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Published: March 30th 2010
Hey all!
This is the story of my time in New Zealand without Caryl 😞 and with the Davis family 😊.......... Although I've missed Caryl it's all been BRILLIANT! I've been looked after so well and made to feel so welcome.
Day 25 (Tuesday 9th March) Auckland to South Auckland (Onewhero, near Pukekohe) to stay with the Davis family
Terry and I said a tearful bye to Caryl and drove back out towards Pukekohe. It was great to be back with Terry, he is the best tour guide ever! I learn such a lot when I am with him. As we drove past Franklin Zoo Terry commented that he'd never been and before I know it he's turning the car around and we're in there! It was so cool, it's a really nice little place. A bit run down (it's a charitable trust, they rely on donations) but they are all about conservation and you can tell that they really love their animals. We headed straight for the lion enclosure and spent a good couple of minutes looking for them, we couldn't find them and thought we must have really bad eyesight until we saw a little sign telling us that all the lions had unfortunately passed away (!!!!) within a few months of each other last year, bit sad about that. So we moved on and saw an elephant, it was HUGE and looked really sad. We bumped into the really nice vet who told us the elephant had recently come from the circus (was the last circus elephant in New Zealand) and was still adjusting to life outside the circus, she still walks as if she is in shackles. When she first arrived she was so upset the vet had to sleep with her, now she is much happier and the aim is to eventually move her to a zoo where she can be with other elephants. The vet also told us what happened to the lions, they were all circus animals and ended up having all sorts wrong with them. There was actually one lion left in the enclosure (we did eventually see her, she looked very placid) and the vet said we could watch feeding but I'd seen enough of that at the Zion Wildlife Park with Caryl (if you look at her photos, you will see what I mean). We also saw various types of monkeys and some Zebra (which came up to us like they were horses, I actually touched the Zebra which was quite exciting!) and other nice animals. We left Franklin Zoo and carried on towards Craig's house (where I'll be staying for the next few weeks), making one more stop at the Les Batkin reserve next to the Waikato River which is really close to Craig's house. Its the longest river in New Zealand and quite fascinating (every day I'd look and try and guess whether it was high or low tide, was usually wrong!) as it's the same river we saw near Taupo that flows over the Huka Falls, which if you look at my photos looks very different to how it looks nearer the sea. We got back to Craig's and had a lovely dinner (Craig cooked Pizza!) with Hokey Pokey ice cream, I tried not to make Caz jealous when I was very pleased to hear from her that she was happily and safely in Brisbane.
Day 26 (Wednesday 10th March) - Jobs with Terry and the Sky Tower
I had a lovely nights sleep in my double bed in my own room. I so needed that after night after night of bunk beds in dormitories. I had a little bit of a lie in, did my washing and then went out to do some jobs with Terry (I love going out doing jobs with Terry, reminds me of school holidays). He told me we had to go to the farm (where he does his work) to check on some things, which we did, then go to drop the house plans in at the builders (which we did) then do some grocery shopping. I did wonder why we needed to go into Auckland to do grocery shopping (as we were headed into Auckland) but thought Terry might want to do some clothes shopping...! So, we parked up right in the centre and Terry suggested we get some lunch which I thought was a GREAT idea. As we headed towards the Sky Tower I said to Terry "Have you ever been up the Sky Tower Terry?" and he said "Yes, and so will you have in a minute". I was so excited as Caz & I didn't get to do it. I had no idea, Terry had managed to completely surprise me! We go into the Sky Tower building which is pretty nice and get in the lift to go up the Sky Tower. I tried not to get freaked out with the glass floor in the lift, it was pretty cool to watch yourself going up! The views from the Sky Tower were amazing, it was such a clear day. We had 360 degree views of Auckland and could see out to One Tree Hill and Mount Eden (which Caz & I had previously been up) and out towards Pukekohe where Terry, Jenny and Craig live. It was a bit scary to stand on the glass floor and look down! We had a coffee (my first flat white, VERY bad, am now a bit addicted) and a muffin and enjoyed the view. I saw someone jump off out of the corner of my eye (people do it for fun) but didn't really see that properly. We went up to the highest observatory level which made quite a difference to what we could see. I could see the top of the Base hostel where Caryl and I had been staying.
