Dan's World Trip

New York, New York!

Sorry, I can't be bothered to write about America. However, here are some pictures. I was also going to do a post summing up my travel etc as well but have kind of lost the inspiration to do so since getting home. Hope you enjoyed following my last year nonetheless :-)

Famous street signs.

View out to Brooklyn from the Empire State Building.

Manhatten.

Taxi's in Central Park.

'Bow Bridge' in Central Park.

Times Square.

Steaming drain.

Brooklyn Bridge.

Statue of Liberty.

New York Knicks basketball match.

San Francisco

Chinatown.

Night shot.

'Always the real thing'

Typical steep street, Alcatraz in the background.

(Not so) Golden Gate Bridge.

'Crookedest Street'

'Crookedest Street 2'

Chinatown 2.

Street scene.

BK's new 'Quad stacker' - burger, cheese, burger, cheese, burger, cheese, burger, cheese, bacon, bacon. Mmm mmm.

Hollywood

Universal Studios below:

Will Smith:

Eddie Murphy:

Sunset Strip:

Mango Bay and Bounty Island

Before Beachcomber Island I was on Bounty Island, aka Celebrity Love Island. I met two Danes, Jonas and Rasmus who I hung out with... we decided to take out a catamaran and after a while faffing around swimming it the water kicking out legs as hard as we could trying to get a start etc we found the direction of the wind and flew! Dave and Adam who I later met on the island then again on Beachcomber took out out after I told them we had done and managed to crash it into some coral, tipping it upside down and breaking it really badly! I went with a friend of mine who worked behind the bar, Jone and climbed a tree to get a coconut. Then he showed me how to crack it open properly and I shared it round. One night we had karaoke and another night traditional Fijian song and dance. By day we played volleyball, snorkelled, lazed by the pool, and played pool and table tennis.

After Beachcomber Island I went with Jenny, Steph, Dave and Adam back to Vitu Levu - the main island, where we were going to stay in a place called Mango Bay in the South for two nights (Adam and Dave just one.) At the bus station we were harassed by Indian's offering us rides (about one and a half hours away) and we had to barter - it was strange being in that situation again, but a refreshing feeling at the same time because a part of me missed it and it was reminiscent of Asia! We eventually agreed and got in, but then he took us to another van with another driver, who proceeded to drive us around the main town in circles. We soon found out this was looking for more passengers to fill the van; luckily it didn't take too long.

On arrival we met the owners who instantly upgraded us to single beds with reading lights and we were on our own, it was really nice. Then we went out kayaking out to a reef break, which was much further than it looked and hence the waves weren't in fact small breaking ones, they were great big rolling and crashing ones! Would have been good surf... We had the buffet dinner in the evening then watched a Fijian dance and played drinking games for a lot of the night before lighting a fire on the private beach.

The second day it poured with rain, so we watched Borat and Casino Royale and another film I forgot the name of. Also played a bit of pool and table foozball. I had a shower in the rain and swam around in the giant flooded areas with the tens of frogs! On our last half day before our flight we went to one of the Fijian guys villages and he showed us around, including his own house and the houses of two famous Fijian rugby players. We finished off drinking cava with men from the village and the chief!

Local boy in his village.

And another.

Drinking cava with the chief.

Practical joke putting a frog on Adam in his sleep!

'We are saaailing'

The pool, as featured in Celebrity Love Island so I'm told.

Me and Jone singing karaoke!

Climbing for coconuts.

Beachcomber Island

I arrived on Beachcomber and walked into reception and by complete coincedence and to my suprise; stood there was a friend I had been to a couple of places along the East coast of Australia with! It took me back a bit because it had been around 4 months since I'd last seen them and I had no idea they were in Fiji, let alone on this island. Then I went to sit down with them at their table and they were sat drinking with some Welsh girls that I'd met in New Zealand! THEN. Okay, so we were all staying in the biggest dorm I've ever stayed in - it had around 130 beds! One morning I woke up from my top bunk as someone was arriving on the bunk below. I peered over to see a girl I'd met just before coming to Beachcomber! Of all the beds...

