Post #166 - March 26, 2013 - Kuta, Bali, Indonesia

What we did: flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; flight to Bali, Indonesia
Budget: 760k Rp/$80; Spent: 923k Rp/$97

We arrived in Guangzhou at about 5am local time and we disembarked the plane outdoors. Thankfully, the weather was actually very pleasant, much warmer than New Zealand had been at night. We passed through customs quickly and then realized we had nearly three hours to wait before leaving on our flight to Kuala Lumpur. We walked around for a bit but nothing was open, so we settled ourselves into some seats near an electrical plug and started watching a movie called Out of Sight, with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez. It was pretty boring for the most part, but it was something to do.

Close to our boarding time we wandered over to our gate. Our plane to Kuala Lumpur was much smaller than our plane into Guangzhou, but it was still quite nice. We got another meal on the plane, but at this point we were pretty sick of airplane food. Our flight dragged on a bit and we were very happy to jump off of it in Kuala Lumpur.

We passed through security and customs with no problems and, because we were taking Air Asia to Bali and we were pretty sure it only has flights out of the older airport. We learned that we were correct and that we would need to take a bus to the other airport, but it’s easy to do that. In the meantime, we sat in the airport for a couple hours. We bought some coffees, Facetimed with Frank and Dan, and did some blogging. We were both feeling pretty out of it, but I think Patty was feeling worse than I was.

The bus to the other airport was cheap and pretty quick, and in no time our luggage was checked in and we were on our way to our gate. We tried to exchange some money for American, because we knew we would have to buy Visas on arrival in Bali and we needed exact change, but the money exchange kiosks only have US$100 bills. Not helpful. We decided that we would just figure something out when we landed in Bali and went toward our gate.

I was starving by this time and picked up a cheap chicken wrap from a restaurant near our departure gate. Unfortunately our flight was delayed by about 45 minutes and by this time we were definitely feeling the effects of traveling for so long. When our gate opened up we were very happy. It was about a 5 minute walk from the gate to the plane. I can understand why they built a new airport, because this older one is quite odd. When arriving in Kuala Lumpur from Thailand we had walked for about 10 minutes from our plane to customs. It’s a weird set-up.

The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Bali was only three hours, but it felt like the longest flight out of the four we had taken since yesterday morning. Neither of us talked much and by the time we pulled into the airport in Bali, I could barely keep my eyes open. Thankfully, when we started walking I think this woke us both up, so we were somewhat clear-headed. We needed exact change for our Indonesian Visas, which of course we did not have, so we had to use an ATM. It was a little annoying, but this seems to happen often and no one was bothered by the fact that we had to bypass customs to get money out of an ATM then come back through customs to pay for our Visas. Everyone was actually really nice about it. It's just a money-grab anyway, it's not really a security thing. So $50 later, we were through customs and on our way out of the airport.

We picked up a cab a little outside the airport so that we could get a decent rate. Our hostel is in an area close to the airport called Kuta, which is a major touristy area. The first driver we spoke to had no idea where our hotel was, but the second driver we spoke to made an effort call someone he knew to ask for directions.

The taxi ride was about 20 minutes and cost about $5. This made us feel very happy to be back in Southeast Asia! When the taxi pulled up to the hostel, we were somewhat skeptical that this was the place, but then the owner/manager knew my name so that settled it. The hostel is a very strange looking place and not very welcoming at night. The owner/manager told us that he had overbooked his four-bed dorm so offered us a double room for the same price. This sounded great to us! Our room, however, definitely isn’t anything like what we had in New Zealand. We've booked two nights at this hostel, so decided that tomorrow we would go looking for better accommodations!

By this point we were absolutely exhausted and we just went straight to bed.

