So much for New Year Resolutions!
So what are the two David's doing? Surely they can't be working all the time.
COME ON BOYS - ADD SOME BLOGS
South Island Shinanigans
Well considering I dont think this blog will even post as the previous 2 haven't decided to I'm going to keep it short and sweet I went on a cruise around milford sound which is a pretty amazing looking National park in the south west of NZ it was a ful day tour, was scenic all the way and for some reason made me feel really hungry which pissed me off because for some reason the tour company singled me out of 42 other passengers (even though I was the 4th person to book) and decided that I wasn't getting a free sandwich because I was the last person to of been booked onto the tour by the travel agents???? how is that fair? in the end someone else took pitty on me and gave me their own baguette :)
I've now been to Dunedin where I went to the Cadburys chocolate factory and scored heaps of free choc. met up with friends from Melbourne and watched another movie.
Then I went to Lake Tekapo which is a really nice place and for some reason I cant remember the water is incredibly blue, I didn't get drunk here which was a shame because everyone else did and I still managed to forget my milk and 3lt of wine the next day :(
Christchurch again, I've come full circle! Huge party on Saturday at some friends house Just 1 week of snowboarding left on the south Island which I'm currently 3 days though and I'm awesome at it. Its only my 9th day in total that I've been snowboarding but I'm getting really good at jumps and I even managed (by accident) a front flip off of one of the jumps on to my head and straight back on the board at top speed I'm sure that must be how the pro's learnt.
By the way mum I do have insurance that is covering winter sports for this week and if I do end up breaking my neck or getting into a comma I'd like to be put down (like a sick dog) cheers!
Danny B
The grass is greener
10th June - I left Chch with a deep sence of dread for things to come in the rest of my life. I'm not settling down just now I cant live in a house I need the busy active lifestyle of a backpacker living in a hostel where something is always happening. Anyway I set off north to Kaikora my first Magic bus was at 8am and it was bloody freezing I could seee my breath when I woke, it was oft colder inside the 105 year old house that I was staying in. Kaikora is a sleepy little town about 2 hours north of Chch my first day was pretty quite I went for a nice strole by the seaside and took part in a pub quiz with 3 danes on my team (we didn't even nearly win). The next day I stayed in Kaikoura again and did a big long walk, the flowing green hills kind of reminded me of the viking way walks I'd do as a child in Waddington except in waddington there isn't a stunning coastline on one side and bloody great snow capped mountians on the other. I also did another pub quiz with a team of English people this quiz seemed to of been writen by and for Mensa members and we wern't looking to good till the sports, starwas and suprisingly science rounds came up. We lost by one point and we wern't happy because one of the questions had the wrong answer and they wouldn't give us the point. But I did win something for having the best chat up line "Lets play soldier, I'll lie down and you can blow the hell out of me" I won a 2 for 1 fishing trip but as I was leaving the next day I just donated it to the hostel.
12th June - North to Picton where we droped off a couple of people who were catching trhe ferry to the North Island. We then continued to Nelson, we arrived at about 6pm so I got some shopping done (pair of good walking boots for less than 10 quid) and watched some Telly till it was bed time. The next day I went to the nearby National park called Abel Tazman which was not at all inspireing and a bit of a let down to be honest we got a boat to the north side with the crazy dutchman and then walked back to the start it was another bloody long walk and I was pretty knackerd by the end of it. This was the first night I drank in NZ and I ended up getting pretty smashed. I won a small pool comp we set up between about 6 of us even though I couldn't see most of the balls at some points I mannaged to play better than I've ever done before.
14th June - Travelling with a hangover is not fun! We moved on from Nelson further south to Greymouth which is a really small coal minning town I did a tour of the bewery and set out to a local bar for local people dressed in my England shirt hoping to upset some Kiwis, unfortunetlly the all blacks kicked our arse and I looked like a fool.
15th June - Today! woke up with a bit of a hangover again we drove further south to the only area where it is leagle to eat possum so I bought a possum pie, then I went to a small gold minning town and did some gold panning, I mannaged to find an extrmley small amount of gold in the river but I did get the extra bonus of finding a bit of jade aswell. Now I'm at Franz Josef and I've just done a quad bike adventure which was really cool, it were dead fun and beautiful, we rode accross rivers, marshland, mud, rocky roads and Rainforest and you could see fox glacier at points. Over and Out Danny B
- Posted by d1d2d3_pj on 15/06/2008.
