Florence's Travel Page

Thursday, 14 May 2015

Location: North Island, New Zealand

Hello!

So we arrived safely in New Zealand, and met our first obstacle – getting through customs. New Zealand has a ridiculously strict biosecurity system, and we spent about an hour having to wait in line just to get our shoes cleaned before we could enter the country! I even had to declare a box of PG Tips that Jon had kindly given us to take with us from Oz (how very British of us I know)!

Anyway, we were finally cleared to go through, and went on our way to pick up our campervan. It is pretty much the same as the van we hired for our month of travelling Australia, only a bit older, and a few more km’s on the clock! It has been far easier for us to settle in to this one though – we’re practically experts on campervans now!

We stayed for our first night in Manukau as it was just a short drive from the airport, and just outside of Auckland. We had been told that there is not much to do in Auckland, and as we only have a short time to see as much of New Zealand as possible, we decided to skip it, and drive straight down to Rotorua. However, a couple of hours into our journey, I gave Alex quite a fright by suddenly shouting “STOP! WE’RE IN HOBBITON!” He was very pleased I did however, as otherwise we would have driven down to Rotorua and completely missed seeing the incredible setting of ‘Hobbiton’ the famous little village where Bilbo and Frodo Baggins live in The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit. So we found a campsite nearby, boked our tour for the next day, and off we went to visit Bilbo and friends! It was a great day, the set is incredible, the tour guides were really informative, and we even got to have a drink in The Green Dragon pub which is featured in the films.

From Matamata (the actual name of Hobbiton) we went on to Rotorua. It is an amazing place, full of geysers and mud pools due to the geothermal activity. Whilst here me and Alex explored Wai-O-Tapu, a geothermal park, where we saw some amazing sites, and afterwards, we went on to have a mud bath and Sulphur Spa, which was quite an experience! By the end of our stay here, ourselves, and all of our clothes, absolutely stank of Sulphur/rotten eggs. The whole town smells awful, but after a while you do get used to the smell… Well sort of anyway!

From Rotorua, we went on to Lake Taupo, an impossibly large lake with a beautiful backdrop of snow-topped mountains. We didn’t stop for long here though, as we needed to make up a bit of time, so went straight on to Waitomo, the home of the glow worms!

Waitomo is a tiny little town, and has a population of just 41 people. We booked our trip through a company called Spellbound, and we were really glad we did, as our tour guide was excellent, really experienced, and very funny too. We got to the caves, put on our hard hats, and went for a short walk through the cave until we came to a river running through the cave. Here we got into a small boat, where we were told to turn our head torches off. It was pitch black, you couldn’t even see your hand if you held it right up to your face! After a while though, our eyes began to get used to the darkness, and there were millions of glow worms above our heads! It was a really beautiful sight as we floated down the river, listening to the waterfall that was thundering down further in to the cave. It was a really lovely experience.

From Waitomo, we stopped in Whanganui, a town with not much to do, but a really beautiful place none the less. It was a clear night when arrived, and we sat for hours just staring up at the sky. You can actually see the Milky Way from here, it’s a stunning sight. Our trip to Whanganui was really just an overnight stop to break up the drive to Wellington, so the next morning this is where we headed.

Wellington is a great place, full of culture and coffee! We spent our first day here just exploring the city, which is really more like a town – It’s very small in comparison to other cities! We decided to get a coffee (something it seems you have to do in Wellington, coffee is taken very seriously here) and ended up in a very cool little café, before making our way to Cuba Street where we had arranged to meet up with my second cousins (at least I think they are!) Bernadette and Melinda. Their Mum and My Dad are cousins, so not exactly sure what relation that makes us, but it was very lovely to meet them! We met up in a cool bar called The Matterhorn, and afterwards made our way to a really nice restaurant where we stuffed our faces with pizza! I’m really glad that my Dad had suggested I get in touch with them, as they were really lovely and we had a great evening. Plus they gave us some good tips on where to go in the South Island too!

And the next day this is where we headed. We took the Interislander ferry across to Picton, which is where I will leave it for now. I will post again soon with more news of our adventures in the South Island!

Tuesday, 05 May 2015

Location: The Gold Coast, Australia

Hello!

Alex and I have now finished working, and although we were expecting it to be a relief, we were actually both gutted to be leaving. My time at The Groove Train was better than I could have ever expected. I went there simply looking to earn enough money to get us to New Zealand, and ended up making friends for life. It was very sad to leave them all! Fortunately, a few of them have plans to come to England over the next few months, so I will be seeing them again, this time on my side of the world!

