TravelStream™ news feed for member nikkiviper on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/nikkiviper en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 16 Oct 2008 05:47:07 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1224097200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1224097200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1224097200/tpod.html Thu, 16 Oct 2008 05:47:07 -0400 Around the World 2007/08 - The Continued Intrepid Adventures of Nic

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Greystones, County Wicklow, Ireland

well well. can you believe i finally made it? and that its been almost a year since i left? well its true.

and so - 14 countries, 28 flights, 2 dive courses, 67 dives, 2 overlands, 1 nicked ipod, 1 broken mp3 player, 2 bouts of delhi-belly, 4 hospital visits, 1 taj sighting, 1 orissan survival, several tins of cheese, 1 wedding, 1 songkran and too many kilometres to calculate later my circum-navigation of the world is complete.

thanks to so many people....
* to mum, dad & the family for supporting me all the way through
* to steve & adam for transporting me safely around india & for hanging out with me in nepal!
* to pia, stormi, kasia, victoria, nikki & marcella for being super-good roomies along the way
* to sarah in watercolours and fabrece in dive'n'relax for introducing me to the incredible world of diving
* to andy, bex and esp ehsan for transporting me safely through pakistan (and ehsan especial thanks for letting me drive your jeep on the KKH!)
* to mike for accommpanying us safely around china & organising breakfrast (though i still think your thoughts on some things are outrageous!!)
* to paul, paula & brian, shane, stormi & cora for putting me up in your respective houses/apts - it made such a difference - never underestimate the joy of a washing machine and a telly.
* to all the gang in kathmandu (my favourite place probly - its a question alot of people ask me) - everyone in sam's (deepak, kumar, verena, nabaraj), ram from RBC thanks for everything, my lovely safety guy raju in arcadia, shomika my incredible yoga teacher & all the guys in the parcel shipping place in arcadia who must hate my guts by now!!
* to absolutely everyone ive met along the way - ive made some really really good mates and i hope we all keep in touch - (rich, kirsty, ben, till, pia, stormi, victoria, maureen, jerri, miss annie, shomika, alison, joe, diving steve, fionn & yvonne, kasia, richie, jasbir, sharon, mitch, mary, jen, nikki, marcella, jeanette, bowie, everyone in tovutovu, marianne, everyone in all the places ive dived......ive not left anyone out on purpose and im sure theres someone but its not intentional).

but especially to everyone who read my blog and sent me texts and emails and messages throughout the year - it made the world of difference to know people were thinking of me at home.

and so as i struggle to settle back into life stationary in one place and tackle the nightmare of unpacking the gazillion boxes in my attic, ill leave you all to get back to your lives. im afraid you'll have to find something else to do now while you drink your tea at your desk (!) and im just glad i was able to share all my experiences with you. kim gave me a great quote in san francisco that i thought would be a good way to sign off. its from a dude called warren miller and he said "If you don't do it this year, you'll be one year older when you do" which i think is a good way of approaching taking some exciting risks in life like i just did.

until my next intrepid adventure
namaste
nic x

Breathe, breathe in the air
Dont be afraid to care
Leave but dont leave me
Look around and chose your own ground
For long you live and high you fly
And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1223334000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1223334000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1223334000/tpod.html Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:46:45 -0400 Around the World 2007/08 - The Continued Intrepid Adventures of Nic

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New York City, New York, United States

who would have thought it. here i am in an interweb cafe just off times square on my last night in NYC, my last night of my trip and tomorrow im coming home. i honestly honestly couldnt tell you where the time has gone and its still just really a dream thinking of driving down the M50 or being back home.

new york with stormi was a BLAST and special thanks to her for taking on a lodger the final days before she moved out of the city back to the west coast. i know it cantve been easy so that was awesome. it was so great to meet her and reminisce about the good times in india and nepal. we went to a brilliant show in the spieglworld tent called absinthe which was kind of like rocky horry picture show meets moulin rouge. incredible acrobats and trapeze people and burlesque transvestites in inflatable bubbles and beautiful singing and it really was just fab and such a great thing to have gone to see in the City. we had drinks in the very posh tribeca hotel and spotted people having affairs. we supped frozen margueritas streetside and dined on some of the finest fajitas ive ever eaten. we drank too much wine in the pub around the corner from stormi's but she saved the day (and our stomachs) with pizza at 1.30am and i also experienced the biggest hangover i think since i left india (no surprise there then!!!). it was just so much fun hanging out and such a lovely start to my last week.

