Afternoon on the water Dubrovnik

I wake up early and take a short walk and get a coffee. Finally I am able to find coffee to-go, rare in the Balkans. It’s not great coffee, but at least I am not required to sit at a cafe. I also get a cheese and spinach burek and make kitty friends as I sit on the steps to eat.

M wakes up and we decide to walk and get some snacks while we wait for our kayaking tour to start.

It’s finally time for our kayaking tour so we head out. We are both are experienced kayakers but I’ve only been ocean kayaking a little. We decide its for the best that she’s in the back of our tandem kayak since she the more experienced out of the two of us. Initially the tour is nice and easy. The guides decide to split the group into two: one for a shorter route and one for a longer route of about 8km. We decide on the longer route that takes us around the island of Lokrum. As we paddle toward the island we look back to admire the walls of the city.

We paddle around the island and reach a cave. Right outside the cave there is a ledge where we are to attempt a cliff dive. I plan on skipping the cliff dive but it seems the rest of the group is doing it so I guess I must too. The only problem is climbing up on the rock initially; between the sharp edges and the slippery parts I am a mess but with help I get up. There are two jumps to do, the high jump and the lower jump. The lower jump is high enough for me. I eventually do my jump into the very cold water and hang around on the lower rocks while I wait for everyone to finish their jumps – there is no way I am going to attempt to climb back up. The girls with wetsuits have it much better since they easily climb the rocks. I could have shimmied my way up if I had something protecting my body from the sharpness of the rocks.

The guide loads us back into our kayaks 2 by two and we head out a bit to wait and a quick look to the left gives us the vision of at least 3 naked men sunning on the rocks. Yes we were warned about this but it is no less jolting than seeing it for yourself. We giggle and make jokes about wieners and balls because we have the sense of humor of ten year old boys. Now it is time to paddle to the next cave for a little rest and swim.

Our views of the city from here are a little obscured from here due to the haze and the lowered sun. The cave is nice and cold. We do a quick swim and head back towards the starting point.

Our arms and shoulders are already pretty tired at this point but the paddle back uses all our energy reserves. We curse the kayak and waves a little bit but in time we make it to the calmer cove to exit our kayak. Despite the workout, it is a lovely tour. We will most likely be in pain tomorrow.

Our day isn’t over yet since we still plan to walk the city walls this afternoon. At close to 40 euros the cost is pricey but the money is used to maintain the walls that are pretty impressive. We have two hours to get around before they close. We make it all the way around and even stop at two of the bars up top for a drink along the way.

We stop for dinner to end the evening. My stomach gets upset from dinner or the physical effort or the alcohol so that night and the next day are a little rough for me.

We take the ferry to Lokrum island mid-day the next day. The island is nice and calm and big enough to escape the crowds. We see the place on the island where game of thrones is filmed and the associated throne. We also see some peacocks that are residents on the island. And we take a hike uphill to get a nice view of the city.

We try Buza bar once again. It is open this time but the Buza bar we find is the one that does not have full view of the sunset. It is nice regardless.

Our final morning in Dubrovnik we do some store browsing, visit an old pharmacy, eat ice cream, and seek out a naughty looking statue. We are catching a ferry to Hvar this afternoon but we do a visit to Cave Bar More and Love Bar. Both are lovely bars to stop at for a drink but I suggested not ordering food at the Cave Bar since it is disappointing. Come to think about it, most of the food in Dubrovnik has been disappointing. Hopefully things will get better in other parts of Croatia.

One of the few non disappointing meals I had Taj Mahal (Eastern European)

Kaikoura, there she (doesn’t) blow

We take the train to Kaikoura today. We arrive at the station in Kaikoura and there is no uber and no regular taxis. There is only one guy with a passenger van who will give rides from the train station. He has a business card but doesn’t seem to be always available for rides. I arrange a ride in the morning to the dock for my whale watching boat (at the time I didn’t realize it is in walking distance from my hotel). Anyway, it is hard to get around here without a car unless you don’t mind walking a while.

The ride to Kaikoura is beautiful with an open air observation car at the back of the train (think cattle car).

The observation train while going through a tunnel

Hotel in Kaikoura – Lobster Inn Motor Lodge

My aunt has a sunset kayak tour scheduled for the evening. We originally thought I would be joining her but I have done some damage to my shoulders while traveling. I am pretty sure ocean kayaking is not in the cards for me at this time. Unfortunately due to rough seas her tour gets cancelled for the evening. She hopes to do a paddle tomorrow sometime during the day instead.

We arrive early enough for lunch. We visit the cafe across the street where I get to try green-lipped mussels. They are large and quite tasty.

Green-lip mussels at Chiwis Cafe and Takeaway

I go to bed early because I have an early morning boat ticket for whale watching tomorrow. Kaikoura is supposed to be a magnificent place to see whales and other sea animals.

There is a 6:45 arrival time for my tour, the first tour of the day. My driver drops me off on time at the office. Once I arrive I come to find out that both my cruise and the cruise scheduled immediately after is cancelled due to rough seas. There are people in line already to reschedule for a later time but most of the other times this morning are already booked. The only time I can reschedule is for the afternoon but doing so would make me miss our train ride that we have booked back to Christchurch. I am disappointed. I usually schedul multiple days in a location in case something like this happens but in this case I did not.

