New Zealand thus far...

So I've been having fun here in NZ so far.

As I said we were planning to, went to the steepest street in the world. It was indeed steep. Even ran up the last bit though - get me! Had a delicious kiwi icecream too - hokey pokey (vanilla with lumps of stuff like the inside of a dime) and gold rush (honeycomb flavour with honeycomb pieces) mmmmm.

We then went to try and look for albatrosses and penguins but failed to find any, did see some fur seals though which were very cute (although apparently not nice at all and regularly attack tourists). I kept thinking I saw albatrosses but apparently they were just big sea gulls. Have seen lots of hawks and eagle-like things though which I think are cool. Also there are lots of farmed deer which Lan laughs at me for getting over-excited about every time.

Also took a photo of the train station which is apparently the second most photographed building in the southern hemisphere. Prize for first guesser of most photographed. It's very obvious.

Then we went to the gardens of Larnach castle which were pretty cool. Did a native plants tour which involved me getting lost several times. Also got crazy hayfever and was sneezing the whole way round (not as badly as notorious hayfever with you e-war) but was interesting nonethless.

The next day was Cadbury world day. Yay! It was very interesting (did you know that England got chocolate 100 years after Spain because when we raided their ships we thought cocoa beans were sheep poo and throwed it over-board!) and got lots of yummy chocolate that we don't have in UK - my favourite was called Pinky - how apt!

Afterwards I walked to the Botanic gardens which were pretty. Was desperate for the loo and the toilets there were closed so I went in a public one that was very crazy and modern - it even talked to you! But then because I had headed to the toilet I managed to get very lost of my way to meet Lan at the police station and ended up back at the Steepest Street again (way back at the other end of town, oops).

The next day we finally emerged from Dunedin and Alana's house and headed down to Invercargill. We went via the Catlins national park and saw a waterfall (playing pooh sticks on the way - Lan had never played before - what a deprived child!) and Nugget Point lighthouse. Also had some more delicious bargain avacadoes, num num. We then got to Invercargill and lovely Alana's mum cooked us dinner.

That brings us to today (I think - I'm very confused on days at the mo). We went to Bluff which is the Southernmost point of NZ. Took a cheesy tourist shot under the sign that says how far to lots of different points. Over 18000 km to lovely London. Then we went to a beach that you can drive on just because you can drive on it, I paddled away while Lan sat in the car and looked at me like I was an idgit. After that we rolled to the Invercargill museum and looked at some lizardy thing that is a distant relative of the dinosaur and some maori stuff.

Then the highlight of the trip so far... MILKING A COW! Went to Alana's Aunt's farm and did some milking both by hand AND with a milking machine. I think I was pretty good, but apparently I wasn't. I was surprised by how modern and technical it was. Good times.

Aside from Alana: "Attempted to milk a cow but it didn't really work. Thought she was going to get kicked by the cow - which doesn't happen - and got paranoid as soon as the cow started to move. While posing for a photo she decided to squeeze the teet and wondered why the cow would move. As you can understand, I was in fits of laughter. When it came to using the milking machine she was ALRIGHT at doing it once she figured out which way it goes."

Now back at Alana's mum's watching the tennis. Off to glow worm caves tomorrow, then some more naturey stuff and then some watching crazy bungeers in Queenstown. Hopefully actually camping tomorrow - hardcore! It's boiling at the mo, lovely lovely. Not sure when I'll next be online, at latest at the weekend when we get to Lan's friend's house. Over and out for now. xxx

Good NZ times

So here I am in New Zealand!

Bit of a drama getting here, the plane from HK was late so I thought I was going to miss my connection. This was made worse by NZ's frankly ridiculous laws about bringing things into the country which meant that some silly little dog started waving its paws around by my handbag because I'd had an apple in it earlier (which I had eaten!) They then had to x-ray my bag which slowed everything down and I became convinced I was going to miss my connection. So this nice lady I'd befriended at HK airport gave me a lift to the domestic connection bit and somehow I caught the plane!

