Back in the cold embrace of Cumbria

Normality, a state of mind? a state of life? Having spent so much longer here at home than on the otherside of the world its easy to slip back into feeling like i have never left- at the same time it doesnt quite seem real. I have dreamed of what it would be like coming home for the past week.
I sit here in the sofa after waking up at 5am from jetlag thinking what do i do now? wheres the rough guide to home?

Homeward bound

Our last night- sharing a room- in a foreign country- in our seriously comforable beds. sad face. For me I swing between excitement and nervousness, arg! Home ; what is that? Next day after one last dip and checking out we headed up to (another) large and famous temple- and found a slightly modern one in downtown Hongkong- This turned out to be quite interesting as it was authentic and not touristy at all! On the way back we came across the original temple we were trying to find on the 3rd attempt. Never have i been choked by so much insense- nearly every worshipper had about 10 sticks now that is surley thats dangerous (im guessing theres not so many buddist asthmatics) . Finally it was time to collect our bags from the concierge and start the long journey home- I can say wholeheartedly that i am thoroughly and incredibly sick to the bones of airports! 24 hours and many security checks, nervous squeals of 'oh my goodness' and 'dont make me go back' we were touch down in heathrow. very strange hearing english voices again- you know when people do impresions of the english voice all upper class and totally over the top? well they dont exaggerate- this is actually to our surprise what English people sound like! After another hour we were running through manchester airport to meet our very excited familys leaping up down with a big ballooon! Home.

HongKong

On refelection we are pretty sure we stayed in a brothel. I will spare you the details but it was definitly the worst place we have stayed bar none. Still after exploring kowloon at night (yet more markets) we really love Hongkong, it has the cleanliness and efficiency of singapore with the relaxed bustle of Bankok. The hotel we are now staying at puts our worn out and saggy clothes to shame as we try and blend- impossible what with my bright red fishermans pants we stick out like hippys at ascot. still they cant stop us from using the roof top pool , hot showers and fresh towels *bliss*. Really the first full day was dedicated to lounging..and cake..and a wonder called television. In the evening we met up with Doug from Nz and he showed us the ferry over to Hongkong island, the best place for pubs and stuff then back over to kowloon for one of it famous currys. We had such a good time reminising and catching up it really was a perfect timing for the end of our trip!
Next day was time for some full scale touristing- we took an incredibly long esculator up the levels in hongkong- it went for miles and must have taken us at least 40 mins to reach the top! the ultimate city accessorie- in the mronign it runs downwards in the afternoon runs upwards- sweet as. From here it SHOULD have been an easy stroll to the tram line- as it was us it involved an hours detour up hill in a vague direction through some backstreets where we eventually ended up following the tram line downwards to find the station so we could go back up again. Even the ride its self was bizzarre- the hill so steep we had to come down backwards; going forwards would mean falling out of your seat! Once again incredible views and a grand day out!

Finger Tapping

The past 48 hours i can only liken to stnading in a very short que for a bus you dont have to take until the next day. we spent 2 hours watching a film but the next 22 consisted of re reading our books..making an ELLE magazine from a piece of scrap paper as we couldnt afford the real thing and trying not to become an icecube in the airports over active air conditioning. As mind numbing as it was it wasnt that bad- at least we were both pretty tired from the night train (another mind numbing 14 hr journey) i just spent the whole time thinking about home now- it feels like one mega 5 day journey just to get there even though we have stopped here in hongkong - like we are just waiting for the next flight..a giant (uber cool) transit lounge! we have checked in to a room i have christened stig of the dump until we can change in to the hotle ems mum has booked us tommorrow..i only need one phrase to provide you with the jist of this place and that is- you can pay by the hour. loverly. Still its only one night and we even have the first tv i've seen in ages (although all it shows is stocks) ..tomorrow tomorrow!

Complications

The day before yesterday we were supposed to head up to Pai unfortunatley Em came down with a horrible virus sickness /thing..next day we were going to head to Pai..then i came down with a horrible virus sickness/thing. Today we were going to head to Bankok but because theres huge demonstrations and protests there right now theres no buses running..brilliant. Thankfully we have managed to get a train down which will arrive the day before our flight - but because of the protests we are going to have to go straight to the airport to avoid it all and generally stay safe. This means a 24 hour stint in an airport for an hour flight. To cap this all off just found out BA airline crew is striking on the days we are supposed to be flying back to the uk..this looks ominous!
On the plus side we have just bumped into a friend we met in singapore and kl! small world..in the meantime what else can we do but fill up the hours with massages..shucks!

