First entry...

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I don't know why today of all days, sitting in Papamoa library i decided to start up a travel blog because i've already travelled all of New Zealand and i'm waiting here in this little beach town until i fly to Australia on the 13th of January. I have written all my travelling down in my travel journal though, a leather one i got as a present. It's half full already and i'm about 7 months behind on it so the fact that i'm starting another travel blog online is a little...belated maybe.

I'm sure i'll find the time to go into detail about my travels but just as a run down (and a reminder to me for when i come to it) here's what i've been up to for the last 16 months. We flew to bangkok a year last june and speant a month travelling around S.E. Asia. We went to the full moon party on one of the Thai islands, we spent some time in Bangkok in an awesome hostel called Soi 1 - stay there if u ever go to Bangkok. We travelled to Cambodia, spent American dollars and alot of time on the beach in monsoon season. It was amazing. I got sunburnt one day and a woman came up to me while i was sleeping in the shade and started rubbing aloe vera on me. There were 15 year old girls making braclets and anything they could for a decent buck. They had good spirit. We went to Viet Nam and Jamie got food poisoning. I hardly ate the whole month and we ran out of time to get to Laos. In fact when we got to Bangkok to meet our flight to Aus we almost missed it, never ran so fast in my life and had to be bumped to 1st class because they gave our seats away. Good on ya Qantas.

J and i stayed up all night on the plane watching movies so when we got to Sydney we were so tired we were a little hyper and giggly. Had so much fun though. We stayed in a Japanese hostel and we were freezing because it was winter, which was fine but we were used to the asian heat by then. We Caught a train to brisbane, spent four days there doing nothing because it rained. We went to Byron Bay - i loved it. A wee beach surfer town. We stayed there for 10 days slowly running out of money because Jamie ran out of money ages ago and i was supporting him. Back to Sydney we stayed with a friend we made in Byron called Max who did three months intensive training in China like in Kill Bill.

Sydney to Auckland. 6am again and we go to the cheapest hostel we could find with the best name: The fat Camel. Fantastic little flats with dorm rooms attatched. fist weekend in auckland i bounce onto the dance floor and 90 degree my ankle and i'm in cruches for a week - just worth mentioning my ankle has never been the same. I got a promo job in the bar and Jamie got a cleaning job for accommodation until we got actual Jobs, Jamie got a job as a photographer in an Aquarium and i got a job in a basejumping company jumping off the Skytower and such. It was a great easy job and i jumped off about 200 times. I met Luke, an Auckland Resident, half Moari fella and his brother Jason in town one night and we hit it off. I spent alot of time with Luke and his Family in their big beautiful house in Blockhouse bay. We call it Jamaica because of the street name so if i ever reffer to me and luke in Jamaica, it's his house. His family are great and friendly and so many of them. They made my kiwi experience really kiwi. 😊

After the AC/DC concert in February Luke and i drove all the way up to Cape Reinga, the tip on NZ and stopped in the bay of islands, was very pretty. Then back to auckland and Luke, Jamie, Hannah (an English girl from the camel) and i All hit the road in Lukes car: Aurora and Hannah on her motorbike: Suzi.

First stop Papamoa where we made jajitas and pizza from scratch. Papamoa is Luke's family's beach house. They call it a bach (pronounced batch) in NZ and thats where we are now. It's three hours from Auckland. We drove through Matamata which was the scene for the shire in lord of the rings. Then Opito bay where we stayed in another beach house with Paul, another friend from the camel.

This is where i'm up to in my journal at the moment...I'll need a map for the details but we pretty much zig zagged all the way down. We went white water rafting, black water rafting (in caves), skydiving, luging, brewery touring. We went to the South island and i lived in Christchurch for a while working in a bar in a hotel. I was involved in a pretty serious earthquake which was an experience but i'm ok...obviously. A lot happened and i promise i'll fill you in evetually in flash back entries as i write down.

For now though I live at the beach gardening(strawberry plant called Florence, a Chilli plant called Tyson and and basil plant called Baz the mouse detective) and baking and doing jigsaws and stuff. I am really enjoying being unemployed and i'm excited abut going to Austraila again and doing it properly.

Untill next time...

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