Well, ladies and gentlemen, it is our LAST DAY. Quite weird. Work looms, and apparently it's freezing cold in London :(
We flew from Buenos Aires to the Iguaçu falls and were very excited, upon getting off the plane, to come across our first hot weather in ages. I nearly ended up filming at the falls two years ago, and I'm glad I didn't because these things are much more fun when you are not hauling cameras about and losing food receipts.
I can't remember th facts about the falls. They are either the biggest or the widest (or something) waterfalls in the world, and they are so big you can spend a whole day walking round the different tracks through the jungle. I have lots of photos. From a distance it all looks a bit like paradise. There are hundreds of different bits to it and lots of different photo angles. Here's Rick looking like a bit of a mong, and Zoe with some tourists. The jungle is full of raccoony things called coaties that can be a bit of a nuisance when you're eating. As you move round the falls they get bigger and more rainbowy. There are bits where you can peep over the top, and obviously lots of boats to get in. In that last picture we're standing in Argentina and looking at Brazil (for the first time). Then there's a really long walkway (and it's quite new) across the river where everything is suspiciously calm, out to the middle where you can look down the devil's throat. Here it is from a distance, this is what it looks like when you look down, and here is our obligatory tourist photo.
From Iguaçu we flew to Sao Paolo to visit my old work buddy Marta and her lovely husband Mike. They have the world's most beautiful flat. Here is Zoe sitting on the hot tub. Marta, with help from her sous-chef, makes fantastic Caipirinhas, using cashew fruits instead of lime. Here is the mysterious fruit. Look! - The nut comes out the top.
Sao Paolo is the 2nd biggest city in the world (and it is huuuuge) so it has some good city things, like graffitti, a strange cemetary, mind-boggling markets, and a huge famous derelict building which thousands of people live in and is on the verge of falling down. I can't remember what it's called in Potuguese but it translates as "shaky shaky". There are also plenty of opportunities for expanding the waistline with yummy pastry things and, a favourite pastime of mine, drinking in sky-scrapers watching the sunset. (pic 2). Brazilians, being big macho show offs, love wanging around in helicopters.
So that was Sao Paolo, and we´re now in Rio, where we fly home from. We are staying in Copacabana, near Ipanema, both of which have lovely beaches, where we've been getting our last tastes of tropical sun, and of course millions of bars (and more helicopters). The sea here is pretty rough, people are always getting winched out of it. Look how blasé I am in the face of danger. You see some comedy people on the beach. The weather here has been fabulous, although it is a bit smoggy and gross at times. However, the one day we decided to go up the Jesus (so to speak), which takes a long car journey, a lift and an escalator, it was really cloudy. Just about got our shots though... Me; Zoe. We got a good view of the harbour, and another good sunset, from the top of sugar loaf mountain.
So that is just about it! We are coming home tomorrow, arriving something am on Thursday. I will leave you with my favourite picture so far... The last to be released in the range of action figures are carnival Zoe and Rick.
XR
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Peru and BA
Factual titles from now on.
Hola chums,
I have to say I'm very glad to be writing this from a normal altitude, and a temperature above freezing. I even have my shorts and flip flops on for the first time since Australia, it's lovely. It's about 7pm, a nice balmy evening deep in the jungle on the Argentina/Brraazeel border. Zoe is having a cup of tea by the pool reading the latest Dan Brown page turner, and I am obviously on the computer. I believe we are both being bitten, which is a nice familiar feeling, and everything is reminding us of Thailand (sooo long ago).
Peru was, of course, fabulous. We got a bus from La Paz to a place called Copacabana (not to be confused with the beach in Brazil) which is on the banks of lake Titicaca. It is still in Bolivia, but right on the border. Here it is by night and day. Lake Titicaca is the world's highest lake, and it is so big it has a horizon, but calm enough for pedaloes. It's easy to waste time here. Here's how we spent one afternoon. We visited the isla del sol which still has some quechua (inca) people living on it, who love you to take pictures of them with their animals, and lots of inca ruins, most of which have been graffittied, made into toilets, or shops. From the island there are some great views of the Andes, and it is home to a high concentration of pigs and donkeys. Copacabana itself also has a fancy cathedral (I have no idea what that facial expression is supposed to be) and Zoe made a new friend.
We pushed on from there to Cusco, which was actually the first place we stayed in Peru. Peru is quite different to Bolivia, it has things like cash machines, electricity, and Americans in it. Cusco itself, despite having a slightly confusing flag, is a fantastic big proper city. It was the capital of the Inca empire and a lot of the buildings are original, including hte plumbing in our hostel we think. We indulged ourselves by having things like English breakfasts (with marmite! and PG tips!) and we also won (of course) the pub quiz with some people (here's the winning team) we had met previously in Bolivia. Me and Zoe showed ourselves up appallingly on the geography and history rounds, then made up for it by cleaning up in the music round, mainly because we were the only people on the team born after 1987. Other highlights in Cusco included taking surreptitious photos of the locals, as well as some not so surreptitious ones. In case you're wondering, the thing Zoe is holding is a lamb in a crochet hat. Make sure you laugh uproariously at how embarrassed and, literally, red-faced she is.
Anyway, Cusco, as you may know, is the jumping off point for Machu Picchu. You can walk the inca trail, which involves four days of hard slog over some passes upwards of 5000 metres.
We got the train.
Which, I have to say, was remarkably uncomfortable, but only took 4 hours.
At the foot of Machu Picchu is a town called Aguas Calientes, which is super-touristy and loads of fun. There was a band on in the main square, we visited the thermal pools for a dip and a few bevvies. Special mention goes to our budget hostel and the view out of our bedroom. Just to clarify, yes, that's a wheelbarrow. We also had sheets spun from pure gold. I then made the mistake of eating guinea pig. At this point, a more pretentious traveller might profess that it had an intriguing gamey taste and say it was wonderful. It. Was. Revolting. Zoe agrees. Don't try it.
Machu Picchu itself probably deserves a lot more guff than I'm going to give it, just for fear of boring you with pictures that no doubt you have seen anyway in books. It started off a bit cloudy and we thought we weren't going to see anything. Then it cleared up a bit. Then it cleared up a bit more. That's as good as the photography gets. It was fantastic though, you can walk round and go in all the miniature houses, climb on the scary steep terraces, peer down cliff faces, and Look at these lovely statues we found. I was obsessed with the inca water channels and am planning a new bathroom incorporating them. The next day we went to all the rest of the ruins in the sacred valley (there are tons) but they were a bit boring to be honest.
And that, in a nutshell, was Peru. We have barely paused for breath these last couple of weeks. We decided to blow the budget and fly everywhere from this point, because we're running out of time. So, from Cusco, via a VERY complicated flight route (Cusco, Lima, Santiago) which took all day, we flew to Buenos Aires. I am ashamed to say I didn't know which country it was in before we came away. In case anyone else is in the same boat, it's the capital of Argentina. Obviously I made a beeline for Evita's balcony. We got caught up in a huge march. Apparently the current president likes taxing farmers ("She's nuts!", explained one local). It was all quite stirring, with the drums and everything. I actually had to choke back a couple of tears, at the sight of all those people being
passionate about something. I clearly need to get back to the relative safety of a 1st world country, before I put on a beret and start galloping round the countryside with an uzi, drumming up support for, erm, something I believe in (which would probably involve light-up dance floors and Olivia Newton-John on rollerskates).
I had a very bizarre night out in Buenos Aires. I'm not sure how it happened but I ended up in a huge reggaton nightclub with two brazilians, two venezualans, a guy from switzerland, and a very short person from Peru. Obviously we went for dinner first, at midnight (that is what time they eat here, it drives me mental), drank our free whisky, and were then subjected to a lingerie show.
If anyone can tell me what those hand signals mean, please let me know.
BA (sorry, pretentious, but quick to type) has an amaazing cemetary which is like a city. Here´s me in front of Evita´s tomb.
The best/weirdest thing about the city is that it has a tango neighbourhood. And it's not just the professionals! How a city ends up having a tango neighbourhood I have no idea. I'm currently in the middle of an email to Boris Johnson suggesting Kentish Town as a conga zone, and I've heard the residents of Brixton do a very good mashed potato.
Here's Zoe on the famous Caminito and, as you know I like to leave you with the funniest picture;
We even tried a bit of tango ourselves.
In the next installment I predict we will be visiting Iguaçu falls, saying hello to leedle Marta in Sao Paolo, and hitting the beach in Rio. It's all very exciting and, guess what folks, we are back in EIGHT DAYS. *gulp*
Hola chums,
I have to say I'm very glad to be writing this from a normal altitude, and a temperature above freezing. I even have my shorts and flip flops on for the first time since Australia, it's lovely. It's about 7pm, a nice balmy evening deep in the jungle on the Argentina/Brraazeel border. Zoe is having a cup of tea by the pool reading the latest Dan Brown page turner, and I am obviously on the computer. I believe we are both being bitten, which is a nice familiar feeling, and everything is reminding us of Thailand (sooo long ago).
Peru was, of course, fabulous. We got a bus from La Paz to a place called Copacabana (not to be confused with the beach in Brazil) which is on the banks of lake Titicaca. It is still in Bolivia, but right on the border. Here it is by night and day. Lake Titicaca is the world's highest lake, and it is so big it has a horizon, but calm enough for pedaloes. It's easy to waste time here. Here's how we spent one afternoon. We visited the isla del sol which still has some quechua (inca) people living on it, who love you to take pictures of them with their animals, and lots of inca ruins, most of which have been graffittied, made into toilets, or shops. From the island there are some great views of the Andes, and it is home to a high concentration of pigs and donkeys. Copacabana itself also has a fancy cathedral (I have no idea what that facial expression is supposed to be) and Zoe made a new friend.
