SYDNEY (proper)
Ah, Sydney... forever shall you have a place in my heart.
Sydney was hot. Sydney was busy. Sydney was big.
The month started out with me hanging around town or with Kat then cooking dinner in the evening for Jenny or having Kat cook for us all.
At the weekend Jenny and I would hang out and go to our favourite German pub, The Lowenbrau, where we served beers in litre glasses, or walk around the city of Sydney, lunching in cafes and taking in some of the touristy sights, like the AMP tower or Bondi beach. We chilled out in the share house and watched movies, chatted or drank.
Along with these days I also met up with Kenny and Karen (the canadian couple I ran into in Nelson). We took part in drinking, going to the movies and cooking the world's mightiest lasagne together. Kenny and I also decided to sneak into the Chinese Gardens after closing time and had a wander round there, bumping into some of the friendly reptilian wildlife, i.e. lizards. We also went down to the beach together where I was stung by a Jellyfish.
I met up also with the legends of Laura and Jen and we had a couple of nights drinking and playing pool together. We also headed to the beach one day where we went surfing and I was, once again, stung by Jellyfish.
Christmas was an odd affair. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day... so I put the turkey on with all the trimming and we all took a walk out on the sunny afternoon to enjoy the warmth. We exchanged gifts in the morning. Jenny gave me a leather wristband, an optimus priime toy, the cat empire Two Shoes album and some chocolate. I bought her a guitar. I gave Kat a couple of books and she gave me the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. We settled in the evening to play a drinking game while watching the transporter which had us in fits of giggles.
New Year was just stunning. We went down early to Mcquaries Chair to get a good spot and spent all day there just chilling out and feeling good. The evening was amazing and we watch the spectacular fireworks arc up from the harbour bridge, opera house and the Sydney skyline. The incandescent light illuminated the whole harbour and by the end the bridge was pretty much obscured by the smoke of them.
It then came time for goodbyes. The first to go was Jenny B. We had a night of good chat and bad wine to see her off.
Next to go was me. So it was time to say farewell and see you soon to Jenny D. She walked me to the airport and there we parted ways, for now as I took my slow flight back to New Zealand. I came away with good memories... and a nice t-shirt too!

Landing in Sydney to the Cat Empire
Arriving in Sydney could have gone smoother. Well to be honest the arrival was fine... it was trying to sort accomodation that was the nightmare.
I found my hostel easy enough and (foolishly) thought the hard part was over. Combine an erroneous booking, an unhelpful receptionist and only two hours sleep and you have a recipe for something going wrong. So I finally managed to get a room in the right place but something seemed wrong when I found that all the rooms were full... where was Jenny going to sleep? I slept for a while until I received a text from Jenny informing me that she was worried that since she had a got a replacement passport her visa might not be valid. Wanted to ensure her that things would be ok I tried to call but had no credit so started on my adventure to try and get an Aussie phone card for my phone. This resulted in some harrassed running around and yielding few results... I was slightly annoyed. Jenny arrived earlier than I had thought (due to time difference, doh!). We found the hostel had been overbooked and she was in a room in the hostel rather than the share house. In our frustration Jenny decided it was time I seen the opera house. So we trekked out down to the harbour to see the huge architectural... um... thing. We stayed for a while then headed back to the hostel.
The next day we decided that since we weren't getting our rooms proper until we got back from Melbourne meant that we might as well go to Melbourne for as soon as possible and sort it when we got back. The plan was put into motion: We booked our accomodation and bus that day. In the evening we took a walk accross the harbour bridge to view Sydney's nightscape.
The next day we caught our bus and endured the 14 hour bus journey up to Melbourne. We broke up the journey with ipod and Psp related shenanigans.
Melbourne was a nice city and we stayed in St. Kilda. We met up with Kat on the day of the gig and I also met up with my friend I made in Queenstown, Jess, of awesome status.
Now I have to say that I have been looking forward to seeing the Cat Empire for a long time. Possible since I first heard "Days Like These" back in Aberdeen around 4 years ago. My travel agent in Wanaka had even said that they "go off on one" on stage which only served to pique my interest. I WAS NOT DISAPOINTED! This will go down in history as my best gig ever. I'm serious when I say these guys are the reason music was invented. I can't and won't describe how good they were as that wouldn't cover their awesomeness. My only advice to all is to go to a Cat Empire gig. You will never regret it.

