2015-06-02 - 14:02 P.M.

Finally moved the old Flash site over to bootstrap, some of the links are still broken, I will get round to them eventually.

2010-10-19 - 12:04 P.M.

For those of you in the know, our wedding is to beon the 17th of april 2011 in margate.
We have now had conformation of our Honeymoon plans wich can be found here:
Peru 2011
Anyone wishing to donate to this worthy cause can contact Mike Tilton of transit world travel at:
[email protected]
or on 01689 822 332.
Many Thanks!

2010-10-19 - 12:02 P.M.

Wow I am rubish at updating this thing, allmost a whole nother season has passed.

2010-04-23 - 05:38 a.m.

Stuck in China, because of the volcano!
This place is starting to feal like prison now, seeing the same faces everyday and not being able to go anywhere! We are on constant alert to leave (bags are packed and people are sitting waiting to be called at little or no notice).
Just want to get home, as I am off for another back to back next week!

2009-05-16 - 17:00 p.m.

Wow - long time since a post ! Been practicing with the camera again, have poasted a really cute picture of Clo in the photos section.

2008-10-21 - 10:30 a.m.

Brazil - the last race of the year will be missed by me this year as my boss has found reason for him to attend the “event” (end of season party) instead of me.
Oh well there is always next year in Abu Dhabi.

2008-10-21 - 10:25 a.m.

A long but enjoyable back to back, with some interesting food and accommodations to be found.

2008-09-30 - 17:15 p.m.

The first Night race in F1, which was lit so brightly that it was difficult to know when day ended and night began.
An enjoyable event, as the later work shift allowed time to go out after work (the 4 floors of whore’s unfortunately being the only place that seamed to be open) as well as time to get a full night’s sleep before going to work.

2008-09-19 - 16:40 p.m.

A few days of work, a nice meal and a 430 EX flash for my camera. All followed by a trip to the Zoo.
Photos to be found in the pictures section.

2008-09-16 - 12:05 p.m.

Monza is now complete, and there are only 4 more events left till the end of the season.

2008-09-5 - 10:25 a.m.

Clo's Photos from the Valencia race and subsequent holliday have now been uploaded to the photos section.

2008-08-9 - 18:50 p.m.

One week to go before Valencia, wich is not only going to be my next race
but my holliday for this year!
I will be taking advantage of an extended stay and driving down to Estapona for a week after the race.

2008-08-4 - 9:00 p.m.

The 31st was the begining of Clo's 31st year on this plannet.
The occasion was celabrated at Clo's brother place in cornwall amoungest all of the family that could be
gathered. The one word to describe it would be "emotional" - but all envoled survived.
Pictures have been uploaded to the Photos page.

2008-07-23 - 13:30 p.m.

Well the 22nd was Clo's and mine's 8th aniversary.
As a supprise I took here to a swanky holtel in Brighton for a couple of days of self indulgance.

2008-07-22 - 11:50 a.m.

With a late start last week and the next event off, I am getting to get to
spend some time in the office this year.

2008-07-7 - 13:10 p.m.

Having just had two events off (Canada & France), returning to the track in my home
country was a nice way to ease back into the job.

2008-05-27 - 21:40 p.m.

First Monaco was an interesting experiance. Street circuits are totaly differnt form
static tracks. It was made more interesting by being the first time my parents have come to watch a race.
There pictures are availible on the Photos page.

2008-05-12 - 21:40 p.m.

Haviing just got back form turkey, I now only have 5 days until I fly to Monaco.
Looking forward to the Ministry party at Rascasse though - Thanks Karl !

2008-05-04 - 20:15 p.m.

After a long week in Bharain, I am looking forward to a easier time of it in Turkey
Only time will tell !

2008-04-29 - 09:00 A.m.

Well, a new zoom lens for the new camera has just arrived.
another ebay bargin ! - looking forward to testing it out.

2008-04-11 - 14:45 p.m.

Back in the old stomping grounds for 1 weekend only.

2008-04-01 - 14:30 p.m.

3rd race already - this season is moving fast !

2008-03-27 - 15:00 p.m.

Our new Canon 400D 10mp digital SLR arrived today, looking forward to posting some quality photos
on the pictures page in the near future.

2008-03-25 - 12:00 p.m.

Finaly Home - seams we prepard well enough over the off season as everything went well for the start of the season.

2007-010-01 - 18:00 p.m.

Clo spent a long weekend in Horn (outside Amsterdam) visitng her sister for her brothers birthday.
Will be a race on Monday to see who makes it back form the airport first !

2008-03-08 - 10:00 a.m.

After a hard long winter the season is about to start again, this year with a back to back Autrailia / Malaysia
Clo will not be coming to either, so its going to be a long time away from home.

2007-012-31 - 09:00 p.m.

Another crazy house party, and a breif chance to catch up with family and freinds.

2007-11-23 - 20:00 p.m.

A weeks well eared holliday diving in Egypt with my father.
Now that the season is over I have a chance to spend some wuality time with my dad
as well as to dive together for the first time.
As ususal the photos are on the website.

2007-10-23 - 18:00 p.m.

Champange and redbull = masive hangover!

2007-10-15 - 20:00 p.m.

Fianl Race of the season, and everyone is looking forward to the end of season partys.
Redbull have hired out Pacha, and everything is on the house !
Its going to be off the hook !

2007-010-01 - 18:00 p.m.

Shopping shopping shopping - its all so cheep if you know where to look.

2007-09-24 - 20:00 p.m.

Something a little differnt this week, supporting a GP2 race in Spain
rather than a F1 in Japan.

2007-09-12 - 19:00 p.m.

Well we are now into the second week of the last (F1) back to back i will be doing this season.
Not so bad though, as Clo and Dom are coming out for the race weekend.
As usual pictures will be in loaded in the $$photos section.

2007-09-10 - 18:00 p.m.

2 days at the IBC TV broadcasters exhibiton in Amsterdam between races.

2007-09-03 - 21:00 p.m.

The season is progressing well, we are now into the penaltamate month of races

2007-8-20 - 19:00 p.m.

After a short break and a week in the office its race time again.

2007-07-30 - 18:00 p.m.

Another week another race !

2007-07-25 - 20:00 p.m.

Well we are off back to plymouth for Clo's birthday this weekend (28/07/07)
We will be starting in Kittys at 7:30 for anyone who can make it

2007-07-24 - 19:30 p.m.

The European GP is done, although the race was eventfull, behind the sceens was calm and collected.
The season is more than half way thorugh now, but there is still plenty of work and a lot more traveling to be done.

2007-07-11 - 11:55 a.m.

Well I finally took my full bike licence today - and passed first time !
I booked my licence due to the fact that my CBT was coming to an end after 2 year. As it happens though, the training centre I went through could not get me a test date prior to my CBT running out
Apparently car test's take priority over Bike test slots - and there s a long waiting list.
The end result was that I had to take my CBT again the day before my full test (but oh well, a least it was some extra practice)
Oh yeah, and as sod's law states - it pissed down during my test ! All of which was made up for by passing !

2007-07-11-09 14:39 p.m.

The home GP, which was nice. Clo was even able to come up on Friday night for a visit.
Again not much to report, except I love this job !

2007-07-11-02 17:00 a.m.

What can I say - free wine and smelly cheese !
Not much to report on this one, We stayed in the Sancerre region of France which made the days longer, but the meals were included as well as the wine !
The one up side however, was that the track was close to the airport. This meant we could hop on a coach after the race, drive right up to our private plane and pop home in just over an hour

2007-05-27 - 18:15 p.m.

Another of the ever popular VIP nights in London. With the gang all assembled we headed out to studio valbone for a night on th tiles.
The night began with a few warm up drinks at bar red, and after a small mix up with the booking, we finally took our places at the head of the club.
After a couple of £165 bottles of whisky the night really started to get messy ! - Check out the photos section to the see pics from the night.
As ever VIP is the only way to party in this city - who's up for next month ?

2007-04-09 - 01:18 p.m.

Only my second race so everything is still very new and scary, however only time will beild the experiance I will need to do a good job.
I will miss the next 3 races now, as i will be back at the office developing, expect more after the Canadian GP.

2007-03-16 - 01:18 p.m.

