Waitangi Day Pub Crawl

You may have seen it on the News, well I was there to see it in person. The 2009 Waitangi Day Circle Line Pub Crawl.

It was definitely an experience to be drinking in Londons streets with thousands of other Kiwis and a good day was had by all. Unfortunatly there was a fair bit of walking involved and we had to cheat a bit by taking the district line with the circle line down for maintenance.

As you would expect it I bumped into several people from from home, including some old work colleagues and school friends - perhaps the funniest was bumping into Josh Sinton, my little bros best friend from primary school and his sister.

Anyway it was great fun, I hope to be a bit more organised for next year and get some costumes!

I've put up some pictures from later on in the day.

Dave

Prague Xmas & New Year

Hey All,

I managed to get the pictures up a few weeks ago, but year end at work has had me fairly busy until now.

We went with Elle & Jason some friends of Kims form university for a week, probably longer than necessary but we did get the chance to take a trip out to the Karlstein Castle and to Terezin Concentration Camp, both fairly interesting but as you would expect the concentration camp was a bit grim.

We also managed to try a few of the local brews, and why not - the pubs were the only warm place in town!

Take the time to have a look at our pictures using the link here.

Dave

London - First Impressions (the long overdue post)

Firstly a big apology to those avid followers who have been awaiting an update for what has been far to long...

For Kim London wasn't entirely new having been here to visit her brother previously, but for me it was and within a few days I had experienced many of the joys of London life - including believe it or not a heatwave!

Unfortunately there's always a catch and in this case it was being surrounded by several sweaty armpits in the tube, including the occasional one in your face which is not an experience one wants to repeat to often (although I've now learnt this still happens in the cold of winter, well autumn).

Things have been pretty low key since we arrived and we haven't even managed to get outside the bounds of London yet although we will be heading to Prague over New Year.

That said we have been keeping fairly busy, we spent the first month living with Kim's brother in Angel looking for work before moving onto a short term flat in Bow with two other couples (Brazilian and Polish) which was interesting but only ever short term as we had to be gone before the flatmate whose room we were filling returned from holiday.

After much back and forward and alot of frustration we managed to move into a place on the Isle of Dogs - not far from the financial area at Canary Wharf and a short walk from the home of Greenwich Mean Time - the prime meridian via a foot tunnel that goes under the Thames.

For those who don't already know we moved in with Nicola and Ryan, a couple we knew from home through friends and have a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment which is fairly new. The location gives each of us a commute of about 40 minutes each way, and leaves us on the other side of town from all the Antipodeans living in the South West which has resulted in a couple of long journeys on the tube already.

Highlights of our time so far have been a visit from Kim's parents shortly after we arrived and the chance to join Kim's mum for an important birthday, a night out at the Phantom of the Opera, and a Big Bus Tour. Last week we went to Wembley Stadium to see the Barbarians play the Wallabies the result while the result wasn't what we hoped for and it was particularly cold (-2C) it was alot of fun. I went to a pub catchup with a number of old colleagues from BDO in Auckland and of course we have been checking out the pubs when we get a chance - definitely a great place to be to watch the AB's smash England, dressed proudly in an All Blacks Jersey.

Hopefully everyone is well at home, things are well with us, both of us are working hard and have managed to avoid the credit crunch so far.

Kim is currently in India commissioning a factory, but will be back for Christmas and then we are off to Prague. I will be busy throughout January & February dealing with the year end at work but we plan to get away for a Ski holiday sometime in March.

That's about the lot for now - as is customary I've added a few photos, check out the link on this page. The picture here isn't great but that's me with the FA Cup!

Take Care & be sure to drop us a line,

Dave & Kim

Rio de Janeiro

Rio was the final stop on what has been an amazing trip.

The flight there from Lima involved a minor detour to Santiago in Chile where we first started our trip and a quick stopover in Sao Paulo - three countries in one day!

Based on many recommendations we stayed in Ipanema which is definitely one of the nicest places one could ever want to go, and very wealthy compared to most of the other places we had visited in South America.

The plan was not to do much sightseeing and just get some time relaxing on the beach before we returned the reality of work (or more accurately job hunting).

We spent the first few days lying on the beach at Ipanema where we were treated to a display of every possible body shape in speedos and thongs or bikinis that looked like they had been shrunk in a drier! We saw several rich men accompanied by silicon ladies also - after all this is where all the posers in Rio hang out...

