I saw Mt Doom yesterday!
But now we're in Rotorua and it’s been raining alllll day. Poopy.
Wellington ended up being okay, the city has a lot of potential but our timing with being there just seemed a little off. It was orientation week for the first year uni students, so the place was just crawling with 18year olds. And not just at night either, we saw groups of them doing a scavenger hunt of the CBD during breakfast one day we were there. I also made the mistake of not running until late into our second day there and ended up discovering the beaches and Oriental Bay and amazing view of the city a little too late to be able to come back and enjoy it. Yesterday we took a long ass bus ride from Wellington to Rotorua. The changing landscape was great though, I was in the Shire and Gondor and saw Mt Doom in a matter of hours! And we had another great Kiwi bus driver with lively commentary.
When we got here, to Rotorua (inland but on Lake Rototua, and is known for all the Geo-thermal activity in the area), the party in the bar next to the hostel was bumping, and it wasn’t even 8pm. I went on an unsuccessful goon mission and then we headed over to check it our anyways. It was an interesting mix of people to say the least.
This morning I got up and ran along the lake front, it was so foggy it looked like an ocean because you couldn't see the other side, past Sulfur Bay and then back through town. Sulfur Bay smells like rotten eggs, actually most of the town does, haha
Since it hadn’t stopped raining I decided to bypass some of the other geo-thermal features until tomorrow morning (fingers crossed that it’s nice!) before the last leg of our New Zealand journey- the bus to Auckland!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Dunedin, you lose.
Well I almost did it again folks! I almost hurt myself quite badly in an isolated place due to over ambition leading to stupidity! But instead of being on a lone stretch of beach of North Shore Oahu I was in a sheep paddock on the Otago Peninsula.
Let me start from the beginning... I woke up before 8 to go to the Otago Peninsula for a little tramping. Kate was feeling sick and decided not to come, probably a good thing, she would’ve hated it. I had checked on the internet briefly and spoken to Chelsie about where to go, so I rough idea of my route. I took the city bus out Portobello Road to the harbor side or low road on the peninsula. I told the bus driver where I wanted to go, which was Camp Road Track, he asked if I was going to the Castle- Lanarch Castle- I wasn’t but knew I would walk by it so said yes anyways. He looked at me like I was crazy and told me to be careful because it would be slippery. Very slippery. Did I mention it was another miserable day in Dunedin? Cold and rainy and YUCK. I could’ve hibernated in the house again all day but figured I might never come back to see the Otago Peninsula again since the weather seemed to be so shitty, so it may be my only chance!
When I got off the bus the driver told me to be careful and that it would slippery for the 6th time and I thanked him. I found the sign for the track and set down or in this case up the track. It was pretty much straight up on, at first, a hard-packed clay road, and then a slippery as shit mud track once I went through the first paddock gate. The nearly vertical angle and mud combined for me loosing my footing and almost taking a mud bath and quickly decided that wet feet and lower legs would beat being covered in mud, so I moved into the tall grass between the road and the fence. Here going was easier and I proceeded to climb, climb, climb. My whole way up that side of the hill and the only other living beings I saw were two horses, one miniature and one regular size; I was a little worried that I was out in weather that even the sheep stayed indoors from. I passed another gate and was back on hard-packed road and passed by a few private homes, and finally saw my first sheep. I also finally turned around at this point to see not only how far I’d come but that the view was quite spectacular despite the fog and overcast skies. I could only imagine how gorgeous it must be on a sunny day. The terrain began to change a bit now too, instead of paddock it was wooded and mossy. I passed a sheep on one side who was startled by my presence (sheep truly are sheepish, haha) and as he ran away from the fence I saw that he was caught in barbed wire from the fence! He managed to free himself though, and the wire only appeared to be wrapped up in his fur/hair/wool? The scene as I approached was almost like the sheep with the wire was trying to peer pressure his fellow sheep into joining him, “All the cool sheep are doing it. Just rub up against the wire a little bit. It feels soooo good.” Soon I came to a fork in the road, one way looked less traveled and led through a gate and into a paddock. The other way was paved proper. I took the proper road and around the bend came to a big chain link fence on one side, and then around the next bend I came to the gates to Lanarch Castle. I wasn’t lost after all it seemed. I took a picture of the gates because I sure wasn’t going in ($10 to see the gardens, $25 to get in the castle). I noticed a sign by the Castle gates that said Camp Road on it, but it pointed in the direction I had just come. I thought that that fork I’d recently passed must be a continuation of Camp Road. So I turned around and went back to the fork, and of course I didn’t bother to check the map I’d been carrying and not looking at, haha… probably should have.
In the paddock there wasn’t a clear path but there were posts with yellow tips, so I followed those. The sheep were in full force now, as were their droppings. The went up and down hilly terrain and as I was concentrating mostly on not stepping in poop, I slipped in the wet grass and fell in sheep shit!! Luckily it only got on my bottom, but shiiiiiit, I slipped in sheep shit! My first thoughts, before the shit ones, were actually: “My bad ankle!” I was really scared that I’d messed it up again as my left leg (bad side) went under me and to the side, while my right went straight out. It was fine though, crisis averted. I continued my tramp and had a new mantra: “Everyone loves some sheep shit. Everyone loves sheep shit.” To the tune of what I think is a Pink song? So I tramped on down and came to two gates. I couldn’t tell which side I should go on because I couldn’t see where the yellow posts went. I ended up picking the wrong side and figured I would just hop the fence at some point, when it looked feasible and easiest, but then I came to a little stream. And by little I mean to wide to jump, haha. I walked to the edge of this stream to assess the situation and then slipped again! This time falling on my back, getting poop on my backpack and mud all over my watch’s leather band. I washed the watch off with stream water as best I could (I could see sheep dung in the stream) and then shimmied along the fence that crossed the stream that was right next to me to the other side. Then I trudged up the hill, repeating my mantra and I think I hopped the fence or went through another gate, I can’t even remember now.
I finally got to Highcliff Road and had to hop and gate there (it was locked with a chain, a sure sign I was not in the right place) and then hopped another gate to keep following the yellow posts. I tramped uphill for a little ways and stopped at the summit. The rain was still falling but the fog had cleared a little and I could see the paddocks on one side and ocean on the other. The ocean looked far away still though, farther than what I thought it should be. I took out the map and realized I was way off course. Shit. I decided to go back to Highcliff Road and try to find the track down to the ocean that I had originally been hoping to take. I found the track signs after about 20-30mins walking along the road. The sand dunes at the bottom looked inviting but not for soaking wet and sheep shit encrusted clothing. By then it was almost noon and I was starting to feel a little hungry and a little cold so decided I should get back to Portobello Road and the bus stop. The easiest way to get there would be to go back to the castle? No- Green Acres Track. But first I had to find it. And find it I did, it was actually well and correctly marked. Again it was slippery so I kind of straddled the path as it went down the hill. This track wasn’t through paddocks but woods with pine trees, a nice change of scenery and no poop to fall in. When I reached the paved road- Green Acres Road- I was excited and since I could see how far down the hill I still had to go to get to Portobello Road I decided to run down the hill! Weeeee it was fun and all the sheep stared at me as I ran by! It didn’t take long to get to the bottom of the hill and what turned out to be the village of MacAndrew Bay. I had plenty of time to eat lunch and find the bus stop. Twas certainly a crazy adventure, all before 1pm!
By the time I got back to Chelsie’s I was cold and just wanted something warm to drink and to curl up under a blanket. So I did just that as Kate napped. When she woke up we went out to find Speight’s Brewery to take the tour. But we took a wrong turn and ended up at the wrong end of the street and missed the last tour of the day. We checked out Cadburyland and didn’t buy anything, and then went to the real Speight’s anyway. Upon arrival we discovered that we could get a tasting tray of 6 brews and ordered those immediately, as that was the only part of the tour we were actually wanting to do! Chelsie later joined up there for dinner and we had a lovely time.
