Saturday 12th of Feb 2011

I finally got to New Zealand and what a beautiful country it is. I wish I had more money to stay here even longer. Christchurch was my first stop. Its a really nice city quite small as cities go. It suffered another massive earthquake its very sad to watch the aftermath. I started my Stray bus tour there. To be honest if I could start all over again I wouldn’t use Stray they are really rubbish. They’re always late not well organised and its hard to book buses because their always full or the brutal online booking system messes up your booking and God help you if you end up on Oscar’s bus he doesn’t know his arse and his elbow. But having said that some of the other guides are good and helpful. Our first stop was in Kaikoura. This is a gorgeous little town which I loved because you can go whale watching there. It was amazing!! We saw three sperm whales and hundreds of crazy dolphins that love to show off.

Then we went to Picton. This is a tiny town who’s biggest attraction is the ferry to Wellington. The next day we headed to Marahau home of the Abel Tasman National Park. There are some fantastic walks to be done here. Unfortunately after my three hour hike I got very sick (possible stomach bug) and spent the rest of the day in bed and couldn't go hand gliding the next morning much to my disappointment. Our next stop was Barrytown population 40!! No joke its tiny the only thing we saw was the pub. I did get to do some jade carving here though that brought out my artistic side (not)!! We headed to Frans Josef from here to the Glaciers. There some amazing hikes to be done here with lots and lots of ice.

Next we were heading for Queenstown but had an overnight stop at Makerora. We went jet boating here but it wasn't really worth the money I’ve been on more exciting roller coasters. The scenery though, as with all of New Zealand, was picture perfect. Also on the way to Queenstown we decided to go to Lake Wanaka where I finally got up the courage to do a 12,000ft Skydive!! It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever done  although I have never been so terrified in all my life. Just waiting to get on the plane was the worst part, I felt strangely calm once we were in the air right up until I was being pushed out of the plane and that’s when I thought “Why am I doing this?” The free fall only lasts 45 second but the feeling was indescribable. Once the parachute comes out, thanks to the trusty expert attached to my back, its a nice glide to the ground. I wanted to go straight back up. The buzz from it lasted for days. That night when we finally arrived in Queenstown Emer and myself had our survival party which lasted into the early hours of the next day. I finally got to hand glide in Queenstown too. This was in some ways even scarier then the Skydive because you have to run off the side of a cliff at 2’000ft. The glide to the ground is a lot faster so the landing was a bit scary. I also did a Lord of the Rings tour here but it was drastically over priced.

After a few days in Queenstown we headed to Milford Sound. Another pretty spot with hundreds of waterfalls. It lashed rain but apparently thats when you get the best waterfalls. We headed south and spent a night in Invercargill. If your going here don’t bother there’s literally nothing here of interest but there are a few shops if you must do something!! Supposedly its been referred to by Mick Jagger as “the arse hole of the world”. We also took a trip to Dunedin which boasts the steepest street in the world. The bottom of it was good enough for me though. We also did the Cadbury’s factory tour here. That was lots of fun with lots of free samples, expect one floor smelled like the strawberry roses that they used to make years ago that turned my stomach because I always hated those ones especially the smell.

Then we went to Mount Cook and luckily we got a really clear sunny day because the mountain is only visible one out of every three days. Its a breathtaking sight though as are the icebergs in the  lake below it, that break off from the Tasmin Glacier. Next we had a long drive past the Tekapo Lake to get back to Christchurch concluding my loop of the South Island. My next trip will start here and head north. The top half has a lot to live up to!!

Wednesday 26th of Jan 2011

Well it my last day in Australia! Everybody say aaahhh! Melbourne was great fun especially the Neighbours night. That was hilarious & I got to meet Dr. Karl Kennedy and Steph Scully. Also we met someone called Sky but I don't know who she is.

