The Gili Islands

The word "Gili" actually means "tiny island" in Indonesian, but when people talk about the Gili Islands, there are referring to 3 tiny islands off the coast of Lombok- Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air. These tropical islands have quickly become a top tourist destination for a number of reasons. These get fantastic weather year round, even during the rainy season. The beaches are beautiful and there is lots of fantastic snorkelling and diving right off the shore. And best of all- there are no bikes/cars on the island. These are small enough that you could walk the entire coast in under 2 hours, or take one of the horse carraige taxis if you aren't keen to walk.

After burning out on Bali, I made my way out to Gili Trawangan off the recommendations of many people. This is the most poplated of the 3 islands and has a ton of little bars and cafes. There is also a nice hill in the middle which has an old WW2 bunker and some good views of the islands. With no real plan, I ended up spending a week on Gili T and celebrating Christmas there. After Gili T, I made my way to Gili Meno for 2 days. This is the least developed of the 3 islands. There are only a couple of restaurants and not a lot of people there. Perfect if you are looking to escape from it all. I then spent 2 days on Gili Air which falls in between the other two in terms of development. I found this one the best as it had the perfect balance of finding an isolated spot to hang out to a decent bar scene where you could go out and meet other travelers.

After spending close to two weeks on the islands it was finally time to leave. A part of my felt guilty for spending all the time and seeing very little- especially after my New Zealand trip where I was moving to a new city every 1-2 days. On the flip side the islands are just so beautiful it is tough to leave and head back onto the more developed Bali.

Bali, Bali, Bali

Bali, Bali, Bali

First landing in Bali was a complete culture shock. After spening a month in the mild if not cool temperatures in New Zealand and landing in 90 degree weather with high humidity was a BIG change. Once you get past customs there are tons of people trying to sell you taxi rides, rooms, souveneirs, food, you name it. The first city most people go to in Bali is Kuta, where tourism started on the island.

Just getting to Kuta in the taxi was a trip. For anyone who has not been to an Asian country to see the driving, it is unlike anything else I had seen before. Traffic is this free flowing river where cars and motorbikes will weave in and out of each other with inches of separation. I'm not even sure why they bother painting lines on the road since they really mean nothing.

Once in Kuta, the craziness just continues. Super crowded and narrow streets that have an abundence of vendors trying to get your money. You quickly learn that your best bet is to just ignore everyone and continue on your way. The beach on Kuta was even more of a disappointment. There was a 5 foot solid line of trash that lined the beach. After spending just a couple hours there I knew I had to move on and made plans to go to Ubud, the cultural capital of Bali.

Once in Ubud things got better, but there was still the constant buzz of traffic and people trying to sell you things. The good thing was that there was a lot more activities to do in the area that didn't involve drinking or sitting on a trash filled beach. It is cool getting out of the city and walking among the rice fields. I also hired a driver for a day and got to see an ancient temple and go and ride elephants!

I found all the culture here to be amazing. Most of the buildings were very ornate and had intricate stone carvings on them. The Balinese are constantly preparing little offerings with rice and flowers and putting them on the street. I went to music/dance show which had some awesome music with a band of about 15 people playing all kinds of percussion, bells and flutes. The dancers were quite intricate with their performance and it was enchanting to watch.

However, after a few days in Ubud I was still overwhelmed by the tourist culture in Bali. I heard from mutliple people that the Gili islands were THE place to go in Bali so I made plans to make it out there and see what all the buzz was about. More to come on the Gilis in the next post...

