Auckland, Paihia, Auckland, NZ, 31 March - 10 April 2012‏

Lighthouse at Cape Reinga

We eventually arrived in Auckland after a 6 hour delay at Nadi, Fiji due to the weather. Lucky we got out at all, as the weather in Fiji was on the turn to a cyclone, and persistent rain which would cause floods which we saw forming as we lifted off.

When we left Nadi, Jo was starting to feel pretty ill, and as we landed in NZ, she was only getting worse. For fear of being too far from a loo, and to speed up the journey to the YHA backpackers, we took a shuttle straight to the door. 
There's very little to report after this. I went out to get some food to cook etc, but didn't stray too far for about 4 days to keep an eye on Jo. Luckily the YHA wasn't too busy, and had a big tv room in the basement, so we weren't too bored. 
After a few attempts to change our flight so that we could leave NZ after only a week or so (very low on money, so planned to get to the cheap countries asap!), it proved too pricey, so bit the bullet and figured that the cheapest and easiest way to see the country was on the Magic bus.
Our plan meant that we put our application for a Chinese visa in at Auckland, then headed up to the Bay of Islands for a few days, then came back down to pick up the visa, then head South.

We headed North to Paihia in the pissing rain, and it stayed that way for the next day. Was lovely actually, felt just like home! By this point I had almost got used to wearing things on my feet again after being barefoot for so long!
En route, we stopped off at some waterfalls (began with a W I think).
We got to Paihia, wandered around town, and watched another film (on video! Never went out of fashion over here!), went on a short hike to a lookout over the town and some of the islands, and signed up to a tour to Cape Reinga for the next day.








Next morning was an early start on a bus tour to the Northernmost point of NZ that is Cape Reinga, which is a Maori sacred ground thought to be the lifting off point for Maori souls who die in NZ, whose souls must make the trip back to their ancestral grounds around Polynesia. Apparently if you have been good, your wings sprout and you take flight, but if you've been bad then your wings are piddly little things that won't hold your weight, and you plummet into the ocean to be eaten by the sea monster.
Anyway, it's got a lovely lighthouse, and is the point where the Tasman sea and Pacific clash, and you can actually see the swells and waves of different seas lapping each other. 
After wandering around for a bit we got back on the bus and went down to some sand dunes for some sandboarding. My first go I wanted loads of speed so didn't dig my feet in at all. This worked as I flew, but meant I couldn't steer, so went arse-over-tit halfway down. Second, third and fourth run were much better, though almost castrated myself going over a bump where the guy infront of me wiped out!

Tane

From the dunes we drove onto and along 90 mile beach (which isn't actually 90 miles but more like 60). We then stopped off at a Kauri manufacture place where they make furniture and things from the Kauri tree, but as it's protected they can't cut them down anymore. Luckily, a few thousand years ago something (tsunami, volcano etc) knocked over and buried a whole forest of Kauris just beneath the ground, which is perfectly preserved, so there is still a readily available source of the stuff. They're big impressive trees, but to be honest, it's still just like pine. 
Got back to Paihia, and took the Magic bus early the next morning back to Auckland (again) to hopefully pick up our Chinese visa. En route we stopped at Tane Mahuta which is a huge Kauri which Maoris say is the father of all Kauris, and is the child of mother earth and father sky (I think), and to push them apart, he put his back to the ground, legs to the air and grew as high as he could and push the sky up to allow other Kauris (his children) to grow. Maori stories are much better than the bible I think, so much nicer with more whimsy.
Anyway, we saw that, and a bunch of Korean women on the bus obviously liked it so much they thought we were going back, as one of them left her bag there with loads of cash in it, but didn't tell anyone until 2 hours later, and we were almost back in Auckland. God knows if she got it back or not, dozy sod. At least she'll know the way though, as she seemed to have a video camera pressed against the windscreen most of the journey whether we were on motorway, in towns or middle of nowhere. I'll admit NZ is pretty, but not THAT pretty.

