Mothership Supercell

My friend Kathy and I spent two weeks storm chasing in May. 

We chased mostly in Texas but also in Colorado, Nebraska and Missouri.

For most of our trip an unusual weather pattern was in play with a blocked non-tropical low pressure system situated off the east coast of the USA preventing the normal west to east flow of storms. This meant great weather for sunbathing but disastrous weather for chasing. Storm wise, April had been a very active month and things went bonkers just as we were leaving, so we were dealt a rough hand with the weather. 

Nevertheless, we chased anything that moved and I thought chased well and maximised any chances we did have and also had a lot of fun along the way. The reward for all this endeavour was a brilliant chase day in Nebraska with a magnificent mothership supercell as our crowning achievement turning what had been a below par trip (in terms of weather) into a good one

I also continued my love hate relationship with the USA. 

On the plus side, as ever, the people were super friendly and helpful and due to the size of the country and easy availability of hotels, huge variety of scenery and cheap(ish) gas there is nowhere better to do a road trip. And of course, it is the best place in the world to see tornadoes.

On the negative side, most of the towns and cities we passed through were festooned with endless fast food joints and ugly commercial areas with most places pretty well indistinguishable from one another and lacking any kind of appeal, other than for furnishing ones basic needs. 

There were some attractive and charming towns, but they were the exception and many of these were devoid of pedestrians which lent them a sort of zombie apocalypse vibe. On top of all this is the rampant in your face consumerism and, in my opinion, entirely misplaced over the top patriotism. 

But hey, this the good old US of A and it is actually the differences that conversely give the place a lot of its appeal and at least gave me something to moan about, not that I need any encouragement.

Kathy had a very different way of chasing to me relying much more on modelling software than I do, even when in active chasing mode. It took time for me to get used to this but her system actually proved useful as the models are regularly updated and can change markedly from run to run. In the end we incorporated both the modelling software and real-time RadarScope reflectivity (and cloud top) data into our chase days, which worked well.

04 May 25

Slight delay departing Wellington and a further delay landing at Auckland due to some idiot with a drone. Despite this I met up with Kathy with plenty of time to board our flight to Houston.

Kathy’s friend Chris picked us up when we arrived and drove us out to our Days Inn hotel in Humble near the airport. We had dinner with Chris at a nearby Mexican restaurant. I had cheese and bean burrito which was actually pretty good if not overly healthy, but hey, this is America.

Chris is a loud, larger than life Texan and a nice guy. He is materialistic in the American way but also has a real passion for travel and to experience life to the full (including chasing storms), which is where I felt at least some connection. I can see where the friendship with Kathy comes from as she is basically an Australian version of Chris.

05 May 25

Slept like a log until 1am and couldn’t sleep a wink after that, so jet lag has its hold on me.

A super disappointing day.

The SPC forecast was for  fairly large 5% tornado risk* area in west Texas with an even larger 2% risk area covering the centre of the state. The greatest storm potential was around Odessa but this was a 13 hour drive away and out of reach. The initial activity was forecast to be high based with some potential for ground based storms and a few tornados late evening and overnight. 

*This might not sound like much but represents a 5% risk of a tornado within 25 miles of a given spot, so for a large area represents a very substantial risk.

We travelled to the San Antonia area which was in the 2% zone. This should have taken about 3.5 hours but was more like 6 hours due to terrible traffic in Houston and a monster traffic jam caused by a jackknifed truck near San Antonio.

With the exception of Houston, the weather was cloudy and drizzly which meant that there was zero chance of any convection getting going and consequently zero chance of any serious storms.

The fog killed any chances of a decent chase day.

To add insult to injury, late in the day supercells popped up in the Odessa area.

On top of all this, Kathy and I were still really jet-lagged so gave up early and booked rooms in the Wine Country Inn in the quaint and touristy town of Fredericksburg and nursed our wounds.

Even more frustrating is that this was the first of the only two viable chase days during our first week - the next one is tomorrow and it had better be good!

06 May 25

In stark contrast to yesterday this was a real old school hard as nails chase day.

The day for me started at 4.30am when Kathy messaged that there were storms brewing to the south of us. I made a mental note of this and set the alarm clock early and woke up to a tornado warned storm right over us. There was loads of C to G lightning  accompanied by torrential rain. I took loads of pictures with my LightningCam app which disappointingly didn’t capture anything.

Kathy and I spent a fair while watching the storm before retiring for breakfast.

The chase day proper started about 9am when we set off on a 4-hour drive north east to Temple where severe storms were forecast to initiate.

A tornado warned storm went up near Temple but we never quite reached it as it, like most storms that day, was travelling at around 40 knots making it difficult the keep up with, let alone reach.

