Darren Watt - Travel Blog 2006

Day 365 / 365

noreply@blogger.com (KungfuDazza) — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 13:41:00 +0000

DW - Wow! That's it! Game Over, Man! Today is our last day on the road. To summarise, here's Jodie...

JB - Where did the time go? A whole year of adventure whizzed by us. Now the challenge is to get to JFK airport with three bags, yes I said three!!! You just can't come to New York and not shop!

It has been a whirl-wind year with so many exciting places and crazy moments, scary border crossings, yummy food, beautiful scenery and brilliant people, I will miss it all so much, but I am very excited to come home. This has been a year of such variation and yes cheesy to say but it has also made me appreciate what I have at home, especially wardrobes and hangers.....ha ha only joking folks.

From New York City

It has been great for us to hear from all who have emailed us on the way, and a little scarey to hear our friends getting married, having babies, moving towns etc, we did think of staying away in case it was catching!! : ) Just hearing whats happening at home has made us feel somewhat not forgotten on our travels.

From New York City

If anyone thought "wouldn't it be great to travel", then I definitely would say to you DO IT! We were surprised how easy it is to just pull up somewhere and find accommodation, how people do help you out, and how much fun it is getting it wrong and laughing about it later.

DW - What a year it's been... we've done so much I can't even get my head around it. Arriving back in the UK makes it the 14th country we've been to during 2006, and the strangest thing is it's the first time we've been in England all year! It's going to be awesome seeing family and friends again, and it's been great keeping you guys updated and getting emails back from you. Not sure how people did all this travel stuff in the old days, but in the 21st century it's not been too tricky. OK, maybe tricky at times, but generally alright.

We're staying at Trish and Pete's who are kindly putting up with us. We will try to get round to see everyone, but it could take a while, what with no vehicles. If you need us, best off dropping us an email and we'll get back to you, which again could take a while, what with no mobile phone.

Anyways, see you guys soon, and thanks for following us.

From New York City

Darren and Jodie, 2006
xxx

New Yoik, New Yoik

noreply@blogger.com (KungfuDazza) — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 23:04:00 +0000

... And where people say "cwa-fee" instead of "coffee". It's all true.

We arrived in our lovely hotel in NYC the other day, which compared to some places we've been in, is fairly palatial. Jodie is over the moon, as it's got a bathtub in it! Imagine that, ay, bathtubs.

From New York City

So far in New York, we have wandered around a lot, checked out all the shop windows which are all very impressive with the Christmas stuff, and attempted to go shopping a number of times. This usually results in me getting stressed out (no idea why we decided it would be a good idea to come to the shopping capital of the world at this time of year, there were more people in Macy's yesterday than the population of China), and Jodie returning with far more shoes than she originally went out with. All of this is related to something known only as 'Nine West". I have no idea what that means.

From New York City

We've seen quite a few of the sights here already, with a few more to do over the next few days. The weather is behaving itself, with today a balmy 15C and sunny sunshine, which is apparently far warmer than it should be, and a lot warmer than home.

From New York City

Christmas Day is now fully planned out - starting off with Champers for breakfast, a stroll around Central Park, then 4 course Christmas Meal back at the cosy hotel. Sounds great, but won't be as good as mum's cooking of course :(

From New York City

Our only concern at the moment is... the end... of the trip! It's all very scary stuff, so we'll avoid thinking about it until we absolutely have to. Which will be when we're heading to the airport on the 26th no doubt. Yikes!

San Diego (Final West Coast Crew)

noreply@blogger.com (KungfuDazza) — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 01:46:00 +0000

We've been in San Diego for a few days now. Mainly, it's been shopping but yesterday we hired out bikes and went exploring. Everything was fine with this, same as back home really, apart from trying to work out whereabouts in the road we were supposed to be cycling.We first went to Balboa Park. After a quick mooch about there, we then headed off see USS Midway, which as JB says, is a "Big Boat", others would call it an Aircraft Carrier.

From San Diego

I was very pleased. There was a lot of military stuff on there which was not only interesting but also quite dangerous looking. On the flight deck we were able to look at many planes normally seen only in films, such as Top Gun, and Iron Eagle, and Iron Eagle II (Ok, I struggled with remembering the name of other great aircraft films). It was brilliant! Although I think Jodie would have been happier left in one of the shops back in downtown San Diego.

From San Diego

Today we went out for a tour of the San Diego area, by a friend we made during a previous tour in New Zealand, called Amanda, who has lived here for ages. After a great day of driving around and seeing stuff in what is still pretty good, warm, sunny weather we then headed to....

