New Zealand - magical, facinating and some what freezing cold

Good day :P

Thanks for the comments! Its much more fun posting stuff here when we know you read it and when we get some updates and feedback from you:)

Since Jorgen wrote a long blog post just a few days ago, I think some pictures and comments will do for today.

The beach in Napier, north west of New Zealand. The weather was really cold this day and the waves high


Here we're at a vineyard called Moana Park. After they have harvested the grapes they let the sheep run around the grapevines

Ready for wine testing

Craters of the moon. Volcanic activity boiling the mud, sending steam up from the ground. The whole area smelled intensely of sulphur

Volcanic lake

Celebrating Norway's national day, the 17th of may in Norsewood. A small town with Norwegian ascendants, a few hours north of Wellington

Selma and Jorgen in front of the new "stavkirke" in Norsewood. Weather is cold and wet, totally normal for 17th of may

Leikaring - This brings back old memories

A few new friends we made: Flyffy, Scryffy and silly Nelly

Sheep sheep and more sheep

Kiwi bird, kiwi fruit and goofy guy.

Giant kiwi with Hilde inside

Ready for some cold tubing action

http://www.waitomo.co.nz/Waitomo_Adventures/TumuTumu_Toobing_IDL=5_IDT=1213_ID=15046_.html

Today is our last day in New Zealand. So tomorrow we'll be on a plane to Fiji. Back to sun, swimming, snorkeling and warmth :) So long

Seriously!

What the fuck is wrong with powerdrunk New Zealand authorities??
The just can't stop hassling us.
Here is our first meeting with NZ soil.



Sniff sniff, jump jump, wag the tail. Yes its a drug dog, and it likes me(Jorgen) and of course it does, he looks just like Brum. He just wanted to play! But try telling that to the customs officer!
She's like all important and the dog has marked you, do you know why?
I did, I said that it obviously liked me cause those dogs do!!
Apparently this was not correct according to her, apparently it was drugs on me or I had been doing drugs recently. I tried calmly to explain to her that I have never ever tried or been in contact with any drugs. Do you think she listen or do you think the took both me and Hilde into the customs control?
That's right, we got to spend 100 minutes answering freaking silly questions over and over, while an officer went thru all our dirty laundry and what not. All the while I was asking if he just couldn't get the dog over again or even the other dog I saw they had to check me out. Since this was clearly a big misunderstanding. It didn't work, and after all our bags where turned inside out they had to sadly admit it seemed, that there was no drugs and no traces of any, which I told them all along.
Just because Labradors like me, we got the criminal treatment for 100 min.
Welcome to NZ!!

Now lets skip forward some days. We are driving along in NZ wonderful nature.
Just one problem, the guy in front of us is driving insanely slow as soon as there's a curve on the road and speeds up alot when its flat. We all know the guy, very hard to pass and very annoying to be stuck behind.
And finally there is an opportunity, just have to wait for a few cars then its a clear strecth.
I floor it(its a toyota corolla), and slowly we start to overtake this annoying dude.
We are passed and of course we are above the speed limit, cause he was too after 300 m of a straight road. We are getting back into our lane when what comes around the corner?
Yup, it's the state trooper, with lightning speed trigger finger on the laser. In 2 sec he has clocked us at 125 in the 100 zone. Not even sure how that works, he is driving in 100 km/h toward us and we 125 toward him, and in 2 sec he has our exact speed? Sounds like an educated guess to me, which I didn't tell him. I tried to explain of course that to pass I had to speed up like that, you bet he listened.
It was the first time in 3 hours I had actually been above the speed limit, we where out for a Sunday drive, but to make a safe overtake I had to speed!
He gave us a nice little ticket, no warning, no I saw what happened and I understand. You are tourists and you should enjoy our country just don't do it again.
He had a mustache and just as powerhungry as the Norwegian "tronderbatalionen".

