The Luge

The Luge is a sort of gravity-assisted karting experience. First you need to get up to the viewing area on the Gondola, a small 4-person cable-car. Apart from balconies with stunning views (which would have been even better if there had been less cloud) down below there is a souvenir shop, a restaurant and a bungee jump. You can also take your mountain bike up and go down various circuits.

After the Gondola you continue up a bit further on a ski chair to the Luge start point. The carts are simple plastic affairs with a handlebar. Fully down it acts as a handbrake. If you lift it up off you go. If you pull it further it acts as a normal brake. You can double up with small kids, but then you have to go on the "scenic" road, not the fast one. We got a quick lesson and down we went.

I am not a great fan of karting, but this was so much fun it's a shame we only bought the 8-ride family pack. I could have spent all day going up and down. The kids thought it was absolutely great as well, and at the end of the day Lucas asked if we were going again tomorrow. I learnt later there is another Luge on the North island, so that will be a cool surprise for him.

In preparation for the campervan I bought a pay--as-you-go data SIM card for the  tablet. We'll try to use as much WiFi as possible, but as we don't really go to restaurants and cafes that often it may be once in a blue moon. We've heard there is a supermarket that offers free WiFi. Apparently the parking lot is full of campervans, the occupants tapping away on their fondleslabs.

Wooing Tree Chardonnay 2012

Pineapple, citrus, apple, peach. Surprisingly sweet and fruity, but with good acidity, smooth, milky, good finish, subtle touch of oak from barrel fermentation. 93/100. 26 NZD (duty free).

Good first white for New Zealand. Bought a couple of bottles at the duty free blindly and we did pretty well on this one. We have subscribed to Michael Cooper's website (he seems to be the number one wine critic for New Zealand) but didn't have any WiFi at the airport. After looking it up later I was glad to see the tasting notes are similar (though where I say milk he says butter, which in hindsight is probably nearer the mark).

Blind date

The clocks went an hour back last night, so we have the usual time difference with Europe again.

Just as well, as we had a 10:30 blind date with another family from the Families on the Move Facebook group. With our record of early rising there is no way we could have made it in time without the clock change. As it turned out we were only 10 minutes late. We were hooking up to have a picnic and hang around around the gardens next to town.

Lucas hit it off immediately with the two boys, but Aisha felt a bit left out. They were a bit older, and the three of them were doing too many "boy things" for her liking. But we all had a great time, even her, and were sad when they hit the road after lunch (it was their last day here).

The gardens are pretty amazing, a combination of tree area, gardens, bowling, and a course of frisbee golf. They come up with all sorts of outdoorsy activities down under. It involves throwing a frisbee various times down a "fairway" to finally trap it in a set of chains which counts as the "hole". Normal golf must seem too tame - apparently they also play a version with a rugby-shaped ball (dimples and all) instead of the normal round one. Another activity we've seen here is the shark, a sort of crazy enclosed cross between a jetski and a small speedboat - the aim of the driver is to get the passenger to cack his pants or bring up his lunch by jumping in and out of the water and turning 180 degrees at breakneck speed.

Spent the afternoon looking for scooters or bicycles to buy the kids but no luck - couldn't find what we were looking for (something cheap, usable and transportable). We also looked into some of the activities. We'd love to do some family-friendly white water rafting but it will set us back 500 NZD so we are thinking about it. We have to combine cool activities with staying in budget. We don't want to miss out on anything (saving a few bucks after all we are spending on the trip doesn't make sense) especially stuff we never might get to do again, but can't go overboard.

...y frustrados en Nha Trang

Nuestra segunda parada playera nos llevo a nuestra segunda pequena decepcion. Nha Trang, otra de las playas recomendadas a lo largo de la costa de Vietnam, tampoco cubrio nuestras expectativas. No esperabamos una playa caribena, conscientes de nuestra ubicacion geografica, pero si algo especial que hiciera que fuera parada casi obligatoria.

Nha Trang es una gran ciudad, con una larguisima playa y un buen paseo maritimo acompanandola. El primer dia fuimos semi directos a la playa de enfrente del hotel, y nos encontramos con unas olas de tamano considerable, otra vez. A los dos pasos ya no haciamos pie, con lo cual banarse con los ninos era una aventura y solo probo Lucas.

