Big post on Australia to follow sometime, but Sina and Simon are here visiting at the moment so I’ve been staying off the net a bit to hang out with them. I’m good, Australia is amazing, and I’ve moved to an Australian phone so my mobile will be off from now on: if you’d like my Aussie number drop me an email at puresock at hotmail dot com, y’all know.
We left Taupo on day 6, again without skydiving thanks to the rain, and headed to River Valley. We stayed in a tiny little lodge miles from anything, where the dorms where made up of one giant bunk bed which slept 8 above and 8 below. We killed an evening there drinking and playing chess and cards, and awoke in the morning on day 7 hoping to go rafting, but surprise surprise, the rain stopped play again and we spent the whole morning playing more cards. The game of choice was knockout whist. We rolled on to Wellington disappointed.
Ok, so, as I mentioned, I took the Kiwi Experience bus right the way through New Zealand, stopping in all the good bits along the way. I took 24 days to do the whole country, which isn’t much time at all, so I spent most of my time on a bus and I woke up in a new place pretty much every day. It all started in Auckland, which is probably quite a nice city if you get to know it, but as a tourist with just a few days to see it, I couldn’t find much of interest, it reminded me of Southampton, and I just wanted to leave. I did, however, get out to Minus 5, an ice bar, where everything, from the bar to the seats to the glasses you drink out of, is made of ice. I thought it was awesome.
Right, so, 3 days of contemplation in Auckland (2nd most boring city in the world) later, I ended up on the Kiwi Experience bus which will take me through New Zealand in 18 days. At the moment I’m changing city every day and I spend my days on a bus full of travelers running between awesome stuff. I’ll write it all up when I get a chance in Australia. So far, though, I’ve been to a beach where hot water bubbles up from the sand, and I’ve seen rabbit shearing. Awesome.
Fiji is, without a doubt, the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. I could tell you all about the miles of perfect beach, the clarity of the water, the lush green leaves of the coconut trees that even seem to curve _just right _and how I spent days lying in a hammock writing my journal and listening to the soft sound of the sea, but I just don’t think I’d get close to portraying how utterly unbelievably perfect it was. Instead, I’ll tell you that I got sunstroke on my first day sunning myself on the boat out to the island, then spent 3 days in bed feeling rough. During this time, Sarah managed to catch some kind of stomach bug, and so did a guy named Paul that we ended up traveling with, while Helen got bitten by every mosquito in Fiji. All in all, we had a lot of bad luck with our Fiji trip. Oh yeah, and it rained. A lot. Not every day, mind, there was still enough sun for me to get sunburnt again (honestly mum, I was wearing loads of sunblock), and I still don’t have a decent tan. I went swimming with sharks, we snorkelled in underground caves, we partied on Beachcomber (THE party island in Fiji), we failed to understand Australian Football, and generally had an amazing time doing very little.