Swimming with Dolphins and Earthquake Disaster Zone

It's hard to believe that I've already been in New Zealand a month and
that I'll be sitting on the beaches in Bali tomorrow. I'll post an
update summarizing my my trip in New Zealand, but here are the last
few days:

Kaikoura - This is a little city on the north east part of the coast.
I came here for one reason and one reason only... to swim with
dolphins! I woke at 5 in the morning to get out on the boat and see
the dolphins when the waters are calmest and the doplhins are starting
to congregate. After cruising in the boat for about 15 minutes we
started to spot dolphins in the water near our boat. Within a few
minutes after that we were in the middle of a nice pod of doplhins. We
jumped into the quite chilly water with our wet suits and snorkeling
gear and started to play. The doplhins are all wild so it is pretty
amazing interacting with them. There are some things you can do to
attract them including making high pitched noises and diving into the
water. It was unbelievable swimming there. The dolphins would get to
within a foot of you and then just swim fast circles around you. You
would be following one dolphin and then another two would just swim
right under you. They didn't have any fear of humans and were more
curious than anything else. After the first pod had dispersed, we got
back into the boat and found another. Overall we spent a total of 50
minutes in the water, but it sure didn't feel like it! On the way
back, we got to view the dolphins from the boats doings flips and all
sorts of acrobatics. Our guide estimated the number of dolphins to be
200 spread all around us. An amazing experience that was unlike
anything else.

Christchurch - As soon as you get into Christchurch from the
country/suburbs something feels off. After this city was hit by the
earthquake over a year ago, a lot of people had just moved out of the
city. As a result it feels like a ghost town. Wide 3 lane streets only
had a few cars on them even in the middle of the day. This was before
reaching areas destroyed by the earthquake. Once you get closer to the
city center, you start to the damage. Broken doors/windows, collapsed
brick lots and empty lots where buildings once were. EVen a year
later, there is still a lot of cleanup and rebuilding to do and I can
only imagine what it looked like immedietly after the quake. The
biggest casualty of the quake was the cathedral in the center of the
city. The quake had taken down the iconic belltower that defined the
skyline and damaged much of the rest of the building. The downtown
area was closed for about 4 blocks around the cathedral, but they had
opened a path where people can get close to the cathedral and take a
look. It was unbelievable seeing all the damge from the quake. I had
seen pictures of disasters but nothing compares to the raw emotion
that sweeps over when you are in the middle of it all. I had to stop a
couple times and take a break from being so overwhelmed. Hopefully the
city will continue to recover and get back on it's feet.

Dunedin + Mt Cook

Hard to believe that I've spent a month in New Zealand already and I'm leaving just a short few days!

 

After Milford Sound I headed to Dunedin- the "college" town of New Zealand. It was a bit quiet here since college had let out for the summer and the weather was a cloudy and drizzling at times, but that didn't stop me having fun! They are some great tours to do in and around the city. The first was the Speights brewery tour. Speights is the most popular beer in New Zealand and they have some great flavors. On the hour tour, the guide gave showed us around this functioning brewery and we got to try 6 different beers! The factory has recently been working overtime- the other Speights brewery was located in Christchurch and since that was destroyed by the earthquake the had to move all of production down to Dunedin. They are brewing close to 24 hours round the clock here. The next tour was of the Cadbury factory. They gave us lots of yummy chocolate and it is awesome to watch all the high tech machinery they have to produce, package and ship their chocolate. Finally I headed south out of town to the Otago Penninsula on a wildlife tour. I was pretty skeptical of this at first but it proved to be well worth the money. I got to see a seal colony from about 50 feet away, including many recently born baby seals! We also got within ten feet of some sleeping Sealions, they are surprisngly not alarmed by any human contact. There were also some penguins that we saw! These can be a bit shy and skittish at times, but one of them was curious and walked to within a couple feet of our tour gruop!

