So this afternoon England started their warm up for the World Cup with a game at Twickenham against next years six nations champions Wales (They always win it the year after the World Cup - check it out). I travelled down from Nantwich to Clevedon to watch the game with George who sourced a suitable location in the area. At the end of the day I don't suppose there was much to learn from the game itself .. England won which was good,(23-19) We conceded three tries which wasn't good. Our Samoan debutant (Tuilagi) linked up well with Jonny to score a pretty good try, Moody appears to be injured, not so good ..and as far as I'm concerned we have problems in the scrum half position as I wasn't bothered with either options shown.
Interesting fact from the game Manu Tuilagi made his debut - but did you know his full name is Manusamoa Tuilagi ?
Anyway lets see what happens in the return fixture next weekend - I will not be watching as I intend to be in a field in Derbyshire listening to Finntroll in the first half and Impaled Existence, Foul Body Autopsy or Def Con One in the second (I'll let Oliver decide which)
During the weekend George (my better half.. and person who has decided to go somewhere far happier for the World Cup (Bhutan)) filled me in on her previous use of this getjealous.com blogg thingy (so if you wanted too you could find her blogg and read all about her trip to Guatemala and you don't need no passwords).
Anyway after a failed attempt to set up a blogg on my own website (see front page of site for web address) for the trip I decided to take the plunge and have a go at one on this. The main bit that I decided to start off doing was to put in all the places that I am currently scheduled to visit on the map section. The games that I will be attending are split between the South Island (Three England games and Italy v USA) and North Island (One England game, Samoa v South Africa, Wales v Fiji) and two quarter final games hopefully one including England and probably one including New Zealand.
I have rented a campervan and have a number of campsites booked around the matches plus a couple of activities that I will let you know about as I go along. I'm open to suggestions for places to visit.. but first check out the map as excursions have to fit around the games.
So with England playing Wales for the second of their pre season games, I found myself in a field at the Bloodstock heavy metal festival at Catton Hall in Derbyshire. It is traditional on the Saturday afternoon for Bloodstockers to get dressed up, in our first year everyone was painted red for Tourisas and last year we had Amon Amarth and Vikings were the order of the day. This year saw Finntroll as the afternoon act at 14.15 and so I expected to be surrounded by troll, wizards and druids, well I’ve got to be honest and say that although there were a few there weren’t that many. Maybe the druids had gone to Wales for the weekend as my intermittent updates on the England progress suggested that things were not going well in Cardiff. Finntroll themselves were actually pretty disappointing as it appeared that only half the band had turned up and I left before the end, by the sound of it so did half the England team against Wales as we let the game slip away from us and went down 19-9.
At the end of the day I suppose you have to go with these games being a chance for deciding who will make it into the final squad to go but from comments I’ve seen from Jono it appears that there weren’t any stand out England performances. I suppose it will be interesting to see who is picked for the final warm up game against Ireland… will it be a game of two halves, probably line up in the first half and tinkering in the second? I get the feeling that we haven’t seen the starting line up yet? Plus if they keep getting injured maybe there will be no selection issues anyway.
Having enjoyed metal filled day I thought that it would be interesting to think through whether or not the England team should adopt a bit of motivational metal prior to each game ..at the last World Cup the team song was The Gambler by Kenny Rogers and I recently read an article saying that Jonny Wilkinson was a Beatles and Oasis fan.. bit whimpy that as far as I can see – I’m seeing a good old English rock and roll band tomorrow in Motorhead .. what about Ace of Spades, Bomber or Overkill to get them in the mood prior to each game? any suggestions for other suitable music, I guess at the end of the day it wouldn’t have to be an English band as half our team aren’t English anyway, but I’m not sure I know any South African or Samoan metal bands.
Postscript : Managed to see some brief highlights, Thompson appeared to lay well, Tindall still can't pass and I think we appered a tad unlucky not to get a penalty try for all the scrum infringements. One other point to note is the commentators said that it was being played under a roof which would mean that this would have little relevance to the world cup. Had they missed the point ? Apparently Englands three games at Dunedin will be under a roof as its fixed
George Oliver and Myself spent the weekend at the beautiful Days festival near Ottery St Mary's in Devon, however this did not stop us from managing to get a few predictions in for the family pre World Cup Tournament...having said that, it did mean that i didn't find the scores out until the Monday morning. A win for France in Ireland and it appears that new Zealand have stalled as they managed to loose to South Africa in the tri nations. Could this mean that I get to see England v New Zealand in the quarter finals ? A possibility if England win their group and the All Blacks come second.
Anyway on the beautiful days front it was a good chance to practice my camping skills, although without the use of a campervan. George also purchased for me a festival jacket due to the cold on the Friday evening (pictures to follow) which prompted me to have another look at the temperatures in New Zealand.. hmmm I may have to do a re-think on my attire as it appears that it's about 3 degrees in Dunedin at the moment.
Anyway the festival was pretty good and we really enjoyed Gogol Bordello, Ade Edmundson, Tim Minchin and Flogging Molly. I still have to get my playlists sorted for the New Zealand trip, however I have copied a few of my older CD's over in an attempt to get some songs for these onto the playlist. We also introduced George to Arlo Guthries Alice's Restaurant (20.00 minutes of it) on the way down to the festival plus The significance of the pickle (only 6 minutes) ... I don't think she'll let me choose the music again.
I shall aim to get some pictures posted soon.
Looking forward to some rugby in Bath on Friday when Bath entertain Bristol, I have made an executive decision and decided not to wear my lucky leopard skin underpants to this game (I have never seen Bath loose whilst wearing them) and have decided to save them until the England games. If England loose at any of the matches I attend I shall ensure that they are disposed of in a suitable fashion.
On Friday 26th August I attended my last live rugby games prior to the World Cup at Bath where Bristol were entertained for a couple of pre season friendlies. There were two games on offer, however both games were heavily affected by the fact that it puired down with rain all night. The reserves played first and by the time we arrived basically the game was pretty much decided, and Bath eventually ran out 50-19 winners. The second game was closer with Bath struggling to get going in the first half and Bristol showing a lot more commitment, however Bath eventually ran out 20-16 winners. We then went on to sample the nightlife of Bath and somehow ended up drinking cocktails in a bar until around 1.30 in the morning.. all good preparation for the final England preparation game which we watched in the Pig and Fiddle pub in Bath.
I have to say that I thought this was the most impressive warm up game to date with a 20-9 victory over Ireland who effectively slaughtered us in the six nations earlier this year. I’m pretty sure that Jonny is now in the line up against Argentina at number ten with the possibility of using Toby Flood for the less important games. Tindall actually passed a couple of times in this game and probably was a worthy man of the match, plus our Samoan managed to score again .. my biggest issue was the number of penalties that we conceded – If Ireland had gone for a kicking game rather than going for the try I think we could have been in trouble however a final warm up win with no tries conceded has to be good news
I travelled back up to Nantwich on Thursday 1st of September and met up with Anna, Oliver and George for a meal out at the Globe, this providing me with the opportunity of a decent pint of Bitter prior to my trip to the Southern Hemisphere. On Friday I spent much of the day completing work and printing documents out before a relatively quiet evening in with homemade (whet free) pizza (made by George), Tzatziki (made by Oliver) and squeaky cheese (made by me). Saturday involved a trip to Chester for last minute shopping, where I managed to purchase some new shoes for the trip, but failed in my search for a few other items, although I did remember to purchase a sketch book as I'm hoping to spend some time doing some drawing on my travels. I was also looking for a couple of CD's as I’m hoping that I can find a suitable set of music for the trip. I purchased a couple of albums but early indications are that they will not feature high on my playlists. Oliver also bought over his complete Devin Townsend collection, so I have copied that over, he also recommended a band called Low and this has been downloaded to my Iphone - I'm hoping to pick up some music when I get over to New Zealand ..unless anyone has any recommendations ? On Saturday evening George, Oliver and myself went out for a meal at Residence, pre meal cocktails, steak and Argentinean red wine, followed by a pint at the Crown. We then spent the rest of the evening advising Oliver on his latest music compositions until 2.30 in the morning.. not sure we added much value, but I enjoyed myself playing with the drum box. Sunday involved final packing and a last minute panic, as I realised that I haven't been sent an official letter confirming that I have the tickets for the re-scheduled Christchurch games. For the previous games I was sent a letter following on from my email confirmation and it appears that for the rescheduled games this didn't happen. Apart from two tickets (Which I have) the remainder of the tickets can be picked up at recognised venues around new Zealand so I'm hoping that when I arrive in Christchurch I can find the required venue and get all my tickets (Watch this space) On Sunday afternoon, after possibly my final bath for five weeks, the goldfish cleaned and fed, and my bags packed, we set off down to Clevedon through the pouring rain.. only one more day at work to go before the trip starts ... now where's my list of things to do ? ..Ah that's right I haven't got one.
Have arrived safely in Los Angeles after a pretty long day travelling. I set off this morning on the 9.30 train from Bristol and everything appeared to be going smoothly until we boarded the plane and it started pouring down so the flight was delayed for two hours ! .. anyway this means that we get to spend less time in the Los Angeles holding lounge ..
