The Gappies

So, that´s the end of our year around the world. By way of celebration, please don your black tie / party dress for the announcement of the Gap Year Awards “Gappies”.

Best Outdoor Activity

In 3rd place:  Tubing in Vang Vieng, Laos

In 2nd place:  White water rafting in Buller Gorge, New Zealand

And the Gappy goes to…kayaking in the Abel Tasman Sea, New Zealand

Best Hike

In 3rd place: The Pinnacles in Mulu National Park, Malaysia was technically the toughest hike.  So steep, that you have to climb virtually vertically

In 2nd place: The Inca Trail

and the Gappy goes to… The Narrows in Zion National Park, Utah.

Best Educational Activity

In 3rd place: Cooking class in Hoi An, Vietnam

In 2nd place: Batik class in Chiang Mai, Thailand

And the Gappy goes to…Star-gazing in New Zealand

Best Cultural Event

In 3rd place: Chinese New Year, Malaysia

In 2nd place: El Gran Poder Festival, La Paz, Bolivia

And the Gappy goes to…O-bon Festival in Nara, Japan

Best Historical Monument

In 3rd place: The Great Wall

In 2nd place: Machu Picchu

And the Gappy goes to… Angkor Wat

Best Beach

In 3rd place: Hot Water Beach, New Zealand

In 2nd place: Varkala Beach, Kerala

And the Gappy goes to… Nam Cat Island, Ha Long Bay

Best Hostel

In 3rd place: Giggling Tree, Yangshuo, China

In 2nd place: Treetop Lodge, Ban Lung, Cambodia

And the Gappy goes to …El Tesoro, Elqui, Chile

Best Mode of Transport

In 3rd place: Sea Plane, Taupo, New Zealand

In 2nd place: Bamboo boat, Li River, China

And the Gappy goes to…Bamboo train, Battambang, Cambodia

Best Food

In 3rd place: Shaved ice with adzuki beans, Japan

In 2nd place: Tim tams, Australia

And the Gappy goes to…Pho, Vietnam

Best Museum

In 3rd place: Natural History Museum in New York

In 2nd place: Buddha Park, Laos

And the Gappy goes to…Pinang Peranakan House, Penang, Malaysia

Best Animal Encounter

In 3rd place: In a strong category, third place goes to Madidi National Park in the Amazon.  As we were fishing for piranha, we turned around to see a mother and baby tapir (usually nocturnal) crossing the river.  Our guide was even more excited than we were.

In 2nd place: A dusk hike in the Malaysian island of Langkawi.  Langkawi is more of a beach resort / duty free haven so expectations for wildlife spotting were low.  We got about two feet away from a buzzard pinning a lizard to the ground.  Then we saw flying lemurs (with tiny babies clinging to their bellies), flying squirrels and flying lizards.  All either inside or about ten minutes walk from a big hotel complex – unbelievable.

And the Gappy goes to…snorkelling in the Celebes Sea off Mabul Island, Borneo.

Best City

In 3rd Place: Singapore. Many people find Singapore too sterile, too controlled, too boring. It probably wouldn´t have made my top three if it had been the first place we went to, but it makes the list for two reasons: (1) after a month in India, sterility, order and a bit of luxury really hits the spot and (2) it had Elephant Parade! Plus it has great museums, a nice waterfront and all the home comforts you could want.

2nd Place: Hoi An – beach, mini Angkor Wat, amazing food and everyone there tells you that you’re beautiful.

And the Gappy goes to…Tokyo, big, full, colourful, insane.

Best Country

In 3rd place: Bolivia, salt flats, street parties, amazing wildlife in the Amazon and the picture-perfect Isla del Sol.

In 2nd Place: Japan the craziest place in the world.

And the Gappy goes to… Malaysia, which takes the crown because whereas we only spent two weeks in Japan and Bolivia, Malaysia kept us entertained for six whole weeks and was fabulous throughout. Apart from the time we nearly died on Mt Kinabalu. And the mosquitos in Kinabatangan. And Kuala Lumpur’s town planning department. But apart from that, amazing.

So that’s it from my fantastic year off. Back home now, job-hunting and and that. All subscribers to this blog please feel free to unsubscribe now, because it’s going to get a lot duller from now on.

McDonalds World Tour – New Zealand

Auckland Airport, en route to South America: I chose a meal that combines the best of both sides of the Pacific; Lemon & Paeroa from NZ and “El Maco” a Mexican take on the Big Mac.

WTF? #24

However they teach the Green Cross Code to Antipodean children, it is obviously a very effective method. Australians and New Zealanders will not cross without a green man, even when they can see that there is nothing coming for miles. I feel like some reckless maverick crossing the road on the red man. In Auckland we even saw people waiting for the green man when the road they wanted to cross was all coned off and shut to traffic.

New Zealand Food

Hokey pokey ice cream (but the woman who sold it to me was French, so she called it ‘okey pokey)

Fush and chups (and a battered oyster and mussel on the side) with Lemon and Paeroa (marketed as “World famous in New Zealand”)

A lamb salad (from the “light bites” section of the menu! Look at the size of the thing!)

Lamb curry

Lamb pie

Lamb pizza

A “small” lamb shank, a steak, a man eating a steak

Lamb stirfry

Lamb a la Stair

A kiwi fruit

A feijoa drink. Mr Beet had to coach me in pronounciation before I ordered it.

A “Kiwi as” Chocolate Fish. Bloody horrible.

