BULA BULA!

We’re in Fiji baby. Actually that’s a lie. We’re not. But for the sake of the blog, we are. I was hoping to wrap Fiji up in a single blog but as I’m writing I can tell there’s is way to much to just cram into one. And why should I. So I shall write the whole thing, then split it up into perhaps two blogs. So here goes…

Our flight from Auckland to Nadi was a lovely one. Courtney managed to make it through without her head exploding and the staff aboard were top class. Not being the most well known of airlines we really weren’t sure what to expect from Fiji Airways. I mean we hoped for things like wings and air sealed windows but you really cannot assume anything in this world. Not without making an ‘ASS’ out of ‘U’ and ‘ME’ that is (think about it).

Thankfully however the plane had both these things and a lot more too. We had some really nice grub and also managed to see away a few beers and and glass of red thanks to the airhost’s willingness to see us fall face first out the plane once we’d landed. Either that or he knew the pilot’s track record when it came to landing and thought we’d all be better off intoxicated when it came to it. We almost never made it on the flight anyway when I had a slight mishap with the boarding passes. I lost them. I knew for sure that I had placed them inside everyone’s passports but they weren’t there. The passports were but the boarding passes weren’t. I checked everywhere. The girls kept asking stupid questions like “have you checked your pockets”. Do they really think I wouldn’t check my pockets. I’m not wearing parachute trousers. Do they not think I would know if they were there?….

…anyway they were in my pocket. So. Yeah. Whatever.

Once we’d landed safely and we’d stumbled into the airport we were welcomed by a group of singing Fijians. It was such a nice way to rid you of the city feel we’d had from Auckland and smooth you in to the more chilled out Fijian vibe. The locals here are well known for doing things in their own time. Fiji Time. This must be where the girls get their own watches from. They are so relaxed and always happy. Everybody here says hello or BULA to you no matter whether they’ve met you before or not. The Thais were very much the same but they more often than not wanted something in return. Here they are simply happy to see you.

We spent our first nights in a hotel called Wailoaloa. For Soph and I it felt like we’d just gone back in time to our period in Asia. It was dark but still so hot and there were lizards climbing all over the walls. The hotel was only £5 a night for a bed in one of their dorms, but when we checked in they’d over booked so could only give us a private room for the 3 of us….at the same price. WiFi was free and there was a really nice pool too. We had really landed on our feet here.

Soph was still feeling a little delicate so after dinner Courtney and I were the ones to venture out and see what was around. But we were on a road in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. There was nothing around but over grown grass and certainly no street lights. We made our way towards what we hoped was a shop as our eyes attempted to adjust to the darkness. We were starting to feel a little silly that we’d even began this walk when out of nowhere a pack of raging wild dogs starting barking at us from behind a fence. We lept out of our skin so fast we left a cartoon styled silhouette of ourselves on the pavement. I, of course, wasn’t scared of them. I was just simply startled by Courtney’s screams.

As we walked further in to the darkness we were over taken by a car that seemed to slow down as it passed us. It then stopped a few hundred yards ahead and began to slowly turn around. It then turned its main beams on and shined them in our direction. This was going to be it. The end. We were about to be attacked and thrown into the back seats of some Fijian Gangster’s BMW before being skinned and cooked alive to a good medium rare. And all I had as protection was Courtney, who, when I looked over my shoulder, had thought it less suspicious to simply jump head first into the nearest bush. This really was then end…. *gulp*

But then, all of a sudden, the danger passed. The car drove towards us but simply continued on its journey without so much as a look. In fact they were probably more concerned with the fact one of us was sticking out upside down from a bush. A close shave perhaps. Once we’d finally arrived at the shop we found it was unlike most convenience stores we’d come across. First off it was super bright. Opening the doors was like walking through the gates of heaven itself. Just with a Fijian on the door instead. The shelves were big and deep but they would only ever place one item out at a time. You would need to have a word with the management if God forbid you wanted 2 bottles of coke. Anyway this shop was a tad strange but it did have the snacks we required, so we took them back to Soph who was being a brave little soldier all tucked up in bed.

We stayed at this hotel for a few nights before they decided we’d been staying in a private room long enough now and wanted us to pay more or get out. We hadn’t the money to pay the true price of the room so moved down the road to the beach front where our new home for the next 3 nights would be.

When almost every person ever comes to Nadi they stay in a place could Smuggler’s Cove. It’s located right on the beach in the middle of a row of hostels and mini hotels. Yet Smugglers is where people go whether they’re staying there or any of the others on the road. It has a large restaurant and they always have something going on like fire dancing for example. Yet, we weren’t staying there. We were staying at a place called Bamboo just along the road. Our room was a 16 bed dorm that looked more like a war time hospital ward. There was hot water but all the hot taps had been dismantled so nobody could use it. Which was nice of them. The girls were on two single beds on one side of the room while I was opposite them. However I was lucky enough to be next to a man we later nicknamed ‘Wet Fart Man’. You can probably work out for yourself why he had this name but in case you can’t, he was a rather overweight sweaty 65+ year old man who, whenever he nodded off, would release a gas of biblical proportions toward my face. Yummy.

We spent our days in the town of Nadi simply chilling out in the beach chairs provided by Smuggler’s. We basically lived out our 6 days sleeping and topping up the tan. Which I might add has come on leaps and bounds. The girls still think they’re pale even though people are now turning lights off to conserve electricity when they walk into a room. I’m pretty content. I have a distinct shorts line and that’s all I care about. With 5 days in New York to come it will all be gone by the time we get home anyway.