Para el resto de dias por suerte encontramos una pequena playa en las afueras de la ciudad cerca de las rocas de Hon Chong. Era una bahia por lo que las olas no eran tan grandes y cubria poco asi que los ninos se podian banar solos. Las olas nos dieron unos buenos revolcones pero lo pasamos genial. Por la tarde se llenaba con la gente de la zona y el ambiente no podia ser mejor.

Aparte de esto poco mas hicimos en Nha Trang. Intentamos ir a un parque de agua pero todo lo que quedaba era una piscina a orillas del mar. Los ninos no se lo tomaron muy mal y nos dimos unos banos de agua dulce.

Frustrados en Mui Ne

Pensabamos que Vietnam iba a ser el broche playero del viaje en el Sudeste Asiatico, pero desgraciadamente no fue asi.

Nuestro plan era quedarnos 5 noches en Mui Ne, uno de los destinos costeros mas recomendados en las guias de viaje. Nos apetecia mucho una zona tranquila de playa donde descansar y cambiar de aires.

Esperabamos un pequeno pueblo de pescadores y unos hoteles a lo largo de la carretera para alojarnos. Hasta aqui bien, salvo que entre el pueblo y los hoteles habia 15 kilometros, con lo que no podias disfrutar de ambas cosas a la vez, y alrededor de los hoteles no habia mucho ambiente lugareno.

El segundo gran detalle fue el viento! Resulta que Mui Ne es uno de los paraisos del kitesurfing lo cual suelen ser sinonimo de no apto para el bano ni para tirarse en la arena. De todo esto no nos dimos cuenta hasta despues de haber pagado las 5 noches de hotel por adelantado.

Al menos teniamos piscina en el hotel y unas buenas vistas, asi que decidimos disfrutar de todo aquello, dejar las prisas a un lado y relajarnos.



Reservamos para el ultimo dia el famoso tour por las dunas. Estuvo muy bien y nos llevamos un buen recuerdo de Mui Ne.

Off to Hobbiton

Sauron's power and fury couldn't keep us away, though we nearly didn't make it. Checking in at the airport, with not that much time to spare, they told us New Zealand customs require we have an outbound flight, otherwise they won't let us into the country. Panic stations. Ran to the in-airport travel agency to book a flight to LA from Auckland on the 27th of May, the date we hand in the second campervan. It was a bit more expensive than what we'd seen online but at least the crisis was averted. Made it onto the plane with seconds to spare. We got those critical, judgemental stares as we walked down the aisle from all the goody goody passengers that were there 3 hours before the flight and were now annoyed at the 5 minute delay. Water off a duck's back, it isn't the first time we've done this. And it won't be the last.

The ride was a bit bumpy but coming into Queenstown is an amazing experience. The scenery is breathtaking, beautiful mountains covered in heather, bushes and trees, clear turquoise glacial rivers, green meadows and forests... all amongst a mixture of cloud and sunshine which resulted in the most amazing sight. The only annoyance was that they didn't check if we had an outbound flight. And they made us throw away some bananas (no fresh food allowed into the country).

Queenstown is mostly a skiing and adventure town, it's big season is winter. Right now it's supposed to be a bit quiet, though there seem to be plenty of tourists and locals walking about. It must get really heaving in July. It is on the shores of lake Wakatipu, the second-largest lake in New Zealand, nestled amongst various mountains which contain 4 different sets of ski slopes. Of course you also have bungee jumping, fishing, golf, climbing, hiking, boat and helicopter trips, rafting, canyoning, glacier walks and who knows what else.

We are at a hostel for 4 days until we can pick up our campervan. Today we just strolled round, had a pint, and (since it is a bit chilly in the evenings) got some thermals and hats as all mountain gear shops have autumn sales on.

Saigon alias Ho Chi Min City

Suelo evitar pasar muchos dias en las grandes ciudades, soy mas de campo o pequenos espacios urbanos, sobretodo con ninos. Pero reconozco que Saigon me gusto y pasamos un buen rato, a pesar de que al tercer dia me puse mala. Diarrea y bajon general, tipico sindrome del viajero.

El hotel estaba en lo que en su dia fue la zona de mochileros, ahora conviven hoteles y restaurantes de todos los precios y estilos. Es un laberinto de callejones bordeado por una amplia zona verde con un fantastico parque para los ninos.

La primera noche fue un poco movida porque encontramos chinches en las camas. Los ninos no se enteraron pero yo dormi fatal. Asi que al dia siguiente nos cambiamos al hotel de enfrente donde por el mismo precio nos dieron una habitacion el doble de grande!

