Dave Brett <DaveBrettUK>
"I'm going around the world!"
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 | the final shout out | hace 362 días | ||
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| So now the gap year has sadly come to an end, I just want to take this space to thank everyone behind the scenes for making this amazing adventure happen and for making it become reality, And a big shouts out to all of you the Bebo community for following the show, And cheers for everyone who voted for me as well I know there was probably only 4 of your and most of them were probably my family members but your support and your vote 4 me has always counted so thank you guys! kind regards yours truly Dave the Rave | ||||
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| Life in the big pent house, | hace 362 días | ||
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So after secretly meeting my mum at Heathrow for 10 minutes for a coffee I was off on my way to Canary Wharf and I hadn’t a clue why I was going there? Known the slightest, I sort of twigged that we would all finally meet up for the first time because it would be silly not to as were all in London but how and when was a big mystery, the London docklands is one of the newest areas of London so we was all in for a treat but I didn’t even know we was staying there but once I got escorted to an apartment base I put one and one together and was really looking forward to what the future held. So up I went on the 13th floor and entered this amazing room, very plush it was but I wasn’t aware of who was there or not. But once I went up stairs and every one leaped out from left to right it was so cool we was finally all together for the first time! Well Amy was still to come so we grabbed some beers and waited for the last traveller to arrive, Once Amy walked in it was like the finally jigsaw of the puzzle and we was finally together for the first time ever! In history! It was an amazing moment and I was over the moon we all got on really well like chalk and cheese and the chemistry was crazy! Sadly André was really ill and later into the week he actually left the house which was even sadder and I really felt for the guy as it must have been extremely hard to have done that, well the highlight of the pent house had to have been to have a hot shower again! In India we only had cold running water and that was a nice treat to the system and also I really enjoyed getting breakfast together and all having a feast first thing in the morning and one of the most enjoyable moments was when we was all ice skating together as I hadn’t even done that before it was a first for me as well and I really appreciate HQ looking out for me as well as even though it’s my home town it still felt like a holiday for me as the penthouse and the ice-skating and the feast they put on for me and the gang was a really nice thought and it turned out to be a really enjoyable week and one I will really remember. I’m happy we did all meet up in the end as with all turned out to be great mates and I hope one day even if we’re all old pensioners that we meet up again for another reunion. | ||||
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| India | hace 362 días | ||
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| Arriving into India My gap year up to this point has been amazing and I wouldn’t change my route for the world if I could go back in time but I was in search still for that burst of culture which I hadn’t received yet, Central America was challenging but sticking mostly to the tourist trail I didn’t find it as challenging, however when I jump on my flight from Singapore to Delhi I immediately got a sense of what I was in store for, The flight was completely Indian, everyone was Indian the movies were all bollywood on the entertainment system and all the food was vegetarian kormas to die for I was really getting excited to discover what India had to offer, When we finally landed in Delhi it was around 4 am in the morning but what I could remember of Delhi was how polluted the air was and even at 4 in the morning it still had a very busy feel to it, sadly we didn’t have any time to stay in Delhi and once we solved the problem of printing out are train tickets off to the train station we went to grab are morning train to Pushkar. However he faced a big problem in many large cities, we ended up at the wrong train station and we was stuck in Delhi tired until the next one at 6am, but once we solved the problem of old Delhi and new Delhi we was quick to find the correct train station and after a few episodes of the office on my laptop later we was on the rolling train on our way to Pushkar. Pushkar was a small 8 hour train ride away but this cruised by as I had the luxury of spending my journey in the first class carriage, this was not only a gap year first for me but all so a life time first, I had never travelled first class in my life! Even if it was Indian bog standard I felt like a king cruising through Rajasthan via Delhi. I loved Indian first class! First of all you get a ironed copy of the Indian times which mostly bragged about cricket but it was also mentioned the victory of Obama as the new American president which was a delight to see. Also in first class you get unlimited amount of tea and on my gap year the tea hasn’t even