It's currently around 05:00 am in New Zealand on the 9th of September and today is officially the first day of the Rugby World Cup with New Zealand taking on Tonga at 8.30 tonight in Auckland after the opening ceremony - What odds a Tonga win ? I had a reasonably hassle free trip over although I'm still a bit disorientated over what day of the week it is etc as its currently 6.00pm on Thursday in Gods own County (and no I didn't drop an "r" there) I can't help feeling that I lost a day there somewhere after setting off on a Tuesday and landing on a Thursday. Anyway, I have my camper van and am currently sat listening to birds chirping outside on the site in Christchurch. The plan for today is to travel down to Dunedin to watch the match tonight on a big screen that has apparently been set up in the centre of town tonight and as I'm awake I'm going to see if I can get an early start after finishing unpacking in the van - I'm going to have to think of a name for the van at some stage - anyone got any thoughts feel free to put them onto the message board. For those who haven't sussed yet by the title I am giving this site a bit of a Lord of the Rings/Hobbit twist with some of the references so the home of one of the key characters or a transport device might be a good idea (hmm.. just thought what was the name of the big tree type think that carried the hobbits into battle in Lord of the rings?)
Anyway one final thing to share with you all was the in flight Air New Zealand crazy about rugby safety video which is showing on the internal flights - check it out on you tube on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f1awn9vBZE (don't think this turns into a link but you should be easily able to find it - it's really good, with loads of rugby references.
They obviously have a history of doing wacky video's as the international flight video includes a US fitness person called Gene Simmons and is also pretty funny http://www.youtube.com/airnewzealand#p/u/10/3iaTEgoezNQ
Right that's all for now hope you are looking forward to the opening and wonder how many people over in Blighty will be getting up to watch it.
I’ve now reached day four of my stay in Dunedin and it’s time for me to pack up and move onto Lake Wanaka where I have a couple of activities planned including a flight in a plane. The weather has changed and it has been pouring down all night, apparently this is going to hit the whole island and will be with us for a couple of days, so my envisaged relaxing couple of days taking in the scenery at Lake Wanaka may not emerge.
I’ve had a pretty good time in Dunedin over the past few days and met a number of interesting people. The locals are really friendly and helpful. On Saturday I decided that rather than wait for the bus to go into town I would walk in however as I walked up towards town a local came out and saw my rugby shirt and asked if I knew where I was going, I replied that I had a rough idea and he told me to hold on, gave me a lift into town and went out of his way to drop me at the local Kathmandu shop (I would never of found it without him) where I purchased a thick coat in readiness for the weather ahead.
Saturday was the first England game with kick off at 8.30 in the evening however there was also the small matter of Scotlands first game against Romania in the afternoon. So after I had purchased my coat I went into a bar in the Octagon area of town and sat with my pint of Speights (Local bitter which is actually not bad). After about ten minutes a bloke came over and sat next to me and we spent the whole of the game chatting. His name was Steve Masui and he told me he came from Samoa and was working over in Dunedin at the moment as a meat packer. He also apparently played wing for North Otago however he had been dropped from todays game as he hadn’t gone to training the week before.
The Scotland match was a pretty exciting game with Scotland failing to put away early chances and Romania growing in confidence throughout. They even took the lead at one stage 24-21 however with ten minutes to go Scotland edged ahead and eventually won 34-24 - England beware they don’t look like a total push over although they also don’t look like a very fast team in the backs. By the end of the game Steve had decided that he was going to emigrate to Romania to see if he could qualify to play for them in the next World Cup.
After the game I wandered round town for a bit before going back to the campsite to get changed for the evening game. The centre of town was absolutely buzzing with loads of Argentinians fans and a smaller contingent of England ones chanting and singing. Loads of flag waving and drums and all really light hearted.
After a quick turn around at the campsite I set off back into town about three hours before kick off. I had gone for the Black England shirt over a jumper approach with a mac in my bag and off course the lucky underpants were ready to do their magic.
I watched the first half of the France v Japan game which France appeared to have pretty much sown up at half time, however I later found out that Japan came back and in the end it was a another pretty close game until the final minutes.
About an hour before the game I set off for the ground, about a twenty minute walk. Along the route there were bands and street performers along the route and even a Pirate Metal band playing off the back of a van.
The ground itself has only just been built and was pretty impressive really as it is permanently covered by a kind of perspex roof that lets in the sunlight. Once you got in you were also free to pretty much wander about it before the game.
I sat on the twenty two in a really good seat, between a family from Argentina on one side complete with flag and blue hair and some New Zealanders on my right who were supporting Argentina (as were most of the neutrals). The English fans were vastly outnumbered however at the same time it was difficult to tell how many England fans there were as many of them were wearing black.
In the end the game was a pretty brutal and tense affair and probably not that good to watch on TV however I really enjoyed it and in the end England and my underpants remain on course for success.
Yesterday (Sunday) there were three matches including Italy, Ireland and Wales, so I decided to don my Six Nations shirt and watch the games locally in the Forbury Sports Bar and grill where I enjoyed the company of John and Marjorie retired couple from Kent who have been on the road since Easter (South Africa, Australia then New Zealand) and were planning to be home by Christmas, plus two bar flies (so the barmaid said) called Jeff (not Geoff) and PJ who were hugely entertaining. I even beat Jeff at a gam of pool although we were playing by his rules and not those complicated “Australian” rules that everyone else in the bar played. PJ was adamant that the best comedian in the world was a bloke called Kevin Bloody Wilson, and that Billy Connelly was hopeless (much to Jeffs disgust).. but we all agreed in the end that the South Africa game was the best to date and that Wales were hugely unlucky not to win.
I travelled over from Dunedin yesterday to Lake Wanaka a trip of about four hours. I set off at about 10.00 am in a slight drizzle, fearing the worst as the forecasts were that it was going to be heavy rain across the whole of the island, however, except for a few patches of light rain it wasn't that bad a trip. The roads were pretty much empty, although this time they were windier (is that a word?) and took me into the hills. There were a couple of notable stopping points on the way over. Clyde, which had a massive damn outside it (see pictures) and Cromwell which definitely looked worth a visit as it appears to be full of wineries.
Lake Wanaka is stunning and I am currently sat looking out over the lake at the campervan site. This morning I went out for a sojourn to Albert Town along the side of the lake, a distance of 2km and a really nice walk however there was nothing there other than houses. The upshot of this is that, although it was cold (car all iced up this morning), I have to be aware of the sun, as I neglected to put any sun screen on and it feels like my face is getting redder and redder.
Yesterday i had the opportunity to fly, and am now the proud owner of a certificate to say that i have flown a plane over Lake Wanaka. it was a bit bumpy in places but well worth the trip as we went up into the mountains and close to a couple of glaciers.
In the evening I took the microwave pasta tea with Monteith's crushed apple cider, option however before turning in for the night I made one final trip through the wooded site to avail myself of the facilities. I had a pretty useless torch and it was a tad dark with birds tweeting and the odd camper talking from tents (very Blair Witch). Anyway I suddenly had a massive shock as i thought I saw a mammoth under some trees .. I put my head down and walked very quickly back to my campervan.(see pictures for the proof)
I spent a second day in Lake Wanaka and enjoyed a pretty relaxed time in the evening with a healthy roast chicken and salad meal overlooking the lake in the evening accompanied by the iphone playlist on random, which appears to be coming up with a lot of Johnny Cash and Hayseed Dixie somehow. My original plan was to stay at the campsite for three days but I decided that I would move a bit closer to Christchurch on Wednesday (I was due to be in Christchurch on the Thursday)
So in the morning I set off roughly aiming for Twizel, however when I arrived here it didn't look that exciting so I took the executive decision to head about half an hour further up the road to Lake Tekapo .. A pretty good decision (see pictures) I also managed to catch the Samoa Namibia game in the afternoon and the Scotland Georgia game in the evening - I'm hoping that the England forwards and backs have their tackling boots on when they meet Georgia and Romania as they look like pretty touch opposition, lets hope they are refreshed from their bungee jumping and groping excursions!
The campsite in Lake Tekapo was right next to a hot springs place so for $30 I got to relax in a sauna and steam room and also watch the sun go down over Lake Tekapo sat outside in the heated springs. The intention on Thursday morning was to go for a climb of the local mountain (Mount John) and take some pictures looking down over the lake followed by another soak in the springs before setting off to Christchurch.... however this fell through when I woke up to rain followed by a blizzard, so at around midday i set off via the Lake Tekapo dog (see pictures) for Christchurch ..and USA v Russia
I have put a separate entry for Christchurch as i thought it merited it.
I arrived in Christchurch on the 15th in the early afternoon and after checking into my hotel (decided to treat myself before the trip started - spa bath and double bed etc) I set off into the centre to look round.
All I can say was that I was blown away by the complete devastation that I saw. I was told by the receptionist that there was an exclusion zone and that it wasn't possible to get to the central church area so I decided that I would walk round the outside ..what i hadn't appreciated was the size of the area, as it took me nearly two hours to get round. The majority of the houses and businesses outside the central zone are damaged and not inhabited and there are walls cordoned off where they are flagged as dangerous plus buildings that have signs on saying beware of gas and electrics ..and the original earthquake took place last September with the follow up in February. There is absolutely no way that the World Cup games could have been held here and to be honest you'd question why the World Cup is even going on.
