Hi everyone..
So it has been a fairly eventful stay in Wanaka with some ups and downs on both the ski and job front. Unfortunately yesterday Si left us due to his knee being injured and the physio saying he would be unable to ski on it for one month. After a lot of discution it was thought the best thing to do was for him to head home and get some proper medical care on it rather than stay out here and hurt it more. Bit of a hammer blow to lose him but jub and I will manage..
On the job front Jub has taken over si's speights ale house dish hand job.. yes he is pretty damn good at washing up now (mush to the surprise of many no doubt!) So he is working there from 5 till midnight about 5 nights a week. Myself I have been mingling around the job scene a bit. At first I was offered a position working at a BP petrol station and then was called up 30 minutes before starting with the manager telling me they were overstaffed and so couldn't take me on! A little bit ridiculous? After that I found a job making pies at a bakery factory. This was an ok job but meant I had to get up at 5.30 in the mornings and so lost my whole day meaning I couldn't ski so it wasn't ideal. I then stumbled on a bar job which was the sort of thing I was looking for. With a bit of exagerration of my bar skills I was offerred a trial and luckily given the job after my first night although I had no clue what was going on most of the time. The bar is very cool and can be seen here: http://www.goodbars.co.nz/BARS/Barluga/tabid/56/Default.aspx. I am also working with some very cool people and will gain a good qualification in bar managing so I am happy! Jub is looking at getting involved with the same sort of scene so we will be keeping our eyes open for any opportunities for him.
Otherwise things have been quite quiet - the group of us and some friends took part in the annual pub olympics last tuesday, as you can imagine this involved some essential elements of a good party including competitions, nudity, etc. We came 2nd! losing out to another team with a tense game of paper scissors rock.. Anyway it was a fun night. Other than that we visited puzzling world - A local attraction in which there is a giant maze and illusion rooms, etc. This was a fun day out but nothing to rave about. I haven't been up in a while due to work but jub has been up quite a few times and says he is coming on a bit with his snowboarding. The weather here is absolutely awesome and quite warm so we could really do with a fresh dump of snow if it isn't going to be to deteriorated. School holidays are over now so the queues should be a bit better so will try to head up there tomorrow and have a good ski with Jub and Sara.
Very little to report otherwise other than I think that Jub and I will probably crack on with work until we can afford to do everything else that this country has to offer. We have about 7 weeks left or so out here so have a big plan of things left to do and will let you know once we get on those roads.
Hope you are all well and take care,
Love
Mark, Jub and Si
Sunday, 19 July 2009
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
Wanaka and New Zealand
Hi everyone!
Well sorry for the late update - we have all been pretty busy trying to sort our lives out a bit and get jobs and make the most of the skiing out here.
Firstly a bit about Wanaka - It is a really relaxed and friendly little seasonal ski town where tourists from all over the world flock to in summer and winter to make the most of the ski resorts and also the summer activities. Right now I am looking outside and it is snowing outside so I'm pretty excited about the skiing for tomorrow!! It is a really beautiful place too and is right beside a big lake with some excellent fishing and watersports possibilities whilst the mountains tower alongside its shores.
We arrived and stayed at a hostel called the Purple Cow - a really nice little place with some great views of the lake. As Jub mentioned priority number one was to get a job. Well lets just say it's been hard!! It really seems like there isn't much going and that everything that was has been taken but we are pushing certain opportunities that are starting to arise and hoping to land something. All three of us are starting to get a bit strapped for cash so we are getting a bit desperate for some sort of job. One thing is for sure - NZ is pretty pricy.. Hopefully we will get it sorted, I for one am quite optimistic about our chances, my only concern is our complete lack of experience in useful work i.e. bar work or plumbing (I know I fixed the toilet once dad but it doesn't count!) The good news is that we have moved into a house! It's a really nice place about 5 minutes from town and that is thanks entirely to Si's friend Sara who is an absolute legend and without her we might be living on the streets.. We don't have internet at home though so we probably will struggle to send any photos of the place through but will show the place when we get home.
How's the skiing been?
