Guro and Caroline Blog

2 days to go ..

2009-07-23T23:23:00.003+02:00

We're married!!!!!!!

I guess you all know but 5 days ago my wife and i said the "i do's" and were very beautifully pronounced wife and wife :D We have a certificate to prove it n'all!

So we've survived thus far, now the reception ..

For those that sat nav, the post code for the venue with the rather large tent in it is RG9 6JF.

Guests for the full day arrive 3pm for us expected at 3.30 (i would expect us a little late. we're always a little late .. ) We thought we'd try a bit of an entrance! We're hoping evening guests to arrive around 8pm but feel free to be a bit early, a bit late. It's all just a guideline ;) You know how you wonder before a wedding if you need to eat, or like us you arrive and then wonder when the food'll be there, i wouldn't worry. The whole dayplan is based around eating and drinking.

Cake is planned to be served (no doubt after being expertly carved by yours' truely) around 830 to be followed by more food, DJ and dancing for all.

Transport - There is muchos parking in the field (on the right just avoid the campers) .. if it's raining we know a guy with a tractor for later! All cars can be left overnight as we've buses arranged to get you home - well back to wycombe and marlow anyhow. We have a 20 seater mini bus picking up from the Holiday Inn, Cressex at 2pm - planned mainly for our foreign visitors to arrive a little early to the field as it'll then swing by the crown plaza marlow (2.40) and the premiere travel lodge by the bridge (2.45) to get back to the field before we're there, we hope. Homewards runs will be from 11.30-1.30 ish.

So this is all for now, it got late. Any worries phone - caroline 07879692798 guro 07908451746

See you Saturday, Wedding part deux xxxx

.. and now for the improtant bit i forgot .. directions for those who don't sat nav;

From Marlow take the Henley Rd A4155 (north of the river) towards Henley. You'll pass through Mill End, then pass the Hambledon estate on your right (big field with signs for upcoming horsey events) and its the next turning on your right signed Fawley. Go to the top of the little windey road looking out for deer and checking out the vine groves, at the T junction turn right. Follow this little road past a derilict pub for sale on your left and its the next field on the left with the big tent in it. Drive into field, park appropriately.

From henley take the same Fawley turning, you'll see a white cottage on the corner as you turn. Then follow above directions. You can tell i don't drive from this way often!

Ps. Having seen the marquee today the floor isn't perfect for heels, so some emergency handbag shoes probably a plan!

Wedding!

2009-04-14T20:55:00.024+02:00

So the ceremony - the 18th July 2009 time to be arranged! In Bergen :)

Guros parents are kindly arranging this, so there will be further details as we find out ... Further details - Ceremony to be held at 2.15pm (Norway time) @ Tinghuset, Bergen. Guests to be entertained by family Otteren until dinner from 6pm.

Then the big party in UK!

This will be in a large field in Fawley near Henley-on-Thames 25th of July. The owner has promised the sheep will move out a few days before. We are having a marquee with tables inside, and lots of sunshine outside! And hogroast (with a no meat alternative for those that way inclined :) and some beer and wine and stuff. Reception starts at 3pm with after-dinner guests arriving at 8pm in time for coffee and cake! Be hungry :)

Hopefully here follows a link to a map to the field ...

http://streetmap.co.uk/grid/475703_187319_120

There is lots of parking in the field, but so people can enjoy that above mentioned beer and wine we will try to arrange some buses back to Marlow and High Wycombe at night.

For those that should want to, there is plenty of space for camping in the field.
But for the rest, we have reserved some rooms in the local hotels :)

- Premier Inn Marlow, tel 00441628 483597. £60 for a double room, reference PGR3246. I think they only have rooms free from saturday to sunday though.

- Holiday Inn High Wycombe M40 jc 4, tel 0044870 4009042. £60 for a double room. Our reference is Ott.

- Crowne Plaza Marlow, tel 0044870 4448940. £85 for a double room and breakfast. Our reference is OG5.

All these rooms are being held for us until one month before the party.
Accommodation around here is a bit limited, we'll add a few b&b's as we get details but if anyone's struggling let us know.

UPDATE!
The B&B's we have details of can all be found at http://www.visitbuckinghamshire.org/, http://www.visitberkshire.com/, http://www.visitoxfordshire.com/ and http://www.visitsouthoxfordshire.co.uk/

If you're not sure if any accomodation you've found is close to the reception then feel free to check with us.

So finally we have arranged 2 gift lists.... We have one with John Lewis (list number 367957) and one with Jernia (on www.jernia.no - search for Otteren or Neale in the wishlist section). Gift certificates available for each. The lists are truely only a guideline to things we like. Well at least one of us likes. And the other doesn't hate .. much .. it's been fun! At least with Guros broken arm which is muchly improved, i've been in charge of the zapper. Happy shopping :D
p.s. or not, there's no obligation, no bouncers on the door. We would really just love you to come xx

Dress code - it is a field but generally posh it up! Heels required :D Officially we'll call it formal.

Guro and Caroline

Ps. It goes without saying but just to be sure, we are unable to accommodate critters so please leave your dogs at home!

C&G x

Jack Johnson and lemmings in Llanidloes

2008-07-06T12:03:00.005+02:00

We have been away for a longweekend in Shrewbury (to see Lindsey and Fudge as usual).
Started off the good times by seeing Jack Johnson in Birmingham. It was great! Fantastic concert. Think he kept going for about two hours! It was like he was enjoying it so much himself he just didn't want to leave. We think we love him, but apparently he is already married...

Friday we went to Llanidloes dressed in blue boiler suits and green wigs/hairspray for Llani fancy dress. Turned out to be a big thing! Lots and lots of people in all sorts of costumes - Doctor Whos, Stigs, dice, mobile phones, Amy Whinehouses, any animal you could think of and of course a whole lot of Lemmings! Great fun. Can't believe we never knew about this when we were just down the road in Knighton and Kington. Already planning costumes for next year.

Best thing it is I have not been to work since thursday midday and it is still only sunday!

Hope you are all well!
Guro

PS - huge congratulations to Vic and Julian! So wish we could have been there :)

News worth blogging!

2008-05-31T20:54:00.002+02:00

Hello!

Sorry have been away for so very long, have been letting guro free reign on the blogging thing for a bit... but today i have news which i would take huge pleasure in announcing!

Guro and I are engaged :-D Really and properly going to get civil partnershipped!! (Thats wedded to you and me) She shall be my wife and i hers ;-)

I tried to do it right, there were red roses and champagne - and the key to any norwegians heart some really good meat! ... but i think it was the emerald that swung it. Apparently i'm not getting it back anyway which bodes well :)

So now we're enjoying a lazy engagement weekend full of good food and fizzy alcohol. Can thoroughly recommend it! So keep your calenders free for sometime next spring/summer - to be arranged.

love to all c+g xxx

Mus and Pus

2008-05-25T14:05:00.003+02:00

These are the most recent additions to the family. Mus is brown and Pus is yellow. We found Mus in a garden centre. And brought her home. So had to get her a friend, hence the arrival of Pus. So now you know it all makes sense. Yes?

Dougal and Dotty

2008-05-18T16:11:00.002+02:00

They have their own house. They eat, poo, sleep and chat a lot. Like us. So we like them. Dougal is in front, Dotty at the back.

Bracken

2008-05-18T16:07:00.005+02:00

He is new. Same type as Tatty, but only ten months and not so very clever. But he does give the best hugs in the world! So he is very good for pelsterapi :) We're trying to teach him to swim.

Tatty

2008-05-18T16:04:00.002+02:00

Most of you have at least heard of her. She is the best dog in the world. Not much more to say. She wants to know where kong is.

We're back!!

2008-05-18T15:52:00.002+02:00

17 Mai in the new house (skip arriving next week for the rubbish)

Oki. So new life has started. We have a house, with a coffee machine and a few other things. Some pictures on the walls even! Getting there in other words :)
It is in Marlow (20min from Heathrow) and has a guest room with a double bed, so we'll be expecting you all to come and see us!

Caroline started her new job about a month and a half ago, and I started mine two weeks ago. Had to spend a few busy weeks moving in first :)

Anyway, following this blog will be a short presentation of the inhabitants of our little hus.

Hope you're all well!

Merry Christmas!!

2007-12-25T23:32:00.000+01:00

Hope anyone that is reading this is well! superfast update - we're both home for christmas with our folks. i'm over to norway for a week starting friday then back to work at the hale in chippenham. trying to figure out where to work, if we can make it back to nz/oz for visiting/weddings this year and generally what to do with ourselves. any ideas let us know!
best of luck to everybody in the new year :)
c x

Update!

2007-10-31T10:56:00.000+01:00

Hello all!
So we are back. And have been for almost 2 months now! Has to be said the post travel blues hit us much harder than we thought it would, but it is great being back with everyone!
We've based ourselves in the southwest of england at the moment (far too far south according to Caroline). I'm locuming just north of Bristol, in a funny place called Coppins Vets. Very long days, but they keep me amused :) Would pass on many many stories, but worry that quite a few of you would log off and never return if I do... Apparently vet stories are not as entertaining to everyone as I thought ? :)
Caroline is in a small animal practice in Chippenham about 1 hour south. Doing 4 and 1/2 day a week. So she acctually managed to do what we set out to do! Apart from all the extra shifts she does + the 1 hour comute from my house in the morning and the evening... Ah well, we are trying to get rich again, so hopefully it will all help!

I'm back in Norway for a week to see brother and sister-in-laws new house! And to do very little else :) Then back to Coppins for another month before a very long christmas holiday! Plan after that is to look for jobs somewhere between London (cheap flights to Bergen) and Derby (Carolines family). Will let you know more when it happens!

For now, it has been great catching up with some of you and hope to see the rest of you soon!
xx

blog

2007-09-13T10:35:00.000+02:00

The last holiday blog!!! Over the jet lag which is a shame really as it was quite nice to be in bed early and up at dawn.
You'll all be relieved to know that Tatty wagged and wagged with recognition when my parents brought her to met us at my sisters house (long story) and she is now rightfully a little ball of Tattooon on Guros lap :)
So last Thursday we left you with us having just been to a jazz club the night before, a comedy club that night (which ended up in a few beers and a long walk home as the 'el' (tube) had shut), and off to the Museum of Science and Industry on Friday. There's a photo on the last blog of the guys we went with cooing over some hatching baby chicks! We walked through the door and just found them going oooooogi ooooooogi ooooooo ... and these were the guys we trusted to protect us on the walk through the chicago suburbs at 2am?? Neil, Daniel and Henrik, nice boys :)
Saturday morning packing was the easiest ever (possibly as we knew it was the last for a while... or so we thought) and we had plenty of time as we were all organised for getting to the airport on the 'el'.
We had a lovely morning at the zoo on a nice clear sunny day, even better as the zoo is a great zoo and free!! Never did make it to the beach though, maybe next time.
We left the zoo and the proverbial 3 buses came along at the same time all half an hour late, got our luggage (so close to being more than we could carry, would definately have hired a donkey in China) and hiked the couple of blocks to Jackson station. We used our last $4 on the tickets before a cta bloke on the platform told us he wasn't sure when the next train would come. With a little prodding Gu found out there was work on the line and so there were free shuttle buses back upstairs. We hauled ourselves onto one of these and started a painfully slow trip to the airport, involving 2 trains after the bus. At least it was free but we're a bit bitter as we'd left enough money on one train card to pay for it and then lost it, and already paid at the station before being told the trains weren't running. But thats travelling for you, it makes you mean. It was only $4.
Obviously we got there in time etc as we're here now :) and we're ready to go weed. We got upgraded on the flight (mmmmmmmmm) although we didn't sleep. Fudge was at the airport with a hige yellow sign to meet us and he took us back to Shrewsbury. He looks great in the hawaiian shirt he ordered from us 12 months ago! My folks came through and took us back to Derby where we've been for 3 days. Gu flies to Norge tomorrow!! and we both start work next week. Busy busy busy but i guess we can't complain after our one year holiday.
Hope you enjoyed keping up with what we've been doing, thanks for all the comments.
Looking forward to seeing everyone and hope it wont be too long before we get back to see freinds abroad and eveyone knows (as soon as we have a house) you're all welcome to come stay in the UK/Norway :)
Lots of love, us x

Back in the UK!!

2007-09-09T22:07:00.000+02:00

Home for me and Guro's back to norway in 5 sleeps :) will tell you all about it when we have had that 1st sleep... x

Roede lakksko and pinstriped high heals

2007-09-07T00:00:00.000+02:00

The Chicago bean

Architecture tour

Three grown men...

So we have no money left... Only deal with a crisis like that is to go shoe shopping! At macys in Chicago. Made sure we had a quick look at the fountain and Tiffany glass roof etc as well as their shoes, so it was really sightseeing :)

Loving Chicago. It is fantastic here! So many cool buildings (it seems they invented the skyskrapers) we had to go on a architecture tour. So now we know all about the Chicago style that appeared after the big fire in the 1870ies. Also found out this is the home town of Mrs O'learys cow (the cow was blamed for the big fire, she supposedly kicked Mrs O'learys lantern over... But the city has redeamed her, saying they are not sure she is to blame! Only reason I knew about the cow is thanks to many hours spent with Gary Larson)!! Very cool.

Apart from the tour (arkitek tur-tur, hihi, norwegian word play), we've been to the Art Institute and to a small jazz venue. So cultural these days :) the jazz joint was the very same as Al Capone used to hang out at! We're in with the big boys now.
And we've had lots and lots of cups of coffee, it is the big city thing after all.

But now there is only two days to go... Very strange. This year has gone so fast it is unbelievable! Has been fantastic and now we can't wait to get back home. Must be a good sign? We'll arrive at London Heathrow 10.00 the 9th of September. Then I hop on home on friday. Jobs are sorted and we start the week after we get home, G in Wotton-under-edge (Gloucestershire), and C in Chippenham (Wiltshire)...

Back to reality hey?

Can't wait to see you all!!
Lots of love
G&C

USA!

2007-09-05T04:24:00.000+02:00

Playing Backpacker at backpacker hostel with other backpackers

The Rabbit rock (or snail acc to G)

So from Fiji to the US of A! but to ease ourselves gently back into the fast lane of life we went via Hawaii for 8 more nights of sun, surf and snorkelling.
We were lucky to make our flight, it being 3 hours early and all... lucky we were at the airport 5 hours early with our luggage a small 5 fiji minutes (half hour) behind us. And lucky to live through the cava fuelled driving on the way! A very nice Hawaiian leant us his home address for US immigration at the airport (apparently you're supposed to have an address before you fly?!) and then fed us home caught and cooked lobster for lunch! we're gettin' to love friednly locals :)
We ended up sat in exit seats (yippee for long legs) but some giant git had nicked the one with extra leg room... this was Joe. Lucky Joe then got the priveledge of our company for our time in Hawaii, some may call this stalking but we like to think of it more as sharing the same space. We tagged on as he made his way to his (ooooeeee) prebooked hostel, the scummy YHA Waikiki. Not pretty to look at but very friendly - the hostel that is! 4 nights in Waikiki flew by, the obligatory surf lesson was 'coool dude'. From here we headed north, our plans to visit Big island thwarted by Hawaiian Airlines, we consolled ourselves in our Hawaiian Backpacking paradise. A very special but extremely homely hostel on north shore that contrary to rumours had only one cockroache and it wasn't even in the kitchen, provided a great hangout for games of backpacker cards (cheers fudge) between snorkelling sessions. The many local turtles (Crush, Squirt and the gang) provided good entertainment as did the local wild pigs at the hostel bbq.
We left Joe heading back to Waikiki and we hopped onto a plane to Chicago without him and just a little lost with no one to stalk... i mean no Joe. Just 4 nights and we'll be home, hope you're ready (add afew nights and a plane journey for Gu)
love to all
xx
ps Joe is sooo like fudge its not funny, so sis, if fudge is getting a bit old for you Joe's only 19 and i'm sure we can do something about his girlfriend. Only joking fudge, we love you most x

Bula! Kidnapped and stalked in Fiji!!

2007-08-27T06:18:00.000+02:00

We had a lovely couple of days with Mark and Emily in Christchurch before heading off to wonderful fiji... and if any parent is troubled in any way by the title of this blog, think about it... we're writing the blog and haven't phoned home with ransom demands :) Its just when we left the plane in Fiji what was supposed to be an organised pick up with singing, leis (necklaces) and most importantly a sign with our name on it, the whole thing was marred by the Laminex group (boooo). The entire plane had been booked out by this conference group, we thought it was a bit dodgy when they all knew each other at check-in etc but it was christchurch, small city with friendly people so we thought it was the norm. Instead of our transfer we got absorbed into the group and although demanding to be taken to the West motor inn ended up with about 200 hundred others at the Westin resort, fortunately only half an hour in the wrong direction. And apparently this was our fault when it came to the price of the return taxi!
The West motor inn itself was nothing to write home about so to speak, but the Fijian attitude and weather meant you couldn't get upset. Just smile and say fiji time, seems to work for them :) We were still very happy when Johnny (our indian driver) came to take us away to Warwick resort in our own little private taxi! And so bring on the stalker... Johnny was very pleasant and chatty and kept us entertained for the 90min journey, he even stopped to let us stock up on food at the local supermarket (Fiji/or the Warwick is not cheap, and we only had breakfast included in our deal). He then invited us for dinner on friday! Great we thought, the local experience! He is after all married with two daughters, so we were sure it would all be fine. He then called at 10pm, 7am, 4pm, 7pm etc... We think he continues, but by now we had stopped answering the phone :)

Apart from this we really didn't do much at all! Starting the day with breakfast buffet + harvesting for lunch :), lay by pool, swim, tan, snorkel, tan, sleep/watch tv, have dinner, sleep. Hard life in other words.

And now we're in Hawaii!!! Aloha til next time!
xx

Back to Christchurch with sore knees and tested nerves!

2007-08-17T07:48:00.000+02:00

Hello all! What are you up to?? we've had no comments in so very long its getting sole destroying! starting to think we're getting very boring..... but i'm sure you're actually just busy?! will be a shock to be back in less than a month and have better (well, other) things to do than play on the internet all day!
But anyway, we got to wanaka safe and sound and found a busy campervan site for the night. we used the cute apres ski feel of the place as an excuse to head into town for a glass of mulled wine infront of a roaring fire before dinner :) The next day we headed up the mountain with our free 'Ezy' lift pass and our cheapo rental snowboards from town very excited as the weather was beautiful!... unfortunately the 70cm fresh snow only seemed to have fallen on the upper slopes leaving us scraping ourselves painfully off icy green runs, giving our bums and knees a battering! disheartened we stopped for lunch and gave in... we hired skis for the afternoon - an expense we couldn't afford but it was that or waste the day. The afternoon was great, the top unpisted section hit the spot and we managed to forget the dismal morning enough to start talking about snowbaording again!
From here we spent a day driving through gorgeous scenery to Franz-Josef. We hiked a bit in the haast pass and found a great site for the night - a retreat with a lovely free outdoor hot-tub/spa :) and a 2 hour happy hour at the bar, again with lovely roaring fire!
Next day we blew our remaining budget learning to climb ice. you only live once eh?! we had a guided day hike/ice climb combo on the franz glacier and it was amazing. gorgeous day, fun climbing, great group. finish it all off with a spa and you've got 2 very happy campers!
From here back to Fox glacier for a couple of 'tramps' (kiwi for hikes) - good, free entertainment with great views. Lake matheson provided unrivaled reflections of mount cook which were enjoyed with a flask of hot tea! A days driving via Arthers pass brought us back to Christchurch - we nearly went caving on the way until we realised it meant waist deep ice water. instead we recomended mark and emily try it and tell us all about it! From here to fiji in 2 short days. and then sorta home via the US if we can find any accomodation we can afford! now is the time for any unknown contacts, relatives, friends of friends friends to come out of the wood work and offer us a roof in hawaii or chicago - please?!
love to all, olga polga and khazakstan xx

Sea to snow! Fjell og Fjord

2007-08-11T03:14:00.000+02:00

This is today...

Just a little bit of norwegian to train you foreigners :) Means mountain and fjord.
Anyway - seeing Milford Sound from a kayak was great! And it didn't rain which was even better. Beautiful place. And only a few sandflies to keep us moving :)
Think Caroline was most relived that I finally saw a Kea though, she says I tend to obsess a bit a bout these things... but they are really cute! And we've now seen lots of them. The best Kea was sitting (and chewing) on a car as we got to The Chasm. So he might have got some crisps :)

We got to Queenstown in the evening and booked into the most expensive caravan park yet - 38$! Next morning we booked into the hostel included in our ridiculously cheap skiikng pack, and headed for Coronet Peak! So so good to have skies on our feet again! Even if I had to stick with slaloms, the guy in the shop just laughed when I asked for Telemark skies. He said they look so silly that they don't stock them here. Silly silly man. It was great anyway! Especially the mulled wine at Heidis Cafe at the end of the day :) Thanks Heidi!
The next day we moved on to The Remarkables to see the difference. Not so many lifts, but much more snow! So great for hopping of the pist for a few turns, and some fantastic falls :)
The afternoon was spent on the baby slope with both feet stuck to one board. Crazy idea, but turned out so to be so much fun that we kept in on for the last day too! We are now almost professionals, and C has already been offered a part in the ad for The Remarkables web site (a lady asked her if she could please repeat that great fall...)!

And now it is raining again... Seems we were very lucky with our timing, there are now rumuors that Coronet Peak has rained away and will not open again this season. Other rumours says more snow though, so we are heading for Treble Cone, the next ski field up the road :)

Will let you know how that goes!
Lots of love,
G&C

Southwards...

2007-08-05T07:12:00.000+02:00

The boys at Mount John

Mount Cook

Milford Sound

So synchronised!

My favourite pesky Kea

I think we left you in Kaikoura, no doubt complaining about the lack of performing whales... or the ability to see them anyway :) We're still waiting to hear emily sing whale instead! we left kaikoura for christchurch after many discussions of where the weather would be best, west vs east coast, north vs south and decided it'd be pretty shit all over so we'd go see mark and emily again! after nearly running over em in the middle of the city we gave her a lift home and stayed in their parking place. Thanks to mark for the guided tour following day when we also booked 3 days of skiing and 7 days of fiji-ing! :D A quick hop south to Chris Tansley and Claire Lightbodys house in Rakaia (with the big salmon) great to catch up, stayed in their parking place before south to Mount Cook via lake tekapo and pukaki. Stunning day gave us great views all the way to the top. we had a couple of hikes, ice skated (badly) enjoyed a couple of glasses of mulled wine at the hermitage hotel before hauling ourselves from the fire in their lounge (complete with marshmallows for toasting)to our DOC campsite where the toilets weren't working as the pipes were frozen :(
From mount cook we drove to Milford sound via kingston and here we are on ridicuolously slow internet (can't complain really as we are in milford sound...) but will have to leave it here. kayaking tomorrow, skiing weds-fri.
hope all are well, love to all xx

Summer next time maybe?

2007-07-30T04:15:00.000+02:00

The weather is really starting to be a bit of a pain. We spent Friday gathering mussels for dinner and watching seals frolicking in a pool on Whaririki beach as the family went out for the day. This gave me and gu a chance to play on the quad bike feeding out which was great fun :) Saturday we had to get moving, desperately tempted to stay for the pm trek we had to get to the shops as we thought we'd be out and about for the next couple of days in a kayak. That night we stayed with a lovely Canadian family in Motueka whom we'd met at the trek centre. We had a great night with a good bottle of wine and home cooking :) We set off early Sunday via 'Mot market' to Marahau, the start of the Abel tasman 3-5 day hike route and departure point for the kayaks. As it turned out a rare easterly wind blew up - the only weather condition they cancel kayaking at abel tasman. Gutted but making the most of it we had a lovely day taking a water taxi from Marahau up to Tonga Bay via Split apple rock and the seal colonies, hiking a few hours down the famous tramping track to Anchorage Bay where we were picked up and taken back to the campervan in Marahau. With wet feet but feeling good (we crossed a couple of creeks without taking our shoes off - the waters deceptively clear...) we started en route to Kaikoura, stopping in Blenheim for the night at a very indifferent caravan park. But the weather isn't being so kind to us, a theme for our NZ stint! The whale watch tour we were booked on today was cancelled, the seal and dolphins also a no go, which leaves us in an internet cafe looking at very dismal weather countrywide trying to decide where's best to head next. We will let y'all know where we end up but i see a little more woofing in our near future, especially as calving has just begun...
Hope you're all well, see you in less than 6 weeks! (unless you're in Australasia, see you a bit later...)
Love to all xx

Just a quick note at the end of Carolines blog to say thank you so much to Herborg for her NZ contacts! Would have been great to look them up, but unfortunately we've already moved too far south :( Will try next time we're in the area - love it here, so there will definately be a next time! Guro

Woofing!!!

2007-07-26T12:20:00.000+02:00

Guro giving me a Norwegian lesson on the beach!

Woofing! Horse trek to Wharariki beach :)

Reflections of guro! Fossil point.

Just a note (i would say a quick note but we're on dial up and i'd forgotten how slooow this is) to say we're still alive. No mobile reception as we're on the very north tip of south island just by Farewell spit. A couple we ran into doing the Tongoriro crossing (Ells and Coon) told us to drop by a horse trekking centre on the left on your way to the Spit, so we headed straight this way from the ferry not truely expecting to find the place or any work. One night in Collinwood, breakfast on a beautiful beach (the weather is finally being nice to us), an hour tramping to fossil point then a 10min drive up a gravel road we found Don and Gail and asked if we could work for food! They contemplated and said "you're woofers! great, at least you brought your own bedroom" :) It's day 2, we've been on two 3 hour horse treks in return for helping feeding once a day, generally cleaning up after ourselves and moving a bit of seagrass. We'll need to move on soon to keep travelling but there's so much potential with the rides on Wharariki beach by pools of seals, the beautiful lamb/steak dinners, the promise of picking our own Pouoa and mussels tomorrow, a farriery lesson (hands on) and i'm relearning to ride gail stylee. Woofing's the way to go, the trekking thrown in is amazing. we might head to their freinds place next, a sheep farm and they're lambing soon but its only 10km away so we won't have moved far! We'll keep you up to date. We managed a little veterinary work... gu just took 2 stitches out of Seth, the 4.5 yr old grandson!
Debs and David thanks for the piccies, they're fantastic :)
Hope all the UK clan aren't paddling yet! sorry if i complained about our floods but we got cut off too!
love c&g xx

Wellington

2007-07-22T06:07:00.000+02:00

Watching Wellington beat Auckland
Laura (or Law, friend from college) in the Harry Potter queue
Lost...

So we arrived in Wellington 4 days ago now and we've got the ferry to Picton booked for tomorrow morning (7.30am ugh... have been lying in until past 11 most days here!) It's been a bit rocky getting on with Law and Ashers 'phsyco killer dog' Rocco but he's all talk really (only had us pinned to our seats not able to get up until Law and Asher got home once...!)
It's hard to really remember what we've been up to, I can tell you for sure that the last 2 days have been filled with Harry Potter joy - great last book. Law and I joined the queue at 11.00am and got our copies soon after the 11.01 release (much more sociable hour than in the U.K! And it's been an accomplishment I feel as Guro and I are sharing a copy and have not yet come to blows :) We get up, read, Guro knits whilst I read (she's just finished her very own goat scarf and is starting my 5% possum scarf!) and I wash up and blog whilst Guro reads and all the while Laura reads.... and Asher works cos she's got an exhibition tomorrow!
We did emmerse ourselves in Wellingtons culture - we had a coffee on Cuba street. Oh and we went to see Wellington beat Auckland in the rugby with only about 10 other spectators. I'm not making it sound overly exciting but we've really enjoyed being in Wellington. Guro and I have so far chickened out of the idea of borrowing wetsuits to snorkel for our own pouoa to eat and keep the shells (it is very cold and Harry is soo good) and we've not made it to the museum which was our one plan on coming here. But heading out for a few beers watching the crazy people and sleeping in a bed for a few nights thats not being blown around in the wind has been welcommed. And tomorrow to South island! A quick thanks to Law and Asher for putting us up, you've been great esp at dealing with our antisocial potter reading and us annoying Rocco :)
It'll be interesting to see where we blog next as the vague plan invovles jobs at a stables we heard about from other travellers which sounds too good to be true... a little bit of work in return for our keep. No doubt a few random adventures to follow before we catch up with Emily and Mark again in Christchurch, and hopefully Claire and Chris who are there also!
Happy Birthday to Vic and Kate and Tom for tomorrow - common birthday or what!
Love to all, c&g xx

Napier to Wellington

2007-07-19T06:53:00.000+02:00

me and jack!
rocco, laura and ashers dog
i forgot this one from the tongoriro crossing... just in case you thought we'd lost them!

So we arrived in Napier and after driving around, popping into the tourist info and opossum world (you wouldn't believe how many ways a kiwi can use a possum) we met up with Melanie, Gavin and 2 1/2 yr old jack. Obviously we struck an intellectual par with jack and spent the next day and a half exchanging opinions with him on a variety of topics from trucks and building towers to what we thought about wobble bears boots. it was great and he's so cool :) we nipped out for a couple of hours in the rain, drove around the most pronounced art deco buildings in napier - annoying all the locals as we stopped mid street to snatch quick photos and then we saw Harry Potter. Have already budgetted for a copy of the last book for the 21st! Gavin cooked us some beautiful fish followed by melanies apple crumble with custard - can't beat home cooking!

we left napier yesterday and made tracks towards wellington. we'd been given recommendations for a couple of vineyards and a chocolate factory en route so it would've been rude not to stop in. as i was driving we were obliged to buy a few bottles so i could taste the wines later which worled perfectley as we're now staying with laura (friend from uni) and ashya who both didn't have to work today until 2pm :) the kiwi and boysenberry wines were a particular hit! and cheers for the half bottle of red em and mark, that went down pretty well too!

today we slept in, had brunch, walked the dog on the beach, saw lauras v nice practice and washed clothes. almost too exciting eh? reckon will stay here for the weekend, we need to be somewhere with a reliable pub for the rugby (oz vs nz) on saturday before heading to south island! can't believe there's only 7 and a 1/2 weeks until we're home! which reminds me i must email the locum agencies....

love to all, esp fudge tomorrow when he's the grand old age of 22 :) and m+m for getting married (!!) and michelle for your bday:) enjoy

c+g xx

Gratulerer med dagen Erlend!

2007-07-19T00:26:00.000+02:00

Har fremdeles ikke de riktige email addressene, sa sender hilsen her igjen :) Haper du og ser den for det er gatt alt for lang tid etter bursdagen. Skal tipse mor, sa kan hun tipse videre :) Ha en glimrende dag du og!
Gledings til september.
Klem og klem

(For everyone else, Erlend is Idas brother, and it's his birthday too!)

Gratulerer med dagen Ida Kristin!

2007-07-17T11:41:00.000+02:00

Klarte ikke finne email addressen til Bjoerg Eli, saa sender en hilsen her. Haaper du leser den ikke altfor lenge etter bursdagen!
Ha en glimrende dag!
Gleder meg til aa se dere igjen i september!
Klem og klem

(For everyone else, Ida Kristin is my goddaughter and it's her birthday!)

Tongoriro crossing

2007-07-16T05:39:00.000+02:00

An amazing one day hike! after a recommendation from Mark and Emily we headed off at 7.30am on a guided walk - given the need for crampons and ice picks we decided the guide was a great idea! Stu and Stu were 'feeling the pinch a bit' after doing the same walk the 3 days previous so the pace suited us well :) The views are the best you can find, a highlight of everyones trip including ours. Our group of 14 were a mixed bunch but as always included a vet from the uk... girl called nikki and her boyfriend. Fortunately there was a general surgeon as well so if the shout for anyone with medical training went out we would be well down the list :) We had a great day, topped off by treating our tired little bodies to a thermal spa for just $8! before hitting the road to find a parking spot for the night. We ended up in a rest stop on our way to napier... running low on diesel and too late to hook up in a caravan park we headed for the warmer climate with the lower altitude for a great nights r+r. Today we arrived in napier and have already been to opossum world - which must be the best place in town. you wouldn't believe how much use a kiwi can make out of 1 possum! We're meeting up with Melanie and Gavin tonight and have been browsing the wine tour brochures again... but looking at a half day this time as the memory of the afternoon our australian tour is a little fussy!
Hope all are well
c&g x

Jumping from great hights...

2007-07-14T03:30:00.001+02:00

before...
spot the parachute... try bottom right corner...

after :D

12000 feet to be exact. Caroline has in other words just jumped out of a plane!!!! Guro watched with her feet safely planted on the ground :) Looked fantastic, and apparently felt even better.

In Taupo now in gorgeous sunshine having learned to stay away from places with severe weather warnings :)
After the roads opened up north we headed to Auckland to catch up with Nicky and Quentin one last time. Pub meal and comedy night - great! Then we continued south to Raglan and a stunning coast road to Te Puia. When I say road... we did actually have to stop and ask someone if it really was a walking trek. Probably not the best suited road for campervans, but well worth it!

Then we had a good nights sleep in the carpark for the train station in Otorohunga, and went to see the kiwis at the Kiwihouse. So cute! And no surprise, I want one. Lots of other pretty and endangered birds there as well.

After that we got to Waitomo caves and did black water rafting!!! Cool. In every sense :) But with super thick wetsuits covering every bit of our bodies, we had a fantastic time! Jumping of small waterfalls into complete darkness and hopefull your black floating ring.... watching glowworms (or glowing maggot poo as we learned it really is) in the roof as we were floating along. Very special.
And we got free soup and bagels afterwards!

Got in the car with the heating on full and drove to Taupo where we found Mark and Emily! Very nice esp as their nice hostel owner let us sleep outside and use their shower for free!

Now we are off to see the dams opening, and then tomorrow we are doing the Taurongariro crossing - the Mount Doom walk!

ps. good to luck steven and jenny in us of a! enjoy, love c+g

Will be in touch
G&C (still buzzing)

More photos!

2007-07-11T04:15:00.000+02:00

Enjoying the wetsundays... Whitehaven beach.

Mark, Gu and Emily hugging a Kauri tree by Tonks bay, Coromandel peninsula.

The group! Lake Mackenzie, Fraser island - some sun for the last day :)

Colin! At home showing us the delights of the mud pools, Wai-o-tapu.

Isolated....

2007-07-11T03:43:00.000+02:00

Check out the sexy thermals! cosy campervan :)

The sign by the bridge over whangarei falls, about 1m away from the edge! River in full flood.

Whangarei falls with colin the kiwi... we've aquired another 'pet' :)

So, areas around here got 250mm in 12 hours not 24! thats wet for anyone without a clue. We woke up this morning after spending the afternoon yesterday reading and knitting (bought guro some wool as need a scarf) and trying to guess whether the electricity was off or on to power our small fan heater, to find that we were stuck. Not in mud, that would be too funny, but in Whangarei. The main highway SH1 and all little roads blocked by floods, trees, recycling bins, you name it.
We only moved the van a couple of times in the night, worried more for our insurance policy excess than the weather, but at first we were being blown about - after hearing a couple of motorcyclists were blown off the Auckland harbour bridge we weren't soo sure the wind wouldn't tip the van, then we were under trees - great shelter but kept getting hit by unknown things (we weren't venturing outside to find out what they were!) so then we huddled next to a couple of buildings. Daft thing is we'd paid for a powered site in the caravan park but there was no electricity and we ended up staying in the carpark! slight waste of slightly stretched funds... But we have a plan to reinflate said budget, more to be revealed later... and we both survived the night, yey! Heading slowly to Auckland today, SH1 just reopened :)
and you think your weathers crap!
x

We thought Coromandel was wet...

