Spending too much money but having fun

Sorry am getting a bit carried away with the photos, but hey I like them!
I've been pretty busy lately. Headed down from Auckland to Hahei on the Coromandel Penninsula. I went sea kayaking there to a place called Cathedral Cove which was fun then we went to Hot Springs Beach where they have hot springs under the sand, so you dig down and can have your own hot spa pool which was really fun especially when you went into the water (v cold)then back into the hot pool. The next day we headed to Raglan which is known as one of the best spots to surf in New Zealand - apparently Jack Johnson has a place there - so I did a bit of (not very elegant) surfing there. That night I was having a shower and a stick insect jumped onto my head and shoulder which I relly didn't appreciate much. More fun was the flying fox they had set up near the lodge which we went on in the dark so you couldn't see where you were going. The next day we got up early and went to Waitomo where I went Tumu Tumu Toobing which is blackwater rafting. There was alot of crawling in wet underground caves and only about 10 minutes toobing, but it was still a good laugh. We then turbo'd it to Rotorua where I went zorbing then had a good night out at a foam party.
The next day was another early start for some whitewater rafting on the Kaituna River. It is a grade 5 river, mainly cos of the 7 metre waterfall you raft down!One of the rafts got totally wiped out going down the waterfall which was funny for us but less so for the guys who were in it as some of them were under for a while. That evening we went to Taupo where some people on my bus went sky diving but I didn't as I value my life! the next day we were going to do the Tongariro crossing which is supposed to be one of the best one day walks in the world but the weather was lousy so most of us bailed out and did a 2 hour walk instead. That night we went to a local bar and got very drunk as the bar man kept buying us free shots to go with the large quantities of beer we were drinking. As we then ended up getting takeaways to go back to the hostel I was still drunk when we left the next morning. At least I didn't get a hangover though!

The Land of the Long White Cloud

So I made it to New Zealandlast week and it's been pretty busy since then. First I headed upto the Bay of Islands which was pretty cool. I did a bit of snorkelling at a place called Goat Island then the next day headed up to Cape Reinga which is the northern most accessible place in New Zealand. The Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean here and apparently sometimes you can see the two currents meeting, but not when I was there...Then we headed down 90 mile beach, which is pretty cool as you're just driving along the beach and through the edge of the surf. Not very safe to go swimming there though so I just paddled. It's actually not 90 miles long. It was used as a cattle run doen the island and they thought cattle moved at 30km a day so as it took 3 days they decided it was 90km long.But no. It turns out the cattle were slow and it's only 64 miles long, but as Australia has an eighty mile beach they wanted to keep the longest beach so never changed the name.
The next day I headed out on a jet boat to "The Hole In The Rock" which is a hole in a rock that we went through in teh boat and span round in which was kind of fun. THen I jumped on a ferry to take a quick look at Russell whcih was pretty much the first european settlement in New Zealand. Apparently it used to be a bit of a hellhole (their words not mine) but now is a pretty tourist town, nice old buildings but a bit dull. Also headed to Waitangi where they signed the founding document of New Zealand in 1840 and had a look round the treaty grounds and also they have a big maori canoe there which was cool. It was only a 3 day trip, so was a bit rushed but it was good to get up there before heading down south.

Match Hopping in Melbourne

I ended up at Bondi Beach for a few days where I did a little bit more surfing, but seemed to end up back in the city a fair bit as well sorting stuff out like my flight to New Zealand etc, which was probably wise as one day when I was down the beach they had to clear the water as there was a shark in the bay. Strangely none of the surfers got out... My mate Sara from the west coast got into town, so me, her and Neil ended up at this big concert on Saturday night in the Botanical Gardens. It was a Brazilian jazz night and was part of the Sydney Festival. We met at 7 and were wondering if many people were going...according to the next days paper there were 100,000, so a few did turn up. It was really rammed in the park,but was a good night. The music was varied, some good, some dodgy and at one point hundreds of the resident bats flew over head which was cool.
Then a few days ago I headed to Melbourne. I got here and it was amazingly hot and humid, so the first day I spent trying to stay in the shade and go in and out of air-conditioned shops I had no interest in. I also made it to the Old Melbourne Gaol which was where they hung Ned Kelly and had a quick look in the State Library.
The next day I'd bought a ground pass for the Aussie Open tennis. The ground passes here are much better than at Wimbledon cos they get you into all the courts except the Rod Laver Arena. This meant you can go in the Vodaphone Arena which is the equivilant of Number One Court at Wimbledon. I saw Djokovic play there, then jumped to Show Court Two for a bit of Ferrero, then onto court 18 to see Hingis and Kuznetsova play a doubles, then onto the Margaert Court Arena (I guess they can't called it the Margaert Court Court or just Margaret Court) to see Gasquet, then got Safin trying to lose back but eventually winning in the Vodaphone Arena. Then I had tickets for the evening session in Rod Laver and got Mauresmo in a fairly convincing victory followed by a really good match where Monfils beat Baghdatis. I got there at 10.15am and left at 12.15am, so it was a long day. The next day I rather cheesily did the official neighbours tour in the morning then decided to go to the tennis again in the afternoon. I had to queue for 50mins to get into Vodaphone Arena because Molik the aussie was on before, but then I got to see Andy Murray win and then Sharapova play and win as well. Then I hopped to Show Court Two for the end of Rochus v Clement and then caught the 1st 5 games of Tommy Haas, so another good tennis day! I also tried the fastest serve game, but having not done a tennis serve for over 4 years I only racked up 112 kph. Still it was better than most of the people ahead of me in the queue, so wasn't too terrible.
Tomorrow I head to New Zealand for 5 weeks which should be good, though I don't think the weather's as nice.

You just can't escape the BBC

I thought I was the only one from the BBC out here, but no. It seems half the department is out here on a jolly. I guess I should let off Coley and Manish as they are out here for work. It was nice to catch up with a few of the gang, even if everyone was a bit depressed over the terrible cricket. I went to the Twenty20 yesterday and we were fairly terrible plus I had to sit next to a rather obese woman who took up all of her seat and a chunk of mine too. Ah well. Have been doing a few of the sites the last week including the Olympic Stadium, did a bit more surfing (marginal improvement from last time) and rather scarily turned 31. On the upside of the aging thing I did manage to celebrate over two days which was nice. I also booked myself into a nice hotel for a few nights which was very handy on Sunday when i was feeling a bit rough and so watched TV movies all day. Currently trying to change my flight to New Zealand so I leave a week earlier, but it's proving a bit difficult. Hopefully Quantas will sort it soon...

Happy New Year From Down Under

There are many advantages to being in Sydney for New Year. Firstly you get to celebrate before most people in the rest of the world and secondly you get a great fireworks disply in a very cool spot. The downside is that lots of other people have the same idea and we all flock to the same spot. We decided to head to Mrs Macquaries Point which is the next point along the harbour from Sydney opera House. They let 25,000 people in to watch and unfortunately you have to queue...for quite a while. Luckily my mate Chris and his friend Dave got there at 11am and I did a bit of queue jumping when i got there at 12pm. Still it was another hour and a bit until we actually got in as the first poeple were there at 8.30am and the gates didn't open till 10am. It was amusing in the queue though as everyone is in the same boat trying to drink all the alcohol that they've bought which is not allowed into the park. One of Dave's mates arrived just as we got inside so had to queue all the way himself which was bit unfortunate, but the queue seemed to speed up and an hour or so later he appeared. Just down the hill was another Al, another mate from home so we said hi and then went to get some beer. For the first few hours the beer queue was about 5mins, but you had to allow 20mins for the lovely portaloo toilets. the queues for both got longer and by the end there was only champagne or low carb beer to drink which was only 2.7%. 2007 is the start of the 75th anniversay of the Harbour Bridge, so that had a big diamond on it and also a coat hanger which is the nickname of the bridge for a lot of the night.Many games of shithead later (it's a card game)and we got to 9pm and the first fireworks display which was about 10mins long and pretty impressive. The main display was at midnight and lasted for about 15mins. They have spent a ridiculous amount on the fireworks and were setting them off from around the bridge, on the north shore and for the first time off a load of buildings in the city which was very impressive. You can't really tell from the photos becuase my camera doesn't do dark very well though...
It was a really good night (and I guess I should say day as well as we were there for 12 hours+)and nice not to be freezing cold as is usual!
Hope everyone had a good New Year and has a great 2007.