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

Day 47- The Fellowship Of The Ring

Gary arose at 6:30am to see if there was anyone on reception who could give him his passport. Unfortunately there wasn’t anyone there so we had to wait in Nelson and miss our bus. Knowing that we could now watch the Man Utd v Celtic match later softened the blow somewhat. We headed to the internet café with our bags in hand as the hostel didn’t have it on, at 9:00am and watched Utd draw 1-1. We also had a very funny webcam conversation with one Kieran Costello.
We had no hostel for the night so our next mission was to find suitable accommodation which didn’t prove too hard. We checked into Accents on the Park hostel and were met by a very enthusiastic man on reception. He gave us a six bed dorm for four of us which we were delighted about as we are usually cramped in four bed dorms. We left our bags in our room and headed back towards the town centre.
Now it was time to explore the city of Nelson and see everything it had to offer. First stop along the way was an Irish owned bar and restaurant for some breakfast. The owner was from Longford and the waitress from Dublin and both of them made us feel very welcome and invited us back later for some Irish music.
Next we visited the jeweller’s Jens Hansen who Peter Jackson got to make the “one ring to rule them all” for the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. It was good to see the ring and replicas were available but we thought about what happens to the owner of such a ring so we quickly moved on!

Gary had the urge to invest again in the Lotto and this time he wanted scratch cards as well. I was happy to go along with it for the laugh even though I was very sceptical and we bought $50 worth of “3 in a row” and scratched them outside the grey stoned Christ Church Cathedral which is perched on a small hill overlooking the town. We won $20 dollars out of the cards and invested them in 4 cards of “Beat The Dealer”. We thought our luck was out when we were on $7 with one card to scratch but Gary the won $20 which took our total to $27 which we would invested again someday. Stay Posted on our gambling antics! After this we entered the Cathedral and noticed the grim exterior contrasts with its interior.
We headed back to the hostel to grab a quick meal and get ready for a few pints where we ate breakfast earlier in the morning. On our way out the guy on reception made a funny comment about us when we were leaving to another group who were just checking in. He said “Now here is something special for you, here are three Irish lads and they are not drunk! Its something you are not likely to see again”.
With that we headed into town to prove him right!

Mike

Day 46- Uh Oh The Laundry’s Done!

(For the 30th time) “We awoke” this morning at 10am but decided it was time to lounge around in bed instead of getting up. Today was the day we were dreading for so long: laundry day!
An awkward silence entered the room as two of the hostel workers came in to clean the room. For two minutes one of them hoovered the room as I was under the covers anticipating an outburst of laughter coming from Conor as usually he can’t handle awkward silences such as these. We overhead the hostel owner giving out to the other backpackers for the smell of marijuana from the abandoned bus, from looking at their faces we knew they didn’t regret it one bit.
After this we walked with our dirty, smelly laundry bags in hand towards the town of Nelson. We had a quick stop to make along the way, breakfast. We all ordered big English breakfast with smoothie’s on the side. It was a great way to start laundry day! After this we got the taxi to Bubbles, the place where we would spend the next three hours of our lives. When we got there we needed three things: loose change, detergent and a toilet for me. A long walk was needed to the nearest shop and toilet. We returned to the launderette and washed everything we had no matter how many washes it took. I even washed my shoes to get rid of the horrifying smell that was caused by countless hours of freestyle. We encountered a very drunk Englishman who wasn’t sure how the operate the machines. He really should have washed out his mouth while he was at it. After seven loads of washing completed it was time to give the dryers a try. The first one horrible but thankfully the other ones got the job done after an hour.
We passed a nice little restaurant and ate possibly the hottest chicken curry any of us has ever tasted. It was so hot it brought us back to the Thai restaurant in Paraty. Our mouths were still on fire when we left the restaurant so it was time for some much needed ice-cream. I’m not lying when I say we average at least one ice-cream each a day. That’s forty five ice-creams each in a month and a half, roughly one hundred and seventy altogether.
Back at the hostel we decided to make the most of the facilities we stripped off and hoped into the steam room. We sweated our arses off as we chatted to a Welshman who has been working on a fishing boat for the last two months. He praised working on the boats as you get seven weeks off for six weeks work and you get paid for it. Conor and Gary pondered if that’s what we would be doing in the near future. There was also a crazy little South Korean who bashed his head off the top of the sauna when he entered. It was hard not to laugh as he swore in Korean.
Before going to bed Gary realised his Passport was still in reception and we were leaving in the morning to get a bus so we had no other option but to hope he would be able to get it in the morning. Reception didn’t open till 8am and we had to leave at 7am! We were in a sticky situation.
How would we get out of this mess?
Tune in next time, same Bat time, same Bat channel!

