27th Oct: Because of the date line we arrive in Fiji at 9.30pm today its all very confusing! We were picked up by our G/H Sunseeker and bombarded with info on what to do we were knackered and just wanted to hit the scratcher so to bed we went!
28th: The accomadation was shabby, the pool was empty and the bathrooms were not the cleanest. The room cost 45F$(23euro) We booked ourselves on board the yellow flyer for tommorrow this boat does a daily return trip out to the yasawa islands dropping off and picking up at the various resorts. We booked 2 nights accomadation in Melbravo resort on Nucula Island which is the furtherest island that the flyer travels to. We took a walk around town and our first impressions of Nadi town was it was like being back in Delhi half the population in Fiji are Indian who came over donkeys years ago to work on the plantations. There has been alot of problems here between the fijians and the Indo-Fijians especially where politics are involved and the last "Coo" was only 4 years ago. We bought a few things we needed for the islands and had lunch in a nice cafe that had good coffee and freah rolls and sweet buns.That night we went to a indian restuarant for dinner but it was very disappointing and over priced.Nadi is the main city for getting out the islands and Suva is the capital which is on the other side of the island 230km away. Anything we have read and all the people we spoke to said that the main island has little to offer and that the Yasawa islands are a good budget option.
29th Oct-1st nov: We were collected from our G/H and on our way to the island at 9.00am, we arrived at Melbravo at 1.30pm. Our Bure(Fale) cost 100F$(50Euro) per night and included 3 meals. Accomadation is more expensive in the Yasawa islands then any of the other islands we visited so far and the meals were pretty basic but ok. Our bure on Melbravo was good and the grounds of the resort were nice but the beach is crap, the family who owned the resort were good fun and friendly. At first we were not impressed with the place but in grew on us over the next few days and we ended up staying for 4 nights. A 1/2 hr walk away you had Oarsman bay that had an excellent beach and good snorkling. There were 9 other people staying at melbravo and 3 of these were Irish. One guy from Dublin was saying his brother was going out with a girl from Clares area and did she know her and would'nt you know was'nt she in Clare's class in school! Also Donal&Elaine from limerick were a good laugh and were also at the and of there trip like ourselves. We chilled alot here reading in our hammocks is did'nt take long getting into fijian time were anything you can do today can always be done tomorrow! Donal&Elaine got invaded by large brown spiders that drove them out of their bure in the early hours of the morning one night and they had to take refuge in the dorm for the rest of the night! We had a good time here its a pity the beach and snorkling were non exsistant! We went on a trip to the "Blue lagoon" the beach where the film of the same name with brooke Shields in it was filmed!
2nd-9th Nov: We caught the yellow Flyer at 1.30pm and had decided to head to Waya island to a place called Bayside Donal & Elaine were going to a resort close by called Sunset, when the boat pulled in we thought that bayside looked pretty dull and that Sunset looked good. We had not contacted bayside so we just winging it to see if we could get a better deal on the bure. When we landed on the beach we got a nice supprise the place was well laid out and had just 2 bure and 1 was available we got it for 90F$ and they looked span new and our one had 4 beds it so we could sleep it a different one every night! If you were looking for parties and such this is not the place but if you want peace and quiteness you are on a winner. So Anna&Jim were the owners and had 3 kids there were a young OZ couple staying in the other bure. We enitially had booked for 2 nights but were having such a nice time we ended staying for 8 nights. The snorkling was good along the reef off the beach and one day i met the resident White Tip Reef Shark he's 2 meters. I was out snorkling at low tide in about 2ft of water i had come across these clown fish and was playing with them as they are very cocky when i looked up there was the shark maybe 8ft away giving me a good look over he then proceeded to do a half circle swim around me before heading off i can tell you he had me on edge a "wee" bit! I went out a few times with Jim at night spear-fishing with a spot light usually to catch lobster and crayfish along with some fish, i managed to catch a couple of lobster myself but was a bit to slow for the fish. One night jim shown the light and there was the shark but luckly i did'nt see him as its bad enough not being able to see your hand in front of you face and not knowing were the shark is at then to be seeing him in the torch light a few feet away giving you the once over!!!!! To think about it to much would give you the jitters! The water along the reef was only a few feet deep and one of the cool things I noticed was that the stars in the sky were so clear that you could see thousands of them and if you looked down on the coral and waved your fin around it would aggitate all the florescent and it was like looking at a mirror image of all the stars in the sky. On other days i went fishing on Jims boat but caught very little except a few small red snapper. We took some walks up the hills which gave great views of the island and sunset was only 30min walk away so we visited Donal&Elaine a few times to have a natter and a beer! The food was great and most days we had fresh lobster and plenty of fruit. Another couple turned up from OZ and they were camping so for the duration of our stay there was 6 people here. We had the use of 2 kayaks so we used these a bit, on saturday night it was Jims birthday so we had a "KAVA" session for 5 hours one of the locals played a guitar and sang although it was the same song he sang for the whole night the kava was hard to drink as it tastes rank but we kept at it and by the end of the night the legs were doing their best to take me the opposite to were i wanted to go! I went fishing 1 night and while we fished Jim and another guy went spear fishing when the guys had finished spear fishing they came over to the boat with their catch and i was dissappointed to see they had a young green turtle his shell was about 14 inches long and he was so beautiful i tried to get them to put it back but to no avail the other guy took it home to eat it!
10th: Our last day today we get the boat at 4.00pm back to the main land, Anna cooked us a lovely lunch of Lobster and Smoked fish in coconut milk and we had our last lounge in the hammock we had such a nice time here its ideal for couple's looking for a quite time the food was too good and the weight is piling back on but what can you do! We arrived back on the naim land at 6.30pm and got the courtesy bus to a hotel that was recommended to us by gang we met on Melbravo, it was called the Newtown Beach motel and it was heads above the Sunseeker and cheaper the room was freshly painted and spotless we had an ensuite with hot water(its been 41days since we had a hot shower) they had a small restaurant that served good indian food at a cheap price Anna was the waiteress there and she piled the food onto the plates and told not to buy the beer from the bar to go to the store down the street and buy it for half the price and she would put it the fridge for us! That night we ate in the hotel and chatted to a swedish couple we had met in Somoa.
11th: Spent the afternoon in town doing the usual bits and bobs before we caught the bus back to the Newtown we bought a few beers in the market and for the rest of the evening played some pool and table tennis with the Swedish couple before cooling of in the pool. We had such a good feed in the hotel last night we decided to eat again their tonight.
12th: We fly this evening to Raratonga in the Cook islands so we went to town to catch up on the blog, emails and i got a hair-cut, our flights at 5.00pm and takes 3 hours. We had a good time here it started of a bit iffy but was not long growing on us it is over priced for what you get but Fiji is a popular place and one of the main stopping of places between the states and OZ/NZ.

18th Oct: Caught the 10.00pm flight to Somoa and landed at Apia at 11.50pm on the 17th because we crossed the date line again it makes it all very confusing although if you were celebrating your birthday you could do it twice in the year mad! We jumped on the shuttle bus and got to our G/H called Seipepa's it was very nice and it cost 90Tala=30Euro most of the accomadation includes meals here.
18th again!: Up at 8.00am for the brekkie it was all traditional food and we sat on the floor. We had a selection of fruits, cocoa flavoured rice and coffee. We went back to bed for a bit and then in to town for a look around. Its a lot bigger then Nuka'alofa and more tourists around. We dropped into the tourist info and hit the flea market we took a walk in the park and watched the school kids play on there lunch break. We met up with the belgium girls for lunch and a natter we ate at the food stalls in the market alot of the food is deep fried and tasteless! After we took a walk to the friut market were we got to try the "Kava" which is the local home brew its made from a root and turned into a powder that you mix with water and you end up with a dirty water looking liquid that tastes foul and numbs your tongue but little else from what i gather you have to drink lots and regulary to get the desired effect its used widely and often which is not so good but the guys that drink it get all relaxed and easy and not noisey or boisterous like with regular alcohol. Took it easy for the rest of the day.
19th: After brekkie we went to town and got the bus out to the Robert louis Stevenson Museum. He spent his last few years here before he died. The house he built is a lovely colonial style building and the house contains various artiales that belonged to the family. We took a hike up the hill behind the house to the spot were he and his wife are buried it was pretty steep and took 40n minutes but you got lovely views of the harbour below. When we got back to town we went to the market for lunch a got an egg sandwich and coffee each for 2euro. After we bought ourselves a Lava Lava(local sarong) and headed back or a shower. That night we went to Aggie grey hotel to see a "Fia Fia" which is alocal dance show. The show was amazing with guys beating the drums and blowing in conch shells while the girls did there dances some of the guys dance routines were pretty hectic, afterwards they put on a fire show. When it was finished we went to the Blue lagoon restuarant for some munchies and met up with a dublin couple.
20th-23rd: We jumped on a local bus to Llamano which is on the south east side of the island. It took 1 1/2 hours to get there and we had all sorts of goods onboard from sheets of coragated iron, dozens of lenghts of 3x2 timbers that you had to climb over to get to a seat. We had a Fale right on the beach with some lovely snorkling and swimming only a few feet away. The food here was good we got fresh fish and lobster most nights and there was plenty to go around. We spent our days reading ,swimming and snorkling and at night time we chatted with whoever you sat with at the dinner table we got friendly with a couple from NZ and also a couple from Canada. The stars at night time were so vibrant and clear we could see this really bright star and were told it was Venus we also could see Mars you get to see so much of the sky here its a completely different view from what we get at home when we are lucky to see any stars due to the cloud cover! On Saturday night we had a Fia Fia that some of the locals put on it was a good laugh we all had to go up and do our bit. The snorkling was ok here but nowhere as good as it had been in Tonga.
24th: Got the bus back to Apia today and was it packed the locals stack the kids on their laps or any lap that is available and any time some one from the back has to get off the whole bus would nearly have to get off to give him access! We checked back into Seipepa's G/H and then went to town or some lunch. That night we went for a meal with the Canadian and NZ couples in The "Curry House" the food was very tasty and so much of it there. We had a good night and were both stuffed to the gills!
25th: Our flight is at 4.00am tomorrow morning so we checked out of our hotel and left our bags in storage. It rain for a few hours so we read our books until it stopped. Later we went to the local museum which passed an hour away it was small but had some interesting bits and bobs! We bought some local craft to send home and posted the cards home. That evening we went to the cinema to see "The Exorcisim of emily rose" which was alright On the way back to the G/H we had dinner at Georges Pizza. We spent the rest of the night reading and talking to a couple that were getting the same flight as us.
26th: Got our flight at 4.00am which took us back to Tonga were we waited for an hour then on to Auckland were we had a 10 hour wait over. We spent our time reading and texting all the gang at home and we talked to the folks and a few others aswell before we went to Fiji.
27th: Because of the date line we arrive in Fiji at 9.30pm today its all very confusing! We were picked up by our G/H and bombarded with info on what to do we were knackered and just wanted to hit the scratcher!
28th:

TONGATAPU
October 1st: After a 3hr flight from NZ we landed into Nuka'Alofa the capital of Tongatapu Island. Tongatapu would by the main island in the Tonga group which is about 171 islands in all, there are 4 island groups from south to north you have Tongatapu, Ha'apai, Vava'u and Niuas! We had organised our accomadation to collect us at the airport when the flight landed at 2.00am and there to meet us was John& Anna the owners of Moana guest house also along for the ride was there daughters friend Lo'lo who always goes to the airport to meet new guests coming in! They were very chatty on the ride to the G/H and seemed friendly, once we reached the G/H we hit the sack straight away. We had a double room with shared bathroom for about 14euros, we also had use of the kitchen the room was a bit run down but comfy.
Got up at 11.00am and headed to town its a 15min walk in from the G/H. We went to a cafe called friends for breakie this is is were all the Pelangi(white people) eat out it is expensive but the breakie is reasonable. Called to the local open market and got a selection of veg then went to the super market for the rest. When we got back to the G/H it had just started to rain so we read our books on the veranda for 2 hrs till it stopped. The temp was around 25 degrees today. We took a walk along the water front past the royal palace then down towards the wharf, its a quaint old town that has not seen to much concrete used in the buildings, its mainly wooden bunglows painted bright colours once you get of the main street. Tonga does not have alot of money and its main source of income is money sent back from family working overseas, there is quite a bit of unemployment here but life goes on. The locals are all friendly and always smiling, the royal family seem to be falling out of favour with the people at the moment its 50/50 but if things carry on as they are you might see the makings of a peoples party getting some power in the coming years as it stands the people have no say in any of the countries politics and some of the decisions made by the king in the past have left the people and the country out of pocket and thats saying nothing about the royal siblings who seem to be getting involved in the larger local businesses to line there own pockets with little regard how it affects the locals, but saying that the people have free medical care and free primary schooling. Anyway back to the town we went for a coffee in Coco's it was a coffee bean that is grown on the island and was very good we had a little brusetta to eat. That night we cooked some dinner and after we settled into a cup of tea and a chat with the family.

