Asia and Australasia for 8 months

Day 59 (Thu 22/12/2011)

We arrived in Wellington before 18:00 and got a shitty free meal with the hostel room. I took the time to get sorted out after the previous 6 nights in the wild. Later in the evening we met up with a girl from our first bus who is staying in Wellington for a while. As far as I know everyone else had already moved onto the south island.

We kinda arranged sometime after 20:00 to meet, this turned out to be 22:45. We’d got some drinks and started some games in the hostel room where we involved 2 other randoms that were staying in the room. By the time we left it was already 01:30, we met Laura’s friends in a bar and stayed out partying until 04:30.

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Day 60 (Fri 23/12/2011)

I felt awful this morning, forced myself to get out of by just after 11:00 as this was my only day in Wellington. I got some food and headed to the Museum; Jan had got up earlier to go on the internet so I had no idea where he was but he knew the plan was to go to the museum. Laura met me at the museum shortly followed by Jan. Laura, who is hating staying in Wellington is even more keen to leave NZ early and join in on the Asia trip.

After looking round the museum for a while we walked round the shops in town and didn’t buy anything apart from a cookie each. We headed back to get our free meal and then chilled at the hostel that evening.

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Day 61 (Sat 24/12/2011)

Mount doom from the desert side

The awesome river we swam down

The KiwiEx bus left at 08:00 to head back to Taupo, making a few stops on the way. I knew the library was open until 16:00 today so made the most of the free internet. Armed with my tent etc, I headed up to Spa park to find a place to camp near the hot springs; I don’t know if you’ve realised it yet but I love the hot springs. Spa park is really nice, very big and overlooks the huge river. I found an awesome spot to put up the tent then went to the hot springs about 20:30. Later I was joined by 6 mauri lads, they were pretty funny and started doing crazy jumps off the bridge into the water; the bridge isn’t that high but the water is only about 1m deep so they were pretty much doing high belly flops!

The stream at the hot springs

The weather was pretty good so the night was quite warm. It was the first time I’d stayed in the tent on my own and it’s a pretty good size for me and my bags.

Looking up the river with the water level being high

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Day 62 (Sun 25/12/2011)

I camped just up from here in the park

It was Christmas morning and I woke up in a tent on my own in the middle of a park. I had to get the bus the Auckland so needed to get back to the pickup point in town. I walked the 3km back to town carrying all my stuff. I got to the bus on time and we headed off to Auckland making a couple of stops on the way.

Day 58 (Wed 21/12/2011)

We got on kiwi bus and drove out to national park where we stopped for a 2 hour hike to see some waterfalls. When we got to the waterfalls a random guy propositioned me to go under the waterfall. I’d already felt the water and knew it was about 10 degrees (being snow melt off the mountain) but I took up the challenge anyway. The water was so cold and powerful, it hurt my head so much standing under it; it was definitely the coldest water I’d been in so far.

In the freezing waterfall

Check out how big it is

View of the mountain

After I finished playing we headed back to the bus and were on our way on the fairly long trip to river valley. By now we were so sick of the overpriced hostels the kiwiEx takes us to, we take whatever option we can to do something else. Now we had a tent and a load of sleeping stuff this was pretty easy; we planned just to hike off for a bit and set up our own camp carrying all the provisions we needed.

The plan didn’t quite work because the hostel people weren’t happy about people going off wild camping (it goes against their business plan of making as much money as possible). We ended up camping on site near the river.

River valley (Rivendale) is one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen so far. The hostel is situated at the bottom of a huge scenic valley with an incredible river flowing through it; the river is so clear and fresh. It’s like paradise mixed with hell because it’s infested with millions of sand flies, these tiny black flies that relentlessly swamp around you and give you a nasty bite. They are particularly nasty because they are so small you often can’t feel them on you.

We had to camp in the middle of this but once in the tent (having killed all the flies that got in) it was actually fine; going back outside was the biggest nightmare.

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Day 59 (Thu 22/12/2011)

In the morning we had until midday so we slept in, ate and then went on a short gorge walk up the river.

The river was really fast flowing and was impossible to cross at some points but further up the river was an incredible waterfall coming straight down the cliff into the water. From here I floated back down the river in the rapids, hitting many rocks on the way down. Once back at the hostel site I swam for a while in the river (it was the only safe place to escape the sand flies); one of the nicest rivers I’ve ever been in.

I was happy to leave this place as the sand flies spoil everything, you literally can’t do anything outside unless you are completely under the water which is too cold to stay in. We were away on the bus before 13:00 heading down to Wellington.

Day 52 (Thu 15/12/2011)

On the way into Taupo we stopped at Huka falls.

Huka falls from bridge

End of Huka falls

We arrived in Taupo and first thing on the agenda was to find a rental car for the next 5 days. A hostel night is around $25 -30, car rental which gives you the freedom to go anywhere is $57.50 a day split 3 ways, much cheaper.

We arranged the car for the following morning then spent the rest of the day in the library, a great find, the best free internet I’d found on my trip so far. After food that evening I did some exercises in the corridor, the only place in the whole hostel big enough. Towards the end of my workout, a French woman called Estelle started a conversation telling me she is into exercising, running, swimming, hiking and literally anything outdoors and active. She told me she was going on a training run at 06:00 the following morning, I changed the time to 06:30 and agreed to go with her.

Let me try to describe Estelle, she is 34 and French (although at first she lied and said she was 30). She’s completely ripped with an 8 pack and had recently won the Wellington 5km in 18:30, significantly faster than anything I’ve ever achieved. The clothes she was travelling with were pretty much what she was wearing. Her bag was huge and weighed 40kg, it was full of equipment for a range of outdoor sports revolving around, running, hiking and swimming. She had cooking equipment, food and drink, a tent and sleeping bag and even hiking poles attached to her bag.

She found out about our road trip and plans to do the Tongariro crossing and wanted in although she didn’t just want to do the crossing, she also wanted to climb the 2 peaks along the hike as well and had plans for scrabbling up the side of a volcano. She later earned the name Extreme Estelle or Extreme for short.

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Day 53 (Fri 16/12/2011)

So I kept my word and got up at 06:15 to meet Extreme for our run. I’d previously told her she’d have to go at my pace so I could keep up. She said she wanted to run to Huka falls and then onto craters of the moon if we still had time. This sounded OK so we headed off on our adventure. The pace was pretty good and the track was extremely hilly. Now I’m pretty out of shape for running and I’ve not been going that much since I’ve been away; until then the most I’d ever really run was 10km on a continuous flat course and perhaps 16km in the tough guy races but that involves a lot of stop start and other activities. By the time we’d got to craters of the moon, our furthest point, we’d been running for 70 minutes. By this point I was flagging and not able to keep up with Extreme but that was ok because every now and then she’d stop to take pictures, yes she was carrying a camera as well.