My aunt goes on her kayaking tour this morning as scheduled. I plan to meet up with her later in town. I decide to walk back to the motel from the whale office instead of trying to find the one taxi guy in town. It is a nice walk along the beach.

I spend a couple hours making some phone calls that are much needed to the USA. I have a short window to take care of business by phone since our days are their nights and vice-versa.

After I take care of things I walk down to town. It is a cute little town. I see signs for crayfish everywhere but I am too cheap to order it so instead I end up getting a huge fried flounder and chips at Strawberry Tree Kaikoura. While the fish below is quite tasty, I regret passing up the crayfish because later when I get serious about trying it before I leave New Zealand I end up paying even more for it and end up disappointed. It is probably much fresher in Kaikoura.

My aunt finally meets up with me and helps me finish the fish. She has a photo of the bones and asked if I wanted to post it but it isn’t pretty so I’ll forgo the photo.

We have a little more time to kill before we pick up our luggage so we visit the local museum Kaikōura Museum. It gives a little taste of the history of the area. There is a good exhibit that talks about the major earthquake that occurred in 2016. A great deal of damage had been done to the coast, roads and tunnels. It is said to have pushed the south island 5km closer to the north island.

We head back to get our luggage and then to the train. We are heading back to Christchurch to overnight before our day trip to Arthur’s Pass tomorrow.

Kaikoura is beautiful and I am very sad I didn’t get to see whales during my visit. If I ever make it back to New Zealand it is definitely on my list again – next time for more days.

Video of train ride to Kaikoura

Junk boat Day 1

I am heading on Junk boat cruise. A junk boat is a Chinese style of sailing boat typical to Vietnam. They are very popular these days for leisure cruises on Ha Long Bay. The cruise company I chose (Indochina Junk) sails on the Bai Tu Long Bay. The Bai Tu is adjacent to Ha Long. It looks similar but is only open to a couple tour companies whereas the Ha Long tends to get packed on a daily basis with many tour boats.

The day before my cruise I take it easy; I walk around Hanoi and make sure I am all ready for my cruise.

I order some chicken soup while I am out. (Sorry I did not note where I got this lovely soup but I believe it is west of the lake).

Start of Cruise

A van picks me up early from my Hanoi hotel. There is wifi in the van but I have a hard time getting it to work. We will be without internet for a couple days so I would have liked to do some last minute catching up but I end up “checking out” early I guess.

On the way to the boat terminal we stop at a tourist trap plus snacks and booze place. I buy some snacks and a bottle of wine for the boat (fortunately I am still holding onto that wine bottle opener I bought many months ago!).

I check into terminal and we get assigned in small groups and wait more. There are multiple cruises leaving therefore many small groups are waiting around. The terminal has a couple places to eat and small convenience store. I stock up on some things like wet wipes.

Finally our group is called and we walk out to our tinder boats.

We enter from the back bottom of the boat. We are instructed to meet in the indoor dining room to get our room assignments. My room happens to be on the bottom floor toward the back of the boat. I can feel the movement once the boat starts the engine but it is not enough to get me sea sick (sometimes I get a tiny bit nauseous when I look out the window when the boat is moving).

Time to eat lunch. We eat lunch and dinner on the outside deck and breakfast inside in the mornings.

I haven’t been in Vietnam very long but on this cruise is where I begin my dislike of squid and prawns. I normally like both squid and prawns but on the ship we eat it for almost every meal. I get tired of both quickly.

After the meal I walk around the top to soak in the nice view before I return to my room to prepare for our kayak excursion.

This afternoon is one of two kayaking adventures the boat offers. I like to kayak but don’t tend to go out too much. The kayaking trip they offer seems like a great opportunity to get out on the bay. At the loading area it is almost all tandem kayaks with only a couple singles. Because I am one of the few people alone on the cruise (and the only single person participating in kayaking) they give me a single person kayak. It is a sit-in which already puts me at a disadvantage (slow for me) but also since I am in the shorter kayak, I struggle to keep up the speed I need to keep pace with the group. The times I am able to just paddle at my pace and view the scenery I enjoy but unfortunately I feel pressured to constantly play catch up with the group instead of enjoying the moment. Plus my shoulders already hate me from the stress of my backpack and day pack and traveling. Now my shoulders are about to totally go on strike. Me not being able to enjoy the moment is a shame because it really is beautiful out there. I really wish the experience was set up so they have a kayaking zone where everyone can explore at their own pace and then they can round us all up when it is time to go back.

Also I did not even notice until a friend later commented that I am missing the hatch cover. (LOL) I could have sunk! At least I had a life vest.

After a tiring kayak adventure I go back to my room to clean up for dinner. Wandering before dinner, I eye the pool but never get around to using it. It is just a small little pool anyway.

Dinner time.

Of course more prawns and squid. I enjoy the mackerel and the dessert tonight.

One of the staff members has a flute performance for us. The two main boat activity guys seem to be jacks of all trades.

I believe there is an evening squid fishing adventure but I pass for the night in favor of early retirement. This isn’t exactly a party boat either, evidenced from the plethora of children that are aboard (many of the them unhappy but more about that tomorrow).