First week in New Zealand

Well I've already been here in NZ for a week now, and time has been flying by! It's been a pretty busy week. My first day in Auckland I met up with my buddy Patrick who I worked with when I was in Australia back in March '07. He's been here in Auckland pretty much since then and it was nice to go to a new city and know someone who lives here. He picked me up from downtown about an hour after I checked into my hostel and grabbed a few beers then went back to his place. From there the night got a bit out of hand... What was supposed to be a few catch up beers on a Monday night turned into drinking games doing shots of whiskey with his roommates haha. Patrick made an effort to go to work the next morning, but ended up coming right back home... and promptly made the rest of us do another shot of whiskey. I feel sick thinking about that.

The next day I didn't (read: couldn't) do too much of anything. Partly because it was raining and I had no idea where I was in the city. Eventually I found a map and walked back downtown to the hostel and did a little bit of exploring. That's pretty much all I did for the next few days, got my cell working, then just explored the city and checked out the hundreds of activities you can do all over NZ.

On Friday at 6 in the morning Terra flew into Auckland from Canada! She was planning on coming to NZ a few months down the road, but I guess somehow she knew that it was going to get insanely cold in Sask and came a bit earlier (-40 in Dec?? are you kidding me!). She thought the weather was great at +22 and cloudy. I am still getting used to it... I came from +35 and humid everyday in Thailand and it still feels cool to me. Terra's flight took 16hours from Vancouver and obviously a bit tiring, but she couldn't check into the hostel until 1pm. We ended up wandering around the harbour for a few hours snapping a bunch of pictures. We even came across Patrick's work and met up with him on one of his coffee breaks. After that Terra was able to check in and took a 4hour nap. The rest of the night we took it easy and just caught a movie at the Imax down the road.

Saturday afternoon we met up with Patrick and a few of his friends - Mike from South Africa, and Aaron (aka Moose) from NZ at a pool hall. After playing pool for a bit we headed off to Cornwall Park for a BBQ. It was a few of their Brazilian friends birthday party and they were throwing a huge bbq in this beautiful park. Now this was how you barbeque! We got there just after 2pm and they didn't stop cooking meat until 8pm when the sun went down! There was good music, dancing and some really nice people. There were a few guys manning the grill, and when a steak or sausage was done they tossed it up on the cutting board, chopped it all up and everyone would help themselves to the meat. It was great! They had all the meats of the rainbow, lamb, steak, pork, and I even ate a chicken heart! Try it once, but I wouldn't make it a weekly dish.

We had food and a few beers until just after 5pm. Me and Terra had lined up a few flats to go check out so we didn't have to stay in a hostel over xmas and new years. Aaron (Moose that is) offered to drive us back to the city and find these places. He was from Auckland and had a GPS system that took us right to these places in no time... also because he drives like a race car driver haha. These places we looked at were fairly sketchy, more than we had anticipated. The first one had basically a mattress on the floor and smelled a bit off. The second one was worse, the toilet was so tiny I'm not sure how you would shut the door if a person was in there! Plus to get to the shower you had to go out to the backyard then go under the house to this room with a tree in it... um ya. So as we were looking at these places Aaron was with us and was just as disgusted as us. He said that he had a spare bed at his place and we were welcome to stay there if we wanted. So he took us by his place to show us. I was in heaven, he has my dream pad haha! Its a really nice place with all the toys a geek like me dreams of. Big plasma TV, a huge surround sound system, dvd, playstation 3, a media center PC and some big comfy chairs and couches. All the goodies you could ever want. So it was either Aaron's pad, or the dungeon shower to choose from. hmmmmmm. Aaron just had to clear it with his room mate Jason before we could get the OK for everything.

After the flat decision was sorted out Aaron gave us a quick tour of the area and a few other places around Auckland. He was really helpful and had tons of great info for things to see and do all over NZ. We really lucked out meeting him! We went back to the BBQ in the park and had some more food and drinks for a few more hours.

