Day 150 Family Tree Hunt

After a quick shower I headed into town to try and organise my trip after Fiji. I had a rough idea of either south America or Africa. I went to see Katie in the flight centre but she was away so I wandered round town and ended up nipping into STA. The girl was very helpful but also quite pushy to me booking it there and then. I have found this with STA they are very keen to book things immediately. I managed to escape credit card still firmly in my purse and wandered round the shops instead. I don't think I bought anything but as I'm sure you know I am very behind with this and can't really remember if I did buy anything!! (sorry for the time delay on this blog!). Back in Upper Hutt I went to pak and save for few essentials. When I came out it was pouring with rain and I didn't have any kind of jacket with me! So I was lazy and got a taxi back! A couple of parcels of guide badges had arrived for me so I chilled and sorted them out and watched Stephen Fry's family tree programme. It was really interesting! Christine came home and bought Chinese with her, it was really tasty! Once we were full we were inspires by the family tree programme so set about trying to find ours on the Internet. I have to say it's not that easy and you need patience and time! We found a couple of things but nothing we didn't already know. We soon moved on the the pandora website and discovered you could build a virtual bracelet. Can you guess what we did next?! Yep we built a bracelet for Christine. It was very pretty if I do say so myself! It was also very expensive so it will stay virtual for a while!! We once again climbed in to our beds late!!


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Day 149 Sorting Day

Today is a day to sort all my stuff out so it will actually fit in my bag! I spent quite a while going through it all in to stuff to post and stuff to keep. Once I had done I watched some greys anatomy and chilled for a bit then gathered it all up and headed down to the post office. It took me a while to parcel it all up and address it all. I was surprised to discover you can't ship things from new zealand only air mail! Back at home I chilled and then headed down to Margret's for tea. Stuart and Jessica came too and he had bought really nice fish. It was really really tasty! I was due at another guide meeting so I dashed after dinner and walked down to the hall. It was a small hall and a small group, I helped a patrol sort out what they were going to bring the following week for a world food meeting. Once again it was nice to be a guide meeting and I like how it's a world wide family! I chatted to the leaders then went back for pudding at margrets! Apple and rhubarb tart! It was really really nice!! I said goodbye to Jessica as am not sure if ill see her again. Back at home I set about sorting out all the guide badges I have been given and making sure I have all the addresses to send them some badges. Once again a late night, the time just seems to run away!!


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Day 148 Photo Sorting

Once again a went on skype to Dan this morning. I chatted to Jessie too and began to sort out my photos. Once Dan had gone I chatted to mum on the phone. Big communication morning! Once everyone was asleep or busy I concentrated on sorting my photos out to folders for facebook and countries. I was very strict with myself as I don't want to upload rubbish ones or three of the same picture. As time went on I stopped sorting and walk in to upper hutt to get ingredients for tea. I am making the sausage casserole I learned from Fiona's recipe book. Yum yum! Back at home started I cooking. I had to guess the quantities of some things and had to get a different beer as they don't have Newcastle brown ale in New Zealand. I had also got stuff to make desserts Susie taught me how to make. How ever when I opened the creme fresh it was mouldy. I had to get Christine to pick a new one up on the way home. Margret came down and chatted to me while I cooked. We ate when Christine was home from work. I had to go to a guide meeting once w had eaten the main and I left them to enjoy the tarts. The guide meeting was good fun I helped make a guide quiz and then chatted to the girls about the group at home. One little girl called Isabelle asked some very good questions. At the end of the meeting I gave out some badges I had bought with me. I had one to Isabelle and she was very happy she gave me a hug!! When her dad came to pick her up she came and said thank you for visiting them and for giving her the badge! So cute and polite! Back at home I chilled with a couple of yummy tarts I had made and watched tv. After helping sort the washing up out we went to bed.


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Day 147 Chilled Sunday Stroll

I got up to go on skype to Dan. I was on for quite a while and Claire had called and we arranged to go for a walk. So after a shower and some lunch. We set off for island bay to meet her for a stroll. I thought we were going for a walk round a park but we walked along the streets around where Christine used to live. We saw her old house and walked up the hill she used to walk her dog, Molly. We stopped in a coffee shop for a drink and cake, the best kind of walking this!! Once back at the cars we agreed to meet at another shop for an ice cream. The shop was near the airport and was noisy. I had mint choc chip! Yum yum! I said good bye to Claire as I won't see her again then we headed back home. We chilled at home then walked down to Margaret's for tea. We watched New Zealand's master chef as we ate. After dinner we headed home and chatted then went to bed.


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Day 146 Return to Upper Hutt

I woke up and packed everything away while I chatted to Jamie. After checking out and leaving my bags in the storage room I sat down to some breakfast. I had to go to the flight centre to get my confirmation of my Fiji trip. As I was in town I realised I didn't have any postcards from Napier so I went in search of some. I came across a farmers market and just couldn't walk passed I had to have a look. There was a really nice guy selling jams and marmalades. I tried a few and bought a fijoa one for Christine. I also chatted to a seller who had lost of cheeses. His home made feta was very tasty! And his home made yogurt. I visited the art deco centre and watched a short DVD about the reason Napier is so art deco. It was really interesting. On the way back to the hostel I picked up something for lunch. After eating and saying goodbye to Jamie I headed down the street to get the bus back to Wellington. As I waited to board a woman began to chat to me. She seemed nice and sat in front of me on the bus. I don't know why I seem to attract very interesting people! We chatted for a while and she asked what I did for a job, I told her and asked what she did. She said she was recovering from mental illness and was only seeing professionals once a month and the medications where helping. We chatted a bit longer she was going home for mothers day. I then settle back to listen to my iPod. It was a beautiful drive though hills and mountains. Unfortunately my head phones broke on the way back. First one of them stopped working so I just kept swopping the other one from side to side. The bus stopped right outside the train station so I jumped on a train, I text Christine to let her know I was on my way. She collected me from the train station and we went and go pizza for tea as it was late and we couldn't be bothered to cook. At home we settled down with a film and the pizza. I have to say I was looking forward to sleeping in a bed with an electric blanket!!

Day 145 Tour Round Napier

Today I am doing a tour round Napier with Fregs Fantastic Tours! There is just me and one other person doing it! First we went to a few nice look outs over the city, the weather wasn't very good though. Most of Napier is art deco and we saw a lot of lovely buildings, even McDonalds is art deco!! For lunch we went to the RSA. It was very good food and the place was full of ex service men and women. After a lovely roast dinner we set off to another valley and visited a few wineries. At one we tasted a red wine which was not nice, the woman then told us to try some chocolate and try the wine again. I have to say it did make it taste slight better. The next stop was a chocolate place!! But they don't make the chocolate they just shape it. On the tour plan it said cheese factory which I was excited about seeing but unfortunately it closed last week!! We went to a honey place and once again I tried about ten different kinds of honey. Ferg then took us to a famous ice cream place and bought us an ice cream each. It was very very nice! He then dropped me back at the hostel. I walked to pak n save and got potato and mince for tea and made spaghetti bolognese and had it on baked potato. I made more than I could eat, as I took it to the bin I bumped into a woman who said oh that look nice. I said she could have it as I was full and it was only going in the bin other wise. Her name was Jamie and she was from California. We chatted for ages and got on really well. It got late fast as we chatted and we eventually went to bed at around midnight.

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Day 144 International day of the Midwife

Once again I had a nice lay in. Once I got up and showered I headed to the travel agents to book my time in Fiji. I chose a package of boat tickets that would take in 6 islands. It was a lovely day and so I planned to walk up to Bluff hill to get pictures over the bay. As I walked down the main prom I saw a group of people with big signs, it looked a little like a protest. As I got a bit closer I thought some of the signs said midwife and midwives on. It is the international day of the midwife. I crossed over the road to see what was going on. It turned out to be a group of midwives doing a 5km walk for a conference/charity thing. I asked if I could join in, they were really happy for me to tag along. As we started to walk we had to take the signs with you so I grabbed one saying 'the world needs more midwives!'. It was a fun walk I chatted to lots of different midwives and they were all delighted that I had just been walking past and decided to join in. When we got to the end of the prom we stopped and had a drink. Now when I was given my glass I was told 'have a nice drink of meconium!' what?? It really looked like mec too! It wasn't thank goodness, it was a fruit juice that was green and thick but tasted quite nice. After refreshments we started to walk back to town and headed for the town hall. We watched a DVD about childbirth in Africa. I had to duck out before the end as I had an appointment to go to. It was fun to have done something for the international day of the midwife though. I went to the ocean spa and had my eyelashes tinted then went for a swim in the heated salt pools. I spent ages in them it was so nice. I had to get out because I was going to another guide meeting. On re way back I stopped to pick up some DVDs with my pictures on which I had drop off earlier. As I got back to the hostel the guide leader was there to take me. I quickly dumped my bags and we set off. It was a good meeting and I helped with the crafts for mothers day and with a couple of badges they were doing. Then back to the hostel and to bed.


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Day 143 Tour of Prison

Oh my word!! Some people have no manners! One of the girls in my room last night was leaving very early at 4am. So at 3am she got up and began to pack. This would be fine but she had everything in the most noisy plastic bags I have ever heard! Why if you are leaving so early would you not pack the night before?!? Especially if you are in a dorm room!! Right end of moan. I chatted to mum for a while then walked into town and went to the flight centre to book my trip in Fiji. I had to book a flight out of Fiji too and it was cheapest to go to the air new zealand office. I then nipped into the post office, to post Gareth's birthday card, on my way to the prison. Across the road from the prison is a garden with a lake and waterfall it looked really pretty so I walked through to take pictures. I then headed up to the prison. I had been told the tours where at 2pm but when I got there it turned out they were at 3pm but you can do an audio tour alone so I opted for that. It was a really good tour but a but scary as it took you to the place they hang people and bury people and talked about ghosts! The place was all uneven due to a few earthquakes which made it look even more spooky. I walked back to the hostel via Pak and Save to get food for tea then went back and wrote in diary. I chatted to a girl in my room for a while then climbed into bed.