Your all thinking, isn't he done yet? No I'm not!
One more thing.
We went into Woolworth the other day, just to pick up a few things.
Pasta, chocolate, eggs and a bottle of 7$(26kr) white wine.
Behind the counter is a 18 year old girl, when you buy alcohol there is like a duty manager that has to come and punch in a code to confirm the customer can buy alcohol.
She is like a 150cm high lady in her mid 30's but looks like she is 45 ish.
She must be jealous, because apparently I am not old enough to buy alcohol, which means she believes I am 17! I try to explain I didn't bring my ID, which is outside in the car. Because in 1 month I'm turning 33 years old!(ok, I might not look like it, but unshaved as I was I don't look under 18 either).
So we tried to say that Hilde could buy it, she had her Bank ID with her, which yes isnt approved ID for alcohol, but it would sorta prove a point about our age.
This was not going smoothly with the duty manager, Hilde still looked to young.
And she said Passports and the Alcohol ID you can apply for over here is the legal ID.
We said fine, left the bottle on the counter and walked out.
But now out of spite, we had to prove her wrong. We took our passports and went back in.
We went all out and bought a 8$ bottle instead. Went to the counter, this time to a red hair acne boy.
Beep! Here comes the duty manager....
I take out my passport. She looks at it and says she needs to see Hildes as well!!!!
If I was buying for a 17 year old and got stopped the first time, would I bring her back in the second time? What if she was my 13 year old daughter? I couldn't buy wine in the store if I bring my daugther, sister and so on? What the fuck is up with the powerhungry authority stuff.
I'm a tourist trying to enjoy your freakin beautiful country but you are all ruining it for us!!
Thankfully we brought Hilde's passport. Handing it over.
And here we f... go again. Apparently we have foreign passports, WELL DUH!
And since we are foreigners there needs to be 2 people to control to see that the passports are real( personally I think she was to dumb to read a birth date).
We cant have the low level cashiers help her check the passports, no no. Peasants are equipt to such tasks, lets call up the store manager!
We have to wait for several minutes while he makes his way down. He looks hard and long, talks to his duty manager. Asks us a few questions and tells us why this is so important. And tries to explain why its an compliment that we look like we are 17 years old in their eyes.
I say using 15 min to buy a bottle of 7-8$ wine at the age of 33 isn't a compliment in any way.

Who in the world which isn't a duty manager or store manager at Woolworth would be so fucking stupid to commit the offence of passport fraud for a 7$ wine!!
Answer: NONE.

Rant over!
Next time we will talk about the beautiful NZ.

PS! What the f.. is up with "Wheel of fortune and With Stars in Their Eyes" being the most popular Tv programs here? No, it's not reruns, they still make them!!

Down Under

It's time for an update now:) We spent 3 weeks in Australia and are now in Wellington, New Zealand where Selma studies( Jorgens sister, check her blog if you havent already its awesome ).

Our first days down under, we spent in Sydney, doing tourist kind of things like the Wild life park, Darling Harbour, The Rocks and so on. The days we spent here were a little amputated because of my (Hildes) ear infection and dentist visiting. Sydney is a big city, with more people than in the whole of Norway combined. The first day we ended up in Chinatown, and that made us wonder if we were back in Asia again. When we were searching for accommodation the first day we fond a lot of hotels. Only the hotels in Australia are not a place you sleep and eat breakfast, it's pubs-restaurants-gambling spots. So that made it a little hard to find accommodation before we realized the difference.

After Sydney we took the train to Brisbane, and from there we rented a car to drive up along the north coast of Australia.

About 4 hours north of Brisbane we took a boat to Frazer Island. This Island is famous for its unique sand vegetation. It is the largest sand island in the world. And despite of being a sand island it has lots if vegetation, freshwater lakes and many different kinds of wild life. All kinds of trees and plants grew extremely well in this environment. We went on a trip around the island. First we went swimming in this freshwater lake.

Lake McKenzie, a freshwater lake on Frazer Island

We were told to watch our bags carefully because of the dingos in the area. They were known for running off with peoples bags.

