Food Market - Locusts

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Tian'anman Square, Guards etc.

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Home Sweet Home...

Hi Everyone,
We spent our last day in NYC mostly sleeping. We didn't have to check out of the hostel until 12noon so we packed the night before and stayed in bed until 11am! Was sooooooooo nice! lol!
We then got up, checked out of the hostel and left our bags downstairs. We headed to the Barking Dog Diner on the corner of 94th Street and 3rd Ave (the corner of the road we were on)! I had a burger, and Rob had some kind of breaded pasta thing with a pot of tomato sauce. Never really understood exactly what that actually was! lol! We stayed having lunch until about 1:45pm and then headed across the road to Duane Reade to get Rob some ibuprofen.
After this we went back to the hostel to go on the internet, I had a good look at Obama's website. At 2:50pm we got our bags and started the journey to JFK airport. This should have been easy but unfortunately due to the Pope's visit the Manhattan transport network was a bit messed up and we didn't actually get to Terminal 7 until 4:30pm. Luckily we had checked in online the night before so we just had to check our bags via the 'fast bag drop' queue. This queue was not in fact 'fast' as it had been advertised! lol! JFK airport in general seemed to be EXTREMELY disorganised. We had to queue for ages at security, which at other airports had been quite quick. By this time it was coming up to 6pm. I talked to my parents and Jenny on the phone for about 20mins then we headed for the gate. Weirdly the 19:30 plane boarded before us (the 19:00 plane!). We didn't really understand this. Also when they boarded us, bearing in mind this was a boeing 747-400 which is a huge double decker plane they just said everyone can board instead of staggering the boarding based on seat numbers! This causes the whole thing to be a lot slower! lol! Don't really know why they were being soooo disorganised!
When we finally got on the plane we didn't take off for about another 40mins because the airport was soooo busy, 40 planes had to take off before us! lol! Anyways, the plane journey was fine. The plane had flown from london with a broken entertainment system (poor people on the london to nyc flight for 7 hours), however they managed to get a technician to fix it so we got 21 channels! Which was absolutely fine! I watched Doctor Who Christmas Special, Dragons Den, Ps I Love You and the Golden Compass. It worries me that 7 hrs doesn't seem that long anymore! lol! It was really weird to hear English accents on the plane, I didn't realise how long it had been since people with English accents were talking around me! So weird! lol!
Anyways, we landed at 7:15am (English time) to a cold and rainy England! We managed to drop 11 degrees from the NYC temperature! So annoying! We queued for AGES at passport control and then grabbed our bags. We finally emerged at Arrivals at 8:20am. I met my parents and Jen(yey!!!) and we sat down and had a coffee and 'breakfast' in Starbucks at Heathrow for a while before we headed back home (via the butchers). Was soooooooooo nice to see them!!!! lol! When we got home I saw fat boy!!!!! He looks soooooooooooo good, hes put on more weight and his fur is looking sooooooooo healthy, plus his chest has properly grown back!!!
I've just spent the day chillaxing, I had a two hour nap before lunch (although I didn't just go to bed when we got in). I've been rotating photos for ages, the final photo count for the whole 2 1/2 months is 6369!!! Owwww yes! lol! Tonight, we're having shepherd's pie tonight soooo I'm soooo excited!
I've had the most AMAZING couple of months! I can't describe how good it has been!!! It was soooooo lovely to go and see family and friends in Australia and New Zealand! I hope that it won't be tooo long until I see you all again! I'm pleased that I managed to do it, even all the 9 (!!!) flights!!! I really want to go and see more stuff, I could of carried on for longer but I am very happy to be home and can't wait to see everyone!!!
I want to thank Rob for putting up with me 24/7 for the last 2 and 1/2 months, for waking me up every morning and for always holding my hand as we took off and landed! I'm very glad I got to share this experience with a pain in the butt like him! lol! I think we mutually pushed each other into doing things we would not have done otherwise (although I never managed to get him to go Zorbing!) and I am therefore very very thankful to him for that! lol! Also I want to thank my parents for always telling me that I would be fine! I got into a routine of needing my rents and Rob to all say you'll be fine and to wear the socks that my nan and gramps got me which have now been dubbed 'the flight socks' that I wore on every flight!
I hope you have enjoyed my EPIC e-mails over the last couple of months! It's going to be weird not writing them everyday!
I can't wait to see everyone and hope you all are well! I'll upload all the pics to flickr this week!
I'M HOME!!!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Staten Island, Shopping and Lombardi's...

Hi Everyone,
We've had a really good day!
We headed down to Battery Park for 9.30am (when it opened) to get the ferry to Ellis Island/Liberty Island, however when we got there (again, when it opened!) there was already a queue for an 1 and a half. We therefore made a decision to get the Staten Island Ferry instead so we could see the statue of liberty but quicker (and for free!), this was really good!!! We do however feel guilty for not going to Ellis Island (for me... AGAIN!).
After our Staten Island Ferry ride we headed up to Soho so Rob could buy some jeans. We went into Dean and Deluca to get some lunch. I got a ham and brie sandwich and Rob got cajun chicken pasta. They were both really nice. We headed over to the Spring Street playground to eat these which was really nice. After this we ACTUALLY managed to get some jeans! Finally!!! We then went to Bloomie's to get my mum some stuff (she got a free bag!!!).
After this we headed up to the washington square park area to get some stuff in American Apparel for Rob. We wandered through the hub of NYU. I got a voucher for free coffee in starbucks - which we then promptly used, I got really sad in Starbucks cause I realised that the trip was ending... don't know why this happened in Starbucks but there you go! lol! After this we headed up to the Upper West Side to look for Steak Knives for my dad, we tried three places and couldn't find them so had to give up on that one.
After this we headed into Time Square so Rob could go to the trashy souvenir shops. We had a look in Toys 'R' Us and in the MTV store (I really wanted the 'Team Lauren' shirt!!!). After we had had enough of Time Square... Quickly! We headed over to Little Italy again, we decided to have our final dinner meal of the trip (except the 'lovely' plane food) in Lombardi's. Yes, I know this was the second time, but you have nooooo idea how good it is! lol! This was really really lovely!
We then headed (our very full selves) back to the hostel and packed our bags... which took ages! lol!
Tomorrow we are checking out of the hostel around 12 noon and having lunch in a cafe next door. We are headed for the airport around 3ish, our flight is at 7pm!
Sooooo weird!
I hope everyone is fab!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Guggenheim, Katz's, Financial District, Coney Island and The Met...

Hi Everyone,
Yesterday we headed for the Guggenheim to see the Cai Guo-Qiang exhibit. As usual with the Guggenheim the building is amazing but the exhibit lets it down a bit. The cars in the main atrium were amazing... I really really liked it but the rest of the exhibit I wasn't a fan of.
After the Guggenheim we headed down to the lower east side to go to Katz's! This was soooooo good, I had a salami sandwich and Rob had a knockelwurst (or something like that! lol). It was soooooo good as per usual!
After Katz's we got the bus to the financial district. We were intending to get the ferry to Liberty and Ellis Island but Smile being Smile blocked my card cause they thought fraud was going on (even though I told them where i would be), I had to ring them (which will cost loads) for them to apologise loads! Was sooooo annoying! Anyway, we decided it was too late so we headed to have a look at Wall street and the NY stock exchange and then we went along to see Ground Zero cause Rob wanted to see it. They have changed it now, they have viewing decks and a visitor centre.
After this we headed to Newport so I could see where I would be living if I get the internship... we walked around a lot and I couldn't really work out where I would be living. According to the map I would be living in Walgreens... I don't think that was right! lol! The area seemed nice though and the path train goes straight to Greenwich Village which is cool!
After that we headed into Greenwich Village to go to the moondance diner but it appears that this has closed down. Instead we headed for a place called the cupping tea cafe. This was really really nice. I had a caesar salad with grilled chicken that would of feed about 7 people! It was ridiculous! It was the first place we went to that we didn't feel completely stuffed when we left! A very good thing! lol! After that we headed back to the hostel and just hung out.
Today we headed over to Coney Island, we got there about 12pm and had a Nathan's hot dog. We saw the sign that says 'Joey Cheshunt' who won the world hotdog eating competition, he had 66 dogs in 12 minutes! Soooooo scary! We then had a wander down the board walk and went on the beach. It was as per usual, an EXTREMELY odd place! They have closed down the us army recruitment office below the freak show!
After a wander around we headed back to the city to go to the Met. I decided to split up because we wanted to see completely different things. I went to see the Modern Art exhibit, the Tara Donovan, the Photography on Photography, the Pop Art, the Jasper Johns (wasn't impressed), the Gustave Coubet and the Chinese garden. The Met is RIDICULOUSLY HUGE!!! I got lost on several occasions! It was good though. I'm jealous of Rob cause he saw Lily Cole! Soooo annoying! lol! I was also disappointed cause the roof garden doesn't open until May and I really wanted to see that! Sucks!
After the Met we headed back to the hostel for the free pizza party! We've just chilled out from then on, Rob still isn't feeling great!
Tomorrow we are going to actually go to Liberty/Ellis Island and then Rob wants to do some more shopping!
Can't believe its our last full day of the WHOLE TRIP!!! Its sooooo weird!
I hope everyone is good!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Chinatown, Soho, 5th Ave, Little Italy and Lombardi's...

Hi Everyone,
We've had a great day!
Today was shopping day so we headed to Chinatown to begin with. We had a look around the stalls got offered endless 'louis bags' and 'chanel purse', we however managed to resist this! lol! We got what we wanted in Chinatown and then decided to have lunch.
We headed to the Excellent Dumpling House which was most excellent! I finally managed to eat dumplings again!!! They were soooooooo good! We remembered to tip (long story!) as well! We had fried pork dumplings, scallion pancakes and steamed dumplings! They were sooooooo good! I'm glad I managed to break the dumpling barrier!!! lol!
After that we headed to Soho and had a look around loads and loads of shops! We had a look in American Apparel, Lucky Brand Demin, Calvin Klein, Station A, Dean and Deluca, Old Navy and Bloomingdales among many many more!!! I got my makeup done in Bloomingdales at the Benefit counter! Was soooooo good! I didn't have scary eyebrows like last time! lol!
After that we headed over to 5th Avenue cause we wanted to go to Abercrombie and Gap. I had a look at the newish underground Apple store (loved it!). Abercrombie was fun, weird that they have a semi naked man to meet you on the way in! The store was really hot and dark, so not the best shopping environment! Hmmmmmm!!! After Abercrombie and Gap (and H&M) we headed to have a cup of coffee and then we headed back over to Little Italy (via Brooklyn - subway mishap! lol).
We wandered down to Lombardi's and had to wait about 20mins to get a table... BUT IT WAS WELLLLLL WORTH IT!!! Lombardi's was AMAZINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!! As per usual! We had half and half, Rob had Meatballs and spinach and I had Meatballs and red onion! It was just as good as always, really really was amazing!!! They've got an underground bit there... they may have had it before but I never noticed it! lol!
After the amazing meal we headed back to the hostel! All in all a fantastic day! Tomorrow is Guggenheim, Ellis and Liberty Island and Katz's!!! Very excited!
I hope everyone is fantastic!!!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Flower in Waitamo Village...

