Kev & Rosy: October 2009

Well the next day in Sydney did pick up a little, although I really hate to say it but Kev still insists Sydney is his least favourite place out of everywhere he's been so far! I, on the other hand, wouldn't go that far, but I must say I didn't love Sydney. It reminds me of Glasgow, and having said that, I love living in Glasgow! I love the old low rise buildings mixed with the high rise modern blocks, but unfortunately, the skyline in Singapore was better. For some reason the low rise buildings here, especially along George Street, just look a little run down and in need of a clean – sorry to anyone I'm offending here!!

However, we did have a good day that day on the 17^th October – my last day of being twenty-something! We woke up and went for breakfast in the famous Paddy's Market – and a very good breakfast it was too. We then wandered around some shops and I bought a lovely, if a little expensive (everything in Sydney was expensive) leopard print top. (Speaking of expensive, I just want to stress that our hostel in Sydney cost £15 less a night that the 5 star hotel we were to stay in in New Zealand – they were world's apart! I would say Sydney was a bit of a rip off to be honest).

So new clothes in hand, I was in a good mood, and we went for a walk through the centre as we'd been advised the best place to buy a ring was Utopia Records. We couldn't find Utopia records and so I was forced to buy an OK ring from an Aborigine (That's the wrong adjective isn't it?!) shop, time was getting low and ring number 8 needed to be purchased!

Unfortunately, we didn't get time to go over to Manly, which had been recommended to us. We walked through the botanical gardens to the harbour (the largest natural harbour in the world) and there you can see the image of Sydney that you see on every TV advert, every poster, every everything about Sydney! The Opera house is cool and it's cool to be there having seen it so many times on TV. The Sydney Harbour Bridge towers behind it and we looked up at it thinking, uh oh, we're climbing that later. We could see loads of people climbing the bridge during the day and they just looked like little lines of ants trotting across the top, funny to think we were going to be one of those little ants later on that day! It looked really super high and I suddenly thought, hmm, I'm not scared of heights, but then I've never really been up very high, so how do I know if I'm scared of heights!! Time would tell.

We spent a fair while around the harbour, taking in the sights and watching the bible basher with more money than sense flying over us and writing 'Jesus is Love' or 'Jesus is Life' etc in a smoky scrawl in the sky. We wandered back through the park but this time came across a section that was plentiful with huge bats hanging down from the trees above us. It felt like we were in that scene in the Lost Boys where Michael goes into the cave and all the vampires are hanging above his head sleeping – it freaked me out a little, but I love bats and I was fascinated, they were huge, and I mean huge!! They began waking up, which we didn't understand because vampires can't be awake during the day time ?!? A few flew right over our heads and we just couldn't get over the size of them, their wing span was the width of our camper van, like 5ft, it was incredible. Later, our Sydney Bridge guide told us they were flying foxes, I think that's what they're called. Oh, in the park we also saw these random birds with huge beaks and our guide told us that they were Ibis, the flying rats of Sydney she called them, so I guess we can compare them to dirty pigeons back home.

The Bridge climb was getting closer so we thought we'd better get some food in and we came across a pub food place near the harbour. It was a sports bar but we didn't realise a sports bar in Sydney is a betting shop with a bar in it! Imagine the people we dined with that day, I leave the imagery up to you!

We gobbled our food and headed back to the poshness of the harbour. Signed in for our climb and sat and waited for our number to be called. Finally the 5.35 slot was called and we huddled into our briefing room with the other ten people who would be climbing with us that night. First we signed a declaration, then we had a breathalyser test to make sure we hadn't had any alcohol that day (unusual for us, but we passed! ;) ) Next was the cheesy ice breaker where we all stood in a circle and introduced ourselves to each other: 'hi, I'm Rosy, I'm about to turn old!' Then we got handed our attire – a jump suit and some waterproof trousers. Once we had gotten changed, we had to clip everything on to ourselves. Clips for our sunglasses, I had to take off my head band, bobble and hair pins, take off anything around our wrists and generally anything we had on us had to come off! If it wasn't part of the boiler suit or clipped onto the boiler suit, it was coming off! Then we went in to meet our guide who showed us how to put our big harness on. Then we were given headlamps, beanies, gloves, hankies, parachutes (they weren't parachutes they were bundled up fleece jackets for when it got cold, and it would get cold!!) and radios – all of this had to be securely fastened to clips positioned all around our jump suits.

