Holidays in the Sun

BULA! and welcome to this special blog edition all about my adventure to the tropical island paradise that is Fiji!

First off im going to start with a general sum up my week in paradise then i will break down each of the six island we went to. From the looks of the pictures, my expectations of Fiji were set quite high as it looks exactly like the most relaxing place on earth and a place you would never want to leave. If there is one thing i am certain off it is exactly that. I was not disappointed and i discovered that my expectations were not set high enough. I am pretty sure that, although i have been to some pretty special places over the years, nothing has ever lived up the pictures quite as well as fiji did. You know when you see a picture of a white sandy beach in a brochure and it looks amazing but somehow in reality it just isn't quite right? Well Fiji is exactly the opposite, the pictures, as amazing as they are, do not do the place justice! It really is a place you have to see to believe in its beauty. It was like spending a week in a place you never thought could exist. Well done mother nature, truly well done.

Nadi

We arrived into Nadi at around 7pm so couldn't really see much of the surroundings as we drove to our hostel for the night because obviously it was dark. On the drive to Horizon Backpackers, our hostel, i tried to get a feel for Fiji and try to get a sense of how my week would be, now considering Fiji is just three hours north of New Zealand, the cultural difference is completely astounding and the locals drive like absolute nutters, full speed in the pitch black with no headlights, on the way back to the airport at the end of the trip i definitely was like 100% sure i was going to die, thankfully i did not. We woke up pretty early the next day as we had to catch our coach to Port Denaru to be able to board the Yasawa Flyer boat that would be
daily transport to each island in the Yasawas. Me and Scotty definitely had delusions of grander many times throughout our trip, the first example of this was our first morning in fiji, the night before, we were each handed a voucher for a free breakfast at Horizon before we set off on our adventure, me and Scotty both got a little excited about this and were looking forward to a nice breakfast before we left, even discussing how much/little we should eat in order not to get sick on the boat in the morning. Lets just say we were more than a little surprised the next morning, we both eagerly headed to the breakfast bar, only to be shocked
by what we saw, there were two fijians standing in front of a toaster and a box of bread and some butter, yes thats right our breakfast voucher entitled us to three slices of toast and some butter, and low and behold we weren't aloud to eat this unless we handed in our extremely precious voucher. This was the first of many funny things to happen whilst in fiji. Shortly  after breakfast we boarded our coach and set off to Port Denaru to begin our Island Hopping adventure.

Beachcomber

Our first stop in the Yasawa islands was Beachcomber Island, alternatively known as the party island! As the YF stopped just a short distance away from the island we hopped onto a smaller boat (the name of them escapes me) and sailed towards the island, but hold on? where were our bags? before we boarded the smaller boat the man on the P.A told everyone to identify their luggage to the crew so that they could put them on the boat with us, so as we made our way to the back of the boat with this as our intention it seemed like complete chaos that only fijians could pull off as organisation, we were frantically trying to find our bags with different people pointing us in different directions before one guy told us that our bags were coming on a different boat... we were like say what? so reluctantly, and without our bags, we hopped on the smaller boat all the while thinking we would never see our bags again, we were off to a good start. When we pulled up to the island, it was just me and scotty arriving, there was a welcoming band on the beach with guitars and ukuleles singing what we would soon discover was the fijian welcoming song. We were completely overwhelmed and were thinking what an earth is going on, but after a few more islands we would become
used to it and start to embrace and enjoy this unique experience. After checking in ad getting settle in our massive 80/90 bed dorm, luckily we had a balcony bit to ourselves, we took a stroll back down to the waterfront and  with a sigh of relief we saw a guy carrying our bags, HOORAY!! So with that worry out of the way we started to enjoy ourselves. We hired a couple snorkels and set about finding a good spot to start, the water was amazingly warm, like getting into a bath, now coming from a snowy Queenstown this was just insane, it was sooo hot! This first snorkel was the start of many, im pretty sure we did it every day for at least a few hours, the fish were like something i have never seen before, so many colours and shapes and sizes it was simply incredible, something that will stay with me for a lifetime and perhaps even longer. Beachcomber being one of the smaller islands in the Yasawas only took a tiny seven minuets to walk around, it really put some perspective on things, it was seriously like being stranded somewhere in the middle of the pacific ocean, scary and amazing! As night time hit the island, we expected the party to break out
and although compared to the other islands we would visit it was pretty lively it wasn't as mad as i was expecting it to be, but this was only because it was the quiet season and there wasn't very many people on the island at all, however, there was the classic english chavs being typically english and offending the locals, classic. We did meet some cool people there, who we would run into in different places around the islands throughout the week. It was an awesome island, and i couldn't wait to experience some different ones.