Our run was scheduled to end at spa park hot springs, a point where a 50 degree geothermal river flows over a waterfall through some pools into the large cold crystal clear river. When we arrived here, we’d been running for 100 minutes totalling 15km over what felt like mountains; getting in the hot springs felt amazing. We stayed there for a while but were limited for time because we both had to check out at 10:00.

As we left, Extreme started to run up the hill towards the road, I was like, you have to be kidding me; I hobbled / run for another km up hill to the road where we hitchhiked a lift back into town. I went straight to the rental station where I collected our car for the next 5 days and drove it back to the hostel. I parked it outside for a few hours longer than I should have done and got a parking ticket.

The raincoat people wanted me to buy from the red cross

We spent a couple of hours in the library before a quick trip to the red cross (our new favourite shop) where we bought 2 duvets, a pillow, a roll mat and a 2 man tent for $16 / £8. We stopped at McDs to use the toilet where we met the 2 German girls from KiwiEx who were still randomly hanging around. We pretty much kidnapped them and took them with us to the hot springs, it was a bit cold so we gave them our jumpers to wear whilst they waited in the rain for us to swim in the hot springs. They were already a bit miserable but decided they’d had enough and started to walk the 3km back into town. We didn’t really want to leave so let them go off with our jumpers, thinking they were bluffing.

That day in the hot springs we met 2 Isralie guys and a French Candian hitchhiker they’d picked up who was now travelling with them in their 2 person camper. They were very laid back guys so we made plans with them to do the crossing together and park a vehicle at both ends.

The girls had disappeared so we went on a mission to find them, luckily we spotted them in town and got our jumpers back. They wanted to come with us on our road trip, we told them we’d let them know the following morning if we had space for them even though I had no intention of taking them anywhere nor had their phone numbers to contact them. They realised we didn’t have their numbers so took it to humour them.

We stocked up on supplies from pack n save and headed out of town to find somewhere to stay. We were going to climb the fence of craters of the moon, the place myself and Extreme had already jumped the fence of that morning. When we arrived the gate to the road was closed and there was no way I was walking another 2km up a mountain to get there. We decided to stay in the lower car park which luckily had a small shelter, just big enough to park our car under (it was still raining).

The bed in the boot of the car

This was our first night sleeping 3 people in a car, we had Jan and I on the front seats and Freddy in the boot. This night was a bit cold but it all worked out OK. That evening I was trying to find out if Extreme was coming on the road trip with us. I set her a txt saying “Are you coming in the car tomorrow?” – This is the unedited response I got: “Yes, i will swim or run closed lake we could try to meet in library? At what time?”. Still none the wiser we took this to mean she was coming and told her we’d pick her up at midday.

6.Extreme!

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Day 54 (Sat 17/12/2011)

After waking up in our car park shelter, I dropped Jan and Freddy off at the top of a hike that I had run the previous day; this came out at the hot springs so I drove there, got in and waited for them. The hot springs are so good! About 15m out into the river from where the hot stream meets it, the river gets deeper, colder and flows really fast, I tried wading up it but when you lose your grip on the bottom, it washes you away and smashes your feet on all the rocks as you’re trying to re-grip.

The road trip crew

When the guys got back to the hot springs, myself, Freddy and 2 other randoms I met there went for a swim downstream. We held our flipflops in our hands and floated down the river to another exit point we knew of that has a path next to it heading back to the hot springs. Swimming down the river was amazing (pretty cold though, about 14 degrees).

The river at the hot springs in spa park

Me in the hot springs

From here we headed straight back to the library where we met up with extreme Estelle to start our drive to the Tongariro national park. It’s 100km to national park and the first section winds around the huge lake Taupo. The weather was dreadful, cold and raining but the suggestion of a lake swim became reality when we stopped at a lake access point. Extreme, Freddy and I braved the 15 degree lake in the rain and as usual it was awesome. Extreme went for a swim whilst Freddy and I kinda just waded around, it didn’t seem to matter how far out we went; the lake was always waist deep. Before getting out, we found a load of big floating rocks which were pretty cool.

Our only other stop on the way to national park was a high security prison which we found after taking a wrong turn. Because the weather was so bad we couldn’t really do anything so decided to check out the end of the crossing. When we arrived at the car park at the end of the gravel track we found a soaking wet Belgium couple stranded because they had no phone reception to call the shuttle service.

We thought their hostel was a few km’s away so we offered to drop them there however this meant leaving Jan and Freddy there whilst we drove them up the road. It turned out their hostel was 25km away, the couple were so grateful for the lift they paid for 2 huts for the 4 of us that night in the place they were staying.

Due to the weather we swiftly went to pick up the others and head to accommodation, when we arrived the guys had met a Swiss girl in the same situation so we offered her a lift. She was staying at the YHA, 5km further than where we were staying. I was sure this was where the 2 Dutch girls from the kiwiEx were staying so I asked reception and sure enough they were there.

After telling them our plans, they wanted to join in a do the crossing with us the following day so we hung out there for a bit and made plans. We headed back to the hostel and played around in the common room for a bit.

The huts were about a 2m cube made from a material that was probably closer to paper than wood. They contained bunk bed and a single plug socket. Outside the ground was completely flooded and it was still raining, the wind was blowing through the hut and it was freezing. Luckily the room had a tiny electric heater that had to share the socket with my GPS charger.

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Day 55 (Sun 18/12/2011)

We woke up at 04:50 in our freezing huts to hailing wind. After a short discussion we postponed the crossing for 2 hours to re-check the weather, informed the Dutch girls and the Isralie guys and went back to sleep. At 06:50 we took a chance and went for it.

We had to leave a vehicle at both ends of the crossing, this involved precision organisation in an area with no phone reception. Firstly I had to pick up 2 Dutch girls from 10km away in the wrong direction then come back to pick up the other 3 from where we were staying. There were now 6 of us in the car and we had to head up a 7km gravel track to the start of the crossing. The 4 others had to wait at the start whilst I drove Fredrik 25km to the start where we would meet the 2 Isralie guys and a French Canadian hitch hiker girl they had picked up. When we arrived we found out the plan had changed and we were now leaving our car at the end and we would drive to the start in their camper van with the 3 of them in the front, Fredrick and I in the back with another 3 Australian mountain bikers who they had met the previous day. 90 minutes later after stopping to refill the other guys water bottles in a random stream (any water is better than no water) we were back at the start and the group was now 12.