Well I am working my first GP and so far I am loving it !
I am out here to provide support while new systems are trialed, as well as to learn the ropes
It is very different being this side of the fence, so i will just have to be primed ready for anything
Keep watching this for further updates

2007-03-9 - 11:18 a.m.

Tomorrow, Sataday the 10th I depart for Melbourn to workmy first Grand Prix.
The only down side to this, is that I do not arrive till monday morning, still at least I do not start work till Tuesday.
It is however, going to be weird. Returning to OZ, going to the GP and probably not being able to watch any of it !
Watch this space for further updates !

2007-02-12 - 12:15 p.m.

Well its pretty much official now, I have accepted a position as Senior Research & Development Engineer in F1
The job is designing and supporting the equipment required to host an F1 event.
Pure R&D along with the provision of race weekend support (so yes I will be going to the races, with full access to everything).
The work load is going to be intense - especially during the race season (which starts in 33 days), but hopefully the job is going to be fun as well.
Start date is the 26th, and I have to say I am looking forward to it !

2007-02-12 - 12:15 p.m.

Here is the Link to Treloars stag do photos
http://www.treloarspage.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
Follow the links from page to page to see each night debauchery
Please be patient while the slide shows load, the file size is quite large.
Not sure Treloar should of posted these, I think he has left the best ones out !

2007-01-12 - 6:00 p.m.

Rule 1: "what happens on tour stays on tour", so I can't divulge much here : -
It is safe however to say that much of the 4 days was spent drunk, with Treloar dressed as a woman
A great time was had by all and a DVD of Treoars most embarrassing moments is being compiled
As I write this. Who's up for returning in 10 years for a reunion ?

2007-01-01 - 12:00 p.m.

Christmas 2006 was spent visiting Chloe's parents in Estapona Spain
The weather was the worst for years (apparently) only 18 degrees, but at least it did not rain.
All in all it was a nice little break, and its always nice to do something different for Xmas.

2006-12-10 - 6:30 p.m.

Next night out is to see Lisa Pinup on the 23rd
She is playing at the warehouse (http://resonance103.co.uk/)
See ya there.

2006-09-21 - 12:30 p.m.

Next major outing is planned for the 14th of Oct at Pasha (London).
Those of you who are comming (you know who you are) we'll see ya in the VIP.

2006-09-9 - 12:00 a.m.

The video's from Ibiza now work properly ! View them in the video section.

2006-09-5 - 14:30 p.m.

"Put your hands up for Detroit", was definitely the sound track to this seasons closing parties.
The sun was shining, the sangria was flowing and ...... I cant remember much more after that !
The photos and vid's will be up loaded soon, so looking out for them.

2006-07-03 - 12:09 p.m.

A fantastic weekend had by all !
A long drive was rewarded with a great days racing and a chance to catch up with Anders one of our old friends from Sweden.
He had ridden over with some friends to watch the race.
The racing was fantastic, and Rossi managed a good point’s finish despite riding with a broken wrist.
Photos as usual can be viewed from the gallery.

2006-06-10 - 5:09 p.m.

This new flash driven home page is currenlty under construction.

2005-08-23 - 12:22 p.m.

Skin's has a new Toy - a 2002 RS125
Check her out in the photos section.

2005-07-18 - 9:09 a.m.

All Photos have finaly been uploaded !

Check the link on the left

2005-06-04 - 2:46 p.m.

Hi guys, just a quick update (We will flesh these out and upload the photos soon)

Ok, Singapore was a city like any other ! - its only saving grace is the cheap shopping, which is about the only thing it is good for.

Dubai, wow expensive - like double the prices quoted on the net (I think the exchange rates must have changed)
very hot and dusty - fun water park.

Cairo, Omigod stunning sights - we took a cammel ride around the pyramids at Gizza they were fantastic, as was sakkara, the light show and the museum.

Vienna, another european city - same achitecture as holland/germany/Sweden etc - nice wheather, warm not to hot. And an interesting medical museum.

On our way back now. Will be arriving in Plymouth suitabley poor on the 7th at 8:50 PM

Speak to you all soon - you all made this trip amazing.

2005-05-19 - 11:10 a.m.

Thailand was fantastic !

Hello everyone, yes we are still alive.
We had loads of fun on our travels of Bangkok, Phuket, Karabi, ko Samui, ko Phag nan and ko Phi Phi. Which have provided us with loads of pictures and stories, which I will replace this entry with in due course.
Despite what your thinking it was not all lounging on the beach, well all right it was ! - but I did managed to spend some of my time constructively, picking up a few new diving qualifications on Phi Phi, bringing me up to the level of Rescue Diver.

We are now in Singapore (Shopping) with mixed emotions about our next few destinations. Although they are places we want to visit - they bring us closer to the end of this epic journey, which for us is very sad.

Still there is always next year !

2005-04-10 - 8:11 p.m.

Well guys our time in Cronulla, Sydney has all but come to an end !
And it is safe to say we will miss it very much ! As its the closest place to home we have found, Kind of a cross between Hooe and Looe for those in the know !
But leave we must if we are to continue our journey, and complete this great years adventure.

As we are travel through some of the less technologically advanced parts of the world, I anticipate that this will be our last entry until our return to the UK in around 10 weeks time.
For that reason I am posting a Itinerary of our flights from now till then, so every one will know where we are supposed be, should any more disasters befall this part of the world. Please note that we will be doing considerable amounts of travelling around, especially within thailand.

Itinerary :-

Sydney - Bangkok

18/04/05 16:30

Bangkok - Phuket

21/04/05 09:10

Phuket - Bangkok

16/05/05 13:05

Bangkok - Singapore

16/05/05 15:15

Singapore - Dubai

22/05/05 16:10

Dubai - Cairo

23/05/05 03:50
* Subject to change.

Cairo - Vienna

31/05/05 06:10

Vienna - London

06/06/05 12:35

So once again to everyone who has made our stay in Sydney so wonderfull - Thank you ! and we will miss you all !
And a special thanks to Dave for putting up with our squatting at his unit and to Liz for lending us her car and finding me work.

Once more we will miss Australia and miss you all !

2005-04-10 - 7:47 p.m.

After having swam parallel to Shark Island during the 1K fun swim, it struck me that I should take the opportunity to swim over to it before we left Cronulla.
So one sunny Sunday afternoon I set out from the head land beneath the esplanade (the closest piece of land) on an extremely low tide and made a quick dash across the 400 M or so of open water between the beach and the reef. This in itself posed no problem, I had even had the for thought to take along the waterproof camera to take a few shots. What I did not count on was accidentally getting swamped by a wave whilst climbing on to the island - cutting my arm quite badly in the process.
Not so much a problem you might think. There was no pain, although I did feel a little foolish. But this was not what was bothering me - it was the prospect of the 400 M return swim across open water (and on the wrong side of the shark nets ! ) leaving a trail of blood behind me, and well - they don't call it shark island for nothing !
As you can imagine, it was the fastest swim i think I have ever made !

The photos are in the Australia (Sydney) section of the pictures page.

2005-03-14 - 1:53 p.m.

Well I needed a reason to get back into regular training after the indulgences of the east coast tour, and as always a opportunity presented itself.
All be it a little sooner than I had expected. I only had 1 week form getting back from the GP to look for work, as well as train like crazy tying to claw back some of the fitness that I had lost during our 5 week adventure.
Fortunately Dave stepped in as always and provided an invaluable exersize companion, keeping me honest and pushing me a little harder each day. The day of the race came around all to quickly. A 9 Am start on a sunday morning - as if punishing ourselves with the exersize wasn't enough ! We lined up along side the other 255 competitors, wearing numbers 57 and 58 (as we had registered early) and donned our pink race issue swim caps. waiting for the gun.
The course itself was triangular, swimming from the right of the beach around two large yellow buoys, and back in on the left-hand side of the beach. The downside being that this was against the out going rip (which turned out to be not so bad, as it was high tide) after which we raced up the beach and into the coral.
I finished with a time of 19 mints 10 seconds. (average time being around the 20 - 22 minute mark) and dave finished 1 person ahead and 12 second in front of me. So all in all, not too bad for my fist time in a sea race. A quick bit of mathes showed that over the race distance I was covering 1 meter every 1.15 seconds. A time that I am very pleased with, considering these weren't nice placid pool conditions, and a bench mark I can test myself against in the future.
Our final results for the race were 94th and 96th overall putting us in the top 37%.
My result also managed to put me 2nd in my age group !
You can check out the resaults on the link bellow : -
http://www.sharkislandswim.com.au/

2005-03-12 - 2:46 p.m.

