Round the World

As most of you will know by now, we are home. Like a small wrinkly baby.....slightly premature! but with some amazing memories and some tall tales of our 'bogus journey'. Money was the reason for our early homecoming or lack there of, but if we could rewind and start again we'd do it the same, we underestimated the cost of things in Oz and NZ slightly but we dont think getting back a fortnight early is a failure and its been great seeing everyone again. Reality has well and truely set in this week when we started work again, an essential neccessity to fund whatever the future brings, house, babies (not for a while) more travelling....... who knows, not us, but at least we can face it knowing that we've been lucky enough to have the chance to see and experience things most people dont get to do in a lifetime.

Fijian beach.

Anyway Fiji. Short and sweet (enough of the air stewardess on the flight over) especially that now I am bethrothed to Tania!. We only had 3 days there before heading home, we stayed on the main island in a place called Tubakula, a beachfront bungalow which was fully kitted out. The first day was beatiful about 30c glorious sunshine, as you may imagine we spent most of that day on the beach trying to get some sort of colour on us before getting home and being confronted with a nation of halfcasts (possibly not PC?!) after the summer Britains had. Our second day we were awoken at 5:30am buy what we hoped was a local variation on common whistling, unfortunately for us it was no such thing. It turned out to be one of the worst storms either of us had ever seen, just what we didnt want on one of our last few days away but heh, we've had our fair share of good weather (I almost mean that!). The storm pretty much lasted all day so not much to report there, day three we spent lazing about, last minute shopping and killing time before our flight (11:50pm Fiji time 10/08/06 ) the flight into L.A went smoothly, we crossed the 'international date line so actually arrived in L.A at 3:40pm on 10th August which is as close as we've got to time travel yet. Our time in America was short, hectic and annoying, the Yanks (trying my best not to pigeon hole here) we're as expected, fat, loud and irritating, maybe we got a slightly distorted view of the country in our short time there as they were on 'high alert' after the Heathrow shinannigans and we're running around like headless chickens with torrets or maybe there always like that, we'll have to return to find out. We arrived back in London 3 hours late but safely, roughly 6 months after starting our journey. We've come back with some things we didnt have before: brown skin, blonde hair, one engagement ring and an extra 2 stone of combined body mass, but mostly we've come back after having (as hoped) the best six months of our lives. Travelling is the best thing we could have done, we both hope we get chances to do more in the future, got to pay for this one forst though.

Same beach next day.

Us before we leave, Tan looking particularly unpleased.

To conclude we've decided to list some of our favorites and worsts (is that a word??) in a quick questionaire below, adios amigo's!

Favorite country: New Zealand.
Worst country: Singapore.
Favorite city: Tan-Sydney, Ant-Bangkok. (town-Queenstown)
Worst city: Bombay AKA 'Hell on earth'
Best beach: Tan-Whithaven beach Oz, Ant-Paloelem India.
Best excursion: Tan-Jet boat to Whitsundays, Ant-Treking in Chaing Mai Thailand.
Worst excursion: Sentosa island Singapore.
Best activity: Skydive (no competition)
Worst activity: Trampolining (never attempt to do whilst drunk and when its dark).
Best memory: Getting engaged (stopping putting your fingers down your throats you lot!!)
Worst memory: Getting to Bombay seeing the sights near our hotel (took about 15 seconds) and sitting in our room thinking what the bleeding hell are we doing!.

Thank you and good night, Ant and Tan xx xx

One month is no where near enough time to see NZ properly but we've done what we could and have crammed in as much as possible, thats the reason we've not updated for a while. We leave tommorrow having had the best month of our trip thus far, we have seen some amazing things, done some things we couldnt have imagined before getting here and in general have had a tip-top time. We've also really good weather considering its winter, its been cold but there has only been 3 or 4 days of rain, so our concerns were pretty much unwarranted.

Since we last updated we visited Wellington, only briefly, met up with someone we met on the Trek in Thailand and picked his brains about what to do and see on the South island and indulged in a local beverage or two (Mac's beer in fact, I hope we can get it at home!) we also made it to the Lord of the rings exhibition which had all the origional costumes and some parts of the set, we we're both pleasently impressed with it, far better than we thought it was going to be. We took the 1pm (3 hour) crossing to Picton which has to be the one of the most picturesque crossings around, beautiful coastline, rolling hills and some weird and wonderfull birdlife. We travelled down the West Coast first to the Abel Tasman national park.

Abel Tasman.