Well Jub has been tearing it up on a snowboard, keeping up with si and I no problem and really enjoying it. He seems to be improving each time we get up there and looks very natural on a board even if it does make him look like a bit of a pansy! Si has had a couple problems with his skis and knee but the knee seems to be doing a bit better as today he seemed in my view a bit more comfortable and we hope it will get better as time goes by so that he can really enjoy it without damaging it. He is icing it up after each time and bought a knee support to help him whilst he skis. I have been enjoying it a lot aswell - no accidents so far! touch wood.. the slopes are quite limited for a spoilt brat like myself with the resort we go to called Cardrona has only 3 chairlifts but nonetheless I am working a bit on certain elements of my skiing that are weaker and really having a good time riding the slopes with the boys..
Otherwise we took a trip to Mardi Gras in Queenstown for the night a couple nights ago with some friends and that was quite a lot of fun. Queenstown is a bit bigger and was buzzing for their winter festival - we decided to go there at 9pm without a place to stay and just see what happened. Fortunately one of our friends put us all up and then we hitched back to Wanaka yesterday which was also quite a laugh as Si and I took about 3 hours to ge back whilst the other boys managed to get a lucky right straight there. We met a couple strange kiwis and foreigners but made it back no probs..
To be honest there is not a great deal else to mention other than we are all well and enjoying the ski bum lifestyle. New Zealanders are really friendly and helpful people and so there is a good atmosphere around town. I'm sure I missed out a few of our stories here but will fill in the gaps next time if I can think of them. Ok well hope you are all well and look forward to catching up soon.
Love
Mark, Jub and Si
Well sorry for the late update - we have all been pretty busy trying to sort our lives out a bit and get jobs and make the most of the skiing out here.
Firstly a bit about Wanaka - It is a really relaxed and friendly little seasonal ski town where tourists from all over the world flock to in summer and winter to make the most of the ski resorts and also the summer activities. Right now I am looking outside and it is snowing outside so I'm pretty excited about the skiing for tomorrow!! It is a really beautiful place too and is right beside a big lake with some excellent fishing and watersports possibilities whilst the mountains tower alongside its shores.
We arrived and stayed at a hostel called the Purple Cow - a really nice little place with some great views of the lake. As Jub mentioned priority number one was to get a job. Well lets just say it's been hard!! It really seems like there isn't much going and that everything that was has been taken but we are pushing certain opportunities that are starting to arise and hoping to land something. All three of us are starting to get a bit strapped for cash so we are getting a bit desperate for some sort of job. One thing is for sure - NZ is pretty pricy.. Hopefully we will get it sorted, I for one am quite optimistic about our chances, my only concern is our complete lack of experience in useful work i.e. bar work or plumbing (I know I fixed the toilet once dad but it doesn't count!) The good news is that we have moved into a house! It's a really nice place about 5 minutes from town and that is thanks entirely to Si's friend Sara who is an absolute legend and without her we might be living on the streets.. We don't have internet at home though so we probably will struggle to send any photos of the place through but will show the place when we get home.
How's the skiing been?
Well Jub has been tearing it up on a snowboard, keeping up with si and I no problem and really enjoying it. He seems to be improving each time we get up there and looks very natural on a board even if it does make him look like a bit of a pansy! Si has had a couple problems with his skis and knee but the knee seems to be doing a bit better as today he seemed in my view a bit more comfortable and we hope it will get better as time goes by so that he can really enjoy it without damaging it. He is icing it up after each time and bought a knee support to help him whilst he skis. I have been enjoying it a lot aswell - no accidents so far! touch wood.. the slopes are quite limited for a spoilt brat like myself with the resort we go to called Cardrona has only 3 chairlifts but nonetheless I am working a bit on certain elements of my skiing that are weaker and really having a good time riding the slopes with the boys..
Otherwise we took a trip to Mardi Gras in Queenstown for the night a couple nights ago with some friends and that was quite a lot of fun. Queenstown is a bit bigger and was buzzing for their winter festival - we decided to go there at 9pm without a place to stay and just see what happened. Fortunately one of our friends put us all up and then we hitched back to Wanaka yesterday which was also quite a laugh as Si and I took about 3 hours to ge back whilst the other boys managed to get a lucky right straight there. We met a couple strange kiwis and foreigners but made it back no probs..
To be honest there is not a great deal else to mention other than we are all well and enjoying the ski bum lifestyle. New Zealanders are really friendly and helpful people and so there is a good atmosphere around town. I'm sure I missed out a few of our stories here but will fill in the gaps next time if I can think of them. Ok well hope you are all well and look forward to catching up soon.
Love
Mark, Jub and Si
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
Koh Tao > Bangkok > Sydney
Hey guys!
