stuck in picton

yo, yo,

went whale watching yesterday. saw a couple of giant sperm whales and caught some whale tail action on camera as well. most exciting, but not quite as exciting as i thought it would be. he was certainly no moby dick!

not a lot more to report really. went to Nelson. very pretty. met a welsh dude called andrew, and we went for a pint. he wasnt' the most charismatic of people, but a nice enough chap. he quit his job as a journalist and is now 'finding himself'.

i love listening to people's stories and the reason they've come out travelling, just cos i'm nosy really.

i'm stuck in the port town of picton. there's bugger all to do here and i've got to kill a couple of hours before i can get on the ferry up north, and it's bloody freezing. the truoble is now that i have the time, i'm really not in the mood to write anything overly exciting.

oh well, never mind, chat to you later

why is my car called Tracy?

i forgot to mention my best friend on this trip, Tracy, my nissan something-or-another.

she's white and now, very messy inside. i've taken a lovely picture of her and i'll put it up when i can.

meanwhile, here's a little teaser, why is my car called Tracy?

answers on my facebeek wall or e-mail to anand_makwana@hotmail.com

xx

don't go for a curry in NZ

where do i start?

okay, i'll start at the beginning, seems like a rather obvious place really.

i went for a curry last night in Hamner springs. i've been travelling for a while and i missed indian food understandably. the indian restaurant yesterday was pretentious gourmet rubbish. i ordered a traditional indian thali which was tasty but clearly marketed as a gimmik. still far too mild but the extra fresh chillies did the trick, and the tanquery and tonic made up for the gourmet-ness. in fact if it wasn't for the gourmet-ness, they probably wouldn't have had the tanquery, so all is forgiven.

anyway, i'm in kaikoura today, and i passed another indian restaurant. this one didn;'t look half as flash as the other from yesterday. so i figured it would have proper authentic old skool indian food. mmm, tasty.

yes, it did have authentic sounding indian food. i've been desperate for a lamb keema (minced lamb curry) eve3ryone knows what it is, and i figured the chef would be able to rustle one up, it wasn't actually on the menu, but this was a small place and i was sure he'd oblige - i mean they had balle balle bhangra blaring out of the speakers.

the waitress seemed nice and took my special order to the chef who came out and didn't really seem to know what i wanted and eventually just said no and stalked off into the kitchen. i'm sure i'm going to have spit in my curry. still, i went ahead and had a chicken tikka masala, orederd as HOT (a stock favorite and you can't go wrong with this one).

it came out and was quite tasty, just not hot enough. so i asked for some extra chillies.

the chef had NO CHILLIES!


just take a moment out to digest this. an indian restaurant where the chef has no chillies.

it's like an italian with no pasta, a chinese with no noodles, a japanese with no sushi, a thai with no coconut, i could go on, but i've run out of comparisons.

suffice to say this just said it all. i am not impressed with the state of NZ's indian restaurants. :(

that's all, rant over, nothing to see here, go about your business now...

got naked and felt up by a blonde

it's true but not entirely accurate.

spent the morning at the Hanmer hot springs. Lots of different pools with varying temperatures of water and some rotten egg sulphur pools. Surprisingly relaxing to just lie in hot water. i know you're going to say it's just like having a bath, but i don't really like baths. i get bored. there's only so much amusement you can get by farting in a bath and if you haven;t eaten beans before bathing, well, then that's out of the question anyway.

hot springs = :)

then i decided to treat myself to a massage. they had quite a posh spa area that was allsectioned off and indoors. i wandered in in my swimming trunks (toight speedos - porn star, i know. i don't care, i'm in foreign!) with my towel draped over my shoulder. everyone else inside was wearing proper clothes. you know how you gets that dream where you're at work or school and everyone else is staring at you. you wonder why and look down to find you're naked. imagine that, but real - not quite that bad, i had my toight speedos on, but i did feel a little underdressed!

