Nic and Andrew's Travel Log

* Chinnoble Adventures # 12

blog@noble.gen.nz — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Hello again

For the concluding chapter to our tales, here is a
summary of the last few months of our travels around
the globe.

After the sailing in Mexico we drove back with our
friend Keith to his fathers in Colorado, 2 weeks
before Christmas. After dropping the boat off We had
two days skiing in soft powder at Copper Mountain
Resort - a great introduction to the American winter.
The two of us then headed off on a one week road trip
in Keiths big red F150 Ford truck which he very kindly
lent us. Taking in Mt Rushmore, Devils Tower,
Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park
and the Colorado Rockies it was a lot of driving, and
almost all of it was in snow. We saw some amazing
scenery on the prairie, some huge thunder clouds
looming over Devils Tower, were snowed in on the
interstate somewhere in Montana and were almost the
only people exploring Yellowstone National Park with
its frigid winter temperatures. We slept in the back
of the truck under the uninsulated fibreglass canopy
every night. Some nights were worse than others. One
of the coldest nights was spent in a rest area in some
gorge along a back road. The ground was covered with
3 inches of snow, and it was freezing. We struggled
cooking dinner with everything freezing, even the
cooking oil along with anything else that we spilt.
Breakfast was worse. Andrew spent a very determined
half hour trying to peel the shells off our frozen
eggs (despite them being in the chilly bin with a hot
water bottle to stop them freezing), before giving up
due to frozen fingers. It really was a grim morning.
Later we found out that the early morning temperature
in a nearby town was -22 degrees Farenheit (-30 deg
C). Yep, it was cold.

Yellowstone was a fantastic experience with bison,
coyotes and elk roaming through the snow covered
valleys and the steaming thermal terraces.

Every other night was almost as cold. Our routine was
established quickly. Take turns cooking dinner while
the other kept warm in the cab. Leap into bed while
there is still some warmth in your body and try to
sleep. Try not to move too much in the night because
rolling over onto an ice encrusted pillow (frombreath
instantly freezing) was a very rude awakening.
Morning would eventually come, we would spend the next
half an hour trying to convince each other to get up
first and turn the engine on to warm the cab. Usually

Andrew was the one to get up, while Nic got to lie in
bed and thaw out bits of breakfast in her sleeping bag
- eg. cooking oil.

We drove back past Steamboat Springs where we spent
Christmas Eve in a winter wonderland. Christmas day
dawned clear and bright and we built a snowman on a
nearby pass on our way through to celebrate, much to
the amusement of all the locals. We then had a lovely
couple of days with keiths family in Yuma Colorado.

Another 3 week road trip post Christmas took us
through Salt Lake City (another day downhill skiing at
a huge resort called Snowbird) and through all the
national parks of southern Utah. Utah really does
have more than its fair share of amazing scenery. We
visited Arches NP, Canyonlands NP, Monument Valley,
Natural Bridges NM, Capitol Reef NP, Bryce Canyon NP,
and Zion NP. It was an amazing couple of weeks
exploring in the hills with a tonne of snow and no
body else around. We slept every night in the back of
the truck, and again were plunged into temperatures of
-30 deg C on more than one night. The snow made
everything so picturesque and we also became excellent
at driving in absolutely appauling conditions - snow,
ice and zero visibility.

We stopped off at Las Vegas for a couple of nights and
wandered the streets gazing at the flashing signs,
screens and completely 'over the top' buildings. It
really was amazing, but quite artificial and sad at
the same time.

The Grand Canyon was just that. It probably would
have been more amazing if we hadn't just spent two
weeks exploring all the other amazing canyons of Utah,
but we still had a great time, and trekked to the
bottom for a night - then back out the next day. And
yes, it is a long way down. Again we found out how
lucky we were to be travelling in the off season with
very few tourists, and no booking required anywhere.
The size of the carparks and queueing areas were a
give away to just how busy it gets in summer.

Eventually we had to say goodbye to Big Red our trusty
mobile home - leaving her in Tucson, Arizona where we
caught a bus to San Francisco. It had been an amazing
few weeks and we saw more than we ever imagined we
would - thanks Keith.

The next two weeks were filled with city visits and
catching up with friends in San Francisco, New York,
Washington DC and Chicago. Each one was a flying
visit and each one gave us a glimpse into a different
type of 'life in the big smoke'. New York put the
weather on for us, with record low tempatures for the
whole week we were there, and once again, more snow.
It was so cold the harbour and river that cuts
Manhattan Island from the mainland had ice bergs
floating in it - on the ferry you could hear them
banging on the side of the boat. We wandered the
streets of the city exploring and diving into shops
and the subway when we got too numb from the cold.

After USA came the wonderful world of Canada. We had
been warned of the freezing temperatures we would
encounter there, and came prepared with down jackets,
hats and gloves as we got off the plane, only to find
it a balmy 15 deg C outside. So much for the canadian
winter! To be fair, the very next day the temperature
plummeted to -20.