We left Sydney @ 7:30 and bussed to Melbourne arriving at 7:45 the evening of 2/3/05 tired and stressed, but glad to have made it and looking forward to our second GP. THe first thing we did was to call our Hostels for the advertised free pick up. Only to get three different fob off's, before they admitted the bus had broken down. (personally, I thought that they just did not want to pick people up as it was the gp weekend and very busy). After making our own way to the hostel (which we had booked in October, due to its proximity to the Gp and free pick up). we found out that they did not have a booking for us - can you believe it ! Well we didn't. I tried to remain calm and explain that we had booked months ago and have called back repeatedly to confirm. As well as the fact we had been traveling for 13 hours and really needed a shower and to go to bed. Well this went on for ages,, as they fried to find our booking and fobbed us off some more. eventually they said that they did not have a booking for us, but would probably be able to fit us in at a highly inflated price ! What a surprize the group in front of us also had the same problem, and the clerk was twoing and frowing between us. When asked to sit down and wait for the ump teenth time, I offered that I would rather wait and ensure that we were checked in this time. Well the clerk took offence to this and decided that he did not want our business after all. This left us in rather a predicament as being the GP weekend finding room would not be easy (this is why we had chosen a hostel and made a booking months in advance !). So we we left wandering the streets at around 10:30 at night looking for accommodation, with Dave the kiwi arriving at 7 Am the next morning, expecting to have reservations. the first hostel we approached greeted us with "Did you happen to have a booking with the place don the road ? ....... Yeah I've seen a lot of you tonight, they are renowned for loosing bookings ! , but sorry we have no room". He was able to direct us toward a budget accommodations place a few streets away. Not a hostel, more of a single men's apartments kind of a place, called the Oslo Hotel. They did have one bed in a dorm and wonder of wonders one private three bed room, exactly what we were looking for ! Thinking what lucky people we were, we snapped up the room (for less than our original hostel booking), and informed Dave of our change of living arrangements. The location of our new accommodations meant that we had to walk past the original hostel on our way to the GP every day. this gave us the opportunity to give them dirty looks, and curse them every time we walked passed. Childish but very satisfying. We spent all ay thursday at the track watching V8's Ute's Carrera's and the formula 3. The ultimate speed comparison between a BMW F1 a BMW M1 and a V8. Pizzonia was driving the F1 and put on a great performance. Steven Johnson was driving the V8. We also were able to get some of the V8 drivers autographs, so all in all a great day, and the Gp hadn'teven started yet. That evening we met up with Elaine our other Indi Gp companion and all went for dinner to catch up. On friday we went to the first practice session of the F1, and scoped out a few of the viewing mounds looking for a good place to sit. In the afternoon we went to Frankston to visit Chloe's "Relo's". We hade a lovely afternoon, with Clo's Aunt and uncle seeing the sights of Philip bay and the Bass strait, followed by a excellent meal at the local Chinese restaurant, before retuning to Melbourne around 10 pm. Saturday and Sunday were spent at the Track. we got absolutely soaked an saturday, watching and eventful qualifying. We didn't mind though as we got to see schumacher relegated to 24th position overall and Fisichella get pole. we were also sat right in front of where Narain Karthikeyan spun his Jordan off, and got some great Photos. Sunday was even better (we wore everything we owned after saturdays dreadful weather), the weather actually held off for the race, and we enjoyed a great day of racing. Culminating in us all finallyy being able to walk the track at the end of the GP. The evenings were spent catching up with Elaine some more eating, drinking and recapping the days events. St Kilda is a great place to stay as it was within a 5 minute walk of the track and a good place to party. All in all we had a fabulous time and can not wait of another opportunity to arrange a GP trip and catch up with all our friends, as soon as we get the chance. photos are already up - follow the photos link bellow the menue on the left.

2005-03-12 - 2:28 p.m.

Surfers was what we expected. stunning beach, spoilt by massive tower blocks obscuring the coast line.the town stuck us as a cross between the costa del sol and los vegas. Not a place to spend too long. Byron bay was used primarily as a stepping stone to Nimbin. Nimbin is a quiet little sleepy village, that is stuck in the cycedellic 70's and has been since a commune moved in. All of which happened after the collapse of the local dairy industry. forcing the farmers to move out. Nimbin itself is as such a very laid back town, where you can just chill and soak up the hippy vibe ! We had three days of peace and quiet here to relax at the end of a very hectic tour of the East coast. We stayed at the Rox, a small YHA just outside of the town recommended to us by some people we met at cape trib. where we treated our selves to a private canvas cabin (permanent tent), it was bliss. the views were grate, so were the people. it was very much peace not war ! We left for Sydney on the afternoon of our last day and arrived @ 6 :30 the following morning. we then spent a few days in Sydney decontaminating our rucksacks and washing our clothes, before continuing on down to Melbourne and the GP.

2005-03-12 - 2:27 p.m.

Noosa was pretty. we stopped here as it is the home town of one of our good friends from Cronulla (Sydney). We spent the day at the beach body surfing, as the waves were good. Noosa is in the south east of Queensland, so no jellies in the water, and therefore no stinger suits, yippy !

We then moved on to Brisbane. Brisbane is big, loads of people, and we didn't like it much as we had not been in a city for some time. That evening we did go out for an excellent meal, at a small street restaurant called sea grass (as you can imagine it was a fish restaurant). We shared a seafood chowder for starters, followed by morton bay bug's (Thank's Tony). A sort of cross between a cary fish and a lobster, the bug's flesh was so tender it had an almost creamy texture, yummy ! The service at the restaurant was so good that we even decided to leave a tip ! (not a small gesture for a traveler)

From Brisbane we went to Australia Zoo - home of the crocodile Hunter (who was not home). The zoo was wicked fun. we saw Elephants Koalas, Otters Emu's and of course Croc's. We saw so many animals and Clo was lucky enough to get to pet an Elephant and a Koala as well as loads of kangaroos. All in all a great day out.

2005-03-08 - 8:57 p.m.

We arrived at Rainbow beach after a 12 hour bus ride from Airlie beach. It was overnight so saved us a nights accommodation and we did sleep most of the way. Rainbow is another small town only really used for it's access to Fraser island.

Fraser is a massive sand bank with shark and jelly infested waters so no swimming in the sea. Not even in the stinger suits.

There are so many fresh water lakes and massive sand dunes it was unreal.

So early in the morning our group of 11 in our toupee started filling the 4x4 with essentials: food, water, beer and more beer. We all looked so cool. 6 troupe's set off together to explore Fraser island. Well all but us as we managed about 10 minutes down the road until our brakes seized and then coming to a complete stop. Bugger! So we called our SOS no. and a short time later a new troupee could be seen coming down the road to save us. Hooray! So we repacked into the new troupee and off we went.

Our first stop was an hour walk to Basin lake. I have never seen water like it, it was so pure you could drink it. So we had a ball playing in the lake then headed back to the troupee.

There were four people who could drive. Me (yes omigod) Skins, Bjorn and Anja. Anja is a German girl we met in Airlie. So being diplomatic we did rock, paper, scissors to decided who was going to drive. Skins won the first round and yes yours truly won the second. I was driving at 80 KPM up 75 mile beach it was wicked fun.

We made camp for the night behind the sand dunes on the beach. We were a really good team, half put up the tent and the other half built a shelter and cooked dinner. Steak and potato salad. Yummy.

At first light we were off again. We went via Central Station, where we had breakfast and washed the dishes then on to lake Mackenzie.
Well i thought Basin Lake was stunning. Lake Mackenzie was even bigger. As you walked the path to the lake it was so dense you didn't get a glimpse of it until you walked out of the forest onto the beach. The 11 of us just stood there absolutely gob smacked. We spent the day swimming and lounging in the sun before setting off again. We drove all the way to Indian head via Eli creek and the Maheno wreck.

Eli creek is fresh water that has ells in it but it was a refreshing swim after an hour in the troupee. The wreck was huge. It washed ashore in 1935 and is now a monument of the rough seas around Fraser.

