TravelStream™ news feed for member pads17 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/pads17 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 29 Sep 2008 01:41:56 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pads17/1/1221950700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pads17/1/1221950700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pads17/1/1221950700/tpod.html Mon, 29 Sep 2008 01:41:56 -0400 The Trip: A Patrick Hudson Production

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Sydney, Australia

Hello long time again since last entry i do appologise...i am now travellin now so not so bad as i have stuff to write about as apposed to my awful job in sydney!

Last time i left you i was saying how i was working at custom call in Sydney and selling accidental loss of life insurance..cheeery stuff that! Anyway i worked there till August 22nd, a very happy day. Anyway before that not a lot was happening in Sydney other than working and trying (not always successfully) to save money. One thing that happend was that World Youth Day was on and the pope visited the city. There were so many people out from everywhere so the city was extremly for about a week before and after the event and a lot of sstuff was happening near were i stay so i was always having to bash through large groups of children with flags while i was running late for work. When the pope actually was there that was all that was on TV all the time and there was this huge mass held at a big race course. The only thing i seen of him was when i was at a party at a friends and we had a BBQ on top of his building which was like 50 storeys so really good views and we could see his convoy heading to the race course the night before, about 20ish cars, a bit extreme if you ask me!
Other than that not a lot as i said other than working, which i was very lucky to stay in as long as i did. I like to think i was too nice on the phone so couldn't force people to buy anything but maybe i was just crap. So as i didn't make that many sales i got put on performance managment so basically i had to make X amount of sales in a week or i would get sacked. As i got along with my 2 team leaders they managed to keep me there for a lot longer even with me not making enough sales, i was told that "what i lacked in sales i made up for in team morale"...good enough for me!
Anyway so i came to leaving our flat in sydney and sydney it self so had to give the flat a good clean and pack all our stuff as we were heading up the coast to Cairns and maybe get work up there. Kev, who worked in an internet cafe in sydney, managed to get a transfer to the branch in Cairns but i had no job to go to. We also went up there with a few friends who we met in Sydney and met a couple others once up there which was really good.

So we flew up to Cairns which i north near the top of Australia. It's very humid there which wasn't ideal but nice to get some sun. We stayed in a hostel called Gilligans which we all ended up disliking as the staff were awful and for a hostel which was the biggest a most well known in Cairns to only hav one frying pan is pretty crappy considering they had about 4 kitchens! but we had booked into it for a while so survived , it had a pool and rooms were good so not bad i suppose. For the next few days, well pretty much our whole time in Cairns was treated much like a holiday as there was a lot of swimming, relaxing, walking around but there is literally nothing to see in the town unless you want to spend money and well...none of really could but it was nice sitting in the sun. After a 5 nights we wanted to move hostel as we found one cheaper so headed to a place called Castaway which was alot better, really cool staff and a lot more chilled out and about a 3rd of the size.
The only real excurssion we did was head up to Port Douglas which is just up the coast about an hour or so so got a bus up there as two friends we met in Sydney were there for a wee holiday. Port Douglas is very posh and pretty expensive so goo we weren't actually staying there. Pretty much ended up staying on the beach as Cairns doesn't have a beach just a man made lagoon, it was a change to have a beach. It was very nice weather so noty a problem and i managed to stay burn free (mum you'll be happy to know) Spnt most of the day there and they have this big sunday arts and craft market sso took a big wander around that. Had something to eat but we had to get the bus back at a certain time so headed back and we all slept on the bus home i think.
The next couple of days we decided that we didn't want to stay in Cairns, partly cause we didn't like it (too touristy) and also no jobs. As Kev had a job it looked like we were gonna leave him there but as it was his birthday in a week we thought we hang about till then and try and find somewhere down the coast we could go to to work. We were looking for farm work purly cause it would hopefully mean that we wouldn't be spending much money in small towns
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Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Hello sorry it's been a while since my last entry but the last weeks haven't been as action packed as previous ones. So anyway i arrived in Sydney back April on the 22nd after our flight from Christchuch, NZ. We first stayed in a hostel in the kings cross area called the Blue Parrot, nice people but not that nice a hostel so we thought if we were going to stay somewhere for a bit of time we would rather stay somewhere nice. So after two nights there we found another hostel called Wake Up which had lots of good reviews and booked in there for what we thought should only be a week or so. So On the 24th we decided to move to Wake Up it was more central and a lot nicer As we were both planning to get work here we had to get various things like a tax number and medical card and bank account set up so for the next few days we spean a lot of time doing this so we could then get applying to get a job. We were also looking for a place to stay that wasn't a hostel so that was kind of happening aswell. I had decided though that chances are i would end up doing work like i had been back home , in construction, so decided that i would want a flat before getting a job because we were staying in a 8 person dorm and the thought of getting up a 5-6am when thats when most of the perople in my room were probably getting home didn't appeal really. So the days went by and it was proving pretty hard to find somewere that would suit, money and location wise as kev had gotten a job in a local internet cafe and didn't want to be too far from it. As the weeks went by i had to find ways to entertain myself during the day as i would get up and there was only so much job/flat hunting i could do. So i did a lot of walking, walked evry where i went in the city as the weather was mostly really nice all the time. I did have an interview with a lanscaping company and signed up with them but by the time i had got my green card (you need this to work in any sort of construction or building site) i didn't hear from them so guessing there wasn't much work around as i had signed up to another labouring company but didn't hear much from them. So i spent my time visiting the art museums and reading in all the various parks there are in Sydney, i also built up a bit of a habit of falling asleep in these parks as well in the sun??too many late nights i think.
On one of the weekends in the hostel thay organised a trip to see an Aussie rules football game, must of been one of the hottest days so far and got pretty burned as sittin right in the sun but there was about 50 people from the hostel and it was a good laugh. Sorry for anyone who may enjoy AFL but i personally thought it was rubbish and way too long so we all just tried to start mexican waves, i don't think the locals appreciated this though. Funny that.
On another day i went with a couple of guys from my room to the aquarium, just for something to do as i don't think i would have gone if they wern't but was really good, especially the big shark tank, you walk underneath it and there are some huge fish in there so money well spent there. I also that week walked over the harbour bridge, not the proper tour but just walked over it like you can with the Forth Road bridge. Once on the other side i had a bit of a wander then realised i had to walk all the way back so decided to turn round.
During these few weeks we had decided to look for a flat with a couple of girls who were in the same boat as us and stayed in our room in the hostel for about a week or so. We viewed a few places but nothing we all agreed on so went back to looking for just me and kev. One morning while kev was looking online at his work (he has a very hard job!) he came across a flat one bedroom but to beds that we got to view a day later. It was to stay with 2 irish girls and we found out later that we could move in in just over a week as we had to wait for others to move out. Don't know what other candidates were like but glad they pick us. So thats were we live now. In total we stayed in the hostel for bout 6 weeks, enjoyed it a lot but enjoying more having my own space and not sharing room with 8 others! So now we have been in this flat for 3 weeks i think and working out well apart from the toilet breaking once for a couple of days and having to use the facilities down at a local supermarket! Also Teresa who i live with got me a job at her work in a call centre which is a 10 minute walk from my flat. Not an ideal job but good money and getting used to it now. It's not commition based either which is good as im selling accidental loss of life insurance. Now i have been told if i can sell this i can sell anything as it's not as if people wake up in morning thinking " gee i hope someone phones me today to sell me some sort of insurance that will cover me if i was to accidnetally die" but im doing ok! Only got another month or so till we have to leave our flat so think i can stick it out till then. I work with a lot of other travellers so this makes it better as nobody takes job too seriously.

