Oz Photos
Oz photos are up on the website now... might add some panoramas later though :o)
Oz photos are up on the website now... might add some panoramas later though :o)
I'm now home after the most hideously long flight!
Auckland was nice and relaxing. The tour of the city wasn't overly good - the panoramic views were kind of spoilt by cloud! The aquarium was good fun with underwater glass tunnels and lots of fish and sharks to see. We spent most of the time doing some souvineer shopping and on our last night we met up with my friend Fiona who is from Auckland but spent one semester on my course in Nottingham. We went for hot chocolate and cake with a couple of her friends and it was great to catch up.
Our journey home took us 28 hours - yuck. Our second flight from Sydney was interesting in that the plane aborted take-off just as it was about to leave the runway as the pilot had noticed a problem. Apparently the reverse thrusts were malfunctioning so after spending several minutes on the runway trying to recreate the situation and check it was playing up we headed back to the terminal where they simply disconnected the reverse thrust. The pilot's words were "we don't need it... it's more of a luxury than anything". Very comforting.
The plane we were on was a bit old and the entertainment system hadn't been upgraded to their super dooper ones. The movies were pretty terrible so this made the flight seem to last even longer... but it did mean that I got some sleep! We were sat next to the most miserable Australian Girl and her unfortunate boyfriend who were on their way to Europe for a few weeks of travel and she thought it was going to be the worst experience ever. She huffed in disappointment at the fact it was only 16*C in the UK at 6.30am!!!
So we got back on Thursday but didn't have much time to rest as we had to go to a wedding on the Saturday down in Surrey! Friday was spent rushing around to buy an outfit! Traffic was absolutly disgusting and I am now even more convinced that living in the South of England is a bad bad idea because of it!
I start work next week so this week is a rush of tasks to get done before then!
Following my last blog we headed on our way to Rotarua. We stopped of at Wai-o-Tapu Thermal Wonderland where we looked at all the bubbling mud, steaming ground and geysers. They are supposed to be the most colourful ones in the country and were pretty impressive but VERY smelly. All the sulphur makes it all a bit eggy!
It was glorious sunshine again the next day so I decided I should jump out of a plane.... I decided that I'd give the skydive thing a go... Paddy decided that if I was doing one he had better do one too - He thought I might brag or something :oP We drove back to Lake Taupo as it's the cheapest place to do it and we could see Mt. Doom in the distance so it was pretty cool. We had non existing briefings beforehand and I was slightly unnerved when my tandem master grabbed me to drag me to the plane and quickly introduced himself as Damien. There was no going back :oS He was pretty cool though. It was great fun, though it doesn't last very long! Not quite what I'd ever imagined - really awesome. Ed and I both got videos done of our freefalls and now have action footage of us plummeting towards the earth - all pretty cool.
That night Paddy and I went along to a Mouri Concert and Hangi. It was a really weird experience. There were only 7 "guests" and we were outnumbered by the Maori performers who were all dressed up in their traditional costume along with face art. Being so few of us, none of us got away without getting up on stage doing a dance with them. I had to do a poi dance with the ladies and Paddy did the Haka with the men!! Very very funny! The food afterwards was amazing! There was loads of it and it was all delicious! We crawled back into our little campervan with very full tummies!
On we went from Rotarua up to the Coromandel Peninsula stopping off for a quick look at Hobbiton and then drove up around the coastline. We called in at Hot Water Beach where we had a paddle in the holes people had dug and sat in. Some were so hot you couldn't stand in the water! We were a bit to late in the day to hire our own spade and dig a hole so we just used other peoples which had been finished with :o) We did a walk to Cathedral Cove and took some photos there. We found ourselves an interesting sleeping spot perched on a narrow layby above the road and started early the next day.
We then drove all the way to the Bay of Islands where we camped in a disused airfield! The next day we did one of those super dooper 1600 horsepower jet boats to go through the hole in the rock. Afterwards we went to Waitangi to the Treaty house where the treaty between the British and the Maori was signed. It was a pretty interesting visit with some beuatiful Maori carvings. We continued on down the coast on our way back to Auckland. We stopped to see the Giant Kauri tree and camped in a nice campsite for a change.
Now we are in Auckland! We have handed back the Spaceship and are set up in a hostel which is lovely. Tomorrow we're doing a tour of the city and the next day we are going to the aquarium as we have some free tickets. Apart from that we are going to relax for our last few days in New Zealand!
Kia Ora! Seeing as I haven't actually used that one yet!
We are now on the North Island! Our boat was delayed by a few hours so we didn't get much time in Wellington. A very weird capital city though... no buidings above 10 stories! We had a quick look around and jetted up the coast to our destination for the night... another picknic (as they seem to spell it over here in places!) site. This one was particularly grotty but we picked up some pizza on the way so we barely had to get out of our little bubble car after dark. Mr Nuggles will be very pleased we have been educating ourselves with Smallville :oS
The next day was spent travelling to and around Mt. Egmont - A HUGE Volcano! Sadly we had amazing views on the way there but missed to take a photo and when we arrived at the visitor centre it was all hidden in cloud :o( Very impressive drive in though! We did a little walk through the rainforest down to Dawson Falls (a very pretty waterfall) and waited in vain for the sun to come out again before heading on to New Plymouth. Now I don't quite get it... why build a big town beneath a HUGE (did I mention it was massive) volcano... I certainly would buy a house there! It was a nice looking little town though.
By the evening we had reached Waitomo where we booked on to do some caving the next day. We had wanted to do the cheaper Black Water Rafting Option but the lady seemed terribly keen for us to do the "more challenging" abseiling and caving option and gave it us for almost the same price. She also recommended a carpark to sleep in so that was nice!
