Kelly and Pauls wonderful life

The Netherlands

2009-10-06T12:54:00.001-07:00

To Holland we go.... We went to stay with Pauls family close to Nijmegen. We also visited Leiden and Delft all very beautiful. We went into the windmill called De Valk in Leiden which was very interesting.

Germany

2009-10-06T12:24:00.000-07:00

In Germany we visited Bamberg, Nuremburg, Frankfurt am Main and Cologne. Here are some pics...

Inside the Cologne Cathedral.
Cologne Cathedral.

Czech Republic

2009-09-16T07:03:00.000-07:00

So I follow my normal theme of saying that (perhaps not the Czech Republic) but Prague was amazing. Driving through Czech Republic was a bit like driving through South Auckland and down into Hamilton (with the focus on South Auckland), nothing too bad with that just nothing overly fantastic. We took a walk to Prague castle, had lunch in the park besides the river, walked over the very busy Charles bridge which has 30 statues on it and then walked through the town to Wenceslas Square.

Austria

2009-09-16T04:38:00.001-07:00

Austria is simply stunning. One of the best countries that we visited on our van trip. We visited Graz, Hohe tauern national park, Werfen ice cave, Hallstatt and Salzburg.

Hallstatt, with a population of just 1150 and evidence of human settlement 4500 years ago, this is a stunning lake side village.

This is the Beinhaus in Hallstatt, the last skull was added in 1995.

Our new chess set that we got in Greece.

Salzburg.

The formal gardens of Salzburg.

Werfen at the worlds largest accessible ice cave. It really was massive and we only walked 1km into the first part of the cave!

Almost at the cave...

Hohe tauern national park. Our luck as soon as we entered the park the clouds rolled in. 5min after this pic we couldn't see a thing.

Graz. Such a great place.

On the way down 260 steps of castle hill.

A very windy view of Graz.

The medieval clock tower.

The Kunsthaus Graz, weird looking building.

Slovenia

2009-09-16T04:20:00.000-07:00

We visited Bled in Slovenia. The lake was very beautiful as was the walk around it. In the small town we ate Belds speciality kremna snezna rezina which is vanilla custard topped with cream and sandwiched between pastry, very nice.

Croatia

2009-08-29T05:33:00.000-07:00

Croatia is another beautiful country. We started by visiting Pula. We then took an interesting drive to Plitvice lakes which involved us driving through a forset and on very muddy logging roads. From there we drove all the way down, through Bosnia (we were lucky to get through as we were asked to see our greencard which we didn't have....nothing like acting dumb to get you out of a tricky situation) to Dubrovnik. From here we had to drive all the way back up through the county to Slovenia.

All of these photos are from Dubrovnik...
Paul cooling off....another very hot day.

Enjoying ice cream

Outside of the city walls- Dubrovnik.

Lucky Paul, getting eggs and peas for dinner.

The following photos are all taken at Plitvice Lakes.

Pula...

Walking down the shopping strip in Pula

Pula waterfront

Greece

2009-08-29T04:02:00.000-07:00

The country that I have enjoyed most on our van trip. Beautiful scenery, wonderful water and lots of interesting places to visit. We free camped (slept on the side of the road) a lot in Greece as it was so easy. free camping spots would normally be right on the beach so we could wake up in the morning and go for a swim and use the beach showers, couldn't have been better starting the day that way.

On the island Corfu. This is where we got our new chess set from......wait till we bring it home to show you.....its pretty big and fancy.
Corfu

Taken from the boat we hired, so beautiful.

Captain Paul, on boat driving duty.

Me having a swim off the boat.

Beautiful view on Corfu

Olympia- truly amazing. We went to Ancient Olympia the original venue for the Olympic games which first started here in 776BC. Below are more photos from here...

Gefyra & Monemvasia- My favourite place we visited in Greece. Below are lots of photos taken from here. Monemvasia is a walled village which occupies one side of a massive rock. Monemvasia was separated from mainland Gefyra by a earthquake in AD 375. When you enter Monemvasia you go through a tunnel into a tiny town of cobblestone streets which is mostly cafes, souvenir shops and hotels, we took a massive walk up into the old town which is now in ruins.

This photo was taken in the upper part just before deciding to stop our trek and walk back downhill. You can't probably see them in this small photo but if you enlarge it you will see black spots....these are spiders in huge spiderwebs...we would take two steps and get webs stuck on us.

Paul checking out the view and having a rest. It was quite a walk up, thankfully we free camped close by so we managed to get out of bed early in the morning. Walking back down in the midday heat was rather painful.

Exploring the ruins

View from the upper town ruins

Paul in the lower restored town.

Still in Monemvasia

The view of the entrance way into Monemvasia, you can see the tunnel entrance and the ruins on top of the hill.

Looking back to Gefyra

Horses.....secretly taken while Paul was getting out of the van.

Out for dinner. We got the house wine. Served in the red canister and drunken out of tiny glasses.

This photo is taken from where we slept the night. When we first arrived we thought we were in the wrong place but Monemvasia was on the other side of the island.

Goats- this photo was taken from inside the van. We were completely surrounded by goats and had to wait for them to all move off the road.

We stopped to let the turtle cross the road.

In Nafplio where we got the BEST ice creams. Pauls one was snickers bar flavour and soooo good!

Nafplio

Sea urchin....possibly the worst moment on our holiday. Firstly I fainted and then I had to have cooking oil on my hands for a day before Paul had to dig each one out of my hand, very painful!

