The Journey

"A theme park on an acid trip?"

"A theme park on an acid trip," an fairly accurate analogy provided by the Lonely planet to describe Australia's hippy heaven and dope smoking capital, Nimbin.

On recommendation from other travellers I'd chosen to experience this special part of Australia on an organised trip with 'Jim's Alternative Tours'. Slightly apprehensive I set off accompanied by a group of people whose sole intention for the day was to get to Nimbin, score some marijuana and make it back to Byron Bay without tripping out on the bus on the way home!

This unusual day trip, to a part of Australia where marijuana smoking isn't legal but is ignored by local police, was played out against a backdrop of tunes hand picked by tour operator Jim to suit each step of our decent into drug addled surrealness.

As the bus pulled out of Byron Bay Jonny Depp in his portrayal of Raoul Duke in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas boomed out of the stereo: "We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid ....also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser..."

Our day may not have been quite so extreme, just alcohol and marijuana for us, but this certainly set the scene for the events about to unfold.

Driving along the highway Jim recounted tales of people who ate one to many 'special' cookies and lost the plot on the way home. He told us about a woman who barricaded herself on the bus after convincing herself the day-trippers in the shop getting munchies were actually assembling a collection of automatic weapons!

Musical accompaniment to the commentary provided the in bus entertainment. As we crossed the border between the "oppressive Catholic clutches," of Lismore into the more "Pagan orientated" outskirts of Nimbin 'Break on Through' by The Doors blared from the stereo.

We pulled into Nimbin after a brief pub stop with the mellow tones of a tune called 'Lets go smoke some pot'; a clear indication of how most people intended spending the afternoon!

We'd been warned it was illegal, told not to do it and informed of how much we should expect to pay for it! Now we had two hours to take Jim's advice into consideration and explore the sights of Nimbin.

All around barefooted, dreadlocked hippies went about their daily business with large smiles on their faces; the pace if life in Nimbin was decidedly chilled out.

Nimbin consists of one main street fronted by shops with names such as 'The Hemp Embassy' and 'Bring a Bong'. These shops cater to all hippy tastes including spiritual books, legal herbal highs, and lots of drug paraphernalia. To find the 'illegal' herbal highs we had to head to Nimbin museum; or just wonder down the street past one of many people not very subtly asking if we'd like to buy some weed? Cookies? Even some acid?!

Nimbin museum smelt like the inside of any serious dope smokers bedroom. The exhibitions apparently cover most periods of Nimbin's history from the Aboriginals to it's emergence of the marajuna capital of Australia, but all I could make out was a higildy pigidly mass of stuff dedicated to dope culture and legalisation of marijuana. Amongst the clutter of exhibitions, featuring at least three classic VW camper-vans, dealers were openly dishing out bags of marijuana completely unbothered by the police who were chilling out in their station 10 doors up the road!

Nimbin's origin as the marijuana capital of Australia dates back to the Aquarius festival of 1973. The Aquarius festival attracted large numbers of university students, alternative lifestylers, 'hippies' and party people, many of whom were smoking marijuana. This attracted the attention of local authorities who chose to ignore the illegal smoking of marijuana. Once the festival was over many of the party goers stayed behind and the authorities have turned a blind eye to dope smoking in the small town ever since.

Every year the 'hippy' community of Nimbin hold the Mardi Grass festival to celebrate the marijuana culture and encourage its legalisation. The local community have vowed to hold this festival every year until law is changed.

Once I'd immersed myself in Nimbin's aura, realising there was probably nowhere else quite like it in the world it was time to get back on the bus hoping the high from those cookies I'd just eaten wouldn't kick in too soon!

As the bus pulled away to the sound of 'Exodus' by Bob Marley all around the bus people had the self satisfied grins of those who'd had a taste of what they came for! We soon entered another world, the home of Paul Recher with his bizarre collection of junk art, tropical forest in the back garden and a perfect haven for a bus of slightly stoned backpackers!