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Originally uploaded by sarahalice19

Monterey

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Originally uploaded by sarahalice19

Brooklyn...

Hi Everyone,
I hope everyone is good!
We had a lazy sunday! We got up and headed into Park Slope in Brooklyn to have brunch. After walking in the wrong direction I finally found the place that we wanted to go. This was a cafe I went to with my parents and jen, they do really good brunch for $12.95 that includes unlimited champagne, mimosa or bloody marys!!!
For the record so we don't have to hunt for this place again, this cafe is called Sottovoce and its on the corner of 7th Ave and 4th Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I had eggs benedict and Rob had omelette! We both had lots of champagne as well! I still cannot believe this only cost us 6.50 pounds each!!! Bargain! IT WAS SOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!
After that we headed along 7th Avenue having a look into lots of shops, picking up bits and bobs (prezzies) as we went along!!! We got a cup of coffee in a place called Ozzie's and headed to have a wander around Prospect Park. If I remember correctly Prospect Park was designed by the designers who designed (sorry! lol) Central Park, however they had learnt from any mistakes they felt they had made in Central Park so Prospect Park is reported to be better. It was really cold (and we weren't really dressed for cold weather) so we had a wander around but not a huge one. The park seemed less 'designed' and less segmented than central park. I liked it a lot. It felt like more of a retreat than Central Park, less stylized and more relaxed! The meadow takes up more of the park so I suppose it feels more integrated. I liked it alot.
After this we headed back to Ozzie's for some tea, this was really nice and we made a few lists of things we need to get done before we come home! Only 4 full days to go! We thought about going to a place called 'The Farm on Adderley' a restaurant in Newkirk but I couldn't remember if this was expensive or not so we decided to go and have a drink in St Mark's Place (back in Manhattan) and then work out dinner from there.
After our drink and a look around St Mark's Place (including a comic book store) we went over to Soho/Greenwich Village (it was right on the border) to a place called Arthor's. This place is up with Lombardi's as the rough guide's best pizza 'pies' in the city. I have to say... it does NOT beat Lombardi's. The pizza was good but Lombardi's has a better sauce and base, also the place in general was really really dark. It was however very nice that they played live jazz while you eat. But even the jazz does not push this restaurant into Lombardi's league! lol!
All in all a really lovely day. Tomorrow we are hitting Chinatown, Soho and Little Italy! I'm very excited! We've decided to break through the dumpling barrier and go to the excellent dumpling house at lunch time. I think this has to be done in order to allow me to eat dumplings again! lol! I'll report on our day tomorrow... although we are going to Lombardi's tomorrow so I maybe too full to type! lol!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

West Side Day...

Hi Everyone,
I hope everyone is well!
Rob wasn't very well yesterday so we didn't do anything, we went out in the evening to grab take out pizza but thats all we managed.
Today he is feeling alot better so we decided to do our 'West side' day which is quite slow pace.
We headed to Columbus Circle and got the bus up the West side to Zabars (my favourite deli in NYC). We got picnic stuff; cheese, salami, bread, chicken etc. We then wandered into Central park and had a picnic. This was really nice... I love the squirrels!!! lol!
After our picnic we headed down to have a quick walk around central park towards strawberry fields. We exited the park at the Dakota building and got the subway up to Cathedral parkway.
This is up at the top of central park and is where St John the Divine Cathedral is and Columbia University. We had a look in the childrens sculpture garden and then went into the Cathedral. This is reported as the largest cathedral in the world, however some say it is just the largest in North America. I think the differing opinion comes from what you define as a cathedral. The cathedral is in fact very large but you cannot get the effect of this due to most of it being partitioned off because of the fire in 2001. I thought this might have been completed by now but it hadn't been. I think the cathedral really represents the culture in America of the bigger is better approach, therefore it tends to lack any ornate elegance. Rob's believes that the cathedral is just a reflection of it being a 20th century cathedral rather than a renaissance church.
Hmmmmm possibly a bit of both.
After that we walked around Columbia university, they have some kind of fundraising festival on. The university is notably smaller than Berkeley or Yale but is very attractive.
After this we went to a cafe called the pastry company (where I had been before with my Parents and Jen) to have some tea. Then we headed to Miss Mama's Spoonbread company which is a southern soul food restaurant. This was really really good! I had pork cops and rob had 'smothered chicken'. As in anywhere in America the portions were HUGE!!! lol! The meal was FANTASTIC THOUGH!!!
We got the bus back to our hostel after that and are just watching tv. Tomorrow we are going to go and have brunch in Brooklyn!!! I went out to find wine a minute ago and went to two shops, they both looked at me very oddly when I requested wine and I have ended up with beer.
I hope everyone is good (especially Sho!!!)!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Painted Ladies, SF Moma, Coit Tower, Alcatraz, Flying to New York, Jerry Seinfeld, Empire State, Greenwich Village and Simon Pegg etc...

Hi Everyone,
We've had a very fun filled few days (I couldn't track down an internet cafe - sorry guys!!!).
The last day in San Francisco we spent running around the city trying to see the last few things that we wanted to see! lol!
We started by getting a bus to the Painted Ladies. The painted ladies themselves did not prove to be a very interesting sight but it was worth the trip to see Alamo Square and the views of the city. Alamo square was very cute and the city views were fabulous (although we were to encounter better views later in the day up Coit Tower).
From there we headed back down to Montgomery to go to the San Franciscan Museum of Modern Art (SF MOMA). It didn't open until 11am so we grabbed a coffee from the Metreon centre and eat it while watching people doing Tai Chi (and with me having a rant about the fact America should spend less on defense and more on a national health care scheme!).
The SF MOMA is housed is a really beautiful, if a little odd, building. The lobby and staircase are made from black granite and the ceiling is white. There are also two huge psychodelic pictures either side of the central staircase. We started by seeing the Lee Friedlander exhibit, which I was really really impressed by. Hes an American photographer who over the past 40 or so years has taken pictures documenting American society. I really liked the Mount Rushmore photo. After that we had a look around the rest of the exhibits. The gallery spaces reminded me of Tate Modern. I was not amazingly impressed with the galleries permanent collection, I felt the artists pieces they had on show were not their best pieces (if that makes sense!). The gallery was really nice though and I'm really pleased we saw the Lee Friedlander exhibit.
After that we headed up the hill to Coit Tower. We got the escalator to the top of the tower itself. This was really cool, it had fantastic views over the city and bay, well worth doing if you visit San Fran. The gardens and houses around it are really cute too!
From there we headed down to Pier 33 to go on our Alcatraz 'Night tour', this tour left at 4.40pm and came back at 7.30pm or 8.15pm so it was more of a late afternoon tour! lol! We were a bit early so we had a coffee while we waited. We boarded the boat and took a bit of a cruise around the bay on the way to ALLLLCCCCAATTTTTRRRRAAZZZZZZ. When we arrived a guide walked us up the hill to the prison telling us about a success story of Alcatraz and a failure story of Alcatraz. The success story went on the foster 96 children!!! Apparently he just turned up on the tour one day and when a guide jokingly asked if anyone in the group had been in the prison he kept putting his hand up, they checked it out and he had! Alcatraz is the prison prisoners go to if they have tried to escape from other prisons, this meant that it had a mix of offenders, some may have been serving time for petty offenses, some were murderers etc.
We walked into the prison and they gave us audio tapes to listen too, these were actually really really good and led you around the prison. They were narrated by old prisoners and guards from Alcatraz. They would explain certain escape attempts and also different events in Alcatrazs' history. We took the tour and then spent sometime outside watching the sun go down. 'The Rock' is actually a really really pretty spot!!! We then got the boat back to the City as the sun was setting across the bay! Was lovely!!!
From there we headed to Burgermeister, which was well nice. Award winning burgers made from Niman Beef.
The following morning we got the airport door to door service bus back to San Fran airport. We had a bit of confusion while checking in cause they made us check in at the self-service desk, when I tried to check in it wouldn't let me. Then a women came over and just checked in our bags and walked off and didn't check me in. Another guy helped, it turned out that my itinery had Rob's reference number on it. The original women told me I had been moved to another flight! I was soooo scared! But it was fine, it all worked out. We went through security and I had a chat with my parents and Granny while eating some lunch. We got the plane at 1.30pm. The flight was fine, a bit turbulancy but fine. A film called Waterdragon was on, which was effectively some kind of Lochness monster film. Rob ignored it and hated it until the little kid said to the waterdragon "You're the best friend I ever had" now he thinks its awesome and cute. Hmmmmmm! Lol! The flight was 5 and a half hours long (only an hour and a half less than the flight back to the UK!). We arrived at 10pm (time difference!!!). We saw the NYC skyline as we arrived! Was sooooo pretty!
We got off the plane and headed to the subway station, Rob still thinks he saw Kofi Annan at the subway station, he definately did not unless Kofi Annan has started working for the MTA (Metropolitan Transport Authority). Rob thinks he may have decided to work for the MTA as a more slow paced job after the UN!!! lol! We got the subway to our hostel which is in the Upper East Side. Its called the wanderers inn, its really cute!!! Its in a brownstone building! Also we thought we would be in an 8 dorm and were in a 4 dorm so thats awesome! Although the women on the desk was a bit rude and then added 80 dollars of taxes to our bill!!! I'm going to check this with hostelworld who we booked though!!! Anyways, after we had checked in we grabbed a slice of pizza and then headed to bed after that!
Yesterday we got up (a little later than expected... my sedatives always make me need a long sleep the next day!!!) and we walk the 4 blocks to fifth avenue. We got the bus down to the Empire State Building. The subway would have been quicker but I thought the bus was good so Rob could see a bit of the city! Plus, on the way down I SAW JERRY SEINFELD!!! He was standing on the back of a paramount pictures lorry outside the Met!!! It was sooooo cool! Such a cool spot, their filming something in a building across the road from the Met... have to find out what that is!!!
After all that excitement we headed up the Empire State, this was really cool, although it was a bit of a misty day! I don't like how the Empire State just funnel you around different rooms as well!!! From there we headed to Greenwich Village to go to a cafe called Grey Dog for lunch. This was a really cool place, I really liked it! It had a really nice atmosphere and served really nice food at a very reasonable price... definately recommend that one! After that we walked down Bleeker to go to Magnolia Bakery, Rob started elbowing me really really hard I was like WHAT? I looked up and walking down the road right past us was SIMON PEGG!!! Wearing some really really nice glasses! He blantantly saw we were staring at him cause my mouth dropped wide open!!! HES SOOOOOOO FIT!!! Such a cool spot, Rob just stopped and looked around and stared at him and couldn't say anything except what sounded like 'ohurrr' for the next minute!!! lol!
We then went to Magonlia bakery and had AMAZING cakes... as per usual!!! lol! We sat in the square and eat those. From there we headed over to see the Tiles for America 9/11 memorial. Then we headed into Brooklyn. We wandered around Brooklyn heights and had a coffee, then we went into the second hand book store that when my dad went in the man behind the counter said "Is this your first day here? Can I just take this opportunity to apologise for our president" lol! We got 5 books for $3.49!!! I got two about Bush... one by Maureen Dowd which is very interesting!!!
From there we walked down the Brooklyn Prom and then over the Brooklyn bridge!!! We headed into the square by the courthouse where they filmed the new Bravia advert! After that we headed back into Greenwich Village and went to Corner Bistro! This was really cool, but not as good as last time! After that we headed to a place called Peculiar Pub, which was really cool and sells more than 500 beers!!! lol!
Today we got up and headed to Central Park around lunchtime (Rob did laundry in the morning). We grabbed some picnic stuff and sat and had a picnic! Such nice weather today, the evening was 16 degrees and it was hotter during the day!
From there we headed to the Whitney where we saw the Bienntial exhibition, I have to say I've always liked the Whitney's exhibits but I was not impressed by this one. There were some nice pieces but apparently this exhibition has been known to be a bit hit and miss!
After the Whitney we headed over to grab some dinner, we walked staight past Zelda from Sabrina the Teenage Witch on the way!!! lol! We headed to Comfort Diner, which I really like! Rob eat the epic piece of chocolate cake, which when I was there last time I asked for a small piece of and the guy laughed at me! lol! He finished it off! I thought he was going to through up but he managed it and proclaimed that throwing up was cheating! lol!
After that HUGE meal we walked to Grand Central Station, which is sooooo cool! Rob was very impressed! He proclaimed that it was "More palacial than Buckingham Palace" (Lis!!! lol). Then he took it back and said that might be a little silly! lol!
We then got the subway to the Rockefeller centre, we wanted to do this so that Rob could see the city from above by day (Empire State) and above by night (Rockefeller Centre). I actually prefer the Rockefeller centre because it has nicer displays and more space at the top, unlike the Empire State where you get push around weird rooms that they try to sell you more and more stuff in! lol! We watched a couple of short films about the centre and then went up to the 'Top of the Rocks'. The view was stunning, it looks sooooooo lovely at night!!! We spent about an hour up there and then headed back to the hostel!
The plan for today was to go to Coney Island and then to the New York Public Library and the UN building, then to St Mark's Place for dinner but unfortunately, Rob isn't feeling very well so hes in bed! We'll have to see what we end up getting up to today! Luckly I have my Bushworld book, which I AM LOVING reading!
I hope everyone is well!!!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Castro, Mission Dolores and Yosemite...