Mike

Day 45 – Nelson Mandela

It was time to say goodbye to the North Island and say hello to the South Island today at 6am but I was awake well before that. Mike was on the top bunk bed with me on the bottom so he started freaking me out during the middle of the night with a spooky voice and flashing lights from his I pod near my face…will he ever grow up!!! .The North Island has definitely served us well during our time there. We got in a taxi and headed for the port. It was like looking at the Titanic herself (a film that Mike still has to see but refuses to watch it!!!!), It was a sight to behold and was structurally sound (I just want to sound like an engineer…it looked solid).

Mike and I were carrying around our dirty washing in a blue see through bag and it smelled horrific, we must have looked like two paupers but we couldn’t just leave them in the bag!!! One of the workers in the boat had a laugh with us about it so it was all good. We got a breakfast on the boat and it was rocky as hell!!! Walking up to pay for the breakfast was a challenge in itself; we were swaying from side to side. I bet everyone thought that the Irish were drunk again but truth be told we are finding it hard to drink with all this getting up early but we will make up for it! Tom said he would never work on a cruise boat after this and I don’t blame him!

The top of the boat was the place to be to get some fresh air as the boat hit top gear but unfortunately due to high winds the top deck was closed for most of the journey. This boat had everything from a cinema to a pub and with the film being a Nicholas Cage one, we decided to hit the pub where luckily there was a premier league match on to keep us occupied. The pub had a duo singing and playing the guitar and they were excellent. The female artist sounded like Norah Jones and had the voice of an angel….unfortunately her face didn’t match that description. The duo received a big round of applause and left the stage so we had a game of 110 which Tom won. Mike and I won some money on a pool games machine but we got greedy and lost it all again L

We arrived in Picton at around 11.45 and quickly had to catch our bus to Nelson which was going at 12.15. Some of us got Milkshakes which tasted like Angles Delight and we were on our way. Our hostel was called Hostel Paradisso and from our first impression of the place, we thought it was really cool. It had a swimming pool, sauna room and a volleyball court. Check in wasn’t until 3 so we had a game of tennis soccer (as Kieran Costello christened it). During check in, Tom couldn’t find his wallet and even after the customary checking of pockets with a disbelieving look in his eye, the wallet was no where to be seen. DISASTER!!!! Thomas Burke, the man who is usually ever reliable, had made a mistake. The word mistake usually isn’t in his vocabulary but it is now! To be fair to the woman in the hostel she was very helpful during Tom’s moment of need. She rang the bus company and said she would have the wallet back by 6 to us in exchange for a bottle of red wine. What was she hoping for? We no longer buy women drinks, although on our walk up town we did spot a $6 bottle of wine (not cheap enough in our opinion!!).

It was a miserable day and the rain didn’t help us form a positive opinion on the city of Nelson but we will reserve judgement for now until the sun shines again. After arriving back to the hostel (minus a red bottle of wine), Tom received his wallet and grabbed it for dear life. It was emotional to say the least, imagine if he lost the “rough guide to New Zealand” book! The people in the hostel were weird and a bit older than us. There is an abandoned bus is in the middle of the garden in the hostel where everyone smokes all sorts! To go on the internet, you have to go into the sitting room, where everyone is watching a film (these guys are always watching films…day and night!), and then climb up a little ladder. Once at the top you are basically looking down on them watching the film! We couldn’t help but laugh as this place has a very strange layout! Tomorrow we will venture around the city of Nelson.

Stay out of my booze,

Gary.

Day 44 – All’s Well-Ington

Our second full day in Wellington and I had another day of city touring and discovery lined up. After munching on some cereal and toast we had bought the previous day, we equipped ourselves with our now usual bits and bobs, Mike with his ball and camera, me with my camera, map and guide book, Conor with the rucksack to carry any extra bits and Gary just brings himself and his sunglasses!

Our first stop was Te Papa, National Museum of New Zealand, and a must for anyone visiting Wellington (according to the books anyways!). The museum is free to enter and is described everywhere as ‘a marvellous collection of all things New Zealand’ and ‘a full day could easily be spent here’. So we were very excited (well as excited as you can be about going to a museum)! Te Papa museum is situated on the waterfront and an ordinary enough building from the outside but inside it holds much history, information, active exhibits and interactive sections to make it all the more interesting and inviting. The museum has the latest in touch screen and interactive technology which really impressed Mike. One such exhibit had a giant fluorescent screen with various pictures and short media clips which could all be controlled with a wand stick, moving, resizing, playing and many other functions all by moving a stick! Really cool! Mike compared it to Minority Report where Tom Cruise’s character had the use of a similar device in one of the opening scenes, looking back on a murder. I taught it was a pretty good comparison.

