17th December 2010
Wow! What a difference 5 days make. I started work from this Monday and I have absolutely been loving it. On Monday I had 4 guests from Melbourne who were all students and were super nice. We started from the beginning and I got along so well with the group. It was really nice to have a lesson with the group all day and teaching on the hill here in Hirafu is so much better than in New Zealand. I find the terrain much easier to teach on and just focus on having a great time. Subsequently I had the same guys on Tuesday all day and Wednesday afternoon! By the end of my time teaching them we were turning down some red runs and went from the top of the hill to the bottom. They were massively stoked and so was I. Gave me a great feeling and was such a good start to the teaching season. I went out with my guests and we had such a fun time talking in an empty bar called wild bills. The nightlife isn’t really crazy on a Tuesday night but it was a nice affair and it was thoroughly enjoyable. I have done 14 hrs this week and the teaching is going well. I am happy and getting more confident with fixing peoples problems I just need to work on more analogies and figure out how to teach kids better. I havent had a childrens lesson yet however i am sure I will get through ok!
We hadn’t really been freeriding much till last night and it was sooo on last night! It was dumping and we shredded for a couple of hours after work in the evening. The snow quality is incredible. The terrain isn’t as steep as RED but the powder is incredible. Even better was this morning. We got first lifts and rode some seriously deep fresh snow for a couple of hours before work and it was amazing. I got a taste of the niseko snow and I am slightly addicted – its amazing!
I can honestly say I have made an incredible decision coming here, the people are amazing I am getting along well with the crew I love teaching and Japan is amazing! The snow just gets me so happy and nothing is beating this right now.
My knee is getting better I really tested it with the freeriding and its responding well. I am getting ongoing treatment and I am really happy with the physio I am getting.
Another amazing news is Tony Hill has joined the crew and its great to have him on board.
Peace and love
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Saturday, 11 December 2010
JAPOW - KABLAM!!
12 December 2010
Wow I cant believe how quick time goes, 8 days since my last bog but to be honest not a lot has happened really, the hill hasn’t been open, therefore all the guests booked in for lessons have had to have their lessons in Kiroro a neighbouring mountain which is pretty much for the locals. They have been hammered with snow so to keep the guest happy SJ are driving them across which is nice! The returners and people up the top of the priority list are starting to get work which is good, apparently the rest of us are booked out from the 18th December for lessons from 8 till 3 which will be good.
Between the 4th and now I have had my knee checked out by a physio and turns out I tore my meniscus. She gave me a load of exercises and its feeling pretty good. I have to make sure I stay regimented with the exercises and stretch, survival is key this season I need to make sure I stick the programme and practise all i need for CASI 3 and thats it pretty much. Its super hero snow but I am super fragile.
I went for my first slide since the injury today as the hill opened up today – but only the beginner chair called family run! It was good as it gave us a chance to scope out the beginner terrain and have a bit of slidy fun – I spent the time getting used to my new board. I havent ridden a different pair of bindings since I started snowboarding so to move to another model was a bit strange with the board but it works, I just need to get used to it. I think i prefer my bigger board more but only because my old bindings are on there! They are so sweet still and only 4 years old – gotta love ride gear!
We’ve had a couple of nights out one was the Ski Japan staff party which incorporated free booze and curry, the seasonaires favourite night out. The food was awesome I drank though I wish I didnt there was no way I was getting drunk with that much curry inside me, but it was still good times. Last night was the VBG opening party and it was like being in an Australian bar, hardly any Japanese and loads of people binge drinking including me! It was a super fun night caught up with the crew threw down a few shapes then called it a night.
Right now in Niseko its finally dumping, we are all very happy as we have spent the best part of 2 weeks indoors with cabin fever waiting for the mountain to open. My friends from Turoa Tony and Tom are coming to work for our ski school and they timed it perfectly, they will be here on the 16-18th December and thats when the mountain in its entirety will look like its ready from shredding.
Apart from a few trips to the local city Kuchan for some shopping thats all we’ve been upto!
Peace and love people
Wow I cant believe how quick time goes, 8 days since my last bog but to be honest not a lot has happened really, the hill hasn’t been open, therefore all the guests booked in for lessons have had to have their lessons in Kiroro a neighbouring mountain which is pretty much for the locals. They have been hammered with snow so to keep the guest happy SJ are driving them across which is nice! The returners and people up the top of the priority list are starting to get work which is good, apparently the rest of us are booked out from the 18th December for lessons from 8 till 3 which will be good.
Between the 4th and now I have had my knee checked out by a physio and turns out I tore my meniscus. She gave me a load of exercises and its feeling pretty good. I have to make sure I stay regimented with the exercises and stretch, survival is key this season I need to make sure I stick the programme and practise all i need for CASI 3 and thats it pretty much. Its super hero snow but I am super fragile.
I went for my first slide since the injury today as the hill opened up today – but only the beginner chair called family run! It was good as it gave us a chance to scope out the beginner terrain and have a bit of slidy fun – I spent the time getting used to my new board. I havent ridden a different pair of bindings since I started snowboarding so to move to another model was a bit strange with the board but it works, I just need to get used to it. I think i prefer my bigger board more but only because my old bindings are on there! They are so sweet still and only 4 years old – gotta love ride gear!
We’ve had a couple of nights out one was the Ski Japan staff party which incorporated free booze and curry, the seasonaires favourite night out. The food was awesome I drank though I wish I didnt there was no way I was getting drunk with that much curry inside me, but it was still good times. Last night was the VBG opening party and it was like being in an Australian bar, hardly any Japanese and loads of people binge drinking including me! It was a super fun night caught up with the crew threw down a few shapes then called it a night.
Right now in Niseko its finally dumping, we are all very happy as we have spent the best part of 2 weeks indoors with cabin fever waiting for the mountain to open. My friends from Turoa Tony and Tom are coming to work for our ski school and they timed it perfectly, they will be here on the 16-18th December and thats when the mountain in its entirety will look like its ready from shredding.
Apart from a few trips to the local city Kuchan for some shopping thats all we’ve been upto!
Peace and love people
Saturday, 4 December 2010
Japow!
04/12/2010
Howdy! Its your boy Koo reporting from N-town down!! Its been a pretty quiet first few days in Niseko, the hill hasn’t been open yet so we have been very busy getting to know each other in our house. More and more people are arriving in drips and drabs and the house is filling up to its capacity of 27 which is great. Other amazing news in Tom Summerville from the Turoa crew has managed to secure a job with us at NBS and should be arriving in the next couple of weeks!!
Right now I am missing out on a fun night out at the opening of Wild Bills, because I have successfully managed to tweak my knee doing nothing more than jumping a step and landing awkwardly on my left knee. I am a little bit worried as my left knee has been troubling me for a while now, all the way through New Zealand and even with the short break between seasons I have managed to give it a tweak. We don’t start on snow for a couple of days and we have a day off tomorrow however with the hill not open and there being no I don’t think I am missing out on too much. Hopefully a bit of rest will help. I think the I might have swam a little too hard in the pool last night and just wore it out, then with all the walking around town last night it might have not enjoyed it.
We went out for a couple of drinks in bars around Niseko and I found out today that the place has about 30 nightclubs/bars which is pretty insane! The one thing I noticed when I was out what how commercial the place was, loads of Geijin (foreign) people and not many Japanese it was crazy. We are definitely in the “Whistler” of Japanese resorts – its insane. The night out we had was a lot of fun, but at then end I went for a leap across a piece of mud and thats where the knee incident happened. Soul destroying – hopefully I will get better the icing is helping and Like I said there are a couple more days of training indoor and I have a day off tomo so just rest – perfect opportunity to work on the manual. Ill try to get up super early tomo and get some shit done for sure. I am looking to try and have the CASI LEVEL 3 manual ready for review by Rob and Matt for tomorrow! See how it goes.
Another fun night was Rach’s birthday. I decided to share a bottle of Vodka with Chloe to celebrate and it was a super fun night we played loads of drinking games, loads of people turned up met new faces and really good banter. One of the highlights was when Tammy one of the chefs who works for Ski Japan came over and made up super authentic sushi – it was delicious.
Other than those fun times, we have been in Staff induction training which was pretty thorough. We spent a day going through the staff policy handbook and just got to know more people.
I have been swimming to keep up the fitness and in the Hotel where we go to swim there is a traditional Japanese Onsen, this is a natural spring water hot pool in stone like baths. It was incredible! After a days riding I can imagine that would be a great place to go to help heal the body. And even more amazing is there is an outdoor balcony Onsen where you can chill in the warm water and can have a view of the cold snowy mountains! Incredible!
Right now my main concern is my knee and I am slightly worried its going to be a niggly one all season! I just gotta rest it up over the next couple of days be patient and it will be all good!
I better roll out
Much love
Koo
Howdy! Its your boy Koo reporting from N-town down!! Its been a pretty quiet first few days in Niseko, the hill hasn’t been open yet so we have been very busy getting to know each other in our house. More and more people are arriving in drips and drabs and the house is filling up to its capacity of 27 which is great. Other amazing news in Tom Summerville from the Turoa crew has managed to secure a job with us at NBS and should be arriving in the next couple of weeks!!
Right now I am missing out on a fun night out at the opening of Wild Bills, because I have successfully managed to tweak my knee doing nothing more than jumping a step and landing awkwardly on my left knee. I am a little bit worried as my left knee has been troubling me for a while now, all the way through New Zealand and even with the short break between seasons I have managed to give it a tweak. We don’t start on snow for a couple of days and we have a day off tomorrow however with the hill not open and there being no I don’t think I am missing out on too much. Hopefully a bit of rest will help. I think the I might have swam a little too hard in the pool last night and just wore it out, then with all the walking around town last night it might have not enjoyed it.
We went out for a couple of drinks in bars around Niseko and I found out today that the place has about 30 nightclubs/bars which is pretty insane! The one thing I noticed when I was out what how commercial the place was, loads of Geijin (foreign) people and not many Japanese it was crazy. We are definitely in the “Whistler” of Japanese resorts – its insane. The night out we had was a lot of fun, but at then end I went for a leap across a piece of mud and thats where the knee incident happened. Soul destroying – hopefully I will get better the icing is helping and Like I said there are a couple more days of training indoor and I have a day off tomo so just rest – perfect opportunity to work on the manual. Ill try to get up super early tomo and get some shit done for sure. I am looking to try and have the CASI LEVEL 3 manual ready for review by Rob and Matt for tomorrow! See how it goes.
Another fun night was Rach’s birthday. I decided to share a bottle of Vodka with Chloe to celebrate and it was a super fun night we played loads of drinking games, loads of people turned up met new faces and really good banter. One of the highlights was when Tammy one of the chefs who works for Ski Japan came over and made up super authentic sushi – it was delicious.
Other than those fun times, we have been in Staff induction training which was pretty thorough. We spent a day going through the staff policy handbook and just got to know more people.
I have been swimming to keep up the fitness and in the Hotel where we go to swim there is a traditional Japanese Onsen, this is a natural spring water hot pool in stone like baths. It was incredible! After a days riding I can imagine that would be a great place to go to help heal the body. And even more amazing is there is an outdoor balcony Onsen where you can chill in the warm water and can have a view of the cold snowy mountains! Incredible!
Right now my main concern is my knee and I am slightly worried its going to be a niggly one all season! I just gotta rest it up over the next couple of days be patient and it will be all good!
I better roll out
Much love
Koo
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
IN NISEKO BAAAAMMMM!!!!
30/11/2010
Yo yo yo!!! Im in NISEKO and its soo cool. Nothing really to report from the journey on the 28th. I arrived in Sapporo and jumped on my coach to Niseko and with me was young Jonathan Whipp a kid from Manchester heading to Niseko working for NBS also! We had the coach to ourselves and got to know each other.
When we arrived in Hirafu, our manager Pauly came to pick us up. He is a ski instructor but will be more managing, and is from Australia – seems like a real solid dude. He took us to Seikomart for a mini shop and then I got to meet the crew! Everyone is pretty sound and it wasn’t like when i first met the staff at Turoa. I think its because there are a lot new staff.
It started snowing when we arrived and it hasn’t stopped since. Its insane, the location of our accommodation is perfect, right next to the slopes and really close to our ski school office – its ski in ski out and its just perfect. I am sharing a room with a sweet dude called Kay from Switzerland. He is a skier and is super chill its nice. My room is pretty big and traditional. There is bambooy flooring and the other traditional thing is the sit down shared showers! I havent had a shower with anyone else yet but it will be interesting when there are more people in there. Ill just think of it like a changing room.
There hasn’t been much to do with the hill not open, its been snowing loads and we’ve been like caged animals waiting for training and our passes. Training starts December 3rd!
I am trying to think what else I have been upto and apart from orientating myself with the place, thats been about it. In the down time Ollie and Larissa came over from Niseko Villiage and just been jamming with Chloe and the rest of the crew its been awesome. I have been working on my CASI Level 3 notes and trying to get it all done before we start training but there is craploads to do!!
We’ve been issued with cell phones which is cool and thats really about it
Ill report in later with some more good stuff
Peace and love
Koo
Yo yo yo!!! Im in NISEKO and its soo cool. Nothing really to report from the journey on the 28th. I arrived in Sapporo and jumped on my coach to Niseko and with me was young Jonathan Whipp a kid from Manchester heading to Niseko working for NBS also! We had the coach to ourselves and got to know each other.
When we arrived in Hirafu, our manager Pauly came to pick us up. He is a ski instructor but will be more managing, and is from Australia – seems like a real solid dude. He took us to Seikomart for a mini shop and then I got to meet the crew! Everyone is pretty sound and it wasn’t like when i first met the staff at Turoa. I think its because there are a lot new staff.
It started snowing when we arrived and it hasn’t stopped since. Its insane, the location of our accommodation is perfect, right next to the slopes and really close to our ski school office – its ski in ski out and its just perfect. I am sharing a room with a sweet dude called Kay from Switzerland. He is a skier and is super chill its nice. My room is pretty big and traditional. There is bambooy flooring and the other traditional thing is the sit down shared showers! I havent had a shower with anyone else yet but it will be interesting when there are more people in there. Ill just think of it like a changing room.
There hasn’t been much to do with the hill not open, its been snowing loads and we’ve been like caged animals waiting for training and our passes. Training starts December 3rd!
I am trying to think what else I have been upto and apart from orientating myself with the place, thats been about it. In the down time Ollie and Larissa came over from Niseko Villiage and just been jamming with Chloe and the rest of the crew its been awesome. I have been working on my CASI Level 3 notes and trying to get it all done before we start training but there is craploads to do!!
We’ve been issued with cell phones which is cool and thats really about it
Ill report in later with some more good stuff
Peace and love
Koo
Saturday, 27 November 2010
TOKYO & JAPAN MADNESS
24/11/2010
The day has already arrived, yes I am in Tokyo giving you my first Jap style post. This place is like no other it is so unique and different and almost magical. It all started the morning of the 23rd when I was dropped off at the airport, the excitement really started then, you know when you get super excited and you cant stop laughing because you are about to do something absolutely insane, thats the feeling I had! It was incredible!! I was so nervous and happy all at the same time!
To get myself in the Japanese mood at Terminal 5 I thought it rude not to have a little Chicken Katsu Curry breakfast! It was delicious as always, the crispy breaded chicken was like something out of a 5 star recipe book and the sauce – oh the sauce was soo much better than the one I had in New Zealand. I was left thoroughly satisfied and then pushed onto my departure gate.
Our plane was called and I remember thinking how BA was so inferior in comparison to Emirates in terms of their organisation – BA announce the flight is boarding and everyone piles on, with Emirates they have sections and they board from the back of the plane to the front to prevent queage – thought that was much better however we did end up getting into Tokyo on time.
I checked in online and managed to score a nice exit seat, and the middle seat was empty which was ideal. When doing the bag drop off my snowboard bag was slightly overweight however it was enough to get away with which was a relief!! There was no way I was shipping anything after the debarcle DHL gave me in NZ.
To make sure I synced up with the time difference I tried to sleep as much as possible on the plane, I managed to get about 7-8 out of the 11 hrs snoozing and then spent the other 3 on BA’s in flight entertainment. The movies were the latest but again comparing to emirates their BA’s IFE is nothing in comparison. I watch 1 and a half movies and they didnt really rock my world.
We landed in Narita airport and going through customs and immigration was a surprisingly smooth process – in arrivals I managed to meet some fellow snowboarders and we went to ship our bags to resort. I got the train which was marked in English lettering which made things a lot easier, all I needed was a little help on the route, which information kindly helped me with and I was on my way. The first impressions I got of Japan were the clinical cleanliness of the people and the place, to the point where people were wearing surgical masks on their face to reduce the amount of toxins they were breathing in. I am not actually sure how much of a difference it makes but its their choice.
The people are friendly and even with a language barrier endeavour to communicate with you to come to an understanding so they can help. After my train ride finding the hostel was pretty easy going. Settled in had a shower and went on my way to the Electronic part of Tokyo as I was pretty close to it. Akihabara it was called and it was huge, busy noisy colourful and insane. Strangely there were some Japanese girls dressed up in pink or as school girls handing out flyers and stuff not sure what it was for but it looked ominous I am sure it was harmless as its a populat tourist spot and its broad daylight but it was a little strange. As well as that the food looked a bit crazy, I went safe and got a chicken doner kebab from a van (hahaha safe he says) it was pretty damn good. I followed that up witha KFC to continue the review – it was on par with the UK and US not crispy skin but fried and a little soggy – disappointing.
I found myself in absolute awe of the busyness of the place. There were soo many different electronics stores selling pretty interesting things the best thing i saw was a tiny speaker attached to a 3.5mm headphone jack. This would plug into your iphone or ipod and play the music out loud. I am sure I have seen it before but it just looked smart.
En route to the electronics store I based the used book selling district and the sports district. The sport distrct was insane the snowboard shops were incredible!! I was in heaven and what made me feel better was the fact that all my boards were on show for ridiculous prices whereas I paid next to nothing! Thanks Matt@Ride – oh yeah.
After walking around PEOPLE watching I went back to the hostel for a rest before heading back out to try and find the imperial palace – this did not happen and I ended up spending a couple of hours walking around trying to find my hostel. I gave up and decided to have a Japanese dinner of 10 gyoza’s and 2 pieces of chicken katsu it was yum! The food was soo good and good value considering it was Japanese food. I guess given its in Japan its less sought after than it would be in the UK. I jumped on a train back to the station i was familiar with. After another rest I walked to see the electronics district by night before heading back home!
I am now in my bunk bed in my room about to pass out
Peace and love people
Koo
25/11/2010
Oh my goodness I am so tired right now, the jet lag didnt help my sleep much last night, I was up at 4am and woke up on the hour every hour after that, my sleep was very disturbed which made me pretty drowsy. At least I managed to keep my head down until 8am even though it was a broken sleep.
I woke up and set of on a mega sightseeing day. I wanted to cram loads in and I think I got some good stuff in. I got the train to the Tsukiji and went to the world famous wholesale market, particularly the fish market – it was smelly for sure but there were some insanely large fish, it was unfortunate people from the public weren’t allowed in the auction area because thats where I reckon all the huge Tuna fish would be alongside the big fish like sharks etc... I am wondering what the whaling and dolphin hunting and selling policy here is – are they free to catch and sell in public or is it not legal I remember Whaling for commercial purposes was banned all over the world but Japan said they were whaling for research purposes and are still killing whales. I imagine some countries think that is a front to continue hunting. Whats the deal with being allowed to kill and sell shark meat but not whales – don’t get that. Anyway massively sidetracked, it was definitely an experience – the market was huge and you had to have a tough stomach to handle the smell and the blood, I saw a guy knifing live fish – wasn’t the most ideal sight but I suppose thats what happens in a fish market.