then there was my birthday which was infact the morning after the night before with all the wine!!! i nursed a hangover as stormi serenaded me with brithday greetings and we watched a candle cake for an hour that failed to yield the Treasures - urg!!!! birthday dinner was some of the finest italian its been my pleasure to eat and was categorically worth the 30 minute wait. i do not remember the name of the restaurant (stormi please feel free to post) and we had good chats and it was just a lovely chilled evening. i also want to just say a huge thanks to everyone who sent me messages on facebook (that was SOOO nice to wake up to) as well as all the emails and texts. its been strange having both christmas AND my birthday away from home so its just nice to know people are still thinking of you despite the miles!!

on friday we said our goodbyes and i headed to penn station where i caught the train to woodcliff lake to spend the last trip of my journey with my godmother cora in new jersey. turns out im a bit of a celebrity in her office LOL - ive been sending lots of postcards and of course theres the pics on here which lots of people had seen so there was great excitement when i arrived and everyone wanted to hear all about the travels (and also couldnt believe how little luggage i had considering ive been on the road over 11 months!!) they also got me a lovely birthday cake and card which was superb. we headed back to coras later on and just had an excellent evening of chillaxin and chattin!!

saturday we took a great expedition out on cora and mike's boat out by staten island. and yes i even had a go of steering myself (and i wasnt too bad if i do say so myself!!) it was GREAT to be back out on the sea/bay with the fresh air and sunshine and we got a great day for it - excellent. we didnt get back til late, maybe about 9 or so we cora and i just settled infront of the telly for some more relaxing! then yesterday we went to the apfelfest in nearly warwick which is kind of like oktoberfest / harvest festival where all the streets are closed off and theres loads of stalls, apple cider, apple cake, handicrafts, music and general festivities. the weather was superb and we spent hours wandering around sampling the fare (!) and looking at pictureesque disneyesque houses all around. in the afternoon cousin phil arrived back from boston and it was good to get to catch up with him too. cora cooked THE nicest home cooked special-recipe chicken with veg, pasta etc for dinner - like ive said before you simply cannot beat a home-cooked meal and this was one of the best. MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm. phil and i watched the new al pacino movie and sat up talking til late which made getting up this morning at 8am quite difficult!! we all went for one last brekkie to the bagel place and then it was back on the 194 bus to port authority.

and so here i am alone in NYC on my last night. in a little while im going to see a broadway show called altar boyz about a boy band formed by ex-altar boy friends so that should be a good laugh and then tomorrow i have some more shopping time before heading to the airport in the afternoon. so weird.

and so this will be my last abroad entry. so thanks for reading and goodnight.
xx

ps for those of you who knew about it, my missing parcel from kathmandu has turned up - WOOOHOOOOO!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1222444800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1222444800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1222444800/tpod.html Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:21:00 -0400 Around the World 2007/08 - The Continued Intrepid Adventures of Nic

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San Francisco, California, United States

Pics from SF and LA
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1222279200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1222279200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1222279200/tpod.html Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:19:38 -0400 Around the World 2007/08 - The Continued Intrepid Adventures of Nic

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Waikiki, Hawaii, United States

Pics from Hawaii
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1222812000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1222812000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1222812000/tpod.html Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:42:22 -0400 Around the World 2007/08 - The Continued Intrepid Adventures of Nic

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New York City, New York, United States

can you believe it. this time next week i will be back home. one week - thats it. am struggling to understand where the time actually went - its a mystery to me!

well the US so far has been nothing short of awesome (with the sole exception of my utter loathing of the american obsession with tipping which has just spiralled out of all control IMHO: *mini-rant* - why do you have to tip a shuttle bus driver when you dont tip a regular bus driver? why doesnt the postman get a tip, he provides a service? why do hairdressers get tips and people working in supermarkets dont? im sure the hairdressers are earning more than the people in the supermarkets.....its in a word: Ludicrous.)