We eventually gave up the Temple chase and headed east and then south to chase newly developing storms. On route we visited or passed through Llano, Burnet, Florence, Bartlett, Granger, Elgin, La Grange and Sealy before eventually giving up and driving south To Victoria where we stayed the night. In case you are wondering, all these places are in Texas.

A lot of storms initiated but they quickly clumped together which robs them of energy making it more difficult to maintain supercells in this environment. On top of this, there was an excessive amount of low level moisture leading to a lot of rain which further masked any lurking wall clouds or tornadoes.

The rain was insane and at times we could barely see where we were going. 

The best storm was near the end before we headed south to our accommodation in Victoria. 

We had been consistently underestimating the distance to storms and their speed all day but finally got our navigation into top gear and managed a precise intercept of a severe warned storm (which was tornado warned for a very short period). A couplet associated with the storm passed very close to us but we didn’t see anything except torrential rain, lightning and occasional small hail.

We stayed at the Greatstay Best Western. Our rooms were nice enough but stank of tobacco.

We were both knackered after a long chase day so dinner was at a Popeyes over the road from our hotel. In best fast food tradition the meal was garbage, but it got the job done and neither of us got food poisoning.

As we got back to the hotel the sky’s opened and we were treated to a spectacular lightning and thunder show. The storm even had some rotation.

It funny, but we chased for about 500km today and yet the two best storms occurred when we were sat in our hotel rooms, which I guess says a lot for our chasing skills! 

07 May 25

We travelled the half hour or so to Port Lavaca for no other reason than to view the Gulf of Mexico (not America). The town was very run down so we took the obligatory pictures of the Gulf and then hit the road to Freer.

It took us nearly 4 hours to get to Freer where we had lunch and re- assessed the SPC (Storm Prediction Centre) forecast. Unfortunately, the already feeble storm setup for today had been downgraded with no large storms forecast.

Kathy wanted to see the Space X facility in Boca Chica which given the dire storm situation seemed like a reasonable option. As is usually the case over here it was a lot further away than it looked and it took another 4 hours driving to get there, but there were bugger all serious storms so sometimes you have to look for your pleasures elsewhere.

On the way to Boa Chica we saw not one, but two cyber-trucks and were truly blessed, not least as these creatures are rare and doomed to extinction.

We did pass directly under one small storm, which made up for its lack of stature by being pretty and photogenic and is the first such storm we have seen on this trip.

The Space X facility is located on a windswept salt marsh and was bleak in the extreme and (rather appropriately) had an unsettling other-worldly feel. The place was on a far larger scale than I had anticipated and employs something like thirteen thousand people, most of whom seem to live in nearby Brownsville.

Kathy and I shared the driving, which was a necessity given the distances involved. Nothing major, but I drove badly at times and the mental strain of three consecutive long days is taking its toll on both of us.

In contrast to today, the SPC forecast for tomorrow has been upgraded so I can see another long chase being on the cards. After this the weather is forecast to be very quiet for the next 4 days with no storms on the agenda, so we intend to take the opportunity to rest for a few days before hostilities recommence.

We stayed the night at the Brownsville Greatstay Best Western. This was lovely and by far the best accommodation so far.

Dinner was yet more junk, this time at Jack in the Box, although to give them their due the food was better than Popeyes.

08 May 25

The forecast was good with some supercells with large hail and a 2% probability of a tornado drifting up from Mexico.

We positioned ourselves well but the forecast storms didn’t really materialise - a fair number of storms initiated but never got going as once again we had cloudy skies which kept the temperature down and limited the storms fuel of warm moist air.

We spent a fair amount of time near Citrus City on one cell and which kept threatening before eventually petering out. We then abandoned this storm and set off for a cell further to the north which provided us with some thunder and lightning, but wasn’t that interesting or photogenic.

We eventually abandoned the chase and set off north staying the night at a EconoLodge in the small town of Falfurrias. On the way there we encountered torrential rain resulting in flooded roads and almost zero visibility. On one of the flooded sections we hit a piece of lorry tyre which snagged under the cars front bumper (fender) badly damaging it.

We started full of hope and chased hard all day, but with meagre results and a damaged car, but such is a chasers lot.

To add insult to injury, we had considered travelling the 3 hours north to Laredo which also looked promising but decided against it as neither of us really fancied another long drive, particularly after yesterday’s marathon. Guess what, a supercell sprung up near Laredo - it didn’t produce a tornado, but we were still ever so jealous.

On the plus side, we were still alive and dinner and beer at a local Mexican restaurant was rather nice.

09 May 25

With no storms forecast for at least the next three days we headed on a slow drive northwards towards the Oklahoma/Nebraska area. 

