The adventure so far...
Mission : see the whole of New Zealand in 4 and a half weeks while making Jen lots of money.
Nice.
The next four weeks were to sweep past in a blur of driving, more driving, hanging out in nice motels, helping set up the range on rail (or dropping it more likely in my case) listening to badly scratched CD’s whilst doing even more driving and singing the Grease soundtrack or Maroon 5 at the top of our voices.
New Zealand. My view of it and how I was to see most of it saw over the next four weeks.Aiport to Wahihi on my first night where we did a lot of catching up, I laughed at all the weird Maori town names (Papatoetoe!
?!) and Jen smoked a lot of cigarettes.
Day 2, Dive to Tauranga/Mt Maunganui for the weekend to visit some shops (clients) and for her grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary dinner which it was an honour to be invited to.
I wouldn’t say I was a natural, but I didn’t do too badly for my first lesson. Standing up on the board was no problem; it was just staying on it for longer than 5 seconds.
View from the top of Mt Maunganui and the bay I learnt to surf in.
After not enough time with them, but on a promise to come back before I left, Jen and I continued our road trip with a beautiful coastal drive through Whakatane and Gisborne - the first city to see the sun in the world, and spent the night in Napier a beautiful town known for its art deco housing and antique shops.
Here I learnt the art of the hotel spa bath, ate yummy Tapas and went for a morning run along the beach where I caught the end of the sun rise in the second town in the world to see it.
God this backpacking thing can be hard work!
Me at and the geysers at Rotorua." A bit harsh on the place I thought, especially as we stayed in a pretty cool hotel there, one of my favorites in fact. It was called Camelot and we had our own unit all to ourselves. Actually it was more like a house with a hotel room, it had an upstairs area, separate bedrooms, and a spa bath of course!
This was definitely the type of backpacking I like!
It was a fantastic exhibition, one of the best I’ve ever seen. That night we went for dinner with one of Jen’s best friends Jake who works for Peter Jackons Weta Workshop and who was one of the main creators of the CGI Gollum on the Lord of the Rings films. I’d been told that everyone in New Zeland worked, did something for or was in LOTR, and if they didn’t they knew someone who did.
It was only a matter of time before I met someone myself.
We caught the ferry to Picton in the south island and drove to Nelson where we spent the evening with friends of Jen. Here I had one of my most memorable nights in NZ. I discovered the delights of Feijoas and more importantly Feijoa flavored vodka, had another spontaneous party courtesy of my ipod, won a chair dancing competition, was caught of guard by some spontaneous breakdancing.
We ended the party in the outside hot tub, much to the delight of the neighbors as it had become a very messy evening. One I won’t forget in too much of a hurry.
With a very sore head and little sleep the twelve hour journey ahead of us to Queenstown the following morning was a living hell.
We stopped along the way to see if the yellow eyed penguins were around, but unfortunately it wasn’t the right season. We also stopped at the pancake rocks, but it was low tide so the blow holes weren’t raging. By the time we got to Franz Joseph it was too late and too dark to see the glaciers and we didn’t have enough time to stop and see the fire flies.
:( Not such a productive day on the tourism front. Still, we made it to Queenstown before it got to horrendously late and Jen was home for the first time in three weeks. Mission accomplished.
Call me a wuss, but I thankfully declined. It was COLD here. Very very cold.
There was a noticeable difference in temperature here in the south island from the north and a huge one since being in Australia 10 days before. It was a very surreal feeling to see leaves falling OFF trees in the middle of April and to have autumn colours everywhere when you look.
Jen and the view from her aparment.
Autumn in April? Not only were some cool scenes from the movie shot here - like the cool scene where legolas jumps back on his horse before the battle on the way to Helm’s deep (sad that I know this stuff sorry) but we got to hang with and hand feed these cool piggies…. 
So after a relaxing Easter break it was off again. Next stop the most southerly part of the south Island and the closest to Antarctica I’ve ever been, Ivercargill.
Then we moved on to Dunedin where we had a quick pit stop at the steepest street in the world - San Francisco meets the southern hemisphere. Then it was off to Oamaru to see something I was to dying to see. PENGUINS, in their natural habitat!
Unfortunately no one is allowed to take pictures but it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. We had to sit in this enclosure in the dark silently waiting for them to surf home for the evening. When the first ‘raft’ came in I was so choked.
