Christchurch

It would appear that there is no accommodation in Christchurch at all - after ringing from Oz for about half an hour I finally managed to get somewhere at the YMCA oh yeah baby, sadly I saw no Indians, bikers or repairmen and I was most upset. I was only allowed to stay one night though as it was completely full the next day. So I spent the day sorting out a new sim card, booking more accommodation, booking a rental car and buying a tent. It is very busy in NZ and camping seems the way forwards. Plus it is quite a light tent so I can use it when going for trips on the ol' motorbike. I have booked pretty much all of my activities for NZ - expensive!! Then today (Sun) I went Jetboating this morning which was pretty darn cool, although I fancied having a go at driving it they didn't seem as keen. Not sure why?

So just bumming around at the hostel this afternoon, as I have had a nasty cold and so just want to recover ASAP so that I can do everything that I want to. I pickup my hire car tomorrow and will then set off proper like.

See if you can spot the queer comments - think that I got enough in!!

Sydney

Well I'm now in Sydney for a couple of days and just the one night. I spent today walking round saw the Opera house and the Bridge and The Queen Elizabeth II out of Southampton was here. Then I went to the Sydney aquarium, which I loved they had all these underwater tunnels and there were loads of sharks and cool stuff like that. Then I chilled at the harbour, had some lunch in the sun, before heading back to the hostel as I was falling asleep in the sun. When I woke up it was raining - d'oh! Oh well Guess it's time to update my blog then.....

Tomorrow if it's nice I'll head to Bondi Beach then it's off to New Zealand.

Woooooooooooooooo

Sydney Aquarium

Byron Bay

I turned up at Byron in the afternoon - and a time zone change - crazy Ozzies despite being exactly the same longditude. Anyway, bit of a panic finding a hostel, but as I managed to get the last bed in Byron in a nice beach house and they picked me up from the bus stop so that was all good. I then decided to walk along the beach to the lighthouse which was about 8k. When I got to the top I got talking with Veronica (another Irish girl) I'm beginning to wonder if there are any Irish people left in Ireland judging by the amount that I've met here. Anyway we walked back and got some dinner at Cheeky Monkeys and watched the Coyote Ugly girls which was cool then danced a bit. Next morning I did some sunbathing and swimming which was supercool - finally some sun. Then mooched around Byron - its real nice there. Got back on the bus in the evening (night bus that arrives in Sydney at 7am the following morning) :-( Completely by chance Tim and Ti'an were also on it having got on at Noosa so that was cool - chatted, watched shitty disney films on the bus and didn't sleep much.

Australia Zoo

Well, after Fraser Island I was going to head back to Brisbane to continue my trip, but as I headed back to the bar to say 'bye' to all the chaps and chapesses Andy and Fiona offered me a lift to the Australia (Steve Irwin) Zoo which was ace as I had written off going there as it is too time consuming and expensive to get to without a car. So I took them up - it meant staying another day at Dingos at Rainbow beach, but the sun woke me up so I went for a run and then frolicked in the pool then in the evening went to see the Carlo Sandblow which is some sand but looks pretty (was free to get there so went along with it!)

So next day we head out to the Zoo which is cool - watched loads of crocs and finally got to see Koalas and Kangaroos which I hadn't and would've been very disappointed with if not. Then they dropped me off at Brisbane after so I stayed the night there before heading down to Byron Bay.

Well I caught the plane down to Brisbane and then got the bus back up the coast a little to Rainbow Beach. From there we loaded up our 4x4 and headed out to Fraser Island for 3 days and 2 nights. Was pretty damn cool. I did all the driving in my group cos I was the only one that was over 21 and could drive 'stick' damn yanks!!! Oh well I loved it racing along the beach and then heading inland on wicked four wheel drive tracks. Man you'd've all have loved it ;-) even on the night when it rained it was cool. Went to frehwater lakes in the middle of rainforest and also to another in the middle of the desert - well had to walk through 2km of sand dunes to get there for that one. I'll try and post some pics - only prob is it takes fookin ages to upload!