Naqulia Lodge

NL was defiantly an experience to remember, coming from beachcomber and going past lots of Islands that were catering alot of people, it was a little odd stepping onto the island finding out there was only 6 of us staying on the whole resort! 'This is it' i thought, i was finally going to experience the real fiji, non comercialised fiji, and that is exactly what it was. We were greeted by the family who owned the lodge with this usual song and dance and shown into our dorm to drop our bags, which came with us on the same boat this time, then we had time to explore before lunch. A small resort with only 3 dorms and the main communal area placed in the shadow of the grassy mountain behind it and just in front of an idilic beach. Me and scotty set of walking down the beach and climbing on the rocks, which were home to many many crabs, which was awesome! after deciding that if we carried on climbing over these rocks we were pretty much going to die, which brought back bad memories for Mr Homer :) we headed back to the beach with snorkels in hand to socialise with our roomies for the night. After Lunch, which was traditional fijian food, although i had no idea what it was, with the family playing music to us whilst we ate which was a little weird but cool at the same time, we headed back to the beach to snorkel. We didn't stay in for too long as there was alot of reeds and what we though at the time some kind of water snake.. turns out it wasn't a snake but it scared us not to go in again ha-ha! Later on Scotty and the others went on a guided tour of the mountain, leaving me alone with the locals so i took a long nap as apparently fiji makes you tired! After dinner that night we got to watch the locals make banana leaf bracelets, which are pretty cool and Scotty made his own one too, but the best was yet to come... in the morning we were going to swim with sharks... yes thats right, sharks! before we could enjoy that we had to capture and kill a gigantic wasp, which was managed with bug spray and a light.
We boarded the boat the next morning, all a little nervous but excited at the same time, and set off for about 15-20 mins into the middle of the ocean with not a life jacket or first aid kit in site. At the location we jumped into the sea following our guide who was doing some awesome spear fishing in order to give the sharks a little snack .. :/ so im swimming along, looking at all the awesome fish when i look down and i see one, a shark, albeit only a reef shark but still it was a damn shark... im not going to lie i got a bit scared but the more they swam with us the cooler it became, after a little while we stopped in an open area and the fijians were feeding the sharks and being absolutely mental and swimming down to grab the sharks and wave them out the water... that was it... time to get back in the boat. We headed back hitting some rain in our speed boat, which hurt, and got all our stuff sorted to head back to the YF!.. NL was one of my Favorite islands because i did something amazing, something i had never done before, swam along side one of natures most feared creatures.

Manta Ray island

So still buzzing from the shark experience we boarded the big yellow Mothership and headed to our next destination - Manta Ray Resort - called so because a nearby spot just offshore is where the Manta Rays come to breed i do believe. So we were pretty siked that we might go from swimming with Sharks to swimming with Manta Rays all in the same day, sadly, this was not the case. The Manta Rays decided not to pay a visit to the island whilst we were there, which was a bit of a shame but life goes on. Before we got to MR we had heard many people talking about its amazing reef life and how good the snorkeling was there, some had even said it was better than the Great Barrier Reef. Now, i have never been to the GBR so i cant compare but if it is better than MR i will be amazed beyond belief, because i have never seen anything so naturally beautiful, i was just in complete awe the whole time we were snorkeling there, which was for about three and a half hours! - A truly incredible experience i will never forget for as long as i shall live. The resort itself was really nice, the dorms and all the communal areas apart from the main communal area on the beach, were set back in the canopy so from the beach the island look pretty much deserted, which was pretty awesome! The food here was also amazing! three course meals with service time that Western Europe would do well to learn from! Again we met some cool people here, and met up with some familiar faces from previous islands, which is the beautiful thing about Fiji. We also Hired Kyaks and rowed across to a deserted island which we proceeded to name AMOTT ISLAND - home to the hermit crab clan.

