So, this is the end...We've travelled across the world, slept in over a hundred different beds (not together) and experienced awesomeness such as:
Partying in Bangkok; Ping-Pong shows; Full Moon party; diving in Koh Tao; trekking, Elephant riding, star gazing and Tiger cuddling in Chiang Mai; slow boat to Laos; tubing; riding the worst mopeds known to man; tubing again; 27 hour bus journey from hell to Hanoi; Halong Bay; attempting to cross roads in Vietnam; crawling the Viet Cong Cu-Chi tunnels; shooting a rifle; Angkor Wat; Hiring a camper-van called Helen; damaging Helen; Frasier island; great barrier reef; attempting to order a drive-thru McDonald's in an imaginary car; Betty the ball; surfing; Nimbin; Magnetic Island; Helen being broken into; Cape Tribulation; Campbell Town; Sand-dune boarding; Meeting Arj Barker; Jumping off the Sky-Tower; White Water-rafting; losing my shin on the luge; Alpine crossing; meeting glow-worms; Wellington pub-crawl; sitting inside a replica Whale-Heart; kayaking in Abel Tasman; pouring pints in Greymouth; Spending all my money; Borrowing money; Sky-diving, kayaking and Glacier walking in Franz Josef; Borrowing more money; My Birthday, and getting freaked out in Puzzlingworld in Wanaka; Highest Bungee in NZ, Frisbee golf, Fergburger in Queenstown; star-gazing at Lake Takepo; and swimming with Dolphins in Kaikoura.
My bucket-list has taken a pounding.
It wouldn't have been as amazing if I hadn't met so many awesome people, so below Ive attempted a list of credits. Obviously, it would be impossible to name everyone, but here is my best shot:
Credits (in no particular order):
South-East Asia
Ning
Chonticha
Nook
Tom Meaney
Jenny
Katie
Bird
Mr B
Discount Lady
The Canadian Couple
French Ambassadors
Jan and Dee
Kristin
Ulrike
Scouse Couple
Danish Couple
Sun
Kimberley
Hetty-Kate
Australia
Margot
Jess
Cassie
Babs
Kaya
Jayde
Seb
Phil
Cobby
Dave
Tom Meaney (again)
Tom's family
The Posh Girls
Andreas
Christoff
Dana
James
Nicole
Byron
Lisa
Nina
Fiona
Sandy
Hilde
Marlotte
Tom, Tina and the kids
New Zealand
Jules
Mark
Liv
Peter
Arj
Alison
Zoe
Rachel
Watumba (Jainita)
George
Nick
Dan
Jashan
Niamh
Simone
Rose
Harriet
Nicola
Shane
Chebchenko
Park Ji Sung
Matthius
Aaron
Jessica
Charlotte
The Wolf-Pack:
Sarah Leydon (Queen Wolf)
Rob Sutherland (Flappy-Headed Wolf)
Chris Pearson (Steel Wolf)
Craig Farr (Grumpy Wolf)
Me (Hairy Wolf)
So that's it, I'll probably do another blog in a day or two to describe what its like returning from a big trip.
Massive thanks to everyone named above, and others who I may have missed out by accident.
A special thank you to my parents for helping me out big-time which has allowed me to do everything Ive wanted.
And, of course another thank you to everyone who has read my blog.
Look forward to seeing you all,
Jay
Thursday 23 June 2011
Sunday 19 June 2011
Full Loop
Hey everyone, so been a while since the last blog, here goes...
The last couple of days in Queenstown were awesome, we went and played frisbee golf at the park...They have 18 holes set up around a big old park by the water...each hole has a tee, obstacles and this big metal cup with chains on that you aim for. All you have to do is have a frisbee and you're good to go. We hired them for like 2 pounds so it was cheap as. And absolutely ledge...so much so that we went again the following day, this time taking Sarah along with us. Had a grand craic.