The first order of the day was to get our car fixed. The whole front bumper was hanging close to the ground meaning the car could not be safely driven at much beyond walking pace and certainly not at interstate speeds. We managed to find a local mechanic who after 10 minutes or so, amazingly, managed to relocate the bumper and slot it back into place. Like practically everyone over here he was super friendly and didn’t want any payment, but Kathy gave him 40 bucks anyway.

With the car fixed and after some cholesterol and coffee at McDonalds, we hit the road.

Kathy and I were both very tired from the amount of driving we have done and the long and fruitless hours chasing so we decided to spend two days recuperating in the rather quaint town of Fredericksburg.  

On the way there we stopped off at the Donald Trump shop in Bandera. I brought a MAGA cap for my boss and a suitably tasteless fridge magnet for myself. 

Donald, Melania and Michael say hello....

We are staying at the Windcrest Inn and Suites. The place was pretty cheap but also pretty good, so great value for money and they even have a swimming pool.

We had dinner at PZ Pizza which was just over the road from our hotel. The main reason for going there was because we were too lazy to drive into town. Turns out the place is run by veterans and, very unexpectedly, the pizza was out of the world and a far cry from the unappetising fair served up by Dominoes and the like.

10 May 25

Zero day. 

We had lunch in town and that was basically it. 

I carried on reading my book, Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall, and listened to lots of Porcupine Tree. The first chapter of the book, which covers Russia, was absolutely fascinating and put the current war in Ukraine in a very different light* to that portrayed by the West - don’t get me wrong, Putin is a still a bad man, but I can see why he did what he did.

*The book was written in 2016 which is after the annexation of Crimea but before the current conflict.

Our hotel is proving to be a great place to while-away a day or two and does easily the best breakfast buffet we’ve had so far. There are still the usual sugar laden waffles and muffins and the like but it was all beautifully presented and with more variety than we have seen so far with even one or two, dare I say it, moderately healthy options.

We had a good look at the upcoming weather and things aren’t looking great for at least the next three days. May is statistically the most active tornado month, but there has been almost zero activity so far. The usual flow of storms from the west has been blocked by a very slow moving non-tropical low sitting of the east coast and until this blocked system moves away we will be sitting on our literal and proverbial butts.

The action as and when it does happen is likely to start in Oklahoma or Nebraska so the plan for tomorrow to continue our leisurely journey north.

11 May 25

Another zero day.

With a few stops, we drove for about 8 hours to Amarillo where we stayed the night at the cheap but pretty decent Baymont by Wyndham hotel.

It is a measure of how big Texas is that even after 2-days driving we are still in the same state. We did notice that the further north we went from the Mexican border the fewer police officers and US flags and general signs of Trumpism there were. By the same token there were more oil wells and churches so I am guessing money and god take precedence over patriotism, although, the world over, money takes precedence over everything.

The day was spectacularly uneventful, although we did run over a snake and saw a couple of dustnado’s.

At Kathy’s insistence*, we dined (if that’s the right word) at a Wendy’s next door to our hotel. To say that I had low expectations is the understatement of the century but Wendy’s pulled out all the stops and plumbed depths that have never been plumbed before. In short, my food was terrible and made Popeyes and Jack in the Box look like Michelin star restaurants.

Food aside, it was actually a pretty chilled out day although some storms or even clouds would have been nice.

*In all fairness to Kathy, she went in for their "healthy" baked potato so the blame lies squarely with me, and Wendy's of course.

12 May 25

Desperate times.

For several days now the College of Du Page (COD) medium range NAM model has been showing a tiny storm develop in east central Colorado. In the morning we had a look at the short range COD HRRR model and, encouragingly, noted that it was also in agreement with the NAM model. I wouldn’t normally get out of bed for such a measly storm but after days without even a cloud we headed north from Amarillo and the chase was on.

The storm initiated very close to the predicted time and at the correct location, which is testament to how accurate the models can be.

The storm was high based and with zero rotation but was photogenic and produced a few rumbles of thunder, so kept us entertained for a couple of hours.

Perfect chase terrain

We stayed the night at the EconoLodge in Burlington Colorado.

Tempest Tours were also staying in Burlington and at Kathy’s behest (she is friends with the head guide, Bill) we ended up having dinner with them. I had very mixed views about this as my last tour with them was pretty disastrous, but dinner was painless enough and it was nice to chat with some fellow chasers, including a guy from Wellington.

13 May 25

There are potentially significant storms forecast for tomorrow in Nebraska and South Dakota. There are also a few storms forecast more locally but these look tiny so we decided to abandon these and head north with the chance of better thing’s tomorrow.