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Day 142 Brownies and Guides

I had a lovely lay in this morning. When I did get up I showered and wandered into town. I first went to the post office to post stuff home. It was then lunch time so I found some food and then walked to the isite and picked up some leaflets and a map. I went back to the hostel and planned my time in Napier and booked a city tour for Friday. It was then time to head over to the guide hut for a brownie meeting then after to smothering for a guide meeting. I manage to catch the right bus but managed to miss the stop! So I walked back up the road to find the hut. I nipped into the supermarket to grab a snack before the meetings. I got a couple of satsumas and an apple. I sat out side and ate them then headed over to the hut. It was a cool hut with the guide emblem on the front. I looked around the guide shop for a while and got a couple of badges then headed into the meeting. It was brownies first and they were making a mothers day pin cushion. It was fun to make stuff again and I enjoyed helping the girls to make theirs. It was a lot of fun to be at guiding meetings again. After the meeting the leader said she would take me down to the other guide hut as it was dark and she didn't want me walking. Guiding people are so nice! The guides were having a mothers evening which is were the mums come and they do a craft together. It seemed like a really good idea. I helped bring everything in from the car and set everything up. There were alot of people by the time all the guides and mums had arrived. I helped give the craft stuff out and went round to help anyone who needed it. They were making a basket with a ladybird on. I chatted to the guides and mums as I went round and it was really good fun. After the meeting one of the leaders gave me a lift back to the hostel. I walked into town to find some food and found a fish and chip shop still open. It was nice fish and chips! I messed on the Internet for a while then headed to bed.

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Day 141 Bus to Napier

I ached alot when I woke up this morning! As I fell out of bed I walked like an old woman! I sorted my stuff out and packed most of it away then took dirty stuff and put a load of washing on. I had to check out so I stored my bags in the tv room. While I waited for my washing Ann and I chatted and went on the internet to swop photos. Her bus is at 1pm so once our washing was finished and we had packed it all away we walked into town to get postcards. Back at the hostel I waved Ann off on her bus and chilled watching tv. The only thing on was the news about the fact they had caught and killed Bin Laden. The news reporter got a bit mixed up and said they had killed Obama! I wandered once again in to town for a last look round. I had arranged to visit a pippin and brownie group here and as it neared the time to go I loaded up with my bags and got a map to find the church. Oh my word it was not fun to walk with all my bags and very very aching legs! I found the church easily. It was lovely to meet everyone they were really really nice. The pippins were so cute, they are the equivalent of the rainbows in the UK. The brownie meeting was fun too, they were making poppies for ANZAC day. We swopped badges and I taught them a game we play at guides. I chatted to one of the young leaders called Ashley she was cool and had just come back into guiding recently. I unfortunately had to leave before the guide meeting as I had to catch my bus to Napier. One of the guide leaders gave me a lift to the bus stop which my sore legs were very glad of. I got a drink then waited for the bus. When it arrived I hopped on and it was pretty empty so I got two seats to myself. I plugged into my iPod and fell asleep. When we arrived in Napier it was wet and windy. I walked down the road to the hostel. The guy at reception was really nice and friendly and told me lots of things to do and helped me find the areas where the guides I was visiting are. The hostel was very old fashion building it reminded me of Dolly Hall, the out door centre my parents school owns. I walked down the road to find some tea. I went in to one place that looked nice and they said they may not be serving food. They asked what I wanted and said they would cook it as it was easy, chicken and chips. It was really tasty! Back at the hostel I rested my sore legs and found that my stupid blog had lost two posts!! Ggrr!! I then clambered into bed.

Day 140 Tongario Crossing

I had some mad dreams last night mainly about being blown off the ridge into the crater just like our driver had said yesterday. It was an early start at 5am I got dressed and went to have some breakfast, with Ann, before a long day walking. We got picked up and taken to the bigger bus to the mountains. We dozed on the way to the mountains. The forecast for today is high clouds and lots of wind. As we got close to the mountains the driver told us that if we get to top of devils stair case and wind is to strong or we don't feel safe to turn back and call to be picked up. The forecast for wind speed is for 80kmph! This is going to be a fun walk! As we got off the bus she made sure we had warm clothes. We were one of the first to set off as we were first off the bus I think. The first part was quite flat and seemed ok. We then got to the devils staircase! It was challenging to say the least! I stopped a couple of times to get my breath back. We also rewarded ourselves with some liquorice as we walked for a sugar boost. As we got to the top the wind hit! We had been sheltered from it until now. It wasn't so much we felt unsafe so we soldiered on. Mount doom from Lord of the Rings was one of the side walks you could do but it is really steep and is pretty much a scree slope so the climb would be a scramble up and slide down. The wind was coming in such a direction that made it a bit dangerous to do this part so we skipped it and carried on up to the ridge. As we came up onto the ridge the wind really hit us! It was even stronger out in the open. As I walked I was blown on to my hands and knees! It was good fun though! We took lots of pictures stupid and serious ones and found a sheltered seat to have a quick bite to eat. I got Alaska, the husky I got for a travel companion, out to climb the mountains for pictures. There was some snow hidden under black ash dust, because these mountains are actually volcanos! As you stepped you foot print would have a white outline and looked pretty cool. When we were walking again it was a funny way of walking. Not like silly walks more like zigzagging across the ridge, as the wind gust it blew you over to one side, then it would go and you would nearly fall over but at the same time you had to get back to the other side of the path in preparation for the next gust to blow you sideways again! On the plus side the wind was blowing away from the red crater so my dreams of being blown into the crater would not come true, unless of course I fell in myself. There is another side walk you can do to the summit of another mountain and back to the main path but it wasn't safe due to the wind and mainly the wind direction. We sat for 5 minutes and decided it was best to just do the main path walk and enjoy it than risk the other path. The next part of the path was steep and more like a scree slope than a path. It was fun to walk down as you more slid down with each step each foot moving at least half a foot from where you put it. It was funny to watch the person in front slip down. The wind was still really strong and so in addition to sliding down I was also blown sideways. The views were stunning all the way along the ridge and down the slope. You know the feeling you get when you have finished something like a walk and you het a bit of an achievement high almost. Well I got that even before we had finished! As I neared the end of the slope the green lake came in to view and smell! It is green because it is a sulphur lake and they smell really bad. We did silly photos and then carried on. We then passed the blue lake which looked very inviting for a swim! On the next part of the walk the terrain changed to be more like fields and grass lands. I was a bit tired of up hill and was glad when the rest of the path appeared to be down hill. There was a hut about two hours from the end were you can stay I think as there were beds in it. We stopped here for lunch. As we came to the door who should be walking the other way than the Korean family from white water rafting! We ate lunch and chatted to them then set off again for the final hurdle. This part of the path was very windy and still went up and down which seemed harder. To keep our spirits up I sang guiding songs which also passed the time well. We made good time and reached the end an hour before the bus was due. I was pooped! I guess part because I had carried so much food and water and not eaten even a quarter of it! When the bus arrived we got on and slept most of the way back to town. It was so good to have a shower and put on clean cloths! I chatted to Ann and then booked a hostel for my next place. We then met and had tea soup again! After dinner and some more talking we were pooped and went to bed. I took some pain killers for my knees as they ache abit.


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Day 139 River Rapids

As I ate my breakfast this morning I chatted to Ann and we decided to to the big walk tomorrow called the tongario crossing. It is an all day thing and is dependent on the weather so we have to wait to book it until this evening to see what the weather forecast will be. I was supposed to be picking up my painted turtle tomorrow so I went to ask if she could post it to Christine's. Once I had sorted that I walked round town and bought a few things. I met up with Ann who was looking for some thong to do this afternoon, as was I. She had been looking at quad biking and I at whitewater rafting both of which need two people to go ahead. We decided to go whitewater rafting as Ann has never done it before. We looked round the shops some more for a birthday present for Ann's niece. Then back to the hostel to get ready for the river. The van picked us up and it was an hours drive to the centre to get kitted up. When we arrived a Korean woman and her two daughters were coming too. We put all the gear on and it was quite a few layers as the water is really cold. It was a further 10 minute drive to the start of the river rapids. We carried the boat down to the water and jumped in. I did get wet feet and it was freezing! Ann and I were at the front which is I think a fun place to be as you get to plummet down the rapids first! It was really really good fun we stopped on the way to jump off a rock into the icy icy water! My arms and legs were numb so fast! The littlest korean girl screamed so loud as she got out of the cold water. She also bounced into the middle of the boat every time we went over a rock or bump! There were 65 rapids all with random names most of which I can't remember now! Sorry. We were on the water for about 2 and a half hours. They gave us a waterproof camera so I took many many pictures. You can buy the cd of them at the end and it's the same price wether you take 10 pics or 100 pics! The more the better in that case. We carried/dragged the boat up and onto the trailer and hopped in for the 2 minute ride back to the shop. After peeling off all the wet clothes and getting dressed I snuggled in next to the patio heater they had in the shop! They gave us stuff to make sandwiches yum they were nice. They also had liquorice all sorts! Double yum yum!! After I was full of food and our CDs were ready we went back to town on their bus. The driver seemed nice and told us about the crossing walk we are doing tomorrow. He was beginning to worry me saying about the wins blowing the wrong way and people getting blown in to the crater! Back at the hostel we checked the weather for the walk, it's good so we booked the bus to get to the start. We then headed to the shop for provisions. As usual I got alot! Back at the hostel we made our sandwiches for tomorrow and made tea for tonight. I had 6 sandwiches, 16 cereal bars, 3 apples and a bag of apple liquorice! I then had a shower and sorted all my stuff out for the walk. I got abit distracted talking to Dan on the phone and got to bed about 11pm. I set my alarm for 4:45 as our pickup is 5:15!


