Alice’s Gap Year Travels

It has been two weeks since we arrived home and it has been hard. The first week was pretty horrible to be honest, as much as I love my friends and family and the reunions were great, the point of calling somewhere home is that it’s stable and constant and nothing ever changes. This is exactly what has made being at home so difficult though, travelling is a world filled with new people and new places, spontanaity and freedom and having been a part of that for 5 months coming home feels tedious and constricted and like I said, nothing ever changes.

Week two has been a bit easier however, I’ve managed to get myself a new job waitressing in another restaurant so working crazy hours is keeping me occupied and the fact that I’m now earning money is definately a plus! The weather has been sunny since we got back and I finally had my hair done!.. Yet I can’t help still feeling like I’m terribly far away from somewhere I ought to be.

Holly and I often have withdrawal symptoms from not being with each other 24/7 but at least we’ve both had this experience and know that travelling is definately something we both have to look forward to in the future 🙂

So, right now it is all about making money, enjoying the British summer, keeping in touch with the great friends I’ve made abroad and preparing for University in September.

Thanks for reading.

I wouldn’t change it for the world, XXX

When we arrived we were overwhelmed with how welcoming and helpful everyone was. The Fijian people are genuinely and perhaps not suprisingly the most relaxed, friendly, warm, funny people we’ve ever come across 🙂 It’s so chilled out and everybody runs on ‘Fiji time’ – in other words, if you order a cab don’t expect it to a arrive for at least half an hour. haha

Our friends Eve and Maggie were on our plane and two of their mates from NZ were also staying in our hostel so that evening the 6 of us had dinner and cocktails looking out over the sea.

The next morning was an early start as we wanted to get the ferry off the main-land (Nadi) to one of the islands. There are loads of groups of islands in Fiji and what most people do is hop from one to the other but as we only had 8 days we decided to just do two – our first stop being Mantaray Island. At each place the resorts send out little boats and once you’ve got your bag everyone piles into the boat and you head off to the island. We had a welcome drink and then were shown around the resort, Mantaray is very relaxed – the staff are there for you anytime, whenever you wanted to do something other than lying on the beach you could find them playing volleyball, making coconut jewelry or just swinging in a hammock. The islands are all-inclusive so you get 3 meals a day included in the price but then the dangerous part is that you can just stick your bar bill on a tab and let me tell you – after your fourth cocktail (baring in mind its ‘Fiji-measures’) that tab just keeps growing! In the evenings they had people from the village doing traditional singing and dancing which was really fun as we all got to join in. The first few days were a bit stormy though so we did have to spend one entire day playing cards with our swiss and german friends.

The snorkeling in Fiji is the best I’ve ever seen, sooooo many different types of fish and sooooooo many fish in general, the colours were fantastic and we even saw an octopus…EW. Another thing about staying on the islands is that I didn’t wear shoes once. It’s pretty much sand EVERYWHERE and its so freeing to not even think about putting shoes on! haha

The second island we visited was Beachcomber. This resort is a lot busier and the staff have a lot more to take care of (theres a gift shop, large reception and bar area etc.) once again the people were brilliant though and every night we’d be dancing out on the beach 🙂 – once we even ended up in a ‘sea-water’ jacuzzi in the small hours of the morning! By the time we reached Beachcomber the weather was perfect and Fiji truely is a paradise. We spent our last night back on the main-land then had a whole day in the sun before showering a packing ready for our flight home at 10pm.

It was 10 hours to LA and then after dashing through LAX airport we were straight back on the plane for another 10 hours back to London Heathrow. Mixed emotions doesn’t even cut it – we were excited to see our family and friends again, to be able to put our food in the fridge without labelling it first and to get our hair cut!.. but on the other hand it was the best 5 months of our lives so far coming to an end, once we went through customs it was back to reality…

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The bus from Rotorua to Auckland was our last trip with the Kiwi Bus so now we just have 4 days left in NZ before heading off to Fiji!

The day we arrived we went shopping in the afternoon and then went to our hostel bar for free pizza and bingo before getting ON IT and having a night out with some boys we met in Airlie Beach (Oz) and then again in QT which was a good laugh. Next morning was not so funny though and we didn’t arise until about 12 noon, it was a horrible rainy day and so we lounged around the hostel watching movies and chatting. 

