Author Archives: markandness

29-30 December 2025

Up early (again) on Monday morning for a day crammed with activities.

First up- a walk up and back to a viewpoint of the volcano. Followed by a ‘hanging bridge’ ‘adventure’ through the rainforest / treetops ( 16 bridges, 6 of them long suspension bridges like you get on the great walks in NZ), then volcanic hot springs. The final activity being tortilla making and a home cooked meal with a local family.

The hike to the volcano viewing point was good. Including a steepish up and down bit through the 1968 lava flow field. What was interesting was how quickly the forest is taking back what was bare tracts of black lava. It was also cool to see a Coati ( like a Costa Rican rainforest raccoon) loitering in the carpark.

Then it was onto the ‘hanging bridges’ with six thousand of our new Costa Rican friends- the first place was extremely popular. There are some nice gardens on the approach paths

As we neared the first big suspension bridge we saw a troop of Spider Monkeys doing their thing among the tree tops. They were simultaneously fascinating and impossible to photograph through the vegetation. We did see and manage to photograph a variety of reptiles, including a yellow eyelash pit viper – which is apparently highly venomous.

After a late lunch it was off to the volcanic hot springs. A feature of the hot springs was a dude who brought beers and margaritas while you sat in the various hot pools. This feature was well exercised by the group.

After the hot springs it was back to the hotel and a quick split before heading out into the hills for a home dinner ( after tortilla making) in a local’s home. Dona Mara was warm, welcoming, funny and a great cook.

Tuesday came around and was one of those days described in the tour guides as ‘free time’. So …no early start! 😊

We used our free time to 1. Sleep in ( we are on holiday after all) 2. Catch up on laundry 3. Walk around town and 4. Have a fantastic massage at a local spa. A nice slow day. Tomorrow: up the dividing range to Monte Verde ⛰️

29-30 December 2025

Up early (again) on Monday morning for a day crammed with activities.

First up- a walk up and back to a viewpoint of the volcano. Followed by a ‘hanging bridge’ ‘adventure’ through the rainforest / treetops ( 16 bridges, 6 of them long suspension bridges like you get on the great walks in NZ), then volcanic hot springs. The final activity being tortilla making and a home cooked meal with a local family.

The hike to the volcano viewing point was good. Including a steepish up and down bit through the 1968 lava flow field. What was interesting was how quickly the forest is taking back what was bare tracts of black lava. It was also cool to see a Coati ( like a Costa Rican rainforest raccoon) loitering in the carpark.

Then it was onto the ‘hanging bridges’ with six thousand of our new Costa Rican friends- the first place was extremely popular. There are some nice gardens on the approach paths

As we neared the first big suspension bridge we saw a troop of Spider Monkeys doing their thing among the tree tops. They were simultaneously fascinating and impossible to photograph through the vegetation. We did see and manage to photograph a variety of reptiles, including a yellow eyelash pit viper – which is apparently highly venomous.

After a late lunch it was off to the volcanic hot springs. A feature of the hot springs was a dude who brought beers and margaritas while you sat in the various hot pools. This feature was well exercised by the group.

After the hot springs it was back to the hotel and a quick split before heading out into the hills for a home dinner ( after tortilla making) in a local’s home. Dona Mara was warm, welcoming, funny and a great cook.

Tuesday came around and was one of those days described in the tour guides as ‘free time’. So …no early start! 😊

We used our free time to 1. Sleep in ( we are on holiday after all) 2. Catch up on laundry 3. Walk around town and 4. Have a fantastic massage at a local spa. A nice slow day. Tomorrow: up the dividing range to Monte Verde ⛰️

28 Diciembre 2025

Up early (again) and on the boat straight after breakfast for the transfer back through the ‘canals’ and upriver out of the Tortuguero National Park. The jungle gives the journey a real Conradian ‘Heart of Darkness’ vibe.

It was then onto a minivan for around three hours across one or two of the Caribbean lowland provinces- endless fields of pineapple, banana and papaya with the odd heart of palm plantation to export transfats to the US. Then into some foothills at around 1,000 metres AMSL for lunch at, and a tour of, a collective coffee farm and processing place.

