Winter is a comin

Bah, so our great plan to come here to Santa Cruz and lay out by the pool sunning ourselves has been foiled slightly. The first few days were great but for the last 3 it has gotten cloudy and cold. Dont really know how I will manage back home as the 'cold' over here is 20*C and I am freezing. Its looking up now though and will probably get good this afternoon or tomorrow. Thank God though, we were going crazy with boredom to be honest. I know people say we should be enjoying our last few days but neither of us can wait to get home at this stage. Bumming around, floundering with the language, I am getting tired of it. Less than a week now.

Are actions right because God commands them, or does God command them because they are right?

It is done, it is completed. Arrived in Santa Cruz yesterday and I am now finished with long, multi-day bus trips, nights spent trying to get comfortable and putting up with loud people and screaming children. Am here in Santa Cruz and not moving until i fly to Rio, which is something I will organise today, then its to the pool to chillax.

Plans and Machinations

So we have decided what we are going to do with ourselves for the last leg of our trip. Our original plan was to fly from Lima, Peru to Salvador, Brazil and beach-hop our way down the coast to Rio and then fly home. Turns out we will have to pay nearly 500euro for plane tickets and then we will still have to spend 2 weeks in beautiful but expensive Brazil. Our second plan was to go to the coast of Peru and laze on the beaches there. Thing about that plan is that the beaches in south Peru are not supposed to be great and would involve a 2 day travel to them and then back to the airport at the end. So we came onto a great plan this afternoon, well I actually thought of it last night but I did not think Cathy would like it until she suggested it herself today. What we are going to do instead is head back east to Bolivia, to Santa Cruz to be precise. We stayed there before in a really nice hostel with a pool and everything. Its around a constant sunny 30* there and we can just relax and do nothing for 10 days in a cheap, cheap country before flying out of Santa Cruz airport to Rio and then spending 3 day there before coming home. Sweet as bro.

The Teflon wears off

Just finished the last post and was perusing the old interweb and sure didn't i see that Bertie has resigned, we don't get no news in the mountains. About time I say, don't know how that man got back into power, would not have happened if i was in the country for the election I tell you. Looks like Cowen is going to take over, He was myself and Liam's boss when we were working in Foreign Affairs, twas a funny bastard.

In other news, Happy Birthday Joan. Was trying to think back over your last few birthdays there on the bus ride home; 20th:Make-up party in Dublin, 21st:Drunken messy party in Elm Park, 22nd: Night out in Costello's, Kerrin was around, as was Grainne, 23rd: I feel bad but i cant remember, it was only 2 weeks before i left, we must have done something special. Hope you have a good one this year, the numbers just keep getting higher.

Macho Pikachu

Well bejesus begorrah, just finished what was definitely the most physically strenuous 5 days of my life, 60hr weeks working in NZ construction yards included. I meant to write a smaller post before i left but a weird Dutch guy kept talking to me about all the kids he's had with different Peruvian women so I just ran off to bed since i was getting up at 4 the next morning.

Arrived in Cuscu, Peru last Monday and after settling in the hostel, which actually has hot water (luxury), we set off around town trying to see if we could organise a trip on the Inca trail. As we went from place to place we realised that it was hopeless, all the tickets were sold until the end of July. We said we would just try and organise an alternative. Eventually we found this place advertising a 5-day/4-night hike that winds through the mountains for 4 days and then ends up at a town at the base of Machupichu where you stay for one night and then spend a day in the ruins. It was $190, expensive things are always in US dollars, but we got it for 180 using our bargaining skills. Everything was included in that, transport, 4 breakfasts, lunches, dinners, tents, mattresses etc. It was only after we were hiking for a while and got talking o others in our group that we realised how good a deal we got, they all spent more than $300. We got it for cheap I think as it was late Monday evening and the tour as leaving Tuesday morning, a little commission for the agency is better than none. The high price also meant that we were the only backpackers doing it, the rest of the group was between 28-44 and we had 2 doctors, a lawyer and a chef.

In the 4 days of trekking we usually got up at 6 and started walking at 7. We would walk for around 10 hours in total and cover around 20km. So that only 2kph I hear you say. Well what made it so god-awful hard was that our lowest point of trekking was at 6000ft and we were trekking up and down and around mountains, the average height was around 10,000ft. One particularly grueling day we went from 6500ft, up to 14,000 and then back down to 6000ft. Our legs were like jelly and every breath was tough. At that height even turning over in your sleep makes you breathless. I am actually really glad that we spent a few days in La Paz city in Bolivia as thats around 11,00ft and even though i had a headache for the first 3 days it definitely helped us acclimatise. After walking more than 80km in 4 days it was definitely needed.

On the end of the 4th day we reached the town of Agua Callientes at the base of Machupichu and we were put up in a hotel with real beds for the night. The plus of that was kind of negated by the fact that we had to get up at 4 in the morning to start hiking up to the ruins at the summit. It took us a little over two hours of trekking up stone steps cut through the jungle but we finally got there and queued up for the opening at six. It was a pure misty morning and because we were some of the first there it was pretty class, all shrouded with cloud and empty. Later on we decided that we cant get enough of the pain so we climbed up a nearby peak and got a real good panoramic view of the city, pictures will be up next week. At around 11 we had seen everything we wanted to see and all the fat, old american tourists were beginning to arrive so we dumped those losers and headed back down to a humoungous lunch that we very much deserved. So ends the amazing story of Paul's masochistic week in Peru.

Competition:Give me a good title for this post

Spent the last few days in the Amazon Basin in the North of Bolivia. It was well class, easily one of the highlights of the whole South American trip. We flew out Tuesday morning in our own little 15-man jet over, and sometimes actually alongside, a big mountain range and eventually landed on a grass airfield in the middle of the jungle. We went from 3800m and 5*C to 300m and 32* in one hour. It felt good to get back into the heat though, the coolness of La Paz was getting to me.

So we spent one night in Rurranabaque, which is a small town where the tours are based out of. Forgot what it was like to have to try and sleep in 25*C heat, i.e difficult. The next day 8 of us piled into a Range Rover and headed off for a 3 hour ride along a dirt track to the River Beni, passing traditional huts made of mud and roofs of reeds along the way. Then it was a 1 hour boat ride through wetlands to our Lodge on the river. We stayed there for 3 days and two nights. We were lucky in one way in that it was rainy season, or at least the end of it and while it did not rain while we were there the river was flowing fast enough so mosquitoes were not that much of a problem, i got around 6 bites in three days which is better than Rio. We were unlucky in other ways in that the river was around several metres higher than usual and so there were not as many creatures to be seen, during the dry season they are much less shy and more eager to get to the waters edge where you can see them.

Saying that though we still saw tons. On the first day we just went for a boat ride up the river and saw lots of monkeys, yellow, howler, weird ones. Lots and lots of freaky birds, river snake and alligators. That night we also went to see the sun set over the pampa's fields which was pretty cool. The next day we went anaconda hunting but since the water was so high, nearly crotch high, they could be passing within a few feet of us and we would not have known, when its dry you can find them actually slithering through the mud. We did see lots of funky insects and stuff, ant nests in bushes where the ants ran from plant to plant along the algae on the water surface, bees the size of you thumb, wasps as big as you little finger-at one stage we heard this huge drone as a swarm of something flew over the fields near us, sounded like a racecar in the distance. After that we found a pod of fresh-water dolphins that lived in the river. they were around 5/6 foot long, pink and blind. They would come up to you and nibble at your feet or arms to see what you were and after a while they would come over to us in the water and you could try and swim along with them. That was well class, so much so that we went back later to a different spot and swam with a different pod. After that then we went piranha fishing which was a bit scary. Had a bit of meat on the end of hooks and when you dropped it into the water it would be gone in a flash, any of us would have been screwed if we had fallen in, not killed but definately mauled in just a few seconds. Cathy the jammy dodger caught one, pictures are in the process of being put up on her site.

The last day was we just went on another tour just to see what we could find and also to go swimming with more dolphins that we found. Was a bit worried about the alligators and stuff that were around but then we found half an anaconda in the rushes. Apparently the dolphins are very territorial and will attack anything that comes into their turf. Good thing i did not know that or i would not have gotten into the water. Several times when i was in the water i was thinking 'what the hell am i doing here?', not only because the entire situation was so surreal but also because i am petrified of sharks and here i was in 20ft murky water waiting for a large carnivorous animal to come out of nowhere and gnaw at my feet. The whole experience was class though. Cathy is putting up pictures but its very slow going and they wont be proper ready i.e rotated, cropped and sorted for a few days, she does hate it when people see her unfinished photo sets.

In other news, kelly, the girl who was travelling with us until Bolivia, has come down with Dengue Fever. Its a nasty viral infection that is sweeping through Rio and Brazil at the minute. Spread by mosquitos its goten so out of hand that the military have been called into Rio to enforce and aid in containment measures, draining stagnant water places and stuff. There is no vaccine against it, you just have to avoid getting bitten. Its not life-threatening, at least if caught early, just like a really really bad flu and you white blood cell count is fucked. She got it in time however and is alright, although having to go to a hospital in a different country is never fun. SHe is grand now though, have yet to find out what her plans for the rest of her trip are though.

