The Bahamas

Hello from them there Bahamas in that there Carribean!
We're blogging slightly out of sync here, as a lil' issue with computer compatibility stops us from showing you what Hawaii, San Francisco and Las Vegas were like, but only for a little while.

Here's some photies.


little Sculpture park on the south-western coastline of New Providence Island, where we spent all our time. Any kind of tranquil effect of harmony and reflection is shattered by the harbours, power stations and industrial plants that're just next door to it. There are a load of bells with long pull-ropes suspended in the branches of the trees, which were good fun.
Some of the idustrial stuff that's trying to spoil the mood, as mentioned:

There's a chance that this is probably the most remarkable cliff in the Bahamas, as the islands are not volcanic or owt, but naturally swamp, based on a tiny bit of limestone, and are mostly completely flat.

Lyford Cay Beach, a family beach the locals use instead of the ones next to the megabucks hotels full of Americans, on the other side of the island:

From the way the shoreline curves around as you can see here, the water for a good distance out is just like a natural swimming pool.

Me sucking down on the island brew, Kalik:

Pronounced 'Klik', after the sound of the cowbells rung by everybody in street carnivals in the new year - the 'Junkanoo'... Who knew drinking yourself into a happy stupor could be so educational?
Seriously though, when Tim and I were here two years ago me saw that Junkanoo was no small 'ting, different competing troupes rehearse for it all year round, and those alone are impressive enough/

I painted a picture at the request of our cousin Christine, who we stayed with. Me at work:

(I'll do a art-themed update soon of all the stuff I got upto in a bit more detail, as if anybody's interested...)

Flash b'stad's houses:

They're everywhere the riff-raff aren't. Makes you sick, almost.

We went on a day-trip to nearby Rose Island, and saw this:

Yep, that's pretty much a cartoon tropical island with one palm tree on it. Only it's real.

On the way back:


Christine and Sean are members of the Nassau Lawn(?) Tennis Club, which is apparently roughly the second-oldest tennis club in the world, after somewhere in India:

Not that you'd think it from this photo. All the other members are Real Life Really Rich People...

Christine left her bag at the club that night, so didn't have any keys to get into her house with. So Tim Broke In through a window.

Watch your houses readers, he's seemed to be strangely good at it.

'Atlantis', the megabucks hotel resort casino:

Dwarfing everything else, it's got a sister resort in Dubai in the centre of some reclaimed land that's in the shape of a giant palm tree. I kid you not.
The funny thing is that though it's a mini Las Vegas, Bahamian citizens aren't allowed to gamble. Only tourists are.

Paradise Island, the small island that's got 'Atlantis' on, more or less part of New Providence thanks to two road bridges tall enough for cruise ships to go through:

This is the view out over the marina from where we had lunch before going scuba diving...
Messing around with Tim's Sunglasses while we waited for our food to turn up:


Guava Duff for pud!


Roaring off to go scuba diving:

You can see the cruise ship-sized bridge in the background.
The diving was good and all, and there were plenty of fish - Tim spotted a Sea Turtle - but the visibilty wasn't perfect like it was when we became certified Open Water Scuba Divers here two years ago...

We're off to Ireland now, we'll clear the update backlog as soon as we can.

Thanks for reading,

- Lee.

New Zealand Update #3:The Extremening

Just five hours or so until Tim and I make our way to Christchurch to hop a plane to Hawaii.

It's movie time!

But first, a hangover from the last update with photos of the ski field, Tim shot this >>movie<< (.AVI, 4.3Mb) with his excellent camerawork, of me going slowly down a hill. Check my style! Or lack of it in this film. We would have styled it up with our mad skills, but skiing while holding the camera in one hand is tricky when you're trying to achieve the afore-mentioned excellent camerawork.

Another hangover from the last update, me about to be hurled out of plane, all tensed up, buckled up, wind-rushed and strapped in, and sitting on dude's lap:

And now, with Thrift-Vision from the company's website:


I bungy-jumped today:

Confusingly, it's more difficult in some ways than skydiving.
Once you've got the initial shock of jumping off a ledge that's a comprehensible distance from the ground/water level, it's great fun.
Here's a >>video<< (.WMV, 770k)
Listen out for me going "Arghhhhhh!" down into the canyon bottom, then laughing manically. Great fun. Once again, it was all over so quickly I'd like to do it again to actually get the sense of what it's really like.

And then, we luged.
Above Queenstown...

you take a cablecar (and chairlift):

up to the downhill Luge tracks:

They're like teatrays with castors on the bottom, with handlebars for (limited) steering, and brakes. They're a scary amount of fun. Here's a >>video<< of me pulling in at the bottom.

That's it for now, we'll update you lot soon hopefully.

Bye for now.

- Lee.

New Zealand Update #2

Hello! Just enough time for a quick blog post before Tim and I have to really think quite hard about packing all our stuff together and (unfortunately) shipping out of New Zealand.

First off, here's one for 'Block' back home:

That's a ute. Pronounced 'Yoot'. 'Utility Vehicle', in recent years these sports-styled Utes have been in fashion for the Australian and Kiwi Barry-boys, it seems. This is the first time I've seen one actually being used for something practical...

Millionaire ski playground of Cardrona*

*:Presence of actual millionaires not confirmed.
You've seen this already. It was strictly hobo skiing for Tim and I, we hired most of our gear for free from our relatives' new Outdoor shop, then borrowed their season passes. We were super jammy.
Look Mum, I can travel on snow on planks and not fall over! (The planks in question being cousin Steve's topline, proper alpine skis - a little too advanced for my level of ability but good nonetheless)

Tim, the proper skier:

The two of us:

That's the mountains stretching towards Queenstown in the background. The town's set on a lake that's elevated at 300 metres, y'know. Did I mention the very fabric of the country of New Zealand is amazing..?