We started our caving adventure at 8am. Yuck - it was still dark. They took us to the cave location and kitted us up with some rather fancy gear. Black Wetsuits and White recycled abattoir wellies complete with harness and helmet. Nice. We looked and felt suitably stupid. They introduced us to the most scary looking abseil device I have ever seen and then we climbed down into the caves. The abseils were actually quite fun - all the more so because we got soaked as we were going down waterfalls. We followed the river down quite a fair way and stopped here and there and turned off our head torches so we could see the hundreds of glowworms all over the caves. Very cool. Now some bits was rather tight squeezes... and I have some issues with tight squeezes... especially when they are full of water. I checked with the lady if there wold be any such things and she said no... but I call me flat on my tummy crawling through water and having to tilt my head to one side to breath rather tight. Still... the slightly chubby Mexican girl infront of me gave me faith I would make it through alive and I did... and it was great fun! :o) I have a picture to prove it! :oP
After the caving we quickly showered and headed over to Tongario National Park where they filmed Mt. Doom (using the active Mt. Tongario) in Lord of the Rings! We had hoped to do the 1 day walk across the Tongario Crossing, but it is currently Alpine Conditions with high avalanche risk so no guides are going. We found a carpark under the mountains and woke up to a gloriously sunny day with wonderful views! We did a little walk to get some views and have now driven to Lake Taupo. I'm looking at skydives but think I might have to pass... it's pretty expensive.
We plan to go to Rotaroa next to take in some Maori culture.
Well, the roads were less windy and we got through the last bit a bit quicker than we expected! We're in Picton!
After Greymouth we drove up north and visited the Pancake Rocks in the Punakaiki Reserve and then went further north and visited a seal colony at Cape Foulwind... which stank! But the seals were very cute! We cut into land through the national parks and camped somewhere inbetween there and the Abel Tasmen in a carpark next to the Owen River.
Yesterday we made it to the Abel Tasman... which was really quiet. We went for a walk up the coast and saw lots of Oyster Catchers and other birds. We went to the weirdest campground as there was a "Spaceship Station" and we wanted to swap over our dvds (Yes... our Spaceship even has a 7" dvd player in it!) It was called "Old Macdonalds Farm and Campsite"... it was dead... there were a few cows.. and one or two ducks but no people. It was slightly scarey as the signs were all hand painted and circus like and were faded and worn out and so it looked deserted. Weird, because the things I thought were creepy were also the things I thought were quite cool! Old Macdonald did eventually turn up and we swapped the dvds and went on our way... would have been nice to have stayed if we'd had longer though - the cows and ducks were very cool! :oP
So on we went to Nelson... It was there that we stumbled across the first Chavs we have seen in NZ... 3 cars of them in the botanical gardens carpack! We decided not to leave the car there and went and found some safer street parking... this country is so like home in so many ways! We did the walk up a very steep hill to the centre of New Zealand. It's funny... we don't know how they worked out where the centre was... but they must have been very happy that it lay right on the top of the hill and not in a bog to the side! A nice man with a huge dog showed us one of NZ less treasured birds... the Native Pigeon... who are fat as. At the top of the hill, at the centre of New Zealand... we bumped into the boys who had been on our Glacier walk - we had also bumped into them at Pancake Rocks so that was very weird! Less weird than when we bumped into the girl on our Kakadu trip in Queenstown, but hey. We chatted to them then went our own way again and started heading to Picton.
Last night we had our 3rd freecamping night so this morning we made it to Picton (going via a few scenic bits) and arrived rather smelly! So we are in a 5* campsite with spa and are now squeaky clean ready for the North Island!
We spent only a day and a half in Queenstown as we're a bit too broken to do any of the cool extreme sports on offer... we'll save those for our next trip! We headed up around Lake Wanaka where we did a walk around the lake and then drove on up along the Haast Pass stopping off at waterfalls and scenic points. We found a cheap Department of Conservation campsite and parked up there for the night - it was freeeeezing! We got moving pretty early and continuned the journey across to the coast and up to Fox Glacier. We had a look at the glacier and went for a walk around the beautiful Lake Matheson which is nicknamed the Mirror Lake as it has brilliant views of Mt Cook with perfect reflections in the water. It was a glorious blue skied day and so the reflections were just like in the postcards! We then went along to the Fraz Josef glacier and booked ourselves on for a full day guided tour on the glacier starting at 8am the next day :oS
The glacier tour was interesting... I did feel like one of those victorians you see in old pictures... blatently a tourist going for a pleasant stroll on the glacier while a poor sod walks ahead cutting out steps for us with his mighty axe! It did get a little more interesting as we got up higher and we crawled through ice tunnels and squeezed through long narrow gullies deep in the ice. All pretty cool and we got nice and wet. The Franz Josef Glacier is pretty cool as it is actually advancing rather than receeding at the moment since 2004... the front grows about 20cm a day whilst the back moves up to 5m a day! This means the face of the glacier is very steep and huge chuncks actually fell off as we were walking up. It is also one of only 3 glaciers that actually goes below the tree line into the rainforest (the others being Fox Glacier and one in S. America). Theres so trivia for you!
When we finished our fun day out we jumped straight in the car and and headed up north... we free camped somewhere before Greymouth (not sure where!) and are currently in Greymouth... again! Our little campervan needed a new battery so we've had him fixed up and are about to go for another one of those lamb sandwiches... yummy!
Next stop... the Abel Tasman Park on the north coast of the South Island before floating across to the North Island.
Well we've been in NZ for just over a week now. The TranzAlpine ride was brilliant, really pretty views and we both managed to take a ridiculous amount of photographs. Greymouth was rather plain BUT we did find a cafe with the most amazing sandwiches in the world!!!!!! Minted Roast Lamb sandwiches with big lumps of lamb... yummy yummy yummy! The ride back was just as good with sunset and we met an american girl who was studying in Wellington who gave us some info on the things to see which was cool.
The Rugby in Christchurch was awesome! The All Blacks beat Australia 27-12 and we met a girl Sarah (To be forever called "Crazy Rugby Girl") and some of her family. We went out for a few drinks after the match and stumbled around lost in Christchurch until we finally found our way back to the hostel! A great evening and a good crowd - cheers Crazy Rugby Girl ;o)
The next morning we went to pick up our "camper van" that we have hired for 3 weeks... it's called a "Space Ship" and is a bright orange people carrier that has had some "modifications". It's pretty cool and even has a dvd player and 2 dvds which we can swap around the country and with other fellow space ship commanders.
Now... on the rumours of New Zealand being a terribly wet country... it is true we have had some rain, but not much! We started our journey by travelling to Lake Tekapo and then Mt. Cook which was lovely and sunny. We spent the first couple of nights in some camp grounds to acclimatise ourselves. We then headed across to the East Coast to see the Moriaki Boulders (big weird circular boulders on the beach) and driving down the coast stopping off to see seals and fail to see penguiins. We didn't have enough time to stop at Dunedin so rushed onwards and "free camped" in a picnic area off the road. It was cozy enough though a little cold without the heater. We continued our journey along the South Coast stopping at view points at various beaches. We had hoped to see some waterfalls and caves but they were all closed due to a combination of season and possum poison! We did stop off at one place that really wasn't worth the bother... "Niagra Falls (NZ)" which was "comically" named by a "funnyman" of New Zealand... it's a babbling brook really. Another stop allowed Ed to reveil his bum but I'll save that one for the photo album!
