Author Archives: Julia

Goodbye Summer Northland Roadtrip

Posted on by
10

During our first few months in Auckland we enjoyed getting out and about in the weekends exploring the areas close by: the Waitakere ranges in the west of Auckland is a favourite of ours, while the Coromandel to the east has some of the most beautiful beaches in the country. We had also explored a little bit of Northland, going as far as Kauri country after a camping trip gone wrong turned into a road trip exploring Northland’s west coast. We were keen to see more of Northland, it being one of the few regions left in New Zealand that we haven’t had a good old road trip through yet. So when Easter came around in April and we found out that ANZAC day was falling only a few days after the Easter weekend we decided to take full advantage of this gift from the public holiday gods and took three extra days off. All of a sudden our Easter weekend became a 10 day holiday! Continue reading →

In the Eternal City of Rome

Posted on by
8

After an amazing time in Madrid we had even higher expectations for Rome, the next and final stop in our cities trip.  I’d visited Rome in 2007 and it had been one of my favourite cities during a six month backpacking trip around Europe.  I was excited to finally show Richard around it.  Unfortunately from the get-go we had a rather South America-esque experience in Rome.  Arriving in Rome’s Ciampino airport after a rather horrible flight with cattle-herders Ryan Air we quickly found out that Italian driving is just as bad as the driving we witnessed in South America.  Barely 5 minutes into the 20 minute bus ride to the city we witnessed our first car accident.  A scooter came sliding across the intersection at high speed. We didn’t see the why or how but there was a car parked by the side-rail and the scooter driver was trapped underneath the car.  The bus driver pulled over and he and Richard ran out.  With the help of a couple of other bystanders they lifted up the car and pulled the man under the car out.  Blood was everywhere.  The ambulance and police were on the scene in a matter of minutes and the scooter driver was well looked after, but we did wonder for days and weeks afterwards if he came out of it all okay. Continue reading →

Cool Times in Denmark

Posted on by
7

After a busy three weeks filled with social activities and visits in The Netherlands it was time for another road trip in Ada’s little red Corsa. Our first stop was Dusseldorf in Germany to visit friends Christoph and Brigette.  Christoph is German and Brigette is a New Zealander. They got married at the start of the year, and travelled around Asia for a few months before coming to Europe with the news that a baby would also be joining them later this year.  We arrived at their place early afternoon and hellos, hugs and gifts were given. They showed us our room for the night which turned out to be in a bed and breakfast which Christoph’s parents own.  They host people who come to Dusseldorf for one of its many trade fairs. Spotless, comfortable and quiet, what a treat!  Continue reading →

Holidays in France – Sunny Days in the Vineyards

Posted on by
15

Coming from Switzerland we decided to break up the drive and spend a night just over the border outside a small town called Ducier in the hilly Jura region. It is a nice area but we had one of those days that you sometimes have when you travel where things don’t go smoothly.  For example, it took us a long time to find our campsite even with the help (lack of) from the GPS.  Or, we thought we’d go for a swim as we were in an area with a lot of lakes and it was another piping hot day.  Only the lake closest to our campsite had no beach and we weren’t allowed to swim in it because it’s a fishing-lake only.  Then the lake that we were allowed to swim in was part of a massive campsite complex and we bypassed paying for parking by hiking a 20 minute trail to the swimming area, only to find that the wind had changed direction during our 20 minute walk and the day was no longer hot but freezing cold.  In the end reading our kindles in the fast declining sun and going for a walk to see the waterfalls next to the campsite were the highlights of the day. The pretty walk showed off several waterfalls pooling into each other and was the highlight of our first day in France.  We camped in the campground next to the walk, and had one of our quietest nights sleeps. Continue reading →

Living Life Wildy on the German Autobahn

Posted on by
4

After a month at Richard’s parents house in The Netherlands, we found ourselves ready to visit some other parts of Europe. And so commenced a little tour of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France! First stop was Cologne in Germany to visit Katharina and Rainer, my friends from university in Canada.  Since last seeing them in Trier in 2007 a lot had happened:  they’d gotten engaged and then married, moved from Trier to Berlin and eventually Cologne.  And then at the start of this year they had their first baby, a girl named Sofia. Continue reading →

Welcome to The Netherlands!