Finally we had to prove we could climb the steep bits by climbing a demo set of ladders. The ladders were really steep and I began thinking, uh oh, what have we let ourselves in for!! But then it was time to get clipped on to the bridge and from there there was no turning back. I asked to go at the front by the guide, naturally, always wanting to be first in line!!! So we first walk along the flat bit before climbing vertical ladders which bring you up on to the road bridge, I think it was between lane 4 and 5!! Then from there you begin the gentle climb up the arch of the bridge. It was awesome to do this at twilight because we went up in day light and saw the view of the opera house in beautiful sunshine. Stopped for a picture moment there. Then we got to the top and had a 360 degree view of Sydney at twilight, just as the sun was setting and the sky was turning red – it was beautiful...cold...but beautiful. Then we started our descent in the pitch black and saw the Sydney skyline at night. It was amazing to see a clock tower which was the second highest point of the Sydney skyline when the bridge was built in the 1920s – that clock tower looked tiny now compared to the other buildings around it. It was really good to find out about how the bridge was made and stuff too – pretty brave workers to be up there with no clips or harnesses – all for like minimum wage too because it was built in the depression and so they were just glad to have a job!!

Apparently 1500 people climb the Sydney bridge every day and it's open to the public almost every day of the year – we were all paying over £100 each, so whoever came up with the bridge climb idea must be raking it in!! Oh and on the bridge you could see all this red dust, which apparently was left over from the dust storm they had there a couple of weeks ago – apparently you couldn't see a thing because of the dust – I didn't even hear about that while we were travelling! We had perfect weather and perfect visibility, we could see the silhouette of the blue mountains and I think we had chosen the best night to do the climb on. It was, without doubt, the best part of our stay in Sydney. It didn't feel that high once we were right at the top – I think because it's just water below. It felt scarier coming down and seeing the road beneath you with the cars and the train hurtling past!! Great experience and can highly recommend it.

We got changed out of our gear once we were off the bridge and went to chose our photos – I was very disappointed that I looked absolutely minging in all the pictures and I began to think I just looked minging because I was getting old!! In fairness, I think it was the fact that I'd accidentally died my hair purple while dying my hair with Australian hair dye, and it was baultic cold up there!!

So we wandered back to the hostel and stopped off for a quick beer to reflect on out time in Sydney. It didn't take us long to conclude that the harbour was nice and the bridge climb was awesome, but we wouldn't be coming back here in a hurry I'm afraid.

It was early to bed as we had a super early start the next day. Up at 3am and at the airport by 4 having been picked up by a drunken taxi driver who decided to fill us in on his broken heart after a girl in Bali chose another rich (but ugly) man to marry rather than our drunken taxi driver!! Luckily, he broke his story to skid to halt and avoid a shopping trolley in the middle of the road, before driving on and continuing to tell us his tale, which would have been worthy of the best of Steve Wright's old show!

We boarded our flight to Christchurch and I insisted that I wasn't turning 30 until it turned 12 O'clock in the UK. Sure enough, our plane touched the run way in Christchurch bang on 12 O'clock and Kev counted down the seconds until the moment came, partly because he hates flying and he loves it when the plane lands, but mainly because he's been enjoying winding me up about getting old for some time now! We were glad to get to Christchurch where immediately everyone seemed lovely – even the sniffer dogs in the airport were super cute and the immigration and quarantine officials were so lovely compared to the Australian ones.

We easily found the bus stop to the centre of town, but we'd just missed the bus. The expensive shuttle bus service offered to take us to our hotel for the price of the bus, so we hopped in. An easy trip to the centre of Christchurch, Cathedral Square, and we found our beautiful 5 star hotel. We checked in to our gorgeous room which was massive with a huge bath and soft soft soft dressing gowns – ah, it was heaven! I had a lovely bath and for the first time managed to actually dress up a bit. We headed out to find a bar and a steak (I had put a Steak on my list of things I wanted for my birthday! And seen as that was the only thing on my list of things I wanted, Kev felt obliged to find me one!) We found a lovely little Irish Bar and got a delicious steak, man it was good. We had a pint of Export Gold, but then Nes text and told me I should be drinking Stein, so we switched to that. After we'd eaten we headed out to see if any other bars were better. It was so so so cold in Christchurch and the other bars seemed dead so we swiftly ran back to the Irish bar to warm up. I swear the wind here is coming straight from South Pole!

