Kicking back on the very chilled island of Gili Meno
After hiking Mt Rinjani I was ready for some serious island time. Andres had spent the last few days on the Gili Islands getting to know the place and we planned on meeting at Gili Meno – a little piece of land that has the reputation of being super quiet and the least inhabited of the three islands. With [...]
Hiking Mount Rinjani – to summit or not to summit?
I like to think I’m not competitive, but friends who know me warts and all would probably disagree. I’ve always been a happy loser when it comes to a variety of stuff – like team sports, drinking games and life threatening leaps of faith. But when it comes to hiking I’ve had my own kind of [...]
Hiking to the volcanic hot springs of Mount Rinjani
The second day would see us trekking all the way down to the volcanic crater lake for a soak in the hot springs and then back up again to camp on the other side of the rim. Basically about six to seven hours of walking. I was worried that after the effort of hiking the first day [...]
Climbing Mount Rinjani
I seriously doubted I could do the Mount Rinjani hike about four hours in on the first day. My backpack was soaked through with sweat, I’d drank litres of water and still wouldn’t pee for another 24 hours – so complete was my exhaustion. My face felt swollen from exertion and my shit knee was [...]
Trying to stop in Lombok
All my life I’ve found it incredibly hard to stay in one place. Yeah, yeah, first world problems and all that. I’ve lost count of the number of houses I’ve lived in and I seem to be always craving new environments, new cultures and new foods to shove in my fickle mouth. Anything new. In [...]
A little slice of Balinese island life
We’ve just spent a few days on a beautiful island off the coast of Bali’s mainland – Nusa Lembongan. It’s not most people’s typical idea of an island paradise but it holds all different kinds of earthy charm. Lengthy white sand beaches are few and far between, there’s a distinct lack of glitz going on and [...]
Getting to know the marauding temple monkeys of Bali
Bali is apparently awash with beautiful Hindu temples so we wanted to kick off our first cultural experience with a popular shrine – something with a little nature thrown in. One that stands out on the must see list is on the very south coast of the main island. Built in the 11th century, Pura Luhur Uluwatu is one [...]
Destination: Indonesia – the islands of Lombok, Bali and the Gili’s
We are super excited to be heading to a few beautiful islands that make up the incredible archipelago of Indonesia. We’ve wrangled some cheap flights from Australia to Bali and have three weeks to see as much of the natural beauty of the region we can squeeze in. In particular the islands of Lombok, the Gili’s [...]
Nice brew bro – a poke around Dunedin’s favourite brewery
Stopping in Dunedin for a couple of days, Andres’s face lit up when we realised that our backpackers was right next door to a working brewery. Housed in a beautiful old building from 1876, the site also boasts it’s own natural spring that is used to make all the traditional ales and beers. Actually, Andres [...]
Photodump: On the New Zealand road
It’s easy to say that New Zealand is one of the most visually stunning countries we ‘ve both ever seen, just driving through the landscape is an ever changing delight. We’d also put the flight over the mountains in to Queenstown as one of the best places we’ve ever had the pleasure of landing. This [...]