Hope you are all well...
Just a quick update on the 2nd chapter of our journey.
Last time we left the blog as we were heading to Koh Tao. We spent about 3 nights on this beautiful island. It is notorious for being the chillout spot where people recover from the full moon party, and it did not disappoint. We spent most of our time on Sai Ree beach - a picturesque sandy stretch with warm, crystal clear water.
The weather was very hot every day, and we spent most of our time just relaxing on the beach. Along the shore there are a number of very relaxed restaurants where you can eat lying down on mats facing out to the sea which we found suited our lifestyle perfectly.
However, once the sun went down, the beach turns into another party, and what was supposed to be our relaxing days off turned out to be time spent recovering from the night before - but what better place to be doing it?
We spent one of the days away from Sai Ree and went to a nearby bay. It was great to see more of the island and the new location was good for snorkelling so we rented some gear and spent the day checking out some of the sea life that Thailand has to offer.
Having made the most of our 8 days of summer holiday this year, we jumped on a boat to a place called Chumporn, from where we took an 8 hour overnight bus to Bangkok. This was suprisingly comfortable and easy - we slept most of the way so the time flew by. The bus arrived slightly earlier than expected so we arrived in Bangkok at about 4am. We were unsure whether to power through the night but decided to get some accomodation in the end. For 350 baht (7 pounds) we stayed the night in a hostel room with one double bed. The three of us crashed the night here in what was possibly our most uncomfortable night so far but yet another interesting night in thailand. the blow was somewhat softened by the knowledge that we would be spending the next night in the hilton (thanks again to the Reas).
The next day we took a cultural dive into the history of Thailand, which basically comprised of being sped around on a tuk tuk looking at three Thai palaces. The most impressive were the grand palace and the 'Big Buddha' which unsuprisingly is a massive gold buddha statue. Unfortunately we couldnt get in anywhere because we were dressed inappropriately but we managed to get some nice photos from the outside.
After this we ventured into a different part of thai culture and went to a shopping centre called MBK, the hub of Bucci, Sparmani, Oakey and other such 'genuine imitation' brands. Being the astute business minds that we are, we left empty handed but had a good time looking around. It was then back to the hilton for a shower and then out on the town for our last night in bangkok. We capped off thailand in style and the next day jumped on a plane to Sydney...
We arrived in Sydney a little tired from the flight but spent our first day looking at the city from the deck of a ferry. It is a beautiful place and we have all agreed that it could be an awesome placement location for next year. The next day we woke up a little sore from the night before but in an effort to salvage the day we took a ferry to Manly beach. It is a very cool beach - very wet and cold that day but it inspired us to try surfing. The next day we got up early and took a bus to the famous Bondi beach, rented some surf gear and as lessons were outside of our budget, proceeded to learn by doing. While there were a few hard slams early on as we found our sea legs, by the end of the day we were all catching waves, standing up, surfing into shore and using words like 'gnarly,' 'far out,' and 'radical' - surfer boys to the core.
We then spent our last night in Sydney at a rugby league match. It was held at the ANZ staduim where all the Olympic events took place The olympic park is pretty impressive and although the 80,000 strong stadium wasnt full the atmosphere was still exciting as the local Bulldogs beat the Penrith Panthers. Great way to cap off our time in Sydney.
Now it is on to New Zealand and the core of our holiday. We arrived this morning, have checked into a nice hostel. After a sleep to recover from the flight we found a bar to watch NZ play France at rugby and later we will hopefully watch the Lions beat South Africa (apologies to the Thomas family) before calling it a night.
Tomorrow at 10am we head to Wanaka and the start of the ski season, where priority number 1 is to get a job - we will let you know how it goes!
Hope you are all well,
Lots of love,
Jub, Mark and Si.
Hope you are all well...
Just a quick update on the 2nd chapter of our journey.
Last time we left the blog as we were heading to Koh Tao. We spent about 3 nights on this beautiful island. It is notorious for being the chillout spot where people recover from the full moon party, and it did not disappoint. We spent most of our time on Sai Ree beach - a picturesque sandy stretch with warm, crystal clear water.
The weather was very hot every day, and we spent most of our time just relaxing on the beach. Along the shore there are a number of very relaxed restaurants where you can eat lying down on mats facing out to the sea which we found suited our lifestyle perfectly.
