Everything is great here. I'm in Queenstown now. Brilliant spot. I've booked a skydive for tomorrow and am also going boogie boarding down a river later in the day after that. All going well I'll do a bungie the following day. Good spot. I was in the two Irish bars Pig & whistle (not very Irish sounding but has a ballad group in there tonight) and Morrisons. Lovely town very based around adventure sports as you may have noticed.
Was in Te Enau before this. Te Enau was lovely situated on the banks of a lake like alot of towns in NZ. We headed for Milford Sound from here. It's over 100km of a drive but it's very scenic. Was very wet so the waterfalls were full of water. It ahd been greart weather here for the previous week but the waterfalls had all dried up so in a way we were very lucky. Did a boat trip here which was excellent. Must post the photos when I get a chance. Also on a note of Geography Milford isn't a sound at all because it's created by glaciation so it's a fjord whereas a sound is created by a river.
Contrary to all the reports about Dunedin we thought it was great. Museums here are fairly impressive. They're quite informative for the slow readers among us mainly me. In Question Time on the museums the Cronins fared badly though for all their fast reading.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Dunedin
I saw the fireworks in Botanical gardens behind the opera house on New Years Eve and it was very impressive. Long day though. We had to be there at 2 in the day. There were meant to be 22,000 in this park but it was spacious enough.
I arrived in Christchurch in New Zealand today. Very nice city but very nice. It's good to see indigenous people being treated properly here. The Maoris have 7 seats in parliament. Some facts for you - NZ has 4 million people but 39 million sheep. Up to 1967 the pubs here shut at 6 in the evening but thankfully that's all changed. In world war 1 100,000 of the 1 million poulation fought in the war which was 67% of men aged between 18 and 45.
We did the gondola in Christchurch the following day which is really a cable car to the top of the mountain. It has great view of Lytellton harbour where most of the antarctic explorers left from. They have what my understanding of a gondola is in the city but they call it a punt. Anyway I cycled down the mountain after which had brilliant views. We left for Twizel near Mount Cook taking in Lake Tekapo and Pukaki en route. The colour of these lakes were amazing. A kind of milky blue colour. We also saw Mount Cook en route. It looked amazing and we'd see it ourselves tomorrow.
We headed 60 km up the road to Mount Cook the following day and the views were class. Mount Cook is the highest mountain in NZ and it is fairly famous with the mountaineering fraternity. Edmund Hillary for instance climbed it before he tackled Everest. We did a couple of walks around here which were excellent. Cook is only climbed by the most experienced mountaineers and a guide was killed on the previous day so we gave it a miss climbing it.
We headed onwards to Dunedin where we still are. This place means Edinburgh in Scottish. We headed to an Albatross reserve this morning which was brilliant. The size of them shocked me. There wingspan is over 3 metres and they can glide up to 1000km a day. They're the largest seabird. Also as infants they can eat 2 kg a day. Sounds like a description of myself. I headed to Otago museum this evening while the Cronins headed for the Cadburys factory.
We'll head for Te Enau tomorrow, Milford sound the following day, Queenstown for at least 2 days, Hanmer Springs and Kaikoura after that.
Here are some photos from the New Years in Sydney as well as a few from Christchurch. I'll add the rest in due course.
I arrived in Christchurch in New Zealand today. Very nice city but very nice. It's good to see indigenous people being treated properly here. The Maoris have 7 seats in parliament. Some facts for you - NZ has 4 million people but 39 million sheep. Up to 1967 the pubs here shut at 6 in the evening but thankfully that's all changed. In world war 1 100,000 of the 1 million poulation fought in the war which was 67% of men aged between 18 and 45.
We did the gondola in Christchurch the following day which is really a cable car to the top of the mountain. It has great view of Lytellton harbour where most of the antarctic explorers left from. They have what my understanding of a gondola is in the city but they call it a punt. Anyway I cycled down the mountain after which had brilliant views. We left for Twizel near Mount Cook taking in Lake Tekapo and Pukaki en route. The colour of these lakes were amazing. A kind of milky blue colour. We also saw Mount Cook en route. It looked amazing and we'd see it ourselves tomorrow.
