July Archive

Cold and Cheery

Me and Matt have arrived in New Zealand!!

After a good last night in Sydney which entailed drinking on the balcony in Bondi and listening to music, we headed off to the airport for our flight to Christchurch. Walking out of the airport it felt for a moment that we were back in Dublin. It was wet, overcast and cold. Not too bad though. It was a change from Sydney and after 7+ months there, any change was a welcome one.

We booked into the hostel and I tried to sleep off the night before. A few quick pictures in Christchurch, and a little walk around brought us to the first proper pub I've been in since leaving home, called the Bard. They had a SUnday lunch which was Roast Lamb, Roast spuds and roast and boiled veg. They even threw in a yorkshire pudding, which we gladly munched beside the fireplace. That night we went into the hostel bar for a quiet few as we couldn't find a tv with the Westmeath match on. Devastated the next morning when I heard the score. Though we had a chance.

Day 2 was the start of the camper van. We picked it up and me not being able to fit behind the wheel of the cool Jim Morrisson one, we had to take the only other one. Its a little bit girly but still cool nonetheless.

When we finally got out of Christchurch (I got good at U-turns at hunter valley), we headed through Arthurs pass. For the 3 hours or so we were on that road we were stunned by what we saw. Amazing scenery, snow capped mountains, streams and lakes. I have to admit it was quiet hard to concentrate on the road ahead. With all those distractions

When we got to Hokitika we were going to stop there for the night and then head to Franz Josef. We had time so drove the extra 2 hours or so. After food we pulled up in a picnic area outside the town for the night. It was cold at times in the van sleeping but not too bad. When we woke we were at a lake with another stunning view. Everywhere here is really relaxed and we are loving it so far. Sitting back and enjoying the ride. All 3 of us, Me, Matt and the van :)

Today its glacier hiking and filing tax returns. We are having fun and being productive. Efficiency!

Until next time,

Brian

Glacier Hiking

The posts are coming thick and fast now but its because I'm dossing on the net while Matt is sorting tax out. When he has that done, I'll just get him to show me :)

Yesterday was glacier hiking! We took the half day option which was probably enough time. The Franz Josef Glacier is massive. When we were a 40 min walk from it, it looked only a 10 min walk away. Was huge. Its an unusual glacier because it pushes down into a valley that has forests with trees and plants that you would associate with a climate that a glacier would not survive in.

It was good fun and really enjoyable to hike on it. Even if the boots and the ice spikes took a while to get used to. When we put back on our runners they felt so light and flimsy. At one point we were walking through a gap in the ice that was so narrow I could barely squeeze through. Matt tried to take a picture but he didn't have enough room to reach into his pocket to take out his camera!

The pictures below are probably better than a description....

Today its off to Wanaka and to Queenstown tomorrow. Bring on the good times!

Later

Brian

Touring, Snowboarding and Other Such Things

After leaving Franz Josef we hit the road again for the drive to Wanaka. We didn't do a lot there. Mainly sorting out our tax returns and just dossing around. When we got there we sussed out a place for us to camp for the night, eventually deciding to stay beside the savage looking lake Wanaka. Like fools we parked on a slant though and it wasn't a very comfortable nights sleep.

The next morning we went to the Puzzle World place outside Wanaka. That was cool. They have a 1.5km outdoor maze and 2 rooms that are cool and disorientating. Sort of like what you get in a Dali painting. From there we spotted a place on the way to Queenstown where I stopped off to practice my swing. Also took in some Archery and I am a dab hand with the aul bow! :)

Yesterday we arrived in Queenstown and got settled. Up this morning to do some snowboarding. It was great fun. A few quick pointers and off we went... well, sort of. The first time down I couldn't stand up. When I did stand up I cam strainght back down in spectacular fashion. Falling while stuck to a snowboard leads to one of 3 things: smack on the kneecaps, back on your arse or a twisting tumbling thing! I did the latter first time. Then was a mixture of the first 2, followed by another of the twisty thing. All in all though was a great day. I got the hang of straight lines, pretty much. Turning and stopping were hit and miss and going in the direction I wanted to was mainly down to luck! Matt was better at it than me. He managed to go down most of tthe big hill onhis board. For me, after I nearly killed Matt (missing by millimeters as Dessie Dolan would say) and then couldnt get the board to go anywhere, I walked most of it and stayed on the training "slope". Funny though.

Until the next great adventure.

Brian

Tales from a Campervan and Beyond

First of all I have two things to mention before I start the post:

1. Thanks a million to Paula and John who showed us around Auckland and let us stay with them. We had a great a time

2. Hello to Mrs. Meecham who I believe is now a viewer of the blog.

Ok so, we left Queenstown to drive to Lake Tekapo for our second last night in the camper. As we got on the road we were confronted by signs that said "Snow chains essential". Unfortunately, we didn't have snow chains and no other choice but to chance our luck and hope that the god morning had cleared the roads enough. When we got to the bad area, there was a bit of snow on the road but apart from a couple of hairy patches the road wasn't too bad. One little tiny wobble at the back was the worst effect it had on us and the van marched on!