From San Diego

... the Kansas City Barbecue! Which is where they filmed the 'Sleazy Bar Scene' in TOP GUN! Back in 1985! Wow, if I didn't feel old then, I do now. We headed in for an obligatory pint and photo, and said goodbye to Amanda after a great day of her touring expertise, but were unable to leave for a bit as the barman kept refilling our drinks. 5 drinks and a T-Shirt later we made it out. LA tomorrow for a quick tour before heading east to New Yoik!

More photos of our recent exploits can be viewed here.

San Diego

noreply@blogger.com (KungfuDazza) — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 19:25:00 +0000

We're now in San Diego which is very chilled out. Seems to be pretty well set up for drinking and eating (enormous food only) and we're in Gaslamp area which is in the middle of everything. Lots of Jazz Bars and Ice Cream places.

The other thing here that there is a lot of is 'shops' and they're all pretty cheap, so JB's very happy. I've done a lot in the Oakley shop round the corner, and JB's covered about all the other ones.

That's pretty much everything for now. We're meeting up with one of our Stray buddies, then leave to go back to LA on Tuesday.... then it's off to New York! Brilliant.

Crazy Vegas

noreply@blogger.com (browngirl78) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 04:28:00 +0000

It's true to say Las Vegas is totally crackers! We are staying in Egypt well the Luxor, with it's enormous Sphinx and light beam leading us back home after a night of giant margaritas and getting very lost in one of the many giant hotels.

From Las Vegas

We have seen piano duelling in New York, New York, Lions in MGM Grand, ate Krispey Kreme doughnuts in Excaliber, ate steak mignon in Paris, drank magaritas in Venice, watched the fountain display at the Bellagio, overlooked the Strip from the Stratosphere tower and have just about walked our little socks off!

From Las Vegas

Managed to double our money in the casino but then loose it again, but then $10 is not bad going compared to some of the stories we've heard happens out here.

From Las Vegas

San Diego is our destination tomorrow for a few days catching up with a friend who will be our personal tour guide (we hope) and then it's off to New York for our last week before we finally head home! Getting very Christmassy now I love it.

From Las Vegas

Viva Las Vegas

noreply@blogger.com (KungfuDazza) — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 20:59:00 +0000

We're now in Vegas, staying at the Luxor (there's a Hooters hotel down the road but I didn't know about it, praps next time). First impressions of Vegas are that its a strange silly place. Will do another update soon with more interesting stuff in it and photos, but for now I only have two things to report.

Matty Taylor's Goal on Saturday was brilliant. Check it out here. Nav used to do that to me in Pro-Evo all the time and there's not a lot your goaly can do about it, even in real life it turns out.
I've finally finished doing the Ian Rush Milk Advert, which was filmed using a real scouser back at our last night in Sydney, while we were both very drunk. It's quality, and it's here...

I didn’t know that, I would’ve said “San Fran"

noreply@blogger.com (KungfuDazza) — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 01:28:00 +0000

We made it out of Fiji, OK, thanks for the concern everyone. For those that don't know, Fiji has been taken over by the military, which should mean lots of tanks and helicopters zooming around the place, but we didn't see any. In fact, no difference at all. As you can see from this picture below taken by one of our crack photographers, the Fijians are adjusting to the changes in small steps.

From Fiji

We are in San Francisco. Thursday DID finally end, and with a 19hr time difference from Fiji we're having a bit of trouble coping, so we're tired a lot and Jodie is sleeping a lot, apart from when she's meant to be sleeping, then she's awake.

From San Francisco

We've done all the main stuff.... Visited Fishermans Wharf, went to Alcatraz and seen the Golden Gate Bridge, but mainly and more importantly we've done a lot of wandering about and thank the Gods, we've got our laundry done! So far we can confirm that everything is a lot bigger out here. Food, big. Cars, big. Sea Lions, yes, big. I guess, I mean we don't see many other sea lions to be honest. Check out the Hummer below though. Not entirely easy-to-park.

From San Francisco

We fly out tomorrow set for Vegas, which again is all very exciting. Lots of photo's have been uploaded, so you can see what we looked like in Fiji and San Francisco (much the same as everywhere else, but with different backdrops, and probably a bit more tired than usual).

This last photo is important for some of the people who know us, because if you look carefully in the background, there is a Jonathan looky-likey! How spooky! Can you see him!? Seriously. I saw you Jon, we know you're out here...

From San Francisco

Groundhog Day

noreply@blogger.com (KungfuDazza) — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 22:51:00 +0000

Back on the road again after a nice 2 week break in Fiji, things have all got so complicated, its very confusing. We've just flown over the International Dateline. This means that today is going to be very long indeed. We got up this morning (thursday), had a bit of lunch, got on the boat at 2.30pm to go to the airport for a bit of a mooch around, before getting on the plane for around 11pm.

However, we land in Los Angeles at 1.30pm. Thursday! Which is before we left the island to go to the airport!? Time travel messes with you mind, and is best avoided.