Anyway i hope this all makes sense as it was kind of jumbled up but thats what happens when you try and round up 8 weeks or so in this amount of space. Hope all is well and will try to keep up to date more often, also no pics as my camera got broken but will hopefully have one soon, px
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Sydney, Australia

Hello sorry for the long delay between this and my last entry as now in Sydney and trying to find work and a flat which is taking up a lot of time. Also as I mentioned in my last entry I had lost the photos of part of this entry, they are still lost but they where just of Milford Sound so there are other pics. Anyway so in the morning on our only day in Milford we set off early to go for a tour of the Sound. The conventional way of doing it is in these huge ferries which we had initially planned to do but spoke to a guy who had done it in Kayaks and we decided to do that instead as his photos looked amazing. We got picked up at around 8am to head off to the water. Once there we got geared up and were out in the water at about 8.45am or so. We were in a group of seven, three two man kayaks which me and kev had one and then our guide in his own. It sounds weird but unfortunately it was a nice day but it is meant to be a lot better when its bit rainy and cloudy as it seems like you are sort of at the ends of the earth and there are loads of waterfalls running down the sides of the mountains. I wasn't complaining with the sunshine though. Over all we were to cover about 15 km, luckily it wasn't all paddling as the current did some of the work. It was really cool being in the kayaks and paddling along past these sheer rock faces about 2km high, you do feel incredibly insignificant. We also seen some seals and fish was cool aswell. After 3 hours or so we went right into the middle of the whole area surrounded by all these huge mountains emerging from the water and ate some lunch and our guide gave us load of New Zealand banter and history which was a good laugh. After about 5 hours in this kayak we finished our trip, didn't go as far as you would if in the ferries obviously but still loved it, a very different way to see the area which is pretty much one of the most picturesque places I have ever been to! Once we got back to the hostel we got showered and hung about a little as quite tired and then headed back to Queenstown as it worked out cheaper to do this.
We eventually arrived back into Queenstown at about 6.30pm and booked back into our hostel but as I was up early and had been driving I was very tired so just met up with some guys we met last time we were there and played a bit of pool. ( Thinking after typing that bit it is impossible to do Milford Sound justice in words or even the pictures, when you see them ,but it is an unbelievable place )
The next day as we had pretty much seen Queenstown I had a lie in then we just went for a walk around part of the lake and I went to read my read my book and then at night just played some more pool as we had a drive the next day.
The following day we were going to stay with friends of mum and dads, Dave and Lynne who I had met previously when I visited them in Seattle with mum and dad. They now stayed in Dunedin so was looking forward to home comforts for a few days as had hostels for the last month or so. After about a 5 hour drive we got there late afternoon. We spent that evening chatting and got fed very well which was great. The next day we had booked to go to Penguin Place which was out on the Otago Peninsula. Also it was a very nice drive out there and really weird as close to the city but you felt very far away from things. On the drive to it there was some pretty tight roads to take on with no barriers stopping you just going into the water so was extra careful although kev was still pretty nervous I think. Before the penguins we also went out to see the albatrosses which also had a sanctuary out there but we didn't pay for that one just had a look around and Dave gave us his binoculars so could se some stuff. After this we headed tot see the penguins and seen quite a few. Not as many as I had thought but because of the time of year there were no young there but still seen the adults. Also seen a lot of big seals and small blue penguins. After this we headed back into Dunedin as it was starting to rain a bit aswell. On the Friday we headed into town, got pretty wet in the process and had a wander around. As t was raining we went into the public art gallery which was free and had some pretty cool stuff in it but not to big. After this kev wanted to go to the Cadbury Factory for the tour but I really wasn't in a big chocolate eating mood so just walked around for a while, I seen so many Edinburgh street names aswell which was really weird, George Street, Princes Street, Hanover Street and theres a Leith. Pretty much every where in the city centre was an Edinburgh name though, even Dunedin means Edinburgh in Gaelic. That night we watched some more super 14's....for a change. The next day Dave and Lynne left us as they were heading away for the weekend. That day it rained a lot again and we went to visit Baldwin Street which according to the Guiness World Records is the steepest street in the world, it was very steep and took a fair bit of effort getting up it, although funny to see lots of American tourits just driving up it, although it was a bit wet. After this kev went back the house cause he was soaked but I felt I couldn't get much wetter and really wanted to see the Botanics and then went to check out the campus which was really nice. I also found Leith Walk on my travels and stopped and watched some local rugby for a while whilst sheltering under a tree. Again we had a big drive the next day and had a night in front of the TV as you don't get to do it very often travelling (at least not watching what you want to).
So the next day we drove up to Christchurch. On the way up we stopped off at the Maoreki Boulders which is this collection of about 40 or so huge, really circular boulders which are randomly on a beach and nobody knows why they are there?? Once in Chritchurch we had to drop off the car first thing before heading back into the city as drop off was next to airport. In total we drove 3983km or 2475miles, quite a lot for 22 days I thought? Didn't do much that day but met up with some people we and met in Queenstown s o had a good night out with them. The following day we headed out to see the city as hadn't really on our last visit. It was very sunny so walked around a lot and eventually ended up hanging around in the town square watching some street performers and lying in the sun. At night we chilled out in the TV room watching some films and not much else as we were heading to Australia the next day.
