Part 6: Alex & Amys farm adventure

Before leaving to work on a farm in Oxford, we spent a day in Akaroa where Amy swam with dolphins, i stayed on the boat and took photos, the sea was choppy and caused some nausea which became too much for one poor fellow who vomited into the ocean. Amy spent 35 mins with the Hectors dolphins, the smallest and rarest in the world. When we made it to the farm we were greeted by many dogs who appeared menacing but were in fact lovely & we met Sharyn & Fen who were our hosts / bosses for the next three weeks, during the first two weeks wepainted show jumping poles, cut down gorse bushes, walked the dogs, put up electric fences, stacked hay bales, cut up dead animals with knives and axes, one of them was a rotten cow carcass which smelt so bad even Fen complained and he'd been farming all his life, we herded goats and sheep, looked after the horses + Amy rode them, shovelled poo, i drove a tractor and ploughed, sowed, harrowed and rolled a huge field.... After all this we were set to leave & Sharyn asked us i f we would stay for one more week to look after the farm while they went away hunting for a week, we agreed and had an awesome week chilling out in the sun, blazing around the farmland on the quad bike as the dogs followed us up the big hill, Amy would hold on for dear life and scream as i raced along the paths and over bump, sometimes so fast that all four wheels were off the ground. The star of the farm was Willie, a fox terrier who would literally follow us everywhere, also there was birdie the pet magpie with a clipped wing & an identity crisis, oh and another of my favourites, Ruffles the 3 legged dog. During our farm sitting week we took a trip to Hanmer Springs to see some good old fashioned cowboy bull riding + we went into Christchurch to celebrate my 27th with a slap up mexican meal, cocktails & drinks in a cozy bar with a log fire and sofas. The farm experience was amazing, a real highlight of the trip and i later found out that i was the first person Fen had ever allowed to drive the tractor, it was an honour + by the time we left the crop which i had sowed was already beginning to grow. There are so many other stories to tell from the farm but i just don't have the time right now to type it all. Our next farm experience was very, very bizzarre indeed, but that is a tale for another blog.

Part 5: What we did next + Road trip II

One month after we started using our brand new laptop it broke and the problem appears to be terminal, this has hampered my blog writing a little so get ready for a lot of info in a short blog, ok, deep breath, here goes......

As soon as we got back from our road trip we were off to an Alpaca farm in Kumeu where we worked for one week for a couple of gay farmers, picking weeds, moving heavy things and cleaning in return for food and board, they took us to a gay festival on the last day and dropped us off in Auckland. In the city we went to the -5 degrees ice bar, ate good mexican food and sang in a private karaoke bar.

Next we got on the ferry to the coromandel where we visited the waterworks, an awesome water themed playground for all ages, we had a go on zip wires, swings, ET bikes and squirted chickens with water cannons. We flew to the south island and landed in Christchurch where i got an awesome tattoo of an old school 50's microphone, we saw some awesome busking, visited the international antarctic centre (ice world) and had an exciting ride in a Hagglund transporter + saw some penguins.

We saw a man with a glorious mullett juggle and ride a huge unicycle, saw a good band 'The Meaniez' play by the avon and caught a train to Kaikoura where we rode segways along the coast, up and down hills and on the beach + dodged doddering old ladies in the street, it was lots of fun, off road segwaying is awesome. That night we went stargazing in a dark farm field and saw great views of the milky way.

We went to Nelson and stayed at the fantastic Green Monkey hostel, highly recommended accomodation, Steve looked after us very well, in Nelson we visited founders heritage park, ate at 'Bloody big burger' and yes they were BLOODY big and went to a bone carving workshop where we made our own bone pendants. We travelled to picton where we went sea kayaking in the marlborough sounds, got our car back and travelled to Punakaiki where we stayed in a hostel in the middle of a rainforest, drove on to the Fox glacier which we trekked up and saw amazing views.

Carried on to Wanaka where we went to Stuart Landsboroughs puzzling world and checked out the maze and various illusions, spent 4 nights in Queenstown where we both did bungy jumps, i did the highest in Australasia, the Nevis bungy at 440ft high and Amy did the Kawarau bridge jump, the worlds first bungy site. Amy went horse trekking and i went canyoning which was the most extreme thing i've ever done.

