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Date	Message
16/09/2003	Well....got here fine, the flight was ok and we got to the hotel at about 6 after being a bit shocked by the pollution and traffic in Bangkok. The hotel is really nice and we went for a swim on the the roof at night - the city looked really smart. We then had a few Mai Thai cocktails in the hotel before heading out for a well nice thai red curry and a few pints of the local brew (Singha beer). Oh yeah....an elephant came to the restaurant door whilst we were eating! We also went on a few tuk tuk journeys to find a sports bar but the places we got dragged to were, well, a little bit more riske than we had in mind. But after we made a few things clear we could just sit back and chill, watching the football and having a few beers. Obviously ketes is suicidal and Tip is well chuffed, and rubbing it in. We're off to see a few temples today and do a bit of shopping - we'll see how it goes and get back to you soon. Laters, all of us!
16/09/2003	just popped into an internet cafe so thought id put something in. had a tuk tuk out all day - they are mad - its like 80p each and we have hired the driver for the whole day. its smells like poo zone though. stef havent seen ure hat man yet, but we are on the lookout - get out here....book the time off this week! mail me about it mate.
17/09/2003	Went down Khao San road last night, it was wicked. We had a well nice yellow and green curry and sat in a bar whilst we watched the biggest storm of our lives. The lightening and thunder was bang over head and unbelievable. The Singha beer is pretty nice (6.0%!) so we have been necking a few of those bad boys too. Off to the station in a few hours to catch our train up North. Its a sleeper train and is going to take about 13 hours. Gotta grab some food and get going now......bye Matt, Ketes, Tip.
18/09/2003	We are in Chiang Mai now, which is loads cleaner than Bangkok, its still boiling though - although its not sunny, just really really humid - about 31 degrees. The train journey went quick, and it was a good laugh, although at first we were well shocked how basic the carriage was! after chilling out a bit we got talking to a dutch backpacker (i thought she was irish! lol) who spoke Thai really well, and we can now count in Thai 1-10 and also hundreds etc. We can also say other words like hello, thankyou, good luck (apparently polite!), beautiful, how much is that? one thing we found we were doing wrong though was saying thankyou in the female dialect! we didnt know why everyone laughed at us!! we have booked into a guesthouse here and booked a 3 day jungle trek - so we will be riding elephants, going rafting, visiting tribes,seeing a snake farm and camping out etc. We saw a few notes the other backpackers left about the trekking, and they all said it was really good - although one said they killed a king cobra and ate it! we dont really wanna see any of them! especially tip. We will probably stay here till monday then go back south to Lompburi where there are loads of monkeys. There are hardly any backpackers here - we think cos its off season, but maybe we'll meet some later today. one more thing....me and tip got soaked at 3am on the train because we went through a major storm and the windows were open - we are talking soaked! tip had to change the whole bed. lol. classical. Ketes was ok the lucky bugger cos he was in a top bunk! Ado send us an email about Chiang Mai u muppet!! bye for now!
23/09/2003	Hi everyone! sorry the sites been down..??!! i dont know why? the host is rubbish and the error involved a string conversion function that was working fine before?! ive deleted it and its back up now so i hope it stays that way. The trek was well smart, but it was absoloutely hardcore. No joke. We trekked for 3 hours in predator country (seen the film?- watch it if not) and had about an hour of walking the steepest jungle hillside you have ever seen in 32 degree heat and ridiculous humidity....it was bad. We then stayed in a tribal village and had local food etc. Our room was a hut and we stayed on a bamboo floor (tip loved it callis! u can imagine). We had to get used to squat toilets tribal style aswell! which was a shocker. the second day was a 5 hour trek through tough jungle aswell, but this time with leeches and tics to contend with....we didnt get any as we were really lucky and had no rain, although tip got a leech but got it off before it took hold!!! we then stayed the second night in a different village near a waterfall whcih was wicked (we have some vids and pics to upload tomorrow). The last day was a 2 hour trek again, then an elephant ride and a white water rafting session back to the camp. Both were excellent, and the rafting especially. We had a few germans in the group and their raft capsised LOL, they were sh*tting it!! after 10 mins they were back in the boat ok, but the brits got across the finish line 1st! your damn right. We then saw a few snakes at the snake farm, which was well dangerous as they let spitting cobras and normal cobras loose near us! we were pretty worried! take a peek at the pics we upload and see for yourself. Anyway heres craig to round it all off.....blades..after the whole thing finished we decided to give our walking boots to the guides, thought we'd be nice, yeah..ungreatful bast*ards didnt even say yhanks, wish we hadnt bothered now. Anyway got bak ok and booked in2 sweet hotel with swimming pool and t.v etc. Today we booked a bus bak down 2 bangkok as were heading off to kanchanaburi to the river kwai etc...then off down south for the wicko beaches, phucket and ko samui etc. Cant wait, been a bit hectic, would be nice to chill for a bit...hang time! Anyway laters me old amigos, take it easy...the crew!
24/09/2003	Hi there folks, today has been a very progressful day for us in here in chai mang (joke - Chang Mai really). To say that we started the day later an hour later than we wanted, we have done well to do a number of things. First of all we went down to 'You've got Mail' (our local internet cafe where we were till about 12:30am this morning) and uploaded our best pictures we have taken since we have been in here. After fulfilling many of your requests to put some pictures on the website, we went for a spot of breakfast/lunch at our guest house (Lai Thai) - by the cheeseburger and chips were good. Next we went to pick up our clothes from the launderette and came back to the guest house to have ourselves a bit of chilltime. Chilltime consisted of a little sunbathing and a swim in the pool. We then went to the internet cafe to catch up with a few e-mails. Our coach tonight is at around 21:45 and we will arrive in Bangkok at 07:30 on thursay morning where we will hope to get another coach to catchabury. Anyway people, thats all for now, enjoy the pics of us and we will update the site next when we can. cya ketes.
