Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Just reading over my last post I realised that I forgot to mention one of the funniest hitching incedents. We were in the car with Dax and Paulie (the surfers) and Muireann decided to take over driving to give the lads a break. As we drove into a small town we got pulled over by the NZ police and Muireann was given a speeding fine of $120 for doing 67k in a 50k zone, so now we're fugatives, she has to pay the fine if she wants to come back to NZ ever again.
So I'm still in Queenstown and getting better at the snowboarding, my knees are purple though, brings back wonderful memories of Lapland when I first tried to maim myself on the skisloaps. There's not as much snow here as there was there, it mainly sticks to the mountains here, the town is warm enough (relatively).
I getting pretty fit from the 'extreme' walk up the hill to the lads house, it's worth it when you get to the top and see the beautiful view of the lake and the snowcapped mountains. There's so much to do here in Queenstown and there are so many young people around. The night life is probably the best we've come accross yet in NZ and it's also great 'cause everything doesn't revolve around drinking. Yesterday we played frisbee golf in the woods, there's a whole 18 target course layed out, with trees and bins as targets. Tomorrow we're all going to do the canyon swing, sort of a bungy swing across a huge canyon, looks terrifying, can't wait.
So I'm still in Queenstown and getting better at the snowboarding, my knees are purple though, brings back wonderful memories of Lapland when I first tried to maim myself on the skisloaps. There's not as much snow here as there was there, it mainly sticks to the mountains here, the town is warm enough (relatively).
I getting pretty fit from the 'extreme' walk up the hill to the lads house, it's worth it when you get to the top and see the beautiful view of the lake and the snowcapped mountains. There's so much to do here in Queenstown and there are so many young people around. The night life is probably the best we've come accross yet in NZ and it's also great 'cause everything doesn't revolve around drinking. Yesterday we played frisbee golf in the woods, there's a whole 18 target course layed out, with trees and bins as targets. Tomorrow we're all going to do the canyon swing, sort of a bungy swing across a huge canyon, looks terrifying, can't wait.
Saturday, July 26, 2003
Well it's been a while since I've had a chance to update this so there's a whole load to catch up on, I think I left it somewhere in Wellington. Wellington is a cool city, I'd have loved to stayed there longer, was considering taking over Georges job in the indian restaurant serving up Lamb badam pasanda and moving into the worldwide hostel permanently. Unfortunately (although my blog may give the contrary impression) I don't have all the time in the world and we had to go to see the south Island at some stage. The highlights of Wellington were ...
Pub crawl with the crew from the hostel
Georges drunken rugby team doing the Haka in the basement of the hostel
The view from mount Victoria
lunch in the chocolate fish on a very sunny day
Free wine at 7 every evening
On Monday we got the Ferry accross to Picton in the South Island and passed through the Marlboro sound which was really spectacular, we even saw a pod of dolphins playing in the water. We stayed in another really cool and friendly hostel called "the villa' which had a Spa and served up free apple crumble and ice-cream every evening.
From Picton we started our 'extreme hitching' expedition to try and make it down to the lads in queenstown before the weekend. Just as Muireann was saying how great it would be for two cute guys to stop with spare snowboards on their roof who were going to Queenstown, two cute guys with surf boards on the roof pulled up. They were going for a surf in Kaikoura and then driving on to Duneden so we decided to join them. I got some great photos of the lads surfing and one really great one of Paulie coming out of the water with his board broken in two. The lads sorted us out with a place to stay in Duneden with their mates who were all really nice and very obsessed with surfing.
From Duneden we continued the 'extreme hitching' to Queenstown and met up with all the lads who are set up here with jobs and a house. It was so cool to see all the lads again, they're the same as ever and we celebrated by having mid-winter christmas dinner on Thursday night. Yesterday we went up the mountain for snowboarding and it was gnarley! The view from 'The Remarkables" was remarkable. Today we're feeling the pain of falling on our knees and asses 100 times, every muscle in my body aches too. That didn't stop us from doing the Luge today though. The Luge is like a go-cart going down a concrete circuit at the top of a mountain, I don't think there's any extreme sport NZ hasn't got, this one was probably safer and cheaper than most but a severe adrenalyn rush anyway.
