Daytrippers

2009-08-26T09:11:00.002+01:00

Beautiful underwater photography by the legendary Gabe Scotti!!!!!!!

Diving Pics

2009-04-15T16:42:00.002+01:00

Honu

Squirrel Fish

Squiddy

Octopus

Nudibranch

lion fish

Kaimana Divers

Home

Dragon Moray

Frog Fish

baby octopus

Aloha

2008-08-29T08:18:00.002+01:00

Hey guys, how are you all? Sorry I know the blog has been very quiet on this trip, we've been busy working on our tans : ) I managed to convince Nick to stay a little longer so he has only just got back to England, great timing as Kate is due any day now, good luck!!!!! And we recently found out that his other sister, Ali, is also expecting, congratulations Ali and Pete!!!!!!!!! We are very excited about all these new additions!!!

Nick and i got up to quite a bit in his last couple of weeks, we had a day of politics where we met the Mayor of Honolulu as the organisation Nick was volunteering with received an award, and we then went on to see Obama on his visit to Hawaii. We rented a convertible mustang for a few days and went all over the island in style, we saw where Jurassic Park, George of the Jungle, Windtalkers, loads more films i can't remember, and of course where Lost is filmed. We also spent a day gate crashing the famous Turtle Bay resort. It was a little emotional for Nick having to hand the mustang back, but only a few tears were shed.

On Nick's last night we stayed in an incredible hotel on the beach, the Moana Surfrider which is one of the original Waikiki hotels from 1901, it was stunning! We spent all morning surfing, and relaxing before Nick made the 24hr trip home!

I only have a few more weeks so will be making the most of hawaii. I went on a shark cage trip which was awesome, the boat takes us out into international waters as baiting the sea is not allowed in hawaii. Within minutes the boat was being circled by shark fins and the boat crew played the music from Jaws!! So i jumped into a cage and spent 25 mins being circled by about 15 12foot Galapagos sharks. It was amazing, 2 sides of the cage were made of perspex which makes it a little trippy underwater : ) I have done a bit more surfing and studying (3 more exams to go) as I have a few days off as Gabe, my diving instructor, is getting married on Sunday, i'm really looking forward to the wedding : )

See you all soon, loads of love, Nic & Nick xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

B.E.A.C.H

2008-08-18T07:37:00.001+01:00

My volunteer group receiving an award from Mayor Mufi

2008-08-08T06:04:00.002+01:00

In the boat and accidentally looking very much alike

Diving diving diving....

2008-08-02T04:01:00.003+01:00

Hello, we hear the summer finally kicked in back home, hope it lasts : )

I have been crazy busy diving like mad every day, its been awesome!!! Gabe and i have literally been all over the island in the past week, loads of great wreck and reef dives in front of Waikiki, shore dives off the north shore, and even more wreck dives off the west side and Hawaii Kai! A great mixture of boat wrecks, planes, and even a landing craft. Have met loads of cool divers, seen dozens of turtles and octopus, a few sharks and 1 great big monk seal (very endangered species!) and of course loads of funky looking fishes whose names I am still trying to learn. Have seen loads of dolphins on the surface but none diving as yet, they are spinner dolphins so they really show off and do lots of jumps for us.

On Wednesday afternoon we headed to the centre of the island where nick played a round of golf and I drove the crazy cart, it really was like being in Jurassic Park!! The course was stunning and we really enjoyed the views. I only have 3 more exams to go and today I led my first dive, Gabe didn't even tag along in case I got lost, hes very brave! I was pretty nervous but was leading a very relaxed Irish guy, thanks again Paul! And the visibility was a good 75 feet which helped and I didnt get lost once!!!! It went really well and I was relieved to find the boat where I was hoping it would be! We are off out on a booze cruise tonight, followed by a day off tomorrow, yay!!!! Nick has been hitting the beach lots and has been at the Hawaii Convention centre a bit this week representing b.e.a.c.h. We are heading to the north shore again on sunday for more shore diving and this time taking the bbq to enjoy the beach afterwards. Take care, loads of love, Nic and Nick xxx

BBQ, Beach & Diamond Head

2008-07-31T08:13:00.003+01:00

BBQ at Kelly & Jason's

Lanikai - Jandra, Daniel & Adam

Waikiki from Diamond Head

You can just see the harbour that we are staying in

2008-07-12T09:04:00.002+01:00

Hello,

Have been told we need to get to a keyboard more often, sorry!!! We have been very very busy playing on waikiki beach : ) Well thats not completely true, we have been to the beach everyday but I have been studying everyday too and so far passed 3 of my 7 divemaster exams. Will hopefully have completed all the boring exams next week and can focus on diving which i will be doing everyday : ) I am doing a divemaster internship with Kaimana Divers, you can check their blog for our dive photos on www.kaimanadivers.blogspot.com

Nick has started his volunteer work and has been hanging out at the beach helping with recycling and teaching people about b.e.a.c.h (the group hes helping out). He has also been reading and working on his tan... a lot! As you can see from the photos we rented a convertible for a day and checked out Pearl Harbour. We took a tour of the USS Missouri super battleship, and an aircraft carrier came into the harbour which was very cool to see. All the officers were lined up on the deck to salute as Pearl Harbour is also a memorial as there are still ships there that sunk in WWII. We also went to the Dole pineapple plantation, which included a ride on the pineapple express, delicious pineapple ice cream, and a tour of the Dole garden. We have been to a few lookout points, the island is stunning and everywhere has amazing views! We have explored a bunch of different beaches and had a lot of fun at Sandy's, its a pretty serious surfing beach, we didn't even dare go boogie boarding the waves were so big. Instead we just got mashed up by the waves, after 10mins it felt like we'd been beaten up but it was a good laugh : )

We are really enjoying staying on the pirate ship and will get some photos on the blog. Daniel, an architecture student also lives on the boat so we hang out with him and his mate Adam a lot. Anchorman is one of their favorite films so needless to say the boys are all getting on very well : ) Renee and David, the owners, are taking great care of us and we really feel at home. We have sampled a few bars in Waikiki and lots of local food, turns out we both like sushi, and are enjoying the local beers and cocktails!

