MonkeyMania!

Dear all,

Our time in New Zealand has come to an end, and we bid farewell to our feathered friends down under.

We finally managed to get a snap of the endangered hihi (only 1000 left), a nectar-eating bird which Janine has been mostly taking care of for the last three months...

...and a dinosaur-like weka stalking our shoelaces.

So with one giant leap (and about 32 hours of travelling), we land in the hot and humid Malaysian Borneo.

Stilt-villages on the banks of rivers and colourful streets aplenty in Kuching...

...and a beautiful painted wooden naga (dragon) in the impressive Sarawak Museum.

We thought we should also share with you the view from our dinner table last Sunday.

We took an exhausting day-trip to the Bako National Park, where mangroves fringe the peninsula.

A steep climb through the rainforest brought back distant memories for one team member.

And at the highest point in the park we dragged ourselves along in the sweltering kerangas (a unique ecosystem on limestone soil)...

..but our efforts were rewarded with a stunning beach to ourselves...

...alongside a rocky forested inlet.

As suggested by the name of this update, Borneo has proved to be rather monkeytastic.

The mischievous macaques around the park tried to steal Rich's hat when he wasn't looking.

But some primates where a little more shy, such as this silver leaf monkey (langur) skulking away through the mangrove pneumatophores...


...and the rare proboscis monkeys, which watched us from the tops of the trees.

Although we were thankful that some of the animals kept their distance, like this pit-viper.

Further south in the region we had an excellent orang-u-tan viewing, with the apes swinging through the trees to catch fruit...

...pausing only to throw the occasional coconut at passers-by.

That's it for our first update back on the road, but we hope to thrill you with more photos soon from Brunei and Peninsular Malaysia.

Love,
Team Tiger.

xx

Volcano-based fun

Hiiiiii,

It's been a quiet month here in Wellington, mostly spent working hard and trying to save up some cash. Still, we did manage to get away for one weekend, and we have a few photos to share with you. Oddly none of them involving tigers...

Here's the view from our tiny flat, of a moonrise over Mount Victoria.

And this seabird was spotted posing on a sculpture by the city waterfront...

We spent a weekend in the Tongariro National Park in the middle of the North Island, near to the spectacular Mount Ruapehu (good for skiing apparently).

And on the Saturday we took a 17 km hike over the top of the active volcano Tongairiro. Climbing to nearly 2000 metres we had great views of nearby Ngauruhoe, which starred as Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies...

The Tongariro walk is recognised as the best one-day walk in New Zealand, and is sprinkled liberally with reminders of its volcanic nature such as these red cliffs...

...and emerald pools with nearby steaming vents.

However, there were some peaceful and non-scary parts of the walk...

...with the descent gifting us views which stretched for miles and miles...

...and taking us past a very picturesque waterfall in dense bush.

Back in Wellington, Griff has been volunteering her time at the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary. Her duties include monitoring the feeding stations for endangered birds such as this Kaka:


Although thankfully she doesn't have to get too close to these huge Cave Weta, which properly freaked out Rich in an abandoned gold mine at the sanctuary.

And, job done and bucket in hand, she starts the long walk back to the bus stop.

Also, here's a really big carrot.

That's all for now, but we'll post more in the coming weeks!

Love
Rich, Neen, Tigs, M. Lapin & Justin
xx

New Zealand Roadtrip Maps

Dear loyal readers,

With the roadtrip completed it's high time we showed you where we've been for the last four months, and exactly how we managed to rack up 8,500kms...

We finally got around to making our routemaps public, so now you can make sense of the pictures and placenames we've been bombarding you with.

North Island route: [click to enlarge]

South Island route: [click to enlarge]

Love,
Team Tiger
xx

Back in the real world...

Hello friends,

It's been a while (yet again) since we filled you in on our goings-on. Our NZ road trip is over and we've settled into a flat in Wellington and found jobs. End of fun weblog, you say? Not so! We've still got plenty of stuff to show you...

We continue our story somewhere in the South Island, by a lake named Tekapo.

A small church beside electric blue waters, with the stunning backdrop of the Southern Alps.

Quite an impressive view from the altar too.

Further up the east coast, we stopped in Kaikoura where the South Pacific teems with dolphins and whales (of which we saw none).

Still, rather pretty there. And we had a mean fish sandwich.

Leaping across the Cook Straight to the North Island, we saw the mighty volcano Taranaki.

Which was en route to Auckland to sell Billy the Van (sob). By which time Rich's beard and hair were this big:

Tigs passed on the baton of van ownership to a fine young insectivore called Hedgey...

...and Hedgey's chauffeurs Ellie and Jon.

Tigger struck up a friendship with a blue penguin (imaginatively) named Bluey.

He was also caught napping with a young holiday-maker in Wellington, baby Beth...

...although Beth's buddy Donkey got on considerably better with M. Lapin (similar ears, perhaps).

Onto the wildlife update -

This month we have mostly been charmed with (then kept awake by) the strange song of the Bellbird in the Peel Forest.

In Akaroa, near Christchurch, we took an afternoon's swim with dozens of Hector's Dolphins (the world's smallest and rarest).

And we finally caught up with the nation's favourite, a Spotted Kiwi.

Last but not least, and fulfilling the plant section of the flora and fauna section, we would like to introduce our new team member and flatmate Justin.

That's all for the moment but keep your eyes peeled for exciting pictures of our flat, and maybe even our new offices (ooooh!).

Love
Rich, Neen, Tigs, M. Lapin & Justin
xx