I walked from the fish market through to Hamarikyu Gardens, these are landscape gardens next to Shiodome and are home to the 300 year old pine. It was a pretty special tree, special trunks had to be fitted where it lay to hold up ins enourmous weighty branches. After a tranquil walk around the gardens I proceeded to Shiodome tower. There was a cute famous Japanese chick outside with camera’s on her, she was doing some sort of dance or may have even been shooting for a music video but she was definitely nice to look at! She waved to the fans and at that point I decided to leave.
I continued on walking the wrong way for about 2k but grabbed some lunch during my long detour so all was not wasted. I had a chicken katsu curry and to be honest I liked the wagamamas one better! Terrible thing to say given the dish comes from Japan but i can only be honest.
After being re-routed I ended up back on track and went to Ginza – high end shopping district I walked through I didnt really want to shop just wanted to look at what the shopping was like, and it was immense it was like being on bond street. I passed on through and headed over to Tokyo station and to the Imperial Palace and the Imperial East Gardens. That took me to 3pm – 6 hrs on the move I had to get back to the hostel and chill. I spent a couple of hours relaxing in my room watching a snowboard movine – The Storming – EPICL Heldor and Tortein killed it!!
I headed back out and went to Tokyo Dome City it was crazy! Such a cool place and I am so glad I went there at night because it was all lit up! Tokyo Dome City is like a little city compound with just fun stuff to do, like a mini theme park – it was awesome. From Tokyo Dome I went to Shinjuku this was like another popular night spot with loads of shops restaurants bars and clubs. I walked around and ended up in the red light district accidently (woops) and subsequently got hounded by dudes either asking me if I wanted girls or wanted to go to a strip show, one had a directory that he was flicking through but he could have been asking if I could adopt one for all I know because it was all in Japanese, I just kept saying nee arigato – sionara! Haha i briskly left the area and continued on home. I am officially pooped after all the walking I did today but I saw loads and was pretty stoked with the progress.
Peace and love people!
26/11/2010
I am exhausted again today after another intense day of sight seeing! I find with each day I learn more and more about the culture here and its great because there is so much to learn. I went to Yushima Shrine to start with and from there moved onto another beautiful temple – I wish I could tell you more other than explaining the scerenity and the beuty but I cant it was magical all the same. En route to Sumo to Rygoku i found a street market which was packed with people and all the crazy stalls you would expect in a Japanese market – in fact come to think of it it wasn’t that crazy – shoes, clothes, household goods etc...I couldn’t walk through without making a couple of purchases – a wrist band and some chop sticks.
I made my way to the Sumo wrestling theatre in Tokyo and its just a shame I couldn’t get to see a wrestling match whilst I was here. I am imagining it would be an awesome atmosphere! Enroute to the theature there were statuettes of some of the Yogozunas (long reigning Sumo champs). There was an open sumo museum where you could watch old footage and look at all the historical champions. I didnt really understand the rules of engagement but it appears you have to push your oppononent out of the sumo ring, whoever is out first looses. Despite being wrestling its handed in a very well respected manner. As with all Japanese they are honourable helpful nice people. I have been humbled by just how kind and helpful they are to foreign people even with the language barrier. It never ceases to impress me. My Japanese certainly isn’t getting any better but I am trying to get used to the culture.
With my feet burning I chilled out for a while at a scenic garden built in honour of those that Japan lost during the war. It was the perfect was to chill out and rest for a while before then heading to get some lunch. I got my phrase book out and busted out I wanted something with chicken in please could you choose from the menu from me. Instead I receive a pork dish – ALL good though as it was delicious and its safe to say I have mastered the use of the chop sticks but to ensure I was adhering to the etiquette correctly I later checked online about dinner etiquette. Aside from the obvious its not good to waste soy sauce its disrespectful so use as much as u are going to eat. I have been putting loads of soy on my rice and you aren’t supposed to do that either. You keep chopsticks in one hand and rice bowl in the other hand. It is ok for you to bring the rice bowl to your mouth as you eat and when eating other things with your sticks you can use the rice bowl as a catcher if anything falls but it shouldn’t. You shouldn’t really mix up food unless you receive a don buri. When finished you should point your chop stix to the left on the plate. Dont stick chop sticks in food as this is a ritual they use for the dead.
I proceeded to the Yasukuni shrine and paid my respects to the Buddah! It was a cleansing experience. Then headed onto the Shibuya district which is another crazy busy suburb packed with shops...by the time i arrived i was so tired and kinda over the busyiness of the xmas Friday night and called it early.
Its getting to the time where I need to peace out and sleep sorry about the crappy blog
28/11/2010
Right so the day has arrived where I must leave Tokyo for resort. I have a journey ahread – a flight to Sapporo from Haneda airport in Tokyo and then a 2.5 hr transfer for Sapporo to Hirafu Villiage where I am living! Very excited about getting to resort and very much looking forward to settling in one place. Living out of a bag and constantly walking around Tokyo till my feet burn is getting old and I could do with some different livin!
Yesterday I started my day super early heading back to a shrine I visited the night before to get some good pictures and understand more about the shrine. It was amazing to see people taking time out of their day in between work or school to go to the shrine and pray – The Japanese seem to be a more spiritual bunch of people as opposed to religious as such! It was humbling to see.
I moved onto Shinjuku to the government buildings. They offer a free trip up the 45 floor of their building to get views of Tokyo and beyond. I wasn’t inspired to be honest – city skylines don’t do a lot for me these days they are a bunch of buildings stuck together. It is amazing what man has achieving in constructing these buildings but I don’t get much out of it.
I then went to visit the Mejiji Shrine which was pretty huge and embedded in some beautiful gardens. There was a wedding going on and I managed to see the traditional dresses worn my women and children and it was incredible I was very lucky to see it. I moved onto Hanjuku to see the cool young hip shopping area and the people are soo stylish – i Love it! I walked though the shopping area and managed to stop in a Nike Store with a wall of Ipads about 40 playing videos – only in Japan! So tech! Insane!
Tokyo tower was next on the list and the walk was soo long I got their and its like an orange and white Eiffel Tower with a palladium of cafes and bars underneath it. I managed to chow down hard one some tasty food – the highlight again was the gyoza. On the walk back home I got lost and ended up resting my feet in a school playground which was full of kids playing dodgeball of all games and some were practising on their trombones! It was awesome just soaking up the atmosphere of the city by getting lost and walking around!
I made my way home to get some rest before heading for dinner. I seem to be getting away with telling people in restaurants i don’t eat beef and i want a dish with chicken and can you choose for me please. I got a sweet chicken soba with noodles veg and soup and used my newly learnt Japanese etiquette.
I made my way to Akihabara again before heading home to bed. Tokyo has been insane – I have loved how the underlying big city themes are there however it is soo different still – I love it! Though having had a lot of time in the city walking around I am ready to move on. I have learnt so much about the ways of the Japanese and how to behave, my Japanese is slowly getting there but is nowhere near conversational! We shall see, onto the next adventure, my home for the next 4 months – Sapporo, then Hirfu!! How exciting – I will post up how it is!
Peace and love
The day has already arrived, yes I am in Tokyo giving you my first Jap style post. This place is like no other it is so unique and different and almost magical. It all started the morning of the 23rd when I was dropped off at the airport, the excitement really started then, you know when you get super excited and you cant stop laughing because you are about to do something absolutely insane, thats the feeling I had! It was incredible!! I was so nervous and happy all at the same time!
To get myself in the Japanese mood at Terminal 5 I thought it rude not to have a little Chicken Katsu Curry breakfast! It was delicious as always, the crispy breaded chicken was like something out of a 5 star recipe book and the sauce – oh the sauce was soo much better than the one I had in New Zealand. I was left thoroughly satisfied and then pushed onto my departure gate.
Our plane was called and I remember thinking how BA was so inferior in comparison to Emirates in terms of their organisation – BA announce the flight is boarding and everyone piles on, with Emirates they have sections and they board from the back of the plane to the front to prevent queage – thought that was much better however we did end up getting into Tokyo on time.
I checked in online and managed to score a nice exit seat, and the middle seat was empty which was ideal. When doing the bag drop off my snowboard bag was slightly overweight however it was enough to get away with which was a relief!! There was no way I was shipping anything after the debarcle DHL gave me in NZ.
To make sure I synced up with the time difference I tried to sleep as much as possible on the plane, I managed to get about 7-8 out of the 11 hrs snoozing and then spent the other 3 on BA’s in flight entertainment. The movies were the latest but again comparing to emirates their BA’s IFE is nothing in comparison. I watch 1 and a half movies and they didnt really rock my world.
We landed in Narita airport and going through customs and immigration was a surprisingly smooth process – in arrivals I managed to meet some fellow snowboarders and we went to ship our bags to resort. I got the train which was marked in English lettering which made things a lot easier, all I needed was a little help on the route, which information kindly helped me with and I was on my way. The first impressions I got of Japan were the clinical cleanliness of the people and the place, to the point where people were wearing surgical masks on their face to reduce the amount of toxins they were breathing in. I am not actually sure how much of a difference it makes but its their choice.
The people are friendly and even with a language barrier endeavour to communicate with you to come to an understanding so they can help. After my train ride finding the hostel was pretty easy going. Settled in had a shower and went on my way to the Electronic part of Tokyo as I was pretty close to it. Akihabara it was called and it was huge, busy noisy colourful and insane. Strangely there were some Japanese girls dressed up in pink or as school girls handing out flyers and stuff not sure what it was for but it looked ominous I am sure it was harmless as its a populat tourist spot and its broad daylight but it was a little strange. As well as that the food looked a bit crazy, I went safe and got a chicken doner kebab from a van (hahaha safe he says) it was pretty damn good. I followed that up witha KFC to continue the review – it was on par with the UK and US not crispy skin but fried and a little soggy – disappointing.
I found myself in absolute awe of the busyness of the place. There were soo many different electronics stores selling pretty interesting things the best thing i saw was a tiny speaker attached to a 3.5mm headphone jack. This would plug into your iphone or ipod and play the music out loud. I am sure I have seen it before but it just looked smart.
En route to the electronics store I based the used book selling district and the sports district. The sport distrct was insane the snowboard shops were incredible!! I was in heaven and what made me feel better was the fact that all my boards were on show for ridiculous prices whereas I paid next to nothing! Thanks Matt@Ride – oh yeah.
After walking around PEOPLE watching I went back to the hostel for a rest before heading back out to try and find the imperial palace – this did not happen and I ended up spending a couple of hours walking around trying to find my hostel. I gave up and decided to have a Japanese dinner of 10 gyoza’s and 2 pieces of chicken katsu it was yum! The food was soo good and good value considering it was Japanese food. I guess given its in Japan its less sought after than it would be in the UK. I jumped on a train back to the station i was familiar with. After another rest I walked to see the electronics district by night before heading back home!
I am now in my bunk bed in my room about to pass out
Peace and love people
Koo
25/11/2010
Oh my goodness I am so tired right now, the jet lag didnt help my sleep much last night, I was up at 4am and woke up on the hour every hour after that, my sleep was very disturbed which made me pretty drowsy. At least I managed to keep my head down until 8am even though it was a broken sleep.
I woke up and set of on a mega sightseeing day. I wanted to cram loads in and I think I got some good stuff in. I got the train to the Tsukiji and went to the world famous wholesale market, particularly the fish market – it was smelly for sure but there were some insanely large fish, it was unfortunate people from the public weren’t allowed in the auction area because thats where I reckon all the huge Tuna fish would be alongside the big fish like sharks etc... I am wondering what the whaling and dolphin hunting and selling policy here is – are they free to catch and sell in public or is it not legal I remember Whaling for commercial purposes was banned all over the world but Japan said they were whaling for research purposes and are still killing whales. I imagine some countries think that is a front to continue hunting. Whats the deal with being allowed to kill and sell shark meat but not whales – don’t get that. Anyway massively sidetracked, it was definitely an experience – the market was huge and you had to have a tough stomach to handle the smell and the blood, I saw a guy knifing live fish – wasn’t the most ideal sight but I suppose thats what happens in a fish market.
I walked from the fish market through to Hamarikyu Gardens, these are landscape gardens next to Shiodome and are home to the 300 year old pine. It was a pretty special tree, special trunks had to be fitted where it lay to hold up ins enourmous weighty branches. After a tranquil walk around the gardens I proceeded to Shiodome tower. There was a cute famous Japanese chick outside with camera’s on her, she was doing some sort of dance or may have even been shooting for a music video but she was definitely nice to look at! She waved to the fans and at that point I decided to leave.
I continued on walking the wrong way for about 2k but grabbed some lunch during my long detour so all was not wasted. I had a chicken katsu curry and to be honest I liked the wagamamas one better! Terrible thing to say given the dish comes from Japan but i can only be honest.
After being re-routed I ended up back on track and went to Ginza – high end shopping district I walked through I didnt really want to shop just wanted to look at what the shopping was like, and it was immense it was like being on bond street. I passed on through and headed over to Tokyo station and to the Imperial Palace and the Imperial East Gardens. That took me to 3pm – 6 hrs on the move I had to get back to the hostel and chill. I spent a couple of hours relaxing in my room watching a snowboard movine – The Storming – EPICL Heldor and Tortein killed it!!
I headed back out and went to Tokyo Dome City it was crazy! Such a cool place and I am so glad I went there at night because it was all lit up! Tokyo Dome City is like a little city compound with just fun stuff to do, like a mini theme park – it was awesome. From Tokyo Dome I went to Shinjuku this was like another popular night spot with loads of shops restaurants bars and clubs. I walked around and ended up in the red light district accidently (woops) and subsequently got hounded by dudes either asking me if I wanted girls or wanted to go to a strip show, one had a directory that he was flicking through but he could have been asking if I could adopt one for all I know because it was all in Japanese, I just kept saying nee arigato – sionara! Haha i briskly left the area and continued on home. I am officially pooped after all the walking I did today but I saw loads and was pretty stoked with the progress.
Peace and love people!
26/11/2010
I am exhausted again today after another intense day of sight seeing! I find with each day I learn more and more about the culture here and its great because there is so much to learn. I went to Yushima Shrine to start with and from there moved onto another beautiful temple – I wish I could tell you more other than explaining the scerenity and the beuty but I cant it was magical all the same. En route to Sumo to Rygoku i found a street market which was packed with people and all the crazy stalls you would expect in a Japanese market – in fact come to think of it it wasn’t that crazy – shoes, clothes, household goods etc...I couldn’t walk through without making a couple of purchases – a wrist band and some chop sticks.
I made my way to the Sumo wrestling theatre in Tokyo and its just a shame I couldn’t get to see a wrestling match whilst I was here. I am imagining it would be an awesome atmosphere! Enroute to the theature there were statuettes of some of the Yogozunas (long reigning Sumo champs). There was an open sumo museum where you could watch old footage and look at all the historical champions. I didnt really understand the rules of engagement but it appears you have to push your oppononent out of the sumo ring, whoever is out first looses. Despite being wrestling its handed in a very well respected manner. As with all Japanese they are honourable helpful nice people. I have been humbled by just how kind and helpful they are to foreign people even with the language barrier. It never ceases to impress me. My Japanese certainly isn’t getting any better but I am trying to get used to the culture.
With my feet burning I chilled out for a while at a scenic garden built in honour of those that Japan lost during the war. It was the perfect was to chill out and rest for a while before then heading to get some lunch. I got my phrase book out and busted out I wanted something with chicken in please could you choose from the menu from me. Instead I receive a pork dish – ALL good though as it was delicious and its safe to say I have mastered the use of the chop sticks but to ensure I was adhering to the etiquette correctly I later checked online about dinner etiquette. Aside from the obvious its not good to waste soy sauce its disrespectful so use as much as u are going to eat. I have been putting loads of soy on my rice and you aren’t supposed to do that either. You keep chopsticks in one hand and rice bowl in the other hand. It is ok for you to bring the rice bowl to your mouth as you eat and when eating other things with your sticks you can use the rice bowl as a catcher if anything falls but it shouldn’t. You shouldn’t really mix up food unless you receive a don buri. When finished you should point your chop stix to the left on the plate. Dont stick chop sticks in food as this is a ritual they use for the dead.
I proceeded to the Yasukuni shrine and paid my respects to the Buddah! It was a cleansing experience. Then headed onto the Shibuya district which is another crazy busy suburb packed with shops...by the time i arrived i was so tired and kinda over the busyiness of the xmas Friday night and called it early.
Its getting to the time where I need to peace out and sleep sorry about the crappy blog
28/11/2010
Right so the day has arrived where I must leave Tokyo for resort. I have a journey ahread – a flight to Sapporo from Haneda airport in Tokyo and then a 2.5 hr transfer for Sapporo to Hirafu Villiage where I am living! Very excited about getting to resort and very much looking forward to settling in one place. Living out of a bag and constantly walking around Tokyo till my feet burn is getting old and I could do with some different livin!
Yesterday I started my day super early heading back to a shrine I visited the night before to get some good pictures and understand more about the shrine. It was amazing to see people taking time out of their day in between work or school to go to the shrine and pray – The Japanese seem to be a more spiritual bunch of people as opposed to religious as such! It was humbling to see.
I moved onto Shinjuku to the government buildings. They offer a free trip up the 45 floor of their building to get views of Tokyo and beyond. I wasn’t inspired to be honest – city skylines don’t do a lot for me these days they are a bunch of buildings stuck together. It is amazing what man has achieving in constructing these buildings but I don’t get much out of it.
I then went to visit the Mejiji Shrine which was pretty huge and embedded in some beautiful gardens. There was a wedding going on and I managed to see the traditional dresses worn my women and children and it was incredible I was very lucky to see it. I moved onto Hanjuku to see the cool young hip shopping area and the people are soo stylish – i Love it! I walked though the shopping area and managed to stop in a Nike Store with a wall of Ipads about 40 playing videos – only in Japan! So tech! Insane!
Tokyo tower was next on the list and the walk was soo long I got their and its like an orange and white Eiffel Tower with a palladium of cafes and bars underneath it. I managed to chow down hard one some tasty food – the highlight again was the gyoza. On the walk back home I got lost and ended up resting my feet in a school playground which was full of kids playing dodgeball of all games and some were practising on their trombones! It was awesome just soaking up the atmosphere of the city by getting lost and walking around!
I made my way home to get some rest before heading for dinner. I seem to be getting away with telling people in restaurants i don’t eat beef and i want a dish with chicken and can you choose for me please. I got a sweet chicken soba with noodles veg and soup and used my newly learnt Japanese etiquette.
I made my way to Akihabara again before heading home to bed. Tokyo has been insane – I have loved how the underlying big city themes are there however it is soo different still – I love it! Though having had a lot of time in the city walking around I am ready to move on. I have learnt so much about the ways of the Japanese and how to behave, my Japanese is slowly getting there but is nowhere near conversational! We shall see, onto the next adventure, my home for the next 4 months – Sapporo, then Hirfu!! How exciting – I will post up how it is!
