Meeting Family

A special update to the blog today, we met family. Today we met Michael Daly. Con Daly’s brother. He has been over in Australia for years back and forth since the 70’s. We met and discussed Australian life aswell as some of the places he had been to for work reasons like Oman, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and many more. It was good to hear all the old stories. We took a photo which is a Christmas present for Granny Daly…

Festive Greetings,

Conor

South America Montage

Hey flashback to the good old days of us in South America. Here is our adventure revisited
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz8eovSFZwQ

Day 11-24 Sales job anyone?

Its been a while since we have updated the blog but that’s not to say that the past two weeks haven’t been eventful….its been interesting to say the least and some strange characters have been seen and heard over the past fortnight. We probably arrived in Sydney at an akward enough time to be fair in that all the backpackers swamped into Sydney a little before us so accommodation and jobs are not plentiful. Luckily (that might be a bad term to use) we got cheap accommodation in a place called Dulwich, which is about 20 min’s outside the city. Although the name suggests that it is Dull, believe me it is far from that!! There has been a bit of trouble here, one night we were awoken at around 3.30am to hear what seemed like a big fight going on not too far from our room. We heard screams and banging! Someone then locked themselves in the bathroom and refused to come out and the language out of them….you wouldn’t believe it…they even used the “other F” word. They were way worse than any of us or anyone from Kiloughter! Even when we get up watching United, people are still up and bottles of drink can be seen! There have been a few little incidents but it has calmed down recently and a night clerk has been appointed now so a calmer atmosphere can be felt in the air. Order has been restored for now.

It’s a really nice complex though and so cheap so that makes it worth it for now and we are close to shops. The park is a 10 minute jog so we are keeping fit aswell. We have even started playing football with a local team here. Their season is over now but we take part in their training sessions and they are real genuine guys who have the craic. They look like tough guys but they are as sound as a pound and very welcoming. It’s great to be back playing football again!

The job hunt has been a pain in the behind. Our first interview was with a marketing organisation (whose clients are charity) who wanted sales staff. Basically they want you to hound people on the streets!! There were over 40 at the interview and observation day. We met some really nice people and some weirdo’s to say the least. I had a few great conversations with a Belguim guy who has been here over a year and will continue his journey in Oz for another year. A strange couple were at the interview. The woman was eccentric and left after being told she was too loud. Her husband was crazy and told us how he could be a billionaire and that he use to be a drug addict. He made everyone in the room feel really akward when he discussed how his wife was a manic schizophrenic and use to be a prostitute. We had a pint after and one of the guys told us how he had no accommodation in Sydney and no money…yet the same guy was on his fifth pint!!

Tom got chosen ahead of other possible candidates for a position of (and this is my title for it) “one of those annoying sales people that you see in the street trying to sell you something” for Global Interactive. Fair play to him though, I mean it’s a tough job but someone has to do it and we want to work to enjoy our lifestyle here and save for another few adventures in Oz and (IF we ever come back to Recession-land (i.e. Ireland) ) another country. We have had early nights to allow Tom to get some beauty sleep for work in the morning. We have had to hit the hay at 10 past the 11 and Tom rises at 6am (does such a time exist!!!). “Flicky an Solas” is what he says before he goes to sleep!! Can Kieran Costello please text Tom the Irish for “Turn off the light” because I can’t tell him!!! Tom’s job relies on him making sales so basically if you don’t make sales then you don’t get paid. These seem to be the only jobs going at the moment and they are not worth it. Mike and myself went to another sales interview and once again it was commission based so there was no real point in taking it as it wouldn’t be worth your while forking out on transport and ending up with no pay at the end of the week. All the backpacker jobs are gone in Sydney for now and ringing up has been frustrating to say the least!! Tom came home one morning and had the biggest smile on his face…his job was no more and he was delighted!!! Back to the drawing board again boy!

Sydney harbour is a very busy place at the moment with a whole host of Christmas parties. A lot of these take place on boats and look very posh. All the big business people are there dressed up to the nines. It’s an amazing site…and that’s just the women!! We came across a very interesting street performer along Sydney harbour called “JP” who looks like a bum but is a great performer. He juggles, throws and does all sorts with knifes, axes and sharp objects. I am probably not doing him justice with my description but he is a class act. People flocked to watch him. This guy could be a comedian he is so funny, his comedy is as good as his tricks. He had us in stitches. He just loves to entertain and no one is safe from his comedy as many of the spectators were commentated on and asked for fags, opinions etc..

He loves to entertain and makes a living out of his street acts. After watching him, we ONCE AGAIN went to the Dark Knight in the biggest IMAX in the world and it was ridiculously big and loud, which we loved.

Danielle, Joe, Ronan and Charlie have set up shop just outside the CBD in a lovely new unfurnished apartment and by the looks of it are getting all the furniture off the street :P Its a nice area and the shops are not too far from it so its nice to have them near us…incase we end up homeless soon, we can always knock on Joes door and sleep on their lovely sitting room floor or by their Christmas tree which Conor, Mike and myself helped decorate (well kinda!).

The great thing about Sydney and Australia is the weather!! No matter how down you get, the sun normally shines in the morning and this certainly raises your spirits! I imagined Australia to be like this and it hasn’t disappointed in that respect. Everyone has a smile on their face when the sun shines and this is my kind of place.

Lovely hurling,

Gary

Day 3-10 – House Hunting In The Sun

This is our first instalment of our new weekly blog!
We thought we would never be able to a day to day blog as eventually it would get repetitive as we wouldn’t be doing as many activities or have as many adventures.
Long gone are the days of jumping out of planes or off bridges! At least for the time being!

While passing through George Street in the city centre we decided a Hungry Jack’s was in order. “Hungry Jacks?” you might say. Hungry Jacks is the Australian equivalent of Burger King. It’s actually the exact same bar the name.
While the lads went up to order I went downstairs to the toilet. On my way I noticed some smoke but assumed there must be some rule breakers downstairs smoking. Upon exiting the toilet I noticed the building was being evacuated. I pegged it up the stairs and out the door to hear fire brigades and see people pointing to the top of the building. The workers apparently hopped the counters and ran for the exit without telling a single customer. Some staff they are! We watched in awe as the firemen tried to tame the blaze of the burning building. It was aptly named The Towering Inferno! They were successful but the fact they had to close the main street in Sydney did not sit well with some of the locals. One of them even assaulted a police officer and was taken down within seconds and thrown in the back of a paddy wagon! What a way to start our week!

One night we received word Joe, Danielle and Charlie were in town and up for some grub! We arranged to meet for some $8 steaks. We reacquainted with big hugs and manly handshakes! We enjoyed each others stories of our times in South America and New Zealand and all the activities and incidents we encountered! After our deliciously cheap steaks we headed to a nearby bar for a few quiet pints and some more chit chat about the recession back home followed by more stories of our adventures. A good night was had by all! (That’s right I said it again)!

When we began our house hunting journey our first goal was to find a place near the beach! We searched through the accommodation listings and arranged meetings so it was an excuse to visit each of the beaches of Sydney, Coogee, Bondi, Manly. Coogee was our first beach to explore but we had a quick stop on the way to make in Randwick. We headed over the Harbour Bridge while gawking in amazement at the Opera House. We had a look at a two bedroom apartment right in the middle between Sydney and Coogee Beach. Unfortunately this apartment was unfurnished and we would have to go back to looking. It’s the probably the most annoying thing ever when people don’t say whether the apartment is furnished or not in the listing! It’s cost us loads of phone credit!
While house hunting I had the big task of making the New Zealand Freestyle/Holiday video. I was driven crazy for the week as little errors kept propping up. Then I had numerous problems with Youtube before it was finally live on the net. If you haven’t seen it yet check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D2SGTAot6Q !