Anyway - we're not hanging around in LA, we're going straight to San Francisco and by the time we get there it's only going to be about 4pm Thursday. What a spookily long day (just found out flight to SF is delayed too dammit).

Fiji was interesting. We spent the first week at Beachcomber Island. "Are you sure?" said the nice lady at the desk when we booked it. "Of course, looks nice in this leaflet" we said and went ahead. Arriving there we checked in and were shown to our dorm bunks, in a dorm that sleeps over 100. Which would have been OK normally, but the other guests seemed to consist of at least 98 young randy yanks/aussies who were all intent on explaining their life stories to each other loudly throughout the night in the hope of a leg over.

After 5 nights at Beachcomber, yes 5, count them, we headed to another island, 'Manta Ray Island', which had been recommended to us by the Stray gang. And it was great. This time we had a Jungle Bure, which was right on the beach, so we could listen to the waves at night, and right away from any other civilisation on the island - not that there was much. We even had our own 'toilet', which was a composting one, which I don't think I'll go into too much detail but put it this way, it doesn't flush.

Days there were pretty uneventful.... get up, lie on beach, eat, lie on beach, eat, sleep. Although snorkelling was excellent with a reef right in the bay, and we went on a couple of dives which were fantastic. From a spider-fearing point of view, things were not so good. On the first afternoon, I spotted 2 quite big jumping spiders on the window sill which didn't help my afternoon kip. Then one night we headed up to eat, and as we walked up we both noticed an enormous Huntsman spider running along the wall next to us, about 1 meter away, which was enough to make me freeze in my tracks and make a weird noise. Definitely not good with spiders, me. Luckily Jodie was around to help me walk past it.

On the 2nd to last day we were just sitting down to eat when we noticed that the person sitting next to us was Tom from the Stray Bus, excellent! Gave us a chance to catch up on stuff and was good to see the fella.

So as I said, we're going to be in San Francisco for the next few days. Right now I think we're going to go to sleep, and hopefully when we wake up it won't be Thursday 7th December anymore!

Diving Drama

noreply@blogger.com (KungfuDazza) — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 04:05:00 +0000

It's been a busy couple of days. We arrived in Auckland on Saturday, and from there had to research and book a trip up North, so we could dive the 'Poor Knights Islands', off Tutukaka. Everything that could go wrong, did, starting off with leaving our shopping on the Stray Bus (Ok George, free rolls for you guys). Then we checked into the YHA that we'd pre-booked, only for the French chap on the desk to look at us blankly, "No, there is nothing on the system".... long pause... no apology for the messup... no attempt to find us another room. Sigh. In the end we managed to get him to do his job, but it was all annoying. Lots of other stuff went wrong apart from that but I won't go into it because it all gets very tedious, but its all along the same lines as that.

"No, we don't a have no rooms!"

So... Got to Whangarei, and got picked up by the owner of the hostel. We stayed at the Little Earth Lodge, which was a great place. Onsite DVD room, kitchen, chickens and cows! Also, free eggs from the chickens (not allowed to eat the chickens) and miniture horses! All miles away from everywhere. Can't recommend this hostel enough. Rather than packing in backpackers to the roof, they only have a few beds and make an effort to ensure the place is nice. It's like the opposite end of the hostel scale to Base hostels.

Stock Photo

Yesterday morning we were up pretty early for some Scuba Diving at the Poor Knights Islands, rated by Jaques Cousteau (who would know) as one of the Top 10 diving destinations in the World. First time we've dived in these, cold, temperatures. Even with 7mm wetsuits and hoods you can still tell the water is bloody freezing. The first dive of the day was not the best, we followed the guide as well we could in low visibility, and with 6 of us following him we were often bumping into each other, or getting a fin in the face.

Saw some of these.

The second dive was much better - I headed out just with Jodie, and first in the water we had a decent search around without the crowds. Followed along one end, saw a lot of kelp, other vegetation, a few nudibranches, but then as we headed to the opposite wall I spotted a turtle. A massive one! I signalled to Jodie, but couldn't remember what the turtle signal was and so it ended up like that bit in Team America! As soon as the turtle spotted us he started to leg it / float away, so we followed for a bit, then left him to it. When we got back to the boat, we explained our findings to the other divers. No one else spotted him, and the guide who had worked there for 2 years told us he'd never seen turtles here. So, we were either very jammy... or we saw a radio controlled turtle. I think jammy.

REMEMBER THE SIGNAL!

We're off to Fiji on Thursday, for a two week holiday. All this travel is getting to us now, so we need a bit of time off :)

Hee hee. Oh, then it's off to the States for a bit.

Skydiving Footage

noreply@blogger.com (KungfuDazza) — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 01:18:00 +0000

They film these things with handicam's on the end of their arms now! Better than having the camera bloke along for the ride. Video evidence can be found here....