On the road upto Cardrona there's what can only be described as a Monster Truck Farm, where you can drive 'em around, apparently. They were all sitting around for people to look at instead. Here's the one we felt had the most Glamour:

And, Beauty and... THE BEAST!!!


Lake Wanaka in the morning:

Beautiful.

I painted a mural or three in Kay and Steve's new outdoor shop, to pay for our bed n' board and help them get the punters in and lulled into a false sense of security. Here's me at work:

(Do I look that smug all the time..?)


When that was finished...

I went skydiving.

Yep, a mere NZ$195 on special offer to look like an aeronautical jester for a short while:

Then they buzz you up in a long thin plane after no more training than watching a five minute video and an instructor checking your memory of it.
Off I go to certain death or eternal glory:

So you get strapped to a guy who knows what he's doing, and he's jumping out the plane reguardless of whether your idea of doing it measures up against the canopy door sliding open and the wind at 9,000ft gushing in and giving you second thoughts. You have to sit in the guy's lap, smile for the camera that's positioned on the wing, then crane your head and legs behind you, grab onto your harness with your hands and then...

You suddenly fly out of plane sideways at first, then flip over once or twice as the downward momentum gets you, then you're free-falling and the wind's trying it's best to bash all the air that's in your lungs out - all within a second or two with no time to actually think about what's going on. I got thirty seconds of free-fall, me halfway between massive panic attack and rapturous ecstasy, the instructor calmly tilting you around to get the view in, then the parachute jerks you up, opens and you're calmly and silently floating down from on high, making small talk with each other. I got the guy to put in a couple of big 'flares' where you float and then gravity quickly takes over again, I was so full of adrenalin. (And a youth playing Pilotwings)
Coming in to land:

Very smooth.
Apart from the bit where the dude nearly fell over me as I hit the deck like a sack of hormone-drenched potatoes:

I'm alive, and off into the sunset to another adventure:


And after all that, the best bit was probably when you first jump out of the plane and are being pulled in two different directions at about a hundred miles per hour.

I wanna go again.

It's bungee jumping tomorrow.

Cheers for now everybody, we'll catch up soon.

- Lee.

A shockingly early update from New Zealand

Well here's a real treat for all you fans of our blog; here are some photos of the country we are actually in - efficient or what?!
We flew into Christchurch on the south island - it's an excellent way to see the southern alps stretching across the country below:


We were driving out of the city when we spotted this street on the map - the sign would have made a good souvienir. Sadly it was too high on the post and we were lacking the proper equipment:


One of the first orders of business was to check out Cardrona, one of the local ski fields. Lee took the plunge and got involved with learning to ski, and made very good progress without any lessons:


Some local exploring took us up Mount Iron for some good views of Lake Wanaka - also a picture from lake level:



Sadly there has not been much in the way of snow during July. Apparently it either comes in July or August to give the best skiing at either the beginning or end of the season, so our timing was a bit unlucky. To combat the lack of snow we took ourselves off to Dunedin on the east coast - crossing some massive countryside in the process:


The Kiwi take on a Cash Converters:


About to drive down the hill into Dunedin:


When we got to Dunedin we discovered that there is Cadbury factory there - we thought we'd take a look. Inside there is a glistening golden pyramid of Chrunchies, although on closer inspection we discovered that they were just wooden blocks:

We got onto a tour of the factory, but Lee was a bit too hairy so he was made to wear a beard net as well, although that didn't dampen his enthusiasm for all things Cadbury:



While I was in Wanaka I was not expecting to (or had budgeted for) going flying; but the airfield was so convenient to get to, and the mountain scenery was absolutely stunning, it would have been too good to miss. In order to hire a plane to go anywhere out of sight of the airfield I would have to have an introductory course to mountain flying, this sounded like fun to me, so off we went.
Lake Wanaka from the air:


All the while it was threatening to snow, and there was a little bit occasionally, best seen from the top of Cardrona when the wind isn't so fresh:



On the second Monday of the school holidays everyone else went skiing while I flew to Milford sound. Superlatives do not really do the landscape any justice:


The airfield is right at the head of the inlet, packed tightly onto the only really suitable piece of land around. It serves as a major tourist drop-off point for people going on lunchtime cruises. The morning I went it was very icy - feet well clear of the brakes:



After landing we took-off and had an orbit or two around the sound to get enough height to cross the mountains for home:


Cardrona where everyone else was skiing that morning:


Flying done with for the day I headed to Cardrona to meet everyone else for lunch:

Lee and John having some fun at the end of the day:


Next was to head over to the Treble Cone resort on the other side if town. The day I went there were some really spectacular views to be had:


The guys I went with wanted to walk from the top of the highest lift to the peak to get a better run; and after 20 minutes of hard work we got to the top. You can just see the chairlift in the first photo; with me trying to look my coolest at the top - having just knackered myself out walking up, and getting buffeted by a howling wind in the second:



Another day and some more flying. I took Kay along to be the photographer, and she got some excellent shots of Lake Wanaka and the Wilkin river:




With the snow mostly being pretty poor in the downhill resorts we decided to give cross-country skiing a go. Kay took us up to the Snowfarm (where she is a volunteer 'friend') and showed us the ropes:

It's basically a basin filled with loads of terraced tracks for you to go around, and once you get in the track and start lunging, time goes surprisingly quickly:


More to come...stay tuned

-Tim