Fiordland....

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Well hello there happy campers....
i know i know it has been far too long since i have updated this blog, and all i can do is beg for your forgiveness and promises you send you gifts of kiwis, green stone and sheep. All of which are found in a plenty here in Nz. I guess that you guys must know that i have made it here to New Zealand, it has only taken 8 and a half months and 10 countries to get here, but i have made it and i am loving it. It really is like being in the set for the Lord of the Rings, though without the hobbits and Orks trying to kill you for your jewelery.

I left Sydney on the 9th of Jan, moved my ticket forward as it felt unsettled in Oz after my wonderful trip to the NT and WA, i flew to Melbourne to go to Caroline Newton's ( who i used to live with in London ) i got in late and some how made it though to the city on bus and train and cab, found the nicest hostel called the Nunnery, who i choses to stay in because of the name ( after all this time i still deep down want to be a nun...love it ) crashed there for a few hours and then went to meet Caroline, who was busy with other things and couldn't pick me up so i got a bus and tram and train out to the boon docks where she lives. She like so many others before her failed to recognise me, i guess she was wondering who this mad blond stranger was flagging her down. We went back to her and Adam's place and got ready for the engagement party, met her lovely country English parents and made our way to Adam's families home where the party was to be held. I got out the car and looked about...it was truly set on Ramsey Street...Melbourne Suburbia all the way, as you can imagine i am not the best one with suburbs and i already felt my hands sweating, but once the party was underway and the Fizz was flowing i was feeling almost back to normal and even though i knew almost no-one at the party i managed to have a great time and even shed a little tear when the speeches were said.

I got the best night's sleep that night, on Caroline's futon in the front room, i guess i felt i could really relax and not worry about being robbed in the night ( when staying in a hostel ) or getting bed bugs, the next day Caroline asked me leave, i guess i was just too in the way and even though i tried my best to stay out of her way and not join in all the things her and her parents were doing, i guess i was just still in the way, so not needing to to asked again i high tailed it out of there, back to the city of Melbourne. I then joined the WWOOFing society, which stands for willing workers on organic farm, this is a great society which sets you up with people who you stay with and are given Board and food or a few hours of work a day, i settled on a farm a few hours out of Melbourne which had 13 Arabian horses and just one older man taking care of them, she seemed nice enough on the phone, a London ex-pat and liked that i had ridden before. He picked me up the next day from a country station, and we drove out to the farm. It was literately a large shed, which he had separated into 3 rooms using fiber glass or sticky back plastic, to wash was a plastic bucket or luk-warm water and i was sleeping in a caravan out back. I liked the caravan, there was lots of blankets which i found i needed once the sun went down it became bitterly cold and there was lots of space to hang things from the rails which ran across the ceiling. The work was easy, just to brush and feed the horses, which really only took a few hours and so i was left with nothing much else to do. There was no electricity, so i read literately by candle light ( Jane Eyre eat your heart out ), and hung out, Mr Cheater the farm man found my being a Veggie very hard to understand, and i was forced to eat Eggs and other things that i usually find repulsive. One night it was getting late and he was talking to me, or rather at me which is kind of how he communicated with people, that and sealing my jokes about the new labor government to tell his neighbors and shop keepers!!! He told me that the Caravan that i was sleeping so well in, in another life was a meat locker hence all the rails on the ceiling...from then on whenever i lay down to sleep i was filled with the idea off that meat hanging from the ceiling and it completely freaked me out...i had to get out of there. The racist attitude and stingy and rude behavior of Mr Cheater also contributed to me leaving...there really so only so much a girl can take.

I went back to Melbourne city and hung out with Annafried who i met on the trip in the NT and WA, stayed with Drew a mate from old Uni days in Perth, even got to meet up with Simon from Uni and also Sydney where we lived in Bondi together, i saw him for a whole 20 mins in the street, as he was also busy getting his girlfriend pregnant and asking her to marry him...they are all growing up so quickly. I stayed a bit longer with Drew in St Kilda which is a lovely neighborhood by the seaside, managed to see Kate Middleweek another friends from Uni, she was terrible busy also!!! and canceled twice before i managed to track her down for a whole half an hour, she was busy with boys and other more exciting things. I took all this canceling and not seeing people as a sigh to get out of town again and i went to stay with another WWOOFing placement, this time a lovely family with a 3 year old Kira and a 8 months old Mikia, Zach the dog and a hippy veggie mum Annette and a very German German father Martin, who insisted in only speaking in German to the kids but also to me...he must have been confusing being English with being European... and speaking 4 languages. I loved being there, i was kinda the Nanny and yard hand, looking after the lovely girls, cooking with them muffins and the evening dinner, or i was out in the yard, making a shed and looking after the dog and chickens. I really liked being there, even if at one point a brick wall fell on me!!! crushing me leg and left foot. All was ok and like me nothing was broken only my famous bruising and scrapes to be had.