As we got off the bus I marveled at the collection of cars, old TV's, typewriters and all sorts of other junk assembled into a pile that Paul calls art! Accompanied by two friends, who were well and truly feeling the effects of the cookies, we stumbled down his tree lined driveway into a hut overlooking a small lake that served as our haven for the next hour. Some people went on a tour of Paul's tropical fruit forest but with my friends alternately giggling, whispering then forgetting what they were talking about I thought it best to stay put an marvel at how many shades of green could be found in the garden!!

By the time we left the majority of the bus were well and truly toasted with one girl asking where we'd been that morning and almost setting the whole group off into a contagious round of giggles. Managing to suppress the laughter we clambered aboard the bus. All that remained was to stare straight ahead and enjoy the bus ride home in a stoned haze.

A day full of bizarre twists and turns that left two of my friends in a marijuana induced 13 hour sleep. If that can happen on a normal day I can only wonder what craziness could be unleashed at the Mardi Grass!

No more content - but photos - yay!

As usual I haven't had a minute to write about anything I have been up to. But in the last couple of days I did come across something of a rare find - a computer that actually works and is quick enough to upload photos to etribes! So yesterday I spent three hours getting as many photos as possible uploaded; so as soon as I get chance I will add some words to go with them. Until I do write something all four of my regular readers can amuse themselves looking at some photos.

That's all; until next time over and out.

Waterfalls, A natural water slide and a very big fig tree!

Finally another chance to update my blog. There is so much going on I have no idea when I am ever going to get this properly up to date. But oh, well at least I try!

At the moment we're in Byron Bay - one of my favourite places so far - a hippie heaven. Tomorrow (now about four days ago!!!) we're off on a trip to a small town called Ninbin. Apparently it's the drugs capital of Australia (in a good way) and is full of stoned old hippies and cops that don't care. We going on a tour with an eccentric old hippie guy who's mate has grown a tropical fruit forest in his garden! I'm looking forward to seeing what adventures the day will bring!!!

But for now, back to the past!

After leaving the far North we headed South of Cairns via a pretty little mountain town called Kuranda. The peaceful town has rejected modernisation and big business and exists much the way it did 20 years ago. All the shops are locally owned, there is no McDonald's and the pace of life seemed very relaxed. Perhaps too relaxed though as when we arrived at 3:30pm everything was already closed for the day. After a cursory glance around and some useful information from the woman in the tourist information (which was open until 4pm!) we left along the windiest road ever.

A couple of hours driving took us to Bramstone Beach, an incredibly small village with one shop, a campsite and a motel. We checked into the campsite, which was situated on the beach, and pitched our tent near the beach. We cooked and sat chatting as it got dark listening to the waves crashing against the shore a short distance away. It was an amazing location and we were all looking forward to waking up and looking out onto the beach. But.... it wasn't long before someone said Crocodile, before we knew it we were all seeing things in the undergrowth that weren't there and freaking out that a large croc was going to drag us from our tent in the night. Something that was very unlikely but possible!! In the end Katy, Naomi and I ended up picking up the tent and its contents and moving it half way across the campsite on the grounds a croc wouldn't come that far inland to eat us! Emily and Kat sat watching not quite believing we'd freaked ourselves out so much, but we all got a better nights sleep for it!

After sleeping content in the knowledge we weren't going to get eaten by crocs the next day we set off for the Atherton Tablelands. The Tablelands is a mountainous range nestled between the Bellenden Ker Range and the Great Dividing Range with an altitude of between 600 meters and 1100 meters. Our main interest of the day were its waterfalls and the Fig Curtain we'd been told was a must see.

Our first stop of the day was The Boulders a stretch of river where massive boulders framed the landscape. Most of the river was unsafe for swimming and it was raining, after a short walk to the lookout we piled back in the car and headed somewhere where we could swim.

The Boulders.

Our second stop was Josephine falls an amazing two tiered waterfall with a natural water slide on one side. The water ran over a gentle slope that over time had been covered in algae and was now very slippery. It was possible to swim to the far side of the pool, haul yourself out of the water and make the precarious walk across the (dry) top of the waterfall to the top of the slide. Here pushed yourself over the edge sending you sliding over the algae covered rocks into the water below. The most fun I've hand on a water slide in years! Kat and I had been the first ones to the top of the 'slide' and the last ones to leave having endless fun sliding on our bums and stomachs into the fresh water pool. But all too soon our fun was over and we had to get back in the car to make the mammoth drive through storm clouds to the fig curtain.