As you walk round the zone it is eerily quiet with only construction workers inside the zone and the odd car driving through it. There are checkpoints manned by the Army in and out of the central zone where people are checked in and out ..presumably to make sure no one gets trapped on site etc. Also as you walk round there are tourists also walking round the outside and no-one is speaking. At one point a car drew up next to me and four people got out dressed in black and just stood looking through the barrier at the space where a building had once been.
There are also some surreal sights such as adverts to say that the Golf shop is still open and also that it is still possible to punt along the Avon, obviously people have to carry on but you can see that it is going to take decades before the place recovers.
Well after my night in Christchurch I made the executive decision to head out to the East of Christchurch for a place called Akaroa where it's possible to swim with dolphins. The trip took a couple of hours and ended up with a pretty winding pathway through the mountains into Akaroa. I went immediately to an i-site for information only to find out that i had missed the boat for the day to swim with the dolphins by about half an hour. Not deterred i went for the option of a boat trip out to see them. I was joined on the trip by about 7 other people one family from Australia who were going up for the Australia v Ireland game later that day (Wrote this after Ireland beat Australia ..wonder if they enjoyed the game?)
Anyway the trip was supposed to last a couple of hours and we were told at the start that some dolphins had been sighted earlier that day out by the right hand side of the bay so we headed off that way. (see pictures).
After about an hour and a half we gave in looking for the dolphins, although we had seen a couple of miniature penguins, and went to see the seal cubs in another bay (see pictures). However on our way back the captain spotted something in the water which turned out to be a whale, so we spent the next 40 minutes whale hunting and managed to get within about 50ft of it in the end .. all in all a pretty good experience..no pictures but I have video footage.
Friday was spent travelling down to Dunedin with a six and half hour road trip which arrived just in time to go out for the South Africa Fiji game (bit disappointing that one) followed by the Australia Ireland game with a well deserved win for the Irish ..who totally dominated in the second half.
The weekend saw England take on Georgia and my second game of the competition (It Feels like I've been here ages). I arrived back into Dunedin on Saturday afternoon just in time to get the coach down to the Forebury Sports and grill bar to watch the South Africa v Fiji game, which in the end was a bit of a disappointment with South Africa romping to a 49-3 win. However i met a couple from Sheffield, one of whom was born in Eccleshall, and then ended up watching the Ireland Australia game with a guy called Dave from Horesham who is also travelling around on his own, although he appears to have friends scattered around the island. Obviously the Ireland Australia game was pretty exciting with Ireland getting a well deserved victory 15-6.
At the end of the day I agreed with Dave that we would meet up the next afternoon and watch the Wales v Samoa game prior to the England game. The Wales game was pretty exciting although we couldn't quite work out why a lot of England fans appeared to be cheering for Wales.
At the match I was roughly the same position as the previous match however just before half time I went to get a couple of drinks in and noticed that there were a number of seats free nearer the front so i moved, Dave also came to join me. In the end England did what they had to do and won however it could have been a different story if their kicker had put over more of his earlier penalties. After the game we moved onto a couple of bars to watch the France v Canada game and it became slightly hazy, although I do remember talking to two people who had been to the ireland game the day before and flown down to also go to the England one.
Yesterday was a recovery day where I basically spent the whole day in the van doing washing, tidying up and recovering. However i received an email from George to say that she had felt the effects of the earthquake in Bhutan which hit Northern India and Nepal the day before, it appears that they were a bit shaken up and it was a tad scary. I have since heard that she enjoyed a few cointreaus and managed to sleep slightly better although there were more after shocks during the night. i believe that they have now moved on with the only problem being the the rock and mud slides on the road.
Right I'm off to Milford Sound via Te Anau
Some observations :
- The NZ press are devastated that Australia lost to Ireland and are suggesting that NZ should throw the game against France so as to avoid Australia in the semis - This would mean that they would play England in the quarter finals, something that they aren't bothered about!
- In the first week here I drove 9,660 km's according to goole Earth this is the equivalent of John O'Groats to Lands End 6.88 times.
My midweek trip this week involved going over to the west coast of the Southern Island with my first stop being Te Anau. it took about three hours to get there and my original intention was to go via Invercargill however somehow I managed to take a wrong turn and go a quicker route. This meant that I passed through Clinton and Gore (Apparently the Country and Western Capital of New Zealand..unfortunately I don't have my line dancing boots with me)..however there didn't appear to be an Obahma.
I spent a reasonably relaxing afternoon walking round the lake, before venturing to the Moose bar to watch the Italy v USSR evening game. This proved pretty exciting, from a bonus point perspective, with Russia only one try away from getting one when, for some reason, the Russian number ten kicked the ball out with no time left on the clock. I spent the night with Steve (retired ex car salesman from London) and Sally (Birmingham..not sure what she did, but he said he married her for her money after selling her a car) who both now live in Devon. As with most people I have met to date they were doing a one off "trip of a lifetime". It was a relatively early evening as I had to get up early to set off in a coach for Milford Sounds (after being blown out by Oliver who couldn't skype as he was having tea, followed by English homework, and Anna who just didn't answer when I called on skype).
The trip to Milford was really good, and it was definitely a good idea to take the coach option as not only did this release me from driving but it also meant that we stopped at some places that I probably wouldn't have done so if I had been driving. Once there we went on a boat trip round the Fiord (We we're told it wasn't a sound) which, as well as the stunning scenery, included sightings of a Yellow Eyed Penguin, some seals and about five dolphins (see pictures)
I am now back in the campervan and have decided that tonight is the night when I will attempt an omelette using three of the eggs that I purchased right at the start of this trip (I have no idea why I bought them!). I'm afraid that I won't be able to follow Sarah's recipe, as given out on facebook, however I am going for Ham, Pakari Aged Cheddar (Firm dry body with a sharp tangy flavour - according to the label), Red peppers, and separately sautéed oyster mushrooms .. the salad has gone off, so I shall accompany this with muffins.... How many points is that then ?
After my short week in The Te Anau area I returned at a leisurely pace to Dunedin to begin preparations for the final England game against Romania at the weekend. I intended to go round the place on the Thursday and see some of the sights (apparently they have the steepest street in the world ..wanted to see how it compared to Steep Street in Lincoln). So I set of on what I thought was going to be a half hour walk into town, however it took about fifty minutes, it's amazing how much faster you can do that walk after an England game and a few beers (No doubt Simon or someone else could ponder and come up with a theory ?). Anyway after getting into town I looked round some of the sights but didn't get to the steep street, before stopping off at Thai Hanoi for my first Thai meal of the holiday, it was OK I guess but I'm sure I can find better.
On Friday I ventured into town again (this time via bus!) and visited the Art Gallery which had some pretty good pieces in it before spending a couple of hours with another local artist called Chris Downing, from whom I purchased an original piece of artwork. I then returned to the campervan before venturing out with Dave (see Dave from last weeks game, not Dave(id)) to the Forebury Sports and Grill for the third time to watch the Australia v USA reserves (they made 14 changes!) and enjoying a hearty roast of the day of something called roast hogget which I was told was two year old baby lamb - tasted really nice.
Yesterday focused on the England Romania game, followed by the New Zealand France game and finally the Warriors v the Melbourne Storm - the second two games proving highly entertaining in a twon centre pub called the Pen and Wig where Dave (see above) and myself sat in with some locals one of whom had his first child on the day of the England v Argentina game.
Anyway, this all means that I have to set forth to the North tomorrow and attempt to get to Nelson for Tuesdays game (Italy v USA (first team)) before heading over to the North Island on Wednesday .. ..the decision has been made that the next stop will be Hanmer Springs which is about a six hours drive away.
On Sunday morning the scramble to quit dunedin and reach the North of the island started. This was not helped by the fact that the clocks went forward by an hour during the night, and for some unknown reason i appeared to have drunk a reasonable amount of alcohol the night before whilst watching England, New Zealand and the Warriors all win. I eventually set off at 9.20, the plan being to make my way to Sunmer Springs about three quarters of the way up the island. This took most of the day however I did pass through some interesting places of note on the way. This included Cust which had a fairy shop on the main road called "Away with the Fairies" and Sheffield (after a wrong turn) where the sign outside said that it had the "Famous Sheffield Pie Shop" - I had a quick look to see if I could find it and check whether they had any 'endersons but it was so famous I couldn't see it. Finaly just before entering Sunmer I went past Flintoff Road! I finally arrived in Sunmer at around 16.00 where spookily that bloke called Dave had also turned up.
Later that evening we went out to watch the Argentina v Scotland game .. a key game, as, if Scotland had won that would have meant that both England and Scotland had qualified ahead of the game at the weekend, however it wasn't to be and unfortunately Scotland lost to a late try from Argentina (bad tackling) and a missed drop kick at the death (bottle went). this also appears to have seen the end of my prediction of the Scottish putting out New Zealand in the Quarter finals which is pretty unfortunate as Dave had agreed to wear a skirt for the semi final if they had. Anyway during the evening I took the chance to look up an old friend (Steve Poiner) from around 22 years ago when i worked at Royal Life who just happened to live in Sunmer and spent a pretty good evening chatting through old times with him during the Scotland game.
On Monday the plan was to trek up to Nelson where I have a ticket to see the Italy v USA game on Tuesday. This was a slightly shorter journey but included crossing the Lewis pass (Very windy) and some pretty breathtaking views (see pictures) the only notable road name was "Pea Soup Road" which i thought was pretty cool although I also stopped for petrol in Wakefield and passed very close to Stoke.
