I did come back slightly early for one very special day, Ross and Liz's wedding.
It was a perfect day, sunny, hot and amazing to see family and friends again. Liz looked stunning, and perfectly relaxed all day. I think she must have been the clamest bride ever, and just laughed as she told us she'd left her bouquet at home! So 20 minutes later, and a very nervous Ross, she walked down the aisle, with her bouquet!
I hope everyone there enjoyed the day as much as I did and I wish them both every happiness in the rest of their married life.
Love Kylie xx
Sunrise in the Solomons
At Maravaghi resort
Sydney Opera House and Bridge
Thursday, 4 June 2009
Hong Kong
Tuesday - Wow, so we made it back to Hong Kong, and actually got to leave the airport this time. We got on the airport express to Central and then took a cab to the Chadwick's flat in Causeway Bay. Here we were greeted by a very scared 'guard' dog and Matthew, their son. After breakfast and a much needed shower, we headed into Central by bus, where Matthew bought us lunch at Dot Cod, and then started shopping! Hong Kong has changed quite a lot, even from my vague memory, but I certainly know there are a lot more shops than when we were there! Still we made the most of it. We then got the Star Ferry over to Tsim Sha Tui, where both myself and Anna got fitted for a tailor made suit! We got to pick our fabric - grey cashmere wool with a maroon silk lining, and Anna chose a sea green lining.
We then had 4 hours to kill so wandered up and down Nathan Road, a famous shopping road, and hiding in Starbucks and various other food places from the monsoon rains that kept unleashing itself upon us.
We then had to go back for a fitting, before rushing up to the Hong Kong Cricket Club for dinner with Jenny and Chris Chadwick! They haven't changed a bit in 15 years, and it was so nice to see them. After chinese for dinner, Chris took us down to Temple St night market to hunt some bargains down. Anna got her fortune read by a bird! I think it was mostly good, although the Chinese to English translation was a bit ropey!
Then home, and met Kelly, who I'd last seen aged 1, and is now 15 and doing her GCSE's!
Wednesday - Had a lie-in and attempted to pack our stuff for one last tie. Headed into Central to take the tram up to Victoria Peak! It was so different - they have a new look-out up there with lots of shops (of course!) and restaurants. It wa quite cloudy so the view wasn't as good as expected. Still was amazing to see the skyline again, with so many new skyscrapers!
Had lunch and did some browsing around the shops before going for our last suit fitting. It needed some adjutments so we had to come back later in the evening. I bought some pearls, and then Anna and myself got a foot massage - waso so lovely, but I couldn't stop laughing at Anna as she was so ticklish throughout it!
THen cabbed it over to Sha Tin with Matthew to meet Chris, Jenny and Kelly for dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. Matthew then had to leave to go back to work, he is training to be a jockey and is actually very very good.
We then got a train back to Tsim Sha Tui to pick up our now finished suits and got the Star Ferry one last time. The view was incredible, as all the skyscrapers were lit up with different light shows. We went back to the Chadwick's place and joined Jenny in watching the horse racing at Happy Valley. Chris had gone to watch it live as he had some bets on. Matthew was meant to be racing but had had a fall the previous week and so was on 5 days rest.
Still was exciting to watch again, and it was raining hard so we avoided getting wet!
Thursday - Up early and at Central train station for 0615. We checked our bags in at the train station and then caught the airport express to the airport. With our $28 remaining between us we managed to buy a pitiful, but tasty chinese breakfast before getting our last flight home!
What an unbelievable trip! So many memories and so many photos, it will never be forgotten.
I could easily recommend everywhere we went, from smelly, dirty Honiara to humid, rainy Hong Kong!
I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
Now only a few months to go until the real world kicks in........
Love Kylie xx
We then had 4 hours to kill so wandered up and down Nathan Road, a famous shopping road, and hiding in Starbucks and various other food places from the monsoon rains that kept unleashing itself upon us.
We then had to go back for a fitting, before rushing up to the Hong Kong Cricket Club for dinner with Jenny and Chris Chadwick! They haven't changed a bit in 15 years, and it was so nice to see them. After chinese for dinner, Chris took us down to Temple St night market to hunt some bargains down. Anna got her fortune read by a bird! I think it was mostly good, although the Chinese to English translation was a bit ropey!
Then home, and met Kelly, who I'd last seen aged 1, and is now 15 and doing her GCSE's!
Wednesday - Had a lie-in and attempted to pack our stuff for one last tie. Headed into Central to take the tram up to Victoria Peak! It was so different - they have a new look-out up there with lots of shops (of course!) and restaurants. It wa quite cloudy so the view wasn't as good as expected. Still was amazing to see the skyline again, with so many new skyscrapers!
Had lunch and did some browsing around the shops before going for our last suit fitting. It needed some adjutments so we had to come back later in the evening. I bought some pearls, and then Anna and myself got a foot massage - waso so lovely, but I couldn't stop laughing at Anna as she was so ticklish throughout it!
THen cabbed it over to Sha Tin with Matthew to meet Chris, Jenny and Kelly for dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. Matthew then had to leave to go back to work, he is training to be a jockey and is actually very very good.
We then got a train back to Tsim Sha Tui to pick up our now finished suits and got the Star Ferry one last time. The view was incredible, as all the skyscrapers were lit up with different light shows. We went back to the Chadwick's place and joined Jenny in watching the horse racing at Happy Valley. Chris had gone to watch it live as he had some bets on. Matthew was meant to be racing but had had a fall the previous week and so was on 5 days rest.
Still was exciting to watch again, and it was raining hard so we avoided getting wet!
Thursday - Up early and at Central train station for 0615. We checked our bags in at the train station and then caught the airport express to the airport. With our $28 remaining between us we managed to buy a pitiful, but tasty chinese breakfast before getting our last flight home!
What an unbelievable trip! So many memories and so many photos, it will never be forgotten.
I could easily recommend everywhere we went, from smelly, dirty Honiara to humid, rainy Hong Kong!
I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
Now only a few months to go until the real world kicks in........
Love Kylie xx
The rest of New Zealand
Sunday - We got the ferry over to Russell, a little island opposite Paihia. It was another gorgeous sunny day so we had a walk along the beach before walking around the town. It was really quaint with lots of old wooden buildings. We had a look around the shops and then had lunch in one of the local pubs, along with about 40 bikers who had just rocked up! Still mussels, a pint of cider and the sun on your face and you can't go much wrong!
Got the ferry back and then relaxed before we went back to Auckland.
Monday - Our last day in New Zealand, so we decided to finish in style.......... by going cayoning! For those who don't know what this is, it is know as gorge walking in the UK and involves throwing yourself off waterfalls, and sliding down them or abseiling down them into freezing cold water!! And so that is what we did, for 4 hours! It was so damn cold but so so so much fun! It was only Anna, myself and the instructor so we could take as long as we wanted. Awesome day, though we desperately needed a long warm shower by the end of it. We finish off our day in Auckland with some really good food - Anna had lamb and I had duck, and our last glass of NZ white wine before making our way to the airport for our late night flight.
We were both asleep before the first meal came round, which set us up for the day ahead.......in Hong Kong!!
xxx
Got the ferry back and then relaxed before we went back to Auckland.
Monday - Our last day in New Zealand, so we decided to finish in style.......... by going cayoning! For those who don't know what this is, it is know as gorge walking in the UK and involves throwing yourself off waterfalls, and sliding down them or abseiling down them into freezing cold water!! And so that is what we did, for 4 hours! It was so damn cold but so so so much fun! It was only Anna, myself and the instructor so we could take as long as we wanted. Awesome day, though we desperately needed a long warm shower by the end of it. We finish off our day in Auckland with some really good food - Anna had lamb and I had duck, and our last glass of NZ white wine before making our way to the airport for our late night flight.
We were both asleep before the first meal came round, which set us up for the day ahead.......in Hong Kong!!
xxx
Friday, 22 May 2009
More North Island
OK, so the next day in Rotorua, we had breakfast in town before heading out to Hell's Gate spa and geothermal park. We took a walk around the bubbling pools of mud and the sulphur pools. It was very Jurassic Park-esque! Then we headed into the spa and covered ourselves in mud, before rinsing it out and soaking in the sulphur water! Was so nice and warm and felt thoroughly cleansed afterwards.
We then started our drive north to Auckland. Was quite a boring drive but we did it pretty quickly. Eventually found our campsite, it was very strange being back in a city.
As it was Matt's last night we headed into the city centre, and went to a restaurant called Euro, we did gourmet cuisine! And it was amazing. We had a 3 course dinner with wine for only 40 quid each! Started off with calamari, then had kingfish wrapped in parma ham, followed by Spoons of 2011 - 4 spoons with a different dessert thing on each. Very odd things, but was a really strange collection of textures and flavours which worked really well!
Went out for some more drinks and then got the bus 50 minutes home to our campsite.
On Tuesday morning, we accompanied Matt to the airport, to send him on his way home, via Singapore.
Me and Anna headed into the city for some sightseeing, and decided to head the zoo. It was really cool, and for once quite warm and sunny to nice to walk around outside. We finally got to see some actual Kiwi's which are amazing little fluffy birds! Zoo was really good, and also stuffed full of chickens randomly wandering around as well. Even got to see some Aussie animals - wallabies and emu's etc.
Finished at the zoo and went home. Couldn't be bothered to cook so we headed out to a mall to get some indian food and then off to the cinema to see the new Angels and Demons film. Not bad, some good special effects to it!
Went to bed early that night and managed to get 12 hours sleep! We're so hardcore.
Still up the next morning and sorted out our next few days. Then we headed into town to the Sky Tower, the tallest monument in the Souther Hemisphere. But we got slightly distracted en route and may have stopped by some shops on the way. We booked some tickets for the comedy festival for that evening, and then went up the tower. Truly amazing views over Auckland, especially as it had finally got sunny for the first time that day. There were some really nice yachts in the harbour!
Headed back to change for dinner, and then back out again to find a pub to have some dinner and some drinks. So we had fish and chips and a G&T, how English can you get!
We had tickets to see Simon McKinney, a NZ comedian that evening, so we headed to that. There was only about 30 of us in the audience, but was a really good atmosphere, and fortunately he was funny! So an hour later, we headed to a different venue, the Classic, for the Late and Live show. We were so glad to get tickets to this, as there were 5 comedians performing, including one we had really wanted to see but was sold out for his own show (Jason Cook). Wicked show, and we had front row seats, and the poor boy we were sat next to got aboslutelty rinsed! Some very drunken girls were doing some crap heckling and interrupting loads, and eventually got booed and kicked out by the staff! Still awesome show, the comedians were brilliant.
Unfortunately up early the next day to head up to the Bay of Islands. We stopped en route to hug a Kairi tree, the 2nd biggest trees in the world. We were hugging it in order to ask for good weather and sunshine! We are staying in Paihia for a few days. We arrived and jumped straight on a boat tour of the Bay of Islands, up the the hole in the rock. We saw some dolphins on the way and followed them for a bit. We could have gone swimming with them but they had a baby with them so we weren't allowed. Was a really fun trip with gorgeous views over the islands.
