Big holiday - post 9

Hello kiddiewinkles/ma/Auntie P.

A few photos quickly as I am about to rush up the Gold Coast to go to, would you believe, a French restaurant. When in Rome.....do as the French do! Having said that, I've already had a Ozzie BBQ and was ace. They really know how to put on a good BBQ show over here.

Lightening summary of recent events.

Final days in NZ

Sniffed around Rotorua for a while. Lovely place - NZ really is beautiful. I want to come back.

Me on the beach at Rotorua. Stinks due to the sulphur, but scenery is
amazing (incl the natural springs, which are everywhere).

Another example of this county's varied prettiness.

A night of NZ razle/dazzle with OG in Rotorua followed. T'was a top old school evening (i.e. we we drank a fair bit) . Cheap booze helped ($3 a pint - that's one nicker twenty UK chaps), then some pool, an altercation with locals over a pool table. I then dozed off in a club and got booted out because of it. I then lost the hotel key. The night had everything. Top class!

Then Pitch and Putt, Zorbing and Luge with OG in Rotorua. All class activities (but no time to write about as have to run).

OG and me with Lake Rotorua in the back ground. This is from

the high up luge place (you need to take a cable car to get up there).

OG, looking good.

In Nandos mid night out. God he's got a long thumb.

At the luge. Meant to get the same chairlift as him

but there was a bit of a communication breakdown.....

Last night in NZ - out to a feederie called Genghis Khan with da gang. You get a bowl and then fill it with raw meat, veggies and tasty sauces of your choice and then some bloke cooks it in front of you on a hot plate. Completely yum. Thinking about it is making me hungry. We then hit a few NZ boozers before ending up at the place where we watched England lost in the rugby final a week earlier (was it Foxes OG?). Someone somewhere may have captured me dancing and singing You'll Never Walk Along at 5am and put it on a video clip. This is war Gartside! The new youngsters who were part of the gang - Jo's friends Harriet and Gemma - contributed massively to a top evening. Cheers chucks.

Gemma, Jo, Harriet, OG and me about to get fed.

Da crowd several drinks later.

Me and OG in one of those embarrassing snaps
together (of which we have very many)

NZ riff raff (all of you) - I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you ALL (esp OG, Jo, Rob, Bonzo, Harriet and Gemma) for making the week completely class. I really had a blast. You are welcome anytime to experience the delights of Islington!

I then hopped on a plane to Brisbane to meet my dad and continued festivities, OZ style. So far, I've done lots (quelle surprise), including:

• Dinner near Brisbane port with dad's girlf Kelly's workmates. Lebanese food this time and was, again, very very yum (all this tasty food will impact on the temple which is my body - a few session at Fitness First are required when I get back methinks).
• Last day or two - traveled down the Gold Coast for an hour to Kelly's parents' patch and went fishing and then swimming in the Specific Ocean (deliberate typo - it sounds better that way I think). Fishing was a strange thing for me to be doing as I don't eat fish or seafood of any description but it was quite relaxing - just sitting there for hours catching nothing. Actually, that isn't quite true. I attracted about five tiddlers.
• We then went to a class cafe and wolfed down a FINE gourmet burger. One of the fanciest burgers I've ever eater actually. Oozed class!
  

And look what I found on the wall of
my dad's house. Who you gonna call?

Have to go RIGHT NOW and hop in the shower. Where is a Zorb when you need one? Would washing machine me in a jiffy.

Quick update.

About to go out on the razzle dazzle with that man OG so have no time to do a proper post but get a load of the below! Is called Zorbing. And Gartside took me to that luge thing today Box - t'was tons of fun.

Proper post soon.

Big holiday - post 7

Hello ma, OG, Smaje and whoever else is looking at this thing.

I've been at it again, this time with a spot of white water rafting. I'm every outdoor activity operator's dream as I have once again signed up to the thing and then bought the pictures CD afterwards. Was a good one this, though it could have done with being a smidgen more hair raising - though I am very comfortable in water generally. Did some good stuff though:

- Flew off the highest commercially used waterfall in the world (7 meters high) in a dingy.

- Got thrown off the dingy backwards by the tour bloke and then had to swim through a few sets of rapids before being able to climb back on the boat. That really was fun actually.