I left just before Christmas, and just as the storms where coming, Martin gave me a lift to the train station which was an adventure in itself, the rain just came out of nowhere, flooding the streets, washing the rds away and knocking branches in our way. He dropped me off at the station which turned out to be closed due to flooding, this i found out after stepping in 2 foot of water!!! Nice, me and another nice young chap looked around be wilded in what to do next, Martin offered to drive us to the next station which was also another mission to get to, we kinda made it, but the train wasn't going to come for another half an hour. This would get me into the city late and i knew i would miss me coach to Sydney. Michael the nice chap from the other station, deiced that the only way to get to the city was in a cab, he walked over to the next town over with me, calling cab companies and trying his best to be cheerful to me, saying at least it was warm weather and wet was a good look for me...he finally flagged down a cab, convinced the cab driver to take us to the city and also directed him there, as the cabbie was lost and new to the country i think...Michael really did save me that night, he got us to the city and literately put me on the bus, got me a drink on the ride, i went in for a hug at the coach door and thanked him for his sterling work...he is my Sir Galahad.

I got to Sydney and stayed a few night with an old friend from London STA Travel, she was terrible hung over and kept getting up from the sofa and throwing up all day...nice...our next day was cool we went to the Bondi markets, loved them, then did the Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach walk along the coast...i love that walk and the view is something else. We hung out in the Coogee beach road hostel (pub ) for a while and made it back for the last ferry to lake us back to her place, under the harbour bridge and past the Opera house...i loved the ferry ride and felt all mussy inside doing it...sucker that i am.

I left the next day, went to meet up with Doug my old house-mate from Bondi/Simon days, he is still in our old Bondi house, it has not changed one bit and i loved being there, we left soon after and drove to his Parent's place in Canberra for the tail-end of a party, mid-night mass which was very different from the one done back in St Mary's in Stokie...it was very modern. We drove back to his parent's house which was decorated top to bottom in lights and a full on life size manager...as you might have guessed Doug and his family are very religious...Doug is now train to be a minister...cool . Their Christmas was very different from the London English Christmas we have, not just it was 35oc and not just the salad we had for Christmas lunch, but the lacking for Minced pies, hot spiced wine and log fires with chestnuts roasting on them...all these things i missed and though it was great being with a family for the festive season i wished i was home more then ever.

We spent a few days there, he family though being very Christian Christian, are very liberal and it was easy being in their quirky company and talking about their neighbors sex change operation and the sad splitting up of their gay friends, after they had had children...Doug an i hung out and went to the movies, saw his cousins and sister and just hand a nice relaxing time.

We drove back to Sydney were i stayed one night in our old flat...it was just like nothing, nothing at all had changed and i loved it. I moved over to the Newtown side of town and stayed with another Uni mate Margot, for the night he was then going camping the next day with her partner, but we had a nice evening catching up on the craic and gossip. I got terrible ill that night, i had been feeling ill for a while but staying up all night throwing up and laying on the bathroom floor shaking was enough for me to think about finding a drs. I did think about going to the hospital, i there was no-one to go with me and i hate them places, they are full of sick people who might touch me, and people who are out in the community care, so there was no way i was going there, i found a nice GP's and they gave me some pills i didn't understand, but made me feel better and did some blood tests...turns out i have Glandular Fever and it hangs around for months...so i am still not feeling 100% but i am getting there, just taking it easy and resting lots.

I flew to Auckland on the 9th and had a few days there, nice enough. It has a harbour which is always a winning thing, very hilly. Which is not all that surprising as it is a city built on 20+ Volcanos...i liked the Musume and exerbition on the anti-nuclear demos done in the early 80's, the doco shown there spoke of the Greenham common women in England and was an inspiration they were to them here in Nz...i loved that bit and looked out for Greenham woman that i might know but couldn't find any. I then high tailed it down to Wellington by coach where i tried out my new sleeping 3 season bad ( it is lush- arama ) harbour where i got the 3 hour ferry over to the south island, stayed one night in Picton...lovely town and then got picked up the next day by the Flying Kiwi tour bus guys who i have been with ever since...the trip is amazing, we are going everywhere. Sometime we stay in lush campsite like not with showers and common rooms and sometime we are bush camping it, which feels much more like camping should be. I love having night fires on the back beaches and roasting marshmallows, singing old Bob Dylan songs. I love seeing the Fiords and snow toped mountains all over the south coast...i love the city of Christchurch...it's just like Bristol. I am loving the camping, even if when i sun goes down it is cold as anything, you can see your breath in front of your face, but me sleeping bag is wonderful and i am loving it. It kinda feels like old Woodcraft folk days...love it. Some of the group are doing some mad famous routeburn trek for a few days so we get to hang out in this lovely town of Te Anue...i woke up this morning went down to the lake, which is surrounded by snow capped mountains and i went for a morning swim. Granted it was cold as anything but i loved that i could swim there, and marvaled at how lucky i was and am to be here.

I am thinking of seperating up the Islands, and doing the north island after a wee break in Picton...just to rest up. As i said i still don't feel great but i am loving being here and there is nothing going to hold me back from doing it all. I will be hand-gliding in Queenstown in a few days...i can not wait.

I do love and miss you guys more every day and love hearing from you...love as ever always R xoxoxo

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Photos

Mt Cook and me
Highest mountain in Nz...love it

Penguin crossing
love the rd signs here

Baby chick Penguins
It doesn't get much more cuter then this

I want that one!!!
Cute cute cute

local wildlife
hanging out with the locals

reinactment of lord of the rings
This is actually one of the sets in LOTR's can you tell who is playing which character?

lunch stop
nice place to have a break...

Milford sound
it is actually a Fiord...

Te Anue
Morning swim in this lake...rock and roll