I will leave it there again as seems as good a place as any. Don't know when next entry will be hopefully sooner than this one but as im settled a bit now not doing as much so don't expect them to be as adventurous?!? Speak soon, p
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Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Hello again, the following day after the glacier hike I unfortunately had another 8 hour drive this time going south to Queenstown which is well known for being one of the best places to do all your extreme stuff like bungy jumping and white water rafting etc. obviously you can do these elsewhere but this is a small town and that's pretty much why everyone goes. It also has very good night life which is a draw to. The surrounding area is really nice with the Remarkable Mountain Range around it and lots of lakes so the drive wasn't too bad. We arrived there around 5pm and I went for a sleep pretty much as soon as we got our room. Later on we met our room mates and it was refreshing as no other British people in our room, a Canadian guy, a Brazilian guy and two Japanese girls. It was a change as everywhere we have been we only seemed to meet fellow brits. So we had quite multi cultural night out that night. One of the other things Queenstown has to offer is a hamburger called a Fergburger which it didn't matter what time of day it was there was always a queue outside which is always a good sign. Basically they are just huge burgers for a pretty good price and have all sorts, I got one, one night called a sweet Bambi which was a deer burger, very tasty.
The following day after much deliberation we both decided it was time to book a skydive each so we did that first thing in the morning for the following day. We had planned to do it a couple of weeks earlier but there is a weight limit on it which I was just over. We later found it wasn't as strict as I first thought it was more for if you were huge then the straps wouldn't fit also the weight effects the landing so I would just need to be paired with someone a little lighters, so over the week or so I found that out I managed to loose a few pounds and got to the weight but as I say found out it didn't really matter but trying to stick to this diet anyway as dropping a few more wouldn't be a bad thing!! Anyway after we booked it we decided to go for a walk up Queenstown hill for a view and were reliably informed by the tourist info guy it would be a nice stroll and nothing to strenuous as we were not really kitted out for a big walk cause we had no water and not really up for a hardcore hike but after about 1 hour we thought maybe we should go back as didn't know how much further and it was all up a very steep hill so thought we had done enough! We got good enough views half way up anyway. That night we sampled the night life again.
So the next day we got up a bit nervous as we had to meet for the skydive at 11.15pm in town and they would take us to the place out of town were it was. We first had to sign forms one of which mentioned something about the parachute not opening and death which was a nice thing to be told before we did it. On the drive out we went past some very big mountains in the Remarkables and the driver said if you were doing 12,000ft which kev was, you would be jumping from double the height of that mountain and if you were doing 15,000ft which I was you where jumping at one and a half time it. Another good fact to take on board, that really settled the nerves. Anyway we got there and it was about 12ish by the time me and the two other guys I was doing it with got called to get kitted up and then we got about two minutes of what to do when you jump out and that was about it we got in the plane and took off. The flight was awesome as it flew right over the mountains so we got a scenic flight included in the price which was nice. The plane took about 15mins to get to 12,000ft were one of the guys was jumping from so we got there and he got to the edge and then just like that he was gone, very weird and again not good for the nerves as I now knew that the only way down was out the door. So we got up to 15,000ft and I was fed some oxygen as you need it when at that height then the door opened and I was ushered to the edge and sort of hanging out the camera woman that was jumping with me was looking at me looking for good snaps (the camera and video camera were on her helmet) so I was trying to look cool and then 1,2,3 and we went out and any bit of nerves I had soon turned to complete exhilaration as I was now travelling at about 240km per hour. My free fall lasted I minute which was the best bit as you are just flying , well as close to as I'll ever get. The parachute opened at 4000ft so I covered 11,000ft in 1 minute which is kinda cool I suppose! Anyway then on the float down is just sightseeing time as the view from up there was incredible as you might be able to see a little from the photos. Once back on the ground I was just totally full of adrenaline and just jumping about for the next half an hour or so and almost used my discount card to do it again but thought better not as very expensive but it was definatly worth every penny. Once back in Queenstown everyone went for a well earned Fergburger. Later in the day at about 6pm got to pick up my photos and DVD so had a good laugh at each others photos and the other guys that were there. (Was going to attach the video of it but didn't work, if you want to see it go to youtube.com and type in Paddy H, skydive and it should appear)
The following day we were going to head to Milford sound for a night which was about a 4 hour drive and managed to save a few pennies as there were a french girl and a Polish girl in our dorm who wanted to go but had no transportation as they were travelling on a tour bus which wasn't going to Milford so we gave them a lift which split the cost of the gas. The drive there again was amazing one of the best bits being when we came through a tunnel called The Homer Tunnel which is around 3km long through this huge mountain and then you come out the other side to an amazing view and the rest of the drive to Milford was just incredible even though it was a bit bendy and the roads were quite tight. We survived and arrived at our hostel early evening and as Milford is so small we didn't do much in the evening also we had an early start the next day as we had booked to do some kayaking. But I will leave it there again as I accidentally deleted my photos of Milford so in the process of trying to get them back through some very frustrating software on the laptop, so hopefully I can get them back for the next entry, speak soon, p.
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Queenstown, New Zealand