Blue Lagoon Resort

Well where on earth do i start with this island. From the moment we stepped onto the beach it was like being transported into my own heaven on earth, a little slice of paradise. Kiwi owned, so naturally they are bound to be a bit more up-market than the islands owned by Fijians. We stayed in the dorm rooms which is standard for us backpackers, but even in there we felt a bit out of place, the island was insanely posh, we each had our own bed as opposed to the traditional bunk bed situation which we have become so accustomed to, and laid our on our bed were two of our own towels, which would be replaced each day if we wished them to be, highly decorated with pretty freshly picked flowers, it was a pleasant change from a bunk bed. The rooms were also air-conditioned and everyone had their own bedside table complete with lamp. Now these may seem like trivial things to you but when you have been living in hostels for many months, the small things really do make a huge difference. So after we got over the initial excitement of how amazing everything was, we headed down to the restaurant, which sat nicely on the beach front, and sat down and ordered lunch. The menu was filled with all the nice things you like to eat at lunch after a hard morning of soaking up the rays, Pizza, Burgers, Fish etc etc. I ordered a BBQ Chicken pizza which was out of this world, totally incredible, one of the best pizzas i have ever eaten! Upon arrival we were told that it was Fijian night on the island so we would get to sample the delights of fijian food cooked in the fijian way, in an underground oven, and we would also get to take part in a Kava Ceremony, so we were looking forward to the evening. The food that nice was insanely good so much flavour! they definitely know how to live over there thats for sure. At the Kava ceremony i was chosen to be the Chief and Scotty my Spokesperson, so as expected i got to have the first swig of Kava, which was interesting to say the least. Basically Kava is a root found in the ground and in order to make the drink favourited by the locals they place the root in a bag and crush the root up in some water, creating what looks essentially like muddy water and to be perfectly honest that is what it feels like when you drink it too. It has some cool effects including numbing of the mouth which was a bit strange but awesome at the same time. In between each round of Kava the guys in the ceremony played us some traditional Fijian music. After dinner the locals from the village came to the resort and put on a fijian show for us which involved singing dancing and of course a conga line! It was a pretty cool night on that island, i enjoyed it thoroughly. The next morning before we set of to our next destination, we decided to go on a snorkeling trip, and although i didn't personally see them, the guide on the front on the boat said some dolphins were swimming along side the boat. The snorkeling was pretty cool but at the same time really disappointing compared to MR and i remember thinking that it would take alot to top that from now on, and nothing ever did.  On to the next Island.... oh before i forget about him, Blue Lagoon Resort is home to my Adopted dog Charlie, he was a lovely boy who loves to play in the sand, sunbathe and receive lots of love and cuddles :)

Bay of Plenty Lodge

... Tumble weeds rolling by...
a bit of a strange night was spent on this island thats for sure. We hop off the mothership as normal and its just me and scotty on the boat and as we start speeding towards the island, i get this strange feeling washing over me, sort of an uncomfortable feeling and one i wasn't fond of. As we pulled up to the beach (if you can call it that?) i realised why i had this feeling, there was no other people on the island apart from the guy who owned it and me and Scott, this will be interesting i thought. After we payed the guy with the remainder of our cash he proceeded to tell us that we would need to pay the guy who drives the boat and extra 40 fijian dollars before we got back on the mothership... Shit, we don't have any more money apart from card, and low and behold they don't take card on this island, luckily he said we wold be taken to another island where we could get money from the card to give the boat driver... right thats sorted, time to be taken to our dorm. We were led up unto this hill which, to be fair had amazing views over the island and out to sea, and we came to a group of about four huts which we couldn't help compare to Dharma from lost. We were led into ours and at first everything was fine and it stayed that way until dark. With no one else on the island we were a bit apprehensive to do anything so the rest of the day and all the next morning until we left, we sat outside our hut reading, that was until it got pitch black and there was no light to help us read anymore. At a measly 8 o'clock that night we decided to hit they hay, just to try and pass the time, but we couldn't even do that peacefully, trouble was afoot in the form of one of gods most shambollick creations... a Cockroach! after scrambling around the room, moving beds and jumping off the floor, we eventually killed the creepy thing and crawled into bed hoping none of his mate would come to avenge his death - thankfully they didn't. I think this night was the longest night in my entire life, im not going to lie to you, I was pretty scared that night I was definitely sure we were going to get murdered that night... it was something right out of a horror movie, creaky windows, gale force winds and silence. We were up pretty early the next day eager to set off. However, the drama wasn't over yet! We were dropped onto this other island, which to our relief inhabited real life people, back to civilisation! Only one problem, it was Sunday and on a sunday we couldn't get money from the card as none of the banks were open, so after about an hour of talking to different people and trying to convince them to change up Scotty's HK dollars to no avail, he eventually convinced the boat driver he knew the exchange rate into Fijian dollars from HK dollars, which he didn't, and we later worked out he completely screwed the boat driver over!... Sorry fijian dude! We made it! We were back on the Mothership headed towards our final Island... Octopus Resort! Overall not the best night of the week, but im not sure I would change it if I had the chance because it was an experience in itself and to be fair to the owner of the resort he was a really nice guy and cooked us nice food whilst we were there! So Thanks!

Octopus Resort.

A sister company to Blue Lagoon Resort, so our expectations were set pretty high, and we were not disappointed! No shock stories to be told from this island. It was one of my favourites though just because it was the only one we visited that had a swimming pool, which was a nice change from the salty sea! Speaking of the sea i do have a story to tell from here, and it involves snorkeling and a mean little fish. By this point as you could have probably guessed by now we were pretty much used to going snorkeling and being surrounding by incredible wildlife, but at octopus, something was different, the fish seemed ...different, and i wasn't wrong. I was just swimming along minding my own business looking, not touching, the fish when i look down and i see him coming for me, attacking my feet, this was new, this hadn't happened on the previous island so naturally it freaked me out and that was the last time i went in the sea in fiji! Thanks for nothing mr fish. Dinner was incredible once again that night and me and scotty both ended up getting pretty smashed on cocktails, so that was funny. The event for the evening  was movie under the stars, which sounded pretty cool, and if we weren't so drunk we might have been able to last the whole movie but after our free popcorn was demolished and we got comfy laying in front of the screen, sleep began to set in, and so we said goodnight to our last night we would spend on the fijian islands. The great Lobby the Lobster found a new home by the pool on octopus islands and i hope he is still loving life there and entertaining all of the children who grace his presence. Later that day we boarded the mothership for the last time and with goodbyes in our hearts we headed back towards port Denaru, where we got into the crazy drivers taxi and drove back to where it all started, Nadi international Airport.