 

After Dunedin it was onto Aoroki/Mt Cook National Park. This is the home of the largest peak in New Zealand- Mt Cook of course! It also contains 22 of the 27 other highest peaks in the country. The mountain ranges sit on a fault line and are still growing upwards at a rate of ~5mm per year as the plates shift into each other. With only one night to spend here and my bus arriving in the early afternoon, I had no time to spare. After checking into my Hostel, I went immedietly to the info center to plan my hike for the day. The plan was to head up to Mueller hut and then from there a short distance up to the peak of Mt Olliver. The path was only 5.2km long, but with something around 1200m of elevation gain this was no easy feat. The views coming up the mountain were amazing and just kept getting better the higher you went. The snow capped mountains were in every direction you looked. Occasionally, I would hear a rumble in the distance and be able to spot a small avalanche coming down one of the mountains. The hut itself was quite nice- it had beds, potable water and cooking stoves. If I had done more thinking ahead, I would have stayed here for the night. The views were already amazing in the early evening and I could just imagine how great dusk/sunset would have been. After getting up to the Olliver summit, I made my way back down. This included several sections of snow which I could just slide down. Much easier than climbing the steep elevation gain I was doing on the way up. Since I was so late in the day, I saw a total of 3 people going down. It was awesome being able to enjoy the undisturbed wildness. I would love to come back to this park again and do some of the longer multi-day treks... next time :).

Glaciers, Skydiving and Spectacular Fiordlands

Lots to talk about and so little time! Without further ado, the highlights from the last week:

 

Franz Josef Glacier - The Franz Josef glacier is a massive glacier located on the west coast. They have various tours you can take on the glacier, including a helicopter that will drop you off where you can spend the day hiking. I opted for the 8 hour guided tour where you strap crampons to your feet and spend the day climbing over snow/ice, narrow valleys and even some ice tunnels! They had a big rock avalanche a couple months ago which destroyed one of the paths up, but the valley is quite wide so there was still plenty of room.

 

While in Franz Josef, I met quite a few people on the same route as me, a couple of which had a car! Various groups of us spent the next week or so traveling around until our paths brought us separate ways. It was great having a group of people to travel around with for a change!

 

Wanaka - The drive down from Franz Josef to Wanaka was beautiful. This starts off going along the coast before pulling into Haast pass through the mountains and along some lakes and rivers. There were great views of mountains, including the towering Mt Cook. It seemed like every 15 minutes we would come around a corner and see majestic view that we would just have to stop and take pictures from.

 

Wanaka itself is a gorgeous little town. It sits right on the lake and the weather was perfect when we got in. We knew after an hour that we just had to spend another night here. They have a cute little movie theater in town that just has a single screen with couch seating and even an old car you can sit on the side. Wanaka is one of the top places in skydive in NZ, and with the gorgeous weather I decided it was time to make the jump and booked a trip for the next day. Unfortunately due to heavy winds, the jump kept getting delayed until they finally rescheduled for the next day. The sky wasn't quite as clear but it was still amazing. It's crazy falling out of a plane and how disoriented your brain is when you first barrel out. Definitely something everyone should experience once.

 

Also in Wanaka we spent lots of time lounging on the beach and swimming in the quite cold water. They also had a museum called Puzzling World with a life size 3-d maze that takes about an hour to complete along with all kinds of optical illusions inside including a room that has a slanted floor and makes for all sorts of interesting experiences. Having a couple drinks in there would be quite entertaining :).

 

Queenstown - With time running out, I only spent one night in Queenstown. While a small city, this place is hopping with activity. A thriving night life and every type of adventure sports you could want, skydiving, bungee you name it. After seeing a jet boat earlier in the trip, I decided I had to do this in Queenstown. A jet boat is a super manuaverable boat that is propelled by a stream of water and designed for navigating shallow waters, it needs only 4-5 inches of clearance! Our driver was taking us up down a narrow riverbed and taking us within a foot of towering rock cliffs and doing 360 spins at will.

 

Milford Sound - Milford Sound is one of the highlights of New Zealand. Despite it's name this is technically a Fiordland which was carved out by glaciers millions of years ago. I took a quick cruise through the sound and got to marvel at all the tower rock cliffs and spectaular water. This place gets about 90 feet of rain per year over with about 200 rainy days a year. For me- it was a beautiful day with the sun shining and had been for a couple days before. This had the unfortunate side effect of drying out a lot of the waterfalls that feed off the cliff. I'd love to come back here and do the 3-day trek and see all the terrain on my own. Unfortunately the track books up months in advance!

