Colonels Abroad - Sheppard and Kate

I guess you can tell from the subject field what I think of the place. But, let me bore you all for a few minutes on our adventures in NZ anyway.

This place is cool!! Such a beautiful country - everywhere you look is green and lush with interesting plants, trees and wildlife all over the place. Except Auckland, which is just a normal big city, but with a beautiful harbour and a nice little bridge.

We left SF on Thursday 14th Oct, and after a 3 hour stop in LA and a 12 hour flight we finally landed in Auckland at 6.30 am Saturday 16th Oct - no Friday 15 (this still bothers me!! I want my day back!! Still, at least it was a cheap day.) We tried to get hold of Kate's Gran's cousin (Barbara) who had offered to put us up for a few nights. Nice. We tried to ring for about 1 hour with no success - constantly engaged, so we just hopped on the bus anyway. We arrived at the little bay where Barbara lives about an hour after we thought we'd get there to find her waiting at the bus stop for us. Doh! She'd been there all morning because she was having problems with the phone. Doh! Anyway Barbara's a lovely lady who soon won a place in my heart with a huge cooked breakfast!! Nice!!

Anyway, we both felt a bit ropey for a couple of days because of the jet lag, but were raring to go by the Monday so we booked a 3 day tour of the Bay Of Islands. Quality. This is the area north of Auckland for those who don't know (I'd never heard of it). We did a couple of really cool things up there, besides looking at all the beautiful scenery. We went on a coach doing 75 kph up the 90 mile beach, which was cool. I even assisted the driver and a couple of other blokes in rescuing a Mercedes that was stuck in the sand with the tide coming in!! What a plonker - some kiddy obviously driving his Dad's car with a couple of mates.

At the top of the beach we went up this quick sand stream to the sand dunes, where we both had a go at boogie boarding. Being young, athletic and cool I found it no problem, obviously. Well, that's a slight lie actually - I was cr@p and fell off the board half way down the dune!! Still I raised a good laugh from the 100 or so people watching. Doh!!

The other thing we did was take a 6 hour cruise round the bay, and visit a couple of the cool islands. This was fantastic. The weather was great, if not a bit chilly at the front of the top deck where we were sat. The strength of the sun surprised me a bit and I burnt the top of my head! Doh! We saw 3 pods of dolphins, which was really cool. 1 pod swam along with the boat for ages and were messing about in the jets and jumping around, which was the highlight of the day. Nice. I was a bit alarmed to hear the captain tell us that the dolphins only live 10-12 years in captivity, but can live up to 40-50 years in the wild. I may think twice before going back to Seaworld.

The other thing that happened in the Bay of Islands was even more embarassing for me than the boogie boarding! We had checked into our hotel room after spending the day on the coach getting up there. I had a shower and was stood by the bed about to get dressed when someone opened the door!! Nightmare! It was a lady guest who had just checked in and been given our key by reception!! Although I'd had the good sense to
put the chain on the door it still opened a little way, and her line of vision was straight at me. Poor lady!! Anyway, we obviously weren't best pleased and complained - after I recovered from my shame!! We got a free night, so not too bad.

On returning to Auckland we hooked up with Jonny H and his lovely wife Mel, who showed us a great time over the holiday weekend - bonus. Jonny and I even managed
to watch the boys beat Charlton at 5am Sunday on the TV in the motel. NICE!!! I was quite surprised Jonny turned up actually because he was a bit badgered the night before! They took us out for their friends birthday bash on the Saturday night to a Japanese restaurant. You can imagine my panic!! Jonny took no rubbish off me and made me eat some sashimi (raw snapper), which I actually quite liked!! So I got stuck into the rest of it too and really enjoyed it. Nice. Looks like we won't have to live on McDonalds when we get to Japan after all!! Bonus.

After the footy on Sunday morning Kate & I watched Jonny, Mel and their friend Alison bungy jump off the harbour bridge!! Unfortunately there were only 3 slots left so Kate & I couldn't have a go. Yeah right!! Although, having seen the video I'm starting to come round to the idea - plus Jonny keeps on about it, so I might have to do it just to shut him up!!