Alex and I were not quite so sad to be leaving 645 Lake Orr Drive though… Although the place served its purpose for three months, it wasn’t the most comfortable place to live, and we were very excited to be going back to Jon’s lovely home for our last week in Oz. It was really great to be able to spend our last week with Uncle Jon, and saying goodbye was horrible, but we will be seeing him again very soon back home! We were so grateful for everything that he did for us too… Our trip would have involved many more obstacles and difficulties had he not been there to help us out. So thank you Jon!

Australia, you have been great, but we must love you and leave you, to continue our adventures to New Zealand… We will be back though, I’m sure of it!

Thursday, 05 February 2015

Hello!

Hope you are all well, and enjoying the snow that I hear has been falling in Wokingham?!

So, I think the last post that I wrote I finished up at the point where we had just returned to Jons.

It was really lovely being able to spend time with Jon, being on the other side of the world to each other for the majority of the time makes it really special when we do get to spend time together, and we managed to pack in quite a few fun things in the couple of weeks that we were staying - It's great having someone around who knows the area so well!

Jon lives very close to Springbrook national park (Google it, it's stunning!) and so the three of us went for a walk there, which was a real highlight for me. The views were stunning, and we got to see a lovely waterfall too. Unfortunately part of the walk was shut off as there was work being done there, so we didn't get as close to the waterfall as we would have liked, but we are around for another few months yet, so I'm sure we will get to go again! Not only did we do the lovely walk through the national park, but we even had a barbecue afterwards - We're proper Aussies now!

One of the other highlights of our stay with Jon was going to a drive-in movie theatre. Jon, Julianne, Alex and I all drove down, parked up, and set up our little camping chairs to watch "Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day". It was a really good experience, I didn't know they even still had drive-in movie theatres, but they're great, especially in Australia with warm summer evenings. Not sure how well they would work in England though, I can't imagine people being too keen to watch a film in the outdoors whilst it's pouring down with rain!

On another lovely summers day, the four of us headed over the boarder into NSW to go to the Margaret Olley Art Centre. It was really lovely, and again, if you haven't heard of her work before you should google her work, she's incredible! They had even recreated Olley's room in one section of the centre, so you were able to look through the windows into how she used to live. Whilst we were there we went for lunch in the cafe, which looks out on to gorgeous scenery, which actually reminded me of our English countryside.

For Christmas, Alex and I had booked two nights in a hotel in Surfer's paradise, so on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we stayed in the very nice hotel "Mantra Legends". It was a really nice hotel, and we spent most of our Christmas Eve reading our books beside the pool!

Christmas Day was quite surreal, waking up with the sun streaming in through our window, and trotting off down for a quick dip in the pool and a laze in the sun! I think I could definitely get used to it though! Early afternoon on Christmas Day Jon came to pick us up and the three of us went to Julianne's, who had kindly taken on the task of making us, her Brother-in-law, and Nephew Paxton Christmas lunch! It was a lovely day, and a delicious lunch! Luckily Julianne is vegetarian too so I was in my element with a gorgeous veggie roast!

Later on the evening, Alex and I went back to the hotel, where we skyped the family. It was strange not being at home this Christmas, but technology is amazing, and so for a while it was like I was there in the room with them all!

In between all of these lovely experiences, Alex and I were desperately applying for jobs, as well as looking for a place to live for three months while we work.
We were both very lucky and managed to get jobs very quickly, both working in restaurants. Now a lot of you may know that I have always said the one job I would never do is wait on tables. Carrying hot plates and dealing with difficult customers is not something I ever thought I would be doing, but here I am! I actually applied for the job by taking my CV into the restaurant, and thought that I was applying for a job behind the bar, and when I was given a trial shift instantly I was very excited. It wasn't until I turned up for my trial shift that I realised I was going to be a waitress, not a bartender. Luckily though, it's a very relaxed restaurant/bar called The Groove Train, and all the staff are really lovely, as are the majority of the customers that come in to the restaurant. And hey, work's work, if it means I can earn enough to get to New Zealand then I'll do anything!

Alex and I also managed to find a cheap little studio apartment in a building that is actually meant for student accommodation, although there are a lot of permanent residents there. It is perfect for us as it is cheap and only has a contract up until the end of April, so we haven't had to sign up to be in Aus for next year as a lot of places want you to do!

So that's where we are now, just working and trying to save as much money as possible to continue on our travels.

Oh and Alex and I bought a car too, to make it easy to get to and from work each day. It is a Hyundai Ascent, and it is gold. Well, it's supposed to be gold, the sun and sea salt has melted the entire bonnet of the car though so now it's just some weird colour that doesn't really have a name. Oh and the air conditioning doesn't work either, which is really great in Australian summer. It runs though, and only cost us 800 bucks, which is about 400 pounds.... So really can't complain!

Apologies if the grammar/spelling is awful, I have written this in a bit of a rush before work!

Love to you all

Florence xx