We pushed on from there to Cusco, which was actually the first place we stayed in Peru. Peru is quite different to Bolivia, it has things like cash machines, electricity, and Americans in it. Cusco itself, despite having a slightly confusing flag, is a fantastic big proper city. It was the capital of the Inca empire and a lot of the buildings are original, including hte plumbing in our hostel we think. We indulged ourselves by having things like English breakfasts (with marmite! and PG tips!) and we also won (of course) the pub quiz with some people (here's the winning team) we had met previously in Bolivia. Me and Zoe showed ourselves up appallingly on the geography and history rounds, then made up for it by cleaning up in the music round, mainly because we were the only people on the team born after 1987. Other highlights in Cusco included taking surreptitious photos of the locals, as well as some not so surreptitious ones. In case you're wondering, the thing Zoe is holding is a lamb in a crochet hat. Make sure you laugh uproariously at how embarrassed and, literally, red-faced she is.
Anyway, Cusco, as you may know, is the jumping off point for Machu Picchu. You can walk the inca trail, which involves four days of hard slog over some passes upwards of 5000 metres.
We got the train.
Which, I have to say, was remarkably uncomfortable, but only took 4 hours.
At the foot of Machu Picchu is a town called Aguas Calientes, which is super-touristy and loads of fun. There was a band on in the main square, we visited the thermal pools for a dip and a few bevvies. Special mention goes to our budget hostel and the view out of our bedroom. Just to clarify, yes, that's a wheelbarrow. We also had sheets spun from pure gold. I then made the mistake of eating guinea pig. At this point, a more pretentious traveller might profess that it had an intriguing gamey taste and say it was wonderful. It. Was. Revolting. Zoe agrees. Don't try it.
Machu Picchu itself probably deserves a lot more guff than I'm going to give it, just for fear of boring you with pictures that no doubt you have seen anyway in books. It started off a bit cloudy and we thought we weren't going to see anything. Then it cleared up a bit. Then it cleared up a bit more. That's as good as the photography gets. It was fantastic though, you can walk round and go in all the miniature houses, climb on the scary steep terraces, peer down cliff faces, and Look at these lovely statues we found. I was obsessed with the inca water channels and am planning a new bathroom incorporating them. The next day we went to all the rest of the ruins in the sacred valley (there are tons) but they were a bit boring to be honest.
And that, in a nutshell, was Peru. We have barely paused for breath these last couple of weeks. We decided to blow the budget and fly everywhere from this point, because we're running out of time. So, from Cusco, via a VERY complicated flight route (Cusco, Lima, Santiago) which took all day, we flew to Buenos Aires. I am ashamed to say I didn't know which country it was in before we came away. In case anyone else is in the same boat, it's the capital of Argentina. Obviously I made a beeline for Evita's balcony. We got caught up in a huge march. Apparently the current president likes taxing farmers ("She's nuts!", explained one local). It was all quite stirring, with the drums and everything. I actually had to choke back a couple of tears, at the sight of all those people being
passionate about something. I clearly need to get back to the relative safety of a 1st world country, before I put on a beret and start galloping round the countryside with an uzi, drumming up support for, erm, something I believe in (which would probably involve light-up dance floors and Olivia Newton-John on rollerskates).
I had a very bizarre night out in Buenos Aires. I'm not sure how it happened but I ended up in a huge reggaton nightclub with two brazilians, two venezualans, a guy from switzerland, and a very short person from Peru. Obviously we went for dinner first, at midnight (that is what time they eat here, it drives me mental), drank our free whisky, and were then subjected to a lingerie show.
If anyone can tell me what those hand signals mean, please let me know.
BA (sorry, pretentious, but quick to type) has an amaazing cemetary which is like a city. Here´s me in front of Evita´s tomb.
The best/weirdest thing about the city is that it has a tango neighbourhood. And it's not just the professionals! How a city ends up having a tango neighbourhood I have no idea. I'm currently in the middle of an email to Boris Johnson suggesting Kentish Town as a conga zone, and I've heard the residents of Brixton do a very good mashed potato.
Here's Zoe on the famous Caminito and, as you know I like to leave you with the funniest picture;
We even tried a bit of tango ourselves.
In the next installment I predict we will be visiting Iguaçu falls, saying hello to leedle Marta in Sao Paolo, and hitting the beach in Rio. It's all very exciting and, guess what folks, we are back in EIGHT DAYS. *gulp*
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
On the raz in La Paz
Right guys,
Well I´m slowly catching up with myself. The Bolivian "internet" is making it quite hard to upload photos and obviously there´s mountains to climb, sun to be bathed in and booze to be drunk but I´m getting there.
From the salt flats we arrived into civilisation in a place called Uyuni which is a shithole, to be polite, but there is a cool train graveyard thing, which you can climb all over. Here we are trying to be a boyband, me lying in some sort of rusty ring, and there´s one of Zoe in an engine but it´s sideways, I´ll try and sort that out at some point. Like I said, Uyuni was a bit of a dump so we only stayed one night. There was a dodgy bar where the pint pots were quite realistically shaped like body parts. Luckily for you lot I didn´t have my camera on me.
Made a quick exit from Uyuni to the lovely and lively Potosi. I´m not sure what goes on in Bolivia, but 90% of the population of the towns are out on the streets 90% of the time. Obviously this makes the markets quite cool. Shoes anyone? And here´s Ikram going for it in a Bolivian skirt. (They´re usually worn like this). The main attraction in Potosi however is the silver mine. You can go down it and look around, and it´s supposed to be really shocking and medieval (how could anyone work like this etc) - but it was exactly like I thought a mine would be, maybe I'm missing something. It was great fun though. I loved my boiler suit. Down the mine it's quite scary. Zoe had already decided to sit this one out because the guide book was quite wary. I wouldn't recommend it if you're claustrophobic or suffer from vertigo. Some of the ladders are twenty metres high, only held in with one nail and a rubber band, (which I thought it was hilarious to tell everyone below me) and it's a considerable relief to get to the top. My favourite things about the mine was hearing all the booms from the explosions (although not the subsequent dust), and seeing the Indiana Jones mine trains, which I seem to have lost my photo of.
You are advised to buy the miners presents before you go down. They like coca leaves, bottles of 96% alcohol, marijuana and sticks of dynamite. Luckily you can buy all of these things in the corner shop in Bolivia, which means you can get extra and keep it for yourself. We got our guide to make our dynamite into a bomb. He used an old coke bottle, some rubble and a bit of wire. Steve lit it and held it for a bit with a fizzing fuse, our guide ran off up the hill with it, then vamooshed. It was VERY loud and the whole hill shook, then some villagers started shouting at us. I assumed it was OK because the guide was doing it but clearly not a good idea when people are having their lunch.
The only other thing of note that Potosi contains is a huge selection of cake stalls, where you can buy a whole cream cake for about 50p. So you only have to spend a pound and you get one to eat and one to do whatever you want with.
After Potosi we got a bus over to Sucre which is a really nice town somewhere in, erm, Bolivia. We visited the supreme courts of Justice (Zoe's name badge there says TOURIST) and they let us in the library so obviously we all had a good read about Bolivian law. Sucre has some nice balconies round the square where you can pretend to be Eva Peron having lunch. Although in this photo we look more like the last supper.
Now, Sucre, with its lovely monastery at the top of the hill, is where we finally met up with Peter and Domingo. They are working in an orphanage, which made us feel a tiny bit guilty but not enough to help out. You can read what they've been up to here. It was lovely to see them and as usual with these things it was far too short.
It only really remains then for me to tell you about La Paz. La Paz is the capital of Bolivia and is up at a head-spinning 3600m. I think we were OK though because we'd acclimatised by this point. The overnight bus from Sucre was a bit of a mare because they had oversold the tickets and we had to go on the rubbish one despite having paid for a posh seat. It's an amazing place to arrive though, especially after being in such remote places. You come over the hill at 4000m and climb down into the canyon (not my photo). The suburbs are plastered all over the canyon walls. It's a typical South American city, with flags, markets and beetles etc. And randomly, a news presenter in the square. La Paz has a great musical instruments museum where you can play everything. Here's me playing flashdance on some sort of organ, with Zoe on the tubular bells. I also found some Bolivian trousers I want, second from the left.
We had a great time there, doing lots of eating out and shopping. I didn't really take many pictures because you all know what eating and shopping look like. There are some fabulous views of the Andes. I tell you what though, I wouldn't want to be an electrician there.
So that was that, team bolivia was disbanded. Neils got a flight to New Zealand to start a job, we left Ikram in Sucre to do some charidee work, and we got a bus to lake titicaca (which is where we are now) leaving Steve behind in La Paz with James where they are going to do manly things like climb mountains that require oxygen, and so on.
I can't leave this post without showing you Zoe's proudest moment of the whole trip - being photographed with a certain celebrity outside Burger king. Here.
We're going to Peru tomorrow, very exciting. My next blog will be very inca themed. Children ooof the sun, now your time has just begun (etc)
Bye!
x
Well I´m slowly catching up with myself. The Bolivian "internet" is making it quite hard to upload photos and obviously there´s mountains to climb, sun to be bathed in and booze to be drunk but I´m getting there.
From the salt flats we arrived into civilisation in a place called Uyuni which is a shithole, to be polite, but there is a cool train graveyard thing, which you can climb all over. Here we are trying to be a boyband, me lying in some sort of rusty ring, and there´s one of Zoe in an engine but it´s sideways, I´ll try and sort that out at some point. Like I said, Uyuni was a bit of a dump so we only stayed one night. There was a dodgy bar where the pint pots were quite realistically shaped like body parts. Luckily for you lot I didn´t have my camera on me.
Made a quick exit from Uyuni to the lovely and lively Potosi. I´m not sure what goes on in Bolivia, but 90% of the population of the towns are out on the streets 90% of the time. Obviously this makes the markets quite cool. Shoes anyone? And here´s Ikram going for it in a Bolivian skirt. (They´re usually worn like this). The main attraction in Potosi however is the silver mine. You can go down it and look around, and it´s supposed to be really shocking and medieval (how could anyone work like this etc) - but it was exactly like I thought a mine would be, maybe I'm missing something. It was great fun though. I loved my boiler suit. Down the mine it's quite scary. Zoe had already decided to sit this one out because the guide book was quite wary. I wouldn't recommend it if you're claustrophobic or suffer from vertigo. Some of the ladders are twenty metres high, only held in with one nail and a rubber band, (which I thought it was hilarious to tell everyone below me) and it's a considerable relief to get to the top. My favourite things about the mine was hearing all the booms from the explosions (although not the subsequent dust), and seeing the Indiana Jones mine trains, which I seem to have lost my photo of.