In the midst of all our searching we found an advert on a traffic light pole for the perfect sounding apartment. A Chinese man by the name of Ping Pong answered the phone with possibly the worst English of anyone living in Sydney. I had no clue what he was on about. For some reason I can’t understand Tom has a knack for understanding Chinese! We met up with him and looked at three of his properties, one of which the walls were made out of plywood! Not a great start but he was very keen to make the sale! That night we decided to get some Chinese food in one of the finest Chinese’s in Sydney. To our surprise we spotted our new friend working there. He proceeded to talk to us all night about the apartment and even gave me and Gary a soup on the house which Gary spilled all over himself. It reminded me of an episode of Father Ted when Doughal got sick on Ted at the baby contest. We left our friend hoping not to see him again but that would not be the case. He would spot us nearly everyday on George Street. It was almost as if he was following us everywhere we went.

Bondi Beach was our next stop and we visited this beach on three different occasions partly as an excuse to go to the beach! It’s such a contrast to go from the hustle and bustle of Sydney to the beautiful beaches of Coogee, Bondi and Manly! The beach itself is nice but is covered in GAA jersey wearing Irish. Within five minutes of kicking around on the beach we were ambushed by Enda from Athlone who joined us in a game of keepy uppys! He was trying outlandish scissor and bicycle kicks! Again there was no luck with any of the apartments as they were either too small, unfurnished or too expensive for us. Manly was the same story but the beach more than made up for it!
Eventually we settled for staying in a place in Dulwich Hills about twenty-five minutes outside the city. Minimum stay is a month and it’s really cheap so it will give us a chance to look for other accommodation and jobs without paying scandalous fees in hostels.

We received a text one day from our friend Andrew from our GAP Tour. He was back in town after returning from South America and New York and was keen for a few pints. We wouldn’t say no! He gave us a little tour of the harbour bridge area and lead us to a pub on The Rocks. The pub is one of the only in Sydney to brew its own beer and we were willing to experiment! It pretty much all tasted exactly the same as Heineken! After reminiscing of our tour and learning about Andy’s trip to Patagonia and the rest of his touring around South America we hit the road back to our hostel. Thank God for night buses otherwise we would be paying a fortune to taxi drivers!

Keep On Trucking,
Mike

Day 2 – Home and Away

After the doom and gloom of Conor’s blog yesterday (what was he on about), today was a lot brighter.It was the day that I had looked forward to for a very long time. After years of watching Home and Away and growing up with these characters (who also helped us relax in between lecturers), we would finally get to visit Summer Bay. It is amazing how people’s perceptions of a place change after a good night’s sleep and some good weather. Yesterday we were tired and cranky after our flight from New Zealand and the weather wasn’t great but waking up to the Sydney sun was a welcome change. We got some free breakie in the hostel and headed to the bus stop to catch our ride to Palm Beach, which is the name of the famous Home and Away beach. Whilst waiting for the bus we met a Cork man named John who was headed in the same direction as us. Funnily enough he had been in Sydney for 4 months and today was the first time he was going to head to Palm Beach…some Home and Away fan he is!!! It was 1hr 40mins to Palm Beach from Sydney central but the journey went fairly quick talking to John about his Australia experiences. He has been in Australia for 8 months and in this time he has been all around and worked on farms, labouring…you name it! He gave us tips about accommodation and told us (in that reassuring Cork accent) “ah you’ll be grand lads”, there is nothing better than hearing this from one of our own.

Finally we hit Palm Beach and it really did exceed our expectations. I was blown away (that’s such a corny phrase but I was!!)! We were living the dream (if only Kieran Costello was here), walking on the beach that we had seen on the TV for so many years. The beach that great characters such as Mr Stewart, Pippa, Irene, Chloe, Steven etc … had walked on, ran on, pondered their problems and made life changing decisions on. The sand was golden and the waves stunning. We walked along the beach at a snails pace to take in the scenery and posed for numerous photos before going to the Surf Club to get some much needed food (oh how I have wanted to say that for so many years). It was really cool sitting down outside the surf club eating our hot dogs and discussing past episodes. I don’t care what anyone says but deep down everyone still watches home and away and remembers all the episodes!! The place was very empty with less than fifty people to be seen. A lot of the activity took place in the water where a few kite surfers were doing their thing and pulling off some spectacular flips. Kite surfing looks class but I think we will learn to surf normally first before trying it with a kite. We’ll do well to get on a surf board never mind go in the water with it!! The calm feeling in the air just makes you so relaxed here and it is a completely different world to that of Sydney’s CBD. We saw numerous other Home and Away set locations and relaxed by a mini harbour and discussed how great it would be to rent a boat for a day and just chill. It is cheap enough to do this aswell. We might even buy one when we retire!! The next objective was to go swimming in the glorious waters that Palm Beach has to offer. Home and Away has offered us some great views in the past of Hayley, Shannon, Matilda etc ...with their perfect tans and bikini’s but now it was time for four white as sheets (with ridiculous farmer tans) Irish lads to do their thing. Conor decided to relax in the sun so Tom, Mike, John and I ran in and tackled the waves. John wasn’t far off as white as we were so we were all in the same boat! The water felt so good and with that we headed back to the city centre and said goodbye to John who we will more than likely see around Sydney again. After a hectic day we headed to the Cinema to see the latest Bond film which wasn’t great. I bitched that Pierce Brosnan was a much better James Bond than Daniel Craig and would pull more women. After a long and heated debate we fell asleep no doubt all dreaming that we will be starring as the next James Bond.

Closer each day,

Gary

Day 1 – Away from Home :(

After a long and eventful departure that included some of our usual drama (Gary not being able to locate his passport just moments before our check-in) we had made it to Sydney. Finally we had made it to the place we would call home. It would be our home for much longer than the usual 2 or 3 day stints that all the other locations we’d been had been awarded.

Everyone knew before we left the main goal of our travels was to hit Australia. Landing in the Airport it felt that part of our goal had been achieved. Before departing Ireland we knew the visits to Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Auckland, Christchurch and the many more were merely a means of achieving the goal. The goal had been achieved by us all but we had been rewarded in so many other ways by all these beautiful places. We were home and expecting some more beautiful and amazing experiences.

Today we were going to have some unforgettable experiences. Unfortunately they weren’t going to be beautiful or amazing experiences. Planning is normally one of our fortes but today we arrived in Sydney without a hostel. So after looking around the airport for a while we stumbled upon a Hostel called Globe. It would be our first Hostel experience in Australia. After a few Doughnuts we stumbled onto the bus to make our way into the CBD. I started to complain about the city quite early on into the bus trip but decided it deserved a change. As we got closer and closer to the city I couldn’t help but draw comparisons to some of the cities that had only been part of this goal that I had just achieved.

We got off in our Hostel on Kings Cross to be blinded by neon lights. Neon lights highlighted shops like The adult book store, “Massage” among many other no doubt sleazy places that I had no idea what went on inside. We didn’t wait outside too long and headed inside the Hostel. Globe appeared attractive from the outside. An important lesson in life is never judge a person from the exterior as they often are rotting inside. This was definitely the case for Globe Hostel. The Hostel room had 4 beds with no pillows, a crappy mattress; pipes all over the roof and an all over dingy feel to it. The bathroom looked like the room out of the cult classic “SAW”.

The rest of the day was spent briefly visiting the CBD. The Central Business District is fast moving compared to the little village of Kiloughter. People move fast and are willing to go through you if they have to. We decided it was best to get back to the Hostel before dark as we wanted to avoid the homeless, prostitutes and syringe junkies of Kings Cross and not all in that order. It was time for bed in our new home very far away from home.

