Down Under - the Epilogue!

It's really hard to imagine what a travel adventure is going to be like. You can plan where you are going and what you want to do when you get there, but you have no idea who you will meet along the way or the things that will happen to you by chance. In writing the travel blog it has helped to record some of these moments, but there are so many other little things that could have been included. It is these little things that that will fade from memory with time but I would like to keep hold of. I thought it would be good as an aid memoir for us, and maybe of interest to yourselves, for these to be recorded here, which I will try to do.

Singapore, the Garden City, was a wonderful place to start our adventure. Although, just a stop over on the trip to New Zealand, it is certainly a great destination in its own right. Its busy, vibrant, interesting, very clean and very civilised. We were taken with how respectful people are to older folk. I wasn't necessiarly too pleased with this aspect. Wherever I travelled I was always being offered seats by young ladies who had just been smiling at me. Contrary to what I might have been thinking, they were definitely thinking "Ah, that old gentleman needs to sit down, I must offer him my seat". Sue couldn't believe her eyes when a group of teenage boys heading towards an escalator, all laughing and joking, immediately stepped aside to let us go up first. We know that Singapore has a reputation for order, beauty and cleanliness but its not until you experience it first hand that you realise how inspirational it is for how our lives could be. We witnessed people walk away from their wallet and phone, left on a cafe table, while they placed their order. Where else in the world would anyone expect to find them still there when they returned?

Signs in Singapore on the MRT make it clear the consequences of non-compliance. These are accompanied with pictures of citizens being arrested for shop-lifting, stealing, or other crimes and the associated jail terms. It seems harsh, but if this helps to bring about a very respectful, law abiding, safe environment for everyone within which to live, it seems to be doing a good job. We also noticed the large number of major attractions around the City that are free for the public to enjoy. Where attractions were charged, the discounts for senior citizens were significant, again showing great respect and regard for the elderly in society. We hope that Singapore will continue existing the way it was when we visited and we sincerely hope we will get another opportunity to visit in the future.

New Zealand was very, very different to Singapore, especially South Island. On our first day driving out of Christchurch to Franz Josef our impressions began to form. After half an hour the traffic on the roads had become minimal, the scenery was growing as mountains appeared ahead of us and the coffee was just gorgeous.

At this point I would like to share my travelling thoughts on coffee. Lets get one thing straight right from the outset, for all its great features, Singapore does not do good coffee. Whereas New Zealand can't seem to fail at producing the most wonderful coffee wherever you go. I did howerver, struggle with ordering my coffees. I would request my Cappuccino with no chocolate or cinnamon on top. Each time at the beginning in South Island I would be told, "Oh, you want a Naked Cappuccino". After a while I got into the habit of ordering my Cappuccinos naked, I don't mean without any clothes on, just that this always ensured no toppings.

After we crossed to North Island and I ordered my Naked Cappuccino, the look I got from the Barista, suggested she thought I wanted her to serve it naked. I quickly explained, no I just don't want any chocolate or cinnamon topping. "Why didn't you say that then", she frostily replied. My next order was much more tentative. I ordered it without any topping and explained that in South Island that's called a 'Naked Cappuccino'. The Barista lady just laughed and said, I've never heard of that! So I dropped it for the rest of my North Island coffee orders and reverted to "no topping please".

On arrival in Australia, there was again the most wonderful tasting coffee. Australia is very proud of its thriving coffee culture and I loved it. They obviously know how to make great coffees, but I apparaently still don't know how to order them. I continued to ask for a Cappuccino with no chocolate or cinnamon topping. I even tested out the "Naked Cappuccino" description, but that doesn't work in Australia either. What I wasn't expecting was the reaction to my order, "No such drink, mate". I questioned, can't I have a Cappuccino without a topping? Yes, you can - but its called a Latte, do you want a Latte? No, I like a Cappuccino without a topping. "OK mate, I'll get you a Latte". "Isn't that made differently", I asked. "No", said my friendly Australian Barista, "a Cappuccino is a Latte with chocolate or cinnamon on top". I even tried this out again at my next coffee stop and was again immediately told that what I had ordered was a Latte. Her expression went on to say "but you don't have to order it in such a complicated way, you could just ask for a Latte". Well knock me down with a feather. I'd love to try this one out on a London Barista. We think the world is getting smaller and through the medium of technology everyone knows what everyone else in the world is up to, but when you start to travel around, its the differences that really stand out, especially with coffee orders.

Getting back to New Zealand we were struck with how friendly everyone was. Unlike London Tube passengers, New Zealanders go out of their way to chat to you. I don't know if this is due to not bumping into many other humans that often, especially in South Island. Your whole approach to travelling around has to be adjusted. After years of driving in the UK, where you are never far from a cafe, fuel station, supermarket or residential area, you can go for a long time in South Island without coming across any of these things. However, we would ultimately come across a General Stores, or a small group of properties with a wonderful cafe, where we could get breakfast, a pie or a delicous cup of coffee (coffee ordering difficulties excepted).

We'd then head on and after a couple of hours of the most wonderful scenery, rivers, mountains, sheep or cows grazing, there were still no signs of any civilisation. I am including in this things like, hedgerows, stone walls, directional signs as well as buildings or any humans. I would wonder how people existed or even found their way around, but then realised, the SatNav was showing me the directions I needed. It's next instruction read "turn right in 176kms".

