Marph visits the Land of the Long White Cloud

Kia Ora! 

Wow New Zealand, North to South you did not disappoint and 3 weeks just wasn't enough. 

A land of mountains, lakes, volcanoes, glaciers, geothermal activity, pristine beaches and the flightless Kiwi. 

Enjoy this overview of our holiday in the Land of the Long White Cloud. 

All trips start with a Big Bowl of Pho at HCMC Airport! 

The orchid garden at Changi Airport in Singapore. 

We loved the orchid, sunflower and butterfly garden at Changi Airport and highly recommend a wander around if you have time inbetween flights. 

We arrived in Auckland and collected a rental car there.

The heatwave that was over Australia in January arrived in NZ at the same time we did, we came prepared for cooler weather but it was blistering for most of the 3 weeks. 

An afternoon walkabout at Auckland Botanical Gardens and city centre before travelling to Rotorua the next day. 

Kuirau Park, a free thermal park right in the middle of Rotorua. 

You could feel the heat lifting from this pool! 

An afternoon was spent exploring all the lakes in the central Rotorua area. 

NZ has sooo many lakes!!

Cooling off in the shade of the Redwood Forest. 

It was truly special and so calming walking around these giants.

Champagne Pool at Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. 

From Rotorua we drove through Taupo to Ohakune near to the Tongariro National Park.

In Tongariro NP we started with Tama Lakes, a 17 km warm-up hike with epic views of Mt Ngauruhoe (above) and Mt Ruapehu (in the distance below) on a clear day such as it was.

Lower Tama Lake with Mt Ruapehu in the distance. 

One of the bigger hikes of the holiday, the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. 

It was cloudy, misty and cool all the way to Red Crater and then cleared into a hot day. 

A challenging hike with steep uphill sections on scree slopes.

And then steeply down all the way after Blue Lake. 

But the views were worth it. 

A rest day with some shorter flat walks followed and then driving to Wellington. 

Views over Wellington, a city very reminisce of Cape Town and surrounds. 

The Interislander Ferry that took us across the Cook Strait between the North to the South islands and into the Marlborough Sounds.

Another beautiful and blistering day in the Marlborough Sounds. 

Sampling the local finest over a picnic with fantastic views over the Wither Hills at our accommodation in the Marlborough wine region. 

We crossed the South Island to the West Coast and headed south starting at Punakaiki.

The Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki.

Awesome coastal views in the Punakiaki area. 

The blue-grey waters of Hokitika Gorge. 

The retreating but still close, Franz Josef Glacier. 

The insanely and aptly named Blue Pools near Wanaka.

Lindis Pass between Wanaka and Twizel in the MacKenzie District. 

The Hooker Valley Track in the Mt Cook National Park, one of our favourite walks of the holiday. 

Mueller Glacier,

and the prize at the end, Mt Cook.

It was clear at the start of the walk but clouded over as the morning went on. We enjoyed relaxing by the lake waiting for the clouds to drift across revealing Mt Cook. 

Mt Cook and Lake Pukaki.

Lake Tekapo and the Church of the Good Shepherd.

Enjoying a stroll at the Lavender Farm in Wanaka.

#thatwanakatree

The next big hike of the holiday, Roys Peak. 

A steep and steady ascent to the top followed by a steep descent down the same track. Definitely harder than the Tongariro Alpine Crossing! But the views were oh so worth it. 

At the Insta-lookout point about 3/4 way up.

Almost there!

Views from the top of Roys Peak. 

A challenging hike but well worth the effort. 

Patagonia Ice Cream, a well deserved reward! 

Relaxing after the big hike.

One of many rounds of  Monopoly Deal Saigon card game.

Lake Wakatipu on another beautiful day, this time passing through Queenstown on our way to Fjordland National Park.

View from my window, Te Anau Downs in Fjordland National Park.

The Milford Road from Te Anau to Milford Road is filled with amazingly beautiful places to stop and views to marvel over. This was one of our favourites, especially after the rain, the water was raging!

Milford Sound. 

Our first day at the sound bucketed with rain (according to the cruise ticket lady it was a mild rainy day for Milford :o) but the clouds suddenly lifted mid-afternoon to reveal a still and picture perfect bay. 

The next day we enjoyed further views of the sound and into the Tasman Sea on a Discover Nature Cruise with Southern Discoveries incl. a stop at their Underwater Discovery Centre, well worth the extra hour. 

If my kitchen had these views I would be way more enthusiastic about doing the dishes! 

View from my window, The Remarkables Mountain Range in Queenstown. 

The shores of Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown. 

You can't come to Queenstown and not have a Ferg Burger! 

Thank you New Zealand! 

We hope to be back hiking in your glorious mountains again soon!! 

Cambodia: Temples of Angkor Unplugged

A trip to Cambodia is not complete without visiting Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor.

