New Zealand - North Island

Landed in Auckland on Wednesday (7th of May!) it was the first time we had been in a cold climate in 6 months so it was a bit of a shock to our systems - all of us have splashed out on uggs though and we spent our first day in Auckland buying hats and scarfs i also met Jenna and Dee O Callaghan for coffee!

Think New Zeland speaks for it self - it is one of the most beautiflu countries i have been too - you are just driving along in the bus trying not to gfo to sleep as you dont want to miss any of the scenery! Our first stop after Auckland was Rotorua - this place stank of Sulphur as the place is surrounded by natural smelling hot springs! We went to s polynesian hot spring and spent a hour in it - afterwarss we washed our towels as they smelled of it but seriously like we all can still smell the sulphur off our clothes and Jeno is especially smelling of it - its like she is wearing sulphur perfume all the time!

Colleen and I wentto a Mauri concert night where we visited a mauri concert, watched a show put on by mauris and had the most delicious dinner cooked for us mauri style (basically cooked underground for 3 hrs - yum yum yum!).

Our next stop was Taupo (via a Geyser - check out pic) - where we did our sky dive over lake taupo and some amazing scenery- loved loved loved it! We all did the 15,000 ft - which means it is freefall for 60 seconds - feels like 10 seconds though - its unreal - would def do it again - well when im loaded like!

Our next activity was a 18.5k hike over the Tongarario Crossing - this was class! Got picked up at 6am though and didnt get back tot he hostle til after 6pm so long day but def def worth it!

Our Next stop was Wellington - lovely city - went to the Museum which is really cool and did some window shopping!

Fiji part 2!

Our next stop was the Octopus resort on Waya Island - this place was a taste of heaven - our own little hut (picture above of jeno and i standing outside it!), breakfast lunch and dinner overlooking the sea, yum food and great snorkling! Went to church on the sunday morn - the service was 2 hours but we left after a hour - the whole thing was in Fijian so we didnt understand much - the choir were unreal though! Passed some lovely pigs along the way, but thankfully colleen grabbed a stick to protect us! The poor things didnt know what to make of her!

Had a bit of a detox here and went to bed early mos nights with the company of our little friend micky the mouse! When it rained at night you could hear him screeching but we were all protected by our safety mosquito nets - you wouldnt want to be claustophobic or anything!

The weather for the last day and a half was bad so we sat around reading - i read the economist to catch up on world matters and we played trivial persuit - this just confirmed to us how our brains have stopped functioning since we stopped working, we were all brutal, i dont know what our new friend Shane who was playing with us thought of us!

The last day Jeno and i went snorkling in the rain with my new underwater camera - an essential for any backbacker!!!

Fiji

We arrived in Nadi, Fiji on Sunday the 27th of April at 8pm after leaving Perth on the Saturday night at 11pm! We stayed one night and then got a boat out at 8.30am to the Mantaray resort which was on an island in the Yasawa Group! Man it was paradise - we had a 3 hr boat trip and passed loads of amazing islands including Bounty Island (where celebrity love island was filmed) the weather was savage and the scenery unreal. When we arrived on the island we were met by the Fijian workers singing a welcome song ans playing the guitar which ended with the famous Fijian BULA! Fijian are so so friendly - love them!

All the food was inclusive and to die for! We stayed on the island for 4 days and lived it up! Our days consisted of snorkling in the coral reef which was way better than the great barrier reef and playing volleyball with the workers and other guests! We had planned a detox for Fiji but the crowd in Mantaray were great craic so that idea went out the window! We celebrated Colleens birthday on the 1st of May, we ended up on the beach with Tooey (the local guitar player) and bomb fire - great fun!

On our second last day we visited a Fijian village - this was a great few hours - we got a tour by one of the locals to the school, church and then to this minin market set up by the women of the village - there was only 5 of us on the trip and the women had set up all their jewellery to sell us ! When we were leaving they were clearing all the stalls up - so basically all the effort was for us (5 backpackers) we did buy a good bit though as it is there only income!