Te Papa has 5 different floors and each floor has roughly 3-4 different sections so there is enough here to keep everyone entertained. However it has to be said we weren’t overly impressed with the whole museum and didn’t think it lived up to the hype of the guides and references. It wasn’t all that better than the Auckland museum so we had seen most of the stuff before. Top 2 floors were crap, one being an art gallery (boring) and the other being a small collection of trophies! This had nothing to do with ignorance towards culture, art or anything like that, it just didn’t float our boats at all. A main critique I would have of the museum is a lot of the objects and displays you are looking at are all recreations or models, not actual originals so for me personally that definitely takes away from the WOW factor. Having all that said the earthquakes and volcanoes section was good as was the wildlife section. It is without doubt an excellent museum for kids and families due to the wide range of interactivity and is a great learning centre. I guess we just know it all already and seen it all before!! In contrast to the descriptions, from us it merited a 2hr visit!

After our disappointment of the museum we hoped the day would get better as we headed to the Botanical Gardens. We got the old style Cable Car, originally built in 1902, and enjoyed the views from the top. The Botanical Gardens are peaceful and we enjoyed a really pleasant stroll around the gardens. There are many different trails around the grounds. As we walked through the gardens it felt like we were in the Amazon, the tall coniferous trees and New Zealand ferns climbed above us battling with the sun for the light. The only sound we could here was the chirping of the birds and the swoshing of the wind as it swooped through the forest; you wouldn’t think we were less than 1km from the centre of the capital city of New Zealand. The central crowd pullers of the gardens are the begonia house and the fragrant Lady Norwood Rose Garden which we also paid a visit. We soaked up the tranquillity of the setting by tucking into a delicious muffin in the Begonia House café.

We continued walking north to the Parliament district where we seen the Parliament Buildings – the modern Beehive, the neoclassical Parliament House and the Gothic Parliament Library. Each of contrasting periods and highly individual structures but somehow manage to sit quite harmoniously together. We last stop was the new St. Pauls Cathedral, an Anglican church. One thing about the Anglican church is they are much more subtle about their reverence for God. All the Anglican churches or cathedrals are modestly decorated on the inside compared to the lavish, in your face decoration of the Catholic equivalents.

That evening myself and Mike went to meet Ollie (a freestyler) and one of his mates at the Civic Square where they practiced and shared some freestyle moves and chit chat. Mike will have quite a web of contacts built up by the end of this trip.

Sin e an sceal,

Tom

Day 43 – Wellington Boots

Despite how the blog may sound it’s not all glitz and glam 24/7. At certain times we have to endure some hardship. This was one of those times. The hardship this morning was a 4:00am rise. No it wasn’t to catch a bus or train; it was to catch a Manchester United game. We watched on the net a 4-3 classic still half asleep. After the shouting and roaring it was 6am and time for our second shift of sleep.

Once alive again it was afternoon and time to explore what would be our temporary home. Wellington on first opinion seems a much more relaxed city than Auckland which is a little bit more go-go. The people on the streets wear casual gear like rugby jerseys and t-shirts as opposed to Auckland which was dominated by business men and women. Wellington is smaller in population than Auckland but its bubbly and bright residence make up for that difference.

The only way to view these places is on foot and that’s what we did. Our first call was the Civic Centre which is closest thing to a real centre that Wellington has. To our disappointment the National Art Gallery was temporarily closed so we enjoyed the levitating Orb that the Civic Centre has to offer. Its Neil Dawson’s Ferns, an interlinking metal fern fronds form into a ball that seems to float above the square. A stroll done along Cuba Street was up next. We got to do a bit of people-watching and window shopping along Wellington’s “alternative” street which gave us a taste of Wellington’s diverse cultures.

After a spot of lunch it was time to head towards Oriental Parade. We came across the National Skating Championship so decided to watch for a few minutes. Mike was in his element as he thought he is in a Tony Hawke’s game. A few skills were on display. Oriental Parade is a beautiful prom. We took in the sights of the city while strolling through it. It contains a man made beach constructed in 2003. The sand was brought from across the Cook Strait. The Cook Strait is what separates the North and South Island. The sun was out so the beach was full of New Zealanders basking in the warmth that the day brought.