Peace and love
Monday, 15 November 2010
Bye bye southern hemisphere - hello Dubai!
15/11/10
Wow, its been 2 weeks since my last blog and a lot has happened. Finding the time between the travelling to dedicate some time to all my lovely followers has been hard...I’ll give the recollection of the past couple of weeks a good shot however there is a lot to remember...good thing about this is you’ll probably just get the highlights...let me check where I left off last time...right after Yarra valley the following day was spent driving through Melbourne City with my Uncles father in law...my dad took a turn for the worse and wasn’t feeling too great which wasn’t ideal given his flight was the following day!! We stopped at the docklands for a light walk and then onto St Kilda where Jane lives for a spot of Pizza at the Stokehouse – they were soo nice. We went for a short walk along St Kilda beach before making our way back home so my dad could relax.
When my dad was taken to the airport the following day I decided to meet up with Jane for what I thought was going to be an afternoon of stress free sight seeing and fun...what I thought was going to happen and what ended up happening were 2 completely different things. Basically Jane is in love with Melbourne city and desparately wants to work toward becoming a resident. In order to do that she needs commitment from her employer that they will sponsor her. Once upon a time ago her employers did promise this however they are now in the process of selling the bakery. You would think the simple solution would be to get the new owners to sponsor them...however they still weren’t going to be owners for another month and Jane only has another couple of months left on her working holiday and time is running out. So we discussed the situation she was in and thought up options...with only 2 months left it was going to be too late to find another company to sponsor her, the other 2 options were student visa which killed 2 birds with one stone as she wanted to study anyway, however that was another can of worms in terms of red tape so the easiest option that would buy her more time in Melbourne was to do rural work for a couple of months to allow for visa extension. The rules are you need to do 3 months of rural work to qualify for an extension, however Jane only has 2...so she would need to use that wit and charm to good effect to talk her rural employers around to signing off on a slightly untruthful but earlier start date. It was her best option so we hunted for books and websites to apply for this work and I left her with that. It was a good day and spending time with Jane is always great regardless of how its spent!
In the evening I met up with some old friends from Canada who live in Aus – Sam, Tim B and Matty...they are all doing well, Sam is a ski bum still and Tim and Matty are well and truely in the groove of their careers! It was good to see them even though they are still kids – I cant believe how young they are!! Good times.
I flew out the following day back to Auckland then through to Brunei for a 12 hr stopover. I decided to do the city tour of Brunei to kill some time – It was interesting we went to 2 Mosques on built for the 28th and 29th kings of Brunei, every time a new king is borne a mosque is built in their honour and the number of domes is equivalent to which generation of king they are. It seems like a very monarchist country – most of the touristy places and memorabilia is around the Royalty and the royal family. All very interesting indeed. We went to a Water Village where there was a subset of civilians from Brunei lived. The houses and pathways were built on water stilts – crazy stuff!
Before heading back to the airport we had a couple of hours in the mall where I sampled the Brunei KFC – it was pretty awesome as far as KFCs go! I wanted to spunk the rest of my Brunei dollars so decided to buy some sunnies a watch and a usb key all for 22 quid! Ha!
I returned back to the airport with about 6 hrs to kill and subsequently destroyed the book “White Tiger” it was a great read however no as epic as the Godfather, that is still by far my most favourite book of all time – the Sicilian not far off it either!!
Before I knew it, it was Sunday afternoon and I had landed back in London to find my dad in hospital and my mum still away. It was me and Ash so went to visit my dad and made sure he was taken care of. After completing some admin on Monday I went to the embassy of Japan to submit my working holiday visa application – they didnt require my passport which meant I could go to Dubai to my best friends wedding!! Before I knew it I was flying with emirates to dubai the following day and surprising my best friend with my arrival.
The first thing I noticed about Dubai was the sweltering heat! I met up with Cams family at the airport and we drove to meet him at the hotel. The shock on his face when he saw me was very amusing, even more amusing was the fact that I called him whilst at the airport to tell him I wasn’t going to make it. Sad news was Paul didnt make the flight! His fear of flying got the better of him, he has to learn to get over it. I met most of Camerons family and they were all welcoming loving people and we were all there to celebrate this great occasion.
As a result the first couple of days weren’t really spent doing much in the way of touristy things...me and Oualid (Shabnams boyfriend) hung out a lot whilst Cam was busy with family duties along with Shab. Memories include going to the biggest snowdome in the world in the Emirates mall – It was ridiculous!! So much fun tho! I taught Oualid for about an hour then rode for an hour! It was soo dope seeing the riding scene over in dubai – there were some seriously sick little Arabic riders! They loved it
Other highlights included going out a club called Chi where we were VIPs watching Tinie Tempah perform a few songs. We got a table and even though this place was huge and had about 3 massive rooms we stayed in one little place the WHOLE night – I guess we had in the back of our minds the fact that we paid a shitload for our VIP area so we weren’t going to abandon it. Along with the table came a lot of drink and lets just say we got merry and had good times to celebrate Cameron getting married.
Cams wedding was a beautiful, it started with a soft drink reception for everyone to gather, we got changed at the venue which was a very grand hotel with stunning architecture and amazing interior design. We all took our places on the patio and the bride and groom arrived on their chariot – a boat in a river pulled into the patio and they stepped off and joined the ceremony. The service was short and sweet and done in a very classy stylish way. The bride and groom rode off to freshen up for dinner! Which I must say was epic!! Too much food – lots of meat and a crazy amount of deserts – so delicious so tasty so good! I loved it! Cam and Nilu looked great together and were so happy.
We spent the following day going to the tallest building in the world which was an architectural stroke of genius, the Burj – however I found it to be pointless. It was built for the sake of being the biggest building in the world as opposed to having any sort of purpose. Everything has be to bigger and better in Dubai. Before heading out for a traditional “after the wedding meal” between the families. The brides family invites the grooms family for a feed and they just get to know each other and marry themselves!
We had a couple of nights we spent out and about in Dubai and it is definitely a happening place! There was a bar called the Roof Top which Lonely planet recommended and the decor was so chic it was like being in a Western European Bar like the Kensington Roof Gardens . The Jameria Beach Resort Walk is very nice with lots of nice bars and restaurants and shops. After our Mega night out Oualid and I spent the day in the beach, the water was so nice and warm and some of the sun set shots were so picturesque!! Ahh good times
My overall opinion of Dubai is if you like Modern Architecture, then its a great place too see. There is a lot about Dubai which feels a bit pretentious empty and showy. You don’t feel like you are experiencing any Arabic culture, English has to be spoken widely and there are a large number of expats. It seems Dubai has been sold to the western world as an extension of their paradise in the middle east. Its hard to spot natives and feels like there is no historical or cultural significance. It feels like a sell out and this was a part I didnt appreciate. Along with this is the fast cars and malls and flashy living is one that doesn’t appeal to me anymore.
In all it was a great place to visit but not what I was expecting and a place I am not sure I would visit again. I cut my trip short and didnt really feel like I was missing out!
I am now back in the UK and I think that brings everyone upto date. Between now and me leaving for Japan I have lots to do which will mean my next post will probably be from Tokyo.
Origato!!
Peace and love people
Wow, its been 2 weeks since my last blog and a lot has happened. Finding the time between the travelling to dedicate some time to all my lovely followers has been hard...I’ll give the recollection of the past couple of weeks a good shot however there is a lot to remember...good thing about this is you’ll probably just get the highlights...let me check where I left off last time...right after Yarra valley the following day was spent driving through Melbourne City with my Uncles father in law...my dad took a turn for the worse and wasn’t feeling too great which wasn’t ideal given his flight was the following day!! We stopped at the docklands for a light walk and then onto St Kilda where Jane lives for a spot of Pizza at the Stokehouse – they were soo nice. We went for a short walk along St Kilda beach before making our way back home so my dad could relax.
When my dad was taken to the airport the following day I decided to meet up with Jane for what I thought was going to be an afternoon of stress free sight seeing and fun...what I thought was going to happen and what ended up happening were 2 completely different things. Basically Jane is in love with Melbourne city and desparately wants to work toward becoming a resident. In order to do that she needs commitment from her employer that they will sponsor her. Once upon a time ago her employers did promise this however they are now in the process of selling the bakery. You would think the simple solution would be to get the new owners to sponsor them...however they still weren’t going to be owners for another month and Jane only has another couple of months left on her working holiday and time is running out. So we discussed the situation she was in and thought up options...with only 2 months left it was going to be too late to find another company to sponsor her, the other 2 options were student visa which killed 2 birds with one stone as she wanted to study anyway, however that was another can of worms in terms of red tape so the easiest option that would buy her more time in Melbourne was to do rural work for a couple of months to allow for visa extension. The rules are you need to do 3 months of rural work to qualify for an extension, however Jane only has 2...so she would need to use that wit and charm to good effect to talk her rural employers around to signing off on a slightly untruthful but earlier start date. It was her best option so we hunted for books and websites to apply for this work and I left her with that. It was a good day and spending time with Jane is always great regardless of how its spent!
In the evening I met up with some old friends from Canada who live in Aus – Sam, Tim B and Matty...they are all doing well, Sam is a ski bum still and Tim and Matty are well and truely in the groove of their careers! It was good to see them even though they are still kids – I cant believe how young they are!! Good times.
I flew out the following day back to Auckland then through to Brunei for a 12 hr stopover. I decided to do the city tour of Brunei to kill some time – It was interesting we went to 2 Mosques on built for the 28th and 29th kings of Brunei, every time a new king is borne a mosque is built in their honour and the number of domes is equivalent to which generation of king they are. It seems like a very monarchist country – most of the touristy places and memorabilia is around the Royalty and the royal family. All very interesting indeed. We went to a Water Village where there was a subset of civilians from Brunei lived. The houses and pathways were built on water stilts – crazy stuff!
Before heading back to the airport we had a couple of hours in the mall where I sampled the Brunei KFC – it was pretty awesome as far as KFCs go! I wanted to spunk the rest of my Brunei dollars so decided to buy some sunnies a watch and a usb key all for 22 quid! Ha!
I returned back to the airport with about 6 hrs to kill and subsequently destroyed the book “White Tiger” it was a great read however no as epic as the Godfather, that is still by far my most favourite book of all time – the Sicilian not far off it either!!
Before I knew it, it was Sunday afternoon and I had landed back in London to find my dad in hospital and my mum still away. It was me and Ash so went to visit my dad and made sure he was taken care of. After completing some admin on Monday I went to the embassy of Japan to submit my working holiday visa application – they didnt require my passport which meant I could go to Dubai to my best friends wedding!! Before I knew it I was flying with emirates to dubai the following day and surprising my best friend with my arrival.
The first thing I noticed about Dubai was the sweltering heat! I met up with Cams family at the airport and we drove to meet him at the hotel. The shock on his face when he saw me was very amusing, even more amusing was the fact that I called him whilst at the airport to tell him I wasn’t going to make it. Sad news was Paul didnt make the flight! His fear of flying got the better of him, he has to learn to get over it. I met most of Camerons family and they were all welcoming loving people and we were all there to celebrate this great occasion.
As a result the first couple of days weren’t really spent doing much in the way of touristy things...me and Oualid (Shabnams boyfriend) hung out a lot whilst Cam was busy with family duties along with Shab. Memories include going to the biggest snowdome in the world in the Emirates mall – It was ridiculous!! So much fun tho! I taught Oualid for about an hour then rode for an hour! It was soo dope seeing the riding scene over in dubai – there were some seriously sick little Arabic riders! They loved it
Other highlights included going out a club called Chi where we were VIPs watching Tinie Tempah perform a few songs. We got a table and even though this place was huge and had about 3 massive rooms we stayed in one little place the WHOLE night – I guess we had in the back of our minds the fact that we paid a shitload for our VIP area so we weren’t going to abandon it. Along with the table came a lot of drink and lets just say we got merry and had good times to celebrate Cameron getting married.
Cams wedding was a beautiful, it started with a soft drink reception for everyone to gather, we got changed at the venue which was a very grand hotel with stunning architecture and amazing interior design. We all took our places on the patio and the bride and groom arrived on their chariot – a boat in a river pulled into the patio and they stepped off and joined the ceremony. The service was short and sweet and done in a very classy stylish way. The bride and groom rode off to freshen up for dinner! Which I must say was epic!! Too much food – lots of meat and a crazy amount of deserts – so delicious so tasty so good! I loved it! Cam and Nilu looked great together and were so happy.
We spent the following day going to the tallest building in the world which was an architectural stroke of genius, the Burj – however I found it to be pointless. It was built for the sake of being the biggest building in the world as opposed to having any sort of purpose. Everything has be to bigger and better in Dubai. Before heading out for a traditional “after the wedding meal” between the families. The brides family invites the grooms family for a feed and they just get to know each other and marry themselves!
We had a couple of nights we spent out and about in Dubai and it is definitely a happening place! There was a bar called the Roof Top which Lonely planet recommended and the decor was so chic it was like being in a Western European Bar like the Kensington Roof Gardens . The Jameria Beach Resort Walk is very nice with lots of nice bars and restaurants and shops. After our Mega night out Oualid and I spent the day in the beach, the water was so nice and warm and some of the sun set shots were so picturesque!! Ahh good times
My overall opinion of Dubai is if you like Modern Architecture, then its a great place too see. There is a lot about Dubai which feels a bit pretentious empty and showy. You don’t feel like you are experiencing any Arabic culture, English has to be spoken widely and there are a large number of expats. It seems Dubai has been sold to the western world as an extension of their paradise in the middle east. Its hard to spot natives and feels like there is no historical or cultural significance. It feels like a sell out and this was a part I didnt appreciate. Along with this is the fast cars and malls and flashy living is one that doesn’t appeal to me anymore.
In all it was a great place to visit but not what I was expecting and a place I am not sure I would visit again. I cut my trip short and didnt really feel like I was missing out!
I am now back in the UK and I think that brings everyone upto date. Between now and me leaving for Japan I have lots to do which will mean my next post will probably be from Tokyo.
Origato!!
Peace and love people
Bye bye southern hemisphere - hello Dubai!
15/11/10
Wow, its been 2 weeks since my last blog and a lot has happened. Finding the time between the travelling to dedicate some time to all my lovely followers has been hard...I’ll give the recollection of the past couple of weeks a good shot however there is a lot to remember...good thing about this is you’ll probably just get the highlights...let me check where I left off last time...right after Yarra valley the following day was spent driving through Melbourne City with my Uncles father in law...my dad took a turn for the worse and wasn’t feeling too great which wasn’t ideal given his flight was the following day!! We stopped at the docklands for a light walk and then onto St Kilda where Jane lives for a spot of Pizza at the Stokehouse – they were soo nice. We went for a short walk along St Kilda beach before making our way back home so my dad could relax.
When my dad was taken to the airport the following day I decided to meet up with Jane for what I thought was going to be an afternoon of stress free sight seeing and fun...what I thought was going to happen and what ended up happening were 2 completely different things. Basically Jane is in love with Melbourne city and desparately wants to work toward becoming a resident. In order to do that she needs commitment from her employer that they will sponsor her. Once upon a time ago her employers did promise this however they are now in the process of selling the bakery. You would think the simple solution would be to get the new owners to sponsor them...however they still weren’t going to be owners for another month and Jane only has another couple of months left on her working holiday and time is running out. So we discussed the situation she was in and thought up options...with only 2 months left it was going to be too late to find another company to sponsor her, the other 2 options were student visa which killed 2 birds with one stone as she wanted to study anyway, however that was another can of worms in terms of red tape so the easiest option that would buy her more time in Melbourne was to do rural work for a couple of months to allow for visa extension. The rules are you need to do 3 months of rural work to qualify for an extension, however Jane only has 2...so she would need to use that wit and charm to good effect to talk her rural employers around to signing off on a slightly untruthful but earlier start date. It was her best option so we hunted for books and websites to apply for this work and I left her with that. It was a good day and spending time with Jane is always great regardless of how its spent!
In the evening I met up with some old friends from Canada who live in Aus – Sam, Tim B and Matty...they are all doing well, Sam is a ski bum still and Tim and Matty are well and truely in the groove of their careers! It was good to see them even though they are still kids – I cant believe how young they are!! Good times.
I flew out the following day back to Auckland then through to Brunei for a 12 hr stopover. I decided to do the city tour of Brunei to kill some time – It was interesting we went to 2 Mosques on built for the 28th and 29th kings of Brunei, every time a new king is borne a mosque is built in their honour and the number of domes is equivalent to which generation of king they are. It seems like a very monarchist country – most of the touristy places and memorabilia is around the Royalty and the royal family. All very interesting indeed. We went to a Water Village where there was a subset of civilians from Brunei lived. The houses and pathways were built on water stilts – crazy stuff!
Before heading back to the airport we had a couple of hours in the mall where I sampled the Brunei KFC – it was pretty awesome as far as KFCs go! I wanted to spunk the rest of my Brunei dollars so decided to buy some sunnies a watch and a usb key all for 22 quid! Ha!
I returned back to the airport with about 6 hrs to kill and subsequently destroyed the book “White Tiger” it was a great read however no as epic as the Godfather, that is still by far my most favourite book of all time – the Sicilian not far off it either!!
Before I knew it, it was Sunday afternoon and I had landed back in London to find my dad in hospital and my mum still away. It was me and Ash so went to visit my dad and made sure he was taken care of. After completing some admin on Monday I went to the embassy of Japan to submit my working holiday visa application – they didnt require my passport which meant I could go to Dubai to my best friends wedding!! Before I knew it I was flying with emirates to dubai the following day and surprising my best friend with my arrival.
The first thing I noticed about Dubai was the sweltering heat! I met up with Cams family at the airport and we drove to meet him at the hotel. The shock on his face when he saw me was very amusing, even more amusing was the fact that I called him whilst at the airport to tell him I wasn’t going to make it. Sad news was Paul didnt make the flight! His fear of flying got the better of him, he has to learn to get over it. I met most of Camerons family and they were all welcoming loving people and we were all there to celebrate this great occasion.
As a result the first couple of days weren’t really spent doing much in the way of touristy things...me and Oualid (Shabnams boyfriend) hung out a lot whilst Cam was busy with family duties along with Shab. Memories include going to the biggest snowdome in the world in the Emirates mall – It was ridiculous!! So much fun tho! I taught Oualid for about an hour then rode for an hour! It was soo dope seeing the riding scene over in dubai – there were some seriously sick little Arabic riders! They loved it
Other highlights included going out a club called Chi where we were VIPs watching Tinie Tempah perform a few songs. We got a table and even though this place was huge and had about 3 massive rooms we stayed in one little place the WHOLE night – I guess we had in the back of our minds the fact that we paid a shitload for our VIP area so we weren’t going to abandon it. Along with the table came a lot of drink and lets just say we got merry and had good times to celebrate Cameron getting married.
Cams wedding was a beautiful, it started with a soft drink reception for everyone to gather, we got changed at the venue which was a very grand hotel with stunning architecture and amazing interior design. We all took our places on the patio and the bride and groom arrived on their chariot – a boat in a river pulled into the patio and they stepped off and joined the ceremony. The service was short and sweet and done in a very classy stylish way. The bride and groom rode off to freshen up for dinner! Which I must say was epic!! Too much food – lots of meat and a crazy amount of deserts – so delicious so tasty so good! I loved it! Cam and Nilu looked great together and were so happy.
