No pirates found from Caribbean

30.10.2010 | Day 92 | 39 414 km | Miami, Florida, USA

All aboard! Carnival Destiny, not the smallest
cruise ship we've seen...

I’m pretty sure something bigger is against us. As we were waiting in line for Carnival Destiny cruise ship boarding, we were informed that there is something wrong in the ship and it needs to be repaired. So apparently no matter where in the world you are in, no matter in how “civilized” country you are in, things can go wrong just when you won’t expect it to happen. But, eventually we got into our cabins but the itinerary had changed: Cayman Island was replaced with Key West, Florida with $65 added to cruise account per person as an apology. Well, me and my girlfriend Siiri didn’t mind too much about the change as we still got to see something new, but man… Some people had driven from Key West to take this cruise and one woman standing in line behind us said she was going to meet his brother in Grand Cayman. And I can tell you that those people were mighty pissed about the itinerary change!

But as always, after the rain comes the sunshine and the 5-day cruise was just what we hoped for. Key West was fun to visit and Jamaica’s Ocho Rios had amazing park called Dunn’s River Park (Cheers to Alistair and Katriina) where we spent time to watch the views and swam in the ocean. Rest of the cruise was pretty much relaxing, eating free and surprisingly good food and winning money from the slots at the ship’s casino. Still, 5 days was just enough to spend in a ship - no matter the size and we were glad to get back to Miami.

Dunn's River Falls in Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Typical sight on the Ocean Drive at Miami Beach...

Miami itself is a strange city… Maybe “shallow” would be the right term to describe it, with all the supercars cruising the beach roads and moviestar-looking people getting their trimmed bodies even more tanned. The shopping is also, well, ridiculously big thing in Miami. We went to Sawgrass Mills Mall, the biggest mall in Florida. It took more than 20 minutes just to walk from one end to another without visiting any stores, so… Yeah, it could take more than a day if you’d want to see everything there! But, as the rest of our stay in Miami was just enjoying the views and spending some quality couples time (which was Great after 3 months of sharing a room with another guy), there’s not much interesting for a blog entry. Girls flight departed back to Finland today, so us boys still have one more day before the end of the whole trip. One lousy day, but we’ll try to make the most of it!

And hooray for 50 000 km's travelled, which we accomplished on the last day of the Caribbean cruise!

From Bula to Aloha

20.10.2010 | Day 82 | 39 414 km | Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

First of all, 12th of October was by far the most strangest day I have ever lived. For starters, it lasted for 34 hours. We were in Fiji and in Hawaii at the same time for more than 13 hours. That left us completely confused about what day it was and it was also really hard to get used to be living “the past” compared to Finland, rather than “the future” what we lived all the way before arriving to USA. This really was the mother of jet lags.

But Hawaii… It’s a place I’ve always wanted to go. And why not? Everybody has seen it in TV and it always has looked to be a perfect paradise to go to. But the circumstances were against Hawaii this time; We just left the absolute paradise in the middle of nowhere that left us breathless. So there we were, in Big Island, Hawaii in a city called Hilo and there was nothing interesting for us to see. I didn’t quite see myself laying in a hotel bed almost all the day in Hawaii, but that was what happened!

We also had to stay one extra day in Hilo since a car rental company refused to accept our money or our cards for a rental, since we “only” had a Visa and Mastercard Credit/Debit cards, which had been perfectly fine in 10+ countries before. So thanks for making everything so freakin’ hard for tourists! Next day we however got a car arranged from another company which required a return flight ticket for proof, although I didn‘t get it what difference that made regarding of using the card. First stop was to drive up to Mauna Kea Summit, the highest point of Hawaii, 4 200 meters above sea level. At half point up there was an information center that strongly advised us not to drive up in a rear-wheel drive because it was so dangerous, but we decided to do it anyway and surprisingly found it easier than the drive up to The Remarkables in NZ.

