Here I Go Again

I’m back now which everyone should know by now… Sorry to you if you didn’t know, there must be a good reason… :-S

Anyway, regular readers probably noticed my updates getting more and more infrequent.  Its been ages since my last post actually.

After skydiving (which was awesome!) we headed to the north island and took our car across on the ferry into Wellington.  We stayed there for a few nights, its a really nice city and has the only welsh pub in the southern hemisphere!  Its a converted public toilets.

We didnt have long in the north island before our flight so didn’t manage to stop in many places.  We were heading for Tauranga which is where some friends lived and we were gonna spend christmas with,  the suburb they lived in was, get this - Bethlehem!  Well I thought it was funny.  Having Christmas in the summer in a place called Bethlehem on the other side of the world to where I usually spend it was a bit disorientating to say the least.  The family we stayed with though were very hospitible and made us feel right at home (as possible).

While we were there we climbed Mt Manganui which is right on the coast  and is an extinct volcano.

So after a few peacful days there including christmas day where we had a BBQ instead of turkey and shrimps instead of stuffing, we said our farewells and jumped on a bus to Auckland airport.

Next came the dreaded 20 hour flight.  I spent some time in the airport trying to get my head around the time differences and how many hours we’d actually loose or gain because of the international dateline etc but gave up in the end coz it gave me a headache!

No one new I was on my way back because I had cunningly told you all that I’d changed my flight to the 16th January where infact I hadn’t changed it at all! Har har!  I let Dad in on it because I was going to walk in new years eve but needed to know everyone would be there so needed an inside man.  That plan didn’t really work out so surprised even Dad when I got to the house on Dec 30th.  Mam was just outside the house cleaning up the leaves as she does so I walk up and say “Hello” and she returns it just as casually before realising who it is. Mwa ha ha.

So I kept it quiet that I was back and still managed to surprise most people when they showed up at the house New years eve and I answered the door to them, it was brill, I like surprises.

So.  The trip is over.  Spose I’ll have to find somthing else to do now…

Woooooooooooooo!

Skydiving is awesome! I did it from 15000ft (The highest available) where you free fall for 60 seconds and in those 60 seconds travel 2 miles vertically down to earth where your new best friend pulls the parachute cord and you slow down to a glide down to earth. My new best friend was a guy called Adam who was from Liverpool and has been a sky dive person in America and Israel before working for Skydive Wanaka. (more…)

Woah, has it really been that long since the last post? My apologies to anyone that has been faithfully checking back every five minutes… no one? Good good.

Since I’ve done a fair bit in the last few weeks I’ll chuck it all into one post rather than making a post for each, coz I’d have to think of titles for each one, publish each on and put the picture links in each one so for my laziness’ sake here it goes…

(more…)

“What a day!” Is what we were all saying Monday night. We’ve got some new buddy’s by way of Rich (cheers rich), Steffan, who’s from Machen and his mate Ben, they both work at this camp and conference centre called Living Springs. We got in contact with them and they asked if we wanted to go out on a tramp, this was a no brainer because the alternative was probably staying on the settee all day. (more…)

Howdy folks, I’ve got something new to blog about (yay).

Last Saturday we went on a road trip to a place called Arthurs Pass which is like a little village in a national park of the same name. Melissa and Hannah go through here every time they go back home to Greymouth (lucky them).

We didn’t really do all that much and probably could have had a look around a bit more but it wont be the last time I see it im sure, we stopped to get some food and take a few pics of the Kea’s then we set off a bit further on to the Otira Viaduct, which FYI was finished in 1999 and was awarded the IPENZ Environmental award for the challenges of building the viaduct in the geologically complex and fragile alpine ecology of Arthurs Pass :-).

The on the way back we got a little excited about the snow and had a good ol’ snowball fight (I won btw) which was great fun but cold on the hands.

Not long after leaving Christchurch we could see the mountains on the horizon and the scenery just kept getting better and better, I can’t wait till we set off again proper to explore more.

Enjoy the pics

Arthurs Pass

Out.

Yes! Is the answer to all your questions as to whether or not I’ve found a job yet, lol. You can all let out a big sigh of relief he he.

They rang up about an hour ago saying they’d ‘love to have us aboard’ and told me the shifts they can give me - Tuesday to Friday 8pm - 1am which I think is pretty good coz I get the weekends and all day to do whatever.  I’ll be stacking shelves which doesn’t sound all that fun but i’m not bothered really, just something to bring the travel money in, and I think there was mention of having to use those machines that lift crates to the top shelves which sounds fun :-). The place of employment is a chain called The Warehouse (’Where everyone gets a bargain’ - the catchy slogan). I don’t know what I’d compare it too back home, they sell pretty much everything in a big b&q style warehouse building. We went for interviews last week which felt strange coz i’ve never had to have an interview for a job before.

So now that’s sorted I guess I can go out and blow what money I’ve got on a big celebratory meal or something

Hi everyone.
Its around week 4 in Christchurch and we’ve moved into a house with four students so I’ve now got my own room and my own bed after staying in hostels (and cars) for nearly 3 months its nice. The house is really cold though coz its winter outside and theres no central heating inside(!). Our house mates are all ok and we’re getting on well which is good. The rent is cheap too.