2nd: On Sunday almost everything is closed the people here are very religious and frequent church goers the family tried to get us pagans to go but we gave it a miss instead we took a boat out to Pangaimotu island this is about 3kms offshore north of Nuka'alofa its quite small you could walk around it in 20mins. There's a nice sandy beach with and old wreck sticking out of the sea nearby thats ok for snorkling you also have a bar and restuarant to keep the belly happy you can stay on the island as they have a few "Fale" (this is the name for the thatched little bungalows you can stay in on most of the pacific islands although Fale can be anything from thatch lean-to or a timber bunaglow and anything in between!) We got the boat at 11.00am to the island and the sun was beating down in all its glory, the beach was'nt to busy so we found a spot and settled in for the day, we had a good day out and before we got the boat back at 5.30pm we had some fish and chips in the restuarant that were very tasty. That evening back in the G/H the electricity was out so we prepared our dinner by candle light candle but when we were about to eat it came back on. We were knackered from the sun and the mossies had found Clare again so we had an early night.
3rd: After breakie we walked to town fo get some groceries and then back to the G/H as we had arranged to go on an island tour with John. Just as we started out it started to rain, this was a pity as we wanted to visit some caves but you cant in the rain due to flooding! We stopped of were Cpt. Cook first stepped on Tongatapu (the rain had stopped at this stage) then onto Ha'amonga a' Maui Trilithon a Stonehenge type erection made up of three huge lime stones that must weight 40 ton each and these were shipped fron Polynesia around 2000yrs ago which is no easy feat! Markings were found on the top of the bridging stone that aligned with the winter and summer solstices, off to a Fruit bat colony that based on old folklore the fruit bat were given as a gift to a Tongan warrior when Tongan rule ended in the Samoan islands the bat is only found in this one area on the island and its the home village of this warrior! (Tonga conquered Samoa and many other islands to expand there empire at one time). We went to the "Mapu'a'a vaca blowholes on the west shore these are pretty cool as the waves roll in against the coral shore-line you get these geysers of sea water shooting into the air upto 15ft high and when the waves are coming in at an angle to the shore you can see the geysers shoot up right up along the shore line as far as the eye can see, these blowholes are formed by holes that are channelled over many years by the sea up through the coral rocks and are quite common in the pacific islands! On to Ha'atafu beach this is were surfers come to catch the big waves that break over the coral reef offshore quit a few competitions are held here and this year its the Oceanic juniors competition. Through out the tour John gave us all the local history, economics, plant medicine and lifestyles of the Tongan people. That night we went out for dinner to a Pizzaria we shared a pizza, salad and chips washed done with a few galsses of wine.
4th: Up early today as we had a few things to do before we got the 12.00am ferry to the Ha'apai island group. These islands are about 200kms north of Tongatapu and supposed to be very quite and have not been commercialised in any way. So we collected some groceries in town as there is a limited supply in Lifuka which is the main island in the Ha'apai group we had lunch in friends and then John picked us up and dropped us to the wharf. The tickets cost us 37T$ each(15euro) and the trip takes around 12hrs its a pretty slow journey and we did'nt leave till 1.30pm due to loading the cargo, the ship was abit of a rust bucket but has been traveling this route for the last 30yrs without incident! The sea conditions were'nt bad but the slowness was painful! One of the crew threw out a lure at one stage and caught a 10kg bluefin Tuna which was hung up and slices cut off and passed around to anyone who wanted some. We eventually arrived at Pangai the capital of Lifuka at 11.30pm there were 3 other "Pelangi" on board 2 belgium girls and a german guy the girls were being collected and going out to Uoleva island and the german guy had booked accomadation in Fifitas in Pangai so we tagged along with him to see if Fifitas had a bed for us it was only a 2min walk and we got a bed for the night!
5th: Got up at 9.00am and had some breakie then had a wonder around the village its beautiful here with little happening except for the blue waters of the pacific breaking over the reefs offshore, bannana and coconut trees everywhere and pigs have the right to roam where ever they want so you have sows walking around followed by a dozen piglets all over the place! Back at the G/H we got some laundry done we had decided to go out to Uoleva for a few days this is an island south of Lifuka you can cross to it at low tide over the sand bar buts its best to get a boat out. There are 2 places to stay out there and we decided on Captain cooks we gave them ring an arranged to be collect tomorrow at 10.00am. We took our books to the beach and read for the rest of the day when we got back to the G/H Fifita had new room for us it was lovely and was ensuite and had a lounge area with traditional tapas on the wall. Tapa is an art form that consists of the bark of the Mulberry tree being formed in to a rough paper texture and black,red and brown ink made from the roots of the mangrove tree are used to creat designs on it. In the old days a woman with lots of Tapas was concidered wealty. Today it is expensive to buy realative to Tongan money but widely used to decorate the houses. That night in bed at 11.09pm we experienced an e"Earthquake" that was 6.1 on the richter scale Clare got a bit of a scare as it was her first time feeling one! There are a few shakes every year here.
6th: Sonni the owner of Cpt. Cooks collected us at 10.00am and off we went in boat (24ft fiberglass with a 25hp outboard and had a home made cabin) to Uoleva its a 10km trip from pangai to the resort. When we got they we were amazed it was like paradise the resort was made up of 4 "Fales" made out of timber and you had running water in the loo and shower but nowhere else and no electricity you had oil lamps for light and gas to cook on. We were greated by Maria who works for Sonni and the 4 dogs the 2 Belgium girls were there Monique and Catherine and they had the best fale but ours was lovely also it consisted of a room with a double bed, night tabe and a small veranda outside it was really quaint. The beach was great here as the water was always deep were as in most islands in the pacifics when the tide goes out you have very little depth to swim in if any at all! We had a cup of tea with Sonni&Maria who showed us were everything was in the kitchen which we had full use of. First things first so straight into the water for a swim and it was so clear and the colour of the water was typical of the pictures you see in all the brochures afterwards we went for a walk through the forest to the other side of the island and down to the south tip were you have some excellent snorkling before heading back to the fale. The island is around 6kms from north to south and 800 meters across the only people on it are those in the 2 resorts so some days you might not see anybody else on the beach which is pretty cool! When we got back Sonni had some fresh coconuts for us to drink that were delicious. That night Sonni,Maria and Monique went out fishing in the boat so after dinner Clare,catherine and myself lit a bonfire on the beach and watched the sun go down and to top it of i had brought a bottle of rum with me which we had with some coke "Life is so good sometimes" The fishermen got back at 10.30 and had caught a few fish but not a great amount.
7th: After breakie we went to the south tip to go snorkling the coral and fish life was excellent and when you went out to the drop off at the outer reef you could see some nice tuna, groper,wrasse and trevelle it was all hard coral here and you had loads of the usual fish here along with some sea horses and huge conches Catherine saw a reef shark and monique saw a leapord shark which are both harmless! The weather was so good today not a cloud in the sky and the sun was beating down at around 30 degrees. You can see the island volcano of Tofua which is 80kms away to the west it is still active and smoke can be seen coming from it, this is were the crew of the "Bounty" mutineered and set captain Bligh adrift in and longboat, he eventually ended up in indonesia 7000kms away! That evening we were in the kitchen having tea when we heard one of the dogs screeching in pain on the beach when went down their were a group of american peace corps walking away Maria had been on the beach and said that the dogs from cooks had come on to the beach as the americans passed and there had a dog with them so the older dogs started to fight and the americans laid into the dogs kicking them, the pups from cooks are only 4 months old and one guy gave it such a beating he broke his front leg the pups are the most pleasant pups you could meet when we arrived they ran to us and gave us a lick hardly a reason the beat it! These guys had drink with them so this might have been an influence but not an excuse they stopped only when one of the girls from the group made them. All the time they ignored Marias plea's to stop. There are no vets out here so the pup will just have to learn to live with the pain and the broken leg. We met the guy the next day and asked what the hell he had been thinking he said first he did'nt do anything then he said the pup attacked him we asked him to take alook at what he had done to the pup but he refused and when he was asked to apologise to the Maria&Sonni he could'nt be bothered, you would think this guys being out here to help the local people would have more respect and cop on! Clare sent an email of to the head office about there conduct it will be interesting to see if she gets a reply.
An OZ couple had arrived that day just for 1 night so after dinner we all had a good natter in the kitchen and Sonni produced a bottle of some kind of whiskey.
8th: In the morning i took a spin to the village for groceries with Sonni as he was taking the OZ couple back when i got back we went to the end of the island to snorkel and soak up the rays the weather seesm to be getting hotter. I caught a 2 1/2lb white snapper so my skills might be getting better! That night in the kitchen we all had a bit of each others dinners and later i brought the rum out for a tiple!
9th: Spent the day at the end of the island its so cool here it was possible to climb some of the smaller coconut trees and have fresh coconut juice when ever you wanted you also had the older coconuts on the ground that you could open up to get the coconut flesh that was pretty tasty. Being Sunday most locals cook an "Umo" this is were the food is cooked in the ground, Sonni prepared the food Fish, chicken, Pork and kasava(like potatoe) he then lit a fire and put large stones in it so they would heat up all the food was wrapped in Talo leaves and laid out on the stones these were then cover in more leaves and soil was heaped over the lot and the food was left to cook. When it was ready it was so tasty Maria had made some homemade lemonade to wash it all down. Later that night we went onto the beach and lit a bonfire and had a few rum and cokes!
10th: Up early today and went whale watching you can watch the whales from the beach but we headed out Sonni's boat and got quite close to them at one stage we were 10 feet from a mother and her young calf so i hopped in the water with my snorkling gear, the sight i saw is one of the best i probably will ever see they took no notice of me and just swam slowly past. When we got back to the beach we went to the usual spot and snorkled for the evening. The heat was unbearable and seems to be getting hotter.
11th: At our usual spot for the day.
12th: Went to our spot but it was so hot i had to build a shelter out of wood and coconut leaves it turned out pretty well and we hid from the sun for the day we snorkled to cool of! That night we decided to let Sonni cook dinner for us as the food is lovely we had a feast of sausages, fried chicken, fresh fish and Kava all washed down with home made lemonade.
13th: Due to a death in Sonni's family we had to travel to Pangai early then we had planned our ferry was not till 10pm and we were going to stay on the island for most of the day but as Sonni was needed on the mainland we had to travel in too. we dumped our bags at Fifitas and took a walk in the village we had the use of the kitchen in Fifitas so we had our meals there. later that evening a couple of Japanese people who were here to open a school that they had funded had been given a huge bag of lobster and crab and asked us to join them for a feast what a treat and very nice of them! Boarded the ferry and on the way back to Nuka'alofa.
14th: Woke up at 8.00am and looked out the window only to see a whale come completely out of the water 50 feet from the boat! Arrived in Nuka'alofu at 11.30am we went to friends for lunch and then back to Moanas we got a huge room that had ensuite and its own kitchen. Anna said she would give us a good rate on one of there bungalows in Deep Resort on Eua island if we were to go out. The island is a 2 1/2 hr ferry ride to get to and is on the east side of Tongatapu. it was a bit more then we normally spend but we decided to go on the 12.30pm ferry tomorrow. That night we had some spigettii bolenese for dinner.
15th: After brekkie we went to town for groceries and a cup of coffee in Coco's. Anna dropped us to the ferry which was packed we had to sit at the bow when we got out the harbour it was getting rough and the waves were getting bigger one of the locals said to put our bags in the pilot house as they might get wet and i no sonner had then in then a huge wave broke over the bow soaking about 15 of us! We were picked up by John and Moana at the wharf the resort was not far and we got a lovely bungalow thats on an ok beach you dont come to Eau for the beaches you come for the natural beauty of the island it is a coral island that was pushed up over time, it is the 3rd largest island in the Tonga group and has some amazing rock formations. When for a swim and read our books for the rest of the evening.
16th: Brekkie was with the room and after we went on a tour of the island with John,Moana,lolo and there cousin we first went to the "Rats Cave" you drop into this cave and after a short distance you come out on a ledgethats on a cliff face you are about 900meters from the ground, the scene from here was excellent looking out over the eastern side of the island on the Tonga trench next up was a dip in the 'Hafu Pool" before going to see this huge old banyan tree that grows out of valley, you can climb down to were a small stream flows around the roots that ends up in the Hafu pool. After this we drove south to the "Rock Gardens" this is a area were you have cliffs with a sheer drop to the ocean far below and leading up to the edge of the cliff you have lovely grassed area with all these coral rocks of all sizes sticking up, roaming around this area are about 15 horses. We walked further on along the cliff edge where you come to a huge arch that has been shaped by the sea on our way back we ate some wild Papaya and Guava fruit! When we got back we had some lunch that had been cooked in the Umu.
17th: We were up early to get the 5.30am ferry back to Nuka'Alofa when we got back to Moanas we went back to bed. Later in town we caught up with some emails and the blog before we met the 2 belgium girls for coffee and a natter!
18th: Tonight we head to Somoa so we did a few things around town and then got dropped to the airport to catch the 10.00pm flight. Our stay here was amazing and i dont think we will beat Uoleva for its beauty and isolation the locals have all been very nice and i hope if ever get to come back the place has not got to commercalised.