Jodie's Skydive (Moon-face)
Darren's Skydive (Flappy-face)

Great fun! Isn't Google Video & Youtube top stuff.

Auckland to Taupo

noreply@blogger.com (KungfuDazza) — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 02:01:00 +0000

It's the 16th November, and since leaving Auckland in the Stray Bus we have already seen and done so much. New Zealand is fantastic!

We headed for the Hahei coast, a beautiful beach and the awesome Cathedral Cave. In the evening we headed off to Hot Water Beach, so called due to geothermal activity which causes the water to heat up. So you dig a hole and sit in a nice warm bath. Bizarre!

From NZ - Hahei

That night our driver Nads (or Go-Nads) cooked us up a fab BBQ introducing us to the Kumara, the Kiwi sweet potato, very yummy. We then headed west to Raglan, for you surfers out there you'll know this is a wicked place to surf. Darren decided against it due to his only one lesson and thought best not risk the 10ft waves and rocky coastline!!! So we had a go at the Flying Fox instead - in pitch black I might add. A Flying Fox is like a zip wire. Very cool, especially as your only light is from the resident Glow Worms.

From NZ - Raglan

After chilling out there for an extra day, we caught the next bus to come along and headed for Rotorua via the Waitamo Caves. This is where Darren and I ventured on the 'Tuma Tuma Toobing'. AWESOME! Geared up in wet-suits, helmets and welly boots we trudged across a farmers field getting very odd looks from the sheep and climbed into a teeny tiny hole in the ground. Not sure what lay ahead off us, we gingerly staggered over rocky paths avoiding the million year old stalactites and waded through the icy cold under ground rivers. Our guide decided we should be safer from the legend deep-cave monster by pasting mud all over our faces and sliding down a mud hill, it was like being six years old again it was great fun. The fun didn't end there, we then were given rubber tubes to lie back on and slip quietly through the caves on the river with no lights to see the thousands of glow worms lighting up the cave ceiling, it was incredible. Very magical.

From NZ - Rotorua

Three hours later we climbed out back into the field to then make our way to Rotorua. Blimey, you know when you reach Rotorua 'cause it stinks of eggs! This is because of the geothermal activity in the area. With bubbly mud pools and geysers (not the dodgy kind) the Maori people still to this day use the geothermal activity to cook, bath and do their laundry. We visited a village that shows just this. We were also shown the Maori traditional dances and songs and the infamous Haka. Great stuff.

From NZ - Rotorua

After Rotorua we then headed to Taupo, where the lake is so big they say it can fit Singapore into it! And guess what? Both Darren and I saw it from 12,000ft above it whilst jumping out of a plane!!!!!! I'll let that sink in parents..............................................

From NZ - Lake Tau...

YEE HAA we dived out of a plane over Lake Taupo at 12,000ft altitude, free-falling for 7000ft of that and then gracefully parachuting down to earth. How very cool, in fact too cool for school. We'll post the videos of it soon... (On a more important note, check out this video of japanese t-shirt folding which is a new skill we've learnt from 'Rich' of the Stray West Coast Crew; It's borderline witchcraft!).

So after coming back down from such a high we are now chilling out in Taupo for a few days before we head back north to Auckland to hook up with a few people and then catch our flights to Fiji. Go get yourselves a coffee now as I know you all need to relax after reading such extreme adventures!

The LOTR Roadtrip

noreply@blogger.com (browngirl78) — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 03:42:00 +0000

After travelling back up the East coast leaving the South behind us (not much to see down there anyway) oh except Speights Brewery, most excellent! Very interesting, especially the guide telling us that Gales Brewery has been bought out by a French company and they have closed it down!!!! Shock horror, we had to go the other side of the world to hear this! We then had to console ourselves with five different types of beers Speights produce and they're so lazy out here in NZ we had to serve it ourselves... what a pity...

From NZ - Dunedin ...

We all then decided Pizza was on the menu for the night so we went in search of Hells Pizza - the best in town. Half an hour later, having walked into an Industrial Estate with the rain lashing our faces and soaking our jeans to our legs we spy the Hells Pizza signboard like a mirage out of the desert. Only to find it to be a TAKE AWAY! Who's flippin' idea was it to go for pizza???? As usual us girlies were desperate for a pee and now hungry and very soggy! We ordered our pizzas waited for taxis only to be then deserted and forgotten. 25 mins later with cold pizza in hand we stumble into the hotel order beers and head to bed. What an afternoon!

From NZ - Dunedin ...