After the golf, we hit the famous Fergburger, a little burger place in Queenstown that apparently do the best burgers ever. And Ive got to say, it was amazing. Ive never eaten a bigger burger in my life (obviously the men all went for the biggest one money could buy, with a big portion of chips on the side) and Sarah (the Queen wolf) had some poncey-woman-chicken-burger. It became a battle towards the end, powering through every last little bit. I think we got through a tree's worth of napkins as well. We all felt ridiculous by the end of it, but it was incredible.
So, the following day we got on the bus (late) to Dunedin...the driver was a bit pissed off, but the wolf-pack just alpha-maled him into letting us off. Dunedin, is one of the most populated places in NZ, with 20% being students. We thought that fact, along with it being a Saturday, was a good excuse to go out. So we did, and it was a pretty good night, good bars and loads of people out...The only problem was that we got to sleep at around 6am, and the bus was coming at 8am to take us to Lake Takepo...We were late again, which annoyed the guy even more (as it was the same bloke) ... This was made worse when we turned up at Sarah's hostel and she wasn't anywhere to be seen. The guy decided to go, and about 10 mins later, Chris gets a call from the Queen-wolf saying she'd just got up. We managed to get the driver to go back and pick her up. I don't think we were his favourites.
Lake Takepo, is a rather good looking place..a tiny little township on the edge of a bright blue lake, with a couple of mountains here and there. We stayed for a few nights, went on some walks around Mt John and relaxed by the fire playing with the kittens. As there is hardly any light pollution there, the view of the stars is unbelievable, so at night, we'd rap up, make a cup of tea and head down to the lake to lay down and look at the night-sky. Sounds super gay, but it was awesome.
After Lake Takepo, we headed to Kaikoura. On the way, is the stop off in Christchurch. They used to do overnight stops there, but due to all the earthquakes, most of the hostels are non-existent. So usually, people only get off if they have flights. Sadly, Sarah did have a flight so we had to say goodbye to the Queen-wolf...emotional times.
Kaikoura is pretty much amazing...its right on the ocean, and is famous for its whale watching and dolphin swimming. The hostel was awesome as well...good film collection (always good), Hot tub, sauna, swimming pool, open fires, 3 kitchens, pool tables etc. and all for just 12 pounds a night..insane. The place was called Dusky lodge (definitely recommend to anyone who is going there). Due to money being incredibly low, I managed to get a little gig there: 3 hours of general cleaning a day which got me free accommodation. Im no Stephen Hawking, but I managed to work out that I would be on 4 pounds an hour.
Luckily, the first day I worked for 2 hours, and the other day I only worked for 1 hour and 20 mins. So it all worked out well in the end. My job was hoovering, which Ive had limited experience doing. But this hoover is one of them where you strap it to your back, like a rucksack and walk about like a Ghost-Buster cleaning shit up. It wants too bad, and I looked flipping awesome.
The main event of Kaikoura, however, was the dolphin swimming. You go out on a boat at silly o'clock in the morning, all wet-suited up (as the water is flippin freezing) and go looking for the Dusky Dolphins. Luckily it wasn't long before we found the first pod. There were around 300 of them, so we quickly got in the water and had a swim. It was absolutely incredible...loads and loads of dolphins came swimming up close to you, swimming round in circles to play. If you made eye contact and made noises, they would keep circling you until you couldn't keep up. The organisers recommended to singing little tunes, as they respond well to it...Im not sure if this is true, or just a wind up. At one point, I came up just to listen to everyone and it was hilarious...loads of idiots making stupid high pitched noises through their snorkels. My tune of choice was The Final Countdown by Europe....so. We had three separate swims with the pod, then enjoyed a nice hot chocolate to defrost, while watching the dolphins show off; doing back-flips, front-flips, back slaps...all sorts. Cocky little things.