Lunch was classic tico food – pico de gallo, plantains etc – and tasty . It was then into the coffee – tasting and tour. Very interesting to see how our daily coffee gets to us – and the Q&A was incentivised with shots of coffee liqueur made on site from the ‘second skin’ of the coffee beans. We got very good at answering questions! 😋

Some stats we learned – of the 3 – 4 grades of arabica beans produced in Costa Rica , different buyers take different grades. Grade 1 is the best, Grade 4 is the crap Army puts in ration packs.

Illy and Lavazza only take 1st Grade. Starbucks takes 3rd Grade – which explains a lot. Maxwell house instant also. Surprisingly, McCafe at Maccas takes mainly 1st Grade with some 2nd.

Another interesting thing. The coffee beans are handpicked. For some really cruddy wages. A 12 kg Bushel of picked beans , which will ultimately produce approximately 6 kg of roasted beans, earns the picker $US 2. The really good pickers might pick 10-12 bushels a day. The work is hot , back breaking and very poorly paid – so much so that Ticos ( Costa Ricans) won’t do it and the harvest is done by seasonal workers from Nicaragua ( the next country north). So when you hear in Australia from your local coffee shop that prices are rising because of the price of beans where they grow – that’s horseshit. They are rising because of something that happens somewhere after the beans have been harvested…

After the tour … and sufficient shots of coffee liqueur … we proceeded (very caffeinated) with the trip to La Fortuna, arriving around 5pm.

La Fortuna is a popular destination for locals and international tourists alike. It lies adjacent to the (active) Arenal Volcano. The town has a ‘Queenstown NZ in Latin America’ type vibe – with similar crowds, prices and a multitude of adventure activities on offer.

The old proverb is that a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. In our household the journey of many thousands of miles always begins with Ness setting off ‘moth bombs’ as we go out the door. The Global War on terror may have lasted a few decades , Ness’ family’s war on moths attacking woollens has already outlasted the 30 year war of the Hapsburgs.

Qantas got the trip off to a stressful start by repeatedly delaying the flight from Canberra to Sydney- we departed nearly two hours later than scheduled – a thing that is becoming all too common on that route. We will drive next time – elapsed time would have been significantly less. Net result was boarding was underway as soon as we cleared immigration departure in Sydney, with concomitant worry as to whether our bags had made the transfer ( they did ).

A short 3.5 hours later we were in Nadi 🇫🇯 for a 2 hour transit prior to the 12 hour flight to Dallas Fort Worth. Fiji Airways was quite good – some of the other airlines might take a look at their service compared to Fiji ( we are looking at you Qantas, Virgin and Singapore).

Upon an on time arrival in Texas 🇺🇸it was a very smooth run ( quick and pleasant) through immigration at DFW. Perhaps surprisingly ‘alien’ Mark had a slightly quicker run through than citizen Ness, although line choice seems to have been a factor. Followed by a 40 minute wait for bags…

Shuttle bus to the hotel and then trying to stay awake to help acclimatise to the time zone changes. Aided by a nice meal at the local steakhouse supported by a killer margarita.

Today ( Xmas eve) is about catching sun to help reset the body clock prior to tomorrow morning’s flight to San Jose, Costa Rica 🇨🇷. Plan today is a good walk, then to find and sample an authentic Texas BBQ joint for dinner…. maybe supported by another margarita 🍹.

Well it’s been a while … but next week a new adventure kicks off .

On Tuesday the 23rd December we head off to Central America, Costa Rica and Mexico specifically. I’ve never been and Ness, although well travelled in South America, was last in Mexico as a young child.