25/09/2003	Arrived in kanchanaburi now, got here about 1.30, the bus we got last night was good, it was air conditioned, had electric reclining seats and relaxing vibrators inside the backs. we set off about 9.45 last night and got to bangkok about 7ish this morning. we then came straight to kanchanaburi, however it took us about 2hours on a hot bus just to get to the outskirts of bangkok (must have been a quicker way) then we got a second bus to where we are now. the place is quite nice, the room is small and isnt that great but its dirt cheap, about 1 pound 60p per night each. the food and beer is also quite cheap and quite nice. i think were gonna chill today, maybe have a massage then go out for a couple tonight. apparently they do floating discos on boats on the river so we might check that out. tomoz i think were gonna go to the local national park were there is a massive waterfall, seven layers high or something and u can swim in it and stuff. the day after were gonna go on a day trip 2 see a few local sites e.g. a local natural hot spa, the bridge over the kwai, a local cave and stuff like that. then saturday night i think leicester V man u is on tv so i wanna watch that. sunday were gonna try and make some tracks and head straight down to phucket, this will prob take about 15 or so hours but we wanna do it in 1 stint so we can just relax and chill for a bit. Ok speak 2 u lot soon, Craig Matt and Ketes.
4/10/2003	Hi everyone, sorry we havent been updating the site for a while, its just that we have been in a resort where the internet is pretty naff, and really expensive so we were going to do it when we left. Cheers for the message Nat/Craig, we will sort the pics out next time we upload a few.....we were kindof in a rush. Hope everyone is keeping ok bye the way, and can u drop us a few notes on whats going on in the world please....as in neighbours etc - cheers for the post jen. We are in a resort at the North tip of Ko phagnan now. Its a really nice long beach and we have a beach front pad - which is pretty damn smooth. Its air-con, and has a decent bathroom, and its only 8 quid a night between 3!! We have met a few decent people as well, and are off out to another party tonight. Ko-phagnan is really nice and a fair bit less expensive than Ko Tao, but ko tao was incredible aswell. The snorkelling was the best ever, and the coral reefs just off the beach were the kind you see on documenatries. We are staying here one more night then heading down to the south western tip (sunset beach) for a few days - ready for the full moon party near Hat Rin. We seem to be followed by dogs everywhere aswell (noel u'd hate it!) but they are really nice to us (not each other) and we have names loads (totto, chez etc! - ash/ado - u know the score) well i'd best get a move on, but please keep checking back on the site as ill update it a lot more and add a few more piccys once we are out of this resort. L8r's, Matt. p.s. we are now officially connect 4 pro's - its all they play here, in bars, in restaurants, on the beach - its weird!! byee -
7/10/2003	Im writing this sitting in a port called Thong Sala on the southern coast and we are staying in an absolouteley wicked bunglaow thats even cheaper than the last! We cant believe how nice the accomodation is for so little! The place we are in now is called Ban Tai and is loads more convenient for us as we can pop in and out of Hat Rin etc loads easier to shop and change money etc. Ketes got hammered last night and completely baffled an american couple - it was wicked. The weather is still pretty poor, but not to worry - sounds like its not too good in england either, so shant complain. Me and tip have bought a few T-shirts and vest tops to show our appreciation of the local brew (Singha) and ketes has gone for a rival brand - tiger. We are really used to Thailand now, and its not that bad to just get on with things now, as we are more used to being hassled by touts etc. The food is still well nice, but we all really miss Indian curries (proper) and Full English breakfasts / Fish and chips. Me and tip are gagging for a pint of cold milk too - as a lot of the stuff here is Soya. Anyway heres tip, take it easy - Matt. Doggs, it seems like theres quite a few more people in this area of the island aswell, but i recon its been filling up with people this week as the full-moon party is this weekend, so everyone is tryin 2 get accomodation close to that, apparently theres goin to be about 6000-8000 people at the party so hopefully it should be pretty decent, itll certainly be an experience anyway. there may be some probs with it tho as it was scheduled for fri 10th but apparently thats a buddhist holiday which means alchohol cant be served or consumed therefore it may be changed to either the 9th or saturday the 11th. so long as it doesnt interfere with the england game im not bothered, COME ON LADS! The thai's are mad for liverpool, ive seen more people in liverpool shirts than man u shirts, i recon they love owen and stevie g. caught the action last wk'end, bast#rds, ketes is well happy tho. been speaking 2 a few wolves fans 2, weve got them in a few weeks so would like 2 get 1 over on them. i think were gonna move on to ko samui a day or 2 after the party and then move across to the west, apparently ko pii pii is really nice, quite cheap and good for fishing and snorkling. anyway ketes wants a quick word so im off, spk 2 u laters blades, Craig. - WE ARE LEEDS! ketes. anyway keep u all updated soon, p.s. well be putting some more photos on very soon also. bye for now, craig, mojo and ketes.
8/10/2003	Hi there everybody, well this is quite a suprise, two diary entries in the space of two days. Anyway just to let you all know, we have updated the website today with some new pictures. Most of the pictures are in the 'other' directory and the Kanchanaburi directory has got a few new images in, mostly to do with the 'Erawan National Park' we visited whilst there. Today we have had quite an exiciting day, after deciding to sample the local transport here on some pretty damn hilly roads. Today we have been to Haad (Haat) Rin to check out the venue for the full moon party which is on this friday. After, we went back to our guesthouse and made a trip to Thong Sala (The town where the port is) to update the site. We now plan to relax for the rest of today and maybe tomorrow before we make our way to Haad Rin for the party. That's really all we have to say, so take care and we'll be in contact very soon. Adios, ketes, craig and matt.
17/10/2003	Sorry its been so long since we put a message on! We have been well busy. We have left Ko phangan and visited Ko Samui (which is not that good!) and also been to Krabi for a few days. Krabi was nice, its got the big limestone outcrops like u see in brochures. We are now on Ko Phi Phi, staying on a gorgeous beach. Weve been snorkelling and swimming a fair bit, and are going to the beach that the beach was filmed on tomorrow with a couple of mates weve made. Its all taxi boats here cos u cant get between beaches any other way - so we have been bombing round on long tailed boats everyday. Also the sun has come back out - thank god - other than today its been raining loads. K gotta chip, we'll add another one soon...seriously. Matt, Ketes, tip.
