So, it’s back to the ol apple routine and back to work. Argh!!
Back is aching within an hour and we change apples to RED DELICIOUS – how exciting………..especially as these apples are fast as fook!!! They’re mental and practically flying off the conveyors. Wiebka finds out that we’re doing this for another 2 wks – argh – this is mental fast! Hey ho, the day went fast and before I know it we’re back at the hostel.
Early to bed as usual! Not much to report really!
Hayley
Tuesday 31 March 2009
Monday 30 March 2009
Mon 30th March - More hitch-hiking
Another day off! Yay! It’s so good waking up at a normal hour of the day instead of 5.50am. Dave and I have to let the tax office know our change of address – they don’t do that over the phone unfortunately, so we have to go into Alexandra and sort it out at the post office – what a faff! It’s hitchhiking time again, so off we go with our piece of cardboard and within half an hour we get a lift! Whoohooo!! It always pleases me that they’re people out there, willing to pick hitchhikers up. This time it’s a woman who actually moved to NZ from Lancaster 20 years ago! Those nice Brits keep picking us up!
We do the whole natter thing about our travels and that passes the time to get to Alexandra. Dave and I head for the post office and get served by a right grumpy bint of a woman. She starts moaning that we have to provide photocopies of our documents and that we should’ve bought that with us……..erm…..the post office in Christchurch photocopied them for us……….but no, this bint sends us elsewhere to get copies of our passport and driving licence – rage!! Later, I find out that Aaron got served from a nice woman and she did the copying there in the post office – pah!
Anyhoo, we head to the Tourist information centre as Dave wants some maps to do some walking. We get served by this uber helpful guy and we actually can’t get away from him as he keeps coming up with other walks to do! Bless him! There’s a wee museum which tells us about the gold rush in this area and other stuff I didn’t read….it got a bit boring to be fair! We end up bumping into loads of people from work in Alexandra as well – must be the place to be on your day off! Haha!
We get a lift back to the Commercial from Deaf Tom from work! He’s this old dude that helps with the machine at the pack house – well, I actually think he just stands there loading up the wee sticker machine and speeds the damn thing up!! Anyhoo, he actually travels around New Zealand every year and works in various pack houses. He’s got this double decker bus that he has done up to act as a mobile home – how random! He’s deaf as a post which becomes apparent when I try to strike up a convo from the back seat….he keeps turning his head around to look at me, so he can hear me from the back seat – errrrr hello!? Watch the road matey!! So I keep my mouth shut and let Dave do the talking!
After getting some provisions from the supermarket, it’s back to the hostel and make sure our smocks are all cleansed and ready for tomorrow!
Hayley
We do the whole natter thing about our travels and that passes the time to get to Alexandra. Dave and I head for the post office and get served by a right grumpy bint of a woman. She starts moaning that we have to provide photocopies of our documents and that we should’ve bought that with us……..erm…..the post office in Christchurch photocopied them for us……….but no, this bint sends us elsewhere to get copies of our passport and driving licence – rage!! Later, I find out that Aaron got served from a nice woman and she did the copying there in the post office – pah!
Anyhoo, we head to the Tourist information centre as Dave wants some maps to do some walking. We get served by this uber helpful guy and we actually can’t get away from him as he keeps coming up with other walks to do! Bless him! There’s a wee museum which tells us about the gold rush in this area and other stuff I didn’t read….it got a bit boring to be fair! We end up bumping into loads of people from work in Alexandra as well – must be the place to be on your day off! Haha!
We get a lift back to the Commercial from Deaf Tom from work! He’s this old dude that helps with the machine at the pack house – well, I actually think he just stands there loading up the wee sticker machine and speeds the damn thing up!! Anyhoo, he actually travels around New Zealand every year and works in various pack houses. He’s got this double decker bus that he has done up to act as a mobile home – how random! He’s deaf as a post which becomes apparent when I try to strike up a convo from the back seat….he keeps turning his head around to look at me, so he can hear me from the back seat – errrrr hello!? Watch the road matey!! So I keep my mouth shut and let Dave do the talking!
After getting some provisions from the supermarket, it’s back to the hostel and make sure our smocks are all cleansed and ready for tomorrow!
Hayley
Sunday 29 March 2009
Sun 29th March - Exploring Roxburgh
Well, I wake up fairly early, bright eyed and bushy tailed due to me having an early night! I go down to get some brekkie and am surprised to find Aaron and Tom are actually up! However, they’re proper suffering with a hangover! Haha – unlucky lads!
The sun is baking hot so I’m enjoying topping up the tan, whilst reading me book! Dave and I decide to go for a walk and explore the area of Roxburgh – can’t take that long really! Pat and John give us a few ideas for walks – they’re very informative, but Pat really does go on a lot!
We’re away for a good couple of hours and pass a few funny things along the way. There’s a house which is selling nuts and they have 2 cars outside their house with amazing number plates: 1NUTER and 2NUTERS…..how fab is that?!?!? They even have a hut that says ‘El Nut House’ – nutty family!
We come across the Ladysmith Trail, which is a decent sized track through a forest. It ends up coming out at a point along the Cluta River and we get chatting some locals fishing – they’re dead nice but a bit on the inbred looking side of things (sorry, but they were!).
It’s been a gorgeous day and so glad that we’re off tomorrow – give my weary body a chance to recover!
Hayley
The sun is baking hot so I’m enjoying topping up the tan, whilst reading me book! Dave and I decide to go for a walk and explore the area of Roxburgh – can’t take that long really! Pat and John give us a few ideas for walks – they’re very informative, but Pat really does go on a lot!
We’re away for a good couple of hours and pass a few funny things along the way. There’s a house which is selling nuts and they have 2 cars outside their house with amazing number plates: 1NUTER and 2NUTERS…..how fab is that?!?!? They even have a hut that says ‘El Nut House’ – nutty family!
We come across the Ladysmith Trail, which is a decent sized track through a forest. It ends up coming out at a point along the Cluta River and we get chatting some locals fishing – they’re dead nice but a bit on the inbred looking side of things (sorry, but they were!).
It’s been a gorgeous day and so glad that we’re off tomorrow – give my weary body a chance to recover!
Hayley
Saturday 28 March 2009
Sat 28th March - Local Entertainment in Roxburgh
Whooohooo!!! It’s almost the weekend – yeeeha!! Work was good craic, mainly as everyone was in such a good mood due to having 2 days off this weekend – they’re giving us Monday off as last Monday was the Otago local holiday, but the factory had to work due to the volume of apples needing packed, so they said that this Monday could be a day off – nice time to start at the packhouse!
After work, it was a race to the shower – there are two showers outside our room but it’s always busy after work so you have to time it just right. Tonight, we’re off to see ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ at the cinema. Apparently, they show a new film every…..2 weeks…..hahaha - what a hoot! This is proper small town chat isn’t it!? The film is pretty long and a bit bizarre but I enjoyed – not sure about Dave though!
We head back to the hostel and catch up with Tom, Kamila and Aaron. They’re pretty well oiled, enjoying a crate of beer and listening to tunes outside the kitchen! I can’t be bothered to play catch up and I’m pretty damn shattered, so leave Dave to join the party while I hit the sack.
Well, Dave rocks up after 1am and is pretty hammered. He starts telling me about the night out – there are 2 pubs in this village and a group of them went to the one just next door. It sounded like a fun-filled night with Kamila slapping everyone’s arses! They then all went back to the hostel where Pat made an appearance….in her dressing gown……she wasn’t happy that the lads were in the kitchen and wanted to continue their drinking. Apparently, she started harping on about the evils of alcohol and how a Chinese girl died a few years ago due to downing a bottle of vodka, thinking it was water…….what on earth?! Who does that!??! Anyhoo, Dave scarpered after that ‘telling off’ and left Tom and Aaron to the lectures. I find it hilarious that they’re almost 30 and getting told about the evils of drink!! Oh man, she is something else!
Hayley
After work, it was a race to the shower – there are two showers outside our room but it’s always busy after work so you have to time it just right. Tonight, we’re off to see ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ at the cinema. Apparently, they show a new film every…..2 weeks…..hahaha - what a hoot! This is proper small town chat isn’t it!? The film is pretty long and a bit bizarre but I enjoyed – not sure about Dave though!
We head back to the hostel and catch up with Tom, Kamila and Aaron. They’re pretty well oiled, enjoying a crate of beer and listening to tunes outside the kitchen! I can’t be bothered to play catch up and I’m pretty damn shattered, so leave Dave to join the party while I hit the sack.
Well, Dave rocks up after 1am and is pretty hammered. He starts telling me about the night out – there are 2 pubs in this village and a group of them went to the one just next door. It sounded like a fun-filled night with Kamila slapping everyone’s arses! They then all went back to the hostel where Pat made an appearance….in her dressing gown……she wasn’t happy that the lads were in the kitchen and wanted to continue their drinking. Apparently, she started harping on about the evils of alcohol and how a Chinese girl died a few years ago due to downing a bottle of vodka, thinking it was water…….what on earth?! Who does that!??! Anyhoo, Dave scarpered after that ‘telling off’ and left Tom and Aaron to the lectures. I find it hilarious that they’re almost 30 and getting told about the evils of drink!! Oh man, she is something else!
Hayley
Friday 27 March 2009
Fri 27th March - Roxburgh's version of the Royal Variety Show....
The body is starting to get used to all this exercise and I’m slowly coming to grips with the hard graft! Work was quite good today, I changed lanes and it was nice and chilled. The machine also decided to breakdown at various points during the day – haha!!
After work, we get showered and ready to go see the local Variety Show……organised by Pat. Oh my days, this should be fun. Aaron decides to opt out of this gathering, so Dave, Tom and I head to the local cinema where the event is being held. When we rock up the rest of the apple packers are there along with what looks like the whole of Roxburgh. It’s a proper community affair! John from The Commercial has even scrubbed up and is wearing a suit, bless him! Meanwhile, Pat is up at the back of the auditorium organising all the participants! It totally reminds me of a school assembly / play – very random indeed. It’s a bit laughable when the local kids all come up 1 by 1 and play a few pieces on the piano….I mean, come on there’s about 110 of them! Tom even butts in half way through a kid playing and starts applauding – it’s only cos the child stumbled and paused halfway through (how cruel!). There’s even a child and the local pharmacist that get up and perform…..the bagpipes!! Seriously, I kid you not! Oh well, just reminded me of being back on Princes Street!
It got better (aye right) when this dude got up and told us a bit about his extended travels to Vanuatu – part of the Cooke Islands I think…..anyhoo, you could soo tell he was in ‘visiting schools’ mode and was a tad on the ol’ patronising side when telling his tales. He even started harping on about religion and how the people in Vanuatu lived in communities that hated each other, but they learnt in time to get along and blah blah blah, community spirit versus religion schizz…..it was all a bit full on for a ‘Variety Show’. However, Dave managed to find the whole thing hilarious and was biting his hand to stop him from bursting out laughing. We ended up leaving at the interval, mainly as it was 10pm and way past our bedtime!
After work, we get showered and ready to go see the local Variety Show……organised by Pat. Oh my days, this should be fun. Aaron decides to opt out of this gathering, so Dave, Tom and I head to the local cinema where the event is being held. When we rock up the rest of the apple packers are there along with what looks like the whole of Roxburgh. It’s a proper community affair! John from The Commercial has even scrubbed up and is wearing a suit, bless him! Meanwhile, Pat is up at the back of the auditorium organising all the participants! It totally reminds me of a school assembly / play – very random indeed. It’s a bit laughable when the local kids all come up 1 by 1 and play a few pieces on the piano….I mean, come on there’s about 110 of them! Tom even butts in half way through a kid playing and starts applauding – it’s only cos the child stumbled and paused halfway through (how cruel!). There’s even a child and the local pharmacist that get up and perform…..the bagpipes!! Seriously, I kid you not! Oh well, just reminded me of being back on Princes Street!
It got better (aye right) when this dude got up and told us a bit about his extended travels to Vanuatu – part of the Cooke Islands I think…..anyhoo, you could soo tell he was in ‘visiting schools’ mode and was a tad on the ol’ patronising side when telling his tales. He even started harping on about religion and how the people in Vanuatu lived in communities that hated each other, but they learnt in time to get along and blah blah blah, community spirit versus religion schizz…..it was all a bit full on for a ‘Variety Show’. However, Dave managed to find the whole thing hilarious and was biting his hand to stop him from bursting out laughing. We ended up leaving at the interval, mainly as it was 10pm and way past our bedtime!
Hayley
Thursday 26 March 2009
Thur 26th March - Apple madness!
My beloved alarm rings loud and clear at 5.50am and I just don’t want to get out of bed. The room is a tad on the chilly side and my body is soooo sore. Argh, needs must and I drag my ass into the shower. We head down and have our bowl of cereal avec banana and catch up with Sky News. The minibus picks us up and we’re all silent as tiredness takes over.
It’s a bloody hellish day for me as I have over 10 runners!!! Not good chat at all and really stresses me out! I’m sweaty as hell and not amused at all the faff I’ve had to deal with – blimming apples!!! Raaaaaaa!!!!
Anyhoo, as soon as we hit the minibus it’s all over and I don’t have to think about it again….til tomorrow haha. Again, the kitchen is a nightmare and tonight is Cartoon night on the box –The Simpsons, King of the Hill and South Park – whey hey! I collapse after 9pm and hit the hay! What is this like!? I would never be going to bed so early at home –mental stuff!
It’s a bloody hellish day for me as I have over 10 runners!!! Not good chat at all and really stresses me out! I’m sweaty as hell and not amused at all the faff I’ve had to deal with – blimming apples!!! Raaaaaaa!!!!
Anyhoo, as soon as we hit the minibus it’s all over and I don’t have to think about it again….til tomorrow haha. Again, the kitchen is a nightmare and tonight is Cartoon night on the box –The Simpsons, King of the Hill and South Park – whey hey! I collapse after 9pm and hit the hay! What is this like!? I would never be going to bed so early at home –mental stuff!
Hayley
Wednesday 25 March 2009
Wed 25th March -More work, this time with added pain
Ouch…..every muscle in my body aches……how am I going to cope for another 6 weeks – aye carumba. Hey ho, I just keep thinking about the alternative – doing telesales – and that helps me get through the day!When we get to work, we get introduced to Heather who is the Export Manager. She takes us through our Orientation morning and gets us filling out various forms. She then takes us on a tour of the factory – ok, only a day late, but hey its time away from the apples! However, that goes on for half an hour and then its back to those pesky apples.
Hayley
Hayley
Tuesday 24 March 2009
Tue 24th March - Time to Work
So, today’s the day we start work – heehee – how exciting! I’m flipping knackered after getting up at 5.50am and getting sorted. We meet everyone in the kitchen and we get chatting to the other peeps that also work at the factory:
Wiebka – German girl from Bremen, Kamila – Polish but lives in Germany, Rachel – Canadian , Miriam and May – Norwegian girls travelling together. Yay, girls to talk to! We manage to have our pack lunches made and eat our brekkie, before heading out of the door at 7am where we get picked up by a wee minibus.
It’s a 10 minute drive down to Ettrick, to where the factory is: C.A.J Van der Voort. We go into this staff room type area and everyone starts making a brew – haha – there’s quite a few older peeps there and I start to think they must have been working here for decades….bless them! Nowt else to do in this place!
We get introduced to Helen, the packhouse supervisor and she hands us a groovy looking ‘smock’ overall thing and a………HAIRNET!! Even Aaron, who has no hair, has to wear one – hahahahaha. We’re all loving the novelty of it and away we go into the packhouse.
Man alive! What a sight!! It’s HUGE!! There’s a section where all the old gippers are….apparently, they are the Graders…..ok……then there’s about 20 conveyor belts where we each stand – Packers we’re called - and we sort through the hundreds of apples which are being spat out onto the conveyor belt or ‘line’ and then we tray them up and then pack them into cardboard boxes. Simple hey!? It’s amazing to see how it all works and to see how many thousands of apples must be packed and shipped off to the UK.
We split into pairs and take a conveyor belt and start to pack apples! It’s hardcore work but before we know it, it’s our first break at 9am where we get another cuppa and free biccies – awesome! Then it’s back to it. We make it to lunch with only a few dramas – apparently, apples can get stuck on the conveyor belt and it all kicks off! The trays keep coming out but no apples are coming down and that means the full trays at the bottom of the line keep getting shift further and further to the end….until….argh, they’re falling off and it’s all going Pete Tong! Total Apple Nightmare…..
Anyhoo, the day is over at 4.45pm. We made it! Wow, I’ve never ached like this before in my puff. We all stagger back onto the bus and have some apple banter back to the hostel. We head for a post work nap – it was that hard – and we hit the kitchen to cook our cheapy dinner. 9pm comes and we’re shattered so off to bed we go and that goes for all of us! How funny!
Wiebka – German girl from Bremen, Kamila – Polish but lives in Germany, Rachel – Canadian , Miriam and May – Norwegian girls travelling together. Yay, girls to talk to! We manage to have our pack lunches made and eat our brekkie, before heading out of the door at 7am where we get picked up by a wee minibus.