come close to tea back home but India hit the nail on the head and it was a pure luxury to be drinking some of the finest blend, not only this I was spoiled with a breakfast fit for a hobbit! First breakfast then second breakfast then third breakfast, I wasn’t sure if you had the option to choice either or but I tucked in never the less. It was so nice to watch the world fly by and see India for the train window, for me personally train travel is my all time favourite way of travelling as it’s such a lovely smooth way of travelling and you can jump off whenever you like and it’s just so relaxing, What amazed me compared to many train journeys was the amount of people every were, for example I remember cruising all around Norway on a train and out of the window you would hardly see a single person for miles until the next stop. But in India every single part of land has at least some one working or living on it and it really showed me how over populated the whole country is not one part of the journey was empty or as vast as say Finland, Switzerland or Mongolia. After day dreaming out the window and watching India role by we arrived in Pushkar and we was greeted by an Indian guy called Mr. song who was holding a large sign with mine and toms name on it and it made me feel like royalty or something lol, we was quickly escorted to are minivan were we loaded and packed in are gear on top of us and we whizzed through travel like tight tetras pieces, how Indians drive in India is behind me as it’s like a crazy sport but they don’t mind bumping each over as they all drive tin cans but it’s all so tight as close up that if someone breaks your buggered. Luckily we was in safe hands and made it to are hotel safely, once we unloaded I was shown my massive room, there was nothing in it apart from a bed but you could very happily fit your pet elephant in it if you brought one along, why you need a room so big I don’t know but I was happy to lay all of my stuff completely over the place though lol, Once we was settled in it was time for some exploring and Mr. song insisted that we rented motor bikes off him but after seeing that the traffic is like we kindly turned down the offer but he seemed very determined to get us on the bikes and we almost had to run away just to avoid jumping on the bike which he didn’t take to kindly to, but I think it was the best decision of the day as Pushkar is so nice to walk around in your own leisurely time as every corner you turn around has something to offer. The one thing I loved about the area was the view from my hotels courtyard as you could sit down on the decking and grab a black team while looking over this beautiful holy lake. It’s truly an amazing view be it day or night time I could haply sit there for days or weeks as there is so much going on all the time around the lake and it changes at different times during the day and it’s a spectacular sight. Once we made a move into the bizarre market area, it was a real shock to the system as it was completely different to what I expected. It’s like the heart of the city and everything is alive when you reach it and its packed and full of stalls and people hustling you trying to sell you things and there’s a stack load of cows just wondering around the place randomly every were you turn and wild monkeys swinging on the telephone cables and lots of people wearing bright colourful clothing it was a real delight and experience to see at first hand. Everything is very affordable in India which is great for tourists as you can buy affordable gifts but the best part about it is that you could order a feast fit for a king and still it wouldn’t even touch a price of a standard rice dish in London and I was amazed at the amount of food you could get for so little. Arriving in India my main concern was getting the Delhi belly which is something you last want to pick up on your return back home so we tried to spot out a real touristy restaurant for are first feast to test out the lingo and see what we was up against, well I asked for something extremely mild and no spice at all as I like my Indian food nice and sweet as spice takes the taste away from me personally but instead of getting that I got the complete opposite, I got a plate full of chillies, I’ll never forget the look on Toms face when I attempted to finish it as he loves hot food and he had a mild one lol, my one blow me head off haha, so not a great first time experience and for the rest of the day I seemed to have a high head rush because of the amount of chillies which was in it. Well I learned my lesson never to go there again and decided to get some rest as it had been a busy day full of travel. The next day we had a busy day ahead of us as we was to explore the Camel festival for the first time and I honestly didn’t know what to expect of the thing but once I turned up it was massive! There were more camels than the population of Belgium it was to a huge scale and defiantly nothing I had pictured in my head. Along with the camels there was lots of funfair rides as well which health and safety wouldn’t even batter an eye lid at, along with this they had one of those round rings were cars drive around it and go upside down and all sorts again something you wouldn’t even see in the UK as it’s so unsafe. One thing that disturbed me was this middle aged guy on