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Another destination that didn`t start life on our original plan, but when it is only a 50min flight and you get to spend a day at, in my opinion, the best airport ever, it was a must a do. After all the wonderful Patronus Towers are here and the Batu Caves... We landed at our latest bunny hutch after a 45 minute drive from the airport, and when we could see the Patronus Towers, or admittedly the very tips of them from our wonderful little flats bedroom window, we knew we had landed in the very heart of the city. Our location was just perfect and the flat had everything we needed. With our next flights such much cheaper at the end of the month, we opted for a much longer stay than we had originally planned in order to recoup some of the bunny budget that we managed to blow in style whilst in Singapore. At £35 per night for a city centre location, it was self contained so Mr Bunny could cook to his hearts content, aided by the fact that the best supermarket to date was situated just the shortest of walks away. Kuala Lumpur with the exception of being the home of the Patronus Towers, was somewhere that we had little knowledge of. Little B did our to do list, and apart from the first day, we opted to spread our wings just a little each day, rather than doing our usual 10k step marathon days. Very much a chilled out layover, we spent a number of days just watching the views from our 13th floor flat and not doing much at all. In fact, on the 14th when everybody was spending a silly amount of money on overpriced flowers and chocolates, we decided to go to the cinema. We had tried several times in other countries to see Paddington in Peru, but finally our chance came. The cutest little cinema ever with bear shaped seats, and family settees, it cost us a whole £8 for 3 bunnies to watch the film. Talking of films, we caught the lift downstairs one morning like we always did and emerged into a scene of cameras, directors, actors, clipboards and microphones! No one spoke any English so unfortunately we couldn`t get any answers as to what the programme was, although it would appear it was a regular occurrence as the security guard with a little broken English shrugged his shoulders and said `filming again, as always`. We took a tour on the hoho bus, (Hop On Hop Off) to try and get a feel for the city. Not the best tour I must admit. We spent almost 5 hours on the bus, doing both available city circuits back to back. With each route taking nearly 2 hours to complete, with added time due to the many traffic holdups, it made for a very bunny bum numbing few hours. Whilst it did yield places of interest I never felt the wows of Singapore. There are definitely some impressive buildings in the city, but nothing comes close to the magnificence of the Patronus Towers. We wandered around the area of the KL Tower, but it was very expensive to go to the top. With the Patronus on our to do list, we didn`t feel the need to spend time and money on what was essentially just another viewpoint. Another point of interest was the Thean Hou Temple, this was worth the journey. A very beautiful temple high above the city, lots of coloured lanterns and celebratory Chinese New Year decor made for a very pretty place to visit. Inside the Temple, the architecture was quite special, naturally it was of little interest to us in a spiritual way, but we could appreciate its ambience and beauty. The Patronus Towers. We managed to choose the nicest possible day to visit the twin towers. We were most excited. Tickets sell out quickly for the observation deck, and we managed 3 tickets for 10.30am. Just a twenty minute walk away from our flat, we arrived in plenty of time, to be frisked, x rayed, bag checked and corralled into our small group for the 10.30 lift. Their timings and efficiency were superb. Nobody was allowed more than their fair share of time anywhere. We were whizzed up to the 42nd floor first to walk the sky bridge, whoa, my little bunny legs had a minor wobble, that is quite some height, but after a brief pause there for photos, we were gathered together again for the final flight up to the 86th floor. Now that, my bunny friends, is high! The views are just stunning, but so is the chance to admire the second tower in all its glory. As far as buildings go, the Patronus are beautiful inside and out. Whilst standing looking across with legs of slightly off firm jelly, I was gobsmacked to watch two workman hanging on ropes and pullies cleaning the paintwork just below me. Who am I to be nervous inside, whilst he dangles on a rope outside? With Kuala Lumpur being the home of shopping due to its very low import taxes, little bunny and I decided to have a day wandering the shopping malls whilst Mr Bunny had a peaceful afternoon watching a green screen somewhere. Lets just say our afternoon was not a success. Without the budget for Gucci, Prada, Tiffany or Louis Vuitton, we tried, and failed to find more western and cheaper shops elsewhere. K.L is not the place for western clothing, everything is very much Asian and tiny. Really, really tiny. Like, do the women actually have bums and boobs here tiny! Never seen so much clothing in very petite, sizes 4 or less. Neither was I particularly amused when in the market I eyed a pair of trousers, tiny of course, to have to woman shout to me, its ok much stretch, very stretchy...sure, stretch to a whole size 10 with a good pull grrrr. Two bunnies went home feeling quite miffed and empty handed. There was one shop in which I really had a fun time, I like cute and fluffy, I admit it, I am a sucker for a teddy bear of any design. One particular shop was aimed at me through and through. We did buy our new Disney (watch this space) t shirts here. Not even a t shirt did we find. Mr Bunny arrived sometime later seemingly having had a much more successful afternoon! Batu Caves. We had been looking forward to this trip almost as much as we had been looking forward to the Patronus Tour. A short taxi ride and we landed into absolute chaos. So many people, taxis everywhere, buses, stalls, rubbish bags everywhere, litter, food waste, pigeons, monkeys, good grief what on earth had we come to? The Batu Caves are Instagram (curse you Instagram and your stupid filtered artificial photos) worthy, painted steps, a beautiful courtyard, the tall golden Buddha (?) statue. But our reality was hell on earth. Before I mention the Caves, I should admit that we had managed to time our visit just 2 or 3 days after a HUGE religious festival had just finished, to which approx 2 million people had attended. Our timing sucked. Was a shame really, as our taxi driver told us that under normal circumstances the area was normally clean, the food stalls didn`t usually exist with the exception of maybe one or two, and the steps were normally a pleasant experience. With nothing to compare it with, we climbed the mountain of coloured stairs, trying to avoid looking at the abysmal amount of plastic bottles and discarded rubbish, dodging scavenging monkeys and arrived at the biggest cave I have seen in a long time. I could understand why this cave and the shrine within could be deemed special, but an area still cleaning up after an onslaught of a million plus people, all I could feel was the ickiness of dirty monkeys and discarded rubbish. And the smell. Oh dear, the smell. In a nutshell we went, we saw, we left. Such a shame. Little bunny was so disappointed that she even went back a few days later in the hope that normality had been restored. It had not. Instagram really does have a lot to answer for. I personally refuse to look at anything of Insta, but when the younger generation appears to live on it, these disappointments are going to be frequent. Whilst we very much enjoyed our time in Kuala Lumpur, I cannot say that it would be a destination that I would choose to return to anytime soon. A one off for me I think. Perhaps if the people had made up for our lack of enthusiasm for the city with lots of welcoming smiles, it may have been different. They did not smile. Ever. Is it our western faces or their daily busy lives into which we are intruding that fails to raise a smile, we do not know. But it has struck us how naturally friendly and approachable we are as Brits and how very odd it is to smile naturally at people who all but blank you and offer nothing in the way of a facial gesture in return. Thank you for your hospitality Malaysia, we bid you farewell.

After leaving Australia we always knew that our trip would be more flexible. We had a pretty good idea where we wanted to go, but it was always going to be dependent on the cost of flights and the weather. I have no intentions of flying our bunny butts to a country if its the middle of their monsoon season. Next time however, I am also going to take notice of other public holidays such as Chinese New Year. (Ho hum). I study the map at length, aided by the wonderful Skyscanner app, and see what route looks the best. From Bali, we had intended going to the Philippines, but on closer inspection they are an incredibly difficult destination to pursue on a budget, with `must do` islands lying a flight distance away. Then I remembered a conversation with my Aussie friend David, who said that Singapore was well worth a visit. With flights very affordable, that is how we ended up visiting one of our most favourite countries/city/state to date. Singapore. Why have I only every thought of Singapore as an airport. A city in which to land en route to somewhere else? Never in my wildest dreams have I ever considered Singapore as must see tourist destination. I knew it was a bright lights, big city kind of place, but truth be known I had never looked at it with any degree of interest. That, my bunny friends was big mistake number one. Big mistake number two, was coinciding our visit with C.N.Y. I just thought Singapore was a phenomenally expensive city judging by Booking.com , but what I think happened was an ill timed visit. (a bit like Liverpool on Grand National weekend) As soon as we landed and caught our taxi to the hotel, I knew I had goofed. This was a city like no other. Stunning, beautiful, green and clean. Very very very clean. We immediately extended our stay by one more night and hit the ground running. Little miss `what` bunny gave us a list of must see places, and putting our best foot forward, our adventure in Singapore began. `what` bunny? Just in case I haven`t mentioned or you have forgotten our nicknames, Mrs Bunny is `where`....Little bunny is `what` and Mr Bunny is `kerching`. I decide where we are going, little bunny is in charge of deciding what to do when get there, and Mr Bunny pays /kerching for it lol. Kampong Glam. I could expand at length about this area, but in a nutshell it is an area where you will find shops and restaurants that sprung up from the time of the pilgrimages. A beautiful mosque stands at one end, and the lovely streets set out in a grid pattern are decorated with some of the best street art I have seen. Non of your so called graffiti art, these are superb wall sized art works of every day life. Place yourself in the picture by washing up, stroking the cat, or taking a seat at the table. From Kampong Glam we headed next to the HoHo bus. We purchased the 5 event Singapore pass allowing each of us to participate in 5 different experiences. The Hoho bus mis read our pass, and as they scanned just one pass, not three, we decided not to tempt fate and instead only did one of the two routes. We toured one part of Singapore, studied and listened to the hoho recommendations, then on the second loop around we jumped off at our next port of call. the Raffles Hotel. Im sure all you clever bunnies know the story of Raffles, but I did not. It was at the Long Bar of the Raffles hotel that the Singapore Sling was invented. Ladies once upon a time were not supposed to drink alcohol, the Sling was invented to create an alcoholic beverage with the looks of a fruit cocktail. When in Rome etc...We duly queued and entered the Famous Long Bar. With eye watering prices for a mere drink, we did exactly what good backpacking bunnies should do, we opted for the Singapore zero alcohol sling, 16 dollars instead of 27, whilst Mr Bunny who hates Gin anyway, had a beer. The proverbial bag of monkey nuts was placed on our table, and like a good bunnies, we ate the nuts and ceremoniously threw the shells on the floor. The Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel is the only place where you will find purposely discarded rubbish of any description. From the Raffles hotel we walked a few blocks back to a good looking bronze coloured hotel and entered just for a nosy. Oh my goodness what a stunning ground floor port of entry. You just stand and gaze to the high ceilings, a mass of beauty and architecture, that is the Atlas Hotel. Chinatown. Yet another wonderful part of the city, smart, tidy and Chinese culture. With a heavy emphasis on the CNY there were a lot of decorations devoted to such. Red lanterns line the streets, banners everywhere wishing you Happy C N Y, and so many restaurants it was hard to keep a smile on my face. I shall elaborate. in Chinese cuisine they eat everything. I seriously mean everything and the photographic food posters, whilst they may look appetizing to many, just churned my stomach. Whilst only a silly person would assume I mean cat or more appallingly a woofer, the food to which I refer is boiled chicken feet, duck head soup, fish of every description, boiled chicken soup (with the skin still on) every manner of crustacean with heads, legs and eyes, as a complete non foodie and a passionate hater of all things fish related, food wise I struggled in Singapore. Two other slightly less fussy bunnies did not. Sentosa Island. Whilst you can go by taxi over the bridge, little `what` bunny informed us we were travelling there by cable car. Omitting the fact until we got there, that said cable car started halfway up the biggest hill in Singapore. I was actually quite looking forward to this. I have to confess at times I wish I could, what`s the phrase?, have a stiff drink to calm the nerves. It was high. very very high. I am relieved to say that we travelled in the cabin alone, just the 3 bunnies, and thankfully there was no wind. Little bunny nearly got skinned when she insisted on swapping seats to take video making the cabin sway by 2 degrees, but other than that it was an exhilarating, albeit slightly scary ride. All I knew about Sentosa is the fact that Universal Studios is based there. With added cost to an already expensive Singapore pass, we looked, but didn`t enter. (next time...next time...) what we did do though, was the super awesome interactive Harry Potter Experience. Each given a wand we started our `tour` on the night bus, watching the streets of London and the countryside of Scotland whirl past us as we sat on the Knight bus beds. Getting off at the M.O.M (if you know, you know) we had to use the Red Phone Box, to dial our way in. Cue the look of disbelief when a certain little bunny when faced with a dial phone, asked `what do I do?` From the MOM to the Department of Mysteries, to Diagon Alley, even to Newt Scamanders zoo type lair, 10 zones in total, each time you saw a hint of magic, portrayed by a visual circle of light, you pointed your wand and watched the magic happen. lights would come on and off, words would appear, animals would move, hidden objects would be seen. Almost every person in the group of 30 seemed to enjoy the whole experience. At the very end Mr bunny had a lot of fun setting off the fireworks magic in the Battle of Hogwarts room, prior that is until the only brat in the group got there, and whirled dervishly from one side of the room to the other. The kids frustration was palpable, but that only made us grin more. Even I nabbed a few timely fireworks as said brat approached. From Harry Potter we walked across the very beautiful, and fairly tourist free, island of Sentosa. The signage is appalling, we got lost so often, but getting lost in such a lovely place is no hardship. We came across the fort and its reproduction army `sets` reproducing how the fort may have looked in its most active form. We walked along jungle paths and beach paths, through the very beautiful resorts part of the island, and could still have spent more time there. Everything on Sentosa is a paid entry. If we had chosen the all inclusive pass, which was a little too expensive for our budget, we could have done so much more. What we did was free, but also very enjoyable. Marina Bay Sand hotel was next on our list. That 3 part hotel with the ship on top. This was to be a highlight, but our reality was a slightly frustrating fully booked observation deck. We tried every which way to get to the top, but the only way to achieve that was to pay $35 dollars each in exchange for food/drink vouchers redeemable at the bar. Even then there was no promise or certainty that we would get a table, and not just have to hover at the bar. Whilst it would have been wonderful to get that awesome view of the city, no view is worth that cost. Instead, we sent little bunny up armed with the go pro and she used one of the passes that didn`t get scanned when we went on the hoho. From the Marina Bay hotel which is quite stunning btw, we went to the Gardens By the Bay, through the garden of the Super Trees, a spectacular garden area of tree like structures and gardens. Mr Bunny and I went to the top of the tallest tree via the nicest lift ride ever. If the outside of the tree represents nature of sorts, the lift roof was a visual view of rising into a forest of flowers and trees. Little bunny walked the tree walk. From the top of the tree we got a birds eye view of the Marina Bay hotel and had a lot of fun taking forced perspective photos. From the outdoor trees we walked to the two separate domes of the Cloud forest and the Flower Dome. There is no denying both places are just fabulous, but while I suspect a person with a greater interest in all things plant would be able to spend a couple of hours in the flower dome, we bunnies of the preferred artificial plastic pot plants were able to scoot around in around 30 mins. There was a huge Monet type live ish exhibition, but yawn, boooring...(sorry) The cloud forest housing the worlds largest indoor waterfall was so much more interesting, and personally more fascinating. You climb to the very top of the dome via lift, but return to ground level via a series of aerial bridges and walkways. A tad scary if heights are not your thing, but quite wonderful. Another favourite tour in Singapore was the night safari. This is part of the zoo, but instead of walking around by day, this particular part of the Zoo houses all the animals that prefer to be active by night. You board an open sided bus anytime from 7.30pm when the park opens until 11pm, and are taken on a scenic tour around the park viewing animals in the dark. Not pitch black, the pens are lit by an artificial night light so that you can easily see the animals as they wander about and eat. You lose the animals true colours, but any fool knows an elephant is usually pink. The track that the bus takes is quite narrow, and very very green, your are driving amongst bushes and along side the pens. It feels quite special. Once you complete the bus section of the park, you return to the start and can follow on foot one of 4 very different walking trails to see numerous other nocturnal animals. Hearing and seeing a Lion roar at 10pm is quite intense. The animal pens are superb, wide ditches that are so cleverly disguised you almost feel like the animals could run down and back up your side for a closer view of the human pond. We were to return to the zoo the following day, this time to do the River Wonders Boat tour. A boat ride through the Zoo this time. Followed by a walking tour that took in Pandas and a Red panda amongst other animals. A truly remarkable Zoo that still had 2 other sections of the Zoo that could, if you had time, have been explored. I could write so much more about this fabulous City/Country State, but I wont. Singapore should be on everyone`s bucket list. The greenest, cleanest City you can imagine. In four days I may have been able to fill a small carrier bag with the discarded rubbish that I spotted. Their commitment to a cleaner greener environment is just enviable. Everywhere you turn there is a wow factor. We didn`t see a single ugly building. No scruffy corners. No overflowing bins. We did see 5 giant river Otters swimming in the pristine river. No plastic bottles, no floating rubbish, just pristine green lands and clean water. The water here is filtered. You can drink from the taps. Singapore you are quite special. Just teach your population how to smile and you have cracked the mystery of enviable city living. Prior to leaving we realised we still had tickets left on our pass, so we got back on the hoho bus and this time chose route number two. Both a pity and a relief that we didn`t do this route sooner as we found the shops. ALL the shops. Split into many different areas, Singapore is very clever in design, China town, CBD, India, Shopping, and Entertainment. (that`s just for starters) A smile. allow the edges of your mouth to raise slightly, a slight parting of the lips, and et voila! The lack of emotion was our only dislike of Singapore. Absolutely no one smiles! In the most stunning architectural and visually stunning city that we have visited so far, it was by far inhabited by the most sour faced people. Changi airport. This really is a beautiful airport like no other. We had spent hours pricing flights to Kuala Lumpur so that we could spend time at this airport. It wasn`t to be. We could get a bus for a minimal amount. That is, right until the day before we planned to leave. I found affordable flights and booked us on a late evening flight so that we could spend the time enjoying Changi and the Jewel. What an amazing experience. This airport and its 4 terminals is a wow factor and an experience all on its own. I once saw a Facebook reel about 2 boys saying that they were going to try and spend 3 days at the airport without flying out. Totally believable. Cinema, shopping mall, swimming pool, hotel, spa, nails. luxury shopping, flight simulator, flower garden, butterfly garden are just the tip of the iceberg. Waterfall? aerial walkway? gourmet restaurant? It has it all. The airport is a destination all of its own. Singapore. You are quite special. And quite categorically not just a stop over airport.

