TravelStream™ news feed for member radiojohn on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/radiojohn en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:44:41 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/radiojohn/1/1247528361/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/radiojohn/1/1247528361/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/radiojohn/1/1247528361/tpod.html Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:44:41 -0400 Around the world in 365 days

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Hawaii, United States

Our flight to Honolulu(which is on the Island of Oahu, one of the eight main Islands that make up Hawai) was a strange one. We had to fly from Auckland to Sydney and then from Sydney to Honolulu. This meant that we would be crossing the international date line and we would be arriving in Hawai before we had left New Zealand timewise(I hope your still following) Our flight left Auckland at 1:30 pm on Saturday April 25th and we arrived in Honolulu at 7:45 am on Saturday April 25th.

What a change it was from New Zealand. There was heat and plenty of it. There were lots of homeless people sleeping in the park and pushing shopping trolleys around which were filled with all their worldly possesions, there were bus drivers announcing over the bus intercom that gratuity was not included in the fare and there were two very tired, jet lagged Irish tourists who only cared about one thing - SLEEP.

After a couple of hours sleep at the hostel we went exploring waikiki beach. It was here that we were greeted by a sign that warned us a shark had been sighted. I guess there was to be no going into the water for us today
. After a short walk down the beach we spotted some turtles and further down the beach a crowd had gathered to look at what we thought were the turtles. It turned out the shark had been spotted and was at least seven foot long. Unfortunately for one woman her hat blew into the water and she could do nothing but watch it float off into the sunset.

Highlights of our time in Honolulu included our trip to Pearl Harbour and our trek up Diamond head which is a volcanoe crater which over looks waikiki beach.

We have all seen the film Pearl harbour but to actually visit the harbour itsself is something else. A memorial is built on the water over the USS Arizona, which was sank during the attack and over 1,500 of its crew perished. You get to the memorial by taking a free ship provided by the navy and while on it you can look down into the wreck of the USS Arizona just under the water. It was quite eery and to this day you can still see where fuel leaks out from the ship and stains the water.

Unfortunately for us the trek up Diamond Head crater proved to be a little more difficult than we expected. We thought it would take one hour to get up and down and we had planned on going snorkelling after so we decided to tackle the trek in our flip flops. This proved to be a rookie mistake and three quarters up the crater we were seriously considering turning back. The only thing that kept us going was all the elderly people who kept passing us out. We thought if they can do it then so can we. Eventually we made it to the top, where one elderly chap with a synthetic foot takes one look at me and says "I hope I dont look as red as you" - Charming.

Hawai was great, beautiful weather and beauitful beaches. One of the things that surprised and annoyed us most was the pricing of goods in shops. The price displayed never included tax or other charges. So you go up to the till expecting to pay $10 but end up paying $12. But if thats the only complaint we have then we are not doing too bad.
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Auckland, North Island, New Zealand

Our time in the Southern Hemisphere ended in Auckland, the largest of the cities in New Zealand. Like the rest of the country, Auckland was very pleasant, very safe and interspersed with extreme activities(base jumps, bungee jumps e.t.c. were all available in city centre locations).

To sum up New Zealand is quite difficult. Its a beautiful country filled with amazing scenery and full of crazy and exciting adventure activities. It was great to see it and the perfect way to travel round it is in a campervan. They are very cheap to rent and the roads in New Zealand are second to none, but if I was asked if I would like to go back to New Zealand then my honest answer would probably be NO. Its not that I didnt enjoy my time there, I just feel like I've been there, done that and bought the T-shirt(well Caroline has, along with a magnet, a postcard, and any other souvenir she could get her hands on)

Next stop for us was Honolulu, capital city of the Hawaian Islands. Aloha
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Taupo, North Island, New Zealand

Lake Taupo is the skydiving capital of the world, with over 30,000 jumps a year.

This was to be the place where Caroline would board a pink plane, rise to 15,000 feet, attach herself to a man and jump out of a plane, where she would then free fall for 60 seconds at 200km per hour or Terminal velocity, before the man would deploy their parachute and the would float back to ground in 4 minutes.