the floor who had a car battery an electric razor with a needle fixed to it and he tapped it in pen ink and was giving people the chance to pick designs for him to draw on people. What really upset me was young 5 year olds were getting them done and they must have thought that it was like a henna tattoo and they had no idea that what they was getting was something on their arm for life and the risk of disease from it and yet they gave the man 5 rupees for his time without a care in the world as there so young, you feel sorry for people like that. After walking around an endless amount of camels we headed to the main arena and they had a flag raise ceremony. It was incredible to watch, people dancing around and people playing musical instruments it was ashamed that it was ruined by the amount of endless want to be photographers really interfering with the whole ceremony you know getting in the way of people’s views so they can get that shot and it was ashamed as it ruined it for me but I took some photos as well so I only have myself to blame. Then the golden moment happened, I met my camel. My camels name was called toe thanks very much to the Bebo community, it was a very well trained camel and after watching how successful it was in its practice race I was pleased to take the camel under my belt and treat it like one of my own. After the disappointing selection of the first restaurant, we decided to give the one across the road a go and wow what a good choice, we had 5 entrees and rice and 5 nanas’ and endless amount of drinks and it all added up to only a couple of quid and the quality of the food was incredible and it’s a real treat to enjoy your food knowing your not breaking your budget, we ended up eating there every lunch and dinner from that day onwards lol. As the race was a big thing in the area I thought I would do myself up and get a new hair cut and a shave for the special occasion. After hunting around I found a barbers who looked like a decent place compared to the others in the centre so I thought I’d give it ago little worried that he had named himself a surgeon I still didn’t let this put me off and after some time with Tom egging me on to do it I caved in and thought what the hell lets crack on and get it done, after a disaster of my hair turning blonde in Estonia due to some miss communication and never hardly getting my hair cut out side of my Chingford Barbers it was a risk but one I thought I’d do for a laugh, in desperate need of a trim not only for the race but wanting to look my best for my London return this was my only option as I wouldn’t have time to go home. Well it was for sure a memorable barber experience, I’ve never had a massage and so much stuff rubbed on my face in one sitting but it was sure entertaining until I actually bear witness to what was actually left on my head! Disaster but for sure I hope the whole Bebo community had their last giggle over it. Once I was armed with my prince of love hair cut I was ready for action and completely hyped for the race, only problem was the Dave cam which I was going to wear to film me during the race sadly didn’t work so after plucking together my scouting skills and some duck tape latter I had turned my PSP and a bendy pipe with a clip into one of the most ridiculous looking head cams none to man, but it worked and it was a great success but one of the biggest worries was I didn’t even have time to thinking about the race as the sun was shining onto my face so I couldn’t see the screen and I couldn’t tell if it was filming or not and this caused a great panic and worry as I didn’t know if it was filming or not but just as the race started a little luck must have sparked as it was rolling when the gun went and off my camel went as well. My camel was speedy and loved to race as it took me into third place without me trying and I’m not sure if this was because I took some short cuts but I wasn’t really in it to win it any ways I was just having a laugh, What really worried me was when I went to a corner there was a guy holding a flag and when he tried to get out of the way someone else was also trying to do this and ran into the other guy and they both bashed into each other without even noticing and then my camel just rockets over the both of them and I actually thought id killed the guys lol, luckily they got up and was walking and everything was alright but I only found this out after I watched the replies as my camel was rocketing into position and I ended up 3rd! Yer! Can you believe it an amateur entered into a professional camel race and I ended up 3rd lol it was a victory for sure but unfortunately there was only a first and second place prize going, gutted All in all I was very grateful to get the opportunity to travel to India as I couldn’t have asked for a better place to end my Gap year, Pushkar has so much to offer and it was defiantly what I was in search for and I have many great memories from the place. | ||||
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| Trekking Across Fox Glacier | hace 386 días | ||