Stay Posted,
Conor

Chapter 2- Regeneration

The time has come in which one chapter is closed and a new one begins. Welcome to Australia

Day 66 – Dream Catch Me

Our last day in New Zealand and one of nostalgia. In the last 38 days we have seen all that New Zealand has to offer and loved every minute of it. We have really grown to love the place and the people. The Kiwi’s are really friendly, genuine, helpful and fun people, I couldn’t say enough of them. We have covered 2 very different islands, travelled aprox. 3,253km of road, over 57 hours of bus travel, stayed in 15 different towns/villages/cities and 17 different hostels. In our travels we have seen some of the most amazing raw scenery: craggy coastlines, flourishing forests, snow-capped mountains, glacier fed lakes and unparalleled wildlife all beneath a brilliant blue sky (most of the time). We have often travelled for hours on a bus and see one car but millions of sheep and green land. The New Zealand landscape has many similarities to home except; where we have rivers New Zealand has crystal clear blue lakes, where we have hills New Zealand has beautiful snow capped mountains, where we have rock and stone New Zealand has geothermal springs and geysers, where we have housing estates and shopping centres New Zealand has national parks and wildlife reserves! Other than that they are pretty similar! Apart from the breath-taking scenery in New Zealand individually/together we have experienced some of the most amazing sensations and thrills of our lives. Between us we have, leapt off a 192metre tower in Auckland, jumped out of a plane over Lake Taupo, dropped over the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world at Rotorua, drifted through the world famous glow-worm caves in a big black rubber ring at Waitomo, hiked through the Franz Joseph glacier, completed a bungy at the first ever bungy site in the world at Queenstown and swam with dolphins in Kiakoura.

We have done a hell of a lot. Personally I have done things I taught I would never be able to do such as jump out of a plane at 15,000 feet and survive!! Or complete a bungy without the need for an anaesthetic! Growing up one dreams and imagines what their future will be like and what they would like to achieve, to attend the greatest sporting events in the world, carve out a successful career and family life, watch their beloved team win a competition, make loads of money, lead a happy life are all but some of peoples goals/dreams. One of my goals/dreams was to travel the world with my mates and to see the most beautiful places in the world and experience the different cultures and people. Since leaving Ireland we have managed to go some way to achieving that goal. Our dreams are no longer confined to our sleep, everyday we wake up living out our dreams.

Back to the grassroots of the blog. Today we were invited to a fry up in Dave and Claire’s new gaf in Christchurch, a nice apartment near town. We bought some supplies and met Dave outside ‘The Bog’ from where he escorted us to his lush apartment. We chatted, watched Home & Away and gobbled down Dave’s fine fry up. Yum Yum!! To bring back the glory days in the Bish we headed to the park for a kick about. Of course the kick-about didn’t entertain us long enough and we wanted more competition so we played 2 on 2 with conor safeguarding the goals. After a series of games; involving numerous spectacular goals such as bicycles, scissor kicks, half volleys and headers in the belting heat; we chill-laxed in the shade. We returned to Dave’s gaf to grab a glass of fluid and say our goodbyes. Great to meet an auld Bish head.

The evening was spent on the net sorting out a few things for Sydney, checking up on home and downloading Prison Break. After being amazed at another excellent instalment of Prison Break we dined in a beautiful Indian to discuss and debate in detail each scene in the episode. Can’t wait for next weeks episode already!

Tomorrow we depart for Sydney and inside I’m sad to be leaving New Zealand but excited about the next leg of the journey and what lays in store across the Tasman Sea.

Kia Ora (It is life)

Tom

Day 64 & 65 – Monkey Business

We set our alarms for 6am as we had Utd v Villa to watch. Another painful rise from our slumber as we tried not to wake the two hung over lads staying in our dorm. We were disappointed Utd could only manage a 0-0 draw with Villa and were even more disappointed that we couldn’t go back to bed as we had to check out at 10am.
We surfed the internet, shot some pool, went for coastal walks and licked ice creams in the 30 degrees heat to pass the time till our bus journey back to Christchurch.
On the bus the most interesting story to tell was the drivers miss pronunciation of the word cathedral. It had everyone on the bus in stitches! We couldn’t even replicate it no matter how much we tried that evening. We checked into our hostel City Oasis that night and went for a Chinese hoping it would match the buffet in Spain we enjoyed. On the way back Gary noticed he didn’t have the key on him for the hostel and must have left it back at the restaurant. WORST THING EVER! We had to walk back up Manchester Street, also known as “Prostitute Street“. Tom compared them to the Kiwi as they are nocturnal and only come out at night! With the key back in our possession we headed back to the hostel and feasted on our sweets as we chilled out and watched a movie.

We decided to have a much needed sleep in after getting up so early the day before. Today our plan was to visit Orana Wildlife Park just twenty minutes outside the main city of Christchurch. The park is New Zealand’s only open range wildlife and conservation centre specialising in endangered African and New Zealand animals. All the workers at the park are all volunteers so they really must love spending times with the animals all day. The main attraction of the park was the Lion Encounter which consisted of climbing into a cage on the back of a truck and being driven around the lion’s habitat. The lions climb on top of the truck and along the sides. If the lions get too excited or start attacking one another they have to be feed big steaks to calm them down. We didn’t bother doing this as we got to get up close with them anyway and were worried that the lion on top of the truck might piss on top of us!

The parks had over twenty different species of animals and had presentations of the animals being fed. The spider monkey presentation was great and we learned who ruled the roost and how to distinguish between the male and female monkeys.
We got to feed the giraffes ourselves which was an amazing experience. They had disgusting big black tongues which they used to grab the leaves from our hands.
Next we got to see the rhinos and learned that they could run backwards. You learn something new everyday. I could go on all day listing off all the different types of animals we seen at the park.
Last on our list was to see the Kiwi but unfortunately the little fecker wouldn’t come out for the fifteen minutes we were waiting for him! Tom even thought flashing his camera would lure him out but that wasn’t the case. It would have been a good way to leave New Zealand seeing the native bird.
That night we arranged to meet Dave Brennan (a Galway man!) and his girlfriend Claire for a few drinks and a chat about our travels so far. Dave went to secondary school (The Bish) with the lads and will be living in Christchurch until February before moving on to Australia and Thailand. We shared all the stories we had about South America and New Zealand and heard all of theirs about Canada and the USA. The lads also discussed their old Bish days. It was great to share our experiences and we decided to meet again tomorrow for a kick around at the local park. They even offered to cook us a fry in the morning! We weren’t saying no!

The circle of life,

Mike

Day 63 – Under the Sea

We awoke at 6am as today was the day we planned to escape from the “Jailhouse” prison. Other inmates had tried to escape from this penitentiary before but where they had failed we had hoped to succeed. We planned the escape before we went to bed and hoped that that little bit of luck was on our side. We had arranged our pickup (taxi) to be there at 6.20am on the nail so we had 20 minutes to get out of the Prison without any of the guards (reception) spotting us. Our plan was flawless, Conor, Tom and I were outside the walls by 6.20am but Mike was nowhere to be seen. A plan is just a piece of paper and cannot tell you the mindset of individuals that early in the morning. I risked my freedom going back for Mike but I knew the blueprints of that Prison so well that it was worth it. Mike said he was an institutionalised man now but I convinced him that freedom was better. Besides that you can’t get KFC, McDonalds or other backpacker meals behind Prison walls. With that we were on our way. If you see us on the local papers, cut us a bit of slack!!

