Hello people Just thought I'd give everyone an update on how things are going in Bali. Well up until a couple of days ago we were both having a lovely time. We've got a really cool apartment/villa on the outskirts of busy Kuta which is the tourist hub of Bali. We are much happier being here coz it's fairly quiet and has a nice community feel about it. I've been getting on with my painting as planned and Matt's been enjoying the surf with a cool break about 500 metres down the road. Sweet! Got a lovely communal swimming pool too [View Full Entry]

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Salamat Datang, everyone!!! Our new address untill october 8th is FAO Matt & Nibby Pondok Alit Bungalow Jl. Lingk. Batu Beli No. 9 Kerobokan Kelod Kuta Bali Indonesia Nibbys new mobile number is +6281236838912 Matts mobile in case you diid not read the last entry is +6281236913762 we will be expecting a postcard from anyone who goes on a holiday!!! Things are going well here Nibby is doing lots of painting and Matty surfing everyday he has even found some local guys who play football almost everyday so he is well chuffed... We will not be getting internet at our ho [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everyone, We have moved onto Bali and after several days home hunting we have found a really cool place to live and have rented it for 3 months we have not sorted the internet yet but its on the to do list in the meantime here is our new mobile number - +6281236913762 [View Full Entry]

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We arrived early on Monday at Hong Kong airport and had to find our way into the city. We hadn't done any research or planning for Hong Kong and it suddenly became a bit of an issue! We spent ages trying to find our way into the city and by the time we got there we were both so bored with aimlessly wondering around we ended up spending a night in a really posh, (for us) hotel with a pool which set us back quite a lot of money. We purchased a lonely planet that evening and went in search of [View Full Entry]

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So the main reason for visiting Hamilton, apart from seeing Kylie, was to do some work experience with her at Hamilton zoo. She is a vet nurse there and was able to sort out a weeks work exp for me. I was a little nervous on my first day as I haven’t done an honest days graft in a while and thought I might struggle. I spent the whole day with Kylie and she was in change of Rhinos, Bison, cheetahs and Goats. I was really lucky because one of the female Rhinos had given birth 4 days before I started [View Full Entry]

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Being so close to Australia, and probably not going to be this close again for a long time we decided it would be worthwhile taking the short up and down flight over the Tasman to see some friends we missed on our last trip here. First stop was to see the recently emigrated Joe Sheppard. The day to get there started very early, the flight was seamless and we picked up a cool little hire car at the other end. Becky (Joe's better half) entertained us for the first afternoon as Joe was working. The first thing we realised when we [View Full Entry]

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To get back to Christchurch we decided to take Lewis Pass as we hadn't driven the whole of this road before. We planned to stay in Hanmer for a few nights before we were due to fly to Australia for a week. Unfortunately we hadn't done our homework and it was the school holidays. There is probably one place in the whole of New Zealand that you would want to avoid in school holidays and its Hanmer Springs! We were only able to book into anywhere for one night so we thought rather than spend a fortune on accommodation there we [View Full Entry]

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Hokitika was the next town of any substance North of the glaciers and we stopped in to say hello, in the morning we went to a Jade factory for a free tour to see how they carved and shaped the Jade stone into Jewellery amongst other things, we didn't buy anything as it was all too expensive and Nibby had seen a flyer where you could carve you own Jade. We went to check it out and Nibby decided to make a Jade necklace, first off was the design... that took Nibby no time she already knew what she wanted, then [View Full Entry]

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The drive into Glacier country was pretty scenic we finally made it back to the coast after being inland for several weeks, but no surfing for Matty, not yet!!! There are two big glaciers and glacier towns the Franz-Josef and the slightly less touristy Fox, we decided to stay in the Fox. Our first full day was a Sunday and it rained lots, it was the first time we have had a Sunday experience in a while, we sat around doing nothing all day watching Star Trek, but the highlight was talking to and seeing for the first time Daisy Bailey, [View Full Entry]

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Leaving our cool hostel in Manapouri and arriving two hours later in a dump of a hostel in Queenstown was a bit disappointing, we had to change rooms after an hour because the bed broke twice (and we weren't even getting up to any mischief!). When we went to the information to see what we wanted to do Matty booked himself onto the Nevis Bungy jump 134m from a suspended platform in the middle of a massive gorge. The following day we headed to Arrowtown to a Lord of the Rings location, it sort of looked like it. Nibby got a [View Full Entry]

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