I bought the pics so I'm damned if I'm not going to use them.

Me and the rabble looking fetching.

Heading off down the stream. The scenery was beautiful.

It was in a deep ravine with all sorts of stuff growing up the walls.

Me with the usual thumbs up pose. I'm getting

bored of it though. I need a new pose.

Going down some rapids.

Us at the top of that 7m waterfall. This bit was good
fun actually. You'd know about it if you got this
wrong. The other boat did and very nearly overturned.

I'm in Rotorua (i.e. still NZ) by the way. A few hours drive from Waitomo Caves. I got bussed over last night and plonked in a six person backpackers dorm, which I wasn't thrilled about. Luckily I was the only person who slept in there so it was alright in the end. This place is very scenic, though the very beautiful lake Roturua is quite polluted in places. This place smells funny anyway due to the sulfur from the underground springs but in some places you can't tell if the funny smell is that or the polluted water.

OG is not appearing until later on this afternoon so I got the guy to drop me off a mile or so outside of time so I could play some pitch and putt. A very respectable 7 over par for the nine holes as well. I then walked around the lake and found a very impressive stretch where there was loads of white cinder like sand. The sulfur smell around there was overpowering though. There used to be a man made pool heated around there heated by the springs but the strength of the sulphur kept overcoming people and people kept drowning so they bulldozed it. Have a stack of new scenic pictures though. The scenery in this country really is incredible.

Right I'm off, maybe for a dip in the new thermal spring heated pools. Wish me luck.

Big hol - post 6

Righto. Just been caving with an inner tube in Waitomo (which is about three hours from Auckland) and have a bit of time to kill prior to my bus to Rotorua arriving. Will therefore upload some snaps from the CD I bought up now as I'm likely break the flaming thing before I get home, knowing me. Either that or lose it.

This caving lark really was good fun. The water was damn deep as well. I couldn't touch the floor for a lot of the route. And the glow worms (one of the main reasons people do this particular activity) were amazing. Looked like a starry night when you turned the torch on your hat off. And if you make a big bang (or any loud noise) they light up much brighter. You learn something new every day.

...BUT (and it's a big but), New Zealand t'interweb is not fast enough to handle uploading lots of pics quickly. Below are the ones I managed to upload prior to the bus appearing.

Waitomo Caves - well above them anyway. Pretty, ain't it?

The guide clearly fancied himself as a bit of a creative photographer.
The result? A scene reminiscent of the Teletubbies.

My arse. No, really. It's my arse. And the inner tube I
selected fitted a treat (obvious opportunity for 'is it the inner tube
from a waggon wheel' style gag here, 'funny' friends).
The rabble who came caving with me.
Me, neck deep in water in a cave.
Me in a sort of inner tube snake thing with the randoms.
My work is done here.

Big holiday - post 5

Day 8 (Mon 23 Oct) - A quiet one

A day or rest/recovery and a whole series of Max and Paddy.

Day 9 (Tue 24 Oct) - Waiheke island

Decided to walk from OG's pad into Auckland city, which took round about an hour. This place really is very anglicized. They can't get enough British TV, the irritating Richard Hammond's autobiog is in the window of the bookshops etc etc. Though it is a bit like Oz as well. They have quite a few Oz shops and they strangely call linen 'Manchester' as well. They don't call steel 'Sheffield' though - I did ask! Wonder if they say 'Liverpool' instead of 'football'? Probably not at the moment actually...

When I got to town I hopped on a ferry for the 35 min trip to Waiheke Island (not Waikiki as I said a few times - which is in Hawaii). Is generally 5 degrees hotter than the mainland, my Lonely Planet tells me, and the whole island is totally and completely stunning. I had my camera out every ten seconds it seemed and felt the urge to say 'wow' out loud on several occasions despite being on a solo wander. I took a fairly tricky three hour hiking route around the island and, despite a few minor difficulties (e.g. turned around to look at the scenery and realised I'd walked right up someone's driveway and was standing in their garden), all went smoothly.

Me at some high lookout on Waiheke.

Wine Science!?! I did the wrong course.


Someone said NZ was like Wales. Don't
remember Talacre being like this.

Another non-Wales like fine scene.

Relaxing on the ferry on the way back to Auckland.