After a two and a half hour bus journey we hit Kaikoura just before 10am. The small town of Kaikoura enjoys a pretty setting in the lee of the Kiakoura Peninsula, wedged between the mountains and the ocean. Whale watching and swimming with the Dolphins are big business here. We decided that swimming with Dolphins was the thing for us. It is one of those things that I always wanted to tick of my list, the bucket list I suppose! For a small town it is overburdened with accommodation. We booked into the Dusky Lodge and went on our way to book the Dolphin swimming with “Dolphin encounter”. It cost 140 dollars which was pretty good. Mike decided not to do the swimming bit but came along on the boat for 60 dollars; again that was a reasonable price. We got suited up again in our wet suits. I never tire of seeing Tom in his wet suit, honestly he looks hilarious!! For some reason every time I get my wetsuit they insist on it being the tightest one out of all the group…I have no idea why, maybe its my muscular frame :P After being kitted up we had to watch a 20 minute video about what was going to happen and instructions. This was the best tour video we had seen so far by a mile. They had a “what not to do” list which included hilariously funny not to do’s that even we wouldn’t have tried. It had everyone in stitches so with that bit of banter we were ready to tackle these dolphins. We were split into two groups and we headed off in one boat while the rest of the group took the other one. We were told before hand that we would have 3 turns to swim with the dolphins for about 10-15 minutes each. After a 20 minute journey on the boat with the wind in our hair, we got to our first Dolphin port of call. We put our Snorkels on, as well as our very big flippers, and took our position at the edge of the boat. Waiting for the horn to blow which indicated that we could fall into the water (no diving in of course!!). Once that horn blew we were in the water like a shot. One thing that the tour guides told us to do was to make Dolphin noises when we put our heads under the water so as to attract them. Also they said to circle around them as they will see this as a game and will also circle around you. It was a strange sensation seeing the first Dolphin right beside me and he looked at me in the eye…I think he said “Welcome to Kaikoura” but I could be wrong. These Dolphins are called Dusky Dolphins and belong to a group known as cetaceans, which compromises all whales, dolphins and porpoises. They are about 1.6 to 1.8 metres in length and weigh 70-80 kilograms. They inhabit the waters of Kaikoura all year round. I started singing and the Dolphins responded and I circled around them to play with them. The Dolphin kicked my ass and I was fairly knackered after it. They have some energy in fairness to them! We also got an under water camera so I let Tom take pictures under the water (although later I discovered he never took any shots of us under the water…it never occurred to him). It was a great sensation witnessing these Dolphins in their natural environment. There were so many of them aswell and they are really friendly.

After spending time in the water it was time to turn the boat around and head back to base. The journey back was as spectacular as our time in the water. The Dolphins used the boats waves to show off to us. We were told by the tour guides that of all the Dolphins, the dusky must possess the greatest range of spectacular leaps and jumps. High leaps, side-slaps, back-slaps, spins, somersault forwards and backwards as well as other combinations, are among their repertoire. I’d love to have had a football; they would have made Paul McGrath proud with their high leaps and heading ability. It was savage seeing them at the front of the boat and sides of the boat as they used the waves of the boat to keep pace with us. We enjoyed some cookies and hot chocolate and Mike and I even had time to do a Titanic pose (you got to do it really, it’s too tempting not to although I would have preferred Kate Winslet but Mike will do for now). This was up there with anything we have done so far on our trip and I would recommend it to anyone because it is an amazing experience and one that will stick with us forever. I saw Fungi in Tralee once but this was way better, although Fungi is a bit of a legend. Once back on land we had some “amazing” chowder, as the menu stated and chilled in the hostel. They say that a Dog is a man’s best friend, but at least for today the Dolphin was man’s best friend.

Flipper Flipper faster than lightening,

Gary

Day 61 & 62 – Jailhouse Rock

Today was our last in Dunedin and our first in Christchurch. Dunedin is a nice little town with strong similarities and links to Scottish towns. But 3 nights was definitely enough for us and we were well ready for the next leg of the journey through New Zealand.

The bus journey was 6 hours with a mixture of coastal views and the Canterbury Plains providing the window entertainment. The Canterbury Plains were quite impressive with acres and acres of flat and rich land, ‘the finest of land’, being utilised for different agricultural means. The farmers round here don’t need to worry about picking stones!!

Conor befriended some young Kiwi lad about 11 years old who was on his own on the bus. He was dropped off by his Dad at Dunedin and met his mum at Christchurch. He took a keen liking to Conor, drawing pictures and sharing his food with him. For a while we taught Conor was going to adopt him and take him with us for the rest of the journey! But we convinced Conor he was too young to become a father and he said his goodbyes and had to move on with out him! J

Back in Ireland researching New Zealand I discovered a place in Christchurch which we all couldn’t wait to stay in, the Jailhouse. An old prison which was shut down in 1999 was converted to a unique and memorable hostelling experience. The hostel was painted completely white inside and after the front reception was a huge, high ceilinged room with cells left and right and a centre of the floor staircase which granted access to the upper floor cells again lined left and right. It is exactly how you picture an old style prison. Each ‘inmate’ stayed in one of the cells, with some accommodating up to 10 people in bump beds. It was really cool. We were in a 10 bed cell. Luckily we weren’t sharing with anyone like T-Bag or didn’t see any unruly activity in the prison showers!! Unlike its prison days the hostel was empathically cleaned, well furnished, modern décor and equipped with a cinema room and TV room. Luxuries prisoners here wouldn’t have had! If all prisons were like this we would all be criminals!

The next morning we arose from our slumber had showers and set out to explore Christchurch city. A 15 min walk into town and we first stopped not at an historic monument, museum or church but at ‘The Bog’ Irish pub to get a big greasy fry up! Some things never change! Now we were set for the day we journeyed to Cathedral Square, the centre of Christchurch. A magnificent cathedral overlooks the bustle of passers by, businessmen, tourists, kids, locals and market stalls below in the square. The square is buzzing with activity and the Saturday market is on. After a browse around and an ice-cream cone (I think we could be addicted!), we voyaged onwards to the high streets of Christchurch. Strong British influence can be seen throughout the city in architecture, style and design. One thing about New Zealand is it doesn’t hide its British colonial past and in fact proclaims and rejoices in its connections to the British Crown. Mike than left us as he met with another freestyler and his 2 mates to share tricks and freestyle together. Gary, conor and I continued to uncover the city. We admired the Queens Gardens (another symbol of Britain) and watched the gondolas stroll down the Avon River. We took a look around the council buildings before heading onto the Christchurch Art Gallery. Now according to our Rough Guide this gallery is one of the top 30 things not to miss out in New Zealand well I tell ya something, I wish I had missed out on it! Okay it was free so we couldn’t complain but it bore the tits of us! One certain exhibit of glowing pesticide, slug killer and herbicide bottles reminded me off the garden shed at home! There wasn’t much in this gallery that will last with me.

Next up we paid a short visit to the Arts Centre, another beautifully well preserved building from the 1800’s and intelligently converted to peoples modern needs without compromising its originality. We made our way back to cathedral square to Mike to see how he was getting on. He was in flying form as the freestyler he met had the same type of ball Mike used to have, which met its tragic end the other day, and he was able to do all his flicks and tricks again. He wanted to saviour every moment with the ball once again so he decided to stay on while we headed back to the accommodation. Never one to miss an opportunity to see more of the city I took us through the Botanic Gardens on the way home. They were very pretty and contained a variety of flowers, shrubs and trees. All with fancy names that I can’t remember.

Smell ya later,

Tom

Day 60 – Beware of the Bus

Boooooooooooom Boooooooooooom. It was an explosion that had changed all of our lifes forever. Life is never appreciated to its fully capacity. We would now appreciate the value of life as we had seen life been taken in front of us.

4 hours previously

The morning began not so differently from many of the others in that we had a little bit of breakfast and discussed what we all wanted to do for the day. Tom decided that the Harbour was worth a visit. We made our way down towards it. It was shockingly unimpressive to say the slightest. Industry was located along the harbour but that was the only positive to be taken from the trip down by the harbour. A brief stop at the Chinese gardens was had. It was reasonably attractive but we decided not to go in as it was starting to rain. Before we left Mike’s camera sustained a little damage. Could his day get any worse? The answer was yes!!!!!

Hunger was beginning to strike so we all wanted something soon. We ran to avoid the rain into the Black Dog restraint/café. Pancakes were on the menu which meant I had to order them. They were delicious as per usual. Banana and bacon is a great combination. We were walking through the Octagon when I noticed a large chess board. It was cool and another good photo opportunity that I couldn’t resist. I headed over to defeat the queen. This was a fun place.

All of a sudden in the midst of my fun I heard Boooooooooooom Boooooooooooom. I looked around to see had one of the guys been taken out in a minor explosion. Unfortunately what I witnessed was much more heartbreaking than that. Mike’s ball had been knocked down and rolled over by a giant Dunedin city bus. It lay lifeless on the side of the street. Tom had his hands covering his face in shock and Mike stood lifeless like a street sign. Gary had kicked the ball onto the road. We decided not to blame Gary as we knew what he was feeling would be punishment enough. As I recovered the body we reflected on what this ball had done.