Pub crawl with the crew from the hostel
Georges drunken rugby team doing the Haka in the basement of the hostel
The view from mount Victoria
lunch in the chocolate fish on a very sunny day
Free wine at 7 every evening
On Monday we got the Ferry accross to Picton in the South Island and passed through the Marlboro sound which was really spectacular, we even saw a pod of dolphins playing in the water. We stayed in another really cool and friendly hostel called "the villa' which had a Spa and served up free apple crumble and ice-cream every evening.
From Picton we started our 'extreme hitching' expedition to try and make it down to the lads in queenstown before the weekend. Just as Muireann was saying how great it would be for two cute guys to stop with spare snowboards on their roof who were going to Queenstown, two cute guys with surf boards on the roof pulled up. They were going for a surf in Kaikoura and then driving on to Duneden so we decided to join them. I got some great photos of the lads surfing and one really great one of Paulie coming out of the water with his board broken in two. The lads sorted us out with a place to stay in Duneden with their mates who were all really nice and very obsessed with surfing.
From Duneden we continued the 'extreme hitching' to Queenstown and met up with all the lads who are set up here with jobs and a house. It was so cool to see all the lads again, they're the same as ever and we celebrated by having mid-winter christmas dinner on Thursday night. Yesterday we went up the mountain for snowboarding and it was gnarley! The view from 'The Remarkables" was remarkable. Today we're feeling the pain of falling on our knees and asses 100 times, every muscle in my body aches too. That didn't stop us from doing the Luge today though. The Luge is like a go-cart going down a concrete circuit at the top of a mountain, I don't think there's any extreme sport NZ hasn't got, this one was probably safer and cheaper than most but a severe adrenalyn rush anyway.
Friday, July 18, 2003
Wellington, North Island, New Zealand
New Plymouth did turn out to be a good place to end the Buzza adventure, it didn't start out too well as we chose a mullet infested red neck place to have our first beer, we moved on swiftly. We met a girl called Jane who took us to "the powder room" a new bar which was rockin', it looked like one of those trendy wanker pubs they have in Dublin but the wankers weren't wankers at all, they were really nice. We spent the night drinking with the owners Mark and Helen, they were great fun and even came back for the "after show party" in the buzza armed with some good Irish whiskey.
The hangover yesterday morning didn't make it any easier to say goodbye to Monique and the Buzza, it's been the most amazing two weeks. I'm so glad with got our shit together to manage it, it'll be a time we'll remember forever, I didn't want it to end. I was fairly impressed that in 12 nights of Illeagal camping we were only moved on once, even Paddy McCann would be proud of that. So Monique has gone off to see the wizard and Muireann and I hitched down to Wellington with our hangovers. The bag of food (and probably lots of other important things) left behind in the van. We had no problem getting lifts, we were never at the side of the road for more than 5 mins and we got 4 lifts leaving us at the door of our hostel in wellington. One of us had to super chuck each time we got out of a car but we managed not to spoil anybodys car luckily enough. We even went out to dinner last night with our Palmerstown nth - Wellington driver. So now we're in the beautiful and sunny city of Wellington and looking forward to a weekend of arts, culture, film festival and heavy drinking before we head south on Monday.
New Plymouth did turn out to be a good place to end the Buzza adventure, it didn't start out too well as we chose a mullet infested red neck place to have our first beer, we moved on swiftly. We met a girl called Jane who took us to "the powder room" a new bar which was rockin', it looked like one of those trendy wanker pubs they have in Dublin but the wankers weren't wankers at all, they were really nice. We spent the night drinking with the owners Mark and Helen, they were great fun and even came back for the "after show party" in the buzza armed with some good Irish whiskey.