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Day 138 Royal Wedding

Today is the royal wedding day in the UK. I got up early a today I have booked to do a skydive! Sorry Mum!! I got picked up and taken to the airport. They gave us options of packages dependent on if you want pictures or video or both. I decided on the full package incase I only ever do it once I'll have as much documentation as possible. I saw Louise as I was getting kitted up, we had to take all our jewellery off. The first load went up, jumped and landed fine. I was quite reassured by this. After a bit of filming we loaded into the plane, it was a little plane and we all just about fit in. The view was amazing as we flew up to the right height. 15000ft is alot higher than I had thought. As we got near to 12000ft we began to get ready ad got clipped together and given oxygen masks. Then the tandem guys began to make hand gestures at each other, I tried to ask what they ment but got no answer. Once they had finished with their hand conversation they said the wind had got to strong and it wasn't safe for us to jump. We would have to go down in the plane and land normally. The landing was a bit rocky but ok, we had a nice scenic flight! We stayed in all our gear and waited to see if the wind would die down. While waiting I chatted to Louise. After about 40 minutes the wind was still to strong so it was cancelled until further notice. I booked in for the next slot and then went back to the hostel to get some food. I ate or more inhaled a sandwich and they came to pick me up again. The wind had died down and so we kitted up quickly this time. The wind gust over 25knots so once again we waited to ensure it was safe to jump. We loaded into the plane finally and I was the last one in, there was one more person with us this time so the plane was definitely full to capacity as my camera guy had to sit on the floor! As we took off I realised that last one in ment first one out! Oh well better to get it over with I think! I was glad we had done the flight earlier as my view now was pretty pants as I was sat right by the door. Once again as we got close to 12000ft my tandem guy began to strap is together and gave me the oxygen again. Surprisingly I really didn't feel to nervous. We got to height and they opened to door it was cold and windy! My camera guy got to the door and held on backwards. We shuffled to the door and put our legs out, it felt like we would be blown out sideways as the wind caught our legs. I smiled for the camera and then on three we fell! It was so cool! 10000ft free fall! About 60seconds! You really have no concept of how far or fast your falling as you aren't falling past anything. I couldn't stop whooping! The camera guy floated around taking pictures and video, at one point he was below us falling back first which was very strange to see. At 5000ft we pulled the parachute. It was a strange feeling, and of course I would look up before it is fully unfolded! On the video you can see the moment I look because you see my face drop! One thing I noticed was my teeth were really cold from smiling the whole way down. We floated for a fee minutes and he said let's make it a bit more comfortable and unclipped the hip straps. God I thought he was going to unclip the lot! We did a practice of the landing position with legs up and then floated down and did a few spins as we descended. As we came into land there were people waiting to collapse the parachute, we nearly hit them and it was funny to watch them
scatter like ants! I had my legs up and just as we got to earth he said stand up and I just stood as we stopped. So so cool! He asked if I wanted to do it again, I said not right now! Once everyone had landed they had us jump up and down and fall on the floor. We then went and took all the kit off and sat down to watch the video. I was first on as I was first out, it was a really good video. I got the DVD's and picture CDs and we all got a T-shirt! I said goodbye to Louise and went back to the hostel on a high! I wandered into town to try and book something to do tomorrow, the whitewater rafting didn't have enough people interested so wouldn't be going ahead as of now but she said to come back and check tomorrow. I once again wandered in town and decided to go to the ceramic cafe and paint something. Everything was quite big and I dint really had much time. I spotted a small turtle one and decided to do that one. It took me a while to decide on the colours to do the turtle but eventually I got some once ones and I quite enjoyed just sitting and painting. I finished just as the shop was closing, she said it would take a while to fire and I could pick it up on Sunday. I walked down to the lake edge and took some pictures as the sun wet down. It was beautiful. A woman giving out church magazine on child abuse and homelessness started talking to me and gave me a pile of magazines. I wandered back to the hostel and again had soup and rolls for dinner and chatted to Ann, she had done a bungy jump today and loved it! We decided to get in the tv room early to get. Seat for the wedding. First though we went to pak and save to get bubbly and chocolates for the occasion. We got mini bottles of bubbly and lindor chocolates as they were the fanciest ones we could find. When we got back we got good seats in the tv room, well beanbags right in everyones way but hey! As we watched they seemed to be showing the same thing over again, it turned put the two Spanish girls who kept changing the channel had it on the wrong one and we were watching an hour behind! We flicked over to the right channel just as the bridesmaids got out of the car. It was a lovely service and Kate's dress was beautiful too. I stayed up until they had kissed on the balcony. Then went to bed as it was very late.


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Day 137 Huka Falls

I woke up after a very nice sleep and after a shower finally chatted to the other person in my room. She was from Wales but now lived in Christchurch and was a doctor. We chatted for a while then I went to see about doing a skydive! I booked in for the 1pm slot and suddenly was very nervous and excited! There are quite a few skydiving companies but I chose Taupo Tandem as Louise, who I went to school with, works there. As I had time to kill I went and wandered around town again I picked up a few leaflets of places to go around Taupo. I nipped in to the flight centre to see about going to Fiji, the woman was very helpful and I got a booklet to look at options. I grabbed some lunch as I thought jumping out of a plane with an empty stomach was not the best idea. I then had to wait to be picked up. The girl in reception said the van had been round today so to wait outside and they would come. I waited and waited and yes waited some more! Eventually I went back to the office and asked them to call. The wind was to strong to jump so I booked in for the first slot in the morning. As there was still the whole afternoon to kill I got a map and set off to walk to a waterfall. I think it's the longest waterfall in New Zealand. But then again I could be lying! It was a nice walk and I stopped along the way to watch a bungy jumper. It was a good walk, but due to the heavy rain they had a couple of days ago that closed roads and felled trees, the path was blocked in a few places. Well not really blocked as I still managed to climb through and over the trees. I did get sap everywhere though even in my hair as my ponytail got caught on a branch as I climbed through. I could hear the waterfall for ages and thought I had missed it. Eventually I found it and it was beautiful. The water was so blue and white as it went down. There were a lot of people there as you can drive down to it. I took a good few pictures then asked the guy in his booth the way to the honey bee hive place. He gave very odd directions but I set off in full faith and was soon halted but trees again. In one that had fallen there was a nest with nothing in it. I walked off the path and up onto the road, it was as I walked along the road I saw a sign that the footpaths were closed due to fallen trees! I walked along the road from then on and came to a helicopter place and nipped in to check I was on the right path. I found the honey place easily due to the huge bee hive sign just a bit further down the road. It is free to get in which is always good. I looked round and saw all the bees in a hive with a glass side it was really cool there were loads of them! They had free tasters, and let's be honest who can resist! I tried honey wine and honey whisky, they were both quite nice. There was also ten different kinds of honey to try! Of course I tried them all, oh except the peanut butter one! I can't remember which one I liked most but they were all pretty nice. I tried honey comb too which as it turns out is very good for your mouth if you chew on the comb wax for a few minutes! Once I was done browsing and tasting I was going to walk to another information centre place about volcanos but it was nearly closing time for them all so I got them to call the shuttle bus for me. I waited outside for the bus. On the way we dropped someone else off and get a car seat for the driver's child. She dropped me back off in the middle of town, I went to the supermarket and got soup and rolls for dinner then headed back to the hostel. The soup was really tasty and the rolls were lovely! Once again I had custard and apple for dessert! I got talking to a woman called Ann, and a guy called Adam. We chatted for ages until late at night then went to bed with the agreement we would catch up tomorrow.

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Day 136 Arrive in Taupo

I got up and shoved last bits in bag then set off for train station with Christine. I got a few funny looks being the person with a huge bag on the morning train. It was pouring with rain in Wellington, we grabbed a drink and waited for the bus to arrive. When it did a said goodbye and jumped on. I got a seat at the back by the window window with room for my bags. I slept for a while and listened to Harry Potter on my iPod. As we came close to a lunch stop I was woken by I cold rush of water down my back. As it turns out the aircon leaks and often pours water down on you at the back. There was nothing the driver could do, and I was drenched! Maddening! I had to sit further over with no seat belt, needless to say I was glad when we got to Taupo. I walked up to the hostel and checked in. It seemed nice even if I had booked into a 8 bed room to meet people and I was the only one in there! I asked reception if anyone else was coming and they said not until tomorrow. I grabbed a map and went for a walk around town. It wasn't huge at all and you could walk round in about 30 minutes. I went and got food from the supermarket and headed back to the hostel. I had chicken skewers and a baked potato for tea. Then warm custard and an apple for dessert. I went and chilled in the tv room and they were watching the rainman. It looks like a really good film, I must remember to watch the whole thing one day. Someone else had come into my room but I didn't see them at all. I went to bed and was freezing cold! I miss the electric blanket at Christine's!


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Day 135 Lost Purse

I have to say I am writing this alot later than it happened and looking at my notes today looks like a short and slightly boring day so I apologies now! I got up earlyish to talk to mum. I then messed around on the Internet for a while avoiding packing my clothes for my time away. I did eventually get my behind into gear and pack. I was happy everything fit in so well, this I wad later to discover was due to the fact I was not taking everything with me! I had to walk into town in search of some light trainer type shoes. The only shoes I have are flip flops, walking boots and trekking sandals. Oh and evil shoes that rip holes in your heels! I spent ages in warehouse trying on lots of pumps style shoes. Some light blue denim ones were most comfortable but looked pants, I am not to bothered about aesthetics but they really did look stupid with dark jeans. I eventually found a pair of grey ones that fit ok and went to pay for them. Now this bit is funny! I was stood in the queue to pay and could t find my purse, PANIC! I then remember taking the purse out and putting it on my bed, were it stayed as I left the house. Pants!! I stowed the shoes behind some others as I had spent to long finding ones that for to risk someone else buying them. I walked home picked up my purse and walked back to the shop. My hiding place had foiled everyone and I was successful in purchasing the shoes. Woohoo!! I went to Margaret's and helped prepare dinner. We ate, watched some tv then headed home as I was getting the bus early in the morning to go to Taupo.