CHRISTCHURCH
27th: Flew from Sydney to Christchurch, arrived at 3.30pm. Christchurch is on the east coast of the south island. We booked into the Country House Hostel which is a 15min walk outside town after we had settled in we went into town for a wonder around. We were pretty knackered so we got some groceries and hit the sack early!
28th: Slept late, after breaky we went online and sent a load of queries to various companies to get some price's on campervan hire. After had a walk around the city and went to the Canterbury musuem, some great displays here and our first intro to some Maori history. Drizzled for the day!
29th: After breaky we checked our emails and got a good quote from EZY RENTALS we got the same campervan type as we had in OZ for 36NZ$ (1NZ$=0.65Euro) we were happy with this so we booked it for 66days and we would collect it on Sunday. Walked around the Batonical gardens the weather here was mild with a temp of 10 degrees. Back in the hostel the other guests seem distant and not very friendly although the staff were lovely!
30th: Market in town so we had a look it was pretty small, had some coffee and checked some emails. Went for a walk on the river bank and picked up something for dinner. Invested in a bottle of wine and met some other guests in the lounge that had arrived today, there was one couple from Wales and one from Melbourne we had a good laugh!

WANAKA
31st: Ezy rentals collected us at the hostel, we got on the road with the van at 11.00am along the way we stocked up on groceries The van was the same except we had no TV or microwave in this one. We were on our way to Wanaka were the Dublin couple Jay&Anne (we met in Loas) had a house for a few months and had invited us to stay. Stopped for the night in Lake Tekapo for the night, the scenery was beautiful the lake was turquise in colour and the tops of the mountains were covered in snow! There was a quaint little church sitting all by itself on the lake shore! As we travelled inland it was getting colder burrr!
1st: Arrived at Anne&Jays there house is at lake Hawea about 15km from Wanaka(Goblin plain in L.O.T.R), it was great to see them again and we had a big roast lamb dinner to celebrate with copious amounts of alcohol!

2nd -12th: We stayed a bit longer then we planned with Anne&Jay but it was great to see them again and we ended up having huge feeds every night along with the Booze to wash it all down! We took it easy here but we took in some of the sights, we took some walks around the lakes, did some fishing and would you believe Jay and myself caught a trout each at lake wanaka it was about time the only downside was they were the only ones we caught no matter were we tried!

We visit Puzzling World which was good for a laugh. We collected bags of Pine Cones to burn in the fire, they gave out a lovely aroma! We tackled the hike to the top of Mount Roy at its peak it is around 1500metres it took us around 6hrs to get to the top and back but it was well worth it the views were spectacular and there was Snow at the top and was freezing!! Watched a movie in the Paradiso cinema its pretty cool here its a huge room with loads of old sofas for seats and if you want to feel like its a Drive In they have an old Morris Minor you can chill in! We had a great time and we must have put on a stone in weight each from all the food and booze!

OAMARU
13th: Left the gang today and on the road back to the east coast to Oamaru which is north of Dunedin. The scenery was excellent along the way, you can see why the Lord Of The Rings was filmed in NZ! Once we were checked into the caravan park we walked into town we had read that they was a blue penguin colony so we had a look but no luck we came across a seal sunning himself on the rocks and as we strolled along the beach we found some lovely Paua shells.

DUNEDIN
14th: Got up early and fed the resident ducks. Went down to the wharf and tried some fishing had no luck so got on the road to Dunedin and arrived at lunch time. After booking in to the park we went into town to buy a second hand TV we got one for 50nz$. Took a drive out the Otago peninsula to Sandfly beach, huge sand dunes here and really wild and windy! There is a hide at the far end of the beach to watch the Yellow Eyed Penguins as they come in from the sea at dusk, along the way there were huge seals snoozing in the sand and we came across a pair in a mating "dance" the male was trying his best but the female was having none of it! Up in the hide we did'nt have to wait long before the penguins came out of the water and started hopping up the steep cliff to the nests. Watched some TV for the rest of the night!

15th: Out on the peninsula again walking on the beaches and taking in the views.
16th: Got the bus into town and wondered round had lunch here and checked our emails. Visited the Otago museum which was good, jumped on the bus back to the park.

CATLINS
17th: On the road we decided to loop the southern end of the island taking the Catlins route this is a very scenic route that takes in all the highlights on the way. We stopped at Nugget point this is a rugged headland with a light house at the end there are loads of rock islands out from the headland, then on to Jacks Blowhole this is a hole the sea has cut underground 200meters inland and then channeled its way to the surface and under the right conditions you get a geyser effect!

We decided to stay the night in a small village called Pounawea we took a walk on Surat beach and after i tried for a fish in the river.
18th: We decided to call to the Cathedral Caves but when we got there they were closed continued on to McCleans Falls you reach these after a 45min walk and they were OK. Further on we went to Curio Bay you can see the fossilised remains of a forrest. The tide was coming in but we could still see some of the fossilised trees. Back on the road we passed through Invercargill and stopped for the night in Riverton. I tried for a fish at the estuary while Clare went for a walk on the never ending sandy beach.

TE ANAU
19th: Left Riverton early and headed to Te Anau(Dead marshes in L.O.T.R) stopped at Clifden Suspension bridge and then at the Limestone Caves these extent underground for 1km we started in but when we came to a section you had to slither on your belly Clare put her foot down and was'nt having any of it! Back on the road we stopped at Manapouri for lunch then continued to Te Anau. Booked into the park which had great views of the lake, we went into town and took a walk by the lake.

20th: Up early and went to the start of the Kepled track, to do the full track takes a few days we walked for 2hrs and then stopped for lunch and i tried some fishing but was having no luck so headed back. The Forrest along the lake edge is cool there's loads of moss growing on the ground and all over the tree's.

MILFORD SOUND
21st: Took a trip to the Milford Sounds the bus collect us at the park it was only the 2 of us as its the quite season the driver was really friendly and had loads of info on the area. Its 2 1/2 hrs to the sounds boat jetty and along the way they are lots of places to stop and take in the some of the natural wonders the best was the Chasm this is were a rivers waters have cut a path through and down 20ft of solid rock to form some really cool formations that are so smooth and rounded! You pass through Homer Tunnel to get to the sounds, The sounds are what they call Fiords in Nz and were carved out by the glaceries many moons ago! We got on a boat and headed out the sound it was a pity the weather was drizzly, Although this was a small bonus as there were dozens of temperary waterfalls flowing down the mountain faces that made for an amazing sight.

The shear cliff faces on either side if the sound are an amazing sight and as we made our way out to the mouth were you meet the Tasman sea. On the way back in we saw some dolphins and a few seals lounging on the rocks. On the way back to Te Anau the bus driver told us stories about avalanches and crazy drivers that he has met in his years of doing trips to the sounds. We both had a great day out!

QUEENSTOWN
22nd: Left Te Anau and headed for Queenstown. We checked into a park in Aurturs town this is 15km outside of Queenstown. After we had some lunch we went into Queenstown and had a walk around town and took a walk along the shore of Lake Wakatipu. Went for coffee and then back to the park.
23rd: Drove into town and hiked up the Ben Lomand track an hour and a half each way, you can take a Gondola up but thats too easy! The views from up here are excellent.

At the top we went on the luge's these are ground hugging carts that you can take on various tracks down a section of the mountain these were really cool and would have been much better if the tracks were longer later we had coffee and a snack before we headed back down the mountain track. Back in town we treated ourselves to KFC's and checked our emails.
24th: Chilled out for the day and did absolutely nothing!

ARROWTOWN
25th: Went into town and to check emails, exchanged our books and went to the warehouse to pick up a prezzie for Anne&jay as we will call back to them in a day are two and go Skiing! Back on the road to Arrowtown this is a quaint little town about 1/2hour from Queenstown. It was one of the main places during the gold rush era with alot of chinese working the sites. Today no one pans for the gold except the odd tourist and the last of the chinese who used to work the sites died a few years age.

All the buildings in the area are maintained to the way they would have been 100 years ago and all new devolopments are built to the old designs so when you walk down the main street you can just imagine how it must have been in the old times the old post house is there along with the police station and the old railings for tying your horse up are still to be found. We booked into a park and later that evening we went for a few drinks in the local pub.

WANAKA
26th: On the road and heading back to Wanaka its only an hour from here on the way picked up some groceries and of course the lamb. Back to Anne&Jays again we had a great feed and plenty of wine!
27th: Did very little today, in the afternoon we went to the cinema to see the new Batman movie and it was pretty good!
28th: 4 of us took a spin to Queenstown, Jay bought a new snowboard and boots and we had a pint of the Black stuff before we headed back!
29th-30th: Up early and drove to CARDRONA ski resort this is about 45mins from Wanaka. We would be skiing for the next 2 days and as Clare had not skied before she booked a 2 lesson a day pack and as i had not skied in 7 years i got refresher pack of 1 lesson per day. Jay went snow boarding and Anne has skied for years. Over the next 2 days Clare got a taste of skiing and got on really well and i got back into it quickly although that did'nt stop me falling on my ass regulary! We had an great time and will definetly go on a skiing holiday once we get back on our feet at home.

There is a lovely old hotel at the bottom of the mountain called the Cardrona Hotel and after our days skiing we would call in here for a drop of mulled wine!
31st: Chilled out for the day and rested after all our hard work on the slopes!

GLACIERS
1st: Left Wanaka and got on the road to Glacier country, the weather was terrible long the way. We got as far as Haast so we booked into a park for the night and did some Laundry.
2nd: Back on the road to FOXES GLACIER the weather is still horrible, along the way we stopped at Knights Point to take some photos and Ships Creak went for a walk here, the beach is lovely and behind the sand dunes there are fresh water lakes surrounded by lush vegetation. Landed into Foxes Glacier town and booked into a park. In town we checked our emails and had some coffee. The weather is bad for the next few days so it does'nt look good for a trip to the Glacier!

HOKITIKA
3rd: Weather still horrible so we decided to move on it was a pity to miss out on the Glaciers as its a high light of the south island but we could'nt wait around for the weather to clear. Drove to Hokitika parked the van and had a walk around the town visited a Jade and Paua factory. This town used to be a main shipping port for ships coming from Austraila in the old days, we took a walk on the old quay along the way we came across a plaque that was erected to mark the 125 years since the sisters of mercy arrived in the town from Ennis, Ireland in 12/10/1878 to serve the people of the north west coast! After booking into a park that was on the beach front we took a walk along the beach were we fooled into throwing a stick for this dog and one was'nt enough so like 40 throws later my arm is hanging off and the dog gives up on me!
4th: Took it easy today, that night we visited the Glow Worms you get these alot in caves or like here were were their was a huge embankment that was surronded by trees thats called a dell. Its pitch black and as you make your way towards the embankment hundreds of these tiny lights come into view their absolutely beautiful. The light comes from their excrement as it reacts with the air and in doing so attracts food!

ABEL TASMAN
5th: Got the road Heading for Abel Tasman along the way we stopped at Punakiki National park we took a short walk here to some Blow Holes and the rock formations that look like stacked pancakes hence their name Pancake Rocks.

The road follows the Buller River as far as Murchison and the scenery along the way is awesome! We arrived in Motueka at 4.30pm, this is 20mins from the Tasman national park and has good facilities in the town so we booked into a park here for the night
6th: Drove out to Abel Tasman national park this place is chock a block with locals in the summer time thay have excellent walking tracks inland with huts you can sleep in along the way or you can take the costal route and kayak around the beautiful coast line they also have huts along the beach for over night stays you can combine walking with the kayaking are what ever takes your fancy. Its off season at the moment so not much happening and on top of that it was raining again but we decided to go for a walk along the coastal track anyway.

Even though it was raining the scenery was amazing you come across all these little sandy beaches with crystal clear water, in the summer time when the sun is out it must be brillant here, we walked for 2 1/2 hours and then had some lunch before we headed back. When we got back to the Van we were soaked through but the walk was well worth it!

