Ok i've just posted my last blog and am determined to keep on top of this one so am starting the next one right now.
Today is our 3rd and last day in Lake Taupo and Tina and I are sooo glad we decided to marinate a bit here, we've not really done much today except mooch about and make future plans for the trip but I think that's all we needed, some time to do nothing.
Unfortnately for my waistline the kiwi's seem to love their bakery/pattiserie/pastry shops and my sweet tooth is litrally
screaming out in pain for gingerbread men, caramel slices, apple strudle, custard twists, cinnamon squares, chocolate brownies and iced buns. I'm going to be honest...i'm not showing much...well, any restraint and seem to be handing over my money and pocketing the sugary goodness before i even know what's going on.
The great carrot cake hunt is something that has developed out of nowhere over the last week, it started back in Sydney when we went to Taronga Zoo and saw a big fat nutty creamy sweet delicious looking wedge of cake behind a glass counter and caved in by buying a piece to share. No joke, that was the best piece of carrot cake i've ever had, everything from the buttercream icing to the walnut pieces sunk deep within the moist sponge was perfect and from that moment on everytime Tina and I see a piece of carrot cake we're compelled to buy it to see if another will ever compare to the Taronga orignal.
Our plans have been changing a fair bit today and we've got our organisational hats on overdrive. As our trip here develops we're looking more and more at our kiwi bus route and how we can make it better by tayloring it to us. Instead of going back up the country via Lake Taupo and finishing in Auckland (which we have paid to do) but will have already seen, we're now only going as far up as Wellington and then leaving the Kiwi bus to fly out of wellington to Melbourne. The only problem with this is that in our frantic rush at the airport on the way out of Oz we bought a flight from Auckland back to Melbourne...
Anyway I won't bore you with the details but we've spoken to Qantas and to cut a long story short we've had to pay an extra $210 fare to change our departure location and date but will gain an extra 5 days to play with in the South Island so it's totally worth it.
The other thing we've been busy planning is our upcoming trip to Nelson and the amazing Abel Tasman National Park. It's a gorgeous piece of coastline on the nothern coast of the south island which Tina and I are going to Kayak along for 3 hours, walk a second section for 3 hours and then finally take a water taxi back to the starting point. It's pretty pricey but these things have to be done...originally we were going to camp overnight and spend 2 days in the park but we're trying to cut costs a little.
Tina's been making me laugh recently, I thought I was bad bringing GHD straightners travelling but she's got straightners too and even managed to dye her hair in the hostel last night! It was hilarious seeing her run between the bathroom and bedroom with the dark dye and clips poking out all over her head haha!
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Now it's Jan 20th and i'm sitting in a hostel in Nelson called Accents on the Park. it was described as 'affordable luxury' by the Lonely Planet and like always we've booked it independantly from the Kiwi Exp so while the rest of the bus has been thrown into a bigger place i'm chilling in a very cute victorian type town house which has been converted really nicely, there's vintage radios and lamps suspended on shelves, a large table and benches carved from local wood and even a full size wulwitzer juke box standing proud in the corner opposite me.
Tomorrow is a 6am early start and we're set to board a coach that will take us an hour up the coast to the National Park where we'll do our kayak, hike and water cruise day.
After leaving Taupo last week we headed down to an amazing little place called River Valley lodge, this was one of the gems I doubt we'd have heard about if we'd not been with the Kiwi Exp as it was so hidden away. In an ideal world i'd have liked to stay another day there but with the itinery more structured than ever and the Kiwi buses booked up days in advance it wasn't possible.
The lodge offered grade 5 rafting which I really wanted to do (but chose to save the pennies) and is built on the very edge of a gorgeous river bank with a sheer grassy cliff face plunging dramatically into the river behind. It had a bit of an adventure vibe to it, there was even a rickety old pulley tray system that you could dangle above the water on and use to pull yourself over to the other side. It needed some good bicep power to work it though!
After 2 weeks i'm pretty used to the dorm situation now and sharing with people isn't half as wierd as i first found it but that night in River Valley I opted for the cheapest option and put myself down to stay in the 'orgy room'(!) for $22.
It's called that because it's basically 2 massive platforms which everyone puts a little matress on and shares like a huge sleepover, i'll never do it again though and can't believe how loud and inconsiderate people are when others are asleep. Mainly all the dutch grrrrr!!
I had planned to do some nice calming meditation by the river in the early morning but that plan went down the drain when I got up and realised i'd left a bag in the hostel at Lake Taupo containing ALL my underwear, socks and bikini's :( :( :(
After the initial panic I called Kiwi Exp and begged for the next driver passing through Taupo to pick it up and bring it
down to me in Nelson....after multiple phone calls I've been told a driver has agreed to get it and bring it down with him but it's fair to say he's less than impressed at having to carry a plastic carrier bag full of girls knickers with him across on the ferry from north to South Island, whoops. I'm just praying he rememebers to pick it up...
After River Valley we headed southbound to the capital city of Wellington, otherwise known as windy Wellington as on something like 174 days of the year it blows at more than 30 knots. This would be great for kite surfing but unfortunately brings bad weather to the city alot of the time, even in summer. Luckily for us it was bright blue sky when we arrived and checked into our YHA hostel for the night.
The next day we stayed in Wellington and walked up Mount Victoria to get some excellent views of the city, after that we went to their pride and joy, the Te Papa museum and saw a great short documentary on some of the more interesting people of New Zealand, their hobbies and what they love about the country.
It was an inspring film, really well made and made me realise how nice it is that the people here have a sense of pride about where they live. They're kind, respectful and take a genuine interest in the people visiting their country which just makes me think 'when shall I come back and use my working visa here???...
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Friday, 15 January 2010
Rain rain go away, New Zealand come along my way
Happy new year people, happy 2010! I like the sound of 2010, it's a nice sounding year and hopefully full of nice fulfilling adventures and stories. I started typing this while on the plane to Auckland but as usual didn't get it finished and now have been playing catch up for days.
It's been really weird not having Loz around anymore, we split on the morning of the 7th Jan and I feel like i've lost a
limb or something. However Tina is here now and by the end of our time in Sydney I was very ready for everything to kick off.
The last month in Sydney was really fun but by the end I felt like a sprinter on the starting blocks after the gun had fired and been smoking for some time now. It was time to get going, get on the move, meet new people, see new places, think new thoughts and just get away from it all once more.
The December weather was very unseasonal in the last few weeks and i'd have liked a few more beach days instead
of walking into the CBD for the 5th time in a row but we got through it even if we did go a bit stir crazy at times. It felt
like quite a chaotic month with people coming and going and 6 people camped out in the flat but Loz and I got our $1500 bond back without any problems from the land lady so that was great.
The Christmas period came and went without a hitch, our food was probably the highlight of it all as we'd bought lots of nice things to cook and treat ourselves to. Checking the weather in advance was the right thing to do, it meant that our Christmas eve picnic worked out great on the beach...even if the cool bags were creating a mini river of melted ice in the taxi on the way down! We had our smoked salmon, salads, breads and dips all washed down with white wine while wearing red sequin santa hats and mucking about in the sea.
Waking up on Christmas morning was surreal and not a great feeling being so far away from friends and family but I opened my Christmas stocking box mum had sent over from England and put on a dress to celebrate the day. It was grey and raining outside so after a special breakfast we all trekked it down to circular key to visit the Sydney ice bar. We thought it'd be funny to say we'd been surrounded by ice on x-mas day while in Oz but that plan fell apart when we arrived and found them closed even though they'd promised a few days earlier they'd be open. Oh well, there wasn't much else to do except sit in Starbucks and waste some time before heading back to the flat to cook a massive roast dinner, pull some crackers and listen to Christmas songs which got us into the festive spirit :)
On the 29th Loz's brother Damien and his girlfriend Jess rocked up and joined us as part of their holiday in Australia and the next big night out was New Years Eve which ended up going awesomely and all to plan. We'd discovered a perfect look out point to see the fireworks from and a perfect bush to stash our cool bag of Champagne. We started the night at club Bungalow 8 in Darling Harbour which we had tickets for and by 11pm were walking towards a hidden observatory park for the best local secret in Sydney.
We arrived at the small patch of green, retrieved our alcoholic goodies and realised that there were only about 30 other people sitting around to watch the display, there were even 3 portaloos, it like being at a mini festival or something!
As midnight approached we realised how lucky we were to be able to enjoy the fireworks with a few locals and the most incredible view while 1,000,000 other tourists jostled for position at predictable hot spots like The Rocks and Botanic Gardens, what a blag! As we left, the locals made us promise to keep the location a secret from others so shhhhhhh!!!
After the immense fireworks we walked back to the club for more dancing and eventually finished the night in the early hours. At this point I should mention that we 'could've' carried on as the headline DJ invited us to his private after party and then offered to by me a flight to Melbourne the next day(!) but we thought we should call it a day while things were good.
I can't really remember much between New Years day and leaving Sydney but I know we did manage to get down to Bondi once more on our last day when the sun began to shine again which was a nice send off. And as our little urban retreat month came to an end and our international visitors left one by one it eventually came the time to leave Surry Hills myself and make the now famliar journey on the Citylink train into the North Sydney suburbs to Turramurra and to a sanctuary of another kind, Marys.
Tina, Loz and I spent the 6th, the day before I left Australia chilling in her swimming pool, sunbathing, catching up and eating and drinking the effortlessly amazing food and wine Mary whisked up for us. It was so great to relax and use that time as a transition into what was round the corner.
On the 7th the day got off to a good start and after a bit of an emotional goodbye to Loz, my travel partner of 7 1/2 months, Tina and I got into the car and begun our non-stop journey to New Zealand.
The car journey to the train station went fine, no hiccups.
The train journey to the airport went all good, error free.
But getting onto the plane to take us to NZ was a different story and as we smugly approached check in with passports outstretched and e-tickets in hand the perky woman sitting in front of us very quickly wiped the smile off our faces by telling us we could not board the plane unless we had a return ticket back to Australia...and we had 40 minutes to get one... ah, slight problem then.
Composure crumbling around our feet, luggage trolley flinging itself in random directions and cowboy hat flying
off my head as I ran to the Qantas desk we hurriedly got quotes for a number of random return dates in around 5 weeks time and then split up to find free internet in order to make online comparisons.
You see, as much as we hate them it's the situations like this where our natural planner skills burst into action and we thrive. We soon realised that the only way to board our flight was going to be with another e-ticket print out and that we needed a Qantas printer to do that. In all the rush it was fairly stressful having to choose an exact date to come back and something we really didn't want to do but went for the 13th Feb, 2 days after my birthday.
Landing in NZ 3 hours later we bumped into another fairly annoying incident when we had our bags x-rayed and then pulled aside for a full open, rummage and search job. It was fair to say that we were highly unimpressed with the 'bio hazard team' for doing this as it was less than 5 hours previously that we had been sweating, shouting and swearing over our bags as we desperately tried to crowbar another vest top behind the bulging zips.
After concluding we weren't smuggling anything of 'bio hazard' nature into the country (although I did have my trainers
scrubbed clean of the remnants of Bryce canyon's red dust) we were allowed to make our way into Auckland.
We didn't do much with our first night except sample the local Burger King delicacy and panic about how we were ever going to travel about with our exploding bags. They seemed to be multiplying and reproducing baby bags and soon we would have a whole family to lug about. Tina was impressed with the hostel though, I think she had pretty low expectations so was pleasantly surprised. Meanwhile I think I was still in a state of shock about it being day 1 of chapter two and was walking around with a bit of a glazed expression in the eyes.
There's alot to write about as i've been pretty far behind with the blog recently (note to self: always write it regularly)
but i'll write the general gist of it down.
Our first morning in Auckland we were pretty nervous about the big green kiwi bus pulling up, we'd heard some very unfavourable rumours about it and the last thing Tina and I wanted was an 18-20's party and puke bus. It was an early start, like most of the morning pick ups but when we saw the other backpackers waiting on the pavement we relaxed a little. No crazy looking chavs waiting to board or anything like that.
Now skip forward 8 days (to where I am in time now) and I can probably give a more accurate run down of what we make of it...
