11th December
A long long drive down to Rockhampton. No particular reason for staying here other than to break up the journey. It's actually the steak capital of Australia, which can only mean one thing - Steak for me for dinner (and tomato and pasta for Joey). Went to see james bond in the evening - Casino Royale. Pretty good and a fair debut for Daniel Craig. But really, why does he pout so much?
12th December
Another mammoth drive in order to get to Hervey bay - access point to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. Except we didn't get that far. We ended up in the world's crappiest little camp site near a town called Bagara. How crap? No fresh water, you had to mop the showers after you were done, and the toilets were closed for cleaning between 8 and 10am - checkout being at 10. But we were there for a reason. By 6:30pm we were at the Queensland Parks & Wildlife Services office at Mon Repos beach next door. Why? To watch giant turtles lay eggs on the beach. Quite selfishly, the turtles didn't arrive til about 9:30 (some people kept asking what time they were due - fools) and we didn't get home til about 1am, but it was pretty cool. Our turtle laid her eggs below the tide mark so we had to help move the nest further up shore. Not something you do every day...
13th December
Due to tight deadlines, we could either spend two days on a Fraser Island trip or two days relaxing in Queensland's sunshine coast. Decision? Drop the big island and save bucks by going to the beachey bit instead. Drove to the delightful if slightly pretentious town of Noosa Heads. Ambled around town. This was the first civilisation we'd seen for a while so we were sad to crack on down, but the whole of that coast is similar. Our campsite was just outside maroochydoor. Can you believe that the sites had en-suite bathrooms? What a novelty! Can you believe that they hadn't been decorated since the 70's? They were clean, but finished in a tropical yellow that i've not seen in a bog for a long time... Didn't seem to put joey off her pot routine though!
14th December
Crikey! Isn't she a beauty! The sunshine coast is the home of the late (Sir) Steve Irwin's zoo - Australia Zoo! And we had a ripper day mate! The place is still adorned with pictures and films of him in action. Still a legend... Watched croc feeding (in the crocoseum), hand fed 'roos and ephelants (particularly cool), saw snakes and koalas and possums and many many more... Crocs rule. There is a tribute to Steve-o being put together and the main road is called Steve Irwin Way.
After all the zoo action we checked out mooloolooba beach. Looked nice...
Later that evening... I took my book to the out-house (as you do) for a bit of me-time and who should I see sitting behind the pot, but a bloody great spider. I don't like them. Irrational I know, and this chap was only 2 inches across. At the zoo we'd been tought how crocs and snakes were our friends. Nobody said anything about spiders though, and this little fellow meant business. I referred to andy pipkin's law - they're only trouble if they're bigger than the soul of your shoe. This guy was not bigger than my shoe, however he was behind a toilet. Pipkin's rule should be amended to - they're only trouble if they're bigger than the soul of your shoe or you can't get your foot to him (ie behind the pan). Time to bring in the big guns. Joey... She gave me a giant can of Rid insect spray. Now, after my day at the zoo, I should've been picking the little guy up and releasing him outside. Animals are my friend and all that. But, I also read a story in the local rag about how the Sydney Funnel Web is making a death march north into queensland, so it was either him or me. Well, him or me-and-a-giant-can-of-spider-neutraliser. One of us was going to get the toilet to ourselves. Man versus arachnid. Two legs versus eight. Giant brain versus tiny brain (you choose which way round). Venomous poisonous bite versus slightly sour breath. Fifteen stone versus a few grams. Ding-ding. Round one. I hit him with a long spray and he hid behind the pipes. Nice defensive move. At this point I wasn't sure whether he'd gone to his underground lair to call up his buddies. But I wasn't scared. I had Rid. A 100% owned and operated Aussie company. He stuck his head out and I zapped him again. This went on for a few minutes. He was a worthy opponent. Eventually he pushed his luck and found himself in no mans land. My crushing flip-flop came down. All over. Hill wins by knock-out. After the glory of victory came the bitterness of guilt. I felt really bad. I've learnt my lesson. If I find myself in a similar situation with a deadly killer, i'll call joey in...
15th December
Went back to Mooloolooba beach to relax for the day. Nice lunch and more sunbathing and reading and sunbathing and relaxing. Well, that was jo. I just arsed around in the sea. Then we hit the highway and found us some more civilisation - Brisbane. Queensland's state capital. Despite the general improvement in weather as we've headed south (less humid), when we got in to Brisbane (or as the locals call it brizzie or briz-o) it poured down. We had dinner outside the camp kitchen under the veranda watching the thunder and lightning through the palm trees. The trees were shaking a little too much for the verocity of the storm (an earlier severe weather warning had been cancelled), so we were a little confused. It turned out that a possum (cat like tree dweller) was eyeing up our dinner from his palm tree base, moving between trees with a dexterity last seen in joey's gymnastics class eighteen years ago. It was the first wild wildlife we've seen that can't kill us. We've still yet to see a wild 'roo. Roadkill doesn't count...
16th December
Finally, some big smoke. Got the bus in to brizzie from the campsite. Excellent transport infrastructure. Busways. Bus only roads. No traffic lights. No pedestrians. No delays. Dirt cheap too. Brisbane is a nice town. Old buildings and new buildings. Old shops and new shops. And shops and more shops. And shops. Mrs. H hasn't shopped since LA (Auckland wasn't memorable for it's shopping unless you wanted to buy a boat). So she did what comes naturally. She browsed. After a couple of hours I checked in at the creche and watched some ashes action. Day three of the perth test. Not too clever. When jo collected me I think my mood was worse than when I went in. My mood must have been pretty bad, as joey has acquired a significant amount of contempt for ricky "punter" ponting. If he's on the radio I have to switch him off. Arrogant chap.
After the shopping/cricket session we ambled round the city's south bank, the arty bit, and hopped on the ferry back up the river.
Brisbane. Nice place.
17th December
From the sunshine coast to brisbane and then the gold coast. Australia's number 1 domestic tourist destination. In particular Surfers Paradise. Strange name for a place. A bit presumptious really. What would a surfer consider paradise? Waves for a start. Check. Surf shops. Check. Chicks. Check. Food and drink. Check. So far so good. But there's more to Surfers than that. Incredibly expensive property (including the worlds tallest residential tower at 80 storeys). Millions of tourists. Thousands of drunk tourists. Hundreds of drunk tourists acting like pillocks. Sunburn (mainly on said pillocks).
After examining Surfers, we moved on down the gold coast and set up camp in the more pleasant burleigh heads. Enough cafes and shops and pristine beaches to entertain us. Not too much to entice the pillocks.
Since we've been away we've seen many things which we have described as surreal. Rock formations, mountains, fjords, parks, glaciers, even people. But this takes first place. We're in burleigh heads on south east queensland's gold coast. We're in a caravan park near a beautiful beach and it's 25-30 degrees. Towering over the campsite, and in particular our neighbour's caravan, is a 12 foot inflatable glow in the dark santa. If this wasn't freaky enough, all of the campers have their own nativity play scenes and gaudy lights. Plus there's christmas carols being sung on the beach. It can't be christmas. It's too warm. Where's the snow? Where are the thick winter coats? Why are people on the beach wearing reindeer ears? Why is there a giant inflatable santa hovering near our van? One large gust of wind and santa could knock our van out of the park...
Joey's musings:- following on from Matt's very descriptive description of our daily events, I will just give a brief synopsis of our last few days!
1. Another night with blow up santa in Burleigh Heads.
2. Byron Bay.....well, what can I say, Matt and I were the only people with no dreads, good personal hygeine and both hands free from carrying either a set of bongo's or digeredoo's.....you could almost smell the lentils - in fact there was no almost about it, you actually could smell the lentils in the camp amenities if you know what I mean!! As we settled down for the night to the sound of drumming circles, we pondered on how unalternative the masses were whilst trying to be alternative in the hope of "finding themselves!". What philistines we are!
3. Day 2 in Byron - as we awoke to the smell of joss sticks and the sight of tie die bikini's hanging in the warm morning sun we got our gear together and made our way to the local dive shop for a spot on snorkelling at the Julian Rocks Marine Park....TBC.
Lots of love,
Joey xxxx
21 December 2006
More Photos of our Adventures!
Matt and Roo at Brizzie Zoo
In the words of Mattie's hero Mr Irwin "Crocs Rule"
Australia Zoo, Brisbane - Home of the late great Steve Irwin
In the words of Mattie's hero Mr Irwin "Crocs Rule"
Australia Zoo, Brisbane - Home of the late great Steve Irwin
Photos - The land of Oz!
Giant Loggerhead turtle nesting - Mon Repos Beach - Queensland
Front Path to our rainforest hut - Mission Beach - Queensland
Our Rainforest Hideaway - Mission Beach - Queensland
Whitsunday Island from the air - Queensland
Whitehaven Beach, Whitsundays - Paradise (even in the rain!)
Front Path to our rainforest hut - Mission Beach - Queensland
Our Rainforest Hideaway - Mission Beach - Queensland
Whitsunday Island from the air - Queensland
Whitehaven Beach, Whitsundays - Paradise (even in the rain!)
11 December 2006
Queensland - but no queens!
4th December
Well, here we are in tropical queensland, australia. And it is hot. More than that, it is humid. So humid. I don't think that either of us have been anywhere like this. It's above the tropic of capricorn and so the humidity at this time of the year is obscene - it is cloudy and overcast, doesn't drop below 23°c yet doesn't rain... 'til january when it doesn't stop raining!
We arrived here really late last night after a few delays - the plane had to divert to brisbane and it was a bumpy ol' ride! In total we're here for four nights, and the main reason for coming here is the reef and the rainforests. Both of which we plan to get a little sneak of before we leave.
I think joey summarised the end of new zealand. A spot of underground rafting/tubing in glowworm filled caves and some surfing at raglan. The tubing was fun but tamer than the plans we'd made for the previous day. Still, if the caves get flooded, the caves get flooded... Raglan was pretty cool. It's a global surfing hotspot. The waves at manu bay were around 15ft high and way out of my league, but fortunately there was a more suitable bay with 4-6ft waves. As joey said, it wasn't a beginners beach. We were out for an hour, but it was seriously hard work with some interesting currents.
In summary, we loved new zealand. The towns weren't too clever, in many ways it's a bit backward. Technologically it's like england was 20 years ago. It's also extremely remote - 4 million people and 20 million sheep. But what sets the country apart is it's incredible scenery - it's geography and geology. The mountains, the geothermal areas, the fjords, volcanic landscape, stunning beaches, wildlife, and beautiful rivers. So much variety in such a small country. I think we'd like to go back to see more, but it's a long way to go for a holiday! The other thing worth mentioning is the UV. The country is so close to the hole in the ozone layer that you can get burnt in ten minutes on a cold cloudy day. Quite frightening.
So new zealand has come to an end, now starts the aussie adventure. At least we won't be struggling in the cold nights anymore. Even though it gets up to 40°c here we (I) shouldn't burn as much...
5th December
Spiders. That's why I don't like it here. We were having dinner in the Cairns yacht club (not as posh as it sounds) when jo told me she saw a spider cross the floor behind me that was bigger than her hand. As you can imagine, I didn't enjoy the rest of my dinner. I'm not a spider fan, but i'd rather be able to see them than know that they're running around wildly behind me. Especially when they're the size of a hand. We ate up quick and split. All I can think about now is spiders. They're all over me!
6th December
What a great day. Got up at 6:30 and left the hotel at 7:30. By 8am we were lying on the sun deck on the front of a 70ft catamaran. Two hours to michealmas cay in the great barrier reef. The cat dropped anchor about 250m off shore and we pontooned to the cay (sand island). Flippers, goggles, snorkles, and stinger suits on. Within minutes we'd seen a baby black tipped reef shark, blue spotted ray, giant clams and all manner of tropical reef fish including the usually shy joey-fish. I even got a couple of pictures of that beauty! Swam back to the boat and had lunch. The reef itself is brightly coloured and alive! However, large sections are clearly dead or dying. They are grey and lifeless. Apparently this is due to sun bleaching and pollution, plus the occasional cyclone!
Buffet lunch - I think I may have eaten enough to pay for the trip - and then on to the forbidden reef. Not as daunting as it sounds, but another section of reef a few miles away. Another hour of snorkelling and duck-diving. This time we saw some little squid type things and some bigger fish in all manner of colours.
This was followed up by two hours sailing back to the mainland with the sun on our backs. A fantastically fantastic day all together!
And then we had curry for dinner...
7th December
After checking out of our nice hotel we got our underwater photos developed and collected the van. Campervan mark II is smaller than his neanderthal cousin. Much smaller. No toilet, but more storage and more manageable. It's also a lot newer so we're hoping this brute won't give us half as much grief.
After stocking up on tucker we drove down to mission beach. Mission beach is a string of ramshackle communities set in deep thick rainforest about 200km south of Cairns. We felt like we were out in the outback, deep in jungle... Neither of us slept particularly well. The humidity was so intense and the insects make a hell of a racket...
8th December
What was I thinking. Every now and then we do something that I really want to do (surfing or sailing) or something joey might want to do (rollerblading, eating veggie food etc). Well, joey read up on this place called The Sanctury (in mission beach). They do yoga escapes, organic food and all that crap. And you can stay in a deluxe en-suite cabin or a rudimentary hut. We've been in campsites for nearly two months so reckoned we could make do with the hut. We drove into thick rainforest to a small clearing/car park. From there a half mile trek uphill. Now, a half mile walk doesn't seem bad but at 30+ degrees and extreme humidity surrounded by dense rainforest, lizards and toads, we were exhausted when we arrived. Shown to our hut, we discovered it was little more than a mosquito net with a tarpaulin roof and a sliding door. The branches of the trees and palms were right up against the side. My morale was declining...
We went down to mission beach on the sand. A beautiful view of dunk island and the pacific. Unfortunately you can't swim on the beaches at the moment due to the stingers (they kill). So we killed time crocodile hunting (to no avail) and then renewed our wedding vows on the desserted beach, sharing a snack size twix instead of wedding rings. It was jo's twix, so I didn't think she'd be too impressed if I'd just eaten it...
Back to "the sanctury" for a really nice dinner. Lots of yoga and all that going on. It was full of strong powerful women empowering themselves and finding themselves. After dinner we were shown some of the locals. Rhinoceros beetle. Giant stick insect. What about snakes? Oh, you won't see a snake. They're more scared of you... Ever get the impression you're being paid lip service? So mowgli (joey) and baloo (myself) ambled down the narrow path, and who should be blocking our path other than shear kahn (a bloody snake). He was about three feet long and lay across the width of the path. No climbing over him. They're supposed to be shy, so I stamped my foot near him but he didn't budge. You could smell my fear... Reversing slowly we went back to the main hut and informed the guy working there. His response? Oh, it must be the rain that's brought them all out, someone else has just seen one too. Great thanks. Queensland has 8 of the 10 most poisonous snakes including the Taipan. The worlds deadliest. We went back and sammy the snake had gone. We went to bed, but I didn't sleep at all. Maybe the fear of snakes. That and the huntsman spiders (who should also leave you alone) and the bats and the mossies... I think I had maybe one hours sleep. I was just too alert. Somehow princess mowgli slept pretty well and she was frightened of the cane toads...
9th December
...we showered and split pretty quick thinking it would only be a matter of time til I got savaged by a croc. Before we left, we had time to rummage through their wet-tropic animal encyclopedia. It was either a brown tree snake or, yup, a taipan! The brown tree snake is mildly venomous but timid, so should have done a bunk when I stamped my foot. The taipan is aggressive and very poisonous. I dread to think which it was that we saw...
We hit the road. 450km to Airlie Beach. An access town to the Whitsundays which we planned to nail the following day. After the sufferings of the prior night we got in some beers and had a nice dinner. Dinner done, we headed back to the van and what do I see? A huge spider on the van. I scuttled near, hoping to scare him away, but I inadvertently shooed him into the crack between the doors. Meaning? We couldn't open the door without the risk of him being in the van, and I needed some sleep after the prior night... If you'd listened closely, you may have heard murmerings of "i've had enough wildlife" and even "I want to go back to new zealand". After half an hour or so it left of it's own accord, but i'm not sure I can get use to this...
10th December (joey) - well, what can I say....what an amazing morning! Woke up and thought..."what shall we do today?, I know, lets get our own helicopter, fly low over all the Whitsundays and then land on our own section of Whitehaven Beach"....so we did! The Whitsundays are 74 small islands off the coast of tropical Queensland. Whitsunday Island (the biggest) is home to one of the most beautiful beaches in the world..Whitehaven Beach. We're talking the whitest sand ever! (photos to follow!). The flight out there was amazing, you could see everything, forests, beaches, sea etc. Matt and I have now decided to give up our respective careers in favour of becoming helicopter pilots!
(Matt) - yes, whitehaven beach was pretty awesome. The weather wasn't perfect, so few boats or planes went out, thus the need to charter a helicopter (not as dear as you might think). It did mean that the islands were all really quiet and we had the most amazing beach to ourselves.