It’s a 10 minute drive down to Ettrick, to where the factory is: C.A.J Van der Voort. We go into this staff room type area and everyone starts making a brew – haha – there’s quite a few older peeps there and I start to think they must have been working here for decades….bless them! Nowt else to do in this place!
We get introduced to Helen, the packhouse supervisor and she hands us a groovy looking ‘smock’ overall thing and a………HAIRNET!! Even Aaron, who has no hair, has to wear one – hahahahaha. We’re all loving the novelty of it and away we go into the packhouse.
Man alive! What a sight!! It’s HUGE!! There’s a section where all the old gippers are….apparently, they are the Graders…..ok……then there’s about 20 conveyor belts where we each stand – Packers we’re called - and we sort through the hundreds of apples which are being spat out onto the conveyor belt or ‘line’ and then we tray them up and then pack them into cardboard boxes. Simple hey!? It’s amazing to see how it all works and to see how many thousands of apples must be packed and shipped off to the UK.
We split into pairs and take a conveyor belt and start to pack apples! It’s hardcore work but before we know it, it’s our first break at 9am where we get another cuppa and free biccies – awesome! Then it’s back to it. We make it to lunch with only a few dramas – apparently, apples can get stuck on the conveyor belt and it all kicks off! The trays keep coming out but no apples are coming down and that means the full trays at the bottom of the line keep getting shift further and further to the end….until….argh, they’re falling off and it’s all going Pete Tong! Total Apple Nightmare…..
Anyhoo, the day is over at 4.45pm. We made it! Wow, I’ve never ached like this before in my puff. We all stagger back onto the bus and have some apple banter back to the hostel. We head for a post work nap – it was that hard – and we hit the kitchen to cook our cheapy dinner. 9pm comes and we’re shattered so off to bed we go and that goes for all of us! How funny!
Hayley
Monday 23 March 2009
Mon 23rd March - off to Roxburgh!
So, its bye bye Queenstown. We had some good times here, but unfortunately this place couldn’t give us a darn job so it’s off to the middle of nowhere…..Roxburgh! We get the bus at 9.45am and we all manage to check out and get on the bus in plenty of time, despite certain people being a little fuzzy around the edges!
It takes about 2 hours to get to Roxburgh and it’s a tiny, tiny place! We’re staying at The Commercial Hotel / Backpackers hostel on Scotland Street – haha – how random! Oh and look, there’s a Teviot Street and a Cheviot Place – this place is a mini Scottish borders place! I’m not sure what our accommodation actually wants to be…..a hostel or a hotel – but anyway, it looks quite good from the outside and we get introduced to Pat (one of the owners).
First impressions, she seems quite nervous, speaking very quickly and yittering away about all sorts of information – bit full on really! She wants the rent upfront, which is fair enough but doesn’t accept credit cards and only takes cash or NZ cards……..argh!!!!!! We haven’t been paid yet so there’s no money in the BNZ account – oh well, we’ll just go to an ATM (sorry, cash point).
Bad news….there isn’t an ATM in this tiny village. Hmm…ok….we get told all about the history of there being an ATM many years ago but then it got taken away, but there is one in the pub next door but that only takes NZ cards….yabber yabber yabber….she don’t half talk a lot…..however, there is a cash point in Alexandra which takes all other cards. Phew! Okdoke, ‘how long will it take to get there?’ we ask. ‘ah, about half an hour by car. It’s 40km from here’…..GULP…..’ok, when’s the next bus there?’ we ask. ‘Oh, there isn’t one. But don’t worry, we have a great system which works all of the time.’ Cool, I think, she must be getting us a lift or putting on a minibus or summat……and at that point, she pulls out 3 pieces of cardboard stating ‘ALEXANDRA PLEASE!’ on one side and ‘ROXBURGH PLEASE!’ on the other side…..eeeek…..is she implying what I think she is?!
We have to………HITCH-HIKE there……….what would my folks say if they knew?! I mean, come on!! We get brought up saying in no uncertain circumstances must you take a lift from strangers, talk to strangers and get into dodgy cars……argh…….get a grip Hayley, if this is the way, then it must be ok…..plus I have Aaron and Dave to fend off any baddies…..hmmmmm.
So, we dump our rucksacks and hit the street out the front. It’s just after midday and we each take turns holding the notice to the passing drivers. I start to get a right sinking feeling after the first hour, as no one has stopped! A few have waved and acknowledged us but still, no one has stopped!! RAAAAA!!!! Will we ever get there? What happens if no one stops!?? Panic is slowly rising.
Pat comes out and I think ‘yay, she feels sorry for us and is going to give us a lift in’ but alas no. She says that we should split up!!! What on earth!? She tells Aaron to go up the way and us to go down the end of the street as no one would pick up 3 hitchers at once. Great! Well, I tell Dave in no uncertain terms am I hitching by myself and just stick with him walking for a good 10 minutes out of the village.
As we’re waiting, I look at the surroundings and see a Baptist Church and I silently say ‘Please dear God, make someone stop and give us a lift. I promise not to slag off telesales reps again and will let them spraff their script to me on the phone instead of hanging up on them. Oh and I will pick up hitch-hikers back home if they need a lift, instead of driving by – only if they’re backpackers tho…..’ and as if by magic, a car pulls up!! Weird huh!? I have never been so grateful to see someone! It’s a middle-aged couple from Wales who are doing a tour of New Zealand – bless the Welsh! I now have a restored faith in humanity and enjoy the ride to Alexandra.
They’re a dead nice couple and we tell them all about our travels and how we’ve been made redundant so making the best out of a bad situation. They drop us off and we wish them happy holidays. Alexandra is a tiny town and I recognise it from last year when we stopped with Dave’s parents. I bought my hoody here – random! However, it’s a local holiday so everything is shut – argh! However, there are numerous cash points and so we get enough out for rent for 2 weeks (as we find out we get paid every 2 wks) and we quickly check our emails before hitching a lift back.
We bump into Aaron, who managed to get a lift off some Maori dude. Again, we split up when trying to hitch again; however, I aint as down as before. I now know people do actually stop for backpackers! The sun is belting down and we’re topping up our tan whilst waiting for a lift. This time, it only takes about 45minutes and we get a lift from a local guy in a yute. As we drive over the bridge, we see Aaron still waiting so ‘Bruce’ pulls in and gives him a lift too! The Roxburgh Express he says – yup, it sure is!
All is good and we head into the ‘hotel’ to pay and finally check in. We get introduced to Pat’s husband John, who looks very much like Dennis Hopper – seriously! He’s much quieter than Pat but still very friendly and likes the fact we live in Edinburgh as they went there last year. We get shown around the place, which is massive including a huge sweeping staircase. Dave and I have our own room –yay – and it’s sooooooooo spacious!! I mean, we have a a cupboard and drawers and everything!! Even a TV mounted on the wall – sweeeeeeeeet!!! The kitchen is a fair size and doubles up as a living room as well – all very comfy looking. We get handed a yellow box which contains all of our crockery needs and he leaves us to it.
As we’re on major budget from now until we get to Auckland, we decide to buy our groceries as a couple and leave Aaron to his own devices. He has too much of a love for onions, to be fair – really, he cooks them with everything!! Funny boy! So, it’s going to be pasta and sauce every night and cheese sarnies for work everyday – bring back the student days! We get chatting to a lad, Tom who is in Aaron’s room, who’s also starting at the apple packing factory tomorrow as well. He’s from Manchester and unfortunately, supports Man Utd…..oh well, it breaks the ice when I start saying 4-1 in his face – haha. He also tells me that Jade Goody died today and its all over the NZ new…..crazy stuff.
Every one in the hostel seems dead nice with a lot of peeps smiling and saying hi to us. I notice a lot of Japanese people in the kitchen, cooking yummy looking dishes – there’s even a rice steamer machine here – nice one! It’s all very homely and we head to bed early as the bus is picking us up at 7am – eeeeeeek – so to ensure we get a shower and breakfast, we should be getting up around 5.50am. Just like being back at home!
It takes about 2 hours to get to Roxburgh and it’s a tiny, tiny place! We’re staying at The Commercial Hotel / Backpackers hostel on Scotland Street – haha – how random! Oh and look, there’s a Teviot Street and a Cheviot Place – this place is a mini Scottish borders place! I’m not sure what our accommodation actually wants to be…..a hostel or a hotel – but anyway, it looks quite good from the outside and we get introduced to Pat (one of the owners).
First impressions, she seems quite nervous, speaking very quickly and yittering away about all sorts of information – bit full on really! She wants the rent upfront, which is fair enough but doesn’t accept credit cards and only takes cash or NZ cards……..argh!!!!!! We haven’t been paid yet so there’s no money in the BNZ account – oh well, we’ll just go to an ATM (sorry, cash point).
Bad news….there isn’t an ATM in this tiny village. Hmm…ok….we get told all about the history of there being an ATM many years ago but then it got taken away, but there is one in the pub next door but that only takes NZ cards….yabber yabber yabber….she don’t half talk a lot…..however, there is a cash point in Alexandra which takes all other cards. Phew! Okdoke, ‘how long will it take to get there?’ we ask. ‘ah, about half an hour by car. It’s 40km from here’…..GULP…..’ok, when’s the next bus there?’ we ask. ‘Oh, there isn’t one. But don’t worry, we have a great system which works all of the time.’ Cool, I think, she must be getting us a lift or putting on a minibus or summat……and at that point, she pulls out 3 pieces of cardboard stating ‘ALEXANDRA PLEASE!’ on one side and ‘ROXBURGH PLEASE!’ on the other side…..eeeek…..is she implying what I think she is?!
We have to………HITCH-HIKE there……….what would my folks say if they knew?! I mean, come on!! We get brought up saying in no uncertain circumstances must you take a lift from strangers, talk to strangers and get into dodgy cars……argh…….get a grip Hayley, if this is the way, then it must be ok…..plus I have Aaron and Dave to fend off any baddies…..hmmmmm.
So, we dump our rucksacks and hit the street out the front. It’s just after midday and we each take turns holding the notice to the passing drivers. I start to get a right sinking feeling after the first hour, as no one has stopped! A few have waved and acknowledged us but still, no one has stopped!! RAAAAA!!!! Will we ever get there? What happens if no one stops!?? Panic is slowly rising.
Pat comes out and I think ‘yay, she feels sorry for us and is going to give us a lift in’ but alas no. She says that we should split up!!! What on earth!? She tells Aaron to go up the way and us to go down the end of the street as no one would pick up 3 hitchers at once. Great! Well, I tell Dave in no uncertain terms am I hitching by myself and just stick with him walking for a good 10 minutes out of the village.
As we’re waiting, I look at the surroundings and see a Baptist Church and I silently say ‘Please dear God, make someone stop and give us a lift. I promise not to slag off telesales reps again and will let them spraff their script to me on the phone instead of hanging up on them. Oh and I will pick up hitch-hikers back home if they need a lift, instead of driving by – only if they’re backpackers tho…..’ and as if by magic, a car pulls up!! Weird huh!? I have never been so grateful to see someone! It’s a middle-aged couple from Wales who are doing a tour of New Zealand – bless the Welsh! I now have a restored faith in humanity and enjoy the ride to Alexandra.
They’re a dead nice couple and we tell them all about our travels and how we’ve been made redundant so making the best out of a bad situation. They drop us off and we wish them happy holidays. Alexandra is a tiny town and I recognise it from last year when we stopped with Dave’s parents. I bought my hoody here – random! However, it’s a local holiday so everything is shut – argh! However, there are numerous cash points and so we get enough out for rent for 2 weeks (as we find out we get paid every 2 wks) and we quickly check our emails before hitching a lift back.
We bump into Aaron, who managed to get a lift off some Maori dude. Again, we split up when trying to hitch again; however, I aint as down as before. I now know people do actually stop for backpackers! The sun is belting down and we’re topping up our tan whilst waiting for a lift. This time, it only takes about 45minutes and we get a lift from a local guy in a yute. As we drive over the bridge, we see Aaron still waiting so ‘Bruce’ pulls in and gives him a lift too! The Roxburgh Express he says – yup, it sure is!
All is good and we head into the ‘hotel’ to pay and finally check in. We get introduced to Pat’s husband John, who looks very much like Dennis Hopper – seriously! He’s much quieter than Pat but still very friendly and likes the fact we live in Edinburgh as they went there last year. We get shown around the place, which is massive including a huge sweeping staircase. Dave and I have our own room –yay – and it’s sooooooooo spacious!! I mean, we have a a cupboard and drawers and everything!! Even a TV mounted on the wall – sweeeeeeeeet!!! The kitchen is a fair size and doubles up as a living room as well – all very comfy looking. We get handed a yellow box which contains all of our crockery needs and he leaves us to it.
As we’re on major budget from now until we get to Auckland, we decide to buy our groceries as a couple and leave Aaron to his own devices. He has too much of a love for onions, to be fair – really, he cooks them with everything!! Funny boy! So, it’s going to be pasta and sauce every night and cheese sarnies for work everyday – bring back the student days! We get chatting to a lad, Tom who is in Aaron’s room, who’s also starting at the apple packing factory tomorrow as well. He’s from Manchester and unfortunately, supports Man Utd…..oh well, it breaks the ice when I start saying 4-1 in his face – haha. He also tells me that Jade Goody died today and its all over the NZ new…..crazy stuff.
Every one in the hostel seems dead nice with a lot of peeps smiling and saying hi to us. I notice a lot of Japanese people in the kitchen, cooking yummy looking dishes – there’s even a rice steamer machine here – nice one! It’s all very homely and we head to bed early as the bus is picking us up at 7am – eeeeeeek – so to ensure we get a shower and breakfast, we should be getting up around 5.50am. Just like being back at home!
Hayley
Sunday 22 March 2009
Sun 22nd March - Happy Birthday Aaron!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AARON! You old fart!! Haha!
As I thought, the boys did go out last night and they’re all worse for wear today. Grrr…..I head for the internet and start ringing home and filling them in on all of our shenanigans. Aaron and I are moving into Dave’s room today, so we both had to check out and leave our bags at reception – bit of a faff but hey, at least we’re all in the same place tonight.
Once the boys are up and functioning, we head for a mighty FERGBURGER. This place is THE place to get a burger in Queenstown. It’s a wee burger bar and they just sell an array of different burgers and they taste ‘oh so good!’. Dave opts for a CockadoodleOink burger (chicken burger with bacon), Aaron has a Fergburger with cheese (normal cheese burger) and I have a Sweet Julie Burger (chicken breast with sweet chilli sauce) – WOW!! They are HUGE and dishlicious!
After being oh-so-stuffed, we head to watch the rugger – 6 nations - and Scotland get beat by England – tee hee! Dave and I book the bus to Roxburgh for tomorrow morning – tad dangerous as we’re off out with Ryan and his missus tonight….ach well, I’m sure we’ll survive!
Ryan and Jill pick us up after 8pm and take us to their hotel for drinks at their bit. Man alive, this is a nice apartment! Damn them for not being on a budget – haha! We’re just jealous! After a couple of hours catching up and finding about Ryan’s ladyfriend, we head into town. It’s a chilly walk – again, just reminds me of being out at home! However, you can go out here in just a hoody and jeans and no one bats an eyelid – great success!
We go to Altitude bar where we meet the crazy Swedish boys (the ones staying in Dave’s room) – Jasper and Mike – and we start to get Aaron more and more drunk as it’s his birthday! This happens rather quickly actually and he ends up making a beeline for bed just after 1am – lightweight again! Must be his age! The rest of us head for some after pub nosh……argh, another Fergburger – oh well, we justify it by not being spoilt for the next month as we’ll be packing apples and will have no time to cook nice food!
Sad to see Ryan and Jill go again, but at least we had a top night in Queenstown with them. We’ll just have to go back to Sydders and see them back there again! When we get back to the room, we find a drunken Aaron comatosed in his bunk bed……and the dutch lad informed us that he got into bed naked –thank god I wasn’t there to see that! Fun times!
As I thought, the boys did go out last night and they’re all worse for wear today. Grrr…..I head for the internet and start ringing home and filling them in on all of our shenanigans. Aaron and I are moving into Dave’s room today, so we both had to check out and leave our bags at reception – bit of a faff but hey, at least we’re all in the same place tonight.
Once the boys are up and functioning, we head for a mighty FERGBURGER. This place is THE place to get a burger in Queenstown. It’s a wee burger bar and they just sell an array of different burgers and they taste ‘oh so good!’. Dave opts for a CockadoodleOink burger (chicken burger with bacon), Aaron has a Fergburger with cheese (normal cheese burger) and I have a Sweet Julie Burger (chicken breast with sweet chilli sauce) – WOW!! They are HUGE and dishlicious!
After being oh-so-stuffed, we head to watch the rugger – 6 nations - and Scotland get beat by England – tee hee! Dave and I book the bus to Roxburgh for tomorrow morning – tad dangerous as we’re off out with Ryan and his missus tonight….ach well, I’m sure we’ll survive!