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Day 134 Anzac Day

When I woke up at 5am to go to the Anzac parade it was pouring with rain! I had not slept well either due to the hammering rain. I got up and met Christine on my way to the loo. She had called Margaret and made the decision to for go the parade due to the rain. So I went back to bed and slept really well until 10am! We lazed around in our pyjamas and I made us both poached eggs for breakfast. Now as is always the way with poached eggs the ones I made Christine were perfect. Mine however were less than perfect and insisted on sticking to the pan! Rude! They were tasty once I finally got two to behave. We watched the Anzac parade on tv and it was interesting to watch. Pretty much the same as remembrance day services. After a shower I backed my pictures up to my hard drive. Christine suggested going to the cinema so we looked up what was on and decided on a new Zealand made film called My Wedding and Other Secrets. The cinema was really nice, it was kind of old school and had two seated sofas and tables between, really comfy. The film was very good I would recommend it! We stopped at pak and save for food and drink on the way back. We watched PS I Love You as we ate dinner, I had forgotten how much I liked the film. Over all a good Easter Monday/Anzac day!


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Day 133 Easter Day

It's Easter! We had a very lazy morning just watching tv and films and taking our time to have a shower. In the afternoon we decided maybe we should leave the house and so donned out shoes and coats and went for a walk around the area. We walked behind the houses and across a very main very busy road, to the river. It was a nice river and was flowing quite fast due to a lot of rain there has ben recently. I took silly pictures and showed Christine my method for taking pictures of yourself by holding the camera upside-down as this ensures you get more of yourself in the picture. I also took silly pictures of stones with rain drops on them as I thought they looked arty farty. I had agreed to try and cook dinner from
Memory with philadelphia and chicken. It went ok but I was nervous that I had the recipe wrong even though I had tried to google it. I was kind of copying a meal my friend Claire from work made me before I left. It turned out really tasty and the wine we bought for cooking was actually quite good to drink. I had good fun cooking too. For dessert we had hokey pokey ice cream with chocolate topping. Well improvised chocolate topping aka cadburys chocolate melted which did not work but tasted good. Christine gave me a lint chocolate bunny for Easter and I decided to photo document it's demise! I began with the ears! We watched some tv and decided to get an early night for a change since we planned to get up early to go to the Anzac parade at 5am.

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Day 132 Crafty Day

Got up for a Skype date with Dan. I am amazed by how good Skype is. Then got dressed and went to pick Jessica up and set off to Wets again for the chain mail lesson. It was a nice day and the shop was busy already and we were early. I got us a kit each then we looked round. They did a demo on a large screen then we went out into the sunshine to give it a go. It was not as easy as they had made it look! I did eventually manage to get the hang of it. That is after the guy car round and said to forget one of the steps and do it a different way! I thought it was quite funny they would write the instructions then tell you to do a step differently! It took quite a while to do a piece about the size of a credit card. Once we were done we set off down the road towards where Christine was driving to pick us up. There was a craft fair in one of the near by towns so we headed for that. Christine went to get Margaret after dropping Jess and I off. There were so many good things people had made. It wasn't what I was expecting but it was cool to gather ideas from the stalls. I wasn't very controlled and did buy lots quite a few things. There was a free old school photo booth where you put silly hats on and pulled stupid faces. The pictures looked really cool. We grabbed some chips with a dip called aoli which is a really strong garlic flavour. I loved it as I love garlic! It closed around three and by that time I was spent up and had been round twice. We headed home and Christine and I watched tv and chilled for a bit before going shopping for food. After dinner we watched a film called the castle. It was one Jenita had been quoting in Vanuatu, saying "that's going straight to the pool room!". It was a funny film I recommend it! I nipped on the computer and mum was on skype so we chatted for a while until it got late and I went to bed.


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Day 131 Weta Cave

Christine had a brunch with her friends for their mums birthday. She dropped me off at Weta Cave for the morning. It is the company that did the lord of the rings films and many others special fx, including master and commander and avatar. It was a really small shop and even smaller museum! I watched a video of how they began which was quite interesting. When I came out the shop was packed, standing room only! They had a digital drawing demo on for the Easter weekend. I stood and watched for a while it was crazy the picture looked so good I could never do that on a computer! I got a leaflet that said they were doing chain-mail classes the next day. I really want to learn how to make chain-mail! Once I had gotten bored of the demo and looked at the closet size museum I walked down the street to meet Christine. We went to her friends house for birthday cake. I chatted to people who traveled too. The cake was nice. We were the last ones to leave and headed home. It was a nice day the sun was shining so Christine mowed the lawn while I did some washing and attempted to make a variation on the bracelet we had woven in Vanuatu, using ribbon and a wooden bangle. I have to say I was vet impressed with myself! It looked really good and was not that hard! It only made me want to make more things!! We cooked tea and sat down to watch master chef then a film. I text Jessie to see if she wanted to go make chain mail in the morning. She said yes and so we arranged to pick get up. Then to bed I was tired.


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Day 130 Bus Booking Day

Today I had a lay in and listened to Harry Potter audio book on my iPod. I do love Stephen Fry's voice it is so calming! Once I was up and showered I took the DVD we had borrowed from Jessica back to the shop and looked round the shops with Margaret. We went to the library so I could look on the Internet for bus times to go to Taupo and Napier. I was unsure of which to book so went home to think about it. I did some more of my scrap book and watched a film then I looked at a calendar and planned the buses I wanted then walked back to the library and booked them. It cost, for 3 bus journeys all over 6 hours long about £35!!!! You can't even get a train for that in the UK!! Madness! Christine called to say she had booked a table at a restaurant in upper hutt so I got ready to go out for tea. It was a really nice place and the food was amazing. I had chicken and it was really tasty and for desert I had creme brûlée yummy!!! When we got home I showed Christine how to load her CDs on to her account and then wrote some of my blog! I am sorry for how behind I am!! And how pants the posts are!

Day 129 Day at Parliment

I decided to do something a bit touristy today. So after a morning of faffing and do bits in scrap book I walked to the train station. I am becoming quite used to this journey now! It takes 40 minutes to get to Wellington on the train but I listen to my iPod and play games on it and then am there. My activity for today is to do the free tour of parliament. I was hoping they would be in session, as I saw the australian parliament in session and it would be cool to see New Zealand's too. Unfortunately they aren't today. I settled for the hour tour, on the way in the security guard read my panda jumper and liked it! He said he wanted one but I don't think it would suit him. I had to put all my stuff in a locker and sit with my sticker on to wait for the tour to start. It was a really large group. We saw some rooms with maori carvings and we went down to the basement and saw the earthquake protection systems. It was interesting to see and a beautiful building. After I wandered around town and went to the library to use the Internet. I wandered back to the train station and headed home. Once christine came back we had tea at her house and watched leap year the film. While I did more to my scrap book. Some of the writing was coming off some of the tickets so Christine suggested putting tape over them to protect them, so that is what I did! Then bed late again!! Oh well!

Day 128 Dead Internet Day

I have slimmed my stuff down today by sorting it out and taking quite a bit to the post office. I recycled some of the boxes I had received here but didn't have anything at Christine's to cover the addresses so I could write mine on. Margaret came with me and we looked in the cheap shop for something like brown parcel paper. No such luck so yellow card will have to do. I got a big roll of parcel tape too to ensure they are securely sealed. After sitting on sofa in the shopping centre for about half and hour packaging everything bs noting down what went in each box I went and queued in the post office. When I got to the front they sent me away to fill out the customs forms. Then there was an even bigger queue! Oh man! Eventually it was all done and Margaret and I went for some lunch at the cheap place with the amazing ham sandwiches and caramel slices!! Yum yum! Back at home I thought I had better do the jobs I had been set! Hehe only joking I do love setting things up! So I settled down to set up the wireless router, keyboard and mouse. The latter two were very easy just put the batteries in and plug the adapter in re computer and away you go. This did involve me climbing under the computer desk much to the cats amusement. I was nervous about setting up the router as I didn't want to kill the Internet. I left the old one set up and just unplugged it from the tower to plug the new one in. It all worked fine and packed the old one away. Then went on the Internet. Now it still worked but it was very very very slow!! Hum!! Was it the new router or had I done soothing wrong. I showed Christine when she got home and she was very pleased to have them all out of the boxes and in use. She then checked her broadband allowance and we discovered the reason for it being slow. I had maxed it out! Ooppss!! I had used the whole months allowance in less than two weeks!! Say it again ooppss!! We were invited to Margaret's for roast pork with Stu and Jess so we walked down. The food was lovely and she even made crackling at Stu's request which was very tasty. I can not believed I used a while months broadband allowance it is now dial up speed which I had forgotten how slow that was! Once again with feeling ooppss!!!


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Day 127 Cinema with Jessica

It is the Easter holidays now so Jessica is off for 2 weeks. Yesterday we arranged to go to the cinema and I bought the tickets on line last night. It was a choice between Justin beber, or mars needs moms! Can you guess which won!! We picked her up and hopped on the train to town. We wandered through town to the cinema stopping in shops along the way that Jess wanted to look in. I got some gloves for when I go down south as I'm told it's going to be cold! Jessica got a jumper and I got a couple of nail varnishes as they were super cheap. We got Chinese at the food court in the cinema complex as it's Jess's favourite and it was very nice. The film, which was mars needs moms if you hadn't already guessed, was surprisingly not to bad! As we made our way back to the train station I nipped in to a phone shop to get my Australian phone to work with a New Zealand sim card. Success and it is cheap to ring the uk woohoo!! I also stopped into the travel agents and picked up my tickets for the New Zealand tour. In Wellington they are introducing new trains as the current ones are pretty ancient. We managed to get on a new one and it was nice! Jessica was very impressed and I know Christine will be jealous as she hasn't yet got one, despite getting the train to and from work every day! Jessica's mum picked us up at the station and dropped me back home. When Christine arrived back we walked down to Margaret's for tea. Once sufficiently full we walked home and I set Christine up with a skype account and once again played on the Internet before bed.