Took a cruise around milford sound and saw amazing views, visited the moonshine museum in Gore, sampled the whisky (FIERY) saw a statue of a big fish and carried on to Invercargill where i bought a cheap guitar and we had the worlds hottest pizza. Drove on to Dunedin, stopped on the way to see the lost gypsies gallery which was amazing and full of curios and animated objects, i just can't put it into worlds but it was certainly a highlight of the trip. Saw a lovely waterfall, made it to Dunedin which had a great art gallery + we walked up the steepest street in the world and got a certificate to prove it.

Now we are back in Christchurch and will very soon be going to work on another farm, more soon...........

Part 4: The Road trip (Part 2)

On the way to Taupo we stopped at the Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland and spent just over an hour walking around the park, the first thing we did was take a seat at the front of an amphitheatre full of excited tourists waiting to see the parks geyser erupt, it started slowly, bubbling and trickling before suddenly spurting powerfully upwards in quite a spectacular fashion, after taking plenty of photos of the views and many wonders within the park we continued on to Taupo.

The next day was one which we had both looked forward to very much as we were both due to do a skydive, it would be my second and Amy’s third. We were amazed at how long they spent trying to sell us extras and then no time at all talking about the safety aspects or techniques involved in what were about to do, we literally signed some forms, decided what altitude we wanted to jump from (12000ft or 15000ft) put our suits and straps on and got straight onto the plane. During the climb up to 15000ft Amy made the mistake of telling the tandem instructor she was strapped to that this would be her third skydive, he then got quite excited and decided that they would spin, back flip and do some tracking during freefall. Tracking, Amy informed me, is when you plummet towards the earth head first at high speed by getting into a certain position with your arms to your sides, the combination of all of these techniques left her feeling a little queasy but with no regrets.

I was the last to jump, the feeling of freefall was just as exilherating as it had been the first time I did it, once the chute was open I had the opportunity to see the view of the enormous Lake Taupo, the lake is actually a crater filled with water and was formed by a volcanic eruption a long time ago. As we floated towards the ground my instructor gave me control of the parachute, he asked me to pull hard to the right, I did as he asked and we swung out to an angle and spun around and around, we did the same in the opposite direction and then, in keeping with the typical laid back kiwi attitude he said ‘See that building over there bro?’ pointing out the base which we had taken off from, ‘Take us home, any way you want!’ he then gave me full control, I guided us in the general direction of the base and once we were floating directly over it I pulled hard on the controls to turn around and set us up for the landing, the opportunity to do this made the experience all the more special and I felt the same as I did after my rafting experience, I wanted to go straight back up and do it again and I was sure it would not be the last time I would jump out of a plane.

Next on our itinerary was Napier, a town which was badly damaged by an earthquake in 1931 and was subsequently rebuilt during the art deco era. While we were there we saw our first kiwis at the aquariums kiwi house and later on walked down to a stage by the beach where there was a man preaching but not a single person around to hear what he had to say, except me and Amy. Later in the day a jazz band took to the stage, I’ve never heard such a cacophony in my life, I thought perhaps they were trying to be experimental but no, they were actually just the worst band in the world. After fleeing from the jazz we found another lone star restaurant and once again ate until we could eat no more and were entertained by a bizarre dancing hippy outside who seemed to have a fixation with rope.

In the morning it was time for one of the longest drives of the trip which would take us to Wellington, New Zealand’s capital. A couple of days prior to this I had spoken to a contact of ours ‘Peter Brown’ recommended by my sister Heather, we emailed him asking for advice about what to see and do in Wellington and got more than we bargained when he replied with an offer of a place to stay for the night which we gratefully accepted. With some difficulty we had already booked one night in Wellington so Peters offer allowed us to spend two nights there, we had been wondering why it was so difficult to find somewhere to stay and were duly informed that it was because the rugby sevens were on, being a football fan, this meant nothing to me. Upon arrival in Wellington we discovered that the sevens tournament is a big deal and that almost every single person attending the matches dresses up in outlandish fancy dress costumes, we saw people dressed as teenage mutant ninja turtles, danger mouse, men dressed as women, Mario & Luigi, Scrabble letters spelling ‘Kiwis’, lions, Susan Boyle, Superheroes, Avatar characters, Elvis and many more, it was the perfect time to visit the city as the atmosphere was amazing and the weather couldn’t have been better. The first thing we did in the city was visit Wellington zoo and we arrived just in time to see Tahi, a kiwi who had got his foot caught in a trap and had to have his leg amputated, he has been living at the zoo ever since and is brought out once a day. The rest of the zoo was great and really quiet as it was a week day, Amy was happy that she got to see some monkey sex and I was happy to see some red pandas. Later that day after checking in at the hostel we rode the cable car to the picturesque botanical gardens.