The next day was much brighter and so we went to explore down by the harbour, later on we got an invite to the pub from the guys incharge of entertainment in the hostel which was random but a good laugh and then that evening we were going to meet Holly’s step-cousin Lisa and her partner Brendon who have lived in Auckland for around 2yrs now. They came to pick us up and we drove to a lovely restaurant where we then met Uncle Eric, his wife and thier son and his girlfriend… none of holly’s family know Uncle Eric so it was cool to meet some of the ‘long-lost’ relatives! The 8 of us had dinner, wine and dessert – the best meal we’d had in ages plus they covered the bill which was very generous! The next morning we went to see Lisa and Brendons house and had coffee before heading to Denny’s diner for a spot of lunch with them.

So, our last morning in New Zealand arrived and once we were properly packed up we headed out to get the bus to the Airport. After waiting bloody ages for one to come we finally made it and once we’d checked in I scoffed 2 chocolate croissants and Hol got a Macca’s before we boarded the plane. Although we totally loved the South Island and enjoyed ourselves in the North we were ready to get back to some sunshine, we flew with Air Pacific and the crew were all wearing bright floral shirts – Fiji here we come!..

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Wellington was pretty cool, the people were all very alternative and diverse and theres loads of little boutiques and vintage shops about so we spent a lot of our time there ‘window shopping’. It is also home to a massive museum called ‘Te Papa’ which took up a whole day as well with lots of Mauri culture and history. We had a coffee on Cuba street one afternoon too in a place called ‘Midnight Espresso’ where most of the staff are covered in tattoos and piercings and the walls are covered in old movie posters plus there are really good buskers all down that street. We stayed for 3 days.

 Taupo was a bit of a let down as we were planning to do the Tongaria Crossing from there which is a full day hike all around the mountains where they did a lot of the filming for Lord of the Rings and everyone says its spectacular BUT it was pouring with rain the whole time we were there which meant it was cancelled which sucked. On our second night there at about 7pm 3 kiwi guys from the North turned up having been on a hunting trip – head torches, knives, rifles… 😮 It was absolutely hilarious and they all slept with their guns under thier pillows. We headed out with them that night to watch some live bands etc and ended up in an Irish bar where once again, we saw a group of drunken men doing the Haka. (It seems to be a very regular occurance!) hahahaha. Anyway the next morning feeling a little bit worse for wear we said bye to the boys and jumped on the bus up to Rotorua.

Well, Rotorua STINKS… really bad, like egg. It’s due to all the goethermic activity and on the bus there we stopped at some hot mud pools which was pretty gross, i could NEVER live here although it is a pretty town. We arrived yesterday and went for a walk in the park and botanical gardens as the sun had finally come out. That evening we went to a ‘Mauri Cultural Experience’ evening, they pick you up on a bus around 6ish and drive you out to a replica Mauri Village out in the bush. Everyone is dressed traditionally and it starts as if we were all a tribe coming to greet their tribe which was pretty scary as they all ran out with spears and were shouting and stuff. Then 2 men who had been nominated our chiefs had to take part in a little ceremony showing we were ‘friends not foe’ before we were allowed to enter into their village. We walked around the village and learnt all about their way of living etc. then went inside where they performed a Haka as well as many traditional songs and dances for us. After this was the best part…FOOD. They put on a feast for us which has been cooked in a Hangi (underground), there was chicken, fish, lamb, potatoes, carrots, freash bread, salads – it was sooo good and we all ate far too much!

Today we slept in then headed to the Polynesian Spa down by the lakes where we soaked in the hot pools for a few hours (even though at first we felt sick due to the SMELL) and then this evening we went down with our roomates to the hostel bar where a guy played an acoustic set all night – it was beautiful and we were a bit in love with him and his talented ways haha!

Tomorrow we’re going to go and see a new Kiwi film at the cinema called ‘Boy’ which is supposed to be really funny.

