OK, so I have been really slack at updating this page...
I can't believe that I have been back home in New Zealand for over three years, and it is 8 years since I first embarked on some real travels to see the big bad world out there.
I have been working in a proper job for the last few years. I am at Beca Carter (a kiwi engineering company), living in central Auckland - Morningside(for life). I now drive to work - had to move from the great flat in Grafton a few months ago.
There is still a real lack of travel (for pleasure). I have had a few trips across the ditch to Oz to catch up with friends and family and a trip to Cook Islands.
For all you who have been traveling with me around the world (literally and figuratively) thanks for the memories and keeping in touch. The travels may have come to an end for now and my backpack is in a cupboard gathering mould, but I have had a great time around the world - there is still lots to see. So have a beer for me in remembrance...
For those in NZ or in the West Island let me know where you are and you may get a visit some time now that I am in this part of the world.
Stu
(New Zealand, June 2007)
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I left New Zealand at the start of July 1999. I left a stable job to see the world (well as much as possible) with my home on my back.
I spent the next few months in South East Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia). It is a brilliant place and I had the time of my life there, meeting many people, enjoying new cultures and seeing some amazing sights. My only travels before this trip were to Australia so this was my first cultural experience! I want to go back.
I arrived in London for the start of my Big OE. I had timed my arrival for the Rugby World Cup ready to see New Zealand beat the world (and had tickets to all the main games). Things didn't quite happen as planned but I had a great time anyway visiting places and seeing games in England, Paris and the finals in Cardiff.
I spent the so-called Millennium transition getting drunk in Edinburgh with thousands of others (mostly tourists). After the celebrations it was some recovering back in London before the thought of looking for a real job to support the expensive UK living and my travel plans.
I ended up with a contract in France for commissioning work in Egypt. It was supposed to be two weeks in Paris followed by four weeks in Egypt but ended up being six in Paris followed by six in Egypt. While in Egypt I had a break from work and went on the tourist trail with mum from Cairo to Aswan. We saw the amazing ancient wonders and had an excellent holiday. At the end of the site work I headed to Dahab on Sinai for some relaxing on the beaches and snorkeling in the Red sea.
OK time for another holiday. I headed to the Czech Republic for the month. I ended up travelling around the country with a side trip south to Vienna and Budapest and another north to Krakow in Poland. Great beer - and cheap too!
A day after arriving back in London I headed for an action packed week at the Sanfermin festival (running of the bulls) in Pamplona, Spain. Yes I ran - and lived to tell the tale.
After a few more rest days in London I headed back to Paris in time for Bastille Day and start my next contract. This time the project was in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. I spent a week in Paris before heading to Wickliffe (near Cleveland), Ohio, USA where I spent the six weeks working. I managed to get a weekend away to Niagara Falls - and another stamp in the passport - Canadian.
After a week back in Paris I headed to London to arrange my next adventure. I headed to Munich, Germany for scenery - well OK for the beer.
After recovering from Munich - which took a while- I had some time before heading to the Middle-East so I headed for Ireland for a quick look around and some more beer - this time the dark stuff. I visited both the Republic and Northern Ireland but only on short tours. I will have to go back to explore properly. I then headed to Paris for work but had a weeks break so I visited Rene in Amsterdam.
Time to earn some money for next years travels. I headed for Ruwais which is in the Abu Dhabi emirate of the United Arab Emirates. I started off staying in a camp within a police protected zone. No alcohol and not much to do! I had some weekends away in Abu Dhabi and one in Dubai for the Dubai Rugby 7s (which New Zealand won). There was beer there.
I had a break in early December so I headed back to London to catch up with civilisation.
When I returned to UAE in mid-December I moved to a hotel (with beach and pool - and a bar). Unfortunately it was Ramadan at the time so no alcohol again - but I had a pool.
I ended up making a quick trip home to New Zealand at the end of the year for my Nan's funeral. I spent Christmas day in the airport in Abu Dhabi (Don't fly Gulf Air!!!) and New Years with family in the Hawke's Bay. I was great being home seeing family again despite the sad circustances.