At the top of Mauna Kea I instantly felt like praising all the mountain climbers out there, since getting out of the car in 4 2000 meters, it was so damned hard even to breath, not to mention walk around! We took just a couple of photos and walked only about 5 minutes before starting our descend back to the visitor center. The high altitude felt like you’d been winded badly and I couldn’t imagine staying there for long… But it was a great experience to feel being higher than all the clouds. The rest of the day we just drove without anything else “interesting” to see and we ended our day for a less-than-comfy sleep in the car once again. At least this time it was not too cold outside…

The highest point of our trip: Mauna Kea Summit, over 4 200 meters

The hottest point of our trip: Lava flowing at the Volcano National Park

As usual after a night spent sleeping in a car, we woke up early and drove around Volcano National Park and saw how the land has been born from massive lava flows. The most amazing sight we saw was a now closed road, that ends because hot lava is constantly flowing from the earth since 80’s. I didn’t expect to have a chance to stand just few meters away from slowly flowing lava, but all I can say that it was a HOT experience! The parts where lava was pouring on the top of the road had set the asphalt on fire. Mother earth really has some cool tricks up on her sleeve.

Rest of our stay in Hawaii consisted staying couple of days near North Shore at Oahu Island, as well couple of days in the same island but south, in Waikiki. It was far less spectacular for us, since the small town up north, Waimea Bay was all about surfing and we aren’t exactly known to have those skills. But those who have bitten by the surfing fly, are serious about it. I chatted for a while with Bruno from Brazil, who told us that big waves were just a few days away and then gave us his card. I have to say that he has played his cards right, staying 4 months in Hawaii and doing a study for an university in Brazil: “Oriented Consciousness Mastering in the Practice of Surfing - A scientific study on the pedagogy of surfing“. I love it when people take something this seriously!

We have now been 82 days on the road and the end of the trip closes in faster than the speed of light, but there is still one segment left. In a couple of hours American Airlines takes us to Miami, where after 3 months we get to meet our girlfriends! Girls arrive day later than us, so we’ll spend our last manly day by going, where else than to a hockey game. Then, when the girls arrive it’s time to go Caribbean cruising for 5 days, so even though our trip is reaching it’s final days, there’s still a lot of trip to go…

In a true paradise...

12.10.2010 | Day 73 | 31 375 km | Nadi, Fiji

For today’s traveler, the Internet is the greatest tool one could have. But, for Fiji, we decided to “keep it real” and before the trip made a promise to keep Fiji out of googling. So, basically we knew pretty much nothing about the country when landing to Nadi. Well, obviously we figured out that Fijians are laid back and friendly people because hey, they are living in a paradise middle of nowhere. We found a hostel to stay from an ad in the airport and took their free shuttle to the town. It was already past sunset, so our  initial thoughts about laid back people turned into fear as every man looked like they could beat us up in seconds, not to mention the always locked doors and bars on every shop that could stand a riot, now already closed. I even red from a wall in the hostel that “Gunmen are targeting tourists in the city”, which didn’t help at all. Later out, Aleksi pointed out that it was not gunmen, but conmen… Note to self, don’t assume things while reading!

Anyway, the hostel owner said that we shouldn’t waste our days in Fiji at the mainland and we really didn’t feel like doing so, we booked a four night stay at small island called Mana. Small boat took us there next morning, one hour ride one way, so I could say we seriously now were in the middle of nowhere. But the island turned out to be amazingly beautiful with sandy beaches, crystal clear waters, really friendly people and the general laid back attitude with no hurry at any times.

Our front yard for four days

So for four days we laid on hammocks reading books, swam in the ocean, did some snorkeling, walked around the island and after the sunsets I spent time with other travelers who came in the same boat and also stayed for four nights. But to be honest, at least for me, these travelers were the coolest thing of our whole time in Mana. It’s always kinda hard to get in into a group of people who talk English as their mother language, as I have to concentrate to every word I try to get out of my mouth. But I have never met a group of people who were just simply so awesome of being so laid back, funny at all times and the partying was just so damn fun. Hopefully the world is small enough to see at least some of you guys again somewhere!

Our time in Mana was absolutely perfect. Even though it was a really small island, four days just flew by and one day back in Nadi felt boring and was just mainly about waiting our next flight to Hawaii. I wish I could some day go back to Fiji, but with 15 000 km in between this paradise and Finland, it’s so hard to get in without going Australia and New Zealand first.

Sunset Beach, Mana Island

The last winter day

6.10.2010 | Day 67 | 29 114 km | Auckland, New Zealand

After our road trip, we had about one and a half day to look what kind of city Auckland is. The first day after our flights from south was just walking a little and I looked the sights from the Sky Tower, which is - if I remember right - the tallest building on southern hemisphere.