So give us a few days and there wil be class photos up on flickr. Heading to Peru tomorrow, going to spend some time on Lake Titicaca and then off to Cuzco and to organise the Inca trail, then back to Brazil for a final 2 weeks of Capoeira and beaches.

Bolivia is odd, very odd

So thought I would write a short one since I will be out of commission for the next few days I think. Left Santa Cruz on Thursday and had a very uncomfortable 16 hour bus journey where we travelled 4000m up to La Paz in the freezing cold, not a good nights sleep. Arrived in La Paz and staggered down to our hostel. Again the place is far better than its reputation says, have had no problems in the 5 days we were here. What I did have a problem with however is the altitude, I have had a headache since last Saturday and it is only now beginning to fade, I was also panting like a paedophile every two minutes and felt like I had a weight on my chest, used to wake up feeling nauseous. Was not that productive to an enjoyable trip but I still had a good old time. Yesterday we had possibly the most surreal experience so far in South America when we went to a Bolivian Wrestling match. It was standard enough affair, fat guys in spandex throwing each other around, there was always a good guy and bad guy and the referree was always in cahoots with one of them. Then as the night went on it got a bit weirdo when the fights started getting a bit more extreme, guys getting thrown not only out of the ring and into the crowd, one of them getting a concussion and others being thrown onto crates that never broke meaning he just bust himself up. Then the Angry Cholita’s arrived. A cholita is a bolivian woman dressed in the traditional shawl and cap and skirt, you see them everywhere overhere.What was different about these was thay were psychotic and beat seven types of shit out of everyone, then the midgets arrived…..

Bolivia

Arrived here in Santa Cruz, Bolivia early Wednesday morning and am leaving today for La Paz, the capital. Have to admit I am very surprised by the place. I was expecting dirt roads everywhere, and begger kids following you around the place while everything is bought from stalls on the street. What i got instead was just a regular South American city with wheelchair ramps on the kerbs, fancy shopping area and plenty of people who speak English. I know that Santa Cruz is Bolivia's richest city but I was told that the whole country was a Third World one. I think its a case as well of us getting more used to the South American way of life as well. We went up to the bus station today to get our tickets and it was no hassle at all, we are finally getting the hang of asking for basic things in Spanish and learning simple things like the numbers and what not. We were also walking through a market area on the way home and even though we both had our credit cards and passports we felt quite safe. I think it may have been because when we first arrived in Chile, even though its one of the safest countries in South America, we were completely paranoid and scared to death by all the horror stories we heard when really all you have to do is show a bit of common sense.

Only a few weeks left now before home, down to the vinegar strokes of the trip as they say.

Paddies day in rio, huzzah!

So here´s a slightlt drunken St Patricks post. The holiday dynamic is changing today. Kelly, the other girl bar Cathy who came over, left us today to travel the coast of Brazil and Argentina rather than endure the hardship of Bolivia and Peru. Myslef and Cathy are heading to the airport tomorrow to fly to Bolivia for fun and frolics, then onto Peru then going back to Brazil to meet up with Kelly again for a weeks to chillax on the beacehes for which its famous for. that should be a laugh.

As for St. Patricks Day, myself and the C-dog spent several hours drinking on Ipenema beachand now are back in the hostel watching Return of the King, that bit was not planned but its on so it must be watched. later we are going to the Iriah bar ( i know, i usually ahte the shit but its Paddies Day) to meet Bernardo and some of his friends, hopefully we will be still conscious.

Hurrah!!!

Its not all bad

Alright so i think a more cheerful post is needed. Since I wrote the last post i went away for a few days to an island called Ihle Grande and came back to Rio. For the last 3 days it has rained and been relativly cold and a lot of my homesick feelings have gone. I think its because i have gone so long without being stuck inside somewhere because its cold and wet outside and i got rose-tinted glasses about it, in reality it sux and makes you go a bit crazy.

So now i am ready and rearing to go again and get on with the travelling, Rio is actually quite boring when it is wet and you are trying to save money. Flying to Bolivia on Tuesday to start that leg of the trip. Only around 39 days left before i get home and mytself and Cathy have actually planned something for every day of it, should be a laugh.

Also, I am very jealous of the guys and ho going snowboarding, that would be a larf, might try and do it in Peru if such a thing is possible.

Do you ever have a song that can change your mood so much that it scares you? it has been 5 weeks since i left New Zealand and around 8, thats 2 months, since i said goodbye to my Kraut friends. But just now, while sweltering in a Rio de Jeneiro night i heard Leona Lewis Bleedin´ Love for the first time since i left and all of a sudden felt like crying again cuz i missed the gang so much. Its an incredibly sappy pop song I know but it was playing the whole time we were hanging around together. Came out of nowhere to be honest but still put a huge downer on the evening.

I have been feeling homesick for the last few days actually, for New Zealand and Ireland. Spent 9 months in NZ and did not miss home once but now i feel like its just been an incredibly long, prolonged goodbye and i would like to get back to one or the other. South America is great but i am feeling tired, jaded of travelling and I dont feel like I am appreciating all the stuff i am seeing. I know people will say that its stupid to miss home when i will be back there for the forseeable future and that i should just enjoy SA but i just dont care any more. The idea of spending an evening in Castletroy just hanging around doing nothing appeals to me infinitely more than another week in Rio or the idea of a weekend in Fanore is vastly more preferable to a trip to Machu Pichu. Ye probably cant understand how on earth i could think like that but its true and has been for a while, a huge case of the Grass being Greener on the Other side i think.

Introduction To Brazil

Okay, so just a quick update as this computer does appear to be very popular, the joy of sharing a hostel computer between 20 people. Arrived here in Rio de Jenerio two days ago after a 22hr bus ride from Iguazu Falls. Had a brilliant time there, saw the falls on day 1 and 2 and when we went to book our tickets out found that there was noone available for 4 days so we just proceeded to get very drunk for the next few days. There was a class bunch in the hostel, which was pretty nice itself with a big courtyard and pool. Very sucky thing happened thoughwas that Cathy was uploading her photos onto Flickr and while she had perhaps 30% done someone formatted the entire memory stick which sucked. Luckily she had them saved onto the desktop, except that was deleated when the computer restarted. Long story short we no longer have photos of perhaps the most impressive thing we have seen since we arrived. Kellie-Ann has a few up on her Flickr though so check that out.

We are thinking of spending perhaps five days here in Rio then heading out 150km to sea to an island called Ihre Grande to veg out for a day or two, lots of lovely surf beaches, chill out beaches and treks to do as well. Have to get onto organising that one. Met up with a friend of mine called Bernardo that i met in New Paltz all those years ago. Was pretty cool to see him, went out for a quiet drink last night on the lagoon but might be going for a big night out on Friday. There does be a huge club in the city that he can get us on the Guest List for, might be a larf. Then on the weekend might be meeting up with Carol and Manuel, two other Braziliens i met in New Paltz.

Have to organise a wee bit here as i am nearly halfway through the South American trip. Looking into a few flights to cut down on the travel time, weird how 15 hours seems like a short trip at this stage. Re-evaluating the route we had originally planned, might cut down the Amazon trip and get a flight to the coast. Really looking forward to the Brazilian coast though. Was on Ipenema beach today catching some rays. That was a humbling experience, never saw so many examples of the perfect human form before, dont know if i will be able to go to an Irish beach after that. The plan is to spend the last 2/3 weeks beach hopping from Belem (which is actually on the equator so will be stinking hot) down to Rio. If we time it right i should have enough money for the entire way.

Opening up a bottle of whiskey at the minute, its so god awful hot, around 33*. I also have a confession to make. I have a problem. I also have to apologise to Joan for ever giving her hassle over her Coke addiction, I have become ten times worse. I am now drinking a bottle of coke at least, every day, sometimes more. Just get so hot and crave nothing more than the sweet, sweet tast of a chilled coke, hmmmmmm. Think i will go buy a 2lt bottle for my whiskey.

Iguazu falls

Golly wizz i am tired. Here in Iguazu at the minute, on the Brazilian and Argentinian borders. There are some crazy falls here and we popped into the brazilian side to have a gawk at them today, pretty sweet but what really interested me was all the cool animal life we saw. The falls themselves are right in the middle of the rainforest even though they are just 30 minutes outside the city. Just walking along the path we saw so many different types of bug it would make any primary school boy estatic, tons of different type ants, a tiny albino spider and moth, i put my hand on a railing for a minute and when i looked again there was a 2 inch praying mantis/stick insect on it, lots of creepy crawlers and above our heads in some places 4 foot webs with 3 inch spiders sitting in them. Well class, no mosquitos either which meant you got all the good stuff with none of the bad.

We are going again tomorrow and doing the argentinian side which is much larger and will involve several hours of walking, should be a good laugh. Came home on my own tonight cuz the girls are staying in a restaurant having a few drinks, feeling a bit New Zealand home-sick.

Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires

bha, i forgot how much effort writing this thing can be, especially when it is so very hot. I am here in Buenos Aires at the moment after stopping off in Mendoza and Cordoba along the way. We have realised that we seem to only bestopping in the big cities so we are going to try and take it a bit slowly and stop in a few small towns and National Parks between here and Brazil. Like i said it has been incredibly hot recently with the average around 30degrees. It is really humid and one day in Cordoba it actually got to 35degrees. That was not too bad though as we just sat around the hostel all day and then started drinking that evening and got to see a 10 hour lightning storm before it finally broke and started pouring rain around 4 in the morning, good times.

Buenos Aires is really nice so far, we have learned to only go to hostels that have air-conditioning. Its a really sweet city and feels very safe. We have learnt our lesson in that regard though, i no longer carry around my backpack so my sum possessions around town are my suncream, a map and around 20-25 euros worth of money. Not carrying anything worth stealing actually means you worry so much less, which is good. Like i said Buenos Aires is pretty sweet, you could spend ages here and the girls actually are spending all day today in town shopping as the sales are on. Its ridiculous really, there is a Christian Dior shop with fancy waistcoats going for 40 euros or leather jackets going for 30. Yesterday we went for a 3 course steak meal that came to a grand total of 12 euros. Of course then you have things that are imported that cost the exact same as home and sometimes are even more expensive, books and electronics being a case in point. I can actually see our stay here expanding past the alloted 4 days. Think i wil buy present for a lot of ye cretins here and then ship them home tobe opened when i get back.

I have been having really weird dreams lately, just plain old dreams of home that are actually very depressing. In one i was after arriving home and met a few of ye except that ye had gotten fat and old and could only talk for a few minutes before having to get back to yer desks, then was walking around town to meet the parents and go home and i was so cold and depressed cuz i was never going to see my New Zealand friends again. There was another one last night when i was walking down William Street with Liam and we were pretty much just arguing about money and loans and shit, again i was just home and really cold. I suppose its just a kind of immaturity on my part about not wanting to actually face the real world once i get back. One thing i am noticing about travelling around with Kelly and Cathy is that I am forgetting New Zealand more and more. Its an odd thing really, they will be talking about some musician or event that happened in Limerick and i was wondering why i had never heard of it, before realising that i have not been in the country for nearly 10 months. pity that

In other news Cathy has her flickr account up and running, its www.flickr.com/cathyduffy It has similiar but different pictures than Kelly.

I Aint Dead....although i wished i was

Alright, so i am here in SA (thats South America, get with the lingo, gringo, hahahah) for one week so perhaps i whould let ye in on my Latin adventure.

The story begins back in New Zealand. Paul has gotten a loan and it is in his current account. Since he has not used his irish current account in around 6 months he has forgotten his PIN number and has cleverly requested that Bank of Ireland send his PIN home where the parents will email to him straight away. In the mean time he transfered enough funds to his credit card to get him through the week. And an expensive week it was, backpacks, malaria tablets, stuff for my medkit and miscellanious necessary stuff. But on Wednesday i said goodbye to Derek&Fiona`s apartment, mystal their dog and headed off to the airport. I had checked my bags in and went to pay the ridiculous `departure tax´that they foist you with. I was also going to get some $US to keep me going in CHile til my PIN arrives. SO i go to the money place

$100US and i`ll pay the departure tax please.
Credit Card Declined
Haha, just $50 dollars and the departure tax then.
Credit Card Declined
Hmmm, just the departure tax then
Credit Card Declined
................shit

Did not have a fucking clue what to do at this stage as i had absolutely no cash on me and was already cutting it tight with the plane. After standing around thinking of any alternatives in the end i had to call Fiona in the city and ask her to leave work and come in and pay for me, which sucked major bum for all involved, I paid the departure tax and ran up the stairs and got into the queue for security while i hear that my flight has stated boarding. I eventually get true, grab a packet of M&M´s from the shop and get to the plane just as they were going to call my name. Cue the most stresful flight of my life as i just sat or lay there for 10 hours wondering what on earth i was going to do when i landed in Chile not knowing anyone, not having any spanish, and not having any money to to get a place to stay or even to get transport to the city. By the time we were approaching the mainland i kind of knew what i had to do. There was an Irish couple sitting a few seats ahead of me and although it was the most mortifying moment of my life, i went up to them and told them my dilemma and asked could they help me out by paying for my hostel for a night. They very kindly agreed and i got a taxi into the city with them and stayed at a lovely hostel called EcoHostel. I sent a pretty frantic email to a few people asking where Cathy was as i needed her to arrive the next day or else the Irish couple would be leaving and i would not have gotten a chance to pay them back, or leech off them more. Luckily a few hours after a crashed into bed, a 14 hour time difference between NZ and SA and a ten hour flight with no sleep will help you do that, i was brutally awoken by Cathy jumping on my bed so that story ended pretty well. I got money opff her, paid back the irish couple and then my PIN number was sent over, huzzah.

So for those not in the know, Cathy is a friend of mine from Ireland who decided to come over and do the South American leg of the trip with me and her friend Kellie-Ann also came with her, so know there is three of us travelling. It is a bit weird travelling with other people and actualy having to take their opinions into account, you become a very selfish traveller when you are on your own, you can come and go whenever and wherever you please, it takes a bit of adjustment taking other people opinion into account and having to do things that you dont want to 100% do, because the group does. The plus point is, well one of them, is tht both Cathy and Kellie-Ann are professional photographers and now i dont have ot take a single photo for the rest of the trip, even if we do stop every 2 minutes to snap a tree or piece of graffetti. Kellie-ann has a site where she is putting all her photos www.flickr.com/kellieann and Cathy will be wsetting hers up soon. You dont have to join or anything so tis good for all yous who cant see my bebo ones.

We left Santiago after a few days and arrived in Mendoza, Argentina on Monday, will be here for a day or two yet i say. I am going to hve to get better at the old travel writing, have seen the blog of another couple that i met and its very good, not just boring listing `what they did today´so i will try that in future. Hasta Loega for now

An End of an Era

So tomorrow is going to be my last day of my New Zealand holiday, I am actually flying out on Wednesday but early enough and that will all be spent in the airport. Over the last few days I have found myself just sitting around staring into space and replaying the last 9 months over and over in my mind and what can I say? They were a blast.

I remember arriving in Queenstown, wondering around lost and jet-lagged for a week, heading to Dunedin and my first night in Central Backpackers and then all the class times I had there, my first road trip, making castles out of beer cans in the sitting room, playing WoW for hours in the internet cafe, heading back to Queenstown with my board and going snowboarding for the first time, changing hostels every week and meeting so many random people, doing a skydive, running out of money and having to work 60 hour weeks but then road trips on the weekend with group I was hanging with, hitch-hiking to Nelson, Doing the Abel Tasman walk and camping out for the first time, hanging around in Wellington bored before heading to Napier, all the great times in Napier working and playing, 15 of us sleeping under the stars on a beach, drinking and talking shit on the steps of The Warehouse, lazy afternoons in the courtyard and hard days talking shit for hours in the orchards, a crazy Christmas dinner for 38 under the hot sun, going back to Wellington for New Years, getting pissed most nights with 15 Germans, the shitty goodbyes when they all left for the South Island, then the road-trip up here to Auckland.

I can’t believe it has been nine months, feels like more than a year; Queenstown seems a life-time ago. I have met, befriended and said goodbye to so many people in that time as well. Some of them I can barely remember but there were so many that I would consider friends; Denise, Richard, Blair, Shane, Joelle, Angus, Nick, Rachel, Bev, Lucy, Andy, Stein, Lucille, Sylvania, Josh, Jo, Emmerson, Natalie, Marco, Jim, Jen, Mirna, Neil, Lucy, Ruth, Flo, Kirsty, Gerrit, Dave, Hila, Sue, Miyuki, Alex, Corey, Elle, Lina, Lisa. All people who I still feel sad about having to say goodbye to.

I suppose I should talk about what I have learnt from my time here in New Zealand and whatnot. Self-sufficiency is a big one, there were times when I got lonely and was stuck in a place were I felt I had no friends, sometimes for weeks at a time. Times like those you have to get used to your own company and to organising everything for yourself. On the other hand however, very often it was as a result of those bad times that I got to encounter the good times; feeling lost when I first arrived in Queenstown lead me to move and have a great time in Dunedin, my shit first visit to Wellington motivated me to move to Napier where I had the best few months of my holiday. The value of these friendships are also important, no matter how stunning a snow-capped mountain or pristine golden beach is, if you have no one to share it with then what’s the point? You learn to be philosophical about these things, good times come and good times go, as do good friends. You have to learn to juggle the skills of making acquaintances and developing friendships quickly with being able to let go and say goodbye, very often in the space of a few days. You also have to learn humility, I have stayed in stayed in some very shit hostels, been reduced to wearing cloths held together with safety pins, worked for some ignorant fuckers and in some really hard, thankless jobs.

If I were to do the trip all over again there are some things I would do differently but all in all I am happy with how it went, less time in Queenstown would be good, as would more in Dunedin, better budgeting would have helped but working was part of the experience. Surprisingly I am not actually that sad about leaving. After Wellington I said goodbye to my German friends, which was hard, but afterwards I kind of faced that fact that my money was running out and I was just not in the mood for more sight-seeing. For the last 3 weeks I have been here in Auckland staying in a friend’s apartment, which has been great. It was such a relief not to have to share a room or worry about someone stealing my food. Doing domestic things like walking the dog or just lazing around the house for the day was also great fun. We went on a few weekend and road trips but nothing major and that has been grand.