Post #165 - March 25, 2013 - Wellington, New Zealand

What we did: plane to Auckland, NZ; plane to Guangzhou, China
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$105/$88

We woke up relatively early this morning because we had some things to do, including checking out and calling the clinic in Taupo to get our test results. When we woke up around 8:30am our two other roommates had already left, which is always a relief since we never want to disturb anyone. It didn't take long to pack our stuff since we had already changed rooms the day before and everything was mostly packed up. We had some time before our 10am checkout time so we decided to go have breakfast before checking out.

We went down to the kitchen and tried to eat most of what was left of the groceries we had purchased, including eggs, yogurt, an avocado, a baguette, and a grapefruit. It was well past 10am when I went to grab our bags to bring them down, and on my way out of our room I encountered some of the staff who were coming to move our stuff out of the room for us so they could clean it. We weren't that late… Anyway, it was no big deal.

Patty called the clinic in Taupo and it turns out that we are not infested with parasites after all! Yippee. Unfortunately, Patty’s urine sample appears to have been contaminated, so we’re thinking we’ll do another test, perhaps in Bali. We also tried calling our travel insurance company to extend our insurance for two extra months, but the sales department had already closed for the day, it being a Sunday in Canada. We’ll have to call them back in Bali.

Then, I talked with my parents for a couple minutes. My mom’s surgery is coming up in early April and she seems very excited about it. It’s unfortunate that we have such long waiting times in Canada for things that are sometimes very much needed. Patty talked with her parents after I was off Skype, and then we ate a quick lunch before heading out the door.

Our flight from Wellington to Auckland was leaving at 3pm and we left our hostel around 1pm. The bus ride was ridiculous: it was a ten minute ride and it was $9 each. Just a blatant money grab. We were pretty disgusted by that.

Wellington is a very beautiful city, though. It’s right on the ocean in a very hilly area. It was a nice ride.
We decided to fly from Wellington to Auckland mostly because of the amount of time we saved, but also because it was only about twice the price to fly as it was to take the bus! The bus is a 12-hour marathon, and the flight is a quick and easy one hour. It wasn't a tough call to make.

The airport is quite nice. We dropped off our bags and then Patty bought some MAC makeup from one of the kiosks we passed while going toward our gate. Oddly, there is security only at the gate, not a general security area that everyone passes through. This was new to us.

Our flight to Auckland was short and sweet. No sooner had we taken off than we were descending into Auckland. Fantastic! We had over seven hours to kill in the Auckland airport before our flight to Guangzhou, China so we spent most of it in the food court where we could access free wifi. Around dinner time we grabbed some Subway sandwiches. A little pricey, but that’s New Zealand.

With just over 2 hours before our flight was departing we checked in our bags. A very cute older man gave us some advice about booking onward flights from countries we would be visiting and then proceeded to upgrade our seats, though we weren't sure what he had done until we actually boarded the plane. We have no idea why he did it, but we were thankful!

Just before we went into security there was a large group of people standing around crying and hugging one young man. It was actually very emotional to watch. The young man must have been leaving for somewhere for a long time because almost every one of the 30 or so people gathered there was crying, young and old. We couldn't help but stop and stare. We never did find out what was going on though.

Once we were through security, we just found some seats by the restaurant area and waited for our boarding time. We were flying China Southern Airlines and when we boarded the airplane we confirmed our suspicion that the friendly man who had checked our luggage had upgraded our seats. We have never had so much leg room on a flight before. And considering it was an 11-hour flight, what a great time for an upgrade!

As on our way to New Zealand, we enjoyed our flight to Guangzhou, China. Our plane left Auckland at 11pm, so after eating a decent meal and watching the Bourne Identity, Patty passed out. I then watched the Bourne Ultimatum before trying to get to sleep. I didn't have much luck with sleeping on the plane, but Patty was out like a light. Hopefully I get some sleep at some point on this journey!

Post #164 - March 24, 2013 - Wellington, New Zealand

What we did: coffees at McDonalds, made paninos, chatted
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$77/$65

It was another chilly day in Wellington. When the sun is not shining the wind picks up and the temperature really drops. I suppose Wellington is a full 1000 km further south than Auckland, so this probably makes a difference, especially at this time of the year.

