Happy Birthday Kiwi Experience

Totally by chance, this year is the 21st birthday of the tour bus we were on in New Zealand, The Kiwi Experience. To celebrate, Hoki (Operations Manager) decided to bring some friends and customers along for a bit of a party. The roll call was as follows:

• John - Manager of New Zealands best chain of bars and one of New Zealand's most famous DJ's
• Claire - Marketing manager of the Canyon Swing
• Katie - Manager of the Nevis bungy
• Phil who had just been deported from the UK and needed to be re-orientated to his home country
• Steve - Adidas salesman
• Smiley - another Kiwi Experience driver

Needless to say there was never a dull moment!

We set out from Wellington on an early morning ship to Nelson. The breakfast the served on board at 8am has a distinctly liquid feel to it, which continued on through our first day of the south island. We landed to Nelson and got to know our new crew and locals, including one man who proudly boasted that he once drank 27 pints of Guinness on St.Patricks Day.

After Nelson we ehaded onto Westport, where we did Jet Boating. Basically this is a very fast speedboat driven by a guy who thought he was a stand up comedian. Got absolutely soaked pulling 360 degree turns like this one but it was good fun.


Westport was a quiet town, the night consisted of a few quiet drinks and dancing in a restaurant with a heavily pregnant Japanese lady. Very weird! The following day we went to a brewery to sample some NZ beers. We were told it was $7 to sample a mouthful of their 7 beers. We agreed, and once we got there, the Kiwi driver explained that we wasn´t allowed to sell it as such, but that it was basically all you can drink for 30 minutes. They even gave us free reign at the taps. We got back on the bus in a merry mood.


If the previous night was weird well the following night was a farce. We stopped for the night at Lake Mahinapua, which has a population of 1. It basically a pub in the middle of nowhere owned by a 80 year old man, who has somehow convinced the Kiwi Experience to stop off there for a night of each trip. In fairness it´s a lovely spot, sandwiched between the beach and a lake. The tradition is for a fancy dress party here, but as it was Sunday, all the fancy dress stores were closed so we had to improvise with costumes made out of refuse bags. In fairness we did pretty well. Myself and Conor made Tuxedos, Mick made a Edward Scissorshands costume, Darragh went as Disco Stu and Ed, well we´re not too sure about what his first effort was supposed to be (see right). Basically another excuse to wear the lovely Vietnam shirts ensued! The night was great fun and ended up with some 2am swimming in the freezing lake.

We then took a few days to detox at the Franz Josef Glacier. We spent a day hiking on the glacier. The speed at which it´s retreating is frightening, about 19km in the last 200 years. Global Warming and all that. It´s actually named after an Austrian emperor. Not too sure how the emperor of a landlocked European country got his name on a glacier on an island on the other side of the planet. Anyway it gave us a nice day out. Got wrapped up with all the usual hiking gear and headed out early to spend the day climbing up, down, over and under some very narrow creeks. Nightlife in Franz Josef was very quiet. Ended up playing Bingo one night!

After Franz Josef we headed to Wanaka. Lovely little town in the middle of the Southern Alps. We were hoping to do a few days skiing here but the general consensus was that there were better ski slopes in Queenstown so we left that off for that. The highlight of Wanaka was probably puzzle land. This was probably meant for children, but with the state our minds are in right now, we found it quite puzzling. Think most of us made it through the 3D maze (although some cheated - I won´t mention names). I think I was the only one to get any of the puzzles to work, and that was after a good 10 failed attempts. Very frustrating but enjoyable spot. I´ll go back when I grow up for sure!

NZ - North Island - Sky Dives, Mount Doom and a Ford Ka

New Zealand; a country from the other side of the globe, with Tolkienesque (I've been waiting 5 months to use that word!) scenery, and people that love rugby and flinging themselves from impractical heights. So although leaving Fiji meant saving goodbye to sunbathing weather, we were excited to land in Auckland and finally come face to face with the Kiwis.

We had a whirlwind tour of the city. Mark fell in love with the city museum, so much that after 3 hours the rest of us left him there pouring over volcano exhibits. My highlight was meeting up with Karen, yet another FWA (Friend Working Abroad), in Danny Doolans by the harbour. Go to this pub! The below caused us all to do a double take.


