tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51375630199974825932024-03-05T17:10:05.727-08:00Damo and Vikki's Round the World Trip!A travel blog featuring our round the world trip to USA, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878700057741279017noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137563019997482593.post-7977889763717296892016-03-13T13:40:00.002-07:002016-03-13T13:40:58.365-07:00Melbourne October 2015<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We spent 4 days in Melbourne, travelling in my brother's van which we drove from Sydney! The drive takes around 9 hours, and the drive is quite boring, there wasn't much to see other than fields and squished kangaroos on the side of the road! :-(<br />
We made one stop in a town called Goulburn, as they have a huge statue of a sheep called the Big Merino!<br />
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Once we arrived we found our hotel and checked in. It was called the Tune Hotel, which was cheap and in a great location to walk into the city.<br />
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The next morning we headed out and went for breakfast in a cafe opposite the hotel. We had been told the coffee in Melbourne was awesome and it definitely was, double shots come as standard! Yummmmm!<br />
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After breakfast we headed down to the State Library, where we joined the 'I'm Free' walking tour, which we had picked up a leaflet for in our hotel. The tour took us to a few places including the old Melbourne jail, Carlton Gardens and Chinatown, and we learned a bit about the history of Melbourne along the way.<br />
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The tour guide then took us to some small 'laneways' where there was loads of street art. We stopped to take a few photos as the art was awesome, and before we knew it we had lost our group! Oops!!</div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">We made our own way to Hosier Lane, which is probably the most well known street art laneway in Melbourne. We loved this place, it was awesome for taking photos!</span></div>
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We weren't sure where else the tour would have taken us and we felt kind of bad that we weren't there to tip the tour guide at the end, but he shouldn't of been in such a hurry, haha!</div>
We found our way back to the State Library and thought we'd take a look inside to see Ned Kelly's armour and his 'death mask.' We had a figure of Ned Kelly where we worked at Madame Tussauds so it was interesting for us to see!<br />
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We decided to get the tram down to St Kilda beach, as you can see penguins there at sunset, but it was freezing! So we had a look at Luna Park and the beach then headed back to get some warmer clothes on! Luckily we had bought 'Myki' cards for the public transport and it didn't go over a certain amount per day.<br />
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When we arrived back just before sunset there were loads of people all heading down towards the pier, and once we got down there it was literally full of tourists waiting to see the penguins!</div>
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At first the odd few penguins started to swim up to the shore, and make their way under the boardwalk where we were standing, to their homes in the rocks.<br />
There were volunteers down there who help you spot the penguins and have red lights to point them out without hurting their eyes. You couldn't use flash for this reason so it was a little hard to get a photo but as it got dark there were penguins everywhere!<br />
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The following day we had a walk up to the Queen Victoria Markets to have a look around there, we also went in a coffee shop called Market Lane Coffee which we had heard was a good one! Instead of our usual lattes we ended up trying some weird flavoured coffees with no milk, which were.. interesting!</div>
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We then had another wander around and ending up going for breakfast on Degraves Street. We then headed over the bridge which took us to the Eureka Skydeck, and we went up to the viewing area for some great views over the city.<br />
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We headed back to the hotel, seeing a few random things along the way including a limo done up like Bumblebee from the Transformers and some funny looking statues!<br />
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That evening we went to a dinner show called Draculas! It was just a short walk from the hotel and we expected it to be a bit tacky but it was really fun, the show was really good and the food was yum!<br />
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The next morning we decided to go on the Neighbours tour, although we both hadn't watched it since we were kids! We checked out of the hotel and headed down to a different part of the city where we had to meet. Our guide was an Irish guy called Gerry and he knew literally everything about the show! He drove us about 40 minutes from the city to the cul-de-sac which is used as Ramsey Street, which is actually called Pin Oak Court. He gave us some props for photos, like the Ramsey Street sign and a school bag, and an old cast member (Stingray?) turned up to meet us too.<br />
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We then drove just a bit further down the road which took us to the studios. We saw another cast member leaving in his car as we drove in, then had photos taken with the 'Welcome to Erinsborough' sign and some other places from the show like shops and a car garage.<br />
It was an awesome tour and we really enjoyed it even though we didn't know the characters being talked about most of the time!<br />
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After the tour we arrived back in Melbourne, but before setting off on the Great Ocean Road we decided to drive down to Brighton Beach. We had seen a fridge magnet in a shop which had photos of some cute looking beach huts so we Googled to find out where they were!<br />
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Every single beach hut was painted differently, our favourite had an Aussie flag on it! :-)<br />
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We then set off for the Great Ocean Road, which you can read about soon...!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878700057741279017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137563019997482593.post-89820736310628945052016-03-06T05:09:00.000-08:002016-03-06T05:09:11.229-08:00Blue Mountains April 2015<div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961);">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">We spent 3 days in the Blue Mountains and decided to travel by train as it's so easy to get to from Sydney, and with our Opal cards it was so cheap. It actually only cost about dollar more than a usual trip into the city for us, which takes 10 minutes!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The train to Katoomba took 2 hours from Central, and as soon as we got off the coldness hit us, it's the coldest temperature we've felt since arriving in Australia by far! We knew it would be colder, but not that cold! I didn't even bring my coat, what an idiot!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We stayed at the Blue Mountains YHA, which we walked down the main street to get to from the station. Our room was small but nice, and it had radiators which I've not seen in Australia before!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We had worked out a bit of an itinerary but we totally changed it and decided to go and check out Govetts Leap first! This was in Blackheath, which was a couple more stops down the line on the train, so we headed back up to the station. </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This cost nothing on our Opal cards, maybe because we'd already travelled from the city so it counted as a transfer, who knows!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">When we arrived in Blackheath we noticed that a storm was coming over! Great! It got really windy and started to rain so we went for a coffee and luckily when we came out it had passed!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We made our way down the road towards Govetts Leap, til we got to the start of a walking track to the lookout (which was kind of further than we thought!)</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">We finally arrived at the lookout, this was our first view of the Blue Mountains (here I am trying to not look freezing!)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">From the lookout we could also see Bridal Veil Falls, and we decided to walk along to them.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We followed the steps down, which took us across the top of the falls. As we got there another storm cloud came over and we got soaked but again it passed really quickly and we saw a nice little rainbow in the valley!</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">After that we headed back and got the train back to Katoomba, that night we went to an amazing Thai restaurant in the town then went to the cinema and it was freezing in there too!!</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The following morning we put on as many layers as we possibly could and set off down the road to Scenic World. This is the main touristy part of the Blue Mountains, and it features the Skyway - like a giant cable car over the valley, the world's steepest railway, and a cableway which both go down into the valley and back up. From here you get great views of the famous 'Three Sisters.'</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">After getting our tickets we got the skyway over to the East station and back again, getting some great views of the Three Sisters and a huge waterfall. It had a glass floor which was great for seeing the valley below!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We then went on the steep railway to the valley floor, which was not as fast or scary as I remember it being when I came here as a kid! Once we reached the bottom we walked all around the boardwalk through the forest, which was beautiful. We headed back up on the cableway.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">After having some lunch we walked down the 'Furber Steps,' another way of getting to the bottom but with lots of different lookouts and close-up views of the waterfall.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We came back up on the railway, which was fun to do backwards! Back at the main area where the giftshop is there was a bit of a commotion and a huge group of Indian people following someone around, a girl that worked there told us that the man being followed was a guru!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We then left Scenic World and did a bit of the Prince Henry clifftop walk, which took us to Echo Point for closer views of the Three Sisters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We carried on a little further and were going to continue on to the Leura Cascades but by now we were tired of walking! We decided to do that part the following day so 1km before the cascades we joined the main road which was a short journey back to the hostel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The following morning we checked out of the hostel and stored our backpacks in a locker while we headed back down to see the Leura Cascades. I am so glad we saw these as they were so beautiful! The walk seemed longer than 1km to reach them though and we wondered if we'd got lost at one point!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Once we'd completed the walk, which was a loop, we collected our bags and headed back to Katoomba station, and we were back in Sydney by that afternoon!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This itinerary worked pretty well for the time we had and I'd definitely recommend it! </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">If you are pl</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">a</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">nning a trip and have any questions just ask! :-)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Useful links:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.yha.com.au/hostels/nsw/blue-mountains/katoomba/" target="_blank">Blue Mountains YHA</a> - We stayed for 2 nights in a double private room which was great, the hostel had a huge kitchen and social area!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.scenicworld.com.au/" target="_blank">Scenic World</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.sydneytrains.info/" target="_blank">Sydney Trains</a> - for timetables and fares, i think with our Opal cards the journey from Sydney cost us $5.80 each way.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878700057741279017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137563019997482593.post-50827742588225819292015-06-21T04:46:00.000-07:002015-06-21T04:46:36.127-07:00Cambodia Highlights!<div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We travelled to Cambodia after spending nearly two weeks in Vietnam (which you can <a href="http://damoandvikki.blogspot.com/2015/05/vietnam-highlights.html" target="_blank">read about here</a>!) We got the Giant Ibis bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh, which took 7 hours. This included a couple of stops and crossing the border and getting our passports stamped!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As soon as we crossed the border into Cambodia you could see that it was different to Vietnam, the roads became more like dirt tracks, it’s a lot less developed. As we got into the city it was a lot more built up with proper roads, there were loads of monuments and temples, and photos of the king!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We checked into our hotel, Teahouse Asian Urban Resort which was so nice for the price we paid! We then walked to get some dinner and ended up in an Aussie bar, while we were eating there was a power cut and the staff all bought round candles so that was fun!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following day we got a tuk-tuk from outside the hotel, which is basically a motorbike with a seating area attached to the back, and is the most popular way of getting around!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We got the tuk-tuk to the Killing Fields and the Genocide Museum, which were our main reasons for visiting Phnom Penh.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">During the 1970’s, Cambodia was ruled by Pol Pot, who tried to enforce his communist dream along with his army of soldiers the Khmer Rouge. Anyone who stood in their way was killed. They would target anyone who was well educated, spoke another language, they would even kill people who wore glasses as this meant they were intelligent! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Thousands of people were taken to the <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">Cheoung Ek </span>Killing Fields where they were brutally murdered and thrown into mass-graves. The area is now a memorial and educational centre, and as horrible and incredibly sad it was, it was an amazing experience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It took about half an hour to get to the Killing Fields and entry was $6 which included an audio tour.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The first thing you see is a stupa which is a memorial to all those that died. As you can see from the outside it's a beautiful memorial, but when you look inside you see the true scale of the genocide, with mass victims skulls preserved in glass cabinets from floor to ceiling.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When taking a closer look at the skulls, you could see some of the injuries sustained, and we even saw one which had the remains of a blindfold still tied around it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As you walk around, the audio guide tells stories from survivors and </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">some of the things were so hard to picture, as a lot of the structures were destroyed when it all ended.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It's</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> so hard to believe that all these awful events happened less than 40 years ago right on the spot where you're stood.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We learned of the horrific way in which some of the victims were killed, for example throats being cut with sharp palm leaves just to save on bullets, and children being beat against a tree (known as the killing tree) all this before being thrown into a mass grave.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The mass graves were found and dug up back in 1980, but after heavy rain pieces of clothing, bones and even teeth still make their way to the surface.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After all the sad stories and loss of so many lives, it's still a great way to be educated about this country's important history and be able to show your respect for the victims.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our tuk-tuk driver then took us to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, which was originally a high school that the Khmer Rouge converted into a prison which they called S-21. Thousands of people were bought there and tortured before being sent off to the Killing Fields.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Inside the museum were 4 buildings, with walls and walls of photos of the victims, lots of cells and some of the equipment they used to torture people.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There were even signs which said “no laughing” (as if you would!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There were around 17,000 people imprisoned at Tuol Sleng. From this outstanding number of people there were only 12 known survivors, of which there are only 3 still alive today.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Upon exiting the last building, to our surprise it was a great honour to be able to meet one of these 3 extraordinary people, and even purchase his book!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That night we went to a place called The Flicks, which is a cinema with beds where you can even order takeaway to be bought to you! The tuk-tuk driver had no idea where the place was, as it’s an expat place so I guess locals don’t really know it, he had to keep stopping and asking his friends!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next day was spent travelling to Siem Reap which took 7 hours on the bus!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Siem Reap is the home of the temples of Angkor Wat, a huge complex of temples which were built hundreds of years ago. Some even date back to the 9th century! They were then abandoned for many years, and some became overgrown by the jungle, before being re-discovered many years later.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We stayed at a lovely place called Schein Guesthouse, and the owner was really helpful with which temples we should see and the order we should do it all in.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We decided on the large circuit the first day and the small circuit the second day, as it saves the more impressive and well-known temples til last. We got a 3-day pass, which you can use within 7 days, so we could go and see some more further out temples on another day as well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On the first day we saw 7 different temples, some were huge and some tiny! They are amazing to see and I have hundreds of photos from the first day alone so below are a small selection!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">(Day 1 temples seen were: Prasat Kravan, Pre Rup, East Mebon, Ta Som, Neak Pean, Krol Ko and Preah Khan)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">At one of the temples we bought some fridge magnets from a little girl saying “3 for 2 dollar,” I was like ooh that’s cheap! Damo thought it was a dollar each so gave her $3 for them, then a younger girl came over saying “4 for 1 dollar!” I was like damn we got ripped off!! Haha!