Mordor & River Valley Feeling both happy and relieved after surviving the sky dive we jumped back on the coach and headed to River Valley. This was to be yet another scenic route, which led us through the Lord of the Rings territory, passing through Tongariro National park where the filming for Mordor was done, followed by the river were Gollum was caught whilst fishing. River Valley Lodge itself was picturesque to say the least as it’s wedged between towering cliffs and green bush clad hills. There hadn’t been much rain as of late; resulting in a low river... so [View Full Entry]

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I always thought that skydiving was one of those things that crazy people do... Why would somebody voluntarily jump out of a perfectly good aeroplane? That was the question running through my mind whilst I sat looking at the clouds outside my window, waiting for the inevitable opening of the aeroplane door. The build up to this point seemed a bit of a blur I don’t actually remember feeling at all nervous or scarred until I sat in the flimsy little plane. First looking at the female pilot and cracking a bad joke about women drivers... then I realised It [View Full Entry]

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Rotorua - This Town Stinks Rotorua is the kind of place that on approach you wonder if the guy next to you just dropped a bomb. It stinks. No it's nothing the residents have just done either, but they did build a town in an area of very high thermal activity. I’m sure they have a good reason for building on a geothermal area, with stream vents popping up everywhere releasing the rotten egg smell??? Sticking with the bad smell theme we went to Wai-O-Tapu, New Zealand's most colourful and diverse geothermal park. Interesting scenery, you'd think you were on [View Full Entry]

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Auckland We arrived in Auckland early afternoon, and greeted by tremendous sunshine. We checked into our hostel ACB which was very well equipped but a little over priced. I must have been in Auckland for no more than an hour and became well aware of three of the very popular 'sayings' over here..."cool as", “fooking A” and "sweet as!" Taking the long walk into town the Auckland Skytower at 328 meters was easily visible giving a centre point to aim for as I wound my way slowly towards it. The Skytower is the main attraction in Auckland and proudly proclaimed [View Full Entry]

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SYDNEY Sydney is a spectacular city - incredibly landscaped, full of young trendy people, tons of cultural activities and restaurants, stellar shopping, and a real cosmopolitan feel. It was strange walking through the city. It looked so familiar it could be almost any big city in the UK, modern buildings and names like Liverpool Street, Hyde Park and Oxford Street. The electricity found in most big Asian cities just isn’t here but in its place is a clean, relaxed, very easy going pace - all without being too crowded or rushed which adds to the city’s charm. After checking into [View Full Entry]

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Xmas in Samui Well it was that time of the year - full of merriness and good cheer, not to mention a load of beer! It was a little odd spending Christmas away from home and family, but the guys that I’m here with now are the next best thing. Cheers Alan, Delarmi, Gaz and Su. Xmas isn’t celebrated by the Thai’s but their happy to accommodate and get into the spirit of things (especially when there’s a fast buck to be made!) and we easily found a restaurant serving traditional English Christmas dinner. We amused ourselves over dinner by first [View Full Entry]

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Tanam Negara After our few days in the laid back Malaysian capital we decided we were in need of some action and thought a 3 day jungle trek through the oldest rainforest in the world was a good choice. So after a fairly arduous round about trip we landed in a tiny town, where we met a few other travellers who were planning the same trip the following day, an Aussie named Trent and a Spaniard called Xabi. We all checked out the local market for some weather proof gear as we were really not prepared for one of the wettest [View Full Entry]

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Kuala Lumpur After our 4 hour ‘luxurious’ bus journey from Penang we finally arrived at the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. The transport in Malaysian is excellent and is something we really weren’t used to travelling around other countries in Asia. As with the majority of Malaysia you can instantly tell that there is a meeting of cultures here with the mix of races from Indian, Chinese and Malayan decent and this is shown in the varied architecture of Western, Asian and Islamic styles. After a fair degree of hassle from hotel touts we finally found somewhere to stay in China Town [View Full Entry]

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After a long bus journey we found ourselves at George Town on the island of Penang. It was late. Feeling tired, hungry and struggling to find any cheap/decent accommodation. Our Penang experience didn’t start off in the best way. Eventually we found a room and had at chat with a travelling Filipino band who advised us of the local night spots which we decided to explore. There is precious little to do in the daytime (or night time). Perhaps the main attractions are the Museum and the reconstructed fort Cornwallis. The museum was full of the usual Asian pottery, but did [View Full Entry]

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Ngwe saung We had read about the unspoilt deserted beaches which lined the east coast of Myanmar. For once we were not disappointed with hardly any other tourists we had this lovely pristine beach to ourselves. There’s very little to do here, we spent four very relaxing days soaking up the rays. One of my favourite beaches this is definitely an ideal place to sit and do nothing. Something which I'm becoming very good at! The town itself is charming in a small of the beaten track sort of way, full of curious friendly locals. There are a handful of family [View Full Entry]

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