By this Author: Cindy Bruin

We caught the ferry from Devonport to the city. Beautiful day out in downtown Auckland.

Mangawai, New Zealand

WAIPU & LANGS BEACHES

THE END. Yes another final flight home, brings this years trip to an end. But don't worry next years trip is already in the making - stay tuned.

Today we did the Pohangina Branch Road Walkway. Absolutely, beautiful walk. We managed to survive the little spots of rain, a bit of wind, mud, stiles and narrow paths. Great day, hope we are here again to do it next year!

Out and about seeing the sights in and around Bulls. Lovely to catch up with my old mate Mandy - (and by old I mean have known for a long time.) lol

Every good day starts with an ice cream and this honey one was delish.

Down town Bulls.

Huka Falls.

Another one for my collection:

We walked along Lake Taupo with views of the snow capped mountains in the distance. Lots of bird life on the lake also.

Lake Taupo is a lake in the North Island of New Zealand. It is in the caldera of the Taupo Volcano. The lake is the namesake of the town of Taupō, which sits on a bay in the lake’s north-eastern shore. With a surface area of 616 square kilometres, it is the largest lake by surface area in New Zealand, and the second largest freshwater lake by surface area in geopolitical Oceania after Lake Murray in Papua New Guinea. Motutaiko Island lies in the south east area of the lake.

Sunset drinks lake side.

Today we drove from Taupo to Bulls to visit another friend. We had some amazing views of snow capped Mt Ruapehu.

Great catch up with the Young family.

After months of travel in Europe and Asia, I ended this years adventures with a couple of weeks in New Zealand visiting friends. And of course enjoying the amazing green scenery that is New Zealand at any time of the year.

Here are some random pictures from my visit.

Every trip to Auckland has to include a visit to Puhoi Cheese Factory, my favorite place to have lunch.

I stayed with my ex-housemate (from almost 20 years ago when I lived in Auckland) Toni, who has now moved to Papamoa Beach.

McLaren Falls Park. We walked around the lake, beautiful, and lots of bird life.

Close by was McLaren Falls.

Put a face to an online friend, love ya Sarah.

Walk along beautiful Papamoa Beach. Too cold to swim, but so lovely.

Road trip.
Aratiatia Rapids, just outside Taupo.

Yummy mussels for dinner.

Next day we visited Aratiatia Rapids again to see when the flood gates were opened.

A weekend stopover between Bali and New Zealand. Weather was lovely, great day for a walk.

Bondi Beach...

Eastern Coast Walkway from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach, viewing the sculptures along the path.

• **Sculpture by the Sea returns to the Bondi Beach to Tamarama Beach coastal walk as the world’s largest free to the public sculpture exhibition. See the spectacular coastal walk transformed into a 2km long sculpture park over three weeks featuring 100 sculptures by artists from Australia and across the world.***

Today we left Lombok and flew back to Bali.

The next couple of days our group is going to start to split and head home, or on to further travel.

We had a last group lunch at the Greek place!

Oskar, Wendy & Jo left today to fly home.

And then there were 4...

Afternoon beers...

Dinner on the beach...

Dolly flew to Thailand today, she has another couple of weeks before flying home to UK.

And then there were 3...

April left to fly home to Australia.

And then there were 2...

Lyn and I stayed on a few extra days in Legian. We didn't do a great deal except to lazy around the pool and eat whenever we got hungry. I needed a few days off after the stress of the group travel.

Enjoying our last lemon Bintang.

Big thank you to Wayan for driving us around and our tour of Java. See you next time my friend.

So, this is the end of Lyn & mine's adventure for 2019. Tomorrow we fly to Sydney for a few days and then it's over again for another year. Yes, of course next years travel is already in the works, but you will have to wait for that itinerary. Suffice to say, since we have bikes stored in Germany there might be another ride next year.

Our hotel grounds - Puri Bunga Bungalows - Senggegi Beach, Lombok.

I love this hotel, stayed here last year. The pool is amazing and the grounds are full of blooming frangipani trees. We were on holidays today, and just spent the day relaxing by the pool.

Lunch.

Sunset, then dinner.

Today we did a snorkeling trip to the Gili Islands. Glorious weather, crystal clear waters, lots of colourful fish and a few turtles.

We were transferred by minivan about an hour up the coast to where the boats left for the Gili's. Joys of travelling in a group, we had the boat to ourselves. During the day we stopped at 3 islands, had lunch on one of them. Our snorkeling stops were full of colourful fish and just like last year I got to swim with a turtle again. Its just amazing.

I think the group had a great day, I certainly did.

After witnessing another magic sunset from the balcony of our bungalow, Oskar and I shared a giant fish for dinner.

Another lazy day by the pool. I love these pool days!

After a lovely relaxing day yesterday, today we hired a minivan to take us on a tour.