i flew from honolulu to LAX on the 24th and that was fine though isnt it mad that on a 5.5 hour flight american airlines dont have to give you any food?! i always thought there were rules about if a flight was over a certain length of time then they had to feed you? clearly not!! LA was just mad to arrive in - even the airport. people dressed up beyond belief, enormous cars, just totally living the LA dream, it was cool. because i arrived in quite late i stayed over in the radisson ahead of my flight the next day to SF

so on the thursday i flew from LAX up to san francisco with southwest airlines - my new favourite airline!! its all very low-fi, low-key, casual. its free seating (though there is a queueing number system to board which is genius). the crew wear very casual clothes and make jokes and sing on the tannoy and it was just a whole new flying experience for me!! shane met me at the airport and after a brief but awesome tour of the city we headed back to his apt which is basically just up the road from the city centre so in a great spot. we went for a walk down the marina to check out the sun setting behind the golden gate (and to check out the riverside houses that will set you back $4.2m!!) that night we dined on superb local italian and drank too much wine.

friday shane went to work at ludicrous o'clock and i dragged myself out of bed at 8 (solely because the water was being switched off at 9 and i wanted a shower). spent the morning wandering around union square, shaking off the hangover, doing a little shopping and also checking out a live performance of Wicked. in the evening we went down to the riverside and i met up with kim (who i used to work with in dell) and her husband jeff. it was so cool to see her again and catch up and we had some great mexican and margueritas and it was a lovely evening.

on sat morning i went to work with shane on the other side of the river and then after that he dropped me up to haight ashbury where i wandered around happily for a couple of hours. i wondered if id see the homeless guy wearing my doors t-shirt that mum stole from me in 1993 and left there but no luck (!) i stumbled up the stupendous amoeba records where i couldve happily spent my life savings as well as seeing some amzing grafitti. after that i took a cab down to fishermans wharf where i wandered around and took a cool boat trip out up under the golden gate and around alcatraz. that evening we met up for dinner with 2 of shanes mates from bray who were over too - went to a lovely greek place and had a lovely meal.

on sunday we took an early morning drive to the golden gate and marin head which undortunately were both shrouded in heavy fog so not much to see! but a scrumptous breakfast in mel's diner got rid of any sadness thats for sure. spent the afternoon wandering around downtown and chinatown before a dinner of chinese and beers in the local irish bar.

headed back to LAX on monday and took a cool mini-shuttle thing down to manhattan beach. i realised it was last official beach trip / sunset of my trip so that was kind of a sad moment, but on the other hand i cant think of a better place to have spent my last beach - the most gorgeous sunset in a while.

my flight to NYC was made all the more exciting (!) by a sighting of bryan mcfaddon who was on the same flight (he looks the exact same in real life only a bit taller and a bit chunkier.) the flight was pretty empty so had 3 seats to myself - result! and then last night i made my way here to stormi's apt where we drank wine, dined on the most delicious fajitas and frozen margeuritas and caught up on life after india. its been so good to meet up with her again and reminisce over travel tales and rum-induced mischief and mayhem from kochi to orissa :-D

tonight we are off to celebrate my final 31th night in the speigeltent down by the river (im pretty sure its the same one from the EP so that should be awesome) and then we are going to hit some bars in tribeca to ring in my 32nd year (oh my GOD i am getting so O.L.D.!!!!!!)

anyway hope you're liking the pics - am also going to put up some from hawaii (the same as on facebook) for those that didnt see those.

still missing you all lots and cant believe ill be seeing so many of you again so soon.
xx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1222268400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1222268400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1222268400/tpod.html Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:59:59 -0400 Around the World 2007/08 - The Continued Intrepid Adventures of Nic

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Waikiki, Hawaii, United States

i think ive broken all records for not doing a blog for such a long time (a whole 8 days!!) right now im in honolulu airport waiting for my flight to LAX which doesnt go for another 2.5 hours so what better time than to catch up with everyone.

hawaii has been awesome. due to monetary restrictions ive not made it any further really than waikiki and certainly not to any of the other islands but theres been so much to do here and also its been really nice to just chillax and sunbathe that i definately think it was the right thing to do.