Very quickly Saturday 4th April came around and it was the day we were leaving Nadi to venture off to a couple of Fiji ‘s amazing islands. It also happened to be my birthday. Yay me. The girls had very kindly stolen some balloons from Smugglers and placed them on my bed for when I got back from the bathroom that morning. They’d also made me a little card from a postcard so I wasn’t too empty handed for my special day. Not that I could be. I was in Fiji!

We caught our boat to the island of Mana in the group of islands called the Mamanuca Islands. As we came in the sea was literally the most amazing colour blue. The coral reef below our feet was abundant with the brightest coloured fish and other sea life. As we stepped off the boat and into the water we were once again greeted by a team of singing islanders with their mini guitars and smiling faces. It was as if they’d been waiting all their lives for this moment when us three came to their tiny island home.

Checking in we came face to face with a lovely girl called Erin. We’d met her two days before when she came barging in to our room in Nadi smacking me on the backside with the door, sending me into a face first dive towards the floor. We ended up going for dinner with her and playing a few games of cards one evening. She wished me a happy birthday and shot off to continue her diving lessons. Later we found out we were actually sharing a room with her too. Her and an Irish guy called Charlie. Built like a two story house, Charlie was an intimidating bloke with his thick Irish accent. The sort of person who on the third time of not full understanding what he just said you would rather just nod and smile to than ask again. But Charlie, when you could grasp what he was saying, was possibly the funniest person ever.

At dinner for our first night we sat at a table with Erin and Charlie who were starting to congratulate me on making it to my 27th birthday, perhaps an age not so common for the Irish, when the island’s New Zealand diving instructor jumped up and shouted, “is it your birthday”.

….”yes”…..

At first I was rather worried what this rather over excited Kiwi had in store for me. Turned out it was a free drink. And things just kept getting better. First the girls pulled out a couple of presents they’d managed to find back in Nadi. They got me a very colourful bracelet and a wooden decorative mask meant to give the owner good luck. Then, as the evening’s entertainment was about to start, the lights all went out and a large group of singing Fijians appeared with a cake and a cheeky candle in it. They surrounded me and sang a Fijian happy birthday for about 10 minutes before all shaking my hand and giving me a pat on the back. It was a really great thought and fully organised by the girls. A perfect birthday in Fiji.

The next day, and now officially 27, we heading out for a spot of snorkelling. Soph and I, you may remember from a previous blog, managed to spot a huge turtle when snorkelling on the island if Gili Trawangan just off the coast of Bali. But Courtney hadn’t joined us at that point and still really wanted to get in the water and see some fish. And what we saw was nothing short of amazing. The coral was fantastic and had every type of fish you could ever want to see living with in. Clown fish were everywhere, as well as bright blue starfish scattered along the ocean floor. Such a shame we didn’t have an underwater camera as it would have been great to show you just a glimpse of what we did.

Floating on the surface with your face in the water is possibly one of the calmest places on Earth. Starring into a world so different from our own with nothing but the sound of your own breath as a soundtrack. Yet our calmness didn’t last long. I’m not exactly the best swimmer in the world and after a while I just want to have my feet on some firm ground. This causes me to panic a little and lead to more and more water leaking into my mask. Then there’s Sophie. Somehow Soph’s feet began to suffer from extreme cramp. She was screaming with agony as she attempted to swim back to shore. Yet by this time the current had got stronger and the waves choppier. So with me now totally unable to breathe and Soph’s feet curling inwards on themselves it was down to Courtney to safely guide us back to dry land. It took us a good 15 minutes and we ended up with limbs full of cuts and bruises as we smashed into the sharp coral and jagged rocks, but we did it. You’ll be pleased to know Soph’s cramp instantly disappeared once out and I am also still alive. So thanks Courtney. We are pretty useless in the water it would seem.

We spent the rest of our days on Mana sleeping on the beach in the morning before the girls took photos of themselves in the afternoons. Sometimes they would ask me to join. Not for the photos but so I could take more of them together. Blatantly because they knew I’d upstage them by striking a pose of super model standard of course. It’s amazing how many photos they’ll take and then never let anyone see. Any photo you ever see on this blog now has to go through a whole range of quality control measures conducted by the girls. Never can a photo break through unchecked. Never!

When it comes to food on Mana you get what your given. There’s no menu or choice at all for that matter. We had already paid for our meals as part of the booking before we left Nadi so we couldn’t really afford to let a dish pass us by whether we liked it or not. Something not so easy when you’re as fussy as I. Soph is also a tad fussy but nothing like me. Thankfully the meals weren’t too bad, apart from one night. Fish pasta night. All three of us hate fish. We love tropical fish swimming around our faces. But dead cooked fish is not our cup of tea at all. So when this fishy dish came out smothered in garlic and butter (2 other things I can’t stand) things really weren’t looking good. I slowly made my way through it like the good boy I am, while the girls smashed their way through it like it was a bowl of chocolate ice cream.

That night Soph woke up around 2am with the sudden urge to be sick. We rushed to the bathroom and stood as she took deep breaths and attempted to feel better. She was adamant she didn’t want to throw up in case she woke Erin and Charlie up. She didn’t care about Courtney. Neither did she need to. Courtney came stumbling in a few moments later also complaining of feeling sick. We spent the next hour of that night at the public toilets near the bar where the girls occupied both cubicles throwing up their rather iffy garlic fishy pasta dishy. Poor girls. I on the hand was fine.