From Melbourne I took a trip up the Great Ocean Road which wasn't so great because it was lashing rain the whole  time. The Twelve Apostles were miserable. The Otway National Park was cool though and it was enhanced by the rain because its a rain forest. We stayed in Port Campbell a nice spot but the rain kept us inside. The next day more rainy Great Ocean Road. It stop when we got to the Grampians though but the damaged was done and some of the roads were closed. I can’t believe the floods followed me here too!!

The next day we headed for Adelaide. Lots of people had told me that it was kind of boring here but I liked it. It was like a city sized country town. I loved the zoo here because they have pandas and sun bears (the sun bear in Sydney were invisible). Unfortunately I was a few days too early for Lance Armstrong who did a charity cycle there  after I left. The following day we headed to Quorn and spent a couple of days here hiking in the Flinders Range. The best part was the BBQ (sorry to any veggies reading this). We had Camel, Kangaroo and Buffalo. Then we headed to the under ground town of Cooper Pedy. Its famous for the mining of Opal but it was too hot for the miners to live here so they built their houses under ground. We stayed in an “underground hostel” but really it was built into the side of a big hill. Then finally I got to Uluru or Ayers Rock. It is just a rock and I can’t say I saw it change colour at sunrise or sunset but I’m still glad I saw it and now I can tick it off the list. It was crazy hot though up in the 40’s. The next day we did a four day hike of King’s Canyon in the crazy heat. It was worth it though for the amazing views. Finally our tour ended in Alice Springs. Alice is a hole of a town I wouldn't recommend it. If you have to go don't stay too long. It looks like Canberra except really dirty and there’s lots of dodgy people hanging around day and night. From here I flew as soon as I could to Melbourne for a one night stop over then flew on to Tasmania. I really didn't have a enough time here. I stayed in Hobart which is lovely it kind of reminded me of Wexford town. The climate here is a bit more manageable too. I took a trip to Port Arthur and took in some of the historical sights of the old prison station. I loved the Tasmanian Devil Conservation centre here too. We got to see the devils at feeding time. They are savages and look nothing like the Looney Tune version. Sadly then the next day I had to fly back to Sydney.

Its been an amazing couple of months and if I could do it all over again the only thing I’d change is I’d bring more money :)

But now its time for my New Zealand adventure to begin!!! Watch this space…

Friday 7th of Jan 2011

I cant believe its been nearly a month since I updated this but what a month its been! Well Darwin was Darwin not totally unlike Dublin City on a messy Saturday night. Can’t say I liked it that much the torrential rain put me off leaving the room during the day and the police sirens put me off leaving at night. If you ever go here try not go in the wet season.

I then flew to Cairns. Now that was a different kettle of fish it did rain but not a much and it was glorious during the day. The town itself is nice. It was full of tourists but in a good way it had los of Australian holiday makers so you know its a good spot. I took a two day boat trip out to see the great barrier reef. That was amazing. Snorkelling still scares the shit of me but it was fine when I had a guide with me.