I am now sat on a park bench in Nelson at 9.00 in the morning waiting for either George (back from Bhutan) or Oliver (Out at the pub with his mum) to join me in a skype.
Hope all are well and sorting out there sleeping arrangements for the Scotland game at the weekend, next time I post I will probably have left the South Island and moved somewhere into the North as i take the ferry over on Wednesday.
Note : For those partaking in the Hippety Challenge I updated the scores over the weekend and will look to get a more comprehensive review done after the pool games, including sending an email spreadsheet update out.
The 27th of September was the last day full day on the South Island and after a breezy start turned out to be a pretty warm T-Shirt type of a day. After a morning skypeing from the middle of field so that I could get a decent signal which resulting the battery running out on my machine (sorry Anna) I set off with Dave into the centre of Nelson for an afternoon looking round prior to the Italy v USA game in the evening.
Nelson is a really cosmopolitan city with loads of art galleries and museums throughout it, so I made my way the central museum and spent a good half an hour looking through its collection and also watched an interesting short film on a New Zealand rugby photographer who has taken a number of iconic photographs. I then set off for the Urban art exhibition (see photo's) and Settlers museum (see photo's) which turned out to be about a 20 minute walk from the central area.
I met up again with Dave prior to the match as we both had tickets for the general access area of the ground. The game itself was Ok and it was good to get another stadium in on the South Island.
I am currently sat on the Interislander ferry waiting to set off across to the North Island, I splashed out the extra $45 to sit in Kaitaki plus which means that I get free food (lasagne and Sausage rolls) plus yoghurt and drinks (although I can't do the alcohol) I am enjoying some free "Damn Tasty Ginger Beer" and sitting on a comfortable seat waiting for the trip to begin.
What about the two kings I hear you say? .. well see the pictures for last night in Nelson.
Mileage : One of my earlier diary entries suggested that i had done close on 9600 km's in the first week, this was complete rubbish and only goes to prove that I can't add up (or in this case take away) Anyway my final distance travelled in the South Island by car was 3,208 km's.
Cath and Georges request : I couldn't find Jamie but did come close to giving a couple of Yanks a slap ..why do they have to talk so loud ? ..we aren't all interested in their conversation.
Dave (Parker) : I didn't meet anyone in Nelson who said that they were friends with you ..does your friend really live there ?
Just a quick entry this time before I turn in for the evening, thankyou for the comments on the message board, its good to know that everyone hasn't forgotten about me.
I arrived on the North Island yesterday slightly later than planned at 5.30 and made the decision to head off towards Wanganui, however after a couple of hours driving I realised that I may get their a bit late and therefore made the decision to push on and get a close to Lake Taupo as possible to cut down on the driving for the next morning. In the end I managed to get to Turangi at around 9.30 which was a lot further than I expected and also meant that I did my first bit of driving in the dark around the "twisty" roads in the mountains which does get pretty hairy at times.
This morining however this meant that I had a pretty short half hour drive up to Taupo along the banks of the lake which was pretty nice and then spent today visiting a few local spots including the Aratiatia Damn, a thermal springs valley (see pictures) and Huka Falls (See pictures). I also spent a pretty refreshing couple of hours walking along the banks of the river before returning to the campervan and finishing off the eggs with another omelette washed down with some Old Mout Cider which is apparently made out of boysenberries.
Tomorrow sees me head up to Auckland for three games in three days ..hope everyone is looking forward to the England Scotland game, apparently we just have to avoid defeat by 8 points or more.
I spent the weekend in Auckland and managed to get to three World Cup games in the process. On Friday it was the South Africa v Samoa game at the North Harbour Stadium in Auckland. This involved getting a bus out from the centre of town for a twenty minute drive to the ground. I arrived about two hours before the game and set off for a drink at the nearest bar, the Albany Sports bar (see pictures). In summary the ground was heaving with South Africans (someone said there are 100,000 living in the North Island alone and the match itself was a sell out. I was sat between a row of South Africans and we had a token two Samoans sat behind us ..hats off to one of them who didn't stop cheering from the anthems to the final whistle ..at the end of the day I think that Samoa were pretty unlucky not to get a win out of the game as they went down 13-5.
I was staying at a rugby club called the college rifles for the weekend in a district of Auckland called Remuera, and the next day they had a couple of four nations games on with England playing Scotland and Ireland playing Wales (see pictures), when I left Scotland were leading 24-5 and I was praying that that wasn't a prelude to the game later.
I met up with Dave, wearing his Harlequins top which for some reason everyone points out as you walk around, before the England Scotland game and we did the fan trail to the ground stopping of a various bars and even meeting someone I work with called Faith and her husband in a bar called Fr Teds along the route. We we're in different stands for the the game so we parted after a pre match whiskey with mead toast (purchased earlier in the week at Taupo and very nice). The match was, as expected, pretty tense and Jonny still appears to have problems with his kicking from the left, however his positional play remains excellent with some pretty useful support play, hopefully they wont consider dropping him or maybe they could drop Tindall, and Flood and Wilko could play together and share the kicking?
After the match I spent about an hour getting lost around the streets of Auckland, which involved a kebab (very nice), a couple of phone calls back to George to see if she could help (sorry about that), waking down the motorway (state highway 1 I think), before I finally gave in and caught a taxi ..but it was obviously all worth it after seeing England triumph 16-12.
My final match of the weekend involved a couple of hours trip down the road to Hamilton to watch the Wales v Fiji game.. I was praying for an upset but unfortunately it was not to be, as once Wales took the lead Fiji never looked like getting close. I have to say though that half the Fiji team appeared to be sitting at the back of the stand I was in with broken legs and arms so I'm not sure how strong their team was and in the second half they appeared to just throw all the players on to get experience. I have to say that my feelings on Welsh fans continues to be "negative" (family blog!) as they never stopped winging and moaning all game about any decision given against them, and were even calling for a new ref when leading 45-0! (final score 66-0)... I'm really hoping that Ireland put them out in the quarters.
I now have a week of travels around the North island starting with the caves at Waitomo .. which looks like a good decision as it is forecast to be raining for the next couple of days.
On Monday the 3rd of October I drove South for about an hour to Waitomo and after checking in at the campsite set off to visit the glow worm caves that the region is famous for. I soon learnt that the worms were no worms but larvae that would eventually turn into flies, the two tours I took were pretty impressive though and I then enjoyed a pretty good meal in a local restaurant before turning in for the night.
On Tuesday I went black water rafting (see pictures.. or don't if you are of a nervous disposition!) this lasted about five hours and was pretty exciting although I would have to say that the water was brown and we never went on any rafts. In the evening after an afternoon walk I found myself in a public house talking to Dave and Trevor who have been following Wales, although both of them are English!!
On Wednesday I made my way over to Rotorua to see the mud pools (see pictures) however in the afternoon it hammered down with rain so i decided to push onto a place called Tauranga on the East Cost and after getting slightly lost ended up at a campsite in a place called Papamoa Beach.
On Thursday my i-phone app told me it was going to rain all day, however when I looked out of my window in the morning I found that it was really sunny outside so i went for a five hour walk up and down the beach (see more pictures) ..unfortunately my legs are now slightly burnt despite the factor 30 lotion.
My plan for Friday was to visit Hobbiton on my route to Auckland, however I found out earlier that it appears that it closed down yesterday for a month..so at the moment I'm just going to head off and see where I end up.
And so it was that I food myself back in Auckland on Friday afternoon, where I enjoyed a pretty excellent afternoon in the fanzone area doing something called the Tatar of New Zealand where I sampled six menus and enjoyed the matched wine to go with it. The hands down winner being the lamb which was matched with Crater Rim Pinot Noir although all the dishes and wines were pretty good. I then returned to my campervan to ready myself for the first quarter final on the Saturday.
I awoke to a campsite full of French fans who nervously greeted me with "good mornings" etc. I left early in the afternoon reasonably confident that I we had a good start we would put the French away.. And after all I had my pants on. We met up (Dave and Geoff (from Louth and into his real ales and folk music - been to cleethorpes folk
festival and also goes to Lincoln beer festival every year)) we then set off on the fan trail to the stadium via some of Geoffs off the beaten track pubs. (see pictures)
We arrives at the ground to watch the Wales v Ireland game on the big screen, not much atmosphere and also the Welsh won! I also made a slight tactical error and started drinking White wine on the basis that the heineken and red wine are undrinkable. So it was that I took my seat for the England v France game (see pictures)
The next day at the campsite the french fans although obviously hungover greeted me with a hearty "bonjour!" just in case I hadn't sussed they were French!
Anyway I donned my black England shirt and set off for the bus to watch Sunday's quarter finals. To be honest I was slightly hazy from the day before, but luckily I met Dave who did an admirable job of looking far worse than I felt and we spent a pleasant afternoon downing Monteiths crushed apple cider before setting off to watch the South Africa v Australia game at The Dogs Bollixs pub not far from the ground. (see pics)
Once at the game I handed over the lucky pants to the French people I sat next to at the game the day before and then enjoyed a pretty exciting game watching the Aussies looking threatening for the first half although I think the New Zealand team always had them beaten.
