So my trip across New Zealand has continued onto the South Island for the past week. An 8am Ferry from Wellington to Picton on the south island meant a rather uncomfortable 5.30am wake up call. That said it was nowhere near as bad as it was for some of the others. A bit of a night out had gone on the previous evening and whilst I headed back around 11pm, others stayed out for much longer! So much that when they racked up at the ferry terminal they’d had about an hours sleep and were now very much tired and still very drunk! As we had to get there so early to check in breakfast was forsaken and I ended up grabbing a McDonalds for breakfast instead. I’m not much of a fan of them, but it was required really! Read the rest of this entry »
Criss-Crossing New Zealand’s North Island
Sometimes when travelling you just need a reset every now and again. That was very much what I needed this past week. I was being too down about things and unable to enjoy my time in places as well as suffering from exhaustion a lot. In New Zealand I am presently on Stray Travel’s hop-on and hop-off bus, and I’m pretty certain this is what has helped with the reset. Having a lot of people around all the time certainly helps anyway. Read the rest of this entry »
The National in Auckland
So I’m writing this up before I forget. It’s been one of those evenings which make travelling all worthwhile. So my arrival in New Zealand hasn’t had much of note happen. Auckland is a pretty bog standard city with nothing much really to write home about. My flight over was delayed for an hour whilst we were just about to a leave and they came over the intercom and said there’s a light lit up and we need to get it sorted. Anyway it got sorted and the flight went fine and didn’t crash. I got speaking to the Scottish couple next to me, but not until my usual 5 minutes before the thing ends after I’d have a couple of glasses of wine. But that’s the way it goes. Read the rest of this entry »
Finishing Up Australia, For Now
So this past week has wrapped up my Australian activities until March, and I managed to see the majority of remaining things required in Sydney before spending the weekend with a friend in Canberra. Tomorrow I spend a day travelling and shall find myself to Auckland, New Zealand. Read the rest of this entry »
New Year in Sydney
This is of course my second stint in Sydney and it wont be my last as all my flights into and out of Australia head through here, however this is my main stay here and I’m planning to do the bulk of the ‘to do things’ in this visit.
I arrived in Sydney on Tuesday 28th December, and I have a full 10 nights here. I’ve managed to pack quite a few things in over the past 5 days, so I guess now is a good time to summarize them before they slip from my memory! Read the rest of this entry »
Christmas in Melbourne
Christmas of 2010 was my first ever away from home. It was an interesting experience for sure, but one echoed by many other people in the hostel, not particularly Christmassy. There’s just something about it being ‘summery’ weather for Christmas which is just plain wrong! Read the rest of this entry »
An Introduction to Australia
So now feels like a good time to write this entry, although maybe an hour earlier would have been better, as I think the alcohol from last night is now well and truly out of my body which means all those random ideas I had to add in this entry appear to have gone now too! Read the rest of this entry »
Buenos Aires (& Uruguay)
I spent just over a week in Buenos Aires in total, and it was pretty much the last stop on my South American leg too. After the two days I covered in my last entry I was just left with Ciaran and Kristian from the trip about, and we only met up occasionally really. So this was actually the first time I had to fend for myself properly in South America. Which wasn’t hard to do as such, but it was frustrating in struggling with simple basic communications when trying to order food etc. Read the rest of this entry »
Last Few Days of a Trip
So after Iguacu Falls we were into the last few days of the Dragoman tour, and we were basically just making our way to Buenos Aires with a few stops along the way. Our first stop was in San Ignacio to see the Jesuit Ruins. The Jesuit Missions were setup in the 1600s to adapt the indigenous people to the western style of life and also protect them from the slave trade. The missions were pretty much self-sufficient with everyone taking a certain role. The tour was a little interesting, but the ruins were a quite underwhelming. Apparently this is one of the most complete ruins there is, but in comparison to the stuff we have in Europe and considering the place has only been left for 200 years there wasn’t much there. Read the rest of this entry »
Foz do Iguacu
Friday morning was a pre 6am start as we had around 14 hours on the road to complete in order to cover the 800km drive from Bonito to Foz. As the morning progressed the heat in the truck meant that pretty much everyone except the drivers were at least resting their eyes! After Lunch Beers were cracked open and quite a lot by some people, and beer drinking games started, before eventually the beer bong was dragged out for it’s debut too! One thing is for sure it made the drive go a lot quicker and just after 9pm we arrived in Foz do Iguacu. Read the rest of this entry »