singapore airport

hello again everyone.

we've arrived at singapore airport after a 7 hour flight from sydney.

we're both okay but very tired. at least it feels like we're well on our way home now.

our flight is running about ten minutes late so if we have any more similar delays we could have quite a rush at heathrow, but nothing to worry about too much.

we've only got a short wait till we're boarding our plane again. planning to try and sleep for quite a while on the next flight.

well i don't think there's much more to tell you about.

see you soon x

sydney airport

hello everyone.

we'll keep this brief as this computer has just decided to start playing up. it's 4.30pm in sydney we've got an hour until we board our plane. so by the time most of you wake up and read this we'll be in the air on our way home.

the time spent in the airport hasn't been too bad. there's a few shops so we've both managed to spend a bit of money.

when greg was buying his jacket the shop assistant asked about our trip then asked if it was our honeymoon! haha.

the flight from auckland was okay. greg watched the new rocky film and amy lay down accross 3 seats!

well that's all for now. we'll probably try posting another small blog when we stop briefly in singapore.

speak soon and see you tomorrow!

last post in new zealand

hello all,

nothing exciting happened inbetween leaving taupo and getting to auckland. we stopped in smelly rotorua and hobbiton very briefly and had the richest ice chocolate e-v-e-r. greg had the worst sausage roll ever too. aboslute shocker.

we had planned to go to hard rock cafe tonight for our last meal but it turns out there isn't one in auckland, like we originally thought. so we went for an italian instead, which was really nice. it was a good way to end a great trip.

well this is weird, it's our last proper night in new zealand, tomorrow night we're staying at an airport hotel. this will be our last post whilst in new zealand too... we'll try and sneak a couple in when we're at sydney and singapore airports, but there wont be any photo's now til we get back.

in answer to peoples comments, our hair is a bit lighter, gregs more so, but we still sound the same. since kaikoura we haven't really taken many photo's at all, nevermind of ourselves, because after kaikoura we were just re tracing our steps, we took lots of photo's of those places on the way down. you can look forward to photos of us both sat around waiting at various airports on thursday and friday. we have a 7 hour wait in sydney so we'll see what we can come up with.

don't think there's much more to say, hopefully the sun will be out tomorrow as the hotel near the airport has a pool, otherwise we'll be sat watching tv.

well, see you all in a few days!!!! x x x

photo's from the last few days

hello all, we've got a computer that we can put pics on with so here's the photo's from when we left kaikoura to arriving in taupo.

the drive from kaikoura to picton (where we caught the ferry) was one of the most scenic. on one side you had snow capped mountains and on the other, beautiful coastline.

this is the cable car we took up to the botanical gardens in wellington.

on saturday on the way to taupo we drove past mt. ruapehu, which is next to mt. doom where we did the tongariro crossing.

our driver told us that there was a lahar (massive mud / water flow) due because of the build up of the water in one of the crater lakes. he said it could reach the road we were on and could cause a lot of damage.

we thought nothing of it but today we found out that on sunday the mud flow broke through the volcanic wall on top of mt. ruapehu's crater lake and millions of gallons of acidic water and mud washed away 130 feet of wall.

in 1953 a lahar from the same volcano killed 151 people. luckily no one was hurt this time.

this is the infamous huka falls. in reply to percy... our driver said peter plumley-walker's last words were "f*cking hell how much is this going to cost?"

tonight is our third and final night in taupo, there's nothing to tell you about really, the clocks went back an hour at weekend and the weather has been pretty crap. we're off to auckland tomorrow for our last two nights. it's strange to think that we are going to be home this weekend... remember no one tell jack if you see him!

we hope your all about for drinks on saturday, it's most probably going to be in the royal scot as usual. we'll let you know a time in a few days. no doubt we'll be in touch with most of you soon after being home. percy when do you get back from uni?

well we'll be back online tomorrow to waste the 4 dollars credit we have at 'global gossip' so look out for an exciting action packed post!

x x x

kaikoura to taupo

hello everyone, we hope you have a good st. patricks day and jack we are glad that sophie does love you.

so anyway, we left kaikoura and caught a ferry over to wellington. we had one full day in wellington so we wandered around the city, took the old cable car up to the botanic gardens and went to the te papa museum.

we've got pictures of the cable car etc but can't put them on right now.

the te papa is the national museum and is massive! it's really good and quite hands on... a bit like eureka near leeds. we spent hours in there, there is so much to see.

this morning we set off for taupo. stopped at huka falls on the way, which both beautiful and impressive.... and has quite an interesting story to it.... gc and percy you'll like this one. this isn't for little eyes.

the falls is where international cricket umpire peter plumley-walker met his end. peter, a well respected and prim and proper man, had an unusual fetish for being strangled by a dominatrix for sexual pleasure. one day he used the services of such a lady and during the act he dropped to the floor. the woman rang her fiancee asking what to do with the body of such a famous person. he suggested the huka falls, where it had been said a body could disappear into deep underwater caves. they travelled from auckland to the falls to dispose of the body, the plan worked and the body dissapeared. but about a week later peter was found in the water with his wrists and ankles bound, the police suspected a not so normal death. a post mortem revealed that peter had in fact drowned to death... he was still alive when they threw him in!

