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Tovey on Tour
Greetings from New Zealand! I made it! I left Australia about a week ago and am currently living the dream travelling on the Kiwi Experience around the North Island. I write this as we drive from Waitomo across to Rotorua. The sun is shining and the shorts are on. I am surrounded by hills, mountains and cows. Oasis is playing on the radio and life is good. :) I have been very busy, as always, so this promises to be a pretty long blog; grab a cuppa and a ginger nut or five if you care enough to read on and I'll endeavour to update you on the past couple of months of my travels.
So, I left you in Sydney, a city which I never really grew to love. Maybe 2 months was not enough time to fall in love with the fast paced corporate city of rain! But there were definitely some highlights.
My birthday. When I pictured turning the big two three down under I expected sunshine, BBQs and swimming in the sea. However, when I woke up on the 3rd Feb and looked with longing in my soul out of the window I was greeted with rain and clouds. Great. Beach BBQ? Yeah right. Not a chance. So I opened my cards from home and received messages from friends which all made me sob. It was a steadily dampening birthday haha.
But I was not going to let the weather get the better of me. Grabbing blankets and bikinis, Laura, Leah, Shayne and myself headed to the beach. Come rain or shine, I was in Australia for my birthday and I was going to spend at least an hour of it on the beach. So, with umbrellas up and blankets wrapped around us, we got on the bus and said a silent prayer to the weather gods!
And they granted my wishes! The sun came out and we were in business. Straight in the sea. No messing. Bish bash bosh, jobs a good'un. It was freezing, but definitely worth it to say that I was in the ocean in February on my birthday. Not sure that will happen a plethora of times in my lifetime! So had to make it happen. And it was actually warm! When the clouds disappeared and the sun was out it was like I was on holiday! Haha.
When we got back we got a curry. Yes. That's right. The first take away curry I've had since beginning my travels 6 months ago, and it was wonderful. There is nothing like a good curry. Then we went to the shops in the hunt for chocolate and weetabix- a recipe similar to making crispy cakes, and it was goooood. Too much chocolate on your birthday is a given really.
Whilst eating these cakes and slowly killing my insides, we watched Mulan. Eating chocolate and watching a Disney film. It was a lovely birthday to remember.
I also met Anna the next day for steak to celebrate. Yum. And she cooked for me that week at her new bachelorette pad- thank you Anna for looking after me! You're ace! At the end of the week myself, Laura and Leah went to the Chinese New Year festival in Sydney and ate enough Chinese food to last us the week and to welcome in the year of the snake. At the weekend, myself and Anna headed to Taronga Zoo for the day which was lots of fun! The weather was beautiful (for once) and Anna's friend Rob showed us behind the scenes to the cutest tree gliders and I saw my new fave animals again- wombats!!! Total babes. It was a lovely day out :)
The next month in Sydney went past in a bit of a blur. Working hard in the cafe occupied the majority of my time. My thoughts were before coming away that I might find myself a lovely Aussie surfing doctor to whisk me off my feet and into the sunset. This, I hasten to add, did not happened. So far the closest I have got to that is a 50 year old man I served salmon salad with extra French dressing (oo er) to asking me when I get off work. Not cool.
This could be something to do with the state of me whilst I was working in Sydney and the 'just got out of bed' look that I was rocking (very badly). It could also be to do with the fact that I hardly ever went out! Having to get up at 4.50am and not functioning well on very little sleep, especially around knifes and grills, meant that I was totally boring, being in bed by 9.30, and earlier if at all possible! I became prematurely middle aged.
But I still managed to do some fun things.
Trademark, The Club and World Bar were visited regularly. And Lesley (my lovely roomie) leant me dresses and her straighteners so I looked half decent for the first time on my travels. Hurrah! I also had my hair highlighted and cut for the first time in 7 months so that was a good good day.
Despite the variable weather we headed down to Bronte beach quite a few times to eat meat and sunbathe. Myself and Laura also did the Bronte to Bondi walk one day which was totally beautiful. The coastal scenery was gorgeous; gotta love a bit of geography. We had a bit of a nightmare and got very burnt, it turns out the Sydney sun is strong even through wind and clouds.
