Summertime!

I havnt wrote in this for about 2 weeks but have had pre-prepared posts on my laptop. I'm sacking them off as the bar is dead now and its the perfect time to post.
My hip is now completely healed and fit again. The weathers been fairly decent which has luckily coincided with weeks when I've had a good amount of time off work!
I managed to get onto a west coast trip out to Piha again like last summer. This time though it was warm enough to jump into the sea which was on a day that Piha wanted to be rough as fuck! We were getting thrown back a good 20m after each big wave!
Had a few nights out but to be honest nothing amazing to shout about as they are like every other that I've wrote about haha.
Xmas day was pretty epic. about 20 of us all went round to Adams house and from 12 til 6 drank solidly playing save the queen and giving out secret santa. Mine was a big curly wig off Emma which made me look like an 80's Liverpool football player haha
At about 6pm I walked round to Menz's house and played some more drinking games with Gaz, Kate and Menz involving a lot of Jack Daniels and me not understanding the rules. I managed to stay up til 12 to see my Birthday which unfortunately Menz didnt leaving me with no choice but to run into his room naked and abuse him and his cat... oops.
On my 21st I had to be up bright and early to go pick Michelle up from the airport. After a massive rush to get her clothes and me forgetting the tickets and needing to run back to the flat we eventually we are suited and booted and off to the races. It was so hot and everyone was fucked so quickly but it was a good day. My friends finally got meet the missus and they all loved her which was awesome!
We got back into town and wandered over to O'Hagans on the viaduct were a band was playing. I knew I had to last until atleast 9pm because Gerry was coming over from Oz for a couple of days. Michelle crashed and went home at midnight but me and the boys muscled on until about half 3 in the morning with several stripteases and dances on bars!
I've had to work a few days whilst Michelles been up here but I've still got to spend some quality time with her despite our here first proper arguement over something stupid again haha.
Last night we chilled round at Penny's flat watching TV and eating dominoes and today we've spent the day relaxing in the park in the sun. She doesn't fly until 9pm tomorrow so we still until then. We booked our next visit which is going to be in Napier on the 10th. Unfortunately I've been lumped with my Vodafone bill the day after booking which I'm not going to say how much it is but it's alot of money but I should be okay. Things are starting to get intense now which all relationships when your travelling do. We are talking about moving down to Queenstown together and what we're going to do after that which is all good and we both know that it will only happen if we are still together by then and not fooling ourselves that it is going to be hard later on.

Codeine is the shit

Yesterday was the Kiwi Experience Naughty 'n' Nice industry party at the camel. I had the night off work, as I did on Thursday so I did exactly the same during the day which was ice my hip, have something to eat, take my drugs then pass out in bed. Me and Michelle ended up having a little arguement on the phone but It was just due to abit of miscommunication and me over reacting. Gaz might be right, I am going abit soft now haha.
I ended up going down the camel for the meal and staying a little bit for the Industry party, I thought it was only right considering I had been on
all the promo stuff and the numbers were going to be low as Stray were sending 50 industry people down to Raglan for a surf camp.
Bit of a dick move on their part as Kiwi didn't do anything like that when Stray held their party this year.
The party was abit mellow compared to previous Industry's but as soon as the DJ arrived to picked up again and I saw this as the perfect time to retire home
as people were starting to get drunk and bump into eachother which wasn't doing my hip any favors. The swellings gone down and I'm getting more movement but
the bruising has got bigger and blacker which is concerning but I'm going to leave it and hope the drugs and icing continue to work.
It was good to get a good nights sleep and actually wake up for work at the gym not tired for once. I phoned up in advance warning them about my hip
so I've luckily got no appointments today as I wouldn't be able to demonstrate anything.
The only bad thing about having not worked Thursday and Friday is now I'm struggling to boost my hours at The camel which would pay my rent for this week.
I've just down the math and if I work until 4am tonight and pull out an 11 hour shift tomorrow, I am still $50 short of rent and I havn't even taken tax off yet. This will be interesting trying to lend money off people for this week. Me and Gaz have already both missed rent one week so we are changing when we pay to the day after we get payed to avoid this happening again. It's also more and more likely that I will transferring to Wellington as me and Menz were talking about why possibly the bar down there was doing crap and he thinks I would be perfect for it and is keeping an ear out for any news about the managers job there. I could do with the better money and after spending a few days with Michelle in Welly, I've realised that I've ended up getting stuck in Auckland just working and not really having any time to do the fun stuff I should be doing as a traveller so I'm letting my contract run out at the gym in Feb. Leaving me more time to enjoy myself and by then I'll have it sussed what I'm doing for my last year in NZ.

Me and Morphine don't mix

I've been back from Wellington for a few hours and I can honestly say that I was back to my best in terms of eventfulness!

Monday I had planned to take it easy but I had a phone call off Hayden before I got picked up by Grogan telling me that there was no way I staying in that night
so I didn't. I checked into the hostel after being pounced upon by Hayden at reception and headed to Base to meet up with Michelle, Jeremy and Selah and start drinking.
It was so good to see Michelle again and to see who she has been hanging round with. I didn't like her friends at first (probaly the jealous protective me coming out) but
I warmed to them and they warmed to me. I remember nearly fuck all from the Monday night, I had barely eaten all day and was having drinks forced down my neck. Aparantly me and Michelle ending up leaving the bar around 11pm but it was for the best as we were propping eachother up at the bar according to Selah. God knows how long it took us to walk back to my room as we were just laying on the floor outside base bar for an hour haha.
Tuesday we spent pretty much all day in bed only to get out of it twice to hit up some lunch at the craftsman and I got a sneaky watch of the ashes in there. The 2nd was late on in the evening when we went out drinking. We pre-drunk round at hers and jeremys apartment. Ring of fire is a leathal game and I had the bitch card for the whole entire game which basically meant that I had to do literally everything someone asked of me. For example I had to go meet Hayden and his girlfriend at the elevator naked with only a bottle of beer to cover my bits. We didn't leave the apartment until around 2am and at this point there was only 1 place to go. A small bar on Courtenay Place called Mini Bar. It was a cool little place and after a few drinks we all headed back home about 4/5am.
I made it my mission to have a filled Wednesday and not spend all day bed. I was granted that wish. We woke up and me not realising that Wellington was going to be freezing I packed for warm weather so the first point of call was buying something to keep me warm. We then made our to the flight centre to book her flights up for my birthday. After this we made our way to the museum and this time I did more than 1 floor! We did the virtual ride which was seeing life through the eyes of something different each scene, e.g a bird, rugby ball, sheep etc. By the time we got back it was about 6pm so we grabbed a couple of hours sleep, watched an episode of Gavin and Stacey (which I know have her hooked on!) then got ready to go out. We headed back upto Base to start our drinking. It was Selahs birthday at midnight so we all had a few celebratory drinks for that. It was so funny, I barely moved a muscle all night but had her 2 of her best mates making sure they gave me their blessing haha. At about 1am things took a turn for the worse.
Me and Jeremy ending up having a little playfight which involed me getting smashed into a wall and hitting the deck feeling very ill. I sat down and put some ice on the area with the most pain and carried on drinking. After about an hour I stopped trying to be all manly and gave into the fact that it was causing me alot of pain and had an ambulance phoned for me.
I was told to lie down downstairs while we waited for the ambulance. By this point my hip was obviously sticking out abit and swollen to fuck. The ambulance came and had to get stretchered into it. Right outside the bar aswell. It would have been embarassing but it was actually kinda funny getting my picture taken with everyone. Michelle came with me to the hospital and ended up having to fill in all my paperwork because I was so high off the pain killing drugs they gave me (An IV drop of morphine twice, laughing gas, paracetamol and Coedene)
We ended up leaving the hospital with me dislocating my hip and having 3 hours to spare until I had to get up for my flight. By this point everywhere was closed so we just made for my room and chilled out until I had to leave.
The airport and everything I felt fine, maybe a little high from the drugs still but I was not expecting what happened on the flight. No sooner had we got into the air, I went pale as, felt ill, light headed and really weak. I ended up being sick for the entire hour and I couldn't even grip the water they game me I felt so weak. Possibly the worst hour of my life.
I got off the plane and headed for the CBD to tell the camel that I really couldn;t work for a couple of days. I was so high still from the Morphine and the flight so Mike had to get my prescription and carry my bag up to the apartment before I gave him a spanking on the playstation and passing out on the floor for a few hours sleep.

Weekend before Wellington

I've somehow managed to blag myself a lift to the airport off Grogan and then a lift from the airport to the hostel from Hayley's mate Kate.
She left today so we finally have our lounge back and for her big send off... we watched all 3 Lord of the Rings with a bottle of whisky and a bottle of wine with a massive feed of sausage, steak, pasta and salad haha
I popped into Fusion or as it's now known Fort Street Union and do you know what, I had my doubts but the bar is looking awesome. A kind of Heebie Jeebies vibe for those back in Liverpool. It's got a rooftop garden bar which is decorated with various plants and cool seating. The proper bar has an outside inside feel but its very cool.
I got all the boys in the bar now raping the free internet by downloading all my music and raping the free pool on offer! I can not wait to get back to bed and wake up an hour before my flight... its so close now!