Later that night Patrick, Mike, Aaron, Terra and me went down for drinks at a few pubs in Viaduct Harbour - basically downtown Auckland. It was so different at night, and very pretty and lively! We went to an Irish pub that had a live band playing all the classics. It was a good night, and as usual got a bit out of hand again. Patrick jumped in this circle of girls dressed up for an 80's party popped his collar and busted a few moves. It was another great night out, and a good welcome for Terra I think.

Sunday afternoon me and Terra met up with Aaron again so we could meet his roommate Jason. They took us down along the water front to a cool coffee shop in Mission Bay. We all got along great! Jason is a snowboarder too, so we chatted about that for a while and might even head for the slopes one of these weekends! Monday morning we checked out of the hostel and grabbed the train to our new pad at Aaron and Jason's! The next thing on the agenda is going to be getting the CV (resume) out there and find a job!

I'll let you know how that goes on the next update! I just added a bunch of pics of new zealand to the photo album too, if anyone wants to see more. I'll try and add some video's soon too!

I hope everyone back home is having a good Xmas season, I am a bit jealous of the snow I admit. It doesn't feel quite like Christmas without the white stuff around. Plus I really wanted to go to the Shaw staff xmas party, they never disappoint. So someone let me know how that goes! Oh and I am accepting any Christmas baking anyone wants to send this way! please?!?! ; )

Bye bye for now!

Nate.

Australia II

Hello again! I finally made it out of South East Asia and into an English speaking land again. I was really looking forward to having some of my favorite foods, using regular toilets, and getting some surfing and beach time in during my short time back in OZ. Because of the airport closure and being about 1200km away from an airport that could get me out of there, my time in Oz was cut down to only 4 days. I was going to have to get a lot done in a short time. My greeting back to Oz was a little harsh, and just short of a strip search. Karma would pay me back quickly for that, literally! After getting through customs I had to wait about 2 hours in Darwin for my connecting flight to Melbourne. I happened to be sitting at a table just across from an ATM. I noticed that there was a $50 dollar bill sitting in the tray! I started looking for the last people who had just taken money out when another person walked up and withdrew some money as well… they did their thing and took the money, but the $50 was still there! I thought maybe it was just a sticker or something… so I went and withdrew some money and reached up in the tray and pulled out a crisp $50 just for me!!

Friday morning (Dec 5th) I arrived in Melbourne and hopped on a shuttle to my hostel in St. Kilda, but as I was checking in I found out that it was completely booked up and could only have me for 1 night! I needed to find somewhere to stay the next two nights asap. I walked around to other hostels nearby, but they were all booked up too! Finally a few hours later I found one that had a bed for me for the next two nights. Problem solved. That night I went out with Wes, a guy from California I met in my hostel, to a pub called “The Espy”. It used to be a hotel on the beachfront and was converted into a pub. It had about 5 different rooms each with a different atmosphere and a live band or DJ. This place was packed and had some good band playing. I was mostly happy to try some of my favorite Aussie beers again haha.

The next morning I was up early to check out of my hostel and move to my new hostel down the road called the “Oslo”. As I was checking out I was told that there was a bed available for me that night if I wanted to stay. I had already booked the other place and felt bad if I had bailed on the new place, so I did the right thing and kept my booking at the Oslo and made the hike up the road. I checked into the new place and went to my room, hoping to get a bit more sleep in. I opened the door and was hit with a strong smell of sweaty dudes and stale beer, nice. The room was a horrible mess and I couldn’t even find a clearing to put my bag down. I said hi to everyone and just dropped my gear in the corner and went down the hall to take my morning pee. As I was coming back there was a girl walking down the hall and as she passed my room she made this horrible face like she was about to vomit. I figured it was the smell that caused this. As I turned the corner to go into my room the door was wide open and there was a dude lying naked in his bed… um “itching” himself. I thought maybe the door had come open just as the guy was changing or something and he happened to be itchy… maybe. I went into my bag to get a change of clothes, but the dude kept um, “itching” his man bits and was giggling away as his buddy watched. What the F did I just step into here? There was no way I was gonna sleep in the same room with these animals for the next two nights. I left my bags and raced back to my old hostel to see if I could get that room back! Too late, it was already gone; Fantastic. I checked a few other hostels close by and luckily I was able to get a room for the night. I went back to the Oslo grabbed my gear and checked out without saying anything to my new roomies. Luckily I got all my money back. The new hostel I found was great! Clean beds, huge kitchen and nice people. The next day I was lined up to go back to my original hostel which was great, cause I had already made some good friends there the day before.

