The addresses to blogs of other people out here are below, if you wana check any of them out?
Matt http://theworldandelsewhere.blogspot.com/
Emma http://www.getjealous.com/emmapownall
Freya http://freyastravels.blogspot.com/
Rob http://righteousp.spaces.live.com/
Lisa an Caz http://www.getjealous.com/lisa.caroline
Hi guys, welcome to Jon`s blog, il try not to go on too much
Left England from Heathrow on tuesday 6th March. Landed in Bangkok the next day after an 11 hour flight. I met a guy called Chris in the queue for the taxi and we were staying at the same hotel. Ended up spending most of my time in Bangkok with him. He`s from Leicester and went to Nottingham Trent. I wont go through it day by day, but i`ll give you the highlights.
Went to Thai Boxing on Thursday night, it was wicked! Saw about ten fights and saw 4 people get knocked out cold and stretchered off! We met an american couple called Brad and Jerry. Every time someone got knocked down Brad went a bit hyperactive and there were high fives everywhere!! Mental!!
Stayed in a hostel right next to Khao San road which is the main backpacker area and was really cool. Plenty of bars along there and you can`t walk 5 metres without someone trying to sell you something.
We went to Patpong Road one night...that was an experience! It`s like the red light district and was really seedy. Everyone was trying to get us to go to see a "ping-pong show" all night, so we thought we`d best have a look, just out of interest! We just thought it might be a game of table tennis or something? It wasn`t........... Still entertaining though.
Saw loads of temples and shrines. There are Buddha`s literally everywhere, my sister would spend a fortune buying things for the house!
Think thats about it on Bangkok really, the people are great and so friendly and helpful. I got stopped all the time by Thai people to have a chat and recommend what sites i should go to see next. I think a lot of them just wanted to practice speaking English (and absolutely loads of them just wanted to get me into a conversation before they tried to sell me something). All fun and games
Well, off to New Zealand I go, got a 9 hour flight to Sydney, then a 3 hour wait at the airport then a 3 hour flight to Christchurch, looking forward to that!
Landed in Christchurch on Tuesday after not sleeping at all on the plane. I sorted my bus to Queenstown for tomorrow, booked a hostel for the night and as soon as I got there passed out and slept for 15 hours! Awesome
Wednesday got a bus to Queenstown which took 8 hours. Matt met me at the bus stop and took me to my temporary home for a few weeks. The house is gorgeous with the best views over queenstown (see pics)
Naturally we had a few beers to celebrate my arrival
Jon, Jon, JON.......I woke up on my first morning in Queenstown, didnt have a clue where I was, and Matt said, "Jon, you wanna jump off a bridge?" Sure? Why not, you gotta get into the spirit of Queenstown and jump in head first I suppose?
I was a bit nervous at first but tried not to think about it. As soon as I got to the top of the bridge and looked down I SHIT myself (sorry mum). Not literally obviously but it was pretty close. Once the rope was strapped to me I had to make my way to the edge, my legs went to jelly and i could barely walk, especially not the the edge of a bridge over a valley with only a river and rocks below.
I don`t know how but i just bit the bullet and jumped, saw the video afterwards and my arms were flapping about all over the place it looked as if i was trying to take off. I didnt buy the video coz I looked like an absolute tool and was so scared. Glad I did it though and worth the experience. I might not do another one in a hurry though, I was shaken up for quite a while afterwards, I may be mentally traumatized. Got a free t-shirt though, so it`s swings and roundabouts!!
Also went up Deer Park Heights that afternoon for some of the most beautiful views of New Zealand including The Remarkables, and several other scenes for the Lord of the Rings films. A bit less of an adrenaline rush than earlier in the day but I think that`s what I needed. I could have sat up there for hours taking it all in, it was amazing.
Hi, sorry I haven`t written for ages but I haven`t done much exciting. Just been in Queenstown "catching up with everyone" (also known as getting pissed as much as possible), so here`s some pics of us out in QT, getting pissed!
Me and Andy T went paraglyding. It was ok, no real adrenalin rush but cool to be glyding over the mountains and look at everything from a birdseye view. It was fun but only lasted a few minutes, don`t think I`d bother again but everything`s worth doing once
The next day we went Quadbiking which was awesome. We were gone for a couple of hours and went up the mountains and even got free tea and biscuits when we got to the top, I was well happy! You can`t beat having a brew on a quadbike while looking down over valleys and lakes...heaven!