The next morning we got back on another bus and said goodbye to Chelsie. We had the worst bus driver in all of New Zealand. He didn’t commentate and didn’t even tell us where or why we were stopping- was it a break? Or were we picking up or dropping off? By 2pm we were back in ChCh (Christchurch) and back in jail. We walked in to town and wandered around for a bit, well a few hours. Kate’s friend Alice was staying at our hostel so they hung out as I checked email and got ready for the next day. Another early one.
In the middle of the night Kate’s phone decided it was finally going to update itself to the right time, so at 3am here alarm went off. Kate woke me up telling me it was 10 after 6. I was baffled that my alarm hadn’t gone off. I checked my phone and it said 3:10am. What? We checked another clock and figured out what had happened and went back to sleep. Three hours later we were up again and off to the train station. The free shuttle was a little late and I was about to freak out when it finally showed. We got on the train after a little baggage mishap and enjoyed the 5 hour journey on the TranzCoastal route up the east coast of the South Island. After disembarking from the train we walked a couple hundred meters to the ferry terminal and checked in and then found some seats.
The ferry ride was uneventful, but it got quite rough when we hit the Cook Straight and Kate felt a little green.
When we arrived on the North Island we waited for a shuttle to the rail station and then took a bus into the city, found our hostel, checked in, met our Irish roomies (they're everywhere, and it was so cold and rainy here earlier in the week you could have told me I was in Ireland and I would've believed you), and then wandered around for a little bit. Then we had free dinner at the adjoining restuarant/bar to the hostel, it was half-decent.
I went for a wander a bit later and then we used our 2-4-1 drink tickets at the bar. It was still pretty early and the 18year olds were out and we tired to find a cool bar but every place was either a club full of children or empty. We went back to the hostel and ran into one of our roomies, Richard, he was appalled we weren't going out, gave us 2 more 2-4-1 tickets and told us to meet him and the gang out in the courtyard (he'd been staying here in the hostel for like 5 weeks or something like that?!). So we went back to the bar for round 3 and 4, and watched the Con-tiki tour children dance on the bar and make a conga line, and then went to the courtyard. People were just hanging around and at midnight we were in want of more drink so got directions to where this bar we were all headed was and went ahead.
Even in the line up we knew we would not last. It's orientation week across the country for Uni is back in session, and shit, this bar was full of 18year old first years looking to get wasted and then make out with a stranger. We left after 5 minutes.
In the night I was woken by this young Briton in our room who snored like he had something shoved down his throat. Jesus. I wanted to throw shoes at his head, but the bunks are so high at this place that I didn't want to climb down.
ANyways, today we slept in and then had an okay $5 breakfast and then hit the Te Papa musuem for a few hours. It was pretty cool and if I hadn't wanted a coffee more than oxygen I would've spent many more hours there. Once my caffine fix was satisfied by a visit to the Goblin Cafe, I wandered a bit, got groceries, and then went for a run along the waterfront. I should have done so yesterday because it is the best part of the city, and now I sort of feel like I missed out a little. But we have time tomorrow (bus to Rotorua isn't until noon) so I might go dip my feet into the ocean at one of the beaches!
Sorry, no picks just yet from the last few days, but the Queenstown and earlier ones are up on the side!
Let me start from the beginning... I woke up before 8 to go to the Otago Peninsula for a little tramping. Kate was feeling sick and decided not to come, probably a good thing, she would’ve hated it. I had checked on the internet briefly and spoken to Chelsie about where to go, so I rough idea of my route. I took the city bus out Portobello Road to the harbor side or low road on the peninsula. I told the bus driver where I wanted to go, which was Camp Road Track, he asked if I was going to the Castle- Lanarch Castle- I wasn’t but knew I would walk by it so said yes anyways. He looked at me like I was crazy and told me to be careful because it would be slippery. Very slippery. Did I mention it was another miserable day in Dunedin? Cold and rainy and YUCK. I could’ve hibernated in the house again all day but figured I might never come back to see the Otago Peninsula again since the weather seemed to be so shitty, so it may be my only chance!
When I got off the bus the driver told me to be careful and that it would slippery for the 6th time and I thanked him. I found the sign for the track and set down or in this case up the track. It was pretty much straight up on, at first, a hard-packed clay road, and then a slippery as shit mud track once I went through the first paddock gate. The nearly vertical angle and mud combined for me loosing my footing and almost taking a mud bath and quickly decided that wet feet and lower legs would beat being covered in mud, so I moved into the tall grass between the road and the fence. Here going was easier and I proceeded to climb, climb, climb. My whole way up that side of the hill and the only other living beings I saw were two horses, one miniature and one regular size; I was a little worried that I was out in weather that even the sheep stayed indoors from. I passed another gate and was back on hard-packed road and passed by a few private homes, and finally saw my first sheep. I also finally turned around at this point to see not only how far I’d come but that the view was quite spectacular despite the fog and overcast skies. I could only imagine how gorgeous it must be on a sunny day. The terrain began to change a bit now too, instead of paddock it was wooded and mossy. I passed a sheep on one side who was startled by my presence (sheep truly are sheepish, haha) and as he ran away from the fence I saw that he was caught in barbed wire from the fence! He managed to free himself though, and the wire only appeared to be wrapped up in his fur/hair/wool? The scene as I approached was almost like the sheep with the wire was trying to peer pressure his fellow sheep into joining him, “All the cool sheep are doing it. Just rub up against the wire a little bit. It feels soooo good.” Soon I came to a fork in the road, one way looked less traveled and led through a gate and into a paddock. The other way was paved proper. I took the proper road and around the bend came to a big chain link fence on one side, and then around the next bend I came to the gates to Lanarch Castle. I wasn’t lost after all it seemed. I took a picture of the gates because I sure wasn’t going in ($10 to see the gardens, $25 to get in the castle). I noticed a sign by the Castle gates that said Camp Road on it, but it pointed in the direction I had just come. I thought that that fork I’d recently passed must be a continuation of Camp Road. So I turned around and went back to the fork, and of course I didn’t bother to check the map I’d been carrying and not looking at, haha… probably should have.
In the paddock there wasn’t a clear path but there were posts with yellow tips, so I followed those. The sheep were in full force now, as were their droppings. The went up and down hilly terrain and as I was concentrating mostly on not stepping in poop, I slipped in the wet grass and fell in sheep shit!! Luckily it only got on my bottom, but shiiiiiit, I slipped in sheep shit! My first thoughts, before the shit ones, were actually: “My bad ankle!” I was really scared that I’d messed it up again as my left leg (bad side) went under me and to the side, while my right went straight out. It was fine though, crisis averted. I continued my tramp and had a new mantra: “Everyone loves some sheep shit. Everyone loves sheep shit.” To the tune of what I think is a Pink song? So I tramped on down and came to two gates. I couldn’t tell which side I should go on because I couldn’t see where the yellow posts went. I ended up picking the wrong side and figured I would just hop the fence at some point, when it looked feasible and easiest, but then I came to a little stream. And by little I mean to wide to jump, haha. I walked to the edge of this stream to assess the situation and then slipped again! This time falling on my back, getting poop on my backpack and mud all over my watch’s leather band. I washed the watch off with stream water as best I could (I could see sheep dung in the stream) and then shimmied along the fence that crossed the stream that was right next to me to the other side. Then I trudged up the hill, repeating my mantra and I think I hopped the fence or went through another gate, I can’t even remember now.