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| After a wild week and a bit in Auckland it was time to explore the south island as I had spent most of my time on the north and it was time for a different change of scenery. So after a cancelled flight and a painfully long bus ride along with a stop over in a random ghost town we arrived in Fox glacier village which has to be one of the smallest villages i've ever been to with a local population that is massively overtaken by the tourist population, I only met one local apart from the café and shop owner so it was a really nice change to break away from the city life and just enjoy the emptiness and peaceful atmosphere of it all. So up bright and early to get ready for some glacier trekking, to my delight I wasn’t blessed with the wonderful trek up there which most people do when they travel to Fox as its takes in the region of 2 hours to walk up there and get down again but luckily for us we hitched a ride on the helicopter and took the lazy boy option. The trip in the helicopter was only 8 minutes long but the views were spectacular, the flight up to the peak of the glacier was a great way to see it from an aerial point of view, like as you fly in the mountains slowly unravel around you and the glacier just slowly emerges out of nowhere and you are just instantly blown away from the landscape view. It's just a remarkable sight and up from high above is just a great way of seeing it. As we touched down onto the icescape below us it was if we had been transported to a completely new world altogether as the glacier itself was just breathtaking, the great thing about it was that it's just something that’s there it’s a natural beauty and to get the opportunity to land on it with a helicopter well it was like a whole James Bond experience. Once the helicopter took off we put on our crampons which are metal snow shoes like what you put on cars to drive in icy conditions. This just lets you walk around a lot better so you can be more stable on the ice. They're weird to wear and it's like walking on stilts in someway without being high up but without them you would so be sliding all over the place so good I had mine on. Our guide Jim took us up around the glacier and carved the way for us with his large metal gold digging stake and he took us around the glacier. We went into all sorts of coves like a large tube and you had to crawl through it then there was a hole just big enough for you to slide through it standing up, Luckily I was wearing my contact lenses so I didn't have to worry about my glasses falling off! It was so bizarre to see all these different mazes around the glacier but great fun to climb around them. Next up we walked into to a crevasse which is like an ice cave, wall thing which was so pretty as it had a large mixture of blue and white ice because of bubbles in some of it and it was amazing and interesting to look at for sure, again we had more tunnels and caves to wiggle into before we headed back but all good fun. It was nice to walk around the glacier and soak in all the beauty of it and I really would have loved to camp up there for the night if I had the chance that would have been awesome. On the way back down from the glacier it was great to look at it one more last time in the helicopter as you flew over it, if you're ever in the west coast of the south island make sure you visit the fox glacier it's really an incredible experience. I'm so glad I was able to see it in Eye Definition! Check out Acuvue’s Bebo page for their latest competition – you can win yourself an iPod and some BOSE speakers! http://www.bebo.com/acuvue For heli-hike adventures in New Zealand go to www.foxguides.co.nz | ||||
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| should i stay or should i go? | hace 390 días | ||
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| After watching endless amounts of movies such as once were warriors and then walking the hostel dog and having a BBQ on my own there wasn’t much to do in Fox Village and as we had a rental car there was no need to hang around for an extra 3 days so I headed onwards to Queenstown, I’ve heard of this place to many times as it’s a hot spot for us skiing lovers but it was completely off season for skiing but I fancied paying it a visit any way as I heard it’s an adrenaline junky capital so there must be some local nutter’s to entertain me never the less, So into the car we went with all are gear and it was very much like a hit and run well it felt that way as we was running away from fox glacier, well apart from the glacier there isn’t much to do so on the road it was. The south island of New Zealand is just stunning, the drive down the best coast was one in a million you see so many different changing landscapes on the drives down and the scenery just gets better and better and it completely makes sense why people say it’s one of the most beautiful places in world it truly is and it looks exactly like it does in the lord of the rings and its really surreal. Through the high scraping mountains and the lush bright vine yards we almost reached Queenstown until we noticed the petrol sign on the car dash was beeping and we was located in the middle on know were! 30 minutes past and still no sign of life or petrol for that matter, things got really scary as it was getting dark and simply breaking down would be a nightmare. As another 10 minutes past we drove past a cheese factory and then more vineyards so we laughed that if we broke down we could break into the cheese and wine stoke rooms and we would be sorted for the night lol. Just as we went up a hill