The story so far...

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After leaving the UK for the last time we soon found ourselves back in drizzly old Auckland. We were exhausted after a 26 hour flight from London via Hong Kong but it felt flippin fantastic to be back home. It was a weird feeling which was to stick around with us for the next couple of weeks as we readjusted to life back in NZ. I think it was a mixture of relief at the fact that we were back home, and excitement at beginning the next stage of our lives. We were really glad to have Shylah pick us up at the airport and take us out to her house in Waimauku, just north of Auckland, to spend a couple of days getting over the flight (I don’t think we would have been able to manage another 2 hour flight down to Dunedin). We had a great three days in sleepy old Waimauku doing absolutely nothing but catching up with Shylah, enjoying NZ tv and all the old favourite NZ junk food. A nice afternoon at Murawai and an evening at the local pub soaking up the NZ culture was exactly what the doctor ordered. I can honestly say that those three days were probably the most relaxing and enjoyable break we’ve had for years. Makes a change from always being on the go when travelling.

Eventually we headed back down south, but ended up a little further south than we were expecting. After trying unsuccessfully to land in the fog at Dunedin 3 times, we ended up landing in Invercargill. It wasn’t all bad though, and we were pleasantly surprised to find Mum and Dad waiting for us as we disembarked, having had a call from Emma’s parents who were waiting for us at Dunedin airport, and then making a mad rush to get to the airport in time for our arrival. Fresh off the plane we went straight into looking at potential flats for us to rent, before heading up to Gore to meet Emma’s parents for lunch. It was all quite unexpected but a very nice way to come home.

So now we’re back in Invers, we’ve got a car, set up a flat and have both returned to our old jobs. And we’re about to get a puppy. We seemed to slot back in really easily and its been great catching up with people. Although the weather has been pretty crap we’ve really enjoyed getting out into the sticks and enjoying the ‘southern’ lifestyle. Having travelled to the other side of the world we now realise how much of NZ, and even Southland and Otago we have not seen or know nothing about, so we’re making grand plans to get out amongst it and enjoy what it has to offer. We are spoilt with what we’ve got down here so it would be criminal not to make better use of it.

So it was only six months that we were back in the UK, but it was definitely worth going back for. Not only have we been able to make a few more memorable trips but we also had the chance to enjoy some more of the experiences that wouldn’t normally be available to us back in NZ.

After our Irish trip we spent three weeks on Simon and Anna’s couch, for which we are very grateful to them. It can’t have been easy putting up with us for that long. We finally found a new flat in Acton, about a kilometre or so up the Uxbridge Rd from our old place on Askew Road. We shared the three bedroom flat with Luke and Karla, an Australian couple from Perth, and Denis, a very funny Portuguese guy from Porto. And then there were all the other transients that slept on the massive couches in the lounge. There was pretty much someone living in our lounge the whole time we were there, which made for lots of fun nights and allowed us to meet some fantastic new people.

One of the first events we attended on our return to London was the second London show of Metallica’s Death Magnetic tour. Everybody loves Metallica (eh Adam), myself in particular, so I felt like a little boy on Christmas Eve as we made our way out to the Docklands. We have seen them before at the Big Day Out in Auckland back in’04, but their own show was always going to be much more impressive than their festival gigs. And it was. They played to a sold out O2 Arena in front of thousands of die hard Metal fans who had had a bloody hard time of getting to the arena due to the Jubilee line being closed for engineering works. It took us a lot longer to get there than we had planned but we managed to take our seats only minutes before the show got under way. The stage was right in the middle of the arena so that the band were surrounded 360o by the crowd. They put on a bloody good show with lots of pyrotechnics and they rocked it bloody hard. I think it would definitely have to be the most professional show I’ve seen. Its quite apparent that they have had plenty of experience playing these big shows and they know how to do it right. The thing I was most impressed with was how they hung around at the end of the show for a good 20mins shaking hands and interacting with the crowd, long after the arena lights had come on and the crowd had started leaving. I’ve never seen anything like it before and we all thought it was pretty cool.

After the Metallica show we did a couple of sports events, the first being a Guinness Premiership game between London Wasps and Newcastle Falcons at Adams Park in High Wycombe. I had been dying to get out to watch some English club rugby to be able to compare it to the standard of rugby from back home, but I had been pretty slack about it. One Saturday towards the end of the season I suddenly realised our time was running out so we made the decision to take the train out to High Wycombe to watch a match. Even though the Wasps are a London team they play in a small town about half an hour out of London (of the 4 London based Premiership teams only Harlequins actually play in London). It was a pleasant spring day out at Adam’s Park which was pretty much sold out. We managed to pick up half price tickets off a guy at the gate who had a couple of spares so it turned out to be quite a cheap afternoon out. The rugby was pretty average though. Not the most exciting game in the world. From memory Wasps won it in the end.

