TravelStream™ news feed for member nikkivthomson on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/nikkivthomson en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:01:30 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1213434000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1213434000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1213434000/tpod.html Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:01:30 -0400 Bagkok to Australia, New Zealand to Figi, LA to Vancouver

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Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand

We've left OZ and landed in New Zealand. The scenery looked stunning
as we landed, with lots of snow topped mountains. We landed in
Christchurch, and we've driven down towards Dunedin, the Scottish town
in New Zealand. Its colder here than Australia, but not too cold
considering its winter. The Kiwis have funny accents, a bit like South
Africans, and they pronounce i's as e's.

On our last day in
OZ, we dropped off our laundry at the laundrette (most of Garys
clothes), and then headed off into town to hand in the campervan. It
was a relief to get rid of it, after the side window fell off on the
first day, and there was a big crack in the front window! We stayed in
town until about 6pm, until we remembered that we'd left our laundry in
the laundrettes, which was probably shut and we had to leave for our
flights before 7am the next day ! Luckly we made it back just before it
shut.

Tommorow, we're gonna head into Dunedin and then over
to Queensland which is the activity centre of New Zealand. It has
skiing, skydiving, white and black water rafting, bunji jumping,
Kanyoning etc etc. I think we're gonna go skiing and skydiving. Im
really scared about going skydiving, but its something I've always
wanted to do. Theres a big glacier here, and people take a helicopter
ride up to it, and theres a nice river cruise in the Milford Sound to
see the cliffs and scenery from the sea. I dont think we'll manage to
do them though, cause we only have a few days here, and then we fly to
the North island, to Aukland. In the North Island theres a town called
Roturua that we're gonna visit, which is meant to smell like sulphur
and have steam coming up from the drains. We're also going to try and
visit Hobbiton, one of the places Lord of the Rings was filmed. Theres
also hot springs here and a beach where you can dig a hole and it fills
with hot water.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1212201420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1212201420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1212201420/tpod.html Fri, 30 May 2008 22:53:57 -0400 Bagkok to Australia, New Zealand to Figi, LA to Vancouver

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Cairns, Australia

We're just back from our 6 day diving liveaboard on the Undersea Explorer !! It was really great. It was really full on. 4dives per day, with nature talks in between, and really good food! I've done 20 dives now. I got to do night dives, deep dives and live drop offs for the first time. We got to snorkel with Minke Whales, which was really cool. We all jumped into the sea, and held onto a rope while the Minke Whales came up to have a look at us and swam under us. We also did a shark attraction dive. We all dived, and then sat in a circle, while someone brought down a cage full of tuna heads. Lots of sharks came over to look for food, including White Tip, Silver Tip and Grey Whalers. The sharks are really shy, and you cant usually get close to them. We also got to take part in Nautilus Research. Nautilus are big snail like creatures with tenticles at the front. They've been around since the dinasoar age. Unfortunetly, they are being fished for their shells, and the population is declining, as with sharks. We set traps for them at night, and then numbered and measured them the next day, before releasing them the next night on a night dive.

We've just picked up our campervan, and are about to head off travelling down the east coast of OZ. We both feel a bit worse for wear today, as we went out with people we met on the boat last night, and had to get up at 7am this morning. I was really sea sick on the boat, so I was looking forward to being on land again, but it feels like Im still on the boat !
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1211520660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1211520660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1211520660/tpod.html Fri, 23 May 2008 01:33:20 -0400 Bagkok to Australia, New Zealand to Figi, LA to Vancouver

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Cairns, Queensland, Australia

Hello from Queensland !

We've quit our jobs, sold the car,
handed in our house keys and left behind cold Melbourne for sunny
Cairns, N. Queensland. Its really pretty up here with tropical
rainforest's and white beaches next to the turquoise ocean. Its taken
us a couple of days to adjust to the weather (in the 30's), and get
used to being homeless and jobless again, but I'm sure we'll cope ! We
hired a car for a couple of days. The first day we went to Port
Douglas to confirm we were booked onto a liveaboard dive boat for 6
days. In the afternoon we headed into Cairns center to buy a Diving
mask and snorkle each for a diving trip, before heading for the pub.
In the centre of town, the trees are full of bats, parrots and big
herron like birds. Its pretty amazing to hear them all screeching. We
got our free backpacker meal and then went to the Irish bar for a
Guinness.

The next day, we headed for Cape Tribulation, a 3 hour
drive along scenic coastline and into the Rainforest (with Gary snoring
all the way as he was up at 4am for the football !!). We crossed into
Cape Tribulation on a car ferry, and then drove into the rainforest in
quest of the Cassowary, a giant vicious bird with a blue head. We
finally arrive at Cape Tribulation, which turned out to be the most
amazing beach I've ever seen right in front of tropical rainforest.
After the beach we decided to do a short walk into the rainforest. The
trees were amazing. Just a short walk in, we heard a rustle in the
leaves. We stopped to look, and saw a big strange looking bird with a
blue head. Two other people came behind us and we showed them the bird
and told them it was a Cassowary. (Later we found out it was an orange
footed scrub foul). Another few minutes in, I heard leaves rustling
again. This time a huge Iguana thing (a monitor Lizard), about a metre
long emerged from the leave and walked along to a log. We then saw a
huge spiders web with a spider bigger than my hand in the middle, and
huge bright blue butterfly's.

We then headed back towards the
Daintree river to try and catch a Crocodile cruise. We'd prepped
ourselves the night before by watching the film Blackwater, which is
about a group of travellers who go on a fishing boat, and end up
getting eaten, one by one by a saltwater crockodile !. We just made it
for the crocodile cruise. The boat owner was like Steve Urwin and
talked us through the wildlife on the river banks. We saw 3 or 4
crocodiles on the river banks. They were pretty much still and looked
placid, although they can be very dangerous. We also saw a bright blue
Kingfisher and 2 white Kites. On the way home we also saw a
Kookaburra.

Today we've come back up to Port Douglas for the
Carnival, and our dive boat leaves from here tommorow night. We head
out overnight to the far Great Barrier Reefs to take part in a research
boat including shark tagging, Minke whale, giant clams and big round
prehistoric shell things research. We'll also see giant potato cod
(the size of cars) and giant wrasse as well as turtles. We should see
hammerhead sharks fingers crossed, and the Minke whale season starts
next week. A couple have been seen, so were hoping to see those aswell
!!! We'll be back on friday, when we pick up our campervan and head
down the coast !

We'll let you know how we get on !!

Luv Nikki and Gary xx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1211763780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1211763780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1211763780/tpod.html Tue, 06 May 2008 22:04:17 -0400 Bagkok to Australia, New Zealand to Figi, LA to Vancouver

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Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Perth in a long weekend !! Perth was really nice. It was much quieter and smaller than Melbourne. The beaches were really nice. We arrived on friday morning. As soon as we left the plane you could tell that it was much warmer than Melbourne. We eventually arrived at our hotel, after being scammed by the airport shuttle service, who only dropped us off at the railway station. The hotel looked really nice, with a nice bar area outside and an outside spa and small pool. We headed off to Freemantle, a city attatched to Perth. Freemantle is really nice, and has a nice harbour area where they sell famous fish and chips ! We walked down to the harbour area, and visited the Round House on the way, an old prison, where I tried to getting my head chopped off ! We then headed down to the harbour area for chips and a drink. It was so much more peaceful and relaxing compared to Melbourne.

On the saturday we went diving from a big sail boat. It was a really pleasant day, apart from the fact that I was throwing up most of the journey !! The sea was really rough, and I was too scared to go under the water for the first dive and ended up just doing a shallow 5 mtr dive. When I got out the water, I climbed onto the boat and threw up all over the boat deck while people were eating !!!! oops.

That night we went out in Freemantle. There were lots of resteraunts and trendy bars there. We had an Indian meal, and then headed for a bar to watch the footy (or soccer here). The bar was full of Irish, English and Scottish people.