everyone was quite good about it really. must be due to my enourmaous package ;)

anyway, had a massage. she was quite tough. it hurt. i've discovered i'm actually rather ticklish in certain places. was rather tense throughout the ticklish massaging. in fact i'm still aching and it's evening time. i hope she hasn't broken me :(

a funny old night

just got back from an evening on the town. actually that 's a lie. i went out for a curry and a pint. actually that's a lie. it was a bottle of beer. can you beleive it, i have actually forgotten the name of the beer! bugger. it's one of the classic indian beers. anyway i had af ew of those. i went to an indian restaurant. rubbish!

pretentious rubbish!

i looked at the menu, no indian dishes, b ut rubbish nouveux quasi indian nonsense. anyway the nonsense i had was good, but not spicy enough. a few raw chillies later and the sweat was pouring off my head and my nose was running. beautiful! :)

sat at the bar for my aperitif. a tanquery and tonic. no rimming, but it was good. my first of the holiday. bliss. got chatting to a couple sat at the table next to the bar. indfian woman, kiwi chap. they had the most GORGEOUS baby. i have decided half caste children are the way forward. so CUTE. they have the best colouringand look so lovely. i was tempted to steal him, but 1) it's illegal, and 2) he wouldn't ffit in my backpack. bring on the sexy caucasian women.

i'm feeling quite tiddled nbow (hencfe the typing errors). loving the pissed blogging.

goingo to go and sit now. mwa xxx

i'm cream crackered

hey dudes,

not been able to get to tinternet to update my blog in a while. too busy partyining. Queenstown truely is a massive playground.

okay, quick rundown. went to milford to see the fyords. was spooky. weather not so great. cloudy and there wase an eerie ghostly mist over the fyords. awesomely spectacular.
Herman the dutchman didn't kill me. a thouroughly pleasent chap actually. And no he didn't carry a stash of nasty dutch porn with him, at least none that he would admit to.

from fyords, went to queenstown. first hostel i tried was closed. the second two were full, starting to get worried by this stage. but the third had two free beds. This was the most fun hostel i've been to. the peops there were great. Callum, jen and leanne. went partying with them. got v drunk. met some other peeps from the fyords (hot girl). also met a girl who had just broken up with her boyfriend aged 18 (she's 31 - nice!!). drank alcho-smoll from tea pots. novell. got v drunk.

mucho funno.

got to bed at 4am. got up at 9am and had a five hour drive. ouch :(

picked up another hitchhiker from austria-sebastian. nice fellow

i'm at a glacier on the west coast -franz joseph. i did a full day hike on the glacier today. awesome. i am battered and ready for bed now. the ice was so pure it was blue. stunning.

am too tired to write now. got a long drive to some hot springs tomorrow. mmmm.

seeya

lovely liz from bumble

is it really chris moyles?

me, Rich, and hot girl

Rich's friend

i cannot for the life of me remember this girl's name. She Rich's mate. we met on the fyords.

a couple of nurses from ireland

me and callum

it's not tea in those tea pots. me thinks it's how the queen would drink alcho-shmoll, but from a china tea cup of course

herman the hitchhiker

jamie, jen and posy

posy and jen on stewart island

the gang from christchurch looking for penguins

liz who i met in christchurch

photos at last

hey dudes,

lots been happening, i've finally found a computer with a memory card slot so i'm posting up some photos.

i need a new job, answers on a postcard/e-mail/facebook

i have decided i need a more exciting job.

well, actually, i'm a bit fed up of talking about teeth. surprisingly, only one person has been negative towards dentists, and that wasn't really even that bad. the yokel from bluff, has huge panic attacks when it comes to dentists, so they gave her a general anesthetic and took all her teeth out.

so, if anyone can think of a more exciting job and life for me to have whilst travelling (yes, i know it's lying, but i'm on holiday), e-mail me on anand_makwana@hotmail.com or put it on my facebook wall.

cheers dudes, xx

it's been a while

hiya,

it's okay, i'm still here, not been killed by angy taxi drivers or kidnapped by crazy yokels. (thanks our Jan for your concerned text message - it looks like you're the only one that cares!)

been a hectic few days. i'm stuck in milford sound for the night. it has great fyords, but that's all. there's one budget hostel and one posh one. can you guess which one i'm in? this internet has got to be the slowest in all of NZ. it reminds me of the days before the blessed broadband, where checking your e-mail took hours and downloading songs took a week.