 (The Late Great Lobby the Lobster)

Fiji was an experience i will never forget, and i wont ramble on for much longer cause im sure you are sick of me by now, if you even made it this far that is! If you did, i congratulate you whole heartedly :) thanks for reading about my amazing week in Fiji and i hope it doesn't make you too jealous, actually i hope it does because then maybe you would think about visiting and i tell you it is definitely worth a visit at least once in your life otherwise you are missing out on something incredible! Thanks to Scotty Homer for making my week in paradise even more amazing! :) Until next time people!

Peace and Love. XOXO

P.S. Flying back into QT was pretty special too.

Side project 

For this blog entry there is nothing else it can be apart from this...

CHELSEA FC ARE CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE 2012... Suck it!

An incredible moment in history that i will never forget, i am only sorry i wasn't back home to see the mighty boys in blue bring home the trophy.. to where it truly belongs. :)

All these things that i've done...

Well well well, we meet again .. finally! i do believe its been about 6 weeks since my last blog update or something similar to that at least.

So i have been in Queenstown for about a month and half now and many a things have changed from my last update, first and most important change is i have a job! I applied for a job at the Crowne Plaza hotel Queenstown and with a little help from my brother they gave me the job, so now i am a Housekeeper at this hotel and let me tell you it is harrrrrrrrrdeerrr than i ever thought it could be, its soo physically tiring and it is not stop all day! But i get free lunches which are amazing so thats always a good thing! Plus i get to see my brother a bit more because he works at the hotel too so thats an even better thing!

Whilst being in QT the list of amazing people i have met just keeps on growing, and even though most of them have left and are leaving very soon i will always remember the amazing times we shared... you guys have made traveling alot of fun these past few months! A special shout out to Josh Edwards who became a close friend of mine and Scotty's over the last month, it felt like we all came traveling together and had know each other for a lot longer than we actually had! It was a very sad day to see him leave but i know he is going to be having an amazing time in Australia before he heads home to start university. I wish you all the best and i am sure we will see each other again!
  Before Joshy left it happened to be his 19th birthday, and what better way to celebrate it than with A BAR CRAWL! We decided it would be a good idea to have a 19 bar - bar crawl and we were determined to do it! The bars included


Cowboys
Monty's           Monty's has been crossed off of the list because they didn't accept english driving licenses!
Brazz
Altitude
Buffalo
Harrys
Lone Star
World Bar
Red Rock

Xtreme
Sky bar
Searle Lane
Bar up
Bardeaux
Surreal
Ballarat
Winnies
Debajo    Was added in place of Monty's
Tardis
Boiler room
FERGBURGER!!!!    For some tasty food!


Me, Scotty, Sarah, Viccy, Nina, Greta  all completed the bar crawl and enjoyed the reward of a nice Fergburger before bed time... Josh However made it to Sky bar and decided not to carry on with the rest of the bar crawl but head back to Altitude to succeed in pulling, but it was to no avail! However because it was his birthday we let him off the hook.

Also for Josh's Birthday he decided he wanted to do one of the many activities available around QT before he departed for Aus. It was settled that the jet boating was the best option as it was one of the cheaper activities and basically it looked like fun. Well it was an adventure that took 3 hours and it was alot of fun! Firstly skippers canyon is about an hours drive from Queenstown on a dangerous road, The tour takes you through skippers canyon (obviously) along the original gold rush roads which are barely used any more so as you can imagine they are quite rocky, on high cliffs and very narrow so all the while you are driving towards the boat you are bouncing up and down in your seat knowing that at any moment the driver could make a mistake and you would go hurtling towards imminent death, but hey ho, whats life without a little bit of danger! So we finally make to the Jet boat after an hour on those windy roads... let the fun times begin!

The drivers of these boats are insane!!! its even more dangerous than the bloody 4WD journey to it.. they skim across about 10 cm of water at crazy speeds whilst you can hear the rocks hitting the bottom of the boat and your going so fast that you cant even concentrate on the fact that once again you could die at any minuet and on top of that they steer the boat so close to the rocks that if you where to stick your arm even an inch out of the boat you would loose it! I have not had that much fun in a while! 45 minuets of skimming and spinning and almost losing your head your headed back to the bus to begin the hour long drive home down those same windy rocky roads. Well worth the money and such an awesome fun day out! :)

Now for some Exciting news Me and my best buddy Scotty Mika Sideshow bob Homer have booked flights to the amazing destination of FIJI!