Once we got back to Christchurch this is where the West Coast Crew went their separate ways. A very sad occasion, but with great memories and some corking photos! We had such a giggle and met some great new friends - it's ok to be Stray! : )

We are now in Auckland, we do get around a bit ay! We had an offer from one of the lasses on board the bus, Bonnie (aka Badonna) to deliver a car up to Auckland. But it was not going to be just any old road trip, we were to go on a quest, in search of the LOTR locations! Ok for those not geeky enough LOTR = Lord of the Rings!!!

Setting off in Shadowfax our strong and loyal steed (a mitsabushi lancer) we headed North to the ferry to cross to the North Island. On our way we stopped off at a seal colony where baby seals were playing in the pool under a waterfall, it was so cool. Then headed to Picton. Caught the ferry, and found a nice little couch in the Club Class lounge. An hour later, two cups of free tea and biccies we were busted and sent on our way to the commoners bar to spend the rest of the journey eating ham sarnies washed down with a few bottles of Speights. (Darren's official sponsor)

11.30pm we rock into Windy Wellington and kip for the night to head North in the morning.

From NZ - Road Trip

Our first destination led us to Scorching Bay, to a little cafe called Chocolate Fish Cafe. Noted as a regular to Peter Jackson, Orlando Bloom, Liv Tyler etc for morning brekkie. They did awesome scrambled eggs and bacon.

From NZ - Road Trip

After leaving there at 12 we consider our journey ahead and decide we have left it far too late to go exploring and head straight for Auckland via beautiful hills and scenery. We had a very intense moment when the fuel light glowed and we were in the middle of well, Middle-Earth, it went very quiet for about 50km when a Shell came to our rescue and we refueled. Exciting stuff!

From NZ - Road Trip

We eventually arrived at our hostel at 8.30pm very tired. The plan was to drop Bonnie off at the airport tomorrow and we drop the car off.

That is where we are now, back in Auckland, our fellowship broken up and now sitting in the Internet cafe hiding from the rain. The quest was semi successful, well we got the car back in one piece and we found Auckland.

More adventures from us two soon...

Very South

noreply@blogger.com (KungfuDazza) — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 02:20:00 +0000

We left Queenstown yesterday morning, and the bus took us to Milford Sound, which is not a gig, but a fjord surrounded by mountains. The way there was as awesome as bus trips get, with huge mountains either side of us, and we passed through 'The Valley of 1000 Waterfalls', which was accurately named. When we arrived at Milford Sound, rather than taking the cruise like all the sensible people, we headed instead to check out Milford town... less of a town, more of a rubbishy little cafe. We made the most of it by eating our own food and playing snap with Strays, Tom and Eve, which was far too entertaining. Also played 'pairs' with Jodie's cards for kids (thanks Lara), testing our memory to the max, which appears to have gone downhill suddenly for some reason.

From NZ - Tuatapere

After that we ran into extreme danger at the Homer Tunnel. It's a 1200 metre long tunnel which you can just about get a big bus through, traffic lights at each end, that kind of thing. The problem was that as we headed through it, there was another bus coming the other way! Panic! James The Driver tried reversing, but that was no good, so we headed further in forcing the other guy to fall back to where the tunnel gets slightly wider, inched past, and then had to get out the other end before a load of traffic started at the far end! Extreme bus driving. This is why James The Driver keeps a crash helmet up the front with him at all times.

From NZ - Tuatapere

From there was another great trip through the South of New Zealand to Tuatapere, where we were able to get a few drinks and have a bit of an early night, on a Friday too (makes no difference when your big night ends up on a Tuesday or Wednesday night). This morning was an early start, as we headed off to Ray and Dorothy's Farm to have a look around, watch the dogs organising sheep and then into the shearing pen for some sheep shearing! And before Nathan emails me, that's shearing, not sharing (the Kiwi's don't share their sheep with anyone).

From NZ - Tuatapere

More fun you might think, especially when you get to see dogs running ON TOP of the sheep(!?). And then there was one sheep trying to get away from the dogs, which leapt on top of another sheep, and both of them getting trapped in the sheep run, leaving the sheep underneath with no clue about what's going on, and another sheeps bits in its face. I haven't laughed so much all week. This farm stuff is excellent. Jodie was able to hold a baby sheep born yesterday, which she was very happy about, and we both had a go with the farm motorbikes with trailers on. Which I was very happy about.

From NZ - Tuatapere

We're now in Invercargill, went down the road to 'Bluff' which is about the most south you can get in New Zealand in a bus, hence the silly signpost which has been ideally located by the AA - Alcoholics Anonymous? Could be...

From NZ - Tuatapere

Going South

noreply@blogger.com (KungfuDazza) — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 04:58:00 +0000

A busy couple of days on the Stray Bus... We've lost the ability to tell which day is which, because with all the planning taken care of we just wake up, shower (optional), and get on the bus if that's what was agreed in the bar the night before. Easy! I only know it's Thursday today because the computer tells me it is.

From NZ - McDonald...