You are advised to buy the miners presents before you go down. They like coca leaves, bottles of 96% alcohol, marijuana and sticks of dynamite. Luckily you can buy all of these things in the corner shop in Bolivia, which means you can get extra and keep it for yourself. We got our guide to make our dynamite into a bomb. He used an old coke bottle, some rubble and a bit of wire. Steve lit it and held it for a bit with a fizzing fuse, our guide ran off up the hill with it, then vamooshed. It was VERY loud and the whole hill shook, then some villagers started shouting at us. I assumed it was OK because the guide was doing it but clearly not a good idea when people are having their lunch.
The only other thing of note that Potosi contains is a huge selection of cake stalls, where you can buy a whole cream cake for about 50p. So you only have to spend a pound and you get one to eat and one to do whatever you want with.
After Potosi we got a bus over to Sucre which is a really nice town somewhere in, erm, Bolivia. We visited the supreme courts of Justice (Zoe's name badge there says TOURIST) and they let us in the library so obviously we all had a good read about Bolivian law. Sucre has some nice balconies round the square where you can pretend to be Eva Peron having lunch. Although in this photo we look more like the last supper.
Now, Sucre, with its lovely monastery at the top of the hill, is where we finally met up with Peter and Domingo. They are working in an orphanage, which made us feel a tiny bit guilty but not enough to help out. You can read what they've been up to here. It was lovely to see them and as usual with these things it was far too short.
It only really remains then for me to tell you about La Paz. La Paz is the capital of Bolivia and is up at a head-spinning 3600m. I think we were OK though because we'd acclimatised by this point. The overnight bus from Sucre was a bit of a mare because they had oversold the tickets and we had to go on the rubbish one despite having paid for a posh seat. It's an amazing place to arrive though, especially after being in such remote places. You come over the hill at 4000m and climb down into the canyon (not my photo). The suburbs are plastered all over the canyon walls. It's a typical South American city, with flags, markets and beetles etc. And randomly, a news presenter in the square. La Paz has a great musical instruments museum where you can play everything. Here's me playing flashdance on some sort of organ, with Zoe on the tubular bells. I also found some Bolivian trousers I want, second from the left.
We had a great time there, doing lots of eating out and shopping. I didn't really take many pictures because you all know what eating and shopping look like. There are some fabulous views of the Andes. I tell you what though, I wouldn't want to be an electrician there.
So that was that, team bolivia was disbanded. Neils got a flight to New Zealand to start a job, we left Ikram in Sucre to do some charidee work, and we got a bus to lake titicaca (which is where we are now) leaving Steve behind in La Paz with James where they are going to do manly things like climb mountains that require oxygen, and so on.
I can't leave this post without showing you Zoe's proudest moment of the whole trip - being photographed with a certain celebrity outside Burger king. Here.
We're going to Peru tomorrow, very exciting. My next blog will be very inca themed. Children ooof the sun, now your time has just begun (etc)
Bye!
x
Friday, May 2, 2008
There is a lot more salt in the world than pepper
It´s no secret that I am useless of thinking up titles for these posts. This one is not from my brain, it´s a quote from a mate of ours on seeing the salt flats at Uyuni. If it wasn´t for him this post was going to be called Bolivia Newton John, thats how bad it´s getting. Oh and just to warn you, I have gone a bit photo mad all of a sudden, Bolivia is good for photos.
Anyway.
So the bus dropped us off at the Bolivian border at 7am, and at 3,500m (altitude fact No1 - first of many) it was absolutely freezing despite being really sunny. We had to walk about 500 metres across a bridge over the border, into Bolivia, and wait 7 hours for our next bus to Tupiza. Me and Zoe entertained ourselves in time-honoured tradition, with cups of tea, and lazed around in the square with the other gringos from the bus. I saw my first Bolivian women. Oh, and we laughed at this hairdressers.
The bus ride to Tupiza was quite hairy but funny. I was a bit surprised because I hadn´t been expecting Bolivia to be so dusty and deserted and at one point the bus nearly rolled trying to overtake a lorry. Anyway we got there OK and a pile of us checked into the hostel and went out for pizza, as you do in Bolivia.
From Tupiza the coolest (and cheapest) way to travel is to hire a 4x4 (there aren´t any roads) with a cook and a driver and cram it with 6 people, (preferably all over 6 foot but if you can´t manage that, 4 out of 6 will do), send your bags in another car, and spend a few days heading up north through all the really remote and spectacular bits. So it was about this time that we formed Team Triple A (ATTITUDE AT ALTITUDE), stuffed ourselves in the back of the van and set off on the almost vertical road (at the top it was like being on a plane) out of Tupiza and into the altiplano which is like a desert but it´s really high up in the air.
I should take this opportunity to give the team a proper introduction because you´ll be seeing a bit of them. Obviously you already know the two poms, known in spanish as Zora and Rico... We also had lovely Ikram, estudiante from Holland. And the three kiwis, Niels (who also speaks dutch - can you see where that one's heading) "flamenco" Meinderts, Steve "Juan" Melrose who is a lawyer that speaks Japanese and James "Jesus" Perry who is a farmer and knows a lot about sheep and the amount of nutrition in desert grass. (We loved our roll call of professions on the manifest thing). And for reasons that will become clear later, we all took a plastic animal with us. Here's mine, Kylie the Brachiosaurus, sitting on a cactus.
Our first lunch in the desert was quite exciting. Me and Niels chased a llama then realised running at 3000m is a really bad idea. We mucked about by a church in the middle of nowhere, found some dead donkeys and camped in a shack next to a big mountain. Here's me and Steve in our matching Bolivian altitude gear. Now, if you ever need to recreate a nightclub at 4200metres up in the Bolivian wilderness simply drink lots of vodka and dance aroud a barn with your ipods all set to the same song. I wouldn't advise it at that particular altitude though - we all woke up in the middle of the night with knives in our skulls. Luckily nurofen is a great healer.
The next morning it was bloody freezing and we climbed up even higher, and it got even more deserty, and there were one or two technical hitches (notice how I am helping by standing around taking photos). We found a lake with some Andean flamingos on it which was wicked. The best animal thing though was chasing some rare vicuñas in the 4x4. I´m sure they didn´t mind. Just by way of scene-setting, here´s another picture of a mountain, and one of my fabulous hanging-out-the-window driving shots.
After all that driving and dust you can imagine how excited we were to reach the volcanic pools which were set in yet more fabulous scenery and perfect for doing synchronised swimming. Here´s the team. So then it was back in the car and off to the laguna verde which, language fans, is a green lake, and some more volcanoey stuff. I think that´s the night we stayed in some, erm, quite basic accomodation by the laguna colorado which is supposed to be red but wasn't. This is where I got told off for making everyone stand in a toilet for a photo.
So we're a few days into Bolivia now, I still have tons of photos, sorry :)
The first thing we saw the next day was a magic stone tree where we found time to worship Jesus and do comedy pointing photos (love Zoe´s expression on that one). There was mucho more desert driving and here´s what the loos look like in the desert (that´s me on the left). In case you want to see more Andes, here's a picture Steve took with my camera, clearly more talented than myself... and here´s my version of the picture, containing a Driver. I remember that morning quite clearly because I was totally freezing. This is my cold face.
Having already seen more cool things in Bolivia than I could cope with, the next thing blew me away (luckily not literally), a smoking volcano. Perfect for lava hole pictures, both sticking out of them, looking into them, and hanging off precarious stone waves. In the middle of all this wilderness there was actually a town where we had our first beer in what seemed like weeks, it was very very exciting. It was more like a ghost town really (except for the fighting kids) but there was a mariachi band playing somewhere, as there are in all south american towns. That night we had finally reached the salt flats. The salar de Uyuni is the largest salt lake inthe world and it is awesome. We slept on salt beds and the doors were tiny, because Bolivians are tiny.
It was very exciting to watch the sun rise over the salt, 3600m up, but it really was quite cold so we all stood arouind with our sleeping bags on. Look how long all our legs are. We then had breakfast out on the flats. I don't know why i'm so obsessed with showing you where we ate, I think it's because it was always somewhere so surreal. There is an island in the middle of the salt lake covered in cactuses. Not just a great view from the top but a great place to pretend to be Jesus, using a dead cactus.
Now for some reason, the salt flats are famous for taking stupid trick photos - something to do with the lack of perspective, hence the plastic animals. You can imagine the fun we had. Here is a selection of the best.
First of all, Zoe holding up Steve and Ikram, and the same people rearranged onto Ikrams arms. Here's me leaning on the perfect size of wine bottle. Zoe on a duck, James in a monkey´s barrel, the human poo, and me as a lighter flame.
This is the best one though (mainly because I took it): Uncorking the wine. Look carefully. If you can´t work out what´s weird about it, look at the close up.
There´s also a couple of nice group shots, This one, and this one. After that we had a quick visit to a salt factory where Jesus had a go at smashing some up.
I´ll leave you with a lovely one of me and Zoe looking extremely sunburnt which we didn´t realise until the next day. (And look how well my mullet is progressing!) and a couple of pictures of the salt hotel where everything is made of salt including the picnic tables, the dining room, and even the chicks.
Anyway.
So the bus dropped us off at the Bolivian border at 7am, and at 3,500m (altitude fact No1 - first of many) it was absolutely freezing despite being really sunny. We had to walk about 500 metres across a bridge over the border, into Bolivia, and wait 7 hours for our next bus to Tupiza. Me and Zoe entertained ourselves in time-honoured tradition, with cups of tea, and lazed around in the square with the other gringos from the bus. I saw my first Bolivian women. Oh, and we laughed at this hairdressers.
The bus ride to Tupiza was quite hairy but funny. I was a bit surprised because I hadn´t been expecting Bolivia to be so dusty and deserted and at one point the bus nearly rolled trying to overtake a lorry. Anyway we got there OK and a pile of us checked into the hostel and went out for pizza, as you do in Bolivia.
