Australia& New Zealand

Good day People

Yes it's that time again, thought i'd drop you all a line and update you on what's been happening on this merry journey of ours now that we are back on the road again.

I completed work a few weeks ago and decided to high tale it to the east coast of Australia to see what all the hype was about and i wasn't disappointed.  My first port of call was a small town called townsville which i flew to from Sydney.  My intention was to get some diving on the barrier reef in and this part of the reef was meant to be relatively unspoilt.  I got more than i bargained for, but it was amazing, instead of a normal reef dive i ended up doing a wreck dive off the coast of Townsville.  The journey there took three hours and to say it was choppy is an understatement but it was worth it.  The dive site was amazing, we saw a vast array of marine life ranging from loggerhead and green turtles, shovel nose stingrays (which look like small sharks, a bit of a shock when it creeps up on ya) sea snakes and all manner of big ugly looking fish like the grouper and of course there were a few jellyfish lurking around just to keep us on our toes.  If that wasn't enough we were informed, once in the water, that there was a family of Bull sharks kicking around in the area..............NICE!!!! as you can imagine we were constantly looking around us and when your in the middle of the ocean 25 meters down and all you can see around you is deep blue, spotting one of these guys was proving difficult.  The visibility wasn't the best so these buggers could of been hanging around within 5 meters of us and we wouldn't have known, there's one for the old nerves but luckily we didn't come across any of these short tempered bullies, which was lucky for them!!!!

After surviving a dance with the devil i high tailed it down to Airlie beach, the gate way to the whitsunday islands.  From there i acquired myself a position on a 200 year old tall ship called the Defender, which had been restored to it's full splendour and set sail around the gorgeous whitsunday islands.  I've never really been a sea fairing man but this was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the trip and i think i will be doing it again.  We spent three days sailing, snorkeling, swimming and checking many of the pristine deserted beaches, one of which we had to swim to from the boat in our funky lycra stinger suits, which aren't very flattering i might add. Fortunately there is no photographic evidence.  If anyone is thinking of heading this way then make sure you get yourself on the "Defender" and make sure its going via whitehaven beach otherwise you'll be missing out on one hell of an experience. I was lucky enough to have a great bunch of crew mates and the three days went off without a hitch.

Anyway after three days of rest and relaxation (as obviously needed it) i carried on my journey down the coast.  Next stop Noosa a small coastal town on the sunshine coast where the creme dela creme of Australian high society hangout and live so as you can imagine i must of looked the part with the ruggied unshaven look.  I kicked back there for a couple of days with Mr. Watts and Erroll (cheers boys) before heading down to Brisbane.  The houses around that area ares ome of the nicest and most expensive i  come across so far.  Erroll, robs flat mate has two flats that he has recently built which have been kitted out some seriously high spec swimming pool included and was flogging them for around 2.5 million each.  I dug deep unfortunately i was short a few million, just a few mind!!!!

Anyway Brisbane! nice place unfortunately i was running out of time as i had to get back to Sydney for Christmas (I had a date with the beach) so i was unable to get true feel of the place.  No Nimbin either which was a bit of a bummer.  Well that was the end of the east coast for me, which was fortunate as the tropical storms were just kicking in.  Christmas in Sydney was a little weird due to the change in weather and location but good nonetheless but it was soon time to say farewell to the place that had been my home for 4 months. This was quite hard as i was getting used to my new manor and the people i'd met.  But, such is the life of a traveller it was back on the road for us so we said farewell to Sydney and Australia (till next time) and set of for NZ.

The first thing i noticed about NZ as we came of the plane was the fact that for the first time in about 4 months i had to dig out my fleece the place was freezing and its the height of summer.  Clearly i have been spoilt by the good Australian weather as anything below 30 degrees is now classed as freezing in my book.  Anyway after some quick acclimatization ( i just thought of scotland and my body remembered and re-adjusted) we set of for christchurch, no we were in christchurch (see what the cold does to ya).

We spent two days in Christchurch, it was a little bit too quiet for my likings, before heading down to Dunedin for New years.  Now Dunedin for those of you that don't know is the sister city of Edinburgh and name Dunedin is actually Gaelic for Edinburgh.  This affiliation was well deserved as being a student city as well meant that we were in for quite a lively New Year.  This is pretty much what we got. The night kicked of with usual open air live bands followed by the midnight fireworks, before we descended into the underworld of clubbing for a bit of dancing, the rest as they say is history.

