New Bus Win and Gnomes

Well it's been a busy few weeks, Computer deaths, computer births, Website launchs and new clients!! Whooop! Details to announced later once all is confirmed. All I will say its cracking little charity doing great things for underprivileged kids! Really looking forward to working with them! Other work included a new brandmarque for Ace Photographer Alexandra Bell - That's a sneaky preview of one of the concepts on the right.. Oh and the gnome keeps moving.. not freaking us out at all.

Almost the end....

Cant believe I heading back tomorrow... Gutting - its been fantastic!

Last night Maori dinner/ceremony was amazing, it was such a powerful event - the Maori people are so proud of there culture that it upset me to think that we aren't the same... It was such a good night!

Today I went Black Water Rafting... which it rafting on a black rubber ring through a huge underground caving system... had such a laugh.. jumping waterfalls etc... At one point we had to turn our lamps off and the ceiling was aglow with tiny green light - glow worms. It was like looking at the sky at night and sooo relaxing, just drifting along in complete silence looking at the 'stars'.

As its my last night - I'm heading into town with a few people off the tour for a goodbye drink and pizza... Seriously it is going to be gutting leaving... but then I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and going back for xmas!

Better go - see you all in the next couple of weeks.. if you hear on the news of any disruptions at Sydney airport its proberly me having a paddy fit and refusing to get on the plane ;-)

Rotorua

Hey - Currently in Rotorua, which is a huge natural thermal underground area.. there are natural area's of bubbling mud and huge columns of steam everywhere... and it stinks.. pure sulphur.. it honks so badly.. wow!

Earlier today we went to a Maori Village to learn about the Maori culture, really interesting saw a natural geyser (water stream, not chav) and saw my first kiwi bird - there actually really big.

Tonight I am going to a Maori Hungi a traditional dinner and ceremony where a roast pig or lamb is cooked in the ground for about six hours then served followed by a Maori warrior display - all seems like its gonna be fun!!!

Body Boarding @ Kawarau Gorge

Well Riverboarding was different... 4 hours of high adrenaline, Hard rapids, whirlpools and strong undercurrent's on the powerful Kawarau Gorge rapids - which are all labelled in the leaflet as fun.

It was hell - don't get me wrong I enjoyed it but I will never do anything Like that again - it really make you realise how powerful nature can be and when you haven't a clue how to handle it - it becomes scary. Afterwards the river was closed as the water level had risen 5ft! I'm still limping!

Anyway to make it better again I went a threw myself of another Bungi Jump - The Ledge - Brilliant and I have some great images to show you all!!!

THE JENNIE TAYLOR

Forgot to mention - was in Queenstown and only bumped in to Jennie from work... She's says hello to all at spinner... think she couldn't understand what was happening as a big brummie noise came bounding towards her... bought her a cuppa to calm her down and saw her off on the 3 day hike she was a bout to begin...

Wellington!!!

Hola - well I'm currently in 'The Windy City of Wellington'. There is no wind though, just glorious sunshine. I've extended my trip with Contiki, I had such a great time that myself and a few others have paid a bit extra to continue to Auckland. Spent most of yesterday travelling to get to Wellington, including a three hour ferry ride... which I slept most of.

I'm a little tired today as we have quad share bedrooms... (3x beds per room). One of the guys is famous for his snoring and last night I had the pleasure of being in a bed next to him...

UNBELIEVABLE...

the guy was a church organ - I've never heard such a large amount of noise coming from one person... it was freaky! In previous hostels - people in other rooms have complained that they kept them awake - FROM TWO ROOMS AWAY and I was right next to the sod! Wow!

Luckily he went out at 7 am and I was able to have lie in to catch up on sleep... every person who's stayed in a room with him has a sound recording of the noise... Ill play it to you when I get back!!!

Having an easy day today, Wellington is lovely, but its been a bit of a shock being in a city again... heading back out into the wilderness tomorrow and going to do some caving, which looks fantastic!!!!

Its dawned on me that I fly back to the UK on Thursday - I cannot believe the six weeks are almost up!!!

New Zealand

Well - I'm currently in Queenstown. I haven't really had chance to email so here's an update of what's been goin on.

New Zealand,
well its a little cold,
a little warm,
bit rainy,
bit sunny,
very green

and finally

THE MOST INCREDIBLE PLACE I HAVE EVER VISITED.

Seriously the place is beautiful... I decided I like it about 2 hours after being here. I loved being in Oz, but this place makes Australia look like Whitby or Blackpool (but cleaner). It is absolutely stunning, every corner you grab a new view or perspective.. perfect. I keep being surprised - I think I've seen it all and then bang and new view!!!

I have joined a tour for the south island - the people are cool and its been quite agood laugh - We've done so much that it would take years to write so here's the short version

Well the first day we visited Lake Ohau and Lake Tekapo, where we stayed the night in a wicked lodge on the shoreline - this had brilliant views of Mt Cook!

Next day we headed to Milford Sound for an overnight Cruise though the huge ford. This was stunning... The scale of the place was so vast you couldn't take a decent picture cause you simply could not get it all in... Wow. I then canoed on the lake - where we saw Penguins coming in from feeding.. plus saw a few seals... Next day was the best though. The mist had cleared on a stunning blue morning and as we sailed back to the port - dolphins swan next to the boat - they were so graceful - I was able to get some film of them - seriously it was gobsmacking!!! From there we headed to Queenstown. Queenstown is a small town which specializes in activity sports - adrenaline Junkie heaven.

Out hoste again has great views and the nightlife has been quite a laugh. Last night we were drinking cocktails out of teapots.. very British...