okay, update sofar.

drove through the east coast and mountains in convoy with tom, liz and ben.
saw a penguin living under a cafe
lost my jacket trekking through a forest. back tracked and found it again -phew!
saw some seals on shag point-not shagging! - neither was i :(
drove through dunneidan - very scottish.
parted company with the others, travelled down to bluff
arrived in bluff at 7.00pm. the hosytel was closed, nowhere to stay. PANICKED
asked the lady in the convenience store - she arranged a room at a nearby hotel - v.cheap :)
there was a reason the hotel was cheap. :(
room was tidy and they let me park the car in the lock up out back.
the bar was full of yokels - most amusing
had to get a ferry in themorning to stewaret island.
had breakfast in the kitchen with the owner and some hunters - she hates dentists - no surprise there :(
went to stewart island. met a german girl. she was a hardcore trekker - not my kinda girl.
spent the day walking and photographing the island.
in my infinite wisdom, i hadn't taken any water with me so was parched.
went to the nearest pub. had a pint and a pie - a bargain at only 2.50 (UK) - cheaper than a pint at heathrow (don't get me started!)
met some uk peeps. went for a coffee, then went for many pints at the only bar in town. very yokel- if you don't have a mullet and wear wellies, they look at you in a very strange way.
spent the next day walking around the other bit of the island. took wayter and food. however, i only have a small day bag for my camera. the thought of having to hold water and food never occured to me during my packing. therefore my food and water went in a emirates bag (think handbag) slung over my shoulder - yes, it's a manbag. most ammusement for everybody involved.
had lunch in a beautiful grassy clearing. forest on one side, beach on the other. i kept expecting frodo baggins to run past clutching the one ring to rule them all.
he never did though
walked back, went for a coffee. an american lady ran the cafe. was into her massage. gave me lots of places to go to in thailand for a proper detox massage - takes two weeks.
now i have a legitimate reason to go back to thailand, you coming rik?
back to the dorm room, all to myself, no-one else there. fell asleep at 5pmish, woke up in the morning.
checked out, went to the ferry terminal. saw the guys there. took pretty pictures of sunrise.
realised i didn't have my travellers bible - lonely planet guide (the one book to rule them all!)
panicked.
went back to dorm room.
it was under my duvet.
relief.
crossed back to bluff. car still there. relief.
said goodbye to yokel hotel operative.
drove to te anu. very large pretty lake.
had fish and chips from chinese man in cafe.
opened ketchup, it squirted all over the table. oops.
drove to milford sound.
picked up a hitchhiker.
his name's Herman. no, he's not a german. that would have been too neat. he's dutch.
now we're in milford sound.
i've done a laundry. mmmmm, clean clothes, mmmm :)

sorry it's been so brief, not enough time to elaborate. having an awesome time. great fun. going to see the fyords tomorrow and then off to queenstown, hopefully in time to party with posy, jen and jamie :)

i've made friends!!

got back to the hostel after another day's walking aroung the city. wsa talking to naked guy in the dorm room and we went down for drinks in the bar. he had put on clothes by then.

was in bar with tom (naked guy) and liz (not naked - unfortunately - girl). the beer was on offer. afte buying six pints of Tui, you get the seventh free in a special Tui glass which you can keep. well, you know where this is going don't you. and it's not a pleasant place either.

during the course of the evening, it transpired that there was a scissors, paper, stone competition. the prize was three days car rental. clearly we all put our name down, along with nearly everyone else in the bar. hilarity ensued. a not so surprising rivalry between uk (well, just the three of us really, the other brits didn't really care, or at least not as vocally as we did) and the americans (again, just those on the next table). the german girl was hot though.

liz was eiliminated at the first round. i got through the second - took out a yank (actually she wsa from virginia, but i don't really know where that is), but i got knowcked out in the scond round by another chap Chris that wsa in my dorn :( Tom did us proud though and proceeeded to win!! we celebrated with a round of cheap dirty shooters. not a good idea at the best of times, and this wsan;t the best of times.