Everyone has told us, watch the West Coast, it gets very wet, a lot of rain, flooded roads and closed roads. Despite being billed as being the most beautiful coastline, we are happy to chase the sun and follow our own paths. In this case, Arrowtown, followed by Wanaka. New Zealand Arrowtown, a cute little place dating back to the Gold rush era. Leaving out the gold part, and the lake this town is Ambleside or Bowness all over (sorry for any confused non Brits who read my blog). Pretty little overpriced tourist shops albeit made of wood not slate or stone, small artisan shops, a few boutique shops, an excellent bakery and an even better sweetie shop. We paused there for a while, spent a whole 5 minutes in the Chinese Village. It would appear that the local New Zealanders were non too keen on said race, (fancy that...) but anxious to reflect on all aspects of local culture, good and bad, the Chinese village remains as a tourist interest. Onto Wanaka. Wanaka, the town with `That` tree !! Every sign, everywhere, refers to the tree as `That Wanaka tree`. It was here that we decided to take some down time, we booked an electric pitch site so that we could quite literally recharge our batteries, both human and electronic. Showers !! Yeah !! Whilst we had a shower available to us in the bunny bus, we had neither the inclination to wait a full 30 mins to heat the water, nor the energy to shower in such a petite and bijou space. This site had real showers. Oh the luxury. Day one was a little damp, but with energy levels running on empty, it was nice just doing nothing. well apart from rescuing a baby bird that had fallen from its nest, and was replaced into said nest by Mr B with the aid of the motorhome bed ladder. Little birdie we hope you survived. By late afternoon the damp morning turned into a glorious evening, so we decided to wander into town, see `That Wanaka Tree` and visit the best cinema ever for a night of much overdue entertainment. That Wanaka Tree. In a nutshell, Lake Wanaka is stunning, like every other lake, but on the edge of Wanaka town, a small tree is making its mark by growing out of the lake itself around 8-10` from the lake shore. Like the gloriously situated Church at Lake Tekapo, this tree hogs the limelight. When in Wanaka you take a picture of said tree. Mission accomplished. Paradiso Cinema. What a wonderful little cinema. From the entrance with its little cafe of food to order, for now or the interval, to the posters that adorn every wall of popular modern films, the bathrooms that are akin to your cute wooden cabin bathroom at home, wood log burning fire (not heated now, as its summer) and the cinema itself with 2 or 3 seater settees, single arm chairs, a couple of rows of regular cinema seating, love bug cars at the back, home from home cinema at its very best. A cinema manager who commanded respect by his most cheering and hearty `are we all ready for the film guys?`.. and absolute silence followed. Gladiators Ready!! (number2) Queenstown. Oh my golly gosh, just when you think there is absolutely no way South Island could get any better, you reach Queenstown. How and why this town is so much nicer than anywhere else is hard to say, but within 5 mins of arriving any of us could quite easily of scoured an estate agent to price up a house. We have a friend from years ago, an old band friend, who came to New Zealand for a short working holiday, fell in love, and stayed. We had plans to meet up with Emma after sampling the towns very famous Fergburgers. A burger place that is so easy to find, simply look for the shop with a queue half way round the building. Worth it?? Absolutely !!! We had a short walk around the town, to the harbour area, but with Emma promising us a tourist tour, we kept our wanderings short. At the end of the beach/lake side was a children`s playground, with a very adult sized slide. Yes, Yes I did. Several times. In fact all 3 bunnies had a turn. We started a trend, as by the time we left, at least another 5 adults had a quick whizz down this slide. We met Emma at the large Supermarket, and it was lovely to meet up again with a woman who was always a pleasure to be around. Emma took us around the town, pointing out all the little quirky places, especially the towns silly monument, which some clown decided that a boat was a good idea. True to form, as Emma pointed out, there were several traffic cones in said boat. One nice touch for the day, we met a bagpiper, who on request played Highland Cathedral. Happy memories. Queenstown jet boat. Mrs Bunny is a slight coward, and despite making promises to do anything and say no to nothing, boats are just not my thing, they have a jet boat ride called Shotover, it is the most famous trip offered in Queenstown, however ridiculously expensive, 150 dollars plus expensive, but on Lake Wakatipu a similar jet boat ride was so much more affordable, just as fast and not quite as scary. all the bunnies went on the jet boat, and it was crazy fun. We loved Queenstown so much. I could add that it is the home of bungee jumping from the nearby gorge bridge, and it was a place that we freedom camped for one night. Did we watch the bungee jumpers?? Yep, did we.....what do you think lol psst maybe the 300 dollar pp is the clue. Blue Penguins!! Who knew that penguins came in blue as well as the Lakes? Not quite the same shade of blue, but blue non the less. These little guys inhabit the town of Oamaru, which was to be the next town we hit. Unfortunately, literally. At the time we were not aware that the penguins from the reserve were out at sea all day, returning home to nest in the early evening. We got offered entry to see the newly hatched chicks, but when the receptionist showed us the chicks on the penguin cam, it seemed a little odd to pay another 60 dollars to visit them in person. that and the fact the penguins were under a red light? We cut our losses, accepted that penguins were not on todays agenda, and continued our journey north in our search for bigger fishy things, the Sperm Whale. With the bunnybus running low on oil???, a quick stop was in order, and here we bumped into a something, not a someone. A brief lapse of concentration, the need to get the bunny bus butt off the busy road, Mr B ducked left down the wrong side of the petrol pumps, and crash bang wallop we were stuck. Wedged firmly at the edge of the petrol station building. Obviously it was necessary for the petrol station worker to point out that we should have driven down the middle aisle ( no sh.t sherlock!) and so stuck are we. Naturally Mr B has the all events covered insurance, and a quick call to the hirers meant that the tow truck arrived within an hour to drag us free. With the bunny bus free, and sporting only a few minor war wounds, we drove along the coast road until the sun was nearly set, then freedom camped to lick our wounds for the evening. Kaikora, Whale Watching. Watching the Whales has always been on Mr Bunnys bucket list, not so much Mrs B, as those silly whales tend to prefer open water, which invariably means a boaty mcboatface thing. I did try ! I promise. We booked three tickets to see the wet whales in the water, but on booking in it was advisory that passengers took sea sickness tablets, as the waters were forecast choppy. Mrs B, already green and wobbly from walking along the solid and exceptionally stationary sea shore, grabbed the option for a refund with both bunny mitts, and charged her bunny butt back to the bunny bus for a brew and biscuits. The relief was palpable I assure you. The two whale watching bunnies returned around 4 hours later happily excited to have seen a whole tail come out of the water. Pardon the lack of enthusiasm, but you wanted me to spend 4 hours on a boaty thing to see a bloody tail?? Ive seen Jaws you know, If I was doing a wet boaty thing to see fishy stuff, I want the whole darn shebang, teeth, fins, the lot not just its sodding tail!!! Pretty confident I got the better deal that day, with my tea, chocolate and mountain view, all from the comfort of the bunny bus. Abel Tasman. the Jewel of the South Island. An area of South Island that we had been looking forward to the most. Prior to driving everywhere else, and realising that just about everywhere is glorious. Abel Tasman is a national park with reported exceptional beauty, and guess what,? mostly accessed by sea taxi! We booked yet another electric pitch, showers, showers, showers, the wet soapy variety, yeah baby. We were almost at the start of the Abel Tasman hiking trails, (two days, three days even 5 days) but lucky for us, there was a lovely coastal walk to the next sandy bay. This short (an hour) walk, was deliciously easy, and landed us at a picture perfect paradise beach. Palm trees, white sand, driftwood logs, blue seas, it had the lot. We stayed there for a couple of hours, on a beach, in November ! it was heavenly. Little bunny really fancied the water taxi ride to a further point, (arranged for the next day) and it was agreed that we would meet up for lunch at the beach we were on. The next day, bright and early, little bunny set off on her water taxi, and rang us an hour later shouting and screaming, I could hear water, and muffled words like xxx in the water. I kid you not, my heart ran cold. It was Mr B, hearing the conversation from further away who explained to me that she was screaming that she had seen an orca pod. Orca! off the coast of New Zealand. Little B was still grinning 4 hours later when we met up.*( This evening I rang my mum and dad, it was late in the evening and for peace and quiet we chatted from the camp laundry. Little bunny came to join me and told them all about seeing the Orca that morning. We giggled that night as recalled the usual good natured banter between my parents as neither could decide which way up to hold the phone. ) This conversation would later haunt my soul. Hokitika. A long drive from Abel Tasman, we planned to do this journey over two days. We originally planned to stay at Greymouth on the coast, but a slight misheard directional call sent us inland, not coastal, causing us to pause overnight in a tree forest, not a sea view. Nothing matters, and it all adds to the adventure. To be fair going the wrong way, put us closer to our end destination. Once at Hokitika we had two real things planned. First, send home our winter and surplus clothes. Two, walk the gorge, and the third unplanned activity, get eaten alive by evil little black sand flies. Box filled, sealed, labelled and ready for collection, we went to walk the Hokitika gorge. It was 38km inland from Hokitika but so worth the visit. Its a good job we gave little bunny the title of `what` as otherwise it would be yet another amazing little gem that we wouldn`t have chosen to go and see. Sand flies aside, (evil little barstools) it was a journey well worth taking. Arthurs Pass. This long road connects Hokitika on the West coast, to Christchurch on the East. For a long stretch of road, this is a road that you drive along saying, `that`s nice` and that`s pretty, right up to Arthurs Village where you pause and say Wow !! and for a further 30km or so, its just wow after wow after wow. At Arthurs Pass there was a big waterfall, a short 30 minute walk from the car park. 30 minutes my bunnybutt.!!!!! It took us at least 45 minutes and every second of it was up hill and up flight after flight after flight of stairs. We did it, but my poor bunny knees had quite the tantrum for many days afterwards. Whilst at Arthurs Pass village we saw many signs saying don`t feed the Kea. Kea? Beautiful chunky parrot type birds, and quite rare. We spotted two outside the cafe and went Kea stalking, with success, cute. International Antarctic Centre, Christchurch. For the last 50 or so years, Christchurch has the served as the main hub for transporting scientists to Antarctica. The excellent Antarctic Centre was a wonderful museum of education for all things snowy and cold. A 4D cinema gave you a tour around the ice caps, the Ice room provided us with a snow storm simulation, brrrrrrr, thankfully they provide you with coats, but I did wish for several minutes that I hadn`t chosen to wear cropped leggings, my ankles were freezing. There was a snow mobile on which to sit and take authentic pictures. From snow room to snow dogs. Huskies, the softest, calmest, most peaceful dogs I have ever had the pleasure of being allowed to cuddle and stroke. Their handler was a Maori guy (Joe) with his beautiful Maori story tattooed on his face. Knowing that Maori tattoos tell a story, he explained his story to us. Quite moving. A man to whom we could have listened to all day. Snow dogs to snow birds, Penguins! and not just any penguins, blue ones, yay. The penguins in the Centre are all rescued birds with extensive problems. One leg, no tongue, broken shoulders or wings. Each bird is hand fed, with an excellent handler talk. Did you know that penguins have hooked bills, get grumpy, and frequently bite. Even the cute blue ones. Outside we rode in Hagglund vehicles, (little 10 men transport machines once used to transport people across the ice), to a nearby track they were put through their paces, up hills, down steep inclines, across bridges, it was the bumpiest ride ever, but a lot of fun, an idea of the sort of terrain and how it feels when you cross the Ice Fields. Our time in the fabulously awesome country that is New Zealand has come to an end. Just time for one last quick meal, and shortbread biscuit at the Riverside, and its off to the airport. Goodbye New Zealand, you are without question, the most beautiful country so far. We will return.