We headed 60 km up the road to Mount Cook the following day and the views were class. Mount Cook is the highest mountain in NZ and it is fairly famous with the mountaineering fraternity. Edmund Hillary for instance climbed it before he tackled Everest. We did a couple of walks around here which were excellent. Cook is only climbed by the most experienced mountaineers and a guide was killed on the previous day so we gave it a miss climbing it.
We headed onwards to Dunedin where we still are. This place means Edinburgh in Scottish. We headed to an Albatross reserve this morning which was brilliant. The size of them shocked me. There wingspan is over 3 metres and they can glide up to 1000km a day. They're the largest seabird. Also as infants they can eat 2 kg a day. Sounds like a description of myself. I headed to Otago museum this evening while the Cronins headed for the Cadburys factory.
We'll head for Te Enau tomorrow, Milford sound the following day, Queenstown for at least 2 days, Hanmer Springs and Kaikoura after that.
Here are some photos from the New Years in Sydney as well as a few from Christchurch. I'll add the rest in due course.
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| Aquarium, New Years Eve, Christchur |
Friday, December 28, 2007
Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Duit
Hello all and happy Christmas. Not up to much these days bar a bit of surfing and the odd beverage. I suppose it is Christmas after all although you'd find it hard to know whether it was Christmas at all. Caroline's parents are just over a week here and they've headed down to Melbourne today. What have I been doing the last while that hasn't been surfing. I went to the aquarium last week in Darling Harbour which was brilliant. I'll have to get around to adding the photos from here. The highlights were seeing a Platypus for the first time and also the sharks were excellent. Here you walk in a tunnel underneath the water tank and there are sharks and turtles swimming above your head.
Christmas day we headed for 10.00 mass arriving at 9.30 to beat the crowds. It's acknowledged by almost all of the Irish preople there as the best mass ever. It was full of inter county jerseys. It was more like Quinns or the Big Tree than mass. The archbishop of Sydney said the mass and he was a great laugh. He's a Limerick man and had many quotes, the best of which was "God loves everyone even a Limerick man". It went on for an hour but you didn't feel the time passing. Some Bantry people even remarked they should have a jerseyed mass at home. We stayed outside the front door for 45 minutes after mass while the archbishop sang ballads, one of which was flower of Scotland. We headed back to Carolines parents apartment after the mass with Ivor and Theresa for a drink. It was time for Bondi beach then for a surf and queue photos with surfboard. We headed down to Bronte for the barbeque after this with prawns, Barramundi and Red Snapper. We then had the dinner in the evening although it must be said I missed the stuffing with Superquinn sausage meat but was lovely none the less. Then we headed down to John and Catherines from Kealkill for a couple of drinks that night. That'd be Bantry for the rest of the country.
The next day we headed for the races in Randwick. It was wedged with drink orders taking up to 40 minutes when we went in. The bar staff were hopeless as well as being understaffed. Good day was had although the Champagne did nothing for the hangover. Ended the night in Durty Nelly's in Paddington.
Did nothing yesterday for national hangover day. Headed for the ballads in the Cock and Bull last night.
Looked forward to New Years now and heading for New Zealand on the 2nd of January to spend the month there. Coming back to Australia I think on the 28th of January. Caroline leaving here on the 10th of March after we do the East Coast, Uluru and Tasmania and I'm leaving on the 19th to head for Mexico where I'm doing a 9 day tour with my mam. Caroline will rejoin me down Chile way mid April then. I'll probably try and pick a surf spot to go in between times so if you have any advice send it on. Hope you all have a happy new year.
Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Duit
My Irish is rusty so I had to look that up of course.