Hi Everyone,

I hope you guys are all good!

It was two weeks yesterday until we get home... its really really weird!!!

Yesterday we went to check out Castro. We headed up through China town and then got a cable car to Polk and Bush (to finally upload my pictures!!!), from there we walked through Civic Square and got the BART train to Castro.

We were going to go somewhere else but I really really don´t like the area at the bottom of Van Ness. Isn´t very nice!!! lol!

When we got to Castro, which is a well nice area, we headed up Noe Street towards Noe Hill to a place called Jumpin´ Java´s. This place was really cute. All the coffee shops have WiFi so everyone just seems to sit on laptops. 1) This annoys me cause of the lack of internet cafes!!! lol! 2) It seems to mean that the cafes loose any atmosphere because NOONE talks to each other, they just sit and surf the internet. Its kind of a really weird culture. It seems like friends don´t go for a coffee they just go to sit and surf the internet while sitting next to each other. Odd! lol!

After that we wandered around castro and walked down to Mission Dolores. This is a really lovely building. You can see it from Market and it seems to fit in really well with the neighborhoods that surround it.

After that we did a bit of a loop and ended up at the other end of Castro where we went to a bar called Mix. This was a really cool place, although we couldn´t work out why the garden was soooo cold. The sun is really warm but the wind is really cold and it channels its way down the San Franciscan streets, the bar was sheltered from the wind so we really couldn´t work it out! lol! We had a round there which was really cheap (3.50 pounds for a wine and beer!).

After that we just had a mosy around the shops and I brought my gossip magazines. We went and hung out in a place called Orphan Andy´s. This was a cute American diner. We just read and had a bite to eat.

After that we got the tram down market and had a wander around the mall. Some salesman tried to sell me straighteners by straightening only one side of my head, needless to say I then had to walk around looking very odd! lol!

We got back to the hostel around 10 and just chilled out.

This morning we got up at 5.30am OW YES I DID SAY 5.30AM!!!! So early! A bus picked us up at 6.40am!!! It took us about 4 hours to get to Yosemite National Park... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosemite

We passed the most ridiculous amount of SUVs, I really have never seen sooooo many people driving SUVs before. They all drive on these amazingly preserved highways as well... there is literally NO GOOD REASON FOR THEM TO OWN THEM AT ALL. We also went past a huge wind far which was really pretty (but won´t offset the SUVs!).

Yosemite is a HUGE national park in California. It is ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. Rob actually went as far as to say that it was prettier than Milford Sound!!! It is full of the biggest trees I´ve ever seen in my entire life and huge waterfalls, huge rocks etc.

We saw El Capitan, The half dome, the cathedral, Bridavell falls and soooooo much more. I don´t really even know how to describe it! Its totally immense!!! lol! I have pictures, I think we might just have to go with that!

We headed out of the park around 3.30pm and got back here at around 8pm!

We are now gonna get take out pizza! Tomorrow we are going to Coit Tower, the painted ladies and we have booked a night tour of ALCATRAZ!!! Which I´m very excited about! Last full day in San Fran tomorrow! Can´t believe it its gone soooooo quickly!!!

Lots of Love,

Sarah xxx

Berkeley...

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are all really well!

We headed to Berkeley today on the Bart train, this took about 15mins
(after I got up late - Rob would like me to inform everyone! lol). When we
got to Berkeley we headed straight for Cafe Milano (recommended by my
sister - she spent the summer in Berkeley doing a summer course last
year!). I had a coffee and read the New York Times. Rob had a foccacia
turkey sandwich and a lemonade! The cafe was sooooo nice. Except possibly
the crying couple next to us (we think they may have been breaking up).
The cafe has an amazing beamed ceiling and a roof that opens up. It made
me want to go back to Uni! lol!

After that we headed to have a look around the student store, I love
American universities cause they really do have their name on every
possible type of merchandise you can think of! Really EVERYTHING you can
think of!

We had a wander through Sather Gate and were asked to vote for someone for
some kind of student union post, they had loads of political protests
going on etc. We walked up past Bacon hall to the Sather Tower and went up
that! The view from the top was fantastic, you get a complete view over
the campus, the weather was fantastic and the sky was really clear so that
was really cool (if not a tad chilly!). Its actually a students job to
push the buttons in the elevator! Such a cool job! lol!

After that we wandered down to the university library (Doe library) and
had a look around that! The morrison reading room looked AMAZING!!! It was
newer than the UL at Cam but still very impressive. I didn´t realise the
undergrown stacks were an addition.

From there we wandered down past the free speech movement cafe. We read
the newspapers that they print up really big everyday from several
countries. We read the Guardian!!! Was soooo nice to see it! lol! Love the
naomi campbell T5 incident! lol!

From there we wandered down past the Living Sciences buildings and through
the trees and out onto the road that leads onto the Bart station. The
campus was filled with beautiful blossom trees, it was sooooooo pretty!
Very very green! People were just sunbathing and playing frizbee!

I grabbed a burrito at the place on the street then we headed back through
the otherside of Campus so we could go and see Jen´s accommodation. We
ended up walking past the music buildings and came out right by Cafe
Strada. We walked past a really nice fountain... very nice sculpture in
it! We grabbed a drink there and then went to find Jen´s accommodation! It
was sooooo nice (from the outside - didn´t get to go inside!), the unit
was really really nice. Would be nice to sit in the centre and do some
work there!

From there we headed back up to Bancroft and had a look in American
Apparel, Rob and I disagreed on whether a top was for a man or woman! lol!
We then headed into the collegiate shop (another one) and had a look
around, Then to urban outfitters! Which always seems to place itself next
to college campuses in the US... there was one next to Yale as well! lol!

Owww we also had a look in the avant-card card shop, which was soooo cute!
It had a bumper sticker for American´s that said ´I love my country... but
I think we should start seeing other people´ - LOVED THAT!!!!!!

After that we headed back down to try and find an internet cafe! We
literally have not seen one internet cafe in San Francisco AT ALL. There
are WIFi zones EVERYWHERE but no internet cafes at all... I don´t
understand this we are right next to SILLICON VALLEY!!!! We have computers
in the hostel (obviously otherwise you wouldn´t be getting this e-mail!
lol!) but the PC is in a box locked up. I have run out of room on my
camera and desperately need to upload my photos!!! I found an internet
point but the software meant I only had access to the internet and not the
´my computer´ facility!!!

Anyways, I was really really impressed with Berkeley, it was a really
really nice campus! Would be a really nice place to study!

