We had a brilliant 3 days, 2 nights sailing the briny sea of the Whit Sunday islands. The Snorkeling was amazing, with the fish just swimming around your face and the coral being all pretty.
Everyone on board was really nice and included one guy from Brighton (who wasn't particularly sociable) and two guys from Guadalajara in Mexico who were really nice and couldn't believe I had been there.
One night, I woke up, (no the Irish man hadn't come back with a vengeance) but I found myself up an unused staircase with a door at the top leading out to the deck. I was very confused, it was pitch black so I stumbled down to find my bed (top bunk) I had to switch the light on to get back into bed so I couldn't work out how I had made it down in the dark without waking the girl underneath me up AND got up some stairs.
I never sleep walk, trust me to have my first go on a boat in the middle of the South Pacific, I'm just glad I woke up when I did. I didn't think much of it at the time but in the morning I was like "oh my gosh!!"
In Cairns now, which is very grey and humid, flying back to Sydney on saturday morning.
Monday, 21 July 2008
Thursday, 10 July 2008
Bad night g'day
So after having a very bad sleep I woke up and went to put my washing out, but the lovely guy from last night had taken it out and already hung it on the line for me.
We then all headed out to the Bushtukka pampering tour, which involved a bush walk seeing spiders, lizards, lots of trees and caves etc. Then we got to a beautiful beach and had a swim and got covered in mineral mud.
The tour guide was very into his conspiracys about sun block giving you cancer, UFO's and the end of the world in 2012, I just though it was the bloody olympics!
I had to hold my tongue abit, some of it was so stupid.
We got back to the hostal,ate lunch then got picked up by 'Chopperoo'. A tour on choppers, which was so much fun. The flyer said "licence needed but no need to show" perfect! So we all chose a chopper (mine a nice Auzzie flag number) and head out on the highway, looking for adventure. For $50 we got an introduction and 3 hours on the road driving round Agnes waters and 1770, stopping at a pub for wedges and a nice sunset.
When we got back to the hostal, the owner gave me dinner and free drinks and money off my stay, anyone would have thought he had pissed on me!
So it ended up being a really good day, and I would recomend this hostal to anyone!
We then all headed out to the Bushtukka pampering tour, which involved a bush walk seeing spiders, lizards, lots of trees and caves etc. Then we got to a beautiful beach and had a swim and got covered in mineral mud.
The tour guide was very into his conspiracys about sun block giving you cancer, UFO's and the end of the world in 2012, I just though it was the bloody olympics!
I had to hold my tongue abit, some of it was so stupid.
We got back to the hostal,ate lunch then got picked up by 'Chopperoo'. A tour on choppers, which was so much fun. The flyer said "licence needed but no need to show" perfect! So we all chose a chopper (mine a nice Auzzie flag number) and head out on the highway, looking for adventure. For $50 we got an introduction and 3 hours on the road driving round Agnes waters and 1770, stopping at a pub for wedges and a nice sunset.
When we got back to the hostal, the owner gave me dinner and free drinks and money off my stay, anyone would have thought he had pissed on me!
So it ended up being a really good day, and I would recomend this hostal to anyone!
Rain drops keep falling on my head
Sometimes you get to a hostal and it feels like home, cool bananas was definetly one of these with cosy out door seating with candles and a fire, some good raggae beats and a long haired hippy cooking nutritious $5 meals every night.
Everything was going well until I woke up at 4am and could feel and hear something dripping down on me, once i had woken up properly I realised what it must be, being on the bottom bunk means gravity takes its course right on down.
I waited for the mini Niagara falls to stop (which took a good 5 minutes) and climbed out of bed, knowing i would get more wet if i made a dash for it staright away. With one very wet side, I shone my torch at the guy above me, hoping he would have a leaking 2 litre water bottle next to his crutch. No, this was some drunk Irish mans piss all over me! I didn't really know what to do so I woke up Briony and Becky for some moral support.
Which they gave saying nice things like "Oh my God your so calm, I would be FREAKING OUT!"
One of the house keepers was up and he was so nice, putting my stuff in the wash and taking out the matress etc.
He woke up the guy who firstly said "oh fuck" followed by "this isnt my bed, i just got into it"
How thick does he think I am?? Apart from the fact his sleeping bag was soaked. Briony set him straight.
