Tui too nice

Day 1 - Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

2009-05-13T02:01:00.004+12:00

The unfortunate thing about travelling as far as somewhere like Turkey from London means despite having an early flight, the duration of the flight combined with the time difference means you’ve wasted a whole day on travel which meant Emma, Paul and I didn’t arrive at Istanbul airport until late afternoon. We wandered around for a bit trying to find a cheap way of getting into the city since we’d unfortunately flown into the Gatwick of Istanbul rather than the more convenient Heathrow version. Not surprisingly we found some other kiwis at the airport who were trying to do the same thing as us so we combined our lira powers to get a taxi together into the city. It was quite a hairy ride with the driver speeding along the motorway inspecting his map whilst speeding along the motorway so as a distraction we chatted to our fellow passengers, only to discover that randomly we had a friend in common – Renee. But I guess it's bound to happen since we were converging in a country on the same weekend as another 3,000 odd kiwis.

Paul directed the taxi driver to our hotel using our Beige Brigade map we had been provided with and when we checked in we were pleased to discover we had been put into a room with three beds rather than me having to pair up with someone else on my tour like I’d got the impression I was going to have to do.

After dumping our bags we headed across town to find the bar where we were to meet up with our tour to get the run down on the proceedings for the morning as well as pick up our free drink and ANZAC hoodie. Unfortunately that didn’t go so well as we were late to which meant all we could find were drunken Aussie and Kiwis already donning their ANZAC hoodies and no “guides” in sight. We asked a few people what the low down was and they informed us that there would be a wakeup call at a respectable 4am, breakfast at 5am, leaving at 6am so we were quite happy to opt out of the drunken evening that was unfolding at the bar in favour of finding ourselves a Turkish dinner before heading to bed. Once we’d satisfied our stomachs with delightful Turkish meals and apple tea we wandered back to our hotel via the Blue Mosque which looked stunning lit up in the darkness.

Refreshed Love of all things Kiwi

2009-05-13T01:47:00.004+12:00

I found it quite unsettling going home for seven weeks over the NZ summer as it evoked a lot of memories about things that I hadn’t realised I missed. Obviously you have the odd moment here and there where you have a longing for the Coromandel or real vogels bread or your close friends and family but those moment do tend to get fewer and far between the longer you away. That is, until you return to New Zealand and you realise just how much you have missed the little day to day things that make New Zealand home and gives it that comfortable snugly blanket on a winters night feeling.

There are definitely things I knew I missed like the beach and bbqs and having a proper summer but there were quite a few moments during my holiday that I rediscovered my love for things that I had forgotten I had. They included moments like being at Muriwai and watching people dance about as they try not to scald their feet on the hot sand, listening to George FM and being able to hear the deafening cicadas through the mike, going out for brunch and having an array of delectable cafes to choose from that all have fantastic food and coffee, driving out to South Head, going riding at Woodhill, walking the bays of the North Shore admiring views through the flax, and just being in Ponsonby.

We really are very lucky to come from such an amazing country as NZ and despite it being a completely different pace of life to London and not having the ease of access to Europe it is pretty damn hard to beat. Prior to my visit home I’d been dreaming up scenarios which would enable me to stay in Europe for as long as possible but I’ve definitely had a change of heart since then having accepted the fact that I won’t be over here for forever and now have managed to get quite excited about the thought of returning to New Zealand (semi) permanently. It did help a lot that not only did I have an awesome holiday but all those memories that I had come flooding back reminded me just how much fun I was having prior to me leaving the first time around too.

So I guess the long and the short of it is that I now love New Zealand and what it has to offer more than ever, fortunately, since I’ll be returning to it's sandy shores soon(ish).

Best Year Yet...

2009-01-16T00:02:00.003+13:00

Well, well, after all my grand travel blogging plans, haven't I just turned out to be absolutely rubbish at it since my month in Spain. I blame my silence on the fact that I never have any spare time these days which means blog writing tends to get pushed to the bottom of my to do list and then before I know it, a whole six months has passed without a single post.

When I look back at all that I managed to jam into 2008, it's not surprising that time wasn't often available for blogging and also why it was my best year yet. Although it wasn't my best year in a career sense, it was definitely off the scale in the amount of fun had and experiences enjoyed. First off I left my one and only job since leaving high school before I did the big move out of my flat and waved goodbye to all my friends and family to head off overseas.

That's where the experiences began with a week spent in Melbourne and a month travelling solo around Thailand where amongst other things I passed my dive certificate. I then visited London briefly before moving to Haddington in Scotland, where I had two temp jobs and saw various parts of the country, a majority of it during a road trip in the Highlands. Following my three months in Scotland I travelled for a month through Spain and Portugal. Since then I've spent the last six months living in London where I've had about four different temp jobs and lived in three flats.

The six months that I've lived here have been the busiest, with me trying to make the most of the London Life. I feel like I've made a good attempt at making the most by doing lots of the must do things like the London Bus Tour, visiting Portobello, Spitalfields and Borough markets, nights out at Shunt, Fabric and Ministry of Sound, eating curry on Brick Lane, going to the Wimbledon tennis, having Devonshire Tea at Harrods, attending live gigs, shopping on Oxford Street, going to a Roller Disco, spending weekends in Belgium and Paris via the Eurostar, completing a 12km cross country running race, going to the theatre, ice skating outdoors, and spending Christmas in Prague. There was of course a whole lot of drinking and partying time in between/during all those awesome experiences too.

Thanks to everyone who made it a killer year, lets hope 2009 is just as good or even better! It's definitely off to a great start with six weeks of NZ summer coming up which will be a welcome escape from the dreary London winter. Bring on the beach, bbq's and sunshine (and of course all my lovely friends and family who I've missed so much!).

Day 30 -Final Day Missions

2008-06-26T02:42:00.013+12:00

After my blowout the previous day of having spent the majority of it feeling revolting and barely being able to get out of bed, it meant that my last day in Spain was to be manic fitting in all the last things I wanted to see. This meant I had to set off fairly early to a.) beat the heat and b.) have enough time to squeeze my two days worth of sight seeing into just one day.

First stop on my mission was Casa Batlló (House of Bones). The building was owned by Josep Batlló Casanovas and he originally commissioned Gaudi to demolish the building and construct a new one but he changed his mind, instead asking Gaudi to refurbish the existing structure that had been built in 1875-77. The rounded edges, glittering colours and delicate facade detailing makes for an impressive sight - although the trees on the footpath outside don't make for an impressive photograph of it unfortunately.

Next stop about 20mins walk on is the infamous La Sagrada Familia is probably Gaudi's most famous work on show in Barcelona. Gaudi worked on the enormous Roman Catholic church for 40 years, the last 15 years of his life completely dedicated to it, and it still isn't finished to this day. The cranes working on the amazing stone structure are a permanent fixture, at least until 2026, the date of its scheduled completion.

Nico and Kelly had recommended I check out the hospital just up the hill from the Familia so I headed up to Hospital de Sant Pau and it was certainly well worth it. The hospital was designed by the Catalan architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Definitely the most amazing hospital I've ever seen and probably will ever see!

The final Gaudi mission of my day was to visit Park Güell where Gaudi has really outdone himself by creating a huge garden complex boasting incredible stone structures, beautiful mosaic tiling pieces and interesting buildings. Due to my time constraints I did speed around the gardens a bit (despite the killer heat) but was I was in complete awe of the place the whole time. The thing that surprised me the most was how people don't recommend the park anywhere near as going to see Sagrada Familia where I felt the gardens were something so incredibly different and amazing they are certainly a must see in Bareclona and I was glad I'd managed to make my way there despite my previous days efforts.

After a morning of traipsing around the city in the intense heat it was time to head down to the beach to meet Nico and Kelly for a last tan top up and a last frolic in the sea before waving goodbye to Spain. Our afternoon was very enjoyable and we had one last fill of olives and cheese and tomato baguettes before we had to drag ourselves away from the sunshine and head off in order to make our flight.

Our last hours spent in Barcelona were spent sitting in the airport cheering for our new comrades as Spain thrashed Russia in the euro2008 quarter finals, enabling us to end what had been a fabulous holiday on a high even if we knew we were having to head back to London.

Day 29 - Sick as a Dog

2008-06-25T23:40:00.000+12:00

I awoke feeling ok and got straight up to get ready since we'd planned to get a reasonably early start to enable us to see all Gaudi had to offer in Barcelona. Well things started to go downhill pretty quickly for me once I reached the bathroom and started getting changed. I started getting the sweats and was feeling pretty dizzy so got out of the confined toilet space thinking I'd feel better in a bit of fresher air. This was not the case unfortunately, just making it out into the corridor before I collapsed in a heap on the floor just as one of the Spanish guys from the previous night was coming past. I couldn't see for a few moment and was feeling like I could be sick meanwhile the Spanish guy is trying to get me to get up and go to our dorm room (and kindly picked up my underwear from the floor that I'd managed to drop while I was having my slight episode). I eventually managed to gather up enough strength to make it back into our dorm and that is about all I could manage for most of the day.

I sent Nico and Kelly off to go and see the sights without me but every hour or so I'd feel like I was feeling better so get up to go check the net or get a water and each time the effort was so much that I'd have to head back to our dorm after a few minutes so I could collapse back into bed. It was not a fun day I can tell you, and the strangest thing was it wasn't even like it was a hangover as a.) I don't really get hangovers and b.) I hadn't drunk THAT much the previous night to warrant me feeling so horrific.

Eventually at about 5pm I managed to suck it up enough to head outside and meet up with Nico and Kelly for a bite to eat and a few drinks before we made our way back to the hostel to watch the Euro quarter finals between Germany and Russia. I was feeling much better and managed to hoe into a bottle of wine in preparation for our second night of fiesta with the Spanish boys.

Our fiesta ended up being heading down the Playa Barceloneta and drinking on the beach while the boys had wrestling matches, swims, kisses with 15 year old girls and other such shenanigans. It was a good laugh and I was glad I'd managed to perk up enough to make it out for our last night in Spain.

Day 28 - Free Tours & Funny Times

2008-06-24T23:09:00.001+12:00

We'd decided that a good way to see the sights of Barcelona was to do a free walking tour of the Gothic quarter of Barcelona. The tour included seeing on of Gaudi's first commissioned pieces, two candelabras (lampposts) placed in the Plaça Reial, a building with gun holes chipped out of it thanks to it once being an execution wall, the impressive La Seu cathedral and the area in which the Jews were built into in order to "keep them from spreading the Plague" despite them being cleaner than a lot of the Spaniards who would only wash twice in their lifetime, at baptism and when they died so that people could identify who they were by washing the grime from their faces! The tour was very valuable in learning some interesting facts about the city and we were more than happy to tip our guide at the end of it, which he then returned the favour by buying everyone in our group a round of drinks. While enjoying our beers we noticed that they had €2 dinner that night at the bar so we made a mental note to return there since our wallets were getting a bit light having neared the end of our trip.

We bypassed the markets on our way back to the hostel so we could get some usual lunch goodies and once we'd eaten Nico and Kelly went into a bit of a food coma but I wasn't having any of this lazing about business so I went on my own mission up to the top of a hill near our hostel which had nice gardens and a good view out across the city. I was a little dodged out by some of the characters lurking about around the place though so didn't spend too long wandering the paths, but I did make a stop off at a skate park on my way back so I could take some snaps of some awesome graffiti art decorating the concrete jungle. I'm slightly obsessed with graffiti art it seems.

After my walk it was about time to head to back to the pub for our €2 dinner. The place absolutely heaving with backpackers, unsurprisingly when a cheap dinner is on offer. We managed to find ourselves a spot at the bar to enjoy the buzzing atmosphere of the place while downing a few jugs of sangria. The dinner wasn't anything amazing but it was an interesting evening spent watching the dynamics of the bar staff and backpackers that filled the place.

Kelly was starting to feel a bit wobbly on her stool so we headed back to the hostel all ready to call it a night but then before I knew it I was being invited out with some Spanish guys from our dorm room which I was quite pleased about as those jugs of sangria's were making me want to keep going, not get ready for bed. So off I went with the boys and had a very funny night trying to converse with them in broken Spanish and English. I even got bought red roses by one of the guys and then somehow we ended up climbing on top of a bronze cat and having a bit of a photo shoot. It was certainly the kind of nights out I'd imagine I'd have in Spain but hadn't really experienced until then, so I was pleased to have found myself some crazy Spanish friends and we made plans to go out for an even bigger fiesta the following night.

Day 27 - Market Goodies

2008-06-23T00:32:00.000+12:00

Having barely had any sleep throughout our overnight ferry ride we weren't exactly all that keen to explore Barcelona upon arriving. I think the fact that we were coming to the end of our trip didn't help either as our enthusiasm was waning somewhat. We did however manage to summon up enough energy to do a bit of a wander up the infamous Las Ramblas which was buzzing with countless tourists, performers and stalls. Amongst the chaos we stumbled upon yet another amazing market, this one having endless fruit stalls selling ready to eat fruit salad and juices. My idea of a perfect breakfast!

While Nico and Kelly lazed about for the afternoon I did a bit of job hunting in preparation for heading back to London and once I'd got bored of that I made a trip back to the markets in search of some goodies for lunch. Unfortunately I was a bit late so missed out on all the pre prepared pasta salads that we had admired earlier, instead having to settle for our usual baguettes with cheese and tomato and I got some ingredients to create our own version of the pasta dishes for dinner instead.

As you can see the main focus of our day turned out to be food as we didn't really achieve much else but eat all our market goodies. After such a pitiful day sightseeing wise we were all pumped for a day of exploring in the morning.

Before bed however, Nico and I were determined to squeeze some sort of achievement and being the night before Sant Joan meant Barcelona was alive with fireworks. We'd been invited to join the fiesta down at the beach but after a few minutes of wandering the streets the both of us became quite uncomfortable with the atmosphere as young kids were everywhere throwing double happies and other similar fireworks at one another and anyone that happened to be walking by. It meant that it wasn't much of a relaxing walk about town as we were constantly on edge watching out for any incoming explosions, especially after one hit Nico on the side of the head, thankfully not injuring him. We discovered once we got back to the hostel that some had not been so lucky with quite a few people getting burnt from the fireworks. You can see why double happies and the like are banned in NZ!

Day 26 - Exploring the Island

2008-06-22T22:16:00.000+12:00

Being our last day on Ibiza we'd decided to hire a car to enable us to explore the island a bit in hope of finding some beautiful beaches that I'd been promised Ibiza had. We certainly weren't disappointed as it delivered not one beautiful beach but numerous stunners and even inland was amazing too.

The first cove was only fairly small with quite a rocky beach but the crystal clear waters and lack of houses surrounding it is what made it special and the fact that there were barely any people there helped too! Beach number two, Cala San Vicente, was where we chose to stop for lunch and it was just the kind of beach we'd been looking for with stretching golden dunes, clear blue water, nice and sheltered and it even ha a few waves crashing on the shore to make it a bit exciting. It was probably a good thing it was our last day on the island or we would have been wishing we were staying there rather than in our crappy area. I'd definitely say to anyone who was going to Ibiza to stay there as it doesn't seem to be somewhere that would get to packed out and the town isn't too tacky, also it is within a reasonable taxi fares distance to the clubs which means you get the best of both worlds. The third beach, Cala Llonga we didn't find as nice as it was a lot busier and there was a bit of a wind blowing but I imagine take away those two factors and it'd be just as stunning as San Vicente. We did however manage to put those downers aside and manage to fit in a siesta on the sand without too much trouble.

We pushed on through the beautiful countryside of the island which is very dry with a lot of pine trees, whitewashed houses and olive groves. Last stop was out on a peninsula which is home to the lighthouse and had views across to the Ibiza old town where the sun was lowering over the hill giving it a golden halo. All in all, our car hire day was well worth it as we got to see the Ibiza that I'd heard the good things about which is worlds apart from the tacky tourist areas that most people who visit Ibiza only see. I was glad that I could head away from the island knowing that there are beautiful parts to it that I would even consider visiting again when I have more time to explore.

We only had time to quickly find something to take on the ferry for dinner before the gates closed on us which turned out to be a bit of a bummer as we didn't get to explore the old town at all or prepare for the overnight journey on the ferry. Crucial! We positioned ourselves on the lounger chairs on the partially open deck, even though the engine noise was a little deafening but we thought at least we'd have somewhere to lye as we attempted to get some winks later in the evening.

It turned out to be an interesting evening all in all as we had a reggae dj play a set next to us, we watched a group of boys play football on the deck of the boat in pretty much complete darkness and finally we froze ourselves as we attempted to sleep away the hours. Not a very pleasant nights sleep by any stretch of the imagination, in fact it made the train journey into Portugal seem like heaven in comparison.

Day 25 - Doing Not Much

2008-06-21T21:37:00.000+12:00

After our late night out we weren't really keen for much of an action packed day, although I did manage to drag myself out of bed in time to go and join Nico for the last half of the All Blacks vs England game being shown at a pub down the road. That was about all the excitement for the day though as we just opted for another day of lazing in the pool on lilos. Best way ever to spend the day recovering after a night out!

We did manage to get ourselves together in the evening and go out for a meal at a Chinese restaurant on our strip. I decided to go for a green curry and this turned out to be not such a wise idea as it wasn't so much as a Thai green curry but a lovely fluro green coloured curry type thing, not very appetising looking believe me. It was made bearable by the fact that we had a nice setting on a balcony that looked out to sea and we were able to watch as the sun set across the water. Aww.

Day 24 - Pacha Time

2008-06-20T21:05:00.000+12:00

The unfortunate thing about Ibiza is that to get to any of the decent beaches you pretty much need to hire a car. Since we'd decided to leave the car hiring till our last day we had to settle for soaking up the sun on San Antoni beach. The 'beach' consists of a man made strip of sand with knee deep water netted in before the marina starts behind it. The worst part though is the hoards of hungover brits lining the beach talking about how wasted they were the previous night and competing as to who got home the latest. The one positive was that the promotion girls and guys doing the laps of the beach seemed to avoid us and we deduced that this could be due to the fact that we actually had tans, setting us apart from the rest of the beach and therefore possibly making us look like we were semi local.

Eventually we'd had enough, instead opting to ferry back across to the hotel and try out the pool although not before we'd been and purchased our tickets for Pacha that night. €37 later we headed back across and spent the afternoon by the pool which turned out be quite a nice way to waste away the afternoon, floating about on lilos and listening to music from the hotel's sound system before sprucing ourselves up and hitting the vodka redbulls in preparation for our big night out.