Needless to say new years day was a non starter didn't see much of it, but when we eventually recovered we set of to Milford Sounds to check out the spectacular scenery, detox and do some hill walking.  The drive to the sounds itself is quite a dramatic as the landscape changes every 15 mins. One minute your driving through a valley, next a windy road through the mountains then through dense forest but always with road kill everywhere you looked, i never seen so much.  We spent three days in the sounds on one NZ's great walks before heading of to the "Adrenaline City" that is Queenstown.  For those of you who don't know what queenstown is famous for, it is the extreme sports capital of the world and the home of Bungee.  Needless to say we had to explore further and decided to partake in some bungee action ourselves and decided to go for the highes tseeing it was our first time (you can work out the logic if you can find any). The jump in question is known as "THe Nevis Highwire".

This apparently is the second highest bungee jump in the world at 134m (the height of the Sydney Harbor Bridge) the highest being 200m and located in South Africa.  Now you truly don't appreciate the realisation of what your about to do until you are sitting on the bus at 8.00 in the morning climbing the windy hilltop roads leading up to the jump.  At this point i was still half asleep and it wasn't until we reached the jump site and had a glimpse of the cable car and the chasm it was suspended over that i realisedf i wasn't in bed anymore, the adrenaline started rising in my body and an intense rude awaking ensued.  The journey to the cable car was via a very small metal box suspended on cables with a perforated floor so you could see down into the valley your where just about to jump into as it slowly went across to the main cable car.  Just a small glimpse of this began to accelerate my heart beat, which until this point i was doing quite well in controlling.

We finally reached the main cable car and the guys harnessed us up, stuck on the leg braces and briefed us on what to do once we reached the edge, during which time my heart beat was breaking speed records and i was preying for my legs not to go on me.  I didn't help that the cable car itself had glass floors so there was no way of avoiding the issue that you were hanging over chasm 134m above a river.  Finally once all safety precautions were completed, which seemed to take a life time, i found myself sitting on the chair waiting for the all go.  What made matters worse for me was the fact i was the first to jump that day so i didn't get the chance to see anyone else do it first, which may have been a good thing, however i was in no a frame of mind to be trying to figure that out.  Next thing i heard was "right mate it's time to go" i got up and slowly shuffled to the edge of a 50 x 50cm steel plank, my heart was now on the verge of bursting out of my chest and the adrenaline was coursing through every part of my body.  All i could see around me was shear cliff faces and the river below which on a 1-1 scale was about 5 metres wide but looked like a pencil line from where i was standing. I took one last breath, said goodbye to life as i knew it and threw myself off this plank.

The free fall lasted about 8 seconds although i couldn't be sure, my heart was now rising through my body in an last attempt to get the hell out of the situation as the river below hurtled towards me at about 80mph.  To say this was an intense feeling is an understatement of note, i just kept falling and falling, faster and faster waiting for the bungee to kick hoping it would kick in.  Then finally it kicked in and the relief and rush you get as that happens is breath taking.  I  had a couple of recoils before the retraction system kicked in and i was being pulled back to the world of the sane.  I have to say the views, once my brain had regained control, were quite amazing on the way up, it was quite a unique way of seeing the spectacular surrounding landscape. I was relieved to be back on the cable car and i now had the pleasure of witnessing the fear in the other jumpers eyes as they prepared to jump, which i admit was quite a nice position to be in...........don't judge you'd be the same, it's all good.  Although in saying that there was a london guy who decided to go out on a large drinking session the night before and turned up with a hangover.  He did the jump after little bit of coaxing and after it was over and he'd been winched back up he refused to let go of the guide rope and it took two guys about a couple mins to persuade him that it was over and it was safe to let go. He was shaking so much the whole cable car was swaying.  He then proceeded to empty the contents of his stomach for about half an hour once he got back to solid ground.  The moral for those thinking of trying this, is never jump with a hangover i'm sure he won't be if he ever jumps again.  Dan was after me so i couldn't tell ya what was going through his mind as he prepared himself, i can't have helped that i was standing there with the camera waiting for him to throw himself off.

Doing that jump was an experience i will never forget and the white water rafting we did in the afternoon was more like punting in Cambridge in comparison but it was a good way to end the day and ease me out of the adrenaline rush that stayed with me for the rest of the day.  I could have done it again. For those of you thinking of doing it i seriously suggest forgetting the small and just going for the biggest you can find, there's nothing like it.

Anyway that's it so far today's the 8th and we leaving the adrenaline city and heading for the ice caps of the fox glaciers on the west coast, then i have a date with some dolphins so until next time, live it up life's too short.

Later guys

Phil