2007-07-10T02:49:00.000+02:00

We are now stuck in Whangarei where they are expecting 250ml of rain over the next 20 hours... Also wind of up to 130kph - time to get out the kites?? Or not as they are considering calling it a civil emergency. We are safely tucked away in a caravan park with tv and spa though, so recon we'll be ok :)

Hoping to get back to Auckland tomorrow for another evening with Quentin and Nicky. Will let you know!
G&C

Rotten eggs and bubbling mud...

2007-07-10T02:31:00.000+02:00

In Rotorua we got to stay in a driveway again! Lucky us :) The others were in side with a 80C heater... Poor them.
First night we ate food and drank wine. And saw Oceans 13 at the cinema. But the next day arrived with sun from clear blue sky! So we headed for the sorce of the smell - Waiotapu Thermal Park! Saw Lady Knox Geysir go off (with a little bit of prompting... ie soap) and lots and lots of bubbling mud. Cool. Or hot rather i suppose :) Also saw a lot of the devils stuff - his house, bath, cave, pallet etc. All in funky yellow and green colours.
As the campervan had to stay in the parking place we brought cups of tea in a flask this time in a true norwegian style. Unfortunately the norwegian could not supply sitting-on-thingies... She has been out of Norway too long!

After picnic lunch back at the hostel we went with Cat to see her jump out of a plane! Looks very cool. Caroline promises to do it in Taupo, and I have offered to pack her parachute :)

Then C and me took Mark to Mitai mouri village for a Hungi! This is lots and lots of food burried in the ground and cooked on hot rocks. So much food we couldn't eat for days! Or at least hours. They also put on a show about their history and stuff, which was great! Men with very little clothes on sticking their tongues out and slapping their nipples. Cool.

Next morning we lost our friends and are now on our own again...
Going to the Northlands!
G&C

Meeting friends!

2007-07-09T00:08:00.000+02:00

Have been on the road almost a week now, in our supervan!!! She is called cue, and you can see what see looks like on www.ezy.co.nz where she is called ezy cruiza. Comes with queen size bed, gas stove, microwave, dvd player and most importantly - the heated towel rail.

We got cue on wednesday and headed for Coromandel town to meet Emily and Mark. The great weather from Queensland was still with us - great thunderstorm to watch! And as all the tornadoes seemed to hit the west coast of the island, we were quite cosy our first night in cue.
All the walking tracks were however closed, so after a quick wander on a beach, we took the scenic drive to Whitianga. Lots of cups of tea later (travelling with a kitchen is great) we met up with Cat and booked into Cats Pyjamas! Which means we stayed in the driveway :) So cool to meet up with friends from home when so so far away!

Spent the next day getting very wet at various sites along the coast - Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach (very hot water on a beach). And of course lots of cups of tea in the van. Got down to Mount Manganui in the evening and roughed it in a campsite whilst the others had a deluxe appartment in town. Ooooh, posh. No chance of close up encounters with dolphies the next day, so after a rather unsuccessfull kite flight (despite a new stick) and a brisk walk (Cat wanted to run...) up the Mount, we headed to Rotarua - the place of bobbling mud and rotten egg smell...

Just in case we forget, which of course we won't, happy birthday Fudge on next Friday!
Lol, G&C

New Zealand!

2007-07-03T00:33:00.000+02:00

We have moved on from Australia!
Got to Auckland saturday, and got picked up on the airport by Nicky and Quentin, our friends from Cambodia. So nice being met by someone we know! Since then we've been staying with them in their super flat in Queen Street (very very central).

Spent sunday chasing fog :) From Whatipu beach via the lookout at Arataki (will add photo) to Muriwai to look for gannets. Much fun, and great ice cream! Finished the night off with fush and chups on Mission beach.
We sadly lost the fog yesterday, so we went up the Sky Tower to look for it. Couldn't find it, just lots of vulcanoes and islands and houses and cars - really a very cool view.

A the moment we are trying to build up courage to go and barter for a cheap campervan! Think they should at least give us free snow chains :)

Will let you know how we get on!

Lots of love
G&C

We reach Cairns :) :(

2007-06-28T00:51:00.000+02:00

We ended up at Henrietta Creek that night, well aware by now that as in all rainforests it would be raining far too much to use Ben (the name for our tent) and we'd be spending another night in Amy (yes, everything we own has names... and personalities... and occaisionally we have conversations with them..........)

We went via the big gum boot (ooooooo) in Tully, having now racked up the big crab, lobster, koala, bannana, ram, mango and likely others that were so awe-inspiring we've forgotten. It was just a stop for the night but had a place to watch for platypus (fruitlessly) and a few walks (which involved crossing the river, impossible at the end of a prolonged rainy season.)

So from here to Cairns. Amy, again not keen on the rain decided to give us one last fright as she started and promptly stopped again. 2 spanish brisbanians from a nearby campervan tackled our batteries corrosion, but it didn't help that after she first cut out i'd left her in drive so obviously she didn't start... realising my mistake i put her in park, she started like a dream - the spanish guys were very pleased with themselves and the battery looks good for when we come to sell her! ....she still cuts out at low revs when she's cold :)

We arrived in Cairns Monday and yay its a few degrees warmer, but the locals are still on about having to buy jumpers and duvets. The idea was get to Cairns early monday morning and sort out everything for leaving oz; sell amy and camping gear and give whatevers left to charity, sort out insurance for my lost mobile, close bank account, get flight tickets revalidated for new dates, reap the rewards from our tax returns, register as vets in nz, find jobs blah blah blah and have the rest of the week to laze in the sun by the lagoon. It's a good job we knew we were dreaming. I can't remember any one of these quick and simple tasks that was either quick or simple apart from giving a heap of junk to the op shop. It's friday today, we fly in 17 hours and some (many) are still outstanding and its not for lack of effort! We did however manage to fit in a couple of days kiting :) and a night out at the woolshed with James and Kat (the english couple that were in our Fraser group) and some of their mates.

We have sold Amy :( to a dodgy dealer willing to drive her back to Victoria to take advantage of the remaining rego. We're feeling better and better about giving her to this guy. We didn't want to be responsible for some poor backpackers getting stuck half-way to Broome with any of the many ailments we know about being the problem.

Only plans for today are to drop by Quantas to start shouting (we've tried talking nicely) about a ticket dispute - all fine, still have tickets its just a money thing - and then go hang by the lagoon, maybe even a quick dip as the sun's come out for our last day. May even head back up to Yorkeys knob (its a beach) if there's any wind... the rest can wait until NEW ZEALAND!!!

Whitsundays, diving the s.s. yongala and to cairns...

2007-06-25T08:05:00.000+02:00

So the Wetsundays! Seems Queenslands wet season has stayed late this year. Yipppeedoday. Also we've been privelidged to be here for the coldest day in 50 years at 14 degress below seasonal avg. (ok it was only 12 degrees C but it felt very cold and we're in australia, will never be home boasting a tan at this rate!) We set sail last Tuesday (19/06/07) on the Condor - we had booked on a different boat but 5 people is apparently not enough to sail an 80 ft yacth. They had had a lot of cancellations due to the weather so they squeezed us onto the Condor, a very similar trip. 2 nights onboard, chance to do a bit of real sailing and the usual route - the molle island group, whitehaven beach, a resort for a hot tub then home day 3. The hot tub wasn't part of the plan but was a great idea. Given the rain it was a bit of a pick me up, hot tub and goon :) The group of 28 was too many to really get to know all but became friends with an irish couple JJ and bernie, drank goon at 9am with V and generally got on with everyone. When the boat was actually sailing it was amazing. we did some pulling ropes and turning of handles and suddenly the wind would take the boat and we'd be pleased we tied our bags onto our beds down stairs. The Condor has previously won every (some sort of race) twice - the only yacth to do so!It was a great trip but can't help think how amazing it would've been with some sunshine. All the photos are of us in huge yellow raincoats which just isn't cool. The snorkelling was great, and a couple of huge (like really really big) sea turtles came really close to the boat - was very tempted to lash one to each foot and go for a ride johnny depp stylee but apparently this is frowned upon and not part of the tour :(

We got back to Airlie Beach but set off straight away. Guro had got stuck on the idea of a dive on some wreck a couple of hours north and booked it for the next day. I was just kinda going along with it, knew nothing about it but that turned out to be definately the number one highlight of the east coast for me. The S.S. Yongala sank in with the loss of all aboard - a few are still in her hull! Now she forms a great reef when all around is sand - truely an oasis for all kinds of sealife.
The dive boat was small, the trip out rough - like we got a free ride in a jet boat with the dive. The first dive was only marred by a foggy mask for me, guro came up raving about everything and i nearly told her where to go when i said i could see hardly anything. But a new mask and the best experience you can have diving. There's an amazing wreck, still clearly definable but your attention is drawn away by the fish. We saw many different rays, huge marble rays to shovel nosed rays that look like sharks. a small shark was hanging out under the bow. we saw huge groupers all around, wrasses, and small fish in abundence. A huge loggerhead was quite up for interacting with you - although i can't aggree with the people that touched him. There was a small green turtle, olive sea snakes, a moray eel... and we found nemo :) Unforgetable.

We stayed an extra night at the dive resort, it was so cold we spent the evening watching dvds snuggled under duvets!

Next day we left going north, not sure where we were heading really until we got there! somewhere near Cairns was the plan :)

x

Happy Birthday!!

2007-06-25T07:38:00.000+02:00

No sis, i hadn't forgotten dad's birthday... sent 2 texts on the 24th at 8am (had been requested not to msg during the dark hours....) with no reply?! anyhows happy birthday dad, hope you had a lovely day, sorry if you felt forgotten :) and happy belated birthday steven - i hope your text at least got through on the day. all the best for the US of A!! we're in cairns now so starting to sort out before we move on from oz! huge step for us. 1st off lets rehome amy....

oops..... sorry officer!

2007-06-23T10:25:00.000+02:00

Doh! So... on our long driving day as the scenery stayed pretty much the same and we bopped along to the same tunes on the mp3 i decided to spice things up a little, have a little break in the journey. Seems i failed to notice a speed restriction sign so as i was happily plodding tourist pace 5kph under what i thought to be the speed limit the small man with the camera decided i was actually 15kph over. Gutted! Especially given our general cruisey pace - we're in no rush! Hence my first speeding ticket and me with no defence. so $150 dollar donation to the qld government will teach me a lesson - Australia needs repeater speed signs for those of us with the memory of small fish :) ...oh and that speeding is wrong and one should pay more attention when driving etc of course.
Will catch up with blog soon, coming to end of time in oz so busy busy busy - life's hard as a backpacker... poor backpackers eh?!

Platypus :)

2007-06-23T10:07:00.000+02:00

Another obsession of mine, so we had to go find them. Thanks to Lindsey (the one who flew to Fraser Island...) we knew Eungala National Park was the place to go. Off we hopp in Amy for a long long drive. We drove and drove and drove. It got darker and wetter (Eungala is a rainforrest after all) and we kept going. The last stretch is a very steep hill where the road winds itself up in sharp bends. By now it was completely dark and very wet, and the warnings about landslides in the area seemed quite real. So Amy closed her eyes. Can't say I blame her, but driving without headlights is really not easy! Esp when there is a huge drop on one side and rockface on the other. Slight panic, but luckily only two bends to go before we got to Eungala Caravan Park. The plan had been to camp in the nat park as they are cheap cheap, but we didn't fancy going any further. So made mash with onions for dinner and went to bed in Amy :)

But it all paid off the next morning when we got to Broken River to find Mr Platypus busily swimming around having his breakfast! So cute. Will fit one of them in our garden creek at home. And we saw a turtle.

Then headed back to the campsite where we had slept in Amy and told them our sobbing story of breaking down in the middle of the night. So they let us of without paying! Good good.

Another quick drive through lots and lots of sugar cane and rain, and we arrived in Airlie Beach. Met up with James and Cat (our friends from Fraser) and sampled the local sangria :)

Next chapter is sailing the Whitsundays (or wetsundays as they have been renamed), but that will be covered from next internet cafe as we are off to the campsite now!
Lots of love
G & C

Wow, Fraser Island....

2007-06-16T09:37:00.000+02:00

From our cool beach front campsite we packed up (real quick, we're getting good at this now - when we only have 2 weeks left to enjoy having amy!) and headed towards Hervey bay. We cut it a little fine for our 3pm meeting, must've stopped for a cople too many icecreams and Maccy D's on the way as when we rocked up at 3.20pm we were introduced as 'the late girls'. Out of 3 groups we ended up with a mixed bag of 11 - 5 brits, 2 danish, 2 french, one french canadian and a norwegian (incl us:) The group got on well but spent the first 2 days keeping our spirits up as the rain lashed down. We went to Fraser with pretty high expectations, many of you who had told us it was your no.1 spot in Oz. We saw why today as the sun shone down on us as we bathed in Lake McKenzie :) After the welcome meeting on monday (we were nearly a day early having not read our itinerary carefully...) where we went through why we shouldn't feed the dingoes etc we went and shopped as a group (11 people deciding how much toilet roll they'd need over 3 days.... can think of places i'd rather be). An all you can eat (before they took the bowls away 10 mins later) mexican followed with a beer in the deserted koala night club. Day of departure Tuesday up early for a chat on the vehicle which also included more of a real guide to Fraser - no you don't back away from dingos, you 'defend yourself aggressively' ie hit them with the shovel if they bother you! We managed extremely well to fit everything in this one tiny 4x4 and got all the way to the barge hitch free. On Fraser it was down the sand tracks (tricky driving) to a few lakes before hitting the ridicuolously long eastern beach to head up to find a sand dune to camp behind. The beach is a road and an air strip! v cool. We set up camp just north of the Maheno wreck and cooked in the dark and the rain. Spirits lifted as we headed to a fishermans camp with huge tarps, a generator, guitar and amps to drink our goon :) Good night.
Next day up to Indian head where we watched a pod of whales migrating north (humpbacks i guess) and then a 30min (excersize for backpackers) walk to the champagne pools which were cute but really not all that. Then zoooooom i drive down the beach - the only person managing to get stream water over the bonet!! and we head inland to Lake Wabby (its being eaten up by a sand dune) and then onto Lake Mckenzie where we thought we'd camp in the site marked very clearly on our map. Assuming the 3 signs we passed saying no camping here were wrong we ventured on... skies darkening and us with no insurance after nightfall! No campsite, damned signs told the truth. Cursing Koalas (the company we went with) and their shoddy map we met another group in the same situation and headed very slowly and carefully to a campsite we'd been to before but had no permit for and had a 9pm noise rule! we got there safe and camped out of the way (in a campervan site) and set up an awesome bbq. Thinking there'd be huge fines we awoke relieved this morning to find no ranger had been :) And there were no dingos which were cool, they'd been bugging our tents all the night before. Great day today at the lake, sun makes all the difference, so cool, if a little damp trip. group got on ok and we're off out together tonight, gotta run, no internet credit left...............

Brisvegas!

2007-06-16T09:35:00.000+02:00

As I couldn't stand Surfers Paradise (high rises on a beach...) we called Glenda and Dave ( from the transib) and took them up on their offer to house us a few days... Spoiled again! Great company and good wine - all we had to offer them was half a bottle of Merlot, the left overs from the night before :)

Thursday we managed to drag ourselves out of the very comfy house and head into City. Wandered around Southbank and had a beer on Queen Street after a river cruise (obviously done the cheap way on the passenger ferry). Then off to the RSL (returned servicemens legion) to try the pokies (enarmet banditt)! A must for the true australian experience.

Friday we went to the zoo. Australia zoo where Mr Irwin used to be before the stingray got him. Lots of crockodiles, kanagroos and others - can't really remember as I found the kookaburra hospital!! So so cute. Want to take them home too, they look so furry and cosy, I'm sure they would be fine in Norway.

After the zoo we met up with Michelles brother Brendan on the verge of the motorway to the Gold Coast. He had one mission: to spoil us in the place of his sister. We like it :) Over the next days he took us to The Lighthouse for lunch with the rest of Michelles family, to a cowboy and indian party (we made costumes of old sheets - looked fantastic), on a boat trip in Moreton Bay, to see the glowworms under Nartural Bridge, to the tip on Tamburine Mountain and for many drives in super car - his Ford Falcon. GT I might add :)

Can truly recommend Brendans Magical Mystery tours! Must mention his babies too - Kelly and Buddy, american pitbulls. Good dogs.

Left him Monday to get to Hervey Bay. Found out just before we left that we had our dates wrong, and didn't really have to be there til Tuesday... So we ended up in a caravan park in Mooloolaba that night. How can you not stop in a place called Mooloolaba??? Had dinner at the beach, dodging the huge bats that were diving for our food. All very nice.

Will leave C to tell you about Fraiser Isalnd.

Lots of love

G&C

Dolphins!

2007-06-13T02:50:00.000+02:00

Got ourselves to Byron Bay and found the cheapest camping at the Arts Factory... Arty party place with lots of surfer dudes and hippies. Caroline almost left as soon as we got there when she saw a huge rat run between the tents. Got spoilt when we went home me thinks :) But put up our tent and went to town for a chicken kebab (and some tonic for the gin).
The day of much action we spent in a kayak looking for turtles and dolphins. Was great! The kayaks were big sitting on top of things that supposedly were imposible to capsize - we proved them wrong! and we found out why they make us wear helmets :)
Managed to get through the breaking waves and out to sea - this is where you are supposed to go around. Couldn't find any dolphins so went for a swim from the kayaks far out at sea - getting back in brought on the first tip... Then had biscuits and tea on a beach before we brased the breaking waves again - this time to catch them! So so much fun! and then the dolphins arrived. just next to our kayak - beautiful! Love them, but Caroline says I can't keep one :( Then all we had to do was get ourselves back on sore. Which we did, just not at them asame time as our kayak... Talent show at Arty party kept us occupied that night.