Josephine Falls.

On the water slide at Josephine Falls.

 The fig curtain is a number of trees that have been strangled by strangler figs, in time the figs have joined together forming a 'fig curtain'. Many people had told us this was a must see taking: "10 minutes to walk around". But I was disappointed, it was big, but certainly didn't take 10 minutes to walk around and whilst being impressive wasn't worth the two hour drive across stormy mountains to get there. But Oh well. At least I can say I've seen it.

The Fig Curtain.

After a long day the last thing we wanted to do was cook plus we didn't have any food. We arrived back at Bramstone Beach to discover that as it was Thursday everything had closed early, the motel wasn't doing food because it was Thursday and the shop had closed early because it was Thursday - obviously we should have realised it was Thursday! We decided to drive to the nearest civilisation a small town called Babinda.

It took about half an hour to reach Babinda. We tentatively drove up the main street looking for somewhere foreigner friendly to eat. The street looked like something out of a western set (apart from the tarmacked road), I almost expected some people to come running out of the tavern hiding behind wooden barrels as they shot at each other!

The main pub was a big open room with bright lights full of locals that looked like they had six toes! There were youths outside being talked to by the police masking the pub somewhat off putting! The only other place open was a coffee shop, if we wanted to eat tonight it was going to have to be there. The clientele, who were all eagerly awaiting the start of Thursday night Trivia, looked more favourable than those in the pub despite the comment of: "new meat" as we walked through the door. The staff were very nice finding us a table out of the way of the trivia and the food was pretty good. Soon the locals almost forgot we were there and we didn't manage to raise another comment until we left with full stomachs ready for our beds.

The Far North

Once again it's been so long since I last wrote that I can barley remember what I have been up to! I think I left this blog before I went to Cape Tribulation, which was about a month ago. So here is a brief overview of our organised three day excursion.

Our first stop was a boat cruise along the Daintree river. The river is a natural crocodile habitat, with murky water and mangroves along the banks, promising to be a croc spotting extravaganza. But was more of a gentle cruise combined with peering through bushes to try and sport small very well camouflaged crocs. In the end we only caught a glimpse of one croc, he was too small to be intimidating and basking in the sun away from the banks of the river.

A small Croc hiding in the bushes.

From there we were driven straight to our accommodation in Cape Tribulation - so called because Captain Cook was having a bad time when his discovered this part of the Aussie coast! It was some of the nicest accommodation so far with clean four bed cabins in the rainforest. After dumping our bags and changing our clothes we headed for the nearest croc safe swimming spot and spent the afternoon frolicking in the water, taking, as usual, endless photographs.

The next morning we took a leisurely stroll to the golden sands of Cape Tribulation beach. The beach was beautiful and we spent some time relaxing in the sun before seeking out some shade. Sitting at a picnic table reading Kat pointed to the bushes that were rustling as a large Goanna (lizard) came running out of the forest scavenging for food at the picnic tables around us. We'd soon jumped onto the tables and were watching a large dinosaur like creature running around beneath us!! It was an amazing sight. The lizard was easily a meter long and not phased at all by the amount of people now clamouring to take its picture. Soon another larger Goanna appeared chased the first one away and preceded to take his place in the limelight.

Kat and Naomi keeping out the way of the Goanna.

Just before a scuffle!

Around lunch time we picked up and driven to the hostel where we were to spent our second night in the rainforest. The rooms here were more basic but we were much deeper in the rain forest. There was nothing nearby apart from some beaches which is where we spent the afternoon. Kat, Naomi and I lazed on a beach called Cow Bay whilst Emily, Katy and Jonny went swimming. They enjoyed themselves splashing about in the rough waves. A few days later I picked up a newspaper and read that and man had been bitten on the head by a crocodile whilst swimming in the exact same bay - luckily the guy survived, but his injuries looked pretty horrific - I'm very glad I didn't go in!