Jen- I couldn´t find the drink you were talking about... can we get it in
San Fran???

After that we got the Bart train back to the city. We headed for an
Italian restaurant at Columbus and Union called L´Osteria. We shared sweet
red peppers with garlic and parsley. For main I had a ham and artichoke
pizza and Rob had bolognese. The pizza was good but it didn´t beat
Tomosso´s!!! For dessert we had bittersweet chocolate mousse, which was
lovely! We also had procecco... this never fails to remind me of Noah!!!
lol!

We´ve now headed back to the hostel! Tomorrow is internet cafe day (I
think I´ve found one) and more importantly ALCATRAZ!!! Or as Eddie puts it
AAAAALLLLLCCCCAAATTTRRRAZZZZZ! lol! Love it!!!

Lots of Love,

Sarah xxx

Leaving Monterey and Tomasso´s...

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone is really well!

Last night in Monterey (mon-a-raaaaayyyyyyy) we headed to a restaurant on
Cannery Row. All I can say about this is when we walked in all I could
think was that my parents would hang their heads in shame if they saw me
eating in a place like that! It was not great, gimmiky and a waste of
money. However afterwards we headed to a bar called Sly McFlys which was
really cute. It had a live jazz jamming session going on, it was a really
cute place! I liked it a lot. After that we just headed back to the olde
hostel, which was a really nice hostel. Very impressed with HI Monterey!

This morning Rob got up at 6.30am and went for a walk to a place called
Lovers point, he said it was a little underwhelming but he liked that all
the joggers and dog walkers said good morning to each other! lol! I got up
at 8.30am, had a shower and surfed the internet. At 9.15am I made American
Pancakes for breakie for me and Rob! They came out really really well and
were really cute!!! lol!

After breakie we headed back down into Cannery Row and had a walk on the
beach and a look at some shops. We brought a newspaper and walked down the
Monterey recreation trail. It was a really really lovely walk. We stopped
at another beach and read the newspaper and then headed along further to
the marina and saw about 50 SEALS just lounging around in the water and on
the rocks. It was SOOOOOOO COOOL, they looked sooooo cute. They were just
chillaxing! They reminded me of Baz soooooo much! lol!

After that we headed to fishermans wharf and had a look around the place!
It was a bit touristy but not too bad. We headed into the historic bit of
Monterey, although this confused me cause they named it the historic bit
but as far as I could tell it was newer than the Cannery Row area! lol!
Weird! We stopped off for Tacos (that werent anywhere near as good as La
Taqueras)! We then went to a coffee shop. Rob had a big brownie and I had
a coffee. I rang my parents to say hello as well! That was really nice!!!

After that we got a bus (that made both Rob and I feel sick!) to San Jose,
a train to Emeryville and then a bus to San Francisco. We headed back to
the hostel, via old navy. Rob has officially worked out exactly what you
can do to wind me up and when he is in a funny mood he deliberately tries
to do it! lol! Not a good thing for him to have completely mastered! lol!
He gets soooo much fun out of it as well! lol! :-)!

We checked into our hostel (back at the green tortoise) and then dumped
our stuff and headed literally across the road to a Italian restaurant
called Tomasso. This was soooo cute. It has a green door and no windows
and you go downstairs when you get in. Rob and I shared a Chicken and
Artichoke pizza, this was ABSOLUTELY amazing!!! I never thought to put
artichokes on a pizza but it was sooooooo good on it! I also had a
caprese! It made me laugh cause the enthusiastic bus driver from the day
before was like, owwww do you like Artichokes and we were obviously like
yer defo! She was like, well you should soooo go and get some deep fried
artichokes (artichokes are grown around here btw), we were like ummmm ok.
But obviously didnt cause they were deep fried! The pizza ones were not
obviously, they were sooooo good! Best pizza Ive had in AGES!!!! Perfectly
cooked, Id recommend this place to anyone. Plus it cost up 10 pounds each
for the pizza, salad, wine etc!

Weve now headed back to the hostel! Tomorrow is ACTUALLY going to be
Berkeley day!!! Cant wait, Iḿ so excited!!!

Lots of Love,

Sarah xxx

Golden Gate Bridge, Transport Disasters, Mon-er-raaaaaay...

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone is well!

We had a bit of a transit nightmare day yesterday. We seem to be having
problems with public transport in cities of late, finally made me realise
actually how good london transport is!!! However busy it gets!

Rob headed down to the ferry building to get our tickets for our trip down
the coast today earlier in the morning, when he got there at half ten
there was a sign saying 'out for lunch'! He ended up walking half way
around the city and back and ended up back at the Amtrak office at the
ferry building where he actually got our tickets.

This meant that he was late meeting me at the golden gate bridge look out
point, this was good cause as per usual I was late as well! lol! The
golden gate bridge is sooooooo amazing! I think its the most stunning
bridge I've ever seen! Its sooooo cool! Our original plan was to walk over
the bridge and catch a bus on the otherside to Berkeley. However this
didn't really work out...

We walked across the bridge which was ABSOLUTELY amazing!!! Fantastic
views of Alcatraz and of San Fran city. The city doesn't look as steep
from a far as it is when you're climbing some of those bad ass hills! lol!
Although they haven't been soooo bad! We strolled across the bridge really
calmly and took lots of photos (of course). Did you know that the bridge
was intended to be painted grey, the red colour was a base coat, the San
Franciscans loved it soooo much they kept it red. It takes a ridiculous
amount of paint to keep it looking like that every year! At the otherside
we realised that we couldn't get a bus to Berkeley and cause it was
getting quite late and neither of us had eaten anything we decided to
postpone the trip and do it on a full day properly when we got back from
the coast!

We wandered back over the bridge and headed for a diner, however this
ended up being closed and in a really weird area. We'd taken two buses to
get there and ended up then just getting on a BART train (underground
train) in the wrong direction and had to get off and go back in the other
direction to get back to Montgomery! Sooooo annoying! When we got back to
Montgomery we ended up going and grabbing something to eat and then
decided to go to the cinema.

We wandered back down to market through china town. Unfortunately we
didn't realise that there really wasn't much on at all and ended up
watching Vantage Point. Basically Dennis Quaid drives a mazda really
really fast around Spain and Forrest Whitakker has a camera that really
refuses to break at all! It wasn't the worst film ever but they did the
classic american film thing of not explaining anything but just having a
random arab criminal cell! Was quite weird!

Today we got up at 6am and after putting our bags in lockers at the hostel
we headed down to the ferry building to catch a bus to Oakland where we
caught a really comfy train (with loads of leg room) called the starlight
coast train to Salinas, where a bus (with a very enthusiastic driver)
drove us into Monterey, which is pronounced Mon-a-rraaaayyyyyyy. It makes
you want to jump into the Simpsons monarail song! lol! She took us on a
mini tour of Monterey.

Monterey is where John Steinbeck lived for years and off course it has
'Cannery Row'! I find this is AMAZINGLY exciting cause I love Steinbeck!
After lunch we went to the Monterey aquarium, it has a fantastic
reputation. Also it was really raining outside - whats with the
californian weather??? lol! The aquarium was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!! Best
aquarium I've ever been too! We saw penguins, beautiful jelly fish (evil
creatures! lol), sea otter (they were sooooo cute) and every type of sea
coral and urchines and fish! It really really was a fantastic aquarium,
was fantastic for kids, there were lots of things to do! Owwww we saw
hammerhead sharks and great whites and tortoises etc!

After that I donded my awesome emergency poncho, cause it was bucketing it
down and Rob looked really embarrassed as we wandered around town. We
headed to a diner called Archer's Diner where Rob had an Oreo milkshake
and I had coffee! We read the foolish news, which was really quite good!
After that we headed to check into our hostel which is really really cute!
I like it, we're about to headed out for dinner and to have some Monterey
wine! lol!

Tomorrow we're gonna make pancakes for breakfast in the hostel and go and
explore more of Monterey, in the afternoon we're heading back to San Fran!

Happy April Fool's Day for yesterday!

Lots of Love,

Sarah xxx

Otara, Waikatere Ranges, Dinner with Richard Cindy and Baby Alan, The longest day EVER and San Francisco...

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone is really good!

On Saturday we went to Otara market in the morning which is a maori market in Otara (weirdly lol). It was really nice! I managed to get some new earrings, which are really cute and some really really cheap DVDs! Frank and Marg took us and they seemed to really enjoy it too! We watched a Polynesian dance performance too which was really really good! It had a live band and a girls group and a boys group, Frank, Marg and Rob tried to nominate me to go and dance - luckily they didn't succeed! lol!

After that we headed off to the Waikatere Ranges. We stopped off for lunch first at the Titirangi (we think thats how its spelt!), I had a croissant with ham and cheese - it was sooooo good! The Titirangi music festival had just started and a swedish brass band dressed as fish and sharks were playing along the high street, we couldn't work out why they were dressed as fish but the outfits were very impressive. I took some photos because I wasn't sure people would believe me! lol!

We drove out to the waikatere ranges information center and had a look around, the ranges are really really stunning! Frank goes treking there on wednesdays! We drove a bit further down the road to a walk called the auckland city walk to see kauri trees! Frank, Rob and I walked through for about 20mins. The Kauri trees were immense! They were really impressive! The walk was really nice!

After that we headed back to Auckland and Richard, Cindy and Baby Alan had dinner with us. Marg made Egg and Bacon pie which I had never heard of before but was really nice! I think I made friends with Baby Alan, he kept coming around to sit next to me! He is sooooo cute! lol!

After that we watched Midsumer murders and then Rob and I watched Bridget Jones the Edge of Reason.

On sunday we had lunch of homemade pizza and sandwiches and packed up and headed to the airport. It was really really sad saying goodbye to Frank and Marg, it was really lovely to see and stay with them! After we had checked in AND PAID AUCKLAND AIRPORT $25 (about 10 pounds) TAX TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY!!! I was outraged! lol! We boarded (after a short delay) our 12 and half hour flight to LA. The flight went much faster than our 12 hours flight to Sydney and on the whole wasn't too bad. I watched Juno (WHICH IS AN AWESOME FILM), the heartbreak kid (not sooo good but didn't expect it to be, but a good flight movie), Atonement (good - very sad!), an episode of what not to wear that I have already seen, wife swap, a bit of the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford and bits and bobs of other stuff. I got about two hours sleep cause my body kept waking itself up! We crossed the date line on the way sooooo we had the longest 30 March EVER!!! We landed (we were actually in San Francisco) before we took off - go figure! After that flight we got off and ran around LAX for a while trying to find our next flight. We then got a flight from LAX to San Francisco airport - this flight was not scary at all, I think mainly cause I was sooooooooo knackered (I nearly fell asleep before we had even taken off - and I didn't even close my eyes as we were taking off! I watched out the window and everything)! The pilot was really cool and kept telling us where we were flying over - Santa Barbera, San Jose etc.