In hindsight we might have been better to save our money because as it turned out we got some reasonable tickets to the EDF Energy Cup (aka Anglo - Welsh Cup) final at Twickenham. Cardiff were playing Gloucester in the final and the stadium was 75% full with passionate supporters of both sides (they really get into supporting their sports teams over there). Cardiff won it easy 50-12 (I don’t think that that many tries have ever been scored in one game in the UK before) with former Crusader and Highlander Ben Blair pretty much single handily destroying the Gloucester team which feature Carlos Spencer and Greg Somerville. Cardiff Blues were captained by former All Black Xavier Rush and Paul Tito was a crowd favourite. Its fun watching European rugby and spotting all the old All Blacks and Super 14 players. And there is no shortage of them over there.

The next sports event we went to was a Barclay’s Premier League match between Fulham and Everton at Craven Cottage on the Thames in Fulham. I’m not a football fan but its just one of those things you have to do while you’re in the UK. Again we had left it to the last minute and just managed to pick up a couple of tickets to the last match of the season. It was a bloody hot day and we were seated right next to the pitch in the ‘neutral’ part of the ground. We were right next to all the Everton supporters though and they were very vocal throughout the whole match. The British football crowds are an impressive sight, and sound. They really, really love their football and get very passionate watching the games. They also get very nasty and racist towards the players. Its great. Everton won 2-0 (I think) but at the end of the match it was confirmed that Fulham (owned by Mohammed Al Fayed) had made the cut to play in the Europa League so everybody was pretty happy really.

Next up, on the first day of my extended unemployment after finishing up at Harrow, was a day at Lords for the World Twenty 20 competition. Pakistan was playing minnows Netherlands and NZ were playing South Africa. After taking the train one stop to Willesden Junction, changing to the tube to get to Maida Vale and then walking to Lord’s to pick up our tickets, I returned home to drop a ticket off for Emma to pick up after work, then headed back to Lords. This took me all morning, and in the end Emma couldn’t make it to Lords in time for the second match so it was all a big waste of time. So I spent the whole day by myself in the Compton Stand. Well I wasn’t all by myself. There was some weirdo Cornish dude beside me who had been let out of the Asylum for the day. He soon became best friends with everybody around him and made loads of inappropriate comments, in fact blatantly racist comments that if it weren’t for the relaxed attitude of the Pakistanis sitting near us would surely have caused some trouble. But despite this unwanted distraction I still managed to have a great day at Lords on my own. I don’t know that there is any better place to be midweek on a beautiful summers day than in the stands at the home of cricket. Beats working anyway. The Dutch put up an admirable fight against Pakistan but in the end the eventual winners of the tournament were to classy for them. And NZ pushed South Africa all the way to the final over but Jacob Oram struggled to find the boundaries needed to win.

The British Grand Prix at Silverstone was the next big event. It was the last year the F1 circus would be attending Silverstone as the event would shift to Donnington in 2010 so I wanted to see her at her best before she disappeared off the F1 calendar. And Emma came along for the ride. An hour or so on the train from London Euston to Northampton where we jumped on the bus for a 30min ride to the circuit with the Pakistani gentlemen wearing a kilt and speaking in the strongest Scottish accent I have ever heard. Even though he was wearing a kilt it was still a surprise to hear his accent when he spoke for the first time. He had been a groomsman at a wedding somewhere in the Highlands of Scotland the night before and had travelled through the night to get to Silverstone for the F1. Dedication. We got to Silverstone and made our way round the outside of the track to find a good spot. We settled on a bank on the outside of Club and set up for a good day of motorsport action. It was overcast and a bit chilly but we had an excellent view of the cars as they came through the high speed right hander at Stowe off the back straight then down through the tight left hander at The Vale and into the sweeping right hander at Club where the acceleration onto the next straight was phenomenal. And we were able to get surprisingly close to the cars. The track we went to last year in Belgium (Spa) was the better race track due to its massive size and topography, but Silverstone was a very good track at which to watch the cars and I think the viewing was better at Silverstone than it was at Spa. Hopefully that won’t be my last F1 race, but I am at least glad I got to a race at Silverstone. Emma couldn’t care less however.