Christmas day we headed for 10.00 mass arriving at 9.30 to beat the crowds. It's acknowledged by almost all of the Irish preople there as the best mass ever. It was full of inter county jerseys. It was more like Quinns or the Big Tree than mass. The archbishop of Sydney said the mass and he was a great laugh. He's a Limerick man and had many quotes, the best of which was "God loves everyone even a Limerick man". It went on for an hour but you didn't feel the time passing. Some Bantry people even remarked they should have a jerseyed mass at home. We stayed outside the front door for 45 minutes after mass while the archbishop sang ballads, one of which was flower of Scotland. We headed back to Carolines parents apartment after the mass with Ivor and Theresa for a drink. It was time for Bondi beach then for a surf and queue photos with surfboard. We headed down to Bronte for the barbeque after this with prawns, Barramundi and Red Snapper. We then had the dinner in the evening although it must be said I missed the stuffing with Superquinn sausage meat but was lovely none the less. Then we headed down to John and Catherines from Kealkill for a couple of drinks that night. That'd be Bantry for the rest of the country.
The next day we headed for the races in Randwick. It was wedged with drink orders taking up to 40 minutes when we went in. The bar staff were hopeless as well as being understaffed. Good day was had although the Champagne did nothing for the hangover. Ended the night in Durty Nelly's in Paddington.
Did nothing yesterday for national hangover day. Headed for the ballads in the Cock and Bull last night.
Looked forward to New Years now and heading for New Zealand on the 2nd of January to spend the month there. Coming back to Australia I think on the 28th of January. Caroline leaving here on the 10th of March after we do the East Coast, Uluru and Tasmania and I'm leaving on the 19th to head for Mexico where I'm doing a 9 day tour with my mam. Caroline will rejoin me down Chile way mid April then. I'll probably try and pick a surf spot to go in between times so if you have any advice send it on. Hope you all have a happy new year.
Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Duit
My Irish is rusty so I had to look that up of course.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Not much to report
Here are some photos of Randwick etc:
Not getting up to a whole lot here. Still doing a good bit of surfing and swell is looking alright for today. It's far from swell he was reared. Went to the races in Randwick last week. Good day out. It was the first racing in New South Wales since the horse flu broke out. Also went to visit a memorial to the great Wicklow rebel, Michael Dwyer that is in our local graveyard. Some photos of this also. For more reading:
Michael Dwyer
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| Randwick |
Not getting up to a whole lot here. Still doing a good bit of surfing and swell is looking alright for today. It's far from swell he was reared. Went to the races in Randwick last week. Good day out. It was the first racing in New South Wales since the horse flu broke out. Also went to visit a memorial to the great Wicklow rebel, Michael Dwyer that is in our local graveyard. Some photos of this also. For more reading:
Michael Dwyer
Friday, November 23, 2007
Moreton Island
We headed up to Brisbane last weekend. We met Aisling on Friday night and ended up staying with her after the YHA made a bags of the booking. We had trouble getting into the nightclub with our passports but thankfully our VIP (YHA equivalent) came to the rescue. Saturday we met John and Fiona who were coming from the Gold Coast to go to Moreton Island which is an hour and a half boat ride from Brisbane. Real resort island which adds on money to everything. Was very expensive. We did get to feed dolphins here though. I'm not sure I agree with it though. I think they were overfeeding them a bit compared to Monkey Mia on the West Coast. I think they're far from being wild. Moreton also has ship wrecks which you can snorkel off. There's coral growing on some of the ships and the fish there are pretty amazing. Also the one man show Terry was a bit of a laugh - drove the car to collect the people from the boat, sang the karaoke, served drinks. We were dissappointed he didn't drive us back on the boat.
We met John and Fiona again on Tuesday and Wednesday but thankfully the bad people are gone home. Nothing against you just a killer getting up in the morning after being out the night before. A restful weekend ahead hopefully. Also the Irish Film festival is on this weekend so I might get to a couple of films.