After Rotura we headed to the Waitomo caves which are on the west coast and it took about 2 and a half hours. It reminded me of driving up north in Scotland all the bendy roads and pretty empty and just the scenery. We weren't going to go there but everyone said we had to see the caves. Once we got here we booked into do the cave tour which was about 3 and half hours. Very good fun. We went on it with about 10 others. The main thing with the caves was that it is one of two places in New Zealand which is the only place in the world where there are glow worms so we got to see them. We started just walking through the caves in our wet suites and with a big rubber tube which was our mode of transport for the trip. Once in the caves we floated down several rivers in there and jumped off some waterfalls which we had to do backwards with the big rubber ring over our bums and land on them, easier than it sounds. Also when floating through we got to see all these glow worms which hang from the roof and we all had to turn off our helmet lights and the glow worms looked ace, just like if you where looking at loads of cities from a plane at night. Pretty cool. After hanging about in the water for 3 hours we eventually got out very cold and got a hot shower and hot soup as well which was good. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any photos down there incase your wondering. Once back at the hostel I decided to take a walk for to a view point over the valley, I didn't realise it would be through fields and stuff as I was in my flip flops so ended up doing a bit of it in bare feet. Got to the main view point and got a very good view, reminded me of Scotland again. Then at night there was more super 14 rugby on so watched that.
The next day was driving again and it was about a 8 hour drive to Wellington and more long empty roads. Once we arrived in Wellington and even about 60km outside the rain started and was torrential rain , it eased off once into Wellington but still raining. After a lot of driving around we found the hostel which was massive but they didn't have a car park so parked on the street and managed to get free parking cause it was the weekend. There was more Super 14 rugby on so that kept us busy at night.
The following day there was more rain but after I got up early to watch the Liverpool vs. Arsenal game we went for a wander around the town and headed first to the Museum of New Zealand. Some very good things about New Zealand and it's history and all it's volcanoes etc. It also had a Scotland exhibit. Now for the size of the museum it was tiny, about the size of my room back home. We still managed to spend a lot of time in it though, very interesting as it was about Scottish people immigrating to New Zealand a lot of other videos as well. After a wander round the rest of the museum we headed up the waterfront to see what was there and came across the Greenpeace boat , The Rainbow Warrior 2, which was in the port and doing free tours of the boat and they tell you a load of facts and what they are doing at the moment, very interesting stuff. At the end though they inevitably tried to get us to sign up to Greenpeace, maybe once im home but don't really have the funds at the moment. Not a lot on that night as had a big drive the next day.
The drive the next day was to firstly the ferry in Wellington as we were crossing into the south island, This ferry went through some amazing scenery again so I spent a lot of the time outside on the deck watching all the hills go by. Once into Picton which was the port we headed to Christchurch which was a 5 hour drive and the first of many scenic drives in the south island. We were only going to go there for a night as it was just a stop off because the drive would have been too long without it, So we got there in the evening and left early the next day (we are going back though). The next day the drive was to Franz Josef, a town named after the Glacier which was right next to it. This car ride was amazing and we stopped loads of times to take a load of photos, we eventually had to decide not to stop anymore as it was happening to often and I wanted to get there. The main bit of the drive was through Arthur's pass where it was very distracting to drive through as trying not to look at all these huge mountains either side of me. We were forced to stop at one point when we were ushered off the road as there was a lorry coming that had a house on the back of it, very funny, but in the course of al l the traffic having to get off the road a coach had gone of the wrong bit and was stuck so the house couldn't actually get by it. You'll see what I mean by the pictures. Anyway as they were figuring out what to do with the coach we jumped back in the car and sneaked round as I wasn't waiting there all day! We got there finally late afternoon and the weather was great, really clear and sunny. Once into out hostel we just had a walk around although the town was tiny and I booked into do an all day glacier hike the next day so an early night was required!
The glacier hike the next day I did alone as kev thought it was too expensive for him. Im very glad I forked out for it. It started at 9.15am and a bus load of about 50 people headed to the glacier. It started with a 3km walk to the glacier and then we split into groups depending on what you wanted to do. Starting at 1 which was the hardest walk to 4 the least hardest. Me and the guy I met on the bus decided that we would go for number 1. Once onto the glacier we were wearing crampons on our boots and having to take on some pretty steep parts but it is surprising the grip you get from the crampons. It was also strange to be on the glacier as I thought when I had looked at them they would be very flat and you just walked over them but I was very wrong as there were tunnels to go through and we had to work our way through this big maze of ice. Also as the landscape is changing so often no tour is the same the guide basically takes you were he wants to. I finally got back to the town at around 6pm after covering about 15km so I was pretty tired and there was a free sauna in the hostel so lay in there for a bit. At night I was too tired to do anything so we sat with some others in the TV room watching DVD's. Will leave it there as I have actually almost caught up with myself on these blogs so will stop now, speak soon, p.
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Christchurch, New Zealand

