Back to the Future to Live in the Past

If you had 433 days to do what ever you liked, what would you do? Diff and I decided to travel the world together and complete bucket list number 1!  Travelling to 13 different countries, meeting the most random people in the world and creating funny stories that will entertain us for years to come. During this trip we explored every different culture we came across, ate foods that I wouldn’t normally touch and threw ourselves into the sky more times than I can count.  Free falling through the sky became a normal way of life and seeing Diff pretty much every second of the day some how did not get boring!

Its hard to say what our favourite parts were because every day was a new adventure but a few of my favourite moments have got to have been elephant riding, getting chased by a wild Emu, camper vanning across Australia and New Zealand, being bitten by a baby tiger, having a blind massage and finding the worlds biggest spider under our pillow. It has been the best time of our lives and I feel lost now I’m home without my partner in crime but we have bucket list number 2- So watch this space, were just getting started……

Who Guess ?

As most of you know Diff and I are due home at Christmas…. but as usual we haven’t stuck to our plans. Some how we managed to keep the biggest secret ever, I had my doubts about Diff but she pulled through and we managed to touch down in London town without anyone having a clue. After flying all the way from Fiji, we were absolutely exhausted but there was no time to sleep as we had some surprising to do. We had my friend Matt knock on my front door and when Mum answered, Diff and I jumped out shouting surprise. Mum literally looked like she had won the lottery and kept saying “omg what are you doing here” (Ive got washing to do that’s why!) , Gaz remained clam and collective and then treated us to a curry and a cobra, Result!

Diff was in hiding for a few more days before walking into her sisters house and surprising her and Joshua. Diff got to meet her nephew for the very first time and has since introduced him to her two favourite things.. drumming and penguins. I was also in hiding for a little while longer until I became a “waitress” serving drinks to Dad and co while they were at a harvester meal. All of our surprises were hilarious but non more so than the night we surprised our friends. We dressed up in identical clothes  with scary masks with and “Guess Who” painted on our tops. We then turned up at our friends house party in London but in typical Jade and Diff fashion we stood facing our friends with our tops saying “Who Guess” ! We went out with a bang….

Claim to Fame

After eating our Muffin (it has become tradition to eat a muffin at the airport, well more of an excuse to eat badly than a tradition but oh well) we boarded our flight that would take us all the way to America. Once on board the captain introduced himself and welcomed a special guest… The President of Fiji. Obviously he was not sat in economy with us so we didn’t think we would get a glimpse of him. After 10 hours and 45 minutes of flying and watching film after film we finally landed in LA. Feeling exhausted we strolled off the plane and towards the escalator’s, it was here that I noticed a bunch of suspicious looking men in black suits talking into their wrists. This could mean only one thing, the president must be close by. It was also at this point that I realised Diff was oblivious to everything that was going on around us, which is why it was too late for me to stop her from cutting up the president of Fiji as he went to get on the escalator. Typical Diff nearly tripping up the president. Lets hope she doesn’t bump in to Obama in LA as im not sure security will be as forgiving haha.

While queing up at immigrations the plane trip was catching up with me and I was feeling very tired. I was aimlessly looking around and happened to make eye contact with one man who also looked tired in the que. I ended up in a stare with this man until my brain suddenly woke up and I realised I was staring at Olly Murs. Before I had time to play it cool and not look stupid I had already said out loud at top volume “OMG its Olly Murs”  Its safe to say Diff and I didn’t give off the best impressions to Olly  and The President.

Fiji Time and Canabilism

While Diff spent the day relaxing by the pool I got a lesson on Fiji Time. I had booked into a tour for the day and was told I would be picked up at 6:30 am and it would take 1 hour to get there. At 5:45 am I was being woken up by a knock at the door, apparently my ride was here already. I am then told that Fijians don’t really go by time they just make things up. This became very apparent when I was on the bus for 4 hours before we even arrived at the destination of the tour. I am not sure I like Fiji Time very much.

A few minutes after arriving I am sat in a canoe boat with a motor and we are heading up stream towards some hidden waterfalls. As we were heading up I looked at the driver who was using a bucket to get rid of water that was in the boat. Apparently the boat was leaking, no big deal I was told. Along the way I saw tractors and diggers, people washing clothes, people bathing, cows, horses and even a 2 year old boy spear fishing all in the river that I was cruising along. The people of Fiji live very basically and this river sees all kinds of activities each day. Once we arrive at the waterfall we have a swim in the fresh but FREEZING water it isn’t until after my swim that the guide tells me there are eels that live in the water too.

We then make our way down stream on a bamboo raft to the local village where we are welcomed into the homes of the tribe that lived there. I join in with their ceremony and drink their man made drink which makes my throat and lips go numb. It was a sign of respect to drink it so I went ahead, not sure if they thought my coughing and spluttering after was respectful but my throat couldn’t help it haha. I even join in with a hip shaking dance much to my embarrassment. After lunch I learnt that Fiji used ot be a cannibalism country and so my bus driver joked for the 4 hour journey home that he was hungry, while looking in the mirror at me every time. I spent the rest of the journey home trying to look skinny so he didn’t want to eat me haha.