Sky City early evening

Anyway, got back to Auckland, spent the following day wandering around the viaduct/marina, fish market, and the SW part of town, then next day headed to the museum which was really good, but massive, so we had to go back the following morning to finish it off before getting the bus out to nowhere to pick up our Chinese visa, which we got really easily, despite having no outbound flight from the country. When we got back into town, we went searching for the Victoria markets, and finally stumbled across them to discover they're having a major refurb and only 1 or 2 shops were open, so we wandered back and found a place on the way called Shed 5 Cycles, which is a cafe/restaurant, but where they custom and refurb motorbikes. Was so cool, loads of old British bikes, and about a third of them were Triumphs. Most were to be auctioned, and the guide prices were so cheap! I spent about half an hour dribbling and mumbling incoherently to myself whilst Jo looked on, then we headed back to YHA (and our freely upgraded room!) for dinner and to pack to head off around the country the following day! 

Tavewa, Naviti, Drawaqa & Waya, Fiji, 16 - 22 March 2012‏

 Whoops, meant to update more regularly than this as we're moving around from island to island, but seems my memory is pretty good!

So I last left you on Tavewa in Coral View resort. Our second day was spent in the sun, and I was already getting restless, so after breakfast I climbed the hill up to the top of the island in just my sunnies and boardies. Since I took off my flip-flops at the marina in Denarau, I haven't worn them since! The climb was pretty steep, muddy and rocky, then really long grass closer to the top. At one point the trail went straight into a solid mass of bush, so guess it isn't climbed often! Got some great photos, then realised it was about 40 degrees, almost midday, and I had no water, so wandered back. Afternoon was spent dozing in a hammock, and swimming in the bath temperature sea.
Dinner was lovely again, and afterwards we played some games, had some drinks. Whilst chatting to Lauren and Mel from London, I discovered that the following day was Sat and not Fri as I thought, so they were actually feeding the sharks on a dive the next day. I was in two minds, but not often I'll see it, so I signed up. Next morning we kitted up and headed out to the dive site. We went down to 18m, swam between 2 reefs, and at the end was a line to hold. Between 1 and 5m in front of us was a plethora of fish (including a big old wrasse munching on a fish head), and a lemon shark, a 3.5m nurse shark, a few black and white tip reef sharks up to 3m long, and two bull sharks, one of which was 4m long and almost 2m in diameter. It was really good to see, and so different from the usual way of shark diving where they chum the waters so you can barely see anything. The sharks come to this spot twice a week out of habit as they know they'll be fed (shark knows what day of the week it is but I don't, how bad is that), and there's no teasing them to get them close, they're just fed and we sit at the sidelines quietly and watch.
Very different dive to what I've done before, and really glad I did it.

We got back to the resort in time for a bit of lunch before the boat picked us up to take us to our next destination: White Sandy Beach resort in Naviti. This was right next door to another resort where a few friends were staying, amongst them, Luzian, who Jo had fully converted to her version of gin rummy.
We had another bure to ourselves, and were greeted with coconuts. It was nice, if a little small and basic, but had reefs right off the beach. Not much of a drop-off, but still lots to see, and some patches of really cool coral of loads of different, vivid colours, so plenty for me the while away the hours burning my back to a crisp!
Anyway, nice place, and that night we wandered up the beach for a drink with Luzian and Lauren, then next morning after checkout and breakfast of pancakes, fruit and warm polenta-bread, we went back up and loitered by the pool and played some cards until the boat arrived to take us to our next stop!

