Queenstown

We're just settling into Queenstown life. It was a jaw dropping experience getting off the plane. The scenery is amazing and so was the temperature (0 degrees). Queenstown is a class little town. Every house has an amazing view of the lake and the surrounding mountains.

After the overnight flights ( LA - Auckland - Chrishchurch - Queenstown) we were like zombies and the whole thought of organizing ourselves seemed so overwhelmingly. It's the usual, everyone seems to know what they are at except us. The hostel, Hippo Lodge is class, its a series of small lodges each with its own lounge and kitchen. Ours is called the Honeymoon House as its full of double rooms and we're even sharing with an English couple of who are on honeymoon. They are really cool but so fecking organised compared to us. We were just blinded by their organisation. This morning, 7am, they were running around getting a packed lunch together,wraps with honey and lime hot drink for up the mountain, while we just bumped into each other sleepily trying to make jam on toast.



So with some sleep replenishment today we got ourselves as organised as only Alan and Sally can be and booked ONE day's snowboarding, which we are pretty proud of. One day at a time and all that. The plan is to see if we like the boarding before booking a few days otherwise we'll just ski.

Freeway Driving in California

Freeway driving was an mad experience. We covered 900 miles with the radio stations constantly disappearing off the dial not that they are up to much unless you like "soft rock", thankfully we had the ipod.

The US drivers just love open road and it doesn't matter what lane that open road is in or what speed the traffic is going. Several times I'd have cars passing me on the inside and outside. This is fine and I got used to it but what I found astonishing was when you are on a two lane freeway and in a long line of traffic in the outside lane about to pass a truck. Cars will race up the inside lane (open road) right up to the truck and then shoulder their way into the fast lane. This happened time and time again. You are driving at 70 and these cars mussel in causing everyone is forced to brake. To make it worse all the cars in the line drive as close to each other as possible to stop the guys on the inside barging in.

I just left huge caps between me and the car in front and this was like Christmas to the other drivers they just lapped up any free road space even if only going a 5mph.

Survived Yosemite

We went from 4 star luxury in LA to -4 star in Yosemite, but we surived and really enjoyed it by the end. The scenery was amazing, photos here in a while. We bit off more than we could chew, by being scabby we took a one way bus trip to the top of the valley and decided to walk down the "four mile" trail. It should be called the "four hour" trail. It was 30C so so steep. Fair dues to Sal who did it all in her flip flops and a mini, every one else had hiking gear.



Just arrived in San Fran, we got lost on the way in doing so saw a good bit (one hours worth) of the back streets. It's looking good, just going to head out and explore now. American leg of the trip coming to an end, we are really really astounded by how hospitable and friendly the yanks are. For all the complaining we do about them, the Irish welcome isn't a scratch on the American one we experienced.

Hi Uncle Sean, we really miss you and you look French! ( You can lodge that cash now) - Sal

Nearly Time To Go

Since it’s nearly time to go and since I haven't updated this in over a month I thought I'd put something down about the last month.

It’s been an absolute mental month. Between wrapping up Jeecom Europe, moving out of the apartment in Smithfield with 6 years worth of crap, getting all the final travel related things done and saying goodbye to everyone its been exhausting. It got pretty stressful which is fine as it’s going to make the trip all the sweeter by the time we get going (in 12 days).

We've booked the American leg of the trip with the help of Robbie (thanks), who was just back from the west coast. We're staying in LA for the first night then hiring a car and going to Yosemite National Park camping with the bears for two nights, San Francisco for one before the long drive back to LAX for our flight to NZ on the fourth evening. It's going to be over 1500 mile by car, which is worrying me. Have we bitten off more than we can chew? I'll let you know.

Over the last couple of weeks we've had some great nights out saying good-bye to the various groups of friends. It great craic but it really takes it out of you (getting old). Everyone asks are we excited but I'm not sure if its really sunk in yet. Someone said it will after a fortnight when you'd normaly expect to be going home. There has been the odd lump in my throat which I didn't think I'd experience and I'm afraid to tell Sal about because I'm supposed to be the strong one!