Hope you guys are having a great summer too.

Love Nic and Nick

2008-07-10T09:08:00.004+01:00

Dole Hibiscus

The Dole plantation

Next to Waikiki Beach in maa Sebring

Sandies Beach, me and rednecks, Just crazy Lookin'

Nicola in the Dole Garden

Pearl Harbour

2008-07-02T08:10:00.001+01:00

Hawaii

2008-07-02T08:00:00.001+01:00

Hawaii

2008-07-01T06:29:00.004+01:00

Duke

View over breakfast

Breakfast itself

Hanauma Bay

A local

Waikiki Beach

Hello folks! We've just about recovered from an acute case of jet-lag and we're both settling in comfortably (this involves running to 'Hawaii time', which means being late for everything which I'm very good at.)

We've spent most days on the beach swimming, sunbathing and splashing around which has been really relaxing. The pirate ship is a brilliant place to stay with loads of character right next to Waikiki beach. Our cabin is really cozy and absolutely perfect, so we're very happy. Planning on going to Pearl Harbour this week - enjoying every minute!

Its that time again...

2008-06-02T19:32:00.001+01:00

Hello, welcome to our blog, we have given it a bit of a spruce up in honour of our next trip! Yep we are off again : ) This time to the island of Oahu, in Hawaii. Not a mammoth one like last time, just a few months. Nick will be doing some good old fashioned volunteer work, but from what I understand its a lot of playing on the beach and making friends with dolphins! I will be doing a divemaster internship, finally reaching pro-diver level. We have even already sorted out a great place to stay, its a little unusal but could we pass up a cabin on a pirate ship? No way, it also happens to be moored in Waikiki Harbour! We are off on 24th June so if you're interested please watch this space... and feel free to get involved!

The End!

2006-11-02T17:47:00.000Z

Hey everyone!

We would both just like to thank you all for taking in interest in our adventures this past year. We've both had an incredible experience and have both had such a great time. I hope that some of the pictures made you all green with envy as they should. But now we're back and the travelling is pretty much at an end (Although at the moment Im in Felmersham and Nicola is back in Reading so I'm still driving all over the country.)

Thank you for all your emails and messages - they meant a lot after spending so much time away from family and friends.

I would also like to make a special point of saying thank you to John and Val in Australia who kindly let us relax at their house which was a fantastic break from the cheap hostels! Also really enjoyed staying up most of the night with Phillip watching a dvd of 100 classic premiership goals - noone could get tired of that!

Also would like to say a big thank you to Jill and her family for entertaining us in New Zealand - hope to see you soon, was great to get out of that campervan!!

Take care

Lots of Love

Nick and Nicola

Tiger Temple

2006-09-27T07:06:00.000+01:00

2006-09-21T05:25:00.000+01:00

Thailand

2006-09-21T04:51:00.000+01:00

Its been an awesome few weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jon and Beth leant to scuba dive, Alice, Abs and Nick enjoyed loads of snorkelling, although Alice severely burnt her bottom! And Jon and I saw loads of seahores on a dive!!! We've all had a great time at the beach, and exploring the islands. We've all had enough Thai curry to last a life time, and Abs and Alice are currently buying all of Bangkok! Theres been a couple of cloudy days but taking into account a few heavy hangovers we were all greatful to get out of the sun! See you all soon, loads of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

2006-09-21T04:27:00.000+01:00

Jon and Beth Arrived!!!!

2006-09-07T04:31:00.000+01:00

Bangkok Palace

2006-09-04T08:58:00.000+01:00

Our pad, 'the rabbit hutch'

Paddy fields
How Nick spent most of last week

Cycling through the paddy fields

Hello, Hows it going?

Nick and I have just got back to Bangkok after an extremely lazy week in Laos. We started with an epic 24 hour bus journey from Hanoi, which began at 6pm. After a really uncomfortable night on the bus, sitting on the very back seats which were burning hot as we were to be above the engine, we were dropped off at the side of the road at 6.30am and told another bus would be there in 30mins to take us on to the border, we patiently waited 2 hours and our bus finally showed. A couple more buses later and we finally made it to Savannakhet in Southern Laos, however, Nick's backpack wasn't so lucky. We were standing around waiting for our bags to be handed down from the roof of the bus until Nick gives up and gets up there himself......no backpack.......can you imagine his face?! We explained the problem to the bus dudes who kindly informed us that it must be on the bus to Vientienne, 8hrs away! After quite a panic and a lot of rapid hand gestures they made a call and said they had it transfered onto another bus back in our direction, thankfully this happened in Laos so we actually got the bag back! In Vietnam it would have ended so differently!

The next day we continued travelling, got a 6 hour bus to Pakse stayed the night then a 3 hour 'bench bus' , a pick up truck with 3 tiny benches in the back with at least 30 people crammed in, live fish, chickens, ducks, honestly anything you can imagine! We eventually got the boat across the 4000 islands to a tiny island called Don det, where we have done absolutely nothing for the last week : ) We rented a little bamboo bungalow over the Mekong river which set us back 80p (between us) a night, and read in our hammocks. The island has no electricity so it really was a relaxing week.