We went out to the West Coast on Sunday afternoon to see their friends - who have a fantastic place with great views. We had a nice stroll along a deserted beach and then home made pizza! Nice!!

We said good bye to J & M on Monday and got ourselves a car for the duration of our NZ stay - this one thank god has central locking!!

We went up to Coromandel for a couple of days, which was really beautiful. We visited a hot water beach (dig a hole in the sand in certain places and get yourself a hot spring) and a beach only accessible via a cove when the tide is out. Nice.

I was attacked by a cockerel in a car park at one place. I was about to get in the car when it started legging after me, so I ran round the car to get away from it and managed to get in the car. Kate thought I was being a complete pansy (where she gets these ideas from I don't know), so she opened the window and said 'hello chicken'. At this point the bird jumped up at the window and tried to get her!! Luckily the window
was only half open so it fell on the ground. That'll teach her for calling me a pansy. Nice.

We're in Rotorua at the moment. We've been here for a couple of days and are probably staying until Tuesday. We had trouble finding a motel I like though. There are hundreds to choose from but not many have Sky Sports 2, and the boys are on the telly again Sunday at 5am, so I couldn't miss that!! Found one anyway (after about an hour on the phone and the yellow pages!) that was in the price range, and we've even got a private jacuzzi!! Nice.

We thought we'd better get with the program whilst we were here, so we did rafting and jet boating yesterday. Cool. Never done either before, but would do both again.

The rafting was interesting, because we went over 3 waterfalls in the boat!! 3m, 1m and 7m high!! We negotiated the first 2 OK and then came to the third. The guides started telling us what to do if the raft capsized or we fell out, and I just thought they were doing it to scare us a bit more. Turns out they weren't. We went over the edge and plunged into the water below. The boat then turned over and we were all
under water!! I grabbed the rope on the boat and got above the surface first - nice survival instincts (and caught on camera too, nice.) We were all OK and managed to turn the boat over and get back in OK. Kate was a bit shaken up as she doesn't really like the water, but she was fine - she was the only girl on the boat so the guides were always looking out for her. Nice.

The jet boating was really cool too. We were the only people on it apart from the driver. Cool. I had to get out and rescue a lamb that was trapped on the river
bank, which was interesting! Obviously I have no experience with animals and the lamb had no idea I was there to help so it kept avoiding me! Anyway I returned it safely to it's field and felt a right hero. Cool.

Anyway, I think that's quite enough rubbish from me! It seems like we've been away ages now but it's only 8 weeks, so much more rubbish to come!!

PS. Couple of wierd things about NZ.

1 - Strange give way rules. Can't explain it, but it's weird.

2 - All their major roads are called 'state highways'. There are no states in NZ! What??

Colonels Abroad - Grinner and Liz

Thought it was time to say hi and our big trip is finally happening!! We got to Windhoek this morning after a 20 hour bus up the western and northern cape from Capetown - nice views everywhere, the further north we went the more baron and desert-like it became, it was fab as far as long journeys go..

Its amazing how isolated some of the villages are and how they keep going in the searing heat, 100's of miles from anywhere. Met some nice people on the bus who are doing similar sorts of things to us, picking up a car on monday for a 2 week circle of the country - desert, dunes, ghost-towns, hot air baloons, local tribes and most excitingly the huge game parks of Etosha in the north - lions, elephants, giraffes, zebras, meercats........roaming free everywhere. According to the guide books 'never run from a leopard' - this is the advice we carry with us!!!

Windhoek is different, baking hot and very small for the capital city. Not much to see or do here - Namibia only got independence 14 years ago so buildings are new, also we arrived on a weekend when everything is shut, nice. Anyhow stopping in a really nice hostel, nice people, locals are lovely - though all there is to do today is sit by pool in 37 degrees of clear sunshine, very tough....

Tomorrow is where the fun starts, we're camping at a meercat farm tomorrow night then off all over the place after that.

Colonels Abroad - Sheppard and Kate

What have we been doing since we were last in touch? Loads is the answer, so prepare yourselves for another essay! Nice.

We left Colorado and started our 3 day drive to Las Vegas. The drive was really cool. We only went through 4 different states, but we did over a thousand miles and spent the best part of 2.5 days in the car. The scenery was amazing and changed dramatically during the drive - snow topped mountains to vast barren areas of dessert.

