Melbourne

So the last time I posted I was sitting in the airport on christchurch nz. Long story short I slept there with no problems. Luckily my sleeping bag is extra comfy. (Thanks mom and dad). Interestingly enough they made me pay 25 dollars to get out of nz. Luckily they let me pay in usd because I was out of nzd. They gave me a two dollar bill as change so I guess it wasn't that bad. In an attempt to pass this trip off as a learning experience I guess ill tell you what I learned from new zeland. Always have a good time and enjoy life. Whether you're the mayor jamming out on your bday or jumping of a bridge only attached to a bungee. I think new zealanders have definately perfected how to live life to its fullest. On a completely different note I've spent the last week in austrlia. I flew into melbourne extremely early in the morning. On the plane they had little personal tvs where you could select movies. I was pretty exhausted by clearly couldn't pass up the oppertunity to watch movies. Unfortunately I think I picked the worst two movies they had to offer. Anyway I grabbed a bus to the city when I got into melboirne. I dropped all my stuff off at the hostel and decided to go scope out the city. First off I needed to find an wespac atm to get some australian money. I grabbed some mexican food and it was absolutley delicious. The first real meal I'd had in a while. I walked along the river for a bit and then past the arts center and down by the botanical gardens. I hung out in the botanical gardens for a while reading my newly acquired book: men are better than women. Haha. (It was the only book in english at the book exchange in nz). After that I decided to walk down to the bay. It turns out that the bay is absolutely forever away. I ended up walking a total of 8 hrs that day. By the time I got back I decided to just relax for the night. I cooked some food, did some laundry, and repacked all my stuff. The hostek actually had free pasta and rice. So I cooked up some pasta with garlic and oil. It was alright but I think I did something wrong. I ended up feeling pretty sick at this point. The whole sore throat runny nose headache deal. I went to bed pretty early and slept in a bit. The next day I decided to go on the free city tour. It was incredibly boring!! The guy I had was like 85 and talked in a monotone voice. I walked aound to check out the arts center and one of the bridges. They were doing construction by one of the bridges so you couldn't even get close. I found a free internet cafe so I hung out there for a while checking out where I wanted to go and what flights I would need to book. After that I headed over to the park and just relaxed for most of the afternoon. Went back to the hostel to watch house and grab my bags before I had to head to the airport again. I had a flight to sydney really early the next day and was planning on just crashing in the airport again.

Fergburger, The Nevis, and teapots

I woke up in the morning freezing!! As it turns out summer on the south island dors not necessarily mean warm. Got on the bus (again) and headed towards Wanaka. On the way we stop at a puzzle place. They had a whole bunch of optical illusions and stuff. We hung out in Wanaka for a while. Went to the grocery store and down by the lake. The next stop was the bungee center at the K bridge. They showed us a video on the start of bungee and then we watched a couple people jump. I signed up to do the Nevis, the highest bungee in NZ, for noon the next day. After that we continued on to queenstown. I showered and got ready to indulge in the infamous fergburger, a place that sells anything from bambi to tofu burgers. I just gor the standard fergburger (which was amazing). The motto is Ferg loves you, which was pretty fuuny seeing as it was valentines day. At least ferg loved us. Lol. We spent most of the time laughing about how confused I get when the english as me questions like "what time do you make it?" and have no idea what they want. Haha. I also found out that all new yorkers are expected to be found walking around with a starbucks machiatto in one hand and their cellphone in the other screaming about the stock market. Haha. After that kate and I went for a walj around town. She bought a cd and I bought another delicious ice cream cone (they're addicting). We were hanging out by the harbor an wishing we had our swim suits on when we ended up meeting two guys on a bench (one english and one from boston!!). We