So we pitched camp again. Our first night camping had been eventful as about 12 dingo's had swarmed our camp and had started fighting amongst them selves. We were all in bed so were just listening hoping no babies were asleep in the tents !!

Bjorn had had far to much to drink that night and was awoken by the noise, feeling rather unwell. So opened the troupee window and proceeded to vomit upon one of the dingo's ! This dingo was then attacked by the rest of them, trying to eat the sick of its back.

Our second night camping was not so eventful. We did meet a group of deaf pomes.
Fortunately one of them was a diver, so Skins was able to communicate via some basic hand signals. Also one of the girls in our group was able to sign a little. So we had a great night signing and gesturing, talking about our experiences of fraser and Oz as a whole. I learnt some basic sign language which was cool.

So at first light again we were off. This time to the champagne pools, then on to lake Waby. The lake is the deepest on the Island, and has a massive sand dunes on one side which you can run down into the water. It was on our return from lake Waby that I busted my little toe.
I tripped on a root which embedded itself in my toe. Man the blood and the pain !

I managed to hobble back to the troupee with skinners bandana around my toe, and his thong (flip flop) on. First aid was administered, via two pain killers and surgical spirit. Man I screamed my lungs out when the alcohol was poured over my toe. Fortunately though we were only an hour from home so it could have been worse.

We made it back to the hostel and decamped our troupee. We were the only group that returned with all of their kit. Nice ! aren't we good campers.

We spent the next day kayaking looking for dolphin's and we were lucky, we saw a few. That evening we went to a BBQ. It was hosted by the guy who runs the kayaking. More drinking and eating and guess what, more "goon". After a quick drink at the pub we stumbled home. We had an early bus in the morning.

2005-03-08 - 8:56 p.m.

Airlie beach was cute. Just a small town with a massive harbor. You can walk the town in about 10 minutes. there is a lovely beach and an even better lagoon. The lagoon was made to look like the beach, with gradual slops into the water and sandy banks. The lagoon was huge.

Our only reason to be at Airlie was to sail the Whitsunday's. As we approached the marine i could see masses of boats big and small. I was getting rather excited trying to see which one was the Jade, our boat. Neither of us had been sailing for such a long time we couldn't wait to climb aboard our 52 ft catamaran. As we waited to board we could see a storm damaged boat being removed from the water with the skipper looking on. He looked so gutted. We had been so blessed with the weather. The rain seemed to be in front or behind us. There had been massive storms here the day before and yet again we missed them.

Once on board we were introduced to our lovely crew and settled in for our sailing trip. we had three days and two nights of beautiful sailing. Gorgeous views, beaches and clam waters! We went to Whitehaven beach and a small cove opposite Whitehaven. Long island is were we spent our evenings. We did lots of swimming and snorkeling and sun bathing. Bjorn got heat stroke and so was being constantly showered in bucket fulls of sea water which the 1st mate was getting from over the side.

We saw dolphin's, turtles and dustbin lid size jelly fish. The sun rises and sun sets were hypnotic. it was so different to the rainforest living we had got used too. The Whitsunday's islands are picturesque

The crew found an ingenious way of getting the beer ashore for us thirsty sailors. You would shout from the shallow crystal clear waters to the boat and they would then throw the beers over board at you. Very clever! It was much harder trying to throw the empties back again. We had nearly 30 people on board including the crew and i have never seen so much beer. They had massive esky's (ice boxes) full of it.

I was very sad to leave the Jade, we had made many friends and had enjoyed our time immensely but Fraser island was calling us.

2005-03-01 - 2:57 p.m.

Townsville is the place to dive and snorkel the reef.
We spent our first day walking around town just chilling. Apart from the reef and Magnetic island they ins,t much else to do. So Skins got up early to go for his dive and i was going to spend the day on the beach. But no, the dive boat broke down at sea so Skins couldn't do his dive. He was so gutted as it was the best dive in OZ. It was an old ocean liner that sank in a cyclone and was left intact as a mass grave. So to cheer him up we booked our trip to the reef for him to dive and me to snorkel. We passed Magnetic island on the way. It looked beautiful but we had been told it was over rated so didn't take a look. We spent the day at John Brewer reef. Skins dived in the morning whilst i snorkeled then after a massive seafood lunch we snorkeled again in the arvo. We saw so many colorful fish it was amazing. The giant shells were brilliant. Skinner dived to the sea floor to get them so i could have a closure look.. (my ears prevent me from diving more than a meter) The reef was stunning but i think Fiji's reefs were better as they were more accessible and colorful. And yes in case you were wondering we had our sexy stinger suit on all day.

It was in Townsville that we met our Swedish friends they were sharing our dorm with us. We were all talking about our plans and realized we were all going in the same direction and wanting to do the same things. So we buddied up and became a foursome. It nice having company when you travel " new blood and all that" Plus we got a chance to practice our Swedish a little. Bjorn's English was brill and Therese just needed so confidence with hers. Bjorn and Therese were a hallious couple, they made us laugh constantly.

SGT Gazza, recently relocated to Townsville from Cronulla - where the hell are you? MIA or AWOL.

2005-03-01 - 2:56 p.m.

Wow, Wow, Wow.
We thought that we had previously stayed in the rainforest, well how wrong were we. The place we stayed at was called The Sanctuary and yes it was aptly named. Only 2% of the grounds was used for accommodation etc. The balance was devoted to conservation of the rainforest and the native bird the Cassowary. They had three mating pairs on the site. Our rom had a wooden floor, canvas roof and a mosquitoeses net walls. It was very tranquil and private. You could lie in bed at night and not only hear the animals in the rainforest but also see them. It was amazing. The Sanctuary also had its own private beach. (which was again deserted) There was a beautiful walk down the mountain, though the rain forest to the beach, but man it was a hike to get back up the mountain. When we originally arrived we had been collected by a 4x4 and when we got to the site entrance i understood why. The climb was so steep i was no longer sitting in the sit i was lying on my back as we drove up the hill. oh yeah the 4x4 was being driven by the owners two year old daughter. Well she was sitting on mum's lap. Well by the time Skins and i had climbed the hill we needed another swim and a lung and heart transplant. During the off season in tropical queensland the sea is full of jellies. Deadly jellies. But fortunately for us they have these wonderful things called "stinger suits" Well i tell you now, they are going to be on the catwalk in Milan by next summer. We looked dashing in them! They look like you are wear skin tight tights from your head to your toes. Omigod !
But with Skins and i such water babies they had to be donned.
We enjoyed a couple of days relaxing by the "clothes are optional" pool walking to the beach plus oh yeah having Mexican stand offs with the Cassowaries.

Skins was taking a peaceful after noon stroll through the rainforest, as you do. I was having a siesta as you do !!! and bang Skins walked into a 6 ft tall, Jurassic looking, cousin to the emu. He was so busy watching his feet for snakes etc that he completely missed this massive bird. The bird jumped backwards in shock as did Skins and the pair of them just stood there looking at each other. After what i think felt like a life time to Skinner the bird started to back away so Skins rather relived continued his walk. Only to hear the thump, thump, thump of the Cassowary running up behind him. Skins turned to face it and the bird skidded to a stop. So another Mexican stand off. Until again the bird backed off. Well this happened several times. Including a tactic change in which the Cassowary attempted to tip toe up behind Skins. Until he managed to climb over an old river bed. As he was now much high than the bird, the bird gave up and less Skins in peace.

That evening as we were chatting to the owners of the site, Skins retells his story only to find out that the birds are creatures of habit and that it was probably going to the same place as Skins (the beach) Skins was not convinced and swears the bird was out for his blood !!!! So that night i was just dropping of to sleep when i heard this awful scrapping noise very close to our hut. It got louder and louder until it was actually under our hut. Well i was so scared it was the Cassowary seeking out Skinner and his blood that i shit myself. Skins wouldn't wake up so i laid there feeling very alone and scared. I found out the next day that it was probably wild boar. Oh well !

The Sanctuary was so stunning i didn't want to leave, i could have spent weeks they it was great.

2005-03-01 - 2:56 p.m.