On the sunday, we headed into Perth city centre. It looked ok, but unfortunately was shut !! So, we picked up a hire car and drove along the coast. The beaches were really nice along the coast. We were also pleasently suprised by the price of boats on sale. $5,000 upwards. Garys now decided he wants a boat ! as well as his own shed.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1208655180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1208655180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1208655180/tpod.html Tue, 06 May 2008 22:03:21 -0400 Bagkok to Australia, New Zealand to Figi, LA to Vancouver

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Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Adelaide was really small compared to Melbourne, although warmer ! Gary has flown earlier on in the week on business, so he picked me up at the airport. He pretended that we were going to meet someone from his work who was staying in a 'nice' hotel before going to our hostel, but when we arrived Gary had booked the nice hotel for us ! That was a nice suprise. The room had a balcony that looked out to sea. The beach looked really nice.

We headed out for dinner in Glenelg (the beachy part). It was really quiet. We went into a Thai Resteraunt where the waitress scould at us, and then told us we would have to be quick because they were closing soon !! It was only 8.30. We then went for a drink. We walked down the street looking for bars before realising that there only seemed to be one bar. There was a few girls up dancing that seemed to be on a hen night, and a few other people. The people here were very different from Melbourne. They were definetly more country people. We then decided to go to try our hotel bar. It was actually really busy with ok music, but then we realised we were by far the youngest people by about 20 years !!!

The next day we went for breakfast at the indoor market, which was nice. We then hired some bikes (free) and rode around the park, the botanical gardens (free) and the wine museum (free). It was a really hot day. We saw lots of parrots in the trees, and some funny shaped cactuses ! (pictures to follow). That night we went out to the casino, which was really busy. The ozzies love their pokies (slot machines to us). We had a drink and then I was hungry, so I ordered 1 potato ! We left the casino in search of another bar, and then tired headed back to our hostel for the night. I checked out the tv room to see what movies they had, where I was chatted up by a lesbian (again!) who wanted to watch a romantic movie with me ! I made my excuses that I had decided to watch tv in my room instead, before realising that there were no tvs in the rooms. oops.

The next day we headed out for breakfast again, and passed a bar we hadnt noticed. It was still open at 10am the next day ! That changed my image of Adelaide. We then looked around an art museum (free again), and University building.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1209862500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1209862500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1209862500/tpod.html Tue, 06 May 2008 21:02:26 -0400 Bagkok to Australia, New Zealand to Figi, LA to Vancouver

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Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Northern Territory, Australia

Uluru was really good. We walked around the rock because the
Aboriginals think its a spiritual site and dont like you to climb it.
It was just under 10km in desert like conditions with hundreds of
flies. But the landscape was amazing. The sand/ soil is bright red,
and fairly flat other than this huge red rock Uluru and the Olgas
another set of rocks. Apparently most of OZ used to be under sea at
one point, and some mountains nearby eroded so that there was a slide
of sandstone. A section of this sandstone has now been exposed, which
is Ayres rock/ Uluru. Theres a cultural centre there, and a lot of
information about the spiritual beliefs of how the rock was formed ie
the rock was formed by a snake god with a pearl necklace, but it would
of been good to find out more about the 'real' history of the
landscape.

On the second day we did the 'Valley of the winds'
walk (7.5km) and the 'Gorge walk' (2km) at the 'Olgas', a group of
rocks a few miles away from Uluru. This was really good, because you
got to climb sections, and the landscape was amazing. When we first
started walking, we saw some people with fly nets over there heads and
had a little chuckle, but within 10 minutes we ended up using fly nets
aswell, and people were laughing at us !

On the nighttime, we
went to a DIY BBQ, which was good. We both got a mixed meat of Shark,
Kangeroo, Emu and beef. (I know Im a really bad vegetarian now !!).
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1201567620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1201567620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1201567620/tpod.html Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:52:49 -0500 Bagkok to Australia, New Zealand to Figi, LA to Vancouver

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Sydney, Australia

Well we finally arrived in Sydney yesterday, and yes I did get
interigated yet again at immigration about my visa. When I applied for
my new passport recently, my visa was supposed to have been moved to
the new passport but apparently hadn't been. It didn't take long to
sort it out though, and we were soon on the subway on our way to Sydney
city centre. As usual we hadn't booked any accomodation, but at the
airport they had a stand with information about accomodation and free
phones, so we just phoned a backpackers hostel. We have a small room
with bunkbeds! a sink and a tv. Its just for 2 nights until we move
to our hotel for christmas. It was just great to get a bed last night
after having just 2 hours sleep on the plane the night before!