Got back into Paihia and bought some food for the next few days. The went back cooked dinner, and then watched a few films that evening.
Yesterday, we had a bus trip up to Cape Reinga, the northernmost point of NZ. We got on the bus early and started our way up north, stopping for coffee and cake en route. We started the last bit of the drive up north driving up 90 mile beach. Actually it is only 64 miles but that doesn't sound quite as good! Took ages to drive up it, and we stopped on the way to admire the gorgeous views. On the beach we waded into the water, and did some Pipi picking - little clam like creatures in shells, which you could eat raw. And were surprisingly very yummy!
Then went around the corner off the beach to these massive sand dunes, got some boards out and then proceeded to climb up them! Oh and then slide all the way down them. Was so much fun, and got absolutely covered in sand in about 2 minutes.After that we headed up to Cape Reinga, which is the point where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. We were then on a surprisingly calm day so it wasn't that obvious where they met! This Cape is also the point, in Maori culture, where all the souls depart the Earth for heaven.
Was a really good day, and ended it by looking around a few shops, and had the 'best' fish and chips in NZ in a little place called Marongi. They were definitely good fish and chips.
Today, we got up and walked around to Waitangi, where the Maori's and the Europeans signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. This was when New Zealands became part of the British Empire. There was a huge war canoe there and a big marae, a meeting hut for the tribes of NZ. It was such good weather that we walked along the beach, and then went to go play some minigolf. Turns out that the gold was in this big aventure park, with trapeze swings and bungee runs etc. SO so so much fun but now we're knackered and really quite sore! It's still sunny so we might head out to play some tennis later on.
Anyway, we've only got 2 more days in NZ so we will be making the most of the sunshine!
Thats it, up to date. Hope you are all well.
Love Kylie and Anna xxxx
We then started our drive north to Auckland. Was quite a boring drive but we did it pretty quickly. Eventually found our campsite, it was very strange being back in a city.
As it was Matt's last night we headed into the city centre, and went to a restaurant called Euro, we did gourmet cuisine! And it was amazing. We had a 3 course dinner with wine for only 40 quid each! Started off with calamari, then had kingfish wrapped in parma ham, followed by Spoons of 2011 - 4 spoons with a different dessert thing on each. Very odd things, but was a really strange collection of textures and flavours which worked really well!
Went out for some more drinks and then got the bus 50 minutes home to our campsite.
On Tuesday morning, we accompanied Matt to the airport, to send him on his way home, via Singapore.
Me and Anna headed into the city for some sightseeing, and decided to head the zoo. It was really cool, and for once quite warm and sunny to nice to walk around outside. We finally got to see some actual Kiwi's which are amazing little fluffy birds! Zoo was really good, and also stuffed full of chickens randomly wandering around as well. Even got to see some Aussie animals - wallabies and emu's etc.
Finished at the zoo and went home. Couldn't be bothered to cook so we headed out to a mall to get some indian food and then off to the cinema to see the new Angels and Demons film. Not bad, some good special effects to it!
Went to bed early that night and managed to get 12 hours sleep! We're so hardcore.
Still up the next morning and sorted out our next few days. Then we headed into town to the Sky Tower, the tallest monument in the Souther Hemisphere. But we got slightly distracted en route and may have stopped by some shops on the way. We booked some tickets for the comedy festival for that evening, and then went up the tower. Truly amazing views over Auckland, especially as it had finally got sunny for the first time that day. There were some really nice yachts in the harbour!
Headed back to change for dinner, and then back out again to find a pub to have some dinner and some drinks. So we had fish and chips and a G&T, how English can you get!
We had tickets to see Simon McKinney, a NZ comedian that evening, so we headed to that. There was only about 30 of us in the audience, but was a really good atmosphere, and fortunately he was funny! So an hour later, we headed to a different venue, the Classic, for the Late and Live show. We were so glad to get tickets to this, as there were 5 comedians performing, including one we had really wanted to see but was sold out for his own show (Jason Cook). Wicked show, and we had front row seats, and the poor boy we were sat next to got aboslutelty rinsed! Some very drunken girls were doing some crap heckling and interrupting loads, and eventually got booed and kicked out by the staff! Still awesome show, the comedians were brilliant.
Unfortunately up early the next day to head up to the Bay of Islands. We stopped en route to hug a Kairi tree, the 2nd biggest trees in the world. We were hugging it in order to ask for good weather and sunshine! We are staying in Paihia for a few days. We arrived and jumped straight on a boat tour of the Bay of Islands, up the the hole in the rock. We saw some dolphins on the way and followed them for a bit. We could have gone swimming with them but they had a baby with them so we weren't allowed. Was a really fun trip with gorgeous views over the islands.
Got back into Paihia and bought some food for the next few days. The went back cooked dinner, and then watched a few films that evening.
Yesterday, we had a bus trip up to Cape Reinga, the northernmost point of NZ. We got on the bus early and started our way up north, stopping for coffee and cake en route. We started the last bit of the drive up north driving up 90 mile beach. Actually it is only 64 miles but that doesn't sound quite as good! Took ages to drive up it, and we stopped on the way to admire the gorgeous views. On the beach we waded into the water, and did some Pipi picking - little clam like creatures in shells, which you could eat raw. And were surprisingly very yummy!
Then went around the corner off the beach to these massive sand dunes, got some boards out and then proceeded to climb up them! Oh and then slide all the way down them. Was so much fun, and got absolutely covered in sand in about 2 minutes.After that we headed up to Cape Reinga, which is the point where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. We were then on a surprisingly calm day so it wasn't that obvious where they met! This Cape is also the point, in Maori culture, where all the souls depart the Earth for heaven.
Was a really good day, and ended it by looking around a few shops, and had the 'best' fish and chips in NZ in a little place called Marongi. They were definitely good fish and chips.
Today, we got up and walked around to Waitangi, where the Maori's and the Europeans signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. This was when New Zealands became part of the British Empire. There was a huge war canoe there and a big marae, a meeting hut for the tribes of NZ. It was such good weather that we walked along the beach, and then went to go play some minigolf. Turns out that the gold was in this big aventure park, with trapeze swings and bungee runs etc. SO so so much fun but now we're knackered and really quite sore! It's still sunny so we might head out to play some tennis later on.
Anyway, we've only got 2 more days in NZ so we will be making the most of the sunshine!
Thats it, up to date. Hope you are all well.
Love Kylie and Anna xxxx
North Island
So we made it to the North. We decided to power straight on up to Rotorua. Another spectacular drive north, starting with a very windy scary one lane road, which remained so for 30km!!! Oh well, soon found straight 2 laned tarmac and powered on up, stopping for lunch en route.
We stopped at LAke Taupo on the way. There was a gold gimmick/game there, where you have to try and hit golf balls 150m onto a pontoon out in the lake. If you hit it and got a ball in on eof the holes, you can win a prize. Apparently someone does it at least once a week. Needless to say, none of us did! I struggled to even hit the ball!
We carried on up to Rotorua and found a camp site. We headed out to Tourist Info and booked ourselves onto a white water rafting trip and a cultural evening for the following day. It was raining quite hard as we came outside so we sheltered in a pub for a few drinks before going back to the campsite to cook food.
So the next day, Sunday, we got picked up by Raftabout and taken 30 minutes out of Rotorua to the Kaituna river. We got kitted up in wetsuits etc and taught all the necessary bits. We were in a smaller boat than in Queenstown, with 4 paying people and 2 guides in our boat.We were soon on the river, and I was soaking wet in under a minute, as Matt managed to push me out that quickly! Still was a lot warmer than the South Island so I didn't mind too much. We soon hit the rapids, and the special bit about this river was that we went over a 7m waterfall, the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world! And it was sweet!!!! So much fun, and we all managed to stay in the boat too! We also tried a bit of river surfing, which basically involved the guides putting the front of the boat into the bottom bit of a rapid, which meant a lot of water came onto the front of the boat, absolutely soaking me and Anna at the front until we could barely breathe!!!
So that was awesome fun, and we had to get the photos to prove it!
Next up that day, we went zorbing. This basically involved getting into a big inflatable ball, filled up with warm water, and going downhill in it! So much more fun than we ever though it could be, and we all felt about 5 years old after! Wicked.
Had an afternoon relax before heading to our cultural evening. We arrived and then headed off into the forest. A war canoe arrived up the river with about 8 Maori men on it, all lit up with fire torches and chanting. They all got out and the chief got into the water, and we all then realised that all he was wearing was a cloth around his waist, which only covered his front half!!! He had an amazing Maori tattoo all around the tops of his legs up to his waist.
After that we saw the hangi, the food cooked underground which we were about to eat - chicken, lamd, sweet potatoes etc - so yummy! We also saw a show, which wa set up in an old style Maori village. They did alot of their traditional songs and dancing, and they all performed the Haka,. It was really quite scary and fascinating at the same time. We also went for a walk into the forest to look at ll the glow worms. Was a really good evening and so interesting to learn about the maori culture and language.
Got back to the campervan by 2030 and watched a DVD before going to bed.
OK will finish the rest later, much more to come!
Hope you are all well and looking forward to seeing you soon
Love Kylie x x x x x
We stopped at LAke Taupo on the way. There was a gold gimmick/game there, where you have to try and hit golf balls 150m onto a pontoon out in the lake. If you hit it and got a ball in on eof the holes, you can win a prize. Apparently someone does it at least once a week. Needless to say, none of us did! I struggled to even hit the ball!
We carried on up to Rotorua and found a camp site. We headed out to Tourist Info and booked ourselves onto a white water rafting trip and a cultural evening for the following day. It was raining quite hard as we came outside so we sheltered in a pub for a few drinks before going back to the campsite to cook food.
So the next day, Sunday, we got picked up by Raftabout and taken 30 minutes out of Rotorua to the Kaituna river. We got kitted up in wetsuits etc and taught all the necessary bits. We were in a smaller boat than in Queenstown, with 4 paying people and 2 guides in our boat.We were soon on the river, and I was soaking wet in under a minute, as Matt managed to push me out that quickly! Still was a lot warmer than the South Island so I didn't mind too much. We soon hit the rapids, and the special bit about this river was that we went over a 7m waterfall, the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world! And it was sweet!!!! So much fun, and we all managed to stay in the boat too! We also tried a bit of river surfing, which basically involved the guides putting the front of the boat into the bottom bit of a rapid, which meant a lot of water came onto the front of the boat, absolutely soaking me and Anna at the front until we could barely breathe!!!
So that was awesome fun, and we had to get the photos to prove it!
Next up that day, we went zorbing. This basically involved getting into a big inflatable ball, filled up with warm water, and going downhill in it! So much more fun than we ever though it could be, and we all felt about 5 years old after! Wicked.
Had an afternoon relax before heading to our cultural evening. We arrived and then headed off into the forest. A war canoe arrived up the river with about 8 Maori men on it, all lit up with fire torches and chanting. They all got out and the chief got into the water, and we all then realised that all he was wearing was a cloth around his waist, which only covered his front half!!! He had an amazing Maori tattoo all around the tops of his legs up to his waist.
