New Zealand

Hi everyone, its going to be a big long blog today rounding up the three best bits so far including Mahia, New Plymoth and Piha. We’ve been in New Zeland for three months now and so far i have enjoyed every bit of it.

So we set of from Auckland presuming to go down the coast and do the south island. We decided to go round the east cape and head to Gisbourne, there wasn’t much to see at Gisbourne everyone was saying how it was the big surfing capital of the world but when we got there, there was only two surf shops and one of them had hardly any boardies. So we decided to go to Napier the art deco capital of the world. We stayed at a top ten campsite where i met thousands of kids, the weather wasn’t the greatest whilst we were there and some days we felt a bit gloomy but one day when the weather was perfect we decided to go to Hawkes Bays number one attraction Spalsh Planet. It was basically a water park with tonnes of magnificent slides but it also held go karts and other stuff. The first slide me and Will went on was the skycastle screamer, it really lived up to it’s name. We sat on the top of the slide looking down, when we saw a sign saying cross your legs and arms when going down the slide or else you might fly off the side then we got a bit scared. Will went first, screaming for four seconds and then a huge splash, I followed shortly after and two seconds later I felt burning on my back and then heard another huge splash. When I got off the slide my heart was pounding and I was sweating.

We had arranged to go to one of Will’s old friends house for Christmas and new year, about twenty people were coming including three kids and two dogs. On Christmas day I got a pair of board shorts, a pack of cards, top trumps a skateboard and a fishing rod. Loads of people were turning up for Christmas day, a guy called Scott had brought his quad bike and me and will took it for a test drive down the beach, it was amazing. On New Years Day every one had turned up including the kids, we were all playing ball tag around the acres of field. Everyone was drinking beer and bubbles it was so great and funny. After the amazing time we made our way back to Napier with a few friends, we stayed at their house for one night and they told us that we should head to New Plymouth on the other coast because it was beautiful. So we decided to skip the south island and just do the north, we made our way across the highway to New Plymouth.

On the second day Mum and Will decided to get their hair cut. Really I should have had mine cut as well because i still need it cut now. Me and will were in the barbers shop when we came across three people, two men and one kid, who had the same Bristolian accent. They were actually from Bristol and had emigrated here. We decided to meet them at the surf club one night and i became friends with their kid, he was really cool and he was just like me. I’m trying to download the newest version of MSN when we get more interenet as i still need to add him. On my birthday we went to the coolest pool on earth! It had a vast yellow float coming from the side of the pool into the middle. We took it in turns to run across and make it to the end, if you fell off you would line up and do it again. The line went quickly so it wasn’t too bad. Also, there was the fastest slide in New Zealand, named the Hydroslide, personally I thought the sky castle screamer was alot faster. That night we went to the Crowded Houses restaurant and I had steak for my dinner. I got given for my birthday, chocolates, magazines, jumper, t-shirt, and a camera. At Fitzroy beach I had one of the best surfs of my life you will probably see the picture on my mum’s blog.

At the moment we are staying in Piha. We have been here for about two weeks and Tom and Claire have just joined us. I haven’t really had a surf yet but today I’m going to go in. I couldn’t surf because I met some friends and was playing with them and knocked my finger and sprained it, it swelled up like a gigantic elephant. It went purpley red for a day or two and we weren’t really sure what happened to it. Every day I have come into the Piha cafe and done my school work, for example I am doing my school work right now. I also have an iced chocolate every day which are really great. The chef is amazing and the Piha Rescue (English Breakfast) is amazing. We walked up to this waterfall and found two swimming places. Everyone was swimming in one place but we were told if you walk up the waterfall there was another place to swim. So we decided to go up there and there was no one there. It was completely deserted. We took my waterproof camera and took some amazing shots of us jumping off the rocks. The first time I jumped off I was feeling really nervous and I could taste salt watery sweat dripping down my forehead!

We have one night left in New Zealand and this will be spent in a hotel. Mmm a bed. We had fajitas last night, we have been having them recently. I have to say, they are lush. Love New Zealand so far and I hope Australia is exactly the same, fingers crossed it will be. We will be meeting up with a few more friends and another blog update when we get to Sydney.

A Summary of The Americas

This is going to be my last blog from the Americas so it is going to be a summary of the best and funniest parts so far!

The three funniest things are:(3)Charles in Nicaragua when we had a night of musical farts, we had some food that night came back to go to bed and then that's when the farts started to happen, Charles unleashed about seven at once then we all started to do them. It was Mums worst night so far easily, I was laughing my head off the whole time it was so funny.

(2) Yesterday we went to the centre of town to go and get some food, there was loads of street entertainment that day. One of the entertainers was a comedian that had drawn a big crowd. We stopped to have a look but then he pulled Will into the circle with him, he started asking Will where he was from and who he was with. He said us and then me and Mum started cracking up so much.

(1) The ultimate funniest thing so far is Will's meals. Every time we go out for a meal even if it is a really posh restaurant I always pick the best thing on the menu, Mum usually picks an alright meal, but Will on the other hand has to go for the most disgusting meal ever, the worst one so far was in Nazca Peru, he had chicken with a sort of mango, orange, apple flavour to it, it was horrible.

So then now you have heard the funniest thing so far, its time for the best thing yet and without a doubt it goes to Peru, it is something that I haven't put about in my blog so far. Here it is.