We head out in May, which i have been told by a Native that it is one of the best months to go so that is pretty exciting! We are going for 7 days and plan on spending a night on each island and being real island hoppers! I am too excited. We are even planning a night on the famous Party island a.k.a Beachcomber island which only takes a tiny 7 minuets to walk around the whole thing!

And hopefully we will be able to swim with Manta Rays on Manta ray resort as i have read it only costs a cheerful $15 which is pretty damn cheap!. I am looking forward to be getting out of QT for a short while this trip to fiji will be like taking a mini holiday within a very long holiday! White sandy beaches, clear blue seas and blazing sunshine (hopefully) what more could you ask for? 

So if i remember correctly im my lost update i ranted on about how much we played frisbee, so yer well that phase passed pretty quickly and we no longer play it, now whether thats due to the weather or the fact we are now more lazy than ever, i cant really say but maybe one day we will get back into it, maybe when we play frisbee on the nice beaches of paradise ^^ :)  

The weather in QT is too bizarre for me to even comprehend, it can go from one day being torrential rain on the brink of major floods to the next day being glorious sunbathing/tanning weather... its very strange, you can just never predict it. At the moment it has been turning quite cold with the peaks of the surrounding mountains being covered in snow, making the scenery just amazing to look at.

Definitely going to need to invest in some warmer clothes soon! 

QT is home to some amazing walks 

1 is up to the gondola

2 is up to Ben Lomond

and 3 is QT hill, there is also the walk to frankton but that one isn't very challenging.

Ben Lomond

By far the most physically tiring thing i have ever done, we left to do this walk at about 1:30 and got back round 8:30/9 ish so its not for the faint hearted as it is quite a challenge. Although i didn't personally make it all the way to the top, and yes some of you may see that as a failure, but making it to the saddle which is just below the summit was a major achievement for me because i have never in my life done anything as challenging, which i can remember at least. 

Up to the Gondola 

This walk is the prelude to the Ben Lomond walk, unless you want to be lazy and get the Gondola up the first part, we were not so lazy. So we did this walk and the BL walk on the same day as it kind of comes as a package. This section takes about 1.5 hours and its quite challenging as it is quite steep and most of the pathway is covered in broken trees and rocks, which if your clumsy, im sure can cause quite an accident. the Views from the top of this walk are amazing!... you can see over the whole of QT you feel like God! :) ha-ha.

QT hill

My favourite walk of QT, so good ive done it twice. Still quite a challenging walk, as i imagine any walk up a mountain is ;) but it is manageable because even though it is going uphill it has alot of flat parts for you to be able to give your calfs a tiny rest before taking on the next incline. I also like it quite alot because most of the walk is through heavily covered forest areas and it is so peaceful its kind of eerie, but i like that.  When you get up to the top you get full 360 views across QT and the surrounding areas. There is also an amazing part where people have built those mini structures out of stones and it looks pretty inspiring! Along the walk they also have boards with little facts about the History of QT, which for me is pretty cool!

So as you can see i am thoroughly enjoying my travels and my time in QT! It will be a sad time when it comes to leave this place i now call home but thats all a part of traveling, you come and you go and even though you love a place there is a pretty high chance that there is somewhere else in the world just waiting to be discovered by you and waiting for you to call it home. 

What are you waiting for guys?... Don't spend you life in a job you hate or a town you have never left, there is so much of the world for you too see, so much to make you happy. Remember, you are the only one who can change your life, no one is going to come along and change it for you, so stop moaning about it and get changing it!

Peace out till next time Homies ;) Love you all so much!

'Life is what you make it, so make it worth living' - Amy Charlotte Ward

'Over and again, last call for sin
While everyone's lost, the battle is won
With all these things that I've done'

'Let this train wreck burn more slowly,
kids are victims in this story
Drown the youth with useless warnings,
teenage rules they're fucked and boring'

I have decided on my longer blog updates I'm going to include some side projects that could involve anything. This week i am including mini reviews on all the films i have seen whilst in Queenstown.




Side project 
   All the movies that have been watched in Queenstown.

The Hunger games
 - An awesome movie that shows a chaotic future where the youth of the day are forced to pay with their lives for the mistakes made by their ancestors. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole movie experience with the contrast of the dull and boring colours shown in the districts clashing with the outrageous and over the top colours and decor of the main city, the Hunger games definitely catches your attention from the very beginning. Being forced to watch innocent 12 -18 year olds get slaughtered by each other for the sheer entertainment of the general public, and being forced to play manipulating mind games with each other to save their own lives can be a hard thing for anyone to watch, but for me it was interesting to see the boundaries that people would push in order to preserve their lives. Definitely a movie that exceeds limitations 10/10 from me. 