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following day we left the guesthouse at 4.45am so that we could watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat! When we arrived there were already hundreds of other people making their way towards the temple in the dark.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We got to the lake in front of the temple and stood behind a couple of Chinese tourists, it was a great spot and we got some great photos! The tourists in front of us kept turning round and taking photos of me and I have no idea why!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Damo took this photo of all the people also watching the sunrise!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After watching the sunrise we met back with our tuk-tuk driver and got some breakfast then headed towards Angkor Thom. On the way we stopped at Phnom Bakheng which is a hill a lot of people climb to watch the sunset. There was a great view from the top although we weren’t too bothered about watching the sunset from there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After making our way back down we stopped at a small temple with really steep steps called Baksei Chamkrong, then went through the South Gate of Angkor Thom. When we came through the gate we saw this pick-up packed full of kids!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We continued on to Bayon, which has lots of carved faces. When we arrived there we saw that you could ride an elephant round the temple for $15! I wasn’t sure if it was cruel or not but Damo really wanted to do it so we did. Elephants are my favourite animal! It was a brilliant experience and we bought and fed our elephant lots of pineapples too!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I have since read online that elephants are treated better in Cambodia than they are in Thailand, but I’m not convinced and I don’t know if I’d do it again. We have booked to go to an elephant rehabilitation centre when we go to Thailand and i’m so excited for that!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After the ride around it, we went inside Bayon temple. It was really busy but was so awesome to see all the carvings in the walls and the giant faces.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After leaving Bayon we saw a huge Buddah, there were lots of insence sticks burning and some ladies sat there, I thought if I went over they might bless me or something but all they did was tie a bracelet round my wrist and make me pay $2 for it!! What a scam haha!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then walked past Baphuon, looked at the Terrace of the Elephants and walked along to the Terrace of the Leper King. Met back with our tuk-tuk driver and left Angkor Thom through the Victory Gate, where he took this photo of us!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then went to see 2 smaller temples opposite each other, Thommanom and Chau Say Thevada, and then stopped at Ta Keo, at this point we were getting a bit templed-out so we just took a photo of it. After that we went to Ta Prohm, which is the temple from Tomb Raider! This one was really cool as it has been taken over by the jungle and has trees growing out of it in a few places.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then stopped at the small but pretty Banteay Kdei, then our tuk-tuk driver took us to a food stall and bought us some frog! It was stuffed with spices and it was actually so nice! Some cute dogs smelt it and wanted some too!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We finished back at Angkor Wat, which we probably should of explored first, as by this point we had had enough really! But we still spent a while looking round it all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That evening our driver took us to a dinner show that he had told us about. It was brilliant, there was a huge buffet and traditional dancing which I had really wanted to see. He didn’t even charge us anything for the tuk-tuk ride and bought us a traditional Cambodian scarf each as a gift! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following day we had wanted a break from looking at temples, but a few other people from our guesthouse had arranged a trip to see some of them a bit further out. This included a trip to Banteay Srei, which I really wanted to see, so we decided to go along too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Unfortunately this meant being stuck on an uncomfortable minivan all day with mainly nice people but also a couple of mega annoying ones!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">First stop was the Rolous group, some of the earliest temples, which we found a little boring but as they were on the way I think it made sense to stop there. They were also a lot quieter then the main Angkor temples. We saw Preah Ko, Bakong and Prasat Prei Monti.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As we walked up to the second temple, there were some ladies kneeling on the grass with knives, our guide made a joke about us witnessing a Cambodian lawn mower in action! Literally that is how they cut the grass!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then had a load of kids running up to us trying to sell us some bananas, “You buy lady, 1 dollar 1 dollar!”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then travelled for 1 hour to get to Beng Mealea, which the owner of the guesthouse had told us was his favourite temple. It was a jungle temple like Ta Prohm, but a lot more of it had collapsed and it was fun climbing over all the rocks!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We saw a giant millipede, a massive spider and a chipmunk looking animal in a tree! As we left the temple we saw some kids jumping from some trees into a lake, some of them were climbing so high up! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We had some lunch then travelled to Banteay Srei, I had been looking forward to this one all day but it wasn’t as great as I thought it would be, maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for more temples, it also didn’t help that the sun was in a bit of an annoying place! It was really crowded too. The carvings on this temple are so amazing and detailed though, and it was awesome to see them!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We finished the trip at a temple on the top of a mountain called Phnom Bok, which is rarely visited by tourists. It wasn’t anything special at all. Our guide also told us it was time to go back down before the sun had even set which was annoying, and as we made our way to the bottom we could see that the sky was changing to pretty colours!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That night and the following night we got a tuk-tuk to Pub Street, which is the main nightlife area in Siem Reap, and full of tourists. There were loads of places to eat and some night markets too. There were a lot of annoying tuk-tuk drivers that just follow you around but the atmosphere was great!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We flew back to Ho Chi Minh City with Cambodia Angkor Air, which only took 1 hour rather than getting a 12 hour bus! We loved Cambodia, it is such an amazing country and I would recommend anyone to visit!! As always if you are planning a trip or have any questions then feel free to ask! :-)</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878700057741279017noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137563019997482593.post-66285800937503809012015-05-25T22:53:00.000-07:002015-09-19T20:02:57.653-07:00Vietnam Highlights!<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiheLdpYDa5nnXCTw4c-wmsANKhIxpRYSBRdSM51ZiXltLGUkmtyrlFiSHH9oFF-DS9QhU-UVIB_vdpM8YfmrNEnev16dwW_AnPhw-SmMBK9hno_yHmzeDNhn3pMpJOUgW5aVTVgyKgj4CM/s1600/vietnamtitle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="484" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiheLdpYDa5nnXCTw4c-wmsANKhIxpRYSBRdSM51ZiXltLGUkmtyrlFiSHH9oFF-DS9QhU-UVIB_vdpM8YfmrNEnev16dwW_AnPhw-SmMBK9hno_yHmzeDNhn3pMpJOUgW5aVTVgyKgj4CM/s640/vietnamtitle.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We visited Vietnam and Cambodia in November 2014, originally we were going to visit South East Asia on the way back to the UK, but we decided to extend our time in Australia by applying for a working holiday visa! (You have to be out of the country when you apply.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This meant we could be away for an extra 6 months and also get jobs in Australia, woo!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We left on the 2nd November and flew to Ho Chi Minh City, then took another flight to Hanoi in the north. We spent all day travelling and finally checked into the hotel at midnight!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I woke up at 6am and this is what it looked like outside, I was so excited to get out there and explore!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We went for breakfast in the hotel and had sausage bacon and omelette which I didn’t expect to be eating in Vietnam! Then we set off! There were motorbikes everywhere and crossing the road was so scary! There were people all over the street, selling things, making food, and eating!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We headed for Hoan Kiem Lake, also known as the Lake of the restored sword and decided to walk around it. We got stopped by some students who were being filmed and wanted to ask us some questions to practice their English, they were so lovely and we chatted to them for ages! I think they only understood about 10% of what we said though!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We headed into a temple across the road and had a look around it, then carried on round the lake till we reached Ngoc Son Temple. this temple was on an island on the lake and cost 20,000 dong to go in. (Which is about 50p!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We had to cross a red bridge to get there and it was really pretty.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then went and sat at a street food place and I tried Pho for the first time! I had a beef version (Pho bo) which is the most popular and it was so yum! And only 30,000 dong! Damo had noodles and a beer, we then went and bought some pineapple from a lady selling them on the street for 10,000 dong and she cut it all up as well. So cheap!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After that we made our way down to the Hoa Lo prison, better known as the "Hanoi Hilton" which is what it was called by the American prisoners of war during the Vietnam war. A lot of the building has been knocked down but it was still really interesting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then headed back to the lake and saw the Thang Long Water Puppet theatre so we decided to go and watch the show. It was definitely different!! Lots of strange singing and a story being told which I didn't follow at all! It was fun though and I'm glad we saw it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next day we walked to the Military Museum, where we saw captured US planes, helicopters, tanks, guns and bombs from the war. We then carried on walking up the road and saw the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, which was closed for some reason, and went to the One Pillar Pagoda. We were also going to go to the Presidential Palace but we couldn't find it! We then went into the botanic gardens, and went to look at another temple called Chua Tran Quoc. By then our feet were aching so we went back to the hotel!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That evening we went on a food tour which we booked through our hotel. We had a guide who met us at the hotel and it was just us and 1 other couple who were Irish and were really nice we had such a laugh with them! We went round loads of different places eating so much food! It started at 6pm and we didn't get back till after 11 even though it was meant to finish at 9! We drank bia hoi (beer!) and ate pho, vermicelli with eel, banana flower salad, rice paper rolls, sticky rice and loads more. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We also had some dipping sauce which we then added a tiny drop of oil to, and it completely changed the flavour. We then got shown where it came from - a cockroach looking bug! Urgh! The essence is what the male bug produces to attract females! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We finished by heading into a coffee shop which was down a small alleyway. It was packed full of people and everyone was eating sunflower seeds and throwing the shells on the floor, it seemed like it was the thing to do so we did it too! We then got given egg coffee, which sounds gross but it was my favourite thing we had on the tour!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next day we got picked up from the hotel for our trip to Halong Bay. We did the trip with Golden Lotus who were great as well as a really good price compared to some of them! We did a 2 night trip, with 1 night being on the boat and 1 night on Cat Ba Island.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From Hanoi we had around 4 hours on a coach then we all got on a small boat which transferred us to our main boat where we would be sleeping that night. It was so nice, I kind of expected it to be like the boat we went on in the Whitsundays but it was 100 times nicer than that!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After checking into our rooms and having some lunch we sailed towards the "Surprising Cave" looking at loads of the rocks on the way including some that looked like 2 chickens kissing! It is such a beautiful place!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The cave was awesome, there were 3 different sections and each one was bigger and more impressive than the one before, which is how the cave gets it's name. There was also an amazing viewpoint out over the islands.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then went to a beach where there were a few wild monkeys and another viewpoint which we walked up to. We walked back down and just chilled on the beach and went in the sea.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That evening we made rice paper rolls then after dinner had a go at squid fishing. Damo was the only person that managed to catch one, he pulled it out the water and it inked all over my face and hair!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following morning we went kayaking around the islands which was amazing although we got rained on! We then transferred to a smaller boat with one other couple, as the rest of the people on our boat were just doing a 1 night trip but we were doing 2 nights.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We got taken to Cat Ba island, where we got on bikes and cycled to a village which was great! We stopped at a house on the way which was made of clay and straw and got given a shot of rice wine by the owner! Carried on a bit further then got off our bikes and went hiking through a forest and cave.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After heading back to the boat for lunch we went to Monkey Island. The monkeys here were a bit cheeky and funny to watch, but they also steal things so we had to be careful of our bags! I had a banana in my bag so Damo gave it to a monkey and we also gave him our bottle of water!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A lady was stood on the beach taking photos of them, when another monkey that she didn't see came walking up to her and bit her on the leg! She fell backwards with the shock of it and literally did a roly poly down the beach! We felt so bad for her but it was kind of funny, oops!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After that we got back on the boat and made our way to the main Cat Ba town, as we made our way through the harbour there was a huge floating village, one of the guys on our boat told us that some people spend their whole lives there and never live on land! Crazy! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We had a short bus ride to our hotel, the Sea Pearl. The room was huge and had an awesome view of the beach! We had a bit of time before we had to meet back for dinner so we went for a walk down the road and got a 10 minute back massage for 20,000 dong! It was so good that we decided to get foot massages as well! We then went for dinner then had 2 for 1 cocktails in the bar downstairs with another couple from our boat!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next day we went for breakfast at the hotel then spent the day travelling back to Hanoi which was 2 boats then 1 bus. We went for dinner at a place called New Day as we’d heard lots about it and it was so nice! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After our final night in Hanoi we flew back down to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and got a taxi to our hotel, Duc Vuong! We chose the hotel because it’s where my niece stayed when she was there with her boyfriend. The hotel was amazing, the second our taxi pulled up the staff were there getting our bags for us and they were all so friendly! The hotel had amazing free breakfasts and an awesome rooftop bar with great city views!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We booked a load of day trips through the hotel as they were all only a few dollars each, and on our first full day we did a city tour in the morning. This took us to the War Remnants Museum, which had lots of things from the Vietnam War (a bit like the one we went to in Hanoi.) There was a big chinook, planes, tanks, guns! We had a group of about 30 teenagers ask for a photo with us and it felt like we were famous!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There was also lots to see inside, including some awful stuff like how prisoners were tortured and photos of victims of Agent Orange - a chemical which was dropped on the jungle by the US soldiers during the war. It was used to clear the jungle, to expose the Viet Cong who were hiding in there, but exposure to the chemical caused people to have children and even grandchildren born with deformities. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There were awful photos and even a fetus in a jar with 2 heads which was slightly disturbing!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then went to a place where we tried some weasel coffee, which is a delicacy in Vietnam and is basically made from coffee beans which have been eaten and pooped back out by weasels! Apparently they choose the nicest beans to eat and something happens to them in their stomachs which makes it nicer than normal coffee!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After that we headed to a big Chinese temple, and the final place we visited was a huge wholesale market. We soon realised that the roads here were even busier and packed with motorbikes than the ones in Hanoi!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This ice cream shop had an interesting name.. so we thought we'd go in to sample some Fanny and it was yum!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After that we headed to the Saigon Skydeck, which is at the top of the Bitexco Financial Tower - the tallest building in the city. The views were great and we stayed up there til it got dark so we could get photos of the sunset and the city all lit up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then went back and watched the Stoke football game in a place called the Spotted Cow, which was just like being in a bar back in Sydney or at home! We even had a burger and fajitas for dinner, which I think I was a bit excited about, judging by my face lol.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next day we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels, which are a huge network of underground tunnels that were used by the Viet Cong during the war. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It took a few hours to get there and we stopped on the way at the beautiful and huge Cao Dai Temple! The Cao Dai is a fairly new religion which is made up of 4 different religions all praying together, and originated right at this temple. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We were there in time to watch the 12pm service. You had to take off your shoes and leave them a few metres from the doors and walk over the ground which felt like red hot lava from the sun to get inside! We felt kind of like we were intruding but there were so many other tourists there and I guess they were used to it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After the service we headed back to our tour bus and carried on the journey to the tunnels. Our tour guide, who was called Mr Bean, was hilarious and had so many stories although I’m not sure how many were actually true! He had moved to the US at a young age and ended up coming back to fight with the Americans against Vietnam, which was interesting to hear about and awesome that he had actually been there and knew what really happened.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After arriving at the tunnels the first thing was watching an awful quality 10 minute video, I have no idea what it was about! We then got to see some of the traps used, and got to climb into a small tunnel entrance. We then had the opportunity to shoot a gun for only a few dollars, most people did it but it kind of scared me so I just watched Damo do it. We then had the opportunity to go through the tunnels, which have actually been made bigger to allow for tourists to fit through them!! I was not going to do this as the thought of it made me feel totally claustrophobic but I went back and did the first part, and luckily there were chances to get out every few metres! We really enjoyed it here and I liked it a lot more than I thought I would!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following day we visited the Ben Thanh market which was so funny, the shop assistants grab you and try to get you to buy stuff, I was just ignoring them but Damo was giving them all answers which made it even funnier, we didn’t even buy 1 thing as all the prices were doubled compared to other places!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That night we had a ‘city night life’ tour booked which included a water puppet show like the one in Hanoi, a cyclo through the city to the Saigon river where we got on a boat for a dinner cruise! There were lots of food courses and some traditional dancing as well so it was great!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next tour we did was to Can Gio island, which is full of monkeys and crocodiles! After seeing the lady get bitten by the monkey in Halong Bay I was a bit nervous, but these monkeys were a lot more friendly and playful. The guide held up some peanuts and they climbed all up Damo’s back and onto his head!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Next we headed over a really rickety-looking bridge which had planks of wood missing from it - and below us were a load of huge crocodiles!! Y</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ou could dangle a stick over the edge with an eel on the end and they jump out the water and grab the eel!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Every so often there would be a big commotion in the water where they were fighting with each other! Eeeek!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then got a speedboat through the mangroves and learned a bit about how the Viet Cong had hidden there. We then arrived back to where the monkeys were and got to spend a bit more time with them. It was an awesome day trip, we loved it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The final tour we did was a day trip to the Mekong Delta. We had read that to make the most of seeing it you really need to do an overnight trip but we only had time to fit in the 1-day, and it was the most disorganised tour ever!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Before we had even left, we had to change buses 3 times! Finally we were on our way and our tour guide started talking on a microphone which was really muffled, plus he was a lot harder to understand than the guides we’d had on the other trips, so I have no idea what he was talking about! I was desperate for a wee the whole journey and when we finally got off the coach and I found a toilet this is what it looked like!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then got onto a boat and went to the floating market. It’s packed early in the morning, but when we were there it was just a few boats selling stuff. We pulled up next to one selling fruit and we could climb onto the boat to have a look! We also got to try some jackfruit and some mango.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We got off the boat at a village where we watched people making things like rice paper, coconut candy, rice wine and things that tasted like sugar puffs! I guess it was all just to get us to buy stuff but it was nice to try it all! Damo even tried some of this snake wine!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then carried on to another place which had bees and we tried some honey tea. Then we had some lunch which was the tiniest portion ever and ‘soup’ which was basically hot water with 3 tiny pieces of carrot in it! Haha! In our itinerary it said we then go cycling, but half the bikes were broken so we walked instead and chatted to 2 guys from Sunderland who were really nice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then got onto smaller rowing boats and put on traditional Vietnamese hats to go down a smaller part of the river!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We arrived at what seemed like someone’s house and were given more fruit and tea, then watched some “traditional singing” which was really odd, we had no idea what was happening and at one point a man was pretending to go fishing and he got out a plastic wind up Nemo toy, it was super weird.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We left the house round the back and saw a monkey chained up in a tiny cage, he was trying to pull the chain off his neck and was totally distressed, it was horrible and I wanted to cry I felt so bad for him :-(</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We got back onto the bigger boat which took us back to the bus. Some people were doing the 2-day trip so those of us doing the 1-day were changed to a different bus to get home. It was already full of people and the man who seemed to be a tour guide for the other group shouted and swore at our tour guide because they had apparently been waiting for us for 2 hours! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Overall I’m glad we saw the Mekong Delta but it was our least favourite trip by far!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That night we went and got a Banh Mi, which is basically a Vietnamese pork roll, from where is meant to serve the best Banh Mi in Saigon! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The place doesn't really have a queueing system and we just had to kind of wait till we were served, paid and got our sandwiches in bags. We took them back to the hotel to eat them and they were so good! Although maybe I shouldn’t of got chilli as it was the hottest thing I’ve ever eaten!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following day we caught the Giant Ibis bus to <a href="http://damoandvikki.blogspot.com/2015/06/cambodia-highlights.html" target="_blank">Cambodia</a>!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">At the end of our Cambodia trip we came back to the Duc Vuong Hotel for 1 night before flying back to Sydney. On our last day we went to a spa on our road called Beautiful Saigon Spa for full body massages, to use up the rest of our dong! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our flight wasn't till the evening so we had some drinks in the hotel's rooftop bar, then it started hammering down! When we went downstairs to get our taxi to the airport, the road had literally turned into a river!</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878700057741279017noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137563019997482593.post-6823198672421838022015-03-26T20:17:00.000-07:002015-03-30T21:41:00.163-07:00Australia East Coast!<head><meta name="p:domain_verify" content="8956419f4103be1d5806e06988127493"/></head>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I didn’t think anything could beat New Zealand, but our East Coast trip was probably my favourite trip (so far!!!) We did so many amazing one-in-a-lifetime bucket list ticking-off things so this may be a long blog post - just warning you now!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After leaving New Zealand we arrived in Sydney on 11th July, where my brother, niece and her boyfriend met us at the airport! We got back to the house and were spending time with my brother’s kids (2 nephews and 1 niece) when my mum came walking down the stairs!!! My family are very good at surprise visits!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So I got to spend 3 weeks with my mum and family in Sydney, which included my birthday and my youngest nephew’s 1st birthday (on the same day!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Sydney is pretty cold in July! But we did loads, including taking the kids to Luna Park, the aquarium, Sky tower, and Taronga Zoo where we did ‘Roar and Snore’ which is where you get to camp at the zoo!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We also took my mum out on the whale watching boat! From the day we arrived we kept spotting whales splashing out at sea, so we decided it would be great to see them up close as well. The whales we saw were different to the ones we had seen in Kaikoura in New Zealand, these ones were Humpbacks and Southern Right whales.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My mum flew back to England on the 1st August, so we booked flights for the 5th up to Cairns, flying with Jetstar which isn’t as cheap as flights in Asia but was still not too bad! The thing I hate about budget airlines is when you book they then add on the price of taxes, baggage etc afterwards so it ends up costing way more than you originally thought!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For the whole of our trip we worked our way back down towards Sydney on the Greyhound buses, which are great! Loads of leg room, comfy leather reclining chairs, free wifi! We got hop on hop off passes which we booked online, then you can book your seats on the bus you want to catch the day before.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We had hop on hop off passes between Cairns and Sydney, but the first place we visited after landing in Cairns was Port Douglas, which is an hour north of Cairns. We decided to do our Great Barrier Reef trips from there, as a few people we had met had told us it was better! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We did 2 reef trips - the first was with Quicksilver, which was an hour and a half trip out to Agincourt Reef (part of the outer reef) and to a floating platform. From the platform you could snorkel, go on a semi-submersible boat and have lunch! The boat out there was very busy but I think a lot of people didn’t actually go snorkelling, as it never seemed that busy in the water. I think this is a popular choice for non swimmers as there is the semi-submersible boat. We went on it but it was nothing like actually being in the water!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The water was really rough on the way out, as the weather had turned a bit stormy and there were literally people spewing everywhere! I get seasick and had taken tablets and luckily I was ok! They also gave us ginger tablets so I took one of those too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following day we had booked a trip with a company called Wavelength, which was a smaller boat with a maximum of 30 people. Due to the sea being rough though it was cancelled, and we were transferred onto another boat called Calypso. It seemed the same as what we would have done with Wavelength - snorkelling at 3 different outer reef sites, I think mainly at Opal reef. This was even better than the day before! The reef is so beautiful and we saw so many colourful fish!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From Port Douglas we also did a tour with Daintree Discovery Tours, which took us to the Daintree Rainforest, Mossman Gorge, Cape Tribulation, Cassowary Falls, and a crocodile spotting river cruise! It was just us and 6 Kiwi ladies who were lovely! Our guide was a guy called Kim, who was so knowledgable but didn’t stop talking!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When we left Port Douglas we got transfers back to Cairns. The man in our hostel, Port O’Call lodge, was so friendly and funny and when our bus arrived he came running out with a red carpet and laid it down for us to walk on!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In Cairns we stayed at the Jack Backpackers, right above the Union Jack hotel. We got free dinners at this hostel and they were really nice!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">While we were in Cairns we went to the Esplanade and sunbathed at the lagoon, and went on a day trip on the Skyrail, which took us over the rainforest and to a village called Kuranda.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In Kuranda we visited the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary, where the butterflies come and land on you! We then went to the Kuranda Koala Gardens which was a wildlife park full of Australian animals. The best part about this place was that we got to cuddle a koala! I had been wanting to do it since well forever so I was so excited, we cuddled one called Tilly and she was so cute!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We also got to feed kangaroos, saw wombats, crocs, lizards, snakes and spiders.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After leaving Cairns we got our first Greyhound bus to Mission Beach. The reason for visiting here was to do a skydive, but for the whole 2 days we were there it rained! So we decided we will have to do it somewhere else (or Damo can, I don’t know if I’m too chicken to do it or not!!) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next destination was Townsville, while we were here we visited Reef HQ, an aquarium with a really cute turtle hospital! We climbed Castle Hill for an amazing view of the city and watched the sunset from up there too. We went to the seafront area called the Strand, swam in the sea and had lunch at a place called Longboard, where we spotted turtles in the sea!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From Townsville we also visited Billabong Sanctuary, which is an amazing sanctuary full of Australian animals, where you have loads of chances to get up close and interact with them. It’s much smaller than a zoo and you get to feed kangaroos, turtles, cassowaries, birds and if you pay extra can get photos holding a koala, wombat, snake or baby croc! There were also lots of talks and shows including dingoes, jumping crocs, and a bird show!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />The following day we got the ferry over to Magnetic Island, where we stayed for 2 nights at Bungalow Bay - a hostel with its own koala sanctuary! We got a deal which included 2 nights accommodation, entry to the sanctuary, a koala photo, snorkel gear, plus return ferry!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />The hostel was walking distance to a beach called Horseshoe Bay, we walked down to it and decided to hire a jet ski! I had a go at driving which was a bit scary but I loved it! That afternoon we also saw a man feeding loads of lorikeets some bread, he gave us some to hold and they surrounded us too! I love lorikeets, they are so pretty, but they totally scratched my arms up!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The koala park was really good, we got to hold a koala, a snake, a turtle, lizards and a parrot ate a seed from your mouth - if you timed it right you had a photo of the parrot kissing you!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We met two girls at breakfast called Becka and Kate and 2 guys at the park, Kish and Ash, and that afternoon we all went and did the forts walk, which was a good few hours but beautiful, amazing views and beaches, we even saw a wild koala in a tree which was amazing!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Becka, Kish and Ash were all heading to the Whitsundays next, which is what we were planning to do, and they were going on a boat called the Clipper, so we decided to get booked on it too as we all got on really well! So we travelled down to Airlie Beach where we spent 2 nights, then 2 nights on board the boat!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />We had heard that the Clipper had a reputation of being the party boat but it was pretty tame really, even though there were 54 of us on board! It had 2 slides that went from the boat into the sea and you could also jump from the deck which was loads of fun!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We also did an introductory scuba dive, which at $60 was the cheapest we had seen it. I'm so glad we did this, it was so relaxed as we went in from the beach, there were heaps of fish, and we even heard a whale singing which was incredible!! The second day we booked to do it again but this time it was going in backwards straight off the boat and for some reason I freaked out a bit and couldn't get my breathing right! I think because I couldn't touch the bottom which always makes me panic as I'm not a strong swimmer! So Damo did the second dive and I went for a snorkel instead!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We also did a trip to Whitehaven beach which has pure white sand and again is beautiful!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We arrived back to Airlie beach, and had booked the Greyhound with Becka for 11.55pm that night. So we hung around Airlie Beach for the day, with another girl we had met on the boat called Katie. We then got ready and went out for a couple of drinks, got a dominos and got on the coach! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The coach arrived into Agnes Water / 1770 at around 10am the next morning. It was quite hard to sleep on the coach but we managed it somehow!! We checked into Backpackers @ 1770, the private rooms here weren't private at all which was weird! The walls separating them had big gaps at the top so they weren't really walls! It was just like one big room sectioned into 3. There were also no plugs! Annoying!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />In 1770 we did a tour called Scooteroo and also a 3-hour surf lesson! We did the surf lesson first, it was great but such hard work, I'm so unfit!! I managed to stand up a few times though!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Scooteroo is a tour of 1770 on motorbikes, where you get to ride your own Harley style bike, spot kangaroos and watch an awesome sunset! I was terrible at trying to ride a motorbike so I got to go on the back of the guide’s bike, which meant I got to go really fast! It was still so much fun, we even saw a kangaroo with a joey in his pouch just stood at the side of the road looking at us!</span><br />
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We did one more thing in 1770 which was a sunset dolphin kayak, and it was only the 2 of us that day so we had a private tour! We kayaked around, stopped at a beach which was full of millions of butterflies, saw turtles, dolphins, and a beautiful sunset!</span><br />
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We left 1770 at 6.30am the next morning and got the Greyhound with Becka down to Rainbow Beach, ready for our Fraser Island trip!</span><br />
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We were put into 4 groups and we all had our own 4x4 which everyone took in turns to drive! Fraser Island was amazing, it was so beautiful! We visited a couple of lakes (Lake Mackenzie and Lake Wabby) a lookout called Indian Head which had incredible views and we could see 2 small sharks swimming in the sea! Champagne pools, Eli Creek, also known as Hangover creek, where the water floats you along, there were even people halfway down giving out beers! We spotted a couple of whales too, we saw one breaching from our 4x4 on the beach and it was so close! On the last day we also saw 2 dingoes!</span><br />