Anyway, between Barrytown and Franz Joseph we stopped off in Bushman Pete's place. Pete's a very interesting individual, who was able to explain to us how the Kiwi's used to hunt deer using helicopters and net-guns. I'm not making this up. We've seen a video of it, including men jumping from helicopters onto deer below! Shockingly only 80 people died as a result of this sillyness. Great place though, and totally devoid of political correct nonsense.

From NZ - Franz Jo...

Then we went onto Franz Joseph, famous for its glacier, and very near Fox Glacier which is of course where the mints come from. After getting togged up for extreme conditions of rain and ice, we embarked on an expedition to the glacier, with our guide 'AJ' - nuts fella, who did the trip with us in shorts and with a 20Kg backpack on. Really good, really cold and really wet. Standing on the glacier you get a great view into the valley below and even though it was a rainy day it was top fun. The highlight of the trip though was when AJ found a cave and got us to crawl through it, which involved lying on our backs and shuffling through. Then up. And then along a bit. Brilliant fun!

From NZ - Franz Jo...

Our next stop was Makorora, where the men are hairy and so are the women. Our hostel for the night was a pub again, with little dorms out the back, surrounded by cool looking mountains. With little to do apart from drink, the Stray team established ourselves in the bar and cast some magic, in the form of.... Karaoke! After a small warm up drinks, myself and Jodie treated the crowd (Stray team and three locals, yep, just the three) to an outstanding rendition of Kylie and Jason's 'Especially For You'. No-one was violently ill, and nothing was thrown at us, so basically pretty successful. The rest of the gang also stepped up with such classics as 'La Bamba' from Team Brazil, 'I Will Survive' from Bonnie, and the Stray Women doing 'Wannabe'. Awesome.

From NZ - Makorora

Just when you think a night's over and you can go to sleep, sometimes, and only sometimes, the rest of the Stray Bus and the three locals from the pub you were in wander into your dorm with beer and sandwiches for an after-party. Bizarre but good fun.

From NZ - Makorora

Out nice and early the next morning, we stopped at a scenic little place called the Blue Pools for quick walking and stone skimming. Further into the journey, we passed some amazing lake and mountain landscapes which were absolutely awesome. We stopped off at Wanaka for a while, which gave us an excuse to set up a quick picnic while some of the guys jumped out of planes over Lake Wanaka. Tony, a chap in our bus, was having an extreme-a-thon day, so after picking him up from the airfield from the chute jump we stopped off at the original AJ Hackett Bungy site so he could get that out of his system too.

From NZ - Queenstown

Which leaves us here in Queenstown. It's well out of season for snowboarding at the moment, but there's plenty of mad stuff you can do here, so we're having a mooch around before heading down south and continuing our tour of New Zealand. Hey, loads of new photos are up, here. Hey, it's November already!? When did that happen!? We continue ...

From NZ - Queenstown

Barrytown

noreply@blogger.com (KungfuDazza) — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 05:12:00 +0000

Stopped off at a place called, I kid you not, "Old McDonalds Farm", where we were able to talk to llama's and drive around on horses! Real life horses. Obviously I am now over my donkey accident when I was very young (don't want to go into it too much but I blame it entirely for my big animal phobia), and we both managed to trot around the beach on horses for two hours. Two hours is probably the limit just before your bum falls off, but its a good laugh all the same.

We've spent the last two nights in a little place called 'Barrytown', on the west coast of South Island. Rained pretty much for the duration, but at least we had the comfort of staying a in a pub (result!) and extremely interesting locals to chat to.

We did some bone carving, apparently using bones from cows, but this place was pretty remote so it could have been from anything. Carvings turned out really well. Will post pictures soon, but all photography is on Jodies enormous camera right now after the IXUS was totalled in a horrendous alocohol related dropping incident back in Sydney, so takes us a bit longer to sort out.

Hey, no one's even reading this stuff! Do check the site often now as we're doing dangerous and exciting things, and I know if you're looking or not. SHOW US THE LOVE PEOPLE!

"You're ego's writing cheques your body can't cash!"

noreply@blogger.com (KungfuDazza) — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 20:58:00 +0000

Hey things are going very quickly now. Forgot how speedy all this backpacking business is.

We've left Christchurch and stopped off at Kaikoura last night, reknowned for its marine life. On the way we had the option to either go swimming with dolphins in freezing cold water at 5am, swimming with seals in freezing cold water, watching whales in the sea (cold), or... flying a plane! Woohoo, easy choice. But the only two on a whole bus full of people that were brave enough, which I thought was odd, but there you go.

When we arrived we met James, our pilot, who alarmingly appeared to have only just started shaving (in fact was 23), but had been flying since he was 15! Flying at 15! You can't drive or drink beer at that age, but planes are ok!?