The east cost tour starts today 30/01/05 with a flight from Sydney to Cairns.
We arrived @ 8.30pm and omigod was it hot. It had been warm in Sydney but that was nothing compared to the heat and humidity of Cairns
As we were arriving late into Cairns, we had already booked our accommodation @ Asylum, so we were pick up from the airport.
Whilst we were checking in we were told we could have a free feed if we were quick enough to get to the "Woolshed".
The local backpackers pub. So we dumped our bags in the dorm and marched into town for our free feed.
Well we had walked about 30 seconds into town and we were soaked with sweat. I was starting to wonder if it was going to be worth it.
Fortunately we didn't have to walk far and the pub has air conditioning.
Thank god for air con !
So we ate and walked back to the hostel dying in the heat to our lovely air con'd dorm, nice ! I then refused to leave the dorm as each time i stepped outside i would be dripping in sweat.

The following day we were rudely awoken by Dave "The Kiwi." We had been gone less than 12 hours and he had managed to crash his computer by downloading pictures from a dodgy site! Though admitting it was a dodgy site took nearly a hour of Skins trying to find out what he had done! Dave is still learning the art of computers and the internet and was rather concerned about all of the programs now running on his computer, and didn't think about the time difference before phoning. Trying to figure out what had happened to crash the computer with limited information on the sites accessed etc was hard @ 6am!!

Anyway the rest of the day was spent in the pool trying to make decisions on our travel plans. We eventually decided to stay one more night @ Asylum and do a tour to Cape Trib in the morning. We also booked our Whitsunday's sailing and our Fraser Island safari. As we had booked so many things via the hostel we got a free nights accommodation and a free night on the beer. Nice ! The night on the beer s hould have cost $10 which included - a t-shirt, dinner and 15 free drinks. The night started with free "Goon" (very cheap casket wine) @ the hostel. We were then picked up by a red double decker bus which drove us around Cairns, collecting our free feed and drinks along the way. We also played various games through out the night and we ended up wining two jugs of beer, a cocktail and two large Domino's pizzas, not bad ! At about midnight when the free drinks ran out, which was a good thing as we were blind, we stumbled home.

The next day rather hung over we traveled up to Cape Trib. We had a brief stop at a nature reserve and had lunch then on to the Daintree National Park @ Cape Trib. We had a guided walk through the rain forest, where we saw lots of massive spiders and other creepy crawlies. We came across some green ants which if you lick their bums they taste like vitiamin C. Skins indulged but i passed.

We then made our way to our hostel. It was beautiful. It was set in the Daintree National Park. It had various different walks in the rainforest. One went to the beach which was stunning, pure white sand and empty of people. It was because we were traveling in the off season, the supposed rainy season though we hadn't seen any rain yet ! We had the whole beach to ourselves. There was a creek you could cross at low tide which took you to Cape Trib look out. But we kept missing the tide, the creek was freshwater and full of croc's. I didn't fancy the knee deep croc infested water so we took the road way to the look out. The other walk took us to a fresh waterhole with no croc's but plenty of fish and turtles. It was lovely swimming in fresh water rather than chlorinated or salt water. So we relaxed and enjoyed ourselves for a few days before returning to Cairns via , Port Douglas and Mossman Gorge. The gorge was lovely, icy clod fresh water surrounded by the rainforest. We also had a river cruise included in the tour. We saw croc's and bats and loads of other wildlife.

So on our return to Cairns for our free night, all the dorms were fully booked. So we were upgraded to a private double room, nice ! What lucky travelers we are. Plus we indulged in our free pizza's that night.

2005-02-11 - 12:15 p.m.

We began our trip with a uneventful flight to Cairns (probably a first for us). and soon checked into a crazy little hostel called the Asylum.
The hostel and its staff did us well, with plenty of free drinks meals and assistance booking our tours. Even a free upgrade !
The only thing I was not so impressed with was the mad "red coat" style atmosphere, which could be a little annoying at times.

From the asylum we booked a tour to Cape tribulation, about an hour and a half north. we stayed a PK's jungle village, which as the name suggests is situated in the rain forest.
We spent a restful time here, lounging by the pool and enjoying board walks through the forest itself.
we also trekked to a local fresh water watering hole and to cape tribulation point itself (our furthest venture north!).

After a brief stop in port Douglass and a night back in the Asylum. be then began our trip south. Stopping next at the Sanctuary at mission beach. One of the rough guides top 50 thing to do in OZ (not a small honor considering the country is the size of europe).
How to describe our stay there ? - well we slept on a stilted wooden platform in the rainforest surrounded by a thin mesh net - and quite literally woke up to its sites and sounds.
The stay here was pretty much indescribable, and I understand why it is so highly rated. and simply too much happened to mention here. but the highlights were the near vertical trek through the forest to get to the beach. and my rather scary encounter an a dark path with a six foot tall jurassic looking relative to the emu,
resulting in a rather long mexican stand off !
Anyhow, the place was too amazing for words, so just take a look at their web site :-http://www.sanctuaryatmission.com/

From the sanctuary we then traveled down to Townsville where we spent a few days relishing the air conditioning, and nursing the hundreds of mosquito bites we acquired further north.
From Townsville we booked to day tours to the reef, for a little diving and snorkeling. unfortunately the first, a dive trip to the yongala (a sunk cruise liner complete with skeletons etc) was canceled part way there, as the boat threw a rod, and had to turn round and limp back to port. this was bad as we had no time to repeat the trip as we had a time table to keep and had to leave in time to make it to Airlie beach in time to take a sailing tour around the Whitsunday's and the barrier reef.

This is where we are now, awaiting our departure, for 3 days of cruising the whitsunday islands.
when we return we take an overnight bus to rainbow beach for a 2 day 4wd tour of Frasier island. Followed by a days kayaking with dolphins.
After which we continue our trip south, stopping at noosa, nimbin, byron and briefly at sydney, before another overnight trip to Melbourne in time for the GP and a reunion with some of our Indy GP friends.
After which it is back to Sydney for 4 weeks work, before we head to Thailand for the next stage of our trip.

Phew, time is running out fast, and there is so much more to fit in, so stay tuned for further updates !

2001-01-29 - 7:10 p.m.

Just a quick mention for Tom !(my "oppo" from work)

Tom is the guy from the christmas party pictures in the pink shirt getting his tits out.

Also there are some new photos from Australia day and my work, follow the link below :-

copy and paste the following URL directly into your Address bar :-

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=1g44cts1.bgesc02h&x=0&y=n49j3a

2005-01-16 - 2:06 p.m.

Hi everyone, I have repaird some of the older links to photos that did not work properly, they include links to figi and NZ photos, also I have updated all the photo galeries, so there should be some new stuff to see in all of them.

Scroll down and check them out !

Just clik the view pohotos button under the pictures on the left hand side (no need to sign in)

2005-01-07 - 11:37 p.m.

Well the slackness is over - i'm writing the diary.

We have been in Australia since 30 th August now and throughly enjoying ourselves - hence the lack of diary entries.

Skinner was working with me selling electricity door to door but we gave that up pretty quickly - it was shit.

Skinner now does manual labour, he digs the holes in the ground for the bus shelters to be placed in. He also digs trenches
for live power cables. Whilst at work Skinner drives a 2 tonne tipper truck. It's named "Spy". He has great fun trying to
fill the tipper up with petrol. He nearly took out a petrol station sign whilst trying to reverse nearer the pump.
He is outdoors every day and so has a great tan. He gets to travel all over Sydney and see the sights.
He got the job via a friend of a friend. The guy we are living with (dave the guy we met @ the GP in Indianapolis)
was friends with Liz and we befriended her, via the many BBQ's and nights on the beer we all had together.

Liz is a truely lovely person (& Skinners guardian Angel). She got Skinner a job at her work and even lent Skinner her car to get to work as she
has a company car.

I love summer nights in OZ - we all get together at someones flat, fire up the barbie, throw a couple of kilos of prawns
on it and crack a load of beers, then sit outside until the sun goes down, ah loving it!

I'm doing telesales in an ofice in Darling Habour. I sell Life Insurance for ANZ bank Nice! (one of the biggest in Australia).
Plus side is i've got an airconditioned office with stunning views and loads of good paople to work with.
I get a free breakfast every day, internet access and insentives. I was able to buy a bottle of Jim bean with my insentives
the week before Christmas, which was nice timming.
Bad side is I's rather be outside in the sun seeing the sights. But hay we have to work at some point.
I've made so many friends at my work, they are all really nice people. Most of them are Irish, but one thing i've found on
this trip is although there are alot of Irish travelling the world there are far more Chinese. Man they are everywhere!

