stephinnic

Beautiful Wellington Day 1 - Friday After finding sustenance in my Grande Caramel Macciato in Starbucks, feeling refreshed & refueled, I ventured off into the unknown city (well, unknown to me as everyone else looked like they knew where they were going!). It is so quaint with streets darting off everywhere, people everywhere and little boutique shops that look far too expensive to even walk into! Very arty & chic was the vibe that I got from the city of Wellington. I kept walking and exploring and takings pics and was enthralled by the sights. Wellington has trolley buses...like trams, they are powered by overhead electricity source which they are connected to by cables, but they are buses on wheels, not on tracks. I haven't seen vehicles like these before - fascinating. I kept walking and ... read more

Wednesday 22/06/11 Greymouth to Nelson 11.30am in Greymouth After the 'pack up' process again this morning (I'm a bit over having to pack up every morning) and booking a taxi to get me to my bus on time this arvo (1pm) and storing my luggage I head off to McDonalds (again!) for brekky. Cheap as - NZ$5.20 for a hot cakes meal including coffee. That's equivalent to about AUS$3.80!! Nice. Well, it turns out to be a bit grey in Greymouth this morning! It's about 7 degrees celcius and rain, rain & more rain! Makes it a bit difficult to get around so I have no alternative but to go shopping!!! Haha. When I travel I don't tend to buy the touristy souvenirs as I find that when I get home I never look at them ... read more

What a great day. It seems that traveling alone is as good as some say. You do tend to meet people and connect, albeit for a day. I must first mention that after a lot of thinking about it I didn't go into the city centre area of Christchurch this morning to have a look at the damage the earthquake did. I really wanted to go and see what it's like but after thinking about it, and considering that I hadn't seen it prior, I felt that it wasn't right to go and see the damage, especially as a tourist. Goulish somehow and disrespectful to the locals. So, I have a new goal now - to see the city of Christchurch when it's been rebuilt :) The morning started hesitantly, as there had been a tremor ... read more

Well, it's been a rocky week for Australian & New Zealand airlines due to the volcano in Chile sharing it's ash with the rest of the world, mostly in the southern hemisphere. Flights have been cancelled to and from NZ for most of the week. I have been holding my breath for a few days wondering if I'll actually get to NZ or not but Jetstar announced last night that all flights have resumed. I was resigned to (and quite happy to) spending my holidays in Melbourne, Victoria, but am grateful that it looks like all is ok and all flights will be leaving Oz for NZ tomorrow. Phew :)... read more

Well, we made it into Cambodia today with a few dramas along the way but we are safely in our 4 star hotel listening to a live 'lounge' singer whilst on the internet writing you an email. We left Bangkok this morning on the 5.55am train so we were up at 4.30am, checked out of our hotel, caught a taxi to the train station, found the right ticket counter, bought a ticket for the right train and found the right train and were on it 30 minutes early. This all sounds quite easy except for the fact that NOONE speaks english and they nod & say 'yes' to every question we ask! We were quite proud of ourselves at this stage. Little did we know what was ahead of us!! Bangkok to Aranyaprathet (city near ... read more