Phuket, Thailand

Hello! My Spring Break has come and gone (sadly) and it's kinda funny to think of it as Spring Break as everyone is just heading back to school in the U.S. Anyway, I planned to spend the first week of my time off in Phuket, Thailand. Despite it being "wet" season, there were some really nice days of beaching and boating it. The first two days were rainy, but that just meant exploring the surrounding towns and the Buddhist temples that Thailand has to offer. We ( I went with a friend) had booked a few activities prior to leaving, which ended up getting jumbled around during the week based on weather. The first two days were sightseeing and the end of the week was outdoor adventuring ( and ELEPHANTS).

Okay, it is it is now several months in the future, I am writing ( and maybe crying) finishing this post from my travel themed bedding in New York. I know, I promised myself I would keep up with this, but when you're having the time of your life, it's just  not as fun to stop and write down every moment. This is going to be a recap based on photos I have from Thailand and things I remember from each photo to break up lengthy text.... so here we go friends!

 Okay, so one of the first stops was Big Buddha, although there are several big Buddhas, this is one of the more  popular ones. It was under construction, but still allowed visitors to walk through some prayer happenings on the inside and take some photos of the views and pretty decor. Somehow we ended up at Big Buddha twice, but I didn't mind giving this masterpiece a second look.

Wat Chalong Temple: As a self proclaimed barefoot walker, exploring these temples without shoes after a rainy day was marvelous. The gold and red accents and the peaceful atmosphere made exploring the Buddhist temple and it's surrounding area a must do.  We stopped at a side street market after and grabbed some coffee and smoothies from the local vendors, which always have interesting combinations of things. Including the popular:

Banana Pancakes! This seemed to be a popular street food, but it was really more like a Crepe with chocolate/nutella and bananas folded in.

James Bond Island

Boats, snorkeling and Island hopping! If I remember correctly, I think we spent about 3 days going on  boats/canoes and visiting islands. We visited James Bond Island, where the classic film franchise reigns over this entire area, Phi Phi Islands, Ao Phang Nga National Park, and Coral Island. Canoeing was lead by a local tour guide, and involved ducking down into caves while searching for bats hanging from the ceiling and was one of my favorite moments on the trip. Every boat we went on had more than enough fresh fruit to offer, lunch included and cost maybe $40 for a full day trip. Snorkeling also became a new passion of mine, except for this one time our guide  proceeded to throw food into the water to have hundreds of tiny piranhas come out. Beautiful blue waters and colorful fish are worth it though ( in the swimmable areas).

The main attraction of this post of course is the elephants! After some extensive research and an hour drive, we ended up at Phuket Elephant Sanctuary due to the ethical tourism of free roaming big eared animals. Animal abuse for entertainment is a huge part of Thailand's culture, and I really wanted to make sure I was contributing to a less harmful type of tourism. We were considered guests in the elephants territory, so we followed them around from a distance in our high Wellington boots. These elephants are so cute! Majority of them are old and former performance animals, but playful and active all the same. I even fed these lovely guys with sugar cane and watermelon  at the end of the day.

These are some random photos from being a tourist in Old Phuket Town, little China town in Old Phuket Town, Kathu waterfall and a look-out spot! I feel like Thailand was one of those vacations where you end up learning more than you thought you would, as I attempted to learn how to "wai" and learned more about Buddhism and squat potties than I ever expected.

See ya later Thailand! I'll be back for you and your sun!

New Plymouth and Mount Taranaki

Hello friends!  It's been another two weeks ( I think) since I last wrote a blurb with some photos, so expect double the dosage of your weekly Claire this time around. My parents have come and are now enjoying Sydney, Australia while I take pre-spring break tests. I loved having them here and getting to show them around Welly, as well as traveling with them. The first weekend after their arrival, we headed  off to New Plymouth to explore Egmont National Park. It was a five hour drive, which Jack (did I mention he also came?) was not too pleased about. We made it to Egmont, which is home to Mount Taranaki, a beautiful snowcapped mountain.....which I didn't really get to see, as it was foggy and rainy that Saturday. We ventured on a trail anyway, figuring that we had to do some hiking as we had traveled this far. The sights were wonderful and calming, until we came across a stream that had risen too high for us to get across by foot. It was the last leg of our hike as well, Mar was not having it and so we had to turn around and hike back the same way we came. The rain put a damper on things ( pun intended) but we made the best of it so here are a few snaps from the National Park:

We stayed the night in New Plymouth and hung around some nice sulfur pools, which was warm and cosy but also freezing when you weren't in the water. If you can't tell, I'm finishing writing this post a few weeks later, because life gets in the way sometimes. We stayed at a really cute bed and breakfast that night, and the name didn't stick with me, but I did enjoy sipping hot cocoa by a crackling fire and catching up on some netflix.  The town was small and not very busy, yet seems like it would be a hotspot during the summer season with its 4 person bikes and mountain views. Before heading back to Welly, we stopped at the beach and took some more photos, so here we are folks:

I fell in trying to get an artsy photo, serves me right

If you look closely, you can see how dorky Martin is and wrote "Farnan"

I'm planning on getting my Thailand/ Bali and Australia posts up sooner, as next week is  not as busy and I'll be hanging around quite a bit ( Fingers crossed). I hope you enjoyed this family weekend away! I miss my parents quite often, so getting to see them was so enjoyable. I also had a week of not paying for my own food so that was also great!

Napier Weekend Trip!

Hi friends! I finally made it outside of the Wellington area for a weekend. This time, my friend Chip and I decided to make a last minute trip to Napier, which is a 6 hour bus ride from our home city. We left on Friday, at 7:30 am( which I almost missed because Claire decided to stay up until 4 am the  night before). When we arrived, we explored the town a little bit and checked out the black sand beaches along Marine Parade. Napier is a Art-Deco Town that was styled this way after an earthquake, and is mostly a hopping' tourist center during the summertime. It was pretty cool place and I loved the look of the shops and the cafes!

We lodged at an airbnb nearby the town center which was lovely and our host Jo was so welcoming and friendly. However, we still needed a car to get around, so Chip took on driving on the left side of the road for the first time ( I thought I was going to die at one point, sorry Chip). We also needed the car to get to our main attraction of our trip Te Mata Peak. Off we went on Saturday morning to the hike site. I failed to mention it rained all of Friday night, so the trail was a mud pit full of fallen trees. We went anyway and it was worth the 4 hour total trip that was needed for Te Mata. The track would never be regulated in the US, as we hopped up some rocks and dangled on the edge for a good bit. The views though were worth being covered in mud at the end and I want to go back!

Te Mata has been one of my fav spots so far in NZ, I couldn't believe how beautiful and green it was despite being winter. We headed back to our airbnb, cleaned ourselves up and went to explore! We ended up going to salt water pools called Ocean Spa. Although we are still a little doubtful whether or not it was actually salt water, it was a nice way to relax my muscles after the hike!  I don't really have many photos from that because water, but would recommend going. 

Here are some bonus shots of Napier, as if there wasn't enough photos in this post already ( forgive me please). We found this cute little orange stand and bought a bag of fresh oranges, and it was adorbs so might as well include it. 

Well that's all folks! I hope you enjoyed pieces of Napier and this post. Also, one month down in NZ, and my parents and Jack are coming next week so there should be a bunch more adventure posts coming ya way!