I did some part time work in Cronulla before i started with the telesales. I worked for two days in a sandwhich shop
slaving my ass off only to find out she witch was not going to pay me. Well i wasn't having that, a friend who had a
smiliar problem gave me the number for the commishiners office of employment. So I went to the shop saying that i had
spoken to these people and that they said she had to pay me. Well she called my bluff and also phoned the commisioner of employment.
It was a very tense 15 mintues whilst she was on the phone speaking to them but i prevailded. She got off the phone, walked
to the till and got my wages for me.

We are still living with Dave in Cronulla. We go swimming every morning, we aim to swim a mile a day.
We were swimming in the sea but there were so many shark sightings and jelly fish that I got scared. So we do our lenghts
in the sea pool. It's great fun though because when the surf is good the waves break over the wall of the pool so you
feel like you are in the sea. Living on the beach is so much fun. Life is easy. We live about 3 minutes from everything -
the beach, the pub and the shopping mall (even the train station).

Most of our weekends are spent on the beach or having barbies with friends but we have also devoted a lot of our time to V8's.
We had a wonderful weekend at Bathurst. Holden (vauxhal) won, it was a great race to watch. It was a boiling hot day,
clear blue skies, tonnes of very fast cars and lots of beer, man it was bliss! We were sat on Conrod straight, which had a
perfect view of Jason Plato crashing Peter Brocks Holden. I would have been crying but i was too busy snaping away on the
camera and got a brillient picture of the car as it rolled. I was well impressed to see Plato (the pome from touring cars)
driving with the "king" Brock. It was just a shame that Brock never got to dive his last ever Bathurst. Oh well!

We were going to go to the next round of the V8's which was in Eastern creek, which is about 1 hours drive from where we live
but we couldn't get time off work and Ford were gaurenteed to win the championship. But we did spend the whole weekend on
the beer watching it though.

We have booked and paid for our Melbourne Grand Prix tickets - just need to sort out the accommodation. I'm stoaked that we are
going to another GP. I don't think it will be as good as Indianapolis as we were allowed to walk the pit lane there. But
there is a 10 year aniversary celabration of the track on the Thursday before the GP which we are going to go for.
It should be good fun. I'll update the diary in March to let you all know.

Christmas and New years was brill. We had glorious weather, nice and sunny. Lots of beer, prawns and festive cheer.
We spent Christmas day on the beach with our disposable barbies and santa hats and boxing day in the garden of our flat.
New years we went to Liz'z flat and had another barbie and lots of drinking games. At midnight we went to the roof top of
another friends house which has views over the city and watched the fire works.
New years day was a day of recovery but throuley enjoyable.

(For the pictures follow the link below as usual)

copy and paste the following URL directly into your Address bar :-

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=1g44cts1.bgesc02h&x=0&y=n49j3a

I had a Christmas party with work. There was lots of free booze and really good house music, which really suprised me.
One of the guys i work with was djing. He was really good and made me miss my decks. The party started at lunchtime so by
teatime i was completly blind.

Skinner had a jet boat ride around the harbour and a posh meal for his Christmas party. They all them went for drinks at the
famous "rocks". I was working that day so came and met them after work. They were all so drunk i had some serious catching up
to do. They made me drink wine through a straw. We got blind again! (you will be able to tell by the pictures)

I got Skinner a open water diving course for Christmas, which he has just completed. So he will be doing lots of diving when
we travel the gold coast in a few weeks. So Liz and I spent the 4 days he was diving, lying on the beach reading our books
getting a nice tan. I have the best tan i have ever had.

We all go back to work on the 10 th Jan and none of us are looking forward to it. we have had nearly three weeks of sun,
sand, surf, beer, lasiy days, late nights need i say any more. We don't want to to go back to work. NOOOOOOOOOO !

We have made plans for the next few months. We leave Sydney around Australia day 26th Jan and fly to Carins (far north)
and travel back down towards Melbourne (south) in time for the GP in early March. From there we travel to thailand and beond.

2004-12-27 - 9:11 p.m.

Here are the Pictures of Xmas on the beach - prawns barbie and beer !

copy and paste the following URL directly into your Address bar :-

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=1g44cts1.bgesc02h&x=0&y=n49j3a

2004-12-13 - 6:57 p.m.

Below is a link to photos of Clo's work place and of my works recent Xmas party.
Everything from the jet boat ride round the harbor, up until it all started getting messy - enjoy

copy and paste the following URL directly into your Address bar :-

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=1g44cts1.bgesc02h&x=0&y=n49j3a

2004-12-01 - 6:07 p.m.

1st of December - 1st day of Summer !?

Today it was 40 degrees - wich is pretty hot to be doing manual labour

We are both still working as much as posible - to recharge the coffers ready for the next stage, wich will probably begin toward the middle of January (traveling the east coast)

On the few occations when we are not working, we like to spend the time drinking beer, eating prawns and watching V8's on the tv - photos of our trip to watch them live at bathurst are on the following link :-

copy and paste the following URL directly into the address line:

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=1g44cts1.bgesc02h&x=0&y=n49j3a

(pictures taken from the end of conrod strait)

Other than that, we are looking forward to spending xmas on the beach this year with a few other displaced travelers, as is the Ozzy tradition !

2004-11-01 - 6:04 p.m.

Working, Working ,Working, Working, Working, Working, Working, Working, Working, Working, Working, Working,

Pretty much all that is going on at the moement !

2004-10-01 - 12:19 p.m.

New pictures of Figi and NZ at the following links : -

Figi

copy and paste the following, directly into your address line

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=1g44cts1.214gwxyx&x=0&y=-cl8k13

Click view photos to begin

NZ

copy and paste the following, directly into your address line

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=1g44cts1.7hx9ut2x&x=0&y=-r5dxu0

click view photos to begin

2003-11-16 - 9:02 p.m.

Good news - For our 4 days in Sydney, we have so far found a place to stay, have a bank account, and a tax file number and also have two new phone numbers (Chloe : 0410869330 and Me :0410869331) And we even have a Job - we will be selling electricity door to door for the leccy company, 4 hours a day (should bring in about $750 each a week, so not too bad)

So as usuall we are we have fallen on our feet and are awaiting the next leg of our adventure.

Which will probably begin with going to the indoor Rallycross championship on saturday night for some good old motor mayhem !

We stayed in a place called Kings Cross for the first two weeks and yes it's just like the one at home. Saturday nights were spent shouting obscenities at the prostitutes that frequented the street corners. Cruel i know, but great fun. We are now staying at our friends (dave from GP in Indianapolis) house in Cronulla. Cronulla is so beautiful, full of surf bums and rev heads. It's like Newquay but so much bigger and so much better. If you need to write to us you can use his address. 2/3 Burke road, Cronulla, NSW. We are both still working but Skinner had an interview for a car air conditioning company last week that we are waiting on. Weather is getting much warmer and my tan is finally coming back after the cold of NZ. Dave has introduced us to his mates and they are all nutters. We drink beer and have BBQ's nearly every night on their patio's. What a life !!!!!!! Most of them are in the forces and so do some crazy shit. Man i have some stories to tell but most will have to wait till we get home. Hotmail is censuring me !!!!!!!

2003-11-16 - 9:01 p.m.