For those that have never been there the beach is covered in men selling food and drinks and stalls where you can hire chairs so it certainly is easy to stay all day eating, drinking, sightseeing and occasionally swimming to cool down...
The locals have some strange habits, including sitting as close to the water as possible facing back to the city (because the sun comes from that way), Men standing at the waters edge just staring out to sea (often moving their arms to prevent tan lines...), playing football and just generally acting like posers! Needless to say we were never pushed for entertainment.

While we were there we managed to head out to a nightclub in Lapa, although to be honest it was the wrong night of the week so ended up being a disappointment.

Next up we made a bit of a mistake in that I (Dave) was particularly keen to move to Copacabana to check out the famous beach and vibe so we changed hostels. Sadly, given it is just around the corner from Ipanema we would have been better to just walk here during the day as the hostel in Ipanema was the best we had been to in all of the trip (for those interested - The Mango Tree www.mangotreehostel.com) and the restaurants nearby were amazing.

Regardless we managed a couple of afternoons at the beach there and joined a day trip that took us to Pedra Bonita, Christ the Redeemer, Santa Teresa and Lapa. Unfortunately the day was a bit hazy so the views were not perfect but still extremely spectacular. Christ the Redeemer was truly spectacular, although we were disappointed to learn parts of it had been made in Italy.

Final stop was the secret Lapa steps where Snoop Dogg shot his famous video for Beautiful which has been created by a Chilean artist by the name of Selaron - undoubtedly of the most unique places you could visit and a very unique man. The mosaic stairwell that he started in 1990 is funded by selling paintings of pregnant women. Unbelievably the stairwell continues to change and includes tiles representing countries from all over the world - if you send him one he will even add it to the wall, take a picture and send it back to you!!!

So that's Rio really, hopefully somewhere we can return to in the near future!

Sadly that's it from South America - although I can report that we are in London and are progressing with the job hunt and managing to catch up with a few friends as well.

We will be keeping the blog going as we travel around Europe, so keep checking back every now and again and keep in contact via email. We appreciate all the the great comments people have made on the blog and thanks for taking the time to read and look at our pictures.

Take Care,

David & Kim

Huaraz & The Cordillera Blanca

When we got back from the jungle we were a little ahead of our initial plan so we had to find something to fill the time before our flight from Lima to Rio.

We spent a day in Cusco relaxing and and pondering - given the reports we have had from other people we certainly didn´t want to spend to much time in Lima so we debated Sand Boarding in Ica and getting a scenic flight over the famous Nazca lines or a trip to Huaraz for a four day hike around the Santa Cruz route in the Cordillera Blanca.

I was feeling fairly weary after all the previous trekking so wasn´t so keen but Kim was definitely favouring the trek option. We meet up with Ant and Lisa who we had been travelling with in Bolivia and they had been recommended a tour operator for the Santa Cruz trek by someone else they had meet which pretty much swung it so we booked a flight to Lima the following morning hoping to catch a bus to Huaraz the same day.

The following morning we were delayed 4 hours while the airport at Cusco was closed but managed to get to Lima around midday, we booked a night bus to Huaraz and then spent the afternoon exploring Miraflores, particularly the Lacomar mall which is build into the side of a cliff overlooking the ocean... before catching the bus to Huaraz. From Huaraz we spent the morning looking for a tour company before settling on the same company we were recommended for the following day.

The following day we started the trek with a small group of six tourists, two guides, four donkeys and a donkey driver. Over the four days we covered 63km, starting at 3,200masl, reaching a maximum of 4,750masl and finally finishing at 2,900masl.

Along the way we saw Artesonraju, a mountain supposedly used as the basis for the Paramount pictures logo you see in the movies and Alpamyo which is also supposedly "the most beautiful mountain in the world" due to its perfect triangular shape. Weather or not this is actually the truth is debatable but the fact that the Cordillera Blanca has 50 peaks higher than 5,500m and covers an area 21 by 180 kilometres, means this part of the Andes is the second highest mountain range in the world behind the Himalayas and home to some extremely spectacular scenery.

The trek was physically harder than the Inca Trail because of the altitude, but also far more scenic and in our opinion the new highlight of the trip to date. For anyone who likes hiking this trek is definitely a must do, and for anyone coming to South America even if they hate hiking this should be on the list of places to go...

So that ends our adventures in Peru - after spending today taking in central Lima we catch a flight to Rio tonight for the final week before heading to London.

Make sure you check out the pictures from this one....

Until next time (from London), Take Care

Dave & Kim