We were all travelling in this bus

The start of the Tongariro crossing

Myself and Extreme Estelle set the pace, the 4 members of team extreme had kept up by the start of mount doom so we continued up to the 2300m summit from our current 1600m elevation. The other 8 people carried on along the crossing.

Mount doom in the background

Near the top of mount doom on the ice

The ridge around mount doom

Fredrick at the top, above the clouds

Part of the extreme team

The total length of the crossing is 19.7km across a mountain range. This wasn’t enough for team extreme so we added on the summit climb of 700m up a steep rock and gravel race and a 700m slide down. This equated to an extra 5km and the hardest mountain climb of my life. The views at the top and the gravelsand sliding decent were well worth it. The volcano is still active and although there was no lava in the crater, the rocks at the top were very hot and steaming. I found out how hot the hard way by sitting on one of the vents.

Just before the end of the crossing

Having got down and back on the crossing we were all pretty knackered and had quite a long walk ahead of us, luckily it was pretty tame compared to what we had just climbed. The last 7km was mostly downhill which we jogged, we were only an hour behind the others at the end but by this point they had already hitchhiked back so we didn’t need to give anyone a lift. Extreme Estelle also hitchhiked a lift back to Taupo so the 3 of us headed back to the hostel to get our stuff, eat and shower.

That night we went to watch Lord of the rings at the Dutch girls hostel and feel asleep after about 5 minutes. At about 01:00 we sorted out the car so we could all sleep in it, Jan and I in the front and Freddy in the boot. Freddy went straight to sleep whilst we drove to a good location off the main road.

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Day 56 (Mon 19/12/2011)

Now we had completed the crossing we had loads of time so decided to keep heading south to the next national park that contained the impressive Wanganero river that has carved out a massive valley.

The valley contains a gravel track river road with awesome scenery. We headed down it slowly and it went on for a very long time. Part of the way down we stopped to climb a big sheep covered mountain, we sat on the mountainside for a while and then what seemed to be the owner of the land turned up. He asked us if we’d seen anyone suspicious hanging around and then told us the mayors husband lived across the other side of the river and we should go visit him. We didn’t believe him but sure enough a closed gate led us down a steep path to a big gong and a make shift cable car across the river.

Jan ringing the gong

We banged the gong and a man appeared far away on the other side of the river; we couldn’t hear anything he was saying but climbed in the tiny open cable car and he pulled us across, high above the river. When we got to the other side I explained the situation; it turned out he thought we were his next guests arriving to stay in his guest house. Since we were already over there he decided to show us round his sustainable organic farm / hotel. This place was only accessible from the cable car across the river or by boat, it required external electricity but had its own water supply from the mountain stream and bio toilets. They were growing loads of different organic veg, fruits and nuts. The guy was really nice and I love the set up he’d put together; virtually everything there had been built from scratch by him including the make shift cable car (I worryingly found out after I was already across). We headed back to the other side of the river and went on our way heading to the coastal town of Wanganero, where the river meets the sea.

About to get in the flying fox

The organic farm and the guy who runs it

We stocked up at a supermarket in town before heading 14km down the road to Kai Iwi beach which was recommended in the guide book. The beach was made up of nice black sand and huge amounts of driftwood. The sea had fairly big waves which I had to go and play in. Apparently the water was too cold so I was the only one extreme enough to go in. We then took some food and drink to the beach and watched the sun set over the water (I’ve seen so many sun sets now I don’t bother taking pictures anymore).

Kai Iwi beach

Just after my swim in the sea

The sunset over the west coast

We noticed another car in the beach car park with 2 girls in that clearly looked like backpackers doing the same thing as us. After a long discussion about what nationality they were, predicting German we had to go ask. Shock they were German and also sleeping in the car so we went off together to find a place to set up camp. It turns out they had done this a lot and it was common place for them to park outside peoples houses and just ask them if it’s ok. Without fail, the first house they knocked at the whole family came out to greet them and told them the best spot to put the car. Apparently they regularly get offered food, drink and showers.

I decided it would be better to take the tent down to the beach about 100m away and camp there instead of in the car. Freddy and I camped on the beach and Jan stayed in the car. The stars were so clear this night we could see the milky way and other galaxy clusters. We lay with our heads out of the tent and saw some shooting stars and the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen in the night sky, a sharp orange flash. The night was pretty cold.

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Day 57 (Tue 20/12/2011)

Waking up on the beach was amazing, I love the beach, especially deserted ones with big waves. I took this opportunity to do some exercises on the beach whilst Jan went running. We then went and played in some awesome waves.

We were going to head straight back to Taupo but the weather was so good for the first time on our trip we had to stay and sunbath at the beach. I actually got a bit sunburnt in a few small areas where I missed putting suncream.

The road trip crew with the car

We drove the 240km back to Taupo and chilled in a hostel to recharge some stuff before heading to the spa area to find somewhere to stay overnight.

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Day 58 (Wed 21/12/2011)

Unknown to us we had stopped the car next to a geothermal stream, having woken up early we headed down to the point where the stream meets the bigger river in spa park, the location of the hot and cold pools. We stayed under the hot waterfall for about an hour before heading into town.

We were hoping to get to the library before the bus left so we quickly filled up the car, met Freddy to drop our stuff with him and then took the car back to the rental station. Annoyingly the rental station office was closed so we returned the key in the key deposit along with the $300 cash payment; a bit risky but we had no choice.

Day 49 (Mon 12/12/2011)

Today we were moving to our next stop following our short stay at Waitomo. We were heading for Rotorua, the country’s geothermic and cultural centre. The bus was pretty much driving straight there with a few small stops along the way.

The first stop was a short walk over the cave system we went down the previous day. The weather was pretty awful, raining a fair bit and forecast to continue for a few days, not shaping up too good for the main part of the north island circuit.

When we arrived in Rotarua I sat down with Jan and we made a complete plan for the rest of the north island tour including how many days we were staying in each place, hiring cars etc. We booked all our buses with KiwiEx then headed into town to rent a car which we arranged to pick up the following morning.