Underworld
- The fourth movie in quadrilogy, as an avid fan of most vampire movies and fantasy movies i enjoyed watching the first three and i always knew going in to the movie i was going to like it and that is exactly what happened. A slightly cheesy movie full of the classic cliches that any vampire movie has, but mixed with some pretty decent action sequences even though most of it is CGI, filled with a bit of a twist half way through the movie, threw me slightly off guard because i didn't really see it coming but i guess the movie kind of needed that twist to make it slightly more exciting. It did however have an epic battle conclusion so thats always a plus. 6/10 from me.

Project X
-The worlds greatest ever house party! Starts out with these 3 geeky kids planning a house party for one of their birthday parties whilst his parents are out of town... now at this point you are thinking how can this film be any good, i mean a film about a house party thrown by three nerdy kids can't lead into anything worthwhile. However, exactly the opposite happens, it turns into the craziest mother-fucking house party on earth filled with, thousands of people, midgets in ovens, dogs floating away in balloons, jumping off roofs into bouncy castles, cars driven into pools and so much fire the neighbourhood almost burns to the ground. It is the most ridiculous film i have ever seen but it was too funny so it was also an amazing film 9/10 from me.

A Few Best men
- A story of a backpacker who meets the girl of his dreams whilst traveling and they decide to get married. The groom to be and his best men head off to australia for an extravagant wedding in the brides home town. The story follows the best men and how they all manage to fuck up the grooms big day in many ways, almost causing the wedding to be cancelled. Full of funny gags jokes, some involving a pig in drag which i think is pretty unique. In the end its another romantic comedy favouring a little more to the comedy so i give it an 7.5 /10

Chronicle

- Three teenagers find a crater in the ground a little ways away from a school party they were attending and  in it they find some sort of alien rock, which turns out to hold some mystical powers which ends up giving all of them the ability to control objects with their minds and the ability to fly. As with everything the beginning is great and they are having an awesome time playing around with their new found powers, however things take a turn for the worst and to cut a long story short, two of them end up dead and the other one ends up taking up some missionary work on some mission from god to use his abilities for good.  Filmed on a hand held camera i don't recommend watching whilst hungover, as my brother would tell you. 7/10 from me.

Life is Life

being in Queenstown in awesome! although when you have limited funds thins can become a little boring ... this is why my friends and I have taken solace in the game of 'Frisbee' , albeit for only short periods of the day but non the less when we have little else to do 'shall we play frisbee?' is e phrase often heard. who knows we may even become pros by the time we actually have money.

Here in Queenstown they also have 'frisbee golf' which after the first couple of "holes" can become very tedious. Five of us thought that one day it would be a good idea to give this frisbee golf course a go, and after renting our frisbees, they have a special type of frisbee for this game, we set of for the course. naively we perhaps thought we might be rather good at it and uncover a hidden talent.. this was not to be, although some of us showed promise, we were all pretty shit. the nets were, in my opinion, placed far too far away from the tee and the damn frisbees always seemed to go off to the left. So after 18 holes we were bored and our combined parr must have been like 600+ or something stupid like that. undoubtedly this would be the last time we would play this game and just stick to the classic frisbee, which, we have become quite good at.

On the 18th of February, after again having nothing to do, three of us headed to a BMX event we had heard was going on just up the road from our hostel and it turned out to be a pretty awesome day. It was the 'RedBull Roastit' BMX competition and it was pretty exciting, double backflips crazy jumps and some gnarly falls, my highlight of the week. Below are some of my favourite pictures I took.

Queenstown has held host to some pretty awesome nights out, one not ending till gone 5am, needless to say the next day we didn't arise till mid afternoon. The hostel we are currently residing at is home to some awesome people who are making the nights out as awesome as possible. We are yet to go to either one of the ice bars here which sucks a bit but cause we went to the one in Auckland I don't mind so much.

that's all for now, enjoy! :)

Anarchy in the UK

So here we are, One month on...

So today marks the day that i left home exactly one month ago. It has been an amazing month, one filled with ups and downs, but i wouldn't change anything.

So lets see where did i leave off in my last post... ah yes. beside my little health update, i left you when i got to Queenstown, well now we are in for a story.

We got to Queenstown after our little road trip on i think it was the 26th January and after a few nights staying in a couple different hostels, we got to the one we would ultimately be in for a while Aspen Lodge. Now aside from the fact that i would kill to have my own room with my nice big double bed again, i have taken to aspen lodge quite nicely, the staff are amazingly friendly, the place itself is always clean and tidy and most of the travellers (aside from one rather smelly individual) are all very nice.  So i have been residing in QT for about 3 weeks now and i can only tell you what an amazing place it is. By day, a nice little town in the valley of amazing mountains and by night, party capital of New Zealand.