Pacha was pretty impressive I have to say with its numerous rooms and levels of dancefloors and the standard of dress from everyone far surpassed what expected with no bikinis or shirts off. Our first stop was the Funk Room where we thought we'd get a drink before things started to warm up on the main d floor. Our one and only drink it turned out since they were a whopping €15 each. The night was an interesting and enjoyable one as we danced away to Freddie Le Grand on the decks and will.i.am on the mike till the small we hours. We'd stationed ourselves next to the VIP area which became filled with models and their entourage shortly after and this provided us with much of the entertainment for the evening as we witnessed them go downhill very quickly, starting off looking like respectful girls, soon to be making fools of themselves the more Veuve Clicquot they skulled from their endless supply of bottles. When they reached the point of grinding one another on couches Kelly and I had reached our threshold as to what we could bare to witness anymore and decided to move away from our spot in order to not have to witness their antics anymore.

Not having alcohol to fuel us through the evening meant by 4:30 or so we'd or more precisely our feet had had enough and we hobbled out to one of the hundreds of taxis waiting to take the partygoers home. Although the club was impressive in its size and layout I don't think it was as amazing night out as what you'd expect for on of the party capitals of the world!

Day 23 - We're Going to Ibiza, Yeah!

2008-06-19T22:29:00.000+12:00

We only had the morning left in Valencia so didn't have time for much but Kelly had been told about the markets so we decided to go and check them out before heading to the airport. Another impressive market to assault all our senses with the pungent smell of fish, the bright colours of the fruit stalls and the hustle and bustle of the shoppers requesting their purchases. We opted for some wraps and hummus to accompany our leftover couscous from the night before which we prepared in the garden at the airport while waiting for our plane to Ibiza. It was delish too!

I was wary from the start about going to Ibiza with its name for being a tacky party island with ridiculous priced transport to and from the island. I had however heard good reviews about it too but upon arriving there it was pretty much as I had feared so was left feeling a bit disappointed as I was desperately hoping for the good reviews to be correct. The hostel we'd booked into turned out to be overbooked so they ended up putting us in a hotel in a particularly tacky area of the island but for £13 a night we couldn't really complain too much.

Having spent the majority of the day in transit dinner time snuck up on us before we knew it and after trying to pick out a place to eat along the tacky strip along from our hotel we probably ended up at one of the tackiest of them all with Bee Gees blasting on the sound system, an English menu, English waiters and we were surround by English people. Yuck. I felt like I was back in Phuket!

After having seen what our area of the island had to offer I was crossing my fingers and toes that we would be able to escape the hell of the tourist trap the next day in search of something a little more authentic. Who'd have thought we'd actually be missing the Spanish signage!

Day 22 - City of Arts and Sciences

2008-06-18T23:38:00.000+12:00

I was originally going to give the aquarium a miss in order to save myself some money but I decided at the last moment I decided I didn't want to miss out so got myself a ticket too.

The walk to the L'Oceanografic (Aquarium) is almost part of the experience as you walk along past the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences) on your way. No amount of photos or tv viewings of the buildings prior to visiting can actually prepare you for their impressiveness when you're seeing them in the flesh. We were lucky enough to see them on a day when they'd just cleaned the pools surrounding them making the bright blue pools picture perfect against the stark white fish shaped El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía (Queen Sofia Palace of the Arts), the L'Hemisferic— Imax Cinema and finally the El Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe (the Museum of Sciences). The 'city' was designed by Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava with the help of Felix Candela. Construction began in July 1996 and is now a great example of contemporary architecture.

I ended up being very pleased with my decision to go along to the L'Oceanografic as the complex was extremely impressive being divided into 10 different areas, each reflecting different habitats and the water species that live within these habitats. The highlight for me would have to be the Beluga Whale, its stark whiteness looking so unnatural for a living creature. I could have stood watching its famously expressive face for hours. The other highlight was the dolphin show where they did the usual amazing tricks, throwing their instructors about the pool all the while keeping their smiles permanently plastered across their adorable faces. It is astounding to watch them able to perform such tricks and we kept wondering just how on earth they manage to learn such intricate displays. They are certainly another creature that I could watch for hours on end.

The aquarium took it out of us a bit, especially since it had been ANOTHER roasting hot day so we opted for a lazy night in at the hostel making the most of the generously sized kitchen and dining area while looking back through our photos of the day out.

Day 21 - Traffic Jams

2008-06-17T21:23:00.000+12:00

Our last day with the car was not a very enjoyable one as we spent most of the day caught up in traffic jams as we made our way to Valencia. What should have been a 2 to 3 hour journey turned into about 5 hours and to make it worse it was another blue dome day making it a long and frustrating hot drive. Thank god for aircon. We finally made it to the airport with no extra charge for being late and headed into town to our hostel, the Red Nest, somewhere I'd highly recommend as we were immediately impressed with the feel of it and its awesome location.

We were all a bit jaded from our draining car journey so some delicious tapas after a wander around the city was about all we could muster up for the afternoon. Valencia did however look like it had to offer with its gorgeous architecture (what's new for Spain!) and delicious looking eateries tempting us in every which direction.

Day 20 - Failed Adventure

2008-06-16T23:51:00.000+12:00

I'd decided instead of driving with Nico and Kelly to the beach we were headed for the day, that I'd walk instead which meant having to get up nice and early and get a head start of them being a 4 hour walk compared to a 20 minute drive. It was well worth the early start as I got to see the sunrise from our apartment balcony which is always a good start to the day.

The first part of my walk went well with it not being too hot and getting stunning views back along the coast and down into the next cove which was populated with hippie huts and paths leading in every which direction to either huts or stone constructions they'd erected for reasons that weren't always obvious. Anyway, the paths lead to some confusion as to which was the way to go meaning I went round in circles for a while before I thought I'd finally found the right one. Unfortunately it didn't work out that way, after an hour or more of scrabbling my way over rocks around a headland I realised the path I was following in fact lead to a hut in a cave and not around to the next bay. Despite all my determination to not admit defeat, I reasoned that the extra hour or more of walking I'd have added to my walk meant me doing the full walk wasn't really a smart move so I had to turn back and settle for joining Nico and Kelly on the drive around instead. I did end up doing about 3 hours of walking so it wasn't a bad effort after all and the sunrise and views made it worth the effort. I'm just determined to complete it when we go back there next time!

The beach was another "top 10" and you could certainly see its potential but unfortunately there was a nasty wind blowing along the beach which meant sunbathing wasn't all that enjoyable as you'd get pelted with a cloud of sand every 30 seconds or so. We stuck it out for a few hours but in the end gave up, mainly because we knew we had a swimming pool waiting for us at the B&B we'd booked for the night.

Our B&B was in a wee town a few k's out of Las Palas, and when I say a wee town there were about half a dozen houses in it. We were certainly happy to have a pool as it felt like we were in the middle of the desert with swarms of flies and all.

Trying to find somewhere to eat in a neighbouring 'big' town proved to be near impossible and we ended up being dreaded English tourists and going to a restaurant run by English expats. We did have an enjoyable evening however, enjoying suitably English things like cider and sticky date pudding.

Day 19 - Best Place Ever

2008-06-15T23:37:00.000+12:00

We waved goodbye to our luxury accommodation and set off in search of somewhere to stay in Las Negras, a small beach town with another "top 10" beach nearby. Arriving in the town it was immediately apparent we wanted to stay there but we were disappointed to discover the hostel listed in Lonely Planet was closed and the camp ground being too expensive. We decided to wing it and have lunch and then hit the beach in hope of the hostel being reopen post siesta.

We stumbled across a crepery to dine at and I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask the friendly waiter and chef if they knew of anywhere to stay - well, they very kindly tried calling a guy to no avail but said to go in search of the "fat man selling tomatoes at the Supermercado", but being siesta we had no other option to head to the beach and cross our fingers and toes that something would come through later.

Playa del Playazo certainly turned out to be worthy of being amongst the "top 10", primarily because of its crystal clear waters. The way out from the beach to deeper water was quite rocky making it hard going but once out on the sand it was well worth it, especially when we broke out my 10c goggles from Thailand and were able to make the most of the clear water, taking in all the fish swimming about below.

Before we knew it 6pm rolled around and we figured we'd better go in search of a bed for the evening and boy did we score! The hostel was still closed but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we went to find the "fat man selling tomatoes" and he had an apartment for a meager €60 if we wanted it. Although we were unsure of the what the quality of the place would be like we didn't really have a choice so decided to go for it. We definitely made the right choice as we ended up with not only a bed but a fully furnished apartment with sea views and all (all for the same price that we'd been paying for 12 bedroom dorms!). We pretty much instantly decided we'd be coming back for a weekend getaway at such a steal.

Having a fully equipped kitchen meant I couldn't resist cooking us up a risotto which we were able to enjoy on our balcony with sangrias and pink setting skies. Bliss! A moonlit beach stroll was the perfect way to finish what had been a fabulous day on all accounts.

Day 18 - The Glorious Mediterranean

2008-06-14T23:07:00.000+12:00

After our long night the previous night we weren't really up for rising at 7am to go queue for the Alhambra Palace, instead savouring a bit of a sleep in and hitting the road in order to hopefully get an afternoon at the beach. It turned out to be a good decision as the coast from Granada to Almeria is absolutely amazing, the Mediterranean sea sparkling like a turquoise gem along the cliffy Andalusian coast. That cliffy coast is also quite a sight, having literally thousands of glasshouses perched on them and the surrounding area a juxtaposition which makes for a bizarre but fascinating sight which was almost surreal.

Some of the top 10 Andalusian beaches, according to Lonely Planet, were calling us just past Almeria where we'd booked in for the night so we kept on trucking in search of the golden sands that we were craving. We ended up stopping short of one of the 'top 10' but we were more than happy wallowing in the shallow warm waters that Playa de los Genoveses had on offer. Nico and I were still determined to discover one of the 'top 10' though so after we'd enjoyed Genoveses long enough we continued round to Playa del Playazo which was darker sands with a huge volcanic rock perched on the beach but this still wasn't it, Nico and I having to scale a sand dune of four to get a peek at the illusive bays of Calas del Barronal. We got a few peeks at some boobs and bums too, the bays turning out to be predominantly nudist, something Lonely Planet had omitted from its description. Not to worry, Nico and I were just happy to have had a successful mission, our reward being able to view a beach that reminded me very much of one of my fav NZ beaches, the beautifully rugged Piha.

We'd decided to live in a bit of luxury that night, staying in a 2 star hotel for the night, although it turned out not to be so luxurious for me, getting a rollaway bed for the night so was a bit of a stepdown from the usual hostel bunks. It is a treat to have our own rooms though so I wasn't complaining really. Being in a hotel does however mean no kitchen facilities which meant we had to drag ourselves out for some drinks and tapas instead. Oh the hardship! Especially when it turned out that Almeria is one of the few spots left in Spain that have stuck to the tradition of giving you a free tapa with every drink you buy. Bonus! A very pleasant evening was had having a few more drinks than usual in order to get our fill of tapas, like I said, what a hardship huh?

Day 17 - Impressive Sights

2008-06-13T07:30:00.000+12:00

We decided to flag the sights of Malaga as we'd seen a fair bit of it driving around finding out hostel the previous evening, instead we opted to get straight on with the itinerary Nico had planned out for us.

We had a bit of a slow start to the drive, taking a few wrong roads out of the city but we eventually got ourselves heading in the right direction and what a road it was! The countryside was classic Spain with tiny villages of whitewashed housed dotted throughout the rocky, dry hill, some precariously perched on edges of cliffs in what looks like it would be impossible to access by foot let alone car! We were certainly pleased we'd chosen to do the car thing, enabling us to get deep into the heart of Spain and not just be trodding the usual tourist trail.

Our first stop for the day was El Chorro which is known for its El Camino del Rey (King's Path) which is a crumbling concrete pathway with no hand rails which is pinned to the cliffs of the 10m wide limestone gorge, some areas of the path missing altogether. The walk is now closed as a tourist died while walking it a few years ago and you can certianly see why when you visit it, or you can go here and watch a madman charging along it with a video camera going. Mental I tell ya! Once we'd gaped at the gorge and dam that runs through the 200m high cliffs we headed around the corner and up a mountain to get nearly 360 degree views of the surrounding countryside. Spectacular! Along with the views there is a dam up the top of the mountain, not something you expec to see up at such a height!

On the drive back down Nico and I battled the heat and walked to the ruins of Bobastro, a 10th century Mozaribic chruch carved out of the surrounding rockface. It was a very impressive sight as you could stillmake out where arch and doorways had been and there were perfectly circular windows still intact that had been chiseled out all that time ago.

Our last item on the agenda was to visit Lagunilla Corta in Campillos which is a wetlands reserve which is home to some 3,000 pink flamingos. Unfortunately for us there weren't any in the swaps with walkways nearby but the binoculars enabled us to see across the wetlands to where they were all hanging out. Another extrmely impressive sight for the day!

That afternoon we discovered the major downfall of having a car in Spain and that is trying to locate hostels situation in the old town of a city. What a nightmare we had driving around and around Grandada trying to get near enough to our hostel to first of all just locate it and then hopefully find a park nearby. This went on for a number of hours due to all the one way streets or bus and taxi only lanes in what seemed every corner we turned. What a nightmare! Only after Kelly and I abondoned the car and set out on foot did we discover it and also discovered it was on a pedestrian only street anyway so all our driving about had been in vain. Not to worry, we can laugh about these things later but at the time we weren't up for much laughing, just dinner at the first place we could find and then straight to bed to rest our weary eyes from all the impressive sights and then straining to see street signs well into the night.

Day 16 - Back to Great Britain

2008-06-12T07:01:00.000+12:00

Lonely Planet had recommended a place that did good breakfasts in Cadiz so we thought we'd treat ourselves and give it a go. Kelly and I were feeling like we needed some fresh fruit so got the fruit salad with muesli and yoghurt. Well, when it came out it truly was a piece of art with the fruit sliced and arranged beautifully on top of the muesli and it all tasted great too! So, once again a good recommendation on Lonely Planet's part.

Our agenda for the day was to go and check out Gibraltar for the day which meant having to show our passports to get into as it is a British Overseas Territory. The way into Gibraltar is across their airport runway and just before we went to cross the tarmac they closed off the gates in order to let a plane take off so we got to then witness at close proximity a plane take off, making for an exhilarating start to our visit. Once we'd made it part the runway we wandered through the town, taking in all the English signage which was a refreshing change, although I'll confess hadn't missed the English accent at all.

Not wanting to fork out the steep admission for the cable car up the iconic limestone cliffs which are home to the only monkeys in Europe, instead taking the other steep option, the steps! It was sweltering and there was no sign of any monkeys so we had to make do with the view of the city and across the sea to Morocco instead.

supermarket to buy some familiar foods but it turned out to be quite disappointing as it was poorly stocked due to the fuel strikes going on in Spain. We did manage to find our usual baguette, cheese, pesto and tomato to satisfy us though, but we may as well have got it from Spain who do all those ingredients far better! After over two weeks in Spain we were quite excited to be able to go to a Morrison's.

We'd managed to use up our three hours parking fairly easily so we had to head off to Malaga where we'd booked in for the night. The hostel turned out to be a bit of a hippie congregation, dog included. There was awesome common areas playing chilled reggae , UB40 and the like so it was all to easy to waste away the evening with our beers and sangria's in the warm heat of the sun that seems to last until well after 9 at night. Mmm, just the way it should be!

Day 15 - Taking to the Road

2008-06-11T06:24:00.000+12:00

Mine and Nico's for the morning was to walk to the car rental place across town and then navigate ourselves back through the streets of Seville to the hostel to pick up our bags and of course Kelly.

It was Nico's first time driving a left hand drive vehicle let alone driving on the right hand side of the road so it was ll a bit nerve wracking to begin with. It began with a laugh though when we first hopped into the car and Nico reached for the gearstick with his left hand to find himself grabbing thin air. A few laps around the carpark though and he was ready to hit the streets and I must say, we actually did pretty well managing to find our way back to the hostel, especially with there being no shortage of one way streets for us to navigate around. There was only one moment when I let out a squeal, when we were turning into the oncoming traffic at an intersection, well at least it felt that way but of course Nico had it all under control, turning into the correct lane and my natural instinct just getting the better of me.

Thankfully getting out of the city was a breeze thanks to there being directions almost immediately from the hostel pointing us in the direction of destination, Cadiz. Cadiz is situated on a peninsular with beaches stretching along most of one side and a port along the other. Like most of Spain's coastal towns it is known for its seafood and the Lonely Planet listed a fish and chip style eatery so we thought we had better give it a go. It definitely wasn't the sort of fish and chips we are used to but it was tasty nonetheless. Our brief stop off there was definitely worth the trip when we drove the perimeter of the peninsula and were able to admire the beautiful gardens and packs beaches that lined the city.

Nico had picked out our destination for the night so we kept moving but before reaching our final stop we managed to fit in a few amazing, possibly once in a lifetime sightings along the way. the first being that as we drove through the countryside we suddenly came across a huge windmill farm with literally hundreds of the beautiful huge white structures scattered all around us. We all kept just repeating WOW as more and more of them appeared as we continued along the road. Kelly and I couldn't stop snapping our cameras away trying to capture how amazing it looked but the photos didn't do the sheer scale of them justice at all unfortunately. The image of it will however be forever imprinted in my memory at least.

Our next wow factor came when we pulled off at a long stretching beach a few bays before our final stop, Tarifa, as we had spotted countless wind surfers out on the water so thought we'd get a bit closer to check it out. When we got down on the beach we weren't really prepared for just how many of them there were though. They were scattered absolutely everywhere along at least a km stretch of the beach and then even more of them were out on the water. It was like a whole other world down there, a world full of floating fluro half moons and tanned people. At one point we saw one girl on the sand get lifted up and dragged along the sand by her kite, swiping a few people as she got dragged along, this all making us even more of the people who would attempt such a sport. Once again the photos just didn't do it justice so instead we had to imprint it in our memories before eventually dragging ourselves away from the spectacular scene.

From Tarifa you can get views out across to Morocco on a clear day and were were lucky enough for it to be one of those days so I am now able to say I have seen Africa! The town itself is a fairly small place and is full of beach lovers giving it a lovely relaxed feel, making for a very enjoyable evening for the three of us as we devoured the usual tapas and drinks before a scrummy meal out. We were certainly all in agreeance that Nico had chosen our first nights destination well.

Day 14 - Sad to Say Goodbye

2008-06-10T06:11:00.000+12:00

Reluctantly we had to say farewell to the lovely beaches and town that is Lagos, not to mention Portugal itself and bus back across the border, destination Seville.

What a beautiful town Seville is with its cute alleys, beautifully green plazas, horse and cart taxis, gardens and of course its impressive cathedral - Catedral de Santa María de la Sede which is the largest gothic and fourth largest Christian church in the world. We wandered about taking it all in and having worked up an appetite we stopped off at a Lonely Planet recommendation which we enjoyed so thought we'd go for another of their recommendations for our dinner. It was time for Kelly and I to give Paella another go and Nico to have his first taste, just this time we would know not to have three courses beforehand! It certainly meant we were able to enjoy it far more but I'm still keen to try it out in at least one other area of Spain to see if there are big differences between them.