I woke up this morning/afternoon to find a big empty space where the telly used to be because it actually belonged to one of the guys who used to live here and so he came and took it back. The girls aren’t too keen on our idea to get a new 32″ LCD though so thats a pity.

The next thing is to get a job to build the funds back up to travel around New Zealand and maybe fall out of a plane or off a bridge or 3…

K, so I went from Australia - GMT+10(ish) to Rarotonga - GMT-11 then back to New Zealand - GMT+11 all because of a line someone drew on the maps. Marty and Christopher Lloyd had it tough!

Our last night in Rarotonga didn’t have enough sleep in it for my liking. We were rudely attacked by a Houdini-style cockroach! First of all it climbed the wall and got our attention, then jumped off the wall and started flying around our heads. We sat there, screamed our heads off like little schoolgirls for a few seconds then sprang out our beds and were on the other side of the room quicker than you could say entomophobia. We eventually pulled ourselves together and I constructed a trap from a fruit basket and carrier bag and Jonny proceeded to beat my bed with a pillow rather than the cockroach. When it was on the floor I slammed my trap over it. Sigh, relax. But then, was that another one on the other side of the room? No, there wasn’t anything under my trap so he had magically escaped! We then had him trapped in a corner behind Jonnys bed but it ran under it and disappeared again! We searched for it for about 20 minutes but couldn’t find it. At this point we realised we were well out-gunned so admitted defeat and retreated to the other building where the kitchen and lounge area was and calmed our nerves with a brew holding out as long as we could. (more…)

Thats hello in Cook islands maori which is slightly different to New Zealand maori so there.

Rarotonga is like the main one of the cook islands and is where the government which only looks after a few matters before the New Zealand government takes control.

Getting here was a laugh, after spending 3 whole days on a bus we checked into a hotel in sydney and had a shower! Ahhhhhh.  Then had a look around, we walked half way across the harbour bridge got a good view of the opera house (it looks a lot smaller in real life).  We didn’t walk down to it though, it was miles away and we were naffed. 

Then the flight took us back 20 hours so we’re now 10 hours behind you lot,  actually 11 i think coz of daylight savings or whatever.  So we landed ( a little to quick for my liking) and in the airport was a guy in grass skirt singing and playing the guitar ha ha.  Apparently they give you those flower necklace things when you arrive and leave but we didnt get one so I will make sure I get one when we leave

Its very relaxed here too, and to pass our test for a scooter licence we had to ride the scooter through town and back with the police man behind us but I set off, didnt stop for people on the pelican crossing and carried on, the rest of them in my group stopped though and then got caught in traffic, I thought I’d have to do it again but he gave us a pass he he.  The scooters are cool and a good way to get around on the island, we did rent mountain bikes for a few days when we got here but coz most of the cars are old, you get a lung full of old exhaust fumes whenever you get overtaken.

 We’ve been swimming in the lagoon right by our hostel too, well, we walked most of it, its really shallow, theres a few tiny islands off our beach so you can walk to them.  We had a go at swimming though and I bashed my knee on a big lump of coral then stood on some which I had to pick out of my foot, add that to the bug bites, oh yeh and burning my leg on the exhaust of the scooter and you could say the island is leaving an impression on me.

I went to church last sunday too, (the advertised free lunch had nothing to do with persuading me to get up for it) it was interesting, most of it was in maori and they had a bit where the choir did some songs which were cool and the sermon was for about 10 minutes lol.  In the hall where we had lunch, there were a school group over from new zealand and they did a performance for everyone which was cool too, and they finished on the hakka - wicked.

 I’m taking pictures of the island and stuff but I havn’t got a way to upload any here so you’ll have to wait till im in new zealand which should be next thursday woo hoo!

Out.

Haloooo, its me again, well who else could it be eh?

 I’m in Darwin this week which is the Northern Territories capital.  Its very nice compared to some of the towns we’ve seen on the way up, there’s some stories to tell there!  Its been an adventure travelling up the west coast and through the Norther Territory and Ive uploaded the photos see below.  On the way up we’ve swam in the sea a few times and noticed the weather getting hotter and hotter, at the moment here in Darwin its about 20 something degrees at 00:45 and in the day its up to its 40’s, all the time!  We’ve also slept in the car, avoided the sharks, sleep in the car, nearly swim with Dolphins (or at least be in the water knee deep and see them being fed), avoided stonefish (they’re really nasty!), sleep in the car, not get eaten by crocodiles that were only meters away, swim under waterfalls not get attacked by Aborigines and make it here to Darwin alive.  Aaaaaah.  All will be explained in more detail I promise.

Oh yeh, you know I said that we were going to get a flight from Darwin to Sydney?  Scrap that, all the flights are booked up to all the major cities which left us wandering if we were going to make it to the cook islands and have had to resort to getting a bus! A bus! to take us from here, to Sydney via Alice Springs and Adelaide (See route) which is 4403 kilometres and will take us 3 days (fun) meaning that we’ll get to Sydney a day before our flight giving us a few hours to take as much of Sydney in as possible.  However, because me and Jonny have worked out that it takes at least a week to suss out most of the cities we’ve sort of kinda roughly planned our next visit to Oz where we’ll cover the east coast.

Photo update:

Perth to Darwin