Feejee tips

Fiji can be an expensive country to travel on a backpackers budget (even though it seems nowadays most backpackers have a far thicker shoestring than we have ever had!) but there are still some ways to enjoy a Fijian tropical paradise holiday without breaking the bank, and also stepping off the beaten track at the same time. Heres what we did:

Getting from the airport terminal to the main road is just 5 minutes walk, and if it's not raining it will seem like much less! From here you can flag down a Lautoka bound minibus for just F$2 for the 30 min journey. From Lautoka you can take a Suva bound bus via either the Kings Highway (north and east coasts) or the Queens (West and South) and therefore get to anywhere you want on Viti Levu. Whilst waiting for the bus you can pick up some cheap Indian snacks from the stalls scattered around the station and market area - 4 pieces of chili pakora for F$0.50c for instance.

The Sunbeam bus going via the Kings highway cost us F$8.40 each to get as far as Vaileka (approx 2-3 hours) from where we took a taxi to Ellington Wharf for a further $15. Ellington Wharf is the jumping off point for the small, quiet island of Nananu-I-Ra and most accommodations will add a boat transfer on for a small fee. It is a good idea to take some basic supplies with you as meals are a bit more expensive on the island. We took some instant noodles and pasta meals that we had brought over from the UK but you can pick these up in Vaileka (or even better choice in Lautoka) for around F$1-3 per pack, F$2.50 for a premium Shin Cup though! Mineral water costs around F$2 for a 1.5l bottle although the tap water is generally drinkable all over. Fresh fruits are sold in 'piles' based on availability, seasonality etc with piles costing from F$2-5, e.g. F$3 for 5 mangoes, F$5 for 3 pineapples, F$2 for bunch of bananas.

We stayed at McDonalds cottages (http://www.macsnananu.com/) on Nananu-I-Ra and we can highly recommend it. Run by the very friendly and helpful Maxine we received a free room upgrade from a Twin room (F$90 per night) to a Standard Cottage Bure (F$135 per night) which are ocean-facing and fully self-contained with kitchenette. They also offer dorm beds at F$26 per night or a "Romantic Superior Cottage Bure" at F$145 per night. The boat transfer was an extra F$80 p.p. A bottle of Fiji Bitter (or the watery Fiji Gold) at McDonalds is just F$3.50 and their famous pizzas cost around F$19-30 each. On our last night we took the fish special, a traditional Fijian dish of fish in coconut sauce with sweet potato and some sort of spinach on the side. A bit pricey at F$29 but well worth it.

Leaving Nananu-I-Ra a taxi from the Wharf back to the main road costs F$3 from where a Suva-bound bus can be flagged down. Continuing along the Kings highway cost another F$12.50 to get to Suva, roughly 3 or 4 hours away. Suva is the biggest city and worth a brief wander around. There are some good, cheap cafe restaurants near the bus station, the best of which Bombay Dhaba, serves a great Fish curry with rice, chapati, papadum and veggies for F$7. We filled up our bags with more piles of fresh fruit here and also took away some some tuna curry roti's that are sold by a row of stalls at F$1 each.

From Suva travelling along the Queens Highway to the Coral Coast the road is a bit quicker and easier than the northern route. An air-con Sunbeam coach cost us about F$10 and dropped us off right outside the Beachouse (http://www.fijibeachouse.com/) a backpackers resort on the Coral coast. This stretch of Fiji is regarded as being past it's best and there is certainly not much coral around anymore but the resort is very well run and if all you are looking for is rest and relaxation on a sandy beach, gazing at turquise sea then this will suffice. There are some great deals offered for longer stays, we took advantage of the Bula special which was F$280 for 5 nights in a Garden Bure with a beautiful ensuite and included free wifi, breakfast and afternoon tea. The dorm special for 6 nights was offered at F$90, however I see that they have recently increased their prices. A mug of beer in Happy Hour (5-7pm) costs F$3.30 and their dinners cost around F$15 although there is more an emphasis on quality and presentation rather than quantity, if you catch my drift. Outside of happy hour the best offer was a jug of beer (serves 4) for F$15. It is an easy place to spend a few days with a lot of free activities on offer.