Ryan and Jill pick us up after 8pm and take us to their hotel for drinks at their bit. Man alive, this is a nice apartment! Damn them for not being on a budget – haha! We’re just jealous! After a couple of hours catching up and finding about Ryan’s ladyfriend, we head into town. It’s a chilly walk – again, just reminds me of being out at home! However, you can go out here in just a hoody and jeans and no one bats an eyelid – great success!
We go to Altitude bar where we meet the crazy Swedish boys (the ones staying in Dave’s room) – Jasper and Mike – and we start to get Aaron more and more drunk as it’s his birthday! This happens rather quickly actually and he ends up making a beeline for bed just after 1am – lightweight again! Must be his age! The rest of us head for some after pub nosh……argh, another Fergburger – oh well, we justify it by not being spoilt for the next month as we’ll be packing apples and will have no time to cook nice food!
Sad to see Ryan and Jill go again, but at least we had a top night in Queenstown with them. We’ll just have to go back to Sydders and see them back there again! When we get back to the room, we find a drunken Aaron comatosed in his bunk bed……and the dutch lad informed us that he got into bed naked –thank god I wasn’t there to see that! Fun times!
Hayley
Saturday 21 March 2009
Sat 21st March - BBQ fun!
After a decent lie-in, we all have brekkie – well, probably brunch by the time we’re all sorted. We discuss the various antics from last night and discover Aaron has the quietest room out all 3 of us. He has no shenanigans going on and actually gets a decent night’s sleep. Boo to him!
Dave and I head to go pick up our bank cards from the BNZ branch, as we got a voicemail on the mobile saying they had arrived. However, when we get to the bank no one can find them. Hmmmm…all a bit weird especially as they say its not their policy to phone customers when their cards arrive. The cards should just be in the branch in 2 days time. I start to get a bit narked at this situation as no one is taking ownership and the old biddies are all like ‘ooooh, this is really peculiar. I wonder who left the message’ and ‘well, it can’t be us as we never ring customers. This is unheard of. I wonder if ‘such n such’ knows about this new protocol’ – ARGH – I don’t care, just stop spraffing and look for the damn cards!!!
In the end, they cancel these cards and issue standard bank ones to us. This means that they don’t have our name on the actual card but we can still use it as a debit card and do everything as normal…..er hello!? Why the hell couldn’t we have got these anyway!? This makes no sense!!! After all that faff, we hit the supermarket and decide to have a BBQ at the lakeside, seeing as it’s a gorge day.
The boys are in their element again – man + fire = boys heaven. The BBQ isn’t your typical looking BBQ – it’s like a huge stone open fire thingy with a wee chimney. Dave and Aaron head into the woods to get firewood and start creating. It takes a while to get the blaze going but eventually it’s a roaring success (yup, I know, I’m a comic genius). We have an array of steak, sausages and corn on the cob – AMAZING!! It’s a shame when the sun goes down and it’s a tad on the chilly side. Oh well, it’s just like being back home with a BBQ!
I’m shattered so head to bed really early – 10pm, shock horror – and I leave the boys to it. I have a bad feeling that they’re off out as Aaron turns 29 at midnight….
Dave and I head to go pick up our bank cards from the BNZ branch, as we got a voicemail on the mobile saying they had arrived. However, when we get to the bank no one can find them. Hmmmm…all a bit weird especially as they say its not their policy to phone customers when their cards arrive. The cards should just be in the branch in 2 days time. I start to get a bit narked at this situation as no one is taking ownership and the old biddies are all like ‘ooooh, this is really peculiar. I wonder who left the message’ and ‘well, it can’t be us as we never ring customers. This is unheard of. I wonder if ‘such n such’ knows about this new protocol’ – ARGH – I don’t care, just stop spraffing and look for the damn cards!!!
In the end, they cancel these cards and issue standard bank ones to us. This means that they don’t have our name on the actual card but we can still use it as a debit card and do everything as normal…..er hello!? Why the hell couldn’t we have got these anyway!? This makes no sense!!! After all that faff, we hit the supermarket and decide to have a BBQ at the lakeside, seeing as it’s a gorge day.
The boys are in their element again – man + fire = boys heaven. The BBQ isn’t your typical looking BBQ – it’s like a huge stone open fire thingy with a wee chimney. Dave and Aaron head into the woods to get firewood and start creating. It takes a while to get the blaze going but eventually it’s a roaring success (yup, I know, I’m a comic genius). We have an array of steak, sausages and corn on the cob – AMAZING!! It’s a shame when the sun goes down and it’s a tad on the chilly side. Oh well, it’s just like being back home with a BBQ!
I’m shattered so head to bed really early – 10pm, shock horror – and I leave the boys to it. I have a bad feeling that they’re off out as Aaron turns 29 at midnight….
Hayley
Fri 20th March - Let crying teenagers be!
Ugh, it’s gone 10am and I’m still so knackered! Luckily, the majority of the room are all away – so I’ll never know which couple was ‘at it’ and which folk were supposed to be in my dorm! The shame of it all! I notice there are two girls in the bunk opposite me and I get chatting to them. They’re hung-over to hell and they eventually apologise for the rabble last night.
I meet the boys for breakfast and we decide to head up to the top of the gondola…..by walking it…..hmmm….methinks Hayley is going to go into anti-walking mode and start moaning a lot!
We walk alongside the lake and head past the One Mile Powerhouse and up towards the gondola. It takes us just over 2hours and its pretty hard going at times and as usual, Hayley as some episodes along the way – mainly aimed at Dave and his patronising “Come on, you can do it!’ ARGH SHUT IT!!!
Anyhoo, we managed it and feels good looking down at the whole of Queenstown down below. We have a well deserved coffee and roll in the café and have a look at the luge and the Ledge Bungy. It’s hilarious watching all the peeps do their bungy jump, especially this wee Chinese dude. He takes a running jump and does the arms flailing around look – bless him! He looks like he does his back in as he just lies there, waiting to be pulled back up. However, he’s all good and was just enjoying the feeling of being suspended up in the air, haha.
We walk back down to the bottom, which is slightly tough on the old knees but not half as bad as going up the way! Once back down, everyone has a shower and wee snooze before hitting happy hour at the Irish pub. The night actually turns out to be a bit of sesh as we’re all celebrating not having to be telesales reps and looking forward to the apple packing. We visit the World bar, Frasers on the wharf and Altitude back at Base. There’s a pole in Frasers which Aaron and Dave start strutting their stuff on…..oh deary me…..and in World bar some drunken ass decides to spew on both me and Dave!!! ARGH!!!!! How hideous!!!! That has never happened to me before and I feel proper violated!! I scrub my arm raw and hope I never this that boy again or he’ll get the ‘Hayley Rage!’The night ends up with me consoling some emotional wreck of a girl in Dave’s room. Lucky for Dave, he’s sharing a dorm with three 19year olds from Surrey and 4 young Dutch lads. However, tonight it’s one of the girls’ 19th birthday and she got too wrecked and got chucked out of the club. Her mates took her home where she collapsed into bed. Dave walks in at 3am and she’s awake and balling her eyes out, screaming that her mates are evil bitches and that their friendships are over. He can’t cope with girlie tears, as he’s a bloke so it’s Hayley to the rescue. I try to console this child for the good part of an hour, even speaking to her boyfriend in the UK (on her mobile –oh dear, she’s gonna regret that, when the bill comes in – nah maybe not, as the parentals probably pay for it!), but she doesn’t stop crying and even says to her boyf ‘I’ve got strangers stroking my hair and I don’t know where my real friends are’. What?! How ungrateful. Sod this for a lark so I head to bed – ugh, it’s now past 4am...
I meet the boys for breakfast and we decide to head up to the top of the gondola…..by walking it…..hmmm….methinks Hayley is going to go into anti-walking mode and start moaning a lot!
We walk alongside the lake and head past the One Mile Powerhouse and up towards the gondola. It takes us just over 2hours and its pretty hard going at times and as usual, Hayley as some episodes along the way – mainly aimed at Dave and his patronising “Come on, you can do it!’ ARGH SHUT IT!!!
Anyhoo, we managed it and feels good looking down at the whole of Queenstown down below. We have a well deserved coffee and roll in the café and have a look at the luge and the Ledge Bungy. It’s hilarious watching all the peeps do their bungy jump, especially this wee Chinese dude. He takes a running jump and does the arms flailing around look – bless him! He looks like he does his back in as he just lies there, waiting to be pulled back up. However, he’s all good and was just enjoying the feeling of being suspended up in the air, haha.
We walk back down to the bottom, which is slightly tough on the old knees but not half as bad as going up the way! Once back down, everyone has a shower and wee snooze before hitting happy hour at the Irish pub. The night actually turns out to be a bit of sesh as we’re all celebrating not having to be telesales reps and looking forward to the apple packing. We visit the World bar, Frasers on the wharf and Altitude back at Base. There’s a pole in Frasers which Aaron and Dave start strutting their stuff on…..oh deary me…..and in World bar some drunken ass decides to spew on both me and Dave!!! ARGH!!!!! How hideous!!!! That has never happened to me before and I feel proper violated!! I scrub my arm raw and hope I never this that boy again or he’ll get the ‘Hayley Rage!’The night ends up with me consoling some emotional wreck of a girl in Dave’s room. Lucky for Dave, he’s sharing a dorm with three 19year olds from Surrey and 4 young Dutch lads. However, tonight it’s one of the girls’ 19th birthday and she got too wrecked and got chucked out of the club. Her mates took her home where she collapsed into bed. Dave walks in at 3am and she’s awake and balling her eyes out, screaming that her mates are evil bitches and that their friendships are over. He can’t cope with girlie tears, as he’s a bloke so it’s Hayley to the rescue. I try to console this child for the good part of an hour, even speaking to her boyfriend in the UK (on her mobile –oh dear, she’s gonna regret that, when the bill comes in – nah maybe not, as the parentals probably pay for it!), but she doesn’t stop crying and even says to her boyf ‘I’ve got strangers stroking my hair and I don’t know where my real friends are’. What?! How ungrateful. Sod this for a lark so I head to bed – ugh, it’s now past 4am...
Hayley
Friday 20 March 2009
Thur 19th March - Saved from the telesales nightmare
So we’re up bright and early, eating breakfast when the mobile answer phone message tone beeps…..it's from one of the fruit picking agencies!!! YAY!!!! It’s from a lady called Toni who is based 1.5hrs away from Queenstown and said to ring for further info. I get on the blower ASAP and find out the details – its packing apples, not picking them - we work 9hrs a day, 6 days a week getting paid $12.50 an hour. Also, the accommodation is $13 a night (we’re paying double in Q.Town) and there’s transport to the factory everyday! I tell the good news to the guys and they’re up for it. The woman wants us to start on Tuesday so that means we can still meet up with the Daniels and his lady at the weekend, before heading for some hard graft! How darn exciting! And no telesales shenanigans –yay!!! Relief doesn’t even cover it…..
Wow –so exciting!! Plus, we will actually save money due to the uber cheap accommodation and working all the hours under the sun – whoohooo!!! Bring on LA! We decide to go to the telesales job – for a laugh – and also, we have nowt else to do here. Hmmmm….why cant we just not!? Anyhoo, I’m overruled and we head to the agency for 2.45pm.
Crazy agency woman is there, along with 4 other peeps –all from the UK. She takes us around the corner to the call centre and it’s a wee open plan office, just at the foot of the gondola. The views are stunning! However, we aint here to gawk out of the window….we’re here to SELL….er….I mean, not sell…..let me explain:
Our training comprised of this aussie chick called Naomi, introducing herself and then explaining about the company we’re working for. Basically, it sounded like a family business that gets various contracts from companies to ‘sell’ their product over the phone. Their products vary from (get this):
· Holiday offers (timeshares)
· Investment Seminars (what the?!)
· How to win on the Stock market Seminars (yeah, real wise at the mo)
· Free Line Rental on Go Mobile (hmmm…that old chestnut)
When she’s spraffing all of this and emphasising that we are just ‘booking agents’ and we’re NOT selling stuff to these punters (aye right) I start to get a sinking feeling in my stomach. The script is laughable – something along the lines of:
“Hi, it’s Hayley from FutureFirst. How are you today? Just a quick call and let me stress I’m not trying to sell you anything!!! I’m just calling regarding the 1% drop in interest rates in mortgages recently. We’re holding successful presentations in your area to help you save money…..if you turn up, there’s a $50 Bunnings voucher for you to spend….no obligation….oh and definitely not selling you anything…..oh and just to check that you and your spouse own your own home, earn more than $80,000 a year and have more than 2 Years left in your current employment…..blah blah blah…..what do you mean you’re not interested?!”
ARGH!!!!!!! This is sooooooo not for me……the others in the room start to ask questions to Naomi and one that strikes a chord is ‘so, what are we selling to the customer?’ and she is adamant that we’re only getting them to turn up to a seminar and we’re definitely not selling anything at that point…..ah right, so the dude at the seminar will then rope ‘em in and make them invest in shite that people don’t need?! Huh huh!? What is going on? It’s so not the right time to abuse people and their money – I am hating this and haven’t even called my first person yet!!
So, after our 1hour ‘training’ we get put at a computer and away we go……it’s outbound calling people in Brisbane…haha – so I’m not even calling kiwis?! How very random!! I took about 40 odd calls – one beep after the other – and completed 1 sale!! HAHA!!! I think the guy that agreed to it was some lonely fecker that didn’t have a life…bless him….one other highlight was me spraffing through my script a d then I hear this: “er……I’m a kid! Let me get my mom!’ Haha, what hoot…..well, that was about where the banter ended. The rest of the replies were ‘NOT INTERESTED!’ and ‘Thanks Hayley, I’m fine. Not interested in what you’re selling’. It would be ok if you just went ‘oh, ok, thanks for your time’, but Naomi bintface doesn’t want any of us to hang up! We have to keep them on the phone until we ‘seal the deal’ – ugh, I hate sales people!!
Anyhoo, we finally get a 15minute break at 6ish and Dave goes ‘Get your stuff. We’re leaving!’ hahaha – the first time I’ve ever walked out during a shift – go us! We tell the bint outside in front of everyone and she is proper shocked! She even has the balls to say ‘what?! Why? You just got a sale!’ er….what?! Jog on…..we left Aaron there, looking a bit bewildered but I’m sure he’s secretly enjoying it – it’s a chance for him to spraff to randoms –he loves that!
So, off Dave and I go – with such a feeling of relief! We can’t stop chattering to each other about how pish that was! We go for a nice walk and play on the swings – haha – thanking our lucky stars that we have this fruit packing to go to! Go me, on that one by the way!!
After a mooch, we have dinner at the bar in BASE and have a few drinks in an Irish pub – Pog Mahone – and wonder if Aaron has lasted the whole shift. We wander past the pizza shop and spy the couple from the job today. They said it didn’t get any better and that the whole group only got 3 sales all day!! How the hell do you reach those targets of 20 plus?! Oh and they said Aaron walked out at the second break and the woman was all like ‘please! no one else leave!!’ Just as we mention his name, Aaron appears at the pizza shop haha! After more of a chin wag – we wish the Brit couple good luck with the telesales job and hope it gets better….poor things!
We all retire to our separate rooms –yup, we’re all in different dorms in BASE due to the place being mobbed. Damn those Kiwi Experience kiddies! Wonder who’s in my room? I’m on the top bunk, above a Brazilian dude and there’s no one else about – good stuff, off to sleep…………………
Or not as the case may be…………
It’s 2am and I’m woken up by the sounds of an amorous couple……………WHAT ON EARTH!? I’m in a DORM room and there’s people ‘AT IT’ in the room!!!!!!!!! How uncouth!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m disgusted to my inner core and I’m so glad when the rest of the rabble come bouncing in after 3am…..god knows who is actually supposed to be in the room as each of the peeps in there have all PULLED!!! What is going on!?
The funniest thing happens when there’s a knock at the door – and it’s a girl (Louise I think) asking where Matt is…..oh and guess who Matt is? He’s the one that was making ‘at it’ noises with a random an hour ago?! Oh and isn’t Matt still in bed with this new random!? Haha, this is going to be amusing…..this Louise girl grabs him and literally drags him from his bunk man alive lady, have some respect for yourself! This guy is a tool!! She takes him outside for a talking to: ‘where did you get to? Did you get chucked out? Why couldn’t I find you?’. When this is all going on, the floozy random girl climbs out of his bed to the hysterics of the others in the room and starts saying ‘oh no! Where can I hide? She’s going to kill me!’. She then climbs into ANOTHER bed with some other dude…..oh me, oh my! What is with these kids on the Kiwi Experience?! Horny devils!!
I think I crash out eventually and make sure the earplugs are rammed in well and truly…..
Wow –so exciting!! Plus, we will actually save money due to the uber cheap accommodation and working all the hours under the sun – whoohooo!!! Bring on LA! We decide to go to the telesales job – for a laugh – and also, we have nowt else to do here. Hmmmm….why cant we just not!? Anyhoo, I’m overruled and we head to the agency for 2.45pm.