The time off has given me lots of time to catch up on my internet and organise this trip to South America. That is goingt to be fun, have organised an itenary of sorts and will hopefully meet up with some friend of mine in Argentina, Brazil and Peru, one of the plus points of having studied and travelled internationally i suppose. Dont know what the internet access will be like once i get over there and there is no Vodafone so dont think the old phone will work, will try and keep this thing going but leave me comments, even just your initials, just so I know if people are reading, saves me sending emails. Ciao for now

Nose to the grindstone and all that

So spent a few days here in Rotorua, kind of a diappointment to be honest. Heard lots about the thermal springs and parks around but they all cost money so fuck that. I have kind of came to the conclusion that my holiday in New Zealand is kindof at an end. I have a little over three weeks left and i think i will give up on the rest of the sightseeing and instead just go straight to Auckland and work til i leave, perhaps a few weekend trips could be cool but at this stage i dont really want to see any more beaches.

So working for a few more weeks then off to Chile i go. Like i said, i arrive in Santiago on the 6th of February then meeting Cathy, a girl i worked with in Dolans, on the 7th and we are going to run, skip and jump all the way acreoss South America. Should be fun

Happy Christmas, New Year and all that Jazz

So it has been several weeks since i last wrote to this thing so i suppose i owe ye an update. Not going to bore ye with all the nitty details but in short the last 2 months or so have probably been the best of my trip so far. I was staying in an awesome backpackers called the Stables Lodge, the weather in Napier was class and i met lots of amazing people, several of which i got pretty good friends with, as you are want to do under the circumstances.

I was working pretty hard for several weeks and in the end i had a big argument with the boss and quit. in some ways i was loath to leave the job in the sense that i actually did not mind the work. It was often boring and repetitive but i was working with loads of local Maori guys and also two friends from the hostel. So we would just spend the day weeding or apricot picking in the sun talking about everything and anything. When you are doing nothing but that for 10-11 hours a day , 5/6 days a week you get to know people pretty well.

After a four day vacation to Taupo where i swam in hot springs, did a bungee jump and then met up with Michelle for lots of alcohol, i returned to Napier to get ready for Christmas. Getting ready for Christmas of course had to involve a night when around 15 of us found this cove around 20 miles from anywhere and spent the night on the beach, sleeping on the sand in a circle around the bonfire.

Christmas was also pretty sweet. There was 38 of us and everyone helped either cook, decorate or clean up afterwards. I made lots and lots of fried potatoes and they went down very well. Lots of drinkenness ensued. Around the 26th then i said goodbye to sunny Napier and a bunch of us made our way down to Wellington, its just a 4 hour trip but we made it last 3 days, sleeping on beaches and in forests before getting to Welly on the 30th. There was no room in the inn so most f us either slept in their cars on the street or, as what was in my case, a tent in the garden. New Years itself was a series of very late nights, average 5am bedtime, lazing around on beaches and lots of alcohol.

So all in all it has been a sweet sweet few weeks, which i why yesterday it was so hard to say goodbye to everyone i met in that time and move on on my own. They had started in the North and were moving down while i was going the opposite way. I was re-reading Sarah's now almostdefunct blog and she describes it pretty well when she says the 'sundering just makes you want to curl up and die'. I know i have harped on about this a few times, when i left Dunedin and again after Queenstown but this time was so much worse, tears were involved. The bigger the high, the deeper the low it seems. Though i am in a really nice hostel in a pretty town called Wanganui at the minute i dont actually care. Whats the point of all this if you are just doing it alll by yourself.There was one particular fella that i got on really well with, a german guy called Gerrit. He reminded me a lot of Niall in that he was 6"Huge' and big. We were working in the orchard together and i kind of adopted him as a younger brother for the two months. It psucked especially to say goodbye to him and also to two of the ggirls. We have made promises to met up in Germany during the summer and since most of the people i met were german i joined their equivelent of Facebook, called Studiverzeichnis, does not exactly roll of the tongue i know.

I will get over it I know but does not stop me feeling shit about it now. I already have plnned to meet up with some friends from Queenstown and Arcscoil Ris in Auckland so that will take my mind off things. I also have sorted out my South America trip more. I actually spoke to a very polite and helpful customer service person with Quantas ands i am now definately flying into Santiago on the 6th of February and then leaving Rio de Janeiro a few months later and arriving back in Shannon, via San Paolo, London and dublin on the 24th of April. I may also have a travel companion in the form of one of the girls who i worked with in Dolans. She is looking into tickets but if everything works out according to plan she will be meeeting up with me in Shannon, which will be nice.

So apologies for the long, rambling post, but i would think after a 2 month absense it was needed. I will try and get back to the short, regular posts from here on in. I have also put up photos on my bebo and facebook if you are interested, bebo site being

www.kernunos.bebo.com

Until further notice

Will not be blogging for a while now. Think it will be a week or two before i write a proper post as

a) Ran out of money a week ago so cant afford internet cafe's
b) am now working 6 days a week, 10 hours a day so dont really have time
c) the free internet in the hostel is dial-up and has a 30min limit and since the page takes 5mins to load this page just cant do it.

will talk to all ye crazy cats later

Mad old Kiwi's 4 d Win!!

Just arrived in Napier on the east coast. Staying in a pretty sweet backpackers, my bunk is about 10ft above the ground though, should be fun if i get drunk. SO spent the weekend in Palmerstown North, not really sure why as there is not really much there, just a regulr big town with a huge university. Hitched my way up here this morning, its around 200km i think. Was a bit worried at first because they were slow ot pick up but then i got a ride to the nearest town and then was only waiting before a car pulled over. I was a bit surprised to see that the driver was an old fella but it turned out he was going the whole way to Napier so it was all good. Was a bit worried that he was going ot be like the old fella in Family Guy but turned out he was just a crazy old 84 yr old. Was a third generation scot but still counld speak a bit of scots gaelic and gave me a tour around the cuntry. Was one of those experiences tha you would never get in the tour buss or anything. Took tonnes of detours around to see bits and pieces, saw his old farm, the slaughterhouse where he worked, where an articulated lorry went off the road and ploughed through 3 houses. Did not hurt that this part of the country is really sunny and stuff

Eventually got to Napier but we had to spy on some of his tenants in a house first as it turns out they were sub-letting and i had to take pictures of the cars and stuff that were parked around, then i got a tour of the entire city and the surrounds, a mad laugh. Here in Napier for a while now, will have a look into getting a fruit-picking job for a few weeks i think and laze around the beach for a bit. Should be a good laugh.

Have put up pictures on Bebo

www.kernunos.bebo.com for ye cretins without a page

Wellington, Sweet Wellington

So i finally arrived here in Wellington. The ferry over leaves from Picton, a small enough town around 100km from Nelson. I was going to hitch but then i realised that while talking to the boss of the scaffolding firm i was going some work for, he mentioned that they sometimes do jobs down this direction. I rang him up and asked if there was any Chance of getting a lift in the van and he said sure,and if i wanted there would be a days work as well, paid under the table. I also got a pleasant surprise in this weeks pay packet when i out that i had been over paid by 70 dollars. The agency got onto me pretty quick and asked that i give it back.uhhh, morale dilemma. I think i will give it back though, they gave their bank details and stuff. I will deduct the amount of tax i paid on that 70 dollars though (around 20 dollars), as otherwise i will be worse off than if they had paid me the proper amount, and then if i am lucky i can claim back that tax anyway! huzzah for creative accounting, reminds me of that time i embezzled money from the Dept of Foreign Affairs, but we wont talk about that.

So i went camping last week in Abel Tasman national park, 53km in 3 days so it was not bad. Walked around 5 hours a day, thought that would be no problem as some of the day treks i have done have involved 7-8 hours a day, did not factor in the 13kg backpack though so that made 5 hours just enough for one day. The walk was not that challenging though, a lot of the hardcore hikers skip it. i say its where a lot of the tourist shots were made for promotional stuff though. You are walking through the rain forest when suddenly you will come upon this abandoned pristine golden beach with cliffs and little islands and blue blue waters. I cant put up photos on this prehistoric computer but check it out on google, well class. Apart of course for the sandflies, horrible, horrible creatures. They bite like mosquitoes but are completely silent and much smaller so you don't realise til its too late. I really do have my mothers blood, got over 30 bites on my arms and legs over the 3 days. I was using insect repellent but they just found any spot that i may have missed. Have been covered in blotches of calomile and doped up on anti-histamines since i arrived back. Thankfully there are not that many here in the North Island.

PS: Who is actually reading this thing these days. leave an 'i do' comment' just so i know i am not talking to thin air

Alright so i am not as tired today, well i should not be, just got out of bed. Now i can regale you with tales of my fun weeks work. When i arrived down to the wharf to start the unloading job i did not know who i was supposed to talk to but eventually i found these two British guys who looked as lost as i was and we went looking around until we found a woman who knew what was going on. She brought us up to the office to get kitted out in overalls and gumboots and stuff. When all that was finished she brought us down to the boat and was talking about how the first while is bad on the boat but then you get used to it once you are out at sea. I was a bit confused so i asked her when would we be getting back to port, she turns around and says "Umm, December 15th a think". Turns out i was with the wrong group all together and was 30 mins from heading out to sea for 8 weeks, i quickly ran away from that one.