Day 27 (Thursday 11th March) - Chilling at home
I spent today doing washing, exercise, sorting out my stuff, painting my nails etc so I felt a LOT more organised and it was sooooo nice to be able to let my clothes dry on a washing line outside (Mum, you'd have been proud of my co-ordinated use of pegs, even Jenny remembered that you do that!) and not having to pack it all straight up again. It was nice when everyone came home as it was the longest I'd spent on my own for months. We had another amazing home cooked dinner (vegetable curry, poor Caryl bless her, that was a favourite too) and chilled out.
Day 28 (Friday 12th March) - Jobs with Terry and journey to Tairua on the Coromandel
Terry and I spent the morning doing odd jobs and getting ready to go to the batch (a kind of weekend/holiday home) on the Coromandel for the weekend. We left for the Coromandel at about 6.30ish for what was to be my most memorable journey in New Zealand. We headed out towards Thames (didn't realise it at the time but took the same route as we had 3 weeks earlier on the Kiwi Experience bus) and could see the Coromandel mountains in the distance, the sun was starting to set and it looked so pretty. We saw some of Caryl's favourite cows and Terry knew what they were (I knew he would), they are Belted Galloways, was so excited to tell Caz this. Anyway, we got stuck in a traffic jam (they do have them in New Zealand) waiting to cross the Kopu Bridge (which is being re-built) but once we were over that the journey was incredible. Sunset is my favourite time of day and I love the way twilight makes everything look when the sun has gone down, I love the way it makes trees and the landscape look against the sky. I just loved that journey, it's my favourite memory of New Zealand. We arrived at the batch and it was so lovely. I'd have been happy with that as my actual house, let alone a weekend home. We had cheese on toast and a chilled night watching American Idol.
Days 29 and 30 (Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th March) - Tairua and surrounding area on the Coromandel
We woke up to glorious sunshine, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. At 10am it was already boiling hot. We went for a look round the shops in town then to the beach which was empty, surprising considering it was so hot and so nice. We went for a drive out to the Twin Kauri Reserve to see the Twin Kauri's. Kauri trees are HUGE and not as common in New Zealand as they used to be, they have been heavily logged over the years and are now very rare. They are awesome trees though. We then went up Paku Hill which was a bit of a drive them a lot of a walk, Jenny and Terry had never been up there in years and years of coming to the Tairua area. The views were pretty cool, we could see the whole of the estuary, which was empty of water. Jenny & Terry assure me it would fill up..... We then went for a walk through the bush to the deserted goldmines (the miners were not that successful, there was not as much gold as originally thought) and for a drive round Pauanui which is where Jenny's family used to have a batch. We stopped off at the Waterways, which is a development of really huge houses next to a man-made canal, all with their own jetties that they can dock their boats to (all right for some!!). We also drove out to Onemana for some ice cream, found a new favourite Tip Top flavour, Orange Choc Chip. We then went home and had another chilled out night watching the X Factor after Terry and I walked Holly out to the estuary, which was now full of water.
The next morning we woke up again to glorious sunshine, I felt like I was on holiday even more than I would normally. We went for a walk up to 'the Gazebo' for more awesome views then down into Tairua for a different walk along the coastline. We got accosted by some seagulls who started fighting over us and saw a Kingfisher, which I've never seen before so was quite exciting. As Terry was packing us up ready to go Jenny took me to their neighbours (Shirley and Alan, I'd met Shirley the day before) garden which bordered a reserve. It was wow! The reserve was really run down then Shirley and Alan took charge of it and it's now a beautiful place, a tranquil oasis. Would you believe that somebody complained that they were in there working on the garden; when the local council came to see what was going on they told them to continue as they were doing such a good job. I wonder if it'd gone that way in the UK..........! We then had a lovely drive back over the Coromandel (although it didn't have same effect on me as it had done during sunset/twilight I'd never get bored of it) and chilled out at home.