Freaky Fiji

Bula everyone (Thats hello in Fiji)

During our relaxing break in Fiji we had occasionally wondered to the shops and back. During these outings we have come across reptiles, frog skins, cane toad frogs, dead cats, birds with no heads and a park for children that looked for like a prison with barbed wire around the metal fences. We have also experienced local Fiji Beer, a ghost town during the Fiji election, a pizza the size of a table and we have witnessed a car crash. Its all very exciting here when you wonder the streets of Fiji , you never know what your going to find.

The Pizza lasted us for three meals and its safe to say were now sick of pizza and we have now resorted to eating rice from the restaurant. We actually have to share a meal because they give you such large portions. We spend most of our days sat by the pool reading yet another book, we just cant seem to stop reading at the moment. Tonight we plan to go for a late night swim just to jazz things up….

Slumming around

Some of you may picture the amazing beaches in Fiji and may also be slightly jealous that Diff and I are here relaxing and catching a sun tan, but let me just remind you that this is us we are talking about and its not all luxury when your a backpacker. After imagining beautiful beaches we find our selves in the slums of Fiji instead. Rather than being disappointed this just makes us laugh as we realise we are most likely about to make a good blog without even trying.

On our first night we find a bed bug on our bed and after two minutes of stressing out we go straight to reception and demand to change rooms. Well we didn’t have to demand to much as the staff are so laid back here they moved us straight away. Our new room is much better. In the morning we took a stroll to the local shop. The shop looked more like a prison as all it’s stock and the staff were kept behind metal bars to prevent thefts and other crimes. Wanting to get our first view of a beach in Fiji we wandered 10 minuets down the road to our local beach. The beach was covered in liter and stank of fish. We also saw lots of small dirty boats coming to the waters edge to meet various vans and pick up trucks (a bit like the one that picked us up from the airport) and deposit random items such as toilet roll and other boxes of sell-able goods. We were pretty sure this was not a legit business deal going on and so we strolled passed pretending to take in the scenery. After experiencing our Fiji slum life we headed back to our hotel and spent the day sat reading our books by the pool. This is the part where you can get jealous again…. Its 30 degrees sat by the pool.

Here we go again…

Another airport, another destination and another chance to explore. This time on our world tour we find our selves heading to Fiji for some fun in the sun. We have a hotel booked for 10 days and our pickup driver should be waiting with our names on a board when we arrive. What could possibly go wrong?

We stand in arrivals looking for our names which we cant find anywhere, the driver we are meant to meet is a no show. Which means we are stranded at Fiji Airport wondering what to do next. We are approached by lots of Fijian men who are trying to get us to go with them to their hotel even though we tell them we have already booked. Im starting to get the same feeling that I had when I first arrived in Asia. Eventually we manage to get someone to phone our hotel and arrange for us to be collected. During our hour long wait we see lots of people being collected in buses and nice cars. Our driver then finds us and leads us back to our awaiting car. “You have got to be kidding me” are the words that come out of both mine and Diff’s mouth’s when we see our bags being thrown into the back of a rusty old pick up truck. We hop inside and as we are attempting to put our seat belts on the driver laughs and says that we don’t need to do that in Fiji. My gut feeling is that the safety laws here are similar to that of Asia so I quickly ignore him and put my seat belt on anyway.

During our drive to our hotel we are once again reminded of our Asian days as we hurtle around corners beeping the horn for no apparent reason. The surrounding areas look very poor and there is rubbish everywhere on the streets. We turn off the main road and head further and further away from civilisation towards the unknown.. our hotel. When we arrive we are greeted by a young receptionist who laughs her way through our check-in and in turn makes me and Diff laugh too. It turns out that our hotel is actually quite nice. When I say nice I actually mean its extremely basic but CLEAN and we have defiantly stayed in a lot worse so we are happy campers at the moment.

Dunkin Doughnuts

Our last night in New Zealand with our camper..”What could possibly go wrong”. We found our free campsite for the night, again just another lone field with nothing in. We parked up around 4pm before it got dark as it was in the middle of nowhere and we didn’t want to be driving around at night, being the sensible girls that we are. When we got there we saw some boys just throwing axes at trees. So we watched them for a bit then when they left we watched some ducks following each other and only at that point we decided we were very bored. We contemplated just getting into our pjs and putting the bed down and just having an ‘early night’, how wrong could we have been.

Before we settled down for the afternoon/night we decided just to drive over to where the boys were throwing axes to see what they had been doing. We then were driving back to our spot in the wet field and did a small skid in the mud for “fun”, then a mixture between a hill billy, zombie, scarecrow and out right weirdo comes marching towards us. Shouting abuse at us and telling us to leave his campsite. He looked like he should have a shot gun in his hand. Before I had chance to ask him what he was saying Jade just goes “Diff get in the car” and we head off “his” campsite before he can reach us. Next plan of action find another free campsite. At this point its getting dark! The one thing we didn’t want to be driving around the middle of nowhere in.