We arrived in San Francisco around 4pm (we left Auckland at 7.30pm the same day - as in 30 March). We got a door to door shuttle to the Green Tortoise hostel where we are staying, which is well nice! We asked the receptionist where a diner was nearby and after a quick wash and ditching our bags we headed to Moe's! This place was sooooo cute! I had a belly buster (burger with cheese, caramalized onions and mushrooms), it really does what it says on the tin! lol! Rob had a Tex-Mex Burger (Cheese, jalapenos and onions). We shared some chilli cheese fries (I wasn't a massive fan of these - I got them cause of Gilmore Girls! lol). After that we headed back and were in bed by 8pm! Hardcore night that was! lol!

Rob went out earlier than me this morning and headed off to try and find some shoes (but didn't get any), I got the bart train and met him at La Taquerua. This had been recommended by my sister and was AMAZING!!! Its a mexican taco place! Rob had a burritos with chips and salsa, I had tacos, one with chicken, cheese, and guacomole, one the same but with beef. They were really really good!!! Jen - GOOD CHOICE!!!! After that we headed to the piers cause we really wanted to see the golden gate bridge. We went a really weird way (cause we got on the wrong bus) but did get to go on a cable car - which was well cool! We ended up at Fisherman's Wharf which according to the rough guide you should avoid - I see why! lol! Its really tacky! But I did go into Steve and Barry's and get some trousers for 4 pounds (there from the Sarah Jessica Parker collection!). We went to a park next to the maritime museum and saw the bridge!!!

After that we walked up to Union street to go to a bar called Perry's which is featured in a book called 'Tales from the City' by Armistad Maupin (my sister got me this for christmas), we didn't end up getting a drink here cause it was really busy but it was cool to see it! We instead went to a place down the street called Bar Zero. It was a quintisentially American bar, we watched Forrest Gump and I read US weekly while drinking beer, the bar tender was really nice. He was asking us questions about England and recommended a pizza place around the corner. He also said 'Cherrios' when we left... we didn't tell him it was cherrio! lol! They played a weird game with ping pong balls which we couldn't work out, I think you fill glasses with beer and if you get the ping pong ball (after bouncing it) in the glass you win that persons beer.

After that we headed to the pizza place called 'Pizza Orgasmica' on Fillmore. We had a slice and coke, this was good but not as good as Ray's in New York. After that we got the bus down Union to Columbus and walked up Columbus to our hostel.

Tomorrow we plan to walk across the golden gate bridge and spend the day in Berkerley! I've written down where my sister stayed so we're gonna go and find that. We might take one of the free tours run by students! I don't know if that means you get to see more but I hope so! lol!

CONGRATULATIONS TO JOE AND ALICE FOR GETTING MARRIED ON SATURDAY!!! I HOPE YOU GUYS HAD AN AMAZING DAY AND LIFE TOGETHER!!! :-)!!!

Lots of Love,

Sarah xxx

Rangitoto Island...

Hi Everyone,
Dinner last night was lovely. We went down to Viaduct Harbour and had dinner at an Italian restaurant called Portofino's. I had chicken and mushroom pasta and rob had a vege pasta. At one point a huge cockroach flew straight in front of my head and landed on the wall. We had to get a staff member to remove it from the restaurant! Arg! Was sooooo ewwwweeeeeee!
Today we got up early and came into Auckland CBD and got a ferry to Rangitoto Island. Rangitoto Island is about 600 years old and came into fruition when it erupted out of the sea just off the coast of Auckland, the volcano that erupted is reported to have turned the sky yellow in China.
The Island is now a natural park (although unlike all other DOC parks people still live on Batches on the Island - they are being phased out), the Island is mostly uninhabited.
The Island has never been developed so you literally walk through fields of just piles of black lava rock. The island also has the largest forest of pohutukawa trees in the world. The island is mostly inhabited by insects and bugs mainly due to the lack of water on the island, all the trees rely on rainwater for moisture.
We walked up to the summit which has a boardwalk at the top, the view was AMAZING. You could look out over the sea and the city. After that we came back down and went via the Kidney fern track to see some kidney ferns (weirdly enough! lol). The island was really weird but very interesting!
We headed back on the 3.30pm ferry and are now going to head back to Frank and Marg's for dinner!
I really can't believe tomorrow is our last full day in New Zealand!!! Not looking forward to the 12 and a half hour journey to America on sunday! Boo Hiss Boo! Arg! Soooooo not fun!
I hope everyone is good!!!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Auckland CBD, Tom and Tracy's, Sky Tower, Auckland Museum, Tin Tin and Waiheke Island...

Hi Everyone,
We're both feeling alot lot better!!! I think officially 2008 will go down
in History as the year my easter chocolate has lasted the longest! lol!
We've had a business packed few days! On Tuesday we got the ferry from
Birkenhead over to Auckland CBD and had a wander down Queen Street. We
finally found Lisa's birthday present and then went to Aotea Square and
sat down for a while to watch the cricket! After that we headed back with
a bit of tooing and frowing because Rob had remembered the ferry time
wrong so we missed a ferry and considered getting the bus but couldn't
find where they left from. Really been having trouble mastering Auckland's
public transport! lol!
After that we met Frank at Birkenhead and went back to the house to get
Margaret and head to Tom and Tracy's in Whangaparoa. We dropped Rob off at
his old Art teachers house just down the road. Frank, Margaret and I
headed over to Tom and Tracy's. We met Brodie, Sam and Tracy (and Sam's
friend Hamish) and had some tea that afternoon while watching the Cricket.
Later on in the evening Tom got home and we all had a roast for dinner
(which was lovely!). It was a lovely evening and after looking at some
photos and a long natter we headed back to Auckland. I was really nice to
finally meet them!
On Wednesday Rob and I headed into Auckland CBD again and went up the Sky
Tower! The Sky Tower is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere
standing at 323m tall(The Eureka tower in Melbourne has a higher viewing
platform however!). Before going up the tower we watched people jumping
off the tower, you can do a SkyJump where you are attached to two wires
and you just fall and then get slowed down right before you land! I was
actually quite tempted, if it wasn't for the price and the fact I wasn't
feeling very well I might have done it! The Sky tower had AMAZING VIEWS
across the city! On a clear day you are reported to be able to see 51
miles out.
After the sky tower we went to see how the cricket was getting on, we had
lunch in a pub (not a very good lunch mind!) and watched until they called
lunch for the cricket. Then WAIT FOR IT EVERYONE... Rob got his hair
cut!!!!!!!!!!! Whhhooooooo! lol! Its alot shorter and looks very very
nice, hes got the Tin Tin haircut back! lol! All he needs now is a small
white dog (Dom is Rinky free?)! lol! After the epic haircut we headed to
see the end of the cricket, which was a corker!!! Southee got 9 6's,
fastest half century for a NZ player ever! Was very impressive to watch!
Have to say though that it was EVEN nicer to see Ryan Sidebottom finish it
all off!
After that we got the link bus through Newmarket (which is a very nice
area) up to the Auckland Museum. Which is also the Auckland War Memorial.
Its in Domain Park up above the CBD and its a really really fantastic
museum. I have to say it blows Te Papa out of the water. Its in a purpose
build building which also looks like a very large mansion the exhibits
that stood out for me were the Maori exhibit, the ages of childhood
exhibit (special touch in the modern day kids room - A DAWSON'S CREEK
POSTER - THAT SEALED IT FOR ME! lol!), the volcano exhibit (theirs a room
which is like a living room inside a mock house and it shows you what
would happen if a volcano went off in Auckland - Auckland is still an
active volcanic area!), was really really good and obviously the war
memorial on the top floor was very interesting as well! Had a really good
time there! After that we headed back for tea and earlier in the day I had
brought HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL which neither of us have seen so we sat down
and watched that... It WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!! Was amazing! lol! Rob and I
have decided that we should quote HSM everyday for the rest of the
holiday! lol! Love it!
Today we went to Waiheke Island which is an Island 40mins from Auckland by
boat! We got there about 10.40am and got the bus to Onetangi beach. We had
lunch at the cafe and read the newspaper while looking out over the beach.
After that we just hung out on the beach for ages. It was soooooooooooo
lovely. The water was crystal clear and sooooo nice. The beach had loads
of shells on it, it was boootiful! After that we got the bus back to
Oneroa and had a wander around the shops, I found a plate for Margaret to
add to her collection and some small things for Sho and Lis. Then we went
down to Oneroa beach and I read my new NZ gossip magazines (I'm a bit
addicted!!!), Rob went for a swim. Then we just sat and read for a while,
watched a man parasurfing, and I had ago on the swings! lol!
After that we headed back to Auckland CBD by fast Jetcat. We're now going
to go and grab some dinner! Its been such a lovely day today, sooooooo
relaxing!!!
I hope everyone is good!!!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Te Kuiti and Auckland...