Also in Cairns I started a two week tour down the east coast with the craziest bunch I’ve ever met, tour guide included, but in the best possible way. The bus parts were like something out of Glee, everyday was Karaoke. I was supposed to finish the tour at Byron Bay but I couldn’t say goodbye so I stayed all the way to Sydney. Our first stop was Magnetic Island. A beautiful spot & also the place I spotted my first wild Koala. We stayed in the base hostel that was great fun. It was lady’s night and you’d be amazed what a man will do for a free drink in that place!!!  Next we made our way to Airlie Beach and headed out to Whitsundays on a sailing boat. It had a engine but we sailed a bit. This time I was able to snorkel much better all on my lonesome! (well I had a buddy) We spent two nights out at sea which was great fun but the only way to sleep was to drink because it was way too hot. We stayed a night at Airlie Beach as well which resulted in me buying a didgeridoo and one of  my travel buddy’s (who shall remain nameless) getting a $100 fine for peeing in the street. It’s all good now though she paid it a few days ago didn’t you  Debbie? :) We were supposed to go to Carnarvon Gorge but it was flooded so we spent an extra day and night at Kroombit cattle station. This was my favourite part of Australia so far. We got to be real cowboys for a few days hats and all. If you wore a cowboy hat and bandana you got cheaper beer or else you had to pay city slicker prices. There was horse riding where we rounded up the cattle. There was shooting, whip cracking and even quad biking. Not being the best driver I decided to stand in the back of the 4x4 yute with a few others and follow the quads. This turned out to be the business since our crazy guide likes to drive off road a lot. We spent one night sleeping under the stars in swags but unfortunately the next day was our last day. We were all sad to leave but we were so lucky we did because the place was flooded a few hours later. The east coast are having one of the worse floods the country has ever seen and we missed it by a day. We went to Rainbow Beach the next day which I wouldn’t bother with unless your going to Fraser Island, which we did.  We didn’t slum it in tents with dingoes instead we stayed in a nice resort there. Fraser is lovely well worth the visit. We spent Christmas morning playing Frisbee on the beach then headed back to rainbow for our BBQ Christmas dinner. Its too hot here to realise its Christmas. There was loads of decorations but it still didn’t register. Next we headed to Brisbane for a short visit before heading to Byron Bay. I FINALLY found Grace here and we had a great night out in Cheeky Monkeys. If anyone tells you they are closed on a Sunday they’re lying. The next day we went to the elusive Spot X. Its supposed to be this amazing secret surf spot but by the amount of people that were there I don’t think its a secret anymore. I suck at surfing!! FACT! But after the initial frustration of trying to get on the board I really started to enjoy it. I only managed to get one leg upright but its a start and I’d definitely try it again. It wears you out though and we had achy muscles for two days after. Finally then we landed in Sydney. What a place! I loved it. Granted its another big city but once you see the Opera House and Harbour Bridge you get goose bumps and being there at new years was brilliant. There was a fantastic buzz about the place. On new years eve we had to start queuing from 10am for a good spot in the Botanical Gardens to see the Bridge so it was a long day but well worth it and we smuggled in some vodka so that took the edge off the long wait. I’d love to do it all again but this time I’m going to book my accommodation well in advance (Sorry Katy & Rich xxx). I hung out in Sydney for a week even managed to catch a show at the Opera House. I loved the aquarium there too the walk-under tank was amazing.

After all the excitement of Sydney I decide to spend a few days chilling in Canberra. Its the capital city although you wouldn’t think it as its quite small and quiet for a capital. Then I spent ten hours travelling by bus to Melbourne which brings me up to date. So far so good!!

Wednesday 8th Dec 2010

Perth was lovely a very modern city without being over crowded. Whilst there I decided to take a trip up the west coast to Monkey Mia. It was fabulous. There was nine girls including another Irish girl (finally someone that could understand me and knows what giving out means!!!) And then there was our poor bus driver Murray that had to put up with us bless him! First we hit the Pinnacles. Its just a load of weird red rocks, not really unusual for Australia but the Aboriginals think its some tribe that angered their God. Then we went sand boarding that was cool but the walk back to the top was a killer. We stayed overnight in Kalbarri that was lovely especially when we went for a walk on the beach and there were ‘flaming galahs’ everywhere. The next day we went to Shark Bay (didn’t see any sharks though) We did see gorges and some of the girls went abseiling. I did it once in a quarry in Dalkey with Denise and once was enough for me. We stopped off at Shell Beach. Millions of tiny shells all over the sand don’t take you shoes off here. We were the only people there and it was beautiful. We stayed in Money Mia with guess what, more beautiful beaches! I also acquired a love for Strongbow Sweet, who knew! In the morning we went to see the wild dolphins that come right up to the shore to be fed. That’s been one of the highlights of the trip so far. We took a boat trip here around Shark Bay and the dolphins swam with us. We saw sea cows too or Dugong if your Australian. Apparently we saw turtles too but they were too far away so I’m not convinced. Later we went to Hamelin Pool to see Stromatolites. More weird rocks but apparently they’re the reason there’s life on earth because they give off oxygen. Murray wants to put some on Mars so we could live there as well but I think he’s a bit touched in the head. That night we stayed on a farm. That was great craic. We got to see their kangaroos, ostriches and emus plus a sheep that thinks he’s a emu. We also got to see a wolf spider (sounds worse then it is). The two Irish girls sat out watching the sun go down with a nice cup of tea.  I never fail to find a fellow tea enthusiast. The next day we had to head back to the city. We stopped off at a wildlife park to feed the crazy animals. They bashed each to get the food. The kangaroos were the worst. But i did get to meet baby Lexie here, an 8 month old kangaroo. She was so cute we wanted to steal her. We also briefly left the country even got stamps in our passports in Hutt River Province. A crazy Australian created his own country by declaring war on Australia over a weekend when the office was closed. It was fascinating but a little bit creepy. Then it was back to Perth. The next day I flew to Darwin. Its a lot smaller then I expected but still a fun place. And as I’m finding with most places in Australia, its very expensive!