Heading back to Nadi we took a minibus from Beachouse direct to Bluewater Lodge backpackers for F$20. A Sunbeam bus would cost around F$12 but would take you only as far as the Nadi bus station. A dorm bed at Bluewater Lodge cost just F$20. There are a bunch of hostels in this little suburb between the town and the airport, all cost around the same, we just had Bluewater recommended to us and it was a nice, quiet place to stay, even if it did get close to flooded by the torrential afternoon downpour! A taxi downtown is F$8 and entry to the beautiful Hindu temple in Nadi is just F$3.50. Our tip for a meal in Nadi would be at The Curry House, a great little Indian restaurant. It is slightly more expensive but the portion is so huge it should count as two meals! Fish/prawn curries cost around F$25-30 with a whole platter of trimmings.

Finally a taxi from Bluewater to the airport cost us F$12, good value if you can find a couple of extra people to share the cost.

Of course we stuck to Viti Levu so missed the major tourist drawcard of the Mamanuca and Yasawa islands. If we had an extra week and a pot more cash we would probably have taken a ride up and down the island chain on that big yellow "Flyer" boat, the photos of the islands look great although we did hear that the resorts can get a bit claustrophobic, especially if you don't feel like joining in the water polo and beach volleyball. As it is we were very happy to have experienced Fiji in the manner which we did.

Exchange rate - F$1 = GBP£0.35, CZK10.

Novy Zeland-jizni ostrov

Na jiznim ostrove jsme zacali v Kaikoure, uzasne mestecko v nadherne poloze. Meli jsme tam sraz s Pavlem, ktery o den drive pristal v Christchurchi. Krasna cesta podel pobrezi, kde clovek nevi co driv,jestli pozorovat tulene, tucnaky, albatrosy a obcas se do toho vynori nekde nejaka velryba a nebo na druhe strane vrcholky zasnezenych hor.

Dali jsme turu po pobrezi pres kolonii tulenu a zakoncili jsme to langustou k obedu (ne jen ze langusty je v mistnich vodach hojnost, ale taky jmeno mesta ,,KAI’’ znamena v maorstine jidlo a ,,KOURA’’ je langusta). Lenka s Pavlem jeli na pozorovani velryb, more bylo troche divoky a vsichni na lodi zvraceli, ale videli jednoho vorvane a ukazal i ocas.

Nalozili jsme auto, nakoupili zasoby a pokracovali k jezeru Tekapo. Mala vesnicka vedle tyrkysoveho jezera s vyhledem na zasnezene hory. Bylo krasne odpoledne, ale trochu prituhlo, v noci jsme ve spacakach klepali kosu a rano nas probudil zvlastni zvuk. Snih!! Vylejzat ze zasnezenyho stanu neni fakt sranda, hlavne se spacakama do +5 stupnu! Po teple ovesne kasi a nekolika cajich prestalo snezit a in a chvilku vysvitlo slunicko a tak jsme se rozhodli pro vyslap vrcholu Mount John. Nahore byla kavarna, pocasi se menilo kazdych par minut, ale stalo to zato, nekolikrat se nebe roztrhalo ameli jsme nadherny vyhled.

Narodni park Mt Cook byl nasi dalsi zastavkou, je to nejvyssi hora v Australasii s vyskou 3755m. Maorove ji znaji jako Aoraki (Probodavac mraku). Vystup je jen pro zkusene horolezce a tak jsme meli v planu jen celodenni vyslap s jeste lepsim vyhledem nez z vesnice Mt Cook. Bohuzel snezilo cely den a kdyz uz jsme meli skoro rozbaleny stany ’’uplne sami’’ v kempu zapadanym snehem, tak jsme si rekli, ze si nebudem hrat na hrdiny a pujdem do hostelu. Udelali jsme dobre, v noci mrzlo a jeste pripadlo. Rano nas probudilo slunicko a uplne jasna obloha a masivni vrcholy. Bylo opravdu krasne, vyskrabali jsme se nejvysse co to slo, kdyz nam byl snih po kolena, vratili jsme se dolu.