So then we entered Fiordland... and it started to rain! We camped at another campsite in Te Anau as we couldn't find anywhere else. We took it easy the next day as it was still raining. Milford Sound (the most popular tourist attraction in New Zealand was inaccessable as the road was closed off due to heavy snow. We drove up as far as we could and took some nice photos. We had hoped to do a cruise on the Sound but instead booked ourselves onto a cruise on the quieter Doubtful Sound for the next day despite warnings it may be a bit wet again.
We found some free camping nice and early and froze to death but did manage to get up in time to go on the cruise. We had got 2 of the last tickets on the smaller, cheaper vessel in the area and we were very lucky indeed! It wasn't raining at all and didn't rain at all! Glorious sunshine all day - a very rare thing in the area at anytime of the year! Fantastic! The views were amazing and we had dolphins swimming right up next to the boat where you could almost touch them! They did manage to splash me once or twice! It was a brilliant day and well worth it! The sound was so quiet and we hardly saw any other boats... it was wonderful.
When we got back we headed straight over to Queenstown and free camped just outside. We've booked into a nice campsite tonight and are spending the day seeing the sights of the town. Everyone seems rather into thier skiing and snowboarding... it's not quite Whistler though... and Ed and I are still both sporting our injuries so we think we'll pass on that one!
After I blogged, Paddy and I had a wander about the city and visited the Opera House and did a tour around it. Our tour guide was a slightly irritating snobby sounding Australian lady who gave Ed and I some entertainment with her trying-to-be-posh accent! She was rather saccharine sweet - it was nasty! The Opera House was exactly as you've seen it in pictures, big and grand in a lovely location next to the Sydney Harbour and the famous Harbour Bridge. Paddy and I spent a while walking along the harbours edge past the botanical gardens and took lots of photographs! We sat and had some Barramundi and chips which was delicious!
The next day was our exciting Blue Mountains trip! I was really looking forward to doing this but unfortunately we didn't actually see the blue mountains! We did see a mist of pea soup cloud and a faint outline of them though... very disappointing! The other activities were good fun though - We went to the wildlife park and I went all soppy looking at more cuddly koalas and Paddy enjoyed looking at all the pretty birds (of the feathered variety). The winery provided us with lots of nice (and some foul) wine! We also had a night time ferry ride down the river and into Sydney harbour which was lovely. When we got back we took some night time pictures of the harbour and the opera house before heading back to the hostel exhausted!
Yesterday was our final day in Sydney. We rushed about, paid off our parking fine and then went up the lookout tower which was good as unlike the previous day it was sunny! We had excellent views across the city although you couldn't actually see the Opera house and harbour bridge that well.
Our flight to Christchurch, New Zealand was last night. We arrived at 10.30pm very tired and Paddy forgot he had an apple in the bottom of his bag. An apple is considered a "dangerous item" and he was promptly fined $200NZ on the spot. They very kindly didn't take him to court because they knew it was an accident... very nice of them ay? Hmmm... a nice introduction to New Zealand.
So we are here in Christchurch! Tomorrow we are going for a return ride on the trans alpine train to Greymouth. It's supposed to be a beautifully scenic route through the mountains so we are hoping the weather holds out for us this time! Our hostel is alright but worryingly has "What to do in the event of an earthquake" signs on the back of the door as well as bombscares.
Saturday is very exciting as we have got some 20 quid tickets to see the All Blacks vs. Australia in the Tri Nation tournament! The ticket includes transportation to/from our hostel and a couple of drinks! Sweeeeeeeeeet - it should be awesome!
Upon arriving at my Auntie Lib's we met her husband Tim (who I'd never met) and thier friend who was over from the US. We all went down to the local surf club where we me my cousins fiancé Jonny and had a fantastic meal. Paddy and I followed Lib's advice and went for the Seafood Lasagne which was jam packed full of prawns and fish and was delicious! There was also so much I couldn't finish it and Paddy had to help me out!
The next day Paddy and I were treated to an early morning surf with Jonny! We went to the beach before 7am and I'm sure I almost died several times! The sea was so rough and swimming was very difficult. I was slightly worried when Jonny shouted to me "go to the bottom and protect your neck!". The board was a proper one and not covered in the grippy foam we had learnt on so we were a bit rubbish! Paddy managed to stand up and I managed to do the splits on it! Maybe I should make a new sport... It was a great was to start the day though!
Later we borrowed my cousins car (as she's away) to drive down to Byron Bay. We had a look around the shops, walked on the beach, had fish and chips and got a parking ticket for $75. Lovely. It was great to see Byron Bay though; it's got a very pretty beach.
The next day Paddy and I walked all the way along the beach up to Surfers Paradise which took a good hour or so. When we got there we did some shopping in the surf shops and had some lunch. It's quite the mini Vegas with lots of neon lights - not quite what we were expecting... though I don't know what we expected! We went up the Q1 tower (the tallest residential tower in the world) and looked out across the city in all directions. The tower also boasts having one of the fastest lifts in the world... my ears popped 3 times on the way up!
The next day Paddy and I played mini golf at the Mermaid Beach Putt Putt course! We played on all three courses. I won the first, Ed the second and we were evens on the last. A total of 23 over par so we aren't quite pro crazy-golfers yet!
We caught the 6pm bus from Surfers to Sydney. Lib, Tim and Missy (their cute, cute dog!) all took us to the bus station to say farewell. Was a pity we couldn't stay longer as it was lovely there and it was great seeing Auntie Lib again and finally meeting Tim. It was great to be able to relax after our hectic journey down the coast!
We have arrived in Sydney this morning after 15.5 hours on the bus. Wasn't too bad but the vibrations on the buses seem to give me really bad tooth ache... bizarre. Tomorrow we are booked onto a tour of the blue mountains, a winery, a wildlife park and cruise on the sydney harbour. Wow... an action packed day!
Well... actually Surfing and Koalas but catchy titles are what it's all about.