The bar was picking up and a couple would be providing the live music for the night. In fairness, the band were rubbish but it was a good atmosphere in the bar. A middle aged couple sat down next to us and before long we were chatting away and it turned out, the guy's ancestors were Scottish – his name was Keith McKellan! When it was time for the bar to close, the McKellan's told us they'd show us a good club to go to and when we got there, they couldn't resist coming in too! Inside a much better band were playing and strangely enough they were playing one of my favourite songs by Sublime. It's weird, this song is following me round the world – you never hear it anywhere back home, but everywhere we go it seems to be playing – it was on the radio when we picked up our camper the next day too – so weird! So we had a dance and a few more drinks and the band said happy birthday and welcomed us to New Zealand which was lovely. The management brought us over a complimentary pizza and we had an absolute ball. There were even some local celebs there, although unsurprisingly I didn't recognise them – they just looked like a bunch of lesbians to me, but everyone else in the club was loving them!!

Very drunken, we somehow made it back to our hotel. Thank god we were staying in such a nice hotel because the next day was just great. We did nothing, but watch TV and relax in the big comfy bed with the big comfy pillows and the big comfy duvet. It was cold outside, but that hotel room was perfect. Although, our tummies were grumbling and while we had treated ourselves to stay there, we couldn't justify the room service. So we got up and went to MacDonalds – I've never eaten so many MacDonalds as I have on this trip – I don't even eat them back home!! True to form, we followed the MacyD's with a Starbucks and I even bought a carton on Chai Latte mix ready for the cold Camper Van nights when I would be far from any Starbucks!! We went to visit some shops and bought an atlas and a guide book for New Zealand. Kev bought a huge coat, which he very much needed, and I bought some new tops, which I also very much needed! We wandered for a bit and realised that Christchurch is really pretty, really traditional buildings, I liked it there. We popped in to see where we would be picking up our camper van the next day. There was a demo model outside the shop and so we inspected what we were letting ourselves in for for the next three and a half weeks. Having seen the awesome, but very, very small camper van we headed back to the hotel to savour the last few hours of comfort – it would be a long time before we would feel comfort like that again! We watched hours of films as it would be a long time before we had a TV again and I soaked in a boiling hot bath as it would be a long time before I would be able to warm my bones like that again!

The next morning we reluctantly checked out of the lovely hotel and went for breakfast, again, a very good breakfast (Craig, all the food comments are for you as I know you love discussing meals and how they're cooked!). Then it was time to go and pick up 'Rehab'. Rehab is the name of our camper van, not given by us I can assure you! Each of these funny little vans has it's own name and it's own individual graffiti all over it. They're great and inside there's just enough room for a bed. There's a little kitchen area at the back with a heater, a sink, cooking utensils, a little stove and basically everything basic you will need. I wasn't keen on the way the guy in the shop kept saying 'yeah, you guys are out there for a while, so you're going to need....' - I hadn't really thought that we were 'out there' for a while – he made it sound like we were heading to the middle of nowhere on some kind of survival course! He told us that we really wouldn't need to stay in powered sites and we should just stay at DOC sites, which are free conservation sites. He said, at night, just wind the window down a little and use body heat to warm the van (wind the window down so the moisture can escape and we don't start living in a fridge). He said, on the first night, he would recommend we stay in a powered site and see how we get on sleeping with no heating. Then, if we struggle, and it gets to like 4am and we can't cope any more, we can at least turn the heating on. If we survive, we'll know we don't need to pay for powered sites while we're away. Well, I can tell you, we took his advise and went to a powered site first of all and I can tell you, we lasted till...no, not quite 4am...we lasted until 7pm and we were frozen and that heating went on – needless to say, it's going to be powered sites all the way and that heating is staying well and truly on!!

So, we drove our cute little van to a supermarket where we stocked up on supplies and then headed to Lake Tekapo. As soon as we saw the lake, we could not get over the colour. It's like a turquoise, powdery blue (apparently from the glaciers grinding against the type of rock that surrounds it and making the water that powdery blue). Absolutely stunning, I've never seen anything like it. But, as beautiful as it was there, it was colder that anywhere I've ever been on earth. Now, I know, in Kuala Lumpur I uttered the words, 'I will never, ever complain about being cold again'. I know I said that, but seriously, this place was cold and I actually thought I might die, so I complained!! We quickly made our dinner in the communal kitchen (but there were some really annoying, drunken Australians in there, so we didn't dawdle). Then we went back to the van to put on every item of clothing we owned and to switch the heating on full blast. It soon got toasty in the van, but I must admit, it was a cold night's sleep at Lake Tekapo.

But, we made it through the night and woke up to head off to Queenstown. It wasn't too long a drive but it took us most of the day. We passed an old gold mine, a bungy jumping bridge and an orchard called Sarita!! When we did arrive in Queenstown, we checked into a really nice campsite and it immediately felt much warmer and sheltered from the wind. We had a good spot, right by the toilets and right by the Kitchen and next to a fellow Escape Camper Van occupied by two Scottish guys!!