After that we saw the hangi, the food cooked underground which we were about to eat - chicken, lamd, sweet potatoes etc - so yummy! We also saw a show, which wa set up in an old style Maori village. They did alot of their traditional songs and dancing, and they all performed the Haka,. It was really quite scary and fascinating at the same time. We also went for a walk into the forest to look at ll the glow worms. Was a really good evening and so interesting to learn about the maori culture and language.
Got back to the campervan by 2030 and watched a DVD before going to bed.
OK will finish the rest later, much more to come!
Hope you are all well and looking forward to seeing you soon
Love Kylie x x x x x
The rest of the South Island
Well, again another crazy week. I left you in Kaikoura with Anna and Matt whale watching.
We left Kaikoura and headed up the Kaikoura coast. It was beautiful, with gorgeous views from the road winding along the coast. We stopped en route to look at some fur seals just sunbathing on the rocks by the sea, they were so funny and only moving when they absolutely had to!
We also stopped to get some crayfish, cooked in a garlic butter. We demolished a whole one in about 5 minutes between us, it was so yummy.
We got to Blenheim in the evening and stopped by thye supermarket for food. They were selling mussels for 3 dollars a kilo, so we bought about 6 kilos worth for dinner! We cooked them in white wine, garlic, parsley and cream, they were so good! Almost couldnt finish them but they were too good not too!
The next day we got up to find it raining quite hard, but cleared by 10. So we hired some bikes and headed out on a wine tour of the area, the Marlborough wine region. We visited about 8/9 wineries in total and stopeed at lunch on the way back. The weather was really sunny but so windy and was quite hard wokr, especially when drunk! Still 10 bottles of bought wine later and we got back to the campa. We cooked dinner then headed to Picton to catch the 2235 ferry to Wellington, on the North Island. The ferry crossing took 3 hours, and would have been amazing views of the Queen Charlotte sound had it not been so dark! Eventually got off at 0130 in the morning and drove for about 40 minutes until we found a queit road to sleep in overnight!
So we made it to the North!!!
xx
We left Kaikoura and headed up the Kaikoura coast. It was beautiful, with gorgeous views from the road winding along the coast. We stopped en route to look at some fur seals just sunbathing on the rocks by the sea, they were so funny and only moving when they absolutely had to!
We also stopped to get some crayfish, cooked in a garlic butter. We demolished a whole one in about 5 minutes between us, it was so yummy.
We got to Blenheim in the evening and stopped by thye supermarket for food. They were selling mussels for 3 dollars a kilo, so we bought about 6 kilos worth for dinner! We cooked them in white wine, garlic, parsley and cream, they were so good! Almost couldnt finish them but they were too good not too!
The next day we got up to find it raining quite hard, but cleared by 10. So we hired some bikes and headed out on a wine tour of the area, the Marlborough wine region. We visited about 8/9 wineries in total and stopeed at lunch on the way back. The weather was really sunny but so windy and was quite hard wokr, especially when drunk! Still 10 bottles of bought wine later and we got back to the campa. We cooked dinner then headed to Picton to catch the 2235 ferry to Wellington, on the North Island. The ferry crossing took 3 hours, and would have been amazing views of the Queen Charlotte sound had it not been so dark! Eventually got off at 0130 in the morning and drove for about 40 minutes until we found a queit road to sleep in overnight!
So we made it to the North!!!
xx
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Queenstown and further!
OK, so haven't had much time to do this recently as we have been crazily busy!
Left off on our first full day in Queenstown. We had just been up the gondola, and then that afternoon we went white water rafting on the Shotover river. We met up at their shop in Queenstown and then got drivne about 40 mins to the place where they start the rafting. They didn't tell us we would be going on one of the dodgiest roads in the whole country though - a one lane, dirt track that wound its way along the side of the mountain, and at one point we even had to swing the front tyre off the edge in order to get around the corner!!!! Turns out it is an old mining road as they did loads of gold mining in the river up until 1992. I think I was scared more by the road then the rafting bit of the trip. Well after 20 nmins of me having my eyes closed and jeered at by Matt and Anna, we made it back to flat land! We got divided into 4 boats and loaded up into them with our paddles. Me and Matt found our way to the front of our boat and soon found ourselves pretty damn wet. There were a range of ra[pids on the river, ranging from grade IV to V and it was awesome. Rapids were really cool and we all got soaked, and amazingly no-one fell out. We even went through this cool long tunnel, and I was the only one steering at the front! Was really good fun, would definitely be something I would do again.
Well, we were very cold and wet by the end of it all and in need of the hot shower and sauna we had waiting for us.
That evening we went for dinner at Ferburger, apparently the best burger place in the world. it was pretty damn good as well, best burgwer I've ever had! We then went to town for a few drinks at World Bar, where we drank cocktails out of teapots.
The next day we decided that we hadn't had quite enough adrenaline and booked oursleves to do the 3rd biggest bungee in the world - the Nevis bungee, that involves a 134m drop over a river flowing through a canyon. The bungee bit is a large room suspended on the 3 steel ropes over the canyon - I think that was maybe more scary than the actual bungee bit!! Still was awesome, we all loved it and we have pictures and videos to prove it all!
Matt turned out to be first up, somethign which he wasn't particularly keen on, but he went for it anyway. Me and Anna had to wait a while longer as we were lighter than a lot of other people there. Still out turns soon came around and we both jumped, and loved it too!
Afterwards,w e had decided to leave Queenstown and we drove down to Te Anau, which is the main town and base for trips going to Milford Sound. Only took a couple of hours to get there and soon were there cooking dinner and relaxing before our next busy day.
We were up at and metting our tour bus at 0745 that would take us over to Milford. The scenery was amazing on the way, with more windy roads and it even started to snow a few times. At Milford, we had decided to do a kayak tour. Milford Sound is a huge Fjord and the scenery is stunning. Gorgeous mountains, waterfalls and just amazing to kayak around. We got kitted up in warm clothes, jackets and a kayak skirt. I was paired up with one of the guides as Matt and Anna were together in a kayak. I though this meant I would get an easy ride, but no, he made me do most of the paddling! It was so much fun being on the water and being able to get up close to the rocks, trees and waterfalls. We even managed to get within 3m of these seals just relaxing on some rocks! We spent about 3-4 hours on the water, and were well and truly knackered at the end, not to mention just a little bit wet!
We got back to Te Anau and just about managed to eat dinner before going to bed, early again!
The next day we undertook one of our longest drives so far. We decided to drive all the way up to the Franz Josef Glacier area, a good 900km at least. I was up first, and would you believe it, it started snowing!! And as we were up so early, the gritters hadn't even been out yet. We had to stop at one point to help a fellow campervan that had become stuck in the snow, and fortunately by that point, the gritters overtook us and paved the way. Fortunately the snow cleared and we got back to Queenstown without any dramas. We stopped there to check the roads we were about to go on were clear and book ed our glacier trup for the next day. Anna took over then and had some more windy roads to contend with, but at least no more snow. We stopped for lunch en route, and then Matt took over, and once again we had some snow! Crazy NZ weather! But as we got through the Haarst pass (amazing scenery) we reached the coastline, and it was glorios sunshine. We passed this awesome beach, where there were loads of rock towers - piles of stones all stacked up in towers. So we made a couple of our own, played on the beach and then carried on. We made it to Franz Josef in about 10-11 hours in the end, which was really good going as we stopped for quite a few scenery points.
Dinner and a few drinks in the pub and then to bed.
Next day we went down to the glacier tour centre and got kitted up for our day ahead. As so many travellers are so ill prepared for the cold weather, we were given boots. wooly socks, gloves, a hat, somw overtrousers and a waterproof coat for the glacier trip. We were also given crampons for our boots so we could grip the ice OK.
The glacier was incredible - at it's lowest it reaches 300m above sea level, extending up to 2000m and is about 15km long! Oh, and it is surrounded by rainforest! It was amazing to climb up. The guides have cut out steps so it is easier to walk up but it was still hard going on the old legs. The ice goes a beautiful blue colour as you climb in around it, just incredible. We were climbing in and around crevasses, crawled through holes in the ice and just generally got cold, wet and tired again! Amazing experience though, with some great views over the valley. We were on the ice about 6 hours in total.
So another busy day, so we had a bit of a lie in the following morning. We were up and moving by 10 and driving to Hamner Springs, which is more towards the east coast of the south Island. It was another long, windy drive up in the mountains again but we managed it quicker than we though. Hamner Springs is famour for 2 things in the area - skiing and its thermal springs. So within half hour of arriving we were soaking in 38 degree pools, relaxing our tired glacier ruined muscles! There were various pools ranging from 35 to 41 degrees, and just what we needed. Was bloody cold to get out of at the end though.
We had no food so ended up getting a thai takeaway and watching the film Juno in bed.
Another early start, on the road by 0730. We wanted to get to Kakoura, about a 2 hour wiggly road drive away which is on the north east coast on the south island. Matt and Anna have gone whale watching, where as I am chilling out in the glorious sunshine by the beach.
Planning to head to Blenheim later on adn get a bit of wine tasting deon, as this is the white sauvignon blanc region of the country. Thinking about heading to the north island soon.
Anyway, as you can probably tell, we're all still having an amazing time, just a shame it is going by so fast!!!
Hope you are all well, and keep the messages coming.
Love Kylie, Anna and Matt x x x
Left off on our first full day in Queenstown. We had just been up the gondola, and then that afternoon we went white water rafting on the Shotover river. We met up at their shop in Queenstown and then got drivne about 40 mins to the place where they start the rafting. They didn't tell us we would be going on one of the dodgiest roads in the whole country though - a one lane, dirt track that wound its way along the side of the mountain, and at one point we even had to swing the front tyre off the edge in order to get around the corner!!!! Turns out it is an old mining road as they did loads of gold mining in the river up until 1992. I think I was scared more by the road then the rafting bit of the trip. Well after 20 nmins of me having my eyes closed and jeered at by Matt and Anna, we made it back to flat land! We got divided into 4 boats and loaded up into them with our paddles. Me and Matt found our way to the front of our boat and soon found ourselves pretty damn wet. There were a range of ra[pids on the river, ranging from grade IV to V and it was awesome. Rapids were really cool and we all got soaked, and amazingly no-one fell out. We even went through this cool long tunnel, and I was the only one steering at the front! Was really good fun, would definitely be something I would do again.
Well, we were very cold and wet by the end of it all and in need of the hot shower and sauna we had waiting for us.
That evening we went for dinner at Ferburger, apparently the best burger place in the world. it was pretty damn good as well, best burgwer I've ever had! We then went to town for a few drinks at World Bar, where we drank cocktails out of teapots.