First stop was to purchase our Angkor Temple Ticket. We went for the 3 day ticket (valid for 3 days in 7 from purchase). And we arranged with a tuk-tuk driver for the next three days around Angkor. We really struck it gold with our wonderful driver Mr Sokhy. He is super friendly and we enjoyed many open conversations with him about his family and life in the area, his English is really good, he provided ice-cold (don’t underestimate this part!) water for us for the next 3 days, and he took really great care of us. Thank you so much Mr Sokhy! If you are visiting Siem Reap, get in touch with us for his contact details if you are looking for a super reliable and wonderful driver.

The wonderful Mr Sokhy!

He has a beautiful full smile but he was a bit shy in front of the camera. 

Ticket for the coming days secured, we made our way to the Angkor National Museum and found it so helpful (together with a visit to the National Museum in Phnom Penh) in understanding some of the history behind the temples, the different styles, a little bit about Hinduism and Buddhism, and the meaning of some of the temple symbols and carvings before visiting the actual temples. We didn’t take the audio guide this time and were ok without it, but probably would have picked up more information with it.

We did some homework before we left and all the info we read had some tips on how to avoid the crowds at the temples and the best order to do to temples in. This sounded great, but for the most part we found this wasn’t that easy in practice. There are two main circuits, the small and grand circuit, and the drivers seemed to want to stick to these routes and the order. The small circuit has all the main temples everyone wants to see and the grand circuit includes some others. We did the small circuit the first day, the grand circuit the second day and we visited the Roluos Group of temples on the third day, and we saw pretty much all the temples on those routes. There is a lot of information online about the different temples and the kings who built them, we are not going to go over that here, feel free to read up on that elsewhere.

Overall our best advice would be to go early. Temples open at 07:30 (except for Angkor Wat which opens at 05:00 or 05:30). Mr Sokhy picked us up at 07:00 and we arrived at the first temple of the day at 07:30, most of the tourists arrived from 08:00 and that first half an hour is just magic. It’s still cool and almost nobody around. Choose that first temple wisely! Other advice we read was leave Angkor Wat until the afternoon and we found this to be good advice, it was less crowded and starting to cool down and better lighting than the morning. Angkor Wat is known as the star attraction, but to be honest we thought there are better temples in the complex. Angkor Wat is impressive for its sheer size and we really liked the bas reliefs, especially The Churning of the Ocean of Milk, but it is not on our list of favourites. Visit for sure, but if all you see is Angkor Wat, you will be missing out on a lot. We also skipped sunrise at Angkor Wat and don’t feel we missed anything, except maybe crowds. After 3 days of temples we were expecting to feel templed-out but it was only the crowds and heat we were feeling tired of, if it was emptier and cooler we would happily have continued.

Our favourite temples in no particular order were: Banteay Kdei, The Bayon, Ta Prohm, Preah Kahn, and Banteay Srei.

Without further ado, please enjoy this bumper edition of the Temples of Angkor!

Banteay Kdei 

The first temple we visited and one of our favourites.

I love the 'smile' on this statue

The bottom carving in this image is thought to be of a dinosaur and no one can explain what it's doing in a temple of Angkor.

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm is the temple with the tree roots growing over the temple and made famous in the Tomb Raider movie. We visited Ta Prohm twice, the first time was so crowded it was uncomfortable so we came back first thing the next day and had a much better experience. The lighting was also better 30 minutes earlier, true story. 

Ta Keo

Chua Say Tevoda and Thommanom

Two smaller temples opposite each other on either side of the road. 

Hardly anyone stopped here so it was super quiet. Definitely two little gems. 

The Victory Gate of Angkor Thom

We entered the Angkor Thom complex at the Victory Gate and exited at the South Gate.

The seriously impressive Bayon Temple

Statue of Garuda at the Bayon

Also at the Bayon

Phimeanakas Temple

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

The shape of the towers is supposed to resemble that of a budding Lotus flower.

Bas reliefs depicting the Churning of the Ocean of Milk

Apsaras at Angkor Wat

Stone carved hermit in prayer, Bron's favourite figure to find at all the temples.

This one at Angkor Wat.

Pre Roup

Banteay Srei

The temple carved out of pink sandstone. The carvings, details and decorations here were so much finer than the other temples. 

Preah Kahn

A huge temple and so quiet with hardly anyone visiting, definitely a favourite.

It's hard to do justice to this temple with just a few photos. 

Overall we were quite amazed at the access tourists have at the Angkor temples, you can pretty much walk and climb over everything and go wherever you want. 

Neak Pean temple in the middle of a lake.

Entry to the lake is by a long boardlwalk through a wetland of sorts (pics above).

Ta Som

East Mebon 

Temples of the Roluos Group

The Roluos Group dates from the 9th century and the temples of Angkor are from the 12th century. 

A taster of the Temples of Angkor! 

It really was an impressive experience and definitely worth the heat and effort to get there. Highly recommend adding to your travel list! 

And it's time for the next holiday. See you next time from New Zealand!!