The scaffolding firm i was working with was run by this religious group called the Brethren. Well its not run by them as such, just all the management belong to them and all their members work there. They are an odd Christian group, always wear long sleeves and pants, no smoking and no swearing on site. That was one of the hardest things, i mean have you ever gone an entire day without cursing? And i dont just mean the usual 4 letter words but 'Jeasus' or 'Damn' also included, was well hard. They also eat all their food separately so us non-religious zealots had our own area to have lunch. Was talking to one guy at lunch, an English guy, and he was saying how he was working with the company for months ands they still had not gotten rid of him even though he kept trying to convert them to Atheism, was leaving copies of The God Delusion around the office, kind of like reverse-evangelicalism i suppose.

I finished up up work for the last time here in Nelson. Off to Abel Tasman National Park for thew weekend for a three day hike. along the coastal track. Should be a laugh, going with one of the girls from the hostel and neither of us have ever done a multi-day trip before so it should be eventful. Luckily the weather is pretty hot at the minute and sunny so all will be good, just as long as the sand-flies keep away.

So work was retty eventful this week. Spent the first two days unloading boxes from a boat. Was told i was going to be unloading fish and i nearly refused to do it but the n it turns out that the fish have all been processed and are frozen and packed in boxes so that was alright. Was pretty hard work, throwing around 20kg boxes for hours at a time in -20 degrees. You would work for one hour then have a half hour break. It was good except for the fact that i was going from -20 to +20 degrees and so caught a mother of a cold for the next day. I was working putting up scaffolding for the rest of the week which was outside in the sun and was grand work. Good thing i was not that scared of heights cuz i was putting up stuff 4 and five stories up. I had no problem walking around as soon as the guard rails were up but the guys who were doing it full time were walking around 40ft above the ground with nothing between them and the ground. Lunatics.

Had other more interesting things to say but am just too tired to be honest. Leaving Nelson next week, looking forward to that.

Woah, Life , The universe and shit

So, i was in a big of a transcendental mood last night. Dont know exactly how to describe it but its the feeling you get when you start thinking about life and big issues and shit and realise that what you think is important really does not amount to much. Watched a film based in WWII London and finished my book on the 20th century history of the Middle East. The movie was a comedy of sorts but it was one of those that just follows the life of a theatre over a few years as characters come and go and die and get old and stuff. Those ones always get me, a League f Their own is one of the most depressing movies i have ever seen. It made me wonder what we are going to be doing in five or ten years time? Who is goingt o be married, parents, dead? Since i moved away from home, six months this weekend, I kind of just see the broad brush-strokes of what is going on back home; who is seeing/not seeing who, who is getting/leaving a job, moving, studying, self-destructing. If these things can happen in just 6 months that what will a decade bring? It does not really depress me per se, but it does make me think

If there is one that college, the year after, and this trip away has taught me is that friendships are made, fade and sometimes, if you are lucky, grow back. I have met and befriended so many people on this trip that i have taken to writing down their names in a wee book just so i can remember them all. Its odd who makes it and who does not. The Irish guy spent two months with in Dunedin does not as we have not stayed in touch at all. The two Scottish girls that i met and spent an entire night just talking to in the sitting room have made it. I have not seen them in three months, only knew them for two days and one of them is back in Scotland and the other is in Oz but we still text or bebo a few times a week. I was just saying to Amanda the other day, through the wonders of bebo, that i think we have done a good job of staying in touch even though we only knew each other for 4 months and have only met once in the 3 years since then. Through this old blog thing and texts i have been talking to Danielle and Pa more than i have since i left college and that is pretty sweet. When i left college i was worried that i would lose touch with a lot of people but i think that when you get older you just get more used to people drifting away but then once you meet them again everything just goes back to normal, meeting Anna in Queenstown was a case in point, it had been over a year since we had seen each other but nothing was really different, bar her being a Muslim.

What exactly is 'Selling Out'?

So today was a good day. Had a nice lie-in til half eight then read my Wheel of Time book. Yes i am startign from the very beginning again, its been a few years since i last read them. Went down to the saturday market, went online and then to the library. On the way home i caled intot he local bakery to get the loaf of triple grain wholemeal bread that i get every day when, shock horror, they had all been sold. Lukily i call in there so often they know to expect me and had put one away from me, which was pretty nice. So then back to the hostel to go for a swim in the pool and sun-bath/read for the afternoon. All in all, pretty nice.

Have been on to Liam a bit and he has decided to sell out and become a corporate suit, and one that specialises in luring in other inocent victims to the corporate web. I was wondering how long i would hold out for when i got home. Thinking i would rather not work behind a desk, in a suit, day in and day out. Perhaps i will just keep travelling around, i thought. But then i realised that i did not really want to keep travelling around. I am enjoying my trip and everything but i hae no way been bitten by the globe-trotting bug and want to keep wondering arond the world, i will be perfectly happy when i get home. So then i was thinking that all this travelling is a form of materialism in itself, but instead of collecting money and material things you compete as to who can see the most, who can have the most unique experience. I have noticed there is a lot of snobbery involved in travelling. the people with a car look down on those who take bus tours, those who hitch claim to have a better holiday than those in a camper van etc. It is naff to visit certain places as they are too 'touristy' and people are always trying to show they have had the most puritan experience.

'I went to South east Asia for four weeks'
"SE Asia?, in 4 weeks? I spent 5 months there, got off the tourist trail"
"everywhere is a tourist trail in Asia, i worked with orphans in India"
"India, pah. i lived with beggers in South America?"
"well i contracted AIDS in Africa"

I am guilty of it as well to some degree. Think some people dont see have the country and are just here to get drunk and party. But then who am i to tell them what to do, some would see me as having a very superficial holiday as i am mostly in town and am actually, shock-horror, working. After debating all this in my mind for a while, i came to the conclusion that i do not have a clue what i want to do when i get home

Nelson is odd

Nelson is a very odd town in some respects. Not really sure if its because of religion or what but every shop seems to close at 5:15 on a weekday, they are only open from 10-2 on a saturday and a lot dont open on Sunday at all. Quite irritating, its everything, bakery's, pharmacies, web cafe's, book shops, all my favorite places really. Except the library, that open from 1-4 for some reason, i have decided i am going to splash out and spend $15 on a months membership. I think i will be here in Nelson for a while yet so i think i will make use of it. Although now that Liam is probably not coming i may move on, that just occurred to me right now, I may head Wellington and see if i can get a job there, just so i will not be stuck in the same place for too long.

Here is an interesting thing i found on the BBc page, makes a good point

"Obesity, the authors concluded, was an inevitable consequence of a society in which energy-dense and cheap foods, labour-saving devices, motorised transport and sedentary work were rife.

Dr Susan Jebb of the Medical Research Council said that in this environment, it was surprising that anyone was able to remain thin, and so the notion of obesity simply being a product of personal over-indulgence had to be abandoned for good"

They do have a point, as loath as i am to admit it. In this day and age being slim does not come naturally, you actually have to work at it, which was not the case even thirty years ago.

Here's a link to the full article
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7047244.stm

Bleeding Hearts 4 d Win?

Have you ever noticed that the day goes by so much faster when you are actually enjoying yourself? The last three days i have been working in the NZ equivalent of Atlantic Home care moving around rows and stock and stuff, pretty mindless work, frustrating at times but nothing too strenuous, except for the fucker i was working with. He was this local kiwi fello in his forties i think and had to be the most disagreeable shite i have ever worked with. Within 2 hours of meeting him he was giving out and swearing under his breath whenever i might put something in the wrong place, or a few times, when he was in the wrong but blamed me instead. I mean, i had barely even met he guy. Anyhow, the first two days when pretty slowly and tempers got frayed a few times, thankfully yesterday he came down with AIDs or something and had to go early. He did not come in at all today and instead this other kiwi fella was working, he was pure sound, lived in Ireland for a year and was well easy going, the day went so much faster when you can actually have a bit of a laugh.

With all my time to be thinking stuff during the day i often come up with things that i say "Oh, i'll put that in my blog" but then i often forget. One thing that i did remember was something i thought of after i heard that Liam's car had been wrecked again by knackers, by 14 year olds this time. I was just wondering what can you possibly do to stop this kind of shit. One side says pump them in prison or even just shoot them. Would this have any long term benefit though, if put in prison they will just come out an even more hardened criminal, probably a drug addict as well, and shooting them will probably not have that much of an effect, just look at the States and the Death penalty. The other side says that you should try and rehabilitate them, to look for the deeper causes and address them. I kind-of fall into this camp, you dont get the instant satisfaction of retribution or revenge but thinking in the long term it might turn out better. The problem with that one is that so many people would just take advantage of it and its next to impossible to see the results. It is also hard to turn around and try to actually help the little shite that ruined your motor and cost you so much.