Noc ve stanu jsme si neumeli predstavit a dalsi noc v hostelu by byl moc velkej luxus a tak jsme pokracovali zasnezenou krajinou smer Wanaka. Na informacich ve Wanace nam rekli, ze vetsina treku je zavrenych kvuli lavinam a tak jsme museli vymyslet alternativu. Zarezervovali jsme si Kepler trek a Routeburn trek 2 mesice predem, abysme se tam vesli, protoze v hlavni sezone je dost casto plno i na kempovani, ale to jsme netusili ze tu bude jeste tolik snehu. Ve Wanace jsme si dali to nejlepsi kafe, zelandani jsou hrdi na svoje Flat White kafe, kavarny jsou na kazdem rohu a my si uzivame vyborne kavy kazdy den. Mezi Wanakou a Queenstonem jsme zustali par dni, dali jsme si nekolik celodennich vyslapu, plavani v bazenu a za odmenu jsme ochutnali Ferg Burger, prej nejlepsi burger na Zelandu.

Sice bylo krasne, ale snih na vrskach nerostal a my jsme sli Greenstone trek a Caples trek, misto kepleru a routeburnu. Prijemnej 4 denni trek, ale jak snih tal, brodili jsme se hodne bahnem, po ceste jsme spali v chatach, abysme jsme se netahali se stanen a bylo to prijemny, se ohrat vecer a spat v posteli.

Jeden den bylo tak krasne, ze byl;o rozhodnuto o navsteve Milford Soundu, bohuzel na trek Milford Sound se skoro neda dostat, pousti jen 40 lidi dene a vetsinou to koupi cestovka rok predem a normalni lidi se na tenhle trek nedostanou. Ale pohled na Milford Sound je uzasnej a vyrazili jsme i na vylet lodi.

Na oba ledovce na zapadnim pobrezi jsme meli krasne jasno.Fox a Franz Josef.

Dvoudenni trek Coupland, kde se clovek za odmenu muze vykoupat v horkych pramenech a po 7mi hodinach stoupani je to naprosta labuz:)

To je pro dnes vse. Je tezky popisovat takovouhle dovcu, clovek jezdi autem od treku ke treku, vsude je to krasny a vecer nekde zakempuje. A tak se podivejte na vice fotek na nasem picasu. Priste dopisu o zapadnim pobrezi a Abel Tasmanu a ochutnavce vina a super zmrzlinach. Momentalne jsme v Christchurchi a vcera jsme se rozloucili s Lenkou a Pavlem, kteri leteli pres Soul domu. Nejak rychle to uteklo a ted jsme zas my dva a v aute je nejak prazdno.
Mejte se krasne.

ze Zelandu-severni ostrov

Trochu se zpozdenim, ale preci, pozdrav ze Zelandu. S internetem to tady neni moc horky a s nabijenim elektroniky taky ne. Zacali jsme severnim ostrovem, den po nas priletla Lenka a pujcenym autem (nissan vingroad, kombik, kterej hodne zere a byl nam malej i ve trech lidech) jsme vyrazili na sever od Aucklandu. Nevim proc, ale rozhodli jsme se navstivit Zeland v rijnu a listopadu, mysleli jsme ze konec jara a zacatek leta bude idealka, ale bohuzel pocasi tak idelani zatim neni. V Aucklandu bylo 13 stupnu a dest a napadl cerstvy snih v horach:) Pocasi nam na severu pralo par dni a i kdyz bylo 20 stupnu, slunicko hralo a i v mori jsme se vykoupali. Navstivili jsme posvatny mys Reinga, kde se misi vody Tasmanova more a Ticheho oceanu.



Prespali jsme v pralese Waipoua Kauri, mezi prastarymy stromy Kauri.