After that we visited the town centre only to find it's a stop on the east coast backpacker pub crawl. The place was full of soap-dodging 18yr olds finding themselves and wearing homemade clothes, all getting drunk. They could have done it in ibiza for less...
Joey's musings:- Queensland is a weird place, I have never been as near to the tropic of capricorn and all it brings with it....wild parrotts in trees, giant stick insects, spiders and gecko's everywhere! Wildlife is not for the fainthearted....."Matt"!
I am slowly getting used to the heat here, everyday is spent outdoors as the van gets too hot so there is no getting away from it! It has turned into a bit of a whistlestop tour down the coast in a race to reach Sydney by Christmas....we are having a great time through. The night in the rainforest and private ride to The Whitsundays were certainly highlights for me..."oh what a hard life"!
Love to you all,
Joey xxxx
Well, here we are in tropical queensland, australia. And it is hot. More than that, it is humid. So humid. I don't think that either of us have been anywhere like this. It's above the tropic of capricorn and so the humidity at this time of the year is obscene - it is cloudy and overcast, doesn't drop below 23°c yet doesn't rain... 'til january when it doesn't stop raining!
We arrived here really late last night after a few delays - the plane had to divert to brisbane and it was a bumpy ol' ride! In total we're here for four nights, and the main reason for coming here is the reef and the rainforests. Both of which we plan to get a little sneak of before we leave.
I think joey summarised the end of new zealand. A spot of underground rafting/tubing in glowworm filled caves and some surfing at raglan. The tubing was fun but tamer than the plans we'd made for the previous day. Still, if the caves get flooded, the caves get flooded... Raglan was pretty cool. It's a global surfing hotspot. The waves at manu bay were around 15ft high and way out of my league, but fortunately there was a more suitable bay with 4-6ft waves. As joey said, it wasn't a beginners beach. We were out for an hour, but it was seriously hard work with some interesting currents.
In summary, we loved new zealand. The towns weren't too clever, in many ways it's a bit backward. Technologically it's like england was 20 years ago. It's also extremely remote - 4 million people and 20 million sheep. But what sets the country apart is it's incredible scenery - it's geography and geology. The mountains, the geothermal areas, the fjords, volcanic landscape, stunning beaches, wildlife, and beautiful rivers. So much variety in such a small country. I think we'd like to go back to see more, but it's a long way to go for a holiday! The other thing worth mentioning is the UV. The country is so close to the hole in the ozone layer that you can get burnt in ten minutes on a cold cloudy day. Quite frightening.
So new zealand has come to an end, now starts the aussie adventure. At least we won't be struggling in the cold nights anymore. Even though it gets up to 40°c here we (I) shouldn't burn as much...
5th December
Spiders. That's why I don't like it here. We were having dinner in the Cairns yacht club (not as posh as it sounds) when jo told me she saw a spider cross the floor behind me that was bigger than her hand. As you can imagine, I didn't enjoy the rest of my dinner. I'm not a spider fan, but i'd rather be able to see them than know that they're running around wildly behind me. Especially when they're the size of a hand. We ate up quick and split. All I can think about now is spiders. They're all over me!
6th December
What a great day. Got up at 6:30 and left the hotel at 7:30. By 8am we were lying on the sun deck on the front of a 70ft catamaran. Two hours to michealmas cay in the great barrier reef. The cat dropped anchor about 250m off shore and we pontooned to the cay (sand island). Flippers, goggles, snorkles, and stinger suits on. Within minutes we'd seen a baby black tipped reef shark, blue spotted ray, giant clams and all manner of tropical reef fish including the usually shy joey-fish. I even got a couple of pictures of that beauty! Swam back to the boat and had lunch. The reef itself is brightly coloured and alive! However, large sections are clearly dead or dying. They are grey and lifeless. Apparently this is due to sun bleaching and pollution, plus the occasional cyclone!
Buffet lunch - I think I may have eaten enough to pay for the trip - and then on to the forbidden reef. Not as daunting as it sounds, but another section of reef a few miles away. Another hour of snorkelling and duck-diving. This time we saw some little squid type things and some bigger fish in all manner of colours.
This was followed up by two hours sailing back to the mainland with the sun on our backs. A fantastically fantastic day all together!
And then we had curry for dinner...
7th December
After checking out of our nice hotel we got our underwater photos developed and collected the van. Campervan mark II is smaller than his neanderthal cousin. Much smaller. No toilet, but more storage and more manageable. It's also a lot newer so we're hoping this brute won't give us half as much grief.
After stocking up on tucker we drove down to mission beach. Mission beach is a string of ramshackle communities set in deep thick rainforest about 200km south of Cairns. We felt like we were out in the outback, deep in jungle... Neither of us slept particularly well. The humidity was so intense and the insects make a hell of a racket...
8th December
What was I thinking. Every now and then we do something that I really want to do (surfing or sailing) or something joey might want to do (rollerblading, eating veggie food etc). Well, joey read up on this place called The Sanctury (in mission beach). They do yoga escapes, organic food and all that crap. And you can stay in a deluxe en-suite cabin or a rudimentary hut. We've been in campsites for nearly two months so reckoned we could make do with the hut. We drove into thick rainforest to a small clearing/car park. From there a half mile trek uphill. Now, a half mile walk doesn't seem bad but at 30+ degrees and extreme humidity surrounded by dense rainforest, lizards and toads, we were exhausted when we arrived. Shown to our hut, we discovered it was little more than a mosquito net with a tarpaulin roof and a sliding door. The branches of the trees and palms were right up against the side. My morale was declining...
We went down to mission beach on the sand. A beautiful view of dunk island and the pacific. Unfortunately you can't swim on the beaches at the moment due to the stingers (they kill). So we killed time crocodile hunting (to no avail) and then renewed our wedding vows on the desserted beach, sharing a snack size twix instead of wedding rings. It was jo's twix, so I didn't think she'd be too impressed if I'd just eaten it...
Back to "the sanctury" for a really nice dinner. Lots of yoga and all that going on. It was full of strong powerful women empowering themselves and finding themselves. After dinner we were shown some of the locals. Rhinoceros beetle. Giant stick insect. What about snakes? Oh, you won't see a snake. They're more scared of you... Ever get the impression you're being paid lip service? So mowgli (joey) and baloo (myself) ambled down the narrow path, and who should be blocking our path other than shear kahn (a bloody snake). He was about three feet long and lay across the width of the path. No climbing over him. They're supposed to be shy, so I stamped my foot near him but he didn't budge. You could smell my fear... Reversing slowly we went back to the main hut and informed the guy working there. His response? Oh, it must be the rain that's brought them all out, someone else has just seen one too. Great thanks. Queensland has 8 of the 10 most poisonous snakes including the Taipan. The worlds deadliest. We went back and sammy the snake had gone. We went to bed, but I didn't sleep at all. Maybe the fear of snakes. That and the huntsman spiders (who should also leave you alone) and the bats and the mossies... I think I had maybe one hours sleep. I was just too alert. Somehow princess mowgli slept pretty well and she was frightened of the cane toads...
9th December
...we showered and split pretty quick thinking it would only be a matter of time til I got savaged by a croc. Before we left, we had time to rummage through their wet-tropic animal encyclopedia. It was either a brown tree snake or, yup, a taipan! The brown tree snake is mildly venomous but timid, so should have done a bunk when I stamped my foot. The taipan is aggressive and very poisonous. I dread to think which it was that we saw...
We hit the road. 450km to Airlie Beach. An access town to the Whitsundays which we planned to nail the following day. After the sufferings of the prior night we got in some beers and had a nice dinner. Dinner done, we headed back to the van and what do I see? A huge spider on the van. I scuttled near, hoping to scare him away, but I inadvertently shooed him into the crack between the doors. Meaning? We couldn't open the door without the risk of him being in the van, and I needed some sleep after the prior night... If you'd listened closely, you may have heard murmerings of "i've had enough wildlife" and even "I want to go back to new zealand". After half an hour or so it left of it's own accord, but i'm not sure I can get use to this...
10th December (joey) - well, what can I say....what an amazing morning! Woke up and thought..."what shall we do today?, I know, lets get our own helicopter, fly low over all the Whitsundays and then land on our own section of Whitehaven Beach"....so we did! The Whitsundays are 74 small islands off the coast of tropical Queensland. Whitsunday Island (the biggest) is home to one of the most beautiful beaches in the world..Whitehaven Beach. We're talking the whitest sand ever! (photos to follow!). The flight out there was amazing, you could see everything, forests, beaches, sea etc. Matt and I have now decided to give up our respective careers in favour of becoming helicopter pilots!
(Matt) - yes, whitehaven beach was pretty awesome. The weather wasn't perfect, so few boats or planes went out, thus the need to charter a helicopter (not as dear as you might think). It did mean that the islands were all really quiet and we had the most amazing beach to ourselves.
After that we visited the town centre only to find it's a stop on the east coast backpacker pub crawl. The place was full of soap-dodging 18yr olds finding themselves and wearing homemade clothes, all getting drunk. They could have done it in ibiza for less...
Joey's musings:- Queensland is a weird place, I have never been as near to the tropic of capricorn and all it brings with it....wild parrotts in trees, giant stick insects, spiders and gecko's everywhere! Wildlife is not for the fainthearted....."Matt"!
I am slowly getting used to the heat here, everyday is spent outdoors as the van gets too hot so there is no getting away from it! It has turned into a bit of a whistlestop tour down the coast in a race to reach Sydney by Christmas....we are having a great time through. The night in the rainforest and private ride to The Whitsundays were certainly highlights for me..."oh what a hard life"!
Love to you all,
Joey xxxx
05 December 2006
Waitomo Caving Expedition (2nd time lucky - no flooding this time!!)
All tooled up for blackwater tubing - (4th and 5th from left)
2nd and 3rd from left - best cheek forward!
Don't look down!!
2nd and 3rd from left - best cheek forward!
Don't look down!!
More Photo's - Last few days in New Zealand
The Shearing Shed - Waitomo (yes, that's a rabbit!)
The Bridge to Nowhere - Wanganui River
Matt Surfing at Raglan!! (Mmmmm)
Marokopa Falls - near Waitomo
Wanganui River - North Island (13k in 2hrs 10!)
The Bridge to Nowhere - Wanganui River
Matt Surfing at Raglan!! (Mmmmm)
Marokopa Falls - near Waitomo
Wanganui River - North Island (13k in 2hrs 10!)
03 December 2006
Last Days in New Zealand
Well - as I (joey) write our last entry from New Zealand I reflect on our last few days here.........when Matt last spoke to you I believe that we had just been flooded out of the caves in Waitomo! All tooled up and ready to go but it was not to be. It rains hard here and the possibility of being stuck in a flooded cave with the water levels rising was not something I wished to contemplate. Nevermind - the next day (our last in Waitomo) yielded less rain and the chance to go caving/ blackwater rafting in a different cave that doesn't get flooded.....bring it on!
We decided to go on the "black magic" expedition with Cave World. This involved wearing wetsuits and carrying a large rubber ring for 2 hours, swimming through dark underground rivers and jumping off underground waterfalls - much fun indeed. Luckily both Matt and I found out that we were neither claustraphobic or scared of the dark.....lucky that hey! The caves are filled with glow worms which is quite eirie but pretty spectacular and the water is filled with eels which is neither eirie or spectacular......just horrible! The Maori believe that the caves are sacred and a source of spirits, the fact that the natural landscape in NZ has so many stories and significance attached to it is something I love.
Following our little jaunt underground - we spent the rest of the day above ground - in fact in the sea! We drove up to Raglan, NZ's hottest surf spot with supposedly the best left hand break in the world (looked pretty scary to me!). For the second time that day we donned a wetsuit and got stuck in - some of us better than others I hasten to add! (the waves were pretty big so I asked for a stable board - the 9ft beast that I got given was both impossible to carry and control in the water - hence alot of swimming and splashing around on my part!). Matt however was in his element - bring on the Gold Coast!
Following the surfing we drove back up to Auckland to spend our last night in the van......we were quite sad as have loved it. Spend last night in a hotel that looked surprisingly like a very posh hotel in New York but only cost 21 GBP (bargin!)
Bye Bye New Zealand and Thanks for a fantastic trip.........Sweet!
Love to you all,
Joey xxx
We decided to go on the "black magic" expedition with Cave World. This involved wearing wetsuits and carrying a large rubber ring for 2 hours, swimming through dark underground rivers and jumping off underground waterfalls - much fun indeed. Luckily both Matt and I found out that we were neither claustraphobic or scared of the dark.....lucky that hey! The caves are filled with glow worms which is quite eirie but pretty spectacular and the water is filled with eels which is neither eirie or spectacular......just horrible! The Maori believe that the caves are sacred and a source of spirits, the fact that the natural landscape in NZ has so many stories and significance attached to it is something I love.
Following our little jaunt underground - we spent the rest of the day above ground - in fact in the sea! We drove up to Raglan, NZ's hottest surf spot with supposedly the best left hand break in the world (looked pretty scary to me!). For the second time that day we donned a wetsuit and got stuck in - some of us better than others I hasten to add! (the waves were pretty big so I asked for a stable board - the 9ft beast that I got given was both impossible to carry and control in the water - hence alot of swimming and splashing around on my part!). Matt however was in his element - bring on the Gold Coast!
Following the surfing we drove back up to Auckland to spend our last night in the van......we were quite sad as have loved it. Spend last night in a hotel that looked surprisingly like a very posh hotel in New York but only cost 21 GBP (bargin!)
Bye Bye New Zealand and Thanks for a fantastic trip.........Sweet!
Love to you all,
Joey xxx
02 December 2006
Kiwiland - heading North again...
21st november
Drove from timaru to christchurch. Now, considering Timaru was a bit odd/dull, we had high expectations for Christchurch. Named after the college in Cambridge and one of the older towns in NZ. When we arrived at the campsite it was actually sunny, so we did what any good traveller does - make hay when the sun shines. Van doors open, books out, read in the sun. The culture can wait. It's not often the sun shines in the south island. I also went for a haircut... No, not like last time. This girl was an ex brummy who'd been in NZ for 30 odd years.
22nd November
After lounging around on the prior day, it was time to explore Christchurch. Now, we've been to some great cities in the world: London, Paris, Munich, NY, Chicago, LA, Portslade... New Zealand just doesn't do cities well, and whilst Christchurch is probably the nicest this country has to offer, it didn't amuse us for long. The highlight of the day came at dinner time. We'd not eaten out for a while, so decided to treat ourselves and respond to some cravings. We went to Pizza Hut and bought 2 large slab pizzas, garlic bread, wings and diet coke. $22. £7.50. £3.75 each for a stupid amount of food. Each pizza was almost 2 sq ft. I almost nailed mine and jo cleared three quarters of hers. I think it may have tasted better because it was so obscenely cheap...
23rd November
We spent a lot of time on the west coast of the south island which means we haven't had too much time on the east coast. But that's okay. There's bugger all there. As such, another day on the road driving to Kaikoura.
The only notable stop on the drive up was Gore bay. An absoloutely stunning bay with excellent surf and beautiful rocky cliffs...
Kaikoura is one of the world's marine life hotspots. One km out from the coast is a one km drop in the ocean floor which effectively means that you have all manner of whales, sharks and dolphins very near the coast. We walked down the beach and actually watched a couple of sperm whales arsing around from the beach. Pretty cool i'm sure you'll agree. We could have sat there longer and waited for more, but as it was day 1 of test 1 at the Gabba, we spent the afternoon watching the aussies knock seven shades out of our bowlers in a pub...
The whale watching trips are heavily weather dependent and so we had to decide whether to book one for the next day (with supposedly deteriorating weather) or make alternate plans. We made alternate plans and...
24th November
...got up very early to catch the morning surf. Drove in to town to collect a couple of boards and wetsuits and headed 20km up the coast to an excellent surf beach. Where it wasn't at all excellent. The swell was very very poor. A strong off shore was keeping the waves down. Absoloutely gutted, but we didn't give up. We continued up the coast looking for another beach, but it was no better. We returned to the shop with our heads hung low and somewhat dejected. Our plan of surfing in every country is looking at risk. Fortunately, we still have Raglan to visit. Considered one of the best spots in the world... For the rest of the day, we just drove up to Picton where we would get the ferry on the following day. Got there at a reasonable time, so watched the last session of day 2. Poxy aussies...
25th November
Earlyish start for the three and a half hour boat to wellington. Fairly uneventful. Waves up to 5 metres, but the big boat handled them well... The campsite is in Lower Hutt. Home of star wars' "jabba" perhaps? Appropriate as Jo thinks she's a bit of a princess Leah character and i've always fancied myself as a bit of a Han Solo hero type. It has since been suggested that I could play Jabba myself. Not funny. After dinner we went to the cinema and watched "Borat". Amusing enough...
