Hello all. It has been over a month since I last updated this blog, but now with a whole evening free, I am devoting some time to adding my journal of New Zealand to the site. Christchurch Arrived here on the 19th May from Bali via Sydney. Spent the time over the next 24 hours looking around the city, visiting the botanical gardens and sleeping. Christchurch has a very English feel to the place, only it's much more quiet. On the 20th, I was joined by Christine (friend from home). The 21st we went up the gondola on Mount Cavendish, and [View Full Entry]

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Wellington Arrived in Wellington on the 8th June. Things we did here included a visit to the Te Papa museum which gave information about the whole history of NZ, as well as the wildlife, past geological activity, a collection of artwork and a cafe that does rather bad espresso. We also walked around much of the city centre and visited the University, which I would seriously consider going to, to do an Engineering Masters, if only they did the course I want. Oh well, maybe Auckland Uni. Anyhoo, we also went up the cable car, to get a very good view [View Full Entry]

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Cairns - Diving in the Great Barrier Reef My flight from Auckland left at around 6am, then after a brief stopover in Brisbane, arrived in Cairns early afternoon. Reasonably hot here for the middle of winter, but could be better. I spent the afternoon sitting in the sun, considering what to do here, and visiting various tourist information offices. By the end of the day, I had arranged a 5 day diving course: PADI Open Water. This would enable me to freely dive without an instructor anywhere in the world; just hire equipment and go. The course started the following day [View Full Entry]

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Arrival In Bali - Balian Trying to get to Kuta (in the southern region of the island) on the afternoon I arrived in Bali (on the western tip of the island) proved a bit too difficult on the public bus I was on. A group of surfer Aussies and Canadians jumped on the bus once I and a couple of others I had met at Ijen were getting totally fed up with the journey. They sold us the idea of stopping off at Balian for the evening. Twas a very very small village on the coast, with nothing there to do [View Full Entry]

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Singapore G'day all. I've finally found time to sit down and write out a good few entries. So the first one: Singapore. Only spent two and a half days here, but I managed to get in almost all I wanted to. Arrived at the airport at about 8pm after 14 hours on the plane (2 hour delay on Heathrow tarmac) and was picked up by my prepaid taxi transfer to the hotel. Two minutes before arriving at this booked hotel, my driver decided to tell me that it was in the middle of the red light district. Oops, I had [View Full Entry]

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Jakarta 5th May - Arrived in this smeggy city late afternoon, just in time for some rip-off taxi driver to transport me through the rush hour of the Indonesian capital with a horrendous driving style, common to that of every other road user here. How I didn't witness a single accident during my 2 hour drive I couldn't work out. Arriving at a hostel on Jl Jaksi (the Ko Sam road of Jakarta, but rubbish) I went for a quick exploration on foot of the local area. The next day I headed to the developed part of town where the shopping [View Full Entry]

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