Greetings all from bonny Scotland, sorry I mean New Zealand, I keep getting the two mixed up. Only kidding! We arrived into Auckland on a not so great (weather wise) afternoon. Once in the our huge hostel (7 floors worth) I decided to take a wander around the town as we were pretty central and kev was sleeping. Seen all the sites near like the Skytower which is the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere and which people jump off so seen a few people do that. Once I had seen the main streets I was kind of tired so headed back to hostel where we ended up watching the rugby that night (super 14).
The next day as it was a bit nicer weather we ended up just going for another stroll (saving money) and headed down to the shore where there were loads of expensive boats and we went to the places I seen the day before that kev had missed.. Also down there we could see Auckland bridge and you got a nice view over the bay. Other than this there didn't seem too much to see and I wasn't overly impressed by the city centre and there wasn't much in terms of sites to see further a field so we sat around for the next couple of days and slept a lot catching up on lost sleep from Fiji. We did go to an Auckland Blues game one night where they were playing the Bulls from South Africa who had Bryan Habana on there team so that was cool, there were also a lot of other guys from the South African team and the All Blacks playing. Also at the hostel we were at we met the first person of our travels who was from Edinburgh, it's strange how you can travel to the other side of the world and meet a guy that knows people you know from back home, shame he was a jambo though!
The following day we had decided to rent a car for the rest of our time in NZ and headed out to the airport in the morning to pick it up. Once we had it we headed north to see the top of the island and stayed in a place called Pahia which is in a place called the Bay of Islands. This area is really nice and the drive there was about 4 hours but not that bad. Once there it was raining though so probably didn't do the place justice as it was a very nice little town right on the cost but it rained the whole first day we were there.
The following day it was still a bit dull but we headed to a place called Honarura Falls which there was a walk to so we were feeling energetic and decided to do the walk. Unfortunately due to a land slip you couldn't walk the whole way but we went as far as we could. It was about 5 miles round trip so a good bit of exercise for our standards. Once back in the car we decided as it was still raining to go for a drive a bit further up the coast, we also stumbled across the falls which we where trying to walk to earlier but we could just drive up to which was pretty handy. As I had a long drive the next day we took it easy at night a watched a load of TV.
As I said the next day I had a bit of a drive as we were going to Rotarua which was about 8 hours away and as Kev doesn't drive it was going to be a long day. The drive went a lot better than I thought though, only bad bit was coming back through Auckland when the heavens opened and the traffic was really busy it was a bit of daunting drive but got through it unscathed. Once in Rotarua I was pretty tired so decided to take a sleep and then we had a pretty uneventful evening watching a mix of rugby and darts in the bar, not that I could be bothered with much more!
On the Tuesday we hired some mountain bikes from a local place in the forest and took them on a load of off road tracks, some more taxing than others. The tracks were graded 1-6 and as we were told we couldn't take these bikes on 5 and 6 the highest we went on was 3. After 3 hours of bumpy tracks and steep slopes up and down I had a very sore bum and we ended up heading back. (I also got stung by a wasp for the first time in years) Anyway on the way back we must have taking a wrong turning ( kev says my fault) and ended up on the main road were we had loads of huge lorries flying past us but I managed to navigate us back to the bike place.
The next day we went to a local place where you could go on these luge things down the side of a hill. We drove there and gave a lift to an American guy we met in the hostel as he wanted to go as well. Once there we had to get a gondola ride up the hill which was pretty good for views and then once up there we had a few goes each and got a chair lift back up the hill every time. They were a lot of fun and went pretty quick if you wanted to, I had to watch though as wasn't the best on the corners so had had to take them a bit slower, I blame my height. After this we headed back into the town and took a wander over to where all the geysers were. Now these weren't the type that come to your door looking for sweets or money and singing songs but the ones in the ground that pour out gases and sulphur and absolutely stink off a combination of rotten eggs and burnt rubber which you can imagine is not that nice and the town does have a general smell lingering most of the time! Anyway the geysers were pretty cool, some more active than others and a lot of the area was quite prehistoric looking, you'll know what I mean from the pics. Also the big thing that day was I managed to see neighbours for the first time since I left, two episodes, bit far in advance from what I had seen back home but I soon caught up. Anyway will leave it there again and speak again soon, px.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pads17/1/1207170000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pads17/1/1207170000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pads17/1/1207170000/tpod.html Wed, 02 Apr 2008 03:06:15 -0400 The Trip: A Patrick Hudson Production