Don't let me miss the next turn, its coming up in 176kms

The one form of transport that cropped up more often than not were camper vans. In discussion with one local we managed to find, we commented on the lack of locals. "Oh yes", he replied, "its well known amongst us locals that the last one to leave New Zealand has to turn the lights out."

It was a bit of a shock, travelling by ferry from South Island's Picton to North Islands Wellington. Immediately in Wellington your're straight back into buildings, shops, industry, heavy traffic and humans everywhere. Not all of North Island is as busy as Wellington, which is obviously the Capital City, but it is much more Anglicized than South Island.

A feature of North Island is its closeness to volcanic activity. It seems very strange to me that there are thermal parks in significant urban areas and often surrounded by residential homes. The power of thermal springs bursting out of the ground at regular intervals, or constantly boiling mud baths is awesome. It was great to visit and to ponder why white hot magma was obviously so close to the earths surface, but while reflecting on this you also start to wonder why you are standing in close proximity to what might be the worlds next biggest volcanic eruption. I had to order a coffee, just to take my mind off it.

Sue and I throughout the course of our travels spent 45 days living in a two berth camper van. I can hear you all asking Sue, how did you manage that? Surprisingly, it went very well, but there are a few considerations others might benefit from if considering doing something similar. There is only enough space down the centre of the van for one person and in the middle there is the cooker, sink and fridge on one side and the toilet on the other. This results in a significant proportion of our 45 days being spent waiting to get to the other end of the van. This required one person to move to an end while the other came through, then they could revert to their original position at the same time as the other person had completed what they wanted to do and now wanted to come back. I think you get the gist. Putting this aside, its very easy to talk to each other. No one in the van is ever more than about two metres away from any other occupant, so all discussion can be heard. This was a very enjoyable novelty. At home Sue and I wonder about the house talking to each other and probably only pick up about 25% of whats being said. The word most commonly used at home is "pardon". It was really good to spend so much time talking to each other without every other word being pardon.

The shower in the camper van was never used for showers, for good reason. The cubical containing the toilet, shower and sink was in fact the entire shower cubical. You can enter easily enough but it was essential to enter orientated in the direction for the necessary activity as it was impossible to shut the door and then turn around. Coming back out to reorientate was also inconvenient as your travelling companion had inevitably taken your absence in the toilet as an opportunity to travel up and down the central passage. My final advice on campervan space, or lack of it, is wear a crash helmet while in the van if you are prone to headaches. Over the initial days I must have banged my head 4 or 5 times a day. I even got to the point that I just accepted the inevitable when moving around and stopped shouting out expletives every time it happened.

Even after taking all this on board, Sue and I loved being in the camper van. She had been affectionately christened as Miss Maui. On leaving a 5 star hotel in Sydney and getting back in Miss Maui for the last stage of the journey we both had the same thought, "how great is it to be back in Miss Maui and back on the road." We choose the 2 berth Mercedes Sprinter Maui as we were worried about driving a larger camper van 6,000kms around New Zealand and Australia, but I would now seriously consider a 4 berth in future, which is higher and wider but not really any longer. It is therefore probably just as easy to drive and park but would provide a more comfortable living space, especially for my head. The extra internal space would also make it easier to play hide and seek. This was hopeless in Miss Maui as there were only two hiding places - the toilet and behind the curtain in the driving cab. The other limitation was you couldn't get to the other end of the van when anyone was standing in the central corridor counting to twenty.

Just a final comment. We had lots of great advice along the wayfrom other travellers. Its great to talk and get their advice on places you are going to. Its also so enriching meeting strangers, in my case many of whom I was related to, and sharing time, food and adventures together. It was two girls from Newcastle, the UK version, we meet on our first night in Singapore who told us they missed the Garden in the Bay light show the previous night, because they had stopped in the wrong place. When we went, Sue remembered this and wouldn't stop where a large crowd had gathered waiting for the show to start. We kept moving into the main area where the biggest tree structures were, that actually formed the basis of the music and light show. Had we stopped at the original location we would have missed it, as had poor Layla and Shanon from Newcastle.

We also meet a couple our age who had been to Queenstown ahead of us. They had been Jet Boating on the Dart River and highly recommended this. I don't think Sue or I would have come up with Jet Boating on the Dart River in a million years, but this turned out to be one of the best experiences of the whole trip.

This leads to another revelation arising from this experience. Try not to be intimidated by your age. We took on a number of challenges that we could have easily skipped, but really enjoyed them. I got worried about the Sydney Bridge Climb, especially after doing a tree top walk at 100m above ground level with platforms that actually swayed while you stood on them. Not good. With the Sydney Bridge being at 134m high, I started to have some serious concerns about how I would fare up there. When we got to actually go up, it was so well organised. You wear a set of overalls, a full body harness and headphones for the climb leaders commentary. You are clipped to a safety line as you enter the bridge structure and the clip doesn't come off until you come down to the exit. The walk from one side of the bridge to the other at 134m above the road below was the toughest section for me. The gangway had a metal grid floor which you could see straight through. I couldn't wait to get to the other side and back on the steelwork of the main bridge structure. I would however hated to miss out on the shear joy of having done this even if a large proportion of that joy was generated from the relief of still being alive.

Finally, to all those who have been following, thank you for your support and kind comments. Its been lovely to have so many family and friends along for the journey. We think the experience of travelling helps to put our lives into focus. Family and friends are so important. Geographically travelling takes us further apart, but it also helps to bring everyone closer together in our hearts and minds, and on that basis, it is now our duty to find more destinations to help us continue the dream for everyone.

With lots of love,

Sue and Trev