So Alana picked me up at the airport and we went to the hostel. We were in a room with 35 beds / "bids" as the kiwis would call them which I reckon is quite hardcore. We went out for a few drinks and then had an early night.

The next day I called up Sian and we met up with her in the centre of Christchurch. There was a cool busker's festival on which was full of random people doing random things like juggling fire on a unicycle or pretending to be mannequins and such ridiculousnesses. So we did a lot of that.

In the evening that night (Saturday I think, days have lost all meaning) we went to some pubs. Sian and I were boogying away to some crazy Irish music and befriended some equally crazily dancing kiwi boys who were very entertaining. They took us all to a weird bar called "the cleaning room" where we danced with hoovers and such (like the Britney dancing at mine andrew & chris!) and played limbo with a broom. Fun times.

Sunday we had a lazy day watching lots more busking shows and a concert in the park. We then went to a stand-up comedy show in the evening which was very good, aside from the kiwi in-jokes which I didn't understand.

Monday was tourist-fest day. We went on a punt on the Avon, a tram tour around the city and a cable car up a mountain. Or maybe a big hill, I don't know how one tells them apart... We then went back to where Sian is staying (lucky so-and-so has managed to wangle free accommodation for a month!) and she cooked a lovely chilli, then we went to another comedy show. This one was also good, highlight was when the lady was talking about naughty illegal things and asked if there were any cops in, Sian pointed out Alana who then got lots of abuse. Yay!

Tuesday Alana and I said bye to Sian and drove on down to Dunedin. We went a very long and round-about route to see lots of touristy places. The towns in NZ are ridiculously small and pointless but it's very pretty. I've never been so into looking out the window, beautiful. Loving the beaches, and the sheep dog statues too.

Yesterday I woke up late at Alana's in Dunedin and had the laziest of lazy days. Went to the supermarket, made a salad and some cauliflower cheese, lay around in the garden (at 4pm, with factor 30 and still tanned! amazing!) and had a bbq. Fabulous. Today I am being equally lazy although we're planning to go see some crazy steep street later and some birds. Got to love the random kiwi activities. Then Cadbury world tomorrow - yay!

Sorry this has been a bit long and boring. I will write again soon with some more amusing excerpts. Thanks again to the texters - this week's special mentions go to Lanny, Heff, Ed, Trots, Dave and Jim. Check out the photos if you haven't already, and keep in touch! xxx

Bye bye HK!

Just a quick one to say that I am flying over to NZ today. Very excited. Looking forward to the PF muchly of course (just realised I still haven't shared what the food was on the way here! Poor form McKinley).

Spending the weekend in Christchurch in a hostel with Alana and almost definitely seeing Sian too so I'm very much looking forward to that. Probably won't be online again for a few days but then I will be able to put up my photos and things from Alana's (as well as visiting the Cadbury's factory mmmm).

Yesterday I went to the Chinese garden as planned and it was very impressive. There was also a Buddhist nunnery which was interesting, and I found a nice English couple to chat too which was a bit of excitement (too much of my own company is starting to send me a bit loopy). Then had what will hopefully be my last Chinese pot noodle for a long time (also ate a massive tub of cherries - perhaps unwise before a 10 hour plane flight?!).

Thanks again to people who are keeping in touch lots. It's really nice to hear from everyone. And remember, I may be too cheap to reply, but my phone DOES receive texts! (Thanks Trots & Holls & E-war who are texting up a storm!)

Lots of love xxx

Disney over-excitement

So major highlight since my last blog is DISNEY!!!!