The thing about extreme activities is that it is the thinking about it before hand that is the worst part. Your mind starts to run through all sorts of scenarios and usually they are not good. With Carolin's skydive she didn't have much time to think about it. We arrived at 11am and asked if the had any vacancies that day, they booked her into the 1pm group and it was all over by 2pm. Kiss kiss bang bang.

Well done Caroline, Im proud of you(And a little jealous)
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Wellington, North Island, New Zealand

Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, is located at the south of the north Island and it is the landing point of the ferry between the two Islands.. The crossing took us just over three hours and we arrived excited at the prospect of staying in a hotel(we had treated ourselves, mind you it was budget hotel)and not sleeping in the camper van for a couple of nights.

Wellington like the rest of New Zealand seemed very pleasant. A very hilly city with lots of museums and lookouts to visit. One of the must sees is the National museum and seeing as it was free we paid it(get it!) a visit. After a few hours traipsing around the various floors and exhibits my disliking of museums was reaffirmed. No matter how interactive or pleasing on the eye the exhibits are, I just find them boring. But then again it was free so I cant really complain.

One thing that did surprise me in Wellington was that I found myself being drawn to the Irish pubs. If you have been following this blog then you will know that we have been trying to stay clear of them because we wanted a break from the whole Irish scene, but here in Wellington I couldn't resist them. maybe I was missing home, maybe their food was cheap and their portions enormous, maybe they were the only place that served Cider in town but they were calling to me.... JOHN, WHERE ARE YOU? ...... YOU CANT RESIST US ....... YOU CANT RESIST OUR PORTIONSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
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Blenheim, South Island, New Zealand

Our time in the South island of New Zealand ended with a two day stay in Blenheim, which is in the centre of New Zealand's largest wine producing area - The Marlborough region. This area produces about 65% of one of New Zealand's largest exports - WINE. So it seemed a little fitting that we should go on a wine tour while we were in the area. This we did with a company called the Bubbly Grape wine tours.

If you had asked me would I like to go on a wine tour a year and a half ago my answer would most certainly have been no. I never really enjoyed the taste of wine and always thought that wine drinkers were delirious snobs who could smell anything in a wine glass from freshly cut grass infused with petrol to Autumn leafs falling on a playground while children play hopscotch on the worn tarmac(OK I made that last one up, but you get the picture). But I guess about a year or so ago my taste buds matured a little and I started to enjoy the odd glass of wine. So I was looking forward to our wine tour, all the while a little apprehensive about making a fool of myself in front of the other wine buffs on the tour.

My inexperience with wine was brought to the fore at the first vineyard we stopped at when the tour guide asked each of us what kind of wines we enjoyed? Mild and Fruity was my answer(mild and fruity was the description on the goon I had been drinking the previous evening. GOON is a Three litre box of wine available at most liquor stores for about ten dollars. Its basically the cheapest of the cheap wine you can get, but since it is so cheap and very potent , goon is an integral part of a backpackers diet). Pleased with my answer I waited for recognition from the tour guide in the form of a nod of the head or a smile but what I got was a frown of disapproval. The correct answer, I was informed, would have been what grape variety I enjoyed e.g. Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay e.t.c.

At this point I had no clue what grape variety I liked. I knew i liked white wines more than red wines, but did it really matter what grapes they use? white wine is white wine. I was to be proven wrong by the end of the day.

In all we visited 7 vineyards, tasting an average of 6 wines in each. By the third or fourth vineyard everyone in the group was beginning to spit out some of the wines as we were all beginning to get a little light headed. At the end of the tour we were all well and truly tipsy. I found the day really fascinating and it was very interesting to see how each grape and wine has its own character, and factors such as whether the grape was picked in the morning or evening can have an influence on the taste of the wine.

My favorite winephemism(yes I just made that up) of the day goes to the description of the smell of Sauvignon Blanc, which can be characterized as having the smell of Cats pee on a Gooseberry Bush!
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Franz Josef, South Island, New Zealand

In Franz Josef there is a glacier, a whole load of businesses revolving around the glacier and not much else. Here you can hike up a glacier, take a helicopter ride over the glacier, walk up to the glacier or visit a museum about the glacier - you get the picture. We decided to walk to the glacier(one of the few free activities in the area) and I must admit it WA pretty impressive.

