Business class perks

I'm in the emirates gold lounge drinking free gin and tonics. Ah, now this is the way to fly

Much better pic of the bridge

Looks like mullets are back in!

Predictive text spelling errors.

Oops, i'm sending there updates straight from my phone and i forgot to check the predictive text. I meant the view is great and there's a live jazz band, not a lazy band. Am loving sydney! Defo have to come back again.

It's all about the jazz

I'm sitting at a cafe on the harbour front. The weather is fab, the they is great. I have beer, and there's a live lazy band. Sweet as bro

The harbour bridge

sexy tracy

it's my tracy looking very sexy at dusk

crazy french dude

got back into my room, and i thought i'd have it to myself again. but there were unfortunately a set of bags on one of the other beds. i had gone to bed quite early 10ish, and someother dude came in at about 12ish. at least he had the decency not to switch on the lights and make too much noise. woke up in the moring and went to get showered. went back to my bed to do final packing and heard someone make a sound similar to teh word hello, but not quite. scared the crap out of me. turned round and it was the other dude. was making smalltalk with him. he sounded really strange, like he was speaking english with some sort of speech disability. later found out he was french.

drove to auckland. stopped over at a town an hour south of bay of islands to check interweb for hotels. i'm officially ending my hostelling for this trip. hotels only from now on!!

arrived in aukland and navigated myself through the city to the hotel using a paper map!! no GPS for me. it was actually quite refreshing having to use a proper map for the city. i felt like i actually achieved something. and with no navigator either. i did have to turn the radio down so i could concentrate on the map though.

staying in the hyatt in auckland. i have my own bathroom. it has marble. i have my own tv with about 12ish channels. i have not one, not two, but three of my own towels. i have hand towels, i have face towels, i have my own double bed. heaven. i even have a view-albeit a view of a very uninspiring wall, but nevertheless a view. still, no time to indulge in my room, lots of sightseeing to do.

i took my lonely planet and headed out to see what i could see. took lots of photos of the sky tower, very tall, made me dizzy when i stood underneath and looked up. nearly fell over. there';s a masssive arts centre in auckland. it had loads of kids practicing their singing and dancing all over th place. very very peculiar. went to book tickets for a comedy play at the theatre, yes i am rather ra and living it large. found out that the kids were actually part of an inter school challenge to find the best performance from all the local schools. quite a cool idea i think.

went up into the sky tower observation deck. the fast lift made my ears hurt. view was fab. sun was setting, sky was beautiful. shame i had no-one to share the moment with :(

did lots more walking around. went back to the hotel, and relaxed. watched tv and had a great nights sleep.

dune boarding

awesome!!!

going on a 4x4 tour down 90mile beach (only actually 63miles) and duneboarding down some mondo sand dunes. The tour was pretty good. had to be ready for 7.00am :(, far too early to be awake on holiday. at least the europeans had gone so i had the room to myself and got a good night's sleep.

the 4x4 was pretty darn cool. it was an ex-army mercedes unimog that had been converted into a people carrier. awesome sight. have photos but not on faceboook:( the sand dunes were massive. climbing up them has completely wrecked my calves and knees. i'm going to be needing a thorough medical and overhaul when i get back. i managed to trudge up the dune twice before my calves completely gave out and i collapsed into the unimog.

got back into hostel, watched snatch and went to bed. had an early morning drive to aukland.

exploring paihia

paihia is a nice enough seaside town. not as pretty as i expected it to be after everyone's huge build up. bit of an anticlimax really. nevertheless, still pretty. drove around the place taking lots of photos of waterfalls and other stuff.

managed to blag a free ferry ride to russell. it wasn't much of a blag as i didn't really have to do anything. i just walked onto the ferry, no-one asked for money and then i got off at the other side. :)

evening was chilled out and relaxed, and then going on a 4x4 safari tomorrow.

bay of islands

got into the bay of islands at about midday. it's a lovely place. not qwuite as beautiful as i expected, but still pretty nevertheless. went exploring. photographed the sunset and some waterfalls. very arty-farty. back at the hostel, lots of noise coming from my room. 3 crazy europeans. a spaniard, an italian and a fin. offerred me a beer from their stash-how could i refuse? listened to some crazy finnish death metal rock-interesting- and then went out for a bite to eat with them. they all worked for vodaphone or nokia and were doing phony type things over here.