After our Fraser Island adventure we got the early bus down to Noosa. We booked in for two nights stay as the plan was to surf the first day and go to the zoo the second. We arrived at 11am and were surfing by 2pm as we booked ourselves onto a Learn to Surf lesson as soon as we arrived! We got to use beginners boards with lovely foam all over them to make them hurt less! :oS It also made them easier to stand on and everyone was standing up within a couple of attempts... Paddy and I were storming and I even managed to stand up all the way into the beach! I did find surfing quite a lot of fun... this was evident by the way I turned into a giggling wreck. The instructor (who was a huge rhino of a guy) was quite amused I think... he turned to me rather randomly... and said "You're a lovely girl" whilst laughing at the same time. I'm not sure what to make of that! \
The hostel we stayed at was a lovely old building which was the YHA in town. We had a lovely roast dinner and drank lots of wine as they started us of on a free glass to welcome the new guests - nice ay? :oP
We tried to book on for our trip to the zoo but... shock horror... the bus was full! I could have cried. Everyone we had met who had gone had been raving about the zoo. Australia Zoo is the one run by Steve Irwin aka Crocodile Hunter! I had been super excited all week and had heard how you could cuddle koalas and stroke kangaroos! Paddy being a lovely sweetheart and seeing my close to tears face said we could hire a car and go instead and cancel our second night at the hostel and drive straight on to my Auntie Lib's (the next destination!).
The zoo was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We saw loads of cool animals; koalas, otters, kangaroos, wallabies, dingoes, wombats, tigers, loads more and of course crocodiles! There was a big show with all the animals and as it was the school holidays Steve Irwin’s little 7 year old daughter did a dance routine with "The Croc Men"... all very exciting :oS We did indeed get to stroke kangaroos, wallabies and koalas and I even got to cuddle a koala and have a photo to prove it! We saw Steve Irwin dancing away to his daughter’s routine and also saw him driving on a little buggy with his little son shouting out "beep beep!". Seriously though it was a great day... we spent from 9.30am until 4pm so it really filled up the day!
Afterwards we drove past the Grasstop Mountains to Surfers Paradise where we dropped off the car and my Auntie Lib picked us up and took her back to hers.
We came back alive from 3 day 2 night adventure in Fraser Island. We managed to avoid being eaten by Dingoes by being "Dingo Safe" as they say! All quite simple really... don't leave food anywhere and bury your poo... and well... thats about it. They give you some rather pathetic "if you encounter a dingo" advice... cross your arms and slowly walk past them sounds a bit lame doesn't it. A ranger instead told us to shout "Dingo!" at the top of our voices and throw things at them such as pots and pans... sounds much more fun ay!?
Day one was a lovely early start where we got to watch an hour long video at 6.30am all about the Dingo Safe rubbish. Following that we went to the garage to pick up our vehicle and equipment and be briefed by a young Australian chap with some form of a speech impediment such that none of us really understood him. Occasionally we caught on to the fact that we were very liable for all sorts of damage to the vehicle... though we didn't catch on to quite how... hmmm...
Paddy jumped in the driver’s seat first and we went to the ferry port via the supermarket where we bought the groups food for the 3 days... all for $15AUS each... not bad eh. Everyone had stocked up on their booze previously. The ferry was fairly uneventful apart from one Dolphin teasing us by showing its tail causing us to jump out of the truck and rush to the side of the ferry... then it buggered off and didn't surface again. We drove across the narrow bumpy forested trails until we came out at the 75mile beach that is on the South Eastern stretch of the huge sand Island that is Fraser Island (The biggest sand island in the world!). We drove all the way up the beach (which is basically the main road on the island) to Indian Point where Captain Cook sighted natives looking out as he sailed around the island in 1770. From the point we saw a huge Raw and dozens of dolphins jumping in the waves. We then drove back down the beach and set up camp just off the beach.
Our campsite was quite a sight! We noticed the other groups who were touring with another company "Koalas" had lovely new tents... ours (from Palace) looked like they were used during World War I. They had one pole in the middle and holes in them. We also had 3 of them between 10 of us. We avoided having to actually sleep in them until fairly late by staying up and eating bbq and drinking wine. Luckily for us it rained only very slightly the first night and we woke up nice and dry! We had no dingo activity except for one peeing on one of the boys tent... right were his head was!
Day 2 we continued driving back down the beach and stopped off at the Coloured sands, the huge shipwreck that rests on the beach (and which I stubbed my toe on) and we walked inland to Lake Wabby where the rolling sand steeply drops down to the green water. That night we camped in the wrong place and got told off by a ranger but she let us stay so that was ok. We saw a few Dingoes which we scared away by shouting Dingo. We were less lucky with the rain and it bucketed down! The tents leaked and had big puddles inside. Thank god we were going back to town the next day! We managed to sleep despite being a little soggy.
Day 3 we went to the beautiful Lake McKenzie (not sure if thats spelt correctly). It's a beautiful crystal blue lake. We all had a swim and then made our way back to the ferry back at 4pm.
Rather exhausted we went for the $10 all you can eat pizza night at the hostel and stuffed ourselves with greasy yummy pizzahut pizzas. mmmmm...
Fraser Island is beautiful... we could have probably seen it in a day though but the group we were in was good fun so the camping was a good laugh.
We arrived in Cairns last Wednesday and booked straight into our hostel, "Dreamtime". It's quite a crazy style hostel - it's bright orange for one thing and the people are all laid back and really friendly.
We spent the day planning out our trip down the coast and looked into doing some diving on the Reef. We finally booked ourselves up for a 3 day liveaboard diving trip and then got ourselves booked up for some sailing at the Whitsundays and some 4x4 on Fraser Island.
We got back from the diving yesterday afternoon... I was dead! We did our Advanced Open Water certificate and a total of 11 dives. The first and second days doing 3 day dives and one night dive and on the final day packing in 3 dives all before 11.30am! The journey out to the reef was very choppy and I managed to do a bit of decorating down the side of the boat but once we were out there it wasn't so bad! The diving was all very exhausting! The 5 Adventure Dives we put towards our advanced were; Deep Diving, Underwater Navigation, Night Diving, Underwater Photography and Underwater Naturalist. Our instructor Gary was awesome and a great fun to dive with. Inbetween the adventure dives we were let loose on our own. We managed not to get too lost and made it back to the boat each time. A good sign.
