DannieTrip2

We are in Kaikoura and it is Christmas Eve tomorrow. Today it is raining so we are glad we went whale watching yesterday when the sun was shining. We saw 3 sperm whales, 1 seal and hundreds of dolphins who were doing tricks like triple backflips just for fun.

After spending 2 nights in Christchurch we drove in our new white (with stylish rust spots) car to Lyttleton where Scott and Shackleton left from to go to Antarctica. Coincidently we met a nice American lady, Kathleen, who had just got back from Antarctica so we got to find out lots about it. Apparently it's pretty cold and there's loads of snow and stuff.

We drove to Akaroa the next day and stayed in a really nice little hostel on a farm. We stayed in the little old cottage next door to the main hostel and had lots of plants growing in our room. The best thing we did in Akaroa was go sea kayaking. We crossed the harbour (about a mile) and saw lots of little Hector's dolphins which are the smallest and rarest sea dolphins in the world. They were swimming all around us and under our kayaks and they were so lovely they almost made me (Annie) cry. Paddling back across the water once the wind and waves had picked up took a solid hour and did make me cry. Not really but nearly. Again. We drove to Hanmer Springs the next day and soaked our tired kayaking muscles in the hot springs.

We are driving up to Marlborough Sounds to our Christmas place tomorrow. This afternoon we are going for a walk to meet some seals.

We are making a new blog.... www.dannietrip3.blog.co.uk

Since we last wrote we caught a ferry to Koh Samui. It rained. A lot. Then we caught a ferry to the mainland and a bus to Krabi (Andaman coast). It rained quite a lot. We did some kayaking. It was fun. A monkey nearly fell on Dan's head. A bird did land on his head but that was a while ago. It kept raining. We decided to find some sun. On the internet it said sydney was sunny. We caught a bus to Singapore through Malaysia. It took 24 hours. In Singapore we went to the zoo and the rainforest. We flew to sydney on the 8th December. In Sydney we went swimming in the sea at Bondi beach and watched the local race riots on the telly. we walked around alot. we saw huge bats and cockatiels in the park. The waves on the sea were the biggest I have been in. A man shouted at us for crossing the road. Unfortunately he didn't call us 'flaming galahs' or 'flaming hoons'. We missed the opportunity to say the same to him. We could not afford any food. It's bloody expensive. We flew to New Zealand today. It seems nice. We have been here for 6 hours. We are 13 hours ahead of UK now. So far we have found a place to stay, eaten a massive burger and booked tickets to see King Kong. Tomorrow we are going to buy a car. We will put some more photos on soon...

After an overnight train journey from Bangkok to Chumphon, we caught the Catamaran to Koh Tao. It was pissing down with rain as we waited for the boat at 7am. Our first view of our desert island was a bit grey but we were looking forward to our boat journey. At first glance the boat looked comfortable and was even showing The Incredibles on the telly. The first slightly alarming moment occurred when the attendants started giving out plastic bags and tissues. Then the ususal welcome announcement was followed by "...and would passengers please not throw up on the floor. I repeat, please do not throw up on the floor." As the boat left people proceeded to throw up on the floor. And in the bags provided and anywhere that had enough room for more sick. I (Daniel) thought it felt quite nice and so did Annie until she threw up in her plastic bag as well. She continued doing so for an hour and a half. The Incredibles was good though. We're not allowed to get the Catamaran again.

Washed up.

We stayed for the first two nights on Koh Tao at a place called Sai Thong. You could only really access it from the sea and it had 3 private beaches and pretty little bungalows dotted on the hill. Unfortunately we were the only people there and the owners hated us for it. We stopped them from doing their spring cleaning and enjoying their little break before the busy season. It was nice though apart from the pooing lizards that lived on our ceiling. Better than rats.

Waiting for a cab. Slightly more glamourous than Connaught Leisure - no battered sausages though.

Dogs v Dinosaurs.

Scarily the big lizards that we saw in Bangkok also lived on Koh Tao. Apparently they like fresh and salt water and this one was a small one. The dogs saw it off pretty quickly.