 

Well that's all for now! It's hard to believe that I've only got a week left here. The current plan is to head through Dunedin, Mt Cook, Christchurch and Kaikoura. A tight itinerary but there is still so much I want to see here!

To the South!

After a week and half on New Zealand's North Island, it was time to head south! The ferry ride across Cook Strait to Picton takes just under 3 hours.

Picton is a quiet little town. I did a quick hike along the water and then spent the afternoon heading just south to the Blenheim area to do some wine tasting. I'm not a huge wine drinker, but this area produces some world renowned wines and it was cool checking out all the vineyards and tasting the different wines. There were some quite tasty dessert wines.

After Picton, it was on to Nelson to gear up for my 2 day trek through Abel Tasman. I didn't get a chance to spend a ton of time in town, but it seemed good sized and would've been fun to go out for a night or two.

Abel Tasman... wow! This is the most popular park in all of New Zealand. The park runs along golden beaches, lush forests, marine reserves (with seals and penguins!) granite cliffs and tidal bays, all overlooking a clear green sea. There is really no way that a description can do justice to how beautiful this place is. It seemed that every corner I turned, I was stopping to take in how amazing this place is. It's easy to see why this is the most popular. Despite being the most popular, I did not find it crowded at all and it is always great to be able to enjoy the wilderness on your own.

The main track runs about 30 miles and there a lots of other side tracks that can be done if you have the time. Since I was on a tight schedule I did the track in 2 days, although it would've been great to spend an extra day or two here and enjoy the majesty of  Abel Tasman. The track is tidal, meaning that some of the sections can only be crossed during low tide and often have no alternative route. This means that any trekkers will have to plan their days carefully so they don't get stuck. One of the cool things about a lot of the tracks in New Zealand, is that there are huts along the trail where you can rent a bed for a night. This saves you from carrying all that camping gear around, although there are plenty of sites as well if you do want to camp. Since I didn't have any gear out here, I opted for the huts. It was a LONG two days doing about 15 miles each day, but there wasn't a ton of elevation change and having a light pack made it that much easier. Although I still ended with quite a few blisters on my feet.

Next is to head south along the western coast and spend some time on the Franz Josef glacier. Until next time!

Wellington and more!

After spending an epic day summitting Tongariro, time to head south.

I spent the first evening in Napier, a little town on Hawkes bay on
the eastern side of the island. There are lots of wineries in this
region and I was hoping to do a tour but wasn't in town long enough
and too disorganized to get anything going. Instead I spent some time
walking along the a great shoreline and heading up to some bluffs that
overlook the city and caught the sunset there. Not the worst day, but
in hindsight I probably would have skipped it and headed straight for...

Wellington!

After spending a few days in this city I still feel there is still so
much more to see. I was quite fortunate to have a friend I met in the
Cook Islands- Mark- who lives in Wellington spend half a day showing
me around the city, giving me the rundown of the history and the
hidden gems in town. Despite having only ~400k in the metro area-
Wellington is a very centralized city with a ton of great attractions.

Wellington is unique in that they designated the entire range of hills
that encircles the city as a park. Going up Mt Victoria on the eastern
side of the city gives some great views of the city and harbor. But
damn it was windy up there! According to one of the placards, the
winds in Wellington blow at or above ~35 mph for half the year. I've
never been to Chicago but I can't imagine it is windier than Welly...

Some of the other highlights:

Te Papa museum - This is a 6 floor (and free!) museum right on the
harbor in Wellington. Lots of cool things here including a collosal
squid, lots of exhibits on earthquakes and volcanoes in NZ (including
an earthquake simulator), the history of NZ and the unique wildlife
that evolved on the isolated island and how that dramatically changed
when colonization began.