We saw some amazing wildlife; White Tip Reef Sharks, Green Turtles, Hawksbill Turtles, Moray Eels, Triggerfish and much much more! On our morning dive, just as the sun was rising we saw a massive shark... I was pointing it out to Ed and he couldn't see it at all until he finally did and was like "oh my god... now thats a big shark!". I don't know how he could miss it! That morning I also spotted a Green Turtle coming down from the surface and I went up and swam with it and it kind of followed us along quite happily - it was very cool. :o) We took some digital underwater photographs and we got some off Gary (who is a pro) that he'd taken of us... ours weren't that good.
By the end I found it really hard to find the energy to do the last two dives but we did them. Putting the wet suit on each time was very energy draining! On the way back I took double the amount of travel sickness pills I had previously and managed to sleep the whole way!
The boat we were on was really smart. It was with a company called Pro-Dive which was quite expensive but has the best reputation in Cairns. The crew was all awesome and made our 3 days brilliant and the food was amazing too! When we got back we all went out for a meal and some drinks together before I decided I had no energy left whatsoever and had a very good nights sleep. I am suffering with Landsickness now though... I can't walk in a straight line!
We are spending today in Cairns then tonight we are getting an overnight bus to Airlie Beach where we are going on a 3 day, 2night trip on a tall ship. No comfort of private rooms and deluxe seating areas on this one so it's going to be a proper sailing experience I think! I really hope it's not so rough again!
We arrived in Darwin at 4.30am on Friday. We joined the long queue of customs and got frisked by a trainee sniffer dog 3 times which was quite funny really. Being cheap, we decided we would not check into a hostel until the next morning so sat in the airport for a few hours before finding a hostel. We booked into the only one that had any rooms left (it's high season here in the north) and to our pleasure they let us check in at 8am and so we got to sleep for a few hours before looking round the city!
We went for a walk around and found somewhere for some lunch and afterwards we looked around some souvineer shops and popped into our tour company for our Kakadu trip. We ate at our hostel that night and had our first "schooner" (425ml) of beer. The shock of the price change from Thailand kicked in!
We had a bright and early start on the Saturday... the tour company picked us up at 5.45am! We were driven in a big 4WD truck along with the other 8 passengers by our tour guide Tex. We stopped off for some breakfast before going on a 2 hour crocodile cruise along the Mary River. We saw both Salt Water Crocs ("Salties") and Fresh Water Crocs ("Freshies") as well as other birds and wildlife. The guide told us about the different species and took us in for some close looks at the crocs. The Salties are the dangerous ones which will eat you no questions and the Freshies are nicer and will supposedly only attack if you mess with them.
After the Crocodile Cruise we went to Ubirr where we looked at Aboriginal Rock Art and walked to the view point acrross the plains. We then went to our first campsite at Mardugal. We were supposed to be sleeping in Swags but the mosquitos were too bad so we had some fancy little mosiproof huts to sleep in... all very cool. We had a bbq and then went to sleep so we could get up before 6am the next day.
The next day we swam at two waterfalls... One at Gubara followed by a trip to the Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre and then we went to Gunlom where there was a most impressive waterfall. At Gunlom we were swimming with Fresh Water Crocodiles (though I didn't see any myself!)... it was a little scary swimming out to the falls across the lake as it was a bit tiring and when you got half way you looked down to the mirky depths and thought... "What is down there!". It was amazing though. We climbed the falls in the evening and watched the sunset before having dinner and falling asleep!
The 3rd day we visited a couple of waterfalls. The first was Motorcar falls at Yurmikmik which was fantastic! The water was very cold but we had the whole place to ourselves and could dive in from the surrounding rocks. The second was a smaller falls which I can't remember the name of right now! I passed on swimming at the second because it had the most evil looking spiders all around it! Paddy had a swim and survived though!
We went back to Darwin calling in at the Adelaide River Inn where we met Charlie the Buffalo from Crocodile Dundee 1 and 2. Sadly he is actually now dead and stuffed and situated on the bar... still... pretty cool.
We are now back in Darwin.. at the same hostel as before sharing with the same Dutch girl we were sharing with the first night... she is really nice and overly enthusiastic about everything! The excitment on her face when we said it was our first night in Australia! "It is the first time I am meeting people who have only just arrived!!" She spoke with equal enthusiasm when talking about her skuba diving experiences on the East Coast.
Today we visited the Indo-Pacific Marine Centre which was pretty good. We were shown around by the owner who has been working on the centre for years and is very passionate about it. It recreates Darwin's marine environment with no feeding or filters neccessary as everything is balanced. It's the biggest of its kind in the world and was lovely to see.
Tomorrow we fly to Cairns to start our journey down the East Coast... we met a girl who had done it in 2 weeks so are feeling slightly better about the 3 weeks that we have!
Well... pretty much a day!
Paddy and I rocked up into Bangkok on the Tuesday afternoon. We were lucky enough to stay at a friend Fiona and her partner Mike's place in the city which was a lovely change from the guest houses! The first night we all went along to the night bazaar and looked around the hundreds of stores that are there before having a meal and some drinks in the food court.
Fiona gave us a good rough plan for our one complete day in Bangkok, starting with a trip on the skytrain to the river where we got a taxi boat up the river. The boat took us past the very impressive temple of Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn) and dropped us off near Wat Pho (the largest and oldest Temple in Thailand). We went into Wat Pho and were taken aback by the decoration and huge statues. The highlight of the temple is the huge Reclining Buddha which is 46 metres long and 15 metres high and all covered in gold leaf! Pretty impressive!
We went on from Wat Pho to the Grand Palace... we were lucky to get in as it was closing the following day for the week long celebrations of King Bhumibol Adulyadej's Diamond Jubilee. The palace was massive. Paddy had to borrow some fancy pants as he was wearing shorts (which isn't allowed) and we explored the palace and all the different temples and the museum which had an interesting display of Thai currency over time.
A trip back on the river taxi and the train to Siam Square finished off our day before heading back to Fiona's. We packed up all our stuff ready for our flight and then popped back to the night bazaar to buy a few souvineers to fill the gaps!
The next morning it was off to Darwin, Australia! The flight went via Singapore where we easily spent 4 hours in all the shops before boarding our Quantas flight. Quantas was really cool - loads of movies to choose from and watch at your own pace. The best bit was the hiccupping flight attendent who struggled on the loud speaker and caused lots of laughter!