25Km south id Fox Glacier, which is a town similar to Franz Josef, with its own Glacier and similar activities. Again we chose to walk to the glacier and again it was equally as impressive.
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Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand

Having collected our camper van in Christchurch, basically a Toyota people carrier with its back seats removed and converted into a sleeping area, we headed south to a town called Queens town which is known as he "Adrenalin capital of the world" This is the town that lays claim to inventing the bungee and in recent years the canyon swing. Surrounded by mountains, lakes and rivers Queens town is a town with two identities - adventure sport town in the summer and winter sport town in the winter. We were visiting it towards the end of the summer season. Snow was beginning to appear on the peaks of the mountains and the weather was definitely getting colder but we were just in time to get in some adventure sports. I decoded to go for the 109m Canyon swing and river boarding, which is similar to White water rafting except instead of going down the river in a raft you go down the river on a body board. Caroline had decided that neither of these appealed to her, so she was going to wait and do a Sky dive and white water rafting later in our journey.

The Canyon swing was my first activity and to say it was scary would be an understatement. The guys who work at the swing do their very best to wind you up and put you at unease which makes the whole experience harder. There are several jump styles available and I went with "Backwards" for my first jump(watch it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YM08nTuMC0 )and "Gimp boy goes to Hollywood" for my second. Check out their website at www.canyonswing.co.nz and also worth watching is some blokes off an Australian Show called "theFooty SHow" doing the jumps - Hilarious http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pozPMtgPnTw

I would definitely recommend doing the canyon swing unfortunately I cant say the same for the river boarding. There had been a lot of rain before we went down the river and it was flowing pretty high. Although I enjoy the water, the river asked questions of my fitness, Questions which just did not have the answers to. At the end of the river boarding with legs and arms like jelly, barely able to drag my body from the river I vowed to get fit once I return to Ireland. (Time will tell if I keep that vow).

While down south we also managed to visit Milford Sound, which was carved t by a glacier thousands of years ago. Milford Sound is a world heritage sight and receives a staggering 7m of rain fall every year but fortunately the day we visited the weather was amazing. Sailing out through the sound you could not help but be in awe of the scenery. After this it was time to start making our way North
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Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand

We ended our time in Sydney in the place where it all began for us - Sydney. After a disaster of a road trip from Melbourne to Sydney(1000Km), in a shocker of a rental camper van that I would rather not talk about, we caught up with my sister and her partner for a few days Sydney before we flew on to Christchurch, New Zealand.

I can say that one good thing came from our disastrous road trip between Melbourne and Sydney and that was our visit to Australia's capital - Canberra. Although it is thought of as a "nothing" city by many of the visitors to Australia, having nothing to offer and nothing to do, we found it to be a very beautiful city with several places of interest to visit. Of course we had not planned on visiting Canberra but we had to take a detour to leave the afore mentioned "shocker" of a camper van into a garage there. Sightseeing over we returned to the garage to be told the engine needed to be replaced(as we suspected) and that our rental company wouldn't be replacing it until we got to Sydney. We made it to Sydney, barely, and along the way we cursed and cursed and cursed our hire company who agreed to give us a partial refund. All I have to say is "Wicked Campers" you are the worst company I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with and your camper vans SUCK!(Find your zen place John HMMMMMMM)

Ending our time in Australia in Sydney was probably the perfect ending to an amazing time in Oz. Beautiful weather, beautiful harbor, good food, good wine and great company. Although we were obviously sad to be leaving we were also excited for what lay ahead - New Zealand.

Christchurch was or first port of call located near the north of the south Island. For the first time on this trip I managed to sleep on a flight and I arrived in Christchurch after a three hour trip refreshed and nervously expectant. You see New Zealand is touted as the "Adventure capital of the world". If you want to jump out of a plane, off a cliff or off a bridge with a giant rubber band attached to your ankles, this is the place to do it. Extreme activities are commonplace, heart stopping, adrenalin pumping, death defying stunts are what New Zealand is about so I wasn't sure if we were going to be landing the plane or jumping out of it to make a dramatic entrance.