Museum of City and Sea- This contained a lot of the history of
Wellington. The coolest thing here was they

Lord of the Rings movie tour! We had a guide show us around to some of
the filming locations for LOTR and play the clips from the movie that
were filmed there. After hitting about a dozen or so locations (and
doing corny poses mimicking the movie) we headed to Weta Cave- the
museum/store of Weta which did the special effects for LOTR and a
whole slew of other movies. They had some amazing models on display
including the Uruk'Hai, Saurons armor, Gollum and a dozen of the
swords used in the movies.

Finished that off with finding a bar to watch the Patriots play Monday
night football (on a tuesday afternoon!) and then catching the ferry
south to Picton. The ferry was decent but I have to say that some of
the ferry views from Seattle and San Juan islands are more impressive.

More to come on south island adventures when I get a good connnection...

Volcanoes, Glowworm Caves and Hot Springs!

New Zealand thus far-

Auckland - As far as cities go, I didn't think Auckland was everything special. Most the people I talked to said the same thing and it wasn't neccessary to spend more than a couple days there. While there I spent some time walking around the city, they have some really nice parks and a decent Museum but nothing too crazy. I also spent half a day taking the ferry out to Rangitoto - a volcanic island and hiking to the top. There were some pretty cool lava caves on the side that you could go and explore! Note to self- a flashlight would be very helpful next time. The entire city of Auckland is built on a "dormant" volcano field- though Rangitoto was the last one to erupt... only 600 years ago!

Waitomo - Waitomo is a tiny city a few hours south of Auckland. This region of New Zealand produces a large portion of the worlds dairy products. Just riding the bus out of the city and seeing the awesome landscapes was refreshing. I'm not sure how many times I looked around and thought I was in the Shire. BUT the real reason I came here was for the glow worm caves! Glow worms are moth larvae that are on the ceilings in dark caves. They trick flies into coming close to them as they mimic the night sky and then trap them in a webbing they dangle down from the ceiling for eating later! I did a black water rafting trip where you sit on a tube and float/climb down the river that runs through the cave system. At one point we turned all the lights off and just watched the glow warms in the pitch black!

Rotorua - A city built on geothermals! The people here use the power of the geysers to heat homes, water and even cook food in! They also have a great forest on the hill behind the city. When british colonists first settled in the 1800's they planted 150 different tree species to see what they could grow and use for lumber. The California redwoods are of course the biggest attraction. There are some great hiking paths through the forest with awesome views over the city, though some of the paths were closed for logging operations.

Taupo - A nice little city on a giant lake in New Zealand. A little ways down the Waikato river which flows from here, there is a thermal pool that runs into the river. It's awesome jumping into the steaming hot pool and then moving 10 feet into the chilly river! I also saw my first jet boat on the river. Jet boats are a super manuaverable and quick boat powered by two streams of water. These looked like a TON of fun to ride on and I'll definitely be doing it later in the trip.

Tongariro Crossing - An epic 18km through Mordor! This takes you past several peaks, volcanic craters, lava fields and lakes! The weather for the day started quite good, but clouds and heavy winds rushed in just as I hit the Tongariro summit. Had conditions been that bad before I went up, I probably would not have done it. I'd love to go back on a nicer day and do this hike. On a clear day you are able to get coast to coast views! About halfway through the descent out on the opposite side, the terrain quickly changes from alpine to dense forest. I sudden change was quite surprising!

Next stop is Wellington! Until next time!
Brandon

Until next time Cook Islands!

I landed in Auckland this morning and now that I'm in a civilization with decent internet… it's time for updates!

After spending 10 days on Rarotonga- the biggest and most populated of the Cook Islands this is a great place to go if you want to have a relaxing vacation on some beautiful beaches. The island is quite small, about 10,000 people live there and there is a 32km main road that circles the island where all the action is. There are few activities on the island, so a lot of my days were spent reading on the beach and trying not to get sunburned.