The next day we decided that we hadn't had quite enough adrenaline and booked oursleves to do the 3rd biggest bungee in the world - the Nevis bungee, that involves a 134m drop over a river flowing through a canyon. The bungee bit is a large room suspended on the 3 steel ropes over the canyon - I think that was maybe more scary than the actual bungee bit!! Still was awesome, we all loved it and we have pictures and videos to prove it all!
Matt turned out to be first up, somethign which he wasn't particularly keen on, but he went for it anyway. Me and Anna had to wait a while longer as we were lighter than a lot of other people there. Still out turns soon came around and we both jumped, and loved it too!
Afterwards,w e had decided to leave Queenstown and we drove down to Te Anau, which is the main town and base for trips going to Milford Sound. Only took a couple of hours to get there and soon were there cooking dinner and relaxing before our next busy day.
We were up at and metting our tour bus at 0745 that would take us over to Milford. The scenery was amazing on the way, with more windy roads and it even started to snow a few times. At Milford, we had decided to do a kayak tour. Milford Sound is a huge Fjord and the scenery is stunning. Gorgeous mountains, waterfalls and just amazing to kayak around. We got kitted up in warm clothes, jackets and a kayak skirt. I was paired up with one of the guides as Matt and Anna were together in a kayak. I though this meant I would get an easy ride, but no, he made me do most of the paddling! It was so much fun being on the water and being able to get up close to the rocks, trees and waterfalls. We even managed to get within 3m of these seals just relaxing on some rocks! We spent about 3-4 hours on the water, and were well and truly knackered at the end, not to mention just a little bit wet!
We got back to Te Anau and just about managed to eat dinner before going to bed, early again!
The next day we undertook one of our longest drives so far. We decided to drive all the way up to the Franz Josef Glacier area, a good 900km at least. I was up first, and would you believe it, it started snowing!! And as we were up so early, the gritters hadn't even been out yet. We had to stop at one point to help a fellow campervan that had become stuck in the snow, and fortunately by that point, the gritters overtook us and paved the way. Fortunately the snow cleared and we got back to Queenstown without any dramas. We stopped there to check the roads we were about to go on were clear and book ed our glacier trup for the next day. Anna took over then and had some more windy roads to contend with, but at least no more snow. We stopped for lunch en route, and then Matt took over, and once again we had some snow! Crazy NZ weather! But as we got through the Haarst pass (amazing scenery) we reached the coastline, and it was glorios sunshine. We passed this awesome beach, where there were loads of rock towers - piles of stones all stacked up in towers. So we made a couple of our own, played on the beach and then carried on. We made it to Franz Josef in about 10-11 hours in the end, which was really good going as we stopped for quite a few scenery points.
Dinner and a few drinks in the pub and then to bed.
Next day we went down to the glacier tour centre and got kitted up for our day ahead. As so many travellers are so ill prepared for the cold weather, we were given boots. wooly socks, gloves, a hat, somw overtrousers and a waterproof coat for the glacier trip. We were also given crampons for our boots so we could grip the ice OK.
The glacier was incredible - at it's lowest it reaches 300m above sea level, extending up to 2000m and is about 15km long! Oh, and it is surrounded by rainforest! It was amazing to climb up. The guides have cut out steps so it is easier to walk up but it was still hard going on the old legs. The ice goes a beautiful blue colour as you climb in around it, just incredible. We were climbing in and around crevasses, crawled through holes in the ice and just generally got cold, wet and tired again! Amazing experience though, with some great views over the valley. We were on the ice about 6 hours in total.
So another busy day, so we had a bit of a lie in the following morning. We were up and moving by 10 and driving to Hamner Springs, which is more towards the east coast of the south Island. It was another long, windy drive up in the mountains again but we managed it quicker than we though. Hamner Springs is famour for 2 things in the area - skiing and its thermal springs. So within half hour of arriving we were soaking in 38 degree pools, relaxing our tired glacier ruined muscles! There were various pools ranging from 35 to 41 degrees, and just what we needed. Was bloody cold to get out of at the end though.
We had no food so ended up getting a thai takeaway and watching the film Juno in bed.
Another early start, on the road by 0730. We wanted to get to Kakoura, about a 2 hour wiggly road drive away which is on the north east coast on the south island. Matt and Anna have gone whale watching, where as I am chilling out in the glorious sunshine by the beach.
Planning to head to Blenheim later on adn get a bit of wine tasting deon, as this is the white sauvignon blanc region of the country. Thinking about heading to the north island soon.
Anyway, as you can probably tell, we're all still having an amazing time, just a shame it is going by so fast!!!
Hope you are all well, and keep the messages coming.
Love Kylie, Anna and Matt x x x
Friday, 8 May 2009
Christchurch, Dunedin, Queenstown
So we're in New Zealand! It's been such a busy week so far.
Turns out that New Zealand is really, really cold! Flew into Christchurch and it was 5 degrees! We had our first day wondering around Christchurch. It's quite a small city, although is the 2nd biggest in NZ! Very english in nature. We wandered around the cathedral and the botanical gardens, and had an amazing lunch! The food/restaurants here are amazing and we certainly been eating well. We had a few drinks that night before heading back for a chilled night out playing cards.
We got our campervan on the Wednesday - wow it is a beast! There is loads of room for all of us and even a little toilet/shower combo. It is quite easy to drive, and all of us has had a go so far. Matt did the first leg, which was quite easy and involved going straight for 6 hours, the roads are pretty simple here!! So we drove down to Dunedin, stopping for lunch in Timaru on the way.
We were driving to see one of Matt's work colleagues who is from NZ. We met up with them and went to here parents house for dinner - a roast! It was amazing, and we helped celebrate her birthday and ate cake! Here mum likes knitting and so there were all these crazy dolls about the place.
So we left there late in the evening and found our first campsite to stay in. We finally got a chance to unpack and figure out how everything works and settled down to our first night.
The following day I had my first driving experience of 'Steve', the campervan. We managed to find a supermarket and stocked up on lots of food and wine. They have these deals with wine, where if the label has fallen off, they put a plain lable on and sell it really cheaply. So we are getting really posh bottles of sauvignon blanc for about 4 pounds!!
We wanted to go out to the albatross centre, which is the only mainland nesting site for royal albatrosses. It was actually really cool, as these birds are huge!!! Their wing span is about 3m long. Anyway we saw about 3 chicks just sitting on the hill side and a few albatrosses coming into feed them. Was really cool. Unfortunately I was pretty terrified by this point as I had just driven the caravan along the windiest, single lane road in the hills. I suppose there is only one was to conquer your fears.....! The route back was a bit tamer as we followed the coastal route and had amazing views of the sea. We then started our 4/5 hour trip to Queenstown. Fortunately, the road their was pretty straight, even though it started raining. Anna completed the journey to Queenstown and we made it there by about 6.
We cooked our first dinner in the campervan - chilli salmon and scallop sauce with pasta - amazing! Also complimented by a nice bottle of chilled white wine! We then discovered the delights of Queenstown, and found Buffalos, and managed to hit happy hour! Some girls then started dancing on the bar, so the place was pretty lively quite quickly!
Up early on Friday morning as we wanted to book an activity. We had the morning free so we went up the skyline gondola, and the top of the hill gives you amazing views over Queenstown and the surrounding area. Also did a luge up there as well - drtiving these little carts downhill down a windy track!
OK I have run out of time so will update you with the rest of our adventures later. x x x
PS Photos on Facebook! xx
Turns out that New Zealand is really, really cold! Flew into Christchurch and it was 5 degrees! We had our first day wondering around Christchurch. It's quite a small city, although is the 2nd biggest in NZ! Very english in nature. We wandered around the cathedral and the botanical gardens, and had an amazing lunch! The food/restaurants here are amazing and we certainly been eating well. We had a few drinks that night before heading back for a chilled night out playing cards.
We got our campervan on the Wednesday - wow it is a beast! There is loads of room for all of us and even a little toilet/shower combo. It is quite easy to drive, and all of us has had a go so far. Matt did the first leg, which was quite easy and involved going straight for 6 hours, the roads are pretty simple here!! So we drove down to Dunedin, stopping for lunch in Timaru on the way.
We were driving to see one of Matt's work colleagues who is from NZ. We met up with them and went to here parents house for dinner - a roast! It was amazing, and we helped celebrate her birthday and ate cake! Here mum likes knitting and so there were all these crazy dolls about the place.
So we left there late in the evening and found our first campsite to stay in. We finally got a chance to unpack and figure out how everything works and settled down to our first night.
The following day I had my first driving experience of 'Steve', the campervan. We managed to find a supermarket and stocked up on lots of food and wine. They have these deals with wine, where if the label has fallen off, they put a plain lable on and sell it really cheaply. So we are getting really posh bottles of sauvignon blanc for about 4 pounds!!
We wanted to go out to the albatross centre, which is the only mainland nesting site for royal albatrosses. It was actually really cool, as these birds are huge!!! Their wing span is about 3m long. Anyway we saw about 3 chicks just sitting on the hill side and a few albatrosses coming into feed them. Was really cool. Unfortunately I was pretty terrified by this point as I had just driven the caravan along the windiest, single lane road in the hills. I suppose there is only one was to conquer your fears.....! The route back was a bit tamer as we followed the coastal route and had amazing views of the sea. We then started our 4/5 hour trip to Queenstown. Fortunately, the road their was pretty straight, even though it started raining. Anna completed the journey to Queenstown and we made it there by about 6.
We cooked our first dinner in the campervan - chilli salmon and scallop sauce with pasta - amazing! Also complimented by a nice bottle of chilled white wine! We then discovered the delights of Queenstown, and found Buffalos, and managed to hit happy hour! Some girls then started dancing on the bar, so the place was pretty lively quite quickly!
Up early on Friday morning as we wanted to book an activity. We had the morning free so we went up the skyline gondola, and the top of the hill gives you amazing views over Queenstown and the surrounding area. Also did a luge up there as well - drtiving these little carts downhill down a windy track!
OK I have run out of time so will update you with the rest of our adventures later. x x x
PS Photos on Facebook! xx
Saturday, 2 May 2009
Australia!!
So now I have some more time to update this.
We arrived in Brisbane on Thursday afternoon and finally left the smells of the Solomon Islands behind. It was quite strange being back in civilisation again. We headed straight down to the Gold Coast, to Surfers Paradise. So up Friday morning and managed to do some laundry - it was amazing to have clean clothes again. 4 weeks without a washing machine is a long time and it is nice to have cloths not ridden with sweat! It is also quite nice being able to walk somewhere without wiping my forehead of sweat every 20 seconds!
So Surfers is typical Aussie holiday resort, and very tacky etc but completely what we needed after the Solomons. Had our first normal dinner of pizza and some good wine. Friday we got up, and were so excited about the shops, decided we needed to spend some moeny and buy some cloths! Haha as if I need more but I treated myelf to a third, fourth birthday present! I bought a hoodie, which was so much cheaper tha the UK, and it turns out I need it! Sydney is cold!!!!