So after a weekend of drinking average beer and cider I had booked myself on an all day wine tour of Waiheke Island which is a thirty minute ferry trip across the harbour. Believe me when I got up at 8.00 with my mouth tasting of the excess salt from the chips the night before, and memories of the fried sausage on a stick inthe ground (another mistake) the last thought on my mind was to get into town on a bus and sit on a ferry!
But I managed to make it down and sat in my seat hoping for a quiet trip when a school party of excited girls boarded and decided to be a noisy as possible all the way over. At the other side I was greeted by a friendly tour guide and soon myself and two Brazillian rugby people and a couple of Aucklanders set off on the wine trip. I sipped my fizzy water and kept my sun glasses on hoping that it wouldn't be too obvious that I was severely hungover! My worst fears were realised at the dirt winery when rather than give us small tasters they practically gave us three full glasses of wine! We went onto two further wineries however after the first one I picked up and by the time we got to the third one (where we sampled five wines!) I was feeling pretty good. We were then left for a meal and another sampling session at a fourth winery before returning to Aucland via the ferry (sans children, but full of jolly smiling Frenchmen!
My final evening in New Zealand was spent in the campervan as it absolutely hammered down with rain, as I packed and ate and drank leftover cuisine.. Boiled rice, covered in chicken noodle packet soup and copped kapatki blue cheese plus crumbled cheese biscuits, washed down with red "honey" wine and a bottle of Monteiths pear cider.
Well it's now Tuesday afternoon in New Zealand and i am sat in an ice cream cafe called Movenpick in the centre of Auckland, killing time before setting off back to the airport to pick up my bags and board my flight at 23.59 tonight.
i have to say that all in all I've had a pretty good trip, it is a slight pity that the last England game didn't go the way I would have preferred it too, however I have passed the pants on, and maybe they will help spur the French onto success (please don't let the Welsh win!!).
I have loads of memories to bring back with me, plus photos and videos to bore people with (I backed up 890 photo's yesterday and already have over 90 minutes of video footage edited (the source video is much longer).
It's very hard to pick out the highlights of the trip as to be honest the whole thing has been so good, everyday something new appeared to happen and I have met so many characters during the trip. This weekend just before the New Zealand v Argentina game I even managed to bump unto the people i sat next to on the plane coming over (he remembered my name but I'd forgotten his). I probably preferred the scenery of the South Island more than the North island, however probably didn't have enough time to get round the North Island as much, plus I have my permanent reminder of the trip as shown in the picture below.
Thanks for all the comments on the message board and keep them coming through to the final, I may well decide to add a few more pictures from the next two weekends, when hopefully I will see some of you.
I shall, of course, watch the remaining games, and whenever there is a score, point at the corner of the screen where Dave (not Dave(id)) is sat and not say "ole!"
I returned to England on Wednesday afternoon and was then looked after by George in Clevedon before she also provided a taxi ride up to Nantwich on Thursday. Friday involved a trip to the shops to secure suitable breakfast nourishment for the first semi final scheduled for saturday morning (Toulouse and Welsh Dragon sausages, bacon, mushrooms, eggs and the vital black pudding). George, Oliver and myself were joined by Dave(id), Helen and Angela from Lincoln, Dad from Grimsby and James from Birmingham.
The Wales v France game produced two controversial moments, firstly the red card and secondly why did the half time breakfast not include hash browns? With breakfasts consumed we sat through the second half watching Wales valiantly fail to beat the French.
Sunday morning saw the same protagonists take their place with slightly muggy heads (Nine bottles of wine and twenty three bottles of beer consumed since friday) take their places to watch New Zealand nervously beat Australia, and set up a final next week against France.
There were no major controversial moments during the game however breakfast was a "clear the fridge" activity that took place after the final whistle, including the missing hash browns from the previous day - Consumed by James with melon!
So on Sunday the 23rd of OCtober the journey completed and after a week back at work and a trip up to Nantwich on Thursday and Friday, which also involved a Friday night trip to the Naaz for a curry with Oliver. I found myself at Georges flat in Clevedon watching the final between New Zealand and France with big question being could the underpants spur France onto victory?
I have to say that I really enjoyed the game from the build up, with the Haka stand off from France, through to the final whistle and the eventual 8-7 victory to New Zealand. It might have been low scoring but at the same time it was tense and there was some pretty open play from both teams, I think the tactic of not kicking the ball back to New Zealand all the time was excellent, and in the end France (and the underpants) were unlucky not to win. As Dave(id) will no doubt be aware the most important kick of the game was taken by a player from Bath (Stephen Donald - Penalty) which was co-incidentaly the case in 2003 when a Mr Catt kicked the ball to touch after the Wilkinson drop goal.
Anyway, on balance, it was probably appropriate that New Zealand won as from my perspective the country deserved it for the support during the competition.
First Training walk in the brecons
A break between Christmas and New Year to celebrate George's Birthday and also get some walking in
Family Gathering in Grimsby : Some pictures from the family New Years Eve gathering at Park Drive in Grimsby. These have now been censored and the most dodgy ones removed.
A couple of final walks in the Malverns
Well it's the day of the flight and we have just done the final packing spree and weighed the bags, they look like they are pretty much on the limit but we should be OK. We now have to eat the contents of the fridge, I will be placing as much as possible between two slices of bread and creating a pretty good scooby snack, George also has some wheat free bread so may be able to attempt the same.
Prior to doing this we have both weighed ourselves so we can do a weight check on our return, which will be interesting although we won't be posting our weights here.
George is still a bit "sniffly" from the cold she got last week and i have now sneezed twice this morning and got shouted at both times by George telling me "I'm not allowed to get poorly!" she has also thrown extra vitamin "C" down me.
Right that's it for now, once again huge thanks to everyone who has contributed to our fund raising efforts and hopefully I'll get the chance to do another update once we get to Marangu. I've been sussing the timing and there's a possibility that the England v Wales game will be just about starting when we get there... I wonder if they'll have it on ?
We are currently sat in the minibus on the way to the start point of the trip. The journey over was pretty long involving a four hour stop off in Addas Ababa but we finally arrived about 25 hours after we set off from clevedon. We were briefed last night on what to expect for the next first days and told that I we has PmA we would make it. Well here goes !
George and Paul got engaged at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro
Clevedon Castle : The wedding of Paul Knight to Georgina Ross. ... get yer wellies on we are off travelling. This was followed by a honeymoon that took in planes, trains, bikes and boats. Starting with a boat trip from Southampton to Hamburg.
With our Christmas festivities in Portishead, and travels to Grimsby over, we are now well and truly into the preparation for the holiday stage. Most of the Christmas decorations came down yesterday, although we have left the tree up for a couple of extra days with some of the lights. A home security system has been purchased, so we can monitor the house whilst we are away. It's amazing what you can get these things to do nowadays practically no wires to play with and all controlled via your phone or pad. In addition to this we got a little go pro video camera to play with on our travels. Today is is not going to be a good day, as George and I are out clothes shopping, which both of us are terrible at. There was a slight panic yesterday when I was sorting out the flights, and realised that we hadn't booked a flight back from Hiroshima to Tokyo, but George stepped in and calmed things down... oh well Cribbs Causeway here we come.
My search for trousers resulted in two purchases, a new pair of jeans and a pair of light shorts. I also managed to sort my outfit for the wedding in Australia. I only have one decision outstanding related to whether I go with the pink or white socks.
The wife completed a number of shopping trips and also has a couple of outfits for the wedding. For the past couple of days George has been running around and I have been at home doing manly pursuits like setting up the new alarm system and searching for batteries and wires. She knows me well enough to keep out of the way whilst doing this, as it involves the inevitable search for the lost batteries and wires but, fingers crossed, it looks like we have everything.
Today's tasks have revolved around cutting back the garden before we go away and hair cuts. George visited the 61a Hill Road salon and I walked into Portishead for the severest haircut that I have had in some time. My flat cap will be slipping off my head it's so short. I have also gone for the number one shave of the beard, so we are now prepared for the hot weather in Oz.
Tonight is a trip to the pub for Bath v Newcastle and another look at our lists to determine what we have forgotten. Only three more sleeps until we travel.
well this is wierd, we are currently cruising at an altitude of 30,985 feet at 579mph somewhere somewhere over the Indian Ocean about 11 hours from Melbourne. We have already changed at Dubai and haven't manage to get any sleep so far. However we have both finished three films and have just had our second meal of the trip. All going well and we are hoping the white wine will help put us to sleep
so after a couple of days in Menourne day five of our trip begins I think that George has sussed this jay lag thing better than me as she is currently asleep and I have been awake since five o'clock. Having spent much of our first day walking around Melbourne central, we went on a Yarra valley wine tour yesterday. This involved three full wine tastings, the first at 10.00 am, a cheese tasting with the majority of cheeses being goats cheese, so George provided the entertainment for the group there. We also stopped off at a chocolate factory for a tasting and went to the Chandon winery to sample some fizz (not allowed to call it Champagne). I pretty much crashed in the late afternoon and George was left to force me out into China town where she took me first to an Absinthe bar followed by a Gin Palace. The Big Bash was in town with The Melbourne storm playing the Hurricanes. Unfortunately neither of us was quite up to attending the game so we went back to the room and watched a pretty exciting game with Stuart Broad hitting the winning run off the final ball and George crashing during the last few overs. - I think we are out of sync by about two hours.
