Down Under

We arrived in Oz on Friday morning, it was a 4.5 hour flight from Fiji and the plane was MASSIVE, it was a Boeing 747, the type with an upstairs, and we were sitting upstairs, and unbeknown to us we had been allocated emergency exit seats which meant we had LOADS of leg room, it was a great flight (unlike the toy plane we flew from Chile to NZ on!!!) the food was good to (Air Pacific)

Once we got to the airport and retrieved our back packs we rang the camper van company to come and pick us up from the airport, only to be told that they don't offer a pick up service, so we had to jump in a cab. The camper van we have now is probably half the size of the last one, but much more fun as it really is proper camping now. The weather here is superb and there is no need to use the camper for anything other than sleeping and preparing food, unlike NZ where it was raining and often quite cold.

The camper van depot is in Sydney, so once we had done all the paper work and necessary checks we were given directions to the campsite at Lane Cove which is 14k outside of the City. Well after 12 days of Fiji Time you can imagine that driving through Sydney in Friday rush hour traffic in a camper van is a bit stressful to say the least. We got lost 3 times! We had to drive across the Harbour Bridge through lanes and lanes of traffic and the road signs are so confusing, it really was a nerve wracking experience, and to make matters worse we hit a BIG thunder storm with fork lightening, it wasn't the best of starts!

So after 3 attempts of finding the campsite up and down the toll road at a cost of $5 a time (a toll road that we didn't need to be on at all!!) we managed to find the exit that would take us to the site, and luckily we found it with no further complications. Once we had checked in and got a local map we decided to head out to the supermarket and get some supplies and frozen mixed veg (I'm not sure if anybody knows this but Matt has actually been to Oz before, in fact to the very same camp site that were at now, where he lived for quite a while, which is why he kept insisting on knowing the way, roads looking familiar etc) so we were following directions given to us, when Matt said "I know where we're going now, I remember this road" and as he said this he took the wrong turn and got us back on the toll road!! Anyway to cut it short after a lot of shouting and screaming we managed to find the shops, by which point we were so stressed and tired from getting up early that neither of us could be bothered to shop. We threw a couple of bags of frozen veg in the trolly and headed home.

On the way back to the campsite we realised that we hadn't got any beers or wine, so we did a detour (talk about asking for trouble!) and went to the local "bottle shop" for some much needed alcoholic supplies, we staggered out of there with 6 bottles of beer and 3 bottles of wine. We felt better already ;-)

As we were driving back to the campsite the steering went on the van, Matt was still able to control it but it was extremely difficult and potentially dangerous. He managed to steer it back to the site and I drove it just to confirm that there was something wrong with it. There was no doubt that there was something wrong as it was almost impossible to turn the wheel, God knows how Matt got us back. Matt rang the breakdown company and they agreed to send somebody out to have a look at it, which they did and he advised us to drive it to the nearest garage as the belt that controls the power steering had broken. Matt agreed to this and was advised to call the breakdown depot again the next day to confirm the details, luckily for us when he did they agreed to send somebody out the next day to fix it, which is just as well really as neither of us had a clue where the garage was and the vehicle was not safe to drive anyway. Our stress levels were racing now, it was about 8pm by this time and we hadn't had a drink, anything to eat or managed to get our stuff unpacked. It really had been a nightmare day!

We fell into bed after a few beers and good old beans on toast for our tea, we couldn't work out how to erect the bed so we had to sleep on the benches, both too dog tired to start messing about trying to work out how to put it up. After a good nights sleep we managed to find the boards for the bed, the guy turned up to fix the camper and we spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool, so all in all a much better day than Friday.

We are now in Sydney and plan on doing the whole tourist thing, Harbour Bridge, Opera House, Paddy Markets, China Town. You name it we plan to do it, today. Tomorrow we leave Sydney and as far as I know were heading to the Blue Mountains. We have planned a kind of route for the time that were here. We aren't doing the backpacker trail up the East Coast, I will update you as we go along.

So that's us..