On our second day in the capital we visited the famous Te Papa museum, home of the ‘colossal squid’ and many other amazing things. We went into an earthquake simulator (too tame I thought), the ‘High ride’ a movie that you watched while sitting in moving hydraulic seats which jerked around in time with what was happening on the screen (rougher than I expected, but fun), walked through a mock up of a glow worm cave and a ‘bush walk’, we were both really impressed and spent a lot of time in there looking at the various exhibits. In the evening we made our way to Peter Browns house and met him and his lovely wife Carol for the first time, they looked after us really well, gave us lots of advice about the city and country and lots of lovely food, beer and wine. Peter had emigrated to New Zealand in the 1970’s and Carol is Wellington born and bred so they were both very knowledgeable about the area, the next morning Peter and Carol took us out for a scenic tour of the city after which we thanked them for all their help and hospitality and set off for our next destination the Tongariro national park, on the way there we found the worlds largest model carrot, it really was quite impressive.

We didn’t do any sight seeing in the national park area as it was getting late when we arrived, it was just somewhere to stop and break up the drive a bit, everyone that we encountered was there for one thing, hiking, not our cup of tea…

Our next destination was Waitomo, we were heading there for one thing only, ‘Black water rafting’ at the glow worm cave. For those not familiar with the concept, ‘Black water rafting’ involves descending underground into a cave while using a giant tyre inner tube to float through some of the deeper water, it also involves jumping off of the occasional waterfall which is a lot of fun. After getting our wetsuits, boots and helmets on and practicing some important techniques such as paddling, the waterfall jump and the eel which involves everybody holding onto each other to form a chain so you don’t get lost in the darkness, we climbed down into the cave. Some of the rocks were wet and covered in moss and you had to be very careful not to slip and fall, we were soon floating through the caves stream and had left the daylight behind, the only light available now was from the torches mounted to our helmets and the glow worms themselves. We found a suitable place to stop and all turned off our lights, as we looked up at the cave ceiling in the pitch black darkness the glow worms were clearly visible, it was a beautiful sight, very much like a star filled sky. We did this at various points and each time the guides gave us all sorts of facts about the glow worms and their home accompanied by oohs and aahs from our group, on one of these occasions one of the guides produced a bucket of what she explained were chocolate covered crickets and then picked on an innocent member of our group and told him he had to eat it, as we stared expectantly he psyched himself up and bit its head clean off only to discover that it was actually a Cadburys chocolate fish, a popular kiwi treat, the rest of them were distributed and quickly gobbled down and we floated onwards in high spirits.

Towards the end of the trip we were all instructed to turn our lights off one more and find our way out of the cave by following the trail of glow worms with minimal help from the guides, we made it out safely but only just as right near the end Amy nearly got her head taken off by a stalagmite as she floated backwards. After a hot shower and a free bagel and mug of soup we were ready to head to Otorohanga where we stayed in a holiday park for the night, we had a great time staying there, I was particularly pleased to find that they had a gym and then later to discover the ‘Jumping pillow’ an enormous trampoline type platform which was extremely bouncy, we must have jumped on the damn thing for at least an hour and it was not the first time during the trip that we felt like big kids as we larked around with not a care in the world.