We spent the following day going to the tallest building in the world which was an architectural stroke of genius, the Burj – however I found it to be pointless. It was built for the sake of being the biggest building in the world as opposed to having any sort of purpose. Everything has be to bigger and better in Dubai. Before heading out for a traditional “after the wedding meal” between the families. The brides family invites the grooms family for a feed and they just get to know each other and marry themselves!
We had a couple of nights we spent out and about in Dubai and it is definitely a happening place! There was a bar called the Roof Top which Lonely planet recommended and the decor was so chic it was like being in a Western European Bar like the Kensington Roof Gardens . The Jameria Beach Resort Walk is very nice with lots of nice bars and restaurants and shops. After our Mega night out Oualid and I spent the day in the beach, the water was so nice and warm and some of the sun set shots were so picturesque!! Ahh good times
My overall opinion of Dubai is if you like Modern Architecture, then its a great place too see. There is a lot about Dubai which feels a bit pretentious empty and showy. You don’t feel like you are experiencing any Arabic culture, English has to be spoken widely and there are a large number of expats. It seems Dubai has been sold to the western world as an extension of their paradise in the middle east. Its hard to spot natives and feels like there is no historical or cultural significance. It feels like a sell out and this was a part I didnt appreciate. Along with this is the fast cars and malls and flashy living is one that doesn’t appeal to me anymore.
In all it was a great place to visit but not what I was expecting and a place I am not sure I would visit again. I cut my trip short and didnt really feel like I was missing out!
I am now back in the UK and I think that brings everyone upto date. Between now and me leaving for Japan I have lots to do which will mean my next post will probably be from Tokyo.
Origato!!
Peace and love people
Wow, its been 2 weeks since my last blog and a lot has happened. Finding the time between the travelling to dedicate some time to all my lovely followers has been hard...I’ll give the recollection of the past couple of weeks a good shot however there is a lot to remember...good thing about this is you’ll probably just get the highlights...let me check where I left off last time...right after Yarra valley the following day was spent driving through Melbourne City with my Uncles father in law...my dad took a turn for the worse and wasn’t feeling too great which wasn’t ideal given his flight was the following day!! We stopped at the docklands for a light walk and then onto St Kilda where Jane lives for a spot of Pizza at the Stokehouse – they were soo nice. We went for a short walk along St Kilda beach before making our way back home so my dad could relax.
When my dad was taken to the airport the following day I decided to meet up with Jane for what I thought was going to be an afternoon of stress free sight seeing and fun...what I thought was going to happen and what ended up happening were 2 completely different things. Basically Jane is in love with Melbourne city and desparately wants to work toward becoming a resident. In order to do that she needs commitment from her employer that they will sponsor her. Once upon a time ago her employers did promise this however they are now in the process of selling the bakery. You would think the simple solution would be to get the new owners to sponsor them...however they still weren’t going to be owners for another month and Jane only has another couple of months left on her working holiday and time is running out. So we discussed the situation she was in and thought up options...with only 2 months left it was going to be too late to find another company to sponsor her, the other 2 options were student visa which killed 2 birds with one stone as she wanted to study anyway, however that was another can of worms in terms of red tape so the easiest option that would buy her more time in Melbourne was to do rural work for a couple of months to allow for visa extension. The rules are you need to do 3 months of rural work to qualify for an extension, however Jane only has 2...so she would need to use that wit and charm to good effect to talk her rural employers around to signing off on a slightly untruthful but earlier start date. It was her best option so we hunted for books and websites to apply for this work and I left her with that. It was a good day and spending time with Jane is always great regardless of how its spent!
In the evening I met up with some old friends from Canada who live in Aus – Sam, Tim B and Matty...they are all doing well, Sam is a ski bum still and Tim and Matty are well and truely in the groove of their careers! It was good to see them even though they are still kids – I cant believe how young they are!! Good times.
I flew out the following day back to Auckland then through to Brunei for a 12 hr stopover. I decided to do the city tour of Brunei to kill some time – It was interesting we went to 2 Mosques on built for the 28th and 29th kings of Brunei, every time a new king is borne a mosque is built in their honour and the number of domes is equivalent to which generation of king they are. It seems like a very monarchist country – most of the touristy places and memorabilia is around the Royalty and the royal family. All very interesting indeed. We went to a Water Village where there was a subset of civilians from Brunei lived. The houses and pathways were built on water stilts – crazy stuff!
Before heading back to the airport we had a couple of hours in the mall where I sampled the Brunei KFC – it was pretty awesome as far as KFCs go! I wanted to spunk the rest of my Brunei dollars so decided to buy some sunnies a watch and a usb key all for 22 quid! Ha!
I returned back to the airport with about 6 hrs to kill and subsequently destroyed the book “White Tiger” it was a great read however no as epic as the Godfather, that is still by far my most favourite book of all time – the Sicilian not far off it either!!
Before I knew it, it was Sunday afternoon and I had landed back in London to find my dad in hospital and my mum still away. It was me and Ash so went to visit my dad and made sure he was taken care of. After completing some admin on Monday I went to the embassy of Japan to submit my working holiday visa application – they didnt require my passport which meant I could go to Dubai to my best friends wedding!! Before I knew it I was flying with emirates to dubai the following day and surprising my best friend with my arrival.
The first thing I noticed about Dubai was the sweltering heat! I met up with Cams family at the airport and we drove to meet him at the hotel. The shock on his face when he saw me was very amusing, even more amusing was the fact that I called him whilst at the airport to tell him I wasn’t going to make it. Sad news was Paul didnt make the flight! His fear of flying got the better of him, he has to learn to get over it. I met most of Camerons family and they were all welcoming loving people and we were all there to celebrate this great occasion.
As a result the first couple of days weren’t really spent doing much in the way of touristy things...me and Oualid (Shabnams boyfriend) hung out a lot whilst Cam was busy with family duties along with Shab. Memories include going to the biggest snowdome in the world in the Emirates mall – It was ridiculous!! So much fun tho! I taught Oualid for about an hour then rode for an hour! It was soo dope seeing the riding scene over in dubai – there were some seriously sick little Arabic riders! They loved it
Other highlights included going out a club called Chi where we were VIPs watching Tinie Tempah perform a few songs. We got a table and even though this place was huge and had about 3 massive rooms we stayed in one little place the WHOLE night – I guess we had in the back of our minds the fact that we paid a shitload for our VIP area so we weren’t going to abandon it. Along with the table came a lot of drink and lets just say we got merry and had good times to celebrate Cameron getting married.
Cams wedding was a beautiful, it started with a soft drink reception for everyone to gather, we got changed at the venue which was a very grand hotel with stunning architecture and amazing interior design. We all took our places on the patio and the bride and groom arrived on their chariot – a boat in a river pulled into the patio and they stepped off and joined the ceremony. The service was short and sweet and done in a very classy stylish way. The bride and groom rode off to freshen up for dinner! Which I must say was epic!! Too much food – lots of meat and a crazy amount of deserts – so delicious so tasty so good! I loved it! Cam and Nilu looked great together and were so happy.
We spent the following day going to the tallest building in the world which was an architectural stroke of genius, the Burj – however I found it to be pointless. It was built for the sake of being the biggest building in the world as opposed to having any sort of purpose. Everything has be to bigger and better in Dubai. Before heading out for a traditional “after the wedding meal” between the families. The brides family invites the grooms family for a feed and they just get to know each other and marry themselves!
We had a couple of nights we spent out and about in Dubai and it is definitely a happening place! There was a bar called the Roof Top which Lonely planet recommended and the decor was so chic it was like being in a Western European Bar like the Kensington Roof Gardens . The Jameria Beach Resort Walk is very nice with lots of nice bars and restaurants and shops. After our Mega night out Oualid and I spent the day in the beach, the water was so nice and warm and some of the sun set shots were so picturesque!! Ahh good times
My overall opinion of Dubai is if you like Modern Architecture, then its a great place too see. There is a lot about Dubai which feels a bit pretentious empty and showy. You don’t feel like you are experiencing any Arabic culture, English has to be spoken widely and there are a large number of expats. It seems Dubai has been sold to the western world as an extension of their paradise in the middle east. Its hard to spot natives and feels like there is no historical or cultural significance. It feels like a sell out and this was a part I didnt appreciate. Along with this is the fast cars and malls and flashy living is one that doesn’t appeal to me anymore.
In all it was a great place to visit but not what I was expecting and a place I am not sure I would visit again. I cut my trip short and didnt really feel like I was missing out!
I am now back in the UK and I think that brings everyone upto date. Between now and me leaving for Japan I have lots to do which will mean my next post will probably be from Tokyo.
Origato!!
Peace and love people
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Sydney - AMAZING
02/11/10
Hello people – wow its been a while since I last blogged and quite a bit has happened not entirely sure how I am going to recollect everything but I will give it my best try.
Things have been so busy I am sat in my room and its midnight and I find myself writing this because days have been packed and there has been no time. We were in Sydney the weekend also and with no internet or computer with me it was hard to keep track of things.
So my blog ended on Wednesday morning after my mega chilled morning, the day was beautiful so I decided to head out to town on my own, I walked to the tram station and after some serious ticket acquisition dramas which involved me having to pick up separate trams making separate stops for cash and then change and then finally buying a ticket on the 3rd tram into town. I arrived into Town and had a general plan to just roam around and soak up the city. I wanted to try little tid bits of food and see what it was all about. The first place I went to was Queen Vic Market, I was really wanting to check out the food section and not look to make any purchases. Before heading to the market I saw an incredible looking Japanese place so had a Chicken Teriyaki Sushi Roll to get things started it was delightful...The market was like any other with nick nacks and good cheap deals, I struggled to find the deli/food court. I found the food court and was slightly disappointed it wasn’t stalls, it was all established eateries, didnt stop me from tucking into a chick satay stick which was pretty damn good...I then found the deli and the eating madness started with a hot baked Sausage Roll which was a speaciality for the bakery – soooo good! I then purchased a greek piece of flat bread filled with lamb and it was sooo lovely also....I was in food heaven.
I continued my wandering and found a huge ski and snowboard shop which I killed a good couple of hours in – that pleased me greatly. I continued onto the Botanical Gardens to chill out and went for a mega walk across the city to the gardens not before grabbing a mini Thai chicken pie, and some Chicken Yakisoba – I was starting to fill up pretty bad so the walk around the gardens was much needed and was equally satisfying...the natural beauty amongst the city was amazing to see.
I proceeded to make my way home to then head out for dinner at the local mall before returning home to get ready for our trip to Sydney. We packed a rucksack and one piece of carry on luggage and we due to leave early the next morning.
We arrived in Sydney and checked into our hotel @ around 10am...we managed to find a bed and breakfast for 2 nights for $100 AUD a night, not bad considering Sydney is pretty expensive, we were pretty central but not staying in the most desirable place in Sydney but it was relatively safe. Our room as clean and we had a rest room to ourselves and thats all we needed. We spent our first day in Sydney walking around the city, through Hyde Park and then over to Darlington Harbour for a little spot of lunch and more walking...the early start meant we were exhausted so we went back to the lovely Omallys Hotel and had a couple of hours kip before heading back to see Darlington Harbour at night, and it was Friday night so it was buzzing I remember wishing I knee a couple of people in Sydney to head out with but unfortunately it didnt work out! All good. Darlington harbour was beautiful at night, we had dinner at the food court – tasty food reasonably priced, we were well fed and walked on home, not before watching a street performer from Japan for a good hour or soo, thoroughly entertaining!!
The next day we proceeded to walk through the Botanical Gardens in Sydney to the north to have a look at the incredible Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera house. You can see why its a wonder of the world, its an incredible building...the engineering and structural genius was out of this world!! I must have taken a hundred pictures of the same building!!
After a lot of viewing we then went over to circular quay to take a ferry ride to Manly – a small Surf town in another district of Sydney...the beach was real choppy and you could see why it was good for surfing, I loved the little town and am slowly getting the surf bug...we had pizza in Manly before making our way home via the incredible night view of the harbour bridge and the opera house...so good.
On the last day in Sydney we walked around the pleasant markets of the Rocks area, it reminded me of Spitalfields only more spread out and a little more lively!! We watched a candy shop make hard candy from fresh...then made our way over to what was the highlight of the trip for me...Bondi Beach!!
We arrived to the world famous beach known for its amazing waves and high tides...the eutopia for surfers. There were lots of people out as the weather was lovely and it was a weekend...it was buzzing....i fell in love with the place and got the surf bug even more!! It was incredible! The water so clear, the sun so bright, the sand so white and the surrounding shops and cafes and restaurants were soo vibing it was awesome!!
After bondi we made our way back to the airport and to Melbourne.
The last couple of days have been very family orientated. On Monday I spent time with family friends and then we had the mega diwali function at home! It was a fun evening where I met a lot of my uncles close family and friends. It was a great way to spend our Indian new year. Today I think we were all a little hung over from tiredness of the mega celebration the night before. We drove to Yarra Valley, the wine district of the Area of Melbourne. The wine yards are a beautiful sight, we could have done with better weather but the company was great to all was good. We saw a couple of Kangaroos! Before heading home for dinner.
That brings me upto date...I can sleep knowing there isn’t much left to write from Australia as I don’t have long left!!
Peace and love
Hello people – wow its been a while since I last blogged and quite a bit has happened not entirely sure how I am going to recollect everything but I will give it my best try.
Things have been so busy I am sat in my room and its midnight and I find myself writing this because days have been packed and there has been no time. We were in Sydney the weekend also and with no internet or computer with me it was hard to keep track of things.
So my blog ended on Wednesday morning after my mega chilled morning, the day was beautiful so I decided to head out to town on my own, I walked to the tram station and after some serious ticket acquisition dramas which involved me having to pick up separate trams making separate stops for cash and then change and then finally buying a ticket on the 3rd tram into town. I arrived into Town and had a general plan to just roam around and soak up the city. I wanted to try little tid bits of food and see what it was all about. The first place I went to was Queen Vic Market, I was really wanting to check out the food section and not look to make any purchases. Before heading to the market I saw an incredible looking Japanese place so had a Chicken Teriyaki Sushi Roll to get things started it was delightful...The market was like any other with nick nacks and good cheap deals, I struggled to find the deli/food court. I found the food court and was slightly disappointed it wasn’t stalls, it was all established eateries, didnt stop me from tucking into a chick satay stick which was pretty damn good...I then found the deli and the eating madness started with a hot baked Sausage Roll which was a speaciality for the bakery – soooo good! I then purchased a greek piece of flat bread filled with lamb and it was sooo lovely also....I was in food heaven.
I continued my wandering and found a huge ski and snowboard shop which I killed a good couple of hours in – that pleased me greatly. I continued onto the Botanical Gardens to chill out and went for a mega walk across the city to the gardens not before grabbing a mini Thai chicken pie, and some Chicken Yakisoba – I was starting to fill up pretty bad so the walk around the gardens was much needed and was equally satisfying...the natural beauty amongst the city was amazing to see.
I proceeded to make my way home to then head out for dinner at the local mall before returning home to get ready for our trip to Sydney. We packed a rucksack and one piece of carry on luggage and we due to leave early the next morning.
We arrived in Sydney and checked into our hotel @ around 10am...we managed to find a bed and breakfast for 2 nights for $100 AUD a night, not bad considering Sydney is pretty expensive, we were pretty central but not staying in the most desirable place in Sydney but it was relatively safe. Our room as clean and we had a rest room to ourselves and thats all we needed. We spent our first day in Sydney walking around the city, through Hyde Park and then over to Darlington Harbour for a little spot of lunch and more walking...the early start meant we were exhausted so we went back to the lovely Omallys Hotel and had a couple of hours kip before heading back to see Darlington Harbour at night, and it was Friday night so it was buzzing I remember wishing I knee a couple of people in Sydney to head out with but unfortunately it didnt work out! All good. Darlington harbour was beautiful at night, we had dinner at the food court – tasty food reasonably priced, we were well fed and walked on home, not before watching a street performer from Japan for a good hour or soo, thoroughly entertaining!!
The next day we proceeded to walk through the Botanical Gardens in Sydney to the north to have a look at the incredible Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera house. You can see why its a wonder of the world, its an incredible building...the engineering and structural genius was out of this world!! I must have taken a hundred pictures of the same building!!
After a lot of viewing we then went over to circular quay to take a ferry ride to Manly – a small Surf town in another district of Sydney...the beach was real choppy and you could see why it was good for surfing, I loved the little town and am slowly getting the surf bug...we had pizza in Manly before making our way home via the incredible night view of the harbour bridge and the opera house...so good.
On the last day in Sydney we walked around the pleasant markets of the Rocks area, it reminded me of Spitalfields only more spread out and a little more lively!! We watched a candy shop make hard candy from fresh...then made our way over to what was the highlight of the trip for me...Bondi Beach!!
We arrived to the world famous beach known for its amazing waves and high tides...the eutopia for surfers. There were lots of people out as the weather was lovely and it was a weekend...it was buzzing....i fell in love with the place and got the surf bug even more!! It was incredible! The water so clear, the sun so bright, the sand so white and the surrounding shops and cafes and restaurants were soo vibing it was awesome!!
After bondi we made our way back to the airport and to Melbourne.
The last couple of days have been very family orientated. On Monday I spent time with family friends and then we had the mega diwali function at home! It was a fun evening where I met a lot of my uncles close family and friends. It was a great way to spend our Indian new year. Today I think we were all a little hung over from tiredness of the mega celebration the night before. We drove to Yarra Valley, the wine district of the Area of Melbourne. The wine yards are a beautiful sight, we could have done with better weather but the company was great to all was good. We saw a couple of Kangaroos! Before heading home for dinner.
That brings me upto date...I can sleep knowing there isn’t much left to write from Australia as I don’t have long left!!
Peace and love
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
In Sunny Australia
27th October 2010
Right so I have had a couple of days here in Melbourne and its a pretty nice place it has to be said, on our first day we were given a tour of the house by my uncle Dilip and shown the local area where they live. We then motored onto the surgery where my aunt Mala works. They own the kids surgery and its immaculate – so nice and so up to date. I wish my dentists was this fun to go to when I was a kid, there are PS3’s Xbox’s its a real child friendly place to help make going to the dentists less intimidating for kids...it was really impressive.
After we went into downtown Melbourne and didnt really know what to do, Dilip uncle gave us a brief of what the good things were but to be honest I had forgotten most of it. We decided to grab some food and then headed for the city tram – this is a great way of getting around the Melbourne City Circle, its a tour tram and its free and provides information about each stop, its great! You can get off where you like and go explore and then jump on the next tram with no issues.
We first stopped on the Wharf and did some shopping, this was unintentional and I wasn’t interested until I saw a 50% off levi’s sale – I then preceded to go crazy and bought some jeans and shirts for dirt cheap – I was pretty stoked with my purchases. After we grabbed another free method of transport tourism offered by the kind city of Melbourne, the tour bus. We decided to jump off and walk along the South Bank before then walking through the lovely gardens toward the big Rod Laver stadium and the Cricket Grounds. We made our way back toward the city and walked around town grabbing some food and drink before getting a tram back.