Next day however, was all about improvising and it turned out to be just the right choice at this point of the journey. First, I found a scooter rental place and rented one small Suzuki for a day. I guess the road trip wasn’t still enough! Since the weather was sunny and it was really warm in the sun, I decided I’ll drive all the way to west coast and to Waitakere national park. After some once again great scenery along the way I drove my scooter to the final stop, where all the trekking tracks begun. I walked in the forests for more than two hours and found the highlight point of these tracks - Kitekite Falls. I thought I’d miss all the trekking in this country where it’s a must thing to do, but at the last moment I did it and really enjoyed the peaceful environment those tracks offered.

After the treks, I fired up my scooter and took a scenic road back to Auckland, drove here and there and just generally looked what kind of a city Auckland is outside downtown. As Mount Eden was conveniently nearby, I drove the roads up there, looked the city in the horizon and the 360 degree views to the crater the mountain had. Then it was time to drive back to our hostel and enjoy a little nap.

As the sun set, I started my scooter once again and drove to the harbor to see how Auckland Harbor Bridge and the city skyline looked at night. When I just enjoyed the skyline views from the harbor, a harbor security man in his sixties joined me and we talked a long while about New Zealand and Finland, the similarities these countries have and how weird is it that the sun goes from east to west from the other side down under. At some point he wished a good rest of our trip and left to do his work, I watched the views for a little while longer and when it got a bit too cold, I drove back to hostel to read a book and get some sleep.

Auckland skyline on a peaceful evening...

It was a perfect and relaxing day in Auckland and it’s surroundings. Now, back to airport it’s time to catch a flight to Fiji and leave the cold weather behind us.

New Zealand road diaries

4.10.2010 | Day 65 | 31 969 km | Auckland, New Zealand


Day 1: Auckland - Hamilton - New Plymouth
Road km’s: 0 - 427 km

Finally! Probably the most anticipated part of our journey for me, a proper road trip in New Zealand. After a sleepless night in Melbourne airport and after a sleepless flight to Auckland it might have not been the best idea to jump behind the wheel, but the arrangements were already done, so there was no getting out of this now. We picked our car keys from the airport and were greeted by a really fine lady dressed in black and wore nice 18-inch hi-heels, and the suspension felt pretty good too! In other words, we found that our car was a special version of Ford Falcon V6, which was a nice surprise.

After concentrating again to use the left lanes instead of right, we started driving south towards Hamilton. Since last three cities we have been in have had a F1 track and New Zealand doesn’t have one, we still wanted to keep the motorsport theme going, hit the right turn signal on and steered off the highway about 50 km after Auckland. This time, it was time to check out what Rally New Zealand looks like. We made our way to the special stage Franklin, used in this year’s event and found out that the roads are pretty much the same than in Rally Finland but just a little bit slower... And with a spectacular scenery! Even though our lady was not prepared for this kind of gravel action in those high heels, it was a thrill to drive those roads.

Rally New Zealand SS11 Franklin

At some point we found the main highway again and cruised to Hamilton to eat and find sleeping bags for the next night. We decided to head west to New Plymouth, from where it would be an easy drive in the morning to Wellington, most southern city in the northern island. At some point the sun set, Aleksi fell asleep and I was having a real tough time to keep concentrated after a sleepless night. But well before New Plymouth, the road started to cross a mountain and became really twisty. And here it happened; The driver and the car became one as I drove through the hairpins, ups and downs and tight chicanes. Our lady behaved like a dream through every corner and I was able to stay awake easily. Finally reaching the lights of New Plymouth, I stopped the car to a rest area and thought that I haven’t had this much fun driving a car in a long, long time…

Day 2: New Plymouth - Wellington - SOUTH ISLAND - Christchurch
Road km’s: 427 - 1293 km

A rooster. Again and again and again. That was what I heard 5 am, waking up in a really chilly car after another night I should have slept better. No farms nearby, just a rooster in the middle of the woods waking us up. After 6 am I decided that it’s enough, got out of the sleeping bag and behind the wheel again. It was time to catch our ferry to South Island from Wellington. We stuck strictly to the main roads to avoid any delays and the drive was pretty smooth, but tiring. In Wellington we were greeted by Mother Earth by heavy rain, but we managed to find the ferry terminal and said goodbye to our great lady Falcon, as in NZ you can’t drive a rental car across the islands.