I'll be honest, i'm not totally sure it was the right thing to do, and yes, Tina and I may have been way too excited back in Sydney when we booked the one with the most stops because to be honest, they're not all needed.
The problem is, i've been building up this trip of mine for about 7 years, I knew I was going to do a big trip from when I
was 18 but didn't know when (although 25 was my deadline). I've been building it up so much and creating the perfect trip and experiences in my head for so long that unless it matched my internal ideal I was always going to be disappointed and have to adapt.
I love New Zealand ALOT, it's just what I wanted it to be but i'm not getting that independent backpacker 'into the wild' vibe I desperately want. Then again, what was I thinking?! Of course I was never going to get that by boarding the most touristy bus in the country but it seemed a good idea when I booked it.
The alternative, renting a mini van and driving round for 6 weeks would've worked out the same price but then add petrol and the fact we'd have to actually drive everywhere and that's why we didn't pursue that option when maybe we should have done...
Oh well, what's done is done, yes we feel a bit like we're on a school trip being herded around like cattle, and yes it's
all a bit rushed stop to stop but I have to look at the positives and it would be unlikely that we'd see as much as we will in the 5 weeks we're here if we'd hired the van.
My regret and slight depression was only made worse when we bumped into some very cool Israeli musicians who were doing the 'car thing' and saying how awesome it was and then winced in disgust when we said we were with the Kiwi Experience. They even asked us to join them in their van on their trip but of course we couldn't.
I think the main problem is the time limit, because we were forced to book a return date and we chose one in 5 weeks time (not knowing that it wouldn't be long enough) we've been forced to move from place to place almost daily and we just don't feel like we're actually seeing much of NZ, just the inside of the bus.
HOWEVER, it's not all doom and gloom. We've got 7 extra days to play with and are using them mostly down in the South Island so we'll have a little more time at the important/good stops, we're hoping it won't all feel so rushed and school trippy then.
The other thing that didn't help was we've had a new driver who's REALLY annoying and just talks verbal diarrhoea into the coach microphone the whole time pissing the whole coach off in a big way!
Because of this, and the fact we desperately needed a break from being on the move we've used one of our spare days and 'hoped off' at Lake Taupo for 2 full days which has been really nice :)
The thing that's really perplexed me is the complete lack of isolation I feel, it's made me realise that the world is just TOO connected now. There's very little way that a person can feel totally alone anymore, too many internet cafes, wi-fi hotspots and skype centres. I guess travelling isn't what it used to be...and not what I was after.
Australia will no doubt be buzzing with backpackers too but we're both hoping that by not being on a tour it'll feel more spontaneous and then when we get to Asia I want total chaos, bring it on.
We've actually started to rebel a little and are now booking hostels independently of the Kiwi Exp just to regain that
feeling of control (!) but we've also started to get quite chummy with a few people on the bus, unfortunately we're the
oldest of the group but shhhhhh, we're trying not to mention any ages!
Right, out of the negative and into what we've done in the last week which is loadsssss!! Firstly NZ is absolutely stunning, it's a gorgeous country from what i've seen so far and will 100% come back. Our first day saw us driving up
to the Bay of Islands in the North Island. The Kiwi Exp. book all your tours/activities for you (which is a bit deadly on the bank account) but we signed up to do a boat cruise around 12 of the 144 islands up there. It was really nice but unfortunately the weather caved in and brought us some cold cloudiness. It was also at this point we met and got talking to a Liverpudian called Paul who became our 3rd musketeer until he hoped off the bus in Rotorua a few days later.
The next day we were straight up to Cape Rienga which is the northern most point of New Zealand and where the Maori believe their spirits leave the country to find their long lost ancestors after they've died. It's also the point at which the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean collide in a white watery fight, the Maori folk say it represents male and female meeting and becoming one, all very spiritual which I like!
That day we started off by driving to a bit of local rainforest and all taking a quick walk around a boardwalk which went pass some very old historic native trees, then we drove up to '90 mile beach' a stretch of beach which is actually 64 miles long but that was before people had the means to measure distances properly. That was pretty cool as the bus actually drove along the beach as the sea laps at the tires. Unfortunately for the heart strings we also passed a kite surfer doing his thing in the surf and I had to just sit and watch. The beach was very desolate though and we got a chance to get out, stretch the legs and write our names in the sand.
After that we drove to some nearby sand dunes and got to go sand boarding, something which i'm not sure was worth the exhausting climb to the top but pretty good fun, just remember to keep your mouth shut on the way down!
In the afternoon we squeezed in an hour at a beautiful beach near the cape and then it was back on the bus to swing by a fish and chippy and then back to Paihia...it was a very full on day!
The next morning we headed down to a place called Mercury Bay via Cathedral Cove, supposedly NZ's most beautiful beach. When we pulled up in the car park our dippy driver gave us 2 options, go and chill on the local beach for a couple of hours or do the 30min walk to Cathedral Cove and be back by 3pm. Unfortunately for Tina and I the dippy driver had parked in the wrong bloody car park so the 30 min stroll which we opted to do turned into a 50 minute power walk each way which gave us 15 mins at Cathedral Cove before we had to turn back and do another 50 minutes back on ourselves in the blazing sun. It was a gorgeous walk but not much fun under the circumstances!
The following day it was off again from Mercury Bay (a VERY sleepy town) to Rotorua, famous for it's natural hot springs, bubbling mud pools, steaming gysers and smelly sulphur gases which make the air smell very eggy eugh! In Rotorua we were squeezed for time once again and all got a bit hectic but we went to a guided tour of the natural earth crust phenomenas and in the evening splashed out on an activity called the Tamiki Village where locals have recreated a traditional maori tribe village complete with warriors singing, dancing, demonstrating their history and putting on a massive buffet at the end. These things can sometimes be a bit tacky but it was actually really good and helped everyone get into the cultural side of things a bit more.
Rotorua was the first stop where we had decided to break free of the 'recommended' hostel stops and Tina, Paul and I booked ourselves into an eco-friendly hostel called the Funky Green Voyager which had a great vibe and an honesty pot in the fridge for their $2 beers!
The next day it was up at 7pm and straight to Waitomo (see, told you it was full on!!) to see their caves. The activity of choice here is something called 'Black Water Rafting' which the Kiwi's invented a few years ago. Basically you put on a smelly cold damp wetsuit, grab a big black rubber ring and go down underground into the caves to swim/climb/clamber through the dark tunnels and jump off a couple of waterfalls.
The caves are also famous for their glow worms and the tour makes sure you get a great show when at one point everyone turns their helmet torches off and float down a long rocky tunnel with thousands of little yellow glowing stars (the worms) dancing above your head. It's very cool and Tina and I had a great time doing that but it's lucky we're prepared to splash out on all these activities as there's not much to do if you don't!
The next morning it was straight to Lake Taupo (where I am now) where most people were opting to sky dive, Taupo is the sky diving capital of the world and has 30,000 people jumping out of planes over it every year. We're going to do our dive over in Oz so didn't sign up for it. That afternoon we decided to make the most of the day by walking up to a natural hot spring that's in the area. On the way we ended up walking past Taupo Bungy and bumping into our fellow kiwi exp friends watching people take the dive.
One of the guys decided he needed an adrenalin rush and within 5 minutes of getting his wallet out had paid and was standing on the edge of the 50m drop into the river below. After his jump all the other boys started getting a bit alpha male syndrome and signed up to do one as well.
I've always dreaded coming face to face with a bungy jump as I knew i'd be tempted to do it or face the regret of letting something 'beat' me. If it had been ridiculously expensive like the one in Queenstown ($260) I could've justified not even contemplating doing it to save money for something I was more passionate about but this one, being 1/3 the size of Queenstown was only $109..50 quid...very do-able.
I must've stood there for over an hour watching plunge after plunge trying to make a decision but however much I tried I just couldn't move my feet to take me over to the pay and weigh counter.
The others had been and gone and after some meaningless encouragement from them I decided not to jump off the ledge...I can't believe i've finally met my match in the fear stakes!!! I've told myself i'll defo do one on my next trip here, I wasn't ready for it this time round.
After the bungy Tina, me and our new backpacking buddies bounced down to the lake and jumped in for a splash about in the natural hot spring water.
....and that brings me to today! Today has been my best day in New Zealand so far because we got up at 5am and took a mini-bus up to the trail head of the Tongario Crossing, rated one of the top 10 walks in the world.
The walk is 19.5kms long and was pretty damn challenging, it took us through a multitude of terrain ranging from dutch style fjord land to sharp rocky lava fields, from barren grassy mountain slopes to thick lush forest. My feet do feel a little sore but it was awesome and i'd totally recommend it. At one point I thought I was going to get blown over the sheer drop of the volcano crater when the temperature dropped to 5 degrees and the wind was gusting at 70kms.
Anyway, 2 glasses of wine, a beer and a white magnum later and i'm pretty happy with myself for doing that and seeing the real New Zealand! :)
It's been really weird not having Loz around anymore, we split on the morning of the 7th Jan and I feel like i've lost a
limb or something. However Tina is here now and by the end of our time in Sydney I was very ready for everything to kick off.
The last month in Sydney was really fun but by the end I felt like a sprinter on the starting blocks after the gun had fired and been smoking for some time now. It was time to get going, get on the move, meet new people, see new places, think new thoughts and just get away from it all once more.
The December weather was very unseasonal in the last few weeks and i'd have liked a few more beach days instead
of walking into the CBD for the 5th time in a row but we got through it even if we did go a bit stir crazy at times. It felt
like quite a chaotic month with people coming and going and 6 people camped out in the flat but Loz and I got our $1500 bond back without any problems from the land lady so that was great.
The Christmas period came and went without a hitch, our food was probably the highlight of it all as we'd bought lots of nice things to cook and treat ourselves to. Checking the weather in advance was the right thing to do, it meant that our Christmas eve picnic worked out great on the beach...even if the cool bags were creating a mini river of melted ice in the taxi on the way down! We had our smoked salmon, salads, breads and dips all washed down with white wine while wearing red sequin santa hats and mucking about in the sea.
Waking up on Christmas morning was surreal and not a great feeling being so far away from friends and family but I opened my Christmas stocking box mum had sent over from England and put on a dress to celebrate the day. It was grey and raining outside so after a special breakfast we all trekked it down to circular key to visit the Sydney ice bar. We thought it'd be funny to say we'd been surrounded by ice on x-mas day while in Oz but that plan fell apart when we arrived and found them closed even though they'd promised a few days earlier they'd be open. Oh well, there wasn't much else to do except sit in Starbucks and waste some time before heading back to the flat to cook a massive roast dinner, pull some crackers and listen to Christmas songs which got us into the festive spirit :)
On the 29th Loz's brother Damien and his girlfriend Jess rocked up and joined us as part of their holiday in Australia and the next big night out was New Years Eve which ended up going awesomely and all to plan. We'd discovered a perfect look out point to see the fireworks from and a perfect bush to stash our cool bag of Champagne. We started the night at club Bungalow 8 in Darling Harbour which we had tickets for and by 11pm were walking towards a hidden observatory park for the best local secret in Sydney.
We arrived at the small patch of green, retrieved our alcoholic goodies and realised that there were only about 30 other people sitting around to watch the display, there were even 3 portaloos, it like being at a mini festival or something!
As midnight approached we realised how lucky we were to be able to enjoy the fireworks with a few locals and the most incredible view while 1,000,000 other tourists jostled for position at predictable hot spots like The Rocks and Botanic Gardens, what a blag! As we left, the locals made us promise to keep the location a secret from others so shhhhhhh!!!
After the immense fireworks we walked back to the club for more dancing and eventually finished the night in the early hours. At this point I should mention that we 'could've' carried on as the headline DJ invited us to his private after party and then offered to by me a flight to Melbourne the next day(!) but we thought we should call it a day while things were good.
I can't really remember much between New Years day and leaving Sydney but I know we did manage to get down to Bondi once more on our last day when the sun began to shine again which was a nice send off. And as our little urban retreat month came to an end and our international visitors left one by one it eventually came the time to leave Surry Hills myself and make the now famliar journey on the Citylink train into the North Sydney suburbs to Turramurra and to a sanctuary of another kind, Marys.