Meeting Jenny D
After my ride to Dunedin I stood awaiting the arrival of Jenny D. The first familiar face I would see in months. When i seen her we ran together and I scooped her up in a bone-crushing hug. Was strange seeing her after so long. She hadn't changed much.
We went out for a walk to find somewhere we could have a drink but to no avail... everywhere was shut so we ended up just walking around and chatting casually about our travels so far.
The next day we booked into the a tour on the Speights Brewery and hung around town eating sushi and generally enjoying Dunedin.
The tour was good and afterwards Jenny and I got suitably plastered.
We headed to Queenstown the next day on the train through Arthur's pass. In Queenstown I introduced Jenny to the might of the Fergburger and we had a fairly chilled evening. The next day we were gonna go Bungy jumping but we couldn't catch a bus to get us there and back in time for our bus back to Dunedin. So we walked around Queenstown and chilled out.
When we got back to Dunedin we went to the Cinema to see "Out of the Blue" a Kiwi film that was pretty hard-hitting.
I then had to head off myself to Christchurch to catch my flight to Sydney, Austrailia.
Oh, and somewhere in the middle of all this Jenny and I started dating.

Wananananaka
Okay.
After leaving Laura and Jenny in Christchurch I headed on down to Wanaka (stopping briefly in Queenstown for a Fergburger) to start work on the vinyards.
I booked into the cheapest hostel I could find, The purple cow and went to the agency. I had no trouble getting work and started the next day. I met a few nice people on the yards the main one being my mate Ivan. We started chatting one day then ended up going jogging and kayaking together throughout my stay in Wanaka.
The work wasnt hard at the vinyards but the pay wasnt too good either. I needed to find cheaper accomodation in order to be making a worthwhile profit. I went round town asking hostels if they had jobs for accomodation, looked at alternate places and even flats. I returned to my hostel with a list of numbers and decided to phone after lunch. Before I could start though a guy came into the hostel and asked if I wanted to do an hour's work for 20 dollars. I agreed and headed out with him and another guy who he'd got to help him. We started off by going to the pub for a pint. We then headed round to his house and spent around 45 mins unloading a trailer. After that he gave us another beer and invited us to come test out his new spa bath. I decided I liked his idea of "an hour's work."
He told us he'd just moved in and I asked if he had a room to rent for three weeks.
"Yep. No problem" he said
"How much would you want a week for it?"
"Nothing."
And this is how I met Pricey. He was a good lad and looked after me well for the three weeks I was staying with him. He introduced me to his kids: Nicole (6), Elise (4) and Helene (3). I helped him build a playpark in his back yard, helped him move into his house and hung out with him and he cooked me dinner most nights and gave me free beer. It was a good relationship.
Two weeks before I left Ivan came by and helped me to get a new job up on the proving grounds above Wanaka. I spent most days at 1200 m planting grasses and enjoying the spectacular view. A few days before I was due to finish my partner, Brenda, had to leave. This gave us a slight problem of how I was gonna drive down from the utility shed to the area I was working at since I couldn't drive. A problem quickly solved by giving me a quad bike! A mistake really since on my last day i ended up driving it around in my lunchbreak and generally slacking off to have a go on it.
After I finished work Pricey gave me a lift to Dunedin so I could meet Jenny. And I just wanna say that he knows how to ride in Style. We drove down in a 1963 Red E-Type Jaguar convertible. What a ride!

Steve's Statistics
Ok folks... thought I'd punch this out for your entertainment:

Number of Countries visited: 3 (China, Japan, New Zealand)

Number of months on the road: 6

Number of times I've been interviewed for TV: 2

Number of times Bungy Jumping: 7

Number of times Skydiving: 2

Number of caving expeditions: 2

Number of Zorbs: 1

Number of times sea-kayaking: 2

Bottles of Tequila consumed: (Rough guess) 7 - 12

Number of Earthquakes experienced: 4

Number of Sky Jumps: 2

Canyon Swings: 1

Most dangerous activity in New Zealand: Free climbing up the near vertical loose rocks on the Sealy Tarns track at Mt. Cook.

Ok oK OK.... IM sorry
Yeah folks... I'm sorry... It's been a long time:

Quick Recap:

After leaving Charlie in Dunedin I headed to Queenstown where I met up with a few folk including the Jo "Uma Thurman" Baker (whom I ended up dancing on tables with in Winne Bagoes where I also met Joss who i had climbed Fuji with in Japan), the friendly Jess "having a larf" and Paul "adrenaline-issues". It was here that I embarked upon Quad Biking with Paul and enjoyed it muchly and found that the best cure for a hangover is Two hours of Quadbiking and A Fergburger.

And the Thrillogy: Three Bungys

1: Kawarau Bridge: World's first commercial Bungy Jump, 43 m high into ice cold water

2: The Nevis: New Zealand's highest bungy, 134 m over a valley

3: The Ledge: Urban Bungy set 400 m above Queenstown, 47 m drop

WHAT A RUSH!

