Mount Bromo

I think everyone knows that I’ve kind of been dodging natural disasters along my trip – flooding and cyclones in Australia, earthquake in New Zealand.  And I’m quite glad that I decided to go to Indonesia instead of Japan (that’ll be on a different trip).  Anyway, just before the Mount Bromo leg of my trip, I got an message from Sarah advising that all I really had left to dodge was hurricanes and volcanos.  Well, Mount Bromo is an active volcano.  And it was such an experience to go!

We drove up a long and winding mountain road – looking out the windows at the ash path that has blanketed the valleys around Mount Bromo.  It was misty, and smoky, and incredibly eerie.

We stayed at a cute little inn on the edge of the major crater with amazing views of the volcano itself.  The smoke plumes were amazing.  And when we were in our rooms, the windows and doors rattled with the seismic activity – that continued all nights.

The next morning we were all up at 3:00am for our hike up the mountain to watch the sun

Seismic Activity

Mount Bromo at Sunset

rise over the volcano.  I had no torch, and the hike was challenging, made even more so by my clumsiness 2 days before when I’d slipped on some mud at one of the temples and strained my knee (to the point that it swelled up to the size of a grapefruit.  After some slips and trips up the mountain, I made the decision to stay at the first point to watch the sunrise, rather than attempting the climb up the rest of the mountain.  It was amazing to watch the sun break over the volcano and accentuate the massive smoke plumes that rose into the air.  Over and over the volcano belched out ash and smoke – no lava as the lava bed is actually 350m to the west of the mountain, under a mile or two of rock.  But it was stunning none the less.

If you look at the base of the volcano - that's a Hindu temple to the element of Fire.

Indonesia - Borobudur

I love temples.  I don’t know what it is about temples, but I love going to them.  It really doesn’t matter what kind of temple, or what the purpose of the temple is, but there is something about a temple that I can’t quite resist.

So when planning the Asian leg of my journey, it was up in the air – do I go to India to see the Taj Mahal, or to Indonesia to see Borobudur.  Financial considerations aside, Indonesia won because of it’s proximity to Australia, and the lovely visa that they issued to me upon entry at the Yogyakarta International Airport (as opposed to me standing in line for my Visa at the Indian Embassy somewhere in the depths of Sydney).

I booked a tour through the islands of Java, Bali and Lombok with Gecko’s.  And on day 3 of the tour, we headed out of Yogyakarta to the temple complex of Borobudur.  Borobudur is a Buddhist monument built in the 9^th century, about an hour and a half outside of Yogyakarta.  The complex itself was abandoned in the 14^th century with the Javanese conversion to Islam, and then rediscovered in 1814 by Thomas Raffles. The temple complex itself is made of 6 square floors, topped by 3 circular floors.  It’s decorated with 2,500+ relief panels and 500+ Buddha statues.  The top dome is surrounded by 72 stupas, each houses an individual Buddha statue.  The idea essentially is that pilgrims begin at the bottom, and follow the story of Buddha through the carved reliefs, ascending to each of the levels of the temple.  The top level represents the enlightenment of Buddha.

First view of the Temple.

My tour group.

Me - and the horrible spot that was on my camera lense.

The Buddhas.

One of the carved reliefs.

The stupas on top.

Can you see the Buddha?

The complex itself is currently under repair.  In 2010, Mount Merapi erupted, dumping a large amount of ash and sediment onto the complex.  The concern is that this ash and sediment will seep into the monument itself through the spaces between the stones, destabilizing portions, and clogging up the 9^th century drainage systems that are currently in use throughout the structure. 

All in all, it was an amazing day.  Except my number 1 reason for coming to Indonesia was satisfied on day 3 of my 22 day tour.  What else did I have to look forward to?

Onwards through New Zealand

Further on down the road in New Zealand, there is a small town called Franz Joseph.  From what I can tell, nothing much occurs here, other than crazy people like to put on crampons and go hike on glaciers.  The Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers to be exact.  As this is to be my year with no snow, I chose to not hike the glaciers – that and it rained pretty much the whole time I was in Franz Joseph.  That being said, I did go on a small hike to see the Franz Joseph Glacier.

The Glacier

Glo getting in on the action.

Me - it's the first time I was cold in New Zealand.

Needless to say, I’ve been having quite good luck with the weather in New Zealand, up until we hit Franz Joseph.  It turned grey and dreary for the next couple of days, but surprisingly, it didn’t really bring down the mood at all.  New Zealand just isn’t a country that lets you be unhappy, even with unending drizzly rain.  The scenery is always fantastic, and it did allow me the opportunity to practice the ubiquitous “taking photos out the moving bus window” skill.

Bus shot #1

Lake Matheson - if it wasn't cloudy, you would be able to see Mt. Cook reflecting in the lake.

A blue mushroom.

Bus Shot #2.

Bus Shot #3.

Further on down the road, one gets to Queenstown, otherwise known as the adventure capital of New Zealand.  As one guide put it to us New Zealand, being the country that it is – low levels of crime, no major conflicts with it’s neighbours, and amazing natural scenery – the locals tend to get a little bored from time to time, and as such have come up with a number of ways to almost kill themselves in pursuit of the maximum amount of adrenaline.  Everything is on offer in Queenstown – bungy jumping, sky diving, white water rafting, river sledding (essentially navigating white water on a boogy board).  And while it all sounds like fun – I really didn’t feel like killing myself at that exact moment in time.  So Jenny & I decided to take in a wine tour.  Highlight of which was the Mt. Difficulty Winery.  They have a wine called the “Roaring Meg”.  Nuff said.

Some guy from our bus getting ready to jump.

There he goes - and this is the smallest of the 3 available jumps.

These guys have the easiest job in the world.

Lined up and ready to go.

It was while in Queenstown that we heard about the Christchurch earthquake tragedy, which understandably put a halt to my plans of spending 3 nights in Queenstown.  So where to spend them instead?   The sleepy little hideaway of Lake Tekapo.  Not a lot to do, but some stunning scenery to see on the countless walks that I took through the countryside.

Bus shot #4.

Lake Tekapo - and Glo.

Finally, some sun!

Lake Tekapo - and on top of the hill is the Observatory.