So we left the island yesterday and made another 24hr journey to Bangkok, we planned to get a nice sleeper bed on the train but only 3rd class seats were available, it sucked and Nick was a miserable git, but today he has had a bannana split is now much happier. Now we are just hanging out waiting for Jon and Beth to arrive tomorrow : )

Loads of love, Nick and Nic xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A brief update

2006-08-22T16:32:00.000+01:00

Hello! - me again I'm afraid - thought it a while since we last spoke so here's a brief summing up of the last few weeks.

As you can see from the pictures, after visiting 'the Cambodian capital,' (can't remember acurately how to spell it - Phenom Penh or something rediculous) we casually mooched our way through the border, out the other side and into Vietnam and eventually bumbling along we ran into Saigon. I think it's fair to say that we both enjoyed the place on the whole. It's quite a busy city and you regularly find yourself in stressful situations like being totally stranded in the middle of the street. Upon crossing, having successfully made your way through one lane of traffic, things look hopeful, then facing the second, you stop and make the hideous realisation that the latter half is utterly impenetrable due to the fact that there is quite literally a wall of hundreds of whizzing scooters who are utterly determined to prevent you from completing the undertaking, making you look a fool in the street in front of your girlfriend who you can see laughing at you from across the road. After 10 minutes of confident advances quickly followed by cowardly retreats, you then face the indignity of having a tourist police officer escort you through like a batty old woman.

We saw lots of equipment left over from the war along with lots of testimony on how nasty the whole affair was in the war remnants museum. And continuing in that theme we visited the Cu Chi tunnels where the local population gave the Amiercans a serious problem.

So then we lazily mozied over to Nha Trang where Nicola caught a nasty stomach bug that put her out of action for a good 3-4 days. This luckily gave me the perfect opportunity to practice crossing the street in a less busy environment without her knowing. If truth be told those few days were mostly spent watching very bad cable tv. With so many places covered over the past month or so, doing absolutely nothing was our highest priority. Before leaving however, we did take a visit to the mud baths. It was out of town a bit, so on this occasion I was pleased to have the opportunity to hire a scooter and play my part (against Nicola's protests) in terrifying some unsuspecting cretin caught in the middle of the street.

After that we headed North to Hoi An that is famous for loads of tailors. Here we both went with the flow and got a few bits made that we now unfortunately have to lug about. The beach there was fantastic and we both had loads of fun playing in the crashing waves. My first time in the South China Sea and it has to be the warmest waters I've ever swam in, no pictures of that day though.

From there we headed up again to Hue which didn't have a lot to offer except a mighty palace that we looked around. No pictures of that either I'm afraid as we didn't take the camera, but I can assure you that it was very impressive.

A 12 hour bus ride later and we wound up in Hanoi very early in the morning. Depite this we managed to sidestep a crafty extortion scam i.e bus drops you outside city, bus operator puts you into taxi saying free ride to centre on behalf of company etc etc taxi takes you to pre-designated hotel with the upshot being, stay in this dingey hole of a place or pay 2 quid for the taxi that hasn't taken you where you wanted to go. Seeing the whole thing coming a mile away however we confidently sidestepped that little problem with ease and found a great place.

Finally then, for the last 2 days we have been on a great trip to Ha Long Bay that has hundreds of tiny limestone islands jutting up out of the water forming a maze of channels and straights that made for some beautiful scenery and some nice pics that you can see below.

Truely hope that you're all doing well and looking forward very much to seeing you all again when we get back in Oct sometime.

Nick and Nic

Ha Long Bay Boat Tour

2006-08-22T16:08:00.000+01:00

Vietnam Photos

2006-08-12T11:28:00.000+01:00

A Vietnamese Mud Bath

A tasty Snake snack anyone?

Cao Dai Temple

Midday Mass at the temple

Few pics...

2006-08-10T16:34:00.000+01:00

A texan BBQ

Palace in Cambodia

Cu Chi Tunnels

Some left over hardware, War Remnants Museam, Saigon

Angkor Ruins

2006-08-04T14:58:00.000+01:00

Cambodia

2006-07-29T12:33:00.000+01:00

Hello,

How are you all doing?? We hear you are all sweltering and melting, and we are seriously jealous of all the BBQ action! Though Nick did try some BBQ squid at the market today, I gave it a miss...other delicacies here include duck embryo and tarantula...i'll be giving them a miss too.

We spent a few days in Bangkok which was cool, we did a 3 hour Thai Kicking class which was seriously hardcore. An outdoor ring and training area down an alley with really nasty looking instructors. Nick has a beauty of a bruise where one instructor decided to ram his knee into Nick's side for a few minutes then wacked him on the side of his neck to show him how much he can hurt someone, whilst I was stood laughing he turned around a smacked me in the neck so I shut up! It was an incredible afternoon and we now know some lethal elbow moves.

We are now staying in a awesome hostel over a huge lake in the cambodian capital Phnom Penh, lovely big deck full of hammocks, beer for 30p and nice chips, so its all good. We had an amazing time in Siem Reap at the Angkor temples, its an ancient city full of hindu temples built in the 10th-14th centuries. Although there is still debate as to whether they are temples or tombs but the buildings are stunning, (its where Tomb Raider was filmed). Every inch of wall, pillar, ceiling, door, is carved with beautiful pictures and writing, its mostly the hindu god Vishnu, but all the statues of Vishnu have been decapitated and replaced with Buddha heads, which is kinda funny as you end up with an 8 armed buddha. We rented bikes so had a heck of a day exploring the ancient city, also a lot of the temples are being reclaimed by the jungle which gives it a great Indiana Jones feel.

We are just hanging out waiting on our visas for Vietnam and recovering from all the recent exercise, there's a great crowd at the hostel though it a little dangerous as you get given a book for your room and just write in it any food + drink you have and just pay at the end...We've only been here one night and we've managed to fill a whole page : )

Take care, loads of love, Nic & Nick

We're in Thailand!