Anyway, we shopped in the morning, and then did the only thing we really could do, and had a surf lesson! We got driven up the coast a bit to a secluded beach (so not many people could laugh at us!). Our two instructors were awesome, and said they would get us all standing by the end of the lesson. And guess what?!?!?! They did. We all got standing and we even have some mean photos to prove it!! So that was 2 hours of pure fun, and definitely want to give it another go, and improve on my surf poses too!
We went down to Broadbeach in the evening, after some viatnemese food. Food was amazing but it has had its revenge on Matt and me as we haven't been feeling very well all day. Anna, the one who's meant to have the weak stomach, is absolutely fine and just laughing at us! lol.
Anyway so we went out for a few drinks and made it until about midnight before giving up completely!
We were up at 0600 this morning (although I was awake at 5 not feeling very happy) and we got the train back up to Brisbane airport to catch our flights to Sydney. Only an hours flight so we were in Sydney and all hostled up by 1300. I am doing the true backpacker style and sharing an 8 bed female dorm so I don't cramp the couple's style!
Even though we were knackered we went for a wonder around Sydney. I had the map first and got us well and truly lost, but we found a nice little harbour and park. I then handed the map to Anna, and she managed to take us to the Botanical Gardens. Here you can see the most amazing view of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. It feels so surreal to be here, but I am loving it. Unfortunately it is quite a lot colder down here so the jeans and hoodie has been dug out of the rucksack and the shorts are being hidden away ; ( Oh well, lets hope the tan lasts a while.....
We're having a chilled night tonight due to our long day but plan to hit Sydney in style tomorrow. There;s a food/wine festival on just around the corner tomorrow, so I'm sure we may wonder around there for a while. We have until Monday afternoon before flying to NZ so can see most of the city hopefully.
I really really like Australia, despite the current British weather. I wonder if the British Army wants to send me here instead......!
Anyway I feel I may have rambled enough. I hope this has kept you attached to the screen..... so will write more in NZ!
Lots of love
Kylie xxx
We arrived in Brisbane on Thursday afternoon and finally left the smells of the Solomon Islands behind. It was quite strange being back in civilisation again. We headed straight down to the Gold Coast, to Surfers Paradise. So up Friday morning and managed to do some laundry - it was amazing to have clean clothes again. 4 weeks without a washing machine is a long time and it is nice to have cloths not ridden with sweat! It is also quite nice being able to walk somewhere without wiping my forehead of sweat every 20 seconds!
So Surfers is typical Aussie holiday resort, and very tacky etc but completely what we needed after the Solomons. Had our first normal dinner of pizza and some good wine. Friday we got up, and were so excited about the shops, decided we needed to spend some moeny and buy some cloths! Haha as if I need more but I treated myelf to a third, fourth birthday present! I bought a hoodie, which was so much cheaper tha the UK, and it turns out I need it! Sydney is cold!!!!
Anyway, we shopped in the morning, and then did the only thing we really could do, and had a surf lesson! We got driven up the coast a bit to a secluded beach (so not many people could laugh at us!). Our two instructors were awesome, and said they would get us all standing by the end of the lesson. And guess what?!?!?! They did. We all got standing and we even have some mean photos to prove it!! So that was 2 hours of pure fun, and definitely want to give it another go, and improve on my surf poses too!
We went down to Broadbeach in the evening, after some viatnemese food. Food was amazing but it has had its revenge on Matt and me as we haven't been feeling very well all day. Anna, the one who's meant to have the weak stomach, is absolutely fine and just laughing at us! lol.
Anyway so we went out for a few drinks and made it until about midnight before giving up completely!
We were up at 0600 this morning (although I was awake at 5 not feeling very happy) and we got the train back up to Brisbane airport to catch our flights to Sydney. Only an hours flight so we were in Sydney and all hostled up by 1300. I am doing the true backpacker style and sharing an 8 bed female dorm so I don't cramp the couple's style!
Even though we were knackered we went for a wonder around Sydney. I had the map first and got us well and truly lost, but we found a nice little harbour and park. I then handed the map to Anna, and she managed to take us to the Botanical Gardens. Here you can see the most amazing view of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. It feels so surreal to be here, but I am loving it. Unfortunately it is quite a lot colder down here so the jeans and hoodie has been dug out of the rucksack and the shorts are being hidden away ; ( Oh well, lets hope the tan lasts a while.....
We're having a chilled night tonight due to our long day but plan to hit Sydney in style tomorrow. There;s a food/wine festival on just around the corner tomorrow, so I'm sure we may wonder around there for a while. We have until Monday afternoon before flying to NZ so can see most of the city hopefully.
I really really like Australia, despite the current British weather. I wonder if the British Army wants to send me here instead......!
Anyway I feel I may have rambled enough. I hope this has kept you attached to the screen..... so will write more in NZ!
Lots of love
Kylie xxx
Thursday, 30 April 2009
Desmond Tutu!!
And you would never believe it, but guess who saw Archbishop Desmond Tutu!!! We did. We had just had dinner at the Kitano Mendana Hotel in Honiara and were about to get a cab home, and then he rocked up! Amazing, and then he said good evening to us! What a legend, our first celebrity siting of the trip!!!
Anyway we are now in Surfer's Paradise near Brisbane and arrived last night. We plan to go surfing today, it only seems fitting! The we are off to Sydney tomorrow morning, before heading to Christchurch on Monday.
Update soon xxxx
Anyway we are now in Surfer's Paradise near Brisbane and arrived last night. We plan to go surfing today, it only seems fitting! The we are off to Sydney tomorrow morning, before heading to Christchurch on Monday.
Update soon xxxx
Monday, 27 April 2009
Malaita - Langga Langga Lagoon, and my Birthday in Auki
Hi all
Well, we have deifintely had a busy busy weekend. Matt arrived on Thursday afternoon after a long trip from England. For those who don't know, he is Anna's boyfriend. So we had dinner out at Jina's, a chinese/vietnamese/japanese restaurant, and met up with the Birmingham students as well. I think we ate more than we could ever have imagined, but it was such good food. We then headed over the the Casino, and realsied we were the only non-chinese people in the entire place, with the exception of the staff!!! Was sun though, and we all lost some money, except Anna, who made a fiver! lol
Friday, myself, Anna and Matt were up early to go catch the boat to Malaita at 9 in the morning. It took 3 hours, and was the coldest boat in the world. It was nice to goutside to warm up! We arrived in Auki on Malaita and were greeter by Sereh, of Sereh's Hideaway, where we were going to be staying for the next few days. So whilst waiting for the public boat down to the Lagoon, we sat eating coconuts etc in the shade. Then we took the boat, just as it started raining, so it was quite a wet trip. 45 minutes later and wearrived at Sereh's, which is a gorgeous, idyllic, peaceful little place in Langga Langga Lagoon. It was amazing, so so quiet and just a little bit of paradise. We served lunch and then just chilled out and did a bit of snorkelling. The food we had was amazing, lots of traditional Solomon food - barracuda, coconut rice, stir-fired veg, sweet potato chips, mangrove fruit stew. All unbelievable, and she always made far too much so we could never finish it. There was however a very willing and persistent cat who was happy to eat what we couldn't.
Sereh's place was quite basic, and only had limited water, so the shower was a bucket and smaller bowl, and there was no electricity at all. So by 1815 every evening it was pitch black and we ate our dinner by the light of kerosene lamps! The stars were stunning though and worth the lack of electricity. We were in bed at 9 each evening after playing a fair amount of cards.
The rooms were nice though, but I did get horrifically munched on by mosquitoes, and the bites are still really itchy! We were all up by 0630 as it gets so light and the whole lagoon is up by then, so sleep is really an option. Our days consisted of reading, playing cards and swimming in the lagoon and snorkelling. not bad, eh?!! Was so nice to relax and do nothing. We also saw and fed some reef sharks, and a couple of moray eels.
Shell money making is prolific in thsi area of the SOlomons, and they break down shells and make small round 'beads' with them and make them into chians, which they can exchange for other things, such as wood and canoes. It was really interesting to see the process they have to go through to make it all, and then we bought lots of necklaces to bring home.
We left Sereh's on the Sunday afternoon and she showed us around the other lagoons on the way back, telling us about the history of the place. Sereh helped us to find a place in Auki, as the motel we were meant to be staying in was fully booked. Stayed at the Travellers Inn, which was basic but would do for a night. Had dinner at the one and only restaurant, and we all had chilli squid. We were 3 of 4 people in there! Went vack to the Inn to play cards and have some drinks. However, mid game the power cut off (as it had been doing all afternoon) and we were left sitting in the dark, and it was pitch black! Managed to get a torch to carry on playing but the room got so hot as the fan and air conditioning went off. The power came back about 2 hours later, by which point we were quite drunk and now ready for bed! The power kept going off during the night so we would wake up hot and sweaty! Oh well.
I woke up on my birthday listening to Matt singing Happy Birthday at me from across the room, lovely! We went back to Auki motel for breakfast - so good. Toast, cereal, fresh fruit and a pot of tea. We then met up with Silas, who was going to take us to the caves in one of the local villages. After getting a cab to the top, we trekked down through some villages to the caves, got a ladder and the started climbing down! We only had 2 torches between the 4 of us, and they were of the wind-up variety!! But was awesome, and really dark. It was so muddy as it has been raining and we were covered in mud pretty quickly. The small cave opened out into a big sink hole, full of trees and vines, and across the other side was the big cave. We walked in and were deafened by screeching bats! It was amazing, there were loads of them. We carried on further into the cave through some small holes until we got to an area full of little pools of water, which ended up bigger and bigger. We emerged from that cave trip very hot, very sweaty and very muddy! We met the cab driver back at the top of the hill who took us back to Auki, and then we walked to the beach on the other side of a little village. The beach was gorgepus, white sand and crystal clear sea. But the moment we sat down we were surrounded by small children, about 25 of them, all staring at us and giggling. So Matt broke the ice and played some football and we tried to chat to them but there English was non-existent! Still we had fun and took lots of photos of them, which they loved! We left the beach still muddy and sweaty. It started to rain so we took cover and ate some ice cream. I was happy to run around in it for a while though as I was so hot! We managed to clean up and get changed at Auki motel and they drove us to the airport. I say airport, where I actually mean a concrete hut with 1 x desk and 1 x weighing scales, and the runway was barely concrete, mainly grass and chickens! The plane was tiny - big enough for 8 passengers and 2 pilots. There were 6 of us and the pilot, and it was definitely one of the most surreal moments of my life. Really scary but so so good and the views over the sea and the islands were amazing. The flight only took us 30 minutes and then we were in Honiara once more. We met Joff at Kiwi House and ended up at Club Havannah, a french restaurant at Honiara Hotel. It was defnitely pricey, but worth the money. It was Joff's last night and my birthday so we ate a ridiculous amount of food! I had a seafood soup to start and steak with a blue cheese sauce. I couldn't face dessert. The others had sashimi/french onion soup to start and canneloni/snapper stuffed with a shallot mousse, and then Anna and Joff had desserts! Amazing food. We then went to have a cheeky cocktail by the pool and then home to bed!!! SO an action packed birthday. Thank you everyone for lovely messages etc, was really nice to read when I got back.