The following morning we did a canopy walk through the rain forest. I'd heard this was amazing but wasn't desperately enamoured. It would have been very good if I'd been interested in all the different trees and plants but just to wonder around it really wasn't that interesting - although we soon found some things to entertain ourselves with!!

Well it was raining in Australia!

Rescuing Emily from a Cassowary!

Emily - honest!

Afterwards we were picked up and began the drive back to Cairns. Along the way we stopped briefly in Port Douglas, a slightly upmarket resort town and at Mossman George - a beautiful spot for swimming had it not been raining.

We arrived back in Cairns in need of a rest before taking Jonny to the airport the next day and picking up our rental car and home for the next forty odd days!

After picking up our car we decided to begin our driving/camping adventure by heading back to the far North for a sport of site seeing and real Crocodile watching. We drove up to Port Douglas via Hartley's Crocodile Adventures. Here we saw a man hand feed a croc as it lunged out of the water after the chicken he was brandishing and went on a boat cruise round a croc infested lagoon watching them jump for chickens hanging over the side of the boat - anyone would think they were dogs!

A hungry Croc!

A position I wouldn't want to be in!

The following day Naomi, Emily and I spent the morning being educated about how the aboriginals lived off the forest during a two hour guided walk through the forest with an aboriginal guide. He showed us some amazing things including a nut that burned like a candle and a tree that produces sap that makes you itch, the aboriginals used to use this sap to coat their battle weapons.

A nut candle

Aboriginal weapons.

There were many other interesting things along the way but I really don't have time to write about them all now including being 'healed' by an aboriginal healer - it didn't work!!!!!!! But for now it's back to reality for me and hopefully I'll get to a computer again soon.

An update - what's that?

It seems that the world is conspiring against me ever getting this blog up to date!

I spent some time last week in Airlie beach with plenty of opportunity to get on the Internet but every time I logged on I couldn't get etribes to load. I have spent the last three days on Fraser Island where it's nigh on impossible to find a phone talk about Internet access and now I'm back in Hervey Bay and the only Internet access I can find is mega expensive.

I will get round to it soon. Just bare with me and sometime in the next week will be an update. In the mean time I'm going to enjoy my evening of turtle watching tonight - thats if they turn up!

For now goodbye. Update soon - promise!

Animals and Aboriginies

Onto Cairns. Finally the tropics, some sun without it being so humid you sweat when you walk out the door and some time to work on my non existent tan. Plus some really cool days out.

We arrived in Cairns last Monday morning, spent the afternoon chilling out and by evening had found a number of tours and trip and planned the next eight days!

On Tuesday Kat, Naomi and I went for a plane ride over the Great Barrier Reef. It was amazing. We took off and flew for about fifteen minutes over deep blue water until we reached the outer reef. Approaching the reef the water became shallower and greener and was dotted with bits of reef. Around the reef the sea was a myriad of different greens, blues, yellows, oranges, and browns it looked amazing. As the coral rose close to the surface the occasional wave broke sending white foam shooting across the surface until it melted away back into the deep blue ocean. Lager parts of the reef cast a massive line across the ocean looking as though I would imagine the edge of the earth to look shortly before you dropped off. The scene below me was so spectacular I cannot find the words to adequately describe it, so instead I'm going to leave the describing to some of my photographs, which also don't do it justice. The only way to really appreciate it is to see it for yourself.

In island in the middle of the reef.

Looking down on the reef.

The edge of the earth?

Some more photos can be found here. 

The following day was spent lazing beside the Cairns lagoon - or swimming pool - before going discovering some Aboriginal culture that evening. We went to a place called Tjapukal, which promised to give us an insight into aboriginal culture, it was a good evening with a fantastic spread off food but I don't feel as though I came away having learnt a lot.

The show began with us being shown into a room with aboriginal art on the walls and artifacts in glass cabinets. All had explanations but I didn't have chance to work my way around the room before the lights dimmed and the audience was introduced the Gadja and Quinkin both aboriginal spirits. They informed us that: "In the dreamtime, the time before the time the oldest man can remember, Rainforest people walked the land - Tjapukai land," and some other stuff which has since slipped my memory!

