Snowy's Adventure

Gallery: New Zealand

snowy — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:15:00 GMT

christchurch to wanaka

Gallery: Last of Oz pictures

snowy — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:46:00 GMT

melbourne

Byron bay to Melbourne

snowy — Wed, 7 Jan 2009 12:04:00 GMT

From Byron bay my next stop was surf camp for 1 night. I tried surfing, its really hard and i kept falling off. i did manage to stand for a few seconds but thats all.

Surf camp to Sydney. 5th-17th Dec.

I arrived in Sydney on the 5th of Dec and the sun was shining. I spent 2 weeks sight seeing, i visited the opera house, botanical gardens, the harbour bridge, bondi beach, coogee beach, manly and a couple of art galleries and the museum. The beaches were very nice nothing compaired to the east coast or thailand tho. I even caught up with people i meet in thailand, it was like a little reunion.

Sydney to The Snowy mountains 17-22 Dec

To escape from the city i spent 4 days in the mountains. Its so beautifull there. I was staying on my own and i spent the days mountain walking, i climbed to the highest point in Australia. Everything there is called snowy something, they read The Snowy Times, they get power from the snowy hydro system and shop in the local snowy mountain stores. It was sooooo cool!

Snowy mountains to Melbourne 22nd Dec to 7th Jan.

I arrived in Melbourne a few days before xmas and felt miserable because i wanted to be at home over xmas. I stayed outside the city in St Kilda. Its right next to the beach. The weather was great for my 2weeks. The sun shinned on xmas day and we drank wine on the beach. Xmas was pretty uneventfull, i drank and was kinda merry. The following days i did the sight seeing thing.

New years Eve we went into the city it was rammed packed with people and no alcohol was allowed in public, so we spent the night sober, the fireworks were great tho.

Gallery: Byron bay

snowy — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:21:00 GMT

Byron Bay

snowy — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:04:00 GMT

Byron bay is about 1 n half hours south of Brisbane. Its a great surfing beach and is well known as a hippy destination, with Nimbin just outside town being the focus and main comunity of hippies. I didn't go though cos the main focus is to buy and smoke weed. Plus i've seen loads of hippies in glastonbury. I love the glastonbury feel of the town . There are lots of hippy shops, u know the ones that smell of incense and sell weird and wonderfull stuff. Also being a backpacker place it adds to the festival atmosphere. I stayed in this cool hostel called the art factory. They have dorms, funky gipsy caravan looking huts, tippies and a all girl square tippy called the pentagon where i stayed and slept on bamboo beds. THese all surround a little lake. They had activities every night and cos it BYO alcohol everyone sits in the garden area in hammocks and picnic tables drinking and theres always a smell of weed. The first day i meet this guy called james from england, while eating breakfast. We hungout at the beach most of the day, then in the eve with his dutch mates we watched the talent show and drank some ummmm....lots of goone! It was a really good night. The next couple of days it rained. I walked up to the lighthouse twice and watched the world go by. I saw turtles and dolphines, shame i missed whale migrateing season, u get an amazing view of them from up there aug to oct. check out the pictures!

Anyways next stop surf camp.

Gallery: Carins to Brisbane

snowy — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:39:00 GMT

Cairns, Whitsunday sailing, frasier island, Brisbane

snowy — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:37:00 GMT

I arrived in Cairns on the 21st Oct, stayed for a week in this great little place called the girls hostel. Cairns is like a student town full of backpackers who all hang out at this man made lagoon. Nice little town, great night life. I spent a weekend a cape tribulation, north of cairns and its tropical. I stayed in these shallet dorms in mid of rainforest and five mins walk to the deserted beach. I meet up 3girls who sounded just like the cast of corrie. We spent most of the time on the beach, with these funny little crabs that make little hole in the sand and sprend balls of sand around it in patterns. Just like on the discovery channel, Elaine (lil sis) would of liked them i took a picture just for her!

Back to cairns and pretty uneventfull couple of days, then went on a boat trip to the great barrier reef. We snorkeled and i did a intro dive prob about 6 meters or something like that. I got to see lots of colourfull fish inc some clown fish and a big massive fish about a meter or so in length. Brilliant day and we had cheese and wine on the way back, very posh!

Next road trip - Mission beach via Innisfall animal park. At the animal park i cuddled a little croc called fluffy. I Saw some awesome big croc's, 1 called henry who is 4 meters long they teased him with a bit of hairy pig. He had some big teeth!

Arrived in mission beach on halloween, the hostel had a little halloween themed night with free Goone (thats cheap wine in a box) and jelly shots. It was a good night but not the same fancy dress efforts as back home. Second day at mission beach i was chilling out at the pool and randomly i was asked if i wanted to help out on a sunset sail and serve cheese and wine. Course i took the offer up, as we just put the sails up the group cancelled so i got to have a free sail around and free beer. Got back just in time for happy hour at the bar , more free goone. By 8ish i was feeling squiffy and had some food. I had just a little lie down while waiting for the shower, course i feel straight asleep few hours later girl in my room woke me up to see if i wanted to go to the bar but i was kinda wrecked so i slept till 9 next morning! Awesome sleep! Thats what sailing free beer and wine does to one te he! Next morning bright a breezy i went for a run on the beach followed by a dip in the sea.