The hostal chucked him out so when I walked back in the room he was packing, I kind of expected him to be on his knees begging for my forgiveness, nope nothing....he literlly didnt say anything. As he left the room i said "thats it piss on my leg, then piss off" then i realised it sounded comical and just laughed, didnt have the effect I really wanted. At least he had to do the walk of shame with all 3 of us glaring at him.
I didn't know you could create so much pee, It had gone through his sleeping bag, his matress, me and my matress. It got on my PJ top, trousers and even my pants, I have never washed with so much soap!!
So in the end Briony kindly let me share her bed, as the hostal was full, and i dont no what happened to the pee man, I almost felt sorry for him...almost, actually no he didnt even say sorry he deserved it.
Everything was going well until I woke up at 4am and could feel and hear something dripping down on me, once i had woken up properly I realised what it must be, being on the bottom bunk means gravity takes its course right on down.
I waited for the mini Niagara falls to stop (which took a good 5 minutes) and climbed out of bed, knowing i would get more wet if i made a dash for it staright away. With one very wet side, I shone my torch at the guy above me, hoping he would have a leaking 2 litre water bottle next to his crutch. No, this was some drunk Irish mans piss all over me! I didn't really know what to do so I woke up Briony and Becky for some moral support.
Which they gave saying nice things like "Oh my God your so calm, I would be FREAKING OUT!"
One of the house keepers was up and he was so nice, putting my stuff in the wash and taking out the matress etc.
He woke up the guy who firstly said "oh fuck" followed by "this isnt my bed, i just got into it"
How thick does he think I am?? Apart from the fact his sleeping bag was soaked. Briony set him straight.
The hostal chucked him out so when I walked back in the room he was packing, I kind of expected him to be on his knees begging for my forgiveness, nope nothing....he literlly didnt say anything. As he left the room i said "thats it piss on my leg, then piss off" then i realised it sounded comical and just laughed, didnt have the effect I really wanted. At least he had to do the walk of shame with all 3 of us glaring at him.
I didn't know you could create so much pee, It had gone through his sleeping bag, his matress, me and my matress. It got on my PJ top, trousers and even my pants, I have never washed with so much soap!!
So in the end Briony kindly let me share her bed, as the hostal was full, and i dont no what happened to the pee man, I almost felt sorry for him...almost, actually no he didnt even say sorry he deserved it.
Thursday, 26 June 2008
Sunny side down
Briony and I are really starting to get this traveling buisness, the first sign was when we get to a new hostal, we would always have a good rummage of the free food/stuff shelf. And it always made our day if we found something good. I was very happy with my half full, rather muddy bottle of contact lense solution...do you know how much that stuff costs??
We realised that a good way to save money driving round the south island would be to buy a thermos and make our own tea and packed lunch, we looked like little old women sitting there with our cups of tea and our easy on the teeth jam sandwiches.
Said our goodbyes to everyone in rainy Wellington which was sad and headed to sunny Sydney. Went to Byron bay, which was really nice, walked to the lighthouse and saw more dolphins and about 6 whales, which was amazing.
Today arrived in Surfers Paradise and are hastily leaving tomorrow, its what I imagine magalufe-or whaters like with big towers blocks of hotels. Yuk!
We realised that a good way to save money driving round the south island would be to buy a thermos and make our own tea and packed lunch, we looked like little old women sitting there with our cups of tea and our easy on the teeth jam sandwiches.
Said our goodbyes to everyone in rainy Wellington which was sad and headed to sunny Sydney. Went to Byron bay, which was really nice, walked to the lighthouse and saw more dolphins and about 6 whales, which was amazing.
Today arrived in Surfers Paradise and are hastily leaving tomorrow, its what I imagine magalufe-or whaters like with big towers blocks of hotels. Yuk!
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
"If you don't go when you want to go, when you do go you'll find you've gone"
After leaving Motueka last week, well after running out of battery and having to jump start the car, we set off for Fox Glacier.
To get to the glacier we had to first walk through rain forest for about an hour, and then once on the ice you feel like your in a different country. Its really strange how you can see rain forest, glaciers, mountains and almost sea all in the same place. We had a group of about 15 with a guide and apart from that the ice was pretty much empty.
We picked up some hitchers and made our way to Wanaka, a very pretty ski resort, then to Queenstown where we did Milford sound, which is actually a Fiord but when they discovered Fiordland they didn't know the difference.