There was a middle aged ozzie couple in our group and they didn`t stop talking and asking the instructors constant questions. The woman mentioned she was an actress (I would have asked her what she`d been in if I could have got a word in). She looked familiar but I thought nothing of it. When the minibus dropped us off afterwards Andy T pointed out that it was Cheryl Carpenter from neighbours!! How cool is that? I went quadbiking with Cheryl from neighbours!!! Not many people can say that. If i wasn`t already the coolest person you know I definitely am now. My life is complete!
Flew from Queenstown to Auckland yesterday. It`s a pretty cool city but staying right in the centre means its not great to look at. Went up the sky tower, the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere, and the views from up there were pretty awesome. Other than that went out with the guys in my room a couple of times, they were all a bit mental!! Not much more to say about Auckland really, this is a well boring entry!! Here`s some pics anyway
Got a bus up to Paihia which is the centre of the bay of islands. There`s been really bad floods over the last few days with the worst storms for 150 years. Most of this was over when we got there though and it was still gorgeous, even though we saw quite a lot of damage on the way there and had to take detours because the roads were closed.
We went to the northern tip of NZ and you could see where the tasman sea meets the pacific ocean which was cool. Met some really cool people up here and had a great time. Our bus driver was called Auto, and compared himself Otto from the simpsons. He looked like him and had the same attitude. Driving around the hills was far from the safest i`ve ever felt on a bus. He was great though and kept bursting into fits of laughter for no reason, or singing in Maori loads. He was off his head and kept us entertained, not sure what the pills he kept swallowing were for but he must have been really ill coz he was taking them all the time!!!! He seemed to like them anyway.
Auto took us sandboarding, which is basically getting on a bodyboard and throwing yourself down sand-dunes. Awesome fun and you can really get some speed up, especially if you take a running start as Auto recommended! Sweet as!
Before I left here on tuesday I went out around the bay of islands on "the excitor", just a speedboat with a fancy name really. Went through the "hole in the rock" which was pretty cool and got a tour of the islands. Was good to kill a couple of hours before getting the bus back to Auckland
Back in Auckland for a couple of nights before I head south. I walked on the underneath of Harbour bridge which was good and watched some bungys. Went over to Devonport for some awesome "Fush and Chups", and got great views of Auckland from the other side of the bay. Got to see a bit more of Auckland which was cool but i want to get out of the city so I`m heading south tomorrow.
O.K. so left Auckland, went over to the east coast and stayed in mercury bay for the night which was nice, cool beaches. Then headed to Rotarua the next day, nice little town but it stinks! There`s a lot of geothermal activity and I went to check out the geysers and hot-pools which was cool. Also got to see a kiwi bird face to face which was amazing, good to see coz there`s not many of the litlte guys left nowadays.
At night we went to an evening at a Maori village which has been set up 20km from Rotorua to show how the Maori`s lived. Lots of singing and dancing including the `haka`, which was great to see, then we ate a Hangi feast, which is cooked on hot rocks in a hole dug i the ground. Amazing beef and veg, then pavlova for dessert (I don`t think that had been cooked in the hangi)
OK so if you check the message board casey doesn`t think i`ve been enthusiastic enough about some of the things I`ve done. Probably a fair point but you`re gona enjoy this one mate! I JUST HAD THE BEST DAY EVER! EVER EVER EVER!! Seriously though it was well good. Went to Waitomo which is a really small town on the west coast of the north island. It`s got a labrynth of underground caves and I chose to explore them by doing "The Black Abyss". This time the quality of the name is more than matched by the quality of the experience!
We got all dressed up in wetsuits, harnesses and helmets and began by abseiling about 50ft down into the caves down a tight gap. Once we were all down we walked along until we came to "the flying fox" Another cool name, its like a zipline in pitch black down into the caves, well cool. We then got given a black rubber ring and had to jump down into the water below! It was freeeezing!! Went swimming around the caves for a couple of hours then at the end rock climbed out, bar far the best thing i`ve done yet. Partly coz I got to wear a tight wetsuit, but best off all when we were freezing in the caves we got a brew and a flapjack to make it all better
OK so it`s been a while since i`ve written so here`s a quick catch up. Spent 3 nights in Taupo for some awesome sunset`s by the lake and a few big nights out. Then onto River Valley for whitewater rafting which was amazing! Didn`t manage to get any pics though, I don`t think my camera would have survived the trip, especially when the boat tipped upside down at the end and we all ended up underneath in the freezing river! All good fun though.