Crazy agency woman is there, along with 4 other peeps –all from the UK. She takes us around the corner to the call centre and it’s a wee open plan office, just at the foot of the gondola. The views are stunning! However, we aint here to gawk out of the window….we’re here to SELL….er….I mean, not sell…..let me explain:
Our training comprised of this aussie chick called Naomi, introducing herself and then explaining about the company we’re working for. Basically, it sounded like a family business that gets various contracts from companies to ‘sell’ their product over the phone. Their products vary from (get this):
· Holiday offers (timeshares)
· Investment Seminars (what the?!)
· How to win on the Stock market Seminars (yeah, real wise at the mo)
· Free Line Rental on Go Mobile (hmmm…that old chestnut)
When she’s spraffing all of this and emphasising that we are just ‘booking agents’ and we’re NOT selling stuff to these punters (aye right) I start to get a sinking feeling in my stomach. The script is laughable – something along the lines of:
“Hi, it’s Hayley from FutureFirst. How are you today? Just a quick call and let me stress I’m not trying to sell you anything!!! I’m just calling regarding the 1% drop in interest rates in mortgages recently. We’re holding successful presentations in your area to help you save money…..if you turn up, there’s a $50 Bunnings voucher for you to spend….no obligation….oh and definitely not selling you anything…..oh and just to check that you and your spouse own your own home, earn more than $80,000 a year and have more than 2 Years left in your current employment…..blah blah blah…..what do you mean you’re not interested?!”
ARGH!!!!!!! This is sooooooo not for me……the others in the room start to ask questions to Naomi and one that strikes a chord is ‘so, what are we selling to the customer?’ and she is adamant that we’re only getting them to turn up to a seminar and we’re definitely not selling anything at that point…..ah right, so the dude at the seminar will then rope ‘em in and make them invest in shite that people don’t need?! Huh huh!? What is going on? It’s so not the right time to abuse people and their money – I am hating this and haven’t even called my first person yet!!
So, after our 1hour ‘training’ we get put at a computer and away we go……it’s outbound calling people in Brisbane…haha – so I’m not even calling kiwis?! How very random!! I took about 40 odd calls – one beep after the other – and completed 1 sale!! HAHA!!! I think the guy that agreed to it was some lonely fecker that didn’t have a life…bless him….one other highlight was me spraffing through my script a d then I hear this: “er……I’m a kid! Let me get my mom!’ Haha, what hoot…..well, that was about where the banter ended. The rest of the replies were ‘NOT INTERESTED!’ and ‘Thanks Hayley, I’m fine. Not interested in what you’re selling’. It would be ok if you just went ‘oh, ok, thanks for your time’, but Naomi bintface doesn’t want any of us to hang up! We have to keep them on the phone until we ‘seal the deal’ – ugh, I hate sales people!!
Anyhoo, we finally get a 15minute break at 6ish and Dave goes ‘Get your stuff. We’re leaving!’ hahaha – the first time I’ve ever walked out during a shift – go us! We tell the bint outside in front of everyone and she is proper shocked! She even has the balls to say ‘what?! Why? You just got a sale!’ er….what?! Jog on…..we left Aaron there, looking a bit bewildered but I’m sure he’s secretly enjoying it – it’s a chance for him to spraff to randoms –he loves that!
So, off Dave and I go – with such a feeling of relief! We can’t stop chattering to each other about how pish that was! We go for a nice walk and play on the swings – haha – thanking our lucky stars that we have this fruit packing to go to! Go me, on that one by the way!!
After a mooch, we have dinner at the bar in BASE and have a few drinks in an Irish pub – Pog Mahone – and wonder if Aaron has lasted the whole shift. We wander past the pizza shop and spy the couple from the job today. They said it didn’t get any better and that the whole group only got 3 sales all day!! How the hell do you reach those targets of 20 plus?! Oh and they said Aaron walked out at the second break and the woman was all like ‘please! no one else leave!!’ Just as we mention his name, Aaron appears at the pizza shop haha! After more of a chin wag – we wish the Brit couple good luck with the telesales job and hope it gets better….poor things!
We all retire to our separate rooms –yup, we’re all in different dorms in BASE due to the place being mobbed. Damn those Kiwi Experience kiddies! Wonder who’s in my room? I’m on the top bunk, above a Brazilian dude and there’s no one else about – good stuff, off to sleep…………………
Or not as the case may be…………
It’s 2am and I’m woken up by the sounds of an amorous couple……………WHAT ON EARTH!? I’m in a DORM room and there’s people ‘AT IT’ in the room!!!!!!!!! How uncouth!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m disgusted to my inner core and I’m so glad when the rest of the rabble come bouncing in after 3am…..god knows who is actually supposed to be in the room as each of the peeps in there have all PULLED!!! What is going on!?
The funniest thing happens when there’s a knock at the door – and it’s a girl (Louise I think) asking where Matt is…..oh and guess who Matt is? He’s the one that was making ‘at it’ noises with a random an hour ago?! Oh and isn’t Matt still in bed with this new random!? Haha, this is going to be amusing…..this Louise girl grabs him and literally drags him from his bunk man alive lady, have some respect for yourself! This guy is a tool!! She takes him outside for a talking to: ‘where did you get to? Did you get chucked out? Why couldn’t I find you?’. When this is all going on, the floozy random girl climbs out of his bed to the hysterics of the others in the room and starts saying ‘oh no! Where can I hide? She’s going to kill me!’. She then climbs into ANOTHER bed with some other dude…..oh me, oh my! What is with these kids on the Kiwi Experience?! Horny devils!!
I think I crash out eventually and make sure the earplugs are rammed in well and truly…..
Hayley
Wednesday 18 March 2009
Wed 18th March - Job Hunting
After getting up at a reasonable hour, we scoff down some breakfast and hit the town to find a job and get sorted with an NZ bank account! We’re all equipped with copies of our CVs and hit the road. We decide to split up, so Dave and I go into the first agency while Aaron tries one up the road. We introduce ourselves to the lady in the agency – she seems a tad crazy and doesn’t stop yittering on and totally doesn’t listen to what our skills are! She just hears the word call centre and starts going on about this telesales job that is coming up……er hello?! That’s outbound calling – that aint my bag baby!! However, she reckons its just phoning people to slot them into sessions with a mortgage advisor so they can get their monthly repayments reduced. Ah ok, that doesn’t sound too bad as we’re helping people. She also doesn’t want to see our work permits or even our CVs….what kind of place is this?!
We try the next agency and this one says there is hardly any work available in Queenstown – great, tell it like it is! She also started to slate the telesales job…..eeeek….what have we let ourselves in for? We carry on up to the base of the gondola and try our luck there – Dave manages to get a phone number of the HR manager so leaves a message with him. We try the other agencies and ask in practically every pub and restaurant…..must’ve asked about 25 places – even KFC – oh my god, serious panic is setting in……I soooooo don’t want to go home early, but Dave says if we cant find anything then we may have to….getting really blue!
The agency woman rings around about 2pm and asks for Aaron to start at the telesales job! Good for him, but why not us?! She just says she wanted to keep me n Dave together – hmmmm….is that going to stop us from getting something!? We manage to track Aaron down and he goes for a chat with the woman. She seems highly unorganised as he comes back and says that he isn’t to start today but all of us should go in tomorrow at 2.45pm and we’ll be doing the 4-10pm shift! Oh ok, at least that’s something!!
3.30pm sees our appointment with Claudio – a bank manager at BNZ – Bank of New Zealand…..this guy is Brazilian and moved to Queenstown 8 years ago. It’s the weirdest bank meeting I’ve ever had –this guy kept ending his sentences with ‘yeah man!’ and ‘cool, cool yeah!’. Also, to help explain how his various bank accounts worked, he drew little diagrams for us….erm….hello?! I know how to withdraw and deposit cash – oh and if you’re up for laundering money, I suggest heading for New Zealand –they didn’t even need proof of address to open this account – just drivers licence and passport - el bizarro!! However, it’s all sorted and we should get our cards in a couple of days – and we get to choose our PIN in the branch when the cards arrive –how good is that?!
We head back to the hostel contemplating this telesales job……I’m not looking forward to this one bit so decide to hit the internet for fruit picking jobs. The boys go for a nap and I’m on there for at least an hour. I start firing off so many different emails and attach the mobile number to all of them. I sooooo do want to be stuck in a call centre until May!! The irony! Haha. Quite a lot of the fruit picking places are up north so I have a chat with Dave and start to suss out leaving Queenstown if we can get work elsewhere. He’s up for that as buses seem fairly cheap.
After dinner, we’re a bit stuffed so decide to go for a wander around and shock, horror there’s a heap of signs up in a fair few shops! Excellent, so must get a cover note typed up and get into town in the morning and apply for those shops! The excitement of the day catches up with us and we head to bed – we luckily changed rooms so no smelly roomies in this one!
We try the next agency and this one says there is hardly any work available in Queenstown – great, tell it like it is! She also started to slate the telesales job…..eeeek….what have we let ourselves in for? We carry on up to the base of the gondola and try our luck there – Dave manages to get a phone number of the HR manager so leaves a message with him. We try the other agencies and ask in practically every pub and restaurant…..must’ve asked about 25 places – even KFC – oh my god, serious panic is setting in……I soooooo don’t want to go home early, but Dave says if we cant find anything then we may have to….getting really blue!
The agency woman rings around about 2pm and asks for Aaron to start at the telesales job! Good for him, but why not us?! She just says she wanted to keep me n Dave together – hmmmm….is that going to stop us from getting something!? We manage to track Aaron down and he goes for a chat with the woman. She seems highly unorganised as he comes back and says that he isn’t to start today but all of us should go in tomorrow at 2.45pm and we’ll be doing the 4-10pm shift! Oh ok, at least that’s something!!
3.30pm sees our appointment with Claudio – a bank manager at BNZ – Bank of New Zealand…..this guy is Brazilian and moved to Queenstown 8 years ago. It’s the weirdest bank meeting I’ve ever had –this guy kept ending his sentences with ‘yeah man!’ and ‘cool, cool yeah!’. Also, to help explain how his various bank accounts worked, he drew little diagrams for us….erm….hello?! I know how to withdraw and deposit cash – oh and if you’re up for laundering money, I suggest heading for New Zealand –they didn’t even need proof of address to open this account – just drivers licence and passport - el bizarro!! However, it’s all sorted and we should get our cards in a couple of days – and we get to choose our PIN in the branch when the cards arrive –how good is that?!
We head back to the hostel contemplating this telesales job……I’m not looking forward to this one bit so decide to hit the internet for fruit picking jobs. The boys go for a nap and I’m on there for at least an hour. I start firing off so many different emails and attach the mobile number to all of them. I sooooo do want to be stuck in a call centre until May!! The irony! Haha. Quite a lot of the fruit picking places are up north so I have a chat with Dave and start to suss out leaving Queenstown if we can get work elsewhere. He’s up for that as buses seem fairly cheap.
After dinner, we’re a bit stuffed so decide to go for a wander around and shock, horror there’s a heap of signs up in a fair few shops! Excellent, so must get a cover note typed up and get into town in the morning and apply for those shops! The excitement of the day catches up with us and we head to bed – we luckily changed rooms so no smelly roomies in this one!
Hayley
Tue 17th March - A Sober St Paddys!?
Happy St Paddy’s Day! This will be one sober St Paddy’s for us – boohoo!! We’re all up early and my leg is still killing me – argh – I have to hobble down the stairs with my huge rucksack like a right old woman…..we have some brekkie to go and wait for the coach to arrive. We dump our bags on the bus and the wee old bus driver ticks us off his list and its away we go.
Man alive! I cannot believe how boring this bus driver is!! He’s about 110 years old and gives us some rubbish commentary every second of the journey….he prattles on about anything and everything we pass – seriously, even the trees got a look in. It all kicks off though when he goes to park up for our 15minute break. He’s too busy lecturing us about how we better not be longer than 15mins, as he WILL leave us behind, that he actually scrapes a parked car – hahahaha – revenge is sweet!!
Luckily, we change drivers at Lake Tekapo – a massive beautiful lake – where we stop for lunch and this guy is oh so much better. He points out some various interesting facts but knows when to shut up and leave us to our books/mp3 players.
It takes a total of 8hrs to get to Queenstown, which sounds really long, but the scenery has been magnificent that I didn’t mind it one bit. We get dropped off in the middle of Queenstown and we take the 10min walk to the YHA hostel on the lakeside. We’re all in a dorm room and it’s…….STINKING!!!!!!!!!! Ugh, someone in there reeks of BO and I’m hating it……I dive into the shower and want to get cracking with the job hunt. It’s a lovely sunny evening, but a tad nippy so we grab our hoodies and go see if there are any notices up in the pubs and restaurants.
After a look around town, we all go a bit quiet. As it’s Paddy’s Day, it aint a good idea to ask in pubs but we cant really see any notices up in any shops…..hmmmm…..anxious times ahead methinks……but there are a few agencies to try so fingers crossed for tomorrow. We go back to the smelly room and I’m so thankful that we’re changing rooms for tomorrow nite – ugh – it is minging. Oh and plus there is sooooooooo much snoring in the room – particularly from the fat Swiss dude after his st paddy’s day sesh – raaaaaaaaa!! I get no sleep as I can’t find my ear plugs and get even more depressed. Let’s hope tomorrow brings good news.
Man alive! I cannot believe how boring this bus driver is!! He’s about 110 years old and gives us some rubbish commentary every second of the journey….he prattles on about anything and everything we pass – seriously, even the trees got a look in. It all kicks off though when he goes to park up for our 15minute break. He’s too busy lecturing us about how we better not be longer than 15mins, as he WILL leave us behind, that he actually scrapes a parked car – hahahaha – revenge is sweet!!
Luckily, we change drivers at Lake Tekapo – a massive beautiful lake – where we stop for lunch and this guy is oh so much better. He points out some various interesting facts but knows when to shut up and leave us to our books/mp3 players.
It takes a total of 8hrs to get to Queenstown, which sounds really long, but the scenery has been magnificent that I didn’t mind it one bit. We get dropped off in the middle of Queenstown and we take the 10min walk to the YHA hostel on the lakeside. We’re all in a dorm room and it’s…….STINKING!!!!!!!!!! Ugh, someone in there reeks of BO and I’m hating it……I dive into the shower and want to get cracking with the job hunt. It’s a lovely sunny evening, but a tad nippy so we grab our hoodies and go see if there are any notices up in the pubs and restaurants.
After a look around town, we all go a bit quiet. As it’s Paddy’s Day, it aint a good idea to ask in pubs but we cant really see any notices up in any shops…..hmmmm…..anxious times ahead methinks……but there are a few agencies to try so fingers crossed for tomorrow. We go back to the smelly room and I’m so thankful that we’re changing rooms for tomorrow nite – ugh – it is minging. Oh and plus there is sooooooooo much snoring in the room – particularly from the fat Swiss dude after his st paddy’s day sesh – raaaaaaaaa!! I get no sleep as I can’t find my ear plugs and get even more depressed. Let’s hope tomorrow brings good news.
Hayley
Monday 16 March 2009
Mon 16th March - Kiwi land here we come!
Another early start to the day….we’re all up and away at 6am to get the 6.17 train to the airport. However, as Dave had spent too long in the bathroom preening himself, we end up getting the 6.23 train – no dramas but as we were so knackered, we end up getting snappy at each other - – raaaaaa – hate being tired n grumpy!
Our flight is at 09:15. We end up sharing it with a massive group of Japanese school kids, all playing with their ‘top of the range’ cameras and Ipods – very funny to see! The flight is fine and its free drink time, which Aaron takes full advantage of – it’s only a 3hr flight but he succeeds in a fair few!
We land in Christchurch and we’re now 13 hrs ahead of the UK! We walk through to Immigration and this is the exciting part as we get a WORK VISA stamp. The dizzy bint on the desk doesn’t notice that Dave has ticked the Working in NZ box and so she has to revoke his incorrect Holiday Visa – haha – so now Dave has a huge red stamp in his passport showing REVOKED!!! How very funny! Then it’s onto Quarantine where we have to tell the dude that we’ve been walking through Rainforests in Cairns. He then asks ‘were you in walking boots?’ and we say ‘nope, just these sandals’ and he goes ‘ok, do you have any TINTS?’…………….eh?.........we all say ’pardon? What do you mean by TINTS?‘ and he goes ‘you know, TINTS. Have you been camping?’ Then the penny drops……….’Ahhh I see! You mean TENTS?!’ That was hilarious!!! These kiwis certainly like to mix up their vowels!!! What a hoot!!
The shuttle bus is pricier than a cab, so we all bundle into a taxi which is driven by a Polish guy. He’s very knowledgeable and points out various things to do in Christchurch – unfortunately, we’re only here for 1 night, so we aint up for any of that I’m afraid. Didn’t realise how big the place was and that’s from being here last year – haha!
As we cruise along the highway to the city centre, you can’t help but notice how green the countryside is. This place is gorgeous and is so reminiscent of home! Good ol’ Scotland! We check into BASE hostel, right smack bang in the middle of the city centre next to the cathedral – which likes to chime every hour….slightly annoying!