We are due to pick up our hire car later today and head into the the wilderness for the next Big Bash at the weekend, not sure what the wifi will be like so there could be a lack of updates for the next few days
After our couple of days recovery in Melbourne, we picked up the car and headed into the hills. That was, once I'd managed to get us out of the car park. The car was quite a bit bigger than mine at home, an automatic and had really, really sensitive brakes. As I was trying to get used to it and out of the car park, I nearly catapulted Paul through the windscreen a few times just by thinking of putting the brakes on!
The weather was terrible on the way up with huge amounts of rain and we couldn't see much of the scenery, no kangaroos or koalas in sight. A lot of the guests had arrived already and Friday saw about 25 people heading to a local bar for food and some drinks before a relatively early night, ready for the next day.
It was a lovely chilled day for the wedding. The weather changed and the sun was out, so some hit the pool before the Ceremony at 5pm. Afterwards there was wood fired pizza and drinks before the band struck up and we all danced until the small hours. It was really lovely to have been able to get over here to share it.
On Sunday we drove up mount buffalo. I think most of the wedding party ended up there and we kept bumping into familiar faces as we hit the main views. It was stunning, especially the hang gliding launch spot. I think you need to be some kind of crazy to jump off that ramp with a kite on your back!
Today we said farewells and headed down the road to the start of the great ocean road. We're now at Queenscliff. It's a really cute old style town, but for us, is just a stop off before we start the great ocean road tomorrow. Can't wait for that part of the road trip, but the weather is due to get even hotter, so very glad to be at the coast with some breeze.
We left Queenscliff and headed out west to the Great Ocean road on Tuesday morning. We knew that we were in for some long driving days ahead, but worth it for the views, stopping points and just the fact of completing a 'classic drive'. It is stunning, but has to be said that it takes longer than you ever think it will.
We stopped off first at Bells beach, which is famed for surfing and being in the Point Break film. Suffice to say that it was as flat as a pancake when we were there. Some surfers were valiantly trying to surf, but nothing like you see on tv! We'd heard that kangaroos hang out at Anglesey golf course so we detoured up there in the quest for skippy. We did see some driving to the back of the course, but they were just chilling under a tree, so not really a kangaroo sighting, but more of a kangaroo lazing.
We stopped for a cuppa in Lorne which is a great little arty place, thinking that if we come again, we'd stop here longer. Apollo Bay, our stop for the night, wasn't as pretty as expected, but fine for what we needed.
On Wednesday we were heading to the rest of the GOR and up to the homestead for the night. This was a long day on the road, but pretty special. The road through this section is windy but stunning. The 12 apostles was very busy, but really impressive. Surf was up today, which really made it more impressive, I think.
We detoured to Cape Otway as we'd heard you are likely to see koalas there. We did find some on the way back and by getting out of the car and looking into the trees we managed to stop 3 tourist cars and a minibus, creating a little traffic jam full of people looking into the trees! Pretty funny and made us wonder if we did it again, just pointing randomly into the trees, would it still work?
We pushed on, well about 2km down the road actually, to a chocolatier that we'd sampled in the Yarra valley. You can sample as much as you want (in reason), but we settled for an ice cream as it was still really hot.....
The road settled down after this to a less scenic route that took us up into the hills and ended up at our homestead for the night. It was a gorgeous little place, but suffice to say, it took me a while to settle in to Aussie farm life. Not that I'm a city girl, but the critters that you find on farms out here can hurt you! We had our 2nd BBQ of the trip and had the most amazing night sky that I've seen for a very long time. We didn't find the southern cross as I think we need some guidance from a local,on that one.
The homestead owner (Karen) was extremely chatty, but really reminded me of a local Cornish farmers wife (sorry to the Cornish folk). Her conversations included the conspiracies about the sand shipments on the trains that ran through her farm and what 'they were really doing down there' and the cost of fuel. That being said, she couldn't have been more helpful and even found gluten free food for my breakfast.
Karen recommended that we headed over the Grampians on the way home, so we took her advice and had a fabulous day. We took a trip to Mackenzies falls, and paddled there whilst many enjoyed the dip in the pools. We were quite envious as we hadn't prepared for that part and our swimmers were tucked away in the cases. But it was a good little walk, even in the +30c heat!
The final stop of the day was to an aboriginal cave, which Karen had told us about. We found it, we took pictures, but to be honest, it wasn't all that and we were the only ones there. But we had a little car picnic, hoped skippy would join us, but he didn't, so we pushed on through to Melbourne and our final stop for the day.
We spent Friday the 20th of January at the Australian open. The day began with us putting on our Bath rugby shirts and setting off firstly to drop off our hire car. Amazingly this went pretty well and we were soon on a free tram to Flinders station in central Melbourne before a short stroll to the venue.
The weather was pretty changeable with s strong breeze at times and cloud for much of the day, however it was a reasonable temperature and some drizzle, but not enough to stop play.
We started with a men's doubles game where we watched the first set on show court number 2. After that we moved onto a bit of exploring, and a couple of other games before eventually going back to watch the deciding set.
The cider served at the venue was Thatchers so we felt pretty much at home although at $10 dollars for just over half a pint it was pretty expensive.
Andy Murray was due to go on at around 14:00 and our tickets allowed us access to his court however we decided not to bother with the queues. At one stage we did make a half hearted effort to sit down and watch him on one of the big screens but ended up only seeing a couple of points as we were moved on for sitting on the grass. In any event there was live tennis to be found.
Our afternoon was spent dropping in on a further few games before making our way to court 16 where Federer was scheduled
to be practicing. It was rammed and after standing there for ten minutes we heard that he had cancelled. On our way back from this we saw that the queue to get into one of the arenas was pretty small so made our way over and managed to get in to see the game between Dan Evans (gbr) and ?? (Aus). It was a great atmosphere throughout and we had great seats. Evans eventually won 7-5, 7-6, 7-6.
After this we made our way out and sent an 80th birthday message to my Dad. We tried to use Facebook live to do this but failed miserably and after about six attempts put up a final video for him.
The next morning, after a FaceTime with the Birthday boy in Lincoln, we set off for a days travel to Gladstone via Brisbane in readiness for our trip to Heron Island. We will be without TV and wifi for the next three days, what will President Trump and the rest of the world have achieved by then?
After leaving Melbourne we travelled up to Gladstone for an overnight stay before setting off for three nights on Heron Island. It was an interesting place to stop. Our taxi driver informed us that there was a big concert in town with the amazing band Cold Chisel playing in the local arena, he was most upset when I said I had never heard of them. In the evening we went out expecting to have to fight our way to the bars, but the place was empty, eventually we settled on a Tab (Bookies) where we listened to live music whilst watching cricket and trotting on the screens. The weather at Gladstone was overcast and our trip to the island was decidedly "choppy" a number of people ending up requiring treatment for sea sickness. We were ok and sat watching some tv programmes on the way over.
The weather soon improved and we enjoyed an amazing three days on the island where we walked around the island a number of times, swam in the sea, went snorkelling, swam with sharks, watched the sun rise and set and basically had a relaxed time. We have added some pictures and will add commentary under some of these over the next few days.
We left the island on 25th January for two flights down to Sydney where we checked into the Best Western Stellar hotel in readiness for Australia Day in 26th January.
the 26th of January as Australia Day so we went out to celebrate with the people of Sydney. This involved exploring the centre of Sydney and plenty of walking. It was slightly overcast but there were loads of people around who were determined to enjoy themselves. We had our first view of Darling Harbour and then went up to see the bridge and opera house. There was a tall ships race and we watched a bit of tennis before going to watch the fireworks from the roof of a pub at the end of the Pyrmont bridge. They were pretty amazing and afterwards we ended up watching Federer make the final of the Australian Open before setting off home.
Some pictures around Sydney from the two days after Australia Day. The weekend marked the Chinese New Year so we looked for Chines food in Chinatown but needed up with Japanese.
As brits abroad, what else would led you expect but for us to start a 6km coastal walk in the mid day sun. We caught the bus to Bondi on the Saturday morning, which was a great way to see some of the rest of Sydney. I think that Bondi is a fairly overrated beach in itself. It's pretty great for surfing but has a ring of Cornwall about it. Well, that's once you take away all of the backpackers and the beautiful people in their convertible cars.
We potted about a market we found, Paul had an amazing looking cheese and onion toasting from the raclette man and then we set off. By this time, it was about 11.30…. so much for avoiding the midday sun!
The walk is beautiful, dropping into a number of other beaches along the way. We did detour at Bronte , up the hill to a small bar called 3 Blue Ducks. Where we obtained ice cubes which we wrapped in our walking bandana’s and put round our necks as we walked. We strolled onwards, stopping frequently to soak our makeshift neckerchiefs with cold water from the water fountains, enjoying our sandwiches whilst watching people play bowls, diverting through a pretty impressive graveyard and viewing the Bali memorial and finally, sweating and weary, we arrived at Coogee bay and the Coogee bay hotel for a couple of “ shandies” before catching the bus back into town.
On Sunday, we did an all day trip to the hunter valley, which was really good. Plenty of good wines, some cheese and this time it wasn't goat!it was an early start as we had to be picked up at 6:45 in the morning and then spent about two hours transferring to the valley. We then visited four wineries, a chocolate factory, a cheese farm and an olives and chutneys outlet. The hands down winner for the Day way the Capercaille winery where we purchased a couple of bottles of wine for consumption in Japan.