the diving here was great - i did 3 wreck dives and saw 2 beautiful eagle rays on 2 of the dives. its the first time ive seen big rays swimming around like that so it was amazing to see. i also saw a whole load of fish that ive never seen before - stonefish, big fat frogfish, loads of different kinds of moray eels including a zebra one as well as my first proper octopus - ink and all!! i went out with a group called diamond head divers run by mike the tom selleck lookalike (there will be photos to prove this!)

also did a day trip to pearl harbour which was superb and really interesting. you get to watch a film at the start which gives you the whole history and then you take a small ferry out to the sunken USS Arizona. we also then got to do a tour of the USS Missouri - the last US battleship that was the location of the signing of the peace treaty that ended WWII as well as serving in Desert Storm. you got to tour all the different creq quarters as well as sit in the weapons ops room with those blue lights turned on like in the movies. very cool. it still had alot of the original maps and drawings etc from the war so was just an amazing experience. on the way back we went via the airforce museum where they had an F14 and F15 on the tarmac so that was cool - the F14 was the one they used in the filming of Top Gun. :-D

and speaking of filming......i also did an amazing tour up to Kualoa Ranch which was a film locations tour (though to be honest once the guy realised i was a Lost fan we focussed on Lost alot!!) they were actually filming season 5 when we were there and though i never thought i was the starstruck type you shouldve seen me hanging out the window with my camer as we drove through the crew/cast base camp and up into where they film!! LOL. we saw so many locations it was brilliant though it did lash like there was no tomorrow when we got to hurley's gold course and my pic is more rain and fog than rolling green hills!!! and all my hoping was rewarded as the trip came to an end as who should drive past out hummer in his spanking new shiny blue/grey BMW 4x4?? (prepare to be jealous!!) - yes it was sawyer!! in my excitement at seeing him i forgot to initially turn on my camera and so only got one very blurry pic of him (as he floored it when we saw my camera) but you can still tell its him. very VERY exciting!!

other than that ive just been taking it very easy - relaxing by the pool (the beach in waikiki is just horrendously crowded and you wouldnt want to be body-conscious at all with all the body beautifuls parading around!!!) lots of walking and checking out the beautiful sunsets. its been awesome.

hawaii is also really nice in that its not as manic and the people seem a little more chilled than in mainland US (no offense to any of my american friends, ive told most of you before that you are the exception to the rule when it comes to stereotypical americans!!) another great thing in particular about waikiki is that it never seems to rain! it rains everywhere else on the island and always looks like its threatening but never seem to materialise.

and so next stop is LA (for the night) before heading on up to SF to meet up with shane and also kim (who used to work in dell) so really looking forward to that. though ill be glad when im in LA cos i am NOT looking forward to another flight after the flight from fiji *shudder*.

still cant get my head around the fact that this time 2 weeks ill be home. in ireland. madness.
aloha xx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1221591600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1221591600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1221591600/tpod.html Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:21:06 -0400 Around the World 2007/08 - The Continued Intrepid Adventures of Nic

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Waikiki, Hawaii, United States

aloha from oahu, hawaii where im living the sunshine dream in the Land of Lost (no sign of sawyer yet though unfortunately). im staying in downtown waikiki which according to locals is fast turning into rodeo drive II - no wonder i had problems getting a hotel round these parts, its so glam and upmarket that i feel like a right scruffball in my havianas and indian bag!! but every day has been glorious sunshine, i have a telly again with regular channels that are all in english (i know it sounds sad but its been SOOOO long!) and a HOOOOOG bed to sleep in so life is good.

things in fiji wrapped up really nicely. i did some more diving (i think 4 more after that last blog?) though i got stuck with THE most annoying american ive ever met. oh. my. god. i was thinking i wasnt the worlds greatest fan to begin with but when she casually threw her cigarette butt into the sea when she finished smoking then i KNEW we were doomed to not get on. i almost threw her fat ass into the water after butt. she tried to pathetically defend her actions ("the fish will eat it" she whined) but i was having none of her, even though she then monopolised the conversation about eco-awareness for the next hour. she was a royal pain in the behind and i was glad to leave her in fiji.