Leaving Mana island we were feeling a little sad. The food had been…ok…the showers were cold and the sea had left us nursing some deep wounds, but we’d loved it. The island was beautiful and exactly what we’d expected. Next we would move on to the island of Waya and the Octopus resort. I will leave that and the rest of our days in Fiji for next time. I already can’t wait to tell you about our first day in Los Angeles so it won’t be long I promise.

Ah yes so we are now in Los Angeles. For those not blessed with the knowledge of Geography, like Courtney for example who struggled to find England on a world map, we are on the Western side of the United States in a state called California. You may of heard of it. We have gone from being 11 hours ahead of the UK to being 7 hours behind it. I don’t even know what day it is any more. Not that it matters. We haven’t got work in the morning.

Thanks for following x

Happy Monday to you all.

I’m sure after last week’s long Easter weekend this weekend probably went quicker than anyone would have liked. The thought of only having two days off is starting to cause us sleepiness nights actually. The girls have started to have midday break downs too. I’m sure the closer we get to May 4th the worse it will get, but as it stands they’re only bursting into tears once a day. I just sob quietly into my pillow so that nobody can hear me….

“Why’s my pillow so wet? Uhm…Just sweat you know. It was boiling last night….ha…..ha….”

Right so I am going to attempt to wrap up our New Zealand adventures in this blog and then hopefully move on to Fiji. That way by the time we touch ground in LA we will have caught up and I can let you know about all the new movie roles they’ve offered me over in Hollywood. Bound to happen.

So we’ve left the stunning little town of Franz Joseph, carrying with us a truck load of lactic acid throughout every muscle in our bodies. Nobody was up for walking ever again after the previous days 9 hour trek to and from Fox glacier. Actually I forgot to mention the name of the glacier was Fox glacier. In hindsight we would have saved ourselves a lot of bother if we had just stood on top of a Fox’s Glacier Mint and taken a photo. We certainly wouldn’t have been lying when someone asked if we’d climbed to the top of the Fox glacier.

Anyway with all our aching muscles the last thing we were up for was an early morning hour long trek around a supposedly very special lake. But being the Kiwi Experience it would be silly of us to think we could go a single day without some sort of epic walk being forced upon us. So with all our strength we got out the bus and started our walk around Lake Matheson. We had been told that at certain times of the day you can catch a really good reflection in the water, which of course would be a great photo opportunity. We walked around and saw it was rather nice but nothing to really write home about. That is until we reached the other side. The view, as I’m sure you will agree, was absolutely amazing. In fact the photos don’t even do it justice. You honestly couldn’t tell the difference between the stillness of the lake and the sky above. It may have hurt, but the walk was well worth it.

Our next top was Lake Wanaka….there was a lake….

Moving on, our next stop was to be Queenstown. By far the single most eagerly anticipated destination on the Kiwi Experience agenda. Not for me mind. Queenstown is the adrenaline junkies heaven on Earth. Bungee jumping was invented here. It attracts people from all over the world to do something ridiculous that throws you way out of your comfort zone for, apparently, fun. You may have guessed I am not one for throwing myself off a cliff. However the girls are and so they were extremely excited to finally be there.

We checked into a Nomads hostel right in the centre of the city. Even through it’s so popular and well known, Queenstown is a very small place. We walked into our 5 bed dorm accompanied by our now best buds Millie and Kavita. Even though we had about 8 years on these girls they were awesome to be around, and it was a lot easier to keep them than to try and find new mates….just joking girls…we could have found new friends well easily…

Our room was amazing. It had a balcony that over looked the giant lake that the city sat on and the stretch of mountains that seemed to guard the city like a huge wall. It had an ensuite bathroom and all the beds were super comfy. Sure the staff treated us like misbehaving 4 year olds but you can’t have it all now can you.

That first night was like a massive celebration. As Queenstown is such a top destination for the Kiwi passengers, many people stay here for a long time. Therefore a lot of people move on and have to say their goodbyes to the friends they’ve had for the past 3 to 4 weeks. We went on a mini pub crawl, had a free BBQ and even got to see some fella (someone the girls had taken a huge dislike to) run as far as he possibly could with a bungee rope attached to him while wearing absolutely no clothes. Turns out I actually know his girlfriend from when I worked at Nizels. Interesting…

Our second day of our 4 in Queenstown was to be perhaps Soph’s most significant of her entire trip. She had been looking forward to this day since she saw a video of our friend Rachael about 4 years ago. Today the girls were going to do the Canyon Swing. For those that don’t know, and I don’t blame you for not, the Canyon Swing is a bungee with a twist. You simply jump off a 109m cliff, freefalling for 60m before being swung outward a further 200m, picking up ridiculous speed. I had the very important job of filming this event as Soph, Courtney, Millie and Kavita went down to the platform to gear up. It was scary, it was intense, it really was a high pressured situation. But thankfully I was able to hold the camera steady and get the shots the girls were all after.

I stood with all the other sensible people who had come along to watch. Many were worried they would miss their loved one jump, but there was absolutely no chance I would miss Soph and Courtney’s go. They screamed loud enough to make the American flag on the moon fall over. Paramedics were on standbye of course but they would have been to busy dealing with those with burst eardrums than to look after any serious bungee malfunction injuries. They squeeled all the way down as they were dropped upside down by the guys on the platform. The videos are up on the Backpacking Live Facebook page if you fancy seeing for yourselves. We’ll chuck them on YouTube when we get home too so you can all see. It was funny. So yes, well done girls. Much braver than me.