Next morning the weather was rubbish (ie overcast) so we left the sea to find the rainforrest in Lamington national park! Took Amy up a road winding enough to compete with norwegian roads, and just got our tent up ready to cook fillet steak for dinner when it started raining.... Thanks to a big tree the dinner was still a success and it all went down beautifully with the merlot from our wine tour (0h - that is another crazy thing! The Hunter Valley where we were dinking wine a week ago is now completely flooded!!! Water everywhere, and we thought it was the dryest place we had seen...). It rained all night, but Ben kept us dry, even though everything else was soaked.
In the morning we had a cup of tea with June Noden from Shropshire - turns out she knows Ali&Chris, James&Vanessa! Very funny. Got a quick run through of Junes life, think it had been to long since anyone had asked her over for a cup of tea - can take the lady out of england, but not england out of the lady! Or something similar :)
Then we saw all the parrots in the world, even fed them thanks to a sharing japanese family, before we climed a 30m high tree and set off to the other part of Lamington park. The whole trip to Lamington was done in the hope to find Andre, one of the rangers there whom Caroline talked to for about five minutes in Saigon... Couldn't find him and it was still raining and the camping gear was all wet, so after a quick stop in Surfers Paradise we headed to Brisbane.

Hungry now, so will tell you about Brisbane adventures later!
Lots of Love
Guro

Caroline finally locked Guro up...

2007-06-03T05:13:00.000+02:00

Trial Bay Gaol in Arakoon by South West Rocks this morning....

Back on the road again...

2007-06-03T04:43:00.000+02:00

Pelicans at the Entrance
Smokey beach

And it is great! Amy started with a loud purr, only hickup was a leaking air mattress... So now we have a new one! Posh travellers us :)
Stayed the first night in a caravan park two min from the airport, very happy as adjusting to the new time did not seem to be a problem at all! To bed at eleven and up at six. This has now changed to bed at seven in the evening and completely awake at two in the night... Oh well, am sure that will sort it self out, we're on holiday and not worried about a thing!
Started our coast drive by going inland to Hunter Valley for some wine tasting. :) Need I say more? Great wines. Camped by gorgeous Lake St Clair with possum friends we only heard, then upgraded to a caravan after the wine. Only to get our icepacks frozen again, honest.
Yesterday we drove 430km from Singleton to South West Rocks and camped in the forrest by Smokey Beach. Very noisy night! Busy busy birds. But we had a little camp-fire (our first!) and were very pleased with ourselves.
Now we're in Coffs Harbour, heading for Byron Bay. The weather is great, the sea is getting warmer the further north we get and there are lots and lots of nigels (pelicans) and Kookaburras. Love both of them, will take them home and cuddle them.

Will keep you posted!!
Lots of love
G&C

Congratulations Steve and Jenny!

2007-06-03T04:07:00.000+02:00

Firstly, horrified guro's hard work on the photos has so far been unrewarded with a complete lack of comments - hope you didn't stop reading the blog just because of mega blog...
... and if any of you do feel like commenting would you also like to add a small 'ticking off' for guro as she is constantly biting her nails these days. bad guro :(

So, back to the UK for a wedding! sounds mad but it was great. Amazing to think that we can just stop this round-the-world venture and head home (treated to many creature comforts) to be back on the road in Australia only 14 dasy later!

Thanks very much Foodge for the lift from the airport... am sure we'll repay the 4am start at some point! From here to Derbyshire then Gu to Norway the next day. swoooosh! Mum and dad gave me and Andy (best man) a lift up to Steven and Jennys place in Dunfermline on the Tuesday where we stayed in their 4 bedroom place (v nice!). Dropped Andy here and headed to see my gran which was lovely, took her out for a cup of tea about half an hour from her Aberdeen home. Settled her back and then after a bit of a struggle found a place to stay wednesday night which would've been perfect for students wanting a night out at of of the many clubs downstairs or buisnessmen commuting to and from the oil fields. It did ok for us, sharing a family room with my parents for the first time in many years! Thursday morning we picked up Guro from a bumpy Bergen to Aberdeen flight and drove to our Camusdarrach accomodation, arriving that afternoon. Steven and Jenny had booked out a cottage with 2 floors one for the Neale's and one for the Davies (jenny's family name). It was ours for the week so Lindsey and Foodge were there to meet us after their touring holiday of the highlands. Thurdsday nights BBQ with the 2 families met with only one very small rainshower - very promosing for the cermony on the beach next day. Friday morning there was some table setting and hair doing etc, a trip to close-by Mallaig where Gu and I bought a kite (very important pre wedding things) and then dressed in our tailor made Vietnamese dresses with our Australian bought shoes and me in a new nice and warm wrap bought by mum (thank you) on our trip the day before. Guro and i then calmed the groom (well that was our excuse) by letting him fly our kite as everyone arrived at the beach. Jenny was beautiful and the ceremony proceeded without a hitch. There'll be some fantastic photos with sunlit beach and atmospheric sky threating - but not producing rain. So cool, and now brother is married!! Well done :)

Saturday we stayed in a great B&B in Edinburgh with a garden suite for me and Gu. En route Foodge, Lin, Gu and I stopped at Pitlocherie to see the salmon ladder and have a lovely haggis, neeps and tatties lunch, followed by Pirates of the Carribean (swoon). Sunday started with seeing Jenny Millgate (friend from uni) and having coffee in tolcross followed by a trip down memory lane and a pint in Drouthy's. We had a family lunch at the Flotterstone and then it was party time. Steven and jenny's reception was held at Napier overlooking the city. Haggis on the menu again (so good we headed back for 2nds) and then a ceilidh. Great party from which the happy couple left headed to sicilly for their honeymoon.

Back to Derby monday for us, then Heathrow and a 24hour flight via bangkok again to Sydney. Clever us managed to camp that night (saving some pennies) and from here started holiday proper... up the east coast!

Old classics...

2007-05-23T14:17:00.001+02:00

Span and C in little Sahara
Roo trying to come with us when we leave Kenguru Isalnd
The hungry possum that later had a fight with roo
Off she hopps! 3 days after we bought her.

Thought these deserved to be published even if they are a bit out of date. They do after all represent special moments :)

And the computer at home works a lot better than backpackerhostelcomputers...

Hopefully some photos of the happy couple and us in the Vietnam dresses will follow next week.

Photos!!!

2007-05-23T14:00:00.000+02:00

Feeding the hoppetihopps in Ballarat Wildlife Park. Yabbies!!!
Kittens and a slightly scared Guro...
Elepanty washing Caroline (the event was advertised as us washing them....)

You have to look at the map too! Have added lots of new places with coments and all. Loving it at home, think it might even be quite nice to come back in 4 months :)

Off to Aberdeen tomorrow for Steven and Jennys wedding!

home?! briefly....

2007-05-19T22:32:00.000+02:00

just to say have landed in uk so i am home, guro is v close as she flys to norway in just 12 hours :)
great to see tatty. and the parents. and the sister and the sisters boyfriend. and the pigs. and billy and holly and.... well everything is great - leaving us suprised at ourselves as we start to think maybe will be ready to come home in 4 short months!!
wish we had more time to catch up with more people but thats hectic travelling life - will be back in oz in just 10 days! not sure its even worth trying to get over the jet-lag!
g'night x

shiney new things!!! oh and tigers....WARNING - MEGA BLOG!

2007-05-17T12:23:00.000+02:00

guro left y'all with the quick "hello we're safe blog" as we'd landed bangkok and were headed to the tigers so i'll take up from there.... sorry if there's a few bits missing and we back fill when home but dodgy foreign computers and all we're not quite sure if we've missed anything out (and to all the people that were involved in the bits we may have missed out we're sorry and you are very important to us!)

at the airport we were very clever and left half our luggage (only 32kgs check-on total - i know we obviously haven't bought enough souvenirs for you...) in storage and picked up a free bangkok map (eek no lonely planet - how will we cope?). renewed with travelling vigour, the thought of a truely home cooked meal not far away and the break 3 months work gave us, we got to grips with the map and were headed towards the bus (you may have noticed it was mainly taxis first asian time round) as we were politely accosted by a young indian man kris. he was actually asking us (obviously by now the seasoned travellers - he must have noticed the synical expressions as we warded of taxi after taxi and seen the fact the clothes we were wearing are see through they've been washed so many times) for help and advice.

and thats how it started.

it went from "where did you pick up your map" to "could you babysit me for my time in bangkok and can i do everything you do (and maybe have a threesome)". you'll be happy to hear we set him straight on the last request promptly and then bought him a bus ticket and found him a hotel room - him trundling 2 wheely cases down bangkok streets as we duck and weave with our shared backpack (feeling pretty damned cool!). we freshened up and promptly set out to find how best we could get out to see those big stripey kittons with kris in tow.

bangkok day 2 we met the rest of 'the group from hell' as we'll fondly remember them :) we'd booked onto a tour (too lazy to get the local bus - so much for renewed vigor, and the trip was too good to turn down) with an israeli travel company and hence we landed 'paris hilton', 'nicole ritchie' (p+n from now or 'the girls') and a couple with food poisoning. happy days. the rudest little bunch of people we have ever had the torture of spending time around (you didn't spend time with them, this would suggest they aknowledged your presence). all israeli and thank god we met a nice couple of israeli boys day 3 or i might have to start generalising about a nationality....

we set off by a/c minibus to kanchanaburi and booked into a beautiful hotel/resort. from here we went straight to the tiger temple and it was worth the journey (dont think couple boy agreed as he had to stop the bus to vomit..). the bhuddist temple is a sanctuary for all animals that wander in because they get fed! the monks do a good job of keeping the wild boar away from the tigers with tidy little sling shots - being monks am sure they only fire very soft things :) we both took our turns to pat the fiersome beasts (tigers not monks...) who actually got too narky for 'special photos' to be taken where for 1000baht the tigers would hop onto your knee and pose.... great plan. it was the thunderous rain making them jumpy. and p+n grumpy. and us wet!

from here to a floating deck where muscley thai ladies worked on our travel worn feet for half an hour (rather them than me) and dinner in their beautiful gardens complete with wildlife (didn't help the israeli mood that a gecko fell on ones head and a toad jumped across the room. oh and they didn't like the frogs being transported next to them in the bus day 3...) and back to the hotel a bit sooner than we'd hoped as the 'girls' had had enough. we left as the ladies had terrible headaches which it seemed got a lot better after returning to the hotel where they "had to" get to the internet........ to play a computer game involving fish! grrrrrrr.

beautiful sleep in a beautiful bed but day 3 did not see light fill the moods of our group. you wouldn't think you could go wrong with an omlete breakfast but with the manner in which p + n treated the staff we were suprised only one ant turned up in their food. after emptying a shaker full of salt onto breakfast 2 breakfast 3 was left almost untouched. p having lost her appetite. we all almost cried for her. honest. n then announced she wouldn't be joining us today for the elephant trek and bathing, boat trip, big bhudda and cave tour, waterfall trek and tour of the bridge over the river kwai - instead she insisted the unfinished pool be filled (it was a hole in the ground) for her to tan by. GRRRRRR!

we had a great day doing all the above. kris and we had a great walk to the 7th (top) tier of erwan falls. they are beautiful and you can swim in the natural pools at every level. gorgeous. with just 3 hours we could only swim at the top pool before meeting up with the others - who had been waiting for us for 2 hours as they couldn't be bothered to walk. they insisted lunch would be a quick affair unlike the lengthy dinner (yeah right) that they'd cut short the night before. paris and couple girl managed to order boiled rice and peanuts from a menu that included neither which were again uneaten and all hurried off.

it was about now they started complaining that the tour was boring and there was nothing to do! GOOD GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the elephants were beautiful and after a short ride we had great fun washing them - well couple and we did, of course paris having chosen to wash the elephants by now had changed her mind and wanted to go bamboo rafting instead.

despite the traumas from the special company the trip was amazing. our guide am was cool and guro is convinced the garden of the new house we will buy when home with all the money we have....... will be big enough for an elephant. and a tiger.

on returning to bangkok none said goodbye. we left (with kris... we're warming to him just in small doses) and have spent today buying shiney new things (which obviously being from bangkok will not be shiney and new by the time we get them back to the hotel let alone home).

and now we sit, waiting for time to pass as we fly to uk tonight, writing mega blog of all mega blogs for y'all to read at your lesiure. you could always print it off and use it as your toilet novel...?

Bangkok!!!

2007-05-15T03:42:00.000+02:00

Just very a very quick blog to say that we have landed and all is well. But so so hot!!!! Forgot about that bit :)
Off to see the tigers now! Back in tour group! Oh yeah!
Speak soon!!!
KLem og klem
us

2007-05-14T00:37:00.000+02:00

hello all!

just hopping on a plane to bangkok to go cuddle some cute tigers! won't be the same as last time as no mark and michelle waiting for us but will have an extra pint of chang on their behalf :)
home in 5 days now, can't wait but also looking forward to getting back to oz - have brought travel brochures for the plane so we can plan...

x

Off we hopp

2007-05-12T07:17:00.000+02:00

In Goulburn now, on our way to Sydney. We have left Victoria :( and lots of new friends. Have a feeling will be back... esp as a proposal bug seems to be spreading (congrats to vic and julian as the last ones!!!).
Before we left Melbourne we manage to qualify as kitesurfers!!! So so much fun. Finally made it into the water, and stood up! On a board! A moving board! Pulled by the wind! Fair enough the standing up didn't last so long, very soon had a face full of water and no board, but am sure practice shall fix that very quickly (can't wait to come home and be your new cool friends Hege!!).
From Rosebud we went to Phillip Island, penguins and a cosy fireplace at Don and Pams (Fi parents). Had a lovely time with them and TJ. Saw some of the beautiful farm the next day when we went for a walk along their beaches! Gorgeous.
Then back to Melbourne for the vet function C's work at Springvale had invited us too. How often as a backpacker do you have a waiter come around and fill up your champagne glass the whole evening (wish we had M&M with us)???? Very cool. We even managed the black dress thing, thanks to TJs wardrobe. Finished the night at Gin Palace :)
Said a very sad goodbye to Vic and Julian the next morning, then met up with Marie and luke again for dinner, found more family traits - hyperextendable elbow joints.
Another sad goodbye to TJ, then off to Geelong for a quick hello to my work there, then to Ballarat where we had invited ourselves to stay with Rachel. Got waited on again, and finished off another few bottles of wine with her, Jac and Paul. Lovely lovely. Also had a quick recheck off my famous copperhead snake at Ballarat wildlife park. It is doing well, and will hopefully soon be back hunting unaware aussies in the wild :).
As we are doing the rounds of the Dean/Cameron family the obvious next stop was to TJ and Simons parents, Greg and Helen. Got dined and wined and spoilt rotten again. Really can get used to this hard backpacker life! We stayed with them for two nights whilst having a look at the Grampians. Headed up to the Pinnacle through Grand Canyon and Silent Street, then went for a great horsetrek in the valley.
And we went jabbying!! Tasty little crustations were fished up from the dam at the Deans farm in Landsborough. The were then cooked, shelled and ate. Nice :)
Got to Kerang for our last revisit. Spent another evening on Libbys couch, and said another sad goodbye :(
So now we almost ready to hop home for a quick visit! Just have to get the tax forms off and confirm our flights. Oh, and see some tigers in Thailand!
You will hear all about it!!
Lots of love
G&C

new shoes!

2007-05-03T08:03:00.000+02:00

Yey!!! guro has new shoes!

we're making full use of the brothers wedding as an excuse to shop shop shop :) although they're second hand and 2 sizes too big they are now guros favourite thing and just the pair we've been looking for for weeks :D cool shop, so gu now fully accessorised.

have been staying with TJ last 4 days! had booked into a backpackers in st kilda but after staying with simon, fi and hamish in camperdown fi insisted and phoned simons sister tj on speakerphone with us standing there to offer her some houseguests! in true dean stylee she gladly accepted and we've definately made ourselves at home. we took over the house emptying amy and slowly refilling her in order, getting prepared to face a couple of months on the road!

We are soooooo cool. we can now fly very big kites! next step is getting oh so very wet... eek!

plans slowly getting there for the next few days through to the next few months, uluru trip has been postponed until we're back from the uk... we found a few days somewhere to fit it in and it means we can do the little tour we want where we get to go to a huge cattle station and everything. sat in a travel agents now and getting very excited about all the holidays on offer :)

off for cocktails now, heading to yarraville to see vic and julian. philip island and the small penguins tomorrow (guro does a great impression) then its the big christmas black tie ball that we've been borrowing clothes left right and centre for!

and sis, the young modern silverchair album is still no 1 in aus and looks like it always will be!

catch up soon - we're coming to see you!!!!!!!

xx

We're tourists again!!!

2007-04-30T09:23:00.000+02:00

Finally finished our hard work - 3 months of routine and getting up early! Ballarat was great, treated famous snakes (it was in the local paper the next day!!!), wombat babies and koalas. C
decided Rhodes veterinary clinic was not as bad as its reputation. Or well... it was, but it was still quite amusing, lovely staff and farmers to keep her entertained. Have managed to do a few not working related things the last month as well - found no gold at Sovereign hill (but did buy an emu!), saw Cirque the Soleil (fantastic) and visited Simon, Fi and Hamish again. And we saw bogans!!! These are the special people of Colac - easily recognised by the baby bump + school uniform/track suit or rat tail if they're male. Saw them at Cindy's birthday party in Colac (Cindy is Kirstys flatmate, Kirsty was C nurse in Colac). Also saw a very funny Ardal O'Hanlan (Father Dougal!!) sunday evening for Elses birthday.
Now we are staying with Simon sister, Tanja, in Melbourne. She is an absolute star for taking us in!
Will stay there til thursday whilst we learn to kite surf!! had our first lesson today, so much fun!!! Even though I have to admit that C is a little bit more talented than me. Will definitely catch up with her though!!!!
And to our great relief Qantas was playing our game this morning and fixed our tickets and slagged off STA for being rubbish.
Love to all!! will put on photos when I'm surfing past C!!!
G & C

eeeek!