It's lovely been in the sun after so much cold and rain, the Ozzie weather is superb, as was Fiji. The only thing here though is there are thousands upon thousands of flies, and they don't leave you alone, flying round your face and in your ears. We have a couple of rolled up newspapers in the van to swat them with. I think we should get some kind of score card going to see who can swat the most! There are also lots of mozzies and I'm covered in bites from Fiji, even Matt who doesn't normally get bitten has some bites. So they will be getting the rolled up newspaper treatment too. It gives us something to do while we're busy doing nothing ;o)

Fiji Time

Hi All, We're in Sydney, Australia now after 10 relaxing days in the Yasawa Islands and 2 days in Nadi, Fiji. We didn't go Island hopping we just had 10 lazy days in one resort, The Coconut Bay it was heaven. The resort is extremely basic, it has no hot water, apart from the sea(!) and electricity only between the hours of 6 - 11pm. It was almost like being back in the jungle.

Our time spent in the resort was ruled by a succession of gongs, 8am breakfast, 12 noon lunch, 4pm afternoon tea and then 7pm dinner (and dancing!) Everything is run on Fiji Time, i.e there is no urgency or rush to do anything, definitely my kind of place! there are no clocks anywhere.

We were like part of the family when we left and it was a bit emotional saying goodbye to the locals who have made us feel so welcome. Every night around 3-4 of the guys would dress up in grass skirts and tops and do their welcome Bula Dance, which we then had to do too, then there was some kind of Fijian dance that we didn't have to partake in (thankfully!!) there was then a farewell song sang for anybody that was leaving the next day and then we would play cards and listen to some dodgy Fijian music drinking ice cold beer, it's not a bad life eh??

It is a very simple life they live, no telephone or T.V, there was internet access at the next resort to where we were staying, but other than that the locals have no real contact with the outside world. Matt spent many hours showing them card tricks, talking about England, the internet and music. They loved him!! Everyday it would be "yo bro" or "hey Matthew" which made it all the more sad to leave. He was even dragged to the internet place a couple of times to set the locals up with email addresses and facebook logons.

On Sunday it was Matt's Birthday and they baked him a massive Birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday to him (about 12 of them) they also made us necklaces from flowers, it really is a beautiful resort with friendly people.

The food wasn't really much to write home about despite the good reviews in Lonely Planet, I think I have eaten my own body weight in mixed frozen veg while we were there, they put it in everything! We did have a curry one night (a mixed frozen veg one for me!!) but on the whole it was pretty basic. There was lots of lovely fresh fruit for breakfast and would you believe weetabix!!

So that was our 10 days in Fiji, not a lot to tell you really, it was just a lovely relaxing time doing nothing but chill out.

It's a good life

Today we took the camper van back to the depot, it was a bit sad as we really have enjoyed every minute of the camping lifestyle. We are now staying in a hostel right in the centre of Auckland, it's really strange being back in a hostel with lots of scrotes with no money living on jam sandwiches. Luckily for us it's only one night.

Taking the van back was a bit stressful as there are so many things that they can charge you for when you return it, i.e the toilet not being empty, the over flow tank not being empty, the inside being dirty, and marks inside/outside the van and so much other detailed stuff. Thankfully we hadn't had any bumps or scrapes and we returned the van in tip top condition so we got our full deposit back, which means we wont have to come home early ;o)

We haven't booked any accommodation for Fiji were just going to wing it, after all whats the point in being independent travellers?!?! We have looked at a few of the resorts though and have an idea of where we want to stay which is probably the Yasawa Island. A lot of people go island hopping and stay at different resorts for a couple of days at a time, but we can't be bothered to spend time on boats and packing our stuff up so were just going to find a decent resort and chill out for the duration.

Tonight we are meeting Kirsten (Steens sister) so were looking forward to that, we're going for a few beers and hopefully a curry of some description.

So to summarise NZ, it really is a beautiful, friendly and laid back country, their hospitality knows no bounds. Everybody wants to chat and find out where you're from, where you're going and to tell you of great things to see and do here. The scenery is amazing, you can't drive anywhere and not take in some mountainous peaks, stunning coast line or a few thousand sheep along the way. They have an excellent standard of living, great pubs and restaurants and it is considerably cheaper than the U.K, although the cost of living over here is rapidly on the increase. It is certainly a place where we both feel we could one day live and integrate into the NZ lifestyle and culture with no difficulty.

Who knows maybe when we're 65!!

Sing when you're winning!