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Rotorua, New Zealand

Bula! (that's almost the extent of my Fijian by the way) So we left LAX at around 11pm on Thursday the 20th and then arrived into NadI, Fiji at 6am on Saturday the 22nd, I don't really know were my Friday went but very strange going from 9 hours behind GMT to 12 hours in front over night. When we got there we had a transfer from the airport to the hotel called Smugglers Cove and arrived there about 7.30am and eventually got into our room at about 8.30am and it was air conditioned which was a life saver as it was so hot and humid. Anyway after a few hours of some sleep catch up me, kev and two guys we met in the morning decided to take a cab into Nadi(this only cost us about 3 pounds between all of us so no big expense) and check it out. After a bit of wandering around we headed to get some food and after a bit of haggling we got a pretty cheap deal and a very good curry which seems to be what Fijians eat. We then had a wander around and as it was Easter weekend it was pretty busy and according to the guys who we met who were both of Indian decent said how it reminded them a lot of India when they had been, very busy and people every where and these big over crowded buses ( which only cost about 20p to ride in fact which is a far cry from home especially as I heard they put the price up again!) Anyway we went into a shop after a bit of wandering which sold these various local carvings and while looking about and the guy in there said that since we were in Fiji we had to have a Kava ceremony which at the time none of us really knew what this was but said ok. So we sat down and he started brewing up this Kava which looked a bit like tea and is made from the bottom of a peppermint tree and all Fijians drink it and we had to do the hole thing a clap before everyone drank it and he did chants and prayers and it was very cool and he was a really funny guy. Basically though as we found out its sort of like alcohol in terms of what it does to you but we didn't have too much so wasn't that bad. After this we knew there would be a catch and he wanted us to buy stuff from the shop but nobody really wanted anything to carry about for the next 8 months or so, so we just gave a donation, to his village he said but probably to his pocket. After this we caught a cab back to the hotel and pretty much chilled out for the remainder of the day, I had a wander around the local area but very hot so didn't get very far. That night one of the guys we met from Australia the rest of his mates were coming out so we had a good night with them.
The next day we had a transfer to an island called Beachcomber which once on the boat took about 30-40 mins to get there. When we got off the boat we got a very cool welcome from the workers and got taken to our dorm which had about 150 beds in it and the air conditioning was minimal but I didn't really expect much more. It was almost good though felt more like you were experiencing island life as it was all big huts and sand everywhere. For instance when it rained which it did sometimes, my bed got wet due to it just being a thatched type roof. In the afternoon they had the call for the lunch and we didn't realise all meals were included so we went up thinking we had to pay and then found out it was all you can eat and free so you can imagine my delight! After this we just lay about in the sun and both got a bit burned also swam a bit in the sea which was like a bath it was so warm and there was a lot of fish and coral to look at. After this I had a walk around the island which took a grand total of 5 minutes maybe 6, it was very small but so nice. As there was obviously no where to go they always put something on at night and that night was Crab racing which was a lot of fun and a long build up for a race which was over in about 20 seconds. Between me, kev and 4 other guys we met we had 5 crabs one of which was called Braveheart but we got no podium finishes.
The next day the heat had gotten to me quite a bit so decided to lay in the shade most of the day as didn't feel all that great and slept quite a bit. Not a very busy day!
The next day consisted of more laying on the beach and more swimming but we also decided to hire kayaks and kayaked around the island and went out a bit from the shore. While we were out at coral we saw sharks swimming around our kayaks, not big ones mind bought the length of your arm but still sharks!! Again lots of fish to. At night the thing that was on was all these various local dances including a fire dance with this guy with a stick on fire and just spinning it around and throwing it at ridiculous speeds, amazing.
On the next day after 3 very lazy days we headed back to the main land and back to smugglers cove where we spent the night. During the afternoon though me and kev were inside and came out to see a lot of people standing looking along the beach and we went down and seen there was a tornado at the other end of the beach so we headed along to get a closer look and it was pretty amazing even though it wasn't fully formed the water was still swirling round and you could totally see it in the sky rotating. Just sat around in hotel for the rest of the night as it was reasonably busy.
Unfortunately we had to leave the next day as I could have spent a few more days there but headed off to New Zealand at about 9.30am, Vinaka (the other bit of Fijian I know) and thanks for reading again, Px
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pads17/1/1206845460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pads17/1/1206845460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pads17/1/1206845460/tpod.html Sat, 29 Mar 2008 05:56:00 -0400 The Trip: A Patrick Hudson Production

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Auckland, New Zealand

We arrived into LA union station at around 9.30pm and then eventually got to our hostel called the Orbit at 10pm. We didn´t do too much that night as the travelling had taking it out of us a bit. Anyway on the next day Kev had to go to the British consulate downtown because his passport had went through the wash in san fran and wasn´t sure if he would get into Fiji in a few days time. As I didn´t fancy standing in a que with him all day I went for a wander around. Our hostel was in west Hollywood so it took me around an hour of walking to get up to the strip were all the stars are on the pavement and were all the tourists go. Once up there I new Kev would want to come here aswell so only briefly walked along it and went into a few shops. Also I went along to the Capitol Records building but I wasn´t allowed in so only seen it from the outside which was a shame. It was very hot and I decided to just keep wandering around and headed along towards the Sunset Strip and wandered around were all the huge houses were. For any of you who know the band I seen the lead singer of Puddle of Mud come out of his mansion. I continued down onto the sunset strip were I also seen Timothy Dalton (James Bond), he stopped in his car to let me cross the street. By this time I was pretty far away from the hostel and very hot so just decided to head back to the hostel. Once back it was St. Patrick´s day so that night they had a big party on for that.
The next day as kev wanted to go back to Hollywood we did and seen a lot more of it than I did the day before. I also wanted a photo of Rock Hudson´s star and that took a while to find! Although we took pictures of plenty others on the way. I also got my photo with Elmo and then about half an hour later I seen him in McDonalds with his head hanging of getting a milkshake which was pretty funny. I also seen him again walking up the street with his head off with Elvis and captain jack sparrow from pirates of the Caribbean. They have so many different people all dressed up on the walk of fame like Marilyn Monroe, Superman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman and loads of others I think Elmo probably had the best outfit though. Once back down near our hostel we walked along the street it was on which had loads of shops on it then went back to the hostel. At night they had put on a comedy night with local comedians some of which had been on Saturday night live and comedy central and you could tell which ones had and which ones hadn´t cause some of them were rubbish but there were a few that were really good.
On our final full day in LA we went to Universal Studios on a day trip from the Hostel so they took us there and picked us up. We got there when it wasn´t to busy so went on the two main rides first thing first was the Jurassic Park water ride which has a 8oft water drop and the potential to get very wet but we managed to get into the middle of the car so not to bad. Then we went on the Mummy Returns ride which was pretty good to as it was mostly in pitch black with flashing lights so you didn´t really know were you were going. After this we thought we would try and fit in all the other stuff before going on the rides again incase the ques were going to get bigger. First we went to the fire display which went with the film Backdraft and then went to a very cool show for the film Waterworld were there was even a massive plane crash right in front of us in the water and loads of big dives and explosions. Next we went on the shrek 4D show which was basically 3D but you also felt stuff to like when donkey sneezed at one point you got some stuff sprayed on you from the seat in front, that kind of thing. We also did the Terminator 3D which was good. The main bit was the studio tour were we got a guide through all the sets and they take you into bits and you are involved in an earthquake and another bit were you go through a city being destroyed by King Kong and the cars your in tip over and stuff it was pretty cool. That lasted a while and then we went on the special effects tour which they showed you how they did a lot of crowd participation and the two people that did it were very funny. After this we thought we had just enough time to head on to the two rides one more time each and we did just but it only gave us 15 minutes to get from one side of the park to the other and that included four huge sets of stairs so we were both knackered when we did get back to the bus. That night they had the usually hostel party type things on so we went there as usually cheap. The next day our flight wasn´t until 11pm so we had a bit of time to kill during the day so took a walk down to the Farmers Market which is funnily enough a farmers market but there is also a lot of shops and stuff down there so it was a good place to waste some time, we also went to the pictures to see the new Dr Seuss film "Horton Hears A Who" which is very funny, I think we were the only people over the age of 14 without someone under the age of 5 but it was good although don´t ask kev cause he slept through the whole film. We went to the airport a bit earlier than needed but just decided we would as we could just hang about there and not have to worry about being late. So we were finally leaving the States after what was just long enough and had to go to Fiji now, I´ll tell you this travel malarkey is a tough gig, anyway I´ll let you know how Fiji went next time, thanks again, px
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pads17/1/1206740820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pads17/1/1206740820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pads17/1/1206740820/tpod.html Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:58:49 -0400 The Trip: A Patrick Hudson Production