Wednesday 4th Dec 2010

Well my second trip in Asia finally got underway. Thank god because you can only spend so long in Bangkok city without going crazy. We met our group on the first night (another diverse one but in a good way) only to find that two of them had decided to meet us in Krabi instead. The day we were due to leave Ian, who had been with me since I arrived in Bangkok Airport, decided he was too sick to travel and went home to England instead. But I still had Meera and Kimberly (sometimes). We set off for a few days in the National Park in Khao Sok, Thailand on another horrible overnight train. It was worth it though the park was beautiful. The resort was like a tropical paradise with the best banana lassi ever. The park itself is a rain forest quite nice to walk around but it got a steep for my dodgy hip. The next stop was Krabi where we collected our two fallen angels only to lose one again a few days later. People going missing was a bit of a habit on this trip. Krabi was amazing and had a gorgeous beach with massages and beauty treatments at one end. There’s a lot of island hopping to be done here. We took a trip to Phi Phi island where the movie the beach was filmed. It was lovely there but you can see its already getting very touristy which means it’ll be destroyed in a few years. Our next destination was Malaysia. This is a great country with really friendly people. We stayed in Penang for a few days where I finally found my cinema to watch Harry Potter and let the tourism take a backseat for a few hours. We also found a fun reggae bar here. So fun in fact that I managed to get twisted which resulted in me missing my bus to Kuala Lumpur the next day. Thanks to our tour guide leaving me instructions to get there and with the help of a lovely Dutch couple I finally made it there. KL is a great city. Lots of shopping and sight seeing to be done here. We took a trip up the Menara Tower, over 300 meters tall. I managed to make the bus on time to our next stop in Malaca. The hotel we stayed in here was really basic but the staff were so nice and friendly I’d stay here again. The town here was very nice. Malaysia in general was fantastic and the level of English speakers definitely improved the further south you go. The only thing that bothered me was the early morning wake up calls from the Mosques. At the crack of dawn everyday the singing starts well its more like wailing it only lasts few minutes but its enough to wake you up. After a while you find yourself singing along even though you have no clue what they’re saying. The last stop on the trip was Singapore. I loved it here. Everything you could possibly want to buy is all on Orchard Road. But its really expensive compared to the rest of South East Asia. The train system here is very easy to use. They have a fantastic zoo and bird park and they have a night safari which is basically a zoo at night but it was good craic. So there ends another part of my adventure and more sad farewells. Now I’m in Perth starting my Australian leg of the tour. I stayed at Scarborough Beach for a couple of days. Already I love the place.