This ball had achieved more than many only dream about. It had soared some of the highest and most beautiful peaks in the world- Sugar loaf, Christ Redeemer, Mount Victoria. It had seen many of God’s beautiful natural creations like the Iguaza falls, Thunder Creek, Rotorua’s Hot springs and Franz Josef Glacier but to name a few. It had visited some amazing countries like Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and New Zealand. It had dined in some of the finest restaurants the world has to offer. It had watched as we attempted some of the craziest things a man can do- Skydive, Sky Jump, cave tubing. It had met some amazing people along the way.

As we looked at the deflated corpse we could only think that part of us was left deflated forever. We knew we couldn’t repair it so we were forced to accept the inevitable, that nothing lasts forever. This ball definitely had lived a full life. The ball would not be forgotten.

The rest of the day was passed with a visit to the Otago Museum. It was hard to enjoy the museum fully given the day that we had been through. The museum was good with some cool exhibits like the satellites that allowed you to be heard from 25 metres away when you whispered. Gary met up with a football agent in the museum and learned a bit more about the industry. The agent was a great friend of Terry Phelan’s ex Ireland international. In the evening we went to see a movie called “Traitor”. We all taught it was a good film with lots of great acting.

RIP Mike’s ball,

Conor

Day 59 – Things are getting a lot steeper

Today was that time of the month again; it was time for a marathon of washing. We decided not to bring our washing around town with us until we actually found a place. Last time we brought it with us, we ended up covering 2 or 3kilometres before realising there was no laundrette open on Sunday’s in Wellington. Eventually we located a laundrette. We headed back to the Hostel to bring our clothes back with us. Tom decided he didn’t need to do any laundry so the three of us headed of to get this much needed job out of the way.

After some great results in survival 101, we decided to return to the Hostel with the pleasant aroma of our clothes. What ever happened from here it had been a successful day. A stroll around Dunedin was how we stretched the evening. The City is normally thriving with students but its end of term so it’s a lot quieter than usual. The city has a number of significant churches and cathedrals on offer. Most of which are protestant, Anglican or Presbyterian but it’s good to examine these to compare the differences.

The main tourist landmark of note that we visited today was the world’s steepest street. Baldwin Street was remarkable to look at to say the least. It has a slope of roughly 19 degrees. Being bananas as I am, I wanted to run up it. I attempted this extreme challenge. Reaching the top was only comparable to Armstrong walking on the moon in that I had to question did it actually happen. Mike and Gary decided it wasn’t for them. Mike’s ball got rolled down from the top. What hasn’t this ball done on the holiday. The views over Dunedin were marvellous. We made our way down from the summit.

We relaxed back the Hostel and watched the latest instalment of Prison Break season 4. The team’s latest adventures tired us all out so we decided to have an early night.

Stay posted,

Conor

Day 58- I Can Feel It, Calling In The Air Tonight

As we had an American girl sleeping in the room with us we had to be as quiet as mice. We mustn’t have been that quiet as we woke her numerous times with our packing, she did not look happy as she had a cruise planned today. We left as quickly as we could for the bus so as not to feel her wrath and hoped we had left nothing behind.
On the bus we did our usual routine of attempting to sleep (me and Conor were sprawled across the backseat) and listening to the songs on the iPods which bought back memories of our youth.
When we arrived in Dunedin I wasn’t that impressed with city as I was expecting more from it from reading the travel guide. I think we all felt the same way. We made our way to Central Backpackers and noticed the Cadbury’s factory we would be visiting later in the day. We were licking our lips in anticipation. At check in it was strange that there was no key for our room, only a code for the door which anyone staying there could easily go back and rob everyone’s bags at a later stage. In the living room of the hostel there was a couple and a baby sitting down in the middle of the floor. They seemed to either own the hostel or be living there. They would be there every day since our arrival with different people staying in the hostel looking after the child.
We dropped off our bags and headed straight for the Cadbury’s factory. It cost 18 dollars to get the tour and free chocolate was promised so we weren’t complaining. The first part of the tour involved watching an introductory video which explained the history of Cadbury’s. We were also informed we would have to wear hairnets for the duration of our tour of the factory which we weren’t best pleased about because we looked ridiculous. We got our first pieces of chocolate and headed inside the factory. There would be extra chocolate for whoever would answer questions correctly at the end of the tour so we very alert to tour guide Debbie’s facts about Cadbury’s and the factory. She showed us all the different ingredients of their chocolate range and we saw new flavours we never knew existed. Easter Eggs are Cadbury’s biggest money maker and we learned that they make 40 million Easter Eggs for New Zealand alone, which is crazy because New Zealand only has a population of about 4 million. We saw Crunchie after Crunchie and Moro after Moro flying around the factory and into each wrapper and box. It kind of reminded us of the box factory tour in the Simpsons but much more exciting! Next we were brought to the storage warehouse and saw palate upon palate of chocolate as far as the eye could see. We got more free samples and thought that by the end of it we would be sick at the sight of chocolate.
We were bought to the final room of our tour which was a large darkened silo with a staircase that the chocolate was stored in. There was a large crater in the centre of the silo with a chocolate coating .We were ordered by Debbie to scream “I want chocolate” at the top of our voices. When we did this a impressive waterfall of chocolate flowed out of a shoot in the top of the room and down into the crater. It was a very nice touch and made the tour worthwhile for us.
Next up was quiz time. I was in competition with a little 14 year old over the chocolate and the battle finished evenly. The rest of the Irish lads didn’t put up a fight at all! The tour proved to be very enjoyable and well worth the visit.
Later on that day we were told about a table quiz in The Bog, an Irish pub, by Richard on reception and thought it would be a bit of craic so we headed along even though we knew most of the questions would be about New Zealand. We thought we were going to do well but the New Zealand questions ruined our hopes of finishing anywhere near the top and we ended up bottom, leaving with our tails between our legs! Even a few locals helping us couldn’t bring us up the table and not trusting our own answers (mostly mine) really cost us. Still it was good fun and one of the barmaids was hilarious in that anything Gary ordered she got wrong!
We headed back to the hostel and chatted with our roommates Nick from the USA and Tia from Germany before hitting the hay.

Stay Classy,
Mike

Day 56 & 57 – Milford Sound

It was time to say goodbye to Queenstown today but before we did that we had another game of crazy golf, except this time it was outdoor. Conor and myself got bored straight away so we formed our own game while Mike and Tom played by the rules, boring enough old couple!! I think Mike won but wasn’t too bothered to ask. After this we got our bus to Te Anau. It wasn’t like our regular bus, it was more like a van with a little trailer on the back for our luggage. It was a bit like one of John Kelly’s trailers! When we reached our destination we checked into our hostel which was located by the lake. There wasn’t much around here as it is gateway for travellers who are going to Milford Sound. That’s where we will go tomorrow so we walked to the i- site (which is basically a tourist information office that is located in all the main centres of New Zealand and a regular information provider for us throughout our New Zealand adventure). We decided to go with the cheapest cruise possible which was priced at 99 New Zealand dollars that included a two hour coach ride to Milford Sound, a two hour cruise and a little picnic thrown in. We did our shopping for the following day and relaxed in the Spa that afternoon in the hostel. A man from Germany was our room mate for the night and he showed us a big knife that he had purchased. That made us feel real safe and with that we hit the hay.