20/10/2003	Alright everyone, well its comin to the end of our 6 weeks in Thailand, cant believe how quick its gone! We're just about to leave ko phi phi for phuket. We've been here for about the past 5 days and its about time to move on as were running out of time quite sharpish as weve only got 6 days left. Ketes commented the other day that he cant wait to get home, i think what he meant was an English spoken civilised country! LOL! So where have we been for the past two weeks. Ko Pha Ngan: this was one of the most memorable places that we have visited. we spent a good 2 weeks here, 1 in the north east of the island (haad thong nai pan) and the 2nd spent on the southern coast (baan tai). We commuted most nights from baan tai to a place called haad rin, just up the coast as this was where the full moon pre-parties, party and after parties were held! There were fire jugglers on the beach and also ketes had his picture taken with an eagle on his shoulder and with a gibbon around his neck (check pics!). Ko Samui: we only spent 2 nights here as we werent very impressed with it, it wasnt the nicest place we had visited and also it was quite expensive compared to others. The beach was ok (chaweng beach) but 2 days was enough. Krabi: we didnt actually stay in the main area of krabi, we stayed in ao nang which wasnt too far off. This was a really nice area and we were all chuffed up as we stumbled across our first indian curry house. we stayed in nice digs with a swimming pool and fridge in the room etc. This is where we invented a new game called tri aqua ball (we'll explain later!). From Krabi we came to Ko Phi Phi, and thats about it up to now. Its been a really good few days here and we have met a couple of really nice girls from London (Sarah, and Ruth - Hi girls!) and we have done some pretty smart stuff. The trip to Maya bay (the beach setting) was really nice and we went across on a long tailed boat and swam in the lagoon, lay on the beach etc (check the pics). We also spotted a pod of dolphins on the way across, which was wicked, but we couldnt get any pics as they were a bit too far away. We have also been out at the local beach front restaurants and we had marlin (well nice), plus weve been to a few local bars and sampled the local whisky mix in bucket quantities (its rude not too) thats basically samsong whisky/soda and coke, but its pretty nice. Although it gave me (matt) the trots as predicted! nice... Craig and Ketes are well gutted about the football cos they watched both games but had no luck with the results. (b*stards - from tip). The weather has been pretty damn nice again, so we are back up on the tanned scale again - ketes is officially off the chart (abo status - lol). This is our last day here, and tomorrow we will be heading off to Phuket for a night before shooting off to Phan gan and then back to the best of the bunch - Bangkok!! Weve still got a few things to see there (reclining buddha etc) and we are meeting Mawby and Calum (and the girls) the night before we fly out. Oh yeah also check back on the pictures, we havent had much luck around here cos the places we go either dont have USB ports or are too slow to even try, sorry about that. Bring on NZ and normality!! Bye for now. The lads.
26/10/2003	Hi everyone. Just a quick update. We are staying on Khao San road at the min, and stayed in an absoloute dive the other night....the rooms were like prison cells - no joke, comedy, but annoying, so we have moved to a better place today up the road. We went to PatPong last night, and it was a right laugh, although its well weird too. Stef u are right, its just birds popping all over the show....it made us p*ss. Ketes has put his eyes back in now, also didnt get to meet up with Mawby, but he told me some pure comedy concerning Callum, drop him an email. Anyway, enough of that. We are flying to NZ tomoz at about 5 in the afternoon, so thats about 11 am to you. It should be easier to phone when we get there aswell, cos its 12 hours difference and not 6. Had a bit of a weird tuk tuk race last night?!! We went out with a few mates, and they were in the other tuk tuk - the drivers were absoloute hardcore trying to beat each other....wheelying and stuff! ridic - we got there ok in the end though. Me and Ketes are just about to do some last minute bartering (ketes is officially chief barterer out of us) to spend the money weve got left as baht, so i dunno what we'll end up buying. Ive bought some huge Thai trousers - thats what I am wearing on the video - although I reckon they'll be sent home to be honest cos they look like tents. Bangkok is loads cleaner this time? its really weird, the roads are cleaner and the air is cleaner?! We think its cos theres been loads of rain and its pulled all the smog out of the air. Oh yeah, that reminds me. We had the worst day of travelling ever the other day. We wanted to get an early train to Bangkok from the South, so got a train ticket for the 4.50am train....tip hated that. When we got up in the morning it had flooded where we were staying right into the guesthouse. We had to wade to the train station with our backpacks on in the dark. The water was like between halfway up your leg - up to right near the bottom of your shorts. It was a good laugh to be honest, but it took us about 30 mins to get to the station. Anyway after that the train came - picked us up then stopped. FOR 5 HOURS. we had to get on a bus with about 200 people to Bangkok, and ended up getting in at about 5pm. We should have been there by 9.30am originally.....nice. We went to see the reclining buddha today, which is absoloutely bloody massive. Then we have just chilled and slept a bit cos we were so knackered from travelling and going out. We are well up for NZ now though, although Thailand has been a right laugh. We're gonna buy a car when we get there we reckon so that should bring with it some ridic stories, also we want to get some body boards cos the surf is well good all round NZ we read. Anyway ive gotta chip, hope u are all ok. Matt. Also Rangi999 where are u? havent heard from u in ages geezer.