After Mission Beach we headed to Magnetic island. On the way meet up the the corrie sounding girls again and we hung out at magnetic island. We went kayaking and went koala spotting. Found a mum and baby asleep in a tree, there so cute and sleep for 20hours a day what a life! Next day we hired a topless car and cruised around the island. The number plate was 414! check out my pictures work buddies that should be the berko motor!

Magnetic Island to Airlie beach on 6th Nov. Very weird not having a bonfire night! On Friday armed with Goone and suncream i jumped on sailing boat called "Spank me" for 3 days of sailing around whitsunday with 26 other people. The crew was cool. We sailed around White haven on the first day and got to sunbath on pure white sand, it squeeks when u slide your feet on it. It was so amazing the view was breath taking. Paradise! That afternoon we snoorkeled and dived. The weather started to change and we could see a storm in th distance, it never got to us but the next morning was very grey and drissley so we couldn't go to the outer reef. We saw lots of turtles from the boat didn't manage to see any while i was snoorkeling. On the last day we sailed back to Airlie beach it was amazing. i Loved it!

Airlie beach to hervey bay to fraiser island via krombit cattle staion.

Krombit was stop over on way to hevery bay, At Krombit We hearded goat, had roast goat and learnt how to crack a whip! All good country fun

Hervey bay is a gate way to Fraiser island, Where 10 of us crammed into a 4x4 wheel truck and camped on the biggest sand island. Camping was great altho the sand got everywhere and no showers for 2 days, also we couldn't go in the sea unless you wanted to risk life against sharks, jelly fish and rip currents! All in all tho a good weekend, camping and drinking and 4x4 wheel driving.

Hervey bay to Noosa to Brisbane.

Pretty uneventfull when we left Hervey bay it was raining and it didn't stop till we got to Brisbane. i was gonna stay at noosa and chill at the beach but thats all there is to do and no fun in the rain.

Brisbane was great although they did have the worst storms in 20yrs while i was there. The storms were only at night and apart from getting rained on while sleeping because the window leaked, it was no problem. The weather during the day was great. I went for a big culture enriched walk on one of the days. Went to all the museums and art galleries. They were great. I espcially liked the contempory art gallery. There was a short flim with too people in a flat in separate rooms turing the lights on and off to music very funny! I felt very cultured by the end of the day. On the way back there was a camper van with Darth Vader on the side of it and on the back it said "come to the dark side....we have cookies" that made me laugh out loud while waiting at the traffic lights. Also saw a badge that said "out of my mind....be back in a while" Just had to share that.....

Last day at Brisbane i met up with Nicki smith from work she moved out here 2 yrs ago, we spent the day catching up and talking about work and home i had a great day. It was so nice to see someone from home.

Northern Teritory

snowy — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:00:00 GMT

The OZ experience begins!

My oz experience started on the 10th of Oct, i arrived in Darwin at dawn even then it was hot! so nice to be away from the humdity of singapore and thailand!

I jumped straight onto a tour to KaKado national park, after a night out with some locals who insisted on me staying for just 1 more drink, a couple of Scooners and Jager bombs later and it was midnight before i got back i intended to stay out only for 1 drink. Its never just 1 drink! Anyways with the taste of jager bomb still in my mouth i got on the bus at 5.30 to go to out to the bush!

We did some treking and checked out some dry waterfalls. On the second day we went Croc hunting on the Mary river and saw some massive crocs! mostly little FRESHY's (that fresh water crocs). We slept in tents and watched the sun set over a remote billybong. (waterhole, lake thing) I wangled a third day, I was meant to go back with another group on the second day but the guide let me stay! woohoo! We headed to litchfield national park on the third day, spent the day in and out of rock pools and waterfalls. So awesome! Even managed to get some fresh Baramundi from some guys in the pool back at the camp site, Me ad 2 aussie girls on the tour sweet talked some aussies who had been fishing that day, got free beer and fish, Good skills i say!

After a stop over at Darwin i headed to Alice springs very early the next morning. It took 3days traveling in a mini bus with stops at Katherine Gorge and Tenant creek. From Alice sorings we headed to the red centre to check out Uluru and kings Caynon. We spent 2days in the centre, got up for sunrise at Uluru it was amazing check out the pic's. We were so lucky it was a full moon on the first night the night sky was truely brilliant, clearer sky than i'd eva seen before. Back at Alice springs for 1 night then heading to Cairns to start The east coast trip!

Till the next story of the east coast .............