More to add here about NZ - when I get around to writing it ! Well,we have finally got round to updating the diary. New Zealand was amazing, very cold but amazing. We spent most of out time in Auckland but we did do a road trip to Taupo, Rotorua and Waitomo (i know i can't spell) We hired our little car from Auckland and Skins, Sarah and me only just about fitted. We met Sarah in Auckland, she was sharing our dorm and was a complete nutter. We got along so well and all wanted to do similar things that she joined us on our road trip. Waitomo was cool as we went to see the legendary glow worms. They were very cool. We took a boat trip around Waitomo caves and the roof was a glow with glow worms. We then went to Taupo where we did our sky dive. Wow ! it was so cool. We jumped from 1200ft and had 45 seconds of freefall but it felt like forever. I would recommend it to anyone. We will hopefully jump again in OZ. From Taupo we went to Rotoura which is famous for it's thermal springs and volcanic activity. It smelt so bad, so bad! We stayed at the sister hostel to the one were we staying at in Auckland. (Queens street and Crash palace) Crash palace was cool as they had an outdoor heated spa, that was so hot we had to keep getting out. Whilst we were driving from Taupo to Rotoura we came across a tourist information sign for "craters of the moon" we were intrigued and so took a quick left and had a look. Well it did look like moon, there was massive pits and holes in the ground with steam coming out of the holes. It was such a still day though the steam was hanging around and it covered the whole place. It looked very eerie. Once we reached Rotoura we realised the whole place looks the same. When we returned to Auckland the two guys that we sharing our dorm (Nick and James another pair of nutters) had birthdays to celebrate so we bought a birthday cake for them and it commenced a week long alcohol binge. Man, we drank allot. Nick and James were really cool. They both worked but also went on the piss every night. We weren't even working but struggled to keep up. Whilst back in Auckland we took a boat trip to Rangitoto. It's NZ youngest volcano. It took us about 40 minutes to climb up it and the views were amazing. There were also caves on the island and Skinner and I decided to have a look. Well we were so enthralled with the caves that we didn't realise the time. When we did we realised we only had 15 minutes before the ferry left the island to return to the main land. The pair of us had to run down the bloody volcano so we didn't miss the ferry. Man we were so dead by the time we got to the bottom. But hay it was worth it. Well i think that is it for NZ. I'll update the diary if i think of anything else.

2004-08-15 - 7:26 p.m.

Sorry we have not updated for a while, We will fill ya in on the rest of our trip soon, but this quick entry is to say that we finaly did our Sky Dive in Taupo - and it rocked !

Photos should be on the web page soon !

Copy and past the following link :-

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=1g44cts1.3d395qb5&x=0&y=-ysbr1c

Then click view photos under the picture on the left hand side to see the photos.

2004-08-11 - 2:47 p.m.

When we arrived here in NZ we had to be decontaminated as we had not been able to wash our clothes or selves properly for 2 weeks and are now fealing much better for it !

We have now finaly bought a new camera - a sony p73 (Check it on the web) and 256M of memory for 240 quid - nice, so will hopefully be able to update our photo page soon

Other than that, more will follow when we actually stop sleaping all the time and do something !

2004-08-11 - 2:46 p.m.

Upon arivasl in figi we stayed at a very cheap hostel in Nadi called Horizon (3 UK pounds a night each) for a couple of days before working out what we were going to do. Horizon was ok because it was cheap - but the Coral Coast (south) is much nicer. Although now I must state that although the senery here was not the best, we are un able to show you it as the unthinkable happend and our camera had an eppie and lost everything on our memory card ! (about 5 days worth of photos : ( Not wanting to format it with the hope of retrieving some data when we finaly settle somewhere we resorted top switching to our auxillary memory card

Once we had descided to move on (fresh camera card in place we decided that we wanted to see as many islands as possible and so started out trip with the barefoot cruise - which was the best of all the trips we did. It took us to Mala Mala, Honeymoon island and Snorkel Island. All of these islands are uninhabited. we got to spend the night on Honeymoon island (and no this does not meen we are married). We stayed in a tent and is was v cool, allthough we did miss out on night fishing with chef ! We then spent two days snorkeling and canoeing and hand line fishing. The snorkeling was the best we did anywhere in Figi, but I will come back to this later. Snorkel Island was so small it consisted of 3 palm trees. The snorkeling cannoing was so good though, that we did not bother setting foot on land for long. We also expended our stay on Mala Mala for an extra day. It is so small that you can walk around the island in about 7 minutes - But thats ok as you don't want to be any further than that from the free bar ! - it was paradise -white sands and clear waters "ah this is the life" From there we went to Robinson Crusoe Island for Clo's birthday, it was more expensive but we were staying in a Bure (hut thing) and had tremendous storms for a few days wich nearly blew the iland away ! Robinson However we would not recomend for an over night stay but definitely for the day trips as the bar, massages etc etc are all free. The most memerable thing about Robinson's for is the showers. Antiquainted to say the least ! - they consisted of a bucket on a rope that you had to fill and then pull up yourself on a pulley system. not only that because there was a water shortage on Fiji you were only allowed one bucket a day ! So after the storms everyone was running for the showers !!!!!!!

Whilst on Robinson's we went to a local village for a Kava ceremony. Kava is Fiji's national drink and is a opium derivative, plus a diarrectic. But it looks like mud and tastes like shit. We had the Kava ceremony trip on Clo's birthday so she was appointed as chief and had to give the donations from Robinsons to the chief of the village which we had visited. Being Ceif also evolved drinking a bowl of Kava about every 10 minutes, well when ever the spokes man shouted "Tacki" - wich was wenever the bowl bearers sat down !(Thanks Steve) The drinking was folowed with dancing with the locals followed by more Kava, dancing and lots of Kava - Kava we might add makes your tongue and eventually your head go numb.

I should also point out that at this point the spare camera card packed in ! (must of been from too much Kava !) so we lost the following two weeks photos aswell. We do still hope to recover them if possible when we plant ourselves somewhere - untill then there will be a gap in the pics, so if any of yous has some of us you can send over - please do ! Now we are reduced to our phone cameras, so will have to by a next one at the next cheep place we stop ! From Robinsons we went to The Beach House on the coral coast of Nadi - which was gorgeous. We had a wonderful time and made lots of coconut jewellery and Kava bowls. Which we had to sneak passed customs on our way out of Fiji. Although it is on the main land, we would definitely recommend The Beach house as very cheap and the food is good. and actually my favorite part of the trip (excluding the Bear foot ).

From there we went to Wayalailai - it is not spelt correctly but it's as close as we can get. It was fun here but the food was very scary and repetitive. They did have 7 of the cutest puppies there but they were flea ridden and so you couldn't touch them. But least there was relatively normal showers, all be them cold, very cold the water was kept underground. I even managed to wangle a couple of 45 minit multi level dives - only to 22 meaters, but is was a great crack (as the Irish amongst you might say) This is where my comment abnout the snorkeling comes in, although the Diving was spectacular in its own right - the wildlife was much more vibrant and plentifull on the bearfoot cruise ! We then spent a night back at the Horizon before coming to NZ.

2004-08-11 - 2:34 p.m.

The saga of our travels now pics up with our departure of México

To our somewhat suprise leaving México was no hassles what so ever, een taking into account the bloody Americans that usually cause us our probs - no offense to all americans now living out side of the US (you hasave all rocked !)

We arrived in San Diego a little tried but ok as the buses in México are a 100 times better than the greyhounds (even though all the films are shown in mexican - oh well)

Once there we then got straight on the case for sorting out our accommodation for the night only to find that every hostel and cheap motel in the state was booked out due to a comic convention - what is it with Americans and their bloody conventions !!!!

After a few hours of trying we found our options were limited to a really scabby hotel in San Diego or traveling on to the hell hole called LA. No prizes for guessing our choise - We decided to go to the scabby hotel.

The next morning we were back at the greyhound intnding to compleate our journey to LA in time for our flight to Fiji.

Well now - San Diego greyhound station is manned by some mean Mother F**kers. Who by nature of the L.A triangle (the fact we were traveling toward it) refused to let us on the bus with 2 liters of what the mexicans call "vitamin T" (tequila) which i explained had been transported already from ensenada (México) on the bus - but alas, we could not talk our way around this one - not even the english accent helped ! .

Next begins our trip to L.A, and no thistime the bus didn't breakdown, it instead got stuck in trafic for 2 hours just outside of LA - only the fact that this was our last and final ever trip on greyhound prevented the commision of Hari-Kari

Getting out of America was far easier than getting in and we arrived in Fiji at 3am - very tired but pleased to be out of LA.