2007-04-27T04:08:00.000+02:00

just got an email from sta saying we've missed a flight, our next flight needs confirming from nadi to honolulu!!!!
am sure the lovely peole at quantas will fix or we'll have to stay in aussieland forever........!

my last couple of weeks...

2007-04-19T09:15:00.000+02:00

...but it feels more like a lifetime since i was working at sandown - only 2 weeks ago!

guro and i had a great night out with vic, julian and beth in melbourne on my last day at sandown. in the day we bindged on cake and chips (thats crisps brits) and did little work. beth and i stopped for a little emergency shopping on the way so we started late but we partied until a respectable hour before heading back to once again fall asleep in comedy positions on vics oh so lovely sofa. fortunately the gin fuelled hangovers were mild and after tea and organic hot cross buns (yummy good friday) we were off to find a small town called colac in sw victoria.

we arrived in amy (now usg, we managed with v few hitches to sort out her rego but she needed new plates) about 5 hours later than expected to a grumpy nurse waiting with my house keys. after a swift tour of a reasonable practice kirsty left (i think she needed a drink to help her hangover) pointing us in the direction of simpson, an oh so very small town 20 (yeah right) mins away. she also mentioned the time off mike, my new boss was planning whilst i was here was starting the next day for 10 days so i would be being mike instead of helping him :(
40 mins down the road we found 'the house on the corner' which was to be my home for 3 1/2 weeks, a mere 50km from the practice. its a nice enough place (although something does go bump in the night and i dont think its possums) but v far away.

next morning we met the infamous 'mike the mortician' and a hectic morning ensued with me consulting, gu operating and mike out on farm. i'm not sure how late the day would have been if gu hadn't been helping and the idea of carrying the practice through easter week alone seemed daunting... as it should have.

gu helped me through the weekend but then had to go back to ballarat to look after the pets she was sitting easter monday. it was busy and i'd forgotten that i know nothing about cattle. especially dairy cattle. in australia... eeeek! i was permanently on the phone to mike who in his defense was only an hour away but most definately on holiday. i was operating on cows left right and centre, v few of which (possibly one) who are still with us today! after 12 and 14 hour days in the week i was reconsidering my position, having 2 other practices we've previously worked for clawing for us back with a more substantial salary for much less work. but i think somewhere along the way i developed stockholm syndrome - mikes not a bad person. and the support staff here are lovely (the grumpy nurse is only grumpy on a hangover, a couple of which we have since cultured together). i was shafted over working last weekend, mike only telling people friday he expected me to be working. i'd already decided to leave or just deal with it and ask for more money. no point whinging and i'm still here, and it was the right decision (and i have more money!). life has become pretty cruisey. cate, a smallie locum, comes in a couple o days a week and mikes back so i tend to do an odd ceasar or calving, or pd 10 cows :) life is good. and the bakery up the road does killer profiteroles. and kirstys housemate cindy is a great cook and introducing me to ozzie foods :D

guro came down from ballarat again last night and we met up with hamish!... and simon and fi (hamish's mum and dad). it was great to see them, they're doing really well. simon still stands out as being very australian even in australia. we finally gave them the baby present we've been carrying since thailand :) we had a lovely meal and stayed over, making me pretty late for work next day (but i figure mike still owes me for easter)

am keeping warm just. nola gave me a fleece jacket as a leaving present from sandown (think i may have been whinging that it'd be cold in colac) which is fantastic, and i've scabbed a 2nd handjacket from beth and nice new pfizer fleece vests for me and gu. we're accepting charity gladly now :)

the plans from now are to finish working on the 27th then we'll be back on holiday!! anzac day we're going to cirque du soleil, we're hoping to fit in some kite surfing before seeing ardal o'hanlan at the melbourne comedy festival in 2 weeks. then its the sandown christmas do (they're a bit slow) beofre a trip up to uluru which we've still to organise. seeing pink on the 13th before flying from sydney on the 14th to bangkok! will be home on the 18th so see y'all soon

x

Happy birthday Marc!!!!

2007-04-10T10:41:00.000+02:00

Just so you all know that we still miss M&M. Think they have finally managed to leave Brisvegas for Mexico.
Hope you're having a fantastic day boy (at least better than last year :) ).
Lots and lots of love from us - you can share a little of it with meeeechelle. If you want.
G&C

Happy happy easter all of you!!

2007-04-08T03:41:00.000+02:00

Just moved ourselves to Colac where Caroline has started her new job. She is now working with racing cattle rather than racing dogs. Looks like it will be fun! Her new boss is called Mike Rhodes (!!!) and reminds me a little of Steve Irwin... She is running the place the first week as boss is off on much needed holiday, looks like there is enough to do for two vets so she won't have time to miss me when I head back to Ballarat tonight.
Anyway, will tell you much more about new jobs (I've already treated 2 koalas and a cockatoo!) after easter.
Enjoy your eater everyone!
And thank you so much to Len, Liz, Lindsey and Foodge for the video of Tatty!!! Fantastic :)
Lots of love from us

Beth Tyrrell

2007-03-29T06:28:00.000+02:00

What can i say. just writing (or about to) write a reference for young beth tyrrell a nurse i've worked with for nearly 2 months. she's lovely. adorable. we all missed her so much when she went away for 3 weeks! so long without that smiling (if ginger) face. and bless her she even painted my toenails. (and yes... she is standing just beside me :) she was upset i hadn't mentioned her so beth, this is just for you
mwagh x

Me me me!!!

2007-03-26T09:41:00.000+02:00

Am now 28 years old. Feels very similar to 27 years old. Had a fantastic weekend though! Milked the birthday for all it was worth. Started early on friday night when Libby (the girl we stayed with in Kerang) came to see us. Caroline had baked cake so we celebrated "lillebursdagskveld" with beer and cake.
Then off we went to see the dolphins and seal on the big day! Didn't matter that it was pouring down and very windy, it was apparently still 22C in the sea! So with super extra thick wetsuits we didn't get too cold :) The dolphins and seals were cool! Even though we saw more of them above water then we did when we were in the sea. A small group did come and have a look at us though, so did get a bit of dolphin/seal swimming. Very pretty things. Also saw a little water dragon, lots of Gilbert fish (Finding Nemo) and many many bobbles. Jumped from the roof of the boat and got dragged after it by ropes and stuff. Lots and lots of fun.
After that we headed for the leaving party for the vet I'm covering for now. Great aussie BBQ and bon fire! Lovely. And I got another cake!!! I might have told everyone at work that it was my birthday :)
Tried to convince Caroline and Libby that sunday would be my birthday too as I was born in Norway and hence should be celebrating on norwegian time. But ended up sleeping in in the morning, so they got clever and realised that by the time we were up, it was the 25th at home...
Still got a cup of tea in bed though :)
Thank you very much to everyone for leaving happy birthday messages for me!! Will do my best to remeber all of you as well...
Big hugs from oldie

Oki oki oki

2007-03-22T05:47:00.000+01:00

Have been trying to get photos on the net, but computer is not playing the game. Takes forever and then they disappear. Will find antoher one and try later.
Have been in new job for a week now (long time in locum terms), much much fun! The boss is very laid back and makes everything seem easy. Which is great as here is a lot of horse work and college left us all thinking that horses will die if you touch them, so he's making C and me realise that they're just another animal really. the dogs here seems to clot though, not like in Kerang where they all just bled and bled. Am about as busy as Caroline. Not running my feet of in other words :) but people are nice and I get paid, so no complaints! The bosses wife is also cooking my food and there has been a few bottles of wine on the table too! Very good.
Went out in Melbourne with Emily and Marc (friends from college) and Vic and Julian (friends from Cs job) this week. Had a great time in St Kilda catching up and sharing travelling/vet stories. Had our fair share of drinks too, and then slept on Vics couch (courtesy of her 4 greyhounds), so I was very glad my understanding boss had given me the morning off the next day!
Think that is about it about Geelong. It is very hot. And dry and dusty. But fun :)
Will be even better tomorrow as it is my birthday and we're off to swim with dolphind and seals!!!! Libby from Kerang is coming down to join us too, so better leave the computer and go get her at the train station.
Will tell you more when I'm 28!!!
Hugs and things, G&C

And very cool to hear from you Henning and Ina!!! Am sure thing will be better in Bergen, Heidi, it is after all the best place in the world. Have you started selling the flat yet?

stop sleeping!!!!

2007-03-20T07:11:00.000+01:00

Bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored....
sat at work and have only seen 5 clients today. that would be fine but i've been working for 7 hours and am here for another 2...............
shouldn't complain but no-one is answering my texts because you're all sleeping! maybe if i just text you some more...?!

dear guro

2007-03-19T01:04:00.000+01:00

hey gu, you're on the net now.... so blog!!!! am losing my blogging mojo. hope you're not too busy, sounds like it could get craxy today x

Tom the dog, Nigel and Possum

2007-03-17T06:55:00.000+01:00

so bad at updating blog now!!

2007-03-14T05:54:00.000+01:00

its not that we're not doing anything its just that the days are flying and phoning home is harder, a few more personal emails means poor blog has been a little neglected!

we've done brief updates on kerang and springvale, but we need to fill in a little more detail as this is officially our journal. my paperback currently is stuck in vietnam and guro is further back in china! ha ha ha ha

working at springvale is still cool. am slowly remembering how to be a vet! i seem to work with different people each day as people come and go from there holidays. its a shame i'll never see this place fully staffed as im promised 'its much more sane' then. have seen a few more racing greyhounds and bullshitted to their owners. am developing that great locum style of getting clients to come back on days i'm off and basing my medicine on making sure they dont die in the meantime! i really hope the springvale folk like my boss don't read this :) having lots of fun at work and getting paid is great. we think we can even afford a duna (thats duvet/quilt for anyone not in oz) as our thermostats are out - we're waking up in 20 degree nights because its so cold. can't wait to be on a beach in scotland in may for bros wedding!

i went back to kerang 2 weekends ago to pick up guro, or gooey as she's been named. we went back to the royal with libby and her mates and had a great celebration of our leaving (only to return 1 week later to visit!) loads of people came back to the house as they do every weekend and the party went on all night. we meant to head out in libbys mans boat on the sunday but a few people seemed to have come down with a 'tropical disease' stopping us (yes, i had a v bad bout!)

last week we were both back in frankston, i was supposed to work 4 days and gu was unemployed, but due to a handy rota error i was only in on monday and friday! so monday we quickly planned a midweek getaway (meaning we spent more than we earned this week.... oops) we met up with maria, guros 2nd cousin and her fiance luke on monday at their place in richmond (lovely area of melbourne v near the city). they cooked us a lovely lamb barby and divine chocolate cake and we enjoyed a glass a wine together late into the night. maria is so like her mum (who i met at guros dads family party) so we're really looking forward to meeting up again. on tuesday we ignored luke and maria as they headed out to work as we were unrousable until gone 9am. we went into melbourne and finally booked flights to the uk via bangkok to see the tigers we missed on our way out here. i've had a nightmare booking these fligths so am so happy now its done. we arrive in the uk on may 18th and leave may 29th. so midday we set off towards wilsons promontory national park. whilst on the freeway we got peckish and couldn't resist a dairy farm advertising food and calves to cuddle! it was so cool we stopped in on the way back too, guro the iced coffee addict decided it has the best iced coffee yet. wilsons prom is only 3 hours se of melbourne but by the time we arrived it was gone 4pm. we booked a night camping at the closest spot for an overnight hike 3 hours away and packed our huge rucksacks with our not so portable camping gear and set off. we must have been carrying more than 12kgs each! the walk was great, we saw lots of wombat poo and an echidna. we arrived at sealers cove camp at 8pm to find it packde with small school groups. they were mostly in bed though, so we found a spot, cooked and slept. we were off in the morning by 8.30am, the other campers lagging behind as they had about 1/4 of our distance to cover the next day. we walked through beautiful gum tree forrests and along ocean tracks. there were several beautiful white sand beaches that were so fine they squeak when you walk on them. swimming in the clear water felt like heaven - the beaches were better than thailand. it was a long 25km and we reached our 2nd campsite by 7.30pm. we set off stiff and tired to find a wombat and thankfully found one grazing so we could get to bed (our first wild wombat!).
the next day (thursday) i'd arranged a suprise for gooeys bday, a day at a hot mineral spring spa. gotta love presents you can share!! we had a relaxing mineral bath, then had our auras cleansed, a salt exfoliation and a mud wrap... all in an aboriginal stylee! it was a beautiful drive back to frankston up the mornington peninsula and then back to work friday. i have just arranged another birthday treat aswell, we're going swimming with dolphins and seals on guros bday at the same place my mum and me went with my big sis on her bday! hoping libby will come too.

not to want to sit and do nothing, at the weekend we headed back to kerang to catch up with libby and the boys. another night out and party but his time we made it out to the bush to camp and went out in the boats, and libby took us to an emu and ostriche farm!! so cool, the farmer showed us hatching ostriches, let us hold the hour old babies, and put up with all our daft vetlike questions. emus go crazy when you whistle, they fall over then run in circles!! a bit different to chicken farming dad, you should get some! we had a great time but now i'm back at work which is thankfully very quiet. guro has scored a job in geelong, an hour the other side of melbourne. she went over yesterday and started working today. it sounds really very special but i'll let her fill y'all in. i'm heading over tonight to visit and make sure she really isn't living in a stable like it sounds!

unfortunately gu hasn't seen a computer for the last month so you have to put up with me blogging. think she's even resorted to sending postcards.

huge congratulations to nic and oz, i hope everyone at home knows about the bump to be!!
jo we're gutted we cant make the wedding, and just by a few days! you'll just have to bring it forward
tor also sorry cant make the party... you better have another one soon as they're the best! and congrats on setting a date for the wedding
bro we're trying to change the flights so we can catch up in san fran, if not we know our next holiday destination, congrats to jenny on getting the job out there.

to the rest of you all - NO MORE BIRTHS, DEATHS OR MARRIAGES UNTIL WE RETURN. PLEASE. see you all soon
c (and g from geelong) x

Springvale

2007-02-27T06:30:00.000+01:00

So, i'm sat at work on a not so busy tuesday afternoon... thankfully the job comes with unlimmited internet access (although the mountain of replies and hellos i have to write is quite daunting!) i'm only supposed to be working 3 days this week but as predicted, and as usual in our lovely female dominated profession, world war 3 went off this morning and i was called in to pick up the work of the rather emtional vet that stormed off home in tears!! am not sure if i'm gutted i missed the excitement (whilst i was busily lost in the se melbourne suburbs trying to find an sta to book tickets home), or if i'm just glad i wasn't involved in any way :)
I'm working at a small animal 50% domestic (ie cats and dogs) and 50% greyhound clinic - the practice is on a dog track! thankfully i'm not overly invovled with the fast running things, and there's lots of people around that know lots about greyhounds, but i am devolping an appreciation for treating animals that are so placid they practically xray themselves :) starting to wonder if it would be unethical to bet on the races, maybe then we could travel around oz in style (or at least have enough money to fix amy up).
we're realy getting back to day to day stuff - working, eating and sleeping so really not great for the blog... but its really cool staying with elsa again and we've got some great plans starting with a true aussie bbq tomorrow night where we'll 'throw another shrimp on the barbie'. have a suprise for guros birthday in march and will plan the rest of the trip around how much money we make in the next couple o months :)
still hoping to catch up with mark and michelle in brisbane, please please txt us a number we can call you on. will be seeing marie (guros 2nd cousin) next week and are planning sailing trips and hikes down in wilsons prom so will keep you up to date with any fun stuff and try and fill the gaps with fun stories... unfortunately bound to be vet related so if your not into all that you might want to stop checking our site until early may. i'll be sure to highlight anything interesting for normal people.
anyway, missing guro horribly as she's hundreds of kms away so hello to you and libby... and manky. guro becomes a 'lady of leisure' next week as she finishes in kerang. however, she'll have to find some kind of work before she heads to ballarat in april as it looks like getting amy roadworthy might take a few bucks! at least we don't have to worry about that for another month :)
debs and david our thoughts are with you guys and your families. sad times.
neale family - will get sorted and phone home soon, no skype access!!!
looking forward to seeing all in may, and glad to hear some of our travelling buddies are home already safe and sound.
love to all x

Kerang!