Nico and I still didn't feel like we'd seen quite enough of the city so we thought an evening stroll enjoying gelato would be a good way to enjoy the city and that it was. There is something to be said for being able to wander aimlessly through a city with a sleeveless shirt on and be able to see the beautiful old buildings alight, accentuating their amazing gothic architecture all the more. The way the Spanish cities are alive at such a late hour completes the scene perfectly making for the kind of moment where you just stand and stare around you, letting out a big sigh thinking WOW, look at me, in this magical place that is Spain!

Day 13 - Seediness

2008-06-09T20:49:00.000+12:00

Not surprisingly after my previous nights performance I wasn´t up for much in the morning, even walking to the beach was too much to stomach until about 2pm after a few earlier unsuccessful attempts.

It was another stunning day and our chosen grotto was as beautiful as ever so the afternoon was easily passed dozing on the sand with a few dips in the refreshing (or effin freezing) waters of the atlantic.

Nico and I were still queasy come dinner time so a home cooked dinner accompanied by some soft drink was about all we could handle for the evening. That will teach us!

Day 12 - Fish Bowls

2008-06-08T20:33:00.000+12:00

It was a cracker day in Lagos with not a cloud in the sky all day and the temperature sitting at about 30 degrees from morning through till evening. So what better way to spend the day than lying on the beach! We found ourselves a less populated little grotto than the main beach and settled in for the day.

While down there we got chatting to some fellow kiwis who told us about a restaurant that did meals and unlimited drinks for one hour all for €10. We decided that was a bit of us so after we´d had enough sun (or even a bit too much) we headed to the place to give it our best shot.

Well, drinking in a short space of time became a bit of a theme for us that night, starting with the numerous wines and beers with dinner before heading to a bar with our new found kiwi friends from the beach who decided it would be a great idea to do some fishbowls as a NZ team, but the object of the game was that we had to beat downing the huge cocktail in 5 seconds as some british girls had done it in that time early supposedly. I swear it would have been impossible to do it in that time, the 6 of us slurping our hearts out on our metre long straws and taking a good few minutes! Still, that was probably about 20 minutes too fast, especially when we got roped into doing another one with some other new friends we´d made. Needless to say, from that stage on is a bit of a blur for me, my next memory is of me hugging the toilet bowl back at our hostel. Lovely.

Day 11 - Lisbon to Lagos

2008-06-07T18:45:00.000+12:00

We were all a bit sad to have to leave our hostel so soon, especially since the owner´s son (who I´d largely based my decision that Portuguese are better looking than Spanairds on, along with Ronaldo of course) had ever so kindly offered for Nico to watch the All Blacks game on his computer and had watched the whole game with Nico, rooting for the AB´s the whole way. I´d managed to catch the last 10 minutes or so of the game and I have to say it was all fairly surreal watching an All Black game in a Portugal hostel and to top it off the guy from the hostel was playing Fat Freddies as we watched the game as he is a big fan of them. Who knew Fat Freddies would make it as far as Portugal huh!

We had the morning to kill before our bus so we decided to head up the hill toward the castle. In an effort to save some money I decided to flag paying to go inside the castle unlike Nico and Kelly so I just went on a hunt for some good views of the city that didn´t cost anything and I ended up being successful a number of times, getting good views out over a a few different areas of the city and also getting a close look at another impressive cathedral so I was happy with myself for deciding to save my money.

Lagos is a cute little beach town with whitewashed houses scattered around the bay. Unfortunately we were too late in the afternoon to hit the beach so we headed downstairs from our hostel to the bar to watch the Portugal vs Czech Republic football game while having dinner. We had to order fairly blindly not knowing much Portuguese and I ended up getting whole squids which I couldn´t quite stomach sadly. It was great being among the Portuguese though as they started to score goals against the Czechs which caused them to get more and more animated. I do love how passionate the Europeans are about their football and it seems to be in a far less arrogant way than the Brits and the Scots (in my limited experience that is) but as I´ve said before, you can´t help but get caught up in it all when you´re over here.

We headed down into town for a wander and stumbled upon an impromptu parade of sorts in celebration of Portugal winning the game. There were cars, scooters and even a random beach buggy doing laps of the main street honking their horns and flying their Portugal flags about much to our delight. The town was alive after that so we couldn´t surpass having a few celebratory drinks on behalf of Portugal before heading home, ready for the beach first thing in the morn.

Day 10 - Portugal bus tour

2008-06-06T18:55:00.000+12:00

Eventually our train journey came to an end after a fairly disruptive few hours of attempting to sleep. At one point we had our door thrown open and two very stern policemen demanded to see all of our passports (well we guessed that is what they wanted since we don´t know any Portuguese). They were so serious and official looking I imagined they were ready to haul us out of our compartment and throw us onto the tracks, especially me as they had more than a few looks between me and my photo - whose silly idea was it to change my hair cut and colour before travelling?! I get second and third looks when I hand over my passport every time which is always a bit nervewracking, but completely understandable on their part as I look like a completely different person to my photo. Anyway, thankfully the police eventually handed us back our passports and carried on their way storming through the rest of the train, leaving us to continue with our failing attempts at sleep.

After disembarking the train we hiked our way up and down the hilly streets of Lisbon to ourh ostel, which we found to be the best yet with immaculate kitchins, bathrooms, dorms and super friendly staff to top it off.

We decided the best way to see the city with our limited time there was to take the cheesy open deck bus tour. After my initial reservations I can definitely say we were all pleased we opted for this as it was absolutely sweltering and the amount of sights we got to see there was no way we could have covered the same ground on foot. The only downside was they didn´t really slow down for any of the sights so we had to frantically snap our cameras and hope for a decent clear shot without too many tram wires or trees in the way. The city was certianly impressive with numerous monuments, old buildings and gardens to see, much like most Spanish cities really!!

None of us were exactly a box of birds after our rough nights sleep (or lack of) so we opted for a home cooked dinner and cards at the hostel. Nico managed to clean me and Kelly out in blackjack but I then made a comeback by winning euchre. Nothing like a good game of cards to wind down after a long day!

Day 9 - Impromptu Concerts

2008-06-05T18:30:00.000+12:00

Being a fairly small town and having seen all the sights the previous day meant we had nothing in particular to do but laze about and eat for the day. Thankfully the sun was shining so we found a pozzy on a grass slope and soaked up the rays, the only time I really moved being when I went on an iceblock mission. Living the hard life huh! Eventually I got restless and had a wander down to the old bridge running across to the new town which had impressive views back up to the old town with the cathedral being very prominent amongst the rooftops.

We´d seen a stage was being set up in Plaza Mayor and had found a program of the festival that was running in the town to see what was playing on the stage and when, discovering that it was some sort of band on at 10pm so we figured we may as well check it out, especially being free! It turned out to be a Spanish rock band and it was well worth the look as there was quite a crowd and it was good fun rocking away to a totally random concert and we were even able to sing along to some of the choruses as their lyrics were all in English.

We opted for another plaza meal once the concert was over since we´d been pleased with ours the night before and we then followed it with a drink back at a bar opposite where we had left our bags. Our hostel owner had very kindly let us leave our bags in our room until our train at 4am at no extra cost to our first nights accommodation, bless! Nico and Kelly started to fade about 2am despite the romantic couples waltzing around us and the barman bellowing out Spanish love songs, so they sloped back to the room for a quick nap.

I decided I would be better off staying awake until the train rather than napping so I spent the next hour or so wandering about the streets amongst all the students partying away. I even went into a pumping night club at one point but after being hit on by a 40 something guy I decided to give it a miss and continue my wandering about the streets instead. What an alive place at that hour, especially considering it was a weeknight, there was even one crowd playing jump-rope along to someone playing the guitar, which I was really tempted to jump in on but of course chickened out. I wad definitely pleased with choosing the not sleeping option as I loved taking in the Spanish party scene, something they certainly do well.

Eventually it was time to meet Kelly and Nico at our taxi to take us to the train station. We´d hoped for a nice flash train with decent seats to sleep the morning away but sadly we discovered upon boarding that it was not the case. Our carrriage already had three people asleep in it and the seats did not make for a comfy journey at all, the first hour or so being somewhat hellish even.

Day 8 - Thoughts of University

2008-06-04T18:15:00.000+12:00

Avocado on toast made a perfect start to the day (even if we were without vogels bread) before making our way to Salamanca on our luxury bus. Salamanca is a beautiful university city which I immediately fell in love with, making me want to learn Spanish and go and study there with the many Americans and Spaniards that fill the uni´s roll call.

Arriving there fairly early in the day meant we were able to take in all the sights that the city had to offer in one afternoon due to its fairly small size. The Plaza Mayor is meant to be one of Spain´s most beautiful plaza´s and from what I have seen so far I would have to agree with that. Due to this we thought that what better place to have a cheesy plaza meal than there. We had to work up an appetite though so before our our legs were well and truly aching from our meandering we visited the stunning Catedral Vieja, the most breathtaking church I´ve ever set foot in and we of course had to see one of Salamanca´s compulsory sights as a tourist, the Universidad Civil with a beautiful entrance facade ornately engraved in sandstone but the compulsory part is that you have to spot the illusive frog sculpted into the facade. It is certainly tough to spot but after a few helpful hints from some American students nearby we were able to spot the wee fellow, supposedly giving ourselves endless good luck or they even say marriage within a year! Hmmm.

Our plaza drinks and meal may seem such a touristy thing to do but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves tasting the local cuisine and beverages they had to offer, not feeling like we were being sucked into the tourist scene too much. It far surpassed our expectations and was even within budjet even so we were all more than pleased with our day and evening in the charming city of Salamanca.

Day 7 - Finishing off Madrid

2008-06-03T21:31:00.000+12:00

Nico and I were needing our internet fix and Kelly was keen to relax so we went and did some uploading and catching up on things for a few hours. It always amazed me how easily a whole morning can be spent on the net after a period of time away from it. Especially when I have to type out this and have photos to upload and name!

Nico had discovered some markets during his wandering the day before so we went and got ourselves some veggies for lunch and dinner. I really adore markets and think that it is something NZ has a great lack of, especially considering the quality of our fresh produce. We were a bit late to get any fish before they all shut down for siesta so I´m writing this as we wait for it to reopen. I´m lying next to our wee balcony of our hostel´s room and there is warm sun shining onto me, a Spanaird across the alley is working on the refurbishment of the beautiful old apartments, I can hear a busker playing guitar in the Plaza up the street which is full of people sitting in the sun enjoying a vino and tapas, I can hear the click clack of heels on the paving stones a the Spanish women totter from store to store, I can hear the chatter and laughter of children and adults rushing by. What a combination of noises to make writing this such a pleasure. You could so easily just sit on our balcony and watch the goings on below for hours on end, especially in the evenings when even more buskers and people come out, making it that much more interesting to gaze at from above.

After our relaxing afternoon waiting for the markets to reopen Nico and decided we needed to acheive (our mother coming out in us) something with our day so we figured we´d head out to one of the only major sights we hadn´t seen yet, the Plaza de Castilla which are two leaning towers that put the leaning tower of Pisa to shame, having a lean twice that of Pisa. We were definitely pleased with ouselves for making the effort to go out there as they were certainly impressive examples of architecture. While we were out there we thought we may as well take a peek a the Real Madrid statium, something I´d never have considered pre living in the UK but you can´t help but get into the football spirit while in the northerm hemisphere.

Having acheived someting for the day and pretty much exhausted all the Madrid sights we were then happy to call it a night, ready for our next leg of travelling in the morning.

Day 6 - Madrid Tour

2008-06-02T21:16:00.000+12:00

We decided to save ourselves some euros and flag a bus tour, instead choosing to do one of the Lonely Planet walking tours, with Nico as our guide.

First off was the Plaza Mayor, a 17th century square originally used for bull fights and executions, now a very touristy spot with cafes, bars and restaurants lining the outer edge of the square. Nico took us part many of Madrid´s historic buildings and beautiful plazas before we got to the Catedral de la Almudera, which took over a century to complete. Next to this is the Placio Real, Madrid´s royal palace with a grand total of 2,800 rooms and it is only a quarter the size of the original plan of Filpe V´s who wanted to dwarf all his European counterparts´ palaces. The palace is no longer occupied by the royal family but is still used for state occasions.

We then moved on past more beautiful gardens and churces scattered throughout the city before reaching the Egyptian temple of Debod which was built in 2nd century BC and was recued from Egypt when the area flooded and the temple was shipped stone by stone to Spain, given to them as a tribute to the Spainish engineers involved in the project.

Our last historic stop on the tour was Plaza de Espana which was originally used for military barracks but is now one of Madrid´s most popular meeting places and has an impressive stone obelisk in the centre with a statue of famous Spainish author Cervantes and another statue of a famous Spanish hero Don Quixote riding a horse alongside his sweetheart. It is quite the popular spot for tourists to take photos though as I was unable to get a clear shot of it without someone hugging one of the horses legs.

After a solid three or so hours walking - and very enjoyable way to see Madrid I must say, thanks to Nico and Lonely Planet, it was definitely boccodillo and siesta time so off to the park again we went. Ahhh holidaying rules, especially when you can follow that with an evening of vino, limo chello, beer, mojitos and of course tapas. What a great way to wind down after such an eventful day

Day 5 - Garden life

2008-06-01T21:00:00.000+12:00

After downing our croissant an juice we lugged our packs a street over to our new hostel and set out to explore the city. Being a Sunday we thought it would be a good idea to check out the Sunday markets which is one of the musts for Madrid. It was certainly a spectacular sight with streets every which way lined with stalls and the alleys jam packed with people. I couldn´t resist buying myself a lovely leather bag as a Spain keepsake, the only problem being it stinks of cow.

Following the market we ended up spending the majority of the remainder of our day wandering through the extensive Parque del Retiro which was originally used by the royal family but it was opened to the public in 1869 and is now one of Madrid´s most popular places to go and relax, particularly on Sundays where families make a day of wandering around admiring the various monuments, statues, gardens and water features, which is exactly what we did.

While wandering the hundreds of paths that snake through the lush trees, you certainly don´t feel as though you are in Spain´s capital city. It is definitely a place you could easily spend many an hour picnicing, reading and people watching.

We´d managed to work up an appetite after our meandering so while Nico watched our laundry Kelly and I were left to prepare us a home cooked meal in order to save some euros. A drink at a pub followed by gelato was the perfect way to finish off a pleasant (and safe) day in Madrid.

Day 4 - Scary Shit

2008-05-31T23:10:00.000+12:00

Waking up to rain meant our plans of evening up our tans on our back were dashed so instead we enjoyed a lazy morning watching Family Guy at the hostel and prepared ourselves lunch to have on our hike along the river to the bus station. The 6 hour bus trip was a breeze but our relaxing few days came to an abrupt end when we boarded the metro after reuniting with Nico.

The train stopped at a station and we could see and hear that there was something going on on the platform and then before we knew it there were people screaming and running in every direction from some crazed young Spaniards brandishing machetes, knives and belts. Suddenly a bunch of them stormed onto our carriage in pursuit of their targets, obviously some sort of gang rivals or something similar and because we´d been standing next to the doorway of the carriage the fighting started breaking out right in front of us and we were thrown against the walls from people struggling to avoid being caught up in the brawling. One of the guys whole mouth was split open from one of the machetes and was awash with blood, some of it getting wiped across Nico´s arm at one point. During the kerfuffle on the carriage Kelly had disappeared from our sight and we both began frantically trying to locate her, not sure if she was on the platform or carriage. Eventually she called out to us from the other end of the carriage and waved us to get the hell off the train. In the mean the guys with the machetes were smashing the windows on the carriage and stabbing their weapons between carriages at people trying to get away from there. We managed to run down to another carriage away from the horrifying scene but did have a close encounter with the main machete guy as he came our way waving it about but thankfully a Spanish bystander was between us trying to calm him down. Eventually things calmed down enough for the train to be able to judge it safe to go onto the next station much to our relief. Welcome to Madrid!

No, I will say that since this incident it has become quite clear that this was an uncommon event as I have not felt uncertain about my safety around the centre of town but it was just extremely unfortunate that we had to witness such a horrible scene, something I hope I never have to see ever again.Not surprisingly after having encountered the scariest incident of our lives we weren´t up for much of a night out so we just had a few tapas at a bar and wandered the old town for a while before hitting the hay. What a day!!

Day 3 - Relaxation

2008-05-30T22:33:00.000+12:00

After horrifying ourselves by sleeping in until midday due to the extremely effective shutters, we headed straight to the beach, loaded up with fresh fruit, for some much needed sunbathing. Once our sand pillows were built we were able to comfortably watch the numerous surfers in between our naps (as if we hadn´t had enough sleep already!!

Once we´d had a touch too much sun we thought we´d better do something productive with out day so we managed to drag ourselves up to Monte Urgull, the peak boasting a 12m statue of Christ (nowhere actually explaining the reason for it being there) and the ruined Castillo de Santa Cruz, a crumbling castle surround by its original cannons.

Since we´d actually achieved something for the day we figured we were deserving of some drink and food enjoyed with our new found hostel buddies. We´d arranged to go to the dinner at Olga´s (hostel owner) husbands restaurant for what was meant to be the best Paella in town. We´d been told we would be treated like royalty and they weren´t joking. We literally had a 5 course meal which was amazing although by the time the Paella came out we were so full from the mountains of food we´d already consumed so we couldn´t really enjoy the extremely rich Spanish specialty. Nest time it´s Paella and that is it! It was definitely an experience though.

After such a filling meal Kelly and I wanted to curl up then and there and go to sleep but once back at the hostel the others weren´t having any of that so managed to drag us out for one drink. Well, it was amusing I must say, as Kelly and I started to witness the other 6 people couple up, it did mean that we were able to slip out without much of a protest from them though which was handy as we were able to stick to our one drink easily.

Day 2 - Exploration of Bilbao

2008-05-29T22:15:00.001+12:00

The reason Bilbao isn´t much of a tourist hot spot is probably due to it not having many things to visit or see. This however, did not stop us from filling our day easily, starting with making a visit to the largest undercover markets in Europe. It was certainly a sight to behold, especially the seafood section below, once you got past the smell that is! The row of pig heads was pretty errr, interesting shall I say.

Of course we had to go and see the star tourist attraction of the city, the Guggenheim Museum. Well, it is certainly an amazing piece of architecture that is for sure. It is said to be designed like a ship or a flower (quite different descriptions aren´t they!) with a 3mm titanium facade and sits ` floating´ on a water garden beside the River Nervion. Having exhausted every outer inch of the museo and having our photo with the Puppy, a 13m high West Highland terrier that has a coat of flowers watered by an internal irrigation system, we headed up a 3 minute tram to check out the view of the city. The city sits within high, bare hills and only covers an area of about 16km which mean the lookout took in most of the terracotta roofed view easily.