After that we attempted a 194 metre ascend to the summit of Mount Victoria. This was one nightmare of a climb. Every time it looked like we had reached the top another corner would appear with an equally large mount. Hiking really isn’t helped by the dream diet of Gary which is Burger King and McDonalds. Eventually we made it to the summit and it felt like a scene out of Rocky as we reached the top. It was worth it. The view was breathtaking. It reminded us of the spectacular views we witnessed in Rio de Janeiro. The airport was viewable in the distance and we witnessed the marvel of planes landing. The city is wedged in between mountains which made it such a scenic view. It was hard to believe that Mike and I had jumped the equivalent height from the top of the Sky Tower. If only we had the wires to repeat the jump to the bottom. We wanted to stay but we knew we better start the large descent. It wasn’t as tough as the original climb but was still tough.

The night’s activity was a trip to Reading Cinema to see SAW V. It was a must do and we put everything else on hold till we had seen it. Mike complained about how crap it was but said he couldn’t wait for SAW VI. Mike wanted to bitch about it with Kieran Costello. The capital city is definitely been good so far and we look forward to seeing what the city has to offer tomorrow.

Stay Posted

Conor

Day 42 – Say Hello to my Little friend!

We had another action packed day lined up so we arose early and caught our pick up to our first activity of the day, Quad Biking. After the Quad Bikes we had arranged to do Paintballing, organised by the same guys. None of us have ever done Quad Biking or Paintballing so we didn’t really know what to expect and we were excited about what lay ahead for us. I was especially excited at the prospect of kicking Gary’s ass and letting it loose on him, Rambo style! We arrived at the quad bike centre and got kitted out in our Paintballing camouflage overalls as we would not be returning here and would go straight from the Quads to the Paintballing area. We were introduced to our guide, Malcolm, he brought us through the safety of quad biking and the essentials behind commandeering such a vehicle. We got acquainted with our respective vehicle’s and were ready for road. I christened my Quad Sally, no particular reason just looked like a Sally type of Quad!! Sally and I were going to have a great ride!

The quads were deadly, we had a great time compromising the rough terrain and learning to trust the machine and get the best out of the ride without endangering our lives. They are quite easy to get the hang of but the danger is falling into an air of complacency thinking you have mastered the quad and one sharp turn or unexpected bump later; you could topple causing damage to yourself and the vehicle. I didn’t want anything to happen to Sally! Malcolm was a sound man and we had some good conversations with him about New Zealand, the culture and even the legislation behind the proportion of risk in business especially regarding the customer! The tracks were all well laid out and challenging without being too over bearing as to not enjoy the experience. We drove in single file with a 10 second gap between each vehicle except for Conor who felt obliged to leave a 10 minute gap between him and the rest of us!!! I don’t think he left gear one! But he still managed to crash (if you could call it a crash at that speed) twice, both times he managed to dismount the vehicle he said before impact. Unfortunately such was the gap between him and the rest of us we didn’t have the chance to enjoy these incidents.

Having rode Sally around the track successfully, we pit stopped at the Paintball area. Malcolm gave us another safety brief, provided us with our masks and weapons, situated the flag and let us loose like wild wolfs! Mike and I were together against the twins. This was going to be fun! 100 paintballs each for the 1st game. I think we ran out after approximately 10mins!! We got a bit excited at the prospect of firing at the person you have been living, dining, sleeping and looking at for the past 6 weeks! Mike and I captured the flag and were annihilating the lads, mind you Conor had his safety latch on the gun for most of the game despite been given instructions on how to switch it off! The 2nd game was more of the same with the same outcome, Mike and I won. The paintballs are actually quite sore when they hit you and it left a few marks especially in the buttock area! At the end we left a few paintballs each to unload on each other and do a few old style western draws. I echoed “Feeling lucky, PUNK!”, and let rip on Conor, Mike & Gary let loose on each other. Any frustrations we had with each other over the past few weeks were fired in each paintball. It was painful but great fun and an excellent method of frustration relief. After the paintballing we hoped back on the quads and drove them back to the base camp where we got changed and got a lift back to the hostel.

We were covered in paint so we took quick showers and headed to the bus station. We were leaving Taupo for Wellington, the capital of New Zealand and our last stop on the North Island. The bus journey was 6 hours long but went reasonably quick in fairness with the help of some reading and that miracle device the iPod. The bus journeys allow for a lot of reflection on the journey so far and I can say that New Zealand so far has been really enjoyable. It is completely different to South America and what it may lack in charm and raw beauty compared to the later it makes up for with the friendliness of the people and the range of activities for any traveller. If you have enough money and are willing to try anything, New Zealand is the place for you. It caters for all sorts of adrenaline and thrill seekers. So far on our trip in New Zealand between us we have jumped off a building, rolled down a hill in a giant inflatable balloon, rafted down a waterfall, tubed through caves, quad biked through a forest and skydived from 15,000 feet in less than 2 weeks! It can truly stake claim to the adventure capital of the world.

See ya Bro,

Tom