- 2 comments
2 down 2 to go
We'll I've finally buggerd of out of Australia to a land much smaller, a land much colder, a land with much more annoying female accents and most importantly a land where I get an extra 1000 dollars because their currency isn't quite as strong :) Upon my arrival to NZ I was not greeted by banners and ticker-tape and celebration as I was promised, I was instead greeted by no reception on my phone and an empty arrivals lounge which is where I made my bed for the night. At 9am when I decided it was warm enough to get a bus into town I started my journey to see what all the fuss is about this country. After one day I cant see anything too great about Christchurch (Chch). In one day on my own with a 16kg pack on I'd done just about everything there is to be done, I got a tour on the tram, went to the Art Gallery, Museum, Botanical Gardens, rode the Gondola up a nearby hill, saw the cathedral (church) and went for a swim at the local baths. This was just what I did to pass my day till my lift finally arrived approximately 20 hours late. When I did finally meet up with my local friends (I was already pissed off with the accent) they asked me what I'd been up to, were astonished that I'd done so much, didn't think there was anything else to do in Chch and they told me some facts about certain landmarks (which I corrected because I'd already heard) on the way home.Don't think I'll be staying too long on Chch. Bring on Queenstown that’s where I'll have my fun and hopefully get a job for a few monthsDanny B
I've Been Everywhere Man.
Well at long last I've been to every state in Australia (besides Canberra). A couple of weeks ago Woode, Jennifer, Katherine and I decided that the Coffee palace and Melbourne were getting a bit boring ant that it was time for a quick escape to a wee bit of sun and the red centre. We set off on some day about 2 weeks ago in our hired car which was a bit of a squeeze to be sure, at least when I went to pick it up I went to late which upgraded us to 5 door rather than 3 door but also downgraded us to Automatic rather than manual. Anywho we set of to Geelong with Woode taking the wheel (because I by all rights was probably still drunk), around abouts Geelong we stopped for a quick breather for breakfast (the girls needed to go shopping). Then I got my hands on the wheel and was driving (legally) for the first time in nearly 2 years. The Great Ocean Road was our destination. this time round it was a pretty dull session with everyone sleeping most of the time and we'd all seen most of this coast line before. The only really memorable part was when I nearly crashed because some silly bugger before me decided to stop on a corner because there was a bloody koala in the road Never Break For Animals its stupid wasn't everyone told that? We stopped for pizza after it got dark then Woode took the control of the vehicle again and we were on our way to Mt Gambia, Once we arrived we found to our astonishment that is was another small village and all the hostels and cheap motels/hotels were shut so we decided to continue our drive until either we find a nice spot to stay for the night or fall asleep in the car and crash and die. Un/fortunately depending on wether or not you like us we did stop for a snooze of about 5 hours then went to Adelaide. Adelaide is boring don’t go there! The next day we woke up for our tour to the outback.Outback: Our first tour was not all that exiting the drive was long and boring the highlight was def Cobber Peddy the village underground where a few of the tour members got steaming drunk, played silly games, watched the FA cup final and got a lift with about 15 people on the back of a Ute. Actually the highlight may of been the dog fence (a wire fence put up to stop dingoes going south and eating all the sheep... fascinating!)The next 3 days were so much fun besides the fact that I lost my voice. From Alice Spring we visited Kings Canyon, The Olgas and Uluru. Lots of fun, love to tell you about it but I'm getting bored and hungry I'll just state some of the Highlights, Jennifer got too drunk and didn't notice the sun setting at Uluru, I wasn't aloud to climb Uluru because it was too windy, I was really fat and smelly after 3 days without a shower, Our team won the competition held between our tour group although I got nearly every point, riddles are stupid, bus bowling is fun, I didn't sleep for 3 days, almost died of asthma and I decided to prove that shoes are not required for any of the walks.Danny B If you want anymore just ask I may or may not find time for it some other time
Walking with Dinosaurs
So it's been a short while since I wrote anything (NY Resolutions are hard to keep!!). But right now that changes. As some of you may know a Mrs J Robinson flew out to Melbourne on the 15th of March to see her two boys (and Daughter-in-law to be). My plan was to show her some sights, spend a little time with her and then make her write too you all about it, but she didn't! So now a month and a bit bit later i'm going to try remember all that went on.