We were lead though this room outside and given a pair of sticks along the way. Rhythmically banging the sticks everyone formed a circle around four aboriginal guys on a raised platform. We were told to chant as the aboriginals rubbed sticks together making fire. Once this ceremony was over we were taken into the restaurant given an amazing buffet and watched some traditional aboriginal dancing. All very good but not very informative.

Making fire

Some Aboriginal dancing.

Us with the Aboriginies

The following day we were up early for a day at the Rainforest Habitat. This wildlife sanctuary recreated many habitats where native Australian animals, are found and allows you to get up close and personal with many of them. Our first stop of the day was the Koalas, Emily had been soooooooooooooooo excited about seeing them that as soon as she was able to get near one and stroke it her: "Eyes were watering!" It was pretty amazing being that close to an animal that, living in England, is only normally seen in cuddly toy form! Their fur was incredibly soft and there were surprisingly happy to sit on a branch and be touched.

Naomi and I with the Koala.

During the day we also managed to hand feed the Kangaroos, Wallaby's and some random looking birds. We accompanied one of the park rangers on a feeding tour of the wetlands habitat. Many of the birds were so tame he was able to coax them onto his finger allowing us some good pictures! We also had lunch with the Lorikeets, some very pretty parrot like birds who were well accustomed to sitting on shoulders and looking pretty. One of them came on the bird feeding tour with us spending the whole time perched on the shoulder of various different people!

Katy, Kat, Jonny and Emily with a small Croc.

Feeding a Kangeroo.

All in all and amazing day, more photos can be found here.

That was Cairns in a nutshell.

Once again I'm behind with blogging and trying to catch up as quickly as possible! We've moved all the way down to the Whitsunday coast and Airlie beach. Tomorrow I'm off to spend the night on a deserted island that's only allows four people on at any one time!!! I can't wait!!!

The sights of Sydney

Standing on the edge of one of the world's largest natural harbour's its structure dominates to skyline and compels you towards it to have a closer look. The massive white sales of Sydney Opera House rise into the air as boats leave the harbour passing the iconic building that has never been seen complete by it's architect.

On January 29 1957 Jorn Utzon was named as the winner in a competition to design a new concert hall and opera theatre for Sydney. Work began in 1959 despite the architects warning that the plans hadn't yet been finalised, then later that year the commission was changed and they had to provide four theatres not two! During the construction costs escalates and eventually Jorn Utzon resigned from the project, leaving Australia shortly afterwards and never returned to see his completed design.

For more information of Sydney Opera house see here and here.

Approaching this iconic structure, that is a must for anyone visiting Sydney it wasn't quite what I'd been expecting. The approach is a mass of brown concrete steps giving the area a 70s feel. The white 'sails' rising into the sky are more an off-white cream colour and look as though they could do with a lick of paint. Standing in front of the Opera House it wasn't quite the bright white structure I'd seen so many times in pictures, although I'm assured it looks much whiter when the sun shines on it.

Despite all this it was still well worth going to see. If only for the essential I've been to Sydney and had my picture taken in front of the opera house photograph.

Naomi and I in front of the opera House. Yes it was incredably windy.

The Opera House by night.

Look to the left of the Opera House and there stands the imposing ironwork of Sydney Harbour bridge. An undertaking of similar proportions to the Opera House the bridge is the highest steel arch bridge in the world with the top standing at 134 meters above ground level.

Naomi and I decided it would therefore be a good idea to climb to the top of that bridge for a look over Sydney and its famous harbour. Climbing up the bridge was one of the more scary things I've done of late. Walking along wooden planks and across seemingly unsteady metal floors - that you could see through - added to the fear factor. Luckily Naomi was much more scared that I was, I soon forgot my fear and was too busy laughing at her clenching her hand into a claw shape every time she got nervous and clinging onto the hand rails for dear life.

The tour was lead by a professional and we were attached to the bridge by a harness throughout. But walking over narrow walkways looking down on water or eight lanes of moving traffic and two train lines can be a bit unnerving for those not fond of heights. Despite the fear I really enjoyed the climb, the fear adding to the excitement - I think I may be becoming an adrenaline junkie. By the end of the climb I was deliberately looking down through the floor at the cars rushing beneath me just to get the adrenaline pumping!