joined them for a beer and told them we would meet up with them later. Got dressed and headed down to the hostel bar. It was a pajama theme so all of the tables were beds instead. It was pretty good! The two guys we had met that day showed up and wanted to go to a concert. While we were finishing our drinks I ran into people that I had met in auckland on the day tour!! Victoria,russian, and her friend from kazikstan that pretended he was borat all the time. :). They decided to come with us. We made like 4 stops at different bars before we made it to the place with the band. It turned out to be a drum and bass band with a cover so I passed. everyone else decided not to go either. We went to one last place to grab some celebratory drinks for victorias bday!! The next day I slept in late and then wandered around the harbor for a bit. There was a band. At 1130 I headed over to the bungee place. A whole bunch of people from my bus were going as well and this guy chris had volunteered to take pictures. (I actually thought he was irish because he said something like "me knickers" and all I could think of was "they're after me lucky charms", turns out he's english) I checked in and then they bussed us over to the bungee place. Even the ride there was scary! It was on top of a huge mountain. We got all harnassed up and then they had to put us on the cart over to the bungee platform. I was literally just a little gondola suspended over a huge ravine. We got over to the platform and it didn't feel much safer. Haha. Chris came over and started taking some pics for me. We watched a few other people go before it was our turn. I ended up being the first one in our group to jump. I think the only reason I wasn't scared was because I didn't think about it. They sat me in a chair and hooked me up to the bungee. My feet were strapped together and the bungee was also carabenered to my chest. The guy explained that on the top of the second bounce I had to pull the cord by my foot because it would turn me upright. I made him explain it twice so I got it right. Haha. I hobbled over to the platform and out to the edge. He counted to three and I jumped like I was diving into a pool. The whole experience was kind of surreal. Let's be honest I was falling through the sky with just a bungee attached to my legs.what a adrenaline rush. When I got to the bottom I realized that I forgot to scream. Haha. I screamed a bit but by that point the bungee had already caught me. At the end of the secound bounce I pulled the cord. That was by far the scariest part!! It undid my angles from the bungee. I panicked for a second until I realized that It was still securely fastened to my chest!! They pulled me up and I was a little shaky abd still uzzing from the rush. We watched 2 more people go and then headed over to the arc to watch 2 of the girls do the swing. I decided to get the video and pictures on dvd. When I got back into queenstown I decided to hike up to the skyline gondala. It was supposed to be a gorgeous view and the gondola was $20 to take. I understand why people pay to take the gondola. The hike took forever and was pretty much straight up a mountain. The view was definately gorgeous though. You could see all of queenstown and the mountains in the distance. I explored the visitors center for a bit and then headed back down. At the bottom I found a cabin for sale for 40 grand. It has a beautiful view and I think I should buy it because that's only 20 grand american. The spot itself is probably worth that. I went back to the hostel to relax and shower. After that anne,kate and I headed to the world bar. They serve teapots of mixed drinks. We ended up meeting an english guy who had flow 36 hrs to be with his girlfriend who promptly dumped him on valentines day. We bought him a couple drinks and invited him to our table. Chris and his friends showed up and we had a really good time. I had to wake up early the next day to grab the bus to christchurch. It took forever! I stored my bag at the hostel there and walked around for a bit. I ended up going to an internet cafe to try to download my pictures. It ended up taking me 2 hrs to dowload 16 pictures. I guess for some reason they are not showing up on my blog. If your interested you can go to ohotobucket.com and search schongej. They are under the trip album. After that I got my bag and headed to the airport. My flight was really early in the morning and I figured I would just stay ther for the night.