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Auckland, New Zealand

So we arrived in san Francisco at around 8.30pm and were picked up by our next host, Christine at the bus stop. We arrived back at there house and met her husband Ben and kids Alistaire and Tabitha. After the long journey and early start the day before we tried to be sociable as long as possible but had to succumb to the sleep and hit the hay. After a pretty long and good sleep we got up and headed for the golden gate bridge which was only five minutes on the bus from their house. Very big bridge and very red but I still don't get why loads of people flock to see it as it is not much different to the Forth road bridge other than its colour, I did ask Ben and Christine one night why it was such a big thing (hopefully not insulting one of their towns landmarks) and they weren't too sure either? You do get good views out over the bay though so maybe that's why . Anyway after this we got a bus into town a bit and walked along the shore to Fishermans Wharf which is a very touristy part of San Fran and then kept walking along and headed up into financial district. I didn't realise before hand how hilly it was until you start walking up and down them all day and it was a pretty warm day so not the best for trekking around so many hills. After something to eat and more walking around downtown and various other areas like china town and little italy we stopped for a rest and then decided to find a street which we only knew as the crooked street and this wasn't helpful when trying to find it on the map. We eventually asked a guy but as I didn't know the name of it I felt like a total stupid tourist like im sure he thought I was asking him is he new were the "crooked street was?" he was very nice though and informed me its real name is Lombard and showed us it on the map so that ment more walking and we eventually found it·very strange? I had actually seen it before think it was on a postcard in the toilet at home but didn't actually think it was a real street used by cars but it is and its very busy to as loads of tourists drive down it. Anyway we got something to eat at eventually got back to the house, once we got back we were both pretty knackered and once we had told Christine how much we had walked she was pretty shocked and so were we thinking back on it, especially with all the hills!
The next day we had booked a trip to Alcatraz in late morning. This was one of the things I wanted to do before we got to the states and it wasn't a disappointment. The best bit was wandering around the cells and you get an audio tour which has some of the ex-inmates talking to you and the put all these creepy noises in the back round and give you all the old stories of inmates trying to escape and you see were it happened·very cool! Once we got the boat back to the shore it decided to rain, the first time since we had been in the US that we had experienced rain and we got pretty soaked. We found a restaurant anyway and tried to dry off in there and got to have more very good seafood. After that we decided to get one of the famous cable cars and we ended up in a bad bit of the que so ended up not being at the window or the bits you can stand and sort of hang out which is pretty much why people seem to get on it. So we didn't actually get to do that at first so it just basically a expensive, slow bus but we got a space at the side and it was a lot better. We ended up doing a lot more wandering around to, in san fran it has a lot of homeless people and we seen a guy who had one of the best signs, for a homeless guy anyway, it said "My wifes been kidnapped and I only need 99c to pay the ransom·please help" don't know how it was working out for him though.
The next day the weather was still a bit damp but first thing we headed to an irish pub around the corner to watch the rugby and caught the Ireland, England game and the wales, france game. Also they had a lot of football on to. In the afternoon we went to Golden Gate park which is near there house and its really huge so didn't have time to see it all but went to the museum which was there called the De Young which had a Gilbert and George exhibition on at that time, very strange guys. Anyway at night we were offered a trip over the bridge from Ben and Christine and there other daughter Mairi to see the city from the other side of the bay at night and got some great views of the bridge and over the bay.
The next day we had an early start and had to get bus to Oakland at 7.50am so we got a ride into town and headed off to get our train at 8.30 in Oakland. It was a long trip about 12 hours but very scenic right down the coast to LA. Also our conductor on the way thought himself of a bit of a comedian and kept cracking jokes over the speakers one time on warning people about drinking too much alcohol on the the train he said "and remember folks drinking bud won't make you and wiser" and when we went past the San Andreas fault he said "and on your left is the San Andreas fault so if the ride gets a bit bumpy it's not Amtraks fault it's the San Andreas Fault" My favourite was we were going along normal and he came on saying "I just got news from the Amtrak HQ that we are about to experience a total lunar eclipse at about 12.28 which is·well now?" at that moment we went through a tunnel, meanwhile I was on my feet looking out the window trying to see the sun looking like an idiot probably! Don't know if he was actually that funny but due to the lack of sleep he had me cracking up a few times.

