TravelStream™ news feed for member ditch on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/ditch en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 22 Feb 2009 04:09:26 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1230699600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1230699600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1230699600/tpod.html Sun, 22 Feb 2009 04:09:26 -0500 Marc on his second round the world tour - destination(s) unknown.

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Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

So what can one say.

We flew to Sydney on the 30th December 2008 to see in the year 2009...and during our 5 day excursion we saw everything.

I hate to say it but I really have not got the time nor inclination to tell you about our adventures in this great city as I feel my piccys will tell you more than my words ever would - plus you have no idea how long it has just taken to upload all of the pictures and videos for this entry.

Though in saying that here is a brief listing as to our sights and activities:

- I visited Hunter Valley and took in the infamous wineries located there
- Naomia and Gina visited the Blue Mountains
- We went to see Miss Saigon at the Sydney Opera House
- Day trips to Bondi and Coogee beach
- Took in all the sights and landmarks of the city
- Witnessed the incredible spectacle of the NYE fireworks
- Hooked up with long time friends
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1230310800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1230310800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1230310800/tpod.html Sun, 22 Feb 2009 03:41:58 -0500 Marc on his second round the world tour - destination(s) unknown.

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Waiheke Island, North Island, New Zealand

On boxing day we took Gina to Waiheke Island, which is a favourite excursion of Naomi and mine as it only takes 30 minutes on a ferry but feels like a million miles from Auckland.

We drove around the island and ended up at Mudbrick Vineyard...a great place to have a cheese platter, to take in the views and to sip a glass of wine.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1230390000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1230390000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1230390000/tpod.html Sat, 21 Feb 2009 22:57:44 -0500 Marc on his second round the world tour - destination(s) unknown.

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Paihia, North Island, New Zealand

So a couple of days after Chrimbo, Gina, Naomi and I set off to the Bay of Islands for a two day retreat.

Being one of the few places that I have not seen during my time in NZ I was very excited about all the fuss this region brings.

Seting off early we headed north in our hire car and within minutes we were stuck in an ungodly traffic jam. With NZ`s poor infrastructure and with the thousands of Kiwis and tourists getting away to the northern beaches we knew were in for a long journey. After many hours of bumper to bumper action we finally made it to our first stop....Brick Bay Sculpture Park (only 60 minutes from Auckland usually but today managing to take at least three hours).
The park is set within beautiful surroundings and has its own vineyard attached to it - which is a nice yet unusual twist. Having plenty of christmas leftovers (though no cold turkey I might add) we decided to picnic before entering the park and relax after being couped up in the car for the past few hours. After lunch it was time to stretch our legs and journey into the park.
The last time the three of us visited a sculpture park was a year previous just outside Leeds on a wet and blustery Saturay afternoon - wow, how things had changed. The park had some really great sculptures as well as the usual self indulgent arty shit complete with an artists explanation about what the piece is, and what it is trying to convey.

After leaving the park we headed further north until we finally made it to our destination; Haruru Falls Holiday Park. The park had great facilites and came complete with its own waterfall, lake and swimming pool, though unfortuantly we didnt manage to make use of the pool due to the lateness of our arrival.

Paihia is a great little seaside town that makes up one of many Bay of Island townships. Having seen the amount of cars on the road earlier in the day, I was very suprised as to how quiet the town actually was...but in fact it felt pretty restfull an relaxing. That evening we had a beautiful meal in a restaurant that sits over the shore of the beach and talked away the evening whilst being watched by a very sick in an aquarium next to us.

The next day we had a boat excursion planned to go and watch and swim with the dolphins - depending on whether the shoal contained children or not. Though the weather had been beautiful the day before it had changed suddenly and now it was windy and overcast. We headed out into the harbour and almost immediately we caught our first glimpse of wild dolphins. There were around 20-30 in the shoal and they swam at the bow of the boat for around 30 mintues before we left them alone and tried to find another shoal that contained only adults. Seeing a group this large was truly amazing but unfortuantly this was to be our only dolphin find and so the dolphin swim was out of the question, though in fairness Im not sure if any of us would have braved the weather as it got worse and worse as time went by.
Though the Bay of Islands are beautiful the boat excursion was slightly tinted by the weather, most of our viewings were done from within side the boat rather than outside and a slight bit of sea sickness dampened some of our spirits - no names mentioned.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1230181200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1230181200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1230181200/tpod.html Mon, 16 Feb 2009 01:32:52 -0500 Marc on his second round the world tour - destination(s) unknown.