Will keep you updated XXXX 

In total we ended up staying in QT for just over 2 weeks. Pretty much continued doing the same as i’ve already written. Our routine became staying up until around 4am either having been out on the town (participating in another Blind-leading-the-blind bar crawl, dressing up as ‘Chavs and Slags’!) or just staying up chatting with duvets infront of the fire with our mates.. sleeping until around 2pm getting up, eating, getting ready and going out again! haha

We stayed in Nomads and made friends with most of the staff which gave us many benefits on the sly, including free internet time, free laundry, drinking after time, replacement room-keys and access to a kitchen key when in need of a snack at 3 in the morning! haha – Too soon however, it was time for us to leave and head back to Christchurch ready to head for the North Island.

After a night in Chch we got up early to get the bus to Kiakora but it forgot to pick us up so we were stuck in Chch for another couple days which sucked. Realising we only had 4 weeks until home got us thinking that maybe we weren’t ready to finish travelling yet and how we could possibly go back to QT, try and find jobs and stay for the ski season returning in September ready for uni etc. We were in limbo and felt so confused as to what to do.. after much deliberation however we decided that it was too risky, no matter how much we loved the place and the people, this time money had to hold us back, having been able to do pretty much whatever we wanted till then we didn’t want to ruin our trip by falling into issues where we couldn’t get jobs etc. plus we may as well apply for our working visas when we can really make the most of them and stay for a whole year!!!

So, drama over we eventually made it to Kiakora which is a little seaside town at the north of the South Island, we stayed in an old fashioned hostel which was really cute with ancient wall paper and carpets and spent our day looking round the shops and watching movies. Next day we were back on the bus and got the ferry across to the North Island and Wellington, the capital city.

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On our way to the big QT we stopped at Puzzeling World which has a ton of frustrating puzzles, a big outdoor maze and illusion rooms. It was all terribly confusing and funny and we all came out feeling slightly drunk. Further down the track we stopped off at ‘The Bridge’ Bungy Centre where we watched a dvd about the creation and idea behind the Bungy, we then had the opportunity to book bungy jumps for any of the ones in Queenstown… we went for The Nevis (the 3rd largest in the world with an 8 second free fall and a height of 134metres!!) With everyone booked up we also got to watch people who were doing the bridge jump which is a 43metre bungy over water. It looked scary but most of us who had chosen The Nevis were a bit preoccupied with the fact that our one would be about 3.5 times bigger than that one 😮

Finally we arrived in Queenstown, not only party capital of New Zealand but honestly one of the most beautiful locations I have ever seen with the surroundings of Lake Wakatipu and various mountain ranges. We’ve been here just over a week now and we basically hit the bars and clubs every night (Blind leading the Blind bar-crawl being the best night so far – basically a blindfolded pub crawl) but in the days there is lots to do too. For example, ‘Frizbee Golf’ is huge here and free 😀 haha so we’ve had a couple of rounds of that in the park plus we’ve climbed up one of the mountains with which was HORRIFICALLY tough but well worth it for the views and we managed to get the gondala back down! Thank God. We went ice-skating yesterday as well which was hilarious as none of us have many skills. Also a must do in Queenstown is getting one of the famous burgers from FERG BURGER… amazing but if you’re planing on having one you don’t need to eat for about 3 days afterwards haha., delicious.

With the boys from our room (Sam, Ru and Nick) we did a tour to Milford Sounds which was really stunning but with a four hour drive there and back it was a pretty long day. Great scenery though as you go out to see the Sounds on a 2hr boat cruise which was really pretty and we all got some good snaps.

By far the best thing we’ve done in Queenstown though has to be our Nevis Bungy Jump, our friend Ben who we met in Airlie Beach whilst back in Oz is actually living here for the ski season so he came with us too. We were all feeling nervous as we headed to the Bungy Station in the morning, we had to be weighed which was pretty terrifying for holly and me in itself haha and then once they’d written our weights and group on our hands we got on a bus and drove up to the Nevis base. We were harnessed up and then had to get a cable car across to the jumping platform, they play loud misic to get everyone pumped and the atmosphere is crazy either with people who are psyched having just jumped or who are nervous and still waiting! Like the skydive it is hard to explain what it was like but before your go you sit in a chair and they strap up your feet and then you have to shuffle to the edge. Jumping seems like the most unnatural thing to do but thats why it’s so thrilling I guess – its probably one of the scariest things I’ve done… you’ll see my reaction when the videos go online haha! Incredible though.