We had two weeks in Canada spent with friends
exploring parts of the canadian rockies, ski touring,
cross country skiing and snow shoeing. After only one
day on cross country skis Andrew in his enthusiasm at
catching up with an old friend Jason was convinced,
over a large glass of wine, to enter into a 32km cross
country ski race - The Birkbiner. He did actually make
it to the finish but was very sore the next day.

Vancouver was just a brief stop over before flying to
London and having a week of catching up with friends.
Again, the snow followed us and it was cold.

Next stop was the UAE. The snow didn't follow us
there, but instead we were greeted with rain. It
rained two days while we were there - just our luck
when they only get about 4 days of rain a year! Al
Ain was great. We visited goat and camel markets,
drove around in the rocky desert mountains for half a
day played touch rugby with the ex-pats and explored
Dubai. An interesting diversion with a change of
culture and climate for a few days.

We visited Tokyo briefly - again staying with friends
and once again were followed by the snow.

Our final stop before returning to NZ was Hong Kong.
More friends, lots of sight seeing and a quick visit
to Macau. And so ends the story of the Chinnobles
last year of adventures. Thanks for listening....

The End

Nic and Andrew

[Hong Kong after Tokoyo]

blog@noble.gen.nz — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Hi again

just to let you all know we are now back in Hong Kong
after a great time in Tokyo. It was cold but pretty
crazy! Snowed the first day as we wandered around a
temple, some famous shopping areas and the busiest
metro stations at rush hour. One station apparantly
has one million people pass through it every day! It
is something else to be there and see it - especially
being the only two tall blond people in the building
with thousands of japenese everywhere.

Japan was refreshing in so many ways. The people are
quiet, EXTREMELY polite, and the place is the cleanest
city I have ever seen. There are 7 story department
stores that just sell cameras. You can get every
model of any camera that ever existed.

Chris, there is now a tiny canon digital camera like
yours that is 7.1 mega pixels and 3 times zoom. Very
nice wee thing to use. There are lots of digital
canon SLR cameras out now and they are dropping in
price every day. You can get anything from a 5 mega
pixel to a 10 mega pixel.

I was surprised at their mobile phones though. All of
them were huge. Turns out that they all have cameras
on them that are 3 mega pixels and all can be tuned
into the TV so they can sit on the bus, or train while
they are commuting watching TV on their phones which
have flash bit screens on them. It really is the city
of electrical gadgets.

We used toilets with more buttons than my stereo
remote control - including Pauls one at home. You
also need a degree to use his bath at home which has a
panel of buttons all in japanese. Paul tryed to
figure it out one day and for a month the bath would
fill itself at 7pm every night. He had to get someone
in who would read japanese to fix it! You can run the
bath from the kitchen, you can heat up the toilet
seat, you can pretty much do anything you can imagine
when it involves showering and useing the toilet. I
just hate to think what happens to those things when
the electronics start playing up!

There was absolutely no words of english in Tokyo
which is a change from Hong Kong. So was interesting
trying to compare their little pictures with maps and
trying to work out where to go and how. still, all
metros are pretty much the same so we figured it out.
Tryed to communicate with a few people here and there
but 99% don't speak a word of english so its quite a
laugh. They are shy about trying to help too, so
usually just turn away mumbling japanese.

We have 6 days in Hong Kong now before flying back to
Auckland. Are glad to be coming home, but also sad.
It will be hard fitting back into 'society' and
getting a job etc. Good to be able to eventually have
a place of our own though and be able to unpack!

Today we are catching a tram up some hill here since
its such a lovely day.

take care
love nicola

[UAE to Hong Kong]

blog@noble.gen.nz — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Hi

We are in Hong Kong now.

The UAE was fantastic. We had a great time pottering
around Al Ain - this is the city where Liam is based.
Its about 1 1/5 hours from Dubai which is a mad sprawl
with horrendous traffic and humidity. Al Ain is
inland and doesn't have the humidity because it is
near the mountains. So barron. Al Ain is an oasis
mainly built around the date palm growers and camel
and goat hearders. Liam started as a landscape
architect there and is now doing town planning for
parks and public areas. Its a good place to work I
think...

The
UAE is a very rich country - lots of oil money. Some
of the things we did there was drive into the desert
mountains to a swimming hole, went to local markets, a
museum, a camel market, a mosque and we had a day
wandering around Dubai before we flew out. I would
definitely go back for more of a look if I was in the
area.

Had a good flight to Hong Kong - stopping in Bahrain
to refuel and pick up more people. Now we are at
Andrew's friends Martin and Alices house. Today we
will wander around town, and tomorrow we fly to Tokyo.
We have a week in Hong kong when we return from Tokyo
this sunday so will get out and about in the city
then. As for now, we are catching up on sleep.

Thats about it for now
love nicola