Woah, looks like i had some angry Kiwi upset about my post on the All Blacks, hope it was not Amanda, very uncouth of her otherwise. Apparently the All Blacks just play because they love the game and and not to just win, unlike the Irish team. Funny that there were reports on the front pages of the papers calling for 'heads to roll' and investigations and committees being set up to investigate the World Cup Performance, apparently the team were not seen to be loving the game enough, not because they did not win or anything.

Do you ever feel like their is just not enough time in the world

So was reading the paper over here today, no offense Amanda but the papers over here are shite, they make the Irish Independent look like a first-class publication. Anyhow there were some good articles in it that they had lifted from other papers around the world about the U.S. and Terrorism, global warming and some Kiwi stuff. Afterwards though i just started thinking that there is so much stuff that i want to know about but learning about it will just take too long. I would love to be able to fully understand the theories for and against global warming and also those about Intelligent Design and Evolution cuz i think that most of the time people are just bullshitting when they try to argue them.

History is another big thing i want ot know about, how are you supposed to argue something when you do not know the full back-story, the Arab-Israeli thing is a case in point. I also have to admit that my grasp of Irish History is pretty woeful, i have no idea of the Chronology of the Civil War/Fight for Independence and the antics in the North are a complete mystery to me. Its a bit embarrassing when you are asked about things like that ove here or meet a foreigner who knows more about it than you.

On a completely different topic, expect to see less spelling mistakes, turns out this thing has a very easy to use spell-checker.

Also, congratulations to conal on finishing his exams.

What if...

So New Zealand are out of the World Cup ehh, humble pie all round i think.

What do you call 14 guys sitting around watching a rugby game? The All Blacks

A man was found dead in Auckland Harbour wearing nothing but high heels, and All Black jersey and fishnet stocking. Police removed the All Blacks jersey to prevent embarrassment to the family.

I started work in a new job today, on another construction site, removing a scaffolding, hopefully it will last another day or two. It does give a lot of time to think thogh, like the last job. What i was pondering today was; what if tomorrow, you woke up at home in your 16 year old body with all the memories of what happened between now and then. What would you do? WOulod you do the same subjects at school, hang around with the same people, do the same course in college? Then theres the big stuff, do you remember enough stuff over the last 8 years to be able to bet on it to make money, would you try and warn people about atuff, i mean how would you anonymously let the US Government know that Sept 11th was going to happen. Stuff like that. kept me occupied for at least 2 hours.

Two News Stories that i thought were pretty cool

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/15-10/st_scream

and then this one from the BreakingNews.ie site

Gardaí in Dublin are seeking the public's assistance in establishing the identity of a woman who presented herself at Store Street Station last Sunday morning.

The woman, who is apparently suffering a loss of memory, was not carrying any documentation.

Gardaí say she speaks with an American or Canadian accent and is fluent in French.

She was also carrying a chihuahua dog (what the hell????) and has three tattoos, two of an Arabic-style writing on her left upper arm and the back or her neck and a Celtic-type design on the back of one of her legs.

The woman is in her mid-30s, five foot, nine inches tall, of slim build, with brown, collar-length hair and hazel eyes.

Paul: Arms of Steel, Heart of Gold

So i arrived in Nelson a few days ago. Its a big enough city, little smaller than Limerick, but all nice and sunny and on the beach so that is good. Will stick around here for a few weeks, not more than 4 i hope.....take note Liam, and then head up to the North island and work my way around up there

So just back form a few hours work wheeling barrows of cement and moving blocks. It was just a one-day job for a guy who was doing some DIY in his back garden. After i finished dumping around 30 loads of cement down the back of his house he asked me to level and smooth off one end while he worked from the other. Now brute labour i can do but jobs that require refinement and skill i am not the best at. I think i did well enough, he did offer to 'finish up' for me while i went and lifted some blocks but i think hollows and ridges just add character to footpath.

Now i got the job through a job agency and was pretty lucky to get one so soon. Walked in the day after i arrived and they had a job for me today. The job today was also cash in hand so that was all nice. Got on well with yerman who i was working for and he took my number and said he has more work to do, including some down on their beach-house in Marlborough Sounds and that next time he would pay me direct cuz this time he had to pay through the agency and they took a slice. I was talking away to his wife and while i was having lunch i was playing away with his little 3 year old kid. The child pheromones were working again and we got on like a house on fire. The mother was actually saying that i should try and join up with some of the after-school camp things they have in some places. Its just time to do homework and activities with the kids for 2 or 3 hours everyday after school , money is supposed to be pretty good and she said that often they are glad to get male applicants. Something to think about.

You know what really grinds my gears?

Inheritance tax. Perhaps it makes sense with just money but if you inherit property, you should not have to sell it in order to pay the tax. Defeats the purpose of it really.

In which Paul talks politics

For the last few months i have been slowly chomping my way through Robert Fisk's book, 'The Conquest of the Middle East'. i was slow going at first, the book is around 1400 pages long but once i got to the bit about the Israeli/Palistine bit i started getting interesting and i have read around 300 pages in the last week alone. I think i would like to do a Masters on Middle Eastern studies or politics when i get home, just a thought.

The book itself is pretty good, i did not like Fisk whenever i heard him on the radio or read his articles, thought he was too shrill but some of the stories in his book are class, real foreign correspondance journalist adventures. I disagree with him a lot in the book but it does get me thinking, sometimes i have to stop and spend around 15 minutes thinking why exactly i think he is wrong or misguided and work out the argument in my head, something that not many books do.

One thing about the book though, is that it makes me incredibly angry at shit, but you know there is nothing you can do about it. I always though that Fisk was very anti-American, i did not like him cuz i thought he went too far in that direction and was too biased. From reading the book though he really seems to be able to back up a lot of his arguments with facts and actual proper sources and stories. Its not just america though, he is only bitching about them the whole time because they are the ones involved in major stuff these days. He really riled against the turks and kurds during the armenian holocaust, the french during the Algerian uprising, as well as the isaraelis and the arabs. In fact it seems that he is not just anti-american, but just anti-establishment. Reading about the real-politik deals that are made between countries that ends up with massacres and genocides and how these are just ignored or covered up really makes you lose faith in big countries. In the end you realise that every country is just trying to look out for its own interest, and not even the interest of the people, but those in charge.

One question that got me thinking though, was If you were in power and elections were forth-coming, but your opposition looked like they would win, would you cancel elections if you were certain that your opponents would get rid of democracy in the country. This happened in Algeria in the 90's when it looked like the Islamic opposition looked like they were going to win and had stated that they would establish Islamic law if they won. The same kind of this happened in Palestine when the Islamic Hamas party won the elections. What Fisk did, and which annoyed me, was to moan about the existing government 'destroying democracy in order to save it" and how it was just a corrupt way to retain power. He admitted though that the opposition getting into power would be a bad thing though, but did not give any solution to the problem, just wailing and moaning about it.

The problem with rainforests..........

..........is that it rains a lot, and throw in the fact that the West Coast of NZ is known to be incredibly rainy anyway and you have a receipy for a very wet day. Myself and Prisca, the swiss girl i have been travelling around with for the last few days, arrived today in Karamea, the complete arse-hole of nowhere, but which still seems pretty nice. Its way way up the West Coast, at the end of a 100km cul de sac and i think we will be staying here for around 2 nights. Its a complete hippy place we are staying at the minute, called Rongos and really laid back, the internet, laundry, tea, eggs, coffee are all on donation basis, the water is mostly recycled rainwater and the heating is solar powered. Instead of a comment book you just write on the walls in the hall, pretty class. Also out back there is the local radio station in the shed and i have spent most of the night out there drinking amd randomly picking songs. There is not much to do around here at night so a lot of the locals and most of the hostel just head out there and drink, which is fun. Unfortunately i did not know this and have no drink but they all seem sound enough. Also i did not realise that there is no bank machine way out here so i now have 2 dollars to my name til we get back to some resemblance of civilization, good times.

EDIT: soon after i wrote that post we decided to take an impromtu visit down to the beach. 6 of us in the back of a pick-up, one on the bonnet and a crazy drunken local driving us over sand-dunes and through in a 4-wheel drive. very good times

You really got to love the kiwis. Went out for a drink night with the girl i got a lift with today and since everything was closed and the town was even more like a ghost-town than usual we ended up in a locals bar. Twas quite the unnerving experience. Was like a mix between an under-age disco and a 60th birthday party. There really is not a lot for people around here to do so they seem to make up for it with alcohol. Stayed around for a while as there was a live band playing. In the end though we got bought drink not once but twice by random locals who came over talking to us, i guess we just did not look that much like the locals, lack of gills probably. Hurrah anyway.

The H.P. Lovecraft Diaries

So i just arrived in a charming little town called Greymouth. And when i say charming i am actually being sarcastic. Its a little fishing town that seen better days and is as dreary as its name. I keep expecting fishy looking people to crawl out of the sea, something which very well may happen tonight as there is a storm expected, 130km winds and shit. Was a nice enough drive up here, going through rainforest and then by the coast.