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Auckland, North Island, New Zealand

After two weeks travelling New Zealand, it was great to see Naomi and her mum Gina after returning home from work on Christmas Eve. The house was a hive of activity, mulled wine, christmas songs, manic wrapping and obviously Christmas would not be Christmas without a session of airbed inflating.

Like excited children we woke early Christmas morning, cracked open the champagne for breakfast and got stuck into the first round of present unwrapping. I think there were three rounds in total that eventually finished around 1pm, just before Naomi's friend Clair from work popped in to join us for a BBQ lunch.

In the afternoon we were invited to another of our friends houses for a true NZ dinner. Our hosts were very welcoming, the food fantastic and the wine flowed freely.

To sum up our first NZ Christmas....sweet as bro!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1226303700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1226303700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1226303700/tpod.html Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:57:37 -0500 Marc on his second round the world tour - destination(s) unknown.

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Viti Levu, Fiji

So after a few months travelling we decided that we needed a holiday, especially since Naomi hadn't taken any annual leave for near on 12 months. With her friend Sarah due to fly to Fiji with her boyfriend in November, we decided it would be a perfect opportunity to get away from it all and visit paradise. Though I had already visited Fiji many years prior to this holiday, my past experience of the country was not great...well that is unless you like having people drop down dead in front of you after they had just poured you a morning orange juice, having food poisoning or finding a cockroach in your plane meal on leaving the country. It surely had to be better this time around - and indeed it was.

The first few days were spent on the main island of Vitu Levu acclimitising, before we hired a car and headed along the south coast to Beqa Lagoon to shark dive- thats right....you heard me correctly SHARK DIVE. That is diving with sharks - you know...the ones that kill people quite frequently off the coast of Australia and sometimes make an appearance in the film Jaws - which most likely can be found in your local Blockbusters under the`horror' section. Did I also mention the fact that we did not have a protection of a cage!

Like many of our car rental journeys to date, this one obvioulsy had its fair share of problems. The main one being that we cracked the windshield within moments of hiring the vehicle...oops - what have I done to this country to deserve this! Luckily when we returned the car Naomi managed to argue our way out of paying for the damage. As the car was not meant to be driven on unsealed roads, and they had dropped the car off on the shoreline on the beach next to our hotel, thats right the beach...not a road, they let us off on a minor technically...phew.

So anyway back to the shark diving. On the morning of the dive, I must admit breakfast was quite a quiet afare between Naomi and I. There were five tourists (including us) that would dive that day plus the nutters, sorry I meant to say experienced guides that would join us on the boat. Though both Naomi and I are qualified divers, neither of us had dived for many years a much needed refresher course in the hotel swimming pool was necessary. Hoping this familarisation and safety breifing would last a couple of hours ..ten minutes later we were stepping on to the boat ready to embark on the 30metres descent to the bottom of the ocean - great.
We carried out two 30minute dives and saw a whole variety of sharks and other massive fish. The visual display was truely amazing and though it was indeed a mass frenzy it did feel safe and controlled - well as safe as it could possibly be. I did have a shark hit me with its tail at one point which was a bit unnerving.
We saw about 6 different varieties of shark, with the biggest measuring as long as six metres.

The following web address will give you an idea as to the size of these animals:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8myV-3R8sc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mY5XtoKRD8&feature=related

After leaving Beqa Lagoon with all limbs intact we headed further along the coast and met up with Naomi`s friend Sarah and her Fijian boyfriend also called Mark. We were invited to Marks brothers home in a remote village somewhere where we were luckily enough to experience a traditonal Fijian meal which is cooked in the ground. It was truely great night with great company.