One of the first things I did was the cross island trek. The path takes you up to Te Rua Manga, also known as "The Needle" because of its needle like appearance in the sky. The hike was about 450m elevation gain over 5 miles. This seemed like a quite easy trek, but it turns out most of the elevation gain is in a stretch of < 1 mile, which made that part SUPER steep.

Once at the base of the needle, there are some beautiful views to the north and south of the island. The official path ends at the base of the needle, but there is a metal chain bolted into the rock that you can use to scramble to ¼ of the way around the needle at which point there is an old rope that goes straight up! Going to the top is not recommended and I did not feel like trying my luck that day.

After you reach the top, you descend back into the forest and navigate along a stream. We ended up losing the path at one point and had to spend half an hour backtracking to get back on course. Once at the end there is a waterfall… but since it is at the end of their dry season there wasn't much to it. Our first thought was that it must be further down so we didn't take any pictures!

Other highlights include:

TONS of great snorkelling if you're willing to take the time to explore a bit and find where the good spots are. Given that there really isn't a ton of other things to see or do on the island (especially for those on a budget) I spent many a days exploring the waters. The beaches here are shallow for a ways out and there is lots of reef where the fish like to stay. Some of the highlights were finding some pockets of hundreds of fish that you could swim with and not scare off and seeing a couple of sting rays. I wish I had an underwater camera because there were some fantastic photo opportunities.

Opening a coconut and drinking the milk. This was a quite tedious task. First we had to throw stones at a tree to knock a young and fresh coconut down. After that you have to crack the husk and peel it open. Once that is done, you gently crack a circular section out of the nut so that you can drink from it. All in all it took about 30 minutes, but the juice inside was soo sweet and tasty and totally worth it!

Rugby! There was an international rugby 3-day tournament while I was there. This was a 7 player version which plays much faster than the traditional 15-man version. Luckily, I met a girl from my hostel who plays for the Houston professional team so she was able to explain all the rules to me so I wasn't a completely clueless American. It was quite fun to watch the games although they were played in under 20 minutes so I didn't feel a lot of back and forth or deep investment in the game. Still was a great day and I hope to catch another game in NZ or even try my hand at playing.

Island nights are a traditional song and dance of the Cook Islanders. This features dancers in traditional garb dancing to the beats of a drum group. The drumming was awesome and it was cool to listen to all the different rhythms and beats they would interweave with each other.

Farewell for now Cook Islands, I hope to visit again in the future!

Hello from Rarotonga!

I touched down in Rarotonga at about 7 AM local time. The weather here is a perfect 80 degrees and there is a nice ocean breeze coming off the island. I spent the morning walking along the nearly empty beach and taking everything in. I think I could've stood in the water all day.

 

As for the rest of the day-I'll be taking it easy for the rest of the day and settling in. I'm going to get a group of people together and hike the cross-island trail. It looks to be about 5 miles and there are some fantastic views and even has a waterfall at the end!! Keep your eyes open for some great pictures in the next couple days!

 

Brandon

 

Hello World!

Welcome to the Blog! My name is Brandon and I'll be chronicling my adventures here.

Starting today, I am embarking on a 2 month journey. I'll spend a week in the Cook Islands, a month in New Zealand and a month in Indonesia. I've got my plane tickets booked and a hostel reservation for the start of my trip, but other than no real plans or ideas on what I'll be doing. I've gotten tips from friends who have traveled to those areas who have given me tips and of course guide books to help me along.

This is my first time backpacking. For any of you readers who have never traveled or remember your first time leaving, it can be pretty intimidating. One of the best sites I found on packing for travel is here. The three big takeaways I got from this were:

1. Pack light, the lighter you are the more flexibility you have to move around.
2. You can always buy/discard items on the road, so if you're not sure if you need to take something- leave it behind.
3. The best time to pack for a trip is right after your return with all the lessons you've learned :).

Here are the contacts of my pack:

And with that I am off! Farewell and wish me luck!

Brandon