Thanks to those who gave us advice and things for the trip, surprisingly useful and thoughtful.

For the next week I'm helping out around the folks house, seeing a bit of them, going to see the lads from home, see a dentist and get the final final things I need like an old fashioned toothbrush.

Final Ticket Payment & Hidden Charges

Since we are now insured for cancellation I decided I'd pay off the remainder on the tickets. Of course the final price has risen by €50 each due to an "increase in global oil prices". These are the hidden charges they don't tell you about. In total we paid an extra €€204 each above the advertised amount of the ticket. Hmmm not impressed considering airlines are supposed to hedge the price of oil on an annual basis but what can you do and besides on the grand scale of things the ticket price isn't a big portion of the overall cost.

Insured

I finally got our travel insurance sorted out. What a nightmare. Finding a reputable company and then reading through all the fine print to make sure "that it does exactly what it says on the tin". There are a surprisingly large number of Irish companies that do Backpacker insurance.

If you are interested I drew up this spreadsheet of Irish and UK Travel insurance providers and the cost of the policy plus a breakdown of the cover. I eventually went with gohop, they offered a middle of the road package with ski cover for 30 days for €289 per person compare that to Trailfinders' €680.I would also recommend Usits insurance but you have to book the trip through them to avail of it.

Car Sold

This time it really is sold. No messing like the last time.

I had mixed emotions seeing the car being driven off, sparkling after a good will wash. I really grew attached to the bloody thing but then there is the relief of not having to worry about it anymore. The money is safely in the bank and I made a healthy 20% return on my orginal investment which ain't bad with interest rates as low as they are.

Yet another item I can cross off the to do list. I'm gradually getting through the list, next travel insurance!

F**king Students

Had a bit of a set back selling the car. A student from DCU who agreed to buy the car a week ago basically kept stalling when it came to actually coughing up the cash. I stupidly told other potential buyers the car was gone. I was very suspicious but he gave me his word he wasn't f**king me around and he'd take it off me at the weekend which has just passed with out as much as a call to say he wasn't going to take it off me. Very rude. The jumped up little shit has no manners. Anyway the car is back on the market as of today. I've learned not to say its sold until the reddies are in my paw and not to be so trusting.

Packed Up

I bought a rucksack/backpack at the weekend. €€135 for a 60ltr Berghaus Silhouette. It's a travel pack rather than a hicking pack, with a large front loading zip for easy access to the contents. It also has a shoulder strap cover, useful to save the straps for baggage handler death. It comes with a i-trak tracking system which just seems to be a glorified address label, but heh it was free so complaining. It's also got one of those detachable day packs which I thought I wouldn't want but reckon it could be handy esp. when you can't or don't want to bring the larger pack with you.

Sally opted for a similar design but by a lesser known brand and at half the price it'll be interesting to see if lasts. Sal's is a 70ltrer which I think is big but its better than the 100ltr wheelie one she initially wanted. At least if I end up carrying her pack its not going to be massively different to mine. Phew ;-P

Jabs of Joy

Just got me jabs, oh what a delight, honestly. After a quite a bit of shopping around I decided to go with the Albany Clinic on Fitzwilliam St. because most places charge the same thing and the Albany Clinic is right beside my work.

They are extremely nice people in there and took a lot of time over the consultation (no rushing you out the door mentality) mainly working out the best Malaria drug to take. The jabs themselves were painless.

Another thing off the to-do list. Rucksack and travel insurance next.

For those interested the Jabs cost €145 including consultation.

Resignation Time

After my sole workmate beat me to the post about two weeks ago I've been mulling over when to hand in my resignation and I after careful consideration and consultation with various people I thought the most honourable thing was to give Ed, my Taiwanese boss who lives in Taipei, as much notice as possible.

Whatever way he takes it it's going to take a while to either shut down the office here in Dublin or train up someone to carry the torch further. So I emailed Ed and awaited his phone call yesterday and when it came it was soon apparent he hadn't read his mail so I had to tell him over the phone, which was interesting. Ed is a compulsive talker and after telling him I was off around the world for a year in two months he was silent for the longest period I have every experienced. He now thinks there is something under hand going on because both Paddy and myself have left to go travelling but I assured him there wasn't.