Craig's Birthday was on the day we left Kaikoura, so the night before we had a joint party for him and Bobby (Rob the Canadian) as he was leaving the wolf-pack the following day. Went to the shop and bought a few crates of beers and played some drinking games. Now, if you remember back to my Birthday; Craig thought it would be hilarious to get the bus to sing for me. Obviously I couldn't copy this so I needed an original way to get him back. Luckily, a big group of people were sitting in a different common room playing guitar and being generally loud and annoying, butchering classics such as Black Betty by Ram Jam. I took the liberty to ask them all to come in the other room and sing for Craig...they did, about 15/20 of them. The douche-bags with guitars even did a little impromptu gig for him, singing about Cambridge vs Oxford in the boat race, and rye observations such as him sitting on a couch. Pay back.
Ended up climbing the fence into the hot tub at 2am...on the Magic Bus at 7.40am.
Luckily it only takes a 4 hour bus journey, a 3 hour ferry and a taxi transfer to get to the hostel in Wellington. The taxi driver thought he was French, and had decked out his little van in all things Francais. Plus a DVD player and flat screen TV. This would have been awesome, if he hadn't put Michael Jackson's This Is It on. What a load of rubbish.
Watched a load more films and played loads more pool in Wellington, as we'd been there before...Before setting off to Taupo, where we watched loads more films, as we'd been there before also.
Then a night in Rotorua, where we watched a couple more films as guess what, we'd been there before.
And then this morning, we left for Auckland, stopping at another mountain by a beach...called Mt Maunganui. Really nice little area.
And here we are, back in Auckland...Full loop done and with only 4 nights left of the super adventure. We're planning a big night out to cap it all off, so will blog again after that. Then its home time.
Cheers,
Jamie.
P.s Happy Fathers day, and Happy Birthday Dad for tomorrow
The last couple of days in Queenstown were awesome, we went and played frisbee golf at the park...They have 18 holes set up around a big old park by the water...each hole has a tee, obstacles and this big metal cup with chains on that you aim for. All you have to do is have a frisbee and you're good to go. We hired them for like 2 pounds so it was cheap as. And absolutely ledge...so much so that we went again the following day, this time taking Sarah along with us. Had a grand craic.
After the golf, we hit the famous Fergburger, a little burger place in Queenstown that apparently do the best burgers ever. And Ive got to say, it was amazing. Ive never eaten a bigger burger in my life (obviously the men all went for the biggest one money could buy, with a big portion of chips on the side) and Sarah (the Queen wolf) had some poncey-woman-chicken-burger. It became a battle towards the end, powering through every last little bit. I think we got through a tree's worth of napkins as well. We all felt ridiculous by the end of it, but it was incredible.
So, the following day we got on the bus (late) to Dunedin...the driver was a bit pissed off, but the wolf-pack just alpha-maled him into letting us off. Dunedin, is one of the most populated places in NZ, with 20% being students. We thought that fact, along with it being a Saturday, was a good excuse to go out. So we did, and it was a pretty good night, good bars and loads of people out...The only problem was that we got to sleep at around 6am, and the bus was coming at 8am to take us to Lake Takepo...We were late again, which annoyed the guy even more (as it was the same bloke) ... This was made worse when we turned up at Sarah's hostel and she wasn't anywhere to be seen. The guy decided to go, and about 10 mins later, Chris gets a call from the Queen-wolf saying she'd just got up. We managed to get the driver to go back and pick her up. I don't think we were his favourites.
Lake Takepo, is a rather good looking place..a tiny little township on the edge of a bright blue lake, with a couple of mountains here and there. We stayed for a few nights, went on some walks around Mt John and relaxed by the fire playing with the kittens. As there is hardly any light pollution there, the view of the stars is unbelievable, so at night, we'd rap up, make a cup of tea and head down to the lake to lay down and look at the night-sky. Sounds super gay, but it was awesome.
After Lake Takepo, we headed to Kaikoura. On the way, is the stop off in Christchurch. They used to do overnight stops there, but due to all the earthquakes, most of the hostels are non-existent. So usually, people only get off if they have flights. Sadly, Sarah did have a flight so we had to say goodbye to the Queen-wolf...emotional times.