Day 3 and Courtney finally found a place that could colour in the roots of her hair. Both Soph and I had a sudden panic when she first appeared after having it done. She looked exactly the same as she did before she went in and we were starting to consider how long we could lie about the huge improvement compliments she was was hoping to get from us. Soph has a record of 4.3 seconds before someone realises she is telling a lie, so things weren’t looking promising. Thankfully as she came closer things became more evident and we could compliment her without having to fake it. Everyone’s a winner. Our third day was also a bit of an arts and crafts day. Thanks to a little tip from our friends Beckie and Ella we found a bracelet shop where you could make your own bracelets. We have been picking them up along the way in all the countries we’ve been but hadn’t found any in New Zealand until then. It was actually a really fun time waster and one I turned out to be rather good at. See…

Day 3 was also the last day Ziggy would be around as she was moving on a bit earlier so she could catch her flight to Asia where she could buy a 3 story house for 2 bottle caps and a slinky. To celebrate this and to say our heartfelt goodbyes we all went out for one last night together. It was a sad evening for Courtney as she was saying goodbye to her baby sister who she wouldn’t see again for a good few months. For Ziggy, she couldn’t wait to get away from her older sister and start living life like a princess in Thailand. Anyway it was another good evening even though we personally stayed away from the outrageously priced alcohol.

Then all of a sudden it’s day 4 and our last in Queenstown. As well as being a great town for adrenaline junkies and those looking for top notch nightlife, the city is also an awesome city for those who love frisbee. And I love frisbee. I treated myself to a new one that changes colour from white to purple when in contact with UV light. They also had a frisbee golf course around the outside of their main city park. So us 5 and the remaining lot from Ziggy’s group headed down to watch me smash the course out with my eyes shut. For me it was a super day as I hadn’t really played any sport in about 5 months, and it was made even better by the girls tagging along without having to be knocked out and dragged down there. So thanks girls. I had a great time.

Unfortunately, as it is almost every night in Queenstown, our last day was to end in another evening of goodbyes. We were moving on sooner than Millie and Kavita who were shooting off to the deep south of New Zealand. We had really enjoyed hanging out with two kids who if you messed them around would happily knock your teeth out, yet they could complete a rubix cube before most people could get one row. It was sad but we would see them again in San Francisco. So see you then girls.

We left Queenstown and stayed in a small lodge on the side of yet another lake. Lake Tekapo was also home to some of the best stary skies in the world. We had the chance to climb to the top of a near by hill and visit the planetarium and massive telescope that the place was famous for. We didn’t want to spend much money but I was really up for this. I’ve got a bit a geekish attraction to anything space related so would have loved the opportunity to look through the telescope. Unfortunately it was so expensive it would have been cheaper to buy a spaceship and go to the stars ourselves than to look at them from a billion Miles away. Never mind.

There really was nothing else here. I did climb to the top of that hill but just to see the view. The girls had started to fill a tad ill after all the late nights in Queenstown so stayed at the bottom by the lake. It’s more of a detox destination than anything else.

We left the next morning for our last destination on the Kiwi bus. The slightly eerie city of Christchurch. Back in late 2010 Christchurch was hit by a pretty nasty earthquake. Thankfully no damage seemed to have been done and the injury toll was kept to a minimum. What the locals hadn’t realised is that this earthquake had weakened many of the buildings in the city and left them, pretty much, hanging by a thread. When a smaller and much weaker earthquake hit later in 2011 there was nothing anyone could do. The city collapsed and many lives were lost as a result. As we drove in the normally larger than life bus driver completely changed his attitude. He became quiet and very sincere with everything he did say. It was clear that this natural disaster not only impacted Christchurch but it rocked an entire nation. There are on going efforts to repair the city but these apparently have a completion date somewhere after 2025. I’ll be 37 by then and that doesn’t even bare thinking about.

We were catching a flight that evening back up to Auckland so didn’t need a room to stay. Very kindly our friends Beckie and Ella allowed us to use their room as a place to store our bags while we ventured round the city together. We went to the museum and the old cathedral, which as you can see is in ruins now.

We visited the new cardboard cathedral and also took a look at their makeshift shopping centre. They had come up with the idea of turning shipping containers into shops and stacking them up on one another. To be honest the girls didn’t really like Christchurch and I think that was because of the sad feeling the place had. It does sound weird but as you walked around you could feel that something wasn’t right. That the people of Christchurch were still mourning that dreadful day when everything changed. Some top American magazines have actually voted Christchurch as one of the world’s top cities for the future. Basically because they now have the chance to restart a fresh. Although I’m sure it must be difficult knowing that this could happen again at any moment.

We left for the airport at around 8pm even though our flight wasn’t until 6am. We decided spending the night on the floor of an airport would be much more financially beneficial than paying and leaving a hostel before 4am. Something we all deep down regretted. We were all feeling pretty under the weather and just wanted our own beds. Instead we had to endure the worst flight ever. Courtney was a mess by the time we reached our hotel in Auckland. Her ears would not pop midflight so she was feeling the agony I felt flying from Perth to Melbourne. Not nice at all.

Back in Auckland we were lucky enough to find ourselves a hotel that was cheap enough to hold all three of us in a private room. We spent the days trying to recover by watching Harry Potter films in the evening and eating chunky soups. We did walk around a few times but the weather was atrocious to say the least.

We were actually meant to be travelling up north to the bay of islands but due to us all feeling like death was just around the corner, we decided to stay in bed instead and see a bit more of Auckland. Thankfully we were moving on to the land of constant Sun and smiling locals a few days later. If that doesn’t fix you up nothing will.