I finally got to Highcliff Road and had to hop and gate there (it was locked with a chain, a sure sign I was not in the right place) and then hopped another gate to keep following the yellow posts. I tramped uphill for a little ways and stopped at the summit. The rain was still falling but the fog had cleared a little and I could see the paddocks on one side and ocean on the other. The ocean looked far away still though, farther than what I thought it should be. I took out the map and realized I was way off course. Shit. I decided to go back to Highcliff Road and try to find the track down to the ocean that I had originally been hoping to take. I found the track signs after about 20-30mins walking along the road. The sand dunes at the bottom looked inviting but not for soaking wet and sheep shit encrusted clothing. By then it was almost noon and I was starting to feel a little hungry and a little cold so decided I should get back to Portobello Road and the bus stop. The easiest way to get there would be to go back to the castle? No- Green Acres Track. But first I had to find it. And find it I did, it was actually well and correctly marked. Again it was slippery so I kind of straddled the path as it went down the hill. This track wasn’t through paddocks but woods with pine trees, a nice change of scenery and no poop to fall in. When I reached the paved road- Green Acres Road- I was excited and since I could see how far down the hill I still had to go to get to Portobello Road I decided to run down the hill! Weeeee it was fun and all the sheep stared at me as I ran by! It didn’t take long to get to the bottom of the hill and what turned out to be the village of MacAndrew Bay. I had plenty of time to eat lunch and find the bus stop. Twas certainly a crazy adventure, all before 1pm!
By the time I got back to Chelsie’s I was cold and just wanted something warm to drink and to curl up under a blanket. So I did just that as Kate napped. When she woke up we went out to find Speight’s Brewery to take the tour. But we took a wrong turn and ended up at the wrong end of the street and missed the last tour of the day. We checked out Cadburyland and didn’t buy anything, and then went to the real Speight’s anyway. Upon arrival we discovered that we could get a tasting tray of 6 brews and ordered those immediately, as that was the only part of the tour we were actually wanting to do! Chelsie later joined up there for dinner and we had a lovely time.
The next morning we got back on another bus and said goodbye to Chelsie. We had the worst bus driver in all of New Zealand. He didn’t commentate and didn’t even tell us where or why we were stopping- was it a break? Or were we picking up or dropping off? By 2pm we were back in ChCh (Christchurch) and back in jail. We walked in to town and wandered around for a bit, well a few hours. Kate’s friend Alice was staying at our hostel so they hung out as I checked email and got ready for the next day. Another early one.
In the middle of the night Kate’s phone decided it was finally going to update itself to the right time, so at 3am here alarm went off. Kate woke me up telling me it was 10 after 6. I was baffled that my alarm hadn’t gone off. I checked my phone and it said 3:10am. What? We checked another clock and figured out what had happened and went back to sleep. Three hours later we were up again and off to the train station. The free shuttle was a little late and I was about to freak out when it finally showed. We got on the train after a little baggage mishap and enjoyed the 5 hour journey on the TranzCoastal route up the east coast of the South Island. After disembarking from the train we walked a couple hundred meters to the ferry terminal and checked in and then found some seats.
The ferry ride was uneventful, but it got quite rough when we hit the Cook Straight and Kate felt a little green.
When we arrived on the North Island we waited for a shuttle to the rail station and then took a bus into the city, found our hostel, checked in, met our Irish roomies (they're everywhere, and it was so cold and rainy here earlier in the week you could have told me I was in Ireland and I would've believed you), and then wandered around for a little bit. Then we had free dinner at the adjoining restuarant/bar to the hostel, it was half-decent.
I went for a wander a bit later and then we used our 2-4-1 drink tickets at the bar. It was still pretty early and the 18year olds were out and we tired to find a cool bar but every place was either a club full of children or empty. We went back to the hostel and ran into one of our roomies, Richard, he was appalled we weren't going out, gave us 2 more 2-4-1 tickets and told us to meet him and the gang out in the courtyard (he'd been staying here in the hostel for like 5 weeks or something like that?!). So we went back to the bar for round 3 and 4, and watched the Con-tiki tour children dance on the bar and make a conga line, and then went to the courtyard. People were just hanging around and at midnight we were in want of more drink so got directions to where this bar we were all headed was and went ahead.
Even in the line up we knew we would not last. It's orientation week across the country for Uni is back in session, and shit, this bar was full of 18year old first years looking to get wasted and then make out with a stranger. We left after 5 minutes.
In the night I was woken by this young Briton in our room who snored like he had something shoved down his throat. Jesus. I wanted to throw shoes at his head, but the bunks are so high at this place that I didn't want to climb down.
ANyways, today we slept in and then had an okay $5 breakfast and then hit the Te Papa musuem for a few hours. It was pretty cool and if I hadn't wanted a coffee more than oxygen I would've spent many more hours there. Once my caffine fix was satisfied by a visit to the Goblin Cafe, I wandered a bit, got groceries, and then went for a run along the waterfront. I should have done so yesterday because it is the best part of the city, and now I sort of feel like I missed out a little. But we have time tomorrow (bus to Rotorua isn't until noon) so I might go dip my feet into the ocean at one of the beaches!
Sorry, no picks just yet from the last few days, but the Queenstown and earlier ones are up on the side!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Queenstown, I miss you already
Okay, so my last big post about Queenstown did not do it justice and Kate called it 'lame' I believe. Can't have any of that.
Let's see... well that night when I said I was going to bed I didn't. We ended up going to the liquor store (actually what they're called, the Kiwi's have their heads on straight when it comes to booze) for beerz and then playing some juvenile drinking games with the Brits and one fellow Canadian in our room. The Britons told us they were 23 but we later learned they were here on there gap year and were only 18!!! 1990 on the one kid's license! That's younger than Greg! I nearly shat my pants in the bar over that one, haha. Anyway, it was a fun night but does not even to compare to what we got up to the next 3 nights in Queenstown.
The next morning everyone left our room and Kate and I left to find internet and book some shit and figure out when we were going to Milford Sound and doing our extreme activities a la Queenstown. When we returned to the room later in the day we found a group of 5 Irishmen were our new roomies and that they were in our age range, finally, as after Surfers and the previous night (The one kid asked Kate to tuck him in and tell him a bedtime story. He also had his hand on her leg in the bar, so who really knows what his intentions were there, haha) we'd had enough 18 year old interaction to last like forever. Although, the one good thing about the 18 year old Britons were that they left a bunch of shit behind, shit being alchol. About 1/5 of a bottle of vodka and 1/3 of a box of goon, so Kate and I drank for free that night! We also told the Irish lads about goon and they went and got their own and we all had a goon and vodka good time with no lame drinking games! haha We went back to the same bar from the night before but it was about 100 times better, with live music and a ton of people. We also headed back over the World Bar, it was again kind of lame though, although I got to dance to my heart's content.
When we got back to the room only two of the guys were there, Gary and Gordo, and some general drunken banter took place, including the asking as to whether Gordo could be 'Big Spoon' to one of us. Pretty hilarious.
So the next morning we woke up at 6:20am for our day trip to Milford Sound. We were both still so drunk but we some how made the bus at 7:05 and headed off for our 5hour bus ride to Milford Sound. I slept a little but tired as hard as I could to take in the scenary because it was absolutely stunning. We were truely in Middle Earth now and the drunkness and ensuing hangover high made the whole landscape feel just so surreal. Incredible. Incredible. Incredible. Again our bus driver was great with educational and entertaining commentary and we stopped at all the sights on the way- Te Anau, Mirror Lakes, The Chasm, Homer Tunnel, just to name a few. Once we got to the sound, which is actually a fjord (we were in Fiordland National Park, spelt wrong on purpose), we boarded the Milford Sound Encounter Nature Cruise for a 2hour boat ride in the sound/fjord. More natural beauty. More hangover high. haha. It was really beautiful. My pictures won't do it justice.
Back on the bus for another 5 hours, mostly sleeping this time, and we were back in Queenstown. I had vowed that I would not be drinking or going out, but my arm was quickly twisted at the offer of goon and after a couple glasses was back at the Buffalo Bar! And just in time for the Wet Junk Contest! (There was supposedly a Wet T-Shirt Contest happening, and the guys were all excited, but it either never happened or we missed it by hours). Yeah so that was great and since we had our extreme activities the next pretty early we set a 1am curfew and were asleep by 1:30am... or so we thought... at 3:30am the lads got home and they were mangled and hilarity slash "trouble" followed and I didn't sleep much that night for a variety of reasons, mostly cuz of snoring and elbows in my face, hahaha.