Delphi- Sanctuary of Athena and 4th century BC Tholos. And same again in the next 2 pics.

Me swimming (have to look really close!) This was a private beach belonging to the campsite we stayed at on our first night.

Matera

2009-08-29T03:51:00.000-07:00

Onto Matera, one of the oldest continuously inhabited places on Earth! This is a town where people lived in cave houses only 40 years ago, where a family of 10 might share a cave with a donkey, some pigs and no electricity or water. We went and looked inside one of these cave houses which was set up to be the way people lived.

Rrrrrooommmeee

2009-08-09T05:03:00.001-07:00

How exciting going to Rome. This is one place we are going to try to get back to. Mainly, (shame on us) as we only saw half of Rome. We went with the plan on staying for two days but it was soooo hot that we didn't go back for day two. Paul had to have some time out under the tree, I felt sick from the sun, and we both have never sweeted so much ever! So now the plan is to go back not in peek season and winter....or at least not during an European heat wave! We did go into the Colosseum (70–80 AD), the largest amphitheatre ever built in the Roman empire. The arch of constantime and to the Palatine hill which is one of the most ancient parts of the city. And on the second day when we didn't go back into Rome we had the best ever day beside the pool!

Florence

2009-08-09T04:57:00.001-07:00

We didn't stay long in Florence. everything that we came to see had a big long line. We have a motto.....if there is a line don't bother. Perhaps not the best as we missed seeing lots of things but standing in over 30 degree heat for hours doesn't really appeal. Wasn't overly fond of Florence, but seen we were only there for 30 min I don't think its really fair for us to coment much.

Pisa

2009-08-09T04:48:00.000-07:00

We went to Pisa and did what every tourist do and took photos of us with the leaning tower...

Venice

2009-08-05T11:20:00.000-07:00

Venice was somewhere that both myself and Paul had always wanted to visit. For the both of us it was as beautiful as we imagined. We stayed at a campsite outside Venice with the plan that we would take the boat there.....however it was a Sunday and no boat service ran so we ended out driving in...lucky for us this was before peak time so didn't have any trouble with parking and traffic. I have to say that the Italians have CRAZY campsites......you could go on holiday for a week and not leave the campground... well if you are a family anyway (Italian do the hokey poky at 10pm wasn't too exciting for us). We spent the day walking around the city that is built on 117 islands and managed to get a bit lost. We had a look at all the main buildings including the Basilica Di San Marco and the Doges Palace. Was a good day and one of the highlights of our van trip.

Italy.....

2009-07-21T11:37:00.001-07:00

We started our trip to Italy by driving from Switzerland to Milan. We stayed just long enough to visit the Duomo which is the worlds largest Gothic cathedral. Building started on this amazing building in 1386 and was completed almost 600 years later. Our camera decided to play up at this point so we made a stop at the nearest camera store and bought a new one.... very exciting!

From Milan we drove to Verona. Very exciting for me as this is the town that Romeo and Juliet is set in. We walked through the graffiti covered entrance way to visit the balcony and a statue of Juliet. We also saw the amphitheatre which is the third largest in existence.

The start of Switzerland

2009-07-18T12:49:00.000-07:00

We took a quick drive through Geneva and decided it wasn't really the city for us. We saw Europes fountain with the highest water flow which was kind of strange. On this first impression we were a little disheartened by what Switzerland had to offer.... don't get me wrong as I'm sure Geneva has lots to offer. As we ventured into the country it turned out to be one of the most beautiful places we have been too. I especially loved how all of the cow (and some sheep and goats) had bells on. What a peaceful sound.

Zurich- This is the biggest clock face in Europe.
Lucern. I absolutely loved all the buildings with the artwork...

Lucern again. This bridge is dating from 1333.

Me in Bern

Yes you see right this man is eating small children!

Beautiful countryside.

Our brief stint in Andorra

2009-07-18T12:32:00.000-07:00

On our way back into France we decided to drive through Andorra. A country that is 2 1/2 times smaller than Paris which shouldn't take much time to drive through at all. We were going to stroll around the shops as there is one shop per 40 people and the prices are more affordable than the surrounding countries. However the weather was horrible and also due to the fact that we are trying not to spend money we decided to stay in the van. Unfortunately as we were driving down the mountain it sounded as if Charlie (the van) has a very grumbly tummy so we got towed half way to the mechanics.....we were saving money. After a few days waiting for the van to have his wheel nuts fixed we were back on the road.

Snow in summer!

To France we go...

2009-07-18T12:02:00.000-07:00

Annecy. The town that Paul has decided is his ideal living spot should NZ sink into the sea. Beautiful lake and stunning town.
Me in Annecy.

Lake Annecy

Monaco- where there were plenty of super yachts and fancy boats to entertain Paul for a long time.

In Nice exploring the old town.

Where we parked our van in Nice. Poor Charlie didn't really fit in with the other cars there.

This photo was taken somewhere close to St-Tropez.

Carcassonne. One of Europe's largest city fortifications. Was a lovely place to spend the day strolling the streets.

This is a photo from the town that we stayed in for a few nights when we thought 'Charlie' (our van) was broken.....but alas just a wheel nut loose. Still it was a beautiful town.... although not that much to do and see.

Back into Spain

2009-06-14T10:33:00.001-07:00

Dinner yum yum yum

Las Ramblas in Barcelona. Filled with crazy street performers. Entertaining strip of road to walk down.