We are looking forward to culture, history and nature – we are excited to see something new. And try out our Spanish- Ness had studied it for a while as an undergraduate and the practiced it backpacking around South America . And I’ve just tried to stay an awake in a basic Spanish course for two hours a week after work for the last 9 weeks… we have got this … or not 🙃

It has been two years since we have been back to New Zealand- two years too long we think . The plan this trip is to explore the bits of Te Waipounamu ( the South Island) that we are less familiar with. No multi-day tramps planned this time as work over the last few months has precluded any decent preparation walks. Our aim is to travel down the West Coast, then loop cut back in through an old friend (Central Otago) to Christchurch. Mark briefly transited the West Coast 17 years ago, the area is new to Nessie, so we are looking forward to some new sights and experiences.

We left Canberra midday on Christmas Day, enroute to Christchurch via Sydney. A lengthy layover in Sydney , extended by a Qantas delay for some reason or another, meant Christmas Day 🎄 spent in the QF lounge at Sydney. A less than ideal way to spend the day. We landed in Christchurch at 0100 local time and didn’t clear quarantine and customs until 0200.🥱. Thankfully it was only a short 200m walk to our Airport Hotel and we were in bed by 0300ish.

Thursday 26th December ( Boxing Day ) . We were up at 0500 for a quick WOD and 5 km run … not true! We struggled awake around 9 and managed to get out and pick up our hire car by Elevenish … not the most productive morning on holidays ever after the late finish to Christmas Day travel.

The day picked up though as we headed North out of Christchurch then West towards Lewis Pass as the portal to the West Coast. The day was overcast and wet , but it cleared markedly once through the Pass and its stunning scenery ( sorry, forgot to take photos 🤦‍♂️). We also passed through some lovely Beech Forests and a lot of Manuka growing along the river ways and lower foot hills.

We arrived in Reefton around 1630 and to a nice AirBnB called the Vicarage for our overnight stay. By now the weather was dry and a cracking 25 degrees C.

Reefton is a neat town in the hills that owes its start to the discovery of gold in the near region in the mid-nineteenth Century. It sits astride the Inangahua River, a pleasant , wide and shallow stream at this point.

Like many such towns it had suffered a bit of ‘boom and bust’. 19th Century gold mining was replaced by 20th Century coal mining. Today the town presents as a neat little rural centre with a nice green hilly backdrop.

We went for a walk around town, downed a pint of Speights without fighting anyone, and had dinner at a really good wood fired pizza place . Evening entertainment consisted of sitting on the porch listening to the river babble over the rocks. And swatting sandflies. Definitely back in NZ!

After a reasonable night at a hotel near OR Tambo it was back to the airport Thursday morning for the short-ish flight (55 minutes) to Hoedspruit in South Africa’s Limpopo Province. Gary from Imagine Africa Luxury Tented Camp picked us up at the Airport and we set off for the 45 minute drive to the Balule Private Game Reserve.

Balule is bounded on the north by the Olifants River, with the Kruger National Park ( there is no fence between the two) forming the eastern boundary. The northern part of the Drakensberg Mountains form a spectacular backdrop just a few kilometres to the west.

The Imagine Africa Luxury Camp was, as accurately (and somewhat immodestly) described in the title, luxurious. But simply so. It was quite probably the nicest place we stayed during the entire trip. The routine was simple – up at 0530 for a game drive, back for breakfast around 0900. The day at leisure reading, sleeping or swimming ( the pool was , again, very cold). At 1600 it’s time for another game drive ( with sundowners on a hill somewhere), returning around 1900 ish. After a shower it’s dinner time, then rinse and repeat. A simple but good way to spend the days out in the African bush.

Our tent had a direct view from our bed of the waterhole immediately in front of the lodge. We saw elephants, kudu, hyena, wild dogs and stacks of various types of birds. The ‘tent’ itself had a covered deck, king sized bed, aircon, fan , en-suite , dressing room, desk, inside shower, and an outside shower and bath. Not too shabby!

The game viewing was good. Highlights included a small pack of African Wild Dogs, Black Rhinos ( one crotchety and charging, one mega-chilled), a massive White Rhino, a 3 week old Giraffe foal, a Leopard on an Impala kill, another smaller Leopard just trying to mind her own business , a small pack of Hyenas on a kill ( stolen from Wild Dogs) and … a chameleon trying to blend in on a high tension power line! Plus the ‘usual’ Impala, Waterbuck, Kudu, Bush Buck, Grey Duiker, Zebra, Giraffe and Elephants, along with plentifuli bird life.