Days 31 - 34 (Monday 15th to Thursday 18th March) - River Valley (near Taihape)
This week I decided to get out and about around the North Island to get used to travelling on my own and give Jenny, Terry and Craig a rest from me! I headed back to River Valley, the rafting lodge we went to on the Kiwi Experience, it was so nice and relaxing there, to see my new friend Arnie for a few days. The journey there was interesting on the Intercity bus. I met so many people in the 7 or so hours I was on there including a Lady Gaga fan who'd been to see her in Auckland the night before (I think he might have been her biggest fan, had a t-shirt on, and posters with him, and told me all about the 16 costume changes), a lovely lady (who was knitting clothes for abandoned babies and let me read her magazines) and a young lad who was travelling back from a 'surf savers' competition. He was really interesting, had won 7/9 gold medals at this competition (it's basically a competition for surf lifeguards) and loved the UK so we talked about that a lot and kept getting each other to says words that were funny to the other, because of the accent (for example 'fish & chips' or 'fush & chups' as some Kiwi's saw). When I got to River Valley I basically didn't do much for the 3 days I was there. I just slept, and ate and watched films and had a couple of drinks (except on St Patrick's Day when I had more than a couple but I am NOT going there in this blog except to say that it was a great night from what I can remember - sorry Dad - as we started off at the staff house before going back to the lodge). I chilled out a lot and it was really nice. I went horse riding in the rain which was BRILLIANT! It was over rolling hills and it was a bit scary at times as the rain made the hills slippy but the horses were lovely. I started off on a lovely horse called Pablo who was a bit cheeky and liked to go fast if he was at the back, so you'd let him go to the front then he'd slow right down so you had to keep on at him to move faster. Then, because another girl freaked out on her horse (she started screaming, I know she was scared but OMG, screaming isn't going to help your horse calm down) so I had to swap with her. I can't remember that horses name but he was lovely too, I didn't like him as much as Pablo though. I got to try two different horses though which was cool. River Valley is such a cool place and I'd recommend it to anyone.
Day 35 (Friday 19th March) - Taihape to New Plymouth
I left River Valley from Taihape (Gumboot capital of the world, did you know!) on another lovely (!) Intercity bus journey to New Plymouth (didn't meet anyone this time though!) to stay with Jenny & Terry's daughter Sarah. The scenery was really nice, again different to anything I'd seen before, New Zealand constantly surprises. I got a glimpse of Mount Taranaki (also known as Mount Egmont) but couldn't really see it as it was cloudy. I got a picture though as The Last Samurai was filmed around it because it looks similar to Mount Fuji. Sarah met me at the bus station and we went back to her flat (once we'd got in...........let's just say Sarah is a bit like me with keys.......) and got changed to go out for a couple of drinks with her flat mate Lou and friends. That was really nice, to do something with locals, not backpackers. We didn't stay out long as Sarah had her debut on the local radio station at 6 the next morning so went back to the flat where Sarah cooked me lovely meatballs which we followed with more Tip Top ice cream (sorry Caz).
Days 36 and 37 (Saturday 20th an Sunday 21st March) - New Plymouth
I felt a bit guilty the next morning when I only woke up shortly before Sarah got home at 10am! We went shopping in the mall which is a 2 minute walk from the flat (I'd have a hard job resisting if I lived here, all mine and Caz's favourite NZ shops were in there) and I got a couple of dresses, had some lunch, went to the museum which had a really interesting exhibition on the Taranaki Wars and signing of treaties between the Maori's and European's and then went for a walk along the foreshore which was really calming. I'd love to live where Sarah does, a mall and the seaside within a 2 minute walk. We then went back to the flat and watched 500 Days of Summer which was great (I nearly had a tear but resisted) and then went to the local Indian for a nice meal (I don't think Sarah and Lou had even seen someone so excited about going to an Indian restaurant, but I'd not had an Indian restaurant meal since I'd left the UK and had been craving Korma REALLY bad). We then went back and ended up watching another film (Bewitched), I'm now on 8 films in 2 weeks, have cried in 4 of the 8. The next morning we got up and went looking for a better view of Mount Taranaki. We ended up shopping (again!) then did go up to a lookout point with a nice view of New Plymouth and 'Sugar Loaf Mountain' (I thought I was back in Rio, it really did look like Rio's Sugar Loaf Mountain, was just not as big). Mount Taranaki was still behind the clouds though until Sarah spotted a blue patch so we waited a few minutes and eventually a gap appeared that was just perfect to fit over the peak of the mountain so I got an ok picture. In the afternoon we went to the cinema to see 'Remember Me' (it was risky for me, given my feelings for Robert Pattinson aka Edward). I didn't know much about it so didn't know what to expect but it was BRILLIANT, such a good film (I'd hope even non Robert Pattinson fans would give it a go, even if they don't like him, he's so different to how he is as Edward as Twilight which was a VERY BAD thing for me because now I don't just love Edward, I love Robert Pattinson too, I'm sure you really all needed to know that, anyway...). The film really makes you think and I did end up crying, again (that's 5 out of 10 films in 2 weeks now) and affected me for the rest of the night. Not even watching the BRILLIANT Fool's Gold (!!!!!) helped.