"It was a town of wide extent and dense construction, yet one with a portentous dearth of visible life. From the tangle of chimney-pots scarcely a wisp of smoke came, and the three tall steeples loomed stark and unpainted against the seaward horizon. One of them was crumbling down at the top, and in that and another there were only black gaping holes where clock-dials should have been. The vast huddle of sagging gambrel roofs and peaked gables conveyed with offensive clearness the idea of wormy decay, and as we approached along the now descending road I could see that many roofs had wholly caved in. There were some large square Georgian houses, too, with hipped roofs, cupolas, and railed "widow's walks". These were mostly well back from the water, and one or two seemed to be in moderately sound condition....

The decay was worst close to the waterfront, though in its very midst I could spy the white belfry of a fairly well-preserved brick structure which looked like a small factory. The harbour, long clogged with sand, was enclosed by an ancient stone breakwater....

Here and there the ruins of wharves jutted out from the shore to end in indeterminate rottenness, those farthest south seeming the most decayed. And far out to sea, despite a high tide, I glimpsed a long, black line scarcely rising above the water yet carrying a suggestion of odd latent malignancy. This, I knew, must be Devil's Reef. "

Paul: The Glacier Climber

Alright so i decided to spice things up and see if i could put a few photos up here. Just back form a glacier walk. Took eight hours in total but i am actually pretty happy with how little it tired me out, all my tramping around must be paying off. So the glacier was pretty sweet, it was pretty slow going as our guide was cutting and cleaning a lot of the steps as we went. The glacier itself is one of the fastest around, moving at a blinding 35 cm a day, in some places it moved nearly a metre a day, amazing stuff. Got talking to our guide and it seems like such a sweet job, Pa you should do it. Get up and spend your entire day outside trekking up and down a glacier either leading a group or exploring yourself trying to find new ravines or caves. Once i finish here i am heading straight backt o the hostel for a whiel to chillax in the hot-tub with a beer, mmmmmm.

Tomorrow i think i will perhaps be just going a few miles up the coast to a lagoon where there is lots of kayaking to be done, hope the mosquitos are asleep. The next day i have already organised a lift with one of the girls from the hostel so that is all good. Will spend another week or so travelling up the coast and when i reach the top of the island around Nelson or Blenheim i will try and get me a job fruit-picking or pruning or something. Correct me if i am wrong Amanda but i think Nelson is one of the sunniest places in NZ, over 300 days of sun a year, huzzah.

I will put up more on Bebo some time in the future, its still slow putting them up from this computer.

I am like Dr Jack i am.

So i finally arrived here in Franz Joseph after a 4 hour road trip. When i got off the internet last night and went backt o the hostel i overheard this couple talking about this place so i casually entered the conversation and voila, i got me a lift the whole way up here.

So this place is really 'Lost' territory. Really high steep mountains covered in trees and bits of cloud and mist foating through the valleys. There is a big glacier up the valley a bit so i will go and do a hike on that tomorrow or the next day. After that i dont know what to do, i am completely at a loss with regards to plans and to be honest i am loving it. If i could get a job cleaning i might stay here for maybe a week, otherwise i will just move on. Louise was on to me there and she should be in Australia now actually, she will be calling over for a short visit some time in the next three months, god only knows where i will be, prelemenary plan in Wellington in 5/6 weeks-ish, maybe. It all depends on money to be honest, i will keep moving while i have the funds to do so but will have ot stop here and there to make enough to survive on.

One bad thing about living in the middle of a rain-forest at the minute is the emergence of little biting insects. Some of ye might remember my posts from Maine http://hallofthegreenman.blogspot.com/2005/07/mustkeepcontrol.html when i was plagued by mosquitos. It turns out that hre West Coast is also well known for its horrible biting little shits. I have 4 bites at the minutes, all from different insects; one big swollen one with a blood dot in the middle, one little red one, one that looks like a spot but is itchy like crazy and another one like a big bump. I think my blood must just taste too good. Going down to the pharmacy now to try and buy some drugs, blessed blessed drugs.

Hitch-Hikers Guide

SO i did not quite make it the whole way to my destination today. Started hitching around 11 in the morning after i finished all my little jobs in Queenstown and said goodbye to everybody. Was not waiting that long for most places but at one stage i was dropped off on this small little road and ended up walking around 4km with my huge backpack. Eventually this little old woman stops and gives me a life, which i found surprising cuz women travelling on their own rarely stop, especially elderly ones. So all in all i managed 120km today, walked around 10km of it, but come 3 o clock i still had around 200 left. Was standing at one place getting bitten by insects for an hour and a half until 5 o clock and i decided to call it a day. Got a lift 20km back the way i came and am now staying in a town called Wanaka. Will get out of here early in the morning and try to get the morning rush. My poor shoulders are killing me.

I am all packed up and ready to go. Will be a bit of a relief to get out of Queenstown, getting a bit of cabin fever here. The scottish girls did not have room in their car for all our gear so i will head off tomorrow and start hitching. Lets hope it does not rain.

Packing is getting easier and easier, its not even that i am losing my stuff as much as i used to, i am instead just realising that i dont need half the cloths i brought with me. My motto at the minute, dont get attached to anything. Had to get rid of all the music on my Mp3 player as well there over the weekend, wanted to add some new stuff onto it but had to format it first, since i was adding 5000 new ones i thought it would not be much of a sacrifice to get rid of the 2000 already on it. So between all the music i have been listening to since i arrived, my jade pendant and all the cloths i have lost i think i am ready to give up on all the material possessions. Dont really have anything with me anymore that is of sentimental or monetary value, well bar camera and Mp3 player of course, but they can be replaced easy.

my poor tummy hurts and my neck is uncharacteristicly lighter

So had my last Saturday in Queenstown yesterday and a fun day was had by all. Around 20 of us went bowling during the afternoon and i owned everyone. My bowling skills flucuate madly but i was kicking bum, got 3 strikes and 2 spares. After we finished that a few of us went back to the hostel and got in the hot-tub for a few hours. Had a floating table in the middle of it and were just drinking from 6 til 9. After that we all went and played drinking games for more several hours before heading into town. There was some match on but just kind of ignored it. So the night was going really really well til, while playing the fun 'put an ice cube down the top" game ,some wench managed to tear off the leather strap that my jade neck thing was attached to. Queue lots of looking around but to no avail, will have to go down to the bar again today and see if it was found during clean-up. Well that put a dampener on the night and i only stayed out a wee while longer but all in all, bar that horrid incidence, a very good way to spend my last Saturday in Q-town.

I was supposed to do the Canyon Swing and bungee jumps this weekend but i am really just not in the mood, they cost a lot of money and interfere with my timetable. There are three scottish girls driving up the coast tomorrow and i asked them for a lift i dont know if its definite yet. Was going to hitch but its like hitching from Cork to Belfast, will have to make it a few days.

Queenstown Queenstown, goodbye

The problem with writing these posts is that i forget what i have and have not said before, even as i write that sentence i am wondering if i have said all this before.

Anyhow i have made a decision and i am going to leave Queenstown. I have been here pretty much since the end of June and i think its time for a change. I am giving up on the snowboarding and if i wanted to disappoint myself i could look back on it and say it was a waste. It did have its plus points however, had a good laugh when Anna and Robbie called over to visit; went snowboarding with some cool people a few times; my last month in Bungi Backpackers have been a lot of fun and of course there was the sky-diving and the soon to be done bungi-jumping. Also if i did not come here for an entire season then i would not have gottent he chance to go to Dunedin as much and have a good a time as i did there.

So i have packed up my expensive winter gear to send home and donated all my cheap shit to the Salvation Army. My board is in being repaired but i think i will just leave that with them, dont want to pay for it and then dump it. My boots i will try and sell for some bit of money, not a profit by any means but hopefully enough. If all goes to plan i should be out of here by Monday or Tuesday so heres loking forward to that.

Poo

ARGHHHHHHH!!!!

Just found out the Robert Jordan died yesterday. He was the author of a series of books that i have been following for years, The Wheel of Time ones. The 12th and last one was due out 2009, lets hope his wife finished it.

http://www.dragonmount.com/RobertJordan/

apathy

Was going to write a longer post but could not be bothered today. Back in QUeenstown, not much snow so will have to reevaluate what i'm doing here

1 Day in Christchurch

Have to admit that i was a little underwhelmed by Snow Patrol's concert last night. Arrived halfway through the secong support band The Op SHop which were alright. The venue itself was pretty shit, a big kind of convention centre with a stupidly high roof and no atjmosphere, the bands looked dwarfed up at the top of it. THey played all their hits but hjalfway through i realised why i like Snow Patrol but cant listen to them for very long, all their songs sound similiar. There were a few times throughout the night whwn i was sure that they had played a song for the second time but it turned out that it was just another clone, there was one about 'Shut your Eyes' and then another one later about "Open your Eyes", i mean they were good enough to sing along to but at the end i was not clapping very much for an encore, which i am almost sure was just one of their songs repeated. Parhaps i did not enjoy it as much as i was very very tired. Had a good last nihgt in Dunedin but did not get a lot of sleep before we had to drive up to Christchurch, a drive that took 5 hours. There was just myself and one girl who were driving up so i had to stayt awake to keep her awake. Today was nice though, there was actually a good bit of heat in the sun so a group of us spent the day in the botanical gardens, leaving only to get some lunch and the Sunday newspapers. Three of us ewven had a nap for an hour or two down by the river, sleepy days.