3/11/2003	Yet again sorry for not putting anything on for ages. We are in NZ now, and its absoloutely class. We got into Auckland last Tuesday after a marathon travelling session of about 22 hours! We didnt actually sleep for about 36 hours cos we wanted to get in synch with the time difference asap. We had a well nice flight from Thailand to Syndney, it was absoloute swank, and we had a fair few free beverages to help us sleep!! Also Anger Management is now a classic. We met up with Ketans relatives about 3 o'clock on Tuesday afternoon and went back to their house in Torbay (near Auckland city) that night to relax and get ourselves sorted. The next day we spent our 1st NZ $ going up the skytower - and did a few poses/mugshots/viewshots etc (check the pics soon) then went to look for a car. We found a decent car but that went before we could put a deposit down on it, then Ashvin helped us out by finding us a car for sale at Riti's school carpark. This turned out to be the 1 for us (officially named the hog). All in all we sorted the sale, insurance, and tax for about $1500 so thats about 550 quid! not bad. Check the pics cos we are gonna put some on soon - its a 1987 1.5 Mazda Familia XG - and its slow as - but comedy. Its been well funny driving it about cos there are absoloutely loads of well nice well fast cars here - with boyracers burning around everywhere. We keep getting laughed at by geezers in Imprezas and Skylines and stuff - gits. We stayed with Ketans relatives for 3 nights then stayed in the City centre for friday night (halloween) and went out on the town. Auckland is wicked, and we are gonna head back there next week before going south. We went up to a place called Whangarei the other day and stopped off at a place called Goat Island on the way. Its a marine reserve and is meant to be good for snorkelling, but it was blowing a force 6 gale when we arrived so we gave it a miss! In Whangarei we went to see some glow worms at night in this forest and saw these massive cricket things aswell in this old gold mine shaft. The next day we went North towards the Bay of Islands and went to a beach (sandy bay) where the surf was meant to be the best in the area. When we got there we got our body boards out (we got them in Auckland) and went for a dip with the local surf clan. No joke, there were about 20 odd surf dudes who could actually surf all knocking about in the sea. We went in without wet suits on and nearly fainted from the cold - it was the coldest sea we have ever experienced (literally freezing) but we didnt wanna get straight out else we'd look right arses. We stayed in for about 30 mins then crawled back to the car. It was a good laugh though and the boards will come in well handy down South and in Oz. We are now back down South (below Auckland) in a place called Hamilton, about a 4 hour drive from sandy bay. We got here pretty late last night so we havent really done much as its really just a stop over on the way to Rotorua. We are gonna do some mud pool bathing and stuff there (i'll take on board what u said Nat!) and visit hot springs and stuff. We might do the sky dive here aswell, instead of Queenstown, but we'll have to wait and see because we want it to be a clear day when we do it and the weathers well dodge at the minute. The roads in NZ are a bit weird. They have got one main motorway running from North to South and half of it is up hill and down dale single lane style. Other than that everything seems pretty good and the places we are visting are pretty close together so the travelling has been pretty easy. Thats about it for now, but we'll slap a few pics on later and try not to leave it so long till the next message. Bye for now, Matt, Ketes, Craig.
4/11/2003	See we are getting better at updating! We have had a right laugh today. The place we are staying at in Rotorua is well nice, and has a heated swimming pool and 2 hot spa's linked in from the natural thermal pools. It stinks bad, but its well relaxing - and it gets hotter later at night. We did a 3 man zorb today (see the activities section) which we have a video of, so we'll upload that too. They poured loads of hot water in with us - pure comedy. We did something called the swoop aswell. Its basically 3 hang gliding harnesses strapped together and then lifted between 2 supports. You get pulled back between the supports to a height of about 40 odd metres and then u have to pull a cord to let u go - and swing. We all did it together, and the bloke took a vid of us doing it - so we'll put that on too. Another thing we did was the Luge. We hit the advanced track straight away - hardcore. It was well fast, and we all managed to come out of it ok, but only just - u know what we are like, none of us like to lose. The track bombed down through a few kms of forest down the side of the mountain at Rotorua, it was called the Luge skyline if u wanna have a look on the web. Weve got a 4 birth dorm and thats sweet, although some bloke has moved into it today who cant talk a word of English, so thats a bit awkward, but funny at the same time - u know what Ketes is like. The hog is holding up ok, and we have done a fair few miles in it now, notching up nearly 1000k's I reckon. We are haeding off to the thermal springs and a big geyser in the morning, but its gonna have to be an early start because it blows at 10:15am! early for us! We are probably gonna pop back to the hostel (Hot Rock backpackers) for another dip in the poo pool now. NZ is cool, but we have noticed that it is about 400% more towny than Hinckley! if thats possible. By that I mean all the teenagers and blokes in early twenties are townies of a new breed......weirdos.
5/11/2003	You wont believe this. We started today planning on having a quiet day and just chilling out. We end up driving for an hour and doing a 12'000 foot sky dive! It was absolute class! We did it today cos it was a well nice day, and we werent sure whether the weather would hold up until we wanted to do it. Take a look at the pics cos we have done a few movies and shots on the way down (weve also put a few more pics and movies on like I said we would the other day). Thats about it really - completely random day - we are just brewing up for the highwire now! bring it on. sb.
12/11/2003	Hi there everyone, we are in Wellington at the minute (the capital) and have been moving down the country prettty quickly over the past few days. We are staying with a few more of ketans relatives (i know - they're everywhere!) which is cool, so a big thanks to Manhar & Daksh & kids for putting us up/putting up with us! We have had a right laugh over the last week, and have had a few pretty mad dorm mates. We have learnt a few useful words off of some made dutch birds we (pics to come) from Taupo, and after Taupo just chilled in Turangi for a day. We headed down past Napier and stayed there for one night. Napier is built on land reclaimed from a massive earthquake in 1931 so its all art deco. Not bad, but nothing much to see we thought - nice fish and chips though, and we started a seagull brawl which was comedy. We headed down here yesterday and are just going to look around the city today and take a ride on the cable car. It seems quite a nice city and it has loads of bars and clubs, but the weather is pretty sh*t and its ridiculously windy which is doing our heads in. Apparently its nick named windy Wellington. The hog is holding up ok so thats all good. Just hoping we will be able to shift it when we get down to Christchurch. Its going well quick here, and we only have about 3 weeks to do the South island now. Just hoping that will be enough because everyone we have met says that its loads better than the North, and theres loads more to do. We are definetely doing the thrillogy now, which is 3 bungy jumps! your damn right, bring it on. Take a look here if u want : (http://www.ajhackett.com/index.php?page=thrillogy). Ketes is desperate for the T-shirt, so he's been banging on about doing it since Thailand. We will probably head down South on Saturday morning and then chip down the East coast to Kaikoura to do a bit of swimming with dolphins and whale watching. Ado/mike/rich where did u go first in the South island? and what do u reckon we should definetely do? we are def gonna do the glacier walking, milford sound and queenstown - so what else? K thats about it for now, laters. Matt, Ketes, Craig.