En route to White Sandy, we met up with Becky again, and asked her to text us as she was off to Barefoot resort, and we wanted to know what it was like. Apparently lovely, so we booked ourselves in for a one night to check it out.
Barefoot is on the island Drawaqa, and has 3 beaches directly attached to the resort and another 3 or 4 around the island. It's near a posh resort called Mantaray, which sells itself on the fact that it's near a strait where mantarays go in season. Turns out that Barefoot is actually on this strait, and there's no boat ride required; just hire a snorkel and you're amongst the 4-5m rays in mins right off the beach! Unfortunately we were at least a month early, so we saw none (didn't stop me looking though).
Barefoot isn't a new resort, it's not actually open yet; it's still being refurbished and putting its new brochure together. We arrived and the only guest was Becky! There were 6 members of staff, and Alesia and Gareth, a South African couple with their 7 month old daughter Jade, who were there as Gareth was in charge of the refurb.
Despite not technically being open, they were still taking bookings and were operating as usual. We were shown around, and told to our amazement that they had wifi which was free, kayak and snorkel hire was free, and tea and coffee was available all the time for free. These are all common add-ons at these resorts, so we were very happy! That afternoon we were taken on a guided snorkel by Tuay along sunrise beach, which had some great drop-offs from the reef about 1m below to about 5m, although the sea-lice were a bit bite-y, so felt a bit stung.
We had a lovely little bure with a huge bed right on sunrise beach. The food was amazing, with 3 course meals every evening, and huge buffet breakfasts.
Our first night after dinner we had some stories from one of the older guys from the village; Bucks, who told us all about the rules on families (you can't speak to any children of your small father, who are any cousins from an uncle younger than your dad), and how men "fix" women (little whispers and quite a bit of close-quarters stalking as it turns out! They're all scared of being beaten up by the girls dad and brothers).
Our second day at barefoot we did very little. Spent most of our time on the beach, I went snorkelling a couple of times, went walking around the rock, then that evening, we found a sea snake in some rocks, and Becky, Tuay and I went up the hill to look at the sunset.
Third day was our second day with pancakes as Jo fluttered her eyelashes at the chef and beat him senseless with flattery, then we made coconut bracelets, I went snorkelling again with Jo (Becky prophetically said "see you in a minute Jo, see you in an hour David"), then after lunch we took the kayaks out for a spin round the island with Tuay. The trip was a couple of hours including stopping for a snorkel a couple of times, and the second time we stopped, I got chased across the beach by a "dead" crab (or I thought it was til it jumped up and legged it after me!).
That night was our last night, and after dinner we had a fire show put on for us, then we sat around drinking kava. This wasn't the touristy kava ceremony they put on, but just the guys who work there sitting around having a few bowls after work, so was pretty strong, and after a dozen I felt pretty dopey too. I can see why they like it so much! Plus there's no hangover as no alcohol!
Our last day Jo and I got up early for sunrise only to see some clouds on the horizon blocking it, so we went back to bed. Was another perfect day though when we got up, and I went for a few paddles and snorkels for one last look in case there were any mantas about, but we were just a little too early in the season, so sadly didn't see any.
We got waved off from the beach by all the staff, Alecia, Gareth and Jade, and made our way to the boat to move onto our next stop; Octopus on the island of Waya.

Octopus was an island not included in our Bula pass, and cost us an extra 70fjd, but you could see where it went. It is a really plush resort, with swimming pool, and our own little bungalow with veranda that you could honeymoon in. As it's a bigger resort it also has a bit of choice for meals, and great food (pancakes weren't up to the scratch of Barefoot though).
We sat with Lara, Emma and Paige at dinner (along with Becky, Jo and I), and afterwards there were some games to win prizes. First up was limbo (little unfair on us tall people), Becky did really well and got to the last round, and we were all happy to see a stuck up American girl who loudly said it wouldn't be fair for her to compete as she'd beat us all as she is a gymnast, go out.
Second game was a balloon thing which Jo and I were terrible at, but Becky and Lara won, winning a free massage each!
We had a couple of drinks, then off to our luxurious room!
Next morning we made the most of the buffet breakfast, then hit the beach, and I tried out the snorkelling. Was good, very shallow close to the beach, so not possible unless high tide, but the drop-off of the reefs were about 6m, so plenty to see even at low tide. Not much else to report other than we were like pendulums between the beach and bar area for the whole day!
Next morning we took the walk to the village on the other side of the island, and went to the kindergarten where some kids "sang" to us (though it was a bit like the haka by the looks on their faces!), and we looked through some stalls the ladies of the village laid out. I don't know how they sat there in the sun though, apparently it was 44 degrees that day!
We got back to the resort and recommenced our perpetual movements between beach and bar.
The night was spent eating and drinking (surprise surprise), and then doing the quiz, which we were winning (despite losing a dance-off I had to do as a tie-break), then the final round was a talent contest, which no-one was feeling, so we lost out, but still stuck around to watch the American girl piss around showing off again, but they still lost to the loony Chinese man with a snorkel mask on and bedsheet behind him doing a Chinese dragon.
Following day both Jo and Becky were a bit poorly, and I tried to hunt down reef sharks with my snorkel and went bloody miles, but still didn't find one.
We topped up the tan til the last minute in the afternoon when we got on the boat to our next island!