Spent a couple of nights in Wellington, capital of NZ. Pretty cool city, managed to see a super14s rugby match while we were there whcih was cool. I became a hurricanes fan for the evening and we decided to wear fancy dress. I naturally went for a dress and red high heels, very classy. How the hell do you girls walk in those?? So much pain but it was worth it for how good my legs looked, and we managed to get on the big screen which was the aim.
After a ferry ride from Wellington to Picton I was in the South Island. Had a night in Nelson and a night in Westport where we had a fire on the beach. Back at the hostel playing drinking games including ring of fire, there was a lot of nakedness and me foolishly breaking the ring and having to down a pint containing curry powder and pepper. The beer was bubbling and within seconds I was on my way to the toilet with a lasagne dish to protect the floors incase I didn`t make it. Fun times!
The next night was at Lake Mahinapua and a fancy dress party at "The Poo Pub". I went as a glow worm from the Waitomo caves and looked ridiculous. Again it was a heavy night and a walk down to the lake, more nakedness and jumping in the lake. I sadly bottled it and didn`t jump in the water. There was no way that was happening after seeing the reactions of the other lads getting in. Freeezing!
After just a couple of hours sleep the journey to Franz Josef was horrible. Felt so rough and couldn`t sleep on the coach. I am never drinking again!
The glaciers on the west coast of the south island are an amazing sight! I went ice climbing yesterday which was sooo cool! Climbing a steep ice face with huge spikes attached to your boots and an axe in either hand. It makes you feel really masculine smashing an axe into the ice with either arm then pulling yourself up the face. Much like cooking a barbeque or sharpening a pencil with a knife, you feel really manly. Hard work especially in your arms but sooo much fun to do. There`s something strange about walking through a valley standing on hundreds of metres of condensed ice and snow, weird.
The next day i got a slightly different view of the glacier when I skydived over it! The views were mind blowing, falling over the glacier right next to Mt Cook and Mt Tasman, the 2 highest mountains in NZ. The freefall was every bit as amazing as I remember from the one I did in Notts and I was screaming pretty much the whole way down I was buzzin so much. I think the guy I was attached to thought I was a bit weird after that, if he didn`t think that already. It`s a great way to wake up anyway, it was 7am so I was still half asleep. It meant I got to see sunrise from 12,000 feet though which was sweet, and then back on the ground I got to see the sun rise for a second time as it appeared over the mountains. Beautiful!
We stopped off for one night in Wanaka where it was Joe`s birthday off our bus so after lots of drinking games and a dirty pint for Joe we went out to get him as drunk as possible. The next day we headed into Queenstown feeling like shit. We stopped at Puzzling world on the way which is full of tricks and illusions. There were rooms with slanted floors and mirrors everywhere so when things moved it looked like it was going uphill and was really disorientating. It`s the last thing you need when you`re as hungover as we all were so to stop us from feeling sick we spent most of the time in the cafe waiting for the bus. Most people I`d been on the kiwi bus with stayed for a week which was full of booze, luging, and bungees. "Charlie Big Tits" did a tandem bungee with our driver and she was topless. We got to see her huge.......smile as they jumped, which was nice! It was sad to see everyone move on, I made some great mates on the bus and was half tempted to go to OZ with them when they left.
In Queenstown we heard that one of the kiwi buses had come off the road on the mountainside near the glaciers, where we had been 2 days before. The bus had over 40 people on it and it was a miracle no-one was killed, and only a couple needed hospital treatment. It`s quite scary to think we only missed it by 2 days, and when your plans are constantly changing any of us could quite easily have been on that bus. I knew quite a few people who were in the accident and caught up with them when they got to Queenstown 2 days after us. They all seemed ok but it sounded pretty scary climbing out of the window of a bus which is balancing on an embankment and then climbing up to the road to wave down help. Just glad it wasn`t me
I`ve been back in Queenstown for a few weeks now but not much to report. It`s really quiet at the minute because summer`s gone and the ski season hasn`t started yet so we`re just waiting for the town to liven up again in June. Also the money ran out so haven`t been able to go out. I started working last week at Three Sixty restaurant, which is in the hotel where Emma and Freya work so it`s cool to work with them. It`s not the work i wanted to be doing but it`s ok for now and at least I`ve got some money coming in.
