hello hello hello!
so i left you last time when i'd just got to auckland so sit back and prepare yourself for some dodgy grammar and overexcited rambling.Right, after a right off of a sunday due to overexertions the night before in Auckland,me and Rich rented a car and decided to head east to the Coromandel peninsula on a bit of a whim.The drive was pretty incredible,navigated wonderfully by yours truly we drove along the pacific coast and from that headed across a particularly treacherous mountain pass which nearly proved too much for our cheeky little toyota (named diana,goddess of the hunt) and arrived in Coromandel town. This area of NZ is pretty backwards and like alot of new zealand towns revolved around one main street,it was a picturesque little place in a lovely bay with quality fish and chips and sleepy pool bars. The few days after we visited a selection of amazing beaches and coves,especially Cathedral cove which was almost the furthest east anyone can be in the world-where the old explorers thought the world ended,weeird.Talking of weird-Barley's just sent me an email wondering whether new zealand "is a really odd place populated by odd people"?Bluntly,yes.The people our age are all annoyingly massive but have an odd passion for sculpting their hair into a 'mullet' resembling the road kill we pass every day and are epicly unapproachable but hey ho NZ is stacked with travellers anyway!To please various parents we planned a walk up some mountains called the pinnacles (only about 2000 metres)from the start it was immediately apparent we were desperately out of shape,luckily (and very oddly) we didn't see one person the entire walk so noone had the pleasure of coming across two sweating english wrecks struggling up the mountain...it was actually a bloody hard ascent and descent,ladders and proper rock climbing involved so it was good fun and the view was ridiculous,in fact the scenery everywhere is just mindblowing..we did absolutely race it up and down however,which might have explained the immense blisters that still are decemating my foot as we speak..
We met up with the 6 others who we were with in fiji back in auckland and also met 4 cheltenham college girls from home,very small world-throughout we've developed an amazing knack of picking up over excited private school girls with big hair,nothing really changes!We then all went to watch Auckland Blues play Western Force at rugby which was awesome again,even if it is the most frustrating brand of rugby to watch ever..After some monstrously expensive nights of debauchery in auckland the 8 of us hired some campervans to tour new zealand with. Mine and Rich's is a beautiful streamlined thing (kind of..) called Deano,and so we set off from Auckland on the open road in a convoy of 3.
Apparently in NZ they call campervans 'maggots' due to their white sluggishness on the motorways (this very much is the case),we however travelled in ignorant bliss through north island with the sound of R'n'B classics volume 1 blaring through Deano's primitive speakers..on the way south a few issues occured..1.Deano's spare wheel came off his undercarriage,2.Deano's wheel bounced into the path of Jack and Suze's van which they missed narrowly. To various parents,this never happened.(To everyone else it did,and ended up to be rather amusing..) With the help of an english policewoman,Jack's handyman skills on the chassis of our van,bungee ropes from Gotley and some unhelpful attempted project management from me,we got Deano back on the road. It seems the van has hardly anything that works to it's full capacity,while others would find this annoying I find it slightly endearing and pretty retro to be honest..
We had some great stops along the way down North island. We went luging in Rotorua which is basically just bombing it down a phenomenally dangerous track at a huge gradient on tea trays on wheels-great boyish fun!Taupo was a really cool town and Lake Taupo was pretty stunning-its the size of Singapore after all-the weather was a real pleasure aswell and we came across something called 'the craters of the moon'-it was fairly phenomenal though lacked alot of resemblance to the moon..Basically all over NZ there are lots of sulphur clouds that decide to burst out of the ground in a fairly dramatic fashion and so we went through a kind of apocolyptic battlefield picture filled full of sulphur geysers and red hot craters...We've stayed in some funny places so far.. from campsites to caravan parks to the side of the road. Free campsites are hard to come by though, and sleeping on the side of the road is not particularly loved by the locals,i'd personally find it quite amusing seeing 6 unshaven,grossly unclean teenage boys tumbling out of vans in the morning wondering round town looking for a shower,but each to their own.
Our last stop in South Island was Wellington,it is the tiniest capital city you will ever see-it's only just bigger than Cheltenham set in a bay at the very end of S.Island,got a look at a colossal squid in the museum which was impressive (and hilariously ugly) and after being overloaded with lots of useless squid-related facts decided we'd treat ourselves to a few nights in a hostel. Wellington basically consisted of lots of going out (sorry Mum) even though it is meant to be off-season in NZ it is still packed with travellers mostly our age and you find that a massive group of travellers (tour buses etc) seem to follow each other round New Zealand which is jolly amusing!Yes so after lots of unmentional antics in the eventimes and a tiny amount of culture we took the ferry across to South Island.