On Monday morning we were up early (again) for our final game drive of this trip. Highlights were the young female leopard stalking Impala and a pride of lions with six cubs.

After breakfast we transferred back to Hoedspruit Airport for the flight back to Johannesburg OR Tambo airport.

An early start for breakfast on Monday morning in order to get to the border early was frustrated by a miscommunication with the lodge staff. The net result was a later arrival at the Botswana/ Zimbabwe Border. Clearing Botswana was smooth, the border crossing at the Zimbabwe gate was a total rock show. Three leisurely hours in a hot queue later we were clear and on our way to Victoria Falls (another hour by road). After a quick lunch we went into the Victoria Falls National Park to check out the falls for a few hours. This was Mark’s third visit to the falls, but they remain just as fascinating as the first time in 1999.

After the falls we headed back to our hotel and the our last dinner with our Nomad Tour Group. They were a good bunch of people – as it turned out four of the 5 amigos who started in Cape Town three weeks earlier were staying on in Victoria Falls. We were joined on Tuesday by Kevin’s wife, Sandy, who had flown up from Cape Town to join Kevin for a holiday in Zimbabwe.

On Tuesday we went white water rafting down the Zambezi for the day. Warren and Kevin did it too, so we had a ‘Nomad Crew’ boat with our rafting guide Kazi. The walk-in and walk out of the gorge were tricky, but the rafting was awesome. Even better , although probably nothing to do with our efforts and everything to do with Kazi, the Nomad Crew actually did white water rafting rather than white water swimming 😀. The smug levels were high after not flipping the raft.

After all the excitement it was time for a quick shower and off to a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River above the Falls.

We saw crocodiles, hippos, buffalo, and African Fish eagle. And drunken Russians – four of them drank two bottles of tequila in less than an hour 🙄. It was quite an effort for them to get down the gang way at the end of the cruise!

The sunset cruise was followed by dinner back in ‘town’ at a nice place. Wednesday saw a welcome sleep in, fond farewells to the remaining friends and departure from Zimbabwe by air . We arrived in Johannesburg for an overnight stay around 4pm . And got to say goodbye to Warren again, his flight was late in and we saw him collecting bags at OR Tambo, in transit back to Cape Town.

Friday morning saw us up at 0500 for an early breakfast before heading out on a game drive in the Khwai conservation area. We were pretty much wearing every warm piece of clothing we had as the morning was very cold and the vehicle movement added considerable wind chill.

The temperature was quickly forgotten as we had sone high quality game spotting. Two separate, great leopard spottings, a couple of lions seeking peace , quiet and privacy for a breeding session (they were sorely disappointed) and numerous elephants and birds.

The first leopard was a female who had just killed an impala doe. She had dragged it into a bush, ate a bit, cleaned herself up and then layout for a stretch and snooze.

We think the second leopard was a male. We found him about an hour later, after seeing more elephants.

He hung out behind a termite mound for a bit, then stalked and killed a Guinea fowl for a snack as we watched. We didn’t get the shot, but he leapt around 1.5 metres into the air and plucked the bird in mid-flight – a spectacular jump. We left him spitting out mouthfuls of feathers.

After a brief sojourn back at our camp for lunch we went down one of the main branches of the delta channels in a traditional canoe known as a Mokoro. The difference from the old days is that they are now made from fibreglass, they previous practice of using 200 year old plus trees ultimately proving unsustainable in the delta.

A massive highlight of being in the Mokoros was the ability to get very close ( almost uncomfortably close) to game. On this afternoon we literally ended up on a breeding herd of over 30 elephants taking on their afternoon drinking water.