So that’s New Zealand in a rather large nutshell. Tomorrow I shall give you the full lowdown on our amazing time in Fiji. We actually leave for Los Angeles on Wednesday at 9:40pm Fiji time (10:40am GMT). I’m off to sit by the pool. Enjoy your day.

Thanks for following x

Welcome back. All good? Manage to make it through that last rather long blog? That’s good.

Oh, you didn’t?….let’s just pretend you did.

Ok so we are leaving Wellington and the north island behind us in search of the tiny weenie town of Kaiteriteri (ky-tiri-tiri). First however we would need to grab our stuff and head for the bus by 6am so we could then catch our morning ferry to the south island. I imagined this journey to be a bit of a formality. That the gap between the north and south was close enough to step over if you were in a rush. Alas, I was very wrong. All together with the 45 minute waiting around time, it took us just under 4 hours to reach the other side. The journey was actually rather comfortable and some of us even managed to spot a group of dolphins guiding us toward our destination. Most people had fallen back to sleep though.

We had heard many great things about the south island. Mainly that it was even more breathtaking than the north. Something made clearly evident the second the island came into view. Never before has the phrase “the grass is greener” been more appropriate. The mountains are higher, the trees are greener and the water bluer. The sea weaved its way into the main land so as if we were now floating down a river. Hills either side of us hid private little beaches with a tiny house and bloke sitting on his boat fishing away. It was a beautiful sight, but as I said before, most people were too busy sleeping to actually see it.

After we docked and then caught another long bus, we arrived at Kaiteriteri. A miniscule town on the edge of the huge Abel Tasman National Park. If I remember rightly he was some Dutch bloke who stumbled across New Zealand a little before Captain Cook but instead of being nice he shot a couple of the natives who intern killed a couple of his men. Fair to say he didn’t particularly care for this land much after that. Never the less he has a large park named after him, and we were there to see it.

We checked into our room and quickly headed out to see the beach less than 50ft away from the hostel. Unfortunately we had forgotten we were in New Zealand and that even when it’s super sunny, it’s very rarely warm. So we headed back inside, had some dinner and then headed to the bar. But not for drinks. Oh no. Tonight was quiz night.

We had been desperate for a quiz night for weeks. All the hostels we stay at usually put something on each night to entertain the guests and usually it’s a quiz night. But every time we get to one we are either a day late or we are leaving the day before. So there was no way were going to miss this. We sat down and invited a couple of random girls to join our team. They were training to be vets so undoubtedly had some brain power in there somewhere. Then we also invited a couple if 18 year old girls who we’d met on the boat that morning, Millie and Kavita. There were no boys…

…there’s never any boys….

…Any who we smashed the quiz. I mean we didn’t win it but we did beat Courtney’s sister’s team and that really was all we cared about. Ziggy and her team had no chance against our mighty brains. Interestingly the hostel we were staying in was run by some bloke who, in his day, was rather famous for founding some kids tv programme called the Wiggles. I’ve never heard of him or his programme but perhaps some of you have. After acting as quiz master he picked up his guitar and sung a few songs at literally the loudest volume ever. A rocket could have been taking off behind us and we’d have never heard it over his racket. We went to bed pretty sharpish after that.

This place was literally reserved for the Kiwi Experience travellers only so was packed pretty much every night. Although they only guarantee you one night here, we were told we should try and stay two. However when we got there they told us there was no way we could do that. That day two full buses were turning up and they had no room. Usually this wouldn’t be a problem. We would go for a walk and find somewhere else to stay. But in Kaiteriteri there is nowhere else. Nowhere at all. And we’d already reserved our places on the next days bus. So we were in a spot of bother here.

Thankfully one of the two receptionist had the power to force out a smile at least once a fortnight and we just so happened to find her on that very day. She organised for us and a few others to be taken to a near by town where another hostel could take us in. However we weren’t the only ones in need of some where to stay. Ziggy and her mates were shipped off to a place apparently just 10 minute walk away from the beach. While we were driven 20 minutes out to a place called Old McDonald’s Farm in the middle of nowhere. At first we were pretty angry about the situation as the only other people we had for company were a group of dribbling llamas, but soon we made a pretty formidable group and made the best out of our time together. So the three of us accompanied by two Brighton girls, Beckie and Ella, our mates Millie and Kavita from the quiz and the lovely Claire from our room in Wellington, set off for a walk through the National Park.

At first the girls were not too keen on the idea of walking up and down hills even if it did result in some pretty fantastic views. However as time has gone on they have really come to enjoy a nice stroll. And this one was lovely. We came across private beaches and panoramic views we never would have seen had we stayed in Kaiteriteri. And our luck was made further evident when we discovered Ziggy and her mates had been shipped to a place where you had to pay for hot water by the minute. We really had been lucky there.

The next day we had to leave Claire behind as she was attempting to spend another night on the farm with only the llamas as friends. As for the rest of us, we were now back on the bus and off to the small surf town of Westport. If you ask me this was another pretty pointless place as there was nothing to do here unless of course your hair was way too long and you spent every waking moment of your life rubbing wax on a long piece of plastic. For this reason we decided to up the excitement levels and offer to sleep in a tent. This also allowed us to save some much needed money, so we jumped at the chance not really considering how cold it might get later on.

