Finally in New Zealand!

Five tired Janlerts arrived to Auckland, stayed at Lantana Lodge in Parnell, a 15 min walk from downtown Auckland.

Tired 1

Tired 2

Cosy place with guests from all over the world. We stayed for three nights, most of the time we spent looking for a decent campervan. It turned out that most of the 5-6 bed vans were booked. The third day we rented a car and drove to the airport were most of the car rental companies are located.

Out hunting for a campervan

After some dealing and wealing we signed up for a KEA 6 bed campervan, not the cheapest but a a lot of comfort and fancy details! Tomorrow KEA will pick us up at the lodge at 8 am, great.

Sydney

The flight from Singapore was delayed a couple of hours so we crashed into an airport hotel at 10pm local time. A couple of hours sleep before we entered the airport at 4am for the flight over the ditch to Auckland. Didn't see much of Sydney this time but we'll be back!

View from our hotel

 

Bye, bye Singapore

The following days we did some shopping (a lot of new books!), schoolwork, and planning for our adventures in New Zealand. The 31 of january the alarmclock rang early and we were off to Sydney

Chinatown

Singapore

Natten vi kom till Singapore var klockan ungefär tolv. När vi kom fram till vårt Hostel så var klockan ungefär ett på natten.

Rummet hade tre våningssängar och skåp. Det fans inget sällskaps rum vilket var dåligt.

DAG 1

Kolla vilken kö! Den var två kvarter lån, Om man bor i Singapore måste man gilla att köa.

Dag 1 var vi bara ute och gick. Vårt hostel låg i Chinatown och nu när det är nyår snart så var det väldigt mycket marknader och uppträdanden. Alla kött afarer sålde någon sorts sliced pork som vi prövade, det var gott. Men att vi prövade det varför att när vi kom upp på en stor gata från små gatorna vi hade gått på som kom vi fram till världens kö. Vi följde kön tills det kom ett sådant där kött ställe. Mamma frågade en killa vad det var dem köade för och då sa han sliced pork. Han hade ståt där sen klockan 6 på morgonen, och när vi gick förbi var klockan halv tio!

DAG 2 

Dag två åkte vi till Singapore zoo och tittade på alla djuren. Vi såg allt från vårtsvin till vita tigrar till hästar till orangutanger till mini flodhästar.

när vi kom in till zoot så var det någon liten fluffig apa som välkomnade oss i ett träd. Lite krokodiler tittade vi på också, sen tog vi zoo bilen upp till orangutang träden. Vi kringelli krokade oss runt hela zoot och tittade på shower och matade giraffer. Vi slet oss därifrån klockan 6 på kvällen.

Leopard eller Gepard?

PUMBA!

Är det en drake eller en stor ödla?

ser ni vilka tungor girafferna har!

Mamma blev besviken. Det var visst vita noshörningar hon ville se.

"Vad glor ni på?"

Leaving the Philippines heading for Singapore

After a very wet boatride across from Apo to Malatapay, the rain drenched us, we arrived Dumagete for a nights stop over before heading to Cebu City and the airport. Palwa hotel was very nice and we got a big family room with 4 beds with breakfast. Last minute shopping and free wifi made the day.
Tomorrow we have a long journey to Singapore, and finally we managed to book a hostel! Chinese new year makes it difficult to find beds for 6 nights for 5 people.

Lazy days in Apo

Apo is a very small island and electricity is only available between 6 pm and 9:30 pm. So at 6 everyone in the village puts on their TV:s and stereos. When you walk through the village a lot of people says hallo and smiles at you. There are rooms at a very cheap price available in the fishing village. Prices range from 500 - 1000 pesos for double rooms. So if you are travelling on a budget they are a good option. Apo island resort has electricity from 6 pm to 12 pm. No resort or guesthouse has running water. You have two big buckets in your bathroom, one with fresh water for showers and one with salt water for the toilet. Water is brought in tanks.

If you are not a diver or enjoys snorkelling, Apo island has very little to offer in terms of action and activities. There is a nice walk 300 steps up to the lighthouse but other wise you just relax with a good book on the beach. Not a bad choice but if you are seeking action you have to look somewhere else.

Vera and Oskar climbed the rusty ladder...Pernilla stayed on safe ground

Another popular activity is cliff climbing and jumping. This stopped when Klara almost jumped on a swimming lionfish (venomous). Look first in the water with a mask, then jump...

Vera the climber

Vera the jumper

Diving Apo island

We booked diving with Apo island resort. The divemaster Keken was very nice and located next to out cottage. 8:30 we had a briefing of the dive and went through the equipment.

  

Our first dive was the Chapel, a shallow entry that turns into a wall. Good visability and we saw a white spotted eagle ray and a turtle at the same time! Fantastic corals and we saw more turtles, one was about 1,3m. Two very satisfied divers returned to the resort. 

The white box at the back is the toilet

Afternoon dive was very different. More smaller things to see and some area was brown sand with a lot of bubbles coming out. Apo island is a volcanic island so there is a lot of gas in the grounds. Luckily it's not an active volcano.

Porcupine fish caught in the fishermans net. Unfortunately it can't deflate so it dies.

In total we did 14 dives and they were all very good. The best I (Pernilla) think was the Marine sanctuary, a nature reserve not open for fishing. We saw so many wonderful fishes and corals, and also we saw 2 sea snakes! They are very venomous so you have to be careful.