Nothing much else happening, we`re moving into a new house next week because it`s freezing where we are. The new place is a long walk from town but it has the luxury of heating and carpets so it`ll be worth it so I can feel my toes at night. It has been getting ridiculously cold the last few weeks.
Matt cut my hair the other day, I`m not sure why I ever let his big clumsy Geordie sausage fingers near it but he did a good job and il be going back again, cheers Matt!!
Anyway looking forward to snow and skiing so il put some pics up of us on the slopes when we get up there in the next few weeks
Still in Queenstown for another month but the time is flying past, not long until i get on the plane to sydney. Im still working at the crowne plaza but getting more hours now so i can actually afford to leave the house an do stuff, hence i now have something to write on this blog. I didnt think putting weekly reports of which dvds i watched would have been worth it.
On 14th July me Emma Freya an Jim rented a car and went to Christchurch to watch the All Blacks play South Africa in the trinations. Emma was excited about her first live rugby game an it was good to see the stadium full to capacity. All Blacks won 33-6 after 3 tries in the last ten minutes which meant all the kiwis went home happy. The best part was the haka. It looks awesome an is so much louder than i expected. All the kiwis I`ve spoken to since they won the tri-nations now believes they have already won the world cup before it`s even kicked off. They are so arrogant and cocky and love rugby banter. It`s nice to be able to come back to them and say we are the world champions but I can`t imagine we`ll be able to say that for much longer.
After the game we went for a few beers in Christchurch (rude not to) but none of us thought it was that great as a place to go out. Still good though, found a bar that was doing 2 for 1 on JD so we were happy for a few hours.
After weeks of hearing about everyone else`s skiing adventures i finally got to have a go myself. Rob an Freya have been boarding every week and tell me they`re getting pretty good (I haven`t seen any proof though). So when Emma said she had a pass I could use I jumped at the chance. It included 2 lessons which was useful for someone who has never put on a pair of skis before. The morning lesson was very basic indeed, starting with "this is a ski, this is a boot". I`d worked that much out for myself. I`ve heard of idiot guides but that was taking it too far. We just stayed at the base of the mountain and practised slowing down and stopping, quite simple really, you`d think. There were a couple of Japanese girls in our group, which was about 20 people to one instructor by the way so there was a lot of waiting around and not a lot of skiing, but these girls just could not grasp the concept of pointing their feet inwards and every time would panic and swerve into the rest of the group hoping someone else would stop them. Of course everyone was a first time skier so they would panic and try to move their feet and end up on the floor too, along with the person either side of them. So we spent more time picking each other up than we did skiing thanks to a few who couldn`t master simple concepts. Frustrating!
There was a couple of hours break inbetween the lessons so i went up the beginner slopes and had a go at picking up speed. I managed to do the slope 3 times without falling over or hitting anyone and got a bit confident so decided to try something a little harder. I went back up the magic carpet lift and tried to go down the other side of the slope, which looked slightly steeper but about the same. I started off ok until about half way down when i accelerated and couldnt slow down. It hadnt snowed in over 2 weeks so there was a lot of ice around, eventually i went flying up in the air with both skis and both poles all heading in seperate directions. It took about ten minutes to work out how to get my skis back on and i decided not to try that again in a hurry. As i looked back up the slope it was obvious several people were having the same thoughts as me as i saw at least 5 people also on the floor without skis.
The afternoon lesson was about as productive as the morning one and the instructor tried to introduce turning, a big mistake. This encouraged the people who couldn`t go in a straight line as it was to attempt to turn even more than they were, and just resulted in them crashing into the line of people but much nearer the top of the slope. So parts of the lessons were useful but we didnt really get to practise any of what he ws telling us due to too many people, but more importantly too many stupid people!