A Westport tradition for the Kiwi Experience is to take a late evening bus down to the beach and start a fire. We watched as the Sun set over the sea before looking for some wood to throw on the fire. Things were going really well too. The night sky was one of the best we’d ever seen, clearly showing off the Milky Way in all its glory. Some clever thinking girl thought to bring a bag if marshmallows down with her. She was even kind enough to offer one to each person around the fire. One, that is until Soph stuck her hand in and rather politely came out with half the contents of marshmallows. The girl seemed to consider this for a moment but then smiled and moved on. Never offer your marshmallows to Soph. She will take them. All of them.

Back at our tent we had realised it was a rather silly idea to spend the night freezing to death in order to save ourselves £5. Walking into our tent was like unzipping a porthole to the Antarctic. We had to let two penguins and a family of polar bears out before we could even get in. Thankfully there was plenty of free tea on offer in the kitchen to help us muster up the courage to dive in our beds.

The next morning we wiped away the icicles from our chins and headed to the bus for our next destination, Lake Mahinapoa. Again there is absolutely nothing here. However the story goes that many years ago a Kiwi bus broke down on its way to the glacier town of Franz Joseph. Looking for some help the driver walked into a small pub and asked the owner, Les, if he had room for the passengers to stay the night. He did and was extremely happy to have so many customers. So much so he probably upped the prices and took advantage of them all as much as he possibly could. Anyway from then on Kiwi drivers would pop in to say hi and thank Les for his generosity. This happened so frequently that Kiwi decided to make it a genuine stop on their programme. Unfortunately Les became sick and died a few years later putting an end to the relationship between the pub and Kiwi. Thankfully some bright spark decided there was an awful lot of money to be made and so bought the pub and rekindled the link with Kiwi. So now we stop there again and have a huge fancy dress party in honour of Les. The theme for our fancy dress was bad taste.

At first the girls thought that would mean perhaps something that tastes bad. But no. It meant something disgustingly bad that even Hitler would consider it out if order. In fact some went dressed as Hitler. Some went as used sanitary towels. Some even went as members of ISIS. We weren’t quite that bad. I had considered going as dead Les, the dead guy that used to own the pub, but thought it was perhaps a dash too far. I simply went as Lance Armstrong holding a few paracetamol in a food bag and the girls went as two 14 year old pregnant jezebels. However the best and ultimately the winner of this fancy dress contest were our mates Millie and Kavita. During the day, with me acting as a look out, they snuck into the luggage compartment on the bus and stole two of the Kiwi Experience t-shirts from the driver’s bags. They drew on a bit of facial hair and went as the drivers themselves. Obviously everybody loved this and couldn’t believe they had actually managed to sneak into their bags like they had. It turned out to be a really good night and one I’m sure most people would rather not have any pictures from. I can’t imagine having your family see you dressed as a tampon would be high on anyone’s list.

So we moved on again the following morning pretty early. We had to race down there because our old driver Wazza had lost his keys to the bus while searching for the next 18 year old girl to take back to his room. By the time we got there he was walking around like he had just been smacked and sent to his room. Perhaps he should be. Something for the Kiwi head office to consider.

Right so the last town for today’s blog. The beautiful town of Franz Joseph. Positioned at the bottom of a group of mountains the town is the main stop for people wishing to visit one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world. You can catch a helicopter to the top and walk around on the ice, or you can walk high up the mountain and get as close as you can. Walking around on the top of glacier sounded like possibly the coolest thing ever (coolest…get it) but for the price it would cost I was surprised we wouldn’t be able to keep the helicopter that actually took us there. So instead we set off for a walk.

Our mate Millie was feeling pretty rich so took the easy way up via the helicopter. That left the three of us, Kavita, Ziggy and all her buddies to climb to the top. It is important to point out, as I can’t remember if I haven’t already, that young Ziggy was involved in a pretty awful motorbike accident that left her with a mashed up leg not long before coming away. However it also left her with the ever burning desire to take on all the sorts of activities someone with a bad leg probably shouldn’t be doing. And it was that sort if never say die attitude that not only got her up the mountain, but all of us.

Perhaps the sign at the beginning that said this walk was for experienced mountaineers only should have put us off, but instead it just spurned us all on. This wasn’t just any old walk. It was climbing over huge rocks, jumping across waterfalls, clambering through fallen trees. Along the way we would ask those coming back down how far we had left. Surprisingly this went from half hour to 60 minutes to 90 minutes the closer we got. Nobody seemed to have any idea. Then we came face to face with two boys on their way down. Funny enough they seemed to look similar to some people we’d met in Australia….

…No honestly that really does look like Sam and Will from Fraser Island…

HOLY SMOKES IT IS SAM AND WILL.

There we are half way up a mountain in the middle if New Zealand and we come face to face with people we know. It’s a small world as they say…crazy.

When we eventually reached the summit the glacier was right there in front of us. It wasn’t as good or as close as we hoped but to be honest the walk was worth all the pain. We lost count of the waterfalls we saw falling from the top of the glacier. We even managed to do the whole thing without Ziggy’s leg falling off completely. A huge achievement all round. By the time we got back to the hostel we had been walking for 9 hours and could no long feel our feet. The walk was meant to last a maximum of 6 hours, so what took us so long we don’t know. Perhaps it was the fact we had to save Court and Soph from their deaths as they slipped down the rocks almost every time they stepped foot on one. Perhaps. I don’t know.

Back at the hostel we discovered a whole crew of people that we’d met in Australia were there with Sam and Will. So we spent the evening catching up on how we’d been getting on. It was a great evening.

Ok so that’s that. Made some good progress there. Hopefully things won’t be quite so long tomorrow.