Today - Joff has gone back to Australia. We have shown Matt the delights of Honiara and are heading to the Yacht Club for dinner. Matt is staying at Kiwi House tonight for the full Solomon experience! We are hiring a car tomorrow so we can see all the war memorials and opther beaches, and then we will be heading to Australia ourselves on Thursday.
Hope everyone is well
Lots of love
Kylie, Anna and Matt
Love Kylie, Anna and Matt xxx
Well, we have deifintely had a busy busy weekend. Matt arrived on Thursday afternoon after a long trip from England. For those who don't know, he is Anna's boyfriend. So we had dinner out at Jina's, a chinese/vietnamese/japanese restaurant, and met up with the Birmingham students as well. I think we ate more than we could ever have imagined, but it was such good food. We then headed over the the Casino, and realsied we were the only non-chinese people in the entire place, with the exception of the staff!!! Was sun though, and we all lost some money, except Anna, who made a fiver! lol
Friday, myself, Anna and Matt were up early to go catch the boat to Malaita at 9 in the morning. It took 3 hours, and was the coldest boat in the world. It was nice to goutside to warm up! We arrived in Auki on Malaita and were greeter by Sereh, of Sereh's Hideaway, where we were going to be staying for the next few days. So whilst waiting for the public boat down to the Lagoon, we sat eating coconuts etc in the shade. Then we took the boat, just as it started raining, so it was quite a wet trip. 45 minutes later and wearrived at Sereh's, which is a gorgeous, idyllic, peaceful little place in Langga Langga Lagoon. It was amazing, so so quiet and just a little bit of paradise. We served lunch and then just chilled out and did a bit of snorkelling. The food we had was amazing, lots of traditional Solomon food - barracuda, coconut rice, stir-fired veg, sweet potato chips, mangrove fruit stew. All unbelievable, and she always made far too much so we could never finish it. There was however a very willing and persistent cat who was happy to eat what we couldn't.
Sereh's place was quite basic, and only had limited water, so the shower was a bucket and smaller bowl, and there was no electricity at all. So by 1815 every evening it was pitch black and we ate our dinner by the light of kerosene lamps! The stars were stunning though and worth the lack of electricity. We were in bed at 9 each evening after playing a fair amount of cards.
The rooms were nice though, but I did get horrifically munched on by mosquitoes, and the bites are still really itchy! We were all up by 0630 as it gets so light and the whole lagoon is up by then, so sleep is really an option. Our days consisted of reading, playing cards and swimming in the lagoon and snorkelling. not bad, eh?!! Was so nice to relax and do nothing. We also saw and fed some reef sharks, and a couple of moray eels.
Shell money making is prolific in thsi area of the SOlomons, and they break down shells and make small round 'beads' with them and make them into chians, which they can exchange for other things, such as wood and canoes. It was really interesting to see the process they have to go through to make it all, and then we bought lots of necklaces to bring home.
We left Sereh's on the Sunday afternoon and she showed us around the other lagoons on the way back, telling us about the history of the place. Sereh helped us to find a place in Auki, as the motel we were meant to be staying in was fully booked. Stayed at the Travellers Inn, which was basic but would do for a night. Had dinner at the one and only restaurant, and we all had chilli squid. We were 3 of 4 people in there! Went vack to the Inn to play cards and have some drinks. However, mid game the power cut off (as it had been doing all afternoon) and we were left sitting in the dark, and it was pitch black! Managed to get a torch to carry on playing but the room got so hot as the fan and air conditioning went off. The power came back about 2 hours later, by which point we were quite drunk and now ready for bed! The power kept going off during the night so we would wake up hot and sweaty! Oh well.
I woke up on my birthday listening to Matt singing Happy Birthday at me from across the room, lovely! We went back to Auki motel for breakfast - so good. Toast, cereal, fresh fruit and a pot of tea. We then met up with Silas, who was going to take us to the caves in one of the local villages. After getting a cab to the top, we trekked down through some villages to the caves, got a ladder and the started climbing down! We only had 2 torches between the 4 of us, and they were of the wind-up variety!! But was awesome, and really dark. It was so muddy as it has been raining and we were covered in mud pretty quickly. The small cave opened out into a big sink hole, full of trees and vines, and across the other side was the big cave. We walked in and were deafened by screeching bats! It was amazing, there were loads of them. We carried on further into the cave through some small holes until we got to an area full of little pools of water, which ended up bigger and bigger. We emerged from that cave trip very hot, very sweaty and very muddy! We met the cab driver back at the top of the hill who took us back to Auki, and then we walked to the beach on the other side of a little village. The beach was gorgepus, white sand and crystal clear sea. But the moment we sat down we were surrounded by small children, about 25 of them, all staring at us and giggling. So Matt broke the ice and played some football and we tried to chat to them but there English was non-existent! Still we had fun and took lots of photos of them, which they loved! We left the beach still muddy and sweaty. It started to rain so we took cover and ate some ice cream. I was happy to run around in it for a while though as I was so hot! We managed to clean up and get changed at Auki motel and they drove us to the airport. I say airport, where I actually mean a concrete hut with 1 x desk and 1 x weighing scales, and the runway was barely concrete, mainly grass and chickens! The plane was tiny - big enough for 8 passengers and 2 pilots. There were 6 of us and the pilot, and it was definitely one of the most surreal moments of my life. Really scary but so so good and the views over the sea and the islands were amazing. The flight only took us 30 minutes and then we were in Honiara once more. We met Joff at Kiwi House and ended up at Club Havannah, a french restaurant at Honiara Hotel. It was defnitely pricey, but worth the money. It was Joff's last night and my birthday so we ate a ridiculous amount of food! I had a seafood soup to start and steak with a blue cheese sauce. I couldn't face dessert. The others had sashimi/french onion soup to start and canneloni/snapper stuffed with a shallot mousse, and then Anna and Joff had desserts! Amazing food. We then went to have a cheeky cocktail by the pool and then home to bed!!! SO an action packed birthday. Thank you everyone for lovely messages etc, was really nice to read when I got back.
Today - Joff has gone back to Australia. We have shown Matt the delights of Honiara and are heading to the Yacht Club for dinner. Matt is staying at Kiwi House tonight for the full Solomon experience! We are hiring a car tomorrow so we can see all the war memorials and opther beaches, and then we will be heading to Australia ourselves on Thursday.
Hope everyone is well
Lots of love
Kylie, Anna and Matt
Love Kylie, Anna and Matt xxx
Sunday, 19 April 2009
Maravagi
Hello again,
Well it is now Monday once more. Can't believe how quickly our time in the Solomon Islands is going.
Well the rest of the week was spent either in the hospital or by the Pacific Casino Hotel pool. Friday night was chilled out, as myself, Anna and Joff had to get up early on Saturday for our weekend trip away.
We went to the resort of Maravagi for the weekend, which is a gorgeous little place on an Island in the Central Province or also know as the Nggela Islands. The boat trip there alone was spectacular, with loads of little islands covered in trees and gorgeous white sand beaches.
So after an hour and half of boat journey, and now quite sunburnt, we were greeted with lei's and a really yummy fruit drink and shown to our rooms. Basic but had an 'en-suite' of sorts. And then we had an explore around and had lunch (beef chop suey - so good) before de-camping to the beach. After spending a few hours reading/sleeping/holding hermit crab races, we went snorkelling. There are numerous coral reefs just off the islands with a huge array of fish and coral, all in about 1m depth of water. So we spent a good amount of time doing that before returning to our books. Dinner was equally, if not more yummy. It is possibly competing for best meal so far. It was a buffet dinner and for 12 quid there was steak, squid, coral trout, meat loaf, sausages, salad, sweet potato salad etc etc and it was all so so good!
Then there was some entertainment put on by the local kids, who had kind of built a band. They were so good and knew a fair variety of songs.
Early to bed than night, as we got up at 0615 to watch the sunrise. It was so pretty and definitely worth doing. We had breakfast at 7, but then were told about 0830 that we had to pack up and get the boat home. We were quite disappointed as we were told by Tourist Info that we could go home when we wanted to but they insuisted they were onyl doing one boat trip and we had to be on it. So that was annoying, but we went anyway, taking our time to pack up our stuff!
But in the end, we spent the afternoon at Honiara hotel by the pool and drinking fruit smoothies, so not a bad end to the day.
Monday, and we managed an hour in the hospital before going home! Not much going on and we were ignored by one of the reg's so we gave up. We still have a few more days left.
We are currently in town, as we are off to Malaita on Friday and need to confirm flights and ferries etc.
Another afternoon by the pool, what a hard life!
Love Kylie xx
Well it is now Monday once more. Can't believe how quickly our time in the Solomon Islands is going.
Well the rest of the week was spent either in the hospital or by the Pacific Casino Hotel pool. Friday night was chilled out, as myself, Anna and Joff had to get up early on Saturday for our weekend trip away.
We went to the resort of Maravagi for the weekend, which is a gorgeous little place on an Island in the Central Province or also know as the Nggela Islands. The boat trip there alone was spectacular, with loads of little islands covered in trees and gorgeous white sand beaches.
So after an hour and half of boat journey, and now quite sunburnt, we were greeted with lei's and a really yummy fruit drink and shown to our rooms. Basic but had an 'en-suite' of sorts. And then we had an explore around and had lunch (beef chop suey - so good) before de-camping to the beach. After spending a few hours reading/sleeping/holding hermit crab races, we went snorkelling. There are numerous coral reefs just off the islands with a huge array of fish and coral, all in about 1m depth of water. So we spent a good amount of time doing that before returning to our books. Dinner was equally, if not more yummy. It is possibly competing for best meal so far. It was a buffet dinner and for 12 quid there was steak, squid, coral trout, meat loaf, sausages, salad, sweet potato salad etc etc and it was all so so good!
Then there was some entertainment put on by the local kids, who had kind of built a band. They were so good and knew a fair variety of songs.
Early to bed than night, as we got up at 0615 to watch the sunrise. It was so pretty and definitely worth doing. We had breakfast at 7, but then were told about 0830 that we had to pack up and get the boat home. We were quite disappointed as we were told by Tourist Info that we could go home when we wanted to but they insuisted they were onyl doing one boat trip and we had to be on it. So that was annoying, but we went anyway, taking our time to pack up our stuff!
But in the end, we spent the afternoon at Honiara hotel by the pool and drinking fruit smoothies, so not a bad end to the day.
Monday, and we managed an hour in the hospital before going home! Not much going on and we were ignored by one of the reg's so we gave up. We still have a few more days left.
We are currently in town, as we are off to Malaita on Friday and need to confirm flights and ferries etc.
Another afternoon by the pool, what a hard life!
Love Kylie xx
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Diving at last...!
Hi all, well since last Friday plans haven't exactly gone according to plan!
All the others went to go diving on Friday afternoon, but we were hit by a massive storm whilst on the beach. They spent a total of 7 minutes in the water, losing each other as the visibility was so poor and came back out again. I helped them take all their kit off and was equally as wet as those who had been in the sea as the rain was so hard and powerful! Still was nice to stand out in the warm rain and sea at the same time!