2006-07-16T08:20:00.000+01:00

An evening on the beach at Ko Phi Phi

10 minutes after this picture was taken I found out that I HAVE A NEW LITTLE NIECE Congrats Kate!!

A trip on the river, Singapore

Aus and a bit of Singapore....

2006-07-09T12:37:00.000+01:00

Cape Tribulation

The Merlion, Singapore

Byron Bay

Cuddily Dinosaur

Accomodation at Cape Trib

G'Day G'Day

2006-07-08T14:52:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone!

Apologies for not having updated the blog in ages, while Nicola's sleeping off her dinner back at the hostel, I'll try and give a little update.

Since Byron Bay we made our way up the East coast towards Brisbane, which is a nice enough place, but rather than remain in the city itself we decided to head to a small coastal town called Moreton Bay which was about 30 mins drive from the centre. The hostel turned out to be awesome and very cheap too. We met loads of cool people from UK, and other Euopean countries and a few wierd aussies who obviously had nowhere else to go! Everyone just ignored them though. The best thing was the massive projector TV setup which was perfect for the World Cup matches that started at 2AM. During most days we'd just sleep until mid-day to catch up after going to bed at about 4/5 O'Clock. We also got involved in a scheme called Wednesday Afternoon Gentlemen's Sailing - this required a 2PM start - tricky after so many late nights and a trip to the sailing club. You get put with a rich bloke with a yaught and he takes you out and racing - it was a great afternoon - we didnt win but we had a good time steering and speaking for myself, trying not to be seasick. Also on our last day the owner of the hostel took us out on a rediculous speed boat - who knows how or why he owns this thing but it went like something through a goose - was loads of fun and nicola had a good waterski too.

From there we travelled North again to Bundaberg (As in Bundaberg Rum....?? No I hadn't heard of it either) which is a seriously pointless place to go unless there happens to be an England vs. Ecuador game on that night. So we stopped there and spent the night in a really nice motel, watched the game and then were bored for the rest of the day waiting for the next bus that wasnt until 11PM to take us to Airlie Beach.

At Airlie beach we hung around and just about saw the Whitsundays as we took a day trip out to one of the islands. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great but we had a nice time.

From there we headed all the way up to Cairns, which is an awesome town and is where most fun was had! We booked ourselves on a 3 day trip to Cape Tribulation and a day on the Great Barrier Reef scuba diving! The trip to Cape Trip was right in the rainforest and right on the beach which was a great combo. We had a great time just relaxing and going on walks. We went on a boat trip on a croc infested river and saw the biggest man eating pre-historic dinosaur you've ever seen. Ill put a picture of him on the site asap. That was great, and we also went on some great walks - one that promised a utopian swim hole at the end, to me it looked more like a crocodile's stomping ground so I dont mind admitting that we both wussed out and ran away like big girls. Then the last night we wanted to watch the England vs. Portugal match but our resort couldn't get reception so with a tiny headlamp we marched as quick as we could through what might as well have been Jurassic Park. There were noises all around, pitch black but a brillaint sky. Every creek we crossed we thought we might get eaten by something scary but we made it and watch England crash out in typical fashion - then we had to do the trip all over again!!! Rubbish!!

Getting back to Cairns after the trip meant getting up very early for our excursion on the Great Barrier Reef. That for me at least was absoutely awesome - I managed to see a shark and a turtle and also found that Nemo fella everyone's looking for! So after thinking, it couldn't get any better than this - I was invited to play golf with a couple of blokes from Denmark and Norway the next morning! The less said about my score the better but it was a perfect day, hot and sunny just interupted a bit with foul language as some holes entered double figures - was great nontheless. Nicola took her own trip to see some lakes and go swimming as she didnt fancy the golfing.

From Cairns we fley to Darwin and enjoyed a couple of days there, although there wasn't much (that we could find) to do unless you had the time and $$ to go to Kakadu so we sinply left for Singapore.

So that's where we are now. It's a beautiful city - very clean and the food is great. It's absolutely sweltering though but we're more than happy - tomorrow we're heading to Kuala Lumpur as long as Nicola picked up the tickets earlier on.

We'll try to wack some more pics on the site asap so til then, take care.

Love Nick and Nicola

Photos

2006-06-20T06:19:00.000+01:00

Kayaking on Milford Sound, NZ

NZ seals

Queenstown, NZ

Update...

2006-06-16T06:13:00.000+01:00

Hello,

How are you all doing? Hope you are enjoying the hot summer!
How crazy was the match last night?! COME ON ENGLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anywho, all the matches are on here at 2am or 5am so its been a lot of all-nighters and sleeping in the day with not so much Australia sight seeing so far. But we have to prioritise! We had a great time in Sydney, it was awesome to actually see the Opera House and we walked across the Harbour Bridge for some great views. We had a very relaxing few days staying with Nicks relatives so a nice chance to chill out and have a break from the skanky hostels. We also met up with Dom (O'Shea) in Sydney and his mates so it was cool for me to see some family aswell. We are in Byron Bay at the moment which is gorgeous, we rented a surf board yesterday and got some good practice in. Someone yelled shark and we looked up to see a huge fin riding the wave next to a surfer, everyone held their breath thinking this guy was in big trouble but luckily it turned out to be a cheeky dolphin, actually 4 dolphins all playing in the surf. Will be getting some more pics on the site shortly, the best thing we have both done recently was skydiving in NZ. For 50 quid we got to jump out of a plane at 12,000ft over Lake Taupo and it was awesome! We were attached to someone who actually knew what they were doing which was a bonus since all instruction we got was from a 2 min safety video! We had just under a minute of freefall but it felt like loads longer and the feeling was amazing. Nick was at the front of the plane so the first to get chucked out, it felt a little weird seeing my boyfriend fall out of a plane! But there wasnt much time to worry as I was pushed out a minute later and falling rapidly to the ground. Once the parachutes opened it was a gentle glide down, taking in the views with a few spins chucked in by the instuctors. Now we are travelling up the Gold Coast of Australia, have met some great people, had some great nights out and are looking forward to seeing Alice, Tim, Jon, Beth and hopefully Abi and Mark in Thailand.
Loads of love, Nic and Nick

NZ & OZ

2006-06-09T05:12:00.000+01:00

A little nervous before our jump

Sydney

Some NZ Highlights

2006-06-09T04:44:00.000+01:00

The -5 Ice Bar

Nick tells Nicola to take a jump...