The second day in Oz I went down to the beach and explored St Kilda a bit more and sampled some of my favorite aussie foods. I had a Mrs Mac’s meat pie for brekky, a huge burger right off the bbq with all the fixings, beat root, pineapple and lots of tomato sause. Delish. Later that evening me and Wes went into the city. He was there almost a week and didn’t even make it down town yet. I still remembered how to get around from the first time I was there so I showed him around a bit. We walked around for a few hours and ended up chilling out at Crown Casino and had a few beers. Wes is from Santa Cruz, California and had come to Oz to go surfing and skating up the east coast for about 5 months, but about 3 weeks before he was to leave he had a bad wipe out at the skate park and tore some ligaments in his knee. He could barely walk on it! So his great surf/skate trip in Oz was going to be sightseeing only… I was telling him and showing pictures about my Thailand trip and now he is thinking about going there for a month or two and chill out on the islands haha.

My last day in Oz I went to the beach with Eddie, Joanna, Rachael and Wes for a few hours. The sun was warm, but the wind was chilly, so the beach time was kept to a minimum. We went back to the hostel and had a huge bbq with all the perks - Burgers, sausages, hash browns, bacon, and eggs. While we were cooking this massive BBQ the bacon went missing! How do you misplace a full pack of bacon? Some sneaky bugger nicked our bacon! Rachael was devastated haha, she really wanted some bacon… she was really quiet the rest of the day, only bringing up the bacon when she spoke haha. We figured it was some sneaky frenchies who took it. We had a good laugh and it was a nice ending to my short trip in Oz, chilling out by the BBQ sipping some beers with some new friends.

The next morning I was up at 5am to catch my flight to New Zealand!
Stay tuned for some NZ stories coming shortly!

Bye bye for now!
Nate.

Escape from Thailand

Hello again everyone! Sorry, its been a while since I've been able to post anything... I've been on the road quite a bit, and my laptop isn't working at the moment. I still managed to upload some new pics though!

I'm not sure if everyone noticed, but the Airport in Thailand was closed for about a week by protesters. The day before I was supposed to leave it so happens... I'll fill you in on what I've been up to since the last post.

My last day in Chiang Mai (Nov 25th) I rented a motorcycle and ripped around town and explored the area for most of the afternoon. This city has about 200 temples in it and is smaller than Saskatoon. Every corner had some Temple, Pagoda, or Buddhist monument of some sort. There is also a moat that goes around the 'old city', and used to have a wall, but only a few parts of this wall are remaining. That night I had a big Thai meal (thinking it was the last) and even when for an hour long Thai massage to finish off the night.

It wasn't the happy ending I was looking for though. The next morning when I woke up I turned on the news and saw that 18,000 protesters had taken over Bangkok airport. No flights were coming in or going out. I was supposed to fly to Bangkok that morning and connect to Singapore. That wasn't going to happen it seemed, so I went online and moved my flight from Singapore to Australia back 4 days. That would cut my time in Oz down to only 6 days, which I was fine with, I've already been there before. I'm sure this whole airport thing will be over in the next day or two... thats what the news was saying too anyway. Bangkok airport is a huge, important airport not just for Thailand, its a major hub for south east asia. It cant be closed for long! (thats what I thought anyway).

So after 3 days of waiting for someone to take back control of the airport it looked like my only option was to get out by land. I happened to be in the far north of Thailand, the closest international airports were in Laos or Burma. There were no roads into Laos and took about 3 days to get there by boat. And the political situation in Burma was far worse than in Thailand, so there wasn't much point going there either. All the other airports to the south were booked solid until Dec 7th - a week of waiting!! no thanks. When I was walking around town I started to notice full military buse rushing by quite often. Because the PM couldn't land in Bangkok, they flew him here to Chiang Mai. My only option looked like busing out. On Nov 29th I hoped on a 9hr overnight bus to Bangkok.