2004-07-20 - 5:14 p.m.

we have been in Mexico for about 10 days now. we have managed the change into Mexico time quite easily, this morning it took 4 of us to work out what the date and day of the week was. it's so nice not having to worry where we are in the week.

before we arrived in Ensenada we stayed in Rosorito. (this is were the drunk Mexican droped us off) Rosorito was very nice - a small Mexican beach village. not too many tourists thankfully. we managed to haggle our way to a 30 dollar room for 3 of us so very cheap. we then travelled on the ABC (a Mexican bus company - which is so much better than the greyhound) for about an hour down the coast to Ensenada

since being in Ensenada we have been to San Felipe on the eastern coast of Baja California and it was so hot it was unreal. the water temp was about 5 degrees less than the air temp of 110 degrees. we all had to fight for the shade it was so hot.

yesterday we went on a boat tour of the harbour and got quite wet. the skipper decided that he was going to take us across the harbour through the very choppy waves and then save fuel by surfing the waves back to shore. the waves were about a meter high but felt so much more as we were sitting on the bow of the boat and could see and feel the bow rising and falling.

that afternoon both skinner and i walked into the glass patio door in the hostel. to be fair the door hadn't been shut in days and so took us both by suprise. fortunately we didn't smash the glass only our prides.

we will be taking a walk around the village tomorrow before our last day the day after. the hostel is very nice here. the pool and spa are great. it's a very homely as there are 3 dogs and some kids.

the rest of our days have been full of sun bathing and swimming in the pool - oh such a hard life.

our next destination is Fiji for my birthday - i will be sad to leave Mexico but can not wait for Fiji.

the guy that owns the hostel we are staying in at the moment is currently trying to open another hostel in Fiji so we are definately going to stay there next time we visit.

2004-07-19 - 12:00 p.m.

You can now check out our on line album, of photos of our trip, from Toronto to Baja ........ Stay tuned for more updates !

Just copy this link into your address line, and hit enter ! - once the page has loaded, click view photos (under the picture) and your done !

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=1g44cts1.9tkjkfjt&x=0&y=-u1b5dz

2004-07-18 - 11:54 a.m.

Stay at the Ensenada Hostle (Baja Mexico) - this place rocks ! It has everything & looks after all of your needs !

And all for only $15 a day

Ensenadahostle.com

[email protected]

2004-07-17 - 12:41 p.m.

Hi Guys !

Um now where were we ? - I think the last message i sent was from san fran ? - well just to recap, the city is plesent but only really requires a two day stop. 1 day to explore the hills (take pictures of the bay and bridge) and china town (where me and clo bought silk Chinese dressing gowns - nice) and the 2nd day to explore Alcatraz - which we missed out on as we did not book the cheep tickets a week in advance.

All in all we thoroughly enjoyed san fran, even if our hostel sucked ! (noisy and dirty). and it was here we left Davor or Croatian born swiss traveling companions for the last few weeks.

The next stop was san Diego, the mexican border town.which we finally arrived in after on the coach after our forth vehicle break down in 3 weeks ! - I swear there is a L.A triangle where just everything goes wrong !

Well what can I say about this one, as one american city is pretty much as the same as another. so we just hung out by the beach at our hostel and enjoyed the surf and the night fires with a few beers - Ah this is the life !

We must however say that San Diago was the best city we have stayed in outside of veagas. probably as it is so mexicanised.

Also I spent the day on the beach and got burned on my solders - not what you want when you have to carry a 20 kg pack when you want to move !

On top of that i am now pealing everywhere - so will lose what tan I had, and will have to start the hole process of trying not to burn all over again !

From here a group of us acquired a lift in the back of a drunk mexicans camper van across the boarder and down to Rosarita Mexico for the budget price of $10 each (about 5 pounds). We stayed here in a hotel for two days with Dean, a london boy we acquired in San Diego - and who is now traveling with us. the beach was clean and clear and we could get two fish tacos for $1 (50 p) - however it was too close to Tijuana and the border (full of americans) so we have now moved further on to Enzalada. where we are staying at the most wonderful hostel - with a pool a Jacuzzi home cooked meals, and a free lift everywhere. also the people are kind of cool as well - oh and there is also 3 dogs, so it is real homely.

- oh yeah, if you don't here form us before - we are staying here in Mexico until we fly out to Fiji on the 24th

2004-07-08 - 3:34 p.m.

LA was a nightmare, i found a handbag in the car park of the hostel we were staying at, so i took it to the reception area. we then went and did some laundry and when we came back some angry big black woman tried to deck me saying that i had stolen her mobile and money from her purse. well quite little me told her very politely that i hadn't stolen her stuff and that she owed me an apology for slander. she was not very impressed at all by my response. i also told her that i had a witness to my actions as i was talking to a danish guy at the time who was also staying at the hostel. basically she was pulling a scam and was well know in the hostel for pulling shit like that, so security kicked her out and the 3 of us (me, skins and davor) got a free dinner out of it. so we left LA rather quickly - fed up with dead bodies etc etc etc. Vegas - the bus to vegas took 7 hours and the air con broke about half way there - we were cooking. we arrived at 9 pm to 100 degrees. oh my god. we originally intended to stay for 5 nights then do the nation parks but unfortunately no one goes to the parks by coach or public transport so we could only do the canyon. so we thought bugger it we will spend the money on a nice hotel and stay a few more days....... well it turned into 9 days but they were 9 great days of cocktails by the pool. (adult only - pucker) they had 4 pools and 3 spa's - lush. they also had a river ride which was cracking fun. skinner and davor kept on trying to ride the river backwards and were smashing into all the kids. we were staying at the MGM grand - the biggest hotel in the world for the same price as the hostels in LA. we were staying in a room with davor - but it was pure luxuary. marble bathrooms and leather suite in the bedroom. ah the travelers life eh!!!!!! canyon - there is nothing i can say that will justify the beauty of the grand canyon. well worth the 12 hour round trip to see it. san fran - oh my god - it took us 20 hours to get her. god dam train system is worse that british rail. should have got to down town san fran at 10.30 pm but did not get in until after 2am. ah ah ah ah. the hostel we are at is ok. very cheap but a bit scabby after the MGM. but we do over look the hilton!!!! will be going to Yosemite park from here in the next couple of days but will be unable to go to Alcatraz as it has a 3 week waiting list and we want to be in Mexico next week.

2004-06-24 - 2:49 p.m.

we arrived in LA on the 21th june.

we stayed in Inglewood and so were skins and clo in the hood.

we have seen one dead body and one almost dead body. not bad for 3 days in LA.

hollywood is as you would expect. expensive and dirty.

we are staying at backpackers paradise and the pool they have is paradise as it is very hot. we are both getting nice tans.

2004-06-16 - 1:28 p.m.

we arrived in indianapolis on 14th june 2004

we are staying at the only hostel in the state of indiana. the indy hostel, (www.indyhostel.us)It is very new and so still very clean. would recommend it as very cheap and close to downtown.

well what can i say about indianapolis - we are here for the grand prix and the whole in indiana is mad for the racing.

the grand prix costs $60 for all 4 days (thursday is pit walk day)

it costs $15 for a weeks bus pass

everyone is very friendly and everything is cheap.

we were given a tip from the man who by day runs the tabbacco shop and by night runs the jazz club not to take a cooler bigger than 14" as they will not allow you to enter with anything bigger than that.

this is to avoid queing all day for warm beer!

the owner of the hostel as so cool he drove 12 of the guests to the grand prix in his pick up - it was a squeeze but we are all in the back flying our flags our stay in the indy hostel was rather eventful. we had a flood in the basement, kitchen and bathroom. we had a trip to the local hospital due to a guest ripping of his big toe nail. i got shat on by a bird and saw my first humming bird (both are supposed to be good luck!!!!) also the owner was doing a aitport run when he saw blue lights flashing behind him - he pulled over - only to be told that the car he was driving was stollen and that he would have to take a trip to the local police station. fortunately they beleived john and let him go. he was rather embarrassed as he had guests in the car. oh well.

2004-06-16 - 1:22 p.m.

we arrived in toronto on 7th june 2004

we stayed at the canadiana hostel for 2 nights. it was very clean but more for families. we then moved to the gobal village backpackers hostel which was a brilliant. it had it's own bar and discounts on alot of trips.

we went to niagra falls for $40 and it was great. we went to a winery first and unforutately the bus we were on broke down but fortunately we were saved by the fact that we were at a winery. so what happended - we got drunk. we finally arrived at niagra falls and enjoyed the maid of the mist and the tunnels behind the falls very very drunk.

we met loads of friendly people and throughly enjoyed canada and would recomend the global village and canada to anyone

2004-06-13 - 1:27 p.m.

we are currently travelling around the world and will try and update our diary in each country