our driver told us that one...

anyway, we're in taupo now for 3 nights before heading up to auckland for 2 nights... our last stop! we'll try and post photo's soon.

see you next weekend! x x x

lake tekapo to kaikoura

hello all,

since leaving lake tekapo we spent two nights in christchurch and are now on our third night in kaikoura.

christchurch was a fairly pretty city but there isn't all that much to do there. we went down to the markets and had a look round the botanical gardens and that was pretty much it. it was still nice though.

we also got to see a replay of the united - boro game in a sports bar with a 10m squared screen.... HUGE!

after leaving christchurch we made our way to kaikoura. we will have stayed 3 nights in total, and really thats a bit too long to spend here. it's a tiny place and the only things to do are eat fish and chips and go out on boat trips to see the wildlife.

that brings us to today.... we swam with dolphins!!! it was incredible. we couldn't get any pictures of us in the water with the dolphins as we were too busy having an amazing time to get out and take pictures of each other.

it was so amazing because the dolphins were wild and in their own habitat. there was so many of them too... we're talking 100's.

the dolphins we swam with are called dusky dolphins, and are meant to be a lot more cheeky and playful than some others and are nicknamed the acrobats of the sea. it was great to see them doing flips and jumps in the water like you'd see in seaworld... but in the wild.

we could probably talk about the dolphins all day, and probably will do when we get back. it was an amazing experience and one of our favourite from the whole trip.

tomorrow we catch the ferry back over the the north island and stay in wellington for two nights. we might try and find the football club where kel used to play and discover if he really is as bad as everyone at home makes out.

we'll be back in touch soon... and back home too! x x x

lake tekapo

hello everyone,

on thursday we left queenstown and made our way to lake tekapo. on the way we stopped off at lake pukaki, which is a lovely turquoise colour and provided a great view of mt cook... the tallest mountain in new zealand. the lake is that colour because the water comes from the glacier which on it's way down, crushes bits of rock to form a powder. you might not be able to tell the exact colour from the picture but it was really beautiful.

we have spent the last two nights staying in lake tekapo. it's a tiny little town but it's been a really nice place to chill out for a couple of days. the weather has been great so we spent a lot of time at the lake, which was quite a bit warmer than most of the ones we have been in!

one of the sights to see in lake tekapo is the church of the good shephard. it's a tiny picturesque church right on the edge of the lake.

we only have five more stops and twelve nights and then we fly home!

at the moment we are waiting for the kiwi bus which is taking us to christchurch, where we spend two nights, before heading up to kaikoura.

we'll be in touch again soon. x x x

wanaka to queenstown

hello everyone,

it's 11.20pm and we are bored of the club next door. the music is crap too. so we thought we'd come on here and tell you what we have been doing the last few days.

so since our last post we have been spending a lot of time with some people we met on the bus... oki, davina, holly and alan. we went to the cinema with a few people to see 'volver' a spanish film with penelope cruz in, which was really good. the cinema we went to was in wanaka and it was very small and everyone sat on sofas and there was an interval where you could buy freshly made food. we had a chocolate cookie which was straight out of the oven and still warm. mmm.

this is oki, holly and davina at the cinema, and greg in a beatle... which you could also sit in at the cinema.





on our last day in wanaka we went for a walk around the lake. it was really beautiful and a nice sunny day.

jack, greg has been putting in some practice on his gymnastics.

on our way to queenstown we stopped off at a place called puzzling world. which was okay but we got a few funny pictures.

queenstown is a really cool place. there is a lovely big lake and the town itself is a lot nicer than we expected. it has a reputation as a party town, but it's not too in your face, a lot of people stay here a while so we have had chance to catch up with some people we have met along the way.

greg got the chance to play football with some of the lads from the bus we'd been with for a week or so, it was nice to see them all again. other than that we have just been chilling out by the lake.

greg also managed to watch a replay of the united - liverpool game last night which he was very pleased with.

today we went to milford sound, which is meant to be one of the most beautiful places in new zealand. from queenstown it was a 4 hour coach ride there. but luckily oki and alan were on our bus to keep us amused. it rained for the first time in 5 weeks and there was a lot of low cloud, so milford sound itself wasn't as good as it could have been. but it also meant that the waterfalls were very spectacular. the drive into milford was amazing.

we bought some lovely plastic poncho's to prepare ourselves for a very wet boat ride, and they provided us with a lot of fun. it was so windy we were getting blown all over the place. we have a couple of pictures of it but oki has some really funny ones (he's going to put them on facebook for us). it was really good to spend the day with oki and alan especially as we've been on the same bus for a while so have got to know them quite well.

we have got more pictures of milford sound but we can't rotate them, so again you'll have to wait.

tonight we went out for a drink, but like we said, got a bit bored. on thursday we will hopefully move on to lake tekapo for a couple of nights then onto christchurch.

it's only a couple of weeks now til we head back home. we're both really excited and can't wait to see you all. x x x