walked round all of paihia, fin didn't want seafood (we're on a beach) and italian didn't want pizza (it's rubbish if it's not italian) and the spainiard was easy (unattractive bloke unfortunately). we eventually settled for pizza at the pace next to our hostel (just like women buying shoes-see earlier post). we had a game of pool whilst chef was making pizza. one of the longest games i've played. we were all embarrasingly rubbish, but i eventually cleared the last few balls and won the game for the spainiard and i.

pizza took over an hour to come. the barman kept coming over to us and apologising in scottish-which the europeans didn't really understand-so i translated. they were getting understandabley irate, and i was just drinking more beer, i find it helps to keep me calm and chilled. the pizzas came, they were okay-the italian not impressed. barman cameover. i ordered another beer. he brought it over. i drank it. we left the bar. still haden't paid for the beers. well, the pizzas did take over a hout to come!

enough blogging for now. i still haven't caught up, but am going out tonight with a kathy whom i met in taupo. be good, will blog later xx

long time no bog

dudes,

i've been far too busy havng fun to remember to blog. sort of true.

i'm now in aukland. yes i know aukland already, where has all the timje gone? staying here for a couple of nights then off to sydney :)

volcano was awesome. next day had to go to rotorua to see the geysers (shooting jets of water from ground, not local gansta types from the east end). was driving along merrily. the trip was meant to take about 45mins. a bit rainy and still feeling the effects of being pulled over so driving slow. over an hour later and still not arrived at destination and running ow on fuel. i decided not to refuel to save time as i had plenty of fuel for an hour's journey, and (i'm lazy). however, i did see signs for napier. pulled over, checked the map. yes, of course i'm on the correct road. incorrect direction. what's more, there's no major towns between taupo and napier which means no fuel stops. BUGGER!!

driving along very mountainous terrain which means using lots of fuel on steep climbs. driving along with buttocks clenched hoping i don't run out of go-go juice. eventually i see signs for napier, only 18kms. buttocks unclenched. and then i see a petrol station. i'm not sure i've ever been that glad to see a pertrol station. had a chat with the lovely man who filled my tank and cleaned my screen- it's so civilised here - he said that council won't let him put up signs saying there's no fuel for 150km because it will put recovery companies out of business!!! don;t even get me started on that.

got into napier. thought i'd stay the night but not an awful lot to do. lots of chav types driving around very slowly in kev'd out jap hotrods with base distorted hip-to-the-hop blaring out of the boot of their cars. took some photos of the sexier art deco buildings, got back into the car and drove back to taupo and then onto rotorua. \

saw a sign on side of road saying 'craters of the moon'. sounds exciting i thopugh. a quick detour saw me walking through a geothermallyactive area with sulphurous steam venting through cracks in the rocky ground. if it wasn't for the vegetation, it was quite out-of-this-worldish.

weather was closing in as i arrived in rotorus - smells of rotten eggs. decided that the weather was rubbish and drove right on to aukland. mondo drive dudes. arrived at about 7pm ish. checked into a rather nice hostel. last into the dorm so i got the top bunk :( .

chilled out in the lounge and then went to bed at around 10ish. everyone else was asleep except one chinese girl at the opposite end of the dorm who was reading. every bunk had a dim personal reading light-very swish. bit of a problem with my bunk though. no steps or ladder. created a bit of a problem. so i took my clothes off ready for bed-had my superman red pants on. i then had to climb onto a bookcase and then into my bunk. i'm sure the chinese girl got quite an eyeful as i scaled mount bookcase to get into bed ;)

nextmoring, eft auckland at 7.00am and drove up to the bay of islands.

i climbed into a volcano

hey dudes, going to be a quick one, i only have 6 minutes. yes i know for some of you it only takes a couple of minutes, and that's doing it twice, but not me. ;)

i climbed into a volcano, and then out again. nearly got blown off it whilst climbing up the ridge. had a sheer drop either side of a narrow ridge with 60-80kmh gusting winds blowing across me. quite scary indeed. needless to say, i survived. it was an exhausting trek that lasted about 7hrs. my knees are shot to bits. i feel like an old arthritic man, not that i know exactly how this feels, i;'m only speculating.