Sagrada Familia. Building started around 1882 and is still being completed. Not sure if it was stunning or just ugly but either way it was the most amazing building Ive ever seen.

Beautiful Alcazar, was like a fairytale castle. In Segovia where there was also a aqueduct and a cathedral dating from 1525.

How Paul enjoys the beach.........very sun-smart.

More food

In Madrid

Cathedral in Toledo, work began in 1226. We had a great time exploring this town. Almost bought a fancy chess set but the lady dropped it on the ground... never mind saved us a bit of money!

We were searching for the parque nacional de donana and stumbled upon this town. As you can see all of the road were sand, it felt like we had gone back in time.

Part of the parque nacional de donana. One of Europe's greatest wetlands.

Portugal

2009-06-13T10:47:00.000-07:00

It seems as if we were in Portugal years ago now. Funny to think that only a month or so has gone past. We finally have a campsite where the Internet is working well so hopefully we will manage to get some photos up. Here are a selection from Portugal...

A very Beautiful beach. They have boardwalks along the whole beach with cafes so you can sit and eat while enjoying the sunshine.

We went on a sunset boat trip.

Paul Loved the portugeese custard tarts. They were amazing but we ate way too many of them.

We went to one of the worlds largest aquariums. Paul couldn't get over the sunfish.

Drying fish on the beach

Portugal fun....

2009-06-05T14:47:00.000-07:00

So I had bigger post put together but blogger closed me out and i lost it.

So here is Orbidos and the Bone Chapel (made from 1500 monks)

More Soon :)

France to Spain

2009-05-10T09:59:00.000-07:00

This blog will be a lil backwards.......the photos are in the wrong order but you get the idea..

Our stop for lunch. At the moment we are on our way to Rias Baixas (its a bit above Portugal). This was taken someplace close to Gijon, north Spain.
Same place as the photo of Paul above.

I had a grand idea of finding some amazing waterfall however our tom tom did not know any of the areas that we put in and the map we had only gave us a general idea of where it would be. Although we failed at finding it we did go up the mountain Orduna which the waterfall is apparently close to and saw an amazing view.

On the way back from our waterfall hunt. We ate lunch here. Incredible mountains all around and it was so peaceful. Only two cars drove past in the 30 or so minutes we were there.

The Gurggenheim museum

In Bilbao- Spain

View of Bilbao

We spent a couple of days with K & B. Was so nice to see them. This photo was taken while having dinner. As you can see right by the water. The chef was also fishing between cooking all of the meals.

Me in Biarritz in France

Paul in Biarritz

At the campsite.

Top of Pilat Dune

Before our walk up the dune. Steps to the top of the dune made it much easier to walk up than the massive dune in NZ!

The start of our van trip

2009-05-04T11:57:00.000-07:00

On the 1st of May 2009 we left for our 3 1/2 month trip of Europe. Here are some photos of what we have gotten up to so far....

Eating a baguette. Everyday we see person after person carrying their baguettes.

Dinner on the beach. Paul made a tasty pasta packet.

St Malo. Very beautiful walled city.

Mont-st-michel. It was a very rainy day when we went here. Would have been stunning if the sun was out.

Paul at Omaha beach. One of the D day beaches. We camped at this beach for the night.

Canterbury in England.

Berlin

2009-03-17T05:57:00.001-07:00

An extended weekend away was what we all needed after a long winter in London, doing not much to save money. Our main purpose was to see the killers play in concert but we managed to have some very busy days seeing the sights of Berlin in Germany. Was a very interesting place to visit. We went to Sachsenhausen a concentration camp which was quite depressing. Also saw the Berlin wall (or whats left of it). We went on one of the worlds biggest helium balloons. As well as a 3 1/2 hour walking tour around Berlin.

Wales

2009-03-17T05:37:00.000-07:00

How beautiful Wales is. Wish that we had have had more than just a couple of days. An amazing amount of castles everywhere to be seen. This was our first overnight trip in our van. We now know that the bed is ok but we could do with some more curtains....especially when you are sleeping on the side of the road in Swindon haha.

Brighton

2009-03-17T05:25:00.000-07:00

We took our little van on a day trip to Brighton a couple of months back. I forgot about the photos till now...

Random things

2009-01-20T14:30:00.000-08:00

So again Paul has been saying that he will update this blog. As you can tell this hasn't happened so I figured that I better do it or else it could be another year before he gets around to it! We have been up to a little bit over the past couple of months. Even though we have been quite poor and its freezing cold outside!

At the football

Christmas Lunch

Pavlova Fun!

Christmas lights.

Our Christmas Tree

Many views from St Pauls following. It was a very long walk up St Pauls Cathedral but is really was amazing.

St Pauls Cathedral

At Winter wonderland in Hyde Park

Stockholm

2009-01-20T14:15:00.000-08:00

We went to Sweden, Stockholm quite a few months ago now. Must have been around October but who really knows! Anyway here are a few pics from our trip.

Kates cowgirl/ cowboy party

2008-11-02T09:02:00.000-08:00

Kate, one of our best London friends celebrated her birthday by having a dress up party. The theme, cowgirl/ cowboy. So off to Primark I went to get a bargain priced cowgirl looking dress, teamed with my festival straw hat I felt somewhat like a cowgirl. While Paul went as a Mexican cowboy. Was a fun night......how could it not be when you are dressed as a cowgirl?

Oh no, Paul has found someone with a matching outfit!