As you can see the place is stunning, we dodnt expect to see beaches nicer than most in Thailand/Bali here but NZ is full of suprises.

We travelled down toward the Glaciers making a few stops en route, Punakaiki (pancake rocks), Greymouth, Tuaranga Bay (seal colony) and Hokitika, picturtes to follow.

Seal colony, Tuaranga Bay.

Pancake rocks.

Both the Frans Josef and Fox glaciers (as in mints) were amazing, but what was more impressive was the speed in which they were retreating (a metre a day) it's a shame nothing can be done about it but thats global warming for ya!

Frans Josef Glacier.

Queenstown 'adventure capital of the world' was our next destination, we made pit stops at Haast and 'Wanaka' (try pronouncing that after a few) to see a few things including 'puzzling world'-fun for all the family. It was about then that we picked up Gordon. Gordon just happens to be a mouse, we dont know that for definate but there are a few things we do know for sure.Take a look at the evidence:

Half eaten oxo cubes.
Bags of rice and cereal with mouse size holes in them.
Small packages of round brown 'dropping' like items left at various points of the van.
Strange mousey rustling noises after dark.

So our powers of observation led us to believe we had a small rodent problem. We took all possible precations, swept up crumbs, hid foodstuffs, and as we had no mouse killing pills we sprayed the van with deodrant to try and make him leave. Thankfully and probably for none of the fore mentioned reasons after 3 nights of inscessant mouse activity he decided to leave us in peace, either that or we'll find him dead and decaying in our rucksacks when we pack!

Puzzling world Wanaka.

Swimmers beach.

Us smooching by random lake.

Mt Cook.

Anyway back to our trip, Queenstown was great, our favourite town so far, it really has everything, snow capped peaks, more activities than you could shake a stick at, great shops returants and bars, the only problem is that its so bloody far from home!

Queenstown, view from the top of the Gondala.

We are now in Christchurch spending our last day in NZ sightseeing before we head onto Fiji hopefully for some sun then we'll be making our way back. It's a very 'bitter-sweet' feeling coming home we obvisouly want to see everyone and there have been things we've missed from home....umm... cant actually think of any as yet (apart from people of course) but we really love this travelling lark, its a fantastic way of living, its just a shame that we dont have a bottomless pit of money which we would need to continue this trip. We have been playing NZ lotto scratch cards in the vain hope of winning some dollars, but unless our streak of bad luck on them ends abruptly then we will see you all very soon.

Oh my god we cant believe it we've never been this far away from home!

Love from Ant and Tan xx

Since we've last updated we've both jumped out of a plane strapped to strangers from 12000ft, and no it wasnt some new bizzare drinking game the Kiwi's have thought up, it was our first skydive, hopefully the first of many. We were scheduled to do it 2 days ago but due to weather not holding up we were postponed untill first thing yesterday, so we had gone though most of the anxious feelings and nervousness, on saying that it doesnt mean we both weren't cacking it before hand.

Us putting a brave face on just before getting kitted up.

We both had great instructors who sort of put our minds at rest and the journey up in the very small very rattly plane was suprisingly o.k. Reality set in once the door was opened and people started hurtling themselves out one by one, thankully this process was fairly rapid and before we knew it we were sitting at the door with our legs hanging out and with one look back (for a pre-jump photo) we were out.

Me on the way out, I know the pic looks superimposed but I promise its not, we've got a DVD with more proof if needed! (WARNING: DVD contains graphic facial movement that some viewers may find offensive or just plain wrong)

The freefall lasted about 45 seconds, long enough to stretch out cheeks by a good 8 inches and to make our mouths dryer than a barmaids armpit, but it was the best bit, just a really intense feeling with views of both the East and West coast of NZ amazing! once the chute was opened all was left was a gentle ride down to the ground during which time the instructor even gave me a shot at controlling the chute. Our only complaint was it was over all too quickly and if we get a chance to have another go well do it in the drop of a 'human from 12000ft'!.

We cant really top that event I wouldnt have thought from now on in, but we'll attatch a few pictures of a national park (Taringiao or summit like that) very beatiful!

Snowy national park.

Terinaki falls.

Tan with snow.

Us-lake Roturia.

Take care all, Ant and Tan xx

Another week or two has passed and we thought it was about time we gave you all an update, unfortunately no pictures as we've used our limit on here but we'll try and e-mail some more to you all soon, we will wait till then for you to thank us for filling your inbox's.

Not a great deal to report from our last 10/12 days or so in Australia, we didnt do a lot, mainly lazing by the pool making the most of the warm weather when we could. We did go to Saturday in the park "festival" its in inverted commars as we're not sure it actually classes as a festival, it didnt really live up to expectations but thats probably more to do with us being spoilt at home with the best festival in the world (Glastonbury!)

Last tuesday we arrived at Auckland airport after a 4 and a half hour flight from Cairns, to be honest the weather wasn't as bad as we had expected, cool yes but not quite brass monkeys so touch wood that'll still be the case when we next update once we're on the South Island (the far colder of the two). Auckland was good, much like many other cities but we enjoyed our few days there, great food (the fish and chips in particular) yes we're really branching out and trying all the local delicassies! We went up the Sky tower there, the tallest building in the Southern hemisphere apparantly, got some great ariel pictures of the city.

We've taken out another 'wicked camper' this one's called 'Dickhead' but amazingly its far less offensive than goold old Charlie. Its a little smaller than Charlie but is a 4X4 which i'm sure we are going to make full use of by the end of this leg, no more getting laughed at for getting stuck in the mud! HA!

We took 'Dickhead' North at first to Northland (wouldnt have guessed from the name I bet?) We visited 90mile beach, which as the name suggests is a large area of sand and sea, the Bay of Islands along with the Largest Kauri tree in the world (second largest species after Californian redwoods) it truely was a monster over 18m in circumference thats around the base(I knew that maths GCSE would come in usefull..........even though it took me four attempts....sorry I digress) anyway very large and very impressive. We then took a couple of days to visit family my (Ant) Grandfathers brother who lives in Whangarei pronounced Faw-ngar-ai yep the New Zealand place names are just as confusing as the Welsh (for all you non Welsh of course) and Tans cousins, in-laws in Hamilton which was really nice, NZ already more than anywhere else has a really homley feel to it, maybe its the visiting family, the weather or the rugby or a mix of the three, but we're really enjoying.

We're now in Rotorua, which smells like Port Talbot after a curry. It's full of steaming Geysers, sticky mud and eggy wiffs but its a fantastic place, so many amazing things to see and do, with that in mind we'll bid our farewells and get to it.

Cheerybye, Ant and Tan xx

Us overlooking Whitehaven inlet, weather-not so good.

G'day Mates, how is everyone, thanks for the comments, its always great to get them!

Since we last updated we've done more driving (in fact the last section) seen some more great things, met some top people and have finally got some good weather, so we're not just as jealous about the weather reports from back home as we were!.

We got to the Whitsundays on a cool and rainy day and even thought twice about spending a princely amount to go and visit them, but it would have been like going to Burger king and not buying a burger..... it just doesnt happen. We plumped for a day trip on an ocean raft, which to give you an idea is a large Dinghy with 2 aircraft engines as outboards, they are the boats which you see going down large rivers in the U.S and NZ, great fun. The boat took us (rather quickly) to a small island for some snorkelling first off, it wasnt quite as warm as snorkelling in Thailand but with a wetsuit and some moving about it wasn't too bad either. saw some weird and wonderfull things under the water including a shark spotting claim by Tan, she did say it was just a baby though. We then went onto to Whitehaven inlet and beach, both absolutley breathtaking you can see why it gets voted worlds number one beach regularly, although we didnt have perfect weather the sun did appear for us at lunch when we arrived at the beach, it gave us a chance to go for a swim and feed some fish. Also included was a bushwalk which included licking an Ants bum, now the conclusion most of you have jumped to is not neccassarily the correct one, although it is the same one as I jumped to when the guide first suggested it. The Ants are local and green-arsed ones which taste kind of like lime, i'd imagine they're pretty good draped over a Margerita, we'll see if tesco will stock them. The journey back consisted of the driver breaking the speed of sound doing various dounuts and handbrake turns, several of the older people in the group making full use of their colostimy bags and me loosing a flip-flop (thong!) But it has to be one of the best days we've had all along.

Fishy, on the great barrier reef.

From Airlee beach (the Whitsundays) we headed to Cairns, our final destination stopping off a few times on route, including a day long stop in Atherton just West of Cairns, it had 5 or 6 beatifull waterfalls which we're glad we spent the time going inland to visit.

Us at a waterfall in Atherton.

Making use of our waterproof camera again.

We're now in Cairns and have dropped charlie off *sob* but as soon as we land in icy cold New Zeland we're taking another loudly painted 'wicked camper' out!

Hope everyone well, Love from Ant and Tan xx xx