Milford was amazing, with mile high mountains going straight down into the sea. I think the best bit was the dolphins though, really close, swimming alongside the boat. Funny how you forget the main attraction once you've seen dolphins, what fiord?
So one of the hitchers turned out to be a bit of a psycho telling us (if he had a girlfriend) he would never let her go traveling. Me and Briony were kind of shocked and wanted to know exactly how he would stop her, apart from chaining her to the kitchen sink. Jeeeesus no wonder he hasn't got a girlfriend! All was explained when we found he'd just got out the army. I thought he was a bit intense. Another weird thing about him was how he'd stare at you and just carry on when you caught his eye, really scary especially in the rear view mirror.
He's really put me off vegetarians!
Got to Oamaru today, where we went and saw blue penguins, very cute. Unfortunetly we couldn't take photos as the flash hurts their poor little eyes.
Heading up to Christchurch tomorrow to meet an old Wellington friend.
A sweet Kiwi film is 'worlds fastest Indian'.
To get to the glacier we had to first walk through rain forest for about an hour, and then once on the ice you feel like your in a different country. Its really strange how you can see rain forest, glaciers, mountains and almost sea all in the same place. We had a group of about 15 with a guide and apart from that the ice was pretty much empty.
We picked up some hitchers and made our way to Wanaka, a very pretty ski resort, then to Queenstown where we did Milford sound, which is actually a Fiord but when they discovered Fiordland they didn't know the difference.
Milford was amazing, with mile high mountains going straight down into the sea. I think the best bit was the dolphins though, really close, swimming alongside the boat. Funny how you forget the main attraction once you've seen dolphins, what fiord?
So one of the hitchers turned out to be a bit of a psycho telling us (if he had a girlfriend) he would never let her go traveling. Me and Briony were kind of shocked and wanted to know exactly how he would stop her, apart from chaining her to the kitchen sink. Jeeeesus no wonder he hasn't got a girlfriend! All was explained when we found he'd just got out the army. I thought he was a bit intense. Another weird thing about him was how he'd stare at you and just carry on when you caught his eye, really scary especially in the rear view mirror.
He's really put me off vegetarians!
Got to Oamaru today, where we went and saw blue penguins, very cute. Unfortunetly we couldn't take photos as the flash hurts their poor little eyes.
Heading up to Christchurch tomorrow to meet an old Wellington friend.
A sweet Kiwi film is 'worlds fastest Indian'.
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
On the road again
On Friday me and Briony and Rachel got the ferry to the south island (where we saw dolphins and a whale on the way) we spent a lovely few days on Susie and Kev's farm. We did lots of farmy things such as milk goats, go to the market, eat goats, herd sheep, watch make goats cheese, bread and eat lots of yummy homegrown, organic vegetables. I miss having someone tell me what was from the garden as I ate my dinner, although it was more like what wasn't from the garden.
We decided the cheapest and easiest way to get round the south island is by renting a car so we have our very own (for 3 weeks) Mitsubishi lancer, which has electric windows and power steering....so posh. Unfortuently i'm the sole driver but Briony does a very good job of feeding me cashews and pointing out the way.
The roads are so easy here, you barely see anyone and if you pass a farmer he's so excited he does a little jiggle on the spot and gives you a cheery wave, us english were very confused and just thought he was crazy until others did the same.
So on monday we drove over the windy mountains to Takaka where we visited Farewell Spit, which is a big sand dune, like a desert where we got lost. I paniced a bit as I just couldn't see how we could get out without walking for days and dieing of thirst, every point in the distance seemed to take hours to walk to and over every hill was just more sand. Anyway we made it and even had time for Pupu springs on the way home.
The scenery driving around is amazing!
We're now back in Motueka ready to do the Abel Tasman National park tomorrow.
Brionys photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26367616@N07/ if you want to see more of my ugly mug.
We decided the cheapest and easiest way to get round the south island is by renting a car so we have our very own (for 3 weeks) Mitsubishi lancer, which has electric windows and power steering....so posh. Unfortuently i'm the sole driver but Briony does a very good job of feeding me cashews and pointing out the way.
The roads are so easy here, you barely see anyone and if you pass a farmer he's so excited he does a little jiggle on the spot and gives you a cheery wave, us english were very confused and just thought he was crazy until others did the same.