Our final mission was to go back to the markets and all purchase goodies for our picnic in the park. What a feast we ended up with and a siesta in the warming sun was just what we needed before we headed off to our buses. Kelly and I farewelled Nico who was off to Madrid for his Electric Weekend concert and we headed off on our bus to San Sebastian for some beach time.

Once we´d settled into our hostel there we enjoyed a few relaxing vinos and leftover cheese and breads from our picnic before enjoying a beach sunset with some of the other travellers staying at Olga´s Hostel. Having acquainted ourselves with the other hostel goers we were invited to join them on a night out enjoying the bars San Sebastian had on offer. Kelly and I certainly enjoyed ourselves, dancing to Spanish music to the small wee hours.

San Sebastian certainly was making a good first impression on us, we just hoped that the rest of our stay would continue to impress as much as our first evening had.

Day 1 - Hello Spain!

2008-05-28T21:49:00.000+12:00

Bilbao isn´t much of a popular tourist destination but after spending a fabulous evening and day there I have to say I´m surprised at this. Everything went pretty smoothly for us upon arrival despite it not being a particularly `tourist friendly´ airport and town, something I´ve not experienced before so was grateful to be in Nico and Kelly´s company as they´re a bit more travel savvy having travelled a bit of Europe already.

The town itself was beautiful and clean, the old town especially having loads of charm with all the narrow streets and cute apartments with garden boxes and wooden shutters lining the alleys. We managed to successfully order some tapas or as they call them in the Basque country, Pintxos. It wasn´t a particularly amazing bar but we were just pleased to be able to order food without feeling too intimidated by the staff or clientele, gesticulation certainly goes a long way. A bar hop elsewhere meant the discovery of a far superior looking spread of food across the bar and an english speaking bar tender but there is no challenge in there was to be no complaints about our original choice of bar.

Day 1 in Spain was certainly a pleasurable experience and we were all excited to see some more of Bilbao in daylight so home to our triple room we went.

Living in the Big H

2008-04-08T06:27:00.006+12:00

After my 11 days in London I flew to Scotland and since then I've been living in a Scottish town called Haddington with my brother Nico and his girlfriend Kelly. The Royal Burgh of Haddington is about 30km out of Edinburgh and has a whopping population of 8,844 (8,845 now that I live here...!). It's actually a bit like being back home in Helensville as it has the same small town feel to it, although in all honesty it's probably caused me a few waves of homesickness as it has almost too much of a comfortable feeling to it.

Often since arriving here I'll be walking home after a days work and will be feeling like I'm back to being stuck in the daily working grind when I'll stop for a moment and just look around and wake up to the fact that here I am on the other side of the world in Scotland! Being here was something I had looked forward to for so long while back home but now that I'm settling in it becomes all to easy to forget just where I am and what I am doing here. All reasons for being here aside, getting back into work after backpacking for six weeks was still fairly difficult but the vision of Spain for a month at the end of May is making it manageable.. just.

Some highlights so far of Scotland have been:

Reuniting with my brother and Kelly after having not seen them for a year
Landing two weeks work at the local council where Kelly works which is 10 mins walk from home - and I am now on my fourth week there
Going on a girls shopping trip to Glasgow for the day
Walking about in the snow
Girls weekend out in Edinburgh
Getting back into baking, especially when I made my first ever batch of cupcakes
Discovering the extensive walkways along the river and tunnels amongst the streets
Having hot spiced cider at the local rugby 7's tournament, followed by Sangria
Drinking out at the local pubs, especially Sunday sessions
Meeting all the local Haddington RFC hooligans
Cooking roasts and having yorkshire puddings for the first time

So all in all, I'm loving Scotland even if sometimes reminds me of home a bit too much for my liking and makes me miss everyone back there... But it really is a beautiful country with its rugged countryside, its gorgeous stone buildings everywhere and most importantly its hilarious and super friendly locals. A great place with great people equals great times. Great!

11 Days in London Town

2008-03-24T23:29:00.006+13:00

Despite having had mixed reviews about London from various people, it didn't take long after arriving there for me to form my own opinion of the city and it was without doubt a positive one. I couldn't put my love for the city down to any one thing but the combination of amazing architecture, fantastic shopping, wide variety of people and the tube system are all major contributers toward me being so easily wooed by this city.

I spent 11 days in London after Thailand and I have to say I didn't actually do a lot aside from eat, shop, catch up with friends, shop and shop some more. I did manage to fit in a few of the sights like Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, the London Tower and Tower Bridge but considering how long I was there it was quite a pitiful effort really, especially in comparison to the amount of time I spent shopping. It got to the point where I avoided leaving the house as every time I'd end up coming home with a new item of clothing. But hey, what could I do, it wasn't my fault my wardrobe needed to have some additions in order to protect me from the cold.

Over 300 languages are spoken within the city which makes it a rare occurrence to actually hear an English accent whilst wandering the bustling streets. With such a wide variety of people, it is a fantastic place to people watch and during my watching and shopping I realised why London is one of the fashion capitals of the world. A vast majority of Londoners are dressed fantastically and so they should be as there is no excuse to be dressed badly with the massive selection of clothing stores available to them.

The architecture is truly amazing. No matter how many photos or movies you see of the place prior to arriving, nothing can really prepare you for the magnificence of the city when you're standing amongst all the buildings. I think coming from such a "new" country like New Zealand makes it all the more amazing, with many of the buildings in London being older than our home country.

I made use of the tubes as soon as I stepped off the plane, getting the express into Paddington. Being from NZ, where the public transport is in all honesty, piss poor, going on the tube was a real novelty and it being so easy to use made it all the more fun. I loved blending into the crowds on the underground by being able to swipe my oyster card, keeping to the right of the escalators (or looking like I had somewhere important to be and racing up on the left!) and getting on at the front or back in order to avoid the hordes of tourists that jump on in the middle. What a loser I am.

Obviously catching up with friends was a major highlight of my time in London. I was lucky enough to be able to spread myself between three friends houses and was very grateful of my gracious hosts. As much as I love my month of solo travel, it was nice to be able to hang out with people who actually knew me so I didn't have to do the whole spell out my name thing or get the usual blank look when telling people I was a Loans Analyst or listen to any "I have an Aunty that lives in NZ" stories.

So all in all, I loved London and I'm really looking forward to moving there in a few months. Not that I'm wanting to rush my time in Scotland or Spain of course, but I do think I'm going to enjoy immersing myself into London life, provided I don't find it too difficult to find a perfectly romantic location for a flat, you know right by Hyde Park.. and of course a job that will sponsor so me I can stay in the UK for longer than my 2 year visa. Easy peasy, right?

Thailand Sum Up

2008-03-06T22:58:00.000+13:00

People were always quite shocked to discover I was travelling around Thailand on my own. The most common response being "Wow, you're brave!" The thing is though, there was never really a moment where I felt unsafe. I admit, I was fairly cautious in making sue I was never in situations in which my safety could be at risk but it wasn't at all as difficult as you'd think to ensure this.

Although there were definitely moments where loneliness would rear its head, I'd say that 90% of the time I was more than happy being on my own. Travelling on your own has the main advantage of being able to do whatever the hell you want, and that is just what I did. Most of the highlights of my trip were admittedly when I was with other people I'd met, but I think if I'd not been on my own I'd not have been anywhere near as likely to have met those people and therefore made those memories.

Some of my highlights were:

Trekking in Chang Mai with a great bunch of people and excellent guides. It was a very interesting experience being able to see how the hill tribes live by experiencing their living arrangements, eating their food, watching them make their crafts and seeing them tend to their animals etc.

Mountain biking in Chang Mai, which was a completely different experience to at home. The tracks were steeper, drier, slipperier (from leaves) and the brakes were back to front, but good fun all the same.

Living in luxury at Merlin Beach Resort, Phuket. Meeting up with my grandparents there who were staying with my Nana's four sisters and their partners was a right hoot and quite a contrast to my travels in Thailand up to that point.

Doing nothing on the beautiful beaches of Koh Lanta for four days. Up until Koh Lanta I'd not been to the beach and I'd been pretty flat out doing 'stuff' so it was nice to slow down the pace a notch or five and just work on my tan.

Meeting up with fellow trekkers on Koh Phangan again. It was so nice seeing some familiar faces and being able to share lots of laughs together while cultivating our friendships over the next seven days spent staying with them.

Buckets at Haad Rin, you can't go to Koh Phangan without experiencing this and it's well worth the sore head the next day. The fire activities are good to get the adrenaline going should you be feeling a bit weary. Music and dancing on the beach is one of the best ways to spend the night partying I'd say.

Doing my PADI open water diving certificate. It was something I'd wanted to do since I was about 10 and I finally got to experience the underwater world. It's quite a surreal experience and easily my best money spent during my month in Thailand.

Shopping in Bangkok at MBK and the weekend markets. Although the two different places were quite different from each other, both were well worth the look. They were nothing quite like I had seen before, the swarms of people, the sheer quantity and the vast range of goods for sale and the amazing food of offer made for an eye opening, exciting shopping experience.

Of course there were lowlights too but the highlights easily overshadowed them and so I can say with complete wholeheartedness that my time travelling solo in Thailand was an amazing experience and something I'd recommend to others 100% and I myself would do all over again in a flash.

Day 32 - Final Day

2008-03-06T22:09:00.000+13:00

My final day in Thailand I wanted to do some more shopping so as to make the most of cheap asian shopping. I'd been told by a few people that the weekend markets were worth checking out so that's where I headed. Well, I thought MBK was overwhelming but this was a whole other world.

It was a stinking hot day which didn't help things being outside so not having the relief of air con making it very sticky to say the least. The stuff there was all quite funky handmade fashion so was awesome browsing through it all. Unfortunately most of the girls stuff wasn't really my style (or size!) but the guys tshirts were outstanding. I didn't really have anyone to buy them for though so I just spent most of my time admiring all the different designs. I did buy myself an awesome handmade necklace and some sunglasses but that was the extent of my purchases there really, not for lack of wanting anything but I just had to limit myself (or luggage I should say!)

Eventually I had to escape the suffocating heat so waved down a cab and headed back to Koh San Road for some final purchases before having a nice cold shower to wash Bangkok's filth off me. I had my final street vendor meal - unfortunately unable to be accompanied by a final Singha as it was election day so no alcohol was allowed to be served. Bummer!

I managed, with some difficulty, to find a taxi that would take me to the airport on the meter rather than charging me 400 baht which is what most drivers were asking for. It was nice to not be ripped off on my final leg of the journey although I guess it would have been appropriate to have been.

The taxi driver said I was going too early having three hours before my flight but it turned out I needed every minute of those three hours. The airport was absolute chaos. There were queues EVERYWHERE so it took the whole time to get to the departure lounge, having about two minutes to spare when I got there. Phew!

Day 31 - Shop, Shop, Shopping

2008-03-06T21:58:00.001+13:00

Ali and I split a cab into the city where I got out at my hostel I'd booked just off Koh San Road. My room wasn't going to be ready till 11ish so I only had about six hours to kill! It went by surprisingly quickly after something to eat and some wandering about the surrounding area. I even managed to find a store that sold some white sandshoes exactly like I'd been wanting.

I also braved a hairdresser to recolour my regrowth. To my half horror, half amusement, after the woman had washed out the colour my roots were a nice orange colour. I pointed out to her that I didn't think it'd worked to which she said it was fine but after a few minutes she conceded that maybe yes it needed redoing. So another half an hour later my hair was finally all the same colour again.

Next was dentist time. There I got a checkup, a clean, four fillings and whitening done. The whitening was actually quite painful but was worth it in the end as you can definitely notice a difference afterwards, and being so cheap it was well worth it.

By this time my room was ready so I was able to dump my pack there and head to MBK for some serious shopping time. It took me a while to get into it as it was all a bit overwhelming to being with, the six levels of madness and all. But once I got into the swing of it I was away, in the end coming out with a jacket, bag, jeans and 4 shirts. Still not a load of stuff but a decent amount for a few hours of shopping.

I had a delicious dinner from a street vendor that night then was in bed fairly early after the last few nights lack of sleep having caught up with me.

Day 30 - Bye, Bye Koh Tao

2008-03-06T21:50:00.002+13:00

My last morning on Koh Tao was spent soaking up some sun since it'd finally decided to show its face after the last four days having been overcast. Not really enough sun to top up my tan to be back to Koh Lanta standard though.

I'd ended up having to go on the slow ferry as the faster one was fully booked but it ended up being quite pleasant as I just lay out on the bow of the boat and slept/read/listened to my ipod/took photos. It was a lovely afternoon/evening so was a beautiful way to end my time on the islands.

Our bus transfer from the pier to the bus station was quite amusing as they packed us into a rickety windowless bus like sardines with three benches down the length of it so everyone was very much in each others personal space, needless to say there were a lot of averted eyes for the journey.

We had a three hour wait at the station so myself and two brits went and found an interesting little retro type cafe and had a meal before wandering the markets next door trying out some delicious mini sweet roti sort of things. At about 9 we took another bus to our big bus which turned out to be quite luxurious with fold out leg rests, blankets, TV's and food and drink delivered around to us all. My journey was fairly painless as I had a sleeping pill after an hour or two which knocked me out till about an hour out of Bangkok.

Day 28 - Open Water Dive 1 & 2

2008-03-01T13:50:00.004+13:00

As predicted being hungover and going diving wasn't really the best idea. Even a substantial breakfast with the Norwegians couldn't shake the feeling of having minimum sleep and too much to drink.

That all changed once we had kitted up and hit the open water for the first time. Our first drive was only to a depth of about 7.5m but those 7.5m were pretty damn amazing. We didn't really do any skills on this dive, just had a bit of a cruise around getting used to being amongst the fish. I was feeling pretty pleased with having finally made it into the underwater world that's for sure!

Our second dive for the day was mostly spent doing skill which was all pretty straight forward since we'd mastered them all the day before in the pool.

Everyone was on quite the high after coming out of the second dive but we were also pretty knackered so everyone went their separate ways once back on land, myself having a nice quiet meal on the beach before hitting the hay. Boy was I looking forward to dive 3 and 4 though!

Day 27 - 5 Hours of Being a Fish

2008-03-01T13:41:00.005+13:00

More videos were first on the menu and then we all sat the exam which is all pretty simple stuff really. Next up we were to go in the water but no scuba gear just yet, first off a 200m swim out to a buoy and back and then a 10 minute float which we all did no worries. Finally it was time for some underwater action so in the pool we all went and that is where we spent the next 5 hours mastering all the different dive skills and techniques needed. I was a complete prune by the time we got out of the water at about 7pm.

A bunch of us from the group went out for dinner on Sai Ree beach before heading to 'the' bar of Sai Ree, Lotus Bar. As usual the buckets were the end of us, all of us going completely overboard, myself not making it to sleep till 4am ish. Not the wisest thing to do the night before your first ever open water dive.

I also managed to lose my jandals at some point, possibly while one of the Norwegian guys Richard twirled me about on the sand as we danced to the live Australian guitarist. I was pretty gutted to lose them as they'd been my faithfulls for a year or so and I'd been so proud of myself to have kept mine while the Irish guys were forever coming back from a night out jandalless or with a different pair to what they left with. Oh well, an excuse to buy something new I guess!

Day 26 - Back to School

2008-03-01T13:34:00.003+13:00

The rain was still pattering away when I awoke and it pretty much stuck around the whole day. Thankfully 90% of the day was spent in the classroom with 11 other PADI students watching videos and doing knowledge reviews.

The rain had eased when I got home so thought it'd be a good time to go for a walk. Sadly though that wasn't the end of the rain and I got caught in a torrential downpour halfway down the beach. It was quite amusing seeing all the beachfront diners having to rush for cover.

The rain was about the excitement of my evening however as I had a solo quiet meal then an early night so I'd be feeling fresh for the rest of the classroom work in the morning. An odd feeling it was being back in "school" mode after four years!

Day 25 - Goodbyes

2008-02-26T01:27:00.003+13:00

Checking out was our main task for the morning but even doing that was tough going after only having a few hours zzz. We managed to make it to the ferry with plenty of time but when it came time to board I showed them my sticker which our driver had got for us but they told me I needed a ticket also which I was adamant the driver hadn't given back to me. I got really angry saying "how can I have the sticker if I haven't paid?!" but they would have none of it so after holding up the boat for a good few minutes I paid another 350 baht for a new ticket. I sat down next to Sean on the boat and he asked if I was ok and that was the end of me - two hours sleep + ticket troubles (again) = an upset Tui. Poor Sean handled it well and I eventually calmed down. It wasn't the money at all it was just the principle! Anyway, I'm now certain I'm going to find the ticket in my bag but I'm too scared to actually look!

After a fairly bumpy ride across to Koh Tao I bid farewell to my new great friends, Roger, Sean and Niall. I'd been very fortunate that they'd been kind enough to let me doss down in their bungalow for the week, welcoming me with both arms and becoming comfortable enough with me over that time to consider me one of the "lads". I'll definitely be paying them a visit in Ireland next year provided they've returned from there year long trip that is!

It started pouring in Koh Tao from pretty much the moment I arrived, right through our open air taxi trip up to the resort and only just stopping in time for me to wander along the beach to find a place to eat. Fingers crossed that'll be it for the rain now as it'd be a bit of a bummer having to do my PADI in the rain!

Day 24 - Last Night Out

2008-02-26T01:13:00.003+13:00

Not surprisingly it took most of the day for the guys to rise so I finally got the blog completely up to date and then went and made the slackers get up so we could actually DO something.

The guys had to book transport back to Bangkok and then take the scooters back so that was our missions for the day. Taking the scooters back turned into an ordeal as Niall and Sean had crashed their one so it had a few scrapes etc on it which gave the guy reason to charge them an arm and a leg. They finally haggled down the price they all agreed on and we got out of there quick smart. Seriously though, it's unbelievable the amount of people you'll see/hear about having crashed their scooters. Generally it'll be after a night out on the buckets at Haad Rin and they'll have been driving home trying to negotiate the nasty nasty roads out of there. Niall and Sean actually came off fairly lightly judging by some of the horror stories we heard and white bandages we saw on people all over the place.

Being our last night on the island we geared ourselves up for a night out, somehow first off ending up at the Thai Boxing AGAIN. I was bored out of my mind for most of it but thankfully there was some serious eye candy to the right of me so I had my eyes trained on that rather than the fight for most of the time. Oops!

When we got to Haad Rin the boys decided they were hungry again so just happend to go to a restaurant that had a bloody Manchester United game playing much to my horror. Sitting in a divy place watching soccer was definitely not how I envisaged spending my last night out in Koh Phangan. Thankfully we didn't last too long there but once we got down to the beach we were disappointed to find that once again there was no music or lights. Just thousands of drunk people sitting on the sand playing drinking games. So what could we do but grab ourselves some buckets and start out own game. We had a serious few hours of "I never" and a revealing and sometimes very embarrassing few hours they were! But a good way to have some laughs at any rate.