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We had to camp in really small tents which wasn’t too bad, until the last morning when I saw the shadow of a big spider crawl up the outside of the tent while I was in it!! We also saw a huge lace monitor lizard on camp one morning. The showers, toilets and cooking stuff they gave us were so gross, but we got given plenty of food!!</span><br />
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After staying one more night at Rainbow Beach we said goodbye to Becka and travelled down to Noosa. In Noosa we did the coastal walk, which people in the hostel had told us was a must-do - and it definitely was! On the first part of the walk we spotted a big water dragon on the rocks! We followed the coastal path, it was all so pretty, then we got to a part of the headland called ‘Hell’s gates’ where we spotted some dolphins! We carried on up the path to get a little closer, and we stood watching them for ages until they went further out to sea. I loved it I could have watched them all day!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After watching the dolphins the path lead us down to a nudist beach, which is part of the walk, I didn’t expect to actually see any nudists but as we got down onto the sand a man came walking past swinging his swim shorts around in his hand!! Damo then decided it would be funny to strip off and get a photo of him facing the sea while there was no one around, but we spotted a man watching from the bushes haha! As we got to the end of the beach there were nudists everywhere! We then walked round a bit more headland before arriving at Sunshine Beach, which is where our hostel was. We decided to go to the bottle shop and have a couple of drinks and doritos on the beach, we sat and watched the surf life savers and a man trying to have a surf, but he was just getting swept along the beach!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following day we did a boat trip on the Noosa Everglades. We just did an afternoon trip, which was around 4 hours, we went up the river, stopped for some food and drinks and travelled back down. We saw lots of wildlife, mainly birds and lizards. We also saw a huge lizard at the place where we stopped!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That night we went to watch the Inbetweeners 2 at the cinema, which we loved because it was about them backpacking in Australia so we could relate to it all!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The day we left Noosa we went to Australia Zoo for the day, as the Greyhound stopped there on the way to Brisbane. The bus was even Australia Zoo themed!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">They do loads of different animal experiences which you can book online before you arrive, you can even have your photo taken with a tiger if you don’t mind paying $400!! As we’d already had a couple of koala photos we decided to do the Cheetah photo, a lot cheaper at $60 for the both of us! It was an awesome experience!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After our photos we caught the end of the main croc show, it wasn’t as good as the one we had seen at Billabong Sanctuary though! We also watched the tiger show which was great! All in all we had a good day but I wouldn’t say Australia Zoo is as amazing as I thought it would be!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After leaving the zoo we got to Brisbane and checked into Chill Backpackers which was a really nice hostel with a rooftop bar! There was a hostel just up the road which did $7 burgers so we went there for food. We hadn’t planned much to do in Brisbane other than a visit to my favourite clothing brand, Black Milk! That was arranged for the Wednesday so on the Tuesday we just walked into the city. We walked along the river and over the bridge and back, and went in the Queensland museum as it was free!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next day we walked to Black Milk HQ in Newstead, we had a 1.30pm tour and a girl called Shanna took us around. It was cool to see where all the clothes are made and we also saw loads of new stuff coming out in the future including loads of Disney stuff! I also got to go in the ‘sample room’ and buy anything for $40 each so I got some stuff for me and my niece Daisy (who got me into Black Milk in the first place!), Shanna then filled up my bag with a load of goodies like badges, stickers and water bottles! I also got to take part in a ‘Fit night’ where they invite a load of Queensland girls to try on clothes for the latest release before it comes out, and because I was there I got to do it too! We had half an hour to try on as much as we could, take loads of selfies and eat the food!! We then walked back to the hostel a different way and saw the Story bridge by the river.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio9dqPN2TiY1gMLpmPcA4zI92VBXNZzKEy2r6Wvz34TRWURzGmY845jvAaaSdZiiA9Yav9M_pnUQlrBvJsaK-ZPEeABlMeqFFjY-8kQ5q0DcWDQvpxkA8ewVeMFScXXZFjkD1nskWI8Z0j/s1600/blackmilk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio9dqPN2TiY1gMLpmPcA4zI92VBXNZzKEy2r6Wvz34TRWURzGmY845jvAaaSdZiiA9Yav9M_pnUQlrBvJsaK-ZPEeABlMeqFFjY-8kQ5q0DcWDQvpxkA8ewVeMFScXXZFjkD1nskWI8Z0j/s1600/blackmilk.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After Brisbane we caught the Greyhound to Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast. We bumped into a lovely lady called Jane again, who we keep seeing at loads of different places! She was also staying at the same hostel as us this time. After checking in, we went to have a look around and went up the Q1 building, which Becka had told us to do. The view was amazing and we stayed up there for the sunset and took pictures in the dark too.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1iCmtsM5Lo6V1Jh4Ib-wDcKZkIUy4uXY85lEhDuU8n-hkzHAfTuTIcv4kvnrxkAT72rvIykDmaK8qeTHNA-wYX76n5xaEJDng8H-QPkE4aofS224Bdy5qB9MqJm6wlki3kBabqYSdNTH6/s1600/q1building.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1iCmtsM5Lo6V1Jh4Ib-wDcKZkIUy4uXY85lEhDuU8n-hkzHAfTuTIcv4kvnrxkAT72rvIykDmaK8qeTHNA-wYX76n5xaEJDng8H-QPkE4aofS224Bdy5qB9MqJm6wlki3kBabqYSdNTH6/s1600/q1building.jpg" height="246" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We bought theme park tickets online with a deal that meant we got to go to Seaworld, Movie World and Wet n Wild for the price of one park! So for the next 3 days we got the bus to each park, it was like being back in Florida again! All the parks were great!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After Surfers Paradise we got the Greyhound to Byron Bay, our final stop on the East Coast before heading back to Sydney. We stayed at Arts Factory Lodge - as seen in the Inbetweeners 2!! Byron Bay was so beautiful, I loved the coastal walk around the headland and to the lighthouse! We saw so many whales and a big pod of dolphins that hung around for ages!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After 2 nights in Byron Bay we got the overnight Greyhound bus back to Sydney, leaving at 8pm and arriving at 9.30am the following morning! We spend just over 6 weeks on the trip in total. A lot of people we met had booked the whole trip through places like Peter Pans travel, but we found it was so easy to do it ourselves, and it meant we could be a lot more flexible and stay longer in a place if we wanted to! I made a video montage of our East Coast adventure and you can watch it below! :-)</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p3_uFEgcpwk" width="560"></iframe></center>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878700057741279017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137563019997482593.post-72476024987709038572015-02-15T03:28:00.001-08:002015-02-17T18:59:23.939-08:00New Zealand - South Island Highlights!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcuLvXOlGtj_oByEmMKFZO_Z4lYW9e50CBlJx3sNYeHiwvxHnL4Xes1NC3YAT6LHnDG-qIzoqKqssP07-rboQRzmSfp6EdP5g7aGlmIXmMXgYiqH7KzBVIHY8pSUxLaMGTEg16o2GJNiou/s1600/nzsouthislandtitle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcuLvXOlGtj_oByEmMKFZO_Z4lYW9e50CBlJx3sNYeHiwvxHnL4Xes1NC3YAT6LHnDG-qIzoqKqssP07-rboQRzmSfp6EdP5g7aGlmIXmMXgYiqH7KzBVIHY8pSUxLaMGTEg16o2GJNiou/s1600/nzsouthislandtitle.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">(This is the second part of our New Zealand trip, <a href="http://damoandvikki.blogspot.com/2015/02/new-zealand-north-island-highlights.html">click here</a> to read about what we did on the North Island!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The ferry from Wellington took 3 hours and took us to a place called Picton. From there we drove for 2 hours to reach Kaikoura, where we had booked a hostel called Dusky Lodge and a whale watching trip for the following day!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Kaikoura is known for it's whale watching and it's possible to see sperm whales year-round. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The trip started with us watching a quick safety DVD and getting on a bus which took us to the boat. As soon as we left the marina me and Damo spotted a seal swimming by the boat, and it wasn’t much longer after that that we spotted our first whale! We could see the top of it floating in the water and spouting water out, it stayed there for about 10 minutes before diving down, which is when you see it’s tail!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After watching the first whale we went further out to sea to see if we could find any more. Every so often we would stop and the captain would put something called a hydrophone into the water, which enabled him to hear if there were any whales singing and if they were close!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We soon found another whale and while we were watching that one, another one was spotted in the distance so we went over to that one too! After that we saw a few more seals swimming, some albatross, and as we got back towards the land, a couple of rocks which were also covered in seals!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next day we left Kaikoura and headed for the west coast to visit a place called Punakaiki, where there are “pancake rocks” and blow holes. The rocks were formed from the layering of limestone over millions of years, and they do look like pancakes stacked on top of each other!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">They are best seen at high tide, as this is when you get the blow hole effect of the water smashing through the rocks. We were only staying there for one night and high tide was at 6pm so we headed down there, although it was raining really heavily! We did a couple of videos of the water but headed back the following morning when the weather was a bit better to take some pictures.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The rocks are free to see and the walkway takes about 15 minutes to walk all the way around. After looking at the rocks we went in the cafe opposite for some real pancakes!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After that we drove down to Franz Josef, home of the Franz Josef Glacier, where we had booked into a hostel called Chateau Franz for 3 nights. We had booked into the cheapest type of double room they had, which turned out to be a converted caravan, which had a sign outside it saying the 'Love Shack!’ The guy that showed us to the room was expecting us to say we didn’t want to stay there I think, and said its only $10 more per night to stay in a nicer room, but we didn’t care so we said we’d stay. We then realised that night that it was freezing, and the windows didn’t close properly!! So the following day we moved to a much nicer room, and we didn’t get charged for it, result!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The day we arrived the guy in the hostel gave us a leaflet with a list of walks, so we went and did the Franz Josef glacier walk, basically a view of the glacier before we actually went up onto it the following day! After that we took the half hour drive to Lake Matheson, which is one of those lakes that you see in adverts for New Zealand and it always looks amazing. I was so excited to see it as the lake gives a mirror effect, but when we arrived the water wasn’t still and the tops of the mountains were covered in clouds so it didn’t have quite the same effect!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">(Good photo courtesy of <a href="http://www.newzealand.com/">www.newzealand.com</a>!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The guy who gave us the leaflet had also told us to come and book our glacier trip through the hostel as he can do it $30 per person cheaper, so that’s what we went to do the following day. However when we got there it was a different guy and he said there was no discount for booking through them!! Grrr! He phoned up to book it for us anyway and we were the only people on the 11.40am trip so we needed another 2 people or it wouldn’t run! I was so annoyed because I could of just booked it online the day before!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anyway by the time we got down there we had 4 other people in our group so it was all good! We all got kitted out with waterproof trousers, socks, boots, gloves, jackets, bags and cramp-ons to wear over our boots on the ice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We walked across the road to where the helicopters were and the cloud had cleared and you could see the glacier perfectly! </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">By helicopter is now the only way you can get onto Franz Josef glacier as it has retreated so much due to global warming.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I got to sit in the front seat on the helicopter as I was the smallest (there’s advantages to being a short-arse sometimes!) We took off really quickly and it felt like being on a rollercoaster, it was a totally different feeling to when we went on the helicopter in Vegas! It only took about 10 minutes to arrive about halfway up the glacier.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We got out of the helicopter and it felt so unreal like being on a different planet! You don’t realise how huge it is until you’re on it! We put our cramp-ons on and met our guide. Before putting them on I was slipping all over the ice like Bambi but as soon as they were on, walking on the ice was easy! Our guide lead us up through the ice, we saw an ice cave which we walked into and you could see through the hole at the top. We then carried on up, getting higher and higher!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then walked through a section of rock and ice mixed together. At some points there were ropes to help us climb, but it was all pretty easy. We then carried on down into a walkway where you had ice either side of you, which I found a little bit scary!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then went through another one which was even more scary and claustrophobic but I made myself do it because I didn’t want to be a wimp! Our guide then decided he was going to use his pick axe to make a new walkway, he said that each guide would hack away a bit more as they go through afterwards. There was no way I was going through that! Damo did but almost got stuck, haha! After that we started to make our way back down to where the helicopters pick us up from. We were on the ice for around 3 and a half hours in total!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It was a totally amazing experience and nothing like anything else we’ve ever done! We did our trip with <a href="http://www.franzjosefglacier.com/" target="_blank">Franz Josef Glacier Guides</a> and the trip we did was called the Ice Explorer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Back at the hostel it was a free BBQ for dinner yay! Then a stretch hummer arrived which picked us all up and took us to a bar that was literally just across the road! They drove all around the town to get there though to make the ride a bit longer, which still only took about 3 minutes, Franz Josef is the smallest town I have ever seen in my life! We had a couple of drinks and a game of pool then walked back to the hostel. (Which took about 2 minutes, haha!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next day we had planned on going to Fox Glacier to do a hike called Quick Fox but after yesterday being so good and rain forecast we decided not to bother. The day after that we were off to our next stop, Wanaka! It took about 3 and a half hours to get there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We stayed at an amazing hostel called Wanaka Backpaka! It was right on the lake with amazing views of the mountains, even from our room!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We spent 3 days in Wanaka, the first place we visited was Puzzling World. We already had heard about the place as my brother and his wife, Ian and Manda, had been there 10 years ago! It’s full of bizarre illusions and puzzles and mazes and was loads of fun! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There were 5 different rooms to go in. The first one had a sloped floor which was at a 15 degree angle, it totally messes with your head and made us feel like we were going to fall over! We also managed to get photos of us doing a Michael Jackson style lean!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Another room was full of faces that follow you, the next was where in one corner of the room you look really small and another you look really big! Even the toilets were cool! There was also a giant maze outside with 4 towers in each corner, and you had to find your way to each of them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After Puzzling World, the weather had brightened up so we walked up the nearby Mount Iron. The track was quite steep in some places but it was worth the climb as the view was great!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After Wanaka we headed to Arrowtown, which is not far from Queenstown. It is a historic gold mining town and we thought it would be a good base for a few days. It’s so cute and the main road was like a movie set! We stayed at the New Orleans Hotel which was above a nice pub, and had our own bathroom and a TV which was like luxury!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The first place we headed to was Skyline in Queenstown. We just wanted to do the gondola ride for the view, as we had done the luge at the Skyline in Rotorua, but they had a special price for the gondola, lunch and 3 luge rides so we did that! The lunch was a really nice buffet and we had a window seat to appreciate the amazing view!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next day we headed down to the Arrow River, just by our hotel, as it was used as a scene in Lord of the Rings. We took a few photos of that then had a look at the nearby Chinese Settlement, where Chinese gold miners came to live in the 1800’s. The houses they lived in were so tiny!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When we were in Fiji a girl we met called Sunny had told us about Fergburger in Queenstown and said we had to try it! So the next day when we were having a look round the town we spotted it, absolutely rammed with people and decided to give it a go! I went for a normal burger while Damo went for the "Big Al" which was the biggest one of them all and it was like Man vs Food, he even managed to eat it all!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I can totally understand the hype though, they were so good!! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Another thing we did in Queenstown was the Shotover Jet, which we did instead of Milford Sound - we had booked a trip, but there is only one road in and out, and it was closed due to snow! I was a little bit gutted we missed seeing Milford Sound but overall we did so much in New Zealand that we can’t really complain! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Shotover Jet is a jet-boat ride on the Shotover river which was loads of fun, they speed along inches away from the rocks and do lots of 360 spins! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That night we went to the cinema then went to go to the Minus 5 ice bar as we had some free tickets we’d got when we bought some energy drinks! When we arrived though they were just closing as it was so quiet. There was another Ice Bar we’d seen called Below Zero so we thought we’d go there instead, and when we got there the guy even said he’d honour our free tickets for the other place if we had a drink each!