on my last night it was the weekly buffet and the local band came in to sing and play again. the staff blew me away by making me a gorgeous chocloate goodbye cake and having the band dedicate a song to me. we all stayed up drinking kava til the early hours and it was a lovely way to finish up my time on taveuni. the indiana jones flight the next day wasnt so bad either in the end - all that worrying for nothing about planes (or so i thought....) spent the night in nadi just chilling in a lovely room with the company of 2 cockroaches. mmmmmm. so moved rooms (and also managed to blag keeping the room for the whole of the next day as compensation which worked out well cos it lashed rain all day.) the flight to hawaii left nadi at 22:50 on sunday....and landed in honolulu at 07:40 on sunday (yep, get your head around that one - sunday went on for TWO DAYS / 46 hours - im not sure what happened the other 2 hours..)

the flight itself from fiji was without doubt the worst flight ive ever had (and i wouldnt mind but after 2 hours of rocking, rolling, shuddering, juddering and me rocking like a demented person in my seat with tears pouring down my face cos i KNEW i was going to die) the captain had the cheek to come on the tannoy and describe it as "mild turbulence". believe me - it was anything but mild. thankfully the gravol id taken combined with the 3 glasses of wine i drank very quickly were enough for me to pass out briefly, only to awake with a rumbling in my stomach that i knew wouldnt contain itself to run to the aft of the plane and i ended up spilling my guts in one of those waxy puke-bags - and i must say im impressed, theyre alot stronger than they look!!! LOL.

anyway we made it to honolulu after the dawn of second-sunday - something i never thought would happen as i sat there a jibbering mess on first-sunday evening. the sun was shining, immigration was an unbelieveably pleasant experience (something any of you who've ever been through US immigration will find hard to believe) and all was good. caught a cab to my hotel near the beach and after chilling by the pool for afew hours (i arrived at 8am) went up to my room on the 43rd floor - how awesome!! i have a cool view of downtown waikiki and also of the sunsets each evening which is just superb and im just taking it so so easy.

today i did 2 dives - one a brilliant wreck dive and the other on a reef where i saw about 10 things ive never seen before (including a devil scorpionfish/stonefish - you do not want to touch one of those badboys, theyre the most venomous fish in the sea - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonefish !) also planning on doing a Lost tour in afew days (yes i am a nerd and no i dont care!!)

hope all is good at home, missing you all lots and cant wait to see you all again.
besos xx
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Nadi, Viti Levu, Fiji

Some random photos from my time on Taveuni - these are the same as on Facebook.
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Taveuni Island, Fiji

bula from taveuni island in fiji!

as the name of this entry suggests, believe it or not folks (how Dell does that sound?!) this is my 300th day away from home. this time 300 days ago i was sitting in the airport lounge wondering what intrepid adventures lay ahead of me. this time 200 days ago i was living the dream in kathmandu for a month and this time 100 days ago im still trying to remember what i was doing or where i was, though i think it was either in nepal or india on the second drago trip. the flipside of it being day 300 means that in no time at all im going to be coming home (roughly a months time if you can believe it - which is sooner than id hoped but a cruel necessity oweing to my ex-tenants decision to bail early on their year-long lease agreement)... so i hope everyones in a meeting up and belated-birthday celebrations frame of mind. its funny cos whilst ive had the most incredible intrepid adventures these last 300 days, theres still also some of me that immensely looking forward to coming home and seeing everyone again. though please noone mention the J word.....

ANYWAY life here in fiji is good. very chilled out and very relaxed and very quiet. and really nice after being on the road for such a time in NZ. have to say its at times almost too chilled and i do miss the company id inadvertently gotten used to staying in hostels - just random meetings and conversations and friendships. im the only person currently staying in tovutovu so its exceptionally quiet and any entertainment is purely of your own doing.

i left auckland on the monday after 5 glorious nights in paula and brian's house where i spent most of my time doing pretty much nothing which was GLORIOUS. dominoes pizza, age of empires 3, DVDs and washing machines. seems like a thing of the past!! the flight to fiji was incredibly short - only about 2hrs 30mins which was great and relatively turbulent-free. i stayed the night in raffles gateway which is just across the road from nadi airport and was really nice. they had some sort of weird pirate DVD in-house movie thing going on so i got to watch indiana jones 4 (utter rubbish, though i do have to admit that despite his age harrison ford still commands the old trilby hat and whip fairly well!!) and (finally i summoned the courage to watch) apocalypto. which in hindsight i wish id watched sooner after travelling to central america - it was awesome.