2006-06-02T01:01:00.000+01:00

Getting ready to jump from NZ's highest bungy

I can fly.........

Heeeeeeeelp

New Zealand

2006-05-23T05:57:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone!! Hope that you're all ok. You'll be pleased to know that the weather we've been having here in the South Island has been on a par with a wet Winter in the UK, so the pictures (once we wack them on here) will be a bit grey.

However, in spite of the cold, the rain and the clouds, we've been tearing around enjoying every minute. Having landed in Auckland we grabbed a very luxurious campervan as part of a re-location deal and paid $1 per day for 5 days with the end location being Christchurch. We had a pretty comfortable journey down. Went surfing in Raglan, looked at some glow worms in.... some caves. Made the ferry crossing and delivered the old girl safe and sound in Christchurch. I dont mean Nicola.

Almost as soon as we delivered that one, we got picked up and taken to another company who were offering another relocation deal to take a slightly less luxurious van back to Auckland. We have it for as long as we like for $10 per day so we're doing well.

We spent a few days in Christchurch but Nicola caught the flu which I then inherited when we reached Dunedin. So we shivered our way through a few days in a cool hostel until we shook it off. Drove down to Queenstown, which was a great place. Nicola thew herself off a bridge....... luckily she was attached to it with some elastic bands tied into a rope. I would have joined her but I threw my back out walking from the carpark to the bridge....... its fine now though so don't worry.......

From there were drove to Milford Sound which is a really beautiful place with waterfalls and sheer cliff faces plunging into the Fiord (Apparently it's not strictly a 'Sound'.) So in the pouring rain we went Kayaking, which was absolutely awesome. After 2 nights there we drove all the way up to Nelson which is right at the top of the South Island. We're sampling the local wine and relaxing in anticipation of a 6 hour walk in the Abel Tasman Nat. Park tomorrow.

Still not sure how we're going to get from Auckland down to Christchurch which is where our flight leaves for Sydney on the 31st May but we'll work it out soon.

Love to everyone

Nick and Nic

More Pics....

2006-05-16T06:25:00.000+01:00

Nick loving the beach in Tahiti

The New Zealand coast

Penguins!

The Big Rig!

The Moeraki Boulders

Easter Island

2006-05-16T06:03:00.000+01:00

Tahiti Pics

2006-05-16T04:37:00.000+01:00

A typical day in our second week :(

On the way to Moorea

Scenery around the campsite

Nextdoor's Church

The Beach!!

Through the Pacific to New Zealand

2006-04-27T22:15:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone! Apologies for the lack of material on the site recently but the internet rates in the Pacific are rediculous e.g 8 quid an hour. Hope that everyone is in good health back home.

We made it to the land of Kiwis, rugby and bungee jumping very early this morning and checked into a really cool hostel called 'the fat camel'. We are now, I suppose, fat camels?? It has loads of things on offer but before we look into all that death defying nonsense, job 1 is to find a nice camper van to cruise around in.

Have been trying to upload some more pictures but it hasn't liked me doing it twice now so you may all have to wait for a picture update whilst we work out what's wrong. In the mean time I'll try to offer a half decent descriptive account.

So, firstly, Easter Island is an absolutely amazing place. First impressions were that it is a lot more tropical than either of us had thought. It's a really tiny island with a single main town that has a runway that is so big, Space rockets are able (potentially) to land there. We camped in a nice place that looked out Westish onto the Pacific Ocean, so sunsets were awesome from our tent.

A few others and ourselves found a great deal and hired a 4x4 to tear around the island on. It was great fun exploring all the statues on the hillsides and also where they've been lovingly restored so that they once again stand in rows along the coastline, looking towards the interior. They are seriously intimidating when you stand under one to get a picture. Very unsettling feeling standing there with a half baked smile on your face!

Nicola swam with some turtles that were just a few metres from one of the few beaches on the island. She also did a dive down to a statue that they'd sunk (we have a pic) I didnt go. Instead I had a 'conversation' with the captain on the surface who spoke no english and I certainly spoke no Spanish, but somehow for 20 minutes we were best mates. Its amazing how much you can communicate simply by waving your hands around, smiling and nodding! "Si, si..." I'd repeat.

So from there we headed off to Tahiti, which we were very excited about. We arrived late at night and had to stay in a pretty crappy place, but it was ok for only one night. The next morning came along and we made our way to the island of Moorea (Tahiti despite the reputation isn't that great for beaches apparently). We made the crossing and pitched a tent in a really, REALLY nice campsite and remained there for 2 weeks. It was fantastic to stay in one place after so much rushing about.

The island itself is abslutely stunning. The water has that turquoise look to it, the sea is full of beautiful exotic fish usually only seen at the dentist's and we both swam with Black Tip Reef Sharks which was just awesome! It was great because all you need to do is prick your finger and jump in............nah just kidding mum! We gate-crashed an expensive 'shark feeding session' run by a posh hotel by just rolling up in some kayaks we'd rented independently for a third of the price.