As I start this very long and much overdue blog/diary, I must apologise and explain why. Leaving England I knew my mum was struggling with her mental health, Alzheimers is a slow cruel illness. Little was I to know that the call I made to her from that laundry in New Zealand would be the last time I would hear her voice. My lovely mum was to pass whilst I was in Australia, and my heart lost the will to write this blog. However, I shall continue now (however late) in her memory, with her and my dads great love of travel forever in our minds. To Travel is to Live. My Mum 3/6/43 -3/12/24 Uluru Our journey through Australia would start in the Red Centre. Uluru, how I have longed to stand before that Red Rock and gaze upon its wonder with my own eyes. I hadn`t quite realised that I would get to see it the moment we landed, and I assure you I was one exceptionally speechless and utterly confused Bunny. We were supposed to land, drive for 3 hours, then drive a further 3 hours to see the great rock, but there it was, right there!! Next to the airport, who moved it ??!!! My mind was working overtime. Long story short, Uluru really does have an airport of its own, whereas I had assumed Alice springs some 5 hours away was the Airport for Uluru, hence big red rock being exactly in the right place. This also placed our hotel several hours drive away, with a very bewildered car hire lady telling us, you can`t drive there at night, (told her where it was and our plans to return to both sunrise and sunset) it would take hours. You have to drive very very slowly to avoid the kangaroos, emus and camels (?) say what..... We had one full day to see Uluru and our plans were scuppered at the first hurdle...until she suggested we stay at the Outback lodge. A very kind booking.com transferred our accommodation to the Outback, and suddenly there we were in the heart of the red centre, with the rock actually visible to us from outside our little cabin. For a flying visit, we saw one distant sunset, one up close sunrise, one up close sunset, and a further close sunrise. The photos speak a thousand words. Staying near Uluru is easy for somewhere so remote. Airport, car hire, short drive to the resorts, with its varying accommodation options, tours, well signposted directions, walking paths, walking platforms, cute places to eat, drink or shop, it really is all there on hand with little effort. You cannot wander freely around the rock, and you certainly cannot climb upon it, but you can get up close and personal when you purchase the compulsory park ticket. Melbourne. With one previous memory of a whirlwind tour of Melbourne some 21 years ago, my list of places to visit were very much guided by my wish to recreate old memories with Mr Bunny, visiting the places I had previously, and to create new memories for me and brand new ones for him. I did have a whole list of places to see, and we did our best to see them all. We went to the Melbourne Gaol , a fascinating jail with such history, to see the death mask of Ned Kelly, Australia`s most infamous bandit. Aged only 27 when he was hung at the jail, his weird homemade armour was also on view nearby at the local library. A sad tale, and maybe he wasn`t quite the bad guy that he was made out to be. Certainly seems to have been made to go rogue by the appalling treatment of his family. From Gaol to Yarra River. We walked to wonderful riverside with its many Christmas decoration (yeah, we have found Christmas at last) and sat and watched the new evening Christmas lights show, passable but personally worthy of 4/10. The Gas Brigades outside the Crown Plaza were our main reaon for being on the waterside, and I was happy to see that their shooting flames were every bit as good as I recalled. Sovereign Hill was next on the list. A place like Beamish (for all you brits) an old recreated gold mining town with shops and character actors and actresses. I had such fun memories here, listening to two shop women discussing my mums frightful (yes, the were quite bad, but made by a friend, she was determined to wear them, kangaroo patterned cullottes...) the in character actors all had something to say, and it truly made for an authentic experience. Now?? it would appear that the `characters` are no longer allowed to interact in such manner such is the modern wussy attitude to political correctness and appalling soppy over protected children whom cry at any person daring to say anything even remotely firm to them. Sovereign Hill was still a wonderful place to be, and panning for gold is definitely a highlight, but such a shame to be blighted by present day stupidity. Ballarat Wildlife Park . Kangaroos and Koalas. This fabulous little wildlife park has so many Koalas, at close quarters, and free roaming Kangaroos that you could feed. As with everything nowadays, we would have had to pay quite a decent amount of dollars to hold or even stroke the Koalas, whereas my visit all those years ago, the keepers were happy to let us hold the Koalas with supervision. Even Mr Bunny, enchanted by most animals, fell under the cuteness spell of these adorable little `drop bears`. Werribee Mansion . A stately home just outside of Hoppers Crossing. In terms of age this house is actually modern by UK standards, built 1877, but for a house built 150 ish years ago, it has required a lot of renovation. I remembered head phones and holographs, now it was just a voice recording as you enter each room. Vic Market an excellent busy market with everything to please a foodie from fruit, fish. meat, cakes to the vast arrays of nicer end TS. (thats tourist sh.t to you) Paddys Market this was where we found the mass produced ts, but also a lot of closed stalls? I have memories of a never ending market. I guess time changes everything. A change of accommodation to Geelong gave us chance to drive The Great Ocean Road to see the 12 apostles. This was another destination that has changed massively since I was last there. From a little patch of gravel to park up, take a few pics and move on, this whole area is now a vast purpose built car park, toilet blocks, information centre, and vast walkways. Everything changes over time, and I`m not convinced for the better. For better or worse, the explosion of massive tourism is definitely having an impact on our most special places. As is the dislike of possums. We tried to feed the cute possums, as we had done all those years previously at Fitzroy park, after the constant unsettling sights of the numerous flat ones in New Zealand " damn pests, we don`t try to avoid them on the roads " we failed miserably as they are now considered city pests, and feeding is an absolute no no. We also visited Warnambool and Flagstaff, but I shall breeze over these places. Our last place to visit was Straws Lane and Hanging Rock. At Straws Lane you experience the very bizarre optical illusion that despite parking your car on a downhill, it rolls backwards, uphill. We managed a very credible 15km per hour rolling uphill. It was at Hanging Rock, where fictitiously 3 school girls and their teacher disappeared, that I learned that my mum had also vanished, from my life. 3rd December 2024. sleep peacefully mum x Our last visit in Melbourne was to visit our oldest friends. This was such a lovely day. We first met in 1977, and my mum remained firm friends with Gay until her passing in 2007. From then on, we have kept in touch with her family, and to see them again was wonderful. The children have grown up, and the next generation were a delight. To be able to talk about my mum was brilliant (apologies for the out of order blog, this day was obviously just prior to learning about my mums passing) Philip Island Penguin Parade One of our favourite and much enjoyed evening past time. At last, after being thwarted at so many previous places, both in South America and New Zealand, we were finally going to see Penguins. Little Fairy Penguins. Every single evening, 365 days per year, these beautiful little penguins make their nightly appearance. Emerging from the sea to run to their burrows is one of the funniest sights we have seen. We arrived at the Penguin Sanctuary, a huge brand new purpose built building, not quite the little box hut that I last remember, and waited for the moment we would be allowed to take our seats for the Penguin Parade. Wandering about the auditorium I was to learn that not only are these the smallest penguins in the world, they are also not called Fairy Penguins anymore, they are now known as Little Penguins, or to give them another name Blue Penguins !!!! Hurrah !!! I did not know prior to arriving that the cute blue penguins that I so desperately wanted to see in New Zealand, were these little guys. More excited now. There are around 5 sets of bench seating on the beach, separated by strips of sand, which face the sea. And then you wait. Once the sun sets and all cameras are put away, NO filming or photos please (unless of course you are that instagram twit who cares not for penguin safety and films anyway) Losing that battle, as every person alive seems to carry a phone, you are offered the chance to download professional photos, taken without flash...foc. I would truly say 95% of all people present, took photos. I did not. Personally I think they just need to emphasise that its the flash element which upsets the birds, and let people film away, as they clearly already do that anyway..Back to the penguin cuties. As the sun sets and darkness sets in, you start to see little black dots on the waves. The penguins have arrived. They arrived in little groups called rafts, and huddle to gather at the waters edge. FOREVER. I could hear the voice of Marlin from Finding Nemo so clearly as we watched these adorable little birds decide who would be the brave one to be the first up the beach. ......First we go out, then we go back, the we go out....then we go back....and just to be certain we go out again.. They stood and dithered, walked forward, ran back, four run forward two follow, and 6 run back to the sea. You sit there willing them on, to be brave and waddle their little butts up the beach. Up and down the beach you can see the little huddles of penguins at the waters edge, all vying with each other as to who would be the brave little penguin to start the beach dash. Once the beach dash starts, the soft hurrahs from the audience seems to give them encouragement to keep going until they reach the safety of the sand dunes and their burrows. Once the main bulk of the penguins have waddled up the beach you are allowed to leave your seats and watch these little dark blue cuties as they wend their way amongst the dunes. You also see a vast amount of possums, but all of a sudden, possum or penguin? Penguin usually wins. We visited Philip Island from the home of my mums friends. I had never met these people before, but trusting my mum and dads excellent judge of character we knew that they would be lovely people, and boy were we right. These two amazing people opened up their home to us, and we spent a wonderful 3 days with them, learning about what they did when my mum visited them on a Cruise a few years back, and other things that I didn`t know. New friends were made by all. After a farewell meal and a last sunset, we packed our bags to continue our journey. Sydney (and that damn bridge) These 3 crazy bunnies landed in Sydney with one day spare to prepare for the biggest adventure of at least two of our lives. Little bunny has climbed Sydney Harbour Bridge before, on her 13th Birthday, and this time all 3 daft bunnies would be doing the same thing. We had a walk out to see the bridge but I think nerves and a sense of dread and fear were a little at the forefront of our minds as it was clear that each of the older bunnies were wondering what the heck they had signed up for, and tempers, also induced by heat and being tired were a little frayed. Looking back I can quite clearly tell you which bridge photos were taken before the climb, and which ones after.! A little back story. Little bunny and her grandpa did this climb together whilst my mum and I climbed the stairs of the Pylon tower to watch. We saw them climb the bridge. We could see the steps. We could see what they wore and how they were strapped to the bridge. What we couldn`t see was the amount of pre climbing they had done to get to said point where they were visible. I was told about the practise steps. That the bit (read that again bit ) above the road was the worst. You could see the road below you through the mesh. Armed with that knowledge, Mr Bunny and Mrs Bunny have been walking Blackpool pier for around a year prior to the trip in order to try and desensitise their fear of heights . Oh how we laugh about that one now! Friday 13th. Yes. I chose that date. Bridge Climb day. Quite probably for the first time ever Mr B was not allowed to calm his nerves with a drink. First thing they do when you get there is a breathalyser test. Zero alcohol tolerance. A pre climb questionnaire filled in had alerted them to my wonky knees, but they assured me that there would be a chance to test my physical climbing ability prior to the ascent. A superbly organised climbing structure and climbing apparatus/body rigs meant we felt safe enough. We each tested the clip on rigs and reassured ourselves we couldn`t fall. All was good. We tested the ladders, not too high, good, tested the mesh walkways, yep, that was doable. And then it was our turn. Everyone wears headphones to hear the guide, and only she can hear you, and trust me, that was. awesome news. We clipped on, Mrs B at the front behind the guide, oh bother, now I had no choice but to move fast and to not hold up the group. Not for anything was I going to be the reason the group moved slowly. And we were off. Through the door, into a room, and once clipped and no going back, the enormity of that sodding bridge, and what it entailed, slapped you firmly across the face. If I used the F word once, i used it several times. Frogs were everywhere. There was a frog on the bridge, the handrail, the ground below us, on the cars, the low sided handrails, even the wind was froggy !! ` The first bit is the worst `my bunny butt !!! From the offset, the path is narrow, mostly open sided, mesh floor, hand rail on the left side only with your right hand guiding your life line alongst the narrow metal wire. Its also breezy. And did I mention that it is a long long long way!!? All my walking practise over Blackpool Pier ? absolute zero use. I have never been as utterly terrified in my entire life!! Its froggy high, froggy narrow, got frog all to hang on to and did i mention that it is froggy high!! That blissful bit of torture lasted around two weeks. Once my hand had secured itself into the grip of a thousand nations never to uncoil, the delightful guide yelled, that`s the easy bit over !! sorry, but wtf? easy bit ? Stairs next. Three flights worth. The sort of stairs that go in side tall hollow structures, that you look at and think nope, not for me! Nope, Up we go. Bunny balls and buttocks joined the party of frogs as once more I climbed. We reached the top and I breathed once more...until the guide says, we call this next bit the squeeze... I do hope you are kidding me? Nope, she wasn`t, between the rails, under the girders and along the frog laden path that joyously spanned more road. And just to add insult to injury, she then ever so kindly added " we are nearly at the ladders"... Well just look at those cute little ladders, exactly the same as the ones we practised on in the practise room, just 3 times