We travelled north and stayed at the Comfort Inn in the town of Valentine in Nebraska close to the border with South Dakota.

Even by the standards of this trip it was a spectacularly uneventful day. 

This part of the USA is sparsely populated and consequently the roads were quiet with the sort of wide open big sky countryside that I and others chasers love.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

14 May 25

We headed about 1 hour south to Ainsworth and waited ever hopefully for storms to develop. We killed time in the D and B cafe who do a killer homemade cinnamon roll.

This was the Storm Prediction Centre (SPC) forecast showing a Slight risk from Nebraska up to North Dakota. This modest forecast produced the best storms of the trip.

We hung around for several hours then headed south to Stapleton. This was because nothing was initiating locally and also on the basis that most other chasers were located down that way and hopefully knew something we didn't.

We had enough fuel to get to where we were going but were getting a little low so detoured to the small town of Seneca to find a gas station. In a country with 145,000 such places you are practically tripping over them, but not it turned out in Seneca. We were just about to hit the road when a young lad in a beat-up old car pulled over and offered to take us to the nearest gas station.

We followed him for a little while before he pulled his car up on the side of the road and then jumped into ours! He said that he wasn’t allowed to drive into town but would show us where the gas station was. I had a nasty encounter with a hitch hiker years ago in Death Valley of all places, so this rang quite a few alarm bells but he was super friendly and we somehow felt obliged. 

Anyway, we arrived at the garage safely, so even if he was a deranged psychopath, he was a very well behaved one. We were expecting to give him a lift back to his car but he said he was staying in town that night and would pick his car up in the morning which seemed a bit odd as it was in the middle of nowhere.

After filling up, we passed his car again and stopped, mostly to view a storm that was fast developing and had become severe warned. We couldn’t help but notice that his lights were on, the windows were down and there was a large dent on the side of the car. The guy was charming and polite but we got the feeling that he had been up to no good and that we were in some way complicit in his crimes and on a one way trip to El Salvador should the police ever catch up with us!

We took plenty of photos of the storm and I got some great lightning shots. We then elected to continue on as the environment further south was forecast to be more conducive for supercells and tornados. All the same, it felt really weird to be turning our noses up at such a good storm, particularly on a trip devoid of such beasts.

We carried on and intercepted a storm near Stapleton which became tornado warned as we arrived. We saw some lowering and possibly a tornado but couldn’t be sure as the contrast with the rest of the storm was poor. We did bag some good lighting shots and it was fantastic to be on a supercell for just about the first time this trip.

We then headed south again to a second warned storm immediately below the one we had just seen. 

This is a RadarScope screenshot taken as we raced to get to the storm below - we are grey/blue circle

It was starting to get late so we really went for it and after some very spirited driving made it in time to see an amazing mothership supercell (a couple of landspout tornados were reported but we didn’t see them). 

(Courtesy of Kathy)

We stood and watched in awe but eventually the cell started to dissipate and we decided to call it a day.

It was an amazing experience to see such a storm and made all the pain and frustration of the previous week worth it.

All of the action took place in Nebraska.

15 May 25

Relocation to Springfield MO.

A long and uneventful day on the road, although we did see a dead armadillo (it was that sort of day).

We are staying at the Days Inn. The place only gets average reviews but I liked it, and it was cheap.

16 May 25

The setup for today was excellent with a monster 15% tornado risk a couple of hours to the east of us. 

Trouble was that we had driven for 12 hours yesterday and were both tired and didn’t fancy the extra driving, so decided with to content ourselves with a 2 - 5% tornado risk area closer to where we were staying. This turned out to be the worst mistake of our trip.

The storms were also forecast to be fast moving at around 80 km/hr. At this speed unless the storms are tracking directly along the path of an interstate they are impossible to keep up with. The only way to intercept them is to position yourself in their path and let them come towards you, so you only have one shot.

We drove about an hour south to the quaint little town of Ava and found a very nice coffee shop serving delicious cinnamon muffins and waited for storms to initiate, which they quickly did.

On the way there we spotted an Amish horse and cart being driven along the highway and yet another dead Armadillo. On a positive note, Kathy saw an actual live Chipmunk.

We chased well and managed to intercept two storms. The first was at a place called Soggy Bottom and the second close to Ava itself which produced some golf ball size hail - Kathy has been after large hail all trip so was well pleased as was I, although in my case I was just pleased the car wasn’t damaged.

Within minutes of passing over us both storms became tornado warned with the Ava storm in particular having a very nice hook echo on RadarScope, and as it later turned out, dropped multiple tornados, which unfortunately killed a lot of people.