Return To Waiheke

I don’t know how long it’s been since I last wrote in here so I’m going to guess at about a week. I’m currently just sat at my desk in the gym waiting for my appointment to come in so to pass the time I’m going to write my blog entry. I have pretty much just been working all the time recently and it’s been pretty enjoyable, it also helps that I am beating my revenue targets most nights which isn’t going un-noticed, pay rise fingers crossed!
I have had time to go out and party a bit, not that I remember much of this! Despite saying I was going to save money for Wellington by not going out, I’ve just needed to blow off some steam and ended up hitting the pub crawl. Tuesday was Sammy Spinnetto’s birthday so I took the day off and joined him, Ed, Mark, Tuema, Jason, Marc, Jenna, Katy and Trashy on the Beachbum bus for the day. First beer 9am and downhill from there. It was an awesome day and great to be back on the island. We did the usual nudey beach, supermarket for beers then down to Onetangi beach for a bbq and a topgun style game of volleyball. We only had time for the 1 vineyard but by this time we were all pretty sloshed and ended up rushing to get on the ferry. Sam ended up falling asleep on the ferry so he got abused badly... tried to get up... fell into katy sending her flying and smacking her head on the chair. We were all obviously very concerned... after we stopped laughing.
It was the end of Movember which meant as soon as we got off the ferry we ran upto Globe for a few celebratory drinks before showering and going to Cassette. My memory fades in Globe to be honest but I hear I was quite a nuisance.
I think that by the end of this week I’m going to hand in my notice at the gym, its great and pays well but purely because of what time the shifts are that I’m working, it’s messing up my body clock and every week I dread getting up for work as I’m only managing a couple of hours sleep Friday and Saturday night. I ended up closing up the bar real early Friday night as I knew I wasn’t going to get much sleep.
Work at the moment is a big point of discussion and I’m ready to burst at the seams with excitement as there is something big on the horizon either in Auckland or Wellington. I can’t give away much about what could be going down in Auckland but I could end up managing the biggest bar in Auckland by February. Wellington I can talk about as it’s only a possibility and probably won’t happen but if I talk to the right people and get some luck then it could go ahead. I was speaking to Menz about Wellington and saying that I’m intrigued to see what the bar is like down there as it’s doing shit at the moment. He went on to say that they had gone through 4 managers in the last year and he’s pretty sure the one in charge at the moment is going to get pushed up and that someone from our bar will probably be going down there to take the job. He’s going to recommend me, aparantly.
Things are going well with Michelle, my phone bill is going to be huge next month though! We’re both excited for me to go down on Monday and hopefully if the price of tickets are not too much then she’s going to be coming up for my birthday. I plan on surprising her on new year’s eve as well but that depends on money I have available at the time. I can see this being an expensive time for me but it’s worth it.

Illness

Another weeks gone by and to be honest I've been working so much that there hasn't been an amazing amount to comment on.
I've had work Monday, Wednesday and Friday night at the bar (I was due to work tonight - Saturday- but with my lack of sleep I've been kinda ill all day so Aaron's covering me. I had Tuesday and Thursday off work so I did the camel quiz then Cassette and the pub crawl pn thursday but left both kinda early.
I've been speaking to Michelle alot recently and It's pretty set in stone that im flying down to Wellington for a few days in December. I might be scoring some
free/cheap accomodation aswell. This time I'm actually going to get out and about and see Wellington! I might be working in the Wellington Nomads bar as I'm abit
of a hot streak at the moment and smashing my revenue targets on the bar. I now no what I'm doing for my 21st... going the boxing day races at Ellerslie park, should
be awesome! Apart from that it's pretty much everything except me gaz and hayley bought a playstation before but it doesnt work :(
I'm glad I've got the night off tonight, I can grab some much needed sleep and hopefully feel alot better tomorrow morning for the gym

Meow

Touch was fun but showed how unfit I have become! after only 10mins I was puffing my heart out! It was so good to get the ball in hand and run at people again although
I did get a little too into it and instead of just taking the tackle on one occassion, I went for the dive in the corner and cut up my forearm and knees which sent blood gushing out of them, ahhh just like old times!
After touch rugby I went down the camel for a drink to say bye to Michelle and her friends before they left in the morning and then retired back to the apartment.
I woke up to a text from Michelle saying "fuck stray up the arse", i thought to myself that surely she couldn't be hating the bus already but turns out there was a mistake and it was fully booked and they had to wait until Saturday for the next one.
I was kinda happy though as It meant I would have a little more time to hang out with them. In the afternoon Michelle came round to watch a movie and then we walked back to The Camel to start the pub crawl. It was Franzi's birthday so we only had a couple of drinks in The Camel before moving on to Danny Doolan's to celebrate.
After a couple of hours I left to meet back up with Michelle on the pub crawl. She was an absolute mess and I ended up for her own good bringing her back to the flat as she could barely stand haha.
Friday we had a lie in and caught the bus upto Ponsonby to have a late breakfast and a stroll up K' road. I had to work Friday night and thus the start of my work weekend
of Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, Sunday Night (around 10 hours sleep across 3 nights) so i grabbed a couple hours sleep before heading to work.
It was such a stressful night as everything that could happen, happened at exactly the same time but Michelle had come in towards the end of my shift which cheered me up.
We went for a drink after I had cleaned and cashed up then went back to her dorm room to spend the night as she was up early to get on the bus proper. Sleep didn't really happen as it seemed every in the room just watched to to stay up and find out who this mysterious person was in Michelle's bed haha.
I left her at 6am to run up to the apartment to get showered and changed for work. I can get my bus to the gym from around the corner from her pick up point so I was able
to see her off. We made loose plans to meet up again in Nelson/Wellington and Auckland. I want to but I very much doubt that would happen.
Saturday was horrible in work due to my complete lack of sleep and wasn't the best either considering for the first time in quite awhile I was actually genuinely missing someone.
Saturday night I had to work but it was pretty dead to be honest. I closed up at 1am, popped into Fusion to say hi then heading home for some sleep.
Today work was pretty standard really. I sat on the computer for abit checking prices for a short trip down to Nelson and back in December. It's going to pricey.
I can't take too much time off work as I need to pay rent so that rules out the Stray bus. I could fly down which would cost close to $400 but means I would have more time
in Nelson. If I get the bus down It would be around $80 cheaper but I would be on the bus for around 11 hours and have to spend the night in Wellington.

Okay, So I'm getting pretty bad at keeping up with this

Okay the past few weeks (month maybe, I'm not sure) has been so hectic and I havn't had enough time to sit down and write in the blog.
I've kept a few notes in my phone of things to write about in here so here goes;


Council House - this refers to when me and Gaz where flat hunting and found a pretty sweet one after I'd 3rd viewing. It looks like a right dodgy council estate from the outside but inside its kinda cool. Living room, kitchen, balcony, 2 double bed rooms (one with ensuite) and a bathroom with a washer and dryer in.

Karina - haha erm this refers a certain night out where my memory completely fades. It was Julie's birthday so we all went out on the pub crawl and I ended up
taking home a friend of hers. I think in an act of karma about my sleezyness, the alcohol affected me and let's just say she left disappointed haha.

Metallica - Fuck, I have found new hatred for Metallica! They were playing in Auckland and for a few days we were over run with Miserable metal heads dressed in black.
They ruined both Nomads hostels by being complete fuck wits and punching holes in walls and pulling off water basins resulting in 2 floors getting flooded. Literally
no need at all! I also couldn't go and have a quiet drink in the camel 'cos it was over run with these idiots and therefore heavy metal music was played 24 hours in the camel.

Cassette - now this pops up several times so I'm just going to try and remember significant moments from the past few times there. Met some cool people there and took a few home (sleeze bag, i no) the bar tab is really not good for me... get really drunk and instead of having a quiet drink with the boys, I end up looking to pull.

Pimps n Hoes - Wednesday night bar crawl. You guessed the theme. Me and Ed from Frienz spent all Wednesday day trying to get our costume... him being my pimp and me being his ho.
He went for the purple austin powers look and I went for the dirty-farmer-tractor-batch look. just look at the pictures. From what I remember it was a pretty cool crawl. With some good
stories coming out. e.g Luke going back to a students halls only to wake up and realise she was twice his size and he couldnt get out the building... dressed in girls clothes.

Frenzi - god knows, its so long ago ive got no idea what this means. I'm going to hazard a guess at a crazy night

Lunch with Kat - I bumped into Katrina as she came back from the bay of islands and had a few hours to kill so we went down to the pier and had some lunch in the sun. It
was really cool to see her again and she assures me she's back out here in February. Emma Clifford is going to get so much stick when I see her as I was the last person to see Kat before she left!

Last Shift - I had my last shift at Fusion as I was due to move into the apartment with Gaz and start my job at Massey University on the north shore working in the gym.

Rugby - Me, Adam, Natalie (his girlfriend) and Mike their friend from back home scored free tickets to go watch Auckland play Otago. It was fucking freezing, I was ridiculously shattered but free tickets are a plus in my book anyday!

Hot tub - when I got back I jumped in the hot tub with Luke, Lucy and Carmel. Not much to shout about, not sure why thats in here.

Parnell - Becky was on the job hunt hard. We went up to Parnell rd to try and find her a job. Had a coffee in esquires and just sat there chatting for hours with Rossy and Nina.
When we left we walked back to the CBD and to the Viaduct harbour to see if there was anything there going. She scored a trial at degree and celebrate we went to the waterfront to surprise Franzi and have a drink there.

Camel - I got offered a trial by Menz for the Tuesday (only 3 days after I left Fusion) this was to be the start an absolute hectic time.

Move In - Me and Gaz moved into the apartment on the Thursday but I had very little time to move everything in as I had to be at the gym to start my first shift
on Friday morning.

Gym - As i said my first shift. 2 hours of it was spent on the phone to immigration and HR coming to an agreement on my contract.

Function - I had my first job with Function Staff working at a V.V.I.P wedding at the Wharf. The venue is amazing and costs $25,000 to hire out. It comes right out into the water and has the harbour and the cbd as its back drop.

Food on the deck - Me and gaz had a meal in the sun out on our balcony soaking up the sun to celebrate moving in. Our view is just sick. We get a 180 degree view from
the harbour to K' rd looking out to Ponsonby.

We've had a few people round to visit the apartment and have gone through so much booze in that time! Abby came round and then we had one of gaz's mates from Queenstown stay over for a few days.

Halloween - This night evades me completely. I remember being in the flat with gaz, lucy, charlotte, dave, Lindsay and carmel. Me and gaz were chugging back our beers and painting each other blue so we could go as smurfs. Bad idea. Clothes and the apartment covered in blue paint now. I spent the night at the camel to start with as it was rocking!
I remember pulling trashys mate again and thats about it really. I think I went to margeritas and Code but I cant be too sure. I forgot I had to get up at 7am in the morning to go work in the gym... I was still covered in blue :/

Initiation - not much of an initiation as I've been doing it time and time again anyway and continue to do it. But I had to do a strip tease on top of the pool table infront of everyone which is now on youtube.