The Monday was another early start for us to get to the opera house for 7am to start the backstage tour. That was a really superb tour, seeing all of the nooks and crannies, going on stage and ending up with breakfast in the green room. Seeing as we were up, we then headed out on the ferry to Manley to have a poke about there. The ferry is a standard ‘bus route’, but a great way to see across the harbour. The beach was pretty windy, but after we'd had a wander up and down, we headed back again towards the city. We had planned to meet up with John, Tania and Louis this afternoon, as they'd just arrived in Sydney the night before. It was lovely to see them and compare trip notes since we’d last parted at the wedding. Quite entertained by us meeting in an Irish bar, drinking cider whilst they had a curry! But that may be just us :)
Tuesday was our last full day in the city, so we wanted to cover off a final few sights, starting with the central tower. Ok, so I'm scared of heights, but it is worth it. It took us a while to work out how to get in there, but once up at the top, the views do go on for miles.
On the way there, we were looking for somewhere to eat for that night, preferably a good Chinese was the plan. One thing I've noticed in Australia is that locals do stop to ask tourists if they can help. A lady did do this and whilst we knew where we were, did ask if she could recommend a place to eat. Sure enough, she did, so off we toddled to check it out and book a table.
We wandered through the Queen Victoria Building (QVB), which is a fabulous, old mall. It's full of posh tea shops and designer clothes now, but has a spectacular clock hanging down from through the atrium. I think that Sydney is really interesting architecturally. It has huge, shiny high rise offices, but nestled in between are old little treasures. If you wander off the beaten track then you find rows of small terrace houses that still remain, with their small balconies over looking the street.
Our week in Sydney was great and just about the right amount of time. There are always more things that we could've done, but as we keep saying on this trip, we can't do everything!
It was raining when we left Sydney but all of the forecasts told it as going to be pretty different when we get to Byron. We got to Ballina airport, where Anthony/Sid picked us up. It certainly was hot to say the least. How on earth would we make the transition to the weather in Japan later in the week?
We oNly had the briefest visits to Byron this time, unfortunately, but was so glad to have at least been able to see some of the area that Sid, Tanya and Mae live in. It really is beautiful and a proper community. We went along to the treehouse for an evening meal and a few drinks. A few friends came along to join us, including neighbours, Rachel and her sister Angela. Paul, Rachel and I went in search of the Southern cross on the way home. The stars were rally clear, but as we hadn't truly identified it so far on the trip, we had to give it one last shot. Yep, we got it….. or at least, with enough certainty that I was satisfied.
The next day was our last full day in Australia, so of course, we went to the beach. Not really being beach dwellers, we played about in the surf for a while, paul got stung by a jelly fish and Mary did a good job of battling the power of the surf with Sids help. After that, we went out to run some errands with Sid, but serving the purpose of seeing the nearby area, getting brunch and some provisions for a BBQ in the evening. Well, what else could we do for our last night!
Turns out that after living in Australia for over 13 years, Sid hasn't ever been in charge of a BBQ! Between him and Paul they got it sorted and it was lovely. I managed to pick up a few bites, but it wouldn't be right to end the holiday without a few to take away with me!
And so we then had to pack again to leave. We're getting quite good at it, but I'll be damned if I really understand how it's possible for us to fluctuate in the weight of the bags quite as much as we do! We seemed to have flirted with the weight limits all the way through, but always been just about ok.
It's been a great trip through Australia and we even managed to get in some final sight seeing on the way to the airport. Sid took us up to the lighthouse, the most easterly point in Australia. After this we set off for Gold Coast airport and our trip to Tokyo.
On Friday the 3rd on February our Australia adventure ended and we set off from Gold Coast for and eight and a half hours flight to Tokyo which would be our home for the following month. The flight was a budget one but we had downloaded a couple of films and had stashed some food for the journey. Once in Tokyo Oliver met us and helped us back to our hotel. However this presented us with major problems as it appears that the toilets in Japan are extremely complicated to use and have loads of buttons to press.
Oliver has looked after us so far and his Japanese is proving pretty important as we try to interpret the menus. This started with a meal close to Otsuka station which was pretty good on our first night and he has taken us to a number of craft beer bars. Our first full day began with a trip to the Waseda University campus which I have to say was very impressive. We then travelled around some of the areas of Japan and managed to get our first temple stamp of the trip, hopefully there will be many more on our travels.
A boat trip down the river was enjoyed by all and because it was going dark we managed to get some good photos. During the past couple of days we have managed to also enjoy trips on the trams and train and have walked across Shibuya crossing and visited Shinjuku station as well as the metropolitan government building where we went for a trip to the 45th floor for our first view of Mount Fuji. This was followed by a trip to a Shinjiku Gyoen park where we ended up leaving to the tune of Auld Lang Syne which was pretty surreal.
Tomorrow morning we begin our trip around the island for the next couple of weeks and are all looking forward to the minus 3 temperature in Sapporro.
Our flight to Sapporo was on Vanilla Airlines, a budget airline which will be forever known as Sponge Bob airlines as they had an inflatable Sponge Bob above the check in desk. Although basic, with no drinks or food, the trip took about an hour and a half and was extremely quiet as no one appears to talk on internal flights. We then transferred via shuttle bus to central Sapporo and checked into our hotel.
The purpose of our trip north was to see the 68th snow festival which runs for two weeks in February each year. It was extremely cold with temperatures at sub zero levels. The majority of the pavements were covered in compacted snow and there were small bags of sand around which people were encouraged to use if necessary. That said, the main roads were all clear and the cars on the back streets seemed to have no difficulty getting around. Our hotel was not far from the centre of the city and, although the rooms were small, it was clean and we were provided with toothbrushes, toothpaste, razors, washing cloths and pyjamas, which this time were grey.
We managed to get out at a round five o’clock, at which point it had already started to go dark. The first section that we went to ran for about four blocks and contained ice carvings. There were a variety of these on a number of themes, starting with a children's section that featured a full size slide that children were using. There were cars and motorbikes that could be sat in as well. Moving up the road there were a number of complicated sculptures on various themes, from underwater scenes to mythical Japanese creatures. Interspersed between some of the sections were beer tents and food outlets.
We have found that so far in Japan, they don't appear make details about events obvious and it took us some time to find brochures, hidden away in an information desk inside a department store. Furnished with information on where the main snow festival was being held, we ducked into an Irish bar for a happy hour drink. On the way out the barman ran to the door to bow to both George and Oliver.
The snow sculpture section did not disappoint and there were events taking place at set times throughout it. We started by watching some snowboarders doing stunts down a full size ski jump, the highlight being when a father and son (11 years old) did a jump together. The snow sculptures themselves were massive and included a pretty much full size Arch de Triumph, life size horses and people, and on one snow stage there was even a band playing. The stand out sculpture was of a scene from final fantasy which at set periods was illuminated with colour. We weren't quite sure when this was going to happen however it became apparent when the people with sticks and megaphones started motioning everyone forward. The final sculpture we told in front of was of a full size Japanese house onto which scenes were projected to music.
At around 9.30 in the evening we decided that the time had come to get in from the freezing temperatures and find something to eat. Oliver found a recommended eatery and we set off through the snow filled streets. Unfortunately when we arrived there was a sign saying that they had “sold out” of food so we were forced to look elsewhere. Over the road was a a restaurant called Gorira and so it was decided that we would eat here. Oliver and George went for a Thai Green curry whilst I went for pork skewers and tempura mushrooms. After this we decided to go for one final drink before returning to the hotel. George spotted a sign saying drinks for ¥500 so we climbed some stairs and went into a small room that looked like someone's house with a homemade bar set up in it. We were told by a barman in a fur hat that all drinks were the same fixed price, so we sat down and had one. It was a little odd, but then, why not?
we flew from Sapporo down to Osaka before transferring to Kyoto for three days in Kyoto, unfortunately the website broke for a couple of days as such we have uploaded a few pictures from our stay but will add detail at a later date in the meantime enjoy the pictures.
We travelled down to Kobe on Sunday 12th of February. This involved a train back into Osaka and another out to Kobe, that said it only took around 40 minutes to complete the trip. However in the morning we made a bit of a side trip to the Kyoto Studio park which was to the west of Kyoto. As with many attractions in Japan it was reasonably priced however it is often difficult to find them as there is little signage. The studio park does filming of to programmes and many of the streets are set up ready for filming. There was also the opportunity to see some shows including a ninja one.
After spending. A couple of hours at the park we left for Kobe. Our hotel was basic but we still got our kimono and free toothbrushes. On our first full day we went on a trip up the Kobe ropeway to the top of a mountain overlooking Kobe followed by a leisurely walk down from the summit. During this descent we found a heated foot spa area where we sat drinking some wine that we had purchased earlier whilst looking out over the mountain in the snow.
When setting up our itinerary for our trip around Japan a couple of interesting days out had been identified that could be reached relatively quickly from our bases. One such outing was to Himeji which was about half an hour travel from Kobe and we decided to go on our second day. The key feature of Himeji is its castle which is designated as both a national treasure in Japan and a UNESCO world heritage site. You couldn't miss the castle as you got off the train as it pretty much dominated the skyline at the end of a boulevard of shops.
