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Monday 22 December 2008

Nov 19

Drove to Kauri Forest at Waipoua after eating the best Carrotcake in the World at a little cafe (It was called that too!). Saw Tane Mahuta - the God of the Forest - not a wizard - a 1500 yr old tree and his foursisters - 4 tress growing from the same base. Kauri are MASSIVE btw.

Drove through the drab Dargaville and then to the scenic Matakohe site where a woman was baking bread for dinner! Kiwi camp sites are well equipped to say the least and there seems to be a bit of who can cook the best competition going on!


Nov 20

Drove all day! Planned to try and get to Waiheke Island by Auckland, but things went a tad wrong. Stopped at the loveley Warksworth and then got lost trying to find a ferry in Auckland that we thought might take us with the van to the island but then realised that we couldn't cross over to the pensinula off the other side so drove round the long way round and stopped at Miranda where we ate Fish & Kumara (NZ Sweet potato) chips. Not pleasant. Miranda campsite has a Hot Spring though so we went for a dip in the steaming pool late at night:)

Monday 15 December 2008

New Zealand (2)

Nov 17th.

Worst weather yet. Went to Rewa's Village which is a recreation of a Maori settlement in the Kerikeri Basin. Basic stoneag huts made of flax and wood.

Went out on a cruise on a boat called 'The Rock' from wharf back in Pahia. Shot at a duck with an air rifle off the back of boat in an attempt to win a free beer, fished (without luck) and ended up in an on-board dorm with a cou[ple of Aussie girls and a bloke and his mother. Went night kayaking in the waters around the boat, which was absolutely amazing! The waters have in them phosperance which glows and shoots off like little green stars when you dipped you paddle in! Weird! And really stunning under a clear starry sky. Went snorkelling and swimming of the back of the boat later which was *freezing* but totally amazing - when you moved and swam phospherant green sparks flew off you in the water! The phospherance is actually an algae which for some unknown reason glows when disturbed - The most amazing experience in NZ so far - Swimming with sparks flying off me under a perfectly clear starry sky! Sat on the back of the boat with Sophie, one of the crew (from Coventry!?) and the Aussie girls, before freezing half to death and going to bed.

Nov 18.
After a rough nights sleep (in which Soph decided to chat in her sleep to the dorm) we went down to an amazing porridge & fruit brekkie, then snorkelled out on a reef - saw loads of fish up close and swam until the water made me shake so much with cold I had to go back. After getting back to normal body temperature I kayaked to the beach of an island from the boat, and then want on a wander about. We found that the hills were all covered in soft grass, that was really deep and spongy. Kayaked back to the boat feeling like a Maori warrior.

During lunch a couple of dolphins swam alongside the boat and the crew offered up the chance for us to eat some sea urchin type things and mussels they'd caught. I ate a couple which were actually really tasty (one more expensive than caviar in japan apparently) which looked like and had the texture of a small yellow slug. Mussel's were amazing.

Back at Pahia we set off to the west coast to Oponomi and found an amazing beach with metalic silver colours and stunning sunset caused by the huuge sandspit alongside the coast.

Wednesday 26 November 2008

North Island (1)

Having to keep a diary and refer back to it as not getting the time to get on internet for long amounts...

Nov 10.


Staying in Parnell which reminds me of Moseley - lots of art galleries and restaurants. Saw a load of Maori carvings in mesuem which were good, including a full Whare (meeting house) and Waka (Boat). The Maori paint things red to protect them with Tapa (Sacredness) and the carvings have different meanings like spirals are the circle of life, they are pretty intricate with silver shell eyes on the faces.

Nov 11.

We bought a Toyota Lucida at a Backpackers car market with a load of pots and pans etc. After taking the car on a test run it broke down round the corner from the yard! Flat battery... got a good deal on the car though which is in really good condition apart from the flat abttery. Sorted Insurance out (Which is stangely optional in NZ) and road tax (which you buy by the 1000 km). The seller of the van replaced the battery and paid for a new bed to be installed in the back in place of the seats! We also had curtains fitted.

Drove North from Auckland to Warkworth which is very quaint and parked up at dusk at Sandspit. The plan is to go North around North Island then loop back down through Auckland and through Napier on the East Coast down to South Island.

Nov 12.
Bought an mp3 transmitter for the van so we can listen to music on the go - very important! The people who work in NZ are much more relaxed! We asked about the mp3 player and the woman said to bring the van round the back, take it out the box put in a battery and if it worked and we liked it then to buy it! A vast contrast to Argos who we bought the mp3 players from back in UK where they would not refund them even if in perfect condition.