We left the mantaray resort after 4 days and headed for the Octopus Resort!

Singapore

Got a flight from KK to JB at 10am on Saturday the 26th of Jan - my god were my legs and muscles killing me! Enery step i took hurt from the climb! All 4 of us looked a bit special walking around the aorport and had to hold on to the railings if we went up or down steps! Ramps were our best friends that day! The flight was great - Air Asia would put Ryanair to shame anyday!

After arriving in JB we got a taxi to Singapore - about an hour and half trip (have to go through customs and get your visa!) The taxi driver informed us that there was an 80 dollar fine if we were caught with chewin gum so we dumped all our chewing gum in a bin along the way. You are only allowed to possess one pack of cigarettes at a time also (FYI all you smokers out there).

When we arrived in Singapore the girls, (Babs, Jeno and Coll) had already booked us a hostel in little india - popular withthe back packers! Spent the afternoon with Jeni Hoey wandering the markets and shops - found top shop but had to hold myself back as it is just as expensive as London and im on a budget budget budget!!!

We went out that night to clelbrate Graces birthday - savage night! The nightlife is class and the puns are really funky!

The next day we just chilled out and checked out china town, the markets etc, got an early ngiht and went camera shopping the next day! Really liked Singapore - lovely city and very clean!

Next stop Australia!

Climbing Mount Kinabalu

Mount Kinabalu is the highest mountain in South East Asia and is situated in Sabah, bout 2 hours from KK (the capital) Cel, Grace, Jeni Hoey and I decided to climb the mountain while we were int he area - didnt realise what i was getting myself in for - but after it was done i was delighted i had done it and the views and scenery we saw were unreal!

We got up at 7am on Thursday (24th Jan) and headed to the park headquarters. It took us 4 and a half hours to walk the 6km up the mountain, we had a tour guide ( Dauert) and took a 5min rest bout every 40 min! When we reached our guest house for the night it was bout 3.30. There are a couple of guest houses half way up the mountain and one has heating - thank god we got a place in that one! The shower after we arrived was heaven! We chilled out and took in the views before dinner and then devoured 3 helpings of dinner before hitting the sack at 6pm! Got to sleep bout 9pm and was awoken at 2am by the alarm going off, we had to meet our tour guide at 2.30 am and set forthe summit to ensure we got their for sunset at 6.15am!

The climb up to the summit was my favourite part, there was roped to help you up and we were hiking along up slopes and cliff faces in the pitch black with all of us with head torches! The summit is 2.7km from the guesthouse. In the distance, We could see lightning above the clouds, it was unreal. We all wore plenty of layers, wooly hats and gloves, it was freezing the whole way up but nothing prepared me for the coldness of the summit! We reached it just before 6am and had to wait around for the sun to rise. I actually thought i had frost bite at one stage and couldnt press the button properly to take photos - enough complaining - the view was SAVAGE - havn't seen anything so beautiful (except for the diving in Sipadan!!) We stayed at the summit for about 45 min - took a photo with the tri colours and an irish knickers! Just before we left the summit i started to feel very ill - think it was alitude sickness - i started to scramble down the mountain and only stopped when the guide ahouted at me to. I was grand again about 10 min later but It took about half an hour to get the feeling back to my hands and feet! On the way down the views and landscape were unreal, we were well above the clouds!

We got back to the guest house for 8.30am and tucked into a big breaky! Then headed down the mountain for the last 6km - it was so hard to motivate myself to do the last 6km as my bones (esp my knees) were killing me and i was wrecked! We did it though in 3 and half hrs and all 4 of us were walking like 90 year olds at the end of it - my knees were buckling, i felt like i had no control over them! Tiger balm sorted them out though!

That night we chilled in our hostel with a dvd and got ready for our journey to singapore!