However, once the sun went down, the beach turns into another party, and what was supposed to be our relaxing days off turned out to be time spent recovering from the night before - but what better place to be doing it?
We spent one of the days away from Sai Ree and went to a nearby bay. It was great to see more of the island and the new location was good for snorkelling so we rented some gear and spent the day checking out some of the sea life that Thailand has to offer.
Having made the most of our 8 days of summer holiday this year, we jumped on a boat to a place called Chumporn, from where we took an 8 hour overnight bus to Bangkok. This was suprisingly comfortable and easy - we slept most of the way so the time flew by. The bus arrived slightly earlier than expected so we arrived in Bangkok at about 4am. We were unsure whether to power through the night but decided to get some accomodation in the end. For 350 baht (7 pounds) we stayed the night in a hostel room with one double bed. The three of us crashed the night here in what was possibly our most uncomfortable night so far but yet another interesting night in thailand. the blow was somewhat softened by the knowledge that we would be spending the next night in the hilton (thanks again to the Reas).
The next day we took a cultural dive into the history of Thailand, which basically comprised of being sped around on a tuk tuk looking at three Thai palaces. The most impressive were the grand palace and the 'Big Buddha' which unsuprisingly is a massive gold buddha statue. Unfortunately we couldnt get in anywhere because we were dressed inappropriately but we managed to get some nice photos from the outside.
After this we ventured into a different part of thai culture and went to a shopping centre called MBK, the hub of Bucci, Sparmani, Oakey and other such 'genuine imitation' brands. Being the astute business minds that we are, we left empty handed but had a good time looking around. It was then back to the hilton for a shower and then out on the town for our last night in bangkok. We capped off thailand in style and the next day jumped on a plane to Sydney...
We arrived in Sydney a little tired from the flight but spent our first day looking at the city from the deck of a ferry. It is a beautiful place and we have all agreed that it could be an awesome placement location for next year. The next day we woke up a little sore from the night before but in an effort to salvage the day we took a ferry to Manly beach. It is a very cool beach - very wet and cold that day but it inspired us to try surfing. The next day we got up early and took a bus to the famous Bondi beach, rented some surf gear and as lessons were outside of our budget, proceeded to learn by doing. While there were a few hard slams early on as we found our sea legs, by the end of the day we were all catching waves, standing up, surfing into shore and using words like 'gnarly,' 'far out,' and 'radical' - surfer boys to the core.
We then spent our last night in Sydney at a rugby league match. It was held at the ANZ staduim where all the Olympic events took place The olympic park is pretty impressive and although the 80,000 strong stadium wasnt full the atmosphere was still exciting as the local Bulldogs beat the Penrith Panthers. Great way to cap off our time in Sydney.
Now it is on to New Zealand and the core of our holiday. We arrived this morning, have checked into a nice hostel. After a sleep to recover from the flight we found a bar to watch NZ play France at rugby and later we will hopefully watch the Lions beat South Africa (apologies to the Thomas family) before calling it a night.
Tomorrow at 10am we head to Wanaka and the start of the ski season, where priority number 1 is to get a job - we will let you know how it goes!
Hope you are all well,
Lots of love,
Jub, Mark and Si.
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
Bangkok, Koh Pan Yang and the Full moon party!
Hi Everyone,
So we arrived safely in Thailand and spent the first night in Bangkok. Craig (Si's dad) was kind enough to put us all up at the Hilton for the night as he had extra loyalty points - thanks a lot for that Craig it is an awesome hotel.
We spent the saturday evening seeing a bit of Bangkok centre itself, it is a pretty crazy place, full of life and incredibly busy but the Thai people were all very welcoming to tourists so in no way unpleasant. We checked out MBK - the giant indoor market place where you can pretty much get anything you need ever and picked up a few items - one of which is this camera with flowers on the front of it called Brica (not the most heterosexual purchase but we all agree she has a lot of character!)
Other than that we went to Koh saun road - the main party strip in Bangkok where all the travellers go and had a good time checking out the bars and restaurants there. The next day we hopped on a plane from Bangkok to Koh Samui in order to make it to the world famous full moon party. Once in Samui we got on a ferry and arrived in Koh Pan Yang - they are pretty close to one another so taking the flight and ferry was a better option than taking a 16 hour bus journey to get there even if a little more expensive.