next day i caught my "flight" to taveuni. a journey which can only be described as the closest ive ever come to breaking down big-stylee in an airoplane. check was "about 1pm" and having weighed in my checked baggage i was then instructed to please stand on the weighing scales myself holding all carry-on luggage. my initiail laughter at what i assumed to be a joke soon turned to horror as i realised it was infact a reality and i hauled ass up onto the bag weighing machine (all excess weight was of course attributed to my exceptionally heavy hand-baggage!!). the subsequent flight can only be described as a Flight of Hell. the plane (for any plane nerds out there) was a DHC-6 Twin Otter = 18 seats = Indiana Jones style VERY VERY SMALL PLANE. and its VERY windy in these parts. and the flight was 1hr 30 mins long. i swear ive never been swayed or moved or shunted or TERRIFIED as much as i was in this paper aircraft which gaps where the stairs pulled up and no cockpit door. it was 90 minutes of sweat-drenched terror that only subsided when we shuddered to a stop on the runway here in tavueni. AND ive since discovered that the return journey by boat takes like a day and a half and is twice as expensive as flying so i have to make this same death-defying journey back to nadi again on saturday. ARGH!

anyways. things here on taveuni are as they were in caye caulker in belize = Go Slow. i have a lovely beach bure right next to the sea with a double bed, fan, 24 hour electricity (a luxury) and hot water (another luxury) as well as a little kitchenette so i can make my own breakfast and cups of tea. plus by calling ahead i negotiated a rate of $75 Fj a night (about E32) instead of the usual $105 which was good. theres a little restaurant here which seems to be the main social hang-out for all the extended family of alan the owner - every night the boys gather and drink kava and play pool. i indulged the first night (made my tongue go weird and furry) but most nights i just head to bed around half 9 and leave the Men be. :-)

ive been out diving twice which was been spectacular - amazing vis, so much sealife (sharks included), littel current (ive timed my visit well with the cycle of the moon!). yesterday kong (the divemaster) inbetween dives took me to see his village in qamea and to visit his mum carlo which was awesome, though id no camera so only memories to remember this trip. but it was very cool and reminded me of times in india.

in the afternoons ive taken to visiting audrey's coffee shop which is about 10 minutes down the road. shes a lovely american lady who lives here and runs a little coffee & cake haven with beautiful views over the bay. for $10 you can have coffee or cordial and slice of culinary heaven the form of chocolate cake (half a lb of choc per cake!), pear cake with a raspberry glaze or nic's favourite, the coconut slice with white choclate chunks. its heaven. oh and did i mention she brews her own kahlua so a drink & cake entitles you to (if you're lucky) 3 shots of tasty tasty kahlua which helps lulls the afternoons away.

today was awesome. one of the ladies who works here rota took me and her husband william (who drives the taxi) up to the mass in waikiri church which is quite famous. the congregation all sits on the floor and literally belts out hymn after hymn in ludicrously melodious 4-part harmony (that even the kids seem to know) as cool fijian breezes drift through the open-doored church. heaven. after that we took a nerd-fest visit to the 180 degree meridian line that runs through taveuni (though for time-convenience sake it bends around). had my picture taken in today, yesterday and half'n'half. yes you know i am a nerd! finally we headed to the something water slides which are basically a natural rainbow rapids (though alot sorer given that theyre made of stone and alot faster given that its rained alot recently) where you basically hurtle down naturally formed water slides into a pool of ice-cold riverwater. not for the faint-hearted. but nic the sometimes-chicken took it in her stride and went down not once, but twice!!

and so thats about it from me on my three-hundreth anniversary of travels. for those who were at the EP hope it was as awesome as initial mails suggest. SP thanks for that mail reminding me of what i was missing out on, hope this blog about the wonders of fiji is payback enough! hope youre all keeping well and happy and will be in touch again soon.