Tina, Loz and I spent the 6th, the day before I left Australia chilling in her swimming pool, sunbathing, catching up and eating and drinking the effortlessly amazing food and wine Mary whisked up for us. It was so great to relax and use that time as a transition into what was round the corner.
On the 7th the day got off to a good start and after a bit of an emotional goodbye to Loz, my travel partner of 7 1/2 months, Tina and I got into the car and begun our non-stop journey to New Zealand.
The car journey to the train station went fine, no hiccups.
The train journey to the airport went all good, error free.
But getting onto the plane to take us to NZ was a different story and as we smugly approached check in with passports outstretched and e-tickets in hand the perky woman sitting in front of us very quickly wiped the smile off our faces by telling us we could not board the plane unless we had a return ticket back to Australia...and we had 40 minutes to get one... ah, slight problem then.
Composure crumbling around our feet, luggage trolley flinging itself in random directions and cowboy hat flying
off my head as I ran to the Qantas desk we hurriedly got quotes for a number of random return dates in around 5 weeks time and then split up to find free internet in order to make online comparisons.
You see, as much as we hate them it's the situations like this where our natural planner skills burst into action and we thrive. We soon realised that the only way to board our flight was going to be with another e-ticket print out and that we needed a Qantas printer to do that. In all the rush it was fairly stressful having to choose an exact date to come back and something we really didn't want to do but went for the 13th Feb, 2 days after my birthday.
Landing in NZ 3 hours later we bumped into another fairly annoying incident when we had our bags x-rayed and then pulled aside for a full open, rummage and search job. It was fair to say that we were highly unimpressed with the 'bio hazard team' for doing this as it was less than 5 hours previously that we had been sweating, shouting and swearing over our bags as we desperately tried to crowbar another vest top behind the bulging zips.
After concluding we weren't smuggling anything of 'bio hazard' nature into the country (although I did have my trainers
scrubbed clean of the remnants of Bryce canyon's red dust) we were allowed to make our way into Auckland.
We didn't do much with our first night except sample the local Burger King delicacy and panic about how we were ever going to travel about with our exploding bags. They seemed to be multiplying and reproducing baby bags and soon we would have a whole family to lug about. Tina was impressed with the hostel though, I think she had pretty low expectations so was pleasantly surprised. Meanwhile I think I was still in a state of shock about it being day 1 of chapter two and was walking around with a bit of a glazed expression in the eyes.
There's alot to write about as i've been pretty far behind with the blog recently (note to self: always write it regularly)
but i'll write the general gist of it down.
Our first morning in Auckland we were pretty nervous about the big green kiwi bus pulling up, we'd heard some very unfavourable rumours about it and the last thing Tina and I wanted was an 18-20's party and puke bus. It was an early start, like most of the morning pick ups but when we saw the other backpackers waiting on the pavement we relaxed a little. No crazy looking chavs waiting to board or anything like that.
Now skip forward 8 days (to where I am in time now) and I can probably give a more accurate run down of what we make of it...
I'll be honest, i'm not totally sure it was the right thing to do, and yes, Tina and I may have been way too excited back in Sydney when we booked the one with the most stops because to be honest, they're not all needed.
The problem is, i've been building up this trip of mine for about 7 years, I knew I was going to do a big trip from when I
was 18 but didn't know when (although 25 was my deadline). I've been building it up so much and creating the perfect trip and experiences in my head for so long that unless it matched my internal ideal I was always going to be disappointed and have to adapt.
I love New Zealand ALOT, it's just what I wanted it to be but i'm not getting that independent backpacker 'into the wild' vibe I desperately want. Then again, what was I thinking?! Of course I was never going to get that by boarding the most touristy bus in the country but it seemed a good idea when I booked it.
The alternative, renting a mini van and driving round for 6 weeks would've worked out the same price but then add petrol and the fact we'd have to actually drive everywhere and that's why we didn't pursue that option when maybe we should have done...
Oh well, what's done is done, yes we feel a bit like we're on a school trip being herded around like cattle, and yes it's
all a bit rushed stop to stop but I have to look at the positives and it would be unlikely that we'd see as much as we will in the 5 weeks we're here if we'd hired the van.
My regret and slight depression was only made worse when we bumped into some very cool Israeli musicians who were doing the 'car thing' and saying how awesome it was and then winced in disgust when we said we were with the Kiwi Experience. They even asked us to join them in their van on their trip but of course we couldn't.
I think the main problem is the time limit, because we were forced to book a return date and we chose one in 5 weeks time (not knowing that it wouldn't be long enough) we've been forced to move from place to place almost daily and we just don't feel like we're actually seeing much of NZ, just the inside of the bus.
HOWEVER, it's not all doom and gloom. We've got 7 extra days to play with and are using them mostly down in the South Island so we'll have a little more time at the important/good stops, we're hoping it won't all feel so rushed and school trippy then.
The other thing that didn't help was we've had a new driver who's REALLY annoying and just talks verbal diarrhoea into the coach microphone the whole time pissing the whole coach off in a big way!
Because of this, and the fact we desperately needed a break from being on the move we've used one of our spare days and 'hoped off' at Lake Taupo for 2 full days which has been really nice :)
The thing that's really perplexed me is the complete lack of isolation I feel, it's made me realise that the world is just TOO connected now. There's very little way that a person can feel totally alone anymore, too many internet cafes, wi-fi hotspots and skype centres. I guess travelling isn't what it used to be...and not what I was after.
Australia will no doubt be buzzing with backpackers too but we're both hoping that by not being on a tour it'll feel more spontaneous and then when we get to Asia I want total chaos, bring it on.
We've actually started to rebel a little and are now booking hostels independently of the Kiwi Exp just to regain that
feeling of control (!) but we've also started to get quite chummy with a few people on the bus, unfortunately we're the
oldest of the group but shhhhhh, we're trying not to mention any ages!
Right, out of the negative and into what we've done in the last week which is loadsssss!! Firstly NZ is absolutely stunning, it's a gorgeous country from what i've seen so far and will 100% come back. Our first day saw us driving up
to the Bay of Islands in the North Island. The Kiwi Exp. book all your tours/activities for you (which is a bit deadly on the bank account) but we signed up to do a boat cruise around 12 of the 144 islands up there. It was really nice but unfortunately the weather caved in and brought us some cold cloudiness. It was also at this point we met and got talking to a Liverpudian called Paul who became our 3rd musketeer until he hoped off the bus in Rotorua a few days later.
The next day we were straight up to Cape Rienga which is the northern most point of New Zealand and where the Maori believe their spirits leave the country to find their long lost ancestors after they've died. It's also the point at which the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean collide in a white watery fight, the Maori folk say it represents male and female meeting and becoming one, all very spiritual which I like!
That day we started off by driving to a bit of local rainforest and all taking a quick walk around a boardwalk which went pass some very old historic native trees, then we drove up to '90 mile beach' a stretch of beach which is actually 64 miles long but that was before people had the means to measure distances properly. That was pretty cool as the bus actually drove along the beach as the sea laps at the tires. Unfortunately for the heart strings we also passed a kite surfer doing his thing in the surf and I had to just sit and watch. The beach was very desolate though and we got a chance to get out, stretch the legs and write our names in the sand.
After that we drove to some nearby sand dunes and got to go sand boarding, something which i'm not sure was worth the exhausting climb to the top but pretty good fun, just remember to keep your mouth shut on the way down!
In the afternoon we squeezed in an hour at a beautiful beach near the cape and then it was back on the bus to swing by a fish and chippy and then back to Paihia...it was a very full on day!
The next morning we headed down to a place called Mercury Bay via Cathedral Cove, supposedly NZ's most beautiful beach. When we pulled up in the car park our dippy driver gave us 2 options, go and chill on the local beach for a couple of hours or do the 30min walk to Cathedral Cove and be back by 3pm. Unfortunately for Tina and I the dippy driver had parked in the wrong bloody car park so the 30 min stroll which we opted to do turned into a 50 minute power walk each way which gave us 15 mins at Cathedral Cove before we had to turn back and do another 50 minutes back on ourselves in the blazing sun. It was a gorgeous walk but not much fun under the circumstances!
The following day it was off again from Mercury Bay (a VERY sleepy town) to Rotorua, famous for it's natural hot springs, bubbling mud pools, steaming gysers and smelly sulphur gases which make the air smell very eggy eugh! In Rotorua we were squeezed for time once again and all got a bit hectic but we went to a guided tour of the natural earth crust phenomenas and in the evening splashed out on an activity called the Tamiki Village where locals have recreated a traditional maori tribe village complete with warriors singing, dancing, demonstrating their history and putting on a massive buffet at the end. These things can sometimes be a bit tacky but it was actually really good and helped everyone get into the cultural side of things a bit more.
Rotorua was the first stop where we had decided to break free of the 'recommended' hostel stops and Tina, Paul and I booked ourselves into an eco-friendly hostel called the Funky Green Voyager which had a great vibe and an honesty pot in the fridge for their $2 beers!
The next day it was up at 7pm and straight to Waitomo (see, told you it was full on!!) to see their caves. The activity of choice here is something called 'Black Water Rafting' which the Kiwi's invented a few years ago. Basically you put on a smelly cold damp wetsuit, grab a big black rubber ring and go down underground into the caves to swim/climb/clamber through the dark tunnels and jump off a couple of waterfalls.
The caves are also famous for their glow worms and the tour makes sure you get a great show when at one point everyone turns their helmet torches off and float down a long rocky tunnel with thousands of little yellow glowing stars (the worms) dancing above your head. It's very cool and Tina and I had a great time doing that but it's lucky we're prepared to splash out on all these activities as there's not much to do if you don't!
The next morning it was straight to Lake Taupo (where I am now) where most people were opting to sky dive, Taupo is the sky diving capital of the world and has 30,000 people jumping out of planes over it every year. We're going to do our dive over in Oz so didn't sign up for it. That afternoon we decided to make the most of the day by walking up to a natural hot spring that's in the area. On the way we ended up walking past Taupo Bungy and bumping into our fellow kiwi exp friends watching people take the dive.
One of the guys decided he needed an adrenalin rush and within 5 minutes of getting his wallet out had paid and was standing on the edge of the 50m drop into the river below. After his jump all the other boys started getting a bit alpha male syndrome and signed up to do one as well.
I've always dreaded coming face to face with a bungy jump as I knew i'd be tempted to do it or face the regret of letting something 'beat' me. If it had been ridiculously expensive like the one in Queenstown ($260) I could've justified not even contemplating doing it to save money for something I was more passionate about but this one, being 1/3 the size of Queenstown was only $109..50 quid...very do-able.
I must've stood there for over an hour watching plunge after plunge trying to make a decision but however much I tried I just couldn't move my feet to take me over to the pay and weigh counter.
The others had been and gone and after some meaningless encouragement from them I decided not to jump off the ledge...I can't believe i've finally met my match in the fear stakes!!! I've told myself i'll defo do one on my next trip here, I wasn't ready for it this time round.
After the bungy Tina, me and our new backpacking buddies bounced down to the lake and jumped in for a splash about in the natural hot spring water.
....and that brings me to today! Today has been my best day in New Zealand so far because we got up at 5am and took a mini-bus up to the trail head of the Tongario Crossing, rated one of the top 10 walks in the world.
The walk is 19.5kms long and was pretty damn challenging, it took us through a multitude of terrain ranging from dutch style fjord land to sharp rocky lava fields, from barren grassy mountain slopes to thick lush forest. My feet do feel a little sore but it was awesome and i'd totally recommend it. At one point I thought I was going to get blown over the sheer drop of the volcano crater when the temperature dropped to 5 degrees and the wind was gusting at 70kms.
Anyway, 2 glasses of wine, a beer and a white magnum later and i'm pretty happy with myself for doing that and seeing the real New Zealand! :)
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
And Then There Were 4.
It's Christmas eve and it's mine and Loz's 7 month travel-anniversary! I can't believe we've been away and out of England for 7 months, I also can't believe it's December 24th, it's still May isn't it? Doesn't time stop still when you go travelling??
A lot has happened in the last week, 2 have become 4 with Michelle (my mate from the uk) and Damien (Loz's mate from Paris) joining us in the Sydney flat and 4 will soon become 6 when Damo (Loz's brother) and his girlfriend Jess arrive on the 29th.