Firstly,South Island has the most INCREDIBLE scenery i have ever seen,even just the drives we make between places are impressive,and unfortunately you do have to do a-lot of travelling because NZ has alot of open space..So yes we raced it down to Franz Josef Glacier,we got there in a literal hurricane which wasn't much fun-we didn't actually see the glacier for two days it was that bad. I've been hardened to this kind of situation thorugh many a holiday with the family in the Lake District crippled by rain but it was massively frustrating as i wanted to do my skydive there,but it was called off because of the weather. The next morn Me,Alex and Rich got up remarkably early for us and finally managed to do the walk to the base of the glacier before it was engulfed by cloud and it was well worth it.I'd always wanted to go see the Khunbu icefall under Everest and this seemed to be the next best thing,a huge expanse of ice that seemed to have just jammed itself in the middle of the huge range of mountains and all around were waterfalls and massive boulders left there by the retreating glacier.awesome. I'm afraid my photos will be rammed full of views and hope it does them some kind of justice!)Following Franz Josef we drove down via Wanaka to Queenstown,the adrenaline and traveller capital of NZ-it did not disappoint..Queenstown is a funny little town plonked on the banks of Lake Wakatipu surrounded by really striking mountains and the beginnings of the Remarkables range which are like no other mountains i've ever seen-imagine the mountains you draw as a kid,loads of pointy triangles..then times them by about 10000.These mountains are the main ones used in the Lord of the Rings films and were pretty special..Though it's a town-Queenstown is basically full of a city's population of travellers-everyone was in the same position,tight on money but just too much temptation everywhere to not spend money.Whether it was Fergburger (best burger bar in new zealand-Barley,just imagine roosters,minus the charming general manager and plus the use of real meat),the numerous sports shops,ludicrously cheap bars or enormous selection of bunjee jumps,jetboats and skydives..It was Rich's 19th birthday while we were there so we celebrated it in typically restrained style (ahem) and saw him another year older with a bang. The nightlife was awesome in Queenstown and we met loads of hilarious and chilled out people (alot of them Irish) at the blessedly warm bars (NZ is freezing!big shock from Fiji).
And then i did my skydive. I've wanted to do one all the way through New Zealand and i did it yesterday. I'll warn you now this could be an embarassingly hyperbolic, self-indulgent and gushing description of the event. To start with,the weather was perfect,not a cloud in the sky (so lucky considering they had floods in Queenstown a few days before) and a fresh layer of snow had been sprinkled over the Remarkables. I took a bus out about 10 km from Qtown with the usual mix of loud public school girls and silent asian men and rocked up at the skydiving centre. You rather disconcertingly see everyone take off and land as you wait to do it but i wasn't nervous at all which was odd,so we all got suited up and checked about a million times that all the equipment was safe(which i was glad about!) and i met the 'divemaster who i'd do the jump with called Flash. All of the instructors are complete maniacs but great at doing their job and calming you down etc,i was just one of two jumping from 15000 foot,the highest you can do it in NZ (i thought if i was going to do it i'd do it properly..) so consequently was last out of the plane. The plane is more of a glider and is so so tiny,they cram in 4 jumpers and 4 instructors in a tube about 5 metres long and 2 metres high.THe views were mindblowing,you could see both coasts of New Zealand and Mount Cook perfectly from the plane.Everyone jumped out in what seemed like an instant and it was just me left,we shifted over so i was hanging out of the plane and i nearly wet myself. The first 2 seconds were the most terrifying/exhilirating thing ever,basically we backflipped out so we were looking at the plane as we went down. We freefalled for 60 seconds and reached 200 kilometres per hour in the process,after the first few seconds of terror you enjoy it immediately and the adrenaline is the most amazing thing ever!The noise and cold just attacks you as you fly but i was making sure i remembered everything and the incredible views because alot of people say it's a huge blur. So we fell from 15000 feet to 5000 in 60 seconds.mad. And then he pulled the parachute and the explosive noise turns to complete,serene silence.And that gives you time to take in the view,the most incredible i have,and might ever see,the Lake,all the snow capped mountains of South Island with Mount Cook rising serenely from the blanket of clouds."How was that bro?sweet as,ey?"That was a bit of an understatement Flash...(i also have no explanation as to why all New Zealanders say 'ey' after everything they say..) He has the best job in the world,he let me fly the parachute aswell for a time on the way down and we got to do flips and spins etc and finally landed calmly back on the grass,it seemed to have been forever but in fact took a matter of 5 to 10 minutes. So to avoid being emotional and gushing it was the best thing i've EVER,EVER done.seriously.The feeling as you freefall i'll never forget and that plus the most incredible view of those mountains,everything came together perfectly,simply awesome.