Jonny, Me, Katy, Kat, Emily and Naomi in front of Sydney Harbour Bridge on a very windy day!

Naomi and I on the bridge during the climb.

Me on the bridge. This is a hideous photos but it amuses me!

Much of the rest of our time in Sydney was spent chilling out .... oh and watching England knock the Aussie's out of the Rugby world cup - celebrating loudly we weren't the most popular people in the pub that night.

Hopefully I'll get time to write some more soon. I've just got back from a few days in Cape Tribulation and still need to write about Cairns. You never know I may actually get this thing properly up to date soon. Nah that would make life too easy!

Three become six!

At last I have caught up... well given a brief summery of recent happenings. I am now in Australia and having the time of my life.

Onto the present day... almost!

Kat, Emily and I arrived in Australia absolutely exhausted early last Thursday morning after having driven through New Zealand for the majority of the night and only having grabbed a couple of hours sleep on the plane. Jonny (a mate from uni) waited two hours for our delayed plane to arrive in Sydney and greeted us at the airport.

Jonny has been in Australia for a while working on a farm and hooking up0 with mates he met whilst snowboarding in Canada,. It was good to catch up with him and find out about all the things he's been up to.

Luckily after a week of partying in Melbourne and an early plane back to Sydney Jonny was also knackered and together we headed back to our hostel to grab some much needed sleep.

By the time we'd got back, sorted ourselves out and crawled into bed it was almost two in the afternoon. I roused myself from my slumber around five, showered and headed to the airport to pick up our latest arrival - my sister Naomi.

I arrived just before she ambled through arrivals. I smiled as she approached but she looked right through me. She had almost walked past me when I said: "hi," "Oh, I didn't recognise you," came the response. I've only been away for a year. Is that really enough time for my own sister to forget what I look like?!

It's actually quite strange to see a family member after being away for so long. Naomi put me up to date on all the happenings in England including the news of my nan marring her bus driver in Gretna Green during her coach holiday to Scotland. My nan has assures me she's already divorced him!!! I get the impression the marriage wasn't real!

I took Naomi back to the hostel dumped her bags and after meeting the others briefly we grabbed some dinner before retiring to bed.

Early the next morning Emily roused herself and headed to the airport to meet her friend Katy. Around 10am they came into the room and woke us all introducing us to Katy and completing our temporary six person travelling posse.

Friday was a relaxed day. Emily and Katy being tired slept for most of the day whilst Kat, Naomi, Jonny and I made ourselves scarce heading into the centre of Sydney in search of Aussie sim cards to put us back in touch with each other and the rest of the world. It's very strange having a mobile again and extremely odd to think that for the first time in three months if we loose each other we are able to contact each other!

That evening we attempted a night out, but a combination of jet lag on the part of those travelling form the Northern hemisphere and a lack of sleep from those of us who'd been in the Southern hemisphere for a while meant we were home in bed by midnight! The next day our real Aussie adventure began.

More to come on that in another post.

Skip to the end

Well as you can see I'm now what is technically termed as mega behind on the blog. For that reason I have decided to give a summery of New Zealand in as few words as possible and bring myself right up to date.

I have mentioned New Zealand briefly enough to say that it was fantastic. So far my favourite country and apparently I haven't even seen the best bits. It was the first country I was actually sad to leave behind and the first I have seriously considered making my home one day. It is such a beautiful country with amazingly diverse landscapes and no shortage of things to do, see and marvel at.

Our stay in New Zealand began in Auckland where we spent a few days chilling out staying with some family who have recently moved there and live on a beautiful peninsular just outside of the city.

The view from Sharon and Peter's front room.

The beach five minutes rom peter and Sharons front door.

Shakespear Regional Park.