Paddy and I have just arrived back in Krabi 9 days after we were here last. We fly down here after spending one last night in Chiang Mai when we spent the evening looking round the night market buying some goodies before we left. We managed not to buy any "Same Same, But different" watches or sunglasses... success in my book!
After filling ourselves with full English breakfasts the next morning, we went to the airport as we thought we'd give the bus journey a miss this time seeing as it was over twice the distance and would have taken over a day. The flight we wanted was all sold out except for business class... business class on a budget flight eh? It was about 10quid extra... so after some thought... we went for it. We had to get a second flight in Bangkok but for this we were in with the rabble... I was sat next to a rather suspect man... or was he a she? I still don't know and am not sure I want to!
We arrived at Krabi airport and joined the crowd outside waiting for a taxi. We tagged onto a Canadian couple and decided we would share a taxi. The taxis at the airport were saying they wanted a whole 5 quid for the taxi into town which was far too much so we started to walk... they kept following us and the price kept going down... until it cost just under 3 quid for all 4 of us... which we thought was ok so went for it! Our hotel we found was really nice - simple but clean. We all went out for a nice meal that night before heading our separate ways in the morning.
Paddy and I went to the pier first thing and joined 2 English girls waiting for a longtail boat to take them to Railay beach. Nobody else arrived so we had to haggle the price down to about 2 quid each. The 40 minute ride was very pretty. When we arrived at the beach we had to walk quite a way to the beach we were staying at. The tide was high so we couldn't walk round and we were too tight to pay 50p to get a boat round... so what do we do? We carry 20kg of luggage over a small hill though jungle (hauling ourselves up on ropes at times!). We were glad to find a nice cheap hut to sleep in not too far from the beach. It had no electricity and only cold water but it made up for it with resident Geckos and a free morning wakeup call from the monkeys jumping on the roof!
We spent the fist day exploring all the beaches and buying the local climbing guide book. We stumbled across the Railay Divers shop and we convinced by the charming Scottish instructor Denis to enrol on a 3 day Open water PADI course. We started the next day when we had to watch videos and do "Confined" practices in the shallows of the beach. The next day we went to the Phi Phi islands (where the Beach was filmed!) on a lovely big boat with lots of free food and drinks on board. We did 3 dives instead of the proposed 2 and saw some beautiful wildlife! We saw Sea Turtles, Rays, Little Nemo's in their little Nemo homes :oP and I saw a Black tip Reef Shark! We started heading back at about 5 and the journey was 2 hours long. We saw the most amazing sunset on the journey back - it was beautiful! Pictures will follow sometime!
The next day we went out on a longtail boat and went to some local islands... I was not too happy about the Jellyfish that were about that day but we did see some pretty cool stuff. We did a wall dive and by our 5th dive we were qualified so we got to do a "swim through" though a tunnel under the island!
The rest of our time at Railay was spend chilling on the Beach (avoiding the puppydog salespeople) and we did some rock climbing in the evenings. Despite being injured we both did better than we thought we would after 10 months out of the game! I strapped up my still-duff-and-out-of-order finger and managed to follow Paddy up a 6A and some other fairly pumpy climbs so I was pretty pleased.
For our last 3 days we moved to more luxurious accomodation as there was an offer on for 3 nights for the price of 2. So we had a nice bungalow with air-con and electricity all day - shock horror! We also had a nice pool by the beach that we could use.
Most of our evenings were spend eating nice cheap meals and then sheltering from the mosquitos. We explored the caves and lagoons in the day times - the lagoon was a rather scary experience... scaling down 15ft of slippery wet clay cliffs that dyes your clothes red is not my idea of fun! I'm sure I nearly died! Yesterday when on a trail I saw a 2 meter long lizard in the bushes which made me jump!
This morning we got our Longtail boat back to Krabi and are staying in the same accomodation as before. Seeing as the internet is 4.5 times cheaper than at the beach we are cathing up on emails etc. We are trying to find some transportation out of here for tomorrow!
Our next stop is Bangkok - we hope to spend a couple of days looking round the markets and temples before catching our flight to Darwin, Aus. Then its trekking time again... :oS
We survived our 3 day trek! We came back yesterday rather smelly and damp but are now clean and refreshed and have had all our clothes washed and dryed for a bargain price :o)
We left Monday morning... it was an altogether embassing experience as Paddy had lied to our Guest House telling them we weren't going trekking (because we hadn't booked it through them like they wanted). Of course when the company we were going with dropped off our rucksacks we were borrowing it was kind of obvious we were going trekking... Nevermind :oP
We left our luggage at the trek company office and met up with all the fellow trekkers and our guides. We were split into two groups because there were quite a few of us - 15 in total though 4 were only doing two days. We we loaded up into two trucks and first of all taken to a market to buy anything we needed for the trek. Then we went for a 1st class meal in the a small village before going to the Elephant camp. We watched a performance of a baby (4 year old) elephant doing tricks like doing a handstand, hopping on two legs, dancing and putting the guys hat on him. It was very cute. Then it started to rain... and it was time to trek! Ed and I were on the back of a 27 year old female elephant named "mudda". We wore very attractive ponchos and slipped around on the wet seats like nobodies business - Ed thinking he was really going to fall out at one point. I think our Elephant was slightly naughty and at one point decided to go a different route to the other elephants and did what closely resembled rock climbing! Fair play the girl had skill! It stopped raining part way through and was, despite being terrifying at times, really good fun!
After the Elephant trekking we did a 3 hour trek through the jungle stopping off at a waterfall where some of the boys had a swim but I hadn't got my costume on. The trek was mostly up hill and toward the end it started to rain again. Walking up hill in what is pretty much a bin liner really is not nice. The humidity was high and the jungle was all misty. We eventually got to the hill tribe village and had a nice meal cooked for us. We then spent the evening drinking beer and singing along to the guitar. Our table was infested by various bugs at different stages in the night, first flying ants, then big fluttery winged things, then grass hoppers - all being very intelligent and commiting suicide in the candles. Ed and I then had the pleasure of finding the biggest spider I have ever seen (outside the zoo) inside our Mosquito net! What made it worse was that it jumped the full distance of the net! We were rescued by one of the girls who was drunk enough to be brave and grab it for us! I found it rather hard to sleep that night - not that sleeping on the floor of a barn on stilts is ever easy.
