End of the road

So, one exceedingly long plane trip later, I, the lobster, and the didge, arrived at heathrow safely, and are now back in Glynogwr. Strange but lovely to be home. I'm still enjoying the novelty of a room to myself, proper meals, clean clothes, hairdryers, and other luxury, and trying not to think about starting work again.

I'm afraid I can't come up with anything profound about finding myself, but it's certainly been an awesome summer. Looking foward to letting all the things i've seen and done actually sink in over the next few weeks! It's been great fun writing the blog and thanks to everyone who's been following - turns out there's more of you than I thought! As i'm able to switch to actual communication now, i'll hopefully see you all very soon. Can't wait to catch up.

Until the next time...

Rosa xxx

Turning Japanese I think i'm...

Eventually escaped from Transit and after 24 hrs on the road/in the sky I arrived at the japanese hostel. Navigate across Tokyo wasn't as hard as I expected. All of the metro station names are in English as well as japanese, and everyone was very friendly and ready to help. Goodness me they do bow a lot, and it's very infectious. I decided that bowing as much as possible would help to make up for only knowing two words of Japanese...

Tried to take it relatively easy on the first day by going for a relaxing stroll around some gardens. However, in my jetlagged state I accidently ended up paying to look around the only English stately home in Japan. Judging by the number of tourists it's obviously very interesting if you are Japanese, but I can't say I found it that thrilling. Despite some fascinating signs with wisdom such as "this room is connected to the east room by a door. There is also very old wallpaper, on the wall". I reached the end as fast as I could, only to be greeted by a tiny and very enthusiastic woman, who insisted on giving me a personal tour in her "velly poor engrish". She was so kind I couln't refuse, so had to go right back to the beginning and examine each room and it's wallpaper in depth. Again. Oh god.

Tokyo is just so crammed full of people, at 3.30 on a weekday it feels like you're xmas shopping in london. And the crossings are really like that one in Lost in Translation. Was there for such a short time I could only see a few bits of it, but my favourite of the places I visited was Asakusa. There is a huge buddhist temple here and lots of monks so I felt right at home! The area around the temple is full of older shops selling samurai swords among other things. Tempting, but it was bad enough getting through customs with a didge...

Decided to go for a meal in Ginza, but had problems finding somewhere more exotic than subway, where I could be sure I wouldn't have to eat too many weirdo animals. Eventually I got so hungry I went to the first place I saw. It turned out to be underground, I was the only non japanese person there and the menu was entirely in japanese with no pictures. Eventually managed to order something to do with "chicken". Not sure what it was but very nice all the same, lots of different bowls of things, all i recognised was noodles, rice, and bizarrely 3 pieces of pasta with tuna (i think). Not sure if that's just for the benefit of British tourists.

Other cool things about Japan - you can get pretty much anything you like out of a vending machine, and there appears to be no problem with eating on the metro, hoorah! Also the toilets are fascinating. Seriously. They can do anything (except make tea, but you wouldn't want that from a toilet ey!). They have automatic running water noises so nobody can hear your bodily functions (Although it does sound as if one pisses like a horse), toilet seat warming, and buttons you can press if you feel the need for a "butt shower". They probably fly you around the city as well, magic-toilet style, although i expect you have to read japanese to work that one out.

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing

I should really rename this "A didge in my luggage", as that's much more of an issue at the moment. The lobster is terribly well behaved in comparison, I guess he's eternally grateful to be liberated from a desk at BTCV for the summer...

Anyway. Left New Zealand this morning, but not without first succumbing to the Queenstown adrenaline madness. It must seep into you somehow, after about a week there i decided it would be a fantastic idea to throw myself into a canyon on the end of a rope. Hmmm. Not a bungee jump, but the biggest swing in the world, into (you guessed it) a canyon. In theory it sounded quite fun but I didn't reckon on the throwing-yourself-off-a-cliff bit. Or the holy-shit-i'm-going-to-die freefall bit. The swinging itself was great though, and I guess I did enjoy it really as did it twice. But if anything the second one was even more terrifying, and still failed to open my eyes. Makes my legs wobble just thinking about it.

After leaving queenstown in a wobbly fashion I spent another day in christchurch, which is unbelievably civilised in comparison. To give you an example: in queenstown i wandered into the hostel kitchen one morning to find a guy passed out (not dead, i did check) on the table, surrounded by various scattered possessions and still clutching beer and fag. In christchurch i wandered into the hostel kitchen to find a (young!) couple drinking cocoa and happily doing a jigsaw puzzle together. But can forgive queenstown its madness as it is the most spectacularly beautiful place. And the mountains - strewth.

Had a nice relaxing day yesterday, much of which i spent in a swiss cafe. Just couldn't tear myself away from the swiss versions of popular classics - son of a preacher man in german (?) just doesn't work. On any level.

Now i'm back in sydney in a wonderful place called Transit. Spending over 6 1/2 hours here, which is, ooh about 6 hrs 20 minutes longer than is needed to see all the sights and have a cup of tea. It's sending me slightly loopy. Have spent so long reading that i've unintentionaly started a running commentary in my head, in the manner of Joe Bennet, a NZ travel writer. Except that he's actually doing interesting things and isn't stuck in sydney airport. And he's funny.

Still, in about 12 hrs i'll be in Tokyo, which i expect will scare the bejeezus out of me after the peace and sparsely populated-ness of NZ. And shortly after that i'll be home. The end is nigh! Weird, feel like i've been away for about a week and a year simultaneously. Hard to think about that now though, with Japan and it's bizzarre social etiquettes beckoning. Strickly no nose blowing in the street, but urinating is fine apparently. Must try and get over my Battle Royale induced fear of the word "Konichiwa"...