26th November
Knocked about wellington for the day. Wello' is the capital of NZ (or Un Zud as it's pronounced here). As it's capital it contains the national museum Te papa. And it's free. Sweet. We spent about 4 hours in that bad boy learning about the history of it's geography and it's habitants. All very interesting. Joey excelled with bacon and pasta and a couple of beers for dinner.
27th November
Got up early to leave Wellington and crack on back up north. Oh, jo's lost her sunglasses and it's sunny so we divert to a shopping centre. Jo buys new sunglasses. Jo finds old sunglasses. My fault apparently. From here we drive to palmerston north - Student City! Maybe seven or eight students. It held our attention just long enough to nail lunch. One panini and one burger (no prizes for guessing who had which). From there, back on up the highway on the look out for the town of wanganui and the chance of some sort of water based activity on the wanganui river. NZ's longest navigable river. In the town of wanganui we managed to book a little excursion for the following day from pipiriki - 79km up the road. This would mean getting up at 7am to meet at ten. Too early for the slumbersome Hills. So, despite it being late, we got the miles under our belt early doors and spent the night in Ohakune only 25km from pipriki. A special mention to the random couple who knocked up a full roast in the campsite kitchen and managed to put a couple of roasties my way. Top drawer.
28th November
Out the door at nine to get to pipiriki by 10 for some Wanganui river excitement. Basically you jetboat 32km up the river through the wanganui national park to the bridge to nowhere. The river is flanked by the steep walls of gorges up to 80m high. These are draped in rain forest. Amazing waterfalls and rock formations everywhere. The bridge to nowhere is a roadbridge over the river but the connecting roads have long since erroded. After lunch we jetboated 19km back. I know what you're thinking, what about the other 13km? How did you get back? We paddled a canadian canoe through 13km and three sets of rapids. Joey upfront navigating and directing. Me in the engine room at the back. It was supposed to take three hours, but we shocked ourselves by doing it in 2hrs 10min. A combination of hard work and surprisingly good teamwork. Navigating the rapids was awesome fun as we both got soaked and even ran aground at one point. With all the excitement beforehand, the directors of "Hill & Hill Day Trippers Ltd" forgot to charge the battery on the camera and so only managed a few photos on a fantastic day out. In a press release later that day the directors blamed one another. An internal enquiry follows... Anyway, we rewarded ourselves with a delightful dinner of beef stir-fry. Veery-Niice as Borat would say.
29th November
The plan was to drive up leisurely to Waitomo for an adventure thing the following day. However on the previous night we'd been informed by another couple in the campsite kitchen (the ultimate meeting place) of another activity which occurred in Waitomo every day at 12:45. So with a 2 1/2 hour drive ahead of us, we left at 10:45 looking to beat the clock. I've never seen joey so excited. We got there at 1. Boo. However, the owner of the establishment saw the dissapointment in joey's eyes and put on a special demonstration of... Rabbit Shearing!!! It is perhaps the funniest thing ever. They are angora rabbits and their fur is extremely valuable. If they're not sheared every two months they die of heat exhaustion. I've never seen joey so happy as when she was stroking the little pup! I won't go into detail about the shearing as it looked a little unpleasant. They call it the bunny barbeque. Not nice. After relaxing at the campsite we took a quick trip out to Mangapohue Natural Bridge and Marokopa Falls. The former is all that remains of a collapsed cave. A huge limestone arch. The latter was one of the north islands largest waterfalls. With the limestone rocks, the falls had huge variety and character. It's funny, we've seen more falls in the last month than at any time of my life but I still don't tire of them.
30th November
The real reason that people visit Waitomo is caving. In particular glowworm caves. Us? We came here for black water rafting in glowworm caves. We are the gnarliest of dudes. Abseil. Walk. Swim. Climb. Waterfall jump. Waterfall climb. Tube. Climb. All in rivers through the gloworm caves. Awesome. Except due to 18 hours solid rain the caves flooded. We were tooled up. Wet suits. Harnesses. Helmet. Boots. Absailing training done. Half the group already absailed down in to the cave, when it was called off because the water levels were rising too fast. We were absoloutely gutted. We were looking forward to it since joey booked it a few days ago. We went to the cave museum and the "dry" caves for a half hour walk and then booked a slightly milder adventure for the following morning in caves that don't flood. It'll be at the expense of the surfing, but it'll be worth it as you can't do it anywhere else in the world. Whilst there has been a lot of rain in general, we've been really lucky that whenever we've done activities things have worked out. We were one of the few helicopter loads that made it up the glacier in that week, so we can't moan too much. Early night, ready for caving at 9!
Joey's musings:- well....in precisely 3 days time our work here will be done! As i'm sure Matt will agree we have had an amazing time here. We have braved the roaring 40s (latitude as opposed to age!) and subsequent weather to wholeheartedly embrace the outdoor lifestyle.....Hang on I hear you all say "Jo doesn't like fun!", "what did she do without Topshop", "where is the nearest Mac?", well if you'd have seen me trekking on the glacier, canoeing up rivers and riding the Shotover jet you would think I'd had a personality change (or too much valium!). I am sad to leave NZ and would love to come back - it's paradise....and a rainy, windy one at that!
Matt and I have had a great time together, despite being in a small van with no "cudboard under the wheels" to escape to. The campervan has been a good experience after all, communal camp facilities have enabled us to meet so many nice people from all over the world - and yielded a spot of food envy on my part too! Until now I have never slept outside or in a van so am pleased to tick that off before i'm 30!
Hope all is well with everyone....
lots of love, Joey xxx
P.S. My phone appears to be somewhat unreliable at times but Matt's is still fully functioning.....
Drove from timaru to christchurch. Now, considering Timaru was a bit odd/dull, we had high expectations for Christchurch. Named after the college in Cambridge and one of the older towns in NZ. When we arrived at the campsite it was actually sunny, so we did what any good traveller does - make hay when the sun shines. Van doors open, books out, read in the sun. The culture can wait. It's not often the sun shines in the south island. I also went for a haircut... No, not like last time. This girl was an ex brummy who'd been in NZ for 30 odd years.
22nd November
After lounging around on the prior day, it was time to explore Christchurch. Now, we've been to some great cities in the world: London, Paris, Munich, NY, Chicago, LA, Portslade... New Zealand just doesn't do cities well, and whilst Christchurch is probably the nicest this country has to offer, it didn't amuse us for long. The highlight of the day came at dinner time. We'd not eaten out for a while, so decided to treat ourselves and respond to some cravings. We went to Pizza Hut and bought 2 large slab pizzas, garlic bread, wings and diet coke. $22. £7.50. £3.75 each for a stupid amount of food. Each pizza was almost 2 sq ft. I almost nailed mine and jo cleared three quarters of hers. I think it may have tasted better because it was so obscenely cheap...
23rd November
We spent a lot of time on the west coast of the south island which means we haven't had too much time on the east coast. But that's okay. There's bugger all there. As such, another day on the road driving to Kaikoura.
The only notable stop on the drive up was Gore bay. An absoloutely stunning bay with excellent surf and beautiful rocky cliffs...
Kaikoura is one of the world's marine life hotspots. One km out from the coast is a one km drop in the ocean floor which effectively means that you have all manner of whales, sharks and dolphins very near the coast. We walked down the beach and actually watched a couple of sperm whales arsing around from the beach. Pretty cool i'm sure you'll agree. We could have sat there longer and waited for more, but as it was day 1 of test 1 at the Gabba, we spent the afternoon watching the aussies knock seven shades out of our bowlers in a pub...
The whale watching trips are heavily weather dependent and so we had to decide whether to book one for the next day (with supposedly deteriorating weather) or make alternate plans. We made alternate plans and...
24th November
...got up very early to catch the morning surf. Drove in to town to collect a couple of boards and wetsuits and headed 20km up the coast to an excellent surf beach. Where it wasn't at all excellent. The swell was very very poor. A strong off shore was keeping the waves down. Absoloutely gutted, but we didn't give up. We continued up the coast looking for another beach, but it was no better. We returned to the shop with our heads hung low and somewhat dejected. Our plan of surfing in every country is looking at risk. Fortunately, we still have Raglan to visit. Considered one of the best spots in the world... For the rest of the day, we just drove up to Picton where we would get the ferry on the following day. Got there at a reasonable time, so watched the last session of day 2. Poxy aussies...
25th November
Earlyish start for the three and a half hour boat to wellington. Fairly uneventful. Waves up to 5 metres, but the big boat handled them well... The campsite is in Lower Hutt. Home of star wars' "jabba" perhaps? Appropriate as Jo thinks she's a bit of a princess Leah character and i've always fancied myself as a bit of a Han Solo hero type. It has since been suggested that I could play Jabba myself. Not funny. After dinner we went to the cinema and watched "Borat". Amusing enough...
26th November
Knocked about wellington for the day. Wello' is the capital of NZ (or Un Zud as it's pronounced here). As it's capital it contains the national museum Te papa. And it's free. Sweet. We spent about 4 hours in that bad boy learning about the history of it's geography and it's habitants. All very interesting. Joey excelled with bacon and pasta and a couple of beers for dinner.
27th November
Got up early to leave Wellington and crack on back up north. Oh, jo's lost her sunglasses and it's sunny so we divert to a shopping centre. Jo buys new sunglasses. Jo finds old sunglasses. My fault apparently. From here we drive to palmerston north - Student City! Maybe seven or eight students. It held our attention just long enough to nail lunch. One panini and one burger (no prizes for guessing who had which). From there, back on up the highway on the look out for the town of wanganui and the chance of some sort of water based activity on the wanganui river. NZ's longest navigable river. In the town of wanganui we managed to book a little excursion for the following day from pipiriki - 79km up the road. This would mean getting up at 7am to meet at ten. Too early for the slumbersome Hills. So, despite it being late, we got the miles under our belt early doors and spent the night in Ohakune only 25km from pipriki. A special mention to the random couple who knocked up a full roast in the campsite kitchen and managed to put a couple of roasties my way. Top drawer.
28th November
Out the door at nine to get to pipiriki by 10 for some Wanganui river excitement. Basically you jetboat 32km up the river through the wanganui national park to the bridge to nowhere. The river is flanked by the steep walls of gorges up to 80m high. These are draped in rain forest. Amazing waterfalls and rock formations everywhere. The bridge to nowhere is a roadbridge over the river but the connecting roads have long since erroded. After lunch we jetboated 19km back. I know what you're thinking, what about the other 13km? How did you get back? We paddled a canadian canoe through 13km and three sets of rapids. Joey upfront navigating and directing. Me in the engine room at the back. It was supposed to take three hours, but we shocked ourselves by doing it in 2hrs 10min. A combination of hard work and surprisingly good teamwork. Navigating the rapids was awesome fun as we both got soaked and even ran aground at one point. With all the excitement beforehand, the directors of "Hill & Hill Day Trippers Ltd" forgot to charge the battery on the camera and so only managed a few photos on a fantastic day out. In a press release later that day the directors blamed one another. An internal enquiry follows... Anyway, we rewarded ourselves with a delightful dinner of beef stir-fry. Veery-Niice as Borat would say.
29th November
The plan was to drive up leisurely to Waitomo for an adventure thing the following day. However on the previous night we'd been informed by another couple in the campsite kitchen (the ultimate meeting place) of another activity which occurred in Waitomo every day at 12:45. So with a 2 1/2 hour drive ahead of us, we left at 10:45 looking to beat the clock. I've never seen joey so excited. We got there at 1. Boo. However, the owner of the establishment saw the dissapointment in joey's eyes and put on a special demonstration of... Rabbit Shearing!!! It is perhaps the funniest thing ever. They are angora rabbits and their fur is extremely valuable. If they're not sheared every two months they die of heat exhaustion. I've never seen joey so happy as when she was stroking the little pup! I won't go into detail about the shearing as it looked a little unpleasant. They call it the bunny barbeque. Not nice. After relaxing at the campsite we took a quick trip out to Mangapohue Natural Bridge and Marokopa Falls. The former is all that remains of a collapsed cave. A huge limestone arch. The latter was one of the north islands largest waterfalls. With the limestone rocks, the falls had huge variety and character. It's funny, we've seen more falls in the last month than at any time of my life but I still don't tire of them.
30th November
The real reason that people visit Waitomo is caving. In particular glowworm caves. Us? We came here for black water rafting in glowworm caves. We are the gnarliest of dudes. Abseil. Walk. Swim. Climb. Waterfall jump. Waterfall climb. Tube. Climb. All in rivers through the gloworm caves. Awesome. Except due to 18 hours solid rain the caves flooded. We were tooled up. Wet suits. Harnesses. Helmet. Boots. Absailing training done. Half the group already absailed down in to the cave, when it was called off because the water levels were rising too fast. We were absoloutely gutted. We were looking forward to it since joey booked it a few days ago. We went to the cave museum and the "dry" caves for a half hour walk and then booked a slightly milder adventure for the following morning in caves that don't flood. It'll be at the expense of the surfing, but it'll be worth it as you can't do it anywhere else in the world. Whilst there has been a lot of rain in general, we've been really lucky that whenever we've done activities things have worked out. We were one of the few helicopter loads that made it up the glacier in that week, so we can't moan too much. Early night, ready for caving at 9!
Joey's musings:- well....in precisely 3 days time our work here will be done! As i'm sure Matt will agree we have had an amazing time here. We have braved the roaring 40s (latitude as opposed to age!) and subsequent weather to wholeheartedly embrace the outdoor lifestyle.....Hang on I hear you all say "Jo doesn't like fun!", "what did she do without Topshop", "where is the nearest Mac?", well if you'd have seen me trekking on the glacier, canoeing up rivers and riding the Shotover jet you would think I'd had a personality change (or too much valium!). I am sad to leave NZ and would love to come back - it's paradise....and a rainy, windy one at that!
Matt and I have had a great time together, despite being in a small van with no "cudboard under the wheels" to escape to. The campervan has been a good experience after all, communal camp facilities have enabled us to meet so many nice people from all over the world - and yielded a spot of food envy on my part too! Until now I have never slept outside or in a van so am pleased to tick that off before i'm 30!
Hope all is well with everyone....
lots of love, Joey xxx
P.S. My phone appears to be somewhat unreliable at times but Matt's is still fully functioning.....
22 November 2006
Fantastic Photos - yay!
Franz Josef Glacier - South Island
Franz Josef Glacier - South Island
Jetboating on the Shotover River - Queenstown
Moeraki Boulders - South Island
Cruising in Milford Sound
Pancake Rocks - Punakaiki - South Island
Franz Josef Glacier - South Island
Jetboating on the Shotover River - Queenstown
Moeraki Boulders - South Island
Cruising in Milford Sound
Pancake Rocks - Punakaiki - South Island
21 November 2006
Southerners go South (then East a bit, then West a bit, then South then more West)
10th November
Cruised from Motueka to Greymouth. Was supposed to be a scenic 350km drive around the coast stopping off at a couple of parks and sights. However, and there's always a however, we took a wrong turn. How? Well, most of the time we've been here joey's driven and i've navigated. Why? The roads here are poorly marked and small. They're also windy and bendy. If I drive then joey has to navigate (which sadly she's unable to do) - therefore differences occur. So, since we've been here joey drives and I navigate. Except today I drove... Consequently we took a turn too early. We still got to greymouth ok, but we missed the paparoa national park, punakaiki and the pancake rocks and blow-holes... So we checked in at the park and then made a 100km round trip back up the coast. Painful, but worth it. The beach on the west coast is big pounding surf and crumbling rock formations. The pancake rocks are strange layers of rock in weird shapes. The blow-holes occur when waves crash into caves and then burst out of holes in the top of the cave. After that we did a spot of caving! Only 100 yards or so but quite creepy and smelly in places. It's not often you see joey on her hands and knees in mud. It rained and rained and rained in the evening, so we shut ourselves in the van with chilli and tacos... Sweet.
11th November
From greymouth to franz josef glacier. Don't worry, joey drove and so we made good time. Guess what? It rained. And I mean severely rained. This part of the world can receive in a day what london receives in a year. Thankfully our current van doesn't leak. Basically (or so i'm told) hot winds from oz pass over the tasman sea and pick up a lot of water. They then reach the south island's east coast where they get very cold and then dump all the rain on the southern alps. In the evening, a couple, who we met a few days back in Nelson, very kindly offered to cook us dinner. Fajitas and beer. They cooked us fajitas and I drunk beer, as opposed to putting beer in the fajitas. Awesome. In the afternoon we also booked a trip for the following day...