The hangover yesterday morning didn't make it any easier to say goodbye to Monique and the Buzza, it's been the most amazing two weeks. I'm so glad with got our shit together to manage it, it'll be a time we'll remember forever, I didn't want it to end. I was fairly impressed that in 12 nights of Illeagal camping we were only moved on once, even Paddy McCann would be proud of that. So Monique has gone off to see the wizard and Muireann and I hitched down to Wellington with our hangovers. The bag of food (and probably lots of other important things) left behind in the van. We had no problem getting lifts, we were never at the side of the road for more than 5 mins and we got 4 lifts leaving us at the door of our hostel in wellington. One of us had to super chuck each time we got out of a car but we managed not to spoil anybodys car luckily enough. We even went out to dinner last night with our Palmerstown nth - Wellington driver. So now we're in the beautiful and sunny city of Wellington and looking forward to a weekend of arts, culture, film festival and heavy drinking before we head south on Monday.
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
I don't have much time to write 'cause between the Buzza adventures there's no time for internet. We went from Rotorua to Taupo where we had the clearest most beautiful day of the year to do our skydive! Yes you read it right, a skydive, 12000 feet, 45 second freefall after jumping from a rickety plane over lake Taupo. It was the most amazing feeling ever, I was so scared but I couldn't wait to jump, of course I had no choice anyway cause it was a tandem and the guy was gonna jump anyway. when it was over I just wanted to go up again, my face nearly burst from all the smiling.
After Taupo we headed to Ohakune but didn't do any snowboarding 'cause I spent all my money on the skydive. We thought there would be good night life there but it turned out to be the quietest day of the year so we went tramping (trekking in our language)and headed on to Otaki to see Mick. After a bit of chillaxation at the gorge we headed to the surf highway and we're about to wind up the buzza tour here in New Plymouth.
After Taupo we headed to Ohakune but didn't do any snowboarding 'cause I spent all my money on the skydive. We thought there would be good night life there but it turned out to be the quietest day of the year so we went tramping (trekking in our language)and headed on to Otaki to see Mick. After a bit of chillaxation at the gorge we headed to the surf highway and we're about to wind up the buzza tour here in New Plymouth.
Saturday, July 12, 2003
Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand
We've been having a ball in New Zealand the last few days, it's a really beautiful and friendly country. We went white water rafting yesterday and it was so amazing, I would recomend it to anyone. I was terrified before especially when I saw the photos on the wall depicting everyone tumble out of the boat as it turned upsidedown on the way down the 7m waterfall. It was really fast and we got so wet and the 7m drop was so scary but we managed to stay upright, the raft went totally under the water and we managed to hold on. I felt like I'd missed out when the raft behind dumped a few people into the water and they seemed to love it Photos are here. It was a really great day and we topped it off with a night out with the gang from the kiwi bus (they did the rafting with us) and the crazy rafting instructors at the hat party in the Lava bar. Most of the Kiwi bus crew are too young to remember the good old moshing days of Nirvana and Pearl Jam but when it came on we showed them (to the disgust of the poor girl we kept landing on) and we were even kind enough to give a good air guitar rendition to the sound of Guns n' Roses "Paradise city" ... Priceless! This morning we used our vouchers for the Polonesian Spa, wow! it was the perfect hangover cure, and God knows we need the wash after our campervan life. Only problem is that we do sort of smell like eggs right now, not to worry the whole town smells like that so we blend. We also made a trip to the Rotorua museum yesterday and it's worth a visit if you're passing through town. I also got a phone so if you want to call me, e-mail me and ask for the number (I'm not going to be txting loads 'cause it's a crap phone with annoying txt function).
We've been having a ball in New Zealand the last few days, it's a really beautiful and friendly country. We went white water rafting yesterday and it was so amazing, I would recomend it to anyone. I was terrified before especially when I saw the photos on the wall depicting everyone tumble out of the boat as it turned upsidedown on the way down the 7m waterfall. It was really fast and we got so wet and the 7m drop was so scary but we managed to stay upright, the raft went totally under the water and we managed to hold on. I felt like I'd missed out when the raft behind dumped a few people into the water and they seemed to love it Photos are here. It was a really great day and we topped it off with a night out with the gang from the kiwi bus (they did the rafting with us) and the crazy rafting instructors at the hat party in the Lava bar. Most of the Kiwi bus crew are too young to remember the good old moshing days of Nirvana and Pearl Jam but when it came on we showed them (to the disgust of the poor girl we kept landing on) and we were even kind enough to give a good air guitar rendition to the sound of Guns n' Roses "Paradise city" ... Priceless! This morning we used our vouchers for the Polonesian Spa, wow! it was the perfect hangover cure, and God knows we need the wash after our campervan life. Only problem is that we do sort of smell like eggs right now, not to worry the whole town smells like that so we blend. We also made a trip to the Rotorua museum yesterday and it's worth a visit if you're passing through town. I also got a phone so if you want to call me, e-mail me and ask for the number (I'm not going to be txting loads 'cause it's a crap phone with annoying txt function).
Thursday, July 10, 2003
The adventure in the buzza continues in flying form. We didn't manage to get out of Whitianga as soon as we though, combined effects of the night before and inconvenient tides at hot water beach. There was plenty there to keep us around for another day anyway, loads of walks and a trip to cathedral cove (longish walk but worth the effort) and bone carving for the morning. We tested the springs at hot water beach thismorning and then headed to Rotorua which smells like rotten eggs but has lots of hot springs. We've booked into a hostel for the night for a break from sleeping, eating and living in Buzza, not that we don't like it, it's still great.
Tuesday, July 08, 2003
Whitianga, North Island, New Zealand
The girls both arrived to Auckland (yes I was spelling it wrong all along) safe and sound. We had one night out in Aukland on Saturday and met Conor H. (old SF refugee) in a bar on Vulcan lane. We (the girls and I) hired a camper van, affectionately known as BUZZA for our tour around the north Island and started off with dinner at Troys place to feed us up before the big trip. Yesterday we went around the Coromandel peninsula and saw such spectacles as the square Kauri tree and a budhist retreat. After a feast of local green lipped mussels cooked up on the campervan stove we decided to check out the town of Whitianga and mix with the locals, this is the point where my memory becomes a bit dull......
The girls both arrived to Auckland (yes I was spelling it wrong all along) safe and sound. We had one night out in Aukland on Saturday and met Conor H. (old SF refugee) in a bar on Vulcan lane. We (the girls and I) hired a camper van, affectionately known as BUZZA for our tour around the north Island and started off with dinner at Troys place to feed us up before the big trip. Yesterday we went around the Coromandel peninsula and saw such spectacles as the square Kauri tree and a budhist retreat. After a feast of local green lipped mussels cooked up on the campervan stove we decided to check out the town of Whitianga and mix with the locals, this is the point where my memory becomes a bit dull......
Thursday, July 03, 2003
Well it's been a couple of days since I've had a chance to update my blog but at least I'll have loads of things to say then. I went up north for a couple of days to have a look around and I was really lucky to get some really sunny days (still cold though). New Zealand is fairly well organised for backpackers, there's loads of companies that sort everything out for you so that you don't even have to think and it costs pretty much the same as using the local busses. I got the Magic bus up north (one other option was the kiwi experience, affectionately known as the big green shaggin' waggon) but the magic seemes to have a better route up north and left earlier than the intercity so I went for that. The disadvantage of these busses is that you have to listen to the drivers monotone or over excited comentary about the passing landscape and if there are people on the bus with crap music you have to listen to it and act enthusiastic if you want any friends (oh how I miss my mp3 player). We saw the biggest Kauri tree in New Zealand on the way up north, it's not as wide as the widest tree in the world near Oaxaca, Mexico (have a look at the south America blog) but it has a nicer story. It's said that it separates the earth and the sky, they used to be together, as husband and wife (they have mouri names) and their 7 children were between them. The children decided they had to separate their parents to live their own lives so the big Kauri tree is one of the children and the other children are different things, I'm sure you can read about it somewhere, I tried to put in a useful link here but couldn't find a decent one.