It was always our plan to spend the majority of the holiday resting and relaxing, so whst better place than the Yasawa`s - a group of islands off the coast of Nadi. Hopping on a ferry we were whisked away to a couple of islands. Out of the couple of islands that we visited we were very much taken with Manta Ray island - so called becuase of the manta rays that can be found off the beach. The island was everything that we had hoped. It was very basic but had enough luxurys not too feel fake and against everything you expect from a desert island. The people were very friendly both staff and tourist crowd, the food was great, the beach was beautiful, the weather was incredible and the snorkelling was out of this world. More varieties than I had ever seen whilst snorkelling - even scuba diving for that matter. I even got to see a Manta Ray even though it was out of season for them - but it did involve me snokelling for near on 7 hours.

Over all.....the best holiday ever!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1224424800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1224424800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1224424800/tpod.html Tue, 10 Feb 2009 02:53:35 -0500 Marc on his second round the world tour - destination(s) unknown.

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Auckland, North Island, New Zealand

We awoke one Sunday morning not knowing what to do with our morning.....well that was until we looked out of our lounge window and remembered the Yacht racing that would could partake in.

The yachts were the actual racing vessels used in the Americas Cup.

Not really much more to say about our day as I think the pictures and videos speak for themselves.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1223049600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1223049600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1223049600/tpod.html Tue, 10 Feb 2009 01:45:44 -0500 Marc on his second round the world tour - destination(s) unknown.

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Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand

After a few weeks holed up in Auckland city centre we decided to hire a car for the weekend and head south to Rotorua - a town situated about 150 miles south of Auckland.

Though Rotorua is quite small in population it always manages to feel busy with people. The reason for this is popularity with tourists and its geographic location on the North Island - probably the most interesting town that is centrally located between Wellington (NZ's capital) and Auckland.

It has also claimed notoriety amongst mainly people due to it being one of the most thermally active areas in the world. Engulfed in a think stench of rotten eggs due to the continuous outpour of sulphuric acid it does not deter the curious tourist. With a myriad of bubbling mud pools and sulphuric multi coloured lakes it truly is an amazing place and hence my delight in being able to show Naomi.

We arrived in a very wet and windy Rotorua just after midday. After dropping our bags off at our lodging and booking a couple of activities for the forthcoming day we headed back out into the wilds, destination the 'Agrodome'.

The Agrodome is a slightly surreal activity centre situated next to a working farmyard, where you can indulge in a whole manner of feats designed to induce an unexpected bowel movement. The two activities that we decided to indulge upon were Swooping and Zorbing - two words I don't think Samuel Johnson could have dreamt up when writing his illustrious 'Dictionary'. Now rather have me describe both of the aforementioned feats, which would be far too laborious and time consuming, I have added the following links (copy and paste into the toolbar), which I believe are far more illustrative. I would have included our photos and videos if only we had some to upload; unfortunately having to partake in both activities does stop you from being the photographer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbl1keLZ2Eg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLFXUm97zt0


Later on in the afternoon we rode a cable car up one of the mountain ranges that overlook Lake Rotorua and jumped on board a couple of luges and raced down the man made course which is cut into the side of the rock. Naomi being highly competitive in all that she does obviously beat me to the bottom both times, however I should add at this point, that I was the one taking the photos.

In the evening we booked a cultural Maori experience at the local Mitai village, where we ate traditional hungi food (food that is baked under the ground) and watched a cultural performance.
It is customary in Maori tribe tradition (like many tribal villages the world over) to make a peace offering to the chief before being granted access to the village. As such we had to nominate a person from our group who would play the part of this chief. Usually in these situations the crowd goes quiet in fear of being picked, however this time a man looking incredibly like Jimmy Tarbuck stuck his hand up. As you will see from our videos the resemblance is quite uncanny - yet this Liverpudlian did get stage fright a couple of times and didn't work the audience too well.
Though I had attended the same performance some years prior, the performance had changed and the food was far more enjoyable.