This last picture brings me onto the subject of my BROTHER! :) (he is the one in the white shirt).
My brother, Glen, left to go travelling about 3 years ago and although he has been home a couple times in those years, i hadn't seen him in over a year i think it was, so it was really cool to be able to see him and have a few drinks with him when i got to QT. Last Wednesday we went our for the night and had a few drinks, well me and Scott had a few drinks, i think glen must have drank the entire contents of every bar we went to, he was paralytic, could barely stand, and it was the funniest thing i had ever witnessed. There was alot of staggering, alot of falling over, attempts to sleep in bushes and some throwing of food. Lets just say the next day he wasn't feeling particularly good.

We have met a few awesome people whilst being here in QT and had some good nights with them.

So leaving QT aside for the moment. I think now is a good point to tell you about how this trip has affected me. So i can tell you now, i know that i don't want to go back to England for a very long time, not until after i have seen the world, well i might do a stop over back home if I'm heading that way ;) Now alot of people will be thinking 'dont you miss you family and friends and all the luxuries back home?'  and the answer is yes, i miss all that a hell of alot, and i think for some people when they go travelling it can affect them really bad and cause them to go home, which is fine for them if that's what they feel they need to do. For me, even though the thought is always there, and i don't really think it will ever go away, that ' i could be doing this and that at home' and that would be awesome but i just know that when i got home and after seeing everyone again, i would be like what the hell have i done, things would be boring again, and so i don't think i will be able to go home for good until i feel i have accomplished something on this Journey, otherwise it would be a huge wast of time/money and i definitely don't want it to be that.

I get moments when i get really homesick and i can think of nothing else but abandoning ship, and these are the really low times, but then i think of all the amazing times i have had and all of the amazing things i have seen and that just completely outweighs the negatives. I am happy to be here, this country is beautiful and it makes you realise how grey and dull England really can be.

Right enough with the emotions lets get on to something really exciting.
THE TWO MAIN THINGS I WANT TO DO IN QT:

1. Nevis Bungy. This has to be the top of my list. The Ultimate thrill here in QT. Australasia's Highest Bungy jump.

When i get to do this, i can guarantee it will be the most scariest thing i will ever do. BRING IT ON! 134m.



2. Nevis Swing. This and the bungy you can get as a combo. The swing you can do tandem, so it will be awesome to be able to do it with Scotty.

So when i get a job and am able to save up some money these will be the first thing i spend on. serious adrenalin.

Also, at some point during my time here in NZ i would love to do a skydive. There are so many places in NZ you can skydive but i think i would like to do it at Lake Wanaka, because even though we only spent a night there it was so beautiful that it became one of my favourite places.

I wont leave New Zealand until have done these 3 things!.



So what can i say about travelling? 1 thing, DO IT!

Me and Scotty now have a video blog which you can find on both our facebook pages and also my Youtube channel, which i have posted a link to somewhere in one of these blogs... i think?

Best thing about my trip so far?

     - The Hooker Valley walk at Mount Cook, and our little road trip from CHCH to QT.

Worst thing about my trip so far?

     - Missing my own room. (this took me a while to think of, so it proves there isn't many bad things)

Biggest letdown of my trip?

     - Puzzling World, Lake Wanaka. i was looking forward to this but it turns out, it is need of some serious updating, although some of the stuff was pretty cool, it wasn't worth the $15 we paid to get in. SORRY PUZZLING WORLD!

Most surprising part of my trip?

     - NZ pure natural beauty. its breathtaking.

HAVE A FERGBURGER ...its an essential here in QT :)

So that's it for this post, let me know if there is anything you would like me to talk about in my posts!

Love you all! :) xxxx TTFN 

Defiant till the end...

'A world that sends you reeling from decimated dreams
Your misery and hate will kill us all
So paint it black and take it back
Let's shout it loud and clear
Defiant to the end we hear the call
To carry on...'


A non update sort of update kind of post.... whatever that means? lol.

Just sitting here in me bed in me hostel having a little think about this trip and I can't help but notice aside from a few ulcers and hangover symptoms, that I generally feel a bit healthier. At home it had almost become routine to have to take some sort of painkiller daily and because of that I brought a few packets of ibuprofen with me and I can honestly say I have taken about tablets about 3 times since I've been here and that's pretty good for me.

Also, as anyone who knows me would know how I used to sleep in fairly late ;) at home, I find myself waking up early doors and feeling pretty refreshed and not needing to stay in bed for half the day.
so generally on the health front New Zealand wins and the UK loses. :) touch wood (literally just did) that I don't get seriously Ill now!

anything else worth mentioning in this post? errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr hostels are a love hate relationship I miss having my own room quite a lot you never fully feel like you can relax here cause someone is always about, I mean that have single rooms in hostels but they are too damn pricy ... on the other hand it is cool being able to meet people from all walks of life and you never know you could end up meeting your best friend :).

sooo that's about it for this post TTFN! :)

it's Going to Happen

SO! ... I have currently been travelling for just over a week and i have seen some amazing things since i have been out here, and even if i had to end my trip now i would not regret it for the world.