Back on Terra firma my first impressions of New Zealand were good. The day we arrived was cool but fresh. Disappointingly as we waited for a bus at the airport we didn't get to see anyone parachuting back down to earth, no one had giant rubber bands attached to their ankles jumping from the airport roof and there wasn't even any white water rafting taking place in the airport fountain, in-fact there was nothing "Extreme" about this airport at all. As we waited for the public bus to pick us up a mini bus pulls up along side us with a "$5 Dollar Bus" logo emblazoned along its side. The driver asks us if we want to go into the city centre, which we did, and when i ask him how much? he says "$7 each". With his $5 Dollar Bus" logo staring me right in the face I kindly refuse and smile to myself and think "I'm gonna like this place"

After a very difficult bus journey (Traveling on crowded public transport with a large Rucksack and back pack is NOT fun) we finally made it to our hostel in Christchurch - The Jail house Hostel. Its an old jail that has been converted into a hostel. Each room is an actual jail cell complete with bars on the windows and heavy metal cell doors. The hostel was excellent and it certainly has that novelty factor.

Christchurch is best described as very British. Although I have never been to Oxford in England, I would imagine it has a striking resemblance to Christchurch, which even has its on Punting on its river Avon. We Had three days in Christchurch before we picked up our camper van and started our road trip around New Zealand. These days in Christchurch were spent enjoying the local attractions such as taking the gondola up a mountain to enjoy the amazing views around the city, touring round the city on its tram and enjoying a punt on the river Avon. Christchurch was enjoyable but again not very extreme.

Hopefully our next stop - Queenstown, will be more fruitful on the adventure front
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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

As a young boy growing up in Ireland, there were two major Australian influences in my life. Neighbours and Home and Away. Both were Australian soaps, both featured similar, over the top plots and both were, for some reason, extremely entertaining. You see, these two soaps are some what of an institution in Ireland and across the water in the UK also. The clever people at Neighbours, realising the popularity of their soap among backpackers started running a Neighbours night in a pub here in Melbourne, where you could meet, greet and be entertained by some of the stars of the show. The "Neighbours night" has been running for many years now and is a "must do" according to all the guide books and tour operators- well who are we to argue with them?

Of course you have all heard about the devastating bush fires that have affected Victoria. Well the good folks at the Neighbours night decided to have a fund raising night, and myself and Caroline decided this was the time for us to attend the Neighbours night, as all proceeds would be going to to the Victorian Bush fire appeal.

Seeing as it was going to be a special event, there would be a lot more of the cast attending than usual. Normally 3 to 5 show up, on this night 25 cast members, from past and present wold be showing up.

Unfortunately for me I had stopped following the soap several years ago, but Caroline was still an avid fan. Still I was sure I would recognise some of the cast and I was really looking forward to the night.

We got there early, but still a large queue had formed. Eventually we got in an managed to secure a table. once everybody was settled down, the cast members starting coming out on stage. It reminded me of Beetle mania, with everybody stretching to get the best photo and to see their beloved soap stars. Caroline at this stage had gone into Photo over drive, taking photo after photo after photo. I, of course, was unfased by it all(until some of the female cast members came out)

After the cast introductions, we were told that we could get our photos taken with the cast at various spots around the pub. So off we set(well off Caroline set, dragging me behind her) with the mission of getting a photograph with everyone.

We did manage to get a photo with most of the cast and Caroline had started to act like a school girl with a crush around some of the cast members(check out her smile in the Photo with "Dan"). She even got a Kiss of Alan Fletcher who Plays "Dr. Karl" and professed that she was never washing her cheek again

There is an affliction which affects men when they go to a public toilet called "Stage fright". Unlike actors who get stage fright and are afraid to go on, when a man gets stage fright in a toilet, well, he just cant GO. The reason I'm telling you this is because after the photos I had gone to the toilet, only to find myself standing beside two of the cast at the urinals. I found it quite ironic to be experiencing stage fright beside two actors and wondered if a comical quip of the sorts would release the tension and help me GO. I decided to to keep quiet and think of water falls and running water.