And so i write from Timaru midway up the east coast on the way to Christchurch where i'll hopefully spend a few days with my cousins very near there!Just come from Dunedin which has alot more going on than just rugby(we did admittedly go to the new zealand sports museum which was suitably geeky and improved pub quiz knowledge significantly...) and at just before sunset we went to a beach on Otago peninsula and had an amazing experience with the sea lions there. They all came out onto the beach together,first of all they are the most ridiculous animals,the way they move across the ground is pure comedy,they skim across it with their flippers and after 10 minutes get tired and collapse on the sand and yawn (awesome life if you ask me..) but were just incredible creatures to get close to under the sunset. We also got a glimpse of the yellow eyed penguins who were cool too but didn't look like they could kill things (i have a very blunt view of nature,i'm only interested by things that look like they eat people..)
I'm very tired out from this blog,firstly, i apologize for the massive wait for it- i've been having way too much fun.2.sorry for the lack of amusing quips,i'm struggling to even write like i'm not a dyslexic 13 year old..3.sorry for the gushing account of the skydive,very hard to put in the words..
Another blog will come much sooner before i get to south america,so i'm off to go spend recklessly money i dont really have (i wish i was joking..) and i'm having the time of my life but missing friends and family loads aswell!
lots of love!
theo
xxx
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
That's so fiji..
bula bula bula!Hello,firstly sorry for the lateness of this next post,fiji's internet is pretty primitive!OK sooo,Sydney.We are in a group of 8 now which is alot more hectic but awesome fun (very much a hawkins/rawlins style of travel, family...). So there's now six boys and two girls so alot of laddish tomfoolery has become prominent (to the girl's pleasure..), Sydney was a really cool cosmopolitan city,it's the first place where we've found loads of travellers all quite similar to us,especially in the hostel we were in (5 bunkbeds a room,and thousands of rooms so very good fun!). Got a bus to Bondi beach which is absolutely huuge,full of beautiful beautiful people of all ages making me feel particularly pale and english,weather was a bit dodgy all the time we were there but it didn't matter,it's the kind of city where you can just walk around and keep entertained.The prices are ridiculousy expensive (2/3rds of a pint for 3 quid..) but apparently it's like it all over oz,me alex and rich tried to hit the zoo but the weather scuppered our plans-however instead we went to the biggest imax screen in the world (literally.) and watched alice in wonderland in 3D which was mindblowing-didn't feel like much of a traveller though coming all the way to sydney to go to the cinema!Our hostel was right next to Darling harbour and a short walk from sydney harbour,it was a little surreal being up close to a landmark that everyone world round knows,but lived up to expectations!Had a very weird nigth during a rainstorm when we sheltered under the Opera house-not the worst place to hang out overlooking the lit up opera house.Only in sydney for 3 days though but didn't regret being there for such a short time too much..
So we flew on to Fiji,the first real leg of our travels,the forecast was for 10 days of thunderstorms but these never really came to fruition thankfully...I think i've lost about half a stone through sheer sweat throughout fiji,it is stupidly hot-in the middle of the day it is seriously unbearable,me alex and rich stayed for 3 nights in Nadi Bay which was a really quaint little resort,had a pool and the people are so so friendly,a particular highlight was a fijian george michael lookalike playing and singing very dodgy eagles covers on his guitar every night. Nadi itself was more undeveloped than I expected,there is no wool pulled over your eyes to make it seem a tourist attraction which I quite liked (and i'm sure mum is pleased i saw some REAL culture..) We found our local haunt on the first night,ED's bar down the road which was a funny place lots of initmidating men and pool tables but loads of travellers aswell so a nice late introduction to Fiji!We lazed around in Nadi for a day,indulged in a chicken burger which was very much not Fiji (and not a touch on Roosters Barley..) and flirted generally with middle aged Fijian women.