The rain eventually stopped and we went to Honiara Hotel for cocktails that evening. It's one of the poshest hotels in Honiara and has a olympic sized pool, which all the expats/police/army use in their free time, as long as you buy a drink or two.
Saturday, well saturday turned out to be the wettest day so far. I think it started raining again about 4 in the morning and didn't stop until about 9 in the evening - and it was proper torrentail downpours. Myself, Anna and Minali all stayed in reading our books and witnessed a tree falling down about 30m from our house. It narrowly missed one of our neighbours houses and the poor guy spent the rest of the day cutting it all up, as it had landed on their power cable. We had tempermental electricity during the day aswell, but was back on once the rain stopped in the evening. The others all ventured into town to do shopping, and use the internet etc and came back absoloutely dripping wet, despite the fact they had raincoats etc. Apparently they had to wade through calf deep puddles at times. Also, we found out that the rain and flooding was so bad, it destrouyed a part of the bridge where we go divinbg, so now only one side of traffic can go down it at one time! Also about 18 people died in the flood waters somewhere on the island.
Anyway, we ended up at the Yacht club for dinner, and had our first burger since being here! It was amazing, especially when taken down with a SolBrew (The Solomon Islands very own beer!!).
Sunday, well the rain had stopped but the flood waters and rivers had washed so much silt and crap into the sea that the visibility was too bad to dive. So the others all did their theory exam and then we spent the whole day up at Honiara Hotel just sunbathing, swimming and eating. And oh was the eating good. They have a BBQ lunch on a Sunday, and so me and Anna shared some salad, and possbily the best tasting grilled fish ever! We were glad to have splashed out on that food! Got a little bit red that day, the sun is more powerful out here than I can remember experiencing, so slapping on the suncream is routine.
Again Monday, the weather conditions were no good for diving. But seeing as we had made the trip to the beach, me, Anna and Joff all decided to stay and spend the day on the beach. We eventually made it home when one of the doctors from the hospital gave us a lift back into Honiara. We also had our first tast of Frangipani Ice, the local ice cream, which is ver very good. Being Easter we also bought some hot cross buns for breakfast the next day and headed back to Kiwi House. The others who didnt stay on the beach went to the Botanical Gardens and to the War memorial, which me and Anna intend to do at some point, maybe when Matt has joined us.
We shared cooking that nice with Claire and Philappa and had a rather yummy concoction of rice, sardines and veg, which reminded me very much of my Hong Kong days! We had some drinks that night at King Solomon Hotel,. but left at 11 when they closed.
Tuesday - well I didn't feel very well, the return of D+V unfortuantely. So I spent the day chilling out at Kiwi House, whilst the others went into the hospital for the morning, and then managed to get their first proper dive in after lunch at last!! Only 1 week since all their theory work....! Still they all enjoyed it.
The water situation at Kiwi House is more tempermental than the electricity so we went up to Pacific Casino hotel for showers before having dinner there. Cheeky, bu thtey don't mind as long as we spend money!
Today is Wednesday and we have spent all morning back at Bonegi beach where the open water divers have just completed the rest of their dives (they did 3 today) and are now finally finished! I went along with them this morning and finally managed to do some snorkelling. The sea was so nice and calm and there was loads of coral and fish to sea quite close to shore. There is also a ship wreck from WWII which I could see part of from the surface. I managed to use my underwater case and take some phtoos underwater - not overly clear but their are definitely some fish visible!
So a good day so far. We are going to try and book a trip away this weekend to somewhere exciting, and will try and do that today. We also want to go to Malaita for some time when Matt gets here so need to look into that.
It is also Claire and Philippa's last night here as they fly to Gizo, in the Western Province, tomorrow so I'm sure some farewell drinks will be had.
Anyway food is now calling me, so will speak soon.
Love Kylie xx
All the others went to go diving on Friday afternoon, but we were hit by a massive storm whilst on the beach. They spent a total of 7 minutes in the water, losing each other as the visibility was so poor and came back out again. I helped them take all their kit off and was equally as wet as those who had been in the sea as the rain was so hard and powerful! Still was nice to stand out in the warm rain and sea at the same time!
The rain eventually stopped and we went to Honiara Hotel for cocktails that evening. It's one of the poshest hotels in Honiara and has a olympic sized pool, which all the expats/police/army use in their free time, as long as you buy a drink or two.
Saturday, well saturday turned out to be the wettest day so far. I think it started raining again about 4 in the morning and didn't stop until about 9 in the evening - and it was proper torrentail downpours. Myself, Anna and Minali all stayed in reading our books and witnessed a tree falling down about 30m from our house. It narrowly missed one of our neighbours houses and the poor guy spent the rest of the day cutting it all up, as it had landed on their power cable. We had tempermental electricity during the day aswell, but was back on once the rain stopped in the evening. The others all ventured into town to do shopping, and use the internet etc and came back absoloutely dripping wet, despite the fact they had raincoats etc. Apparently they had to wade through calf deep puddles at times. Also, we found out that the rain and flooding was so bad, it destrouyed a part of the bridge where we go divinbg, so now only one side of traffic can go down it at one time! Also about 18 people died in the flood waters somewhere on the island.
Anyway, we ended up at the Yacht club for dinner, and had our first burger since being here! It was amazing, especially when taken down with a SolBrew (The Solomon Islands very own beer!!).
Sunday, well the rain had stopped but the flood waters and rivers had washed so much silt and crap into the sea that the visibility was too bad to dive. So the others all did their theory exam and then we spent the whole day up at Honiara Hotel just sunbathing, swimming and eating. And oh was the eating good. They have a BBQ lunch on a Sunday, and so me and Anna shared some salad, and possbily the best tasting grilled fish ever! We were glad to have splashed out on that food! Got a little bit red that day, the sun is more powerful out here than I can remember experiencing, so slapping on the suncream is routine.
Again Monday, the weather conditions were no good for diving. But seeing as we had made the trip to the beach, me, Anna and Joff all decided to stay and spend the day on the beach. We eventually made it home when one of the doctors from the hospital gave us a lift back into Honiara. We also had our first tast of Frangipani Ice, the local ice cream, which is ver very good. Being Easter we also bought some hot cross buns for breakfast the next day and headed back to Kiwi House. The others who didnt stay on the beach went to the Botanical Gardens and to the War memorial, which me and Anna intend to do at some point, maybe when Matt has joined us.
We shared cooking that nice with Claire and Philappa and had a rather yummy concoction of rice, sardines and veg, which reminded me very much of my Hong Kong days! We had some drinks that night at King Solomon Hotel,. but left at 11 when they closed.
Tuesday - well I didn't feel very well, the return of D+V unfortuantely. So I spent the day chilling out at Kiwi House, whilst the others went into the hospital for the morning, and then managed to get their first proper dive in after lunch at last!! Only 1 week since all their theory work....! Still they all enjoyed it.
The water situation at Kiwi House is more tempermental than the electricity so we went up to Pacific Casino hotel for showers before having dinner there. Cheeky, bu thtey don't mind as long as we spend money!
Today is Wednesday and we have spent all morning back at Bonegi beach where the open water divers have just completed the rest of their dives (they did 3 today) and are now finally finished! I went along with them this morning and finally managed to do some snorkelling. The sea was so nice and calm and there was loads of coral and fish to sea quite close to shore. There is also a ship wreck from WWII which I could see part of from the surface. I managed to use my underwater case and take some phtoos underwater - not overly clear but their are definitely some fish visible!
So a good day so far. We are going to try and book a trip away this weekend to somewhere exciting, and will try and do that today. We also want to go to Malaita for some time when Matt gets here so need to look into that.
It is also Claire and Philippa's last night here as they fly to Gizo, in the Western Province, tomorrow so I'm sure some farewell drinks will be had.
Anyway food is now calling me, so will speak soon.
Love Kylie xx
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Diving
Hi again,
Although have had quite a quiet week, it also turns out we all have a 4 day weekend here! Easter is time to massive celebrations, and we are not missing out.
So far this week, me and Anna have spent our first night in Kiwi House. This is a little shack known as the hospital accommodation. It is for 8 of us, but only has one shower, one toilet and the sink is actually the kitchen sink. Still it has its charms and has been home to so many medical students over the years from all over the UK and Australia. We had our first night together in the house last night, celebrated with gin and tonics and lime vodka and lemonade. We also played card games and got really rather noisy! Was nice and a good way to settle in.
We are surrounded b y local people, who were partying until the early hours last night. One of the families also owns a cockerel, who delighted us by announcing the break of day for 3 long hours.......and with the noisy birds and proximity of the main road out of town we were guaranteed an early morning!!!
Still it's nice to be closer to the hospital and to the local hotel with pool.
The others have been training hard this week in preparation for their first open water dives. I will be taking lots of photos from the surface and snorkelling above them. Turns out their are loads of ship wrecks off the coast of Guadalcanal so we're going to be swimming among a few of those!
So that is how we are spending our Easter weekend, not bad, eh?!
I would also just luike to mention that Steve is now officially 2Lt Knight once again, as of 45 mins ago (aka midnight Thursday) and I am very happy that he manages to escape Sandhurst and can have a little bit of freedom once again. Congratualtions boyo!
Hope everyone is well. We are feeling much better now and are a little more acclimatised to the heat!
Love Kylie and Anna x
Although have had quite a quiet week, it also turns out we all have a 4 day weekend here! Easter is time to massive celebrations, and we are not missing out.
So far this week, me and Anna have spent our first night in Kiwi House. This is a little shack known as the hospital accommodation. It is for 8 of us, but only has one shower, one toilet and the sink is actually the kitchen sink. Still it has its charms and has been home to so many medical students over the years from all over the UK and Australia. We had our first night together in the house last night, celebrated with gin and tonics and lime vodka and lemonade. We also played card games and got really rather noisy! Was nice and a good way to settle in.
We are surrounded b y local people, who were partying until the early hours last night. One of the families also owns a cockerel, who delighted us by announcing the break of day for 3 long hours.......and with the noisy birds and proximity of the main road out of town we were guaranteed an early morning!!!
Still it's nice to be closer to the hospital and to the local hotel with pool.
The others have been training hard this week in preparation for their first open water dives. I will be taking lots of photos from the surface and snorkelling above them. Turns out their are loads of ship wrecks off the coast of Guadalcanal so we're going to be swimming among a few of those!
So that is how we are spending our Easter weekend, not bad, eh?!
I would also just luike to mention that Steve is now officially 2Lt Knight once again, as of 45 mins ago (aka midnight Thursday) and I am very happy that he manages to escape Sandhurst and can have a little bit of freedom once again. Congratualtions boyo!
Hope everyone is well. We are feeling much better now and are a little more acclimatised to the heat!
Love Kylie and Anna x
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
In the hospital
So it's been a quiet few days here. We have been attending ward rounds in the morning. I didn't realise part of the blog was missing so will update you on that.