Oh, so I forgot to mention that we had to change rooms for our last night because we'd decided to stay an extra night after our first night and Base is pretty lame like that, the Irishmen were leaving too but to another hostel. That morning we checked out, put our stuff in storage, and headed off for adventure! Kate went canyoning and I went River Surfing. River Surfing was lame, I was expecting way more from it, but the river conditions weren't very good and I did get a free T-shirt out of it, and witnessed a funny interaction between the Russian photographer and these British travelers on the bus back to town from the river. The travelers were talking about their plans to go to Christchurch and all of the sudden the Russian, Pavel, asks or I guess says "I ride with you to Christchurch?" And the Brits were just kind of like "eerrrr, okay. Now how much is the DVD?" (Pavel was burning them a potentially $45 DVD of the River surfing on the bus at the time). Pavel told them free, and then Brits joked amongst themselves about how they ask to stay at Pavel's and use his shower etc (they'd been trying to save money by sleeping in their car). I think you may have had to have been there? haha
So back in town I had time to check back in the hostel (our new room was with 18 year old Danish kids! 6 of them! yay!) and have lunch, before heading off for my bungy! With that all taken care of I walked up the street to the Bungy Shop to wait for the bus out to the Kawarau Bridge and who walked in but 2 of our former Irish roomies. Turned out they'd booked the same bungy as I had, so yay for friends!
The bungy was awesome, as I mentioned in the previous post, despite the rain and freezing wind. When I got back to town I had a long hot shower to thaw out, had dinner and then headed out for the best ice cream ever- Dark chocolate with macadamia nuts from the Patagonia Chocolate Company. It was so rich I almost couldn't finish it. After that it was back to the bottle (after trying to have an unsuccessful nap b/c the Danish were so bloody loud) and then back to the Buffalo Bar and our Irish lads and more insanity and a good end to a great couple of days in Queenstown!
Another early morning and we were on a bus with all our shit and off to Dunedin and Chelsie! She met us at the bus depot and gave us a key to her place (she had to go work on her thesis) and instructions to make ourselves at home. It was so rainy and cold here that I cuddled up in a big fleece blanket and read and napped all day. Chelsie came home around dinner time and cooked us an amazing meal, then we watched Stardust and caught up on internet BS.
Then I slept for over 12hours.
Today we went into town in the rain and cold and checked out a few things, including the Dunedin Public Art Gallery where we were just in time for an exhibition talk by the curator on "The Alumni" exhibition by Peter Stichbury. It was quite inspirational, might be getting the sketchbook out in the next few days. We also checked out the old Train Station (very ornate) and then met Chelsie in town and headed to the grocery store for dinner fixings. We came home and made a magical salad complete with pumpkin squash buttercup. Then I made cookies :)
Tomorrow we'll head out to the Otago Peninsula to try to see some wildlife and hit up the Speight Brewery!
Let's see... well that night when I said I was going to bed I didn't. We ended up going to the liquor store (actually what they're called, the Kiwi's have their heads on straight when it comes to booze) for beerz and then playing some juvenile drinking games with the Brits and one fellow Canadian in our room. The Britons told us they were 23 but we later learned they were here on there gap year and were only 18!!! 1990 on the one kid's license! That's younger than Greg! I nearly shat my pants in the bar over that one, haha. Anyway, it was a fun night but does not even to compare to what we got up to the next 3 nights in Queenstown.
The next morning everyone left our room and Kate and I left to find internet and book some shit and figure out when we were going to Milford Sound and doing our extreme activities a la Queenstown. When we returned to the room later in the day we found a group of 5 Irishmen were our new roomies and that they were in our age range, finally, as after Surfers and the previous night (The one kid asked Kate to tuck him in and tell him a bedtime story. He also had his hand on her leg in the bar, so who really knows what his intentions were there, haha) we'd had enough 18 year old interaction to last like forever. Although, the one good thing about the 18 year old Britons were that they left a bunch of shit behind, shit being alchol. About 1/5 of a bottle of vodka and 1/3 of a box of goon, so Kate and I drank for free that night! We also told the Irish lads about goon and they went and got their own and we all had a goon and vodka good time with no lame drinking games! haha We went back to the same bar from the night before but it was about 100 times better, with live music and a ton of people. We also headed back over the World Bar, it was again kind of lame though, although I got to dance to my heart's content.
When we got back to the room only two of the guys were there, Gary and Gordo, and some general drunken banter took place, including the asking as to whether Gordo could be 'Big Spoon' to one of us. Pretty hilarious.
So the next morning we woke up at 6:20am for our day trip to Milford Sound. We were both still so drunk but we some how made the bus at 7:05 and headed off for our 5hour bus ride to Milford Sound. I slept a little but tired as hard as I could to take in the scenary because it was absolutely stunning. We were truely in Middle Earth now and the drunkness and ensuing hangover high made the whole landscape feel just so surreal. Incredible. Incredible. Incredible. Again our bus driver was great with educational and entertaining commentary and we stopped at all the sights on the way- Te Anau, Mirror Lakes, The Chasm, Homer Tunnel, just to name a few. Once we got to the sound, which is actually a fjord (we were in Fiordland National Park, spelt wrong on purpose), we boarded the Milford Sound Encounter Nature Cruise for a 2hour boat ride in the sound/fjord. More natural beauty. More hangover high. haha. It was really beautiful. My pictures won't do it justice.
Back on the bus for another 5 hours, mostly sleeping this time, and we were back in Queenstown. I had vowed that I would not be drinking or going out, but my arm was quickly twisted at the offer of goon and after a couple glasses was back at the Buffalo Bar! And just in time for the Wet Junk Contest! (There was supposedly a Wet T-Shirt Contest happening, and the guys were all excited, but it either never happened or we missed it by hours). Yeah so that was great and since we had our extreme activities the next pretty early we set a 1am curfew and were asleep by 1:30am... or so we thought... at 3:30am the lads got home and they were mangled and hilarity slash "trouble" followed and I didn't sleep much that night for a variety of reasons, mostly cuz of snoring and elbows in my face, hahaha.
Oh, so I forgot to mention that we had to change rooms for our last night because we'd decided to stay an extra night after our first night and Base is pretty lame like that, the Irishmen were leaving too but to another hostel. That morning we checked out, put our stuff in storage, and headed off for adventure! Kate went canyoning and I went River Surfing. River Surfing was lame, I was expecting way more from it, but the river conditions weren't very good and I did get a free T-shirt out of it, and witnessed a funny interaction between the Russian photographer and these British travelers on the bus back to town from the river. The travelers were talking about their plans to go to Christchurch and all of the sudden the Russian, Pavel, asks or I guess says "I ride with you to Christchurch?" And the Brits were just kind of like "eerrrr, okay. Now how much is the DVD?" (Pavel was burning them a potentially $45 DVD of the River surfing on the bus at the time). Pavel told them free, and then Brits joked amongst themselves about how they ask to stay at Pavel's and use his shower etc (they'd been trying to save money by sleeping in their car). I think you may have had to have been there? haha
So back in town I had time to check back in the hostel (our new room was with 18 year old Danish kids! 6 of them! yay!) and have lunch, before heading off for my bungy! With that all taken care of I walked up the street to the Bungy Shop to wait for the bus out to the Kawarau Bridge and who walked in but 2 of our former Irish roomies. Turned out they'd booked the same bungy as I had, so yay for friends!
The bungy was awesome, as I mentioned in the previous post, despite the rain and freezing wind. When I got back to town I had a long hot shower to thaw out, had dinner and then headed out for the best ice cream ever- Dark chocolate with macadamia nuts from the Patagonia Chocolate Company. It was so rich I almost couldn't finish it. After that it was back to the bottle (after trying to have an unsuccessful nap b/c the Danish were so bloody loud) and then back to the Buffalo Bar and our Irish lads and more insanity and a good end to a great couple of days in Queenstown!