Afterwards we took a walk in an old rain forest. It was incredibly beautiful to walk by this little river.

Rain forest walk

Looking for snakes and other creatures

Driving at the beach, no roads needed

After Frazer island we drove up the coast stopping by many towns and small places. Driving on the Australian roads we saw many snakes, wallabys, kangaroos, toads and rabbits. Unfortunately most of them were dead, lying in the road.

When we had been driving a few more days we went on another boat trip to an island called South Molle island. Here we stayed at a resort (the only one on the island). This resort had sort of a trial project going on. They called themselves Koala Adventure island, and didn't allow anyone under the age of 18 to enter the resort. The resort itself was quite nice with a big swimming pool, nice rooms (at least after we got an upgrade because there were so few people there), tennis courts, a golf court and much more. The downside was that none of the two restaurants were open (again because of the few people on the the resort), so the only place we could get something to eat on the whole island was in the resort cafe. There the food was really really bad. The selection consisted of hold-it like food called sousagerolls, gourmet pie (small pie with black goo oozing out of it) and mini pizza (wet, uncooked, tini tiny) mmmmmmmm.....

Yellow and black- striped spider right outside out hotel room door

View from hotel veranda

No doubt which country we're in

Really big things are obviously a big hit in Australia

Road trip stop

Looking for a bathroom at the old railway station

Ok, there will come some more about Austalia hopefully, but no more imagination at the time being.

So catch you later, we are off to meet Selma.

Don't worry mom, she looks really healthy and seem to have heaps of fun, her blog doesnt seem fake :P And she aint even freezing although she is wearing less clothes then we are, thats kinda strange isnt it?

One day in Kula Lumpur, Island of Gods and Gilli Air

When buying plane tickets to go to Bali, we had to stop somewhere along the way because there where no direct flights to Bali from Siem Reap. That's the main reason we stopped by Malaysia for a day. But then we received an e-mail from Air Asia saying our plane was delayed half a day, so we had a little extra time in Kuala Lumpur. Our hotel there was quite nice, with a view of the petronas towers.

Petrona towers Kuala Lumpur

When we again got back to the airport is was raining heavy outside. None of the monitors showed the flight we were supposed to be on. So after a while we got a but worried. Pacing back and forth trying to find someone to ask questions, but there were no information desk or airport employees anywhere. After a while we heard some Norwegian girls talking behind us. They were supposed to be on the same flight, but hadn't got any information either and were starting to get really annoyed. After some more waiting we asked a lady in an other gate about the screens and flights. She said they were all delayed because of the rain, and than sometimes the flights didn't show on the screens.

In the end the plane actually took of, and 3 hours later we arrived Bali, the island of gods. Since the flight had been delayed we ended up arriving in Bali late at night. And of course we hadn't booked a place to stay. Hilde was exited to be back in Bali and kept looking around for places to recognize. But she really didn't see anything familliar. Kuta was really loud with disco music and we saw (again) drunk Swedish 20-year olds wherever we turned.

The memory monument of the 2002 Bali Bombs in Kuta

The next day we decided to find a new place to stay a little out of the main party zone. We went to stay at Bali Ayu. The same hotel wich Hilde lived for 3 months in 2001. When we got there the receptionist asked: Have you been here before? I don't know if they actually remembered me (Hilde), but they made a huge fuss about it and thought it was very funny. A couple of the employees had been there since 2001 and I think I remember some of the faces. But anyways the room we ended up in was the same I'd stayed in 8 years ago (I didn't even ask for it).

Hotelbar at Bali Ayu

The next day er went to Jimbaran. A fishing village with a beautiful long beach. They were only serving fresh fish there, so there wasn't really a choice of what to eat that day.