Glaciers and Jam sessions with the mayor

Yeah so the next morning I got up ridiculoisly early to pack some lunch and head over to the glacier place. (The standard peanut butter sandwich of course). Of course it was raining. The hooked us up with some cramp-ons, overpants, raincoats, and hats and gloves. I met up with the american girl, amanda and a swedish girl named pamilla. The bus dropped us and our guides off right next to what looked like a rainforest. After walking through the rainforest for a bit there was a clearing of just rocks and sure enough franz josef glacier in the backgroud. It looked really close but we were told that was an illusion because of how huge it was and that it would take us an hour and a half to get to.we hike up through the forest and finally reached the glacier. We all put on our crampons and headed up. The guides had built steps up the first part into the ice. The ice was a strange light blue color. We hiked around for a bit into all the different crevices. It wasn't cold at first until we got quite a bit higherN and then it was freezing! My gloves got sopping wet and I remembered exactly why I left NY in the middle of winter! (on a side note when I tell people I'm from ny they just assume I'm from the city. Some of them don't even know there is an entire state attached). Anyway, we clombed up some ice walls and learned the Franz josef shuffle. We ate lunch and then headed back down the glacier. There was an ice cave that we got to explore. Went back to the hostel and hopped in the sweet hot tub they had! I spent a solid hour trying to convince someone that I didn't know J-lo even though we both grew up in NY. Showered and headed over to the bar. They were having a competition to win a free Nevis Arc. The competition was that one team member was strapped to a horizontal bungee and had to grab a water bottle out of someones hand, then bungee back and the other team member had to chug a beer. Naturally I grabbed an irish girl I had met and signed up. Unfortunately people got to drunk and they cancelled the last half so I never got to go. :( it was still pretty hilarious to watch. The next day we headed to makarora. We stopped of at a glacier, thundercreek falls and the blue pools. At makarora we stayed in these little triangle shaped hut things. They were pretty sweet. We went for a walk down by the creek and just relaxed for a bit. Luckily there was a karaokee competition that night for another Nevis arc!! I thought I was screwed because it would be based on talent, but it turned out to be based on how many times you went. Each time your name got placed in a hat. I could definatly handle making a fool of myself enough times as possible in one night. Haha. I founf my partner in crime Kate from england. we rocked out YMCA, summer of 69, loveshack, and a few more. We didn't end up winning. :( The bar closed but there were rumors that the mayor was having a house party for his birthday. Not quite tru. The mayor was at the bar and when we were leaving invited us over. So off we went to the mayors house for a jam session. How random? It turns out he lived right up the road, which is good because he probably shouldn't have driven!! His house was pretty strange inside. Complete with christmas decorations and a road carpet (like one that kis play on lol). The 7 of us sat down and waited for some music. It turned out that the mayor "played" bass. He was awful!! Luckily one of the guys could play guitar and one of the girls could sing. We hung out until like 2 and then headed home.

So I've kind of been slacking at the whole updating my blog thing. I have a legitimate excuse though, my blackberry stopped working for a couple days. Well the last time I wrote I was about to fly to nz from fiji. I got into auckland around 9:30 and on my way into the city I realized I was dreading it. I guess I really don't like cities. A county girl through and through ;) So I booked myself on a stray bus trip north for the next day. I dropped my stuff off at the hostel and went to the bar next door. While grabbing a drink I met an english guy who invited me to come sit with him and his friends. His friends ended up being hilarious. There was a male stipping contest that one of them entered. He stripped down to his boxers and poured beer down the front of himself. Everyone was laughing hysterically. Needless to say he won and got a bar tab for the night. I ended up drinking off their bar tab for the rest of the night and getting beat at a couple games of pool. We decided to head to the next bar, which ended up being completely dead. At this point the original guys two friends had met some english girls to talk to. I was stuck with the only strange one of the group and decided it was time to head home. I woke up extremely early to catch the stray bus to the bay of islands. I was hung over and definately not looking forward to spending the day on the bus. The first stop we made was at a giant tree so that we could all hug it. Haha. I met a girl from california and she took my picture because my camera was dead. :( we headed up to pahina or the bay of islands for waitangi day. Turns out I showed up on a national holiday in honor of the signing of the treaty that started new zealand. I dripped my stuff off at the hostel (the pipi patch) and headed downtown. There were vendors everywhere and men dressed in traditional clothing (yup large men in loin cloths). I walked around the fair and got something for heath ( and a matching one for me). I can't say just in case she reads this! I walked over and got some sort of sausage thing. It was awful but I was starving!! After that I went to see what was going on at the stage. There