the car had couldn’t handle the reserved fuel and it was a push and the car started to lag which was a horrible sign but just over the hill was not only the spectacular landscape of Queenstown glowing in the mid night air but a glowing BP sign and we just made it! Let that be a lesson for you kids don’t drive 450km and not fill up, try to fuel up along the way to save these disasters from almost happening. Once the drama of the though of breaking down went away and we grabbed a servo pie and beverage we could actually look at Queenstown for the first time with joy of not having to be towed there, at that moment it kicked in that I had actually discovered paradise which is Queenstown, never in my life have I been to a town quit like this one its just an incredible picture postcard view, just breath taking. As I found my hostel and I checked in I had a little wonder around and the town is like an oval space all around the side of this lake and in the back ground are these gigantic snow caped mountains and I don’t think I’ve ever had a smile on my face for just being in a town, like just standing there, I love cold and snow and I would always prefer a ski holiday to a beach holiday by miles and the whole town has this lovely alpine feel to it, even though its off season there’s hundreds of out door shops and chalet restaurants and those great bohemian coffee shops that I love and gourmet burger joints its just my heaven and I love it here so much. The town is full of a great mixture of people as well like a lot of international travellers and extreme sports lovers and the outdoors type and its got a great vibe going on, its an incredible place and I’m so happy I didn’t hang around Fox for an extra 3 days when this was just around the corner. Well tonight was Halloween and my hostel room had a bunch from the UK staying there as well and they told me all about this pub crawl there signed up for and it sounded like a good laugh for Halloween as the Sydney crawl was an interesting evening and an excuse to get dressed up for no reason cant be missed for sure. So after picking up some last minute dress up gear the four of us combined turned into super sheep, from a blue peter style cut up black bin liner we had a cape and I managed to fish out some sheep masks so we was complete for the night, Queenstown had a great vibe going on for Halloween and the whole place got into the swing of things for sure, there was some great costumes as well and some extremely crazy ones as well in deed. Coming to Queenstown has been such an eye opener to me I don’t actually want to leave I would quit happily pick up a working visa and live here for a year its just an incredible town and I love it, great views, incredible people, amazing night life and there’s so much going on here all the time along with all the crazy extreme sports to try out. Will I jump on the plane to India? ? ? ? ? Who knows. | ||||
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| Plain sailing | hace 397 días | ||
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After a lovely sleep with recharged batteries I was ready to batter my self again with a fully blown day and today I had been entertained into a sailing coastal classic race which would take me up the north coast of New Zealand from Auckland city to Russell which is located around the bay of islands. The whole expedition would take in the region of 15 to 30 hours lol, it all depends on the weather along the way and if there is enough wind to carry us up the coast. well 3 hours in every thing was going great, amazing wind and incredible weather we couldn’t have asked for a better day, but about 6-8 hours in it turned nasty and the next thing we had going on was a ocean blizzard and water was hitting us from every direction you could imagine which made the sea go crazy and we was falling to a lot of rip currents and plunging into then at crazy speeds which sprayed us like silly and before I knew it I was wet cold and wanting to get off the bloody thing lol, But that’s the love of sailing one moment it could be blissful then the next thing you have is crazy storm hitting you in the face. After 4 hours on the deck we was at a 90 degree left slant for ages and your angled at a standing up angle and its hilarious as it feels the boat is going to tip but this is sailing, these boats don’t tip ever so this is how they catch the rain but you constantly think your going to tip over as you haven’t got a clue about the boat your sailing on. The boat we was on is a famous vessel which has been sailed by many sailing heroes but I’m not much of sailing man me self but I was told that’s it’s a great boat for what it is and has won many races. So during this time it hit me that I’m just getting cold and wet sitting on the deck so I thought it would be best to just go to sleep and sleep it through the night as I was so cold and wet and I could tell it wasn’t getting any better. So went and cold I angled my bed so I couldn’t roll out at all, grabbed a pillow and me in full out wet weather gear drifted away to sleep on the constantly rocking boat ( I still feel like I’m rocking while I’m typing this blogs lol  ) So after asleep I awoke to sunlight hitting me on the face and I was told that we had arrived in Russell, this made me laugh has a had slept right through the whole race! Ha-ha 14 hours worth , During the night we hit a crazy blizzard which broke off one of the main sails and we couldn’t catch enough wind with it so we called it a day and got the motors started and we had to unfortunately pull out of the race, sad but these things happen. So I woke to Russell and that was the end of the sailing expedition and apparently I went to sleep at the perfect time as all the havoc kicked off then and missed out on it all. So not bad, not bad at all. | ||||