A few days later we took a speedboat to the Gilli Islands right outside of Lombok. We stayed on the smallest of the tree islands: Gilli Air. This is a little piradiselike place with white coral sand all the way around the island, coconut groves, and happy, nice people around. Only about 700 people lives on the island. When we stayed at Gilli Air we did three dives. One of them was a deep dive. That is part of the advanced diving course and means that we can now dive down to 30 metres depths. The dives on Gilli were amazing. We saw some really big fish and sea turtles. And at one point there were actually a real shark swimming right towards us, turning away only 5 metres before it reaced us.

We stayed on Gilli Air for 9 days before we went back to Bali. Then Hilde had a pretty bad earinfection and had to see a doctor.

And after all of this we've just arrived Sydney, Australia. Hope you're all well back home :)

I really wanted to post more pictures, but the computer doesn't seem to cooperate...

Pictures of Nah Trang, Nui Ne (Vietnam) and Angkor Wat (Cambodia)

Sunrise over Angkor Wat


Tree covering the enerance. You've might seen this in the movie "Tomb Raider"

One of the older temples in Angkor wat

Jorgen at the white dunes in Mui Ne. Getting ready to throw himself from the top of the sand dunes :) Great fun

The sunset over the Red dunes also in Mui Ne

Hilde in the auarium in Nah trang. Looing at a lot og different kind of fish and fosiles

The places of bad Internet connections

After spending a little too much time in Hoi An, we didn't have much time left for the south of Vietnam.
So again, we dared to take the "sleeping bus" to our next destination: Nha Trang. We only stayed here for one day and one night. This day we wanted to take a cable cart to see as much as possible. What we didn't know was what on the other side of the cable cart there was an amusement park, a waterpark and an aquarium! So we spent the whole day in the park swimming, sliding, and looking at turtles, sharks and exotic fish.

Next day we got up early and took the bus to Mui Ne, a much smaller place with a relaxed atmosphere.
We probably should show you some pictures from the fairy stream and the red and white sand dunes we went too, but sadly the connections are so bad that it isn't possible. We been suffering from this for a long time now, hopefully when we get to Australia we will find a better connection and be able to upload lots of pictures.

After travelling for a while now in none wine countries we have started to like the Vietnamese Dalat wine, which we get for as low as 20 Kroner a bottle in the restaurants.(Looking forward to Australia though!)

Two days in Mui Ne, back on the bus to Ho Chi Minh just in time to get to the airport and our flight to Siem Reap (Cambodia).
The only purpose of the visit was to look at The Temples of Angkor Wat.
And boy'o'boy did we see some temples. First day, started at 9am. We wanted to get some consistence in our templewatching so we told the driver to take us to the oldest temples first. From 800-900 a.d. Our driver didn't really wanna go there since the temples was so small, but we convinced him. Compared to what we saw later, I guess they where, but they where still big great temples. So from here its temples and lunch and finally the sunset at the top of one temple, bit cloudy but still beautiful. and back at the hotel around 1830pm.

Yeah, you guessed right, that is a freakin long time to be walking up and down temples in 35 degrees and sun, sun, sun. So we decided that we should get an even earlier start the next day, by seeing the sunrise coming up behind the biggest religious building in the world, Angkor Wat.
5 am we left the hotel, groggy but ready to be stunned. It was picture perfect, except all the flies and mosquito's before the sun was up. We had a break after this to eat some breakfast and Hilde slept a few hours. And out we went again, and another sunset we saw, and whole bunch of more temples.

This evening we decided to eat at Deadfish Tower, who guarantee they don't serve, cat,dog,rat, and some other creepy things. After 10 min. Lisa and Steve which we last seen in Hoi an comes walking by. Small World, Big Temples.....

