Ubud: Arrival

courtyard of our homestay

A very long flight and one stop over in Australia later, we arrived in Bali on June 5th. After ten hours on the plane, we were greeted to Indonesia with a two hour visa line. We just happened to get in the line with the slowest customs agent of all time, I picked the line of course, and it took so long that our checked bags were being put into the lost and found by the time we were finally given permission to enter the country. That wasn't all though, we still had a two hour taxi ride to get to our final destination, Ubud. Bali has incredible traffic, but our valiant and ever so cheerful taxi driver got us there safe and sound. We arrived at our homestay in Ubud tired, but excited to have finally made it to Bali. Quite the climate change for us, coming from winter in the Southern Hemisphere, but we started adjusting to the tropics and spent the evening relaxing and watching the lizards on our walls.

After a much needed rest we woke up the next day ready to take in Ubud. We are staying in a bungalow that is in a family's compound. We have a simple room and most importantly, a porch that looks out into a courtyard filled with jungle vegetation and chickens. The father of the house is a Balinese music teacher so we often times have entertainment while he is teaching his lessons. The mom and grandmother, who are both adorable, make us banana pancakes in the morning and bring us tea. We are woken at dawn by roosters and other mystery animals that live on our roof. But, despite the gongs and cock-a-doodle-dos, it is very peaceful and a wonderful retreat.

banana pancake breakfast

We set off that morning to check out the city and hike through the surrounding countryside. The city of Ubud is actually not very nice, it is super touristy and has terrible traffic. Walking through the large sweaty tourists and speedy motor bikes can be quite a chore, but once out of the downtown part of city we entered a beautiful landscape of rice terraces and lush tropical plants. We hiked through some terraced fields and through a few small villages. At one point we came upon a procession going through one of the villages. It was made up of a large amount of traditionally costumed men and women, chanting, playing instuments and singing, while parading through the streets. We also came across an empty hindu temple to explore, which was a treat as neither of us had ever seen this sort of temple before and Balinese architecture is very beautiful. But we had gotten a late start and overexteded ourselves a little in the tropical heat, now we've learned our lesson and reserve about noon to 3pm for nap time.

That evening we wanted to watch a traditional Balinese dance. Bali has a very interesting spiritual culture, much of which is centered around a unique dance form that we were very eager to see. Earlier, as we sat at a cafe cooling off, I had noticed a procession of women wearing traditional costumes carrying baskets and fruit on their heads, all walking towards a temple. I'm a little slow on the uptake, and didn't realize at first that they were all headed towards a huge temple festival that was to happen that night in town and they were bringing offerings to the Gods in the baskets to bless the event. Thankfully we got a tip off from the tourist office where we had inquired about dances, and headed to the festival. Balinese temple festivals are held for a variety of reasons, unfortunately we had no idea why this one was being held, but we rolled with it and tried to be as unintrusive as possible. As we found out they are basically a large social event centered around a performance to celebrate something or other, and everyone comes dressed to the nines and ready to have a good time. There were hundreds of people there, the men were dressed in long skirts and cloth hats, the women in long skirts and lace tops. Everyone was gathered with their friends, attempting to see a dance that was going on in the middle of the temple area. The dance being performed that night was the Barong and Rangda dance, which involves a dog-lion and witch character and some sort of battle between good and evil. We joined the pressing crowd to try and watch the performance. We were able to see the lion dancing to the music provided by the full gamelon orchestra. The crowd wasn't rowdy, but their were a LOT of people and everyone was trying to get closer and closer. After an hour or so we got very claustraphobic and decided to give up our prime viewing areas, as I was afraid that I was going to get squished. Unfortunately we were then unable to see the performance. Temple festivals go on all night long, and the dances can last more than six hours. It was just getting exciting, some of the masked performers were stabbing each other with knives, but we could no longer see. We hung out for a bit longer and eventually left. It was an amazing experience never the less, and what we saw of the performance was spectacular.

morning offering for the gods - easy to trip over!

mysterious village procession - on their way to a performance?

Farewell New Zealand

We left Nelson via bus and train. It was hard to leave, we had a great time with Lynn and Jay, but hopefully we can come back again. Our bus took us out of the city to Blenheim, of course going through gorgeous scenery the whole way. In Blenheim we got on the world's shortest train. Four cars total and so cute. It was manned by just two conducters, who provided interesting facts about the countryside throughout the journey. The train took us along the coast down to Christchurch. We had a great time, the views of the ocean and mountains entertained us as we sipped wine and ate New Zealand cheese. The only distraction was a pair of very loud beekeepers who had just went to a bee convention. Apparently it was an exciting convention because they talked about it for six hours.