As with many of Japan's attractions there was the opportunity to go into much of the area surrounding the castle for free and the signs invited people to take advantage of the grounds and sit and have picnics, however it was a pretty cold day so there weren't any takers. The entrance fee to the central area was $1000 yen (£7.00) each, which initially seemed quite steep based on the cost of many other attractions however it was well worth paying. We had the opportunity to walk around pretty much everywhere freely and there were plenty of multilingual signs explaining the history of the castle. There was also access to the central structure which was permitted only after we had removed our shoes and placed them in plastic bags. Slippers were provided for the climb to the top which George and Oliver took advantage of, however on some flights of stairs it was necessary to remove them as they were tricky to negotiate with low beams.
We were ushered slowly up the five stories of the central building. On each floor there were information points and the opportunity to observe the views through the window. It appeared that the castle had changed hands on a number of occasions by the ruling clans of the area however it is one of only twelve original castles that remain in Japan. It was completed over 400 years ago and has over eighty buildings spread of multiple layers all connected by winding alleyways. At the top of the main keep there was a pretty good view of the surrounding area.
The trip down the stairs was slightly more hazardous, and all of us regretted not putting double layers of socks on that morning, as the floor was freezing. Once at the bottom we were glad to get our shoes bag on and we emerged into the cold and slightly sleeting main grounds of the castle.
The second part of our day involved a bus ride from Himeji station to the edge of the city followed by our second ropeway ascent up to Enjyoji, a temple complex with over one thousand years of history sitting on Mount Shosha. We arrived at the ropeway at around three o'clock and were advised that the last trip back down was at five so we had to get a shifty on to get round the park. The attendant on the ascent (and descent) provided audio commentary on the site were we're visiting in Japanese which given that there were only two other people in the carriage who didn't appear to be listening appeared pointless however at the end she came over and explained a couple of points in English. The key one being where the filming had taken place for the Last Samurai film.. We set off in search of this via a number of walkways, shrines and temples. The overall park was pretty impressive with a number of structures set within densely wooded areas and once again there were hardly any tourists around, we frequently lost Oliver as he disappeared off onto tracks to look for more photo opportunities.
The main entrance, Niomon gate, was about 15 minutes uphill trek and it then took another 15 minutes to reach Maniden another temple structure right in the centre of the complex. We decided to head onto Mitsonodo which consists of three pretty big structures and was where the majority of the filming took place, although there were a number of other film sites on the mountain. When we reached the main structure it was around four o'clock and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Unfortunately the main building area which included some artefacts was just closing so we had to be pretty quick with removing our shoes and getting in. Unfortunately Oliver failed to make the cut of time and was not permitted in. We made our way quickly back to Maniden and spent some time here before Paul began to panic about missing the last ropeway trip down and began to the other two travellers reluctantly down to the departure station.
We made the ropeway carriage and after the customary bowing ceremony from the attendant at the top and a commentary from our guide, this time with one other person in the carriage, we found ourselves on the bus back to Himeji station.
On the 15th of February we travelled from Kobe back towards Osaka for a brief overnight stay and a concert. This had not been pat of the original trip agenda however Oliver had identified that one of His favourite bands Animals as Leaders were playing in Osaka at around about the time that we were there so it was decided to take advantage of the situation. It was only a brief twenty minute train ride back to Osaka and we set of early so that we could do some exploring. After checking in we went for a walk around a couple of central temples and onto a pretty lively shopping area next to a waterfront
In the evening after an early meal, Oliver and I went to the concert whilst George went back to her room and Skype with her mum after doing some research on where we would be for the next few days and potential "safe" eating places.
The concert was an interesting experience. Firstly the club was on the seventh floor of a building so you had to get the lift up. Once inside you were offered the chance to purchase a drinks voucher for ¥500.This was exchanged for a small plastic cup of beer at the bar. Everyone then put their baggage into lockers and went through a door to the main venue. Oliver noticed that we could get a Can of Guinness each for ¥700 which made much more sense than paying ¥600 for another beer in a small plastic cup. We were given our Guinness in glasses and told to return them after the concert. We then made our way into the auditorium. It probably held at a maximum 300 and was on three levels. We went down to the lower area and stood quietly with the other fans, who also stood in an orderly fashion in front of the stage.
The band started at 7.00 and finished at 8:30 and there was no support band. There was also very little noise made by the crowd other than appreciative applause at the end of each song and the odd cheer at scripted points during songs. You could even hear the band talking to each other between songs. That said we quite enjoyed the concert, and at the end, to the polite chants of "one more song" the band came out and played one more song after confirming with the crowd that that was all that they wanted.
We left the venue via the lift and returned to a shocked George who had expected us to be back much later.
PS from George: having had a girlie night in with mum on FaceTime, we went out for a bit more food and drinks, but it really wasn't a night out that you'd expect after a concert. That's all I can say.
pictures from our trip to Onomichi. We have realised that we haven't done a write up on this but it will be updated soon.
Our train from Onomichi to Miyajima set off at 9.42 in morning and cost ¥1940 yen each. We went one stop from Onomichi to Itozaki then changed with a one minute turnaround. Only in Japan would his run totally to schedule. Following this we had 1 hour 50 transfer down to Miyajimaguchi station. As we travelled the conductor went through the carriage on a number of occasions, each time she passed through the carriage she bowed as she entered and bowed on the way out.
The island is officially called Itsukushima however it is more commonly referred to as Miyajima which means Shrine Island. The ferry over to the island only took about ten minutes and cost about £2.20 each for a return ticket. We were soon over at the island and were immediately greeted by wandering deer on the streets. We had soon dropped our bags off on our pier front hotel as we were advised by a very smiley and happy desk clerk that check in was not until three o'clock. One of the reasons for going to the island was to take a trip up its ropeway to the top of Mount Misen however it was closed for maintenance so unfortunately we were unable to use it. Instead we set off in the general direction of the massive Tori gate that sits in the harbour area and the Itsukushima Shrine.
The shrine and the Tori gate are unique as they are built over the water and depending on the tide are either completely surrounded by water when the tide is in or by sand when it is out. As we were staying overnight we had the opportunity to view both scenarios. In the evening it was also particularly pretty as it was illuminated by lights along the walkway with spotlights focused on the Tori Gate providing a great opportunity for photographs.
We learnt in Hiroshima that Miyajima grew up as a result of Hiroshima banning artists and performers and effectively the red light district of Hiroshima moved to the area. This was described on the island as a period where there was much dancing on the floating stage in the shrine.
The big challenge of the day was to try out some Miyajima oysters and in the evening we sat down and all completed the task of eating a whole oyster, after this George agreed that we were good boys and could partake in some saki and plumb wine tasting.
Our trip on the road around Japan was nearing an end but we still had two places to visit before returning to Tokyo, the first of these being Iwakuni, which was a short trip down the coast. We spent the morning having a further look around Miyajima before collecting our bags and taking the boat off the island to the train station. The main feature of Iwakuni is the Kincaid-Kyo bridge and we had booked a hotel overlooking this.
The bridge is made up of five wooden arches on stone bases that cross the Nishiki river and was originally completed in 1673 but was destroyed by a typhoon that hit Iwakuni in 1950. The residents then faithfully restored it in 1953. The bridge provides an entrance to Kiki Park which has a number of shrines and museums in it.
Prior to our trip we had not been certain about the food that we would sample and so it was decided that we would go for a dinner bed and breakfast at our hotel. We had informed them that George was gluten free and they were really accommodating about this. What we hadn't informed them about was Paul's aversion to fish. So it was that we were ushered into a private room that evening for our banquet which was served by our very old waitress. We were presented with a menu written in Japanese, so still hadn't got a clue what we would be given. Over the course of the next two hours we were presented with numerous courses all of which were immaculately presented ad pretty much included fish. George was separately catered for and on a number of occasions was provided with alternatives, many of which were meat. There was much laughter as we sampled each of these delights and in all honesty it was a great experience.
The next morning we rose early for breakfast ready for some good old toast and marmalade, when we arrived at our allocated table we were provided with a fully laid out set of Japanese food. George was provided with a similar layout however her do it yourself tofu was replaced by two fried eggs.
after our experience in Iwakuni we travelled back up the island to Hiroshima for our final full day away from Tokyo. So far on our trip we had been relatively lucky with the weather however for most of the day in Hiroshima it rained. To be honest though this added to the atmosphere of the place.
Hakone is about an hour and a half south of Tokyo and is a popular holiday region. One of the best ways to explore this is by obtaining a pass that allows you to travel on its many different transportation types, these include trains, busses, cable cars, ropeway and sightseeing boats, as usual all run with amazing efficiency. In realist it would have been better to go for a couple of days and explore however we went down and did a circuit that encompassed all of these modes of transport. It snowed at some stages and was slightly cold however this is a region that we will definitely return to in 2019
This is a quick update on our travels, with the plan being to revisit the blog and update with more details on our final days in Japan once we have more time. Thanks for all the comments from everyone who has followed us.
We arrived back at Heathrow about an hour later than scheduled yesterday morning after a 24 plus hours trip back via Dubai. The flights worked out pretty well and we managed to watch loads of films but neither of us got much sleep. Sam met us at Bristol Parkway and delivered us home where the house and garden actually looked pretty good. We managed to stay up until around 10.00 ish to try to beat the jet lag. We now have to spend a couple of weeks re adjusting and starting looking for new jobs before we start to plan the next trip.