A change of plan!

So..... I've come to realise that home really is, as they say, where the heart is! My heart just happens to be 12,000km from my current location, in a little slice of paradise called 'Orewa'! So with much consideration, I am returning 'home' for now, instead of going on my travels. I still really want to travel to all the places I'd planned, but I guess now just isn't the right time. Maybe in years to come I will bugger off around the world with someone, but for now, I just want to go 'home'! 

It's been great seeing people and catching up with old friends from years and years ago. It was also very nice to of spent some time with my cousins little girl Lois! Who knows when I will next see her again! Either way one things for sure, she won't remember me in the slightest, but I will always remember her and hearing 'Hello fishy', 'Baps' and 'Dog, Woof Woof!' every time I visited! Maybe one day I can remind her of that and embarrass her! :-)

Anyway, that is all for now, just thought I'd release some of my thoughts and goings on onto the internet!

Toodaloo!

Doom and Gloom!

So here I am, sat in my bedroom at 57 Duncan Road, cold, bored and miserable, thinking of the glorious sunshine and weather back 'HOME' in Auckland!!

Today marks my one week anniversary of being back here in this 'hell hole'! Tonight whilst driving back from South Wigston I past a group of about 20 kids, none of which where older than 15, smoking, drinking and just generally causing trouble. It made me think of what those kids would be doing if they were living elsewhere, for instance NZ?! Is it any wander this country is in the dire state that it is, when the only thing for kids to do at night time, is either stay at home where they feel safe, or run the risk of being 'just another statistic' on the countries growing list of youth fatalities!  I know I was no saint when I was their age, but I was never doing the things they're doing!!

Lets just hope these next 7 months go by as quick as the past 7 days!!!!

Acceptance email....

Today I received my confirmation email informing me that I have been accepted onto the volunteering program!

I have just paid my registration fee and chosen my location..... I will be volunteering in 'Ho Chi Minh City' formerly 'Saigon' at the 'Phu My Orphanage'. My main jobs will include, Teaching the children English, helping to care for the disabled children and helping out with arts & crafts lessons and organizing sports games etc! :-)

I also managed to change my flights back to the UK, so, I now arrive on the 21st of February sometime in the morning, around 11ish I think!? So you should all be prepared for random visits anytime after that date!!

Anyway, that is all for now! As things progress I will update more......

:-)

A time of change...

So today I decided it was time to stop mopping around and dwelling on what has happened. After all, nothing I do can change what has happened and I guess I need to learn to live and deal with it, you can't always have what you want huh!?

Anyway, I decided that I am going to go ahead with all my travel plans by myself!! Yes, by myself! I also decided that I will also go on a volunteering program, like I had wanted to do before as well. So, as there is no time like the present, I have just sent off my application form to volunteer in a Vietnamese orphanage for a month next December! I will be fundraising to help pay for the cost of the program itself (but not for any flights, injections etc. etc.), so be expecting some emails / messages with fundraising plea's on them soon! :-)

I want that one.....

So last Saturday night I went into town for a friends birthday. We started the night in a place called Sin Bin, which is a nice little sports bar in Takapuna!

After buying a few rounds from the bar, the barman informed me it would be heaps cheaper to buy a 'giraffe'. Having never heard of one before I asked him just exactly what he meant, as I would struggle to a) Buy a giraffe and b) fit it in the bar! He then pulled this thing from under the bar, how it ever fit there I will never know....

Turned out to be a real bargain and we saved about $15 all up! It holds about 7 and a half pints, and it has a little tap on the base to pull your own pint! Wicked.... I will definitely be buying one of these again, and just hope I can find a shop in which I can buy my own!! :-) :-)

Forgot to say.....

I forgot to mention, to see a larger scale image just click the photo! :-)

Mini Road Trip!

As Richelle has now left New Zealand to attend university in Canada, we went on a mini road trip during our last week together. We took a slow drive down to the Bay of Plenty, where we spent the night in a nice 'authentic' Kiwi Bach (Holiday home for you pommes!) We had 'choice' (fantastic) weather on the first day as we were driving down, but gnarly (horrible) weather the next day, so I didn't take many photo's, only a few on the first day. But anyway, here they are..........

First we visited the Karangahake Gorge, then we stopped off in Waihi and had a quick peak into the goldmine!! The last photo is of the Coromandel, which runs parallel to the road through Paeroa and Waihi........




Then we finally arrived in Papamoa. We, or should I say Richelle, found a brilliant website called Book a Bach. Basically, it's for people to list their holiday homes for you to rent throughout the year. We scored a real good deal with the bach, it cost us $80 for the night, where as a hotel or motel would of cost us way over $100! The bach was also a 3 minute walk to the beach, all you had to do was walk out the garden gate and cross the road! Perfect!



:-) That is all........for now!!

Only in New Zealand!!

Whilst driving home along SH1 this afternoon, a truck passed us carrying live stock. As he sped past us doing way more than 100km's I noticed something furry sticking from under the truck on the passenger side. Curious as to what it was, we managed to get level with the truck and this is what we saw.......
I was amazed, shocked and angry all in one instant!! How cruel, I wander how the driver and owner of that dog would feel if we put HIM in a cupboard underneath a moving truck, only inches from the ground! Poor dog!! Why is this not illegal! Or is it?!

AB's vs England - Eden Park 14/06/2008

On Saturday we went to watch the AB's (All Blacks!) play the Pome's (England!) Unfortunately the AB's won! :-( But, here are some photo's from the game! We had quite good seats, we were right next to the pitch about 7 rows back, but sadly it was raining for part of the game so my camera stayed in my pocket. Also I was hoping the AB's would be facing us for the Haka, but they had their backs to us, AGAIN! :-( so the video I got of the haka is not really worthy of an upload! But anyway... ta ta for now!

Kia Ora!

Kia Ora and welcome to my blog! :-)

From here on in, I will be adding photo's and "stuff" about my travels!

Mitch