Sydney
looks really nice. Its much cleaner and more spread out than most
cities. To get to the city centre, we had to walk through a big park,
which was really nice. The park had lots of bats flying around, which
was really strange and lots of strange birds including parrots. Sydney
Harbour looks nice, and we've booked to go to a christmas carol carol
event at the Sydney Opera House on friday night (although I let it slip
that I was over 30 and you get in cheaper if your under 30 --oops). We
went shopping today because we only really have beach clothes, and
everyone is wearing jeans etc here. Its actually not that warm, about
20 degrees maximum and we needed a duvet last night. We had a bit of a
shock at the prices though, after being in SE Asia, and decided to wait
a couple of days for the sales. We went to the cinema to see 'The
Hitman'. The cinema was nice, and you get a couples couch. They're
opening a new gold section with reclining chairs and waiter service, so
I'm gonna get Gary to take me back then !

It still feels
really strange to be in Australia. Its quite cosmopolitan here, but
the Australians have a really strange accent. I'm feeling a bit
homesick at the minute (whereever home is). It doesn't feel christmasy
here at all. We're not sure what we're doing for christmas or New Year
yet, although I think we'll go to Bondi beach on christmas day and then
Sydney Harbour if we get tickets for New Year, if not as close as we
can
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1197852540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1197852540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1197852540/tpod.html Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:50:14 -0500 Bagkok to Australia, New Zealand to Figi, LA to Vancouver

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Singapore, Singapore

Well we're in Singapore airport and on our way to Australia in a couple
of hours, after a stressful couple of days here ! Gary checked the
website to remind himself of our flight time to Australia yesterday,
only to find out that the flight had dissappeared from our itenary !
After many phonecalls it emerged that someone at Lufthanser had entered
the wrong flight codes, so Singapore airlines had cancelled our
flight. We only had 1 day to spend in Singapore and ended up spending
it sorting out the flights. We were told by Singapore airlines that
they would book us onto a flight to Sydney (which we had been told by
Lufhanser we couldn't do!) and to go to the airport and confirm the
flight with Lufthanser. We decided to go in the morning, and on arrival
found out that the Lufthanser office was shut until 2.30pm. We hung
around the airport until 2.30pm and eventually spoke to Lufhanser, who
confirmed the flights. We asked for compensation as we'd missed our
only day in Singapore, and were told that as compensation we would be
offered an earlier flight ! We decided to take a flight at 12 midnight
tonight, as it saves a nights hotel bill. We were told that we could
check in straight away, so we decided to. The woman swiped through my
passport and then told me that I didn't have a visa for Australia
! They said that Garys visa was fine, but mine didn't show up in the
system and I would have to prove that I had a visa. We'd left our
luggage in town, where I had a copy of an email with my
visa confirmation, so we had to get the train back into town and then
back to9 the airport. When we got back to the airport, we were told to
wait while they sent a telegraph to the embassy to check if I was
allowed into Australia. While we waited, we decided to go to customer
services to complain aboiut the carry on and find out our rights. The
man at the customer service desk misunderstood us and realised that
I was having problems with my visa on the system, and told me
that after looking on the system I definetly didn't have a visa for
Australia. I was getting really worried by this point, and we started
to think about what to do if I had to stay behind in Singapore !
Eventually the embassy telegraphed the airport back to say that I could
enter Australia. I asked the aiport staff what the problem was and was
told that there was no problem !!