When I got back, I headed off to the quiz I'd heard so much about. Tuesday night is quiz night in NZ it seems and loads of pubs have the same (very professional) interactive quiz on at the same time. There's no entry fee and you get a free 3 pint jug of beer for your troubles as well. Think every Tue night of mine would be booked up if you had the same thing in the UK - probably with several teams entered. Unfortunately, 'Disaster for Lunt' blew it and came last - by 11 points. At one stage, we had 0 out of 5 on the true or false round. How embarrassing....

Me, OG and Jo doing badly at the
quiz we've heard so much about.

Well poured OG.

Last by 11 points. How embarrassing. Thank
god I'm leaving the country on Sunday.

I mentioned to a few of you that I might be going to an Auckland brewery for a piss up. Owen failed to organise it. This will surprise none of you that know him. He does however have some other fun and games in store for me though in the coming days. Watch this space.

Oh, and we played a spot of rugby.

Big holiday - post 4

Day 5 (Fri 19 Oct) - Boat ride to Manley/Flight to NZ

Got up and lazed around in the lovely apartment in which I was staying in Darling Harbour, then walked through town for an hour to get the main harbour (with yet another Starbucks coffee) and then hopped on the ferry to Manley for the morning. I found (another) stunning beach and then proceeded to get lost for an hour or two down the backstreets. Thought for a bit that I'd ended up the other side of Manley and that I was going to miss my flight but thankfully I wasn't so things turned out alright. I also found the best pie shop ever on route. If you ever make it there, go for the meat and potato. Mmmmm.

Got some old bloke to take my snap for me on Manly beach.

Later that day, I hopped on the plane and met OG and his lovely ladyf Jo at Auckland airport. I was greeted with the below. Revenge, when I exact it, will be sweet!

OG and Jo with the age old ambiguous 'L' gag. This is war.

Day 6 (Sat 21 Oct) - Sniffing around Auckland, rugby final in Eden Park

That man OG gave me a whistle stop tour of Auckland, taking me up to one of the (47 odd) volcanoes that are in NZ. Was more like a little mound than something like Vesuvius but was still cool as you could see the whole of the city. We then headed off to the supra scenic Browns Bay for some scram and then hit Eden Park for a rugby union final. Wet and cold but still good to see some really high standard rugby in a country that is obsessed with the sport (you should hear the whinging they've been doing about NZ getting dumped out of the rugby world cup on the radio phone ins).

OG and Jo on the beach at Browns Bay.

OG, espressing his dissatistfaction with the
actions of the tow away bloke people.

Day 7 (Sun 22 Oct) - Rugby World Cup final and the dogs for Rob's b'day.

Up bright and early (6am) in order to drink beer, get dressed up in 'dead man's clothes' (v old shockingly bad taste suits from a local charity shop) and hit a bar in town to watch England make a good stab at winning the final in time for the 8am kick off. Was a great atmosphere - with loads of singing and screaming (i.e. pissed up - at 8am) England and SA fans in their team's colours. Atmosphere was similar to a busy bar on a Friday night, but at 8am on a Saturday. We then went for some breakie at an American style diner and had the car towed away as we stuck it in the wrong bay. Whoops! It was 10.30am on a Sat and town was dead. Fair enough we made a mistake but these people really are low lives. There was loads of spaces in the wrong bit as well as in the right bit next door. The result - a taxi to the compound and a $200 release fee, thank you very much.

OG, Rob and me at 8.30am, looking snappy and enjoying a beverage.

Rob and bro showing a bit of brotherly love at the after dogs house party.

Musical aside

Been listening to some albums. Listen to the Polly Jean track below. Is the greatest thing since sliced wombat. I really love the album (White Chalk), although sometimes she sings so high pitched only dogs can hear it. Her lyrics are great as well - apart maybe for the one where she goes an about her boots being on the floor, but makes it sound a bit too much like boobs (which conjures up all kinds of unpleasant images). I prefer this to the new Radiohead album at the mo, by quite a way (though Reckoning is a class song, also below).