I should have come to Bangkok sooner! Because there were about 60,000 stranded tourists standing around, the Thai govt were putting people up in hotels around the city for free! I was put in the Prince Palace Hotel (the name says it all, or look it up) and given a room bigger than most peoples apartments! All my meals were provided by the hotel too! It was nice to relax by the pool and be pampered a little, because the next evening I was on a bus to Singapore. I left Monday evening and would arrive in Singapore Wednesday evening, 36hrs later.

The bus ride wasnt as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was pretty much like being on a plane. A stewardess came by with water, snacks and blankets for everyone and the seats reclined. The only bad part was the organization of it all, which it typical of Thailand haha. The bus route from Bangkok to Singaproe is just something that was put together. Most sane people fly this route. We were told to be at the bus station at 6pm sharp, after 2 hours of standing around we finally got on the bus at 8pm and were heading out of the city. From bangkok we drove 12 hours to a city called Surat Thani and made a bus change, then 8 hours to Hat Yai where I hopped on a 2hr minibus to the border where we had to go through customs/immigration to exit Thailand and then through it all again to enter Malaysia. Then crammed 11 people +luggage in another minibus that barely seats 10. The ride was only 2 hours long to a city in Malaysia called Butterworth. We had to wait there for a few hours to catch the 10 hour bus ride to Singapore. The ride through malaysia to singapore was ok, but I couldnt see the Petronas Towers when I went through Kuala Lumur... I asked the bus driver if we could go by them, but he didnt speak english...

Once we got to the Singapore/Malaysia border it was the same process. Check out of Malaysia and then into Singapore. There was a group of 12 of us that had been travelling together for most of the trip and we had all became friends and kindof looked out for each other and made sure that we were all on the bus before the driver took off. This was working well until Singapore. I was one of the last ones to get through the customs area and when I went down to get back on the bus it was gone! Luckily I found 5 others that had been left behind too, only they were all going to the airport. I hoped in a taxi with them to the airport and then caught a train to the city center - only cost me $1.50! So it all worked out well in the end.

I had to wonder around town for about an hour because all the hostels were full. Finally I found one just as it started to pour outside. As soon as I shut the door I hit the bed and slept for about 5 hours. Sleeping on busses suck, and the bed was exactly what I needed.

Feeling refeshed after having a shower and a nap I went and wandered around town and explored as much as I could. The first thing I noticed was that its Christmas! In Thailand about 90% of the population is Buddhist and dont celebrate Xmas. I had nearly forgotten that it was coming so soon! Singapore is known for its shopping, and they were playing the Xmas card to the max. In Thailand you can buy t-shirts for about $3, they are nice and good quality, its just everyone has the same 12 t-shirts for sale. In Singapore its all about fashon. I was in a few shops and the t-shirts were going for $70 each! Luckily I had stocked up on t-shirts in thailand.

The next day (Thurs Dec 4th) I didnt fly out until 10pm, so I had the whole day to explore a bit more. The city is really pretty, but it started to rain in the evening, so I just went and caught a movie. I was really excited about travelling in a plane again and getting to Australia finally.

From Singapore I flew to Darwin - a city on the northern tip of Australia and had to go through customs there. They actually pulled me aside and grilled me about my travels; why I was in Cambodia for 3 days, Malaysia for 2 days, Singapore for 2 days, and then only 4 days in Australia... So they went through my entire backpack, X-rayed it a few times, swabbed some of my things for drugs and grilled me for about 15 mins. Welcome back to Australia. Fortunately I didn't have my daily serving of drugs and needles with me, so they let me go, but not without a stern warning for bringing in Claratin (allergy medicine) they said it can be considered illicid drugs... haha. I guess they had to come up with something for all their troubles. It was nice to be in a place where everyone spoke english again and eat some familliar foods again.

I'll tell you more about Australia on the next post. This one is getting novel sized...

Well, thats all for now!
Come back soon for more!

Nate.