The city itself was huge sooo vast and soo busy, big buildings corporate everywhere and amazing places to eat. Its a grid system and there is some awesome little alleyways where you can get some amazing street art and some tasty places to eat for sure!! I really enjoyed just roaming around soaking in the city again. It was scary being back in a big city busy etc...it really reminded me of work, which is never a nice thought!
We took the 109 tram back to Mala Auntie’s fathers house and had dinner and caught up with the family which was really good. The kids are awesome fun for sure. I met Anne Marie Jayesh uncles wife, Jayesh is Mala Auntie brother, he wasn’t there but his 2 kids Raveen and Mya were there and they were incredible. So much energy so much fun! It was great.
The next day we took a long long drive up the Great Ocean Road. My mum, dad, Dilip and I all got in the car in the morning all prepared with a packed lunch to feed 10 kings and our cameras at the ready. Our first stop was in lovely Lorne, it seemed every little town we stopped at was tailored for holiday makers looking to spend a couple of days on the coast, fully stocked with lovely quaint restaurants and things to do as well as awesome Surf shops. We had some lunch in Lorne and went for a walk in the town and got some amazing hot chips!! The beach was immaculate and Dilip uncle was saying in the summer there is a 4k swim that a few thousand people do here, the beach is about 12ks long and its full of people swimming from shore to a buoy 2ks out and then back...he says the buzz is incredible when that event on, and in general in the summer over the weekends! We carried on our drive to Apollo bay where we had a quick pit stop and looked at the stunning views of the ocean crashing against the cliff line...we walked down Gibson Steps which are a set of stairs taking you from great Ocean road, to the beach at Apollo bay and you could see one of the 12 apostles. The 12 apostles are reminants of the eroded cliff line. The Ocean crashes against the cliff line so hard it causes erosion and results in the deterioration of cliff lines leaving small Island like cliffs that remain from the erosion in the middle of the sea, with the cliff line falling further and further back. It was a spectacular sight and this is what we enjoyed a lot. Most of our travels in NZ involved staying in small towns viewing spectacular sights and this was akin to what we did then that we enjoyed so much!
We drove on to get a better view of all the apostles – again incredible, breathtaking views. The weather was on and off, its incredible how in the Southern Hemisphere the weather can change at the drop of dime! One minute sun the next rain. We carried on to Dilip uncles favourite stop, it was a beautiful little beach caved inbetween the cliff, it was like something from the movie the beach, everything about it was soo tranquil serene and nice. If we were there in the heat of summer it would have been amazing – there were little caves and at the back of the beach there was a section where Shakespearian plays would run in the summer. Ugh! So nice.
We carried on the drive to Port Campbell for a little pit stop, then the loongg drive home started. As we got back to Melbourne city we stopped for dinner at dads friends place and Dilip and I left my mum and dad to stay there and we carried on home.
Yesterday I hooked up with Jane McGoldrick a friend from Rossland Canada who I am pretty close with despite the distance. She is great to talk to and so much fun. I met her at her place of work and we discussed life, she is going through some dramas with her application for residency here in Australia, she has actually fallen in love with the place and listening to her rant about how amazing this place is, as well as looking at the empirical evidence that Alex Simpson also loved this place, I am starting to think Melbourne is pretty amazing. Gets me thinking its definitely worth checking out more in detail at some point in the future. We will see what life has in store. Jane lives 20 mins from town in a place called St Kilda, the beach is right next to her place. How often do cities have beaches? It was such a nice day so we walked around the esplanade and had a lazy lunch and a few drinks before I headed home. It was great to see Jane and catch up.
This morning I just wanted to chill so I am cruising about updating the blog and just being lazy. I am thinking of heading into town and making it back at 6.30pm in time to spend some time with the kids. My parents are still out and about with friends and visiting other family.
I will leave it there – peace and love people!
Koo
Right so I have had a couple of days here in Melbourne and its a pretty nice place it has to be said, on our first day we were given a tour of the house by my uncle Dilip and shown the local area where they live. We then motored onto the surgery where my aunt Mala works. They own the kids surgery and its immaculate – so nice and so up to date. I wish my dentists was this fun to go to when I was a kid, there are PS3’s Xbox’s its a real child friendly place to help make going to the dentists less intimidating for kids...it was really impressive.
After we went into downtown Melbourne and didnt really know what to do, Dilip uncle gave us a brief of what the good things were but to be honest I had forgotten most of it. We decided to grab some food and then headed for the city tram – this is a great way of getting around the Melbourne City Circle, its a tour tram and its free and provides information about each stop, its great! You can get off where you like and go explore and then jump on the next tram with no issues.
We first stopped on the Wharf and did some shopping, this was unintentional and I wasn’t interested until I saw a 50% off levi’s sale – I then preceded to go crazy and bought some jeans and shirts for dirt cheap – I was pretty stoked with my purchases. After we grabbed another free method of transport tourism offered by the kind city of Melbourne, the tour bus. We decided to jump off and walk along the South Bank before then walking through the lovely gardens toward the big Rod Laver stadium and the Cricket Grounds. We made our way back toward the city and walked around town grabbing some food and drink before getting a tram back.
The city itself was huge sooo vast and soo busy, big buildings corporate everywhere and amazing places to eat. Its a grid system and there is some awesome little alleyways where you can get some amazing street art and some tasty places to eat for sure!! I really enjoyed just roaming around soaking in the city again. It was scary being back in a big city busy etc...it really reminded me of work, which is never a nice thought!
We took the 109 tram back to Mala Auntie’s fathers house and had dinner and caught up with the family which was really good. The kids are awesome fun for sure. I met Anne Marie Jayesh uncles wife, Jayesh is Mala Auntie brother, he wasn’t there but his 2 kids Raveen and Mya were there and they were incredible. So much energy so much fun! It was great.
The next day we took a long long drive up the Great Ocean Road. My mum, dad, Dilip and I all got in the car in the morning all prepared with a packed lunch to feed 10 kings and our cameras at the ready. Our first stop was in lovely Lorne, it seemed every little town we stopped at was tailored for holiday makers looking to spend a couple of days on the coast, fully stocked with lovely quaint restaurants and things to do as well as awesome Surf shops. We had some lunch in Lorne and went for a walk in the town and got some amazing hot chips!! The beach was immaculate and Dilip uncle was saying in the summer there is a 4k swim that a few thousand people do here, the beach is about 12ks long and its full of people swimming from shore to a buoy 2ks out and then back...he says the buzz is incredible when that event on, and in general in the summer over the weekends! We carried on our drive to Apollo bay where we had a quick pit stop and looked at the stunning views of the ocean crashing against the cliff line...we walked down Gibson Steps which are a set of stairs taking you from great Ocean road, to the beach at Apollo bay and you could see one of the 12 apostles. The 12 apostles are reminants of the eroded cliff line. The Ocean crashes against the cliff line so hard it causes erosion and results in the deterioration of cliff lines leaving small Island like cliffs that remain from the erosion in the middle of the sea, with the cliff line falling further and further back. It was a spectacular sight and this is what we enjoyed a lot. Most of our travels in NZ involved staying in small towns viewing spectacular sights and this was akin to what we did then that we enjoyed so much!
We drove on to get a better view of all the apostles – again incredible, breathtaking views. The weather was on and off, its incredible how in the Southern Hemisphere the weather can change at the drop of dime! One minute sun the next rain. We carried on to Dilip uncles favourite stop, it was a beautiful little beach caved inbetween the cliff, it was like something from the movie the beach, everything about it was soo tranquil serene and nice. If we were there in the heat of summer it would have been amazing – there were little caves and at the back of the beach there was a section where Shakespearian plays would run in the summer. Ugh! So nice.
We carried on the drive to Port Campbell for a little pit stop, then the loongg drive home started. As we got back to Melbourne city we stopped for dinner at dads friends place and Dilip and I left my mum and dad to stay there and we carried on home.
Yesterday I hooked up with Jane McGoldrick a friend from Rossland Canada who I am pretty close with despite the distance. She is great to talk to and so much fun. I met her at her place of work and we discussed life, she is going through some dramas with her application for residency here in Australia, she has actually fallen in love with the place and listening to her rant about how amazing this place is, as well as looking at the empirical evidence that Alex Simpson also loved this place, I am starting to think Melbourne is pretty amazing. Gets me thinking its definitely worth checking out more in detail at some point in the future. We will see what life has in store. Jane lives 20 mins from town in a place called St Kilda, the beach is right next to her place. How often do cities have beaches? It was such a nice day so we walked around the esplanade and had a lazy lunch and a few drinks before I headed home. It was great to see Jane and catch up.
This morning I just wanted to chill so I am cruising about updating the blog and just being lazy. I am thinking of heading into town and making it back at 6.30pm in time to spend some time with the kids. My parents are still out and about with friends and visiting other family.
I will leave it there – peace and love people!
Koo
Sunday, 24 October 2010
Bye bye NZ - Hello Australia
19th October
I haven’t been able to provide an update for the last couple of days as its been tricky. After our nights stay in Paiha, we woke up the next morning pretty casually and started getting our gear together. We booked the Rock the Boat trip, which was an overnight stay in a boat, with a tour of the bay of islands. It looked like it was going to be fun for sure! There were lots of activities planned, but I will go into that a little later. The boat trip started @ 5pm, so I thought we wouldn’t waste the day and head to the Kauri forest, however as I was walking to the bank in the morning to pick up some cash first, I was thinking to myself how it was pointless to drive there and back, when we are going to drive past the forest on our way out of Paiha. So the plan formulated over breakfast to being going to the Harura falls, then I would go to Waitangi Treaty Grounds whilst the rents chilled in Paiha then we’d meet for some food, pack for the trip and find somewhere to leave the car for the night.
The Harura falls were good, another example of fine NZ natural beauty however as far as falls go, we’ve all been to Niagra and that pretty much craps all over whatever NZ has to offer in terms of falls. That being said we shouldn’t compare as it will always lead to disappointment, however it definitely led to pleasant viewing. The cool thing about the falls, here is you can pretty much hop from rock to rock, ending up almost in the middle of the falls...definitely makes for an incredible picture or 2 for sure. After looking at the falls, there was a 4k Waitangi trail taking us around the river and to a golf course, we took the trailing thinking it was simply a waterfall river loop however it was a 2 way trail you had to go back to get back to the beginning, after 1k we decided to head back. It was a fun trail with cool walking features some awesome greenery and good exercise.
We decided to part ways after the trail and I headed to Waitangi treaty grounds. I managed to get a ½ price entry with my working holiday visa which made the $25 to $13 entrance fee a little more bearable. The treaty grounds were absolutely beautiful. Initially I walked through to an exhibition of a few pictures of Mauri’s and Europeans who signed the Treaty of Waitangi. I then walked through the grounds to where the big Mauri War Boat was...it was built in honour of the treaty of Waitangi and its pretty epic. I got some good snaps. I then moved onto the European and Mauri Houses on the grounds, built to represent unity between the European settlers and the Maori natives in New Zealand. The houses and the grounds were just incredible and the story behind them is incredible. I would tell it but I don’t remember a huge amount of detail J!
After I met up with the rentals and we had some lunch and go our stuff together for the trip. We boarded at 5pm and met the crew and the rest of our guests. The atmosphere was real pleasant and it was nice to meet new and different people. The crew were nice guys...I have fond memories of Tom a 19 year old Aussie, and Risa a 22 year old Mauri NZ chick working on board, they were both cool. That evening we hung out whilst the boat was cruising around the islands. It was incredible, like paradise, there are around 144 islands in the bay of islands and I am not sure how many we say but each one was as good looking as the nexted. We fished , our rods were baited for us by the crew and we were taught how to fish and how to cast our bait. I managed to catch a fish and it was a good feeling! We threw it back in the water, not before Ben asked me to kiss it goodbye, I said no so he kissed it for me! It was pretty cool. We then had an evening meal which was pretty crap considering the amount we paid for the trip. After dinner we went night kayaking and Ben one of the crew said it was his favourite part of the cruise. I could see why, kayaking out into the middle of the bay of islands where the water is so still and the night sky was so clear was incredible. It was like something out of a dream. The stars were beautiful, we paddled out far enough away from the boat not to hear the generator and then just sat back and chilled in our kayaks gazing into the night sky. I remember at that moment thinking life couldn’t get much better.
I forgot to mention that the trip started with a duck shooting game, where we had a paintball gun and we had to shoot a fake duck that was attached by rope to the boat that was just bobbing in the water. Karsten won and got a free beer! It was a tough shot.
I remember the views being incredible and taking far too many pictures.
Today we woke up to breakfast and then sailed to one of the islands and parked up. I kayaked to shore with some of the guests and it was paradise. It was something out of the movie the beach! It was insanely beautiful I didnt believe I was there. We hiked to the top of the Island we parked up on and had some incredible views of the rest of the islands. We then snorkelled and had some fun on the beach including snorkelling for sea urchants and playing rugby on the beach.
We boarded the boat and made way for land, en route we cracked into the sea urchants eggs, I didnt go near it and toward the end we caught a huge fish which was killed on deck and served up as Sushimi.
The cruise was epic, so much fun. After we had some food and drove and drove to Dragaville 200kms! En route we stopped at some natural hot pools which were relaxing though we didnt think they were too clean. But I suppose that part of it. The place stank of sulphur due to the geothermal heat produced underneath the waters but it was pretty mean!! We then stopped at the biggest living Karui tree in Waipu Forest! It was HUGE!!!
We were pretty stoked to pull into Dragaville after a long journey. We got ourselves checked into a decent motel and had a nice Indian meal ...now its time for bed.
21st Oct 2010
Not much to report from our travels really, we spent a long time driving from Dragaville to Thames stopping en route to see the Kauri Museum. It was real interesting, all about the Kauri logging industry and how it evolved over time in New Zealand. I cant really think of much else we did apart from Plough onto Thames, when we arrived we found a hotel and ate some Thai food.
Today we drove from Thames to Coromandel, not before doing some shopping in Thames shopping centre. We drove to Corrie and stopped at the iSite and the kind lady helped us with our plan, we started by finding some lovely accommodation and then went for a railway tour in the forest. The tour was pretty good, the lines were made by a potter who build the railway to get clay for his potting. Overtime the railway grew and grew and to pay the debts created as a result of building the railway had to be paid by opening the railway to the public. Its an interesting little tour of a once burnt down forest which is now going through reforestation process.
After we went back to our accom for lunch and went for a looong scenic drive. We are back at home about to tuck into some homecooked food and dvds.
Peace
22nd October
Today we woke up and started to make tracks toward Whitianga...before that we drove through road 309 in Coromandel, there were a few nice stops on the road, one of which was Stuart and his wild pigs. This was literally a man who has dedicated his life to his pets – a group of wild pigs. I assume he doesn’t nothing for work and accepts donations but is a nice humble fellow who discussed the history of the pigs and how he takes care of them...incredibly nice man.
After we drove on to a nice waterfall with some great photo opportunities as you could walk right out onto the falls. I got some funny pictures for sure. It was incredibly beautiful, the Coromandel is stunning and what helped is we actually had some nice weather.
We drove over to New Chums Beach! It was an incredible beautiful beach and we walked along it for a while. It was like paradise! So nice!!
We made out way to Whitianga, and had some lunch on the beach, after we took a passenger ferry over to cooks beach and walked for an hour or so before then driving to our final destination Waihi beach...I don’t know why but after cooks beach I was just over it...so tired I remember just passing out in the car...
We hunted around for accommodation and this time we found a gem...$100 to stay in a converted basement, it has two huge rooms, its out on the beach front, it has a POOL table, sky tv and a hot tub...we just watched the Orphan and I am sat here typing whiles watching the watchmen. Tomorrow looks like we will spend some time in Waihi and then either drive to Auckland straight or go to Mount Manganui before heading to Auckland.
Peace and love!
25th October
I am writing this from Sunny Melbourne Australia having just left New Zealand – I was quite emo but this trip promises to be great – I have already met all my cousins for the second time ever! They are all smart young boys...I’ll go into them in a second.
After our incredible night in Waihi beach the next morning we got ready to hear out, not before a morning walk on the beach and an early morning Jacuzzi, it would have been rude not to use the facilities and take advantage of the incredible position. The owners Calvin and his wife were lovely warm welcoming people. What we have found on our travels around NZ is the people are always friendly and generally happy. Its been incredible!
We made our move not before stopping in Waihi town to visit the quarry, the old pumphouse and the museum where we learnt more about the gold mining town that is Waihi! It was a pretty historic town and the Pumphouse was a building that was moved a few hundred meters which was an engineering feat! We then trundled along to Mount Manganui, not before stopping in Tauranga to buy some stuff, I bought a few new cheap shirts and my folks bought 2 suitcases – we repacked and got on our way...the mount was awesome, it looked like there was loads to do its such a shame we were only there for a couple of hours. We were short on time as we had to make a 3hr drive to Auckland that evening. We had some lunch on the shore and I wanted to walk up the mount, it took me about 40 mins to walk up there and the views from the top of the mount were incredible...writing about it looking back makes me sad I didnt spend more time in the mount. My parents cruised around town before picking me up and then we made the massive drive to Auckland. When we arrived, I picked up my snowboard bag from Anna’s house and hung out with her for an hour, it was good to see her she is a funny girl for sure.
We repacked all the bags that evening had some dinner then the next morning we got ourselves in shape to leave NZ...we had the day in Auckland so we went shopping in New Market and I bought some billabong jeans and a hat...both were pretty mean! I met up with Chloe and Stu for a drink to catch up and talk about Japan and then had an amazing Wagamamas lunch. We rocked up to the airport and jumped on our flight. Emirates flight was epic – I watched The last of the airbenders and the Twightlight Eclipse....The latter movie was a waste of my life, but I wanted to complete watching the trilogy...airbenders was sooo good. And the food was sooo nice too Lamb Tagine!! So good!
We landed in Melbourne and got our bags pretty quick – It was strange leaving new Zealand but its ok i’ll return one day! If I could do my travels with my parents diff I would have picked 4 quality places and spent a couple of days in each – probably Pahia, Coromandel and the Mount but oh well! We had a great time.
It was great seeing my uncle and I met my cousins for the second time ever. The one I had never met before was in bed. Ishaan and Rashay were up waiting and we caught up for a little. They are both good kids and really chatty I enjoyed meeting them again! I feel like one of those oldiest you meet when you were a kid who always used to say I remember meeting you when you were a little baby and I was thinking “who are you!” thats probably what they think of me but its all good! We went to but and now im up doing this – but I better get ready
Peace and love!
I haven’t been able to provide an update for the last couple of days as its been tricky. After our nights stay in Paiha, we woke up the next morning pretty casually and started getting our gear together. We booked the Rock the Boat trip, which was an overnight stay in a boat, with a tour of the bay of islands. It looked like it was going to be fun for sure! There were lots of activities planned, but I will go into that a little later. The boat trip started @ 5pm, so I thought we wouldn’t waste the day and head to the Kauri forest, however as I was walking to the bank in the morning to pick up some cash first, I was thinking to myself how it was pointless to drive there and back, when we are going to drive past the forest on our way out of Paiha. So the plan formulated over breakfast to being going to the Harura falls, then I would go to Waitangi Treaty Grounds whilst the rents chilled in Paiha then we’d meet for some food, pack for the trip and find somewhere to leave the car for the night.