Apart from that I've just been working solidly (clocked close to 50 hours a week) the weekend is a killer as im working friday night til about 3. up at 7am to go the gym til 1,work at 4 til close (so around 4am) then up at 7am again for the gym til 1 then back in the bar 4pm til close.
I love working in the bar as now I'm a duty manager and it's good for picking up girls (Canada's been kind to me) and let's just leave it at that.

I'm in 2 minds at the moment as to whether to look for a girlfriend or continue being sleeze. It is fun and I've met some great people but for example there's been a Candanian girl called Michelle that I've been spending time with and hooking up with for the past few days which has been so much fun and I quite like her and she's so easy to talk to (we stayed up all night last night just talking) but she leave's tomorrow which is gutting. I know if I have a girlfriend I won't have this problem but will I just get bored? Fuck knows.

Right, well I think that's almost everything (there'll be loads i've forgot as its been so long) and now I'm off to Victoria Park to play some touch with the hostel.

Belated Entry

Tuesday was the classic cassette night, to be honest i cant remember anything eventful happening.
wednesday i had an interview for a gym, didnt get a great vibe from it so i would be supprised if i heard
back from them.
Thursday was the bar crawl which finished up in Margeritas so me and Eddie rushed up there after work. It was pretty
mild compared to previous weeks. I ended up leaving with a girl called Carmel to find some decent music and ended up in Deshers Bar on High st. Ive always wanted to drink there and it was a complete let down.
Friday I was given the night off for Dribbles Stray leaving Do. It was an awesome night. We played pub golf. 9 holes of drinking where all but 1 was a hole in one for moi! we started at the camel where I had to do 10 naked press ups on the pool table after losing a bet. moving on to Brew then Providore in the hail stones!. Then QF Tavern, Margeritas, Father Teds where we were on the pool table singing and dancing. Epic. Then onto Globe. Missing out Cassette drunkenly. Then back to the camel where I had to do a striptease after losing another bet. Speaking of bets though... Gaz (the new travel desk guy) thought he could drink me under the table and lost, meaning that now he has to shave his head!
Saturday was work again. First Holly and Ally came in with a burger king for me then Dayna came in with one... brilliant!
Sunday was Emma Cliffords last night which resulted in an all day sunday session. Man Utd vs LFC which was awful then jumping in a taxi to parnell to watch the gaelic football.
Monday I had a trial at Anna's bar in Rydges hotel... very posh! It went well and I got the job after smashing a couple of glasses, creating a massive Sav Blanc spillage and fucking up on the till... oops! but a few after work drinks at the camel helped me calm down!
Tuesday was superheroes at Cassette where I went as mr.muscle! It was an average night which made me feel bad as it was deans birthday.
I left early as Louise came in and me being me and being a dick, it ruined my mood and i no longer felt comfortable there so went to bed.
I had the night off again on Wednesday as the bar crawl didnt come through Fusion. The bar crawl theme was Sports day so after much thinking
I blackened myself up with loads of fake tan and went as Usain Bolt. It was pretty average to be honest but Jessie (girl I met on pub golf) joined us in Be bar which made the night better.
On Thursday me, Cassy (little english girl thats been around the hostel for a few weeks now) went upto New World supermarket in Ponsonby then went for a coffee. We were there for ages and had pretty much told each other our life stories! She wanted to then go to K' Road so we made the trek up there in the pissing down rain. I hadnt been up there during the day but I no plan on having another night out up there sometime soon. We spent a good 3 hours around Auckland which was cool but I was treated to my drama coming back to haunt me... We walked into the hostel reception to see Sammy and Matty checking in and possibly the most awkward silence I've ever had. My mind was all over the place for the next few hours before work. The pub crawl was pretty dead but I needed to go out and fucked up after seeing them 2 check back in earlier in the day. Gaz (and pretty much everyone else in the hostel) had heard the story about the 3 of us so dragged me out after work and set me up with a girl from Milton Keynes called Charlotte.
Friday I woke up absolutely hanging from the night before but it was an industry party down at the camel bar so me and Gaz went out looking for our costume.
It was James Bond themed and neither me, gaz or mark had much money so just wore trousers, shoes, suspenders and a tie!
I ended up crashing at work but Charlotte came in to keep me company which was cool. After work me and her ended up watching Boy in the Tv Lounge while everyone else had gone out.
Saturday was Abbys show at NZ Fashion Week. She had 2 free tickets to give away and gave them to me. I didnt no who to take so just asked Charlotte if she was interested.
The show was boring (I'm a northern boy at a fashion show, what else was it going to be) but was proud of Abby and how she had done. After the show I had to catch up
on my sleep and crashed until 8pm when it was time to go down to the camel and say bye to Lachy before he moved jobs to Byron Bay in Ozzy.
Then it was work again. Holly and Ally didnt come into town this weekend so that was one BK down. but Dayna came in with one so I still had abit of a feed in work.
We arranged to meet up for lunch on Tuesday. Whether she remembers or not is a different matter though, alcohol and all that. After work I crashed on the internet for a little bit. Mark had come back from Lachys leaving do and starting chatting shit. He really has no idea about what to say and what not to say when he's drunk.
He started trying to talk to me about Louise and asking why im miserable when shes around but went onto say he saw her the other night or something like and saying
he thinks the both of us try and look happy when we were around each other but arnt. I tried to not think about this but this is me were talking about and thats impossible.
I text her trying to provoke a conversation about 'us' but that was just wishful thinking.
I bumped into Charlotte before and she said that we're all going to Danny Doolans tonight which will be pretty cool.
Ive had time on my hands to think today and I'm not sure if I've been spending time with Charlotte and texting Dayna and Jessie just to get over Louise or not.
I don't want to put myself into a hole I can't dig myself out of so I'm going to hold off abit until my head clears up.

Sort My Life Out Week 1

Wednesday I got up and decided to spend the day away from the Hostel to avoid the Louise situation. I went down to the gym to pay off gym membership and cancel it aswell as going up to IEP to use some of the internet. On the way back I popped into the camel and ended up having a few drinks and playing some pool with Patches and the rest of the Paddys down there. I had a fairly quiet night though, just watched a movie and went to bed.
Thursday I bumped into Louise up in the kitchen and mentioned the cock blocking on Tuesday but she said it was unintentional and didn't remember talking to me at all that night which to be honest I think is bollocks as we were down in the TV room for a good hour before going to bed and she was asking me questions about what time I left and who with that night anyway. But I'm just going to let it slip and move on. Later I went down to the Belgian Beer Cafe with Eddie, Perry, Rossy, Becky and her friend Fran for a pint pulling competition. I didn't enter but took the time to indulge on free beer and food all afternoon. Me and Eddie found out we were 3rd on the bar crawl meaning we would be in work later and could have a pint at the camel but we also wouldn't get out til later. I saw Kat down there and had a drink with her before leaving for work but we did agree to meet up afterwards in Cassette as I said I would be there about half 1. I ended up being in a foul mood in work as Louise was drinking in there and it was doing my head. I couldn't wait for the shift to end so I could go meet Kat in Cassette. I didn't get there till 2.15 though and she had left by that point so I only stayed for half an hour before leaving with Mark from reception to make sure he didn't make a fool of himself when he got back to the camel to wake Emma up!
Friday I got up kinda early for me and decided that I would sort out my life. I started by filling in some forms for a job application as function staff applied for a couple of jobs on Seek.co.nz. I then text my mates asking to give me some heads up on any work. Anna got back to me telling me to come into her bar to get an application form. I cooked my dinner then headed up to see Anna. Her boss was there and he told me to come back in on Monday to speak to him and bring my CV. Before I knew it, it was time for work. I was in a much improved mood in work and for the first time in 5 weeks was actually in a good mood in work. Holly and her friends had come in again but this time bearing gifts in the shape of Burger King for me. I was very very very happy about this!
Saturday was spent down at the camel again surprise surprise but they had the rugby on and I get free coke down there so its all good. I had seen Kat again as they were going to the match and she mentioned about going round for a Sunday roast the next day. That night in work was fairly decent. I started to get sharked on again which was pleasing and kept me in a good mood all night. Dayna and Kathryn (2 students that had come in the week before and then added me on facebook) came in again and I did some groundwork on that one.
Sunday I got up about 12 and went down the camel for the Roast. They hadn't even started cooking yet so I ended up going down to Countdown with them and then helping with the cooking when we got back. While everything was in the oven we watched paranormal activity. It was an okay film but the ending we saw was shite. It was funny just to see the girls shit themselves during it though. I hung around with the boys in their room for a bit before deciding to go out on the piss with them. It was fairly mild night, just the camel bar and then down to Danny Doolan's in the harbour before coming home blind drunk!
I woke up Monday to my alarm going off and realising I had a job interview and a chat at Anna's bar.Fuck. The interview was very short but I think it went well to be honest and so did the chat with Anna's boss. I am going to get a phone call off both. I have spent the rest of the day in bed watching films and job hunting online. I've already had a reply and got an interview on Wednesday!

Cockblock Tuesday

So yeah, I woke up Tuesday early as I had to go to my job interview on the North Shore. I had probably got myself 4 hours sleep but I think I aced the interview. I had a good hour to wait for my bus back and an hour journey on the bus. I used this time to think about the Louise situation. After a bit of thinking about what to do, I came to the conclusion that I wouldn't chase her as it would only get messy. Luckily it was a Tuesday which is Cassette's time of week to shine. Cassette happens to be a frequent sharking ground of mine so I decided I would go out hard on the sharking front. I think my bar tab I racked up came to about $100 which was a good amount as the drink I had bought to pre-drink ended up getting nailed by Eddie, resulting in him going home at 10.30 (extremely poor effort I do feel). It was the usual crowd but then Emma that used to live above me turned up with a few friends from her hostel. I was almost ready to give up on the sharking and go home but got chatting to one of Emma's friends called Kat. We spent most of the night chatting away and dancing together then Louise came in and immediately my mood had changed. It was wierd, I didn't really want to be there anymore. I stayed as I was having a good time with Kat but about half an hour later it was just me and Kat on the dance floor then I got pulled to one-side by Louise who started chatting away to me. I was looking at Kat as if to tell her I didn't want to be in the conversation I had found myself in. In the end Emma saw Kat was just standing there like a lemon and came to her aid, she also explained the situation and that I didn't want to be stood there with Louise in the first place. Eventually I got away and we carried on dancing away. Me, Emma, Kat and one of Emma's mates she had been kissing (James) left and came back to Fusion to sit off in the Library for a little while. I could see Kat's body language had changed since Louise had been chatting with me and I could see it going nowhere so I retired to bed. I couldn't sleep so I decided to see if anyone was down in the TV Lounge. Louise was down there with the girls but they left as I came in. Louise was then all huggy and suggestive with her body language and in the end I just thought, fuck this, my head can;t take it and went to bed.