Kaikoura is pretty much amazing...its right on the ocean, and is famous for its whale watching and dolphin swimming. The hostel was awesome as well...good film collection (always good), Hot tub, sauna, swimming pool, open fires, 3 kitchens, pool tables etc. and all for just 12 pounds a night..insane. The place was called Dusky lodge (definitely recommend to anyone who is going there). Due to money being incredibly low, I managed to get a little gig there: 3 hours of general cleaning a day which got me free accommodation. Im no Stephen Hawking, but I managed to work out that I would be on 4 pounds an hour.
Luckily, the first day I worked for 2 hours, and the other day I only worked for 1 hour and 20 mins. So it all worked out well in the end. My job was hoovering, which Ive had limited experience doing. But this hoover is one of them where you strap it to your back, like a rucksack and walk about like a Ghost-Buster cleaning shit up. It wants too bad, and I looked flipping awesome.
The main event of Kaikoura, however, was the dolphin swimming. You go out on a boat at silly o'clock in the morning, all wet-suited up (as the water is flippin freezing) and go looking for the Dusky Dolphins. Luckily it wasn't long before we found the first pod. There were around 300 of them, so we quickly got in the water and had a swim. It was absolutely incredible...loads and loads of dolphins came swimming up close to you, swimming round in circles to play. If you made eye contact and made noises, they would keep circling you until you couldn't keep up. The organisers recommended to singing little tunes, as they respond well to it...Im not sure if this is true, or just a wind up. At one point, I came up just to listen to everyone and it was hilarious...loads of idiots making stupid high pitched noises through their snorkels. My tune of choice was The Final Countdown by Europe....so. We had three separate swims with the pod, then enjoyed a nice hot chocolate to defrost, while watching the dolphins show off; doing back-flips, front-flips, back slaps...all sorts. Cocky little things.
Craig's Birthday was on the day we left Kaikoura, so the night before we had a joint party for him and Bobby (Rob the Canadian) as he was leaving the wolf-pack the following day. Went to the shop and bought a few crates of beers and played some drinking games. Now, if you remember back to my Birthday; Craig thought it would be hilarious to get the bus to sing for me. Obviously I couldn't copy this so I needed an original way to get him back. Luckily, a big group of people were sitting in a different common room playing guitar and being generally loud and annoying, butchering classics such as Black Betty by Ram Jam. I took the liberty to ask them all to come in the other room and sing for Craig...they did, about 15/20 of them. The douche-bags with guitars even did a little impromptu gig for him, singing about Cambridge vs Oxford in the boat race, and rye observations such as him sitting on a couch. Pay back.
Ended up climbing the fence into the hot tub at 2am...on the Magic Bus at 7.40am.
Luckily it only takes a 4 hour bus journey, a 3 hour ferry and a taxi transfer to get to the hostel in Wellington. The taxi driver thought he was French, and had decked out his little van in all things Francais. Plus a DVD player and flat screen TV. This would have been awesome, if he hadn't put Michael Jackson's This Is It on. What a load of rubbish.
Watched a load more films and played loads more pool in Wellington, as we'd been there before...Before setting off to Taupo, where we watched loads more films, as we'd been there before also.
Then a night in Rotorua, where we watched a couple more films as guess what, we'd been there before.
And then this morning, we left for Auckland, stopping at another mountain by a beach...called Mt Maunganui. Really nice little area.
And here we are, back in Auckland...Full loop done and with only 4 nights left of the super adventure. We're planning a big night out to cap it all off, so will blog again after that. Then its home time.
Cheers,
Jamie.
P.s Happy Fathers day, and Happy Birthday Dad for tomorrow
Thursday 2 June 2011
Queenstown
Hey,
So straight into it...
The last time I blogged, was just before visiting what I thought was called 'Puzzle-land"...It was actually called Puzzling World...not far off.
