Whooo...new version of Blogger, exciting :)

Well, I was right, Queenstown is Partytown. But.....I find it a bit shit. Reason being that I could not for the life of me find any decent cheese-playing venue anywhere. For somewhere with such a huge backpacker population, I find this amazing. Most places played a couple of 'standard' cheese songs (not even Bon Jovi!), then moved to my musical arch nemesis - dance music. Even worse, I was forced to listen to ear hemorrhage inducing drum 'n' bass, clearly the worst music in the world, and I am sure, abhorred by God himself for being so crap.

But never mind, this means that I shall enjoy Reflexing even more back in Bristol :)

Apart from getting drunk and an ear-bashing, I have again been doing extreme amounts of not a lot. Queenstown is very much geared towards doing extreme activities, none of which I want to do. I find it amazing that there are so many of these activities in NZ, and I am sure it won't be long before they invent Extreme Walking Down the Road, and charging you $150 for it.

I had planned to do quite a bit of walking but this has unfortunately been rained off, although I was lucky enough to get good weather when I went to Milford Sound. Which, despite everyone's ravings about it, was not as good as I was expecting. Probably because I've seen the same scenery before in Thailand and Vietnam. The scenery on the road towards Milford however, was amazing. Lots of LOTR-esque mountains everywhere. I have seen a million mountains now, but I still haven't gotten bored of them yet.
So, my past few days here have been spent watching dvds, and generally not moving out the hostel, apart from going down the pub in the evenings. It's been quite refreshing really, as I spend most of my time being shuttled to and from places on the Kiwi bus.

Tomorrow I head to Christchurch, where I have made myself swear that I will actually move out the hostel and do something interesting. Fingers crossed for cheese also...

Moved about a bit since I left Rotorua, where I did an extreme amount of not a lot, thanks to the rubbish weather, although on the day I left I did manage to see some geysers, and some bubbling mud pools, which was quite cool. Rotorua is some kind of geothermal hotspot in NZ, so the place smells a bit funny (like rotten eggs, but it's actually sulphur). Also had a few dodgy locals roaming around the place.

After Rotorua I got a bit more adventurous by going black water rafting in some glow worm filled caves, and then throwing myself out of a plane that afternoon. Ness will be proud that I finally did a skydive :) wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, although I did shut my eyes when we first jumped out the plane. Opened them and almost shat myself as I was freefalling on my back and staring up at the plane. However, as soon as the parachute opened the dive was amazing, as I felt like I was falling really slowly, and I could see for miles, all over this huge lake with lots of LOTR scenery everywhere.

I've calmed down from all my mad activities now, apart from hiking on Franz Joseph glacier yesterday, which was COLD, but awesome at the same time. Never seen scenery like it.

The next few days are going to be relatively normal, as I have done all the so-called "mad" activities that I wanted to do (I'm not big on getting cold, wet, being on boats or jumping into rivers tied to elastic) so I am now going to do some relaxing in Queenstown for a while. Although unfortunately Queenstown is Partytown, so that might not happen :)

Just finished 4 days of exploring Auckland - my first 4 days in NZ!

Was a nice enough city, very quiet compared to Australian or English ones, I was wandering round the high street on a Saturday and it was almost empty. Which is nice really, no crazy people bumping into you or trying to mug you :)

I am trying to save money at the moment, so everything I have done so far has been free, including a free tour I got when I bought my Kiwi Experience bus pass in Oz, which was pretty handy, as it meant I got out and about to see more of Auckland that I would have done on foot.

Auckland is pretty mad really, it is built on top of about 48 volcanoes, and you can still go up the ones that still exist today, although now they look like nice grassy hills. I went to the museum and was pleased to discover that another one could pop up at any moment, which would be the ultimate fun for people who live there :) I even went in a fake house which simulated what would happen if a new volcano did decide to turn up. All in all the best museum I have ever been to, because I am geeky, and found the whole volcano section really interesting.

I've now started my Kiwi Experience bus thingy, which means I can hop on and hop off round both islands, although sometimes it seems more like a tour, as they are constantly wanting to book people into certain accommodation and on certain tours/activities. Tonight I am going against the grain and am staying in a hostel different to the 33 other people on my bus. Quite proud of myself really, as this one is cheaper, and run by some very nice people. Also down the road from the local beach which has proper LOTR scenery going on :)

Tomorrow I am off to Routura, where I am told there is a lot of bubbling mud, and a Maori performance for us tourists, which sounds like fun :)

Whoops....

I do realize that on my last post that I said I was going to write more frequently, but in typical Sod's Law style, my hostel stopped doing the free internet. Will try to cram everything in this post without making it too long :)

I am now writing this post from New Zealand, after spending just over 2 months living in Brisbane. During that time, Ness and I split off from each other, because we had altercations and fisticuffs.