Any way we decided to shut the office buy the end of July and try and recruit someone to keep things ticking over from a smaller venue most preferably an ex-employee.

So last night it dawned on me how much shite I've to do to get this office back into the shape it was in before we moved in. It might be possible to do a deal with the landlady considering we've turned this basement office into a fully serviced modern office it would be a shame and a waste to lose it all.

Well the relief of not living a lie anymore is great but that has being quickly replaced with panic that I won't get everything sown up by the end of July. I really want the beginning of August to chill out at home with the folks and not have to worry about work!

VW Golf for Sale

Its time to off load, what has become my beloved, golf. It passed its NCT with only the brake lights needing repair so time to sell. I've put up this page so potential buyers can have a goo at it. I tried linking to this page from a free add I put up on the Buy and Sell but the cheeky gits removed my link and also didn't publish the advert in the hard copy of the paper as punishment. Looks like I'll have to invest in some real paper inches to get some more exposure. What's needed is a daft for cars.

Geocities Remote Link Test

Geocities block remote linking to images but one work around is to rename the file extension of the image you want to link to as txt.

So here goes:

Another travel toy

I bought this little baby (Canon Powershot A60) this morning for £99 on amanzon.co.uk. A steal in my eyes. It seems from various web reviews its a cracker for the price and that's taking in the fact its only 2 mega pixels. At £99 I won't be worrying about losing it when traveling or taking it out on the raz.

At this rate the pack will be full with electronics, with a phone and ipod in there already. I have to call a halt at this. Watch this space for some sample pics when I get it.

Phone to blog test

Just testing the email to blog functionality from my phone.If this works it will make blogging very easy, esp for Sal who is an sms freak.

Dentist

I've a large gap between my two front teeth which the dentist insisted he narrow for me when I was at Uni and because it was free I agreed. All was fine until last year I went for a cheap check up in the dental hospital in Dublin. The second year student was great very but she decided I need the gap redone and again I agreed only this time it has only lasted a year as opposed to 5-6 years since the initial version. Version 2 has crumbled already so this got me thinking I should get the auld teeth a check up before venturing off around the globe.

It's not really a round the world trip, more around Austral-asia with a stop off in LA.

Illustrated route

Booked!

We finally got around to booking the trip on Monday and the faffing around costs us about €200. Ticket price now €1664 instead of €1555. Ah well, its just great to have it booked. It feels a whole lot more real. I still can't believe its going to happen. The itinerary is as follows:

18th August Dublin - LA
22nd August LA - Auckland - Queenstown
2nd October Auckland - Nadi (Fiji)
16th October Nadi- Brisbane
TBA Cairns - Darwin
TBA Darwin - Bali
TBA Bali - Singapore - Bangkok
TBA Singapore - London - Dublin

Roll on August 18th

Investment

Last weekend I took the short hop over the Irish sea to Holyhead to pick up a little investment. With the holiday fund getting eaten up by inflation I decided to invest the money in a car that I heard was going cheap. The car, a black 3 door 1.4ltr 52K on clock Volkswagen Golf with alloys, was owned buy a girl who works in London who just recently picked up a company car and wanted to get rid of the Irish reg'ed golf asap. So I duly obliged at the right price and hope to sell it on for a small profit. If you are interested please get in touch.

Ultimate Travel Toy

I’ve just got hold of the ultimate travel toy for the trip one of these little babys:
 

Sals friends were over in New York for mid term and one of them bought it. Saved me roughly €100 on buying it here. I also bought a thing called an iTrip, which connects to it and turns it into a mini fm radio station (illegal in Ireland BTW). Very handy for use in the car and playing songs through a stereo at home, no wiring it up, just pop on the iTrip and tune in the radio. For any one interested, the best frequency to use in the Dublin region is 88.8, its very clear.

I going to be able to put all our music and all the music gathered over the years at the office on it and still have room to use it like a portable hard drive.

You got to hand it to the Apple designers they really take design seriously. Even the way it was packaged is very well thought out. I reakon its a design classic allready.