Diving in Semporna

After a 5hrs bus journey with a crazy driver who kept overtaking on bends and the like (Jen asked him to slow down!) we arrived in Semporna. We had read in the guidebooks that it wasn't any great shakes and everyone just came for the diving. Boy were they right! There was nothing to do at all, apart from look in a supermarket, around the fruit market, dive or eat in the one decent restaurant or have a drink in the bar which wasn't very well stocked (no white wine!)
We all stayed in this dorm which slept 11 people, i've never seen a room so packed full of beds...hilarious! It was by far not the nicest place we'd stayed in, but it was fine, just very basic and we were spoilt so far on the trip not having to share with other randoms!

The first day we got up at 7am and went diving in Mabul, it was class, so nice, We managed to spot turtles and loads of cool fish we hadn't seen before. Did nothing exciting that evening, ate, and went to bed.
The next day we went to the Sipadan islands, they were absolutely AMAZING, it is paradise! The diving was unreal. it was so clear and it's exactly the way i imagined diving to be. It was so beautiful. Managed to see around 40 turtles! I was in my element! also saw lots of sharks.. it's amazing how 'oh another shark' u become! Saw around 10 in one dive, they were just resting and u could go really close to them! Did three dives, the second one was off this cliff wall type thing which was really cool, there was a strong current so it swept u along, u didn't have to kick-Sweet! Snorkelled in between the dives which was lovely too, the colour of everything was class. On the third dive with went into this cave which was pretty scary, lookin out into the ocean from the cave was beutiful, the colours were so strong! Love Love Love diving, cannot wait to go again, it's so addictive!

Went out that night to celebrate Graces birthday! Had 2 drinks and we were all falling asleep aroudn the table by 10pm! So called it a night and said we would celebrate it properly in Singapore after our mountain climb!!! HEading back to KK tomar from Tawau!

The Jungle

After a 2 hour bus ride we got on a little boat down to our new home for the next 2 days! we dropped off our bags into our rooms and went on a boat cruise down the river (longest river in Sabah) in search of Proboscis monkeys, crocodiles, elephants, giant lizards, birds and any wild life we could find! We managed to see alot of the monkeys but no croodiles on this trip, if I was a bird watcher I would have appreciated it more as we saw some rare birds but all was not lost as I love any activity on the sea and it reminded me of evenings heading out with the folks on the boat - although this boat wasnt a patch on your boat dad! We watched the sun set on the boat, absolutely beautiful and then headed into our base to chill out beofre dinner!

The accomodation was Basic Basic Basic! But what else could we expect when we were miles away from civilisation! After getting into bed the first night i went to sleep listening to a leopard cat screaming outside our door and rats running riot between the floor boards! In with the ear plugs and happy thoughts about 5 star hotels di the trick though!

Next morning we were up at 5.30am for tea/ coffee before heading out for another boat cruise this time in a different direction in search of wild life again, this time we spotted a crocodile but i missed it - booo! Saw plently of birds, monkeys and big lizards (that looked like crocodiles). We headed back to the ranch for breaky and a snooze! Back out at 11.30am for a short boat trip up the river, then we had to get out of the boats and trek through the jungle. Thankfully we had all hired leech socks and wellies as we were up to our knees in mud and pulling leeches off us like there was no tomorrow! We arrived at an Oxbow lake and chilled out while having some lunch that our guide Nelson had carried, poor fella must have been roasting carrying all that food as i had only my raincoat to bring and i was sweating buckets as i trekked through the jungle inthe heat with my track ends, big socks and wellies on me!

After lunch we trekked back through the jungle and back to our ranch as i like to call it! The jungle was great, saw some really old interesting trees, afew weird bugs but no elephants. After dnner we chilled out with the locals for awhile before hitting the sack for another early night (day 7 of the detox!) That night i slept fine up until 1am, then i had a freak attack about all the bites i was getting and the weird noises i was hearing, eventually got back to sleep but I am glad to be sleeping out of the jungle tonight!