I kdyz jsme severni ostrov meli 10 dni, nejak nam pripadalo, ze nestihame a jsme porad ve spechu. Akorat melo byt finale v mistrovstvi sveta v Rugby a na celem Zelandu se nic jineho neresilo, Zaplatili jsme si opravdovej kemp se sprchou a kuchuni, abysme byli blizko mesta a mohli zajit s mistnima do hospody na finale, jinak kempujeme v DOC kempech, ktere jsou levne a vetsinou jen se zakladnim vybavenim. Bohuzel jen nekolik mesicu plati novy zakon a to, ze se nesmi volne kempovat nikde po celem Zelandu s pokutou $200. Nastesti DOC kempu je hodne, ale vetsinou jsou daleko od asfaltovych silnic a hledanim kempu clovek ujede az 50km. V Bay of Plenty jsme navstivili zname Petra a Lucku, s kterymi jsme cestovali spolecne v Mongolsku. Nas planovany Tongariro trek se tak trochu nevydaril, meli jsme zamluvene kempy na 2 noci, na posledni chvili jsme zmenili z kempovani na chaty a zaplatili rozdil, protoze nahore byl porad snih a v noci mrzlo. Prvni den jsme sli tongariro crossing, asi 17km ma to byt nejkrasnejsi cast treku, bohuzel prselo a nic jsme nevideli a nahore bylo mega snehu. Vsechna nase nepromokava vybava vydrzela asi 2 hodiny cesty a pak jsme byli zbytek dne turch a brodit se snehovyma planema bylo hrozny, jediny co nas drzelo, bylo, ze mame chatu s topenim a ze se ususime a zahrejeme. Kdyz jsme do chaty prisli, rozbilo se jim topeni!!



Takze nas tam bylo 5 lidi, uplne mokrejch, vevnitr v chate bylo tak 5 stupnu. Vsichni jsme oprezili, ale rano jsme nepokracovali dal, ale dolu na stopa k autu. Vratili nam penize za chatu, ale to nezmenilo nic na tom, ze jsme nesli zbytek treku. Ususit jsme se jeli az do Taranaki, kde jsme si v jednom kempu na pobrezi pronajali na noc chatku a vyprali jsme a ususili veci, vrchol sopky Mt.Taranaki se nam ukazal po dvou dnech



a se zastavkou ve Wellingtonu jsme trajektem opustili severni ostrov.



zdravime Monika, Allan a Lenka

Weather With You

Travelling around the North island of New Zealand really feels like seeing the whole world in a nutshell. A lot of countries claim that they have everything, mostly unjustified – thinking of France, Argentina and Israel here – and perhaps New Zealand doesn’t either, but it certainly can feel like it.

Arriving in Auckland was a little bit like arriving in an Asian metropolis, which is unsurprising given that 13% of Aucklanders are of Asian origin. The wall-to-wall Asian restaurants and shops, along with the neon signs and packed shopping malls gave it a feeling of Hong Kong but without the humidity, especially after the downpour that greeted us as we stepped out of the airport terminal. Apart from enjoying some katsu curry and miso soup we also took the obligatory photo of the Sky Tower and visited One Tree Hill, in the suburbs, from where there were some pretty clear views over the Auckland skyline.



Apart from the Asian cuisines New Zealand also has a few of its own culinary highlights to shout about. I suppose the two most famous New Zealand dishes would be some sort of lamb dish and crayfish, but for both of these I will have to wait for the South island. The first taste that impressed me was the coffee, served with great care and attention everywhere. I didn’t really know what a ‘flat white’ was before we got here (other than a brief explanation from a friend in Euston station early one morning) but now I can’t stop from ordering at least one a day. If I can find a steak-and-cheese pie to go with it then my life seems complete, a revolutionary concept in the savoury snack world. I was also recommended New Zealand ice cream before we arrived and I can safely say it lives up to this recommendation, the hardest part is choosing from the range of indulgent flavours. New Zealand has also embraced that mainstay of Friday nights in provincial Britain, fish and chips, even down to the correct condiments which most other countries have failed to adopt. One of the things I like about the ‘chippies’ here is that they also offer mussels, prawns and other shellfish, in addition to the usual battered fish, just to add a bit of variety.