The Devils - PJ Harvey
http://youtube.com/watch?v=SSqRJbA9Duo

Reckoner - Radiohead
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Tv2GvJyY5JY

Big holiday - post 3

Day 3 (Wed 17 Oct) - Arrival in Sydney schmoozing around town

Slept well on the plane (by my standards) and turned up in Sydney at the same time as my dad's girlf Kelly who flew in from Brisbane to meet me and her Sydney based college friend Mandy, whose birthday it was the week before. Then I had another action packed day of thrills and spills thanks thanks to Kelly. The power of local knowledge really really shouldn't be underestimated - thanks HSBC.

Sydney's Port Jackson bay by night.

Sydney Center Point Tower

Me and Kelly went up this thing (2/3ds to the left in the above pic), which is the tallest tower in Sydney and is around the same height as the Eiffel Tower. Anyway, you could see everything from up the top - and the views really were spectacular. You realise when you're up there, firstly, just how big and sprawling the Sydney area is (4.5m people, but are things are much more spread out than Tokyo) and also how modern the buildings are. Sydney is filled with shiny mirrored skyscrapers and nice new buildings generally. The oldest thing here is only 200 years - but the vast majority of things seem to have been put up in the last few decades.

Center Point from a different angle.

Sydney Opera House Tour

We continued the touristy stuff with a tour of the Opera House (which you may have heard of). Saw the two main halls inside - the opera theatre and the philharmonic hall. The latter was incredibly impressive. It was build purely for the sound to travel well - e.g. it has no protruding screws in the floorboards as they would have damaged acoustics. The resulting acoustics are amazing. One day, FWA will play an acoustic concert at this venue and it will be the greatest thing since sliced Tasmanian Devil.

Sydney Harbour Bridge climb

Kelly and dad treated me to a climb up the Harbour Bridge. We had a breath test (which I passed you cheeky b*%$^&s), got kitted up and then headed off up the bridge. Getting up to the summit and down took a few hours but was well worth it. It's not every day that you get to scale something like that. Again, views were to die for. Bit windy up top though. My hair was ruined. Can you see me waving at the top of the bridge?

Day 4 (Thurs 18 Oct) - Walking around Sydney's Port Jackson Bay

Me, Kelly and Mandy set off early in order to do a famous walk from somewhere called Spit Bridge (named, I understand, after Bob Carolgees's dog) to Manley (named, I understand, after Amelie Mauresmo). We got to the start and were huffing and puffing as the walk was closed as they were refurbing some of the bridges. We were a bit gutted as it was a perfect day and we'd made some effort to get there, then this lady who we were whinging to said 'hey, I'll drive you to another good walk'. We walked over to her house and she drove us to its start. Her house was shockingly class. From what was in there, I think her hubby is a successful pro golfer. Will have a sniff round t'internet at some point as see if I can work out who it is. Anyway, she was lovely and made our day - thanks random woman. The people of Sydney are really friendly to randoms generally by the way. Loads of people started chatting to us. Compare and contrast Central London.

The new walk went past somewhere called Chowder Bay and included some completely amazing views of the 'other' side of the Harbour Bridge (i.e. not the Opera house end) and also some great views of Port Jackson and the city. We ended up at the entrance to Taronga Zoo (don't you just love Ausisie names?) and hopped on the boat over to get over by the Opera house. A truly class few hours.

I then headed off on my own to Bondi Beach as I thought I had to see it as it was so close. I'm actually sitting here typing this right now. Is as gorgoes as everyone says. Right - I'm off on another walk. See you later, alligators.

A picture taken 100m away from where I'm currently
sitting. Literally, fine scenes.

Big holiday - post 2

Righto. At Tokyo Narita airport with a computer that doesn't dislike me and an hour to kill so time for some more ramble (or at least I was when I first started and almost finished this post - have uploaded from Sydney). Again, are stolen photos. My own snaps will have to follow.

Day 2 - Tokyo Tsukiji fishmarket and a trip to the Japanese mountains.

Tokyo's Tsukiji fishmarket

Got up at the crack of a sparrow's yawn in order to look around this place, mainly because it was so heartily recommended by my Lonely Planet guide. When I got there, I understood why. There were hundreds of stalls selling all kind of stuff to the restaurants of Tokyo - incl some v strange types of fish (some of which were alive), some very big types of fish getting divvied up into more manageable chunks as well as all kinds of other weird fishy stuff (e.g. barrels full of different type of live eel things etc). Also, there were hundreds of these scooter trailer things flying about and not caring what the hell was in their way. Truly amazing due to its size, the variety of fish and the general hustle/bustle. You really have to go if you ever visit Tokyo.