The Harura falls were good, another example of fine NZ natural beauty however as far as falls go, we’ve all been to Niagra and that pretty much craps all over whatever NZ has to offer in terms of falls. That being said we shouldn’t compare as it will always lead to disappointment, however it definitely led to pleasant viewing. The cool thing about the falls, here is you can pretty much hop from rock to rock, ending up almost in the middle of the falls...definitely makes for an incredible picture or 2 for sure. After looking at the falls, there was a 4k Waitangi trail taking us around the river and to a golf course, we took the trailing thinking it was simply a waterfall river loop however it was a 2 way trail you had to go back to get back to the beginning, after 1k we decided to head back. It was a fun trail with cool walking features some awesome greenery and good exercise.
We decided to part ways after the trail and I headed to Waitangi treaty grounds. I managed to get a ½ price entry with my working holiday visa which made the $25 to $13 entrance fee a little more bearable. The treaty grounds were absolutely beautiful. Initially I walked through to an exhibition of a few pictures of Mauri’s and Europeans who signed the Treaty of Waitangi. I then walked through the grounds to where the big Mauri War Boat was...it was built in honour of the treaty of Waitangi and its pretty epic. I got some good snaps. I then moved onto the European and Mauri Houses on the grounds, built to represent unity between the European settlers and the Maori natives in New Zealand. The houses and the grounds were just incredible and the story behind them is incredible. I would tell it but I don’t remember a huge amount of detail J!
After I met up with the rentals and we had some lunch and go our stuff together for the trip. We boarded at 5pm and met the crew and the rest of our guests. The atmosphere was real pleasant and it was nice to meet new and different people. The crew were nice guys...I have fond memories of Tom a 19 year old Aussie, and Risa a 22 year old Mauri NZ chick working on board, they were both cool. That evening we hung out whilst the boat was cruising around the islands. It was incredible, like paradise, there are around 144 islands in the bay of islands and I am not sure how many we say but each one was as good looking as the nexted. We fished , our rods were baited for us by the crew and we were taught how to fish and how to cast our bait. I managed to catch a fish and it was a good feeling! We threw it back in the water, not before Ben asked me to kiss it goodbye, I said no so he kissed it for me! It was pretty cool. We then had an evening meal which was pretty crap considering the amount we paid for the trip. After dinner we went night kayaking and Ben one of the crew said it was his favourite part of the cruise. I could see why, kayaking out into the middle of the bay of islands where the water is so still and the night sky was so clear was incredible. It was like something out of a dream. The stars were beautiful, we paddled out far enough away from the boat not to hear the generator and then just sat back and chilled in our kayaks gazing into the night sky. I remember at that moment thinking life couldn’t get much better.
I forgot to mention that the trip started with a duck shooting game, where we had a paintball gun and we had to shoot a fake duck that was attached by rope to the boat that was just bobbing in the water. Karsten won and got a free beer! It was a tough shot.
I remember the views being incredible and taking far too many pictures.
Today we woke up to breakfast and then sailed to one of the islands and parked up. I kayaked to shore with some of the guests and it was paradise. It was something out of the movie the beach! It was insanely beautiful I didnt believe I was there. We hiked to the top of the Island we parked up on and had some incredible views of the rest of the islands. We then snorkelled and had some fun on the beach including snorkelling for sea urchants and playing rugby on the beach.
We boarded the boat and made way for land, en route we cracked into the sea urchants eggs, I didnt go near it and toward the end we caught a huge fish which was killed on deck and served up as Sushimi.
The cruise was epic, so much fun. After we had some food and drove and drove to Dragaville 200kms! En route we stopped at some natural hot pools which were relaxing though we didnt think they were too clean. But I suppose that part of it. The place stank of sulphur due to the geothermal heat produced underneath the waters but it was pretty mean!! We then stopped at the biggest living Karui tree in Waipu Forest! It was HUGE!!!
We were pretty stoked to pull into Dragaville after a long journey. We got ourselves checked into a decent motel and had a nice Indian meal ...now its time for bed.
21st Oct 2010
Not much to report from our travels really, we spent a long time driving from Dragaville to Thames stopping en route to see the Kauri Museum. It was real interesting, all about the Kauri logging industry and how it evolved over time in New Zealand. I cant really think of much else we did apart from Plough onto Thames, when we arrived we found a hotel and ate some Thai food.
Today we drove from Thames to Coromandel, not before doing some shopping in Thames shopping centre. We drove to Corrie and stopped at the iSite and the kind lady helped us with our plan, we started by finding some lovely accommodation and then went for a railway tour in the forest. The tour was pretty good, the lines were made by a potter who build the railway to get clay for his potting. Overtime the railway grew and grew and to pay the debts created as a result of building the railway had to be paid by opening the railway to the public. Its an interesting little tour of a once burnt down forest which is now going through reforestation process.
After we went back to our accom for lunch and went for a looong scenic drive. We are back at home about to tuck into some homecooked food and dvds.
Peace
22nd October
Today we woke up and started to make tracks toward Whitianga...before that we drove through road 309 in Coromandel, there were a few nice stops on the road, one of which was Stuart and his wild pigs. This was literally a man who has dedicated his life to his pets – a group of wild pigs. I assume he doesn’t nothing for work and accepts donations but is a nice humble fellow who discussed the history of the pigs and how he takes care of them...incredibly nice man.
After we drove on to a nice waterfall with some great photo opportunities as you could walk right out onto the falls. I got some funny pictures for sure. It was incredibly beautiful, the Coromandel is stunning and what helped is we actually had some nice weather.
We drove over to New Chums Beach! It was an incredible beautiful beach and we walked along it for a while. It was like paradise! So nice!!
We made out way to Whitianga, and had some lunch on the beach, after we took a passenger ferry over to cooks beach and walked for an hour or so before then driving to our final destination Waihi beach...I don’t know why but after cooks beach I was just over it...so tired I remember just passing out in the car...
We hunted around for accommodation and this time we found a gem...$100 to stay in a converted basement, it has two huge rooms, its out on the beach front, it has a POOL table, sky tv and a hot tub...we just watched the Orphan and I am sat here typing whiles watching the watchmen. Tomorrow looks like we will spend some time in Waihi and then either drive to Auckland straight or go to Mount Manganui before heading to Auckland.
Peace and love!
25th October
I am writing this from Sunny Melbourne Australia having just left New Zealand – I was quite emo but this trip promises to be great – I have already met all my cousins for the second time ever! They are all smart young boys...I’ll go into them in a second.
After our incredible night in Waihi beach the next morning we got ready to hear out, not before a morning walk on the beach and an early morning Jacuzzi, it would have been rude not to use the facilities and take advantage of the incredible position. The owners Calvin and his wife were lovely warm welcoming people. What we have found on our travels around NZ is the people are always friendly and generally happy. Its been incredible!
We made our move not before stopping in Waihi town to visit the quarry, the old pumphouse and the museum where we learnt more about the gold mining town that is Waihi! It was a pretty historic town and the Pumphouse was a building that was moved a few hundred meters which was an engineering feat! We then trundled along to Mount Manganui, not before stopping in Tauranga to buy some stuff, I bought a few new cheap shirts and my folks bought 2 suitcases – we repacked and got on our way...the mount was awesome, it looked like there was loads to do its such a shame we were only there for a couple of hours. We were short on time as we had to make a 3hr drive to Auckland that evening. We had some lunch on the shore and I wanted to walk up the mount, it took me about 40 mins to walk up there and the views from the top of the mount were incredible...writing about it looking back makes me sad I didnt spend more time in the mount. My parents cruised around town before picking me up and then we made the massive drive to Auckland. When we arrived, I picked up my snowboard bag from Anna’s house and hung out with her for an hour, it was good to see her she is a funny girl for sure.
We repacked all the bags that evening had some dinner then the next morning we got ourselves in shape to leave NZ...we had the day in Auckland so we went shopping in New Market and I bought some billabong jeans and a hat...both were pretty mean! I met up with Chloe and Stu for a drink to catch up and talk about Japan and then had an amazing Wagamamas lunch. We rocked up to the airport and jumped on our flight. Emirates flight was epic – I watched The last of the airbenders and the Twightlight Eclipse....The latter movie was a waste of my life, but I wanted to complete watching the trilogy...airbenders was sooo good. And the food was sooo nice too Lamb Tagine!! So good!
We landed in Melbourne and got our bags pretty quick – It was strange leaving new Zealand but its ok i’ll return one day! If I could do my travels with my parents diff I would have picked 4 quality places and spent a couple of days in each – probably Pahia, Coromandel and the Mount but oh well! We had a great time.
It was great seeing my uncle and I met my cousins for the second time ever. The one I had never met before was in bed. Ishaan and Rashay were up waiting and we caught up for a little. They are both good kids and really chatty I enjoyed meeting them again! I feel like one of those oldiest you meet when you were a kid who always used to say I remember meeting you when you were a little baby and I was thinking “who are you!” thats probably what they think of me but its all good! We went to but and now im up doing this – but I better get ready
Peace and love!
Sunday, 17 October 2010
NZ Travels - Out on the beaten track
15th October 2010
So I am writing from a Motel room in Auckland having left Ohakune. I wanted to write a blog on the way from Ohakune to Auckland as it was a 6 hr bus journey and I was feeling quite reflective. The whole journey went really quickly – I was really away with my thoughts thinking about life, people and the times I had in Ohakune. In between dozing and thinking the 6 hrs flew bye and before I knew it I was back in the big city of Auckland.
After my last blog the last couple of days in Ohakune weren’t that eventful. A lot of people were in exams and the mountain the majority of the time was closed. I got a couple of runs in before the wind took over on one of those days but it wasn’t that epic. I managed to sell my Ride DH2 15108/09 to Adam for the bargain basement price of $80. It was his birthday on the 13th which coincided with my last evening so I didnt get to spend much with him. I was busy sorting through my itinerary for our travels and getting stuff together for my trip. I had a wonderful last meal with Sarah, Doug, Nicole and Casper at Miro St – Nicole made a lasagne and apple crumble and it went down a treat...I was so full...it was so nice to spend my last evening with the people I first met and started the trip with. I look back to how scared I was about being in a new place and how easy it was to settle in afterward. The whole luggage situation rocked the boat a lot but it all worked out. It always does and I need to learn to not stress myself out too much in those situations. I am going to have to go through that a little in Japan, at least I will know Ollie, Larissa and Ocean and Andy out there and my shared accommodation is sorted which means I will have an instant friend base.
On my last day I did some more last minute planning at Miro St and then had an incredible leaving breakfast at the Utopia Cafe, Rob, Chloe, Stu, Jonny, Tony, Ollie, Larissa, Adam, Toby, Shannan, Chris H, Stu (Tash’s Stu), Lindsay, Chris Halpin were all there mowing down reminiscing and just enjoying good times. I got to say bye to everyone and that was awesome. What I wasn’t expecting is when the bus arrived everyone and more people were back there to wave me off. It was pretty special/emo...I didnt really shred a tear but the bus journey back was pretty sad and reflectful. I did nothing bus think and doze on the bus. As I was on the bus back I knew it was the last day of the snowboard level 2 exams and was keen to find out how the rookies and tony got on and amazingly they all passed which was awesome news. As it stands Tony will not be coming to Japan with me, but will be there working at Bandai mountain...pretty sick just slightly concerned about the quality of the snow school given he didnt even need a level 2 or an interview to work there. I am sure it will work out...cant say I am not pissed off, I hussled my manager pretty hard for him to get work and was looking forward to his company...but I think it makes sense now he has his level 2 to actually get some practical experience instructing. I think there was more to his decision than just that but I cant really say much. Lets just say I know situations a little better than people actually think I do.
On the other hand I am hoping and praying Chloe gets the job at Evergreen, I havent heard from her but I am hoping for the best for sure.
So I arrived in Auckland and the instant busyness of the city overwhealmed me. I needed Anna to pick me up quickly. Amazingly she was pretty rapid and it was amazing to see her! She is a genuinely funny good girl. She wasn’t doing so good, completely messed up her right hand falling down some stairs loosing feeling and having a massive scar...meant she had to drop out of school, though I am pretty sure she wanted to anyway. I got to her amazing town house in central Auckland and settled in. Met her lovely mother Kathy and brother Adam and later on that evening her father Mark (god i hope thats right) we had a lovely falafel dinner and I got to connect with the whole family especially her parents. We discussed the UK and NZ economy and how things are going, and generally discussed what I had been upto in Ohakune. I think they wanted to sus out what Anna was getting herself into, as a result of dropping out of Uni she has now decided to do the Snowboard Rookies program at Ruapehu next winter! I am happy for her but she needs to make sure she gets the position. We watched some outrageous fortune (torture) and talked and had a relatively early night.
Today we got up, I did some more replanning not really sure what we were going to do, and then repacked leaving a lot of stuff at Annas house...we had some breakfast, chatted a little more and then Anna the little star took me to the mall first to get some playing cards and headphones, and then dropped me to the airport. She did me so proud and I was so grateful. I cant wait to pick up my baggage from her house and see her again one last time before I leave.
Got the airport and hung around arrivals for about 20 mins before my parents walked through the arrivals area! It was awesome seeing them. I told them about my lack of planning and it was a little stressy...but we will figure it all out. My uncle called and told us to go South, but we have no time...so my plans around to head up the Northlands and then across to the Coromandel Peninsular then over to Mount Manganui/Tauranga – we will decide from there whether to head straight back to Auckland for our flight to Oz or head back via Rotoroua for some geothermal activity action!!
We picked up the “El Cheapo” rental car and my dad was pleased with the car and the price, but not so pleased with my driving licence expiring meaning I cant do any driving – It sucks because after my 10 hr drive across USA to Canada I felt pretty confident I would nail the driving here too but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. We got the car and hunted for a Motel. Found one settled in its about 5 ks from town so we drove to town after settling in. We walked around the shops and then over the Quay/Viaduct. We had an incredible dinner and then did a little more walking before heading back to the motel.
1000 + words into this post I better wrap it up brief plan tomo is to check out of Auckland drive up north starting at the gateway to the Northlands – Warkworth heading the Leigh/Matakana/Snells/Omaha beaches. Then off to Matakana to do a pottery tour and check out the town. We will the drive to Whangarei and stop there. Hopefully it will be scenic, chilled and eventful I am hoping cards on the beach will be a winner with the folks but we shall see.
16th October 2010
WASSSUUPP! So I am sat here 11pm at night after a long day listening to some shapeshifting wanting to write all about the day we just had. Soooo where to begin, at the end of last night we went for a little walk to help digest the mega dinner we had I got a double lamb shank so the walk was definitely needed.
The next morning we faffed around for a while but managed to get ourselves in gear and packed up the car checked out and yammed down on some breakfast. We headed on highway 1 north of Auckland, our first stop was to Warkworth to then figure out a plan for the rest of the day J. We had 2 options getting to Warkie, either a toll road motorway or a more scenic route, at the last minute we chose the scenic route which worked out to be a mean decision! We stopped at Orewa beach and had a little walk, it was a nice clean beach only we were a little early so it was a little cold, we didnt stay to long as we had to get to Warkie! After a little shop at Orewa we pushed on arriving to Warkie not too long after.
Warkworth seemed like a small pleasant little town with quaint little cafes and shops. We went to the iSite to figure out our plan and the very kind lady in the info centre got us a detailed map of the area and we had a mini itinerary sorted. We started our trip in Matakana about 20 mins east of Warkworth were there was a farmers market on at the time which was nothing short of awesome. Matakana is lovely! So nice and on a Saturday from 8am to 1pm people come from the North and South to attend the farmers market and go for a little wander down the river. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and bought an epic pie!
From Matakana we then drove onto Omaha beach and the weather became awesome – real sunny and perfect. Omaha beach was incredible – so clean and so beautiful – it was a surfers paradise. I recognised a few people from the Market at the beach a lot with their surfboards just out riding waves. Made me think how incredible a summer on the beach learning how to surf would be. I just seem to want to keep travelling and living the dream. I can quite clearly see from the rentals their distaste in my thoughts about living the dream but oh well. We are having fun! Some of the houses in Omaha were incredible, beautiful beach houses. The place stank of city money, where the yuppies purchase their holiday homes on the beach...they were soo nice! We had some lunch in Omie and then continued the adventure to Tawaranui Regional park...mum and I went for a little walk, then we all drove to Anchor Bay at the peak of the park and just hung out a little on the beach there. We were getting beached az but were chilling. After we went to Goat Island, we wanted to get a boat tour of the island but we missed the last ferry @ 5pm which was annoying. We admired the incredible scenery and took some photos of the island before heading to Whangerei. We found some decent accommodation had a lovely Indian meal. I am now in my room reminiscing on the day and the highlights were definitely the weather, the sun set, Matakana Villiage, the amazing scenery and my parents actually looking like they were enjoying themselves from time to time. I can see why lord of the rings was filmed here the natural beauty is far beyond belief. Not going to lie I am a little beached az so am keen to actually do some attractions tomo. We will go to see some waterfalls and caves and the bay of islands, but then after i am keen for going to the kauri forest and the kauri museum....we shall see how it goes.
Peace out
17th October 2010
Sooooo we had a lovely lie in this morning, the lovely landlady said we could pretty much check out whenever we want, and the rentals were keen to get a lie in and a bit of a rest so we definitely did that this morning. We didn’t get going on our travels today until about 12pm, we decided to have breakfast in the motel going to Pak n Save and buying loads of breakkie items. It was a good idea saving us a little bit of cash.
We started off in Whangerei going to the falls, they were soo nice, natural beauty in abundance. Our final destination was to be Paiha on the northern coast next to the bay of islands. En route we made a few stops to fill up the day, as well as the falls we stopped off at yet another beach I have forgotten the name of, mum wasn’t massively interested I think we were pretty beached out so didnt stick around too long. Continued the scenic coastal drive up through and then stopped at a small Kauri Wood carving shop, it was more a hut in a mans drive but it was nice, we had a good old chat about his life and how he initially grew up carving kauri wood in mass selling onto wholesalers and distributers, and these days cannot do that because he cannot get the price he wants. With the emergence of machines there are much cheaper ways of making wooden carvings and when made by hand the cost is just too great for everyone, so its made it harder for him to make a living out of. We didnt buy anything and travelled on. We then stopped 5 ks short of KawKawa to Kawiti Glow Worm Cave, and it was pretty spectacular. The tour was fun, we learnt about cave formations, limestone, stalactites and stalagmites and more facisnating was the glo worms. The brighter they glow the more hungry they are as they are trying to attract prey like flies etc... to eat! It was awesome!
We continued on to KawaKawa and stopped for lunch, not before seeing the Hunterwasser toilets, I don’t know the story behind them, but they were pretty unique ceramic public toilets! People went in and came out with a smile so there must be something good going on with them. Post toilets we went to Paiha near the bay of islands to our final destination and now have a rough plan for tomo.
We managed to find a lovely room for the night @ $99 and its huge! We are all pretty happy right now. We saved some more $$ and cooked some spaghetti and watched a couple of movies to chillax!!
Massively enjoying the trip and am looking forward to what each day will bring. Think the folks are too which is pretty dope!
Right I better roll out – peace and love people!
So I am writing from a Motel room in Auckland having left Ohakune. I wanted to write a blog on the way from Ohakune to Auckland as it was a 6 hr bus journey and I was feeling quite reflective. The whole journey went really quickly – I was really away with my thoughts thinking about life, people and the times I had in Ohakune. In between dozing and thinking the 6 hrs flew bye and before I knew it I was back in the big city of Auckland.
