Jun 2008

Hi everyone!

I'm safe and sound from my two days boarding on lovely fresh powder of the Mountain of Hutt (Mt Hutt) - there aren't many huts to be fair - silly name! Today I spent half of it teaching Will how to board, and unfortuantely Elisa, on the top of her first proper run, flipped over and sprained/fractured her wrist (the doctor doesn't know yet, but she's in a splint). Bit of a shame really, but she didn't want to spend the money for a lesson, and she didn't wear wrist guards (both bad ideas I suppose)... The mountain was extremely blizzardly today - snowed the whole time, and visibility was poor. I took a break to sit by the fire and drink some hot chocolate with Elisa, lovely jubbly. So after waiting ages for Elisa's X-ray, we hit the road and drove round the nice city of Christchurch. It's quite picturesque with lots of little restaurants and bars, but within 5 minutes of driving round we see a shop that sells drugs, steamin folk falling about the streets, and scantily clad woman on street corners - not so good. It's not safe to walk the streets at night we're told, so it's an early night for us and an early morning to clean and gut the vans.

We're spending two nights here in a backpackers hostel in the city centre; not too sure what we'll get up to - no doubt wander the shops as there's quite a few!

So as I've been saying, this is the last stop of our 2 week New Zealand tour. I've had a brilliant time here and 2 weeks really is NOT enough time to see everything. Certainly not enough time to stop round the places and experience the towns and cities, but it's been braw! I don't think I have a favourite place, but Rotorua and Queenstown are up there! Auckland didn't have much to offer, but I suppose it depends on what everyone is looking to experience. I've bathed in natural boiling spring pools, white water rafted, quad biked, luged and snowboarded - I'm quite happy with that!

To be honest, I'd be happy just chilling in Australia! The only thing I really want to see is Ramsay Street (the set of Neighbours) in Melbourne.

Anyway I better head off, maybe update tomorrow with some pics!!

God Bless x

We left the wonderful town of Queenstown today and did a 5 hour drive to Methven, a tiny little village at the foot of Mount Hutt - the place for SNOWBOARDING!

I'm getting a few comments (maw & paw) about injuries and worries - stop worrying! I'm not going to do anything stupid, and I'll keep my board firmly on the ground - I promise. Plus maw, I bought some cheap bumper shorts today so I'll be very safe!! No more pessimistic comments!

We went luging yesterday which was quite fun. Basically just a littl go kart that goes down the mountain. I also found a little shop yesterday that sells IRN-BRU!!! But I didn't buy any as I'm addicted to Sprite these days.

So me and Jane are going boarding tomorrow but I don't think the rest of the group are as they have even less money than us. We're staying in a little hostel for the next two nights, and they have free WiFi access - the first place in the whole of New Zealand with free internet - it's great! Tomorrow I'll upload some photos (I can't be bothered doing it tonight)

We're only an hour away from Christchurch so luckily after boarding we've got a short drive to the city, then we'll fly off to Melbourne on Sunday. I'm quite sad to be leaving New Zealand - it's one of the most beautiful countries I've ever been. The scenery is spectacular - and I'm also proud to say we drove through another area of where Lord Of The Rings got filmed today!

OK.. Bed time and an early start!

God Bless xx

Yellow!

We're in the lovely town of Queenstown! It's blue skies and snow topped mountains, tonnes of ski/boarding shops and I could honestly live here forever!

We arrived here yesterday from Wanaka - the town we planned to snowboard in, but unfortunately there wasn't any snow, so we didn't get to. Instead we wandered around town, I bought some lovely goggles, and then me Ian and Jane went to 'Puzzling World' - a building full of optical illusions and mazes - I felt a bit sick afterwards, bit of a waste of money!

So we arrived in Queenstown last night and then went out to the pub - the first pub we've actually been in in New Zealand. Me and Elisa had a great time whilst the boys played pool. Me and Elisa got up today, got a full-english breaky and had a few coffees in a wee cafe. Everyone and everything is so laid back here, it's great!

OK, I think we're going luging now! Speak soon, byeeeeeeeeee!

God Bless xx

We've ended up in a wee town called Haaste, well I say a 'town', its really just a place on the road with a motel, lodge and petrol station - but it has showers so we're spending the night. We drove to Franz Josef Glacier town today with the intention of walking on the glacier or at least having a look, but the weather's been raining non-stop and the cloud cover has been very low, so unfortunately we had to keep driving.

Luckily though, we're out the room early and then driving to Wanaka to go SNOWBOARDING tomorrow!!!!!!!! Woo hoo! I'm so excited! I think we're staying there for 2 nights so we should have a good time.

Yesterday we watched the annual winter-swim in Westport. The beaches along the coast were absolutely beautiful, and we also stopped to check out Pancake Rocks - basically big rocks in the ocean that are pancake shaped!

Sorry this is a boring entry, nothing exciting to report as we've been driving in the rain all day. Hopefully the next few days will be a bit more adventurous and exciting!

Hope everyone's well at home!