Went there yesterday on the MTR - they have a special Disney line with Disney trains with Mickey shaped windows and thingies that you hang on to... Very cool. And when you pull into the station the voice over says "have a magical day". Love it. I arrived and was ridiculously over-excited and grinning to myself. Most other people looked sort of miserable which made me a bit cross - hello, it's Disneyland! Silliness. It's ridiculously tiny and only has 1 proper rollercoaster (Space Mountain - not as good as the one in Paris OR Florida for you Disney geeks out there... ie my father) so that was a bit of a let-down. But never mind, I went to all the shows and they were great. Lion King show was especially cool (and Chrissy, unlike in London they actively ENCOURAGE you to sing along - yay!) and there was a 4d show which was also good (although they obviously only had 1 kind of smell squirter so you had the same smell for food / flowers / sea which was a bit odd). Discovered my eyes DO work with 3d glasses, so that's a relief (cos my eyes are a bit silly for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about - speaking of which I keep forgetting to do my eye exercises, bad Jules). I ate some Disney-themed Chinese food (am massively on pastry overload - planning to eat salad for lunch. By choice! Crazy...) and went home relatively early. But a good day and I'm glad I went, and am looking forward to CA disney with Clakes even more now! And am possibly back wanting my Disney wedding again too... Hmm...

Blimey that was a long paragraph.

Anyways, other than that I've mainly been doing a bit of sight-seeing. Went up to the peak and to some more city parks as you probably gathered from my last post. Started a new book, hand-washed some clothes (feel like a proper traveler doing that!), read a bit about NZ. Heading to another garden/park place today to enjoy the last of the hot weather as it seems not that nice in NZ. Bit cloudy at the moment but hoping that's about to burn off any minute (although probably for the best - I'm a bit sunburnt! In January! Crazy!) so I can sit around in the sun reading my book. Lovely lovely.

Oh, and you'll be pleased to know that my McDonalds was every bit as delicious as I hoped.

Some thoughts from HK...

Not sure I've done enough of interest to warrant a standard blog, so here are some Julia-thoughts for you all...

1) No matter what country I'm in, I really enjoy sitting around reading my book. Currently reading a crime novel I found in the hostel. Surprisingly good, like reading an episode of CSI.

2) Hong Kong streets are very crowded and everyone walks painfully slowly. Odd that I am the tourist and the one who wants to speed up... Perhaps because my legs are longer?

3) Lots of Hong Kong brides get their wedding photos taken in random places on the street. Best seen so far: outside a tea museum. (Possibly location for you Trots?!)

4) Are all cities' pre-pay train ticket thing named after a sea creature beginning with O? (Think oyster, now octopus...)

5) If your diet consists almost entirely of Chinese pot-noodles, greasy take-aways, fruit, ice-cream and chocolate, your stomach isn't going to thank you. (McDonalds for dinner tonight methinks, just to re-Westernise my insides)

6) It's not worth paying the extra to go to the viewing platform at the top of The Peak. It is, however, worth climbing the 105 steps to get to the viewing platform in Hong Kong Park.

7) I am developing a slight obsession with city parks. So far I have been to 3 here and loved them all. Sure the one in Christchurch with the folk band will be equally spectacular too.

8) Even if it's 20 degrees c, Hong Kong-ers look at you like you're a complete loony if you wear a shorts / vest / flip-flops combo.

9) Earl grey / green tea blend is delicious.

10) Being tall is still causing me problems. My legs are too long to fit in Hong Kong pedicure chairs properly. And I also bang my head a lot on the bars on the MTR.

That's it for now. Will write normally again soon. xxxxx

Ｈｏｔ ｃｙｃｌｉｎｇ

Hello hello, less exciting update for you today I'm afraid.

Yesterday I was feeling a bit uninspired (largely due to the darn loss of my awesome plan in my guide book) so did a lot of wandering around. Went to the ladies' market to try and buy some more shoes but once again my hugeness let me down as they only had ugly shoes in a big enough size. Silly Hong Kong-ers and their small feet / height. I went on the star ferry across the water (sea? river? I think sea right? Or perhaps it's an estuary?!??) which was cool. Er... sure I must've done some other stuff but can't think of it right now. Watched Miss Congeniality 2 in my room in the evening (told you today's update was less exciting!). So, boring to write about but I enjoyed the doing nothing.