So on monday we drove over the windy mountains to Takaka where we visited Farewell Spit, which is a big sand dune, like a desert where we got lost. I paniced a bit as I just couldn't see how we could get out without walking for days and dieing of thirst, every point in the distance seemed to take hours to walk to and over every hill was just more sand. Anyway we made it and even had time for Pupu springs on the way home.
The scenery driving around is amazing!
We're now back in Motueka ready to do the Abel Tasman National park tomorrow.
Brionys photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26367616@N07/ if you want to see more of my ugly mug.
Friday, 16 May 2008
The kids arn't alright
I am now back in Wellington and last week started working at 'I-Kids' a pre school, one class is for 3 month to 2 year olds and the other for 2-4 year olds, which is where I have been working. I think the parents are rich business types, well thats the only excuse I can think of why they would leave there children in a pre-school for 9 hours a day (a lot of them anyway) I mean what is the point in having kids?? Some are tiny babies, poor little things.
So I can't work out whether the children are all little brats because they have never been taugh morals and how to behave because there is only so much the teachers can say do or whether its because they are all spoilt by their rich parents.
I dont remember the kids at Steyning pre-school biting (drawing blood), fighting, throwing paint pots at childrens heads and shouting back at the teachers. Not to mention the constant crying!
Either way it's made me decide that the only way forward is to bring up kids being poor, then they might end up being nice, yay no more career worries for me!
Oh and its made me realise I definetly don't want to be a primary school teacher, wow this trip is making me realise all the things I don't want, maybe it will be a process of elimination.
Other than that I am staying in a hotel, posh huh, well not really i'm staing in an eight bed dorm room which is costing me $19 a night. Which as you can imagine, im really popular in, getting up at 6 or 7am every morning :)
Had a really good night out in Wellington friday, It was one of the guys im staying with last night, Wellington on a friday night is so cool, really packed out with good musicians on the streets playing jolly music. Friday nights are so much better when you've been working all week too.
Last night the english were teaching the others english sland while we got taught Hebrew by an Israeli. Iv never met an Israeli before, he was very good at the english slang too, saying "she is well fit mate" in a London accent.
Something else I have noticed about NZ is how crap the news is, I mean im sure you know im not one to sit down and watch the news every night but when I heard about the earth quake in China, about 3 days late I decided I should. well, I had to sit through 10 minutes of news about the biggest cow in england to finally hear about 1 minute of news about thousands dieing in China.
So all's really well here apart from catching a cold off one of the slugged nosed little brats at school.
Briony arrived here ok, at the moment she's doing the north island bus trip while I work.
Going to the south island on the 30th May, staying with Susie and Kev for a few days and then traveling the south island for 3 weeks before departing New Zealand :(
So I can't work out whether the children are all little brats because they have never been taugh morals and how to behave because there is only so much the teachers can say do or whether its because they are all spoilt by their rich parents.
I dont remember the kids at Steyning pre-school biting (drawing blood), fighting, throwing paint pots at childrens heads and shouting back at the teachers. Not to mention the constant crying!
Either way it's made me decide that the only way forward is to bring up kids being poor, then they might end up being nice, yay no more career worries for me!
Oh and its made me realise I definetly don't want to be a primary school teacher, wow this trip is making me realise all the things I don't want, maybe it will be a process of elimination.
Other than that I am staying in a hotel, posh huh, well not really i'm staing in an eight bed dorm room which is costing me $19 a night. Which as you can imagine, im really popular in, getting up at 6 or 7am every morning :)
Had a really good night out in Wellington friday, It was one of the guys im staying with last night, Wellington on a friday night is so cool, really packed out with good musicians on the streets playing jolly music. Friday nights are so much better when you've been working all week too.
Last night the english were teaching the others english sland while we got taught Hebrew by an Israeli. Iv never met an Israeli before, he was very good at the english slang too, saying "she is well fit mate" in a London accent.
Something else I have noticed about NZ is how crap the news is, I mean im sure you know im not one to sit down and watch the news every night but when I heard about the earth quake in China, about 3 days late I decided I should. well, I had to sit through 10 minutes of news about the biggest cow in england to finally hear about 1 minute of news about thousands dieing in China.
So all's really well here apart from catching a cold off one of the slugged nosed little brats at school.
Briony arrived here ok, at the moment she's doing the north island bus trip while I work.
Going to the south island on the 30th May, staying with Susie and Kev for a few days and then traveling the south island for 3 weeks before departing New Zealand :(
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