NELSON
7th: before we left Motueka we caught up on some emails and picked up some groceries. When we got to Nelson we booked into a park that was 2kms out side the town we walked into town for a look aroud and had some coffee.
8th: Walke dinto town and visited the batonical gardens from here we walked up a hill to the SPIRE this is supposed to be the spot that marks the centre of NZ! There were some great views from up here, at the base of the hill is the local rugby pitch where the first rugby match was played in NZ. Back in town we called to New Zealand Air office to change some dates on our Pacific island flights and headed back to the park. We took a spin out to Cable Bay for a walk and met another dog along the way who insisted on us throwing sticks for him! Its called Cable bay as it was the first place that cable communications came in from Austrailia!

NORTH ISLAND, WELLINGTON
9th: Up early and on the way to Picton to catch the ferry to Wellington in the north island, we boarded the ferry at 12.30am and arrived in Wellington at 3.00pm. We drove out to Lower Hutt to a park as there is'nt any in Wellington its only a 15min outside the city. We did some grocgeries and decided it was going to be a treat night tonight we got ourselves a bottle of wine, steak and some chocolate muffins with cream!! (The lower hutt location was used in the lord of the rings the scene was Mina sirth Helms deep)

10th: We got a bus into Wellington city from outside the caravan park. We then got a cable car to the top of the Botanical gardens the views from the top of the botanical gardens were great.

Then we walked through the Botanical gardens to the Government buildings (which are shaped like a beehive). Then we had some Lunch in Subway. It's a fast food chain that they have here and in Australia but instead of burgers they only make rolls it was very tasty. Its a really lovely day and there wasn’t even a breeze which is great as Wellington is also known as the windy city. It was warm enough for both of us to just wear t-shirts for the first time since we arrived in New Zealand. We went for a walk along the quays (Jervois quay and custum house quay) and had an ice-cream. We then went to the museum of Wellington city and sea. The museum was very good. It mainly told the story of what life was like on board the many ships coming in to and leaving Wellington harbour and well as life on the Docks for the Wellington people at the turn of the centaury and previous. Later that evening as the sun was still shining we went for a walk along the beach in Lower hutt and out along the pier in patrone.

PALMERSTON NORTH
11th: Arrived in Palmerston around lunchtime today. This is a small city that has a university here so alot of student activity but as it was Sunday everything but the Internet place was closed so hard to get a good idea of what the city was like. Lovely sunny day so we sat outside and had our lunch in the sunshine. Caught up on some emails here.

WANGANUI
12th: Arrived at 11:30am booked into a lovely caravan park where we got our own shower and toilet!! Ensuite style you just park by the door and you have your own key so nobody else can use yours, it's been a while since we had a luxury like that. The weather was still fantastic so we sat out in the sunshine and read until 2pm. Then we walked into town to the Paddleboat museum. Where we saw the "waimarie"a side paddle steamer that sunk in 1952 and after 40 years was raised and restored. Then we had a stroll around Wangangui town it's well laid out with lots of old buildings - very nice.

TAUPO
13th: Headed on towards lake Taupo and along the way we stopped for lunch some of t views were exellent and on the way we say mt Nagauruhoe which was "Mt DOME in MORDOR" in L.O.T.R!

Once we had checked into the caravan park we took a trip out the "Craters of the Moon" there is loads of Geo-thermal activity in this area so you get steam vents and bubbling mud pools all over the place its a pretty mad place! After we called into a honey farm and tasted a heap of there products to top up our sugar levels and also some of there friut wines!! On the way back to town we visited the HUKA FALLS these are not that high but there is a huge volume of water surging down and the water colour is amazing, over all the water colour in the lakes and rivers is amazing here and this is due to some form of crystal sediment that is picked up by the rivers as it makes its way down the mountains and this sediment reflects the suns light giving the water this amazing colour. That evening when we were making dinner the resident cat called over to say hello!
14th: Up early and went for a 3hr return walk around the lake from town to Wharewaka point. Back in town picked up some groceries and had a stroll around.

ROTORUA (The smelly place)
15TH: Got on the road to Rotorua and on the way took a detour to "Butchers Pool" on the Broadlands road. This pool is in the middle of a farmers paddock and many moons ago Mr. Butcher gave the pool to the locals to use. When we arrived at the pool there were 3 locals in already but the pool is large enough for 2 dozen at least, so we hopped in and it was "sooo" nice the water was about 40 degrees and as the day was cold it made it all the better!

These pools are natural occuring spa's that are heated by steam escaping up from the ground with all the minerials thrown in and its for free although in most other places you will pay for the use of these as they are all commercialised and a bit pricey! We got back on the road and when we arrived in Rotorua we booked into a park and had some lunch befroe walking into town. Along the way we visited a traditional Maori meeting house and the old bath house were all the well to do used to go for there suana's, spa's and treatments!

As we walked around the town we got some horrible smells that go with these geo-thermal areas it must be awful to live down wind of some of them they were so bad at times Clare wanted to get sick! On the way back to the caravan park we went through and national reserve park that has loads of hot pools , steam vents and bubbling mud pools.

That evening we had a good soak in the caravans own hot pools.That evening back in the caravan park we went for a soak in the parks own hot pools!

COROMANDEL PENNINSULA
16TH: Heading north to the Coromandel penninsula, we drove as far as Hahei and found a park to book into after we had some lunch we took a spin to the "Catheral Caves" from the car parks its about a 45min scenic walk to them but its well worth it.

The main cave goes right through the cliff face and out the other side and is big enough to drive a bus through. Its all limestone rock here so the sea is eating away endlessly at it. That night as the park was right on the beach front i tried some fishing but the waves were breaking heavily and kept washing my bait off.
17th: Headed for "Hot Water Beach" here you can dig your own hot pool right on the beach when the tide goes out. On one section of the beach a hot water stream surfaces on the beach so when the tide goes out you get lots of people diging holes to soak in!

We hired a shovel and of we went, we found a good spot and started digging i made it big enough so the 2 of us could ly out flat and be covered by the hot water and was the water "hot" it was around 68 degrees every now and then as i got too hot i would run into the sea and cool myself down the sea was absolutly freezing but it was a mad sensation to get back into the pool again your skin would be tingling all over, we must have spent about 2 hours in the pool and the weather today was really sunny so we had a great day!! After abit of lunch we headed across the penninsula to Thames for the night.

NORTHLAND
18TH: Travelled as far as Orewa today this is in Northland which would be in the north west of the island. The trip here was terrible due to the weather the wind was blowing at savage strenght at one stage when we were crossing the North Auckland bridge i thought we were going over. As the weather was so bad we could do little so we booked into a park and watched some tv,m Willy Wonka was on we veged with him!
19th: The morning news showed that there was alot of damage caused by the winds along the coast with boats thrown up on the beachs! After breakie we went into town and i went for a haircut as it was getting pretty wild (well what i have left of it) we did some internet time and got some groceries. Got on the road to Whangarei and along the way we stopped for lunch at a rest stop when we opened the door of the van we were accosted by a gathering of wild hens and cocks all eager to get at our lunch! When we arrived in Whangarei the weather was bad so little else for the day.
20th: Took a walk around the town, called into a fernry ( The Fern is the national symbol of NZ) that had dozens of types of ferns growing in different conditions. We had a walk down at the town basin this is where all the boating activitry is and some lovely cafes and restuarants, we had a coffee and cake here before we took a spin out the penninsula to "Ocean Beach" its really nice here with big grassy sand dunes we had lunch here and then headed to the "Whangarei falls" these have a 24 metre drop and have a lovely cooling mist blowing of them! We got on the road to "Paihia" this is in the "Bay Of islands" it was late when we arrived so we found a park had some dinner and went to the bar onsite for a few drinks. The park is right on the river bank and just down stream from the "Puka Falls". On the way back from the bar you had a great view of the falls as they were lit up at night, they are not that high but they are still impressive!
21st: Drove to "Kerikerl" which is only 30km up the road. We took the 2hr return walk to the "Rainbow Falls" that has a 27 metre drop afterwards we had lunch and took a walk around town.

Its really quaint here with loads of craft shops, cafes and restuarants the local area is a large producer of fruits. After we had a coffee we took a drive along the coast before settling in for the night back in town.
22nd: Drove west across the penninsula to visit the "Waipoua Forrest" on the way we passed by Hokianga Harbour the entrance is formed by huge sand dunes that look amazing the scenery around the bay was excellent.

The reason we wanted to visit the forrest was to see the "Kauri" tree's these on one time covered most of the islands but were logged nearly to extiction before it was stopped. What makes these trees so amazing is the girt that they grow too and there, age the one we visited was called " Te Matua Ngahere/Father Of The Forrest" it has the largest trunk size of any Kauri tree in NZ left, it has a circumference of 16.5 metere and a diameter of 5 meters the tree is estimated at being around 2,000 years old it was pretty amazing to be seeing something of this age and its still alive and growing! We continued on and stayed the night in Dargaville.

23rd: Its getting near the end of our trip in NZ we had 6 days left and only 3 with the van. We drove back to Orewa so we could go through our clothes that we would need for the Pacific Islands we posted some of our stuff home, donated some of it to charity and dumped the rest. We caught up on our emails and did some laundry. Afterwards we took a walk on the beach before we had dinner.

MAT & TRACE'S HOUSE
24TH: Today we headed for Mat's house in Bombay this is about 30mins south of Auckland city. We met Mat in Laos and he offered us a bed if we were ever in the area. Mat&Trace were visiting in the city so on the way back they met us and we followed them to there house. We had not met Trace before but she made us more then welcome in their house. We also got to meet Minty the dog, Zep the cat and Trace's horse! Mat has a cool job he is an animal behaviour consultant and the company he works for do alot of work for Tv, they train animals for advertisment work and also trained alot of the animals for programs like Princess Zena they also worked on the "The Last Samurai" !! One of the ads you might have seen in Ireland was the Toyota pick up that had the dog at the end that fell in the mud and said "Bugger" That was some of Mat's handy work the dogs name was Herc but i'm sorry to say he has died since. That night they fed us a feast of Green mussels i was abit aprehensive at first as i'm not a lover of mussels but i have to say they were delicious.

25th: Had a ly in and "OH" was the bed so comfy especially after the van. After breakie Mat took us to his place of work were we met some of the animals he is working with. There is also a small zoo next door and Mat's company use some of them in there Tv work. We also met a monkey that had been born in the zoo and suffered from epilipse if he had been born in the wild he would have been left to die by the mother but the staff at the zoo care for this 24/7 we got to hold him which was a first for us, he was really cute but a bit letargic as he was given some meds to help him sleep as he had a fit that morning. Afterwards we went to the driving range to hit a few balls it was Clare's first time with a golf club in her hands so she was delighted. Picked up some fish and chips on the way back and ate them in a park. That night we had a natter and played some cards all washed down with some vino!

AUCKLAND
26th: Had a ly in, Mat&Trace had left for work, at 10.30am Zep(cat) came in and got us out of bed. Tomorrow we would be dropping the van back so we drove to Manukau to a caravan park that was close to the airport. We gave the van a good clean out and wash down we also packed our bags which were struggle to close even after the getting rid of half the stuff!!
27th: The owner of the Caravan park agreed to buy the Tv of us for 40$, we then dropped the van at the airport and got a shuttle into our Hostel in Parnell this is about a 20min walk to the city centre. We took a walk through the Domain park to the city center and had a nose around the city.
28th: After breakie we packed a lunch and took a walk to Mt Eden to see Maugawhau this is an extinct volcano we walked to the top its only 196 meters high and looked down into the crater 50ft below its an amazing sight. There are a total of around 50 extinct volcano's in Auckland and from up here you could see a load of them. We walked back into Newmarket and had our lunch in a park here. Afterwards we caught up on some emails and the blog which had been falling behind. That night we treated ourselves to some steak, potatoes,veg and gravy for dinner all washed down with a bottle of vino!
29th: Did little today we picked up a few things we would need for the islands and caught up on the blog for a few hours. That night we watched a video in the hostel.
30th: We fly to Tonga tonight so we checked out of the hotel at 10.00am and left our bags in storage there. We went into Newmarket to get some sun lotion and stuff and also to try and get some accomadation in Tonga sorted. Our flight is at 10.00pm "roll on the sun and beach life" We had a great time here it would have been nice to have a bit more money to spend on some of the mad activities that thay have here but you cant do everything! The south island was really beautiful with all the amazing scenery and with only 30% of the population living there it gives of a feeling of seclusion and remoteness. The NZ total population is around 4 million and something like 1.5 million live in Auckland. The high lights of our trip from start to finish would have been Jay&Anne in Wanaka, Otago Penninsula, Milford Sound, Abel Tasman, Taupo/Rotorua, Coromandel Penninsula, Northland and lastly our visit to Mat&Trace"s. The locals were all real friendly but even more so in the south. The only negative thing we could say is that the drivers on the road can be really aggressive and have no patience! If we ever got the chance to come back it would be great to see it in summertime!