The next day was a full day of trekking, it was pretty easy going with not much up hill. Again we had spells of rain but then sunshine to dry us off. A small dog from the village followed us for half of the day before turning back. We walked both in the jungle and across paddy fields - balancing on the narrow strips between the water. We stopped for a long lunch and only had a short walk to get to the next village where we were staying in a bamboo hut this time. There were less bugs in the hut as it was more open and breezey. The views were amazing and we got to watch the lightning strike on the mountains (by the night time it was raining really heavily). We had another late night singing and playing cards with beers, occassionally braving the short sprint to the "happy room" as they call it.
Yesterday was our final day and involved walking for the morning and bamboo rafting in the afternoon. The walking was very difficult because it was raining quite heavily first thing in the morning and the clay earth paths were very slippery. It dryed off though and we stopped at a pretty waterfall on the way - this one had a cave behind it. We had to balance across logs to cross the river to get there which was scary - especially for the girl who had a dog go through her legs right in the middle of it! The trek after the waterfall was quite enclosed in the jungle. We took a "shortcut" which was tight jungle. We had to walk through streams up to our knees at one point! We reached a village and had Pad Thai for lunch before being loaded into the back of a small pickup - all 11 of us! We were driven to the bamboo rafting place and split into groups of 4 for the rafts. We had one thai guy at the front, 3 of us sitting and one poor sod at the back who had to stand up and use the stick to push us along with the front guy - It was Ed on ours! It was very wet and kind of scary at times - going over small rapids was interesting! Our raft made it in one piece but one of the guys on the other ones fell in and had to hang on! That concluded our three day trek and we were driven back to Chiang Mai where we are now staying in a different Guest House which is even cheaper than the first! The three days were really good fun... Our guides(Eddy, Nui and Rainbow!) were all really friendly and spoke good english and the other people on the trek were a good laugh - we all met up for a meal and drinks last night before exploring the night bazaar. We didn't buy anything but may head back as I'm keen to get a "No Money No Honey" teeshirt as it cracks me up when the Thai's say it.
Today Ed and I are taking it easy before we fly to Krabi tomorrow. Got to let the legs recover!
We have completed our 3 days of cooking and are now ready to set up our own restaurant!... Not quite! I did manage to upset my stomach twice but I think that may have been down to a chilli overload more than anything... and the fact that I was eating 6 course meals may have had something to do with it! It was really great fun and I'd highly recommend it to anyone thinking of coming to Thailand.
Today we went to a temple up in the hills to the side of Chiang Mai - Wat Doi Suthep. It was very pretty and had wonderful views across the city. The temple had the most gold we have seen on one so far!
Tonight we have been to the Sunday markets and eaten various dodgy food (did the "do the locals eat it" test again!) and I bought a necklace for about 60pence.
We are all booked up to do a 3 day trek starting tomorrow... we will trek up to temples, up the biggest mountain around, we will camp in hill tribe villages, swim in waterfalls, ride elephants and bamboo raft down the river... sounds good ay? We shall see... hopefully it will be :o)
So we are nearing day 4 of our stay in Thailand. After blogging last we went out for a meal in a restaurant near our guest house, we went for non-adventurous dishes to start with... I had Chicken and Cashew nuts, Ed had Sweet and Sour Pork. It was on the expensive side for a Thai meal... the two dishes with rice and two large Chang Beers cost us about 3.50quid. We were quite merrily drinking our beer not realising that it was premium and 6.7%.
Yesterday was our first day of our cookery course. We set 3 alarms to make sure we'd make it to the 10am start as we were feeling rather jet lagged still. We made it and, to start the course off, we had a morning activity of shopping at the local market for all our ingredients. Everybody had one item that they had to go and buy, mine was easy - onions, and Ed's was Pepper Leaf... which the instructors took great pleasure in saying "it make you burp... and FART!". We were then driven out to our choice of location, the owner of the cookery school's house in the suburbs. It is in a lovely setting with a herb garden and lots of shade. The school is attached to the house and is all in an open air sheltered building.
The first dish we made was Fried Big Noodles with Thick Sauce and Pork. They demonstrated how to make it and then we got to go and do it ourselves at our work stations. To be honest... it was very stressful! The group was all very fast (many had done days before us) and I struggled with the fine chopping! I thought "Three days of this! I'll have a heart attack trying to keep up!". Things did get better though (or maybe I did!). We ate the first dish then moved onto the next 3; Fish in Banana Leaves, Yellow Curry with Chicken and Chicken and Cashew nuts. We then ate all of those (we have to eat a lot!) and then cooked 2 more (Spicy Prawn Salad and Bananas in coconut milk. By the time we had finished and eaten all of it I was VERY full and we didn't need dinner that night.
After the course they drove us back into town and we went for some drinks with an English guy and an American girl also on the course. We all decided that we would go out to the Thai boxing stadium for the "big fight" that evening. We were suprised when we arrived to see the fights went up in weight and started at 30kg... Young boys were battering the hell out of each other heads with both their fists and feet. Quite brutal really. The headline fight was between a Frenchman and a Thai boxer, the Thai guy just won it despite being half the size of the Frenchman. Next up was a Canadian who was the same size as his oppontent and managed to win.
We drank beer until pretty late and nearly walked into lady boy country before returning to the guest house. We set 4 alarms to wake up the next morning. Dehydration did the job in the end.
So today we went along to day two of our cookery course to meet a totally new crowd of people.Our morning activity was Vegetable Carving... something I was fairly sure I would be no good at! To my suprise I actually managed the first pretty well - making a rose from the skin of a tomatoe... the instructor was very impressed and said mine was as good as hers! lol. She said I couldn't have her job though :o) Next up was a Lotus Flower from a tomatoe... We managed it... though it wasn't quite as successful... my tomatoe looked a little soggy! Finally we made leaves from Carrot slices. Mine kind of grew on me through the day - at first I thought it looked rubbish then I thought it was actually ok. Ed seemed to handle his Vegable knife pretty well too :oP
The day was of a similar format to the previous day - 4 dishes in the morning and 2 in the afternoon with various breaks for eating! We started with a clear soup with pork and then made Spring Rolls (which were delicious!) then Red Curry with Duck (also VERY yummy) and Chicken with Ginger (less yummy but still good). Eating them I thought I might explode! It didn't stop there though... next was Chicken in Pandanus Leaves and Mango with Sticky rice. All of the dishes tasted amazing! The day was of a much more relaxing pace (less speed choppers) andI thing my chopping did improve slightly aswell.
