “Middle Eastern Spring Lamb Platter”. Both dishes were really good. We were both happily satisfied. If we ever go back to Rotorua, I would definitely eat here again.

After lunch we headed to Lake Rotorua, which is the second largest lake on the North Island. We walked along the walkway of the lake and around a park and saw a lot of birds. There were a lot of black swans in the water, which I haven’t seen so up close before. There were also large gangs of New Zealand geese, which are large and white.

Rotorua is full of beautiful lakes, geothermal sights, Maori cultural centres, and spas. It was still fairly early in the afternoon so we decided to check out another lake in the area before going to the Polynesian Spa to end our time in town. We drove about 10 minutes to Lake Tikitapu (Blue Lake) where I hung out close to the car to admire the view and everyone else went for a quick walk through the forest.

We drove to the Polynesian Spa and decided to go into the “adult pools” ($27 NZD = $23.75 CAD). The Polynesian Spa is a geothermal spa that backs on to Lake Rotorua. The adult pool area had several different hot spring pools at different temperatures, ranging from 38-43°C. It was a nice and relaxing way to end our day in Rotorua. There was a Korean tour there at the same time we were, and at one point Tim and I were in a pool with the majority of them and we felt like we were back in Seoul. Too bad we didn’t know any Korean!

We washed up and left at a good time because a Chinese bus tour came and all the pools were jam packed with people. We spent about an hour and a half at the baths which was a good amount of time.

For dinner we went for Indian food at a restaurant called Indian Star. We saw it yesterday and it was full for of people for an Indian birthday party. We figured if it was good enough for a large Indian birthday party, it must be good! We shared four different types of curries, garlic naan, basmati rice, two mango lassis and a Kingfisher beer for $94.80 NZD = $83.60 CAD. We enjoyed everything we ordered. We were all surprised that we finished everything. I guess we were all hungry!

After dinner we drove for about 2.5 hours to get to a town called, Waitomo, which is a major tourist attraction for its caves and for Hobbiton (Hobbit and LOTR tours). On the way there, Tim pulled over and we looked at the stars for about 15 minutes (it was really cold out, 5°C!) and it was beautiful. I guess I don’t get that far out away from cities because I haven’t seen that many stars before. I turned around to hug Tim and I missed a shooting star that everyone saw. Oh well…

We arrived at our hotel, which is a historic (old) hotel called, Waitomo Caves Hotel. The hotel looked nice as we drove up to it. It has a lot of character and we were really happy with our two bedroom room ($125 CAD/night). Since Jess and Robin had a larger bed in Auckland, they took the two single beds in the other room while Tim and I get to enjoy the larger bed. I’m pretty sure this is supposed to be a family room, so we got the “parent’s room” and they’re in the children’s bedroom.

We made some tea and tried some of the other NZ cookies we bought before heading to bed. We’re planning on waking up a bit earlier tomorrow to see what cave tours we can join. We couldn’t book anything online since they required 2 days notice for advanced bookings so we’ll have to go to the visitor centre to see what we can get.

Steps today: 10,000

Coromandel (Day 91): Cathedral Cove & Pauanui Beach

May 30, 2016

Today, we were up and ready to go around 9:30am. Jess and Robin made us some cheese bagels for breakfast and we were off on our New Zealand road trip. Our plan for today was to go to Coromandel, which is a peninsula on the eastern side of the North Island. The drive was about 2.5 hours from Auckland (165km), which was much shorter than our drives down the east coast of Australia. We had some hikes in mind so we were hoping the weather would be cooperative. The weather was a mixed bag of sudden downpours and then bright blue skies, so we saw a lot of rainbows on our drive.

New Zealand is really beautiful because everything is so vibrantly green. There’s so many rolling green hills and mountainous terrain, so I get why people say it’s like Canada in a lot of ways.

The drive to Cathedral Cove in Coromandel was like driving on the Sea to Sky, except a lot narrower. We were lucky that we missed all the rain by the time we got to our first stop. The hike to Cathedral Cove was only about 45 minutes, so not too long. It seemed like every portion of the hike to the cove was very picturesque. The combination of the bright green grass, lush forests, and the bright blue Pacific Ocean was breathtaking. The view of the smaller islands reminded me of home. It was sort of like all the islands around Howe Sound. We know we’ve taken living in British Columbia for granted because it’s so beautiful there already and we haven’t really explored it as much as we could. We’ve met other tourists during our trip, who after finding out that we’re from Vancouver, go on about how beautiful it is and ask if we’ve been to all these different places on Vancouver Island. Then we both shamefully say no. I guess that’ll be something we’d like to discover more when we’re back.