Much love, God Bless x

Hey everyone, hope you're all well? The last few days have been awesome with many activites and alot of road tripping south! We left Rotorua and travelled to Taupo where me and the boys did quad biking in the mountains - it was absolutely amazing! The girls did skydiving - and there was no way I was going to try that! Afterwords we drove to River Valley next to Taihipe. We arrived at night so didn't get to see the scenery, but the next morning we were amazed. We were in a huge valley which had a river flow through it (hence the name) and it was here we did Category 5 White Water Rafting (cat. 6 is the highest) So.. as some of you are aware, I have two fears: deep water and leeches - this place had both in the same place. Hand on heart though, I absolutely loved it, despite it being 5/6 degrees celcius and sooooooo cold! Part of the rapids had a 2 and a half metre drop! I'm very glad I did it in the end!

Next day we drove to Wellington and got the ferry to Picton. I met a mad swearing scots-man on the ferry - he was Scotland personified, and the boys had no idea what he was talking about, quite funny. So 3 and half hours later we arrived on the south island in a little eery town called Picton. There's been a lot of mist around so it looked like the 'Silent Hill' movie at night! Slept the night in a car park and woke up to a gorgeous harbour with mountains and blue skys - lovely!! So that was today (it's quite difficult remembering everything we've done!) So.. we left Picton today and drove through the mountains to Westport and as it's my birthday (now) we're staying in a little lodge by the beach. We managed to do a washing, and the boys cooked a beef stir-fry with noodles. I went out to get my washing, came back in, and they had the candles lit and lots of balloons everywhere! This site has WiFi access too, so everyones been on my laptop uploading their photos to Facebook etc. Hence, this post has a few photos!! (You lucky folk!!)

Tomorrow, as it's my birthday, we might go quad biking again, but we might go on a caving expedition somewhere. There's so much to do in the South Island so we have a lot more time to do things and spend in places, so hopefully we won't be rushing away from places too much!

I can't believe we've been here nearly a week, time is flying by so quickly!
There's a little bit of talk about going to Bangkok for a few days after Sydney as supposedly it's dirt cheap and our flight goes via Thailand anyway, but that's just a suggestion and depends entirely on everyones money situation!!

So.... I think that's a long enough update!! Hope you're all well..

Here's some photies...

God Bless x

Heyyy everyone!
The past couple of days have been great! We left Auckland and drove south to Rotorua. By the time we arrived in the town it was pretty dark so we headed to a huge Lidl style supermarket, bought some supplies as we were going to cook with the gas stoves provided with the van. As we were packing the food into the vans we met this older couple who invited us to camp in their garden! They were lovely folk, and although we were a little cynical, it turned out really well! We followed their car to the Waikite Valley (where the water is boiling hot and rises from the ground!) Got to their house which is huge - they have 4 horses, 2 dogs, a cat, 10 acres of land, neighbours are ages away, and a huge garage with a pool table and table tennis!! So me and Elisa got cooking the Pasta bolognese, opened up the beer and chilled out whilst the boys played pool with the family and their son who is our age.

We headed to bed early in the campervan - quite a comfortable sleep but I got a little too hot in my fleece, hat and sleeping bag. The weather's been very Scottish-esque - so lots of rain! But the scenery is also like scotland - all hills and cows and mountains - beautiful!

The family have allowed us to park/camp in their drive-way again tonight, so today we went to the Waikite Valley thermal pools for a swim - they were amazing! Just lots of pools at various tempertures varying from 37 degrees to 47 degrees - very hot but very relaxing! The boys left early and headed hunting with the family (hunting wild pig and the likes)

Me, Elisa and Jane are wandering around Rotorua for a wee while, then we're heading back to the house for a BBQ (eating the son's wild pig he hunted!)

We leave tomorrow for Taupo!

Byeeee!
God Bless x

Hello!! I'm now on the other side of the world!!

We left London Heathrow around 11pm, arrived in Bangkok Thailand 11 hours later, then arrived in Sydney 9 hours later, then arrived in Auckland 3 hours later. What an extremely long journey!! But it wasn't too bad - we had our own TV's on the plane, and had a massive selection of films and programs to watch, and an unlimited supply of booze haha!

Unfortunately me and Elisa's bags didn't make it to the connecting flight from Sydney to Auckland but they should arrive first thing tomorrow morning so it's not so bad - I'm just glad I kept all my cameras on my hand luggage!

We've booked into Aspen House in the city centre - a little traveller's B&B and at quite a cheap price! My bank card didn't want to work at the airport, so I've had to borrow some pennies until I find another bank - it should work as it's VISA, we'll have to hope and pray..

So we've all had our showers and are heading out to St. Patrick's Cathedral for mass at 7pm, then we'll go out for din-dins and then maybe a drink or two.

Check out's at 10am tomorrow and then we'll get our camper vans and hit the open road!
The plan is to drive all the way from the top of the north island, get a ferry to the south island, and continue down to Christchurch with a stop for snowboarding!

The scenery here is very much like Scotland, I'm liking it. Very autumny - leaves everywhere. Just a shame it's winter.. I didn't know what to expect of Auckland as a city, it's OK, but we haven't had a chance to check it out yet so I'm excited to wander around.

Right I think that's enough for a wee update - not much to tell other than we got here safe and sound with just a few glitches!

Mum, Heather and Mark - I sent a post card from Bangkok yesterday - no idea when you'll get it though!!

Not sure when I'll next update, hopefully get a WiFi spot for the laptop and get a few photos up at some point!

God Bless x