Fraser Island

Well I caught the plane down to Brisbane and then got the bus back up the coast a little to Rainbow Beach. From there we loaded up our 4x4 and headed out to Fraser Island for 3 days and 2 nights. Was pretty damn cool. I did all the driving in my group cos I was the only one that was over 21 and could drive 'stick' damn yanks!!! Oh well I loved it racing along the beach and then heading inland on wicked four wheel drive tracks. Man you'd've all have loved it ;-) even on the night when it rained it was cool. Went to frehwater lakes in the middle of rainforest and also to another in the middle of the desert - well had to walk through 2km of sand dunes to get there for that one. I'll try and post some pics - only prob is it takes fookin ages to upload!

 

Sunny Oz

So here are some pictures of the journey to Cape Tribulation - yes that is the road that's how much rain there was. Then how Australia should be! Then some pictures of me getting ready for diving and then drinking afterwards!

Oh and I nearly forgot - I was viciously attacked by a trigger fish on my last day of diving - I was taking a picture of one when another one came up and almost ripped my arm off as you can see from the photo!

Catching up

Hey there,

 

Well sorry I have not blogged for a while so I will put up some stuff now and hope that I don't forget anything.

 

Well I have done my first 2 days of scuba training - in the pool and in the classroom which was very exciting! not! It's not difficult, but some people are completely useless. Anyway we got through that lot successfully, only to be told that that due to the cyclone they have called the dive boats back and that the trip won't be going ahead on the next day - which is big problemo as I have booked a flight to Brisbane for the day after the trip was supposed to finish - pantalons! So after some juggling and more expense :-( I booked 2 more nights accommodation and managed to move my flight. So I am heading out for the diving on Saturday morning - being picked up at 6.15 erkkk! I thought this was supposed to be a relaxing holiday?!?!

 

So after heading out to the dive shop and collecting our stuff we headed on down to the boat and stowed our stuff there followed by a 3 hour journey to the first dive site. The shitty weather that we had been having has gone - hooray!!!!!!!!!!! Only problem now is to see if I have enough sun tan lotion! 30 degrees of lovely lovely sunnyness. So on the first day we do 2 more training dives which piss me off loads cos some people just shouldn't be allowed cos they are rubbish - and it holds the good people - like me ;-) up. Our instructor is Gonzo and not from the muppets but Gonzalo from Argentina! Also Scott is on our boat too which is cool as I can chat to him as he is doing his dive master training course.

 

So we do these couple of training dives which get some of the skills out of the way - we are not supposed to be looking at fish but we find this Napolean fish which is just HUGE and swims around us checking us out. Oh and when we are on the boat we see some turtles which are sweet as well.

 

Then in the evening the qualified divers head out for a night dive which looks pretty cool apart from for us on the boat who can see all the sharks circling around them! - We have that to look forward to on the next day. That night we just sat out on the top deck of the boat checking out the stars and the milky way and the Southern cross. It is unbelievably clear with almost no light pollution at all - just those irritating navigation lights which the skipper wouldn't turn off the mean ol' git!!

 

On the next day we have an even earlier start and are in the water for 6.30 as I have elected to do my Adventure diving qualification. That means that we do a deep dive and so we head on down to 26.5m and we check out a shark that is basking on the sand, but at that depth we can only stay for 14minutes which isn't much at all so after that we head on slowly back up having to do a decompression stop at 5m before finally surfacing then we have a long surface interval and get some sunbathing in as there is nothing nicer than just lying in the sun in the middle of the ocean - very relaxing indeed.

 

We then do some more dives and stuff and navigation thingys and I pass wooo! so then we get to go off by ourselves which is ace - definitley need to do more scuba diving. That night we do the night dive and as we are jumping in the skipper is throwing bread in and attracting the fish and the sharks - lol was ok though - very peaceful.