The laughs ended for me there as the hours wore on and I got soberer as the guys got drunker meaning it was impossible to keep tabs on them all. Finally after the sun had well and truly come up I managed to find two of my drunken charges to get them home. Bit of a de javu situation really.

It was a shame that we missed the actually Full Moon Party by a day and the days leading up to it weren't the usual madness like we'd experienced on my first night down there. I imagine it'll be a fairly quiet party on the actual night as there will have been a lot of people in the same situation as us with just not being able to stay on any extra days. Never mind, I still had a great week on Koh Phangan, mainly due to being able to spend it with three "grand lads" as they'd say.

Day 23 - Recuperating

2008-02-23T19:03:00.003+13:00

The four of us were all under the weather with none of us emerging from bed until after 3pm and staying in a zombie like state for most of the day. We didn't even managed to make it in the water for a swim, just had a very subdues 4pm breakfast at the Coco Hut before watching the guys Ko Tao diving video at a divy bar. It got me really looking forward to doing my dive course next week though!

Amongst our scooter travels Sean had spotted a bar playing a football game he wanted to watch so we headed there for some drinks and then Roger and I left the less adventurous eaters there and went next door for a splendid buffet Thai BBQ meal. I'd been feeling like fish ball soup for ages and that was the main thing you could make aside from cooking the meat so I went to town eating more than my fair share of the soup.

Our favourite spot, the Coco Hut, was our next stop for some cocktails before Rog and I called it a night while the other two boys decided to head to Haad Rin. It was meant to be the night of the Full Moon Party but due to local elections the party has been moved to the 24th. The boys said when they arrived home at some ungodly hour in the morning, that the beach had no music, no fire dancers, no fireworks and no lights. Just people sitting on the beach drinking so it sounded like a completely different vibe to usual. Still, a good sleep was what I needed so am glad I didn't venture out, plus it gave the guys a chance to meet some girls as when I'm with them it decreases their chances of meeting any by about 99.9% they reckon. Ooops!

Day 22 - Mellow Bar

2008-02-23T18:58:00.003+13:00

While the lads slept for half the day as usual, I went on the net to get a more up to date with the Blog. When they finally got up and we'd eaten I dragged them all into coming for a walk with me down the end of the beach instead of our usual lazy day spent lying on the sand. Well they even managed to enjoy themselves amazingly, although that could have been due to the fact that there were scores of topless European women sunbathing along the way.

We thought were were about due to hit Haad Rin again that night so we fed ourselves at Coco Hut before taxiing the 20 minutes to the party mecca of the island. Our destination of choice for the evening was the Mellow Bar up in the rocks at the end of the beach which had an awesome deck overlooking the whole beach. The bar lived up to its name and so we chilled out there for a few hours before making our way down to the beach to meet up with some of the lads friends from home.

Well it was an interesting evening is all I'll really say. I wasn't really feeling myself and so while the boys attempted to party and chat up girls on the beach I just sat and observed the whole scene playing out before me. It was a sight to behold I tell you. It's actually quite depressing seeing thousands of people absolutely off their faces having no idea what they're doing. But something that you've got to see and do on Koh Phangan all the same.

Day 21 - Muay Thai

2008-02-23T18:51:00.003+13:00

Basically our day consisted of sleeping till the afternoon, lying on the beach, swimming and just having a whole lot of laughs together. Nothing too different to how I'd spent almost every day so far on the island.

In the evening though we felt that we had to DO something so we ventured into Thong Sala for a delicious Thai BBQ and then somehow I agreed to go along to the Muay Thai Boxing. When in Rome I suppose. Well at first it was kids who were all of 10 years old and that was pretty disturbing seeing how seriously they took the fighting. No blood was shed thankfully. As the 7 fights went on, each got progressively "better". The second to last fight actually had a New Zealand guy in it so I had to be patriotic in backing him but he was not a Thai boxer at all as barely could do kicks or knees at all which is what it's all about over here. So not surprisingly he didn't win the fight so I had to buy a beer for the Thai guy next to me who I'd bet against.

It was quite an experience I have to say with a pumping atmosphere and just seeing how amazingly fit and agile those boxers are was a real eye opener. It is not surprising that Niall got annihilated those few nights before by the Thai guys in Haad Rin!

Day 20 - The Reggae Bar

2008-02-23T18:43:00.003+13:00

After our killer late night we didn't roll out of bed till about 1 in the arvo and we just had lunch and lazed about with Lisa and Trev before hitting the drinks again about 6. Eventually we got ourselves together and ventured out to the Reggae Bar about half way around the island where we enjoyed a meal and a the vibe of the bar.

We'd asked a taxi to come get us at midnight and we still had an hour or so to go so we wandered down the hill in search of the beach. Well, what a beach it was! We all just sat around completely mesmerized by the beauty of it. It made me wish I had a better camera just so I could take some decent photos of it. And of course while we were there I had to get my photo on what was my third swing for the day. I must be the chairman of the International Swingers Club by now!

After relaxing there soaking up the stunning picture before us we headed back up for our taxi which was a no show but a guy from the bar gave us a ride back on his ute which did have seats but no sides like the usual taxis. Well half of the group were completely paranoid the whole way home that we were going to fall off or crash. The whole way home I was just looking around in wonder at the situation I was in, keeping wanting to pinch myself as it just didn't seem quite real. A very memorable night with so so many laughs.

Day 19 - Being Ripped Off

2008-02-21T18:18:00.004+13:00

My taxi hadn't shown up 15 minutes after it was meant to and it turned out that Alberto had gotten my taxi when it came instead of his so it eventually came back to get me and drop him back off. In the mean time his actual taxi had been and gone so I'm not sure how he went about making his ferry.

Well all we did really for hours and hours was catch a few car ferries and drive for a good five hours so most of us in the minbus just slept. We eventually made it to Surat Thani where half of us having one sort of receipt were told to get out at an agency we'd stopped at. Well, there we got ripped off nicely as they went on to tell us that what we'd paid for we weren't going to arrive in Koh Phanang till midnight even though some of the others had been told we'd arrive about 6pm. They said all we could do was pay an extra 450 baht and get the "faster" ferry that left in "10 minutes". 20 minutes later the five of us decided we didn't really have a choice having not booked accommodation so paid the extra and were taken to a bus which drove for another hour before getting a ferry which took about two hours to get to the island. It really wasn't a fast boat so I'm unsure as to how one could have been any slower. Never mind though as things got better once I arrived as after walking the gauntlet through the accommodation touts I went straight to an Internet cafe and there was an email from Roger saying they were ate Charm Beach Resort not far from the pier.

In a taxi I hopped while wondering how I was going to find the boys in the resort as when you stay places here you very rarely give them a name or anything when you book a room. When I turned up though there were not only the three Irish lads but the kiwi gal Lisa and her English bloke Trevor from the trek too, all sitting at the resort restaurant having dinner. It was like seeing family I was that pleased to see them all again after my crappy day. While travelling along, familiar faces are a fantastic thing I can tell you.

After we'd all eaten we hit the booze and the three boys and myself decided Haad Rin would be a good plan. Jeepers, what a place! We started off on the buckets as soon as we arrived so we were on full form after not very long. Things were going swimmingly and were injury free even after all running through line of fire (it was actually piss easy) but that's where the injury free zone ended. At about 2pm I'd say it was, Niall was messing around and picked up Sean and dropped him on the ground. Well, the barman didn't realise they were friends and so sprung over the bar in Sean's defence and Thai kick boxed Niall right in the head and shoulder. I tried to calm things down to no avail so I stalked off in order to not witness any more of the fight.

Afterwards Niall just disappeared and we spent forever looking for him and calling his phone with no joy so we just decided to head home. I needed to go toilet first and upon entering the bathroom I discovered a Swedish guy whose whole face and head was covered in blood. He'd been smashed over the head with a bottle by a bunch of Thai guys. Nurse Tui helped clean him up before escorting him to the doctors with the Thai culprits chasing us with another bottle ready to hit him with. Thankfully his friends were able to hold back the Thai's long enough for us to get him inside the doctors where he discovered he needed to get stitches.

I left the guy to it and went in search of Niall, eventually meeting on the beach where we sat and watched the sun rise as I recounted the evenings events to a dazed Niall. We went and ate a meal at about 7:30am before heading home. Since I had the key with me we discovered upon arriving at the resort, Sean in the bungalow next doors rocking chair on their deck and Roger curled up down on the beach with a towel as a blanket. After some hysterical laughing at the boys choices of beds we finally all rolled into bed at about 9am. I think that's a record for me... I'm dread to think what Haad Rin will be like on the actual Full Moon party if it was like that just for the Warm Up.

Day 18 - Lazy Days II

2008-02-21T18:12:00.003+13:00

I was determined to fit some exercise into my day since I'd been lazing around so much the last few days. It ended up not being much exercise really as I just walked to the end of Long Beach and back which took about an hour but better than nothing I spose! After that I just returned to my spot on the sand for some more sunning and swimming. Ah, what a life.

I had to make an escape from the sun around lunch time as it was getting too hot so I had another Internet session after my Magnum for lunch then headed back down into the shade for the last few sunny hours of the day. If you thought my NZ tan was impressive before Ani, then you should see me now!

Alberto and I decided to venture outside the confines of our resort for dinner and ended up picking a Rasta place. About an hour later our meals still hadn't arrived and then the waiter rushed over saying they were out of one of our meals so had to pick something else. Thankfully it didn't take another hour for them to cook that though!

By the time we'd eaten it was fairly late so we decided better to call it a night since we both had early pick ups in the morning.

Day 17 - Lazy Days

2008-02-21T18:10:00.004+13:00

Basically my day was spent laying on the beach soaking up some sun. I did managed to take some time out from the beach long enough to move my things to Alberto's bungalow and also going online to FINALLY upload some Thailand photos while having a nice long chat via Skype with Mum and Dad.

A singha on the beach with Alberto while the sun went down was a lovely way to end what had been a very relaxing day.

Day 16 - Ferry Time

2008-02-21T17:57:00.003+13:00

I had a 6am breakfast before being escorted by Nana & Pop to my minibus where they refused to leave till they saw I'd driven away safely. Quite a funny feeling for me having been travelling completely independently to then have the grandparents watching out for me, but lovely of them all the same.

I got to have one last glimpse at the tacky tourist hub that is Patong Beach on our way to the ferry. Patong is really as I'd expected though, full of faraang restaurants and bars, lined with cheap and nasty stalls, full of middle aged men with young Thai girls on their arm (something I still find disturbing after 10 days of being here) and the beach lined with chairs. Not a destination I'd choose for myself under other circumstances.

The ferry ride to Koh Phi Phi (where The Beach was filmed) was quite amusing as many people went up the bow of the boast in the hope of getting some sun but after only about 10 minutes they all had to retreat to the back of the boat as they wind and waves were too much up there and they were all getting completely saturated. It wasn't much of an enjoyable journey for anyone on the open decks mind you as the wind and water was still reaching most of the deck.

Koh Phi Phi had big limestone cliffs like in the movies but I'd been told the really beautiful areas were off the main island so unfortunately I didn't get to see that as I was only doing a transfer here to Ko Lanta. As I went to board the next ferry they told me that I had to pay another 350 baht as I didn't have a special receipt. I was pretty pissed off as I knew I'd paid for the whole lot but I didn't know what I could really do so I reluctantly went to find an ATM. When I returned to the boat, thankfully the same woman waved me on saying I'd paid already, so I'm not sure what went on while I wasn't there but I was happy anyway.

The touts came around the ferry asking where I was staying which I managed to ignore and book a night over the phone at a Lonely Planet recommendation, Sanctuary. Two Australians sitting in front of me were hoping for a room there too so we split a cab once we arrived at Koh Lanta and they got the "last room", which I think is what they say to everyone mind you.

I spent a relaxing afternoon on the stretching white sand beach doing the usual, reading, sleeping and water frolicking. After a walk and some photo taking I decided it was about time to attempt to upload some photos which I managed to successfully do, just the Melbourne ones though.

At dinner back at the bungalows I ended up next to an Italian guy Alberto, and we got chatting for a few hours and ended up deciding it'd be a good idea to share a bungalow for the following few nights in order to save some money as both of us had been thinking we'd had to move on with the prices being fairly expensive. Cut in half it's a lot easier on the pocket!

Day 15 - Valentines Day

2008-02-21T17:46:00.003+13:00

It was Valentines Day and I awoke next to my grandparents in Thailand - not the typical way to begin the day of love by any means. But I wasn't complaining. Nor was I complaining at the buffet breakfast where I had enough food to keep me going all day and I certainly wasn't complaining as I lazed by the pool all day reading and taking a dip when the heat got too much.

It was Don's turn to be host for dinner and he'd left our destination in the hands of Mark, their taxi "friend". Everyone was giving him grief for not knowing where we were headed and when the driver turned up (late) with a tuk tuk taxi the ladies all panicked. In their eyes the taxi was not safe and so they shrieked and carried on the whole way there which I found quite amusing.

The driver ended up doing well and picking, although a very touristy spot, a beachfront restaurant and everyone was more than happy with their meals. The clan were so funny with the kids coming around selling flowers and things as they were complete suckers and didn't have the hearts to say no most of the time so we were laden with necklaces and roses by the end of the night.

Being V Day, quite a show was put on when, out of nowhere, a big fireworks display was put on for us all and then later you could release big rice paper lanterns into the sky which Aunty Lo did for some lost loved ones. They were beautiful as you could see them in the sky for ages and so it looked like it was dotted with red stars all night.

The same carry on went on when we got tuk tuks back, all of them horrified at the fact that I wasn't holding on to anything for the trip home.

Back at the resort I bid farewell to them all as it was an early start for me in the morning. I'd been very fortunate to be welcomed into their party for two nights, enabling me to live a bit of a high life before going back to my backpacker lifestyle.

Day 14 - Travel time

2008-02-17T20:26:00.003+13:00

A quick breakfast and session on the net was had before I farewelled the city that had been my home for the past week and headed to the airport.

I wasn't going to go to Phuket originally as I knew it was extremely touristy but it turned out that my Nana's brother inlaw was shouting his wife and all of her sisters and their partners to Thailand for his 75th birthday and the dates just happened to coincide with when I was going to be around that area so I thought I'd go and say hello for a few nights. Merlin Beach Resort was their destination which is a resort on a private beach the next bay around from Patong on Phuket Island.

Getting to the resort turned out to be as easy as pie thanks to the Thai woman in the shuttle bus so at about 4pm I knocked on my grandparents door in the resort and was welcomed by cheers of glee from them due to being so pleased that I'd arrived safely.

It was happy hour time after a swim in the impressive pool so we headed around to the hosts room and I was able to catch up with the rest of the party of 10. It was quite amusing spending the evening with them all as they were forgetting things, getting lost finding their way around the place etc. I was however, very grateful to be being put up in such a lovely resort so there was no complaints from me.

Day 13 - Mountain Biking

2008-02-16T01:20:00.003+13:00

Another fairly early start as today was the day I was to go Mountain Biking. The route I'd chosen to take was the Old Smugglers Route down Doi Suthep mountain into the Samoeng Valley. The group of riders consisted of three others, two from England, and one from France. They were old family friends so conversed in French amongst themselves 90% of the time so I had no idea what they were saying about anything. Made me want to learn another language even more!

The other three had no experience in Mountain Biking before so we took the easy route most of the way down. This suited me fine as at two points we got the option of trying the harder trail and the first time I fell off twice and the second I had to hope off for two sections of it. This was mainly due to being on an unfamiliar bike and the brakes being reverse to what they are at home so I kept almost tipping over front ways due to grabbing the front brake too hard. Scary!

We did 25 kms of downhill and then about 10km back into town. The second leg of the trip was the hardest part even though it was flat but it was just SO hot! We eventually made it to where our guide wanted to take us for lunch which was at the university cafeteria. It was delicious but this was probably largely due to the fact that we were all starving by this point.

Upon arriving back at the hostel I was in desperate need of a dip in the pool and then Collum, the only remaining trekker, joined me to wander the Night Bazaar markets where I finally found a nice Coach watch and a singlet as surprisingly, I didn't bring enough of them! We shared a final dinner and drink together before calling it a night as the days exercise had caught up with me well and truly.

Day 12 - Tacky Tours

2008-02-16T01:05:00.003+13:00

I was up early for my tour up to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep Rajovoravihara (what a mouthful!) which is the famous temple in the hills on the edge of Chang Mai city.

On the tour it was just myself and an American guy Larry. Our guide Sun was pretty hard to understand so I gave up trying to listen much and just took in the sights of the golden temple and read the signs explaining the story surrounding it. The legend is that holy relics discovered during the reign of King Kuena (1355 - 1385) were placed in a howdah on the back of a white elephant which carried them to Wat Phrathat then dropped dead due to fatigue from the long journey. It was at this point that they chose to erect the temple.

Unfortunately there was too much haze/smog up there so taking a photo of the view of the city was pretty pointless.

Following the temple we were taken to a silver factory and umbrella making factory, which although interesting, were not all that enjoyable as there was a great sense of feeling pressured to buy things, which neither of us did mind you.

I'd had enough so got dropped in town to try find and adaptor which I did successfully and even managed to navigate my way back to the hostel without getting a tuk tuk or asking for directions. I was pretty hot and bothered by this point so after having lunch with Jo I had another afternoon spent by the pool.

The blog was seriously behind so prior to dinner I spent a good hour or two updating it before Jo, myself Colum and two Scottish girls, Leanne and Louise headed to Riverside for some nosh. It was totally booked out there though so we moved along the river elsewhere to somewhere a bit more quiet. This turned out to be a mistake as Colum and Louise's steaks hadn't turned up after 45 mins (while the rest of us had already finished our meals!) so they ended up giving up and settling for chips from 7/11.

Heaven Beach was our next stop which was quite an experience! There were touts (mostly children) hassling us every two minutes to buy things off them, even after the boys had gotten up flower necklaces and roses (bless them). One four year old girl in particular took a shining to us and sat with us for a good hour even though she couldn't speak english (but could count to 10 in english!). Another eye opener was the beggars in all shapes and forms, or deforms I should say. I'm not so good with this sort of thing so I had to divert my gaze any time on wandered into the bar with their tin for money. I'm glad I did experience this though as you can't say you've visited South East Asia without seeing these things.

Jo kindly drove me home on the back of his motorbike, pointing out the ladyboys as we went along. I kept having to pinch myself thinking I can't believe I'm riding on the back of a Thai guys motorbike in Chang Mai city! I have him a quick hug goodbye and firm NO! when he went in for a kiss. That's the major downfall of being a girl travelling alone, everyone assumes you're up for anything..

Day 11 - Lazy Sunday

2008-02-14T22:20:00.002+13:00

After having only a few hours sleep, the only thing to do was hang out by the pool all day. I did manage to send off some emails and waste a fair bit of time on the net so that I a sense of achieving something for the day before lazing around doing nothing.