We met some great people and have some great pics. Unfortunately the weather only held out for 1 week, for the rest of the time it rained. Seriously, so we changed our ticket and jumped on a plane a bit early because we couldn't do anything when it was wet and cloudy.

So now we're in Auckland. Already very much in love with the place and we've only come from the airport to the hostel.

Better leave it there, take care

Love Nick and Nic

Some Pics...

2006-04-02T17:24:00.000+01:00

Nicola picks up a German Tourist in the Plaza at Salta, Argentina

Feeding the monkeys at the Zoo in Mendoza

Parrot

Feeding another monkey

Who Can? Tucan!

The Iguazu Falls!!

2006-03-25T23:08:00.000Z

To Argentina!

2006-03-23T19:16:00.000Z

Hello all,

Hope that you´re all ok. Sorry that its been a while since the last installment.

Since Machu Picchu we made our way down through the desert to a place called Puno, which is on the Shores of Late Titicaca. The town itself doesn´t deserve much of a mention, as it was a bit of a hole, but what IS worthy of a quick description was our 2 day trip to see the floating islands on the lake. The people that live on them have been living on the reeds that grow in the shallows for hundreds of years in order to avoid violent types like the Incas. Needless to say, they are a bit wobbly to walk on, but the setting was very beautiful. After a brief visit there, we were lucky enough to stay with a native family on one of the islands in the lake..... a solid one this time! It was pretty basic, but a fantastic experience nonetheless. In the evening the housewife dressed Nicola up in traditional dress and I can say I was on the floor with laughter. Ooh what a lovely floral blouse and a frumpy skirt Nicola!! I got away a bit lighter with just a hat and a poncho. We then went to a barn dance for a few hours and got a great performance by a Peruivan band playing traditional Panpipe grooves - then we went crazy and danced the night away. Anyway we made it back the next day with an invite to stay with a New Zealander couple when we reach Auckland, so I think we´ll definately take them up on that to say hi and to get our berrings.

So, from Puno, a brief stop in Copacabana....´she wore Mirangue...´ Then onto La Paz. Stayed in a nice enough place and did some serious shopping for a few days, where at the end, we sent home a package full of bits and bobs, well tourist crap really, but I think we got some good stuff. They´ll arrive in mid April - if at all??!!!

From La Paz we had a horrendous trip trying to get to Argentina. First of all we came upon a blockade in the middle of the desert and the coach driver decides to box round it by way of finding a route over rocks, sand and wadis..... the delay wasn´t too bad on that one but on the second blockade it was a different story..... Yeah number 2....... It was about 9.15pm when we stopped, again in the middle of the desert. We heard that it was a festival and could hear fireworks etc with lots of shouting. Then someone says we could be here for hours.........mmm. It took until 07.00 the next morning before we got out to take a look. There we found a host of peasants just sitting in the road and it was undoubtedly a protest of some type and they weren´t going anywhere. So a few others and ourselves got our backpacks and grumpily stormed through, found a taxi and made it to the next town. There, a remnant of us still needed to get to the border so 5 of us pitched in and got a taxi to Villazon and reached it at around 7.30pm. So a bit delayed, but we successfully navigated Bolivia (dont ever go there) and were very relieved to make it to Argentina. Phew!

From the border we took a coach to a town called Salta, which was a really beautiful place with great food and green plaza´s. We stayed a night or so before heading to Corrientes, which was also a lovely place. We are now in Puerto Iguazu to see the water falls that are meant to be spectacular. Briefly visited a town in Brazil today but wasn´t much there - so we turned around and came straight back! Going to attempt some camping tonight despite the heavy rain that´s falling, see the falls tomorrow, then head to Buenas Aires in the evening (24th March) for a few days there.

Apologies for the lack of pics but we´ll get some on here after we visit the falls.

Take care and keep in touch!!!!

Nick and Nic

Machu Picchu

2006-03-08T16:45:00.000Z

Hello everyone. We have just returned to Cusco from our painful but fantastic hike on the Inca trail. It took 4 days, a lot of steep ups and downs, many, many chocolate bars and a grumpy Nicola on the final day to make it, but it was worth all the hard work, as the place was absolutely spectacular!

There were 9 people in our group and we all got along very well. To help us on our way we also had 7 porters a very talented cook and 2 guides. The trail was 45km long where we saw lots of llamas and some spectacular views of the Andes. Everyday we felt pretty guilty seeing the porters carrying all the equipment and also seeing it all ready and prepared for us as we came to the end of each day´s hike. They seemed very comfortable with the whole arrangement though and seeing them sleep in sacks for seeping bags convinced us that they´re either very tough or just mental!! They did a great job of bringing us a cup of tea in the morning, which USUALLY bought a smile to our faces...... That is of course with the exception of the final morning. Nicola didn´t like the 4.00AM start too much!

The ruins themselves were absolutely unforgetable. The whole place just seemed to be an example of the highest possible achievement of humankind. The quality of the masonry, the terraces, the strangely shaped sun dial were mind blowing and made from a skill, we´re sure, that could hardly be replicated today.

So, after a recovery period, we´re going to stay here for a day or so before we make our way South to Bolivia and use it as a route to get into Argentina.

Hope that everyone is well.

Lots of love

Nick and Nic

Arequipa - Cusco

2006-03-01T16:02:00.000Z

Hello everyone!

Well from the Nazca lines to Arequipa... We managed to swindle our way onto a luxury night bus that dropped us off surprisingly well refreshed after a pretty good nights sleep. The bus we were supposed to have taken didn´t arrive and so we were drafted onto an imperial class thing, with very little argument from ourselves, that essentially had beds for seats.