Viti Levu & Tavewa, Fiji, 14 - 15 March 2012‏

 So, it appears we have landed in paradise. We lifted off from Melbourne at 12.30am, and landed in Nadi at 6am. Flight was bloody freezing (thought I was a pro at all this flying malarkey now, so just wore shorts, tshirt and flip-flops, and nigh-on got hypothermia - bloody showing off the power of the air-con, I swear), and I slept through the free food and beer, but at least I slept.
Even though I knew we were going to paradise, it still doesn't prepare you. As we got off the plane, we saw the sun rise over the mountains. Even with the airport in the foreground, it was still mesmerising.
We got picked up and taken to our hostel, which was next door to the big party hostel, shared all its amenities, but was half the price. Was perfect. £4.50 each, beer was £1 a bottle, and free breakfast, plus we got to go use all the stuff in Smugglers Cove; so that afternoon we had a few drinks, played cards and played in their pool, then went back for the fire show that night. Fire show was good, with 5 lads and one girl doing lots of Fijian dancing, and starting and finishing with some pyro and blade stuff. We were all then asked to join in what we thought was just a bit of hokey-kokey. Turned out to be part Fijian lesson, part conga with hands between your legs, and part dance off (I was lucky and got some northern girl in her early 20s, Jo had some old Indian man who really took a shine!). Was great fun, and after some buggering about with STA via the phone and email at midnight (we're now 12 hours ahead, so the difference can be a nightmare), we got our vouchers for Awesome Adventures to start our 2 week trip around the islands by boat the next morning.
The next morning, we were up early, packed, ate brekkie, and by 8.30 were on a boat bound for the northern Yasawa island of Tavewa. We chose an island resort called Coral View, just at a stab in the dark before we got on the boat.
When we got on the boat, we were blown away; every resort looked incredible: the tiny islands of the Mamanucas which barely fit on one resort, and the larger island of the Yasawas, where honeymooners go, with their rocky peaks and abundance of reefs all around, evident by the waves breaking in the middle of the sea.
As we traveled up the chain of the islands, we went past most of the resorts (we chose one as far away as possible so we just slowly work our way back), and I made a note of the ones I liked the look of (one is pretty big, and I plan to kayak around the perimeter).
After 4 1/2 hours on the boat, chatting with numerous people including Becky from Cornwall and Luzian from Switzerland, it was time to say goodbye to Becky as she went off to her resort, whilst Luzian, Jo and I, and several others got on another littler boat which took us to Coral View.
We were greeted by every member of staff singing, and shaking our hands as we got off the boat. We then were led into the bar/dining area with a juice, given a speech about the resort, and given a stir-fry lunch. We then checked in, and Jo and I were shown to our "bure" which is private double, en-suite, and worth about 4 times what we paid I think. It is beautiful place, and as we walked back out to get some sun and go for a dip (the beach is about 8m from the door), I was still struggling to believe we were here.
We sunbathed, then had afternoon tea, played cards with Luzian and 3 others we met, then dinner time!
Dinner was split-pea soup, chicken curry, veg curry, rice, roti, poppadums, and chutney. As there are a lot of indians in Fiji (courtesy of Britain - built our empire with slaves/as good as slaves) it was really good grub. Had a few beers and chatted, then as it quietened down and not many were left, we headed to our little bure. Great day, amazing island, and so many stars I keep tripping over as I walk around at night (most I've seen by far), so going to stay for 2 nights, then move on either to Blue Lagoon on an island not far away, or to another island down the chain.