We’re in a room with 4 sets of bunk-beds and get chatting to one of the girls in there. She is uber skint and reckons that you can survive on $2 a day here…..erm…ok then!? As we’re hitting Queenstown and looking for work tomorrow, we need to sort out our IRD numbers – our tax numbers, so we don’t get hit with 45% tax – ouchy! It’s off to the Post Office to fill in a form – the women there are dead nice and seen it all before, so it isn’t as daunting as I thought it would be. After that, we surf the net trying to find some damn accommodation in Queenstown as BASE there is all booked up. Argh! Luckily, we book into the same one as Dave and I were in last year, down at the lakeside for couple of nites.
Some hilarity in the room………Dave yells me over to look at something on the laptop – I’m sitting on the bottom bunk and somehow manage to fall off it!!!! I get my foot tangled in my joggers and end up smacking my left knee off the floor and grazing my elbow – what a complete dumbass!! It hurts like hell, but its too damn funny that I’ve managed to fall off a BOTTOM bunk that I have to laugh……a lot……the poor bloke that was on the opposite bunk didn’t know what the heck was going on!!!! Only me!!
We find out where to get the bus in the morning and then it’s off to bed. I’m sorry not to be staying in Christchurch for a bit longer, but we have to get work ASAP and get funding for the next part of our trip!!! Work!?? What’s that all about!? It’s going to be difficult getting in the swing of employment after a 2month break – bring it on I say!!
Our flight is at 09:15. We end up sharing it with a massive group of Japanese school kids, all playing with their ‘top of the range’ cameras and Ipods – very funny to see! The flight is fine and its free drink time, which Aaron takes full advantage of – it’s only a 3hr flight but he succeeds in a fair few!
We land in Christchurch and we’re now 13 hrs ahead of the UK! We walk through to Immigration and this is the exciting part as we get a WORK VISA stamp. The dizzy bint on the desk doesn’t notice that Dave has ticked the Working in NZ box and so she has to revoke his incorrect Holiday Visa – haha – so now Dave has a huge red stamp in his passport showing REVOKED!!! How very funny! Then it’s onto Quarantine where we have to tell the dude that we’ve been walking through Rainforests in Cairns. He then asks ‘were you in walking boots?’ and we say ‘nope, just these sandals’ and he goes ‘ok, do you have any TINTS?’…………….eh?.........we all say ’pardon? What do you mean by TINTS?‘ and he goes ‘you know, TINTS. Have you been camping?’ Then the penny drops……….’Ahhh I see! You mean TENTS?!’ That was hilarious!!! These kiwis certainly like to mix up their vowels!!! What a hoot!!
The shuttle bus is pricier than a cab, so we all bundle into a taxi which is driven by a Polish guy. He’s very knowledgeable and points out various things to do in Christchurch – unfortunately, we’re only here for 1 night, so we aint up for any of that I’m afraid. Didn’t realise how big the place was and that’s from being here last year – haha!
As we cruise along the highway to the city centre, you can’t help but notice how green the countryside is. This place is gorgeous and is so reminiscent of home! Good ol’ Scotland! We check into BASE hostel, right smack bang in the middle of the city centre next to the cathedral – which likes to chime every hour….slightly annoying!
We’re in a room with 4 sets of bunk-beds and get chatting to one of the girls in there. She is uber skint and reckons that you can survive on $2 a day here…..erm…ok then!? As we’re hitting Queenstown and looking for work tomorrow, we need to sort out our IRD numbers – our tax numbers, so we don’t get hit with 45% tax – ouchy! It’s off to the Post Office to fill in a form – the women there are dead nice and seen it all before, so it isn’t as daunting as I thought it would be. After that, we surf the net trying to find some damn accommodation in Queenstown as BASE there is all booked up. Argh! Luckily, we book into the same one as Dave and I were in last year, down at the lakeside for couple of nites.
Some hilarity in the room………Dave yells me over to look at something on the laptop – I’m sitting on the bottom bunk and somehow manage to fall off it!!!! I get my foot tangled in my joggers and end up smacking my left knee off the floor and grazing my elbow – what a complete dumbass!! It hurts like hell, but its too damn funny that I’ve managed to fall off a BOTTOM bunk that I have to laugh……a lot……the poor bloke that was on the opposite bunk didn’t know what the heck was going on!!!! Only me!!
We find out where to get the bus in the morning and then it’s off to bed. I’m sorry not to be staying in Christchurch for a bit longer, but we have to get work ASAP and get funding for the next part of our trip!!! Work!?? What’s that all about!? It’s going to be difficult getting in the swing of employment after a 2month break – bring it on I say!!
Hayley
Sunday 15 March 2009
Sun 15th March - Snorkelling Banter!
It’s a fairly late start, with Dave and me heading out to Darling harbour for 11ish to meet the MacNiven’s! Another wee reunion!! Funnily enough, Janet and Leroy are over seeing Lynne and Stephen in Canberra and they just so happen to be in Sydney the same time as us!
We meet at the Aquarium and have a good ol chinwag about our travels and what’s happening back home. Leroy is very engrossed with his new video camera toy and takes a few bits of footage to show the parental at home – haha! Lynne decides to freak me out and say that there have been 2 shark attacks in Sydney, all within the past month – argh!! We’re supposed to be going snorkelling later with Matt and Ryan. Argh!!! I’m really not up for that now……damn pesky sharks!!!
After a few photos around the harbour, we say our goodbyes and its back to the hostel to get our beach stuff together. Again, we get the half hour ferry to Manly and meet Ryan in a cab. He was supposed to pick us up in Matt’s Lamborghini (Nissan…..) but wires have been crossed so that aint happening……but Ryan pays for the cab so it’s all good! Random fact here, all taxis in Sydney have got recording equipment and surveillance in their cabs in case anything kicks off – so it’s used in court and stuff!! Mental eh!?
We get to the beach and it aint that big, but apparently, this is the place to be for snorkelling and diving. I’m still a bit freaked out bout sharks – so decide to let the boys go for it. They all try to persuade me to go in, saying that its only dodgy at dawn and dusk but I’m happy just sunning myself….honest!!! I’ll do it in Barbados! Haha.
Matt and his girlfriend turn up and then a tired Symonds does – poor thing, he’s been at work all day whereas the rest of us have had a nice lie-in and a chillaxing day! As it’s off to New Zealand tomoz, they decide to take us to this funky bar on the waterfront – it’s ‘the’ place to be on a Sunday – the Wharf bar I think its called – and it’s heaving, full of the beautiful people of Manly. I’m feeling severely underdressed in my scabby beach clothes!! For dinner, we end up scoffing a huge steak which is on offer at Ivanhoes – man alive, I have never been so stuffed!!! IT WAS MASSIVE and worked out to be about £6. Wicked stuff!
It’s a really early start for us tomoz, so we head back around 9pm again, saying our goodbyes to everyone. Great to see them all but such a shame we aint here for longer – bring on Kiwi land!
We meet at the Aquarium and have a good ol chinwag about our travels and what’s happening back home. Leroy is very engrossed with his new video camera toy and takes a few bits of footage to show the parental at home – haha! Lynne decides to freak me out and say that there have been 2 shark attacks in Sydney, all within the past month – argh!! We’re supposed to be going snorkelling later with Matt and Ryan. Argh!!! I’m really not up for that now……damn pesky sharks!!!
After a few photos around the harbour, we say our goodbyes and its back to the hostel to get our beach stuff together. Again, we get the half hour ferry to Manly and meet Ryan in a cab. He was supposed to pick us up in Matt’s Lamborghini (Nissan…..) but wires have been crossed so that aint happening……but Ryan pays for the cab so it’s all good! Random fact here, all taxis in Sydney have got recording equipment and surveillance in their cabs in case anything kicks off – so it’s used in court and stuff!! Mental eh!?
We get to the beach and it aint that big, but apparently, this is the place to be for snorkelling and diving. I’m still a bit freaked out bout sharks – so decide to let the boys go for it. They all try to persuade me to go in, saying that its only dodgy at dawn and dusk but I’m happy just sunning myself….honest!!! I’ll do it in Barbados! Haha.
Matt and his girlfriend turn up and then a tired Symonds does – poor thing, he’s been at work all day whereas the rest of us have had a nice lie-in and a chillaxing day! As it’s off to New Zealand tomoz, they decide to take us to this funky bar on the waterfront – it’s ‘the’ place to be on a Sunday – the Wharf bar I think its called – and it’s heaving, full of the beautiful people of Manly. I’m feeling severely underdressed in my scabby beach clothes!! For dinner, we end up scoffing a huge steak which is on offer at Ivanhoes – man alive, I have never been so stuffed!!! IT WAS MASSIVE and worked out to be about £6. Wicked stuff!
It’s a really early start for us tomoz, so we head back around 9pm again, saying our goodbyes to everyone. Great to see them all but such a shame we aint here for longer – bring on Kiwi land!
Hayley
Sat 14th March - Hello Sydney!
Our flight leaves at 12:50 so we need to be at the airport for around 11am, as it’s a domestic flight. We had asked Johnny to take us to the airport but when he rocks up for brekkie, he looks a little worse for wear and is probs over the limit! Luckily, Stuart is up and can drive so he takes Johnny’s hire car for a spin drops us off at the airport – good skills!
The flight is just over 2.5hrs and is fairly non-eventful. Dave and I watch ‘Doubt’ - which is quite good and passes the time. We get to Sydney airport and have to suss out the train to our hostel. It’s all fairly simple and we jump off at the Town Hall stop. It’s pretty overcast here but very sticky – ugh, I was hoping to be away from all the humidity down here….must be a storm coming.
We’re staying at BASE hostel, just behind Darling Harbour and we’re all in the same shared dorm……OMG……..what a mess the room is in!?!?! I’m seriously shocked by every ones’ stuff all strewn all over the place. It’s like these peeps have just come in, unpacked their stuff and thrown it around the general area of their bunk bed…..I mean, I know Dave and I can be messy but it’s our own room at least and not in shared accommodation…….crazy likes – I should’ve taken a picture….darn! We meet a French couple in there and 2 English lads that have been there for a month or so. TIDY UP PLEASE!! (I don’t actually say that out loud…..)
After everyone is showered and changed, we’re off to Manly to see Ryan, Matt, Glyn and James. Crazy to think we’re meeting up with them on the other side of the world! It’s a funny walk down to Sydney harbour as we encounter loads and loads of sailors…..really weird!! Apparently, there was a parade on in the city for the ozzie navy and so they’re all on leave for the weekend……and they’re all bladdered – it’s only 6pm!!! Aaron is wearing his Vietnam t-shirt (red with yellow star) and his combats – which causes a right stir when crossing the road and these 2 drunken sailors (no, really, they were steaming!) are coming towards us….they start pretending to shoot Aaron and shouting and yelling ‘Vietcong!’ at him. Luckily, Aaron finds this funny and just laughs at them – bunch of idiots they were!! So, there’s no dramas!
We get the ferry over to Manly, which takes a half hour, and we meet the motley crew off the ferry!! We’re all excited and start bounding up the street to the Shark Bar for some drinkies and a good catch up. After our first drink, the heavens decide to open and we witness a really impressive thunderstorm!!! (didn’t I say earlier!?) It’s proper stormy weather with the rain absolutely tipping it down. I’m soooooo not moving pubs now!!!! The storm passes after an hour or so – crazy stuff – and we’re all still enjoying each other’s travelling tales. The lads start to pair up for games of pool and they ask these aussie guys to play a few games. Aaron becomes a star player and ‘7 balls’ these guy – that’s pool chat for thrashing him…….we then all say he has to do a forfeit and what is the norm??? He has to run around the pool table with his pants down…haha…and the guy actually does it!!! Good on him!!! However, he aint wearing pants, so I get to see a whole lot of him that I didn’t really want to…..the bouncers are uber strict over here and don’t see the funny side to it and they haul his ass out!!! Poor bloke – he only lost at pool and then we made him do the forfeit – can’t believe they don’t let him off! Surprisingly, the guy aint hacked off and goes willingly, shaking Aaron and Matt’s hand – bless him!
It’s a top night, although the Daniels has turned into a lightweight and goes home early – pah!! Poor show!! However, I get to watch Man Utd get gubbed 4-1 by the mighty Liverpool!! Whoohooo!!! Great success!! Dave and Aaron get their pic taken with the local police, just for the banter – hmmm….hope they saw the funny side of it! We ask around where we can get the night bus from and end up getting that back to Sydney around 2.30am. The night bus is sooooooooooo not like back home – it was all very civilised and not traumatic at all! Oh well, good nite had by all!
The flight is just over 2.5hrs and is fairly non-eventful. Dave and I watch ‘Doubt’ - which is quite good and passes the time. We get to Sydney airport and have to suss out the train to our hostel. It’s all fairly simple and we jump off at the Town Hall stop. It’s pretty overcast here but very sticky – ugh, I was hoping to be away from all the humidity down here….must be a storm coming.
We’re staying at BASE hostel, just behind Darling Harbour and we’re all in the same shared dorm……OMG……..what a mess the room is in!?!?! I’m seriously shocked by every ones’ stuff all strewn all over the place. It’s like these peeps have just come in, unpacked their stuff and thrown it around the general area of their bunk bed…..I mean, I know Dave and I can be messy but it’s our own room at least and not in shared accommodation…….crazy likes – I should’ve taken a picture….darn! We meet a French couple in there and 2 English lads that have been there for a month or so. TIDY UP PLEASE!! (I don’t actually say that out loud…..)
After everyone is showered and changed, we’re off to Manly to see Ryan, Matt, Glyn and James. Crazy to think we’re meeting up with them on the other side of the world! It’s a funny walk down to Sydney harbour as we encounter loads and loads of sailors…..really weird!! Apparently, there was a parade on in the city for the ozzie navy and so they’re all on leave for the weekend……and they’re all bladdered – it’s only 6pm!!! Aaron is wearing his Vietnam t-shirt (red with yellow star) and his combats – which causes a right stir when crossing the road and these 2 drunken sailors (no, really, they were steaming!) are coming towards us….they start pretending to shoot Aaron and shouting and yelling ‘Vietcong!’ at him. Luckily, Aaron finds this funny and just laughs at them – bunch of idiots they were!! So, there’s no dramas!
We get the ferry over to Manly, which takes a half hour, and we meet the motley crew off the ferry!! We’re all excited and start bounding up the street to the Shark Bar for some drinkies and a good catch up. After our first drink, the heavens decide to open and we witness a really impressive thunderstorm!!! (didn’t I say earlier!?) It’s proper stormy weather with the rain absolutely tipping it down. I’m soooooo not moving pubs now!!!! The storm passes after an hour or so – crazy stuff – and we’re all still enjoying each other’s travelling tales. The lads start to pair up for games of pool and they ask these aussie guys to play a few games. Aaron becomes a star player and ‘7 balls’ these guy – that’s pool chat for thrashing him…….we then all say he has to do a forfeit and what is the norm??? He has to run around the pool table with his pants down…haha…and the guy actually does it!!! Good on him!!! However, he aint wearing pants, so I get to see a whole lot of him that I didn’t really want to…..the bouncers are uber strict over here and don’t see the funny side to it and they haul his ass out!!! Poor bloke – he only lost at pool and then we made him do the forfeit – can’t believe they don’t let him off! Surprisingly, the guy aint hacked off and goes willingly, shaking Aaron and Matt’s hand – bless him!
It’s a top night, although the Daniels has turned into a lightweight and goes home early – pah!! Poor show!! However, I get to watch Man Utd get gubbed 4-1 by the mighty Liverpool!! Whoohooo!!! Great success!! Dave and Aaron get their pic taken with the local police, just for the banter – hmmm….hope they saw the funny side of it! We ask around where we can get the night bus from and end up getting that back to Sydney around 2.30am. The night bus is sooooooooooo not like back home – it was all very civilised and not traumatic at all! Oh well, good nite had by all!
Hayley
Friday 13 March 2009
Fri 13th March - Last day in Cairns
It’s our last day in Cairns and we get woken up by the cleaner – haha - who is exclaiming that we should be up and about as it’s a lovely day! So, we surface after 11am and there aren’t any sore heads – excellent news. Everyone gets their schizz together and we meet Stuart to go to the lagoon. Another wee trip on the free bus and off we trot to get some rays – bring it on!
The lagoon is a totally random place. It’s basically a big swimming pool that is right bang in the middle of the city centre, surrounded by grass and looks out to the sea. It’s a great place to go and I recommend it to anyone! The boys love it a little too much, due to all the beautiful people sunbathing in very close proximity to us…..Aaron even takes a few souvenir snaps – how uncouth!
We meet up with the Irish boys and I’m, once again, the only chick in the group! Argh, need my girlie chats – raaaaaa!! Anyhoo, I concentrate on topping up the tan and I’m frequently taking a dip due to the beating rays.
It’s a gorgeous day and to end our time in Cairns, we all head for PJ’s and enjoy a huge steak for much cheapness! If you buy a pint, you can get a bar meal for $5 – good eh!? After dinner, we say our goodbyes and each exchange emails so we can get on the ol Facebook and start tagging each other in our drunken pics! Stephen and Shane are heading to NZ in April, so we may be bumping into them yet again – haha.