Forte

Its been 2 weeks since I wrote in here and there is a great deal to write in (i cant remember for my life of me what we did last week except spending time in the TV room with Louise and going the comedy club on Monday but it was shit). Tuesday was spent in Cassette after going round to Adams flat for pre-drinks. I wasn't planning on getting smashed but I did get quite drunk, left relatively early after I had a text off Louise asking if I was still in cassette cos she had finished work (didn't want her seeing me drunk when she was sober, not that attractive).
Wednesday the bar crawl came through Fusion meaning me and eddie had to work but we dressed up in tight and bright to mark the occasion (tight and bright). We went out after work to join the crawl in Code but to be honest I only went to see Louise and left after a short while once I had realised I just wasn't drunk enough to enjoy the place.
We had to work again on Thursday but didn't go out after work as we were both knackered and just retired to bed.
Friday Me, Eddie, Louise from work and Emma ended up going to Forte until 8am in the morning and getting smashed! Out of the blue I also decided to do it all over again on the Saturday but ended up getting out of control drunk and having a depressive breakdown about David in the club and got back at 8am ended up ringing my dad and sister (I cant remember either conversation but I know I was crying my eyes out) then moving on to crying myself in Mandy's arm. Not my finest hour but I havnt exactly been having the best of times recently and it all came to a head after one stupid DJ played Angels in the middle of his set.
Sunday I almost missed a day after waking up at 6pm and spending all day in bed and not getting back to sleep until 6am!
I woke up today feeling slightly better and spent a couple of hours in the Library with Louise away from everyone (at the moment I just don't feel like being around people that much) I took this time to have a much needed chat with her about where we both stand. I'm thankful she was honest and came out saying she likes me but she doesn't know what she wants and doesn't want to lead me on. I feel a lot better now as it had been on my mind for a couple of weeks. It would have been nice for us to make a go of it but it wasn't meant to be so I'll go back to my sharking ways and wait for someone else to come along.

Tagged

Most of the past week has been spent in the TV room with Louise watching shit films as theres nothing really to when the weathers crap but recently there have been moments where you get the feeling that summer is back on its way!
Saturday was one of these days... me, Louise, Nina, Ellie, Rosh, Adam, Mandy, Beatrice and Nick went down the harbour front for a few drinks (not a good idea before work as I was absolutely shattered when I get there) and some food in the sunshine. It was really nice and the food was gorgeous!
The next day I'm ashamed to say that I spent 14 hours in the TV room with everyone. It is Sunday though so it's kind of explainable!
Monday came around and I decided that I would cook for everyone. Nothing special, just some pasta to fill us up before we went drinking at the comedy club. This time it was class! hardly any of the comedians were crap and we had some great banter with the MC purely because he loved the fact we were english. Not a whole lot of us went, just me, Louise, Jake, Beatrice and Laura and the latter 3 made it their mission to make it awkward all night by calling me and Louise a couple and what not.
Cassette Tuesday was remained Chav Tuesday this week. I don't think anyone enjoyed dressing as a chav but we got a few of us together and just ran with. I do believe though that we are going to only do the fancy dress on the odd occasion purely because it's going to get old even though we all have some awesome ideas.
Wednesday again was spent in the TV room before I had to work (the student bar crawl came through Fusion this week and not the Thursday one so me and eddie could have a night off on the Thursday) I didnt really do much as there wasnt a big crowd and spent most of the night just gossiping to Abby as she had seen me and louise together and was curious but there isnt a whole to tell.
Thursday was bar crawl day! I wasnt massively up for it as I felt no need to sharking (on the pull) and only felt like drinking as it was my night off. It was still a pretty good night though. Stayed in Fusion to play the pool comp till around half 11 as i got to the final and put my staff discount to great use. I also took charge of the music and had a little sing song to some classic brittish songs. Parklife was a big hit! Eventually we all left and rejoined the bar crawl at the last bar and for no reason at all me and eddie thought it would be funny to get everyone to draw on us with permanent marker. Not funny the next day when your still covered head to toe in pen after showering for an hour!
Again I just spent the whole day in the TV room recovering with Louise until we both had to leave for work. It was horrible as i was still shattered from the night before and was crashing hard in work!
Saturday and Sunday were just average days with not much to report on so I'll move onto Monday.
We went the comedy club again and just like the 1st week it was kinda shit so me and Louise saw a good opportunity to nail a couple of bottles of wine to make it seem funnier! We all went for a drink in Father Teds after the show but after 1 drink me and Louise decided we had had enough and crawled back to Fusion and collapsed on the coach in the TV room for a couple of hours. standard move really.
So hear I am now with dry mouth and a banging headache! safe to say that Savignon Blanc doesnt agree with me!

Everybody Be Cool, You Be Cool

bit of a shit title but ive been listening to Paffendorf - Be Cool and love that line.
Its been a couple of weeks since I last wrote in here so its about time it was updated.
A fair bit has happened over these weeks and Ive met some great people aswell.
First off, Tuesdays have been cassette each week and as per usual some eventful shit happened. 3 weeks ago I swallowed a 50 cent coin whilst playing 'God Save The Queen' I also left early that night as I was a little too drunk for my own good. Dany left on Thursday but this time for good. We didn't have much of a goodbye which to be honest I expected just because of all the stuff involving us and since being out here so many people come into your life and leave that you have to be good at closing yourself off in goodbyes.
Sharon had her last Fusion shift on the Saturday and to mark the occasion we had a 90's boy band session on the duke box whilst cleaning up (we also got a little drunk during work).
Nothing really happens on Sunday or Monday anymore so we'll roll straight onto Tuesday again.
This was Sharon's main leaving night as most of her friends work in Hospo so we can't do it over a weekend. Me, Sharon and Martin went over to Abby's to have some pre drinks before going to Fusion for a private party and hitting Cassette later on. It was a really good night up until the end. I had managed to pull someone I would class as being out of my league and it was going well until she didn't come back from the toilet. I thought fair enough, I had a good run, now I can go spend some time with my friends and enjoy the rest of my night. I then saw her and eddie chatting to eachother on the seats so I text him saying I had been getting with her, subtle i thought. Now I would expect most of my mates at this point to see that text and walk away. Eddie didn't. So i went over and made sure he had seen my text, he said yeah and I left the table. 15mins later maybe, I saw them leave together. I at this point was fuming. He also did it right infront of Becky who is clearing head over heels into him. Not cool. I ended up going back to Fusion fights clenched. Got there to find him in the showers with her. I ended up getting the red mist, grabbing all of his stuff and throwing out into the hallway, including his bed. When he came out I ended up pouncing on him but by this point Perry and the boys had appeared and broke everything up before it had time to boil over. He still has a bad back to this day and won't be disloyal again.
Wednesday night I needed to get out of the hostel as I was still in a huff. So me, Sharon, Emma, Rosh, Becky and Nina walked upto Mt. Eden at night to take some photos. Fuck this city is beautiful at night!
Thursday was the usual bar crawl. Me and Eddie had got back to speaking terms but I needed a drink after my shift so I ended up just catching the end of the 3rd bar and having a few drinks with this girl called Anna who I had been chatting to from behind the bar in Fusion. We ended up leaving together and going back to her place but I remained good and nothing happened, we just talked and fell asleep together. Recently I've been trying to be a good boy as there have been quite a few snaps of me with various girls on facebook and it just doesnt look good.
Friday morning we went down to coffee club together and had breakfast which was nice. We finished and went our separate ways knowing we wouldn't see each other again. Shit but hey, welcome to backpacking.
Saturday was the night Sharon left. It was again a brief goodbye but she will be missed, I had known her my whole time in NZ pretty much and it was sad to see her leave for home.
Sunday me and Adam decided to go the Warriors game. We had to get the train out to Penrose and to be honest we were slightly disappointed really. Its the biggest rugby league in the world and barely managed to pack out the stadium or create an atmosphere but still, it was a good game.
Tuesday. Now this day was emmense. The build up to it was funny as anything and the night delivered. I had taken over the Fusion bar tab and decided with the girls that we would make this one special. We themed it as Togas and put posters up. For some reason Nomads got all fussy over this and Tristan did especially. He is barely speaking to me now haha. An hour before we left I had a facebook message off Mel on reception saying that if we left in the Togas we were getting evicted the next day because it was Nomads bedsheets we were going to use. I had to run round the hostel telling everyone to go as anything wierd and wonderful. It worked. The costumes we had were amazing and nobody paid a penny for them. We had backwards man, gay man, poncho man, Zena warrior princess, Rosh squeezed into her backpack and wore that, we had a gimp, glow stick girl, Ellie dressed as Eddie, Nick went as I dont know but he was head to toe in lycra. We had all sorts and because it was going to emmense, it went as a prostitute. standard really. I ended up pulling one of the girls that had just moved into the hostel called Louise. Shes lovely, great girl and stunning. Shes also around till xmas so maybe something may materialize which would be brilliant. I don't want a girlfriend purely because I know that it will have to end at some point but it would be nice to have someone around.
That is about it terms of eventfulness. Well Ed and Drew dressed up as schoolgirls for there Students bar crawl and gave me a lapdance in the TV room because I wasn't coming out to play. Also Anna came back to the bar on Thursday night to say goodbye, wierd as I hadnt seen her for a week and she was leaving that night so I'm not sure what she was expecting to get out of that.

Mindfuck

This week has been pretty wierd from start to finish (was quite nice to have something shake me up a little). Formalities over with first... Working Thurs, Fri and Sat as per usual. Joined the pub crawl in Cassette after work on Thursday as per usual but didn't do Cassette on Tuesday because I was under the weather. Thursday I got given some news which shook me a little and messed with my head abit as I had to speak to someone about it and I was really dreading that conversation and spent all week thinking about it but thankfully it went well so my head was a little messed up before today.
Roisin got back from her travels on Friday night so I met up with her after work and spent pretty much all day with her on Saturday before work. It was nice seeing her again and just chilling out with her. Work on Saturday was a nightmare... We were short staffed meaning that where I would usually just do the Glassie job behind the bar so I could still serve and the other Glassie collect from the dancefloor and around the pool tables, I had to do both... and serve drinks so I was rushed off my feet and It was the same on Friday aswell. Also we had 3 managers behind the bar because James was working which meant all the shit jobs got passed onto me instead of them taking control and doing it themselves which pissed me off. First off, being glassy on Saturdays is bad enough because your dealing with drunk people giving you hassle the whole time and your cleaning up after them (broken glass and spilt drinks) but when 1 person doesnt pull their weight during the cleaning after work, it can be unbearable. e.g taking a personal call for 20mins so you end up doing your job (which is putting all the glasses through the wash and doing the bins which is horrible at the best of times and a pain in the arse) and then having to clean the toilets which usually has vomit all over them. Tonight though I was left a present which shit all over the seat aswell. So basically this certain manager had swept and moped half of the dance... that was it. I can do that in 10mins. Then when there extremely rude to the staff all night and try to tell you that your taking your time doing your job, its particularly annoying. I felt like quitting a job I enjoy that night. Rant over. Apart from that, I've been thinking about what the future holds for me. Unless the boys start leaving, I'm set her in Auckland. Have no intention of moving out of Hostel life and into a flat. Going home after the world cup for xmas 2011. Saving money and going to spend the next couple of years working on and off in other countries and travelling them. First stop is USA, then South America where I will just travel because of the language barrier then Island hope through South Asia before coming home and thinking about doing Europe and Africa. Who wants to settle down and have a boring job, living in a boring apartment seeing the same things day in day out?

R.I.P Brother

There hasnt been an awful lot to report on here to be honest. The bar's still open and will be for another few weeks so I'm still getting free accomodation till then. I've moved up onto the bar now so it should be alot easier for me to get a job behind the bar somewhere else if one comes up. Tuesdays are still Cassette but now I'm in charge of the bar tab which followed into a certain someone leaving early so I wouldnt break my neck falling off stages or down stairs when I get back to the hostel... yes, that did happen. Wednesdays I've been missing so that I can make it to the gym one night. Thursdays are still the bar crawl where I only catch the last bar although I got this Thursday off so that I could do the bar crawl meaning I had to work Wednesday. I'm actually quite thankful for this to be honest for 3 reasons... The first is that Wednesday was pretty good. Work wasnt boring as there was a group of people who were pretty cool and would stop and chat at the bar whenever they bought a drink. We closed about midnight and it looked like they might want to stay drinking so I said if they waited for me to close up, I would go with them to Cassette. The music was better than usual (some beatles, oasis, cure and some old school songs thrown in) but I wasn't interested in the music. I had had my eye on one girl called Roisin and was out sharking. One by one the group left until it was only me and her left... I'll let you fill in the rest. Shes back on the
31st aswell :p
The 2nd is that I could go on my first Frenzi bar crawl. I'm always working when it's on and can see how much fun it is but can never do the whole thing. I'm not going to lie to you. I dont remember much at all except it was fun and I woke up with random messages off random numbers which made no sense at all!
The 3rd Reason was that It was the anniversary of Dave's passing so I knew I was going to be pretty depressed all day but because of Wednesday night I wasnt in such a bad mood, infact it was hard for me to be in a bad mood which I guess was a good thing. I had my usual 1 Guinness in memory of him. Marc and Raks came with me to O'Carrolls across the road from Cassette for it which was nice.
As I was saying before, going out here is becoming to be the same old same old but with a few different people each time. Its becoming stale. So me and the boys have come up with a genius idea... we're going to fly down to Wellington for a weekend! At the moment the head count is 9 but I have a feeling it may become so much more than that!

Winter is cold!

Its 3pm here and im off to watch the All Blacks vs South Africa in the Tri-Nations in a couple of hours. This is one of the biggest games in the sporting calendar and should be quite a game!
This past weeks been pretty much the same as every other week, just been working and going out during the week. Works pretty fun and I'll be sad to leave Fusion whenever I do. The teams starting to split up now as we all know the bars going to have a refurb in a few weeks so we are all looking for new jobs. Scottys going back to Scotland, Abbys applying for managers jobs somewhere else and preparing for her part in fashion week and unfortunately Sharon's going back to Holland :(
I had the interview at Global Sport but I turned the job down deciding it wasnt for me as it was comission based.
Daniela got back from Fiji and yesterday had a chat about what was going on between and decided it was best just cut it off (yeah i may have forgot to put in here that we had been seeing eachother).
The bar has mainly been the main gossip recently... we had our dj decks taken off us and closed down early last saturday as the music was aparantly too loud and then on thursday the council came in to have a meeting with red our manager and told him to sort it out pronto otherwise the bars getting closed for good!
So yeah thats about it really, im gonna go get ready now for the big game and know I will remember this one as im not allowed to drink before work!

Hamiltron

Another week gone by in Auckland, its all getting very the same now. The weathers taken a turn now we're in Winter. The weekend was pretty full on though. Saturday was the All Blacks Vs Wales in Hamilton "City of the future" (it really ain't that much to shout about) then Sunday was England vs Germany. Saturday we had to meet down the Fat Camel Bar around 12 for some lunch (hotdogs) before leaving around half 3 for the game. I started drinking about 12 with Andy Tuema, Pip, Simon, Dribbles and Catrinn from Stray. Me and andy decided to get some Jim Bean and Coke for the journey (get us nice and pissed so we didn't have to drink at the game) Unfortunately my camera died on me on the way to the game and my memory died on me after the haka which wasnt as impressive as I was hoping. We all fell alseep on the bus on the way back, getting into Auckland about 12 and carrying on with the drinking until the wee hours of the morning.
Sunday I woke with a banging hangover but knew I had all day to recover before the match. The plan was to go down to Frienz about 7 to start pre-drinking in Marc, Jason and now Rak's room (he got a job doing promo for frienz which is less hours).
A whole bottle of big foot and the rest of the jim bean later we walked down to the harbour in the direction of Fox's. It was absolutely rammed in there and we got in just in time aswell after queueing for an hour. I would say the crowd was 60/40 German but being brittish, me and the boys made ourselves heard and maybe a little too much to several hand selected germans in the crowd. The place went mental when we scored our 2nd goal (that's right.... we DID score that 2nd goal). a couple of hours later we all left pretty down in the dumps heading back to bed.
Last night again was Cassette night. The french girls I had met last week were down there and unfortunately reminded me I lost 3-0 in jagerbomb downing contests (im sorry lads but i was smashed and never going to win). It's all good though, I fought my way back to 3-2. Also they reminded me that I lost a bet to them last week and as part of the deal meant I had to try and kiss the pretty looking girl that works behind the bar.... resulting in me getting refused service which is why she might have been looking at me funny last night. ooops haha.
Well tomorrow's a big day, I have an interview and several people to call regarding fitness jobs in Auckland.

Ill... Again!

So yeah, remember that illness i came down with in Queenstown... Boom, its struck again with ridiculous timing! I have one of the biggest piss ups I will have out here ahead of me on Saturday (nz vs wales) and im fecking ill. Its been a quiet couple of weeks, the weathers been up and down overall although it was gorgeous one day so me, chris, emma and jess decided to hop over to Waiheke for the day and stay the night. We got a little cruise around the Island with a guy called Max as our driver who by the way was absolutely barmy! We went to the nudist to start off with and for once i wasnt the first to suggest getting naked... chris was... shortly followed by myself then the girls! after that we got back in the minibus and to a few winerys, lunch on onetangi beach then watched the sunset go down before heading to Ivan's bioshelter to call in the night. Apart from that it's been the usual Cassette Tuesday's and work at the weekend

The World Cup

Its Sunday night here and I'm just chilling in the room with Chris Jess and Eddie waiting to get into the library to watch a movie. A quite uneventful week to be honest, the bar's been dead so we've closed early each night. Was supposed to play rugby saturday for Auckland Lions but the game was so tight they couldn't risk putting someone on they havn't seen play before which is fair enough like, we won which was good though. I was fucked anyway as I only had 5 hours sleep because I went to watch the Mexico game with Daniela, Jaimy and Juan down at Fox's in the harbour. It was such a good atmosphere as it seemed half of Mexico City was in there! I didn't manage to get any sleep during the day before work so all in all after the footy I had been awake 25 hours with only 5 hours sleep from the night before. Some call it a perfect opportunity to get pissed really easily... I am one of them people! We watched the game down at the Fat Camel and it was a good crowd there, all the boys and girls were there and some people from Frienz. Eddie got into a little skuffle with a yank outside after the beer had flowed. He wasn't in the wrong though, the yank threw a metal ash tray at us! It was quite wierd being hammered at half 10 in the morning so I went to bed and slept throughout the whole day, until 7pm!

Fort 208

Not alot to report this week to be honest. Working as usual glass collecting at Fusion and might have got myself a job doing promo for Stray Travel aswell but we'll see what comes of that.
Got in trouble with Nomad's management again nearly. Got really really bored on Sunday and built myself a kick ass fort in the room which we got told to take down a few days later by the hostel (despite them being very impressed at our handy work!)
There's been more episodes of hostel drama (sometimes i swear it would be a better watch than any other soap!). Jack couldn't afford to stay in the hostel anymore so i let him into a secret that he could just squat here by leaving his gear in my room and sleeping in the tv lounge then moving into the library early in the morning for some more kip. Well Sharon saw him one night and said he could sleep in her bed and nothing would happen, well something did happen but not of that variety. They awoke to the girls gossiping and bitching in the room which aparantly is a regular occurance, only this time they didn't realise one of the people they were bitching about were in the room, Jack. He heard everything and lay there for 2 hours listening to it before getting out of the bed (its covered by a sheet so no one can see in the bunk) and saying something. This has caused a fair few awkward days and moments. I like to think of myself as a loyal person and I've tried to be so I stuck by Jack's side and stood my ground by not speaking to or being around the girls meaning not seeing the boys which was hard but had to be done. Only the night after he left did I get an apology of Sinead but not the other 2 which quite frankly is a piss take. Theres been a fair bit of bed roulette in the room (not on my part though, ive stayed in my bed!) which has been funny. Richard also left which was disappointing and is the start of 'the group' falling apart as the girls are leaving on Sunday and taking Sam and Lewis with them.
I finally got out into the suburbs of Auckland during the day with Chris, Emma and Jess from the room. We went to Newmarket to do some shopping and run through the fountain... okay maybe only Me and Chris wanted to do that but we got the girls involved anyway despite their awful attempt fighting us off haha.
Hopefully if the weathers nice I might get to go over to Waiheke again this weekend!

Japanese Karaoke Bar!

The accomodation situation has sorted itself out now. Most of the guys are up at Frienz while me, adam, kirsten, daisy, madeline, raks and sharon have stuck around at nomads as we all have work here and quite like comfy beds!
A new group is starting to emmerge now a little bit as more long termers have moved into the hostel. There a good bunch and ive been joined by 2 more scousers! get in!
Not too much to report on really except a couple of mad nights out. 2 of them involving a japanese karaoke bar. After quite a dilute night at Code on Sunday a few of us decided we would try and do some karaoke at QF Tavern but it was dead so somehow stumbled into the karaoke bar. Its actually pretty good, you get your own private room and the guy lets us smuggle alcohol inside... so i went on monday with a group of brittish guys and girls who were leaving the next day! This week I was greeted with 2 suprises... the first was that danny and james were back in town and the 2nd was that Jack got back yesterday. So as per usual, we made a night of it. We went out with a few girls from Jacks room that i met at Cassette on tuesday. It was quite a mild night considering it was student night but was cool 'cos Anna was out with her mates aswell. 2 plus notes though, kiwi dave got a job and as did Adam but with coca cola and he gets a company car so lots of little road trips to the middle of nowhere!

Back In Auckland!

So I've been back about 2 weeks now and let's say it's been eventful as always!
I couldn't do anything at all for a few nights cos of my illness but I bagged myself a work for accomodation job but quit after a week (I thought I was just making beds and general spring cleaning, turns out i was scrubbing walls and showers for 3 hours a day solid) Had a few messy nights which were fun but caused more bad than good but I'll come back to that!
Saw Dave and Biff for a couple of days and had a few quiet drinks before they left for home. A few days later Jack, Adam, Cassie and Luke turned up so met up with them for a little bit but they were only passing through. Then out of the blue Jack from the mental 2 nights in Hong Kong showed up out of the blue before going to Queeny! Now as suspected we had a crazy night with my kiwi mate Dave which neither of us can really remember except the end where me and Jack ended up hooking up with the same girl resulting in some great banter the past few days!
Also I finally got to see the movie 'Boy' with Adam and Marc. It's a kiwi comedy film and it was excellent! some great lines in it and if anyone back home ever gets a chance to see it then i really recommened it!
Just for giggles one day me, marc and G (this irish girl we met who knows most of the Leinster team which was mad) went down to the harbour to drink all day and night resulting in neither of us remembering anything from that night but in our defence it was a gorgeous day and needed to be done.
This weekend was Jasons birthday so we went out celebrating on friday, saturday, sunday and monday. Which brings onto the 'more bad than good' thing.
So this weekend we've been quiet rowdy and drunken and its been pretty epic. We played Centurion(1 shot of beer or wine every minute for 100 minutes) on the Saturday and Monday. Monday we started at half 8 and we had no idea the consequences this would cause. We woke up thinking wow that was a good night, then we looked at our doors. There was a sign on my dorm room saying "Dear Guests of 208. Could Marc, Jason, Lewis and Richard please come down to the cafe at 9am in the morning to speak to the management about a few issues" (sam had one too), not good.
We thought this was just going to be a warning about our behaviour and a slap on the wrist. Well This morning I woke to Jason saying that they all got kicked and theres no way around it. They even tried to get the names of us others out of them so we've had a manic morning trying to find a hostel that would accomodate 15 beds and have us all on the same floor. We went to the fat camel but Fusion phoned just as we arrived saying we wernt allowed to stay so that was them crossed off. Luckily We found a hostel by the name of Frendz which is bad but just not as good as fusion.
After some thinking me, kirsten, sinead and adam are staying for a few more days to get our nights we've already payed for plus I feel kinda bad as Raks is staying and pretty much has to as he works for accomodation and cant afford to lose that job and would be on his own if we all left right away. Its been wierd but fuck it was a good weekend!

Queeny to Auckland

The next few days I didn't really do anything, Didn't have any money to go out and to be honest, didn't fancy it either. I wasnt waking up til mid day so i wasnt doing anything during the day. Its a great way to save money.
Me and Luke ended up picking up a cold and was really struggling with it so we literally just didnt leave our beds except to eat and when we went to the cinema again to watch the blindside. It was quality and we ended up being on the reclining leather seats on the balcony which made it even better.

Christchurch

I think we were quite thankfull to leave Queeny in the end as it was wierd not having anyone around. The sedburgh rugby boys were on our bus aswell and seemed to be struggling with the cold aswell which was good as we made a pact that we were just going to sleep. The driver had said that the journey was meant to be the worst one as it was the longest (which is true) but we slept the whole way and watched a couple of dvds so it was all good.
We got to Christchurch about 5pm after stopping off at a couple of lakes and granted they were pretty but I was finding it hard to appreciate beauty as i was so cold and ill!
The hostel in CC was a shit hole. I was so glad I was only stopping over for 1 night and leaving in the morning to get my flight to Auckland. That evening we just watched a couple of episodes of family guy and fell asleep.
I woke up in the morning still feeling shit and said my goodbyes before grabbing some breakfast and catching the shuttle bus to the airport. I felt kinda sorry for Luke as he still has 10 days on the bus feeling like crap!
It has to be said that airport security in NZ really is quite shite. I walked through with a bottle of Water the whole way and onto the flight without being questioned or told to put it in the bin... nice.
Christchurch had been blessed with a gorgeous day, unlike Auckland where there was a storm! lovely. Just what I wanted... rain, cold and wind.

Auckland

I landed about half 2 and got back to the hostel about 4 which was nice as I had time to get my stuff sorted before finding everyone. It felt really good to be back and I was put at ease when I saw Tristan and he told me to go down to reception at 9 the following morning to sort out work for accomodation.
I sat off in the boys room for a couple of hours and got caught up on all the gossip from the past few weeks and yeah, there was loads of good stuff! That evening i blagged myself a work for accomodation meal just like old times. I was treated to a suprise... As i was about to order my meal, guess who should walk in...
Dave and Biff! I had thought everyone was long gone from Auckland but their flight isnt til Saturday morning so they were staying up in Base. Aparantly Laura was knocking around Fusion aswell somewhere. Now a common theme that happens to me appears to have not died whilst I've been on my travels... Once I have a couple of drinks with my meal I end up going out. This was the case again. Yes im still ill aswell. It was an average night to be honest and only me sharon ryan the canadian and a couple of his friends went out. I bumped into Anna aswell which was nice.
This morning though- in fact all of today- has been a complete write off. Ive felt so bad.. worse than before so ive been in bed all day except for when i went to IEP to use the free internet and saw dave in the tv room in fusion.

Queenstown

We rolled out of Lake Wanaka and headed towards Queenstown. As the crow flys the journey is around 30km but because of the mountains between us and Queeny, our journey was more than double that. We stopped off at Puzzle World which really brought out the little kid in us all. There was a big labrynth maze and a room of illusions which was pretty cool. The maze was abit of a mission to get round and very frustrating. The idea of it was to get to the top of the 4 towers located in each corner and cleverly there was a series of bridges in the middle so you couldnt cheat your way to winning. Me and Jack got pissed off after 2 towers and headed for the exit. We stopped a couple more times for the standard photo opportunites but this time round it was genuinely breathtaking with the mountains in the background. For lunch we stopped at a little town outside Queeny called Arrowtown. Me, jack and adam treated ourselves to a pint and some pub lunch which was gorgeous, especially in the afternoon sun. Next stop was at the first commercial bungy jump site for everyone to book their bungys. When we rolled into Queeny we could clearly see it had flooded, the streets more towards the waterfront were completely drowned but the flood doesnt come up too far. We all stopped at the lake for a big group photo
for the kiwi ex. website then rolled on to our hostels. Most of us are either in base or nomads. The nomads hostel is the best hostel ive been in so far and i'll tell you why in one sentance. As im typing this our im on a leather sofa next to a log fire with a pool table and a balcony in my peripheral vision. Last night was a big night again, just like wellington. Unfortunately I really can't remember anything except that we were all playing ring of fire til 10(aparantly), i bumped into the 2 austrian girls i met in auckland, tim the welsh guy and the 3 irish girls who were on the stray bus. oh and i kissed becky again which was a suprise to me when i woke up in the morning. Today has been another write off, i have literally just been walking round like a mong and its taken me 4 hours to actually do anything! Tonights the blindfolded bar crawl so that, as last night was, should be very interesting!
The blindfolded bar crawl was absolute carnage. Me and Jack shared a blindfold, as did Luke and Adam. In the first bar we had a pull ups competition to win a free sky dive which was pretty funny, especially when the girls had to do it. The bar crawl consisted of 6 bars with 6 free drinks and you had to lead your partner to the next bar blindfolded or to add abit of fun, you could lead them into a lamp post (sorry again Jack). After 3 bars it was my turn to throw on the blindfold.
The last leg of the crawl was at World Bar where we met up with the boys from the other bus. It was a pretty good night, with a fair bit of gossip floating around the next morning.
As with most days, I havn't done anuything as I've been just too hungover to move!
We had planned for another bar crawl the next night but most of us arrived just too late and couldn't be bothered to go in so as per usual it was just another drinking session in world bar and as per usual, i cant remember anything (especially as im writing this days after the event so everythings blurred into one!)
It took quite awile for me to get up for going but I had to as it was Stuart, Ian, Becky, Laura, Sophia and Liv's last night. We all aranged to start drinking in his room before heading out and as with most nights we ended up in World Bar. We got a good crowd together and it was just like old times going out with the old bus again! And I was back to my ways, not remembering anything from the night before except getting a massive round of jaegerbombs! I think it was that point me and Becky said our goodbyes and left.
The next day me and the boys decided that tonight was going to be a complete write off so we decided to go the cinema. The guys checked out times and everything and I just stayed in bed all day dying slowly! We went to see Iron Man 2 and fuck was it good! It was funny just seeing how excited Luke was to see it, he was like a little kid throughout the whole movie and especially at the end for the secret scene.
We got an early night that night but I still slept for about 15 hours, might have been a catch up on sleep from the previous nights! I finally sorted out my vodafone bill and actually was outside the hostel for more than 15 minutes this time!
Tonight was another night that was planning to be huge... The posh girls (lexy, jess, georgia and tash) last night aswell as emily, laura, lindsay and aimie's. I had got quite close to Tash and Georgia so really wasnt looking forward to saying goodbye to them. After a couple of hours drinking in the kitchen we left for world bar in 2 different groups, i had left with the posh girls and their friends but got bored after an hour or so in world bar so i left and told them i would see them off in the morning.
I got up bright and early (half 7) to go down to reception to see the girls off. I'll tell you one thing, goodbyes don't get easier so i went back to bed for a few more hours. Today me jack and luke just walked round for a couple of hours, booked jacks fiji pass then got some pizza and watched the first iron man. If your abit skint there really isnt too much to do in Queenstown as all the bungys, skydives, rafting, jet boating are expensive and as are the nights out!
As much as it is expensive, it is a really cool town to be in and I cant wait to get back here next year around ski season!

The Calm Before The Storm That Will Be Queenstown

Westport

We left early in the morning stopping off at the Nelson Lakes to take a perfect postcard picture but unfortunately it was raining so badly we couldn't see the view of the mountains in the background.
The rain had meant we couldn't really stop off anywhere so we just cruised straight to Westport. There wasn't a whole lot to do in Westport so we just got some food from the supermarket and watched 2 Lord of the Rings back to back and retired to bed.

Poo Pub

We left fairly early in the morning for this small hostel in the middle of nowhere by Lake Mahinapua and every night they host a fancy dress for the kiwi experience bus. I really did feel like the bus had been split up as now we had only around half of the people we originally started off with and the bus behind us had filled in the spaces.
I pretty much slept the whole way except for when we stopped off to go see a seal colony and at Greymouth to go buy our fancy dress. The theme of the party was 'P', I really couldn't think of what to go as and didn't want to do the obvious pirate thing. After looking around I decided on going as a playboy bunny girl, and it was cheap. We got to the hostel and checked into our rooms.
They were extrememly basic but then again we wern't going to be in the rooms long. Me and some of the new guys on the bus went down the beach to play a game of touch. It was absolutely freezing and raining hard but it just felt so good to play some rugby again. I had time to jump in the shower and warm back up before our feed. Our meal was $12 and completely worth it...
a steak, venison stew, some roast potatoes, salad, pasta and some bread and butter. Afterwards we went to the bar for a drink before going back to the room to get ready for the evening. The phrase "go hard or go home" had been coming into it's own on the trip and tonight was one of them. I gave in and after some peer pressue, me luke and adam had the girls put some make up on us, which was outrageous but to be honest, we did look good! It was a pretty good night and everyone had good costumes on. No real gossip from the night as everyone I think had looked back on Wellington and decided it would be best to be on their best behaviour!

Franz Josef

Everyone woke up with sore heads and poorly stomachs, telling stories from the night before e.g Lexy's mission to bed early as she peaked too soon. The highlight being her faceplanting the floor and taking tash with her possibly breaking some bones in Tash's hand! Again the rain was pouring down so we only really got off the bus once at the Bushman's centre. Basically its just a cafe and a museum dedicated to deer farming and possums. It was quite wierd and pretty boring to be honest, except when we started playing with the eels.
We were stopping a couple of times for toilet breaks and odd 15minute walks to see some scenary but the majority of us just stayed on the bus and slept. I had real trouble getting my make up off in the morning so it was pretty much left on all day making me look like Russell Brand.
When we got to Franz Josef we went to book our Glacier trips for the day after. It was all quite exciting and scary at the same time. That night most of us just grabbed some kip knowing we were up early in the morning to check in for our hike. We were given our outer layers but told to wear 4 layers ourselves which seemed abit over the top.
The glacier is quite unique due to it's position and how near to sea level it is. The hike was a full day one and we wernt even going that far. It was a 2.6km walk before we got to the bottom of the glacier along the river and rocks. I jumped in the first group as I knew I was going to get impatient having to wait for others.
Half way up the climb we got a tunnel we were supposed to climb up through but because of the rain all, the steps were supposed to be taking were worn away so our guide had to spend an hour haking away at the ice to create a path for us. The pouring rain and cold was having an effect on us and really making us want to turn back even at half way. I couldn't think straight or clench my hand.
We manned up eventually made it up where we supposed to get to. The view from the top was amazing but all we could think was hot food! That night we had a few drinks and played some pool before the bar pulled out bar games. Me and jack entered in a game called bar rafting. You had to dress up in rafting gear then piggy back your way to the end of the bar then slalom back down to the bar have a shot then get unchanged. Me and jack fucked up on the first shot and got a 5 second penalty which ended up putting us in 2nd place.

Lake Wanaka

We left early in the morning again because we were told that at Lake Matheson we could take a picture of a perfect reflection of Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman. It was pretty impressive but we were so cold i called out the 2 picture policy and got back onto the bus asap. Again we all fell asleep along the way except for stopping off at thunder falls to take some pictures and the blue pools. The blue pools were absolute let down as we went the wrong way so spent the half hour we had just skimming stones in the river. We've arrived at Lake Wanaka and just been the supermarket to grab some food. The call for tonight is just chilling as we know we have Queenstown coming out and that is going to be 6 days of mega hard drinking! That is if it isn't completely flooded. The boys and girls from the bus ahead of us that only spent 1 night in Nelson have been keeping us informed and aparantly the flooding is going to get worse which should be interesting.

A Very Late Blog Entry!

Auckland

So we arrived back in Auckland for the night and I believe my timing was impecible as it was wet t-shirt competition night! I managed to check myself back into 204 with the boys.
After sorting out my washing and everything we mad our plan for the night. Free meal at half 7, drinking on the roof until 10 then down to the bar for one wet and wild night. For some unknown reason a few us decided we would go out dressed quite smart but fuck did we dress to impress! It was great to suprise the lads and have a proper last night out together before I left for possibly not seeing most of them again.

Mercury Bay

I actually don't think I slept at all the night before and got on the bus still pretty drunk which was fun... not.
We did the usual touristy visit up Mt. Eden before heading out of Auckland towards Mercury Bay in the Coromandel Peninsula. Our driver Murray was pretty cool and had us doing musical chairs so we got to know people on the bus. this basically just involved us talking to another person for the duration of a song then the people in the aisle moving up/down a seat.
The tide was high so we couldn't visit the famous hot water beach so we just cruised straight on the Cathedral Cove. Luckily the sun was shining again and after a long walk down to the beach, we saw why it was worth the effort. We were surrounded by White cliffs with random caves and walkways eroded through the middle of them. There was a rock in the middle of the bay which we all jumped off, standard. That night we stayed at a really cool little backpackers called Turtle Cove. It was run by a really laid back old couple. We finally got a nice mattress to sleep on and luckily
for me after a mix up at reception (them thinking me and emily were a couple) I got a nice double bed just for me to sleep in! We had a few drinks that night but the fact I hadnt had much sleep caught up with me and retired to bed about 9.

Rotorua

We were up bright and early in the morning to make sure we could fit everything we wanted to do in for the day. First stop was the Karangahake tunnels through the mountains. This was a short walk through were the early miners used cyanide to get to gold. It was kinda cool crossing the swing bridges and walking along pitch black tunnels with a few glow worms dotted around. Back on the bus and after an hour or so
we reached Matamata also known as Hobbiton. A short walk from the township was were Peter Jackson filmed the scenes from the shire. Unfortunately we didn't have time to see this but we got some pictures with Gollum.
Next stop was Rotorua. The city is smack bang on a tetonic plate fault line so there was plenty of geothermal activity which was cool to look at but it did leave a nasty stench throughout the whole city!
That afternoon most of the bus went up the gondola to do some lugeing. We each got 5 rides and gave ourselves 3 rides each to get used to the courses and steering before racing down the intermediate circuit.
There were some accidents including Eric our californian friend neary up ending an asian woman. Hayley crashing out spectacularly and Luke losing his helmet on the gondola back up which was a good laugh.
That night we nominated Eric as the cheif of our tribe as we were going to a Moari village show and needed a chief to represent us. We were greeted as all strangers were, by their haka and then shown through the village.
We were then treated to some maori song, dance and games before sitting down to a massive feed and shown how they cook their food. When we got back to the hostel we put on our glad rags and headed to the Lava Bar next door for a boogie. It was a funny night and a good way for all of us to get to know eachother.

Waitomo

We set off at a decent time in the morning to go see a farm style comedy show just down the road. It was actually quite funny and interesting. We got to see some sheep sheering and cow milking. The guy was basically just taking the piss out of all the aussies and koreans that were there aswell. After the show we stopped off at Agroventures next door. It had a mimic of a freefall, bunjee jump, bunjee swing, some sort of bike race and a jet power boat ride.
All of us were a little too hanging to attempt any of the activities but it was definately something I would quite like to do at some point.
We then stopped off Otorohanga, which is a small township just outside Waitomo. This was just a small food shop as all there is in Waitomo is 2 caving companies, a backpackers hostel, 5 houses and a bar.
Most of us checked in and then went off to do some caving. I and most of the others did the 3 and a half hour tubing down the caves. This was really cool, walking through the caves and going down some jumps on our rubber tubes. We stopped several times to turn off our lights and look up at the glow worms which unlike before were extremely impressive. There were thousands of them in the caves and set a good lights show. That night we were treated to a big fat steak dinner at Curly's bar just down the road from the hostel.

Taupo

After setting off in the morning for Taupo we stopped off for a little walk through the bush and caves to one of tallest trees in New Zealand, this was kind of impressive but after seeing Tanai Mahuta (the kauri tree) it wasnt that impressive.
We arrived in Taupo and headed straight for the airport to see if we could do our skydive but unfortunately the weather wouldn't permit this so some of us booked ourselves in for the morning and others later in the afternoon after their walk up Mt. Doom.
I wasn't too fussed about the 20km walk as im not much of a walker and if it's that good I can always do it at some other point. We didn't really do much that night and just retired to bed after going the supermarket and cooking a feed for 8 of us.
This morning was the morning of the most breathtaking, thrill seeking and biggest adrenaline rushing activity I've ever done... Sky diving from 15,000 ft (16,500 ft above sea level). I payed for the full monty which includes the 15,000 ft dive itself, dvd of the people on the plane diving, photos of myself, and the handycam dvd which was being held by the guy supporting me and more importantly carrying the parachute.
I wasn't too scared at all until I got to the edge of the plane and had my feet dangling out the side. After a few moments looking out into the mass of open air and the huge drop beneath me we flopped out the plane and plumeted towards the ground.
There was a minute of freefalling before the parachute was deployed. Words can't really explain the feeling you get because your brain doesnt quite register whats happening so you just feel like your flying and can have fun with it.
After everyone had got back from their activities they were doing, we went down to the bar for free pizza and start drinking. After the pizza we all went back to the rooms to start getting getting ready. Me, Eric, Luke, Adam, Emily, Aimie and Laura
just found ourselves drinking in Eric's room for hours, we were just talking and messing around before we went down to the bar. Everyone down their was smashed so I had some catching up to do... roll on jaegerbombs! I don't think I have ever drank so many in such a short space of time in my life! Strawpedos were next up and finally after a good hour or so I was at the same point as everyone else, except Laura who when I asked how much she had had to drink, she replied with "Gin".
It was a good night, with good music and good banter but everyone could see that there was alot of hormones flying off the walls, should be an interesting journey from here on out.

Taupo to River Valley

We woke up bright and early in the morning (after about 2 hours sleep for moi) and went on our way towards River Valley situated next to the Rangitikei river. We stopped off at our first stop for some brunch and a walk at where 'The Shining' was filmed.
The walk had Mt. Doom as its background which was pretty cool. There was a sweet waterfall half way around the walk so there was time to pause and take pictures and naked pictures, quite fun really. We got back on the bus and drove for another hour before reaching Tawhai Falls. This is where Gollum was filmed catching a fish and is known as Gollum's pool. There was a pretty cool jump you could do into the waterfall with a drop of about 12ft, there were some really cool pictures taken of us jumping into it, and our faces when we got out! We arrived at River Valley about 6 which gave us an hour and a half before our roast dinner so we could check in and get settled. There were 2 options, the 6 bed dorms or the 32 bed dorms. We chose the 6 bed dorm but after checking in, me and luke desperately wanted to be in the 32 bed.
It was so cool! there were 4 rows of 8 beds in the middle of the room. 2 rows on top, 2 rows underneath with the the 2 top rows back to back and the same with the bottom 2.
There was a major fuck up with the dinner. After a miscommunication on the bus, me and luke found out we wernt down for the roast dinner. Our faces were a picture of pure devastation. Neither of us had anything else to eat and had been looking forward to the roast all. Purposely not eating much so we could have a massive feed. Eric came to rescue for Luke. It was something out of the movies. He put his own hunger aside and gave up his meal for Luke as an early birthday present. Eric truely was the chief of our tribe. I had managed to blag myself left overs but they were just roast beef, sweet potatoes and veg (I don't eat sweet potatoes and very little veg). The whole situation had made things awkward in our room. Me and Luke were blaming the girls a fair bit about lack of dinner. After the meal we played a few games in the dining room/lounge, first off was the table game, where you had
to pull yourself under the table and back up the otherside. Easier said than done. Only 3 people managed to pull it off. I could swing myself around to the otherside but just couldn't get my feet or hand positioning right. Very Annoying. The next game was one where you had to keep yourself on a chair whilst clambering around it, picking up a box of matches and coming back the way you came to finally sitting back down on the chair. Only 4 people in the history of the lodge had pulled it off! no one from out group did.
Eric then pulled out a few more drinking games before we all retired to bed about 11. 12.01 came and we all woke Luke up for his birthday by giving him a massive pile on!

River Valley to Wellington

Today was the day most of us went white water rafting down the river. The rafting took about 2-3 hours down grade 3-5 rapids. Alot of hard work and teamwork was needed to get safely but it was so worth it. We had a good boat to go down with (Me, Jack, Luke and Adam) but once got used to it when started mucking around and taking the piss which to be honest made the whole day alot more fun. For example we decided when anyone goes overboard, when get back up they needed to be spanked for their indispline but that was taken to a different level (I'll let you work that out).
After the rafting, we all had minor injuries to nurse and a hungry stomach to fill so we grabbed a quick feed before jumping on the bus to go to Wellington. We only stopped off a couple of times for food as the journey was going to take all day. We got to Wellington about 7 giving us an hour or so to get ready before
we started Luke's birthday festivities! We started drinking in the room about half 8 until 11. I'm not going to lie to you, I was fucked before we even left the room, that is just what Vodka and ring of fire do to me. I do recall being the last to get ready out of the 28 people we had in our room (which was a 6 bed room)
I know this fact as I was on top of my bunk bed in just my boxers while everyone else was fully clothed. Now I don't remember leaving the room so I will try and peice together the night. Aparantly we left the room to go downstairs to the Basement Bar. In here was where Adam bought 60 jaegerbombs (2 each), Tash got kicked out for stealing a bottle of Gin from behind the bar and there was kissing thrown in their aswell (guilty). Emily had basically come out saying she likes me, which made for a very awkward conversation (I have been told since then that I didn't quite explain myself properly and she hasn't got my point)
We left there and walk around the corner to another bar. Becky couldn't get in so we went to bar next door for a few drinks in there (not that I needed any more). Somehow we all managed to reunite in a bar called Establishment.
There was a band playing for a while then the DJ kicked in. Tonight it seemed like everyone had paired off with someone for the evening (me and luke had foretold this was going to happen, ages ago) Eventually we got kicked out about 6 and went back to our rooms. More stories came out about the evening the next day but some should
not be wrote down.
The next day was a complete write off. Everyone was dying and trying to remember what happened the night before. Me and the boys took a stroll down to the museum but left after an hour to sit and chill down at the waterfront. We got back and decided that today was man day. Ruined within the hour. Aimie and Emily had invited themselves into our rooms and collapsed on our beds, leaving me and luke quite pissed off. They eventually left and we got some sleep. Tash, Georgia, Jess and Lexy were going out again that night but didn't leave our room till about half 1 and came back about 4 (pointless or what). In that time though we were given a mission to build a fort in our room.
The fun we had doing this was unbelievable. It was the best fort ever. Held together by bunkbeds, paper bags, headphones and other leads. Georgia had been put to bed in the recovery position she was that fucked.

Wellington to Nelson

We had to be downstairs at 7, which wouldn't have been too bad but we had a fort to work with. We were late downstairs but it wasn't a problem. I was greeted by a still very drunk Georgia jumping on me and stealing my hat. This was met by a massive glare from Emily (this was the first of many!) I was basically forced to sit next to G which wouldn't have been a problem, if sitting next to her didn't resemble sitting next to a child. She jumping all over me and basically being a child, it was kinda funny though. We had to say goodbye to our chief Eric which quite sad aswell, he will be missed on the bus.
We got on the massive inter-island ferry with a 3 hour journey ahead of us. Me and the boys had a quick look around the ferry before meeting up with tash and the girls in the food court and passing our for 2 hours on the tables. We woke up and got onto the bus for Nelson. G was still drunk (it was now about 2pm) We checked into our hotel and got our rooms sorted. That evening there was rugby on and a roast dinner (me and luke decided not to let the girls do our bookings and didn't want to be in their rooms) Aparantly it was getting quite obvious that we didn't want to no anymore, ah well. Most of us watched Saving Private Ryan in the TV room before bed. I lay on the floor with Tash and G as there was nowhere to sit. This was greeted by another glare. It was getting ridiculous now, literally every time I would be talking to a girl I was getting a look of death.
The next day we didn't really do much. Me, Luke and Jack went down to the supermarket, came back, cooked some food, passed out for 2 hours (My bolognese must be funny as I was tripping out. I woke up at half 5 thinking I had been talking to the girls despite them not being back from their day trip)
We decided to go to the cinema to watch Dear John that evening. Me and the girls left early to get sweets from the supermarket and get our tickets early. There 5 seats in the middle so we booked them, sat down and waited for the film to begin. Everyone else came in a few minutes after us and sat down a couple of rows infront.
I don't think Em was too happy to see me sat next to tash and g again but thats how it happen. Atleast I think she wasn't happy but im not sure if glares have 2 meanings. The film was good until the last half hour and left us all abit unsatisfied. After getting back to the hostel me, jack, luke and the girls chilled outside til the wee hours telling stories from back home and telling eachother riddles.