20/11/2003	Alright everyone, been really busy this week. We travelled across to the south island last sunday, however there it wasnt plain sailing. First of all our 13.30 ferry crossing was cancelled and we were told we would have 2 get put on a 3.00am waiting list, but becuz we had a car we were lucky enough to get on a 17.30 crossing so it didnt turn out 2 bad, + we got a free lunch whilst we were waiting, so we stuffed ourselves with meat pies and cobs! Thankyou! Then we drove on2 the ferry and wathced Kill Bill part 1 on the way over - good film! We arrived in picton at about 20.30 but the hog broke down as we were driving off the 1 lane exit ramp from the ferry, so we held up the traffic for about 5 minutes whilst we got it going again! Anyway it was all good and we set ofgf again, all the hostels in picton were full up so we drove straight 2 Blenheim where we stayed the night (watching the all blacks getting stuffed in the semi, bring on the aussies!). Then the next morning we drove straight down to kaikoura, we checked in2 a well nice hostel with a hot spa! We booked a swim with the dolphins for 5.30am the next morning but when we got up the trip was cancelled due 2 weather conditions so we rebooked for the same time the following day. As we had nothing to do that day and the weather was poor, we decided to put some serious spa time in, me and mo must have notched up about 6 hours throughout the day (crinkle jims!). Anyway we were successful the following morning and set out to sea at about 6.30am after gearing up in our snazzy thermal and wet suits (which by the way im keeping to go clubbing in when i return to england!). We found the dolphons after about 15 minutes and jumped straight in, we spent around 1 hour in the sea with them swimming around and about us. There must have been about 100-200 of them in all, whipping in and out of our paths and coming right up 2 our faces (they were between 5ft-8ft), and was without question an unbelievable experience that none of us will forget in a hurry! After this we drove to Renwick and hired some bikes, then cycled round about 6 wineries in the area, sampling the local vino. We then got back to our hostel and played a couple of hours of tennis (busy day!). We were by this time shattered so we had dinner followed by an early night. The following day we drove to matueka which is further north and went for a walk around kiteriteri - a really scenic area. We of course being us went off road and ended up getting lost in the thick bush and turned our 45 minute stroll into a 2 hour hike! But made it back ok in the end. We also picked our first hitch hiker up on the way - some french bloke. This leads us to today, we got up and checked out of our hostel at about 11, from there we drove 7 hours straight down the west coast to Franz Josef Glacier and booked a glacier walk (half day) for tomorrow afternoon. Anyway thats about us up to date, were gonna put a few more pics on now so take a look. Bye for now dudes, Craig, Matt and Ketes p.s up the blues!!
24/11/03	Yeeeeeeeeah! thank you very much indeed! Me and Ketes did the first of our bungy's today! we did a jump at the Kawarau Bridge, its a 43 metre Bungy Jump above the Kawarau River situated 20 minutes from the heart of Queenstown. Tip cant really afford to do the thrillogy so he is just going to do the nevis (the biggy) at the weekend. We are booked in to do our 2nd jump on wednesday at 7pm at the Ledge, that ones 47m and is above Queenstown! sweet. We have uploaded some pics of us doing the 1st jump and a few of the views on the way down - they were awesome. I was the 1st one to jump off the bridge out of the whole coach that went - not planned, it just worked out that way, although ketes wanted to go 1st so he'll be doing that on Wednesday. We have got a video and pictures of us doing the jump and the "thrillogy" T-shirt that ketes has been talking about day and night for the past 4 weeks. It was absoloutely class, but we are gonna brack it more for the big one. We are off out on the lash tonight to celebrate our 1st jump. Since the last message we have headed down south and stopped at a place called Wanaka for a night, we watched the final there too - which was class, but we had a few digs and jibes from the local NZ muppets who kept calling us pomey pricks - they were gutted, lol. We also went to puzzle land! which was sweet as, we have a few pics of that too, tip couldnt afford that either! so its just us. Still we are all having a right laugh. We have some cracking pics of the mountains and lakes etc take a look! The hog has a new breed of problem now, in that heating only works on full blast and full heat and also the windscreen wipers have a mind of their own, only working now and again - oh and the boot flew open whilst we were bombing down SH6 the other day - not bad, it was ok though we didnt lose anything. We are staying in Queenstown for about a week we think, and then we are gonna shoot over to Milford Sound for a cruise and then up to Christchurch to flog the car if we can and fly off to Melbourne. The weather is loads loads nicer now, and its been well sunny and hot for the past 3/4 days. We did have a bit of a nightmare on the glacier though, it was absolouteley lashing down all day and my camera is now buggered, im pretty gutted but hopefully i should be able to claim for it. The glacier was really good, and we have a few snaps of that too. Its pretty damn big, and although it was freezing up there the ice caves and crevices are well smart. K, we'll whack another message on in a few days, hope you are all ok, and Beck I hope u had a good time in the Maldives. K, bye for now, Matt, Ketes, Tip.
27/11/03	Hi everyone, we have now done the ledge bungy aswell, and have taken a few snaps from the viewpoints above queenstown - you can see the pics we have uploaded here http://www.globe-guackers.co.uk/queenstown.asp and here! http://www.globe-guackers.co.uk/activities.asp tip didnt come up as we got a gondola ticket thrown in with our bungy price. We thought we would put the links in because i bet u never know which folders have got the new pictures in? if that helps we will do it each time we upload something, just let us know. We had a right laugh last night, and queenstown is cool. We met a geezer that we have shared a dorm with a few times and also given a few lifts too - hes called Rainer, hes a top bloke and has taught us a few german phrases - i wont mention them though. A miracle has happened as well, ketes was unable to keep up with Rainers drinking pace! he was pretty gutted - sweet. Ketes: Soz folks Germany 1 - 0 England at half time, i'll beat him tonight. We have also had a new food obsession - fish fingers, it was cheese a few weeks back, but fish fingers are well and truly in the spotlight now. We have been buying the bad boys in 40 packs!! Just to let the mothers know we are eating well....ish. just kidding we are all healthy as, apart from the fact that I nearly got stung by the mother of all bees this morning that got into the room by my head - much to the lads amusement. Tips well up for the Nevis aswell now, but we think he is gonna shit it a bit when he gets up there. We are going to aswell, but we keep telling him that we bracked it for the 1st one and that was only 43m - im sure we are all gonna panic. K best get off, take it easy - the lads.