we got through our six pints, even liz-very impressive. drank our seventh pint from our special glass. i then managed to lose mine. someone must have tea-leafed it. bloody cheapo backpackers. liz then dropped hers and smashed into a billion foot cutting glass mines. tom did manage to make his survive. not really sure how though.

we then went out to a 80s bar. never actually made it. too pissed. went to maccy D's instead. we all nearly got into a fight with some americans. still not sure why though. i guess i'll never know why. probably for the best. went home, sat around, watched telly. went to bed at 4am. got iup this morning at 8.00. v.tired.

the others were sleeping. i got showered, went to the bar for a bacon sarnie (not alcohol. i know what you were thinkning). hangover not really that bad. i think i have my mojo back :)
i then wqent outside and sat on the bench in cathedral square wathcing the people go by, listeing to a little liht jazz on my ipod. there was a chap mowing grass behing me, so there was the smell of freshly cut grass wafting into my nose. Absolutely bloody marvellous!!!

picked up our cars the cars are automatic. liz hasn't driven an automatic before. i told her to put her foot on the left pedal. and slowly release pressure and the car will creep forward. she tried that. the car moved. 'what's the pedal on the right for?" she asked. oh dear!

went back to pick up the guys. got a parking ticket. $12 :(

drove through the mountains and then acroos to omaru on the east coast. this is what NZ is all about. BEAUTIFUL

crazy girl

i decided that it would be a good idea to get some fish and chips from one of the mobile food vendors parked in cathedral square. it was either that or kebabs or chinese food. surprisingly tasty, but no fork. had to use fingers. do they not know i am a civilised human being?

whilst i was relaxing the square being mildly hypnotised by the japanese kid swinging ribbon, my gaze happend to chance upon a young girl on her hands and knees. after watching for some time, i gathered that she was clearly looking for something. beign the kind chap that i am, i approached her and asked if she was well, or needed any assistance. it turns out that she had dropped some beads and was digging in the soil in between the paving slabs for said beads. we got chatting. i offerred her some chips-it wold be rude not to. she declined. said her hands were grubby. good, 'cos i was hungry.

it turns out they weren't her beads. there's a market in the square. sometimes beads get dropped by the market people. she just hoovers them up. she makes jewellery. she used to hoover them up whilst the market was still on. but they complained. she got banned from picking up stones whilst the market was on. now she comes back after it's finished.

she's from NZ, but used to live in berkshire and surrey when she was younger - went to a grammer school doncha know! back in NZ now. her mum's from UK, and has left her father to go back to uk. she didn't like NZ. Girl not happy with mother about that.

it turns out that the girl is also a writer-but since she got depressed the words have stopped flowing. poor thing. she is now training to be a call centre operative.

the light faded, and my fish and chips had been eaten. i felt it was time to move on. she was not overly attractive. didn't ask her out for a drink. went back to the hostel.

saw naked guy and nearly came travelling with me girl on computers. naked guy had found a free computer, and had finished. so i'm using the free computer and sending out my blogs. i have a picture of 'crazy girl picking up leftover beads'. however, i can't find a way of putting them onto this computer to put on the blog :(

i'm surprisingly feeling really tired now. must still be jet-lagged.

seeya

christchurch by day pt 2

nice views from the top cable car station.
took pretty pictures.
a lovely oriental girl started talking to me.
thought i was being chatted up.
she wanted me to fill out a survey. i'm sad.
she was going to give me a free drink.
make mie a large gin and tonic, i don't care that it's only 10.30am. happy again.
she could only do coffee type drinks. sad again.
had a hot chocolate. they had no cream :(

got chatting to a local lady. told her i wanted to drive round NZ. she seemed very enthusiastic about the idea and said i would ahve a great time and told me of lots of wonderful paces to go to.