2007-02-20T06:25:00.000+01:00

So, am sure this has been mentioned or most of you have heard, i have once again followed in my sisters footsteps (much to guros delight) and ended up working for the same vet practice big sis did not so many years ago. i mean, what are the chances of that? we took a 2 week job in kerang for one vet, thinking we'd share the work and the wage so we got a gentle start back to work, and that is kinda how it worked out!
after filling amy's coolant resevoir with some sealant stuff we drove her without the hint of a leak up to kerang. we stopped on route in ararat at a not so nice campsite who literally turned off the light in the bbq area and told us to go to bed (about 9.30pm) as we were half way through our kangeroo steaks! stubbornly we persisted with headtorches but after 30mins of bugs flying around our faces we gave in, washed up (yup, in the dark) and went to bed.
we met jan (our boss) at the practice next day, she gave us a quick talk through current cases, showed us the practice which had suprisingly good facilities, and explained how to treat a snake bite. she showed us to libby's place on her farm (a cottage her daughter moved into at christmas) who kindly took us in, whom we then asked all those little questions we'd forgoten to ask jan, like what time did we start in the morning!
It is almost like being back in Wales/Hereford! Just a bit hotter and a few more snakes. Did start to think that it was too hot for blood samples to clot here, but it turned out that all the dogs just live of ratbait. Still haven't had a night without a dog in on a drip trying to bleed its way out of life... Apart from that, the animals are very similar to home - some cute, some nasty and some both. Have been out to a couple of farms and met some lovely farmers too. The locum from 1996 is still here because of one of those farmers... But I (Guro now, Caroline is in Melbourne playing with racing greyhounds) have p[romised Caroline to lay off them :)
Libby took us to the local pub last weekend, much fun to be the new faces in town. Didn't pay for many drinks to put it that way :), and only have a few bruises from falling of a very narrow plank crossing a ditch on the way home. Libby claimed it was a short cut... Will repeat the pub experience this weekend anyway!
It is very pretty up here. Completely flat, and so so dry! It hasn't rained properly for 2 months, and instead of rainstorms, they have dust storms. But here is still lots of pretty plants and many many cool birds (flamin' galas etc) thanks to Murray River running through. Will go get photos for next time I get a chance to email - the very quite practice is quite busy when you're alone :)
More next time!
Lots of love and congratulations to Fudge for passing his exam and Hege for getting a promition!!
C&G

Men in uniform...

2007-02-14T05:33:00.000+01:00

I did it again. Got us in trouble with men in uniform. This time they were policemen and pulled us over when we were driving to a call. Mr policeman comes up to the car and slightly sarcastically askes me why I think he has pulled us over. About to confess to every crime known to man, I tell him that I really don't know! He looks at my seat belt, and askes if I only just put that on? I then realise that I had the belt under my arm as we passed them at the last cross roads because I was putting sunscreen on. Luckily the sunscreen is only half rubbed in, so Mr policeman decides I might be telling the truth..... Dissapointed, they turn to Caroline and ask her for her drivers licence instead. Thanks to parents Neale, the little pink card can easily be produced. The policemen take it away with them and tries to find something wrong with them (Caroline murmuring: we own your ass, of course I can drive with a British licence). Failing that they turn to the car, hope now glimering in their eyes. They rubb their hands together and ask what are we doing here, and were do we stay? We tell them that we are working for the vets and staying on the vets farm. We also add that this is their car. And all hope leaves the policemen. "It's a vets car? Ok. You have a nice day girls. " And with that they are off (after a little warning to always wear your belt properly and to check with the traffic people wether you need an international licence), and we go to remove a cows eye.

Please don't feed the animals

2007-02-14T05:12:00.000+01:00

This is the tale of the meeting between 2 hungry possums and 1 hungry kangeroo. When we had taken enough photos of the Remarkable Rocks, we headed back to the campsite to make food. Not entirely sure how to work the camping cookers, we were very happy when a possum and his friend showed up to lend a helping hand. For a small reward of course. Chilli was on the menu, and we quickly learned that kidneybeans are a bit of a favourite between possums. Only one of them was brave enough to come up to us to get the little goodies, but he kept bringing them back to his girlfriend to share. As the good girl she was, she would bite him and steal his food and send him back for more. This went on quite quietly for a while, until a small hoppetihopp (kangeroo) became aware of what was going on. He obviously thought this was a very unfair happening, and came to get his share. But possum wasn't going to just let him have it for free! So possum ran in as quickle as he could and grabbed the tasty beans. The hoppetihopp was however a quick little fellow and caught up with him in a few short hopps. He the hopped on the possum until possum let go of his treats. Fortunately for the possum though, kidney beans are not a favourite between kengaroos, so kengu left them for possum after a quick sniff.
We had great entertainment whilst eating our chilli watching the possum trying (and largely succeding) to outsmart the kengaroo whilst avoiding to get jumped on!
If anyone is worried all three creatures left the scene with no physical injuries.

I also have to mention Roo, an old (we think) kenguman who looked after us when we camped. He helped us put up our tent for a few salad leaves and a carrot in return. And a few neck scratches. And a piece of bread. And some water. At some point Span was worried he was going to choke, but he reassured us he was fine by trying to break into the car to steal the rest of the bread. Funny man. And I got to touch a kangeroos nose!

2007-02-09T06:38:00.000+01:00

Not often we're asked to write more!! Quiet enough in kerang so will have a big catching up seesion on emails and blogging but no phone reception so sorry sis, will not be replying to texts or phoning for a bit (they haven't heard of skype in kerang...) and we're staying with libby in the farm cottage, reminicent of student days :) and here's that guide dog picture - doh!!! well the link is www.guidedogs.org.uk/events its guro that knows how to do all those adding photos things. off to cook some chilli for tea, byee.

Road trip!!

2007-02-08T07:00:00.000+01:00

Picked up Spanna and Kat (who we met in Russia before Spanna met her in China!) in St Kilda after a last organising session in the library. Headed straight for the great ocean road with great plans (which was not really to see all the information centres, but some passengers might have got that idea..). Passed beautiful scenery and got pissed on by koalas. But they were wild koalas in threes by the road! Amazing if you ask me.
We meant to see the sunset over a bunch of apostels, so after lunch we didn't stop for almost 4 hours. But being Victoria it got too cold, so as soon as the sun disappeared behind some clouds on the way down, we headed to the nearest camping site. Put up Ben (big tent) for me and C (the tour chauffers), and little Ben (mini tent) for Span and Kat (the tour chefs).
Got ourselves all the way to Southern Australia (the next state west from Victoria) and Wellington the next day. Obviously stopped at about 14 information centres and all the view points. And Amy wet herself. She was dripping water from under her belly, but the mechanics (me and C and a random german man with very little english) couldn't figure out why. And she was happy enough, pluss radiator/brake fluid full so we drove on.
Kat was going on to NZ (hope it is treating you well, girl!) on thursday, so wednesday we didn't go very far. Just to the beach in Victor Harbor :) Were very happe that the sea there was warner than in Melbourne! Lovely swim even though the return to land was a bit traumatic for the one who doesn't like seaweed....
Went to see the little penguins in the evening. The tour was supposed to start at nine pm, so we rushed through dinner and thought we might have missed it when we turned up five passed. Only to find out that SA is half an hour after Vitoria. Half an hour!?!?!? Oh well.
This led to some more time confusion the next morning when three us us had a ferry to catch and Kat had a flight to catch... But we all made it!
Span, C and I got ourselves and Amy to Kenguru Island, if only just. Amy wet herself again! and this time the radiator was empty afterwards. But with a busy schedule and sealions to see, the mechanincs decided to go ahead and just keep topping up the radiator.
The sea lions were cool. Lazing around for days and days (after hunting for days and days) whilst their babies play in the sea. The clever cloggs they are they have picked the prettiest beach on the island and made it theirs ie smell of poo + protected. Headed out to the camping place and met Roo (see Please don't feed the animals) before we went to the Remarkable Rocks. Which we had all to ourselves! Made for lots of funny photos in the sunset.
We were a bit worried for Span having to tent all by herselves, but being Span she made new friends to keep her company, in this case a possum. Am sure Seb won't mind :)
The next day we spent in a similar fashion. Saw more seals play in the water - being amazed that they don't hurt themselves when they throw them selves on and off the rocks! Tracked koalas and swam at a gorgeous beach. Saw jellyfish, and Span was bitten by something leaving two little marks... probably not poisonous as she is still alive! Then just had time for some pelicans before the ferry back to mainland! Really think all should go to Kengu island.
Only a few hickups before we got to Kerang - had the road cover people out to look at Amy again. After the lovely manager at Wellington camping had started her in the morning... Amy has now got newly brushed battery-connection-thingies, seal stuff in her radiator and lots and lots of oil, so she is purring like a kitton again!

Melbourne

2007-02-08T06:58:00.000+01:00

Firsty, has everyone at arrowfield been emailed a beautiful photo of the coniston 5 from the GDBA? thought it was great, will add to start of blog of not.

Also we have no phone reception in kerang so will be back on touch in 10 days!

So we headed toward Frankston where Else from the trans-sib had an idea we may be turning up to stay for an indefinate period. fortunately for us she's renting a great house furnished with a spare matress and usual home luxuories (apart from a tv!). We spent a week basically enjoying being in one place. catching up with else was cool, she started her new job just after we left which seems to be going fine. we enjoyed fish and chips on the beach, cooked food in a real proper kitchen (its been a while...), painted some of elses friends house in return for a great bbq, ventured into melbourne three times on the train - once to see sarah and greg whom we'd met in mongolia with whom we sat in an english pub and drank pints, once for Australia day when they had some awesome fireworks and once to watch the aus open finals in the rod laver grounds (couldn't quite afford an arena seat!). We've also been organising, trying to get work which seems to be going well and trying to register as vets which is slightly more tricky. we decided to both head up to kerang in northern victoria to do the work of one vet to ease back into working. turns out its at the practice lindsey (big sis) worked at 3 or so years ago! bizarre (ps sis am writing this in kerang, jan is cool and says she begged you to emigrate cos ur lovely and a great vet - ugh) I'm then heading back to elses to work close by and we're not sure where guros working then yet. one more job in ballarat leaves us 2 weeks to travel a bit, maybe head to tasmania and see pink in sydney before being home for 2 weeks for bro's wedding! So this all left us with a week until we needed to be in kerang. span (from uni) and kat (we met in st.p and xian) were heading to melbourne so we made vague plans for a roadtrip......!

sydney to melbourne...

2007-01-22T03:52:00.000+01:00

so after blowing huge amounts of money daily in sydney we headed north to the blue mountains before getting down to the serious task of finding work. we're already starting to budget in the vast amounts of money we're going to make! we made it to katoomba via a scenic drive and camped there in our new (if slightly used and a little bit frail) tent. we'd given in already and bought a lonely planet in sydney but as we only have this and a small scale map of australia getting anywhere is quite an adventure. we stayed in katoomba 2 nigths (thanks to amy...) before heading out to megalong valley purely because of the name. much of the rainforrest further north is still suffering from novembers bushfires and a fair bit of victoria is on fire, but driving down megalong valley the views and wildlife were great. we saw our first roos etc etc etc. guro did her usual, and wanted to see what was right at the end of megalong valley (despite driving through a few km of private land over roads that were sure to cause another car failure) but i'm sooooo glad we did. we camped at a fantastic site in the blue mountains national park (for free!) the only person we saw was ray, who was living in a small but lovely holiday 'shack' across the valley. he wandedred over with his laptop at dusk as this was the only spot he could get net reception. he called the tree stump he perched on 'his office'. we went over for a cup of tea, met tom the dog and within half an hour had agreed to house/dog sit for 2/3 days whilst ray went to watch the cricket in sydeny :)
tom the dog is 1/4 dingo and fantastic. he only had a very small taste of me once :) spent 2 great days doing very little apart from reading books and having amusing outdoor showers under a tree... great little adventure, but now we miss tom. sure he wanted to come with us, he even climbed in to the car and had to be lured out with food before we could leave.
after leaving the blue mountains we followed the princes highway along the coast to melbourne. more or less spent 2 days driving apart from a few stops to find somewhere to camp! very busy route, so instead of sleeping next to kangeroos on pebbly beach for free we ended up in a caravan park :( hope the schools go back soon! I got eaten by a swarm of mosquitoes and had to hide in the tent until they'd gone. many more blogs to come to catch up, been v busy. and promise some more funny photos x

sydney backpacker stylee!

2007-01-22T03:39:00.000+01:00

so, left to fend for ourselves we headed straight down to the car mart to blow all our remaining cash on anything with 4 wheels. guro will tell you this story so far, and i'm sure she's a car that will provide us with many of those "its so funny when you look back on it" tales....
other than this we started sorting out our lives, doing all those things that we'd put off until we got to sydney. obviously we're still doing that now but thats the way it always goes.
the fun stuff was meeting up with span, hanging out on the beach and shopping!! span's working just outside sydney so we met up for a day at the beach followed by a few bottles of wine in newtown (where she lives) - possibly the gayest place in sydney! we had another night out on the friday in kings cross this time, and to our delight lance from neighbours was serving behind the bar!! much amusement, all night. great fun, span brought seb along - a locum that she's now sort of dating. we headed to the blue mountains the next day, needing to feel like we were in some way heading toward melbourne and some paid work... but as always we need a holiday first!

Amy!!!

2007-01-22T03:34:00.000+01:00

By the second visit to the carmart in sydney, we considered ourselves proffesional cardealers and decided we didn't need the hostel mechanic. Never met him anyway.
And when seeing Amy, it was love at first sight! She is green/blue (this has been an issue of some debate) and long and wide and so so pretty. Ford Falcon stasjonwagon as you would expect in the backpacker world. She came with many great accessories as well - tent (now known as Ben), cloth hangers, mattress, linen (for some reason known as Manchester in Oz...) and a fantastic blue set of dishes and cutlery. We bargained with the danish couple that used to own her and finally paid them 1800 aussie dollars.
Amy was then left to rest for a day whilst we made sure that Spanna and Seb got it on :)
Saturday 13th of Jan arrived with lots of gorgeous sun and we set of in our new wonder vehicle. She got fed and purred happily as she took us all the way to the blue mountains. We saw the sites (see other part of blog) and all were merry. We did notice a faint petrol smell, but didn't worry. Until the smell got a lot more obvious after a very bumpy road... Caroline had a quick look under Amys belly and found a pool of petrol. Ups we thought. As it was sunday, we drove her very carefully back to the camping place we had just left, and the next morning we took her to hospital. We talked to mechaninc I who said go to mechanic II up the road, he might have the part you need (just a little o-ring, won't cost you much at all). Mechanic II was a bit more concerned (and he did actually look under Amy), and said -oooooh, ayayayay.... Think you'll need a new central piece. But I can get you one of them this afternoon, will cost you about 180$ + 40 for fitting it. Yes, you'll be fine just going up the road to the visitors centre. See you at 2pm!
Relieved we headed off, telling Amy she was going to be fine. We saw a film about the Blue mountains, and got back to Amy. But she didn't start. Great we thought, knew we should never have trusted a mechaninc. Called mechanic II who said ooooooh, ayayayay.... Sounds like the fuel pump. Just get her here and we'll see what we can do. So we paised ourselves for getting roadcover and got a hold of mechanic III that works for RACV (oz version of AAA/NAF). He said - backpackers are you? buying cheap cars? Almost like he'd seen our kind before... He called the towman and we got ourselves to mechanic II. 3 hours and 373$ later, Amy got the all clear. Happy as larries we headed off. To the end of Megalong Valley, which is about as far away from civilisation you can get in the Blue Mountains. Found a fantastic camping site, and made the housesitting deal with Ray. Very kindly he even offered to get us food for the next few days, but having Amy, we said no. After he left Tuesday morning we made a shopping list and went back down to Amy to drive the hour back to civilisation. And Amy wouldn't start. She sounded exactely like she had done the previous day. After fighting back the tears of despair, we headed back to Rays house to call the garage. To which we didn't have the phone number. We couldn't find the number for directory enquiries either, so ended up calling Else, who then ran around a shopping centre asking random people for the phone number to directory enquiries... Eventually got a hold of mechanic II and with somewhat tension in her voice Caroline explained the situation. He asked where we were, and when he realised we were too far away to get towed, and that we would try to force him to come out and see us, he finally gave in. Eeeeehhh, we did notice a bad connection to the fuelpump when we put in the new one yesterday. If open this and look under that, you'll find a plugg. Try unlugging and replugging it.
So we did. And Amy purred like a kitten!
After this, she has been fantastic. She has now taken us all the way to Melbourne, so we are again full of hope!

Llife in luxory

2007-01-08T09:18:00.000+01:00

The title describes our last week very well...
In Bangkok we headed straight for our hotel and checked into our room with a kingsize bed. Fantastic!! Had room service breakfast and a long sleep :)Then managed to leave the room for a quick dip in the jacuzzi before drinks in the bar and dinner. Not bad this backpacker life!
Got ourselves to the airport in good time (5 hours before the flight) the next morning, which turned out to be a very ggod thing!!! Had been told to go to the Qantas office to get our tickets, but Caroline spent 3 hours looking for it, before we gave up... The people at the counter decided to let us on anyway, with our tickets for the 5th of dec...
Was very excited until we realised that we were next to the drunk scot. Oh well, 8 hours and not very much sleep later, we landed safely in sydney - bright and sunny Oz waiting at the doors!!!
Apart from the fact that it was raining. And cold. And we couldn;t get any money. Luckily with the new time difference, the Norwegian parents were still up and could fix the empty account :), and by the time the Derby parents arrived in Sydney, the weather had cleared and all seemed much brighter!
Got a taxi to parents hotel via our youth hostel (Great Aussie Backpackers - recommended by us now) and started the splurge, all sponsored by the Neales. In short have had many fantastic meals on the Rocks and Circular Quay, harbour cruises, bus tours, watching video og Tatty and Neale christmas, aquarium, Bondi beach trip + walk to Bronte, drinks in the fancy Four Season lobby and a lovely walk in the Botanic Gardens (bat and eel watching!) - thank you very very much mum and dad Neale!
On saturday we went to see Figaro at the Sydney Opera house - thank you very very much sister Neale! Was very cool, funny story and not to hard core for opera beginners. Also got to climb the harbour bridge - thank you very very much brother Neale! Were group no 18 to do the new explorer walk, goes inside the bridge, then up. Very cool!
And we have met friends again! Norlene and Jason were in Sydney til 6am saturday, so finally caught up with them friday night. Kept them out til midnight, so they just had time to clean their friends flat before they headed to Tasmania!
We are now left to fend for ourselves again. Next big step is buying a car! - Thank you very very much for sponsorship parents Hollund Otteren. A guy in the hostel is apparently a mechanic, so we are trying to convince him to come with us as we don't know up from down on 4 wheelers. Am sure we will only meet good natured people that will not try to take our money! Aussie are not like that are they Michelle?