From Tupiza the coolest (and cheapest) way to travel is to hire a 4x4 (there aren´t any roads) with a cook and a driver and cram it with 6 people, (preferably all over 6 foot but if you can´t manage that, 4 out of 6 will do), send your bags in another car, and spend a few days heading up north through all the really remote and spectacular bits. So it was about this time that we formed Team Triple A (ATTITUDE AT ALTITUDE), stuffed ourselves in the back of the van and set off on the almost vertical road (at the top it was like being on a plane) out of Tupiza and into the altiplano which is like a desert but it´s really high up in the air.
I should take this opportunity to give the team a proper introduction because you´ll be seeing a bit of them. Obviously you already know the two poms, known in spanish as Zora and Rico... We also had lovely Ikram, estudiante from Holland. And the three kiwis, Niels (who also speaks dutch - can you see where that one's heading) "flamenco" Meinderts, Steve "Juan" Melrose who is a lawyer that speaks Japanese and James "Jesus" Perry who is a farmer and knows a lot about sheep and the amount of nutrition in desert grass. (We loved our roll call of professions on the manifest thing). And for reasons that will become clear later, we all took a plastic animal with us. Here's mine, Kylie the Brachiosaurus, sitting on a cactus.
Our first lunch in the desert was quite exciting. Me and Niels chased a llama then realised running at 3000m is a really bad idea. We mucked about by a church in the middle of nowhere, found some dead donkeys and camped in a shack next to a big mountain. Here's me and Steve in our matching Bolivian altitude gear. Now, if you ever need to recreate a nightclub at 4200metres up in the Bolivian wilderness simply drink lots of vodka and dance aroud a barn with your ipods all set to the same song. I wouldn't advise it at that particular altitude though - we all woke up in the middle of the night with knives in our skulls. Luckily nurofen is a great healer.
The next morning it was bloody freezing and we climbed up even higher, and it got even more deserty, and there were one or two technical hitches (notice how I am helping by standing around taking photos). We found a lake with some Andean flamingos on it which was wicked. The best animal thing though was chasing some rare vicuñas in the 4x4. I´m sure they didn´t mind. Just by way of scene-setting, here´s another picture of a mountain, and one of my fabulous hanging-out-the-window driving shots.
After all that driving and dust you can imagine how excited we were to reach the volcanic pools which were set in yet more fabulous scenery and perfect for doing synchronised swimming. Here´s the team. So then it was back in the car and off to the laguna verde which, language fans, is a green lake, and some more volcanoey stuff. I think that´s the night we stayed in some, erm, quite basic accomodation by the laguna colorado which is supposed to be red but wasn't. This is where I got told off for making everyone stand in a toilet for a photo.
So we're a few days into Bolivia now, I still have tons of photos, sorry :)
The first thing we saw the next day was a magic stone tree where we found time to worship Jesus and do comedy pointing photos (love Zoe´s expression on that one). There was mucho more desert driving and here´s what the loos look like in the desert (that´s me on the left). In case you want to see more Andes, here's a picture Steve took with my camera, clearly more talented than myself... and here´s my version of the picture, containing a Driver. I remember that morning quite clearly because I was totally freezing. This is my cold face.
Having already seen more cool things in Bolivia than I could cope with, the next thing blew me away (luckily not literally), a smoking volcano. Perfect for lava hole pictures, both sticking out of them, looking into them, and hanging off precarious stone waves. In the middle of all this wilderness there was actually a town where we had our first beer in what seemed like weeks, it was very very exciting. It was more like a ghost town really (except for the fighting kids) but there was a mariachi band playing somewhere, as there are in all south american towns. That night we had finally reached the salt flats. The salar de Uyuni is the largest salt lake inthe world and it is awesome. We slept on salt beds and the doors were tiny, because Bolivians are tiny.
It was very exciting to watch the sun rise over the salt, 3600m up, but it really was quite cold so we all stood arouind with our sleeping bags on. Look how long all our legs are. We then had breakfast out on the flats. I don't know why i'm so obsessed with showing you where we ate, I think it's because it was always somewhere so surreal. There is an island in the middle of the salt lake covered in cactuses. Not just a great view from the top but a great place to pretend to be Jesus, using a dead cactus.
Now for some reason, the salt flats are famous for taking stupid trick photos - something to do with the lack of perspective, hence the plastic animals. You can imagine the fun we had. Here is a selection of the best.
First of all, Zoe holding up Steve and Ikram, and the same people rearranged onto Ikrams arms. Here's me leaning on the perfect size of wine bottle. Zoe on a duck, James in a monkey´s barrel, the human poo, and me as a lighter flame.
This is the best one though (mainly because I took it): Uncorking the wine. Look carefully. If you can´t work out what´s weird about it, look at the close up.
There´s also a couple of nice group shots, This one, and this one. After that we had a quick visit to a salt factory where Jesus had a go at smashing some up.
I´ll leave you with a lovely one of me and Zoe looking extremely sunburnt which we didn´t realise until the next day. (And look how well my mullet is progressing!) and a couple of pictures of the salt hotel where everything is made of salt including the picnic tables, the dining room, and even the chicks.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Don´t cry for me
Hola,
I´ve got a bit much to say as usual so I´ve decided to do this in installments, and make this a short intermediary post, by way of catching up. I think we left you in Cordoba, Argentina, and we´re currently somewhere bizarre in Bolivia - so I´m going to take you on a short trot up to the Bolivian border, and then I´ll do Bolivia in a seperate post because it deserves some extensive attention of its own.
So, after Cordoba we travelled up to Salta which was an amazing place with a happy happy vibe and loads of squares and cafes to laze around in. And churches. It has a big pink cathedral which contains a mary that looks like Adriana. There is also the ubiquitous south american cable car to the top of the nearest hill where you get this view of the city. Salta is very cool and has some top bars. Here we are with all the fabulous people from our hostel. I won´t name them all but you know who you are... currently scattered all over South America as we all went in various directions after that. Just outside Salta the countryside starts getting very Andean and we saw our first cactuses (MANY more to come folks, don´t worry). Here´s Rico in a cool mountain village we went to. This was our first brush with altitude and it wasn´t even that high, maybe 2500m. Prepare yourselves for lots of altitude statistics in the Bolivia post, I´m slightly obsessed with them. Don´t worry I won´t do a spreadsheet. We saw some Inca "ruins" which had been rebuilt, for what reason I have no idea, but it was a nice spot. It was a bit chilly high up so I bought a lovely alpaca jumper from the market for about a pound. It features quite heavily in forthcoming photos.
It was around Salta that the scenery started getting more spectacular. Geography fans might enjoy this piece of rock. This is a cemetary thing by some sort of mountain thing. And this was a place called Huamahuaca (that is definitely spelt wrong), a tiny village with a disproportinately large war memorial, which was a bit scary high. The altitude is quite fun though; you get light headed like you´ve had a few beers in the sun. Can´t complain about that really. We also visited a place called seven colour hill. Does exactly what it says on the tin. The only place that was a bit crap was Jujuy - the Argentinian version of Stockport. It did however have a fabulous statue. Check out the biceps on this lady.
And so, rather briefly, that was Argentina! (For now; We are coming back). After Salta we travelled by another plush overnight bus to La Quiaca on the Argentine/Bolivian border, which is where I´m going to leave you for now.
I will leave you with this picture of Robert Powell we saw in a church (hands up who remembers Jesus of Nazereth), and a goodbye from Zoe who can be seen here retreating into her new inca home.
I´ve got a bit much to say as usual so I´ve decided to do this in installments, and make this a short intermediary post, by way of catching up. I think we left you in Cordoba, Argentina, and we´re currently somewhere bizarre in Bolivia - so I´m going to take you on a short trot up to the Bolivian border, and then I´ll do Bolivia in a seperate post because it deserves some extensive attention of its own.
So, after Cordoba we travelled up to Salta which was an amazing place with a happy happy vibe and loads of squares and cafes to laze around in. And churches. It has a big pink cathedral which contains a mary that looks like Adriana. There is also the ubiquitous south american cable car to the top of the nearest hill where you get this view of the city. Salta is very cool and has some top bars. Here we are with all the fabulous people from our hostel. I won´t name them all but you know who you are... currently scattered all over South America as we all went in various directions after that. Just outside Salta the countryside starts getting very Andean and we saw our first cactuses (MANY more to come folks, don´t worry). Here´s Rico in a cool mountain village we went to. This was our first brush with altitude and it wasn´t even that high, maybe 2500m. Prepare yourselves for lots of altitude statistics in the Bolivia post, I´m slightly obsessed with them. Don´t worry I won´t do a spreadsheet. We saw some Inca "ruins" which had been rebuilt, for what reason I have no idea, but it was a nice spot. It was a bit chilly high up so I bought a lovely alpaca jumper from the market for about a pound. It features quite heavily in forthcoming photos.
It was around Salta that the scenery started getting more spectacular. Geography fans might enjoy this piece of rock. This is a cemetary thing by some sort of mountain thing. And this was a place called Huamahuaca (that is definitely spelt wrong), a tiny village with a disproportinately large war memorial, which was a bit scary high. The altitude is quite fun though; you get light headed like you´ve had a few beers in the sun. Can´t complain about that really. We also visited a place called seven colour hill. Does exactly what it says on the tin. The only place that was a bit crap was Jujuy - the Argentinian version of Stockport. It did however have a fabulous statue. Check out the biceps on this lady.
And so, rather briefly, that was Argentina! (For now; We are coming back). After Salta we travelled by another plush overnight bus to La Quiaca on the Argentine/Bolivian border, which is where I´m going to leave you for now.
I will leave you with this picture of Robert Powell we saw in a church (hands up who remembers Jesus of Nazereth), and a goodbye from Zoe who can be seen here retreating into her new inca home.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
tengo un tango
Hello!
You might be able to guess from the title that this blog post comes to you from a spanish speaking country.
