Jo's Blog

View from Vogel Street

OK so it’s been a while but I’ve finally got around to it!  Job and apartment hunting have been great fun as I’m sure you can imagine… hhmmmm well!  When I left you last I was just moving into a new place, which I loved (yes post tense I’ll explain in a minute!)  The photo shows the view we had from this place!  Amazing!  It was half way up Mount Victoria so the walk kept me fit, and the house was pretty average (a bit of a dump if you’re a snob, which us backpackers cannot be!), but we had a decking area out the front where you could sit in the sun and take in this amazing view!

 

 

 

Sunning ourselves on the deck!

While I was living here and looking for a job I got out and about in Wellington and have seen most of the sights!  There is a huge museum here called Te Papa, which is free and has heaps of exhibitions all about New Zealand and it’s history.  I’ve been to a wildlife sanctuary as well, the botanical gardens and the local beaches.  Wellington is a pretty cool place and the wind seems to have calmed down a bit now that summer has finally arrived so it’s all good!  As you can see I went roller blading which I suck at but was really fun!  This is down at the harbour in the city centre, I just about managed not to fall in the water!

Hhhhmmm what else have I done here… been out a lot before I got a job so now I have to do some serious saving!  It’s so easy to spend money here!

 

Sadly we got chucked out of the house with the amazing view and so I had to find a new place.  This is a whole new chapter of my trip!  I was desperate to find a place and it was coming up to a huge AC DC concert here in Wellington so all the hostels were booked out.  I answered an add in the local supermarket for a room to rent, and ended up living with a 63 year old lady called Margaret!  Now that might sound a little boring, but this is her book that I am reading!!!  She has had the most exciting life and has even been a showgirl so she was really excited when I said I used to do cabaret!  She has a friend called Tony who is eccentric to say the least, and his alter ego is the Duke of Wellington, which he dresses up as for functions and parties and has loads of fun with.  Between the two of them they make my stay there very interesting and we even have dinners and watch movies together!  They are even throwing a party at the end of February in my honour, which will be tremendous fun I can tell!

 

Ok so apart from all that I now have a job on reception in an office until the end of the month, and I am working Friday and Saturday nights in a club down the road which is really fun.  This prevents me from going out and spending any money for the next few weeks so I can get some saving done, as this is hard to do in the capital city where every night is Saturday night!

This weekend was Rugby Sevens here in Wellington, which essentially means a 48 hour party!  Although it’s supposed to be about the sport and teams from all over the world play, most people here use it as an excuse to dress in fancy dress and get absolutley slaughtered Friday and Saturday night until the early hours!  I didn’t get much chance to take photos as I was working both nights, but this is the main street in Wellington, which they completely closed off last night for one huge street party!  Some of the costumes people have are awesome, and even working behind the bar you are still part of the party scene and happily I was earning money while others were drinking away their weeks wages!

 

 

Yesterday was Waitangi Day here in New Zealand, which celebrates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealands founding document.  Here in Wellinton yesterday that meant the One Love Concert, which is a Reggae  tribute to Bob Marley.  It was crazy hot yesterday and we went along to relax in the sun and listen to the music.  This was a nice chill out session before the mayhem that was about to commence on the streets of the city!

The party is such a huge thing in comparison to the Rugby, that I really have no idea who even won the final!  Although to be honest I am not really too bothered!  I saw the parade on Thursday on my lunch from work, where all the teams from all over the world go by on floats, and I couldn’t have named a single person there!

 

Alrighty so that was a really quick summary of what has been going on in my life here in Wellington.  In short I have been enjoying myself and now I’m working hard to be able to enjoy myself some more!  No idea how much l0nger I will stay in Wellington for, it all depends on jobs and a place to live.  I will more than likely catch up with you all again when I leave here.  Until them… hope all is good in the UK and don’t eat yellow snow.  xoxox

So I left Auckland and began my journey South down the North Island.  On our way to Mercury Bay we stopped at Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove which were both so so beautiful.  I stayed 2 nights in Mercury Bay and saw some amazing beaches.  As you can see I had one beach totally to myself!  I did some treking here to see some of the beaches and saw some of the most beautiful views!

 

Then we headed to Rotorua where the earth’s crust is so thin that there are heaps of boiling mud pools and geysers, plus the place stinks of sulphur so you can totally let one go and then blame it on the sulphur smell!!!  Not that I would do such a thing!  Apparently there are only 3 places in the world where you can see this sort of stuff.  It was crazy to walk across the street and see a boiling mud pool in the park!

The night I arrived here I had the chance to go to a traditional Maori evening and a Hungi which was just the most awesome meal!  I ate sooooo much and the whole evening was just brilliant.  They did the Haka too which is what the All Blacks do before a Rugby game.  So cool!

         

I spent 3 nights here and to be honest didn’t do a massive amount!  The hostel had a pool so I did a lot of swimming and sunbathing, and we partied hard at the Lava Bar next door every night!!  What can I say… it’s a hard life being a backpacker!

After Rotorua we went to a place called Waitomo where you can go caving.  My first extreme activity in the country that loves doing crazy insane things for fun!  This involved abseiling down a 27m drop, followed by seeing gloworms in the caves, some black water rafting (which is essentially being swept along the underground river in an inner tube!), some caving (which involed some extremely small spaces), and finally a 24m climb back up to the surface.  All in all pretty awesome!  Let me tell you that I ached the next day!