Decision made, i'm going to get a car-just as soon as i get a phone charger. can you guess which muppet left his mobile phone charger in UK?

on the way back from the cable car place, got talking to the bus driver. she had a mouth like a labourer - filth just kept pouring from it. kept me entertained though. she did point me in the right direction for getting a cheap mobile phone charger. good old 'cash converters'. 7 pounds (this keyboard has no pound sign) for a new charger, and it's a NZ plug so i don't have to use my converter-bonus.

walked past a proper barber shop. i am seriously tempted to pop in a get a proper shave. my beard is getting quite long and what with my short hair, it looks like someone has just shaved a hole for my eyes and mouth and nose and the rest of my head is covered in hair. fortunately i've made no friends so no-one is going to take a picture!

got back to the hostel, and was sorting out car hire. meanwhile there were two chaps wearing only a towel in reception. is this a new craze to hit the backpackering community. naked backpackering? perhaps in the summer, but it does get rather chilly here in the evenings. it turns out they had bed bugs in their room and had to get all their clothes washed ona super hot setting. in all honesty, they were loving it. the worst thing is that i have been itching ever since i found out about them.

went back up into the room and would you believe it, naked boys were there. Nice chaps.
was speaking to a girl who wanted to drive round NZ with me but has to be back in christchurch in a couple of days so can't come. darn it!

this afternoon, was not overly exciting. walked round town. christchurch is tiny. pretty, but tiny. went back to hostel. took my book (the Hof's autobiography!, bought for my by the the three amigos at work) outside to read in the square. didn't really get much reading done. was watching people play giant chess, and then watched a japanese chap swinging ribbion on the end of a string-surprisingly moreish to watch.

christchurch by day pt 1

today i got up at 7am. i'm still jet-lagged. however, i do like getting up early. breakfast was cereal, not very exciting.

to day i explored christchurch. in all honesty, not terribly exciting. i wandered round the city, and through the botanical gardens. very pretty, but no flowers in bloom as it's still winter. great waste of time that was. well, not really actually. wandering through the gardens was incredibly relaxing. i know there were no flowers, but so much green. for a city boy like me, green is like gold-except lighter and makes rubbish jewelery. however, i do like being round foliage and bushes and so forth. which is a luxary (i've tried many permutations of this word but can't find the one that is correct, although this seems to be the most correct looking. i'm sure luxary has an 'e' in it somewhere-not sure where though) i don't have in the not so big city of leicester.

i took a tram ride today. round the city. quite rickety, very noisy, not so interesting, but it saved my legs from having to walk back. It did take me past the casino (new zealand's first) which i may have to frequent tonight. i then took a bus ride - yes i know what you're thinking and i really did take a bus ride. i'll keep the ticket to prove it. it's strange that whilst i'll nearly never take a bus (i would consider taking the train) in the uk, i have no problem taking buses when in foreign. i'm still not sure why. what did amuse me was that on riding the buses (one there and one back), i noticed that NZ also has it's fair share of crazies that ride buses.

rode a cable car up to the top of a hill. it was a steep hill and i don't like heights, and i especially don't like cable cars. they don't seem as though they should be able to work. it is after all, a big metal box hung from a piece of string. i think the part i particularly dislike is that there's nothing underneath except the ground - which is a long way away, and the way the thing sways in the wind - and when you jump up and down or move from one side to another. Of course you have to jump and move around just to make sure it will sway, like jumping up in a lift and making it wobble.

did i forget to mention that i climbed up to my dorm room on the 4th floor with my giant backpack?

well, i did,
i was tired at the end.
i get tired every time i go to the dorm.

i've only just found out there's a lift :( i'm sad now, and still tired

i'm finally here (NZ that is)

finally arrived in christchurch after over 30hrs in transit. If somebody had told me it would be this long, i may have second thoughts-oh, well, at least i'm racking up those airmiles. i hope i've got enough for an upgrade to buisiness on the return leg to dubai. if i don't have exit row seats, i'm going to have to upgrade. i don't think i'll be able to cope with 14hours in standard cattle.

christchurch is surprisingly warm. warmer than the uk. and sunny too. i've been roaming round in t-shirt and sandles. :) the place where i'm staying is a pretty cool hostel, but the people staying in the dorm are surprisingly not that friendly. not as open and inviting as i thought they'd be. they just sit around all day playing ps2 footie.