Will let you know all details of the car buying when it is overwith. Now heading for the bottleshop and then to the hostel to make dinner! All by ourselves! So so so excited.
Whilst thanking for christmas presents, thank you very very much to brother Otteren for fixing this page and adding photos and posting blogs and being great! And thanks Fudge for the game! Will try it out with dinner and pink wine later tonight. And obvioulsy M&M for sarongs and geckos and picture - now on our table in our room for all to see!
Love you all!
G&C

he he he :)

2007-01-06T06:57:00.000+01:00

just a little blog from the 4 seasons, sydney. my folks are here!! will fill you in when i can afford more than 2 mins air time x

railay and new year

2007-01-01T06:45:00.000+01:00

hello again...

so we left koh tao on the 27th with joanne and phil heading over to krabbi with the promise of better (due to the weather) but more expensive diving. arriving in krabbi with bulging backpacks, our christmas fins and snorkels strapped to the sides, we were again told this part of thailand is very busy and we wont get rooms anywhere. not a problem in krabbi but next day we decided to go to railay instead of phi phi... climbing instead of diving. joanne and phil headed off to another beach! marc and i chilled out in a bar in railay whilst michelle and guro did a huge effort in finding us somewhere to stay - being very jealous of a guy we met on the boat who very cheaply just hung up his hammock (v jealous until it rained later that is!) we ended up in clean cute little bungalows with double beds on the floor and mossie nets :) but we seem to be here in peak peak peak season and cant really afford them and food! we're happily ignoring this. the weather is slightly better here, not that its ever really bad! we climbed the next day with our thai guide gop which was great but very busy with ropes everywhere as this is a really popular climbers gettaway. we recovered for a day, swam, snorkelled, got eaten by what guro tells me are baby jellyfish and waited for a couple of hours for lunch (its a muslim holiday this week so all places are understaffed. we thought its was just island time) and then climbed again on new years eve. we headed to a differet spot where it was just us, a canadian couple, our guide and a bunch of peanut butter thieving monkeys. it was amazing. easy climbs but so satisfying. we got lunch at about 5pm so our pre-new years party knap turned into a pre-new years party beer... the staff at our hotel are lovely, gave us party hats and free food before we bailed on them to chill out at our climbing place with (you guessed it) more buckets of alcohol! local whiskey this time (song san, mmmmmm) guro, michelle and i watched in new years here (marc heading to bed about 10pm) with a fireshow and some fireworks but no countdown or big ben :( we even forgot to sing auld langs syne! great way to see in new year. we heard today about bombs having gone off in bangkok - a bit of a shock. we're heading there on an overnight bus to get back there tomorrow but we head straight to the airport. next update should be from oz!!!

26!!!! old fart now....

2006-12-24T11:10:00.000+01:00

so birthday and christmas have both come and gone in the blink of an eye. we got our advanced open waters on my birthday, rounding the day off with a v cool night dive. i vaguely remember christmas eve (juleaften) due to the evil evil vodka buckets - thought all had sworn never to go there again. there are some rumours of me and michelle sandwich dancing our thai dive instructor matee..... christmas day started at 9.30 with guro and i waking up hungover marc and michelle in santa hats with sock stockings for them to only say 'are they f***ing serious!' they were much more excited when they saw we'd got them new christmas pants! we'd exchanged pressies the night before in norwegian jul stylee :) christmas day was truely uneventful. we snorkelled, the weather was beautiful, we lounged by the pool. planned christmas turkey dinner didn't happen, no-one felt like eating before 8pm! guro and i took m+m out to an italian recommended by our new friend joanne for some posh nosh... unfortunately by the time we'd finished they'd closed up the whole restaurant and still not brought marc his main meal! very unimpressed, he had a pancake from a street stall as his christmas dinner :( quite funny in retrospect....
today we have done even less and loved every minute of chilling out. great to hear from all families and friends, thanks for photos and videos - wish we were with you.
love to all x

Jul & Christmas!

2006-12-24T10:18:00.000+01:00

Just to wish you all a fantastic Christmas and God Jul!!
We are still in Thailand, getting ready for christmas party by the beach. The menu is chicken or beef kebabs... Will be with new friends, so will be great I'm sure! Little bit strange it is more than 20C though.
Anyway, will report back in a few days to let you know how it was!
Lot of love and have a great time. Save us some pinnekjoett/turkey for September!
Us

koh tao

2006-12-21T11:46:00.000+01:00

feeling so much better now... hopefully blog will make sense!
so we reached koh toa after our horrible bus journey and an overly airconditioned boat ride. we headed to the ac resort where we assumed we'd be lounging on deck chairs on the beautiful beach sipping pina coladas between scuba dives and various water sports... turns out the weathers not so great and the beach isn't so big. it is a beautiful island and definately a huge dive centre but we're actually a bit cold (although the temp doesn't really drop below 20 degrees) and the divings interferring with our drinking! the waves mean bad visibility for the dives and other watersports just aren't happening, but still having a great time. we watched our dive video tues night and then celebrated our new ssi open water certs with one or two too many beers and a few too many vodka buckets (one vodka bucket is a bucket too many - a lesson michelle should have learnt in cambodia). woke up yesterday with a cracking hangover and minus my purse which unfortunately remained somewhere in the bar. ooops. but we've got over that and are happily buying extravagant christmas pressies and starting our advanced diving courses tomorrow. keep spending at this rate and we'll be home in the early new year!

changover.......

2006-12-20T12:18:00.000+01:00

...and anybody thats had more than a couple of large changs knows what we're talking about! not a constructive day today but have finally dragged ourselves to computers to fill you all in.
so the suprise!! guro just managed not to pee herself with excitement as we took a taxi to an unknown destination in bangkok. turned out to be heading to an amazing, superb, awe inspriring banquet (all you can eat buffet) at the hyatt. previously recommended by tim and floreda (thanks guys) we now know why. there was soo much quality food, guros little norwegian mouth watering at the sight of all the meat, marc falling in love with the cheeseboard (he's half french and they only do laughing cow cheese in se asia). i almost climbed into the chocolate fountain whilst michelle worked her way steadily through the annual thai quota for fish. great great meal, we nursed our very sore bellies back and onto an overnight bus to koh tao. for once a quality bus but just as we were settling in we realised there was no way we'd get any sleep. a couple of (i'm so proud) pissed english lads sat infront of us and proceeded to provoke the whole bus for the next 10 hours. they seemed to be about 17 and obssessed with talking loudly about various bodily fluids and functions. some guys on the bus snapped and fisticuffs were narrowly avoided. when the bus pulled in we were promised a free for all but fortunately they were headed to koh phangan so stayed on the bus. would love to know what happened at the next stop! will blog about koh toa later, head just isn't functioning now. byee x

Scuba scuba scuba!

2006-12-20T11:51:00.000+01:00

We are now qualified hobby divers!!! Got our SSI cards yesterday. Very clever people us :)
Started the course with an introduction video the same day we got here. Had a few hours of sleep first so we just managed to stay awake. Then we met our instructor - Matee from Thailand. Lovely man with great sense of humour - a neccessity when trying to teach the four of us anything. Also gained some new friends, Joanne and Phillip from UK, who did the course with us.
The first dive was in the pool. Spent a good two hours under water! Very strange, also took prunefingers to a new level. Quite nice to be in confined space though, no chance of drifting away or getting lost. Also very close to the surface when mouth/nose/ears got full of water...
The next four dives were in the sea though! Amazing experience. So much life! Saw butterfly fish, nemofish, an angry eel, seacucumbers and a million other things. Slowly we got more and more confident and starting playing around too - weightlessness is great! The last two dives were even filmed (by a guy from Belper!), so will bore you all with that we we come back!
Got bitten by the bug though, so starting our advanced course in two days.

Svosj, gone from Laos

2006-12-14T05:51:00.000+01:00

So we didn't have time to go up north in Laos. Decided to go to Bangkok instead!! Knowing that Marc and Michelle were already there made it an even better idea.
We jumped on the bus for Ubon after a short songthaw ride to the bus station. Got stamped out of Laos and into Thailand, all for only 10000 kip! In Ubon I was starving, but a guy got hold of our bags and threw them on his bus that was leaving for Bangkok in five minutes. So we just had to follow... Tried to buy food at the first stop, but they wouldn't take dollars! I almost cried, but that didn't help either. Thankfully Caroline managed to change some dollars for bath with a couple of New Zealanders on the bus (think my brain was so energy deficient that I couldn't think by this point). The guy in the shop realised it was a food emergency and scoffed all the cakes and crisps he had into Carolines bag. Then followed a great feast on the bus!
Arrived in Bangkok at 5am, and had more food. Found Marc and Michelle and a place to stay, and headed for the irish bar. As you do :) Many beers later, the other 3 went for massage, whilst I chose alternative stress relief - shopping!! Didn't get very far though, as I ran into Antti and Risto and went back to the pub instead.
Had the first lie-in in since Phnom Pehn (hard work this travelling business) the next morning. Then repeated the scedule of the day before.
Right now I'm trying to sit still whilst waiting for the surprise M&M have for me and C! So so excited. Even though it has been resceduled for tomorrow as a late night chicken of a street stall is not agreeing with Marcs insides... Will let you all know as soon as I know what it is (think it involves food, so must be good).
Thank you very much for great email/comment updates, Foodge, Lindsey and Hege! When are you going to Wales, Goon? Ida, are you staying at the same adress?
Hope all is very very Christmassy at home!
Lots of love from us

Photos

2006-12-11T19:55:00.000+01:00

southern laos

2006-12-11T05:16:00.000+01:00

sounds like a great party sis, wish we could've been there... hope you're arranging something huge for may!! may come to visit before bro's wedding.
currently in Pakse, the largest town in southern laos but it really isn't huge. has 2 good indian restaurants and lots of good internet cafes so i guess its all a backpacker could want for a day.
the 4 or us left kratie the next day (early again) and headed into laos via the unofficial border... first by minibus, then speedboat (so cool) to the small village where you get you're stamp out (one of the locals throws on an official looking shirt as we pull up...) bus to the laos entry stamp place (looked slightly but not much more like an official border point) and then bit more bus and 1 more boat to don deth. felt like we were smuggled in! altogether an amazing trip and to date our best border crossing experience! don deth is the 2nd biggest island in the siphandon 4000 island area and is quickly becoming a backpacker haunt, but currently hs a bit of a hippy commune feel - any meal can be made 'happy for an extra 5000 kip (25p). we met a couple of finnish lads, ante and risto and spent a couple of days swinging in hammocks watching the world go by on the mekong :) i got my first bout of food poisoning.. good going i think.. but am not suprised now as the hostels in pakse advise all people going there to take some immodium with them! from don deth to pakse where guro, quentin, nicky, ante and risto checked out a local night club before the others left the next day. guro and i headed to the Boloven plateau, attracted by the promise of cooler weather after don deth where just sitting doing nothing even our figertips were sweating! just back and we've had a great 2 days. we swam in clear, cool waterfalls on the way to Tad lo, visited tea/coffee plantations (lao coffee is possibly the best we've found) and visited an ethnic village. we stayed at tad lo the night but could've stayed a few more. great relaxed place by another waterfall. we went elephant trekking in the morning, after taking in chez - a traveller who found herself lacking a roof for the night.
so now we're back in pakse and without enough time to get north we've decided to head towards bangkok today via songthaw then overnight bus. really feels like our travels in se asia are coming to an end but looking forward to the beach on ko tao where we've a padi course booked for christmas. we fly to sydney on jan 3rd to meet my folks who are stopping over there for 4 days before a 3 week hol in new zealand :) great to hear from all on email and comment, miss everything from home.. even winter! best of luck to kate and guy
x

Cambodia in five days

2006-12-04T13:27:00.000+01:00

Got onto the bus for Cambodia and did the usual circle around town picking up people before getting back to where we started - could have had half an hour extra in bed!! Seems this is the trend of the buses in south east asia. The bus took us to a small river by the Mekong, and a boat took us to the local coconut sweet shop! Very tasty, but found the snake wine most facinating... Went onto an island where we held a python (10kg 6 foot/2 meteres and 13 years old, placid soul) before lunch. Then back on the bus for 3 hours before sunset cruise to Chau Doc on the border. Aquired some new friends, Mark and Lea from Reading and Anthony from Australia.
The next morning we headed out in local rowing boats to see the local floating market. They row the wrong way - facing forewards! When Caroline started paddling with one oar to help our rowing lady go faster than Marc and Michelle, she got worried I was feeling left out, so she let me have a go at the rowing! Very excited I got up (after they had insisted I put a lifevest on) remembering my days of getting in the fishnets in a small fjord in Norway, thinking I would be great at this. After 3 minutes zigzagging and almost hitting 2 floating houses and another rowing boat, I realised rowing forewards was not for me though... Poor rowing lady had a bit of a job catching up with the others :)
Got onto a bigger boat heading for Phnom Pehn and got more friends - Nicky and Quentin from NZ. Passed the easiest border crossing ever, more boat, more bus and tuktuk to a hotel. Cheapest room so far - $2 a room!! Including all the biting ants. Lovely communal space by the lake though. So a late night :) and long sleep in the morning. Didn't do very much the next day. Just wandered. Caroline and I got very excited in a pharmacy checking out all the drugs we could think of. Like kids in a candy shop. Saw monkeys outside a temple as well. Then had a very late night in the hostel :)
The next day was a much more somber one as we went to the killing field and S21 - one of the Khmer Rouge prisons. Chilling history this country has. And absolutely amazing people, very impressed.
As both Quentin and Anthonys birthdays are coming up we decided to go out to celebrate. Went to the Foreign Correspondence club and saw Paul Ubana Jones play, much fun. After that we headed to a party in a strange place by a pool... Full of posh expats kids. Funny funny, esp when Anthony threw himself out in the ocean of tuktuk drivers shouting: tuktuk please!!!
Very hard to get up 3 hours later for the 6.30am bus to Siem Riep the next morning. Strangely we managed to sleep most of the way, even though Caroline couldn't really fit her legs in anywhere.
In Siem Riep we managed to start our Angkor Wat tour almost as soon as we got there, sunset over the main temple. Somehow we were convinced that going back for the sunrise was a great idea too, so next morning we started at 5am. Doing funny things to my body clock this. Angkor Wat is amazing. Absolutely huge (which is a good thing as most of korea and japan were there at the same time as us), and very impressive. Even though I might have vomited a little bit on it at the end of sunrise... Dodgy indian from 2 nights before needed to come out. Very funny in retrospect. In the evening we headed into town to meet up with Maggie and Ian, and to have our first Khmer meal. With Khmer folksong/dance on the stage.
So somehow we managed to finish Cambdia in just 5 days. Still would have loved to stay a bit longer.
After a very sad goodbye to Marc and Michelle and Anthony this morning we brought Nicky and Quentin with us to Kratie on the way to the Laos border. Got a 2 hour taxi on a very bumpy road! Paid $34 which sounded horendus until we calculated that the same trip in a taxi would have been 750GBP in London.
Will let you know more when we reach Laos! Might be a while as aparently there is no electricity on the island we are going first...
Lots of love, c&g

holiday from our holiday :)

2006-11-30T10:47:00.000+01:00

So, we arrive in mui ne after travelling through some amazing thunderstorms just before nha trang. after 18 hours of the past 24 being on a bus we were tempted to just stay where we were dropped, but after the last place m+m offer to walk up the road in the blistering heat to check out some other places. so glad they did as they found kim :) he's a guide with a different travel company (an phu) and probably the nicest person we've met so far. he picked up guro and i with all the bags and took us to his lovely resort with a great beach front and most importantly some shade for me! we basically hang out on the beach for 2 days before kim recommends a sunrise sand dune tour followed by market shopping and a bbq on the beach just for us! amazing day, sand sliding on the white dunes after sunrise, saw the red gorge and dunes before breakfast then shopping for 2.5kgs of prawns and some local veg and wine. walked to the waterfall as kim took our food and shoes back (had to take our shoes as the walk was up the river). perfect bbq on the beach later, we gathered 3 norgies (alex had been with us in the morning), 2 swedes, an english couple (maggie and ian), one of the guides ty and his girlfriend. and there was still a lot of prawns, forcing ourselves to eat them all. we repeated the bbq our last night, kim helping us to shop again. otherwise only left the hotel twice for food, only once stopping on a bean bag on the beach for a g+t on the way home:) the friday was a bit of a sad day as it was michelles great grandmother, irenes funeral, so we remembered her on the beach in the morning. we left on the saturday for saigon, sad to be leaving kim and the beach behind but excited at the prospect of the city... and it lived up to our expectation. a shame to only have 3 nights here (we've booked our flights to oz for jan 3rd so need to get moving) very different to hanoi but still very cool. we toured the cu chi tunnels and the cau dai temple on another bus tour. you'd think we'd learn by now. again huge group only detraction from a great tourist site. however we didn't fancy 110km on the back of a bike on these roads...
out for drinks we met drew, travelling as a responsible adult for 14 15-18 year olds - good luck by the way. next day we visited the war remnants museum. hugely moving and the best/worst museum i've ever visited. extremely interesting but also disturbing. heart renching stories combined with childrens hope for the future.
good fortune led us to meet ian and maggie again that night! we stopped them heading out for dinner by sampling the local rum, again and again and again... great night but didn't appreciate it as packing hung over next morning at 6.30am to head to cambodia....

hue and beyond...