Before I continue, let me tell you a funny story. A couple of days ago I had downloaded all the most recent pictures onto the computer in the hostel, and then got bored and thought I´d sort them out the following day. I didn´t realise that the computer in question had one of those screensavers that cycles through all the pictures on the hard drive. I happened to be passing the computer later that evening and saw a full screen version of this picture happily displaying itself to the entire bar. That´s Zoe pretending to be Frida Kahlo. We were developing our South American personalities. Zoe as a tempestuous latin firebrand and Rico the gringo gun runner. There is lots of mileage in this game. I am also a sniper in the next bourne film. although you´d be forgiven for thinking I was playing snooker in that photo.
So here we are! We flew into Santiago (Chile) at some point in the past, which was very South American with its big red flag and colossal virgin. We stayed in a very cute hostel and got straight into hostel life, marvelled at the cheap food and wine, and climbed hills to look at the pollution. We then got a bus through the Andes which was a bit bizarre, we had to get out and show our passports at 4000 metres, head spinning quite spectacularly. It was really quite high. So we are now in Argentina. We stayed in Mendoza for a few days (if you´re trying to work out why you know that name, he was the dad in cities of gold) and I gave Zoe a fringe. Mendoza is a famous wine region so as you can imagine we fitted in quite well. We hired the worlds smallest bikes anmd took ourselves on a tour of the vineyards. Here´s Zoe´s tasting face, and here´s mine. You could see Aconcagua (I really should check these spellings) from the vineyards but it was constantly obscured by telegraph poles. It is the biggest mountain outside the himalayas and at about 7000m is nearly as high as everest. Here´s my best shot. So we had a few days relaxing in Mendoza, and learnt a new word from a fellow traveller, "chillax". Some of these backpackers really are idiots. From there it was an overnight bus to Cordoba. The overnight buses are ace, they have food and wine and videos and the seats are massive and go really far back. I positively look forward to them. As long as the film isn´t too depressing, last time it was Amistad which is about slaves being murdered, so that was cheerful. Cordoba, like everywhere in Argetina, has some nice churches and a cathedral but I won´t bore you with those pictures. OK maybe just the chandeliers.
We took the opportunity offered by the sierras around Cordoba to test out our new found horse riding skills. It was very beautiful and I had a beautiful horse. So did Zoe. How rural is this photo. The two backs in that earlier photo were our friends Tom and Sarah who we are going to visit in Salta after the weekend. They work on boats in the carribean and I´m going to get them to get me a job.
We also visited Alta Gracia which has a nice house thing, and a Che Guevara museum in his childhood home. Here´s his famous motorbike, and guess what, under all that hair and hat, Che Guevara; secret hottie. Here are some people from our hostel, and here´s me sitting next to little Che.
And that´s that really. Cordoba has been fun, we made lots of friends, and I even learnt to play pool. This is one of my favourite drunk photos ever. And here´s a picture of last night´s moon. You´ll notice it´s upside down.
Only 6 weeks to go now! We are going to somewhere called Salta tonight, by overnight bus, I think it´s near Bolivia, (where we hope to bump into Peter and Domingo for those of you who know them, the two blogs will finaly cross!)
All the best,
Rico
x
You might be able to guess from the title that this blog post comes to you from a spanish speaking country.
Before I continue, let me tell you a funny story. A couple of days ago I had downloaded all the most recent pictures onto the computer in the hostel, and then got bored and thought I´d sort them out the following day. I didn´t realise that the computer in question had one of those screensavers that cycles through all the pictures on the hard drive. I happened to be passing the computer later that evening and saw a full screen version of this picture happily displaying itself to the entire bar. That´s Zoe pretending to be Frida Kahlo. We were developing our South American personalities. Zoe as a tempestuous latin firebrand and Rico the gringo gun runner. There is lots of mileage in this game. I am also a sniper in the next bourne film. although you´d be forgiven for thinking I was playing snooker in that photo.
So here we are! We flew into Santiago (Chile) at some point in the past, which was very South American with its big red flag and colossal virgin. We stayed in a very cute hostel and got straight into hostel life, marvelled at the cheap food and wine, and climbed hills to look at the pollution. We then got a bus through the Andes which was a bit bizarre, we had to get out and show our passports at 4000 metres, head spinning quite spectacularly. It was really quite high. So we are now in Argentina. We stayed in Mendoza for a few days (if you´re trying to work out why you know that name, he was the dad in cities of gold) and I gave Zoe a fringe. Mendoza is a famous wine region so as you can imagine we fitted in quite well. We hired the worlds smallest bikes anmd took ourselves on a tour of the vineyards. Here´s Zoe´s tasting face, and here´s mine. You could see Aconcagua (I really should check these spellings) from the vineyards but it was constantly obscured by telegraph poles. It is the biggest mountain outside the himalayas and at about 7000m is nearly as high as everest. Here´s my best shot. So we had a few days relaxing in Mendoza, and learnt a new word from a fellow traveller, "chillax". Some of these backpackers really are idiots. From there it was an overnight bus to Cordoba. The overnight buses are ace, they have food and wine and videos and the seats are massive and go really far back. I positively look forward to them. As long as the film isn´t too depressing, last time it was Amistad which is about slaves being murdered, so that was cheerful. Cordoba, like everywhere in Argetina, has some nice churches and a cathedral but I won´t bore you with those pictures. OK maybe just the chandeliers.
We took the opportunity offered by the sierras around Cordoba to test out our new found horse riding skills. It was very beautiful and I had a beautiful horse. So did Zoe. How rural is this photo. The two backs in that earlier photo were our friends Tom and Sarah who we are going to visit in Salta after the weekend. They work on boats in the carribean and I´m going to get them to get me a job.
We also visited Alta Gracia which has a nice house thing, and a Che Guevara museum in his childhood home. Here´s his famous motorbike, and guess what, under all that hair and hat, Che Guevara; secret hottie. Here are some people from our hostel, and here´s me sitting next to little Che.
And that´s that really. Cordoba has been fun, we made lots of friends, and I even learnt to play pool. This is one of my favourite drunk photos ever. And here´s a picture of last night´s moon. You´ll notice it´s upside down.
Only 6 weeks to go now! We are going to somewhere called Salta tonight, by overnight bus, I think it´s near Bolivia, (where we hope to bump into Peter and Domingo for those of you who know them, the two blogs will finaly cross!)
All the best,
Rico
x
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Walking in a Thermal Wonderland
Well folks, this is my last post from NZ. Tomorrow we fly to Chile for the home stretch. No more English, no more familiar food, no more swish public transport... It's shaping up to be the best bit yet. Prepare youselves for lots of donkey pics.
We left you somewhere in the North West of The South Island, where we camped in our most remote spot yet, and got a bit scared when it went dark because we were the only people for miles around. We went on the zip slide across the buller gorge, (which was higher, and faster than it looks!) and then drove all the way up to the Abel Tasman national park to do a boat trip and a "tramp". Unfortunately the weather was rubbish but there were some highlights: This is "Splut ipple ruck" which is New Zealand for, simply, "Split Apple Rock". Zoe found a magic toadstool, and here's me with an ancient tree fern like they had in the dinosaur days. You can get a vague idea of what it's supposed to be like there from this picture I took from the jungle when the rain had stopped. Oh and look! - we saw a baybee seal.
Next stop after that (not including Nelson, which I have missed out because it was boring) was Picton, where you get the ferry to Wellington. It has a beautiful harbour and, most excitingly, you can get on the mail boat and go round the fiords delivering peoples letters and shopping. You'd be surprised how much gin they get through out there. The best thing is that people's dogs come out to collect the mail. This is also where we had our first glimpse of the North Island (on the left) and visited somewhere which was something to do with Captain Cook (then again, where isn't). After the mail run we had scallops and white wine on The Echo which is a boat made into a pub (two of my favourite things). I've had one or two complaints that there isn't enough romance on the blog, (and I have to admit I've been skimming over some of our less moral moments) so I guess I should let you know that night we bonded with the local builders, over a crossword, in the irish pub and there was just the right ratio of orientations for us both to have a good night.
So that was it for the South Island! There were more boat trips we could have done but we sent our shadow selves instead. Next stop, Wellington, via a fairly cramped ferry.
Wellington was mucho fun. It has a flying ball in the town square, some nice walks in the botanical gardens and the cemetary, (there's a caption competition for that photo), and the best museum yet - a really sciencey one with loads of buttons to press, an earthquake room and some whale skellingtons. And some Maori art. The maori are our favourite indigenous population to date, scoring highly across the board on looks, sense of humour and general value down the pub. More on that later.
Wellington's nightlife was a blast; we have to say thanks to Scotty and Mal, who run the best bar in New Zealand and do the best gin martini, or three.
Travelling is a bitter sweet thing. *sigh*. I fell in love in Wellington, with a chap called Brent who I know is reading. *hi*. But unfortunately due to the advancing nature of time, and the fact we had somewhat ballsed up our North Island schedule, we moved on quite abruptly. Apologies all round. We even had to miss out the glow worm caves at waitomo that you go through in a boat. Apparently this is what we missed but that photo looks like bollocks to me..
We went straight up to Taupo where we camped next to a geothermal spring. This is where something to do with a volcano happens and hot water comes out of the ground, which they cool down so you don't boil to death, and pump it into a nice swimming pool. Thanks to a fancy irrigation system there are also loads of beautiful private pools which, and this is somewhat unsavoury, you can lock from the inside. We took the opportunity to relax and behave like adults. After that it was straight on to rotorua, which has so much volcanic stuff going on that steam comes out of the drains, and there are boiling mud pools by the side of the pavement. This is where we did our maori cultural experience, which is a bit of a patronising thing where lots of people, who probably have nice day jobs in offices, dress up as natives and shout at you, and stamp their feet, wave sticks and paddle burning canoes around. It was quite funny really. Then you have a traditional meal; They dig up some meat and potatoes which have been buried with hot coals all afternoon, which was really nice. Inexplicably followed by trifle.
And now for my favourite bit, the Thermal Wonderland at Wai O'Tapu (thats really what it was called). There is a giant geyser which goes off at 10.15 every morning. There are lots of pretty coloured rocks and strange coloured lakes because of the sulphur and iron and stuff. Here is my recreation of this photo. Here's me and some geysers, and here's Zoe and a big boiling lake. I was disappointed that nothing exploded but we did see the most fabulous boiling mud pool. Here are some plops in action, and here's a massive plop. I could have watched that for hours.