Another early morning and we were on a bus with all our shit and off to Dunedin and Chelsie! She met us at the bus depot and gave us a key to her place (she had to go work on her thesis) and instructions to make ourselves at home. It was so rainy and cold here that I cuddled up in a big fleece blanket and read and napped all day. Chelsie came home around dinner time and cooked us an amazing meal, then we watched Stardust and caught up on internet BS.
Then I slept for over 12hours.
Today we went into town in the rain and cold and checked out a few things, including the Dunedin Public Art Gallery where we were just in time for an exhibition talk by the curator on "The Alumni" exhibition by Peter Stichbury. It was quite inspirational, might be getting the sketchbook out in the next few days. We also checked out the old Train Station (very ornate) and then met Chelsie in town and headed to the grocery store for dinner fixings. We came home and made a magical salad complete with pumpkin squash buttercup. Then I made cookies :)
Tomorrow we'll head out to the Otago Peninsula to try to see some wildlife and hit up the Speight Brewery!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Kawarau Bridge
Today I jumped off a bridge.
I think bungy jumping might be better than sky diving... might go again in Auckland!
(The pic isn't me, but gives you an idea... and yes, I sure did go for the dunk!)
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
QUEENSTOWN, NEW ZEALAND!
[Written Last Night]
I think everyone that I know (and can tolerate) should move to Queenstown. I’ve only been here about 4hours but I already love it. I’m going to go bungy jumping and then do some sort of water thing- either river surfing or canyoning. There’s a guy from Edmonton staying in our hostel room who said canyoning was really cool. We had a beautiful and successful day today, much better than yesterday. Yesterday started off with a super early and pricey jaunt to the airport in Brisbane and a crying baby in our row and the bogan family in the row ahead of us. But we finally made it to Christchurch and through customs and had a little wait for our shuttle but it was reasonably priced. Our hostel was the Jailhouse Accommodation, it was in a converted historic jail (used as late as 1999!), and I thought it was really cool! Unfortunately, their internet was down when we arrived and we needed to still book our bus to Queenstown for the following morning. The woman at reception told us they would hopefully be back online later in the evening. So we headed into town (about a 15min walk) and took in some sights and had a mediocre Indian meal. We went to tourist information to get a bus schedule and went to the bus line depot but they were closed by the time we arrived. We needed the internet like never before and were unpleased to learn that they were still offline at the hostel. It was before 9pm so we called the 0800# to make the bookings (the call center was supposed to be open until 9pm) but after hearing the initial recording and then a dial tone 4 times we gave up on that. We could walk back to town but it was dark by then and who knows what would be open past 9pm, everything else pretty much shut at 5pm! Despite the time change in our favor we’d had a long day and were tired. We decided to try to get a good night’s sleep and then get up super early again and try to sort it all out at the bus depot.
This morning we got up before 6am for the second time in a row. We got to the bus depot just as it opened with all our shit. We were able to purchase the special pass we’d been looking at and book the first leg of our journey- for this morning! By that time it was about 6:45 and our bus left at 8:30. Now all we had to do was find internet to book a hostel for Queenstown and get some breaky. After discovering no one was open except Starbucks and they wanted $10/hr for wireless I just sat down with my laptop in the middle of Cathedral Square and tried to pick up an unsecure signal. Success again! Except after Kate got on it , I lost it. Oh well, we were about to submit a request to a hostel and hoped it would be good enough to secure a room for the evening. We went back to the bus depot, hoped on the bus at 8:30, and then settled in for the 8hour trip.
Now let me tell you something, New Zealand has a big beauty for such a small country. That’s the only way that I can think of that represents what I saw today properly. Big rolling hills, big farm lands, big mountains, big rivers. Big and beautiful and just stunning. I’m sure the pictures won’t even begin to get across how gorgeous this country is, I pretty much stopped taking drive by pics towards the end. That and I’d had such an off sleep the night before I could barely keep my eyes open.
We stopped for about 30mins at Lake Tekapo for lunch and it was amazing of course too. The lake is glacier fed and the most striking turquoise-blue imaginable.
Upon our arrival in Queenstown we headed to the hostel we’d emailed earlier only to find out that they had no vacancy. We’d acquired quite a stack of brochures by this time and started going through them to see who had a room for us for the night. No luck with the first two places, uh-oh. Kate called this place called Base that we’d checked out online earlier and said it was only available for tonight and not the total 3 nights we are staying in Queenstown. When she called they told her they did have a vacancy for all three nights and that the price was entirely different, in a good way, than what online had told us. So another bit of luck had come our way. We checked in, found our room, showered, met one of our 8-share dorm mates (Thomas from Edmonton) and he recommended eating at this place across the street called Furgburger. We did and it was so good. Then we spent a little bit wandering around town.
It is now a little after 9pm and I want to go to sleep. In the morning we will go to find free wireless and book some more buses and maybe a train and a bungy and some sort of water adventure!
I think everyone that I know (and can tolerate) should move to Queenstown. I’ve only been here about 4hours but I already love it. I’m going to go bungy jumping and then do some sort of water thing- either river surfing or canyoning. There’s a guy from Edmonton staying in our hostel room who said canyoning was really cool. We had a beautiful and successful day today, much better than yesterday. Yesterday started off with a super early and pricey jaunt to the airport in Brisbane and a crying baby in our row and the bogan family in the row ahead of us. But we finally made it to Christchurch and through customs and had a little wait for our shuttle but it was reasonably priced. Our hostel was the Jailhouse Accommodation, it was in a converted historic jail (used as late as 1999!), and I thought it was really cool! Unfortunately, their internet was down when we arrived and we needed to still book our bus to Queenstown for the following morning. The woman at reception told us they would hopefully be back online later in the evening. So we headed into town (about a 15min walk) and took in some sights and had a mediocre Indian meal. We went to tourist information to get a bus schedule and went to the bus line depot but they were closed by the time we arrived. We needed the internet like never before and were unpleased to learn that they were still offline at the hostel. It was before 9pm so we called the 0800# to make the bookings (the call center was supposed to be open until 9pm) but after hearing the initial recording and then a dial tone 4 times we gave up on that. We could walk back to town but it was dark by then and who knows what would be open past 9pm, everything else pretty much shut at 5pm! Despite the time change in our favor we’d had a long day and were tired. We decided to try to get a good night’s sleep and then get up super early again and try to sort it all out at the bus depot.
This morning we got up before 6am for the second time in a row. We got to the bus depot just as it opened with all our shit. We were able to purchase the special pass we’d been looking at and book the first leg of our journey- for this morning! By that time it was about 6:45 and our bus left at 8:30. Now all we had to do was find internet to book a hostel for Queenstown and get some breaky. After discovering no one was open except Starbucks and they wanted $10/hr for wireless I just sat down with my laptop in the middle of Cathedral Square and tried to pick up an unsecure signal. Success again! Except after Kate got on it , I lost it. Oh well, we were about to submit a request to a hostel and hoped it would be good enough to secure a room for the evening. We went back to the bus depot, hoped on the bus at 8:30, and then settled in for the 8hour trip.
Now let me tell you something, New Zealand has a big beauty for such a small country. That’s the only way that I can think of that represents what I saw today properly. Big rolling hills, big farm lands, big mountains, big rivers. Big and beautiful and just stunning. I’m sure the pictures won’t even begin to get across how gorgeous this country is, I pretty much stopped taking drive by pics towards the end. That and I’d had such an off sleep the night before I could barely keep my eyes open.
We stopped for about 30mins at Lake Tekapo for lunch and it was amazing of course too. The lake is glacier fed and the most striking turquoise-blue imaginable.