higher, and 3 times as many, and over fresh air so that you can take in the lovely views. Chimps, chocolate, bananas and a whole other host of random objects now invade my thoughts and my mouth as I endeavour to give the frogs a rest. I solemnly declare that If I ever mention doing something so utterly stupid again, you may section me!! Finally, and not a moment too soon we stepped out onto the bridge itself. and this my bunny friends was the easy part. The steps are very wide, you cannot see over the edge, you cannot see the road below your feet. You can however see the whole of Sydney and the Opera House. The view is worth a million frogs. Cue music and fireworks, we`ve done it and I have the photo to prove it. I could tell you all about the numerous steps, ladders and other challenges that we met on the way down, but my favourite bit of the whole climb was the amazing ladder to nowhere, this gorgeous cute little ladder, connecting the lower path to the upper path. It really was the most beautiful steel mesh rung ladder you have ever seen and as the leader of the group, I, Mrs bunny, had the delight of standing at the bottom of this ladder for around 15 mins waiting for the rest of the group to slowly descend the ladders from hell behind me. The view below me through the wide mesh rungs was incredible. Absolutely nothing whatsoever obscured my view to the ground, and to my left I could see forever, such a shame my right hand view into infinity was partially obscured by train tracks. I forgot, must tell you, that ladder had special effects as well, every time the train and the numerous carriages went over, it shook like a jelly. It was a great feeling trying to hang on. 3 hours of hell later, and I am at last back on terrified firma. Having shared with both Mr B and little B the most incredible views of Sydney, I am delighted to announce that I will never do anything that daft for as long as I live ! Our time is Sydney was brief, but once the fear of that bridge climb abated, and the celebrations of survival set in, we could at last appreciate the beauty of said bridge with the back drop of the Opera House. We wandered the parks, to the Anzac memorial, The Rocks, we found the Christmas market, not great but the pancakes were pretty decent. The Christmas tree was quite special, as are most Aussie decorations. We love seeing the decorated Koalas, red nosed Kangaroos pulling the sleigh, Santa in board shorts, we have seen them all. We ate at the Wahlburger restaurant, an excellent burger place partially owned by Mark wahlburg and his famous chef brother. The East Coast beckons. We enjoyed our time in the bunny bus so much around New Zealand, and hated the buses with equal passion in South America, Mr B arranged to hire another big bunny bus to take us up the east coast. Envisaging a road trip of endless beaches, easy camping stops, and parking with the ease of New Zealand, our hopes were quickly dashed at our very first port of call. We had a 15 day plan of short drives and long stops at a multitude of different destinations. Leave early. Park, See, Camp. that was the plan. Port Stephens, Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, Byron Bay, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Noosa Head ,Hervey Bay, Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Airlie Beach, Townsville, Cairns. All the places we hoped to see, along a road that skirted the coast. whales here, railway there, caves anyone? On paper the suggestions look fine, but our reality was so so different. First and foremost we needed a powered site every night. Without Air Con we wouldn`t have survived. The heat has been incredible, and its only going to get hotter the further north we go. No free camping for us. The main road, is not a multi lane highway. neither does it touch the coast except in the rarest of places. How rare? Twice. that`s your lot. Parking. Complete nightmare. There is zero allowance for a motorhome with almost every parking space saying 6 or 7 feet or under. The most popular places are chocka by the time we arrive at lunchtime, so even if we can park its quite busy. Took us 3 days of travelling to know that if we had had hindsight, the east coast requires either a huge 4x4 and caravan, or a really decent car and cheap hotel stays. Not that any hotel is a cheap stay. We could have driven a little off the beaten track, but if we thought the main roads were dodgy, bouncy and hard to drive, goodness knows what off road would be like in a big bunny bus. The answer to most of our problems would have been to arrive at each camp site, then Uber to town, but after a while this just gets expensive. First stop Port Macquarie and the op shops. The op shops are the same as our charity shops but a million times better. These shops, our favourite, run by the Salvation Army and called Salvo, contains just about everything and anything you could possibly need, second hand, very cheap, and no tat. We had designs on everything Christmas. Bunny hopping from one salvo shop to another we Christmassed the bunny bus within an inch of its life. Lights and all. And 2 trees. Everything was stuck in place with either sellotape or blue tac, so we could drive at will knowing Santa was safe. With places difficult to access or park, we actually did very little sightseeing up the east coast. We did visit the Koala hospital and rehabilitation centre, a sad, but also inspiring place where they care for hurt or sick Koalas, placing the cured ones back into the wild, and loving and caring for the ones that can no longer care for themselves. Main cause of injuries? Humans. Loss of habitat, chopping down trees forcing the Koala to wander nearer and nearer to roads, we are their biggest cause for injury. The next injuries are by natural causes, mostly fire. One little koala, with the prettiest little face you have ever seen, was in the hospital for her own safety. She preferred one particular tree near a town, but would frequent the local court house on her way to said tree. After being rescued from `prison` several times, they decided the local hospital was the safest home for her. Byron Bay next Quite possibly one of the nicest beaches we visited, but in the most Aussie stereo typical vein you have ever seen. All three bunnies felt old, over dressed and out of place here. Young male surfer dudes in their board shorts, bare feet, shaggy blonde hair, bare feet and surf boards are followed everywhere by dizzy blondes in their 3 pieces of string bikinis, flip flops and endlessly sucking, but not depleting on the ubiquitous straws of iced latte drinks. With an average apparent age range of 21, we were clearly of the `mom and pop` generation. We loved Byron Bay, but wouldn`t chose to stay there. We would however love to have stayed longer at Brisbane. That is one lovely city. So chilled, easy going, and very pretty. We all felt very comfortable here. They have a lovely city beach called Streets Beach. My boss of 42 years, chose to to send me a photo of himself whilst on that beach last year. I felt it appropriate to send him the same picture back with me in said photo. Adding the caption, yep, Its great here. I felt it was a fair trade for his total lack of correspondence and interest in our trip. His sister, from the same company emigrated to said place many years ago, but I felt it more appropriate to enjoy a leisurely breakfast with an ex work colleague. We all met up at the best Cafe E V E R, in the town of Redcliffe, and fell in love with both cafe and town. (Cafe 63) Redcliffe was around 80 mins outside of Brisbane and is without any shadow of doubt the nicest town we have ever visited. Easily comparable to many of the towns of New Zealand, even Queenstown which I didn`t think could ever be bettered. Cafe 63, if you get a moment, just google their menu for a laugh. You will clock what I mean about best cafe ever. Australia Zoo. When little bunny added zoo to our to our What list, I had thought it was to pamper to Mr bunny's love of animals. What I hadn`t realised is that Australia Zoo is, or sadly, was, the home of Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter. This is not just a zoo, This is THE zoo. The most spectacularly beautiful and well kept zoo we have ever had the pleasure of exploring. This is the type of Zoo that every animal structure in the world should aspire to copy. Think endless acres of natural forest and open spaces, change nothing, just add a few strategic walkways, fences, and view points, and et Voila! The family still live and work at the zoo, and their legacy to animal conservation is second to none. Noosa Head, Rainbow Beach, both beautiful and spectacular. Rainbow is the jumping on point for tours to Fraser Island, the biggest Sandbar Island in the world. You can drive there when the tide is low and your vehicle is a huge big tyred 4 x 4 , but for mere mortals in a bunny bus, the only option was a ridiculously expensive boat trip. We would have made the trip with bells on, but how do you justify £200 each to visit another beach? Another fun fact, no matter how utterly beautiful the beaches are, they are also deadly. This is Australia, land of salt water crocodiles, stingers and jellyfish. Beautiful beaches are to be laid on or admired from a distance. Swim if you like, stinger suits are available to hire. Sorry, but sandy beaches have never been a favourite of mine, and now you want to add crocodiles and stuff that`s likely to sting me?? No thanks. Rockhampton. Christmas shopping time!! This was our only shopping town. We kept Christmas presents to a minimum spending very little. We kept to four categories , eat, drink, wear, read, with gifts to be practical, needed, liked and light. Who knew T bags would suddenly become a much appreciated Christmas present? We had intended purchasing food for a Christmas BBQ, free gas BBQs are to be found along most coastal towns. However, we chose to spend Christmas at Airlie Beach (awesome) at a gorgeous camp site, with a cute little swimming pool situated right behind our bunny bus. The pull of eating in an air conditioned bus, with a pool for dessert, was far greater than our desire for a hot BBQ. We have been to many English camp sites, and compared to the Aussie sites , we suck at it!. Never once have we encountered spoilt whinging brats, no crying babies, no barking dogs, no foul mouthed idiots or fish wives screeching. Every site has been so quiet, well behaved considerate people, superb cleanliness in the wash rooms and kitchens. Australia, you take camping to the next level. We stayed at Airlie Beach for 5 peaceful nights. We did go on a day trip to Hamilton Island, one of the many Whit Sundays, it was lovely, but to truly experience the magnificence of the Whit Sundays, you need to have cash to burn. Once again the trips are just so expensive. My mantra of ` a little bit of everything, but not a lot of something` is helping us find the places we would love to spend more time ( and money) at, whilst ticking off places that maybe we wouldn`t choose to go again. With 7 months of travel still ahead of us, and many many magnificent places, we have to be cautious and picky. Cairns. This is our last destination in Australia. After a journey of almost 2,400km, our time in Australia is coming to a close. In 2018, whilst on a trip to China, we met the most wonderful older solo (solo, not solo) traveller, and with whom I have kept in touch. She lives here in Cairns, and I always promised myself, that if I made it to Australia we would visit. On the best night of the year, and incidentally the last night of the year, we spent a glorious 5 hours with Margaret and her lovely husband Peter, on their balcony overlooking the Esplanade watching the fireworks with a birds eye view. It was an absolute joy to stand on that balcony and see for ourselves, the wonderful views that Margaret regularly posts on her Facebook page. The Bunny bus has gone to bed, and we are spending our last few nights in the best hostel (as voted by Hostel world several years running) in Cairns. A proper home from home little palace, the Travellers Oasis, is just that. an Oasis. One last trip in Australia and we saved the best until last. The Great Barrier Reef. Alas I have no photos, waterproof or not I wasn`t taking my phone into the sea. Or my go pro. A superb half day snorkelling trip, we, just the two older bunnies on this occasion, set off on a fast boat to the reef, with a lovely staff of 4. Everyone was given a floatation belt (or not if a competent swimmer) mask, snorkel, and fins. Being unable to wear and flap fins in the water, mrs b was given the opportunity to hang on to a life belt and be towed around the reef. We arrived at the reef after an hour of boating, we were prepped, the back of the deck was lowered, and we were off. We are also all wearing stinger suits, still in Australian waters after all. The water was the pleasant temperature of a warm bath, not a single cold shudder as you entered the water. My `tow lady` said to me after a brief swim, look down, we are over the reef. A little nervously at first and not using my snorkel, I stuck my head under the water and the beauty and size of the reef was incredible. Grabbing my snorkel knowing I was never going to take my eyes off the reef, I put my head down and watched the best underwater television. I have never been a big lover of open water, or snorkelling, but the reef and its huge variety of fish were just insane. I had such a mixed feeling about visiting the reef, we have heard about the bleaching, the sad state of parts of the reef, the ethics, but though we could see some effects of the bleaching, we could also see vast fields of very healthy coral, and a huge abundance of brightly coloured fish of all sizes. We also saw a clam shell. A living breathing clam shell, larger than any human! I missed half the commentary given by my `tow` guide, such was my desire to not miss anything below the water, but I did hear her say that this clam was very very old, probably over a hundred years, that he would have landed there as a small clam, dug in, and ate his way to this incredible size. Don`t misunderstand, the reef is far from the abundant day glo colours as perceived from fish tanks, but it definitely does have many different colours, shades of blues, greens and purples. The reef is incalculably huge. We were in the heart of the reef at the Whit Sundays, a 3 day drive away, and still that wasn`t the start of the reef. As a world, we need to learn to protect the reef. It is suffering. The fish are stressed. I was deeply saddened when my tow guide told me about the rainbow fish I was seeing below me, saying that they come in all sorts of bright colours, but when stressed they tend to be blue. My fish were blue. They get stressed by the presence of divers and snorkellers. I was one of those people causing my fish to become blue. Seeing the reef is one thing, but knowing your presence is causing the fish to visibly change colours in fear, is not right. There are 100s of tours available to the reef. At what point do we cross the line? Saving the reef v stressing the reef... To clarify, little bunny went to the reef the following day. She had a similar sort of day, but had the added pleasure of seeing a turtle up close. Our time in Australia has come to an end. For a country that Mr Bunny had thought that he wasn`t entirely sure he wanted to visit, I think it is fair to say we all enjoyed our time here so very very much, with frequent mutterings of `when we come back` not If. Good Bye Australia, you are truly awesome.