In Nazca you could go on tours that would take you to different places, the one that we picked was called San Fernando. Basically first they take you for an hour trip into the desert, then find a great place to sand board. Me and Mum went to a smaller sand dune and boarded down that and Will tried to conquer the larger of the two. It was actually "really" difficult. I thought it would be easier and safer than surfing but I was very wrong indeed, every time you fell off you pulled the skin in your bum, and Will came back with a massive pink scrape on his butt.

After sand boarding we went to a remote bit of an Island, there was the best wildlife I had ever seen . We got out of the car expecting nothing, but then four gigantic Condors came marching through the sky. We followed them up the hill only to see thousands of penguins, sea lions and vultures, it was the best thing ever.

So there it is, my best and funniest things so far. Here is a picture to show you how amazing they were. Tomorrow were going too New Zealand, we lose two days apparently, hope everyone is fine. Jasper and Sam B GET ON SKYPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and Grandma Lin and Grandad Phil.

A lot to tell you

Hi everyone sorry I haven't posted in so long, so today's going to be a longish one!

Anyway so, the other day we were in Ollantytambo Peru, we were up there because we were going too see the Machu Piccchu our hotel was called (Apu lodge) I know a poo lodge, but it was actually named after a Peruvian sacred mountain. It was actually a lot more like I thought South /Central America would be like because it was a lot more traditional than some of the other places we have been, there was dancing in the square every night. One night the singing was so bad I couldn't even get to sleep properly it was horrible and then the next day we had to go to the Machu Picchu. One thing that i found suprising when we were on the train because I thought the Incas were around the time of BC but actually they were only from the 1400. We were about halfway up, the one side was pretty much a sheer cliff face so obviously Will was a little bit freaked out, but then out of nowhere the outlines of the ruins showed up, it looked like a massive kingdom. When we went to the entrance gate and peered inside it looked so much bigger than you see in the pics, it is quite scary really. So first it was my ingenious idea to walk up the stairs and go see the hut, at the top we found a load of Alpacas they looked so cool but very woolly. Then we found a spot too have lunch, mine was horrible. We walked around for a bit saw some amazing stone work, and the sun gods throne ( also looking out for Condors). There was a sacred rock there, more of a mountain in my opinion but we did not have enough time to go up there .Before we got back to the bus we saw a spring of water running down the kingdom it was very suprising to see water running from the top of a mountain. But anyway I don't want to keep ranting away, well actually everyone's playing cards so I really want to join in.

Hope you are all fine, we are all good, staying in a lovely hotel got a lush pool.

I'll write again soon bye for now.

something amazing...

Last Friday we had a 'something' while we were eating dinner, we had just ordered our food when it happened. The odd thing was, before it happened my Mum went all cold and had goose bumps all up her arms, then she thought she was going to pass out, she also said to Will, 'stop rocking the table,' which we all thought was an odd thing to say because Will clearly had his hands on his knees. Then everything started to sway. Everyone felt dizzy but then it stopped. One of the waiters turned on the tv, put the news on and midway through their speech the whole newsroom started shaking. The next day we went to a cafe, we asked one of the waitresses, 'do you know how powerful the something was yesterday?' She said that it was about 5.9, it was actually a pretty big earthquake! so, anyway I wanted a bigger one but it was still pretty amazing.

I've actually been getting into all the Harry Potters so today I'm going to download them all onto my Ipod. Check out my picture above.

hope you are all good, we're fine chow chow!

OAP

Happy Birthday OAP (Grandad Billyboy)

The Boat Trip

Today we did the best boat trip ever, it was amazing, we set off at the river mouth and headed deeper into the river. We started off hugging the mangrove tree's and then we saw it, we saw the thing that we were waiting to see the most. A crocodile. Only a baby but it was still very fascinating, we could only see part of it's head and back but it was still amazing though. We also saw a few rare tropical birds, one of them was a blue heron they looked amazing. I read on the tinternet that they stop in shallow water, then stab their prey in the back with their beak. We also saw a king fisher, it looked like it had some kind of spikes on the top of it's head, and it had very sharp and agile movements, it looked amazing. Then we started to go down some narrow parts of the river, that was when we saw about four crocodiles, one of them was quite large, but then the guide spotted a tiny crocodile, it was half in the murky water and half out, we were all amazed how the guide had even spotted it. It was the size of a puppy, no joke, we were nearly back. But then we saw a massive crock on the side, it had it's jaw wide open as some kind of territory threat.

But anyway hope you are all okay, tomorrow we are renting a small 4x4 and heading down to Santa Teresa, anyway chow chow!

I hope your not getting bored....yet

Last Saturday we left Nicaragua, and set of for Costa Rica. But the journey was terrible, it was fun just very scary. That day it had been raining like a monsoon, so that meant that all of the rivers were flooded and were still flooding too, we came to our first river that looked terrible, it was flowing quite fast, it was deep and very wide. Even the Nicaraguans were pooping themselves. Our driver was like, 'we just have to go for it', so we did, it was pretty much plain sailing when we went through the river, when we got to the other side we had to wait for the truck behind, but they sailed through too. Then we came to a turning, a guy called Felipe got out and said, if we go right their might be a massive hole in the road. So we headed left, but that was are big mistake. We came to a very fast running, very very wide and also very very very deep river. It looked fine to start with then everyone got out, it was still raining, everyone thought it could be very deep, then our driver tested how deep it was. Obviously it was, well, you know, deep! Our driver got back in and Charles said to him, 'your boss looks like a drowned rat!' Then he told us that we were going to reverse through it, we all stopped laughing so we went for it, and sure enough it was deep, but surprisingly it wasn't deep for very long and then we made it through it all, and arrived at Tamarindo.