Day 38 (Monday 22nd March) - New Plymouth to South Auckland
Sarah had to go to work this morning so I had a morning of talking to home, packing, watching Twilight extra features (I'm not obsessed, promise) and getting ready to go back to Auckland. I wanted to get Sarah and Lou a little present to say thank you for having me so was thinking wine and some English confectionary (I'd found a shop that stocked it the day before, Sarah took a shine to Twiglets and I knew Lou liked Walkers crisps). I got some Twiglets and Walkers crisps for the girls (and stocked up on them for myself, they'd all gone by the time I got to Auckland, I'm not proud of myself) and tried to buy some wine. It's soooooooo hard to buy alcohol in New Zealand! In the UK they sell it everywhere but in New Zealand you seem to have to go to a liquor store. I found the liquor store but then they wouldn't serve me without ID, I had my UK driving licence but they wouldn't accept that. I think it's really good they're so careful but I really don't think I look 17, I had to go back with my Passport. Sarah and Lou came back for lunch and Sarah and I went to the local food court after I'd said buy to Lou. Then Sarah dropped me off at the bus station. I was really sad to say bye to her, I'd got really fond of her, she's such a lovely sweet girl, in the couple of days I'd been there and really hope she comes to visit the UK. I then had a random journey back to Auckland. The bus was 1 1/2 hours late leaving (I had been saying how impressed I was with the Intercity bus service) because it'd broken down 5 minutes outside of New Plymouth. We ended up doing the 5 hour journey in a mini bus, with all our luggage piled up wherever it would go. I got chatting to a retired English couple who turned out to be a bit crazy, still very nice though. They bickered throughout the journey, kept telling each other the other was wrong, I got in the middle of it a couple of times when they asked me who was right or I tried to help. There was also a young lad from India who was desperate to talk all of the time, I think he wanted to practice his English but after an hour of trying to talk to him I'm afraid I had to put my iPod on. The scenery on the coastal road coming out of New Plymouth was amazing. It's a really rugged coastline, the sky was dark so the sea looked really moody (it was quite eery in places as there was so much drift wood washed up) but was brightened up by the odd burst of sunshine coming through the clouds. We travelled along a gorge between two huge mountains alongside a river and I was silenced by how beautiful it was. The gorge was completely filled with trees and you often couldn't actually see the river. Then there were sort of clearings where different pairs of trees (e.g. in 1 clearing it'd be 4 or 5 pairs of silver birch type trees, then in another it'd be weeping willows) lined the river through the clearing. I can't explain it but it seemed almost mystical, I wasn't quick enough to get a good photo. We then headed inland and I got another sunset/twilight drive which I love. We eventually made it back to Bombay, where I was due to be picked up, 2 hours late. Thankfully Jenny had saved me a plate of food as I was starving!
Day 39 (Tuesday 23rd March) - Job with Terry and our afternoon of unexpected adventure....!
In the morning Terry and I went out to do various jobs, including going to the nursery to get some fruit trees for Jenny & Terry's new garden. That was really interesting as there were so many 'exotic' plants that we'd never be able to grow in the UK, Terry was looking for lemon, orange, mandarin, plum and macadamia nut trees and I also saw things like Goji Betties and Avocado.. We ended up at The Warehouse where I saw a new range of clothing called 'Rachel' (they have obviously decided to honour Caryl and I for our loyal custom!) We then headed back home where Terry was supposed to be dropping me off so he could go and do some work.....but as I'd only turned right out of Craig's house we thought we'd go for a quick 5 minute drive so I could see the other way and ended up having an afternoon of unexpected adventure! The scenery was awesome, Craig is so lucky to live there! It's all rolling hills and the only houses belonged to farmers, they were all in the middle of nowhere. I saw wild goats, sheep, turkeys and peacocks and huge herds of cattle and sheep. We drove for ages, Terry had never been that far and was as enthralled as me. We were on unsealed roads (i.e. not tarmacked) going up and over endless hills, we were convinced we'd get to the sea at some point but it was just more and more hills! At one point we saw what we think was a wild horse galloping along the top of a hill; it stopped, head up, mane flying and looked down at us, all we needed was for it to rear and it'd have been liked we were in a Black Beauty movie, it was magical. We ended up at a place called Nikau Caves and Cafe where we stopped for the coffee. We didn't like to admit it but we were a bit confused (not lost!!!) about where we were (we knew we were on the 'Limestone Downs') so subtlety asked and they told us we just had to keep driving on, and on, and on and on. We did keep driving on......we came across roadwork’s which held us up for a while (it was still the middle of nowhere and we were the only car in sight so I spose they weren't too worried) but eventually ended up at Port Waikato which was where Terry thought we'd end up. We headed back towards Pukekohe and instead of staying on the main road Terry headed back towards the hills on another unsealed road. Again the views were amazing, lots more trees this time though. 3 hours and 120kms after setting out on a 5 minute drive we got home and had more lovely food, burgers tonight.