2006-11-30T10:17:00.000+01:00

firstly, check out the map - there's some photos on there and we'll try and get some more on today!

so, we left hanoi for hue on a rather crappy bus. not bad enough to make for an interesting story just not fun for a 12 hour journey. swamped as usual by hotel touts when we arrive around 7am, in our usual style we need to eat before thinking is possible. we have breakfast with a couple of english guys greg and rob and then go check into a cheap hotel. we were pretty efficient in hue - we hired a boat to cruise the perfume river that afternoon, checked out a tomb, temple and pagoda and found out about extending our visas... an unfortunate side-effect of spending more time than we had planned in china. next day a tour of the demilitarised zone (dmz) with a 6.30am pick up (ouch) - great to see but shame about the usual type bus tour with our 'war veteran guide' turning out to be about 18. we met a great aussie couple, anna and michael that we managed to catch up with later in hoi an. when back we found greg and rob again and just managed to stay awake long enough to have a fabulous indian curry - mmmmmm, local cuisine!! we left for hoi an the following day and decide to stay in the hotel we were dropped at (oops). well known for its tailors there's not a street without at least 10 on it...
so 4 pairs of shoes, 2 dresses, 2 board shorts, a skirt and a top later our bags are almost unliftable and our budget almost broken. we had a couple of great nights, the first we found a place with a free cocktail and then moved onto a place with litres of sangria... the second we met up with anna and michael and had a couple of buckets of cocktails too many. great fun but it did end up with guro and michelle heading home last and nearly having guros bag snatched on the way! she and michelle turned up about 4am giggling about how guro had clutched onto her bag dropping to her knees and michelle had actually given chase!! all fine, no-one hurt and nothing lost, although i'm not sure me and marc will leave them out together again :) we discovered the beach the last 2 days. absolutely beautiful - fun waves, nice motorbike taxis there and back, good cafes and sun loungers. even the hawkers were just handily around for all your pineapple orientated needs. we may have been slightly told never to come back to our very unfriendly, scheming hotel - a slight disagreement over the bill, so we catch our 2nd overnight bus from the tour office. another crappy journey and we reach nha trang but after sampling the beach in hoian we jump straight on the next bus to get to mui ne, a beach resort we've decided we deserve a 6 day holiday at! travelling is such hard work.... ahhhh....

sorry about any typos, is very difficult typing with my new talons!! nails now very long as really, really dont want to put hands in mouth ever again.
love to y'all
x

Tigers and swollen ankles

2006-11-24T11:11:00.000+01:00

The second day in Hanoi Guro was chased by a huge and very aggressive tiger. Caroline had to fight it with her bare hands! She saved Guro, but ended up with a twisted ankle (evil tongues will claim that she fell off the pavement going from dinner to the ice ream parlour).
The ankle got sore and very big. Luckily Tim was there with his needles! Tim is qualified in chinese medicine so ankle was massaged and needles inserted at several sites. And now 2 weeks later, the ankle has almost returned to normal size! Caroline has been very brave throughout the whole thing. Guro is very proud :)

Halong Bay

2006-11-24T11:03:00.000+01:00

After 2 nights in Hanoi, we went on a boat cruise to Halong Bay. Left the hotel early in the morning in a minibus. Got to the beach 3 hours later in a slightly shorter minibus... It got shortened when it didn't quite manage to stop behind the bigger bus that suddenly stopped to not hit a cyclist... Obviously the cyclist did not follow vietnamese traffic rules - stop for anything bigger than you. So neither did our bus driver. Nothing hurt though :)
Halong Bay is a beautiful place. Lots of cliffs raising from the sea, vietnamese kites circling overhead and a million boats (full of tourists). Paddled in kayaks and finally got to swim in the sea! Was surprisingly cold really. Also got to see a huge cave with lots of funny stone formations.
Back in Hanoi we finally managed to find the 2000 dong/beer (about 10p/1nok) corner! Very exciting. Especially as they had kebabs there as well. Great kebab! Even though completelt against all good tradition we had it before clubbing :) and no funny bellies the next day.
After that we were ready for some culture again and set of towards the Demilitarised Zone.
More of that after another swim!
Lot of love for now from us

Vietnam

2006-11-24T10:44:00.000+01:00

Feeling that there was still a lot to do in China, we still managed to get our selves on the bus to Hanoi. It helped that it was the poshest any of us had ever seen! Mega seats and a little stewardess tending to all our needs. Met Kong from Vietnam who took care of us and made sure that the (quite scheeming) little ladies on the border gave us the right amount of Dong for our Yuan. He even explained that we shouldn't take it personally that the border police searched all our luggage (only the foreigners, no vietnamese or chinese were searched), it was just because of the APEC conference and because Mr Bush was coming to visit... They eventually let us cross though.
After little Yangshou, Hanoi was quite a change. Mopeds everywhere, and so much noise! Quickly learned that the nly way to cross the street is to walk very slowly, so the mopeds can see you and avoid you. And sudden movements and you're going down. No traffic rules, just give way to anything bigger than you.
Hanoi is fantastic though. Lots of great little cafes and bars, and great food! Especially the training resturant we went to with Flerida and Tim (an american couple on their honeymoon) . It was a place where they trained youngsters with a difficult background to work in the resturant buisness. Trained them very well!
(must post this before finishing as we are in Mui Ne now - known for its frequent powercuts... more in a second)

Haircut

2006-11-24T10:27:00.000+01:00

Forgot to mention that we had our hair cut in Yangshou. Interesting experience. Should maybe have been a bit suspicious when the salon was called s&m hairclub.... but as they would cut both heads for only 20 yuan, we went in anyway. Carolines hairdresser was almost the usual western type of hairdresser that we are used to. Mine slightly more special. Cut hair means cut hair. No combing or special scissors involved. He just asked how long I wanted it, and cut around my head. Took about 5 minutes. So so funny! Got a few gasps from Marc and Michelle when we came back :)

yangshou

2006-11-12T07:36:00.000+01:00

so at last we get to spend more than 2 nights in one place! as always priority is food and a bed. some confusion with a local who'd followed us from guilin to show us his hotel meant finding a place was quite a drawn out process involving several beer stops. we end up in a fantastic and cheap hotel, 2 huge double beds in one room (getting to know mark and michelle v well now!) had planned to go the whole 9yds for halloween but its just not so easy to find costumes over here so we console ourselves with a few cocktails before heading to mc blues. here we meet up again with aussie pharmacist paul (prev met in kunming) and pete and liza. the ususal drunkeness ensues and a good night was had by all.
we hired bikes a couple of days later, headed down the riverbank. many detours/peoples gardens later we get to a small village lu gong to 'hop on a boat back to yangshou'... not so easy. first lunch with a communication error leading to not egg fried rice but the little lady slaughtered her chicken and cooked it into about 10 dishes for us (i whimped out on the intestine and liver soup ugghh) then it took hard bargaining and an hour wait for what turned out to be a fantastic sunset boat cruise back.
early start! we head with spiderman climb out to wine bottle rack for half a days climbing. we watch in awe as our instructor perry (american) heads up to fix our top rope. we have an amazing time and plan to climb our way through se asia.
mega bannana and oreo amd double thick choc milkshakes for lunch (new healthy lifestyle), dinner we again meet greg and sarah with their new friends jill and andy.
sad to leave we head back to guilin to make for vietnam via nanning....

will get to vietnam soon....

2006-11-11T15:10:00.000+01:00

Happy birthday Guros lille snille bror!! (excuse the poor norwegian accent) will have some special rice wine in your honour tonight!
still in hanoi so sketchy memory back to lijiang but will try to continue this epic. much more fun now we can add photos!!
Back in lijiang for a post hike wind-down couple of days.. don't think much happened?! apart from a lot of eating of course. do remember one particularly special local meal at 'mama naxis' a crazy hostel place with all you can eat food for about 60p served personally by mama - a lady i would never cross!
we get the bus back to kunming (8 hrs of amazing scenery) but get dropped at a random bus station out of town... again. however a chap that had been hassling us to give us a lift to his hostel for 15 mins (usually really shifty rip-off merchants) turns out to be a free pick up from the place we want to stay.. which also turns out to be comfy, clean and cheap. must be good karma in return for letting all the mosquitoes feed on me. we don't explore kunming further than the huge wallmart and cash machine before getting on a 19hr hard sleeper train to Guilin the following day :( about done with the overnight train journeys by this point. i stay in a seperate carriage to the other 3 this time so i got to know some locals and practice my 3 words of manadrin... not much of a conversation i suppose but they still seem just as intrigued in this giant ( i mean tall..) blonde female carrying her life on her back as they were on day 1.
Guilin is also only a stopover in a lovely hostel flowers. the bus and train stations are just opposite but we still manage to end up out of town on arrival! our train seems only to let passengers off at guilin north, a 20 min taxi away. we bartered a taxi but then felt so bad when it was really cheap for a long ride we paid him some more anyway! we're not good at this. suckers for old folk selling things too. next day we head to yangshou, but only after cinvincing m+m that we can't possibly travel through se asia alone. i think they took pity on us as they left their pasports with some trustworthy looking stranger (from cits so not really dodgy) who promised them vietnamese visas and passports would be awaiting them in nanning days later. so i'll pick this up again in yangshou - the whole purpose of our trek from lijiang with the promise of li river scenery, bikes, rafts and a bit of climbing! and we arrive on halloween...

Tiger Leaping Gorge

2006-11-07T12:15:00.000+01:00

Me blog me blog me blog!! (shoving caroline to the side)
So... in my little red shoes I was ready to tackle the tiger.
Staying at Janes turned out to be a great thing. She looked after us very well, fantastic dinner among others, and even made us take a photo of the directions so there was no way we could get lost. Clever as she is, she also refused to serve us breakfast before eight. She said it was because it is too cold before this, but we reckon she just realised that there was no way we were going to be up before eight anyway...
We wandered off between rice terraces, mules and tired tractors. Took a right before the naxi village. Did some Kung Fo fighting on a cliff. Photographed flowers, scenery and ourselves. Had a lovely cup of tea with the naxis, sitting next to their drying corn in a pretty courtyard.
Then came the challenge - the much feared 28 bends! surely about 2 meters up for each meter forewards. Struggled our way up, but think we started counting a bend too early. Or we might just have done an extra bend. Fantastic view from the top though! Where a little woman had blocked off the most scenic point and was charging 8 yuan to pass her... Clever.
On the way down Lizas knees started hurting badly, so the 2 vets prescribed a walking stick which the engineer quickly made from a tree. All working together very well by now :)
The walk is just beautiful. Every turn present a new gorgeous scenery, and compared to everywhere else, you hardly meet anyone apart from a few goat herders and muleowners. The mules would be following us for a short while hoping that one of us would give in and get a lift... But we walked it all!! Stopped for lunch at The Tea Horse, and stayed the night at Halfway House. Had apple pie there, as recommended by Michael Palin. And visited the toilets with the worlds best view!
The nest day we walked all the way down to the gorge. A days hiking in a fashion that is completely unnatural to a little viking. Spent most of the time going down, before we had to go back up again! Have to admit the reward was fantastic though. Sitting next to the river, watching it hurle passed us with impressive force.
The climb up was quite entertaining too, involving several ladders and signs showing you the dangerous path vs the not so dangerous path....
Well up we got to Seans guest house and he managed to get ten of us into 1 car back to Qiaotoa. Luckily it only lasted for 90 minutes. Was very cozy!
The four of us + Aya from Syria upgraded to a jeep back to Lijiang from there :)
Dinner time!! Have realised travelling is all about eating. Wake up and plan the breakfast. Eat it and plan lunch. Plan dinner at lunch time and find your way there. Great!! Will tell you more soon, lots of love from us

we're back!!

2006-11-07T08:50:00.000+01:00

Blimey... it seems we left you guys back in lijiang!! china must have had some issues with guros last blog as we got to vietnam yesterday where you'll be thankful to know we're back online :)
so much to catch up on we'll do it in short blogs, i'll let guro do a bit etc otherwise even family members wont persist to read all!

so we're thinking of renaming the blog guro caroline mark and michelle as we've kidnapped them truely now, when i say 'we' i refer to the 4 of us - all going well will be together until christmas in thailand (and new years the way our hostel hunt in sydeny is going!)

firstly thanks to all for comments, especially pod! we were relieved to have made it out of china without eating cat or dog(we hope...!) and apologies to parents for not letting them know all was fine despite lack of updates (oops)
so we left on a bit of a cliffhanger, just arrived in lijiang and hoping to extend our visas or facing a quick run out of the country. first things first dinner (western style of course) where we meet liza and pete, an english couple who end up stuck with us for the next few days. visa extensions the next day no hassle so the trip to hike tiger leaping gorge is on!

breakfast we again run into sarah and greg now with an aussie couple and some more friends... later meeting up for an extremely wierd drunken night out that lijiang is famed for (throughout backpacker hostels) where locals sing songs across a river at each other, taunting them to reply. we met some irish girls and ended up being an international crowd of 16 singing from 'grease lightening' to 'twinkle twinkle little star' amidst a baffled crowd of locals. bohemian rhapsody getting more strange looks than the alphabet song! really good night! packing up our shopping from the day before (hiking boots for me and little red pointy shoes for guro) next day we get a local bus to qiao toa. its full of westeners heading to tiger leaping. others all set out that night but in our travelling stylee the 6 of us spend a night in a v special hostel here 'janes'.... shall stop now as lunch time and i'm waffling. will return when refuelled and more focused!!!

Translation

2006-11-04T10:26:00.000+01:00

Guro felt sorry for all of you who don't speak norwegian so here comes a little translation of the previous post:

Lost in china!
For some reason china will not let us in on our blog! Hence the very rare update... Don't think we've said anything bad about China, so not sure what has happened. But sure it will be fixed in Vietnam. Will arrive in Hanoi on monday, so hopefully more exciting tales then!!!

Blog by mail

2006-11-02T09:22:00.000+01:00

It seems like someone in China doesn't approve of G&C's blogging, so they are not able to blog at the time. But they have smuggled out an email and here it goes:

Alt er vel, men kan ikke blogge mer før vi er ute av kina. vi har kinesiske politiet i helene og løper så fort vi kan!!

Er i Yangshou sørøst i Kina no (ved li river og alle rare spisse fjellene), men kommer til Hanoi den 5 nov, sa håper alt blir bedre da. blogwise mener jeg. alt er fint ellers. klippet håret i dag. hos en kineser! ba om litt kortere hår. og det fikk jeg. tok omtrent 5 min. klipp klipp klipp. ingen kammer og fancy sakser involvert nei! frisøren het s&m hairclub, sa burde vel hatt bange anelser....

A nice little translation task for all you non-norwegian-speakers out there!

(posted by brother..)

Continuation

2006-10-23T12:12:00.000+02:00

Have moved on to Lijiang now, another beautiful, if quite touristy place.
Anyway, back to Dali. Had a lovely dinner at the Highlander hostel. Several dishes on a spinning table. Am liking this sharing all and getting to taste everyones food policy. Then chocolate cake and wine (me and Michelle decided we were all beered out).
After breakfast and lunch sorting the next morning, we set off for our trek up to the 3600meter pinic spot. Straight up for 3 hours was the warning. So when the path split, we obviously choose the most straight up one! Then denied being lost for about an hour before turning around... By then we had disturbed all the spiders on a holy Buddhist mountain, almost given a random local a heart attack and started to leave little twiggs shaped as arrows to remember our route. Still have no idea what the local person was doing up there... no other sign of sivilisation.
Found the path again though, and kept going up. But was about 2pm then, so had to turn around soon. Couldn't get to the picnic spot, so in the end we just sat down on the path. Not a heavily travelled route - we didn't see anyone the whole day! Beautiful though, and a fantastic view of Dali and lake Er'Hai.
Back down by five, dinner at 6.30, in bed by 8pm....
Jessica and Jeff that we met the first night up there, told us the sunrise was gorgeous, and not to early at about seven. But when the alarm went off in the morning, 2 very relieved heads realised it was raining and fell back on the pillow :)
Spent most of that day enjoying the little stove and the 2 puppies at the Higherland, hoping it would stop raining before we had to decend.
Back in Dali we went for our usual five o'clock lunch at a place recommended by the rough guide. Probably tried ordering about 5 dishes each from their very large menu, before we hit something they actually had! Topped it all when they didn't have chocolate cake though... Considered getting back up the mountain, but headed for our Dali hostel to watch x-men 3 on dvd instead.
The next day we finally did what everyone else in China does, we got bicycles!!! Super mountainbikes (much better than the one at Coniston), and high spirits. Headed north along the lake and into the littlew villages. Very cool! Narrow narrow lanes, lovely courtyards and no other tourists! Everyone are so sweet, saying hi and waving as we pass. Even the people working in the fields. They are just replanting (?) the rice after harvesting, so all seem very busy. Me and Michelle got to see very closely after i decided i had had enough of cobblestone roads and dragged Michelle with me into the fields, balancing ourselves and our bike on about 30 cm of dirt with water on both sides... Not my best idea :)
Had to hurry home after that as Michelle was getting hungry (a dangerous state of mind for her and her surroundings) and the thunder and lightening coming towards us was speeding up rapidly. 2 minutes after we were inside cafe de jack for dinner it started pouring down...
I then spent the rest of the evening and night vomiting, but am blaming the breakfast for that.
Next day all was brighter and we headed of to Lijiang!! We're going to Tiger Leaping Gorge tomorrow, so will let you know more later!!
lots of love again and thanks for all the comments!!
G&C

up up up

2006-10-22T06:46:00.000+02:00

So the monks never happened (couldn't really find them), but we did go up to Higherland inn to stay. At about 2800meters the name is well suited. Lovely place.
Must be said getting there was a bit of an experience too. as usual we brought everything with us - no sensible 'lets just take the small daypack and leave the rest in Dali'. The taxi driver looked a bit funny at us when he picked us up to take us to the cable cars, but we thought that was just the usual hopeless tourists look. As we stopped to make sure we were in the right place it all started to make sense though. No cablecars, but chairlifts! A lot of nervous laughter from us - hugh backpacks in tow... But I think the people working there had seen crazy foreigners before. We got one double chair each, and about half an hour later, we were on top!!! Well, closer to the 4100meter top anyway.
Ups! There will be a powercut in 10 min! Will continue this next time I get a chance!
Lots of love from us!!!