Only joking.

Long story short, she went to Noosa to stay with this Aussie guy she met in Mission Beach, and lived with him for about a month, before realising he was a bit of a nob-jockey. From all accounts, he was weed smoking dole scum who refused to get a job. During this time I decided I wanted to make some travel plans of my own, seeing as I thought Ness would be staying with Tim long-term. She came back to Brisbane after I made my plans, and has since made some of her own, and is now staying with her brother in Sydney, but we are still in close contact.

I have to admit that I had a great time in Brisbane, even without Ness there, I made some great friends at the hostel, and I think that made it easier to get used to travelling on my own.
With the money from my two jobs - slave labour (cleaning the hostel) and being the world's worst waitress, I flew to Adelaide and then did a Great Ocean Road tour to Melbourne, which was awesome, despite the weather being a bit shit.

And, whilst in Melbourne, I met...PAUL "ONE-LEGGED NEIGHBOURS GOD" ROBINSON! And also Stingray and Elle from Neighbours, although they don't have Paul's cool status. I am a bit sad that I didn't get to meet Harold "Dirty Harry" Bishop, but I did get to buy a signed postcard with him on, which is almost as cool.

Melbourne was a nice city, although I think I preferred Sydney, as either Sydney has less weird people in it, or I was just staying in the weird capital of Melbourne. I almost stayed in the world's worst hostel, which was above a pub, and despite me having a reservation, offered my a mattress on the floor of a tiny room overflowing with other people's stuff. Fortunately I managed to get into another, nicer hostel, so I was able to tell them where to shove their mattress.

So here I am now travelling round New Zealand, will be a bit weird, as even though I have been on my own for the past month, I have been surrounded by people I knew and got on well with. So fingers crossed I'll find the same here :)

Time to update on my first week in Brisbane.

First off I would just like to announce that as of 3am on Sept 3rd, I am now an aunt :)

Lisa gave birth to a gigantic beast of a baby girl, weighing in at 9lbs. Not having a clue about babies whatsoever, I am told that is quite heavy for a newborn, which leads me to believe the kid will grow up to resemble my nanny. Any of you who met her (and if Neil is reading this, I'm sure he will be wetting himself as he thinks of all the 'Beast' stories we made up at school) will know that my nan was really tall and well built. This is a good sign, as I did fear that Neve might grow up to be stupidly small, like me and Lisa. I haven't actually spoken to Lisa yet, but I am fairly sure that they are still settled on the name of Neve.

And onto the subject of my first week back in Western society....

Brisbane is a big change from Darwin. I have some trouble believing they are both in the same country. Darwin was all small buildings, dusty roads amd insane locals, and Brisbane is all skyscrapers, shopping malls and business-like people. You can tell which place I prefer.
The place I am staying at is really nice, it is in an area just outside the CBD called New Farm, but it is so close you can actually walk into the city centre in about 25 minutes. Which is handy for me as lately I have been feeling like I have not been getting any exercise whatsoever. There is a swimming pool in New Farm which I initially got excited about, but I have now found out it is:

A) Outside
B) Stupidly expensive, especially compared to the pool I last used for lap swimming in Sydney
C) A pool used by olympic and extremely athletic swimmers

so that option may be ruled out as a means of exercise. Which is annoying as I really do miss my swimming. There IS a pool at the hostel but the neighbours complained about people dive bombing off balconies into it, so now it is no longer filled.

The people here are also pretty cool, I am starting to make some good friends, as this is one of those hostels where people stay long term while they work. It is fairly small, so you get to know everyone quite quickly. There are a lot of Irish people here, which presents problems for me from time to time, as I have trouble understanding what they say after they have been drinking (anytime after 2pm). But all in all they are a nice bunch. They have dragged me down with them as of late, as the weather has been constantly rainy, which means I have been stuck in the hostel with nothing to do apart from drink wine (or 'goon' as it is known here) for the past few days.

Things are looking up however, I have gotten myself a job here cleaning the bathrooms, which sounds like a shite job but because they are cleaned everyday, they are always fairly clean, which means not a lot of hard work for me. I get to live here for free, which is a bonus, and also go on local tours for free.
On the downside, I only get $100 a week, as it is only a 3 hour a day job, so I am having to look for an evening job to make more money. I have had some success in that area, as I have a trial in a restaurant tomorrow, but my cup is only half full, as I doubt I'll get the job once they realise the fact that I am rather clumsy and forgetful.