Random shooting range

After a random stop at a shooting range we spent the rest of the afternoon doing a walk around lake Rotarua and some of the towns thermally active parks. We saw a lot of bubbling mud, steaming pits and endured a continuous stench of the towns sulphurous eggy smell.

So much geothermic energy

Lake Rotarua

That evening a group of us cooked a pasta feast followed by a swim in the hostels geothermically heated pool; it was about 35 degrees. Later that night the hostel hosted their weekly quiz; our team from Paihia reformed. This was the worst organised quiz I’ve ever had the misfortune of being involved in; it started 3 hours late and the host was a total idiot.

The shittest quiz ever

After the quiz I made some rough plans with a party girl called Laura from the KiwiEx to join our group in the south island and then come onto Asia with me. Whether this will actually happen is another matter.

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Day 50 (Tue 13/12/2011)

We had to watch the big group of about 20 people we’d made good friends with over the past week leave. I was actually pretty sad, you make good friends pretty quick when you are spending 24 hours a day with everyone. We were alone again, checked out of the hostel and picked up car. We only had 2 days so we headed straight out of Rotarua on our first road trip in NZ.

Our car

Our first main stop was a huge 100 year old redwood grove; here we did a 12km hike around the park with views over Rotarua and the thermal park of Te Puia. We continued on to the blue and green lakes, walking 4km around the blue lake.

A big redwood

Weird coloured swamp

Looks like a tall tree...

...and that's only half of it

Te Puia geothermal park from a scenic lookout on our redwoods walk

Someone water skiing on the blue lake

After seeing some more breathtaking scenery we carried on, stopping at a tourist attraction called Buried Village. It was 19:00 and the placed was closed with no one about. After a short investigation I climbed the fence and opened the gate from the inside to let Jan in. We headed down a short track to see some beautiful waterfalls in the forest valley. Seeing the attractions after closing time was so much better and more exciting; it became a theme of the rest of the trip.

Peeing into the lake, the weather was so bad

Amazing scenery

The entrance to the closed burried village tourist attraction

The waterfalls at buried village

The previous night, I’d had a tip off about a place south of Rotarua near some geothermal parks. It was a hot stream that met a cold stream to make a shallow pool, hot on 1 side and cold on the other so you could adjust your temperature. This was in the middle of nowhere and seemed like a good place to camp that night.

A huge hot lake

This stream coming out of the lake was really hot

We took the scenic route, passing one of the best geothermic parks in the area, Volcano Valley. It was now 20:30 and this was also completely closed. It was an easy gate climb to get in, leading onto a 3km track down the valley through some amazing sights. We didn’t have much light left so we had to run the whole way, it was so amazing in there, even better having it all to ourselves; we even saw 2 kiwis!

A small geyser thing

This lake ranged in size and temperature over a 25 day cycle

From here we carried on to ‘hot n cold’. My instructions were to drive down this tiny road until you come the a wooden bridge, the pool is just under the bridge. It was 22:00 now and pitch black but Sure enough we found the bridge, a car load of locals had just turned up; we joined them and they showed us the way down, put on a light from a phone, some music and lit a load of candles around the lake. You couldn’t see what you were walking into but it was so nice and hot.

We stayed in the hot pool for ages, it was so surreal and had been one of the best evenings ever, Once we got out we found a lay by to sleep in which happened to be a bubbling mud pool tourist attraction; you could hear it from the car.

The mud pool we camped by

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Day 51 (Wed 14/12/2011)

It wasn’t too cold in the geothermic area and we actually slept in, when we woke up there were loads of tourists that had turned up in coaches to look at the mud pools. We wanted to see the big geyser at Wai-o-tapu at 10:15 but we didn’t want to pay; we tried to get in for free but it didn’t work so went to ‘hot n cold’ again to see it in the light. On the way we found another hot pool with a waterfall flowing into it; these natural hot springs are so good.

The hot waterfall into the spring

'Hot n cold' bathing area - so good

We didn’t really know what to do with the day so we drove north through the middle of nowhere, some sort of massive logging area following a river valley that included a pretty impressive dam; apparently NZ get 50% of their power from hydro.

A random river in the middle of nowhere

The backside of a dam we drove over

The road headed out to the north coast, we picked up some cheap food on the way and eventually made it to a huge, very windy beach where we played in the decent sized waves. We headed most of the way back to Rotarua that evening via another geothermal spa park. We climbed the fence and looked round, we could have gone in the spa pools if we wanted but security looked a bit tighter here so we didn’t stay long.

We found a decent place to stay at the side of a dead end road in the middle of nowhere; the weather was still dreadful and it rained all night.

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Day 52 (Thu 15/12/2011)

We got up early in the morning and it was still raining, we drove back to rental place via a covered petrol station to sort out our stuff and clean up the car in the dry. We made it back to the pick up point, got on the bus onward to Taupo.

Just outside Rotarua we stopped to look round the Te Puia geothermic park where the main attraction was a continuously erupting geyser.

The geyser continuously erupting

The guide at Te Puia cooking eggs in a boiling hot pool

Day 47 (Sat 10/12/2011)

Today was the main start of the Kiwi experience trip, most people get on at Auckland to start their tour of the North island. The first day and night trip was to hot water beach. The bus was pretty much full which was good.

Hot water beach is a special area with geothermic activity under the sand on a beach. The idea is that at low tide you can take a spade and dig a small hole in the sand. The boiling hot water bubbles up from limited points on the beach and fills up the holes. As the waves wash in, the cool water mixes with the hot water to form a more comfortable temperature.

From Auckland we were rushing to get to hot water beach to make it in time for the low tide period. By the time we’d sorted everything out in the hostel, we were towards the end of the best time to be there and with it being a Saturday during the summer holidays it was so crowded you could barely move let alone get close to the areas where the hot water was originating from.

Due to us being a large group of men and the people already there being families with small children, it wasn’t difficult to muscle our way in to other peoples pre-built holes. We made quite a large extension for everyone but the tide soon came in and washed away the large sand barricade we’d built.

Self dug hot pools at hot water beach

A group of us then set up a game of quick cricket on the beach which we played until it was time to head back for a hike to a place called Cathedral cove. It was about a 30 minute walk down to the beach where erosion had formed a huge hole in the rock.

Cathedral cove

Massive rock at Cathedral cove

After a while I managed to persuade about 7 people to go in to the sea and play in the big waves even though no one had any swimming stuff or a towel. It was so worth it though; the waves were pretty big and really good for body surfing. We stayed in for a while before we had to walk back; everyone loved it.