Toilet.. I love a good toilet, don`t you? In the UK lets admit it, good public loos are few and far between. Not so here in South America. There are toilets (Banos) everywhere! Public toilets, toilets in cafes or bars, just pay a few pence and take your own paper. Down side streets (now I admit these are loos that we never had cause to use, so I cannot comment as to their cleanliness or function) middle of the highway, car parks, public buildings, if you have the urge to spend a penny or a peso, there will be a place for you. All western types. Carry your own paper, and stick the after use (you get used to it) in the baskets provided. In the 5 months here I think I have only been challenged by a questionable loo once. Altitude. I know I have mentioned this before, but altitude can be quite challenging at times. You don`t notice it for a long time, then suddenly without warning you find yourself out of breath, the stairs suddenly become so much more tiring. One night you may find yourself breathless, or you look at a hill and dismay and frustration hits you when the puffing starts again. I`m sure younger bunnies will struggle less, or even the well seasoned hikers, but if like us, you are sea level living bunnies, the constant living at a height equivalent to three times the height of Ben Nevis can be a struggle. I know from a an excellent source on You Tube, Wolters World that the need for oxygen on rare occasions is very real, but I do think some of the silly questions asked on the travel groups are a little dramatic, asking about altitude tablets, where to buy certain tablets, how to cope etc... Look people, I am an older bunny with proven limited lung capacity, I`m no hiker, I live at sea level, and though I puffed and panted, (and I admit got thoroughly and vocally fed up) I managed quite well. Yet by comparison it was super breath holding capacity, I can blow a brass instrument for 20 bars on one breath Mr Bunny, who struggled. Don`t stress. Follow every good suggestion online particularly the drinking of extra liquids and taking it easy, the rest you will figure out. Buses Every blog I read declared buses are freezing . I beg to differ. Buses differ massively and it all depends on where you sit. I have sat on a bus and darn near melted whilst the people just 2 seats ahead of me piled on just about every layer of clothing they could get their hands on. I sat in a cotton vest t shirt and shorts and wished I was naked with a bucket of ice water. That, my bunny friends is how wildly different bus seats can be. I was sat that day on the bus heater over which I had no control. My only personal advice would be to dress in layers, cool stuff first, not thermals. Cooking Cooking at home has saved us a whole lot of money. We save more when mrs and little bunny let Mr Bunny shop alone. We have been banned from accompanying him. Not our fault that those biscuits fell into the basket, or that bar of chocolate. We try not to complain though as neither of the girly bunnies has cooked a meal yet ( bar one or two) and though he does keep trying to produce a meal we do not like, in 5 months Mr bunny has so far failed. Miserably. I really thought this would be a trip of Ramen noodles and Water, but not at all. We eat chicken most evenings, steak, sausages, eggs, pastas, rice dishes, risotto, there is no end to the talent of Mr B. Fry a mushroom and an onion and the smell of cooking makes our bunny noses waffle. Mr Bunny even cooks delicious meals with wine, sometimes he puts it in the food... Clothing and what to wear/pack I retired from work and decided that I wanted to be a whole new me. I packed a different selection of clothing to my normal colours, wanting to be brighter, more colourful. I found out the hard way, If you don` t like it or wear it at home, you wont wear it abroad either. bit by bit I have replaced my backpack with the styles and colours that I am more accustomed to wearing. Even little bunny is so glad she packed jeans, despite their weight. Mr B wishes he had. I`m grrring that I sent home my straight legged trousers. I cannot emphasis enough to listen and learn when every single you tube video without fail, says pack less. less. less. less. I am carrying multiple socks that I probably will not wear, ditto underwear. You can only wear one at once, you can wash overnight, seldom takes more than 2 days to dry, so why take multiples? Wear. Wash. Go. Merino socks. just buy them. You will never regret it. Stuff. Needed or Not? My best stuff. A plug , its a round flat grey plug and probably our most used object. Our Philips rechargable toothbrushes in their own cases. (charged before we left, and she says, tempting fate) still on the same charge. Useful when the only place to put your toothbrush down may be the sink or the loo cistern. Sellotape ! resealing packets of curry powder, salt, sugar, sauces, drink crystals, lids on loose items. A small torch , mine has different options including wide beam. Used when I don`t want to be forever using my phone. An airflap . simple flat bendable piece of leather coated metal. Mr B uses it all the time when watching horses on his phone, or generally just surfing on the net on a table. Kindle , with a long lead charger. My kindle fire , a bit heavy but i have used it often. Easier to watch in bed than the laptop. Decent ear plugs . If you enjoy a decent hot brew, my best on the road buy is a plastic thermal mug , with lid. So nice to have a decent sized drink from a pot that keeps it warm for longer. The second best buy was a cute little hot water bottle . Ladies buy one, guys thank me later. Small plastic tubs . (yep, same as the ones we bought to bring, and left behind) but proof that you can buy what you need, when you need it, along the way. Too much rice? in the tub, sugar bag too big? In the tub. Half a tube of butter? In the tub. Slippers. Paper/pens. both get constant use. The pen keep handy at the borders. Decent hand cream or moisturiser . Your skin gets very dry at altitude. Toilet Roll . always have a spare handy, you never know when someone will accidentally chuck one down the loo. Sit pads , they take up a bit of space, but we use them so often, quite the envy of people when we plonk ourselves down on wet rocks, or damp grass whilst they stand. We do not have, but wish we did, an airplane friendly screwdriver set. Lost count of the times Mr Bunny waves a loose handled saucepan at me. Go Pro with or without a small handle. I do have ready made ( ahem) breast pocket in which to store mine out of sight, whilst little bunny prefers the handle attachment. Here I emphasise, you do NOT need the all singing, dancing battery included official go pro, £100 plus handle as per the advice of a knows everything, but knows nothing idiot I once knew. It is a heavy p.i.t.a leave it at home, along with the brainless clown that also thinks it had a use!!....just saying.... (private joke) Talking about that brown stuff, Wype has been a brilliant little bathroom addition. when paper is at a premium, the smallest amount of this stuff goes a long long way. (google for a better description, but it really is quite excellent) Packable day bags . We use two different ones. a Patagonia black hole, and a Tripped pack away, both used very often. Small grrr here, small packable shopping bags, exactly like the 6 or so I have at home but managed to leave without. These would have been very useful, instead I saved a heavy duty plastic bag that takes up more room than I like. A buff, have to admit I wear this far more than I thought I would. Thin warm blanket I carry mine in a neck shaped pillow case, multi function. Need a pillow but not a blanket, you got it, need a blanket and a pillow? swap blanket for coat or spare clothes. A tried and tested reusable drink flask . I personally carry two. One functions exceptionally well for cold drinks, but warm drinks cool far too quickly, whilst my other keeps hot for up to 10 hours. I didn`t intend to leave with 2, but one was a gift, and I am very grateful that the gift flask is the one I use most often. Pillow case. used on multiple occasions when only one side of the bed (or neither) has access to a table. We each carry a bright coloured pillowcase in which we can stuff phones, kindles, glasses cases, bedtime munchies.. Water shoes had frequent use, from private slippery bath tubs and showers, to shared bathrooms and hot tubs. Tea Towels . used frequently. Not required As per my notes above, anything heavy including a Go Pro handle. A carbon dioxide monitor . Don`t ask, ( if you must know, it was suggested on a well respected you tube blog, and seeing as we cook often, yadda yadda yadda) no, not needed. A bit of common sense and an open window works just as well. Justin Case . If you are carrying anything at all, just in case, you probably do not need it. A super dooper pac safe handbag . Yep, absolutely brilliant, but when your clothes are ultra casual, a pac safe handbag screams `I contain something important` I sent mine home in favour of a canvas bag that can be bought anywhere. Little bunny carries a cross body bag in a low key colour. Mr bunny wears a bum bag. sore point. It works best at airports and on buses. For casual day wear, he too carries a `local bag`. Shower Gel it is liquid, comes in big packaging, usually expensive, and solid soap ticks exactly the same box. Solid shampoo bars either I haven`t found a good one, or they are all the same. Pointless. I have had 3 now, and they haven`t lasted more than 2 or 3 washes without disintegrating. To date, most of our rooms have provided shower gel and shampoo, for those that don`t , supermarkets in tourist towns tend to have single sachets available. Hot Water Cannot begin to tell you how many times we have needed it, but not had, had but not needed, we have washed up in Cold water more times than I would like, but solid washing up paste is there for a reason. It works. If we have hot water we can cook with oil, cold water and its pasta or rice. Washing your face in cold water is quite refreshing and good for the skin, but running a bathroom tap and finding warm water is bliss. Bidets also provide an excellent face wash. Too many times now I have leaned over, turned on the tap and got a face full of water. Note to self, sit first. Also note, find the cold water first, I can assure you hot water sprayed directly onto your hoo hoo is not fun. Doing Nothing Doing nothing is doing something. It is recharging batteries. Embrace the fact that you really do not need to be doing, walking, hiking, travelling every single day. Stopping is good for body, mind and soul. Doing Something Prior to leaving the UK, we would work all day, cook in an evening, play cards, watch TV. It worried the heck out of me before we left, what are we going to do to pass time? I had visions of long quiet evenings and early nights. We could play cards, but that doesn`t take much time. We cannot sight see all day, every day!! I admit I panicked. I am not very good at sitting around doing nothing. Reality. I wish I had more time. The last time we played cards was almost a month ago. We are never bored, nor do we clamour for entertainment. Ours days are fulfilling, little bunny is working hard producing her You Tube channel/Instagram. miss.tiff.travel s. I write my diary and this blog, far more time consuming than you would know, and Mr bunny is becoming quite a dab hand at backing the horses with 4 legs and mining for Gold. Netflix and Disney are there for us in an evening. Life is good. Backpacks and Rucksacks . Researched at length, I cannot begin to tell you how many bag videos we have watched. We are each carrying a Stubble and Co backpack. 42 litres, compartmented. The compartments make packing exceptionally easy, one bunny choosing to use packing cubs, 2 bunnies do not. All 3 bags have split across the seams. I still advocate these bags are excellent, but it is proof that with less stuff the bags wouldn`t have been under so much strain. Will they last the entirety of the trip? Yes. Will they need attention in the future, also Yes. Would I bring again? debatable. We have two Osprey Fairview and Farpoint bags at home, that might just take a trip of their own one day. Rucksacks/day bags. Again, researched at length, but still problematic. I absolutely love to bits my LoveNook bag. Pockets!! so many pockets!! I have a pocket for everything, it is brilliant and I love it, but I`ve since bought a Patagonia rucksack to use instead ! Why??? My lovenook does not like to be carry turtle fashion. Problem one. Problem two, buses are used frequently and my little bag was just a little too wide to fit under the seats, ditto on a plane. When we intend to be travelling for many more months yet, I need a bag that ticks those extra boxes. My new Patagonia ticks all the boxes bar the pockets. Oh how I miss my pockets. A problem I have sorted by utilising the small zipped cotton bags that I have with me. Mr Bunny has no issues at all with his 30litre Berghaus rucksack, whilst little bunny, who had intended just using her anti theft backpack, quickly realised that it didn`t quite fit all her tech. Nor would it carry the weight of. Borrowing a cheap 30 litre trespass rucksack has that problem now covered. I'm sure I will have many more lessons to learn as our trip progresses, but for now, 3 happy bunnies are signing off. PS Google Translate. Brilliant brilliant app, but not fool proof. Please note that when asking for chocolate without nuts, you request the correct version of nuts. Mr Bunny had a red face when he asked for chocolate without balls....

(so far..) Despite months, even years of watching You tube what not to pack, and do not pack Justin Cases, we did. Well truthfully not everything was justin cases, some things in our bags were simply duplicated items, or bulky items we struggled to pack, or items acquired along the way. Deciding to send some items back to the UK via DHL, because of their reputation rather than the local Peruvian mail was a mistake. No matter how diligently you translate conversations, list every item, under exaggerate the value of your box contents, when the office staff fail to tell you that your contents will be opened and scrutinised at UK Customs, expect to pay another £70 plus, on top of your already expensive box of mistakes.  Lesson One . Do Not Overpack . When they say you can buy anything you need on the road, you truly can. And so much easier than you can in the UK. There are shops by the thousand everywhere you go. These shops sell absolutely everything you could possibly want, and more besides. I swear that in a 5 block radius of any main town or city we have been in, you could buy everything from items to build and furnish a house, buy a car, maintain it, purchase dog clothes, human clothes, coffins and hospital beds. Every second shop sells food, and every third shop is a pharmacy, as for dentists???? on one street alone I counted 4 practices. Lesson Two . You don`t need to pack shampoo. Many of our hostels have provided such, and for those that don`t, you can buy single sachets from most supermarkets or tourist shops. Shower gel is overrated and unnecessary, ordinary soap and a scrunchy works just as well and is far easier to carry. Lesson Three, get off your high horse, and accept that yes, you really can wash pots in cold water. The washing up `liquid` here in South America, isn`t liquid, but comes in hard soap like substance that works exceptionally well, use it, trust it. By all means boil water for that extra greasy pan, but generally, cold water will suffice. Lesson Four and one that I find so difficult to accept, despite all the horror stories of being scammed or ripped off, people everywhere are for the most part genuinely delighted and willing to help you. Use your wits and common sense, but don`t be afraid. Not everyone is evil, some are desperately poor and will try it on, but be kind and understanding . Lesson Five,  do not walk anywhere anywhere with your nose stuck in your phone! Trust me when I say that the sidewalks/ pavements are littered with holes, raised flags, missing tiles, dogs toilet, overly high kerbstones and other challenging obstacles, use this opportunity to put the thing away, look up (and down) are be aware of your surroundings from your feet upwards. Lesson Six, plugs hang off walls, electrics spark, light switches and plugs can be found in bathrooms, showers are electric, with the wires usually hanging out of the wall just above the shower head, and try not to be overly alarmed when your host tells you that the water is at its warmest when the electric light goes out. It can be nerve wracking, but there are millions of people living like this, so join the club and embrace it.

From Galapagos we flew back to the mainland via Guayaquil. A city that at this moment in time has an avoidance advisory. We are careful to listen to government guidelines and local knowledge, but equally we listen to our own hearts as well. Guayaquil was not an exception. It is not a safe city at this time, albeit less so for tourists, but we like safe. So, straight to the hotel we went. Take heed wandering tourists, the German family also from our hotel chose to ignore advice, attempted to navigate the local district, got lost and were promptly bundled into a taxi by concerned locals and told to go back to their hotel. Mr Bunny heeded all warnings and surpassed himself by ordering us Pizza via delivery. Expensive? yes, worth it? oh yes!!!! sometimes a little splurge does wonders for both bunny bellies and blissful contentment. Pizza, Netflix and Ecuadorian chocolate, an evening made in heaven. So, Banos. Banos, adventure capital of Ecuador. We had an idea what was there, and why we wanted to go, we just didn`t research it in too much detail to allow for that element of surprise. Surprise number one. It took 7 hours and 2 buses to get there , not the 4 hours on one bus that I read online. It should have been one bus, but it broke down. The 7 hours part was actually correct, I had misread the bus timetable, 4 hours was just the journey to the town of Riobamba where we got dropped off with several other bewildered local bunnies at a small bus tour shop as apparently our bus was having difficulties. We were each given tickets that said 3 to Banos (or 2, or 1 etc) and got told to sit. So sit we did. After around 20 mins, another bus came and on we piled. 3 bunnies and our fellow bunny locals back on their way to Banos. One hour said the bus timetable, 2.5 hours was the reality. We landed in the late evening into what I can only describe as (for UK bunny visitors Blackpool/ Or US bunny visitors, a mini Las Vegas) Oh I was so gutted. Talk about awful first impressions. Neon lights, music, party buses, young people milling about on the streets, burger bars and street food vendors. We got a taxi straight to our lovely little hostel Timara, see booking.com , shared kitchen but lovely family and perfectly nice rooms, deciding to shelve our disappointment and see what daylight brought. Morning came and I realised that our mini Las Vegas and the disappoint of, was actually Saturday night fun and nothing more. We were in the most gorgeous little town, best described as super touristic, safe, relaxed and surrounded by the most awesome hills. We quickly came to love Banos, for its friendly relaxing happy vibes, ( awesome Chocolate Shop. Blanco Hot Chocolate and Dulche de Leche crepes, wow just saying..). The neon party bus was back in the garage, and all we were left with was a million shops all selling one thing. Adventure!! Canyoning? Abseiling? White Water Rafting? Zip lines? Bungee? When we thought Banos was a small town with one area of adventure, the reality is many choices of adventures and tours all in different places around the valleys and hills. Where to begin. Spa waters! After so many weeks on the road the pull of hot springs and total relaxation was too good to miss. El Salado was our first destination. A place where you really do need to know that the book is so much better than the cover suggests. A grey concrete mass of bland looking buildings, muddy looking brown pools, less than inviting looking changing rooms and showers, and the most glorious hot natural pools. 3 hot or varying warm temperatures pools and one one freezing (to be ignored lol) pool. Day 2 saw us visit the Amazon. Without doubt the most cringy tourist tour and one that I would normally avoid like the plague, but definitely had its merits. Picked up at 8.45, first stop the View Point, Just a stop at the side of the road but a place where you could pause to admire the size and majesty of Amazonia, or at least one little corner of it. From there to the waterfalls. A lovely quite easy, semi paved, walk through the jungle (I did say it was touristy) to the waterfall. Very nice, one of the better waterfalls seen to date, even semi impressing this normally unimpressed wet stuff bunny. From there we went, in the little tourist bus, to the `Indigenous` village. Greeted by the village elder with his parrot feather hat, he proceeded to talk about Chicha, the local drink and the making of, then each of us was given a drink of to taste, from the same cup each time (Who remembers Covid?) Time next for the children in their `native costumes` to come and paint our faces with traditional face paints, showing my age here, but Adam Ant eat your heart out, we rocked the war paint look. Women next, in their fancy grass skirts dressed up the female bunnies in multi size grass skirts and they proceeded to dance around the fire whilst the male bunny variety banged their drums. boys and drums, boys and toys. Mrs Bunny here would have partaken, but alas someone had to take the pictures. Time for the snake picture next, ( I did warn you, proper ts tour) Mr bunny was nowhere to be seen as the snake was brought out, but little bunny quite happily posed with said legless creature. What do they say about every good ride? Ends in a shop! We each bought a souvenir of the day, and left waving goodbye to the `local indigenous people` who were now wearing their presumably everyday attire of jeans, trainers, and the children in their mickey mouse t shirts /nike jumpers. Day 2. We hired a jeep for 3 hours and drove the road along which are 7 decent waterfalls. Making the decision to miss them all on the outward journey, we headed directly for El Pailon del Diablo. so glad we did. This particular waterfall is quite something, as is the walk! the steps were fine, the views were amazing, then we encountered that bridge. The bouncy, high, rope type bridge, that had to be crossed to continue the waterfall walk. After walking, or rather crawling over a very solid stone bridge that was a whole 8 feet high near home, I was super impressed when Mr Bunny hopped across it with apparent ease. Took Mrs bunny a couple of false starts before venturing across, but of course fearless little bunny just bounced across it with barely a pause. As waterfalls go, Pailon del Diablo is well worth a visit. Several days passed with us choosing to do very little, the weather was a little unkind, but the chance to catch up with some online work was much needed. On our next blue sky day we caught a local bus to the Casa Del Arbol, perched on the top of the nearby hill, this is known as the original Swing At The End of The World. Just a little tree house with a swing, perched at the edge of a very big hill. So much fun. Suitable for all age bunnies. Very small bunnies have their own little swing nearby if required. A nice little viewpoint, a bit of fun, and back home we went. An evening spent at another brown water super hot spa pool finished off the day and our time in Banos. Cuenca. Yet another long bus journey. But what a journey, I don`t think I took my eyes off the window view for one minute. Ecuador is just so dramatic. We climbed and climbed so many times, getting higher and higher until we were looking down on the clouds and valleys below us. We finally arrived into Cuenca late in the evening to one of best hostel stays to date. Posada Todos Santos. Easy walking distance to the town, cute little rooms, with gorgeous wall paintings. Cuenca, what can I say except that I wish we could have stayed longer. Totally unlike any other city or town we have been to so far, this place is almost elegant, smart and just different. Ecuador in general is a very tidy clean country, (especially compared to Colombia (sorry Colombia) and Cuenca was no exception. find a little hotel called Terra Rooftop 360 to be rewarded by the best view of the city. You can eat there if you wish, but beware, your little bunny pockets need to be quite deep. we settled for coffee and hot chocolate. We met a couple of fellow bunny backpackers back at our hostel who were hoping to enjoy the national park which was an easy bus ride away. We too fancied this national park, and agreed to join them for a walk. Aron, the owner of our hostel, offered to come with us all to guide us through the maze which is Cuenca bus station, and onto the Park itself. First you buy your bus tickets, then you buy another ticket (only a few cents) to leave the bus station to catch said bus. the National Park was around 45 mins away, and is best described as Ecuadors answer to the Scottish Highlands. Lots of hiking trails in this area, but we chose the easy walk around the large lake. 2 hours with stops for photos, is all you need. A nice break from city life. Our time in Ecuador has come to an end. We are sad to be leaving this beautiful country. There is so much more to be seen in Ecuador, a country this diverse deserves time to appreciate, time which alas we do not have. Good bye Ecuador, we love you.