We stopped in a couple of places on the way, which were quite cool. A couple of small towns in the middle of nowhere - Moab, Utah and Williams, Arizona. We got up at about 4.30 on the third morning to get to the Grand Canyon for sunrise. This was amazing! The Grand Canyon is really cool, given that it's just a big hole. We stayed for a couple of hours and watched the sun come up and the rocks change colour - red
apparently, although I obviously couldn't tell!

We then drove to Vegas via the Hoover Dam. There was lots of construction going on around the dam and a lot of people, so we just stopped for a couple of minutes, had a look at it and then left.

We got to Vegas at about 1pm. Man it was hot!! About 98 F. We found the strip OK and went off on foot in search of a hotel/motel/park bench. We looked around for a bit and decided that we should treat the 4 nights there as a holiday and stay somewhere nice. We went on the internet and got a really good deal on a room at the MGM Grand!! Nice! The hotel was amazing - the biggest in the world apparently. Kate was very impressed with decor - especially after we'd seen some of the others!! Anyway, we treated ourselves to a few treats in Vegas - nice meals, a day at the gym and
spa, and some gambling of course!!

Kate had never been to a casino bfore, and I'd only been a couple of times up to Napoleons in Sheffield. I sort of knew what I was doing with blackjack and roulette so we had a bit of a go. It was good fun and I won a bit on the cards and Kate broke even with the roulette. Nice.

I didn't know what to expect from Vegas. I thought it might be a bit tacky and crap, but we both thought it was really cool and would love to go back sometime and stay at the Bellagio.

Onto to San Francisco!! SF is quite cool. We're staying in a hostel, which has been very different!! We have a private room with our own bathroom, but it's quite noisy sometimes. We get breakfast included which is cool - all you can eat waffles and pancakes. The only hassle is you have to make them yourself!! Not used to this!!

We've done a lot of touristy stuff since we've been here - cruise round the bay, tour of Alcatraz, 49 er's football game, Haight Ashbury and Golden Gate Bridge. All very cool. The football game was great. We got there quite early and were amazed to see fields and fields leading up the ball park full of huge trucks with awnings off the back and BBQ'a set up!! Everyone seemed to have a BBQ going, it was mad! Some even had the TV's in the back of their trucks!! Not the sort of thing you see on the way to anfield! The game itself was really good. The 49 er's are rubbish - no offense
at all - but the Arizona Cardinals were quite good and gave them a seious whipping.

Alcatraz was also really cool, if not a bit eerie. We went on the night tour - thanks to Teddy's advice - and were lucky enough to be coming back with the sun setting behind the Golden Gate Bridge - amazing!!

Anyway, we're off to NZ tomorrow - very excited about this! USA has been quality, and everywhere we've been has been different, which has been really good. Colorado and Vegas have been the highlights for me, and probably the only 2 places I'd come back to.

Colonels Abroad - Sheppard and Kate

A story for a selected few (HA HA)

Drive down to Grand Canyon and Vegas was eventful! We got up in the middle of the night in Moab, Utah to watch the sun come up in the mountains. We drove for about 30 mins. We got out of the car and walked around for a bit before returning to the car just before the sun was due up. Anyway, Kate locked the keys in the car!! Nightmare!! Middle of the mountains at 7 am with no signal on the cell phone, no passers by and the nearest civilisation about 4 miles away - down the mountain!! We snapped the aerial off and I tried, unsuccessfully, to break in for about an hour!!

Eventually, with all hope running out I smashed the smallest window on the car with a huge rock!! I phoned the car rental company when we got back to civilisation and said that we'd noticed a crack in the window that morning and that I'd had to swerve off the road to avoid a rabbit and hit a huge pothole off the shoulder of the road and the window just shattered so I had to push it in. Sounds a bit ropey to me, but
they bought it. Nice. We had to drive about 200 miles without the window until we could swap the car. All sorted!! Bit of adventure!!

SpaceShipOne rockets to success
After it's second historic flight, Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites have won the $10 million dollar Ansari X Prize. More importantly yesterday marks the start of the space race again.

Come on