Chiang Mai

The journey up north can only be described as unpleasant. We arrived in a garage in the middle of nowhere after a 12 hours on a cramped bus (with broken aircon and no suspension) to be tranferd to some dodgy little taxis which then took us to a hostel in the middle of nowhere from which we had to walk into the centre. It was 7 am by the time we found a hostel but an hour of walking around lost came up trumphs- this place is awsome! Next day we headed straight on on a trek with 5 english guys, to promiscuous dutch girls and a guy from prague- again it was a case of walking in on the meeting and being 'why not?'. It was brilliant- we headed out first to shower under a waterfall then headed over to some hot pools. After this it was a hard four hours walk into the very heart of the jungle, passing through hilltribe villages to where we eventually stopped for the night. This trek was particualerly good because it wasnt big or touristy. The villages genuinly had no electricity apart from the odd solar power..they wash in the river but wow can they cook. In the evening we sat around and drank 'happy water' ( rice wiskey) very potent stuff and sang with the villagers on guitars. Our guide was quite the character and soon had us eating chilli peppers, fresh cucumbers and other bizzar things. next morning we groggly woke up from our surprisingly comfortable floor beds and headed out for our elephant trek.. Such beautiful creatures we named ours dame farnu trumphs-alot she was very amusing and a pleasure to have riiden on her back- these elephants really belong to the village but now in a cadged way..they are free to roam then the villagers track them down when they are needed the next day. Half way down our river path we switched from animal to bamboo raft for a bit of rapid riding. Again brilliant fun, especially as up in arms about the fact that only the guys were supposed to steer i took over control and epic failed as i crashed us into a rock which sent me and 3 ours sprawled flat on our faces in the river and raft wedged so much we had to get our and try and lift it against the current. such a blast a we spent the next 2 hours crashing falling in..tipping the raft ..throwing each other in and trying to do tricks with the bamboo sticks..so much so that our raft actually broke and we had to hold it together!! sadley the trip came to an end as we headed back into chiang mai, all falling asleep in the back of the truck em had us in hysterics as she performed an impression of a nodding dog in her sleep!
Last night we met back up withg the 5 english guys and we headed over to this bar called river side where they had some awsome live music. Back in at 2.30am ( well most of us ) we were up early again this morning to spend the day at a cooking course. This was a mixed bag..the food and instruction was very interesting but we didnt really get properly hands on till later in the day where we had great fun fryinmg with fire (and throwing food about the place) still i can now make a good selection of curries, spring roles padthai and make a flower out of mango skin..useful? hmm still cant wait to try out my new skills!

Bankok

I have to say i actually really like Bankok, It has a nice buzz about it but is far more tame than we expected it to be ( unless you go looking for trouble) . Until today we remained only mildly bemused by the people trying to sell us stuff-they were friendly and just trying to make a living, However we caught a glimpse of the more sinister side as em decided to take us on a 'tuk tuk adventure' Ie she wanted to experience what all the storys about dodgy tuk tuk rides were..so we got on one ( i followed begrudgingly) . He took us to one store on the way to the market we wanted to go (what harm could it do?). I sat and watched as this salesman went from friendly to persausive, to wheedling, to badgering, to acting offened , to becoming postively aggressive..it could have been a horrific situation if there hadnt been so many other people in the store. Personally i cant handle it at all..the reason why i didnt want to do it in the first place.. anyways our escape method was confusing both him and us with our arguments then running for the exit which seemed to be quite effective. The stupid thing was the salesman was actually offering a good deal- if he had let me gone away and though about the dress i wanted made then come back i probably would of..aggressivness is just scary!! ( not worth the half price tuk tuk drive!) The market we eventually arrived at was well worth it though. really really enjoyable! Now just time for one last pad thai before our 12 hour bus ride up to chiang mai!

haggling with time

after 48 hours without sleep we arrive bankok at 5 in the morning in the zone between day and night were drunks sleep on the corners of kosan road and the hawkers are both packing up and setting up. after 4 attempts we find a place to stay albeit it a 'closet' as described by jordi ( who decided to go for the flashpacker route this time) we decided since we were already up that we may as well go sight seeing- temples, the river, a bird being set free just to be eaten by a cat.. me and em were very proud that we got an incredible bargain form a taxi driver to take us to the quantas office to sort out our flights.. so now we have to come home. 2 weeks !! only 2 weeks..itsa crazzzyyyy to quote ems dodgy mario accent. we have decided to stick the rest of our time out here in thailand- there just simply isnt time or money to go to the other countrys pretty gutted but it will give me and excuse to come back! its so strange looking back at how quickly this time has passed.. a month ago today we had just arrived in singapore- 2 months ago we were in nelson newzealand meeting up with iona and 3 months ago we had just got off the plane to auckland. what a trip! but now is not the time for reminisence i have 2 weeks with very little money to spend and adventures still to be had and people to meet! ( we may be seeing doug again in hongkong! yay)

