Next stop Thailand!

After a relaxing 5 days with my Brisbane family, and a lonely 5 1/2 hours stop in desolate Taipei airport, I reached Bangkok where my 2 travel buddies were obviously jumping up and down in excited anticipation of my arrival. I managed to get my UK back card chewed within the first 3 minutes of being in Asia. Not a good idea, Derrrrrman. Luckily I had some Aus cash which I exchanged to get me to the hostel. I spotted 2 guys with backpacks and stalked them to their cab, asking them if I could share it. Lucky I did, cos I paid less than a third of what the taxi sharks were trying to charge me before, plus they (2 russian backpackers) walked me right to my hostel door!


Sue and Niks woke up immediately and then were WIDE awake for the next few hours (2-4am) so we did some catching up of gossip and stories etc... as girls do. Monday was admin day so we sorted out visas etc. and booked our sleeper bus to Chiang Mai for Wed and ended off with a 1 1/2 hour aromatherapy massage and reflexology massage!



We decided to do a DIY trip to the Bridge over the River Kwai, Tiger Temple and the Floating Market instead of take the organised tourist tour. It was quite an experience! At one stage we were on a covered "bakkie" with 2 wooden benches in the back as seats, with 26 people!
Sue was hanging off the back next to the lady who pushes the button to let the driver know when to stop and go. Next thing Sue had taken over as button-pusher, and when seats opened up inside for her, she refused cos she was having too much fun out back! Boy was it hot (easily high 30's), but I prefered it to NZ, even though NZ wasn't that cold! Most of the buses and rooms have aircon anyway, else cold showers or pools. Unfortunately our DIY skills were a bit sluggish so we ran out of time to see the Tiger Temple, but at least we had extra time to get to our next destination cos we needed it! At one stage we had the 7-11 staff and the police trying to find out which bus we needed, and then all the locals near where the bus stopped offered us their chairs and told us NOT to get on the other yellow bus that pulled in front of our yellow bus! The Thai people are so helpful and honest, although you do know that they just have to try and triple the price for naïve foreign girls! We're onto them though...





After a 12-hour sleeper bus trip we're safely in Chiang Mai (I scored a double seat so am fine, but the others have been passed out for 2 hours so far..) and have booked onto a 2 day/1 night hilltribe trek in Pai, a mountainy spot about 2 hours north west of here, where we trek for 3 hours each day, ride ellies, raft on bamboo rafts, stay with the local tribes, eat their food etc... so I can't wait to get some exercise out in nature, cos these cities are so polluted and chaotic. Bangkok was nice, but a day or 2 is plenty! Tonight we're gonna hit the night markets (I feel a serious bout of retail therapy coming on!) and try out some bars on the river. We need to pick up some locals ha ha ha!

Last few days in NZ

I said goodbye to Nat, Vic and Jess in Queenstown cos they were going south to Dunedin etc. I stayed on an extra night in Queenstown, making full use of the hostel's hot spa and the physio and madical centre across the road (Asia vaccines). Marty and I left Queenstown together the next morning, and as we were walking to the bus I noticed some rubgy-looking guys in black tracksuits cross the road in front of us. It was the Sharks! And although they're NOT my favourite side, I did greet them in Afrikaans which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy from some random backpacker at 7 in the morning!

Marty and I did very well by stopping off at Lake Tekapo for a night while everyone else went straight on to Christchurch. Our Lakeside Lodge was just that, but this lake was probably the bluest out of all of the lakes, and NZ's lakes are BLUE BLUE! We hired bikes and cruised around the town, checked out the church where a wedding was taking place and Marty was asked to take photos for them! Then we had a sundowner picnic on the lake's edge and chatted about adult stuff like jobs and mortgages which funnily enough I really enjoyed, cos I hadn't been able to talk to the others about that cos I was so much older than everyone!! After 3 bottles of wine and a game of Pigs with 2 random builders, we passed out on the couch trying to watch "Missing".





The next day we met up with a new busload onto Christchurch. My friend Shannon (who toured Europe in the Turd with me and some more kiwis) came to pick me up and I stayed at her place for the next 4 nights in her spare room with a DOUBLE BED! No more bottom bunks! I felt really spoilt! Plus there was TV, and a bathroom and kitchen in the very close vicinity!
St Paddys Day started off with yummy Irish coffees, followed by sushi and shopping, then Guinness and bourbon and coke! There was a cool Irish band playing with some random drunk people dancing, and just a general festive, happy vibe all around! I was quite sad to leave at 5 to go to the rugby, but also happy to go see Joe and Paul (more kiwis from the Turd) and of course my mate Dan (Carter) but he was too busy thrashing the Cats to spot me in the crowd and say hi... I was quite pissed off cos the taxi was 20 mins late so we missed the Crusdaders horsemen - one of which aparrently got thrown off his horse and had to go to hospital?? Maybe I should apply for that job!!


Sat was very chilled with lots of Commonwealth Games watching followed by a bbq at Shannon's - Marty, Brother Joe, the 3 Swedes (Mattheus, Andreas and Daniel) plus 2 Swedish girls they'd met all came over and we cooked up a storm.



Sunday Shannon and I did a day trip to Akaroa which was beautiful, but a day trip was enough! We got bored! Then Monday it was back onto a plane to Brisbane, in time for U2 on Tuesday... Touchy subject.

West Coast

We pretty much stayed on the same bus with the same people all the way down the west coast of the south island which was rather festive. We spent a night in Westport and had a bbq, drank plenty of red wine goon/papsak/dooswyn etc. and put Jess to bed early after she decorated the outside walkway... The following night was the "Poo Pub" fancy dress party and everybody made a special effort to look like either a Hero or a Villain.











The scenery became more and more spectacular through Wanaka and into Queenstown - massive blue blue lakes bordered by towering snow-capped mountains. Plus we were lucky enough to have sunny skies, so of course the camera had a complete workout..













I loved Queenstown. It just has an awesome "season" feel to it - winter = skiing, summer = mountain biking, hang gliding, river boarding etc etc... Some of the braver ones bungied, but I was happy to watch, sometimes using my sore back as an excuse. I did go to the physio who reckons I broke 2 or 3 ribs and strained 2 joints in my lower back, so I didn't feel SO bad about missing out on everything after all! We did go riverboarding which was great fun and so nice to exercise a little (albeit with broken ribs!)