She arrived late Saturday evening and decided to stay up with me on reception for a large portion of the night - unfortunately that meant she slept til 6pm the next day and completly missed the 2008 Melbourne GP!! The first couple of days in the country and the weather was 39+ degrees so I took her on a few trips around the city and St Kilda - where she moaned about the heat. The rest of her stay the weather dropped dramtically to the low 20's and she complained it was cold (cold enough for a duvet at night even tho it was warmer than the temperature at its hottest point at home)
After a week of hanging with my friends and reading her book she left Melbourne for Adelaide to meet with P-J and Kathryn. From there they drove the Great Ocean Road back to Melbourne - unfortunately I wasn't present and haven't a clue what went on so someone else can fill that in! They returned to Melbourne with a couple of nights left before we all deprted for NZ. On one of these nights we went to Dracula's - a Cabaret Club in Melbourne. expecting a big Pirate/Vampire show while we ate we were plesently suprised to see a small stage production that had some highly random performances - most of which produced a chuckle at the very least.
We left Melbourne on the 27th of March and headed to Hasting in New Zealand to spend some "quality" ;-p time with the Wainwright. Which i'll hopefully find time to write about tomorrow
David
Goodbye Tassie!
A very short trip over here just to say that I've been to every state in Australia, thats all I wanted and I'm glad to say is all I needed. It was an enjoyable short trip and I did something every day BUt after just 5 days I've run out of things to do. Mum and Dad would love it here I guess because there's heaps of nature and history stuffs to do butI can only be impressed by that for a short lenght of time. So now time has come for me to leave the state of Pies as I'd like to refer to it as every village no matter how small has at least 2 bakerys and we stoped at one everyday for lunch. one of the villages had only 2 small streets but still found space for 4 pie shops!
So now I guess I'll make a short refference to what I've done In Hobart for the last 3 days on the first day I had no tours booked and had to wait till 2pm to check into the hostel, I'd heard good things about the local saturday markets so I got myself down to the docklands and checked out the scene. It was a bit like the Cristmas markets in Lincoln except about 5% of the size and I was there in the day time, I had to be subjected to something which really shouldn't exist anymore whilst I lined up for the ATM. If you cant move with the times you should at least try to remember that you've moved to the other side of the world... Why oh why are there Morris Dancers here? After looking around the market I decided that there was one bargain that was too good to ignore and I needed some new socks anyway. Besides that I went home empty handed.
On my second day in Hobart I went on another tour this time of mount Wellington and then into the forests nearby where I saw the worlds largest flowering tree wich was bloody massive it took me about a min to walk around it. even though there were no steep parts of the trecks today I was knackerd, I went out for a couple of drinks, and for once a going out for a couple of drinks was just that... A couple of drinks, After I'd had 2 drinks I knew that it was probably best to get home and have an early night. So I went to bed at 9pm instead of staying up to watch the football.
Third day in Hobart and for some reason my tour today was going pretty close to Launceston which is where I had the first half of my tassie experiance now why oh why couldn't I of done the tour from there? It'd of saved me about 2 hours in journey time today. I was still blody tired on the bus ride there and was in a good mood for doing some exercise to wake my body and brain up. So I took a quick walk to a veiwing spot of wineglass bay which is quite a nice view but not as good as I thought it could of been if I climbed right to the top of the mountian, which is a fairly dangerous treck with no paths, slippery surfaces and lots of areas where you could fall to your death, you really shouldn't do this on your own or when it rains. It was pretty overcast and I'd of put it at about a 50-50 chance of raining and of course I was the only one doing it. I dont think I've ever done as much exercise as I did this day I managed to do 8.5 hours of walks/climbs in less than 4 hours. I saw some pretty good sights and I feel bloody good for doing it.
Back to melbourne in a couple of hours not long till I can get travelling again. I think I have the bug.