The Island trap

The problem with being in a place such as this is one doesnt want to leave- for 4 days we sunbathed (em sunburnt..tango styleee) snorkelled, icecream..the odd pinocoldada at a rasta bar round the corner ( weve made friends with the bar staff..probably the most laid back staff in the world..a measure is just a shot..they even made us our own cocktail!) sometimes we would head down the other end of the island to catch a fire show ( guys doing show off things with flaming sticks) and for a bit of a boogie- On the 5th day our feet were itching and we were palnning to hit the orad but Jordi, a dutch guy we have been travelling with on the island came down with a very high fever and couldnt even sit up in bed and we could just leave him by him slef so we stayed a couple of extra day until he recovered. I never thought i would get sick of paradise but its just to nice here to be interesting! So anyways since we were here we though we may as well stay for last night which was the full moon party over in ko phananag, Leaving our stuff here in ko toa we trekked over and spent the day there , exploring a far more exploited area. As the sunset we came acroos a tiny resort bar and stopped for pre party drinks , falling in with the crowd there ( some norweigens, an irish couple the smae age as us and a few others) we chatted, watched the dogs chase each other and made merry until we caught the cab over into what i can only describe as a night of mayhem.. People everytwhere ( and body paint everywhere else) by the time we hit the party at midnight there were already people asleep on the floor being danced on or trodden on- waves of people were being pushed out to dance in the sea- so many sound systems the music blurred into one as we clutched our buckets of samsung( potent thai wiskey) and danced away- earlier in the night we had purchased some hippy pants- my camera was in the pocket of these (along with jordis memory card) and unfortunatly bounced out to join the crowd..never to be seen again - and this was before i was actually drunk. Gutted. Totally. i spent ages scouring the beach for it. >useless< still these things happen. The rest of the night continued in an epic but wierd way- i made friendswith some random welsh as our group took it inturns to loose each other... we danced and danced and watched the runrise on the otherside and naked people frolicked in the ocean..we heard the speakers blare out for the after party and still they danced on. What a night.. we arrived nakered, beaten, dirty and covered in flouresent paint just in time for the 8.30 ferry back to ko tao. ledge.

A piece of paradise

This place has come straight of a postcard and into reality, one glance produces at sigh of content..*and relax* which is just what we needed to do..especially after our journey up here! on Sunday we eventually managed to get our thai visa and head over the border- arrving at the train station just in time to jump n the delayed early train as it pulled out of the station..as we stood in the corridor a though a occured along the lines of oh **** weve just boarded a 13 our train ride with no food drink or entertainment..arg! i was already so thurst i went up to the first (non armed) guard and asked where i could get some water..they only sold beer..beer it is! The army guys protrolling the train then proceeded to laugh at the britishg girls who had started drinking already at 11 in the morning..i feel somewhat pushed into this typical english stereotype! Anyways after a sleepless 13 hours of dashing out to sheck the station stop everytime we pulled up ( as we had no concept of time and or a way of finding out) we arrived in chumphon at 3am, to sit on the platform with a random bunch of travellers waiting to get the next set of transport to Koh tao the next morning.
Needless to say it made this place all the more heavenly when we got here!- for the first time me and em have our own room..with balcony 2 mins from the water..on a quiet little bay called sharks bay..i have even seen a shark! we have great snorkling the clearest water i have ever seen and well, ife really doesn' get much better than this...

