Rach77

Took a few days out to go snowboarding at Mt Ruapehu which is the largest mountain in New Zealand. I had worked there for a couple of seasons and have been going down every year over the last seven years. Ohakune is a really small town, very simple and laid back. I hired a rental car from Auckland and drove the four hours down. The drive is really beautiful, for the most part it is all countryside passing through a few small towns along the way. Arrived early morning and went and caught up with my friend Hamish who owns one of the ski shops there. Then drove the half hour winding mountain road to the top of the mountain. It was so good to be on real snow again. Im so used to snowboarding on ... read more

Got up early and was picked up to go on my Jakarta city tour. It took about an hour just to get into the city, the traffic can be really bad especially as the population is around fourteen million people. The guide took me to the national museum to see all the artifacts which was pretty interesting. Most of them had been acquired by the dutch during the 19th and 20th century. The exhibits included hindu-javanese stone statues, prehistoric bronze wares and chinese porcelains. There was also a display of treasure of indonesian heirlooms. For such a big museum i was surprised that i was pretty much the only person in there. We then passed through the financial district passing the famous welcome statue and fountain. Making our way to medan merdeka (freedom square) to see ... read more

I had a trip to Brisbane for a couple of days so I decided I would book a ticket and fly down to Sydney on the Saturday morning to spend the day with my family. My parents came and met me at the airport and took me home. We spent the morning sitting around catching up. I got to spend some time with my little six month old niece Madison who is soooo cute! We then went to a nice restaurant for lunch where my brother Justin came and met up with us. After lunch my parents, my sister Natalie, Madison and I went down to Rose Bay to have coffee. It was a beautiful day even though its supposed to be the middle of winter. We went for a walk along the bay then went ... read more

I was absolutely shocked when I saw a good friend of mine Adam sitting in the front row on my flight to London. He was travelling with his friend and were on their way to Europe to watch the Tour De France. We arrived into London early morning and was a quick trip to the hotel which is conveniently located within the terminal. The rugby tri-nations game was about to start and the all blacks were playing. My friend Adam was transiting London for only a few hours so I told him to come straight to my hotel in time to watch the game. He arrived just in time and luckily the staff opened the bar for us (at 8am) so we could have a nice cold one. It was a great game and of course ... read more

Rome is one of the most beautiful cities i have visited. There is so much history to it, it is mind-blowing. It is a place where the past is always present. I have never seen a city where the modern is built around the ruins of life that existed centuries before. My flight arrived in the early afternoon so i made my way straight into the town centre. First stop was the Capitoline which was known from earliest times to be the centre of all political, social and religious life in Rome. Situated next to this was the amazing Vittoriano also known as the monument to victor emmanuelle which sits majestically on capitoline hill. This monument is famously despised by locals who call it the typewriter, wedding cake or false teeth! Here also lies the famous ... read more