When we finally made it to the beach, it was very beautiful. There were some tourists around but since it was down season in New Zealand (winter starts on June 1), there wasn’t crowds. It made for a nice and peaceful time at Cathedral Cove.

The morning and early afternoon flew by as we were taking in all the beautiful scenery. We drove to a town called Tairua to see what they had for lunch options. After walking up and down their “Main Street”, we decided to give Aaron’s Kitchen a shot. They advertised fish & chips, burgers, sushi, and Asian food! We figured Aaron was Asian so we went to support him (Tim: I just wanted fish and chips)… Plus the menu looked the best.

The food at Aaron’s Kitchen was actually really good. If you’re ever in Tairua, I would recommend trying it out! We were quite pleased with our meal except Jess’ veggie burger didn’t have avocado because they apparently did not get any from their supplier. When we went across the street to the grocery store, we saw avocados were selling for $6 NZD each – no wonder they weren’t in her burger.

After lunch we headed to Pauanui Beach for another hike. Since the sun was going to be setting soon we only got to do part of the trail and had to turn back before it got dark. The trail was along the coastline of the beach and it lead us to some really cool volcanic flat rocks that lined most of the beach at one point. This area was very peaceful and we caught the sun setting from here so it made for really nice way to end our day.

We got into the car and headed to our stop for the night, Rotorua, where we’d be spending the day tomorrow. The drive was pretty hard since the roads were super winding for most of the drive. Luckily, Tim was very alert and got us to Rotorua safely after 2.5 hours. We checked into Rydges Hotel (which is a hotel chain in Australia & NZ), dropped off our bags, and headed out to find dinner. Our options were quite limited since it was around 9pm already. We drove to the city’s “CBD” where we found a lot of Indian and Thai restaurants. But we ended up going to McDonald’s in the end.

After dinner we came back to the hotel, washed up, and did a bit more research about what we’re going to do in Rotorua tomorrow. The city is a hot spring so the city (and even our room) smells like sulphur (rotten eggs).

Steps today: 14,000

Auckland (Day 90): French Market, Auckland Museum, Mt Eden

May 29, 2016

Being two hours ahead, we were all clearly jetlagged as we woke up at around 10:45am. By the time we got ready to go, it was around 11:30am and Howard had already gone out and come back home. He had a good start to his day as we were just starting ours. He had recommended a French Market to us yesterday, so we thought we’d start our day there.

The French Market is in a suburb called, Parnell, which is located just outside the CBD and is apparently Auckland’s oldest suburb. The market is called, La Cigale French Market and is only opened on weekends. The market is a food market that was filled with a lot of delicious food options. The prices at most of the stalls were very good/reasonable and a lot less than what we thought they would be. Tim and Robin got sausages in French bread and Jess and I got a Turkish gozleme (like a quesadilla). Inside the market there was a French bakery which had fresh croissants coming out so we got a chocolate croissant since it was piping out. It was awesome!

While at the market, the rain started coming down pretty hard. Luckily, all the vendors had tents up so we didn’t get wet. After we finished lunch, we headed to the Auckland War Memorial Museum which was close by. The museum is free for Aucklanders, by donation for New Zealanders and $25 NZD ($21.80 CAD) for everyone else. Tim asked if there was a Commonwealth country discount, but unfortunately there wasn’t (Tim: I was joking, but the guy seemed apologetic that they didn’t).

The museum was quite large and you could easily spend a long time there. The museum includes exhibits about New Zealand’s history (Maori and Pacific Islander), military history, natural history, geology, etc. There was an event going on in the WWII Memorial Hall for American Memorial Day (Tim: note the American flag on top of the building in the picture above. I asked and they said it was up only for Memorial Day). I thought the Maori exhibits were the most interesting since they were uniquely New Zealand. New Zealand is the coldest place that Pacific Islanders live, so when they brought their own plants and vegetation from other islands, they didn’t grow well here. So, it was actually beneficial (Tim: from one specific perspective) when the Europeans came because they brought over plants that grew better in New Zealand.

We stayed at the museum for about two hours before making our way to Auckland’s CBD. The rain started to come down quite hard as we were driving around. There wasn’t much parking available and the parking signage in Auckland is a bit confusing. After driving around Queen St. (which is like their Robson) and around the wharf we decided to just pull into one of the 15 minute free street parking and take a couple of pictures of the Sky Tower and walk up Queen St. for a bit. Overall the CBD wasn’t too lively because of the weather and most locals probably don’t live in the CBD.