The Calypso bus comes and picks us up around 7pm and I’m offski to go pack. The lads stay up for a wee bit, having their last happy hour drink and then it’s off to bed. I can’t sleep for some reason so end up watching Beverly Hills Chihuahua…..its actually quite funny you know – check it out! Looking forward to seeing the Daniels, Matt and Symonds tomoz in Sydney – more reunions – heehee!
The lagoon is a totally random place. It’s basically a big swimming pool that is right bang in the middle of the city centre, surrounded by grass and looks out to the sea. It’s a great place to go and I recommend it to anyone! The boys love it a little too much, due to all the beautiful people sunbathing in very close proximity to us…..Aaron even takes a few souvenir snaps – how uncouth!
We meet up with the Irish boys and I’m, once again, the only chick in the group! Argh, need my girlie chats – raaaaaa!! Anyhoo, I concentrate on topping up the tan and I’m frequently taking a dip due to the beating rays.
It’s a gorgeous day and to end our time in Cairns, we all head for PJ’s and enjoy a huge steak for much cheapness! If you buy a pint, you can get a bar meal for $5 – good eh!? After dinner, we say our goodbyes and each exchange emails so we can get on the ol Facebook and start tagging each other in our drunken pics! Stephen and Shane are heading to NZ in April, so we may be bumping into them yet again – haha.
The Calypso bus comes and picks us up around 7pm and I’m offski to go pack. The lads stay up for a wee bit, having their last happy hour drink and then it’s off to bed. I can’t sleep for some reason so end up watching Beverly Hills Chihuahua…..its actually quite funny you know – check it out! Looking forward to seeing the Daniels, Matt and Symonds tomoz in Sydney – more reunions – heehee!
Hayley
Thurs 12th March - Quiz Night!
Dave gets up early and heads into town to drop off the car. When he comes back, we all get up and sort ourselves out. Due to Dave not getting a decent haircut in Singapore, he’s gagging on finding a Barbers to sort it out! Luckily, there is one around the corner so we go for a wander. It’s a funny set-up where 2 women are cutting away and you sit on a bench at the back of the shop and wait your turn. The barber lady that does Dave’s hair can tell he got a naff cut the last time and she sorts it out, good n proper. She’s good banter and the cut only costs about £7.
We head back and see that Aaron and some others are heading into town on the free bus. We dump our stuff and get the next one in and we all have a wander in the town, sorry city centre! The sun decides to come out and play after all – yay! And we all bake in the beer garden of PJ Obriens – Carlsberg is only $4 here – whoohooo.
Again, I’m the only chick here – argh – why do Aaron and Dave have to get friendly with all the blokes in the hostels?!?!?! (that sounds wrong!) I’m sitting at this table with 6 other men and the chat always goes downhill very quickly – raaa – I’m going to turn into a bloke one of these days….Stuart tells us a funny tale about buying uber cheap Viagra in India and then as always, someone else pipes up with ‘oh yeah, funny story about Viagra and my mate’ and you can figure the rest from there….
The boys all decide to hit the lagoon and sunbathe for a bit. I opt for walking back to the hostel and maybe have a dip in the pool there. However, when I get back there the sun is in the wrong place for the pool and end up reading in the shade – booo!! It’s quiz night tonight, so we all decide to meet for about 7.30pm ready to kick some butt!
Our team is called The Beer Hunters and comprises of: Dave, Aaron, Stuart, Koby and me. Koby is getting highly irritating – reminds me of someone we used to work with – answers on a postcard….but we end up coming 3rd which isn’t too bad - some of the questions were totally random….What is made from a Ginnery????? Cotton by the way. Oh and before coke was brown, it was actually made green – so now you know!!! Dave, Aaron, Stuart and I all head into town and start off at PJ’s where the fun begins.
They’ve got party games on the go and up comes Musical Chairs – with a difference. Aaron and Dave decide to volunteer for this and hahahahah, it’s a hoot…..every time the music stops you have sit down as per the children’s game – however, if you cant find a seat you have to take a piece of clothing off….yup – It’s Strip Musical Chairs – thank god, I didn’t opt for this one! Stuart and I just stand and laugh at the boys - who aren’t doing very well. Dave gets down to his boxers and then gives up! Aaron ends up being the last boy standing with 2 girls, but again, loses….oh the pics are going to haunt them!
We end up having another drink and we spy the IRISH BOYS – Richie, Stephen and Shane – Boyzone!!!! WOW- how funny! These are the guys that did Snake Village with us. There are a lot of screams and yells of ‘Oh my god! This is crazy!’ from them all and we end up having a right old laugh with them. Some random drunk ozzie bird starts flashing her boobs at us when we’re taking a group photo – the shame – and then we all head to the mighty Woolshed.
No Turkish mafia at the pool table this time, but Aaron does play against some mental irish boy who keeps slagging him off. Aaron tells him to pipe down, so the boy apologises and buys him a drink. But it keeps happening, so Aaron ends up with loads of drinks bought for him – silly irish boy!
We end up meeting some girls that the Irish lads are ‘getting acquainted with’ and they’re dead nice! The place shuts at 3am and we all decide to meet down at the lagoon for some sunbathing and banter. It’s so crazy we met up with them all again! We head for the 24hr shop for supplies and walk back to the hostel with Jed – the Canadian quizmaster! A funny sight on the way home – 2 guys lying on the road apparently looking at the stars…..okies?! Another top night out in Cairns – we like!!
We head back and see that Aaron and some others are heading into town on the free bus. We dump our stuff and get the next one in and we all have a wander in the town, sorry city centre! The sun decides to come out and play after all – yay! And we all bake in the beer garden of PJ Obriens – Carlsberg is only $4 here – whoohooo.
Again, I’m the only chick here – argh – why do Aaron and Dave have to get friendly with all the blokes in the hostels?!?!?! (that sounds wrong!) I’m sitting at this table with 6 other men and the chat always goes downhill very quickly – raaa – I’m going to turn into a bloke one of these days….Stuart tells us a funny tale about buying uber cheap Viagra in India and then as always, someone else pipes up with ‘oh yeah, funny story about Viagra and my mate’ and you can figure the rest from there….
The boys all decide to hit the lagoon and sunbathe for a bit. I opt for walking back to the hostel and maybe have a dip in the pool there. However, when I get back there the sun is in the wrong place for the pool and end up reading in the shade – booo!! It’s quiz night tonight, so we all decide to meet for about 7.30pm ready to kick some butt!
Our team is called The Beer Hunters and comprises of: Dave, Aaron, Stuart, Koby and me. Koby is getting highly irritating – reminds me of someone we used to work with – answers on a postcard….but we end up coming 3rd which isn’t too bad - some of the questions were totally random….What is made from a Ginnery????? Cotton by the way. Oh and before coke was brown, it was actually made green – so now you know!!! Dave, Aaron, Stuart and I all head into town and start off at PJ’s where the fun begins.
They’ve got party games on the go and up comes Musical Chairs – with a difference. Aaron and Dave decide to volunteer for this and hahahahah, it’s a hoot…..every time the music stops you have sit down as per the children’s game – however, if you cant find a seat you have to take a piece of clothing off….yup – It’s Strip Musical Chairs – thank god, I didn’t opt for this one! Stuart and I just stand and laugh at the boys - who aren’t doing very well. Dave gets down to his boxers and then gives up! Aaron ends up being the last boy standing with 2 girls, but again, loses….oh the pics are going to haunt them!
We end up having another drink and we spy the IRISH BOYS – Richie, Stephen and Shane – Boyzone!!!! WOW- how funny! These are the guys that did Snake Village with us. There are a lot of screams and yells of ‘Oh my god! This is crazy!’ from them all and we end up having a right old laugh with them. Some random drunk ozzie bird starts flashing her boobs at us when we’re taking a group photo – the shame – and then we all head to the mighty Woolshed.
No Turkish mafia at the pool table this time, but Aaron does play against some mental irish boy who keeps slagging him off. Aaron tells him to pipe down, so the boy apologises and buys him a drink. But it keeps happening, so Aaron ends up with loads of drinks bought for him – silly irish boy!
We end up meeting some girls that the Irish lads are ‘getting acquainted with’ and they’re dead nice! The place shuts at 3am and we all decide to meet down at the lagoon for some sunbathing and banter. It’s so crazy we met up with them all again! We head for the 24hr shop for supplies and walk back to the hostel with Jed – the Canadian quizmaster! A funny sight on the way home – 2 guys lying on the road apparently looking at the stars…..okies?! Another top night out in Cairns – we like!!
Hayley
Wednesday 11 March 2009
Wed 11th March - Dave n Hayley's Day of Fun!
Poor Aaron is still feeling poorly, so it’s Hayley and Dave’s Day of Fun! We get going around 10am and head south for all the different lakes and waterfalls. After about an hour or so, we stop off at tourist site no.1 – the Cathedral Fig Tree….man alive, this is a BIG tree!!! Its got loads of branches all intertwined around one huge trunk of a tree – very impressive! After a few snaps and a walk around the big ass tree, we continue onwards through the rainforest and following the lake/waterfall trail.
It starts to chuck it down…once again….and we have a fun ride through the rainforest on dirt tracks. There are few hairy moments when I think the poor wee car won’t make it over the various potholes, but all is good and we show the 4x4 behind us a thing or two!
We stop off at waterfall no.1 (we saw a lot today and I can’t really remember all of their names!) Apparently, there are turtles which can be seen so I keep a beady eye open……and randomly I actually spy one from the other side of the pool! Dave and I rush over to get a closer look, but the wee fecker jumps in never to be seen again – raaaa!! We take a few snaps and it’s onto the next touristy stop! We end up following the same 3 cars which are also doing this route – teehee!
After waterfall no.4, we’re done with them all and decide to head for the cheese/dairy farm which is famous for its organic cheeses. Unfortunately, we get there after 3pm and the place shuts at 4pm so we miss out on the cheese tour – booo. However, we have a gorgeous ploughmans and scoff the different cheeses! There’s 2 different ricotta type ones and 2 different cheddery ones…..oh so fattening but damn tasty! They serve it up with crusty bread and some streaky bacon/ham schizz.
It’s still raining when we head back to Cairns but it’s been a fun day with some lovely pics. Aaron is much better and says we’ve missed out on some gorgeous sunshine – argh typical! We dish up fajitas for dinner and end up chatting to this Israeli guy called Koby. He has just finished his compulsory 2years in the army and is now enjoying his holidays. Both men and women have to do their compulsory army training but the gals only have to do 1 year – good eh?! He tells us about firing off rocket launchers and all sorts – its well weird as he looks like a meek n mild bloke!!! We give him a fajita as he’s just eating nutella on toast – what is with these people who can’t cook – and then its off to bed.
It starts to chuck it down…once again….and we have a fun ride through the rainforest on dirt tracks. There are few hairy moments when I think the poor wee car won’t make it over the various potholes, but all is good and we show the 4x4 behind us a thing or two!
We stop off at waterfall no.1 (we saw a lot today and I can’t really remember all of their names!) Apparently, there are turtles which can be seen so I keep a beady eye open……and randomly I actually spy one from the other side of the pool! Dave and I rush over to get a closer look, but the wee fecker jumps in never to be seen again – raaaa!! We take a few snaps and it’s onto the next touristy stop! We end up following the same 3 cars which are also doing this route – teehee!
After waterfall no.4, we’re done with them all and decide to head for the cheese/dairy farm which is famous for its organic cheeses. Unfortunately, we get there after 3pm and the place shuts at 4pm so we miss out on the cheese tour – booo. However, we have a gorgeous ploughmans and scoff the different cheeses! There’s 2 different ricotta type ones and 2 different cheddery ones…..oh so fattening but damn tasty! They serve it up with crusty bread and some streaky bacon/ham schizz.
It’s still raining when we head back to Cairns but it’s been a fun day with some lovely pics. Aaron is much better and says we’ve missed out on some gorgeous sunshine – argh typical! We dish up fajitas for dinner and end up chatting to this Israeli guy called Koby. He has just finished his compulsory 2years in the army and is now enjoying his holidays. Both men and women have to do their compulsory army training but the gals only have to do 1 year – good eh?! He tells us about firing off rocket launchers and all sorts – its well weird as he looks like a meek n mild bloke!!! We give him a fajita as he’s just eating nutella on toast – what is with these people who can’t cook – and then its off to bed.
Hayley
Tuesday 10 March 2009
Tues 10th March - Anyone for Coffee?!
Today, we decide to go further inland and head for the different wineries in the region. We pass some big ass termite hills along the way – these things were about 6ft high and of course, the lads had to get out and take a picture of them…..weirdoes…..
Our first stop is a Mango Winery….interesting….we turn up and it just looks like a massive warehouse….hmmmm….we ring a bell and follow the signs to the shop entrance….and it’s the tiniest shop in the world – haha! Doubt we’ll be getting loads of wine tasting here then. The woman is doing her spiel to a group of older peeps and then lets us have a taste (for $5!). Aaron makes sure he tries ALL of the different wines and liquors – not impressed with the teeny measures like but whatevs! We try the sweet, medium and dry mango wines and all I can say is ‘don’t think this will be taking off in the UK somehow’. It tastes ok I suppose, but bit on the sickly side. Plus it’s around about £15-£20 a bottle?! WHAT!! The woman does her best to sell us a bottle but it aint happening luv!
Next stop is the Skybury Coffee Plantation. It’s set in some magnificent grounds and has views to die for. We chat to the girl behind the counter and find out she’s from the Isle of Skye – how very random!! We book in for the tour and we get a free coffee in exchange – nice one! We all opt for the most expensive one – Iced Coffee – and it doesn’t disappoint. DISHLICIOUS! While we’re waiting for the tour to start, we have a yummy lunch looking out over the hills and watch a thunderstorm miles away – pretty damn cool.
The tour kicks off at 2.15pm. The group comprises us 3 and this Canadian family…..this is one weird looking family…..well, the mum and the daughter look normal, but then you get to the dad and the 2 young lads….wait for this…..they all have MATCHING RATS TAILS!?!?!?! It’s the weirdest thing EVER!!! I’m a little perturbed by this…..and try to concentrate on the coffee tour.
The coffee guide is called Lee and he knows his stuff about coffee! We get a tour around the grounds, get shown the different processes from picking the beans to then roasting them and then we get taken into the tasting room. This type of ozzie coffee is actually sold in Sainsburys haha! Bet it costs loads! We get to taste cold and hot coffee, he shows us how to roast the beans correctly and not to ‘overdo’ them and then we watch a funky wee film about the plantation itself. All very interesting and I really enjoyed it! A highlight was when some crazy old lady decided to gatecrash the tasting room and started asking all these questions – which had already been answered at the start of the tour – DOZY BINT!!!! However, made me chuckle. Oh and learnt that if you have a really hyperactive child on your hands, feed them coffee as this will help calm them down – random hey!?! Don’t know how that works!!
Just as we’re about to leave…..it CHUCKS it down….I’m not liking all this blimming rain. They reckon it happens the same time everyday – sod that for a lark! After making a mad dash for the car, we decide to go to this tea plantation / fruit distillery place. We drive through all these banana trees and notice that they’re all covered up in plastic bags….on the trees!! Looks well weird – apparently it’s to stop the birds from getting them.
We go to the free tasting bit of the plantation and get presented with another teeny measure of banana liquor – bleurgh –no thanks!! However, the guy that is serving is really chatty and starts to try and do a Scottish accent, as we tell him we live in Edinburgh. He’s good craic and keeps us entertained for a while! After that, we deserve a good cup of tea over the road. I decide to be adventurous and go for a Rosey Lea – silly mistake!! Just spent £3 on a big teapot of….PANTS TEA!! Yup, it’s all fragrant and perfumey = PANTS tea. Ach well, at least I tried it….Dave has a spicy Chai – oooer missus – and Aaron opts for boring black coffee but with a double shot – oh no, hyper Aaron – or maybe it will shut him up if the whole hyper kiddie thing works! Haha.
We take the scenic route back to Cairns, which takes us on a major windy road up through more rainforest. OMG – these roads are crazy and Aaron starts to feel a little queasy. He then sits in the front and we stop off at Edmonton to get some supplies at the supermarket. Crikey o’reilly – this place is HICKSVILLE……some well dodgy looking inbred characters in that place. We get out of there sharpish and head back to the hostel for some good ol Spanish omelette!
Funny story whilst cooking tea – these young girls are sitting at the breakfast bar eating jam on crackers…..for their DINNER!!! They are looking, in amazement, at Dave cooking and say ‘wow….that’s proper food. The only thing we’ve cooked is pasta and sauce. How do you do it?’ Bless their cotton socks –these kiddies don’t know how to cook an omelette – what on earth!!? Anyways, they get a cooking lesson off Dave and they look down at their crackers in despair and promise that they’ll give it a go tomorrow night. Man alive, kids these days! Aaron aint feeling too good, so he heads to bed straight after dinner.