From NZ - Kaikoura

Anyways, Jodie stepped up first and after James got the thing off the ground, allowed her to have a go on the steering. All good, she's still here! After a bit of flying around the mountains (snow covered, very photogenic), he then wrestled the controls back from her, explaining that he had to land. However, instead he cunningly decided to do aerobatics, loop the loops and all. Jodie was screaming, which is great because he was transmitting to the control tower at the time! They must have been a bit shocked, by her language if nothing else.

From NZ - Kaikoura

I had a quick go after that. With my previous flying experience of 30 minutes, I'm well on my way to flying on my own (only takes 15 hours instruction!?? I checked the leaflets!!!!). Woohoo. Strangely enough James still wanted to do the landing bit, dammit.

After that we went into town, then for a walk down the beach to a seal colony, where we saw not one, but TWO seals, count 'em! All the other seals may well have been hiding or some other social event.

In the evening we went to a free quiz night at the little pub across the road with our new road buddies, which were so unimpressed that most of them have gone to the North Island :( Oh, and we also bumped into James the Pilot again, who hopefully had the next morning off.

From NZ - Kaikoura

So we're now in Picton, in a pretty little hostel called 'The Villa', with hot tubs, hammocks and a tree house. Bizarre. And a dog called Milly, who we can take for walks for free! Thanks!

From NZ - Picton

New Zealand - the land of the hobbits!

noreply@blogger.com (browngirl78) — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 04:34:00 +0000

After an early start and a hang over we arrive in Christchurch, New Zealand. Flying over the mountains on the west coast, very impressive, and then landing in yet another time zone. We are now 12 hours ahead from the UK and the weather is the same as the UK too, dull and dreary!

Today we have booked our trip with Stray, a 22 day trip round the South and North Island taking you off the beaten track, really looking forward to it and getting out and about again. Also meandered around Christchurch city visiting the museums, the botanic gardens and of course the pubs.

Not a lot to report as yet but watch this space as plenty of adventures are coming!

P.S No sightings of hobbits yet. Orcs but no hobbits.

Mini-Mission

noreply@blogger.com (KungfuDazza) — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 03:46:00 +0000

With not a lot else to do yesterday, apart from getting into Season 2 of 'Lost' (I finished Season 1 of 'Rescue Me' the other day, great program but gives away too much about what goes on in blokes heads and shouldn't be watched by women). Anyway, Fynn and myself headed out on a mini-mission to check that all the pubs are all still ok over here, and warn them about their impending loss of income.

The rest is history. Not very great history, but it definately happened. We have photos.

From Pubcrawl 19/1...

It was also a good chance to show our replacement French girl housemate, Diane, how to do the drinking thing, and handing over the other housemates to her.

Keep an eye on this stuff. We leave for New Zealand (where the sheep live) on Monday morning, so things could turn interesting again. All our good international buddies are welcome to wave us off at the airport at, ooooh, 5.30am.

Birthday surprise

noreply@blogger.com (browngirl78) — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 05:44:00 +0000

I wanted to share this with you all as it made me laugh.I received lots of lovely birthday cards from friends and family from back home which made me feel great. Thank you all. The one that made me really laugh was from my auntie and uncle. I have to say I don't really know how nice the card was as I received something a little different than what was expected!

Yes it's a photocopy. This is what Australia Customs sent me for my birthday, a photocopy of my auntie and uncles birthday card they spent ages in the card shop choosing. The reason for this is because the card was on recycled paper and had dried flowers on it, which could damage their whole eco system! I was gutted, but that's not all. Check this out.

Yes that's $42.50 to retrieve my birthday card, that's 17 pounds and 10 pence to get them to "Gamma-Ray" my card and then send it back to me, and more than likely in the form of ashes. Now don't get disheartened Marian and Dave, please don't take offence if I don't take the Australian customs up on their offer but that amount of money can buy me eight decent meals in our local pub, or four trips to the cinema or even five vodka and cranberry juices! By the looks of my photocopy the card looks lovely and I have stuck it to the wall along with my other birthday cards. So thank you the thought was there.

My First Birthday BBQ

noreply@blogger.com (browngirl78) — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 03:22:00 +0000

It has taken 28 years to finally manage to celebrate my birthday out in the sunshine!!!

From Jodie Birthda...

14th October and a roaring 33 degrees meant that we had to head down to my favourite beach here in Sydney, Coogee, and round up the troops for a huge BBQ and cold beers to celebrate my 28th year of existance.

From Jodie Birthda...

What an awesome day. The lads stoked up the barbie and us girlies lounged in the sunshine working very hard...on our tans drinking Tooweys New beers. We even ventured into the sea for a brisk swim, Darren trying to boogie board his way through the millions of people only giving up and darting back in to dive bomb Osh. After polishing off sangers, steak, chicken and kebabs I was actually bought a birthday cake too and was sung Happy Birthday, as other groups of BBQers looked over longingly to join in our possee!