Kate with toilet paper eyes.

Me, Tim and Sarah.

Ummmm Paul giving Edward the cow a hug, and I don't know what Tim is doing.

Haha a happy Paul.

Me and Sarah

Again I'm not too sure what is happening here.

Cyprus

2008-11-02T08:41:00.001-08:00

Away from the cold London, to the sunny Cyprus. Was very rocky but the waters extremely clear. We spent a lot of time driving around the island, trying to find some sandy beaches. One highlight was the tomb of the kings, underground tombs that date back to the 4th century BC. A great trip to get away from the cold and to chill out.

At a fish restaurant, as you can see right by the sea. Was a bit of a stormy day with the waves coming through the window. beautiful fish.

This is a small town in the middle of the mountains.

Standing on the salt lake.

Tomb of the Kings

A few random days and nights out in September

2008-10-04T04:48:00.000-07:00

Madame Tussaudes

2008-10-04T04:38:00.001-07:00

We spent the afternoon at the famous wax museum, Madame Tussaudes. We got to spend time with people such as Justin Timberlake, Amy Winehouse, The royal family and many other famous people.......even a few that are not alive today! This was possibly much more exciting for myself that Paul but even he found it amazing that they were all done to a real life scale, and how tiny some of the clebs actually are. Ill leave it to you to figure out who each of them are...

Spain- Valencia

2008-10-04T04:05:00.001-07:00

We went for the tomato throwing festival. This photo is of the streets before the festival started.

We decided to test out the local Sangria which is a sweet drink made from red wine.

The truck fill with tomatoes.

Paul, you have some tomato stains on your top!

Me and Sarah at the beach. This would have been taken around 9pm.

In town.

Out for a drink. The bars were all really nice, sitting right on the water.

Out for dinner I decided that we should try some Paella, Spains national dish. As you can see it looked terrible but tasted fantastic.

Lucky Paul, our hotel was right beside a car museum.

Cornwall

2008-08-25T10:52:00.000-07:00

So I forgot to write about Cornwall. We drove for 5 or 6 hours a few weeks ago for a weekend visit. Cornwall is is the most southwesterly county in England. The main reason for visiting was to be able to go to the beach again. With our bad luck it rained the whole weekend..

London eye....Kew Gardens...Notting hill carnival

2008-08-25T10:24:00.000-07:00

This weekend we have been busy. Following are photos from the London eye, we end out going on a rainy night so they are not the best pics. We decided to go to kew gardens on Saturday as they have a tree top walk 18 metres in the air. The whole gardens were nice to visit. On Monday we went to the notting hill carnival which is Europe's largest street festival...

Whats been happening...

2008-08-08T02:03:00.001-07:00

Its been a little while since we (really me, Kelly) have update our blog. I struggle to think what we have done. Wed nights are now pub night in our house. Sometimes some of our other friends also come along. We have turns choosing a different pub to go to. Paul choose one outside his old work, it had a really great outdoor seating area. Tim choose the white horse in Fulham and Kelly chose to go to an Indian restaurant in Holand Park which is about a 20min walk from where we live. Although not really a pub it was the best Indian food i have ever eaten. So it appears to be my pick next week. I bussed past one pub the other day so that may be the one!

We went to Global gathering the other weekend. Which is a music festival held 3 or so hours out of London. The weather was really hot and sunny. Hate to say it but it was almost too sunny!

At Mark Ronson.

Had a long air show, was amazing to watch.

Found some cows so I had to get a photo!

We have also gone to the London dungeons. This is what it says about it on their website...
'Deep beneath the pavement at locations across Europe, chilling tales and petrifying aspects of our history are reenacted, providing eerie, spine-chilling fun for anyone who dares enter the world of the Dungeons!
Delve into the blood-curdling parts of history that your teachers never taught you - learn the torturous methods used by unscrupulous characters to the grisly details of our most prolific killers.' It was good, would have been much better if there wasn't so much waiting around to do.

Kelly was smart enough to take their camera so following is some of the photos she took.

This first photo isn't from the London Dungeons, this guy (hahaha who Kelly asked how he got down the stairs as his feet were so big!) was from someplace similar down the road that we almost ended out at instead.

Kelly looking a little worried about the man she is next to.

Me and Paul on the boat ride.

The only other thing that I can think of that we have done is going to the Croydon festival. Was pretty cool as we got to see Finley Quaey play for free. If you are unsure who he is look up his song 'Dice' I'm sure you will know

Glastonbury

2008-07-12T16:34:00.000-07:00

Europe's biggest music festival. It took us over two hours to walk from one side to another. There was more to entertain than just music, there were many crazy craft stalls, food, and other wacky things to do and look at. Many things that we wanted to do such as the open air cinema we just didn't have time to do! We saw Kings of Leon, Amy Winehouse, John Mayer, James Blunt, Crowded house and other big music acts. We were lucky with the weather as Glastonbury has the reputation of always being extremely wet and muddy but it was mostly sunny for us.

House Warming

2008-07-12T16:19:00.001-07:00

It may have taken a few months but we finally had our house warming. Not the best of planning meant that we had it on a day where everyone we know over here in London were at the races but it worked out well as our house wouldn't have been able to fit too many extra people in anyway. It was going to be dress up. For which I bought an Amy Winehouse wig, to my disappointment we decided not to do dress up! But that didn't matter I managed to bring out the wig and we spent a while entertaining ourselves with it! But haha Paul didn't get any photos of me with it on. As you can also see Tim and Kelly also provided some interesting ballons that they got on there travels which also entertained everyone for a while.

