Back to Britain one-year-and-a-week after we left. Las Vegas was an incomparable heady cocktail of chinking slot machines and outlandish casino hotels that was a fantastic way of rounding off the year. We flew out for four days on the Las Vegas airline and were told our stewardesses were named Sherri, Cherri and Gerri… it’s that kind of place. We discovered, however, that gambling was shit when we wasted twenty quid by feeding the pokies for a couple of hours but the cheap accommodation and...
[Not enough time to do Las Vegas so I’ll concentrate on the last week in LA]: Had a whirlwind week of theme parks, TV shows and culture. Started with our debut appearance on US TV in the audience of the Late Late Show hosted by some unfunny, nobody comedian. Um, our backs were clearly in view… It was quite an eye-opener, as well as a hand-killer, as we were encouraged to whoop, holler and clap our hands until they bled. Next was Universal Studios at which was the new Mummy Returns...
Despite United Airlines cocking up our seat reservations on the flight from Honolulu, we’ve made it okay to LA. We’re staying in West Hollywood at the Orbit Hotel which is more backpackery than swanky but close enough to the action. Bit of a mad place, lots of nutters, smog and cars but not as intimidating as I’d expected. Disneyland and Universal Studios are booked this week and then we’ve got a four-day jaunt to Las Vegas next week. And then home!
If anyone was in any doubt how seriously they’re taking the terrorist threat over here, you only need to visit some of the major tourist attractions. Sue and I caught the one-hour bus to Pearl Harbour yesterday with Sue carrying a little bag, cameras and not much more. Big mistake: signs and guards everywhere warned against taking anything in with you. Despite offering to either leave the bag outside the gates with the guards or even for them to thoroughly empty and examine its contents, we...
Now, I know it’s been a whole month since I last posted here but we’ve just come from Fiji where Internet facilities are completely non-existent. We spent two nights by the airport in Nadi at a great little beach-side resort. Lots of young backpackers who spend a night there before heading off to an island or to the coral coast. We moved on to the latter and stayed at a disappointing place called Vakaviti. You know it’s a bad idea when you see a For Sale sign outside and find the bar and...
The horrific terrorist crisis in New York’s kind of put a big dampener on things and you feel guilty trying to have fun after all the deaths and tragedy there. It’s also quite worrying when we’ve got seven flights ahead of us soon, four of which are in America. Let’s hope the terrorists are captured, airport security tightened and that everything’s settled. It’s just horrifying and disturbing what some will do in the name of religion.
We’re now in Melbourne after a couple of days in dull,...
The sun’s finally made it out from the rainclouds just as Sue and I set off on the Coogee to Bondi Beach walk. It’s basically full of beautiful people walking dogs. Sydney’s growing on us, especially Coogee where we’re staying at the moment.
I think our stumbling on the All Blacks’ line-out training session did them no favours; they lost in the last minutes of the Tri-Nations decider against Australia, cocking up the huge majority of their line-outs. We watched at a Coogee pub with a...
Finally made it to Sydney (hence the Australian flag). It’s a big shock to the system after the slow-paced, tranquil, sedate cities of New Zealand! We’re staying in the Glebe YHA until the weekend, a little out of the centre of the city, and will spend a few days in Coogee, just along the coast. We were couped up inside yesterday as the heavens poured all day long but we made it out this morning, walking across the city to view the obvious sites: the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. ...
After the progress we made on our first ever day of skiing, our second day was a lot less encouraging. After learning the basics of stopping and turning on a gentle slope, we realised that we weren’t as good as we thought we were when skiing down a steeper slope. We were itching to try the much steeper chairlift slopes but were still not good enough. Impatient and disenchanted, we could no longer be arsed and went home. In a huff.
Quick disclaimer: we’ve been in New Zealand where everything...
Had a quiet couple of days in Dunedin, picked up a sore throat, endured the Bus Driver From Hell who seemed to think his job was to point out every single farm or sheep throughout the Central Otago Region throughout a five-hour journey in one monotonous tone, did the Speights brewery tour and then came back to Queenstown. We’re now in a huge YHA full of stupidly-rich Japanese kids that are indefinitely living here and have been reportedly skiing/snowboarding for the last three months!