Day 40 (Wednesday 24th March) - Our day trip to the Coromandel
Terry wanted to take some things out to the batch in Tairua so I went for a drive and we ended up going the long way round. We stopped off in Thames to look for a new bag for me (have too much stuff!) which was good. It's an old gold mining town and sort of reminded me of the Wild West. I ended up getting some shoes (which I love, they're just what I've been looking for) and Terry got Jenny some really cool shoes.....they're supposed to be good for you, work on your pressure points and that.........! We then headed out along the Coromandel Coast (the opposite one to Tairua that we'd travelled on the Kiwi Experience bus and I'd travelled with Jenny & Terry a couple of weekends ago) and that was a really nice drive. We stopped in Coromandel Town for lunch which was also like a Wild West town, Terry hadn't been up that far before so again it was cool for him. We then went inland headed towards Tairua and stopped at a nice waterfall at Waiau Falls and then at a Kauri Grove which had a small collection of the Kauri trees. It was really nice to see them in their natural environment, as they would have been all over the place if they hadn't been logged so heavily. We also stopped off a Whiti Zoo which was......interesting. It was more for children as they gave you bags of food to feed the animals but I loved it! I didn't like getting chased by the Turkeys (they were after the food, proper ran at you!) but the animals were so funny, had loads of character. Rosie the Kune Kune pig was on a mission towards us soon as she saw us, then she waited 'patiently' but not very happily next to the goat for us to feed her. The donkeys were hilarious; there was a mum, dad and foal and the dad went crazy eeeyoring really loudly when we went over, he was not happy. He soon cheered up though when we'd given him a bit of food, the pictures are quite funny although maybe you needed to be there. The alpaca was also really interesting, I'd seen them in Peru but not up close, their faces are full of expression. The alpaca had a goat in with him who was really comical, he was desperately trying to get through the fence to us, you can see how hard in the photos. The dogs were also interesting.....there were 2 proper farm dogs and 2 tiny poodles. The black poodle one kept yapping at you as if it was going to go for you, if you turned your back on it ran at you but as soon as you turned round it ran off, was all talk! The white 1 had bright pink hair! I was also quite chuffed to see an alive possum (as opposed to lots of dead ones on the road)....it was an interesting half hour.... We then stopped at the beach in Tairua and bumped into Alan (Jenny and Terry's neighbour) who invited us over for coffee with Shirley (who I'd met the weekend I'd been down). That was really interesting as Alan and Shirley are from Australia so were giving me tips. Alan is 84 (really doesn't look it) and was telling me about his visit to Uluru (aka Ayers Rock) 50 years ago. When he went you struggled to find Uluru because nobody had visited it for years because of World War II. We then headed back to Pukekohe, stopping a few times on the way to try and get a good photo of beehives with Tea Trees in the background. I had a thing about doing that as I have Manuka Honey at home, it comes from New Zealand bees that love the flower on the Tea Trees. We got back to a lovely vege lentil curry, my favourite!
Days 41 and 42 (Thursday 25th March and Friday 26th March) - chilling out, jobs with Terry and going back to school!