*hums "happy anniversary to meeeee" softly as she signs off.......*
xx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1220205600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1220205600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkiviper/rtw0708/1220205600/tpod.html Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:23:22 -0400 Around the World 2007/08 - The Continued Intrepid Adventures of Nic

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Auckland, New Zealand

kia-ora!

firstly i cant believe this is the only entry i've written on the north island! theres been lots going on but maybe not so much interweb access or maybe i just realised people must be getting sick of these blogs appearing in their inboxes every other day so decided to cool it a little!

well anyway this is my last day in new zealand and what an intrepid adventure it's been. you know about the south island so ill try and fill you in as briefly as i can about how things went in the north.

well i drove from moteuka (did i mention there was a fire alarm in the hostel at 1am?!) to picton and got there ludicrously early for the ferry so just chilled out and ate some carrot cake. the weather for the crossing was really clear but it turned out to also be icicles cold and windy so once we had passed arapawa island and gone out into the bitterly cold cook straits i went inside and had a cup of tea. the crossing is only 3 hours so we were in wellington by 4pm. what a fall to earth that was. id gone from maybe passing a car every 20 minutes or so to a 3-lane super-fast highway in rush hour in the fading light. terrifying!!!! i also made the critical error of deciding to take highway 2 and go by 4 LOTR locations instead of the more direct highway 1 to paraparaumu. location 1 was helm's deep. what the map didnt tell you was that it was an hour & a halfs hike into a NP. needless to say i passed on that one. anyway it got darker and darker and i decided to just hot-tail it on to the hostel. that was before i arrived at the highway 2-1 connecter road. it was the narrowest, windiest, turneist, twistiest road ive ever driven on. it only had room across for 1.5 cars. it was lashing lashing rain and then to make matters worse the dense fog came down. it was a stressful time and i was to finally arrive in paraparaumu and the delights of barnacles hostel (despite some last-minute lostness where the owner on the phone sent me 20 minutes in the wrong direction when i called, when i was actually about 20m from their door when i called!!!!) barnacles was awesome - like a house your granny would live in by the sea or something. and i got a dorm to myself again. result!

next day was the epic journey to taupo. the drive was beautiful and took me on the desert road past snow-capped mt ruapehu and mt ngauruhoe which are both active strato-volcanoes in the tongariro volcanic complex (can you tell im wikipediaing this?!). its where they also filmed mt doom for LOTR. anyway.i had many great plans for taupo to walk and take a boat and shop etc. but it turns out the rain had other ideas and it literally lashed lashed lashed with rain from the minute i arrived til well after i left 48 hours later. as a result my time in taupo was limited to sitting in my lovely snug doubleroom (i got it cheap!) watching telly or sitting in the lounge watching movies. ah well - i guess the sun cant shine ALL the time in NZ!

after that it was a short journey of about 80 k's to rotorua which is located in a very highly thermally active part of the north island. you're driving along and theres literally random steam just pouring out of the ground on the hills around you!! i tried to go walking at the blue lake but it was closed for logging. then i tried to walk around another lake but the path stopped after 10 mins. seems someone was trying to tell me something cos when i got back to the car a massive storm rolled in and had i been out walking i wouldve been soaked!

that evening i went to the mitai maoi cultural evening which i can safely say was one of the highlights of my whole trip so far. i was terrified it would be horrendously commercial and touristy but despite the large number of people (im guessing 50?) it was still an excellent and super-interesting evening. the main host greeted us in the 16 different languages of all the guests there (yep he even had some irish and finnish which i was well impressed with!!). we got to see the warriors arrive in their canoes and then there was a show which had singing, dancing, and also gave you loads of maori-related information. after that it was the hangi meal (a hangi is where they cook the food in the ground in baskets suspended above heated rocks and all covered up) - oh my god it almost rivalled mum's christmas dinner back home - chicken, lamb, corn, gravy, sweet potato, boiled potato, potato gratin (which no was not cooked in the hangi!!!), stuffing (STUFFING!!!), cauliflower. seriously. best meal ive eaten in months. after the meal we went for a walk through their forest to learn about the local plants and trees and we finished up checking out the glow-worms in the sacred spring. (very cool!). if you ever go to rotorua make sure and visit the mitai.

next day i went to see lady knox geysey erupt at precisely 10:15 (with a little help from 300g of washing powder!!) and then spent a couple of hours wandering around the wai-o-tapu thermal wonderland. it was very interesting to see but to be honest after awhile all the thermal pools kind of start looking the same. i think it would be interesting to see it in summer when lots of the mud pools are less diluted and more gloopy like mud pools should be. came back and decided against the super-expensive polynesian spa and instead took the advice of the hostel lady and went to nita's beauty parlour where i had the most incredible mantua honey / thai facial ever (which included arms, hands, legs and neck massage). and for half the price and double the time i wouldve gotten in the polynesian place.