Our visits into Auckland itself were more adrenaline filled with me taking the plunge off the 193 meter Sky Jump at Auckland Sky Tower (pictures to follow) on our fist visit into the city. It was something of a snap decision as it meant I got free entry to the viewing deck of the Sky Tower - which was incidentally lower than the height of my jump!!! The jump was amazing, a completely exhilarating experience. there is something about being scared of heights and stood on an incredibly windy platform staring DOWN at the roves of skyscrapers to make you realise you're alive. Being absolutely petrified at the top I was surprised that as I was counted down from three I calmly, or was it blindly, stepped of the edge and began my 18 second decent to the floor landing gracefully on my feet. It was when I landed that the adrenaline really stared pumping, as I was released from the wires I was grinning inanely and shaking uncontrollably but ready to go back to the top and do it all over again!

One of the less exhilarating things we did in Auckland was the museum. It was badly laid out and much of the information wasn't very clear so I opted to snuggle on some cushions in the library area and fall asleep whilst the other two walked around.

From Auckland we moved on to the very interesting smelling Rotorua. Rotorua is surrounded by geothermal areas and the sulphur produced means the whole place smells constantly of bad eggs - lovely - but after a while you do get used to it.

Rotorua was possibly my favourite place in New Zealand - despite the smell. There was so much interesting stuff to see and do plus loads of adrenaline activities to be found.

During our stay we visited two of the geothermal areas both of which were amazing sights to behold. The first, Hells Gate, was interesting simply because of what it is. It's crazy to think the earth can be such a hostile place. All over the area boiling pools are dotted around some of them so acidic that if you fell in there would be no trace of you left. Yet beside them other pools are quite harmless and are safe to swim in.

Boling Mud.

Hells Gate.

The other geothermal area we visited was Wai-O-tapu, this place produces such a random mix of chemical is turns the water and earth a myriad of different colours. It was one of the most colourful natural phenomena I have ever seen. Well worth a visit just to marvel at the random yellow patches in the middle of a lake or the huge bright green lake that looks like it belongs to a nuclear disaster!

Some orange substance under the water.

A Green lake!

Another day was spent driving to and from the Waitomo glowworm caves. These spectacular carves are full of glowworms and a boat trip takes you into a cave system where you can stare at the wonder above you. Each worm gives out a small green light and sitting in the boat staring up it looks like you're staring at a city of interconnecting roads of green streetlight. Stare for too long and it becomes like one of those 3D pictures where you go cross eyed to see the image, only there isn't any clearly definable images that emerges just a mass of little lights playing tricks on your eyes as they morph in and out of different shapes. Sitting in the boat looking up no-one made a sound, all that could be heard was the gentle lapping of the water against the side of the boat as everyone took in the sights above them.

A less relaxing day in Rotorua was spent having a triple bypass - almost literally. Our day began with some fun on the swoop. A crazy swing type thing where you get strapped into sleeping bag harnesses and hoisted 94 meters into the air. Then one you of pulls a cord and you hurtle towards the ground before swinging back up the other side. Sooooo much fun. Emily and Kat were pretty scared and I have to say the thought of falling from the top was pretty scary but once we were off it was a lot of fun despite Emily screaming loudly into my ear the whole way through.

On the swoop.

On the swoop.

The second part of our triple bypass was the Agrojet. A high speed jet boat screaming around a small course full of tight corners. My idea of the perfect way to spend half an hour. Being three of us one had to go twice and I was extra happy to win the toss. I set off first with Kat who let out a piercing scram as we hurtled towards the end of the straight with the driver turning the wheel at the very last minute sending spray far into the distance. Three laps later Kat was still screaming and holding my had as hard as possible as I laughed loudly stamping my feet and loving every minute of it. And I still had three more laps to go with Emily, who screamed even louder and grabbed my hand even harder than Kat did!

We completed our bypass on the hydro Zorb. A Zorb is a big plastic ball that you get inside of and roll down a hill, the twist in ours was that the Zorb was full of water. I've always wanted to do this and it was a lots of fun although nothing like the adrenaline rush of the swoop or shear excitement of the Agrojet. You run along hamster like for about the first five meters than as soon as you hit the hill you fall and get chucked around inside the ball. It was impossible to stand up but I managed to find a sitting position where I could see down the hill - although I have to say I think being chucked around and sent crashing head over heals was the most fun!