When the 8 of us came together we set off on our trip round the islands,I can't even explain how beautiful the scenery is,it's not just white sandy beaches and palm trees(though these are a standard-its a hard life) but some awesome mountain terrains,it was quite reminiscent of Halong Bay in Vietnam just mountains that seemed to have popped up in the middle of the ocean. Our first night was at Coral view resort at the most northern of the islands (the plan was to just work down north to south)-i succeeded at getting burnt to within an inch of my life (sorry mum..) but the pain only lasted a few days,resort was pretty huge and the group came to 11 with the introduction of 3 posher than posh girls from Clifton college bristol,lots of bantah and gap yah which gave me many opportunities to me rampantly hilarious about their private schoolisms,they were really really nice though and sured up the male female balance..We only stayed at Coral view for a night and got the boat to white sandy beach for literally the best 3 days of my life. As we approached the island on the boat the whole staff greeted us in a gaggle of sarongs,guitars and ukeleles on the beach-they were amazing from the word go. The fijian women have that rare quality that only the greeks seem to have of growing mesmorising facial hair,the leading lady of the resort (who i nicknamed 'Burns' due to her admirable sideburns and moustache combo) was the perfect host. I 've always had an unerring ability of being able to charm middle aged mothers (mainly dinner ladies admittedly..) and the 'dinner lady charm' was used throughout,they couldn't say my name for starters (the 'th' sound just doesn't exist in fiji) so i was dubbed 'fredrick.' or 'cheeky boy' which was fine with me. However the women were one thing, the men however were the absolute highlight,the main man was Epi, who for those interested (mostly joe and dad) is Moses Raulini's brother (no joke)-he had the body of an adonis and the biggest grin in the world.His right hand man was Joe who was our age and was Joe Rocococko's cousin (no joke again). They became such good friends in the 3 days we were there we just sat around all day chatting to them while they lolled around in hammocks with guitars. Everyone in Fiji can 1. play the guitar and 2. all have cracking voices. On the first day in the twilight of the Fijian day we had our first game of beach rugby with the Fijians-and got destroyed. Rugby is everything here and the sheer speed of these men is scary-Epi merely shouted 'touch!' across the island and 10 fijians wondered on to the beach,there hands our lightning and they seemed to float across the sand while the gaggle of us 6 burnt english waded through the sand in their wake..
Rugby played a huge part in our stay-on the we moved on to their 'rugby pitch'-i say pitch,it was more a huge patch of scrubland with grass at places up to your shins,the staff absolutely loved it- we woke up in the morning to see the activites board containing the message '4.00 rugby, England vs Fiji'. So we rocked up to the 'pitch' at 4 and faced 5 minutes of absolute embarassment before we admitted defeat and we mixed the teams up-we must have played for at least 2 hours,it was very surreal playing touch rugby in scorching heat against a backdrop of rainforest and mountain with a group of 10 or 12 muscle bound fijian athletes but an experience I'll never forget.I don't think i've ever been more tired,at the end after many handshakes and hugs I almost crawled into the sea-a shambles of a man. All the fijians were sure i was Matthew Tait's brother-probably due to my prodigious rugby talent(although they are all related to fantastic international rugby players I had to reveal that in fact I was not..).What Epi had failed to mention about the guys we were playing with was that two of them were current Fijian age-group internationals (joe was under 18 fiji and the chef,Sammy plays for Fiji under 21's), which made sense considering they were untouchable on the rugby pitch. And afterwards we all,Fijian and English sat around and had a great chat and alaugh,we formed such a close bond with all the guys on the island from that one match,it's funny how sport (especially rugby) can do that-I got the impression that they liked us so much because we took a real interest in their lives and culture whereas alot of people only stop over for a night for fleeting visits.
So every day we got breakfast lunch and dinner,the food was a-mazing,every night was a buffet (awesome),the first night was a selection of currys and we even saw the snapper that was used for the fish curry being caught and gutted in the sea by Epi and it was all so so fresh. The food is so healthy-so i used it as an excuse to eat massive amounts of it (that makes sense right Mum?). I haven't even mentioned the nightly entertainment yet,blimey.After dinner Burns got up in front of us and introduced the fijian dancing-now the Fijians can move,every evening a selection of four or five of the men in grass skirts and traditional Fijian gear strutted their stuff supported by the rather more restrained women (check the photos.). They seem to have boundless energy the Fijians, they all start the day about 5 am(Epi runs up the mountain on the island and along the beach before he starts his day-madman.) And after plenty of dancing from the staff it was our turn and we played loads of games with the staff all partnered by a fijian,the dancing was so so funny and went on late into the night-the fijians particularly liked alex whos 6 foot 6 but moves like Rudolf Nureyev..And after we all sat and had a long drink on the beach,Fijian and English alike-absolutely mindblowing. On the 3rd day we went to the local village in the day,I was fully expecting a bit of a tourist trap with lots of people selling tat but it was really nice actually. We started off with a kava ceremony,now kava is some kind of root juice (i think?) which has hallucinogenic effects in large doses and numbs your tongue and mouth,it is foul,tastes like muddy water basically but has funny effects and you have to drink all of it out of respect.We then visited the school,the village seemed so close-knit and friendly i like that in Fiji it just seems to be one big neighbourhood,everyone knows each other-the kids all came out and did a show for us,each year sang us a song from the little ones to 13 14 year olds and we were also treated to a crazy fijian war dance by 6 8 year old jokers-there were very surreal renditions of english classics and a cute song from the little ones "banana for you,banana for me,banana for the monkeys up in the tree". I'm not really sure what everyone does in Fiji, just relaxes as far as I can tell which is ace,I guess they are all basically self sufficient,but so welcoming of these 6 loud boys invading their village.