We packed our backpacks because unfortunately we had to switch rooms and left them in the luggage room. We then ate eggs, bread, and tomatoes before heading over to McDonald’s for coffees. We stayed there and chatted for most of the afternoon before going back to our hostel to make some paninos. They were delicious. It’s so nice to finally be making our own food, although we also can’t wait to return to Asia where we won’t have to spend insane amounts of money on accommodations and food!

After our dinner, we went into a common room at our hostel and chatted for the rest of the night. Frankly, we are getting pretty excited to leave New Zealand because of how cold it is. We are simply not prepared for the weather, even though it’s not that cold. We have practically nothing to wear to keep us warm!

Post #163 - March 23, 2013 - Wellington, New Zealand

What we did: walked around town
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$95/$80

It was another late morning this morning. We didn't wake up until around 11am. I tried in vain to call my parents, but Skype was painfully unhelpful. Patty called the clinic in Taupo to see if they had received the results of the tests on our bodily fluids. Apparently, Patty had quite an experience with the calling card. She had tried to use it in a phone that didn't accept that kind of card and it had gotten stuck. She tried to shake the card out of the phone, scrape it out with her nails, and then finally grabbed some tweezers and got it out.
It was another slow, cold day. The weather is really making us want to stay indoors. I wanted to walk up a nearby hill to get some views of town, but Patty wasn't interested, so I wandered up there by myself. Patty stuck around downtown where it was probably warmer.

The walk up the hill was pretty neat. Wellington is such a contrast to Winnipeg: it’s such a hilly city with neat little roads running this way and that. I got lost once or twice but made it up to a church that sits near the top of the hill. There were some pretty good views from up there, but it was a little too cold and cloudy to enjoy them fully. There was a little park up there that I wandered around for a bit and then headed back down to the hostel.

[pictures of Wellington from the hill]

When I got back to the hostel, we had a fairly meager dinner of soup, sardines, and bread, and then we worked on the blog before watching some of The Hobbit on our laptop.

Post #162 - March 22, 2013 - Wellington, New Zealand

What we did: walked around the pier
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$115/$97

• Woke up quite late this morning
• Went down to have breakfast and to do some trip planning; booked a flight from Wellington to Auckland for Monday, March 25, which is the day we are also leaving NZ, but we have plenty of time in between flights; hopefully no problems come of this! We were also looking into accommodations for Bali, but didn't find anything in particular
• Around 3pm we finally set out into the city and walked down the pier for the next couple of hours; it is a really beautiful place and perfect for a great afternoon walk
• We saw people jumping into the ocean from certain places, and there was even a crooked stairway that led to a dead end that people were jumping off of into the ocean, it was very neat; people from NZ seem to love scaring the heck out of themselves
• We also found a plank that jutted out into the ocean; at one point, school kids were playing on it; that was fun to watch
• Eventually we ended up on some rocks in a quieter part and chatted as the sun set over the city; it was a really nice place to sit because we were in the middle of a big city, but it was relatively quiet there; it was a good spot
• On our way back to our hostel we stopped by the grocery store to pick up some more food for dinner tonight; we made steak and potatoes, with onions and mushrooms; we were going to make a soup as well, but we were too full to eat it
• We then blogged a little and chatted late into the night; at one point a very drunk fellow wandered in, clearly from a night at the bar, and proceeded to tell us his life story about how he had lost the love of his life of 9 years only about half a year ago; he was crying on and off, seemed like he actually needed someone to talk to; he was an interesting person, but kept us up quite late with all his chatting
• Once he had left us, we went to bed

Post #161 - March 21, 2013 - Wellington, New Zealand

What we did: bus to Wellington, Te Papa Museum
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$117/$98