Our first stop is a Mango Winery….interesting….we turn up and it just looks like a massive warehouse….hmmmm….we ring a bell and follow the signs to the shop entrance….and it’s the tiniest shop in the world – haha! Doubt we’ll be getting loads of wine tasting here then. The woman is doing her spiel to a group of older peeps and then lets us have a taste (for $5!). Aaron makes sure he tries ALL of the different wines and liquors – not impressed with the teeny measures like but whatevs! We try the sweet, medium and dry mango wines and all I can say is ‘don’t think this will be taking off in the UK somehow’. It tastes ok I suppose, but bit on the sickly side. Plus it’s around about £15-£20 a bottle?! WHAT!! The woman does her best to sell us a bottle but it aint happening luv!
Next stop is the Skybury Coffee Plantation. It’s set in some magnificent grounds and has views to die for. We chat to the girl behind the counter and find out she’s from the Isle of Skye – how very random!! We book in for the tour and we get a free coffee in exchange – nice one! We all opt for the most expensive one – Iced Coffee – and it doesn’t disappoint. DISHLICIOUS! While we’re waiting for the tour to start, we have a yummy lunch looking out over the hills and watch a thunderstorm miles away – pretty damn cool.
The tour kicks off at 2.15pm. The group comprises us 3 and this Canadian family…..this is one weird looking family…..well, the mum and the daughter look normal, but then you get to the dad and the 2 young lads….wait for this…..they all have MATCHING RATS TAILS!?!?!?! It’s the weirdest thing EVER!!! I’m a little perturbed by this…..and try to concentrate on the coffee tour.
The coffee guide is called Lee and he knows his stuff about coffee! We get a tour around the grounds, get shown the different processes from picking the beans to then roasting them and then we get taken into the tasting room. This type of ozzie coffee is actually sold in Sainsburys haha! Bet it costs loads! We get to taste cold and hot coffee, he shows us how to roast the beans correctly and not to ‘overdo’ them and then we watch a funky wee film about the plantation itself. All very interesting and I really enjoyed it! A highlight was when some crazy old lady decided to gatecrash the tasting room and started asking all these questions – which had already been answered at the start of the tour – DOZY BINT!!!! However, made me chuckle. Oh and learnt that if you have a really hyperactive child on your hands, feed them coffee as this will help calm them down – random hey!?! Don’t know how that works!!
Just as we’re about to leave…..it CHUCKS it down….I’m not liking all this blimming rain. They reckon it happens the same time everyday – sod that for a lark! After making a mad dash for the car, we decide to go to this tea plantation / fruit distillery place. We drive through all these banana trees and notice that they’re all covered up in plastic bags….on the trees!! Looks well weird – apparently it’s to stop the birds from getting them.
We go to the free tasting bit of the plantation and get presented with another teeny measure of banana liquor – bleurgh –no thanks!! However, the guy that is serving is really chatty and starts to try and do a Scottish accent, as we tell him we live in Edinburgh. He’s good craic and keeps us entertained for a while! After that, we deserve a good cup of tea over the road. I decide to be adventurous and go for a Rosey Lea – silly mistake!! Just spent £3 on a big teapot of….PANTS TEA!! Yup, it’s all fragrant and perfumey = PANTS tea. Ach well, at least I tried it….Dave has a spicy Chai – oooer missus – and Aaron opts for boring black coffee but with a double shot – oh no, hyper Aaron – or maybe it will shut him up if the whole hyper kiddie thing works! Haha.
We take the scenic route back to Cairns, which takes us on a major windy road up through more rainforest. OMG – these roads are crazy and Aaron starts to feel a little queasy. He then sits in the front and we stop off at Edmonton to get some supplies at the supermarket. Crikey o’reilly – this place is HICKSVILLE……some well dodgy looking inbred characters in that place. We get out of there sharpish and head back to the hostel for some good ol Spanish omelette!
Funny story whilst cooking tea – these young girls are sitting at the breakfast bar eating jam on crackers…..for their DINNER!!! They are looking, in amazement, at Dave cooking and say ‘wow….that’s proper food. The only thing we’ve cooked is pasta and sauce. How do you do it?’ Bless their cotton socks –these kiddies don’t know how to cook an omelette – what on earth!!? Anyways, they get a cooking lesson off Dave and they look down at their crackers in despair and promise that they’ll give it a go tomorrow night. Man alive, kids these days! Aaron aint feeling too good, so he heads to bed straight after dinner.
Hayley
Monday 9 March 2009
Mon 9th March - it really does rain in rainforests!
9am comes and we head into town to get our wee adventure vehicle! It’s a baby blue colour which impressed the boys no end – ugh, come on!! And away we go!! Whoop whoop!! It’s a gorgeous day and we head north, aiming for Port Douglas, Mossman Gorge and Cape Tribulation. Along the way I get informed that it’s major Croc Country – as in CROCODILES?!?! Argh!!! I thought that was just a myth, but no it aint! Please no snappy snap things come near me!
We stop at a few look out points along the way and take some amazing scenery shots and then it’s about an hour to get to Port Douglas. It’s a lovely town with some quaint restaurants and cafes. We take a gander around the wildlife information centre and carry on with the drive. The sun is beating down on us and we start to get a nice tan via the windows. We pass loads of sugar cane fields and I have a total blonde, ditzy moment and say ‘eh, haven’t seen them selling loads of sugar cane juice over here like in Asia’ and the boys all go ‘DURRRRR……its for making SUGAR you dumbass’…..oh yeah…..what a numpty haha!
Mossman Gorge is great fun but oh so hot n sweaty! We are literally sweating ALL over – even my arms are glistening with sweat – nice look I tell ye! After the hour long walk circuit in and around the rainforest, we head to the gorge for a nice cool dip……and then it starts to CHUCK it down! It’s a very surreal experience swimming around with the rain beating down as well – haha. However, I don’t last long due to it being BLIMMING freezing. Once we’re all out of there, we head back to the car and try to figure out how to dry ourselves, as it’s still bucketing down and our towels are drenched!! It’s true what they say: it really does rain in a rainforest! We end up in the car, all sitting on our beach towels and trying to dry ourselves with the car heaters…all very random. I’m a bit worried that peeps will be thinking I’m in the car with just me undies on as I’ve donned my bikini – but think it’s pretty much normal practice over here!
After a couple more hours in the car, we’re heading up to Cape Tribulation – proper Croc Country….there’s even signs on the road saying ‘ATTENTION: Recent sightings of crocodiles in this area. Be careful!’ – uh…ok….thanks for that!? ARGH!!! We cross this bit of lake on a funny pully car ferry thing and then have a wee cruise around the nature park up to CapeTrib. It’s a funny ol road with loads of signs saying watch out for this random birds that look like emus – “cassowary” or summat like that…..Dave reckons they are crazy birds that have an evil claw….hmmm…..ok whatevs!
Fortunately, we didn’t spot any or run any over for that matter….we stop off at this little café place for some grub and have a walk down to the beach. Not such a pleasant walk as you go over these walkways that look like where crocs would want to lurk…..not enjoying this!!! We get to the beach and I spy another warning sign: “DO NOT SWIM – STINGERS ARE OUT” (Jellyfish to you and me)…..and there’s a bottle of vinegar under the sign to douse your sting if you get the misfortune of getting got by the wee feckers!
It’s pretty overcast and it’s threatening to rain so we all get back in the car and we start to head back to Cairns. I take over the driving – whooohooo – and have a great wee drive back along the crazy rainforest roads!! Weirdly, neither Aaron or Dave wake up during my stint as a formula 1 driver and we get back to Cairns in one piece around tea time.
After dinner, there’s a pool comp on at the bar in the hostel and both the boys enter. You have to pot as many balls as you can in 1 minute…..Aaron gets 7 and Dave gets 4. Luckily, there were 2 lads that didn’t get any, so they had to jump in the pool as a forfeit – haha!
We stop at a few look out points along the way and take some amazing scenery shots and then it’s about an hour to get to Port Douglas. It’s a lovely town with some quaint restaurants and cafes. We take a gander around the wildlife information centre and carry on with the drive. The sun is beating down on us and we start to get a nice tan via the windows. We pass loads of sugar cane fields and I have a total blonde, ditzy moment and say ‘eh, haven’t seen them selling loads of sugar cane juice over here like in Asia’ and the boys all go ‘DURRRRR……its for making SUGAR you dumbass’…..oh yeah…..what a numpty haha!
Mossman Gorge is great fun but oh so hot n sweaty! We are literally sweating ALL over – even my arms are glistening with sweat – nice look I tell ye! After the hour long walk circuit in and around the rainforest, we head to the gorge for a nice cool dip……and then it starts to CHUCK it down! It’s a very surreal experience swimming around with the rain beating down as well – haha. However, I don’t last long due to it being BLIMMING freezing. Once we’re all out of there, we head back to the car and try to figure out how to dry ourselves, as it’s still bucketing down and our towels are drenched!! It’s true what they say: it really does rain in a rainforest! We end up in the car, all sitting on our beach towels and trying to dry ourselves with the car heaters…all very random. I’m a bit worried that peeps will be thinking I’m in the car with just me undies on as I’ve donned my bikini – but think it’s pretty much normal practice over here!
After a couple more hours in the car, we’re heading up to Cape Tribulation – proper Croc Country….there’s even signs on the road saying ‘ATTENTION: Recent sightings of crocodiles in this area. Be careful!’ – uh…ok….thanks for that!? ARGH!!! We cross this bit of lake on a funny pully car ferry thing and then have a wee cruise around the nature park up to CapeTrib. It’s a funny ol road with loads of signs saying watch out for this random birds that look like emus – “cassowary” or summat like that…..Dave reckons they are crazy birds that have an evil claw….hmmm…..ok whatevs!
Fortunately, we didn’t spot any or run any over for that matter….we stop off at this little café place for some grub and have a walk down to the beach. Not such a pleasant walk as you go over these walkways that look like where crocs would want to lurk…..not enjoying this!!! We get to the beach and I spy another warning sign: “DO NOT SWIM – STINGERS ARE OUT” (Jellyfish to you and me)…..and there’s a bottle of vinegar under the sign to douse your sting if you get the misfortune of getting got by the wee feckers!
It’s pretty overcast and it’s threatening to rain so we all get back in the car and we start to head back to Cairns. I take over the driving – whooohooo – and have a great wee drive back along the crazy rainforest roads!! Weirdly, neither Aaron or Dave wake up during my stint as a formula 1 driver and we get back to Cairns in one piece around tea time.
After dinner, there’s a pool comp on at the bar in the hostel and both the boys enter. You have to pot as many balls as you can in 1 minute…..Aaron gets 7 and Dave gets 4. Luckily, there were 2 lads that didn’t get any, so they had to jump in the pool as a forfeit – haha!
Hayley
Sunday 8 March 2009
Sun 8th March - we love pasta n pesto!
Hmmmm….what time did we all surface?! About lunchtime!! But luckily, no sore heads. There’s a shock!! Aaron can’t really remember getting in and was feeling a bit ruff around the edges – haha. We end up filling him in on various parts of the night and he tries to remember how he got home. We’re all dying on some hangover grub so head for the mecca that is Maccie D’s – right in the centre of town. We pass a few car rental places and the rate is really quite good, so we end up booking car hire for the next 3days – yay!! I’m so excited to be actually ‘doing’ something and seeing stuff that’s a bit off the beaten track! We’ve hired a wee dinky car – Hyundai Getz – and we get to pick it up tomorrow at 9am. We take a wee look around the Tourist Info Centre to get ideas for our trip and end up asking the lady for some ideas and maps. She’s really helpful and she hands us a stack of maps with various routes plotted out on them – whooohooo – adventure time!!!
After visiting Woolworths (yup, it still exists over here, although not as we know it –it’s a SUPERMARKET!!) we take a slow walk back to the hostel. It’s been pretty muggy and overcast so we head back for a shower (number 2 of the day) before cooking up a feast of pasta n pesto – student dinner here come!!
We all end up having an early nite as we’re knackered from last nights’ shenanigans and we’re up early tomoz.
After visiting Woolworths (yup, it still exists over here, although not as we know it –it’s a SUPERMARKET!!) we take a slow walk back to the hostel. It’s been pretty muggy and overcast so we head back for a shower (number 2 of the day) before cooking up a feast of pasta n pesto – student dinner here come!!
We all end up having an early nite as we’re knackered from last nights’ shenanigans and we’re up early tomoz.
Hayley
Sat 7th March - Cyclone? What cyclone?!
After a good breakfast and a wee mooch about the rest of the Ayres Rock resort, we get picked up at 12 noon to get the flight down to Cairns. Bye Bye Dusty Land of Nothingness (apart from The Rock!) and Hello Party Town in Cairns!! The flight is a tad bumpy coming into land and as I look out of the window, you have to notice how green it all is!! Surrounded by rainforests – it’s such a contrast to the dry outback of Ayres Rock!
While we’re waiting for our luggage, we get a voicemail from Trent saying to be careful as there is a cyclone heading past Cairns…..oh great!! No wonder the landing was bumpy!! We head outside and its humid central….back to being hot n sticky and having 5 showers a day then – haha…..however, the weather doesn’t look too bad and no buildings have fallen over so I think we’re ok!!!
The hostel is called Calypso Backpackers and is very funky. There’s a pool with a nice poolside bar and food area, pool table and big screens. The reception guys are dead helpful and we check out our rooms. Aaron is a dorm with 3 other beds and Dave n I have a double room with a shared shower. Aircon and fan = great success!! It’s definitely needed here!!
Everyone gets unpacked and its time to run down for the happy hour…..whooohooo – for a whole hour the vino is about a £1 – yay!!! The lads are on jugs of beer, again, muchos cheapness and we end up chatting to a cockney guy called Stuart. He shows us this mental website – http://www.askjud.com/ and ends up freaking us out with it!! Its like a mind-reading website with a twist – anyhoo, we all have a right laugh and decide to get the free bus into the town centre – sorry, City Centre (aye right!). The hostel gives us out some free passes to this place called The Woolshed. It’s a right cheesy, dancey place full of backpackers dancing on tables and general messyness! Yay – we came to the right place for my 2nd birthday! Haha!
Aaron ends up playing a few rounds of pool on the pool table and becomes acquainted with the Turkish mafia…..well, that’s what they looked like. It was hilarious to watch as they were all sooo damn competitive and Aaron just kept beating them!! They even used one of their girlfriends to play – she was wearing a very revealing dress and, I personally think, was used to distract the opposition!!! After Aaron beat the last guy, they all stormed off in a huff – hahahaha – what a hoot!! Dave n I spent the rest of the night talking to randoms - some crazy Irish lass called Vivien, some other dude from Sheffield with a weird Ozzie accent and some locals – then we discovered Aaron had gone AWOL – (he had a few too many sherries).
We ended up leaving when the place closed at 4am – another night where we’ve beaten Aaron the lightweight!!! Dave insisted on pizza for his early morning munchies and we managed to find a taxi and head back to the hostel with no dramas! Bed at silly oclock but it was a Great Nite!
While we’re waiting for our luggage, we get a voicemail from Trent saying to be careful as there is a cyclone heading past Cairns…..oh great!! No wonder the landing was bumpy!! We head outside and its humid central….back to being hot n sticky and having 5 showers a day then – haha…..however, the weather doesn’t look too bad and no buildings have fallen over so I think we’re ok!!!
The hostel is called Calypso Backpackers and is very funky. There’s a pool with a nice poolside bar and food area, pool table and big screens. The reception guys are dead helpful and we check out our rooms. Aaron is a dorm with 3 other beds and Dave n I have a double room with a shared shower. Aircon and fan = great success!! It’s definitely needed here!!
Everyone gets unpacked and its time to run down for the happy hour…..whooohooo – for a whole hour the vino is about a £1 – yay!!! The lads are on jugs of beer, again, muchos cheapness and we end up chatting to a cockney guy called Stuart. He shows us this mental website – http://www.askjud.com/ and ends up freaking us out with it!! Its like a mind-reading website with a twist – anyhoo, we all have a right laugh and decide to get the free bus into the town centre – sorry, City Centre (aye right!). The hostel gives us out some free passes to this place called The Woolshed. It’s a right cheesy, dancey place full of backpackers dancing on tables and general messyness! Yay – we came to the right place for my 2nd birthday! Haha!
Aaron ends up playing a few rounds of pool on the pool table and becomes acquainted with the Turkish mafia…..well, that’s what they looked like. It was hilarious to watch as they were all sooo damn competitive and Aaron just kept beating them!! They even used one of their girlfriends to play – she was wearing a very revealing dress and, I personally think, was used to distract the opposition!!! After Aaron beat the last guy, they all stormed off in a huff – hahahaha – what a hoot!! Dave n I spent the rest of the night talking to randoms - some crazy Irish lass called Vivien, some other dude from Sheffield with a weird Ozzie accent and some locals – then we discovered Aaron had gone AWOL – (he had a few too many sherries).
We ended up leaving when the place closed at 4am – another night where we’ve beaten Aaron the lightweight!!! Dave insisted on pizza for his early morning munchies and we managed to find a taxi and head back to the hostel with no dramas! Bed at silly oclock but it was a Great Nite!
