Blogs from Otago, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 36

I didn't even plan to go to Dunedin, but the bad weather in the west coast convinced me to drive east. It was a good decision! I had so much fun here that I stayed 3 days and was so sorry to leave, but the flight to Sydney was coming and there was no other choice. I arrived in town on Friday afternoon after a long beautiful drive from Wanaka. The first brochure I found in the information center was for a ghost tour! I decided to do that one. Just before the tour started I got a text message telling me I had a new niece! Congratulations to my brother and his family! And then Andrew arrived, our ghosts guide. He was properly dressed in a black suit, with white shirt and white umbrella, very ... read more

Queenstown is in a way the embassy of Australia in New Zealand... in a way means the beer way. It's one of the only places at least in the south island that you can actually go out in the night, there're plenty of pubs, clubs etc. On our first night here Marie and me stayed in a lousy hostel (Flaming Kiwi - highly NOT recommended) but found there a bunch of nice English guys so we had a good drinking night. The following day was a total chill out day, enjoying the nice weather although in the afternoon it got quite overcast, for the first time since I arrived to New Zealand. In fact, at night it rained and snowed on the mountains, so the next day the mountains around were even more beautiful, with heavier ... read more

Aahh...Queenstown, known as the adventure capital! Basically it's the Vail of New Zealand. A beautiful mountain town with all the outdoor activities one could ever want where everything is overpriced and everyone is gorgous. I went on another LOTR tour today and tomorrow I am hoping to paraglide, but the weather may not be in my favor. For those of you who missed the best rugby match ever (probably everyone reading this), the All Blacks have won the Lions Series! While there is still one game left to play tonight decided the winner with the All Blacks overcoming all of the whining and controversy the Lions dished out. It was brilliant! I was a little sad that I was going to miss the 4th, but I just happen to be in Queenstown during the winter festival, ... read more

So I arrived in Portland on Friday afternoon having flown from Rome to Frankfurt and then on to Portland direct. I had two enormous people sitting beside me, but luckily I was on an aisle. The lady right beside me was also scared of flying so I spent all of take of and landing chatting with her and trying to reassure her that she would in all likelihood see her grandchildren again. Poor thing. At least she was doing it! I navigated into the city on the MAX line. Portland has this great integrated transport system, with these cool train things that are sort of like trams/trains/buses combined. Groovy! Then I trekked for a few (by a few I mean MANY!!) blocks with all my luggage (I missed having Eamonn to lift things up stairs and ... read more

Well, so much for finishing Italy! I wrote Part 1 and completely forgot that I hadn't done the rest! So anyway, we caught a train at night from Florence to Naples, and eventually made our way out of the station and through the very dodgy station area to our hotel, which was nice and close, though through a very stange little door-within-a-door, into a courtyard where residents parked their car and up a pay-per-ride lift! Luckily the hotel was run by the most charming old Italian man called Mario. For some reason (though we were paying very little) we were given a suite, with 2 bedrooms, great bathroom, eating area etc all with marble floor and the hugest bed we'd ever seen! It was honestly about 2x the width of a normal double bed. Mario brought ... read more