Danny B
How Does This Thing Work Again? part 2
April 3rd: Ok I willfully made the choice not to celebrate or acknolage my birthday in 2008 as this year has so far not been too much fun and was doomed to be a crap year from the very first day when I got a chest infection which actually kept me in bed through most of January. Proving just how sick I was I only drank 2 times between the 1st January and the 10th March, so for my birthday this year I made the effort of not only leaving the City or just the State where I've had a poor and sickly 3 months but also the Mainland that I've called home for the past 18 months. Making this decision lifted my mood in a way that I could not of foreseen I'm only travelling for a short holiday of 5 nights in Tazmania but it reminds me that I'm still easily capable of travelling at the drop of a hat. The 3rd of April this year wasn't the best I've had but by no means the worst of my life. To start the day I went shopping for some warm weather clothing as I realised I don't own anything warmer than a pair of jeans and t-shirts. After arriving at the airport I was surprised to learn that my flight was bording and I couldn't get on, which was slightly annoying and cost me 100 dollars to get a replacement flight which was taking off only 5 hours after my original flight. But it was subsequently delayed for a further hour and then for 15 mins after arival because there was a medical emergency. When I picked up my bag (last one on the truck under everyone elses) I went to find transport of course the last shuttle bus costing 12 dollars had left with the first 20 people to colect their bags so I was left with the Taxi costing a mere 40 dollars which I was fortunate enough to share with a local going in the same direction. Upon arrival at my hostel I was greeted by... Nobody as the reception was closed this was less of a problem as I first feared because I was left with a nice introductary letter and my room key. Then I watched Hot Fuzz and went to bed.
April 4th: Far too warm considering I've just bought all these new warm clothes. I got up early to get some groceries I had no chance of getting the night before. In my half sleep I managed to not pick up milk for my over priced cereal but instead got full fat pouring cream which I didn't realise untill pouring over 3 portions of cornflakes, oh well no breakie for me today worse things have happened on days that I've gone mountian climbing. At 8am my tour bus picked me and two others up and we were on our merry way to a 3 and a half hour hike to cradle mountian which has absolutly stunning views I'm sure, but for us it was just a 3 hour walk to see the inside of a cloud. But in all fairness it was a lot of fun, I had a snowball fight with a girl from Hong Kong who'd never seen snow before (I won) And on the way back down we saw a couple of wambats and made snowmen (snow midgets). When the hike was over we all had hot chocolate and tryed to dry our socks and shoes by the fire. All I accomplished was to melt my trainers (slightly) and burn my socks (completly). The day ended with a chickhen parma, 6 pack of beer and a screening of 300 which is a 'bloody' good movie I'd not previously seen.
How Does This Thing Work Again?
First of all I know it's been a bloody long time since I've done anything becides being sick and and working. Ok maybe I should of actually said one or two things about workconsidering Woode only does one blog a year weather or not he's done anything. The recent work has been a good experiance and as you all know we're stars of the new Steven Spielberg production curently being filmed near to Melbourne, When we started we were treated to 4-5 days of work each week with each day being about 17 hours long which is fan-bloody-tastic for us poor backpackers. Our work consisted mostly of getting blown up by mortar explosions and sleeping obscenly long periods of time in the hot Melbourne sun. Unfortunetly photographs are completly baned and will result in us getting the sack rather quickly.
Anyway the reason why I've all of a sudden decided to blog is because I've had to buy 3 hours of internet time instead of just being able to go on for 5 mins whenever I feel like it. But also because I've actually done something. On the second of April I had a costume fitting at workand was told that there would not be any work for the next week so I decided to go on holiday... from my holiday and actually use the free trips I won in January. So as soon as I got home I booked my flights and set of on new adventures on my own to Tazmania. Oh and I forgot it was my birthday the next day but it doesn't matter needed to escape Melbourne for a while. My fingers are cramping from all this typing so I'm going to have a rest. drink some water and I'll prob be right back to complete the blogging action.
One Week, One Month - who's counting??
WOW a month goes by quite fast when you work everyday. Lets hope the rest of life doesn't go this way!! Well as i've been working so much i haven't really got out and about too much.
I have been to the ACMI this week tho with a load of guys from the hostel - Australian Centre of Moving Images isn't really a backpacker spot unless of course thay have an exhibition where we play videogames from the days of pong to the latest in the gaming world. It was nice to play Sonic again on a SEGA Megadrive!
The Australian Grand Prix is on this weekend, but as i went last year i'm going to give it a miss at $100 a ticket, even tho KISS are playing. Instead i'm taking mum (who arrives saturday night) to a friends apartment building and we'll have a bbq and watch the race from the rooftop :oD
Only other real thing of note is i've started seeing a girl from the hostel - early days so far so we'll see what happens (at least she gets to meet the parent(s) quite early on, unlike Kathryn who's running away to Uluhru with P-J 12 Hours before mum arrives in Melbourne!!)
Should be some interesting things happening over the next few weeks so i'll try to stay awake enough to type - and i'll ask the others whether they'd like to tell some tales from the Movie set but i wouldn't get your hopes up!
David
p.s. Dad try not to let Sue get a gambling problem and blow all my inheritence :oD have a good time in Las vegas