Drove to Waipu which holds a Highland Games at New Year?! then onto Whangarei (Pronounced Fang-a-ray) where Sophie introduced me to the card game 'Slam' at the campsite. Campsites are really well equipped with cookers, pans, microwaves etc. Not exactly 'roughing it'.

Nov 13.
Went into Whangarei town basin and had coffee, then went for a walk at the A.H.Reed Memorial Park where there were huge kauri trees and a waterfall. Kauri trees are huge (some of the biggest in the world) and just go straight up - but the are really wide. Plenty chairs in them methinks.

Drove North to Waitomo and dropped into Waitomo Glowworm caves on a whim. George the Maori guide was well funny and kept taking the piss out of an Aussie guy there. The caves were really cool, loadsa stalagtites and mites 25 million years old. Apparently they found some maori woman living there when they discovered them - she'd run away from her tribe. But the most amaziong thing was the glowworms which covered the ceiling and glowed bright neon green in the dark! George showed us them up close and explained that they create a horizontal thread - like a hammock they moved around on, beneath which they hang lines down which catch small gnats that they eat. The worms are about an inch or 2 long and visible with a torch - there bums glow green to attract the gnats.

After that we stopped breifly at Wakawaka for the Toilet - decorated by artist Friedrich Hundertwasser in glass bottles and broken crockery - interesting but a little underwhelming, then onto Piahia which sits on the Bay of Islands and is the off-point for much sea-faring fun inc. snorkelling, driving, sailing etc... Stayed at Haruru Falls.

Nov 14.
Got a ferry over the bay to Russell which Captain Cook (I think) described at the hell hole of the Pacific as it was full of drunks, prostitution etc. It is now a very quaint (most places are quaint it seems) place. We went for a walk upto the flagstaff where the brits and Maori had had a bit of a flag putting up war - one put theirs up the other cut it down and so on for many years. Had fish & chips and saw a weird ameoba like blobs on a shell on the beach - it was a seethrough jelly thing (about an centimeter accross) which crawled around suprisingly fast... and a blobbly shiny thing on the rocks too ... weird.

Nov 15.
Drove round the corner to Waitangi where the Maori signed an agreement that settled their tribal wars and gave the nation over to the reign of the Queen of England. What was best was the aw huge waka (boat) and a really good wander round the grounds - amazing coastal scenery and saw a family of wild Tui birds (they make mad noises like R2D2 from Starwars), small black lizards in the rocks and and shrimp and black/red crabs.

Drove up to Kerikeri which is known for it's stunning citrus fruit and parked up at a campsite after a few beers. Did the washing!

Nov 16.
Wrote a nasty letter to 3 (phone company) they conned me just as I was leaving the UK into some dodgy deal, so I wrote a suiatble nasty letter then couldn't find a postal address for them online - damn them!

Went to the Stone Store which is the oldest European building in New Zealand at a massive 170 years old(!!). The store had a nice atmosphere and big old stone floors - it still sells exactly the stame stock as when it opened - from the same suppliers (!) including pitch forks, rope, soap etc.

Went to Rainbow falls which was also pretty nice, then went to drive inland a bit for a change of scenery to Kaikohe - but it was rubbish! The only site was a dodgy American diner-style 70's place and we drove back to Kerikeri and stopped at... a cheesy RV American-style Waggon Park instead. lol.

Went on a wander to a winder and bar but they were all shut, so nicked one of the famous kerikeri oranges from an orchard for later, naughty me.

Saturday 8 November 2008

Auckland

Set down in New Zealand after a reasonable flight where I actually slept! Thats a first..

Weather is kinda like a warm summers day with a constant sea breeze.

After Japan, Auckland was a bit of a shock as it's very western and people could understand us again, which was kinda weird cos we'd got used to them not.

Best things about Auckland are the amazing restaurants (many Japanese) which are reasonably priced and the mad, mega trees which are huuuuge and really odd, like being stuck in Pan's Labyrinth or Jurassic Park. They look like the have had their trunks removed too. Think loads of roots attached straight to the branches spreading out everywhere.

Settled in for a few days at a comfy hotel and have just bought a Toyota Lucida XR Turbo, which sounds really swift until you discover its a people-mover which is just about to have the back seats removed and a bed put in! We bought it at a backpacker car yard after having a look about and then testing driving a couple. Funnily this ones battery died round the corner from the yard and we had to wait for the guy to nip out with his 4x4 to jump start it. A new battery is assured as part of the Warrant of Fitness (NZ MOT Test) we just had done on it. We pick it up tomorrow and can get going up the North Island and then further South later :)

Just got back from Rangitoto which is a volcano just North of Auckland - you can still see Auckland from the volcano. Went on a 5 hour trek up to the crater and into some caves which were mega.