There was a band on in the pub in rotorua, revealing not only what has happened to Mutya, but I also saw Paul BH in there who claimed to have moved to New York. I took this photo surreptitiously in the dark from under my jumper but you get the idea..
And thanks to the time restrictions I didn't get a chance to go over to Taranaki and visit Hamish my old NZ penpal who I haven't seen since I was 9. But we did get to visit his little sister Alana in Waihi Beach, who was 5 last time I saw her, and has since learnt to do a great line in steaks and wine. Not sure what was going on here though. Waihi also has a working goldmine, and (and I'm predicting Adriana you'll like this) a disused gold railway where you can get a train to a cafe and back again.
And that, basically, is that. We've arived in Auckland far too late to visit any of the people we've been put in touch with, given the van back, and tomorrow we fly to Chile. I have to go and photocopy my passport now and hide it in my underpants, or something.
So, you should hear from us again somewhere in Patagonia, high on tequila and refried beans, or is that Mexico... who knows!
We left you somewhere in the North West of The South Island, where we camped in our most remote spot yet, and got a bit scared when it went dark because we were the only people for miles around. We went on the zip slide across the buller gorge, (which was higher, and faster than it looks!) and then drove all the way up to the Abel Tasman national park to do a boat trip and a "tramp". Unfortunately the weather was rubbish but there were some highlights: This is "Splut ipple ruck" which is New Zealand for, simply, "Split Apple Rock". Zoe found a magic toadstool, and here's me with an ancient tree fern like they had in the dinosaur days. You can get a vague idea of what it's supposed to be like there from this picture I took from the jungle when the rain had stopped. Oh and look! - we saw a baybee seal.
Next stop after that (not including Nelson, which I have missed out because it was boring) was Picton, where you get the ferry to Wellington. It has a beautiful harbour and, most excitingly, you can get on the mail boat and go round the fiords delivering peoples letters and shopping. You'd be surprised how much gin they get through out there. The best thing is that people's dogs come out to collect the mail. This is also where we had our first glimpse of the North Island (on the left) and visited somewhere which was something to do with Captain Cook (then again, where isn't). After the mail run we had scallops and white wine on The Echo which is a boat made into a pub (two of my favourite things). I've had one or two complaints that there isn't enough romance on the blog, (and I have to admit I've been skimming over some of our less moral moments) so I guess I should let you know that night we bonded with the local builders, over a crossword, in the irish pub and there was just the right ratio of orientations for us both to have a good night.
So that was it for the South Island! There were more boat trips we could have done but we sent our shadow selves instead. Next stop, Wellington, via a fairly cramped ferry.
Wellington was mucho fun. It has a flying ball in the town square, some nice walks in the botanical gardens and the cemetary, (there's a caption competition for that photo), and the best museum yet - a really sciencey one with loads of buttons to press, an earthquake room and some whale skellingtons. And some Maori art. The maori are our favourite indigenous population to date, scoring highly across the board on looks, sense of humour and general value down the pub. More on that later.
Wellington's nightlife was a blast; we have to say thanks to Scotty and Mal, who run the best bar in New Zealand and do the best gin martini, or three.
Travelling is a bitter sweet thing. *sigh*. I fell in love in Wellington, with a chap called Brent who I know is reading. *hi*. But unfortunately due to the advancing nature of time, and the fact we had somewhat ballsed up our North Island schedule, we moved on quite abruptly. Apologies all round. We even had to miss out the glow worm caves at waitomo that you go through in a boat. Apparently this is what we missed but that photo looks like bollocks to me..
We went straight up to Taupo where we camped next to a geothermal spring. This is where something to do with a volcano happens and hot water comes out of the ground, which they cool down so you don't boil to death, and pump it into a nice swimming pool. Thanks to a fancy irrigation system there are also loads of beautiful private pools which, and this is somewhat unsavoury, you can lock from the inside. We took the opportunity to relax and behave like adults. After that it was straight on to rotorua, which has so much volcanic stuff going on that steam comes out of the drains, and there are boiling mud pools by the side of the pavement. This is where we did our maori cultural experience, which is a bit of a patronising thing where lots of people, who probably have nice day jobs in offices, dress up as natives and shout at you, and stamp their feet, wave sticks and paddle burning canoes around. It was quite funny really. Then you have a traditional meal; They dig up some meat and potatoes which have been buried with hot coals all afternoon, which was really nice. Inexplicably followed by trifle.
And now for my favourite bit, the Thermal Wonderland at Wai O'Tapu (thats really what it was called). There is a giant geyser which goes off at 10.15 every morning. There are lots of pretty coloured rocks and strange coloured lakes because of the sulphur and iron and stuff. Here is my recreation of this photo. Here's me and some geysers, and here's Zoe and a big boiling lake. I was disappointed that nothing exploded but we did see the most fabulous boiling mud pool. Here are some plops in action, and here's a massive plop. I could have watched that for hours.
There was a band on in the pub in rotorua, revealing not only what has happened to Mutya, but I also saw Paul BH in there who claimed to have moved to New York. I took this photo surreptitiously in the dark from under my jumper but you get the idea..
And thanks to the time restrictions I didn't get a chance to go over to Taranaki and visit Hamish my old NZ penpal who I haven't seen since I was 9. But we did get to visit his little sister Alana in Waihi Beach, who was 5 last time I saw her, and has since learnt to do a great line in steaks and wine. Not sure what was going on here though. Waihi also has a working goldmine, and (and I'm predicting Adriana you'll like this) a disused gold railway where you can get a train to a cafe and back again.
And that, basically, is that. We've arived in Auckland far too late to visit any of the people we've been put in touch with, given the van back, and tomorrow we fly to Chile. I have to go and photocopy my passport now and hide it in my underpants, or something.
So, you should hear from us again somewhere in Patagonia, high on tequila and refried beans, or is that Mexico... who knows!
And announciung the first and last instalment of My Favourite Article From This week's "New Idea", I was very amused by this. Sound at all familiar?
No photos, as yet, of Beatrice's dragon tattoo though.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Fox Glacier is Mint
I'm so glad you all appreciated Zoe's chair bungy as much as I did. It was definitely a highlight. Who knows how we're going to top that.
Anyway, it's been far too long, and as usual I've got far too many photos to get through, so you might want to go and get a cup of tea... :) Or just get one anyway, and read someting more interesting, because tea is great
OK. So I have a question for Emma Russo if you're out there. How did you manage to do your skydive in a skimpy top and no helmet, when I had to wear this?? More on that later.
You left us on St Patrick's Day, making lots of new friends, none of whom we can understand. For a bit of respite we headed off to Milford Sound which is a famous, er, sound (water feature). It's one of those places that people gush about, being all magical and lovely etc. We decided to see it by kayak. And this is what it looks like. That's probably all you need to know about that, apart from that it was our first proper acquaintance with big mountains. The village we stayed in has this comedy sign. (There is a prize for anyone that can send me a picture of a "White Way").
And so, yes, lovely mountains etc, but it was now time to go back to crazy Queenstown and fill up on more adventures. The first thing we did was hop on the cable car to the top of the mountain. Where you get a beautiful view of Queenstown, and with my mega zoom on, our van in the campsite! *waves at van*. From the top of the mountain you get a chairlift even furhter up, and ride down on the exciting, and slightly dangerous, concerete luge. And here's our photo finish.
We also, and this was very exciting, went to the bird park and saw a kiwi. They are nocturnal though, so prepare youself for the first instalment of my night-time photography (there's more to come); Yup, this is a kiwi. We also had an incident where Zoe turned into her bird form. Examine the expression and tell me it's not her. On the way out of Queenstown we drove past the world's original, and possibly most famous, bungy site, the Kawarau bridge (At 43 metres high it's 66 metres shorter than the one we did, I would like to point out). Kawarau is also apparently where the "Pillars of the Kings" scene from LOTR was filmed. I have painstakingly recreated the CGI so you can recognise it, here.
Anyway, it's been far too long, and as usual I've got far too many photos to get through, so you might want to go and get a cup of tea... :) Or just get one anyway, and read someting more interesting, because tea is great
OK. So I have a question for Emma Russo if you're out there. How did you manage to do your skydive in a skimpy top and no helmet, when I had to wear this?? More on that later.
You left us on St Patrick's Day, making lots of new friends, none of whom we can understand. For a bit of respite we headed off to Milford Sound which is a famous, er, sound (water feature). It's one of those places that people gush about, being all magical and lovely etc. We decided to see it by kayak. And this is what it looks like. That's probably all you need to know about that, apart from that it was our first proper acquaintance with big mountains. The village we stayed in has this comedy sign. (There is a prize for anyone that can send me a picture of a "White Way").
And so, yes, lovely mountains etc, but it was now time to go back to crazy Queenstown and fill up on more adventures. The first thing we did was hop on the cable car to the top of the mountain. Where you get a beautiful view of Queenstown, and with my mega zoom on, our van in the campsite! *waves at van*. From the top of the mountain you get a chairlift even furhter up, and ride down on the exciting, and slightly dangerous, concerete luge. And here's our photo finish.
We also, and this was very exciting, went to the bird park and saw a kiwi. They are nocturnal though, so prepare youself for the first instalment of my night-time photography (there's more to come); Yup, this is a kiwi. We also had an incident where Zoe turned into her bird form. Examine the expression and tell me it's not her. On the way out of Queenstown we drove past the world's original, and possibly most famous, bungy site, the Kawarau bridge (At 43 metres high it's 66 metres shorter than the one we did, I would like to point out). Kawarau is also apparently where the "Pillars of the Kings" scene from LOTR was filmed. I have painstakingly recreated the CGI so you can recognise it, here.