A feijoa – an acquired taste, but not unpleasant.

A lamington. I think they might actually originate from Australia, but the NZ version is bigger and pinker.

A Moro bar. It’s as if a Mars Bar has gone into the witness protection programme.

“Famous” Tuatapere sausages. Maybe we didn’t get the right ones, because they were cheap and nasty.

Venison and kumara (which I’m pretty sure is just sweet potato, but it sounds more Newzealandy to call it kumara)

Boysenberry juice. A boysenberry is apparently a cross between a raspberry, a blackberry and a loganberry, first grown by somebody called Mr Boysen. I can see why you would be tempted to name the food you just invented after yourself, but maybe not if your name sounds quite a lot like “poison”.

A drink infused with traditional Maori medicinal plant makomako.

“Pavlova”. Or at least, the menu called it pavlova, but it’s clearly just a meringue with berries on the side. But I was thrilled because it’s as close as I got in 6 weeks of pavlova-hunting. If you go into any NZ souvenir shop or tourist information centre, you can buy pavlova aprons, ornaments, tea cosies, recipe books etc etc. It’s the national pudding. But you can’t actually buy one anywhere. And believe me, I looked!

Mr Beet’s Beer Chronicles – New Zealand

So many microbreweries, so little time…

Renaissance Pale Ale

The Sawmill Pale Ale

Monteith’s Radler bier

Speight’s Distinction

Swine lager

Tui

Mac’s Gold lager

Mac’s Sassy Red

Mac’s Hop Rocker

Stoke Amber

Steinlager

Winnie’s Pale Ale

Monteith’s Original

Emerson’s Bookbinder

Emerson’s 1812 Pale Ale

Mac’s Great White

Tuatara

Three Boys Porter

Monteiths Gold

Monteiths Summer Ale

Moa

Fiordland Pilsner

And the winner is: Mac’s Sassy Red, with honourable mentions for Emersons and Renaissance.

parkrun on tour – 22 April 2012

For our final parkrun in New Zealand we were back to where we started.  A nice run around the Auckland Domain, with Mr Beet for company. 

Farewell to NZ

Our final few days in NZ were spent as follows:

Lake Tekapo —> Kaikoura

Went on a whale-watching trip.  Didn’t see any.  Got refund.

Kaikoura –> Hanmer Springs

Spent whale-watching refund on thermal spa.  Soaked in hot water all day.

Hanmer Springs –> Christchurch

Went to wildlife park on the understanding that they had pavlova there.  They didn’t.  Went to different wildlife park.  Saw kiwis! 

Did a parkrun.  Returned Ivor the campervan.  Was emotional at having to return Ivor.  He served us well.   

Christchurch –> Auckland

Search for pavlova.  Only find it as part of three-course meal for $70: screw that. Do parkrun. 

Auckland–> Santiago de Chile

South America: here we come!

parkrun on tour – catch-up parkrun

I was four parkruns in deficit when I arrived in New Zealand, and had grand plans of catching up. I did do an extra parkrun in Hagley Park in Christchurch, so that’s one down, three to go. Trouble is, I’m about to go up to some silly altitudes pretty soon and running is not going to be its usual joyous experience.

Mt Cook and Lake Tekapo

Mr Beet’s appetite for penguin-spotting duly sated, we head back inland to take a look a Mt Cook.  It is NZ’s highest peak, and although it is only about a tall as Mt Fuji, it is definitely only for proper mountaineers and not puny tourists, so we have no plans to climb it.  We are here just to have a look at the snowy peaks, because Mr Beet loves mountains and hasn’t had his usual skiing holiday fix this year.  We also get to look at another glacier.  You would think that we would have seen enough big bits of ice by now, but this one is a bit different.  Because of the geography, the melt-water from the Tasman Glacier doesn’t pour off into a river like at the Franz Josef and the Fox.  It forms a lake, the lake-water then melts the glacier and big chunks break off to form floating icebergs.  I never planned on seeing icebergs on this trip, so that’s quite exciting.  We take a little boat trip on the lake and get to touch, taste and generally admire the ice.

Later that day we drive to Lake Tekapo.  This is pretty much the middle of nowhere, which makes it a good spot for an observatory.  If you live in London and then come to NZ, you will be amazed by how many stars you can see.  So we signed up for a tour of the observatory where you get shown around the night sky and get to have a go on some of the big telescopes.  The observatory in top of a mountain so it’s chilly by night, but they provide you with enormous padded jackets to keep you warm.

It was meant to be cloudy, but we were very  lucky as it cleared just at the perfect time and visibility was great.  There was no moon, which was good as to an astronomer the moon is just light pollution.  We could clearly see the Milky Way and through the telescopes we got good views of Mars and Saturn.  Astronomy is a pretty mind-blowing subject and we were well and truly impressed by some awesome statistics about the number, distance and size of stars that I immediately forgot, but which were very impressive at the time.

More pictures from Mt Cook on Mr Beet’s flickr page.

parkrun on tour – 14 April 2012

I thought Friday 13th had passed without a hitch, but I was caught out by the time difference.  When I went for my usual Saturday morning parkrun, it was still Friday 13th at home and I am obviously still on UK time as far as the fates are concerned.  The location was Allan’s Bay on the Otago Peninsula and the bad luck involved two very big boisterous dogs with sharp toenails, who obviously thought that my running meant that I wanted to play.

Apart from that, it was a nice run.  That big lump in the front of the shot is a slumbering sea-lion.