Before we left I met Emma and went up the chairlift to the first slope to finish the day. It`s called the "Big Easy", big it was, easy it certainly was not! I completely stacked it off the chairlift and nearly couldnt get off at all and ended up going back down again. As soon as i touched the ground i was flat on my face and felt like I`d broken my thumb. The first bit of the slope was the hardest and I struggled to move at all as Emma shouted instructions trying to get me down the slope before we missed the last bus. After about 5 falls (that`s a lie it was more like 10) I managed to pick it up and made it down the second half of the slope in one go. If you go to the movies section there`s a video Emma filmed of me skiing, it makes me look ok and is probably an unfair reflection on how my first day of skiing actually went.
Great fun though an can`t wait to get up there again
Me Freya an James had the day off work so took a road trip to Dunedin. Dunedin has the oldest university in NZ and the name comes from the scottish gaelic word for Edinburgh (every day`s a school day).
It was good having a walk around and was very different from Queenstown. The station was really cool and we also went to cadbury`s world. We didn`t do the factory tour as that`s for kids (but mainly because we`d missed the last tour of the day). We also missed the last tour of the speights brewery which was annoying.
We also planned to check out the steepest street in the world while in dunedin, but realised half way home that we`d completely forgotten! That was also very annoying. All in all it was a good day though.
Rob`s girlfriend Shelley arrived in town this week and Emma returned from her travels with Chris. Then Freya`s friend Camilla arrived with her brother Charles (haha, Charles and Camilla , they loved people pointing out how funny that was). So we now have ten people in a four bedroom house. Should be fun for the next week, lots of queues for the bathroom i think.
Matt, who gets all activities in Queenstown for free, got a free trip on Dart River Safaris and was told to bring a friend. Naturally i was first choice so we got the bus out to Glenorchy, a tiny town 45 mins from Queenstown. We got a jetboat along Dart river and got to see lots of Mt Aspiring National Park which is gorgeous. Several Lord of the Rings scenes were filmed here, and kiwi`s love to tell you all about that! I think those films are all that some of them talk about!! There was also a walk through an ancient woodland, which could have taken about 2 minutes but the guy kept stopping us to tell stories, or attempt to show us trees which looked like animals and a tree stump which looked like a toilet. They didnt and "waste of time" sprang to mind. A fun day though and free pub lunch in Glenorchy, all for free, sweet.
I heard Milford was one of the most beautiful places on earth and you had to see it if you came to NZ. It didnt disappoint. Even though it`s only a few kms from Queenstown the bus drive is 5 hours by the time you`ve driven round the mountains. I took a 2 1/2 hour cruise along the fiord out to the tasman sea and back. This is one of the only places in the world i know when you hope it rains when you go. The more rain it gets the more waterfalls there are, and they look amazing.
Saw a few seals and a rare Fiordland Crested penguin, which im told is quite a special sight, but justed looked like a penguin to me? I was glad to hear that there was as much free tea as you can drink while on the boat, which helped get me through the day after a very early start.
We bought James a Nevis bungy jump for his birthday and i volunteered to go along and jump with him. It`s something i really wanted to do before leaving town, but after how difficult i found the last bungy i did in March (so long ago?) i`ve been putting it off ever since. The Kawarau Bridge i did before was 43 metres high. The Nevis is a suspended cable car which looks a lot less stable than a bridge, and is 134 metres high, the 3rd highest bungy in the world!! If you`ve ever looked down a 100 metre track it`s a long way, well add 34 metres and imagine it vertically. Once you`re out there looking down at the river below it looks so far down.
The freefall is 8.5 seconds at 130km/hr (over 80 mph). Imagine falling vertically at 80mph, then count 8 seconds. 1 mississippi, 2 mississippi, 3 mississippi, 4 mississippi. You get the idea it`s a long time. That`s a good thing though, because there`s time to get over the initial shock of jumping, and after a couple of seconds I actually enjoyed the falling, unlike the bridge in March which was over before i knew it. You then bounce up so high that you get a second freefall which is still higher than the bridge.
So many emotions and so much adrenaline were then running through my body and it was the most amazing feeling of satisfaction. I`m not saying I can now do a bungy easily, or that i`d do another in a hurry, but I did really enjoy the Nevis and i`m so glad i did it. Check out the video on the movies section, you get an idea how far down it is. You need to watch sideways unfortunately. James also did the jump without hesitating and enjoyed it. After both having a night of struggling to sleep within the last week it was over and we didn`t know what we`d been worrying about.