After my last blog the last couple of days in Ohakune weren’t that eventful. A lot of people were in exams and the mountain the majority of the time was closed. I got a couple of runs in before the wind took over on one of those days but it wasn’t that epic. I managed to sell my Ride DH2 15108/09 to Adam for the bargain basement price of $80. It was his birthday on the 13th which coincided with my last evening so I didnt get to spend much with him. I was busy sorting through my itinerary for our travels and getting stuff together for my trip. I had a wonderful last meal with Sarah, Doug, Nicole and Casper at Miro St – Nicole made a lasagne and apple crumble and it went down a treat...I was so full...it was so nice to spend my last evening with the people I first met and started the trip with. I look back to how scared I was about being in a new place and how easy it was to settle in afterward. The whole luggage situation rocked the boat a lot but it all worked out. It always does and I need to learn to not stress myself out too much in those situations. I am going to have to go through that a little in Japan, at least I will know Ollie, Larissa and Ocean and Andy out there and my shared accommodation is sorted which means I will have an instant friend base.
On my last day I did some more last minute planning at Miro St and then had an incredible leaving breakfast at the Utopia Cafe, Rob, Chloe, Stu, Jonny, Tony, Ollie, Larissa, Adam, Toby, Shannan, Chris H, Stu (Tash’s Stu), Lindsay, Chris Halpin were all there mowing down reminiscing and just enjoying good times. I got to say bye to everyone and that was awesome. What I wasn’t expecting is when the bus arrived everyone and more people were back there to wave me off. It was pretty special/emo...I didnt really shred a tear but the bus journey back was pretty sad and reflectful. I did nothing bus think and doze on the bus. As I was on the bus back I knew it was the last day of the snowboard level 2 exams and was keen to find out how the rookies and tony got on and amazingly they all passed which was awesome news. As it stands Tony will not be coming to Japan with me, but will be there working at Bandai mountain...pretty sick just slightly concerned about the quality of the snow school given he didnt even need a level 2 or an interview to work there. I am sure it will work out...cant say I am not pissed off, I hussled my manager pretty hard for him to get work and was looking forward to his company...but I think it makes sense now he has his level 2 to actually get some practical experience instructing. I think there was more to his decision than just that but I cant really say much. Lets just say I know situations a little better than people actually think I do.
On the other hand I am hoping and praying Chloe gets the job at Evergreen, I havent heard from her but I am hoping for the best for sure.
So I arrived in Auckland and the instant busyness of the city overwhealmed me. I needed Anna to pick me up quickly. Amazingly she was pretty rapid and it was amazing to see her! She is a genuinely funny good girl. She wasn’t doing so good, completely messed up her right hand falling down some stairs loosing feeling and having a massive scar...meant she had to drop out of school, though I am pretty sure she wanted to anyway. I got to her amazing town house in central Auckland and settled in. Met her lovely mother Kathy and brother Adam and later on that evening her father Mark (god i hope thats right) we had a lovely falafel dinner and I got to connect with the whole family especially her parents. We discussed the UK and NZ economy and how things are going, and generally discussed what I had been upto in Ohakune. I think they wanted to sus out what Anna was getting herself into, as a result of dropping out of Uni she has now decided to do the Snowboard Rookies program at Ruapehu next winter! I am happy for her but she needs to make sure she gets the position. We watched some outrageous fortune (torture) and talked and had a relatively early night.
Today we got up, I did some more replanning not really sure what we were going to do, and then repacked leaving a lot of stuff at Annas house...we had some breakfast, chatted a little more and then Anna the little star took me to the mall first to get some playing cards and headphones, and then dropped me to the airport. She did me so proud and I was so grateful. I cant wait to pick up my baggage from her house and see her again one last time before I leave.
Got the airport and hung around arrivals for about 20 mins before my parents walked through the arrivals area! It was awesome seeing them. I told them about my lack of planning and it was a little stressy...but we will figure it all out. My uncle called and told us to go South, but we have no time...so my plans around to head up the Northlands and then across to the Coromandel Peninsular then over to Mount Manganui/Tauranga – we will decide from there whether to head straight back to Auckland for our flight to Oz or head back via Rotoroua for some geothermal activity action!!
We picked up the “El Cheapo” rental car and my dad was pleased with the car and the price, but not so pleased with my driving licence expiring meaning I cant do any driving – It sucks because after my 10 hr drive across USA to Canada I felt pretty confident I would nail the driving here too but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. We got the car and hunted for a Motel. Found one settled in its about 5 ks from town so we drove to town after settling in. We walked around the shops and then over the Quay/Viaduct. We had an incredible dinner and then did a little more walking before heading back to the motel.
1000 + words into this post I better wrap it up brief plan tomo is to check out of Auckland drive up north starting at the gateway to the Northlands – Warkworth heading the Leigh/Matakana/Snells/Omaha beaches. Then off to Matakana to do a pottery tour and check out the town. We will the drive to Whangarei and stop there. Hopefully it will be scenic, chilled and eventful I am hoping cards on the beach will be a winner with the folks but we shall see.
16th October 2010
WASSSUUPP! So I am sat here 11pm at night after a long day listening to some shapeshifting wanting to write all about the day we just had. Soooo where to begin, at the end of last night we went for a little walk to help digest the mega dinner we had I got a double lamb shank so the walk was definitely needed.
The next morning we faffed around for a while but managed to get ourselves in gear and packed up the car checked out and yammed down on some breakfast. We headed on highway 1 north of Auckland, our first stop was to Warkworth to then figure out a plan for the rest of the day J. We had 2 options getting to Warkie, either a toll road motorway or a more scenic route, at the last minute we chose the scenic route which worked out to be a mean decision! We stopped at Orewa beach and had a little walk, it was a nice clean beach only we were a little early so it was a little cold, we didnt stay to long as we had to get to Warkie! After a little shop at Orewa we pushed on arriving to Warkie not too long after.
Warkworth seemed like a small pleasant little town with quaint little cafes and shops. We went to the iSite to figure out our plan and the very kind lady in the info centre got us a detailed map of the area and we had a mini itinerary sorted. We started our trip in Matakana about 20 mins east of Warkworth were there was a farmers market on at the time which was nothing short of awesome. Matakana is lovely! So nice and on a Saturday from 8am to 1pm people come from the North and South to attend the farmers market and go for a little wander down the river. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and bought an epic pie!
From Matakana we then drove onto Omaha beach and the weather became awesome – real sunny and perfect. Omaha beach was incredible – so clean and so beautiful – it was a surfers paradise. I recognised a few people from the Market at the beach a lot with their surfboards just out riding waves. Made me think how incredible a summer on the beach learning how to surf would be. I just seem to want to keep travelling and living the dream. I can quite clearly see from the rentals their distaste in my thoughts about living the dream but oh well. We are having fun! Some of the houses in Omaha were incredible, beautiful beach houses. The place stank of city money, where the yuppies purchase their holiday homes on the beach...they were soo nice! We had some lunch in Omie and then continued the adventure to Tawaranui Regional park...mum and I went for a little walk, then we all drove to Anchor Bay at the peak of the park and just hung out a little on the beach there. We were getting beached az but were chilling. After we went to Goat Island, we wanted to get a boat tour of the island but we missed the last ferry @ 5pm which was annoying. We admired the incredible scenery and took some photos of the island before heading to Whangerei. We found some decent accommodation had a lovely Indian meal. I am now in my room reminiscing on the day and the highlights were definitely the weather, the sun set, Matakana Villiage, the amazing scenery and my parents actually looking like they were enjoying themselves from time to time. I can see why lord of the rings was filmed here the natural beauty is far beyond belief. Not going to lie I am a little beached az so am keen to actually do some attractions tomo. We will go to see some waterfalls and caves and the bay of islands, but then after i am keen for going to the kauri forest and the kauri museum....we shall see how it goes.
Peace out
17th October 2010
Sooooo we had a lovely lie in this morning, the lovely landlady said we could pretty much check out whenever we want, and the rentals were keen to get a lie in and a bit of a rest so we definitely did that this morning. We didn’t get going on our travels today until about 12pm, we decided to have breakfast in the motel going to Pak n Save and buying loads of breakkie items. It was a good idea saving us a little bit of cash.
We started off in Whangerei going to the falls, they were soo nice, natural beauty in abundance. Our final destination was to be Paiha on the northern coast next to the bay of islands. En route we made a few stops to fill up the day, as well as the falls we stopped off at yet another beach I have forgotten the name of, mum wasn’t massively interested I think we were pretty beached out so didnt stick around too long. Continued the scenic coastal drive up through and then stopped at a small Kauri Wood carving shop, it was more a hut in a mans drive but it was nice, we had a good old chat about his life and how he initially grew up carving kauri wood in mass selling onto wholesalers and distributers, and these days cannot do that because he cannot get the price he wants. With the emergence of machines there are much cheaper ways of making wooden carvings and when made by hand the cost is just too great for everyone, so its made it harder for him to make a living out of. We didnt buy anything and travelled on. We then stopped 5 ks short of KawKawa to Kawiti Glow Worm Cave, and it was pretty spectacular. The tour was fun, we learnt about cave formations, limestone, stalactites and stalagmites and more facisnating was the glo worms. The brighter they glow the more hungry they are as they are trying to attract prey like flies etc... to eat! It was awesome!
We continued on to KawaKawa and stopped for lunch, not before seeing the Hunterwasser toilets, I don’t know the story behind them, but they were pretty unique ceramic public toilets! People went in and came out with a smile so there must be something good going on with them. Post toilets we went to Paiha near the bay of islands to our final destination and now have a rough plan for tomo.
We managed to find a lovely room for the night @ $99 and its huge! We are all pretty happy right now. We saved some more $$ and cooked some spaghetti and watched a couple of movies to chillax!!
Massively enjoying the trip and am looking forward to what each day will bring. Think the folks are too which is pretty dope!
Right I better roll out – peace and love people!
Sunday, 10 October 2010
BYE BYE OHAKUNE!!
11/10/2010
Wow! I Think this is going to be my last blog from Ohakune! Its gone by so fast, the season is so short but looking back there have been some sucky times, but there have also been some incredibly fun good memories. I am massively looking forward to driving around New Zealand with my family. The only real issue with that is I havent figured out an itinerary! So I need to do that before they arrive this week! The plan is for them to arrive on the 15th – I pick them up and we start the trip. As I have been so busy with my Ski Level 1 and work and training I havent had a chance to speak to them so really need to do that too!
It has been a fair while since I last blogged and a little bit has been going on! The highlight has been me be able to ski my heart out to get to the standard. My Level one started on the 5/10/2010 and ended on the 8/10/2010, up until those days I was spending every minute with ski instructors and skiing on my own to get more time and experience on the ski’s. The actual course itself was quite fun, but I don’t really like the exam situations – they stress me out and during that period I think of nothing else, so I am never at ease. Day 1 was spent going through the skier beginner progression as well as some skiing and wedge turn practise. Day 2 was going through more of the progression, more wedge turns and skiing, Day 3 was wedge turn demo evaluation day, skiing evaluation and practise teach. Day 4 was the teaching exam and I was assigned one of the harder technical lessons to deliver. I managed to JUST pass, but it was pretty stressful on the last day. I spent the night before preparing for my exam teach and then had to wait until mid day to deliver it. Hanging around waiting whilst others were getting their lessons done was painful. Then once I had done it I had to wait 6 hrs to get the results. In those 6 hours I was soo nervous to the point where I convinced myself I failed even though my lesson content was all in. The delivery wasn’t great! But that evening I received the results passed and got drunk for the first time in ages. It was mad fun!
This weekend has been one of the benderish nature, given my last day of work was yesterday! Its been fun working for the snow school and really like the idea of coming back and working in a full time role. The staff and management team are really dedicated and focused on making sure we deliver good customer service and develop us into better instructors. The snow school barbeque was a lot of fun and during the awards I got a shout out for being a GC. I am not going to say what it means but its good! It was fun getting a shout out and the whole event was awesome. Its a shame it was during my ski exam otherwise I could have gotten pretty loose!
There was an overall barbeque for the entire workforce of Mt Ruapehu and the feed was incredible. It was good to catch up and say bye to everyone.
I am definitely looking forward to travelling around New Zealand Ill be happier when I have a plan, which is what Ill be working on my last few days in Kune. We are then off to Oz for a week which should be awesome too! Then off home!! Need to start getting my mind focused on NZ and back to studying for my CASI 3 and looking into doing the CSIA Level 2.
Other things I have been upto have mainly been helping people get work. Tony is 90% coming with me and working for the same company as me in Japan. He is currently doing his NZSIA Snowboard Level 2 exams so he is pretty busy! I have also helped Chloe get an interview with a Japanese snow school in Hakuba called evergreen outdoor centre. Hopefully she will get that and come travel around Tokyo with me!
Overall Ohkaune and Mt Ruapehu has been an incredible unique experience. Working at a snow school initially was tricky and I found it quite difficult, but once I got to know a lot of people it worked out to be a great place to work for sure. Training for my Level 3 has been tough and at time I havent enjoyed it at all – a lot of fun was taken out of snowboarding for me then and felt a little bit gutted about missing a couple of days of training and not getting as much outdoor practise I would have liked. I definitely don’t feel ready and thats what the point if the course was...but who knows maybe I am and am just being harsh on myself. I still have my CASI Level 3 training bible to finish – currently ½ way through all the notes I wrote for my training and written 10,000 words. Its getting pretty rididuclous but hope it helps me pass.
Thats about it...ill post up some more fun from my travels with my folks – peace and love people
God bless Mt Ruapehu and Ohakune!
Wow! I Think this is going to be my last blog from Ohakune! Its gone by so fast, the season is so short but looking back there have been some sucky times, but there have also been some incredibly fun good memories. I am massively looking forward to driving around New Zealand with my family. The only real issue with that is I havent figured out an itinerary! So I need to do that before they arrive this week! The plan is for them to arrive on the 15th – I pick them up and we start the trip. As I have been so busy with my Ski Level 1 and work and training I havent had a chance to speak to them so really need to do that too!
It has been a fair while since I last blogged and a little bit has been going on! The highlight has been me be able to ski my heart out to get to the standard. My Level one started on the 5/10/2010 and ended on the 8/10/2010, up until those days I was spending every minute with ski instructors and skiing on my own to get more time and experience on the ski’s. The actual course itself was quite fun, but I don’t really like the exam situations – they stress me out and during that period I think of nothing else, so I am never at ease. Day 1 was spent going through the skier beginner progression as well as some skiing and wedge turn practise. Day 2 was going through more of the progression, more wedge turns and skiing, Day 3 was wedge turn demo evaluation day, skiing evaluation and practise teach. Day 4 was the teaching exam and I was assigned one of the harder technical lessons to deliver. I managed to JUST pass, but it was pretty stressful on the last day. I spent the night before preparing for my exam teach and then had to wait until mid day to deliver it. Hanging around waiting whilst others were getting their lessons done was painful. Then once I had done it I had to wait 6 hrs to get the results. In those 6 hours I was soo nervous to the point where I convinced myself I failed even though my lesson content was all in. The delivery wasn’t great! But that evening I received the results passed and got drunk for the first time in ages. It was mad fun!
This weekend has been one of the benderish nature, given my last day of work was yesterday! Its been fun working for the snow school and really like the idea of coming back and working in a full time role. The staff and management team are really dedicated and focused on making sure we deliver good customer service and develop us into better instructors. The snow school barbeque was a lot of fun and during the awards I got a shout out for being a GC. I am not going to say what it means but its good! It was fun getting a shout out and the whole event was awesome. Its a shame it was during my ski exam otherwise I could have gotten pretty loose!
There was an overall barbeque for the entire workforce of Mt Ruapehu and the feed was incredible. It was good to catch up and say bye to everyone.
I am definitely looking forward to travelling around New Zealand Ill be happier when I have a plan, which is what Ill be working on my last few days in Kune. We are then off to Oz for a week which should be awesome too! Then off home!! Need to start getting my mind focused on NZ and back to studying for my CASI 3 and looking into doing the CSIA Level 2.
Other things I have been upto have mainly been helping people get work. Tony is 90% coming with me and working for the same company as me in Japan. He is currently doing his NZSIA Snowboard Level 2 exams so he is pretty busy! I have also helped Chloe get an interview with a Japanese snow school in Hakuba called evergreen outdoor centre. Hopefully she will get that and come travel around Tokyo with me!
Overall Ohkaune and Mt Ruapehu has been an incredible unique experience. Working at a snow school initially was tricky and I found it quite difficult, but once I got to know a lot of people it worked out to be a great place to work for sure. Training for my Level 3 has been tough and at time I havent enjoyed it at all – a lot of fun was taken out of snowboarding for me then and felt a little bit gutted about missing a couple of days of training and not getting as much outdoor practise I would have liked. I definitely don’t feel ready and thats what the point if the course was...but who knows maybe I am and am just being harsh on myself. I still have my CASI Level 3 training bible to finish – currently ½ way through all the notes I wrote for my training and written 10,000 words. Its getting pretty rididuclous but hope it helps me pass.
Thats about it...ill post up some more fun from my travels with my folks – peace and love people
God bless Mt Ruapehu and Ohakune!
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
& we're back on the mountain - oh yeah
29th Sept 2010
Yo people its me again for another quick update...
From my last blog for a few days after the mountain was closed and it was pretty dull, we didnt do a lot because there wasn’t a lot to do. The most memorable events were going to Taupo and eating loads of junk food, winning poker, losing poker and one huge event, we went Rafting!! It was incredible, the adrenaline rush riding down water falls and rapids is insane...we did a 7 metre waterfall drop that was insane, and after rafting we jumped off cliffs into the river. I dropped a 30ft cliff into the river and the first time i landed on the water it killed!! After I did a safe pike to make sure I would break the water with my feet, not my entire back.
I havent been working much at all, I have been pretty much focused on teaching and getting better at skiing for my ski level 1. It has been an insane last few days where I crammed in 4 days of skiing with various instructors and am confident in my skiing now and getting to a level where I think I can pass level 1. I am pretty excited at the thought of getting a 2nd instructing discipline, this will hopefully make me much more employable!! Memories of the skiing so far has been Matt B telling me to ski my heart out to have any hope of me passing my exam, and me actually skiing my heart out. I have had amazing lessons from Toby, Matt R, Matt B, Grant, Heather, Harold and their hard work along with Matt Alocks and Ali’s dedication to staff development will hopefully get me my level 1.
We had our last training session with Rob G a couple of days ago and it was a beautiful fine sunny day to just rip around the mountain. It was a pretty epic day and the riding felt really good. It was amazing to do some really hard out riding after 10 days of not being on our boards! It was incredible!! It was sad to finish up, but he said to all of us our riding is pretty much there so that was a good thing.
Other things have been Chloe’s turned 20! She is a good person and I have tried to help her so much with getting a job as a snowie instructor for the NZ summer. She hadn’t heard back from a few places so I got in touch with all of the places in Japan and Canada that I got jobs and re-referred her. It was awesome to do that because the following day she got an interview with Cypress, we find out soon whether she gets it but I really hope she does.
Since Chris and Hannah havent been around I have been cooking for Tony a lot which has been mean! We having been getting some serious feedage on.
Thats pretty much been the last few days.