12th November
...Heli-Hiking! Does exactly what it says on the tin. Helicopter trip up to the glacier, and then hike on it. My adjectives are currently restricted to awesome and sweet, so I looked up a few more that should help describe it: amazing, picturesque, stunning, awe-inspiring, incomprehensible, awesomely sweet! What happened was that we got picked up by helicopter (joey and I in the front and phil & fiona - chefs from prior night - were in the back) and flown up for a tour and then dropped off with a guide half way up. The pilot was a bit of a comedian, and so did a couple of ridge drops. A gust of wind lifts you over a ridge or peak then drops you over the other side. First you think you're going to die, then you see the pilot grinning. Cue two men laughing and two girls screaming... After a quick change of undergarments, we were met by our guides who gave us crampons and ice-picks. Not to be confused with croutons and ice-pops. They wouldn't be much use. Anyway all tooled up, they led us on a 2hr hike over the ice. Due to the huge amounts of ice involved and the incredible pressures, the ice is mangled into all kinds of shapes with rivers carving through it and all manner of caves and crevasses. My descriptions won't do justice, and I don't think the photos will come close. It was silent up there except for the occasional thunderous noise of rockfalls and ice blocks collapsing. The hike was a fair pace, but we both kept up well and were pretty pleased with ourselves at the end! After being helicoptered back down (just as the weather turned foul) we stocked up on provisions and celebrated with curry and of course beer... Perhaps the best day of the trip (neck and neck with off-roading in utah).
13th November
Cruised to wanaka. A long long arduous drive down the west coast past some pretty beaches. Originally we were going to head straight down to Queenstown, but an inside tip pointed us to Wanaka. Our campsite was on a hill above the town. We had an excellent pitch overlooking the town on the lake with the southern alps in the background. You Beauty! The rough guide book listed a number of walks in the area which we decided to leave til the morning as we had campervan-admin to take care of: emptying the pot, emptying sinkwater (stinkwater), cleaning and washing. It's a glamorous life on the road.
14th November
Option 1 - a quick breakfast followed by a three hour walk round the beautiful sights and sounds of lake wanaka. Admiring the flora and fauna. Looking at the mountains. Fresh air... Sounds delightful. Option 2 - late brunch in a nice café and a massage for jo. A trip to puzzleworld for matt. Put it this way, three hours later we were ambling around a three dimensional maze trying to find the green tower! After that we hit the road to queenstown. Spent the next couple of hours planning the following days activities, followed by another splendid team dinner. Ripper!
15th November - Queenstown AKA Adrenalin City!
Woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed for a fun packed day of fun:-
1:30pm The world famous-ish Shotover jet. Okay, not that famous, but larry delaglio, alanis morisette, carl fogerty, and most world cricket and rugby teams have been on it. Add two more names to that illustrious list - mr & mrs hillsy. It's basically a bloody fast boat with two sodding great engines underneath that sucks water through (as opposed to outboard motors) and only needs six inches of water depth to operate. Science lesson over with, in short it means it can steam up and down rivers and rapids and turn on a six-pence whilst scaring the crap out of you. Half an hour later, each of us wearing large quantities of the shotover river we were done. Our driver/captain/guide/pilot enjoyed putting the boat through 360° turns and saturating the dozen or so of us. After we'd dried off we popped to arrowtown for lunch. It's an old goldrush town which still looks like one. Think wild west. Pretty cool. Anyway, one chicken satay pie later...
4:00pm - kawarau bridge. Me, a 150ft ravine, a bridge and a length of elastic. Plus several spare pairs of smalls. Was the satay pie such a good idea? With my legs bound together by a large rubber band (not nearly enough of it in my opinion), I waddled to the edge of the bridge. On the count of 5! 5 - 4 -... And I went. I think at this point my brain switched off until half way down when the bungy cord started to do it's thing. After a good head dunking in the river, I bounced around and swung for what seemed an eternity until the raft collected me. It wasn't frightening standing at the top (as i'm not scared of heights) but there is something un-natural about throwing yourself headfirst off a bridge. Photos and dvd purchased so I can watch later...
6pm - back in town. Now that i'd bungyed (bungied?) the bug swept fast. Phil (fellow glacier hiker) decided he wanted to do something similar so the four of us got a gondola up the side of bobs peak 1200ft over queenstown. Here they have a bungyesque thrill thing called the swing. No, not swinging, silly! Basically you do a 75 odd foot drop attached to a harness, but instead of attached to bungy cord you're attached to rope from another point creating a swing arc of some 200ft but 1200ft over queenstown. This bad boy didn't have the psychological monster of diving headfirst off a bridge and you're therefore much more aware of the fall. I screamed like a girl. A lot. I may have even used profanities that would offend a sailor. Phil was a tad more manly about it.
8pm - my fourth and final adrenaline rush of the day came in the form of a dozen red hot chicken wings. Oh my god. I nailed my six but had to down a pint just to stop the burning. I actually thought my jaw might fall off. These bad boys were hotter than anything we experienced in the US. Anyway, a few more beers and some pizza later, my day was done. Thought i'd never recover. My body was wrecked, though that was just those damn wings. Reminds me of a johnny cash song: burns, burns, burns...
16th November
Got up and spent until lunch time in the pouring rain looking round queenstown. Glad we did. We found fergburger. Me and ferg got on famously. I had a mountainous double with cheese and bacon. It gets my heart racing just thinking about it. Or is that the high blood pressure? Jo had some vegetarian crap. No comment. In the afternoon we drove to te anau. Of course it rained and rained. And rained. Why te anau? It's the main access point to the mighty milford sound in the world heritage fjordland (fiordland in kiwi). Despite the constant torrential rain we bbq'd bravely and had a nice evening.
17th November
(Joey) Drove from Te Anau along the Milford Road to the Sound. A beautiful journey through the mountains down to the water which is actually a huge Fjord. Saw wild Kea -the worlds only mountain parrots on the way. Took a 2 hour cruise on the water, through the Fjord to the mouth of the Tasman Sea, saw leopord seals and yellow eyed penguin. Waterfalls tumbling down into the water and mist revealing the steep mountains eitherside.....nothing can prepare you for the sense of place that the Sound offers......beautiful.
Did a few short walks on the way back - The Chasm = churning mini Canyon/ rapid/ swirling Chasm!, Lake Marion and the Mirror Lakes (self explanitory really!).
All in all an excellent day in natures best offerings....
18th November
(Matt again after a rude yet brief interruption). Left te anau at a reasonable hour and pottered to dunedin. Dunedin is a scottish settlement. All the streets have the same names as edinburgh. Joey is a quarter scottish. Perhaps it was so overwhelming for her being in touch with her scottish roots that caused her to lock us out of the van? Oh. Even with our heap of crap van we couldn't break into it. The keys were visible but I just couldn't will them out. The manager of the campsite turned up looking like he might be able to pick the lock with a coat hanger, but he just prodded the windows a bit and then called a locksmith. When the locksmith arrived, joey hid in phil & fiona's van. She said that she didn't want him thinking she was an imbecile. Apparently it's okay for him to think that of me. How did he open it? A pressure 'cushion' opened the top of the door enough for him to open the lock from the inside using a giant coathanger. $60 well spent. I said that whilst I didn't want to see him again, I probably would. Consequently Joey isn't allowed the keys any more.
19th November
Went in to dunedin for a good sniff round. Dunedin is the home of Speights brewery. They sell the numer one selling beer in NZ. Not sure why. It tastes of crap. So to research a little further we went to the brewery and ale house. First stop lunch. Pie, chips and salad for $9. That's like £3.20. So cheap. Fortunately they do a reasonable porters and a good pale ale. Second stop was the brewery tour. Our group was 4 english, 8 americans and 4 kiwis. The guide was scottish and hilarious. He wanted to know why the americans hadn't tried the kiwi national dish of marmite when he had tried their national dish - mcdonalds. This was followed by a number of anti-australian and other very funny jokes. It finished with free beer tasting where the americans proclaimed their intention to get 'wasted' shortly before buying all the tat from the gift shop. After the beer tour we strolled round town. Didn't take too long as most shops close early and nothing is open after midday.
Next stop seal and penguin beaches. About 35km around the peninsula on the pacific coast. We got there at sixish not knowing what time to expect the penguins. We should have returned to the van for dinner and then gone back to the beach, but we spent three hours waiting for the little buggers in the freezing cold. Sure enough at 9:30pm they turned up. They were quite small, and about twenty of them ambled up the beach off to their homes for the night. Pretty cool.
20th November
From Dunedin to Timaru - a short overnight stop to break up the journey to Christchurch. First stop Moeraki and it's boulders. These puppys are huge round rock boulders 3-4ft across lying on the beach. I read some jibber jabber about them being formed by some honey comb type process under heat many moons ago. As the sea erodes the soft cliff face the rocks fall out onto the sandy beach.
Next on the way up we stopped at Oamaru for lunch. A really nice victorian town on the coast with beautiful architecture. Everything's made from a local white stone and most of the buildings remain intact. This place is also home to penguins. Instead of the romantic ideal of the penguins strolling up the beach like the night before, here they walk down the road at night and live in people's basements! From here we went on timaru. A pleasant enough town but very eerie. After 5pm it was an actual ghost town. Everything closed and everyone gone into hiding. The campsite was a bit quiet too.
Joey: I whipped Matt at Whist too - result!
Matt: She cheated, using her feminine charms against me.
Joey: Loser.
Joey's musings:- well as I sit here musing, I come to realise that we only have 4 nights left in The South Island. This part of NZ is commonly thought of as "better than the North" - in my humble opinion they both have equal merits and it would be unfair to make a choice, The south is more dramatically beautiful i.e. Fjords, mountains, glaciers etc., however, the North offers unique geothermal sites and an insight into the Richness of Maori culture (not to mention the existance of human beings, technology and the delight that is Foodtown)....all in all, a stunning country.
We have enjoyed hanging out with Phil and Fiona (nice couple from Luton) over the last couple of weeks - it has been fun to do stuff together....they make a mean fajita too! (hello if you are reading!)
Hope you are all keeping well and enjoying the cold winter! (it has reached 19°C today).
Lots of love from me!
Cruised from Motueka to Greymouth. Was supposed to be a scenic 350km drive around the coast stopping off at a couple of parks and sights. However, and there's always a however, we took a wrong turn. How? Well, most of the time we've been here joey's driven and i've navigated. Why? The roads here are poorly marked and small. They're also windy and bendy. If I drive then joey has to navigate (which sadly she's unable to do) - therefore differences occur. So, since we've been here joey drives and I navigate. Except today I drove... Consequently we took a turn too early. We still got to greymouth ok, but we missed the paparoa national park, punakaiki and the pancake rocks and blow-holes... So we checked in at the park and then made a 100km round trip back up the coast. Painful, but worth it. The beach on the west coast is big pounding surf and crumbling rock formations. The pancake rocks are strange layers of rock in weird shapes. The blow-holes occur when waves crash into caves and then burst out of holes in the top of the cave. After that we did a spot of caving! Only 100 yards or so but quite creepy and smelly in places. It's not often you see joey on her hands and knees in mud. It rained and rained and rained in the evening, so we shut ourselves in the van with chilli and tacos... Sweet.
11th November
From greymouth to franz josef glacier. Don't worry, joey drove and so we made good time. Guess what? It rained. And I mean severely rained. This part of the world can receive in a day what london receives in a year. Thankfully our current van doesn't leak. Basically (or so i'm told) hot winds from oz pass over the tasman sea and pick up a lot of water. They then reach the south island's east coast where they get very cold and then dump all the rain on the southern alps. In the evening, a couple, who we met a few days back in Nelson, very kindly offered to cook us dinner. Fajitas and beer. They cooked us fajitas and I drunk beer, as opposed to putting beer in the fajitas. Awesome. In the afternoon we also booked a trip for the following day...
12th November
...Heli-Hiking! Does exactly what it says on the tin. Helicopter trip up to the glacier, and then hike on it. My adjectives are currently restricted to awesome and sweet, so I looked up a few more that should help describe it: amazing, picturesque, stunning, awe-inspiring, incomprehensible, awesomely sweet! What happened was that we got picked up by helicopter (joey and I in the front and phil & fiona - chefs from prior night - were in the back) and flown up for a tour and then dropped off with a guide half way up. The pilot was a bit of a comedian, and so did a couple of ridge drops. A gust of wind lifts you over a ridge or peak then drops you over the other side. First you think you're going to die, then you see the pilot grinning. Cue two men laughing and two girls screaming... After a quick change of undergarments, we were met by our guides who gave us crampons and ice-picks. Not to be confused with croutons and ice-pops. They wouldn't be much use. Anyway all tooled up, they led us on a 2hr hike over the ice. Due to the huge amounts of ice involved and the incredible pressures, the ice is mangled into all kinds of shapes with rivers carving through it and all manner of caves and crevasses. My descriptions won't do justice, and I don't think the photos will come close. It was silent up there except for the occasional thunderous noise of rockfalls and ice blocks collapsing. The hike was a fair pace, but we both kept up well and were pretty pleased with ourselves at the end! After being helicoptered back down (just as the weather turned foul) we stocked up on provisions and celebrated with curry and of course beer... Perhaps the best day of the trip (neck and neck with off-roading in utah).
13th November
Cruised to wanaka. A long long arduous drive down the west coast past some pretty beaches. Originally we were going to head straight down to Queenstown, but an inside tip pointed us to Wanaka. Our campsite was on a hill above the town. We had an excellent pitch overlooking the town on the lake with the southern alps in the background. You Beauty! The rough guide book listed a number of walks in the area which we decided to leave til the morning as we had campervan-admin to take care of: emptying the pot, emptying sinkwater (stinkwater), cleaning and washing. It's a glamorous life on the road.
14th November
Option 1 - a quick breakfast followed by a three hour walk round the beautiful sights and sounds of lake wanaka. Admiring the flora and fauna. Looking at the mountains. Fresh air... Sounds delightful. Option 2 - late brunch in a nice café and a massage for jo. A trip to puzzleworld for matt. Put it this way, three hours later we were ambling around a three dimensional maze trying to find the green tower! After that we hit the road to queenstown. Spent the next couple of hours planning the following days activities, followed by another splendid team dinner. Ripper!
15th November - Queenstown AKA Adrenalin City!
Woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed for a fun packed day of fun:-
1:30pm The world famous-ish Shotover jet. Okay, not that famous, but larry delaglio, alanis morisette, carl fogerty, and most world cricket and rugby teams have been on it. Add two more names to that illustrious list - mr & mrs hillsy. It's basically a bloody fast boat with two sodding great engines underneath that sucks water through (as opposed to outboard motors) and only needs six inches of water depth to operate. Science lesson over with, in short it means it can steam up and down rivers and rapids and turn on a six-pence whilst scaring the crap out of you. Half an hour later, each of us wearing large quantities of the shotover river we were done. Our driver/captain/guide/pilot enjoyed putting the boat through 360° turns and saturating the dozen or so of us. After we'd dried off we popped to arrowtown for lunch. It's an old goldrush town which still looks like one. Think wild west. Pretty cool. Anyway, one chicken satay pie later...
4:00pm - kawarau bridge. Me, a 150ft ravine, a bridge and a length of elastic. Plus several spare pairs of smalls. Was the satay pie such a good idea? With my legs bound together by a large rubber band (not nearly enough of it in my opinion), I waddled to the edge of the bridge. On the count of 5! 5 - 4 -... And I went. I think at this point my brain switched off until half way down when the bungy cord started to do it's thing. After a good head dunking in the river, I bounced around and swung for what seemed an eternity until the raft collected me. It wasn't frightening standing at the top (as i'm not scared of heights) but there is something un-natural about throwing yourself headfirst off a bridge. Photos and dvd purchased so I can watch later...
6pm - back in town. Now that i'd bungyed (bungied?) the bug swept fast. Phil (fellow glacier hiker) decided he wanted to do something similar so the four of us got a gondola up the side of bobs peak 1200ft over queenstown. Here they have a bungyesque thrill thing called the swing. No, not swinging, silly! Basically you do a 75 odd foot drop attached to a harness, but instead of attached to bungy cord you're attached to rope from another point creating a swing arc of some 200ft but 1200ft over queenstown. This bad boy didn't have the psychological monster of diving headfirst off a bridge and you're therefore much more aware of the fall. I screamed like a girl. A lot. I may have even used profanities that would offend a sailor. Phil was a tad more manly about it.
8pm - my fourth and final adrenaline rush of the day came in the form of a dozen red hot chicken wings. Oh my god. I nailed my six but had to down a pint just to stop the burning. I actually thought my jaw might fall off. These bad boys were hotter than anything we experienced in the US. Anyway, a few more beers and some pizza later, my day was done. Thought i'd never recover. My body was wrecked, though that was just those damn wings. Reminds me of a johnny cash song: burns, burns, burns...
16th November
Got up and spent until lunch time in the pouring rain looking round queenstown. Glad we did. We found fergburger. Me and ferg got on famously. I had a mountainous double with cheese and bacon. It gets my heart racing just thinking about it. Or is that the high blood pressure? Jo had some vegetarian crap. No comment. In the afternoon we drove to te anau. Of course it rained and rained. And rained. Why te anau? It's the main access point to the mighty milford sound in the world heritage fjordland (fiordland in kiwi). Despite the constant torrential rain we bbq'd bravely and had a nice evening.