This place is awesome, basically a building filled with loads of optical illusions, 3D images and topsy-turvy rooms. One room, made one person look tiny, and the other look huge...that was pretty good...but the best, had to be this mental room where everything wasn't as it seemed...water ran upwards...a ball on a pool table ran uphill towards the pocket...and you constantly lost balance as the room was tilted all over the place. Really hard to explain, but there'll be some pics on facebook that will make more sense.
That night was a pool and cards night...as the following day we left for Queenstown, after climbing the little mountain for a view of the lake.
Couple of pretty standard stops on the way to Queenstown, but when we got there it looked beautiful; Surrounded by mountains and lakes. It has a real ski-town feel to it, with brick buildings and cosy lighting. Anyway, booked our bungy jump and a trip to Milford Sound...more on those later.
That night, being a Saturday, there was what is called: "A Big Night Out" Pub crawl. We decided to get on it, as It sounded like laugh. It was shit. Full of knob-heads pretending to be more drunk than what they were...Magaluf came to mind. Besides the douchebags, though we had an all right night...once we managed to get away from them all.
Next day was a write-off, so did the usual recovery of films and food. And, of course, mentally prepare for the Bungy on the following day. While playing a game of Cranium (pretty good board game), 2 Swedish girls came into the room making a load of noise. We didn't mind, but a load of people were watching a film so it was a bit rude. Then, after a minute or so, they decided to play music on their ipod speaker as loud as possible...unbelievable. They even went as far as leaving the room for a smoke, while the ipod remained on the table, still playing. Craig left a piece of paper with the word "TWAT" on their table for when they returned. Not sure why I wrote about that, but, I did.
Our jump was booked at 2pm, so plenty of time to get nervous. The bus journey to the jump site was 45 minutes...so even more time to think about what was to come. Finally arrived and got all kitted out for the jump...A little cable-car slowly transports you over to the jump platform...it takes a while, and its freezing...plus you can see right down to the ground below. Once we got into the platform, the nerves just kind of sunk away...music blaring out, and loads of people...so its more of a buzz than nerves. Rob jumped...then it was my turn. He was absolutely buzzing, so I couldn't wait to get up there. Once I was all strapped in, and waddled up to the edge, I felt amazing (also a bit anxious). A quick 3-2-1 from the main man, and I was away...sawing through the air, down 134m towards rocks and rapids....It felt incredible...I mean there's no way of describing the feeling at all. It was over within seconds, and I was pulled back up to the platform upside-down. (the cable that releases your legs so you can sit in a upright position was caught up) And that was it...Then I could watch Chris and Craig jump, while enjoying the buzz.
We were absolutely starving by the time we got home, and wanted nothing more than a Fergburger (a famous burger place in Queenstown) but sadly it was closed for a couple days. We settled for a Devil burger and a beer, then completely crashed. The adrenaline completely gone, replaced by an overwhelming tiredness. So bed time.
Didn't do much the day after the jump, besides watch the videos and talk about how amazing it was.
Wednesday was all about Milford Sound, a World heritage site, about 3 hours away from Queenstown. Its a full day trip, including a 2 hour cruise when you get there.
The scenery is simply stunning, we were all in awe of it. Huge snow topped mountains, ice glaciers, waterfalls, trees, rapids, low lying clouds...all on one stretch of road. No matter where you looked, something incredible was there. The cruise itself was brilliant, it took you up close to waterfalls, and around the area, until you reach the beginning of the Tasman sea. A pod of Dolphins circled the boat for a while as well. Its a shame there's nowhere to stay at Milford Sound, as it would be amazing to stay there for a few days.
That pretty much brings you up to date...plenty of pics on facebook now of New Zealand so far, plus the video of my Bungy.
We leave for Dunedin on Saturday, so hopefully get a round of Frisbee golf in before then.
Talk soon,
Jay
So straight into it...