From Jodie Birthda...

We actually had one group of people decide they liked our group so much that rather than sitting in another part of the green they plonked themselves literally on our laps, much to our disgust, it turns out they were from Salisbury and Southampton, Scummers!

Anyway after much drinking and taking plenty of silly photos later, the group dwindled off leaving just us hard core BBQers, and the odd Fynn passing out still with beer in hand. As the sun started to set so we headed home with slightly pink noses and full bellies, what a cracking day out and a fab birthday to remember.

From Jodie Birthda...

Foo Fighters play in Sydney

noreply@blogger.com (browngirl78) — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 06:16:00 +0000

Two weeks before we leave Oz and we finally have an excuse to go to the Sydney Opera House.

After spying a ripped poster on a random lamppost we got very excited to find out the Foo Fighters were playing an acoustic set at the infamous Australian icon. So Darren and I frantically call the ticket lines first thing on a Thursday morning desperately trying to get through!

After many frustrating minutes Darren emails me with news that they have sold out of both nights. Not to be defeated I venture on and finally get through only to hear the same news but in the same breath be told, Aha but they are adding an extra night, "WHOO HOO" I cry "Give me two of your best seats young man!" and so it was set. Of course Darren loved me very much that week and made me plenty of cups of tea.

From Foo Fighters

So Thursday 5th October we jump on a bus an head forth to the Sydney Opera House. How very cool. We did think the inside of the venue is somewhat similar to a multistorey car park, but once you head into the concert halls, well it was pretty amazing. With 5,000 people seated in a round with the stage in the middle you just felt the atmosphere was tense, well a bit p*ssed actually, so when the Foo Fighters came on stage the room just erupted.

From Foo Fighters

Oh... so... very... cool!

First set opened with just Dave Grohl on stage with his guitar, then the rest of the band joined in. There was chat and banter with the audience, plenty of acoustic rock and some fancy lighting going on, we were grinning from ear to ear.

From Foo Fighters

Two hours later we piled out of the Opera House totally on a high knowing that we will always remember this memorable night as the night we visited the Sydney Opera House and saw the rock band Foo Fighters...AWESOME!

Photo's - Offline

noreply@blogger.com (KungfuDazza) — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 04:09:00 +0000

Sigh. Getting lots of offers in the comments in the photos for enlarging things, or downloading video's of animals (not in a good way), so until I can sort it out photos are going to be offline.

No News = Good News

noreply@blogger.com (KungfuDazza) — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 03:36:00 +0000

Ok, no recents posts because nothing much is really happening... unless you count work or drunken debauchery (which we probably can't write about for legal reasons).

We're still both working and will be in Oz until about 22nd October, so it's going to be fairly quiet until then. Honestly, can't think of much else to post about. Unless I start rambling about Portsmouth Football Club... 4 games undefeated! Awesome stuff. Wish I could see the matches live, but replays on youtube is the next best thing.

Weather is still pretty drab, although we've done one visit to the beach. Looked like things were brightening up, but then practically had to swim to work in the rain this morning.

Oh, and thanks to the amazing Jodie, we've got tickets for Foo Fighters at Sydney Opera House and Hard-Fi coming up this month! Hoorah! Apart from that, not a lot.

Let off some steam, Bennett.

noreply@blogger.com (KungfuDazza) — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 03:25:00 +0000

Blimey... the things we're doing these days.... not a lot as it happens. I would bore you with the details, but we're mainly just going to work and standard stuff like that now. In brief:

Transformers Movie is being made. I'm very excited about this, but its probably going to end up being a big pile of pants.

We're thinking of doing the Bridge Run as part of the Sydney Running Festival, although they appear to be charging 1/3 extra if you're not a local (borderline rasicm) so we might not. Also I don't fancy running about on my own because they have age-groups.

Google have got a couple of dashboard widgets for Gmail and Blogger here. Now, that probably doesn't mean much to many people, but for those that it does, its definately good news.

New photos are up from our kicking-Scottish-out-of-the-house party. Sarah was very scottish and had to leave us to go back home and eat haggis and drink a lot. Brilliant laugh, all the best to her, ha ha, there are some cracking pictures there.

And the rest of the news I've done in the medium of 'Comic'! No one has this much spare time on their hands!?

No News

noreply@blogger.com (KungfuDazza) — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 00:52:00 +0000

Just a quicky update - there's not really much going on right now. JB continues with work and is doing a lot of gym classes and dance stuff. I got a job which I start next week so am just filling in time between now and then. Last weekend mainly consisted of shopping, theatre, jazz and beer. In that order.

It's still cold here.

Us. Recently.