So top tip to anyone booking a holiday long in advance - book a flight to Fiji and buy the Awesome Adventure pass when you get here, or if you're honeymooning, book it to Fiji. This place is like nothing I've ever seen. True paradise, and people who all seem genuinely happy to meet/see you!

TTFN

x

Cairns and Whitsundays, Oz, 22-27 Feb 2012

Not sure how I'm going to find the time to fill in the details of SA, so I'd better update what I'm doing at the moment or I'll always be behind.

So we left Perth on our anniversary of our first date (we haven't got a "been together" date as we never discussed it, just fell into place together), on a Jetstar flight which I was thoroughly impressed with as it's so cheap, and yet my knees weren't forced up around my ears!
We landed very early on 22nd in Cairns (about 5am), and as we didn't want to fork out for a cab, we waited til 7 when the free shuttle from our hostel ran. We stayed at a place called JJ's which Howie recommended to us. Was $22 pppn, but that included brekkie and dinner, so we went for it.
As soon as we dumped our bags in our 3 bed dorm (why 3 bed I haven't a clue - bloody stupid, but oh well, was basically a private room for us!) we headed out to socialise in the hostel, have a cup of tea and plan exactly what we were going to do in Oz as it's so bloody expensive, we can't afford doss-days like in SA. We tried to plan, but we were both shattered and dirty, and very quickly were getting really shitty with each other (perilously close to having our first fight!), but we knew we were just tired, so we had a power-nap for and hour and a half. We then wandered along the esplanade into the tourist places, playing one off against the other until we had a deal that seemed to be impossible to top (the last lady tried, but was over our best offer by $40, and had missed one of the trips).
Our plan was mapped as follows:
- use the Greyhound buses for our whole trip from Cairns to Melbourne
- go on a dive boat on the Great Barrier Reef (me diving, Jo snorkelling)
- go on a Whitsundays boat trip for 2 nights
- go on a Fraser Island 4x4 tour for 2 nights
- plus a shedload of nights accom around all the tours to keep daily spend down (and easy to haggle people to "throwing an extra night" in here and there)



Post dive/snorkel



As mentioned above, we realised that we had to keep our spend down, so everything was to be squeezed into a tight timeframe. This meant that, after dinner of practically vegetarian chilli from the pub where our meals for the hostel were included, the following day, we were up at 6am, to check out of our room, stash the bags, and head to the marina for the boat trip.
Whilst haggling, we'd managed to get our trips bumped up in class each time, and our boat was a brand new cat, with a lovely crew, including a huge Fijian who kept telling me he had the best job in the world undressing women (of their stinger suits after swimming), a fellow brit who was handling us cert divers, and the person in charge of it all; a malay woman about 4'10", and about 25 years old!