I had a chilled out morning talking to home and doing washing, then went out for the afternoon doing jobs with Terry. We found bag for me and more fruit trees for the garden. Then we went home with a lovely Thai takeaway. The next morning I was supposed to be up at 8 to get ready to go to school with Jenny but I slept in, must have been psychological because I knew I was going back to school. So, before going to school Terry and I did some jobs which took us past a lovely little church where Scott was christened. It was really pretty, wooden and white, not like English churches and not as old but it's seen a lot of history. There were filled in bits on the church which were where rifles were put during the conflict between the European settlers and the Maori's. We then went to a water gardens and had a lovely cream tea, proper English with scones and cream and jam and english breakfast tea and then to the section, where Terry let me drive the ute again (I must have done an ok job yesterday if he let me try it again. He was surprised I didn't let the car lurch about until I told him I drive a manual at home, Automatics are more common here) around the yard which I was childishly excited about, felt like I was learning to drive again. I made it to the school after morning break and had a lovely day, it was nice to see all the children Jenny talks about. When I arrived the kids all had to ask me questions about my favourite things to guess where I was from, after a few guesses of Australia and India and France they got England. They then had to do some poetry and I had to help with the spelling which was a bit scary. I'm quite good at spelling (you might not think it by reading this) but when you've got a 6 year old asking you how to spell a really hard word it puts you on the spot and I started to question myself. I did my own poem and had to draw a horse but as I wasn't very good at drawing one of the kids suggested I used a stencil and went and got one for me but then it created a whole thing when one kid told some others I used a stencil and a couple of others were telling them I didn't. Jenny and I went out for lunch (after making sure the children had theirs - Caz, they have Cookie Time cookies in their school provided lunch packs!) then came back for afternoon junior assembly where several classes showcased their work, Jenny's class won with their brilliant sunflower pictures. Then there was singing which was really fun, a lot of the songs were ones I'd never heard of, some with the same tune as the ones we would have sung in the UK but with different words. They did however have some I recognised like "She'll be coming round the mountain" and "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands". I joined in with them (Caz -Cameron came out!). We then went back and finished up for the day, I really enjoyed it. We then went for coffee with the teachers, home and chilled out.
Days 43 and 44 (Saturday 27th March and Sunday 28th March - weekend at home
Terry and I went out and about doing jobs again today, they included going to the supermarket and visiting the section which meant I got to drive the Ute again! Honestly, it's like I'm 15 and not allowed to drive yet, I just drive round and round in circles! We then went out to a nice waterfall and some nice beaches that Terry uses to launch his boat and fish from. Then we headed to Cleveland (took us past Jono Lomu's house, pretty swanky) which was a really pretty inland village, we had really nice fish n chips that we ate outside of the polo club. We then headed out to Kaiwa Beach, where Terry's colleague lives, as we had to drop something off. It was so lovely, really nice blue and the sun shimmered off the ripples on the sea. Terry's colleague Neil is very nice, has a lot of boats, and his Korean wife Jesse is really sweet. She insisted on taking me inside the house to see her wine bottles, I was a bit confused about this until I saw the wine bottles. She decorates them with handmade paper sent over from Korea by her Mum. Jesse insisted I take one for myself and I didn't like to say I didn't have room in my rucksack so Jenny got a little present! In the evening we went to a BBQ at Jenny's friend’s house , they all met at baby club when Scott was born. It was a really nice evening and the house had a really good view of pretty much the whole area Terry and I cover whilst doing our jobs over the last week.
Day 44 - Auckland to Brisbane, Australia
I spent the morning getting ready to leave New Zealand and was really sad. Terry, Jenny and Craig then took me for the airport for my flight to Brisbane. I was really really sad. I love New Zealand and could have quite happily stayed there, I know I'll be back. I have especially loved every minute I have spent with the Davis family, I'm so lucky they were happy to have me for so long and really appreciate everything they have done for me. I have been made to feel welcome and like family and hope I wasn't too much trouble as nothing was too much trouble for them. I've had the best tour guide, the best cook and the nicest place to stay. I've also got to spend a lot of time with Flo (and of course the lovely Holly) who may well have cured me of my fear of dogs. I held back the tears as they dropped me off but did have a tear in the airport once they'd left me, I can't wait to go back 😊 I then got ready for my flight to Australia.............to be continued.
Xx
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Eric
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Hey Rachel, I enjoyed your New Zealand post. I have never been but am moving there this summer. My blog is looking for some good travel photos and hostel reviews. If you have time check us out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com Continued fun on your travels, Eric