Do what? Choose a bag, book a bus, plan a trip, get a taxi, or just generally figure out where to start? I admit it has been a difficult journey. Every aspect has been researched at length, but even now we have so many unanswered questions, and so many unknowns. The where was the hardest, so many places in the world and we want to see them all. If I had planned our 15 month journey once, I planned it a 100 times, buy a car and drive through Europe, fly to Egypt, fly straight to New Zealand, were just some of the early days options. It took guts and a feeling of recklessness when I decided (after watching endless YouTube namely Nicole and Mico, and Backpacking Bananas for some truly great and confidence inspiring videos) that South America was the right choice of budget conserving destination for us to start. Was it out of our comfort zone? you bet, are we loving it? absolutely. Bag/backpack, we are committed to backpacking, we really don`t want the hassle of suitcases, as for hold luggage costs, not for us. The charges of adding hold luggage can almost double the cost of your flight. We are each carrying a clam shell type backpack made by Stubble and Co, and they are awesome! 40 litres. compartmented. Neat, look small, easy to manage, and are cabin bag size. Each to their own, but these tick every box for us. Even got a shoe compartment. (and their customer service is excellent) " bunnies are also carrying 30 litre rucksacks as their personal item, whilst bunny three is carrying a love nook bag. This lovenook bag is amazing, my little bag of pockets, but it does have one problem, it doesn`t make for a good turtle front carry bag. Wait, am I hearing you say you cannot travel the world with only a backpack, well take a look at my room photos, do we look like we are missing something? Book a bus, or generally get around?. At home I tried every which way to learn how to get around, and finally decided to stop fretting and figure it out on the ground at each destination. Google and RometoRio. Your new best friends. R2R is just about the best app anyone can have, and when R2R is out for lunch, Google. Unless you plan to bunnyhop across the Andes or roller skate across the desert, I`m pretty certain somebody somewhere wanted to go or has gone exactly where you want to, and has written about it. I`m all for hindsight and experience, who am I to question those who have actually done these trips? Taxi drivers seek you out, at bus terminals just stand around and listen, somebody is more than likely shouting out your destination from their little booth. Staff are always ready to help, hotels or even shops will call you a cab. Getting to your destination is the least of your worries. (add google translate to your friends list, your probably going to need it) I don`t intend making suggestions to which bus or terminal you need, everything changes over time, eg Ambato (if you have been or going to Banos) has a brand new bus terminal, not mentioned anywhere online. but R2R and Google tend to stay up to date, besides, there is more than one way to skin a cat and peoples choices of destination and how to get there should be their own. For example, I feel like we are the only backpackers travelling North to South, everybody we meet is on their way uphill. Do it your way, do what suits you. Still early days yet, but up to now travel hasn`t been a problem. Less is more. Did we learn that lesson? nope, we didn`t. We tried, but failed. We still managed to pack Justin Cases. I did try very hard to follow the instruction to get out your stuff, divide it in half and divide again. Hence the reason I failed to pack a bra and managed to pack 3 green t shirts. Can you have too much? yes, very much so. I could wear a different t shirt every day for 2 weeks, same for leggings/trousers. See earlier blog post when I mentioned we went shopping for missing items...lets just say I got slightly carried away! A new t shirt every day for 2 weeks? That`s when you know you have too much. Best buys? I am living in Salomon trainers for their sure footed grip. I had expected to be wearing my old faithful comfy Skechers, but the terrain so far has warranted decent sturdy footwear. My expensive super light packable puffy coat is amazing. A waterproof is much needed, but splurge. You need a waterproof, but space is premium. Spend the money on the tiniest, lightest, 100% waterproof jacket you can find. Mr Bunnies coat ticks that box, where as my coat takes us more space than I like. Merino wool socks are the bunniesbolox, but t shirts have to suit the wearer. Sweaty bunnies make prefer the merino, but those bunnies who merely sweetly perspire may prefer cheap t shirts ( easily replaced on the road as required) and decent deodorant. Skinny little bunnies just take whatever they like and lots of it. Rule of thumb, the bigger the bunny the less clothes you can take. sucks, but its true. We are still reading the How To Book of World Travel. We have made mistakes, the wrong bus added 3 hours to a journey. Mis reading the room description left us sharing a kitchen. You can book a dorm room for 4 and still end up in a room for 10. You can book a tour and have the best day out, or you can end up with the self important family with the most appalling spoilt child who screams for an hour on a small bus. It is all a journey, and each day we learn to adapt. Ear plugs and warm clothes for buses, with a t shirt just in case. Toilet paper lives in every pocket, as does small change. The wish you had remembered to buy insect repellent, packed more tummy relief tablets, or not packed your most favourite trousers, the ones you live in at home, but don`t seem to have a place for now. We are learning that bus `rules` are pretty stickers with words to be ignored. No food! (but your dinner in a tray is fine) No Pets! but the dog is fine, so is the puppy, and the kitten, sorry sir sheep go in the hold..... And so the journey continues.

We decided to avoid any difficult border crossing and chose to fly directly to Quito. At an altitude of 2850m compared to Bogota at 2625m we were prepared for the change of altitude and how it may affect us, what we didn`t expect or know, is that Quito is the city built on a hill, or rather a mountain. I don`t think I could be a mountain bunny, as these hills are killing me! Altitude and steep hills just don`t mix. After relaxing for one day to acclimatise, we dived right in with the must see sights in Quito and visited the very famous Otavalo Market, which as per every other must see in Quito, isn`t actually in Quito! Otavalo market, a 2 hour ride into the hills above Quito is huge, there is no other word for it. Often described as a tourist trap, maybe it is? but so worth a visit. I have never seen as many llama jumpers, scarves, ponchos, hats, jewellery, bracelets, stuffed alpacas in one place before. A truly wonderful market, but best enjoyed with 2 things in hand, cash and a willingness to barter. Look, but don`t touch unless you are willing to make an offer. Personally I am not a bartering kind of bunny, I prefer to have a price tag wafted under my bunny nose so that I may either waffle with interest or hop away. We 2.1 bunnies also found it rather difficult to weigh up the merits of an alpaca blanket, when one hour previous we passed the Mitad del Mundo monument, aka The Equatorial centre of the world. Its the Equator and you want me to buy an alpaca blanket? Quito Historic centre. A place we were advised to stay on our visit to Quito. Not sure why. It is pleasant enough walking around, and definitely an older part of the city, but nothing really to write home about. We have found a couple of pleasant squares to wander around, but mostly it is a historic centre of tiny local shops selling just about everything under the sun, eg we have a road drilling equipment shop next door to our apartment, with a sewing machine shop nearby, on the next street is a buckle shop, and a chocolate shop next door to that, whoo what a find (more about Ecuador chocolate later) We loved the Basilica which we can see from our bedroom window. Two huge towers, with two big clocks neither of which tell the correct time soar above us. A few dollars each to enter. we wandered freely around the upper basilica ramparts, (not the church itself) via a set of stairs, the type you would normally find in a car park, not your average squishy uneven winding staircase of hell that you usually associate with an old church building. Brave little bunny climbed the stairway to heaven, which gave us two older bunnies the flutterbies just watching her. A metal almost vertical ladder over the city lead to a small church spire, no health and safety here, just go on, up you go if you fancy. Even brave little bunny had wobbling legs on her return down the equally vertically stairs. Of course there was the proverbial cafe at the end of our climb where we bought rather good coffee with an even better view of the city and its Angel. Quito Angel monument. or Virgin of the Panecillo. Not a lot I can say about this. It looks great looking out over the city, but we were warned that under no circumstances should we walk anywhere near it. Taxi yes, walk, nope. We decided to give it a miss as the Basilica views were more than satisfactory. Mindo, another must see when in Quito, that isn`t. Mindo is a place we were really looking forward to visiting, and it didn`t disappoint. We had a shaky start to the journey after we found out that the 11am bus that we wanted only left from the `other` bus station. Quick taxi, and caught it with minutes to spare. Another 2 hour beautiful scenic journey and we were dropped off at The Cock on the Rock. A large red bird monument sat above a sign pointing to Mindo. Only one other sign and that was Taxi. so there we waited. We didn`t wait long before the best taxi driver in Mindo appeared. We were not to know at the time just how brilliant this taxi man was going to be. Gonzalo is his name. Not only did he take us to our accommodation (oh wow!) booking.com The Temple II Mindo, but he waited for us to check in, then took us to our chocolate tour, collected us, picked us up after dinner, picked us up at 7am for birdwatching, to the waterfall hike, to the butterfly farm, and at each time waited for us. Gonzalo, remember his name. Mindo chocolate tour, El Quetzal, excellent and very recommended. Not only did we get a personal well informed demonstration of the various stages of chocolate making, an informative tour of the orchard with the various fruit trees, the tasting session was pretty yummy as well. Note of caution, when the guide says `place a little powder on your tongue` he really does mean a little , not the large spoonful that big bunny swallowed and darn near choked on! finding out the hard way that dry coca powder is intense! The town of Mindo is tiny and quaint reminding me very much of old western movie sets. Many of the shops and houses were wooden, with old rickety balconies and wooden handrails. Chuck a horse rather than a llama in the street and it would look neither lost nor out of place. Waterfalls hike next. Gonzalo again, picked us up and took us to the start of the hike, which begins with a ride on the Tarabita cable car. for something so small, open sided, higher than the trees tops, it was the most fun thing we have done in a long time. The hike to the 5 or 7 waterfalls, well documented online so no need to elaborate here, is challenging. think mountain goat type challenging. Ignore those blogs that say ` a 35 minute hike` tosh !! Many parts of the trail have handrails, whoopy do, but even so, it was a long hard slog and very steep in places. Worth it? The hike yes, the waterfalls? meh..I`ve seen better and unless the waterfall is particularly really dramatic I`m not much of a waterfall loving bunny. Would I do it again? Yes, but only for the enjoyment of the jungle environment rather than the love of waterfalls. The ride back on the Tarabita cable car was even more fun on the return, as we had a four legged passenger with us. A dog named Princessa hopped on board and casually rode the cable car to its start point. Hummingbirds, tropical birds and butterflies next. Once again Gonzalo picked us up at dawn and drove us to his choice of bird watching venue. Not disappointed. Local knowledge is everything. A house? at the side of the road? Absolutely. San Tadeo bird watching. A back garden with the most fabulous bird watching set up, right there in front of you, no binoculars required this time, no craning your neck to find that elusive yellow beaked flying whatsit, these beautiful birds, were right there in front of your noses at eye level flying, eating, feeding, and generally just doing what birds do best. This bird watching bunny cant remember a single variety, but they definitely came in blue, red, green and blue, black with white stripes, pale blue and yellow varieties. And breakfast. The property owner made breakfast for us as we watched the birdies eating theirs. Then just as we thought we had seen it all, Gonzalo pointed us down a path that lead to the most fabulous view point, looking out over the cloud forest of Mindo, and hummingbirds. These tiny beautiful flying birds were everywhere. Multiple feeding stations had been set up, along with a large number of little bottle caps filled with nectar that you could hold up for the hummingbirds to come to you. some little birdies chose to hover as they drank, other perched quite happily on your fingers as they drank. I had a particularly distracted little birdie sat on my fingers who kept licking my hand as his aim for the nectar continually missed. I assume he was a boy.... Butterflies. Not as cute as the hummingbirds, but still fascinating. A quick look around the pre butterfly nests, the cocoons/chrysalis etc..then into the butterfly house itself. 1000s of them flying freely around us. so so many different colours and sizes. worth a quick visit if you don`t mind flying whatsits, but have to admit 2 of the 3 bunnies in our little party got the heebies as butterflies settled on our bare arms. Birds are decidedly easier to cope with. Quilotoa Lake. From Mindo back to our home in Quito for one night, before setting off again this time to Quilotoa, another must see whilst in Quito, that isn`t.. Long taxi ride in the opposite direction this time to the bus station, one bus to Latacunga, then a second bus to the village of Quilotoa. Around 4 hours travelling time in total. We were dropped off at the village entrance which is gated, you pay a small fee for which you get a ticket that you then show at a second gate. As we entered the village our hostel was right there in front of us. I shall decline to tell its name as there are far better places to stay. Nobody in sight, reception dark and deserted, shouting yielded no replies, what now? Ah, why wouldn`t the gate lady be the hotel watcher, across she came and despite her very best attempts to reassure us that all was well, we declined to leave our bags in the non attended hostel and instead wandered around the deserted town with them. Lunch at a llama cafe was pleasant enough, just relieved that we were the only customers. Dead bunnies move quicker than he did. From there we decided to go and see the main event, the beautiful blue Quilotoa Lake. Instagram you are a pain! Yes, the lake is gorgeous, but brilliant blue it is not. Even the following day when we had clear blue cloudless skies, the lake stubbornly remained lovely shades of blue/green/turquoise, but never brilliant blue. Quilotoa is a well advertised tourist destination, so you would expect clear paths to the lake, not exactly, just follow your feet in between two houses, up an incline of grass and gravel to a very well trodden path that looks down into the long extinct volcanic crater, now home to this beautiful lake. The lake views are spectacular, but so are the clouds. I took 3 photos, beautiful lake, pure clouds, beautiful lake, and my photos are less than 4 minutes apart from the first photo to the last, such is the speed of the cloud movement. Given that it was quite late in the day and getting chilly, we decided to check if our room was ready. The room was, but was it a room or a fridge? We have never been so cold, nor stayed in such an overexaggerated described room. We were given a heater, but said heater after being on all night failed to dry a slightly damp pair of socks. If the darn room hadn`t been prepaid we would have left and found alternative accommodation The relief finding 4 blankets per bed was tangible. After a long chilly night, we rose