Today I was planning to go to a museum and monastery so I got the MTR as planned. By the time I got there it was about midday and the sun was beaming down and I decided it was far too nice and hot to stand in a building. Hotness still has great novelty after the snow etc in England. So I meandered around a bit and found a very pretty park which had lots and lots of people on bikes. Then I saw a sign for a bike rental place and I thought, why not?! So I hired a bike and cycled along the path by the river for an hour or so. Very peaceful (most of the time, apart from when crazy children brake suddenly in front of you / people don't respect the one-way system / decide to cycle alongside each other kissing) and pretty, and an interesting juxtaposition of concrete jungle in the surrrounding area and trees, waterfalls etc in the park. A bit like Central Park in NYC I suppose. (Oooh I sound like a jet-setter when I say that! Ha!) And a bit like in Greenwich park where you can see Canary Wharf in the background. So like any city park then.. Hmm... Anyway so I tried to take a self-time picture of myself on the bike, I look ridiculous as you can imagine, I will try and put photos up tomorrow.

After I gave the bike back I wandered around the park some more and found a man doing a little performance thing with his guitar, I think he was singing in English but I couldn't work out what he was saying. He was quite good anyway (or maybe that's just because he was a man playing a guitar so I got a bit over-excited) so I sat and watched that for a bit.

Then I MTRed back to the stop near me and hit up the supermarket. I am doing very well at being budget-y and buying stuff in advance rather than in restaurants. Might even manage my 5-a-day today, good work McKinley. So now here I　ａｍ　ｏｎｌｉｎｅ　ａｎｄ　ｔｈｅｎ　ｐｌａｎｎｉｎｇ　ｔｏ　ｗａｔｃｈ　ｓｏｍｅ　ｐｒｏｊｅｃｔ　ｒｕｎｗａｙ　ｔｏｎｉｇｈｔ．　Ｐｒｏｂａｂｌｙ　ｓｈｏｕｌｄ　ｇｏ　ｔｏ　ａ　ｂａｒ　ｏｒ　ｓｏｍｅｔｈｉｎｇ　ｂｕｔ　Ｉ am far too lazy. Plenty of time for that in NZ / Aus ／　ＵＳＡ．

Ａｂｏｕｔ　ｔｏ　ｃｈｅｃｋ　ｔｈｅ　ｗｅａｔｈｅｒ　ｆｏｒ　ｔｏｍｏｒｒｏｗ　ａｎｄ　ｉｆ　ｉｔ’ｓ　ａｓ　ｎｉｃｅ　ａｓ　ｉｔ　ｗａｓ　ｔｏｄａｙ　Ｉ think a day in a different park will have to be arranged. Oh I　ｄｏ　ｌｏｖｅ　ｂｅｉｎｇ　ｌａｚｙ．．．１

Ｔｈａｎｋｓ　ａｇａｉｎ　ｔｏ　ｐｅｏｐｌｅ　ｗｈｏ　ｈａｖｅ　ｅｍａｉｌｅｄ　／　ｔｅｘｔｅｄ　／　ｆａｃｅｂｏｏｋｅｄ．　Ｙｏｕ　ａｒｅ　ａｌｌ　ｖｅｒｙ　ｌｏｖｅｌｙ．　ｘｘｘ

Trains, Planes, Fire Engines & cable cars...

Hello hello! Here I am in Hong Kong! I hope this is working as all the clicky things are in Chinese so I as confused as ever... I will try to be brief but inevitably won't, so here are the edited highlights if you can't be bothered to read it all:
1) Everything's fine
2) Fire alarm in middle of the night, made a friend
3) Cable car to monastery with friend, eat vegetarian food messily

Now here are the juicy details:
Flight was good, nothing note-worthy (other than the PF which I will leave 'til another day for you hardcore JRAWA followers). Decided to be super brave / budgety and get the bus rather than the train from the airport to the hostel (third of the price!) which was a bit of excitement and resulted in me asking the poor lady in front of me if we were at my stop every 2 minutes. Arrived in the end, walked to the hostel without any problems (apart from crazy people trying to sell me something every 100 metres, I learned quickly to stop doing Julia's friendly smile at every one and walk with my head down avoiding eye contact) and checked in.