A big player in our trip who i have mentioned is Avram,Henry's guitar which has been played non-stop. The people on white sandy absolutely loved it and at least one of the staff seemed to be strumming it at any one time,they sang their fijian songs (and the odd baffling cover of 'Hotel California'..) while we sang our English ones late on in the night.And so we decided on the last night to give them the guitar as a thank you, we all wrote our names on it and they were so touched (I think,it's so hard to tell because they just seem to smile all the time..) the last night was the craziest dancing yet, and taught Epi and Joe some English drinking games.it had been preceded by another seminal rugby game on the scrub (gatecrashed by some annoying americans who we proceeded to embarass at rugby and they soon went away) and afterwards we celebrated our last game with Epi and Joe on the beach with some coconut juice (we were sooo fiji.). And as we left the next day with Epi's words still in my head ('the best friends we've ever had') I felt ever so protective of White Sandy and so sad to leave,it was worth going to Fiji for White Sandy alone,not for the sscnery (which was amazing) but the people there who were phenomenal and I'll always be able to tell people about the time I played rugby with Joe rocococko's cousin and 10 fijian machines on a beach,only in Fiji...It was hard afterwards to not compare anything to White Sandy but had a funny time handline fishing in the middle of the pacific in a storm,only Jack caught something-don't think I'm cut out for fishing I tend to be viciously impatient.. We stayed that night on the island where 'castaway' (with tom hanks) was filmed but were all really worn out from white sandy so had a nice quiet night chatting with the 3 posh girls. And then me and Rich had to go back to the mainland,I desperately wanted one more night in White Sandy but it didn't work out-I almost regret only going to Fiji for 10 days but it leaves me wanting to go back and some of the best memories. One more night in Nadi Bay then we flew to Auckland yesterday for the first of out long stays, we are here for 6 weeks and I cannot wait to get going,New Zealand appeals to me already,Auckland is a really quaint city (a bit like cheltenham and san francisco mixed together is the best way to describe it family) and had a night of debauchery last night in the NZ bars and clubs-it is not cheap but hey ho got to know the city pretty well and Tom WP was right-the beer is crap. It has a lovely harbour but me and Rich will try and have a little nosey around north island for 3 or 4 days before meeting the others who fly in on thursday.Oh yeah,went to a super 14 game last night as Eden Park,Blues versus the Stormers and saw Bryan Habana and Rocococko live which was amazing,really odd style of rugby but something to induce jealousy in Joe and Dad hopefully!
Missing everyone tons and hope Easter was as fattening as usual in paradise,very jealous!Having the time of my life out here though, so spiritual and political and cultural yah yah,thinking about getting involved in some camper van action tomorrow which could prove amusing,soon to trek out to lord of the rings country and seeing some real mountains,can't wait!
Lots of love everyone
T xxx
So we flew on to Fiji,the first real leg of our travels,the forecast was for 10 days of thunderstorms but these never really came to fruition thankfully...I think i've lost about half a stone through sheer sweat throughout fiji,it is stupidly hot-in the middle of the day it is seriously unbearable,me alex and rich stayed for 3 nights in Nadi Bay which was a really quaint little resort,had a pool and the people are so so friendly,a particular highlight was a fijian george michael lookalike playing and singing very dodgy eagles covers on his guitar every night. Nadi itself was more undeveloped than I expected,there is no wool pulled over your eyes to make it seem a tourist attraction which I quite liked (and i'm sure mum is pleased i saw some REAL culture..) We found our local haunt on the first night,ED's bar down the road which was a funny place lots of initmidating men and pool tables but loads of travellers aswell so a nice late introduction to Fiji!We lazed around in Nadi for a day,indulged in a chicken burger which was very much not Fiji (and not a touch on Roosters Barley..) and flirted generally with middle aged Fijian women.