We had about an hour and a half trip out to the first dive site, with tea, coffee and biscuits, then dive briefing, then we kitted up and away we went! There were about 6 of us on the guided dive, and it was amazing. We saw a sleeping white tipped reef shark, about 4 1/2ft long, asleep, as soon as we got down! We then bimbled about and saw millions of fish you only see in tanks in posh restaurants, another reef shark with a bright blue pilot fish cleaning it's nosh, and lots of beautiful coral.
We went up, changed tanks, and went back in, along another route, where we saw about 30 batfish, which are huge, about the size of a dustbin lid, lots more tropical fish, a massive Napoleon Wrasse (a local celebrity and on a lot of postcards; about the size of a small sofa, bloody massive!), and then we stumbled across a green turtle, who let us watch him ponder around and then feed for a bit!
Third dive was after lunch, and on a different reef. We saw plenty of fish and coral again, but nothing new this time, but was still so nice down there. Visablilty was about 18m, which is pretty impressive when the last dive I did was between 5 and 8 in Cape Town!
We got back on the boat, and as I hadn't seen a single jellyfish all day, I took off the stinger suit and fins, grabbed a snorkel and mask, and jumped back in for a swim for another 20 mins. Found Jo snorkelling whilst I was duck diving and coming back up, and she waved at me with about 6 inches of stinger suit flapping beyond her fingertips. She looked really "special".
When we got back in, a load of dolphins swam past, quite near some of the last snorkellers coming in. Everyone was jealous that they'd seen them swimming, but I think they were too far away, and no-one talked about it when they got back on, so I think it was rubbish.
We had more tea, coffee and cake on the way back, debriefed, updated my dive log, then and sunbathed on the deck! End of a very long and tiring, but great day! We then went and showered at the hostel, got the bags, got some dinner, then sat outside McDonalds nursing diet cokes and coffees for 3 hours waiting for our bus to whisk us off to Airlie Beach!

We arrived in Airlie Beach at about 11 the next morning, and immediately checked in for our Whitsundays boat trip the following day. Then we dropped off our bags (but couldn't check-in yet) to the backpackers, and wandered off in search of breakfast. In our search for a bargain, we walked about 5 miles, and viewed every menu and shop in town, and when we finally settled on somewhere, a storm had moved in, we were drenched, and it was more like a late lunch than brekkie!
Bit of a boring day after that, just wandered around sorting ourselves out for the next day, and planning the rest of Oz.
Next morning we checked out, ate brekkie, bought goon, and stored our bags for the few days we were on the boat. You weren't allowed zips, as bed-bugs live in them and they didn't want to spread them onto the boat.
At midday we made our way to the marina where we were to meet the crew. A short, feisty kiwi called Liv came and met us, she was the deck-hand. She really reminded me of my old boss Fiona (if you're reading this Fi, look out the photos on FB and see if you agree!). Liv took us to the boat, which was the British Defender. It is an 83ft yacht, which was sailed in competition in 89, 90 and 91.



British Defender sailing... just not in the conditions we experienced!



This is where our haggling really came up trumps. It is a beautiful boat, with a crew of just 3 (Tane the skipper, Liv the deck-hand, and Rosie the cook), and 29 of us tourists. As when it was sailed in competition it had a crew of 40, we were needed to help out when sailing (which most of us were very happy to do!)
We left the marina under engine power, then we got the sails up and got sailing. We started sailing towards a big dark cloud, which we tried to skit around. It then got a lot bigger, and we went straight into the middle of it. As we hit it, the wind direction changed by 90 degrees, and we had to tack to go towards the Whitsundays. This just means going in a zig-zag, but means the boom has to swing over the heads of all 29, whilst some of us tried to help out and all move out of the way of the ropes and stuff... Whilst at about 60 degrees to horizontal... In a thunderstorm and really heavy rain. It sounds horrible, but great fun, and no-one whinged, just smiled along and laughed about it!
We got to our mooring spot in the shelter of Hook and Whitsunday Islands, and got the goon out, but not after a bit of a swim first. We had a go at diving, and my first attempt was a good ice-breaker (and prob could have actually broken some ice), as I slipped on the side, went half sideways and landed in the water on my face. Very graceful.
We all sat about on deck chatting under the covers as the rain picked up again, and drinking our goon (strangely, goon, which is cheap wine in a bag, is still nicer than cheap wine in the UK). It was when all this was happening that the storm went right over us. I was down below chatting, and Jo was sat on deck with everyone else when a flash lit up the whole sky and a huge crack stopped everyone's conversation. We went up on deck, and then it happened again. 5 mins later, a guy from another tour boat who was mates with our crew came over in a rib. Turned out our mast had just been struck by lightning, twice. It had blown a couple of lights on the top of the mast, but the earthing had done it's job, and we hadn't felt a thing! He came over to make sure we weren't all fried!