Amsterdam

2008-07-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

We went to Amsterdam a little while back to visit friends. Was great to see some friendly faces. We hired bikes and had heaps of fun riding around, going to the markets and visiting Anne Franks house and just relaxing in the park.

June Update

2008-06-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

So Paul was going to update the blog a couple of weeks ago but he must have for some reason decided not too, or he possibly forgot!

On Thursday we went to the musical 'Wicked'. Based on Gregory Maguire’s novel it tells the untold story of the Witches of Oz,and why one came to be called ‘good’ and the other ‘wicked’. It has won over 20 major international theatre awards so as you can guess it was really good.

Today we went to Hyde Park for the Red Bull Flugtag day. This is where people invent things with the idea that they will glide further than other teams when jumping off a bridge into water and it has to hold a team member. As well as that they are judged on a short performance before jumping into the water. There was the giant swan that did a giant nose dive and then sunk, a plane made of balloons and a yellow submarine. We had a good day sitting amongst the 80,000 other people. We have a video of the day but I will have to pester Paul a bit until he puts the video software onto the computer.

Over the May bank holiday we went to the Gatecrasher summer sound system which is a music festival we saw The Prodigy, Paul Okenfold and lots of other DJs. It really felt much more like a winter festival than a summer one with the amount of wind, rain and mud that was there. Was great to get out of London for a weekend. Sorry bout some of the pics, turns out that copying photos from facebook doesn't give the best result......ill try to get Paul to replace them with the originals off his laptop!

Out in Acton

2008-05-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

Drinks at our local

2008-05-18T11:36:00.001-07:00

Random Photos

2008-05-18T11:16:00.001-07:00

On the way home from the park

At Portobello markets

Paul and John while looking round the city

At Hampton Court palace for my work away day trip

Our House

2008-05-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

Outside the entrance way

Kelly and Tim setting up their room.

The view from our lounge window.

London Update

2008-04-19T12:26:00.001-07:00

So I have finally gotten around to charging the cameras and putting the photos onto the computer. We really haven't been up to much, just attempting to get sorted and more settled. In saying that we have seen a few pubs which is always good. I (Kelly) have found a job and start on Tuesday. Paul has been working for the last couple of weeks. We were supposed to have moved into our new flat on Thursday however that has not worked out so well. Hopefully we will be able to move in on Monday!
Some church. There are churches everywhere over here and they are all massive, the buildings are amazing.

At the pub in Hammersmith

Proof that it has snowed! This is the back garden of Edwards house. And I was expecting it to be getting warmer!
Paul at the Candam markets.
Me and Kate at the pub...same night as the photo in the pub above.This is my new work. OooOOoooo fancy building!

So Far in London

2008-04-01T14:38:00.001-07:00

So far we have just been spending the last week attempting to get things sorted. We have found a house which we will share with Tim and Kelly. It is a cute 2 bedroom flat. Located in Shepards Bush above some shops and 2 min walk to the tube station, very handy to everything.

We went to the Oxford boat race over the weekend along with 1/2 of London. It would have been good but it was cold and rainy (which is why they are wearing rubbish sacks).

In Paddington.

China

2008-04-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

Photos from our trip in China....

Before the acrobatic show. We also went to kung foo show which was amazing.

We went out with John and May for a dumpling dinner.

On the overnight train to Xi'an

Eating haw covered in toffee, some random soft fruit that was pretty good. We got to eat lots of interesting food including a vege called rape. Paul however did not want to try the cat, snake or crickets and scorpions on a stick!

Walking through the summer palace Chineese people were playing musical instruments, playing games and dancing.

Most of the public toilets had star ratings. I have to say that getting used to squatting took a while to get used too.

In the Hutons, the old part of Bejing.

Being pulled by a man riding a bike. No one in China wore helmets which is a worry considering the traffic. However the rickshaw tour was through the Hutons where the roads are to narrow for cars.

Paul smelling the cherry blossoms

The Great Wall

View from hotel room of the adults playground.

Having a break from climbing the great wall of china.

Leaving Tomorrow

2008-03-10T20:34:00.000-07:00

Haha... I (Paul) have been let loose on Kellys blog which has now become our blog. Yay... Be prepared for bad spelling and grammatical errors up the whazoo.

So as the title says. Tomorrow we leave, at 9 in the morning.. not so cool because that means we have to be up at 5am and we hate mornings.

But we are all packed and ready to roll.

Leaving Party

2008-03-01T16:47:00.000-08:00

So I was hoping that the nice weather would carry through until Saturday but it rained. Fortunately Paul (with the help of Mike and Daniel) put up the easy-up so we managed to stay mostly dry. Alice and Chrystal helped me prepare all of the food and the three tasty punches which Chrystal named, tropical dream, rough ride and tangy splash. As expected there were many entertaining moments such as blended sausage and feta drinks, steak shots, the spatula being broken as it was slapped against Andrews foot, Michael body boarding on the deck and many other moments that i probably shouldn't mention on my blog.

Feb.....

2008-02-12T23:58:00.000-08:00

So this month we have had lots of BBQS and time sitting in parks with people. Last weekend I went over to great barrier island with Paul, Chrystal and Mike. Photos....

Camping Jan 08

2008-01-06T23:24:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went camping with Chrystal and Mike...