We have one more day of cooking, though we may do an extra if Ed gets his way as the menu looks good. We are then looking into doing a trek in the jungle. It'll be 1-3 days long and include Elephant trekking and bamboo rafting. It looks like quite an experience and is... like most things here... pretty cheap.
Ooo... on a funny note... twice now have Thai people assumed Ed and I are here on our honeymoon! All very scary!
Jump on a 10 hour bus ride! ... well... possibly not the best way... but its what we did!
Our plane flew into Bangkok at 3.15pm yesterday after a mostly smooth flight... a little bit of turbulence did lift our bums out of our seats once or twice! It was slighty worrying at one point :oP Ed certainly livened things up when his water bottle leaked in the overhead locker and when he opened it up he showered me with water. Worse was that he soaked the girl behind us... who was on her honeymoon! We all had to shift along seats as luckily the flight wasn't full!
Upon our arrival... the harrassment began! lol - it wasn't that bad but it does seem that everyone in Thailand has something to sell! We managed to avoid all the triple-the-cost taxi cabs and found a normal one... 3.50 (pounds) for a half hour journey! We decided... just to be different... we wouldn't fly up to Chaing Mai but would instead take a bus! The 10 hour journey cost under 10quid and we even went VIP class on a bus with only 24 seats! It wasn't that posh but Ed (aka lanky man) had to stretch to touch the foot rest! The seats we fully reclining and included in the price was various snacks and beverages and even a meal! The meal was slightly dubious... Cold rice with a fried egg on top and a little pot of super spicy but tasty beef. After observing the locals (Ed and I were the only White people on the bus) and saw that they weren't afraid to eat it... I ate it... and survived :o)
We had a fun journey through the streets of Bangkok past all the open markets and cafes. Much of the journey was lined with houses, it was only in the later hours we were out in the countryside with the dark shape of pointy mountains visable in the skyline. We arrived in Chiang Mai at 4.30am we quickly ruffled through the guide book and rang up a recommended budget hostel before getting a "Sawngthaew" there. It was quite a fun ride... a Sawngthaew is like a small van which you climb into the back of through an open doorway and it has wooden benches on either side and little windows. We whizzed down the dark abandoned streets which was really fun. We checked in the hostel and promptly went to sleep. Our room is costing just 5quid a night for the two of us! Its fairly basic but seems secure and has its own toilet and shower. It even has a tv if we want to watch any Thai television. Bargain.
Today we have booked up for 3 days on a cookery course starting tomorrow. We may do more days if we really enjoy it. We walked around the city then got a Tuk-tuk which drove us around the city and to two temples - for just over an hour we paid 45pence! The driver dropped us off in the Thai market so we looked around the stalls and bought some oranges. We have just walked back to the hostel area and on the way we went into a 3rd temple. The temples are very beautiful with gold all over the inside and the outside. We took some photos so will put them up on the web one of these days.
We haven't actually eaten today as we woke up late so we are going to go find a cafe or something now. We have been told to have a small breakfast before the cookery course tomnorrow because we will be cooking and eating 6 dishes! :oP I can't wait! No plans for this evening... guess we'll see what happens.
We're just about to head to Thailand! We fly to Bangkok and then the plan is to travel (either, fly, bus or train it) up to Chiang Mai! Up there we are going to do various things... theres plenty on offer: Cookery courses, Elephant Trekking, Bamboo rafting and even rock climbing if we fancy it and if my fingers ready! The next blog should be good... no snow I promise! :o)
Well the second week saw some even hotter days (up to 36 degrees!), some more climbing, more pizzas, more alcohol, more beach (yes I know), more attempts at Italian which ended in charades, snorkelling, one wicked sea-kayaking afternoon and a little more exploring of the area.
The sliced up foot was just about up to some more clambering action and some more fun climbs were done. Slightly disappointed not to have pushed the grade beyond 5+ but will save the 6A's until another visit and lower temperatures! It was fun to at least follow Ed up some of the more challenging routes.
Paddy and I went sea-kayaking one afternoon, sadly Ralphs elbow was playing up and not up to it so he had another afternoon on the beach. We hired a couple of kayaks for 4 hours off the craziest of people - they were bonkers but really nice and friendly! We paddled along the shore to Cala Luna passing all the caves, cliffs and hidden beaches. We arrived and went for a quick pint and a bite and left barely enough time to sprint back and nearly kill ourselves with the effort!
Had a good, relaxing two weeks. Sardinia is an odd kind of a place... bit of a desert inland but the coastlines were gorgeous! I am glad to be back purely for a sandwich that has mayo in it - although the pizzas were delicious!
Now back to work ASAP to earn some pennies for the next adventure...
One week over... summary: climbing, sun, beach, pizza, beach and a little more beach. Did I mention the beach??
Based at Cala Gonone on East coast of Sardinia... really pretty, blue water, nice beaches etc. (there go those beaches again)
Should have climbed more but sliced my feet to shreads on beach in first few days! Managed to climb despite this... but pain!... pain!!!
Not sure I can take much more beach and feet are now fixed so hopefully much more bolt clipping to come this week!
Other news... largest stalagmite in Europe at 38m... cool :-S lol
New destination, same people...
Seem to be struggling to be enthusiastic... but we'll see, I expect it'll kick in soon! Not quite Thailand but it'll do :-) All I need is a beach, some sunshine and a good book! Oh... + maybe a little climbing here and there!
There I was... all set up for the white soft sands and clear waters of Thailand and 3 weeks of climbing off the beaches, sunbathing, snorkling and enjoying the wonderful Thai cuisine with my fabulous company... then, some pesky folk called the whole world and his dog... decide to take their children on holiday there and my trip blew up in smoke, sob sob :(
Yes... Thailand is, it seems, fully booked this summer... Whatever happened to families going on normal camping holidays to Scotland and France and the like? Ah well... that dream will have to wait for now.
At least, looking on the bright side, Thailand is getting the tourism it needs so badly since the tsunami.
So here I am, cutting into my 4 weeks off work and destinationless... Who knows where I'll end up... hopefully not back in an office just yet! :o)
Watch this space.