Sailing onboard the British Defender



Had a really cool night in the end, playing Arsehole and drinking goon!
Got woken early the next morning by John Mayer (not in person, on the sound system), as we chugged along towards The Lookout and the beautiful Whitehaven Beach. Weather was looking brighter, and we soon anchored up in Tongue Bay, and ferried across to the beach and walked up to The Lookout, then down to the beach. Even with some threatening clouds around us, was breathtaking. We went paddling in the sea one side of the sandbar, then climbing on rocks searching for crabs (found some too), then into the bay which was only knee deep to see some juvenile sharks and rays swimming around our feet! Weather held out until we reached Tongue Bay for the pickup, and we sailed round to Hayman Island for some snorkelling and diving. I swam out to the snorkel spot instead of getting the rib in the hope of seeing something and getting a bit of exercise (was about 250m away from the boat). I was rewarded with a load of bloody huge batfish again, and a few different jellies. Saw loads of tropical fish, and did loads of duck-diving down and looking up, as it started to hammer with rain, so looked really cool from below!
Had a bit of a swim back to the boat, then did some diving off of the boat, and got changed, ready for some dinner, more goon, and, unexpectedly, doing the macarena on deck with the Swiss and German girls! Was a great night, and finished the night playing cards again.


Me, Jo, Sarah and Gary

Woke up early again the next day, and the weather was beautiful. Tade took us out to a reef where we were most likely to see turtles. We did more snorkelling, but I didn't see any turtles, but swam with loads of fish, and followed a shoal of juvenile somethings. They were pretty big, and if they were older they'd be lovely grilled with some lemon and garlic I suspect.
We almost left someone behind because she'd swam off looking for turtles, but was all ok, and we headed for home under the sails in blistering sunshine.
When we got back, we headed to the lagoon which is a big open swimming pool for the public. We met up and played some ball games, and sadly said our goodbyes as Jo and I were booked on the Greyhound to Hervey Bay that evening, so we wouldn't get a chance to see them that night. Was a fantastic trip, and met some lovely people, so thanks to Gary, Sarah, Dan, Becca, Canadia, Craig, Joe, Donye, Vera, the Swiss and German girls, and of course to the crew!



Last night we got the Greyhound, which was pretty packed to Hervey Bay, ready for our tour of Fraser Island tomorrow!

Will try and update more regularly now, and going to put in some retrospective posts from my rubbishness in the latter stages of our SA trip!

Green Turtle - Ghana

Ok, I'm not sure what happened there, but seems that the bloody great post I wrote yesterday vanished into the ether when I hit "publish". Oh well. Fingers crossed forattempt number 2... on a machine that doesn't even have USB ports... I wonder where you pu the coal in?

So after Cape Castle we went to Elmina which also has a castle for slaves that was run by the portugeuse and dutch. It wasn't quite as "nice" architecturally as Cape Coast, and but had some stunning views and equally harrowing history.