We got back into the car and went to Mount Eden, whose summit is the highest natural point in Auckland so it has great 360 views of the city. Mount Eden is also a dormant volcano so it was neat to see the crater, which is now covered in lush green grass. When we got to Mount Eden, we had to walk about 10 minutes to the summit. Before January of this year cars were able to drive to the top and park but now cars are only allowed to park below and you have to walk up. I think it’s much nicer that cars are not allowed to go up any way and the walk isn’t really that hard/far. We were lucky because as we were driving to Mount Eden the sun started to come out, so when we arrived we had clear skies and even saw a rainbow.

Mount Eden was my favourite part of Auckland, it was really beautiful up there and I loved how vibrantly green everything was. It’s been a while since we’ve seen such lush greenery like this. As mentioned yesterday, I expressed how much New Zealand reminded us of home and seeing Auckland from the summit of Mount Eden reconfirmed that.

We saw some pretty cool clouds in the distance that made for some really awesome pictures but we also knew that those clouds were headed for us. Unfortunately, we were too slow and we were caught in the downpour. Luckily we all had our rain jackets and we had our umbrellas too. Vancouverites are always prepared for rain!

We headed back to the house to rest up and change for dinner. We all sat around for about 30 minutes looking up restaurants to go to. It’s hard to decide when there are too many options. We wanted to have seafood since the green lipped New Zealand mussels we had yesterday were really good. Robin found a place called Swashbucklers, near the Auckland Fish Market close to the CBD. The menu and reviews were good so we decided to give it a shot.

Swashbucklers is located in a pretty industrial looking area. It reminded us of the trek to get to the Cannery in Vancouver (before it closed). It’s located close to the water and a few blocks from Auckland’s Fish Market. Tim and I shared a seafood platter for two ($70 NZD = $61 CAD), which had green lipped mussels, oysters, battered fish, king prawns, shrimp, smoked salmon, and breaded scallops. I was super hungry so I was really excited to eat. Everything was really tasty and it was the perfect amount. New Zealand mussels are very plump and sweet. I’m sure I’ll be having more before we leave.

On the way home, we stopped by a grocery store to get some snacks for our road trip tomorrow and dessert for tonight. While looking up restaurants, Tim found a list of New Zealand only snacks. So when we got to the grocery store he was on the look out for a bunch of snacks. We managed to get the majority of them.

We got back to the house and had the Hokey Pokey ice cream we bought. Hokey Pokey is a flavour which is basically just vanilla ice cream with crunchy honey comb chunks. It was actually really tasty, I enjoyed the crunchy bits. We ate our ice cream while we watched the season finale of “Fresh Off the Boat” together. We’re planning on leaving Auckland by 9am tomorrow, so we set our alarms. We’re heading to a town called Coromandel for some hiking and some beautiful scenery.

Steps today: 11,000

Auckland (Day 89): Kia Ora, New Zealand!

May 28, 2016

Early morning flights are the worst. For the most part we’ve been avoiding early morning flights for that very reason. Today, our flight to Auckland was at 7:50am from Sydney, which meant we had to wake up around 5:00am and leave the hotel around 5:30am (to be safe) and walk to Central Station to catch the train to the airport so we could get to the airport around 6:10am. Sydney’s Airport train line is really easy and efficient from the city. It took around 15 minutes from Central Station and it cost $13.96 AUD, a couple of dollars cheaper than leaving the airport for the city (Tim: not sure if the cheaper fare was because of direction, or time of day).

It was our first time traveling with Emirates so we were excited to see what it would be like. Tim booked this flight specifically because it was an Airbus A380 (world’s largest passenger plane). The flight was coming in from Dubai and stopped in Sydney (likely dropping off a lot of passengers) en route to Auckland. Part of the Sydney International Terminal looked like a fancy mall with a lot of high end stores. We also noticed that at many of the duty free and souvenir shops they had loads of instant milk powder for sale. Apparently Chinese tourists have been hoarding instant milk powder from Australia and bringing it back home.

We boarded the plane and were quite excited about this flight. The ceilings were a lot higher than they are normally and there was even more leg room in economy (not like I need more given my short legs). However, I didn’t think the service was that great. They were fine but weren’t as friendly/warm as Singapore Airlines.