Throw those curtains wide

As it turns out, it was actaully one of the best couple of days weve had- Russel a kiwi we met in Kl met up with us and took us on a whole host of adventures . he is what he likes to call an experience junkie and we tagged along. First up we met this local called Abu who took us round the city by night in his car - serenaded by the crazy frong album! he took us to a huge down town market, then out to the beach ( a more local malay version of blackpool minus the roller coasters) here we came across a group of all ages having a jam - we were immediatly scooped up into the hubub- handed instruments and played..it was alot of fun and far less intimidating than the expeirence with local we had had before! heading back to the hostel we arrived at 10 minutes to 12- the supposed closing time to find they had locked us out and that there were several gates meshes and padlocks that were just not going to let us in- dashing back to where we left Russel we managed to catch him and crash at his hostel-which the obliging owner let us do for free.
Next day we headed out to a small coastal village that russel had been recommended- again we hopped on bus with no real idea where we were going just a name..one the bus driver didnt recognise- he actaully stopped the bus several times to ask people were this place was! eventually he dropped us somewhere random..we meandered along in a vague direction- eventually a band of teenage boys rocked up on mopeds and escorted us to a random car which said they would give us a lift.. turns out it was only round the corner! Here we bumped into another Abu who offered to teach us to surf- as there were quite alot of muslim school children around me and em felt we would have to do it fully clothed and that it would be an impossible task so while russel went for it we struck up a game of frizzbee with the local kids, it was really really grate watching them slowly come out of their shyness and join in until we were all leaping about all over the place..they all waved and called as we had to leave but we left them the frizzbee ..they had obviously never come across one before. After a spot of questionable food Abu took us on a tour through his qaintly ramshackle village..goats cats and cow roamed free- there was a monkey sitting eating watermelon on an old fridge and hundred of fish laid out to fry amounst the rustic fisher boats. Beautiful. At one point we stopped at his friends house as the boys called out to russel to play footy- they produced tea and a traditional malay marble game which i tried and failed to conquer, we finished the trip by meeting Abus 90 year old grandmother, an amazing lady who we found crosslegged on the porch of the house with her cat.
This is the type of traveeling that we really want to do..and all the time it was waiting round the corner for us.
Back in khota bharu, we headed to this amazing nightmarket for food then round the corner to a bar..i say bar i mean table out side a garage in a backstreet - drinking is actually illeagl here as its a muslim state but they have to be leaneant towards the chinease but it certainly makes it more entertaining know that if they were caught there would be lashings and canings involved. seriously. Yesterday we stopped via an off lisence which was litterally a dodge iron gate which you made the exchange through, Russel bought alhol for a group of 19-28 yrs old..they passed around a beer with a straw between them. It really is a whole different world.

Kotu Bharu

Kota Bharu for a city has very little in it. Even the jungle had more places to eat than here! Worst of all we have to stay for another 2 days as the muslim weekend means that the thai embassy is shut friday-saturday. Already we have resorted to buying colouring books to while away the hours... nothing like a good bit of old fashioned fun eh?
Had a real interesting breakfast on the way back from the embassy..tea that tasted like chocolate as it was sweetend with condensed milk..toast which was crispy bread buttered with some weird sticky stuff and a 'half boiled egg' which i presumed to mean soft boiled. How wrong; It was so runny i actually checked that it was hot. served in a bowl with some vinegar..i swear there was even a raw egg mixed in as well..just for good measure. In typical fashion i ate it..if locals and body builders can do it then so can i.. apparently no i cant. yuk. Em is already ill..currently in bed with what we think is a mild migraine. this is going to be a very looong long couple of days.

Im a celebrity- get me out of here!

In the last couple of days we have been papped more than britney on a bad day- sometimes sly, sometimes they actually ask..we were mobbed be a group of 20 guys whilst swimming in a river and had to make a hasty exit (and even then we were swimming fully clothed!)..hence now 'im a celebrity' is now our code word for suddenly becoming very interested in the opposite direction! minus this bizarre part of being in the middle of a muslim country the jungle has been amazzzzing, starting with our 3 hour boat to get to the heart of the tasman nagara reserve were we saw crocs, huge lizards and a double rainbow..always a good sign. weve done a bit of trekking here and there but didnt venture out for more than a days walk fom camp simply because hiring a guide was to expensive and even with compass we got lost on the short walks. We did do a night safari..saw some boars, byson..birds and what our guide swore was a 'leopard' cat, though i maintain it was just a cat..bit dissapointing but i got to zoom along sitting on the roof of a truck under the stars so it was still pretty cool!
Me and em spent a very quite chinease new year and valentines day in the main village ..on one side of the river was the posh peoples resort and a boat ride away on the other was the village with the locals where we stayed(who are all very friendly..though our hostel guys were slightly obsessed with eric clapton songs) ..anyway in the middle they had a selection of floating barges which was pretty cool! we became very addicted to the pancakes at one of these (it was that or rice for breakfast) so we actually managed to have pancakes on pancake day..success!
Last night we took the night train to kota baru on the thai border..it was supposed to arrive at 2.30am but was 2 hours late..yup 4.30 am train...ouch..we arrived four hours late..luckily we are travelling on whim and had nothing planned but to explore the city.. which we tried..but then became to self concious as all our clothes are in the wash apart from our skirts that dont quite cover our knees..as mundane as that is in england i feel quite the hussy here!! oh my! ( just so you know the pic above is actually my best elephant impression..not a random spasm)