When the 8 of us came together we set off on our trip round the islands,I can't even explain how beautiful the scenery is,it's not just white sandy beaches and palm trees(though these are a standard-its a hard life) but some awesome mountain terrains,it was quite reminiscent of Halong Bay in Vietnam just mountains that seemed to have popped up in the middle of the ocean. Our first night was at Coral view resort at the most northern of the islands (the plan was to just work down north to south)-i succeeded at getting burnt to within an inch of my life (sorry mum..) but the pain only lasted a few days,resort was pretty huge and the group came to 11 with the introduction of 3 posher than posh girls from Clifton college bristol,lots of bantah and gap yah which gave me many opportunities to me rampantly hilarious about their private schoolisms,they were really really nice though and sured up the male female balance..We only stayed at Coral view for a night and got the boat to white sandy beach for literally the best 3 days of my life. As we approached the island on the boat the whole staff greeted us in a gaggle of sarongs,guitars and ukeleles on the beach-they were amazing from the word go. The fijian women have that rare quality that only the greeks seem to have of growing mesmorising facial hair,the leading lady of the resort (who i nicknamed 'Burns' due to her admirable sideburns and moustache combo) was the perfect host. I 've always had an unerring ability of being able to charm middle aged mothers (mainly dinner ladies admittedly..) and the 'dinner lady charm' was used throughout,they couldn't say my name for starters (the 'th' sound just doesn't exist in fiji) so i was dubbed 'fredrick.' or 'cheeky boy' which was fine with me. However the women were one thing, the men however were the absolute highlight,the main man was Epi, who for those interested (mostly joe and dad) is Moses Raulini's brother (no joke)-he had the body of an adonis and the biggest grin in the world.His right hand man was Joe who was our age and was Joe Rocococko's cousin (no joke again). They became such good friends in the 3 days we were there we just sat around all day chatting to them while they lolled around in hammocks with guitars. Everyone in Fiji can 1. play the guitar and 2. all have cracking voices. On the first day in the twilight of the Fijian day we had our first game of beach rugby with the Fijians-and got destroyed. Rugby is everything here and the sheer speed of these men is scary-Epi merely shouted 'touch!' across the island and 10 fijians wondered on to the beach,there hands our lightning and they seemed to float across the sand while the gaggle of us 6 burnt english waded through the sand in their wake..
Rugby played a huge part in our stay-on the we moved on to their 'rugby pitch'-i say pitch,it was more a huge patch of scrubland with grass at places up to your shins,the staff absolutely loved it- we woke up in the morning to see the activites board containing the message '4.00 rugby, England vs Fiji'. So we rocked up to the 'pitch' at 4 and faced 5 minutes of absolute embarassment before we admitted defeat and we mixed the teams up-we must have played for at least 2 hours,it was very surreal playing touch rugby in scorching heat against a backdrop of rainforest and mountain with a group of 10 or 12 muscle bound fijian athletes but an experience I'll never forget.I don't think i've ever been more tired,at the end after many handshakes and hugs I almost crawled into the sea-a shambles of a man. All the fijians were sure i was Matthew Tait's brother-probably due to my prodigious rugby talent(although they are all related to fantastic international rugby players I had to reveal that in fact I was not..).What Epi had failed to mention about the guys we were playing with was that two of them were current Fijian age-group internationals (joe was under 18 fiji and the chef,Sammy plays for Fiji under 21's), which made sense considering they were untouchable on the rugby pitch. And afterwards we all,Fijian and English sat around and had a great chat and alaugh,we formed such a close bond with all the guys on the island from that one match,it's funny how sport (especially rugby) can do that-I got the impression that they liked us so much because we took a real interest in their lives and culture whereas alot of people only stop over for a night for fleeting visits.
So every day we got breakfast lunch and dinner,the food was a-mazing,every night was a buffet (awesome),the first night was a selection of currys and we even saw the snapper that was used for the fish curry being caught and gutted in the sea by Epi and it was all so so fresh. The food is so healthy-so i used it as an excuse to eat massive amounts of it (that makes sense right Mum?). I haven't even mentioned the nightly entertainment yet,blimey.After dinner Burns got up in front of us and introduced the fijian dancing-now the Fijians can move,every evening a selection of four or five of the men in grass skirts and traditional Fijian gear strutted their stuff supported by the rather more restrained women (check the photos.). They seem to have boundless energy the Fijians, they all start the day about 5 am(Epi runs up the mountain on the island and along the beach before he starts his day-madman.) And after plenty of dancing from the staff it was our turn and we played loads of games with the staff all partnered by a fijian,the dancing was so so funny and went on late into the night-the fijians particularly liked alex whos 6 foot 6 but moves like Rudolf Nureyev..And after we all sat and had a long drink on the beach,Fijian and English alike-absolutely mindblowing. On the 3rd day we went to the local village in the day,I was fully expecting a bit of a tourist trap with lots of people selling tat but it was really nice actually. We started off with a kava ceremony,now kava is some kind of root juice (i think?) which has hallucinogenic effects in large doses and numbs your tongue and mouth,it is foul,tastes like muddy water basically but has funny effects and you have to drink all of it out of respect.We then visited the school,the village seemed so close-knit and friendly i like that in Fiji it just seems to be one big neighbourhood,everyone knows each other-the kids all came out and did a show for us,each year sang us a song from the little ones to 13 14 year olds and we were also treated to a crazy fijian war dance by 6 8 year old jokers-there were very surreal renditions of english classics and a cute song from the little ones "banana for you,banana for me,banana for the monkeys up in the tree". I'm not really sure what everyone does in Fiji, just relaxes as far as I can tell which is ace,I guess they are all basically self sufficient,but so welcoming of these 6 loud boys invading their village.