Hayley
Friday 6 March 2009
Fri 6th March - Hayley is how old?!?!
Whooohooo – Guess who’s an old fart today?! Haha. I go meet the boys and get to ‘open’ my pressie from Dave and my card from Dad! Good ol’ Dave has bought me a practical present – 2 dry bags…..’wow’, I hear you say, ‘Dave spoils you rotten!’ - but on a serious note, they will aid my packing skills in the rucksack department (I’ll just make him buy me some perfume from duty free soon!!) Aaron decides as it’s my birthday, he wont be mean at all and so gets cooking the feast that is breakfast! Unfortunately, we have to eat it outside where there are hundreds of flies – they are soooooooooo annoying and driving everyone insane. They don’t feck off and keep buzzing around every facial orifice…… not good chat!!!
After we’re all fed and watered, it’s time to hit the pool and bake, which is what we do for the majority of the day! The heat gets really overpowering from midday onwards so I duck into the shade or dive in the pool to cool down. This is the life!! We decide to splash out for my birthday meal and get some nosh from the take away café and just chill in the bar. I get numerous phone calls from home –yay!! Thanks everyone!! It’s a tame birthday for me really – mainly cos I know we’re leaving to go to Cairns tomoz and I can’t do another check-out with the hangover from hell ever AGAIN! When I’m at the loo, the sneaky boys decide to go up to the live singing dude and get him to sing me Happy Birthday – that was nice!! Although, there wasn’t much singing from the peeps in the bar – grumpy bar stewards…..haha…..then my dedicated song comes on and its ‘Tequila’ Thanks Aaron!!! Luckily, I passed on the shots and decide to have a biggie tomoz in Cairns – aka party town!!
After we’re all fed and watered, it’s time to hit the pool and bake, which is what we do for the majority of the day! The heat gets really overpowering from midday onwards so I duck into the shade or dive in the pool to cool down. This is the life!! We decide to splash out for my birthday meal and get some nosh from the take away café and just chill in the bar. I get numerous phone calls from home –yay!! Thanks everyone!! It’s a tame birthday for me really – mainly cos I know we’re leaving to go to Cairns tomoz and I can’t do another check-out with the hangover from hell ever AGAIN! When I’m at the loo, the sneaky boys decide to go up to the live singing dude and get him to sing me Happy Birthday – that was nice!! Although, there wasn’t much singing from the peeps in the bar – grumpy bar stewards…..haha…..then my dedicated song comes on and its ‘Tequila’ Thanks Aaron!!! Luckily, I passed on the shots and decide to have a biggie tomoz in Cairns – aka party town!!
Hayley
Thursday 5 March 2009
Thur 5th March - Bye Bye Perth!
So, today’s the day we leave Perth and I’m proper gutted. Loved this place and especially being spoilt by Trent and Lucy – argh – we’re going to have to resort to good ol pasta n pesto when we get to Ayres Rock and save some pennies!!
Lucy drops us off at the airport and refuses to come in as it makes her sad – bless her! We say our goodbyes and then go check in. The flight takes about 3 hours and as we’re coming into Ayres Rock, you can see just how barren the place really is! It goes on for miles – just red land – crazy to see! The dry heat hits us as soon as we get off the plane, along with thousands of f’ing flies…..get away from me!! The airport is a tiny quaint affair, very much like a large shed! We get a bags and head for the free coach to take us to the Outback Pioneers hostel.
On the coach, we get told that there are 4 hotels in the resort, a post office, supermarket and a restaurant or two. Wow – there really is nowt here!! Glad we’re only here for 2 nites!! The hostel is really nice with a huge bar / bbq area, big kitchen, TV room and decent sized pool. For some reason, the rooms are single sex so I get to spend my nights here with 20 other females – Dave and Aaron’s idea of heaven…..not really when you’re on the top bunk and there’s a smelly grumpy French woman on the bottom bunk underneath you – who snores….(make of that what you will…)
Dave and Aaron suss out the supermarket and buy some supplies – they’ve also priced up the trips to Uluru but it’s a bit damn pricey for a 2hr trip. We go up to one of the lookouts at sunset and take some good pics. I aint too bothered bout going on a trip to the famous rock really so decide to save some pennies and just loll about the pool tomorrow – It’s my birthday and I’ll decide what to do – haha!!!
It’s a fairly chilled night, sitting having a few beers in the bar. Funny thing here is you MUST show your room key or residents’ pass to the barman, every time you go to the bar – the reason for this is and I quote ‘stop the abbo’s from drinking in the bar and getting pissed’ – ok then!! It’s a great place to people watch in the bar, especially when all the locals turn up – just think Alf Stewart and Steve Irwin all rolled into one.
We retire to our dorms and I contemplate turning 29 tomorrow, in this place where there is NOWT to do and its all a bit pricey…….!!!
Lucy drops us off at the airport and refuses to come in as it makes her sad – bless her! We say our goodbyes and then go check in. The flight takes about 3 hours and as we’re coming into Ayres Rock, you can see just how barren the place really is! It goes on for miles – just red land – crazy to see! The dry heat hits us as soon as we get off the plane, along with thousands of f’ing flies…..get away from me!! The airport is a tiny quaint affair, very much like a large shed! We get a bags and head for the free coach to take us to the Outback Pioneers hostel.
On the coach, we get told that there are 4 hotels in the resort, a post office, supermarket and a restaurant or two. Wow – there really is nowt here!! Glad we’re only here for 2 nites!! The hostel is really nice with a huge bar / bbq area, big kitchen, TV room and decent sized pool. For some reason, the rooms are single sex so I get to spend my nights here with 20 other females – Dave and Aaron’s idea of heaven…..not really when you’re on the top bunk and there’s a smelly grumpy French woman on the bottom bunk underneath you – who snores….(make of that what you will…)
Dave and Aaron suss out the supermarket and buy some supplies – they’ve also priced up the trips to Uluru but it’s a bit damn pricey for a 2hr trip. We go up to one of the lookouts at sunset and take some good pics. I aint too bothered bout going on a trip to the famous rock really so decide to save some pennies and just loll about the pool tomorrow – It’s my birthday and I’ll decide what to do – haha!!!
It’s a fairly chilled night, sitting having a few beers in the bar. Funny thing here is you MUST show your room key or residents’ pass to the barman, every time you go to the bar – the reason for this is and I quote ‘stop the abbo’s from drinking in the bar and getting pissed’ – ok then!! It’s a great place to people watch in the bar, especially when all the locals turn up – just think Alf Stewart and Steve Irwin all rolled into one.
We retire to our dorms and I contemplate turning 29 tomorrow, in this place where there is NOWT to do and its all a bit pricey…….!!!
Hayley
Wed 4th March - Leaving the boat
We all have a nice lie in on Wednesday and stir about 10am. I start to get a wee bitty sea sick as the boat has been rocking pretty hard in the early hours of the morning. Nothing major but everytime I stood up to make a cuppa or get changed, I had to lie down again……it wasn’t due to the wine before you all judge! I get told to sit up on the deck and stare at dry land for a bit. This seems to work and I start feeling better. Dave and Trent are up for an early morning dip, trying to get the trapped crab pot in and all of a sudden, it seems a good idea for us all to dive in……
ARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s fecking freezing!!!!!!!! It takes your breath away, so to warm up Lucy and I decide to swim to shore. It takes about 10 minutes and is all going swimmingly (yeah I know, lame) until we start to complain about a few nips and stings…..i look around me and there’s loads of these tiny jelly fish! Eeeek!! They’re only the size of an egg inclusive of tentacles, but they gave us a fair nip. When we get to the shore, Lucy inspects her sting and the wee blighter has stung her on the boob!! How rude!!! I haven’t got any war wounds though, thank goodness. We lounge on the beach, trying to get Trent’s attention on the boat so he can come get us in the dingy! They’re obviously having man chats as he takes blimming ages to come get us.
We clear out the boat before we leave and make sure we leave it the way we found it. Trent takes us to Yallingup beach where we have a nice lazy day, chilling and messing around in the sea. After that, we head to a more surfer type beach where the lads are in their element trying to bodysurf…..looks more like getting wiped out to me – haha! But they’re having fun!
After that, it’s a quick turnaround in getting changed and getting ourselves a chippie and heading to Sugarloaf Rock to catch the sunset. It almost beat us, but we managed to get some super shots of the sunset and eat our fish (shark) n chips with an amazing backdrop. It’s a perfect end to our wee trip away………apart from when the hoards of mozzies start to attack us, so we all run back to the car!
It’s a heck of trip back to Perth – we’re all knackered and also have to stop at Trent’s folks house to drop off snorkels from the boat. Their house is amazing and Mr Guppy built it all himself! Wow! We get treated to a cuppa and a Jam Ring (Jammy Dodger to us!) and then its away we go back to Perth.
We stagger in the house just after midnight and its away to bed as it’s bye bye Perth tomoz – booohooo! Don’t wanna go!!
ARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s fecking freezing!!!!!!!! It takes your breath away, so to warm up Lucy and I decide to swim to shore. It takes about 10 minutes and is all going swimmingly (yeah I know, lame) until we start to complain about a few nips and stings…..i look around me and there’s loads of these tiny jelly fish! Eeeek!! They’re only the size of an egg inclusive of tentacles, but they gave us a fair nip. When we get to the shore, Lucy inspects her sting and the wee blighter has stung her on the boob!! How rude!!! I haven’t got any war wounds though, thank goodness. We lounge on the beach, trying to get Trent’s attention on the boat so he can come get us in the dingy! They’re obviously having man chats as he takes blimming ages to come get us.
We clear out the boat before we leave and make sure we leave it the way we found it. Trent takes us to Yallingup beach where we have a nice lazy day, chilling and messing around in the sea. After that, we head to a more surfer type beach where the lads are in their element trying to bodysurf…..looks more like getting wiped out to me – haha! But they’re having fun!
After that, it’s a quick turnaround in getting changed and getting ourselves a chippie and heading to Sugarloaf Rock to catch the sunset. It almost beat us, but we managed to get some super shots of the sunset and eat our fish (shark) n chips with an amazing backdrop. It’s a perfect end to our wee trip away………apart from when the hoards of mozzies start to attack us, so we all run back to the car!
It’s a heck of trip back to Perth – we’re all knackered and also have to stop at Trent’s folks house to drop off snorkels from the boat. Their house is amazing and Mr Guppy built it all himself! Wow! We get treated to a cuppa and a Jam Ring (Jammy Dodger to us!) and then its away we go back to Perth.
We stagger in the house just after midnight and its away to bed as it’s bye bye Perth tomoz – booohooo! Don’t wanna go!!
Hayley
Wednesday 4 March 2009
Tues 3rd March - winetasting a go go!
Oh deary me, I didn’t sleep well AT ALL…..mainly due to a freak out claustrophobia-style combined with Trent / Aaron’s snoring!! I ended up sleeping out on the other bunks near the door – much better! Cos of lack of sleep, I aint a happy camper at 8am and trying to negotiate getting ready on a rocking boat isn’t much fun either! But I’ve got the winery to look forward to so I’m getting ready quick smart!!
The boys want to do more fishing but enough is enough, we’ve got wine-tasting to go to!! We all get to shore and its time to cram into the Guppy car again. We head out of Dunsborough and towards Augusta. We’re properly in wine making region as everywhere you look there’s a sign for a vineyard. Apparently, there is no obligation to buy so you could go to every winery and just rock up and sample their wines!! Man alive, where’s a chauffeur when you need one? That’s mine n Lucy’s idea of heaven!
Our winery is called Voyager Estate and its’ beautiful. The dude that runs this place isn’t really a fan of wine and is more interested in his rose gardens….random fact there for ya. Unfortunately, we got lost on the way here and so we have to forfeit the actual wine tour and just head straight to the wine tasting – ah well, next time. We get to try 5 different white wines and 4 reds. They’re all pretty damn good and we get to learn a few facts along the way – a lot of their stock is actually blended with a whole heap of different grapes eg, Semillon Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot Cabernet and all that jazz. Interesting eh?! The boys have a fit of the giggles when Lucy says ‘can you put your Semillon on down for a number of years?’ apparently this is funny….hmmm….juveniles….
After that, we get taken through to the restaurant for our free lunch. Wow! This place is posh!! It’s a great setting for a wedding, all decked out in wood and high ceilings overlooking the massive grounds. We get waited on hand and foot by the attentive staff and get fed some amazing food. The lads all went for the steak – Eye fillet, Lucy went for the pork and I had the crab. The entrees (yup, not starters) were tasting plates combining all sorts of yummy seafood and meats.
Once we were fed and watered, we were on a Trent tour of the area. He drove us miles around and we ended up stopping at these caves to have a look at. The boys were all well up for this, but Lucy and I just wanted to keep drinking vino – booo…. The caves were good banter actually – we all looked like right loons with the hired blue helmets they made you wear and the over shoulder torches. What a sight! Haha.
We were in there for about an hour, looking at all the stalagmites and stalactites (google it) and there’s a bit where you can sit and experience the full darkness of cave. Well, that was a right laugh….again, those juvenile boys were in their element. First off, we thought we lost Trent on the path so Lucy went back looking for him. 2 seconds later we hear her ‘don’t be so stupid Trent!’ – there he was hiding, doing a moony at her!!! How wrong! Then, when we decided to switch off all the torches for 20seconds and experience the ‘real’ darkness, when we illuminated ourselves again, Dave was taking off his top and massaging his nipples….I mean COME ON!!!!
After all that hilarity, we carry on the Guppy tour stopping off at Augusta and various wicked beaches with amazing waves. We got shown a point where the Southern ocean met the Indian ocean – that was a great sight. Also, saw my fair share of wild ‘roos along the way, which was cool!
We end up getting supplies for dinner tonight and head back to the boat. As the sun had set, we end up getting the dingy back to the boat in the moonlight. The girls get on the vino once more and the boys continue some moonlight fishing! We end up having a right old feast of squid and other random fish with good ol style chippy chips! Yay! Due to the freak out I had last nite, Dave and I sleep in the other ‘quarters’ of the boat and I sleep soundly – no more snoring at this end!
The boys want to do more fishing but enough is enough, we’ve got wine-tasting to go to!! We all get to shore and its time to cram into the Guppy car again. We head out of Dunsborough and towards Augusta. We’re properly in wine making region as everywhere you look there’s a sign for a vineyard. Apparently, there is no obligation to buy so you could go to every winery and just rock up and sample their wines!! Man alive, where’s a chauffeur when you need one? That’s mine n Lucy’s idea of heaven!
Our winery is called Voyager Estate and its’ beautiful. The dude that runs this place isn’t really a fan of wine and is more interested in his rose gardens….random fact there for ya. Unfortunately, we got lost on the way here and so we have to forfeit the actual wine tour and just head straight to the wine tasting – ah well, next time. We get to try 5 different white wines and 4 reds. They’re all pretty damn good and we get to learn a few facts along the way – a lot of their stock is actually blended with a whole heap of different grapes eg, Semillon Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot Cabernet and all that jazz. Interesting eh?! The boys have a fit of the giggles when Lucy says ‘can you put your Semillon on down for a number of years?’ apparently this is funny….hmmm….juveniles….
After that, we get taken through to the restaurant for our free lunch. Wow! This place is posh!! It’s a great setting for a wedding, all decked out in wood and high ceilings overlooking the massive grounds. We get waited on hand and foot by the attentive staff and get fed some amazing food. The lads all went for the steak – Eye fillet, Lucy went for the pork and I had the crab. The entrees (yup, not starters) were tasting plates combining all sorts of yummy seafood and meats.
Once we were fed and watered, we were on a Trent tour of the area. He drove us miles around and we ended up stopping at these caves to have a look at. The boys were all well up for this, but Lucy and I just wanted to keep drinking vino – booo…. The caves were good banter actually – we all looked like right loons with the hired blue helmets they made you wear and the over shoulder torches. What a sight! Haha.
We were in there for about an hour, looking at all the stalagmites and stalactites (google it) and there’s a bit where you can sit and experience the full darkness of cave. Well, that was a right laugh….again, those juvenile boys were in their element. First off, we thought we lost Trent on the path so Lucy went back looking for him. 2 seconds later we hear her ‘don’t be so stupid Trent!’ – there he was hiding, doing a moony at her!!! How wrong! Then, when we decided to switch off all the torches for 20seconds and experience the ‘real’ darkness, when we illuminated ourselves again, Dave was taking off his top and massaging his nipples….I mean COME ON!!!!
After all that hilarity, we carry on the Guppy tour stopping off at Augusta and various wicked beaches with amazing waves. We got shown a point where the Southern ocean met the Indian ocean – that was a great sight. Also, saw my fair share of wild ‘roos along the way, which was cool!
We end up getting supplies for dinner tonight and head back to the boat. As the sun had set, we end up getting the dingy back to the boat in the moonlight. The girls get on the vino once more and the boys continue some moonlight fishing! We end up having a right old feast of squid and other random fish with good ol style chippy chips! Yay! Due to the freak out I had last nite, Dave and I sleep in the other ‘quarters’ of the boat and I sleep soundly – no more snoring at this end!
Hayley
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