I left NZ again early in January. I ended up spending a few days in Manila, Philippines, as my UAE visa was not ready. Security was high as bombs had gone off a week earlier and the Estrada trial was coming to an end.
From then until mid March I was back at work in Ruwais, UAE. Winter lasted a couple of weeks. It threatened to go below 20 deg on a couple of days - and even rained (well sort of) once.
I spent the end of March back in London catching up with people there and also with Mum.
April and it is time to begin a long summer break. OK it was still cold in UK. I headed to Scotland with Mum (she was in UK for a conference - she now lives the life of an academic). In Scotland we spent most of our time with my uncle south of Inverness. The scenery in the highlands of Scotland is breathtaking.
Next it was off to Italy where we spent a few days in Venice, Florence and Rome. Venice is definitely the most beautiful city there is. Disney could not make a better theme park. We got museumed out in Florence and went Pope spotting in Rome.
Next stop was Greece (well Athens) where mum was lucky enough to have a conference. I didn't stay long and caught a flight to Turkey.
In Istanbul I met up with a tour of Kiwis and Aussies (nicknamed AT6) to have a brief look around the country and go to the ANZAC day services at Gallipoli. The tour was brilliant with great people on the tour and leading it.
At the end of the tour AT6 split up but five of us stayed on making our way to Greece for some island hopping.
I spent the whole of May hopping around the Greek islands (Kos, Leros, Patmos, Naxos, Paros, Mykonos, Santorini, Ios and Corfu - after a look again at Athens). I had an excellent time - a real holiday soaking up the sun etc. My favorite island was Santorini for its night life as well as things to do in the daytime.
After a ferry from Corfu to Brindissi we (by then the five had become three) headed to Pompeii to check out the ruins and climb Vesuvius. That done it was off to Rome where I was the tour guide for the others, then the same again in Florence. After a trip to Pisa next stop was Cinque Terre, then Verona and finally to Venice. However I didn't stay (been there done that) but instead headed for Slovenia. I spent a few days each in Ljubljana and Bled. The next country was Croatia where I visited the boring town of Pula then split to Split. It was then to the beautiful once besieged town of Dubrovnik via the island of Korcula. I headed back to London via Italy.
Once again I didn't spend long in London. It was for another date with the bulls in Pamplona. As with last year it was a big party. After a few days I headed to Zarautz for some relaxing - but it rained, then to Bilbao and Madrid where it was sunny - lots of museums and galleries. After a few more days it was off to Barcelona where I flew out to London again.
From London I headed to Scandinavia for a month. First it was Stockholm then up the centre of Sweden via the scenic Inlandsbahn railway. Then it was over the border to Narvik in Norway. I decided to head for Nordkapp so took an expensive ferry (two days) to the top of Europe. From there I made a non-stop trip to Helsinki.
I stayed in Helsinki with friends I met in Italy and checked out the sites. I also made a trip to the beautiful Archipelago. From Helsinki I headed to eastern Finland for a few days before heading to Turku in the west to catch a party ferry back to Sweden. I didn't stay for long though with a quick visit to Gothenburg I was off to Norway again. This time I explored the fjords around Flam and Geiranger. With both, the travel there was a highlight rather and the fjords themselves beautiful. I then headed back to Oslo for a day then to Copenhagen for a day before flying out of Stockholm to London.
On arriving in London I caught a flight to Dublin to catch U2 for their concert at Slane Castle - it was an all-day affair with the likes of ColdPlay and the Red Hot Chilli Pepers as support. A true big day out.
After a week in Dublin I headed back to London with the plan to sort myself out - for work that is. One prospect was to return to the UAE to work on a gas processing plant project.
Then Sep 11 came.
With lots of uncertainty about what was going to happen next - I had to think twice about heading to the middle east - most people thought I was crazy. However having been there before and knowing that the UAE is a safe place I decided to go. My departure was put off for a few weeks while things settled down.
In the mean-time I headed up to Leeds to catch up with Dinesh from home. Rather than stay in London I decided to head back to Munich for Oktoberfest. Like the previous year I had a great time and a few steins were consumed. After the party I headed to Salzburg in Austria followed by Innsbruck.