We stayed in a very nice hostel only 2 blocks from the Plaza de Armas and ventured out to explore the town a bit. However, we had arrived just as ´Carnival´ was warming up and wherever we turned water bombs and foam spray were hurled at us from every possible angle. We were certainly targeted for being gringos, but it was all in good humour and it was a lot of fun, despite returning from lunch and site-seeing trips socking wet and looking like a snowmen. It was a great opportunity to have a laugh with the locals as even frail and doddery old women laughed hysterically at us covered in the foam.

So, after a few days of abuse by the locals, Sunday arrived, which is (supposedly) the climax of the whole event and the thought of revenge stirred in our minds. We ducked out of the hostel and bought as many balloons as we could find and filled them with water. Luckily the hostel had a fantastic balcony over one of the main streets and we proceeded to bombard as many guilty suspects as we could find. It was a war zone, I´ve never seen a whole town bent mercilessly on getting each other drenched in water. It satisfied our lust for revenged perfectly!

On our last night, met a great couple of guys - one from the UK, the other from Martha´s Vineyard in the States, who had biked from Equidor (!) with only 2 trips on buses to avoid a couple of dangerous roads. Amazingly impressive and they have plans to bike to Cusco too. They´re either brave or daft considering the mountainous roads that link the towns. They still have a couple of months left of their trip and seem to be making it up as they go!

So, we made it to Cusco and are staying in a really great place for 3 pounds a night, that includes breakfast and is 5 minutes or so from the Plaza. Our first day was spent getting quotes for the Inca Trail that re-opens today (1st March) after a spring clean in Feb. After a lot of tearing about we got a great price with a good company that´s approx $100 less than the books say to expect. Luckily the guy had a tour all ready to go on the 4th so he gave us student prices!

Will be investigating some ruins in the mean-time that cover the area around the town and we expect to leave for Puno and La Paz in Bolivia in about a week to 2 week´s time.

Take care

Love Nick and Nic

Photos of the Nazca Lines

2006-02-23T21:51:00.000Z

2006-02-23T21:41:00.000Z

Mysteries of the Ica Stones & Nazca Lines

2006-02-23T20:30:00.000Z

Here are the Ica Stones, my Dad suggested that Nick and I check them out and they are incredible! Dr Cabrera of Ica has a collection of 11,000 stones that were found in the desert in Ica, Peru. Over 50,000 are known to exist and no one can explain them. We visited Dr Cabrera´s house and on his stones you can clearly see ancient world maps, dinosaurs, men using telescopes to look into space (all above) and there are also stones that show complex heart and brain surgeries and transplants, detailed pictures of the anatomy of animals and insects, they are amazing. Overall they contain extremely scientific information, a lot of people say they are fake but only 2 people have ever claimed to make them and they can only be bought from the peruvian grave robbers. Also its not like a bloke who lives in the desert and can barely read and write could make an incredibly detailed engraving of the human heart! The stones have been tested and are 65 million years old, but all they know of the engravings are that they are very very old due to a thick layer of carbon. They are sometimes found in graves of the Incas and Pre-Incas, but they didn´t have the technology depicted on the stones so they must have also found them in the desert? Also people say they are fakes due to the dinosaurs but Dr Cabrera is convinced that humans and dinosaurs coexisted, sounds impossible. However, in his book he reveals that archeologists have found fossils that contain both human and dinosaur matter, literally in the same piece of rock! This has been discovered in India and South America and studied in Russia, apparently they are awaiting more findings as currently contempoary science totally ignores these finds as they are outside of the norm. It all sounds mad but maybe you have to see it or read it to beleive it!
Next we have the enigmatic Nazca Lines that Nick and I flew over this morning, they really blew us away! They are lines in the desert that cover over thousands of square kilometers. There are designs of a monkey, a whale, birds, fish, a spider, about 15 really famous ones that we thought we´d see, however, there are actually hundreds, possibly thousands of designs in the desert! They are so big that from the ground you have no idea whatsoever that they are there and its just amazing how many shapes you see, and no one knows who made them, when, or what they are for!

2006-02-14T21:03:00.000Z

Nick enjoys his breakfast, can you spot where the avalanche was?

2006-02-14T20:59:00.000Z

Learning to Ice Climb

2006-02-14T20:54:00.000Z

Base Camp 5000m

Peru

2006-02-14T20:28:00.000Z

Hey guys,
I have finally managed to work out how to add photos!
Nick and I are still in Hurraz, Peru. We returned yesterday from 3 days Ice Climbing in the Andes. Our group included 4 other backpackers, 2 Peruvian guides and 3 donkeys, it was the hardest thing we´ve ever done. It began with a 9 hour uphill hike to Base Camp which was at 5000m, it was incredibly hard to breath but the scenery was spectacular. On day 2 we learnt to ice climb, with massive spikes strapped to our boots and an ice axe in each hand we climed up glaciers. It was insanely hard work but so much fun!! It snowed constantly and despite wearing shorts, 2 pairs of trousers, 3 pairs of socks, leg warmers, 5 tops, 2 jumpers, 2 coats, gloves, a hat and being inside 2 sleeping bags in our tent, Nicola was freezing! The guides took great care of us and bought us hot meals to our tent and made us lots of tea made with coco leaves which helps with altitude sickness. In the middle of our second night we were woken by an avalanche right behind our tent, it wasnt that big but was incredibly loud, we were both scared stupid and the donkeys legged it! We wanted to go with the donkeys but the guides assured us that it wouldn´t happen again and luckily they were right. Yesterday the weather was beautiful as we enjoyed a long downhill stroll back to Hurraz, we may head to Ica tomorrow.
Love you loads, Nick and Nick

Hurraz, Peru

2006-02-14T20:05:00.000Z

2006-02-14T20:02:00.000Z

2006-02-14T19:58:00.000Z

Canyoning in Merida, Venezuela

Mountain biking in the Andes, Venezuela

2006-02-14T19:52:00.000Z

2006-02-14T19:43:00.000Z

Nick lazing on the beach in Puerto Columbia, Venezuela

Peru

2006-02-07T22:02:00.000Z

Hello!!