Day 126 Devonshire Tea and Scones!

Today has been a marathon skype day! I got up and chatted to Dan for an hour and a half. Then while Christine pottered round doing housework and stuff I watched some greys. We went for a drive and stopped at a quilting shop. The quilts were amazing and made me want to get my sew on!! The place next-door did the most amazing Devonshire tea. You ordered your scone and he made and cooked it fresh! Yummy!! Best scone I have ever had. A lovely afternoon out and the sun even made an appearance! We went to Margaret's for tea after I had watched another episode of greys! I went on the Internet and we all got distracted from watching master chef by google earth and looking at all the houses I have lived in! We missed the big episode where they had to make a chocolate stand and cup cakes to go on it. Oh well there always catchup. Back at Christine's I skyped with Mum for a while before bed. I have to say skype is so good!

Day 125 iPod Success

We had a chilled morning after showering I got distracted watching greys anatomy! Oh I love greys!! We went to see about the only iPod nano in Wellington, thats is when Christine managed to drag me away for the computer! We checked it over as it was ex display. I was cheeky and asked them to match another stores price, which he agreed to. It was so easy I then asked if they could give an even better price. And he did! I must try it more often! Bargain!! Christine also bought a web cam so she can get on to skype. We stopped at a garden centre for lunch which was lovely, all the cafes around here are nice. We then headed over to a textiles shop I was in my element and could of stayed there forever. I bought a couple of pieces of material, the woman was awkward to start with about cutting the measurement I wanted so I had to order more. How stupid to not cut off the bolt a measurement that is what the material is used for! Ridiculous! We stopped at a few shops on the way home and Christine got a couple of DVDs. We ate dinner and watched a film and I set up her iPod and web cam. I am going to have to give her a crash course in how to use the iPod and skype.


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Day 124 Day of Chill

Today has been a chilling day. Not in terms of weather just me relaxing for the day. I have been writing this as I am very behind I am sure you have all noticed and I apologies. I played on the internet for most of the day to be honest I am loving not having to pay $10 a day for Internet! Thanks Christine! Time seems to be flying at the moment! Margret called to invite us for tea. I went down in the afternoon and she had made scones in her new mixer. They were tasty! When Christine arrived we had dinner on the way. Now Margret thought she had got spag Bol for 3 out but it turned out to be pork chops for 2! Funny!! But we made it stretch and padded it out with vegetables. Back at Christine's I got to skype with Mum however Christine didn't have a webcam or mic so I had to type everything. It was funny to watch Mum reading it and watch the screen for the writing to come up. Hehe!! I did get to see Gyp he is a cute dog!


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Day 123 Decision Day

First thing I did today was to get up and skype with Dan. I lost track of time and we talked for about an hour and a half! After a quick shower and bite to eat I got the train to Wellington and went to book the tour round New Zealand with the other Katie. I decided to do the longest one that went to lots of places. It didn't take long at all and even the pre and post tour hostels and flight to Christchurch were booked. Once that was all done I needed a drink so I wandered round town in search of a drink and came across the shop with the hat in!! However on second inspection I decided maybe I wouldn't wear it and instead got a woollen one. Sounds boring I know but it's multi coloured and has tassels! Hehe!! I then headed over to the civic centre and went to the art gallery, all the time listening to my iPod. It was close to the time Christine was finishing work so I waited at the station so we could be on the same train. The plan for tonight is to get Christine a iPod nano in pink! She has been eyeing them up for a while and wants me to set it up for her while I'm here. As well as her wireless Internet and keyboard and mouse. I seem to remember that last time I stayed with her I set up her broadband! We picked Margaret up and went to the shops. It turns out that the 16gb pink iPod nano is popular in the Wellington area as, after going to all the electrical shops, there is only one and it's in upper hutt. That is where Christine lives!! In one shop they had mixers on offer and Margaret couldn't help herself it was really nice too a red mixer. We went to the food court and each had something different, don't you live food courts for that! Once again we got hooked on watching tv and were late to bed once again!

Day 122 Trip to Wellington

Mum called this morning so chatted to them for a while and decided to go to a shop in Wellington to decide what to do in new Zealand as there is to many on the internet. I just could tell which one was good and which ones were potentially dud. So I got dressed and caught the train to Wellington. I was a very bad tourist and had my iPod on playing sudoku on my phone. So I didn't see any of the scenery along the way. Now I wasn't very prepared for Wellington. Not in the way I wasn't dressed right because I don't have anything but my trousers that are to big. I mean in the way that I didn't have a clue which way to go to get to the shops! I guessed and went up the hill out of the train station. This, as I am sure you could predict, was the wrong way! I asked in a shop and was pointed in the other direction. Oh well nice stroll. I walked past one flight centre and then went into the next one, I'm not sure why I walked past one but hey. The girl was really nice and she was called Katie too! She gave me more brochures and so more bloody choice! I then wandered round town getting my barrings. I found a shop with cool hats in I do need a hat for south island as it will be chilly. One was fluffy and had bear ears!! I decided if I found the shop again next time I would get it. I got some jeans and jumpers with cool things on, one says crazy short and super fun. The other has a picture of pandas and one has slapped the other and it says 'I didn't slap you I high fived your face!'. I wandered around for a good while then text Christine to see when she was finishing work. She was nearly done so I went back to meet her at the train station. We chatted on the way home and stopped to get indian on the way home. Now when I go to Indians I love poppadoms!! As in I'll eat about 3-4 myself!! So I was looking forward to a poppadom fix, but no they were out of them!! Naan bread instead. It was still a nice meal. Mum called again and chatted to Christine for a while. Then once again late to bed!!

Day 121 Material Hunt

I was once again late up! I think the infection from Vanuatu has taken it's toll and all this sleep is recovery as it is undisturbed sleep! I walked to Margs and we took her dog Amber for a walk around the block. We had lunch at Marg's then went in search of the sewing shop, which is in upper hutt, to look for new Zealand patchwork material! I am being very controlled and only getting a couple of bits from each country. The women at my group in Nottingham say they obviously haven't trained me well enough if I am only buying a couple! We found it and I think I was like a kid in a sweet shop there was so much choice but I managed to cut it down from 7 to 3. I took full advantage of the Internet at Christine's and browsed till she got home I think. We cooked tea tonight and Marg came down. Christine mentioned she was thinking of getting an iPod but didn't know which one she wanted so we went online to look at the different ones. She chose a pink iPod nano. We browsed to find the cheapest price and it is my mission to get it cheap as possible. I'm going to try asking for more money off where ever we go to get it. We keep going to bed later and later!

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Day 120 Tiffin

I got to chat to Dan this morning!! I think we chatted for at least an hour! I got dressed after a shower, I lost some weight in Vanuatu on the Moso detox diet!! As a result I have no fitting trousers and am using the tying belt Jessie gave me, so trousers that are to big and a black hoody I look and feel like a scally wag! I must get jeans or something asap! I walked down the road to Margaret's and we went into town. We had lunch in a cheap cafe but it was lovely the ham sandwich was nice and the caramel slice mmmmmm!!! We wandered round the shops and Margaret sorted her visa for Australia as she is going to her granddaughters engagement party in June. I had told Christine about make stuff for night shifts and had mentioned tiffin. They had never heard of it so I took it as a challenge to make some! I had reminded myself of the recipe this morning and after a stop at the supermarket to get the ingredients, it was back to Margaret's to make it. I do love baking (I know heating butter and bashing biscuits isn't baking but hey you know what I mean!). Once it was chilling in the fridge Margaret and I got a drink and sat in the sun and chatted. Christine got home from work and came down to Margaret's for tea. Dessert was of course Katie's amazing tiffin! And it was just that amazing! Yum yum yum! (I must have a sweet tooth today!). We chilled and watched tv until bed time. Christine is a late to bed person and so am I. It is cozy sitting with the cats curling up on you lap. Jack loves me! Harley isn't so sure.


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Day 119 Family Barbecue

I had another lovely lay in today! Not quite as long as yesterday. After showers and breakfast we went to the shops so I could get a jumper as I don't have one with me. I haven't needed one until now! I found 2 and they were really good prices one is marino wall which is supposed to be really warm and one is a black hoody that makes me loom abit like a hoolagen! Once I was warm we set off for another drive this time over to Island Bay where Christine used to live, we tried to arrange to meet Claire and Janet for a coffee but they were out at government house with their mum. However we didn't make it all the way there we stopped to nose at a new cinema that had opened. I think I may have found an idea for a business!! I would tell you but you may steal it before I get home! So I shall keep it close to my chest for now!! Hehe!! Anywho once we had snooped around abit we walked along to a garden centre for lunch. Half way through eating Claire called to sat they were done and wild come meet us. They arrived and there was quite a crowd of us, the cafe staff looked put out we pulled a few tables together as there were now 7 people. Claire and Janet, their mum, there friend Caroline, Janet's friend (who's name currently escapes me), Christine and I. We chatted for a while, I last saw Claire and Janet in 2007 when I was here last. They haven't changed abit! Christine couldn't leave without buying a couple of plants!