Tuesday 9th Nov 2010

Well we finally made it to Hue. We were really late so we missed out on a few things but we were still supposed to go on a cyclo tour. Cyclo’s are like adult buggies propelled by a man on a bike. But surprise!! A load of motorbikes showed up instead. The mode of transport I fear most. It actually turned out to be a lot of fun, terrifying but fun! The next day it was off to Hoi An a place I definitely will return to with an empty suitcase. Its the tailor capital of the world. We found ourselves  a tailor we liked and went to town. It was so much fun picking out clothes and then picking the material. I got three dresses one coat and two pairs of short for €150 but I would have loved more. The next day was Halloween and also Gemma’s happy birthday.We went on a 40km cycle which has been one of the highlights of the trip. We saw a lot of the Hoi An’s sites and scenery. It was a glorious day as well to make it even better. One downside though was we called into a few  of the local farms and I’m not entirely convinced the animals are being treated well. After the cycle we surprised the birthday girl with a party and BBQ. It was a great night especially since there was a free keg of beer!! Our last night there was spent shopping and going to tailor fittings. A word of advice on shipping stuff home from here is don’t use the hotel service go to the post office directly its much cheaper and their English is perfect. The following day we flew to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) for a couple of days. We finally got to do our cyclo tour here which was hilarious. It pissed rain the whole time but that made it even funnier it looked we were in buggies with rain gear over us. It was a strange city with a really big contrast between the super rich and extremely poor. I had a funny moment when a Vietnamese preacher that said Jesus wanted to save me! I told him I’d already been saved. When he realised I was Irish he said “Ah Ireland, Bertie Ahearn! He got out before all the corruption”. Picture someone saying that in a Vietnamese accent. I nearly wet myself laughing. 

Our next port of call was Cambodia. This is an amazing country my favourite of all the countries we’ve visited. First we went by public bus to Phnom Penh which isn’t as bad as it sounds. They are air conditioned coaches and your fed plus they take care of all the visa stuff at the border. While there we went to the killings fields, not for the faint of heart. After that we all had to part-take in the €1.50 cocktails for medicinal purposes. Then we stayed in Siem Reap for a few days also well worth the visit  but there are way too many temples and don,t bother with Ankor Wat at sunrise its a waste of sleep. The highlight here for me was micro lighting. This is a tiny two-seater plane just you and the pilot. We flew over Siem Reap so you get to see all the temples from the sky. Now this was worth the early morning!! On our last night here we went for a traditional feast which resulted in me eating eel and frog. Both of which were really tasty.

All too quickly our Indochina tour was over and we found ourselves back in Bangkok for a few days. Khao Sarn Road is the only way to go. From morning to night its jam packed but its true what they say about this street “anything goes”! Including me eating scorpion which actually does taste as disgusting as you would imagine. Anyway we all made it back safely and now we just have to wait for our next adventure to start. I hope its as amazing as this one has been :)

Friday 29th Oct 2010

Did I say the overnight train was the worst sleep ever? I take it back! Hin Boun was far worse. Its a tiny village one of the poorest places I’ve ever been to including Sheepmore (only joking). Everybody lives in wooden houses on stilts. They were some of the happiest people we’ve met though. The kids were mesmerised by us. Our tour guide doubled up as a chef and cooked us a local dinner. The fun really started when it was time to go to bed! We were split into groups of four and taken away into the pitch black night (no street lights because there are no streets!!) with our crappy rechargeable torches. We walked up to what I thought was a barn only to find out it was where we’d be sleeping. The woman that owned the house found my attempts at climbing the ladder to bed hilarious because I was bricking it that it would collapse under my weight! It was wafer thin! She even called people over to point and laugh! Our bed consisted of mats on the floor with faulty mosquito net. We had a chorus of crickets all night long plus the loudest gecko in the world decided to take up residence right beside my ear. The cockerels partied all night long and didn't stop just because the sun was up. They were hardcore. The next day a bus of zombies crossed the Vietnam border. We had one night in Ninh Binn then it was off to our cruise liner in Halong Bay. After checking out the caves we spent the night anchored amongst the cliffs. The amazing views were totally ruined by our brutal karaoke singing but we had fun trying. Then it was off to Hanoi for a few days. I loved this city it was a weird mix of old style markets and modern shops. The traffic is mental though. We became expert Vespa dodgers quite quickly. We had another over night train to Hue. Our carriage was delightful and all the cockroaches made it really cosy!! I managed to sleep a bit better on this one but we were delayed for six hours due to flooring along the tracks. Considering we just missed out on a typhoon we should count ourselves lucky!