It was then time to hit Switzerland (via Liechtenstein). First stop was Zurich - but I only stayed overnight as I wanted to get to the alps. On the way to Interlaken, I visited the picturesque city of Lucern. Interlaken is Europe's Queenstown (NZ) with all manner of ways to almost kill yourself - and some spectacular mountains as well. With some Americans I met in Innsbruck, I scaled to the top of nearby Schilthorn (well took the cable car to the restaurant 2971m up). Unfortunately I couldn't spend more time in Switzerland as I was due to head to France then the UAE.
After a quick stop in Paris it was back to London to sort out some last minute stuff then off to the middle-east (the real reason - to once again escape winter).
I flew the morning after the US started bombing Afghanistan so things were a little tense but all was well - the flight path took us over Iran but not Iraq! Once in the UAE I soon realised that all was normal with no protests or anti-western feeling. Most people I talked to did not agree with the bombing but realised that it was inevitable and there was nothing they could do. Still I wouldn't have waved any US flags in the backstreets.
The project was located in the middle of the dessert so there wasn't much to do - but relief was had every Thursday night when we would head to Abu Dhabi and hit the town. The UAE is very moderate when it comes to western habits. There are many bars and clubs for the large foreign population (and many locals).
In early November, just before Ramadan started, I headed again to the Dubai sevens. Despite some teams not officially being there (the players were all there) it was an excellent time and like last year a big party. I headed back to Dubai several weeks later with some of the French guys I work with - the bars were closed in Abu Dhabi.
I originally was going for 12 weeks but decided to stay on for a second 12 week period. In between I had a break so rather than heading back to London, I managed to get a flight home in time for Christmas and New Year.
I arrived in Auckland a couple of days before Christmas and was met by mum. We drove down to visit Andrew, Natasha and kids in the Bay of Plenty and spent Christmas with my them. Mum and I then headed to Wanganui (home) where Duncan joined us from Oz. Finally Hamish made it up from Christchurch and we spent a few family days at home.
For New Year I headed to Papamoa (in the BoP) with Hamish, stopping in Taupo to catch up with Rene and family. After a big party in Papamoa and some days at the beach we headed back to see Andrew and family in Ohope. I also caught up with some of my old friends from when I worked there before leaving NZ.
Finally I headed back to Wanganui for a couple of days to catch up with more people before driving back to Auckland. There I caught up with Liz before departing back to UAE again...
Things soon were back to routine at work in the desert. It was surprisingly cold early in the year (ok it wasn't really cold) and rained a couple of times - once we had a thunderstorm and it flooded.
I made a visa run to Muscat in neighboring Oman - where I was surprised in the difference of the surrounding. With mountains and green parts it was a complete change from the desert sands where I had been working.
I finished in the UAE in mid April (a bit later than expected as I was called to do a small job at another site before leaving).
After UAE, I headed back to London where I settled back into relax mode, and a lots of pub visits. I managed to catch up with lots of people who I thought had left UK for good and the weeks went by.
There were some highlights (and lowlights) from the time back in UK. One was the trip to Newquay for a Johnfest event - we hired a 15 seater bus for the long weekend and had a great party. For another Jophnfest event we all headed to Camden Palace (a club for those non-Londoners). It was a great night which ended not so well as I managed to fall down a few stairs and and bust my elbow. I wont go into details but I now have some pins and wire holding me together - in other words bugger!! (see the xrays in the England 02 section). Anyway life goes on and so did more events. The elbow incident meant delaying my planned trip to Africa and lots of hospital visits for physio.
Jubilee weekend was huge in London, with festivals, fireworks etc. Another great weekend involved my cousin Nigel's wedding followed the next day by a pub crawl. There was also the Fat Boy Slim concert on Brighton beach involving 250,000 people - they expected 60,000.
For a break in the sun I headed to Valencia for a week before heading off to Africa for the big adventure.