From Rotorua we moved onto Taupo. There was a lot less to do here and having spent a fortune over the last few days we needed to sit back and chill out for a bit. We bumped into some guys in the hostel who we'd shared a taxi with to the airport in Vietnam - random I know - and our fist night we BBQ'd with them before heading into town for a few to many drinks. The second day was spent recovering before wondering down to some natural hot springs near our hostel and sitting in bath temperature water in the rain!! The river was nearby and you could swim from the hot spring about one meter out in the river where the water was icy cold. It was very good, so pretty and best of all free!

In the Taupo hot springs.

Our final stop heading South in New Zealand was Wellington. Here we stayed for eight days with Caroline, a girl we'd met in Korea, and had loads of fun getting pissed, driving around some of the beautiful countryside and discovering New Zealand's wine tasting regions. Unfortunately the weather was rubbish for much of the time we were there and we really did have most of our fun in bars. But Wellington is definitely somewhere I'd love to go back to - maybe in the height of summer though!

We travelled back to Auckland from Wellington, spent one night and hired a car to drive to the Bay of Islands and far north. We got up early and set off in the morning stopping off first for a Scarecrow festival at a placed called Warkworth. The festival was really good with some very random looking scarecrows my favourites were BO Peep and the Gruffalo.

Bo Peep.

The Gruffalo.

We continued driving to Whangarei where we stopped and stretched our legs walking around some waterfalls before heading to get some lunch. It proved harder than anticipated and after driving for a couple of hours along a windy road we eventually came to a small village with a bakery where we grabbed a sandwich and sat in the park eating it.

Whangarei waterfall.

From the we carried onto through picturesque countryside past beautiful bays and deep blue sea to the Bay of Islands and Paihia. We stayed here for the night before heading out early the next morning on a mission for the far North. We stopped first at the Kerikeri Mission house where the oldest stone and wooden buildings in New Zealand stand - although they were only built in the 1800s. It coast money to get in and didn't look desperately interesting so we had a look around the outside and took some picture before continuing on our journey.

Our next stop was the Ancient Kauri Kingdom where they make things out of 50,000 year old Kauri trees. The trees are huge. We attempted to find a Kauri forests earlier in the day but the road had became in passable and we'd had to give up. Inside the shop they had a tree that they'd made a spiral staircase inside - as I said huge!

Kat inside a Kuri tree.

We continued driving until we came to Te Paki and New Zealand's massive sand dunes. They didn't spread as far as the ones in Mui Ne (Vietnam) but were much taller. Kat elected to stay in the car as Emily and I walked up them in strong winds our legs being painfully whipped by grains of sand.

The sand dunes.

Our last stop of the day was the almost the most Northerly point in New Zealand, Cape Reinga. Apparently this is usually busy but we were there late in the day and there was no-one around. It was very pretty and incredibly peaceful, just what we needed to end our sight seeing around New Zealand.

Cape Reinga.

The lighthouse at Cape Reinga.

Cape Reinga.

From there we began the mammoth eight hour drive back to Auckland Airport to fly back to Australia early the next morning. Which is where I sit now writing this.

Hopefully later today or tomorrow I'll get chance to update all my travels in Sydney and Cairns.

Loads more photos of our travells around New Zealand can be foud here. This includes photos of our boat trip across lake Taupo to see some Maori rock art and the fantastic traditional Maori performace we watched in Rotorua.

Some catching up to do

Reading this blog you would be forgiven for thinking that I have recently left Vietnam, well you would be wrong! I have in fact spent the last three weeks in New Zealand and before that two weeks in Australia. I am however very far behind with the blog. I've been having far too much fun and not enough time to sit and write about the fun I've been having.

I do hope that one day I will get this up to date but for now please bare with me. Hopefully in the near future a few posts on New Zealand will appear - an amazing country by the way -and somewhere I would seriously consider living at some point in the future. New Zealand's landscape is incredibly diverse, all of it beautiful and apparently I haven't even see the best bits yet; plus the people are incredibly friendly and people seen to smile a lot despite the rain!

More coming soon - promise!