Hello and welcome to our blog! It has taken
a bit to get off the ground, in between bad internet connections, adventures
and jet lag, it’s been near impossible to fit this in. All that aside, we’re
here now, and we hope you enjoy following along on our travels and adventures!
:D To introduce ourselves, we are Jasmin and Christie. We’re two Aussie chicks
hopping on the road, working our way from the bottom of New Zealand to the top
of it! So please, sit back and enjoy the ride, and welcome to Happening One!
So we began our journey fresh and early at
5am on the 31st of December 2011. We’re not sure if we got any
sleep, as we spent most of the night excited as hell! After meeting at little
old Perth Domestic Airport, we checked in, crossing our fingers that our
luggage was underweight. Thankfully it was! J
After what seemed like a day long journey
above snow like clouds, we touched down in Sydney at 2:00PM local time, pretty
tired, but running off of pure adrenaline. We caught a taxi to the Sydney
International Airport Inn, dropped our suitcases and other non-essentials off
to our rooms, and headed out to find a feed and a good spot to view the New Year’s
Eve Fireworks. First of all, we both agree that Sydney has some pretty mental
roads and drivers of those roads. Seriously, if we dared to poke our arms
through the windows, we could have touched the cars passing next to us, insane!
Arriving in the city centre, we made our
way through blocked off roads, groups of tourists, and the occasional ballroom
clad couple to the Harbour foreshore… Or should I say TRIED to make it to the
foreshore. There were partition boards separating a one million body of peoples (the
ones waiting to get through to the foreshore side) from another seething mass
of bodies (on said foreshore side). It was worse than the Royal Show!! As we
struggled to find the queue to line up, we heard over the PA system that the
foreshore had now been closed off because it was full!!
Deciding to try our luck a few blocks along
and back, we were side-tracked by a modern looking Greek restaurant. We decided
that this was a suitable place to re-fuel our hungry bellies, so we stopped and
grazed for an hour or so, before deciding that, as the evening wore on, the
fireworks were NOT worth risking even the REMOTEST chance of us getting a cold
for.
So, we went for a walk up to Hyde Park to,
well, view the views. After wandering around and NOT getting lost, we made our
way back to the hotel, catching yet another taxi, when we came across a most
peculiar thing. In the sky, via a stunt plane (we’re assuming) was the text: “R
U GOING 2”.We watched on intrigued by whatever words would no doubt follow. It
was thus that we made it safely back to the hotel, unloaded and continued to
stare up at the sky. Much to our surprise, he seemed to end up writing: “R U
GOING 2 HEAVEN”. Certainly one way to spread a message to thousands of people,
or, as we found out later, 1.2 million people that had flocked to the
foreshore.
We soon got bored with the preacher in the
sky, and headed up to our rooms, to settle in for a long if not almost
sleepless night. To keep ourselves awake, we entertained ourselves by sending
messages from “the future”, watching teenybopper sleepover movies on TV, trying
to peer through the seemingly endless amounts of branches at midnight to see the
fireworks and going on sneaky ninja missions to the vending machine downstairs.
This lasted until about 2:30AM, a decent effort (if we do say so ourselves) for
two jet-lagged girls.
Alas, our slumber was to be short-lived, as
yet another 5:00AM wake-up was in order to make sure we made our flight out of
the country and to New Zealand. Bleary-eyed, we boarded the plane before fully
coming to understand the fact that we, the two girls (and Co.) from Perth, were
in fact on our way to the beautiful Queenstown!! Thus refocused, we began to
explore the various forms of in-flight entertainment provided by the wonderful
Air New Zealand crew and plane, before settling on a trivia game we found met
our needs perfectly.
This did not, however, distract us from
almost routine checks out the window for any glimpse of the infamous “Land of
the Long White Cloud”. About 3 hours later, our constant glances outside
finally paid off, as we caught sight of the beginnings of New Zealand. Almost
as if it was eager not to disappoint, the weather was near cloudless, affording
us a wonderfully clear view of the fjords, mountains, streams and rivers
scattered throughout the beautifully lush countryside. We could but stare out
the window; mouths open wide at such an amazing view. As the plane started its
decent, one could not help a feeling almost akin to coming home.
As we eagerly stepped off the plane, we
were greeted with fresh, dry air, and gorgeous sunshine to boot. We were met by
a shuttle bus to take us to our next hotel, the Blue Peaks Apartments, where we
discovered that, (due to a certain lovely lady and her uncanny knack for
picking rooms); we had an incredible view from our balcony. This did not
distract us however from almost immediately heading off to the towns centre to
indulge in some retail therapy. As we meandered along, trying for the life of
us not to look like tourists, we couldn’t help but faintly hear the sound of
singing and guitars. Intrigued, we followed the sounds to their source to
discover a talented duo outside a local pub. Delighted, we sat and listened for
a while, before deciding that it was indeed time to head back to the apartment
for a chill out arvo/evening and to enjoy a stunning almost sunset, as the sun
did not really set until 10:00PM!!
All-in-all, it was definitely an incredibly
memorable way to start our happenings in Aotearoa!!
Now for some pics!
Are we not extremely attractive? :P Jasmin (left) and Christie (right) will be your guides for this trip :P
The packed out streets of Circular Quay. All people getting ready to watch the fireshow on the harbour. Can you believe they managed to get about a million people around the bay?! Absolutely insane! And we enjoyed the show too... From the window... Of our hotel... Kilometers away... Through the trees... It was cold okay!!
Mmm, yummy Greek food for dinner :D
Eyyy Margggggggggaaarriittaa! Hola!
This was the bird man! We do not know who he was, all we know is he feeds the birds and then disappears into the bushes... Like some sort of bird-feeding elf-man...
Up bright and early
Christie on 2 hours sleep, pre-coffee
Boss gaming remote! Totes owning at video games :P
Christie with 2 hours sleep, post-coffee
Flying into Queenstown, over braid rivers (a series of small rivers intertwining to make one big river system)
The beautiful remarkables
The view form our balcony
Miss Jazzy hatting it up for an afternoon on the town
Fun fact: This Giant Sequoia was planted January 1993, when Christie was born.
(Christie: I'm glad I stopped growing...)
We've noticed a lot of random buskers around town, filling the strees with chilled, awesome tunes
"No, we are not using your change room for a photobooth..."
*shifty eyes*
*shifty eyes*
Mmmmm-mm-mm-mmmounnt-aainnn-nn goa-ttttt... With bling
Yes, we did press it... No, it didn't do anything... We think...
Ahhh Pinky bars and L&P! Two essential Kiwi treats as recommended by Sarah in her Unofficial Guide to NZ... Thank you for the help Moko!!
And now for some tunes:
A little flyaway song- Jack Johnson, Go On
Memorable Moments:
-Jasmin: Opening my absolutely AMAZING “Unofficial Guide to New Zealand” Letter
from my dearest Moko! Words cannot express my gratitude! <3
-Christie: Being christened with a new
nickname… GUSTA!! And then responding to anything involving the word... (e.g. –
Gusta Face)
-Jasmin: Accidentally shouting “CARROT
PUMPKIN!!” instead of “PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE!!”… Thanks a lot jetlagged brain -.-
-The busker playing the saxophone in the
middle of an unusually deserted Sydney City Centre.
-Trying to watch the fireworks through the
trees!
-Trying NOT to wake all the residents of the
hotel as we made our made our snack run.
And that's all we have today! Stay tuned for Happening Two, and until then, stay safe kids!! :D xx