Just before you think things couldn't get any more exciting, prepare youself for Puzzle World in Wanaka. It, simply put, is the greatest tourist attraction two nerds could come across. Apart form the altered perspective room where slides go uphill, there is a giant maze, a trompe d'oeil toilet, a room full of spooky faces that follow you round the room (because they're inside out), and a puzzling cafe and I even had a video (from my phone) where we're stood in a room, one of us looks massive and the other small, then we swap ends, but I'm afraid it hasn't worked so you'll have to make do with a still.
It was, basically, photo opportunity galore. And Wanaka itself is beautiful, we camped by the lake with a great view of the land of the long white cloud.
A perfect place, you'd think, for doing a 15,000 foot skydive. Oh yes. This has to be the BEST thing I ever done. 15,000 feet is a looooong way up in the sky. About twice as high as the nearest high mountain. And here is a picture of the nearest high mountain, Mount Aspiring, from the plane. So here I am looking cheerful, if somewhat bald, in the plane ( I was, surprisingly, not scared at all). Here I am getting out of the plane (WHAT were they thinking with those hats), here's me falling - at 200kph (apparently). And the less said about this photo the better. I was sticking my tongue out on purpose. I loved it. I know I look a little taken aback by the inital drop, but I was enjoying myself really, and the rest of it was pretty relaxing, nice view (if a bit windy) etc...
So having exhausted that bit of NZ (and ourselves) we zoomed over to the West Side, via some really incredible scenery, and more mountains. The west coast is quite barren but presents plenty of opportunities for doing art with sticks on the beach. It is also home to the world famous Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. Never being ones to skimp on style, we went up the FJ glacier in a helicopter. Then walked around on it. I could bore you forever with these photos, I love them. Here's our helicopter leaving us behind. And check out the boots they gave me, I loved them. Zoe in a tunnel, Rick in a tunnel, Zoe in a crevasse, Rick and a feature. This was our little team, and here's my picture of the main ice wall. Oh, and not forgetting, me surfing an ice wave. Aren't they great. This was one of my favourite places ever. The helicopter obviously helped.
We met some top people around there too. On this photo you can see Aidhin, (the Irish Claudine), and Mark, who I can say what I like about becuase he can't use a computer and doesn't have an email address. Mark was a lovely horse-man from the swiss army, who (and I thought this was hilarious), had a swiss army knife. I'm not sure who the blonde on the end is, but *waves* hello everyone. Oh and hi sally as well, hope you're enjoying your last few days here! x
The rest of the west coast was pretty remote, rainy, sandfly infested, but we saw the famous pancake rocks (they are made out of piles of pancakes) and, prepare yourself for more top notch wildlife photography, we camped next to this and saw these.
You may be wondering what goes on in between all this frenzy of sightseeing and throwing ourselves off things. Well, we laugh at things in the supermarket: Alison, I've had a flash forward to your future career. We make up lists of the top ten famous people in whichever country we're in ;We only have 4 for NZ so far, and it would be 3 had we not read in a New Idea yesterday that Keith Urban was born here. (And thus revealing another one: reading rubbish local magazines). We also like to endlessly discuss what films and soaps x has been in with y, or who sang with what band when, And, my current most favourite activity at the moment, go bargain hunting in The Warehouse. On my last trip I got a new washbag, 3 CDs and a citronella candle for $40.
We're now heading across the North coast of the South Island, looking forward to our last 2 weeks in NZ, and EEK planning South America.
Love you all, :)
xxx
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Zoe Driver: Adrenaline Junkie
Well, just to start you off; Look at this nutter.
Ho ho, and there was me saying New Zealand might not be that blog-worthy.
I'll get back to that.
So last time we spoke we were on our way back from Kaikoura with its dolphins and whales, via Christchurch (the only photos of which I have are of the crazy golf - it's such an interesting place). We carried on South to a place called Geraldine on the Rangitata river - best rafting in NZ apparently. So that's what I did, to kick off the extreme sports. (Zoe had a relaxing day getting to know the local mad people, but I'll let her tell you about that.)
So, that's me at the front, getting wet, wetter and wettest. It was sooo much fun, I want to go every day. We finished off with a 10 metre jump into the gorge, which you can see me being very cool about *ahem*.
Things were a bit more sedate after that for a few days, some nice camping among the sand dunes, rugged coasts and the sunsets. (NB That last photo was taken in a campsite, not a concentration camp, despite appearances). Ooh, christiane, we had your jam with some scones it was lovely.
We visited the Moeraki boulders (you can see I'm starting to look like a transient after a week in the camper van) which have a honeycomb centre, geology/malteser fans. Then we headed down to Dunedin which is full of Scottish people. The Otago peninsula near Dunedin has some cool wildlife. Look at this chubby fella. And this one! He was having a very lazy day. We also went to a penguin sanctuary which had exciting underground tunnels, and, of course, some penguins. There was also a nice castle with pretty flowers round it. No visit to Dunedin would be complete (apparently) without a trip to the chocolate factory, where I was humiliated into wearing a "beard snood". Factory rick, notagoodlook. Here is Zoe in front of a mountain of crunchies.
So having got the middle-aged activities out of the way we set off for beautiful Queenstown and moved onto the stupid stuff. That's us in our jet boating outfits. Jetboats are daft things designed and operated by cheerful petrol-heads, which can be filled up with tourists, chucked around a river at several million miles an hour, and swerved past rocks, and do 360 degree spins. (I don't think they have any other purpose). There is also a video of that. Hilariously it features me picking my nose. Queenstown itself is ace, on a lake surrounded by mountains, brimming with pubs and restaurants, and full of idiots chucking themselves off things. Which brings me on to the canyon swing. I'm not sure what we were thinking here. We sort of thought it would be a nice fun swing (I imagine a few of you are shaking you heads here) but of course it's actually just a bungy jump where you don't bounce back up, you swing across. And it's more scary - your average bungy jump has 40 metres of freefall and this has 60. Sooo stupid.
So we got in our outfits, Zoe was quite calm, and I was fucking terrified. Zoe went first and after a bit of coaxing managed to jump off forwards which was mightily impressive. I was having none of this, and made them hang me up and pull a release thing so I didn't have to jump. Predictably, for full comic effect, he released it mid sentence, ("There's just a couple of things I need to *snip*") and I screamed like someone being murdered with a chainsaw. Here I am falling.
Then Zoe decided she wanted to do it again. I have NO idea what was going through her head. If you do it again you don't have to pay but you do have to do a crazy stunt - so, obviously, she chose falling off backwards strapped to a plastic garden chair. You can never get enough of this picture.
And then the next day, for a bit of respite, we did a whole day of horse riding which we loved, despite a slight feeling of the landscape being marred by Lord of the Rings tourism. Here's adrenaline Driver going at full pelt and here's me and Polar splashing about in the river. We met a lovely couple of lads on the horseriding called Peter and Alex and had lunch in a deserted mining village. Peter has promised to mention my sunglasses on his blog.
And that, as they say, is that. St Patrick's day was fairly predictable.
And if you REALLY want to see them, here are the videos of our canyon swing. *holds head in hands*
Rick
Zoe (swing 2)
Ho ho, and there was me saying New Zealand might not be that blog-worthy.
I'll get back to that.
So last time we spoke we were on our way back from Kaikoura with its dolphins and whales, via Christchurch (the only photos of which I have are of the crazy golf - it's such an interesting place). We carried on South to a place called Geraldine on the Rangitata river - best rafting in NZ apparently. So that's what I did, to kick off the extreme sports. (Zoe had a relaxing day getting to know the local mad people, but I'll let her tell you about that.)
So, that's me at the front, getting wet, wetter and wettest. It was sooo much fun, I want to go every day. We finished off with a 10 metre jump into the gorge, which you can see me being very cool about *ahem*.
Things were a bit more sedate after that for a few days, some nice camping among the sand dunes, rugged coasts and the sunsets. (NB That last photo was taken in a campsite, not a concentration camp, despite appearances). Ooh, christiane, we had your jam with some scones it was lovely.
We visited the Moeraki boulders (you can see I'm starting to look like a transient after a week in the camper van) which have a honeycomb centre, geology/malteser fans. Then we headed down to Dunedin which is full of Scottish people. The Otago peninsula near Dunedin has some cool wildlife. Look at this chubby fella. And this one! He was having a very lazy day. We also went to a penguin sanctuary which had exciting underground tunnels, and, of course, some penguins. There was also a nice castle with pretty flowers round it. No visit to Dunedin would be complete (apparently) without a trip to the chocolate factory, where I was humiliated into wearing a "beard snood". Factory rick, notagoodlook. Here is Zoe in front of a mountain of crunchies.
So having got the middle-aged activities out of the way we set off for beautiful Queenstown and moved onto the stupid stuff. That's us in our jet boating outfits. Jetboats are daft things designed and operated by cheerful petrol-heads, which can be filled up with tourists, chucked around a river at several million miles an hour, and swerved past rocks, and do 360 degree spins. (I don't think they have any other purpose). There is also a video of that. Hilariously it features me picking my nose. Queenstown itself is ace, on a lake surrounded by mountains, brimming with pubs and restaurants, and full of idiots chucking themselves off things. Which brings me on to the canyon swing. I'm not sure what we were thinking here. We sort of thought it would be a nice fun swing (I imagine a few of you are shaking you heads here) but of course it's actually just a bungy jump where you don't bounce back up, you swing across. And it's more scary - your average bungy jump has 40 metres of freefall and this has 60. Sooo stupid.
So we got in our outfits, Zoe was quite calm, and I was fucking terrified. Zoe went first and after a bit of coaxing managed to jump off forwards which was mightily impressive. I was having none of this, and made them hang me up and pull a release thing so I didn't have to jump. Predictably, for full comic effect, he released it mid sentence, ("There's just a couple of things I need to *snip*") and I screamed like someone being murdered with a chainsaw. Here I am falling.
Then Zoe decided she wanted to do it again. I have NO idea what was going through her head. If you do it again you don't have to pay but you do have to do a crazy stunt - so, obviously, she chose falling off backwards strapped to a plastic garden chair. You can never get enough of this picture.