Posted on by
12

After the go-go-go of our final month in South America and then our whirlwind surprise visit to New Zealand we were ready for something new.  It was time for a visit to The Netherlands!

With it being three years since we last visited Richard’s family a visit here felt well over due.  Richard’s family live in Almkerk, a small village situated in the province of Noord-Brabant.  Noord-Brabant is in the south of The Netherlands and is just over an hour’s drive from Schipol airport outside of Amsterdam.  The people of Brabant are known for being a bit more gentle than the famously direct Dutch of other provinces. They are also known for their cosy way of life, and the pretty countryside that surrounds them.  It’s a very pretty area to visit. Continue reading →

One for the Bucket List – Visiting Machu Picchu!

Posted on by
10

Machu Picchu is not an easy or cheap place to get to.  Getting there takes time, effort and patience.  There are a number of ways you can arrive at Machu Picchu:

  • You can take a train from Ollantaytambo (2 hours) or Cuzco (4 hours) to Aguas Calientes town;
  • You can hike the Inca Trail (booked out months in advance);
  • You can hike one of the alternative Inca trails via a tour operator. Both of these has extra activities included like zip lining, mountain biking, a visit to the hot pools.
  • You can take public transport or your own transport to Santa Teresa town via a long, steep, endlessly curvy mountain pass, get a taxi to the Hydroelectric station and then take a train or walk to Aguas Calientes town from where you can visit Machu Picchu.

Aguas Calientes is the service town for Machu Picchu.  Hundreds of thousands of tourists pass through this town every year to get to Machu Picchu either by taking a 30 minute bus from the town, or hiking up a steep 1.5 hour trail to the site. There are no roads into the town, making it isolated, and a total pain to get to.

We’re not organised tour group people and like to hike on our own terms having the ability to stop and take in the sights as we like.  We originally thought we’d take the train to Ollantaytambo but when we started doing the math this trip to Machu Picchu was going to be very expensive.   $300 USD for the train, and then we still had to add on accommodation and entry ticket to Machu Picchu costs.  By the way the ticket to Machu Picchu is exorbitantly expensive.

In the end we decided that the best option for us was to drive the car to Santa Teresa, a small town on the other side of the Valley.  Continue reading →

Exploring the Sacred Valley

Posted on by
6

The Sacred Valley of the Incas is close to Cuzco, and is the gateway everybody passes through to get to Machu Picchu. The Sacred Valley is an attraction in itself and a pleasant area to visit while making your way to Machu Picchu.  There are a number of traditional picturesque villages in the Valley which are a pleasure to stop in and take some time to explore.  Incan ruins and pretty valley scenery (terraced hills, snow-capped mountains) abound, so it’s all very interesting to look at.   For those with a bit of time up their sleeves it is also possible to make some nice day hikes.

The land in the Sacred Valley is very heavily worked almost entirely by manual labour.  Fields are ploughed by bulls, terraced gardens are worked to the max, whole families live and work off the land (this includes young children).  Historically the land of the Sacred Valley was so highly valued that it didn’t belong to different individuals, or to a part of the Empire but to the Emperor himself.  Continue reading →

Fun Days and Fun Nights in Cuzco

Posted on by
5

Arriving in Peru after a straightforward border crossing we immediately noticed two things: firstly that the land on this side of Lake Titicaca was being more intensively worked, and secondly, the quality of the road had improved.  Smooth sailing all the way! After our run-ins with the police and the navy in Bolivia, we were prepared for the worst in Peru.  We’d heard and read horror stories of police hassling overlanders and we thought we were bound to be hassled a bit.  But in the end we had no hassles with them whatsoever. We think this is partly due to the fact that our Chilean number plate looks similar to the Peruvian number plate. Continue reading →

Getting our Travel Mojo Back in Sucre

Posted on by
7

In total we spent five weeks in Sucre.  I would like to say that we made the most of our time there but in all honesty we were tired after four months of travelling through Argentina and Chile.  We were staying in accommodation where we felt comfortable, which was quiet, peaceful and away from the humdrum of the city also meant that we were quite lazy and spent a lot of time hanging around there basically just recharging our batteries.  We felt a bit guilty about this but we also ran into a lot of other travellers who were on the same level and were going through their own dose of travel fatigue.  Continue reading →