Africa!!! I arrived in Nairobi, Kenya for the start of a three month safari trip on the back of a truck - OK so the trucks are not the same as those from 15 years ago. I had an excellent adventure traveling from Nairobi north-west through Uganda to Rwanda for the unforgettable mountain gorillas. This was real Africa as such. We headed back through Uganda to Kenya for some game viewing then south to Tanzania for the Serengetti, Ngorongoro Crater game parks and idyllic Zanzibar island, to Malawi for some more relaxation, passing through Mozambique to the troubled Zimbabwe for excellent sightseeing and adventure at Vic Falls. The Zim black market meant that everything was cheap so it was time to buy and send lots of souvenirs home. The last leg of the organised trip took us through Botswana's Chobe and the Okavango Delta, to Namibia for Etosha, more adventures in Swakopmund and south via huge sand dunes to finish in Cape Town via the wineries of Stellenbosch.
See the individual country info sections for more details. Needless to say the trip was a awesome experience with too many highlights to list here.
In Cape Town it was time to get rid of the old clothes, see the sights of what I rate as one of the best cities in the world, and to say farewell to those I had spent the last few months with.
Then it was time to explore South Africa myself. After some exploring around Cape Town I headed along the garden route stopping with Jane (an ex-ferner from London) for a while of home luxury, then on the Durban, Ubombo (where I stayed with Grant and Debbie from home) and to J'burg to fly out (for a month..)
Another month spent in the Emirates earning a few more dollars to travel. Nothing too much to mention other than another victorious Dubai sevens rugby tournament.
It was back to South Africa and again starting in Cape Town. I spent Christmas there before again travelling to Plettenburg Bay to spend New Years with Jane and Paul. From there I visited the wild coast, the Drakensburg, Lesotho, J'burg again, Blomfontain, Swaziland and an excellent saf ,ari in Kruger Park.
I finished off my African adventure by making a trip along the coast of Mozambique then back though Zimbabwe to J'burg where it was back on a plane to London. As you will see from the volume of photos I has an awesome trip in Africa. Who knows if I will be back, I hope so.
London. I spent another month back in the second home for many Kiwis, Aussies and South Africans catching up with lots of people and enjoying many pints.
So time to head home to the land of the long white cloud. My flight took me via Los Angeles so why not stop off for a few days. I check out the usual tourist spots, has some good nights out and witnessed a drive-by shooting. Just a normal visit to LA I guess.
So back home to see mum. I got to see my house for the first time but not much else as a few days later I was on a plane to Perth. I headed to Paul and Jane's wedding in Collie and of course had a great time. I headed back via Sydney where I caught up with my brother Duncan for a while. I thought I was to be home for a while - even find a job! But it was not to be. I spent the next week back home, including by latest nephew Jontie's 1st birthday, but headed off to Paris for another job...
OK so this is a long time to write about. As I said, I headed to Paris to take up a few month job. The project was for the UAE again so I had a couple of trips over there. I lived the good life with an apartment in central Paris. On the weekends I would either head to somewhere in France or to London or just relax in the city. Summer in Paris was excellent - although the record high temperatures were sometimes a bit much in a country with no air-con.
The three months turned into a year in the end. For Christmas and New Year I headed to warmer pastures with a trip to Tunisia. It is an interesting place to visit with lots to see.
I finshed my work in Paris with a quick trip to the Emirates, then I went to London to catch up with friends and plan my trip home. I then went over to Ireland for some partying for St Pats day - too much Guinness.
Finally, I jumped on the big bird home from Heathrow. I stopped on the way home in Fiji for some much needed R&R.
Back home, I caught up with friends and family, made a quick trip south to Christchurch, had job interviews around the place, before settling on a job in Auckland - yes I know, not what I would have expected either...
Since arriving back in NZ in 2004, my life has been one of work with holidays - unlike above where you can see it was holidays with some work thrown in to pay the bills. Despite the more settled location, I am still having fun. There have been a few trips since arriving home. I went to Sydney for New Years 2004/2005 to catch up with my brother there. I went with another brother and my mum. Then for New Years 2005 I headed to the Cook Islands for some fun in the sun. Great place! In 2006 it was back to Oz, this time Melbourne to catch up with Suz and friends. I had an awesome time - drank a bit too much but hey, I was on holiday!
This year I headed back to Sydney for a quick break to catch up with Duncan and Hamish over there. Now I am back in Auckland, ready for another winter.
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If you have made it this far Congrats!! - you are up to date! Enjoy the photos.
Stu