One night myself and some of my Jolly Swagman friends had a spontaneous trip to the arcades which was SO FUN. Bumper cars, Lazer Quest and arcade games. Those of you who know me well will know that this is my idea of the best night out haha. I won the Lazer Quest. Best day ever.
I also managed to get myself a spot marching in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade! It was so fun! I face painted a few lovely girls as 'day of the dead' and they asked me if I would like their spare place. Of course I said yes and ended up marching in the parade- so bright and colourful with so so so many speedo clad bums. Great stuff.
One day I was searching for free stuff in Sydney (my mother has taught me well) and came across a free weeks pass to Fitness First which I made good use of. Went to classes and the gym and was temporarily fit on my travels! Hurrah! I really enjoyed it. Also came across this class which is like Zumba, it's called Sh'Bam. Really enjoyed this dance class and it was great to get active and dance around to some good music. I haven't been able to do that for a while as when you are sharing a room people would think you were the biggest freak ever if you started dancing around to Legally Blonde The Musical in the dorm room.
The rest of my time spent in the Jolly Swagman hostel was spent with friends. We made amazing nachos (Sergio!), had face painting workshops, did drawing, watched horror films, watched Shrek, made an awesome trailer on iMovie, played Monopoly, played Twister, did baking, cooked, and just generally had a good time. It was loads of fun and I made some great friends. I'm missing you jolly swaggers! I met up with my South America travelling friends also for goodbye drinks. It was so sad to say goodbye to these people with whom I share amazing memories but one day I know I will see them again and we will make some more.
My final weekend in Sydney was a great one. Jon my friend from home was visiting Sydney for the weekend and we went to the Blue Mountains for the day which was so lovely. We had a great day. Saw the Three Sisters and the waterfalls and beautiful views of the Blue Mountains. And so many birds. Best day ever because of the wide variety of mostly tiny birds, right Jon?! Had a lovely meal before heading back on the cold train into the city.
The next day I was up early because I was finally Sky Diving! After so much rain we finally got to jump out of a helicopter at 14,000ft! Woohoo! Me and Hugh had a fab time. We got trained up and then strapped up to a pretty hot sky diver, then headed up in the heli. The views were fantastic. I thought I would be more scared than I was. Watching Hugh and Kim jump out was worse than actually jumping myself- there is nothing you can do about it once you're hanging off the edge of a helicopter! The only way is down! Free falling is amazing, the best feeling ever. We then spent ages floating down on the parachute and seeing views of Gosford, the ocean and Sydney city in the distance. He gave me the controls but I felt I might do something wrong and send us both plummeting to unpleasant ends so 30 seconds was enough for me. Haha. A once in a lifetime opportunity... I hope I do it again! Got back in the evening and headed out in Kings Cross for the last time ever. Sob. The Club, Soho, then O'Malleys.
Got to bed at 4am, and was up at 5am to join my TopDeck tour down to Melbourne. Safe to say I felt a little bit rough. Our first stop after leaving Sydney was Canberra, a city built purely for purpose and it shows. Canberra lacks character but does have some fantastic buildings (we had a tour around parliament) and a pretty good museum that it turns out is almost impossible to get out of. The bus had a little issue and we ended up breaking down in the middle of nowhere but the opportunity for group bonding was a good one, and we eventually got to Thredbo and a lovely ski lodge to be greeted with the biggest burger I've ever seen. Haha.
We woke up early on the second tour day to eat some pancakes then to walk up to Mt Koziosko, the highest mountain in Australia at a tiny 2229m! Bless. The walk was nice with great scenery at the top. Then we embarked on the long drive to our Lakes Entrance RSL accommodation and a great black bean beef dinner. Yum.
We left the Lakes Entrance via a lovely lookout and stopped at a town called Stratford upon the river Avon for a bakery trip. The drive to Wilson's Promontory was uneventful and long, but upon reaching Wilson's Prom we saw how beautiful it is! We saw a kangaroo but unfortunately no wombats. Gutted! The walk along be coast to Squeaky Beach was amazing, the sea so blue, and the sand squeaky, coincidently. We carried on the drive down to Melbourne and arrived safe and sound.