The last time I blogged, was just before visiting what I thought was called 'Puzzle-land"...It was actually called Puzzling World...not far off.
This place is awesome, basically a building filled with loads of optical illusions, 3D images and topsy-turvy rooms. One room, made one person look tiny, and the other look huge...that was pretty good...but the best, had to be this mental room where everything wasn't as it seemed...water ran upwards...a ball on a pool table ran uphill towards the pocket...and you constantly lost balance as the room was tilted all over the place. Really hard to explain, but there'll be some pics on facebook that will make more sense.
That night was a pool and cards night...as the following day we left for Queenstown, after climbing the little mountain for a view of the lake.
Couple of pretty standard stops on the way to Queenstown, but when we got there it looked beautiful; Surrounded by mountains and lakes. It has a real ski-town feel to it, with brick buildings and cosy lighting. Anyway, booked our bungy jump and a trip to Milford Sound...more on those later.
That night, being a Saturday, there was what is called: "A Big Night Out" Pub crawl. We decided to get on it, as It sounded like laugh. It was shit. Full of knob-heads pretending to be more drunk than what they were...Magaluf came to mind. Besides the douchebags, though we had an all right night...once we managed to get away from them all.
Next day was a write-off, so did the usual recovery of films and food. And, of course, mentally prepare for the Bungy on the following day. While playing a game of Cranium (pretty good board game), 2 Swedish girls came into the room making a load of noise. We didn't mind, but a load of people were watching a film so it was a bit rude. Then, after a minute or so, they decided to play music on their ipod speaker as loud as possible...unbelievable. They even went as far as leaving the room for a smoke, while the ipod remained on the table, still playing. Craig left a piece of paper with the word "TWAT" on their table for when they returned. Not sure why I wrote about that, but, I did.
Our jump was booked at 2pm, so plenty of time to get nervous. The bus journey to the jump site was 45 minutes...so even more time to think about what was to come. Finally arrived and got all kitted out for the jump...A little cable-car slowly transports you over to the jump platform...it takes a while, and its freezing...plus you can see right down to the ground below. Once we got into the platform, the nerves just kind of sunk away...music blaring out, and loads of people...so its more of a buzz than nerves. Rob jumped...then it was my turn. He was absolutely buzzing, so I couldn't wait to get up there. Once I was all strapped in, and waddled up to the edge, I felt amazing (also a bit anxious). A quick 3-2-1 from the main man, and I was away...sawing through the air, down 134m towards rocks and rapids....It felt incredible...I mean there's no way of describing the feeling at all. It was over within seconds, and I was pulled back up to the platform upside-down. (the cable that releases your legs so you can sit in a upright position was caught up) And that was it...Then I could watch Chris and Craig jump, while enjoying the buzz.
We were absolutely starving by the time we got home, and wanted nothing more than a Fergburger (a famous burger place in Queenstown) but sadly it was closed for a couple days. We settled for a Devil burger and a beer, then completely crashed. The adrenaline completely gone, replaced by an overwhelming tiredness. So bed time.
Didn't do much the day after the jump, besides watch the videos and talk about how amazing it was.
Wednesday was all about Milford Sound, a World heritage site, about 3 hours away from Queenstown. Its a full day trip, including a 2 hour cruise when you get there.
The scenery is simply stunning, we were all in awe of it. Huge snow topped mountains, ice glaciers, waterfalls, trees, rapids, low lying clouds...all on one stretch of road. No matter where you looked, something incredible was there. The cruise itself was brilliant, it took you up close to waterfalls, and around the area, until you reach the beginning of the Tasman sea. A pod of Dolphins circled the boat for a while as well. Its a shame there's nowhere to stay at Milford Sound, as it would be amazing to stay there for a few days.
That pretty much brings you up to date...plenty of pics on facebook now of New Zealand so far, plus the video of my Bungy.
We leave for Dunedin on Saturday, so hopefully get a round of Frisbee golf in before then.
Talk soon,
Jay
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