It was awesome. About 60 little blue penguins came in whilst the sunset and waddled up the beach to their home community. It was a very special moment.
Now my New Zealand experience was definitely underway.
Now I understood why Jen lived here. It was very much like our old home.
Next it was all the way back up to the north of the south island through Arthur’s Pass for more business in Nelson, then on to Blenheim and finally Kaikoura for my much anticipated whale watching expedition.
We saw 6 sperm whales on our trip which is apparently good going. We also had time to stop and look for dusky dolphins and found a pod of 500 who rode the surf from our bow with us for around 20 minutes. This was the first time I’d seen so many dolphins in one place and it really took my breath away.
I have some film footage I took with my camera that I can’t upload to this site but I’ll be more than happy to show anyone that’s interested.
They can hold their breath up to an hour at each dive.
Dusky Dolphin.
A baby yellow eyed penguin, inches away from me and was posing his little heart out. I took so many photos of him but he didn’t budge. It was unbelievable. Honestly I couldn’t have had a better day for wildlife if I’d tried.
It was another amazing New Zealand experience. Unfortunately the visibility was awful so you couldn’t see the dolphins under water well at all. This breed are also much shyer compared to the dusky dolphins we encountered during the whale watch expedition so they were quite difficult to interact with.
However they seemed intrigued by me as I played with them by making a clicking sound with my rings underwater so they spent a lot of time circling me drawn to the sound. For anyone lucky enough to find themselves in Akaroa, I don’t recommend the company I went with. For such an amazing experience they wouldn’t take any pictures for me to remember the experience by.
Other companies such as Black Cat do but were unfortunately fully booked that day.
Here is what the dolphins looked like though, and hopefully my memory is enough for me to take away with me.
It was now time to head back to Queenstown, for another break for Jen and for her to set up more showings at stores in the north island.It was now getting close to the beginning of the snowboard season and Gareth had called to say that the first snows had begun. Jen was ecstatic, but for those of you who know me well, I hate snow. I hate the cold, and am generally a moany bastard about it, but it didn’t stop Jen doing her best to convert me into a snowboarding enthusiast.
Bless her. She failed miserably,. Wearing all of Gareth’s snowboarding gear (he’s 6’4’’) and looking and feeling like a big black Mitchilin Man I was driven to the top of the aptly named Remarkables in search of snow and learning slopes.
When we arrived there were several cute, foxy accomplished snowboarders playing around on rails in the area where Jen wanted me to learn, so being a crap girl I of course chickened out. I stayed just far enough away to flirt with the boys and let Jen do all the falling over. Maybe next time.
One thing I did love though was Off Roading! Arrowtown, a neighboring village to Queenstown, is a great place to take Gareth and Jen’s 4x4 off road literally, plunging through the streams and rocky terrain. I had a great time and got to see the spot where Arwen with sick Frodo calls the river to swallow up the Ringwraiths in the first movie LOTR movie (apologies again for being so sad, I can’t help myself).
It was really cool!
My time in New Zealand was now coming to an end and as I still wanted to squeeze in more time with Clare and Paddy I had to leave Jen and fly back up north, which wasn’t as easy as it sounded. Fog had enveloped the town and planes weren’t taking off or landing so I ended up being stuck for a couple of days.
Apparently this is a common occurrence, which is weird as you would think that a town which relies on it’s tourism during snow season,would have managed to come up with alternate arrangements for such a common problem but no.
Finally after a very sad farewell I caught my plane and was back in Mt Maunganui for my last few days to chill with my good friends CJ and Paddy, which turned out to have a bit more drama than expected. At 4.
30am one morning Clare woke Paddy and I up and packed us off into the car in our pajamas to get away from the coast and head up to higher ground. She had been woken minutes before hand by her parents in England because the BBC had broadcast a Tsunami threat in our area in reaction to the earthquake in Indonesia. It was all very exciting but luckily it turned out to be an over reaction.
We appeared to be the only people driving around in our jammies at that hour of the morning, apart from another English friend who had had the same news from home. Typical British media, over reacting as usual! Boo to the BBC, but hurray for Clare and her quick as fox instincts.
If the situation had been as feared we would all be very thankful to her now.
Ironically enough the sea the next day was as flat as a pancake which was exceptionally annoying as this was to be my last chance at a surfing lesson. So apart from practicing to sit on the board and some arm wearying paddling practice, I didn’t get much done.