As we’d spent a day at Wimbledon last year we weren’t really too fussed about going again this year. We had a great time last year but couldn’t face the massive queues again. During the second week however Wimbledon fever got to us (everybody in London has an interest in Wimbledon) and one beautiful summers evening we decided it was too good a chance to pass up so we went for a look at a few evening matches. There was no line up so it was straight into the ground. And it was discounted. We decided we wanted to experience Centre Court so we did have to line up for a while to obtain resale Centre Court tickets. But it was worth it. The match we saw was a mens doubles match featuring the two American brothers who went on to win the tournament. Centre court was great. Bigger than I thought and there was definitely a wicked atmosphere in there. After that match ended we went and had a wander around the outside courts and watched a couple of Kiwi youngsters go down to an American pairing in the boys doubles. The matches eventually wound up as the sun went down and we headed home very happy after a pleasant evening at the Championships.

One of the last events we went to in London before our trip to Europe was a stand up comedy show at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park. My boss suggested it to me as a fun thing to do on a mild summers evening so we got tickets to the last available show, which was Australian comedian Adam Hills. Mr Hills is an Aussie who has lived in the UK for years and has become quite well known on the UK comedy scene, often appearing on the many comedy panel shows that are hugely popular over there. I was never a big fan of him though so wasn’t expecting too much, but he was terrific. He was very funny when performing off the cuff and he interacted very well with the crowd. In fact the only bad thing I found was that his prepared jokes and routines were not as funny as the rest of it. He closed it out nicely by singing an energetic rendition of Advance Australia Fair to the music of Working Class Man. And he could actually sing very well.

So that was London, and that was the end of our time overseas. We’re back home now and are starting to settle ourselves down a bit, and I guess we are now becoming a bit more comfortable in our lifestyle. I don’t think we’ll be off overseas to live again (but never say never), but we have definitely still got a lot of travel left in us. For now though, this is the end of the road for the travelblog. Its been hard work, but quite rewarding. It started out as a way to keep everyone back home up to date on where we were and what we were up to, but we soon found that everybody became quite bored with that (not that I blame them, I do tend to ramble on a bit) and it then became more of a record for ourselves. And I always enjoy going back over the blogs and remembering the places, the sites, the events, the experiences and it always makes me happy. Especially now that we’re home for good. Hopefully we’ll be able to do that for years to come. So what now for the blog? Its fair to say its going to be pretty quiet for the next year or so, but we are already cooking up plans for some more travel, so it may be resurrected in the future, albeit on a temporary basis.

While we were on our road trip we helped passed the long hours on the road by coming up with some interesting facts and statistics to share with you all.

Since we left Invercargill in February 2007 we have visited 14 countries;
Australia, Canada, USA, England, Scotland, Wales, Finland, Belgium, Singapore, Malaysia, Ireland (including Northern Ireland), Netherlands, France and Italy (plus Hong Kong if you count airport stopovers). Not the most comprehensive of travel lists, but a good start none the less.

In the US we have thus far visited 12 of the 52 states;
Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, District of Columbia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York (plus California and Hawaii if you count airport stopovers).

And 4 of the 10 Canadian provinces;
British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec and Ontario

Since we left January of 2007 we have flown 61015 miles (98194km) on 32 flights using 18 different airlines. I know no one cares, but for the record (and those who are interested in air travel) the airlines were;
Air NZ, Virgin Blue, Air Canada, Westjet, Alaska Airlines, BMI, British Airways, Finnair,Virgin Atlantic, American Eagle Airlines, US Airways, Delta, Singapore Airlines, Aer Lingus, KLM, Easyjet, Ryanair and Cathay Pacific. I guess we should probably be planting some trees then.

During our time overseas we saw:

About 20 major sporting events, including;
Major League Baseball - Seattle Mariners v New York Yankees, Safeco Field, Seattle
NHL - Vancouver Canucks v Phoenix Coyotes, GM Place, Vancouver
CFL - BC Lions v Saskatchewan Roughriders, BC Place Stadium, Vancouver
WRC - Rally Finland, Jyvaskyla, Finland
F1 - Belgium GP, Spa-Francochamps, Belgium
F1 - British GP, Silverstone, England
A1GP - Eastern Creek, Sydney, Australia
A1GP - Brands Hatch, Kent, England
WTCC - Brands Hatch, Kent, England
The Championships - Wimbledon, London
Guinness Premiership - London Wasps v Newcastle Falcons, Adam’s Park, High Wycombe, England
EDF Energy Cup (final) - Cardiff Blues v Gloucester, Twickenham, London
All Blacks v Scotland, Murrayfield, Edinburgh
IRB London Sevens, Twickenham, London
Barclay’s Premier League - Fulham v Everton, Craven Cottage, London
ODI Cricket - NZ v England, Gabba, Brisbane
Test Cricket - NZ v England, Lords, London
World Cup Twenty 20 - Pakistan v Netherlands & NZ v South Africa, Lords, London