17th November
(Joey) Drove from Te Anau along the Milford Road to the Sound. A beautiful journey through the mountains down to the water which is actually a huge Fjord. Saw wild Kea -the worlds only mountain parrots on the way. Took a 2 hour cruise on the water, through the Fjord to the mouth of the Tasman Sea, saw leopord seals and yellow eyed penguin. Waterfalls tumbling down into the water and mist revealing the steep mountains eitherside.....nothing can prepare you for the sense of place that the Sound offers......beautiful.
Did a few short walks on the way back - The Chasm = churning mini Canyon/ rapid/ swirling Chasm!, Lake Marion and the Mirror Lakes (self explanitory really!).
All in all an excellent day in natures best offerings....
18th November
(Matt again after a rude yet brief interruption). Left te anau at a reasonable hour and pottered to dunedin. Dunedin is a scottish settlement. All the streets have the same names as edinburgh. Joey is a quarter scottish. Perhaps it was so overwhelming for her being in touch with her scottish roots that caused her to lock us out of the van? Oh. Even with our heap of crap van we couldn't break into it. The keys were visible but I just couldn't will them out. The manager of the campsite turned up looking like he might be able to pick the lock with a coat hanger, but he just prodded the windows a bit and then called a locksmith. When the locksmith arrived, joey hid in phil & fiona's van. She said that she didn't want him thinking she was an imbecile. Apparently it's okay for him to think that of me. How did he open it? A pressure 'cushion' opened the top of the door enough for him to open the lock from the inside using a giant coathanger. $60 well spent. I said that whilst I didn't want to see him again, I probably would. Consequently Joey isn't allowed the keys any more.
19th November
Went in to dunedin for a good sniff round. Dunedin is the home of Speights brewery. They sell the numer one selling beer in NZ. Not sure why. It tastes of crap. So to research a little further we went to the brewery and ale house. First stop lunch. Pie, chips and salad for $9. That's like £3.20. So cheap. Fortunately they do a reasonable porters and a good pale ale. Second stop was the brewery tour. Our group was 4 english, 8 americans and 4 kiwis. The guide was scottish and hilarious. He wanted to know why the americans hadn't tried the kiwi national dish of marmite when he had tried their national dish - mcdonalds. This was followed by a number of anti-australian and other very funny jokes. It finished with free beer tasting where the americans proclaimed their intention to get 'wasted' shortly before buying all the tat from the gift shop. After the beer tour we strolled round town. Didn't take too long as most shops close early and nothing is open after midday.
Next stop seal and penguin beaches. About 35km around the peninsula on the pacific coast. We got there at sixish not knowing what time to expect the penguins. We should have returned to the van for dinner and then gone back to the beach, but we spent three hours waiting for the little buggers in the freezing cold. Sure enough at 9:30pm they turned up. They were quite small, and about twenty of them ambled up the beach off to their homes for the night. Pretty cool.
20th November
From Dunedin to Timaru - a short overnight stop to break up the journey to Christchurch. First stop Moeraki and it's boulders. These puppys are huge round rock boulders 3-4ft across lying on the beach. I read some jibber jabber about them being formed by some honey comb type process under heat many moons ago. As the sea erodes the soft cliff face the rocks fall out onto the sandy beach.
Next on the way up we stopped at Oamaru for lunch. A really nice victorian town on the coast with beautiful architecture. Everything's made from a local white stone and most of the buildings remain intact. This place is also home to penguins. Instead of the romantic ideal of the penguins strolling up the beach like the night before, here they walk down the road at night and live in people's basements! From here we went on timaru. A pleasant enough town but very eerie. After 5pm it was an actual ghost town. Everything closed and everyone gone into hiding. The campsite was a bit quiet too.
Joey: I whipped Matt at Whist too - result!
Matt: She cheated, using her feminine charms against me.
Joey: Loser.
Joey's musings:- well as I sit here musing, I come to realise that we only have 4 nights left in The South Island. This part of NZ is commonly thought of as "better than the North" - in my humble opinion they both have equal merits and it would be unfair to make a choice, The south is more dramatically beautiful i.e. Fjords, mountains, glaciers etc., however, the North offers unique geothermal sites and an insight into the Richness of Maori culture (not to mention the existance of human beings, technology and the delight that is Foodtown)....all in all, a stunning country.
We have enjoyed hanging out with Phil and Fiona (nice couple from Luton) over the last couple of weeks - it has been fun to do stuff together....they make a mean fajita too! (hello if you are reading!)
Hope you are all keeping well and enjoying the cold winter! (it has reached 19°C today).
Lots of love from me!
14 November 2006
Phrollicking Photos of Phun Part 2
Rickety Rope Bridge - Abel Tasman National Park, NZ
Camper Van Life - On The Road, NZ
Kiwi Rush Hour - West Coast South Island, NZ
2nd Wedding Anniversary (Slightly Inibriated) Wine Tasting - Hawke's Bay, NZ
Kayaking at Abel Tasman NP - South Island, NZ
Camper Van Life - On The Road, NZ
Kiwi Rush Hour - West Coast South Island, NZ
2nd Wedding Anniversary (Slightly Inibriated) Wine Tasting - Hawke's Bay, NZ
Kayaking at Abel Tasman NP - South Island, NZ
Phrollicking Photos of Phun Part 1
Rotorua Geothermal 
action... Hot Stuff! - Rotorua, NZ
Craters Of The Moon... - Taupo, NZ
Bloody Great Tree - Devonport, Auckland, NZ
Imbicle and Maori sculpture - Rotorua, NZ
Waterfalls - Tongariro National Park, NZ
action... Hot Stuff! - Rotorua, NZCraters Of The Moon... - Taupo, NZ
Bloody Great Tree - Devonport, Auckland, NZ
Imbicle and Maori sculpture - Rotorua, NZ
Waterfalls - Tongariro National Park, NZ
09 November 2006
9th november 2006
9th November 11pm... We are tucked up in bed. Sleeping bags, duvets, bed socks, wooly hats and hoodies. Woah! We're in the southern hemisphere. This can't be right. It should be cold in england and hot down here. Yeah right. Last night it must have touched zero. Not a problem if you're in an insulated house or vehicle, but for some reason this thing's achilles heal appears to be insulation. Maybe it was a refrigerated van in a former life and they left the refrigerating units in it, and every time my eyes start to close or a limb is exposed, the evil refrigeration units kick in and I wake up numb. I swear my toes froze to the door last night. Like the tounge scene from dumb and dumber. At least the beer's cold.
This is the first update in a while, so we'll keep it brief. I must first mention the van though. After it took us three and a half hours to get the van, the next seven days uncovered a few problems. Gas leakage. Blocked sink. Fresh water leakage. Rain water roof leakage. Grey water (not poop) backed up in the drains on to my bag and clothes. Two drips to the garage and one to the laundrette. A replacement van. The drivers seatbelt in the new van is faulty. The most frustrating thing is that all the staff are friendly and helpful, but they've not maintained their vans well. I think a large refund plus compensation is due...
30th - Hahei Beach - Corromandel Peninsula. Rainforest and amazing beaches. An impressive introduction to kiwiland. Do you kno why the NZers are called kiwis? Because, the troops used to have kiwi brand boot polish and the aussie army noticed it and started calling them kiwis. Interesting huh!
31st - Hotwater Beach - the beach has thermal springs. You dig a hole at low tide and hot water bubbles up making you a personal spa. As the tide comes in the waves keep the water cool enough for you to sit in - neat-o! Drove down to Rotarua, and had our first BBQ. All worked a treat.
1st - Went to Ta Puia thermal park and maori settlement. They have boiling mud pools, geysers, and the country's official carving school. There was also a performance of the haka with 'volunteers' from the crowd of manly men joining in. Of course, they were short of manly men so I was called up. What an ass. In the evening we went to the Polynesian Spa and sat in a natural hot pool whilst watching the sun set over lake rotarua.
2nd - the first was an expensive day, so today would be cheap. Cruised down to Taupo (via the "Thermal Explorer Highway"). First stop was a huge boiling mud pool. Joey said I should test my swimming strength there, but I refrained. Next, the Craters of the Moon park. A 20 or so acre area of steam escaping from various craters and cracks and crevises due to the geothermal activities underground. Surreal. Thundering Huka falls - very nice. Aratiatia rapids and dam - a creek with a small stream which becomes a thundering rapids when they open the dam three times a day - cool. Finally Taupo Spa Thermal Park. A town park with a river at the end and waterfalls that create natural spa pools. Pretty amazing. Total spent today - $9. Just over three pounds. Good huh? Woke up in the night with the van shaking. Thought it was the wind. Turned out to be an earthquake. Cool.
3rd - Tongariro National Park - the tongariro crossing is one of the most famous walks in NZ. It takes 6-8 hours and is 26km long. You get picked up at about 8 and get home at six. Incredible views and many varieties of flora, fauna, geology and wildlife. Joey and I overslept by four hours so missed out. We did however do a shortened (2.5hr) version where we saw mountains and forests and got to walk behind a waterfall! Muy bien.
4th - cruised to Napier in hawke's bay wine country. This area was levelled by an earthquake in 1931 and rebuilt in the style of the day - art deco, my favourite. Did a self guided walking tour. Some amazing buildinga, but unfortunately a lot of them have all been ruined at ground level when converted to shops. You have to look up to the first floor or above to see the designs.
5th - Anniversary number two! Scrambled egg and beans on toast for breakfast. A gloriously sunny day. A five hour wine tour with many many tastings. A beautiful dinner at the oldest winery in the country, Mission Vineyard, with lovely food and great company (joey) and a mild hangover. A really memorable day.
6th - Drove to wet Wellington. Went to the garage re van fixing. Not the best day.
7th - got the boat to the south island. Pretty uneventful other than nearly missing it! After discovering that rain was leaking in we managed to get someone to drive six hours with a replacement. Stayed in Nelson. More rain.
8th - Drove to motueka near the Abel Tasman national park. In the afternoon we kayaked! The weather was hit and miss, so we weren't allowed too far from Kaiteriteri. It was a tandem kayak and, amazingly we got on alright. Explored some bays and coves and splashed around like children. Have met loads of people in tne camping holiday parks. There are probably more germans and dutch than english and very few other countries represented...
9th - got up earlyish. Back to the abel tasman park. This time a water taxi to bark bay (via split apple rock and a seal colony) and a three hour hike/walk to torrent bay (via a rope bridge!) and then a water taxi back home.
There you have it. Painless eh? Tomorrow we're heading down to greymouth on the way to the glaciers...
Joey's asleep, so no musings from her tonight. So goodnight for now. Sleep well...
This is the first update in a while, so we'll keep it brief. I must first mention the van though. After it took us three and a half hours to get the van, the next seven days uncovered a few problems. Gas leakage. Blocked sink. Fresh water leakage. Rain water roof leakage. Grey water (not poop) backed up in the drains on to my bag and clothes. Two drips to the garage and one to the laundrette. A replacement van. The drivers seatbelt in the new van is faulty. The most frustrating thing is that all the staff are friendly and helpful, but they've not maintained their vans well. I think a large refund plus compensation is due...
30th - Hahei Beach - Corromandel Peninsula. Rainforest and amazing beaches. An impressive introduction to kiwiland. Do you kno why the NZers are called kiwis? Because, the troops used to have kiwi brand boot polish and the aussie army noticed it and started calling them kiwis. Interesting huh!
31st - Hotwater Beach - the beach has thermal springs. You dig a hole at low tide and hot water bubbles up making you a personal spa. As the tide comes in the waves keep the water cool enough for you to sit in - neat-o! Drove down to Rotarua, and had our first BBQ. All worked a treat.
1st - Went to Ta Puia thermal park and maori settlement. They have boiling mud pools, geysers, and the country's official carving school. There was also a performance of the haka with 'volunteers' from the crowd of manly men joining in. Of course, they were short of manly men so I was called up. What an ass. In the evening we went to the Polynesian Spa and sat in a natural hot pool whilst watching the sun set over lake rotarua.
2nd - the first was an expensive day, so today would be cheap. Cruised down to Taupo (via the "Thermal Explorer Highway"). First stop was a huge boiling mud pool. Joey said I should test my swimming strength there, but I refrained. Next, the Craters of the Moon park. A 20 or so acre area of steam escaping from various craters and cracks and crevises due to the geothermal activities underground. Surreal. Thundering Huka falls - very nice. Aratiatia rapids and dam - a creek with a small stream which becomes a thundering rapids when they open the dam three times a day - cool. Finally Taupo Spa Thermal Park. A town park with a river at the end and waterfalls that create natural spa pools. Pretty amazing. Total spent today - $9. Just over three pounds. Good huh? Woke up in the night with the van shaking. Thought it was the wind. Turned out to be an earthquake. Cool.
3rd - Tongariro National Park - the tongariro crossing is one of the most famous walks in NZ. It takes 6-8 hours and is 26km long. You get picked up at about 8 and get home at six. Incredible views and many varieties of flora, fauna, geology and wildlife. Joey and I overslept by four hours so missed out. We did however do a shortened (2.5hr) version where we saw mountains and forests and got to walk behind a waterfall! Muy bien.
4th - cruised to Napier in hawke's bay wine country. This area was levelled by an earthquake in 1931 and rebuilt in the style of the day - art deco, my favourite. Did a self guided walking tour. Some amazing buildinga, but unfortunately a lot of them have all been ruined at ground level when converted to shops. You have to look up to the first floor or above to see the designs.
5th - Anniversary number two! Scrambled egg and beans on toast for breakfast. A gloriously sunny day. A five hour wine tour with many many tastings. A beautiful dinner at the oldest winery in the country, Mission Vineyard, with lovely food and great company (joey) and a mild hangover. A really memorable day.
6th - Drove to wet Wellington. Went to the garage re van fixing. Not the best day.
7th - got the boat to the south island. Pretty uneventful other than nearly missing it! After discovering that rain was leaking in we managed to get someone to drive six hours with a replacement. Stayed in Nelson. More rain.
8th - Drove to motueka near the Abel Tasman national park. In the afternoon we kayaked! The weather was hit and miss, so we weren't allowed too far from Kaiteriteri. It was a tandem kayak and, amazingly we got on alright. Explored some bays and coves and splashed around like children. Have met loads of people in tne camping holiday parks. There are probably more germans and dutch than english and very few other countries represented...
9th - got up earlyish. Back to the abel tasman park. This time a water taxi to bark bay (via split apple rock and a seal colony) and a three hour hike/walk to torrent bay (via a rope bridge!) and then a water taxi back home.
There you have it. Painless eh? Tomorrow we're heading down to greymouth on the way to the glaciers...
Joey's asleep, so no musings from her tonight. So goodnight for now. Sleep well...
03 November 2006
30th October - NZ Wilderness
And so, as one chapter ends (america), another begins (new zealand). We join our two intrepid explorers in the romantic setting of hahei beach in the rainforests of the coromandel peninsula. They sip wine and eat luxurious delicacies as they pontificate over all things bright and beautiful. All creatures great and small. All things wise and wonderful...
Yeah, right. Okay, the scenery is amazing, and jo has cracked open a bottle whilst i'm laying into NZ's finest Steinlager. We have just finished our first campervan dinner of lightly sauteed beans and toasted sliced baguette with fromage cheddar and sauce de tomato. Beans on toast. The conversation is restricted to campsite toilet etiquette. Okay, just toilets in general.
The van is 'cosy'. I can't stand up straight in it so already have a stiff neck. We don't have an obscene amount of stuff, but already it's pretty cluttered. I can't imagine what it'll be like after a week, let alone five of them... My brand new bbq (the first i've ever owned) is all boxed up waiting for tomorrow night to arrive. I just hope I don't need too many tools to get it cranked up... I'm not sure my fisher price 'my first toolset' is going to be enough.
And the van? Like a bloody great transit van with a mfi kitchen unit and some ikea-esq shower-cum-toilet unit. And it's a mercedes as opposed to a ford. Some would say it's the mercedes-benz of it's class.
Today has been an arse. We left the hostel early doors (about ten thirty after brekkie) and got a cab to the airport. Of course, we had the kiwi equivalent of a london cabbie. He had an opinion on everything and was very amusing. However, he spent more time chatting and less time avoiding traffic jams, and so it took an hour to get to the airport to pick up the van. The tools at the van company very kindly took three hours before our van was ready (most unhappy) and by the time the food shopping was done it was gone four and we got here by seven.
It is however stunning here. Incredible white beaches with rocky outcrops and rain forest behind. Gnarly.
So that's where we are. Where were we between the 25th and today? Auckland:
25th - arrived in nz. Had a shower and nap. Uneventful. Explored town and had a stir-fry. Job done.
26th - Explored the suburbs. We walked all day (maybe 10 miles) in aucklands hilly central suburbs. Parnell, ponsonby and newmarket. All very nice. More to the point, we discovered the delight of the pie. Of course, we have pies at home, but they're obsessed with them here. All shapes and sizes and all manner of fillings and toppings. I feel a piewatch starting...
27th - Mount rangitoto dominates the auckland skyline sitting in the hauraki gulf. It's only 600 years old, 250m high and uninhabited. The mission, if we chose to accept it, which we did, was to walk/hike to the top. So we did. The ferry from auckland lands at the pier on rangitoto where your given a warning - the ferry leaves at 3:30 prompt. Miss it, and you'll be sleeping rough! Got to the top in about 50 minutes. Quite hard work and bloody hot. The island is essentially black lava (mostly forested) and gets really hot. Consequently by the time we got to the top we were a little sweaty - oh sorry, I was a lot sweaty and princess joey was full of freshness and smelt of the prettiest flowers. The views from here were pretty spectacular. I got to look into my first ever volcano crater too. Here we met florian (if spelt correctly). A french guy who was in NZ for a year. He was a nice chatty chap who then accompanied us back down. On the way back we diverted to the lava caves which were pretty cool though a little dark. Considering how popular they are, they should install some strip lighting, give them a little clean and flatten out the potholes. Don't worry, we made the ferry back.
28th - Devonport - in Aucklands North shore. A ferry ride to this delightful suberb and a lovely sunny day spent watching the world go by. White sandy beaches over looking Rangitoto Island - sweet!
29th - mission bay:- I (Joey) will write this bit! Met up with my friend Lititia (who is a New Zealander), she took us to Mission Bay, which is a lovely suberb of Auckland. Despite the rain we had a nice lunch together after which we drove further round the bay and saw the boats out on the water and caught up on all our news...
30th - pick up "The Beast" (mark 2!)
Joey's musings:-Am loving the Kiwi land....Good food (fresh and organic as they can afford not to participate in intensive farming in light of their small population), nice people..(am looking forward to learning more about the Maori people - Rotarua where we are now staying is the Maori heartland) and beautiful scenery. I enjoyed meeting up with my friend Lititia who I used to work with in the wheelies, there's something so nice about hearing about NZ from the locals. I can certainly see why the brits love it here, it's clean, underpopulated and beautiful....(don't worry we will come back to Blighty though!). The Camper van is fun, if a little "cabin fever" inducing! Matt is a little tall to appreciate it but hopefully he may either shrink or aclimatise! I write this message on a full tummy as Matt has just completed his first BBQ of the trip, he is feeling very masculine after such a stirling effort and his chest is puffed out almost as far out as his tummy (on account of the 2 months spent lording it round the USA!)....seriously though, he has done very well, a success all round.
Camper van etiquette is as follows:- book a van with a toilet and shower (so you can be self sufficient in either the hood or the back country) and then refuse to use it as the thought of emptying 5 wk old poop is not pleasant! The W.C makes a useful storage cudboard instead and campsite toilets here are both flushsble and clean! The Kiwi's take their camping very seriously and so far all facilities have been delightful!
That's all from me for now, off to cosy up in my sleeping bag with the van doors open looking out to the stars in the dark night Kiwi sky - beautiful........
P.S forgot to tell you about "Shorty and his wife".....Shorty is an American we met at the hostel in Auckland - the funniest man ever! He has never left West Virginia and has decided to randomly fly to NZ to live in a van for a year. Unfortunately I think he was expecting a U.S style R.V. (and has shipped his own 10ft raft, diving gear and house contents accordingly) unfortunately his face was priceless when the van turned up at the hostel looking more like a Ford Cortina Estate with a bolt on roof extention! - he was dressed like the next Crocodile hunter - with an emergency whistle and everything! As Matt would say......What a tool!
PPS, Unable to update this or read emails very often at the moment due to lack of internet infrastructure here (in the middle of nowhere)... Very poor! Thankyou and good night.
Yeah, right. Okay, the scenery is amazing, and jo has cracked open a bottle whilst i'm laying into NZ's finest Steinlager. We have just finished our first campervan dinner of lightly sauteed beans and toasted sliced baguette with fromage cheddar and sauce de tomato. Beans on toast. The conversation is restricted to campsite toilet etiquette. Okay, just toilets in general.
The van is 'cosy'. I can't stand up straight in it so already have a stiff neck. We don't have an obscene amount of stuff, but already it's pretty cluttered. I can't imagine what it'll be like after a week, let alone five of them... My brand new bbq (the first i've ever owned) is all boxed up waiting for tomorrow night to arrive. I just hope I don't need too many tools to get it cranked up... I'm not sure my fisher price 'my first toolset' is going to be enough.
And the van? Like a bloody great transit van with a mfi kitchen unit and some ikea-esq shower-cum-toilet unit. And it's a mercedes as opposed to a ford. Some would say it's the mercedes-benz of it's class.
Today has been an arse. We left the hostel early doors (about ten thirty after brekkie) and got a cab to the airport. Of course, we had the kiwi equivalent of a london cabbie. He had an opinion on everything and was very amusing. However, he spent more time chatting and less time avoiding traffic jams, and so it took an hour to get to the airport to pick up the van. The tools at the van company very kindly took three hours before our van was ready (most unhappy) and by the time the food shopping was done it was gone four and we got here by seven.
It is however stunning here. Incredible white beaches with rocky outcrops and rain forest behind. Gnarly.
So that's where we are. Where were we between the 25th and today? Auckland:
25th - arrived in nz. Had a shower and nap. Uneventful. Explored town and had a stir-fry. Job done.
26th - Explored the suburbs. We walked all day (maybe 10 miles) in aucklands hilly central suburbs. Parnell, ponsonby and newmarket. All very nice. More to the point, we discovered the delight of the pie. Of course, we have pies at home, but they're obsessed with them here. All shapes and sizes and all manner of fillings and toppings. I feel a piewatch starting...
27th - Mount rangitoto dominates the auckland skyline sitting in the hauraki gulf. It's only 600 years old, 250m high and uninhabited. The mission, if we chose to accept it, which we did, was to walk/hike to the top. So we did. The ferry from auckland lands at the pier on rangitoto where your given a warning - the ferry leaves at 3:30 prompt. Miss it, and you'll be sleeping rough! Got to the top in about 50 minutes. Quite hard work and bloody hot. The island is essentially black lava (mostly forested) and gets really hot. Consequently by the time we got to the top we were a little sweaty - oh sorry, I was a lot sweaty and princess joey was full of freshness and smelt of the prettiest flowers. The views from here were pretty spectacular. I got to look into my first ever volcano crater too. Here we met florian (if spelt correctly). A french guy who was in NZ for a year. He was a nice chatty chap who then accompanied us back down. On the way back we diverted to the lava caves which were pretty cool though a little dark. Considering how popular they are, they should install some strip lighting, give them a little clean and flatten out the potholes. Don't worry, we made the ferry back.
28th - Devonport - in Aucklands North shore. A ferry ride to this delightful suberb and a lovely sunny day spent watching the world go by. White sandy beaches over looking Rangitoto Island - sweet!
29th - mission bay:- I (Joey) will write this bit! Met up with my friend Lititia (who is a New Zealander), she took us to Mission Bay, which is a lovely suberb of Auckland. Despite the rain we had a nice lunch together after which we drove further round the bay and saw the boats out on the water and caught up on all our news...
30th - pick up "The Beast" (mark 2!)
Joey's musings:-Am loving the Kiwi land....Good food (fresh and organic as they can afford not to participate in intensive farming in light of their small population), nice people..(am looking forward to learning more about the Maori people - Rotarua where we are now staying is the Maori heartland) and beautiful scenery. I enjoyed meeting up with my friend Lititia who I used to work with in the wheelies, there's something so nice about hearing about NZ from the locals. I can certainly see why the brits love it here, it's clean, underpopulated and beautiful....(don't worry we will come back to Blighty though!). The Camper van is fun, if a little "cabin fever" inducing! Matt is a little tall to appreciate it but hopefully he may either shrink or aclimatise! I write this message on a full tummy as Matt has just completed his first BBQ of the trip, he is feeling very masculine after such a stirling effort and his chest is puffed out almost as far out as his tummy (on account of the 2 months spent lording it round the USA!)....seriously though, he has done very well, a success all round.
Camper van etiquette is as follows:- book a van with a toilet and shower (so you can be self sufficient in either the hood or the back country) and then refuse to use it as the thought of emptying 5 wk old poop is not pleasant! The W.C makes a useful storage cudboard instead and campsite toilets here are both flushsble and clean! The Kiwi's take their camping very seriously and so far all facilities have been delightful!
That's all from me for now, off to cosy up in my sleeping bag with the van doors open looking out to the stars in the dark night Kiwi sky - beautiful........
P.S forgot to tell you about "Shorty and his wife".....Shorty is an American we met at the hostel in Auckland - the funniest man ever! He has never left West Virginia and has decided to randomly fly to NZ to live in a van for a year. Unfortunately I think he was expecting a U.S style R.V. (and has shipped his own 10ft raft, diving gear and house contents accordingly) unfortunately his face was priceless when the van turned up at the hostel looking more like a Ford Cortina Estate with a bolt on roof extention! - he was dressed like the next Crocodile hunter - with an emergency whistle and everything! As Matt would say......What a tool!
PPS, Unable to update this or read emails very often at the moment due to lack of internet infrastructure here (in the middle of nowhere)... Very poor! Thankyou and good night.
28 October 2006
Photos of Phun!
Rangitoto Island from Devonport Beach - Auckland, NZ
Cabrillo National Monument - San Diego
Surf Dudes (Matt on Right) - Ocean Beach, San Diego
Rangitoto Volcano Caves - Auckland, NZ
Hollywood Boulevard - L.A.
Cabrillo National Monument - San Diego
Surf Dudes (Matt on Right) - Ocean Beach, San Diego
Rangitoto Volcano Caves - Auckland, NZ
Hollywood Boulevard - L.A.
26 October 2006
joke de la jour
Why does a lump of moon rock taste better than a lump of earth rock?
Because it's a little meteor.
Because it's a little meteor.
18th-23rd october
We are currently cruising at an altitude of 39,000 feet. If you look out of the window to your left you can see nothing, and if you look out the window to your right I am assured that you can see new zealand. We have been flying for almost 12 hours now, and still have another hour or so to go. It is still pitch black outside as we chase the moon, though i'm sure the sun will catch up with us soon. Bizarrely we've lost a day. We took off on the 23rd, but it's now the 25th. Surreal. The flight's not been too bad, I have watched several films. X-men 3 was okay. Nacho libre (jack black, spandex, wrestling) was abysmal. I may even have got an hour or two of sleep but that would be debatable. We're in auckland for five days until we pick up the van staying in the surf and snow hostel. Odd considering auckland doesn't have facilities for either surfing or skiing... Looks nice enough though. Hmm, air new zealand need more toilets on the plane. I only want to clean my teefs...
Anyway, a brief sequence of events of what kasey and codey (our california names) have been up to in our last few days in LA.
18th - left san diego. Cruised up to the southern reaches of the LA sprawl. It is incomprehensible in its size. If you took the ten biggest uk cities and put them together they probably would be swallowed up by LA with room to spare. It's about 70-80 miles across and maybe 40-50 in length. Anyway, we started at the bottom of orange county - home of The OC's newport beach, and, laguna beach. Laguna beach is clearly home to some money. Look at me, i'm rich! Nice beaches too. Newport beach was not the same as on tv. Whilst the houses on the hills were nice, the beach itself was your average california ramshackle beach community. Sorry OC fans. All the beach communities up the coast are nice. Only long beach was a bit tatty and industrial. It's on the southern end of the "south central" LA area, famous for its gangs. Windows up kasey (or joey)! From there it was more nice beaches to venice beach - our LA home...
The captain has just announced that there will be a delay to the landing due to a technical fault. Crap.
19th - we explored venice beach and santa monica. There are surfers around the pier, but the water is pretty grim. There is an awful lot of rubbish, yet the rest of the california coast is very clean. It's cool to see all these places that you've heard of in songs and tv - santa monica blvd, sunset strip etc. Cool...
20th - today was joey's day. We went to beverly hills. Rodeo drive and the lifestyles of the rich and famous. First stop hollywood though... A completely underwhelming area just west of downtown. Mann's chinese theatre, the walk of the stars, and, erm, er... Nothing. Nothing but tat merchants. Really really strange. Needless to say we didn't stay long.
Rodeo drive (why do they pronounce it row-day-o?). Now this looked exactly like it does on tv... Pretty woman... We window-shopped and generally brought down the tone. No celebs though. Kasey/joey was muy disappointed... She had secret hopes of meeting paris and nicole, and being invited to a hollywood party where she would steal the show... It wasn't to be.
On the way back to venice beach we stopped at santa monica state beach to play a spot of beach footie, or soccer as I now insist on calling it... Anyway, turns out the wife is pretty good for a girl. A wasted career perhaps? I've called the big clubs out to send a scout: Real, Barca, Brighton, Athletico Deckchair, Sweet FA etc.
In the evening we went for a few shandies in santa monica at the library alehouse where we got talking to the couple sitting next to us. They were from boston and had sold their business to move to LA so that she could be an actor (apparently actresses are so last year). It is true what they say - almost everyone in LA wants to be in front of the camera. As our new friend frank described it, all the good looking people across america move to LA to make it. All the waiters and waitresses are just on the verge of their big break. Even the barmaid (who to be fair new how to pour guinness) kept ranting on about her theatrical training. That's great love, but get me another pint and make it snappy.
21st - Why oh why oh why. I'm a relatively smart man. I have a-levels. GCSEs. I'm even a chartered certified accountant. Common sense and fair judgement. Not known for risk-taking or poor decisions. So why oh why oh why did I let joey talk me into rollerblading? Honestly. Hire a bike? Yep. A skateboard? Defo. A tandem even? Why not. But, why did I agree to roller blades (with a slight hangover)? Objection 1. I've ice-skated twice before in my life. In two one-hour sessions I probably spent a combined time of 3-4 minutes not on my arse or my knees. Why would roller blading be any different? Objection 2. It just doesn't look that macho and I, after all, am a macho-man. Firstly rollerblading in itself is a bit girly. Secondly, a man with no balance in normal shoes is guaranteed to look a tool trying to stay upright in those blade things. But, when in rome (or this case venice)... And so $5 an hour each was laid down and off we went. Anyway, it turned out that i'm a natural at accelerating. I was not, however, so naturally gifted at decelerating. There are two recognised methods of braking. Firstly, with the stopper conveniently attached to the heel of the right boot. Secondly, by pointing your toes inward - like skiing. Well, I have created a third method. You point your skates at the nearest fixed dustbin and close your eyes. It's not glamorous, and it does hurt, but it prevents further injury. It also encourages you to learn method one a bit quicker. We managed to get from venice pier to santa monica pier in one piece when we foolishly took the boots off to rest our feet. Foolishly? Yes. Once off, joey's boots wouldn't go back on. A one hour walk back carrying the buggers. And it had got hot.
In the evening we went to watch basketball - the LA Clippers vs the Seattle SuperSonics. Clippers won by 4 points. Good fun alround, and joey bought a souvenir t-shirt. Afterwards we checked out downtown santa monica's late night scene. Even at 11pm there were loads of street dancers, singers and musicians all trying to loosen the money out of our pockets and in to theirs... The most interesting guy was a religious man who was presenting a powerpoint slideshow and taking Q&A from the crowd. The mic was only available to non-christians, and the point was to ask him questions for him to convince you that his religion was right and everyone else was wrong. Unfortunately he was a bit too much of a fanatic and was not good at criticism. If he got a question he didn't like he would mute the microphone or shout over them. It was interesting, but the guy was too ignorant/closed to discuss anyone elses opinion. Even joey had a crack at him, but he denied that subjectivity could possibly exist (when translating the bible over thousands of years). If he was any good as a debater (regardless of the topic), then he should have accepted things like this as a risk to his belief.
22nd - the Lyn dynasty! Today we met the LA branch of the Lyn/Lim clan. Joey's great uncle patrick and his family (4 daughters) and her great aunt betty. For lunch we went to one of the four daughters in malibu (also called betty). Not only was betty's house in malibu, but it was two doors from anthony hopkins and opposite martin sheen's! Joey's eyes lit up! After a very pleasant lunch with both betties and Steve, we went for a stroll on malibu beach. Nice. Betty's son jonathan and his wife (also joey) led us to thousand oaks, where great uncle patrick and his family live, for dinner. Dinner was basically a great big chinese buffet cooked up by the lady of the house (great auntie shaoman) for about 15 lyns and 2 hills! All in all, very nice food and nice to meet some more of joey's family, who were all nice and made me feel very welcome indeed.
23rd - packed our bags and took off for the southern hemisphere... Went for one last stroll on a LA beach and realised that despite it being a grubby old town with a severe homeless problem, we quite like it...
That's all for now. I think I owe you a couple of wingwatches, both in san diego, so I'll rack my brains...
Joey's musings:- Well here we are in the city of sails AKA Auckland.....not at all like the city of sin AKA Las Vegas! We are feeling a little jaded after the rather lengthy flight from L.A but hopefully another good nights sleep will do the trick. On first impressions Auckland appears to be a lovely city with water all around it, nice fresh food, temperate climate......great if you like being fit and outdoorsey! Unlike us whose 2 months of glutony are catching up! Where's the Cold Stone Cremery, that's what I say! Lots of love, jo xxxx
Anyway, a brief sequence of events of what kasey and codey (our california names) have been up to in our last few days in LA.
