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Sydney - James on top of the Harbour Bridge: 'What's that white wierd looking building down there?' Tour Guide: 'Are you serious?!'

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Well it was pretty sureal waking up on my birthday in a hotel in Sydney, as per every important occasion so far on our travels the weather let us down and it was raining, I opened gifts and cards that had been sent to us here, it was really nice to have something to open. We had already planned to do the Sydney Harbour Bridge walk in the morning so in spite of the rain we made our way on a 45 minute walk to the Bridge Climb, stopping off for a quick breakfast on the way which was a real novelty. On arrival we were put into jump suits (which were not particularly flattering), given a safety harness, radio, jacket and rain trousers (given the conditions). We were then ready to climb the bridge, we were attached the whole way along by security wire, stopping us from jumping off if we ever got the urge, after 30 minutes of climbing we made it to the bottom of the great arch, the views were already spectacular even though it was slightly cloudy. At this point the rain picked up even more and we made the walk accross the arch, it was truly incredible, just the experience of walking on the top of the bridge and the views, it truly was a really special experience and something I will never forget. Especially when Claire made everyone in the group sing Happy Birthday to me at the top of the bridge, which was highly embarassing but a pretty cool experience.
After returning back to the bottom of the bridge the weather had improved, so we decided to walk around the market at a place called The Rocks, this is the largest and most impressive market in Sydney, after strolling around without any real purpose we decided as a birthday treat we would stop for lunch and a drink. I decided to stop off for a pub lunch where I had fish and chips and Claire had some wedges, nicely washed down by a cold pint. We made our way back to the hotel so that we could tart ourselves up before we headed out to have dinner up the Sydney Tower, we left fairly early so that we could have a drink

Auckland - 'No, no I can't do this, please, just get up and move, I can't go in there with her, I'm going to freak out'

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

So last night after our night in with the DVD player we did eventually head out to meet Victoria after her work party. We spent the night in a bar on the Harbour front which was brilliant, it was great to meet some of her friends and spend the night with the locals! It was such a great atmosphere too and such a better night out than in the UK, it was relaxed and chilled and we stayed in the bar until 4.30am, just drinking and chilling out and chatting, nothing at all like being at home!
So after a few hours sleep we spent our second full day in Auckland chilling out at the house for a while and then in the afternoon we went to visit the Auckland Museum which was actually really good (and believe it or not, walking around a museum for 3 hours totally sorts out a hangover, give it a try!). Today in Auckland there is a thing called Christmas in the Park, which is basically a big event in the park in which the Museum is housed and there are live bands and stuff which we checked out for a while, it was pretty cool.
So after an evening of Chinese takeaway (again, really different from home!) and chilling out, Victoria took us on an hour drive out to a place called Spookers. Spookers is something that she raved about when we were in America together and it was something James and I both really wanted to do. Its an old mental institution where they basically have all of these different sections that you can do where you walk through room after room of all this creepy stuff, and actors jump out on you and grab you and are dressed up as characters from scary movies. It sounds really daft as I'm writing this and not at all scary but oh my God it was terrifying. We were chased by clowns, and the guy from the Texas chainsaw masacre (and he had a real chainsaw!) as well as so many other scary film characters including the girl from The Ring which was the only bit that tipped me over the edge and I totally freaked out (hence the blog title today!). James was pretty good abo

Taupo - Bring on karting when i'm back - 72kg!!!!!!!!