After getting up at 4am for another United game, we got some more kip and got up again at 7.30 am to get ready for our trip. It was raining again and reminding us of what we are missing back home! Our bus only included 5 other passengers, so at least we know that we aren’t the only cheapskates around! The journey was very scenic and we saw all the waterfalls, cliffs, glaciers and valleys on the way, although the weather hampered our view. We even cut through a long dark tunnel, named “Homer Tunnell” which is shaped like a donut in the middle of the mountain, that the bus barley fitted through! Once at the harbour we bordered our boat which was over 30 years old but was in great nick!! We got our free picnic which included a sandwich and a little treat. It felt like our old lunch boxes we use to get off Mam in Menlo school…except they were ten times better (Mams)!!! Milford Sound is the most northerly and celebrated Fiord of New Zealand, its vertical sides tower 1200 metres above the sea. The conditions were dodgy enough to be fair and we waited inside for most of the trip. The free tea went down well and we got plenty of refills whilst munching on our snacks. The captain of the boat gave us a running commentary along the way including briefing us about the Mitre peak which is one of the tallest mountains in the world to rise directly from the sea. The wind was so strong that the Waterfalls coming down from the mountains were being blown back up into a mist of water before it managed to touch the ground. It was a weird and wonderful sight. It was more like watching smoke than anything else. The boat actually hopped a few times which isn’t supposed to happen but it was great fun. I taught this might be another Titanic situation but we were ok. The cliffs were huge and the rain made the waterfalls even more spectacular. We spotted a few seals resting on the rocks, they looked so lazy. Unfortunately the Captain had to turn the boat around, such were the bad conditions! On the way back we got up close and personal with one of waterfalls, “Lady Bowen falls”. It was hard to get a good picture of this and Tom’s camera nearly went for a swim. Overall Milford Sound receives a lot of praise on New Zealand books but our trip wasn’t exactly what we expected but a lot of this could have been due to the poor weather. At least we picked the cheapest option!! On the way back on the bus we stopped by Mirror lakes but due to this miserable weather we couldn’t see my beautiful face in the water!!!

Back at the hostel a middle aged Irish man was cooking up a storm. It smelt great! He turned to me and Mike and said “its time to put on the spuds lads”!! We just chilled for the rest of the afternoon and watched a film. Tomorrow we are heading to Dunedin so we have to be up early again for another bus…the story of our lives J

Sweet as,

Gary

Day 55- 3…..2…..1….BUNGY!!

We didn’t really have a plan set out for the day so after consulting the receptionist and the various brochures Mike and I decided we fancied the Kawarau Bridge Bungy jump, the first Bungy jump site in the world and celebrating its 20th anniversary this week. It is a 43 metre jump off a bridge with the option of being dunked in the water at the bottom. Mike and I decided that sounded good! Gary & Conor decided it wasn’t for them.

Mike and I departed Queenstown from the AJ Hackett jump centre on their bus to make the half hour journey to the bridge. 5 other jumpers were on the bus. When we arrived we checked in, got weighed and went to the viewing platform to see what lay ahead of us. To say it was a daunting task would be an understatement, it was pretty terrifying that in a few minutes we would be jumping of a bridge with a bit of rope tied around our ankles! Mike and I did the customary thing all of us have done all trip to decide any 50:50 decisions such as who would jump 1st – Rock, Paper, Scissors - I won and decided it would be easier to jump 1st so I didn’t have to see Mike go through it. I made my way to the jumping area, got my harness and waited for the call. Nerves were building but I was mostly looking forward to it. I didn’t let the notion of backing down enter my mind. I wanted to be a champion not a chicken of the Bungy. So I met me jump instructor Ren who guided me through the procedure, tied me up and counted my jump down. 3 …2 ….. 1 BUNGY… I jumped off the ledge and freefalled head first towards the river. I was dunked into water up to waist level upside down and than bounced back towards the bridge before eventually coming to a gentle swing from which I was hauled onto a raft that was in the water, untied and brought to shore. UNBELIEVABLE! Great buzz and an experience and sensation I will never forget.

Mike watched the whole thing from the viewing platform and he went up next to the jumping zone. His dive was both graceful and majestic, Olympic diving style he dropped like a needle and bounced up just before touching the water as he didn’t want to be dunked. Mike was similarly impressed by the whole experience and can’t wait to do his next one! Rumours have it he is set to jump off the highest Bungi in the world in Hong Kong a 230 metre drop in the near future. I think I will give that one a miss. 43 metres is enough for me! We collected our photos, DVD and postcards which will be arriving at a town near you soon! Very impressed and satisfied with the whole experience we got on the bus and were shipped back to town.

Back in Queenstown the lads were waiting to hear about our adventure and we told them all about it seating by the lake soaking in the sun. Another gorgeous day in Queenstown, 28 - 31 degrees. We mossied around town for a while, Conor went for a swim in the lake which he said was freezing. We ventured to the indoor crazy golf which I had noticed the day before. It was surprisingly advanced and very crazy! It had themed holes such as Space Station, Ski Lift and Candy Shop. Mike won. It was a jolly good round of golf and we each got a lollypop for our efforts on the last hole, you can grow up but you can never grow old!

That evening the destination was Global Gossip, our link to the rest of the world, ala the internet. I was surfing away when Mike shouts “Lads that’s Heather!” (A woman on the GAP tour with us for 18 days in South America) I run down the street to catch her and call her name she turns and we shared a hug and a laugh at the fact we are meeting again randomly in Queenstown, New Zealand a month later! The lads followed and we chatted for a while. It’s a cliché but true, its a small world! We returned to Global Gossip and shared our news with our fellow GAP tour groupies.

After our surfing we went to the Ice Bar, Minus 5. This is a bar in centre of Queenstown with an interior made completely of ice, even the glasses! It is -7 degrees in there and we were clothed up in big jackets and uggs! I now understand women’s fascination with uggs, they are quite toasty! We enjoyed a cocktail in the bar and took a few pics with the many ice sculptures. It was freezing inside and you are only allowed spend 30mins in there. It was a bbbrrrrrrrrilliant experience!

Over and Out,

Tom

Day 54 – Riddle me this, Puzzle me tha??

After weighing up the options we decided Puzzling World was the best place to occupy our time in Wanaka. Gary, Mike and I didn’t mind so it was up to Conor and he wanted to go so we did (inside joke). Another glorious day greeted us outside with temperatures in the high 20’s. After a 30 minute walk we saw the leaning tower of Wanaka outside which provided me with the chance for camera trickery to create many photo opportunities.

Puzzling world is made up of a Fence Maze and Illusion rooms. The Maze has 4 towers, one in each corner, which one has to figure out their way to. To be honest the maze was pretty shite!! It wasn’t our can of coke coupled by the fact we couldn’t find our way to any of the towers, we left after 10mins. We hoped the illusion rooms would hold more interest to us.

The first illusion you encounter on entering is a glowing sculpted concave face of Albert Einstein which follows you no matter where you go! Weird! The rest of the room is made up of varying holographic pictures each creating different and fun illusions. I had a gun pointed at my face! The next room was a circular hall of 6 famous faces (Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela to name a few) all in the same style as the earlier Einstein. Each face follows you around the room and it’s not just their eyes their whole face turns! Really cool! Not for the first time in my life all eyes were on me!!

The next room was to create an unbalanced centre of gravity effect. So the floor was at an angle, basically a steep slope yet the apparatuses in the room would work against the slope hence creating a weird illusion of conflicting levels of gravity. So one example is a pool table which looks perfectly square and flush (or plum as the auld lad would put it) yet every ball only goes in one pocket! Hard to explain and can only be comprehended by actually seeing it hence why they are called optical illusions not verbal illusions! The final major room of note was a perspective of size illusion where I would stand in one corner of a room and look like a giant compared to Gary who is in another corner of the same room, midget like. Illusions like this were used on The Lord of the Rings film for the hobbits. So we left Puzzling World in awe of the illusions and bitching about the so called Great Maze! We had to head back to the accommodation and gather our bags as we headed onto the next stop on our journey, Queenstown. For the thrill seeker and adrenaline hunter, it’s the capital of New Zealand and the home of the BUNGY.

Queenstown on 1st impressions seems young, vibrant, touristy, busy, buzzing and quite pretty. It’s a town that is thronged with backpackers all after the same thing the Bungi. If you can’t build yourself up to do the Bungi there is plenty other options like a Canyon Swing, Skydive, Jetboating, Paragliding and many others to suit everyone’s idea of a thrill. The town has zero history to it and its purpose is to serve the thrill seeking backpacker and it knows it. The town is made up of restaurants, cafes and store upon store of adventure agencies selling and advertising their answer to the backpackers wants. But the funny thing is amongst all this commercialism and money money, Queenstown is set on a beautiful lake and located in the middle of beautiful mountains and hills. It manages to maintain this charm amongst all the Bungy crusaders, chickens and champions.