We went out for a wander and I bought myself some Possum Merino Wool gloves and socks, as recommended by Jo! We went into one bar for a drink but it was pretty dead so we left straight away. We were walking along, looking for another bar and just as we were about to walk past the Base Hostel, I said, 'hey, why don't we just go for a drink in the hostel bar?', so we did. Now how weird is this, as we sat there having a beer, so this guy walks in. First Kev starred at him. Then I starred at him and I said, 'hey, doesn't that guy look like Darren'. Darren is a guy from Bristol that we met back in Fuji in Japan and we'd kept in contact via Facebook ever since. I though Darren had left the South Island and was going on up to the North, but no, it turned out, it was Darren – how strange that you bump into the same person in Japan and then in New Zealand. Anyway, so we had a drink with him and heard about all the things he'd been doing here – swimming with dolphins, jumping out of planes and falling to the ground at a rate of 20 storeys per second. It all sounded great fun and I'm going to see if I can pluck up the guts to do a sky dive in Abel Tasmin when we get there.

After watching the Jager Train in this pub (where a load of people do a domino thing with shots of Jegermesiter and then down it) and hearing how one girl was celebrating her 18^th birthday, we felt terribly past it and decided to head back to the camper!!

This morning, we had a lie in and in fact, I think Kev could have slept all day. We cooked up a big breakfast and then went to see what we should do today. We popped into the Ice Bar (where, as the name would suggest, everything is made of ice), well, we went to the reception to see about booking a half hour slot in the bar, but having seen the pictures we decided it didn't look that great and we suspect the one in LA will be better, so we gave that a miss. Then we went out and watched some guys doing Parasailing. We toyed with the idea of having a shot, where you get dragged through the air behind a speed boat, but when we looked into it, it was a ten minute ride, which seemed a bit rubbish. So, instead, we decided to go fishing – I was so excited. Basically, we had a boat to ourselves and we went out really far into the lake and let the lines out. I said to the skipper (who had also been Ian Botham's stunt double in a Shredded Wheat advert, no lie!), 'so, have you ever had anyone be sea sick in your boat'. He proudly boasted, that, no, no-one had ever been sea sick in his boat. Well, that was about to change!!

Without warning, the winds changed and before long we were rocking around in that little boat like we were trawler men out at sea. Honestly, I thought the boat was going to topple over. And just when I was feeling at my worst, so Kev decided he was catching a fish. I had to try and take photos of him hauling in his whopper of a Rainbow Trout while the boat swayed from one side to the next. My eyes couldn't work out what my head was doing and my head didn't have a clue what my body was doing and I was basically all over the shop -urgh, it makes me feel sick just thinking about it. The skipper noticed I had turned a ghastly shade of green and decided it was time to take us to calmer waters. Thank goodness, we stopped in another bay which was way calmer and I returned to my old self – excited about the prospect of catching a fish bigger than Kiev's!

Sure enough, then it was my turn and I reeled in a lovely speckled Brown Trout. It did feel a wee bit cruel to bring him in, but that was going to be my dinner for the night so I didn't feel too bad. I didn't do the smacking over the head thing, the skipper did all that gruesome stuff. We fished for a bit longer but then our time was up (and in fairness, he'd let us stay out much longer than we were meant to seen as we had bad water). We reeled all the lines in and then Kev realised he had another one on the end of his. He reeled in a whopping Brown Trout. Back at shore, the skipper showed me how to gut a fish and I was really surprised at how easy it is.

Still feeling a bit sea-legged, we stopped at a pub called 'The World' for a coke to settle my stomach. The guy behind the bar was English and that sums this place up really. Queenstown is nice, well, the natural world is nice, but the town has just been completely built for tourists. I wouldn't say I like it here as much as Christchurch, but Kev is the opposite, he prefers here – what a surprise, me and Kev being opposite – imagine that!! :)

Back at the campsite we cooked our fish, with some lovely vegetables and tucked in. I'd never had brown trout before, but it was delicious. Although, we couldn't eat it all and we've still got another trout in the fridge for tomorrow's tea! After dinner, Kev wanted to go out, but the wind had picked up and it was freezing, so I persuaded him it was best to stay in tonight!! So it's been a night in the van and time to catch up on this blog, which has taken me the best part of an hour and a half. Kev has fallen asleep!! Heading off to Milford Sound tomorrow and doing some Kayaking on Saturday – Happy Birthday for Saturday Sarita by the way!! (And Emma if you're reading this, not sure if you are though!!). Now I hope we can get some photos up on here, so I hope you enjoy xxx