This is a Radarscope screenshot taken shortly after the storm passed over Ava - note the velocity couplet (ringed) denoting rotation and a likely tornado.

I found this chase hugely frustrating as we had done our forecasting well and knew we needed to be further east to maximise our chances (the storms were forecast to intensify as they headed north east) but elected not to do so - there were some good reasons for this as we were both tired and needed to be in Houston in two days to catch our flight back home and as it turned out the Ava storm proved to be extremely dangerous, but even so…

We then carried on heading south to reposition for our final chase tomorrow and stayed at the rather nice FairBridge Inn & Suites in McAlester.

Nothing of note happened on the journey south, other than the usual dead Armadillo’s.

17 May 25

Our last day chasing before heading back to Houston tomorrow. With this in mind we had to be careful where we chased today and not to stray too far. 

After much study of the COD HRRR and RAP models we decided to target a lone storm in a 5% risk area south of Dallas/Fort Worth near the town Lampasas. There were larger and more numerous storms forecasted further north which were super tempting but they were a little too far away, not least as we have a plane to catch tomorrow.

To get down to where storms were expected to initiate we rashly took the most direct route through Dallas/Fort Worth. This was a big mistake. The traffic was horrendous and it took several eternity’s to get through the area. The place was as ugly as sin with a horrible mix of flyovers, road works and endless fast food joints - truth be known, most American cities are butt ugly, but Dallas/Fort Worth takes it to the next level. My tip is to take your time and skirt around the city - the route will be longer but less stressful and I suspect would actually be quicker.

The weather was very warm with temperatures in the 90’s but also cloudy due to the extreme humidity. The cloud limits convection and meant that the storms weren’t as strong as forecast although we did manage to bag a couple of minor severe warned ones, so a low key way to finish the trip, but also rather apt.

The cow was supposed to be "flying" but, alas, remind firmly earthbound (courtesy of Kathy)

We stayed at the Super 8 in Waco. The hotel had a fairly poor rating online but was actually one of the better hotels we stayed in.

18 May 25

We chilled out with Kathy’s friend Chris at his Houston mansion and then it was off to the airport and back to reality.

Until next time...

 

South Korea

 We both very much enjoyed our time in Korea.

The country is mountainous but most people live in the flatter areas with Seoul and Busan being the two biggest cites.

Regarding travel, the primary attraction for me has always been the great outdoors and scenery in particular. In the case of Korea, surprisingly, what impressed me the most were the cities. Given that it was Spring the landscape was still pretty bare and this coupled with the ubiquitous haze that meant you couldn’t see much of it anyway - in the summer I am sure the landscape would be prettier but the haze, which is primarily caused by pollution from China, would still likely be there. The cities on the other hand were full of amazing buildings and bridges and infrastructure in general, along all sorts of random works of art. There was also no litter which is a huge bugbear with me. At least compared to New Zealand, Korea feels like a very wealthy and prosperous country.

We found Koreans friendly, helpful and polite. Most of us are super addicted to our phones but Koreans have taken it to the next level and it was a rarity to see someone without one - we even saw scooter riders riding with one hand on the bars and the other hand and their eyes on their phone!

Compared to Japan, which I visited last year, Korea feels much more westernised with an obsession with American sports and fast food chains everywhere - there are over 600 Starbucks in Seoul alone! There were also far fewer temples and (obvious) local culture than in Japan. The obsession with all things American is understandable though as without their help the North would have won the war and the democratic South wouldn’t exist.

The Korean food was also great with the night market food stalls being a particular favourite.

The train, bus and subway systems were excellent and a great way of getting around. A T-Money card is the best way to access most transport which you use to tag-on and tag-off. The cards can be purchased from airports and most convenience stores and are the first thing you should buy. One peculiarity of the T-Money cards is that while you can purchase them with a credit card you have to load them up with WON using cash although this is no big deal as there are machines everywhere.

For general spending we used WISE cards although for food stalls we used cash.

For navigation we used the Naver app. This was a little temperamental at times but overall was brilliant for getting around.

Also used was the Papago translation app. This was surprisingly useful and got used a lot.

Korean internet and cell phone networks are excellent and really quick. I used an eSIM (UBIGI) for the first time and this worked seamlessly and was a lot cheaper than going on roam with my local Kiwi provider.

01 Apr 25

Fairly uneventful flight to Hong Kong other than sitting in the wrong seats twice - both times our fault!

On the plane I watched the Oscar nominated Brutalist which was basically There Will be Blood for architects. Very long, and not a bad movie but not deserving of an Oscar in my opinion. Also watched was Free Solo and Stop Making Sense both of which I have seen before and both of which deserved a second viewing.