Upon our arrival in Queenstown we headed to the hostel we’d emailed earlier only to find out that they had no vacancy. We’d acquired quite a stack of brochures by this time and started going through them to see who had a room for us for the night. No luck with the first two places, uh-oh. Kate called this place called Base that we’d checked out online earlier and said it was only available for tonight and not the total 3 nights we are staying in Queenstown. When she called they told her they did have a vacancy for all three nights and that the price was entirely different, in a good way, than what online had told us. So another bit of luck had come our way. We checked in, found our room, showered, met one of our 8-share dorm mates (Thomas from Edmonton) and he recommended eating at this place across the street called Furgburger. We did and it was so good. Then we spent a little bit wandering around town.
It is now a little after 9pm and I want to go to sleep. In the morning we will go to find free wireless and book some more buses and maybe a train and a bungy and some sort of water adventure!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Brissy
Happy Valentine's Day!
Today is my third day in Brisbane and it continues to rain. Poopy. Kate and I are staying at her cousin (once removed), Jill's place. It is in the suburb of Chermside and is very nice. Jill has a little jack russel named Meg who has been keeping us entertained. Yesterday I went for a run in the neighborhood and ended up turning my 30min outting into nearly an hour by running into the Raven Street Reserve, getting all turned around and then coming out the other side and not realizing it for about 10mins. I figured it out though, haha.
Last night we went for dinner at a place called Wagamama (Asian fusion, very nice) and then went to the cinema to see He's Just Not That Into You. It was 3/4 decent and quite enjoyable. A note about the cinema here- you are assigned seats when you buy your tickets! No more is the buy your ticket ahead of time and I'll meet you in the theater. No! Now if a large group is going together they must all meet at the same time to be sure they are seated together! I was rather appalled if you can not tell.
Yeah so today we are going into the city to do some sight seeing and Saturday market shopping. And will probably go out and drink our single sorrows away on this romantic holiday tonight ;)
Today is my third day in Brisbane and it continues to rain. Poopy. Kate and I are staying at her cousin (once removed), Jill's place. It is in the suburb of Chermside and is very nice. Jill has a little jack russel named Meg who has been keeping us entertained. Yesterday I went for a run in the neighborhood and ended up turning my 30min outting into nearly an hour by running into the Raven Street Reserve, getting all turned around and then coming out the other side and not realizing it for about 10mins. I figured it out though, haha.
Last night we went for dinner at a place called Wagamama (Asian fusion, very nice) and then went to the cinema to see He's Just Not That Into You. It was 3/4 decent and quite enjoyable. A note about the cinema here- you are assigned seats when you buy your tickets! No more is the buy your ticket ahead of time and I'll meet you in the theater. No! Now if a large group is going together they must all meet at the same time to be sure they are seated together! I was rather appalled if you can not tell.
Yeah so today we are going into the city to do some sight seeing and Saturday market shopping. And will probably go out and drink our single sorrows away on this romantic holiday tonight ;)
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Surfers Paradise- more like Surfers ParaDUMP.
Welp. I have let Byron Bay and am alive to tell about it.
All four of us, myself, Kate, Diva, and Laurie, had one last breaky at Aquarius on Monday morning and then were out of town in Sean’s borrowed car by 10am! The drive to the Gold Coast was short and easy, just straight up the Pacific Coast Highway, and I drove the entire way, no dramas… yet. We stopped in at the Coolangatta Tourist Information Center for maps of Gold Coast and Diva put the maps along with her wallet on the roof of the car. I grabbed one of the maps and got back in the drivers seat to study it and Diva got back in behind me a minutes later and we continued on our merry way. The road, no longer the highway, was along the coast and was a little windy and on one of the curves we all heard a loud thump, like something had fallen out of the window. We all said, "What was that?” And then after a few seconds Diva exclaimed, “My Wallet! I left my wallet and the other map on the roof! Liz only took one map!” Thanks for throwing me under the bus Diva! Haha Everyone yelled to stop the car and turn around but we were on a stretch of road that was rock face on one side and ocean on the other, with non-existent shoulders and nowhere to turn around. Luckily, a roundabout was coming up so we did a 360 and then pulled over (as best we could) near the wallet and Kate jumped out to retrieve it and the map (of course the wallet just so happened to fall at one side of a pretty much blind curve in the road). Fortunately, there was a small median to stand on and no one came up behind us. Successful wallet retrieval.
Next we worked our way to Surfers Paradise, found out hostel (The Island Resort), checked in, and dumped our stuff. Unfortunately we were not in the same room, as Kate and I had booked online, so our other 2 roomates in our 4 share were two younger Britons (interests include pop and theme parks).
The rest of the day was spent outlet shopping, starbucksing, and wandering around Surfers. Oh and cooling down in the pool. We were the only ones in there and played Marco Polo and had a few contests. On the way to dinner I ran into Amanda Weinher! It was wild. I had seen her facebook album recently added that showed photos of herself learning to surf. I thought it looked like she could be in Surfers Paradise. Then when we were checking in to the hostel there was a poster for “Learn 2 Surf” and the rashies they wore in the photos looked exactly like the one Amanda had on in her photos on facebook. I mentioned something to Kate about this. Then we saw her in the streets!! It was so crazy. Anyway, she is here doing her Masters in Education, so actually living there. We asked her and her friends what there was to do on a Monday night and they joked 'this is it!' And said they were getting beers and just chilling if we’d like to join. We declined as we were looking for dinner and really wanted to dance. They suggested The Bedroom or Sin City. So we had dinner and then split a 26er of Captain Morgan Black Label between the 4 of us, in less than 90mins. WOOOOOOOO! And headed out!
When we were trying to find The Bedroom we met some guys on the streets that asked us where Avenue was. We had just passed it and they urged us to join them. So we did. There was a live band and it was small and pretty tame. But Kate ran into these two Britons who’d been staying at Aquarius that she knew (Doug and Dan, Doug had been a participant in the infamous Aussie day Meat Pie Eating Competition. He did not win, but he did have the most pies in his hands at the end). They’d been at Sin City and said it was a little boring, nothing to do, but we wanted to dance and so brought them back there with us, and made it worthwhile! We owned that club. I was on fire and danced my face off. We took over one of the platforms and dominated. It was a really awesome night! Kate and I might meet up with Doug and Dan again in Brisbane because they are there the same time as we are. The more the merrier!
The next day we woke up and hit Starbucks again (oh drip coffee I missed you so!) and had some breakfast and wandered around some more. We were all quite hung. Around lunch time we said said Goodbye to Diva and Laurie and they drove back to Byron Bay. We’ll see them both again in Melbourne in about a month hopefully!
Kate and I just lazed about the rest of the day, I went for a run along the beach and we got some groceries for dinner. Some douchebag -who ended up being okay and from Toronto- told me I had too much water in my pasta, thanks buddy, I’m not a dummy. We watched some TV and then went to bed early.
Wednesday morning we hit up Starbucks again and this time came armed with our laptops. I found out my video application for The Best Job in the World had been accepted and was now available for the world to see online! See the post below for the link, oh hell, here it is again! YAY!
The rest of the day was spent getting tickets for this Club Crawl that they advertise and try to sell tickets for on most every street corner. It’s called Plan B, costs $60 and includes pizza and nibblies, and entry and a drink at 5 clubs. On the street they sell it for $60 but we got it through our hostel for $20. We should have known something was a little sketchy about it when they told us it started at 5pm, but we really didn’t have much else to do.
So I went for a walk to the mall and then we got ready for Plan B by using our 2 for 1 drink coupons at the hostel bar (Vegas in Paradise), it was also Happy Hour so we each got two standard spirits for $3.50.
We arrived at the first venue on the Plan B tour around 5:30. We were given a few things upon arrival- a wristband, a sticker that let everyone know if you were single or taken, and a nut if you were a girl, a bolt if you were a boy. The object of this first game was to get “screwed” or in other words find the matching nut and bolts and receive a free drink. I found a match but since we were late 5 other couples had already found their matches and so no more free drinks. Also all the nibblies had been eaten. Then the fun started. The party games of course. Oh, did I mention we were the oldest ones there by about 5 years? Awesome!