was a band playing so I hung out there for a bit. The stage was right by the water and a huge native war boat. I have some pretty cool pics if I can ever get them up. after that I headed over to treaty grounds to watch the navy do their sunset ceremony. The treaty grounds had a gorgeous view of the bay of islands. There was also a native meeting house which was absolutely amazing. It was made completely of carved wood and you had to take your shoes off to go inside. There were little wooden men carved everywhere. I watched the navy ceremony. I may be a little biased but I thought it was a little messy. There seemed to be a lot of foot shuffling (does our navy do that?). The navy band was pretty entertaining though. After that I decided to go exploring on the coastal walk. I'm not sure anyone has used it in the last 10 yrs because it was all overgrown. I'm glad I went because it was stunning. On one side I had the sea and on the other a semi-tropical green forest that went as far as I could see. It was like that scene at the beginning of ps I love you. I couldn't get over how amazing it was. Trully beautiful and peaceful. I didn't end up seeing a single other person. The end of it came out to a golf course. I stayed there for while longer to take in the scenery before deciding to go down and explore the coast. The coast was surrounded by rocks so I left my purse on a rock and climbed down. I stayed at the edge where the waves came up. I was standing there enjoying the view when a huge wave came up. I tried to climb back up the rocks but as I tried to do that the wave swept my sandal away. There was no way I was climbing between the rocks to get it. I had no idea how deep it was. I patiently waited and it eventually got washed up to shore. I don't wear my sandals in the ocean anymore. Haha. After that I decided to walk back to the concert area. Sat around and listened to a band called the lady killers sing some good songs (Like sweet home alabama). Ended up heading back to town and stopping at the market. Went out again with two new zealanders, a canadian guy, and a german guy. One of the new zealanders ended up getting in a fight with the bouncer and got his eye split open. He was bleeding pretty bad so we went to go get him cleaned up. Had a couple drinks by the water and headed home. We got up early to go to cape regina. All the guys from the night before ended up on a different bus and I got stuck on the old people bus. :( we stopped at this gumdiggers historical site (the other bus went swimming instead). It was really boring but the old people seemed to like it. After that we headed up to cape regina which had an awesome view of the white beaches. There was a lighthouse and a large hill. We were asked not to climb the hill because it was supposedly an old chiefs head. I took a ton of pictures. After that we went to the giant sand dunes to go sand boarding. This is like sledding but with a boogie board. The sand dune sucked to climb up but it was fun going down. (It was also quite amusing watching the old people try to climb the sand dunes and then scream the entire way down). After that we headed to 90 mile beach (which is really only like 60 miles long) and drove along that for a while. We stopped to eat some sort of clam like shellfish. After that we headrd back to the bay of islands. I wanted to go out again but was exhausted and only lasted for one drink before I headed home. The next day I went on a walk with the french guy down to the beach. We ended up renting kayaks with 2 english guys. It was a lot of fun but definately tiring. When we decided to head in I was almost at the shore when I turned sideways. A huge wave came and tipped my kayak upside down on top of me. I came up covered in mud and my knee was bleeding. Haha. Just hung out for the rest of the day before grabbing the bus to auckland. After I dropped off my stuff I headed to mickey Ds for their delicious 50 cent ice cream (25 american cents). I found out there were going to be fireworks of some sort so I started following the crowd. Turns out it was the last day of chinese new years and they were having a lantern festival in the park. I walked around looking at funny looking men with samauri swords all lit up for a while (I doubt this is how it really is in china) and then settled down to listen to some awful kareoke and watxh the fireworks. The fireworks were awesome. I'm not sure I could have planned this trip better. Randomly stumbling upon two huge festivals is pretty good. Went to bed early and woke up for my free city tour with the kiwi experience. Kiwi ended up cancelling so I went with the stray bus. We saw the sky tower (one lucky girl got a free jump off of it because she put her hand up faster than I did) and some dormant volcanos. It was a pretty good day. Caught the bus to the airport for my flight to christchurch. Got in pretty late and went to bed. Woke up the next morning to walk around only to find out that there is not much to do in christchurch. Went to get some groceries and read a book in the botanical gardens. Watched some street performers for a while and then took a nap. Walked around for a bit and then went back to bed. Haha. Pretty boring but a nice recovery day. This morning I got ona bus to graymouth. The view was amazing! There were snow covered mountains everywhere. We met up with another bus and headed on to franz josef. I just checked into my hostel (the rainforest retreat) and signed up for a full day glacier hike tomorrow. That's it for now. On a side note. All of you slackers who read my blog and like to see what I'm up to its about time you write me back! If you'd rather email me its: schongej@yahoo.com.