Carins
9th June: Flew to Carins today and collected our Van near the airport we where an hour or so sorting out the details and then we were off.

We headed north and along the way we stocked up on groceries we took it easy as Clare was getting used to the driving we got as far as Newell Beach and booked in a caravan park. The owner was very friendly and helpful and we settled in for the night. All the caravan parks here are well set up with toilets, showers, laundery facilities, pools and BBQ come kitchen areas so you are far from roughing it!. We put a few steaks on the Barbie and settled into some wine and cheese this is the life! 10th:After breaky we went into the town called Mossman and bought ourselves our own BBQ for the nights we would not be staying in the parks. There is a lovely Gorge here called the Mossman Gorge that has walking trails through the tropical forrests we took the 4km route and i had a swim in the creek along the way it was absolutely freezing!

CAPE TRIBULATION
11th: We headed up to Cape Tribulation early this morning you have to get a cable driven ferry over the Daintree river and in total its about a 2hr drive we didnt get all the way as we stopped at some of the board walks along the way these are walkways that ramble through the forrests taking in the tropical lowland forrests, creeks, swamps, mangroves and beachs it gives you a great view of the range of natural envoirments they have here and all so close to each other. We walked the Dubuja and Marrdja board walks and had lunch here as well. It was getting late so we started to head back and along the way we visited the Daintree ice-cream company and tasted thereSoursop, Rasberry, Jackfruit and Wattle fruit flavours all were very nice the Wattle fruit tasted like Mocha! Back to Newell beach for the night.

AHERTON TABLELANDS
12th: We had to go back to the van hire office as the gas cooker was not working it was not that far and we were heading south anyway, once the cooker was sorted we were off to the Aherton Tablelands this takes you on a scenic route inland around Carins. Along the way we stopped to check out some of the famous Curtain Fig Trees. These fig trees are like parasites they use other trees as there support and as they grow they smoother the host tree and take over, sometimes as the host tree dies it falls over and comes to rest leaning against a neighbour tree the fig tree grows roots that grow from the upper branchs down to the ground and since it is lying at an angle now the roots look like a curtain its pretty mad looking.

The roads wind up around the mountains and the views are breath taking. We visited the Crater lakes Eacham and Barrine these formed after volcanic activity years ago and surrounded by forrest they are really beautiful, we had a swim in Eacham the water was cold but refreshing. There were loads of turtles swiming here aswell. We headed to lake Tinabarru and stayed the night here on the lake side the owner of the park was Irish but had been living in OZ for the last 40 years, we had just checked in and she was quizing Clare on being ready for marraige and having kids this girl had spent a wee bit to much time in the OZ sun!!!
13th: Today we did the waterfall circuit taking in Elliunja,Zille, Milla Milla and Mungali even thou it was not the wet season the falls were pretty amazing and worth the visit.We headed back to the coast to Mission Beach the beaches hear were OK we were a bit spoilt on the islands in Malaysia and it would take alot to beat them for beauty. We continued on to Tully and as it was getting late here we booked into the Greenway caravan park. Friendly staff here and great amenities there is a gorge not for from here but we gave it a miss as we had just been to one!

Tuesday 14th: Clares birthday today!!! After breakie we strolled into town lovely character. Tully is famous for being the wettest state in Oz (12meters one year). We took a spin out to the coast gaurd station and i went fishing for a few hours while Clare chilled out with a mag, no fish again! That night we had hamburgers for dinner and to celebrate Clares Birthday we had hot chocalate muffins with cream with a few candles on top!

15th: Drove to Townsville and stayed the night in Bowling Green National park we both went for a dip in the creek. As it got dark the Kangaroos and Wallabies were out and about i got a lovely picture of a mother with her young sticking its head out of her pouch. The set up in the national parks are great some of them have toilets,showers,BBQ and all the walking trails are well marked out it only costs 4A$ pp per night.

16th: Took a trip into Townsville to stock up supplies then we went to the Billabong Sancutary, they have Wallabies,Wombats,Casories,Kangaroos,Crocs and many other animals here. Throughout the day there is guided talks about all the different animals and you can have your picture taken with all of them with your own camera at no cost! The highlight was the Koalas they have to be the cutest things you will ever see, the young ones were just bundles of fur with these huge eyes.

BOWEN
After lunch we got on the road to Bowen which is an hour north of Airlee beach! Found a nice park and had a look around some of the small beaches they were lovely here i had a quick swim and snorkel at Horse shoe bay nice coral and plenty of sea life.

17th: Spent the day at the beach chilling, swimming and snorkelling!!! Tried for a fish but naddaaa!
18th: There is a lovely scenic walk around cape Edgecumbe taking in all the bays you get some great views, had lunch at the beach and did the same as yesterday including catching bugger all FISH!
19th: We liked it so much here in Bowen we decided to stay another day or so! Went to the sunday market today lots of local fruit and homemade stuff, we bought some jam, fruit, veg, cookies and a KG of tiger prawns. Chilled out for the rest of the day in Rose bay. That night we shelled the prawns and sauteed them in loads of garlic in the pan what a feast we were licking our fingers for the rest of the night!!

20th: We are getting lazyier by the day chilled, read, did some emails. I tried a new fishing spot but got nothing but bites!
21st: Caught my first fish today he was pretty small but he went straight to the barbie and OH was he tasty!!!

AIRLEE BEACH
22nd: Travelled down to Airlee beach this is the main departure point to the Whitsunday Islands. We booked into the Flametree park it was not the best a bit run down! Checked out the town and had some lunch. I heard there were catching some nice Golden Treveille(fish) down at shute harbour so we went down to try our luck spent 2hrs here and you can probably guess what i caught? There were a few nice ones being caught. There was a huge resident Groper hanging around the pier he must have been 30kg, a local was telling me that sometimes theres another one and its around 100kg!!
23rd: Went for a walk in Campoon National park, it was a nice 6km hike up to Mount Rooper, the views were great of the islands off shore. After lunch we went down to the pier to try our luck again. There were a couple of young fellows there and they had live bait. they pulled in a few nice Treveille and to add insult to injury they hated the taste of fish and only caught the fish so they could lure in the huge groper, they tied some rope around the tail of the treveille and let him off as he was tied up he couldnt go far and pretty soon along came the groper and ate the fish whole. The kids had a great time trying to pull the bugger up but after a bit of a struggle he just spat out the tail of the bait and swam off. I was sorely tempted to jump in myself and fight the groper for the fish!!

TOM&MARGARET
24th: We travelled south for the day today so we could collect Tom and Margeret(Clares friends on there honeymoon) at Rockhampton. They were flying in from Brisbane on the 26th. It was a good eight hours drive down, we pulled into a rest place on the side of the highway for the night.
25th: Carried on to Yepoon this is a lovely seaside town 40mins east of Rockhampton on the coast we booked into a quaint little caravan park and went for a wounder around town. We gave the van a good clean could'nt have Margaret and Tom thinking we were dis-organised all the time!
26th: Collected Mags&Tom at the airport and back on the road to Airlee Beach we arrived in at 5.30pm. We booked into the Island gate park as we not impressed with the last park we stayed in. Clare had a cold for the last few days but it had cleared up now so we decided to go for a dive out on the Whitsundays we booked a two dive package and Mags&Tom would be going as well snorkling. Cooked up some steaks on the BBQ and set up the tent for the Guests!
27th: We were collect at 8.00am, there were not many on the trip 9 total so we had loads of room. The weather was not the best and rain was forecast. Our destination was Hook Island and our first dive was at Lunchon Bay. there was only 4 of us diving the rest went snorkling. The viz was not the best the coral was ok but very little fish life. After we came up we went snorkling and the fish and coral was much better in closer to shore. We then headed to Mantraray bay for the second dive, Slightly more fish life but viz was bad and strong currents over all the diving was pretty poor compared to Dives we did in Malaysia!!. Snorkling was not bad and much better then the diving i think this was due too the amount of boats that anchor when visiting the bays, in the last few years anchoring has been banned and permanent buoys have been set up in some bays but once the damage is done it takes forever to recover if at all!! Had lunch onboard fresh fish, chicken and salad we stopped of at one more bay and we all went snorkling some lovely corals hard and soft but little fish life. Overall it was an OK day but we were'nt impressed with the diving! That night it rained like hell so we dined in the van.
28th: We decided to head to the Carnavon Gorge National Park so we travelled west to Clermont, Clare drove half the way and then Tom took over she was delighted with the break! We stayed here for the night and cooked up some stew for dinner.
29th:On the road early heading towards Rolleston, When we got there we found out that because of the heavy rains the road to the Gorge was flooded and would be for a few days!! This was a disaster as we had travelled 2 days to get here and Tom&Mags had only a few days it was such a waste. We had few options as we were a day from anywhere, we decided to head to Boyne near Bunderburg for the night. We booked into a park for the night and cooked up some dinner. That night in rain so bad that Mags&Tom were getting wet in there tent and had to jump in with us in the van!!

1770
30th: Travelled to the Town of 1770 this is were Captain Cook first stepped onto OZ soil in "1770"! We checked into a park and got a great site right on the beach. Tom and myself went fishing and the girls went for a walk i wont bother telling you how the fishing went! That evening we put a few steaks on the BBQ and Tom gathered up some wood and lit a fire on the beach we chilled out for the rest of the night!
1st: Yesterday we had booked a tour for a trip to Lady Musgrove Island which is out on the Great Barrier Reef it took us 2hrs to get to it.It was pretty rough going and at least half if not more of the passengers got sick and there were at least 160 onboard!!!.They had plenty of sick bags on board and seemed to be well used to this. Clare and Tom were among the Casualities! What a place the island is quite small maybe 1/2 a mile across but its the reef that surronds it the makes it spectaculiar the island is total surrounded and there is one gap in the reef that you can get a boat through. We spent the day snorkling and Tom and myself went on a trip out side the reef to have a go fishing DONT ASK! The snorkling was pretty good lots of coral and small fish loads of sea horses and green Turtles. You could walk around the island and you can camp out here if you want. We had lunch on the boat, while tom and myself were out fishing Clare and Mags met George the resident Groper who comes over to the boat for feed who looked about 60kg, They also went out on the glass bottomed boat which gave them an exellent view of the corals and fish.

We arrived back on land at 5.00pm and decided to head further south towards Hervey Bay we got as far as Bunderburg and booked into Apollo park we all stayed in a 2 bedroom cabin for the night these are a good option as they come with a fully equiped kitchen and all the linen. You can get these from 40-80A$. We ordered in some pizza and watched tv for the night!

HERVEY BAY
2nd: On to Hervey Bay this is a real touristy town its one of the main depture points to Fraser Island this is the biggest sand island in the world! We would liked to have gone out but the budget would'nt stretch that far!
We had lunch in town and Tom organised a hire car for the next day so they could make they way down to Brisbane.That night we went to the RSL club for dinner, These culbs are in every town and you can good meals at reasonable prices and the beer is a bit cheaper as well. There was a band playing so we stayed for a while.
3rd: Tom &Mags left us today and are of to Brisbane for a few days and then on to LA. Myself and clare stocked up on supplies, emailed and chilled for the rest of the day. Bought a cooked chicken for dinner it reminded us of sunday roasts at home!
4th: Chilled out for the day, walked on the beach and took in the local sights.

RAINBOW BEACH
5th: Traveled to Rainbow beach, lovely great big sand dunes along miles of beach, Went for a walk aqnd after lunch drove to Tin Can bay we booked into park by the marina and after we had settled in i went to try my luck at the fishing "aaaaargh"!
6th: We got up at dawn and went down to the marina were a family of Indo-Pacific Dolphins come in every morning, only the Male was there today. A few locals are there every morning with a bucket fish , I took one of the fish and paddled out upto my knees were the Dolphin took the fish out of my hand it was amazing to be so close to him!

Back on the road we headed to Mundi were they is a big market on wensdays we had a stroll around here and then headed on to further to Yandina to a Ginger factory, we took tour around the plant and afterwards got to try some of they produce all very tasty! We got back on the road to Kilcoy(we were taking a route inland around Brisbane). Kilcoy is home to the OZ "Bigfoot" called a "Yowie" there were hundreds of sightings in the late 70th's but none in recent years. We stayed the night in Summerset park a bit basic, i think its quite popular in the summer but quite this time of year.