So was the pattern for the all 5 clubs. Free drink, try to have fun and dance. Get totally disgusted by the party game. The clubs were empty since we were there so early, but I guess that’s how they make these things work. “Can I get a Hell Yeah?!” “Who’s horny tonight!” Shoot me in the face. Not to mention that everytime they said Plan B over the mic all I could think about was the Canadian morning after pill with the same name. It was like they were sponsors for the evening: go out, get drunk, have unprotected sex with a stranger, and then the next morning since all you can recall is Plan B you go to the chemist and get it and all your problems are solved! YAY!
We ended up making it to the last club only because it’s where we went on Monday night and we’d had a good time. But of course it was full of only 19 year old club crawlers last night. We peaced out and were in bed by 11:30pm. Peace out Surfers Paradise! Well Peace out Surfers earlier today. We didn’t do much today, checked out, had Starbucks, wandered, then took the bus and then train to Brisbane. We’re staying at Kate’s cousin’s house here for the weekend before taking off for New Zealand on Monday!
All four of us, myself, Kate, Diva, and Laurie, had one last breaky at Aquarius on Monday morning and then were out of town in Sean’s borrowed car by 10am! The drive to the Gold Coast was short and easy, just straight up the Pacific Coast Highway, and I drove the entire way, no dramas… yet. We stopped in at the Coolangatta Tourist Information Center for maps of Gold Coast and Diva put the maps along with her wallet on the roof of the car. I grabbed one of the maps and got back in the drivers seat to study it and Diva got back in behind me a minutes later and we continued on our merry way. The road, no longer the highway, was along the coast and was a little windy and on one of the curves we all heard a loud thump, like something had fallen out of the window. We all said, "What was that?” And then after a few seconds Diva exclaimed, “My Wallet! I left my wallet and the other map on the roof! Liz only took one map!” Thanks for throwing me under the bus Diva! Haha Everyone yelled to stop the car and turn around but we were on a stretch of road that was rock face on one side and ocean on the other, with non-existent shoulders and nowhere to turn around. Luckily, a roundabout was coming up so we did a 360 and then pulled over (as best we could) near the wallet and Kate jumped out to retrieve it and the map (of course the wallet just so happened to fall at one side of a pretty much blind curve in the road). Fortunately, there was a small median to stand on and no one came up behind us. Successful wallet retrieval.
Next we worked our way to Surfers Paradise, found out hostel (The Island Resort), checked in, and dumped our stuff. Unfortunately we were not in the same room, as Kate and I had booked online, so our other 2 roomates in our 4 share were two younger Britons (interests include pop and theme parks).
The rest of the day was spent outlet shopping, starbucksing, and wandering around Surfers. Oh and cooling down in the pool. We were the only ones in there and played Marco Polo and had a few contests. On the way to dinner I ran into Amanda Weinher! It was wild. I had seen her facebook album recently added that showed photos of herself learning to surf. I thought it looked like she could be in Surfers Paradise. Then when we were checking in to the hostel there was a poster for “Learn 2 Surf” and the rashies they wore in the photos looked exactly like the one Amanda had on in her photos on facebook. I mentioned something to Kate about this. Then we saw her in the streets!! It was so crazy. Anyway, she is here doing her Masters in Education, so actually living there. We asked her and her friends what there was to do on a Monday night and they joked 'this is it!' And said they were getting beers and just chilling if we’d like to join. We declined as we were looking for dinner and really wanted to dance. They suggested The Bedroom or Sin City. So we had dinner and then split a 26er of Captain Morgan Black Label between the 4 of us, in less than 90mins. WOOOOOOOO! And headed out!
When we were trying to find The Bedroom we met some guys on the streets that asked us where Avenue was. We had just passed it and they urged us to join them. So we did. There was a live band and it was small and pretty tame. But Kate ran into these two Britons who’d been staying at Aquarius that she knew (Doug and Dan, Doug had been a participant in the infamous Aussie day Meat Pie Eating Competition. He did not win, but he did have the most pies in his hands at the end). They’d been at Sin City and said it was a little boring, nothing to do, but we wanted to dance and so brought them back there with us, and made it worthwhile! We owned that club. I was on fire and danced my face off. We took over one of the platforms and dominated. It was a really awesome night! Kate and I might meet up with Doug and Dan again in Brisbane because they are there the same time as we are. The more the merrier!
The next day we woke up and hit Starbucks again (oh drip coffee I missed you so!) and had some breakfast and wandered around some more. We were all quite hung. Around lunch time we said said Goodbye to Diva and Laurie and they drove back to Byron Bay. We’ll see them both again in Melbourne in about a month hopefully!
Kate and I just lazed about the rest of the day, I went for a run along the beach and we got some groceries for dinner. Some douchebag -who ended up being okay and from Toronto- told me I had too much water in my pasta, thanks buddy, I’m not a dummy. We watched some TV and then went to bed early.
Wednesday morning we hit up Starbucks again and this time came armed with our laptops. I found out my video application for The Best Job in the World had been accepted and was now available for the world to see online! See the post below for the link, oh hell, here it is again! YAY!
The rest of the day was spent getting tickets for this Club Crawl that they advertise and try to sell tickets for on most every street corner. It’s called Plan B, costs $60 and includes pizza and nibblies, and entry and a drink at 5 clubs. On the street they sell it for $60 but we got it through our hostel for $20. We should have known something was a little sketchy about it when they told us it started at 5pm, but we really didn’t have much else to do.
So I went for a walk to the mall and then we got ready for Plan B by using our 2 for 1 drink coupons at the hostel bar (Vegas in Paradise), it was also Happy Hour so we each got two standard spirits for $3.50.
We arrived at the first venue on the Plan B tour around 5:30. We were given a few things upon arrival- a wristband, a sticker that let everyone know if you were single or taken, and a nut if you were a girl, a bolt if you were a boy. The object of this first game was to get “screwed” or in other words find the matching nut and bolts and receive a free drink. I found a match but since we were late 5 other couples had already found their matches and so no more free drinks. Also all the nibblies had been eaten. Then the fun started. The party games of course. Oh, did I mention we were the oldest ones there by about 5 years? Awesome!
So was the pattern for the all 5 clubs. Free drink, try to have fun and dance. Get totally disgusted by the party game. The clubs were empty since we were there so early, but I guess that’s how they make these things work. “Can I get a Hell Yeah?!” “Who’s horny tonight!” Shoot me in the face. Not to mention that everytime they said Plan B over the mic all I could think about was the Canadian morning after pill with the same name. It was like they were sponsors for the evening: go out, get drunk, have unprotected sex with a stranger, and then the next morning since all you can recall is Plan B you go to the chemist and get it and all your problems are solved! YAY!
We ended up making it to the last club only because it’s where we went on Monday night and we’d had a good time. But of course it was full of only 19 year old club crawlers last night. We peaced out and were in bed by 11:30pm. Peace out Surfers Paradise! Well Peace out Surfers earlier today. We didn’t do much today, checked out, had Starbucks, wandered, then took the bus and then train to Brisbane. We’re staying at Kate’s cousin’s house here for the weekend before taking off for New Zealand on Monday!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Surfers Paradise and Shameless Self-Promotion
Shameless Self-Promotion comes first.
My application for The Best Job in the World has been accepted. Please click here to watch the 60sec video and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give it 5 stars!!
In other news, I'm in Surfers Paradise! Left Byron Bay and am now back in backpacker mode! We head to Brisbane tomorrow and then New Zealand on Monday!
I'll have to post some stories and pics of Surfers later as this Starbucks (yes, Starbucks, yes drip coffee, YES!) wireless time I'm on is running out soon!
My application for The Best Job in the World has been accepted. Please click here to watch the 60sec video and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give it 5 stars!!