The flight was about 2.5 hours and was very smooth. They served us breakfast, which was tasty. I had a vegetable frittata and Tim had more of a traditional scrambled eggs breakfast. We landed in Auckland at 1pm local time and it was 19°C and sunny. As soon as we walked out of the plane, we looked out the window and all we saw was green. We overheard some Aussies saying they haven’t seen so much green before and they don’t have to worry about poisonous insects in New Zealand!

After we crossed customs and got our bags, all passengers had to go through another screening to make sure you weren’t bringing any prohibited foods into New Zealand. You have to show your customs form to another officer who asks you questions and then you have to put your luggage through a scanner. While we were waiting for our checked luggage, I’ve never seen so many customs officers with dogs sniffing around. Since they are a small island nation, I can see why this would be very important to screen. When we flew into Australia, they weren’t as strict and didn’t have mandatory secondary screening.

We had about 3 hours to kill while waiting for Jess and Robin’s flight to get in from Melbourne. They also had an early morning as they had to fly to Melbourne from Adelaide to connect to Auckland. We found a seat upstairs in the departures food court and had lunch. The Auckland Airport only gives you 30 minutes of internet per day for each device. This wasn’t ideal since we were there for so long so we rationed the internet over our 5 devices. While looking around at the people waiting for family members to arrive. There were a lot of Polynesian-looking families and it felt like we were in Hawaii for a little bit (Kia Ora is like their “Aloha” in Maori). New Zealand’s population is mainly of European decent but they have a large population of Pacific Islanders (2/3rd of all Pacific Islanders live in New Zealand), Asians, and Maori (their Aboriginal population).

At around 4:20pm, Jess and Robin finally arrived. Their flight was a bit delayed but we were happy to see them in Auckland! We picked up our rental car, which they upgraded to a SUV (good for leg room and space but probably not ideal for gas) and made our way to Jess and Robin’s friend’s house which is in a suburb of Auckland called Epsom (5km south of the CBD).

When we got to the house, Jess and Robin’s med school friend’s brother, Howard, was home to greet us. He was very hospitable and made us feel like we were at home. Howard is also Taiwanese and grew up in Auckland, so he was great for telling us more of where the locals would go and eat. We settled into our rooms and then headed out for dinner. Howard gave us a few suggestions and we picked the New Zealand comfort food chain restaurant Lone Star.

Howard drove us to an area close by called Newmarket, which is south east of Auckland’s CBD. The area we parked had a lot of Asian stores and restaurants and then on the main shopping street they had a lot of branded stores and a Westfield (mall). We got to Lone Star and they said it would be about a 45 minute wait for a table so we walked around the neighbourhood. All the stores by this time were closed, but Howard said during the day the Newmarket area is quite busy. Even at night it seemed like a nice area to walk around.

Howard treated us to a really delicious and filling meal. Tim and I shared a really large plate of ribs. We didn’t know it would be that large, so luckily we shared!

After dinner, Howard drove us to Dominion Street, which has a long strip of Asian restaurants and businesses. Driving around Auckland, we thought it actually felt a lot like Vancouver. The trees and landscape were more similar than they were in Australia, and maybe it was the fact that it was starting to rain out that reminded us of home. We went to a Taiwanese dessert place that is popular in Taiwan but now has locations in Australia and New Zealand. The restaurant is called “Meet Fresh” and specializes in desserts with red bean, taro, and tofu pudding.

At this point we were all pretty tired and very full from all the food. We headed back to the house, showered, and went to sleep. We haven’t seen much of Auckland but got to experience more of where locals would go and all four of us Canadians agreed that New Zealand definitely feels like Canada (even more so than Australia). I was told by someone from Auckland that it is like Vancouver and Hawaii mixed together and I could definitely see that. Maybe more so when it’s a bit warmer.

Steps: 15,000

Sydney (Day 88): Bondi Beach and Vivid Sydney

May 27, 2016

Three nights in Sydney was about right for the sightseeing but it would have been nice if we could just take it easy here and explore more of the surrounding neighbourhoods. Originally we had looked into hotel and Airbnb options and couldn’t find anything decent looking for less than $200 CAD/night. But we got lucky with Central Station Hotel and their room rate ($95 CAD all in) for the night ended up being cheaper than a lot of the motels we stayed at on our roads trips.