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| a typical day in NZ | hace 397 días | ||
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| As we woke up on the barrier island we headed towards the airport to catch are plane back over to Auckland city which was on a small 8 setter plane which was hilarious! Taking off on a grass field wasn’t the scariest part but the jumpy take off really gets ya going and I think it would have been Caras worst nightmare! But I love flying and it was a great experience to fly on one of these little winged planes, also the scenery from up in the air was breath taking and really enjoyable and a great opportunity to snap some photos. Once we had landed and headed back to the city, tourism Auckland sorted me out with a room at the Sebel Suites - a proper 5 star hotel! It was amazing! Just so nice to have like a little mini studio apartment all to your self so I made the most out of it for sure, it was just really nice to recharge my batteries again and get all the little things sorted out like the for every going laundry you have going on out of your back lol. Once I checked it I had an adrenaline pumped and fuelled day ahead of me as there so much to do in Auckland with the little time I had I tried to make the most out of it all. So first up was the sky walk, this is very similar to a bridge walk in some respect but your high up on the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere which was above the clouds with only a rope to hold onto for dear life, as you walk around you can see the city of Auckland bellow you and its death defying stuff for sure. I was enjoying until they told me to lean over it! I was like what! That was so scary with your feet on the edge and your looking down and you only have this old piece of rope to support you scary stuff for sure! Highly recommend it, your heart is pumping for sure, Next up I was jumping off the thing! Ha ha yer that’s right! Like a mix between a base jump and an abseil is the best way to describe it and I was going to jump off the Auckland sky tower! What a laugh After my first attempt I had to give it a second go but this time I jumped off backwards , it was much better for the second time around for sure I really enjoyed it, what a really buzzed up way to see the city than to jump off it. Now there is one thing I have yet to tick off and that’s the one and only new Zealand tradition of doing the good old travellers must do which gets many peoples hearts pumping and that’s to do a bungee jump. In Auckland you have the amazing option to jump off the Auckland harbour bridge with the AJ Hacket bungee company so that’s what I went with. My cousin James went to New Zealand 2 years ago and bottled the bungee so I had to be the first in my family to give it ago of course and with warnings from my Gran that it was the one thing she didn’t want me to do I still carried on with it, it is one of the things you have to do before you die one of the great 101 on the tick off list and to get the chance to do it in its home country you cant really give it a miss can you, As I was driving over on the shuttle bus my heart was pumping it really does get you buzzed up, the funny thing was there was a 75 year old guy in the bus as well who was going to give it ago! Its really the sport that any one can do lol, so once I sat in the death chair and they strapped me in while ACDC was playing in the back ground there was no turning back for sure, as I hopped up to the edge, there it was and my legs turned to jelly, and that’s it really, after seeing a 75 year old jump you cant really not bottle it now can you lol, so then the guy with all sorts of face piercing counted down from 3 and that was it, off you go! 3-2-1 BUNGY!!!!!! Ha-ha what an experience wow! I was absolutely soaked from head to toe as rob my gap year guide told me to get the true NZ experience you have to go into the water so into the water I went ha-ha WOOOHOOO I DID A BUNGY!!! I’m part of the mad hatter crew now for sure, If you can do it and don’t look back that’s what I say! The best part of it was getting the best few upside down of the sky tower lol, bouncing up and down it looks incredible! So after an extreme day of jumping off many crazy heights and standing up on death defying feet’s it was time to relax in my plush hotel suit and to cook my self up a tasty Italian treat and to relax in the jazzy bath lol, not a bad day at all hey | ||||
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| More days on the Barrier | hace 397 días | ||