BUNYA MOUNTAINS
7th: Drove to the Bunya mountains national park and arrive d at 3.30pm. Went for a 1 1/2 hr walk in the woods. It was freezing that night, no power here so read for a while and in bed early!
8th: Up early and went on a 10km walk in the mountains, we got some amazing views and saw some amazing flora! The mtns are named after the Bunya trees that grow here(they dont grow any were else something to do with the volcanic activity here years ago that gave the soil certain properties) the nuts they produce were a source of food and celebration for the Aborignals that collected them, the nuts were only produced every 4 years.

Back at the camp grounds we had lunch and after we drove to Dalby. The scenery along the way down from the mountains was great! Booked into a park in the town centre. Clare was suffering from a kidney infection so went to the doctor and got a prescription for some meds! We did some groceries and treated ourselves to coffee and cake. Took it easy for the night and watched the MTV awards!
9th: Traveled to Toowooba, arrived at lunch time booked into park and after lunch had a stroll around town and caught up on some emails. It felt really weird here as it is a city but as we were walking around we saw hardly any people and it was a Saturday! Freaky, it felt so weird, ghost town like!
10th: Chilled out for the day, That night we went to the cinema to watch "War Of The Worlds" which was a bit disappointing.

BRISBANE
11th: Travelled to Manley which is east of Brisbane city on the coast. Booked into park and went into town for walks ,eats and info. Lovely sea side town with abig emphasis on sailing.
12th: Discovered our fridge battery was leaking as the smell would make you sick, so we had to make a few calls to organise a new one, we sorted it so that we could collect one on the way to the next town we visited. Into town went for a walk along the promenade and had lunch here. Later went for coffe in Gloria Jeans "Yum"!
13th: We got the Train into Brisbane from town. We did a walking tour of the city talking in City Hall, Clock Tower and Queen street mall crossed over Victoria Bridge and went to the Queensland Museum which is well worth a trip! We strolled down the promenade and had lunch at one of the Deli's here. Further on we came across a man made beach on the side of the river its got sand, life guard and all the rest its pretty cool you dont have to leave the city to go to the beach!! Crossed back over the river on the Goodwill bridge and took a walk in the batonical gardens.

14th: Travelled to Balina a nice little town, i fished for awhile on the wharf and Clare caught up with the gossip in the magazines. That night we stayed in the Bicentinial Gardens park. There where 3 resident geese here that were pretty nosy!

COFFS HARBOUR
15th: This morning we went for a short stroll around the park before we left. We then headed towards Coffs Harbour when we got there it was fairly busy so we went on to the next village called Sawtell only 3km past Coffs. Lovely small village on the beach. We booked into the Sawtell beach park and went for a stroll on the beach the scenery is lovely here the sand has built up so that when the tide goes out there is a lagoon left! Loads of Pelicans here, I went fishing while Clare tackled the laundry!
16th: Did some grocery shopping and i went fishing while Clare went into the village and caught up on some emails. My fishing skills were showing there true colours as usual! Clare met me down by the lagoon and we watched the sun go down!

17th: Went down to the Coffs Harbour pier at 7.30am to go Humpback Whale watching. We boarded a 50ft catamaran with about 20 other people and were off. We had not gone far when the whales were spotted. You find them by looking out for the blast of air from they blow holes which you can see from a good distance! Once we spotted them we corrected our direction to catch up with them as we were catching up with them one of them he came completely out of the water, what a sight!
We got on the same track as the whales and followed them for an hour. There were 2 of them and they travel always in straight lines and average about 4 knots. They surface every 4 minutes are so it was easy to stay with them. Sometimes they surfaced only a foot or so from the boat, the skipper told us all to shout really loudly when they surface to get there attention as they are curious animals, so when they surfaced we all hollered and would you believe the whale turned around and came up to the boat, he rolled to his side so that one eye gave us a good look over before he turned away and got back on his original course this was so cool! We were so glad we did this trip and Coffs harbour was the cheapest place we found to do it! When we go to the Pacific islands you can do the same trip but you can get out of the boat and swim with the whales!

Back on shore we headed for the Upper hunter Valley region, the scenery as you drive here is excellent.We pulled into a rest lay-by for the night.

HUNTER VALLEY REGION
18th: We called to the Rosemount Estate Winery and had a taste of a selection of wines all very nice! Back on the road and we headed south to the Lower Hunter Valley, we arrived in Cessnock and then drove to to Neath to a park for the night.

19th: Early start today so many wineries and so little time!, called to Lindermans first staff very frosty so did'nt bother staying. We then called to the Hunter Valley Cheese Factory for some sampling as well as cheese they sell everything else that goes with it and you can sample the lot we left with a lovely Brie and a jar of red wine jelly. Next we called to Maguigins Cellars and had a tour of the winery and the procedure was explained by a very helpful guide!

Once the tour was over we tried a couple of they reds and then headed to the Vinden Estate Winery this is a small winery that only produce a small quantity that they sell locally, we were drowned in wine here they was no holding back. We had a tour of the Winery and we were given samples of the wine from various stages in the process she gave me a sample that was only 1 month old and asked me what it was like, it tasted pretty good to me a little like the stuff Austin and myself made but i thick thats a sign of the "excellent" quality we were producing!! We bought a Chardonay here and got on our way. We then called to a local Chocolate factory again we got some freebie tastes and decided on the chocolate covered almonds. Stayed in a park in Cessnock that night. What a feast we had, roll on the Gout!!
There is a bus that loops the wineries doing a hop on hop off servive so you can spend the day doing wine tastings and getting rat arsed for free most of the wineries have a bar as well so if you find a wine you like you can settle into a bottle of it and chill for the evening! I can honestly say that we will never see something like this in Ireland!

BLUE MOUNTAINS
20th:Travelled all day down to Richmond on our way to the Blue mountains the scenery was great!.
21st: Drove to Katoomba in the Blue mountains, this would be the main town for all activities in the area. The mountains are called the Blue Mountains due to the blue look they have from a distance this is from the fine oil mist given of by the Euculyptus trees growing on the mountains. From Echo point you get a panoramic view of the mountains. You also have the Three sisters here these are a formation on an out cropping near Echo point, there name derives from Aboriginal forklore. From Echo point we took the 1000 steps down towards the valley floor, they is a walkway you can follow for miles, we walked a section of it as far as the old coal mining area and got a cable car back to the top.

The area is great for hiking especially if you enjoy hikes for a day are two! We had a late lunch and got on the road to Sydney. We stayed in Parklea for the night this is west of sydney city,we arrived at 7.00pm and after a nose around the park we came across the jacuzzi so we got into our swim gear and chilled out in this for awhile. Tomorrow we would be visting my Grandads niece Winnie in Baulkham Hills.

SYDNEY
22nd: Drove to meet Winne she was only 30 minutes away, picked up some flowers on the way. Its lovely to meet relations you have never met before and Winne was really friendly and looked after us for the day. After we had tea and caught up she took us on a tour of the north Sydney coast. We stopped of at the "Famous" Home and Away beach really called Palm Beach but the Surf Club is there and so is the light house on the hill! The coastal scenery is beautiful here and the sun was out in force we got to see some dolphins surfing the waves. We took a walk up to the light house and after we had a picnic lunch. We visited a few more coastal towns and took a walk out to one of the heads there were a few guys paragliding up here and you got a great view of the coast. When we got back to the house Winne cooked us a lovely dinner, we had a lovely day and we were so glad we got to meet Winne. After we said our goodbyes we headed back to the caravan park for the night.

23rd: Drove to Terry's Hill this is near were we had to drop the Campervan off it is in north Sydney. Went out to the local restuarant for dinner and a pint!
24th: Dropped the van to Church Point it is beautiful here lovely quaint marinas.
The couple who own the company were lovely, we would miss the van we had such a great time and no trouble after speaking with other van renters we know we got a great deal on our van. We would highly recommend touring anywere in OZ with a campervan. The company we used were called
www. campahomes.com.au and give great deals.
We got the bus back to the city centre and booked back into the Boomerang Backpackers. We headed into the Batonical Gardens for a walk the place is really well laid out, the peninsula is lovely and you get some great views of Sydney harbour. Took it easy for the rest of the night.
25th: Spent the day shopping looking for some warmer clothes for NZ!!
That night we went on the tear in Scruffy Murphy's on George street, Both of us were well demented by the end of the night! Met a couple of guys from Carrigaline who had just come from NZ and could'nt stop raving about it.
26th: Both of us pretty seedy today after breaky we hopped on a bus to Bondi junction, had a walk around town and Clare found a lovely Ski Jacket for a bargin! Had lunch here and headed back to Kings Croos to catch up on emails. That night we went across the harbour on the ferry to Manly to meet up with James and his partner Elina. James is an old friend from Cobh, they met us at the wharf and went to the Blue Water restuarant for dinner and later had a few beers at Ivan Hoe, it was great to catch up and we both had a good Craic!

Tomorrow we travel to NZ, we had a great time in OZ and travelled a total of 7500 km, we would love to try and get back sometime in the future!

SYDNEY
4th June: Arrived in Sydney at 6.30am, we had booked our hostel on the net so once we had landed we gave them a ring as they do complimentory pick up. Our hostel was called Boomerang Backpackers in Kings Cross the staff were not that friendly and there seemed to be alot of long term lodgers here, but the rooms made up for the short fall they were huge with a couch, wardrobe and TV, we shared a bathroom with two other rooms it was a real surprise because it looked plain and average on the website. It cost 50A$ per night and you got free breaky which consisted of cereal, toast and tea. We went to bed for a few hours to catch up on some sleep time! That night we strolled into Sydney Opera house(20mins) to meet Margaret and Tom Foley, Margaret is a good friend of Clares and she and Tom were on there honeymoon. We headed of in search of some munchies on George st and eventually settled on McCartys Bar afterwards we went down to Circular Quay and found a nice Cafe Bar were we had some drinks and caught up with all the goings on! First impressions of Sydney are thats its really friendly, beautiful sights and begging you to have a good time!

Over the next few days we explored sydney be foot and took in the sights of Sydney bridge,Darlinghurst wharf, Miller point, Hyde park, Opera house and in the evenings we met up with Margaret and Tom.

As we had missed there wedding we booked a dinner cruise for the 4 of us on Sydney harbour as a wedding present. This was really nice the cruise ship had two levels and we had a window seat on the upper level we got complimentory Champayne and a bottle of house wine. The meal was 4 course and all the food was very tasty, there was a caberet band playing and an opera singer did a few numbers to give you a taste of whats on offer in the opera house! We all had a nice time and we got to see the Sydney Harbour sights at night! The cruise lasted 2hrs.

Coming to OZ we knew that our biggest issue we would have would be sticking to the budget and after seeing the costs of transport and accomadation we knew we were in trouble, but we found a light at the end of the tunnel, a campervan hire company nearby the hostel were doing deals on vans hired from Carins and returning to Sydney The Van was a Hiace Toyota Hi-Top inside was sink, fridge, 2 ring gas cooker, microwave, TV and all the other bits and piece's we would need the sitting area converted in to a huge bed and all the linen was supplied there was an awning that fitted onto the side of the van so you had a sheltered sitting area out side chairs and table were even supplied! The daily rate for this was 50A$ our budget was 120A$ per day so this was workable in our budget. The van was set up so you could just pull up and stay were you felt or you could stay in caravan parks which are all over the place and cost between 15A$ and 30A$ per night. We booked flights to Carins an the net for 150A$ each and we were of to collect the van there! LET THE ROAD TRIP BEGIN!
Our last night in Sydney we met up with Margaret and Tom and splashed out on a feed and some cocktails in the Hard Rock Cafe. Margaret and Tom were off to Melbourne next but we would meet up near Brisbane in a couple of weeks.

Singapore
12th May: Travelled to Singapore today, its always great to fly with Singapore airlines we were able to get emergency window seats so plenty of leg room! We had booked a room in Bugis at Hawaii hostel sounded good but the place was a bit of dive. Its really expensive in Singapore so we decided to only stay 2 days you can eat reasonable in the foodcourts at the shopping malls but it was straining our budget!. We had a wonder around Orchard Rd and ate there. Clare was not feeling well so took it easy and watched a movie in the cinema.

13th: Slept late today.We visited the batonical gardens really beautiful here you can wonder around for hours. Later we went to China town shopped at the stalls and had dinner in a food court. We went down to Clarkes Quay that night and had a few drinks by the river really well set out here but sooo expensive!

14th: Off to the Asian civilisation museum this was really interesting and well set up. That evening we went to stadium cove for walk about. There was a Rally demo on something to do with the new Mitshibitsi Evo and Jacky Chan was there in his Evo we did nt see him thou! The cove was nice but not much happening.
On to Kuala Lumpar tomorrow.