The day after we arrived we met Monika’s sister, Lenka, at the airport and the three of us set off north from Auckland. On the way up to Cape Reinga are forests of giant Kauri trees, dwarfing everything else in the forest. These trees have been watching over the world for centuries, some of them older than Christianity. They have presided over virtually the entirity of modern history, albeit from a vantage point far removed from most of the action. Nowadays they stand there and prompt discussions among visitors as to whether you could bore a one-lane, or even two-lane, road through the base of the trunk!

We left the trees behind and continued further north to Cape Reinga, the landscape starting to resemble the stark landscape of a Patagonian plateau. Cape Reinga is not the northernmost point of New Zealand in a similar way that the Cape of Good Hope is not the southernmost point of Africa but standing on the end by the lighthouse felt like you were perched right on the edge of the world. It seems as if the ancient Maori felt the same way as they regard it as being some sort of gateway to the afterlife. Just round the corner at Spirit Bay a campsite overlooking the Pacific Ocean collide with the Tasman Sea offered the earthly pleasures of a beautiful sunset over a shell covered beach. All along the western side of the peninsula heading up to Cape Reinga lies Ninety Mile Beach, an alternative highway for those in buses, vans or those with insurance for off-road driving. At the southern end sits a small coffee van run by a typically welcoming Maori guy, claiming that is the only solar powered espresso machine in Australasia. I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt!



After all these transcendental experiences, driving south towards the Bay of Islands was bound to fall short of expectation, and it did. Having sold tours to the Bay of Islands waxing lyrical about the beauty I was disappointed to find that most of the highlights are hidden offshore and the town on the mainland resembled that of a British holiday resort. We did see a stingray gliding through the bay but other than that my personal highlight were the art nouveau public toilets in the town of Kawakawa. We soon snuck off to the coast just south and found an excellent, isolated campsite right by the beach, making up for our earlier disappointments.



The other piece of the island that juts northward is the Coromandel peninsula, an area covered with lush forest in the inland and lined with sandy beaches and turquoise waters around the edge. One of the tourist highlights here is Hot Water Beach, where spades can be hired for $5 with which visitors can dig their own personal spa pools, mixing the sea water with the hot spring bubbling up through the sand. Just around a headland is another of the highlights – the beaches around Cathedral Cove that resemble a Thai island with their sandstone rocks, sandy beach and crystal clear water. Take a dip in the sea and that illusion will soon disappear however, the water temperature being closer to that of Cornwall than Koh Samui.
Of course the only subject being discussed in public, on TV or over the radio during this time was the Rugby World Cup, which was just coming to its conclusion. Until the day of the final I had being hoping the All Blacks would win, mainly because I could not foresee enjoying travelling in a country going through national mourning. However, whilst witnessing the final in a pub on Coromandel by half-time I was secretly rooting for the French (a rather dodgy confession to make) such was the level of hysteria being generated. Since the World Cup finished the Kiwis seem to have realised that they haven’t had a government for a few weeks and that there are elections coming up so this has replaced the rugby as the main topic of conversation on every channel. I have heard New Zealanders being discussed by European media as being a bit slow and backwards but maybe the ‘simpler’ lifestyle is a much higher standard of living, spending a lot of time outdoors and engaging in physical exercise. It is also notable just how friendly and welcoming all New Zealanders seem to be – you cannot go anywhere without striking up a conversation about their country, your country, weather, rugby and everything in between. Especially chatty tend to be the Maori guys that own cafes, shops and restaurants, part of their marketing campaign seems to be to lure people in with a good conversation and then the people realise they are enjoying themselves and indulge in whatever they are being offered!