That evening I was invited to accompany my cousin Sarah and her mister Robert in their campervan for dinner, a chat and a few drinks. Sarah and Rob are in NZ for 2 weeks doing a bit of sightseeing and relaxing. I had a lovely meal cooked by Sarah and shared some chit chat and banter till the wee hours of the morning. Great to catch up, get the news from home and be amongst family again.

A Cuna Ma Thata,

Tom

Day 53 – Willy Wanaka’s magic town

It was time for another bus adventure to the town of Wanaka. This bus trips main highlight was Thunder Creek. Thunder Creek is an impressive waterfall. Hukka falls stunned us with its sheer volume; Thunder Creek amazed us with its height. Thunder Creek provides a huge drop which gave us some great snaps. Along the way we say some notable and extraordinary snow capped mountains. We stopped for more photos on a lake that looked like it was something out of a Seamus Heaney poem. The water was still, mountains majestic and sun shining. A major highlight was also one of the sites where the film Narnia was shot.

A few ice-creams and i-pod tunes later we had arrived in Wanaka. Wanaka drew us in straight away. The bus dropped us outside the lake front. We had a view of a Lake and also could see the snow capped mountains in the near distance. The beach was crowded with lots of young Wanakan’s/ Wanakonians/ Wanakaites or what ever they call them. It was the first time we have felt the summer atmosphere in New Zealand. Everyone was in good moods and spirits. We got our accommodation sorted in Base Hostels. It was a new building so was state of the art with swipe cards and everything. We spent the rest of the afternoon strolling around the area basking in God’s glorious sun while enjoying the good ambiance. Shania Twain is a resident of this beautiful town unfortunately we didn’t come across her. If we had bumped into her we would have tried to “Impress her much”. That evening we watched a movie in a TV Room that offered surround sound and luxurious leather seats. The movie was no where near as good however. We gave Tom the chance to shine but he picked a horrible movie called “Windigo”. Kieran would have been proud of how bad this selection was. We went to bed afterwards as the forecast for the next day was 31 degrees so some more sunbathing was on the cards.

Stay Posted,

Conor

Day 52 – Heli-Maximus

The area of Franz Josef is simply a base in order to go and visit the Franz Josef glacier. We had done that yesterday so today was about relaxing. We had the option of going to see Fox Glacier another local glacier 30 minutes away, but a sleep in was selected ahead of it.

We spent the morning making a few calls home to the loved ones. A visit to the Glacier centre provided a great view at the only ice-climbing wall in the Southern Hemisphere. For 90 dollars you got to spent 1 hour and 30mins attempting to climb a 10 metre wall of ice. I contemplated doing this but taught it would have been challenging enough getting the money out of my ATM. We watched as a few people attempted the climb. It looked like the “Wall” on gladiators except you didn’t have the attractive women gladiators chasing you.

I decided to wait home and fight crime while Gary, Mike and Tom went to watch the recommended movie ‘Flowing West’, a 20 minute montage of all that is worth seeing in the upper echelons of the Southern Alps here in the South Island. It was shown in Helimax, which is high definition footage of helicopter views of the sights. No commentary only eerie music and natures sounds to add to the reality of the effect. It was impressive and interesting watch. It made us all want to go on a helicopter to see these things for real however our bank manager wasn’t that generous!

The evening was spent preparing the latest episode of Prison Break. This is one of the toughest challenges we have faced through out the trip. It’s proven easier to jump out of planes and buildings then download an episode. Thankfully this wasn’t one of those times. It was an emotional episode to say the least.

The rest of the evening was spent discussing Hostels with some of the other guests. One of the girls described how she worked in the Hostel’s cleaning for a few hours in return for free accommodation and laundry. This was an option that might not be too far in the future with the cost of doing these activities.

Stay Posted,

Conor

Day 51- The Ice Age

This morning we were all praying for good weather otherwise it could ruin our eight hour hike up Franz Josef. Upon looking out the window at 7am we saw rain, but not as heavy as the night before so we were still hopeful it would clear up and the sun would appear. We were lucky when after showering and breakfast the sun came out and it was time to get ready for our hike at 9am. We all put on a few layers and headed down to the Glacier Centre which was only a three minute walk away. We were a bit early so we had to wait to be called to suit up in our hats, gloves, socks, jackets, hiking boots and crampons (spikes) for the bottom of our boots to stop us from slipping all over the ice. The hike guides were wearing ridiculously skimpy shorts that we had to laugh at. We boarded the bus and could see the glacier in the distance. It was our Mount Everest! We had a short ten minute bus ride to the closest point to the glacier so the guides explained us the history of the glacier.
It was named Franz Josef by the geologist Julius Von Haast after the Austro-Hungarian emperor and is one of the highest glaciers in the Southern Hemisphere!

When we arrived at the bus stop we were told not to leave anything up on the glacier so out the window went our plans to plant an Ireland flag at the top! After this we had to walk down the companies own private track through the rainforest and at the end we had our first view of the Franz Josef Glacier. It was an amazing sight and one we had looked forward to greatly since arriving in New Zealand. It did not disappoint! The glacier looked only a small walk away but our guide Tony pointed out that it was in fact 2 kilometres away and would take forty-five minutes to an hour to walk there (it was an optical illusion) because of all the stones in our way.

We were shown at the foot of the glacier how to safely tie our crampons and we were split into three different groups. The first group would be the fast group and the other two would be more relaxed. The guides would also cut large steps with their axes for the slower groups. We being the thrill seekers we’ve made ourselves out to be decided to be in the first group. We were joined by three blonde Danish backpackers, unfortunately only one of them was female. We looked up the glacier to see some crazy fecker legging it down the steps with cuts all over his legs. This was Greg, an Englishman and our guide who had been up the glacier all morning trying to cut steps and make the hike safe for the tour. The heavy rain last night had ruined all his work from the days before and everything had to be done over. He was very enthusiastic and we knew we had an exciting day ahead of us.

I lead the way behind Greg as we raced up the first steps of glacier and we took to it like ducks to water (ice). As we got higher and higher the other groups appeared as little dots and we were glad we were in the first group. We would later hear the other groups were complaining about how slow they were going, Greg was great at cutting the steps. He was like a madman with that axe! He also pointed out all the areas of interest in the glacier like the Iris, an eye shaped gap in the ice.

There was time for a short break on the ice so we had some lunch while Greg went out in front and sculpted our path along the glacier. Five minutes later we were on our way again up the glacier. We weaved our way through nooks and crannies in the blue ice as we approached the top. This proved to be hard for me as I could barely fit through some of the gaps in the ice and my feet got stuck on more than one occasion!

When we reached the summit we crossed paths with another group who was on a different track to us. Greg had a little activity for us, squeezing through a gap in the ice! The other guide Markus warned him about what had happened to Tim, another tour guide who had gotten stuck in between the glaciers trying to make the same course yesterday. He had to be pulled out with a rope. There seemed to be some healthy competition between the two but it was Greg who came out on top this time and he proceeded to rub it in Markus face. We all managed to conquer the game but we worried for the other group as they contained a few people on the heavy side.

We admired the spectacular views from the top and realised how lucky we were to be doing all this. There was also many opportunity for group photos with our Danish friends. Tom whipped out the Irish flag for the second time on this trip but unfortunately the Danish’s photography skills weren’t as good as the guy in Iguassu!

Now it was time for our descent! Along the way down we scoffed down all our remaining food and drinks. There was a mix up as too whether the bag was opened or closed and as a result a bottle of red Powerade went sliding down the glacier and into a crevasse never to be seen again. At least Greg didn’t notice it or he would have used the axe on us! If anything goes wrong in years to come at the Franz Josef Glacier we will know it was probably our fault!