Gallery: Darwin and red centre

snowy — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:44:00 GMT

Singapore

snowy — Wed, 8 Oct 2008 22:06:00 GMT

Last leg of South east Asia Tour

Another boarder crossing brings us to are final destination in south east asia; Singapore. Its a very westernized city very colourful and vibrant, and very expensive. We spent are last night in the very posh part of Singapore called Clarke Quay. We had Singapore Slings in Raffles hotel, 25$ thats 18ish pounds. Very expensive but it was worth it, my new favourite drink, plus its lush pink coloured, Get in! You all know how much i like pink or purple drinks. Its all Good! Next pub was a hospital themed place where we sat in hospital beds or wheel chairs and were served 30quid cocktails from a drip, by bar staff in scrubs! Very cool place, thats what all hospitals should have.

After a night of expensive drinking, we all said goodbye and went are separate ways. All very sad, i even shed a tear:-( It was a great two weeks with the group, Thanx everyone hope we can meet up in Oz.

The next couple of days were spent mostly chilling out and relaxing around mount emily, a quite little hostel just far away from the crazyness of little india. I hung around with 2 girls from the hostel, Shannon and Mel. We had alot of fun they were a really good laugh. We did some sight seeing, went to china town, little india, the botanic gardens and the zoo. (hense the pictures of flowers and animals)

Next stop OZ! Cant wait.

Gallery: Singapore

snowy — Wed, 8 Oct 2008 13:31:00 GMT

Southern Thailand and Malaysia

snowy — Fri, 3 Oct 2008 13:56:00 GMT

After a long Train ride to Ko sok national park we checked into the most amazing place at the edge of the jungle. The little resort consisted of these little beach style bungalows surrounded by palm trees. We went Tubeing down the river, it was awesome like being in the middle of nowhere and we could hear monkeys calling in the distance.The next day we went to a massive lake and visited a floating village. I think i found tracy island as well!

Check out my pics of the lake and the Crystal caves.

Next stop was Krabi, we chilled out on the beach for 3days and took boat trips to the near by islands of Phi Phi, bamboo island and the place they flimed the beach. The white sands and clear blue sea were breathtaking! wish we could of stayed longer!

The last part of the tour took us into malaysia and we city hopped for a few days stopping only for a night at each. So we didn't really do much, Kuala Lumpa was the nicest city out of the 3 we stopped in, the tour Ended in Singapore. Singapore is massive city although not a crazy as bangkok and 10times more expensive, very much like uk prices. It has a very Uk feel about it but on a grander scale. In fact alcohol is outragously expensive 10 quid a pint! Paid 15pounds for a singapore sling in raffles but it was worth it just for the experience.

Gallery: Krabi and malaysia

snowy — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:05:00 GMT

8th-19th sept

snowy — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:35:00 GMT

Hey there the snowy adventure begins!

I Arrived Bangkok on the 8th took a couple of dys RNR got used to the crazy Bangkok way of life. There are so many people here! They all call u over and want to sell you something or take u in a taxi or Tuk tuk. Takes some getting used to but it was all good once i got over the culture shock! I did some site seeing (check out the budda pics!) I was most impressed by the Grand palace it defo does what it says on the tin, its Grand!.

On day 4 i meet my group for north Thai tour. 3 glasgow lassies an Ozzy couple and me. We all got on great. We took a night train to Chang mai, which is supprisingly comfortable as they have beds and everything! But u know me i'll sleep anywhere! I love Chang mai esp since i'd seen enough of Bangkok and couldn't wait for Fresh air. Its chilled relaxed and green! After a 2hour taxi ride in a truck thingy that reminded me of the ghoust buster car, We started are trek way up in the hills in the cloud line! We walked for 3 hours with regular leech checking stops, Best way to kill a leech and most satisfying is to burn it! we were expecting them to bite are legs but i managed to get one on the base of my back! didn't hurt but is itchy n bleed a bit after the leech had had enough of my obviously sweet blood (no one elxe got biten!) That night we stayed in a hill tribe village in little bamboo huts on stilts! was awesome. the jungle is really nosiy, these sakaydia (cricket things i cant spell) make noises just like a fire alarm! Day two walked for another 3-4 hours to an elephant camp and took elephant taxi for the last hour of are trek to the Karen village. We stayed in larger bamboo hut together that night. The next day we travelled for 2 hours down the river to the nearest road, by bamboo raft, got rather wet but noone fell in Whoop whoop! i was sure i was gonna fall in!

Yesterday we took train back to Bangkok and said good bye to the group, and joined a new one for the south thai part of my trip endding in singapore! Group is cool we all got to know each other last night over a wee drinkies on the ko san rd. Theres 16 of us 5irish, a loud scott, 2 norwegen girls, 2 english couples and me!

Check out the pic's.

BRB with more stories n pics soon! xx

Gallery: Bangkok and chang mai

snowy — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:21:00 GMT

temples n treking