Siem Reap was very touristy, with many 5 star hotels and such, but still there are lots of problems for the locals still trying to get back after the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot massacre.
There are lots of landmine victims and orphans, and you feel bad for them. But you just cant help them all. And sadly after a while you get tired of the feeling that everyone regards you as a walking talking ATM. F.eks. This one little girl followed us on our way home one evening, and she was maybe 6 years old, pointing to her stomach and saying she was hungry. With a sad voice saying she wanted money. We decided that we should buy her something to eat at a store since she wouldn't let go of Hilde. When we came out she latched on to Hilde again, and started the same beg routine, Jorgen tried to give her chocolate and something else, but now she only wanted money. When she finally realized we wouldn't give her money, she let Hilde go while she pinched her hard. Not taking the chocolate she was offered. So clearly not everyone are so bad off as they pretend. But they keep begging for money cause its an easy way of making money.
Its sad :'( ( just to clarify, we gave money to landmine victims and schools and such where we knew it went too a real organisation.)

We are in Gili Islands outside Bali now, but that's for the next blog, this keyboards is so hard to type at, its killing my fingers.

Soon we will be better at updating and putting in loads of photos, hopefully.

Cheers!

Traveling around Vietnam

After 4 wonderful weeks in Thailand, we jumped on a plane to Hanoi, Vietnam. The first experience here was some nice men offering to take us into town with a taxi for a really good price. But a moment later a policeofficer started walking towards us. Then the nice men ran the other way. So i guess we were glad we didn't go with their taxi...

The next thing we noticed in Hanoi was the weather. After one month in constant sunshine and around 36 degrees we were a bit surpriced to discover fog, rain and 23 degrees in Hanoi.

The trafic in this Hanoi is horrible!

The motorbikes are everywere both on sidewalks and in the most narrow alleys. They are constanly honking and don't stop for anything or anyone. In Vietnam they drive on the right side of the road, like we do at home, but even though they're supposed to keep to the right, they just drive whereever they can fit their bike.

This is the temple of litterature. It's a quiet garden and a great escape from the rest of the noisy city. It has many big pools with fish and turtles. A lot of big thinkers has graduated here.

Look at this little cutiepie :)

After a few days in Hanoi we had seen a lot of buisy people aggressivly wanting to sell us everything and anything, narrow streets, too many motorbikes honking and a lot of rain so we decided to take the over-night bus to Hoi An.

This smal town is in the middle of Vienam. And the busride lasted for about 16 hours! The bus acctually had seats where an avrage Vienamese could sit or almost lie down. But still the seats were very narrow, so when we tried to find a comfortable position we were afraid to fall down on the people lying underneath us.

Hoi An

After arriving Hoi An the weather had improved. Its much warmer and sunier here than in Hanoi.

Hoi An is a plesant little town with good food and smiling people. The houses are like most we have seen in Vietnam small franch-inspired colonial houses. But there is also alot of really old buildings, dating back many hundred years.

The town is full of small shops, vendours, art galleries and tailors

Jorgen with a smiling Vienamese

This is a dragon in the midle of the canal in Hoi An

On the 16.th of march we diceded to give ourselves a treat: Three days at a fancy Spa Resort. It's the first time this jurney that we've booked in to a really nice hotel so we weren't feeling so bad about it. It had a big pool (with no people), nice rooms with fresh fruit, a great breakfast buffay, tasting of lokal food samples everyday from 5 to 6 and the service was great!

The next day we booked 2 hours of spa treatment. This was a strange experiance. First we were coverd with something they called Tamarin, sugar and honey porridge, was wrapped up in towels and left to dry up for half an hour. Then, after desperatly trying to remove the porridge in a shower we were sent back to our rooms. And now a new treatment was ready. This time it was (surprise surprise) another bowl of porridge. Now we were buttered up in oatmeal. It was quite sticky and even harder to remove than the first one. In the end we had sweedish and thai massages (much nicer than the porridge part).

Jorgen in his newest creation. Traditoinal Ao Daw Jorgen style.

Beeing in Hoi An we are now the proud new owners of: 2 new dresses, 1 pair of shoes, 2 traditional asian suits, 1 shirt and 2 winter coats. Exellent :)

"My Son" temples nearby Hoi An

Now we have been in Hoi An for 6 days, and are planning to head for Na Trang tomorrow.

Please keep updating us with news and comments from home:) We miss you.

So long