Click on the Picture for it to enlarge

So everytime i actually talk to any of ye, no-one seems to know where i am talking about and i have to re-tell so hopefully with the aid of this equisitly crafted map ye will have a better idea of which i speak. I spell good and stuff.

So got talking to this random Irish guy from Westmeath this morning. He is around my age and turns out that he spent most of his childood summers down in Fanore, just down from our caravan. Small world ehh.

You know, i try and not make my blog just about 'What i Did Today" but to be perfectly honest, most of the time that is all i do with this. Any of ye that have blogs know how tough it is to actually try and think of something to say once you sit in front of the screen and the effort involved in thinking of pertinant current affairs opinion things to write about is just too much. I do think however that maybe i will start trying to write smaller more regular posts, in the style of Sarah in her hey-day. When i read back through my blog, something that is fun but someimes cringing, i think my best posts were in Maine, when i would actually go to the bother of putting in pictures and stuff. Appearantly you can embed videos into the blogs now so how cool would it be if i started a video blog? You could see me hum and haw for an hour while i try and think of something to say. fun times

In Which Paul Rants about Nicholas Cage

Good god i wish i could go back in time and get that 90 minutes of life back. Went to go to the movies there, was originally going to see The Tattooist but a fe of the people i was with had heard bad things about it so we decided that a Nick Cage action movie might be alright. How wrong we were. The pile of shit is about NC or TW for TwatHead as a stage magician who can actually see 2 minutes into the future. All in all its a crock of shite. God i spent the entire time thinking how much i hate Nicholas Ever-Retreating-Hairline-And-Really-Unrealistic-Brown-Hair Cage. He gets with Jessica Biel in the film, i mean i was actually squirming watching it as he is obviously old enough to be her father, and definately looks it. It says a lot about a movie when Jessica Biel is the best actor in it. what a pile of shit. I hate TW and his mumbling sothern shitty drawl. I wont even tell you what it was called, just dont ever go see a TW movie again

So my plan for the next month has been thrown a little askew. I am not working this week. The job i was on finished and yourman was being very unefficient at getting us a new one, like he would ring early on morning we were supposed to e working to say the job is not on, or else on days off we would get a call at 6:45 saying that there is work for us that day. So i have worked 17 days and made a bit of money for the next while so hopefully that will be good. I had also planned to go to Dunedin this Friday but am onw thinking of just going tomorrow.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, now sure yet, there was a huge snow dump last night and one if the guys i have been hanging aorund with, Emmerson, asked if want to stay for the weekend and go snowboarding. Dont think i will though, will trust that there will still be snow when i come back from Christchurch on the 16th.

Speaking of leaving and coming back, said goodbye to several people that were leaving the hostel today. Have been hanging around with them for the last month and they were the ones i went on my weekend trips and hikes with. I have written about this before during my stay in Dunedin but to be honest i think it will be a constant theme in my stay here. I was talking to Sarah about this on MSN just this morning and what she said is true, you have to get to know people very quickly over here and then just as quickly they are gone forever. ITs very emotionally draining but i think unavoidable, the only alternative is to become a recluse which is not fun either.

I am not too bad, Emmerson is still around for 2 months, as is Makoto the Japanese lad. I am looking forward to leaving Queenstown though, just have t do my bungee jumps and that is everything i want to do here done.

ON a completely different note, i am thinking of getting my hair cut. Have put up a poll on my bebo site to see which one people think looks better. DO IT!





So am talking at this very minute to Joan and Sarah on MSN.

grrrr

So appearantly my blogs dont really give the reader "anything to sink their teeth into". Well screw you Honan, how about this, at this moment i am just after finishing toiling for eleven hours, my lower back is killing me, i have blisters on my palms and my fingers are so sore and stiff i can barely type, i smell and starving and have 3 hours to do everything before i go to sleep in order to get ready for tomorrow, how goes sitting around reading your law books?

that little rant aside......well i dont have much else to say really. I am sticking with the job until next friday, at that stage i will have done nearly 4 weeks. I am then going to go to Dunedin for a week to chillax and do sweet fuck all bar drink and play computer games, then off up to Christchursh for a weekend to see Snow Patrol, then back to Queenstown for 2 weeks to enjoy the last of the season..andf then god only know what.

Some questions i was thinking about recently,

1) does the actions of early european colonists in the America's constitute ethnic clensing?

2) if you had really draconian penalties for people caught using coke or weed, as in obligatory jail time/community service/criminal record, would a lot of middle class users stop and therefore profits plummit for dealers

3)would we have an evolutionary advantage over alien races as we have ten fingers and our mathamatical system is based on 10, is this even a coincidence?

Toiling away gives me lots of time to think of shit like that, lots of other stuff too but its usually computer/nerdy based, wont bore ye with that.

food calls

a working man i am.

Does anyone else think it is strange that i am not really that bothered/tired after working an 11 hour day? After a week i am slowly getting used to it i think, getting up at 6 is never fun but at least i am no longer having to physically drag my body from the bed. The day goes pretty fast as well, think it is because i am actaully enjoying the work. The one thing about it is that i do not have a lot of time to do stuff, an example being the post ing of pictures on the internet. I finished work at six, came straight to the internet cafe to check out my stuff, have to go back to the hostel now and get my gum gear, go down there for an hour or two before it closes at nine, cook my dinner and then try and be in bed by 10:30, busy busy busy.

My weekends are pretty busy as well, like i said i went up that mountain on Saturday and after some more research i found it was actually 1200 metres tall which i suppose makes it a Munro, now i just have to do 8 more before i beat the record Niall set when he was nine. The walk, while tiring, was pretty enjoyable, understand a bit better what Pa sees in the Outdoor Pursuits.

So on Sunday we rented a car and went off on another trip. This time i saw:

The Ford of Bruinin (this was where Arwen called the flood to wash away the Black Riders
The River Anduin and where the Argonoth were (the river they went down with the huge statues on it)
Also saw some mountain range that was used as a backdrop once or twice when Gandalf was heading to Minis Tirith

I actually think that i have exhausted all the LOTR sites within a 3 hour drive from Q-town so might actually start going places for other reasons now. ON sunday we were in a town called Wanaka which is around an hours drive away. It was all sunny and nice and we just sat around the lake before goig to the local cinema which was called Cinema Paridiso. It was pretty class, small eough but all the seats are either old armchairs, sofas or Laz-E-Boys. They have an intermission at half time and you can buy freashly cooked muffins and cookies or preordered pizzas and stuff. Went to see History Boys cuz it was the only thing on, a bit boring but alright.

oops, my hour is nearly up, must be off. ONe good thing about work is that i have a lot of time to think about stuff and actaully composed this in my head during the day. Hurrah for the win

On physical excercise and Fish

oh lordy i am tired. So did a full week of work this week and i have to say that it was not actually that bad. Getting up at 6:15 is never fun but am getting used to it a wee bit. Start work at seven and then finish at six. I have been lucky this week as i have been working outside but the weaher has been fine all week. From wednesday on it was even geting hot enough during the afternoon that you could go aorund in t-shirts. It feels so good to be out in the sun again though, it makes me happy, i have always been white but my skin is so pasty after 12 months of darkness that its good to get a bit of the old UV rays.

So working hard all week thought we would take it easy during the weekend. No such chance. Went to my capoeira class last nihgt, noone else turned up so i just had a private class, which was 'class' har har har. The trainer's name is Omar and he works ont he site as well so i get on pretty well with him. Today i had a glorious lie-in till 10 and then myself and Emmerson, a South African guy who is also long-term in the hostel went on a humoungous hike up a local mountain called ben Lomand, if anyone has Google Earth ye should check it out. Its a 2600 ft peak just over queenstown and we made it a 5-6 hour trek up and down. I was so pooped going up, emmerson is some kind of mountain goat who is crazy into his hiking, biking and other active shit back home so i was struggling to keep up. Around 2000 feet up i was just shuffling along with my poor legs burning but i had my chocolate bar just before we hit the snow and managed to make it up to the top. The snow bit was fun, we were not really in the proper gear and at some stages it was more like rock climbing but we eventually shuffled our way up and made it up there, took a piss of the top and everything, it symbolised me pissing on Queenstown.

Just back now and i am completely wrecked, will head backt o the hostel and spend an hour or so in the hot-tub before we are heading to a sushi-party tonight. One of the guys who used the stay in the hostel, a japanese fellow called Makoto left around 2 weeks ago to an apartment and is having a kind of house-warming thing tonight and said he would cook us some sushi. Now i dont eat sushi but it should still be a good night. Dont really feel like drinking though, want a proper nights sleep and was on the wine last night. Early morning again tomorrow as we are renting a car and heading up north to Arrowtown and Wanaka. Hopefully i will get a few more LOTR shots, i know that the Fords of Bruinen are up that direction, thats the river where Arwen called the flood to wash away the Black Riders.

i have a lot of time during work to think about stuff but seeming a lot of it i have forgotten. Another post may be made tomorrow if i remember any of it. Plus it good to see you reading Pa, none of those pictures are up on Bebo yet so dont sully yourself by checking just yet, congrats on teh Harry Potter books, another gold star for Shona/Shauna,