The sea we swam in

In the evening, a group, now of about 12 people ate food and played drinking games together at the hostel. We were staying in a really nice place, we had newly built lodges on a camp site near the beach; one of the nicest places I’d stayed in so far.

Drinking games

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Day 48 (Sun 11/12/2011)

Today was another early start, the bus was leaving at 07:30. We were heading for our next location, Waitoma. This is the location of the famous black water tubing; floating down an underground river through caves in our own individual tyre tubes. It’s supposed to be one of the things to do in NZ.

Steep gorge

On the bus journey between locations we stopped at a gorge, home to a former gold mine. We did a 45 minute hike here which took you through tunnels running through the mountains either side of the gorge.

Cave walk

Old train tracks going around the old gold mine

When we arrived at the hostel we chilled out for a bit before being picked up for our black water trip. We got taken to the centre where we got kitted up with a wetsuit and caving gear. The first stop was to collect a tube and learn how to jump in to the water on it from height. The water was pretty cold, not unbearable, apparently it was 12 / 13 degrees but I’d say it was more like 15 / 16.

Waitomo caves

Having all been in the river we got back in the mini bus with our tubes and headed to the cave entrance. Once in the cave we had a bit of a talk about cave wildlife and then trekked through the wet darkness for a while.

Our black water tubing gang

We did a few jumps off small waterfalls and floated down the underground river in a line in total darkness admiring the thousands of glow worms on the cave roof. Towards the end we were making our own way through by pushing off the cave walls.

Practising my backward jump into the freezing river

The reason the trip is good is because it’s quite a unique experience combining caving, underground rivers, waterfalls, tubing and glow worms.

The gang in the cave

After food that evening we ended up having a pretty funny night playing games until about 3am.

Day 43 (Tue 06/12/2011)

Having been dropped off in the Jag at the Kiwi experience pick up point, I got on the bus which took us straight to a town called Paihia. This left at 7am so we were there by midday. Paihia is a small tourist town and gateway to the bay of islands. It sits just across the water, a short 10 minute ferry ride from Russell, a former NZ capital (now home to only 700 permanent residents).

The KiwiEx bus

After check-in, I went for a walk around the town with my new roommate, an animated Dutch girl. Having got some supplies and our bearings around town we headed back with the plan of going in the hot tub. Unfortunately this had just been cleaned and would take a few hours to heat up. During this time I hung around the hostel where I met the first of our new gang; a guy and a girl, Hayden and Brooke, respectively. They were both NZ locals exploring their own country. We made plans to form a team for the quiz later that evening.

I went in the hot tub which was gradually getting hotter then followed this up with my new found cheap and favourite meal, Fusian noodles. These are like super noodles but about 10x nicer.

The quiz team had now grown to include a leary Australian girl, 2 German guys, 1 0f which, Jan would make up part of the gang that would travel on further along with an animated Swedish guy who had previously been a high level tumbler.

We did ok in the quiz but didn’t win however we did win the best team name which got us a jug of some random liquid. Brooke also managed to win a separate game; the prize for this was a boat trip around the bay of islands. It turned out that she didn’t want to go on the trip so I offered to buy it off her. After some terrible bartering on her part I’d got the $95 trip for $20 dollars, I gave her $50 for it.

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Day 44 (Wed 07/12/2011)

Alex had gone away on a trip for the day but the other 6 of us from the quiz the previous night took the ferry to Russell. When we arrived we pretty much walked straight across the peninsular to a nice beach on the other side.

On the boat to Russel

The beach at Russel

We played around on the beach for a while before heading into the sea. The waves weren’t too big but they were rolling waves, really good for body surfing. We swan quite far out and played in the waves before doing some sunbathing and gymnastics on the beach.

A classic group jumping picture

A seagull up close

Gymnastics on the beach

We walked back to the ferry, getting some ice cream on the way. When we got back to the hostel we still had loads of time left in the day, the group split with Jan and I choosing to go on a hike.

We had the shittest paper map in the world with a couple of poorly detailed hikes drawn on them. The map didn’t even show the complete route so we were only guessing at where we had to go. We started off walking around the coast until we were out of Paihia, we then followed the coastal walk path further along until it brought us out at a main road with no footpath. From here we continued down another path into the forest, this eventually led us out further down the same road.

During our hike we went on a random walkway through some mangroves

By this point we’d been walking for quite a while, just up the road we saw some shops and thought we’d ask people directions for the hike. No one seemed to have a clue about this mapped hike or could even tell us which was to go. One guy offered to drive us back in his van to look for the path; whilst we were waiting we popped into a bottle shop a few doors down and each bought a 1.25L bottle of 8.2% cider. When we returned, the guy had already left so we decided to walk back down the main road to look for the path into the mountains.

We pretty much got all the way back to the edge of Paihia and hadn’t found anything. It wasn’t all bad because we had our bottles which were now half drunk, with us also being about half drunk. As we walked back down the beach we met some local Mauri girls who were sitting on the beach drinking. We got chatting to them for a while before we continued on our way.

The tide had come in now so walking back around the coast was a lot more tricky. As we got nearer to the hostel we met 2 more German guys on the beach including 1 of the funniest people I’d met so far, Vladamere (he didn’t mean to be funny, he just was funny, probably exaggerated by me now being very drunk). This guy was stereotypically German, he had short spiky almost white blonde hair, wore some interesting clothes and a bum bag. He had just bought a fishing rod and was teaching himself how to fish. He ended up joining us for the evenings activities.

The German guy fishing

We were now on our way back to meet the others for fish and chips at 19:00, by now there was at least 8 of us in the group. We walked into town and all got food where we were joined by hundreds of seagulls; I thought it was hilarious to get them to come as close as possible by feeding them small portions of my chips.

We went back to the hostel to spend an hour in the hot tub which was now unbearably hot before heading out to rocks on the beach with a load of drinks. We’d now managed to build up a group of about 12 people heading down to the beach to play games. All in all it was a pretty funny evening ending in a game of 1-up-1-down with only 1 person getting what was going on.

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Day 45 (Thu 08/12/2011)

It was another early start for the boat trip; I got to the boat and sat in a corner under my towel. The trip had 2 main purposes, seeing the bay of islands from the water and looking for Dolphins.

Some dolphins next to the boat

We saw quite a lot of Dolphins swimming along with the boat and jumping out of the water. They are so interested in humans, one day it would be good to get a chance to swim with them.