01/12/03	Hi everyone, we did the Nevis yesterday - it was absoloute class!!! We were all bracking it I must admit, and when u see the pics that we have u will see why! Ketes has forgot to bring his Cf card with him so we cant upload those pitures yet though. Im just about to try and scan the pictures we paid for so that u can get a better view of it - the freefall was awesome, and standing on the ledge was bad. Rainer - we survived it u kiwibird - and we will definetely be up for drinking in oz dude, aint too sure about the crocs though. Charlotte - u were so funny the other night - where the hell did u and donna go? u just disappeared! anyway we have already booked Charlie B's for 5 nights!! noooo. Is it really an absolute dive? hope not. Callis - email me and inform. We are heading off to Te Aneu today - a place near Milford Sound, and then shooting over to get a cruise tomorrow. It seems well weird, NZ has gone loads quicker than Thailand, we fly out in just over a week. Anyways i best get off, take a look here http://www.globe-guackers.co.uk/activities.asp to see if we managed to get the pics scanned and uploaded - the image count was 17 so if its above that then I have. Also dad im gonna try and get a note about my camera faxed to u today. K catch u later. Matt.
03/12/2003	Hi - we have been doing a fair few miles over the last few days and went down to Milford Sound from Queenstown. We stayed in a place called Te Anau and then went to the sound the day after. It was awesome - seriously, take a look in the NZ/Other folder. The boat trip was about 2 hours long, and we went with an Isralie geezer called Schlomli aswell (see the pics) he had the funniest car ever, that broke down on the way back to Queenstown. We have also managed to put the pics of us jumping off of the Nevis on. There are only ones of me and ketes cos tip didnt have the photos taken. We had to scan them to get them on for you! Soz if im sounding pretty boring, its just that i feel like sh*t at the minute - i reckon ive got a cold. Anyways we are off to Christchurch tomorrow to hopefully flog the hog, we will be staying there until we fly out on the 9th. Heres Ketes: Hi there everyone, just a quick word about my birthday on Friday, surely i will be missed by many a people in england on this joyous day, anyway don't be shy to leave any birthday msgs on the site. Chao !!!! Matt: leave him some for gods sake - he has been banging on about his b'day everyday for the past week! the old git. K we are off for now, there are pre and post nevis pics to come over the next few days. its just that ketes bought the wrong CF card again. They are quite funny. K laters. p.s. Callis congrats to ure sis. p.p.s Uncle Callis - what the hell.
05/12/2003	Basically the hog has had its day! it did us proud yesterday, and got us about 480km from Queenstown to Christchurch, but when we got here wasnt in the best of shape. In the middle of Christchurch there is a tram system, and it decided to blow on the tram line and in front of loads of swanky bars. It was like off of a film, there was loads of smoke coming out of the bonnet and fluid all underneat the car. To cut a slong story short we had to push it down the road with a tram following us and have took it to a garage today (well pushed) whcih was knackering. We reckon its totally buggered but they are gonna have a look anyway. K laters Mo.
07/12/2003	The hog survived. It only ended up costing us $45 (17 quid) to patch it up, but it has a blown head gasket!! appently it would cost us about $700 - $1200 to fix but they said it would run ok for now if we kept the coolant topped up. Cheers for the diagnosis as well Paul, u were right it seems! Anyway after all that we have had a comedy day today. We had some arab bloke ring us about the hog last night - we went and posted for sale signs all over the shop as soon as it rolled off the garage forecourt. We had spent the day getting it cleaned up/vacuumed and prepped (well as prepped as it could be). The arab bloke came and took it for a spin and it didnt make a noise once. Anyway he had to wait until today to get the cash and so said it would be ok if we sold it in the mean time. We went to a car market today and slapped her for sale at $1100.....we had an american couple buy it in the end for $750 because they had a mechanical inspection that revealed that the CV joints needed raplacing, the ignition was dicky and the cam belt could go at any time...nice. We let them have it for $750 and they said they would use the rest to repair it - so sweet all round. We reckon its been a class car, and we were bored today after it was gone!! Anyways other than that there isnt really much to say. Christchurch is ok, a bit boring with just a cathedral and a gondala sky lift - so not exactly fun packed, but we are just waiting to fly off to Oz now anyway. We are gonna go and see some monkeys at a local zoo tomoz though, not bad. Anyway im off, take it easy. Matt.
10/12/2003	Hi all, we are in Melbourne now, and its damn hot. We arrived last night and it was 27 degrees then. Today we have just chilled and looked around the city. Its bloody huge, we had it in our heads it would be about the same size as Christchurch, but its loads loads bigger. There are loads of flies aswell?! We have booked our neighbours tour for tomorrow!! so we'll have a few shots from Ramsey Street to show u in a few days. Other than that there isnt much to say, k laters, Matt, Tip, Ketes.
11/12/2003	Hi. yes its me again (Matt) the other lazy gits can never be arsed to put anything on - thats a shocker isnt it. Anyway, we have has a wicked day, we went to the street that they use in Neighbours and had a walk around, its well weird to look up the street and stand outside the scullys and harolds house! what the hell! we also had a look at the church that charleene got married in and saw erinsborough high. We have loads of pics from it so when we finally put the pics on u will have a fair few to sift through, We are just chilling tonight and then gonna go out tomorrow round Melbourne. We are going to try and get in on a neighbours night on monday aswell where u get to meet 3 of the cast - apparently michelle, harold and Max lol. K ill keep u posted, Matt.
14/12/2003	Yup me again. We have slapped a few pics on from New Zealand, when we did the Nevis (http://www.globe-guackers.co.uk/activities.asp) and also have put a few on from the Ramsey Street tour, so you can find that in the Aus folders. The ones before the nevis should make u laugh because we look like we are bricking it. We are definitely going on the neighbours night now, and we have found out that Karl, Lynne and Stuart will be there! sweet, although I'd of rather stef (thankyou) have been there - we will get a few pics though, they will be so funny. Its a scorcher today, although it has been pretty dull and overcast the past few days. Oh my god last night when we went out there were loads of cops and ambulances opposite our hostel, apparently someone commited suicide off of a multi sorey carpark just over the road, how bad is that. We've all bought body boarding rash vests aswell now, so we can swank into the sea with pride - one problem though, me and ketes cant body board yet so we are gonna have to try and pick it up asap! The Quicksilver and Rip Curl stuff is well cheap over here, so we are well chuffed with our stuff. There isnt really all that much to say, as we have to wait here until Wednesday to pick up our Oz Experience connection. We are gonna try out the trams tomorrow, and will probably go and see a movie tonight. K, thats all for now, matt, tip, ketes. Oh weve also put some on from christchurch and ketes's birthday, oh and a kiwi bird just for Rainer.