Sadly, the next day it was time to drive back to Beach Haven to drop the car off as Phil and Fees friends were visiting from the UK and needed the car for a few weeks, we took a detour on the way to visit something that is unknown by most tourists and as we discovered most kiwis too, ‘The toothbrush fence’. I don’t know why or how it started, the whole thing really is quite a mystery, it was a fence a few 100 metres long with many toothbrushes hanging from it, donated by passers by, at least a thousand toothbrushes of all shapes and colours, it was quite a site to behold and it was in the middle of nowhere in the countryside, the only sign of life was a lonely bearded goat who watched over us as Amy laid her toothbrush to rest.

And that is how our first big road trip came to an end, however it would not be long at all until we were off on another big adventure but that’s a story for another blog.

Part 3: The Road trip (Part 1)

We got up early in preparation for our north island road trip and set off for our first stop, Pakiri Beach. On arrival we made our way to a small ranch which Amy had been looking forward to going to, while Amy went out on a horse with one of the guides from the ranch I headed to the beach, Amy and her guide rode along the beautiful beach, up and down sand dunes, through wooded areas and saw some amazing views. I found my way to the beach and thought how lucky I was that I had it all to myself, the water was as blue as can be and the sand almost pure white. As it was so incredibly hot I decided to go for a swim in the sea, I say swim but actually I just got battered around by the waves and soon gave up.

Later on we drove north to Paihia in the bay of islands region, the weather was perfect and there was only one other guest at the motel we stayed in, meaning that we got the pool and communal cooking facilities to ourselves for our two night stay, this was good as it meant that there was no one around to witness me attempting to dive into the pool only to belly flop and hit the water face first, no one except Amy anyway who has probably uploaded the photos to facebook so the whole world can laugh at me!


The next day we went out on the ‘Hole in the rock’ boat tour to get a closer look at the areas many islands, we were expecting a gentle cruise but were surprised to find that the boat was very fast indeed, the sea was rough and choppy at times and we had to cling on to the rails to avoid being thrown overboard. We could have just sat inside but that would have been boring and it was worth getting wet for the amazing views. The boat slowed to a halt as we were lucky enough to spot some dolphins swimming side by side in front of the boat and a little later when we stopped at the town of Russell to pick up some more passengers we got to watch some local kids perform the haka.

The conditions at sea had worsened by the time we arrived at the hole in the rock, a large island with a hole right through the middle big enough for a boat to go through, the captain wasn’t sure whether to go through or not but after some hesitation he went for it, it was a rough ride as we travelled straight through the island and out the other side, people all around us were screaming but ourselves and the boat made it through unscathed, later on we saw another boat approach the hole and then decide not to go through, our captain joked that whoever was in control of that boat obviously hadn’t been drinking as much as he had. After a short stop at the beautiful island of Urapukapuka with its green hills and clear water it was time to head back to Paihia, by the time we got back we both had some pretty crazy hairstyles due to the force of the wind as we rode at the front of the boat.

We headed down to the wharf the next day to try parasailing, we paid for a tandem ride so that we could go up together, all the way up to 1200ft we chatted away as if it was a perfectly normal everyday thing that we were doing, the view from that height was amazing and we both really enjoyed the experience. We were soon back in the car heading back to Beach Haven for the night, we drove along the west coast, through a huge forest and around steep and winding roads along the way and eventually came across ‘Café Eutopia’ an ongoing project which was an organic café shaped like a boat from the outside. Inside it had themed rooms, art and books to buy and looked unlike anything we had seen before.

Rotorua was a place we had both been looking forward to visiting for a long time, as we walked into the town centre in search of something to eat we noticed that it was very quiet indeed, almost like a ghost town in places, there was hardly anyone around in the streets and then we noticed the notorious Rotorua aroma, due to the geothermal activity in the area you would now and again catch a whiff of a rotten egg smell which took some getting used to. One of the first things we did was try out some Segway machines on an outdoor circuit, we had loads of fun zipping around the track, weaving in and out of cones and even more fun when the owner turned the speed restriction off. Next it was time for my first zorbing experience, something that I had wanted to do for a long time, Amy didn’t fancy it so she took photos as I was strapped into a huge rubber ball and rolled down a hill, it was disorientating and over pretty quickly but was a lot of fun and one more thing I could tick off my list of things to do in New Zealand.