We had a 4 hour wait in Hong Kong for our next flight to Incheon and are both very tired and are getting too old for this shit.

02 Apr 25

The flight from Hong Kong wasn’t too bad, unlike the monster queue at immigration which was too bad.

We stayed for 3-nights at the All Stay Hostel in Jung-Gu. The hostels location is superb, and overall, given the modest amount of money we paid, the place was fine. 

The room however was really really small at around 2m x 3m and there was literally no room to swing a cat, although a kitten might be OK.

We were both pretty tired but still did the touristy thing spending the afternoon at the nearby Namdaemun Market. 

03 Apr 25

A great day.

We took the number 2 subway line to Jamsil where we visited the 555m tall Lotte Tower which is one of the taller buildings in the world and a sight to behold. 

Before going up the tower we walked around the large lake next to the building. 

The lake is lined with trees that were just starting to blossom and in another week or so, will, I am sure, look amazing. We had a delicious alfresco lunch of fried chicken and rice balls bought from a nearby food stall.

We then headed up the tower. 

Neena chickened out, but I booked the Lotte Tower Bridge Walk. This entailed putting on a bright red suit, a safety harness and a helmet and then climbing up 20 flights of stairs above the main observation area. From here I proceeded to walk across a narrow bridge linking the two towers at the top of the building. It felt exhilarating to be out in the open air at over 500m but wasn’t really that scary. The stairs and walkway were well protected and in my opinion the safety gear was unwarranted, but I guess it is there in case someone tries something stupid, which humans being humans, someone will.

After this we made our way back to the hostel using the somewhat glitchy but very useful Naver app.

A word on Seoul. The city is ultra modern and while it has an oriental flavour definitely feels more westernised than the cities I visited in Japan last year. The are hundreds of tall skyscrapers many of which are impressively designed and way nicer than anything back in NZ which after visiting Seoul feels like some kind of provincial backwater. There are also many works of art and sculptures dotted randomly around the cities streets which give the place a lot of charm.

There are clearly a great many wealthy people in Seoul and there are more Ferraris and Lamborghini’s and Porsches than you can shake a stick at.

04 Apr 25

To me, whenever someone says they have visited South Korea the first thing that comes to mind is the DMZ. With this in mind I somehow felt compelled to visit the area and a little reluctantly booked a tour, as much as anything to avoid spending the rest of my life explaining why I didn’t visit the DMZ when I had the chance.

We duly signed up on a tour and, in order, we visited the Peace Park, the Number 3 tunnel, a border post and finally a small shopping area designed to relieve us of our hard earned cash on souvenirs and other assorted tat.

The Peace Park was nice and probably the highlight of the day.

The number 3 tunnel was dug secretly by North Korea (DPRK) to invade the South but was discovered in 1978 which put paid to their dastardly plans. 

Access to the North’s tunnel was via a very steep and long but modern tunnel which when it reaches the DPRK’s tunnel becomes low, narrow, rough hewn and claustrophobic and eventually stops at a dead end where the tunnel has been sealed of to prevent any Northern naughtiness. 

This is all well and good but such were the numbers of tourists that you could only really spend a few seconds at the end before turning round for the slog back to the surface. To add insult to injury cameras were banned for “security reasons” which seemed nuts - it is not like the tunnel is a secret as the North already know about it, not least as they built it, and visiting it must be South Koreas biggest tourist attraction!

Next came the border post but that was also frustrating as again the military wouldn’t allow us to take any pictures and we could only look at the North through a glass window - what the heck, we might just as well have watched it on TV! Neena and I however sneaked outside and found a good old fashioned fence to look through. This relatively unimpeded view made all the difference and it was an eerie feeling looking over into North Korea.

In all fairness to the military, there have been heightened tensions recently with the North sending over balloons loaded with excrement and other foul substance’s. The South have retaliated by playing K-Pop over loudspeakers directed at the North which seems like ample revenge to me as shit is indeed shit, but it isn’t a shit as K-Pop (Gangnam Style excepted).

All in all, despite the frustrations, I am still jolly glad we did the DMZ tour.

In the evening we had a traditional Korean BBQ at a nearby restaurant. 

We had pork which was cooked on our own very ornate grill by our own chef. The meat itself was very nice and was accompanied by about a dozen small side dishes, all of which were cold. Among other “delicacies”, there was cold soup and various types of kimchi along with a a weird egg dish. 

I tried most of the dishes even though I hate cold clammy food, so this was an especially trying evening for me. We also had some Danish Kelly beer, which was the highlight of the meal.

Korean style BBQ restaurants were absolutely everywhere and probably the main tourist “culinary experience” so we just had to do it. It was a fun night out, but neither of us was impressed enough to do it again.