early and set off once more for the lake. Major tourist destination it may be, but for whatever reason we were still the only tourists in sight as we walked through the village. After much debate, fit little bunny decided to venture down to the lake edge. How steep? How far? A mind blowing 40 minutes of downhill walking, before she reached the waters edge. Chubby bunnies one and two decided they had more use acting as baby bunny bag watchers. It was truly glorious sat in the sun watching the ever changing lake colours, watching chunky alpacas being led to various scenic spots for the proverbial pose with an alpaca photo, and watching puffing tourists clambering back up the hill. 2 hours 50 mins later the little bunny reappeared red faced and exhausted. The guide map gives an average down time as 35 minutes, with a return time of 1 hour 30. Sure thing if you are of the super fit variety, but be warned, little bunnies fit bit watch declared she climbed the equivalent of approximately 120 flights of stairs. Shopping day! We really would like a drone. We are seeing the most amazing places, and to be able have an additional birds eye view of these places would be awesome. Research showed us a choice of 2 shopping malls not too far away. One definitely had a drone shop. Mrs Bunny is hopping (sorry) to find a few bits of clothes that are missing from her bunny bag. Mall one, Scala, not bad, out of town nothing particularly special, quite a good number of shops, but not quite what we were looking for. To Mall two we went. This one is called Quicentro and bless my bunny ears, it was everything we could have hopped for in a shopping mall. All our bunny senses came into fruition as we toured this beautiful shopping centre. turns out Quicentro shopping mall is in the heart of the new city of Quito and what a direct contrast this area is compared to the historic centre. This area is the dogs doofers compared to the historic centre. Pretty sure you wont get $28 per night room here, but if I had a bigger bunny backpacking budget, I would very much have preferred to have stayed in this area of Quito and visited the historic centre, than stay in the historic centre and visit the new. Mitad de Mundo. translated, Middle of the World City, or The Equator. when in Ecuador you just have to visit the equator. Situated 28km north of Quito (another must see when in Quito that isn`t) its a short 30 min taxi ride away. We paid a small entrance fee and were delighted to find so much more than we were expecting. Quick few photos at the monument, probably a shop and a cafe, then home again were our initial thoughts, but how wrong we were. Very much a tourist destination, but well planned out , neat, tidy and exceptionally pretty. There are a large number of little tourist shops, restaurants, an area dedicated to recreating original indigenous housing, (who knew they had flat screen tvs showing video documentaries of the Amazon) hmmm, slightly odd, but we ran with it. A beer museum, where Mr Bunny decided to burrow under for a while, a chocolate museum that of course had to be investigated at length,(ginger and lemonade chocolate, oh yum) a planetarium, Spanish commentary only, and an egg stand amongst other things. Egg stand? Apparently for some clever scientific reason you can balance an egg on a nail whilst at the Equator. Never one for science, I`m sure the more academic amongst you will understand why this is possible. Or in my case impossible. Yes I tried. Yes I failed. It needs patience and a steady hand, and I appear to have neither. Mr smug face bunny obviously had to have a go, and yes I admit, he succeeded. The smallest bunny also succeeded albeit with a sleight of hand magic. The Monument itself is the centre point of the whole park. Standing tall with its large world at the peak it just begs you to take the `hold the world in your hands photo`. There is the yellow equator line that runs the length of the park, but if you want to take the same photos but less tourists in your photos, go to the back of the monument. Exactly the same view, except without the door, and the numbers showing the latitude and longitude. We had quite a bit of fun here taking photos of ourselves walking the equator. There is a viewing platform at the top of the monument, which is actually quite large inside. If you chose to walk the stairs there are displays and information on each level which are quite interesting to read. Free to enter, it is well worth venturing to the top, how many times in your lifetime will you get the chance to say,` I`ve been to the top of the centre of the World` Cotopaxi National Park. Cotopaxi is an active stratovolcano located in the Andes mountains, approximately 30 miles north of Quito. ( another of the must see whilst in Quito, that isn`t) the second highest summit in Ecuador it is the highest active volcano in the world. And we climbed it. We booked ourselves a tour from Quito with active adventures ( oh how I wish I had paid more attention to that tour operators name) as we couldn`t find a way to get to Cotopaxi via alternative means. The bus picked us up at 7am and we were driven along with around 12 other bunnies to our first stop, breakfast. There we were told prior to leaving the mini bus, was where we could also buy hats, gloves. scarves if required. The shop owner repeatedly hugging himself saying Cotopaxi, brrrrr. We chose not to buy anything, hoping that our jumpers, gloves, buffs and puffy jackets would suffice, I mean its a national park, how cold can it be? Famous last words. Its very cold. and very windy. From there we were driven along a flat road, how nice, and a brief stop to pictures of the Volcano and Alpacas, you can never have enough photos of either. Onwards we went and then entered the national park itself. How quickly the landscape changed. From a few trees at the start of the trail, trees that apparently belong to another county, don`t ask me why, then onward to the most barren wilderness ever. Flat plains as far as you could see, with some hills, but no trees, just short stubby bushes here and there, and horses. Wild horses. Seems there are over 1000 wild horses just roaming freely around the National Park. We came to a brief stop, and the guide addressed the bus, Hi guys, can you see that building with the orange roof over there on Cotopaxi mountain? That`s our next destination, we are going to hike up to that, its the refuge. Woah!!! whadda ya mean hike ?!!! I couldn`t see any orange roof? Why? Cos my bunny eyes weren`t looking high enough!!! Granted the little bus chugged a fair distance up the mountain, but I assure you it stopped a very long way from any building, never mind one with an orange roof. Walk. Hike. humph, I was relieved to know that I didn`t need to keep up the patently obvious super fit hikers who set off with the lead guide at one heck of a pace, instead I got my very own slow bunny hiking guide who, along with my very patient Mr Bunny patiently bunnyhopped every step of the way with me, nagging cajoling and albeit false promising me, `just another 5 mins`. We zig zagged up that darn mountain for nearly an hour, every step getting harder and harder. We started at very high altitude, but this climb was taking us to the snow level. I swear I needed an oxygen tank. Then just as I was to collapse and die, there it was, in all its glory, a building with an orange roof, and a sign that said `Welcome to Cotopaxi refugio, 4800 metres above sea level` How high is that, well for comparison Everest Base Camp is 5364 metres. I had made it. This chubby bunny with 2 wonky knees made it. I couldn`t have been more proud of myself. The rest of the group managed several cups of hot chocolate as they patiently waited for me, whilst I managed a bite of a chocolate bar, before being told that it was time to descend. The descent, via a shale and sand scree type surface, took 20 mins, such was the terrain and the incline. Yeah!! made it, and what did the guide say? `right guys, time to get the bikes off the van, and we are going to downhill ride all the way to the lagoon` WHAT!! 3 minutes these 2 female bunnies lasted, being terrified out of our bunnies wits at the steep, fast, shale covered rutted road on bikes that didn`t really suit our bunny butts. Mr bunny continued on his bike, riding along side around 4 other nice steady bike riders, whilst the remaining members of the group passed them like blurs on the Tour de France. Little bunny and I were allowed to put our bikes back on the bus, and get them off again on the last flat part of the ride. This bunny then realised that to pedal a bike that was too small, meant bending knees past their capabilities. cue the most ungainly half pedal tiring bike ride to the finish. Would I visit Cotopaxi again? Yes, absolutely. would I climb it? or Ride a bike? Not a chance. Ecuador. A country that has far exceeded our expectations, wonderful in every way. The journey continues as we venture ever onwards, this time to a Bucket List destination. The Galapagos Islands....

One day I happened to say to my husband, wouldn't it be nice if one day we could walk out of the house with just a backpack and a map, no plans, no pre determined destination and travel? I got no response, just the quiet tick of cogs turning as he sat thinking of my out of the blue (and what I considered rather rash dream). Which is how come, 4 years later I am now writing this blog from Cartagena in Colombia! Turns out my wild dreams of travel were shared, and together we spent the next 4 years dreaming, planning, plotting, saving, YouTubing, and making designs on our retirement so that we could fulfil our dream of adventure. Did I also mention that on telling our daughter of our plans, we got told in no uncertain terms, well your not going without me!! Turns out that certain wonderful schools allow their teachers to take a sabbatical to follow their lifetime ambition to also travel the world! So here we are. 2.1 very happy bunnies setting off on a wild roller coaster of a ride, 15 months of World Travel. Sometimes together, sometimes apart, the three of us are hopping, sorry about the terrible bunny pun, to visit 4 continents, tick off many bucket list items, and generally get out there and live a little. You must be rich! Did I mention the fact we are backpacking with no illusions of grand hotels, or spa resorts? Cheap and Cheerful little hostels and best friends with Booking.com is the way we shall be travelling, at least until we reach a certain slightly less budget friendly country, but more about that in the future. You must be fit and very active! Ha, if only! the .1 little bunny ticks that box, but the two more worldly and lets just say older and ever so slightly chubby bunnies, tick every box bar the fit and active ones. One of us has a dodgy back, the other 2 dodgy knees, and both are hearing the whispers of the word arthritis, boo sucks. But here we are, doing it all the same. Who knows what tomorrow may bring? When opportunity knocks, grab him by the bunny balls and go for it. How did you choose/know where to go? Dear Google, Cheapest countries? South America, Asia, (ok, now I'm nervous), but lets do some research. YouTube, another new friend. Turns out all the main must see places in South America follow a well trodden backpacker route called the very apt Gringo Trail. So we dived in with both feet, booked 3 flights to Cartagena and plotted a 5 month trip from the most Northern (ish) part of South America, to its very tip, Ushuaia, via all the best gringo hotspots (thank you BBC Race Across the World for teaching us the correct pronunciation of Ushuaia. :-) First Stop. Cartagena Colombia. I admit to feeling exceptionally nervous about visiting Colombia, and I have no idea why. We have all heard the stories, but lets face it, every city in the world has its own troubles, but we don't flinch when visiting them, so why here? I still don't know. The people we have met these past two days have been amongst the nicest and most friendliest people I have ever been around. To break us in gently to the land of South America, and Colombia in particular, I chose the Bocagrande area of Cartagena. A long spit of land just to the south of Cartagena, known for long sandy beaches, lovely hotels and upmarket living. We enjoyed the atmosphere of this place, even with its abundance of hawkers. No thank you, not today, or maybe later becomes our most used phrases. Everything from massages (sounds wonderful, but not on a backpackers bucket list) necklaces, so beautiful, hats, surely you must need a hat? food, scarves, dominoes, you name it they come round selling it. It is difficult at first to repeatedly say no to the lovely people, but you just have to. Unless of course you are in the market for a little indulgence. 3 days here and we moved to another part of Cartagena called Getsemani. What an overwhelming riot of colour awaits you as you leave Bocagrande and enter the little area of Getsemani. Wall art, street art, graffiti art, flags, bunting, umbrellas adorn the small winding streets. I believe this area was once a poorer not much visited neighbourhood, but now its an area not to be missed. Beautiful women in traditional dress stand outside their restaurants with smiles to brighten the dullest days. The ladies in their Palenque dresses with baskets of fruit sat jauntily perched on their heads call to you for lovely photographs (at a small charge of course..) From Getsemani it's a short walk across the bridge to the castle of San Filipe with its huge flag, and amazing views across the water to the wider area of Cartagena. Bigger than it looks from a distance, this castle/fortress, is well worth a visit. Not so much so is the exceptionally busy Chocolate Museum opposite. Busy because it is cool and airconditioned after the heat of the steep walks around the castle, but I'm afraid delicious as it may be, chocolate (expensive chocolate) and heat make for poor friends. We tried to order two drinks, a chocolate beer and a chocolate drink, funnily enough though they had run out of both!! I will breeze over the museum part..as they say, nothing to see here. The last days of our stay in Cartagena we spent in the old town. Via Central Park...every walk we took we went via this town park. Sloths in trees! Who knew you could find sloths in trees in a park so close to a town. Not just sloths either, little monkeys, and iguanas also roam freely. Just wander into the park, look up and look puzzled, and very soon one of the very many water sellers or park keepers will be there at your side happily pointing out the various trees in which the sloths live. They ask for nothing, but buy their water please its a small token of gratitude that goes a long way. The sloths by the way came to be in the park when a person was seen a long time ago trying to remove a sloth from its correct habitat. Confiscated and rehomed in the town park these lovely slow sleepy animals are now thriving in this new home. Cartagena old town. Best entered via the Clock Tower, this is yet another area of Cartagena quite unlike the other two places we visited. A walled city with an abundance of small streets with balconies overhead, quite different to the bright colours of Getsemani, the Old Town or Centro could best be described as elegant? Beautiful little boutique shops on every street, a little pricy but so lovely. The first evening we went to the Old Town it was to await the return of our daughter from her boat trip to the Rosario Islands, for more info on that and a very entertaining YouTube/Instagram, follow @miss.tiff.travels . Happy Birthday Cartagena! 