http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Lofty-UK/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Lofty UK en-us Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:57:47 +0000 Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:57:47 +0000 BulaWhen 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 mostlyNadiClear 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 sittin http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Fiji/Mamanuca-Islands/Malolo-Island/blog-268765.html 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 apol http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Coromandel/Hahei/blog-266555.html Going to have to make this brief because I'm mileskilometres 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 WellingtonTent 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Bay-of-Islands/Paihia/blog-266535.html 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 SoundAnother Jurassic Park moment or two. Leaving Q http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Kaikoura/blog-255669.html 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 IslandChristchurchAlthough i am currently in Christchuch I originally landed in Christchurch http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Christchurch/blog-251192.html ...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 wil http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/Darling-Harbour/blog-240194.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Great-Ocean-Road/blog-240181.html 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 mentionok 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 apol http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/Melbourne-Park/blog-240171.html Grsquoday 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 completel http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-234614.html ...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 http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Surfers-Paradise/blog-230446.html ...Life in more ways than one we've been in Oz for 4 days and it's been packed full of fun We've seen so many wierd and wonderful creatures. Still getting used to the change in lifestyle and of course prices gone from spending 3 or 4GBP on accomadation and a pound or 2 on meals in a restaurant to over a tenner on accomadation and having to cook our own food it's also incredibly humid here http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cairns/Cairns-City/blog-226267.html ...Singapore Well what can i say singapore has been fantastic met some great people been to many places and tried lots of new food sad to be leaving.i caught the bus to singapore with cat and laura the same girls from tonsai. i have never had so much fun at customs walking in their was the usual signs STRICTLY PROHIBITED guns knifes explosives chewing gum animals... hang on http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Singapore/Little-India/blog-225004.html ...long journey to KL 9am left tonsai on my own on a longtail to Ao Nang fine although managed to fill a cut on my toe with sand nice1030am eventually got picked up by a pickup truck and taken to a mini bus fine.11am small minibusvan with a absolutely bonkers driver he just wouldnt stop overtaking people bend or no bend also there was a monk on board interesting crampt bumpy a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Wilayah-Persekutuan/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-224995.html ...but different i lost track of the number of times i heard that in thailand it seems like a lifetime ago but since my last blog I have spent 11 days in Tonsai Krabi 1 mammoth day of travel a day in KL and 6 great days in SingaporeTonsai was great. we took the night boat from Ko pha ngan which was an interesting experience. there were no chairs just matresses on the floor and a reallll http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Krabi/blog-224991.html Hello from Ko Phanganwe decided to come here for a night really glad we did we managed to get a room at paradise bungalows for 350 baht GBP5 between us it's quite quiet at the moment because we're 2weeks away from the legendary full moon parties. such a good night though. because there were only a dozen or so people in our bar we all sat around playing cards etc the staff are a great lau http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Pha-Ngan/blog-219529.html ...go away come again another day preferably when we've left After much deliberation we decided to change our ticket and head for Ko Tao we thought the weather would be better ha We left Bankok at 6pm on a VIP bus no less it was pretty comfy for a coach. 12 hours later we were in Surrathani it rained most of the way loads of the roads were coverd in water There was talk of monsoons and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Tao/blog-218734.html ....the 6th of November turns out it was a lucky day to have our first full day in Thailand It's a national holiday the day Buddha was born and died and so we were able to get into all the temples for free The temples were amazing massive solid gold Buddhas and one that was over 30 metres high Also goverment made it so that a Tuk Tuk easily the craziest form of transport i've been on wa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-217419.html