I had a brilliant plan of sleeping through the three hour ferry ride, but my plans weren’t exactly the same as the ferry staff thought. As soon as the ferry left the terminal, they started playing movies with pretty much max volume, making sleeping impossible. So, instead of watching sweet dreams, I saw a Sandra Bullock movie. Oh well…

Arriving to Picton in the South Island, we got a shuttle to rental companies to pick up our next car. A slight disappointment, since this time we saw a girl pretty much dressed in a basic grey sweatpants and flat shoes; Our car turned from a special edition to the cheapest Falcon there is for sale. Still, a V6 engine made at least me happy.

Amazing scenery from a car or from a train

Another 400 km to go before a hostel this time in Christchurch. At first it was excellent fun to drive along the east coast roads with the Pacific Ocean and snow-topped mountains in the same view, with great slow turns hugging the coastline. But, now with one night totally without sleep and another in a cold car with rooster sounds included, after the sun set again it became really tough to drive. Lights of the oncoming traffic blinding me and constant 100 km/h was not good for general awareness, but I decided that if I really felt that I couldn’t drive properly, I would just stop. In the end it was not far away, but we finally arrived at 10 pm to Christchurch and found our place to stay. A quick shower and straight to sleep, that was not a hard task to do!

Day 3: Christchurch - Arthur’s Pass - Greymouth - Hokitika
Road km’s: 1293 - 1600 km

Alarm clock woke us up 11 hours later and finally we had the sleep we were looking for. This day would be so much easier. We also had no hurry, since we “only” had to cross the Southern Alps to the west coast and reach a city called Greymouth. But first, it was time to look what Christchurch looked like since the big earthquakes hit it just few weeks ago. I was surprised to find out that business was mostly as usual with no sign of the catastrophe happened earlier. But, as we drove around the city we found out that whole blocks had been closed from the traffic and demolition workers were tearing up the ruins of some buildings here and there. They have a long way to go before everything is like it was earlier…

We also drove the local Mulholland Drive, which had really narrow mountain roads with no railings separating our car and the huge drop down. That’s something what keeps your speed to minimum! If you ask me, this road beats the original Mulholland Drive with a long margin.

After a breakfast in town it was time to check out what Arthur’s Pass looked like. Only under 300 km drive, but crossing the Alps is not something you can do every day. Just as we started climbing uphill for the first time, it started raining. The weather looked really nice when we started from Christchurch, but obviously mountain weather is a completely different thing. It was not normal rain, but like if a kid was playing with shower controls; Sometimes it rained a lot, sometimes none and all the differences between. But who’d think about the rain, when you have such views in front of you. This is the motherland for road trips, these views will take your breath away.

Driving up to Arthur's Pass

Hi there!

While descending on the other side, we stopped to a scenic outlook to take photos of the road and scenery, when we saw three parrots just waiting in the parking lot. When we stopped our car, one of the parrots jumped to the roof and started eating window seals and looked inside like saying “wazaaaaa!” at the same time. Strange I thought, but later on I found out that these are Kea’s and it’s strictly forbidden to feed them, as they come more and more dependant of these tourist snacks. We’re glad we didn’t and I guess the window seals were not exactly what the bird was looking for.

We arrived Greymouth earlier than we thought, so we hit a local bar and played few rounds of pool and had half pint of beers. I was curious if it were legal to drink one beer and drive afterwards, so I asked the people in the bar: “Can I drive after drinking beer”? My wording was not quite what I tried to ask, so a helpful middle-aged guy answered: “Well, it all depends how much you have eaten. I’d say after three or four beers you’re still ok”. Eh… I got the feeling drunk driving is not that uncommon in the small cities of New Zealand.

We ended our day continuing just a little forward to Hokitika and found another place to park our car middle of nowhere and get in to our sleeping bags. At this point it felt like a moderately good idea.

Day 4: Hokitika - Franz Josef - Queenstown
Road km’s: 1600 - 2085 km

No roosters making sounds in the morning. That was a good thing. Unfortunately, that was the only good thing happening around that time. Temperature had decreased to freakin’ freezing number, only 4 degrees outside! And that was pretty much what it was inside the car as well and that was the point I realized that sleeping in a car during New Zealand springtime is doomed to fail.

