MandyB

This is my last blog entry from my Round the World 2008 trip. I've been putting off finishing my travel blog for over 3 months, because it's hard to finish something that has been one of the best things I've ever done in my entire life. I didn't want to admit it was over, I also wanted to do it justice and thank all the people who helped me along the way. I hope you enjoy this last one, several of my subscribers have been kind enough to say they really enjoyed the blogs and will miss them, I will too! Anyway, feel free to post comments I love to read them and have them as a permanent momento from you, when I download my entire blog to backup. If you want to see some photos ... read more

The Tranzalpine train journey is: 'rated one of the world’s great scenic railway journeys'. Here's some blurb from promotional material. Of course I was travelling from Greymouth heading towards Christchurch, not from Christchurch to Greymouth, so you may have to read some of this backwards ;o) The TranzAlpine scenic train journey travels between Christchurch and Greymouth, from one coast of New Zealand to the other. From your carriage you’ll see the fields of the Canterbury Plains and farmland, followed by the spectacular gorges and river valleys of the Waimakariri River. Your train then climbs into the Southern Alps before descending through lush beech rain forest to the West Coast town of Greymouth - a great base for visits to Punakaiki and the always popular glaciers. The TranzAlpine journey is an ideal weekend getaway or honeymoon vacation ... read more

In an attempt to maybe, just maybe, get onto the featured travel blogs on this website, seeing as I don't have much longer left travelling, I've stopped putting the photos chronologically and have pulled some of the better ones to the front for this entry. Some of the bloggers have such fantastic photos and writing skills though, so it's a long shot but...you just never know! So I hope you enjoy the ones of Mount Cook National Park and then the photostory actually starts properly with the 'Blue Cod' fish and chip sign! Tuesday 8th April - Newton The Search Continues ------------------------------------------ From: MandyB Sent: Tuesday, 8 April 2008 10:34 a.m. To: BrownKiwi Subject: To Hannes - Please send the bear Dear Hannes, Further to our telephone conversation this morning, please could you kindly post my ... read more

Monday 24th March, I arrived in Wellington on the bus about 45 minutes late, got caught up in Holiday Traffic. Arrived at the station at platform 9, to find that platform 9 3/4 was only next door! I checked into the Cambridge Hotel and Backpackers in the city centre, near all the cafes and decided to spend two nights in the hotel part, as I had a job interview the next day, and so needed a decent night's sleep, then would spend the rest of the week in the cheaper backpacker's bit, until my flight from Wellington to Queenstown on Sunday. I spent some of the evening preparing for the job interview the next day. It's an IT company in Wellington, who emailed me about a Project Facilitator job, so I decided to keep my options ... read more

Monday 17th March, Todd and his colleague, dropped me off at a town on their way to work, where I had an early breakfast and got to the Tourist info place when it opened. Lonely Planet is right, those people in there are SO helpful. Anyway, I got a backpacker lodge recommendation for Paihia in the Bay of Islands (have been wanting to go there since I last visited NZ 10 years ago and didn't make it that far north before) http://www.saltwaterlodge.co.nz - and I purchased a bus pass for 30 hours busing around NZ to get myself started. The bus arrived at 9.30am and after a short coffee break, where I chatted to a couple from the UK on a 4 week Saga holiday, those retirees are having the time of their life btw, we ... read more