Room was fine, small but very clean and lots of YWCA freebies like toothbrushes and soap. Absolutely shattered so went to sleep almost immediately (after a shower - washing my hair was somewhat challenging since the shower head was fixed to the wall at a height clearly designed for small Chinese people not giant Julia-sized people). And that is where the drama began. Circa 11pm (about 3 hours into my sleep) I am rudely awoken by the fire alarm. Oh yes, the fire alarm. It's loud. And I'm ten floors up. I put on my coat and shoes (and remember to grab my passport and money, my parents have trained me well!) and go and investigate. I was hoping everyone else would just be going back to bed but instead I am greeted by a crazy Chinese lady yelling "DOWN! DOWN!" in my face and pointing at the stairs. So down I go, half asleep, down 10 floors. Around floor 5 I notice there is somehow a massive rip in my pyjama trousers. Oh well, too late to worry about it then...

When I get down the fire brigade are just pulling up (very efficient) in two fire engines. There are about 10 firemen (none of whom are even remotely attractive, alas) all looking very excited. I take a photo, much to the amusement of my companions. Another girl (from NZ) is even more bewildered than me, she's super jet-lagged and starts asking me what day it is. We start chatting and from the moment she says "this is my first time staying in a hostel and look what's happened!" I know we are going to be friends.

Anyway, needless to say there is no fire. Someone was smoking in a non-smoking room. Nice one. So I walk UP (much worse than down) the 10 floors after arranging to meet Sea (NZ girl - from Thailand hence interesting name) the next day.

So Thursday arrives and Sea and I head off on the MTR. She's even more obsessed with food than I am so we stop several times on the way to the station to buy some- egg custards (mmmm Trots they're far better here than in UK) and weird beefy things on sticks and some strange waffle type item. All very tasty and surely an excellent test for my always-dodgy-when-abroad stomach (which, by the way, is currently fine).

We arrive at Tung Chung and head for the cable car. Sea is crazily scared of heights and I'm not such a big fan myself but we go for it nonetheless. Cable car heads up the mountain and we're not too scared apart from the fact that our cable car mates keep getting up and swapping places and generally making it shake. It takes about 25 minutes and is very pretty. We get to the top and have a look around. There's lot of touristy stuff (and a starbucks) but in my quest to be hardcore we by-pass the commercial-looking restaurants and eat in the vegetarian restaurant bit in the monastery. It's very tasty and I feel like a proper local with my chopsticks and soup spoony thing. My side of the table is rather messy whereas Sea's is completely clean and the inside of my spring roll fell out everywhere but I think other than that I did rather well.

We admire the big Buddha from afar (too lazy to climb up the steps after all the step-climbing we did in the middle of the night) and peruse some shops and then head back down in the cable car. We then have a look around a big outlet mall nearby where I buy some flip-flops after my forgetting-all-my-shoes bungle in UK and I also stock up on food to eat during the week. Bananas were only 30p for 5! Healthy bargain good times.

MTR back to the hostel, I say goodbye to Sea who sadly was only in HK for a day on her way to plan her wedding in Thailand (obviously we did lots of conversing re wedding plans / proposals etc) and then faffed about in my room for a bit before another early night. My jet-lag meant I slept from about 9 - 2am then was awake for 3 hours before sleeping 5-10ish but I feel vaguely refreshed today. I've somehow managed to lose my HK guidebook so no longer have my detailed plan of what I'm doing every day but I'm sure I'll keep myself busy.

Have discovered free internet here in the library next door to the hostel so I'm sure I'll be back. Thanks to those who've emailed / facebooked / texted - it's great to hear from people.

Over & out (for now) xx

Testing Testing

Obviously everyone will want to know what I am doing on my travels. So here is my blog. Fingers crossed I will be as ridiculous in print as I am in person.