Chur,
Koo
Yo people its me again for another quick update...
From my last blog for a few days after the mountain was closed and it was pretty dull, we didnt do a lot because there wasn’t a lot to do. The most memorable events were going to Taupo and eating loads of junk food, winning poker, losing poker and one huge event, we went Rafting!! It was incredible, the adrenaline rush riding down water falls and rapids is insane...we did a 7 metre waterfall drop that was insane, and after rafting we jumped off cliffs into the river. I dropped a 30ft cliff into the river and the first time i landed on the water it killed!! After I did a safe pike to make sure I would break the water with my feet, not my entire back.
I havent been working much at all, I have been pretty much focused on teaching and getting better at skiing for my ski level 1. It has been an insane last few days where I crammed in 4 days of skiing with various instructors and am confident in my skiing now and getting to a level where I think I can pass level 1. I am pretty excited at the thought of getting a 2nd instructing discipline, this will hopefully make me much more employable!! Memories of the skiing so far has been Matt B telling me to ski my heart out to have any hope of me passing my exam, and me actually skiing my heart out. I have had amazing lessons from Toby, Matt R, Matt B, Grant, Heather, Harold and their hard work along with Matt Alocks and Ali’s dedication to staff development will hopefully get me my level 1.
We had our last training session with Rob G a couple of days ago and it was a beautiful fine sunny day to just rip around the mountain. It was a pretty epic day and the riding felt really good. It was amazing to do some really hard out riding after 10 days of not being on our boards! It was incredible!! It was sad to finish up, but he said to all of us our riding is pretty much there so that was a good thing.
Other things have been Chloe’s turned 20! She is a good person and I have tried to help her so much with getting a job as a snowie instructor for the NZ summer. She hadn’t heard back from a few places so I got in touch with all of the places in Japan and Canada that I got jobs and re-referred her. It was awesome to do that because the following day she got an interview with Cypress, we find out soon whether she gets it but I really hope she does.
Since Chris and Hannah havent been around I have been cooking for Tony a lot which has been mean! We having been getting some serious feedage on.
Thats pretty much been the last few days.
Chur,
Koo
Saturday, 18 September 2010
Closed days SUCK!
18th September
Jeez, time is flying i honestly thought my blog was up to date and I had only completed one a couple of days ago! But here we are a week later and its that time again...To be fair not a lot has gone on since last week.
Training has been mainly indoors due to the real crappy weather we have had this week – I find given the way I learn is quite analytical I get a lot out of the indoor sessions. The times we were on snow we were focused on freestyle Level 3 teaching. We explored tactics for teaching and the various freestyle lesson goals and the indoor session s helped reinforce what we had learnt on snow. I went out skiing with the TSI (Turoa Snow Sport Institute) guys. They are training for their ski level 2 so ran through some level 3 and level 4 lessons which really helped me because I was like a real student in these lessons. I really enjoyed heading out with Matt Britton. He is the TSI ski trainer and he style of teaching and training is really encouraging and sets you at ease whilst still being really developmental. I definitely had fun, but it sucked because I was so average at skiing. I must do it again only better J. My level 1 is in less that 4 weeks and I am nowhere near ready!
I haven’t done any teaching this week because the days (Friday and Saturday) I have been on rosta the mountain has been closed! We have had a severe storm cycle apparently the size of the land mass of Australia and its not going anywhere. We have had some serious wind and the closed days are getting slightly boring! During the closed day madness I have been to Taupo – 2 hrs north of Ohakune and we spent the day walking around this Lake town where Toby is from and ate loads of junk food – it was fun but an unnecessary amount of money was spent. Other than that the closed days have been pretty monotonous.
I havent been out at all!! So I am going to go out and be social tonight for sure – pretty excited. I missed out on a fun Tuesday staff night and the ball on Wednesday but I am pretty much over it.
Amazing other news is Toby got a job at Whistler and I got another Job in Japan, that is now 3 interviews 3 jobs – POW! Whilst I was in Taupo Cypress mountain called me mid pizza slice for an interview. It went well we shall just see how it goes. I booked my flight and formally accepted my job in Japan. I am now in the process of booking flights for Canada to take my level 3 certifications.
Other than that not much else has been going on – josh is leaving which is a shame and i feel bad for him but he seems like regardless of the injury he has had a good time!
Peace and love people.
Jeez, time is flying i honestly thought my blog was up to date and I had only completed one a couple of days ago! But here we are a week later and its that time again...To be fair not a lot has gone on since last week.
Training has been mainly indoors due to the real crappy weather we have had this week – I find given the way I learn is quite analytical I get a lot out of the indoor sessions. The times we were on snow we were focused on freestyle Level 3 teaching. We explored tactics for teaching and the various freestyle lesson goals and the indoor session s helped reinforce what we had learnt on snow. I went out skiing with the TSI (Turoa Snow Sport Institute) guys. They are training for their ski level 2 so ran through some level 3 and level 4 lessons which really helped me because I was like a real student in these lessons. I really enjoyed heading out with Matt Britton. He is the TSI ski trainer and he style of teaching and training is really encouraging and sets you at ease whilst still being really developmental. I definitely had fun, but it sucked because I was so average at skiing. I must do it again only better J. My level 1 is in less that 4 weeks and I am nowhere near ready!
I haven’t done any teaching this week because the days (Friday and Saturday) I have been on rosta the mountain has been closed! We have had a severe storm cycle apparently the size of the land mass of Australia and its not going anywhere. We have had some serious wind and the closed days are getting slightly boring! During the closed day madness I have been to Taupo – 2 hrs north of Ohakune and we spent the day walking around this Lake town where Toby is from and ate loads of junk food – it was fun but an unnecessary amount of money was spent. Other than that the closed days have been pretty monotonous.
I havent been out at all!! So I am going to go out and be social tonight for sure – pretty excited. I missed out on a fun Tuesday staff night and the ball on Wednesday but I am pretty much over it.
Amazing other news is Toby got a job at Whistler and I got another Job in Japan, that is now 3 interviews 3 jobs – POW! Whilst I was in Taupo Cypress mountain called me mid pizza slice for an interview. It went well we shall just see how it goes. I booked my flight and formally accepted my job in Japan. I am now in the process of booking flights for Canada to take my level 3 certifications.
Other than that not much else has been going on – josh is leaving which is a shame and i feel bad for him but he seems like regardless of the injury he has had a good time!
Peace and love people.
Friday, 10 September 2010
Windy City
11th Sept 2010
Hey Hey hey!! Here’s koo providing your weekly update on the good times I have been having. So I ended up spending a few days resting my knee as the mountain was closed on Monday and Tuesday, we did some indoor training looking at Pedagogy again writing session plans etc..etc.. It was really good. Didnt do much else on the closed days apart from hang with Josh and chill with other people.
The training commensed on Wednesday with a full on day of freeriding it was good but I am getting increasingly worried about my standard. I am consistently doing the same things wrong, I will correct them short term but my old habits start creeping into my riding...I need to focus and practise more when I get the opportunities, however with the closed days the opportunities to consolidate and freeride on my own are few and far between. I need to learn how to ski properly as well as I am fully booked for my ski level 1 examination at the end of this winter. We shall see how that goes, it will be a great achievement coming out of this winter with a certification to my name. On Thursday we spend the day training doing our on snow pedagogy sessions. I got some good feedback from my session and found out it was at level 3 standard and would have passed! I was pretty stoked. The only thing that tainted it, was I picked an easy method of presentation as subject matter for my session, and Rob had to steer me into doing a couple of things into doing the session but all in all my delivery worked well and I got to where I needed to be. I now need to nail level 3 riding and teaching and practise other sections of pedagogy.
Josh managed to break his ankle on Thursday which sucked, because he has another 2 weeks here with not alot to do and its going to make getting home very difficult in terms of carrying things!! On the plus side he has integrated really well in Ohakune and made some good friends, he is going out and meeting people and generally having a good time. Socially I havent been out much I have been super tired. There was a night on Wednesday where a producer called Dick Johnson was in town and he was playing some really good elektro! We had a good throw down and I called it quits early.
Teaching has been going good, I was on schedule on Friday and was released with no lessons today because of high winds. I got 3 hours on Fri which was cool. 2 really good hours with South Wellington School kids – 5 of them, and 1 hour private lesson with a kid called Ethan. Both were really progressive and fun, I am starting to really enjoy the teaching side of things for sure.
Not much else going on really, I got my contract through for Japan and I am getting paid really good, started looking into flights which I must book soon as the BA sale ends in a few days. Toby has a friend over called Anna and she is pretty rad, definitely good at Baking and is a lot of fun to have around the house.
My knee is worrying me, I am in a bit of pain a lot I went to the physio and its a meniscus problem, I should really lay off the crazy gym programme, but I am really feeling good results from the training I have been doing and I feel so much stronger. Its not massively severe I just need to keep it moving, I reckon the time between here and Japan I can get it fixed and sussed!!
My new board has arrived in the UK – Ride society UL 154 – very excited its going to be my destroyer in Japan!
Thats all folks
Hey Hey hey!! Here’s koo providing your weekly update on the good times I have been having. So I ended up spending a few days resting my knee as the mountain was closed on Monday and Tuesday, we did some indoor training looking at Pedagogy again writing session plans etc..etc.. It was really good. Didnt do much else on the closed days apart from hang with Josh and chill with other people.
The training commensed on Wednesday with a full on day of freeriding it was good but I am getting increasingly worried about my standard. I am consistently doing the same things wrong, I will correct them short term but my old habits start creeping into my riding...I need to focus and practise more when I get the opportunities, however with the closed days the opportunities to consolidate and freeride on my own are few and far between. I need to learn how to ski properly as well as I am fully booked for my ski level 1 examination at the end of this winter. We shall see how that goes, it will be a great achievement coming out of this winter with a certification to my name. On Thursday we spend the day training doing our on snow pedagogy sessions. I got some good feedback from my session and found out it was at level 3 standard and would have passed! I was pretty stoked. The only thing that tainted it, was I picked an easy method of presentation as subject matter for my session, and Rob had to steer me into doing a couple of things into doing the session but all in all my delivery worked well and I got to where I needed to be. I now need to nail level 3 riding and teaching and practise other sections of pedagogy.
Josh managed to break his ankle on Thursday which sucked, because he has another 2 weeks here with not alot to do and its going to make getting home very difficult in terms of carrying things!! On the plus side he has integrated really well in Ohakune and made some good friends, he is going out and meeting people and generally having a good time. Socially I havent been out much I have been super tired. There was a night on Wednesday where a producer called Dick Johnson was in town and he was playing some really good elektro! We had a good throw down and I called it quits early.
Teaching has been going good, I was on schedule on Friday and was released with no lessons today because of high winds. I got 3 hours on Fri which was cool. 2 really good hours with South Wellington School kids – 5 of them, and 1 hour private lesson with a kid called Ethan. Both were really progressive and fun, I am starting to really enjoy the teaching side of things for sure.
Not much else going on really, I got my contract through for Japan and I am getting paid really good, started looking into flights which I must book soon as the BA sale ends in a few days. Toby has a friend over called Anna and she is pretty rad, definitely good at Baking and is a lot of fun to have around the house.
My knee is worrying me, I am in a bit of pain a lot I went to the physio and its a meniscus problem, I should really lay off the crazy gym programme, but I am really feeling good results from the training I have been doing and I feel so much stronger. Its not massively severe I just need to keep it moving, I reckon the time between here and Japan I can get it fixed and sussed!!
My new board has arrived in the UK – Ride society UL 154 – very excited its going to be my destroyer in Japan!
Thats all folks
Saturday, 4 September 2010
Boom Boom Pow!! Lots of Pow
05th Sept 2010
I cant believe how much time flies between each blog. I seem to think I have only just written a blog and I check my website and its been a week – the time is literally flying by here at the moment!!
Since last week not much has gone on, we have been training pretty hard this week on snow, we had a beautiful bluebird day where we freerode all day training on carving and our free riding. It seems like we are in the consolidation stage of our freeriding, we just need to refine the skills by practising more and generally thinking more about our riding. Everything is on our riding we just need make sure we refine and make it better. When we have fun and freeride we don’t have to think about all the things we have been taught they are just there. They need refining though for sure. We need to stop letting our trainer get in our head and just really focus on enjoying the ride.
I was told that I let myself get too tense and frustrated and I need to get out of that mindset and more into the enjoyment mindset and thinking ahead to how i am going to make each run better.
That was the most memorable day of training however we had an indoor session focusing on pedagogy, the art of teaching other instructors how to teach snowboarding. This is more the trainers side of the course and is something i find I am relatively comfortable with.
The other training day was spent teaching freestyle lessons in whiteouts and then doing a little bit of freeriding. We’ve had two closed days this week which allow us to relax, catch up on life, and we had our indoor session on one of those days.
Been training real hard at the gym and this new programme is intense for sure!! I am definitely feeling stronger but I am also feeling hungry like all the time!! Its all good though, I have moved from a maximum deadlift of 55kg to 90kg in about 3 weeks, backsquats have gone from 50kg to 80kg. Its definitely the novice effect of never having trained my legs which is why I am jumping up so high for sure.
What else has been going on? Josh has settled in well at Miro St – He has had a couple of days snowboarding and is in some pain. I feel bad as I havent been able to snowboard with him yet, its either been closed, I have been training or I have been working...hopefully we can get something sorted soon. He is making a good impression amongst all of the people he has met and its good prep for uni for sure!! He is cooking dinner for 4 people tonight including himself. He is going for a Roast Lamb Dinner which I have no idea on how to do but I will help – definitely going to be a challenge.
Work has been going ok, not getting huge hours of teaching time to be honest, just getting minimum and today I took a day off which doesn’t help the bank balance at all!! I taught for an hour yesterday a pair of kids called Ben and Daniel, we had some serious fun! It was cool they were both 8 and had no real idea of speed control and their toe edge turns were both shocking, but using imagery and guided discovery I managed to help with their lower body steering and using their knees to turn. They looked so much better I was happy with the outcome after an hour of teaching them.
Today I have taken the day off work because my knee feels pretty sore which sucks, its been niggling me all season but its not the normal pain its right at the back of the knee which makes me think its a strain to the PCL. I am treating it and will be going to the physio for a diagnosis later on today hopefully its not too bad. When I rest it feels ok, its just when its at its extremes, like hyperextended or hyperflexed.
There have been a few crazy nights out this week! Tuesday night was the standard Turoa night out, I ended up having a fiar bit of fun and staying till quite late then Thursday night it was Rob G’s birthday celebrations at suitcase, which was another fun night out. The social scene is real good here and Josh has really got in the swing of things here which is pretty cool.
Other things that have been on my mind are Accenture and recent promotions and however the more time away from them I spend the more my career vesilates whilst others blossoms. I found out 2 of my peers in my start group made Manager which is huge and 2 Managers I worked for on a previous project made Senior Manager which I struggled to believe for various reasons – oh well! It seems the whole promo cycle is all about playing games, and not actually done on merit, you cant do just an amazing job anymore and get the rating you want. Struggling to believe I will return as I think the transition back to work will be so hard.
Lastly, I have signed up to do my NZSIA Ski Level 1 which means I will be a qualified ski instructor only able to teach beginners how to ski but thats still pretty handy for increased hours and pay rates so its all good. I am talking like I have already passed, still need to get better at skiing and learn the progression, which I will be spending the day doing today.
Also just ordered a new board - ahhh yeah - Ride Society UL 154 for £235!! Its a £440 board!!
Thats about it guys – peace and love
I cant believe how much time flies between each blog. I seem to think I have only just written a blog and I check my website and its been a week – the time is literally flying by here at the moment!!
Since last week not much has gone on, we have been training pretty hard this week on snow, we had a beautiful bluebird day where we freerode all day training on carving and our free riding. It seems like we are in the consolidation stage of our freeriding, we just need to refine the skills by practising more and generally thinking more about our riding. Everything is on our riding we just need make sure we refine and make it better. When we have fun and freeride we don’t have to think about all the things we have been taught they are just there. They need refining though for sure. We need to stop letting our trainer get in our head and just really focus on enjoying the ride.
I was told that I let myself get too tense and frustrated and I need to get out of that mindset and more into the enjoyment mindset and thinking ahead to how i am going to make each run better.
That was the most memorable day of training however we had an indoor session focusing on pedagogy, the art of teaching other instructors how to teach snowboarding. This is more the trainers side of the course and is something i find I am relatively comfortable with.
The other training day was spent teaching freestyle lessons in whiteouts and then doing a little bit of freeriding. We’ve had two closed days this week which allow us to relax, catch up on life, and we had our indoor session on one of those days.
Been training real hard at the gym and this new programme is intense for sure!! I am definitely feeling stronger but I am also feeling hungry like all the time!! Its all good though, I have moved from a maximum deadlift of 55kg to 90kg in about 3 weeks, backsquats have gone from 50kg to 80kg. Its definitely the novice effect of never having trained my legs which is why I am jumping up so high for sure.
What else has been going on? Josh has settled in well at Miro St – He has had a couple of days snowboarding and is in some pain. I feel bad as I havent been able to snowboard with him yet, its either been closed, I have been training or I have been working...hopefully we can get something sorted soon. He is making a good impression amongst all of the people he has met and its good prep for uni for sure!! He is cooking dinner for 4 people tonight including himself. He is going for a Roast Lamb Dinner which I have no idea on how to do but I will help – definitely going to be a challenge.
Work has been going ok, not getting huge hours of teaching time to be honest, just getting minimum and today I took a day off which doesn’t help the bank balance at all!! I taught for an hour yesterday a pair of kids called Ben and Daniel, we had some serious fun! It was cool they were both 8 and had no real idea of speed control and their toe edge turns were both shocking, but using imagery and guided discovery I managed to help with their lower body steering and using their knees to turn. They looked so much better I was happy with the outcome after an hour of teaching them.
Today I have taken the day off work because my knee feels pretty sore which sucks, its been niggling me all season but its not the normal pain its right at the back of the knee which makes me think its a strain to the PCL. I am treating it and will be going to the physio for a diagnosis later on today hopefully its not too bad. When I rest it feels ok, its just when its at its extremes, like hyperextended or hyperflexed.
There have been a few crazy nights out this week! Tuesday night was the standard Turoa night out, I ended up having a fiar bit of fun and staying till quite late then Thursday night it was Rob G’s birthday celebrations at suitcase, which was another fun night out. The social scene is real good here and Josh has really got in the swing of things here which is pretty cool.
Other things that have been on my mind are Accenture and recent promotions and however the more time away from them I spend the more my career vesilates whilst others blossoms. I found out 2 of my peers in my start group made Manager which is huge and 2 Managers I worked for on a previous project made Senior Manager which I struggled to believe for various reasons – oh well! It seems the whole promo cycle is all about playing games, and not actually done on merit, you cant do just an amazing job anymore and get the rating you want. Struggling to believe I will return as I think the transition back to work will be so hard.
Lastly, I have signed up to do my NZSIA Ski Level 1 which means I will be a qualified ski instructor only able to teach beginners how to ski but thats still pretty handy for increased hours and pay rates so its all good. I am talking like I have already passed, still need to get better at skiing and learn the progression, which I will be spending the day doing today.
Also just ordered a new board - ahhh yeah - Ride Society UL 154 for £235!! Its a £440 board!!
Thats about it guys – peace and love
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