Scenes from Napier and Hawke’s Bay

After one night in rainy, rainy Wellington, we hightailed it over to the east coast.  Hawke’s Bay, and especially Napier, seemed like a really cool area.  But it was really hard to tell.  It rained the entire, and I mean entire, two days we were there.  The rain makes for great waterfalls, but ruined any opportunities for us to check out Napier’s Art Deco architecture.  In 1931, Napier was leveled by an earthquake.  The city used the opportunity to build itself back up in the in vogue style at the time.  Good thing our real reason to go to Napier was to meet up with our German friends Rod and Lizzy, who were at the tail end of their three month campervan journey around New Zealand.  Also even better thing we left when we did; Hawke’s Bay experienced severe flooding shortly after we left.  Mother Nature just keeps kicking New Zealand while it’s down.

Nothing else to do but try some wine!

Taken while hiding under an awning

Ditto!

Wine and cheese parties in the campervan are much more fun with friends

Scenes from the Marlborough Sounds

Between our time in Nelson and Marlborough, we were starting to feel like lushes. These regions are heaven for beer and wine afficianados.  Marlborough produces world-renowned sauvignon blanc wine, which, with its aromatic scent, crisp, clean taste and fruity notes is my favorite type of wine.  While we were there, it was rainy and foggy – of course – but the fall scenery is gorgeous.  I didn’t realize that leaves on the grape vines turned fall colors, so the golden hues were a pleasant surprise.

We learned the hard way during our South African wine tasting experience that maybe driving ourselves to the wineries is not the best idea, so we signed up for a wine tour. Basically a glorified DD (or at least the one we took), a driver takes you and others around to local wineries in a minivan. Like South Africa, the tastings are free. We visited six wineries: Cloudy Bay (good but expensive), Vavasour (pretty good), Spy Valley (also good, one of the last locally owned wineries in the area), Grove Mill (meh, too sweet), Highfield (good views) and Bouldevines (who knows by then?!?!)

I suppose I have to disclose that somewhere around the fifth winery, I made a complete ass out of myself. I was sitting next to Sean in the minivan’s first row of seats, which was next to a large open space by the door. I used to be an automatic seatbelt buckler, but months of none-existent seatbelts in Asia broke that habit. As the van rounded a bend rather sharply, I completely flew out of my seat and landed, hard, on my butt on the floor. I could hear the American and British girls who we’d been chatting with all afternoon stifle a laugh in the row behind us, and the Aussies in the way back let out a giggle. Sean tried to contain his laughter, but he didn’t do a very good job. After that, I felt like I should cool it on the tastings; I wasn’t anything more than a little tipsy but I didn’t want to feel any judgemental eyes labelling me as that girl on the wine tour.

The tour ends with a stop at the handmade Makana Chocolate Factory – a rather perfect way to end. We picked up some chocolate Easter eggs to go along with our newly acquired bottles of Sauvignon Blanc from Vavasour and Spy Valley for further tasting and evaluating.

The Marlborough Sounds are sea-drowned valleys in the northeastern most corner of the South Island. We only got a peek on the scenic Queen Charlotte Drive. We would have seen more on our ferry to the North Island, but - you guessed it - it was misty, rainy and foggy.

What could be more perfect than a rainbow over a vineyard?

Bottles lined up for tasting at Vavasour

When our wine tour refused to take us to the Moa beer brewery (even though their brocheres say they'll take you wherever you want and specifically mention breweries), we were quite disappointed. Like an Easter miracle, Moa was open when we drove by on Easter on our way out of town. After all of our wine drinking the day before, we weren't really in the mood for beer, but like the true beer drinking champs we are, we couldn't pass up samples from this renowned craft brewery. Every beer we tried was pleasing, and we took a four pack for the campervan. Is it sad or commendable that we often didn't have room for food in our refrigerator? Don't answer that.

One of the views from Highfield Winery

Sheep!

Sheep, running away. They were really skittish.

Homeward Bound

Today, 408 days after we first set off, heading east around the world, we return home to Pittsburgh.

The big, fat, black raincloud that we picked up back in Malaysia followed us to Hawaii, showering seven inches just on Sunday alone and flooding parts of Kaua’i.  The bad weather this past week thwarted much of our plans, giving me way too much time to think.  I feel like I’m running in place, treading water.  The feeling I have can best be described as bittersweet – more sweet than bitter, more bitter than sweet.  It’s the end of the biggest thing I’ve ever done in my life, but it is time.  I’m ready to move on from moving on.

My thoughts race forwards, to excitement at seeing my friends, my family, my cat; to what I’m going to do this weekend; to tasks I need to take care of to reintegrate into everyday life.

My thoughts are in the present, but they’re all in terms of lasts, to the last Iced Mocha at Small Town Coffee; to the last Aloha; to the last tropical fruits; to the all too brief moment of sunshine on my face and sand between my toes, to the last pretty flower.