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We went in and there were two guys in there playing on an air hockey table that was made of ice. Suddenly there was a loud crash and the air hockey table was smashed into a million pieces and the 2 guys were on top of it!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We managed about half an hour in there before I was freezing and had to get out of there!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After Queenstown our next destination was Dunedin! As we drove out of Queenstown we saw our first snow for the whole time we’d been in New Zealand!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In Dunedin we stayed at a hostel called Kiwi’s Nest and it was owned by the loveliest couple who were so friendly and helpful with things to do in the area! One of the first places we visited was Cadbury World!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We did the full tour and our tour guide was a man from Derbyshire with a really strong accent, even though he had been in New Zealand for something like 30 years! First we watched a short video then had to put hair nets on!! We got lead around the factory, learnt how chocolate is made, and got given loads of free chocolate!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That afternoon we drove to Baldwin Street, which is the steepest street in the world! We parked at the bottom and walked up to the top, which wasn’t as hard as we thought. We then ran back down and I felt like I wouldn’t be able to stop! We got back in the car and drove to Signal Hill lookout, which was a great view over the city. After that we decided to go and see something else so we went to Larnach Castle, which is New Zealand’s only castle. We thought we would just go and look at it but you have to pay just to go into the grounds! And we thought it was the biggest load of rubbish ever! If you’ve ever been to any kind of castle in England then don’t bother going here. I don’t know how they can class it as a castle, it’s just a big house! But the gardens were pretty and there were some cute ducks!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following day we did a trip with Elm Wildlife Tours, which we had found out about through a leaflet in the hostel. We were picked up at 1pm and driven to the Otago Peninsular. The first part was a little bit boring, as the other couple on the trip had paid extra to see baby albatross birds so while they did that we were stood looking at birds on the edge of the cliff. After that we drove further down the road and onto some private land, where we parked up on a hill in the middle of a field of sheep! We walked down towards the beach, and could already see that the beach was full of a big group of sea lions just chilling on the sand!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As we made our way down to the beach we walked through an area which had been made to encourage penguins to nest there. We didn’t see any around but as soon as we got onto the beach there was one just coming out of the sea! It was so cool to see a penguin just waddling along towards us!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The guide told us that they have got used to humans now so they have no problem walking past whereas they used to run away! After this we made our way across the beach walking through where all the sea lions were laying without getting too close! He told us that this was the most females he had ever seen on the beach, there were 9 in total. We spent a while just watching them as a few of them were really active, then we watched some more penguins at the other end of the beach.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After watching the penguins we started to make our way back across the beach. One of the sea lions looked like he was going to chase us so the guide took us up through the dunes instead! There were a few sea lions laying in the dunes too, including a pregnant one. After making our way back up to the van, we headed down the other side of the hill, where there were lots of fur seals on the rocks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We sat in a viewing area, which allowed us to be really close without disturbing them. There were some cute little pups and some playing in the rock pools!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This tour was one of my favourite things we did in New Zealand, it was amazing to see penguins, sea lions and seals all in the wild.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After leaving Dunedin, we drove up the coast a little way to visit the Moeraki Boulders. They are a group of boulders on a stretch of beach which are sphere shaped, and really unique!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We had a few more days left before we flew from Christchurch to Sydney on the 11th July, as we had allowed more time for the South Island in case we got caught in any snow. We knew a couple of days would be enough in Christchurch so with the extra few days we headed for Mount Cook. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The drive to get there was beautiful, everywhere in New Zealand is, but this was even more beautiful!! We kept stopping on the way to take photos!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We had booked an Argo tour online, which is an 8 wheel drive vehicle, and it took us up to the Tasman glacier, right by Mount Cook. It was a really bumpy ride! We stopped a few times to take photos, and the best view was when we got to the top and walked up to the view of the glacier! I was so glad we chose to go here, we hadn't even planned to do it and it was one of my favourite places we saw in New Zealand!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That night we stayed in Lake Tekapo, which was around an hour from Mount Cook and in the direction of our final destination, Christchurch. After checking into a hostel (Tailor-Made-Tekapo) we went down to the lake where we skimmed stones, </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">saw people getting married </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">and took pictures of a sheepdog statue for my mum!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We spent our last couple of days in Christchurch, it was so sad to see the devastation that the earthquake of 2011 has done. While we were there we went in an earthquake museum and it was so interesting, there was also a video of people talking about the day it happened. We saw the cathedral, which has been left, as the people of the town can’t decide whether to rebuild it or knock it down and start again! We also visited the ‘Cardboard Cathedral’ which was a gift from a Japanese architect as a temporary replacement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On the 11th July we flew to Sydney, which is where my brother lives with his 3 children and also my 21 year old niece! We spent just over 3 weeks in Sydney before flying up to Cairns and working our way back down the East coast, which is the next trip I will write about! :-)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If you've not already seen it on the North Island page, here is a video I made of our time in New Zealand, featuring all the things you've just read about!</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x6O0fpO5BfQ?feature=player_embedded" width="640"></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878700057741279017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137563019997482593.post-2240646044782257562015-02-03T19:49:00.003-08:002015-02-16T03:50:01.494-08:00New Zealand - North Island Highlights!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX4fAH0TX0CW7GARHmSTkqlUAmCAS9udXBZz8PwpXMqI9wb5WPxC2cz0Qj1Guk27VC-8fcKh-ukyvQcP8YiTvZMYgjUC0jUy7vKfDCZBlVrbsOFW2K-8BX5XCL3sQeLdF1exVFK-rRORKm/s1600/nznorthislandtitle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX4fAH0TX0CW7GARHmSTkqlUAmCAS9udXBZz8PwpXMqI9wb5WPxC2cz0Qj1Guk27VC-8fcKh-ukyvQcP8YiTvZMYgjUC0jUy7vKfDCZBlVrbsOFW2K-8BX5XCL3sQeLdF1exVFK-rRORKm/s1600/nznorthislandtitle.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We spent almost 6 weeks travelling around New Zealand, starting on the north island. We flew into Auckland, which is New Zealand’s biggest city, and spent the first few days there. From the airport we got the airbus into the city, which was cheap and the bus driver chatted to us the whole journey about things to see and do! We stayed at Attic backpackers, which a girl recommended to us in Fiji, and it was a perfect location to walk to the places we wanted to see.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After checking in, we went to get some dinner and got excited when we found Nando’s but it was so different and really disappointing!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next morning though we went to McDonalds and had a “Massive Mcmuffin” each, which was like a bacon and double sausage and egg Mcmuffin in one!! We then walked to the Auckland Museum, kind of got lost on the way as my phone wouldn’t pick up where we were! But once we got closer it was huge so we couldn’t miss it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We got tickets which also included a Maori performance, which was great, the best bit was the haka at the end! The museum was huge so we spent a little while looking around all the floors. There was a section with lots of animals and a couple of war planes which were pretty cool, also a whole Maori section.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next day the weather was a bit rubbish and we didn’t really know what to do, so the staff in the hostel suggested we head down to the wharf as there were things going on for the Queen’s birthday. (We didn’t even realise but the Queen’s birthday is like a bank holiday in New Zealand, we don’t even celebrate it in England!) Anyway, we headed down there, and the theme was ‘Best of British’ which was quite weird for us to see as they were selling British food, there was a man on a penny farthing bike, people with bagpipes, classic cars, morris dancers! We also had high tea!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That evening we went to watch Maleficent at the cinema. I got a message from my brother to say that their friends Ted and Barbara lived in Auckland and sent their contact details so that we could try and meet up with them! We tried to phone them the following day but couldn’t get hold of them, so we went up the Skytower which was right by the hostel. We paid an extra $2 which meant we could go up again at night.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next day we picked up our hire car, which we had hired for the whole time we were in New Zealand, from a place called Apex. We got to pick it up in Auckland and drop it off in Christchurch, and the hire cost included the ferry ticket from the North to the South island, and a sat nav, woop!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our first plan was to head up north, right to the very top of the country. We drove to a place called Pukenui, which was a long but really pretty drive, and booked a cabin at the Pukenui holiday park for 2 nights.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following morning we drove about 45 minutes to the very top of the North Island, to a place called Cape Reinga. It was so beautiful and there was a lighthouse we walked along a path to, taking lots of pictures!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After that we headed to the Te Paki giant sand dunes, which were just down the road, and we went sand boarding! It cost $15 to hire a board, and it was so much fun! The hardest part was climbing back up the dunes afterwards! We got told to steer with our feet, which I totally messed up on my 2nd go and crashed! We went up and down the dunes a few times, until we were too worn out to go back up again!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next place we visited was the Bay of Islands, again it was beautiful!! We stayed at Peppertree Lodge backpackers in Paihia. From the wharf in Paihia we went on a dolphin spotting boat trip! We left on the boat at 9am, and they said that if you’re interested in swimming with dolphins (if we get the chance to) then go and put your name down, so Damo did. I didn’t because I’m not a very strong swimmer!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We travelled out to the ‘Hole in the rock’ and got some really nice photos of the islands, but no dolphins to be seen! We then travelled back down and stopped at an island on the way where we had time to walk to the top and take some photos.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We got back on the boat and travelled back down and there were still no dolphins to be seen! Luckily they offer a guarantee of seeing dolphins, so if you don’t see any you get to go again for free! We got off the boat at a different place called Russell and re-booked on the trip for that afternoon, before having a look around Russell for a bit, which was a cute little village.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The boat that afternoon was a lot busier than it had been that morning as there was a huge Chinese tour group! We set off and within a few minutes we spotted some dolphins, wohoo!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The dolphins were swimming around the boat, and they then announced for the people who had put their names down to go and get changed! So Damo went and got a wetsuit and snorkel gear on, it was only him and 5 other people. He took the underwater camera in with him and got loads of photos and videos of the dolphins swimming around him! I watched from the boat and took photos from there!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It was amazing, even for me just watching Damo swimming with them from the boat! After the trip we went and found a pub that was showing the All Blacks vs England rugby game! It was mainly New Zealand fans obviously and the atmosphere was great! We had originally tried to get tickets but they all sold out by the time we had internet, boo!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next day we visited a town called Kerikeri which is also in the Bay of Islands. First off we went to ‘Parrot Place’ where a load of birds come and land on you and you can feed them peanuts, we also held a talking parrot and saw lots of other different types of birds!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When we left there we went to Rainbow Falls, a waterfall just down the road. We took a couple of photos, then saw a young boy climbing over the rocks to get behind the waterfall so Damo decided to do the same! After Rainbow Falls we visited the oldest building in New Zealand called the Stone Store. When we arrived in the car park it was full of chickens, Damo threw them a handful of doritos and loads of them came from every direction to eat them!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On the way home we saw a sign for another waterfall called Haruru Falls so we stopped and looked at that one too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next day we headed back to Auckland, and we had arranged to meet my brothers friends Ted and Barbara, and they even let us stay with them for the night! They were so lovely and we chatted for ages, looked at photos of when they visited England, and made a fuss of their ragdoll cat, Casper! They cooked us a yummy dinner too! We wished we could have stayed longer but we had already booked our next hostel!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our next stop was Waitomo, where there are glow worm caves, and we had booked 2 nights staying at a backpackers called Kiwi Paka. The first day we did the normal cave trip, where we walked down and were told about things like stalactites and stalagmites. Carried on down to a large part of the cave called the cathedral, where Katy Perry and Joss Stone have done concerts, and people have even got married! We then all got into a boat and went through to see all the glow worms on the ceiling, which was cool. The tour was good but kind of expensive for what you got, we thought. You weren’t allowed to take photos either.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">(Photo courtesy of www.waitomo.com)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ted had told us that he had done something called ‘Black Water Rafting’ at the caves which sounded great, so we did that the following day! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We had to get into wetsuits, boots and helmets, then a minibus took us to the caves! First we walked through a farmers field full of cows, and we were told that the caves were directly below us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When we reached the cave entrance we were given a tube each. The trip consisted of walking through, floating in a long line holding onto the feet of the person behind, jumping backwards off a waterfall! Floating through looking at the glow worms, and even going down a slide!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The water was freezing!! It was loads of fun and we saw just as many glow worms as the day before, maybe even more. After the trip we had hot showers, hot chocolate and got to look at all the photos and buy them on a CD! We did the trip with a company called Tube It and would definitely recommend them!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our next destination after leaving Waitomo was the Hobbiton movie set! This was amazing and one of the highlights of our New Zealand trip!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The tour started by us getting on a bus and the driver gave us a commentary as he drove us through the farmland that was all part of Hobbiton. Originally there were going to be 12 different locations used for the movies, until they found the farmland and decided it was perfect.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We got off the bus and entered Hobbiton right next to the vegetable patch, and the path where Gandalf first enters Hobbiton in the first Lord of the Rings movie, known as ‘Gandalf’s cutting’. We then walked up past the tree where he lets his fireworks off, and arrived at a pond which had hobbit holes all around it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We carried on up past some hobbit holes over the other side of the hill, used for shots from far away to make it look like Hobbiton carries on and doesn’t just end! We then went to a hobbit hole with a life-sized door which was great for photos, then carried on up to Bag End (aka Bilbo’s house!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From there the tour carried on down to the field where they had the party, then to the Green Dragon pub where we got given a free beer!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We were walking around Hobbiton for about 2 hours in total, and they gave us lots of time to take photos and see everything.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After the tour we drove to Rotorua, where we stayed for 4 nights. The first thing we noticed as soon as we got into the town was the smell of rotten eggs! People had warned us about it but we didn’t realise it would be so strong! (The smell is from the sulphur, as the area is so volcanic, there is steam coming out the ground all over the place and there are heaps of thermal pools and volcanic vents!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We stayed at an awesome backpackers called Crash Palace, and that night it was movie night, which meant we got free hot chocolate and popcorn!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following morning we went to a place called Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland. First thing we saw was the Lady Knox geyser, which they set off every morning by pouring soap powder into it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then walked around the park and saw lots of craters and pools, then took a short drive to some bubbling mud pools!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We were done by lunchtime so we decided to visit Te Whakawarewa village, a living Maori village. We were shown how they cook traditional food called “hangi,” where it is cooked by the steam in a hole in the ground, where they bathe in the naturally hot water, and some geysers which are constantly always erupting. (Not like the one we had seen that morning which is set off each day.) We were then shown how they traditionally made skirts out of leaves, then watched a cultural performance, similar to the one we had watched at the Auckland Museum.