The days seemed to go by quite quick, chatting and hanging out on the beach, playing a bit of volleyball and going snorkelling (so beautiful) whenever we ran out of other things to do. Then we'd watch the sun go down before buffet dinner and begin the nights drinking, dancing, etc before moving on in the early hours to drinking cava (Fijian speciality drink) with the locals. It was the party island after all! Every night we would also do the traditional Fijian 'Bula dance' which was good fun and always ended with people falling over in or rolling in the sand! There was also a limbo competition one night, which... I WON! Hell yeah, I even beat girls from dance teams, haha. And got a free jug of beer for my efforts ;-) Some nights there was a fire show, or a dance show, or singing - always something going on. Another cool thing I did was sea biscuiting; you're lying holding on for your life on an inflated round board that's attatched by a long rope to a speedboat up front. You bounce around in the waves the boat's engines create and when the boat turns sharply you skid out really fast and get air off the waves - so much fun!

I would make the island out to sound better if I had the time and effort, you'll just have to trust me it was brilliant! Oh, also one day I rented a canoe with a friend and we paddled all the way to the next island, Treasure Island. We walked around there for a while, took advantage of the free cookies for their guests and I did something pretty cool - caught a jellyfish and fed it to some turtles!

Limbo competition.

Baby turtle.

Dancing the night away.

Cava.

Meee!

Sunset.

Valentines singers.

Another beautiful sunset.

Hanging out at the beach.

'East As' trip on the Kiwi bus

NOOOOOO I'm going home today! Beginning my journey home in less than 3 hours :'-( I don't wanna go home, it doesn't feel real... plus all the people I've travelled with have just been telling me "You'll be depressed when you get home" and "It sucks" etc etc. Someone just suggested I say I have a bomb on the plane and I could stay a bit longer, the police would even show me more of the area for free... anyway, time to start catch up:

The 'East As' trip on the Kiwi bus was quite different from the rest. For a start, the bus was smaller with only 20 of us on - myself (sat in the front seat the whole time), 2 other English guys and 17 girls from around the globe! We made 3 overnight stops on the trip - in Te Kaha, Rangitukia and Napier.

At the first, Te Kaha, there wasn't another house in sight from the one we were staying in. We were staying with a Mauri family and were given the traditional greeting, of rubbing noses together, and then were sung a song. They had quite a big back garden in which I played some football with the two other guys and their own private beach with canoes for free! I went exploring a little and found an old abandoned factory where I took some photos. After dinner we sat round talking and drinking for a while then went into the hot tub on the beach to watch the sunset over the ocean. That was at around 7pm and we ended up staying in the tub until around 1am! Needless to say I was very wrinkly, but my skin felt so smooth the next day!

On our drive to Rangitukia we stopped at a church in the middle of nowhere and at a couple of random bays. Then we walked hundreds of steps up a hillside to a lighthouse and viewpoint. Our stay was again with a Mauri family, and again in the middle of nowhere, though there were about 3 other houses! Some people went horse trekking so while they were doing that a few of the rest of us went to the beach and collected firewood for later on. We spent that night toasting marshmallows and playing table tennis.

We woke very early the next day, at around 5 am to climb a small hill and watch the sunrise. It was well worth the early wake up call. I think I went back to sleep after that for a couple of hours before cruising on. We stopped off at the longest pier in the Southern hemisphere and walked to the very end. Then I had the (not so) ingenius idea of jumping off the end and swimming back. If you ever go, don't do it! When we arrived in Napier we went to a chocolate factory followed by a winery, both with free tasters and DAMN it was good! Napier itself though was a pretty boring place; we went out in the evening and the town was pretty dead...

After the trip I had a good night partying in Taupo with the bus driver and some of the girls from the trip. Then I carried on up to Auckland the following day ready for my flight out. I met a couple of people from the Kiwi bus there, Caitlin (Team America) and Stefan and Kai who live there and we went to a concert one day and night where Roger Sanchez was the headliner!