My thoughts race backwards, to the butterflies I felt sitting in JFK, waiting to embark to Barcelona; to fleeting memories of the past year; to disbelief that it is all over.  Other than my memories of New Zealand, the rest of it – all of it – is already fading fast.  Things like being in Ireland with my friends seem like an isolated vacation I took a long time ago.

Overall, I’m full of anticipation, because I don’t feel like my journey is over.  Sure, the perpetual physical motion is over, but the spiritual and mental motion in some ways is just beginning.  Even after college, I’ve never felt like my life is so open, so full of possibility, as it is now.

Future, what do you hold for me?  Only time will tell.

Scenes from Nelson (and Mapua)

Nelson lies on the central northern coast of New Zealand’s South Island. It is supposed to be the sunniest place in all of New Zealand. And it was for our first day, providing the perfect backdrop to relaxing next to our campervan, drinking our newly acquired limited edition Sprig & Fern Harvest Pilsner and chopping up fresh veggies from Nelson’s Wednesday farmers market for salsa. Day two, the rain started (and pretty much didn’t let up for the rest of our days in New Zealand, save for a brief reprieve in Rotorua). Good thing Nelson is a quaint little town with historic old buildings housing shops and cafes.  And furthermore that it lies in a hop growing region and has a thriving craft beer culture (like at the Free House, above.  Craft beer in a church – we Pittsburghers can get on board with that).  We forgave Nelson for its transgression in raining on us in the sunniest part of New Zealand.

By the way, if you are ever in New Zealand and you’re thirsty, you may want to check out some of the more notable beers we tried.  It’s a hard job vetting beers but someone’s got to do it.  New Zealand excels in hoppy pilsners and pales ales.  We really liked Sprig & Fern’s Harvest Pilsner (from Nelson, see below); Harrington’s the Rogue Hop Organic Pilsner (from Christchurch, recommended by a neighbor Ohioan now living in Motueka); Emerson Organic Pilsner (from Dunedin); Townsend Old House ESB on cask (from Upper Moutere, near Nelson); and the Moa range of beers (from Marlborough).

At the Mapua harbor, a little town on the way from Motueka to Nelson

Also in Mapua

I.loved.this.beer. I say loved in the past tense because unless I happen to be in Nelson again in April, this one bottle we picked up from the brewery is it for me. The Sprig & Fern is a local brewery with over 20 craft beers. The Harvest Pilsner was released days before we arrived and they expected to sell out within the week. It was crammed full of local hops, brewed on the very day they were picked. The result is a hoppy, crisp pilsner with an aromatic fruity aroma - sort of like the sauvignon blanc of beers. I was in love; Sean thought it was good but had too many fruit notes for him.

Downtown Nelson, centered around the cathedral

Riders on the Storm: Two Weeks in Rainy Malaysia

The island of Langkawi in Malaysia is only an hour and half ferry ride away from Ko Lipe, Thailand. When we left Thailand, it was sunny and gorgeous. As soon as we crossed the border into Malyasia (which, by the way, was our third border crossing by water), we were greeted by the storm cloud above. And that’s pretty much how it went during our next two weeks in Malaysia.

The near constant rain, combined with our excitement to leave Asia behind and start a new adventure, meant that Malaysia didn’t get our full attention.  We found Malaysia to be pleasant, but not overly exciting, probably half owing to our attitude at the time and the other half owing to Malayisia itself.  Malaysia is the most developed country we visited in Southeast Asia, although there was no mistaking that we were still a long way from home.  It also was sort of a culmination of our travels, reflecting religions, cultures and ethnicities we had encountered previously on the trip (the Cape Malay in South Africa, Indians in India, and Asians and Muslims in general).

It had been a long time since we encountered a country that is so ethically diverse.  About half of the population of Malaysia are Malays, who, according to the Malaysian constitution, are Muslims who practice Malay customs and culture.  The government grants certain non-Malay indigenous peoples such as ethnic Thais, Khmers, Chams and natives of Sabah and Sarawak a special “bumiputra” status.  These citizens makes up 11% of the population and get certain rights other minorities do not have, such as the 23.7% percent of the population who are of Chinese descent and the 7.1% of the population who are of Indian descent.  While the ethnic groups exist in relative harmony, they don’t mix much and there is resentment from the Chinese and Indians, many of whom have been in Malaysia for generations.

All of these ethnicities present in Malaysia means there is a broad array of architecture (including some with a British influence left over from the days Malaysia was a British colony) and most importantly, food.  We struck out with our attempts to find delicious Chinese food (I’m sure it’s out there, we just stumbled upon a bad tourist restaurant when we were famished) but our reunification with Indian food did not disappoint, nor did our foray into Malaysian food.  Maybe all of this variety means Malaysia is closer to home afterall.