But keep your fingers crossed just in case :)

I am not sure how long I am going to stay here, I am hoping save enough money to get a flight to Melbourne and stay there for a week. Ness and I are both dying to go on the Neighbours tour, as we heard somewhere that you can get drunk with key members of the cast, and I think it would be hilarious to get trashed with Harold :)

That is me pretty much up to date, and being as I get free internet, I will try to post on here more often.

Just thought I would post on my last day in Darwin, being as I have had an eventful couple of weeks since I last posted.

I finally managed to get work - all 5 days of it - in the month I have spent here. In typical Sod's Law style, I wasn't given any employment until I had given up on ever managing to get a job here and booked a flight to Brisbane, which obviously made me instantly employable.
So, I have spent one day unloading Arnott's biscuits from a lorry into a warehouse (got free biscuits at the end of that one!), one day cleaning about 12 toilets/showers in my hostel, and 3 days cleaning various parts of the local Army Barracks, which wasn't a bad job, as I got to look at hot men in army gear a fair bit. Although, unfortunately, there is about an 80% ratio of fat middle aged army men to the few young ones.

My streak of bad luck continued to worsen in the past few weeks, as I had to make a trip to A&E thanks to a blister on my foot getting infected and turning black. I initially dragged my plague infested foot gimp-style to a pharmacist, thinking he could fix it. Unfortunately he took one look at my foot, mentioned something about "losing a toe if the infection got into a bone", and made me hot-foot (pardon the pun) my gangrenous self to Casualty. Which meant I lost several days to feeling feverishly sick, guzzling antibiotics and sitting around with a black foot.

But on a lighter note, a friend of ours at the hostel had free tickets to the Darwin Cup, which is a bit like Ascot, but where the women dress up and the men wander round in shorts drinking beer. I made a couple of bets on horses (after asking locals how you bet) , although I was a pauper, so I only bet a grand total of $3, which is just over a pound. I also got to bet $5 of some drunk guys money on a horse, although annoyingly I didn't win there either.
All in all that was one of the best days I've had in Darwin, I've never seen races before and I've never gambled, so it was a good experience, plus our friends won some money so we got free food and drink all day :)

Now I have checked out my hostel and am waiting for a flight to Brisbane, which leaves at the lovely time of 1.10 in the morning. Ness is flying in a couple of days after me, as I couldn't hold on anymore, I have to leave Darwin now before I turn into a mentalist.

Speaking of which, I am hoping the locals in Brisbane might be a bit more normal than the yokels here. They are mainly men who seem to have not bothered learning manners, or a sense of personal boundaries. I am getting sick of lewd comments such as "Nice tits, love!" and getting checked out whilst walking down the street. One guy they other day actually took off his sunnies and stared down my top whilst walking along with his wife.

It will be nice to get to Brisbane, and back to the normality of the Western world. Fingers crossed I get a job there!

Just spent my first week in Darwin, and I have to say, it's been a fairly unlucky week so far.

Upon arriving in Darwin at 11pm at night, we immediately found ourselves homeless, as the stupid morons who took our hostel booking a week previously had cleverly forgotten to write our booking down. The reception was closed when we arrived, so we were forced to spend the night in the mosquito infested tv room of the hostel.

After spending a week in the same hostel, we were informed that paying a night in advance was simply not enough 'to meet the demand of excessive bookings', and so we were chucked out. Darwin is fully booked at this time, as it is peak holiday season, so we then faced the prospective of being homeless yet again, thanks to Australian moronity. Luckily (or stupidly, if you think about the hostel), no one had actually booked into our rooms on the day we moved out, so 2 hours after we had packed up and handed in our keys, we were allowed back in our room again. I now pay two nights in advance, so hopefully they have no reason to chuck me out again.

I also found out that my Grandma died last week, which adds to my wonderful run of bad luck, which I have attributed to the fact that a bat shat on me on the day I found out.
Apparently birds are good luck, but bats aren't. Which explains why I haven't been able to find a job for over a week, even though I have canvassed everywhere I can think of, and joined 9 recruitment agencies. And why the one job I got offered today I am not taking, because I got covered in sticky red mud on the way there to fill in an application form, and slipped over in the stupid red shit on the way back, cutting my toe open. And this is on the way to a restaurant, of all places.

So no jobs for me so far, although, with my wonderful run of luck again, Ness has gotten a job from a recruitment agency but I haven't. Apparently I am unemployable in Darwin.

If I don't manage to get a job in the next couple of days I will have to harass my parents into giving me money for a flight elsewhere, as I have some very depleted funds, seeing as I am forking money out for accommodation, and getting nothing in return, and I have now cut into my 'flight home' fund, so I need to be able to earn some money before I can come home.

Fingers crossed the next time I blog I will not be unemployed Dole Scum :)