After that I met up with the delightful pair that exist under the names of Jenny "The Buzzsaw" Beschizza and Laura "Desert Eagle" Divine. We drove from Queenstown in our gold car, which we named GLC (Goldie looking car) , to the hip and happening town of Invercargill. We checked the surrounding are such as the Bluff and were pleased.

Catching the rough riding Ferry over to Stewart island which put Motion sickness in a new world for me. 4m swells rocked the boat... so glad I wasn't hungover. Stewart Island was pretty and included a random and meandering adventure.

We scooted around the Catlins as well and got to see some awesome waves crashing against some awesome scenery. We also lots of seals and sea lions (hell, I nearly tripped over one) and even a yellow eyed penguin was scouted out by us.

Once Back in the Invercargill we headed to Dunedin. We took in the cadbury chocolate factory, the speights brewery and the otago penisula. We even met a Mancunian named John "Derringer" Dylan who joined our trip for a while. We decided to head back to Queenstown for a bonding experience in the form of doing another Thrillogy! John decided to join us. Before heading off though we took in the Ghost walk of Dunedin which frankly required a change of underwear afterwards.

Once in Queenstown we were all business!
Three jumps: One Day.... Bring IT ON
Decided to put a bit more style in my jumps this time: Got a better push off the Nevis (see bebo video), went backwards off the Kawarau bridge and forward flipped off the ledge. We drank in the evening and made merry.

Next day we headed out to the beautiful Mt. Cook were we spent days walking the tracks and checking the scenery. John left us after that to head to Christchurch and on to glory in Fiji.

After we finished in Mt. Cook we headed to Christchurch. We drove around the area going to New Brighton and then on to the Hanmer springs where we took a well earned break from our chaotic routine and doused ourselves in some hot spring baths. A fitting in to our road trip.

We have been residing in Christchurch ever since until the girls head off to Austrailia and I head off on my own adventures until.... SHE ARRIVES! That's right: The dreaded Jenny Divine shall be reaching the shores of New Zealand again so we must fortify ourselves againts her arrival which shall be both brutal and merciless.... tequila will probably be involved as well.

In Christchurch we had a mini Antartic adventure: We visited the centre then met a guy who had just come back from a tour of duty out there who was so enthused by his experience that it was infectious.

From then we have been eating sushi, reading books and chilling in the park. I have also been given the job of personal trainer to the girls so I have started them on a regime that makes the army cry and the marines call out Amnesty international. I have also been putting myself through hell on the exercise circuit and am pleased to report that I am dropping fat and building muscle quicker than I thought possible.

So thats us up to speed... Sorry for the gap guys but these things happen. Talk to ya soon.

Quiet day
Charly and I hung out for our last day together messing around town and sorting her photos out on her camera. We said goodbye around 1-ish as she headed to catch her bus to Christchurch. It has been a fairly random adventure with her (if you're reading this Charly-girl, you better post me a comment!)
I slinked onward back to Queenstown where I now reside till I meet Laura and Jenny for our newly planned roadtrip.

Dunedin
To start the day I headed out with my newly acquired Irish friend, Ciaran. (I say newly acquired but I actually first met him in Christchurch a week ago.) We headed to the Speights brewery to take in the tour and see what was happening. The tour was informative, funny and our guide took absolutely no prisoners. Afterwards we were given small glasses and shown the taps. We leapt on them like men possesed and I managed to fir in around 10 small glasses of beer before our time ran dry.
Ciaran and I scooted over to the brewery bar to sample some more of the Speights' finest. After around 4 pints each it was starting to look like it would turn into a bit of a session. Luckily for me Ciaran had to catch his bus, because God help me if I start drinking with an Irishman at 11 in the morning without any breakfast!
I wandered around town and got some sushi to quench my drunken hunger then headed to the hostel to await the return of Charly.
She returned in due time from her wildlife tour and showed me some of her penguin pictures. We hung out for the rest of the night playing silly board games and generally having a laugh.

Dunedin to Queenstown
After a very early start (and a very rude bus driver) Charly and I headed onward to the city of Dunedin. Dunedin is a nice city with some excellent building and a history (apparently) rooted in presbyterian Scotland... who'd have thunk it?

CANYON SUWING!
Charly and i got up this morning and, feeling we hadn't had an adrenaline rush for at least... oh... 48 hours, booked a canyon swing.
A canyon swing is basically leaping off a 109m platform attached to a cable into 60 m of freefall followed by a 200m arc of swing. Fun stuff.
The guys on the platform were pretty hilarious, titalating the fear factor as much as they could with dumb jokes and general mockery.
However... once you get off that platform: OH MY GOD! What a rush!
The rest of the day was spent in hazy after-rush mode.