Something at the forefront of our minds has been preparing for Christmas in our own special way, we've been trying to work out what we want to eat, when we want to eat it and where all this eating will take place!
The original plan had always been to head down to Bondi Beach on Christmas Day and drink away with the other Brits sunning themselves on the sand until the weatherman put a stop to that and predicted glorious temperatures of 22 degrees and rain. RAIN!
For the relatively long 25 years that has made up my life there has not been one white Christmas and then the one bloody year I up and leave to travel a world renound hot country...it rains.
Anyway, life goes on and change forces adaptation so we've decided to do the Bondi thing today as it's hot and dry. Michelle, Loz, Damien and I have bought and prepared an extravagant picnic to lug down to the coast and delve into, and tonight, for the first and probably last time ever I am going out to the clubs on Christmas Eve. Normally I would be laying the presents under the tree in Brighton with Nicola, watching festive films round a real log fire and strolling up to midnight mass but tonight we're hitting the Sydney nightlife.
The past week we've been really busy exploring Sydney to the max and have walked some insane distances without quite meaning to. Last Tuesday Michelle arrived into Australia and it was my duty to head down to the airport at 6am and collect her. I was slightly unnerved by how quiet the families were in the arrivals area when greeting their loved ones, a gentle hug here, a tear of joy there...the tension in me mounting as flight BA15 emptied its passengers into the luggage lounge.
Finally I saw her walking towards me and let out an involuntarily high pitched half-scream in the word 'TINAAAAA!'.
After some coffees and a catch up at a little local place in Surry Hills we spent the day walking around the CBD and getting acquainted with the city in more detail, we actually ended walking 7 miles and needed a big cup of tea and multiple tim tams when we got back!
Tuesday we headed down to Coogee beach which looked very different in the summer sun, the last time I was there was in the Winter months when Loz and I first arrived into Sydney and although the skies were crisp and blue back then the beaches were empty of sun worshippers and only the brave adorned their wetsuits to catch a wave.
Tuesday however was very different, the sand looked like a multi-coloured patchwork quilt of bikinis and the sun's rays heated the sand up like hot coals.
Wednesday was another epic day of walking with the route beginning at the flat in Surry Hills, going down Oxford Street (a fashionable road lined with high end boutiques and vintage shops), moving through Kings Cross (backpacker and hostel central), around Wooloomooroo (the only suburb with 8 o's), round the Botanic Gardens, pass the Sydney Opera House and over the Harbour Bridge! This time our 8 mile walk landed us a little lost in a North Sydney suburb and we were forced to take the train back to our starting point.
On the Thursday the heavens opened and we had our first significant downpour since being here, it was a good thing really as there were a number of large scary bushfires raging in South Sydney and the fire fighters needed all the help they could get.
Tina (Michelle's nickname) and I utilised the grotty weather by going to Max Brenner for their INFAMOUS chocolate brownie with vanilla ice-cream and then walked up to King's Cross to buy some of the tours we'll be doing on this trip.
3 hours later...we walked out of 'Wicked Travel' having spent over $2,300 dollars on a number of very exciting and hopefully fun experiences! Some of the things we've booked onto include the Kiwi Experience tour bus for our time in New Zealand, a 3 day Melbourne to Adelaide coach trip along the Great Ocean Road, a 3 day/3 night camping trip in the middle of the desert to see sunrise and sunset at Aires Rock, 3 days hiring a 4x4 to drive around Fraser Island and 2 days/2 nights on a trimaran sailing boat cruising around the Whitsundays! We're also going to do a sky dive further up the coast but nothing's booked for that just yet :/!
I think we finished the day with some fajitas and a couple of beers, what could be better.
The weekend was fairly chilled with Saturday spent perusing around Paddington Market, a very artsy crafty type of place. I think I ate the best cupcake of my entire life on that day, it was banana, pecan and butter icing and was simply AMAZING. Infact, I would go back to that market just to find that stall and eat it all over again.
On Sunday I donned the old running trainers and attempted a little jog around a local park. However when I got there I realised that most of the park was sealed off by construction fencing for building work so I ended up running up and down the same path and then round and round in a circle 6 times.
I had aimed to do it 10 times and then jog home but a tramp appeared on his little bicycle and set up camp right by the path on lap 6 which really put me off and I headed back early.
I was also aware that the passing pedestrians had no idea I was running round and round in a circle as they were coming and going all the time but the tramp...well he would soon discover my little secret.
I also looked particularly orange compared to the other city dwellers that day...
That afternoon Tina and I hired the movie 'Into the Wild'. If you haven't seen it, see it. It's truly one of the best films
i've seen, defo in my top 3. You'll really appreciate it if you're either a deep thinker, like travelling, appreciate there's more to life than work, the concept of breaking free from society etc. etc.
So that brings me to Monday when Damien (who arrived on Sunday), Michelle, Loz and I trekked down to Bondi Beach for the day. Bondi is a nice beach, a crescent shape with houses built into the rocks around it and a line of shops backing onto the promenade. When the clouds started to move over in the afternoon we packed up and began the 5km walk from Bondi to Coogee over the cliff path which I would highly recommend. It was very scenic and reminded me of the drive up route 1 from LA to San Francisco.
We were knackered by the time we got back to the apartment but missioned it round the supermarket and bought all our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day food.
Tuesday was one of those unexpected lovely days, Mary (my relative in Sydney) drove into the city with her sons Hugo and James to meet the 4 of us for lunch. We ended up piling in the car and going over to Darling Harbour to a gorgeous restaurant called Yots where we sat round a large wooden bench type table with a Christmassy centrepiece and white floaty drapes to protecting us from the sun's heat. I sipped chilled white wine and ate a barramundi and mango salad while watching powerboats cruise past a replica of Captain Cooks Endeavour ship and was very, very happy.
After lunch we all played about in the water fountains, pretty much drying instantly afterwards, and then after Mary left began walking up to The Rocks by the Harbour Bridge to scope out the perfect viewing spot for NYE.
So that brings me up to date with yesterday! We ended up going down to Coogee again for some sun bathing, I got to meet Michelle's friend from the UK and some others girls and then in the afternoon we caught a bus up to the Botanic Gardens to try and get our faces on GMTV! They had asked Brits abroad to come down and send messages to their families etc and I had hoped to get on but there were too many people and in typical British fashion when the camera started rolling the crowds started heaving towards the lens crushing everyone.
I took to taking off my sequinned santa hat and swinging it manically above my head while yelling 'Brightonnnn' to get their attention!!!
Apparently you can see me very briefly, job done. :)
Right, so better go, we've got to put this picnic together...I can't believe it's Christmas Eve!
xxx
A lot has happened in the last week, 2 have become 4 with Michelle (my mate from the uk) and Damien (Loz's mate from Paris) joining us in the Sydney flat and 4 will soon become 6 when Damo (Loz's brother) and his girlfriend Jess arrive on the 29th.
Something at the forefront of our minds has been preparing for Christmas in our own special way, we've been trying to work out what we want to eat, when we want to eat it and where all this eating will take place!
The original plan had always been to head down to Bondi Beach on Christmas Day and drink away with the other Brits sunning themselves on the sand until the weatherman put a stop to that and predicted glorious temperatures of 22 degrees and rain. RAIN!
For the relatively long 25 years that has made up my life there has not been one white Christmas and then the one bloody year I up and leave to travel a world renound hot country...it rains.
Anyway, life goes on and change forces adaptation so we've decided to do the Bondi thing today as it's hot and dry. Michelle, Loz, Damien and I have bought and prepared an extravagant picnic to lug down to the coast and delve into, and tonight, for the first and probably last time ever I am going out to the clubs on Christmas Eve. Normally I would be laying the presents under the tree in Brighton with Nicola, watching festive films round a real log fire and strolling up to midnight mass but tonight we're hitting the Sydney nightlife.
The past week we've been really busy exploring Sydney to the max and have walked some insane distances without quite meaning to. Last Tuesday Michelle arrived into Australia and it was my duty to head down to the airport at 6am and collect her. I was slightly unnerved by how quiet the families were in the arrivals area when greeting their loved ones, a gentle hug here, a tear of joy there...the tension in me mounting as flight BA15 emptied its passengers into the luggage lounge.
Finally I saw her walking towards me and let out an involuntarily high pitched half-scream in the word 'TINAAAAA!'.
After some coffees and a catch up at a little local place in Surry Hills we spent the day walking around the CBD and getting acquainted with the city in more detail, we actually ended walking 7 miles and needed a big cup of tea and multiple tim tams when we got back!
Tuesday we headed down to Coogee beach which looked very different in the summer sun, the last time I was there was in the Winter months when Loz and I first arrived into Sydney and although the skies were crisp and blue back then the beaches were empty of sun worshippers and only the brave adorned their wetsuits to catch a wave.
Tuesday however was very different, the sand looked like a multi-coloured patchwork quilt of bikinis and the sun's rays heated the sand up like hot coals.
Wednesday was another epic day of walking with the route beginning at the flat in Surry Hills, going down Oxford Street (a fashionable road lined with high end boutiques and vintage shops), moving through Kings Cross (backpacker and hostel central), around Wooloomooroo (the only suburb with 8 o's), round the Botanic Gardens, pass the Sydney Opera House and over the Harbour Bridge! This time our 8 mile walk landed us a little lost in a North Sydney suburb and we were forced to take the train back to our starting point.
On the Thursday the heavens opened and we had our first significant downpour since being here, it was a good thing really as there were a number of large scary bushfires raging in South Sydney and the fire fighters needed all the help they could get.
Tina (Michelle's nickname) and I utilised the grotty weather by going to Max Brenner for their INFAMOUS chocolate brownie with vanilla ice-cream and then walked up to King's Cross to buy some of the tours we'll be doing on this trip.
3 hours later...we walked out of 'Wicked Travel' having spent over $2,300 dollars on a number of very exciting and hopefully fun experiences! Some of the things we've booked onto include the Kiwi Experience tour bus for our time in New Zealand, a 3 day Melbourne to Adelaide coach trip along the Great Ocean Road, a 3 day/3 night camping trip in the middle of the desert to see sunrise and sunset at Aires Rock, 3 days hiring a 4x4 to drive around Fraser Island and 2 days/2 nights on a trimaran sailing boat cruising around the Whitsundays! We're also going to do a sky dive further up the coast but nothing's booked for that just yet :/!
I think we finished the day with some fajitas and a couple of beers, what could be better.
The weekend was fairly chilled with Saturday spent perusing around Paddington Market, a very artsy crafty type of place. I think I ate the best cupcake of my entire life on that day, it was banana, pecan and butter icing and was simply AMAZING. Infact, I would go back to that market just to find that stall and eat it all over again.
On Sunday I donned the old running trainers and attempted a little jog around a local park. However when I got there I realised that most of the park was sealed off by construction fencing for building work so I ended up running up and down the same path and then round and round in a circle 6 times.
I had aimed to do it 10 times and then jog home but a tramp appeared on his little bicycle and set up camp right by the path on lap 6 which really put me off and I headed back early.
I was also aware that the passing pedestrians had no idea I was running round and round in a circle as they were coming and going all the time but the tramp...well he would soon discover my little secret.
I also looked particularly orange compared to the other city dwellers that day...
That afternoon Tina and I hired the movie 'Into the Wild'. If you haven't seen it, see it. It's truly one of the best films
i've seen, defo in my top 3. You'll really appreciate it if you're either a deep thinker, like travelling, appreciate there's more to life than work, the concept of breaking free from society etc. etc.
So that brings me to Monday when Damien (who arrived on Sunday), Michelle, Loz and I trekked down to Bondi Beach for the day. Bondi is a nice beach, a crescent shape with houses built into the rocks around it and a line of shops backing onto the promenade. When the clouds started to move over in the afternoon we packed up and began the 5km walk from Bondi to Coogee over the cliff path which I would highly recommend. It was very scenic and reminded me of the drive up route 1 from LA to San Francisco.
We were knackered by the time we got back to the apartment but missioned it round the supermarket and bought all our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day food.