Stomache Vs. food

Food = not good..I've had one instance doubled up with stomach pain..another woke up in the middle of the night feeling incredibly ill and now i've got such a bad headache after eating some noodles and dumplings that i'm contributing it to msg. It's enough to make me want to eat macdonalds for the rest of my stay here! bleurg. On the upside the food did taste really good at the time! KL is ruthlessly hot, even my sweat is sweating..I don't want to move or do anything and when we do it's by playing leapfrog with the shadows. As expected its nowhere as clean as Singapore though has a more natural hustle and bustle about the place. The hostel just about borders on ok, though I expect the worst is yet to come..although its clean the beds are deadly uncomfortable and me and Em have mega cracking sessions when it sounds like our spines have been replaced by a set of Chinese fireworks!! We are based in China town, its pretty quite during the day but becomes a glowing market at night..my first attempt at bargaining was successful in the fact that Imangaged to purchase some sunglasses but I was completely ripped off. Damn my white skin ..I paid 50 ringits (about a tenner but there where some round the corners for 5 times less. do'h) still gotta start somewhere! As it is me and Ems age and race means we are targets for everyone trying to sell something.. people actually stare at Em's hair because its so rare to be blonde..very very creepy! hair dye maybe purchased soon!!

visa fail take 3

Ok, someone out there reeaaally doesn't want us to go to China..seriously..attempt 3 at getting a visa failed epically..why? because we didn't have a plane ticket into the country..they don't seem to understand the concept of a train...why they couldn't have told us this yesterday I don't know..the lack of info is seriouly redic..I even checked the embassy website 3 times and it mentions nada. well fine, they've just lost out on our tourism! current plan is now to bypass Vietnam and China go straight to Kl tommorrow, head up through t

Thailand loop round Laos then head back to Bankok and fly to Hongkong. Much much more simple. So that makes this our last unexpected day in Singapore..have we done anything epic? no..we played scrabble then I went off on the scooter tour for the 2nd time (we went different places) while em 'stayed to explore little India' but got coerced by our room mate into cocktails. ooh its a hard life. I never thought I would like Singapore this much but I will be very sad to leave it.. its like London but calmer and hotter..my hair is almost at Monica level due to the humidity but I will go back home loving the cold again!

Awsome weekend #12

Ten out of ten for flukey finds, Calvin Harris was on at a local club ..I found out 2 hours before hand..we went it was awsome..biggest club i've ever been to, jam packed, free drinks, dry ice blasts, amazing sets. Only 25 dollars entry which is about 12 quid! wouldnt get that in England!! it would have been 15 if we had got there before 10 but we got a little lost..ok a lot lost until we gave in and took a taxi! Pretty sweet we rolled back about 4.30 am, sat outside and chatted until we all fell asleep.. sunday was a nice do nothing day in which the only time I stirred from my beanbag seat was for food runs ( noodles crackers and chocolate milk nom) At about 6 we headed out on a free scooter tour of Singapore with a crew from our hostel. I've never had some much fun on wheels!! we went miles for hours, stopped and a hawkers for dinner ( a collection of authentic street stalls) slarlemed round pillars fell off, laughed at each other.. manoeuvred through a very crowded china town and generally just had a blast.. so buzzy when we got back at 11 that we headed out for a few drinks and ended up in this karaoke club..its such a big thing over here..apparently its used a lot to impress clients in business meetings! Anyways we got this funky little room to ourselves, got some jugs in and caused chaos until very early this morning. Erg 3 hours sleep then queing for visas was not the best thing we could have done! ( we didn't succeed but that's more to do with the fact we didn't actually know where we were going in China. They really don't make this easy for us!)..back tomorrow..fingers crossed for 3rd time lucky!!

When in singapore..do as the singaporeans do..SHOP!