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That night was spaghetti bolognaise night at the hostel - free dinner! After dinner we were playing a game of pool when suddenly the ground shook a little bit, argh! We had a few small tremors which carried on for about an hour, which was a bit scary but also exciting! We were told it’s quite normal but if they get worse in the night they would set off the fire alarm and we’d all have to evacuate! Luckily they stopped!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following day we headed to Skyline, around 5 minutes drive away. Skyline is at the top of a huge hill/mountain, so you take a gondola to the top, and you can ride a ‘luge’ which is like a cross between a go kart and a toboggan, do a zip line, and ride a sky swing. We bought a combo ticket which meant we got to do all of them! We got 5 goes on the luge and there were 3 different routes so we tried them all. We then went and did the zip line, which was amazing!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">At the end of the zip line we did a 10 metre jump to the ground, it was really scary to just step off the edge but you only really free fall for a split second then it kind of slows you down. After doing the rest of the luge rides, we went and did the sky swing, and I was terrified! We were strapped in and lifted up and up and it felt like it wasn’t going to stop! Once we reached the top we had to pull the string to release us! I was shouting at Damo to just pull it, we swang out over the edge of the mountain and it was awesome!! So much fun! Check out our New Zealand video at the end of this post for a clip of it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After Skyline we visited a wildlife park which is right next door called Rainbow Springs. There were loads of birds, lizards, fish and swans, and we waited for it to get dark to see the kiwis. They are New Zealand’s national bird but it’s pretty hard to see them in the wild.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following morning we watched the first England game of the world cup in the hostel, then checked out and headed south towards Lake Taupo. We stopped at the blue and green lakes, and another bigger lake, which were all just down the road. We then carried on until we reached Huka Falls. The falls are on the Waikato river, which is just north of Lake Taupo. At this section of the river, the gorge is 20 metres wide, rather than the usual 100, and there is a 20 metre drop, and the water literally roars! It’s also a beautiful turquoise colour!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After seeing the falls, we visited a place called Craters of the moon, which was more thermal craters with steam coming out of the ground. We then carried on past Lake Taupo, stopping at one point to have a look, then carried on to Whakapapa national park, where we were staying the night. This is when we really started to see the scenery change, from green hills and sheep everywhere, to snow topped mountains in the distance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We stayed in a hotel that night called the Skotel Alpine Resort, as we got a really good deal, I think it was mainly used as a ski resort but there was no snow (apart from the very tops of the mountains!) We also got bumped up to a superior room which was great! From the room we had an awesome view of the mountain used as Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our final destination on the North Island was Wellington, which is the capital of New Zealand. We were looking forward to being in a big city again! On the way we got pulled over and got a speeding ticket, oops!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We stayed in Wellington for 3 nights and during our time there we explored the city, visited the Te Papa museum (which is huge, and free!) Went on the 'Cable car’ up to the top of the botanic gardens and walked back down through the gardens to the city.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We walked past some toilets in the botanic gardens and noticed someone had done this to the sign, if you’re a Breaking Bad fan you’ll appreciate this!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We visited the Weta cave, which is free, and we also paid $20 each for a tour of the workshop. We got to see lots of props from movies they have worked on, like Lord of the Rings, District 9 and Avatar. Outside they had some giant statues of the trolls from Lord of the Rings! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">They also made a giant Gollum and an eagle with Gandalf riding on it, which were hanging from the ceiling at Wellington Airport. A guy in the hostel told us that you can go and see them and if you’re less than 10 minutes you get free parking so we went and saw them too!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After this we drove to the Inter Islander ferry terminal and got the ferry over to the South Island.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://damoandvikki.blogspot.com/2015/02/new-zealand-south-island-highlights.html">Click here for part 2 - what we did on the South Island!</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Please take a look at our New Zealand video below! It’s all in the order of when we did it, so the things and places you have just read about are included in the first half of the video.</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878700057741279017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137563019997482593.post-83936624724884068762015-01-27T17:27:00.001-08:002015-01-28T04:09:08.069-08:00Fiji Highlights!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilLILbKDWiQYEXUu3OUH_WlVSSa3CHhJ2a0EzWJiLM7twGK4RFQxL6y4VIx1nNtDER5VJMY7bSWlpDDpKakNQ61N2xvaELlg-USjG6LFh35-MCSvKD6FiSbLcIaY7TyP3e5qGaab6nhIBN/s1600/fijititle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilLILbKDWiQYEXUu3OUH_WlVSSa3CHhJ2a0EzWJiLM7twGK4RFQxL6y4VIx1nNtDER5VJMY7bSWlpDDpKakNQ61N2xvaELlg-USjG6LFh35-MCSvKD6FiSbLcIaY7TyP3e5qGaab6nhIBN/s1600/fijititle.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We spent a month in Fiji in May 2014, visiting Nadi, the Mamanuka and Yasawa Islands and the Coral Coast. A month is definitely way more than we needed but it was awesome to have time to chill after a crazy month in America!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We left LA at 11.30pm on 30th April, and because we flew over the international date line, we arrived in Fiji at 6am on 2nd May! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We arrived at the Nadi Bay hotel and even though it was really early they had a room ready. So we went to bed and woke up 3 1/2 hours later, and it felt like a new day and we didn’t have to worry about jet lag!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Most people only stay at Nadi Bay for 1 night before heading off to another part of Fiji but we spent the first 6 nights there before our island hopping trip, it was so nice to just laze around the pool, watch films on the laptop and chill!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On one of the days we caught the bus into Nadi town which cost 70 cents! We must have really stood out as being tourists as loads of people were trying to talk to us. I had read on the internet to just ignore them, which I was doing well at, until I turned round and realised a man was persuading Damo to come into his shop, and he was being too polite to say no! So we arrived in the shop and they got us to take part in a traditional Kava ceremony - basically sitting in a circle and drinking what tastes like mud from a coconut shell! They then tried to get us to buy things from their shop! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It was cool to see the town but it wasn’t very big, there was a really colourful Hindu temple at the end of the main road though which was worth seeing!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We booked our island hopping trip with Awesome Adventures. It was a 12 night trip called ‘Tropical Awegasm’ and we went for the ‘full monty’ option which included accommodation, food, activities and transfers between the islands on the bright yellow Yasawa Flyer boat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The start of the trip was so stressful, we got picked up from the Nadi Bay hotel and transferred to Denarau Marina, except the first bus that turned up couldn’t fit us all on so it drove off and we were left to wait for another one! When we arrived at the marina we were told to go and check our suitcases in first, and they put a label on our bags with the name of the first island we were visiting which was Beachcomber. We then had to queue up, we were still in the queue at 8.25 and the boat leaves at 8.30! Got given our vouchers and found out that our first island had been changed to Bounty island, argh!! Also got told that the ‘Seaspray’ trip (to Monuriki island, the one from the film Castaway) wasn’t running at the moment, so we had a trip to Mana island instead, but the voucher for it would be sent on the boat tomorrow!?! I was just so concerned about missing the boat and our bags ending up on another island so I nodded and ran to get the labels on our bags changed to Bounty!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We somehow made it onto the boat and it only took about 35 minutes to get to Bounty Island. From the Yasawa Flyer, we had to jump into a really small boat to take us to the island, and our bags were thrown onto the small tin roof on the top of it! I was terrified they would slide off into the sea! It was only the two of us and one other girl, Claire, who was also from Southampton!! The island was so small that you could walk around it in 20 minutes, which we did that evening. It was also the place they used as Celebrity Love Island, but I never watched that programme! The accommodation was so basic, pretty much a hut with a bed, bunk beds and a fridge, and the bathroom attached to the back! The island was so beautiful though, and there was a pool and a big inflatable trampoline in the sea, which we had loads of fun on!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following day was our day trip to Mana island (the one that we knew nothing about!) The people at the resort had told us the boat leaves at 9am, so we went for breakfast at 8.15 and waited around… it got to 9.30 and after being convinced we’d missed the trip the boat finally arrived!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And our ticket was on the boat! Pheewww!! Arrived at Mana island to a big group of people singing, got given snorkel gear and shown a map of the island, then we were free to go off and do whatever we wanted. We headed to the other side of the island and the snorkelling was amazing, we got further out and reached a flag in the water which seemed to be a marker for where the depth of the water dropped and there were hundreds of fish!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We took some photos with the underwater camera, then went for lunch which was a really nice buffet and we met a lovely family from Melbourne who we chatted to for a bit. We then headed over with them to the other side of the island, where the water was a lot calmer. They had kayaks so me and Damo went out on one, we then went snorkelling with the girls from the family we had met and saw loads more fish. Mana island was so beautiful and we had a brilliant day there!! We said that when we make it to Melbourne we would contact the family and try and see them again as we got on so well, and hopefully we still will!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next morning we left Bounty island for our next island which was called Waya Lailai. This one took about an hour and a half to get to. Once we got to where we get off the boat, the boat that took us to the island was TINY!! The water was also a bit choppy so we got completely soaked and so did our bags!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We got checked in and our ‘bure’ as they call them was right on the beach. Our vouchers for this island were a guided summit walk and snorkelling with sharks! Activities didn’t run on a Sunday and it was a Saturday, so we did them both! The snorkelling trip was first, we got on the boat (the same one that had picked us up) and it felt like we were on it for ages, I was a little scared about how far out we were heading! We finally arrived at the reef and all jumped out the boat into the water. Saw a few fish, then spotted the sharks! They were only small reef sharks and the guy who was our guide from the resort was diving down and grabbing them and bringing them up!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On our way back on the boat I felt like I was going to spew! We then just about had time for a quick shower, which was cold! Then it was time for the guided summit walk. It was SO hard!!! We had to scramble up rocks and really steep tiny pathways, I was a sweaty mess! It took about an hour to reach the top, which did make the climb worth it as the view was beautiful! We watched the sunset from up there, then it was time to go back down, I thought that would be the easy part but it was just as bloody hard!!! I kept slipping and thought I was really going to injure myself! We finally made it back then went for dinner, and sat with a couple from England who had also done the hike with us and another couple we had met earlier. The staff put the rugby on, on a tiny TV they had set up as it was Fiji vs Spain, and they were all going nuts for it! They are Rugby mad here!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next morning I woke up and heard something running around in the room which really freaked me out, it was just a gecko though, which I don’t mind! But I then spotted the biggest cockroach I have ever seen laying on it’s back with it’s legs in the air wriggling about! Ewwww!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next island after Waya Lailai was Coralview. This one is right at the top of the Yasawa islands, and it took about 3 hours to get to. When we reached the island and got onto the small boat, it started to leave and we could see our bags still on the big boat!! Luckily they realised and went back to get them!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We got checked in, did a bit of kayaking, decided to do the ‘sunset hike’ up the hill but when we were almost at the top there was a huge spider in a cobweb right across the path! So I freaked out and went back down!! The following day we had vouchers for massages which were amazing!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our other voucher at Coralview was for Saw-I-Lau caves trip. This one had a waiver we had to sign, and we weren’t really sure what to expect! A boat took us to the caves and we had to walk up some steps and then down some steps to get inside. We then had to jump into the water which was really cold! It was fun but kind of weird not knowing if anything was in the water with you!! The second part was to venture into the 2nd cave, which you had to swim underwater through a narrow tunnel to get to. I didn’t do this part but Damo did! They swam around in the 2nd cave which he said was pitch black so I didn’t miss much!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When we came out of the caves there were a few little market stalls to look at, the driver of our boat was asleep on the beach and snoring! Damo took a photo of him and all the stall owners wanted to see the picture and found it hilarious! The Fijians are just so happy and smiley all the time!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After the caves trip it was time to head to our next island, called Korovou. We met loads of people on this island, at dinner that night we chatted to two English girls, one being a carer and the other a stripper! They had a bit more entertainment than on the other islands we had been to so far, and that night it was 'Fijian dancing’ which was basically like the party dances which we used to do at work, they then did some fire dancing, then we all played a game of potato relay! Our team lost so we had to perform the “Bula dance” for the other team! We then stayed up late playing tons of random drinking games followed by a game of baked beans (like hide and seek but when you find someone you hide with them) before heading to bed as we had a trip to swim with manta rays the next morning!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next morning we had breakfast then got on the boat to take us to the manta rays. It was pretty exciting, we saw plenty of manta rays, two swam right underneath me and one came right towards Damo! We did another manta ray swim on the next island though, which was even better, so I’ll go into more detail with that one :-)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next island resort was actually called Manta Ray, and it was just a short journey from Korovou. Once we had checked in here we went snorkelling with Dan and Ed who we had met at Korovou, and it was awesome, we saw so much beautiful coral and so many fish!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That night we had a few drinks and watched the show that they put on which was Fijian dancing and singing. At one point they came at us doing some scary war type dance and I took this photo of the guy up in my face!!! Ha!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After the show we played some card games and beer pong before heading to bed. The following day it rained really heavily literally all day! We had the manta ray swim today but unlike at Korovou, where it was at a set time, they wait til the manta rays are spotted then bang the drum! When you hear it, you grab the snorkel gear, jump on the boat and go!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We woke up at 6.45am as we knew the swim was usually before breakfast. We listened out for the drum but the rain was so heavy that we guessed they might hold off for a bit, and it got to 8am so we went for breakfast, which was really nice and had loads of choice! We had literally just finished eating when they said it was manta ray time! Oops maybe I shouldn’t of ate all those pancakes…!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We sped off on the boat and jumped in the water and there were so many manta rays this time, they were right there barrel rolling just underneath us! They are so so big and I did find it kind of scary at first, but it was and still is one of the best experiences of my life!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Manta ray season is from May to October, and if you are planning a trip to the Fiji islands I would totally recommend you go during this time if you can!! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The day we left Manta Ray the rain had finally stopped, but it was still really windy, making the sea really choppy so we couldn’t go snorkelling.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When it was time to leave, we had to board the boat from the other side of the island due to the water being so choppy. We had to wade into the water to make our way to the boat and my feet were starting to slip out of my flip flops so I took them off, then cut my feet on the coral! I also managed to end up waist-deep in the water before I got on the boat! We then had the roughest journey ever on the flyer, I felt sea sick the whole time, was soaked, and in a mood! So I made myself fall asleep! I did end up sitting next to a girl called Sunny though, who we had met at Korovou! She was telling us that she was chatting to some people on another island about all the different people you meet and the jobs that they do, and they said they had met some holiday park entertainers! She was like, “yes Vikki and Damo, I know them too!” Haha.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our final island which we reached at about 6pm was Beachcomber, which we stayed on for one night, and was back down in the Mamanuka islands, a lot closer to Mainland Fiji. It was another small island, similar to the size of Bounty that we had stayed on first.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It has a reputation of being the party island but it was pretty quiet the night we were there, we watched a crab race where people bid for the hermit crab they think will win, then just headed back to the room.