Thanks for following x

Ok, sorry about that. 

I had intended on catching you all up on our New Zealand travels in some back to back blog updates. However we flew to Fiji, got on a boat to I tiny remote little island and found they had no WiFi. Obviously. But now we do so it’s time to crack on. The girls have been pestering me on an hourly basis too, so it’s about time we got back on track. I mean they’re pestering me with some rubbish everyday, just recently it’s been about the blog. In order to catch up this will be a rather long one. So perhaps call your boss and take the day off for it.

Oh oh, and I had my birthday the other day and was totally unable to respond to anyone’s birthday wishes. So thanks if you did. If you didn’t send any then now you have an excuse as I couldn’t have received them anyway. Ta.

So where were we? Are yes. Waitomo and the freezing cold glow worm caves. Our one and only night there was spent in a really nice four bed room in a country style lodge. It also had a pretty cool bar out the back where they brewed their own beer on site. Something we couldn’t possibly miss out on. Soph, Courtney and I, accompanied by our new friend Tommy went down there after our pot noodle dinner to grab a cheeky drink. It was actually a really good evening where we chatted away with the friends we’d made at the glow worm caves. When you travel around from place to place, meeting new faces everywhere you go, you do end up telling the same stories about each other each time. How I left my job at the hotel, how Courtney came out to meet us in Melbourne, how Soph skipped the Indian gene. After a while everyone stops asking and just gets on with their lives without needing to know these things. However it is quite interesting hearing about all the life experiences these 18/19 year old kids think they’ve had. I’m 27 now. These wee youngsters don’t know a thing about life. Now where are my slippers?

Stop 3 was a little town called Rotorua. Unlike Hot Water Beach and Waitomo, Rotorua was actually a town. It had all the things you’d expect to see from a normal town. A supermarket, a park, a McDonald’s drive-through. Yet again, like all the stops in New Zealand, it was famous for one very special thing. It’s geothermal activity. The whole town was under a cloud of hot steam escaping through cracks in the Earth’s surface. Effectively it was where the planet exhaled. Earth’s nostrils if you will. In fact scrap that. It was perhaps more like the planets backside because this town stank like rotten eggs. You could be happily walking down the high street, just about to take a bite into your Quarter Pounder when a stink bomb smacks you right in the face.

I really want to get across the smell of Rotorua, so imagine this if you will. A tale completely made up and 100% not about anyone I know…..You’ve decided to take up a few gym sessions while away at university. With this you start taking protein shakes. You make one but happen to get a call from your dad to say he is outside and ready to pick you up for your Christmas holidays. Unfortunately you forget about your fresh shake and leave it on your window seal in direct sunlight. Upon your return 3 weeks later you discover your now mouldy shake and go to the sink to wash it out. The second you open the lid everyone in the entire city of Portsmouth collapses. The overpowering smell you get from that shake is exactly what Rotorua is like on a daily basis. Apparently you get used to it. We didn’t.

However it was still a really interesting place to visit. With clothes pegs attached to our noses, we walked around in awe as the floor exploded into life all around us. Pools of mud boiling over as jets of water shot up from the ground high above our heads. We’d never seen, or smelt, anywhere like it.

We were lucky enough to spend 2 nights here and enjoy the not quite fresh air. During our first evening Courtney went off with the majority of the bus to an evening of Maori culture. The Maori people were those who settled in New Zealand before Captain Cook came over with all his European cronies. That little dance the All Blacks do before each match, that’s from them. Anyway Soph and I hadn’t the money to join in so we took ourselves into town to see what was going on in Rotorua that evening.

It wasn’t long before we found ourselves in the midst of a Chilean food festival with some live entertainment from Bruno Mars. Obviously it wasn’t him, but this kid was just as good! We tried a few different types of food and Soph got her favourite street dessert of Churros before we headed back to the hostel via the town’s huge lake. Rotorua sits on the edge of the biggest lake I’ve ever seen. It’s so big you would be forgiven for thinking you were by the sea with just a faint glimpse of land on the horizon. But with the weather now wet and horrible, we decided to return to our room.

Next stop was the slightly larger town of Taupo. Our bus was leaving pretty early again and this time we would have a new  driver. Catching a new bus is a bit of a nerve racking thing each time. I imagine it’s a bit like your first day at a new school where everyone has already made friends and the teacher already has their favourite. Our new bus driver was called Wazza. Stupid name. He was alright. But he was quite obviously seeing one of the 18 year old girls travelling with us. Her name was Princess….even the name is enough to make you want to smack her in the face with a pan soaked in honey and a thousand killer bees stuck to it. Her and her friend, who was in total denial that she had in fact turned 40 a few years ago, were the type of people that talk just to be heard. Nobody cares what they are chatting about but we have no choice but to listen as they speak louder than the entire bus combined. You all know those types.

Anyway you may have notice we weren’t their biggest fans. Mainly because they got special treatment wherever they went. I thought about flirting with the bus driver myself but decided I’d rather not become that person the whole bus hates.

So Taupo. Home to more geothermal activity but without the eggy smell. Home to an even larger lake than that of Rotorua, and the North Island’s main adrenaline filled destination. We had arrived on one of the town’s main annual events, Ironman day, so it was busy in town. We arrived pretty early so wanted to make the most of what was currently a pretty sunny day. We grabbed our stuff and a map from reception and headed for what we heard was a must see in Taupo. The hot springs.