Anyway – probably staying here a few more days so will have updates soon XXXXXXX

Having already skydived in this beautiful town the next morning our whole group headed down to the Glacier Centre to get kitted out for a glacier hike.. we were told to wear shorts which sounds crazy but it is better than getting long trousers all wet on the ice, we were given over coats, socks and boots, crampons for gripping the ice and later on a little pic-axe to help us climb.

We were split up into 5 groups, group 1 being very comfident on the ice and wanting to move quicker and group 5 not reaching so high up on the ice but going at an easy pace with lots of photo stops etc. Naturally group 1 was all lads but holly and myself decided to go in group 2 as we wanted a challenge 🙂 Our guide was called Jack and it was such a fun day, the guides all cut steps into the ice etc and you go down into big cravasses and ice caves – we got pretty wet and cold but it was well worth it! When we got back from the glacier we headed for the natural hot pools to relax and warm up before heading to the hostel bar in the evening for some dinner and chocolate cake!

Next morning was yet another early start as we drove out to see the Lake Matheson (the Mirror Lake) which on a good day can give a perfect reflection of the mountains and then continued on our journey through to Wanaka. Some how we managed to get a 6 bed dorm to ourselves which was wicked and the boys came through for a chat before we all headed down to the bar for some free ladies night punch! The Dj made us all do dance routines like the ‘Maccerina’ and ‘Call on Me’ etc as he knew we were from the kiwi bus and would be up for a laugh but I accidentally let it slip that I knew all the moves to Beyonce – Single Ladies and before I knew it the song was on and I had been dragged onto the dance floor by the barman to perform it infront of everyone. POSSIBLY ONE OF MY MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENTS EVER.

Anyway, after an eventful night in Wanaka it was time to head for Queenstown!..

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A small bus picked us up at 8am and after a couple more pick-ups there was 5 of us on the bus ready to make our journey to meet the bigger bus which was coming from Nelson as everyone does different routes. After lunch we settled onto the bus and arrived in the tiny town of Westport by early evening, it was a quiet night with everyone cooking dinner then chilling in the lounge room watching movies. We got a room to ourselves which was really nice and had the most COMFY sleep with the heating cranked up 🙂

Next morning we were up and out early, on our drive we stopped to look at various stunning views etc., did a walk to see a seal colony and did another short walk around to see the Pancake Rocks which are rock formations that look like stacks of pancakes (funnily enough). That evening we were heading for the infamous ‘POO PUB’ which is a little hotel (more like blocks of sheds) which ONLY does bussiness with the Kiwi Ex, it is run by an 84yr old man can Les who is a straight talking, moody, rude, hilarious old man with a long grey beard. It is tradition that in the Pub part of the place they always have a party the night a bus arrives.. a fancy dress party and our theme was anything beginning with ‘P’ as it’s called the ‘Poo Pub’. So, our final stop before arriving was in Greymouth where they have cheap and chearful places to grab some dressing up stuff – holly and I just happened to spot some rather snazzy button-up Pink Panda Pyjamas which were just perfect so we got a pair each and that was us sorted. On arriving at Les’ place he told us where eveything was and then we had a huge dinner with steaks cooked by the man himself before we all got dressed-up and the drinking began… the pictures say it all as there were some pretty inventive outfits but that will have to wait till I’m back home! haha

After a wicked night we were on the move AGAIN to Franz Joseph. On our way we stopped at the Bushmans Centre which was a wacko little museum thing about the deer hunting and farming trade in NZ – there was a DVD and various different things to look at plus they had big Stags in a field and we fed thier possom.. there is a cafe there which serves famous ‘Possom Pies’ – famous due to the fact that it is illegal to kills possoms for thier meat and sell it so they make them using road-kill and ask for a ‘donation’ – yummy.