Kuala Lumpar
15th: Travelled to KL by train arrived at 2.30pm total of 6hrs travel.Hopped on the metro to Puda Rd, we were staying in the Pudu hostel this place was OK room was large, clean, lots of amenities with shared bathroom. It was near china town were all the markets set up and the bus station was across the road. Once we got ourbearings we spent the rest of the evening in chinatown looking for bargins had dinner here as well. KL is around the same Bangkok in regards to costs but wouldnt come close to the impression Bangkok left on us!

16th: Headed to the Petronas towers the tallest buildings in the world but there are closed on a monday so maybe tomorrow. Visited the lake gardens these were not great maybe in the evenings on the weekends when there are more locals out the atmosphere might be good but as a day trip its not worth it. After we went to Batu Caves the main cave is huge and holds many Hindi shrines and at certain times of the year thousands of hindi's come and worship here. It was a bit disappointing inside there was mass concrete everywhere , rubbish and junk littered aroundthe place.

Outside there were monkeys everywhere and i tried to take a few picture but everytime i got a monkey to sit still along came the alpa male trying to "sow his seed" so it was no wonder the females were always on the move! That night we ate in the 2 dragon hostel the food was'nt great and there were cockroaches everywhere trying to climb up your legs as you were eating!!!.

17th: Slept late again so missed the tickets to the petronas towers! Went shopping for the day(mostly window shopping). That night we ate in the Gin-Ger restuarant in central market a small bit more expensive but really nice and lovely decor inside. Worth the extra few bucks!
Off to the Cameroon Highlands tomorrow.

Cameroon Highlands
18th: Bus to the Cameroon Highlands left at 9.00am and arrived at 3.00pm. Checked into the Cameronian inn, got a great room here we looked at a few but they were'nt great but 1 room is detached from the main building and is newer and clean. We took it easy for the evening and had dinner in our GH.
19:After breaky we joined a tour that would take us around to the various sights. We visited the BOH tea plantation this was interesting as you got to see the tea process from start to finish, after we went to the highest peak to take in the views, trek to a mossy forest and then onto a village tribe where i had a chance to try the Chiefs blow pipe he uses for hunting!. Over all it was a good day but there was alot of filler time stopping for pictures and the trek consisted of 15 minutes.

TAMAN NEGARA
20th: Today we got a bus to Taman Negara it left at 10.30am and arrived at Kuala tahan village at 8.30pm, we had alot of waiting around at different places for other buses to arrive with passangers and this delayed us a few hours!
Due to it being a bank holiday weekend the place was booked out but we eventually found a cabin at Durian G/H. The cabin was clean and ensuite and cost 8 euros per night. We had dinner on one of the floating restuarants on the river these are a bit rough and ready but the food is fine.

21st: After breaky we got a boat over to Taman Negara reserve, once we had our entry permit we were off to the canopy walk, the canopy walk was 600m long and reached 45m in height in places. We then treked up Bikit Tersek and down the far side that takes you along the river back to were we started from. It took about 4hrs and along the way we had a swim in the river thats orange in colour from minerals in the surrounding mountains. We didnt see much wild life but the tropical rain forrests more then made up for it. We had some eats on the river and strolled around the village. There was some really lovely accomadation on the reserve if you wanted to give yourself a treat.

PERENTHAIN ISLANDS
22nd: Got a bus to the Perenthains today, on the bus we met an english couple who had been to the big island Besar and stayed on a lovely beach on the south coast called Talum Delak and highly recommended it. The taxi boat from the mainland took 1hour to get to our beach were we checked into Sumudra beach chalets. The scenery was amazing here the waters edge was 15ft from the balcony of our cabin the accomadation cost 8 euros per night! It was busy when we arrived but once the weekend was over we nearly had the beach to ourselfs. Had a walk on the beach that night and Flora chalets were having a BBQ and for 4 euros p/p you could have what you liked they had eveything here fish, squid, chicken, pork, beef and prawns along with salad and rice. Great value for money!

23rd: Decided to relax and take it easy today it was great to be back on a beach again! We checked out the local dive shops to decide who we would do our open water course with. We eventually went with Ocean Blue, Sally was an instructer there from the UK and as it was quiet it would be just the 3 of us for the next 4 days so she could give us as much time as we needed Clare was delighted with this as she was a bit nervous! We were supposed to start the course that night but Clare got the news that her Granny had passed away last night and was too upset so we left it till the next day.
Over the next 4 days we covered all the course skills and we are now quailified open water divers clare was a bit apprehensive at first but she got through everthing with fiying colours! We highly recommend Sally from Ocean blue the one to one really helped Clare I had a bit of an advantage as i had done the advanced open water divers course serveral years ago so it was not a new experience to me. The water viz varied a bit we had days of 3m and days of 15m we saw all kinds of sea life from reef tip sharks, puffer fish all kinds of angel, parrot and wrasse fish and the coral could take your breath away. The carry on of the clown fish was really funny to watch and some of them could be really cocky!
28th:Now that we are qualified we decided to take a rest after all the studing so we got a taxi boat to Turtle bay for some rest and beach time. We had lunch here and after we went snorkling the sea life is amazing in some of these bays and we even saw a shark! There is a turtle grazing area here so we headed over to have a look we came across 6 different turtles munching away on the sea bed floor they were amazing to watch and so agile in the water i managed to give one a rub on his shell, they most have been 2ft in lenght.
29th: We went for a dive with Steve from Ocean Blue as sally was sick this was the best we had seen yet the viz and abundant fish life was excellent it really showed Clare what diving had to offer! We leave tomorrow and it will be so hard, if we didnt have to meet friends in Sydney we would stay for another week and have met up with Ann&Jay who will be in the area soon. These islands have been one of the most relaxing and peaceful places we have been and would love to come back here sometime!

30th: Jumped on a boat back to the mainland and we had a wait of 8hrs before the bus to Kuala Lumpar arrived. Had some lunch and caught up on some emails, there was not much in the area so we had little to do but read our books. Bus arrived at 9.00pm and we were off!
31st: Arrived at K/L at 5.30am we had booked back into Puda hostel so we had to wait till 8.00am to get into our room, went straight to bed for a few hours. Went shoping for the rest of the day to get some new clothes for OZ as everthing we had was a bit scuffy. Bought some prezzies in the night market to send home.
1st June: Down to the post office first thing to send some stuff home its so cheap to post stuff here, afterwards we jumped on a bus to Singapore. We arrived at 8.30pm and as we were not able to find any other rooms vacant in any hostels we had to book back into the Hawaii hostel we had a look at a few of the rooms and we were able to get one with a window that was reasonable clean, the first time we were here the room we got was kip but this time the room was OK so we would come back again as long as we could pick our own room!! You also get a free breaky here consisting of boiled eggs, toast and tea.
2nd:After breaky we went into town to catch up on some emails and do some shopping. That night we went to the night safari it cost about 10 euros each but was well worth it you can get a train around or you can walk it. I have to admit it was excellent here we walked around and you would do it at an easy pace having a good look around in 2hrs, the sounds the animals and the bugs made were the best part of the night and Clare jumped quite a few times. After wards there is a show were some of the animals are brought out to demonstrate some of there skills! We both really enjoyed it and its well worth a visit if you are in the area.(Thanks Suzy for recommending it!)
3rd: Checked out of the hostel, We had a few hours as our flight was not till 8.30pm. We went to see STAR WARS TRILOGY part III at the cinema an excellent show that ties up all the loose ends! Jumped on the metro to the airport and relaxed there for the flight, if you have a few hours to waste before your flight this airport a great place they have free internet all around the terminals and TV's scattered around with seating were you can watch sport, movies and news in comfort. Singapore is the only airport we have been at that you can get some eats and drinks at a reasonable prize because usually you get ripped off!! Flight was on time so off to OZ we go!

BANGKOK
May 7th: 7.30am we got the bus to bangkok today, boy was this some trip! We travelled on a clapped out old bus and since it had no A/C you had to keep the windows open to keep cool this was sufferable except that the road to the border was a dirt road so you were driving through dust clouds so you had a choice of bake to death or choke to death on the dust either way you end up sweaty,dirty and half choked to death! An hour into the journey the throttle cable snapped and we had to stop for some on the spot repairs this consisted of the driver tying some twine directly to the trottle linkage on the engine and up through the floor so he could pull from his seat. I most admit it worked but the gear changes were a bit rough and it took some of his attention away from the road at times! We eventually arrived at the border and had to que for an hour on the Cambodia side and then the Thailand border was no problems,we had to wait for an hour for more passangers to arrive and then we hoped on a truck to the bus stop. We had another 1+1/2hrs wait here and then we were off, the bus on this side was great. We arrived in Koasan road at 10.30pm at this stage we were knackered so we booked into the first guest house we found and hit the bed!

8th: We found a nice guest house in Siam called Wendy's it was a bit expensive (14euros) but you got a full breakfast for this price the rooms were clean, had A/C , hot-water and the staff were very friendly the MRT is 3 minute walk away.
We had decided to enjoy ourselves for a few days as we had been stidking to the budget and it was time to indulge a bit, Kate had emailed to say she would be in Bangkok on the 10th and it was her birthday and were we on for a night out she did'nt have to ask twice! As it was sunday we headed over to O'Riellys bar in Silom for a roast dinner this cost 17euros for the 2 of us and was dissapointing we got plenty of lamb meat but little else! The price of this would normal feed us for 1+1/2 days. That evening we went for astroll in Lumpini Park and then went to the night Bazaar were we did some shopping, had some food and listened to a local band playing. The night Bazaar is a great place to go for a night out the food stalls have a great selection from pizza to fried pigs intestines!

9th: Today we spent shopping and chilling out, that evening we got VIP tickets to the MBK Cinema to watch Kingdom of Heaven. These cost 6euros each, you get to wait for the film in a lounge and recieve a complementy fruit cocktail the seats are twice the size of normal seats, really comfy and recline the staff will also serve you in your seat. We both love the movies so this was heaven for us!!!

10th: More shopping today and we both got haircuts. We met up with Kate at 6.00pm Anna (from Vietianne) was there and two other Irish guys Bob and Steve. Kate was really taking the bulls by the horns partying with 5 "PADDIES" the night was excellent the gang were all very friendly Kate and myself had our first taste of fried grubs and liked them so much we got a bag of them to nibble on! Everyone had a great night and hopefully it was memorable birthday for Kate!

11th: Took easy today, recovering from last night. posted home some stuff we had bought. Went to the night Bazaar that night for eats and drinks. Tomorrow we are off to Singapore.

PHNOM PENH
30th: Made our way to the airport our flight was at 10.10am, we were having some breaky in a cafe when we met Gabrielle the girl we had met in Kanchanaburi (it can be a small world sometimes). The flight was only 1&1/2hrs to Phnom Penh, when we landed we got a taxi to the river front and went looking for a guesthouse, it was quite expensive along here so we went back a block from the river and found the "Dara Reang sey Hotel" we got a large room here with A/C, TV and hot water for $13 a day. The food was plain here but if you went to the river front you could get any kind of food but at a price! Our plan was to stay here for few days and take in "The Killing Fields", the National Museum and "S-21 Prison". Cambodia has come along way in the last 25yrs, when the Khmer Rouge were in power 1976-79 the country was in devastated condition over 2 million people were killed are executed during this time. By all accounts there is not one family here that did not have a member killed during this time. Over half the present population is under 18yrs of age, so to see how far it has come is amazing. Anyone who has seen the Movie "The Killing Fields" will have an idea of the horrific crimes against humanity that went on.

1st May: This morning we went too the local market "Psar Thmei" Clare bought herself a new shoulder bag as the one she got in India was getting a bit worn. We found a food stall and I had some rice, egg and veg but Clare wasn’t big on rice for breaky so we went to a restaurant for a sandwich. After we took a walk down the rivers edge to the Royal Palace, we took cover under a tree and read for awhile until the National Museum opened. The Museum is full of artifacts from the last 1300yrs a lot of them from the temples in Angkor. The building itself is beautiful and to sit in the gardens and relax after the tour was really peaceful. That night we were knackered so we just ate in our hotel and watched a movie.

2nd: We had breaky on the river front and grabbed a "Moto" (Scooter with a 2 seater trailer attached) to Choeng Ek (Killing Fields) this is 20km outside the city. This is were about 17,000 Cambodia’s were executed and buried in mass graves during the Khmer Rouge rule. You might say why would you visit such a place, to us and I would say many others the crimes that took place should never be forgotten and places like this are a reminder to the atrocities that humans are capable off, this didn’t take place hundreds of years ago it was only 25yrs which is not that long ago! You pay an entrance fee of $2 to get in, the area itself is just a large field but a large Memorial has been built in the centre this is a tall square building with glass sides that hold 8,000 skulls that have been removed from the mass graves, they are stacked on shelves from the bottom to the top of the building. There are still mass graves yet to be excavated it, we found it hard to stay long here as its upsetting trying to comprehend all the killing. What makes it harder is the way these people died and that it was babies and children as well as adults that were executed here. Bullets were not used, most of the victims were beaten to death!