Add to this surprisingly good, nostalgia-inducing Murphys and you're on to a winner. We had a great night with Karen who told us the horror story of trying to ship a Ford Ka from Ireland to New Zealand, definitely not worth the effort.


Next day we jumped on the Kiwi Experience bus. This is a hop-on, hop-off tour of the two islands with a driver guide who forward books accommodation and activities for you as you go. After the DIY stress with the camper vans in Oz its nice to sit down and let someone else do all the work. We were worried that it was going to be full of 18 year old idiots but there is a really good mix of ages and nationalities on our bus. We've heard a few horror stories about some of the buses ahead and behind us so we were really lucky to get the crew we have. Its like being on a big, weird, international school tour and its been a great laugh so far.

On the North Island we stopped at;

• Mercury Bay - Great first night out culminating in an Ipod and an industrial sized pot of Bolognaise going missing. Always a good omen. If anyone could shed any light on the identity of this red sauce stained, music lover could they contact the Mercury Bay Garda station.
  
• Matamata - filming site for Hobbition (where Bilbo, Frodo, Sam and the rest live) in Lord of the Rings. Check out my Smeagol impression.

• Rotorua - called 'Sulphur City' due to the boiling pools and geysers littered around the town. It stinks, I don't know how the locals handle it. Worryingly, some guy in the bar informed me its a lot worse in the summer. Site of the eagerly anticipated street luge rematch (see the Singapore post for the original, nail biting race). After much thrash talking it was a shame that they didn't allow race properly but special mention to Kevin Eddie for careening spectacularly off the track and still managing to beat me.

• We had a traditional Maori evening at Tamaki village. They put on displays and a concert that showed how the Maori people lived and the compromises they had to make once western settlers arrived. Seeing the Haka live from 10 feet away made all the hair on my arms stand on end. It really reminded me of the Munster lads response to the New Zealand haka last year, amazing stuff. The meal that night was cooked in a Hangi, an underground stove similiar to a Fulacht Fiadh from home, and was delicious.
  

• Waitomo - as tempting as it sounds we decided to skip the 'Glow Worm' tour in favour of a much needed day off. Had a great night out in Curly's Bar where Ed made a new buddy in the owner. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up inheriting the place someday.
  
• Taupo - home of the beautiful Lake Taupo, formed due to one of the biggest volcanic eruptions ever back around 186 AD (I'm always a bit dubious around these exact dates). Looking back now I'm still not sure how the next life changing event came about. Somehow we each ended up firmly attached to a rather chirpy Kiwi, wearing a fetching red jumpsuit, wedged into a tiny plane, hovering 12,000 terrifying feet from the safety of terra firma. Before you could whimper "I really shouldn't be here" we were launched into a 45 second exhilarating free fall before our parachutes snapped open and I finally stopped screaming. After 2 minutes gliding we hit the ground and leaped around like idiots. I'm so glad I did this, skydiving was amazing.

• We randomly met another FWA, Jean Power of Ocean City fame, who is working in a pub in Taupo. She immediately produced a round of something called a Jagerbomb, some local Kiwi delicacy apparently not sure would it ever catch on at home.

• Tangarno National Park - fitted in a quick 9 holes of golf around what must be the most scenic golf course in the world. Its not often that you get to advise Mick to "aim just left of that volcano". After 6 holes of terrible golf Mick and I gave up and decided to pay our own tribute to Mount Ngauruho, used as Mount Doom in the LOTR films. Check out the vids.

Mick probably took one of the best photos of the trip so far of our new buddy Lee jumping off a waterfall. If this IT stuff falls through he can always get a job at National Geographic.

• Wellington - unfortunately we didn't get to see much of NZ's capital as we arrived late and had to leave early to catch a ferry to the south island. As there was night club in the basement of the hostel I don't think we even left the building during the one night we had there.
  

Fiji Time

Another guest blog entry here, from the penmanship of Colin ¨Horndog¨Houlihan, originally of Templemore, currently breaking hearts in Sydney, who along with Courtney O´Halloran, joined us for the Fiji leg. Enjoy......