Then on Monday we have the 3 hour boatcruise back to Cairns, then time to have a decent shower then we all head out for a jolly old piss up where we do loads of shots and get very drunk! Up and checked out by 10 - dull then time to do the laundry and then here I am waiting to go to the airport for my flight to Brisbane. I will be heading to Fraiser island for 3 days from wednesday or thursday so I'm looking forward to that.

Anyway thats all for now as I'm sure I've bored you silly. I'll see if I can put some photos up too.

 

 

Oz

Hey - well what a surprise OZ is - it's certainly hot, but its also pissing down with rain most of the time - went to see the rainforest in Daintree which was pretty cool. I have met up with these guys in my Dorm room in Cairns - 2 of them are aussies who are travelling round so they have their own ute! which is cool - like a pickup truck. So we drove up their and everywhere is flooded and it was ace - this is not going to make much sense I'm afraid. The road was being washed away so we ploughed on through it - was cool. Also went on a river cruise and saw some crocodiles which was sweet - reminded me of Sri Lanka quite a lot.

 

Will try and put some more photos up. Forgot my digital camera today though which was silly, but I'll grab some of Nathans pictures for today.

 

Also, have booked my PADI course which starts tomorrow so I'm looking forward to that. I've also had to book a flight to Brisburne as the roads and rails aren't running cos of all the flooding - apparantly they have named the cyclone so that might be more bad weather? Should be sunny though when I go to Brisburne as apparantly they are having a drought in the rest of the country.

 

80 Yanks have turned up to the hostel today so its packed now - damn yanks eh?

 

Not gonna be doing much tonight as I have an early start tomorrow and also got bladdered last night was sweet - got in at 4ish and then up at 7 to go to Cape Tribulation (which we never actually got to cos of the roads)

 

Man, I'm getting to need a haircut soon as my hair seems to have grown massively. Anyway its way to hot in here and my brain isn't working so I'm not even gonna proof read this - so hope its all ok!!!

Yorkeys Knob video

I was at Yorkeys Knob fishing of all things and some Aussie mates persuaded me to put some video up so here goes...

Leaving Japan

Well, I`m getting ready to go now. Just finishing packing my bags and the like and getting ready to head to the airport.
I arrive at Cairns at stupidly early in the morning so I will have a long day in Cairns tomorrow checking the place out. I certainly won`t have the same level of internet access, but will blog when I can.
I`m thinking of heading North from Cairns first, so spending the first day in Cairns and then heading to Port Douglas or Cooktown to check that out before heading South.

Have`t really got any further solid plans of what I`ll be doing, but will certainly be resting for a while.

Speak soon

Japan, not doing a lot

Well I have not been up to much for the last couple of days, on Wednesday I explored some more of Tokyo and then went and played tennis with Yasuo. I somehow managed to hurt my back after tennis which is a right pain as it means that today I did not go to Nikko, but sat at home all day. Last night after leaving Yasuo I went to Roppongi hills which is a well posh and expensive part of Tokyo. As my back was hurting I went straight to a bar and drank lots of Whiskey. The first bar I happened upon was run by non-Japanese and they were all stockbrokers and IT people and the like. Some good things happened - they bought me lots of drinks - suckers! and I was offered a job if I wanted to work in IT in Japan! After that I staggered back to the capsule hotel that I was staying in. Which is fairly odd but quite cool. Its as you would imagine - like a large coffin but with a TV in there too. There is a blind at the foot end of your bed and a control panel for the TV and lights etc on the wall with a shared bathroom on each floor. There are capsules on top of each other so on each floor there are an upper row and a lower row. Was all pretty cool and different - ok for 3500Yen - about 15quid.

So thats all I`ve really done - watched Star wars and Independance Day (Not masses to choose from here!) Tomorrow I will mainly be doing more resting and then off to catch my flight in the evening. Fingers crossed that my back recovers by next monday.