and so the next day was the final haul to auckland. i had planned to stop off on matamata which is where they filmed hobbiton but thought to myself that seeing as i was navigating into auckland alone that id rather arrive earlier and just get to paula and brian's house than be arriving in the dark etc etc. it was a good decision. 5-lane motorways would be something ive never driven on. and NZ drivers are horrendous (more on that in a bit). so when i rocked up here to mt eden at 2pm it was with a sigh of relief. paula and brian are actually away in ireland right now but super-kindly said i was welcome to stay here anyway but i needed their neighbour to let me in so i headed off down the town for afew hours just til she came home from work. it was there that i met the angriest bus driver in the world (driver of 274 you know who you are) - she shouted and ranted at me cos i didnt knwo the name of the STOP i was going to, just the road! wed night i just vegged. houses rock.

on thursday krisso came over and we planned a day of action-packed sightseeing!!! but as these things happen, we ended up drinking tea and just yapping back in his place for afew hours LOL! after a delicious lunch of soup & toast (the "tasty" cheese here is so good!) we did finally make it out to murawai beach where we chanced upon a seal and saw a million gannets! we also went on to devonport which was beautiful and climbed the little hill there before heading back to his and julie's for a gorgeous spagbol dinner followed by julies excellent homemade brownies. mmmmmmmmmm

and since then its really been vegging. i know i should probly be doing touristy things and going out to see things? but instead im playing lots of age of empires 3 (ah yes that nerd is still alive and kicking in me!), watching DVDs, ordering pizza, washing clothes (ahhhh fabric conditioner where have you been all my life!!) and just generally taking it very easy!!! yesterday i had to drop edwin back to xplore more cars which was sad (but also scary as i had to go back out on 2 motorways!!!). and today is another lazy hazy day of pyjamas (im still in them and its 10 past 1 in the afternoon!) and DVD's (though i do have to go out at some point to drop back the movies. d'oh! and then tomorrow its off to fiji for 2 weeks for more lazy hazy days.

and so goodbye to new zealand!!! three thousand, five hundred and thirty seven kilometers and getting lost only 5 times in 25 days - not bad going when you consider i got lost 7 times in 6 days in australia!!! this country is simply superb and if you ever get the chance to come here then do. i would recommend more time in the south than the north island (no offense to anyone in the north island!), though from a cultural perspective the north island was better. that said i think i was also extremely blessed with weather - 2 of mum's friends were in the south island for 2 weeks and it lashed rain every single day so i was lucky with my sunny weather.

as far as the people go you wont get better than the kiwi's - theyre defo a bit more laid back than the aussies and like most places ive been (apart from thailand!!) theyre for the most part warm and friendly and helpful. being critical, they do have 2 faults though that i must point out.
1. they are APPALLING drivers - ive never met a nation (more on the north island wheres theres more cars) with such aggressive, inconsiderate, fast drivers. noone lets you out, noone yields, noone slows down, noone obeys the speed limits, and they LURVE their "mags & tyres combos" & super noisy exhausts. its like when they get behind a wheel they become something different and crazy and mental and all their anger just spills over. LOL. who does that remind you of?! *hangs head in shame!*
2. they are in COMPLETE denial about the weather. lets be clear, its winter here. its cold, as cold as home, sometimes even colder. yet they go around in sleeveless t-shirts and flipflops like its 30 degrees!! krisso and i saw a couple swimming when we went up devonport hill. and it wasnt in wetsuits, oh no, this was togs-swimming. its hilarious! seemingly central heating in houses is also very rare, the atitude is more "ah its grand sure just put on a jumper".

right im rambling and i have to go watch my last DVD cos i have to bring them all back later....thanks for listening, hope the electric picnic as fun for those of you that went and ill leave you with one piece of sound advice from new zealand - whatever you do dont rent PS i love you (based on the novel by celia ahern of the same name). never in my life have i seen such utter drivel or heard such rubbish irish accents or seen such an unrealistic picture painted of ireland since pauline went to enniskerry in eastenders years ago. *shudder*

bye for now
xx
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