Aparte de ir al parque casi todos los dias, aprovechamos para ir al cine y al parque acuatico, son actividades que solo se ofertan en las grandes capitales y hay que aprovechar.

El ultimo dia visitamos Cu chi. Una red de tuneles y camaras subterraneas de 259 km de longitud, construida durante la ocupacion francesa en los anos 40 y expandida durante la Guerra de Vietnam en 1960. Para entonces yo ya estaba medio mala y, si le sumamos el hecho de que no me suelen gustar las cuevas pequenas, reconozco que dure poco en los tuneles. Josh y los ninos hicieron un recorrido bastante largo.

Hacia tiempo que no visitabamos un museo o lugar representativo de la guerra. En Camboya habiamos visto bastantes y la verdad es que te vas con el animo por los suelos.

Vinaceous Voodoo Moon Malbec 2012

No tasted in a proper wine glass.

Fruity, jammy, wood, vanilla, a touch of chocolate. Short on body, OK aftertaste, tannic, slightly bitter but easy to drink. 90/100. 27 AUD.

What a disappointment. Foolishly relied on the shop attendant (well, they didn't have any of the reds of the list that we hadn't tasted). Splashed out on our last day but at this price I expected much better. The nose was promising, though not amazing, but the pallate let us down completely. Can't say we didn't try: 5 wines in 6 days (we could have made it 6 out of 6 if we hadn't been so jetlagged on the first day). Two were very good, one OK, and two dissapointing. Shame it was the last two.

Wild Life Sydney

We seem to be getting up later and later. By the time we had finished preparing our packed lunch and were ready to leave it was 1pm. No hurries today - we had bought cheap tickets online for Wild Life Sydney and the offer meant we couldn't go in until after 3. The reviews we'd read indicated that Taronga zoo is better, but (a) Wild Life Sydney is under cover and it looks like it might rain today, (b) it has a cheap online deal, and (c) an hour is more than enough for the kids. What we also liked is that it specialised in Australian animals.

So we killed our spare hour at the playground and, sure enough, it started drizzling by the time we got to the Wild Life / Aquarium / Tussauds complex. You can also get a special deal if you visit all three but we had done a few aquariums recently back in Spain and have no idea why anyone would want to see wax versions of famous people so we didn't take them up on the offer. Lack of time also played a part. We were 20 minutes early but got let in no questions asked.

It's quite a nice zoo, if a little on the aseptic side. All the usual suspects are there: kangaroos, koalas, wallabies... Actually, on hindsight, I do miss the platypus and the redback. We were lucky to pass a feeding echidna (a sort of porcupine) and the kids joined in. Later we jumped at the opportunity of a photo with a python but jumped back, terrified at the 20 bucks fee. Apparently they have the same racket going on with the koalas.

We also saw a tasmanian devil, wombats, all sorts of snakes and some spiders, butterflies, a huge crocodile, a cassowary (a sort of colourful ostrich), and a host of nocturnal animals. We adults could have spent more there, but the kids raced through it in an hour as kids do.

Last day of our brief taster of Australia. Tomorrow we fly to Queenstown, New Zealand.

Rymill The Yearling Cabernet Sauvignon 2012

Not tasted in a proper wine glass.

Fruity, jammy, chocolate. Firm tannins but too sweet, too woody, a bit unstructured and dry on the palate. 86/90. 16 AUD.

Not up to the standard of the other wines we've tried, maybe we should have stuck to the "best Australian wines under 20 dollars" list we found on internet instead of the recommendation from the bottle shop staff (though that was OK for yesterday's white).

Bondi beach

Lovely sunny day today. If you are going to go to just one beach in Sydney it has to be Bondi, doesn't it? Well, there is also Manly, and for families Balmoral and Bronte (and even Shelley, next to Manly) are supposed to be better. But Bondi is the world-famous one, so Bondi is where we went.

It is a short walk from our hostel to the bus stop, and from there just about half an hour to the beach. A century ago the area was deserted, with just the hangman's cottage at the far end. Now it has a row of smart looking low-rise houses from end to end. The beach itself is a long stretch of beautiful white sand, not too crowded on a weekday this time of year. As per what we had read it wasn't full of posers, the ambiance was chilled and relaxed. The sea is shallow, but cold (compared to Vietnam) and with strong currents. There were enough waves for the surfers, but by the shore they were small enough for us to play around with.