Hi all, sorry for the delay in posting, we have been busy getting back from the South Island, Up North again. We are now back in Auckland, well on the outskirts really and we will stay here until we take The Shed back on Saturday, once we've done that we have booked to stay in a Hostel in the centre of Auckland for Saturday night, ready to jet off to Fiji on Sunday, woo hoo!!

The last time I blogged we were in the Abel Tasman Region and the weather was a bit naff, well luckily for us it picked up. We managed to get to a campsite with views overlooking the sea and there we booked our trip to the Abel Tasman National Park, for anybody that looks at our pics on Flickr you've probably seen the place already.

You are taxied by a boat round the coast line taking in all the wildlife reserves and stunning beaches. The seas were green and the sands golden, it was also gloriously sunny this particular day which we were really pleased about. We then got dropped off at a beach literally in the middle of the National Park and told where we are to meet up again 4 hours later. We then did a 10k walk through the park and round the coast line, it was great although a little muddy underfoot due to all the rain. We had our lunch on the beach with the waves lapping round our ankles, amidst the sand flies. We then walked further along the coast to a place called Anchorage where we had arranged to be picked up it was a really nice day, we were cream crackered when we got back.

There have been a few earthquakes whilst we have been in NZ, nothing major according to the locals and they are also not uncommon. Anyway the day after we had our jaunt out we were asleep in the camper it was about 7.30, and all of a sudden it started to judder for about 10 seconds, it felt like there was somebody rocking it from side to side (there wasn't as we looked out of the window to check!) after speaking to a local guy at one of the campsites, we told him where we were and he advised that we had probably felt the tremors from one of the quakes. Fancy that!!

After Abel Tasman we drove up to Nelson, a busy place for NZ. We went to the cinema to watch The Kingdom (great film) and swapped lots of books that we had accumulated at a second hand book shop, then it started to rain again. It seems for every dry 24 hours you have you have to endure 48 hours of rain. So we headed for the nearest and driest place we could find, which just so happened to be a pub!! complete coincidence. It turned into a good night, we managed to sample many of the beers from the nearby Macs brewery. I can't remember much of the night once we left there ;-)

The next day (still in Nelson) we hired some mountain bikes from the campsite and headed out to the next nearest town which was about 25k (I'm out of breath now just thinking about it!) Again it was a lovely sunny day, but it was blowing a gale, not ideal biking conditions for two lazy office workers!! But we managed it, we stopped off for a fresh fruit ice cream and strawberries on the way which made the whole day completely worthwhile, it was yummy! We got back late afternoon like a couple of cripples, we could hardly walk. We cooked our tea, polished of a bottle of wine and hit the sack at about 8 o'clock, proper rock and roll lifestyle!

After Nelson we headed back up to Picton as we were to catch the ferry that day (Saturday) back to the North Island. We had hoped to stay a few more days on the South originally, but due to bad weather and cold temperatures at night we decided that it would be better to head North where it is always a few degrees warmer. The ferry crossing was plain sailing (no pun intended) and we got back to Wellington mid afternoon. We then headed up the West coast and decided to stop of when we had had enough of driving, which wasn't long as we had been up since 6.30 and was a bit tired, we stayed at a place beginning with O?? (I 'm sorry but I have completely lost track of all the different places we've stayed as the names are all in Maori) Next day we hit the road again and continuing North stopped off again at Lake Taupo, it was a lovely sunny and even warm day so we sat out for a bit before we set off for a place called Matamata where we stayed the night.

After this we headed up to The Coromandel Peninsula, which is kind of East of Auckland, and not an area we stopped at on the way down. A few people we had met on the camp sites had said how nice it is so we decided with the extra days spare we had from the South Island we would spend up here. Well it didn't really do anything for us to be honest, it was just full of drab little places along the coast with nothing much in the way of entertainment (For all you Northerners imagine Paull in winter?!?!?) The only hustle and bustle we came across were some road works. We carried on to Coromandel and stayed there a night, again the weather was really hot and sunny so we got our deck chairs out and had a lazy day absorbing some much needed rays.

After Coromandel we went to Haihi which is another small coastal resort with absolutely nothing to do, not even a supermarket. We got another beach side site and had ANOTHER lazy day doing nothing in particular except reading and cryptic cross word puzzles. Oh yeah and Matt had picked up a newspaper so he has been catching up with all the Rugby news, a bit of comedy always help eh!
We left Haihi this morning and here we are..