When we were finished in the castle some bloke who came and chatted to us before we went in came up to us again and handed us a shell each which he'd "personalised" with permanaent marker, and then immediately got out his football team sponsorship form. We said sorry, we couldn't carry them, and that we weren't going to sponsor and walked off. We decided against remarking that my shell was broken, and that Jos name isn't "Julian".
Got back to Autie Loves in the evening then the next morning headed to Green Turtle.
We took the tro-tro,then had to get a taxi as this place is a resort in the middle of nowhere by itself on the beach. When the drivers said 35 cedes we thought they were taking the mick,and haggled them down to 20. We felt a bit guilty when it turned out it was an hours drive,along roads which aren't meant to take a 300-odd-thousand mile Nissan Primera. But we got there, it was a little pricey for some of the food and drink, but as you have nowhere else to got for it, it wasn't a surprise, and it wasn't really that bad. 2 nights accommodation and food and drink over the 3 days came to about 30 quid each. And we had our own little hobbit-hut on the beach with 2 double beds too.
I was a bit ill out there, and I've got a load of little spots on my back and chest, but apparnetly this is a reaction to the Doxycycline in the sun. So I shall be hunting down Malarone or something for our next stint on the anti-malarials!
Had a couple of lovely days relaxing on the beach, then had to head back to Auntie Loves yesterday. As we couldn't barter for the cab, we had to accept the price, so we shared with 3 Dutch girls. Then halfway along the track (it reminded me of the ridgeway on the downs this road) we got a puncture. Not surprising with the girls big backpacks, plus all our daysacks and 6 people crammed in the car. Helped the guy change it to his spare which had a massive pressure bulge in the side, so I thought it was only a matter of time before it happens again, but we made it.
Got into Takoradi at about 4.30, went to an internet cafe, then home.

Today has been a bit slower than normal as Jo has caught a bug or something and was up all night throwing-up. She was tired out this morning and drained, so I got her some more water sacks and a can of coke to replace the sugars,and wandered into Takoradi alone for the first time to check on whether STA have replied conforming our flight change to tomorrow night. Also, to rewrite this whole thing again!

So fingers crossed, next update will be in a couple of days from Cape Town!

Ghana

First post of a new blog, so fingers crossed this works!


Landed in Accra on the 30th after a normal flight, apart from the landing where the right wing came very, very bloody close to the ground. We landed at 5am, and the sun was just coming up and it was 25 degrees!
Stayed at a hostel that day (and night) in Accra. It's not a very nice plac to be honest, with little to do, but luckily we were wiped from the flight and heat, so had a good sleep, shower and wander about, then headed to Takoradi to stay with Jo's old gap year school owner Auntie Love. She lives in a what we would view as a shanty town (I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but it's the best way to describe it) in very poor surroundings, but has room for us and was welcoming.
The following day we went into Takoradi and took a tro-tro (heavily overloaded minibus that looks like the love-child of all my dad's worst vans combined) to Busua beach. This is a sort of beach town with a few hostels, so we found a cheap double room for the night, dumped our stuff in the room and headed to the beach. We showered and deet-ed up to keep away the mozzies, and went for some food, drinks, and ended up in a little outside cafe thing sharing choc and banana pancakes with tea, playing Bananagrams.
The next day was spent on the beach which was PACKED due to the bank holiday, so had lots of chats with lots of people and kids. Ghanians are the friendliest people I've ever met, they just come up to you to chat and ask where you're from and practice their English. About half the time they'll then ask for money or something, but they are very happy just to see you. As white people it's almost like being famous - you aren't seen very often at all, and stand out a mile!
The next day (Tuesday 3rd Jan) we took a tro-tro to Cape Coast. This is where the biggest fort was built for slave export, and had 2 million go through it's "door of no return" out to the ships to the Americas. Not a good feeling being a Brit. Seems we have done very little in history to be proud of. The West coast of Africa was originally shared between the Portuguese and Dutch, and they paid the local chiefs rents for the land which they built forts, and traded with the locals for gold. Then we waded in to take people away as slaves, making a fortune from it, and kicking out the other nations!... I'll get off the soapbox now.

Anyway, we found a nice German run hostel in Cape Coast, and decided this morning to stay another night and go to the canopy walk in the rainforest at Kakum today and to Elmina tomorrow (another fort).

Ghana is lovely, but there isn't really that much to do to fill 2 weeks, so we've bought our flight to South Africa forward to the 10th, and will go to the Green Turtle (another beach resort) for a couple of days, visit the new site of Jo's old school (as it has moved since she was last here), and prob put in the next update when we arrive in SA, where we'll hopefully do our PADI open water, and do some rock climbing at Table Mountain!