i've been rather busy though. been to art gallery, walked round town. watched a craxy young person (looked french) jumping up and over railings in town square like those guys on the bbc trails. art gallery had a giant inflatable bunny in the main atruim, got to have been over 30 feet long. i hate giant animals. they freak me out. don't know why, they just do. if that wasn't bad enough, one of the small rooms in the gallery had another giant bloody bunny. about 12 feet tall, and had a perverse smile on his face (like scary clown faces). too wierd.

last night i sat outside in a cafe and read my lonely planet guide whilst sipping on a couple of pints listening to 80s movie music. awesome. went back to the hostel, got rid of the guide and went out to the southern blues bar. expected it to be full of beardy zz top lookilikes, but there was a live jazz band playing, so it was full of peeps in suits with crazy facial hair. couple more pints and then i was feeling plain sleepy. couldn't keep my eyes open and i think i may have drifted off to sleep. i felt my head jerking up a couple of times and remember not really knowing where i was :( wandered back to the hotel, past a japanese 'massage' parlour and straight into bed.

i was planning on getting up early the next day so i could explore all of the city so i was quite dissapointed when i looked at my watch and it said 9.00am. never mind, i was surprisingly awake and hopped down from my bunkbed (everyone else was still fast asleep - lazy buggers) and went out into the living room with my towel and washbag. imagine my surprise when i found the living room full of peeps generally sitting around looking lazy and looking at me in quite a confused way. 'what time is it ?'i asked. 2.30 - am. it transpires i was looking at my watch upside down. i blamed it on the jet-lag and not my stupidity, and crawled back into bed.

got to go now, my time's just run out. seeya

My plane in sydney

Sydney airport

Bored, bored, bored-and i really need a shower, and brush my teeth!

waiting at sydney

i have been in transit for over 28hours since leaving home, and i'm still only in sydney. the flight to dubai was pleasently empty and i had loads of space to stretch out. Dubai airport is actually quite boring. all airports should have entertainment facilities is what i've decided. i mean, who actually buys stuff from duty free, except chocolates and books and sweeties (for work on the way back, because you were having so much fun on holiday that you completely forgot about everyone back home, especially work).

there should be more things to play with like arcade machines, spas and the like. things will change when i take over the world. My body clock is on 9.00pm and i'm feeling quite exhauseted from my 12hr stint dubai to sydney. i'm not feeling particularly perky and i can't sleep. cattle class is rubbish - must upgrade on the way back if funds allow. fortunately i had exit row seats so LOADS of legroom :D . got to go and find out where to get my next flight from, and walk off those DVTs

seeya

Pick a seat, any seat...

I've never seen the plane so empty. Got to go, just about to taxi. Seeya down under

I hope this lovely young chap has put my bag on the plane

A gaggle?

What is the collective noun for air stewardesses? Answers on a postcard

That book is clearly not very enthralling...

Why would anyone fish from duty free?

Why would anyone buy this from duty free?

Holiday finally begun

This is a repeat post. So i maz have posted the same already. My phone doesn't think so though. Holiday finally started. Had my first pint. Off to do my most favorite thing- no, not that. Not yet anyway. Going to go people watching.

Now the holiday has begun

Time to do my most favorite thing - no, not that, it's not all about that you know ;-), i'm off people watching

First holiday pint! Yippee!

Ahh, the holiday has finally begun. My first pint. Three pounds, ten pence it cost me. Three pounds ten. It's only because i'm sending this rant from my mobile phone from o'neil's in heathrow that it's so short. Thank goodness for predictive texting, otherwise you'd be subjected to a barrage of what appears to normal man to be a random juxtaposition (amazingly predictive text predicted juxtaposition-yet it still doesn't know heathrow or Yippee) of letters and numbers that only the under 16 can decipher. Forget the enigma machine, if the germans had mobile phones and 12 year old kids, old blighty would have been done for. Okay in the time it's taken to write this, i've forgotten what i started talking about (there senior moments are occuring with alarming frequency) and i've probably missed my plane. Seeya down under xx

uber-cool cutlery

Folding stainless steel cutlery. How cool is that?!? - i know, ice cold, or maybe sub zero even.
packing nearly done now. just a few item of clothing to come out of the washing machine - no socks though, ive got all those, minus the obligatory single sock sacrifice to the landry god.

said suitcase

look at my shiny new suitcase. okay, it's not shiny and it's not new. And it's not strictly a suitcase. But it is mine-that bit's true.