In other news, I'm in Surfers Paradise! Left Byron Bay and am now back in backpacker mode! We head to Brisbane tomorrow and then New Zealand on Monday!
I'll have to post some stories and pics of Surfers later as this Starbucks (yes, Starbucks, yes drip coffee, YES!) wireless time I'm on is running out soon!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Last Day in Byron Bay!
Today is my last full day in the Byron Shire! Since I packed yesterday, my day will be spent doing the lighthouse walk, conquering the wreck, and dressing as a fairy... all in the name of the scavenger hunt (see below)! I think I'm really going to miss Byron but am really looking forward to moving on and getting the f*ck out of this house... speaking of... Amy (the girl who owns/name’s on the lease) showed up a few days earlier than expected. She also showed up with her kids, also unexpected (well we knew ahead of time but originally Amy was supposed to be starting uni and the kids were to stay with her Mother). Anyway, after not being home even 24 hours she writes us a note that basically says she hopes we are cleaner at the next house we stay at. We didn’t understand it. Had she totally forgotten how disgusting this place was when she left? Amy also gave Koral her notice aka she has 3 weeks to vacate the premises. Stupid stripper, haha. But Diva, Kate and I are all moving out on Monday, and then going up to Gold Coast/Surfers Paradise. That is where we will separate and say our goodbyes (for a few months). Diva and Laurie will return to Byron Bay for the next 2.5 months, while Kate and I start our Aussie-Kiwi travels
On Friday night in anticipation of our departure Laurie set us out on a Byron style scavenger hunt. We split into teams, Diva and I, versus Kate and Laurie, with myself and Kate locating the things on the list and the other two giving us hints if needed/asked for and taking our picture doing silly things. The hunt began with a snack worth 5pts- half a Vegemite sandwich. We were both so hungry and had already started the goon a little earlier (at like 5:30pm eeeek). Needless to say, by 8pm things were getting messy, Diva and I scored the 15 extra points bonus for finishing our bottle of goon (Laurie separated the goon- wine in a box- into two 1.5L bottles, one for each of us) by that specified time and through all this we some how forgotten to eat dinner, what? Haha although goon is not dinner, apparently goon and a pint is!
Anyway, Laurie went home early because she had to work, Kate stayed later, and Diva and I had to take a cab home because we would’ve been fined for drink-riding our bikes (yes, that is a law here)!
Home before 11pm and a handful of drunk facebook messages later, it was lights out early! Wooooooooooo!
Last night we went out to good old Aquarius for Kate's last night with her co-workers. It was good times and a little dancing was had, and of course the drinks were freeeeeeeeeeeeee!
On Friday night in anticipation of our departure Laurie set us out on a Byron style scavenger hunt. We split into teams, Diva and I, versus Kate and Laurie, with myself and Kate locating the things on the list and the other two giving us hints if needed/asked for and taking our picture doing silly things. The hunt began with a snack worth 5pts- half a Vegemite sandwich. We were both so hungry and had already started the goon a little earlier (at like 5:30pm eeeek). Needless to say, by 8pm things were getting messy, Diva and I scored the 15 extra points bonus for finishing our bottle of goon (Laurie separated the goon- wine in a box- into two 1.5L bottles, one for each of us) by that specified time and through all this we some how forgotten to eat dinner, what? Haha although goon is not dinner, apparently goon and a pint is!
Anyway, Laurie went home early because she had to work, Kate stayed later, and Diva and I had to take a cab home because we would’ve been fined for drink-riding our bikes (yes, that is a law here)!
Home before 11pm and a handful of drunk facebook messages later, it was lights out early! Wooooooooooo!
Last night we went out to good old Aquarius for Kate's last night with her co-workers. It was good times and a little dancing was had, and of course the drinks were freeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
End of January Disaster!
This all went down on Friday night, but let me begin with some background information. Koral is out of town, in Melbourne or Sydney, stripping aka ‘working’. And while we were away in Tasmania she changed the doorknob on her door, like installed one that locks. I had seen the new doorknob lying on her bed months ago and then noticed when we got back from Tassie that she’d finally installed it. All of our first thoughts at the sight of the changed doorknob was: 'she doesn't have anything worth stealing', but figure she did it cuz our door locks and we lock it when we go out. And she does have a fair sized collection of CDs and DVDs, and her performance gear as well, hahaha.
So on Friday night I was plugging in speakers to play music from my laptop, and I didn’t turn off the power bar before I plugged in and it ended up blowing the fuse (these speakers are trouble and I should’ve known better, but did it anyway). This same fuse blows often, this is the 3rd or 4th time it's gone out this month!
So here is the kicker- we're like 'oh, we just have to reset it' but the fuse box is in the garage, which is Koral’s room, and it’s locked b/c she’s away! Now we would've just left the fuse off or unswitched or whatever but it just so happens that this same fuse is connected to the fridge, so we haaaave to get it back on or else everything in the fridge goes bad and the polar icecap that is the freezer melts and causes water damage!
Our first move is to go over to Koral's boyfriend's (Ryan) house, he lives like 2 doors down, but he wasn't home. His roommate calls him and says Ryan'll be back in a 1/2 hour but doesn’t have a key. But the roommate was confused and thought we were locked out of the house. So we came back here and started to try to pick the lock.
I looked it up on the internet, but had had some wine by that point and there was bad lighting and the right tools were just not available in this house. With picking the lock basically out of the question, Diva moved the fridge out from it's little vestibule, unplugged it, and got a power bar with a long cord and plugged it in across the kitchen into an outlet that still works. And then we went out! 
Hours later when we got home Ryan had left the key to Koral's room between the screen door and big door! Thank You again Ryan! We immediately unlocked her door and flipped the switch.
Here’s the other kicker- There were cockroaches galore behind and under the fridge (we think the roaches might have come with the fridge. Steve told us Amy got the fridge from St Vinny’s (op shop) just before she left). Behind the fridge was just teaming with life, so I sprayed them good. SO good that the whole house spelt like poison! Drunk bug spraying = bad idea. And there were roach corpses everywhere!
In the morning I swept them up and it was almost like none of it ever happened. The End.
So on Friday night I was plugging in speakers to play music from my laptop, and I didn’t turn off the power bar before I plugged in and it ended up blowing the fuse (these speakers are trouble and I should’ve known better, but did it anyway). This same fuse blows often, this is the 3rd or 4th time it's gone out this month!
So here is the kicker- we're like 'oh, we just have to reset it' but the fuse box is in the garage, which is Koral’s room, and it’s locked b/c she’s away! Now we would've just left the fuse off or unswitched or whatever but it just so happens that this same fuse is connected to the fridge, so we haaaave to get it back on or else everything in the fridge goes bad and the polar icecap that is the freezer melts and causes water damage!
Our first move is to go over to Koral's boyfriend's (Ryan) house, he lives like 2 doors down, but he wasn't home. His roommate calls him and says Ryan'll be back in a 1/2 hour but doesn’t have a key. But the roommate was confused and thought we were locked out of the house. So we came back here and started to try to pick the lock.
I looked it up on the internet, but had had some wine by that point and there was bad lighting and the right tools were just not available in this house. With picking the lock basically out of the question, Diva moved the fridge out from it's little vestibule, unplugged it, and got a power bar with a long cord and plugged it in across the kitchen into an outlet that still works. And then we went out!
Fridge in the middle of the kitchen.
Hours later when we got home Ryan had left the key to Koral's room between the screen door and big door! Thank You again Ryan! We immediately unlocked her door and flipped the switch.
Here’s the other kicker- There were cockroaches galore behind and under the fridge (we think the roaches might have come with the fridge. Steve told us Amy got the fridge from St Vinny’s (op shop) just before she left). Behind the fridge was just teaming with life, so I sprayed them good. SO good that the whole house spelt like poison! Drunk bug spraying = bad idea. And there were roach corpses everywhere!
In the morning I swept them up and it was almost like none of it ever happened. The End.
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