First stop was Auckland, and what an amazing first stop it was... OK, so i may have treated it like a mini holiday but i was soo excited to be around the other side of the world, i wanted to start my trip in style!. we stayed in a 4/5 start hotel (i cant remember which it was) and it was fantastic! and after 24 hours on two planes the luxury of a comfy bed and a nice hot shower was just irresistible. We spent the first two days exploring Auckland and doing all the tourist type things like venturing up the sky tower, gambling a couple of dollars at the casino, visiting art galleries and museum and generally spending too much money.

After doing all the touristy stuff we found this amazing bar on the harbour front with those egg chairs which hang from the ceiling, this quickly became our favourite spot!

Our final day in Auckland we spent at the Big day Out festival which The Vaccines and My Chemical Romance were playing at, which was awesome... it was here that i experienced my first bit of NZ rain.

From Auckland we caught a flight to Christchurch where we would be staying for two nights in this amazing hostel that not long ago was home to a load of convicts, yes that's right, we were staying in a renovated prison which Cooley still had most of its original features.

Christchurch was a funny place to visit because even after a year on the effects of the earthquake a still completely full on. They have the 'Red zone' which is the main centre of the town and it is completely fenced off as they slowly try to recover from the devastating effects. We walked around the entire Red Zone and there was a very eerie feeling you get because it was so quiet, it was like a post apocalyptic town. You couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness because you could Tell that this dead city was once a thriving cool place to be.

We met up with a friend from back home in Cambridge and we went to a few bars and had a few drinks for Scotty's birthday, which turned out to be a pretty cool night even though the nightlife was lacking somewhat. Its quite a strange feeling seeing people you know from back home on the other side of the world, but also quite a comforting one.

After an enlightening few days in CH CH me and Scott said our goodbyes to our friend and got into our hire car with one destination in mind... Queenstown!

However before hitting QT we decided to use the hire car to our advantage and visit some natural wonders in New Zealand including Mount Cook and Lake Tekapo.

Lake Tekapo is the most Blue i have ever seen any lake/sea/river. it was simply amazing, i stood in awe for a while, it was visually stunning.

This picture doesn't do it justice.

Next was Mt Cook. this was amazing, filled with glaciers and ice burgs which you could watch and sunbathe in front of as it was searingly hot this day. We took one of the walks to Hooker Lake which was well worth the achy legs under the persistent sun.

We attempted to sleep in the car here one night, we managed it but it was fucking freezing and we left the next night unplanned and headed to Lake Wanaka to stay in a cosy Hostel.

Convinced i wouldn't see anything more beautiful than what i ad already seen, i was proven wrong when we got to Lake Wanaka. easily the most beautiful place i have seen so far, Its just a small town and it was full of teenagers enjoying the lake on the last day before they had to go back to school, you could tell it was a real holiday town.

From Wanaka we Made it to Queenstown.... but that's another story for another time.



'Warm California sun'

Just a quick update as I sit t LAX airport waiting to board my flight to Auckland.

So it seems like I've been travelling forever! Saying goodbye at Heathrow airport this morning, or whenever it was, ( time zones confuse me) feels like a lifetime ago!...I made the goodbyes short and sweet, not because I wanted to get rid of them but because I knew I would end up crying loads of they had dragged out, I welled up a bit but I managed to gain composure. As I have never flown on my larry before I couldn't stop shaking when going through airport security but the truth is I wasn't even that scared I think there was just a lot of emotion built up inside me and it came out in the form of shakes! lol.

the flight from Heathrow to LAX took approx. 10 hours 45 minuets but it was a good flight with clear skies pretty much all the way, we hit a rough patch which just had to be when they were serving the tea and coffee, the girl next to me lost half of hers in her lap, in the end she downed it before anymore went over board. the rest of the flight was pretty uneventful. I saw a lot of frozen wasteland as we flew over Greenland and Canada, what's all this nonsense about global warming! It was an awesome sight though.
Coming in to L.A was simply amazing, first of all the sunset was just magical. perfection. and watching it from 25000 feet was just inspiring. then as we started descending, LA was lit up and on my life the traffic was insane, and I could see that from 10/5000 feet, tips folks, never drive in LA it looks MENTAL!!!!. The landing was pretty smooth but LAX sure has a busy runway.

Now after reading up on connecting flight at LAX I was dreading it because all people kept saying was how it took like2-3 hours to clear customs, I was thinking great it's going to be a rush for my flight. BUT it was the polar opposite I had to wait no longer than 30 mins at each station and now I am sitting outside my departure gate waiting to board at 22:40 local time. I can also say I've been to L.A because I had to go curbside for 10 mins and go through security again.

one thing I have learnt so far on my travels is that I have to come back to LA and stay more that 5 hours, it looks like a fun place, well at night at least, I won't get to see it at day time unfortunately.

Signing off.... see you in Auckland!!!! x

so it wasn't so short after all lol.