19/12/2003	Hi, we are in Sydney now, after travelling round the coast from Melbourne since Wednesday. The Oz Experience bus is well smart, and weve met a fair few decent people off of it and are all staying in the same hostel in Sydney. We stayed out in the country the first day of our bus trip, in a place called jelentippy. Basically it was a farm with a few timber lodges for guests to stay in, but it was a well nive place and had a pool and stuff. We went out on the farmers truck after dark, and went around near the bush and stuff - it was a good laugh, and we saw kangaroos, wallabies, possums and the arse end of a wombat running away. We stayed in Canberra after that, and although its a well nice city its a a bit boring, with nothing much to do - so we all just had a pizza hut ($6 - thats like 2 pounds 60!) and ate it down the pub - sweet. Now we are in Sydney, although we didnt quite make it to the beaches today cos we went out last night, we are going to go and scope out Bondi, Manly and coogee (i think thats right) and do some body boarding tomorrow. The weathers pretty dull and not that hot in Sydney at the minute, but thats nice because it has been well well hot the past week or so. k, catch u later - matt.
23/12/2003	Well it doesnt feel a bit like xmas here, but im guessing it does back in the UK. We have been bumming around on Bondi beach for the last few days - which has been well smart. The beach is huge, full of totty and the surf is excellent. Weve all picked up body boarding ok now, although ketes nearly got dragged out to sea the other day - lol, he was ok though. The weather is well nice now aswell, it was in the 30's yesterday. Other than that we have just been looking round the city and chilling out before xmas. Theres about 10 of us that are gonna put some money together and buy loads of food and drink to take down to the beach on xmas day. k c ya later, Matt. p.s. rainer where are u now? p.p.s we are gonna meet harold, michelle and karl again cos we are going to another neighbours night on the 28th!
30/12/2003	Soz its been so long, or maybe u are all getting bored of us anyway? There isnt a a great deal to tell u really - thats why we havent put much on. We spent xmas day on bondi beach, and it was the hottest day we have had so far. No joke, i reckon it must have been about 33 degrees, we all (10 of us) took cool boxes down with us and had beer and food then just fried in the sun. It was a quality day, we also got a major tan boost. There was a shark warning alarm when me and ketes were in the water aswell, and on our way out - and the lifeguard shouted that there was a shark onm the tannoy! not bad, we arent too convinced there was though, as they all knocked off their shifts and went home after that. We have also been battered and pounded by the biggest surf we have ever experienced, it was awesome, and it takes body boarding to the next level, at one point we tried for about 30 mins but couldnt even get past the break point - so had to give up for a while, Noel - u would have loved it, not to rub it in mate. We are brewing up nicely for NY eve now and will go and watch the fireworks over the harbour then go to a bar or club afterwards. Ok im off, sorry we (well me!) hadnt updated it for a while. Have a Great New Years everyone, and I hope u all had a nice Xmas - laters, Matt.
10/01/2004	Hi there people, its been a long time since i've said a thing on this website, the last time was probably when i won the dancing competition at the Neighbours night in Melbourne. Well since then we have been in at the Neighbours night in Sydney where we met Harold, Michelle Skully and Dr Karl again. Anyway lets talk about the main events for the last two weeks. Most obvious of all was the much talked about firework display at the Sydney Harbour bridge. For this we all went down to the Milsons Point on the north side of the bridge which was quality place to watch the fireworks. We got there around 6ish, and had to stay outside the fenced off area as beyond this point we had to purchase alcohol from the beer stands that were avaliable there. So what we did was stayed and watched the 1st set of fireworks at 21:00 and then at 23:30 we all went down to the main point to watch the fireworks. They went on for about half an hour, and they were amazing. One the best displays i've ever seen, think matt & craig will agree with me too. Anyway its was all fun and we even sang our favourite new years day anthem (Were on the Ball - Ant & Dec) - typical british eh - lol. For the next four days that we stayed in Sydney for, we just chilled out, went to bondi beach a few more times and went out a few times with the friends we made while our stay in Sydney. Big hello and take care to them all (Ads, Char, Alex, Si, Lucy, Sarah. etc sorry if i forgot anyone... )We departed Syndey on the 5th January, for a three day trip to get to Byron bay. To sum the three day trip here goes... Day One: We stayed at a place called Warrumbungles, where there was a national park. Here we just used it as a stop over point for the night. Day Two: The next day we went on a bushwalk for around three hours which i must admit, was pretty hardcore, we then travelled to a place called Bingara, which we also used as a stop over point. This night was quite good as we just got drunk (sorry the technical word being Socialised) and had a barbeque which the hostel we stayed in did for us. Day Three: Early the next morning me and matt went horse riding for three hours. This was quite a good experience but my legs were killing after, i've been sitting like i was on the horse by default since that day. Ouch!!!! By the way my horse was the biggest out of all the horses and was called Pal, matts was a good horse but was called trots. ha ha ha trots, sums matt up. Then for the rest of the day we travelled up to byron bay. We arrived they around 20:30 and immediatley checked in, grabbed some food and had a few drinks and a dance on tables.
14/01/2004	Me and ketes are all on our own now :( . Tip left us yesterday Brisbane cos he needs to get his connection from there and we need to get up the coast asap. He seems ok, but when we spoke to him he was a bit gutted cos he has been going on about lying by the pool for a few days, but when he checked in he found that the the pool was empty!lol, k,its not that funny but it made me and ketes laugh. Yeah sowe are in a place called Noosa now, its well smart, and a bit like Byron Bay (which is class). We are gonna do some body boarding tomorrow, and then go to a national park the next day before getting over to Harvey Bay to catch the ferry over to Fraser Island for out trip. Its hotter here than down South, but its been raining a fair bit more. Other than that theres nothing much to say, oh i bought some new boardy shorts cos the arse fell out of my others, nice. Lates, Matt. Oh theres some fit birds in our room with us aswell tip, just thought u'd like to know....lol.im sere.