New Years

2008-01-05T23:41:00.000-08:00

This new years Chrystal and Mike decided to have a party at a beach front property in Torbay. It was lots of fun! Below is a video clip and some pics from the night.

Work Party 07

2007-12-08T18:02:00.000-08:00

Last night we had a BBQ at our place for my work party. It was lots of fun and great to see everyone having a good time out of our normal work environment. Alice and Andy came as Alice is pretty much considered still a Pedman Spicer worker even if its been about a year since she last worked. Unfortunately for Ruey I managed to spill all the bloody meat juice all over her, she just put it down to me having had too much to drink tho. We had some interesting stories told and lots of punch to drink.

Justin Timberlake

2007-12-01T19:26:00.000-08:00

I have had a great year with concerts, the killers- wonderful, good charlotte- terrific and well JT was fantastic! Although people are not likely to believe me due to the fact that even if he was terrible I'd have still loved it. But when Paul says its the best concert he has ever been too you have to believe that it was truly great. I almost managed to take my camera in with me , my bag had been searched and I was ready to go inside when the man said to me "you don't have a camera in your bag do you?" and me being hopeless at lying i had to admit that I did, much to Paul's annoyance as we had to line up again so they could put my camera in a bag to be collected at the end of the night. Luckily we had Paul's phone and managed to take some photos and videos- even if they are no t the best quality.....its better than nothing!

Holiday

2007-11-21T21:56:00.000-08:00

So we have just celebrated 2 years together. Our gift to each other was 1/2 a video camera! Its going to be great for our travels. As soon as I figure out how to edit what we have recorded and do some more recordings I will have videos for everyone. YaY. Anyway we took a week off work and went down to Whitianga. Below are some pics from our trip.

Andrews Birthday Drinks

2007-11-03T16:38:00.000-07:00

Last weekend it was Alices 23rd birthday. We had a couple of quiet drinks and then went to spookers. Last night we celebrated Andrews birthday, we had dinner and drank sake. Alice decided that she would be a six days a week vegetarian this week so she could eat the chicken. We then went down to deshlers and had a bit more to drink. It was quite big night, Paul falling over in the garden while the boys made a mad dash to the loo when we all got home proved that.

Leigh

2007-10-14T22:32:00.001-07:00

We took the Friday off work and went up to Leigh. On the Friday Chrystal, Mike, Alice and Andy joined us for the night. We played cranium, charades, went to the beach and did normal holiday kinda stuff.

Update...

2007-09-27T22:52:00.000-07:00

So as you can tell but my lack of blog entries not much has happened in the past little while. Alice and Andy have there lil pug rory. She is very cute, however not very photogenic!

Paul and his dad have a new yellow rally car which they raced the other weekend, I slept in the car for most of the day.

We have played cranium a couple of times and monopoly with a fancy automatic money machine thing. Also went ice skating which was kinda funny.

Went to Miranda's engagement party. Was great to catch up with my old school friends! Congrats Miranda, they are getting married in dec so have heaps to plan for then.

Our new flatmate Brett moved in a week ago. So we only need to find one more flattie now. Bring on next year when we can run away to London!

70's Party

2007-06-15T19:03:00.000-07:00

Chrystal and Mike are house sitting in one of the most beautiful old houses ever. Its in Torbay and right ontop of the beach!! Lucky them! Anyway... they decided to have a 70's party! Paul said I had a great night as I bounced along everywhere as I walked. Really the reason for that could have been my numb feet or the fact that I could barly squeeze my big feet into my mums boots. But regardless of my bouncing I had a great night! Chrystal made some pretty strong punch which I think I drank plenty of I felt like I must have this morning anyway!

June...no it can't be!

2007-05-22T15:50:00.000-07:00

So much has happened in the past couple of months that I fail to remember most of it. A notable moment includes the circus which I promised Alice I'd mention. This was so bad that it turned into somewhat of an amusingly fun time. It started with the ring leader dude yelling at his partner in which she swore back at him and then he went on to tell us for around 10 min. about Auckland zoo and how much he dislikes them. Then there was the poor autistic boy (again the ring leader had to tell us this over and over again). His attempt at juggling for us wasnt the best. You couldn't blame him as he only started with the circus last november, really I would be much worse. But did they really need to make him dress up as a clown and juggle for us all over again? If that wasn't enough he then came out so the ring leader could whip him with his whip! Ooo and they also had a deformed miniature pony and the elephant that looked like it was very depressed for both animals I could have almost had a lil cry. The highlight was the poodle dogs, they were very cute.... but really the highlight? hmmm.

Went with Alice to Good Charlotte. They were great. I was amazed at what a variety of different people they attracted, I was glad because to tell you the truth I was a little scared that I could have turned into an emo kid from group peer pressure but that didnt happen.

Also have been down to Taupo to watch Andy race his BMW. Had a nice dinner and a few drinks. Took us around 6 hours to get home but I got to have a look at my future life in Mangakino (spelling?)......Yay its going to be fun!!

I'm having 2 weeks holidays! MmMmm been a while. Spent the first week with Paul up in the bay of islands and spending this week at home. Have a look at his blog for what we did up there.

I can't wait for..... Chrystals dress up party, Linda to come back to visit auckalnd, the beauty expo and Alice to update her blog!! Following is some pics from the last couple of months.

Getting ready for the hole in the rock boat ride.