We headed back to town to visit S-21 prison (Toul Sleung Museum) This was a school until the Khmer Rouge took it over to use as a political prisoner camp. Most of the people who were executed in the killing fields came from here, during its time they were 100 people dying per day there from torture, malnutrition and execution. The conditions here were beyond belief and only a dozen people are known to have got out of this prison. Even thou its an unbelievably horrific story if you are in Phnom Penh you should try and visit these places so you can get an idea what these people went through and how far they have come in so little time.

SIEM REAP
3rd May: Today we jumped on a bus to Siem Reap, this is a small city that you stay in for day tours to Angkor. To see Angkor was the main reason we visited Cambodia, As i've said before Clare and myself are not big into spending days looking at old buildings and Wats but when it comes to Angkor this goes out the window because Angkor should be added to the wonders of the world list!
When you arrive in Siem Reap the bus is surrounded by Tuk-Tuk drivers shouting and pulling at you from all angles offering to bring you to any guest house for free it can be very annoying and a bit scary, the reason for this is that everyone who visits angkor needs daily transport and for a tuk-tuk its 10$ per day so if the drivers can get you in his Tuk-tuk the chances are you will hire him for your visits to Angkor. We picked a guy and went looking for a guest house. We visited a good few and some where quite dingy or too expensive we settled for a place called "HOME SWEET HOME" this place had nice big rooms with A/C, ensite,TV and hot shower for 13$ the down side was that the owners were the most unfriendly people you could meet. Jay & Ann from Dublin had recommended a restuarant called "HOME COCKTAIL""and this was right around the corner from our G/House The food was so tasty and inexpensive that we ate all our meals here for duration of our stay. We would be happy to recommend it to anybody its on Wat Bo Rd. We had agreed with our tuk-tuk driver on 35$ for a 3 day hire it cost a bit more because one of the temples is a long way out and also we wanted to go and get our entry pass that evening. So we were collected at 4.30pm and we got our passes at 5.00pm these cost 40$ each for the 3 days, we were able to go in that evening for the last hour and watch the sun set over Angkor Wat.

4th,5th&6th: we spent the next 3 days exploring the temples in angkor some of them are breath-taking and leave you in wonder and awe. They range from 600yrs-1100yrs in age the area is around the size of NY city and as the rulers changed over the years they built there own temples and this is what angkor is today. Some of them are in total ruin others are in the process of restoration and some have been completed already. Kate (who we met in Mong Ngoi) had recommended the best ones to visit so we made out a daily program from this list. It was so hot here that we only spent 5hrs per day in Angkor (7am-1pm) but this was plenty for us. Over the next 3 days we visited Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon, Baphuon,Banteay kdei, Preah khan, Pre Rup, Banteay Srei, Ta Som, East Mebon and Neak pean. All of them were amazing some more then others the way the forest had become one with some of the buildings was a sight to see.

They most have been glorious in the day, with all the people it took to run them and the villages and towns that built up around them.
Tomorrow we are heading back to Bangkok it draws us like a magnet we just love the place!

LUANG PRABANG
19th: We caught the flight to Luang Prabang and booked into a lovely guesthouse by the river, accommodation is more expensive here 8-10$. While we walking around town we met Dugg a Canadian we talked for a while and agreed to meet up for dinner later. The town here is great and the atmosphere is brilliant, as the light fades there is a street market set up and the whole road for 1/2 a mile is lit up with Thai Lanterns with ladies selling all kinds of goods from hand made bed covers to local Lao-Lao with snakes inside (Rice whiskey)
For dinner that night we meet up with Dugg and had a feed of Home made Hamburgers and Chips!

This town really left an impression on us we will spend a few nights here on way back from Nong Kiaw.

NONG KIAW
20th:We had breakfast in "Ja mo" egg, bacon and cheese in a bagel and a cup of real coffee. Afterwards we went down to the pier and caught a boat to Nong kiaw, this was an 8hr journey up river in a narrow boat with 12 other people.

You sit and the floor and is a bit cramped but the view and scenery more then makes up for it. The trip takes you up rapids they can be a bit hairy at times. Every now and then we would stop and you could jump in for a swim, which was glorious. Everything was going well until we hit the bottom and we had to get out of the boat and push it past a shallow rapid.

The Shaft was knocking after this so we had to stop while the driver took the propeller off because it had got a few knocks; he hammered it and filed the dents and we got under way again and a few hours later we lost the propeller completely when we hit a rock. We got the boat into the shore and the driver went about removing the old propeller and putting on a new one, this kind of thing seems to happen all the time as he had 3 spares on board. The tiller support also took a bad knock and was hanging off but some nails,a hammer and some wood temporally fixed this. Once we were under way we had no more problems although the steering was a bit iffy, all in all it was a very memorable journey and would reccommened it to anybody travelling to Nong Kiaw!

We booked into Manypoon guesthouse and so did a Dublin couple "Ann & Jay " that night we had dinner together and a few beers! The food here was not the best.

21st: We walk to some caves about 3km from town; the locals used these as bomb shelters during the Vietnam War. On the way back into town we met a few of the gang from the boat and agreed to meet up later for drinks. That evening Ann, Jay, Matt, Jeremy, Fredrick, Dave and ourselves had way to much beer but a good night was had by all.

MUNG NGOI
22nd: We got a boat up to Mung Ngoi most of the gang we had met on the last boat trip were going up as well. It took 1hr to get to this village there are a load off guesthouses here and is a great place to chill out. We booked into Banana Cafe guesthouse that cost 1$ a night this consisted of a bamboo hut on the river with a balcony for hammocks.There is no electricity or phones here but most of the locals have there own generators that they turn on for lights between 6pm and 9.30pm! We took it easy for the rest of the day and had dinner down by the river that night.

23rd: Had a wonder around the village, hired a Kayak and we took it up river for 3hrs, it was beautiful up here, the river is any thing from 100-200ft wide and from 1-20ft deep. You are surrounded by lush jungle and lime stone cliffs. The local villagers are fishing using nets and rods and some are using home made spear guns! As you go past the villages there are dozens of naked kids splashing around the water and waving to you. We had to walk the kayak past the rapids, between the rapids the water was very calm and you could paddle against it easily enough. It took us 2hrs to get back and along the way we just went for a swim to cool down! That night we had dinner in our guesthouse and met up the gang for a few drinks. We decided to go on an over night trek the next day so we did not stay out late.

24th April: We met the group at 7.00am Matt,Jeremy(NZ),Kate(UK),Dave(US)Leena(SZ),Jay,Ann and ourselves made up the group with "Phan" as our Guide. We had to Carry all the water we would need as it was not available on the trek, this was alot of extra weight (6L per person). The first 3 hrs we treked through the fields to a small village where we had a break and some of the gang bought the local Lao-Lao for a night cap in the village we would stay in that night!

From here the going started to get tough It was all up hill from here and the sun was beating down. Matt,Jeremy and Leena were fairly fit and the rest of us found it hard going but making headway at a slightly slower pace! We stopped for lunch at another village and the guide cooked lunch this consisted of noodles,rice and local veg. Once rested we were of again it was hard going, the guide was not the best as he kept shooting on ahead and he was no good for any info in regards to the villages we visited or the local area also the pace was quite fast so you had no time to enjoy the scenery.

We reached the village were we were to stay the night, once the guide had spoken to the village leader we were welcomed into the village and shown to the family's that would we would be staying with. None of the villagers spoke any english and again the guide was of no help he left us to settle in ourselves. Most of the villagers were very friendly and the kids loved getting there photos taken, we were split into two groups 4 in one house and 5 in the other we would all share a raised platform to sleep on. The houses were quite smokey as the cooking was done indoors with no chimney, there are cats, dogs and chickens in and out all the time. Jay,Ann,Clare and myself were together and our family were really friendly we had brought along some coffee,salt,pens and paper for them which there seemed to really appreciate. Again the guide cooked us dinner and after we sat outside talking and passing around the Lao-Lao. The family we were staying with called us to bed at 9.00pm and locked, we found it hard to sleep in the heat and we had a collection of guests dropping on the bed (cockroaches and mice). The family started getting up at 3.30am and started cooking and cleaning, we were ousted from our bed at 5.00am by the family head. We were knacked but the experience was great and over all we enjoyed our stay here. Before we set of the family cooked us Breaky consisting of rice, local greens, fish stomach bile and fish in a spice we ate some but not all!, this was very nice of them as it is not part of the arrangment for them to do this.

It rained for an hour before we set of this made the going tough as the path was very slippery there were a few sore bums by the time we reached the first village were the guide cooked the breaky, noodles and rice are fine but everyone was gagging for something a little taster!
We set of on the last leg of the journey the path was not as well worn here and fairly over grown at times the path led down to a valley between two hills which we followed.

The going started to get more difficult the further we went and we started to wonder if we were on the right track, we asked the guide and he said all was OK but after awhile he admitted he was lost!!!!. There was no way we could go back so all we could do was go ahead. The path seemed to be getting worse as we went and we had to lower our selves down a few shear drops, at this stage we were starting to get uneasy as we had visions of staying the night here! But luck was with us, a few local hunters came across us and after a discussion with the guide they said the only way out was up the valley sides as going forward only got worse and as i said going back was'nt an option. Well the walls were up an incline of about 70 degrees were the ground was made up of loose soil and stones with a few roots and shrubs to grab every now and again. The going was slow and difficult but Matt and Jeremy were well able for it and kept everyone moving. It must have taken us an hour to climb up the valley side, once we had all caught our breath the hunters brought us to a path that the guide knew and would lead to the river. We had a 3hr trek left, the first hour was down hill but then the going got tough again, everyone was knackered so the going was slow. We had to wade along a stream for some of the way, this was really refreshing and a break from the uphill walking. There were plenty of mozzies and wasps around and for the unfortunate there were LEECHES about, some of the group found them on there feet you wound''nt know you had any unless you looked for it. They start of tiny something like thread thick but once they attach themselves they just keep on sucking, when you remove them you have to heat them with alighter and let them come away by themselves if you pull them off the head can break off and you might get an infection. Clare found one on her foot but i was at hand to expertly remove it (Indiana Jones showed me that one). When we got to the river everyone was straight in for a cool down i thought we would never get there! We loaded the boats and set off back down river to our village (when i say boat i mean one reasonable size long tail with a small one lashed to the side) we loaded our gear in and set off but we had not gone 30ft when we started to take water over the side. After we had shuffled the bags and ourselfs around we set off again but at a much slower speed, we made the rest of the way with no further mishaps! We all agreed to meet up later after a wash and huge helping of some "TASTY FOOD".

When we got together later we were all knackered but we all agreed that we had a good time, the highlights for us were the being lucky to have been with such a friendly group, the village family we stayed with and the scenery (when you got a chance to look at it).

26th April: We had a lie-in today to recuperate after the abuse we had put our bodies through! Most of the gang had traveled on today only Jay&Ann and ourselves remained. They called over to us during the afternoon and we had a few drinks and lunch together. Our guesthouse owners wanted us to have some local Lao-Lao but we said we would leave it till tonight. Later that night we were well on the way after the Lao Lao, a bottle of tiger whiskey and all the beers, Jay and myself were the worse for wear, the sooner we get away from all these lunatics who are dragging us down this way-ward path the better!!!! (Only joking we will really miss you all)

27th: We checked out of guest house and said our good-byes to Jay & Ann. We got the 9.00am boat back to Nong Kiaw and then a Pick-up to Luang Prabang. We arrived at 2.00pm and booked back into the same guest house as the last time. We chilled out for the rest of the day. That night we had dinner and on the way we bumped into Kate, later we went to the ""cinema" this consisted of a room with a 32" TV with surround sound you had a video library to pick your movie from we watched "Man on Fire".

28th: We went to the Lao airlines office and bought our plane tickets to Phnom Penh in Cambodia, these cost around 115 euros each. We were departing front Vientiane so we got 2 bus tickets to here leaving first thing tomorrow morning. We went emailing and caught up on the blog for a few hours as we had not been near the internet for a week, we also found a book shop were we could exchange our books. Later we met up with Kate for a drink, she was traveling to Vientiane also tomorrow.

29th: Traveled to Vientiane as Kate had been here before we tagged along with her to a guesthouse she had stayed in. After we had checked in we had a stroll around, got out some money and had lunch. We met Kate and another Irish girl Anna for dinner that night, we ate in the "Sa Baa Dii" restaurant the food was basic but the craic was good. We said our goodbyes to Kate and agreed to keep in touch.