While the guys from the trek went wandering around town us girls stayed behind topping up our tans, sipping fruit smoothies and diving into the pool every half hour or so to cool off. Now that's what I call holidaying! Slightly different to my previous Sunday spent in Melbourne but still a pretty great way to spend the day.

After some cocktails by the pool we headed to dinner then along to check out the famous Sunday markets. Well, they were VERY impressive, mainly due to the sheer number of people there. It was absolutely packed. I was on the lookout for some white 3/4 fisherman pants but didn't seem to be having any joy until right before we were about to leave I found some for 70 baht. A steal!

Back at the BMP resident the remaining bunch of trekkers had a last drink together before final goodbyes were said. I'd been very lucky to have met such a great bunch of people and look forward to visiting them all in their home countries.

Day 10 - Trekking Day 3

2008-02-12T01:23:00.001+13:00

An early morning fire was lit for those who'd been less fortunate than me in having double amount of blankets and had frozen overnight. Once warmed up a few of us braved the waterfall again for an early morning refresher, and refresh it did! It got rid of any grogginess there might have been and made me feel completely alive.

We had an early hour or so walk to a nearby village where we jumped aboard a ute and rove to a cafeteria type place for lunch before moving on to the elephant riding location. Here we climbed aboard the beautiful beasts in twos and went for about a half hour ride through the surrounding hills wilderness. Our guide Jo said that it is better in the rainy season though as it is a lot more green and lush but it was still good fun, even if a bit sad as you did get a sense of the elephants being very trapped and not enjoying it much at all, understandably. They did however seem to enjoy it when we were approaching a "food stop" as their pace would increase tenfold at the sight of them and once food was purchased they were very persistent in waving their trunk around to ask for more bananas or sugar cane.

Next stop was bamboo rafting. Before we boarded the rafts we spotted a swing in the water so of course I had to get a mandatory Swingers Club International photo. Rafting was relaxing and good fun just cruising along the river soaking up the sun, that is until we got to a small waterfall where you had the option of getting off. As we disembarked we saw/heard a guy on some rocks on the other side wailing and holding his shoulder. It took forever for the Thai captains to realise what was going on and assist in taking him on a raft to get to the hospital to tend to what appeared to be a dislocated shoulder. I'm not so good with this sort of thing so was feeling pretty queasy watching the whole scene play out before me. Our captain tried to joke about it the rest of the ride down the river but we were all on a bit of a downer so didn't find it too amusing unfortunately.

Once we all got back to town and had a s, s and s, we all met up at the Riverside Restaurant for what was to be a VERY messy night out. The boys had all give me lots of grief over the course of the trek for not drinking so I was pretty determined to show them I knew how to party. Between the 13 of us we managed to polish off a bottle of NZ red wine, numerous jugs of beer, three bottle of Absolute Vodka, a bottle of Tequila and a bottle of Jameson whiskey. It's fair to say everyone was well and truly trollied. Poor Richard drunk so much he was throwing up over the balcony by about midnight so his lovely wife Noemi had to escort him home.

About eight of the boys and myself powered on at Spicy Bar once the restaurant's band had finished up (I'm sure they were glad to see the backs of us rowdy lot!). At Spicy Bar things started to go a little pear shaped with Robert trying to get me to shack up with out other guide Jo. Every time I attempted to dance with another guy Robert would stand right behind me and say "I look after you!" I was getting pretty annoyed and feeling pretty claustrophobic after not very long.

Eventually at about 4am myself and the Germans got a tuk tuk home with a stop off along the way at an eatery of some description. Another hour or so later we managed to get out of there and so finally got back to my room and into bed by about 5:30am. Phew, what a way to end an awesome three day adventure. And I showed those boys that I knew how to party too.

Day 9 - Trekking Day 2

2008-02-12T01:09:00.001+13:00

Roosters crowing first at about 4:30am and then again at about 7:30am meant I couldn't copy with the wooden mattress anymore so up I hopped to take some photos of the sunrise. It turned out many of the others felt the same as me so most got up and headed out to take photos then too.

Toast and jam was fed to us before we bid farewell to the two day trekkers of the group and headed off for our second day of walking.

Despite the boys having spent a lot of the prior evening drinking again (and some smoking opium!) they were a lot more lively which made for lots of hilarity as they turned out to all be a pretty crazy lot of guys.

The highlight of the day was when we'd just set off from a village after lunch and our guides suddenly became quite excited and it transpired they were chasing a 6ft (!!!) water snake. Jo kept shouting "My food!" as he raced along the streams edge after it. Eventually they beat it enough with a stick that they were able to grab it even though it was still alive. Everyone got to have a touch of it and of course I had to squeal like a right girl when it was my turn.

Where we were staying that night was some bungalows at a waterfall so upon arriving, those of us that dared to brave the cold water had a shower under the falls. It was effing FREEZING but well worth it as after two days of walking in the heat there was plenty of sweat to wash off.

Another delicious dinner was prepared for us and then later while sitting around the campfire we got to try snake. They had cut it lengthways and then beat it before rubbing spices into it and slowly BBQing it. Now, for the past two days whenever talking about food in any shape or form the joke was that the guides would always say "it tastes like cheeekin". But really, snake DOES taste like chicken! Combined with a bit of fish flavour. I was quite impressed I have to say, as we all were.

I didn't last long around the campfire after my sleep deprivation the night before so I headed to my bungalow with my two sets of blankets and mattresses and managed to fall asleep to the soothing sound of the falls drowning out the beer fuelled laughs from around the campfire.

Day 8 - Trekking Day 1

2008-02-12T00:50:00.001+13:00

Banana pancakes are meant to be the backpacker staple so I decided that'd be an appropriate breakfast to begin my day with before heading off on my three day trek. They were slightly disappointing though I must say.

In our truck there was one other kiwi girl - Lisa, her English partner - Trevor, a Brazilian guy - Kamel, two german girls, Maree and Katherine and an American guy Jay.

The drive to the trek was an interest one with Kamel still being drunk from the night before and telling us tales of his night spent boozing with the other half of our group in the other truck. The others were two German guys, Hanass and Joerg, two Northern Ireland guys, Colom and Niel and a dutch couple - Richard and Noemi. Quite a mix.

The first day of trekking we spent about five hours of walking including lengthy breaks. It was pretty slow going as most of the guys were still drunk or hungover from the night before, some of them still continuing with the booze in the morning. There was some great scenery though and the guides did a good job of keeping us entertained with their quirky remarks along the way.

Our first night we were to stay at guide Robert's village which had about 30 people living there which consisted of about four families. The toilets were as they had been throughout the day, squat ones with no loo paper, just a bucket of water next to it to wash things down. I knew immediately that I wasn't going to be spending any time loitering in the toilets throughout the three days. Peeing was plenty enough time in there. The only running water was a pipe that sprayed water out of the ground that constituted as their shower so most of us gave a shower a miss despite our sweaty bodies.

Upon arriving we looked around the village and some of the group purchased some hand made souvenirs from various women in the village. One of the Irish guys Roger was a complete sucker and got a bag, bracelet and two scarves. I on the other hand managed to avoid buying a single thing. I'm sticking to this minimum baggage regime quite nicely so far!

After our beautiful traditional thai meal that had been prepared by our guides, it was time for singing to Roger and Kamel taking turns playing the guitar around the campfire. It reminded me of being on the Whanganui River Trip all over again. We managed to get the guides to play us some Thai songs too which were very soft and poppy sounding compared to the classic campfire songs the boys had been belting out.

When it came bed time it was a bit of a shock to find that not only was the mattress less than an inch thick, but that it was bloody freezing and the blankets were not warm enough to keep the cold at bay. This meant a long cold night spent lying awake listening to others snore and toss and turn as they tried in vain to get comfortable too.

Day 7 - Chang Mai

2008-02-12T00:41:00.001+13:00

Another morning of me being a wimp at my hostel breakfast and not speaking to anyone before I checked out and headed to the Domestic Airport for my flight to Chang Mai.

I got there with plenty of time to spare due to my taxi driver being pretty radical a driver and weaving his way between all the traffic at 100km an hour the whole way, regardless of how many cars surrounding us at a slower speed. I was wishing the car had seatbelts!

Flying into Chang Mai it was immediately apparent that it was nowhere near the hustling and bustling city that Bangkok is.

After sorting out my tour and checking into my somewhat divey hostel it was time to take to the streets to check things out. I ended up wandering the Night Bazaar markets for a few hours and surprisingly didn't buy a single thing. A lot of the stuff is pretty tacky and cheap looking although plenty of the bags caught my eye but I'm just trying not to weigh my pack down with items until as late into the trip as possible.

Feeling a bit homesick due to not having met anyone yet and therefore feeling a bit lonely, I jumped on the net and sent of some emails and did a bit of blog updating before getting my first tuk tuk ride back to my hostel. It was fairly uneventful but a good way to take in the city at night as I wasn't game to walk through the streets alone after dark.

Day 6 - Bangkok's sights and smells

2008-02-07T01:41:00.001+13:00

To be honest, I was actually quite scared of venturing out of my room, which wasn't helped when I finally did attempt to go downstairs, I couldn't for the life of me find the stairs to get down there! I was beginning to feel like a right fool but eventually stopped being a wimp and asked someone so managed to make it down in time for the complimentary fruit, muffins and toast. I was still too wimpy to chat to anyone though.

Next step was venturing out past the confines of the hostel into the real world. I started things off fabulously with getting on the Sky Train, Train and Boat Cruise along the river without any hiccups.

I made my way to the Emerald Buddha which was interesting for about 10 minutes but managed to get lost amongst the various buildings so didn't escape for another half hour or so.

Outside I asked a security guard for directions to the Grand Palace but he told me I couldn't go in because I didn't have covered shoes on. He then proceeded to show me other places on my map which were good places to see and explained I should get a taxi for 100 baht to take me around. Also most importantly he insisted was that I go and book my flight for Chang Mai asap. So off I went with a taxi to book Chang Mai which I ended up getting swizzed pretty much even though I was very wary but it was hard to know since I hadn't had a chance to research options at all. Also it is the Chinese New Year at the moment which means things are more booked up than usual. No matter.

After booking flights the driver too me to a buddha but I didn't enjoy the experience at all as was completely paranoid after the booking Chang Mai experience. It didn't help that the driver stopped and said "one minute" as he text someone before opening my door and then someone appeared to show me the buddha. Another guy then appeared telling me about and then "recommended" a tailor I must see. My driver caught wind of this and even after I protested saying I didn't want clothes he pretty much forced me to go in "just for 5 minutes". So I obliged and feigned interest for a few minutes before high tailing it out of there.

Next off was Golden Mount which was ok but not quite the Grand Palace I'm sure. I made some noises about being hungry to my "helpful" driver who suggested a seafood place which sounded fine so he dropped me off there and took his 100 baht happily, thank god! Turned out the seafood place was way overpriced so I exited there pretty quick, even despite the three wait staff hovering over me awaiting a decision. Proud of me mum?

Sadly being so late in the afternoon and being weak at the knees, literally, I ended up succumbing to an a/c mall and eating some Japanese gyoza. Pretty disappointing of me for my first real meal in Thailand.

Excuse any spelling mistakes etc in these posts, have just done them all so that am more up to date so trying to rush. Hopefully they make sense!

Day 5 - Crossing the Globe

2008-02-07T01:27:00.000+13:00

Twas my last day in Melbourne which meant bidding farewell to my gracious hosts and setting off to the city to meet up with Nealesh.

Really we just did some more wandering together but did manage to find the best graf art lane so plenty of photo ops for us there. Nealesh kindly walked me back to the Southern cross station where I boarded the Airbus and waved farewell to him and the city that I still adore second time round.

The prospect of a 9 hour flight was not something I was looking forward to but it didn't seem to drag too badly at all. This could have been helped by the fact that the seats next to me were blocked out AGAIN so I could lay out across all three, and I think the sleeping pills did the trick nicely too.

Arriving in Bangkok I was determined NOT to get ripped off by the taxi drivers so I did as recommended by some and ignored the offers of drivers on the below level and headed upstairs. A family hopping out of a cab recommended it so that was good enough for me. In the end I think it came to about 260 bahts which is what my Hostel had said it would cost so being so happy to have not been ripped off I tipped him, giving him 300.

Driving into the city was all I'd expected it to be really, dirty, chaotic, sticky and smoggy. But it's just what you have to expect and enjoy from a S.E.A city really.

My hostel was just how it'd been described in the reviews clean and quiet most importantly which was just the ticket for a sleepy Tui.

Day 4 - Recovery

2008-02-07T01:20:00.000+13:00

Sunday was spent how all Sundays should be spent, with a sleep in followed by brunch followed by lazing around all day followed by watching a trashy Sunday night movie while eating takeaways for dinner.

We did find out though that in the wee hours of the morning when my cousin Marlee and her friend Simone had got a cab home from the city he'd turned on them demanding they give him their phone or camera as "security" as he was certain they weren't going to pay their fare. When they not so politely declined his demands he did a "u bolt" on the highway in order to take them back to the city. Somewhere round this point the girls decided he was crazy so called the cops or "Po po" as they call them, and then when they were stopped at some lights decided to make a jump for it. The cabbie didn't like this much so got out and grabbed Simone and threw her camera and somehow ended up with Marlee's ID. Needless to say the girls were pretty shaken by the whole event. I'm secretly glad I'd lost them and didn't share the whole encounter with them! Not a good way to end a night on the town.

Day 3 - Drinking Time

2008-02-07T01:11:00.001+13:00

Being a Saturday it meant a cause for celebration i.e. drinking. Brunch at St Kilda accompanied by champagne was the beginning on an alcohol filled day. Some un-alcohol related events did occur however like running into a friend from NZ who resides on the Gold Coast now and was down in Melbourne for the weekend, just slightly random! Also we had a wander around the St Kilda festival after brunch, which was quite disappointing apart from the eagles! There was three of them in this tent and one of them in particular was HUGE. We got to pat one of them as the guy did a speech about it saying it could fly up to 200 - 300 km per hour!! Not something you expect to see in Melbourne city.

Mango and strawberry daquiris accompanied our calamari salad back at home before training it to the city for a night out on the town. Much to my disappointment the Rooftop Bar was closed for open air movies so we decided to hit up Mai Thai for some serious cocktail time. Following that was an assortment of clubs/pubs before stumbling across the Carlton where the lovely Yule and Nealesh were so I partied the night away with them and ended up on their fold out couch in Fitroy.

Day 2 - Still at home?

2008-02-04T18:29:00.000+13:00

Day two was almost like I was back home again. It was spent hanging out with family, patting horses, going to the beach, texting friends, getting a fringe trim, having a BBQ and playing drinking games. Not the kind of things I would have expected to be doing on my second day into my big OE! But no complaints.

The thing that kept reminding me just where I was though was the endless Kiwi / Aussie battles over our bloody language differnces and slag. Duvet / Duna, Txt / SMS, Jandals / Thongs, Chilly Bin / Eski, Sunbathe / Sunbake, Right / Wrong. Another amusing incident was when I picked that one of the drinking game contestants has some kiwi blood in him. I had a lot of fun teasing him with the fact that I could tell because he looks like he had some Maori blood in him. This horrified him as Maoris have quite the rep over here for being pretty crazy people.

Day 1 - Goodbye NZ, Hello Melbourne

2008-02-04T18:22:00.000+13:00

Well as expected the airport farewell was pretty horrible. But it was nice to have a bunch of people there that obviously care about me to have sacraficed a few hours sleep to get up at such an ungodly hour to see me off.

After watching the inflight movie "Into the Wild" I'm feeling rather adventurous, although I do hope my trip doesn't come to such a tragic end and it's unlikely that you'll see me burning my hard earned cash any time soon.

Coming through customs in Melbourne I somehow managed to attract the attention of a 40 something year old scruffy Aussie bloke who, after I'd declined his invitation for a coffee, insisted on giving me his address to go visit him or at least write to him. Was an interesting welcome to the country I must say!

The rest of the day was spent wandering the city exploring all the different lanes, sometimes coming across ones I had visited with Mum and Dad a year prior. I even lunched at one place that we had been to which was playing Fat Freddies which was a lovely way to ease me into being weaned off NZ.

A little jem that I stumbled across was a place called "Little Cupcake" which is pretty self explanatory but it was just adorable, not to mention delicious. I think I could've stayed there all day but the rain eased so twas time to explore a bit more and check out some exhibitions.

After some initial doubt as to wether I was going to be able to, I finally managed to get a hold of cousin Marlee and so my first night was spent as planned, at the cuzzies place about a half hour out of the city.

I'll be missing you

2008-01-14T12:02:00.000+13:00

With a measly 17 sleeps left till I leave, the panic is starting to set in. My visa arrived last week so being able to hold that in my hot little hands made it all begin to feel real and exciting. Unfortunately since then though that excitement has largely been overpowered by waves of sadness when I think about how many things I'm going to miss... mountain biking with my parents, partying with Renee, Wednesday dinners with Jessie, D'n'B with Duncan, Sunday night chats with Celine, Mission Bay walks with Kate - all things that became regular routine for my 2007 year and were the main contributors to making it my best year yet. Not to mention all the New Zealand lovelies I'll miss. Ponsonby cafe's, the west coast beaches, Tairua and South Head being the obvious favourites.

Along with waves of sadness the waves of panic have been fairly prominent, especially a few weeks ago when my departure date kept creeping closer and closer and my list was getting longer and longer without me having ticked barely anything off. Thankfully as of tomorrow I'll have ticked off all bar one of my to do's which I hope will mean the waves of panic will subside. It is amazing how quickly things come together once the pressure is on I must say (admittedly, having an abundance of spare time at work helps too).

So really, I guess all that is left to do is to party the hell out of the next two weekends! Lets hope my leaving party on Saturday is a success and gin will definitely be off the menu otherwise I'll be awash in tears all too easily. There will be more than enough of that from me at the airport... Ugh.

Breaking Traditions

2007-12-13T09:57:00.000+13:00

I’ve always been a big Christmas fan, but sadly the Christmas spirit is somewhat lacking in me this year. My family’s Christmases have never been a highly populated occasion due to one side of the family living over the ditch and the cousin department on the other side of the family being rather lacking, but there has always been enough of us to make it a decent affair. You know, the usual stuffing yourself till you’re so full you feel like a 36 week pregnant woman, drinking till all the bottles run dry etc etc. Not to mention the tradition of Pop mysteriously receiving the bowl of Christmas pud which contained the treasure. This tradition of sorts began with him spitting out silver coins “hidden” in his pudding which has escalated over the years from gold coins, to notes, to cheques, to credit cards to watches to golf balls and when it began to feel like he’d done everything but the kitchen sink, what else to do but the kitchen plug.

