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Hello again after another rather large gap in communication. Turns out New Zealand is less technologically advanced than even Cambodia so getting online is a bit of a chore. Anyhoo, I digress. We arrived in Australia jetlagged and rather confused finding ourselves in a western environment after our Asian adventures. The streets were clean and everything cost an arm and a leg. Gone were the days of eating out every night. We were in Sydney which was a very nice city indeed with lots of spotless streets and cheeky parks nestled among towering skyscrapers. We got ourselves a "cheap" hostel and spent the four days we had here doing lots of western stuff. I had a hankering for as much red meat as I could fill my cheeks with and we both couldn't wait to get some decent wine in us for want of a better phrase the stuff in SE Asia was s***. One day we went to the botanical gardens which was very pleasant and led us to the Sydney Opera House. Now I've seen many photos and films of this building but it really is something else when you see it in the flesh. It looks like some weird synthetic sea shell towering out of the harbour and every nook and cranny seems to have a strange angle or tesalating shape to look at. It was a bit surreal for both of us as we sort of felt we were really in Australia at that point and not just wandering about in a daze. It was our 5th anniversary while we were there too so we treated ourselves to a nice steak dinner on the waterfront which was a bit posh but we deserved it. The next day we went to watch Avatar in 3D at the largest IMAX cinema in the world which was awesome (the film was OK itself but the visuals at that scale were incredible) plus we got to wear Timmy Mallet glasses for 3 hours legitimately. Our next Sydney treat was to go to the Zoo and check out some of the crazy beasts Oz has to offer. We met a koala bear who was chilling on his tree and got some photos taken with him, we also saw an Echidna which is a sort of porcupine type thing, he touched our hearts a bit as we watched him waddle about, proper cute. I think the best thing for us though was the Duck Billed Platypus. I was expecting to catch a quick glimpse of one or see a bit of fur under a log somewhere but this little guy really put on a show and swam about catching little lobsters in his beak, swimming head first into rocks to kill them then munching away and getting another. He was ace and truly weird.
After Sydney it was Tuglsey time! Tommy is now living in Melbourne so we flew there in the afternoon and were munching burgers off the BBQ at his and drinking the fabled Coopers Pale Ale (the newest classic taste)by the time the sun went down. We spent 9 days with him generally just chilling out, going for ales and playing a bit of basketball. It was really good to see him and have somewhere to call a home after months of hostels and we cooked some good hearty dinners. Melbourne itself is an arty type of place with lots of music and graffiti everywhere. Tugs took us to some good spots for both and we met some interesting folk including a guy called Lee who was hilariously eccentric and had an afro that could rival Tommy's, and thats a bold statement! Kate also took herself off one day to visit the holy land of Ramsey Street (thats the place where Neighbours is filmed for those that dont know) where she got to see where Harold Bishop lived and other such foolery. With good meat in our bellies and the Coopers in our livers we said goodbye to Tugsley and the 'Neighbours" and we were on our way to New Zealand...
We landed in Auckland in the North Island very much looking forward to getting ourselves a camper van and hitting the road to enbark on a gypsy lifestyle around the gorgeous New Zealand. Unfortunately it didnt happen as quickly as we would have liked. We managed to locate the van we wanted, a glorious, white 1989 Nissan "Caravan" Campervan we have called Pamela. Unfortunately we needed to transfer money from the UK and that takes aaaaaages apparently. So we spent a week not doing much in Auckland waiting for money and walking up and down the high street for what seemed like an eternity. At last though the money was transferred and we were on the road in the gorgeous Pamela. She came with all the things we would need such as a little gas stove and all cooking equipment including a couple of cans of baked beans - what a girl! She also had a fishing rod and tackle box so I've been attempting to catch us dinner but as yet have had b***** all success, my time will come though as kiwi waters are rich with Snapper! Anyway, back to Pamela, she isn't the quickest old girl off the block and tends to struggle on hills but apart from that she is sound and we haven't had any problems as yet (touch wood). Over the last 2 weeks we have toured through most of the very north of the north island which is called Northland. I've been to New Zealand before but was young and spent a lot of time drinking so don't remember masses about it but I did remember that every single corner you turn around there is something incredible to see. This place is basically like Britain X 100 when it comes to nature. At home you can travel 2 hours to get to the peak district or somewhere else remote and stunning but here its everywhere. There are only 4.5 million people that live here so a lot of the country is just rugged mountains or sprawling forrests or bubbling volcanoes or 90 mile long beaches. Its just wrong how nice it is! Generally Kate and I have been staying at one place for the night, getting up and driving to the next place, going walking, swimming, fishing and generally living the good life in our little camper van. We have gone snorkelling with massive wrasse, seen Kauri trees 2000 years old that are almost as big as the Canadian Redwoods, driven through rolling countryside that looks like Gandalf and the hobbits could have been there 5 minutes previously, had baths in bubbling, natural pools heated geothermally that left us smelling of sulphur for days after, marvelled at the different number of birds here that are all really tame, scaled gigantic sand dunes, camped on numerous beaches and drank alot of cheap wine. Hopefully the photos will give you a hint of how incredible this place is and a flavour of what we have been up to. Miss you all and hopefully will update you soon on our journey (depending on New Zealand bringing itself out of the Industrial age some time soon). X
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