16/01/2004	We went to the national park yesterday,it was pretty nice. Saw a wild koala sleeping, and a few manta rays from a viewing point. Its bloody boiling here, and well sticky all the time - but its been raining a fair bit aswell. The girls we met said it rained loads on Fraser island so we are hoping its gonna clear up before then. We have a bit of a mascot now aswell. It started in Sydney cos me and ketes bought a rubber snake (sid-obviously) to put in tipos bed and shit him up, (it did) - and weve ended up taking it up the coast and putting it in our roomates beds to shit them up aswell (i did it to a german guy- who wasnt impressed lol). The Claires have taken it fraser to get some pics and so we are gonna carry on and take it round with us. Sad, but comedy. Lates, Matt.
17/01/2004	We are going to Fraser Island tomorrow, so wont put anything on for a while. One problem - its lashing it down and the weathers going to be crap for the next week. Apparently this is the worst weather for 10 years! just our luck huh. Still we'll have a good laugh, Ketes is the first to drive the 4x4 tomoz cos of the drivers list - its gonna be a right laugh. We are going to have to dig holes to cack in as well, which isnt that good - lol. I'll let u know how we got on when we get back. Matt and Ketes.
21/01/2004	Fraser Island was class.....we were so lucky its ridiculous. The morning of our trip we woke up to perfect blue skies and no wind! no one could believe it because the forecast was for nightmare weather for three days, it lasted like that all the way through for us, and it seems like the weather is changing back now, sorted. Fraser Island is so nice, seriously - theres loads of freshwater lakes that you can swim in, but the best was one called Lake McKenzie, its like the whitest sand u have ever seen and the clearest water aswell, it was just amazing. I didnt get to see a dingo, but one followed ketes back to the camp after he had been to the loo, he wasnt too impressed! driving the 4x4 was pretty easy too, it was a right beast of a toyota - weve took loads of pics so ill slap them on when i get a chance. Our group was pretty damn smooth aswell (that means good Karrina). We had a decent bloke from London (Alex) and geezer from Korea (kichi) and 5 germans (Alex, Karrina, Nicole, Dannielle and Christa) they were all a really good laugh. They think we speak really posh aswell! lol, and they found our slang really funny?! so they said they will start using it during their flights (they are flight attendants)(and fit..). Anyways yeah so we stayed at a place called indian heads the first night and woke up at 4am to see the sunrise, that was really nice, but we didnt get to see any tiger sharks, which i was a bit gutted about. We are off up North today and its going to take us about 3 days to get to Airlie beach, which is where we get our boat for the Whitsundays trip. Apparently we stop off at a place where turtles are laying and hatching at this time of year, so hopefully we will be able to see them. K, hope u are all keeping ok - Matt. Oh yeah Rainer those birds taught us some german as well, which we shouldnt get a slap using - catch - i dunno how u spell it properly but it sounds like dubist vunder shoom, better than mak diche nackishe. For the english the first ,means u are beautiful (or something like that) the second means lets get naked, which doesnt go down too well when u have met someone for only 2 mins.
31/01/2004	Hi there everyone, now this is update is gonna be a quick one. Starting from when we left Hervey Bay. Well we departed from Hervey Bay and our next stop was Begara where we stayed in 3 star hostel called kellys hostel which was pretty much one of the best hostels we have stayed in since being in Australia. Here we met our crew for the next 2 weeks or so (Mark, Shane, Vicky, Morten (danish way of saying martin), louisa, claires (doyle and smut)). Next we went to Dingo and had a right laugh on a working cattle farm - we did a bit of line dancing, matt entered a speed drinking competition, and we did a spot of whip cracking and boomerang throwing as well as playing the didgeridoo, and eating damper bread (bush tucker!!). Mark (the lad in the pics) did a helicopter ride mustering cattle as well, which was pretty damn good apparently. After dingo we headed over to Airlie beach and bumped into the birds from our fraser trip, also bumped into beth and mandi - and they turned out to be coming on the same boating trip as us. On the trip we met loads of decent people from denmark, ireland etc Ketes did some diving which he loved (git) and we got to sunbath and play footy on the no5 listed beach of the world (Whitehaven beach) We also snorkelled loads around the reefs and saw some huge maori wrasse and loads of other fish. We saw loads of turtles as well, although beth didnt manage to? beth i dunno how u missed them!! anyway after that we headed over to Cairns, went to a croc farm, saw a 5.2metre beast, swam in a river, and went out loads to say goodbye to people, we are really missing them all now as we are in the Northern Territory (Darwin) k hope thats a decent enough update - also we have whacked loads and loads of pics on that can be found here - http://www.globe-guackers.co.uk/cairns.asp , http://www.globe-guackers.co.uk/gbreef.asp , http://www.globe-guackers.co.uk/misc.asp , and maybe somwhere else! if ive forgot. Ok bye for now, Ketes and Matt.
16/02/2004	We are in Perth now, and have had a mission getting down the west coast. Its been pretty bad, with some major coach trips. We did an 18 hour one the other day, with some people that stunk well bad. Anyways - we have done some pretty decent things though. We stayed at a place called coral bay and did loads of snorkelling on the reef. We saw a stingray and also went into the water with about 40 black tip reef sharks, they were fine though. We had a quality laugh the other day and went to denham, near monkey mia. We worked on a pearl farm for the day and got picked up in an old 4x4 by some ozzy geezers and their dog and then taken down to the beach. It was well smart, we backed the speedboat into the water in front of all these other tourists then bombed off across the bay to a big pontoon thing where they work. We did stuff like hanging the oyster lines - and i got stung by some bloody seaweed called fire grass - it hurt! we saw a big turtle for about 30 secs as well, it came up 3 foot from us whilst we were eating our lunch at the end of the pontoon, and saw huge rays and shovel nosed sharks as well. We have just got into Perth, and are chilling with Beth, Mandi Kieran and Matt now. Matt just told us he got stopped at alice springs cos they found traces of explosives on his bag as well!! lol, it made us laugh. We are off out tonight, then gonna head south to Margaret River for a few days in a ute! take it easy everyone. Matt. Also ketes' camera is bust now so there wont be any more pics! shit, and also hi to Steph, Romena and Dave - I will be coming to oktoberfest! so dont u doubt me girls! bye. Tip email us mate, Mark - u got my t-shirt or not farm boy?!