Lofty UK
David Alward Joined: October 30th 2007
Logged in: November 8th 2011
Logged in: November 8th 2011
Travel Blog Posts
Me, lazing in a hamok on Mana
Bula!! When you think of Fiji, you think of sun, white sand, palm trees, and a lot of relaxing - coincidentally - that's how my time was, well mostly! Nadi Clear skies as we flew into Nadi, and it was noticably hotter when we "disembarked" the plane! It wasn't long before we experienced "Fiji Time" - normally it's great, no rushing around, just a "when you're ready" philosophy. But when you're sitting in an airport waiting for a shuttle bus....? The Nomads Skyodge hostel was nice, if a little isolated. The $10 meal would only have filled a 5 year old!! Amy and I organised our week out in the islands that night. took a little time but worked out well in the end - we got some great deals! We balanced the week into 2 ... read more
Maori Night
Around half way through the month on the North Island I jumped back on the Stray bus. I'd already paid for the ticket and it allowed me to do the Tongariro crossing. Amy jumped on too, and we met up with Wendy which was cool as it had been a good while since we'd seen each other, let alone travelled together. For some reason, when I publish this blog is resets all the photo labels and order so apologies for things that do not match. Auckland to Hahei Shortly after jumping aboard the substantially smaller bus we went up to the volcanic crater that overlooks the city. Such a dramatic contrast to the rest of the views in NZ. Big city below, dominated by the sky tower and surrounding sea. Brief stop in Thames for food/beer ... read more
Wellington cable car
Going to have to make this brief because I'm miles/kilometres behind on my blogs! I'm in the US of A at the moment, been to Fiji, and this blog is now about things that happened 6 weeks ago! Windy Wellington Tent nearly blew away in the night, Amy and I had to jump out 3 times in the night to peg the thing back down!! Never been to a city so windy! Botanical gardens were pretty, especially the rose garden. The old cable car the takes you to the top of them was a nice addition and museum was interesting - i have decided that i do indeed need my own personal cable car. Napier No rain in Napier in 3 months, and it tips down when we get there, typical! i blame Amy's knack of ... read more
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I've barely paused for breath since my last blog, not that I'm daring to complain, it's just an explanation as to why i haven't had a chance to update my blog! Since Christchurch I have only spent consecutive nights anywhere twice. Again, apologies if parts don't make sense - I haven't really edited... I'll carry on from where I left off... Milford Sound Another Jurassic Park moment or two. Leaving Queenstown before sunrise, it was a sleepy bus ride to the Milford sound. However heads started to lift as we got closer and the scenery improved. Like most people I booked myself onto a boat cruise as this is the only real way to see the area fully ( I certainly didn't plan in forking out for a flight!). Although called a sound, Milford Sound is ... read more
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I have to begin by saying I have never fell in love with a country in quite the same way as I have with New Zealand. My last 4 weeks have been jam packed with adventure, awe and adrenaline! I really should have written a blog here before now because I have done so much, but here goes... New Zealand: South Island Christchurch Although i am currently in Christchuch, I originally landed in Christchurch way back on 2nd February, which frankly feels like a lifetime ago. Here 2 nights, I spent my time exploring the city. It had a somewhat relaxed feel to it, more so in the way it felt like home but in the past. The cathedral was nice and there was a choir singing when I was there, which contrasted the old men ... read more
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...Aussie - Oi oi oi! From Melbourne, we hired another car to get back to Sydney for Australia day. yet again the hire company tried to give us a hatchback, but after a brief discussion we unded up with a brand new mitsubishi saloon with a 3.8litre semi automatic engine! such a nice car, really smooth, and lots of gadgets. it made me realise why people buy those sorts of cars! We drove down to wilsons prom, which is the southern most point of australia and then along to lakes entrance where we spent the night. then up to canberra before heading back to Sydney. Another fun roadtrip. One of the best things was stopping in random little towns. it was so much better than the bus would have been, we got to go where and ... read more
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From Melbourne we hired a car to go down the great ocean road and up the grampians before heading back to Melbourne. The bright spark at the rental place didnt think about it being a little bit illegal to drive an 8 seater if you are under 25! fortunately there only ended up being 5 of us. so after telling him "no a 3 door hatchback wont be big enough for 5 people plus backpacks!" we ended up with this monster of a mitsubishi! it was no looker but it had a 3.5litre V6 unber the bonnet so i wasnt compaining! thanks to the women in the vehicle the first thing i did was drive to the neighbours set, which to me just looked like any other cul-de-sac in the suburbs and its not even called ... read more
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G'day again from down under! although this is listed as being in Melbourne i'm actually back in Sydney, it's just i spent so long at melbourne park i thought it deserved a mention! ok since my last blog i have been pretty busy and covered around 3000km, which is pretty far in 2 and bit weeks! i'm making use of the free internet and getting all done now as these will be my last blogs in Oz - so apologies for the long read, but at least you didnt have to write them!! Ended up visiting canberra twice, one on the bus to melbourne and on the way back. i found it to be a rather strange place. it was a purpose built capital city, so it was all nicely laid out and very green but ... read more
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G’day everybody! ok since my last blog i have ventured down the coast to sunny Sydney. After leaving surfers paradise with some of the guys i spent christmas with, i spent 2 days in Byron Bay. Annoyingly, not as long as i had wanted, but then we were running out of days to new years! Byron was really nice, essentially a heavily tourism driven seaside town, but really laid back and completely different to surfers paradise. The beach and waves were good fun, and the hostel (holiday village) had free boards to use too! We had an appartment between 4 of us and 2 randoms, which was great because we had our own kitchen, bathroom, sitting room, tv, balcony, and meant we could invite others over for a few beverages before a night out! The hostel ... read more
...Ho, Merry Christmas! Well it has been a little while since my last blog and i've done some amazing things in that time! Australia has been amazing, having a great time. ok so going back... last time i wrote i was about to get the overnight bus to airlie beach, that was a shattering journey. being 6 foot 3 it's not so easy to sleep when you have leg room roughly the size of a first class stamp, oh and a japanese girl who decided my shoulder would make an ideal pillow at 4 in the morning! Kind of getting used to the buses now though, for example our 6 hour bus ride to brisbane felt like nothing at all, in fact it kind of nice to have some time to yourself to read or listen ... read more
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