The previous days activities were good fun but one of the main reasons we had come to Rotorua was to do some white water rafting at the Kaitiaki river with its 7 metre waterfall, the highest commercially raftable waterfall in the world. We were picked up in the morning by one of the rafting guides, he explained that due to some heavy rainfall the river had risen to its maximum level, when we got to the waterfall there would be nearly twice as much water going over it than usual and the water would be moving faster. Upon arrival at the rafting base we put on our helmets, boots and life jackets and made our way to the top of the river, after a brief speech and a maori prayer from one of the guides it was time to get in the raft. We were introduced to our guide Corey who realised that me and Amy were the only people in the raft who spoke fluent English so he put us up front, later on he got quite strict with the rest of our crew, one of them didn’t know the difference between forwards and backwards and they all seemed oblivious to the danger we could potentially be facing, they just smiled and nodded at everything he said. Somehow we made it over all three of the waterfalls safely, rafting over the 7m waterfall was a real thrill but we were all a little nervous about falling out of the raft as we went over, we got a good face full of water as we were enveloped by the raging white water at the bottom but as we emerged everyone was still in the raft. The whole experience was amazing but over to soon and I wanted to go straight back up the river and do it all again, I’m sure it won’t be my last time.

Later that day we discovered our favourite restaurant so far, ‘Lone star’ a cowboy / western themed bar / restaurant which gives you huge portions, we left full to bursting and went and watched a local band for a while, out of sympathy more than anything as there was only one person watching them when we arrived, once some more people arrived we walked to the local park, Rotoruas geothermal nature caused the pools of water and mud there to bubble and steam, once we had taken advantage of a naturally heated public bathing pool it was time to return to the hostel and catch some sleep before setting off for Taupo the next day.

Part Two: Auckland

Most people who come to New Zealand will arrive via Auckland’s International airport and end up spending at least one night in the countries largest city, around 1.3 million people live there, that’s one third of New Zealand’s entire population. Some people love it, there are some really nice places to eat, galleries to look at, the harbour with its many boats, however, me and Amy really didn’t enjoy it very much, but to be fair we did get off to a very bad start with our New Zealand adventure.

We caught a bus from the airport and got off at Queen Street, right in the city centre, and found our way to our accommodation for the next 7 nights, the ‘Base ACB Hostel’. It was a hot day and we had just flown in from Tokyo and hadn’t slept much on the plane and were both very unhappy to find that our room, booked by ‘Real Gap’ was a 6 bed dorm with no windows, no form of ventilation and the lock on the door was broken, rendering our card key useless. After a stroll down Queen Street, in the rain, which only seemed to dishearten us even more, we stopped and talked and came to an agreement that the Base hostel was shit. Aside from the aforementioned gripes, it was under staffed, unprofessional, unfriendly, even the other travellers staying there seemed like miserable buggers, within an hour we had checked out and booked ourselves into a cheap student apartment for the next 2 nights. We checked in there only to discover that this was also a complete and utter dive, but at least it had windows!

That night we ate at a Mexican café / bar to cheer ourselves up, I ordered a burrito, the waitress asked if I wanted beef or chicken then asked ‘Spicy?’, ‘Yeah, sure’ I replied and soon regretted it as I found myself guzzling coke and munching ice cubes in an attempt to quench the flames roaring within my mouth and spreading around my lips. Later on I called my cousin Phil who lives in Auckland and after a good chat he had offered to pick us up two days later and offered us his spare room to sleep in, I couldn’t say no, and when I thought he couldn’t possibly be more generous he offered us the use of his beloved Land Rover + started talking about day trips, I don’t need to say this as I’m sure you already realise but the man is clearly a legend. We would later discover that his wife Fee is equally as legendary and generous.