A dolphin jumping

After a trip out to the furthest island and through what it called ‘the hole in the rock’ we headed back for a short stop on one of the other islands. Here I walked around the coast for a bit on the rocks and went for a swim in the sea. I wanted to swim across to another island but once I was in the water I chickened out.

'Hole in the rock'

The cove I walked to

I got back on the boat where we headed back to Paihia. I got off at Russell to spend the afternoon on the beach again (I was pretty tired and fell asleep here) before taking the ferry back; I was the only person on the ferry on the way home.

By the time I got back to the hostel, Brooke and Hayden had already left back for Auckland, they were staying there 2 nights so I would meet up with them and a load of others to start the main part of the trip.

That evening I made some food (noodles) and watched the film, ‘kick ass’ in the common room before going in the hot tub again (which was now only luke warm) and then bed to get an early night.

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Day 46 (Fri 09/12/2011)

Today was skydive day. The bus was leaving at 8am to take me to the air field. Before I left I had to check out and put my bags in the luggage storage. On the way to the airfield, shock horror, we stopped to pick up a group of 6 German girls. I’d say 50% of all the tourists in Aus and NZ are German; it’s actually pretty good because they are all really nice people.

The aeroplane I was going to jump out of

When we got to the airfield we had quick instruction of what to do as we left the aircraft. The total instruction went something like this: ‘As you get to the edge, cross your arms and wrap your legs under the plane, as we jump out, bend your legs back as much as you can and put your head back, then when we tap you on the shoulder, put your arms out and hold the position’. Training complete. I was probably expecting a bit more instruction for jumping out of a plane at over 3 miles above the earth but I guess I was strapped to the instructor so he pretty much controlled everything anyway.

Ready to jump

So today I was jumping from 16000ft, which is almost 5km above the ground. When you jump above 13000ft you have to use an oxygen mask to breath in the plane on the way up. I was going up with 2 other Dutch girls who were doing a 12000ft jump; it was pretty cool getting to sit in this tiny plane (1 seat in the front and just enough floor space in the back to tightly squash in 6 people) and watch the 2 girls disappear out the side. I then had to climb higher for a few more minutes before we were good to go; you could feel this tiny plane chugging away trying to gain height at this altitude.

The view on the way up was amazing, being able to see the area around the bay of islands. We broke through the clouds, flying above a huge white wonderland. When it was time to jump, we rolled up the plastic side shutter and awkwardly shuffled towards the edge; this was the weirdest part of the experience because you’re dangling out the side of a plane hurtling along with the air rushing past your body, not quite knowing when the instructor is going to push us out of the plane. At that height above the clouds you have no perception of actually how high you are or how long it’ll take to reach them; I soon found out, pretty dam quick.

The first 5 seconds is the most amazing part of the jump; you’ve just launched out of the plane and you’re flipping over until you get steady. You’re accelerating for about the first 10 seconds to about 200km/hr, however with the combined weight of me and my instructor at around 200kg we were apparently going a bit faster. During the acceleration and freefall at terminal velocity you don’t really feel like you’re falling because the perception of how high you are doesn’t really change, all you can feel is wind rushing past you’re face as you struggle to breath. Because we’d been flipping over and my mind is so used to always seeing the clouds above, I actually thought we we’re falling backwards.

Coming down in the parachute

Once we were steady, the instructor moved my arm position which made us spin sideways in the air and change direction. Falling straight into the clouds was so cool; it looked like a big cushion. We deployed the parachute about 5 seconds into the thick cloud, I got to take hold of the controls and was able to make us spiral round. Floating down in the parachute is so gentle; it doesn’t even feel like you’re moving. The freefall was about 65 seconds and the parachute ride was probably a couple of minutes but the whole experience felt like no time at all.

My tandem instructor

I’d watched one of the German girls land pretty hard but our landing was really smooth as we glided in. The only downside to the whole experience was how quickly the descent went. I’d definitely do it again but I want to go higher.

We got dropped back at the supermarket to get some supplies including the standard 2L carton of chocolate milk for the day. I had just enough time back at the hostel for some food and a dip in the pool before getting back on the kiwi experience bus for the 4 hour drive back to Auckland.

In Auckland I took the easy option of staying in the Base hostel which I got for $18 (this is about as cheap as you’ll get in NZ). The reason it was cheap was because it was actually the shittest hostel I’ve stayed in so far. The location is great, right in the centre of the city but everything else is shocking. The only access to the different floors is via 3 lifts which don’t really work. At one point it took me 10 minutes to go up 1 floor after 6 journeys up and down the building without the door opening at the right floor. The rooms are small and have no windows, my room was about 50m away from the nearest toilet or sink. The mattress was awful, I woke up in the morning laying on the metal bunk bed support with the mattress folded up around me.

That night I went for food in one of Auckland’s quality food courts. These are standalone food courts with loads of different stores offering good food from all over the world for about $10 a meal. I followed this up with a shake from McDs so I could use their free wifi.

Bench pressing a random girl in the hostel

6 of us met up that night for a quick drink at the local bar. The bar was hosting a jelly wrestling competition; not quite as good as it sounds because the competition had been entered by a load of fat blonde Viking girls, the kind you laugh at whilst people watching at the students union.

Being a bit of a loser I went to bed before midnight so I could get up the following morning at 6am to sit in McDs on the internet until the bus left at 08:20.

I arrived to Auckland international airport at about 23:30. NZ customs confiscated my 3 cheese rolls I'd hand made. I was meeting Lawrence Rutt, an old friend I lived with when we were at Warwick Uni studying civil engineering together. He was collecting me from the airport. As I walk out of arrivals I scan my eyes across the crowd of people waiting to collect the passengers, Lawrence is nowhere to be seen. I start walking out, playing it cool, not to draw attention to myself that the person collecting me hasn't come when I see Lawrence, this 6'4" guy storming towards me at twice the speed a normal person moves wearing the shortest pair of shorts I'd ever seen (until I bought a shorter pair the following day, having been told it's fashion in NZ) shouting 'come along, this parking is costing me 20c/min'.

As we drove back to his house he pointed out a few areas of interest. We stopped at the base of a volcano intending to drive to the top for a good lookout point over Auckland. Unfortunately the gate to the road up was locked so we decided to walk to the top. This is when I first realised that Lawrence doesn't just walk at twice the pace of a normal human being but also has a disjointed perception of what's a long way. His legs are so long everywhere he goes by foot is only half the distance for anyone else. I just jogged along side him.