In more important news the Pats supporters in foreign lands calendar is coming out at Christmas and you can put me on the front cover by going here Saintsforum
Then go SaintsForum.net Forum Index -> The Saints Photos Forum -> Photo Of The Year
Photos of Moreton Island here:
We met John and Fiona again on Tuesday and Wednesday but thankfully the bad people are gone home. Nothing against you just a killer getting up in the morning after being out the night before. A restful weekend ahead hopefully. Also the Irish Film festival is on this weekend so I might get to a couple of films.
In more important news the Pats supporters in foreign lands calendar is coming out at Christmas and you can put me on the front cover by going here Saintsforum
Then go SaintsForum.net Forum Index -> The Saints Photos Forum -> Photo Of The Year
Photos of Moreton Island here:
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| Moreton Island |
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Great Ocean Road, Melbourne Cup
The photos of the Melbourne weekend are here and also the obligatory sots of the Cock and Bull:
Flew down to Melbourne on Friday night and stayed in Geelong. Arrived fairly late so it was straight to bed. Driving through Geelong the following day it looked great. Nice spot and the second biggest City in Victoria to Melbourne. The people in Victoria it must be pointed out are a thousand times friendlier than the people in Sydney. In a related story I handed in my notice in work to finish at Christmas and was asked what I thought of the Sydney people and I said they were very rude and all the English people in recruitment company totally agreed. They were laughing at my honesty. Anyway Torquay was our first stop on the Great Ocean Road. Real surf town. Ripcurl and Quiksilver started in this town and Bells Beach just down the road is a stop on the Pro Surfing Championship. Went to the surfing museum here which was good. Loads of info. Alot of rain on this day and our progress was slow and we eventually made our way to Apollo Bay that night. Nice spot but the weather was terrible.
The next morning we headed to a coffee shop in Apollo Bay and met a Cork man who used to work in Carolines place in AIB. The times they worked there didn't overlap but it's a small world. We were dying to get going as the weather reports were bad and we didn't want to get stuck there and not see the 12 Apostles. We started driving west but only got 20k up the road to be met with floods. Alot of people were talking that you couldn't get out of Apollo bay as both east and west were blocked. It was looking so bad that we had actually booked Apollo bay that night which we were later able to cancel. Actually up the road from us the previous night we were told that a guy was killed when a tree fell on his tent. Alot of places were booked out as alot of campsites were closed as they were due to be flooded later that night. The good news is that we eventually did get out with a road that went north. A few small trees down but not too bad. It did involve a 200k detour but we eventually saw the 12 Apostles which are pretty good.
We stayed in Port Campbell that night. I'm happy to say the weather improved the following day which was Monday with the Melbourne Cup the following day so it was looking up. We took our time that morning just popping into little parks and little walks before we headed back for Melbourne in the afternoon.
We met up with Florrie on Monday night out in St Kilda along with friends of Carolines in MacQuarie bank. The following day was Melbourne Cup. Great day. Everyone dressed up like for a big wedding. Nothing but Irish at it from who we met. Only lost 80 between 3 of us so wasn't too bad.
The following day we were flying out and luckily we got a late checkout of 11.30 in the hostel. Very good place called the Oslo hostel. It was much needed as we were slow to start. Saw the Grand prix track in Albert Park, St Kilda marina and wasted our time going to Ramsay street. Very good weekend was had though.
John and Fiona Tobin arrived over to us last Thursday. We haven't done much with them bar visit the cultural drinking establishments with them. They're gone up to the Gold Coast today and we'll meet them in Brisbane on Saturday morning to head for Moreton Island. Aisling O Mahoney is also talking of joining us. That's about all from me. Slán.
