Guest Bloggers: Israeli Sausage Toast

There will be (guest) blog. (Man that line never gets old.) Ilan and Sarah reporting for duty. We must say that we’re honored to be here, albeit a bit intimidated. As people whose names combine to the altogether unappealing “Slan” or “Iarah,” we really can’t compete with the smooth machinery that is “Lustin.” Alas, we will do our best.

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CPCD (Contagious Political Chaos Disease)

Greetings! We will now be turning to the phase of our trip we affectionately like to refer to as our Adventures in Developing World Political Chaos. Over the span of a couple of weeks in May, we managed to stumble into not one, but TWO countries on the verge of meltdown as their respective political crises essentially shut down big portions of both countries, leading us to wonder if we were carrying some kind of contagious political chaos disease.

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Vanu-where??

When we started planning our big trip last year, we had a rough idea of most of the countries we wanted to visit, but there were a few holes in our itinerary that we figured we’d fill in along the way. One of those holes was the South Pacific. We knew we wanted to visit some islands in the South Pacific after our time in Australia, but we weren’t sure which ones. I’d already been to Fiji six years ago, and while it was lovely, I was eager to visit a new country. We’d heard good things about the Cook Islands, but they were farther east than even Fiji, and we were hoping to find some place closer to Australia if possible. After doing more research, we narrowed the list down to Samoa, American Samoa, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Tonga. In the end, we decided that Vanuatu had everything we were looking for…

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Roadtrippin' With Dr. Spacevan

What do you do when you learn that a Category 4 tropical cyclone is headed directly for the set of islands where you are planning to do a 3-day sailing trip? If you are Lustin — and especially if you are Lustin after just spending three days on a heaving, tossing ocean — you aren’t all that eager to tempt your fate with the seasickness gods again. Nor are you especially excited about sailing around normally sun-soaked tropical islands in the pouring rain. So, you do what any rational person would do — you change the entire itinerary for the remainder of your time in Australia less than 12 hours before your next flight is supposed to take off.

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G'day, Mate!

After an amazing five weeks in New Zealand, Laura and I hopped a flight from Christchurch (on the south island) to Auckland (on the north), then another to Sydney in the Land Down Under. We arrived late on a Friday night with only a few vague ideas about what we wanted to see and do during our month-long stay in Australia, a mode of travel we’re both starting to get pretty comfortable with. Our four days in Sydney included some great walks, a few scenic ferry rides, a ridiculous afternoon at the Four Seasons spa, one very quirky B&B and another “boutique” hotel (we are *so* over that word), a bit of post-Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade chaos, one very grumpy walk through Chinatown in search of breakfast, birthday tequila shots, and even a bit of culture at the Sydney Opera House.

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Chaos With Curry

We woke up on Sunday morning in Picton after three tough days on the Queen Charlotte Track, and we were glad to know we didn’t have to rush for an early Stray bus pickup (the new bunch we were joining up with had taken the 8AM ferry from Wellington, so they wouldn’t be coming through Picton until close to noon). We enjoyed a really great breakfast at a place called Gusto – it was maybe the best breakfast we’ve had so far on the trip. It also arrived at our table in less than 45 minutes, which is more than we can say for the dinner we had at the place down the street the night before. After a bit of email and blogging back at our hostel, it was time to meet the new crew.

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Hail to the Chief

Laura and I are taking a “down” day in cloudy Abel Tasman today to catch up on email, photos, blog, and the random bits of real life (mostly bills and the like) that still have to be dealt with while we’re traveling. We’re also taking this opportunity to exercise the “off” option of the hop-on/hop-off Stray bus tour… having spent a really fun week or so on Mr. Scoobs with Mambo as our driver, we’re already missing his laid back style and wickedly dry sense of humor (though not the mechanical unreliability of Mr. Scoobs, may he RIP), so we’re hoping the next bus and driver will suit us a little better than the one we joined yesterday in Picton for our south island loop.

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Hippies & Hahei & Hot Water, Oh My!

Well, we said farewell to gumboots and free wi-fi a few hours after our last post – Mr. Scoobs made a miraculous recovery thanks to some good luck and a very talented local mechanic, and we made it to Wellington only four hours later than expected. We’re in a lovely idyllic hostel in Picton now, waiting to catch a boat up to the northern end of the Queen Charlotte Track. We’ll spend the next two and a half days hiking back down the track along the Marlborough Sound, and then we’ll reconnect with the Stray bus on Sunday. Especially after not being able to do the Tongariro Crossing earlier this week, we’re both really looking forward to getting out on a trail for a few days (assuming Dusty’s ankle holds up!).

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