It was another two hours hike to the bottom and a further hour walk to get the bus back but all in all the eight hours of hiking has been definitely worth it and is a must do for everyone who visits New Zealand! Walking without our crampons at first was a very strange sensation but we got used to it.

After watching Bill Murray in Groundhog Day we hit the hay hoping that we wouldn’t have to relive this day over and over again no matter how amazing it was. Eight hour hike after eight hour hike would take its toll eventually!

Ice Ice Baby,

Mike

Day 50- Shanty Town

This morning we booked our glacier tour in Franz Joseph but before we got our bus to that destination we booked another tour. The replica 1880s West Coast gold-mining settlement of Shanty Town was our destination. Our tour guide wore John Wayne like cloths but he was far from a quite man. He smiled like Jack Nicholson as he cracked a few jokes and kept yapping. In fairness to the guy he was very knowledgeable and was more than helpful to us. Shanty Town boasts over 30 buildings with hundreds of trade and general use from the gold mining era of the 1860’s, as well as the Gold Panning and Steam Train. After grabbing a quick caramel square, we got the steam train ride which runs through native bush. We stopped for a short while at the top of the track for photo’s and a closer look at the engine which looked like it was about to fall apart, never mind the train!!! On the way back we took a short bush walk to the town via the gold claim. Sage prospectors helped us pan for gold in salted tanks. It is a long process but worth it to see the little bits of gold at the end of the pan which you can keep as a souvenir. Points of interest were the 1902 Coronation Hall from Ross, the 1865 church originally from No Town in Grey Valley, and the hotel cobbled together from parts. We also noticed the printing shop with its faded billboards advertising the latest films. A mock prison was also on view where we did our best to reconstruct Prison Break but unfortunately we couldn’t get poor Lincoln Burrows out….Scofield would have been ashamed of us!!! The bush walks allowed us to stroll some of the well groomed tracks. It is said that the enveloping native rain forest calms the nerves and soothes the soul… I wouldn’t go that far!!

The tour guide gave us a few tips on what to do during the glacier tour tomorrow. He said to wear a good few pairs of underwear. I explained to him that backpackers don’t have a “good few pairs of underwear”. He dropped us off at the bus station and we headed for Franz Joseph which was four hours away. It was teaming down with rain and by the time we arrived in the hostel named “Chateau Franz” (ooooh la la), it was quite dark so we had no real view of the mountains and glaciers which is probably a good thing because it will make for a more exciting trip tomorrow. Its a nice hostel and all the people seem quite friendly but Franz Joseph is a quite place with just accommodation as its main attraction are the glaciers with another glacier called “Fox glacier” roughly a half an hour away. As we had to be up by seven we had a quick reminisce about our South America adventure as we uploaded photos and hit the hay earlier as we are sure to be in for a different kind of adventure in the morning.

Yeeeeeeehawwwwwwwwww

Gary

Day 49 – Mountain Madness!!

We arrived at Greymouth around 1am via another Intercity bus and booked into the YHA, a converted old priest house. The lady at reception was very helpful and cheerful, she recommended the brewery tour and BBQ for that evening which we went along with. First up we toured around the town, the largest town on the West Coast of the Southland but still only home 30,000 people. There was at least a few more shops and common haunting grounds for us like Mickey D’s and KFC around compared to Westport. Still nothing too exciting though. We visited the Jade Gallery which was cool, Jade being a bright green gem used to make tools and other instruments by the Maoris back in the day, today its carved into beautiful ornaments and pieces of jewellery.

Greymouth is set in the backdrop of snowy mountains, green forested hills and a river flowing out to Tasman Bay. We headed to the Kings Walkway which leads to a lookout over Greymouth town and the surrounding countryside and valleys. The walkway was overgrown and rather treacherous to say the least. It was a 45 min climb and one that Mike and Gary couldn’t handle, turning around at the halfway point. Lazy bones! Conor and I continued through the muck to the summit. Here we found a spectacular view over the countryside. The horizon was made up of rugged snowy mountain peaks in the far distance. These were fronted by green, forested hills which sloped down to a river meandering into the distance. It was picturesque scene and one which was the perfect example of what Gary and I learnt in Mr. Small’s class back in the glory days, rivers, meanders, ox-bow lakes, erosion, deposition, forestry, U-shaped Valleys and snowy capped mountains. Conor departed the top earlier than me in order to take a shower and get ready for the BBQ, he decided to go down a different way to the way we came up. I stayed another 20mins hypnotised by the majestic scenery, before jogging, jumping, skidding down the way we came up.

I returned to the hostel to the 2 lads with no sight of Conor!! Where was he gone? He left me over an hour ago and I’m down before him! So we asked the lady at reception was there another way down from the top to which she replyed “No way, you come down the same way you go up, otherwise there are some dangerous holes that one can fall into”!! Not sounding good! So we headed towards the Kings Walkway to see if we could find him or even hear his cry for help!! We ascended the hill again, painful stuff. We stopped every now and again to shout “CCCOOOONNNOOORRR” to the response of an eerie silence! We got to the top, the first time for the 2 lads, my second time in 3hrs! We shouted again with no response. I showed the lads the route I think he took down, Mike said “That’s ridiculous Tom there is no way in hell he went down there”! We had no choice but to head back to hostel at the hope he returned with the realisation we had now missed the brewery tour and BBQ. We returned to the hostel to find Conor up in the room showered and ready to go out! ‘Where the hell were you?’ as Mike lost the rag with him! Vicious temper when he gets cross! ;-). Conor than informed us he took some crazy way down and ended up in the back of some guy’s garden!

We headed to the BBQ as we still had time and scoffed down as much food as we could and a free pint from the local brewery. We were delighted to find out that the pub would be showing the 1st half of the United – Arsenal match live at 1.45am our time. So we had a few pints and mingled with the local pool players, taking them on the doubles to good success the most of the time it has to be said. The Daly boys have acquired some pool knowledge from meself and Mike during our touring and its coming to good affect now. We must have played 30 games of doubles with the locals!

Go Go Inspector Gadget,

Tom

Day 48- Welcome to Westport!

It was time for another early Bus. We made our way like Zombies to the Bus stop just in time for our bus. The Bus trips may not be up there with South America for comfort but they are better in terms of scenery. Each bus driver is a tour guide and provides some interesting facts on the places we drive through. Some of the highlights of this trip included a rock shaped like a koala, 13 kilometre sand spit and New Zealand’s longest swing bridge. These sites quicken up the trip and provide some good photos.

We arrived in Westport. No guys we aren’t coming back to you via Westport Ireland this is Westport New Zealand. The region is called after Ireland’s namesake however. Many Irish came to this region in the 1800’s. It was a large mining region which provided the Irish with good work opportunities. It was a good chance to see a town that the Irish played an important role in. We didn’t have too much time to think about history, we needed to locate accommodation. It proved a bit harder than we imagined due to a bike race going through town. Eventually we found a Hotel that would put us up. It was very backwards and it reminded us of Fawlty Towers.

A visit to coal town was the highlight of Westport. It was an interesting museum concentrating on the Buller coalfield. The museum was filled with several interesting exhibits about earthquakes, brewing and the town’s maritime history. It also contained a replica mine tunnel complete with sounds and musty smells. It was simply fascinating to imagine what life was like under ground. A video detailed the workings of the mines.

We took the scenic route back to town. This route brought us through a river with a fantastic view of the nearby snow peaked mountains. We decided to go to Denniston Dog for Westport’s finest cuisine. It reminded us of a scene out of Ground Hog Day as everyone we had met that day was in the restaurant and knew us all.Like Westport back home it provided a fantastic meal. It felt like we were back home in Ireland for a few minutes.

An early night was had by all to catch up with all the sleep lost from all these early mornings. Before we could hit the hay Mike came into the room pale. What was wrong we all wondered? He then told us how he heard the Owner of the Hotel in the shower with who we taught was her son, a 23 year old lad. She was washing him. This town was very backward and we were ready to leave bright and early the next morning.

Stay Posted,

Conor