only 3mins left. there were a COUPLE OF GIRLS FROM MY HOSTEL ON THE TREK. WALKED WITH THEM. oops, sorry about the caps lock, finger slipped. spent the evening in the hot tub with them and a few other girls, no guys though :). then went out for meal and drinkypoos with the girlies and another couple i met. girl was hot, guy was not. will put pics up asap, but no time now. puter keeps beeping at me. one min left.

got to go, will post more later,

xxx

got pulled over by the police :(

dudes and dudettes,

man, i am exhausted. been a hectic few days, not been able to get to a puter, far too busy adventuring and so forth.

have had lots of drinkning :)
but no debauchery :(
trekking through a volcano :)
and a 600km drive today :(

spent a night in wellington to begin my stint in the norht island. however, i did cheat a little. i decided that as this was half way through my trip, i deserved a little luxery. or rather, i deserved an en-suite and a double bed. it's not a lot to ask for, especially now that i'm used to the more sophisticated holiday accomodation-what with being post-university and having a job. so i checked into a hotel. it wasn't a glamourous hotel. very basic. it didn't even have a flat screen tv, just a basic 14inch CRT, and it didn't have loads of channels, just 11.

if you're ever in wellington, make sure you go this sushi bar on cuba street. had a conveyor belt. fab. and a bargain at only 25ish$NZ. the wasabi was mucho hotto though! :)

had a day in wellington. nice enough city, but the problem is that it is a city. everywhere in the south island apart from christchurch are really towns. they may call themselves cities, but they're only kidding themselves. small towns with very little traffic and miost of them only have one main streeet. what i'm trying to say is that i;m not used to lots of other cars on the road at the same time as me. and i'm certainly onot used to traffic lights, and lanes in roads, and opne-way streets. Wellington was a rather tricky drive, especially, when the hotel was in the centire of town but down some rather small side streets. i think it was the seedy end of town as there were a few strip clubs and porno shops within a very short walking distance. unfortunately i was exhausted and fell asleep on my bed (rather than just resting my eyes for five minutes) and so missed out on the oppurtunity to review some of these establishments for the next edition of the lonely planet guide. :(

the next day saw me driving to lake taupo. it's about 200-300km north of wellington. i was running late after spending far too much time exploring the city in the morning (the city, not the strip clubs), and so i thoguht i'd make up time by driving a little faster that the law suggests.

in all fairness though, in the south island, i was always doing about 120-140kmh (the limit is 100kmh), buit the roads are so empty, that there's never anyone to crash into or any police on the road. but from wellington, there were quite a few cars and it seems police cars too.

i was minding my own business pootling along at about 120kmh for about 10mins and being followed by a black holden, which is unusual because nobody in NZ speeds (or overtakes-they'll quite happily sit behind another car doing about 85kmh, rather than overtake them. it drives me mad). i didn't really think anything of it except that it was a bit peculiar. he was even overtaking when i overtook. i just thought he was eager to get somewhere as i was.

bugger me was i surprised when the red and blues started flashing from the front grill. i pulled over and waited for my $180 fine. the chap asked fro my liscence and was examining it for a few minutes, whilst explaining the use of indicators when overtaking. he then gave me two options. either pay $180, or just follow him for the rest of the journey as hed would not be travelling over 100kmh. i think it's pretty obvious as to which opytion i took (my wallet is not $180 lighter) :)
i think he just couldn't be bothered to sort out the paperwork for an international liscence!

got to lake taupo. the hostel is okay, but the woman on reception was the most miserable person ever and particularly unhelpful too. had to catch a coach to teh volcano at 6.20 the next morning so i went to bed quite early. there was a hole in my matress. well, a dip in the centre where it was clearly wearing out, or this was the bed for fat guests. so sleep was not easily forthcoming. was chatting to the girl in the bed opposite mine. she was a kiwi. she said i had a beautiful accent. i do though don't i :). i felt like a naughty schoolkid talkiong after lights out on a school trip.