After the Toilet incident I found Caroline and was only too happy to inform her that I had been to the toilet with some of the cast(Still totally unfazed) and boasted that I was never washing my hands again. The disgusted look on her face led me to believe she did not find my statement funny.

Overall the night was a great laugh and even better still, $30,000 was raised for the bush fire victims.
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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

As I sit here in an overly warm Internet cafe, sweating profusely on a computer that has, how shall we say this, "speed issues", I realize that this is my first blog posting in months. For this I must apologize. Its not that the last few months have been extraordinarily busy, in fact the opposite is true, but I have neglected my blogging duties and it is something that I shall be trying to address in the last three months of our trip round the world.

"Three Months" I hear you gasp. Yes, it is true that only three months remain of our trip round the world and much like you start to dread going back to School after your summer holidays, we too are starting to dread going back to Ireland after our year long Holiday. Although we still have so much to do before we get home (New Zealand, Hawaii, San Francisco, Las Vegas, LA, Canada, New York and then Home), June 1st, our arrival date back in Ireland is hanging over us like a big count down timer.

"Boo Hoo" I hear you say "Get over it" and your right.

In the last few posts on here, you heard about our road trip from Adelaide to Sydney and then up to my sisters in long Flat for Christmas. Christmas was an odd sort of affair out here. It is a lot like home, with presents and Food and drink, except with warm weather added in(Very warm). It is surprising the difference heat and good weather can make. The lead up to Christmas was a bit of an anti Climax, the decorations are rubbish out here and seeing Santa running down the beach with a surf board under his arm in all the TV ads just isn't right. Cold weather, fairy lights and open fires say Christmas to me, unfortunately none of them were to be found in Long Flat.

Of course it wouldn't be Christmas without a last mad dash to the shops to get some pressies and true to form myself and Caroline left our present shopping until Christmas eve. As we ran around like headless chickens, in and out of crowded shops, we cursed our stupidity at having left our shopping so late but I have no doubt that next Christmas eve will be exactly the same.

As I said the lead up to Christmas just didn't do it for me, but fortunately Christmas day turned out to be a great success. We had Christmas dinner in the back Garden with my sister, her boyfriend and some of his relatives. It was a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings. The heat having dinner outside was excruciating. It is hard enough having a big dinner, but having a big dinner in 35 Degree heat is a challenge, add into the mix all the flies trying to get at the food and it was avery big challenge but one that I thoroughly enjoyed.

After dinner we made our way to the River nearby and enjoyed some swimming, drinking and Canoing. Of course I got a little cocky going down some small rapids and was the only person all day to fall out of the canoes, much to everyones enjoyment.

We had planned on spending New years eve at a concert on Sydney's Bondi Beach, but due to the lack of accommodation in the city and combined with an injury to my knee( We were having a competition on a trampoline to see who could bounce the highest. I lost and spent the next 7 days with my swollen knee elevated), we decided it was best not to go.

After Christmas we made our way back to Melbourne where we were going to settle for a few months and try and save some money for our trip home. Unfortunately this proved to be harder than we thought. We found accommodation pretty easy in a beach side suburb called St. Kilda but finding work turned out to be a little harder. Unfortunately the recession caught up with us here in Australia. I eventually found work doing door to door sales, but Caroline wasn't so Lucky and hence that is the reason we haven't been as active here in Melbourne with our outings like in Perth.

Comparing Melbourne and Perth is like comparing Chalk and cheese. Perth is real laid back and much smaller, where as Melbourne is like Party Central. No matter what day of the week it is there is always something happening, wheteher its a footie game at the MCG or the Tennis at Rod laver arena or a concert in Flemington Race course. Lots of restaurants and pubs where ever you go serving food to be enjoyed outside in the good weather.

So Melbourne has definitely been a different experience to Perth, but both were amazing in their own ways
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