Elephant at the circus

Paul @ 90 mile beach

Exiting the hole in the rock- bay of islands

Me at the falls in taupo

Paul looking at what used to be bush at the lake he loved to go camping at

My family having mothers day for my grandma

Me at 90 mile beach

Easter Break

2007-04-07T05:07:00.000-07:00

So we are now halfway through the long Easter weekend. On Friday we went to Wenderholm Regional Park to go on a 30min buggy and beach shoe friendly walk. One hour later when we were going up a never ending very steep hill I started to wonder if we took the correct track. Two hours later, Paul showed me that yes, there is a difference between the colours orange and red....1 and a half hours to be exact, and a very large hill!

Today we went with Andy and Alice to the Easter show. Looked at some farm animals and went on a very scary Ferris wheel ride. I swear it was going double the speed a Ferris wheel should go. After the Easter show we met up with Edward to have dinner and watch Black Sheep at the movies.

Giant pumpkin

Old Photos

2007-03-31T23:34:00.000-07:00

So I was looking through all of my photos and came across these.

Lantern Festival- Last year

Paul with my Casey, about 3 years ago at my old flats flat warming.

Jazz festival, last year.

My lil bro with Chrystals lil sis. 3 years ago.

At Groove in the Park 3 1/2 years ago.

Before deep hard n funky

Me and Rach

Cute lil alice.

Scary short hair

Wood Hill

2007-03-31T22:03:00.000-07:00

Having weekends off from work is great! The weekend got off to a good start on Friday when I had Linda's leaving drinks. Sad to see her leave work as she is lots of fun but great to see the girls out of the normal work setting. After that we went to Aaron birthday party. He works with Paul and had hired out a bar in town for the night.

Sunday we woke early and myself, Paul and Matt set off to meet Alice and Andy for our biking fun. Even with the rain (sunshine dust, as Paul would say) we were all enthused about the day ahead. Andy looked impressive in his special fluro bike clothing. Alice hadn't ridden a bike in years and didn't quite understand what mountain biking entailed. She ended up in the bush and had a wee cry at one point. She did well tho as the boys did take us on a long and steep track. And I was proud of her when she said that she would even try it again! It was a good day and at least we can say that we have all done our exercise for the month!

Oooo also have a look at Alice's blog for pics of the boys on the vertical bungee in town.

The Zoo

2007-03-24T21:05:00.000-07:00

Yay the zoo! Alice was prepared by wearing her pony thermal, I considered wearing mine but was scared by the possible heat....lucky for me as it was such a warm sunny day. If you haven't been to the zoo lately you should go. They have upgraded it a lot since I last went, its great!

Andy and Alice with the very friendly bird

We were going to feed the giraffe but all the kiddies scared him away!

More Camping

2007-03-18T02:03:00.000-07:00

This camping trip has to have been one of the more hilarious trips that I have been on. Boys dressed as girls.....not overly surprising as this isn't the first time I have had the pleasure of experiencing this amongst Paul's group of male friends. Surprise could be one word to describe the reaction we got from the other campers! The water despite how cold it looked was so so warm, and the surf so so fun. Overall it was a good weekend and I think we all needed a break from everyday life. Oh and sorry to all the boys I really did feel bad about putting the photos up, but really how could I not have? They are just too GOOD!

All so beautiful!

Lantern Festival

2007-03-05T22:39:00.000-08:00

So I went along to this years lantern festival as I do every year. It may not have been quiet as entertaining as last year but it was still lots of fun. The boys had a great time with all the food, mainly meat on sticks so not so great for myself and Alice!! We had a quick hello from Chrystal, Mike, Rachel, Paul and Casey which is always great. Bright lights never seem to get boring!

Piggy

Mike, Chrystal and Alice

mMMmmm food

Andy, Alice, Me and Paul

Paul, Me and Pandas

Cock-a-doodle-do

House warming

2007-02-18T11:52:00.000-08:00

So we have had our house warming. Thanks to everyone who turned up, it was a great night! The following week we had another bbq for our parents and friends. This was to celebrate Pauls new house and his 25th birthday. Awwww quater of a century now hunalug! This night also went well and was lots of fun. Here are a few pics` from the night.

Feb Fun

2007-02-08T11:55:00.000-08:00

So we have now moved into the house Paul bought in Glenfield. From what I heard moving was lots of fun and they were surprised by how much stuff I had.... so I have to say that sat I was happy to be a work! During the move we had drinks with everyone that helped out.

My birthday was on the 6th. A few of us went down to long bay beach. Paul and Andy BBQed our food after hours of waiting for the groups of people to leave. Mike went windsurfing while Tim and Paul went for a swim.

The next night we went with Alex and Daniel to the circus. It was fantastic. It would have been worth going for the make-up and costumes alone. Some of the acts were amazing.......we thought about starting our own, while it would possibly be entertaining it may not be quite the same!

Poor Porter lost the jenga game and had to drink whatever was in that glass...eww.