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following morning we headed back to the mainland, our Awesome Adventures island trip was over but we were now heading down to the Coral Coast!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We stayed at a resort called Mango Bay for 10 days, which was about an hour and a half drive from the port.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We had a beachfront bure which was similar to the ones we had stayed in on the islands, except the shower was outside in a little garden! No one could see you though as it had walls all around it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">While we were at Mango Bay we went snorkelling, kayaking, made coconut jewellery, went on a sunset booze cruise, on the Sunday we visited the local village for a church service! We were the only tourists there and we didn’t know what to expect but it was free so we thought why not! It was all in Fijian so ended up getting very boring! The local villagers seemed to really appreciate us coming to it though.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On one of the days we went on a waterfall hike, where we were driven to a village, then did a kava ceremony as a welcome to us. We then made our way to the waterfall. We had to cross a river lots of times and some parts were really muddy as there had been some heavy rain. I almost lost a flip flop in the mud twice!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We reached a waterfall and it was beautiful!! There were some crazy Fijian guys climbing up the rocks and jumping in from really high up! We were given some bread to feed the fish and Damo went in for a swim, I didn’t because it was freezing!! Damo and another guy we had met, Ardon, were climbing up and jumping in.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After our 10 days at Mango Bay, we got a transfer on the TTF bus back to Nadi Bay for 2 nights before our flight to Auckland, New Zealand!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I would definitely recommend all the places we stayed, Awesome Adventures weren't perfect but the experience we got and the places we saw were amazing! If you are planning a trip to Fiji you should definitely try and get out to the islands, even if it's just for a few days. Awesome Adventures have a website <a href="http://www.awesomefiji.com/" target="_blank">here</a> if you want to find out more. If you have any questions about anything let me know or leave a comment below, I'll be happy to help!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Vikki x</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878700057741279017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137563019997482593.post-50342012663875913532015-01-16T04:22:00.003-08:002015-01-28T04:07:00.810-08:00LA Highlights!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We arrived in LA after a 1 hour flight which left late as there was a problem with a door, then Damo’s case came off the carousel with the zip split open!! We then got a shared shuttle to the hotel which took ages! But finally we arrived at the Lowes Hollywood Hotel which was amazing!! It’s attached to the Hollywood & Highland Center, which has shops, restaurants, the Chinese theatre (where they have the stars handprints) and the Dolby Theatre, which is where the Academy Awards take place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After checking in we went to the Hard Rock Cafe as it was literally downstairs and there was a guy doing an acoustic set on his guitar! We had a bit of a look around but then went back to our room to plan what we were going to do while we were there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following day we caught the bus to Warner Bros Studios to do the tour! Arrived at the studios, which were huge! We bought our tickets and were put straight onto the next tour so we didn’t have to wait. First we watched an introduction movie then went with a tour guide to a cart which drove us around loads of outdoor sets, fake buildings and streets, where lots of films and TV shows had been filmed. Then we stopped at a building which was a museum of movie props and costumes, the first floor had costumes from Man of Steel, Dark Knight, Hangover, Friends and loads more, and the whole of the top floor was Harry Potter!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then got back on a cart and were taken to some indoor sets, we went inside the set of 2 Broke Girls, then into a building which was full of cars from movies! They then took us into a room which had been filled with all of the props and set from Central Perk and we got to sit on the Friends sofa!! We then got to go inside the Ellen studio as it was a Friday which meant she wasn’t filming that day! The tour was awesome and lasted ages, I was surprised how much we got to see!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Once we finished the tour, we caught the bus back to Hollywood and Highland and walked up and down the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, which is actually huge and there are so many names that I’d not heard of! In some parts, like outside the Chinese Theatre, there are loads of people dressed up in costumes or trying to get you to buy their CD by trying to shove it in your hand!! While we were walking along it some guy said “What’s up Anna Faris” to me which was funny as I get told I look like her all the time (she’s the girl out of Scary Movie!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next day we took a photo of the Hollywood sign from the hotel, before heading to Universal Studios, which was just 1 stop away on the metro. We had been to the Florida one but there were a lot of different shows and rides here, there is also a whole area of film sets and studios like we’d seen the day before at Warner Bros. We got to see a few of them on the Backlot tour, I have so many photos and at the time we were told what film or TV show they were from but looking back i can’t remember what any of them were, other than Whoville from the Grinch!! We also had our photos taken with the Transformers and they were amazing they actually speak to everyone and sound just like the characters! Our favourite show was Waterworld, which is based on the film. And The Blues Brothers show was the biggest load of poo I’d ever seen, the one in Florida is so good so I was expecting the same but we walked off halfway through, it was that bad! All in all a good day, we arrived in the morning and stayed til 8.30pm so we were able to go on all the rides and see all the shows!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following day we went to the Chinese Theatre, well actually just the outside of it, to look at all the stars hand and foot prints, it was so busy! There are some really old ones like Marilyn Monroe’s which is from 1953, and some much newer like the cast of Twilight. I was so confused about why Michael Jackson’s hands were so tiny but I later found out they made his one in 2012, and it’s his kid’s handprints along with a handprint of his glove! We then made our way down to the Pantages Theatre to watch Book of Mormon! We also realised there was a load of walk of fame stars that we had missed up by the Capitol Records building so we walked up and down there but it was mainly people we’d never heard of. Book of Mormon was hilarious and amazing, GO AND SEE IT!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next day we checked out of the hotel and got a taxi to Santa Monica where we were staying for 2 nights. Santa Monica was so different to Hollywood and so much nicer, we wish we had stayed there longer! We stayed at Cal Mar Suites, it was like a mini apartment with a separate kitchen area and walking distance to the beach. The room was ready straight away so we checked in and headed down to the beach, we sat on the beach for a couple of hours then came back to the hotel and went in the pool. We then went to have showers and get changed and realised we both hadn't put sun cream on and looked like lobsters, argh!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We went back out and headed down to the Third St promenade, which was so nice, full of restaurants and street performers who were actually good! On the way there we watched the sunset over the beach. We found a supermarket and got a few things to take back seeing as we had a fridge, freezer and oven in the room.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Next day and we headed down to Santa Monica pier to hire bikes for the day. We first rode to a post office as we had a load of stuff we wanted to send home, but it was going to cost $70 so we didn’t bother!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We rode down to Venice Beach and on the way saw Muscle Beach, we got as far as Marina Del Ray then turned back towards Santa Monica.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We were going to head in the other direction but by now our bums hurt from the bike seats! So we returned the bikes to the rental place and walked onto the pier. We went on the ferris wheel and the view of the beach was awesome!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After that we headed back to the hotel, I had a massive headache from the sun so i had a lay down, then we went out for dinner to Bucca Di Beppo which is an Italian and it’s all huge portions made to share! It was so good!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next day was our final day in LA and we had our flight to Fiji at 11.30pm. We had to check out of the hotel at 11am but we stored our cases there, went to McDonalds for food and wifi, bought a Lonely Planet Fiji book and went to watch the new Captain America at the cinema! That evening we caught the bus to LAX ready for our flight!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878700057741279017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137563019997482593.post-81187619718825190032015-01-10T05:49:00.002-08:002015-01-28T03:43:40.366-08:00San Francisco Highlights!<div style="font-size: 13px;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi56lvkhngXnSrsGoRKHGsA5SxuVqBm0dsGLgJK5fUZIBXWFQTeQ6KI0wQWx556W6Rg0DLDv7jZ7dxanyQ13ZEIYHMQO7-RJhnNmmrxEIOSNeHZUlyTRhOK1dgtCBLON3LpB7x5AaTLNC6R/s1600/sanfranciscotitle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi56lvkhngXnSrsGoRKHGsA5SxuVqBm0dsGLgJK5fUZIBXWFQTeQ6KI0wQWx556W6Rg0DLDv7jZ7dxanyQ13ZEIYHMQO7-RJhnNmmrxEIOSNeHZUlyTRhOK1dgtCBLON3LpB7x5AaTLNC6R/s1600/sanfranciscotitle.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our flight from Las Vegas to San Francisco only took an hour, we flew with United Airlines, who were an okay airline but my suitcase came off the carousel with a broken wheel, argh!! We got the BART train from the airport as I’d read online somewhere that it was the cheapest way. Got to Powell St which was the station we needed, came out and had no idea where we were going, and it was so busy! We must have looked like lost tourists because next thing we knew a homeless guy came up to us and asked where we were trying to get to! He walked us to where we get a taxi from, hailed one down for us and gave us a few tips!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The hotel wasn’t far, we checked in and the guy at the desk gave us a map and wrote on it points of interest and buses to get, which was really helpful but he was also a bit hard to understand! The hotel was called the Mayflower Hotel and it was an old building with reeeally old lifts, which were cool but scary the first time we got in one! The room was nice and we had a little kitchen with a fridge which meant we could get a few bits in so we could save money on food. Oh and breakfast was also included! Bonus!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On our first full day the plan was to get weekly bus passes and then go to the Golden Gate Bridge. We followed the map the man in the hotel had given us and got on the number 30 bus and got off near Crissy Field. I wanted to walk along there and it didn’t look like a long walk. Until we were on the bus and I realised that section of the map said on it ‘Compressed area - 4.5 miles’!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It turned out to be a really nice walk though and didn’t feel that far! There were lots of people walking dogs (we later found out that there are more dogs than children in San Francisco!!) The views of the bridge and Alcatraz were great, we finally made it to the bridge and walked along to the first tower. We had planned to go all the way across and back again, but we had already walked a long way and it was windy and a bit cold up there! Apparently even if its a boiling day you’ll still need a coat on the bridge!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When we got to the tower we looked down and spotted some dolphins in the water! So we watched them for ages, kept trying to get pictures but it was so hard as they’d come up to the surface for about 1 second! We also spotted some seals!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then walked back across the bridge and got on a different bus that went from the end of the bridge. We decided to stop off in Chinatown to have a look round. It was a lot bigger than Chinatown in London and a lot more authentic, i felt like I was actually in China, even the banks names were written in Chinese! There were loads of fruit and veg stalls and loads of smelly dried fish, I took a photo but the stall owner told me off! We went and had some noodles and fried rice before we left, then went back to the hotel!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We looked on Trip Advisor and the number 1 thing to do in San Francisco was Wild SF free walking tours so the next day thought we would try it out! The meeting point was Union Square which was about a 5 minute walk from the hotel, and our tour guide soon rocked up in vintage clothes and carrying a ukelele, Wild Wes! We visited loads of places around the city including the St Francis Hotel, where the president was nearly shot but was saved by a gay military man. Saw a man who sings opera in the street, then onto Chinatown where we went in a fortune cookie factory and saw a man called Jun Yu who owns a barber shop and plays an instrument called an Erhu. He is apparently in the film Pursuit of Happyness, although I don’t remember him!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Then onto Jack Kerouac Alley, saw a Banksy painting, Columbus Tower and the tallest building in San Francisco, the Transamerica Pyramid. We learned looooads about the city and it was fun as well!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After the tour finished we walked to Lombard Street, which is the crookedest street in the world! We walked up the steep pathway which ran alongside it and took some pictures from the top, then got on a cable car and rode it back down to our hotel!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following day we did another Wild SF walking tour, this time our guide was called J Jo. We started off by walking down to the ‘F line’ streetcar which we rode on to the gay district called Castro. In Castro we saw the first ever gay bar to have windows, a cookie shop which sold penis shaped macaroons, and a vintage cinema which had a Frozen singalong that day! We then walked to Dolores Park which had awesome views of the city. On the tour we met a girl from Canada who had family living in the same town I’m from in England, deffo small world!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After going for lunch with a few of the people who were also on the tour, we went to check out an alleyway that J Jo had mentioned that was full of street art. We then got on a bus which went to Steiner Street, which is where the house is from Mrs Doubtfire! The bus stopped right outside the house so we got off and took some pictures.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then walked down to Japantown, where there was a Cherry Blossom Festival going on. There had been a parade earlier on which we'd missed but there were still lots of people dressed up and things going on. I had an amazing ice cream crepe from a place called Happy Face that looked like a teddy bear!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following day we headed down to Fisherman’s Wharf. We went in the Ghirardelli chocolate shop for a hot chocolate then walked down the road towards Pier 39, which is where there are loads of sea lions who have just decided to live there!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On the way we saw a man sat with a handful of twigs in each hand so he was hidden and looked like a bush, and as people walked past he was going "arghhhh!” and making them jump! It was so funny we stood there for ages just laughing at everyone’s reactions! We carried on down and saw tanks full of crabs, had a clam chowder, and saw a seagull steal a little boys corn dog that he’d had one bite of, and swallow it whole including the stick!! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then got to Pier 39 and saw a man doing spray paint pictures, we had seen them in New York and Las Vegas but this time we decided to watch him do a picture and then buy it. Then we went over to see the sea lions, there was so many and they smelled pretty bad!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It was then time for our trip to Alcatraz! We made our way to Pier 33 to board the boat, we did the night tour which leaves at 5.55pm. Once you arrive on the island you walk up to the main prison where you are given headphones for the audio tour. We spent time going around the whole prison and learning about the prisoners, officers, history and things that happened there like the escape attempts. It’s definitely a must do in San Francisco and was so interesting! Once we had finished the audio tour we were free to have a look round the prison’s hospital, which was a bit creepy! We then got the boat back to the city and it was dark so it was great to see the city all lit up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following day we just did washing, I got a new suitcase, did a bit of shopping and ate at the Cheesecake Factory, yummm!! Then the day after we got a bus to the Palace of the Fine Arts, not to go in but just to take pictures of the outside and the gardens as it was really pretty. We then had decided to visit the Walt Disney Family Museum as it was in the same area, called the Presidio. We decided we could walk there but we had no idea how to get there, so we just kind of guessed! We walked for probably a couple of miles before we found a big map so we looked at that, but the museum wasn’t on there! Then some guy who was driving past asked if we needed help and kind of directed us but we were still a bit confused! About 2 minutes later he drove past again and told us he’d take us there for $15, erm no! We walked up a road that looked like it was leading us deep into the forest, then along another road past a cemetery, then we found a big building which I think was a church so we went to ask in there! A nice lady was in there and told us it was only round the corner, yay!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We spent ages in the museum, which was all about Walt Disney’s life, from when he was born right up until when he died. That part was really sad and it made me cry! My favourite things to see were pictures of the first ever known drawings of Mickey Mouse, and some pictures of Walt and his wife from a photobooth, where they are just pulling silly faces in every photo!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After looking round the museum we got the bus home, had amazing pizza from a place opposite the hotel and packed our cases ready for LA!!</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878700057741279017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137563019997482593.post-2384475502306872272015-01-08T19:58:00.003-08:002015-01-28T04:05:27.519-08:00Las Vegas Highlights!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We flew with Virgin America from New York to Las Vegas, which I was so excited about as I’ve always wanted to go! We were due to take off at 9.35am but just as we were heading for the runway, a passenger was ill so we had to go back to get medical help for them. We then had to re-fuel (?!) then wait in a line of 20 planes to take off!! After about an hour we were finally good to go! We got to see the best safety video in the world, it’s all singing and dancing! I even somehow discovered that there was free wifi on the plane and was talking to my mum on Facebook while flying over Lake Michigan!