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

We'll yesterday we made our way to Taupo, we had our first lay in since we've been away so we got to Taupo in the afternoon, but whilst we were there Claire managed to book some horse riding and I, not to be out done by Claire booked a Bungy Jump for the following day. Taupo was a nice city and is home to the largest lake in the continent of Oceania, it is almost as if you are looking out to sea it is magnificent. After a brief exploration of the city/town we made our way to yet another garden of a hostel and managed to get some washing done (for only the third time in New Zealand, a pretty impressive feat in my eyes). Unfortunately staying in the hostel the same night as us was a hen party and just after we finished dinner the stripper arrived, unsurprisingly Claire's interest in the washing diminished somewhat rapidly.
Today not to be outdone by Claire I completed my Bungy Jump, I decided to do one as there was a deal where if you did it before 11am it would only cost NZ$95 which is around �45 so it was extremely good value. Although it was only a third of the size of the bungy Claire completed it was still manly! There was the option of getting dunked in the river below, which I took, unfortunately I didn't really jump off the platform just kind of fell so only half my body got wet. It was a great experience however I definately preferred the skydive.
We'll I got to have my fun for the day, so it was Claire's turn, as I have no particular interest in being out of control on top of a horse I decided to give it a miss, so I got a priceless hours break (where I snuck off and had a guilty pleasure of a McDonalds.) During the Horse-trek Claire got to ride to what is known as the Moon Craters where the ground is heated so much by the fault line underneath it that steam appears from the ground. After an hour we were reunited, and we made our way to a place called Matamata which is half-way between Taupo and Hamilton to spend the night in a campsite, which

Queenstown - Survived an Earthquake...the tent didn't!

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

We have been in Queenstown for now two days, the town itself is really cool and has a lot of character. On our first day here we wandered around town and chilled out at the Wharf for a while before heading back to the campsite to get some kip after a long days drive.
After a good nights sleep we went to a place called Glenorky which is 45km from Queenstown. Glenorky is Middle Earth from Lord of Rings and was also part of the set of Wolverine, Narnia and others. On the way back from Glenorky to Queenstown we decided to stop of at a place called NZSkyDive, where i did my first SkyDive, it was amazing and truely frightening at the same time, it was unreal. I decided that i would rather jump out a plane than do a Bungy jump (which Claire is doing in about 2 hours time) and that New Zealand an unblievable view from 12000ft.
There wasn't much topping that for the rest of the day for me at least. However we did have a slice of normality by going to the cinema to see New Moon, which was alright but Claire really enjoyed. I couldn't really say i didn't want to go after i had got to do a skydive earlier in the day.
Once the film had finished we made our way back to the campsite only to be greeted by the windest night so far and after many failed attempts to keep the tent down (i'm no engineer at 3 in the morning, or anytime for that matter) so at about 4 (after an earthquake i might add) the top half of the tent blew away, which was fun chasing. At that point i'd had enough and threw the tent into the car and we sleep for what was left of the night in the car.
An eventful day but for me the best day travelling so far and one i will never forget...today Claire does her bungy so keep updated.

Christchurch - Not as good as Canterbury, Kent

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Today we visited the infamous city of Christchurch in the district of Canterbury. We had pretty high hopes given the name, however the city was not what we expected...
Christchurch is the South Islands biggest city, yet there was nothing going on. When I say nothing I mean, nothing. It was really small, no bigger than Kingston and we had been told to visit the Christchurch cathedral, which when we arrived was honestly no bigger than an average size church! It was pretty, but not as grand as we had been told. We spent a while in a bar on the internet as we had some bits to sort out, ie the fact that my debit card has been cloned, not so much fun! We then headed to the Canterbury museum to visit the Maouri exhibit, which was really interesting, and also free! Maouri's are the indigenous poeple who inhabited the Island before white people.
Once we had had enough of Chirstchurch we drove the 80km to our first campsite in NZ. It took a while as we had to travel on gravel roads and cross a river at one point, but we made it and my god it was basic!
As we travel around the country we are trying to stay at campsites for as cheap as possible. The NZ Department of Conservation (DOC) offer free campsites across the country, but they only have a pit toilet and water is from the streams and rivers. So our first night was spent at one of these! It was really good fun putting the tent up for the first time, however we realised that we had forgotten to buy a regulator for the stove, so we ended up eating bran flakes for dinner as we had no gas and there was no shops for around 40km! The site was in the middle of a mountain range and there was no one else on site, so I got a little scared when it started to get dark and there was noone around for about 20km! But we made it through and had fun along the way!
Tomorrow, we hit Kaikoura, stay tuned...