12 major concerts, including;
Roger Waters - GM Place, Vancouver
Sting and The Police - GM Place, Vancouver
Korn - Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver (07) & Brixton Academy, London (08)
Hellyeah - Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver
Alice in Chains - Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver
Velvet Revolver - Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver (07) & Brixton Academy, London (08)
Stone Gods - Brixton Academy, London
Flyleaf - Brixton Academy, London
Serj Tankian - Kentish Town Forum, London
Metallica - O2 Arena, London
Crowded House - Malkin Bowl, Stanley Park, Vancouver
Foo Fighters - Wembley Stadium, London
Iron Maiden - Twickenham, London
Avenged Sevenfold - Twickenham, London
Tenacious D - Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver

4 major comedy shows;
Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood, The Orpheum, Vancouver
Jimmy Carr, Brixton Academy, London
Rhys Darby, Bloomsbury Theatre, London
Adam Hills, Regents Park Open Air Theatre, London

And 10 major musicals and plays
The Lion King
Lord of the Rings
Grease
Wicked
We Will Rock You
Shrek
Mama Mia
Phantom of the Opera (Emma's favourite)
Priscilla Queen of the desert
Rain Man (Play featuring Josh Hartnett)

And now its time for the inaugural Gazemms travel awards. And the winners are:

Best Hostel
Emma
1. HI Montreal
2. HI Banff
3. HI Toronto

Gaz
1. HI Montreal
2. HI Banff
3. HI Toronto
(the HI hostels in Canada are really good)

Worst Hostel
Emma
1. Washington International Student Centre - Washington DC
2. HI Jasper
3. City Resort Hostel - Sydney

Gaz
1. HI Jasper
2. Washington International Student Centre - Washington DC
3. Amsterdam

Favourite Country
Emma
1. Canada
2. Ireland
3. Italy

Gaz
1. Canada
2. Ireland
3. Italy

Favourite Trip
Emma
1. North America (Dec 2008)
2. Ireland
3. Paris/Venice

Gaz
1. Finland
2. North America (Dec 2008)
3. Ireland

Favourite City
Emma
1. New York
2. Vancouver
3. Edinburgh

Gaz
1. Vancouver
2. Edinburgh
3. New York

Best Flight
Emma
LA - Auckland (Air NZ)

Gaz
LA - Auckland (Air NZ)

Worst Flight
Emma
New York - LA (Delta)

Gaz
New York - LA (Delta)

Best Concert
Emma
1. Foo Fighters - Wembley, London
2. Metallica - O2 Arena, London
3. Velvet Revolver - Brixton Academy, London

Gaz
1. Metallica - O2 Arena, London
2. Foo Fighters - Wembley, London
3. Crowded House - Malkin Bowl, Stanley Park, Vancouver

Best Sporting Event
Emma
1. NHL - Vancouver Canucks v Phoenix Coyotes, GM Place, Vancouver
2. WRC - Rally Finland, Jyvaskyla, Finland
3. The Championships, All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon, London

Gaz
1. NHL - Vancouver Canucks v Phoenix Coyotes, GM Place, Vancouver
2. WRC - Rally Finland, Jyvaskyla, Finland
3. The Championships, All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon, London

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Photos

Metallica
Metal!!!!

Metallica
O2 Arena

Guinness Premiership
London Wasps vs Newcastle Falcons, Adam's Park, High Wycombe

Guinness Premiership
Wasp v Falcons

World Naked Bike Ride
Interesting sight in Hyde Park on a warm Sunday afternoon

World Naked Bike Ride
Yip

World Naked Bike Ride
Lots of naked people, all shapes, sizes, ages and colours

Barclay's Premier League
Close to the action - Fulham vs Everton

Barclay's Premier League
Everton supporters

Barclay's Premier League
Halftime

Barclay's Premier League
Watering the field

Barclay's Premier League
Craven Cottage

Barclay's Premier League
Everton corner

World Twenty 20
Pakistan v Netherlands

World Twenty 20
Spaceship like media centre at Lords

World Twenty 20
NZ vs South Africa

World Twenty 20
Vocal Pakistani supporters

World Twenty 20
Wahoo NZ get a wicket

World Twenty 20
Jaques Kallis

World Twenty 20
McCullum half century