By the time we arrived at the springs we had already fallen in love with the town. We had spent a while watching from the top of a river valley as people with much more courage than me jumped off the cliff face attached to a bungy rope. The water below was stunningly blue and the trees along the edges of the river formed the perfect postcard setting.

Having walked down the hill to the hot springs we were now by the edge of the river. We sat down just above it and stared curiously at all the people treading carefully in the knee high water. We saw a large group of people getting up and noticed they all had horrendous sun burn on the backs of their legs and back. It’s barely even been sunny so how on Earth they managed to get that we had no idea. But the second we stepped foot in the water we knew. That wasn’t Sun burn. That was water burn. Just like in hot water beach we could barely keep our feet on the ground. It was unbelievably hot water in the middle of a fast flowing river. There was like an invisible line that split the boiling water and the cold river water so that you could hop between the two when you fancied a change. It really was a strange place but one we couldn’t get enough of.

Feeling energised from our day of lazing in hot spring water we decided to go on a walk further down the river the next day. We travelled high and low along the river’s edge, watching the turquoise water make its way down hill. Along the way we bumped into an elderly couple from Kent, of all places. They were a super nice couple who had moved to New Zealand over 60 years ago and had their children and grandchildren on this side of the planet. I mean they seemed like they hadn’t seen another living person in that entire time because they talked and talked like it was their last day on earth. Which it may have been, they were pretty old. But it was lovely to hear about their adventures together and it certainly put a big smile on our faces.

After what seemed like a lifetime of walking we eventually arrived at the end of our trek. Huka Falls. A group of the most beautiful waterfalls smashing below our feet as we stood on a bridge above them. It was a tough walk in the heat to get there but the view was definitely worth the severe dehydration we suffered from later. Although it didn’t stop us from celebrating one of our newly made friend’s birthdays over a couple of jars that evening. And by jars I mean glasses of water. It’s not cheap out here you know.

Ok so moving on. Our next stop was a rather random place called River Valley. You can probably imagine what was there. A river valley. We were here for just an evening so some people could participate on some kayaking or some horse riding if they so wished. None of us were really bothered by the kayaks and only Courtney was even remotely interested in riding a horse, so we didn’t do much else but eat and sleep here. Personally there isn’t much else we’d rather NOT do than ride a horse. Lots of people, including Courtney, love a good horse. We on the other hand would rather sit in a locked room wearing Lady Gaga’s meat dress while watching a group of hatching T-Rex eggs, than have our coccyx bones beaten to a pulp by a horse’s back. But that’s just us.

What we did do however was sleep in a 32 bed dorm separated only by a makeshift wall from another 32 bed dorm. And these beds were simply a row of matresses positioned next to each other. Nicknamed the orgy room, this was certainly an experience to say the least. Thankfully everyone on our bus was more up for a good night’s sleep that anything else. Almost everyone.

Surprisingly this 64 matress show room turned out to be one of our best sleeps on the island. Funny how things turn out. Quickly moving on we headed for our next stop and our last on the north island. Wellington. The capital city of New Zealand. Having stopped along the way to go on a few different hikes, we only managed to arrive here late in the evening. The usual schedule designed by the Kiwi Experience would have us stay just the night here and leave at 6am . Obviously not enough time to explore such a huge place. So we made sure we had an extra day here to see the place. It was here that we made new friends with a lovely lady called Claire and a great lad called Greg. They’ll be more from them in the next blog.

Having now fully caught up with Courtney’s sister, Ziggy, we met up with her and her group of friends to go on a walk up a hill that would allow us to look over the entire city. Unfortunately the weather was miserable and by the time we had reached the summit we had been swallowed by a giant cloud. So basically we couldn’t see a thing. But instead of moping about we decided to immediately head back down and towards the city’s iconic museum. Something we hadn’t done in any of the different places we’d visited while away.

Of course it had nothing on the London museums but this place really was a superb attempt. There was a ton of stuff on the history of the country and the different animals native to it. Lots on the destruction caused across the country by superstorms and earthquakes. And it even had a cheeky bit of free WiFi in the cafe area. Something all good museums need. And thank goodness they did. While chilling out, checking the Backpacking Live Facebook, Courtney and Soph had received a message from a girl who had been on our bus but had left that morning. Apparently the bus driver Wazza expected us to be on his bus this morning. This was not good news. Surely we hadn’t made a mistake. Surely we hadn’t missed our bus!

Soph was the one in charge of the schedule so we were all looking at here when we heard the news. But she was adamant we hadn’t made a mistake and that we were 100% meant to be on the bus the following day. We rushed back to the hostel to check our paperwork. A walk that felt like a marathon. Soph shaking at the thought of her being wrong. Mainly because of the write up she would have got the the blog if she was. So was she right…

…she WAS! She had been right and it was Kiwi that had mucked up. Thankfully all was rectified by a quick and stern call to the office. Well done Soph, never doubted you for second. Courtney did, but I didn’t!

Unfortunately we hadn’t the time in our schedule to stay any longer in the city so had to move on the next morning. We spent our last evening walking around the main streets in search of a place where Courtney could get her roots done, or something like that. I’m still really not sure why she was so desperate to partake in some gardening when so far away from home but I suppose we all have different interests and hobbies don’t we. We never did find the weed killer she was after but I reckon we weren’t truly looking in the right places.

Anyway so that’s that. Hope you managed to get this far. I am finishing this at around 2am UK time and will post it as soon as possible. I will spend the rest of my day writing the next part so it can go up the next day. But don’t worry about me, I’m sure I’ll get through it sitting here.

Thanks for following x