A big player in our trip who i have mentioned is Avram,Henry's guitar which has been played non-stop. The people on white sandy absolutely loved it and at least one of the staff seemed to be strumming it at any one time,they sang their fijian songs (and the odd baffling cover of 'Hotel California'..) while we sang our English ones late on in the night.And so we decided on the last night to give them the guitar as a thank you, we all wrote our names on it and they were so touched (I think,it's so hard to tell because they just seem to smile all the time..) the last night was the craziest dancing yet, and taught Epi and Joe some English drinking games.it had been preceded by another seminal rugby game on the scrub (gatecrashed by some annoying americans who we proceeded to embarass at rugby and they soon went away) and afterwards we celebrated our last game with Epi and Joe on the beach with some coconut juice (we were sooo fiji.). And as we left the next day with Epi's words still in my head ('the best friends we've ever had') I felt ever so protective of White Sandy and so sad to leave,it was worth going to Fiji for White Sandy alone,not for the sscnery (which was amazing) but the people there who were phenomenal and I'll always be able to tell people about the time I played rugby with Joe rocococko's cousin and 10 fijian machines on a beach,only in Fiji...It was hard afterwards to not compare anything to White Sandy but had a funny time handline fishing in the middle of the pacific in a storm,only Jack caught something-don't think I'm cut out for fishing I tend to be viciously impatient.. We stayed that night on the island where 'castaway' (with tom hanks) was filmed but were all really worn out from white sandy so had a nice quiet night chatting with the 3 posh girls. And then me and Rich had to go back to the mainland,I desperately wanted one more night in White Sandy but it didn't work out-I almost regret only going to Fiji for 10 days but it leaves me wanting to go back and some of the best memories. One more night in Nadi Bay then we flew to Auckland yesterday for the first of out long stays, we are here for 6 weeks and I cannot wait to get going,New Zealand appeals to me already,Auckland is a really quaint city (a bit like cheltenham and san francisco mixed together is the best way to describe it family) and had a night of debauchery last night in the NZ bars and clubs-it is not cheap but hey ho got to know the city pretty well and Tom WP was right-the beer is crap. It has a lovely harbour but me and Rich will try and have a little nosey around north island for 3 or 4 days before meeting the others who fly in on thursday.Oh yeah,went to a super 14 game last night as Eden Park,Blues versus the Stormers and saw Bryan Habana and Rocococko live which was amazing,really odd style of rugby but something to induce jealousy in Joe and Dad hopefully!
Missing everyone tons and hope Easter was as fattening as usual in paradise,very jealous!Having the time of my life out here though, so spiritual and political and cultural yah yah,thinking about getting involved in some camper van action tomorrow which could prove amusing,soon to trek out to lord of the rings country and seeing some real mountains,can't wait!
Lots of love everyone
T xxx
Sunday, March 28, 2010
So it begins..