Lets put it this way..there are the same amount of shopping malls as there are hotels in Singapore. That's a lorra lorra shops.. over the past 2 days everywhere we seem to go has lead us to a shopping centre( o dear) I think I have just done more window shopping than I have ever done in my life..and spent almost nothing because everything is ridiculously expensive! To while away our hours wandering around these mazes, me and Em have compiled the following
most frequent shops: body shop and star bucks
shop we were most pleased to see: cotton on ( the equivalent of primark..well almost)
Most unusually frequent: Chanel..there are like a gazillion outlets of it.
deduction: clothes aren't nearly as slutty here.. la Senza is like a grannys store..but they do have an obsession with bras ( Singapore Elle was full of them)..
Singapore smells amazing though..mostly because there is food where ever you go..we came across the most amazing Donut shop..Hargen Daas also has its own shop..oh happy days!! Its cool that everything's posh..we got free leather luggage tags just from going to the tourist info! well everywhere except where we are staying in Little India..which is a jumble of colourful and odd little shops much more akin to those I expect we will see in thailand!
The build up to Chinese new year is getting under way and there's lots of buzz to the city! Just as well as we maybe staying here a while until we can get out visas for china after the weekend!

You have No Idea

To be honest, I have only just stopped shaking. Yesterday contained 3 hours which I can safely describe as the worst 3 hours of my life so far.
Arrived at check-in for our flight to Singapore to find that the desk wouldn't let us board because our flight out of Hongkong was not enough proof to show that we would be moving out of Singapore before our visa expired. Which is ridiculous because its a long way to Hongkong so obviously we would have to be moving on. From then on it was down hill. Tourist info wouldn't help us because they only delt with domestic travel- even when I came to them in floods of tears they were about as much use as a chocolate teapot. They directed us to the internet, But it was Neanderthal and expensive and would only let us open one window at a time..if we could only book our train tickets to Kaula Lumpur we would be sorted, but the Malaysian train website was incredibly difficult to use and I could not get the form to work for me..in the end I decided it was faulty. Next I tried the bus website. still no luck. I rang the train line..the number didn't work..I rang the bus line..they refused to send email conformation. We were running out of time, my hands were shaking from adrenaline- already I had had hysterics down the phone to mum .. Em rang the airline our only choice was to change our Hongkong flights to a month earlier. After an age on hold they said her card had been declined- we think the bank cancelled it because of so much use abroad. We switched roles..Em had hysterics. Thankfully I had been threw the panic then anger and the hysterics and was now quietly resigned to the fact that there was no way we were going to get this flight. I called Dad. he suggested booking a flight..but there was no time..we had 20 mins til the plane left. Suddenly stupidly easy idea occured..With dads credit card we were able to change the flights..we arrived at the gates with 3 minutes to spare.

This was a drama on top of the other dramas..such as having to leave my memroy card behind..my email crashing so I couldn't get the hostel address..my Singapore card refusing to top up.. and it was capped off by the fact a fellow traveller on the flight wasn't even asked for his proof..and they didn't even check at the other end.

Still at Sydney my email was running and I managed to get the address and received a note from Marc saying he had found my memory card. ( I Knew karma couldn't be that evil).

At present we could well be coming home a month early but for now we are here in Singapore the sun is shining and we had free eggs for breakfast.

asta la vista pictures

Unfortunately Marc didn't get my message telling him to post my memory card. He gave it to the bus driver to drop off. Which they didn't. I knew this would happen. Now thats 4GB of photos down the drain. kaput. vamoshed.
I was thoroughly miserable about this yesterday, but you know cest la vie! between Em, Facebook and the others I should be able to piece to gather most of the ones I lost..it's just my special ones really. gutted.
Still me and Em are back in town having a giggle and preparing for the next steps out of here. Its very good to see her again! Christchurch is lovely and sunny, with gorgeous parks and a really nice hostel. The traveling will continue on.

Kia ora Kiakoura

After a couple of days in Kiakoura i'm back to Christchurch to meet Em in approx 1 hour 25 mins (by train -how novel!). Kiakoura is beautiful- it has this sprawling bay, blue sky thing going on- we have some stunning views of the sunset and of the full moon ( unfortunately I wasn't able to take pictures) . I've tried a disappointing whitebaite pattie- it was basically just a slightly fishy tasting omlette. Total rip off for 8 dollars, although it was a lovley walk to get there ( I can't say the same for the way back- I think I suffered from mild sunstroke, it was very very hot) and that basically sums up my time here- At first I was pretty lonley traveling by myself but met some nice people yesterday eve and today which was better than my original bus! I cant believe my time with Kiwi has finished. No more travel on the bright green bus. I may be slightly sad but im also excited , been reading up on all my South East Asia destinations! BRING IT ON!

Things I lost in Queenstown

Twenty five bangles,
A comb,
My camera case,
A hoop earring - found again after I threw away the other,
Some of my memory,
The last of my white English skin,
The key to my room,
My shampoo,
Emily,
my sight (blindfold, nothing sinister)
My sunglasses,
the skin from my taste buds.

and now I have just realised Marc didnt give me my memory card back..its still in his computer. Poo.