           

I hope that you like the pictures!!!  I know that I look hot!

So right before we left Waitomo we got chance to see something hilarious and also quite disturbing!  We went to a place called the Shearing Shed where they shear Angora Rabbits… yes rabbits!

         

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry!

Me and a fellow traveller James right after our dive!

I won’t bore you for much longer.  After Waitomo I got to Taupo where I am now.  It’s christmas eve and I started off my day with a skydive!  How every christmas eve should start!  I did a jump from 12,000ft over Lake Taupo, which is the largest lake in Australasia, and so big that you can fit the entire island of Singapore in there and still have room to go fishing around the edges!!!!  Pretty cool.  As you can imagine the view was AMAZING!  Such a rush and highly reccommended!

Tomorrow we are having christmas dinner and drinks at the hostel, there is a good group of us so it should be fun.  So all that’s left for me to do is wish you all a very merry chritsmas and a happy new year!  Love and hugs, Jo.  xoxox

So here I am!  I made to New Zealand and have begun my big adventure!

I landed in Auckland on Friday morning and headed to my hostel in the City Centre.  I am staying at Base, which is right in the middle of Auckland, although Auckland is tiny!  (And is the biggest city in New Zealand!

I spent the first couple of days having a wander round Auckland and getting acquainted with the place, and generally sorting out the things I needed to like opening a bank account and buying a New Zealand sim so I have a New Zealand mobile number if anybody wants it, just ask.

Finale for Coca Cola Chritsmas in the Park

On Saturday night I went with one of my room mates to Coca Cola Christmas In The Park at Auckland Domain.  We had no idea what it was but figured it would be fun.  It turned out to be awesome!  It was free so around 250,000 people attended, and it was just like a Christmas themed festival.  They had heaps of groups and bands and dancers, and many were apparently quite famous here.  There were a few New Zealand heart throbs I am guessing as when they came on stage all the girls were hysterical.  We had no idea who they were but we had a great time, and I’m sure I will learn who they are along my way!  There were fireworks at the finale and we just couldn’t believe we had stumbled on such a great night out.  And naturally free nights to a backpacker are a god send!

View of Auckland from the ferry

So yesterday I decided to take a ferry trip over to the island of Rangitoto, which is the most recent volcano here that rose from the sea 600 years ago.  The whole island is just essentially made of lava, and I took a trek over all the lava rocks to the summit.  The walk was amazing and the view from the summit was just stunning as you can see below.  There are no shops or anything on the island, and no inhabitants, so it’s a really peaceful place to visit.  It was really hot yesterday and I got REALLY sun burnt on this trip.  I guess I just forgot how strong the sun is in this part of the world and now I am paying for it!  Factor 30 from now on!

View across Auckland from Mount Victoria in Devonport

After leaning Rangitoto I took the ferry to Devonport, which is a short distance across the water from Auckland Harbor.  Here I took a walk up Mount Victoria, another Volcano cone, where you get stunning views of the city and the Harbor.

All in all I had a great day and got some fanatastic photos and memories of Auckland and the surrounding islands.  If you take out the part where I got horribly sunburnt, it was a perfect day really!

Tomorrow I leave Auckland and get on my Kiwi Experience bus to go see New Zealand.  I can’t wait!  So please keep reading as I will try my best to get on here and update this as much as possible.

Until next time…     xx

Hi people!  So I finally got around to beginning my blog!  I have no idea what I am doing so please bare with me while I get into the swing of things!

So I have been in Los Angeles now for 10 days basically and have 4 left.  I’ve been staying at Will’s place here in Redondo Beach in the South Bay, and it is happily one block from the beach!  The weather here has been pretty amazing for this time of year!

Dipping my toes in the freezing sea at Redondo Beach

I got here the day before thanksgiving on November 25th.  Thanksgiving was great.  Will and I went to his friends for a turkey dinner and had a really great time.

Me, Will and Will's friends at Thanksgiving

Wow what else can I tell you?  We have pretty much been chillaxing here, I haven’t done a hell of a lot as I already did Hollywood and Beverley Hills and downtown LA on my previous visits.  We’ve pretty much been sticking to the beaches, although last night we went out in Hollywood to see a couple of bands play at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go, which is pretty famous as The Doors, Janis Joplin and Led Zeppelin have all played there many moons ago.

Anyways I am going to update this again soon but for now I just wanted to give this a go and post some photos.  Back soon, love Jo. x

         

Monday 7th Decmber

LA Lakers vs Phoenix Suns

 So last night Will and I headed to the Staples Centre at LA Live in Downtown LA, to see the the LA Lakers play the Phoenix Suns in an NBA game.  As you can see we were up in the clouds as tickets for these games are kind of pricey, but it was well worth it.  The game was awesome and the Lakers won, plus I got to spy on all the celebs in the front rows with the binnoculars!!!  Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino were there as they pretty much are at every Lakers game, as was Leonardo Di Caprio and Antonio Banderas.  Leo didn’t even arrive until the third quarter and then spent the whole time texting or twittering or whatever it is Leonardo likes to do on his cell phone!!!