Ko Sumui

Well have been diving some more and loving it, but bad news is that both my SD cards are shagged so if anyone can get me the boot.exe of a 2gb SD card then I'd appreciate it as I can't quickly find one and it means no more pictures :-(

Am currently thinking that I will come home sooner and not go to Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos as need to get some pesos coming in as I think that I have spent a little too much!

Plus it means that I will be able to go running more and see my bike :-)

Its hot and Palm tree like here am currently staying in a beach bungalow and is all very ver' nice.

Will find out about moving my air ticket tomorrow and let you know.

Diving off Phuket

Well I'm certainly loving the diving. Went on another day trip today to a 87m wreck and also to Shark point, and another site. Saw 2 sharks today woooooooooooooooooo!!!!! and I got well close to them - about a couple of feet from these big ol' Leopard sharks. I was gonna try and upload a video, but its a .mov file and I have no easy way of converting out here - so that will have to wait till I'm home. Tomorrow is do nothing day and spend no money. :-) Diving is well cheap here, but still expensive darn it. Although we were 9 people on a massive boat today which was good and we got free breakfast and lunch thrown in and I stole enough to have my dinner too.

Phuket

Well Phuket or Patong Beach, which is actually where I am staying is much nicer than Bangkok. I went diving yesterday on a day trip and decided to extend the trip and stayed the night and did more dives today. Was pretty darn cool and I want to do more diving. I saw loads of fish and quite a few octopuses and a turtle - check out the turtle man! And little Nemo. Only saw one shark and he was pretty far away so boo hiss. Want to see some sharks and definitely a manta ray. Will have to keep on looking. I have another few days here and then I am off to Ko somui where I will probably do some.......diving!!!

Thailand

Well not much to report really. Its bloody hot, there are loads anad loads of people around or so it would seem and lots of traffic jams. I hope the rest of Thailand is better as Bangkok seems pretty crappy really. It's just full of people trying to rip you off. Well every single one that I have met is trying to anyway. I'm heading South (14 hour bus trip) urrgghhhhh. Down to the islands and to Phuket to do some diving so I hope that that should be better anyway.

 

I'm not sure how all these people make a living as there just seem to be loads of people hanging about. I guess that they just scrounge and rip of the tourists?

North Island - rain

Well I have heard from Tom in Cape Kidnappers that he is away picking fruit or something so I have skipped that and drove to Lake Taupo. Didn't see much there as the rain and low cloud obscured the lake completely. Went to the Craters of the moon which wasn't terribly exciting, but there were boiling mud pools and steaming, erm....steam holes. Then it started raining again so I dedcided to head on up. I got to lake Rotarura. Saw som Maori village and their tourism - I mean culture. But I did get to see a little bit of haka which was pretty good and probably made up for the rest of the stop. Also saw a Geyser going off which was ok. I sat and watched it for at least 20 minutes as it heated the stones that I was sat on so was pretty to watch and nice and warm. Then guess what - more rain - so I carried on and drove round the Coromandel Peninsular which was nice, between the rainstorms.

I then ended up driving through Auckland as I wanted to get to the Bay of Islands - man what a shit hole that is. took me abso-fuckin-lutely ages to get past there and for a moment, I thought that I was on the M25. And when I say moment, don't let the brevity of the word do the goddamn wait any injustice. So I decided to not go in or bother looking at Auckland on the way back either.

Anyway once I got to the Bay of Islands most of the wrongs of the North Island were righted (apart from Auckland) Glorious weather, sunbathing, smoothies, scuba diving. Man it was all great and I ended up staying there for 3 days. Went for a dive on the Rainbow warrior which was the greenpeace boat sunk by Ze Frogs. Actually swam through a cabin and out of the escape hatch at the top of the cabin. Was really, really good - was at 26m and was breathing too much as well as I was worried about getting my hoses tangled so was only a 30 min dive before I had to head on upwards. Was really cool though, really good visibility, loads of bug eyed fish in the cabins and no skeletons so that was all good. Then we were on a deserted Island for lunch then off to another dive site - just a reef dive this time and only to 15M. The dive guide had the fish eating out of his hand though which was pretty amazing to see them doing that.

Sadly then I had to leave after that to the god forsaken hell hole that is Auckland and I am currently residing in Auckland airport after dropping of my hire car from 6 in the evening until 8 in the morning when myflight to Sydney leaves. Then I have the joys of waiting in that airport until 6 in the evening for my flight to Bangkok. Oh well - could be worse I guess. This computer is free though so wooooooo. But you can't plug anything in it so no more pictures until Thailand I'm afraid.

Anyway, gotta go this waiting won't do it by itself - oh wait yes it will....But I'm bored of standing here so ta ta.

Oh yes and while I remember, just to let you know that the fire brigade have delayed my training until July/August - dull dull. But it does mean that I can spend more time here and will be able to stay until money runs out rather than being recalled - then I'll have some enjoyable temping work to do w00t - bring on Britain, I can hardly wait..............

Up till now

Well I left queenstown after the skydive and headed north a little to Lake Wanaka. Ran round some of the lake and nearly fell of a cliff face that I shouldn't have been trying to climb up. But apart from a few scratches I am all good. Headed to the Toy and Transport Museum which has got the biggest collection of toys and cars you'll ever see, not bad considering it's just some blokes back yard (its's a big back yard though i'll give him that - it has 3 hangers in it)

Then I headed to Fox Glacier and went ice climbing for the day which was pretty cool. Weirdly despite global warming the glacier is advancing 1.3 metres a day which for a huge block of ice is pretty impressive. Whats more impressive though is that I met some Kiwis and they gave me Jamesons to drink so I was pretty chuffed about that.

Then off to the Abel Tasman National park for more running, sunbathing and general lazing around before jumping on the ferry and heading to the North Island. I have been to 2 internet cafes today - remembering my camera, but neither of them let me plug in a USB or CD so that sucked - I'll keep looking and add them when I can. I had a meal - a real meal, not just pasta tonight - splashed out and ate in a restaurant. Anyway that's me done for now. Will do photos as soon as I can.

Skydiving

Well Woooo hooo the weather turned out ok today so I am doing the skydiving thing. It was great fun and getting to jump out of a plane is much recommended. Got some photos, but can't upload them from this computer. Will Try when I get to the next one. There were 9 of us stuffed into a tiny plane and then we all got to jump out followed by our camera man. Was great fun falling for 45secs at 200kph then pulled the chute and another 10mins or so of twisting loads for extra fun. The only person who didn't go was a Yank - scardey cat. What a pussy. Anyway Will carry on when I get more time - gotta go catch a ferry.

House keeping

Well just uploading some photos and things today. I'm currently in Queenstown waiting to see if the weather improves so that I can do my 12,000ft skydive. Shame it's not like yesterday which was absolutely gorgeous. I have been, in the last couple of days, to Doubtful Sound, Milford Sound then to here (Top 2 are Milford, then Doubtful). Both were amazing, but it was sunny on the day I went to Milford so I think that that edged it.

Last night I went to the minus 5 bar which was actually minus 7.8 degrees, which was cool - literally. You get a big coat and gloves and everything is made of ice including the glasses. Thats me at the top at the bar in case you didn't guess. You are only allowed to stay in there for half an hour too as its too cold I suppose.

Sheep shearing

Well as I was in New Zealand I thought I should give the sheep a go.....

New Zealand

Well things are slowing down on the internet front as the prices are going up!!

I got to NZ ok and hired a car and bought a crappy tent and have been showing myself round. I have been jet boating and visiting all the scenery which is pretty spectacular. Today I had a go at sheep shearing which was good fun. Sadly I have left my camera in the car so another time I will upload those.