Tuesday was one of those unexpected lovely days, Mary (my relative in Sydney) drove into the city with her sons Hugo and James to meet the 4 of us for lunch. We ended up piling in the car and going over to Darling Harbour to a gorgeous restaurant called Yots where we sat round a large wooden bench type table with a Christmassy centrepiece and white floaty drapes to protecting us from the sun's heat. I sipped chilled white wine and ate a barramundi and mango salad while watching powerboats cruise past a replica of Captain Cooks Endeavour ship and was very, very happy.
After lunch we all played about in the water fountains, pretty much drying instantly afterwards, and then after Mary left began walking up to The Rocks by the Harbour Bridge to scope out the perfect viewing spot for NYE.
So that brings me up to date with yesterday! We ended up going down to Coogee again for some sun bathing, I got to meet Michelle's friend from the UK and some others girls and then in the afternoon we caught a bus up to the Botanic Gardens to try and get our faces on GMTV! They had asked Brits abroad to come down and send messages to their families etc and I had hoped to get on but there were too many people and in typical British fashion when the camera started rolling the crowds started heaving towards the lens crushing everyone.
I took to taking off my sequinned santa hat and swinging it manically above my head while yelling 'Brightonnnn' to get their attention!!!
Apparently you can see me very briefly, job done. :)
Right, so better go, we've got to put this picnic together...I can't believe it's Christmas Eve!
xxx
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Going...going...gone?
Well it's now Sunday December 13th, we've moved on from Surfers, tied up the loose ends, shifted routines and moved into the new once again. It's meant saying goodbye to friends, jobs, the Gold Coast and all familarity while embarking on a new adventure in a new city.
I really had that itchy feet feeling where there's a million things to think about but you're not sure what to sort out first,
I find it hard to believe that we'd been in Surfers Paradise the same amount of time as LA and Maui combined but it just goes to show that when you stay in one place and routines start forming, time speeds up.
What i'm noticing and really love about Australia is the constant joy people get from being out in their natural environment. They're so so lucky, the locals here have grown up with dramatic cliff drops at Mount Tambourine, forests in the Hinterland, Waterfalls at Springbrook, neverending waves up and down the coast and over 300 days of sun every single year.
Jealous? Me? YES. And that's just in a small area of Queensland.
For someone who thrives on exercise, nature, sports, sun and generally feeling happy and productive I'm very aware that England just can't compete with Australia, America or pretty much any country with a good climate and a passion for the outdoors, and it's bloody depressing. I'll tell you what's brought this on, I was watching an Aussie show called 'Getaway' in which a selection of presenters travel to different areas of Oz and review towns, campsites, things to do, hidden gems etc and it really is unfair. There are white sands, coral coves, red deserts, lush jungles and the Great Barrier Reef on the doorstep for gods sake!!! The attitude is different here, kayaking, climbing, skydiving, surfing and hiking the norm. I don't really know what i'm getting at, do I want to move countries, emigrate? Well yes, maybe I do. I've always felt instantly home in the heat and the positivity it brings to the population.
So a couple of weeks back Jules, Martin and I hired a car for the day and drove over to Nimbin, known only for one thing (it's green and you smoke it!) but still on all the sight-seeing tour circuits and an interesting place. It's pretty much just a high street with a few shops and cafes which can be 'seen and done' in 10 minutes but I guess the charm begins to flow when you allow yourself to sit in a cafe for a while and watch the 'unique' locals stumble by. So just to sum it up, Nimbin is a real time warp town with the majority of people in it being dreadlocked, long wavy haired, weed smoking, pipe puffing wrinky weirdos.
After some exploration inland we drove to the most Easterly point on the east coast and spent the late Afternoon sipping a strawberry ice-cream smoothie in the beautiful Byron Bay. We only had a couple of hours to soak it in before having to head back north to Surfers but I very quickly felt that if i'd discovered Byron before Surfers I would never have left it.
On one Sunday night Jules and I had another really nice chilled night at Swinging Safari, the random place I mentioned in the last post. We had some wine and listened to a Bob Marley tribute band play reggae while the crickets hissed and palms swayed in the warm breeze, it really took me back to my holidays in Antigua. It's a real shame we didn't get to hang out there more but i'm sure there will be plenty more little gems dotted around the coast to discover.
The following Monday Amanda, Loz and I went for trip number 4 to Max brenner which was to be my last up on the Gold Coast :(! I had the most incredible, obscenely amazing, indescribely delicious chocolate brownie though, the best i've EVER tasted and will be 100% going back for another in Sydney.
Unfortunately the last couple of weeks did not provide much in the way of work, the dreaded 'schoolies' kept away
tourists and the shifts at Bear were slashed. This meant our last couple of weeks wasn't as fruitful as hoped and
after leaving both Bear and the Club last weekend it's back to outgoings only, argh!
Something else Jules, Martin and I did to end things was visit Perle one last time...though to our shock horror the $6 tapas menu and $9 cocktail menu had been removed! Noooooooooooooooooooooooo. After much deliberation we decided to buy a drink there anyway and soak in the vibe, I asked for an Amaretto coffee (my usual treat) and the waitress came back with the most unusual version of one i've ever seen. Basically a shot of espresso, shot of Amaretto and brandy glass full of vanilla ice-cream. I guess it was more of a dessert than a drink but still pretty good.
Our last night out was in Broadbeach for the Bear Christmas work party and it was a great way to end our time on the Gold Coast. The crew decended upon Aztec's Mexican Restaurant like a pack of drunken Hyena's and didn't leave until we'd drunk the magarita reserves dry 3 hours later. The secret santa presents went down well and I didn't have to sit next to the douchbag of the group (we all know who that is!) so all in all a great night.
So eventually the day came to pick up our hire car and begin road trip 3, Surfers Paradise down to Sydney. At 8am sharp we walked over to Hertz and were presented with our little red Yaris beast, opened the map (thanks Amanda) and popped on our John Farhnam mix cd (thanks Zach). We knew it was gonna be a tight squeeze to do this trip in 2 days so set off towards the half way point in Port Macquarie straight away.
Our first stop was Byron Bay where I managed to blag the best bargain EVER! A perfect dress for NYE reduced from $170 to $34..amazinggggg! We walked around the town and ate some boiled eggs on the beach, as you do, before setting off again towards the tarmac.
A few hours later we passed through Coffs Harbour which to be honest we wern't all that impressed with, we didn't even see the big banana which I was looking out for. The weather had taken a turn for the worst, all grey and cloudy and the sea looked dark and a bit menacing, definetely not ideal for a swim. We drove to the jetty and stretched our legs before I took over the wheel to take us down to Port Macquarie.
As this point Loz fell asleep for over an hour and left me alone to sing my heart out to some Backstreet Boys and N' Sync until he convieniently woke up as we approached the stop over.
The tiredness must have been starting to kick in as we both used up 2 more of our 9 lives that night. I must have been so keen to get to the campsite that I unintentionally drove staright through a stop sign intersection and missed a full on collision by maybe 3 or 4 seconds. When I realised what had happened the shock sent me into a trance and I grabbed onto Loz's shoulder for a full 60 seconds before loosening the claw like grip and letting go. Later on that night it was Loz's turn to tempt fate as he started driving THE WRONG WAY down a dual carrageway towards an oncoming car. There was quite a bit of yelling and more gripping of body parts before we decided enough is enough, our brain's are fried and need to switch off!
Day 2 wasn't supposed to be as hardcore because we'd covered more than halfway on day 1 but we ended up taking some slow roads in the hope that they were more scenic..but they weren't. We kicked ourselves into gear with coffees and a cinnimon pastry and then hit the road again stopping off at a nice beach at Pacific Palms for a quick swim.
It was 7pm by the time we found ourselves driving over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and heading towards our new apartment in Surry Hills and when we stepped out of the car both felt the strangest sensation of being plonked in the middle of cosmopolitan city vibe without being ready for it. There we were in flip flops, swim wear and beachy caps while young professionals power walked past in their trendy suits staring in disbelief at the colour of my skin.
A few days has passed now and we've had the chance to adjust to the new climate and explore the area, and we LOVE it. Surry Hills really reminds me of Islington in London, endless boutique shops, quirky cafes and quaint restaurants. Everywhere you look there's a nook or cranny with some tiny secret thing hidden away for you to find and multi-coloured terraced houses brighten up what should be an average road. The city is so clean and fresh, new
modern architechture blends in with the older historical sights and the bright blue skies make everything look great. The other thing i've noticed is the amount of greenery around, every road, pavement, park and garden is bursting with vegetation and makes the city feel so summery and natural!
On Friday Loz and I took the bus down to Coogee Beach which was bursting with people, slightly worrying considering it was a week day. Apparently there's normally around 50,000 people down on Bondi on an average summer Saturday, god knows how many will be there for Christmas day! We're hoping it'll have the July 4th Independance Day vibe to it, not sure that day can be beaten though.
...and on Saturday morning we took the city rail train to Turramurra to visit my relatives the Dobree's! We stayed with them for our first week in Australia and it was so good to return to that family atmosphere and be welcomed into the fold like one of their own. Mary produces the most amazing meals and we've been treated to some of the best food i've had all year in the last two days. Fresh prawns, oysters, sundried tomato and cheese breads, amazing salads full of red and yellow peppers, avocado, celery, cucumber, carrots, rocket, onion and juicy tomatoes. Then there's the mangoes, cherries, apricots, peaches, feta and spinach dips, hommus and cous cous. We've even been treated to date scones with double cream and raspberry jam with cups of tea by the pool. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
We thought we'd only be here for a day but we've been asked to join the family to a Christmas carol concert and fireworks display tonight and can't wait, maybe it'll get those Christmas feelings flowing a bit more!
Tomorrow (being Monday) we're heading over to Bondi for the day, Loz is checking out a possible new apartment for once i've left Sydney and then it's more beach time for the two of us.
Bring. It. On.
I really had that itchy feet feeling where there's a million things to think about but you're not sure what to sort out first,
I find it hard to believe that we'd been in Surfers Paradise the same amount of time as LA and Maui combined but it just goes to show that when you stay in one place and routines start forming, time speeds up.
What i'm noticing and really love about Australia is the constant joy people get from being out in their natural environment. They're so so lucky, the locals here have grown up with dramatic cliff drops at Mount Tambourine, forests in the Hinterland, Waterfalls at Springbrook, neverending waves up and down the coast and over 300 days of sun every single year.
Jealous? Me? YES. And that's just in a small area of Queensland.
For someone who thrives on exercise, nature, sports, sun and generally feeling happy and productive I'm very aware that England just can't compete with Australia, America or pretty much any country with a good climate and a passion for the outdoors, and it's bloody depressing. I'll tell you what's brought this on, I was watching an Aussie show called 'Getaway' in which a selection of presenters travel to different areas of Oz and review towns, campsites, things to do, hidden gems etc and it really is unfair. There are white sands, coral coves, red deserts, lush jungles and the Great Barrier Reef on the doorstep for gods sake!!! The attitude is different here, kayaking, climbing, skydiving, surfing and hiking the norm. I don't really know what i'm getting at, do I want to move countries, emigrate? Well yes, maybe I do. I've always felt instantly home in the heat and the positivity it brings to the population.
So a couple of weeks back Jules, Martin and I hired a car for the day and drove over to Nimbin, known only for one thing (it's green and you smoke it!) but still on all the sight-seeing tour circuits and an interesting place. It's pretty much just a high street with a few shops and cafes which can be 'seen and done' in 10 minutes but I guess the charm begins to flow when you allow yourself to sit in a cafe for a while and watch the 'unique' locals stumble by. So just to sum it up, Nimbin is a real time warp town with the majority of people in it being dreadlocked, long wavy haired, weed smoking, pipe puffing wrinky weirdos.
After some exploration inland we drove to the most Easterly point on the east coast and spent the late Afternoon sipping a strawberry ice-cream smoothie in the beautiful Byron Bay. We only had a couple of hours to soak it in before having to head back north to Surfers but I very quickly felt that if i'd discovered Byron before Surfers I would never have left it.