We arrived in Franz Joseph later in the day and had to go and pay for our Glacier hike which we were all doing the next morning before heading to our hostel which was really cool, jacuzzi – the works haha, yet we had bigger things to think about as we were getting picked up for a SKYDIVE in a few hours! WHOOOOO! Jumping out of a plane was absolutely amazing and Franz Joseph is the second most scenic place in the world to jump (behind Everst haha) so it really was spectacular, there was a 20min flight in the tiny plane before reaching the 12,000ft that we would jump from and as we flew we were surround by the two tallest mountains in NZ, Mt. Tasman and Mt. Cook 🙂 We were both much more excited than nervous and when the time came to actually jump out I was suprisingly calm and loved every second.

The skydive really took it our of us and we had an early night in preperation for our day on the Fox Glacier!..

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We arrived in Christchurch to bright blue skies and a crisp breeze. Having got a bus to the main square we were then wandering around aimlessly with our huge rucksacks trying to work out which direction our hostel might be when a kiwi bloke with his pram came over and asked us if we needed any help, he was soooo nice and helpful and walked with us all the way to the corner… an excellent first encounter with the locals 🙂

So, New Zealand is COLD. Yet on our first day we insisted on still wearing our flip-flops haha, and is also remarkably like the UK(on first impression anyway.) Having dumped our stuff we headed back to the square, got some fish and chips and watched a Mauri group who were singing and dancing, it was really cool. We then walked down to the Museum and did a guided tour which was slightly boring but we survived it and it was free so we had nothing to lose, except maybe interest haha. The next day we did a quick bit of shopping then headed down to the Botanical garden where we went punting on the River Avon.. a man in traditional dress ‘punts’ along and there’s about 6 people to a boat. The gardens were stunning as it is Autumn here so the leaves are all just changing colour and there was a brilliant blue sky. The river was also full of ducks, hundreds of them, it was hilarious trying to navigate around them.

After this we got a bus to Lyttleton where you can get a gondola up a mountain to see a stunning view of the city and mountainous landscape as well as look down into a sunken volcanic crater which has now become a beautiful giant lake with an island right in the middle! Awesome. At the top we had a cake in the cafe before heading back down. (It was strange for both of us to be getting on and off a gondola without a pair of ski’s to restle with!)

Today we went to the art gallery (another ‘free’ excursion :)) which was really interesting and are now having a quiet night as we need to be up early tomorrow to catch our bus and begin our Kiwi Experience tour… here we go again! 😀

Speak soon XXX

Our last week in Oz was spent making the most of our friends – old and new in ‘The Church’ and making the most of still being in Sydney 🙂

We hung out on Level 1 with the boys the morning after the ballet then that evening we went to the cinema and unexpectedly came across a Celeb premier for an Aussie film called ‘I Love You Too’ –  red carpets, paps the works. Not that we recognised anyone but it was fun to see! The following day we headed to Bondi Beach which was lovely, and as the good weather continued the following day we had a picnic in Hyde Park 🙂 Friday was a rainy day and so we headed down to the Australia Museum which was really interesting and that night we just hung out in the hostel with everyone. On Saturday we went down to Paddy’s Market and had chinese with Seb then that night everyone got ready to go out. A guy in our room had entered an amature stand-up competition a few weeks before and he had made it to the final which was supposedly on that night so a massive group of us were going to go down and support him…as we arrived at ‘Star Bar’ he discovered that infact the final had been moved back to a different date and tonight it was 5 established comics, eventhough he’d only ever done stand-up the one time in the heats we all persuaded him to take part anyway and he was brilliant.. honestly better than some of the ‘pros’ – he was so happy afterwards and it was so fun to do something a bit different to start off the night. After a few glasses of wine at the comedy club we headed down to a bar at ‘The Rocks’ and I was still sitting up chatting outside our hostel at 5.30AM so a good night was had by all 🙂

Sunday, of course was Recovery Day which consisted of eating cookies and watching scary movies in our duvets and before we knew it it was Monday morning…our last day in Oz 🙁 We went for a walk down by Darling Harbour and had a treat at the Lindt Cafe before going back to do our laundry and packing and then We went out for dinner that night just the three of us to say goodbye to Mikaela.. it was a pretty emotional evening and we didn’t sleep a wink before having to get ready to leave at 4am.

So that is 3months of our journey over and I honestly cannot believe how fast it has gone and although we were so sad to leave, I’m sure New Zealand will have a whole other adventure in-store… 🙂

XXX