Our first visit was to the village of Banyumulek, that Lombok Pottery craftsmen of the village, where you will find local women producing pottery from materials and with a very simple way, a unique system, which is able to attract many foreign tourists as well as domestic tourists. Next is the village of Sukarara, a village which became a center of handicraft and Double Ikat woven native Sasak. Next we will visit the village of Rambitan/Sade is a traditional village that is still firmly holds the Customs and traditions of their tribes, both in socializing among themselves as well as in maintaining the architecture of their buildings. Tanjung Aan Beach , is approximately 5 km from the beach of Kuta, a beach with white sand that is so enchanting and cleanliness of its crystal-clear water.

So a few cultural stops, then the afternoon at the beach.

Tanjung Aan Beach.

Again, back in time to watch the sunset, this time from down on Sengeggi Beach, then dinner out.

Hotel pool day, only heading out for cocktails and food.

Same today as yesterday.

Time for another change of scenery. We depart Bali Island today to fly to Lombok Island. As our flight was late afternoon, we spent the day at a Nusa Dua Beach.

Our flight was delayed so we spent a bit of time at the airport trying to amuse ourselves.

By the time we arrived in Lombok and were transferred to our hotel, it was time to head across the road for a pizza dinner.

Today we threw in a day tour to mix things up a bit, couple of beach stops, ending with sunset on Kuta Beach.

PANDAWA BEACH - we went for a swim but there was a strong undertow.

DREAMLAND BEACH - water looked beautiful, but way too rough to swim in the ocean. we had lunch in a nice little warung near the beach.

NUSA DUA BEACH - much nicer, we spent a few hours here and dipped in the water several times.

KUTA BEACH - sunset beers with the masses.

A change of scenery, but the next couple of days were much of the same. Beach/pool time, lemon beers/cocktails and great food!

We even found Bali's Stonehenge!

More of the same today, ending with a fun cocktail session at sunset.

We had a full day out today.

First stop, ALAS HARUM where we tried LUWAK COFFEE.

Kopi luwak or civet coffee is a coffee made from the beans of coffee berries which have been eaten by the Asian Palm Civet and other related civets, then passed through its digestive tract. Not-really-digested, then pooped out, collected up, cleaned, roasted and ground for our drinking pleasure. A civet eats the berries for their fleshy pulp. In its stomach, proteolytic enzymes seep into the beans, making shorter peptides and more free amino acids. Passing through a civet's intestines the beans are then defecated, keeping their shape. After gathering, thorough washing, sun drying, light roasting and brewing, these beans yield an aromatic coffee with much less bitterness, widely noted as the most expensive coffee in the world.

We were not sure how much of the shit was removed from the coffee, cause we all - bar Wendy - thought the coffee tasted like shit! These animals are nocturnal and they are only in the cages during the day while they sleep. They are let out at night into the wild and have be trained to return at dawn to a big feed of red coffee berries, which they love. So during the day they poop out the undigested coffee beans which are then collected to make the Luwak Coffee.

Second stop, TEMPAK SIRING - THE HOLY SPRING WATER TEMPLE - where Miss April and I entered the water and were cleansed under the springs.

Third stop, TEGALALANG RICE TERRACE, the valley of the rice terraces where we stopped to enjoy the view and have a great lunch. Lyn and I ventured down into the rice fields.

Fourth stop, TEGENUNGAN WATERFALL, where Lyn, Miss A and I were the only ones to brave the steps down and swim in the water below.

GREAT DAY OUT!

It's a hot day in Ubud again today.

Lyn, Oskar and I went for a walk around the centre of Ubud, past the monkey forest. No need to pay to go inside the monkey forest, there are enough of the cheeky buggers out on the street. Regular refreshments were necessary.

Regular refreshments were necessary - coffee happy hour.

Bruin beer o'clock:

And this was the day Wendy had her fall and trip to the doctor.

Out and about around town. Lotus Garden. Radlers. Pool. Massages.

It's hot again so some pool time after breakfast at our hotel.

We did brave the heat and went for a walk to the Ubud Lotus Garden in the main street.

Then a few beers to cool off.

A walk through the Subak Juwak Manis rice fields, stopped for a drink.

Another quick look at the lotus garden, more flowers out today than yesterday.

Happy hour coffee at Mingle Cafe.

The night ended with cocktails and dinner at Mingle Café.

Another hot day, we visited another temple complex.

Borobudur
Borobudur, or Barabudur is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Magelang Regency, not far from the town of Muntilan, in Central Java, Indonesia.
It is the world's largest Buddhist temple.
The temple consists of nine stacked platforms, six square and three circular, topped by a central dome.
It is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. The central dome is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, each seated inside a perforated stupa.

After a quick look around the shopping street in Yogykarta (we didn't buy anything) we headed back to the hotel for a dip in the pool and a relaxing afternoon.

Today we had a massive driving day all the way across Java. A very early start and a late finish, we spent the day in the van.

To recover from yesterdays long drive, we crossed over back onto the island of Bali and had a relax day back at Pemuteran Beach.

Our last day on our Java tour, on our way to Ubud, we stopped at the Twin Lakes lookout to watch the monkeys.

We stopped for BABI GULING lunch!