We have 2 cuban doctors on our ward round. They don't speak very much English so Anna and I are using our limited Spanish to translate from Spanish to English to Pidgin and all back again! They are very intelligent but find it hard to communicate. I also think they are finding the lack of resources here frustrating.
Still have been able to see loads ore interesting things - yesterday I watched a test to remove bone marrow from a child, then a lumbar puncture, then took blood from a little baby. I also attempted to take blood from a child today but failed, the veins are so small!
Yesterday Anna wasn't well so I took her home before spending the rest of the morning in the hospital. Went back after lunch and spent the afternoon sleeping and reading. A big storm took over Honiara last night, the thunder was so loud we could feel ith through the floor of our balcony. So today has been cooler but it is still so humid. Finding it quite hard to cope in the heat. The other 2 girls moved out of the guest house today and into Kiwi House, the accommodation at the hospital. So it is just Anna and I, though only until Thursday when we will join the other 6. There are currently 2 medical students from Warwick in the room we want!
This afternoon all the other medical arew doing the theory for learning to dive. Seeing as I am not allowed to dive, I am going to snorkel instead. Currently we cant go over to Maraveggi island resort to dive as it is fully booked so they will be diving the wrecks off Guadalcanal, this island. So I am going to spend my afternoon by the pool reading my book and sunbathing if the clouds decide to go away.
Ok that is all my news from the last few days. We onyl have a 4 day week as we have Friday and next Monday off for Easter! yey!
Hope everyone is well
Kylie xx
We have 2 cuban doctors on our ward round. They don't speak very much English so Anna and I are using our limited Spanish to translate from Spanish to English to Pidgin and all back again! They are very intelligent but find it hard to communicate. I also think they are finding the lack of resources here frustrating.
Still have been able to see loads ore interesting things - yesterday I watched a test to remove bone marrow from a child, then a lumbar puncture, then took blood from a little baby. I also attempted to take blood from a child today but failed, the veins are so small!
Yesterday Anna wasn't well so I took her home before spending the rest of the morning in the hospital. Went back after lunch and spent the afternoon sleeping and reading. A big storm took over Honiara last night, the thunder was so loud we could feel ith through the floor of our balcony. So today has been cooler but it is still so humid. Finding it quite hard to cope in the heat. The other 2 girls moved out of the guest house today and into Kiwi House, the accommodation at the hospital. So it is just Anna and I, though only until Thursday when we will join the other 6. There are currently 2 medical students from Warwick in the room we want!
This afternoon all the other medical arew doing the theory for learning to dive. Seeing as I am not allowed to dive, I am going to snorkel instead. Currently we cant go over to Maraveggi island resort to dive as it is fully booked so they will be diving the wrecks off Guadalcanal, this island. So I am going to spend my afternoon by the pool reading my book and sunbathing if the clouds decide to go away.
Ok that is all my news from the last few days. We onyl have a 4 day week as we have Friday and next Monday off for Easter! yey!
Hope everyone is well
Kylie xx
Sunday, 5 April 2009
First weekend here - Savo
Hi again, well we certainly have been busy since arriving here. Friday afternoon was spent at one of the hotle pools, just chilling out.
Then we went to Savo for the weekend, one of the local islands. The trep there was by boat, and was pretty much like a wooden bpat, which could just fit all 8 of us on. The beginning was fine but we were all pretty much soaked by the e end of it as the sea got rougher and rougher! It was amazing, so idyllic and peaceful. We were greeted by women handed us coconuts to drink out of, then shown to our rooms. They were basic but it didn't matter. Then we headed out round to another part of the island (again by boat) and went to climb a volcano! It was amazing, we were just wondering through the jungle following the path of a river. The river was about 40 degrees though!! Then as we got higher and higher the climb got harder and at times we were just perched on the edge of rocks with water below us. By this point though, the water, whose source is at the top of the volcano, was absolutely boiling, and felt like getting splashed from a kettle! Sow e did our best to avoid falling in as much as possible! Then when we got to the top, it was just so hot. Steam was just pouring out of little vents in the ground, and any water coming through was just bubbling. It absolutely stank of sulphur and the rocks were all coloured yellow from it. The volcano is dormant but it was bloody hot at the top!!
So that was an adventure. We stayed on the island over night, had some good food and then on Sunday we went to see the Megapodes, which are birds a bit smaller than chickens which lay their eggs in holes in the ground. Except we went in wet season, when they dont do it, so we felt a bit ripped off by that. But on the boat back from that village we saw a school of about 40 dolphins who entertained us spectacularly!!! Was amazing, have got some good photos/videos.
Then we cam home on the boat, and ALL of us were drenched by the time we made it back. We then got a truck back to Honiara, but were hit by a massive rain storm, so all of us who were in the back of the truck got absolutely pelted by rain drops! Good fun though.
Back in the hospital today. Just seems to be getting hotter and hotter though. Hospital
Anyway, think we are all off to the yacht club tonight for drinks to prepare us for the week ahead. We are off diving to Maraveggi this weekend, which sounds and looks stunning so am very excited about that!
Hope you are all well, and thank you for the comments left. I t was re4ally nice to hear from you all.
Love Kylie (and Anna!) x x x
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Honiara - Solomon Islands
Wow, we are finally here!! It is so so so hot at about 31 degrees and am melting more as the day goes by.
We arrived here yesterday afternoon after travelling for about 36 hours, stopping at Hong Kong and Auckland airports and had a night stop over in Brisbane before arriving in the Solomons.
We were picked up at the airport by Yvone who has organised all this for us, and then driven to our accommodation, the United Chirch rest house. We were meant to be staying in Kiwi house at the hospital which is free, but it is currently full with some Warwick medical students and the other Nottingham students. Hopefully we will move in there on Thursday next week.
We are at the rest house with two of the other Nottingham girls. It has basic facilities but it is clean, there is electricity and we have a fan in our room, a kitchen to use, and there is running water. I had my first ever cold shower this morning, and I loved it!!
We have been for a wander around Honiara It is an industrious city, and the main port for the solomon Islands. There is a lot of hustle and bustle, and men standing around everywhere, and I think we definitely stand out in the crowd as the only white people around! Still have managed to obtain some food and cook for ourselves - but it is so expensive here as everything is imported, and we obviously pay for it!
Still, first dinner of noodles was good and then managed to sleep for the rest of the evening under my mosquito net.
This is truly something I have never experienced before but I a loving it already.
We went into the hospital this morning andf met the medical and nurse superintendants. Medcine is already full with medical students, so Anna and I will be starting on Paediactrics (children) for a week or so and move on to medicine when the others go off to the other hospitals. Everyone is really friendly and says hello. Have seen about 6 cases we would never expect to see in the UK, including 2 cases of meningitis and 2 cases ascending paralysis I think the kids here have to be ultra-resilient as the facilities are basic. There are 2 wards with about 10 children in each of the wards on basic beds, with their family with them, and about 3 side rooms for the severly ill kids. Still I'm sure we will learn alot, epsecially as I haven'ty done any of this for at leadt 15 months!
We met up with the other Nottingham students hewre. There are about 8 of us in total, and we are all going to Savu this weekend, one of the neighbouring islands Then next weekend we are off on a diving trip. Hopefully tonight will be spent in the pool at the Honira hotel.
Anyway, must go and will update soon,
Kylie xx
We arrived here yesterday afternoon after travelling for about 36 hours, stopping at Hong Kong and Auckland airports and had a night stop over in Brisbane before arriving in the Solomons.
We were picked up at the airport by Yvone who has organised all this for us, and then driven to our accommodation, the United Chirch rest house. We were meant to be staying in Kiwi house at the hospital which is free, but it is currently full with some Warwick medical students and the other Nottingham students. Hopefully we will move in there on Thursday next week.
We are at the rest house with two of the other Nottingham girls. It has basic facilities but it is clean, there is electricity and we have a fan in our room, a kitchen to use, and there is running water. I had my first ever cold shower this morning, and I loved it!!
We have been for a wander around Honiara It is an industrious city, and the main port for the solomon Islands. There is a lot of hustle and bustle, and men standing around everywhere, and I think we definitely stand out in the crowd as the only white people around! Still have managed to obtain some food and cook for ourselves - but it is so expensive here as everything is imported, and we obviously pay for it!
Still, first dinner of noodles was good and then managed to sleep for the rest of the evening under my mosquito net.
This is truly something I have never experienced before but I a loving it already.
We went into the hospital this morning andf met the medical and nurse superintendants. Medcine is already full with medical students, so Anna and I will be starting on Paediactrics (children) for a week or so and move on to medicine when the others go off to the other hospitals. Everyone is really friendly and says hello. Have seen about 6 cases we would never expect to see in the UK, including 2 cases of meningitis and 2 cases ascending paralysis I think the kids here have to be ultra-resilient as the facilities are basic. There are 2 wards with about 10 children in each of the wards on basic beds, with their family with them, and about 3 side rooms for the severly ill kids. Still I'm sure we will learn alot, epsecially as I haven'ty done any of this for at leadt 15 months!
We met up with the other Nottingham students hewre. There are about 8 of us in total, and we are all going to Savu this weekend, one of the neighbouring islands Then next weekend we are off on a diving trip. Hopefully tonight will be spent in the pool at the Honira hotel.
Anyway, must go and will update soon,
Kylie xx
Saturday, 28 March 2009
Passed!
Well, in case you hadn't heard, both myself and Anna successfull passed our exams and are (in our minds) now officially doctors!!!
Our whole house passed so we were all very happy on Friday and celebrated with champagne and strawberries!
So we both (nearly) all ready to leave on Monday evening for a 3 day journey to the Solomon Islands. Neither of us have a clue what to expect out there, I think we will both just be happy if we have a bed to sleep in Thursday night and some sort of running water and electricity available!
Either way, I will let you know on here.
Thanks for all the congratulations so far; it's all still a bit surreal but so happy!
x
Our whole house passed so we were all very happy on Friday and celebrated with champagne and strawberries!
So we both (nearly) all ready to leave on Monday evening for a 3 day journey to the Solomon Islands. Neither of us have a clue what to expect out there, I think we will both just be happy if we have a bed to sleep in Thursday night and some sort of running water and electricity available!
Either way, I will let you know on here.
Thanks for all the congratulations so far; it's all still a bit surreal but so happy!
x
Saturday, 21 March 2009
Medical Elective April-May 2009
Hi all,
Just thought I would create a blog for my elective so you can follow my travels across the Pacific if you so wish.
I leave with Anna, on Monday 30th March, and will return May 28th.
First up is the Solomon Islands with long flight via HK, Auckland and Brisbane. Then, after 4 weeks practising medicine there, and being joined by Matt, Anna’s BF, we will head back to Brisbane and then down to Sydney for a few days each. After that, we’re going to Christchurch to travel around the South and North Islands of New Zealand, and then flying to Hong Kong from Auckland. After a short 2 day stop in HK, it will be home again, in time for my brother’s wedding!
So hopefully I can keep you up to date with photos as we go along, and hope to catch up when I’m back,
Kylie
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