We woke the next day determined to enjoy ourselves, I was particularly determined to make sure Amy enjoyed herself as it was her birthday. First thing in the morning, while she was in the shower I stealthily jumped out of the window and fetched her some fresh fruit + yoghurt for breakfast. Yeah, I know, I’m an excellent boyfriend. After taking care of some business (setting up a New Zealand bank account, mailing some gifts home and registering with ‘Job Search’ which was located within the dreaded Base hostel) we went out for a bite to eat at the harbour and had a lovely meal at ‘Wildfire Churrascaria’ a truly excellent Brazilian barbecue all you can eat restaurant, if you end up in Auckland make sure you eat there if your budget allows, the food and service were great, the bill…. well… it was Amy’s birthday so I didn’t mind, I wanted to take her somewhere special. As it was her birthday I told her it was entirely up to her what we did next so we went up to the top of the Sky Tower, it cost $25 each to go up and see the view, a bit of a rip off I thought as it was free to see the view in Tokyo, but I guess it was worth doing as this was the only place in the centre of Auckland where we took any photos. To be honest, at first we hated Auckland but by the time we left we realised that for a city it does seem to have a very chilled out vibe, there are so many different cultures all mixed together, a large number of Polynesians and Asians of all varieties, even some Amish guys but everyone seemed to get along just fine.

I knew that once we got out of the city centre we would begin to experience the ‘real New Zealand’ and I was right, as soon as Phil picked us up and we arrived at his lovely house we were both so much happier, ‘Beach Haven’ where his house was located seemed like a lovely area, close to the sea with lovely friendly neighbours, we settled down and chatted for a long time as I hadn’t seen him or Fee in many years and soon we were introduced to their Alaskan Malamute ‘Onewa’, truly one of the nicest and most magnificent looking animals I have had the fortune to encounter. After devouring two helpings of Fee’s beef stew + some cakes we chatted some more and they decided rather that lend us their Land Rover that they were going to buy us a car, help us sort out the insurance and then sell it when we were done with it.

The next day we caught a ferry to Waiheke Island, we found a café to have breakfast before setting off for the local farmers market where we encountered ‘Ken the cowboy’ a charming local, dressed like a cowboy and singing country songs while people perused the lovely fresh food, he did an awesome version of ‘She taught me to yodel’ and I wished our friend Ady could have been there to hear it, I know he would have loved it! After stopping to take pictures of the amazing views we made our way to a local vineyard and tasted some wine, I thought they were all quite disgusting but the location was beautiful. We drove from there to the secluded ‘Pearl Bay’ which required some trekking up some steep steps and through wild tropical plants but we were rewarded once again with some great views and photo opportunities, from there we went to the beach where me, Phil and Fee went sea kayaking, something I had always wanted to try. We all had a laugh at the kiwi who gave us a very brief safety briefing and didn’t ask any of us if we had kayaked before of if we could swim (It was my first time and I am not a strong swimmer) and then got us to (literally) sign our lives away when we signed documents which he explained were to agree that if anything went wrong such as drowning, being swept out to sea or getting caught in the path of one of the ferries (the route took us right though where the ferries come in and out of the island) they would not be held responsible. Kayaking was a lot of fun, fairly demanding physically when paddling against the tide but slightly embarrassing as according to Amy I looked like a dweeb in my life jacket with my pasty milk bottle white flesh and lanky figure. We ended our visit to Waiheke with a lovely meal at one of the local cafes where I had some of the best fish and chips I have ever tasted.

The next day was very busy and incredibly hot, we spent the morning driving around Auckland looking for a car and eventually negotiated a price for a white ‘Mitsubishi Lancer’, the sun was beating down on me so hard as I walked around in my black t-shirt soaking up the sun (schoolboy error no 1) and jeans (didn’t pack shorts when I left the UK) (schoolboy error no 2), I decided it was time for a whole new wardrobe and soon left the mall at Takapuna with a pair of jandals, sunnies, some t-shirts and shorts and suddenly found that i fit in a little better and was ready for a New Zealand summer. Once we got the car home, Phil and Fee’s neighbour Isobel offered to take me and Amy down to the sea for a swim, she was lovely and asked all about our trip and told us some interesting facts about the area, I decided to walk to the beach in bare feet (yet another schoolboy error) and found that the route to the beach was very sharp and rocky, once we were there it was great, the view was amazing and we had a lot of fun swimming around in the bay, it was soon time to head back for an awesome barbecue.