The Bay of Plenty has recently been in the news as the place where the drunk Philippine captain managed to run his tanker aground on the reef, spilling tonnes of oil into the sea, causing environmental damage and closing one of New Zealand’s most visited beaches. Along the coast we visited Petr and Lucie, who we travelled to the Gobi desert with. We spent the night at theirs, looking through their photos of Mongolia (all of us laughing when one showing Monika revealed her to be wearing exactly the same clothes as she had on that day!) and catching up on their news and more recent holidays. They have been living in New Zealand ever since arriving at the end of their trip through Russia, Mongolia and South East Asia. One of New Zealand’s most popular beaches is that at Mount Manganui just a few kilometres away, with a little mountain at the end with a trail to climb for amazing views over the Floridian style resort. We climbed on a perfect clear morning and could spot the Rena, the stricken tanker, offshore. When the weather is good here it is really good and it seems as if the government supports the outdoor lifestyle by providing great facilities to encourage people to get out and about. The strong public health systems also mean that very few people are seen on the street puffing on cigarettes, more likely puffing on hill treks.



Heading inland we hit the Icelandic part of the north island amongst the sulphur springs and lakes of Rotorua. A hidden gem is the Hamurana Springs just north of the lake, crystal clear waters winding through a redwood forest. In a Maori suburb of Rotorua town itself is a church and Maori centre amongst the sulphur lakes and every small house has a hot spring in the driveway. More bubbling mud pools are hidden amongst the flowers in Kuirau Park in the centre. However none of these can be compared with the multi-coloured lakes at Wai-O-Topu Thermal Wonderland on the road to Taupo. Although the name sounds like some sort of kitsch Disney park it is more like a national park and the natural geysers and lakes attraction are well worth the entry fee, especially the famous Champagne Lake.



This kind of thermal activity normally means there are some hot springs hidden somewhere and l0-and-behold we found some just round the corner from Wai-O-Topu, joining a couple of Kiwi families in the know for a quick dip in the warm waters, some sort of preparation for the Tongariro Northern Circuit trek we were embarking on the next day. The trek starts in the Tongariro national park on the other side of Lake Taupo, which we drove around at sun set.



The 3-day trek was supposed to be our highlight of the North Island but of course you cannot count on the weather and we woke to driving rain. Even fully clothed in waterproofs and with decent trekking boots we were soaked after 8 hours of torrential downpour and stomping through 3m of snow. This snow also covered the lakes and craters on top, hiding the attractions that make this one of the world’s most popular treks (at least the first day of it). To top it all off we had upgraded from camping to the mountain huts due to the 3m of snow and one of the main thoughts driving us on was that of a warm hut where we could dry our clothes and warm ourselves. So imagine the disappointment when we found that the gas heater had broken down. This was unrelated to the gas outage that was blighting the north of the island and causing farmers to destroy around 30 million litres of milk. The conditions became worse over night and with hardly any dry clothes to put on we had no choice but to abandon the trek and head back down to Whakapapa. Luckily the first day is the most important (people walk it as a one-day trek, the “Tongariro Alpine Crossing”).



We drove away from Tongariro and towards Taranaki to warm up, taking not the Forgotten Highway but rather the even-more-forgotten-minor-road. No petrol for 150km (we had to return to a town to fill up) and passing through ghost towns where we only met cows and goats strolling around deserted pubs and shops.

Luckily the weather was much better around Mt. Taranaki, even if we could not see the volcano itself. We walked along Fitzroy beach in New Plymouth, admired the new bridge and Len Lye’s Wind Wand and spent some time wandering through the beautiful Pukekara park, including the cricket oval cut into the hillside that is oft touted as one of the worlds most picturesque. The next day we took a rainy trek around Dawson Falls at the base of the mountain before driving away towards Wellington. And then, wham, in the rear view mirror the volcano peeked out from the clouds and we spent the rest of the afternoon admiring a slice of the volcano from various view points. A visit to New Zealand really is defined by the weather and I can really see what Crowded House meant by four seasons in one day now.



Wellington was our final stop on our North island tour. I was pleasantly surprised with the capital city. A lot of corners where people sat drinking coffee in cafes, side-streets full of street art, some really modern architecture and a harbour full of yachts swaying in the infamous Wellington winds. The lovely lady at Inter-islander ferries squeezed us on to a ferry the evening before the morning we were due to go and we snuck out of Wellington, crossed the Cook straits, negotiated the Marlborough Sounds and arrived on the South island. It is a shame that we missed the Waitomo caves and the wineries around Hawkes Bay but there is always something that must be left for next time!