I visited Nevis, Here's a few fact about Nevis

Nevis is a huge valley - Over 600 meters high and has a fantastic river at the bottom. Nevis also has a stationary gondola on a cable car style rig up over the canyon.. you get a little cage out to it and the view was magnificent. Now the thing with Nevis is that its not really for sightseeing. Its for Bungi Jumping and its the highest Bungi in NZ!!!!

Yep I did a 134m bungi Jump with 8 seconds freefall

It was absolutely heart stopping _ I've bought the DVD to prove Ive done it - I loved it so much I'm doing another one tonight.. I actually have a very sore throat at the mo as I have never yelled so much in my life and the rush of falling to the ground is .. well I cant describe it. I did Nevis as a substitute - the original plan was to skydive but its been to windy and all skydiving has been cancelled. But Nevis has more than made up for it!!!

Gonna have to dash - I'm off bodyboarding on the River now - 4hours of rapids and diving.. wicked! Havent had time to spell check so ignore any bad spelling!!!

Hope all is well!

Bye Bye Melbourne...

Hi All - Just biding my time before I head to the airport to fly to NZ, Until five minutes ago I was well looking forward to it until I read a an email from Jen at Work saying that the weathers crap in NZ and the hostel she stayed in Christchurch a couple of days ago was a complete dump.. which turns out to be the place I'm staying tonight... mmmmm brill.

Apart from that all's cool... I've really enjoyed being in both Sydney and Melbourne but I am longing to get back out into some big open country. Living & Visiting in a big city is great but coming here was about seeing outside the cities and I'm now itching to get back out there into the wilderness. My planes lands in NZ at 11.35pm (their time) and my tour starts tomorrow at 8am... so if the hostel is crap I wont get chance to see it as I wont be there long enough.

Spent the last couple of day wondering around the city - Yesterday met up with one of the girls (Eunice) from the diving course - she lives in Melbourne and showed me some of the site's.. We went up the Rialto tower to the observation deck on floor 55.. amazing views... the lift literally too 20 seconds to get to the top.

Then we went to a fantastic Sushi bar... which was playing funky piano jazz music. After some great sushi (and I thought M&S Sushi was great) we headed to the Contemporary Museum in Federation Sq. There was a photography exhibition on new Australian Photographer's - There was some fantastic work but others were very badly Photo-shopped and quite embarrassing to look at ...

Last night I met with Sharon who use to live in London.. Had a great night and ended up in a greasy spoon equivalent of a Chinese restaurant - packed full of Chinese families - so that means it was going to be good... Well the fried pork dumpling we had for starter was bloody ace... the main meal was a bit whooooo - what the frig is that... but still nice. You had to take your own drink and they supply the cups... pretty freaky really - but cool and CHEAP! Loads of Pork Dumpling and too large bowls of noodles and soup $23.00 or 12 pounds... bargain - seriously it is cheaper here to eat out than go shopping.... After that we went to a hoxton like bar - it was an old cargo container transformed into a bar... great place I know everyone in London would have loved it.

Right - feel like I've bored you all enough now... How all's ok -

Trouble - I've posted your Birthday card - Speak to you before then...

Mort did you get my text message - let me know!!

Ill post next in New Zealand - where the weather is going to be glorious and the hostel is going to be 4 star...

Take Care - Rich

Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road

Landed yesterday in a very humid Melbourne... Lovely place - a lot more chilled that Sydney and a great place to walk around... which I did most of yesterday... great blisters.

But today I went on a tour of the Great Ocean Road. 7am this morning I was picked up at the bus station and myself and another 36 passengers we're whizzed off up coast. The journey was pretty hair raising at times... esp. going round the tight bends of the corners whilst looking down shear cliff faces... Only small issue was the weather closed in.. a thick mist was coming in off the sea which messed up the visibility a little... Saw loads of Koala's in their tree's and went past bells beach (from the film point break apparently).

After lunch we headed to the spectacular Twelve Apostles... huge sandstone rocks sitting out at sea... as the weather had cleared up I decided to take advantage of the special offer the tour was offering - a helicopter ride over the Apostles... BLOODY AMAZING! It was like Magnum Pi's copter only it was white... Once we landed - the tour headed to Loch Ard Gorge -a huge cove which has a history of ship wrecks... the most famous one I forgotten.. genius...! From there to London Bridge - another huge rock and then home... cool day! Though the coach was half full of Korean and Japanese Tourists who I now believe do not know how to read the time.. seriously they were crap! Anyway - I'm off to bed as I'm knackered!!!

Hope all's well!

Goin upt'Manley

Well last day in Sydney was a blast.. headed over to Manley on the ferry to see Joey before I left for Melbourne. Once we got there (Me & Lee had hangovers) we headed out to Whale Beach, which was about a hours drive from Manley. Whale beach is a lovely quiet beach, nothing like the packed Bondi beach... Met some of Jo's mate's who'd we'd met the previous week.. good guys... Then did a bit of body surfing... I first tried this in Bondi and half of the ocean went up my nose but this time I was much better and managed to catch a wave!! Though the waves were much harder and bigger here so We were all knocked to the floor a few times... We followed this by a great game of volleyball... well, more like keep the ball in the air as long as poss.. all good fun. Then headed to Joeys house to meet her temporary housemate.. Tyrone.. a fantastically excitable Staffordshire Bull Terrier.. slobber everywhere!! After saying our goodbyes to Jeppy - headed back to Bondi to pack!!! Now off to Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road...

Oh - just before I finish - never got chance to do the Blue Mountains.. I had planned two days to do them... the first day was Sydneys coldest November in recorded history and the second day the mountains had a huge Bush Fire - have put them on my to do list for my next Oz Holiday!!


PS: Bought some Raybans... 40 quid BARGAIN!!!!!