And then the next day, for a bit of respite, we did a whole day of horse riding which we loved, despite a slight feeling of the landscape being marred by Lord of the Rings tourism. Here's adrenaline Driver going at full pelt and here's me and Polar splashing about in the river. We met a lovely couple of lads on the horseriding called Peter and Alex and had lunch in a deserted mining village. Peter has promised to mention my sunglasses on his blog.
And that, as they say, is that. St Patrick's day was fairly predictable.
And if you REALLY want to see them, here are the videos of our canyon swing. *holds head in hands*
Rick
Zoe (swing 2)
Monday, March 10, 2008
Blue Mountains Not Blue: Shock Report
The Blue Mountains are not blue, nor are they mountains, I can exclusively reveal. They are in fact a big green valley. A source close to the mountains yesterday claimed, "They sometimes look blue, from a distance". Seeing as this is the case with all mountains, I remain unconvinced. However they are very nice, but in the interests of chronology I'll get on to that later.
We got back to Sydney just over a couple of weeks ago now, and had an amazing few days recuperating and resting back at Christiane's. She made us fabulous healthy food, and we read books, played with Mitsy and went for swims in the local rock pool. One day it got full of bluebottle jellyfish (Portuguese man'o'war) and I got scared and got out, although some people kept swimming. I've heard they give you great scars that look like whip marks but I got out anyway and spent an hour fishing them out with a net and inspecting them, before throwing them in the jellyfish bin. Our most spectacular trip to the rock pool was when a storm came over like a roof. Unfortunately this was the storm that soaked my ipod and it is now dead.
Then we checked into the youth hostel in town, for the weekend, (youth hostels have changed - look at this rooftop pool!), met up with our friend Rory from Fraser Island, did some shopping, and mooched around the city. (Which by this point was infested with gays).
Check out this graffitti - one of my favourite pictures so far this trip.
And then on Saturday it was Mardi Gras. Obviously this was a lot of fun, and the pictures are endless. I will try and be brief.
We started off in the park, where there were some teenagers in funny neon outfits, and then headed up to the parade which was led by the dykes on bikes. (Here's more). Followed by all the obligatory representation from the public services - here's the police, and the army although I sincerely hope that's not the real army. Here's me up a lamppost watching the parade (yes that's another home haircut). This is Zoe and Christiane pretending to be lesbians, quite convincing I thought. We also made some friends; Here's Christiane with a gladiator, and this is me with little red riding hood. Other highlights included the big head-dresses, dancing letters, a man dressed up as kylie (obviously), and Lisa this is specially for you, a "bear" dressed up as an angel. There's a lot more I could bore you with, but I won't. I personally never get bored of glittery sponge lettering. And here's a good example of how my stupid new camera always focuses on the wrong thing. I vaguely remember later on making friends with a nice man from the navy, with a pirate-ship tattoo. I forget his name, but that's his fault for buying me four whisky and cokes.
We flung away our hangovers in true city-Sunday style by going for a massive breakfast, walk (over the bridge to the North shore) where we went to the fair. I went on a pirate ship, in honour of the man whose name I have forgotten. After being scared "wit"less in the "prison Break Live" thing (never go in one - it involves a chicken wire maze with strobe lighting, and out of work actors covered in blood flinging themselves at you in the dark, it was horrible. Zoe will want me to point out she wasn't scared, but I was) we found our better selves in the hall of mirrors, and played on the slides.
And then we had our last day in Australia, at the "Blue Mountains" (see above). They were cool, comprising Australia's highest waterfall folks, an intrepid 3 hour hike through the jungle (see I told you they're not mountains), a ride on a brass horse, a very steep funicular railway, a cable car past the three sisters and some aboriginal dancing.
And that, guys, was our last day in Australia. *weep*. We are missing lots of things, but one thing we are NOT missing is Christiane's jam, because she gave us some to take with us and we had to cleverly smuggle it through customs. This was our last view of Sydney, from the airport.
And now we're in New Zealand! It's verrrry beautiful, and unlike Australia the weather is beautiful too *touch wood*.
Due to budgetry restraints we've hired a "wicked camper" in Christchurch, which are cheap rubbish camper vans for students and poor people. They are only about ten quid a day though - and we need it for five weeks. The downside is that they all have some crazy art on them. And you don't get to choose. We missed out on all the cool ones (We've seen The Doors, Kiss, Elvis, etc) and have ended up with a jaded political message about George Bush. It could have been worse. Look at this one we were parked next to. What were they thinking??
So after some teething problems (the radiator pipe blew off and sprayed water and oil all through the gear box and onto my jeans) the van is fully up and running. It has been amazing so far. Very different to Oz. I'm wondering how to make it blog-worthy seeing as everywhere is very deserted, and there is nothing much to do except drive places and look at the scenery, which is great for us, but boring for you. You'll like this though, we went on a boat from yet another crowded beach, and saw our first ever whale. In fact we saw three, and some dolphins, which was amazing.
So, thanks to some careful planning over sandwiches in the van, we are well underway in New Zealand. We have also been to Akoroa bay, which has a really cute town, and one of our favourite things, a crap museum. And yesterday when it was windy we did some crazy golf. Check out the Downtown hole, the rollercoaster (your ball actually goes on the rollercoaster) and the castle with the snapping portcullis. All pure genius.
The nicest thing about NZ is the familiar wildlife. I saw some bumble bees yesterday, and a couple of days ago a hedgehog tried to lick our washing up clean. I am rambling a bit, and running out of money on the meter, so I had better go. Today's picture to finish is this one of Zoe demonstrating how windy it can get here.
Oh, and what do you call a lesbian off-license? Yup.
See you all soon!
x
We got back to Sydney just over a couple of weeks ago now, and had an amazing few days recuperating and resting back at Christiane's. She made us fabulous healthy food, and we read books, played with Mitsy and went for swims in the local rock pool. One day it got full of bluebottle jellyfish (Portuguese man'o'war) and I got scared and got out, although some people kept swimming. I've heard they give you great scars that look like whip marks but I got out anyway and spent an hour fishing them out with a net and inspecting them, before throwing them in the jellyfish bin. Our most spectacular trip to the rock pool was when a storm came over like a roof. Unfortunately this was the storm that soaked my ipod and it is now dead.
Then we checked into the youth hostel in town, for the weekend, (youth hostels have changed - look at this rooftop pool!), met up with our friend Rory from Fraser Island, did some shopping, and mooched around the city. (Which by this point was infested with gays).
Check out this graffitti - one of my favourite pictures so far this trip.
And then on Saturday it was Mardi Gras. Obviously this was a lot of fun, and the pictures are endless. I will try and be brief.
We started off in the park, where there were some teenagers in funny neon outfits, and then headed up to the parade which was led by the dykes on bikes. (Here's more). Followed by all the obligatory representation from the public services - here's the police, and the army although I sincerely hope that's not the real army. Here's me up a lamppost watching the parade (yes that's another home haircut). This is Zoe and Christiane pretending to be lesbians, quite convincing I thought. We also made some friends; Here's Christiane with a gladiator, and this is me with little red riding hood. Other highlights included the big head-dresses, dancing letters, a man dressed up as kylie (obviously), and Lisa this is specially for you, a "bear" dressed up as an angel. There's a lot more I could bore you with, but I won't. I personally never get bored of glittery sponge lettering. And here's a good example of how my stupid new camera always focuses on the wrong thing. I vaguely remember later on making friends with a nice man from the navy, with a pirate-ship tattoo. I forget his name, but that's his fault for buying me four whisky and cokes.
We flung away our hangovers in true city-Sunday style by going for a massive breakfast, walk (over the bridge to the North shore) where we went to the fair. I went on a pirate ship, in honour of the man whose name I have forgotten. After being scared "wit"less in the "prison Break Live" thing (never go in one - it involves a chicken wire maze with strobe lighting, and out of work actors covered in blood flinging themselves at you in the dark, it was horrible. Zoe will want me to point out she wasn't scared, but I was) we found our better selves in the hall of mirrors, and played on the slides.
And then we had our last day in Australia, at the "Blue Mountains" (see above). They were cool, comprising Australia's highest waterfall folks, an intrepid 3 hour hike through the jungle (see I told you they're not mountains), a ride on a brass horse, a very steep funicular railway, a cable car past the three sisters and some aboriginal dancing.
And that, guys, was our last day in Australia. *weep*. We are missing lots of things, but one thing we are NOT missing is Christiane's jam, because she gave us some to take with us and we had to cleverly smuggle it through customs. This was our last view of Sydney, from the airport.
And now we're in New Zealand! It's verrrry beautiful, and unlike Australia the weather is beautiful too *touch wood*.
Due to budgetry restraints we've hired a "wicked camper" in Christchurch, which are cheap rubbish camper vans for students and poor people. They are only about ten quid a day though - and we need it for five weeks. The downside is that they all have some crazy art on them. And you don't get to choose. We missed out on all the cool ones (We've seen The Doors, Kiss, Elvis, etc) and have ended up with a jaded political message about George Bush. It could have been worse. Look at this one we were parked next to. What were they thinking??
So after some teething problems (the radiator pipe blew off and sprayed water and oil all through the gear box and onto my jeans) the van is fully up and running. It has been amazing so far. Very different to Oz. I'm wondering how to make it blog-worthy seeing as everywhere is very deserted, and there is nothing much to do except drive places and look at the scenery, which is great for us, but boring for you. You'll like this though, we went on a boat from yet another crowded beach, and saw our first ever whale. In fact we saw three, and some dolphins, which was amazing.
So, thanks to some careful planning over sandwiches in the van, we are well underway in New Zealand. We have also been to Akoroa bay, which has a really cute town, and one of our favourite things, a crap museum. And yesterday when it was windy we did some crazy golf. Check out the Downtown hole, the rollercoaster (your ball actually goes on the rollercoaster) and the castle with the snapping portcullis. All pure genius.
The nicest thing about NZ is the familiar wildlife. I saw some bumble bees yesterday, and a couple of days ago a hedgehog tried to lick our washing up clean. I am rambling a bit, and running out of money on the meter, so I had better go. Today's picture to finish is this one of Zoe demonstrating how windy it can get here.
Oh, and what do you call a lesbian off-license? Yup.
See you all soon!
x
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