Melbourne, I love you. I had a wonderful time in Melbourne for my last 10 days in Australia. I first saw and stayed with the lovely Oliver when I got there and he showed me to my room. My own room! Amazing! We had a lovely few days, we did baking and hung out in the garden and watched films and were tourists for the day and went for coffee and just had a really good time. It was also nice to just have a few days to chill out. Travelling can be exhausting, so chill out time with friends is precious. I then went to stay with Clare and her other lovely house guests, Will and Bryan. The weather had cooled dramatically by then and the rain had set in. Not cool. But this didn't stop us heading out and seeing the sights of the Southbank on St. Paddy's day (the weather actually brightened up which was good) and going out for drinks and meals and other lovely stuff like that. :) I had such a great few days having BBQs, playing Rock Star, eating kangaroo which is really yummy, and meeting new people- all so friendly and welcoming. It was great. I also took a tram ride down to St Kilda one evening and fell asleep on the beach, and also visited Brunswick Street which was pretty cool. I then said goodbye and moved on to Edithvale to visit and stay with family friends Pam and Bronte. I had the nicest time at their beautiful house, chilling out, beaching, paddle boarding, bike riding and eating good food. I also visited a couple who are good friends with my grandparents and have visited us in the UK- such a welcoming and lovely family. It was totally great to see them all.
Whilst I was in Melbourne I also disappeared down the Great Ocean Road for the day with Chad and Oliver in an open topped car ... woohoo! Such a fab day. Beautiful scenery and wonderful company- I will miss them very much. We played on an empty beach, saw the famous Three Sisters, had fish and chips, and Koala Watch saw so many koalas in the trees! Amazingly lucky. And we also had pretty good weather too. Thanks to Oliver for being our awesome driver and guide for the day! Loved it. :)
And then it was time to leave Australia! After 4 months working and travelling I had a lovely Spag Bol made by Clare as the last supper, had a final little wander around the city, and then set my alarm for 5am for my flight to Auckland! FaceTimed the girls at Nandos at the airport. God I miss Nandos. (And you too girls! Haha) My flights across to Nz were good; i watched Faulty Towers and Anna Karenina, a really good film, and ate loads of aeroplane food. Yum.
This blog is ridiculously long. Therefore,
To be continued...!
So, I left you in Sydney, a city which I never really grew to love. Maybe 2 months was not enough time to fall in love with the fast paced corporate city of rain! But there were definitely some highlights.
My birthday. When I pictured turning the big two three down under I expected sunshine, BBQs and swimming in the sea. However, when I woke up on the 3rd Feb and looked with longing in my soul out of the window I was greeted with rain and clouds. Great. Beach BBQ? Yeah right. Not a chance. So I opened my cards from home and received messages from friends which all made me sob. It was a steadily dampening birthday haha.
But I was not going to let the weather get the better of me. Grabbing blankets and bikinis, Laura, Leah, Shayne and myself headed to the beach. Come rain or shine, I was in Australia for my birthday and I was going to spend at least an hour of it on the beach. So, with umbrellas up and blankets wrapped around us, we got on the bus and said a silent prayer to the weather gods!
And they granted my wishes! The sun came out and we were in business. Straight in the sea. No messing. Bish bash bosh, jobs a good'un. It was freezing, but definitely worth it to say that I was in the ocean in February on my birthday. Not sure that will happen a plethora of times in my lifetime! So had to make it happen. And it was actually warm! When the clouds disappeared and the sun was out it was like I was on holiday! Haha.
When we got back we got a curry. Yes. That's right. The first take away curry I've had since beginning my travels 6 months ago, and it was wonderful. There is nothing like a good curry. Then we went to the shops in the hunt for chocolate and weetabix- a recipe similar to making crispy cakes, and it was goooood. Too much chocolate on your birthday is a given really.
Whilst eating these cakes and slowly killing my insides, we watched Mulan. Eating chocolate and watching a Disney film. It was a lovely birthday to remember.