491 years young. The whole town was celebrating that evening. There was a stage, singers, live music, and food stalls aplenty. If they celebrate yearly, which I imagine they might as 491 is quite an odd number to celebrate, the first weekend in June is the date you are looking for. Minca. leaving Cartagena we caught a bus to the coastal town of Santa Marta, and a taxi to the hillside town of Minca. This small unassuming little town is a small taste of a green paradise. Set amongst the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, this beautiful area has earned itself the title of Ecological Capital of the Country, and its not hard to see why. I truly wish I could say that I had explored this area a little more thoroughly but the need for rest was more important. Our lovely little hostel has a roof balcony with a full length open window which gave me/us our very own piece of National Geographic, natures television. Following a day of rest, we followed our feet to the famous Pozo Azul waterfall, a pleasant walk through the trees, led us to the waterfall. Grateful that so many were walking towards us, as on reaching the waterfall, we could see how quickly it could become crowded. Leaving Pozo Azul, we headed to our next waterfall, name I cannot recall, it was sign posted, Hidden Waterfall. A rather treacherous and quite challenging path in places, we reached this little gem. Not as grand as Pozo Azul, but the moment we landed on the sandy area next to the waterfall, the heavens opened and a tropical deluge of warm rain descended on us , forcing us to quickly abandon our explorations. To say the trek back up was challenging would be an understatement. The following day we rose at 5am, with a plan to go on a Bird watching tour. Picked up at our hostel by 3 motorbike taxis at 5.55am we were pillioned (woo hooo) down the hill to the town where we met up with our guide and 3 other couples. A quick guide on how to use binoculars without falling over, a quick bout of local bird spotting in the nearest trees, and we were off. Walking through tiny paths, passing what I can only describe as tree houses, houses on stilts on the side of the mountain each with its own incredible views. Our guide pointed out bird after bird after bird. I now know that bird watching is an art form of wandering binoculars, aimed at birds that are definitely not where you thought they were, and a sore neck. I saw lots of birds, they all had wings. Humble apologies to the bird watchers out there, but there are only so many times I can say woo hoo, to yet another little yellow bird even if it is the lesser spotted female version of the other 36 previous sightings of little yellow birds. I admit there was a black one, and one with a tufty head, and another with a white tum. Ask me to name them? nope, not a scooby. I like a nice bird, but "look that`s a nice looking bird" ticks every box for me. Apart from the hummingbirds. I could watch those little guys all day long. The walk minus the birds was wonderful. Even the wading across the little river because the rains had washed away the path was no hardship. Then just at the point when our guide was about to point out yet another flying doofer with a beak, he laughed and called out look Toucan! there!! Oh my goodness a real life Toucan in all its glory. My day was made up. Unable to get my camera to focus that far to take a suitable photograph, I decided that as I had seen it with my own eyes, pinching a cheat photo from the guy the 15` foot lens, was perfectly acceptable. My time in Minca is coming to a close, and I wish I could stay forever. A village well worth coming to, but come soon, as it is sadly clear that as tourism to this charming place is expanding, areas of this pristine unspoilt simple landscape will be lost to the concrete jungle of the more discerning clientele. Medellin, via Cartagena.. Another long bus ride from the town of Minca, I should mention here that I had quite clearly forgotten just how far into the mountains Minca actually is, as you traverse down the mountain with more twists and bends than a soap opera. The road seemed to go on forever, getting less and less green the closer we got to the town of Santa Marta. Not the best bus ride back to Cartagena, it was very very hot, with not the greatest of air con. The free Wifi was awesome, for a whole 15 mins, then zip, nada, nothing. I mention our return to Cartagena as quite by chance I had booked an overnight stay in yet another little suburb of the Old Town, an area called Centro. Such a great little hostel, the ceilings were so high, it made the room seem so airy. A bed like a brick and I slept like a log. Maybe that`s the new key for comfort ratings? Centro, the place to find smaller less designer and more local yet still tourist type shops, street food on every corner that just makes your mouth water and makes you wish (makes me wish) I was a little braver to try such foods just in case there wasn`t a banos nearby..if you catch my drift. Fruit of every colour just cries out to be eaten. The airport, just a short distance away beckoned us at 6pm for a 55 minute flight to Medellin. Medellin. A city unlike any other city we have been to before, not just Colombia, anywhere. We entered the city late at night via the newly built 7km tunnel that brought you out with the city of Medellin displayed in all its glory down below us. Tiny pin pricks of lights for as far as the eye could see. In the valley, the hills, the mountains all littered with little fairy lights. How big this city, the second largest in Colombia really is, would reveal itself the following day as we explored the oldest part of the town with a guided tour. The tour guide was brilliant, giving us a candid view of the city, from the days of old and the gold miners, to the more gritty and possibly misguided view that may or may not rule peoples perceptions of this lovely country today. Drug capital of the world you are probably screaming at me, yes, maybe, but not in the way you assume. I`m not going to elaborate here, but lets just say Colombia, and Medellin in particular, has the most complicated, multi tiered, intertwined, fascinating, sad, complex, vibrant, resilient and amazing culture that should be respected and admired. Be mindful when you visit, but not fearful. Comuna 13. Once upon a time this area of Medellin was considered the most dangerous area in the world. A certain date in 1993 changed all that. I have no intention of giving said person any kind of platform, but as per our guide, lets just say Voldemort came to a sticky end, and the Comuna 13 of Medellin through passionate, positive and proactive determination to change its image, has succeeded with more energy than anyone could believe. Their history is complicated, their future is still complicated but thanks to its positivity and willingness to embrace change, Comuna 13 is a district to be commended for its love of its people, their devotion to music, dance, art and DJ`s . The escalators to the upper levels are adorned with beautiful graffiti art, not to be confused with scruffy spray can vandalised walls, these graffiti murals are just breath taking. So much colour, everywhere. Visit the Comuna 13, and you will love it. Guatape, a town that featured often on our `how to travel South America favourite You Tubes` We knew we had to go and see this amazing place for ourselves. Leaving Medellin on a small but very comfy little bus, we drove through some of the most beautiful countryside we have seen so far. A far cry from the small shanty towns that we passed from Santa Marta, this lovely bus journey was so green, flowers, well kept colourful little houses, big estancias , mowed grass fields, fat cows and skinny horses, we saw it all. Arriving into Guatape we landed at the small town square. Not choosing to rest, we wandered the town and were mesmerised by the array of tiny colourful cobbled streets, little alleys with their relief panels adorning each house, these panels, or zocolas, each tell their own little story, a school, a baker, a stubborn mule, or maybe just coloured squares. Walls depicting some of the most beautiful wall art, butterflies, hummingbirds or parrots on every street and building. One street is lined with colourful umbrellas, and yet more frescos. This ridiculously cute vibrant little town should be on everyone`s bucket list. Just outside of Guatape, is the big rock, dress it how you will, but it really is a very big high rock, with a huge fissure down one side, that some smart Alec one day thought, I bet if we built a staircase in that gap, people would come to climb our la Piedra, and build that staircase they did. All 750 steps worth. An exceptionally touristy spot, but ignore all that, just go early, go prepared, go with half decent fitness, (ha!) and go knowing that if you plan to climb to the top, and are just a little afraid of heights, go with a pig headed stubborn determined attitude to succeed. Keep your head down, your eyes on the stairs, and advance 25 steps at a time. It also helps if you take a couple of extra bunnies to cajole, coax, persuade and generally offer you moral support. I promise you I have never been as scared in my life. But come hell or high water I was climbing to the top of that damned rock! Yes, I had a paddy, yes I cried, not by choice but by sheer panic and stress. Did I climb crouched down below the eye level of the hand rail? You bet, did I reach the top? Yes !!! Yes Yes Yes! Is it worth the heart pounding fear? Yes, more than just a little bit. The view from the top is nothing short of spectacular. Every direction you look is a view so picture perfect your camera will be begging you to take one more photo, one more.. Once you have taken every view possible, why not treat yourself to a drink or ice cream, because we all know every good place has either a cafe at the top and or a souvenir shop, and Guatape rock is no exception. Once you have had your fill of amazing views, return to the stairs for an equally challenging decent. Unlike the climb up, these stairs meander behind the main stairs, and are set back a little more into the rock itself. Steep, winding and spiralling, but I hasten to add with many many open views to the daylight for anyone with a more claustrophobic disposition. aka me. But, I promise you I am back on terra firma, so the rock whilst challenging, was well worth the tears and terrors. Tut tut, I missed out the tuk tuk. After wandering the streets on our arrival, we got into a tuk tuk for the most fun ride to our slightly out of town hotel. Who knew 2 chubby bunnies, one skinny bunny, 3 backpacks, 3 rucksacks, 2 hand bags, a partridge in a pear tree and a driver could fit into a tuk tuk. Well they do. And if you want to come down from the car park of Guatape rock to street level, the little tuk tuk takes on the persona of a soap boxer racer. Hang on for grim life, and laugh like you mean it. Salento. Not a place I had planned on visiting, but the smallest bunny stamped its little feet and so to Salento we went. Tuk Tuk to town, local bus back to Medellin, Terminal Norte, as every website tells you that is the correct bus station. No, it is not. You need Terminal Sur. Another local bus through the worst traffic ever, to the correct station, to find a coach to Salento. Arriving late into the evening, we fell, literally out of the taxi into our most fun hostel to date. Why fell? I swear the worlds steepest street is not in New Zealand, if it is, then our hostel street in Salento came in a close second. Why visit Salento? Think Encanto, and thank Disney, this is the town that inspired the film, and its not hard to see why. Humble apologies for using the word ` colourful` yet again, but if the cap fits! Salento is the cutest little town, but it is more the base for the spectacular Cocora Valley with its immensely tall palm trees. Not found anywhere else in the world, these palm trees are well worth the walk. To get there hop into or onto, (tell you about that in a sec) one of the very many waiting jeeps, and enjoy the most fun 30 min ride to the valley entrance. 8 people ride inside the jeeps, whilst two people, usually the male variety, but also adventurous bunnies, ride on the foot plate at the back hanging on for dear life. Eat your heart out British Health and Safety. You are dropped off at the car park and from there it is a short walk to the start of the Cocora Valley walk. Two choices, 12 km or 2km. Even the little bunny decided 2km was plenty. Straight away you are hit with a large array of super touristy `props`. You will cringe, but you will still take the I was here photo. Leave these behind, and I promise the walk to the second of the 2 view points is more than worth it. Do I want to go all that way to see a couple of extra tall palm trees? Yes, yes you do. A few lessons learned so far. Sink taps and showers come in one flavour. Cold. Buses come in two flavours, Bake or Freeze. 4 years of watching what to pack on You Tube, does not mean you will remember to pack a bra, enough underwear or to not pack 3 t shirts of the same colour. I did however remember to pack a sink plug, door stop, 3 packs of playing cards and a carbon dioxide monitor. Mr bunny wishes he had listened to Mrs bunny and packed a little more of just about everything, however Mrs Bunny is grateful for the extra space in the big bunny bag for her anticipated purchases. Little bunny found out that Colombia has the most amazing clothes for petite bunnies and is now wishing that the backpack and the budget was bigger. Your new favourite word is Banos. Pronounce this however you wish, you will always get corrected. Gracias and No gracias are used on a regular alternative basis. Your confidence of knowing you spent months learning other Spanish phrases will quickly be zapped when you abruptly realise these wonderful people talk at a 100 miles an hour, barely pausing for breath, making you whisper to your bunny partner `what did he/she just say?` Either take up charades instead before you leave, or accept that google translate is just awesome. If you really, really cannot understand, smile enthusiastically and say Si ! You will now either be going on a walking tour or volunteering for the army. Talking of the army, practise blank nonchalant non-committal facial expressions if one should happen to get on your bus armed with a bloody great gun! Bogota. Fly. The end. We caught the bus from Salento, and started off well. Our comfy little coach positively speed chugged his little way up that first mountain, we passed everything on the road, and the views as we climbed into the clouds were just breath taking. And then the fun started, strictly no overtaking, and just about every mode of transport uses that mountain pass, from bikes, taxis and buses, to humungous low loaders that just so happen to be towing a broken down bus, and in front of us. 2 hours we hugged that broken buses backside until we were finally able to pass it. More spectacular scenery, doing well, chugging along nicely now, until the roadworks started. Never again will you curse the M25. These were not roads being repaired, these were roads being rebuilt and re routed from foundation upwards. We knew the speed as we moved painfully inch by inch by reading the speedos of passing bikes. 12 kph. All the way into Bogota. 1 hour and 50 mins we travelled 9 km. Bogota city. Colombia`s biggest city. Would I come again? probably not. Not certain if too much prior research, first impressions, or the advice to not wander around particular areas especially at night skewed my initial impression, or the fact that we appeared to land when apparently the biggest rally of striking teachers in the history of Colombia was taking place in the cities biggest squares rendering them out of bounds. The entire centre of Bogota was a mass of armed police, security agents, street police with guard dogs wearing muzzles, (exclude the golden retriever with his lack of need for a muzzle on his goofy looking face) Another guard dog was also quite literally leaning on a lamp post, so maybe they don`t take the guard dog persona to heart. Is Bogota usually so well armed, I don`t know. Did we feel safe, both yes and no. Bogota has had an explosive past with a gritty political history. The rallies were peaceful, but the buildings on the public squares were still covered in black netting for their own protection against vandalism and graffiti. We went on a walking tour to learn about the city of Bogota, interesting to a point, but a little too heavy on the political instabilities for my liking. Someone described Bogota as gritty, I would describe it as your average working city. Pockets of interesting streets here and there, occasional amazing street art, but mostly your average spray paint graffitied buildings, a working city nothing more, nothing less. The best bits? The Bogota Gold Museum. That`s a must. So much gold in one place, all or most pre b.c and all of it just beautiful, intricate and fascinating. Monserrate, one of two hills that dominates the skyline of Bogota. Get to the top either by cable car, funicular railway, or for the super fit, shank`s pony, and be rewarded with the most spectacular views of the whole city. Don`t go on a Sunday, the church on the top is a much loved local place of worship. Colombia. You have been amazing. We have loved you. Your colours, your happiness, your welcoming nature, your coffee, your scenery, your art. Not so crazy about your lack of tea bags, or chocolate, but will we return? Yes. Absolutely.