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We stayed at Excalibur, which was awesome!! I had read a few not great reviews, and we’d got a pretty cheap deal, so I wasn’t expecting much but we were so surprised! We even got a room with a view of the strip. In the hotel was also a big food court, which we loved!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As soon as we arrived we showered and got changed, then headed straight out to explore the strip! We watched the Bellagio fountains, which are on every half hour in the afternoon and every 15 minutes in the evening. Went to Flamingo and saw the um, flamingoes.. then saw a dog wearing shoes and a homeless woman with a karaoke machine singing over the tracks badly! Realised that the strip is actually very long and our feet hurt so we headed back for some sleep!! (I know, how boring are we!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Over the next couple of days we did a lot of laying by the pool in the day and exploring the strip and hotels when it got dark, as it was so much better at night! One of my favourite hotels was the Bellagio, it had a huge conservatory and gardens, glass sculptures on the ceiling in the lobby, and the world’s largest chocolate fountain!</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">TIP: If you are planning on visiting Vegas anytime soon, there is a game on Facebook (yes I know Facebook games are a load of poo but hear me out!!!) called MyVegas. It’s just like playing slot machines but you gradually earn points which you can actually spend in Vegas! We only found out about it about 2 months before we went but we managed to get a free breakfast buffet each at our hotel and free entry into the Secret Garden at the Mirage hotel which has dolphins and amazing white tigers! If you can earn enough points though you can get free hotel rooms and free tickets to shows! Deffo worth it!</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We saw 3 shows in Vegas - Elton John, Boyz II Men and Cirque Du Soleil’s ‘ONE’ which is a Michael Jackson show! I had wanted to see Britney Spears and Celine Dion but they both seemed to have all of April off, dam it!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For Elton John we bought the cheapest tickets, right on the back balcony, but the way the seating curves round in the Colusseum at Caesar’s Palace meant that you didn’t feel that far away. Not sure how much people paid right at the front, but the first few rows actually got to go on the stage with him!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For Boyz II Men we had pretty good seats, a little bit to the side but only about 4 rows from the front. They were so good, and at one point they came out into the audience giving out roses to the women while they were singing! People started getting out of their seats and going into the aisle so I followed! I got to hug one of the guys and he was singing in my ear it was beautiful!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Cirque Du Soleil show was just AMAZING, the best show I’ve ever seen!!! I love Cirque Du Soleil anyway, but this was so different from their other shows as there was a lot more dancing, but still all the usual crazy acrobatics.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Before the show started there were a group of cast members walking around the seats dressed like paparazzi in long coats (like in the Billie Jean music video). They walked past me then suddenly turned back and pounced on me flashing all their cameras in my face! I almost jumped out of my seat!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On one of the days we caught a Deuce bus (which goes up and down the strip - 3-day pass $20!) and went up to the Premium Outlets then to Fremont St which is ‘downtown' Vegas. The best thing about Premium Outlets was a shop called Hot Topic, I wanted to buy everything! In Fremont St we watched the light show, </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">went in Binion's where you can have your photo taken with a million dollars for free! There were loads of people dressed up in costumes (trying to get people to have photos with them in exchange for tips) street performers, and girls dancing on bars. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Overall it's worth seeing but </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">didn’t think it was that great down there (although most people seem to love it?)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I had managed to get a cold so that night I couldn’t get to sleep, and there were lots of noisy drunk people walking past the room. Then at 2.30am the fire alarm which is the loudest thing I’ve ever heard got set off by someone!! And when I say alarm, it was the most horrible alarm sound followed by a creepy recorded voice telling us to stay put while they find out what the problem was, over and over and over…! Eventually the creepy voice said it was all ok and no need to evacuate so we could actually get some sleep!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Some of the other things we did in Vegas included going to watch the Blue Man Group pre-show parade in the Monte Carlo hotel which someone had told us about, riding the New York New York rollercoaster, which was fun but you can tell it’s old, it’s pretty bumpy! Walking around the Venetian and watching the people singing on the gondolas, visiting the Las Vegas sign! </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">One night we walked past the Coyote Ugly bar which was doing free entry and buy 1 get 1 free drinks so we went in there for a bit, it was good in there and the cocktails I had were strong! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We didn't really do much gambling, we had to be so careful with money as we had so much travelling ahead of us!! But Damo's dad said to put $10 on black so we did for him, won and went and collected $20 and left!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On our second to last day we did the Grand Canyon helicopter trip! We did it with Sundance Helicopters and it was awesome, they came and picked us up in a limo from the hotel and took us to the airport, on the way the limo driver pointed out that we were driving past the parking lot from the film The Hangover (where the Chinese guy jumps out the boot of the car!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">At the airport we had to be weighed then got given stickers with the number of our helicopter on it, before quick safety briefing and getting in the helicopter! It was our first time in a helicopter so we were really excited! I had dosed myself up with travel sickness tablets as when our friend went she spent the whole way back with her head down thinking she was going to spew!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We got on board, got our ear phones on and we were off! On the way there we had a commentary in our ear phones telling us the places we were flying over and what we could see. I was finding it really interesting but the other 4 people on the trip with us wanted their’s in Spanish and the pilot couldn’t work out which buttons were which. Mine then started talking to me in Spanish and he couldn’t change it back! Grrr!!! Luckily Damo wasn’t bothered about listening to it anyway so I stole his ear phones!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We flew over the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and the Mojave Desert, then got to the west rim of the Grand Canyon and landed inside it. We then had 30 minutes to take photos, drink champers and eat a picnic! It went so quickly then we were back on the helicopter for the trip back. I got to sit in the front this time, and as we got back to Las Vegas the pilot took us over downtown and along the strip!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That night we went up the Eiffel Tower which had amazing views, we also had amazing views of Lorde doing a concert on the rooftop of a hotel! We watched the Bellagio fountains from up there a couple of times as well. Definitely go up here if you visit Vegas!! then walked back to the hotel and I made myself feel really sick by drinking a huge ‘ICEE’ slush!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On our last full day we got the bus up to the top of the strip and went to the ‘Pawn Stars’ shop (the shop from the TV show!) there was a huge queue to get in, I didn’t realise it was so popular! We went in and walked round taking a few pictures, then started chatting to a Canadian couple who said they were hanging around to see the actual stars of the show, I have no idea how often they are there but we weren’t waiting! We then got stuck talking to the couple, the woman could talk forever! She had some funny stories but it was just one of those moments where you couldn’t get away!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Finally we managed to leave and decided we would walk to Stratosphere because it didn’t look that far BUT IT WAS! Had a little look round Stratosphere but didn’t go up it, got the bus down to Circus Circus and watched a lady doing aerial silks. Then got back on the bus back to the hotel to pack our cases and get everything ready for leaving for San Francisco the next day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Las Vegas was amazing and it’s definitely somewhere I’m sure we’ll visit again one day!!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878700057741279017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137563019997482593.post-29473420895122136972015-01-05T17:29:00.001-08:002015-02-14T21:55:24.579-08:00New York Highlights!<div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We spent the first week of our trip in New York City and flew from Manchester to JFK with Pakistani Airlines, which came up the cheapest by far on SkyScanner! I would totally recommend this airline, I was so nervous about it but they were just as good as any other airline I’ve flown with. They even allow each passenger 2 suitcases each, not that we could take advantage of that one!</span><br />
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Once we landed it took forever to get through customs, then our cases didn't turn up for ages!! Finally we got them then got the AirTrain from the airport to a station called Jamaica, then got on the subway to Penn Station, which was right by our hotel. This was a really cheap way of getting into Manhattan! When I had visited New York a few years ago with a friend we got this awful shared bus thing which we paid loads more for! I don't know how we didn't crash then they just dropped us at Grand Central Station even though they told us they'd take us to our hotel!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We stayed at the New Yorker which is in a great location in Manhattan, right by Madison Square Garden. I would definitely recommend this hotel, it was lovely although more expensive than i had hoped! New York is definitely an expensive place but I think it’s worth paying the extra to be in Manhattan as you can walk almost everywhere.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">New York was awesome, we did all the usual touristy stuff, Times Square, went up the Empire State Building and the Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Station, 5th Avenue, Central Park, all walking distance from the hotel. Found an awesome place called 2 Bros Pizza which was between our hotel and Times Square, $1 for a slice of NY pizza!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We got the subway to the World Trade Center and visited the 9/11 memorial, which was so sad, I thought I’d be fine but I got really upset, it’s so beautiful what they have done there though.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then went to the apartment building from Friends and Washington Square Park (In the movie I Am Legend, his apartment is right opposite this park, and there is a big arch which you instantly recognise from the film!) There was a man feeding all the pigeons, he was covered in them and we stopped to watch him, he then put some seed in my hand! Argh I got covered in them too!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That night we went to watch Wicked on broadway, it’s my favourite show and I’d already seen it 12 times in London!!! It was amazing!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Statue of Liberty cruise was the next thing we did, you should definitely book this online a while before you go as there is limited availability to go up into the crown! We missed out on this but we did get to go up to the pedestal, which has a little museum inside. When we went it was a horrible rainy cold day!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY85l-7Ytu0hdpzdwM8I6PVBGXLYFP-GcFfUTqdf-cZReLaz0oRkmvWaPO_nGnRibMlgXCxObR4LsmDIAO31Rm867se3yZLAIxNMHIU7ptX84yqqyUAsSI9LilkeLAUPQgMdhXZqaMfDko/s1600/statueliberty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY85l-7Ytu0hdpzdwM8I6PVBGXLYFP-GcFfUTqdf-cZReLaz0oRkmvWaPO_nGnRibMlgXCxObR4LsmDIAO31Rm867se3yZLAIxNMHIU7ptX84yqqyUAsSI9LilkeLAUPQgMdhXZqaMfDko/s1600/statueliberty.jpg" height="308" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That night we went to watch Lady Gaga!! I was so excited, I saw her once before in Manchester but this was a much smaller venue called the Roseland, we were so lucky that she was doing a week of shows the week we were in NY before the venue closed for good. We had to queue in the rain and my legs and feet killed but it was awesome!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When we left the Roseland we noticed that in the theatre right opposite was a play starring Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad!) So we decided it might be worth waiting around to see if we could meet him when he came out the stage door! We even had an umbrella that someone had left on the floor at Gaga so we thought why not?! The line of people waiting for him got really big but he came out and had photos with everyone! We even got him to do a short video saying hello to my brother, who is the biggest Breaking Bad fan!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next day we got the subway to Brooklyn and walked back over the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan. We saw loads of padlocks on the bridge where couples write their names on them and attach them to the bridge, I think the idea came from the bridge in Paris which is covered in them! There was a guy selling padlocks so we decided to add our own!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Back in Manhattan we walked to Wall Street and saw the bull, then decided to try and find the fire station building from Ghostbusters! We sat in McDonalds on the free wifi working out on Google maps where it was! I am so bad at directions but Damo led the way! We then got on the Staten Island Ferry, which is free, in time to watch the sunset over the city.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For our last day in New York we did the All Access Tour at Madison Square Garden, then skyped our friends who had just had a baby girl. We had done everything we had wanted to do so we got an early night ready for our flight to Las Vegas in the morning!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If you are planning a trip to New York or want to know more about anything we did then feel free to ask! :-)</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878700057741279017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137563019997482593.post-66129325622897845872015-01-05T17:14:00.004-08:002015-01-05T17:21:32.233-08:00About Us!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2KWBVF-g4RYVxrRr4cwzDuxxnFADyHJlFAOPXa4EXrZmJ8TUyaCrUzTVgT3Rzm_-NmafeydTKCI0jHZPLwWpOduGuqtfDkPZFKqHQ_zwBWZIKn4LYGoGT3TpcNgGnC12RC7GOdAsgaTdV/s1600/aboutus.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2KWBVF-g4RYVxrRr4cwzDuxxnFADyHJlFAOPXa4EXrZmJ8TUyaCrUzTVgT3Rzm_-NmafeydTKCI0jHZPLwWpOduGuqtfDkPZFKqHQ_zwBWZIKn4LYGoGT3TpcNgGnC12RC7GOdAsgaTdV/s1600/aboutus.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If you want to know more about us you’ve come to the right place!!! We are both 28 years old and from the UK, Damo is from Stoke-On-Trent and I’m from Southampton.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Since we were 18 we’ve both worked on holiday parks doing entertainment. If you’re not from the UK think holiday resorts! The job included daytime duties like kids clubs, running the evenings entertainment and performing in shows. It was a pretty full-on job! You live on the park, work day and nights and get 1 day off a week. Here’s a few photos from some of the shows we performed in!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie8gkcWPytiwHyBM5tuukvbDqSK7bmsrwuKWMjXfimFI7FUnffvwtjPZPGpx0Vtlijl3FVB9MpeH4K4VLit0zpwI1F1vRZOTdFSoU2p8s4vQbP8popA9s1TDU7uIB53XHR3lPKa5V48zaw/s1600/shows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie8gkcWPytiwHyBM5tuukvbDqSK7bmsrwuKWMjXfimFI7FUnffvwtjPZPGpx0Vtlijl3FVB9MpeH4K4VLit0zpwI1F1vRZOTdFSoU2p8s4vQbP8popA9s1TDU7uIB53XHR3lPKa5V48zaw/s1600/shows.jpg" height="268" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We met in 2010 when I was working on a park on the Isle of Wight. We’ve now been together 4 years and been engaged for almost 2!! We got engaged at Disneyworld in Florida during my fave show Fantasmic! Travelling has come before wedding planning but I guess that will be the next thing when we eventually get back to the UK!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878700057741279017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137563019997482593.post-56501918466388957652015-01-04T23:00:00.000-08:002015-01-08T20:21:05.412-08:00First Blog Post! Well Hellooo!<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Well I set up this blog almost a year ago, before me and Damo left to go on a round-the-world trip, and finally I am getting it started.. woohoo!! :-P</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We left on 1st April 2014 (April fool's day, yep!) from Manchester airport and flew to New York. Our plan was to be away for around a year, and we had flights booked to get us all the way to Australia in July, but nothing more after that. Which kind of terrified me!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC9KGw37svBChOnmBWK6kTW7eavMcEwlF7lT8dM7PiH6dpcXAarFW4-eiTPTvqY3qvFYCiUgMK0r_kiDCJiLaxWv-0NJpEQYejvoesMl0w8jKfvqWHZodcGr4H5QwLlBizjQArTTlmDVkz/s1600/IMG_5026.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC9KGw37svBChOnmBWK6kTW7eavMcEwlF7lT8dM7PiH6dpcXAarFW4-eiTPTvqY3qvFYCiUgMK0r_kiDCJiLaxWv-0NJpEQYejvoesMl0w8jKfvqWHZodcGr4H5QwLlBizjQArTTlmDVkz/s1600/IMG_5026.jpg" height="195" width="200" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It was definitely a scary feeling knowing we would be away for a year, but it also felt pretty amazing!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Originally the plan was just to visit Australia - where my brother lives with his 3 children, as well as my 21 year-old niece. Until we realised that for the price we would pay for plane tickets to Australia, we may as well get a round-the-world ticket!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So now here we are at the start of 2015 and we have done some amazing stuff and had some incredible experiences which I'm going to write about in this blog! And if nobody reads it, well at least we'll have it to look back on!!! Enjoy!!!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh02FF174YhXJGPB5raKkaV4MFQeFO2teL8ySx2s-pkFkY3cAOiIxyU2YBkXE8r4umOWlmzYUq6Ruri1uKzewYmuvW5Fux32yWrYvKe1IK9vxhYEB0bl6PikbG-EZLT8_Qebn4lTCUGU6oT/s1600/vikkidamo1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh02FF174YhXJGPB5raKkaV4MFQeFO2teL8ySx2s-pkFkY3cAOiIxyU2YBkXE8r4umOWlmzYUq6Ruri1uKzewYmuvW5Fux32yWrYvKe1IK9vxhYEB0bl6PikbG-EZLT8_Qebn4lTCUGU6oT/s1600/vikkidamo1.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If you don't know me and Damo personally, you can read <a href="http://damoandvikki.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/about-us.html">About Us</a> here :-)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Places visited in 2014 - New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco, LA, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878700057741279017noreply@blogger.com0Sydney NSW, Australia-33.8674869 151.20699020000006-33.8674869 151.20699020000006 -33.8674869 151.20699020000006