Lawrence

The views at the top of the volcano were worth it. 360 degree night-time view of the city including the views of many other dormant volcanos dispersed amongst the city. We headed down and back to his house.

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Day 40 (Sat 03/12/2011)

We woke up and headed out for brunch with his house mates and a number of other associates. From here we walked into town via his gym where we fit in a quick workout. After leaving the gym we got sent to a sports clear out sale just round the corner. Having joked about our motive for going there being to buy me some tiny 'fashionable' shorts; we actually found some smaller than any Lawrence owned. I also obtained a free t-shirt from their prize bucket.

We got some food and spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Auckland. I realised that Lawrence's walking style the previous night had not been a 1 off. We walked so far and so fast but I'm not complaining. We did end up seeing quite a lot including some very expensive boats in the docks and the main part of the CBD.

Boats stacked so high

Huge private boat in the marina

We walked back to the house where I begun modifying the free t-shirt I had gained. My plan was to make it into a stylish vest; doing a little more than just cutting the sleeves off. I measured it up, cut of what I needed to, leaving enough material to turn the edges over. I've never sewn in my life but I decided to give it ago on my own accord without looking up how to do it. The sewing started off pretty messy and slow but I soon got the hang of it and improved. I was pretty happy at the end that I'd learnt a new skill.

Later that night we walked to the supermarket that was 'just around the corner'; this turned out to be the corner past the christmas lights that we 30 minute walk away...and carried all the shopping home.

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Day 41 (Sun 04/12/2011)

Lawrence's work had chartered a train that goes up a mountain through a rainforest to visit a large dam providing some of the drinking water to Auckland. The train ride was extremely scenic, going through tunnels and over bridges through thick rainforest. The final stretch had to be walked; this was 153 steps up the face of the dam which was pretty cool. The views of the reservoir at the top and the dam below were breathtaking.

The train in the torrential rain

The whole day we had torrential rain which kind of added to the rainforest experience. What better to do in torrential rain than go to some outside natural hot baths. We drove about 30 minutes north to an area that has natural hot springs, the water was so nice and it was amazing having the heavy rain pouring down whilst you were in the steaming baths.

This place has been owned by a Korean couple for the past 30 years. In the past 30 years the baths haven't seen 1 day of maintenance (or cleaning for that matter). There were 3 large square baths and 3 small hot tubs, the place was pretty much empty so we often had the pools to ourselves. I thought the basicness of it added to the character and like pretty much everything I do, I thought it was amazing and could have stayed there all day.

One of the pools at the hot springs

In the evening we went to a local food court and were joined by 4 of Lawrence's friends where we got a relatively cheap meal.

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Day 42 (Mon 05/12/2011)

After a lay in we cooked up a big breakfast using the eggs from the chickens in the garden. We then went to Lawrence's gym to work through his new training program I prepared; best workout I've done in ages. Did a quick walk to the shops then headed home to get a few things done ready for leaving in the morning.

I finished sewing the rest of my vest and Lawrence's landlord cooked dinner for everyone.

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It was good hanging out with Lawrence, I forgot how entertaining he was. Tomorrow I have to be at a central Auckland backpackers to get collected for my first kiwi experience bus. After an early start I plan to get dropped off at the pick up point in Lawrence's jaguar, newly fitted with sheepskin drapes.

The past 6 weeks have flown by. It's been a jam packed time with one activity or adventure leading onto the next. I had a very busy 6 days in Tokyo followed by an action packed 9 days in the Cairns area. I then travelled down the east coast to Brisbane having an amazing time before flying to Melbourne for a chill out and catch up on my life.

The Japanese are so friendly

and hospitable

Having had such a great time and loving Tokyo; moving to Australia was tough. Australia on a whole is amazing, the weather is perfect and their natural resources are just mind blowing. I found it difficult to fault Japan, everything was just incredible and I'd say over the last 6 weeks it wins the prize for my favourite experience; visiting the AKB theatre to see AKB48 live (It's like turning up in London and getting a front row seat for a JLS concert with a days notice). The more time that passes, the more I want to go back to Japan.

Tokyo tower

So Japan

Japan was so cool

Tokyo aside, I just can't put it into words how good the time was from arriving in Cairns, doing all the tours and travelling down to Noosa. The whole experience was amazing. There are so many highlights but if I have to single out the most memorable experience it would have to be Whitehaven beach on the Whitsunday Islands sailing trip.

Queensland is amazing

The sun is so high

The German girls, some of the first people I met

Beaches are amazing

Fraser island was a very close call to the Whitsundays trip but it was just let down by the millions of marsh flies constantly trying to bite you.

You can just do everything

Cape Trip - Amazing

Epic waterfalls in one of the wettest places on earth

I can't really comment on Brisbane because I didn't really see it but Surfers paradise on the gold coast and Melbourne didn't really compare to Queensland. I'm glad I visited these places though because I really needed the rest after the previous mental 4 weeks. I'm also completely happy with the order I did everything. If I could go back and do the Australia trip again I would have spent the 5 weeks I had in Australia just going from Cairns to Noosa then spending 1 or 2 nights in Brisbane before flying out. This would have been the perfect amount of time, wouldn't have been so mad or rushed and then I wouldn't have come to Melbourne.

The Swiss girls

Whitehaven beach - The highlight

I would have spent 14 days in the Cairns area including 3 days in Cape Tribulation (Staying in the Asylum hostel), 14 days travelling down to Noosa with a few stops including the must do Whitsunday islands and Fraser island. I would then stay in Noosa / gold coast or another good surf beach for 1 week.

Sand dunes

Beautiful lakes

The whole gang on Fraser

Cairns to Brisbane cost a fortune but it was worth it. I wish I could relive it but I probably wouldn't go back and do it all again another time. If I came back to Aus in the future I'd definitely go back there specifically for the perfect scenery and weather.

Surfing = immense

As for Australia itself, it seems very propped up by it's perfect weather and stunning nature, creating an amazing tourist trap without having to worry about anything else. Because of this and the sheer size of the country, everything seems a bit, old, run down and derelict, there're Aboriginals hanging around the streets, there's a lot of rough Australian men and the women are the most obnoxious people I've ever encountered. The Aus men are certainly suited to the women here. The Australians are much more active than English people and hence a lot fitter and more attractive however if you thought the English had bad and annoying personalities, the Aussies are far worse.

I think Australia as a whole is 10x better than the UK but I'm quite unlikely to come and live here especially when I compare it to Japan.