Hi Everyone,Happy Easter to everyone!!!The last few days have been really really good!On friday Glen drove us out to Waitomo so we could go to the Waitomo Glowworm caves, these were AMAZING! You walk into the caves and have a look atthe cathdral (the highest point in the cave - people actually can getmarried there), you see the glow worm strands falling from the ceiling.Then you go to the river underneath and go on a boat that takes youthrough and out to see the glow worms, they looked so amazingly pretty,there were hundreds of them! It was sooooooooo cool! Then when we came outwe saw a trout! We then had a wander into the village and had a lookaround. After that Kim, Chris and Jimmy came and met us and we went downto the Aranui walk and had a bush walk to see the caves! It was reallyreally pretty, you walk through cave channels and across rivers! Wasreally cool! After that we headed back to watch Charlie and the chocolatefactory!We woke up early on saturday to go fishing! We left around 7am and headedfor the beach. The beach was just outside Awakino. It had black sand,which is from iron! Unfortunately we didn't catch any fish (but noonemanaged to that day on the beach!). We headed back around 10.30am via themouth of the awakino river - THE VIEW WAS AMAZING!!! On a clear day youcan see mount taranaki (arg not sure about the spelling!). We had somelunch and then headed to the Kiwi House - WHERE WE SAW OUR FIRST KIWI!!!The Kiwi house was in Otorohanga (the kiwiana town of New Zealand), thekiwi was soooooo cute!!! We also saw lots of native birds and we finallysaw a New Zealand silver fern!After that we headed back for dinner of fish (snapper fish), which wassoooooooooo good! I found out that the sharpened knife/global knifeobsession runs in the Bailey family! After dinner we all went for a walkto Brook Park up to the Ben Lomond summit! The view from the top wasSTUNNING! The sun was just setting!Easter sunday I woke up feeling really ill so I got up and then went backto bed, it appears that I had caught the bug (Marg thinks its the norovirus). Rob, Glen, Sarah and Chris went out to see a waterfall and to popin on a birthday party at a farm. Unfortunately the car broke down andFrank had to go and get them. Marg and Frank came to take us back toAuckland, I was very quiet all day and didn't say that much at all! We hada lovely time in Te Kuiti, it was really really nice to meet the family!!!We headed back to Frank and Margaret's and saw the sky tower and went overthe harbour bridge as we were coming into Auckland.I just went to bed when we got back (around 7pm) and got up this morning,feeling alot better! Today we went to the summit of Mount Eden to see theview over Auckland, Rob however began feeling sick on the way back andwent to bed when we got home! Frank and I went to the Glenfield shoppingcentre to get something for Daddy and then we went to Devonport! Devonportis another of the Auckland extinct volcanos but its got a rich historybecause it was an army base for years during the two world wars! It stillhas a retracting gun. We had a wander around and saw all the many sailboats coming back into Auckland harbour and saw people paragliding, fromthe other side you can see Auckland CBD. Its a really pretty spot!After that we came back here and Richard, Cindy and Baby Alan came around!Baby Alan is like Chris he never stops running around, hes sooooo cute!!!Rob emerged after that and we had left had dinner (I finally eat somethingmore than crackers!).FYI Frank sounds exactly like Grandpa, and they drive the same as well!!!Lots of Love,Sarah xxx

Leaving Rotorua and Arriving in Te Kuiti...

Hi Everyone,

We've finally arrived in Te Kuiti!

We left our backpackers at 10.30 this morning, although that should have been 10! Whoops! We decided to go to the 'Fat Dog' for brunch, which was really nice! Rob had scrambled eggs with toast and hash browns. I had eggs benedict with Bacon! It was really nice but I still have not beaten my park slope eggs benedict!

After that I left Rob at the i centre and I headed off to the florist to get Kim some flowers and also to the supermarkets for wine and some bits and bobs.

Then I headed back and we went to get the bus! As per usual the intercity buses were really disorganised, the journey was really pretty though, we changed at Hamilton.

We arrived in Te Kuiti to meet Kim, Chris and Sarah (ow I forgot to tell everyone that theres ANOTHER Sarah Bailey out here in NZ!). We headed back to the house to meet Glen and James. The house is beautiful, its right at the top of a hill with the most BEAUTIFUL views across a valley. They have lots of herbs and a vegetable patch that would make Mummy and Daddy very envious! They had really really nice rosemary!

We had some drinks and chats, then Sarah and Chris introduced us to the guinea pigs! We had a wander around the garden and played rugby catch with Chris. After that we had bbq dinner of sausages, steak, meat patties, rice salad, courgettes and green salad! It WAS SOOOOOOO YUMMY!!!!! So nice to finally have a proper meal!

After dinner we headed over to Mangaukwa Viaduct, which is a river surrounded by hills, with Glen and Chris. We had a walk around, it was really lovely. The family haven't been very well with a bug for a few days so Chris seemed to have endless energy!

I hope everyone is pleased to be breaking up for Easter! Congratulations to Lisa for getting a job!!! Well done Chick!!!

Lots of Love,

Sarah xxx

Leaving Wellington (Boo!), Leaving Crapmere backpackers (Yey), Rotorua and Spa...

Hi Everyone,
We're finally in Rotorua, which smells! I have to say is, they say is wears off but it does actually just smell of Rotten eggs everywhere!
We left Wellington on the 8am bus yesterday! Was sad to not go and watch more cricket but happy to be leaving Rosemere (which has aptly been nicknames Crapmere!).
We arrived in Rotorua at 3pm after a change of bus at Taupo. Taupo looked really nice, especially the HUGE lake! The journey was awesome, we went past 3 active volcanos!!! The NZ landscape looks like its been painted its really stunning! When we stopped off we saw three tanks drive into the cafe car park, was really weird - I'm not entirely sure when NZ are ever going to need them (good thing)!
You can smell Rotorua before you see it! Its because Rotorua is in the middle of a geothermal area so lots of Sulphuric Acid rises up out of the ground and out of volcanic craters. Sulphuric Acid smells of Rotten eggs! Nice! lol!
We got to our hostel, 'Hot Rocks Rotorua' which is awesome! We have an ensuite private twin, with its own kitchen! Its awesome, soooooo nice after Wellington! The hostel also has its own geothermal pool AND geothermically heated swimming pool! All of the power in the hostel is geothermic! Its sooooo cool!
Last night we went to the Lava bar next door for drinks and food then went to the cinema. We wanted to see Juno but it wasn't on so we saw Jumpers, which was ummmmmmmmmmm not great - it would have been fine if it actually ended properly!
This morning we got up early to go to Wai-o-tapu - a volcanic thermal wonderland, on the way we stopped at the largest mud pool in the southern hemisphere! Then we saw the Lady Knox crater explode! The thermal park was beautiful, my favourite part was the Champayne pool, it was sooooooo stunning! http://www.geyserland.co.nz/vtour.php?vr=champagne_pool&h=256&w=400
After that we came back here for a nap and then headed to HELLS GATE! lol! The hells gate thermal park was not as impressive but we went in the Spa there, it was sooooo nice! We had a mud bath!!! It was soooo cool, then we soaked in the natural sulphuric acid pool! It was sooo good, except now I really smell of sulphur... its not hot! We had to take all metal jewellery off because it turns it black!
Tonight we are going out for dinner (don't know where yet!). Tomorrow we're heading for Te Kuiti!!! To see my dad's cousin Glen and his family! I'm very excited about that!!!
I forgot to tell you my perspective on the south island of NZ, I'm a little confused why they bother with all the different world heritage parks, you literally just drive in and out of them! You might as well label the whole Island a world heritage site... something along the lines of 'South Island of New Zealand - A world heritage site (exc Greymouth!)'. lol!
I hope everyone is really good!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Cricket, Andrew Strauss and Michael Vaughan...

Hi Everyone,
WE'VE HAD THE MOST AWESOME COUPLE OF DAYS!!!
Yesterday's cricket was really relaxing, except when all the crowd in our area though a ball was going to land on their heads, turns out it wasn't even a six! I predicted well, I think I'm a natural! lol! Thought it would be good to get 6 wickets by the end of the day! And thanks to Ryan Sidebottom we did!
Was a bit enraging yesterday when the umpires offered Oram and McCollum bad light - SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN OFFERED!!! They were back on the pitch within 5mins!
After the cricket we went to have dinner, we went to a place called Zico's on Courtney Place! I had Veal and Rob had Fish cannelloni. Which was all good, BUT the most exciting thing was that Andrew Strauss walked in and sat at the table next to ours with his wife and REALLY REALLY CUTE CHILD!!! He sounded very nice, and his kid was soooooo cute! Strauss was explaining that he would have to go home on a plane but that 'daddy would follow later'. Was adorable! He s very well dressed as well, nice shoes!
After the awesome excitement of that we decided to go and see Run Fat Boy Run at the cinema, weirdly its only just come out here! I really really enjoyed it! I was actually in tears in one scene, not as much about the scene but at Rob's reaction to it! Basically Dylan Moran's character bursts a huge blister on Simon Peggs foot and Rob literally convulsed and jumped out of his seat when this happened! Was absolutely hilarious!!!! lol!
Today we got up and went down to the cricket! I brought a cap, I'm trying to prevent the sunglass tan marks I'm developing! I also brought a series programme! The end of the match was fantastic, they finally brought Jimmy back into bowl (I think hes a bit injured from the football), plus I finally saw Panesar play well (he has dropped 5 balls this test!) by finishing it off and getting McCollum out!!!
Afterwards we had to wait behind a rope while they were doing the interviews, Rob and I were right at the front and I ask Michael Vaughan for his autograph on my programme (I was the only on on that side that got an autograph!!!), he smiled sooooooo nicely at me! He seems like such a nice man, very nice eyes!
I OFFICIALLY LOVE CRICKET! I feel like this could be expensive, its not cheap to be a cricket fan in England!!!
After meeting Michael Vaughan (I'll just slip that in again there! lol!), we went to the pub! The cricket ended perfectly because we got to actually see a bit of Wellington! We went to Te Papa, The museum of NZ after that! It was really interesting, the exhibits were really good, I think the building was really lovely! After that we wandered through Civic Square which was designed by Ian Athfield. It was really nice, the whole dock area I think is done really well.
After that we went shopping to get me some new flip flops (or thongs as they say here!) cause mine were literally on the brink of completely falling apart!
We then ended up at the pub again, owwww Happy St Patrick's Day everyone!
Finally we headed back to the hostel for Pasta! We're all packed up now, our bus leaves for Rotorua at 8am (arg!) tomorrow morning!!! I'm really excited about Rotorua, although I could very very happily just sit through more cricket! lol! I think Rob might have converted me!
I'll write tomorrow with exciting news of the coach trip! lol!
I hope everyone is really good!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Cricket and Jimmy...

Hi Everyone,
I hope everyone is really good! Happy Birthday Lise!!!!!!
We had an awesome day! Got up this morning and headed to the cricket via the post office! Finally finished the application people! Sooooooooo releaved... I'm going to make Rob a wrist band now!
We got to the cricket at around 11.15am, sat in the stands today rather than the bank! Rob managed to knock my coffee over! We are really bad at the moment with knocking things over! Its soooooo weird! I ran down the road to post my application and get a newspaper!
We watched up until the end of play today! Not a great day of cricket but as Rob put it "they did what they had to". It was sooooo lovely though, just relaxed! I now have sunglass tan lines of my face which is not hot though! We think we must have been on TV today cause England gots some 4's in our direction!
Rob got really annoyed at KP (Kevin Pieterson) cause he ignored some kids and wouldn't sign autographs for them! Not very nice really, although he did have a really unlucky dismissal!
At the end we watched the team warm down for a while while playing football! Was soooo cool they kept running right close to us! I've decided I was wrong about the hotness factor yesterday, the team does have two hotties... Jimmy Anderson (OF COURSE) and Stuart Broad! We've just seen on the news that in that game Jimmy turned his ankle SO HOPEFULLY HE WILL BE OK, cause tomorrow morning hes batting (i presume they'll declare if hes not!).
After the cricket we headed down into the centre of town to go to the supermarket cause we ran out of sandwich bread for lunch, we had a quick walk down by the marina and recorded a little Happy Birthday Message for Lise!!! As we were walking down to the supermarket we saw Andy Flowers walking into the Museum Hotel, it looks like thats were the England team are staying! We contemplated going to there bar but thought that was a little toooo stalkerish! lol!
We're heading back to the hostel now to make Spag Bog and have some wine! We watched Hot Fuzz last night which was really fun! Might watch another DVD tonight!
I'm really excited about tomorrows cricket!!! I hope Jimmy is ok though!!!
Any UK news?
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Milford Sound

MS
Originally uploaded by sarahalice19

Cricket...

Hi Everyone,
I hope everyone is good!
I officially like cricket! lol! But before we get to that I thought I should tell you that last night I literally managed to wack my pint of guiness off the bar straight at me and Rob! It was alll over my face and Rob looked like he'd had an 'accident'! lol! I'm literally soooooo clumsy! I think its the first time that I've agreed with Pat about me drinking Guiness in 2 halfs rather than the pint (although not with the same reasoning!), it probably would have been alot less messy that way! lol!
Cricket today was sooooo cool! We got there about 10am watched them warm up a bit. The whole day looked like it was going to rain but it didn't! I played Sudoku and read gossip magazines, sunbathed, drank a lot of beer and watched some reasonably good looking me (except for Jimmy Anderson who is a VERY good looking man) run around a field! It was really really good! We had sarnies for lunch! Sooooo nice!
England did really well, 342-9 against the Kiwi's 198-9 (I think thats how you say it). Unless tomorrow goes really really badly we should win! Hopefully! Rob says I'm really lucky cause we are doing really well! I like being lucky... really am not when it comes to football!
We're gonna make fajitas for dinner which will be yummy! More cricket tomorrow!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Nelson, Interlander Ferry and Wellington...

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone is good!

Everytime I've been at a computer recently I've been doing my application so haven't wanted to sit any longer!

Anyways, We left Franz Josef and did the 10hr bus ride to Nelson. It went surprisingly quickly although we had to go back through Greymouth (BOO!!!), we stopped off ALOT on the journey was kinda annoying. Although we did stop off at the Pancake rocks which was really cool! They are huge rock formations that are called the pancake rocks because they look like lots of stacks of pancakes! Should really be called Stacks of Pancakes rocks but there you go. The sea was fierce that day, was really cool, it was slamming up against all the rocks!

We finally arrived in Nelson and checked into our YHA, some weird thing about the online booking system meant we were in separate rooms for the first night but we moved for the second. I was in a female only dorm, I just don't really get female only dorms. Why do the girls not feel safe in a mixed dorm? Especially in New Zealand in a YHA?

Anyways, I spent most of the next day doing my application, then we headed to the beach. It was SUCH a nice beach, I think its the nicest so far! Rob went swimming and I read then we went and had dinner in the pub cause it was our midway point that day! After that we went back to the beach to see the sun go down, missed the start of it though! But it was sooooo pretty, I took sooooooo many photos! lol! Then we wandered back to the hostel via a bar to have another drink.

Today we got up earlish and got the 10.15am coach to Picton. We boarded the interlander ferry to Wellington from there. It was a really pretty (but cold) journey, we spent the part through the sound outside on the top deck and then went inside when it got to open ocean. We both managed to fall asleep for a bit as well. It was a really lovely ferry ride, although I don't think we saw it at its best because it was a bit of a grey day.

When we arrived in Wellington we headed over to our hostel. Which is interesting, lol! The hostel is really nice but the people in our dorm obviously live there all the time so it felt like we were walking into someones room. Was a bit horrible to start with but getting used to it, as long as there nice it'll be fine. The hostel itself has a really nice atmosphere and is really clean so all good. We're not actually gonna be spending much time there anyway with the cricket.

Wellington looks really cool, I wanna go to the sanctuary wildlife place and to the Te Papa museum. We headed to the supermarket to stock up but tonight we're heading out to grab a bite to eat and a few drinks!

Really looking forward to the cricket tomorrow! My first match (I just had to check it was actually called a match!). I'll report tomorrow!

Lots of Love,

Sarah xxx

Franz Josef and Glacier Hiking...

Hi Everyone,
I hope everyone is good!
We're in Franz Josef! We arrived yesterday late afternoon and settled into our very nice hostel 'Chateau Franz'. We headed over to the Blue Ice Bar around the corner for our dinner! Ow before that we had a bit of a problem, basically I was recording a video message to sent to Imogen for her 21st! Happy Birthday!!! lol! I ran out of memory space so I headed to the hostel computers to use the internet, but my external hard drive WITH ALL OUR PHOTOS FROM THE WHOLE TRIP started beeping (which it has never done before) and generally acting really weird. Anyways we headed down to the red bus internet cafe, LITERALLY A RED BUS its sooooo cool! And I plugged it in here, it worked ok, but we copied all the photos onto a re-writable dvd just in case! Don't want to have to worry about it, its good that they're all backed up now!
Anyways, Franz Josef seems really lovely! We're very impressed, it's a lot better than Greymouth! We do think we got the best out of Greymouth but it was very grey and not very interesting!
Today I had a lay in, Rob went and checked his e-mails, then we we headed to the Post Office to send LOADS of my stuff home!!! Which has made my bag A LOT LIGHTER!!! Yey! But was really expensive, so I'm not very happy about that part!
Anyways, after that we head to Franz Josef Glacier Guides where we were booked in to do a half day hike! We were given boots raincoats and crampons (to hold not wear yet), which were all very fetching! lol! We then got in a bus that took us 10mins down the road to the glacier river car park.
We walked for about 3km over rocks, up and down ladders etc before arriving at the bottom of the glacier where our helpful guide Bruce instructed us on how to walk on the glacier, basically legs shoulder length apart, always walk down facing forward etc. We put our crampons on the bottom of our boots and started walking up! As we went Bruce had a massive axe and he carved the steps out for us!
IT WAS ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!! Daddy you would really really have loved it! It was easier than our great wall hike, about the same distance though! Although I still think I'm going to be sore tomorrow morning! lol! We walked up past the black ice, which is basically just rumble from the hills surrounding the glacier, onto the white and blue ice! Its soooo weird that the ice is actually blue! We walked through cave things and everything! It was absolutely AMAZING! I loved it soooooo much, it was sooooo fun! You really need the crampons through because you would just fall over sooooo easily if you didn't!
At really steep bits they had ropes that they screwed into the ice so that we could hold on, cause some of the steeps were really high up!
All in all it was FANTASTIC! So cool to be hiking over a glacier, I'm knackered now through!
We're gonna go and make dinner now! We head to Nelson tomorrow which everyone we have talked to has said is really nice! Only 3 nights left on the South Island!!!
Any news from the UK?
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Whale watching, TransAlpine Train and Greymouth...

Hi Everyone,
Sorry I didn't e-mail yesterday was knackered, am still knackered so may elaborate further in next e-mail, as may not do it justice today!!!
Yesterday we got up early... Arg and got the 7am bus to Kaikoura! Kaikoura is a very small town but is really beautiful. It has a really nice beach which is all rocks!
We arrived at 9.45am and had a coffee and a stroll down the beach, rob had a paddle 2!
At 11.45 we got our whale watching tickets and had our sandwiches before we got on the bus to take us to the boat! Its only a quick 10min bus ride to the marina! We got on the boat and had to sit while we were getting out to the area where we were going to go and find a whale! The boat was soooo cool, I love boats! We had a lesson about the area. Basically the whales get so close to the shore (about 4-5miles the day we were there) because about half a mile off shore there is a HUGE underwater canyon! This is about 1000meters deep and can fit about 6 Auckland sky towers in it!
When we arrived at the sight we could then go out on the deck! They spotted a whale on the surface, you can see them because of the water jut thing when they breath, this can be seen about 3miles away! We drove up to one and IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOO AWESOME! It was soooooo huge! It was up for about 5 minutes then it dived! I love watching them dive they're soooo big! It so awesome!
When that one dived we raced to see another one, this then stayed up for about 10mins then it dived! Then after that one dived we headed back towards shore and to see dolphins! We saw about 200 dolphins altogether! It was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! They were all jumping and some were properly showing off by splashing around. They were just all around the boat it was awesome!
After that we went and looked at albertrosses! They were so big, they just floated around up in the water! Was soooooo cool!!! After that one of the whales that had dived earlier had resurfaced so we went to see that one again! I managed to film the end of it diving back into the water!!!
After that we went to see some seals just hanging around on rocks! Was such a good trip! They had such cool computer graphics on the ship when we were heading back they showed the canyon draining of water so you could see what it was like underneath!
Was really really cool, such a good thing to do! I was sooooooo excited to see the whales, they were sooooo ridiculously big and you only see a bit of them! AWESOME!
After that we headed back to the hostel and sorted out our accommodation for the next few places we're going! Then had dinner and went to bed!
We got up really early this morning and got a taxi to the train station to board the TransAlpine Train to Greymouth. This train goes through the mountains to Arther's Pass then further through eventually arriving in Greymouth. It was really comfortable and was really cool to go through the mountains. It was a bit underwhelming but I think thats cause we've just left Milford Sound! Which you can't beat! lol! We played the dinner party game on the train, 5 ppl that you would invite to a dinner party who can be alive or not.... I managed to think of 4. Currently they would be Barack Obama, Robin Cook, David Tennant and now I can't remember the fourth... hmmmm! I'll have to remember and get back to you on that one! lol!
Greymouth is Grey and rainy currently! We headed to the hostel which is really nice! Really friendly, met some nice people! We headed out to the post office to sent some stuff home then found out it was closed so went to the pub! The women was like you have to try all the beers before you choose which one to drink cause Monteith brewery is here! So we did, then she was like you should go on the tour, so we did!
At 4pm we headed off to go on the brewery tour, which was well good really interesting, got to try lots of beers and I pulled a pint! lol! Some guys from the parent company DB from Auckland were there so they were talking, it was really interesting!
We then headed back had dinner and have watched a film.
Now I'm gonna head off to bed, cause I'm really knackered! Tomorrow we're going to Franz Josef!
I hope everyone is really good!!!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

The inside of an internet cafe...