I decided to base myself in Paihia in the Bay of Islands and it's a really nice little town with loads of stuff to do and really friendly lively pubs. There was Karioke in the local and I managed to win myself a hangover (decided to stay well away from the U2 songs this time, didn't want to clear the bar). In Paihia they seem to want to fill you with free drink, I must have paid for about one drink each night and got all the others for free by either being the first on the dance floor, the first 5 up for karioke or being enthusiastic in the singing of happy birthday to the bar girl etc.
I took a trip up to Cape Reinga the northern most tip of New Zealand where the Pacific ocean and the Tasmin sea meet. It's not actually the most northern but there's no road to the other tip and nothing to see either. At cape reinga you can see the line of white water where the two oceans meet. We came back by 90 mile beach (really 87k) and stopped off at the dunes for a bit od Sand boarding. Sand boarding rocks, much easier than snowboarding and less painfull, only problem is that you get sand EVERYWHERE and there are no lifts to the top of the hill. Driving down 90 mile beach was so cool, we were going full speed with that moby album "Play" at full volume and the driver was swerving into the surf sending sprays of water into the air, it was one of those wonderful movie moments, it took about an hour to drive down the beach.
On my last day in Paihia I took a boat trip in the bay, it was the most beautiful sunny day so I got to see the bay in all its splendour. We went through the hole in the rock and heard the history of the Islands and were treated to some traditional Mauri greeting dances by the Mauri 'cultural guide'. The highlight of the day was seeing a pod of about 15 dolphins. They played around the boat for about 15 mins, I tried to take photos but they were gone back under water by the time I pressed the button so none of them are much use.
I'm back in Aukland now, staying in the vinyard for a few days, it's nice to be 'home' again. Tomorrow the girls, Monique and Muireann arrive here, it'll be so great to see them, I'm as excited as an excited person can be. I'm preparing myself for all the madness as the laydeez go on the rampage in Aukland. You can watch my blog to see how my adventures go on a spiralling down hill from slightly crazy but highly cultural experience to complete and utter insane drunken debauchery, with very few momories of anything at all.
I decided to base myself in Paihia in the Bay of Islands and it's a really nice little town with loads of stuff to do and really friendly lively pubs. There was Karioke in the local and I managed to win myself a hangover (decided to stay well away from the U2 songs this time, didn't want to clear the bar). In Paihia they seem to want to fill you with free drink, I must have paid for about one drink each night and got all the others for free by either being the first on the dance floor, the first 5 up for karioke or being enthusiastic in the singing of happy birthday to the bar girl etc.
I took a trip up to Cape Reinga the northern most tip of New Zealand where the Pacific ocean and the Tasmin sea meet. It's not actually the most northern but there's no road to the other tip and nothing to see either. At cape reinga you can see the line of white water where the two oceans meet. We came back by 90 mile beach (really 87k) and stopped off at the dunes for a bit od Sand boarding. Sand boarding rocks, much easier than snowboarding and less painfull, only problem is that you get sand EVERYWHERE and there are no lifts to the top of the hill. Driving down 90 mile beach was so cool, we were going full speed with that moby album "Play" at full volume and the driver was swerving into the surf sending sprays of water into the air, it was one of those wonderful movie moments, it took about an hour to drive down the beach.
On my last day in Paihia I took a boat trip in the bay, it was the most beautiful sunny day so I got to see the bay in all its splendour. We went through the hole in the rock and heard the history of the Islands and were treated to some traditional Mauri greeting dances by the Mauri 'cultural guide'. The highlight of the day was seeing a pod of about 15 dolphins. They played around the boat for about 15 mins, I tried to take photos but they were gone back under water by the time I pressed the button so none of them are much use.
I'm back in Aukland now, staying in the vinyard for a few days, it's nice to be 'home' again. Tomorrow the girls, Monique and Muireann arrive here, it'll be so great to see them, I'm as excited as an excited person can be. I'm preparing myself for all the madness as the laydeez go on the rampage in Aukland. You can watch my blog to see how my adventures go on a spiralling down hill from slightly crazy but highly cultural experience to complete and utter insane drunken debauchery, with very few momories of anything at all.