On the way home we stopped at the supermarket, which stays open til 10pm even though if is a Sunday! I was amazed because at home they all close at 4pm on a Sunday and everyone panic buys for the whole 14 hours the shops aren't open!! Again anywho, we were buying supplies for the barbecue we are hosting tonight. We got some chicken for Jessica and chips (crisps!) and Christine said she would make a dip. Everyone arrived, it was nice to have a family barbecue. Margaret came and Stuart her son with his daughter Jessica and partner Diane and her daughter Abby. I made baked potatoes but it took a while as I could only put a couple in the microwave to soften first so the first ones were very crispy but the time they came out of the oven! Christine's dip was lovely I had to go and sit away from it to stop from munching them all! I ate with Jessica and Abby to chat to them, again I haven't seen Jessica since 2007. Then she really wanted to go to Paris, now not so much! Once they had gone we sat down and watched some tv, masterchef new Zealand was on and apparently it's the thing to watch on a Sunday! I have to say it was quite good. Oh I love electric blankets when your feet are cold and you get into a warm bed. But I do get to hot and end up sleeping with my legs in the cold side of the bed!


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Day 118 Lay in

I had a pretty decent lay in today as we had a very late night. The bed was so so comfortable! I really didn't want to get out! After a nice shower and crumpets, we went for a drive around the area. Christine has moved since I visited in early 2007. We ended up by the sea and went for a walk along a pier where people were fishing. There were funny fishing rod holders shaped like a fish with it's mouth open so you can put your rod in it's mouth and it will stay upright. Genius! It was a beautiful day. We next stopped at a nice cafe for some lunch, I had a beautiful quiche! After more driving we went to Margaret's for a drink and to call the airline to find out where my bag was. I feel grotty as I don't have and clean clothes in my hand luggage so still have travelling clothes on! Yuck! They said it had arrived and would be delivered to Christine in 2 hours. We chilled in the garden at Margaret's a while longer then headed home to wait. It arrives not long after we did and I quickly got changed. The lotto tonight is a big one so we went to the supermarket and I got a ticket to cos you never know. I would like the money to do everything I want while travelling! We then got fish and chips for tea and pocked Margaret up on the way back to come for tea too. It was really really nice fish, but I was full really fast. We relaxed and watch a couple of films on tv and let our electric blankets heat up!


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Day 117 Bye Bye Australia!

I always wonder why people think its ok to go in and out of a ten bed dorm room and leave the door to slam and do it all night!! Ggrr!! So after a night of continually disturbed sleep I packed everything do my flight this afternoon and checked out. We stowed our bags in huge lockers then nipped to the post office so I could send a couple of things home. The only box it fitted in was a birthday box so that one had to do. We then headed for the war museum. The main road leading down to it is lines with memorial statues for the different wars and forces. We again made it just in time for a free tour! I was unsure if we could fit it in before I had to go to the airport but the guide assured me we had plenty of time. It was really interesting hearing about the wars for another countries point of view. The poppies all along the walls of names was quite emotive really. It was getting very close to the time I had to catch the airport bus and the guide showed no signs the tour was nearly finished so I said thank you and ducked out. Nat was in the phone to here mum and once I had for a badge and poppy from the gift shop we started to walk back to the hostel. I took pictures of he memorials along the way. Back at the hostel I emailed Christine quickly then donned my bags and walked to the bus stop. I was the only one on the bus and the driver was quite chatty. My flight is from Canberra to Sydney then on to Wellington. I checked in and checked my bag all the way through to Wellington. I was in loads of time so got some food and played suduko as I waited. It was a full plane and I was near the back. The flight was fine but I soon realised I only had 50 minutes before my next plane took off and I had to go through security! Oh and the domestic terminal is at one end of the airport and the international at the other. Once I got off the plane I ran down to the bus to take me to the international terminal I just made it by seconds! I was first off and ran through to security. Why is it I always get stuck in the wrong queue?! I mean why did I get stuck behind the women and two kids who won't do as they are told and have six thousand bags?! Each child had a laptop and didn't want to put them in the same tray, then had at least 2 bags each. As it all went through they were so slow walking through the detector and the mother told them to wait to take their stuff off until she could help them. They were like 10! In the meantime my stuff was stuck out of reach behind theirs and I now had like 20 mins to get my plane!! One child took their bag got told off by the mum but at least I could reach my stuff and grabbed it all and ran through the shops to the gate. I made it phew!! I settled in to my seat and had a row of three to my self. As soon as we took off I found a film to watch and relaxed. I watch tangled then they bought food round. After eating I watched gulivers travels. Two films I wanted to see but came out after I had left home. As seemed to be the theme today I was last in the passport control queue. And was desperate for the loo!! After a good quizzing by the control guy I was allowed in and ran to the loo. As I got to the baggage claim area there were alot of bags going round the belt I stood and watched as everyone stepped forward and took their bags. Until there was one left and it wasn't mine!! I asked the woman abs she checked with the people through the curtain (like the wizard of oz!) there were no more bags! It appeared my bag couldn't run as fast as me and was still in Sydney! It does worry me how the woman seemed unphased by my lost bag and just gave me an overnight bag, took a phone number and my lock code so security could search it if need be. I went to customs but had none of the declared things as they were all in my big bag. Christine was being a photographer for someone as I walked out. We drive to her house dropping Margaret off on the way. We had a drink and chatted for quite a while until 3am then decided to go to bed. She had put and electric blanket on my bed which was so nice!


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Day 116 Flowers and Science

I had not realised that I must have a exiting ticket for New Zealand or they won't let me in! Ridiculous! It should come up when you book a one way ticket! Anyway we went to STA to ask for the cheapest ticket but they weren't very helpful and only came up with ones back to sydney which is not where I wanted to go. We left there and set off to walk across the city to the botanical gardens. It took a little while and due to road works and closed foot paths we were about 5 minutes late for the free tour. They all seemed very surprised to see us there as everyone else was at least 50 plus! It was interesting but I had heard a lot about the plants during my tours. There was a lovely gum tree area with people having picnics. It was an hour tour and once it was done we asked the way to questacon the science museum. The tour guide said she was passing that way and would drop us off. People are so nice. She dropped us off right outside the door. It was a bit costly to get in but well well worth it! We grabbed some lunch as went to a show about water, H2O, vasa, eau! I feel like a geek sometimes because I really enjoyed it! We worked our way around the museum and played with all the things I love science museums cos you can touch and play with everything! I couldn't stop thinking about what to do about my flight from new Zealand do I go to south America or south Africa, china or home?!?! It is driving me mad. We walked round the lake after the museum then back to the hostel. I decided to look for a cheap flight to Fiji and managed to find one. Problem solved! Phew! We chatted for a while and I felt like a huge weight had been lifted because I had flight sorted. We got cheap pizza from the bar round the corner then headed to bed.

Day 115 Cairns to Canberra

Up early today 3:30am to fly to Canberra to meet Nat. I got a nasty look from one girl as I, quietly got my stuff and left the hostel room. It was a really rocky flight which was quite nerve racking! I listened to Harry Potter for most of the way and chatted to the guy next to me for some of it. As we descended my ear wouldn't equalise and it really hurt. At Brisbane I got some ear plugs to help with ears and made my way to the gate and chilled waiting to board. Firstly the incoming flight was delayed landing, then there was a fault with the plane so we were delayed while maintenance fixed it. I could see them working on one of the engines! They eventually gave us meal vouchers as the delay just kept getting longer. I went to get some lunch, as I was waiting for my food they called to say they were boarding! I had to take my meal on with me. Again this was a rocky flight, there must of been some good wind! The ear plugs did help and I was glad to finally land in Canberra only 2 and a half hours late.

Once I had checked into the hostel I walked around the lake to meet Nat at the museum. We then did the captain cook walk around the lake and headed back to town and went to the cinema. We saw limitless, it was very bizarre and in one place gruesome! But over all good. We grabbed some tea then ended up chatting to some people in the hostel. They worked for UNICEF and it was more of a lecture about that than actual chatting. I fell into bed as I had been up since 3:30am.


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Day 114 No Fly Day

Today is another no fly day, due to having dived yesterday afternoon. I chilled in bed and tried to catch up with this and some diary writing. Once I was saturated with writing I headed on a classic wander round the shops. I want a digarydo as a souvenir but they a huge and expensive. However in my skilled wandering way I found a 40cm one at a reasonable price that you could still play. I also got a mini boomerang to remind me of the fun at kroombit. After more wandering I went back to the hostel as I have a huge amount of washing to do. I spoke to Natalie from my tour and she is in Canberra so I decided to go meet up with her. While my washing was spinning I booked flights to Canberra and over to New Zealand. The antibiotics have really taken it out of me so I had tea and packed. The girls in my room got chatting, why is it when you are leaving they are chatty but the whole time I have been here they haven't been. I booked a ride to the airport and went for an Indian meal as I had been craving one all day. It wasn't as good as I and expected. I then headed back and went to bed as I have to be up at 3am for the flight!


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Day 113 Bad Diving Day

Up early this morning for a pre breakfast dive. When I had my dive briefing I was told that due to the stern line breaking last night we were moving quite alot on the bow line and the swell was big too. We would have to go in off the back and drop straight down then swim under the boat to the line to go all the way down. They said it would be a hard swim, I said that was fine I was up for a challenge. Once we were kitted up and I saw the state of the sea conditions I began to get nervous. This then wasn't helped by not being able to go in off the back because it wasn't safe! We had to, instead, go in off the side near the front! This was at least a five metre drop, in to very choppy water! I was freaked before I even jumped off the boat. When I got in the boat was rocking and swaying right towards us, I panicked a little because I struggled to drop down to five metres and could just see the boat coming towards me. I got down and was breathing way to fast, I signalled to Gus, the dive master trainee, that I wasn't ok and I was panicking. He signalled to breath and to follow him down. No matter how much I tried to calm down I couldn't and used my air very quickly. There wasn't much to see as the weather made the visibility really rubbish. We went up and did the safety stop, I was down to a very bare minimum for air as we waited. In the last minute we swam under the boat to the stern to get out easier. As I surfaced I was relived to see the boat about 5metres away on my left hand side. I swopped to my snorkel and began to swim towards it, after a bit I thought I must be nearly there so I looked up to see how far. My heart sank as it was no longer on my left hand side, it was to my right and even worse it was about 15 metres away!! I started kicking again but because I was going against the current and the boat was swinging so much I wasn't really getting anywhere near. I stuck my arm up for some help and saw the divemaster was back at the boat and the rest of us were struggling in to water still. He came back and we swam together with another girl arm in arm back to the boat but we still didn't get anywhere near enough. They threw a life ring on rope out to us and we pulled ourselves in. I was so relieved to be back on the boat. I don't think I would have made it back if they hadn't thrown the ring to us. I had a shower then went for breakfast. I didn't feel like eating much as I had swallowed so much sea water.