It's a real-life backpack - and camoflaged too, so if i'm stuck in the dense jungles of NZ, i'll be invisible to all. not so useful in the urban jungle or the snow covered glaciers.

still packing

yes i've got up and thrown everything onto my bed. it's the only way men know how to pack. We get out all our clothes (well we only have enough to fill one wardrobe anyway since our wives/ girlfriends fill every other storage space in the house with clothes, shoes, handbags, shoes, handbags, lacy little numbers that wouldn't cover up even a barbie doll, handbags, did i mention shoes?), throw them onto the bed, and stuff them unceramoniously into our suitcases.

at this point it doesn't matter if there's any extra space in said suitcase or not, because the wife/girlfriend will always have a few little extras (hairdryer, straighteners, shoes) that couldn't possibly fit into her suitcase (full of shoes and handbags - exactly how many pairs of shoes, sandles, flip-flops does a girl need on a one-week break to bennidorm?)

and then there's the final packing ritual. the sitting on the suitcase for ten minutes trying to close it, only to find that you've one vital item out. Then there's the dilemma. do you stuff it and go without, or do you bite the bullet and open up the siutcase knowing full well you have to go through the ordeal of closing it up again. It's like the sock that goes missing from the washing machine-the sacrificial sock. it always happens, nobody knows why - is it a sacrifice to the god of laundry, what he must do with all those odd socks i shudder to think, but i would love to know. this is like a perverted ritual, a shimmy we must all dance to the tune of the god of holidaying.

i'm not really sure where i was going with this line of thinking, but i think it's come to it's own natural anticlimax, got to go and sit on my suitcase now.

my shoes are on fire

how many shoes shoes should one take backpacking? i've decided on these pairs.

some sensible but n ot very fashionable walking boots (with added ankle protection i hasten to add), some fashionable retro 80s chic dunlop green flash (well i like them anyway) and some rather sexy shoe cum sandles (great for dubai, not sure about NZ winter though :( )

12.05.07

i didn't quite throw everything onto the floor, Just enoug
h so as i could catch some Zzzz's tonight. Ahhh, Sleep...

Godnight xx

i need sleep

okay here's state of play at bedtime on 12.05.07 (sorry, post-dated blog entry). as you can see my bed is full of clothes and not full of a sleepy me.

in my infinite wisdom, i decided that it would be a great idea to lay out all my stuff on my bed. in that way i would HAVE to finish my packing otherwise i would have no-where to sleep. however, my infinite wisdom did not take into account my infinite lazyness (or should it be laziness?, never mind...). where was i, oh, yes, my infinite lazy(i)ness. i had infact neglected to launder some essential items of clothing that i will be needing over the next six weeks.

therefore, i decided that it would be counter productive to load up my backpack (yes i'm really taking a backpack-it's camoflaged army colours and everything :) ), because i'll only have to unload it and re-pack again tomorrow. so in true lazy man style, i threw all my stuff onto the floor and went to bed anyway.

damn packing

This packing malarky isn't quite as easy as one may think. I think i've got used to the finer things in life because i'm finding things that i couldn't possibly leave without taking. And another thing, how do you shrink the contents of your toiletries bag? i'm only taking the essentials - soap, shower gel (i find whilst soap does make me feel clean, it tends to dry out my skin-the shower gel rehydrates it), shaving gel, aftershave lotion, deoderant. How is it that my bag still weighs a tonne and takes up so much room in my bag?!?

okay, here's how it's going so far. This is what equipment i'm taking (not inlcuding photographic stuff, i have another daybag for cameras).

tickets booked, just need to pack now

okay, tickets have been booked, a veritable bargain from emirates-at least the food will be good and i get to watch movies on demand. however, as i haven't yet read anything about NZ, i think i'll have to put the movies on hold and figure out what i'm meant to be doing and where i'm going to go in new zealand - oh, and how i'm going to get there!

i've got 3 days to pack. got to go and buy some holiday winter expedition cloting now. as you can tell i'm incredibly prepared for this.