http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Fitch/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Fitch en-us Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:25:47 +0000 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:25:47 +0000 This will be the first entry to my travelblog in a year. I have been to many places in the past year and one day I will update it to record those experiences. I guess I have found it hard to devote the time to sit down and record my experiences of travelling through these countries but having recently completed a trip around Turkey I am aiming to get the travelblog back on track.Arrival in Istanb http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-340943.html After the superb weekend we had in Edinburgh watching the All Blacks play Scotland we were pumped up for the ABrsquos RWC quarterfinal against the French in Cardiff. Recognising what an epic weekend this would be we originally had hatched a plan where four of us Bev Tim James and I would do the trip in a camper van as part of a lads tiki tour. However the plan needed revising when James w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Cardiff/blog-213414.html ldquoRrrrrrrrrrrrrrugby Wersquore going to the rrrrrrrrugbyrdquo I could barely contain my excitement as the train pulled out of Londonrsquos Kings Cross station completely packed with Kiwis. We were all on our way north to Edinburgh for the All Blacksrsquo pool game against Scotland an event which had been keenly anticipated by my friends and I since we secured our tickets 12 month http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Edinburgh/blog-206081.html Our time in Bangkok was split between a couple of days at the beginning of our trip and one final day after we got back from Phuket and Phi Phi. Therefore this update will cover our whole stay in Bangkok. Well as the song goes one night in Bangkok makes the hard man humble so naturally I was a little nervous about staying there for not one but three nights. Being far from a hard man and faced wi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-159111.html Valencia the Lonely Planet will tell you that Spainrsquos third largest city is a ldquocosmopolitan city of designer boutiques architectural splendour and very much a party town that sizzles on Spainrsquos Mediterranean coastrdquo. However since April it has been the battlefield for international sportrsquos oldest trophy sailingrsquos Americarsquos Cup. For 8 years it was our cu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Valencian-Community/Valencia/blog-163882.html I never finished off my Thailand blogs from our trip in late February so here is the first long overdue update with the Bangkok blog to follow shortly. After our 3 days on Phuket we took the early morning ferry to Phi Phi Island. Phi Phi is actually made up of a couple of islands the larger island being inhabited Phi Phi Don and the smaller a national park Phi Phi Leh. Like Phuket Phi Phi is http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Phi-Phi/blog-153915.html This will be the first travelblog from our holiday in Thailand and as she has flown out from NZ to join me for the trip the first blog starring Cushla. We are spending 9 nights in Thailand starting in Bangkok then heading to Phuket then to Phi Phi Island and finally back to Bangkok for another night. Because of this split itinerary Irsquove decided to leave the Bangkok travelblog until last http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Phuket/blog-131974.html For an expat Kiwi living overseas in the UK there are certain rites of passage that just simply have to be done with the Waitangi Day Pub Crawl being one of these legendary events. For those nonKiwis who are somewhat mystified as they read this Waitangi Day is the national day of New Zealand that is celebrated every year on 6 February. However for reasons too pathetic to mention back home Wai http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/London-City/blog-128412.html After spending Christmas in France on December 29th Bevan and I went on to Munich to spend New Years with some good friends of ours Blair and Kati. I first met Blair 10 years ago in our first year at Canterbury University but since then we hadnrsquot seen much of each other so it was great to catch up with him. After Uni Blair was a newly graduated zoologist and headed to Africa to chase Rhin http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Munich/blog-123366.html For myself and for most of my friends Christmas 2006 was going to be our first Xmas away from family and friends back in New Zealand and of course the NZ summer. Nevertheless a plan to get a team together and head away for Christmas quickly materialised and we booked ourselves a large house in the French countryside about an hour inland from La Rochelle.During the week prior to Christmas London w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Poitou-Charentes/Saint-Jean-d-Ang-ly/blog-117443.html Paris is turned Black and BeigeWhen you are doing the famed Kiwi OE a trip to support the All Blacks on a northern hemisphere tour is an unmissable event. And who better to unleash some patriotic passion with than on a Beige Brigade supporters tour to Paris. Perhaps best known for supporting the NZ cricket team and bringing beige back into the fashion spectrum they have now set up a London outp http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-104662.html A couple of months back I was in Barcelona but until now I haven't updated my blog so here goes a very retrospective look at our weekend in Barcelona.One of the great things about being based in the UK is that you can make quick raids to Europe in the space of a weekend. Not that we really needed an excuse but with a friend of mine called Jane's OE tour of duty about to come to an end and another http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-102999.html This is going to be another of my war history blogs like the one on Crete. It's really more about me recording my personal experience rather than entertaining you lot so skip it if you aren't interested. For those who do read it hopefully I can give you more of an appreciation of just what went on and the important contributions and sacrifices that the NZ soldiers made.Perhaps my main motivation http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/El-Alamein/blog-86404.html With the Nile tour completed I had arranged to spend another couple of days visiting the coastal city of Alexandria which is only a short trip from El Alamein the scene of a major WWII battle that my grandfather had fought in. Anyway first some background on Alexandria and why its worth a look. The city was founded by its namesake Alexander the Great after he had conquered Egypt and had himself p http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-86401.html Well my last blog entry was a week and a half ago and due to a mix of 1 an unreliable internet connection in Alexandria and 2 the onset of severe travel blog fatigue yes it did kick in eventually I left the conclusion of my Egyptian adventures to be told another day. I am now back in London and with the down time that one has when you are on the job hunt now seems as good a time as any to http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Lower-Egypt/Cairo/blog-83180.html Well we thought Luxor was bad but the further south you go in Egypt the hotter it gets Yesterday was a barmy 50 degrees which is rather warm and apparently they can get up to 55 56 deg on a truly hot day. Fair enough though as it is the middle of the Egyptian summer and we are only a couple of kms from the Sahara DesertAnyway on Thursday morning we had a very early start 3am in order to trav http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Upper-Egypt/Aswan/blog-82958.html After visiting the Valley of the Kings we boarded our Nile Cruise Boat for the eagerly awaited 3 day cruise up the Nile from Luxor to Aswan. Our boat was actually a 4 star vessel called the Rosetta. It carried 90 passengers and according to the information sheet it had been renovated at least once so twice since its maiden voyage in 1989. Nevertheless she was a beauty and with a pool deck co http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Upper-Egypt/blog-82814.html So having spent Saturday at the Pyramids we then set off on our trip south from Cairo. As far as I was concerned the real tour started here We left on the overnight train to Luxor which despite being a 10 hour longhaul was great fun. We had smuggled a bit of booze on board felt a bit like sneaking it into the cricket so we were quite merry and very noisy. Nevertheless we had comfortable airline http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Upper-Egypt/Luxor/blog-82366.html After leaving Crete and Greece on Thursday I'm now into the second half of my trip Egypt Getting here was an absolute mission though. My plane was scheduled to leave Heraklion Crete at 11.10pm for Athens and from there flying to Cairo leaving at 12.50am. However we were delayed leaving Heraklion until 12.00am the London terrorist scare had flights all stuffed up which put the Cairo connectio http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Lower-Egypt/Cairo/blog-81469.html Todays blog is going to be quite different from the usual travel updates as it summarises my trip and experience in visiting the battlefields and war cemetaries of the Battle of Crete. It will involve a bit of a historical context to begin with and will probably be quite long so perhaps you could find time to read it later. I think I will start with explaining just what went on during the battle http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Chania/blog-80813.html