We needed a few drinks after that and Chris (Emma`s bloke) was leaving the next day so we went out for a few drinks that night. Charles and Camilla also left the next morning so we now have our house back. I`ve finished work and just been lazy the last week, before I get the bus to Christchurch friday, ready to fly to Sydney saturday. It`s gonna be sad to leave Queenstown after so long but Im excited about checking out OZ. I haven`t really got any plans for when i get there but im sure i`l manage to keep myself busy.
After a night in Christchurch I flew to Sydney and found a hostel for a couple of nights. The first place I found myself going was to Circular Quay and i stood there for ages looknig at the lit up Opera house and Harbour Bridge. It was such a surreal feeling and I froze for ages and was happy just to stand and look at it. I went for a closer look and it was even more impressive, then sat and got some dinner on the harbour where i could admire the view for a bit longer.
The next day I got the ferry over to manly beach (it`s not gay, despite the suspect name). I had a good day over there and played volleyball with some european guys who had just started English school there. It was great to be in the sun again after so many months of snow
Unfortuantely time restricts what I can do on the east coast so after seeking advice from people who had been to oz recently, i made some plans and got the night bus to Byron Bay. It`s meant to be a really cool place with a great beach. I wouldn`t know though because after i walked into town it started throwing it down and I took shelter in a pub waiting for the rain to stop. 5 hours later it hadn`t so i got a bus back to the hostel, which i was leaving the next morning, so I didn`t get to see Byron properly.
I headed to Brisbane which wasn`t a great place and I`m glad i was only there a night. The main street was pretty cool but there wasn`t much else to see or do. Next day i headed up to Hervey Bay,which is a departure point for Fraser Island.
I had the best weekend I`ve had for years on Fraser Island! It`s the biggest sand island in the world and is just off the east coast. There were 11 people in our group, 7 English, 2 Irish and 2 Germans, so as you can imagine we stocked up on beer before heading off. Everyone decided I look like Frodo Baggins so that was my name for the weekend. On the last day one of the Irish lads had to ask me my real name?
It was so cool. It`s just a case of "here`s your tents, here`s the keys to the 4x4, see you in 3 days. We were given an itinery you were suggested to follow, but that was dismissed within minutes. I don`t think the Germans liked this much, they prefer planning, order and routine, and it was funny watching the lads from Crewe telling them we`ll just drive and see where we end up.
It was great having nothin at all to do for 3 days apart from walk on the beach, swim in freshwater lakes and drink Goon. Goon is boxes of wine that travellers buy in oz because you can get 5 litres for a couple of quid and that`s your night sorted, perfect for a camping trip! Unfortunately there was no sterio in our 4x4 so we had to make our own music. One night after a few too many goons i stood on top of a food box and turned into a human karaoke machine, singing requests and getting everyone to join in.
We had a few run ins with Dingoes while we were there. These are wild dogs which live on the island, and you`re not supposed to approach them because they can get aggresive. We didn`t have much choice when they started circling our tent trying to get our food! We ended up throwing wood to scare them off and Rick ran around like a madman with a shovel, and ended up twisting his knee and struggling to walk the next day. Muppett!
The group had such a good time, I`m meeting a couple of them in Sydney this weekend and will be meeting up with the lads from Crewe back in the uk.
Still feeling pretty rough from the Fraser trip I got a bus back to brisbane then flew straight to Melbourne, as soon as I got to the hostel i was out like a light.
I had a wander round the next day and really liked it down by the docks and in the city centre. It`s a cool city but not as nice as Sydney. Both cities think they should be capital and there`s a bit of rivalry. In terms of a place to stay I much prefer Sydney and look forward to going back there.
Melbourne hosts a lot of sporting events and it was cool to see where some of these are held. I went to the Rod Laver Arena where the Ozzie Open tennis is held, and there are several other great stadiums all in the same area too. One of these is the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) where last night I watched the Socceroos vs Argentina. It was 1-0 to Argentina and the ozzies played really well, most of the locals were expecting to get thrashed but they played well.
Just wasting time in Melbourne now before another night bus thisevening, heading to Canberra.