Thursday 6 November 2008

Japan






Hello! Hello!

Well finally got a few mins to update you on my travels... Just found out I cant add pictures at present so they be added later.

Touched down in Auckland a couple of days ago and I am sat in a basement Internet Cafe after buying myself some new walking boots at a beastly 130 pounds and a jacket too...

Anyhow...

Oct Friday 31st
After a sleepless 11 hour flight flew into Tokyo Narita airport and got a bus out to Asakusa where our Roken (Trad. Jap hotel) was situated. You get a ciouple of tatami mats to sleep on and free green tea and a kimono. Went to markets and shrines in the area and celebrated our first japanese lench with a tuna sandwich from a little place oposite a Bathhouse. Shrines and Temples are plenty and the Japanese like to go and get their fortunes read by shaking little wooden sticks from a box, matching the symbol on the stick to a draw and then reading a message from the draw that tells them their fortune. They also waft smoke from insence onto themselves to sooth aches & pains and douse themselves in water as part of the Shinto cleansing tradition. Senso-ji is a massive temple and pretty impressive.

Asakusa is pretty quiet for Tokyo, but something that struck me about all of Japan is that everyone is super-clean, quiet and ordered - even in big crowds people are quiet and rarely raise their voices. The Japanese were soo friendly too. As we walked past a little wooden bar a women waved us in and we bought some little kebabs and a beer. Nobody speaks much english at all, so we got by with just a few basic words and lots of pointing.

It was Halloween and we actually managed to find a party going on in a bar. The guy on the door even gave us 2 tokens for free drinks to celebrate. Main shock is Japan is really expensive! Im talking 2 pounds for 2 average bananas here! But they do sell HUGE apples and I mean monsters! Ace!

Oct Nov 1st
Went out to Ginza today on Tokyo Subway. Ginza is shopping central and big high street fashion area. Got breakfast in a Ramen noodle shop which was ace - you pick what you want from the menu (printed on a vending machine) and pay for it then take up you voucher to the chef who cooks it up and hands it to you. The quality of food is really good, in fact the quality of everything is. Went ot Shibuya crossing this afternoon - it the classic crossing with the high rise buildings and videoscreens where people all walk from every angle when the walk sign comes on. Wandered around the Love Hotels where you can buy rooms by the hour and looked in the shops which are all MEGA. Seriously, the stuff they sell in amazing and the shops are rammed with novelty stuff from dried octopus to mexican wrestler masks and cute stuff. Went to Roppongi which was pretty cosmopolitan and had another round of Ramen noodels, finished the day of with sushi from the 7/11!

Oct Nov 2
We wanted to get out to Yoyogi park and Harajuku today to see the crazy street fashion but ended up sleeping right through til 4pm! I wondered why it was getting dark as I was getting up!! Clobbered by Jetlag BIG TIME. Felt really odd for ages and tried to get back in the swing of it, so went to Akihabara where they sell loads of electronic goods and manga and bought an amazing meal in a well posh restaurant of boiled chicken and egg on rice. Food is mostly kinda odd and very intricate, lots is gloopy and soft dough is common. Went to Shinjuku which was big city and bright lights.

Oct Nov 3rd
Today we got out of Tokyo and went off early to Kamakura which is about an hour on the Japan Rail network out west. The place is full of shrines and temples and we managed to go on a wander over some hills where the trees were really gnarley and rooty. Bought some amazing steamed dough buns with stirfried food insode that were yum! After getting back to Tokto we went out to Shimbashi Central Tokyo and had some more noodles!!

Oct Nov 4th
We got up early and went to Tsukiji fish market which we just caught the tail end of as it starts at 3am in the morning! Ate really good sushi in a bar - had conga eel, manta shrimp, seared tuna and some squid etc! Got fuch soup and veg and felt stupid not really knowing how to go about eating it! Was goood though.

Went out to harajuku afterwards and had some seriously good crepes! Went to Yoyogi park! Gotta go my time is up!!!!

Im now in Auckland! Reverse culture shock!!!!! It's very western! and were freaked out by people being able to listen into our conversdations again!!!

Monday 3 November 2008

Just a quick update!

So far been flying round Japan, to a range of places like Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ginza, Akihabara, Kamakura - temples & shrines... etc etc eating, etc. Very Expensive!

Got walloded by Jetlag sun and slept right through!

Loadsa pics & updates soon I promise!

BTW - please dont phone my old num (07786 555300) i am cancelling it soon. 3 are EVIL! explain later....

Monday 27 October 2008

First Post!

There's nothing here yet - you'll have to wait til i leave!