Anyway will leave it there and probably get another one of these done soon as still not caught up yet. Cheers px
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Los Angeles, California, United States

Hello, I told you they might be more frequent, I need to do a bit of catching up! Anyway we left flagstaff by car and headed to vegas. It was actually not that hard as there is only really one road to get there so once we got on it it was easy but its long and straight and very boring so was finding it hard to stay focused (got very excited when I could see a corner in the distance) but the day before we had bought an adapter to let us listen to our ipods in the car so just had the music up loud. On the drive there though you go over the hoover dam so that was pretty cool although the traffic there was crazy cause everyone drives over it so slowly but we didn't want to pay for parking so kev just jumped out while I was going slow and took a few snaps and jumped back in. they are building a new bridge over it now though and it is huge, it is so high as well iv no idea how they are going to finish it as they have only done either side but it'll be very cool once finished. So once we got into las vegas itself we found our hotel relatively easily. As im sure you know all the hotels have there themes and ours was called the sahara and was supposed to look kind of deserty but just looked bit naff like most of the ones we seen. Anyway it was cheap and three stars and compared to the hostels we had been in it was luxury. So we arrived there around 5pm and had a lie around as was tired from driving which was a new thing for me. Then we headed out for a wander around and started walking down the strip after about ten minutes of walking I thought "why don't we take the car" as we only had the car till tomorrow so after a 2 second discussion we decided the car was the better option (not for the environment I suppose but if you have never been to vegas the strip is a lot bigger than you think and I wasn't walking it all, although did several times once I gave the car back) but also I quite fancied driving along it and it was pretty good fun although probably the most distracted iv ever been driving as everywhere you look there are flashing lights and stuff going on so I was struggling to keep my eyes on the road but I managed. I also managed to get a bit lost in what appeared to be a bit more of a dodgier part of town but luckily retraced our steps and got back on to the main strip. By this time it was pretty late and we hadn't eaten so went back to the hotel and signed up for their reward card type thing which by doing nothing gave us an all you can eat buffet for $6.99 and I made sure I got my moneys worth. Kev wasn't to keen but I thought the food was pretty good ( at least what I expected for the equivilant of £3.50.) and in a city that seems to give you nothing for free I thought that was a pretty good deal.
The next day we had to return the car by 10am at the airport so that took some more navigating but got there just in time even though as I was just about to pull in I realised I hadn't filled the tank up with petrol so had to rush and find a petrol station. Anyway once back at the hotel we thought we would check out the strip during the day and wandered down and went into a load of shops were I finally found some trainers much to kevs relief as I think he was getting a bit tired of me checking out every shop with trainers in it so far on the trip. at night after another visit to the buffet and feeling very full we went back down onto the strip to see it at night and it is pretty impressive in its own strange way. Lights and people everywhere. We walked about in a lot of the big hotels that we had heard of like the MGM Grand, Caesars Palace, New York, New York and the Bellagio. It's a bit strange that the main sights are hotels but they put things on like a bit water show outside the Bellagio and a pirate show thing outside Treasure island.
The next day we took it pretty easy (not that haven't been for the last 6 weeks) and just hung about and at night headed up a hotel called the stratosphere which is a massive tower and you get great views of the city. Also they have rides up there but once we got up there there was no way I was getting on them, one of them is a mini roller coaster which is a straight line tilted over the edge and you go really fast and it stops you right at the end of the track hanging 20 feet over the edge. The tower must be 400 feet high maybe. Not for me thank you!

Anyway the next day we were due to head to San Diego and for the first time we had to get a greyhound bus which was going to take about 7 hours and actually went relatively quick, this was to LA and we got a train to San Diego. We arrived at the hostel around 11pm and after staying up for a bit chatting to other people staying there we went to bed eventually. Once we got up we realised how good our hostel was as it was litterally on the beach and according to some of the guys we spoke to there it had only just started to get hot and it was really hot. It had a bit of a reputation of a party hostel and the fact it was on the beach we didn't really do much interms of leaving the hostel or the surrounding area ( so even though we stayed there the longest of all our destinations and it was one of the best places we we have been to theres probably not that much of interest for you the reader to read about) . On Saturday we attempted to get a repeat of the rugby in the afternoon as we didn't get up in the morning to catch the games live( scotland game was on at about 7am) we went into town with a welsh guy from the hostel who had a car luckily cause it was a fair distance to downtown. Unfortunatly we couldn't find anywhere to show the game but it gave us a good chance to look around town which is very nice.
We were actually due to leave on Sunday but decided we would add an extra day and leave on the Monday, then when Monday came we decided that we might stay until wednesday instead (there were guys there that arrived last august and still hadn't left, but i don't think i met anyone there that had stayed the time they were ment to it was always "one more day", it was that kind of place) MOnday we went into town again with this welsh guy again (Martin) and booked our trains/buses to San Francisco. Also had a wander around town but it was really hot that day so walking around was kept to a minimum.
The next day was one of the reasons that we had decided to stay the extra days as they did a day trip to Tijuana, Mexico. So one of the guys that works there, Chaz, took a bus full of us (about 18) to Tijuana. We stopped and paked in the US and then walked through the border. He does this tour every week so knew everywhere good to go and took us to lots of various bars and we got some pretty cheap and very tasty food (one place did the best tacos i'v ever had). We also walked around in a lot of small markets, unfortunatly it had quite a bit of poverty though and we had like 4-5 year old kids tugging on us and trying to sell anything they could get there hands on. Overall very good trip though and glad we stayed for it. As we had booked to stay in the hostel longer they had to put us in the common room which unfortunatly people were hanging about in till about 3am and we had to catch the train at 7am so we had about 2 and a half hours sleep or so and had to get a taxi which we booked in plenty of time but it still managed to be late. So this ment we missed our train. At first this was pretty annoying but we got a train an hour later and it actually managed to get us up to San Fran about 3 hours earlier! Strange but good for us. Anyway will leave it there again and will speak to you soon, thankyou again for reading, px
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