On one Sunday night Jules and I had another really nice chilled night at Swinging Safari, the random place I mentioned in the last post. We had some wine and listened to a Bob Marley tribute band play reggae while the crickets hissed and palms swayed in the warm breeze, it really took me back to my holidays in Antigua. It's a real shame we didn't get to hang out there more but i'm sure there will be plenty more little gems dotted around the coast to discover.
The following Monday Amanda, Loz and I went for trip number 4 to Max brenner which was to be my last up on the Gold Coast :(! I had the most incredible, obscenely amazing, indescribely delicious chocolate brownie though, the best i've EVER tasted and will be 100% going back for another in Sydney.
Unfortunately the last couple of weeks did not provide much in the way of work, the dreaded 'schoolies' kept away
tourists and the shifts at Bear were slashed. This meant our last couple of weeks wasn't as fruitful as hoped and
after leaving both Bear and the Club last weekend it's back to outgoings only, argh!
Something else Jules, Martin and I did to end things was visit Perle one last time...though to our shock horror the $6 tapas menu and $9 cocktail menu had been removed! Noooooooooooooooooooooooo. After much deliberation we decided to buy a drink there anyway and soak in the vibe, I asked for an Amaretto coffee (my usual treat) and the waitress came back with the most unusual version of one i've ever seen. Basically a shot of espresso, shot of Amaretto and brandy glass full of vanilla ice-cream. I guess it was more of a dessert than a drink but still pretty good.
Our last night out was in Broadbeach for the Bear Christmas work party and it was a great way to end our time on the Gold Coast. The crew decended upon Aztec's Mexican Restaurant like a pack of drunken Hyena's and didn't leave until we'd drunk the magarita reserves dry 3 hours later. The secret santa presents went down well and I didn't have to sit next to the douchbag of the group (we all know who that is!) so all in all a great night.
So eventually the day came to pick up our hire car and begin road trip 3, Surfers Paradise down to Sydney. At 8am sharp we walked over to Hertz and were presented with our little red Yaris beast, opened the map (thanks Amanda) and popped on our John Farhnam mix cd (thanks Zach). We knew it was gonna be a tight squeeze to do this trip in 2 days so set off towards the half way point in Port Macquarie straight away.
Our first stop was Byron Bay where I managed to blag the best bargain EVER! A perfect dress for NYE reduced from $170 to $34..amazinggggg! We walked around the town and ate some boiled eggs on the beach, as you do, before setting off again towards the tarmac.
A few hours later we passed through Coffs Harbour which to be honest we wern't all that impressed with, we didn't even see the big banana which I was looking out for. The weather had taken a turn for the worst, all grey and cloudy and the sea looked dark and a bit menacing, definetely not ideal for a swim. We drove to the jetty and stretched our legs before I took over the wheel to take us down to Port Macquarie.
As this point Loz fell asleep for over an hour and left me alone to sing my heart out to some Backstreet Boys and N' Sync until he convieniently woke up as we approached the stop over.
The tiredness must have been starting to kick in as we both used up 2 more of our 9 lives that night. I must have been so keen to get to the campsite that I unintentionally drove staright through a stop sign intersection and missed a full on collision by maybe 3 or 4 seconds. When I realised what had happened the shock sent me into a trance and I grabbed onto Loz's shoulder for a full 60 seconds before loosening the claw like grip and letting go. Later on that night it was Loz's turn to tempt fate as he started driving THE WRONG WAY down a dual carrageway towards an oncoming car. There was quite a bit of yelling and more gripping of body parts before we decided enough is enough, our brain's are fried and need to switch off!
Day 2 wasn't supposed to be as hardcore because we'd covered more than halfway on day 1 but we ended up taking some slow roads in the hope that they were more scenic..but they weren't. We kicked ourselves into gear with coffees and a cinnimon pastry and then hit the road again stopping off at a nice beach at Pacific Palms for a quick swim.
It was 7pm by the time we found ourselves driving over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and heading towards our new apartment in Surry Hills and when we stepped out of the car both felt the strangest sensation of being plonked in the middle of cosmopolitan city vibe without being ready for it. There we were in flip flops, swim wear and beachy caps while young professionals power walked past in their trendy suits staring in disbelief at the colour of my skin.
A few days has passed now and we've had the chance to adjust to the new climate and explore the area, and we LOVE it. Surry Hills really reminds me of Islington in London, endless boutique shops, quirky cafes and quaint restaurants. Everywhere you look there's a nook or cranny with some tiny secret thing hidden away for you to find and multi-coloured terraced houses brighten up what should be an average road. The city is so clean and fresh, new
modern architechture blends in with the older historical sights and the bright blue skies make everything look great. The other thing i've noticed is the amount of greenery around, every road, pavement, park and garden is bursting with vegetation and makes the city feel so summery and natural!
On Friday Loz and I took the bus down to Coogee Beach which was bursting with people, slightly worrying considering it was a week day. Apparently there's normally around 50,000 people down on Bondi on an average summer Saturday, god knows how many will be there for Christmas day! We're hoping it'll have the July 4th Independance Day vibe to it, not sure that day can be beaten though.
...and on Saturday morning we took the city rail train to Turramurra to visit my relatives the Dobree's! We stayed with them for our first week in Australia and it was so good to return to that family atmosphere and be welcomed into the fold like one of their own. Mary produces the most amazing meals and we've been treated to some of the best food i've had all year in the last two days. Fresh prawns, oysters, sundried tomato and cheese breads, amazing salads full of red and yellow peppers, avocado, celery, cucumber, carrots, rocket, onion and juicy tomatoes. Then there's the mangoes, cherries, apricots, peaches, feta and spinach dips, hommus and cous cous. We've even been treated to date scones with double cream and raspberry jam with cups of tea by the pool. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
We thought we'd only be here for a day but we've been asked to join the family to a Christmas carol concert and fireworks display tonight and can't wait, maybe it'll get those Christmas feelings flowing a bit more!
Tomorrow (being Monday) we're heading over to Bondi for the day, Loz is checking out a possible new apartment for once i've left Sydney and then it's more beach time for the two of us.
Bring. It. On.
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Summer's Approaching
So wow it's been ages since I last posted, just when I think i'm on top of the blog I realise just how quickly the weeks are flying by and how much more i've done. Infact, im sure time is speeding up...it's definately faster than when I was at school, definately.
How can this be possible? The best solution I could come up with was that the earth, sun, moon, the whole solar system is moving perpetually faster and so we're not feeling it. If everything's speeding up at the same time then it'd be easy not to notice losing an hour here and there right??
Anyway, i'm rambling so what's been going on over here in Oz? Back at the end of October the amazing Amanda (who was gutted at not being given a blog entry sooner lol!) took Loz and I on a whirlwind drive down along the local coastline ending in a tasty finale watching the Michael Jackson cinema documentary 'This is it' and dipping marshmmallows, strawberries and banana bread into the most incredible chocolate fondue at Max Brenner. Max.B is an insanely gorgeous chocolate restaurant and since that day has become a delicious addition to the diary, you can't go wrong and i'm very pleased there are more branches in Sydney!
A couple of Tuesdays ago we were lounging in Perle with some Mojitos and randomly decided to go out to the classily named 'Sin City' nightclub. I still remember Loz and I walking down Orchid Avenue (The strip) on our first night in Surfers and seeing Sin City and its very dubious clientell waiting in line outside and from that moment it became a sort of joke that we had go in at least once.
The persuading factor was it being Ladies Night which meant free entry and free drinks all night so within half an hour we'd gone from the maturity of cocktail smoozing to plastic champagne flutes and lycra mini skirts. Highlight of the night was having photos with the two guys from 'Man Power', their rippling abs were a nice shade of mahogany.
I've managed to do some more kitesurfing which is cool, it's now obvious that when we arrived here it really was still
winter for Australia and with that, non-existent winter winds. But now it's a different story, as summer has subtley crept in the days have got gradually lighter for longer, the heat hangs about later and the sea breezes are getting stronger daily. It's a shame that once we get to Sydney i'll be putting the kiting to bed untill i'm back in the uk but i'm not really progressing up here anyway because of the waves so not tooooo much is lost. The problem is the man made sand bars that have been put in place to create artificial waves. It means the sea becomes a turbulent vast mass of scary dark water, riding and falling in huge chunky mountains and to be honest, makes me so uncomfortable i'm not able to try any tricks or jumps for fear of landing badly and being crushed by a wave! Oh well, hopefully i'll rip it up back in england (surfer talk for get better)...
What else...well, work at the club is going ok but i'll be more than glad to say my goodbyes! 6 weeks of night work and having to chat to wasted idiots is kinda doing my head in. There are a few regulars who come back week after week and obviously recognise me, even approcaching like olds friends but I just have no idea who they are! I just smile and use the old line 'Ah how you going? Back again eh?' while thinking...."Who the hell are you?". It's alright money though and tops up the funds for Sydney and NZ so can't complain.
On Monday the 9th of Nov Amanda and I took Jules to sample some more Max Brenner at Marina Mirage, home to the world's first and only fashion hotel by Versace (I also just found out this is the hotel they take the celebs too before and after the jungle on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!) We also had a little browse around some stores including a trendy furniture shop and picked out what we would buy if we were rich. I chose a cow hide and chrome chair for $3,500, nice.
The next day Jules, Martin and I jumped on the bus down the coast to visit Sam at Nobby's Beach. Sam works next door to the bear shop and kindly sald we could borrow his surf boards for the day and teach us the basics. We started early and after a couple of hours had built up enough of an appetite to indulge in some local fish and chips, it's been ages since i'd had such a uk dish!
My fish burger was made with a type of fish called Dori which made me think I was eating Dori from Finding Nemo with every bite.
Between working and organising our trip I found myself down amongst the sand dunes one late afternoon. It was one of those days where you find yourself somewhere, not really sure how but are just glad you did. I spent a couple of hours watching the wind blow the sand into a constantly changing landscape of mini mountains and crevices while listening to the calming but contradictory tones of my Winter Chill album. I guess I just had one of those deep moments which I love to dwell in as the afternoon sun set behind the buildings and the shadows crept further and further up the beach.
Last Wednesday Jules, Martin and I spent the evening at an awesomeeeee little bar (actually a converted old house) called Swinging Safari. It was the kind of place i'd love to set up and own myself, nothing in there the same, everything random, a kind of delapidated Alice in Wonderland film set. We sipped our drinks while listening to the echoey tones of French music and a life drawing class drew burlesque dancers behind us.
Then it was time for the long awaited trip to Wet n' Wild and I wore my most robust bikini in preparation for any waterslide wedgies coming my way! Loz and I managed to get in for a discount by pretending to be Jules and Martin which was good but truth be told it was a bit overrated, smaller than we thought and quite kiddy. There was one very steep one which I overcame my fear of and managed to do but it just feels so wrong to launch yourself down a near vertical piece of plastic so many meters up. It definietely gave me a chance to stretch those vocal chords by screaming at all the drops.
That evening I caught up with Michelle on Skype as there's lots of planning to be done as December approaches, I can't believe i'll be meeting her at the airport in under 3 weeks, it's pretty exciting! It really feels like a transitional stage is about to begin and then the backpacking part of the trip begins in the new year.
That weekend I worked as usual but Loz and I found time to grab a drink at The Secret Garden. It's a tiny inconspicious alleyway that leads from the pavement into an overgrown jungle like garden patio which has been converted into a mini restaurant/cafe, such a cute idea! If it was in LA i'm sure all the celebs would go there to remain all hidden away...infact there probably are these types of places in LA. The couple that run it even have a big wild iguana living there called Dan who sat by our table and posed for a photo.
On the Sunday afternoon I went for a quick kitesurf to stretch the legs and watched the Australian Idol final...sorry this is getting really boring i'll move on!...
...So that brings us to Monday just gone where Amanda, Loz and I went to Max Brenner yet again(!) and to see the new Twilight movie at the cinema which was awesome...and then yesterday when Jules, Martin and I all hired a car for a little road trip to Nimbin and Byron Bay. Nimbin was home to the 1972 Aquarius Festival and not much has changed since, it's home to almost 100% long haired, wrinkly hippies smoking joints and seriously chilling out. The buildings are painted multi-coloured and emblazoned with murals of peace, love and harmony, defo an interesting place to visit!