Going it Alone

On Wednesday I cast my self out of Invercargill ready to make the trek up north dons solo, well I say that but its not really be alone- from Invercargill to Queenstown I got chatting to a local kiwi guy, which was actually alot of fun and different as for once it wasnt the reoccuring conversation about travel - where you from , where you going, how long blah blah blah, From there I then met Maja a girl I did the east as with, well I say met but that is an overstatment as although Queenstown is still smaller than Cockermouth it took me a good hour to actually locate where she was waiting for me next to the lake!! I also met some of the nomads crew from the last time we were staying and hit the town with them. Today has been insanely long- 3 hours sleep getting up at half seven for the bus which we were on until we arrived here in christchurch at 6.00 pm . ouch. and I was seated next to a very unchatty Dutch girl . Finally managed to get off the bus and locate my bags and I immediately bump into Marc- who I had been travelling with earlier but had gone ahead! It's a funny thing this travelling lark. I'm not looking forward to the next two days before I meet up with Em on the 31st as they could potentially be very long if I only have me to keep me company! Hopefully i'll be a bit more energetic in the friends making department tomorrow! Received text from Sarah earlier- apparently today's job was herding sheep and one managed to head butt Anna! Frolicks on the farm huh! zzzzzz

Day 5 in the Merry South

Yesterday we took a road trip back up north to a place called Alexander..it was extremely hot (30c hot) to hot to even explore the town properly so we crashed in a park, explored a market, climbed a brief hill to a random and massive hillside clock and gorged our selves on freshly picked cherries: Under influence of which we gradually meta-morphed into large blue/black monsters.
This was exactly what we needed as the day before we had done 2 hours of back wrenching labour digging a large trench followed by a bike ride..and today we continued this task, transporting rubble - the highlight of which was getting to drive Annas four wheel truck -and by drive I mean have very near misses with gate posts, as not only was it the first time I had driven an automatic but it also had a large trailer attached to the back. In no way did I knock over the gate *ahem*.
So to recap..since i've been here I have broken the tv, crashed the computer..had an accident with a gate and fallen through a rotten step..OOPS! hehe. This place is still awsome though- This morning Foster took us over to Riverton..there was nothing at Riverton but it was nice of him to take us all the same! (His son drove us to bluff..his son who hadn't actually passed his test yet - to say he hadn't quite mastered the gear stick would be an understatement..not so good on a near vertical hill!)
Unfortunately for me Foster ruined my dream, clarifying the fact that there is no such thing as shilammas or shiraffs and that I had been duped for a whole month into believeing that there was by my ex bus driver. pah!

Southland:Home of the Brave, Free and Mulleted

This is now my third day down in Invercargil, the southern tip of New Zealand ( and place the rest of NZ takes the piss out of for various haircuts). Me and Sarah took a detour down here for a week to do some woofing, leaving the others back in Queenstown. We are staying in a bungalow with our host Anna about 10 minutes from the centre- its pretty sweet! we basically can help ourselves to anything, get our own rooms in return for helping out here and there- so far we did some research for her, then dug a trench. It great to be out in the countryside again and this place is alot like England, Only downfall is I can't handle being alone anymore!! For the past two nights i've had to hug a pillow as the room has just been far to empty..i'll resent being back in a dorm soon enough though! We have only got about 10 days left here before we move on to South East Asia, these weeks have literally flown by but I feel like i've know the people I have been travelling with all my life! I guess we are essentially living with people 24/7! People here are lovely though..Anna's friends have volunteered to take us on some day trips so we are jetting about all over the place. It's very refreshing to be off the tourist track and just be well- normal again!

Queen of Queenie

In case you havn't already heard Queenstown is pretty Awsome. No. VERY awsome. Yesterday we hit Milford sound, possibly the most beautiful place on earth and we had clear blue skies for it as well- apparently a very rare sight! I'm not even going to try and describe this further because absolutely nothing does it justice!
Today was pretty immense too- totally chillaxed ( so much so that I fell asleep in the sun and now look like someone's been playing a game of slaps with my stomach!) we watched buskers in the market, went for a very very quick dip in an 8c lake then roasted in the sun under the sound of a free music festival in the park and went for a FREE BBQ! If you are ever in Austraila or NewZealand Nomads is the place to stay- everyone is incredibly friendly and there's so much going on! never have I had so little sleep!
A couple of days a go we went to play Frisbee golf..I may have already mentioned this but its so good I will just say it again! it involves getting a Frisbee into a basket , very difficult, very funny!
We only have 16 days left of NZ now! I cant believe it! Next week i'm off down to Invercargill with Sarah to do some WOOFing and generally catching up on my sleep and sanity, Em will continue with Kev and Paul then i'll meet them up in Christchurch! good times!