On our final day in Rotorua the rain continued to pour, so we decided that rafting would be the best activity. The next two hours was spent hurtling down some grade 4-5 rapids with the highlight being taking on the biggest commercial waterfall in the southern hemisphere. Out of the two rafts that tackled this monster, it was our raft that managed not to lose any members.
The link below gives you an idea as to its size.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx2WhJRDzYk&feature=related
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1221494400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1221494400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1221494400/tpod.html Sat, 25 Oct 2008 02:33:22 -0400 Marc on his second round the world tour - destination(s) unknown.

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Auckland, North Island, New Zealand

These are some snapshots/vids of our apartment and some of the sights that can be found from our balcony.

You will note from a couple of our pics that we get the occassional cruise liner popping in to Auckland Harbour to say hello. Well if you copy and paste the below web address into your toolbar above you will find two seperate videos that show a very special visitor due to make an appearance and berth next to our house in Feb 09 - cannot wait:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d9IMeGA7bs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dfuqaXT08w&feature=related
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1221408000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1221408000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1221408000/tpod.html Wed, 15 Oct 2008 02:05:30 -0400 Marc on his second round the world tour - destination(s) unknown.

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Auckland, North Island, New Zealand

A 10 minute ferry ride from Auckland city centre takes you to Devonport, a quiet leafy seaside suburb peppered with art galleries and coffee shops.

We decided to make the trip one Sunday afternoon after reading about a short scenic walk in our guide book. As we had nothing else better to do that day we thought we would shake the cobwebs from our joints and have a look.

It was here that we scaled the immense heights of Mt. Victoria (sense the sarcasm) and took in the amazing 360degree views of Auckland, Auckland harbour, the Gulf Islands and also the Pacific. As you can see from the video and the pics it is no wonder why this place was used as a lookout point during the second world war.

Though the book stated that the walk would only take around an hour to complete and that it would be impossible to get lost due to its short circular route - we somehow managed to get lost and take near on two hours to complete.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1220803200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1220803200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ditch/1/1220803200/tpod.html Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:34:04 -0400 Marc on his second round the world tour - destination(s) unknown.

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Auckland, North Island, New Zealand

Our first week in New Zealand was spent in a pretty gnarly budget hotel just off Queen Street, the main street in Auckland and the heart of the shopping district.

This was our base for about 10 days while we found somewhere to live, for Naomi to organise her fast approaching work placement, opening bank accounts, to orientate ourselves and generally just to start getting ourselves into the mind set of residing here on a permanent basis - well 6-8 months anyway.

As I sit here now, writing this entry on the 15th October it is diffcult to know quite what happened during our first month in Auckland. Unlike being on holiday and the itinerary is quite action packed, when you set up camp somewhere you suddenly slow down. You begin to start living a relatively normal life except the odd sightseeing excursion at the weekend.

Our first weekend away and respite from the city was a day trip to one of the Gulf Islands. Waiheke Island is a 35 minute ferry journey from Auckland Harbour and is a getaway retreat for Aucklanders at the weekend.

Waiheke Island is a picturesque blend of farmland, forest, beaches, vineyards and olive groves that is around 25km in length and holds about 8,000 permanent residents. On departing the ferry we either had the option of hiring a car or bycycle and as Naomi was feeling somewhat energetic we opted for the latter. After taking in the local township and visiting a couple of small galeries we then headed to one of the many wineries on the island.

Mudbrick winery is a beautifully located winery/restaurant situated on a hill overlooking one of Waiheke's bays and the Auckland skyline in the background. There we tried a couple of wine tasting menu's before heading into the restaurant to share a cheeseboard and to enjoy one of winery's favoured Sav Blancs.

Though the day was very enjoyable, it was somewhat spoilt by the non stop wind that continued to make life particulary difficult for us on many of the hard inclines. After a few hours of this torture we both decided that enough was enough and headed back to the ferry launch.

Since writing this post, we have since returned to Waiheke (and in fact Mudbrick) but as we departed the ferry terminal and took the taxi, let me assure you that no love was lost as the bike hire company disappeared in the rear view mirror.
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