Well, in a few hours I'll write my report on the event and let you know how I got on. Hopefully not from a hospital bed. Don't panic Mum.
Until later...
Steve x x
Friday 28 May 2010
Just about to jump down a gorge!
A little daunting I must say. But I'm committed now. I've made my plan of how I'm going to so it. I'd like to think I can just run and jump off but who am I kidding, they're gonna have to wrestle me over the edge. Screaming probably. I just hope I don't humiliate myself in any way. I'm also concerned about my trousers splitting but its a long story.
Wednesday 12 May 2010
You can take the boys out of surrey...
...but you can't take surrey out of the boys! More on that later, as there is soooo much to tell!
Its seems like a life time since we got time to write some rubbish on here, if fact it was only a week and a half ago, but what a week and a half that has been. We have been all the way up to the most northern point of NZ, stopping of at the bay of islands, where there is nothing else to do that get on a boat or play golf on one of the most picturesque golf courses i have ever seen. Those you know me will realise that my knowledge of golf courses is a little limited if even, non existant, but it beats both Cranleigh golf and leasuire ( or whatever its now called) and Little Hamtons' world class crazy golf/pitch and put, despite the lack of the train through the middle of hole 4. We, as had become normal did neither of these must do activities. The weather was crap so it was pointless getting on the water tho i think it was the cost which put us off most, but we did get closer to the golfing part. We walked into the club house, asked about the price, and then walked out quicker than a sheep falling off a mountain ledge. ( don't ask)
We have also seen lots of other beautiful things, and that is what NZ is, BEAUTIFUL! My highlight, if you care, was wallowing in a thermal stream today. Hot stream met cold and you could choose to poach your self, be comfortable, or really cold. We did all. And best of all, it was FREE and very natural!
So, why cant you take surrey out of the boys.. i shall explain...
Our camper van is mental. Its a 4 berth, the type that retired folk use when they travel around holding up the M4 on a rainy British summers day. We have a shower, toilet, kitchen similar to most uni halls operations, and of course 2 front seats and an entertaining area/bed, and another bed.. Most backpackers squeeze into a tiny van, but we are not like most backpackers, cos we are from surrey darling.
In NZ you do a lot of driving, and that really is one of the things to 'do'. A plus side of this is that you drive past, or in our case drive into, a lot of vineyards. While in these we have taken it upon our selves to learn as much as we can about our beloved wine, as well as divulging, far to many times to remembers, how, while we are just 23, we love wine and port, and that we actually sometimes stay in and have wine and cheese nights. We have had some odd looks, but we dont care, most are free tastings, and actually have some pretty good wines on offer. People have said that travels takes longer than you think when they are such small distances in NZ but they don't know why. We know why...we call into far to many vineyards, and pop into so many roadside stalls looking for perfect avocados.
Talking of food, we also eat very well, not a 'thing' that backpackers do. We met a German girl the other night whilst preparing our dinner food who had trundled into town with, from what i can remember,a piece of ham and no money in her bank account. I was in the middle of preparing fresh mussels, or moule mariniere if you are, like me, fluent in french. I was also in the middle of pouring white wine into the mussles, which later we had to drink other wise it would have been a waste. Most backpackers, given a bottle of wine wine, would never 'waste it' in food. She said you can get mussels from the beach for free.. i nearly told her where to go, tho Im sure it was an innocent mistake , Im sure she did not know we were from surrey and would never scavenge for food- our parents taught us that!!
This was not our first taste of mussels, we had had some lovely smoked mussels as a starter the other day, followed by Lamb chops, and a fruit salad to finish it off.. im sure we also followed it by a wee bit of port we had recently purchased!
So that's it, that's why you can take the boys out of surrey but you , in no way, can take surrey out of the boys. James' dad gave him some advice, sleep rough, but eat well. We say... do nothing rough and eat very, very, very well! We ceratinly dont want to start following the first part of the mantra anytime soon.
I must go now, we have a 5 star holiday park to check into and those oysters need to be eaten.
much love
jonny xxx
Its seems like a life time since we got time to write some rubbish on here, if fact it was only a week and a half ago, but what a week and a half that has been. We have been all the way up to the most northern point of NZ, stopping of at the bay of islands, where there is nothing else to do that get on a boat or play golf on one of the most picturesque golf courses i have ever seen. Those you know me will realise that my knowledge of golf courses is a little limited if even, non existant, but it beats both Cranleigh golf and leasuire ( or whatever its now called) and Little Hamtons' world class crazy golf/pitch and put, despite the lack of the train through the middle of hole 4. We, as had become normal did neither of these must do activities. The weather was crap so it was pointless getting on the water tho i think it was the cost which put us off most, but we did get closer to the golfing part. We walked into the club house, asked about the price, and then walked out quicker than a sheep falling off a mountain ledge. ( don't ask)
We have also seen lots of other beautiful things, and that is what NZ is, BEAUTIFUL! My highlight, if you care, was wallowing in a thermal stream today. Hot stream met cold and you could choose to poach your self, be comfortable, or really cold. We did all. And best of all, it was FREE and very natural!
So, why cant you take surrey out of the boys.. i shall explain...
Our camper van is mental. Its a 4 berth, the type that retired folk use when they travel around holding up the M4 on a rainy British summers day. We have a shower, toilet, kitchen similar to most uni halls operations, and of course 2 front seats and an entertaining area/bed, and another bed.. Most backpackers squeeze into a tiny van, but we are not like most backpackers, cos we are from surrey darling.
In NZ you do a lot of driving, and that really is one of the things to 'do'. A plus side of this is that you drive past, or in our case drive into, a lot of vineyards. While in these we have taken it upon our selves to learn as much as we can about our beloved wine, as well as divulging, far to many times to remembers, how, while we are just 23, we love wine and port, and that we actually sometimes stay in and have wine and cheese nights. We have had some odd looks, but we dont care, most are free tastings, and actually have some pretty good wines on offer. People have said that travels takes longer than you think when they are such small distances in NZ but they don't know why. We know why...we call into far to many vineyards, and pop into so many roadside stalls looking for perfect avocados.
Talking of food, we also eat very well, not a 'thing' that backpackers do. We met a German girl the other night whilst preparing our dinner food who had trundled into town with, from what i can remember,a piece of ham and no money in her bank account. I was in the middle of preparing fresh mussels, or moule mariniere if you are, like me, fluent in french. I was also in the middle of pouring white wine into the mussles, which later we had to drink other wise it would have been a waste. Most backpackers, given a bottle of wine wine, would never 'waste it' in food. She said you can get mussels from the beach for free.. i nearly told her where to go, tho Im sure it was an innocent mistake , Im sure she did not know we were from surrey and would never scavenge for food- our parents taught us that!!
This was not our first taste of mussels, we had had some lovely smoked mussels as a starter the other day, followed by Lamb chops, and a fruit salad to finish it off.. im sure we also followed it by a wee bit of port we had recently purchased!
So that's it, that's why you can take the boys out of surrey but you , in no way, can take surrey out of the boys. James' dad gave him some advice, sleep rough, but eat well. We say... do nothing rough and eat very, very, very well! We ceratinly dont want to start following the first part of the mantra anytime soon.
I must go now, we have a 5 star holiday park to check into and those oysters need to be eaten.
much love
jonny xxx
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