We finally checked in at about 6pm. We asked what we could do to see
Singapore in 3 hours?? We were told about a good place to go near the
sea, which has seafood resteraunts. We decided to get a taxi there. It
was really nice. Singapore is very clean, and has very strict laws.
You get fined if you do anything like leave chewing gum or ciggarette
stumps. The food at the resteraunt was really good. They have a
famous dish called dancing prawns, where they pour alcohol over live
prawns and they dance, before being boiled ! I didn't go for this dish
! I got chilli prawns and Gary had beef strips, which he said was
really good. After dinner we had a short walk around and found an
outdoor bar next to a pool. The pool was being used for water bording
and had a big rope that was attatched to people and dragged them round
the water as if it were a speedboat. It was really good to watch them
doing tricks.



We're now at Singapore airport. Its by far the best airport in the
world. It has a cinema, a gym, free internet points everywhere, loads
of resteraunts, a sports bar, x-box stations, etc etc



I can't believe we're leaving SE Asia. Theres so much more to do
here. We want to come back to SIngapore to see it properly. WE want
to go back to Borneo to spend a few days in the jungle, and Indonesa,
Brunei, Bali and the Philipines are meant to be really good. Oh and we
have to come back to Sipidan - the best dive site in the world !
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1199407440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1199407440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1199407440/tpod.html Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:45:58 -0500 Bagkok to Australia, New Zealand to Figi, LA to Vancouver

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Sydney, Australia

We're in the "Blue Mountains', 2 hours inland from Sydney. Its really
nice here. We took a bus to the first drop off point, where you could
do an hour walk and then get back on the bus. We missed the bus stop
and walked the whole way round the mountain to the last pick up point.
It took about 2 hours, and it was really good. You started off at the
top of a cliff and then worked your way down into the 'bush', a
jungle. A blue and red parrot came and sat next to us. We then got
the cable car up the cliff and the skytrain across. We had paid to go
on the cliff train aswell, but we'd walked too far, so we'd missed the
bit where you get on. We're knackered now. We're going back to Sydney
tommorow cause I've got an interview with a recruitment agent, and then
start making our way down the coast to Melbourne
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1199839320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1199839320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikkivthomson/bangkok-2007/1199839320/tpod.html Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:43:13 -0500 Bagkok to Australia, New Zealand to Figi, LA to Vancouver

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Melbourne, Australia

We arrived in Melbourne last night. We're staying in a big hostel
called the Urban Central. Its really good. It has a bar, an internet
room, a big kitchen with free tea/ coffee/ pasta and rice, and low
price meals such as 2 pound pizza nights (Garys happy). We stayed in a
dorm with 6 people last night in bunk beds. We didn't get much sleep
with people coming and going, but we have a nice double room for the
next 2 nights. We're still unsure about Australia as a potential
home. Its a lovely country (what we've seen so far), but the people
are so weird. They're very American, with high pitch voices. They
love cricket (which Gary hates), and drink scooners (half pints), and
they have stricter laws than the UK. Its illegal to get drunk ! and
when you travel on a coach or taxi the driver makes sure you have your
seatbelt fastened and when you leave shops you have to get your bags
searched ! Although Sydney was a beautiful city, I think it was too
pretentious. We both like Melbourne more, so we'll see how we feel
after a couple of weeks.



After Sydney, we got a coach down to Canberra (Capital of Australia).
It was just like Livingstone in Scotland ! It was spread out with no
transport. We didn't realise, but there was a big car festival on in
Canberra that week, so all the hotels had bumped up their prices, and
most were full. I managed to find a hotel room for us, and they said
that they would hold it for an hour for us, so we got a taxi there.
When we got there, the staff said that the rooms were full. I insisted
that I'd phoned and booked the room, and they said they'd accomodate
us. When they only asked us for 20 dollars (about 8 pounds) I realised
that we'd come to the wrong hotel !! The room was really gross and we
ended up sleeping on the floor, but we saved money ! We also met a nice
German girl (Yelana) and had drinks with her that night. We went for
a tour of the New Parliment building the next day, which was good.



We've been looking at jobs, and a film company are looking for extras
(male) for a war film/ tv show. Gary's thinking of auditioning, so look
out for him in Hollywood !
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