Aisha refused to get in the sea and Lucas and I just had a quick splash, but we weren't hot out on the sand. Temperature was nice, with a cool breeze and the occasional cloud. Spent a couple of hours there and then decided to walk a bit of the coastal path. Before that we stopped by the skater park next to the beach where there was a guy doing awesome tricks with a bike.

The coastal path is lovely, and there are many joggers and walkers going up and down. Australians, at least in Sydney, seem very health-conscious, nearly everybody looks really healthy and there seem to be people doing sport everywhere you go. Even the seagulls look clean and pretty. We walked up to a park where we spent some time playing with a dog (Aisha) and looking at some kids playing with a weird-shaped ball (Lucas). From there you also had a lovely view of the next beach, Coogee.

After all that walking both kids fell asleep in the bus on the way back. We have to get them up to speed on walking because we want that to be the number one activity in New Zealand. Otherwise we are going to have to spend a fortune renting bikes.

Esther has written an article on responsible tourism (in Spanish) for one of the blogs in El Pais, Spain's leading newspaper, and just had it published.

Turismo que cambia el mundo via @3500

Encontrarás el post en el blog @3500 de El Pais http://blogs.elpais.com/3500-millones/2014/04/el-turismo-que-cambia-el-mundo.html

McGuigan Hunter Valley Chardonnay 2012

Not tasted in a proper wine glass.

Citrics, tropical fruit, honey. Crisp, acidy, good aftertaste 91+/100. 13.50 AUD.

Wow, 3 wined in as my days. Not a bad batting average, even for us. It's all due to a combination of finally having decent wine, not having cheap beer, and wanting to taste as many Australian wines as possible during our short stay here - in New Zealand it will be strictly Kiwi wines. And hopefully a more subdued pace.

Blue Mountains II

After checkout we hopped on our trolley bus to Leura Cascade. As a whole hour had passed since breakfast we had to sit down for a picnic. After a bit of hasty munching and running away from the wasps we did a bit of exploring. The cascades were a 20 minute walk away and what with all the time already spent and the time between buses being just an hour we had to turn back from the path pretty soon (though Lucas had time to fall down and get his new tracksuit bottom full of mud).

Next stop Echo Point. Apparently a few decades ago you could hear an echo here, but no more. "Global warming or something" said our driver. From here you get a view of the Three Sisters, 3 tall columns of rock which don't seem to look like such a big deal but everybody bangs on about them so much I took loads of photos just in case. Had another picnic and got on the bus again.

The last stop was a real treat for the kids: Scenic World. A super-steep (52°) train (inspired by the old mining carts, the first scenic train was called Mountain Devil), a cable car, and a skyway (basically a horizontal cable car across a gorge). We were planning on just going down to the walkway (free) and using the train to come back up, but it was a long (40 mins), steep stairway so it made more sense to get the unlimited pass as it cost less than a return ride. That way we got to go on all three, and we even had time to repeat the train (which was the coolest).

We just had time to catch the bus to the station while I ran to the hostel for the rucksack and food. Aisha had a siesta on the train and we all got back in time for dinner, followed by a dose of lice cream for all.

Windy Peak Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2011

Not tasted in a proper wine glass. Chilled slightly.

Strawberry, vanilla, earthy, mineral. Light bodied, acidy, longish aftertaste. 89/100. 17 AUD.

Blue Mountains

Happy April Fool's day!

First off all posts are 100% accurate - no April Fool's in this blog, I'm a serious guy. In any case I'm writing this the next day.

Got the train to Katoomba, a town next to the Blue Mountains about 2h away from Sydney. As we want to take it easy we are staying the night here and returning tomorrow. We also want to do it independently and avoid the day tours. The Blue Mountains derive their name from the blue tinge caused by the scattering of sunlight by particles in the atmosphere, especially the oils that evaporate from the eucalyptus trees. Since there are eucalyptus trees all over Australia I don't quite know why this effect doesn't happen everywhere on the continent.

Kattomba is a nice mountain town right next to some of the most famous sites. We got 2-day tickets for the hop-on, hop-off bus (a replica of the old trolley buses) that goes round the area. Got off at Gordon Falls (we decided to skip both the teapot museum, which sounds fascinating, and the toy and railway museum), had a picnic in front of the immense valley covered in trees, and walked about an hour and a half to Leura Cascade. The kids were a bit tired and a bus had just arrived so we didn't explore this bit and hopped on for a bit of playtime at the hostel. Passed by a pharmacy for a bit of lice cream - let's see if we can rid this family of them now we are out of Southeast Asia (there it's common to see people delousing each others hair everywhere you go).