We had one more night at Phil and Fee’s before it would be time to set off on a road trip to the bay of islands so we took the car out to Takapuna beach got some food and attempted to top up our tans, I caught the sun pretty well but somehow managed to burn my feet and my receding hairline which was now glowing bright red, something which Amy took some pleasure in pointing out as she reminded me that I am ‘pushing 30’. We ended our stay with Phil and Fee by going to Fee’s sisters house for a barbecue cooked by her husband Pete and were sent away at the end of the night with their tent, sleeping bags, airbeds and maps and we were ready for the big adventure the next day.

Part One: Tokyo

(Apologies for the length of the entry below, we have been so busy on our travels that it has taken some time to get this together.... more soon...)


After an 11hr 20min flight followed immediately by a 1hr 30min train journey we finally arrived in Tokyo and got lost the very second we set foot out of the train station. While trying to find our hotel the ‘Sunroute plaza’ we came across a map, unfortunately it was all in Japanese, luckily a policeman spotted us looking bewildered and offered to help, seconds later a passer by stopped and offered his help and we soon found the hotel and checked in. This was the first of many occasions when complete strangers would go out of their way to help us, something which we are not accustomed to back home.

After a quick rest at the hotel we began to explore the Shinjuku district, we hadn’t slept at all on the plane journey but we could not allow ourselves to sleep as in Tokyo it was still early in the morning. Staying awake wasn’t all that hard in the end as we soon discovered that Tokyo is one of the most vibrant, busy, colourful, and energetic not to mention fun places to be in the world, there was so much to do and see we didn’t know where to start! As with most cities there were huge chain stores lining the streets but take a turn down one of the side roads and you could find all sorts of obscure little shops and bars. Every street had a vending machine lurking somewhere so getting a drink wasn't difficult, some of the juice drinks were really nice, the cold green tea was one of the most vile things we had ever tasted! I was surprised to see that all of these machines were in immaculate condition, no vandalism whatsoever. It was soon time to get our first meal, we went to ‘First kitchen’ which turned out to be a Japanese fast food joint, like typical brits abroad we spotted something we liked the look of on the menu and rather than attempt to use some of the Japanese we had been learning we pointed at the picture and just said ’That one please!’, this approach actually worked a treat and it would not be the only time that we had to resort to it. We took our food upstairs and found that we were the only people in the entire place that weren’t Japanese, sat down took a bite of the lovely chicken burgers we had selected and….. “What the hell! This isn’t chicken, urgh…. It’s a prawn burger!!!” We were too hungry to be fussy though so we finished them off and went back to the hotel where we soon fell asleep at around 5pm Tokyo time.

Because we went to bed so early the night before, we woke up very early the next day, we tried to get back to sleep but it just wasn’t going to happen so we went for an early breakfast at the hotel restaurant / bar ‘Villazza’. The first thing we did was get on the train to Harajuku to explore and hopefully find some of the districts gothic lolita's and cosplayers, unfortunately the train map was all in Japanese, we must have looked confused because suddenly a fellow Englishman appeared and offered to help, we gratefully accepted his offer and he showed us how to order the tickets, explained which line to get on and even walked us to the platform, thanks to him we were soon extremely confident when it came to getting on and off the trains and were soon travelling all over Tokyo exploring new places.

So we arrived in Harajuku and after checking out some of the smaller more obscure shops selling all kinds of alternative clothing, jewellery and accessories we came across the chain stores and ‘Kiddyland’, five floors of Japanese toys! We must have spent a good hour in there looking at all the strange things before we set off down the road to Yoyogi park. At the entrance to the park some men were preparing some giant samurai figures for a festival, after taking some pictures we entered the beautiful park and found our way to the ancient Meiji shrine, although we were enjoying exploring the city it was nice to get away for a couple of hours and explore a more relaxed and peaceful area, we took plenty of photos and spent some time observing the locals as they prayed at the shrine, people of all ages and backgrounds entered, clapped their hands together, bowed and threw coins to a large wooden tray. On our way out of the park we were stopped by a man dressed in the most unusual attire, he asked where we were from and when I replied that we were from England he seemed very excited “Oh! Great! English people are really friendly! Great football teams!” well, I guess he was right about one thing there, our new friend asked us all about our travels and then walked us over to a big pile of beautiful paintings that he had made on a silk like material, I guess I should have known there was a reason he was being so nice but as a musician I have a certain respect for fellow artists trying to make a living from doing what they love most so I bought a painting from him to send home as a gift, not before he tried his best to sell me two paintings and told me “It will be very lucky for you!”.