So the rugby.. I'm not big into Rugby Union to be honest or league for that matter, although I do get regular updates from my dad who is an avid FC fan. All I can compare the All Blacks defeat to is 9/11. They are absolutely gutted by the result, every day the headlines are about the team, their performance and their future. They were so confident that they would win it this time round that most of them have been saving for years to make the trip to Europe, buy tickets to the final, and one guy has even had a tattoo done on his leg of dates and some other nonsense.It really is a tragedy for the Kiwis, it will be a long time before they recover from it, if they ever do? As for the England result, me and Matt are both made up, especially as we will be out there at the end of October. The Ozzies are also taking it quite badly, especially loosing to The Britz. All we hope now is that we can beat France on Sunday and get through to the final. We will also be rooting for Argentina too.

We fly to Fiji on Sunday at 2 o'clock, so we should hopefully be stripped off and on the beach for 5 o'clock he he! I cant wait to buy some sun tan cream and mozzie spray and get my summer togs out from the hidden depths of my ruck sack, I was beginning to think they would never see the light of day.

Bring on Fiji...

England 12 - (S)Oz 10

Not a lot more to add to this blog...

Will post more in a couple of days when we get to a BIG City.

Sheep, Books and Rain

Were now in the Abel Tasman region after working our way up the wet and miserable West Coast, and it's still wet and miserable! It hasn't stopped raining for almost 3 days now!!

We went up to Lake Wanaka after Queenstown and stayed there for a night, we managed to get out and do some walking, even though it was blowing a gale. It's a nice little place but not a great deal going on there. After Lake Wanaka we headed 'Up North' to Franz Josef where we were hoping to go up in a helicopter over the Glaciers and then do some walking on them. Well unfortunately the weather would not permit heli rides up there, so we didn't manage to see the Glacier at all. We wouldn't have even been able to see it from the viewing areas as the visibility was so poor. Heavy rain and cloud is how I will remember Franz Josef, which is a shame, especially for Matt as this was on his list of top things to see and do.

We left there after one night, in the persisting rain and headed further North towards Nelson, by now it had been raining over 24 hours, with no respite. We really were feeling quite deflated, it's not just showers, it really is throwing it down. We decided to spend the day driving as we knew we wouldn't be able to do anything if we stopped off anywhere, we arrived at a small town called Murcheson yesterday at about 4pm. Miraculously the rain stopped, the cloud began to break and we managed to see a bit of blue sky, hurrah! It was to be short lived though as it was raining again within a couple of hours and hasn't stopped since.

The campsite we stayed at yesterday was lovely, in a really rural setting, it was quite idyllic really. When we were checking in the woman who owns it told me she had a baby lamb that they were hand rearing and that she would be out to feed it soon if I wanted to have a look. Well me being the animal lover I am didn't need telling twice, we parked "the shed" up and I went across to the lamb enclosure where there were 3 lambs and a sheep. The story is that one of the lambs is a triplet (2 boys one female) and she wasn't getting any milk from her mother as they boys were taking it all, so they decided to feed her themselves. She is beautiful at 1 month old and she is called Amanda. Now for those of you that work in ecomet and are reading this the first person that will spring to mind is Amanda Hodson! Well I'm sorry to say that unlike AH this lamb really was as pure as the driven snow ;-) She was bleating her little lungs out as we came up to give her the bottle of milk, and she guzzled it down greedily, nearly taking the bottle from my hand (see pic) It was a great experience, and I have to say I was a bit sorry to leave after the morning feed today. She is in great health though and is eating grass too now which is a good sign (obviously)

We've been reading lots over the last few weeks, especially when the weather is like this. I picked up a great book in Auckland called The Boss, and it is a really good read. I would recommend it to all my (ex) colleagues at Comet to read. Basically it is made up of lots of different horror stories employees have about their bosses, and things that they have suffered at work, how it impacts their home life etc. There really are some shocking examples in there and probably some that you may be able to relate to. I think I can safely say that I have never worked for anybody quite as horrific as some of these people. It is written by author Andrew O'keeffe, check out the website for more info http://www.greatbosses.com/

Ooo, I think the sun is on it's way out, I should probably take a photo!!