We spent the night in a hostel and then had one day to explore Christchurch before flying out the following morning. Christchurch seemed huge compared to Nelson, but it was a very pleasant city never the less. We wandered through the public square and stopped to watch a Maori group perform. We then went to the Art Gallery, museum and gardens. That evening we met up with Nicole, a high school friend of Dan's who lives in Christchurch. It was great fun to meet her and her fiance, and a nice way to end our two weeks in New Zealand.

Takaka Hill

We reluctantly left our wonderful guesthouse on Monday and began the winding drive back to Nelson. However, Lynn and Jay indulged us with an important stop along the way - a Lord of the Rings filming location. The scene is from The Fellowship of the Ring, when Aragorn leads the hobbits into the wilds after they meet at the inn at Bree ("No second breakfast? What about elevenses? Afternoon tea?"). After parking we eagerly tramped up a steep hill and through an uninviting forest path looking for the spot, all the while quietly wondering why it looked so different from what we pictured. After giving up and driving on we realized we were in the completely wrong spot. The real place was actually quite lovely, and we enjoyed some tea and pie on the spot where the film catering once stood.

Nearby, a hike through a forest brought us to Harwood's Hole, the deepest hole in the southern hemisphere and the 10th deepest in the world. We couldn't get a view all the way down without falling to our deaths, but our impressions of the size of it were impressive enough.

Our last couple of days in Nelson were spent hiding from the rain and preparing to leave. We did have a most excellent wine tasting experience at two local wineries with some gracious (and generous) German hosts. We were a little reluctant to leave; Nelson was a nice home away from home and we had a great time with Lynn and Jay.

No Admittance Except on Official Party Business

We had extra cause to celebrate while in New Zealand. Dan's 27th birthday was on May 23rd, and although it wasn't quite his One Hundred and Elevent-ith birthday, we still had to ring it in Middle Earth style. We spent the morning kayaking through beautiful green water and giant rock formations. Then we headed to our new favorite bar, the Sprig and Fern for some hearty ales and pizza. New Zealand was really made for Dan. The pub was filled with babies, old locals and an incredibly fit pack of Marathoners. Although lacking in Hobbits, it might as well have been the Green Dragon. Interesting fact, the Sprig and Fern brewed the beer used in the Prancing Pony scene in LOTR. Pretty awesome way to spend a 27th birthday!


Dan's make shift birthday cake.

Wharariki Beach

The next day we picked up an Austrian hitchhiker named Christian and headed to a beach. It certainly wasn't swimming weather but we had some fantastic baby seal encounters and spotted a pilot whale.

That night we downed some wild pork pie and home-brewed beer and feijoa crumbles at the Mussel Inn. For a bar in the middle of nowhere, there was quite an alternative crowd for Jacky Tar, an Irish band that was quite fun. There was a baby at the bar, not the first time we've seen it here; they even have play areas in the bars. We danced the night away with the old, the young, and the dreadlocked. New Zealand brews some really excellent beer, which easily rivals the best breweries I've known in the US.

The following day we finished off our weekend with some memorable sea kayaking in the Golden Bay area. We had a pleasant lunch on a beach, looking at the shells and feeling like we were the only people for miles. After we finished, Nissa lingered in the water for a while and suddenly began waving her arms frantically. Turns out a giant sting ray was passing by, a little too close for comfort, and I caught its shadowy figure as it swam away.

Mushrooms

For some reason I've become obsessed with taking photos of mushrooms in New Zealand. It must be the hobbit in me.

Pupu Springs Area

Last Friday was an easy day, and we stayed in the area of our guesthouse. Our first walk was a grove that was thick with jungle vegetation and featured some of the limestone rocks that are found only in this area and in Italy.

Our second walk was in Pupu Springs (yes, pronounced "poo poo"), which supposedly has the clearest freshwater in the world.

We also visited Greg, one of Lynn and Jay's many friends in the area. Greg is a "reclusive science guy" in a beautifully isolated home with its own laboratory. He had been working for a biofuel company, but has lately been more involved with building elaborate rat traps. He told us that most of the local dinner conversation revolves around trying to get rid of rats and possums. A surprisingly high number of the people we've met in the area are originally from Europe or North America (the US in this case), and a well-worn passport seems to be almost a prerequisite of living here.

We rewarded ourselves that afternoon with some tea and scones (and feijoa macaroons) and were back in time for the local news. We love the New Zealand news. Some of the big stories of the night:

• Ukeleles are replacing the recorder as the instrument of choice for school children (cut to dramatic shot of recorders being thrown into a dusty closet)
• Redheads brace themselves for "Hug a Ginga Day" (New Zealand seems to have inherited the weird British dislike of redheads). This was the day for everyone to "hug a ginga" to make up for being mean to them the rest of the year. We were pretty remote, so Nissa missed her chance to be hugged by strangers
• Rugby racial slur controversy. 40% of the news seems to be about rugby
• A nice looking local man had his "baby blue" Jeep stolen, and now he can't get home because his house is so remote