As Nimbin only consists of one road we were ready to move on pretty quickly so we drove on to the beautiful Byron Bay for the late afternoon. It's a lovely little surfer town with a great vibe so i'll be very keen on staying in it longer when Michelle and I pass back through on the way up through Queensland next year.
So there's lots coming up...tomorrow i'm going to be filmed making a bear for a travel program! They're trying to show that the Gold Coast can be family friendly as well as a party town so that'll be fun. On Sunday i'm heading back to Swinging Safari with Jules and Martin for another abstract drink, next Tues we're doing our final tapas and cocktail evening, Saturday i've got the Build-a-Bear Christmas/leaving do party and next Sunday is the Stereosonic music festival in Brisbane ...so much to look forward to.
As my time in Surfers Paradise comes to an end it's easy to start planning the next sections of this adventure...Sydney for Christmas and New Year, camper vans around New Zealand in January, then March onwards...Adelaide, the Great Ocean Road, Melbourne, Byron Bay, Noosa, Fraser Island, The Whitsundays, Cairns, Cape Tribulation and maybe Perth..,
...wow, it's exhausting even thinking about it!
P&H (peace and hugs.....yes, we have a peace and hugs bear in the shop) xxx
How can this be possible? The best solution I could come up with was that the earth, sun, moon, the whole solar system is moving perpetually faster and so we're not feeling it. If everything's speeding up at the same time then it'd be easy not to notice losing an hour here and there right??
Anyway, i'm rambling so what's been going on over here in Oz? Back at the end of October the amazing Amanda (who was gutted at not being given a blog entry sooner lol!) took Loz and I on a whirlwind drive down along the local coastline ending in a tasty finale watching the Michael Jackson cinema documentary 'This is it' and dipping marshmmallows, strawberries and banana bread into the most incredible chocolate fondue at Max Brenner. Max.B is an insanely gorgeous chocolate restaurant and since that day has become a delicious addition to the diary, you can't go wrong and i'm very pleased there are more branches in Sydney!
A couple of Tuesdays ago we were lounging in Perle with some Mojitos and randomly decided to go out to the classily named 'Sin City' nightclub. I still remember Loz and I walking down Orchid Avenue (The strip) on our first night in Surfers and seeing Sin City and its very dubious clientell waiting in line outside and from that moment it became a sort of joke that we had go in at least once.
The persuading factor was it being Ladies Night which meant free entry and free drinks all night so within half an hour we'd gone from the maturity of cocktail smoozing to plastic champagne flutes and lycra mini skirts. Highlight of the night was having photos with the two guys from 'Man Power', their rippling abs were a nice shade of mahogany.
I've managed to do some more kitesurfing which is cool, it's now obvious that when we arrived here it really was still
winter for Australia and with that, non-existent winter winds. But now it's a different story, as summer has subtley crept in the days have got gradually lighter for longer, the heat hangs about later and the sea breezes are getting stronger daily. It's a shame that once we get to Sydney i'll be putting the kiting to bed untill i'm back in the uk but i'm not really progressing up here anyway because of the waves so not tooooo much is lost. The problem is the man made sand bars that have been put in place to create artificial waves. It means the sea becomes a turbulent vast mass of scary dark water, riding and falling in huge chunky mountains and to be honest, makes me so uncomfortable i'm not able to try any tricks or jumps for fear of landing badly and being crushed by a wave! Oh well, hopefully i'll rip it up back in england (surfer talk for get better)...
What else...well, work at the club is going ok but i'll be more than glad to say my goodbyes! 6 weeks of night work and having to chat to wasted idiots is kinda doing my head in. There are a few regulars who come back week after week and obviously recognise me, even approcaching like olds friends but I just have no idea who they are! I just smile and use the old line 'Ah how you going? Back again eh?' while thinking...."Who the hell are you?". It's alright money though and tops up the funds for Sydney and NZ so can't complain.
On Monday the 9th of Nov Amanda and I took Jules to sample some more Max Brenner at Marina Mirage, home to the world's first and only fashion hotel by Versace (I also just found out this is the hotel they take the celebs too before and after the jungle on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!) We also had a little browse around some stores including a trendy furniture shop and picked out what we would buy if we were rich. I chose a cow hide and chrome chair for $3,500, nice.
The next day Jules, Martin and I jumped on the bus down the coast to visit Sam at Nobby's Beach. Sam works next door to the bear shop and kindly sald we could borrow his surf boards for the day and teach us the basics. We started early and after a couple of hours had built up enough of an appetite to indulge in some local fish and chips, it's been ages since i'd had such a uk dish!
My fish burger was made with a type of fish called Dori which made me think I was eating Dori from Finding Nemo with every bite.
Between working and organising our trip I found myself down amongst the sand dunes one late afternoon. It was one of those days where you find yourself somewhere, not really sure how but are just glad you did. I spent a couple of hours watching the wind blow the sand into a constantly changing landscape of mini mountains and crevices while listening to the calming but contradictory tones of my Winter Chill album. I guess I just had one of those deep moments which I love to dwell in as the afternoon sun set behind the buildings and the shadows crept further and further up the beach.
Last Wednesday Jules, Martin and I spent the evening at an awesomeeeee little bar (actually a converted old house) called Swinging Safari. It was the kind of place i'd love to set up and own myself, nothing in there the same, everything random, a kind of delapidated Alice in Wonderland film set. We sipped our drinks while listening to the echoey tones of French music and a life drawing class drew burlesque dancers behind us.
Then it was time for the long awaited trip to Wet n' Wild and I wore my most robust bikini in preparation for any waterslide wedgies coming my way! Loz and I managed to get in for a discount by pretending to be Jules and Martin which was good but truth be told it was a bit overrated, smaller than we thought and quite kiddy. There was one very steep one which I overcame my fear of and managed to do but it just feels so wrong to launch yourself down a near vertical piece of plastic so many meters up. It definietely gave me a chance to stretch those vocal chords by screaming at all the drops.
That evening I caught up with Michelle on Skype as there's lots of planning to be done as December approaches, I can't believe i'll be meeting her at the airport in under 3 weeks, it's pretty exciting! It really feels like a transitional stage is about to begin and then the backpacking part of the trip begins in the new year.
That weekend I worked as usual but Loz and I found time to grab a drink at The Secret Garden. It's a tiny inconspicious alleyway that leads from the pavement into an overgrown jungle like garden patio which has been converted into a mini restaurant/cafe, such a cute idea! If it was in LA i'm sure all the celebs would go there to remain all hidden away...infact there probably are these types of places in LA. The couple that run it even have a big wild iguana living there called Dan who sat by our table and posed for a photo.
On the Sunday afternoon I went for a quick kitesurf to stretch the legs and watched the Australian Idol final...sorry this is getting really boring i'll move on!...
...So that brings us to Monday just gone where Amanda, Loz and I went to Max Brenner yet again(!) and to see the new Twilight movie at the cinema which was awesome...and then yesterday when Jules, Martin and I all hired a car for a little road trip to Nimbin and Byron Bay. Nimbin was home to the 1972 Aquarius Festival and not much has changed since, it's home to almost 100% long haired, wrinkly hippies smoking joints and seriously chilling out. The buildings are painted multi-coloured and emblazoned with murals of peace, love and harmony, defo an interesting place to visit!
As Nimbin only consists of one road we were ready to move on pretty quickly so we drove on to the beautiful Byron Bay for the late afternoon. It's a lovely little surfer town with a great vibe so i'll be very keen on staying in it longer when Michelle and I pass back through on the way up through Queensland next year.
So there's lots coming up...tomorrow i'm going to be filmed making a bear for a travel program! They're trying to show that the Gold Coast can be family friendly as well as a party town so that'll be fun. On Sunday i'm heading back to Swinging Safari with Jules and Martin for another abstract drink, next Tues we're doing our final tapas and cocktail evening, Saturday i've got the Build-a-Bear Christmas/leaving do party and next Sunday is the Stereosonic music festival in Brisbane ...so much to look forward to.
As my time in Surfers Paradise comes to an end it's easy to start planning the next sections of this adventure...Sydney for Christmas and New Year, camper vans around New Zealand in January, then March onwards...Adelaide, the Great Ocean Road, Melbourne, Byron Bay, Noosa, Fraser Island, The Whitsundays, Cairns, Cape Tribulation and maybe Perth..,
...wow, it's exhausting even thinking about it!
P&H (peace and hugs.....yes, we have a peace and hugs bear in the shop) xxx
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
8 Weeks in on the Gold Coast
Hey, hey, hey...
Things are really on a roll now and the Surfers Paradise calendar is gradually filling up. This week has seen me check out a house music fashion show, Tapas Tuesday, lots of free drinks, losing spectacularly at bowls and enjoying the simple things in life like beers on the balcony with Jules in the afternoon sun.
The 2009 Gold Coast GP has got to be the biggest anti-climax of the moment with town feeling very empty during the day and bizarrely the night also. We'd been warned for weeks about how it was going to morph the area into a battle ground (which it normally is on a Saturday night anyway) but the only real change was an influx of promo girls in chequered hot pants and exposed bum cheeks.
A highlight of the last 7 days was discovering that the Aussies have Iced Magic, the hard topped chocolate sauce for ice cream. I've got an unhealthy but enjoyable routine going on of buying 4 litre vanilla ice cream tubs and devouring the lot with sugar strands and the special sauce within a worryingly short amount of time.
*Being on a budget i’ve had to downgrade to the supermarket's own brand ice cream and hard topped sauce but it's still great*
So last Sunday I managed to blag myself, Jules, Martin, Loz and a new guy called Richard who we nicknamed 'Tasmania' because that's where he was from into the trendy Elsewhere club for free, bonus! We wanted to check out a fashion show that was supposed to be happening so just chilled in a booth waiting for that to materialise (no pun intended).
After a couple of hours listening to some very enjoyable deep house, the fashion part of the night was still a mystery to us and it all turned into a bit of a joke as there were only another 20 people in the club including the bar staff and dj!
Finally at half midnight the show began...and oh my god, it was the worst thing i've ever seen, pretty much primary school standard clothing and models pulled in from the street. Still, it made us all laugh and Tasmania bought me some drinks which went down well.
On Tuesday evening Jules, Martin and I went to Pearl for Tapas night which is a real find here in Surfers. My $9 mojito wasn't made to perfection like last week (new bartender) but it was still tasty and the tapas were absolutely delicious, only $6 a plate too. I asked to doggy bag a lonely unfinished meatball but was met with a look of puzzlement and warned about possible food poisoning if left out of refrigeration...I guess i'm still used to the American way of dining out!?
Weds and Thurs were great as I had no work and managed to get some kite surfing in. The wind forecast is good this week and as long as the swell remains small I can keep kiting out on the sea. After some beach front lunch on Thursday J, M and I headed back to the Azzura to top up the tan by the pool. As the heat eased off, the sunbathing session quickly turned into a white wine and spritzer session and then into a cocktail and shots session. All this for free though as we've become friendly with the bar staff at the hotel and they seem to like treating us :).
At work on Friday I realised how all the kids coming into the bear shop were born in the 2000's and I got a strange feeling of age creeping through my bones, suddenly the 80's seems a very long time ago.
Also every week we have a competition where the person who puts the biggest sale through the till wins a bar of chocolate and now I try and guess who the rich are as they walk through the door. It's never who you think it's going to be though and it's beyond me how people can spend over $600 on bear clothing!
The period of time between 4pm and 7pm I call dead time as the sun has set and there's nothing to do but on Friday Mike, his mate James and I filled it by playing lawn bowls. To be honest I was concentrating more on the conversation than the game and that's my excuse for losing...the conversation and the beers.
Last night Jules and I went out to a great little club called Ruby Tramp, randomly I actually managed to come home with a job starting on the door there next weekend, how does this stuff happen??...probably because I hunted down the manager and asked him for a job so there we go. It'll be a couple of shifts a week which is cool as Loz is out working then anyway too.
We also had some unexpected guests join us out last night including the owner of one of the hotels here in Surfers and we were very spoilt the whole night. Anything to drink for free all night, doesn't get much better than that!
Today was supposed to be a relaxed affair but Jules and I were invited out with the same guys from last night who insisted on buying platters of seafood and antipasti for us so we weren’t complaining there either.