new zealand already!!

So I'm trying to remember the last thing I wrote about. I think it was the night at beachcomber. I have so much to write since then!! I woke up pretty early for my last night on party island. I just relaxed for most of the morning on the beach. After changing our minds like 15 times we all signed up for the bar island hopping. We honestly couldn't pass up the oppertunity to get drunk at 3 different remote islands in the pacific (complete with sober boat driver).There was also supposed to be two different snorkelong stops! We had to have an early lunch to make the trip. Curry again :( I was filling up on as much fruit as possible when tragedy struck. Myself and another guy wouldn't be able to go on the island hoping thing as we thought because the water was choppy and they couldn't make sure we would be back for our 5:00 shuttle to the mainland. Totally bummed I decided that I would still be content sitting on the beach. At least it wasn't freezing cold NY and buried in 6 feet of snow. So instead I went snorkeling and feed some fish! Heather would be so damn jealous. There was fish everywhere schools of blue and black striped fish! Hung out on the beach for the rest of the day drinking fruity drinks and reading my book. The boat to the mainland leFt at 5. We had perfect weather and as a typical tourist I took like 100 pictures. (I tried to load them up today but no such luck). Got back to the bay and headed back to the hostel. The bus ride is interesting. When you leave the bay you are surrounded by beautiful houses and yachts but after you cross through the gates of the harboe the scenery drmatically changes. The houses are replaced by shacks that look ready to fall over. Its by no means an area that is well off but in spite of all this the people smile constantly. I've heard that they are some of the hardest working people in the world and farm every inch of their land. Despite this they know how to appreciate every last thing they have and never complain. The generousity and kindness of the fijians I met was overwhelming. That night at the hostel it was fijian night. We sat around on the floor drinking their drink known as cava and listening to a small band play their guitars. Cava is a root that is ground up and mixed with water. It tastes kind of like muddy water and leaves a strange tingling in your mouth. I drank like 20 wooden bowls full. On a completely seperate side not there was the strangest man ever staying at our hostel. He was honest to god the russian version of joe dirt (complete with mullet). He spoke hardly no english and smelled like sweat constantly. He also had his own inflatable kayak that he carried around with him. He is rumored to have kayaked for 24 hrs straight (I found out he only did 6 to an island and back but still) and is now a legend on beachcomber island. After my induction into the cavaholics club (as they call it) I headed next door to check out the hula and flame throwing show. It was pretty sweet and best all free! I was in the back section so when the half dressed fijian men were done throwing and blowing fire I chatted it up with one of them. He was wicked nice and said he did the fire throwing as a hobby and went to university. Met a nice canadian couple who were heading to australia to live for a year. Also met a crazy australian man who sails ships in spain. He just travels around with no plans and wings it. He had been in fiji for a month just travelling around. The next day was pretty relaxing. Just hung out in the pool, went for a walk on the beach, and read my book. I was going to head to town but I was told I shouldn't go alone and couldn't find someone to come with me. Headed to the airport soon after to go to new zealand. Bought a wooden mask and some delicious ice cream!! Luckily they had food on the plane because I was starving (I'm way to cheap to buy a lot of food.haha at least ill lose some weight on this trip). Ill update on new zealand later but this is a ridiculously long post and I get cartsick. :( I hope to take with me the fijians appreciation for the little things in life.