Next we were back on the train and on our way to Shibuya and soon found ourselves at its famous road crossing amongst hundreds of people, flashing lights and neon signs and hundreds upon hundreds of shops, bars and restaurants, it was as if they had tried to cram as many different things into the district as possible, needless to say we spent a lot of time here and visited it’s enormous HMV store, a very bizarre underground sex shop, a pet shop and many more, however the most fun we had there was when we decided to try one of japans favourite pastimes ‘Karaoke’.

After finding the courage to enter we discovered that the karaoke joint was set up rather like a hotel, we entered a lobby, checked in, got our room number and took the lift, you could even get room service! We had the room to ourselves for an hour but must have wasted 15 minutes working out how to operate the karaoke system as all the writing on the screen was in Japanese, once we finally changed it to English we began to look through the song catalogue, pretty much any song you could think of was in there, everything from Elvis to Pantera or Beyonce to Sonata Arctica, I sang songs by Elvis, Roy Orbison and Weezer, me and Amy did Elton John and Kiki Dees duet ‘Don’t go breaking my heart’ which was disastrous yet hilarious + Amy gave me a stunning rendition of Lady Gaga’s bad romance. I really wish we took karaoke as seriously as the Japanese, it would be loads of fun filling a room with good friends, getting drunk and singing cheesy songs!

Next we headed back to Shinjuku and had a meal at ‘Sizzler’ before going to the top of the Metropolitan government building to see the view from the observatory, Tokyo at night from such a height really is spectacular with so many lights as far as the eye can see.

The next morning we got on the train to ‘Ikebukuro’ we wandered around the streets but couldn’t find much to do there so decided to grab a bite to eat at ‘Café Jr: Italian Tomato’ we ordered a pizza, just a plain cheese and tomato one, or so we thought, it arrived with a lovely dollop of mozzarella cheese on top, lovely, I cut straight into it with my knife and fork and… what the hell is this!?! It’s… an egg? A poached egg? On a pizza? Why!? And cold too! It was a weird combo that I won’t be trying again but it didn’t stop us finishing it as we were hungry due to missing breakfast.

Next we headed to Ueno to visit it’s zoo and saw a wide variety of animals, all the usual suspects were there as well as some more bizarre creatures in the nocturnal area + vivarium, it was nice way to spend the last day but the real highlight was visiting the Park Hyatt hotel and restaurant which was featured in the movie ‘Lost in translation’ starring Bill Murray, which is why, to Amys amusement I referred to it throughout the visit as the ‘Bill Murray hotel’, I really think they should consider renaming it. The restaurant ‘The New York Grill’ was on the 52nd floor of the building and it was incredibly posh, I was glad I had put a shirt on and smartened myself up a bit! We hadn’t booked in advance and I was little worried that we might not get a table as it is a very popular place, I had not heard a bad thing about it, critics raved about the place and its world renowned reputation for high quality grub. We managed to get a table right next to the window with the most incredible view I have ever seen, a photo would not do it justice, even while having a conversation with Amy I couldn’t help but gawp out of the window in awe.

The waiters here were something else, we chose a bottle of champagne and the bottle was presented for our approval, then he said ‘May I open?’ and poured a little into my glass so I could taste it and once again give him my approval, not the kind of treatment I’m used to but I wasn’t complaining! After a starter full of unidentified food, some form of pate, raw meat and dips we got started on the main course, mine was the most tender, beautiful steak I’ve ever had, rare enough that it was still bleeding on my plate and covered in red wine sauce with duck fat fries on the side, Amy had the ‘Wisconsin duck’, we were incredibly full after that but couldn’t miss the opportunity to try the cheesecake and ice cream which was just fantastic.

We were sad to be leaving Tokyo the next day and were already talking about returning one day, we made the most of the morning playing strange arcade games, buying gifts for people, exploring some shops we missed the first time round, had a quick go at Pachinko, another very popular Japanese pastime but didn’t have clue how to play and soon gave up… soon it was time to make our way to Narita airport and set off for Auckland, New Zealand.