• Woke up at 6am to pack and eat breakfast before our bus to Wellington, which was leaving at 8am
• We thought we might see the German girl again this morning because she had a bus as well for Auckland, but she must have left before we made it to the kitchen area
• We climbed aboard our bus and slept for a good two hours before our first stop around 11am; we grabbed a couple coffees and ate our sandwiches that we had prepared for ourselves this morning
• The rest of the bus we spent either sleeping, enjoying the view, or talking; it was a beautiful ride; at one point we were traveling through a ravine and the road was snaking along the side of it; it was amazing, but didn't last that long
• When we arrived in Wellington, we were dropped off at the train station, which required us taking a bus to our hostel; we found an information centre and he directed us to the bus no problem; about 20 minutes later we were at our hostel
• Our hostel is more like a hotel; it’s a tall building and right in downtown Wellington, which is a beautiful city; we were very happy with our choice of a hostel, even though it’s a little pricey, but everything is pricey here
• We decided we would check out the Te Papa Museum, which was close by, and headed there after we had put our stuff away in our room
• The walk was a short one, but it took us right to the port area of town, which is really nice
• We entered the museum, which is free, and one of the first things we saw were replicas of the cave trolls from the movie The Hobbit; we took some pictures, obviously
• Patty noticed an exhibit that interested her, and that was the history of the formation of the islands of New Zealand, so we went to check it out; there was some very neat stuff about the earth and about the plates of the earth, and volcanoes, earthquakes, and pretty much everything that has shaped our world over millions of years; there was even an earthquake simulator that we went into, but it wasn't overly exciting
• It seems that New Zealand has experienced several devastating earthquakes and tsunamis and volcanic eruptions in its day; some very cool stuff
• After the museum, we walked back to our hostel, stopping at the grocery store to pick up something for dinner
• We ended up making tuna salad with chickpeas and eating that with a baguette; it was a very nice meal
• The rest of the night we chatted and were on the internet

Post #160 - March 20, 2013 - Napier, New Zealand

What we did: wine tour
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$204/$171

• Woke up again around 9am for free breakfast
• Went back to room again to rest before our pickup time of around 12:45pm for the wine tour
• After we slept we chatted a bit and contemplated eating lunch, but we knew we were able to buy some snacks along the tour so we decided to skip lunch
• A van came to pick us up from just a couple minutes away from our hostel around 1pm; we hopped in with a girl from our hostel and another guy
• We stopped in a couple other places to pick more people up; in the end there was seven of us
• The drive to the first winery took about 30 minutes; our driver was extremely outgoing and friendly
• Our first stop was a very nice place; wines were pretty good, but what we really liked was their dessert wine; it was awesome
• Our next stop was just a couple minutes down the road from the first place; here we had some great wines and a cheese and meats platter that we really enjoyed; they also gave us a taste of a wine slurpie that was pretty good
• Our third stop was about a 20 minutes ride away; the ride was beautiful and the countryside was very enjoyable to watch; this was a smaller winery but that had won some awards in the past couple years, including a certain wine of the year; this seemed like a pretty big deal
• Our last stop was a winery called Mission; it was a very large place that was once a nunnery, I believe; it had some amazing views out the back and the building itself was quite grand; the wines here were very nice, including one of their dessert wines; we were served by a very charismatic and likeable fellow who made it a nice experience
• That was our last stop; and it was time for the drive home
• We had consumed quite a bit of wine in the afternoon, so we promptly went to bed when we got back
• We woke up around 8pm feeling pretty groggy, but hungry; we went to make a pretty simple meal of eggs and toast, with some leftover potato salad from the night before
• We drank what was left of our bottle of wine that night and later the girl from our hostel, who was from German (NAME?), invited us over to talk to her; she was with a group of people who were mostly from France, but they left shortly after we joined them
• We spoke with her until quite late; she is an interesting person, though she complained a lot, she even complained about how much Germans complain; she would be staying in NZ for an entire year by October and then she thought that maybe she would come to Canada for a year; she seems to really enjoy traveling and working abroad
• Went to bed a little late considering we're off on a bus to Wellington early tomorrow morning