18th - left san diego. Cruised up to the southern reaches of the LA sprawl. It is incomprehensible in its size. If you took the ten biggest uk cities and put them together they probably would be swallowed up by LA with room to spare. It's about 70-80 miles across and maybe 40-50 in length. Anyway, we started at the bottom of orange county - home of The OC's newport beach, and, laguna beach. Laguna beach is clearly home to some money. Look at me, i'm rich! Nice beaches too. Newport beach was not the same as on tv. Whilst the houses on the hills were nice, the beach itself was your average california ramshackle beach community. Sorry OC fans. All the beach communities up the coast are nice. Only long beach was a bit tatty and industrial. It's on the southern end of the "south central" LA area, famous for its gangs. Windows up kasey (or joey)! From there it was more nice beaches to venice beach - our LA home...
The captain has just announced that there will be a delay to the landing due to a technical fault. Crap.
19th - we explored venice beach and santa monica. There are surfers around the pier, but the water is pretty grim. There is an awful lot of rubbish, yet the rest of the california coast is very clean. It's cool to see all these places that you've heard of in songs and tv - santa monica blvd, sunset strip etc. Cool...
20th - today was joey's day. We went to beverly hills. Rodeo drive and the lifestyles of the rich and famous. First stop hollywood though... A completely underwhelming area just west of downtown. Mann's chinese theatre, the walk of the stars, and, erm, er... Nothing. Nothing but tat merchants. Really really strange. Needless to say we didn't stay long.
Rodeo drive (why do they pronounce it row-day-o?). Now this looked exactly like it does on tv... Pretty woman... We window-shopped and generally brought down the tone. No celebs though. Kasey/joey was muy disappointed... She had secret hopes of meeting paris and nicole, and being invited to a hollywood party where she would steal the show... It wasn't to be.
On the way back to venice beach we stopped at santa monica state beach to play a spot of beach footie, or soccer as I now insist on calling it... Anyway, turns out the wife is pretty good for a girl. A wasted career perhaps? I've called the big clubs out to send a scout: Real, Barca, Brighton, Athletico Deckchair, Sweet FA etc.
In the evening we went for a few shandies in santa monica at the library alehouse where we got talking to the couple sitting next to us. They were from boston and had sold their business to move to LA so that she could be an actor (apparently actresses are so last year). It is true what they say - almost everyone in LA wants to be in front of the camera. As our new friend frank described it, all the good looking people across america move to LA to make it. All the waiters and waitresses are just on the verge of their big break. Even the barmaid (who to be fair new how to pour guinness) kept ranting on about her theatrical training. That's great love, but get me another pint and make it snappy.
21st - Why oh why oh why. I'm a relatively smart man. I have a-levels. GCSEs. I'm even a chartered certified accountant. Common sense and fair judgement. Not known for risk-taking or poor decisions. So why oh why oh why did I let joey talk me into rollerblading? Honestly. Hire a bike? Yep. A skateboard? Defo. A tandem even? Why not. But, why did I agree to roller blades (with a slight hangover)? Objection 1. I've ice-skated twice before in my life. In two one-hour sessions I probably spent a combined time of 3-4 minutes not on my arse or my knees. Why would roller blading be any different? Objection 2. It just doesn't look that macho and I, after all, am a macho-man. Firstly rollerblading in itself is a bit girly. Secondly, a man with no balance in normal shoes is guaranteed to look a tool trying to stay upright in those blade things. But, when in rome (or this case venice)... And so $5 an hour each was laid down and off we went. Anyway, it turned out that i'm a natural at accelerating. I was not, however, so naturally gifted at decelerating. There are two recognised methods of braking. Firstly, with the stopper conveniently attached to the heel of the right boot. Secondly, by pointing your toes inward - like skiing. Well, I have created a third method. You point your skates at the nearest fixed dustbin and close your eyes. It's not glamorous, and it does hurt, but it prevents further injury. It also encourages you to learn method one a bit quicker. We managed to get from venice pier to santa monica pier in one piece when we foolishly took the boots off to rest our feet. Foolishly? Yes. Once off, joey's boots wouldn't go back on. A one hour walk back carrying the buggers. And it had got hot.
In the evening we went to watch basketball - the LA Clippers vs the Seattle SuperSonics. Clippers won by 4 points. Good fun alround, and joey bought a souvenir t-shirt. Afterwards we checked out downtown santa monica's late night scene. Even at 11pm there were loads of street dancers, singers and musicians all trying to loosen the money out of our pockets and in to theirs... The most interesting guy was a religious man who was presenting a powerpoint slideshow and taking Q&A from the crowd. The mic was only available to non-christians, and the point was to ask him questions for him to convince you that his religion was right and everyone else was wrong. Unfortunately he was a bit too much of a fanatic and was not good at criticism. If he got a question he didn't like he would mute the microphone or shout over them. It was interesting, but the guy was too ignorant/closed to discuss anyone elses opinion. Even joey had a crack at him, but he denied that subjectivity could possibly exist (when translating the bible over thousands of years). If he was any good as a debater (regardless of the topic), then he should have accepted things like this as a risk to his belief.
22nd - the Lyn dynasty! Today we met the LA branch of the Lyn/Lim clan. Joey's great uncle patrick and his family (4 daughters) and her great aunt betty. For lunch we went to one of the four daughters in malibu (also called betty). Not only was betty's house in malibu, but it was two doors from anthony hopkins and opposite martin sheen's! Joey's eyes lit up! After a very pleasant lunch with both betties and Steve, we went for a stroll on malibu beach. Nice. Betty's son jonathan and his wife (also joey) led us to thousand oaks, where great uncle patrick and his family live, for dinner. Dinner was basically a great big chinese buffet cooked up by the lady of the house (great auntie shaoman) for about 15 lyns and 2 hills! All in all, very nice food and nice to meet some more of joey's family, who were all nice and made me feel very welcome indeed.
23rd - packed our bags and took off for the southern hemisphere... Went for one last stroll on a LA beach and realised that despite it being a grubby old town with a severe homeless problem, we quite like it...
That's all for now. I think I owe you a couple of wingwatches, both in san diego, so I'll rack my brains...
Joey's musings:- Well here we are in the city of sails AKA Auckland.....not at all like the city of sin AKA Las Vegas! We are feeling a little jaded after the rather lengthy flight from L.A but hopefully another good nights sleep will do the trick. On first impressions Auckland appears to be a lovely city with water all around it, nice fresh food, temperate climate......great if you like being fit and outdoorsey! Unlike us whose 2 months of glutony are catching up! Where's the Cold Stone Cremery, that's what I say! Lots of love, jo xxxx
21 October 2006
11th - 18th october 2006
18th october
I guess I should update this. I just need to keep reminding myself that if I don't update this then joey and I will have no diary of our trip to look back on when we're old and wrinkly. That, and of course any poor fool that stumbles on this won't get to keep up with us either... So, San Diego:
11th - was quite sad to leave las vegas. Any longer there and it could have become too intense, but I think we got it about right. We dropped the kids off at the airport (chris and a slightly tearful lu), they were off to san fran for a week. I hope the weather was kinder to them there than it was to us. From there we cruised down to san diego in the hope of finding some more sunshine and maybe even love, fame and fortune. Okay, just sunshine then...
We stopped off at a town called temecula on the way down. It has an old wooden frontier town area which you can't help but think is somewhat contrived... Anyway, after a quick lunch we spotted a hairdressers over the road and decided to take advantage - after all my barnet hadn't been cut since we left blighty. Now being as this was a mainly mexican area of california, and they don't get too many balding blonde englishmen in there, they pulled out all the stops. I assume that was the reason, as I can only describe it as the world's most erotic haircut. The young lady who cut my hair, let's call her madonna, spent rather a long time stroking my head and neck whilst shaving my hair. She also dropped in comments such as "oh, it's so blonde", "such a manly haircut" and "I bet it doesn't take you long in the shower". Fortunately, joey couldn't hear madonna's ramblings and was unaware that her husband was being seduced by a rogue hairdresser. But madge wasn't done there! She lead me out the back to wash my hair. I barely have any hair! I don't think my hair has ever been washed by anyone but me (well, maybe by rosie when I was younger). Anyway, the washing involved ear and forehead stroking, not to mention more lewd comments. And poor wifey was blissfully unaware. It only cost ten bucks, so I gave her a rather generous five dollar tip. In retrospect this was perhaps not the smartest move, I think she took it as a come-on. Oops. We fled (joey and I, rather than madonna and I) and got down to san diego...
The evening involved dinner in the gaslamp district. An area once frequented by wyatt earp and co, and one of the few old areas not torn down to make way for high rises...
12th - san diego zoo is considered one of the finest zoo's in the world. We considered it our responsibility to see if this really is the case:
Reptiles - most unpleasant. Probably not the zoo's fault, more my phobias.
Monkeys and Apes - excellent, could watch them for ages.
Pigs and goats - all amusing, but a bit smelly.
Elephants, rhinos and giraffes - all excellent, soon moving to bigger pens.
Giant Tortoises - mating season. Traumatising.
Overall, a good zoo and a good day out. And at $22 much cheaper than sea world at $55.
On the way back from the zoo, it was joey's turn for a haircut!!! Fortunately we didn't go to the same hairdressers as I did. That would have been wrong. No, joey found some slightly fancy place in a nice area of town (no toni & guy - we are roughing it after all). So she went in and asked for a trim while I went for a stroll. It turns out that it was one of those places that only does one style - not sure that's because they only know how to do one style or they only get asked to do one style. You could go in bald, afro or dreads. You'd still come out with the same cut. I was a little shocked on my return to see that they'd turned jo into the all american housewife. A cross between martha stewart and the mum from the brady bunch. It was very difficult to keep from laughing. So I didn't. They had given her hair a LOT of volume! Photo to follow...
13th - hey amigo! Yes, we went to mexico. Tijuana to be exact. We got the tram from san diego to the border and just walked over. The US side at the border is quite barron, save for a petrol station and a bus stop. The mexican side is quite surreal as it's a huge city squashed right up to the border. Most americans only cross over to buy cheaper drugs (pharmaceutical) have dental work done or drink if you're under 21. The only areas of town reachable by foot are a mixture of chemists, dentists, bars, restaurants and tat merchants. And if you stand out in a crowd as not being mexican (such as my good self) then the merchants try to drag you in every single one. Add to this children selling jewellery and donkeys painted with stripes to look like zebras for photo opportunities and you've got a very unusual and un-mexican way to spend a few hours... It does not give a good impression of mexico which is a shame because it's probably all that most americans will ever see of it.
There is also a well known police scam in tijuana whereby you are accused of trespassing and 'fined' forty or fifty dollars on the spot or threatened with prison. Joey and I haven't had the best of luck in areas like this so it was no surprise when we got stopped by the old bill. First he wanted to see my ID then asked where we had been (i feel trespassing coming on). Then he wanted jo's ID. We spoke to him in Spanish and he realised we were Brits as opposed to Americans. He asked our ages and a few other questions. I'd just noticed that he didn't have a badge and I was almost dipping into my wallet to pay the anticipated 'fine' when he gave us our passports back and sent us on our way. Maybe because we were english or maybe because we tried to speak spanish. Who knows.
The crossing back took two hours or so with the department of homeland security showing their usual levels of efficiency...
Anyway, probably not the most realistic taster of mexico. If you didn't know better, it would put you off...
14th - went to the beaches! Still not a great deal of sunshine, but warm enough to visit pacific beach, ocean beach and mission beach; gnarly little surf obsessed towns where people live to surf. On that day there was a carnival on too which made for a nice day out.
In the evening we found ourselves in another gay bar! Doesn't that make us the brighton equivalent of the british holiday makers who go to marbella and head for the nearest "nags head"? This was in the hillcrest suburb of san diego, a generally gay/studenty area of town which, as usual, had a good mix of shops, restaurants and bars. We did actually stumble into the place erroneously. It was called Mo's. The owners name? No, short for homos! Still, dinner was nice.
15th - sunday was spent cruising the coast. La Jolla (pronounced "hoya") is a very posh suburb. The beaches here were small bays with grassy headlands inbetween. It appeared to be a popular spot for weddings and diving. Above and below the sea level respectively.
Not quite as ostentatious was the northern town of cardiff-by-the-sea! No miners here though. Just big surfers beaches and big big houses on the hills. It was almost as pretty as it's namesake.
We've discovered an ice cream shop here called cold stone creamery where they take basic ice cream flavours and personalise them by adding various biscuits and chocolates and sauces at your request. I am of course addicted. Anyway, we stopped by one near our hotel on the way back when something strange happened. Joey got stuck between the front seats of the car! We'd parked up and she was leaning over to the backseat to get her jumper, when she slipped and fell onto the tat tray that sits between the two front seats (you know, the one where you keep the coins and stuff - in england you'd have a gear stick and handbrake too). Anyway joey fell here and started laughing hysterically. I tried to lift her up, but I accidentally put my finger in her belly button which caused her to wriggle further, and yes, the tat tray collapsed, gravity took over and she slid further. Joey was now well and truly stuck between the seats along with all the crap that was previously on the tray - money, maps, drinks, pens even a guidebook. Of course by this point we were both hysterical. Picture if you will: her legs were bent into the front passenger foot-well, her torso between the front seats, and her head and arms in the rear passenger foot area. At this point (9:15), we realised that the cold stone creamery closed shortly (9:30), and so a struggle ensued. Unfortunately I was pulling joey's legs from the front whilst she was trying to climb into the back. After much seat movement and laurel and hardy type comic movements, the joanne hill 1 was finally freed, whereby we celebrated with ice-cream and fizzy pop. Awesome!
16th - monday was one of my favourite days in the US so far. At 11am I had my first surf lesson in the pacific. Joey chose to sit it out this time (i think that she was protecting her new haircut). The surf at pacific beach is perfect for beginners: clean 3ft swell, mild currents, no rocks or reefs and lots of lifeguards. It all came back pretty quickly and I was falling off the board left, right and centre in no time, just like I was during my lessons last year. This time I learnt to turn which was helpful, though I rarely stayed on a wave long enough to require turning. Every now and then a 6-8ft wave turned up and I got hammered. Most amusing. So after two and a half hours of pacific-swallowing, nose-diving, head-banging, foot-scratching, leash-rubbing, muscle-aching fun, I was done. Next stop, australia!
We spent the afternoon sitting on the beach building sandcastles, watching sufers and watching the sun go down. Followed up by happy hour in a nearby bar and a spot of thai. Sweet.
17th - boring job day. Laundry and accommodation booking/research for L.A. mainly. Only an awesome jerk chicken pizza in the evening managed to save the day from being a write-off...
All in all, san diego was pretty cool. Plenty to see and do, especially if you're a beach bum.
Next instalment: The OC, L.A., and leaving america... Until then...
Ps - lu & chris, hope you enjoyed san fran and had a safe trip home.
No musings from mrs. H today. The sun goddess is preying to her god - working her tan!
I guess I should update this. I just need to keep reminding myself that if I don't update this then joey and I will have no diary of our trip to look back on when we're old and wrinkly. That, and of course any poor fool that stumbles on this won't get to keep up with us either... So, San Diego:
11th - was quite sad to leave las vegas. Any longer there and it could have become too intense, but I think we got it about right. We dropped the kids off at the airport (chris and a slightly tearful lu), they were off to san fran for a week. I hope the weather was kinder to them there than it was to us. From there we cruised down to san diego in the hope of finding some more sunshine and maybe even love, fame and fortune. Okay, just sunshine then...
We stopped off at a town called temecula on the way down. It has an old wooden frontier town area which you can't help but think is somewhat contrived... Anyway, after a quick lunch we spotted a hairdressers over the road and decided to take advantage - after all my barnet hadn't been cut since we left blighty. Now being as this was a mainly mexican area of california, and they don't get too many balding blonde englishmen in there, they pulled out all the stops. I assume that was the reason, as I can only describe it as the world's most erotic haircut. The young lady who cut my hair, let's call her madonna, spent rather a long time stroking my head and neck whilst shaving my hair. She also dropped in comments such as "oh, it's so blonde", "such a manly haircut" and "I bet it doesn't take you long in the shower". Fortunately, joey couldn't hear madonna's ramblings and was unaware that her husband was being seduced by a rogue hairdresser. But madge wasn't done there! She lead me out the back to wash my hair. I barely have any hair! I don't think my hair has ever been washed by anyone but me (well, maybe by rosie when I was younger). Anyway, the washing involved ear and forehead stroking, not to mention more lewd comments. And poor wifey was blissfully unaware. It only cost ten bucks, so I gave her a rather generous five dollar tip. In retrospect this was perhaps not the smartest move, I think she took it as a come-on. Oops. We fled (joey and I, rather than madonna and I) and got down to san diego...