After the mokoro adventure our guide found us a waterhole with hippos and crocs. We watched the sunset over the waterhole with G&Ts or Talisker. A great end to an another beautiful day out bush. Good leopard sittings are quite rare- two like we had in one were exceptional and we were more than happy with the great game viewing we had. Back to the camp for dinner and fire pit story time before another snug night under the quilt in our tent.

We were up very early on Saturday morning the 15th July. There are two ways to drive to Kasane from the Khwai conservation area. Back to Maun and a nearly 650km journey from their on the highway, or directly through the Khwai, Savute, Linyati and Chobe parks / conservation areas on very crappy roads. We did the latter, a distance of just over 200km that took us 11 1/2 four wheel driving ours – with ever changing scenery and game thrown in. We even got to refresh our tyre changing skills about halfway through – certainly easier with a few people helping!

We arrived in Kasane ( on the Chobe River, near the intersection of Botswana with Namibia ( the Caprivi Strip), Zambia and Zimbabwe at 1730. We were all a bit shattered after 11 1/2 hours exposure to the elements and corrugations in an open game vehicle. It wasn’t long after dinner before everyone did the AJ fade away and hit the rack.

On Saturday morning the 16th most of the group opted for a sleep in after a week of 5am starts our earlier. Our two Americans, Mel and Matt braved an early morning game drive in the Chobe Park and were rewarded with sone sightings they had been chasing.

In the afternoon we took a sunset cruise on the Chobe River, which at this point marks the border between Botswana and Namibia. We actually had to provide the tour boat operator with our passport details in case we ended up at in Namibia again at some point .

The river cruise was great. Apart from the sunset, highlights were the bird life, water buck, stacks of hippos and elephants swimming the river to get to an island in the middle for sweeter pastures,.

After the cruise it was back for dinner on our last night in Botswana- and the novelty of watching the Wimbledon men’s final at an early hour.

Wednesday morning the 12th was a cold morning in Windhoek. The day was spent in transit to Botswana- it was a long day with the strong easterly still blowing , the head wind making the truck’s progress even slower.

A highlight of an otherwise‘slow’ day was entering the Kalahari Desert. While much larger than the Namib Desert, it has a lot more vegetation. The landscape is reminiscent of parts of the Northern Territory- although very, very flat.

After an uneventful border crossing it was a couple more hours until we arrived at our lodge just outside the town of Ghanzi. We also stopped briefly to get Pula from an ATM in town. All in all, a long day.

Thursday AM and another early start. Our destination was Maun ( the ‘Safari Capital’) of Botswana. After a great coffee and cake at the ‘Dusty Donkey’ cafe in Maun ( very good coffee!) we headed to the airport for a scenic flight over the Okavango Delta ( Less Nessie, who has an aversion to low, bumpy flights and the nausea they induce).

The Okavango Delta covers a large area off central west Botswana. It is fed by the Okavango River, which rises to the north in the highlands of Angola. The river delta comprises five major branches and countless minor streams and watercourses. The five major branches contain water permanently, the other areas wax and wane according to seasonal variations and inputs.

An interesting fact about the Okavango Delta is it is the only river delta in the world that doesn’t end in the sea. It is essentially sucked up and disappears into the sands of the Kalahari Desert.

After the flight we hopped into an open Toyota Landcruiser Safari vehicle which was to be our mode of transport for the next three days. Five chilly and bouncy hours ( and a very good sighting of a pack of Spotted Hyena later) we were at our lodging for the next two nights. We stayed at the ‘Pride of Africa’ tented camp, situated on a water course on the border between the Moremi and Khwai conservation areas. After a hearty (and warming) dinner, and a few red wines around the fire we were quite tired. We went to sleep to the sounds of lions doing their thing in the marsh at the edge of camp.

We saw a lot of game from the air – it is surprising how much you still see at 450 feet AGL and around 140 knots IAS. A phenomena Mark hadn’t seen before the flight was pods of Hippopotamus lying around sun bathing during the day – they are normally immersed in a body of water during the day. There was were also countless groups of elephants and the ‘usual’ zebra, giraffe and different sorts of antelopes. We didn’t see any predators- their camouflage, and our speed, precluded spotting them.