I think next week's going to be a busy one with 5 shifts at Build a Bear, new work at the club and our now infamous Sweet Chilli Blue Thursdays. Sweet Chilli Blue is the name given to a recipe Loz created in LA out of all the leftovers in Chris's fridge, and it's possibly the best dish i've ever had. J, M, L and I get together at the flat, cook it up and devour it fast.
...Reading back over this post for spelling errors is really surreal...is this life i'm writing about mine? It's so completely random and different from anything I was doing 5 months ago. I guess that's why people travel and what they hope to experience when away from the norm. I mentally pinch myself regularly as a reminder of where I am on the globe and how far from home I am and I never take the hot sun and clear blue skies for granted. I have to admit I miss home, family and friends more and more each day but it's likely i'll never get this much continual sun ever again so am trying to appreciate and take advantage of it!
xxx
Things are really on a roll now and the Surfers Paradise calendar is gradually filling up. This week has seen me check out a house music fashion show, Tapas Tuesday, lots of free drinks, losing spectacularly at bowls and enjoying the simple things in life like beers on the balcony with Jules in the afternoon sun.
The 2009 Gold Coast GP has got to be the biggest anti-climax of the moment with town feeling very empty during the day and bizarrely the night also. We'd been warned for weeks about how it was going to morph the area into a battle ground (which it normally is on a Saturday night anyway) but the only real change was an influx of promo girls in chequered hot pants and exposed bum cheeks.
A highlight of the last 7 days was discovering that the Aussies have Iced Magic, the hard topped chocolate sauce for ice cream. I've got an unhealthy but enjoyable routine going on of buying 4 litre vanilla ice cream tubs and devouring the lot with sugar strands and the special sauce within a worryingly short amount of time.
*Being on a budget i’ve had to downgrade to the supermarket's own brand ice cream and hard topped sauce but it's still great*
So last Sunday I managed to blag myself, Jules, Martin, Loz and a new guy called Richard who we nicknamed 'Tasmania' because that's where he was from into the trendy Elsewhere club for free, bonus! We wanted to check out a fashion show that was supposed to be happening so just chilled in a booth waiting for that to materialise (no pun intended).
After a couple of hours listening to some very enjoyable deep house, the fashion part of the night was still a mystery to us and it all turned into a bit of a joke as there were only another 20 people in the club including the bar staff and dj!
Finally at half midnight the show began...and oh my god, it was the worst thing i've ever seen, pretty much primary school standard clothing and models pulled in from the street. Still, it made us all laugh and Tasmania bought me some drinks which went down well.
On Tuesday evening Jules, Martin and I went to Pearl for Tapas night which is a real find here in Surfers. My $9 mojito wasn't made to perfection like last week (new bartender) but it was still tasty and the tapas were absolutely delicious, only $6 a plate too. I asked to doggy bag a lonely unfinished meatball but was met with a look of puzzlement and warned about possible food poisoning if left out of refrigeration...I guess i'm still used to the American way of dining out!?
Weds and Thurs were great as I had no work and managed to get some kite surfing in. The wind forecast is good this week and as long as the swell remains small I can keep kiting out on the sea. After some beach front lunch on Thursday J, M and I headed back to the Azzura to top up the tan by the pool. As the heat eased off, the sunbathing session quickly turned into a white wine and spritzer session and then into a cocktail and shots session. All this for free though as we've become friendly with the bar staff at the hotel and they seem to like treating us :).
At work on Friday I realised how all the kids coming into the bear shop were born in the 2000's and I got a strange feeling of age creeping through my bones, suddenly the 80's seems a very long time ago.
Also every week we have a competition where the person who puts the biggest sale through the till wins a bar of chocolate and now I try and guess who the rich are as they walk through the door. It's never who you think it's going to be though and it's beyond me how people can spend over $600 on bear clothing!
The period of time between 4pm and 7pm I call dead time as the sun has set and there's nothing to do but on Friday Mike, his mate James and I filled it by playing lawn bowls. To be honest I was concentrating more on the conversation than the game and that's my excuse for losing...the conversation and the beers.
Last night Jules and I went out to a great little club called Ruby Tramp, randomly I actually managed to come home with a job starting on the door there next weekend, how does this stuff happen??...probably because I hunted down the manager and asked him for a job so there we go. It'll be a couple of shifts a week which is cool as Loz is out working then anyway too.
We also had some unexpected guests join us out last night including the owner of one of the hotels here in Surfers and we were very spoilt the whole night. Anything to drink for free all night, doesn't get much better than that!
Today was supposed to be a relaxed affair but Jules and I were invited out with the same guys from last night who insisted on buying platters of seafood and antipasti for us so we weren’t complaining there either.
I think next week's going to be a busy one with 5 shifts at Build a Bear, new work at the club and our now infamous Sweet Chilli Blue Thursdays. Sweet Chilli Blue is the name given to a recipe Loz created in LA out of all the leftovers in Chris's fridge, and it's possibly the best dish i've ever had. J, M, L and I get together at the flat, cook it up and devour it fast.
...Reading back over this post for spelling errors is really surreal...is this life i'm writing about mine? It's so completely random and different from anything I was doing 5 months ago. I guess that's why people travel and what they hope to experience when away from the norm. I mentally pinch myself regularly as a reminder of where I am on the globe and how far from home I am and I never take the hot sun and clear blue skies for granted. I have to admit I miss home, family and friends more and more each day but it's likely i'll never get this much continual sun ever again so am trying to appreciate and take advantage of it!
xxx
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Back in the Loop
6 weeks on and finally some kind of routine has formed...granted it consists of bbq's, monday night tv sessions and work at the bear shop which is hardly crazzzzyyyy behaviour but it's nice to have some consistency for a few months before things get shaken up again in December.
We've come a fair way since that first week of work at the holiday company...actually it was only three days before we got as far away from that fraudulent group of people as possible. Only one good thing came of our brief stint there and that was meeting Jules and Martin, a cool couple from the Midlands who i've latched myself onto! We're totally on the same wavelength and have begun planning lots of exciting plans and things to look forward to so thats cool. They also have an awesome jacuzzi and grill area in their building which is great to chill in after a day stuffing bears.
At first I only had 3 shifts a week at Build-a-bear and it really wasn't enough but we've had some scandalous things going on recently and 2 people have just resigned so I was the first to stick my hand up for more work which is cool.
So what else has been going on here on the Gold Coast? Well Jules, Martin and I go out clubbing every couple of weeks just to mix it up, the majority of people and clubs here are 100% chav havens but i've done some digging and found a few hidden gold mines which are worth going to. I'm not sure how i do it but i've also managed to get friendly with the girls running the doors too and that means free entry for everyone which is always good :)
Last Tuesday Jules, Martin and I went to a classy establishment called Pearl for the cocktail deal they were doing and honestly, it was the best classic mojito I have EVER had. Really, really good. We're soooo going back next Tues to take full advantage of the tapas as well. I guess that's the good thing about earning some money while we're here, I don't feel too bad treating myself to a drink or ice-cream here or there....well, quite freqently actually lol.
The four of us have also taken to holding little dinner parties for each other... how middle aged of us haha! Loz and I have just got back from The Azzura (J+M's building) where they'd made homemade sangria and got some awesome dips on the go, they've really stepped up their game this week lol.
This Wednesday just gone J, M and I went whale watching which was an amazing experience, Martin works for the local tour company and managed to get a good discount for the three of us which was a benefit. We got to cruise round the canals looking at the Aussie homes of the rich and famous and then out into the open sea to look for the humpback whales making their migratory cruise south back to Antartica. We saw quite a few in the 2 hours we were out and one even jumped right out of the water which was a very 'Free Willy' moment.
My building is attatched to the local grass bowls club which is quite amusing and yesterday J, M and I had a quick game or two after work. It was funny to see Martin get so competitive over the sedate game but the true master won (me obviously) and now i'm really going to focus on that 'kneel and roll' technique, you never know when it'll come in use.
The other highlight of the week is our Monday tv night - 'Flash Forward' followed by 'The Apprentice' (Australian version) and then a pretty bad American reality tv show called 'Momma's Boys', all washed down with a bowl of ice-cream, chocolate sauce and sugar strands of course.
It's the Motor GP car racing event next week which completely takes over the Gold Coast and will no doubt bring in big crowds so we'll have to see how that goes. Other things in the pipeline are a trip to Wet n' Wild in November (a waterpark) which'll be so fun with Loz's underwater camera and the Stereosonic festival in Brisbane which i'm going to just before returning to Sydney.
The one thing that's really thrown me and I have to admit really don't like is how the sun is weak by 3pm and sets around 5pm....WAY too early! It makes the evenings feel so dark and long and the days too short...and after the 9pm sunsets of Maui it is not cool.
Aside from the above we're regulars in the jacuzzi, try to chill with beers on the beach and cook alot of meat on the bbq. I can't get enough of the avocado and helumi burgers we've been making, defo more of them to come. Delicious...xxx
We've come a fair way since that first week of work at the holiday company...actually it was only three days before we got as far away from that fraudulent group of people as possible. Only one good thing came of our brief stint there and that was meeting Jules and Martin, a cool couple from the Midlands who i've latched myself onto! We're totally on the same wavelength and have begun planning lots of exciting plans and things to look forward to so thats cool. They also have an awesome jacuzzi and grill area in their building which is great to chill in after a day stuffing bears.
At first I only had 3 shifts a week at Build-a-bear and it really wasn't enough but we've had some scandalous things going on recently and 2 people have just resigned so I was the first to stick my hand up for more work which is cool.
So what else has been going on here on the Gold Coast? Well Jules, Martin and I go out clubbing every couple of weeks just to mix it up, the majority of people and clubs here are 100% chav havens but i've done some digging and found a few hidden gold mines which are worth going to. I'm not sure how i do it but i've also managed to get friendly with the girls running the doors too and that means free entry for everyone which is always good :)
Last Tuesday Jules, Martin and I went to a classy establishment called Pearl for the cocktail deal they were doing and honestly, it was the best classic mojito I have EVER had. Really, really good. We're soooo going back next Tues to take full advantage of the tapas as well. I guess that's the good thing about earning some money while we're here, I don't feel too bad treating myself to a drink or ice-cream here or there....well, quite freqently actually lol.
The four of us have also taken to holding little dinner parties for each other... how middle aged of us haha! Loz and I have just got back from The Azzura (J+M's building) where they'd made homemade sangria and got some awesome dips on the go, they've really stepped up their game this week lol.
This Wednesday just gone J, M and I went whale watching which was an amazing experience, Martin works for the local tour company and managed to get a good discount for the three of us which was a benefit. We got to cruise round the canals looking at the Aussie homes of the rich and famous and then out into the open sea to look for the humpback whales making their migratory cruise south back to Antartica. We saw quite a few in the 2 hours we were out and one even jumped right out of the water which was a very 'Free Willy' moment.
My building is attatched to the local grass bowls club which is quite amusing and yesterday J, M and I had a quick game or two after work. It was funny to see Martin get so competitive over the sedate game but the true master won (me obviously) and now i'm really going to focus on that 'kneel and roll' technique, you never know when it'll come in use.
The other highlight of the week is our Monday tv night - 'Flash Forward' followed by 'The Apprentice' (Australian version) and then a pretty bad American reality tv show called 'Momma's Boys', all washed down with a bowl of ice-cream, chocolate sauce and sugar strands of course.
It's the Motor GP car racing event next week which completely takes over the Gold Coast and will no doubt bring in big crowds so we'll have to see how that goes. Other things in the pipeline are a trip to Wet n' Wild in November (a waterpark) which'll be so fun with Loz's underwater camera and the Stereosonic festival in Brisbane which i'm going to just before returning to Sydney.
The one thing that's really thrown me and I have to admit really don't like is how the sun is weak by 3pm and sets around 5pm....WAY too early! It makes the evenings feel so dark and long and the days too short...and after the 9pm sunsets of Maui it is not cool.
Aside from the above we're regulars in the jacuzzi, try to chill with beers on the beach and cook alot of meat on the bbq. I can't get enough of the avocado and helumi burgers we've been making, defo more of them to come. Delicious...xxx
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