Kiwiland


Advertisement
New Zealand's flag
Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland » Ponsonby
May 25th 2013
Published: May 25th 2013
Edit Blog Post

New Zealand, last stop. Also my longest stop though so I'm not nearing home just yet. Actually Glastonbury was supposed to be my last stop but the good people of Qantas decided I wasn't allowed to stop in London on the way home, even though my flights go through Heathrow. New Zealand has been accused of being a bit of a backwards place, I found myself agreeing with this earlier today after getting a burrito that had carrots and peas in it. Something must have got lost in translation when Mexican food was brought to New Zealand. Was surprised they didn't put gravy in it too.

I did two nights cruising the Whitsunday Islands, which was one of the best things I've done in my three months away. To prepare for my two nights on the boat I went out and bought myself a box of fruity lexia, for the quintessential goon experience. It wasn't too bad, but I won't be drinking it again if I can help it. There was a good crowd on the boat, your average mix of backpackers. I'd avoided the larger party boats which I'm told are mostly full of 18 year old knackers. As the weather was perfect, we set off for Whitehaven beach as soon as we left the pier. I was completely oblivious to Whitehaven's reputation, so was kind of blown away when I got there. It's regularly voted the top beach in the world, and it's not hard to see why. Spent a while just hanging out, kicking a football around and playing frisbee in the water. After getting lucky with the weather we also got lucky with the crowds. By the time we were leaving Whitehaven we were the only group there, apparently at other times there can be anything up to 1000 people on the beach. Went up to the observation point overlooking the beach and got some photos, and after looking back at them realised I'd seen the same photo a million times before. I'm definitely not the first of my friends to visit the Whitsunday Islands anyway. Back on the boat and dinner was followed by goon and a few drinking games. I know it wasn't advertised as a party boat but I was slightly alarmed by the amount of people who were in bed by 11.

The next day involved snorkelling, kayaking and more sitting around on beaches. Snorkelling definitely suits me better than diving; I probably should have done this in Ko Tao instead of going straight for scuba. Didn't see any turtles or sharks but did see a couple of very big fish, probably around 1.5 metres long. Some people went swimming after them, but we were later told they're actually quite aggressive and not afraid to bite. In the evening we were taken to a small deserted beach to watch the sunset, a nice way to end the day. After dinner on the boat, we just played cards and drank a bit more goon. On the final day we got one more beach/snorkel session in before heading back to Airlie Beach. I went out that night for dinner and drinks with the crowd from the boat in a bar which ended up having a karaoke night. I decided I'd put my skills learned in Japan into practice and subject a pretty big bar full of 100+ people to my rendition of Brown Sugar. They were spared however when the night ended before my turn came round.

I flew to Brisbane the next day where I stayed with Clem (Eoin Clements) and Amel for two nights. Once again I was off the backpacker circuit and was staying with friends. We went out for dinner and drinks on Friday night, before I spent Saturday checking out the city. Brisbane is nice enough, but not exactly a tourist spot. Wandered down to some kind of Indian music festival by the river and just sat and watched for an hour or so. In the evening we headed into 4ZZZ community radio studio, where Clem hosts a music show. Of course the star attraction of the show that night was the fact that Rhys from Modesto was in the studio. Had a small chat on air about the band and my travels and we played a few Modesto tracks. I even managed to get a Jack of Speed tune played too. Was actually quite fun, I think I want my own radio show. I could also subject people to two hours of Modesto every week (despite the fact we only have about 30 minutes of material).

Flew on to Sydney with Tiger. I was aware of their crappy reputation, but I managed to get lucky and there was nothing unusual about the flight. Stayed with Dave Walsh (another friend from Wesley) for three nights. I was quite taken with Sydney, quite a nice city. Hung out with Jonny Miller (Wesley again) for the day and saw the usual touristy spots around the harbour and opera house. The next day I met up with Jeff, who worked with me in Accenture a couple of years back. Got some food and walked down the coast from Bondi Beach for about an hour. Again, all very nice and I was starting to get a bit jealous of the people I knew who were living in Sydney. In the evening myself and Dave went to his local to take part in trivia (pub quiz). We managed to lose by one point which wasn't bad, although there may have also been some cheating involved.

My final stop in Australia was Melbourne. Most people I know who have been to Australia seem to have a strong affection for either Melbourne or Sydney, but not both. I'd definitely put myself down as a Sydney person in that case. Melbourne looked like a nice city but didn't really have anything impressive looking like Sydney did. That said I didn't see anything outside the city centre really, and I had very little time there. I'm sure it's a great place to live, but given the reputation it has it's a slightly underwhelming tourist destination. Also what probably didn't help was that my five nights spent staying with friends had completely killed my appetite for backpacking again, and I found myself back staying in a dorm. On my full day in the city I went to the MCG to do a stadium tour and visit the Australian sports museum. I was actually surprised that more of the museum was dedicated to Aussie Rules than it was to cricket, I was in a rush so ignored pretty much everything outside the cricket section anyway. Also as it was winter, the MCG was set up for Aussie Rules season so there was no cricket wicket to get photos of. After the tour I met up with Tim, an Aussie guy I'd first met in Chiang Mai. Looked around the city, did the sky tower and had a beer. Didn't do much that evening as I was running out of Australian currency.

So that was my three weeks in Australia. I'm not sure why but I always thought it would be the most disappointing part of my trip, but actually turned into one of the most surprising. I really liked the place and can completely see why so many people are desperate to get a Visa and move over. It was great to see friends who've settled there, and the backpacker route in Queensland is actually one of the best weeks I've had in the whole trip. I've been travelling for over three months now, and am starting to get a bit sick of moving around all the time and very sick of staying in hostels. I would have happily stayed in Sydney and looked for work, but there are obviously many reasons why that wasn't possible. Given how far away it is from Dublin and the fact that I'm getting on a bit, I think it's unlikely that I'll ever end up living there, but you never know. I certainly wouldn't rule it out completely, whereas I had no interest in moving to Australia a month ago.

Arrived in Auckland late yesterday evening, and quickly ended up going out with some people in the hostel. It was somebody's birthday so it turned into a
Shane WarneShane WarneShane Warne

Luckily they built the statue before all of his plastic surgery
bit of a heavy night. Heaviest I've had since leaving Southeast Asia probably. Today it's been raining so I've done very little. My bus tour leaves tomorrow morning so just chilling out and getting ready for that really. There's a Super 15 rugby game on in town tonight, which I'd have liked to have gone to, but it's absolutely pissing down outside now so I'm going nowhere. I fly back to Dublin four weeks tomorrow, so hoping to make the most of the time I have left here.

Advertisement



28th May 2013

Awesome
Sounds Awesome dude, see you in a month.

Tot: 0.071s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0399s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb