South Island : Christchurch, Fox Glacier and Queenstown

Amy : We arrived in ChCh to be greeted by the start of the England qualifying match. So in true Annan fashion Stu made us sit in the airport until the match had finished. I think he’d been having withdrawal symptoms since we were traveling and without Sky!
Once we’d seen the final score we hopped on the bus to the city to the holiday flat we were renting. We were both surprised at how frequent and cheap the public transport services are in ChCh compare to other cities in NZ.
I must admit once we got off the bus it was a long hard struggle getting to the holiday flat. Carrying a 16kg backpack in 25 degrees for 15 minutes isn’t my idea of fun I can tell you! Another big surprise was that the lady we were renting the flat from was Scottish and her mother-in-law was from Annan of all places…what a small world. You Annan lot get about don’t you!?!
We really enjoyed our time around ChCh as it was great enjoying the weather and mulling around the city. There were so many places to visit and I think we took about most of them in including, Cathedral Square, River Avon, Art Museum, Botanic Gardens and many markets. It isn’t one of my favourite cities as it just reminded me of Manchester but there was so much to do in and around the area which made it memorable.
On the Sunday we picked up Jon and Lucy from the airport and enjoyed a walk along the river with them and a few cheeky shandies in the local before we headed off to watch Muse play. This was an awesome gig especially as I don’t like Muse that much. They were awesome live and the light show was out of this world.
Monday saw an early start for us all as Jon and Lucy were booked onto the Trans Alpine train and we were meeting them in Greymouth with the Campervan. The drive there was spectacular as we took Arthur’s Pass. Quite hairy in a Campervan but the views were spectacular.
We arrived late that evening in Fox and spent a night there and had another early start as we were all booked in for a half day helihike up Fox Glacier. This was an amazing experience. Walking on a glacier isn’t the easiest thing to do especially as you are contanstanly in awe with the sights but it was well worth it. Although I think my calf muscles may disagree. I still can’t believe that we walked on the glacier and slid through glacier caves. Anyone hitting the South Island should definitely try this out. It’s such a shame that our photo’s just wont do it justice.
The following few days we chilled out around Wanaka and Queenstown. Again we were lucky as the sun kept shining all through the trip.
We actually had one of our best nights out in Queenstown when we went to a lovely Seafood Restaurant. We supped a few Kiwi vinos, ate mussels, battered oysters (yes you heard that right) apparently it’s a very South Island thing to do and then ate some of the best fish I’ve had in a long time.
Stu will fill you in with the second half of our ‘Team Tui’ trip but I did thoroughly enjoy campervaning around the South Island. It was quite sad to leave NZ and come to Oz as we’d had such a great time but I am sure we’ll have an equally great time in Oz. Well providing those damn mossies and spiders leave me alone!
We’re now spending a few days in Sydney and the weather has been so changeable. It’s 27 degrees but quite humid and every day has seen storms! I just hope the weather improves for the rest of our trip. We’ve also so far managed to see some great wildlife whilst we’ve been here like seeing a wee Wallaby, Goana Lizard, Fruit Bats and of course some not so nice bugs. All a lot bigger and more evil looking than other bugs LOL. As most of you know I’m not a big bug fan and it’s taking some getting used to having cockroaches and the likes about in the evening!!
Anyways’ hope you are all doing well and set for Xmas. We’ll try to keep the blog up to date as much as possible.

Rock and Roll……and second rate footballers

Amy : Well I suppose it’s my turn to update our blog site. Been so pre-occupied with my Bebo site I forgot all about this one tee hee.

I suppose I better start by wishing Stu a Happy Birthday…..week :O) Yip it was the old boy’s birthday on Tuesday past and he’s been spoilt all week. Firstly by the amount of pressies from the UK and then by his darling wife who bought him a Sony PSP so now between him going to Phoenix matches and playing on the PSP I feel like a divorcee and all alone LOL.

As per Stu’s update you can guess that he is delighted that he now has a home football team to support. Those Phoenix lads do try hard and on occasion draw a game or two or even win one! They’re all pretty down to earth players as well. We were at the Powderfinger and Silverchair gig at the TSB Arena on Thursday with our friends Neil and Beccs and low and behold who do we bump into but some of the players. Could you imagine Ryan Gigs or David Beckham wandering around a concert like everyone else!?! Well in true Annan fashion Stu had to go up and wish them luck for this Sunday’s match. I don’t quite think they understood his mixed up Scottish accent but he sent his good wishes never the less.

And that leads me nicely onto the gig itself. What an awesome venue the TSB Arena is. It doesnt matter if you’re seated or standing you get a great view of the stage and the sound of the music is amazing it really gets you going. Powderfinger were brilliant. They sung loads of their new album but were only on for just under an hour with no encore. Bernard Fanning certainly does have some voice. Then on came Silverchair. I think I knew about two of their songs and the rest in mine and Beccs eye’s were just screams and yells. It really wasn’t our cuppa tea and did make our ears bleed slightly :O) I think Stu enjoyed them. Mind you him and Neil were drinking a fair old bit of beer so that probably helped!!

This weekend is a nice long weekend for all of NZ as it’s Labour weekend woo hoo. So we’re setting off tonight up the Kapiti Coast to camp for two nights. It would be 3 but Stu wants to come back for his last Phoenix match before we start our travels. The weather has picked up nicely today so just hoping it stays nice for Saturday at least. I’m sure we can fit a bit of fishing and tramping in if it stays nice. It’s been a great fishing season so it would be ideal if we caught something to cook on our new camp stove. Wish us luck, wont you.

Stu : I had a cracking time at the gig on Thursday but when Silverchair belted into one of their tracks I turned to Amy and said “Wow – that’s one of Daz’s old band Opiate’s songs that Silverchair are playing”. Took me a few moments to realise that it’s probably highly likely that Daz’s band used to cover Silverchair songs rather than vice versa Gotta love beer for those moments of clarity !

UK trip part 2

Amy : Stu and I may have arrived in the UK together but in all honestly we probably spent more time apart than together trying to catch up with everyone.

My 8 week stint basically meant catching up with family and friends and many girlie nights out and in. One of the best nights out was with CB, wee Debs and Mum. The four of us got dolled up and headed to the Bryan Adams gig at Murrayfield. This gig was possibly the best outdoor gig I’d been too. Even though it poured with rain in typical Scottish style we still had a ball and Mr Adam’s made sure he didn’t disappoint. Everyone had great views of the Canadian and bopped away to some of his well known tunes like Summer of ‘69 – what a classic.

As well as all the girlie nights in and out we also all ventured up North to Kenmore (see attached photo). Dad hired us out an old cottage that managed to survive me, Stu, Mum, Dad, Deb, Mikey, Claire and Terry dancing our sox off in “CB Blooms”. As well as enjoying our homemade club in the cottage’s extremely large kitchen we also spent many an evening frequenting the Courtyard and Kenmore Hotel making friends with some of the yokels.

Unfortunately we didn’t encounter much sunshine here but what an adventure we had. If it wasn’t spending a few hours fishing off the Loch Banks we were out on the fishing boats, playing darts in the local hotel and finding native Scottish frogs in the Courtyard patio…isn’t that right Deb?!?

All in all we had an amazing time seeing old friends in Scotland, I think after the 8 weeks back there our liver and kidneys will be glad of the break!! I think our bank balance will also be enjoying the rest tee hee…

Thanks to everyone who managed to make time to meet up with us. Remember you always have a place to stay in Kiwi Land if you’re ever over this side of the world.

A Big Day Out

Amy : Last week was a nice short week for us at work. We were off Thursday and Friday cos we were in Auckland for the Big Day Out and off on Monday as it was Wellington Day. – Just as well as we needed it !

On Thursday we traveled to Auckland with our friends Mark and Rachel. It was a long drive up so Stu and I halved it. We arrived around tea time and checked into our motel and headed straight out for dinner. We decided to go to the Viaduct Basin in Auckland where all the Americas Cup Boats are. Lovely views out over the harbour. When we were there we noticed the band Jet were also there. So off Rach and I went and got our photo taken with the lead singer. Our wee claim to fame. The photo of me with the lead singer is attached.

After dinner and getting over our excitement of seeing a famous person we headed off to see Kasabian at a tiny wee venue (nobody has heard of Kasabian over here). Because of that I think there were more British there than Kiwi’s. Met a few Scottish and Irish people and got chatting to them before the gig. Kasabian were amazing. We knew they would be but it was such a good gig. Our ears were ringing in the morning and we all had husky voices from singing way too much. The evening was just the best. After the gig we went to a few pubs, including one for the homosexual type which Stu and Mark made us leave very quickly. I quite like the colourful flags and feminine people there :O) Stu and Mark were more worried about what was in their beer !

On Friday we all nursed a hangover on the bus to Mt Eden Stadium in Auckland where Big Day Out was. Big Day Out is like a mini music festival. The sun was shining but there was a nice wee wind every so often. The venue itself I wouldn’t say was the best but the bands were good. Sound was a bit poor as each stage only had two speakers and there were no speakers in the middle of the grounds to project the volume but as we knew all the bands songs it didn’t matter as we could still sing along. We managed to see/hear Kasabian, Lilly Allen, Muse, Jet and the Killers as well as a few others such as My Chemical Romance and a few kiwi bands. The atmosphere was great.

Saturday we all headed to Rotorua for a catch up with friends. We went to Off Road NZ where we met up with Mike. He gave us a good deal for the 4 off us to go on a 4×4 off road monster truck thing. It was defo more a mans thing to do. There were a lot of screams from the back from me as we were going up hill and bumping over massive mounds of mud.

All in all the weekend was a success. It’s so nice having a few days off during the week. Our next day off will be the 6th Feb for Waitangi Day…I love these public holidays here.

Stu : Was a cracking wee festival although there was some weird rule whereby you could only booze in certain areas of the festival. Bit pants but still didn’t stop us from having a good laugh. As Amy said the Kasabian gig on the Thursday night was superb. They are definitely one of the best live bands around at the moment. Muse gave them a run for their money at the festival on Friday though.

I had the ‘ol Carlisle United “deckchair army” shirt on Thursday and over the course of the night was approached by a family from Langholm and a couple from Carlisle. Bordertastic ! There’s certainly no mistaking the green, red and white stripes of the shirt right enough. Nice.

Rotorua was superb but I’ll say now – Don’t trust any kiwis named Mike behind the wheel of a 4×4 monster truck. Crazy fecker ! Good time was had by all though.

P.S. Went fishing along the coast on Monday and caught another wee trout. One of these days we may even catch a one big enough to eat ! Was certainly bigger than the one Amy caught last week so going on that evidence this weekend may be the time to get the BBQ stoked up for some grilled trout !

Call the Cops !

Stu : It’s been a strange few days….Car broken into on Thursday, boozing on Saturday, hungover on Sunday and a gig on Monday. And to top it all Christmas trees getting put up under the glorious sunshine.

We had our car broken into on Thursday. The feckers tried to steal our stereo but only succeded in ripping the dashboard off. They did get away with a $200 pair of sunglasses that I only bought last week and, for some odd reason, a $20 pair of boots that were covered in fish guts from our last fishing trip. Bizarre stuff. Ah well – just one of those things I guess.

On Saturday we went out for a few drinks with Mark and Rachel and ended up trawling our way around most of Wellington’s various drinking establishments until 2.30am. Not bad considering everywhere is open until 6am over here, so it could have been a lot worse !! We even stumbled upon a pure gem of a bar. A reasonably wee bar completley covered in mirrors – across the walls, floors and ceilings. Awesome stuff. It was like being in a dodgy 80s music video.

So following on from that Sunday was a bit of a quiet day to say the least.

On Monday Amy’s boss had a couple of spare tickets to see Tim Finn so we thought it would be rude not to take up the offer. Tim Finn used to be in Crowded House and has been a solo artist since the 90s. It was a cracking gig (considering we only knew about 3 of the songs he played) and even more enjoyable was the fact that we had 2nd row seats. Nice.

Oh yeah……Chistmas trees and decorations going up when the sun is blazing down is just all wrong.