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| Melbourne Cup, Great Ocean Road |
Flew down to Melbourne on Friday night and stayed in Geelong. Arrived fairly late so it was straight to bed. Driving through Geelong the following day it looked great. Nice spot and the second biggest City in Victoria to Melbourne. The people in Victoria it must be pointed out are a thousand times friendlier than the people in Sydney. In a related story I handed in my notice in work to finish at Christmas and was asked what I thought of the Sydney people and I said they were very rude and all the English people in recruitment company totally agreed. They were laughing at my honesty. Anyway Torquay was our first stop on the Great Ocean Road. Real surf town. Ripcurl and Quiksilver started in this town and Bells Beach just down the road is a stop on the Pro Surfing Championship. Went to the surfing museum here which was good. Loads of info. Alot of rain on this day and our progress was slow and we eventually made our way to Apollo Bay that night. Nice spot but the weather was terrible.
The next morning we headed to a coffee shop in Apollo Bay and met a Cork man who used to work in Carolines place in AIB. The times they worked there didn't overlap but it's a small world. We were dying to get going as the weather reports were bad and we didn't want to get stuck there and not see the 12 Apostles. We started driving west but only got 20k up the road to be met with floods. Alot of people were talking that you couldn't get out of Apollo bay as both east and west were blocked. It was looking so bad that we had actually booked Apollo bay that night which we were later able to cancel. Actually up the road from us the previous night we were told that a guy was killed when a tree fell on his tent. Alot of places were booked out as alot of campsites were closed as they were due to be flooded later that night. The good news is that we eventually did get out with a road that went north. A few small trees down but not too bad. It did involve a 200k detour but we eventually saw the 12 Apostles which are pretty good.
We stayed in Port Campbell that night. I'm happy to say the weather improved the following day which was Monday with the Melbourne Cup the following day so it was looking up. We took our time that morning just popping into little parks and little walks before we headed back for Melbourne in the afternoon.
We met up with Florrie on Monday night out in St Kilda along with friends of Carolines in MacQuarie bank. The following day was Melbourne Cup. Great day. Everyone dressed up like for a big wedding. Nothing but Irish at it from who we met. Only lost 80 between 3 of us so wasn't too bad.
The following day we were flying out and luckily we got a late checkout of 11.30 in the hostel. Very good place called the Oslo hostel. It was much needed as we were slow to start. Saw the Grand prix track in Albert Park, St Kilda marina and wasted our time going to Ramsay street. Very good weekend was had though.
John and Fiona Tobin arrived over to us last Thursday. We haven't done much with them bar visit the cultural drinking establishments with them. They're gone up to the Gold Coast today and we'll meet them in Brisbane on Saturday morning to head for Moreton Island. Aisling O Mahoney is also talking of joining us. That's about all from me. Slán.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Melbourne Cup awaits
Very little to report again. I'll have to start getting out of Sydney for the weekends. Not much happens bar the surf which is great provided I don't kill anyone. Was in Bronte last weekend where the waves were unbelievable but impossible to control yourself on them. I narrowly avoided 2 swimmers and 2 surfers. With those near misses I decided it would be safer to head back for Bondi. Patrick if you're reading this you're dead right that I need to surf the white at the front instead of going out back. Was much more productive. Other than that the usual visits to the Tea Gardens and the Cock and Bull with a trip to the Coogee Bay thrown in for a bit of variety. Also went to Sydney FC on Sunday. They were playing top of the table Central Coast who they beat 3-2. Juninho was hopeless but Michael Bridges looked handy. Sydney just recently got a new manager so they were trying to impress the new guy. They're no Pats. Ah but seriously it's a decent enough level of football. Aloisi was playing for Central Coast. A few photos from the game and the usual from the Cock and Bull.
Hopefully I'll have more cultural photos after this weekend when we do the Great Ocean Road. Currently at good, has to prove it's worth at being great. The Melbourne Cup is on Tuesday as well. All tips are welcome.
Here are the photos:
Hopefully I'll have more cultural photos after this weekend when we do the Great Ocean Road. Currently at good, has to prove it's worth at being great. The Melbourne Cup is on Tuesday as well. All tips are welcome.
Here are the photos:
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| Sydney FC |
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