Very fishy...

Bus tour to Nikko and the Japanese mountains

Went on a guided tour to the Toshogu Shrine (incl the Rinnoji Temple) then over to have a squiz at Lake Chuzenji and then to the Kegon waterfall, which I couldn't see as it was too foggy. Obviously I remembered all these names - along with the correct spelling - without referring to anything as I'm that kind of guy. Some stolen snaps for you.

Some temple thing in Nikko. Incidentally, got a roasting from a
monk for sitting on the steps of a nearby sacred temple in order to
tie my shoelace. Whoopsie...

The waterfall that I heard but couldn't see (despite being a few
hundred foot away) as was too foggy. Sounded good though.
Lake Chuzenji with the an impressive
Japanese mountain range in the background.

Big holiday - post 1

Ok, I'm back on here by popular demand (namely my mum and Kate G) in order to bore you ridged with tales from my big holiday. I'm actually writing this from the coolest internet cafe of all time in Tokyo. Is on the 12th floor of some building and I'm sitting here typing this in a very classy little dark wood cubicle, sitting on a black leather reclining chair and listening to some subtle lift music style jazz. Oozes cheesy yuppie class - I love it! Here's the link:

http://www.gcc-bagus.jp/

Think I'll do this chronologically. Oh, and I can't put my pics on here yet so have nicked other peoples (much better) ones from the internet in order to make things a smidgen more interesting.

Day 1 - Heathrow to Tokyo

Had to work very late on Fri night and then had to get up very early on Sat morning in order to pack and ended up having about 5 hours sleep . My plane then left at 1.45pm on the Sat and I managed to sleep for about an hour I reckon on the 11 hour flight as I'm far to big to get comfortable on the piddling little chairs in peasant class. Then had a power nap when I finally got to my hotel here (after an hour on a coach) and literally dragged myself up in order to look around Tokyo since I'm only here for two days. Is 8pm over here now and I feel like it's 8am after staying up all night. My body clock doesn't know whether I'm coming or going.

Day 2 - Milling around Tokyo

Tokyo is clearly a very cool city - what I've seen so far I love. So many people yet so more relaxed than London. People are so nice and polite as well. Went into Starbucks (shame on me) and the girl who served me gave me a coffee with a beaming smile and cupped my outstretched hand in hers when she gave me the change. Wasn't sure if she was just being polite or fancied a bit of a weary looking, unshaven UK bloke with large bags under his eyes. Ok, ok. I know deep down it was probably the former!

People are very polite and respectful over here generally. Speaking to people on mobiles on tubes/trains/buses is frowned upon as it annoys other passengers. I actually went on a tube ride after getting lost wandering around aimlessly for an hour or two. Was sat outside the station for quite a while working out where to go though. Click on the below and you might understand why...

Go on then - try and find Sengakuji on this baby.

Have tried a bit of the local stuff as well as the visit to Starbucks. Sat down in a place called Noodle Workshop (some Japanese fast food chain I reckon) and woolfed down some 'beef cheek with mushroom' noodles. Not sure which of the two obvious places on a cow where you can find cheek that it originated from but was very nice nonetheless.

Something else I came across was the below, the Tokyo Tower. I'd never heard of it before but it's really similar in structure to the Eiffel Tower and not dissimilar proportions. There were also a few French restaurants and cafes dotted around as well. Wonder if this place is somehow linked with France?

Ring a bell mes amis de la France?

One other thing that was weird was the taxis. As well as there being loads of them, the doors open for you by themselves - as if by magic (and I personally think magic is somehow involved). Impressed me anyway. They also look quite cool - see nicked snap below.

One final thing is that I feel like Hulk Hogan. There are not many non-Japanese folk about and relative to most of them, I feel like I'm a full foot taller and twice the weight (that means they must be five and a half stone doesn't it, calculation fans?).

Tomorrow I'm going to some temple in the Japanese countryside near Tokyo. I'm actually treading in the footsteps of the great explorer Eileen 'Chong' Cheng and will compare notes with her when I get back.

Right, I'm going off on another wander. Next update in a few days. Later.