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The following day was a nice and easy one until rob told us we had a motor trick ride, its like a motor bike but with 3 wheels. It was crazy! Like it goes so fast and its really stable as it has 3 wheels so we pelted it around the island narrow lanes which was great fun, after the manic morning speed to wake us up so we headed to some natural heated pools which were only a jungle trek away lol. They were really relaxing but the Rotorua smell of eggs flashed back into my head lol but the relaxing warm temperature makes up for that for sure. After chilling on the lovely beaches of barrier for a while we made are way back to meet Kenny again who put on a nice fishing trip for us. Armed with 4kg of bait we was in for some serious fishing for sure. At the start it was looking rather rubbish but once we found a spot were they was biting the nippers just started attacking and going for it which was nice as we caught a trophy 12 ponder which would have made Lewis lick his lips for sure. Once we headed home and gutted the catch we headed back to are Irish pub were they put on a lovely fish and chip dinner for us with the fish we had caught which was a winner as the fillets were huge! This was sadly the end of my trip to the Barrier but I enjoyed every moment off it and love the islands life for sure as its such a lovely haven to relax and really take part in some amazing leisure activities. | ||||
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| The second day on the island | hace 397 días | ||
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The next day was an early start as we had a kayaking adventure ahead of us. Along with our guide Kenny we was going to kayak around dragons island which is just off the coast of barrier island and it was used as the filming set for the BBC show cast away which was a bit of a flop in the UK and also in the new Zealand from what I can gather. It was kind of weird seeing the section which the main house was on as I remember seeing it on the telly. So once we got kitted up it was time to kayak across the ocean to reach the island peak. It took a good hour of rowing to get the spot and trying to tackle the hard current wasn’t that east as well. But of course I had to capsize my vessel as I unfortunately hit a freak wave and it tipped me other, not great as tom paddled up laughing with his camera showing no sign to help me out but leave me struggling to get in. I love kayaking as it’s a great way to it in the surroundings in your own stride and to really soak in the atmosphere, also its as challenging as you make it out to be and that’s what I love about it, once we reached the island you had a feeling of success but the problem was now you had to paddle around it then back again and you could tell it was going to be a long day. Along the way we found some coves which you could paddle right into which was beautiful and from the distance you could see penguins swimming around having a great time but sadly there very shy animals so they swim away once they spot you have seen them. Once we had successfully paddled around a good half of the island we stopped off at a spot to grab some tea and a sandwich. As we was having a chow on are lunch are guide Kenny went out for a snorkel and for a moment we figured he had been eaten by sharks as he was no were to be seen for a good half hour but low and behold it as he popped up 2 Cray fish was on either hand and he shouted tucker! So the next thing we had going on was a fire and a large portion of Cray to indulge in, rather a feast and it was great to just start a fire by the side of the sea and to cook up some fish, yum After exploring some more caves and creeks and paddling back to were we started it had bee an epic exploration and an enjoyable one at that for sure and on the way back we picked up some Barbie grub and got the BBQ going in true kiwi style and really enjoyed the second Cray and had are self a feast. | ||||
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| Spending some days on the barrier island | hace 397 días | ||
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After spending some time in Auckland city centre I was ready to see a different side to the area. Auckland tourist board set us up with a lovely visit to the barrier islands which is around a half an hour flight away from the city’s airport and then your out away from civilisation and out there in the untouched world. It really triggered in my mind how easy it is now these days to reach these unspoiled areas and after spending a lot of time on the tourist backpacker track it was such a nice change for my self to visit this island as it was at such a lovely time were I was ready to experience something different and just enjoy the beautiful nature that New Zealand has to offer, once we picked up our rental car we headed towards our hotel which was low and behold an Irish bar! No matter how far you travel your never without walking distance from an Irish bar I have to admit it did make me chuckle . The place we was staying in was incredibly pretty and was such a nice location with a great beach within viewing distance and it was such a nice day to chill out on the decks out side are rooms. We arrived rather late so along with my gap year guide rob we had a traditional kiwi feast of fish and chips along with a good old game of darts and the famous board game of scrabble, lol it was so nice to just leave my laptop behind and get back to how they used to entertain them self’s years ago lol. So we hit the sacks to get are self’s ready for a busy day ahead. | ||||
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