Kia Ora to all from the land of the long white cloud...AOTEAROA NZ!!!

Alright to start off, I AM HOME!!! its been a couple of weeks since i last posted a blog, i am yet to get around to doing a blog about the last week that we spent in London. All you need to know though that it was MEAN MAORI!!!

I've also had a few media things to do since ive been back so it has kept me a bit busy...but life just aint the same anymore. When they say that they are sending you on an experience of a lifetime, they really do mean it. It was by far the best six months of my life and i have no regrets at all about what i did and where i went etc. Its weird waking up in the mornings with nothing to do, but go to work (yes im working LOL...not living the life anymore) having something exciting planned for the day, or catching a flight to another destination...IF ONLY!!!

Anyway enough said, the main point of this blog is to let you all know that this page is going on LOCKDOWN!!! thats right...if you post a comment or a whiteboard or anything on here, i will be able to see but not to reply, you now have to go onto my old account www.bebo.com/LewisWhaitiri. However this page will still be available for viewing...

Will see you at www.bebo.com/LewisWhaitiri

The Gap Year in the Last Broadcast
http://www.lastbroadcast.co.uk/stude...

The Gap Year in the Gisborne Herald
http://gisborneherald.co.nz/Default....

The Gap Year on Breakfast
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/484445/2...

The Gap Year on Maori Television
http://maoritelevision.com/programme...

The Gap Year on Te Karere
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/video_popup_w...

ps...sorry Raver i didnt manage to get in quick enough for you on Breakfast, Pippa was too fast!!!

After hours of blood sweat and tears it was time to move on to another mystery location…

Now when I say a mystery location, that is exactly what it was. There was no way that PD Huw was going to tell me where our final destination would be, before heading off to London for the final meet up. I mean after the last incident where I found out about meeting Amy before he could tell me, do you blame him. So hours before our departure to this mystery location, out came the camera and then he spilt the beans, I was off to Egypt. This was definitely again a big highlight for me. I remember right at the beginning of the Gap Year PD Huw asked me if there were two places in the world that I wanted to head to what would they be, the first was to Egypt, and secondly to New York City. On his arrival to NZ with my itinerary I was slightly disappointed that neither of the two places were listed, however somehow HQ and PD Huw pulled through, and for this I thank them a lot. Anything is possible.

That night we flew from Larnaka to Cairo, which was a mere two hours. We arrived to Cairo with Luna Hotel as our place of accommodation over the next few days. This is also where Cara stayed on her previous trip to Egypt. We jumped in the cab and headed for central Egypt. One thing I will comment about is the traffic in Egypt, although we arrived at around midnight that night, anyone would think that it was rush hour. Traffic filled the motorway of Cairo and you could hear nothing but car horns. Another thing I wonder about is whether they have road rules, if they do these people definitely do not obey them. The motorway had lanes, but people never used them. Rather than driving in the lane, they drive all over the road, cutting out vehicles just to try and get to where they were going. They don’t even follow traffic lights. There could be a red light, yet traffic drives straight through them. It’s no wonder you will never see a Mustang, or a Ferrari around there. But somehow we arrived safely to Luna Hotel, where we would spend the next couple of nights.

The following morning we met Sam, who was a tour agent at the hostel who also took care of Cara when she was here. It was through Sam that we ended up booking ourselves on a night cruise down the Nile river. Sounds flash aye…never in my life did I think I would be on a dinner cruise heading down the Nile River, drinking red Egyptian wine to live Egyptian entertainment. It was absolutely beautiful. The food however was slightly dissatisfying but hey how can you complain.

The next day was going to be the best. Ever since I was a child I had always wanted to see the world famous Giza pyramids and now thanks to the Gap Year I was able to do so. We woke up after a pretty cruisy night on the Nile and met our guide, who if you have watched the video from there was also a bit crazy. I forget his name but I will always remember his face. Always with a smile and whenever he saw us sitting without a smile he would say “why you not smile sir? Smile sir.” Then off he would go singing away to himself and explaining to us his life story about his involvement with Sam and tours and the pyramids etc. Rather than taking us straight to the pyramids we ended up at an art gallery, where there was a demonstration of how the Egyptian people created their paper and their art, and then paintings for sale. It was interesting, but I was not interested in purchasing any paintings at that stage. I was all about the pyramids. So after about 45mins it was time to head off.

As we drove along the motorway you could see the pyramids in the far distance. It was AH MAY ZING!!! I had no idea how close the pyramids were to the city. When you see them on the Geographic Channel etc it looks like the pyramids are in a desert far away from civilization, but this is not the case. Its like you cross the road and your there. We finally arrived to Giza and we hired some camels to take us to the pyramids, otherwise it w