Franz Josef Glacier

After a half hour of trying to get the moisture off the car windows inside, we started driving towards to Queenstown. Pretty soon we crossed a place called Franz Josef and just afterwards there was a sign of “Franz Josef Glacier”, so we decided to take a peek what’s there to see. We ended up doing an one hour walking trip to see a glacier, a frozen stream coming down from a snowy mountain. It was amazing sight to see, but also so freakishly cold… Until the sun started warming us up behind the mountains. Sun is not the same what it is during winters in Finland, here, you can actually end up being hot and cold at the same time. Being in the sun makes you almost sweat and going to the shadows makes you freeze totally. It’s a real weird feeling, as in our home the sun just isn’t that hot under same circumstances.

The rest of the trip was crossing the Alps once again. Well, again is not exactly the right word since at least I probably wouldn’t never get tired to see these sights and drive these twisty roads, there’s not anything that could make road tripping here dull, not even a really bad night of sleep or rainy days. After a thousand turns and a thousand sheep beside the roads we ended our day to Queenstown into a hostel and had a relaxing evening. After the first tough days of the trip, we’ve had some excellent itineraries and not drive too much in one day.

A turn after a turn... And lovin' every one of them

Day 5: Queenstown - Manapouri - Te Anau
Road km’s: 2085 - 2356 km

Really, really cold at the top of The Remarkables

This day was the shortest of the whole trip looking at kilometers to drive, so we thought in the morning why keep it that way? First stop we decided to do was to drive to a ski center up the mountains called The Remarkables. The name itself was enough to get me up there, but the drive was worth anyways. It was different this time though, since paved roads ended exactly when we turned off from the highway. The climb was only 10 km in length, but we ascended from 300 meters to 1 600 meters during the drive. At some point it started to look like a dumb plan with summer tires and a rear-wheel drive, while all other cars going up or down were AWD’s. Not to mention once again missing railings to keep us from tumbling 1 km downhill… But, the roads were in good enough condition and we made it all the way up to find out that it was the coldest place yet, a whopping zero degrees Celsius.

We made another stop that made our journey to Te Anau longer as we drove to Lake Manapouri to take some photos. At this point I have to mention how amazed we have been of the waters in New Zealand. It’s so clear absolutely everywhere that you feel that it’s almost drinkable. It’s truly fantastic to see all the river streams or lakes as you can see the bottom through the waters easily. This, I have never seen anywhere…

Te Anau itself doesn’t offer much, so we checked in to our hostel and again relaxed the evening and set our sights to the spectacle of this journey: Milford Sound.

Day 6: Te Anau - Milford Sound - Bluff - Invercargill
Road km’s: 2356 - 2855 km

We checked out from our hostel 8.30 am and set our sights for Milford Sound. All guides said the drive would be 2,5 hours, but thanks to my happy gas pedal feet, we actually did the trip in 1,5 hours… Road to the spectacular Milford was very cool to drive and offered some great photo stops along the way, but the jackpot was in the end of the road; We decided to take a 2,5 hour cruise through the fiord all the way to Tasman Sea and back. All I can say is that nature has some very, very nice things to offer when you decide to explore them! And at last we got real lucky with the weather, as it rains 200/365 days in Milford and today it was totally cloudless and beautiful day. We really enjoyed our cruise, as it brought some difference to the road trip and offered those beautiful mountains, waterfalls and couple of seals were also kind enough to pose for us.

After the cruise was over, it was time for our last journey, all the way south that is possible on the mainland. For a change, the landscape turned totally flat and we drove through a thousand lamb farms and finally reached the most south town, Bluff. I have never been this far away from home, it was exactly 17 103 kilometers from my home in Jyvaskyla, Finland. After trying to put these numbers into perspective, we drove a bit back to Invercargill, found a nice enough place to stay for a night and parked our car. The next day was only about driving 10 km’s to the local airport and catch a flight to Auckland via Christchurch.

This six day road trip was all that I hoped for. I set the bar high for New Zealand before the trip, but everything was even better. Pretty much every day was amazing with the landscape changing and being beautiful all the time. We had some trouble with coldness, but really… Who remembers it now? We don’t, since the drive was totally worth it. I guess the photos tell the story what kind of a traveller’s land New Zealand is. And here's few from the Milford Sound and it's surroundings, no captions necessary.