Well, we spent our last few days in Venezuela in a nice town called Juan Greigo on the Isla Margarta. There were some great beaches and an old fort. But on 5th we made it to Peru!!! It required a 4 hour flight, a day and a night in Lima and an 8 hour overnight coach trip to the Andean town of Hurraz - aprox 3,400 m above sea level - We´re getting out of breath just sitting reading - but we made it. It´s North of Lima set amid snowcapped peaks - awesomely spectacular!)

Central Lima was a very pleasant surprise, it´s a really beautiful place with friendly people and impressive architecture. We took a tour around the Museum of Inquisition. "Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition!" bored Nicola to tears along with the C of E´s lesser "Tea or cake or Death" for those familiar with Eddie Izzard. We were taken around the dungeons but only managed a meagor understanding as the tour was in Spanish.

Arrived here at about 7AM this morning and made straight for a hostel called Jo´s place. Run by an Ex Pat unexpectedly called Jo, it that has warm showers, is beautifully quiet (bar a crowing cockeral) and fantastic warm beds. It´s cheap too. By all accounts there´s heaps to do here so we´re going to mooch around for a few days, then look to go on a treck as long as its not too Pricey. The thing to do here is Ice Climbing but as we get out of breath so easily we might give it a miss for the foreseeable future.

And incidently, we had a great welcome at Peru´s airport. We were expecting everything to be closed as we landed at about 11.00PM Sunday night and we had resigned ourselves to spending the night there. However, upon walking through security a very friendly tourist info rep collered us by asking if we had plans and transport. We shook our heads and she ushered us over to a desk where they made reservations for us at a cheap hostal in Miraflores (upmarket suburb of Lima) and went ahead and made arrangements for us to get dropped off at the door by an úrbanito´bus. It was fantsatic to be looked after so well at that time of night!

The food is good here and have already been very tempted to buy a bright and colourful poncho that the locals look so good in. Not sure if it´d look as good on a UK high street though.

Hope everyone is ok, keep sending your emails as we love getting them.

Love Nick and Nic

Merida - Coro

2006-01-23T20:45:00.000Z

Hi Everyone,

Well we´ve moved on from Merida, which required a 12 hour bus journey up to a place called Maracaibo where we changed buses and finished up at our destination which is a little town called Coro. Its on the north coast so its really hot again.

We´re staying at a really beautiful posada near the centre of town run by a french guy and his family. Its great, there´s a big fridge in the garden and you can take a beer whenever you want and simply tally it up on a blackboard as you go and pay at the end.

Not too sure how long we´re going to be staying here, doesn´t look like there´s an awful lot to do except mooch around the churches and cathederals. I think we´ll probably make our way, within the next couple of days to Morrocoy nat. park where there´s snorkling to be had!!

We´ve taken some good pics so we´ll be looking to get a sample on here asap.

Lots of Love

Nick and Nic

Venezuela

2006-01-17T15:37:00.000Z

Hey guys, we made it to a city called Merida in the Andes of Venezuela. Its a lot cooler here, which is good because Nick was feeling sick from too much sun... it has the highest cable car in the world, which we´re going to attempt this week. Its also the centre of outdoor adventure pursuits on the continent so we´ve been investigating what to do.

Tomorrow we´re going to go canyoning which involves waterfalls, abseilling, and jumping off rocks into plunge pools - should be good. It seems, however that the most popular activity is to indulge in is Parranhar fishing and anaconda ´searching´ which we decided to pass on because we´re both massive wimps!

On our way here we took a taxi from Puerto Colombia, which was a cool little fishing town with a beautiful beach, to Marracay. We needed some cash with which to buy the bus tickets so the driver ended up taking us all over town looking for an ATM that would give us some money - turns out the poxy ATM computer system crashes all the time here!!! The driver felt sorry for us and so took us back to his house to meet his family which then ended up with Linda (his wife) cooking us spaghetti Bolognese.

We´re staying in a really clean and popular posada at the moment with hot water! It also costs about 3 quid a night each. Nicola often has to drag my backside out of the hammocks that are strung up outside our room, to go exploring in the mornings.

Nicola is speaking away pretty much fluently to the locals which leaves me looking like a slack jawed yokle as I try to laugh along not knowing what has been said. I seriously need to make sure she doesn´t wonder off else I´d be in real trouble.

All in all having a great time, eating VERY well and drinking the beers which amount to 20p a bottle! Hope everyone is ok.

Loads of love

Nick and Nic

Bear necessities

2005-12-29T22:06:00.000Z

Preflight Check...... Not necessarily in order of importance.......
Money? Check
Passport? Check
Tickets? Check
Miniature Tent? Check
Immodium? Check
Soft Toilet Roll? Check
Talc? Check
We're good to go.......

Setting off...

2005-12-29T12:38:00.000Z

Nick and I are off on the 7th Jan 2006......have both quit our jobs and are ready to spend the next year living in our pokey 2 person tent (Nick just about fits in it long ways but our backpacks don't stand a chance). Our route should be Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Easter Island, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and finally India. Hopefully meeting up with Abi and Alice in Thailand and Nics mum and big brother Dan in India. If you're having trouble deciding on a holiday destination, or if you also fancy being a jobless bum, get involved!!

We'll be updating this site regularly so please feel free to post any comments and make sure you keep us updated with what you're up to.

Take care,
Nic + Nick