Next stop after Oz for the boys was Fiji. After seeing them in Sydney for a couple of weeks, Courts and I decided that the minors needed some senior leadership to guide them through their travels…..so there was only one thing for it really. We packed our toothbrush and booked ourselves on the next flight to Feeejeeeeee.

Five hours later we had landed in Nadi (pronounced Nandi). Conor had kindly arranged a local driver to collect us from the airport and bring us to our accommodation in the center of town. This turned out to be our first experience of what is called Fiji time – a phrase we came to know well over the following ten days!!! Fiji time is pretty much how the Fijians live their lives…doing everything that bit slower and more relaxed, not keeping to any strict schedules or timetables and basically just doing things at whatever time they feel like instead of some kind of agreed time. For travelers like us this means a lot of waiting…….for busses, planes, taxis, boats. A lot of waiting!! Nadi is Fiji’s second largest city on the country’s main island and a popular place for international travelers to spend a couple of nights in en route to the smaller islands. It was perfect for us to relax by the pool during the day and sample some of the local brew, Fiji Gold, at Ed’s Bar by night.

Once we’d got settled we put together a ten day plan to sample some of Fiji’s best islands. Our first stop was a place called Mana Island part of the Mamanuca group and less than an hour’s boat journey from the mainland. Mana is a small but really beautiful island, consisting of not much more than a sandy beach, tall palm trees and a couple of hotels. The people here were really friendly to us – making a huge effort to remember all our names – they were always quick to spot if one of the group had gone AWOL!!! During the day we hung out on the beach, schooling the locals at volleyball and even did a spot of fishing where we caught an ample amount of large, tasty-looking fish……...despite our plans for a major weight off and then cook-off someone how this haul of fish disappeared when we got back to dry-land…never to be seen again!! Where’s my fish??? After a great night out with the locals and a massive sing-song, we awoke the next morning figuring it was time to move on from Mana and find our next island stop. Fiji-time of course came into play and our 11am boat eventually left at 4.30pm….although there was no shortage of complementary snacks and beverages to make our wait more comfortable…..indeed. Eventually and after a somewhat turbulent crossing over from Mana, we left the peaceful stuff aside for a few days and descended on Beachcomber Island which is Fiji’s No.1 party island. The inter-island ferry was a little disappointing...

Following a less than subtle entrance onto the resort and pimped out with some fairly exotic shirts, The Minors and Senior wasting no time breaking the ice and making their presence felt on the tiny island that you could circle in less than 10 mins. We were hard to miss with the evening attire. It went down a storm....Talk around the kava bowel was that, in recent years some of the shine had rubbed off Beachcomber’s disco ball but for us it was an instant hit with a good blend of friendly staff, fellow travelers and some serious late night tunes. It was a party Island , nothing as hectic or as loud as the likes of Koh Phangnan in Thailand, just a chill out zone like Mana which ran on Fiji Time. A much needed time out for the Minors who were tired after their several months of travel and for the Seniors who were tired after the Minors’ week long visit to Sydney.

The first few nights the 140 bed dorm on the Island was booked out by University of South Pacific aka USP (Initially we thought USP might be an American college…not to be!) . That meant we had no choice but to go for the luxury option of bure’s on the beach instead.

We chilled out during the day on the beach (when the weather permitted) and the nights were spent busting moves on the sand covered dance floor with the locals. One night too a sing song broke out led by Mark 'Marty' Canning along with another group of Irish staying at the time.

Food was included as part of our accommodation and it didn’t disappoint . Its probably fair to say that Fijians have a more balanced diet than ourselves with less of an emphasis on meat and more of everything else mainly fish, rice and vegetables.

Although not strictly a Fijian delicacy, there was also a trusty toasted sandwidge machine put into good on several occasions, Mick was genearlly the man taking the late night order ( 7 toasted sandwidges) and our favourate barmaid ‘Ace’ was the chef.

The 2 seniors ventured off on a day trip to 2 local islands (in what turned out to be fairly choppy conditions).