After finishing the drink

Big Day Out 07

2007-01-22T21:01:00.000-08:00

Gutted 4 you if you didn't go to this years big day out. Had I paid 3 times the amount I did there would be no regret! Yes it was ooohhhhh sooooo gooooood! The day started on a good note for myself, Paul and Alice with Minuit. From there we waited for ever for the toilet, we quickly learnt that standing for 15 min in the men's que was the only option as the woman's could have taken us hours. After getting some lunch (yes we avoided anything kebab like after new years) we walked over for The Tutts, really we would have gotten more enjoyment sitting in a puddle of water. Paul wandered off for a couple of hours wile Alice and myself went to see My Chemical Romance, quickly followed by Lily Alan. Lily was fantastic! It took us half of her show for us to push ourselves to the back of the front 1/2 of the boiler room there was that many excited people! We then met up with Paul and Edward for dinner. The Killers were amazing, so much so that I could almost have a lil crush on them now.....aw. Myself and Alice ventured back to the boiler room to see The Streets. They were a million times better than the last time I saw them! To be honest we almost skipped them as we were getting tired, thankfully we didn't as they were so good that they created enough energy for us both to have a little dance. It was dark after The Streets so we found the boys and sat while they danced to Tool. Home to bed.........how the hell did Alice manage to go to work the next day? I must be getting older cause I was sooooo tired from my Big Day Out fun!

Awwwww LILY......isn't she cute!

Alice at My Chemical Romance

At Minuit

My Chemical Romance

mMmmMm The Killers

Boys having a rest.

BUZZZZZZZZ

2007-01-03T16:51:00.000-08:00

New Years in Gisborne

2007-01-03T16:09:00.000-08:00

This year myself, Paul, Alice and Chrystal took a 6 hour drive down to meet Tony and Alana along with a few others in Gisborne. We complained about the lack of sleep because of the noise in our camp site so Paul took us for a walk over to the larger one. What a mess!!! There were people running about everywhere and not a space free from rubbish. One of the girls staying in that camp site said that they hadn't slept for 2 nights because of the noise so after seeing that our complaints to to thanks. On the 30th it was Chrystals birthday. Mike and his friends arrived that night and we all went out for dinner. After 2 hours and the people at the next table walking out after making a scene because food took to long and then they didn't get enough chips out food arrived. The rest of the time was spent with early morning walks to the dairy with Chrystal and Alice for our coffees, at the beach, sleeping, chatting and lots of drinking in the sunshine.

Come New Years eve the weather decided to talk a turn and it rained all afternoon and night long. Not too good as we were outdoor at Rhythm and Vines and got totally soaked! More bad luck with food as Myself and Paul ate a kebab and was sick with food poisoning and slept for more than 20 hours straight.......we were happy to have rain that day! Overall a great new years if it had of stayed sunny and we didn't get sick i would say the best ever!

Alice outside the campsite.

At the beach.

Alice was the champion!

Paul in the blue.

New Years Eve before the rain.

Mike.

Work drink fun

2006-12-15T02:38:00.000-08:00

We all ventured down to the Copper Room in Takapuna for a couple of drinks. Here are the photos...

Alice and myself......yay I have her back at work with me!

Linda and Ruey

Loretta, Mary and Linda

Paul and Alice

Steve and Brooke

Best Christmas lights

2006-12-15T01:50:00.000-08:00

Really right now I wish I was in bed sleeping. But no thats really not possible due to the volume of my brothers music for the small party he is having. Happy Birthday to him tho! So instead I'm up writing about the Christmas lights. To the average person not so thrilling, but to me, as you all know I get some over the top joy when it comes to bright Christmas lights in the form of Santa. We found the best house ever for Christmas lights display in Mirangi Bay. Here are the pics...

They even had a foam machine going for the snow......not that u can see it in the pic

Christmas in the park

2006-12-10T17:31:00.000-08:00

Although it rained for most of the night we managed to stay dry under Pauls sun unbrella. Lots of nice wine, good food and great company made it a memorable christmas in the park!

Bex and Alice on arrival.

Myself and Paul

Poor paul was looking slightly sick after eating a bad pie.

Awwww dont they look cute....Mike and Chrystal.

The ever stunning Alice and Paul.

Final day of Movember

2006-12-10T17:13:00.000-08:00

How beautiful this photo is! Myself, Paul and his new lego robot the day before he shaved his face.

Car Rally Fun

2006-11-26T12:20:00.000-08:00

This event was one to mention as Paul has sold his old car and gotten a new one. Although he has driven it before it was my first time in the new car! Yay! People ask me what I think of it....I mean really.... how could I not love it, being that its the same type of car as mine! Although its really not as cute as the last one it defiantly goes faster. Oh and Paul ended up coming third in his class.

OooOOo and as you can see in the pic his facial hair for Movember is going well......thank God its almost the end of the month!

Camping Trip

2006-11-14T18:22:00.000-08:00

One could have classed this as the first camping trip of the summer as the weather was beautiful! Kelly and Alex defiantly had the sunburn to prove it! We were camping besides the beach, about 30 min from Whangarei. Highlights included a quick swim between rocks on our walk....and yes the water was freezing, hitting my head on the car boot, lot of naps, bbqs and card playing.

About to play cards.

Pauls and Tims sandcastle.

Destroying hours of work.

Going for a walk.

oOooo sun burnt legs! right before our swimming fun.

Baaaaaa.

Alices Birthday

2006-11-13T01:37:00.000-08:00

Sure it was a couple of weeks ago now. But how could I not mention Alice's birthday? She will possibly be the only one to ever read this blog. For this I love Alice. In a way only Alice could do she claimed two nights for her birthday. On the Fri we went to the hot pools. The sat we went to her fav Indian restaurant in which almost everyone ordered the staple butter chicken! After dinner she went off to a Halloween party while Paul took me to a house warming. The highlight....defiantly seeing the enjoyment that Tim and Daniel got from wearing a couple of very pretty dresses!

Myself and Paul.

Chrystal and Mike.

Toddy and Alice.

Alice and Unicorn.