For our last day in Sydney I wanted to check out Bondi Beach. You can’t go to Sydney and not go to its most iconic beach (Tim: well, you could, but you’d be missing out)! We took the train from Central Station to Bondi Junction and from there we caught a bus to Bondi Beach (30 minutes). The weather today was nice and sunny but very windy (18 degrees Celsius, a very cold day by Sydney standards). Our friend, Julie, recommended a restaurant named Bill’s to go to at Bondi Beach so we headed there after we got off the bus.

After looking online, Bill’s has other locations around Australia and even a few in Asia – like in Tokyo. Tim ordered a wagyu burger and lemonade (lemonade in Australia are more like lemon sodas) and I had the calamari papaya salad with a hibiscus lime soda. As soon as we walked in you could tell it was a fancy brunch place and their clientele were affluent “Sydneysiders”. We were seated sandwiched between two groups of women who were well dressed and talked like they were in Sydney’s top 5% (just from my observations and listening to them talk. Tim was probably not paying any attention to them the way I was (Tim: true!)). The food came and while it was good, I didn’t think it was worth the price. Also, in Australia since you don’t tip at restaurants, service is often not really great. I don’t mind at casual places but at a nicer restaurant, in my Canadian mind, I expect a bit more attention (I guess I’m a needy restaurant patron).

We finally made our way down to Bondi Beach and it was nice. It was too cold for people to be sun tanning, although there were a few people who were (probably not from Australia). There was a surf competition going on so we stood on the beach and watched for a while. The waves around Bondi Beach seem ideal for recreational surfing, not as crazy as the waves we saw along the Great Ocean Road, which were definitely for very experienced surfers only. We took off our shoes and walked the length of the beach towards the coastal cliff hike along the right side of the beach. There were some really cool rock formations and it was a nice and easy walk. At the beginning of the walk, you’ll see a really nice public pool ($6.50 AUD admission) that juts out into the ocean and the waves sometimes splash into the pool. I think Bondi Beach would be more interesting and lively during the summer when the beach is packed with people.

We caught the bus back and just took it directly to the Circular Quay (about 45 minutes) with the intention of going to Manly Beach on our beach tour day. When we got the Circular Quay, the ferry for Manly just left and the next one wouldn’t be leaving for another half hour. It was extremely windy in Sydney’s CBD and quite chilly. We decided to not go because we didn’t want to feel rushed since we had dinner plans in the city in a couple of hours. We walked around the opera house again and then through the CBD back to the hotel. I think we were both fairly tired so it was nice to have a quick break before going out again.

We met my friend, Amanda, in an area close by called Darlinghurst. It was about a 25 minute walk and the area looked pretty nice at night. She made reservations at an Indian restaurant named, Malabar. We hadn’t had Indian food since leaving home so it was a nice change of pace. She moved to Sydney in 2008 and I haven’t seen her since graduating UBC so it was nice to catch up with her. She and Tim went to the same high school, but neither of them knew each other since they’re two grades apart. We shared three different main dishes (butter chicken, goat, and paneer), naan, and rice, which were all very tasty.

Me and Amanda. She took us to a nice view point of the CBD

After chatting for a while we headed towards the CBD for Sydney’s “Vivid” festival. We were pretty excited to see Sydney come alive at night and see all the different lights and displays around town. The highlight was seeing the Sydney Opera House so colourful. There was a video being projected on the “sails” of the Opera House that was probably about 20 minutes long and just looped over and over to music. All (Tim: some) of the historic buildings around the CBD had cool projections or light show displays. It was all really awesome to see. We were expecting the crowds to be crazy but they were all very manageable. The city did a good job of keeping things under control. Vivid is on from 6-11pm every day from today until June 18th.

After walking around Circular Quay and through the Rocks area to see the different exhibits, we walked back to our hotel. It was great to see Amanda in Sydney, she is doing really well here and I’m always happy for her. She’s doing something she’s enthusiastic about and always looking for new business ideas. I also found out she’s Toi San like me (Toi San pride).

Amanda's camera took much better photos at night of people — Amanda’s camera took much better photos at night of people

We had planned on having an earlier night but we got pretty carried away with Vivid that it was our latest night out in Sydney. By the time we washed up and packed up, we only had 4 hours until we had to wake up at 5am for our flight to Auckland.

Sydney is a beautiful city and it actually reminds me a lot of home. I can see why Sydney’s real estate prices are crazy because so many people want to live there. Even walking around Sydney we overheard a few conversations of people complaining how they will never be able to buy a house in Sydney and it reminded us of Vancouver.

Steps today: 29,000