On the first stop we attended a local village and a cermony where the chief of the village officially welcomes visitors to the island. The cermony involved the chief and his crew leading a prayer, some song, everybody drank a bowel of ‘Kava’ and shouted out “Bula!”. Kava is a muddy concoction made from the roots of a pepper plant and its fairly prominent in Fijian culture. It had a peculiar taste and makes your tongue feel 'Furry' (its remoured to be mildly narcotic). We chugged down 2 bowls anyway so as not to appear rude.

After having to swim to shore we also ‘washed onto’ the Monuriki Island which is where the movie 'Cast Away' was filmed. The tour guide told us that around the time of filming Tom Hanks & the Crew spent 2 nights on Beachcomber and that "they drink too much".

On the topic of remote islands , Fiji is a romantic country, and the Islands were a popular choice with lovebirds. If in the very remote possibility you were to bump into a old squeeze from your past in this place, you’d certainly be counting your lucky stars.

We finished Fiji in style with a invite to a BBQ back in Nadi from Colin's cousin Dave who is living in Fiji full time.Dave and his wife Vanessa live in a smashing house on the water front and they went all out putting on a serious feast. We sat outside for the evening enjoying a bit of banter aided by storys of the minors’ shenanigans on their jouney so far and everyone had a great night.

Perth - WA-yyyy better than the rest

It was with a heavy heart that I left the lads in Sydney and headed for the airport and Perth to visit my uncle Sean O' Connor for a few days. I was to meet up with the lads again in Melbourne before we hit Fiji. Having moved out to Australia in 1971 I had never actually met him so the problem of how to recognise him in the airport dawned on me as the plane touched down. Now Sean, being a Kerryman, doesn't have many redeeming features but one of them happens to be the fact that he is the mirror image of his father which proved to be most helpful as I walked out with my bag!

Sean and Marilyne live in a part of Perth called Scarborough which is on the Northern side of town. For the first time in 4 months I had a double bed with my own bathroom. It made a bit of a change from the rather tight surrounds of the camper van and the eh......local wildlife in the Perhentian islands! The one bit of wildlife in the house was a lorikeet named Patches. I think this guy was a bit spoiled as he went absolutely mental every time you turned your back to him. He also liked landing on your shoulder before displaying a kamikaze like streak by bolting for the window every now and again (not sure about bullets but the windows are definitely lorikeet proof).

The next morning I awoke to a breakfast of sausages, rashers, beans, tomato and mushrooms. It was then that I thought I should probably split from the lads more often and I must also check the family tree for relations anywhere else along the trip! That day we travelled down the coast to a city next to Perth called Fremantle. This was the place where most of the boats landed back in the day and was indeed the scene of the now legendary O' Connor landing in the early seventies. Fremantle is famous for a few things, the main ones being the aforementioned harbour, the Dockers Aussie Rules team and the old Freemantle prison. The prison is old school to say the least. It was finished in 1859 and there wasn't a whole pile of DIY done on the place. There was no running water ever in the place and let's just say the air conditioning left a little to be desired. Not the kind of the place you'd want to be hanging around!

That night I'd a wonderful roast chicken dinner which I'm pretty sure trumped what the lads were eating over in Melbourne. The following day we went into the city and took a stroll around Kings Park which is probably the best park I've seen on my travels. It's basically 1000 acres set on a hill just outside the city centre with a fabulous view of the city skyline and the Swan river.

After lunch we hit the Perth mint to check out what all this fuss about the gold rush was about. At one stage I had a gold bar worth half a million dollars in my hand at one stage. I would have held onto it but I reckoned it would have weighed my bag down too much! They do a demonstration where they melt down a gold bar (at 1300 degrees) and recast it in front of you. Amazingly they've been using the same gold bar since 1993 and it's still perfect after 30000 demos. Myself and Sean did find a couple of shiny rocks lying around the place on the way out though......

That evening we had a visit from Marilyne's granddaughter, Charlotte. A word of caution - don't ever give a tim-tam (the aussie equivalent of a penguin bar) to a 5 year old. The phrase rocket fuel springs to mind. I left for the airport the following morning extremely well fed and very happy to have visited the Western shores of Oz. I'd like to thank Marilyne and Sean for their wonderful hospitality and recommend that the rest of the O' Connor clan should definitely drop by for a visit...........if only for the museums!