A special note must be made of Queen’s Bakery which has become our go to place for our morning coffee and bun.

05 Apr 25

We swapped from the All Stay Hostel to the rather less claustrophobic Olive Hostel R situated in nearby Myeongdong and close to the Namsan Mountain cable car. The new room certainly had more space along with a small kitchen and even a washing machine. What the place did lack however is a common area, so we were basically stuck in a room with only one chair, although for the price we paid it’s difficult to grumble too much, although we did anyway.

Other than that, it was cold and rainy from start to finish, so a bit of a nothing day.

No cat swinging here...

Some of the electrics were a bit dodgy

06 April 25

We woke to another cold, but mercifully dry day.

In the morning we walked to the Gyeonbokgung Palace just in time to watch the changing of the guard. This palace is a big tourist attraction and there were hundreds of the people (locals and tourists) watching dressed in traditional Korean clothes, with the women in particular, looking very fetching.

On the way there we passed a huge rally which I think was in response to the impeachment of the countries president. Whether they were for or against said impeachment I am not sure.

We then had an early lunch of Korean dumplings and sweet pancakes at a roadside stall. The pancakes in particular were superb.

After this we jumped on the subway system and headed to Gangnam, which was of course made famous by PSY. 

For some reason I thought the area would be a little low rent but the reality was quite the opposite with Gangnam oozing money from every pore.

After Gangnam we decided to walk to the “nearby” Han River . An hour and a half later we finally made it. It was actually a nice walk and a great way to see parts of Seoul not normally visited by tourists. All in all, we walked at least 10kms which was a surprise to me as I have a long term issue with pain in both my feat and can barely walk at times.

All in all, a pretty nice day.

07 April 25

Another long day doing the tourist thing. Lovely weather.

We walked to the Hwanghakdong Flea Market. On the way we passed a load of motorbike shops which had all sorts of weird and wonderful bikes, many of which are not available in the West, or NZ at any rate. My favourite was a cruiser style bike with a flat-6 engine. Only Honda make these kind of engines which are used in their Goldwing and Valkyrie models, but this particular bike looked like neither, although I suspect was a modified Valkyrie.

After much mooching around the flea market, I bought some biscuits and Neena Moringa tea and some Muchi. 

When then headed back to our hostel in Myeongdong for a quick cup of tea and then headed back out again.

We took the nearby Namsan cable car to the Namsan Seoul Tower. We quickly brought our tickets and then not so quickly queued for an hour and a half for the bloody cable car.

When we eventually arrived, the views over Seoul made it worth the wait.

By the time we arrived back from the cable car it was getting late so we by-passed the hostel and went straight to the local night market.

The market was huge with thousands of people there and hundreds of stalls. The original plan was eat at a restaurant but we are both fans of dining alfresco so it was the stalls for us. 

We shared fried honey chicken, egg loaf and pancakes. The egg loaf was especially good.

Also had was pomegranate juice, which despite some trepidation on my part, was actually rather nice.

By this stage we were both pretty shattered and my knees and feet were killing me, so it was a cup of Moringa, some biscuits and then bed.

08 April 25

It’s train to Busan day, hopefully without the zombies.

We travelled to the nearby Seoul Station and then booked tickets to Busan on the KTX bullet train.

The scenery for the first part of the trip was a bit bleak as the terrain was flat, often industrial or otherwise bare, along with the ubiquitous Korean haze. As we got closer to Busan the terrain became more mountainous and varied and interesting. The train itself was smooth, quiet and fast.

We stayed at the Residence Mumum Hotel. This was a step up from our previous accommodation if not quite as good as its internet reviews, so no surprises there then.

In the evening we had chilli chicken and beer at a local restaurant. The meal was great and I also learned a valuable life lesson which is to wash your hands before (and after) you go to the bathroom, especially if you have been eating red hot chilli’s. - you have been warned.

09 April 25

The plan of action for the day was to visit a (locally) famed cherry blossom tree street and then travel to the even more renowned Haeundae Beach.

The cherry blossom was in full bloom so we couldn’t have timed it any better. It turned out that the street is very close to the sea so we walked down to the coast and found a lovely wide beautifully maintained and engineered path. There were some skyscrapers in the distance so we decided to head towards them and see how far we got.

The skyscrapers over here are huge and consequently are further away than they look and we ended up walking for miles to reach them. 

On the way we came across the somewhat unheralded Gwangali Beach. The beach was lovely and sandy and in need of a paddle, which was duly done.

We eventually reached the skyscrapers and as it was such a nice day we just carried on. 

Eventually we reached Haeundae Beach which really was a stunning sight, so I can see what all the fuss is about. After lunch and some loafing about we headed back to the hotel.