We find one 20 minutes away next to a large swamp. Its again very isolated and as we are trying to find a spot a 4 x 4 with two massive hilly billy’s comes hurtling around the corner and nearly crashes into us. It then dawned on us they were sent by there hilly billy friend to check up on us.

At the moment I start thinking what if…jade reassures me we will be fine for the night as we are parked next to a woman camping. Now it was pitch black and you couldn’t even see a hand in front of your face. This woman was parked right next to a sign and patch of trees saying DANGER falling trees. Then a cat comes out of her tent, then another, then another. There was 4 of them. She had bought her cats camping with her. One came over to our car and she called it back like a small child “Get back here now”!! and it went running back. WEIRD. I decide we cant rely on this crazy cat woman for help if needs be so Jade and I go over plan A if we hear a knock on our car which could ony mean one thing. The Hillbilly’s with their shot guns. We decided jade would jump in the front seat and just start driving as I would sit in the back and panic with my nail scissors. The plan was floor-less. We both knew we had only been joking about this scenario anyway when we hear a KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK…Jade calmly says “oh no worst case scenario”! And all im thinking is worse case scenario!!! The hillbilly’s have come for us. So in a panic im not sure what I did except wait for jade to jump in the front seat and drive. No!!! Plan A is out the window and Jade is opening a window…

Jade had seen out the back window that it was a police woman!! The hillbilly’s had called the police on us!! I however hadn’t seen the police woman so was wondering what on earth Jade was doing so casually aborting our plan we had gone over. She just leans over me and winds down the window. The police woman was probably shocked to see two girls in their pjs in bed by 8pm. Being the innocent girls that we are she tells us just not to do a skid again. And she is on her way.

Im then paranoid and think the police are watching us from afar and see lights shone on our car. We realise they are OUR own headlights!! We try the engine.. nothing! The battery is completely flat! Having to be at he airport the next day we cant risk relieing on our two options to have jump leads. Crazy cat woman or the hillbilly’s that called the police on us. The AA it is.

After half an hour I see a big van with lights on top! I think wow the AA was pretty quick. Because you couldn’t even see our car until you were sat in it I went out to flag it down. Started waving to it and shining my torch.. they weren’t slowing down, it wasn’t them!! 2 hours later they turn up and an old man gets out that looks like Rolf Harris dressed in a fisherman’s cape and hat!! Great another weirdo. He looks puzzled at the engine, then goes off and gets his wires. He tell us we need to leave this running for 1 hour then tells us to give him a minute as he wonders off into the darkness. Like we haven’t already annoyed the camping neighborhood enough. We decide its to weird to stay around the swamp so drive an hour nearer to ChristcHurch to our 3rd campsite of the night. Its nearing midnight now when we finally turn off the car and camp up. We see a flashing sign on the dashboard and a car sign comes up wiTh a key in the middle.. having no energy to figure this one out we hope it goes away by the morning!!

RIP

Working our way back up the East coast of the South Island now and we head towards Mt Cook. We have a few stops to look at Maori Rock drawings and the snowy mountains that we are driving in between. We also stopped to see some wild seals that were just sleepingo n the rocks below us and then we made our way to the Moeraki boulders. We climbed on a few of the boulders and this is when diffs phone decided to take a swim in the sea. RIP IPhone! When we arrive at Mt Cook we take what was labelled a 20 minute walk to the top of a glacier lake view point. It turns out we had let our selves into a half hour rock climb instead. As you now know not much can stop us these days so we made it to the top and saw some amazing views.

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory

Dunedin, apparently its New Zealand’s very own version of Scotland so of course we had to go and visit. We park arrive late and park up for the night. During the night I am awoken by the noise of rain on the van and realsie that the van is rocking side to side because of the strong winds. It really is like Scotland after all. When the day clears up we head to Sand fly bay in search of some wild Sea Lions. We cant see any from the top viewing platform so we venture down the sand dunes and onto the beach. Within a few minutes we stumble across a sleeping sea lion. Well he was asleep until he heard us talking and woke him up, he then growled at me so we decided to walk on and let him sleep. Further up the beach we see a family of Sea Lions play fighting and take this opportunity to capture some snaps.

Later that day we headed towards the steepest residential road in the world. Before we got there though we got distracted by a Cadbury’s Chocolate factory and took our selves on a tour of the factory, picking up free chocolate bars along the way. Happy days! 5 Chocolate bars later and we eventually make it to the steepest road. We hike up to the top of the road and burn off our chocolate. The hill was massive and we were beaten up to the top by people exercising and running up and down. Crazy people. Dunedin has now been completed and were off to our next unknown destination.