Hi Everyone,
Well today has not been an amazingly exciting one! lol!
I got up about 10.30am and headed to an internet cafe to spend THE ENTIRE DAY working on my application - Arg!
Rob had a much more exciting day, he went to the Botanical gardens and the Christchurch Art Gallery, then he met me for lunch around 2pm. We sat in the Cathedral square and had our sandwiches that we had made ourselves! lol! Got swarmed by sea gulls!
Then we went into Starbucks and had drinks while he looked over my application. We ended up getting into a really drawn out debate about ethical business because of one sentence in my application that might cause the interviewer to ask me a question about ethical business! lol! Was fun! lol!
Then we went and booked our whale watching for tomorrow! Yey! Soooooo excited! After that Rob sat and booked the rest of our coaches around New Zealand while I worked more on my application! At about 6ish I continued to write stuff while Rob headed back and had a shower and got the hostel to print our bus info for us! Then he arrived back and I worked for about another 1/2 hr! Finally sent it to my Dad for proof reading!
We wandered down to a restaurant called Dux Lux and saw the outside of Christchurch Art Gallery which is BEAUTIFUL! Its a really stunning building! When we found the restaurant they had stopped serving most of the stuff on there menu so we headed for a place called the Honey Pot that is literally across the road from our hostel (and in the Rough Guide - Yey!). It was really nice, Rob had potato and bacon chowder and I had a gourmet open sandwich with Bacon, Chicken, Brie, Lettuce, Avocado and Tomato in it!It was soooooo nice! Although I can't write anymore about it cause I'm really stuffed so it's making me feel sick! lol!
After that we came back to the hostel although we were stopped by a very strange man who started telling us to accept Jesus into our lives, we were like "ummmm thank you, we're gonna go to bed now". He had just come out of the bar next door so I think he was a bit drunk!
We're getting up really early - again! To get the 7am bus to Kaikoura where we are going whale watching! I hope its all ok, on occasion the boat can't go out! Which will really really suck! Although they have a 95% chance of seeing a Whale! Soooooo cool! I'm well excited!!!
I hope everyone is really good!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Bus...

Hi Everyone,
I hope everyone is doing well! I'm afraid there is not much to report for today! Unless like last time you want to know the inside of the coach that we were on! lol!
We got up ridulously early... AGAIN! At 5.45am, got dressed, had a shower etc and called a taxi to take us the bus! I managed to smack my head really hard when getting into the taxi... then again when getting out of it! lol! So stupid!
We got on the bus and headed for Christchurch. There was a massive mix up at Tepoka (I think thats where it was) where we heard the otherwise very jolly bus driver screaming down the phone at the bus office staff because they hadn't told him that he needed to take all the passengers off his bus and swap them with the people on the bus going in the complete other direction! This caused a huge problem and they had to swap all the bags and everyone was annoyed! Arg! The only thing that annoyed me was that the new bus didn't have seat belts on it... a company requirement! hmmmmm!
Anyways, due to that we arrived about half an hour late in Christchurch. We got off the bus and headed to our hostel! The New Excelsior in Christchurch! Its very very nice! It has a sun deck and roof terrace with BBQ facilities and a big kitchen and lounge! Not as interesting as the jail but right in the centre of town!
We put our stuff in our room, had a wash and then headed to the nearest supermarket... PAK 'N' SAVE haha! It reminded me a bit of IKEA actually! We got some supplies for the few days we're in Christchurch. Then headed back and made dinner! I had steak... it was very nice! lol!
Tomorrow I'm spending the day in an internet cafe tweeking my mountbatten application, Rob's going to have a wander around town! On friday we plan to go whale watching so we need to book that up tomorrow! Then Saturday we're off to Greymouth on the TransAlpine Railway... http://www.tranzscenic.co.nz/services/tranzalpine.aspx
Anyways, I'm going to go and finish my gossip mag! lol!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Glow worms, Stars and back to Queenstown...

Hi Everyone,
I hope everyone is good!
We are finally back in Queenstown! After I e-mailed yesterday we went down the pub, which was very nice and watched some sport (including the Arses vs Villa)! Just chilled out a bit! The weather was stunning it had drastically changed from the day before!
Then we headed back to the hostel and waited for the glow worms to show! On our first walk we couldn't find anything (because it was still too light!), however my head torch (thank you cat!) did come very much in handy (again! lol). Finally we went back to the hostel to talk to the cute hostel guy (in fact, very cute hostel guy - up there with Daniel the Koala Ranger!) and he told us that he had just checked and that they weren't out yet and to wait about an hour!
So we just went and put our washing on and hung around a bit! We then went to see if they were out and it was soooooooo awesome! They're sooooo cool, just little green glowing lights! We both loved it! We agreed that Pixar should make a film about glow worms, although we then argued about the name for the main characters, I went for luminessa whereas Rob wanted Zorb! I mean really Zorb the glow worm???? Plus I'm sure Zorb is buzz lightyears sworn enemy in Toy Story 2!
Anyway after that we went and lay on a bench by the river because the night sky was completely and utterly clear! It was AMAZING! Rob thinks nothing on earth can compare to the stars! Thats big considering we were in Milford Sound (and near cute hostel guy! lol!)
After that we went and finished our washing then headed to bed. This morning we got up bright and early (9am) and packed. We checked out and put our bags in the store room. Then we had Bagels with scrambled eggs on them! They were yummy! We planned for more of the trip and just hung around until 1.30pm when we headed in to the main area (hard to say area when its one pub and a wharf! lol). We had a drink and shared some pasta for lunch then went and found our bus!
The bus ride back was absolutely beautiful! I saw sooooo many sheep! lol! We arrived back in Christchurch at 7.30pm and have just had dinner in an Ale house! I finally had New Zealand lamb! It was soooooooo good! lol!
Right well the internet cafe is closing so I'm going to head off! We're heading off on the epic 10hr trip to Christchurch tomorrow! Leaving at 7.30am Boo hiss boo!!!! ;-(
Hope everyone is good!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx

Milford Sound...

Hi Everyone,
Sorry I didn't e-mail yesterday the internet in Milford Sound was broken!
We got up really early yesterday and started walking to the bus stop for 6.45am, however very helpfully a taxi drove past and we asked them to get us a taxi! It was cold and our bags were well heavy!
We got on the bus with our trusty bus driver Peter! We thought the bus journey was going to be just a boring trip but it turned out to be a bit more like a tour bus so we got to learn lots of stuff on the way!!! :-) Peter the bus driver literally did not stop telling us stuff for like the whole 5 hours that he was driving! It was sooooo funny! I however fell asleep for most of the way! lol!
We stopped in Te Anua which is the nearest town (95miles) from Milford Sound, it was very very cold and because I thought we were going to be on a bus for 5 hours I was just wearing a sundress and flip flops! I got a lot of weird looks! But it was really warm in Queenstown, I didn't know it was going to be cold and rainy! lol! We headed into the world heritage site, it was ABSOULTELY STUNNING! We went through Homers tunnel which is this really weird one way tunnel and is the only reason Milford Sound is now assessable by car!
We then stopped at 'The Caseum', where we took a quick walk through the forest to get to this amazing waterfall! When we arrived in Milford Sound Peter dropped us off at the drive to our Lodge, the only accommodation in Milford Sound, 'Milford Sound Lodge'. Its amazing its a very nice lodge and our 4 dorm room is really nice, all very clean but its completely surrounded by stunning mountains! We're in the middle of nowhere, I have no phone reception!!! Plus the internet was down, AND the pay phone is broken! We saw this women jogging and were like 'Where has she jogged from???' considering the nearest town is 95miles away!!!
After settling into the hostel we got the bus (2km) into Milford Sound. Milford Sound has one pub/cafe, a wharf, the tinnest airport I've seen and one accommodation place! Theres nothing here apart from water and scenery! We had some drinks in the pub and I worked on my application, then we had dinner! We wandered back after that and played battleships and guess who! lol! Was so funny!
This morning we got up bright and early and headed down to the marina to go on a cruise into the sound! It was amazing. Milford Sound is not actually a sound it is a fiord, which means that the mountains shapes were created by glacier erosion. They were created under the water and as tectonic plates move and earthquakes happen they have risen up from under the water! There are still glaciers on top of some of the mountains like Mount Pembroke for example. There are waterfalls everywhere! Its just stunning!
In addition it is one of the only places in the world that deep water emergence happens! Which is where because of the mountains working as tea bags a fresh water layer is created and a sea water layer is underneath - this means that you get marine life living at 10meters that normally lives at 60meters+ in open sea! We cruised all the way out to the opening to the tasman sea and also saw fur seals, who were soooo cute! Rob however said I should have been a seal cause you get to sleep all day and laze about on Rocks... RUDE! lol! We got driven into waterfalls, and got very wet!
Also Rob and I went to Milford deep which is this sea observatory, you walk down 9meters in to a chamber with acrylic viewing windows and view marine life (really good because of the emergence effect), it is one of the only places in the world where you can view black coral... which is actually white (the roots are black and another plant thats white grips on to it). We saw loads of fishes and coral and sea cucumber etc. It was AWESOME!!! Had such a fantastic day! We wandered back to the hostel after and made ourselves some lunch!
Theres not much to do here unless you do day walks (which we don't have time to do), but it really is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been in my life! If you come to New Zealand you cannot miss it! Tonight we're going to go and find some glow worms which are right next to our hostel! Owww the river runs right outside our dorm room so you can hear it in the night! Sooooo nice! When I get to a decent computer I'll upload some photos.... until then have a look on wikipedia... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milford_sound
I hope everyone is ok!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx