Xie xie!

Yes! it lives......it lives again. Our blog is still alive! Hello from Hong Kong airport (first class lounge..........of course hehe). We have completed our first leg of many on our whacky journey to Uzbekistan (number 1 tourist spot!) In about 1 hour we'll board another lovely Cathey flight across land to "Dehli", at this stage in economy :( .............. Its ok tho it suppose to be intrepid. Once we reach dehli we have 10hours......yes 10 HOURS there (meeting Mel,director, after 5 hours) before taking a one hour flight to Amristar (still in india) for the lovely oppotunity of another 10 hour stop-over hehe................Then our final assault will be on the, hopefully, wonderful land that is Uzbekistan! I know I said this about my China trip and it didnt happen but this time I am really going to try and keep this blog updated!!.....of course i have no idea on the internet access. Take all and Enjoy!

Ni Hao!!

Shanghai - "By the Sea"

Hi everyone. I hope you are all well. I am currently in Shanghai for one last day before we fly to Beijing for 5 days. Shanghai is great! BLOODY Hot tho!Excuse the language please, I am only trying to express the true nature of hot! It was 44 degrees the other day and sits arount 35 -38 average and humid as can be. It's almost consantly overcast. Proving a little hard to make the city look beautiful. I would love to spend a bit more time here on holiday to see the sights (always the way). Altho short this will hopefully be the first blog today. I am hoping to continue this later but for now the "Big Red button awaits me".

A long awaited blog...........

HI from the highlands of Scotland. We must apologise for the delay in our blogs..........well.....ummm......we've been busy! No really!! We have been caught up in the terrorist sting in london which put major delays on our first day off in AGES! so after they cancelled our flight we trained down the beautiful east coast of mother england for 5 hours. Oh what delicious curves and deep coves that wicked wench has. Once in Londontown we caught up with some good friends Sarah and Richard. New Zealand strays who have taken a liking to the ways of the brits. London is Cool! you can see why so many Nzer's go there to live and party and Shop! Sarah and richard treated us to the most expensive dinner these two K1w1's have ever had, yes Daniel and Lucas more than Arnie Mortons......lots more, we dined in Chelsea at 8 over 8 and our final bill for the evening was...................£400!! yes $1200 nz pingers......... but not to worry the accountant it's all covered under the entertaining expenses column...................nah just kidding richards the boss...............so it was on the house! Next was back to France, well actually Barcelona. After a 12 hours travelling day (english airports and queing at its worst) we reach St maximin, unpack, repack and sleep for 4 hours and then jumped a 5 hours train to barcelona for the night. Oh how jake was excited..............zzzzzz. Barcelona is a very cool town infact we all like it more than paris, jake shopped and we followed til there was nothing left but to drink ourselves a couple of jugs of sangria and go clubbing in a latin bar! Next morning was a bit iffy for our open air bus tour but there's nothing like cold rain in the face to sting a hangover out of your system although Jake slept through it!? Returned back to france where it rained and flooded the tiny village for 3 straight days( seriously it really flooded it) There is nothing like get home from a 5 hour train ride, maybe 9 hours sleep in 48 hours, driving 1 hour through the heaviest rain ever then to sweep tons of water out of a flooding house for maybe 3 hours.hehe. it was quite fun really. 300 days of sunshine!!!! but when it rains.....my god...maybe the french do "do it better"? With a goodbye soiree for jake (60 people) some good food and goodbyes jake was on his way. Of course tho...........jake had changed his train ticket to a 0700 departure. We were flying at 1345. This meant another very early, very long day of travel being that jakes train was about 1 hour in one direction and our plane was about 3 hours in the other. Once we arrived in Gatwick airport (london) The Queing was still unbelievable. not only were there about 200 people in every line but there were no signs. No one knew where to go. So after a frantic 5 hours of queing, requeing, running, waiting and then more queing half the passengers of the plane made it 30mins late. 2100 we arrive in edinburgh (remember 0530 start in france) we unpack, repack and with a short sleep we jumped on another 4 hour train to the beautiful Inverness. Arriving and finding the hostel was easy with many locals helping and requesting we join them for a thai curry and a beer, our evenings entertainment was set........well the thai was closed and our new "friends" were then very drunk.....Marina's stickablity was failling and we made a wobbly retreat to a steakhouse for dinner..we had fish! OK with a fairly good sleep we were up and about by 0730....well we were, Marina was somewhere in the realms of deep sleep. So philippa had to check the nets and made sure the harpoon was secure before we set off to reveal the true mystery around Loch Ness's monster.......we boarded a tourist vessel disguised as tourists and made our way through the dark murky waters of the Ness (dark because of peat? who would have known.......Philippa did! on this trip i have come to realise that Philippas brain is a Vault of Information.......a genuis i say....... while she can't remember where she put the keys. she seems to know facts about everything else.I mean anything and everything.) we approached a ruined Castle. "AH" we thought "A good look out for the Monster". Fortunately for ness wondering around the ruins took up all our time and energy so she lives another day...........but we believe there is work in the isle of skye for rat trappers so we think we can make our fame and fortune there.....Marina Has left for Edinburgh and we have 4 days off. With the help of a really small car we are going to conquer the north of Scotland in nothing but shorts and T-shirts........philippas idea. As for right now the pints are pouring and the scotch is tickling the cockles (philippa doesn't think she has cockles......see, she doesn't know everything)hehe.We have under 2 weeks to go. Hopefully we can fit another blog in sometime. Now off to train for the whiskey drinking champs of the highlands. Oc i !!!!!!!

Oc ii the nu!!!!!

With the first week of Edinburgh under our belts we head for the welterweight title for beer drinking. We have a confession.........its midday and we have just beaten australia in rubgy, had 2 pints of ale and a large plate of haggis, black pudding and beans. Ah to be scottish! As we write this blog we are on a day off......thats right! we have been working and tomorrow we head back to the sunny land of rose wine. So far so good. Marina (talent) has settled in nicely and is currently working like a trojan. We are planning on to head to the highlands on our return to the kingdom in search of the myth and legend they call "The Loch Ness!!!" and maybe a wee dram of scotch. but now it's time for a shortbread finger and a grim tale.

PS: I promise we will put photos on once we reach France.
PPS: we're feeling a little light headed.............................................................. .................... ..

The Bonny wee Hills of Scotland!!!!

As the bag pipes echo off the anicent walls and the suns last rays sink into the shadows of every lane and close. Two kiwi's wander the streets in search of a common goal. A goal which has been held by every fellow kiwi comrade who has walked these streets of blood shed and barbaric history. A common goal......................HAGGIS, NEEPS, TATTIES and BEER..............there's so much BEER!!!! We have made it to the mighty town of Edinburgh! well actually Philippa has been here for almost a week, i think her hair is slowly turning ginger................. It is a great town. The history here is crazy. Every corner seems to hold a ghost or a alter where thousands were hung. With an amazing Castle, my first castle ever wohoo!, in the middle of town the cityscape is awesome. Marina, victim, has arrived and seems to be settling in nicely. She's a very cool lady and is keen for a good time. We a based around the "Guilded Balloon" which is part of the Edinburgh Fringe Fest. It hosts one of the worlds most highly rated Comedy festivials. This is going to be cool. Turkey is all finished, packed away and ready for the cutting board. Well better run, I think someone just screamed "FREEDOM" and then there was a sound of an axe........mmmm......no sure!

5 litres for 6 Euro!!!!!!

Bonjour from the land of Vino! France is beautiful. We are staying in a Mansion in St Maximum. Which is about 45 min East from Avignon(south of France)With fantastic food and the nector of the gods so freely flowing how could one not enjoy it. We discovered yesterday that 5 litres of Rose wine is approx 6 euro!!! not only that, at 9am in 35 degrees you have to choose your wine from a tasting of about 7 half glasses! hehe interesting start to the day. The world cup final was very cool. You forget so easyily how comitted they are to there teams. They are Hardcore!! unfortunately france lost. One of the top wierdest moments in life was the other day when we found ourselves at a Haiwiain party in the Provence of france with a whole lot of English, ozzies and Kiwi's. Very funny day. The Photo on the right is our victim Jake and lovely hostess Amanda. Hope you are all well.

Bonjour!!!!

Bonjour madames and mistir's
Sorry about the long interval between blogs. Turkish mountain villages have proven a little hard to connect online. We are in FRANCE!! St Maximum. It is amazing. A small medival village on top of a hill. Amanda, our host, is great. All about fun and living in Paradise. Our flights here proved a little taxing with a 1 thirty wake up, 2 hour drive to Dalaman airport, 1.20hour flight to Instanbul, 1 hour wait, 2 hours to Munich, 1 hour (5 security checks) transfer, 2 hours to Marseilles france and then a very entertaining if not wayward 2hours drive to St maximum. Last night after 3 bottles of bubbles and 2 of red wine, we slept like rocks. Our trip to Cappadoccia in turkey was great. A special part of the world which i recommend to you all. After that we court a 4 day boat ride from olympus to Fethiye. Awesome scenery. The water is a deep aqua/torquise and is warm the the air sometimes. The filming is going well and we're really looking forward to meeting Jake(participant) and getting france underway.
aurevoir to you all.

A fantastıc tıme squashed ınto a paragraph............

It's been two days sınce our last confessıon...........our last day ın Cappadoccıa and the loomıng feelıng of a upcomıng 11 hour bus rıde tonıght we have taken ıt upon ourselves to RELAX!! We were up wıth bırds thıs mornıng, well ınfact before the bırds. 4:00am start to go balloonıng. It was great! 2 hours of hıgh flyıng, low flyıng(extremely low) and the odd brush wıth the trees. No sales pıtch here but ıf you ever come to thıs far land, we hıghly recommend the classıc flıght wıth Kappadokya balloons. Even after reachıng to heıghts of 9500 ft ın a wıcker basket we cruısed to a smooth landıng on the edge of a potato plot and were presented wıth three lovely glasses of cherry juıce and champagne, forced upon us of course.......... The rest of the day wıll consıst of sun stoke and dehydratıon wıth a contınuıng battle for surpreme glory ın the war whıch ıs Backgammon! Tonıght (10pm) we' ll hop on a bus for 10 hours to the lovely Olympos where we'll hıt the ground runnıng straıght onto a yacht for 4 days back to Fethıye. oh the humanıty..............
How ıs the coromandel skı fıelds comıng along??? that quıte ıncredıble!

ıs ıt possıble to work ın paradıse?

Yes yes we are very sorry that the charıot we are rıdıng the ınformatıon super hıghway has stalled a lıttle at the lıghts..... ıt's almost been two weeks sınce we arrıved ın the land of olıves efes beer and sunsets....and trust me we have been workıng ınfact there ıs goat manure under our toe naıls! Sandra the partıcıpant has arrıved wıth out baggage but ıs adaptıng well. Started work and meetıng the neıghbour wıthın hours of touchıng down. Lucky Ferıt (neıghbour) does brew a fıne mulberry lıcquor! It's hot, averagıng 40c at lunch tıme, yesterday we went to some Lycıan ruıns (at Patara) and then on to the beach at 4.00 ıt was stıll 37c!!! Great temp for swımmıng but not so good for shovellıng goat manure!!! The vıllage folk are really frıendly you cant walk 20 metres wıthout beıng asked ın for tea regardless ıf you speak turkısh. Our famıly are generous beyond words, Isabel ıs cuban and learnıng englısh from us (good luck) she cooks amazıng meals mornıng noon and nıght, Sınan ıs a wealth of knowledge and puts to shame our general knowledge of home and worldly thıngs. We now are offıcıally on holıday for 8 days and are busıng overnıght to cappadoccıa after that we mıght spend sundrenched days and nıghts on a yacht crusıng the med ( dont cry for me argentına!) Love to all xxx masallah

Yakabag..but where are the yaks?

Hı all

Well you probably dont want to hear thıs but......ıts hot and hot and hot here. Thınkıng ıts tıme for an ıce cream actually! Well we made ıt to Yakabag and ıts great....cool vıllage ın a massıve valley. ıts poor and run down but everyone there ıs very generous. There ıs only one englısh speaker and thank god we are stayıng wıth hım. Charades have become our favourıte game and source of humour for all. We have adopted the turkısh way of drıvıng whıch we wıll demonstrate when we return....ıts fast ırratıc loads of horn and lıghtflashıng! We are gettıng very good at ıt....althought we look lıke travellıng geeks ın our baby blue fıat pınto (the world most ugly car/wagon)Hul la Hul la. Oh the med does look good for a swım rıght now! See you soon........ wıll post photos later (sorry lucus we are a long way from town!!)

Merhaba from Istanbul

Merhaba from Istanbul!! We are safe and sound no surprises there! The flights were very good, long but really good. We have adapted to turkish life quickly ....have rugs, gold jewellery,and the football craze! Having awoken early with morning prayers booming from the streets we had breakfast with views of the blue mosque and Aya Sofya Mosque. Both equally as stunning in the morning sun. Trotted down to the Bazaar and explored.....very cool. The city is very interesting with so much history that your head hurts. Off for lunch now then time to catch our flight to Dalaman then our first time driving in turkey (woohoo) off to Yakabag.

Catch you later on the turquiose coast.....
love Philippa and Bevan

How to find new postings and leave a comment....yes even you mum!

Hi everyone,
Would you believe it! 2 days to go, we still haven't left and already another blog.Now here's a little confusing thing, a few people have asked me how they can leave a comment for us. At the bottom of this page in tiny little writing is the words "0 comments" (for example). Click on this link to be taken to the comments page. On the right hand side is a comments box and it asks you what your identity is. For all you fellow humans who haven't explored the inner realms of "Blogging" please choose "Other".Then you only need to type in your name. We would love to hear from you. Remember!!!!! everyone else can read these comments.........so if it's not suitable content for all please email either of us instead. Cheers.


bcrothers@woosh.co.nz
philippahayward@woosh.co.nz

Welcome one and all!!

Welcome all visitors!
Hello to you all, We're glad you made it to our first, of many(hopefully), travelling blogs. We haven't actually left yet, in fact it is still 5 days before we leave. With the amount of preparation we still need to do there's a feeling of urgency like were hopping on a plane tomorrow. As most of you know we are about to embark of a 3 month journey into the deepest darkest corners of europe. ......well it'll probably be quite sunny and hot enough to secure a perfect tan while being paid to follow someone else's travel experiences. We hope to update this blog as a journal for you all to read about our highs, lows and crazy random writing which posess absolutely no relevent infomation except to serve the purpose of not having to write a long and boring bulk email which will result in wasting everybody's time and destory all individuality. Clicking the Archive link " June 2006" on the right hand side will give you access to all of junes entries. On the top right hand side of this page is a link to "Sinan Anadol", We are staying with him in turkey and it turns out he is an amazing Photographer, it's worth checking out! So goodbye to you all, we'll chat to you soon and please visit again.
Love to all.

Philippa and Bevan
PS: We also invite you all to the wine loft ( halfway up shortland street) for one last catch up and of course some fine wine.......or beer. friday 9th 6:00pm. Love to see you there.