We had originally intended to take the subway to Haeundae Beach and had no intention of walking. For us, it is often these spur of the moment making it up as you go along days that are the most rewarding, as it was this day.

We did indeed take the subway when we came back and it is a measure of how far we walked that it was 26 stops on the train line before we got back to Busan. 

Dinner was at a cheap and cheerful local restaurant. We were the only foreigners there and the vibe and food (Tofu and Rice and Beef Noodle Soup) were great.

10 April 25

We visited the Gamcheon Culture Village today. This entailed a subway ride and then a trudge up a dirty great hill. 

The place was very picturesque and full of shops selling tourist tat, but we were unable to find out where the culture was. There was even a British themed cafe selling sausage and mash and full English breakfasts but limited ourselves to some English breakfast tea and watched the world go by.

11 Apr 25

We took the TKX bullet train to Seoul. This wasn’t as straightforward as it should have been. As is our want, we turned up at the ticket office in Busan Station at about 11am only to be told that there were no seats available until 8pm, but that there were some “standing seats” available for the 1pm train. We didn’t fancy hanging around, so that’s what we went for, even though if it was going to mean standing for over 3hrs.

The standing area, which was pretty small, was located near the toilets at end of our carriage. In the end, it didn’t work out too bad as the area had two small flip down seats, which Neena and I, being some of the first passengers onboard, managed to bag. It still wasn’t the most comfortable journey but it could have been a lot worse. My tip is to do what we didn’t do, and book in advance.

We did meet a very nice lady on the train who was carrying her cat in a bag with a transparent cover and breathing ports. The bag was strapped to her chest and the cat very large so Neena offered to cat sit for the lady who was only to keen to oblige as it was literally a weight of her shoulders. 

The cat was very pretty and had a lovely temperament, and as ever, much nicer than our Libby, even though we love her despite all her faults.

Once again, we are staying at the Olive Hostel R. To be honest, not the first choice, but by central Seoul standards it was very cheap and got the job done.

We had dinner at the local night market. 

12 April 25

We hit the subway again and visited the Starlight Library and also PSY’s famous Gangnam Hand statue, which was nearby.

The library really was quite something with shelves at least 10 metres high housed in a stunning looking building. Libraries are supposed to be places of quiet contemplation and study but there was not much chance of that given the numbers of tourists and you would need jolly long arms to reach the books.

Next was the Gangnam Hands statue where Neena and I duly did our best PSY impression, which given the results, still needs a lot of work.

Not long after this rain started to fall and we made a strategic retreat back to Myeong-dong.

The rain continued to fall and it got progressively colder, so dinner consisted of a quick soggy trip to the night market.

13 Apr 25

Cold and windy with snow flurries!

A bit of a nothing day as all we really did was get some coffee and I brought some chocolates for work. This was in part due to the weather but mostly us being in holiday wind-down mode and looking forward to getting back to NZ.

One big plus point on this trip has been my feet. I was barely able to walk prior to coming here and so experimented with high 12mm drop trail runners which is a big change from the zero drop shoes I have been using the last few years. The difference has been something of a revelation with my now feet about ten times better, although still with some discomfort.

In the evening we had Chicken Galbi at a local restaurant. This is a traditional Korean shared dish of marinated chicken, rice cakes, sweet potatoes, green cabbage and perilla leaves, whatever they are. It was an enjoyable meal but could have done with a little seasoning, which I think would have raised things up a notch. 

After the meal we headed out into the cold and very much on the spur of the moment had coffee at a cat cafe. This was pretty pricey but the cats were great and who, once again, put our cat Libby to shame. 

These kind of cafes are primarily for sentimental cat lovers like us, so it was an unexpected surprise at how great the “complimentary” coffee was.

After this we headed back to the hostel watched the obligatory real-crime show and went to bed.

14 April 25

A cold wet and miserable day - a bit like a British winter, but with better food.

We took the train to Incheon. 

We arrived at around midday but our hotel’s (The Seattle) check-in time wasn’t until 4pm so we took refuge from the cold and the rain in a local cafe and started planning our next trip to the not-so-good-old US of A.

I had a non-coffee toffee nut latte, which was divine. Neena had a proper hazelnut latte, which as usual, she couldn’t taste.

We had dinner at a small unassuming restaurant just over the road from our hotel. We had Korean spicy sausage and rice soup. Neena also had her beloved Kimchi which is basically fermented cabbage - about the only good thing I can say about it is that it tastes less awful than the German equivalent, Sauerkraut . Kimchi aside, the food was delicious and reasonably priced and as an added bonus we were the only foreigners there.

15 April 25

We flew back to Wellington.