So,me and rich departed heathrow in a slapdash,generally disorganised manner that has stayed with us so far,plane journey was all fine,one of us pretentiously watching ancient french comedies with subtitles in the obvious hope some beautiful(and ignorant) girl would take a chance glance at his 'intellectual brilliance',and one of us watching crap romantic comedies unabashed (sure you can guess who's who..). And so we touched down in Hong Kong airport,a sterile, almost weirdly clean place and got the bus into Hong Kong which took around an hour.Tried to take photos in moving bus that was built for 3 foot pigmys,attempts desperately unsuccessful.Very obvious as you move from the suburbs into the main city of Hong Kong that welath increases proportionally, across some insane bridges that probably would've been a highlight in another country,but child's play in terms of HK architecture."suit,suit?watch,real rolex?(hashish?)"-the gloriously untactful salesman of hong kong, these were the words that greeted us, and after a day we had learnt to ignore them completely..our hostel was in a huge sprawling complex called Chung King mansions in Kowloon, it was a bit of a hole but very entertaining. The downstairs of the building was a huge set of shops,generally dodgy currency sellers,fake phones and dubious food, ahighlight being 'Ali Baba's food emporium'-Ali Baba as far as i could tell hadn't sold any of his 'genuine indian produce' in the whole period we stayed.Our hostel could have been called,germany,paris,singh or paris hostel,noone really knows;run by a bunch of indians who reeked of dodgy dealings- but we were paying next to nothing and they entertained us.The room also had an added bonus of having a shower,toilet and sink in a 2x2 metre square space-remarkable piece of invention if you ask me. We dropped our bags and strolled into the city,very sweaty(hardly surprising) and really smoggy (the sun only tended to break through at about 4 each day) we made it up to the botanical gardens but were both crippled by jet lag so crawled back to the hostel and slept till 10.badly needed. Then we went out in Hong Kong,was absolutely mad!The HK 7's was on so we strolled to Lan Kwai Fong, streets and streets of bars on Hong Kong Island, they ahd closed the roads due to sheer numbers of people, loads of fancy dress and rugby supporters of any number of nationality-alot of Aussies and Brits especially. It was awesome fun,rugby balls being thrown around and makeshift street line outs popping up all over the place-we were in our element. Alcohol was bloody expensive,though beer was sold in yards (lush) but cost 6 pounds a yard (not so lush), however in true cheap skate fashion me and Ricardo just popped to a 7 11(these shops are evrywhere-and a lifesaver) and sell 2 cans of most beer for about 1 pound 50-we therefore just stood and drunk these in the street, like loads of other people, no police around but a really cool party atmosphere.Next day was a little fragile,stumbled in at 6 after a night of debauchery (notabley a bar in Wang Chai (clubbing area) where we could dance on the bar-alot of regretful photos.) I must remind you we hadnt eaten in 36 hours and a night in hong kong during sevens isn't advisable,safe to say we only got up next evening and repeated actions,same fun occured if not even busier-encountered alot of english 25 year old toffs,wiiffing of Jack Wills and private school,generally nice but hi-lariously pompous..Oh yeah,we also went with alot of excitement to see the 'symphony of lights',big disappointment.In reality a few torches coming off the main buildings to a cacophony of crap classical chinese techno.baffling.Woke up before 12 next day,gave ourselves a big pat on the back,rich still pretending to have jetlag (or 'jet lad' as he has so wittily decided to call himself.yep,me neither.) but just being a bit weak. We took the famous star ferry across the harbour (only 25p people!) across to the business district,the buildings are ridiculous, the HSBC building and bank of china especially impressive, we climbed to the 43rd floor of Bank of China and could see over all Hong Kong and more.Had lunch in business district, food has been a great success in HK,sooo cheap,our haunt has been 'cafe de coral' which does lightning quick really nice chinese food which we attacked with chopsticks with limited success. Went up the peak over HK to get more spectacular views, bit of a tourist trap and a little regret we didn't do it at night, but the tram up was nice and exciting going to some crazy angles up HK mountain. HK also we have found is just an absolute maze, me and rich must have walked nearly 2 kilometres just in walways across hong kong without touching teh ground, everythign is planned perfectly and there are escalators everywhere,i have never escalated so much in my life-seems all a bit needless but one thing i'll say about HK is it is bloody efficient. Before flight yesterday went to museum of history, alot of expected propoganda about the glories of Hong Kong,but refreshingly showed some real accounts of death and destruction in the last 10 percent and a jolly funny chinese film which made the 1 pound entry fee totally worth it.Got to airport stupidly early-a bit of a curfuffle with visas, apparently me and rich can't just stroll into Australia without visas,honestly...sorted out by awesome staff in about a second.Rich,or calamity jane as we shall dub him from now on then left half his posessions on the other side of the border,lost a pile of documents and generally stumbled around like an oaf but somehow stumbled on the plane and then proceeded to lose his passport,which he eventually found in his shoe (the obvious logical safehouse.)After a sleepless flight we landed in Sydney today which is a-mazing.the city is really really nice and loads of people our age,met up with friends from Cirencester and around who are all really laid back and welcoming (T only met them properly today) went to the famous bondi beach later on which was mentally busy but alot of beach rugby and general relaxation in ridiculous heat,hoping to lose doughy physiques soon!(unlikely). Have really taken to Sydney, an improvement from our stop off at HK which was a bit too much of a big shop (especially considering we couldnt spend any money!)and seemed a bit sterile(but nightlife was unreal) Having an amazing time in huge hostel in central Sydney and will keep you posted soon!G'day xxxx
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