This year though, things are looking a bit grim. 50% of the family is going to be spread across the world in far off locations like Bulgaria, Wisconsin, Papua New Guinea, Queensland and Tairua. And with our family never having been one to have sack fulls of presents under the tree, this year is going to be somewhat depressing with the pathetic number of only 5 of us for Santa to pass presents out to. The other oddity this year is that for as long as I can remember we have spent Christmas at the beach, whereas this year, as lovely as it will be, we are spending it upon my new parent’s deck out at the family home in South Head. It’s not a bad thought to be relaxing out in the country, something I haven’t done since leaving home, but not being able to go for our traditional morning swim in the sea before opening up the prezzies will be a bit sad to say the least. I guess we’ll have to settle for a swim in Lake Ototoa instead.

Now, I’m sure some people would roll their eyes at this and say come on Tui, it could be far worse but I guess the crux of all of this is that for the last 21 Christmases I’ve had my brother alongside me to dive into the sea with first thing on Christmas morn, to tear open presents with, to stuff my face with and of course to try spy with on how Pop always gets the “treasure”. This year is going to be the first year ever that I won’t get to share all these precious traditions with him and it’s quite a sad thought.

I do have the prospect of Christmas 2008 to look forward to though when we will be reunited to eat and drink ourselves silly and to possibly set a new tradition of having a White Christmas!

Extreme Makeover: Tui Edition

2007-12-04T16:21:00.000+13:00

Over the weekend I underwent somewhat of an extreme makeover. For nearly 22 years I have been a blonde, and in the last year or so I'd been getting progressively blonder. The weekend saw that change, for what may be for good. I became a brunette. This was for two reasons, one, to be less conspicuous during my solo travel in South East Asia in a few months time, and two, it is just too damn expensive to be (an artificial) blonde.

Prior to doing the deed, a late night discussion with friends raised the subject of how people seem to get treated differently, and also act differently themselves, depending on their hair colour. I was skeptical as to how different it could be so was tasked with social experimentation to see whether the hypothesis is correct or not. A few more nights out need to be had before any real conclusions can be reached but my findings so far are leaning towards me agreeing with the theory. I think a lot of it comes down to peoples preconceptions of how a hair colour reflects someones personality, which for me seemed silly as I’m the same person whatever hair colour I have, right? Not necessarily, to quote Louis, “since you have changed a fundamental element of your self image then that could have repercussive effects for how you then conceptualise the 'new' you”. And in addition to that, when people begin to treat you differently based on how the “new you” looks, consequently you are going to give an altered response in return.

I will however say that I’ve only had positive feedback since the change. In saying that, I am slightly doubtful if someone would be ballsy enough to say to me at this point that they liked the “old me” better. It’s definitely sparked some interesting responses though. For example “Holy crackers!”, “You look like a man eater now”, “Can I give you a compliment? You are beautiful” (from a random guy in a bar), “My little Tui is a woman now”, “Um Hi... OMG HI!!”, “Do we have a temp working today?” etc etc.

So if anyone is after a flood of compliments, change your hair colour, it’s a sure fire way to give the old ego a boost!

Time is ticking

2007-11-28T11:31:00.000+13:00

I can’t believe it’s

8 days till I go to the Gold Coast
27 days till Christmas
33 days till my birthday / New Years Eve
34 days till 2008
52 days till my leaving party
58 days till my last day of work
64 days till I leave NZ

ARP! Honestly, where has this year gone?

Just one of those days

2007-11-23T14:22:00.000+13:00

Yesterday was not my day. (Yay another list!)

I got a blood nose as soon as I got out of bed
I went for a run and overdid it a bit by nearly fainting afterwards, even had to sit down in the shower at one point
Discovered I had a bruise and lump on my forehead from the when the lay-z-boy attacked me the night before
Got another blood nose
And another blood nose
Was too drunk and txt someone I shouldn’t have
Managed to twist my ankle – which has only just recovered from the last time I sprained it
Got the dreaded spins come bedtime

Lets all point and laugh at Tui’s misfortune yesterday, even if some of it was self inflicted... Thankfully today has been better (apart from having a bloody sore ankle!).

Baby vs Big Daddy

2007-11-22T13:43:00.000+13:00

Ever since leaving school four years ago I've been working for the same people, slowly making my way up the ranks, beginning as Receptionist, then Secretary, then Loans Officer and now a Loans Analyst. I think I’ve handed in my notice about 4 times and each time have been lured into staying by offers of more money, more responsibility, telling me to properly think through my decision (see number 3. in Duh!) or all of the above. Next time will be the last time though; no amount of money or responsibility can make me stay this time.

Anyway, what I’m getting to is that not long ago the little sized company, never having had more than about 8 employees, was sold to a big daddy sized company. This meant the little baby boutique that I’d come to know and love was to merge into becoming a side cog of an already big, well oiled machine. Once upon a time I think I would have been excited about working for a big company but that was before I knew big companies tend to come with big rules and regulations that dampen the excitement somewhat.

Here is a list (because in case you didn’t already know, I like lists) of some pro’s of working for both small and big companies, at least in my limited experience anyway:

Pro’s of working for a little baby boutique company:

You get your own office compared to being shoved in a cubby hole so small you bang chairs with the person next to you if you move back at the same time
You can personalize your desktop picture instead of having black nothingness
You can save shortcuts/documents to your desktop that won’t disappear every time you log off and on
ALL internet sites are accessible
Speakers on your computer are allowed
USB ports on your computer are actually usable
Your computer has a CD drive
The view from your desk is of the Auckland harbour rather than a grey divider
Your bosses actually know you on a personal level
It’s fine to email asking for leave a few days before rather than sending in leave applications with up to four weeks notice

Pro’s of working for a big daddy company:

There are morning teas for someone’s birthday almost weekly
On your birthday you get shouted a cake compared to having to shout the staff morning tea
IT staff are on site most of the week
Gold Coast is the Christmas function venue
There are more than 3 people at Friday drinks
There is more than just Chardonnay to drink on a Friday
Team building events involve going out sailing for the afternoon

I will however concede that I was pretty fortunate in getting to work for such awesome people at the small co. And I suppose the big daddy co is not really as gruff and mean as it may seem.

Duh!

2007-11-15T14:34:00.000+13:00

The other day my dear friend Jessie asked me “What is the stupidest thing you have done this year?” Which made me stop and think, shit, what is the stupidest thing I’ve done this year?

Here are some options:

Forgave my ex for being a dirty cheat
Became a cellphone geek by having one phone for each network
Tried to resign from my job a day after my three year relationship had ended
Thought it’d be fine getting involved with someone who was heading overseas shortly
Created a blog
Agreed to mountain bike out to the blue and green lakes with my parents

Place your votes people!

Countdown

2007-11-09T13:07:00.000+13:00

Because I’m excited about traveling but also starting to fret a bit about things I have to do before I go, I decided I’d share my load a little by telling you all what I have left to sort out. Those of you who are more experienced travelers than myself feel free to respond with anything you think I might need to remember to get/do that I may have overlooked.

Go to the doctors to get my vaccinations and sleeping pills
Sit my full license so I’m allowed to drive overseas (yes I know, shocking that I’m still on my restricted)
Fix and then sell my car (any takers?)
Ship my winter/work clothes over to London
Get a new credit card so mine doesn’t expire a month after I leave NZ
Open an HSBC bank account
Get travel insurance
Apply for my UK visa - which I excitedly discovered can now be done online
Book my Bangkok accommodation – any suggestions Andrew?
Buy a pack

Hmmm what else? I’m sure there is tons of other stuff I’ll need to buy but that’s a start. Ooo and I picked up my tickets a few days ago which made it all a bit more real actually having the words Auckland, Melbourne, Bangkok, London printed on a ticket in front of my eyes!!

Also, keep the 19th of Jan free for my birthday/leaving party. Anyone got any ideas for a venue/bar that will be able to accommodate an extra hundred odd people?

Less than 12 weeks to go….

Yuppie Yachties

2007-11-01T16:19:00.000+13:00

A bunch of us at work had been told that we were to do some team building yesterday afternoon. I wasn’t exactly enthused by the idea of it to be honest since in my mind team building consists of cheesy introductions, playing “trust” games and being forced to pretend to like the oddballs that normally you would try to avoid in the staff kitchen.

The only details we had been given was to make sure we wore casual clothes and footwear suitable for the outdoors. After the inevitable cheesy intros we were finally put out of our misery and told we were to split into two teams of seven and have a yacht race out on the harbour against each other.

On a regular Auckland day it would be a bit of a gamble with the weather but we struck lucky being blessed with clear blue skies for the afternoon. It was even almost too hot sitting in the cockpit of the boat as our instructors gave us the mandatory safety lesson. As we soon discovered though the wind on the harbour was almost non existent which made for an interesting afternoon since wind tends to be an integral part of yacht racing! Funny that.

Basically our afternoon was spent bobbing around the harbour for two hours trying to get enough speed up to race around a yellow buoy. The problem being that it seemed to only get further away the longer we stayed out there as I swear we were going backwards at times.

Being a team building event you would assume that the teams would work together to maneuver the yacht and hopefully win the race. Our team didn’t seem to take to this idea too well though. I actually think I didn’t touch a rope or winch the whole time we were onboard and I know I wasn't the alone there either. It soon became clear what the females main objective onboard was - to maintain maximum sun exposure to themselves throughout the "race". I even took to swapping sides every time we tacked so that the sail wouldn’t block my precious sunrays. I know, what a girl! In saying that, the guys weren’t much better. We kept joking that if only we had known we were going sailing and we could have brought along the champagne and beers. No matter, it turned out there was more than enough drinking post racing.

Eventually we got the call from the other boat to say should we give up so on came the motor and we headed toward the buoy. The motor was turned off to make our way around the buoy before heading back. Team two didn’t manage to maneuver around the buoy which made for plenty of debate as to who should win the trophy. A.) The team who used the motor to assist temporarily during the race but got around the buoy or B.) the team who didn’t use their motor to assist but never got around the buoy. I think it will be an endless argument, well between those who actually cared about winning anyway.

A few after race drinks in the viaduct somehow turned into several with a bunch of us enjoying the clear, surprisingly balmy evening for a solid 5 hours or so. Once again chatty Tui was out to play which can be a little dangerous while drinking with bosses who don’t know about my travels. Thankfully I managed to keep my mouth shut at all the appropriate times so as to not give myself away. It was not an easy feat I must say!

Bring on the next team building event if it is going to be anything like cruising the harbour followed by hours of drinking in the viaduct…

Vegas, baby!

2007-10-29T15:24:00.000+13:00

When I said to people I was going to Rotorua with my parents I don't think they had any idea of what kind of weekend I had in store.

What better way to start of the weekend by polishing off the $50 bar tab I won at the Carpark bar a few weeks prior, not to mention the Jager shots we won from fortune cookies handed out while there. Chatty Tui was definitely out in full force when it came time to be picked up from the bar by the parents.

After some unsuccessful drunken attempts at taking a photo of the full moon and amazingly not needing a toilet stop before then, we made a much needed wine and dine stop at Matamata’s Workmans café. It has received best café in the country by Café Magazine and upon entering the café was immediately apparent why. The interior has been decorated with an assortment of collections including; fire brush sets, retro humour postcards, 1950’s mirrors, greeting cards, retro wall statues of African women, freestanding ashtrays, transistor radios, matching retro tables and chairs and not forgetting the coffin and sequined up mannequin thrown in for good measure. Singly the collections are all very kitch but as a complete scene it makes for a fun and quirky place that is not what you would expect to find in a small NZ town. To top it off one of the male waiters there was extremely “decorative”, as my parents put it, and was also personality plus. I couldn't help but give him a coy smile and wave before we headed off on our final leg of the trip (oh and the food was great too!).

We awoke bright and early on Saturday morning to find that it was a cracker day outside. Off mountain biking we went. Mum took me inside St Faith’s Church along the way and announced that it was her “favourite church in the world”, which coming from her, is a pretty big statement as she is a fairly seasoned traveler. I could see why though upon walking inside. The church has a very prominent Maori theme with all the woodwork inside being carved into Maori designs and the stained glass windows displaying Maori motifs and New Zealand summer scenes. The stand out feature of the church is the window with an etching of Jesus wearing a Maori cloak and is positioned so that he appears to be walking on the water of Lake Rotorua which is behind the window (symbolizing Jesus walking on the Sea of Galilee). Anyway, that’s more than enough about godly matters.

Our ride began with a 9km cruise around lake Rotorua. As mum said it was “so surreal” riding along pathways through scrub before emerging onto boardwalks that wound their way through sulphurous pools steaming like a hot, grey, stinky soup. The next 10km were spent exploring the mountain bike trails of the Redwood forest – thankfully we didn't come across any dead bodies though. The final 9km was some more cruising back along the lakefront, where we returned to our hostel at Kiwi Paka. Due to my mum being the fitness freak that she is, she decided that 28km of riding wasn't quite enough exercise for the day, meaning a 10km walk through the Redwoods was next on the list.

We had definitely earnt a drink after that effort, and drink we did! A bit of a bar hop ensued before heading home to the bar at Kiwi Paka for a night cap. Somehow I was suddenly downing a Rotorua version of the Jager bomb (lift + Jagermeister, not as bad as it sounds I must say!) and having my photo taken with the people who’d supplied me with the drink. The guy who had given me the drink didn't take to well to me asking him why a local would want to hang out in a youth hostel though so I escaped to hang with my parents.

I was pleased I made the escape as I sat down in time to witness one particular young fellow put on a great show for us. He was sitting in the corner of the bar by himself and proceeded to make heart pumping movements, stroking his forearms and making his arms do the "snake". This was just a few of his wide range of extremely entertaining hand and arm gestures that he performed (all while seated) in what was possibly his own sort of interpretive hip hop dance? Luckily he was so caught up in practising his "moves" he was completely oblivious to Mum and myself in hysterics.

I don’t even know where to begin with Sunday except to say that it was one of the hardest days physically that I have had in a long time. It was up there with doing the Tongariro crossing (9 hours of scaling a mountain side). I must say though that the scenery was magnificent, riding through native bush alongside the blue and green lakes is a pretty amazing experience. It was just a shame that I was so focused on being able to breathe and having enough energy to make it up the next hill that I didn't take as much of it in as I would have liked. 34km along a tar sealed road isn't very much but 34km of up, down, up, down along mountain bike tracks is another story. Some of the ups were so uppy that it was physically impossible to make it up without having to get off and push and some of the downs so steep that I had to squeeze both my front and back brakes for dear life so as to prevent myself from becoming another Redwoods casualty. Aside from the moments where I was fight back tears of exhaustion and was screaming “FUCK YOU mum and dad for doing this to me” in my head over and over again, it was actually an amazing ride that, without a doubt, included some of the best tracks I've ridden on to date.

So that was it. 62km of riding, 10km of walking, eating delicious food and drinking delicious wine about sums up how my weekend away in Rotovegas with my parents was spent. There was plenty of laughs had, mostly at my nutty mother (not forgetting hip hop boy though) and maybe one sneaky tear of exhaustion, which I would never concede to mum and dad of course!

Good times with the olds... Not many can say that now can they.

Inspiration

2007-10-29T14:55:00.000+13:00

This is a bit of a prelude to my next post.

As you might be able to tell I'm into two things at the moment, travel and writing. Naturally this has led me to become inspired to start writing more in depth when it comes to my travels. Obviously I will be able to submerge myself into this a lot more once I head off overseas but till then you are all stuck with reading about my sporadic travel within NZ.

Where this has all spawned from I guess is that I've begun reading Erik R. Trinidad's blog about his trip around the world, which I've found really interesting and a good way to kill some time during down time at work. I'm aiming to have a similar sort of format to him by having a daily entry and photo of the day, will see how long that lasts once I'm actually there though!

Apologies in advance if it's a bit boring and shite for you to read but is really more of an online journal for me (for now at least). Fingers crossed I'll eventually get into the travel writing groove though and it might actually become entertaining for you!

Fortunate Flatting

2007-10-23T11:15:00.000+13:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about how fortunate I am that Duncan decided I was good enough to make the cut to move into Brown Street.

The thought of flatting again terrified me. I had had a bad experience living with a friend, who became a friend no more after about nine months of living together. Due to this experience I decided I hated flatting and never wanted to do it again. Ever. Well, a few years later circumstances eventually forced me to have to look for a flat and so the flat hunting begun. The first flat I visited the couple were the playboy bunny type, you know the ones... the girl is a bleached blonde with regrowth, wears lots of pink and the boyfriend wears white singlets, flat peaked caps and is into cars (gross generalisations here). Knowing living there wouldn't be for me I politely declined the room. The second flat I went to I met a kind of shy, giggly (quite cute) guy drinking a macs beer (promising!) and he showed me around their cute villa. I liked it and told him so but didn't spend too much time talking about myself as I tend to feel awkward and clam up in situations where I'm meant to "sell myself".

Well that giggly guy was Duncan and after me being sure I wasn't going to get it, I received a call a few days later from him offering me the spot in their flat. I now know I was actually pretty lucky to have managed to get the room for a number of reasons, a.) they offered it to someone else first(!!!), b.) I barely talked about myself when I came to look at the place (I discovered while we were looking for a new flattie that they don't like that at all) and c.) Celine and Neha didn't even get to meet me, so they had to rely solely on Duncan's judgement of me.

Aside from the obvious plus of our flat having such a sweet location, the best part about having moved in there is the people. Having never been to varsity, I'd never really had the opportunity to meet any new people since leaving high school but I struck lucky and found a flat of strangers that turned out to be cool, like minded people who I can now call good friends. I've also met a heap of new people through my flatties (mostly Duncan), all of whom I get along with well, some very well (you know who you are), and some too well! It's made for lots of great times over the last eight months and a very welcome change from the same crowd I'd been hanging around with for far too long and was in desperate need of moving on from.

So I think I owe some thanks to Duncan... for suggesting me as an option for the flat, for being a cool flatmate, for introducing me to all your awesome friends and girlfriend and last but not least, for introducing me to d'n'b!

It is going to be sad day for me when I have to leave you guys at Brown in only a few months time.

The Brownies - Celine, Tui, Duncan & Laura

Update: Ideal Job

2007-10-17T11:53:00.000+13:00

Since writing the blog post 'Ideal Job' (see here) I continued to think about this and realised what my ideal/dream job would in fact be. It is still within the realms of Media and Journalism too which is promising! So, I would love, love, love to be a travel show host. I'm actually having to wipe away drool just at the thought of it.

Now I am aware that there is quite a high likelihood that it's not nearly as glamourous as it appears when they are on television, but I do still think that it would be an amazing job. I cannot think of anything better than being paid to travel the world and pass on your experiences to your fellow citizens back home. The only con I can think of would be that you would be away from home a lot, even though this doesn't really bother me right now, I guess it could pose problems later on. Meh.