Langkawi

Our quick two night stay on Langkawi, an island slightly more upscale than the backpacker havens we just left behind in Thailand, was mostly spent on the relatively affordable Cenang Beach, where we fit in a trip to the beach before we were rained out.  Probably the most exciting thing that happened to us in Lankawi was our realization that we had spent two days living an hour in the past.  We didn’t have a guidebook for Malaysia, and no one told us there was one hour difference in time between Thailand and Malaysia.  The locals were just as confused as we were when we couldn’t figure out where the 2:30 ferry to Georgetown was.  They kept telling us it left; we kept telling them that it couldn’t have because we were sitting at the terminal the whole time.  Confusion ensued until we realized that oops, it was 3:30.

I made friends with the kitty living in our hotel lobby.

Cenang Beach (before the downpours began).

Georgetown

Georgetown is known for its UNESCO World Heritage buildings and multi-cultural food.  We fit in a pretty good Indian meal and checked out the buildings around town before torrential downpours put an end to our exploration.

The City Hall in Georgetown

A Chinese influenced building

Perhentian Islands

We made a major detour over to Malaysia’s eastern coast because we heard the Perhentian Islands were fabulous and not to be missed.  We spent 6 nights on Perhentian Cecil, the smaller, more developed island of the two.  (More developed being relative, of course; the Perhentians are very low-key with just a sprinkling of locally owned restaurants and general type stores in shack-like buildings).  Unfortunately (and I’m sounding like a broken record here, I know) we were plagued by storms again, making our decision to stay in a real concrete room at the relatively expensive Shari-La Resort instead of one of the cheap dilapidated shacks a good one.  Perhentian Cecil is small.  There’s not a lot to do except snorkel, dive, boogie board, and sun at the beach.  We worked on our Advanced PADI scuba certification with Turtle Bay Divers while we were there.  The weather progressively declined, but we were able to fit all of our required dives in.  The constant runoff made the conditions were horrible – so much that we couldn’t even see our hands during our last dive, let alone any fish – which is a shame, because the diving is supposed to be amazing.  This just means we’ll have to go back someday.  Oh shucks, force me to go back to a beautiful lush tropical island with blue, blue waters.  I just hope our return trip won’t require a speedboat ride where us and our luggage get soaked from the pounding rain and the boat is trying to outrun a giant wave about to overtake us on our way to shore.  (By the way, March normally is well outside of monsoon season.  All of the locals told us the weather was very unusual – just our bad luck).

Our most favorite meal in Malaysia - roti canai. Much different than the roti in India or Thailand, this roti is more fluffy and slightly sweet. Malays eat it for breakfast dipped in a spicy curry sauce.

Chicken paprik from Eawan's Restaurant, which was in rain-avoiding sprinting distance from our chalet in the back of Shari-la's resort. Good thing, too, because Eawan is super friendly and his food is tasty.

The biggest critter on the Perhentians - a monitor lizard.

Coral Bay where we stayed.

We stayed at Coral Bay mostly for its great sunsets, which disappointingly never came out in full force during our stay. Dinner on the beach was still enjoyable.

One fabulous afternoon on Long Beach on the other side of the island.

Gorgeous. (But also really rough, which necessitated us trekking up over the hill - sometimes with our scuba equipment - to board the dive boat from the calmer Coral Bay).

Cameron Highlands

Another highlight of our Malaysia travels was the irresistibly green Cameron Highlands.  There are crops all over Cameron Highland’s higher elevations like hydroponic strawberries, but the one the Cameron Highlands is most known for is tea.  The green blanket of tea bushes over rolling hills is a beautiful sight.  We toured the BOH tea plantation and had a cuppa; chowed down on some tasty Malay and Indian food; and hiked through a mossy forest.

We loved the super cheap Indian/Malay restaurants lined up on the main road. We especially liked these ayom (rice pancake like things dipped in coconut milk).

Nasi Lemak, a Malay specialty. It is rice cooked in coconut milk, topped with a hot chili sauce, egg, sardines and cucumber.

Monkey Cup flower in the mossy forest

View of the Cameron Highlands

A blanket of tea at the BOH tea plantation

Kuala Lumpur

With 1.4 million people, Kuala Lumpur is Malaysia’s largest city and it is also its capital.  By the time we rolled into Kuala Lumpur, we were over Asia and ready for New Zealand.  Sorry, KL, I’m sure you’re a great city, but you didn’t immediately engage us and so that was that.  While we were there, we checked out Chinatown; went to KLCC Suria, a huge mall; and went to the viewing platform of the Petronas Twin Towers (a bit of a snore especially since they’ve already been topped and we’ve been there, done that).

Detail on an Indian temple

Petronas Towers from the ground. They are attractive buildings with their brushed steel and all.

Malay women getting some lunch at the mall food court.