Koh Pan Yang was awesome - we arrived there and everyone was getting ready for the night ahead, but we honestly had no clue what to expect. The night itself was pretty crazy - the party is based on a huge beach where there must have been about 10-20 bars in which people go to dance outside of including performers dancing with fire amongst other things.. We estimate there must have been about 5-10 thousand people on this beach the majority of who were Westerners but there were also your fair share of Thai and amongst them the infamous ladyboys.. Luckily we didn't have too much of a run in with any of them. We somehow met up with a number of friends from uni which was very unexpected but a really nice surprise. The party lasted until 11am the next day but the three of us called it a day/evening around 9am at which we were pretty knackered from dancing all night in front of a massive full moon. We took loads of pictures so will look to have them up at some point and they should help to explain the atmosphere as it was really something special, easily the greatest party we've ever been too. Also thankfully everything went really smoothly - none of us lost anything or got into any trouble which was a contrast to some of the stories that arise after events like this. Anyway after that we had another night in Haad Rin (the town where the party takes place) before heading to the port or Thang Sala where we are staying tonight on a really cool beach bungalow.. Tomorrow we will be heading to Koh Tao (a bit more of a chilled out island not far from Koh Pan Yang) where we will take it easy and have a bit of a beach holiday (tough life!)
Ok well we will try and update this with maybe more but shorter messages in the future as the last few days have been pretty hectic and there has been lots going on so am sure have missed out on loads of the details..
Take care and will speak soon
Love
Mark Jub and Si
So we arrived safely in Thailand and spent the first night in Bangkok. Craig (Si's dad) was kind enough to put us all up at the Hilton for the night as he had extra loyalty points - thanks a lot for that Craig it is an awesome hotel.
We spent the saturday evening seeing a bit of Bangkok centre itself, it is a pretty crazy place, full of life and incredibly busy but the Thai people were all very welcoming to tourists so in no way unpleasant. We checked out MBK - the giant indoor market place where you can pretty much get anything you need ever and picked up a few items - one of which is this camera with flowers on the front of it called Brica (not the most heterosexual purchase but we all agree she has a lot of character!)
Other than that we went to Koh saun road - the main party strip in Bangkok where all the travellers go and had a good time checking out the bars and restaurants there. The next day we hopped on a plane from Bangkok to Koh Samui in order to make it to the world famous full moon party. Once in Samui we got on a ferry and arrived in Koh Pan Yang - they are pretty close to one another so taking the flight and ferry was a better option than taking a 16 hour bus journey to get there even if a little more expensive.
Koh Pan Yang was awesome - we arrived there and everyone was getting ready for the night ahead, but we honestly had no clue what to expect. The night itself was pretty crazy - the party is based on a huge beach where there must have been about 10-20 bars in which people go to dance outside of including performers dancing with fire amongst other things.. We estimate there must have been about 5-10 thousand people on this beach the majority of who were Westerners but there were also your fair share of Thai and amongst them the infamous ladyboys.. Luckily we didn't have too much of a run in with any of them. We somehow met up with a number of friends from uni which was very unexpected but a really nice surprise. The party lasted until 11am the next day but the three of us called it a day/evening around 9am at which we were pretty knackered from dancing all night in front of a massive full moon. We took loads of pictures so will look to have them up at some point and they should help to explain the atmosphere as it was really something special, easily the greatest party we've ever been too. Also thankfully everything went really smoothly - none of us lost anything or got into any trouble which was a contrast to some of the stories that arise after events like this. Anyway after that we had another night in Haad Rin (the town where the party takes place) before heading to the port or Thang Sala where we are staying tonight on a really cool beach bungalow.. Tomorrow we will be heading to Koh Tao (a bit more of a chilled out island not far from Koh Pan Yang) where we will take it easy and have a bit of a beach holiday (tough life!)
Ok well we will try and update this with maybe more but shorter messages in the future as the last few days have been pretty hectic and there has been lots going on so am sure have missed out on loads of the details..
Take care and will speak soon
Love
Mark Jub and Si
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
First Blog
Hi everyone,
Blog set up and hoping that you can all keep track of what we are up to throughout the next few months.. Right now we are just getting ready for departure on friday with first stop Bangkok! Then onto Sydney and then New Zealand and finishing with Hong Kong.
The three of us will try to keep this updated as regularly as possible with what we get up to and hopefully with the many stories that will arise.
Ok well I hope you are all well and keep an eye out for our next update when we get out there!
Mark
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