so..we arrived on wednesday morning to a house in west preston..simon has friends who are house sitting this gorgeous house here in melbourne and invited us to stay..plus we are minding two awesomely cute dogs.Sampson and Henry..cutest things ever!

after we arrived i totally crashed and slept for a few hours due to the fact we were up at 3am to fly and this was now about 2pm...little while after that nici and simon did the same....when i woke later i met davin and nici, who are awesome and have great stories to share on Oz..handy dandy..it was a fairly quiet night, nothing to really report

the next morning after alot of interupted sleep.i love the dogs, but damn, having that much energy at 4.30am?! we ventured into the city on day two..and went to the part full of suits, and Gucci and Prada, clearly we were lost..hung around Federation Square, ate some food down these super cool little alley ways...very french and quaint..and spent the rest of the day wandering and generally being lost..

my friend Rob from the PUSA forum who i met in Amsterdam in 06 on NYE..came into meet us after work and what a fun night that turned out to be..we went bar hopping, including down to these super hidden bars in dodgy alleyways..one was even voted top ten bar in the world..tick that of my list...when i open my own venue/bar some day it's totally going to be like that place...and then we went to cookie, this cool building that runs shows, clubs, has pubs, restaurants etc and we had a drink on the rooftop bar, cold but class views of the city...

we also went for some yum chinese food in china town, BYOB, and Rob told the host it was my birthday, dont panic, its not until January but they played this super cheesy birthday music and everyone in the restaurant sang happy birthday, i was mortified!

we finished up around 11pm and made plans to meet monday to sing karaoke..great...spent friday sorting out the prep for my new tattoo, ie finding the place, talking to the artist about my idea etc..and then spent the rest of the afternoon shopping in Brunswick street...its the camden/temple bar/camden street dublin of melbourne..i love it soo

saturday i got up uber early, excited about my ink...after bringing the dogs for a walk i went to grab a bite to eat, and wandered around the city before going to the shop...started at 3.05pm and finished just after 4.35pm..the last 35mins were killer, i talked throughout the rest of the tattoo but i barely breathed for the last 35mins it killed..

yesterday we hung around st kilda, which was fucking cold as ice...went to a cool restaurant for dinner, shopped in some cool clothes shops, went for cake, yes matt went to the place you mentioned and then to ESPNY for a beer, if you dont know the legendary venue, shame on you

and here we are today...best get dressed only one day left in melbourne! tomorrow we leave at 9pm on a grey hound bus and get to sydney at 12pm on wednesday..JO HERE I COME!

Keep on rockin
C

hiking up a freaking glacier, puzzle world, and bungy jumping

so we get to Franz Joesf on Wednesday, its beautiful there, not much to do though...it has a glacier, and well thats about it..the glacier is called Fox Glacier. its HUGE...and we hiked up it for 8hrs...tough going on the old tick tock, because well, it doesnt work like everyone elses, i found it very difficult at times, but i kept my mouth shut, and my head high and stumbled on...and my crampons, the ice shoes you have to wear came off at a very inconvient time..typical..it was beautiful up there...really worth doing...

when we got back to the hostel in flash record timing, we jumped straight into the hot tub...bliss..and then on to dinner...after the night in the poo pub i abstained from booze for two nights, so it was another early night for me...we had a very early start the next day..i was NOT impressed..and it was raining...

we stopped off somewhere..cant recall, but we were too tired and lazy to go for the walk around the lake, so we went and got a HUGE breakkie instead...we spent the rest of the day in a bus, stopping for lunch in some hickville place in the middle of nowhere eventually getting to Wanaka..which is beautiful..if you've ever been to Whistler in Canada, well it reminds me of that...had a pretty nice room, and spent the evening cooking, watching the all blacks KILL the wallabies..and then stayed in the hostel bar with Matt talking shop aka music!

this morning another early start and we stopped off at puzzle world...simon and I found the four corners of the maze which is HUGE! at the same time, however i admit defeat he found the exit 5mins before i did..it was soo hard and soo big!

and then was the long winding road to hell..i mean Bungy jumping!

all three of us, Simon, Nici and I were doing this..I really didnt want to do it...but i pushed on...and since Nici didnt do a sky dive she agreed to go first and I was 2nd..that girl just stood on the edge, gave a wave to the camera and jumped..all 43metres without even blinking..i was a disgrace and im still kicking myself for being such a girl

i have tattoos, piercing, ive sky dived, had an operation, ive swam with sharks, black water rafted in caves, ive swam with mantra ray, ive moshed in mental moshpits, but jumping off that bridge was the hardest thing in the world..its all mind over matter..but i kept thinking about it and looking down...i started having palpations and i honestly thought i'd have a heart attack, if i didnt then, i hopefully never will..

the crew up on the bridge were amazing..and the bus crew and the drivers all cheered me on, took me a good 6mins before i finally jumped and it was the most amazing feeling in the world..i cursed and screamed at myself for thinking about it so much and not doing it..but as simon said in the end i did it so i should be so hard on myself...he and nici sailed through it...i nearly nearly didnt do it...but am soo glad i did

in an adrealine fused state of mind, i went in and spent $269 NZ on a pair of Uggs..which works out at around 150EURO, so dont keel over mam and dad!

after the jump we got into Queenstown..and here we are now..we have a night on the town with our bus crew for the last time, and then tomorrow skiing before we depart for an 8hr journey to Christchurch on Tuesday and then off to Oz on Wednesday!

if you are scared of something, just do it..regret it tomorrow, but if you dont do it, you'll live to regret it...!

keep on rockin
C