After everything was cleared away we set of to move to another dive site. The sea was really rough still, and almost everyone felt ill. There was alot of Ginger tablets being taken and everyone looked green. On the way we watched nemo, there was a crashing noise form the kitchen as the lunch salad went crashing onto the floor. That was just the start! By the end of the trip to the next reef everything in the kitchen had been on the floor at least once, the bottles behind the bar were wedged on with cushions. The games on the shelves also had cushions holding them on. Anything not screwed down had moved the rooms were a mess and even the washing machines had moved! I asked how often it was like this and was told that this is the worst they have seen it. The platform with the glass bottomed boat on had started to come away from the boat! Great I feel special having seen the great barrier reef at it's worst. Eme came and asked if I wanted to go in for a dive, she said the conditions would be pretty similar to this morning. I decided I didn't want to as I didn't want to have a bad experience and then not ever want to dive again. We sat and chatted and waited for lunch then to transfer back to the smaller boat. Once again we were waiting for the tide to drop so we could hop in the glass bottom boat. After lunch it was calm enough to go across, once again we had the top of the boat which was nice as it was crowded downstairs. Before hopping over we had taken a couple of Ginger tablets because this ride would be rockier than the last as it is a smaller boat.

Eme asked if I could go in with one of the other boats divemasters as I had missed out on three dives. They said yes so I made sure to tell him I was nervous because of this morning and I had used my air really really fast. He said we would be fine so I kitted up and jumped in. It was me and another guy with the divemaster, the other guy was very adamant he didn't want to dive with beginners and kept asking if I was one. I was very calm for most of the dive only hen I began to think about the morning did I used my air really fast. Saw loads of things and felt to weight of half an empty clam shell it weighed loads!! It was a really good dive, I felt safe and enjoyed it alot, I was glad as I didn't want to be to scared to ever go again. It was raining when we came up so we rushed to get out and get on our way back to harbour. It was a very bumpy ride it felt at times like the boat was taking off and I did take off from my seat a few times! Over all quite fun really! As we got into calmer water the skipper asked if I wanted to steer re boat! And of course I did! It was different from the sail boat on the whitsundays. But it was really fun and interesting with all the computers telling you loads of stuff. We got back to the mainland and walk up to get the bus to the hostel, the captain carried my bag down the stairs for me and I walked down the wharf with no shoes on as they were at the bottom of my bag. Back at the hostel I jumped in the pool as I felt covered in salt and was shocked as it was freezing cold! After a shower I did washing and then chilled. I was abit worried about the salt water I had swallowed and if it would make me sick. I was soon asleep though as I was exhausted.

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Day 112 First Day on the Great Barrier Reef

Diving great barrier reef baby!!! Woohoo!!! I was picked up from the hostel and dropped off at the port. I staggered down the jetty ladened down with all my stuff! The nice guys on the boat carried my bags up stairs for me and they had the top of the boat reserved for a few of us. This is not the boat I will be diving from, this is the taxi boat shall we say that is taking me to the diving boat out on the reef. However its not small by any standard it can carry about 200 people I think! The ride out to the reef was a rocky one as the weather wasn't being kind to us. There were lots of people looking unattractive shades of green and clutching to sides. I have quite good sea legs so I was ok. When we met the boat I was transfering to it was to choppy to go in the glass bottom boat so we had to sit tight and wait for the tide to go down so it would calm down abit. I watched everyone else jumping in for their dives or snorkels and saw a couple of turtles pop up for breath. It took a while for the sea to calm down enough but after lunch we could head over to the boat. It was an interesting ride over on the glass bottom boat and I was sat to far away from the glass hatch to see anything.

Once on the bigger boat we had a safety briefing and then were taken to our rooms. They were nice and you got towels! Bonus!! It was then back to the galley to hear the plan for the night. I was the only certified diver on board which was good as I would have a divemaster with me, the people on the other boat said I had to because I am still taking malaria tablets. I pretty much had a briefing on the dive site then jumped straight in. Eme the trainee divemaster was really cool and showed me loads of stuff. Really cool corals that hide when you go near and fish. It was a really good dive. When we got out they said I could go in again but had to decide fast. I got a bit distracted by the sharks swimming by the boat and didn't decide in time. Never mind going in for night dive after tea. Dinner was really nice and there was even dessert! I then got ready for a night dive. However in the mean time the chef had decide o throw blood soaked bread in to the water to attract the wild life, by that I mean the sharks!! Scared yes I was! We kitted up and after a briefing jumped in. I was freaked by the sharks and in the dark they looked like great whites! They weren't but hey they were big buggers! It was strange because we did the same route I had done during the day so I sort of knew where I was. One really cool thing we saw was a parrot fish in it's bubble of mucus. Sounds nice I know but it is really cool they chew coral all day and then at night, I guess the puke it up, in mucus and surround them selves with it. The plan being that it muffles their heart beat so predators can't sense it and they can sleep soundly with out fear of being eaten. Genius! As we surfaced I saw a shark not far away. I managed to get one fin off but struggled with the other one and got a bit freaked, but eventually got out. Once we were all dry we sat around chatting it was really rough sea outside. there was a huge bang and the whole crew ran outside, Eme rang the captain to see what to do. The stern mooring line had snapped, and it was a really thick rope!! We spun round so we were just held on by the bow line and a couple of the divemasters jumped in to a, see where it had snapped and b, retrieve the line. Once all the commotion was over we chilled and decided to play categories game. This is were you chose categories ie boys name, girls name, country, food, film, celebrity. I can't remember the rest but you get the idea. You then get someone to go through the alphabet and tell them to stop, which ever letter they are upto is the one you have to use. You would be surprised how hard it can be to think of names. We played for a good few hours. Then some of the crew decided to have bird races with the birds that were flying around the deck. This was funny until they realised the kitchen door had been open all evening and it was full of birds! It was late by this time I mean past midnight so I called it a night as I have to be up at 6 for a morning dive. The bed is really really comfy!


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Day 111 Day of Wandering

When I woke up I was feeling pretty rubbish, I had a infection from Vanuatu an the antibiotics were making me feel really rubbish. Because I flew to cairns yesterday afternoon I can't diving until tomorrow so I got dressed, grabbed a map and set off in search of paddies market. They were quite easy to find and I was a little disappointed when I got there as it was all fruit and veg stalls but I looked round then headed down to the sea. You can't swim in the sea at this time of year because of the jelly fish. They have built a lagoon on the shore and it was full of kids as it's weekend. I wandered around it and was pleased to see a Saturday craft Market. You will be pleased to hear I was very controlled and after walking round it three times I managed to leave without buying anything! Cos you don't really need a glass bottle clock or decorative mosquito coil holders do you? Especially when traveling and already having to sit on top of my bag to close it! After abit more aimless wandering I decided to find some culture so went in search of the art gallery. It was free to get in and was really good. There was a glass display and my favourite ones were glass water drop splashes. Like models of the water as a drop hits it. I hope that makes sense! There was also some very strange pencil drawings of two animals merged as one! Odd! I wandered some more and when it started to rain again I went back to the hostel and chilled in my room. I sorted my stuff out for an early morning and after dinner went to bed.


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Day 110 Leaving Brisbane

I got up early to jump on skype to Dan. The first time I actually saw him since I left him in Thailand! It was really funny and good to get to talk face to face so to speak! After an hour of chatting I checked out and walked to the train station. I like that the trains here go to the airports, I know they do in England but my only experience was train then bus and I find these better as you get off and walk over a bridge and your there. I checked in and went to chill and wait to board. It was an ok flight I slept for most of it on and off and listened to harry potter. The seat was pretty uncomfortable because it was at the very back so didn't recline. As we flew in to Cairns I could see the great barrier reed below us and that made me even more excited to dive!

Once I had collected my bag and got a ticket for the shuttle bus I waited outside in the heat! The bus eventually arrived and took me to the same hostel I stayed in last time I was in Cairns. I checked in and was in the same room as last time too. Because I have flown today I can't dive for a couple of days so I will just have to chill and explore cairns. I went in search of a supermarket and got some food. Then I chilled in my room and chatted to Jessie on skype. We tried to invent our own language but as it turns out it is pretty hard. Plus the fact that every word we came up with seemed to have a rude meaning on urban dictionary! So we gave up! I wasn't feeling 100% so I had a small dinner, a nice shower and went to bed early. I have to make sure I'm better for diving!


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Day 109 GoMA Fun

I woke up early as seems to be the theme this last few months. I checked emails etc and jumped as the door opened and a new girl came in. She had been moved from another room. We got chatting about travels and she said she was looking for work but had been stuggling to find anything. She had nearly applied for a job but then realised it was in a strip club! After I had tried out all my new Lush things in the shower I sorted out my weaving and material to send home. I had arranged to meet Jessie for lunch and to try and make it to the art gallery today. However I managed to catch the post office when everyone was on their lunch break and so the queue was really long. There were two queues one for postal and one for bills, I stood in the long postal queue and the bills one was really short. It was moving so slow, then just as I got to the front a woman said you can use the bill counters too. Useful when I have already stood in the queue for 20 minutes! The guy was then very patronising when I asked how long the parcel would take to get home, saying 'I thought you had done this before'. To which I replied yes but everything else went sea mail not air mail and I know sea mail takes 3 months! Once I had finally sent to parcel I set of to meet Jessie at GoMA the gallery of modern art.