The evening involved dinner in the gaslamp district. An area once frequented by wyatt earp and co, and one of the few old areas not torn down to make way for high rises...
12th - san diego zoo is considered one of the finest zoo's in the world. We considered it our responsibility to see if this really is the case:
Reptiles - most unpleasant. Probably not the zoo's fault, more my phobias.
Monkeys and Apes - excellent, could watch them for ages.
Pigs and goats - all amusing, but a bit smelly.
Elephants, rhinos and giraffes - all excellent, soon moving to bigger pens.
Giant Tortoises - mating season. Traumatising.
Overall, a good zoo and a good day out. And at $22 much cheaper than sea world at $55.
On the way back from the zoo, it was joey's turn for a haircut!!! Fortunately we didn't go to the same hairdressers as I did. That would have been wrong. No, joey found some slightly fancy place in a nice area of town (no toni & guy - we are roughing it after all). So she went in and asked for a trim while I went for a stroll. It turns out that it was one of those places that only does one style - not sure that's because they only know how to do one style or they only get asked to do one style. You could go in bald, afro or dreads. You'd still come out with the same cut. I was a little shocked on my return to see that they'd turned jo into the all american housewife. A cross between martha stewart and the mum from the brady bunch. It was very difficult to keep from laughing. So I didn't. They had given her hair a LOT of volume! Photo to follow...
13th - hey amigo! Yes, we went to mexico. Tijuana to be exact. We got the tram from san diego to the border and just walked over. The US side at the border is quite barron, save for a petrol station and a bus stop. The mexican side is quite surreal as it's a huge city squashed right up to the border. Most americans only cross over to buy cheaper drugs (pharmaceutical) have dental work done or drink if you're under 21. The only areas of town reachable by foot are a mixture of chemists, dentists, bars, restaurants and tat merchants. And if you stand out in a crowd as not being mexican (such as my good self) then the merchants try to drag you in every single one. Add to this children selling jewellery and donkeys painted with stripes to look like zebras for photo opportunities and you've got a very unusual and un-mexican way to spend a few hours... It does not give a good impression of mexico which is a shame because it's probably all that most americans will ever see of it.
There is also a well known police scam in tijuana whereby you are accused of trespassing and 'fined' forty or fifty dollars on the spot or threatened with prison. Joey and I haven't had the best of luck in areas like this so it was no surprise when we got stopped by the old bill. First he wanted to see my ID then asked where we had been (i feel trespassing coming on). Then he wanted jo's ID. We spoke to him in Spanish and he realised we were Brits as opposed to Americans. He asked our ages and a few other questions. I'd just noticed that he didn't have a badge and I was almost dipping into my wallet to pay the anticipated 'fine' when he gave us our passports back and sent us on our way. Maybe because we were english or maybe because we tried to speak spanish. Who knows.
The crossing back took two hours or so with the department of homeland security showing their usual levels of efficiency...
Anyway, probably not the most realistic taster of mexico. If you didn't know better, it would put you off...
14th - went to the beaches! Still not a great deal of sunshine, but warm enough to visit pacific beach, ocean beach and mission beach; gnarly little surf obsessed towns where people live to surf. On that day there was a carnival on too which made for a nice day out.
In the evening we found ourselves in another gay bar! Doesn't that make us the brighton equivalent of the british holiday makers who go to marbella and head for the nearest "nags head"? This was in the hillcrest suburb of san diego, a generally gay/studenty area of town which, as usual, had a good mix of shops, restaurants and bars. We did actually stumble into the place erroneously. It was called Mo's. The owners name? No, short for homos! Still, dinner was nice.
15th - sunday was spent cruising the coast. La Jolla (pronounced "hoya") is a very posh suburb. The beaches here were small bays with grassy headlands inbetween. It appeared to be a popular spot for weddings and diving. Above and below the sea level respectively.
Not quite as ostentatious was the northern town of cardiff-by-the-sea! No miners here though. Just big surfers beaches and big big houses on the hills. It was almost as pretty as it's namesake.
We've discovered an ice cream shop here called cold stone creamery where they take basic ice cream flavours and personalise them by adding various biscuits and chocolates and sauces at your request. I am of course addicted. Anyway, we stopped by one near our hotel on the way back when something strange happened. Joey got stuck between the front seats of the car! We'd parked up and she was leaning over to the backseat to get her jumper, when she slipped and fell onto the tat tray that sits between the two front seats (you know, the one where you keep the coins and stuff - in england you'd have a gear stick and handbrake too). Anyway joey fell here and started laughing hysterically. I tried to lift her up, but I accidentally put my finger in her belly button which caused her to wriggle further, and yes, the tat tray collapsed, gravity took over and she slid further. Joey was now well and truly stuck between the seats along with all the crap that was previously on the tray - money, maps, drinks, pens even a guidebook. Of course by this point we were both hysterical. Picture if you will: her legs were bent into the front passenger foot-well, her torso between the front seats, and her head and arms in the rear passenger foot area. At this point (9:15), we realised that the cold stone creamery closed shortly (9:30), and so a struggle ensued. Unfortunately I was pulling joey's legs from the front whilst she was trying to climb into the back. After much seat movement and laurel and hardy type comic movements, the joanne hill 1 was finally freed, whereby we celebrated with ice-cream and fizzy pop. Awesome!
16th - monday was one of my favourite days in the US so far. At 11am I had my first surf lesson in the pacific. Joey chose to sit it out this time (i think that she was protecting her new haircut). The surf at pacific beach is perfect for beginners: clean 3ft swell, mild currents, no rocks or reefs and lots of lifeguards. It all came back pretty quickly and I was falling off the board left, right and centre in no time, just like I was during my lessons last year. This time I learnt to turn which was helpful, though I rarely stayed on a wave long enough to require turning. Every now and then a 6-8ft wave turned up and I got hammered. Most amusing. So after two and a half hours of pacific-swallowing, nose-diving, head-banging, foot-scratching, leash-rubbing, muscle-aching fun, I was done. Next stop, australia!
We spent the afternoon sitting on the beach building sandcastles, watching sufers and watching the sun go down. Followed up by happy hour in a nearby bar and a spot of thai. Sweet.
17th - boring job day. Laundry and accommodation booking/research for L.A. mainly. Only an awesome jerk chicken pizza in the evening managed to save the day from being a write-off...
All in all, san diego was pretty cool. Plenty to see and do, especially if you're a beach bum.
Next instalment: The OC, L.A., and leaving america... Until then...
Ps - lu & chris, hope you enjoyed san fran and had a safe trip home.
No musings from mrs. H today. The sun goddess is preying to her god - working her tan!
17 October 2006
More Photos..................
San Diego Zoo - Who's neck is the longest?
Tijuana, Mexico - Queue to return to the land of opportunity!
Jo and Lu - Cocktails in Vegas Baby!
Death Valley - California (Lots of valley but little death...)
Sunset in Death Valley
Tijuana, Mexico - Queue to return to the land of opportunity!
Jo and Lu - Cocktails in Vegas Baby!
Death Valley - California (Lots of valley but little death...)
Sunset in Death Valley
14 October 2006
monterey to vegas...
Well, well, well....what a long time it's been! Hope you are all still reading and haven't got...
A. Bored of the content
B. Bored of waiting
C. Just bored!
If anyone's reading perhaps you could just give us a little tickle to let us know you're there! (AKA a comment on the blog!)
The last 2 weeks have been very busy indeed, I think last time we spoke we had just left Monterey, home to Steinbeck and Jack cheese! After leaving said town, we journeyed south (like 2 English pseudo wannabe cowboys!) to the town of Baywood Park. Before I launch into the delights of back bay, I must tell you that the journey down Californian route 1, through Carmel and Big Sur is beautiful....we're talking waterfalls on the white beaches, wild elephant seals and high cliffs that look out to the bluest ocean.
Baywood park is a tiny town about 10 miles west of San Luis Obispo (or SLO as the locals call it). We stayed in a place on an inland bay behind the beach which was very peaceful and a welcome change from the hustle and bustle of San Francisco. We walked right around the bay and through some sand dunes to a deserted beach....it was lovely but too cold to swim. In the evening we went to SLO for a delightful veggie dinner (California provides the U.S. With most of it's fruit and veg so consequentially has loads of fresh veggie options - a far cry from those 14oz steaks back in the Mid West!)
I won't hover for too long as have a lot of ground to make up but the next few days consisted of a day out in Santa Barbara (lovely) and 2 days in Camarillo (north L.A) - no celeb sightings as yet!
After leaving L.A, we drove inwards to Nevada towards the bright lights of Vegas. It was here that we spent 3 hours driving through the Valley of Death AKA Death Valley. Now we are on the subject, I will quickly get a little story in before Matt resurrects his (currently resting) literary might and puts a spin on the whole issue! Death Valley is one of the most inhospitable, inhuman, scary places in the world...temps regularly top 100F, it is desolate, remote and you wouldn't want to get stranded across the 80mile stretch of desert. As a result of this, all guidebooks suggest drinking plenty of water to avoid dehydration....given that the day we visited it was only 85F and our car has air con, the 6 litres of water I drank during the trip mearly served as somewhat inconvenient in an area free of habitation, nevermind toilets! I don't know why Matt thinks I should use my own discretion when reading guidebooks! Aside from the toilet situation, the valley was great, especially as we were there during sunset. There is a place called Dante's View, named by the Mormon's and used to describe Death Valley's hell like qualities...I can certainly see the potential resemblance..
I will leave you all now and let the captain (or Blogtain) take his helm and lead you all through a literary minefield of humour, puns, text, and delights.......I introduce Mr Mattie Hill! (No pressure there then!)
Love to you all - Jo xxxxx
Howdy all, long time no speak. To be honest I've had no motivation to write anything, as we've been having such a nice time and have been so busy. For example on the first night in baywood park, it was a choice between updating the blog or looking at the stars through a telescope on a cool crisp evening from our patio on the edge of a huge lake. Tough choice! But, due to wifely pressure, I'm updating again. I think Joey missed out a couple of key points. Firstly, it's not possible to explain in words just how stunning big sur is. Secondly, it's not possible to explain in words how much time we wasted in Malibu looking for Jennifer Anniston or any other 'celebs'...
Vegas was superb. Whoever named New York as the city that never sleeps had obviously never been to LV. It's just mad. The hotels and all their features are all larger than life. From new york new york's roller coaster to bellagio's fountain and Rio's dancing girls. It's madness, 24 hours a day... We stayed in the luxor for a few nights, and saw people playing slot machines whilst drinking shorts early in the morning. Who knows how long they sit there...
We met up with lu & chris for four days in LV. Not only was it really nice to see a couple of familiar faces, but somewhere like vegas is better in numbers! Whilst there, our guests took us out for a big curry and took us to see a show - Penn & Teller. For those that don't know, penn and teller are magicians who include comedy and also explain all their tricks. Most excellent.
Lu was also thoughtful enough to plan a little scientific experiment (she is a scientist after all). Her plan was to see how much ice cream I had to eat in order to be sick on the NY NY rollercoaster. Unfortunately, the experiment did not get past the ethics committee (joey). So, the revised experiment was whether I would be sick on the rollercoaster after consuming the following breakfast items: orange juice, granola, yoghurt, tea, croissant and a banana. I had to be careful not to be sick just eating those items together. Anyway, the rollercoaster swept to the left and to the right. It went up and down. It even went upside-down, but my stomach refused to budge. Experiment result: Failed. The hill stomach would not be so easily beaten...
I don't have time to mention the build your own burger bar, the bodies exhibition, the shopping, or even the horrific cover version of phil collins' "land of confusion", but I will update you on our gambling successes:
Jo = About $10 up over four nights, mainly playing blackjack.
Matt = About $150 up over the same time. Could've been about $70 more, but I got cocky...
Lu/Chris = An undisclosed loss. Let's put it down to experience...
Rosie = $5 loss on roulette. It did not land on 5.
Henry = likewise, it did not land on 14.
Andy = it did land on red, but we did not take your advice and "put it all on red".
We're down in san diego now, but these adventures will have to be saved for another time...
Until then... Hasta luego...
A. Bored of the content
B. Bored of waiting
C. Just bored!
If anyone's reading perhaps you could just give us a little tickle to let us know you're there! (AKA a comment on the blog!)
The last 2 weeks have been very busy indeed, I think last time we spoke we had just left Monterey, home to Steinbeck and Jack cheese! After leaving said town, we journeyed south (like 2 English pseudo wannabe cowboys!) to the town of Baywood Park. Before I launch into the delights of back bay, I must tell you that the journey down Californian route 1, through Carmel and Big Sur is beautiful....we're talking waterfalls on the white beaches, wild elephant seals and high cliffs that look out to the bluest ocean.
Baywood park is a tiny town about 10 miles west of San Luis Obispo (or SLO as the locals call it). We stayed in a place on an inland bay behind the beach which was very peaceful and a welcome change from the hustle and bustle of San Francisco. We walked right around the bay and through some sand dunes to a deserted beach....it was lovely but too cold to swim. In the evening we went to SLO for a delightful veggie dinner (California provides the U.S. With most of it's fruit and veg so consequentially has loads of fresh veggie options - a far cry from those 14oz steaks back in the Mid West!)
I won't hover for too long as have a lot of ground to make up but the next few days consisted of a day out in Santa Barbara (lovely) and 2 days in Camarillo (north L.A) - no celeb sightings as yet!
After leaving L.A, we drove inwards to Nevada towards the bright lights of Vegas. It was here that we spent 3 hours driving through the Valley of Death AKA Death Valley. Now we are on the subject, I will quickly get a little story in before Matt resurrects his (currently resting) literary might and puts a spin on the whole issue! Death Valley is one of the most inhospitable, inhuman, scary places in the world...temps regularly top 100F, it is desolate, remote and you wouldn't want to get stranded across the 80mile stretch of desert. As a result of this, all guidebooks suggest drinking plenty of water to avoid dehydration....given that the day we visited it was only 85F and our car has air con, the 6 litres of water I drank during the trip mearly served as somewhat inconvenient in an area free of habitation, nevermind toilets! I don't know why Matt thinks I should use my own discretion when reading guidebooks! Aside from the toilet situation, the valley was great, especially as we were there during sunset. There is a place called Dante's View, named by the Mormon's and used to describe Death Valley's hell like qualities...I can certainly see the potential resemblance..
I will leave you all now and let the captain (or Blogtain) take his helm and lead you all through a literary minefield of humour, puns, text, and delights.......I introduce Mr Mattie Hill! (No pressure there then!)
Love to you all - Jo xxxxx
Howdy all, long time no speak. To be honest I've had no motivation to write anything, as we've been having such a nice time and have been so busy. For example on the first night in baywood park, it was a choice between updating the blog or looking at the stars through a telescope on a cool crisp evening from our patio on the edge of a huge lake. Tough choice! But, due to wifely pressure, I'm updating again. I think Joey missed out a couple of key points. Firstly, it's not possible to explain in words just how stunning big sur is. Secondly, it's not possible to explain in words how much time we wasted in Malibu looking for Jennifer Anniston or any other 'celebs'...
Vegas was superb. Whoever named New York as the city that never sleeps had obviously never been to LV. It's just mad. The hotels and all their features are all larger than life. From new york new york's roller coaster to bellagio's fountain and Rio's dancing girls. It's madness, 24 hours a day... We stayed in the luxor for a few nights, and saw people playing slot machines whilst drinking shorts early in the morning. Who knows how long they sit there...
We met up with lu & chris for four days in LV. Not only was it really nice to see a couple of familiar faces, but somewhere like vegas is better in numbers! Whilst there, our guests took us out for a big curry and took us to see a show - Penn & Teller. For those that don't know, penn and teller are magicians who include comedy and also explain all their tricks. Most excellent.
Lu was also thoughtful enough to plan a little scientific experiment (she is a scientist after all). Her plan was to see how much ice cream I had to eat in order to be sick on the NY NY rollercoaster. Unfortunately, the experiment did not get past the ethics committee (joey). So, the revised experiment was whether I would be sick on the rollercoaster after consuming the following breakfast items: orange juice, granola, yoghurt, tea, croissant and a banana. I had to be careful not to be sick just eating those items together. Anyway, the rollercoaster swept to the left and to the right. It went up and down. It even went upside-down, but my stomach refused to budge. Experiment result: Failed. The hill stomach would not be so easily beaten...
I don't have time to mention the build your own burger bar, the bodies exhibition, the shopping, or even the horrific cover version of phil collins' "land of confusion", but I will update you on our gambling successes:
Jo = About $10 up over four nights, mainly playing blackjack.
Matt = About $150 up over the same time. Could've been about $70 more, but I got cocky...
Lu/Chris = An undisclosed loss. Let's put it down to experience...
Rosie = $5 loss on roulette. It did not land on 5.
Henry = likewise, it did not land on 14.
Andy = it did land on red, but we did not take your advice and "put it all on red".
We're down in san diego now, but these adventures will have to be saved for another time...
Until then... Hasta luego...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