It was now time to leave the southern hemisphere bound for my last stop California, where I promised to surf at Huntingdon beach in honour of Paddy.
odd eh?
Being there meant I’d made it to the other side of the world, an admirable conquest that few people I know can say they’ve done. I was about to witness wildlife and landscapes I’d only read about or seen on TV and gaze at star constellations that can’t be seen in the only hemisphere I’d set foot in. It was an exciting time.
It was also the first time on my travels when I would be arriving in a city with someone to meet me. Simon, an amazing guy I’d met in Koh Tao, had said I could stay at his place and through various emails we coordinated the airport meet. Having the pressure taken off me to negotiate myself across another unfamiliar city for the first time in nine months was a huge relief.
I was used to it by now but it’s never nice when you are jet lagged.
Half way across the Indian Ocean however, I had a sudden realisation that due to time differences I was actually arriving on the 2nd March not the 1st which is what I’d told Simon. Durrrrrrrrrrrr!
!!!
I sat in hope that he was clever enough to work out my mistake but of course it didn’t even occur to him. I had stated the 1st and so the 1st it was and the poor guy wasted half a day off work waiting hours for me at the airport. I felt so guilty!
Luckily being the diamond that he is he, he worked out the mix up before I arrived and was there again on the 2nd. My hero.
Despite the hick-up my stay in Aus kicked off to a good start.
On my first weekend Simon took to me to see his rugby team the Warratahs play and I loved it despite previously being a football snob.
Simon, Oren, Kim and Lauren
The same evening I got dressed up in the first pair of (borrowed) high heels that I’d worn in nine months and headed to Kings Cross to watch the Syndey Mardi Gras gay parade. It was a crazy spectacle.
The evening was ended by a visit to ‘Dancers’, a pole dancing club. It was a very bizarre welcome to a buzzy new city.
We ended up meeting twice in New York before I left for home and it turned out that not only was he Australian not American but he lived 5 minutes down the road from me in Crouch End, London! When he returned to the UK we hung out for a while until his visa ran out which was not long after his return :( Although I hadn’t seen him since he went back to Aus we’ve stayed in touch through email and become good friends. Since I last saw him he has become a successful actor and is most recently recognised for playing ‘bad guy’ Gus in the Aussie soap Neighbors.
He can also be seen in the great new Aussie film Kokoda playing the Lieutenant. The red carpet opening for the film was a day after I left Australia. I was most upset I didn’t get to see the movie with him.
I was very proud for him.
Between Simon and Ben I had it pretty cozy.
Ben and I spent a lot of time eating good food, sipping beer and putting the world to rights. We did this on a regular basis while gazing over the spectacular view of a harbour. He has the most beautiful apartment not far from Bondi beach in a 1920s Art Deco building.
The cool thing about it apart from the beauty of the architecture was that it had its own private swimming ‘pool’ sectioned off in the harbour itself. We also had some great times going for walks along Bondi Beach and its adjoining bays. That’s what I love most about Sydney, a city with beaches.
What more could a beach girl like me want! I also got to meet and hang with Ben’s beautiful new girlfriend an ex-model who since I left has now become his Fiancé – congratulations Ben!
He also took me to an end of season sailing club dinner which between him, his father and their friend had won the season’s trophy. We also spent time hanging out his two other friends Gus and Murray who I had also met previously in Koh Tao. One of the best nights I had in Sydney was at Murray’s house where we had an impromptu dinner party with his flat mates that got out a little of control.
They were absolutely great people and every time I listen to Ian Dury I will have fond memories.
To give him space I moved in with Guy. I spent most of my time there working out the rest of my schedule and arranging meetings with various record companies to see if sponsorship was an option. I liked this city and wanted to see if there was the possibilty of staying.
I also needed to get a plan together for the little time I had here. It was now mid March and my round-the-worlder ended on May 10th, giving me only 2 months to fit in the rest of Aus, New Zealand, Figi, the US and home. I knew it was impossible so Figi had to go and I limited my time in Aus to 7 weeks; Koh Tao had been far too much fun.
The two things I decided I couldn’t leave Aus without doing was seeing Uluru a.k.a.
Ayres Rock and diving the barrier reef, so that was the plan.