We did...
We’re now in Queenstown, the bungy/jetboat/extreme capital of the Southern Hemisphere after a mad week of Kiwi Experience. Against better judgement we did a 12000ft tandem skydive on Sunday morning, freefalling for 45 seconds. Very strange feeling that you just can’t describe but, despite being scared stupid, I want to do another just so that I can know what to expect and appreciate things like seeing the plane disappear above you so quickly. Amazing feeling.
Far too much to summarise here...
We’ve finally left Wellington so I’ll have no excuse for being so slack in posting to this thing. It was a strange feeling waving goodbye to the place - we’d made friends, had cool jobs and it was very tempting to stay but it was time to move on. It was beautiful day for the ferry trip across Cook Strait: the sea was flat and the sun was shining. The highlight of the trip was a young German boy breaking his glasses and then running to his mother crying (what we could hear) “my glasses are...
The British and Irish Lions were humbled in the test series in Australia; England are currently being completely annihilated in the Ashes cricket series against Australia; The Sydney Olympics were an unqualified success and Australia was just voted the second best country on Earth to live in. Kind of makes you want to be Australian, doesn’t it? Well, I’ve just heard from my second/third(?) cousins from Melbourne who barely know me but have offered to meet Sue and me when we get there in...
Less than four weeks to go in Wellington before we leave for the South Island. This is despite Sue’s employers begging her to stay at least until Christmas and even offering to help talk me round! She’s flattered and it was quite tempting to stay - after all, we’ve both got good jobs we enjoy and love the place - but we’d just be delaying the inevitable and could miss graduate recruitment deadlines. And, of course, we’re missing home.
I’m really looking forward to seeing the Marystaple gig on...
This is starting to get a bit rugby dominated but, hey ho, we are in Rugbyland after all. Sue and I had a mad day on Saturday when we finally got to see the All Blacks. We took our first train since England into Johnsonville for a pre-match house barbeque at one of Sue’s workmates. We also had our first taste of green-lipped mussels - apparently unique to NZ - which (fussy) Sue did very well not to spit in the chef’s face, bless her. She coped much better with the beer. The atmosphere at...
We had a great time watching NZ v Australia in the World Cup Play-Off, despite the embarrassing lack of quality on show. Unsurprisingly the Kiwis lost and reminded me of a mid-nineties Arsenal: not very talented but hardworking and committed. The rugby was excellent on Saturday too (with Joanna at the Backbencher) with the All Blacks thrashing Argentina and then the British Lions deservedly beating a dirty, whingeing New South Wales team. Roll on the first test!
The All Blacks have just begun their international season which means Kiwis can get back to their favourite passtime: watching and criticising their beloved ABs. NZ thrashed Samoa in the first match but not well enough to stop everyone worrying about playing Argentina, let alone France at the end of the month (which Sue and I are going to). Likely to cheer everyone up is the news that fly-half Mehrts is back on Saturday, Lomu’s back on the wing and Jerry Collins is in at Number 8.
It’s not...
It was strange watching my country re-elect its government while I sat at work on the other side of the world watching the results roll in over the Internet. I didn’t want to vote having been out of the country for the last seven months and in case didn’t fancy any of the parties. I can only really remember the previous couple of elections well but, from an early age, an election has always to me a constant media bombardment from politicians and their party spin machines. Largely avoiding the...
God it’s cold here. For some reason when we were planning our route through New Zealand we decided to move nearer the Antarctic for the winter. In wouldn’t be so bad except Wellington still hasn’t discovered central heating. Our flat has one small heater which competes with one of Sue’s fags to be the biggest heat source.
I should be looking forward to the coming long weekend but, because I’m technically a contractor, I don’t get the public holiday off. Lucky Susan’s an employee and so will be...
Football is a cruel mistress that continues to snatch my dreams away from me right at the death. Stupid twats.
So much to do with nzmusic.com which I’ll be helping to rebuild over the next four months. It’s the sort of project I’ve always wanted to get my teeth into so it’s about time I started putting my money where my mouth is.
Sue and I made it to a gig on Friday night - my first in far too long - at the local university. We’d had a few beers with Joanna and Richard (who’s in the capital for...