I also met Anna the next day for steak to celebrate. Yum. And she cooked for me that week at her new bachelorette pad- thank you Anna for looking after me! You're ace! At the end of the week myself, Laura and Leah went to the Chinese New Year festival in Sydney and ate enough Chinese food to last us the week and to welcome in the year of the snake. At the weekend, myself and Anna headed to Taronga Zoo for the day which was lots of fun! The weather was beautiful (for once) and Anna's friend Rob showed us behind the scenes to the cutest tree gliders and I saw my new fave animals again- wombats!!! Total babes. It was a lovely day out :)
The next month in Sydney went past in a bit of a blur. Working hard in the cafe occupied the majority of my time. My thoughts were before coming away that I might find myself a lovely Aussie surfing doctor to whisk me off my feet and into the sunset. This, I hasten to add, did not happened. So far the closest I have got to that is a 50 year old man I served salmon salad with extra French dressing (oo er) to asking me when I get off work. Not cool.
This could be something to do with the state of me whilst I was working in Sydney and the 'just got out of bed' look that I was rocking (very badly). It could also be to do with the fact that I hardly ever went out! Having to get up at 4.50am and not functioning well on very little sleep, especially around knifes and grills, meant that I was totally boring, being in bed by 9.30, and earlier if at all possible! I became prematurely middle aged.
But I still managed to do some fun things.
Trademark, The Club and World Bar were visited regularly. And Lesley (my lovely roomie) leant me dresses and her straighteners so I looked half decent for the first time on my travels. Hurrah! I also had my hair highlighted and cut for the first time in 7 months so that was a good good day.
Despite the variable weather we headed down to Bronte beach quite a few times to eat meat and sunbathe. Myself and Laura also did the Bronte to Bondi walk one day which was totally beautiful. The coastal scenery was gorgeous; gotta love a bit of geography. We had a bit of a nightmare and got very burnt, it turns out the Sydney sun is strong even through wind and clouds.
One night myself and some of my Jolly Swagman friends had a spontaneous trip to the arcades which was SO FUN. Bumper cars, Lazer Quest and arcade games. Those of you who know me well will know that this is my idea of the best night out haha. I won the Lazer Quest. Best day ever.
I also managed to get myself a spot marching in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade! It was so fun! I face painted a few lovely girls as 'day of the dead' and they asked me if I would like their spare place. Of course I said yes and ended up marching in the parade- so bright and colourful with so so so many speedo clad bums. Great stuff.
One day I was searching for free stuff in Sydney (my mother has taught me well) and came across a free weeks pass to Fitness First which I made good use of. Went to classes and the gym and was temporarily fit on my travels! Hurrah! I really enjoyed it. Also came across this class which is like Zumba, it's called Sh'Bam. Really enjoyed this dance class and it was great to get active and dance around to some good music. I haven't been able to do that for a while as when you are sharing a room people would think you were the biggest freak ever if you started dancing around to Legally Blonde The Musical in the dorm room.
The rest of my time spent in the Jolly Swagman hostel was spent with friends. We made amazing nachos (Sergio!), had face painting workshops, did drawing, watched horror films, watched Shrek, made an awesome trailer on iMovie, played Monopoly, played Twister, did baking, cooked, and just generally had a good time. It was loads of fun and I made some great friends. I'm missing you jolly swaggers! I met up with my South America travelling friends also for goodbye drinks. It was so sad to say goodbye to these people with whom I share amazing memories but one day I know I will see them again and we will make some more.
My final weekend in Sydney was a great one. Jon my friend from home was visiting Sydney for the weekend and we went to the Blue Mountains for the day which was so lovely. We had a great day. Saw the Three Sisters and the waterfalls and beautiful views of the Blue Mountains. And so many birds. Best day ever because of the wide variety of mostly tiny birds, right Jon?! Had a lovely meal before heading back on the cold train into the city.