Cocktails in Queenie

This is now my 3rd day in beautiful Queenie a.k.a Queenstown! It is definitely living up to it's name of party capital. It was Em's birthday on Monday which of course we had to celebrate!! - although I didn't actually see her at that point she spent the day with Kevin and went to a local funky cinema in Wanaka ( which is an awful lot like Cumbria). Meanwhile back in Queenstown we did a blind leading the blind pub crawl with the rest of our hostel which was immensely funny- since then you keep meeting random people and recognising their voice thinking- did I speak to these people whilst blindfolded? On Tuesday Em arrived and we had about half an hour of jumping up and down shrieking everything that happened over the past few days.. we went out to celebrate at World Bar ( they do teapots full of shots) and met up with some people we had met the night before.

Now everyone in the group I was travelling with has dispersed a bit- Sarah's staying at a mates, Luke's gone to Christchurch and the rest of the boys down to Dunedin. We are going to hang about in queeny for about 5 days- we have a lot more time than expected as we did the west coast so quickly! So hopefully we will catch up with the guys on their way back from the south coast!

From Fire to ICE

Today we hiked up the Franz Joseph glacier- I say hiked when it was more of a climb. It was totally amazing and gorgeous and strange to think that this time last year I was studying it from a text book. It was hard work especially as we were in the advanced group and we were the first group of the day so we had to hack out our steps with an axe before we continued. Its astounding how ice can be both so powerful and beautiful- I might even say that this was better than the skydive?! We saw ice caves, huge crevasses and bottomless pools it was excellent weather the sun shined and we generally just had fun trying not to fall over our crampons (which i did frequently) or fall down pot holes ( a few near misses) . Great day but i'm truly knackered now..time to go warm my bones in the jacuzzi ..mmmmm

Poo pub and Pancakes

Let me introduce you to an enemy of mine, they are bigger than midges, stealthier and really like my blood. First name sand, second name fly and they are driving me crazzzzzzy. I now have so many bites it looks like I have a weird disease all over my leg! Oh well, its totally worth being on the west coast despite this! For the last couple of nights we have been travelling between mountains, rainforest and the wild wild sea on my way down the country from Nelson. It's been very different as I have been travelling by myself ( well I left Em for a couple of days in Nelson and she is going to catch me up in a bit). I say by myself but we have an ace crew on the bus so it's more like me and 27 others! Its been soooo much fun, unlike the other trips there are quite a lot of people my age so i'm no longer the baby of the group!
We have jumped in an icecold lake, seen the pancake rocks , done a bit of walking.. last night we had a fancy dress party at lake mahun-something.. a place nicknamed the poo pub with this crazy old 84 year old owner. It was pretty insane, our theme was bin bags so we all looked like we were dressed in knock off pvc! Anyways we ended up walking up to the lake to see the glowworms at insane am in the morning, generally had no sleep but a lot of fun. Was not a pretty sight this morning though! To cap our tired and hungover heads off they took us to this really bizarre hunting museum where they showed us a video about catching and shooting deer- it was disgusting, dirty , smelt like dead animal and very unpleasant! I have no idea why they took us there- but i guess its all about new experiences . Serves me right for trying venison the night before!

Right now i'm in Franz Jospeph - it's quite cold as it's a glacial area- tommorow we are actually going trekking up the glacier to see ice caves and what not! I cant believe all this climatic difference!

Hey this wine bottle has a hole in it....they just dont make them like they used to!

Today was ace..we have moved into a different hostel round the corner then went off for the day to visit Iona- an old school friend in her house outside Nelson . It was great to have a catch up an good old reminisce! After she dropped us off back in town we headed out to the jazz and blues festival which was really good. we had one of those iconic moments while sitting on the grass with newspaper over our heads in the pouring rain and listening to some kick ass jazz when you just end up thinking this is so wonderfully random! Fav moment ever when the guy next to us said the title of this post! it was great people watching, I have never seen anybody dance like that!! For jazz fans ( ie robin) we had some quite famous( or so they said musicians) somebody TK junior? I've lost the programme and ant remember their names sadly.. but I will find out as they were sweet as! best 5 quid spent so far!