I am the luckiest person alive! So after I posted my last blog I met some really nice irish people that I went to dinner with at the hostel next door. They said that I should definately come and stay witht them when I get to ireland because a couple days in dublin is enough and its free housing!! They went on a trip called the fiji experience and thought it was amazing! That's definately on my list of things to do next time around. I booked a trip to beachcomber island, the supposed party island in fiji. I pretty much had no idea what to expect. I got on a bus at my hostel at 7am and they took us to a pier. I hopped on the boat a little later only yo find out that everyone else seemed to be going to a different island. :( (I ended up being wrong both boats went here) I got here and immediately met a girl meghan from cali. She was travelling alone as well so we decided we should stick together. Tthe island is beautiful. It only takes 15 minutes to walk around the small island. Its so awesome to just be on a small island in the pacific. I guess they filmed castaway on one of the islands here to give you an idea of what its like. We walked around for a bit and then decided to swim a bit. The water is an amazing blue color. About the same color as it is in the bahamas. we ended up meeting two boys from canada that are on their way to go to school in australia,eric and shawn, another canadian travelling alone nabile, and and english guy who just quit his job and decided to check out the pacific islands, nigel. We all decided to go snorkeling on one of the tours they had. The water was soo clear that you could easily see the bottom! I found a huge school of fish, probably about 100 yellow and black striped ones and little blue ones. Of course I forgot my underwater camera. After that we went on a banana boat ride. We split it up into girls and boys. It was soo much fun! I couldn't stop laughing. Nabile fell of twice and it was pretty tricky getting back on. It ended up pouring after that. It turned out alright though. There was a huge rainbow and between it the island across the way was lit up. My camera died but meghan got tons of pictures. It cleared up and then it was happy hour!! We drank a bit then headed to the beach to wade with the reef sharks. The light from the island attracts them. It was completely amazing. They were tops 2 feet from me. After that more dancing and a band!! Today I got up early for breakfast and hung out drinking my coffee and taking in the scenery. Oh random side note: in hawaii I saw the baskin robbins that obama worked at and where the beginning of gilligans island was filmed. Well today we are supposed to go on a 3 island pub crawl. Of course I will only be going for the beautiful scenery. :). Ill update soon.

So I've been told that I suck at updating my blog (mom). Lol. the last week has been a blast! I hiked up diamond head which is a huge crater that was formed from a volcanic explosion. There was a military base ther during WWII. On tuesday we went on a fishing charter trip. It was pretty sweet to see oahu from the water. Its absolutely gorgeous. Turns out I get pretty seasick. :( I tried really hard to be optimistic and fish but I really felt awful. Neither of us ended up catching a single thing. We did get to eat the fresh fish that other people on the boat had caught tho. On wednesday we checked out pearl harbor. The bus took forever to get there but the USS Arizona display was awesome. On thursday we went to germaine's luau. It was a awesome show. There were hula dancers and flame throwers! Friday I dragged nick to lulu's for some great burgers and live music! Saturday was another beach day. I really can't get enough of just sittin on the beach and relaxing. I had to leave wicked early this morning. Left the hotel at 430 for my 700 flight. It was a seven hour flight and I slept the entire way. I met a really nice man from fiji but didn't really talk to him because I was too busy being passed out. Little did I know that when you fly from hawaii to fiji you lose an entire day. So instead of getting here on the 1st I got here on the 2nd. Even my hostel was confused because I booked from the 1st to the 5th and showed up today. Whoops. It kinda sucks tho because that means I only get 3 nights in fiji. Its beautiful here. I think I'm kind of in an undeveloped area there aren't too maby big buildings or resorts around. I got a taxi from the airport (paid for by my hostel) and came to the hostel. Its really nice here but kind of dead. I'm in a dorm room with like 8 beds and I'm the only one in there. I dropped off my stuff and changed immediately! Its ridiculously humid here. I went for a walk on the beach and met some man named ron who cut open a coconut for me. I gave him a couple bucks and headed back to the hostel. I devided to book a night at the beachcomber island because its soo dead here. I'm hopin I can hit up happy hour next door tho and meet some people. It should be a pretty good night for like 100 bucks. I just wish I had more time here. There seems to be soo much to do! I'm definately going to have to come back and this time pay attention to the loss of a day. Just caught the end of the superbowl too. Pretty good game! Its weird to watch it in the middle of the day with the beach 10 ft away. Definately different. Ill update again soon!