When Jessie found me, as I was on the wrong side of the gallery, it was lunch time so our first stop was at a lovely Indian restaurant. After an amazing meal we stopped in at the library to use the free, yes free(!) Internet and wifi!! With Jessie standing over me I booked a flight to cairns and a night live aboard on the great barrier reef for 6 dives. Once Jessie was satisfied I had a plan we went to the gallery. It was a really really cool gallery. I haven't been to many art galleries but I wish we had more time to explore. The first thing that struck me was the helter skelter slides and the table full of White Lego for you to play with. We had a look at an arch of cardboard boxes and a big drop shaped sculpture made of plastic bags. There was a swimming pool with only 2 inches of water on a sheet of glass so you an walk underneath and see way it's like under the water. We then came across a wall with ribbons sticking out with wishes written on. It's called a wall of wishes and the idea is you write your own wish on a price of paper, choose a ribbon with a wish in and swop them. So you leave your wish and take a ribbon with one on. I'm not going to tell you the wish I left but the one I choose was, I wish to find pleasure in things as I did as a child. Quite apt as I am I bit of a child at heart! And to follow on with that we then sat at the Lego table to play. We made Lego turtles, and coconut trees and I made a lego heart. Some of the things people had made were amazing, big towers they were beautiful all white. Can you guess where we headed next? Yep to the slides!! Hehe!! I went down first as Jessie had to hold my bags then I held them as she went down. It was really good fun! We had another browse round then it was closing.

We walked back into town and got tickets to see adjustment bureau. There was an hour or so to kill before it started so we grabbed some sushi for tea. I love soya beans! The film was really good if you get a chance to see it then do! It's about fate. Afterwards I headed back to the hostel to sort my stuff out for the flight the next day. I am excited to dive on the great barrier reef!

Day 108 Lush

Today was a very leisurely day, I spent the morning chilling in my room and playing on the internet.  Mainly trying to get this upto date!  I had a shower and realised that my soap is nearly finished so thought the best plan for today was to restock my toiletries.  As I headed into town I nearly fell on my bum about 20 times, as the pavements get really slippery in the rain!  Funny for the other people walking in town!  I stopped at a book shop to get the lonely planet guide to New Zealand and found they had all the travel guides on sale, bonus!  I then went in search of the Lush shop to get a new soap and shampoo.  The very helpful people who work in lush really do get you to buy alot of stuff.  In my defense I did need face wash and moisturiser as well as the soap and shampoo.  I just hope it all fits in my toiletry bag!  After a few more near slips I went in search of better shoes, flip flops are not the best for walking in the rain.  I searched for a shop Jessie had told me about but they didn't have anything suitable.  I went to target, which is abit like TKMax, and found some ballet style shoes with better soles for $10.  I had the checkout person to cut the labels off so I could put them straight on.  I had sushi for a late lunch and headed back to the hostel so I didn't spend anymore money!  Once I had squeezed everything back into my bag, I went to browse the internet for options of diving on the great barrier reef.  It got late quickly and I went to the bar by the hostel to have some food and listen to the live music before heading to bed. 

Day 107 Dentist and Photos

Up early today to get the train to Jessie and go to the dentist.  Fun fun fun!  I was,  surprisingly, at the station in good time to get the train which is not like me I am not the best morning person.  I also managed to get on the right train and off at the right stop!  Jessie was there waiting for me looking all glamorous and I just look the same as I did on the island, as I don't have any other clothes!  The first thing to do was go to the dentist to see what the tooth ache had been.  It was in a tooth that I have a large filling in as it broke when I was in Vietnam seven years ago, I have to say it has never been right.  We were abit early for the appointment but I had to fill in some paper work as I don't live in Australia.  I am not afraid of the dentist at all but am not to keen on injections in my mouth so was very glad when she said she would drill with out.  She took x-rays with a fancy little thing connected to the computer but they didn't really show much so she began to drill.  It didn't hurt at all just abit rattlely.  But, why is there always a but!  She said I think we will have to give you an injection, oh no!  She did put emula cream on and left it for a while which really worked and the injection wasn't bad at all.  I was very glad she gave me the local as I was in there for an hour and a half!  Drilling the whole time!  It turns out there had been a bubble in the old filling and it has been decaying under it!  That'll be why it has always been really sensitive and why I have been back to the dentist alot.  She drilled the old filling out and put a new one in.  As I was sat there I was wondering how much it was going to cost!  Oh dear!  Once she had finished I went out to pay and as you do when half your mouth is numb felt like my lip was swollen and sticking out!  Jessie assured me it wasn't.  I paid and was quite pleasantly surprised that it wasn't nearly as much as I had been imagining. 

We went back to Jessie's house for some lunch then the plan was to go to the modern art gallery in the city, as I am abit sick of museums as they all seem to have the same things in now, but still want to see things of culture in the city.  Jessie's house was really nice and I had the grand tour then we set about making lunch.  Jessie had bought the ingredients for me to make a chicken dish that my mum makes which is the thing I miss most and will be the first meal I cook when I get home.  I marinated the chicken and left it while we went to swop pictures and put them on discs for Jenita.  This took longer than expected and while we waited we made a colslaw style salad to go with lunch.  We found some dressing but unfortunatly it didn't pass the sniff, lick test!  So we made one.  Lunch was lovely even if I do say so my self and my mouth was nearly mine again.  We decided to cut down the massive amount of pictures I took to a reasonable amount to put on facebook.  This took a while as I took around 1500 pictures in the month we spent on the island!  I do love pictures though!  We managed to cut it down to about 350 but that was with Jessie saying 'no Katie you don't need 4 pictures of that on facebook!'.  We then began the long job of uploading them to facebook!  Well in the mean time we made a bran cake and then realised that maybe we should head for the gallery.  However we hadn't noticed the time and they gallery was due to close in a hour so we would of only had about 10minutes by the time we got there. So we abandoned that idea and stayed at Jessies uploading pictures!  As dinner time crept up on us we left the computer uploading and went in search of food.  Jessie's favourite food is Janpanese so we had that.  It was lovely and they had soya beans like yo sushi!!  yum yum!  Back at home we finished off load pictures which still took anouther hour and it was 10pm by now.  Her mum gave me a lift back to the hostel and fell into bed.  Fingers crossed my tooth will be fine now after having the brand new fililng in! 

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Day 106 Leaving Vanuatu

I had to get up reasonably early this morning to do my erans before I leave Vanuatu.  The first stop was breakfast, since it's included!  The next stop was the post office to send my postcards, they have turtle stamps so I made sure they put those ones on!  I want some material with turtles on and some that will remind me of Vanuatu so I went in search of a shop with lots of variety.  I found one and began rumaging through the piles of remnants and precut bits.  I found one with turtles, one that looked like erupting lava and one which I just liked.  It was then a rush back to the hotel for a shower and to check out.  I was just in time to check out!  Yet again the girl said 'Arh Miss Jones!', I think I may have made an impression!  I paid up and, after telling an old guy why I prefered to have my backpack instead of a case on wheels, jumped in a taxi to the airport.  I was abit to keen I think as I had over an hours wait at the airport before I could even check in.  It wasn't to bad a wait as I sat and people watched.  There was two french guys who were complaining about the fact the internet wasn't working.  When the check in desks opened I wasn't very quick and ended up behind a group who had just arrived, they were faffing and hadn't filled out the departure forms.  Typical, first there and stuck behind a slow group.  When I got to the desk the guy wanted to see my Australian visa, I don't have a copy as the annoying girl in the travel agents didn't give me a copy it is all sorted online.  He disappered off to call immigration to see if they would let me in, ridiculous!  Not surprisingly they said yes and he gave me my boarding card.  The security wasn't yet open so I sat and waited with everyone else.  I was the first one through secturity and on the other side I got a drink and sat to watch the planes taking off.  A guy bussled over muttering about loosing something.  He began to talk to me and said he had lost his boarding card, and it was because he had 3 computers.  He kept talking to me as he checked all his computers and bags and pockets for the ticket.  Once he had found it he told me he was there as he had been filming a sort of documentry about the king of Tanna.  The last king was apparently thrown in prison and sent to France, before he died he handed the throne over to this king.  He was making a film a bit like the program that was on tv a few years ago about four guys from Vanuatu who were taken to London called the Natives.  The french guys I had seen complaining earlier turned out to be the king and the prince.  It was interesting to listen to this guy tell me all about the trip and showed me clips of the king meeting the people of Tanna.  He took my picture with the king (whos name I can't remember unfortunatly), I said hello in french and instantly regretted it as he asked if I could speak french and when I said I spoke a very small amount he didn't really listen and talked away.  I didn't really understand any of what he said but smiled and said thank you for the picture.  The chatty guy began then to show me his gadgets and it was quite interesting.  When they opened the gate he was the first one to jump up and bussle over to be the first on, I just waited until the queue had gone down abit and I was sitting at the front of the plane so thought I wouldn't have far to walk once I got on.  Once on the plane I found a super sudoku in the magazine and thought I would give it a go.  It took the whole three hour flight and even then I hadn't finished it, I had done a few other puzzles as well.  The flight was abit bumpy but generally not to bad.  Once I had my bag I headed to the train station and jumped on the train to town.  It was raining when I got off the train and went to find a taxi to the hostel.  I had to ask a few people in the station which way the taxi rank was and one woman began to tell me I was going the wrong way and the tax office was in another suburb!  People need to listen better I think!  A very nice man showed me the way and held the door open for me.  Once I checked in to the hostel and got settled, in the same room and same bed as last time I stayed here, I set out to find some tea.  Once I had eaten I went and had a lovely shower and climbed into my squeaky bed! 


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