The next day I was up early because I was finally Sky Diving! After so much rain we finally got to jump out of a helicopter at 14,000ft! Woohoo! Me and Hugh had a fab time. We got trained up and then strapped up to a pretty hot sky diver, then headed up in the heli. The views were fantastic. I thought I would be more scared than I was. Watching Hugh and Kim jump out was worse than actually jumping myself- there is nothing you can do about it once you're hanging off the edge of a helicopter! The only way is down! Free falling is amazing, the best feeling ever. We then spent ages floating down on the parachute and seeing views of Gosford, the ocean and Sydney city in the distance. He gave me the controls but I felt I might do something wrong and send us both plummeting to unpleasant ends so 30 seconds was enough for me. Haha. A once in a lifetime opportunity... I hope I do it again! Got back in the evening and headed out in Kings Cross for the last time ever. Sob. The Club, Soho, then O'Malleys.
Got to bed at 4am, and was up at 5am to join my TopDeck tour down to Melbourne. Safe to say I felt a little bit rough. Our first stop after leaving Sydney was Canberra, a city built purely for purpose and it shows. Canberra lacks character but does have some fantastic buildings (we had a tour around parliament) and a pretty good museum that it turns out is almost impossible to get out of. The bus had a little issue and we ended up breaking down in the middle of nowhere but the opportunity for group bonding was a good one, and we eventually got to Thredbo and a lovely ski lodge to be greeted with the biggest burger I've ever seen. Haha.
We woke up early on the second tour day to eat some pancakes then to walk up to Mt Koziosko, the highest mountain in Australia at a tiny 2229m! Bless. The walk was nice with great scenery at the top. Then we embarked on the long drive to our Lakes Entrance RSL accommodation and a great black bean beef dinner. Yum.
We left the Lakes Entrance via a lovely lookout and stopped at a town called Stratford upon the river Avon for a bakery trip. The drive to Wilson's Promontory was uneventful and long, but upon reaching Wilson's Prom we saw how beautiful it is! We saw a kangaroo but unfortunately no wombats. Gutted! The walk along be coast to Squeaky Beach was amazing, the sea so blue, and the sand squeaky, coincidently. We carried on the drive down to Melbourne and arrived safe and sound.
Melbourne, I love you. I had a wonderful time in Melbourne for my last 10 days in Australia. I first saw and stayed with the lovely Oliver when I got there and he showed me to my room. My own room! Amazing! We had a lovely few days, we did baking and hung out in the garden and watched films and were tourists for the day and went for coffee and just had a really good time. It was also nice to just have a few days to chill out. Travelling can be exhausting, so chill out time with friends is precious. I then went to stay with Clare and her other lovely house guests, Will and Bryan. The weather had cooled dramatically by then and the rain had set in. Not cool. But this didn't stop us heading out and seeing the sights of the Southbank on St. Paddy's day (the weather actually brightened up which was good) and going out for drinks and meals and other lovely stuff like that. :) I had such a great few days having BBQs, playing Rock Star, eating kangaroo which is really yummy, and meeting new people- all so friendly and welcoming. It was great. I also took a tram ride down to St Kilda one evening and fell asleep on the beach, and also visited Brunswick Street which was pretty cool. I then said goodbye and moved on to Edithvale to visit and stay with family friends Pam and Bronte. I had the nicest time at their beautiful house, chilling out, beaching, paddle boarding, bike riding and eating good food. I also visited a couple who are good friends with my grandparents and have visited us in the UK- such a welcoming and lovely family. It was totally great to see them all.
Whilst I was in Melbourne I also disappeared down the Great Ocean Road for the day with Chad and Oliver in an open topped car ... woohoo! Such a fab day. Beautiful scenery and wonderful company- I will miss them very much. We played on an empty beach, saw the famous Three Sisters, had fish and chips, and Koala Watch saw so many koalas in the trees! Amazingly lucky. And we also had pretty good weather too. Thanks to Oliver for being our awesome driver and guide for the day! Loved it. :)
And then it was time to leave Australia! After 4 months working and travelling I had a lovely Spag Bol made by Clare as the last supper, had a final little wander around the city, and then set my alarm for 5am for my flight to Auckland! FaceTimed the girls at Nandos at the airport. God I miss Nandos. (And you too girls! Haha) My flights across to Nz were good; i watched Faulty Towers and Anna Karenina, a really good film, and ate loads of aeroplane food. Yum.
This blog is ridiculously long. Therefore,
To be continued...!
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