In a nights research I booked a flight to Alice Springs a nine day Adventure Tours package that split into a three day tour of ‘The Rock’ and other geographical sites, another three day tour up to Darwin, and a final three day tour around Kakadu Nation Park in Darwin. I then organised a flight to Cairns where I was going on a live-a-board to dive the Great Barrier Reef, then a flight back to Sydney in time for the meetings I’d organized and my final few days with Simon, Ben and Guy.
Three hours of research and booking set me back a 1/6th of what It had taken me nine months to spend. It was a sharp pain in the bank account but one I had to make.
A few days later I set off, right up the middle of this huge country into the heart of the outback!
Unfortunately now I was out of the comfort zone of Ben and Guy's and I had to stay in hostels. Bleugh! A requirement I’d managed to avoid throughout my whole trip up until now.
I’m far too sophisticated for those things don’t you know?!
The tour left the next day so for my only afternoon in Alice Springs I occupied myself by a trip to a Kangaroo sanctuary for my first encounter with real life Kangaroos.
It was most exciting as wildlife was my main attraction to this country and kangaroos alongside Koalas were top of my list.
I spent the rest of the day wondering around town looking for a fly net; a very unattractive piece of head ware to keep the flies off your face. Before I left the UK I’d been warned by my Grandma who used to live here about the fly problem, but you really have to see it to believe it.
The flies were relentless and I was told it was only going to get worse when we hit the outback! A fly net was as essential as water out there.
Alice town center was also the first place I encountered Aboriginal people.
Up until now their presence had been practically invisible, something I found quite dissapointing. I’d heard many opinionated stories about Aboriginal stereo-types in the past and was glad to be finally in Aboriginal territory to see the story for myself. It was very strange to see, even here there appeared to very little integration between whites and blacks and I wanted to know why.
My trip set off the next day at 6am. For the next nine days there would be a lot of driving, a lot of walking, a lot of great people to meet and a lot of fun to be had. There was a great range of people on the trips.
It wasn’t all 18 year old backpackers that were out to get pissed and shag which I was initially afraid of (God haven’t I grown up!) However there were also some seriously odd people that had unfortunately signed up for the whole nine days like me that were difficult to get away from. The accommodation was camping under the stars or in permanent camp grounds which the company had set up at various locations and the eating arrangements were to all chip in with the cooking and cleaning.
My kind of adventure.
Here are some of the highlights of the first three days:
We watched the sun rise and set over the rock, but unfortunatley the battery ran out in my camera and this is the only crap photo I got. :( A lovely couple I met said they would send me the photos they took during the trek but I lost their email address.
Boo!
It was then back to the Hostel from Hell for a group tour drink and then an early night for the next trip up to Darwin. Four glasses of wine and in bed before midnight and I still work up the next morning with a hangover.
I also had very much overslept! Thankfully I was already packed so I rushed down to the lobby to find that of course I was the last on the bus and they were just about to leave. Our new guide Scott delighted in making me the butt of all jokes for the next three days.
Bush Wallabies.
Fying Foxes.
Dingos
And very big creepy crawlies!
I’d like to say the diving trip was the best I’ve ever done but unfortunately it wasn’t. It was cyclone season and one had just been through the area and another was happening south along the eastern coast when the trip started. It made for a rough sunless trip with pretty crap visibility.
There was a lot of sea sickness among the passengers (surprisingly sparing me for a change) and some of the diving was pretty intense. However I did get to hang with an enormous Potato Cod and watch a shark feed which was pretty cool.
Me and a Potato Cod. The average adult is 1.5 meters long and weighs about 90 kilos.
There were also these two cool Israeli guys on board, one of which went to the same junior school as me in London, Wessex Gardens. SMALL WORLD! He was 13 years younger than me though.
Shame, as he was very cute. I wouldn’t have minded him pulling my pigtails.
On board Taka and the diving crew.
I then packed my bags again and instead headed off to see my new friend Jen in her home, the Blue Mountains to get my last fix of hiking and wildlife spotting. I still hadn’t seen any wild kangaroos and I was determined not to leave Aus without it!
Of all the countries I’d been to on this trip this was the most painful to leave. For the first time in nine months I had a good cry when my plane left the tarmac.
Next stop was New Zealand to see my good friend Jen who I'd met in Wales whilst at college.
I knew it would be all smiles again in a few hours.
- The adventure so far...
Amber SwiftA couple of hours later I was touching down in New Zealand. Jen a great friend from my drama school days in Cardiff was waiting for me as promised with a 4x4 jammed with fashion ranges and just enough room to squeeze my backpack in...
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