Day 35 (Mon 28/12/2011)

Today I was moving from Gemma's house to stay with Steve and Rosie, the people who run AASCF who organised the Australian cheerleading nationals that I worked at.

I took a tram from outside Gemma's house to a central Melbourne train station and then got on a train that took me all the way to Upper Ferntree Gully, it’s a little town about an hour outside of Melbourne situated at the base of a small mountain range. The journey cost just $6 / £4. The transport system around Melbourne is amazing. You get a single ticket and you can use all the trams, buses and trains across the whole city in the zone you pay for (There's pretty much only 2 zones so it covers a really big area). There are stops all over the city and all the transport is pretty frequent; virtually the whole city is served with a stop minutes away from anywhere.

Steve picked me up from the train station and took me to their idyllically located mountain residence. Their house is so nice, inside and out. The decking at the back of their house overlooks the mountainside that slopes down below. Loads of amazing birds hang out on the deck and can be hand fed.

The lovely deck with the mountain sloping away below

A parrot on the deck

In the evening we had some food and chatted. That night I was staying in Jayden’s room, one of the guys I hung out with in Surfers Paradise. Earlier that day I had been googling a book I wanted to read and had read the online synopsis. I looked across the room towards the desk and noticed a book I thought I recognised from the picture earlier that day; I’d never seen the book before and it was just laying there. It was such a strange co-incidence!

The book was massive but I had to read it, I started reading it that night and continued over the next few days.

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Day 36 (Tue 29/12/2011)

First thing in the morning I went to the AASCF offices to help out with some work, tidying up their warehouse after the competition the previous weekend. That afternoon I did a workout and continued reading until Rosie took me on a mountain sightseeing tour with her next door neighbour.

You can just about make out Melbourne in the far distance

That evening we all ate dinner together on the deck and loads of birds came down to have their photo taken.

Kookaburra out of focus

Kookaburra in focus

The classic Kookaburra next to the Australian flag

The next door neighbour was a member of the Outlaws cheerleading team; the top team in Australia. She was heading to their first training since nationals so I tagged along to check it out. It was weird tumbling on sprung floor again after doing it on the beach. My standing fulls have got so bad now.

The outlaws gym

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Day 37 (Wed 30/12/2011)

I pretty much stayed indoors and read all day.

Their dog

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Day 38 (Thu 01/12/2011)

I had to finish the book today as I was leaving, so when I wasn’t doing something else I was pretty much reading. It was one of the best books I’ve ever read, loved it. In the morning I hung out with Jayden, feeding the birds was so funny.

So funny hand feeding the birds

Mr Cockatiel showing off

Late afternoon Rosie came back from work and took me to the station. I took a train and a tram back to Gemma’s house where I dropped off my stuff. The girls were leaving for work so I jumped in the car with them and got a lift into the CBD.

I met up with Lauren, Robert and **another girl**, 3 of the gang from the Fraser island trip. They were staying in a hostel in the city centre, I met them there and chilled until we went out to the bar next door. We played some pool then signed up for the Karaoke as a group to sing Hakuna Matata from the lion king. We had to wait ages for our turn and I’m not going to lie, it was beyond embarrassingly awful; but we each got as free drink for our efforts. There was no transport back to Gemma’s house so that night I crashed in their hostel room.

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Day 39 (Fri 02/12/2011)

To top off my free night in the hostel I also got the free breakfast that’s included so I definitely got my monies worth. The gang had hired a car for a few days to go on a road trip to see the great ocean road. I walked with them to pick up the car and then got a lift back to Gemma’s house via a supermarket to stock them up with supplies for their trip.

I had to say goodbye to these guys, some of the best people I’d met so far. Everyone was soon to leave Australia but they had planned a big meet up in Europe in the summer so hopefully that will come off.

I packed up my stuff then took a tram and a shuttle bus to the airport. I checked in but couldn’t take my chocolate milk through to the gate. There was no way I was leaving any chocolate milk behind so I downed the remaining litre (I’d previously drunk the other litre in the hour before on the way to the airport), now I was feeling pretty sick.

I was casually making my way to the gate when I heard the dreaded “This is the final call for passenger Martin Kendrick for flight...”. By this point I wasn’t only feeling sick but also bursting for the toilet so I upped my speed to 2nd gear.

When I arrived at the gate I asked if I could go to the toilet before boarding but they said I was too late and had to go onboard. As soon as I got to the door I dropped my stuff there and went before taking the last seat on the completely full plane. I had to go again shortly after, 2L is a lot of liquid.

Day 31 (Thu 24/12/2011)

I was staying with Gemma, her boyfriend, Rob, one of her friends, Kat and another housemate. They lived in a magical house in an area called Richmond which is about 15 minutes from the centre of Melbourne. Gemma and Rob had a car so we could get around places; the public transport system in Melbourne is amazing so going anywhere you want is pretty easy.

The two girls, Gemma and Kat work as strippers in a large Melbourne strip club so they tend to work nights and get up pretty late. Once everyone was up and organised we took a drive to the other side of the city, St Kilda. We went to St Kilda salt baths, a hot swimming pool / spa venue which were OK even though the heater wasn’t working.

The beach at St Kilda

After the spa we took a walk out onto the pier; the pier has good views back onto Melbourne. The pier turns into a huge rock wall which is home to loads of penguins; we managed to see a few sitting in between the rocks.

Looking back at Melbourne from the pier

A penguin on the pier

On the way back to the house I got dropped off to hang out with someone I’d met on the shuttle bus from the airport to Melbourne the previous night.

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Day 32 (Fri 25/12/2011)

Today I had a walk around Melbourne to see a few sights. I had dinner at this amazing restaurant, a cheap, all-you-can-eat, Indian. Literally my perfect restaurant. Rob picked me up from the city after he dropped the girls off at work.

The CBD in the background

Fountains outside the art gallery

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Day 33 (Sat 26/12/2011)

It rained all day today, I stayed in the house and did nothing. I realised I didn’t have any food so decided to walk to the local supermarket to get some supplies. It was dark, torrential rain and the ground was pretty much flooded; needless to say I got absolutely soaked through.

A random tower

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Day 34 (Sun 27/12/2011)

Once the girls got home from work we headed out to a local car boot sale. It was pretty massive but it was mainly books, clothes, old jewellery and old cameras. The girls bought a lot of random stuff to fill their magical house with.

When we got back to the house we sunbathed in the garden and chatted. Later that evening we went to get Vietnamese takeaway and chilled.