Annie with fish. We were a bit nervous about snorkelling as one off the boat trip stated "Guaranteed to see shark". We were actually a bit scared of the little fishes with the colourful skin as well. Luckily we MADE FRIENDS with some other novice snorkellers. We all hid in a rock pool together when it got too much. We later found out that this was a good move as the more enthusiastic 'divers' saw three sharks that "looked vicious". The fish we did see were amazing and didn't seem to mind us being in their sea. November is supposed to be the worst month for diving but it was really clear so it must be stunning in June.

Snorkelling=sunburn. Despite factor 40 every ten minutes we all got burnt backs. A more experienced snorkeller informed us (at the end of the day) we should have worn t-shirts. Pussy.

At the end of our snorkelling trip our boatman took us to this place beginning with N. It was 3 islands joined by a sandy causeway. Very nice.

That's about it. We've got some more photos of the island but this computer is slow and Annie's about to smash it in. Tomorrow we're off to Ko Samui - not on the Catamaran.

We stayed in Vang Vieng (Laos) for 3 days in this nice place by the Mekong. Mostly we watched Friends and ate dodgy pizzas in the restaurants that had beds instead of chairs. It was my birthday (Daniel) and it was the first time I had ever seen the sun on it. I had also never swum in a blue river with fish on my birthday. And I still never have as I've just been informed that we did that the day before. On my birthday we caught a train which I probably have done before. But not one in Thailand.

View from our boat at the half-way point in Pakbeng

Would the Canadian woman next door please be quiet

One of your finest Kit-Kats please

Mr Death and Dan having a swim

Cut & paste job

This was at the festival to say sorry about the water(?). It's a really nice festival with lights, music and 1000 people being killed by children letting off fireworks each year. The lanterns bring good luck.

Karen and Gary's lantern (probably in a tree somewhere or burning someone's house down)

On the 2 day boat trip from Chiang Khong in Thailand, across the border to Luang Prabang in Laos

Some nice Thai elephants

Tiger rescued from being made into chinese medicine

We've just arrived in Luang Prabang after a 2 day boat journey along the Mekong. It's supposed to be one of those "once in a life time" trips and it was beautiful but unfortunately the lack of comfort took the edge off (Annie disagrees and thinks I'm whinging). After the first day we stopped in a small town and booked into a wooden guesthouse overlooking the river. It seemed clean enough and the food was good. We went to bed under our huge mosquito net and had a good sleep until we awoke to a quiet scraping sound. Thinking that it was probably a lizard or the mad Canadian woman in the next room digging a hole through her head, we tried to get back to sleep. A few minutes later we both jumped up out of bed as something fairly big ran up the wall behind us. Unable to get back to sleep we waited until it got light and decided to get washed and dressed hoping the creature had made a hole in the wall and crawled into the Canadian woman's bed. As we stood in our room I noticed an empty biscuit packet on the floor and then saw a gaping hole in the side of our small rucksack. The creature had smelt the biscuits in the bag and managed to put a hole in exactly the right place and eat all of them. This would not normally be that remarkable but we're talking about 7 bisuits (14 if you count the fact that they were 2 biscuits stuck togther with fake chocolate). Anyway, we got out of the room as quickly as possible and later found out that other people had seen big rats in their rooms. This loud Aussie bloke (spoke much rubbish) claimed he had awoken to one nibbling on his big toe.

The mad Canadian woman was still with us.

The river across to the island. I can't remember what it was called but apparently it's a holy river because it leads into the Ganges.

Chasing big animals with claws and horns.

The smell of the elephants masks the smell of humans so the rhinos don't feel threatened (apparently).

If you like rhino poo then this is the action shot you've been looking for.

The man with white hair was American. He was funny but we don't know his name.

Beating young children at stone skimming.

Two crocodiles just down the river from where we stayed.

The kids waved our canoe away. Earlier they had crowded round Annie as she showed them some video footage of themselves. Now she thinks she's got nits.

Hammerhead worm. A new species we discovered.