In my original 'Ideal Job' post I mentioned getting ideal monetary return in balance with job satisfaction. Now, in my books being PAID to be flown around the world and experiencing the local culture and different activities locations have to offer gives a pretty ideal job satisfaction/ideal monetary return ratio. I mean shit, people (including myself) generally SPEND their money doing these things, not get paid for it.

My problem is that I need to stop being such a lazy ass and actually start taking steps to reach a goal of mine... watch this space.

Precognition

2007-10-08T21:19:00.000+13:00

My Mum once told me (the precise details are a little hazy) that when I was a baby a family friend of ours was holding me and he said something along the lines of "this girl is going to have augur type abilities." I know it sounds ridiculous and I thought so too when she told me (and my mum being as much of a sceptic as me wouldn't have taken it to be true either).

Anyway, lately I've begin to wonder! No way do I think I can predict the future or any bullshit like that, but over the years quite a few things have occurred that I'd just known were going to happen. I'm aware that I probably sound like a raving lunatic about now, but it is seriously starting to creep me out (stop rolling your eyes Duncan). There's the old txting someone at exactly the same that they txt me that is at one end of the scale then there is the knowing what someone is going to say before they are going to say it and then, what really scares me the most, is when I dream things are going to happen before they do.

I suppose it all could just be some sort of weird coincidence each time it has happened but the frequency in which these things happen is what makes me wonder.

What the HELL, just now I was looking up something on Answers.com and then there was a link saying "are you a psychic?". So of course I clicked on it and whadda ya know, the test result is shown in the screen print below....

I rest my case.

Five boys and a Tui

2007-10-02T12:34:00.000+13:00

Going to the mountain with five boys, only two of whom I knew, was quite a scary thought. But to my delight, it turned out to be quite a treat.

It was insisted that I sit in the front seat for the whole drive down where I was handed cold Corona's and toilet stops were only given upon my requests. When we finally made it to where we were staying, rock paper scissors was played for one of the double beds and the other left for me. I was woken up at 6am on Saturday morning to "Tui, breakfast is ready", whereupon I stumbled downstairs to find a full cooked breakfast laid out on the table ready to eat. Up the mountain they would all check to see if I was ok when I bailed and then wait for me after each run. The cherry on top was when we were out at the bar that night and I was being hit on by an extremely drunk snowboard instructor, where my bodyguards looked on and discussed giving him a beating before deciding to come and escort me away from him. Aw, bless.

I always knew that I find it easier to get along with guys but holidaying with guys is so, so easy! I guess it's because there is no competition being the only girl and providing they are decent enough guys, they will look out for you. Sorry to all my girlfriends, but think I might have to make it a habit of mine to only holiday with boys from now on! Mind you, can you really blame me after getting royal treatment like that?!

Whop whop!

2007-09-21T21:00:00.000+12:00

Since I'm already on the topic of reminiscing, here are some of my favourite childhood memories, mainly to do with the kick ass place South Head where I grew up.

The orchard

collecting cicada shells and "leaf water" while mum worked
being chief tractor driver for the persimmon pickers (and thinking I was SO good at it)
eating fruit straight from the tree, mmm apples warmed by the sun
sneaking biscuits from the smoko shed
jumping into the pits up at the maori pa
mountain biking around all the different rows and tracks

The lake

winding up the windows on the way there so we were as hot as possible before our swim
making tracks through the reeds with our boogie boards
Honeymoon Bay - and the epic walk it took to get there
Being big enough to swim across to "the other side"
sinking peoples dingys
skimming mussels across the water (and always wishing I could do more skims)
getting there and always finding one of your friends already there to splish and splash with
the night Mum, Nico & I got stuck halfway round and Dad rowed out in the dark to find us

Jana's house

getting to eat meat
getting to watch tv
getting to play with their pets

Ah yes, those days hold many of my fondest memories alright. I am just so fucking glad my parents chose to live in the whop whops and deprive us of television, packaged food, fizzy drinks (apart from our special Friday night lemonade), the latest gimmicks and "cool" clothes. I can honestly say, that as a result of living where we did and "depriving" us of those things, it has helped shaped me both physically and mentally, into a much better person today.

I just hope that when it comes to me having kids I can show the same patience and strength as what they did while we were complaining about how *unfair* it was not being able to watch tv, eat chips & lollies, drink fanta, own chatter rings and wear tearaway pants.

Yeeha Piha

2007-09-10T12:07:00.000+12:00

Piha - oh how I love that place.

Ahh yes, all those fond memories I have of summers staying out there at the Joyce's bach (or more like house nowadays). A night spent there over the weekend reminded me of what, in my eyes, are the contributors to its awesomeness...

Like... getting the "first sight of the sea"; the smell of the burning rubber of car brakes while making the decent of the everlasting hill to the beach; the smell (not to mention taste) of the hot chips from the Piha shop; Lion Rock's enormity; the clean fresh air that instantly makes you feel alive; the prickle of sand against your skin as it's hurled along the beach by the forever present wind; the crashing sound of what always seems to be messy surf; a crowd of people gathered around someone injured on the beach; the delicious home made doughnuts from the Piha store on a Sunday morning; bonding time while having to do the dishes by hand; the fine black sand and how it manages to get in places you didn't know you had; being able to laze about reading, chatting and eating and not feeling guilty for doing so; the peacefulness; and the surfers always crouched in the dunes pointing and squinting out to sea.

A definite must for me will be to make sure I spend more time out there before heading off. It will undoubtedly be one of the places that I'll miss the most while overseas.

Mass Migration

2007-09-03T10:27:00.000+12:00

I cannot get over the amount of people I know who are leaving the green pastures of little old New Zealand to explore the rest of the world. Not that I am blaming them as I am about to do the same thing, but it continues to astound me the sheer number of friends that have just left or are just about to head off overseas. The current count is up to about 10 people having left in the last few months and almost the same amount who plan to head off in the next 6 months or so. It makes it even more exciting for me though, as I am able to swap notes and get excited with them rather than feeling guilty when I talk about my plans with people who are sticking around here.

The thing that surprises me even more though is when people have no interest in travel at all. How could you not want to get out there and see what else the world has to offer?! I know NZ is a beautiful place and it will be the place that I will always think of as home no matter where I end up later on in life, but is it not important to get out there and experience other places just to make us appreciate what we have here that much more?

So putting my guilty feelings aside for a moment, my plan is to leave NZ on the 31st of January and go stay with family in Melbourne for four days. Next stop - Bangkok, arriving on the 4th of February at which point I will meet up with Jessie and we will spend three weeks together taking in the sights (and smells) before she heads back home. I will then be flying solo for the last week in Thailand before flying to London on the 3rd of March. I'll doss down there for 9 days before reaching my final stop (temporarily at least) in Edinburgh to stay with brother Nico and his girlfriend Kelly. The plan is to then camp out at their place in Haddington until I sort out what I'm going to do with myself which at this stage is to head back to London and get a job. Phewee! The scary thing is, it is less than five months away.. and my savings account is looking very, very sad. So, time to get my ass into gear and start saving my pennies!! Any donations will be welcomely received...

Sayonara

2007-08-14T16:17:00.000+12:00

I'm told that Andrew was sure my blog was going to be all about him so I thought I'd better make his day and dedicate a post to him, specially since he is about to fly the coop and all.

First of all, I would just like to say thank you for being an incredibly bad influence on me. Not only did you mange to influence the increase of my cigarette intake back up to what it was in my early teenage years, but you also succeeded in rubbing some of your recreational drug taking habit off onto me. Mind you, it probably was about time I put down my halo and tried out a few new things..

But in all seriousness, it just won't be the same without you around... Who will help me eat all my breakfast/lunch/dinner; spin all our crockery; share my pineapple juice with me; help me get firewood; tell us which Gardenia product we just saw; come and watch Dunc play at Carpark with me; be (almost) as bad as me at mountain biking; hate subway with me; leave joy bar wrappers in our light fittings; eat all my baking? Who, I say?! I think I can safely say that no one will ever be able to fill those size 13 New Balance shoes of yours that have been such a permanent fixture in the lives of us Brown Street inhabitants.

Sayonara, arrivederci, au revoir, hasta la vista - you will be missed by all of us here on the land of the long white cloud. I do hope the Northern Hemisphere takes good care of you and appreciates your company as much as we do.

Ideal Job

2007-08-07T12:48:00.000+12:00

The other night, Jessie asked me what my ideal job would be. I was unable to come up with a real answer on the spot but it got me thinking...

At the time, all I was able to decide on was that I would love to do something that I was doing for the enjoyment and not for the money. But then you could actually divide the answer into two different categories really, one being ideal in job satisfaction and one that is ideal in monetary return while still enjoying the job, possibly not as much as others that don't pay as well. So I guess the way to get a real answer is to think what job would be ideal, pretending that I would get paid an ideal amount regardless of the profession.

A couple of things I used to want to be (in order of age) were:

Flight Attendant
Actress
Judge
Psychotherapist
Artist
Journalist

Never did I want to be a Loans Analyst. Oops! Half of that list are on the creative side and I think that is a definite sign of something. I've just come to the conclusion that if I am ever to go to university that my ideal degree would probably be something to do with media. English, media studies & drama were all favourites of mine at school and I think the combination of all three possibly equate to something within the realms of journalism.

Well, well, well, thanks Jessie for getting me thinking about what the hell I want to do with my life. No doubt I will come home from my O.E with completely different ideas of where I am headed but for now I'm going to endeavour to pay more attention to the world of media.

Love, Hate

2007-08-07T11:46:00.000+12:00

Here are some things that I love:

laughing so hard my face and/or stomach hurts
hugs from people close to me
kisses on my forehead
summertime
watching a movie that's good enough to keep me thinking about it for hours/days/weeks to follow
the tipsy feeling after that first glass or two of wine
creme brulee, especially cracking the top of it
snowboarding
reading a book that is so good I can't put it down but also never want it to end
dancing with my eyes closed because I am so into the music
going for a walk on a crisp winters day
swimming in the sea
giving people presents I know they will love
wearing a new outfit
clean, crisp white sheets
travelling
lying in bed with that special someone while it's raining outside
looking after people I care about
being in love

And here are some things that I don't love:

people who lie to me
being hugged by someone I'm not comfortable with
feeling lonely
arguing
missing someone so much it hurts
letting my wall down
seeing people I care about upset
being shallow
when guys get into fist fights
the spinning feeling after a night of drinking too much
crying so much my eyes hurt
when people are extremely needy
getting up on Monday mornings
people who shit stir
waking up from a good dream and discovering it wasn't real
being in love when it's not mutual

I heart Wellington

2007-07-31T13:15:00.000+12:00

I have just returned from the best road trip ever. Friday afternoon Duncan, Andrew and myself embarked on what was to be an nine hour long car journey to Wellington. Armed with treats, drinks, a mixture of Duncan's Drum & Bass, Andrew's Hip Hop & Tui's Miscellaneous Tunes, we were set. Forgetting only one detail, a map, which caused us to go on a slight detour through Whanganui, delaying our otherwise reasonably express trip with us arriving at Ani's place at just after 1am.

Saturday we brunched at Fidels and paired off to wander the city before meeting up again at James & Sonya's apartment to plan the evening ahead. Foods, beverages & dvds were purchased for the night and comedown to follow on Sunday.

Marcus Intalex & Doc Scott put on an awesome show for us at Sandwiches. Being on another planet (see evidence here) may have something to do with my enthusiasm towards the evening but you know what, I don't care because I had an absolutely awesome night which carried on till 7am the next morning. Being greeted by the sunlight as you leave the club is always a sure sign of a night well spent. We coaxed a taxi driver into squeezing 5 of us into a car only to discover we were to go through a police check point. Duncan was made to exit the car prior to the checkpoint and walk past it while we went through it and then looped back around the block to pick him up. The taxi driver then proceeded to try and give us a discount for the "hassle" even though we had nearly cost him his licence and a hefty fine!

Sunday was spent sleeping, eating KFC and icecream, watching movies by the fire and being generally lazy. The perfect way to spend a cold winters day after a big night out.

Monday was time to say farewell to Wellington. A hearty breakfast was had to keep us fuelled for the long trip home before waving our goodbyes to our host Ani and the rest of the city. Nine hours later, feeling weary, we safely returned to Auckland after a fair few stops at toilets and other amenities along the way. Andrew's car was still safely parked at Sylvia Park albeit with 2 parking warnings on his windscreens, thankfully clamp free though.

Although I didn't actually see much of the city itself, mainly just the inside of Ani's house and the inside of Sandwiches, I did however have an awesome time, the great company kept being the main contributor to the fun times had.

Another trip to get me even more excited about my fast approaching departure date. Not as fast as Andrew's departure date though. THREE WEEKS! Sniff..

Pet Peeves

2007-07-18T09:46:00.000+12:00

According to Wikipedia the def. of a Pet Peeve is a minor annoyance that can instill extreme frustration in an individual. Typically each person has several pet peeves that aggravate her or him more than the average person. Another person may not react as negatively or at all to the same circumstance.

As a general rule they are something that really isn't worth being bothered by but you just cannot help but get wound by peoples certain behaviours. I have compiled a small list off the top of my head that contains some of the things that tend to rub me up the wrong way. They are when people:

Get to and too mixed up
Don't know the difference between your and you're (this is a recent one of mine, thanks to Duncan..)
Don't indicate when driving
Drive RIGHT up your / someones ass
Squish the toothpaste so its all scrunched up rather than a smooth tube
Leave dirty dishes piled in the sink, so much so that you can't use the tap to pour yourself a glass of water

So everyone, watch out next time you are around me and say / perform one of the above, as I may explode out of frustration and bite your head off. What about you though, what do I have to be careful of saying / doing around you? Please tell me so I know I'm not the only crazy person with totally irrational pet peeves.

Highs & Lows

2007-07-16T17:17:00.000+12:00

It seems I am on a plateau at the moment... Don't get me wrong I have plenty of things to be excited about.. like:

I started a new job today as a Loans Analyst which equals a significant pay rise
I have booked my tickets for my O.E. leaving on the 9th of February 2008 (!!!)
I am going on a road trip to wonderful Wellington with Duncan & Andrew in two weeks time
We are getting a new flatmate next week and she could potentially be another cool new friend
It's snowboarding season and I have a season pass waiting to be used

But there just seems to be an equal number of downers making the exciting things seem not so exciting.. like:

I am broke from buying my tickets

Andrew leaves in just over a month

I miss my brother tons

I've lost a best friend to his new thang

Ho hum. Just felt like complaining. Looking at my exciting list it is all pretty exciting though I guess. I'll be quiet now...

Realisation

2007-06-25T10:56:00.000+12:00

I have turned into a bit of a hermit of late, due to a combination of wanting to stay at home with my new beau and not wanting to face the cold weather outside while standing in line for clubs freezing our tits off (quite literally). Well Saturday night I decided that enough was enough and I needed to break my hermit habits and get out amongst things.

Well we definitely got out and amongst it but it wasn't quite how I had imagined my evening. First of all we bumped into my ex's brother in the line for Asta which probably wasn't an ideal start to my evening. Next up we ran into an old friend that we probably would have preferred not to see, as him and his friends were less than desirable companions for the evening. Then there just seemed to be a stream of loser guys continually trying their luck with us throughout the evening which began to wear very thin. I am usually pretty tolerant of guys and their lame pickup lines but I was blown away with the patheticness of the guys we encountered on this particular night. There was however ONE decent looking guy that I noticed but then on closer inspection I noticed his guy friend behind him getting closer and closer and then began err grinding him.. The hottest/most interesting looking guy in the bar was gay. Typical.

While looking around the bar at the various patrons I came to the realisation that 90% of the guys in that bar were people that we would not want to meet or have any sort of relationship with whether it be friendship or god forbid anything more than that. And so it dawned on me that in general, guys that like house music and go to these clubs are what can only be described as cockheads. I do concede that there is the other 10% that I'm sure are good guys who have either been dragged out with their idiot friends or are just the kind of people that don't care where they are as long as they are having a good time and not just out trying to score. But I definitely think that as a general rule, if you are single you will NOT find a decent guy who you will actually ever want to see again at one of these type places.

Upon realisation of this, new beau (who was at the time at a hip hop gig) received the following text "It's official, you are amazing and all guys that listen to house are cockheads".

So I have decided it is time to find a new way to spend our Saturday nights... any suggestions?

Man bags

2007-06-20T16:50:00.000+12:00

I was reading another blog recently which mentioned their attraction to men with man bags aka satchels and wondered if this was a strange thing to like in a guy. On reading this it got me thinking... I realised I also am a sucker for guys with satchels and I began to wonder where this had stemmed from and what it is about them that is so appealing.

Now I know its not that I have some schoolboy fetish that finds guys with man bags hot, in fact I think its the opposite in that a guy with one seems all the more manly. Now why is it that this traditionally feminine accessory can suddenly turn a mediocre guy into a sophisticated, well groomed good looking piece of work the moment he slings a piece of brown leather across his torso? OK this might be a slight exaggeration but it definitely gives them instant sex appeal and why?

After spending some of my thinking time during my walks home from work on this subject, I decided on what I think makes them more attractive (in my case anyway). I think the fact that these men that are happy to wear a what is traditionally only worn by us females, is an instant indicator that they are comfortable enough in themselves as a male that a man bag does not interfere with their masculinity. I even think that it adds to it. Teamed with a mannigan aka male cardigan they are then a picture of confidence and sophistication. OK there can be exceptions to this rule definitely but as a whole if a guy with a mannigan, man bag (and can't forget good shoes) walks by, I am sure to turn and have a second look.

Thank goodness my current beau (if that's what you can call him? but that's a whole other blog) fits into the above category. On second thoughts, could he be where my appreciation has stemmed from? No, surely not...

Introduction

2007-06-20T16:19:00.000+12:00

Hello and welcome to my blog. I'm a bit nervous about writing for all to see on what really can be described as a not so private diary. But after reading many of my friends' blogs of late, I have been inspired to make one of my own, so here goes...

Now, firstly I want to explain why I have decided to choose the name "Tui too nice" as my blogger name. In the last six months or so I have begun to notice a theme in my life that has become hard to ignore which is that I have noticed that I seem to get myself into trouble (namely with guys) because of what can only be described as me being "too nice". Now most people would think that being what others describe as a nice person is a good thing but I have discovered that it in fact it doesn't seem to get you anywhere very fast. Reading this I may sound quite bitter and that is probably quite a true reflection of my feelings of late. However I am hoping that this blog may be a way for me to possibly find a way to sort out ways of taking my bitterness and putting a more positive spin on it and my view of this "niceness" I seem to emit often unwillingly.

Which leads me to why I'm writing this blog. As mentioned, I'm hoping for this to be a way for me to hopefully "sort" through things that are often whirling around inside of my head. I also want to be able to share any experiences / interesting findings I have while going about my daily life whether it be discussing relevant topics or relaying incidents I have been involved in. Also, all comments by anyone who decides that they want to spend time reading this will be appreciated.