Snowboarding - Day 3

Aching all over, can hardly move, and my knees are turning an interesting shade of purple. But suddenly stopped falling over this afternoon, sweet as! Stoked!

Snowboarding - Day 2

Ow....

Snow pain, snow gain

I went snowboarding today! Love it! Fantastic fun, and still buzzing like a fridge! The day didn't start too promisingly as I woke up feeling rubbish (illness not alcohol), and then missed the bus-to-the-snow due to being on the wrong side of the road. This made me feel twice as stupid as usual, as I was trying to pretend to be a cool Queenstown snow dudette. But it was awwwwwwwwright in the end. By the time I got to the slopes (maan) it was a lovely sunny day, the mountains were looking incredible, and there were no other beginners so I had myself some private tuition. And I hate to boast but apparantly i'm fairly good at this snowboarding malarky. Managed to go down the "Big Easy", which had a proper chair lift and everything. It was definately big, and not very easy i'd say. Now have very sore knees and bum, if this is what 2 hours feels like i'll be in an interesting state by tomorrow evening...Bring it on!

Pinin' for the fjiords!

After my trip to fjiordland I can confirm that Milford is indeed sound! Apparantly it was named by a welsh guy after his home town of Milford Haven (there the similarity endsl) I can't remember the original maori name, but i'd put money on it being something scary and warriorlike. Despite hearing so much about milford sound, and seeing many pictures, i was still blown away by the sheer scale of the place. From sea level there are sheer cliffs reaching up to 2500m. There are waterfalls bigger than Niagra. Anything below 2000m is referred to as a "hill".

On the first day I went on a cruise out to sea which was good, but the size didn't start to sink in until the next days kayaking. We paddled about 15km and barely turned the first corner of the fjiord. A much better way to see it, without the roar of the engines and the incessant snapping of cameras (although here i'm being a terrible hippo-crit as my camera makes more noise than all of them put together. Cerchunk...). Got to see a lot more at a slower pace, the vegetation has barely changed in millions of years and looks like something from jurassic park (actually jurassic park looks something like native NZ veg, but you catch my drift!) . There are some incredible trees which can only grow on the steep slopes by interlinking roots. Occasionally after very strong wind/rain one falls, bringing the rest down with it in a tree avalanche. Other amazing facts about milford sound - it gets 7 metres of rainfall a year (also the reason jurassic park wasn't filmed there), and has several earthquakes a day-some small, some up to about 6-7. Pretty awesome place, I could have stayed a lot longer.

Going it alone

Crikey! Sad news about Steve Irwin. Horribly ironic to spend your life wrestling crocs and then be done in by a relatively harmless stingray. Glad I'm no longer snorkling and diving with rays all the same, makes you think hey.

I can't believe it's september. The last week's been pretty tiring but great fun. After Franz Josef we drove over the mountains to the wonderfully named town of Wanaka. Sadly nobody except me and libby seemed to find this funny, presumably because the Wanakas are used to it? Drove on, to the lord of the rings soundtrack which was fairly scary as at times it really looked like we had arrived in Mordor. Had to keep reminding myself that it isn't actually here. Anyway, we tried to get to Stewart Island, off the south coast, but the weather was against us and we ended up making a detour to the lovely city of Dunedin. I liked this place for 2 main reasons - they have the only mainland albatross colony in the world, and also the steepest street. Officially. You can check the guiness book of records. I can tell you now it is very steep, although I was so excited after seeing an albatross that I practically skipped up it.

From Dunedin we continued to Invercargill, the southern-most city in the world (lots of world records down here it seems). Commisserated libby's last night in an animal themed bar with a stuffed gorilla and a cheetah on a bicycle. Bit daft really as the cheetah would probably be faster without a bicycle, but perhaps it likes a challange. The next morning we parted company and I am now in Queenstown all by my lonesome. Hard to adjust after so long travelling with somebody else, I keep talking to myself and refer to everything as "we", people probably think i'm a little crazy. Although I might be. I'm having nostalgic dreams about the Guardian Quick Crossword (sigh). Beats the malaria-tablet-induced Margaret Thatcher nightmares I had though. Anyway...

No doom and gloom as have an exciting few weeks ahead. Tomorrow I';m going to fjordland to do some kayaking at Milford Sound, and then back to Queenstown for a few days of...SNOWBOARDING! Sweet as..ey!

Singing in Moraine...

Spent a few days at Franz Josef, where we went on a glacier hike. Awesome to actually see a glacier, let alone climb up it. And the best thing was I had crampons and an ice axe - ramsoc eat your heart out! Can you believe they let me lose with an ice axe? Anyway, it was all very exciting, although I couldn't help thinking of poor old joe simpson of touching the void fame every time i looked down into a very deep cravasse...

Spent the morning climbing up the face, up very steep steps carved by our guide. The glacier itself is huge, can't remember how long exactly, miles and miles. Saw some beautiful ice formations and scrambled through towering cravasses of blue ice. When we stopped for lunch we were greeted by a Kea - an alpine parrot. That's got to be one of the most ridiculous birds I ever heard of. Later in the day I ended up sliding through a very small hole, encouraged by said crazy kiwi guide. It was so small I had to be dragged through the last bit. When I shot out like a newly born ice monster, he said "SWEET AS! Nobody ever got through there before you guys!"

Even more excitement later on when we saw some avalanches coming down the side of the valley - very lucky, although there was a slight panic when one blocked a big waterfall. Apparantly it does this occasionally, and eventually the pressure builds up so high that ice, snow, and rocks are fired miles across the valley and the glacier surface. Made the descent was slightly quicker than normal!