When we got to Lake Tekapo however we quickly realised that there was nothing there worth seeing so we glanced at our map and decided that Akaroa would be an alright place to stop. That was a wierd town with all the street names and most of the shop names written in French. We were too cheap to pay for a campsite that night so went in search of a picnic area to park up for the night. That proved harder than it had in other places. We ended up half way up a mountain on a lane going into somebodies farm and nowhere to turn around because the road was too narrow and there was a substnacial drop to one side! Eventually thought we got down and found a picnic area on the opposite side of the town.

After that and 2 days of mainly reading books we dropped the van back in Christchurch. Was a pity to be finishing up the road-trip but I was looking forward to a bed and a bit of space :) Another night in X-Base in Christchurch and then we flew to Auckland where John and Paula, two people that me and Jonny met trekking in Thailand, collect us from the airport. They showed us around the city including a tour of the Lion Brewery, the crowd that brew Guinness in New Zealand, but they had no answers as to why it tastes like piss over here! In the evening we out to dinner and then had a few beers before hitting the hay.

From here we leave for Buenos aires and strangely, we'll be there in about 2 hours! Well at least it will 2 hours later in the day. For us this is the seemingly never-ending Thursday which I think will be about 40 hours long or there abouts due to us crossing the international date line. Technically it means my birthday changes too but we wont worry about technicalities :)

Will update soon with pictures from South America, until then.... Hast luego!

Brian

Dont cry for me Argentina

Hi everyone, Matt here from Sunny Argentina the first stop on our South American adventure :-) So first stop Buenos Aires and what an amazing and huge city as were to find out yesterday when we went to explore with our city map and ended up walking for five hours, these things deserve a beer or three.

Well first major place we visited was the La Boca neighbourhood which is an old port town built by Migrants mainly Italian but also some Scots as we were to find out later on at a visit to Boca Juniors who have a player by the name of "Carlos McAllister". The main attractions of La Boca are the colourful Cominito area where all the houses are painted in bright colours, people dancing tango on the streets without a care in the world, Artists selling paintings of their work and an abundance of eateries and coffee shops. Only a few streets away is the imposing home of La Boca Juniors Football club, the Bombenea. The Bombenera is possibly the craziest stadium i have ever seen, a mish mash of terraces and the pitch is within touching distance making the atmosphere on match day immense and you can understand why the fans are known as "the twelve’s" as in twelfth man. We didn’t actually get to sample a game due to there not being one for a month but we will put that right in Brazil.

We also managed to get around all the other bright and colourful neighbourhoods but i have to say Boca was my favourite. All in all an excellent four days in which we managed to see most if not all of the City, visited the famous Bombenera, Sampled a famous Argentinean steak, hit a few bars and clubs, managed to get by with having only received one fake note, a common occurrence so we hear and our Spanish is slowly improving from awful to not quite awful, Enjoy the pics next stop is Rio....................

The Girl From Ipanema Wears a Thong on the Beach

I´m back again. Posting myself this time. We are in Rio de Janeiro at the moment. Arrived here from Buenos Aires on Monday evening after our flight was delayed a couple of hours. We headed straight to Ipanema by bus looking for the Mango Tree Hostel. Not knowing the address, that was a little awkward to find so we just ended up staying in a place called Karisma. We booked into a 6 man dorm for 3 nights and for 2 of them had the room to ourselves. It was a nice hostel in a really chilled out area. The hostel was converted to a house and all the people working there are really sound, even brought us out one of the nights.

Anyway, the first day in Rio we went to the beach in the morning, followed by a tour in the evening. The tour brought us to the Christ the Redeemer statue on top of Corcovado. Its the famous one that everyone knows. The view from there was really good and the statue itself was impressive. Our guide told us that it was given to the city by the French. Makes you think that they should stop giving away all the really famous statues... After that, I found the rest of the tour a bit pointless. We went to Maracana, the football stadium but never went inside. We saw where the Carnival goes along but it was just an empty stand when we were there and then quite possibly the ugliest Cathedral I have ever seen. Looks like it was designed by the guys who did the Arts Block in Trinity. In saying that though, I did have a good time and did enjoy seeing the city a little more.

That night then we headed out so the next day was written off due to a hangover. We just lazed about mostly. Yesterday then we changed hostels to Copacobana, just to see what it was like. Its a nice enough hostel but the rooms are terrible. There are 4 sets of bunk beds stacked 3 high in a room with no floor space to speak of. They have a pool here though and it is near to the beach but I dont think any nearer than where we were in Ipanema. Yesterday evening we went to the top of the Sugar Loaf Mountain to watch the sun set. That was really cool, even if I was a bit more terrified in the cable cars than I let on!

Today it was back to the beach, where we bought a ball and played some football on the beach. We obviously are not very good so the Brazilians would have been laughing at us. Tonight then we are off to Lapa to the street parties which we are looking forward to and then we head back to Ipanema for our last 2 nights in Rio. We´ll take in a soccer match on Sunday before going to Ilha Grande and on to Iguazu from Monday.

Pics are on the way so until next time...

Brian

One Year On...

So a year ago today, me and Jonny touched down in Bangkok. 365 days later I´m most of the way around the world in Paraty in Brazil. People at home have gotten themselves into a recession so I´ll have to go home and sort that out in a couple of months :)

As I mentioned we are in Paraty now. A little town between Rio and Sao Paulo. We are staying a couple of days here mainly to just chill out and to say goodbye to beaches for a while (well Matt is, I´m loving having a hammock again).

Since the last post we´ve been out in Lapa which is the part of Rio that has the street party at the weekends. We had locals showing us how to samba and I think at one point Alison broke out some of her Riverdance moves, had to be done! We had a good night there and then left copacobana to go back to Ipanema. A bit more time playing football on the beach there too. The Brazilians must have thought we had never played football before.

On Sunday we did the favela tour. It was interesting to see what goes on there and to be honest, the sense of community is class. Something that is lacking a bit now in most other places. It did feel a bit uncomfortable for me doing it as part of the tour, but I think I was the only one so it is a good thing to do if you are in Rio. That evening then was off to the Maracana to watch Flamengo lose 1-0 to Vitoria. The game itself was a dour affair but the atmosphere before the game and when Flamengo actually had a couple of chances, it was unreal. They had a goal disallowed for offside which went down like a fart in a spacesuit and the female assistant got all sorts of abuse from 41,000 fans for most of the second half. In fairness, she was having a shocker of a game.

After Rio we went to Ilha Grande. We stayed in a place called Che Lagorota or something like that anyway. Was a good place and the island itself has a great feel to it. We trekked to a beach and just lazed about all day so was fairly good.

Now we are staying in Serra do Mar in Paraty. Its a class hostel here. Somehow we managed to be given a private room and I got a double bed!! For the same price of a dorm too! Excellent!

No Paraty!

So yesterday we left Paraty and due to 2 full buses we are now hanging aroung the bus station in Sao Paulo. Its and hour into the city and apparently there is nothing to do when you get there so I´m taking this time to put up some pictures.

The name of the place we stayed in Paraty was called Sereia do Mar which is one of endless spelling mistakes and typos I noticed in that last post. Too lazy to fix them so ignore them :) Anywho, Paraty is a great little town. We made an effort to go out one night there but we were back early. Went to a place in the Old Town called Dinho. It was a small place with a good crowd and live music. Would have been a good night I think if we were up for it but in our heads we had a long bus journey the next day, which was cut substancially short by the bus being full.

A piece of info for anybody going from Sao Paulo to Iguazu, its an expensive bus journey. Works out at about 90 euro I think but havent bothered to work out an exact price. You can fly but I think that is an extra US$150 again (from an overheard conversation).

Anyway, I have little enough to say right now and only really wanted to put up some more photos.

Enjoy...

Brian

Iguazu Falls

Iguazu falls was the latest outting we have had. When Elanor Roosevelt saw the falls she said, "poor Niagra". Now I have never seen the Niagra falls but Iguazu is amazing. The devil´s throat being the main waterfall there, dividing Argentina and Brazil. At 150m wide and 700m long it the devil´s throat is the largest of 275 waterfalls in the system. Iguazu falls is smaller only than Victoria falls in Africa and in terms of the size of the "curtain of water" is vastly bigger than Niagra!

We arrived yesterday in Puerto Iguazu on the Argentinian side. Our first place to try was Hostel Inn as we have heard good things but it was full so we wandered around til we found a room in Las Palmeiras (I think thats the name anyway).

Today we headed to the falls early to avoid the rush. We got the 8.30 bus to the falls and if we had gone any later it would have been a nightmare because its high season and the crowd build up fast. After a walk to the side of the Devil´s Throat we went to go on the boat trip. This was 20 minutes that brought you right up to the water falls and needless to say, got you very wet! It was well worth doing but if you are doing it, bring some spare clothes.

After that with the bad weather and considering the crowds and bad weather we called an end to our Iguazu trip. In fairness all we didn´t do was go to the top of some waterfalls but I feel that we havent missed out on anything we didn´t see already.

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Tomorrow, if the weather is good, we are doing a helicopter ride on the Brazilian side and then to Paraguy where I want to buy an iPod to replace mine. 3 countries in one day! Will finish the post then ;)
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So today is the tomorrow mentioned above. No flights because of poor weather so we just went to Paraguy where we bought a few things... like a razor to get that thing off my face!

Later

Brian